Cincinnati Ohio Genealogy – Access Genealogy

Biography of Franz L. Koehler

The sturdy German element in our national commonwealth has been one of the most important factors in furthering the substantial and normal advancement of the country, for this is an element signally appreciative of practical values and also of the higher intellectuality which transcends all provincial confines. Well may any person take pride in tracing his lineage to such a source. As one of the able and enterprising citizens whom the German Fatherland has contributed to the United States, and as one of the prominent and progressive citizens of the flourishing town of Moscow, Latah County, Idaho, Franz Louis Koehler … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Harper

The subject of this sketch needs no introduction to the older generation of Rock Island County, the larger enterprises of which he was intimately associated with throughout the many years of his residence here. Benjamin Harper was born February 12, 1817, in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died April 3, 1887, in the City of Rock Island, Illinois. When about fourteen years of age his parents removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served his apprenticeship to the wagon-maker’s trade, upon completion of which, that spirit of bold initiative and energy which characterized his whole after life, asserted itself in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of La Quinio Rawson

Rawson, La Quinio; lawyer; born, Fremont, O., Oct. 28, 1871, son of Joseph L. and Margaret A. Gelpin Rawson; educated, High School, Fremont, O.; Cincinnati College, Law Department, 1892, degree Bachelor of Law; married, Fremont, O., Dec. 26, 1895, Beatrice Frances Floyd, of Cleveland; one daughter, Beatrice Rawson; member Ohio Legislature from Cuyahoga County, 1904-1905; served as Chairman of Committee on Insurance, and as member of Committee on Finance; sec’y and member executive committee The Cleveland Life Insurance Co.; member Ohio State Bar Ass’n and National Geography Society; member Masonic Fraternity, New England Society, Society of Mayflower Descendants; member Athletic … Read more

Biography of Joseph Franklin Hickey

Joseph Franklin Hickey, president of the Mercantile Insurance Agency of St. Louis, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, October 19, 1876, a son of William P. and Elizabeth (Roddey) Hickey, both of whom were also natives of the Buckeye state. The father served during the Civil war as a member of an organization for home defense known as Squirrel Hunters and received honorable discharge and special mention for individual service from Governor David Tod of Ohio at the close of the war. Joseph F. Hickey was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati and in a private school at Ludlow, Kentucky. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Herman B. Van Tress

Van Tress, Herman B.; dentist; born, Ohio, Oct. 8, 1865; son of Cyrus H. and Jane Donaldson Van Tress; educated, public schools, Wilmington, O.; married, Sandusky, O., Sept. 6, 1894, Eva D. Gordon; issue, two daughters, Bessie and Gladys; received professional training at The Ohio College of Dental Surgery, Department of Dentistry, University of Cincinnati; graduating with degree of D. D. S., March 11, 1891; member Ohio Dental Society, Northern Ohio Dental Society, and Cleveland Dental Society; came to Cleveland in the spring of 1897; went to Los Angeles, Cal., immediately after his marriage, and remained there about two years … Read more

Biography of James H. Riggs

JAMES H. RIGGS. – One of the capable and esteemed gentlemen of Union county is named at the head of this article and is deserving of representation in the history of his county, since he has labored here with assiduity and energy for the development of the county and its resources and has manifested meanwhile both ability, sagacity, and integrity in his endeavors, being one of the leading agriculturists of the county. Mr. Riggs was born in Roachdale, Lancashire, England, on December 18, 1837, being the son of Levi and Elizabeth (Standring) Riggs, natives also of England. The father was … Read more

Biography of James B. Summons, Jr.

James B. Summons, Jr., is one of the early pioneers of Riverside, having located in the colony in 1870. He is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, born in 1845. His grandfather, Captain John B. Summons, was a prominent and well-known citizen of Cincinnati, an owner of river steamers carrying the mail, and commander of same. He was a member of the city council of that city for more than twenty-five years. He was a Kentuckian by birth, who in his early manhood settled in Cincinnati. Mr. Summons was reared and educated in Cincinnati until 1861, receiving his education in the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Wilson George Smith

Smith, Wilson George; composer, pianist; born, Elyria, Ohio, Aug. 19, 1855; son of George Troupe and Calista M. Smith; graduated Cleveland public schools; began musical education in Cincinnati, 1875, under Otto Singer; studied in Berlin, 1880-1882, under Kullak, Kiel, Scharwenka, Moszkowski and Oscar Ralf; married Mez Brett (artist and writer), of Ohio, April 16, 1883; since 1882, engaged as teacher of piano, voice and composition; also musical literateur, editor and critic, Cleveland Press, since 1902; held important official positions in Music Teachers’ National Ass’n; piano compositions (several hundred) include books of piano studies, transcriptions and editorial revisions of classic and … Read more

Moravian Massacre at Gnadenbrutten

In the early part of the year 1763 two Moravian missionaries, Post and Heckewelder, established a mission among the Tuscarawa Indians, and in a few years they had three nourishing missionary stations, viz: Shoenbrun, Gnadenbrutten and Salem, which were about five miles apart and fifty miles west of the present town of Steubenville, Ohio. During our Revolutionary War their position being midway between the hostile Indians (allies of the British) on the Sandusky River, and our frontier settlements, and therefore on the direct route of the war parties of both the British Indian allies and the frontier settlers, they were … Read more

Biography of John Schalker, Sr.

John Schalker, Sr. Among the names which have become indelibly impressed upon the recent commercial history of Leavenworth, one of the most prominent is that of Schalker, in connection with the Schalker Packing Company. This concern, the growth of which had been phenomenal, and which had only lately doubled its operations, was founded by John Schalker, Jr., and Austin Schalker, sons of John Schalker, Sr., a resident of Leavenworth since 1883. John Schalker, Sr., was born June 2, 1858, in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and is one of five children born to Jacob and Susan (Widmer) Schalker. His youth … Read more

Governor Houston at His Trading Post on the Verdigris

In February, 1828, the vanguard of Creek immigrants arrived at the Creek Agency on the Verdigris, in charge of Colonel Brearley, and they and the following members of the McIntosh party were located on a section of land that the Government promised in the treaty of 1826 to purchase for them. By the treaty of May 6, 1828, the Government assigned the Cherokee a great tract of land, to which they at once began to remove from their homes in Arkansas. The movement had been under way for some months when there appeared among the Indians the remarkable figure of Samuel Houston. The biographers of Houston have told the world next to nothing of his sojourn of three or four years in the Indian country, an interesting period when he was changing the entire course of his life and preparing for the part he was to play in the drama of Texas.

Biography of Ignatz Huber

The City of Rock Island is indebted for its present prosperity and commercial activity to many men whose capital and intellect have been instrumental in promoting its growth; but one of the men to whom it is chiefly indebted for his activity in promoting those industries and measures which are the life of a city is Ignatz Huber, one of Rock Island’s pioneer brewers and financiers. Mr. Huber is a native of Bavaria, Germany. He was born February 1, 1826. His boyhood and youth were spent in his native Bavaria, and after his school days were finished, learned the brewer’s … Read more

Biography of Isaac W. Hazelett, M. D.

Isaac W. Hazelett, M. D., one of the longest in practice in San Bernardino, and a leading member of the medical profession in this county, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, October 6, 1855; was reared from infancy till seventeen years of age at Zanesville, Ohio, and received his early education in the public schools of that city and in the Ohio Wesleyan University. He prosecuted his medical studies in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating therefrom in March 1879, having been resident house physician in the hospital for a year previous. After graduation he spent two years in the hospital, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Moses J. Gries

Gries, Moses J.; rabbi; born, Newark, N. J., Jan. 25, 1868; son of Jacob and Katie Gries; educated, Hughes High School, Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College; married, Cleveland, June 15, 1898, Frances Hays; issue, two sons; pres. Central Conference of American Rabbis; member Board of Governors, Hebrew Union College, Board of Editors, Department of Synagogue and School Extension; member committee on Municipal Arts and Architecture of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce (group plan); member board of trustees Cleveland Associated Charities; trustee Cleveland School of Art; Federation of Jewish Charities; director of The City Club of Cleveland; also … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Burt A. Miller

Miller, Burt A.; surety bonds; born, Canton, 0., March 17, 1871; son of William K. and Sarah Burwell Miller; educated at Cornell university and Cincinnati Law School; married, Canton, O., Dec. 27, 1899, Jane Rabe; organized the surety business in Cuba and Porto Rico after the Spanish-American war, drawing law permitting surety companies to operate in Cuba, and fixing the deposit required and tax to be paid; resident vice pres. and mgr. for Northern Ohio of the Southwestern Surety Ins. Co.; served in the 8th inf., O. N. G. (second lieut.); vice pres. Surety Association of Cleveland; member Canton Lodge, … Read more

Biography of Calvary Morris

Calvary Morris, was born near Charleston, West Virginia, in 1798, and spent his youth in the Kanawha valley, laboring on a farm, and battling with the hardships of pioneer life. In 1818 he married the eldest daughter of Dr. Leonard Jewett, of Athens, and in the spring of 1819, located permanently in that town. “Finding myself,” says Mr. Morris, “a stranger in a strange land, and obliged to make provision for the support of my family, my first step was to rent five acres of ground, upon which to raise a crop of corn. While cultivating that ground, during the … Read more

Biography of George W. King, M.D.

GEO. W. KING, M.D. – The early life of Doctor King of Pendleton was made dark by the terrible days of the Rebellion; and the recital of his early efforts to work out the distressful circumstances into which he was thus thrown is full of pathetic interest. He was born near Glasgow, Howard county, Missouri, November 14, 1844, and when but a boy of five went with his parents to reside near St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived until the spring of 1854, when his father moved to Kansas Territory, then but a prairie wilderness. He settled on Pottawatomie creek, … Read more

The Osage Massacre

When the treaty council with the Osage at Fort Gibson broke up in disagreement on April 2, 1833, three hundred Osage warriors under the leadership of Clermont departed for the west to attack the Kiowa. It was Clermont’s boast that he never made war on the whites and never made peace with his Indian enemies. At the Salt Plains where the Indians obtained their salt, within what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, they fell upon the trail of a large party of Kiowa warriors going northeast toward the Osage towns above Clermont’s. The Osage immediately adapted their course to that pursued by their enemies following it back to what they knew would be the defenseless village of women, children, and old men left behind by the warriors. The objects of their cruel vengeance were camped at the mouth of Rainy-Mountain Creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the present limits of the reservation at Fort Sill.

Biography of George H. Holmes

GEORGE H. HOLMES. – Among the prominent and successful agriculturists an stockmen of the county, there are none that take rank above the gentleman, whose name is at the head of this article, and whose enterprising and capable efforts in the lines that he pursues have resulted not only in success for himself in his ventures of business but have aided materially in the advancement of interests of the county and in augmenting its wealth, while also he has always displayed commendable principles of uprightness and sound discretion, as well as unswerving integrity and intrinsic moral worth. George H. Holmes … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Joshua W. Alexander

Joshua W. Alexander, only son of Thomas W. and Jane Alexander, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, January 22, 1852. When he had reached the age of four years, his parents removed to Anoka County, Minnesota, and settled upon a farm. There his father died in 1859, and in 1860 his mother removed to Canton, Lewis County, Missouri, and soon after returned to Cincinnati, where the subject of our sketch attended school until July, 1863, when they once more made Canton their home, and there he attended the graded school until 1868, when he entered the Christian University at Canton, graduating … Read more