David Zeisberger (p. 7): born 1721; left in Saxony "to finish his education" when his parents came to Georgia; immigrated at about age 17; at 20 he journeyed on foot to Penn.; missionary among Indians.

Family: followers of John Huss.
children: none.

Evaluation: Data inadequate. Boy was given an education. "He showed extraordinary facility in learning languages . . . . "


Charles Willing Byrd (p. 23): born ca. 1760; "educated for the law"; appointed by John Adams as secretary of Northwest United States district judge in Ohio."

Family: father: third William Byrd of the famous Virginia family of "Westover"; colonel; land speculator, "dissipated must of his estate."
wife: sister of wife of Nathaniel Massie, very prominent in early Ohio affairs.


Peter Hitchcock (p. 44): born 1781; graduated from Yale College; admitted to Conn. bar, 1803; state legislator in Ohio, speaker of the state senate; 28 years justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. "Peter Hitchcock was the first teacher of an academy started . . . in 1806."

Evaluation: No background given except that subject graduated from Yale and started his career in Ohio as a teacher in an academy -- which signified certain interests, attitudes, and backgrounds.


Edward Dominic Fenwick (p. 58): born 1768; was sent to Belgium to attend college; Dominican Order; first bishop of Cincinnati; founder of school which became St. Francis Xavier College.

Family: " . . . a wealthy family of planters" in Maryland.

Evaluation: Pioneer churchman had had a Kinderstube.


James Gillspie Birney (p. 74): born 1792; educated at home, Transylvania College, Priestly Seminary, Princeton; studied law in the office of father of G. M. Dallas (later Vice-President); planter; slave holder; leader in politics; abolitionist in Cincinnati, editor, candidate for President of the Liberty Party in 1840.

Family: "On both sides he represented families of wealth and social prominence in Kentucky; they were slaveholders in practice . . . " Subject was given "several household slaves" as a wedding gift."
wife: daughter of a United States district judge.

Evaluation: One must believe subject came from a "good family."


Otway Curry (p. 88): born 1804); common school education, learned carpentry, worked; became farmer; state representative; editor and publisher; studied law, practiced and edited in small town. One of his poems was in McGuffey's.

Family: father: colonel in the Revolution.

Evaluation: Poetic and versatile son had, at least, a military father.


Leonard Case (p. 102): born 1786; learned alphabet from an itinerant school master; pioneer labor on father's 200 acre farm; crippled himself; mastered reading and writing; court clerk; title searcher; cashier of first bank in Cleveland; founded "city beautiful"; made fortune in real estate.

Family: father: "acquired" 200 acres of frontier land; soldier in Rev.
son: graduated from Yale, lawyer, philanthropist.

Evaluation: Subject's father must have been a hard-working pioneer; subject's son "got off to a good start."


David Harpster (p. 111): born 1810; common school education; "purchaser of land in Pitt township. Through hard work he acquired 700 acres; stock raiser, Ohio's "wool king"; founded a village and a bank.

Evaluation: no other data available.


William Dennison (p. 151): born 1815; graduated with honors from Miami Univ.; studied law under "one of Ohio's distinguished lawyers"; attorney; president of a small railway and of a bank; state senate; governor; permanent chairman of Republican convention of 1864; postmaster general; etc.

Family: "His father was founder of the Dennison House, one of the pioneer hotels of Cincinnati."