#8a5859 Appendix III Part II: 598,599,600,601,602 [1941]



Humphrey Howe Leavitt (p. 123): born 1796; "attended school, was admitted to the bar"; attorney; state legislator; three terms in Congress; United State district judge.

Evaluation: no data except that family moved from Connecticut to Ohio and "established a home."


Rutherford Burchard Hayes (p. 177): born 1822; common school training, studied the classics, attended an academy, a preparatory school, Kenyon College, A.M., Harvard, LL.B.; city solicitor of Cincinnati, etc. Nineteenth President.

Family: "His father had died in July, 1822, leaving the mother in moderate circumstances."

Evaluation: Subject was sent to schools.


George A. Custer (p. 192): born 1839; district school, and an academy; West Point; major-general; Indian fighter; made "last stand."

Family: grandfather: a Hessian soldier.
father: blacksmith by trade.

Evaluation: As is sometimes the case of men who gain military success, or other fame, they may have started out as unpolished stones. The social class implications are not always clear. Custer certainly cut a wider swath than his ancestors.


John Beatty (p. 221): born 1828; education in district schools; partner in organization of a bank; treasurer of his village; lieutenant colonel of Third Ohio Infantry; banker and businessman.

Family: grandfather built "first brick house in the Firelands."


Harvey Rice (p. 246): born 1800; Williams College; teacher of classics in and principal of an academy in Cleveland; studied law with Reuben Wood (late governor); a public school and a public library in Cleveland have been named after him; educator, legislator, historian.

Family: subject's mother died when he was four; father placed him in homes; he claims to have brought himself up and put himself through school. A case of a self-made man.


Morrison R. Waite (p. 254): born 1816; graduate of Yale, read law with his father; legislator; Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Family: father: Yale graduate, associate justice of the supreme court of errors of Connecticut and afterwards "unanimously chosen by the legislature as chief justice."


Henry B. Payne (p. 268): born 1810; graduated from Hamilton College, studied law; nursed Stephen Douglas, his friend; became one of Cleveland's wealthiest citizens "by the successful management of his own affairs and the estate inherited by his wife." Nominee for governor; Congressman, United States Senate.

Family: "His father was instrumental in founding Hamilton Theological Seminary."


Calvin Stewart Rice (p. 281): born 1845; educated by "scholarly instruction of his father"; preparatory academy, college graduate; teacher; captain in army, promoted to lieutenant colonel; law school; attorney; railway promoter, United States senator; chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Family: father: Presbyterian minister.


Frank Harris Hitchcock (p. 294): bor5n 1869 in Ohio; attended school in Boston, graduated from Harvard; government offices in dep't of agriculture and commerce. Managed Taft's campaign in 1908; postmaster general; managed Hughes' campaign in 1916.

Family: father: minister of Congregational church.


William T. Spear (p. 311): born 1834); common school and Dana's Latin School; learned printing trade; proof reader; graduate of Harvard Law School; Ohio Supreme Court for 27 years.

Family: father: judge in Pennsylvania.


Frederick Funston (p. 333): born 1865; studied at K.U.; newspaper reporter; explored Alaska for the dep't of agriculture; Spanish-American war colonel and brigadier general; major general in command of U.S. forces on the Mexican border..

Family: father: in early life a teacher; attended Marietta College; served in both houses of the Kansas Legislature; represented a district of Kansas in Congress.


Lawrence Maxwell (p. 342): born 1853; graduated U. of Michigan and Cincinnati Law College; successful lawyer, partner of Rufus King and Nicholas Longworth; solicitor general of the United States; law professor.

Family: American citizens residing in Glasgow Scotland, when son was born.


Ambrose Swasey (p. 350); born 1846; public schools; honorary degrees from the U. of P., U. of Calif.; French Legion of Honor; president of American Society of Mechanical Engineers; many honors.

Family: no data. Obviously a man of remarkable technical aptitudes.


Tom Liftin Johnson (p. 360): born 1854; irregular schooling; clerk; financial backing from the du Ponts; street railway magnate; inventor; came under influence of Henry George; Congressman; mayor of Cleveland, then "best governed city in America."

Family: "His parents represented the educated and prosperous class of southern planters." (Kentucky)
father: captain in Confederacy; war impoverished family.


William Howard Taft (p. 377): "Was the only American to serve his country at the head of both the executive and judicial departments of the Government."

Family: father: Secretary of War and attorney general in Grant's cabinet.
son: Senator from Ohio.


James Rudolph Garfield (p. 395): born 1865; Williams College, Columbia Law School; U.S. civil service commissioner; secretary of the interior under Theodore Roosevelt.

Family: father: graduate of Williams, President.
brother: graduate of Williams and president of Williams from 1908 to 1934.


Conclusion

Although the inadequacy of data about the ancestors of influential early Ohioans confuses the issue somewhat, one has the feeling that some famous Ohioans have descended from pioneer-hard-working families.

Certain it is, however, that far more than half of the foregoing illustrious careers started from solid middle or upper class family backgrounds.

True, also, is the thought that in those families known to everyone, and which have contributed several generations of illustrious persons, the factors of social class rigidity are obvious.


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