OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 405 Today's Topics: #1 JAMES R. DUFFIN - HAMILTON COUNTY [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 Copyright Stuff [Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <73777.25] #3 HAMILTON COUNTY - PART 21 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #4 J.W.H. LITTELL - SOUVENIR SKETCHES [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:05:35, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: JAMES R. DUFFIN - HAMILTON COUNTY HISTORY OF KENTUCKY The American Historical Society, 1922 Volume IV, page 35-36 with photo JAMES R. DUFFIN. On the basis of his achievements James R. Duffin might very properly be asserted one of the most successful corporation lawyers in the county. While he has attended to the legal matters involved in the organization or reorganization of hundreds of business concerns, he has supplied more than constructive energy through which the firm or corporation has prospered. Perhaps the outstanding achievement of his career and the institution with which his name is most prominently associated is the Inter-Southern Life Insurance Company, which has been the largest and most successful Kentucky company engaged in insurance. He has been president of the company for the past ten years. Mr. Duffin was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, December 30, 1870. His great-grandfather, Randall Duffin, came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in Colonial times, and with a brother served as a patriot soldier in the Revolution. The family early became identified with the steel and iron business in Western Pennsylvania, and the grandfather of the Louisville business man, Roger H. Duffin, was president of the first rolling mill company established at Cincinnati. He was also associated with his sons in railroad contracting, and they built many sections of the Pennsylvania Railroad. James M. Duffin, father of James Richard, was born in Cincinnati in 1841, and died July 9, 1909. He served with the rank of major in the Quartermaster's Corps during the Civil war, and his brother, Daniel O. Duffin, was also in the same war. He spent his active career as a general merchant and his last days were spent in Louisville. He married Margaret Manion, who died in 1878. Her father R.G. Manion, was a railroad civil engineer, and at one time was associated with the Duffins in railroad contracting. Margaret Manion was born July 2, 1846. James Richard Duffin was the second of three children, and the only one to reach mature life. He spent most of his youth in Crawford County, Indiana, where he attended common schools and four years at the Merengo Academy under Prof. J.M. Johnson. He took the literary and law courses at Central Normal College, at Danville, Indiana, receiving his law degree with the class of 1890. Central Normal College has bestowed only one honorary degree and James R. Duffin was the recipient in 1907. After graduating from college he was elected and served four years as superintendent of schools of Crawford County, and at that time was the youngest county superintendent of schools in the state and the youngest man to ever hold that position in Crawford County. He also took an active part in democratic politics while in Indiana, and from the age of twenty-one to twenty-seven was a member of the Indiana State Central Committee. After the expiration of his term as school superintendent he began the practice of law at English, Indiana, but in 1898 located at Louisville. In 1909 he formed a partnership with Augustus E. Willson, who was later elected governor of Kentucky, which necessitated a dissolution of the partnership. During their association they were regarded as among the leading firms of commercial and corporation lawyers south of the Ohio River. During the twenty odd years he has been in Louisville the responsibility has devolved upon Mr. Duffin in assisting in the reorganization or organization of 1,284 corporations, and giving all of them a lease of life and prosperity. He became a stockholder and director in a large number of these corporations. On January 1, 1911, Mr. Duffin effected the reorganization of the Inter-Southern Life Insurance Company, and since then has been president of the Inter-Southern. This company now stands thirty-fifth in size among all the life insurance companies of the United States, and it has steadily grown and prospered from year to year. As president of the company Mr. Duffin took the leading part in securing the construction, in 1912 of the Inter-Southern Building, as the home of the company and one of the largest and finest office structures in Louisville. Mr. Duffin was also organizer of the old Dominion Oil Company, and made it the largest concern of its kind in the Kentucky oil territory. after promoting it to success he sold it to the Standard Oil interests. Mr. Duffin as a lawyer, business man and citizen had done much to promote the industrial progress of Louisville, and has had among his clients many of the prominent banking houses and individual capitalists, among all of which he has enjoyed the highest professional and personal esteem. At the present time he is completing one of the most beautiful homes in Kentucky in his home city of Louisville. Since coming to Louisville he has not taken an active part in politics. He is a member of the Commercial Club, the Masonic Order and the First Christian Church of Louisville. He married Miss Clara M. Boman, daughter of John Boman, of Leavenworth, Indiana. Their two children are James Everett and Thelma M. Duffin. ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 15:31:44 -0400 From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman Subject: Copyright Stuff Hi Folks, There have been a lot of questions recently about copyrights. There is a page at http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/oh_cprt.htm that should answer all those questions. Maggie ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 16:24:04, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY - PART 21 HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 HAMILTON COUNTY - part 21 THE HILLS AND CLIFTON. -Eventually the city plain will be devoted entirely to business and the homes of the people be "Cincinnati on the Hills." Now the finest of the palatial residences are there with the outlying districts of Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, Price Hill and Clifton. Clifton is a collection of magnificent chateaux, four miles from the city, amid groves and grassy lawns, which in architectural display, combined with landscape adornment and picturesque outlooks, had not, says German author, its equal but in one spot in Europe. Clifton has been the astonishment of foreigners who have accepted the hospitalities of its prince-like dwellers, among whom may be mentioned the Prince of Wales, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, and those Queens of Song, Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson. There in a place resides Henry Probasco, once a penniless youth, who gave the Tyler-Davidson fountain to Cincinnati. He alike proposes the same with his magnificent picture gallery valued at $200,000 soon as the citizens erect a suitable building, which they are certain to do some day. Another resident is William S. Groesbeck, who gave $50,000 for music in the parks. He it was who told his brother Democrats at the close of the rebellion, that they must accept the issue of the question of State Rights as ended. Said he, "war legislates, the trial of arms is the final Court of Appeals." George Pendleton, the famous Democratic leader, is also there. He is sometimes called "Gentleman George," from the suave manners and good fellowship generally. He is what is termed "a handsome man," compact, full rounded, with dark sparkling eyes. Richard Smith, proprietor of the Cincinnati Gazette, also dwells in Clifton. He is a plain, unostentatious citizen, who will receive in his office with more attention a poor crone of a woman who comes to crave charity than any swelling individual who calls under circumstances of pomp and state. BEAUTY AND THE COUNTRY. -The country on the hills is surpassingly beautiful. The formation is the blue limestone, and geologists say peculiar. Trilobites -petrified marine shells -are found in abundance. The surface is disposed in soft, exquisitely graceful swells with no abrupt transitions. In places the beech woods stretch away over hill and through dale in billowy swells, the ground one continuous green lawn with no underbrush to mar the prospect under the lights and shadows of the leafy canopies. For height combined with massiveness and luxuriance of foliage, no tree within our knowledge is equal to the beech of the Ohio valley, as there is none in picturesque beauty and graceful sweep of branches equal to the New England elm. Where the beech grows the soil is fat and luxuriant for the corn, the wheat and the good things, that plump out the ribs, rejoice and make laugh the inner man. On these hill sides, amid the lesser vales, within easy rides from the city are many charming suburban homes of the well-to-do citizens, sweet surprises to the stranger as they suddenly burst upon him from out a wilderness of green things. These are often reached by some sequestered by-road, winging through some lesser vale, where one might easily fancy there were a hundred miles away from any city. There are many such places all unknown to the masses who delve and sweat out their lives in the great hot, sooty town. At one of these, on a lofty eminence opposite Clifton, called "Makatewah" from the Indian name of the deep, broad valley which they each overlook -the first from the east and the last from the west and near two miles apart -we had passed so many happy days, escapes from the heat, dust and brain worrying life of the hot city, that though unused to versification, we could not refrain from a tribute. MAKATEWAH. O' Makatewah! peaceful spot, Where Nature's sweetest charms are spread, My weary spirit finds repose, To calmest thought is led. Bright, sparkling morn, mild, tranquil eye, Hope, retrospection there by turn inspire; Imagination, charming fancies weave, As softly sights the leafy lyre. The mansion strong and massive stands Where love and virtue cheer the guest; Where life's best gifts with blessing fill And earthly scenes bring heavenly rest. There swelling slopes rise decked in green, Mid summer suns lie cooling shades, Flowers quaff the morning dews And zephyrs stir the tender blades. Ripe luscious fruits in red and gold, Mid emerald settings blush and glow; While generous vines the nectar yields That life sad hearts in genial flow. Mid Fragrance, insects happy hum, The wood bird beats his rataplan, The peacock struts with speckled mates And stately swings a glittering fan. When evening's shadows solemn steal O'er Clifton's leaf-crowned height, There sweet to watch the fading day Die in the arms of night. The valley sounds rise on the air, The tinkling bells, the rolling cars, While o'er the deep'ning gloom below Look down the sad, mysterious stars. O, Makatewah! peaceful spot, Where Nature's sweetest charms are spread; My weary spirit find repose, To calmest thought is led. This region, like that of Athens of old, has the prime requisite for a perfect climate, being just in, that latitude where one can remain out of doors in comfort the greatest number of days in the year. The time is not distant when this centre will number a million of people. Then "Cincinnati on the Hills" will one of the choice spots of this earth. This from the extraordinary resources and beauty of the country, combined with the extraordinary public spirit of her citizens: -the latter moving with an accelerated increase from the habits already established all combining to render this a great art centre and focus of all which broadens life and renders it sweet and beneficent. -continued in part 22 ------------------------------ X-Message: #4 Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 16:24:13, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: J.W.H. LITTELL - SOUVENIR SKETCHES BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SOUVENIR For the Counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana John M. Gresham & Co. Chicago Printing Co., 1889 - Part II, page165-166 J.W.H. LITTELL is a native of this (Harrison) county, and was born January 27, 1840. He is a son of Hugh and Delilah (Long) Littell; the former born August 14, 1814, and was a son of Reuben and Elizabeth (Gormley) Littell, natives of Virginia. The family emigrated to Harrison county 1817, and settled a half-mile south of Corydon. Delilah Long, the wife of Hugh Littell (and mother of subject), was born in this county, and was a daughter of Levi Long, an early settler of the county, and a noted preacher in the Baptist Church here fifty-years ago -a man of great natural talent and moral worth. He was an inveterate worker, attended five or six churches at a time, at great distances from each other, and traveled on foot or horseback, stopping where night overtook him, and receiving the hospitalities of the pioneer's cabin without money and without price. Reverently asking the blessing of God on all he did, his life was simple and unostentatious, his wants few and easily satisfied. His teachings, though plain and unvarnished, did as much, or more toward Christianizing, what was then a new and wild country, that any other influence. He lived out the measure of his days, and died in the hope of a glorious immortality. J.W.H. Littell, the subject of this sketch, was reared on his father's farm until he was sixteen years of age, when he went to clerk for Paul Sieg, of Corydon, which he followed for one year, when he returned to the farm. At eighteen, having received a good common-school education, he began teaching, which he continued until the storms of war commenced gathering around his home, and the Confederate, John Morgan, the great cavalry raider of the South, crossed the Rubicon to his fate, when he joined Capt. J.W. Marshall's company of the "Home legion," and took part in (as he termed it) the "John Morgan racket." On the 4th of April, 1864, he was mustered into the Thirteenth Indiana Cavalry, commanded by Col. Johnson, the last cavalry regiment raised, but the first equipped and sent to the front. Mr. Littell enlisted as a private, but was soon promoted to Lieutenant of Co. D. In the summer of 1865, he was promoted to Acting Assistant Regimental Quartermaster, with the rank of Captain; at the same time he filled the position of commissary, thus holding two positions at once. He was in the Murfreesboro and Nashville battles, and then in a chain of running fights until Hood crossed the Tennessee, also in all the engagements in around Nashville. His shirt and coat sleeve were shot through by the enemy's shell, but he received no personal injury. Since the war he has devoted his time and attention to farming, except two years just after the close of the war, when he engaged in manufacturing tombstones, etc. He owns about 200 acres of fine land, well improved and in an excellent state of cultivation. He has a handsome residence and is well fixed to live comfortable and well. He has one of the finest herds of cattle, consisting of Jerseys, shorthorn, etc., in Harrison county, and some very fine blooded horses. Captain Littell was married in October, 1866, to Miss Bettie A. Sieg, a daughter of J.M. Sieg, Esq., of Harrison County. The Sieg family is from virginia originally; John Sieg, the grandfather of Mrs. Littell, settled here in 1816, among the early settlers of the county. Captain and Mrs. Littell have six children living, viz: Minnie, Walter, Pinckney, Joe Logan, Alonzo and Loretta. Captain Littell is a member and adjutant of Nevin Post, G.A.R.; was one of the organizers of this Post, and in 1882 elected first Commander of it, which position he held for four years. He is a staunch Republican, but at the same time somewhat liberal in his political sentiments. He is a great reader and well versed in the current literature of the day. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #405 *******************************************