History of Highland County Ohio United States of America

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Biographies:

Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, senator, was born in Highland county, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1862: son of Thomas H. and Francis E. (Parkinson) Beveridge, and grandson of John Beveridge. He removed to Illinois with his parents; became a plowboy, teamster and logger, and was graduated at De Pauw university in 1885, having paid his own expenses. He studied law under Senator McDonald 1886-87; was admitted to the bar in 1887, and engaged in practice in Indianapolis, Ind. He was married Nov. 24, 1887, to Katherine Maud Langsdale of Greencastle, Ind. He entered politics in 1884; became a prominent political speaker, and was elected to the U.S. senate from Indiana as a Republican for the term 1899-1905.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Henry Harrison Chase Dunwoody, meteorologist, was born in Highland county, Ohio, Oct. 23, 1842; son of William and Sarah (Murphy) Dunwoody, and grandson of Robert and Susan (Rhiem) Dunwoody, and of William and Mildred (Pursell) Murphy. He was graduated from the U.S. military academy in 1866, and served on garrison duty in Delaware, Maryland and Kansas, 1866-69. He was recorder of the tactics board at St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 4, 1869, to January, 1871; was in garrison at Fort McHenry, Mo., in 1871, and on signal duty at Fort Whipple, Va., March to August, 1872. He was weather forecaster at the chief signal office, Washington, D.C., 1872-91, and the weather service of the various states was established upon his recommendation. Upon the reorganization of the signal corps and transfer of the weather bureau to the department of agriculture, by a special provision of the law he was continued with the weather bureau. He was promoted major in the signal corps upon its reorganization in 1890, after a competitive examination, he being recommended first on the list, which included all officers who had previously served with the signal corps. He was subsequently promoted lieutenant-colonel in the signal corps, and was relieved from duty with the weather bureau at his own request, in May, 1898, for the purpose of entering active service with the signal corps during the war with Spain. He was appointed colonel of the volunteer signal corps, which, under his direction, was organized, equipped and placed in the field in thirty days. In July, 1898, he was promoted colonel and assistant chief signal officer of the army. While conducting his meteorological work, he took a course of law at Columbia college, and was graduated LL.B. in 1876. He is the author of numerous papers on meteorology and kindred subjects.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Rev. Joseph McDowell Mathews, D. D., President of Hillsborough Female College, Highland county, Ohio, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, December 8th, 1804. His father, John Mathews, also a native of Augusta county, Virginia, followed through life mainly agricultural pursuits; he moved to Kentucky in 1814 and settled in Fayette county, where he resided until his demise, December 18th, 1814. His mother, Sarah (McDowell) Mathews, a native of Burke county, North Carolina, was a daughter of Major Joseph McDowell, who served valiantly and efficiently as an officer in the Revolutionary army, was a member of Congress during the Presidencies of Adams and Jefferson, and was general of the old-time militia of North Carolina: he died in Burke county, North Carolina, in 1801. The oldest child in a family of four children, his earlier years, up to the age of eighteen, were passed alternately in working on a farm and in acquiring at school a fair elementary education. In 1822, his literary attainments constituting a useful and varied store of learning, he assumed the role of educator, and found employment in teaching a subscription school at Pisgah, Woodford county, Kentucky. At the expiration of one year, spent in imparting instruction, he became a student in the academy of Dr. Louis Marshall, located near Pisgah, and in the three years passed in this establishment pursued an exhaustive course of classical and mathematical studies. The following season was consumed in visiting friends in Virginia, whither he travelled with a view to strengthen a rather impaired condition of health. In 1827 he settled in Hillsborough, Highland county, Ohio, and took charge of the Hillsborough Academy, an institution founded by Governor Allen Trimble, General McDowell and other prominent citizens. Through the acceptance of the invitation then extended to him, accordingly, he became the first Superintendent of the academy. Until 1831 he was assiduously engaged in the discharge of the onerous duties of that position. He then joined the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During several preceding years he had preached more or less regularly, and had secured favorable attention as a local preacher in Kentucky. After remaining for two years in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he had been stationed, and performed ministerial duties as an itinerant clergyman, he was removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained for one year. In 1834, his health being in a very precarious condition, he settled on a farm near Hillsborough, and there rested, for the purpose of regaining his lost energies, until 1839. In this year he started, as a private enterprise, the Oakland Female Seminary, at Hillsborough, and succeeded in obtaining a charter for the institution. With the labors incident to the superintendency of this school he was intimately identified until 1857. He afterward took charge of Hillsborough Female College, an institution established by the influence of many influential and public-spirited citizens of the town. In the discharge of the numerous and highly important duties attached to his position there he was steadily occupied until 1860, when he relinquished the superintendency, and, returning to Kentucky, took charge of the Jessamine Female College, at Nicollettsville, Kentucky. Of that institution he had charge until 1863, when, the events of the civil war affecting its status, he returned to Hillsborough, Ohio. In the course of the same year he took charge of a private boarding-school, and there administered instruction for a period of nine years. In the meantime, after a second invitation, he accepted the Presidency of Hillsborough Female College, and of this celebrated institution of learning has since ably acted as chief and head. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred on him by the Augusta College, of Kentucky; his degree of D. D. was conferred on him subsequently by the Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio. Religiously, his sentiments find a congenial atmosphere within the boundaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he joined while in his eighteenth year. His life has been one of great usefulness as a Christian counsellor and as an educator, while his career in public and in private circles has been a centre from which has radiated at all times and in all seasons an amount of good whose beneficial influence, directly and indirectly, is of incalculable value. Swayed by quick and generous sensibilities, he has won the esteem, love and confidence of all who have been brought into contact with him; in social life he is pleasant and courteous; his conduct, viewed from a political standpoint, has ever been based upon a pure and disinterested love of his country and an inflexible determination to resist the attempts of all to undermine the unity of the republic. He was married in 1828 to Elizabeth A. Barry, daughter of Andrew Barry, a native of Virginia, who died in 1852; and again, in 1854, to Mrs. Martha P. Sanders, a native of Clermont county, Ohio, and a sister of Judge Philip Strong, of Batavia, Ohio, who died in 1858; and again, in 1869, to Mrs. Mary B. Harmar, a native of Dublin, Ireland, a daughter of a British army officer; she was born in Ireland while her family was temporarily stopping there. By his first marriage he had one child; two children were the fruits of his second marriage; by his third marriage he has had no child. He was the author of two small works for the benefit of the young: "Letters to School Girls," published by the Methodist Book Concern in Cincinnati, in 1853; "Sermons to School Girls," published by the Methodist Book Concern in New York, in 1867.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.

History of Highland County Ohio

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