Worl Worden Thompson (1897-1961)

From the Caldwell Journal, June 25, 1953.

   December begins a month-long stay in Ohio to profile a number of unusually named Buckeye State politicians. The first of these individuals to be profiled is Worl Worden Thompson, an auto dealer and popular business figure in Noble County for forty years. The founder of one of the oldest automotive dealerships in Noble County, Thompson attained additional prominence through public service, being a two-term state representative and one-term mayor of Caldwell. A native of West Virginia, Worl Worden Thompson was born in the village of Silver Hill on August 18, 1897.

  Following his birth, Thompson and his family removed to Pleasant Valley in Marion County, where he attended "small country schools." Early in his life, Thompson entered into automotive sales in Moundsville, West Virginia, and continued in business in Woodsfield, where he was employed at a Maxwell dealership. Worl Thompson married Madge O. Laudin (1898-1954) in the 1910s and had three daughters, Etta V. (1918-2000), June (1920-1952), and Mary (1921-1998).

  In 1921 Thompson and his family removed to Noble County, Ohio.  Settling in Caldwell, he established a Dodge dealership and several years later expanded his business with his purchase of the John Beckett building, a former livery stable and skating rink. By the mid-1920s, Thompson's dealership had added Studebaker products to its inventory, and in 1929 he was elected as president of the Caldwell Businessmen's Club for a one year term. 

  With his name firmly established in the Noble County business sector by 1930, Worl Thompson entered local politics with his election to the Caldwell city council. In January 1930 he was named to the council committee on streets, and continued to serve as a councilman into May 1933, when he was named as mayor of Caldwell. This appointment was occasioned by the illness and resignation of Mayor George Stanley "G.S." Ullman, and Thompson served as acting mayor "until after the fall election."

From the Newark Advocate, May 27, 1933.

   Following his brief tenure as mayor Thompson set his sights on higher office, and in 1938 announced his candidacy for the Ohio House of Representatives. In the August Republican primary Thompson emerged victorious, besting three term incumbent Samuel M. Frakes by a vote of 1,088 to 895. He would win the general election in November and took his seat at the start of the 1939-41 session. He won a second term in 1940, and during the 1941-43 term backed the creation of an Ohio Air Forest Patrol that would combat forest fires that had occurred in 18 eastern Ohio counties. In 1942 Thompson emerged as a candidate for member of the Ohio Republican State Central Committee, but withdrew his candidacy that June. 

  During World War II Thompson aided in the ongoing war effort by closing his garage and entering into defense department work. In 1942 he closed his garage and traveled to Dayton to begin work with the Pratt-Whitney engine department at the Patterson Dayton Airfield (now called Wright Patterson Air Force Base). He would later return to his automive business in Caldwell, and from 1945-46 served as president of the Noble County Chamber of Commerce.

  An active club man in his region, Thompson was a member of the Noble Lodge No. 459 of Free and Accepted Masons, the Olive Grange,  and the Noble County Fish and Game Association. He and his family were members of the Caldwell First Methodist Church, and in November 1951 he was honored with a belated 25-year plaque at the regional meeting of Dodge and Plymouth Dealers held in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

From the Caldwell Journal, November 29, 1961.

  In 1952 Worl Thompson was beset by tragedy, suffering the deaths of his wife Madge and daughter June. He continued with his business interests in Caldwell through the 1950s, and in 1959 again served on the Caldwell city council. Thompson's final months were marred by impaired health, and on March 19, 1961, died at his home in Caldwell, aged 63. He was survived by his daughters Etta and Mary and was interred in the Thompson family plot at the Olive Cemetery in Caldwell.

From the Caldwell Journal, March 20, 1961.

Romanus Rudolphus Bour (1860-1931), Romanus James Downey (1896-1947)

From the Ohio Manual of Legislative Practice, 1914.

   A leading county official and citizen residing in Tiffin, Ohio at the turn of the 19th century, Romanus Rudolphus Bour served several years as Seneca County auditor prior to his election to two consecutive terms as a state representative. A lifelong resident of Tiffin, Romanus R. Bour was born in that city on January 19, 1860, the son of John and Elizabeth (Swope) Bour. A student at the St. Mary's Parochial School in that city,  Bour went on to attend the Tiffin High School and for two years enrolled at the Heidelberg College in Tiffin. 

  Bour briefly followed a teaching career and joined his father in the former's business in Tiffin before taking a clerkship in the Seneca County auditor's office in 1882. The next year saw Bour enter into the role of deputy county auditor, which he would fill for many years afterward. In May 1884 he married to Ida Matilda Strauss (1864-1938), with who he had seven children: Emery George (1887-89), James Norton (born 1889), Bertha (born 1892) Charles R. (born 1894), Elmer William (1896-1974), Margaret Louisa (1900-1998), and Paul Herbert (1902-1973). 

  In 1903 Romanus Bour was elected as Seneca County auditor and would serve two terms, leaving office in 1909. In 1910 he announced his candidacy for the Ohio House of Representatives and was elected "by an 857 majority" that November. The 1911-13 session saw him sit on the committees on Mines and Mining, the Soldiers and Sailors Home, and Taxation and Revenues. He would win a second term in 1912 and during the 1913-15 term chaired the committee on Public Buildings and Lands.

  After leaving the legislature Bour continued prominence in Tiffin, being named as teller for the Commercial National Bank in that city. A longstanding member of the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Columbus, Bour died of a heart attack at his home in Tiffin on February 9, 1931, aged 71. He was survived by his wife Ida and children and was interred at the St. Mary's Cemetery in Tiffin. In addendum to this article, Bour's middle name is variously spelled as both Rudolph and Rudolphus by genealogical webpages, such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage and FamilySearch.

   

Romanus Bour, from Tiffin's Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, 1897.

From the Bismarck Tribune, June 9, 1941.

  Another "Romanus" that made an impact through public service was Romanus James Downey of  North Dakota. A one-term member of the state house of representatives from Ramsey County, Downey would later be tapped to serve as State Commissioner of Veterans Affairs. He served in that capacity until his death a decade later, losing his life in a bizarre "elevator mishap" at a Fargo hotel. Born in Barnesville, Minnesota on August 6, 1896, Romanus James Downey was the son of Thomas W. and Sarah A. Downey.

  Removing with his family to Devil's Lake, North Dakota in 1909, Downey attended the local high school and later enrolled at the University of North Dakota. He would put his studies on hold to enlist in WWI, and served overseas with Co. D, 2nd North Dakota Infantry from 1917-1919. Following his return to Devil's Lake in the last-named year, Downey recommenced with his studies and later relocated to Washington, D.C., where he was a student at the Georgetown Law School. His time in the nation's capital saw him enter government service for the first time when he took a clerkship in a "senate committee that was investigating the Teapot Dome scandal."

  Earning his law degree in 1924, Downey established himself in practice in Devil's Lake and in 1934 was elected as a Democrat to the North Dakota House of Representatives. He served in the session of 1935-37, and in August 1937 was named by then-Governor William Langer as State Commissioner of Veteran's Affairs, with Langer himself referring to Downey as "the most qualified candidate". His decade long tenure in that post also saw Downey flirt with a congressional bid, and in November 1940 was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, polling over 63,000 votes.

  On April 22. 1947 the 50-year-old Downey was staying at the Gardner Hotel in Fargo, North Dakota when he entered into an elevator to ride to his room on the fourth floor. He was "stricken by either a dizzy spell or a heart attack and fell against a floor while it was being passed by the elevator." Downey died of a crushed skull received from the accident and was survived by his wife Frederica (1897-1973). Both were later interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Fargo.

From the Bismarck Tribune, April 23, 1947.

Eby Christian Eikenberry (1868-1953)

From the Co-operative Manager and Farmer, Vol. VI, November 1916.

  Eby Christian Eikenberry rose to become an honored son of Preble County, Ohio, gaining prominence in that county through several civic and business endeavors. A former president of the National Association of Grain Dealers, Eikenberry entered the political forum as mayor of Camden, Ohio, and later as a Democratic National Convention delegate. In the late 1920s, he was elected to the first of two terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, resigning during his second term. The son of Levi and Rebecca (Eby) Eikenberry, Eby Christian Eikenberry was born near West Alexandria, Ohio on November 21, 1868. As with a number of previous men featured here, Eikenberry's curious first name was given to him as it was his mother's maiden name.

  Both Eby and his younger brother Charles Murray Eikenberry (1875-1938) attended the public schools of Preble County, and both enrolled at the University of Ohio at Athens. Eby Eikenberry left that university in his junior year, and in 1895 took on the post of assistant cashier at the Commercial Bank of Camden, Ohio. He married in Ohio on April 23, 1896, to Anna Baird Phares (1870-1959), and the couple's near six-decade marriage produced one son, William (1906-2002). Eikenberry and his wife also adopted two foster children, Eugene and Enola Appleby.

  Prior to his marriage Eikenberry was elected as Preble County superintendent of education, serving from 1890-95. This would begin a long interest in educational affairs in his region, as he later served on the Camden, Ohio school board and from 1917-22 was president of the Preble County Board of Education. 

  In addition to his later political service, Eikenberry's main area of prominence was his long career as a grain merchant, a business that he first entered in 1897.  He would partner with his brother Charles Murray in the firm Eikenberry Bros. Co., dealing in flour, feed, and seeds. The brothers later added grain to their business, operating two-grain elevators in the towns of Camden and Collinsville. By 1914 Eby Eikenberry had joined another firm, Payne and Eikenberry, which, in addition to having a grain elevator in Collinsville, established another in Hamilton, Ohio.

  In 1912 Eikenberry was elected as president of the Ohio Grain Dealer's Association, and during his four-year term held the additional role of vice-president of the National Grain Dealer's Association, to which he'd been elected in 1914. In 1916 he was elected as president of that organization, and in 1917 was reelected at the group's annual convention held at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo, New York. In his 1917 annual convention address, Eikenberry made note of American entrance into the First World War; federal supervision of grain inspection following the passage of the Grain Grades Act; and the signing of the Food Control Bill by President Woodrow Wilson. During his address, Eikenberry further noted that:

"The history of the past year has no parallel in the records of the grain trade. The industry has undergone radical change in its conduct extending even to principles that hitherto have been regarded as fixed and fundemental. It is impossible to discuss the affairs of the National Association without recognition of the dominating political influences. War and its issues outstand; all else is comparitively insignificant...Crises in world affairs demand of individuals and groups of individuals much of labor and sacrifice of which the quality and importance can only be determined by the character of the finalities in which they are instrumental in shaping." 

Portrait from the Grain and Farm Service Centers, 1917.

  Further business success outside the grain industry would come to Eikenberry with his time as president and vice president of the First National Bank of Camden, and in 1920 was vice president of the Camden Loan and Building Association Co. He later succeeded to its presidency and also held directorships in the Hawthorne Milling Company of Cincinnati and the Ohio Grain Dealer's Mutal Fire Insurance Company. During WWI, he was affiliated with the Food and Drug Administration, serving as chairman of the Grain Advisory Committee.

  Eikenberry first entered the political life of Preble County with his election as county school superintendent, and from 1907-08 served as mayor of Camden. In 1912 he was an alternate delegate from Ohio to that year's Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, where Woodrow Wilson was nominated for president. Eikenberry set his sights on a seat in the Ohio General Assembly in 1930, and after winning the Democratic primary outlined a campaign platform in the Lewisburg Leader, which noted:

"Mr. Eikenberry has repeatedly declared that the farm and small home are bearing more than just their fair share of the tax burden and that every effort should be made in the formation of the new system to equalize the load with that carried by other forms of property. He maintains that this would be the most effective forms of farm relief."

From the Lewisburg Leader, 1930.

  Eikenberry went on to defeat Republican incumbent Arthur H. Morton that November and took his seat in January 1931. While an incumbent legislator, Eikenberry held the additional post of president of the Camden National Bank and in October 1931 was a featured speaker at the Preble County Banker's Association. In 1932 he was unopposed in his bid for reelection, and that November won a second term. Early in the 1933 session, he came out in favor of "measures sponsored by the Preble County Taxpayer's League", and also authored a bill "permitting building and loans to liquidate." In October 1933 Eikenberry resigned his seat due to his appointment as liquidating agent for the Brookville, Ohio Building and Loan Association, and served in that capacity for an indeterminate period.

  After leaving state government Eikenberry continued residence in Camden and in 1939 survived injuries that he sustained after being struck by a vehicle while crossing a street downtown. His later years saw him as a trustee for the Ohio University at Athens, having first been appointed to that board in 1913. He served until his death at the Mercy Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio on May 3, 1953, at age 84. Eikenberry was survived by his wife and children and was interred at the Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton.

From the Lewisburg Leader, May 7, 1953.

Phale Dophis Hale Sr. (1914-2009)

From Jet Magazine, November 1983.

  Ohio based clergyman, politician and civil rights leader Phale Dophis Hale achieved much in his near 95 years, being a Morehouse College graduate, Baptist minister, a seven-term state representative, and chairman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. From humble beginnings in Mississippi Hale rose to become one of the leading African-American religious and political leaders in the Buckeye State. One of twelve children born to Mississippi sharecroppers Church and Lee Ellen Hale, Phale Dophis Hale was born in Starksville on July 16, 1914.

  Bestowed the curious names Phale Dophis upon his birth, Hale's formative years were spent in the state in which he was born, and was a student at the Greenwood Colored High School. Following his graduation in 1933, Hale and a friend left Mississippi on foot to seek a new life, and after being taught how to ride the rails by hoboes, Hale found himself in Chicago seeking employment. He would later find work via the aid of a brother-in-law at a Buffalo, New York steel mill, and with this income and money lent from relatives enrolled at Morehouse College in the 1930s.

  Hale continued study at Morehouse through the late 1930s and after encountering tuition problems returned to steel millwork in Buffalo. He would return to Morehouse sometime later and would graduate in the class of 1940. During his time there became a friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984) and developed friendships with two of his sons, Martin Luther King Jr. and Alvin D. King. Hale's friendship with the future civil rights icon would see King be a guest pastor on two occasions at the same church Hale ministered at in Columbus, and he would also spend the night at the Hale home during his stays in the city.

  After turning his attention to religious work Phale Hale took his first ministry in LaGrange, Georgia in 1940, holding the pastorate of that town's First Baptist Church. In the same year as Hale's settlement in LaGrange, that town was the site of the murder of Austin Callaway, a black youth suspected in the assault of a white woman. Forcibly taken from his cell and shot multiple times by several white assailants, Callaway died of his wounds on September 9, 1940. In the wake of this lynching, Phale Hale "undertook investigations into the lynchings of blacks" and founded an NAACP chapter in the community. Hale would take further action by issuing a call for national NAACP leaders to do their own investigation into lynchings that had occurred. During his Georgia residency, Phale Hale married in August 1943 to Cleo Ingram (1922-2013), a Spelman college student. The couple's sixty-five-year marriage saw the births of four children, Phale Dolphis Jr. (1946-2009), Janice Ellen (1948-2017), Marna, and Hilton Ingram.

Phale Hale as he appeared in the Lima News, April 22, 1967.

  After five years in LaGrange Phale Hale and his wife removed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Hale would accept the pastorate of the Union Baptist Church. Like LaGrange, Hale would see widespread racism in the city, and would also found another NAACP chapter here. He is also noted as having led an early lunch counter sit-in in the city. His pastorship in Fort Wayne extended until 1950, and two years prior he earned his doctor of divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary and Chapel Theological School.

  In 1950 Phale Hale and his family removed to Columbus, Ohio, where Hale would enter into a forty-three-year pastorship at the Union Baptist Church. Shortly after his arrival, he would become president of the Franklin County NAACP chapter, and his time in that post (1950-1960) saw new employment opportunities for blacks open up in the city, as he:

"Placed the first Black teller in a bank in Columbus, Ohio, placed the first Black Highway Patrolman on the highways of the State of Ohio, and was responsible for the appointment of the first Black professor on the faculty of the Ohio State University."

 Over and decade and a half following his resettlement in Columbus, Phale D. Hale made his first move onto the Ohio political stage, announcing his candidacy for the Ohio House of Representatives from the 31st legislative district in 1966. He would win the election that November and continued to win reelection to the next seven Ohio legislative terms, retiring undefeated at the end of the 1980 house session. Hale's fourteen-year tenure in the house saw him chair the house committee on Welfare during the 1973-74 session and was also chair of the Human Resources committee. A founding member of the Black Elected Democrats of Ohio (now the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus) in 1967, Hale also served that group as its coordinator for the clergy. Hale's legislative service also saw him named as deputy director of the Democratic National Committee and continued service as a member of the American Baptist Theological Seminary (having been in office since 1957.)

Hale during his senate tenure.

  Following his retirement from the legislature in 1980, Phale Hale continued prominence in his state, being appointed as chairman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission that year. He would serve until 1985, and continued to be socially active well into his later years, being the president of Columbus' Operation PUSH, a board member of the Mid Ohio Health Planning Federation and the Ohio Council of Churches, a member of the Columbus Area Anti Poverty Council, and for thirty-two years (1960-1992) served as director of the Ohio Baptist General Convention's Social Action Commission.

  In 1995, the then 81-year-old Hale was reappointed to the Democratic National Committee by then-President Bill Clinton, and in 1993 retired from his pastorship at Union Baptist Church. He and his wife Cleo celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary in 2003 and were feted with a family celebration in Columbus. After nearly six decades of distinction in his adopted city of Columbus, Phale Dophis Hale died on May 29, 2009, two months short of his 95th birthday. He was survived by his wife Cleo, who, following her death at age 91 in 2013, was interred alongside him at the Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus.

Phale and Cleo Hale in September 2003, from Jet Magazine.

Lemon Galpin Hine (1832-1914), Lemon Grey Neely (1861-1925)

Portrait from the History of the City of Washington, It's Men and Institutions (1903).

   We continue our stay in the nation's capital with the following write up on Lemon Galpin Hine, an Ohio native who found political and business distinction in Washington, D.C. following his resettlement there in the early 1860s. Although largely forgotten today, the name of Lemon Galpin Hine was a prominent one in the capitol during the late 19th century, as he served on both the city common council and board of aldermen. In 1889 Hine reached his highest degree of political prominence when he was appointed as a District Commissioner of Washington, D.C., a body that comprised three members who governed the district following the dissolve of the territorial government in 1874.

   Born in Berlin Heights, Ohio on April 14, 1832, Lemon Galpin Hine was the son of Sheldon and Mary (Osborn) Hine. His early education occurred at the Norwalk Seminary in Ohio, as well as the Baldwin University (now the Baldwin Wallace University) in Berea. Hine would study law at the State and National Law School in Ballston Spa, New York. Sources relate that Hine spent the latter part of the 1850s in both Iowa and DeKalb County, Indiana, even building a farmhouse in the latter county. Further sources detail his earlier residency in Cleveland, Ohio, with notice given as to his being the manager of The Commercial newspaper in that city when just nineteen years of age.

  Lemon Hine married in Ohio in May 1860 to Mary Tillinghast (1838-1923). The couple was wed for over fifty years and their union would see the births of five children: Charles L. (1861-1911), Mary Christmas (1867-1955, Oliver Cromwell (1870-1936), Blanche (1874-1964) and Mollie.

   Following his marriage, Hine and his wife moved to Coldwater, Michigan, where he practiced law for a time and in August 1861 signed on for service in the "Northwestern Rifle Regiment", later to be called the 44th Illinois Infantry. Hine's Civil War service would see him attain the rank of Lieutenant in that unit's Co. B and he saw action at the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas. He would resign from service in April 1862, due to "the loss of his voice", a problem that would continue to plague him for the remainder of his life. 

   A short period after leaving the service Hine removed to Washington D.C., where he would work on "Army pension cases". After further law studies, Hine partnered with William Fitch and John Fox to form a law firm, which was short lived. Hine would make his first foray into District political life in 1868, being elected to the Washington, D.C. Common Council. Following his one year tenure in that body, he was elected to the city Board of Aldermen, serving from 1870-71.

Lemon G. Hine as he appeared early in his life.

  Through the 1870s and 80s Lemon Hine continued to practice law and for two years served as the president of the Washington, D.C. Bar Association. He retired from practice in 1887, as he continued to be plagued by problems relating to his throat. Despite his health concerns, politics again beckoned to Hine in 1889, when he accepted President Benjamin Harrison's appointment to the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia. This three-man board came into being in 1874, following the dissolve of the territorial government of the District of Columbia. This earlier form of government had been headed by a Governor, and beginning in 1878, a three-man commission (whose members were appointed by the President) would govern the district. These men (one Republican, one Democrat, and one civil engineer with no political affiliation) would then choose one of their own as board president. 

   Appointed to the board along with Hine was John Watkinson Douglass (named as President), and these two men would serve alongside engineer Charles Walker Raymond from 1889-90. Many notable Washingtonians lauded Hine's appointment, describing him as one of the "grandest men in this city" and "a courteous gentleman and an honest man". The Washington Evening Star interviewed Hine on his new post, during which he appeared primed and ready to take on his duties, stating:

"What are my plans? Well, it is a little to early to go into particulars, but I can say that I shall do my utmost to look after the interests of the District without fear or favor. I look upon the office of District Commissioner as one of detail, and believe that its duties can be performed just as successfully as those of any other business. But to do so strict attention will have to be paid to business methods. I shall do my best to conduct the office on that plan."

Portrait from the Washington Evening Star, May 16, 1889.

  Hine's tenure as a Commissioner proved to be short, as he resigned in September 1890. Prior to his resignation he had become affiliated with Ottmar Mergenthaler, the inventor of the Linotype machine. The two developed a close friendship, and Hine became financially involved in the development of this new mode of printing, which gained extensive use by the Washington Star newspaper. Hine's interest in this venture saw him become president of the Merganthaler Linotype Machine Company, holding that post until his resignation in December 1891.

   Now retired from business and law, Hine continued to reside in Washington until health concerns compelled him to relocate to Battle Creek, Michigan in November 1913. Hine later contracted pneumonia while at a sanitarium there and died on January 19, 1914. He was survived by his wife Mary, and following his death was taken back to Washington to be interred at the Rock Creek Cemetery. Mary Tillinghast Hine was also interred here following her death in 1923. On May 11, 2017, I was able to photograph the Hine family plot at Rock Creek, and some photos from that excursion conclude his profile here.

Lemon G. Hine (with  frizzy hair), a portrait that appeared in his 1914 Evening Star obituary

From the Washington Times, January 20, 1914.

Portrait from the Biographical Annals of Ohio, 1906-1907-1908.

  Just a few short weeks following the completion of the above article on Lemon G. Hine another politically active "Lemon" was located...Lemon Grey Neely!  Although a good majority of his early life was spent in Pennsylvania, Neely gained a reputation as a prominent civic and business leader in the city of St. Marys, Ohio where he settled in the mid-1880s. In 1905 Neely was elected to represent Auglaize County in the Ohio State Assembly, where he served for one term.

   The son of Jesse and Mary Sigworth Neely, Lemon Grey Neely was born in St. Petersburg, Clarion County, Pennsylvania on May 31, 1861. He received a "district school education" and at age fifteen followed his father into the oil industry, learning the mechanics of drilling and other oil apparatus. In December 1885 Neely removed to Lima, Ohio and in March of the following year married to Carrie May Jamison (1866-1918), to whom he was wed until her death. The couple's three-decade union saw the births of four children, Jessie (1887-1977), Clarence Lee (died in infancy in 1891), Harold Grey (1895-1981), and an infant daughter who died in 1889.

   After two years of residency in Lima Neely relocated to St. Marys in Auglaize County. Soon after his resettlement, he began drilling operations in the area and by the time of his election to the legislature two decades later had gained the reputation of having helped finance "some of the biggest oil producing centers in Ohio and Indiana." As the president of the Neely-Clover Oil Company (founded in 1899), Neely proved to be a man of many hats business-wise, as he also served as a director of the First National Bank of St. Marys, the St. Marys Trust Co., and the Lima Trust Co. 

   Lemon G. Neely entered the political life of Ohio in 1905 when he was elected as Auglaize County's representative to the Ohio General Assembly. Serving during the 1906-08 session, he sat on the committees on Public Works and Hospitals for the Insane. A year after the conclusion of his term Neely was named to the Board of Managers of the Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus, serving until 1913.

   Several years following his assembly term Neely continued to expand his name through Ohio business circles, being elected as a director of the Columbus Natural Gas Company in 1914 and in the following year was elected to the board of directors of the Avon Coal Co.  In 1917 Neeley established the Lemon G. Neely Co., an oil field leasing business with branches in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Kentucky.

   A Mason of prominent standing, Neely attained the 33rd degree and also held memberships in the Royal Order of Scotland, the Knights of Pythias, and the Shriners. Widowed in 1918, Lemon Neely continued to reside in St. Marys and in early November 1925 was injured in an automobile accident while in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He succumbed to his injuries a few weeks later on November 23, 1925, at his Ohio home. He and his wife were both interred at the Elm Grove Cemetery in St. Marys.

Virtus Johannes Kruse (1905-1978)

Portrait from the Washington Court House Record, January 7, 1958.

   A native of Iowa, Virtus J. Kruse would find success in business and politics in Fayette County, Ohio. A four-term member of the Ohio House of Representatives from that county, Kruse also served as part of the Ohio delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Born in Elk River Township, Iowa on December 8, 1905, Virtus Johannes Kruse was the son of Johann (John) and Christine Kruse. 

   Little is known of Kruse's early life or education, excepting notice of his employment with the Cudahy Packing Company. Kruse's affiliation with that business saw him serve as its assistant manager in Evansville, Wisconsin, and Neosho, Missouri. He later advanced to manager of that company at its facility in Alma, Nebraska, and in the mid-1920s his work brought him to Fayette County, Ohio. He would marry there to Ohio native Margaret Heath (1906-1992), and the couple is believed to have been childless.

   Virtus J. Kruse continued work with the Cudahy Packing Co. plant in Fayette County, eventually leaving their employ to begin a "grocery and restaurant business", which he would follow until he decided to pursue farming in Green Township, Ohio in 1937.

    In 1944 Kruse entered the political life of Fayette County when he was elected to the County Board of Elections. He would serve on that board for fourteen years and in the mid-1950s also held the chairmanship of the Fayette County Democratic Executive Committee. Kruse resigned from the Board of Elections in March 1958 to enter the Democratic primary for state representative for Ohio, and later that year was elected to that office.

   Kruse would serve as Fayette County's representative for four consecutive terms (1959-1967) and during his first term he and two other unusually named representatives (Americus Gabe Lancione and Vernal Gobel Riffe Jr.) introduced legislation that outlined

"the function of the State Health Department in preventing improper radiation, sets up a radiation advisory council, and requires registration of all agencies using, producing, storing or depositing radiation sources."

    In 1964 Kruse was selected as part of the Ohio delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey that nominated Lyndon Johnson for the Presidency. During the latter portion of his time in the legislature, Kruse took an interest in becoming a real estate dealer and was affiliated with the firm of Weade and Wiscup Reality. In 1967 Kruse passed the state examination for real estate brokers and shortly thereafter established the Kruse Reality in the city of Washington Court House. Kruse's office was highlighted in the August 31, 1967 issue of the Washington C.H. Record, which noted that "he would handle farm, city and commercial properties."

From the Washington C.H. Record, August 31, 1967.

   Virtus J. Kruse continued involvement in Fayette County political affairs well into the late 1970s, accepting the position of co-chairman of the campaign for "Ohioans For the Preservation of Honest Elections" in October 1977. Kruse died just a few months after that campaign on February 18, 1978, at age 72. He was later interred at the Washington Cemetery in Washington Court House, Ohio. 

Lamech Rambo (1821-1896)

Portrait from the "Levering Family: History and Genealogy". 1897.

  We continue our stay in Ohio for the following write-up on Lamech Rambo, a Muskingum County native who, with a last name like Rambo, will immediately bring to mind that scruffy, angry Vietnam War veteran portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in the "Rambo" film series. Hailing from a county that has been well represented here on the site (Epaminondas L. Grigsby and Illion E. Moore also being Muskingum County natives), Lamech Rambo represented that county in the Ohio legislature for one term in the late 1870s. Following his time in the legislature, Rambo was elected as the Mayor of his hometown of Dresden, serving in that post until his death.

   Lamech Rambo was born in Levering, Knox County, Ohio on August 6, 1821, being the son of William and Grace Levering Rambo.  His unusual first name is of biblical origin, with Lamech being recorded in the Book of Genesis as the "son of Methuselah and the father of Noah". This Lamech is also mentioned as having lived to "seven hundred seventy and seven years", not quite the length of years reached by Methuselah, but still quite impressive!!

  Afforded limited educational advantages as a youth, Rambo first ventured into the working world at age fourteen, taking employment with a "wool carding and cloth dressing" business located in Fredericktown, Ohio. Rambo remained in that business for five years before striking out on his own, renting first a factory on the outskirts of Fredrickstown. He would marry in 1843 to Sarah Ann Walker (1822-1903), to whom he was wed for over fifty years. Their lengthy union saw the births of six children, who are listed as follows in order of birth: William Adna (died aged three in 1847); Elmira Alice (born 1845); Elmer Judson (born 1847); Miranda Flavilla (died in infancy in 1850); Viola Miranda (died aged one in 1854) and Alvy E. (born 1857).

  Following his marriage Rambo continued his rise in the wool-carding business, renting another factory in neighboring Licking County, which was destroyed by fire in January 1848. As his own insurer, Rambo is remarked to have suffered the full brunt of the fire monetarily, but, being made of the sterner stuff, he persevered. He refocused his efforts on Newark, Ohio, where in June 1848 he is recorded as being the owner of a "one set woolen mill." He removed from there in 1851 to Dresden in Muskingum County, where he would build up the Dresden Woolen Mills, a business which he would be affiliated with for over forty years. 

The Dresden Woolen Mills, circa 1875.

   Rambo's stewardship of the Dresden Mills saw him become "the largest employer in the area", a title that he would hold for over thirty years. A prominent landowner in the Muskingum County area, Rambo is also mentioned as being the owner of  "526 acres of land in the Muskingum Valley, the entire tract being exceedingly fertile and valuable." 

  Before his election to the Ohio State Assembly, Lamech Rambo had been a "Whig in politics" but later switched allegiance to the Republican Party. For six years he served Dresden as a member of the town school board and in 1875 was elected as one of Muskingum County's representatives to the Ohio State Assembly. His one term (1876-78) saw him sit on the committees on Railroads and Telegraphs and Manufactures and Commerce. His brief time in state government was favorably remembered in the Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, which noted that he:

"Served one term with distinguished ability, during which time he was true to his convictions and to the interests of the section which he represented."

  Rambo continued with his business interests in Dresden after his time in the assembly and is also recorded as being the Mayor of that town, his full dates of service being unknown at the time of this writing. He died in office on July 31, 1896, a few days short of his 75th birthday. Rambo was survived by his wife Sarah, who, following her death in 1903, was interred alongside her husband at the Dresden Cemetery.