Mr. Cuneo was appointed an alternate to the convention held in St. Louis in 1896, and during his absence his son Sherman filled his place.

The life of such a man teaches its own lesson. The obstacles in his career were more than ordinarily difficult to overcome, but in spite of that fact his efforts have never relaxed, and to-day he has the proud satisfaction of having at last reached the goal for which he had struggled for so many years.

D

DEMOTT WOODMANSEE.-- Among those who have in later years aided materially in bearing aloft the noble escutcheon of the Republican party in that cradle of statesmanship, the Buckeye commonwealth, there have been few more distinctively worthy of representation in this specific compilation than is he whose name initiates this paragraph. Mr. Woodmansee is in a way a peculiar figure in connection with Ohio politics within the last few years, for while he has come to be recognized as a genuine power in party councils and maneuvers, while his labors have been ever timely and singularly effective in behalf of the party cause, and while marked honor has been paid him as a worker, yet, strangely enough, he has not been a candidate for public preferment in the gift of his party and has held himself aloof from all that smacks of 'office-seeking or supine sycophancy. A man of scholarly attainments, a lawyer of conceded power and ability, a public speaker of rare tact, discrimination and force-he has been a prominent figure in the political field and to-day holds the distinguished preferment as president of the National Republican League a fact significant in many ways and indicative of a genuine appreciation of honest political methods and sterling manhood on the part of the grand old party which has thus given evidence of such appreciation by honoring one of its younger exponents who has been content to work indefatigably for the principles involved and not for the even ulterior purpose of self-aggrandizement.

D. DeMott Woodmansee is a native son of Ohio, having been born on a farm near New Lexington, a peaceful little hamlet in Highland county, on the 17th of March, 1859, the son of David and Nancy Woodmansee. He pursued his rudimentary studies in the common schools in his native place until he had attained the age of fourteen years, when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Carthage, Missouri, where he continued his studies in the public schools. In 1878 he matriculated in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he graduated as a member of the class of 1881, being honored with the preferment as valedictorian of the same. Within the

time of prosecuting his collegiate course he had not only given evidence of his peculiarly receptive mentality and his determined ambition, but had gained through his own exertions the requisite funds to enable him to complete the course, covering the four years' curriculum in three years' time and also utilizing his vacations in technical reading for that profession which he had decided to adopt as his vocation in life,—the law. After his graduation Mr. Woodmansee devoted his attention for three years to teaching school, realiz ing a sufficient reinforcement from his pedagogic labors to enable him to enter the Cincinnati Law School in 1884. He graduated at this institution in the succeeding year, and an earnest of the power which was to be his in a practical way later on was then given, since to him was awarded the prize for oratory.

Mr. Woodmansee was admitted to the bar of the state of Ohio in the spring of 1885, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession in the Queen City. His abilities, perseverance, unfailing courtesy and notable business sagacity soon attracted to him a desirable clientage and his practice is now one of distinctly representative order, his strength as a trial lawyer being paralleled by that as a safe counselor.

From the time of attaining his majority Mr. Woodmansee has been an earnest advocate of the principles and policies advanced by the Republican party, and he early gained recognition as a stalwart supporter of its cause. His initial use of the right of franchise was exercised in the support of the martyred president, James A. Garfield, and from that time his activity in political affairs has been steadily cumulative. He has served as delegate to many state and other conventions of his party, and has long been conspicuous in the state and national bodies of the Republican League, which has proved a potent agency in furthering the party interests. At the convention of the Ohio Republican League held at Columbus in 1894 he was elected its president by acclamation, and so effective was his executive administration and so admirable his manipulation of available forces, that in the following year he was unanimously elected as his own successor at the Cincinnati convention. In this line still higher honors were in store for him, for at the convention of the National Republican League, held at Milwaukee on the 26th of August, 1896, he was chosen its president, an incumbency which he still retains. During the recent presidential campaign he did effective work on the stump, speaking in ten different states and doing much to inspire zeal in the cause and to bring about a unanimity of spirit and a concentration of means to desired ends, his addresses being alike notable for their eloquence, cogency and broad grasp of the questions involved.

In the business and social life of Cincinnati Mr. Woodmansee is genuinely popular, and fraternally he is prominently identified with the Masonic order, in which he has received the grades and orders of the Scottish Rite, being also a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine.

On the 5th of October, 1887, was consummated the marriage of Mr. Woodmansee to Miss Lizzie B. Thorne, daughter of the late William F. Thorne, for many years a prominent merchant of Cincinnati Mr. and Mrs. Woodmansee are the parents of one child, a winsome little daughter, Florence, who was born in 1888.

H

ON. ELIAS D. HARLAN.-In a work devoted entirely to the more prominent representatives of the Republican party, mention should be made of this gentleman, whose record in politics and statecraft is most commendable. He is known as one of the leading members of the party in Clinton county, and his labors in its behalf have been effective and earnest. Thirty-seven years have passed since he identified himself therewith by casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. His zeal and interest in the party have never wavered, but have grown with the passing years as he has studied more closely into the political situation of the country and viewed its needs from a broader standpoint. His influence and labors in political circles have extended beyond the confines of his own county, and he is prominently known as a Republican leader throughout the state. For many years he has served as a member of the county central committee and is known as an effective organizer in both county and district. He is often chairman of the county delegations to congressional, district and state conventions, and voicing the sentiments of his constituents he labors earnestly for their interests. He has served as justice of the peace of his township and for many years has been a zealous member of the board of education. Clinton county, recognizing his worth and ability, elected him as her representative to the seventieth general assembly of Ohio, and so well did he represent her interests that he was re-elected for a second term, serving in 1893-4. At the first election he defeated Orville Peterson, who was the candidate of both the Demo cratic and Prohibition parties, receiving a majority of eleven hundred votes. At the second election he had no opposition in the Republican primary and defeated the Democratic candidate, Gilbert Thorp, of Wilmington, by a large majority. During the first term he served as a member of the committees on agriculture, temperance and asylums, and in the second term was

made chairman of the committee on asylums. He was one of the most active workers on the floor of the house and thus became well known to the leading members of the party throughout the state and was accorded a place in their midst. He labored earnestly for the passage of many bills which have promoted local interests, and was just as firm in his opposition of others which he believed to be detrimental to the public welfare. He believes firmly in a strong foreign policy, in reciprocity and the other leading measures of the platform, and is most active in the work in Clinton county. He was appointed a delegate to the National Farmers' Congress, which was held in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition, on the recommendation of Hon. John Sherman.

Mr. Harlan resides in Oakland, and was born in the neighborhood of his present home, April 1, 1837. His father, Nat. M. Harlan, was a Whig and Republican, and one of the leading anti-slavery men in Clinton county, his home being a station on the famous underground railroad. He was one of the leading farmers of the county and continued to make his home here until his death, which occurred in 1880, when he had attained the age of sixty-seven years. His wife bore the maiden name of Lydia H. Dakin, and was a daughter of Elias Dakin, a pioneer Quaker Whig. The Harlans also descended from an old Quaker family, which was founded in this section of Ohio about 1804. To Mr. and Mrs. Harlan were born three sons and three daughters, namely: William, who was a member of Company I, Seventy-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is now a prominent citizen of Clinton county, and has served as trustee of Chester township for many years; Edwin, who died in childhood; Mrs. Milo Hale, of Clinton county; Mary A., who died in childhood, and Mrs. Harrison Mullen, of Clinton county.

At the parental home Elias D. Harlan spent the period of his youth, assisting in the development and cultivation of the home farm and attending the public schools of the neighborhood, wherein he acquired a good, practical education. When the Civil war came on, he put aside the pursuits of peace to enter the military service of his country, enlisting on the 16th of September, 1861, as a member of Company B, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served for three years, being honorably discharged on the 20th of September, 1864, with the rank of corporal. He served in the Army of the Cumberland under General Rosecrans, and took part in many of the leading battles of the war, including those from Chattanooga to Atlanta. He was also through the West Virginia campaign in the early part of the war, and with five others at the battle of Franklin barely escaped capture.

They were about to surrrender and give up their arms when the rebels shot and killed two of his companions. Thinking that he would just as soon be shot while running as standing still, Mr. Harlan started and with the three remaining companions succeeded in making his escape. He was ever a brave and loyal soldier, faithful to his duty and to the old flag.

He is now prominent in Grand Army circles and is well known among his old comrades of the war. He has taken an active part in the work of the organization and was one of the organizers of McMillan Post, No. 58, in which he still holds membership. He was elected its first commander and filled that position for two terms; he was also three times elected on the staff department of the state commander. He is also a prominent Mason and has the high regard of his brethren of these fraternities.

Mr. Harlan was joined in wedlock to Miss Sarah A. Morris, a daughter of John Morris, of Clinton county. They have no children of their own, but out of the kindness of their hearts have reared three orphan children to maturity. Mr. Harlan has a pleasant residence and owns a fine farm, which he has placed under a high state of cultivation and improved with all the accessories and conveniences of a country residence in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The neat and thrifty appearance of the place well indicates his careful supervision, and from the well tilled fields he derives a good income.

E

MMETT TOMPKINS.-If any scion of a house still honored rises to prominence, he will have achieved it. He will not be born to it or find it thrust upon him, but he must be strong indeed to overcome the disadvantage of standing in the shadow of the colossal dead. And yet an honored ancestry is a precious heritage, a supreme help to the aspiring young man. The subject of this review is known as one of the representative legal practitioners of the bar of Ohio's capital city, and that his prestige is due to his worth and pronounced ability can be doubted by none familiar with his professional and public career. His ancestral history is one which has been indissolubly linked to that of the Buckeye state since the early days which recorded the admission of the commonwealth to the sisterhood of states, while his distinguished father honored his state and nation in positions of high public trust and responsibility,—a man of goodly parts, of high intellectuality, of sternest integrity, and animated by those exalted principles which made him a power in the counsels of the nation. That the son has lent augmented honor to an honored name must ever be held to his credit.

Cydnor B. Tompkins, father of our subject, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in the year 1810, his lineage tracing back to a prominent old family of Virginia, one of stanch Scotch-Irish extraction. The original American representatives of the family, as shown in consecutive records still extant, were two brothers who came to this country in the latter part of the seventeenth century. One located in the state of New York, while the other, from whom our subject descends in direct line, became the founder of the Old Dominion branch of the Tompkins family. During the successive generations male representatives of the family have been prominent in professional life, there seeming to have been an inherent predilection for these higher fields of endeavor, the legal profession, in particular, having gained many distinguished devotees from this source. The parents of Cydnor B. Tompkins might well be considered pioneers of Ohio, which had become a state only seven years prior to their settlement therein.

Cydnor B. Tompkins turned to the law in selecting his vocation in life, and his preparation for the same was most careful and exact, supplementing a thorough training in general lines of study. He was a lawyer of the highest rank, learned in his profession, and a most persuasive and powerful advocate. In his public life he was honored with high positions, which he filled with distinguished ability, and always to the credit of his state. Admitted to the bar, he entered upon the practice of his profession in the early '30s, and from the beginning was unusually prosperous in every respect. The success which he attained was due to his own efforts and merits. The possession of advantages is no guaranty whatever of professional success. This comes not of itself, nor can it be secured without ability, integrity and industry. These qualities he possessed in an eminent degree, and he was faithful to every interest committed to his charge. Throughout his entire life, whatsoever his hand found to do, whether in his profession, his official duties, or in any other sphere, he did with all the strength of his resourceful nature and with a deep sense of conscientious obligation. While undoubtedly he was not without that honorable ambition which is so powerful and useful an incentive to activity in public affairs, he regarded the pursuits of private life as being in themselves abundantly worthy of his best efforts. His was a noble character,-one that subordinated personal ambition to public good, and sought rather the benefit of others than aggrandizement of self. Endowed by nature with high intellectual qualities, to which were added the discipline and embellishments of culture, his was a most attractive personality. Well versed in the learning of his profession, and with a deep knowl