George H. Friend
George H. Friend, proprietor of the large paper mills of Lockland and Carrollton, Ohio, was born in Miami county, Ohio, September 12, 1816.
His father, Charles Howard Friend, was born in Virginia July 5, 1789. He removed to Cincinnati with his family in the year 1825; was a common day laborer, and, having a large family to support (nine children), it became necessary for his son, the subject of our sketch, to earn his own living, and, accordingly, when ten years of age, became employed in the Graham paper mills, then located at the foot of Water street -- Central avenue. He began work as assistant lay-boy at a salary of seventy-five cents a week, but being apt in his work was advanced in his position, also in his salary, receiving one dollar and twenty-five cents a week. He continued in Mr. Graham's employ until the year 1832, when the mills were moved to the Black bottoms, below Hamilton, where he began work in the same business for Mr. Spears, whose mills were located near the foot of Smith street. He received there two dollars and twenty-five cents per week, but about this time his parents moved from the city, and young George, desirous of trying his adventures on the waters, left for the south on a flat-boat, having for his cargo a load of lard and bacon. He was to receive for the round trip the munificent sum of twenty dollars, which was not a fortune considering the two months' time required to go to New Orleans and back. About this time the cholera broke out and the captain of the boat had much difficulty in retaining the services of his crew, as their either would get sick or leave through fear of the epidemic. At Madison, Indiana, all left the captain but young George, and at Louisville the whole force had again to be reorganized. At this last named place a German was employed, who, in consequence of idleness and refusal to work, the captain, in an enraged fit of passion threshed him off the boat, but evil consequences followed. As. soon as the cargo landed in New Orleans the German was also there with officers and arrested the captain, detained his stock of goods, leaving Mr. Friend in a strange land without money and in critical circumstances. He next goes to Natches and engages work on the levee, but, changing his mind, accepts a position in a brickyard across the river, some miles above, at a salary of one dollar a day, and stayed that winter and part of the summer. He had formerly worked at the same business in the summer season at Cincinnati, and, as he understood it, made a useful hand in making brick and erecting a large court house. This work being done he set out for Natches, but the distance of fifteen miles through thickets and low marshes being impossible to make in any reasonable time, quietly shifted himself into an Indian boat lying at the water's edge, and about dusk of evening set out. As it happened the night was dark, a heavy fog overspread the river, and not the faintest glimmering of any star could be seen. He thrust his little boat into the middle of the river, let it take the current, and in the face of all danger from collision with snags and steamboats, glided down the rapid stream at the rate of about six miles an hour, reaching Natches about eleven o'clock that night.
Mr. Friend had now by hard earnings during the interregnum of 1834 and 1835, while away, collected together about fifty dollars, but he was yet to experience a loss differing from the others yet endured. At Natches a helpless applicant for a passage up the river appealed to him for aid, and after fair promises to repay the favor about twenty dollars was given and he went aboard. Being a fellow companion he laid siege to his trunk, relieved him of the rest of his money and all his valuables, and then deboarded his vessel at the first opportunity.
Such were some of the Friendly experiences of Mr. Friend before reaching Cincinnati on his trip to and from New Orleans, but nothing daunted by misfortune, he set himself to learn the carpenter trade after his return, and for one year drove nails and shoved the plane in Cincinnati; but in 1836 he removed to Lockland and continued his business for eighteen years thereafter. In 1858 he and his brother, in company with a Mr. French, purchased from Messrs. Haldermann and Perker the first paper mill built at Lockland. In 1853 he built the dwelling house in which he now resides, but there immediately came a depression in his business, and owing to the facts of heavy indebtedness. for property bought, and the failure of the business to support two families, Mr. Friend purchased the mill outright from Mr. French in 1862. Immediately after Mr. Friend taking the mill business revived, large demands for paper being made by the Government for war purposes, so that in a few years he found himself out of all indebtedness and making money rapidly.
In 1871 he purchased two other mills at Carrollton, Ohio, but in five years afterwards, to the day, they were burned down, the loss being about forty thousand dollars. Mr. Friend immediately rebuilt, putting in machinery, increasing their capacity, and making them the best of the kind in the west. His son, George Howard Friend, a young man of business tact, learned in the business, is now a partner of his father, and general manager of the Carrollton mills.
In 1840-41, a little church incident occurred which will illustrate Mr. Friend's politics. He was at that time a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in Lockland, and in the course of time, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodists having been invited to preach (it being in the troublous times of the free soil discussions), took for his text: "God made all men of one blood," which was so suggestive -- although no ill word, bestirring plolitical or partisan hatred, had been spoken -- that the pro-slavery faction of the church took umbrage, and before the preacher got under headway with the sermon, pelted him severely with eggs, and upon taking a more violent course, Mr. Friend interceded to prevent further trouble, and for this act was to be suspended from the church and reprimanded. The suspension hurt him not, and the reprimanding was not received, as he was and had been so staunch in his Union sentiments as not to allow those who fostered the free soil principles to engender his religious convictions. The church, however, even before its separation into the two branches, failed to carry out its threat, and he was always considered one of its members.
On June 15, 1843, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Bradford, in Lockland, Ohio, and the fruits of this union were seven children: Mary Agnes Friend, married to Charles Howell; John B. Friend, died July 2, 1861, aged eighteen years; Charles W. Friend, married to Julia Jackson, died January 2, 1879, aged thirty years. They had three children: George, died January 1, 1873, Melvin, and Maynard; James Howard Friend, married to Flora Myers; they had two children: George Frederick, and Edith; E. Annie Friend, married to Samuel Johnson; they had one child: Fannie E; Catharine Friend, and Edward Friend.
Mrs. Elizabeth Friend, nee Bradford, still lives in the enjoyment of health and comfort, after having carefully raised and trained her family. She was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1818.
The antecedents of the Friend family are numerous. They date back to the time when the father of our subject went to Canada on a visit to see his brother George, and while there married a daughter of Leonard Scratch, and sister of his brother’s wife. It should also be stated that three children of the Scratch family married three children of John Wendel and Juliana Wigle. The two brothers came to the States. Charles stopped at Cincinnati, his brother going down the river to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where they settled, and the descendants mostly reside. Charles, however, remained in Cincinnati, and finally died in Lockland on January 23, 1868, aged seventy-nine years.
In the year 1870 some of the Canadian members of this large family, while on a visit to the States, proposed a reunion, to take place in Canada, which finally occurred in Gosfield, Canada, September 24, 1872. The meeting was held in a beautiful grove belonging to Theodore Wigle. Eighteen visitors from the South were present, and about eight hundred of the home relatives, making the affair, with its bounteous repasts of the day, and the cordial greetings of the numerous descendants, an occasion long to be remembered.
From History of Hamilton county, Ohio, Henry & Kate Ford, L. A. Williams & Co., Publishers, 1881