Peirce J. Cadwallader ~ Quaker Lawyer

Peirce J. Cadwallader

According to Clarkson Butterworth in his Catalogue of the Members of Miami Monthly Meeting, 7th Month 1897:

Cadwallader, Peirce J., b. 1853.12.27. Address, business office, Johnston Building, Cincinnati, Ohio. Is a practicing lawyer. His wife was Ella Bacon. She and her children are not members. His parents were Andrew W. and Esther Peirce Cadwallader, herein Catalogued.

Andrew W. "is the oldest living son of Jonah and Pricsilla (Whitacre) Cadwallader whose home was on Todds Fork two miles above Morrow. Esther was the daughter of Richard and Mary (Fallis) Peirce last of Wilmington, Ohio". Clarkson also notes that Andrew and Esther had moved to Chicago.

A more detailed account of the family is given in the History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, Their Past and Present (Cincinnati, Ohio: S. B. Nelson & Co., J. M Runk, 1894), p. 600-601:

PEIRCE J. CADWALLADER, attorney at law, was born December 27, 1853, in Warren County, Ohio, of Quaker lineage, his ancestors having been members of the Society of Friends for six generations. He is a son of Andrew Whitacre and Esther Peirce Cadwallader, now residents of Chicago, Ill., the former of whom was a successful wool merchant in Warren County prior to his removal to Chicago. Jonah Cadwallader, grandfather of subject, came to Cincinnati from Virginia, in 1812, on horseback, and was one of the original subscribers to the fund for the purchase of the lot and the erecting of a Friends Meeting house, which is still owned an occupied by the Society of Friends on Fifth Street, west of Central Avenue. The great grandfather, Robert Whitacre, was one of the original committee selected by Miami Quarterly Meeting in 1813 to establish a Friends Meeting in Cincinati. The grandfather, after engaging in business in Cincinnati for a time, moved to Warren County, Ohio, where he purchased eight sections of land and engaged in farming, his residence being the first brick house erected in that part of the country, and which is now occupied by one of his sons.

The mother of subject is a duaghter of Richard Peirce, who came to Cincinnati from Delaware in 1812, journeying down the river on a flatboat from Pittsburgh. He remained in Cincinnati only for a short time, and then moved to Clinton County, Ohio, whre he engaged successfully in the fur hat manufacturing business.

The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood days on a farm in Warren County, and attended the district school. In 1870 he came to Cincinnati, and in 1874 was graduated from Chickering Institute with the honors of his class. He pursued the study of law in the office of Lincoln, Smith and Stevens, was graduated from Cincinnti Law School in 1878, and has since been engaged in the practice of law in Cincinnati.

On January 26, 1882, he was married to Ella L. Bacon, daughter of Richard Seely Bacon, the founder of Bacon's Business College in Cincinnati, and also of Bacon's Business College in Madison , Wis. His wife is the granddaugher of Thomas Harley Johnson, who came to Cincinnati in 1829, and for a long time was one of its prominent and successful merchants. Her great-grandfather was Robert Reiley, who came to Hamilton County when the village was known as Losantiville. He was a contracting builder, and erected many of the buildings in the village of Losantiville, and afterward in the town of Cincinnati, several of which are still standing in a good state of preservation, and among them may be mentioned the lower markethouse and the Kilgour residence, now the United States Marine Hospital. He had the contract for laying the first water mains in Cincinnati, which were construced of logs having a three-inch hole bored through the center. Here great-great-grandfather, John Reiley, when only eighteen years of age, enlisted in the Continental army, and served for three years, until he was physically disabled by a rifle ball. He was at Valley Forge and fought at Trenton, Saratoga, besides in several minor battles. Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallder and their children, Richard Bacon, and Louise, reside on McMillan Street, Mount Auburn. The family attend the Presbyterian Chruch.

It is not surprising that Clarkson Butterworth, in his efforts to raise funds for the Friends Boarding Home in Waynesville, would contact Peirce J. Cadwallader for a donation. He maintained his membership in Miami Monthly Meeting and had many family connections in Warren and Clinton Counties.

Also see,
THE 1905 FRIENDS BOARDING HOME TIMELINE &
FURTHER INFORMATION