Axlines

attended Fultonham Academy, pursed a course in the OH Wesleyan University at Delaware, graduated there as class of 1872 won high honors in math and other studies, pursuing the full classical course and receiving Bachelor and Master of Arts educator from 1874-1878, then superintendent of Dresden Schools, principal of Zanesville High School for 2 years, then County School Examiner from 1873-1879. retired from teaching with a life certificate took up study of law afterwards under John W. King (Zanesville) licensed in 1880 for district courts, 1896 for supreme president of Columbus Buggy & Manufacturing Company Columbus Urbana & Western Railway, 3 yrs as president and gen. manager

private of Company G, 159th OH Volunteer Infantry, later Leib's Mounted Squadron and 169th Infantry served as orderly and courier with Generals Hancock, Brooks, Wallace, and others 1877 became a captain in the National Guard major from 1877 to 1880 lieutenant colonel in 1800-1801 colonel and assistant adjutant general from 1881-1884 major general and adjutant general from 1886-1890 retired as major general in Jan 1990

deputy collector for IRS since 1905 Republican Spanish War Veteran Military Order of Foreign Wars since 1898

General Henry Augustus Axline

1848--1914

Few men of Columbus have been more prominent or more widely known than General Henry Augustus Axline, who for almost three decades has been closely associated with the interests of the city, while his entire life has been passed in the state. He is a man of keen discernment and sound judgment and has displayed in his entire career such fertility of resource, marked enterprise and well defined plans as to deserve classification with those who are controlling the varied important interests of the state.

Born in Muskingum County, Ohio, near the village of Fultonham, September 16, 1848, he was a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Crooks) Axline. On the paternal side he comes of Prussian ancestry.

His great-grandfather, Christopher Axline, was a native of Prussia and served with distinction in the Prussian cavalry under Frederick the Great. While the United States was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain be came to America and during the period of the Revolutionary War engaged in the production of nitre for the manufacture of gunpowder for the American troops. In consequence of this his property was confiscated by the British.

His son, John Axline, removed to Loudoun County, Virginia, where he died in 1832 at the age of ninety-three years. He was the first settler of this family in that county. He was born in 1739 and was a farmer by occupation. He served as a captain in the Virginia line in the Revolutionary War. His family included Henry Axline, who was born in Virginia, March 30, 1788. He, too, made farming his life work and in 1823 removed from the Old Dominion to Ohio, establishing his home in the beautiful lower Buckeye Valley, surrounded by wooded highlands. He married Elizabeth (Springer) Crooks, who was born August 23, 1808, in Muskingum County, Ohio. Two half brothers of General Axline. Andrew I. and John C. Springer, served with the American Army under General Winfield Scott in the Mexican War.

After mastering the elementary branches of learning in the public schools General Axline attended the Fultonham Academy and also pursued a course in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, where he was graduated with the class of 1872. He won high honors in mathematics and other studies, pursued the full classical course and received from the university the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. As a youth he was fond of outdoor sports and especially enjoyed the old-time fox chase among the hills of Muskingum and Perry Counties. He was moreover a student and read with avidity and profit every book which he could secure in the days of his youth and early manhood. All subjects and lines of reading and study appealed to him but he was especially interested in scientific works. Throughout his life he has remained a student, carrying his investigations far and wide into the realms of thought and knowledge, and self-culture has made him noted for his strong mentality and broad and comprehensive views of many subjects.

When but seventeen years of age he engaged in teaching and followed the profession for several years before entering college, his labors in this direction supplying him with the funds necessary for his collegiate course. His work as an educator was extremely successful and for four years, from 1874 to 1878, he acted as superintendent of the Dresden public schools, was then principal of the Zanesville high school for two years and from 1873 until 1879 was county school examiner. He retired from teaching with a life certificate of the state board of examiners authorizing him to teach in the highest schools of the state. He has remained throughout his life a champion of the cause of public and higher education and his influence and labors have been effective forces in the promotion of intellectual progress.

After completing his collegiate course General Axline took up the study of law in the office and under the direction of John W. King, a well known attorney of Zanesville, and the following year was admitted to the bar on successfully passing the examination before the Ohio supreme court. In 1880 he was licensed to practice in the United States district courts and in 1896 before the United States supreme court. He has since remained a representative of the profession and has successfully conducted some important contentions in the courts. At times other business interests have largely claimed his attention but he still continues a member of the bar, with offices in the Board of Trade building. He has always been an interested student of the science of law and his careful analysis has enabled him to readily recognize the points in jurisprudence which bear upon the case in his charge. Extending his interests into other lines of activity, however, he was for a number of years president of the Columbus Buggy & Manufacturing Company, which lost its plant through a disastrous fire in 1892. He projected, organized and constructed the Columbus, Urbana & Western Railway and for three years was its president and general manager.

General Axline has enjoyed equal distinction in military circles. Although but a boy at the time of the Civil war, he was constrained by a spirit of patriotism to espouse the Union cause and became a private of Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; later was connected with Leib's Mounted Squadron and with Company G, One Hundred and Ninety-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was the youngest soldier from Muskingum County but his service was brilliant and gallant and won him the favorable attention and commendation of his superiors. He served as orderly and courier with Generals Hancock, Brooks, Wallace and other commanders and, though but a boy in years, made a splendid military record. His interest in the military organization of the state has never abated and in 1877 he served as captain in the National Guard. He was then major from 1877 until 1880, was lieutenant colonel in 1880-1, colonel and assistant adjutant general from 1881 until 1884, major general and adjutant general from 1886 until 1890 and again from 1896 until 1900 and retired with the rank of major general in January, 1900.

In January, 1880, he was appointed chief clerk in the office of the adjutant general of Ohio, while in March, 1881, he became assistant adjutant general, to which position he was re-appointed in January, 1882. He served from January, 1886, until January, 1890, as adjutant general and from January, 1896, until 1900 again filled the same position. His labors have been so effective and beneficial in organizing and promoting the military interests of the state that he is called the father of the National Guard of Ohio.

In the meantime he again responded to the country's call, enlisting for service in the Spanish-American war as colonel of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was in command at Camp Bushnell and organized the Ohio troops. He took the Tenth Regiment into the field and commanded the First Brigade, First Division of the Second Army Corps. He received especially complimentary mention in orders of his superior officers for his splendid work in the service. His brigade was recognized by all as the best drilled and most efficient in the corps by reason of its discipline and soldierly appearance. At the time of the great Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania in 1889 he had the honor of taking the first relief train to that city.

In politics always a republican, General Axline has long been recognized as one of the prominent party workers, serving on county, district and state committees. His brilliant oratory makes him one of the leading campaign speakers and while he has never sought many offices of a purely political nature, he has served as deputy collector of internal revenue since 1905 and has proved a most capable and efficient incumbent in the office. His gifts of oratory are frequently employed outside of the political field and he is said to have no superior as an impromptu speaker at camp fires.

Prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, he has held various offices in the local organization and was assistant adjutant general of the Grand Army of Ohio in 1885-86. He also belongs to the Spanish War Veterans and was first adjutant general in 1899 and 1900. He is likewise a member of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, which he joined in 1898, is past commander of the Ohio Commandery and the present judge advocate general of the National Commandery. Since 1869 he has been an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity and he also belongs to the Delta Tau Delta, a college fraternity.

Pleasantly situated in his home life, General Axline was married at Delaware, Ohio, July 16, 1874, to Miss Helen Maude Westlake, also a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University. She is deeply interested in charitable work, being especially active in the Woman's Educational & Industrial Union of Columbus. General and Mrs. Axline have one child, Tella Maude, the wife of Claude B. DeWitt, a prominent attorney of Sandusky, Ohio, by whom she has one son, Axline Claude DeWitt. Such in brief is the history of General Henry A. Axline, whose great energy and enterprise have made him a dynamic force in every work that he has undertaken. The centrality of his service is found in his devotion to every cause which he espouses.

Capable of taking a comprehensive view of life and its purposes, he has become an active factor in movements not only of local value but also those which indicate the trend of the world's progress and his labors as an educator in early manhood, as a lawyer in later life, as a manufacturer and railroad promoter and as one of the most prominent representatives of the military interests of the state have all constituted him preeminently a man of action and one who has wielded a wide influence.

Source: Heritage Pursuit Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio By William Alexander Taylor Illustrated Volumes I & II Chicago-Columbus: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 1909 392-395

Family:

Henry Augustus Axline

Son of Philip Henry and Elizabeth Crooks Axline

Philip Henry Axline son of John and Christena Mertz Axline

John Axline son of Georg Christoff and Catherine Oechslen

Married Helen Maude Westlake

Born: 16 September 1848

Newton Township, Muskingum County, Ohio

Died: 17 May 1914

Good Samaritan Hospital, Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio

Buried: 19 May 1914

Oakland Cemetery, Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio

Tella Maude Axline

Daughter of Henry Augustus and Helen Maude Westlake Axline

Born: 12 April 1876

Dresden, Muskingum County, Ohio

Married, and later divorced, Claude B. DeWitt

One son, Axline Claude DeWitt

"Father of the National Guard of Ohio,"