William M. Tugman
There are many sketched in this work, the incidents of whose careers in the strictest truth are more remakable than romance, but the story of our present subject is the most remarkable of all. How many boys born in the North Carolina Mountains, without any advantages whatever, would come North amongst strangers and without the slighest aid, except with the encouragement of newly made friends, educate themselves and gain a high position at the Cincinnati bar, yet this was accomplished by William M. Tugman. He was born in Wilks County, North Carolina, October 21, 1850. His parents were James L. Tugman and Susana (McGrady) Tugman. He was born with a thirst for knowledge which has never been quenched. There were no common schools worthy of the name in his native county. For a short time he had a private instructor in a Baptist minister. He was brought up on Weem's "Life of Washington," Benjamin Franklin's Autobigraphy, Baxter's "Saint's Rest," "Pilgrim's Progress," and the Bible. His father was a Confederate soldier, and his mother died about the close of the war. His father was financially ruined and there seemed no ray of hope for the youth, the eldest of five children. He and his brothers and two sisters were distributed among relatives and his father went sixty miles away to work. William did not like the uncle to whom he had been assigned, and, after three months, ran away and joined his father, who was engaged in lumbering to rebuild a cotton factory, destroyed by the invading army in the collapse of the Confederacy. He worked with his father in the lumber camps in 1865 and up to the Fall of 1866. In the Winter of 1866, and 1867, he went to school. In the Spring of 1867, he began to work for a farmer who had announced his intention of removing to Missouri and had promised to take our subject with him. Young Tugman had fully resolved to leave his native State and seek his fortune in a better country. He saved up twenty-five dollars, and the self-sacrifice involved in that can better be imagined than expressed. His farmer friend having determined to remain in North Carolina, young Tugman concluded to go on his own account. He went as far as Marion, Virginia, with a young friend. There the latter was offered employment as a blacksmith and accepted it. The same work was offered Tugman, but he concluded to go farther on. At Marion, Virginia, he saw the first railroad train. Leaving Marion, he undertook to cross the Clinch Mountains and succeeded in losing himself. When he found a habitation, it was occupied by an old man, the first Republican he ever saw and who possessed a remarkable vocabulary of expletives and oaths. This acquaintance assumed the lad was a rebel in sentiment and informed him if he disclosed his sentiments, when he got further North, the Republicans would surely kill him. His Republican friend lived on the headwaters of the Big Sandy. At Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, he stopped three weeks and carried a hod, working on a new courthouse there in process of erection. From there he walked to Maysville, Kentucky, which he reached September 1, 1867. There he saw, for the first time, street lamps and paved streets, and here he received his first introduction to American civilization. He crossed the ferry to Aberdeen and learned of a pike being built from Bentonville to North Liberty, and he went there to get work. This was his first introduction to Adams County. When he reached O'Neill's cabin, near the Kirker place, he had exhausted all his capital but twenty-five cents. He met John Huff, who, looking for angels unawares, took him to his home. Huff recommended him to Thomas McGovney, to whom he went and who agreed to board him for his work outside of school hours. He went to school that Fall and Winter at "Jericho School" taught by T. P. Kirkpatrick. At the close of school, he worked six months for McGovney and then went to live with James Alexander, rear Cherry Fork, and attended school while residing with him. In the Spring of 1869, he applied for and obtained a teacher's certificate in Adams County. The same Spring he taught in the Buckeye schoolhouse east of North Liberty. That Fall he taught again near Jacksonville. In the Spring of 1870, he attended the North Liberty Academy, and in the Summer, a Normal school at West Union, and that Fall, taught near Manchester, in the Clinger district.
In the Summer of 1871, he studied Latin and geometry in a school taught by Rev. James McColm. In the Fall of that year, he took charge of the schools at Germantown, Kentucky, and taught there until February, 1872, going from that place direct to Athens, entering the Senior Class of the Preparatory Department of the University. In the Fall of 1872. he entered the Freshman Class of the Ohio University, and continued there until June, 1873. From the Fall of 1873 until June, 1874, he taught at Murphysville, Kentucky. In the Fall of 1874, he was elected Superintendent of the Schools at Aberdeen, Ohio. In the Fall of 1875, he returned to the Ohio University and remained there until he graduated in June, 1877. He was re-employed at Aberdeen, as Superintendent, in the Fall of 1877, and taught there until June, 1879. In the meantime, he was reading law with Messrs Barbour & Cochran, of Maysville, Kentucky. In September, 1879, he went to Georgetown, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar. He located in Cincinnati and taught night schools for two years. He attended law school at the same time, and was in the office of the Hon. John W. Herron. In the Spring of 1881, he opened an office for himself, with Charles Bird, corner of Third and Walnut. He has been engaged in the practice of the law ever since, but for a long time has been located at No. 309 Johnson Building, associated with Edward H. Baker, a college classmate.
He was married November 27, 1888, to Miss Alice Cameron, of Boston. They have two children, a boy and a girl, aged respectively nine and six years, and reside at Mt. Washington.
The particluars of Mr. Tugman's career as a boy and a young man have been gone into detail in the hope of encouragement to some other young American, who may conclude to become the architect of his own fortune. How many boys in the country have the ambition, the energy, and perseverance to educate themselves and to step into a profession which more and more is becoming the field for the sons of rich and powerful men? It is safe to say not many would have undertaken what Mr. Tugman did and succeeed in. As may be surmised, he is a man possessed of a fine physique and by his great industry, is capable of a wonderful amount of work. He is temperate in his habits, prompt in all business matters, and possessed of the highest integrity. He is regarded by the bench and bar of Cincinnati as a man of ability in his profession, and has frequently been mentioned for a seat on the bench, but being affiliated with the minority party in Hamilton County, his opportunities for political preferment have been meagre. The writer, who is a personal friend, once in a bantering way suggested that the great mistake of his life had been his politics. He replied seriously that if a young man longed for political distinction, he ought either choose a community suited to his politics, or politics suited to his community. But after all, he reflected that even under such circumstances, there were perhaps more strangled hopes and shipwrecks of fortune in the flotsam and jetsam of the political sea, than in all the great ocean of other objects in human endeavor. The observation seems just; and while the above narrative is a stimulus to ambition and perserverance, it is also a reminder that it is the man that dignifies the calling, and not the calling the man. Such is the philosophy of the character herein sketched, one that believes that in dustry like virtue brings its own reward and that we should find—
"Books in the running brooks
Sermons in stones and good in everything."
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900