Son of Toledo's first mayor and brother-in-law of Valentine Ketcham.  He was a civil engineer and built a section of the Wabash & Erie Canal, south of Terre Haute, IN.  Went to California as a "Forty-Niner", seeking gold.

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He failed to find riches in the West and returned to Toledo and joined his brother-in-law in a successful banking partnership, Ketcham, Berdan, & Co.