David Sinton
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = David Sinton
| image = David Sinton.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1808|06|26}}
| birth_place = County Armagh, Ireland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1900|08|31|1808|06|26}}
| death_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
| death_cause =
| education =
| alma_mater =
| employer =
| occupation = Industrialist
| title =
| boards =
| spouse = {{marriage|Jane Ellison
||1853|reason=her death}}
| children = Anna Sinton Taft
| parents = John Sinton
Mary McDonnell
| relatives = Charles Phelps Taft (son-in-law)
}}
David Sinton (26 June 1808 – 31 August 1900) was an Irish-born American pig-iron industrialist, born in County Armagh, Ireland, who became one of the wealthiest people in America.
Early life
Sinton was the son of linen manufacturer John Sinton, of Unshinagh, a Quaker (he was a cousin of Irish Quaker industrialist brothers Thomas Sinton and John Sinton), and Mary McDonnell.{{cite book|last1=Evans|first1=Nelson Wiley|last2=Stivers|first2=Emmons B.|title=A History of Adams County, Ohio: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the Country's Growth ...|date=1900|publisher=E B. Stivers|page=621|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HwUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA621|access-date=15 December 2017|language=en}}
In 1811, the family came to America from Ireland and settled in Pittsburgh when he was three years of age. Sinton had one brother (Dr. William Sinton, a physician) and two sisters (Isabella Eliza, who never left Ireland and Sarah, who married John Sparks, a banker).{{cite book|title=History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio|date=1894|publisher=S. B. Nelson & Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofcincinn00nels/page/n692 469]–470|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcincinn00nels|access-date=15 December 2017|language=en}}
Career
In the 1830s, Sinton was a manager of the ironworks at Hanging Rock, Ohio. In 1846, he managed to become the owner and made his headquarters in Cincinnati.{{cite book|last1=Association|first1=American Iron and Steel|title=The Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association|date=1908|publisher=James M. Swank|page=69|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jXI9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA69|access-date=15 December 2017|language=en}}
A man of "irregular education",Hess, Stephen, America's Political Dynasties, P. 306 his business interests centered on the manufacture of iron; his furnaces were in Lawrence County, Ohio.[http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohhamilt/howe/843.html Historical Collections of Ohio: Pages 843-847] Much of his fortune was made by stockpiling pig iron, waiting for the American Civil War, and the selling that iron on at inflated prices. He eventually acquired the majority of stock in the Eureka Company, and at the time that Oxmoor merged with the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company, he owned most of Oxmoor.{{cite book|last1=Armes|first1=Ethel|title=The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama|date=1910|publisher=Pub. under auspices of the Chamber of Commerce|page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofcoalironi00arme/page/261 261]|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofcoalironi00arme|access-date=15 December 2017|language=en}}
He was described as "a large, strong person with strong common sense, and therefore moves solely on the solid foundation of facts." His residence, at Cincinnati, was the old Longworth mansion on Pike Street, built by Martin Baum early in the 19th century. Mr. Sinton's only surviving child, Annie, was the wife of Charles Phelps Taft, editor of the Times-Star and brother of William Howard Taft; Sinton money was said to have financed the presidential bid.
Personal life
Sinton married Jane Ellison (1826–1853), a daughter of John Ellison (1779–1829), at Union Landing, Ohio. They had two children:
File:Marguerite_Martyn_drawing_of_Mrs._Charles_Phelps_Taft_and_daughter_Louise_in_1908.jpg of Louise Taft, left, and Anna Sinton Taft, right]]
- Anna Sinton (1850-1931), who married U.S. Representative Charles Phelps Taft (1843–1929), the older brother of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States and 10th Chief Justice of the United States.
Sinton died on August 31, 1900, in Cincinnati, Ohio.{{cite news|title=OHIO'S RICHEST MAN DEAD.; David Sinton Leaves $20,000,000 to His Daughter.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/09/01/101065354.pdf|access-date=15 December 2017|work=The New York Times|date=September 1, 1900|language=en}} Upon his death, he left $20,000,000 (the 2011 equivalent of this is about $500,000,000) to his daughter; he was Ohio's richest man at the time. His home is now the Taft Museum of Art.{{Cite web |url=http://www.taftmuseum.org/museum_history.htm |title=Taft Museum of Art |access-date=2008-02-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208040609/http://www.taftmuseum.org/museum_history.htm |archive-date=2008-02-08 |url-status=dead }}{{cite book|last1=Rogers|first1=Gregory Parker|title=Fountain Square and the Genius of Water: The Heart of Cincinnati|date=2013|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781614239598|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6l2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT17|access-date=15 December 2017|language=en}}
=Descendants=
Through his daughter Anna, he was the grandfather of Jane Taft Ingalls (1874–1962), David Sinton Taft (1876–1891), Anna Louise Taft Semple (1879–1961), and Charles Howard Taft (1885–1931). He was the great-grandfather of First World War flying ace David Sinton Ingalls.{{cite news|title=Milestones, Feb. 9, 1931|url=https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741041-2,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022205917/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741041-2,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 22, 2012|access-date=15 December 2017|work=Time|date=9 February 1931}}
=Legacy=
During his lifetime, Sinton was philanthropic in his donations to the arts and the Presbyterian church, yet his own father's grave was not marked with a headstone; "but David Sinton is wiser in his generation than they who seek to stab his character in such a paragraph [as erecting an ornate sepulcher]. He is one of God's noblemen."{{Cite web |url=http://lawrencecountyohio.com/furnaces/index/indexotherfurnaces.htm |title=The Lawrence County Register |access-date=2008-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128104924/http://lawrencecountyohio.com/furnaces/index/indexotherfurnaces.htm |archive-date=2007-11-28 |url-status=dead }}
The town of Sinton, Texas, is named in his honor (given that he was the majority stock holder in Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company{{Cite web |url=http://www.relocateamerica.com/texas/cities/sinton |title=Relocate America; Sinton, Texas |access-date=2008-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715172314/http://www.relocateamerica.com/texas/cities/sinton |archive-date=2011-07-15 |url-status=dead }}).
References
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Category:Businesspeople from County Armagh
Category:American Civil War industrialists
Category:Businesspeople from Cincinnati
Category:Irish emigrants to the United States