David Sinton

{{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<br/>||1853|reason=her death}} | children = Annie Sinton-Taft | parents = John Sinton<br/>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.<ref name="Evans1900">{{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}}</ref>

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).<ref name="Evans1900"/><ref name="Nelson1894">{{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}}</ref>

==Career== thumb|170px|right|David Sinton's home;"one of the finest examples of Federal architecture in the Palladian style in the country." right|thumb|200px|The Sinton Hotel, Cincinnati 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.<ref name="Association1908">{{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}}</ref>

A man of "irregular education",<ref name="Hess, Stephen P. 306">Hess, Stephen, ''America's Political Dynasties'', P. 306</ref> his business interests centered on the manufacture of iron; his furnaces were in Lawrence County, Ohio.<ref name="rootsweb.com">[http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohhamilt/howe/843.html Historical Collections of Ohio: Pages 843-847]</ref> Much of his fortune was made by stockpiling pig iron, waiting for the American Civil War, and selling that iron on at inflated prices.<ref name="Hess, Stephen P. 306"/> 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.<ref name="Armes1910">{{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}}</ref>

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''<ref name="rootsweb.com"/> and brother of William Howard Taft; Sinton money was said to have financed the presidential bid.<ref name="Hess, Stephen P. 306"/>

==Personal life== Sinton married Jane Ellison (1826–1853), a daughter of John Ellison (1779–1829), at Union Landing, Ohio. They had two children:

* Edward Sinton (1848-1869)<ref name="sinton-family-trees">{{cite web|last1=Kingdom|first1=Bob Sinton, Tandragee, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, United|title=Sinton Family Trees - Details of Edward M. Sinton, son of David Sinton and Jane Ellison, Born 1848, Died 1869|url=http://www.sinton-family-trees.uk/ft_main.php?rin=1133|website=www.sinton-family-trees.uk|access-date=15 December 2017|language=en}}</ref> [[File:Marguerite_Martyn_drawing_of_Mrs._Charles_Phelps_Taft_and_daughter_Louise_in_1908.jpg|thumb|left|1908 drawing by Marguerite Martyn 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.<ref name="Evans1900"/>

Sinton died on August 31, 1900, in Cincinnati, Ohio.<ref name="DSObit1900">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="DSObit1900"/> His home is now the Taft Museum of Art.<ref name="TaftMuseum">{{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 }}</ref><ref name="Rogers2013">{{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}}</ref>

===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.<ref name="1931Obit">{{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}}</ref>

===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."<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

The town of Sinton, Texas, is named in his honor (given that he was the majority stock holder in Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company<ref>{{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 }}</ref>).

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinton, David}} Category:Businesspeople from County Armagh Category:1808 births Category:1900 deaths Category:American Civil War industrialists Category:Irish Quakers Category:Businesspeople from Cincinnati Category:Taft family Category:Irish emigrants to the United States Category:19th-century American politicians Category:19th-century American philanthropists