Roeliff Brinkerhoff Roeliff Brinkerhoff ( June 28 , 1828 – June 4 , 1911 ) was a lawyer , editor and owner of the " Mansfield Herald " , and later a bank president . He was a quartermaster and supply officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War , rising to the rank of colonel . In recognition of his service , he was nominated in 1866 and confirmed in 1867 for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers . His work , " The Volunteer Quartermaster " was considered the definitive text on military logistics and transportation from the Civil War until World War I . He also founded the Ohio Historical Society and succeeded former President Rutherford B . Hayes as president of the American National Prison Congress . Early life and career . Roeliff ( often mistakenly known as ' Ruloff ' ) was born in Owasco , Cayuga County , New York . At the age of sixteen , he became a teacher in his native town , while at eighteen he was in charge of a school near Hendersonville , Tennessee . The following year he was the tutor in the family of Andrew Jackson Jr . before moving to Mansfield , Ohio , to study law with his relative Jacob Brinkerhoff . He was admitted to the bar in 1852 , and remained in active practice from that time until after the outbreak of hostilities during the American Civil War . He also served as editor the " Mansfield Herald " newspaper . Brinkerhoff was married on February 3 , 1852 , to Mary Lake Bentley , of Mansfield , a granddaughter of General Robert Bentley , a general in the Ohio militia in the War of 1812 , later a lawyer , judge and state senator . They had two sons and two daughters . A firm believer in prison and asylum reform , he was at first a free - soil Democrat , then a Republican , and then , following the unsuccessful Liberal Republican Party movement of 1872 , a Democrat once more ; he was described as a " Jeffersonian democrat , a believer in free trade , hard money , home rule , and the non - interference principles of government generally . " Civil War . He joined the army in September 1861 as a first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster of the 64th Ohio Infantry . He was known by some accounts as the first officer to join the " Sherman Brigade " under Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman . In December 1861 , he was assigned to the depot at Bardstown , Kentucky . Following the capture of Nashville , he was placed in charge of the land and river transportation in that city and after the Battle of Shiloh , he was ordered to the front and placed in charge of the field transportation of the Army of the Ohio . It was following the capture of Corinth that he returned home on sick leave and when he had sufficiently recovered he was ordered to Maine as Chief Quartermaster of the state , where he quickly became friends with Congressman James G . Blaine . He was then transferred to Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , and placed in charge of transportation and army stores for the Department of the Susquehanna , and then to Washington D . C . as post quartermaster until June , 1865 , when he was made a Colonel and inspector of the quartermaster ' s department . He was retained on duty at the war office with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton until November , when he was ordered to Cincinnati as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the Ohio . At his own request , Brinkerhoff was mustered out of the volunteers on September 30 , 1866 . In recognition of Brinkerhoff ' s service , on December 11 , 1866 , President Andrew Johnson nominated Brinkerhoff for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general to rank from September 20 , 1866 , and the U . S . Senate confirmed the appointment on February 6 , 1867 . He was the author of a volume entitled , " The Volunteer Quartermaster , " a treatise which was considered the standard guide for the officers and employees of the quartermaster ' s department up until the First World War . Postbellum career . Brinkerhoff was the intimate friend of many nationally prominent figures including Salmon P . Chase , James G . Blaine , James A . Garfield and Rutherford B . Hayes . In 1873 , he became President of the Mansfield Savings Bank , and in 1878 was appointed a member of the board of state charities and continued in that position under different administrations serving eleven terms over a period of thirty years . Blaine had initially promised Brinkerhoff an appointment as U . S . Minister to Holland , but schemed to have the sitting Ambassador Hugh Ewing replaced with his brother Charles Ewing , and there is no evidence that Blaine ever actually presented Brinkerhoff ' s name to the President , although both Senator John Sherman and General and Congressman John Beatty claim that Blaine had promised them to do so . He showcased his compassion and liberal idealism when he traded on his political connections to abolish the use of mechanical restraints in treatments of the insane . Although his work was initially deemed " Brinkerhoff ' s Folly " by the press , his work led to the Toledo hospital system becoming the model asylum in the United States . He was selected as a member of the commission which selected the plans for its construction . He was one of the earliest American advocates of the cottage system , and understood that public opinion demanded reform and advancement . In 1875 , Brinkerhoff founded the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at his home , whose first president was Senator Allen G . Thurman , followed by Rutherford B . Hayes , and later himself Brinkerhoff upon Hayes ' death . He was soon named President Emeritus of the organization which exists to this day . Through the society he was able to secure legislation and funding for the Ohio Monument at Jefferson Park , in Chicago . In a speech delivered before the legislature , he stated that : When the Ohio monument was dedicated at Jefferson Park , in Chicago , September 14 , 1893 , General Brinkerhoff delivered one of the principal addresses .