Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

which the public school offered, he con-
tinued his education during his spare
hours at home and at work. David Ban-
ning secured his first employment in a
general store in his native town operated
by Stoddard Stevens, and here he acted
in the capacity of clerk for a few years.
Leaving the employ of Stoddard Stevens,
he spent a period in the employ of the
Federal Government.
David Banning's connection with the
city of Cincinnati, Ohio, dated from April
1847, when the city gave but faint indications
of the splendid future which was
before it, and the great proportions to
which it would grow. He watched care-
fully the steady growth of its great in-
dustries and commercial enterprises, play-
ing a quiet and effective part in the great
work. His arrival in Cincinnati antedated
the laying of the first railroad in that section
of the State. Shortly after his com-
ing to the city he entered on his first busi-
ness venture, forming a partnership with
his brother, Jeremiah W. Banning. The
two embarked in a commission business,
with their headquarters located on Walnut
Street, between Front and Second
streets. The business met with a high
degree of success, and after a short period
the partnership was dissolved, the two
brothers henceforward conducting their
operations separately.
Mr. Banning immediately organized
another business, which for a period of
twenty-five years he continued to direct.
From comparatively obscure beginnings,
through the business talent and constructive
policies of management of Mr. Ban-
ning, the business grew to large propor-
tions, and occupied a position of import-
ance among the largest enterprises of its
kind in the city of Cincinnati. He was
eminently fitted for business life, and the
handling of large affairs, by reason of his
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
39
ability to judge clearly and quickly the
relative merits of any proposition brought
before him, his breadth of vision, and his
persistence, once his decision to act had
been taken. He was a business man of
the self-made type, a man of broad toler-
ance and human understanding, a leader
who was instinctively obeyed. He invited
and received the confidence of his employees,
many of whom he advised, and
many of whom he aided toward independent
business ventures. He easily
inspired confidence and support, first
through the marked and well known
honesty of his dealings, and second
through the success of all his undertakings.
David Banning was known
throughout the city of Cincinnati and the
larger commercial cities of Ohio as a man
of the strictest integrity. Although not
connected actively or officially with the
public life of the city of Cincinnati, Mr.
Banning was, nevertheless, a factor of
importance in the city's growth and de-
velopment. He was looked to as one of
its foremost citizens, and accorded a place
as such. He was connected in executive
capacities with many of the large finan-
cial and commercial enterprises of the
city, and was for thirty-two years a member
of the board of directors of the Fourth
National Bank of Cincinnati, his connec-
tion with that institution dating from its
founding, in which he took an active in-
terest.
Mr. Banning was a Republican in polit-
ical affiliation, and kept well abreast of
the times, though he took no active part
in the political life of the city. He was
active, however, in social and fraternal
interests. The name of his friends was
legion, and his death, which occurred in
Cincinnati, March 8, 1901, was the cause
of deep-felt and wide-spread grief.
David Banning married, in Erie, Penn-