John Uri Lloyd

John Uri Lloyd was born April 19, 1849, in West Bloomfield, New York, to Nelson Marvin and Sophia Webster Lloyd. He was named after his grandparents — John Lloyd III and Uri Webster. His father was an engineer and his mother, a school teacher. In 1853, when John was four years old, his family moved to Boone County, Kentucky, after his father was offered a job surveying for a planned railroad between Covington and Louisville. After the railroad project was not completed, Nelson joined his wife as a teacher. The family moved several times after that, eventually settling in Crittenden, Kentucky.

John had three brothers and an adopted sister. They were Nelson Ashley, Curtis Gates, Emma and Robert Llewellyn. Nelson and Curtis, as adults, would join John in his drug business, Lloyd Brothers. They were, respectively, two- and six-years younger than John. Robert died at the age of three.

On December 27, 1876, John married Adeline "Addie" Meader, a 21-year old school teacher. Less than two weeks later, on their New York honeymoon, she died of "acute peritonitis". She was the daughter of N. R. and Maria F. Meader. Interestingly, while John was living in Norwood, a Henry C. Meader, with a son named Lloyd, lived a couple of blocks west of him on Harris Avenue. Henry was 12 years older than Adeline, so if they were related, he could have been her brother.

Four years later, on June 10, 1880, John married a childhood friend, Emma Rouse. Around 1882, they moved to their still-standing home at 2604 Harris Avenue, Norwood. Eventually, the cross-street at this corner was renamed in honor of Lloyd. In an 1907 article, he described his reason for moving to Norwood, "(I do not) consider it guesswork, or accident, that led me to build a home in what was then a field." In regards to the conditions that influenced his decision, he said "that twenty-five years ago (1882) I saw as plainly in looking forward as now I see them in looking back." The junction of the railroads and the great table land between the Miami and Millcreek (east to west) and Pleasant Ridge and the Cincinnati heights (north to south) were the points that made him see Norwood as a "city of the future."

Although he saw the potential in Norwood, he had several concerns. He was very worried that politicians were the worst enemy in the development of Cincinnati and the suburbs, such as Norwood. Another problem was the odd positioning of streets in Norwood—which he said was almost as badly laid out as Boston's. He said it was caused by the patchwork of subdivisions created before Norwood was incorporated. The Planning Commission (of which he was president) had done its best at correcting the situation.

While living in Norwood, John and Emma had three children: John Thomas, April 30, 1884; Anna (Annie), November 18, 1886; and Dorothy, October 28, 1894.

Besides his wholesale drug business and Norwood civic duties, Professor Lloyd taught chemistry and pharmacy at the Eclectic Medical Institute, from 1878 to 1895, and at the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, from 1883 to 1887. In 1887, he was elected president of the American Pharmaceutical Association.

He was also a writer, creating numerous documents on herbal medicine, text books and popular novels such as Etidorhpa in 1895, and the Stringtown series. He probably got the writing "bug" from his mother, Sophia. She was not only a teacher, but a "prolific contributor" to literature, according to the 1894 book by Mulford and Betty. Her poems were published in several newspapers in Philadelphia, Rochester, Buffalo and other New York papers. Around 1888, after encouragement of her admirers, she compiled her writings and published them in a book.

Lloyd died of pneumonia on April 9, 1936, at his daughter Annie's California home. His ashes were interred at Hopewell Lutheran Church Cemetery, Boone County, Kentucky, as were the remains of his two wives. Most of his family are buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.