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tal ken, and throughout his long and useful life he kept his intellectual powers at a high standard, having been a close student and appreciative reader of the best in literature, and having at all times kept in close touch with the vital questions and issues of the hour. That which most eminently denoted the man, however, was his exalted integrity and honor in all the relations of life, and these sterling attributes made his influence ever cumulative in beneficences. His personal and social ideals were of a high type, and he never compromised with his conscience for the sake of personal expediency. He had a high moral standard and never deviated therefrom in the least particular, though he was kindly and tolerant in his judgment of others, as he fully realized the springs of human thought and action and knew the frailties as well as the strength of those with whom he was thrown in contact. He tried to aid and uplift his fellowmen, and labored with much of intellectual and moral strength to prove himself a worthy steward. He had a deep reverence for the spiritual verities, and attended the services of the Baptist church, of which his wife was a devoted member. He himself was a "free thinker." In a generic way Mr. Belden was a staunch advocate of the basic principles represented. by the Jeffersonian an Jacksonian policies of the Democratic party, and in local affairs he thus held himself untrammeled by strict partisan ties. He voted for men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, and he was invariably well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public polity. He served for many years as a justice of the peace, and he made the office justify its title. He also served for a long period as township assessor and as an appraiser of real estate. No man commanded more unequivocal confidence and esteem in Lorain county than did this honored pioneer, and pursuing the even tenor of his way he found ample opportunity to wield the influence for good without seeking notoriety and prominence in public affairs.


At Austinburg, Ashtabula county, Ohio, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Belden to Miss Maria P. Chappell, who was born in that village on May 21, 1814, and who was a daughter of Perry G. T, Chappell, one of the very early settlers of that county. Mrs. Belden, a woman of gracious and gentle personality, "whom to know was to love her," preceded her husband to the life eternal, having died in Amherst, Lorain county, on April 5, 1883. The crowning glory of their lives was when the "fiftieth anniversary" was celebrated. The following are extracts from the account printed in the Cleveland Leader, November 17, 1881 : "The most brilliant marriage festivities ever witnessed at this place occurred last evening at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Belden, it being the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. Their palatial residence and that of a son nearby were both filled to overflowing. The ceremony was very impressive. At the conclusion the venerable and esteemed couple received the congratulations and hearty good wishes of those present, after which E. H. Hinman, in a fitting address, presented the old people a table loaded with handsome tokens of esteem, embracing silverware, pictures, gold coin, a magnificent gold-headed cane for Mr. Belden and other mementos from neighbors and friends. In closing his address Mr. Hinman said : 'It is the heartfelt wish of us all that the memories of this night may brighten your future lives "like daisies in a June pasture" and in furtherance of the end desired, I now, on behalf of the donors, present you these gifts. Suffer me to indulge the hope that this mark of our confidence will meet with your approbation, and be received and considered by you as a sure pledge of the esteem of your many friends. May you live long and be happy.' " Full of emotion Mr. Belden arose and made the following happy reply: "Dear neighbors and friends, we do most sincerely thank you for your kind congratulations on this (to us) most interesting occasion. For fifty years at each returning anniversary of our marriage day we have celebrated it lovingly and with thanks, but of all the days of all our life, save that of our nuptial day, this shines out the brightest. Our marriage day will forever remain in our memory as the brightest and happiest of our lives ; and we entertain the hope fondly, that if it is in the order of nature that we shall live again beyond the grave, we shall be reunited and sail down life's river on the other shore until it shall empty itself into the great ocean of Eternity —God Himself. Never before were our hearts stirred as tonight. It's worth a life of toil to see such a day as this. Our first thoughts and our first words together this lovely morning, were thanks to the great Eternal ; we have lived to see it. Fifty years ago tonight, a warm, pleasant moonlight night, our betrothment was ratified by marriage. The Rev. Henry Cowles, late of Oberlin, was the offi-


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1751


ciating clergyman. We wish we knew, statistically, the comparative number of the human family that live together continuously as husband and wife for fifty years. From general observation it must be small. This occasion we have never looked forward to, expecting to see it until the last few years. And as the years rolled on hope has continually increased, so that tonight we sit or stand side by side just as we did at the hymeneal altar fifty years ago. We were both of us young and inexperienced in the world. She a frail, delicate, Buckeye girl of a little over seventeen and myself a raw, tall, and bashful New England boy of a little older.


"We are asked to give on this occasion all that we think proper to give On our life line. In looking over it we remember some things for over seventy years. On this life line we see many things we wish could be entirely obliterated from our memory, and many things did then and do now meet our present approbation and afford us Much pleasure to dwell upon them. Whether our life as a whole has been a success in the pursuit and attainment of a happy life we cannot tell. Mankind are a part of nature. We see exhibited in nature every phase .of humanity and vice versa. In nature we have thunder and lightning. In nature we hear the roaring hurricane, and we have the gentle breeze. We have the dreary shadow and the delightful sunshine. All that have we passed through in our wedded life. We have had children born to us to gladden our hearts, and wehave lost children to sadden them.


"Still, we have said each to the other, you are left to me, and that has given us our greatest sunlight, so that as a whole our sunshine and shadow has been about in proportion as nature gives it to us in its order. And we are content. Our children say tearly lifeo know all they can of our early.life and courtship, up to marriage. In response, we would say to them, that we were born of and reared by Christian parents, being the second o f six children, in humble life, in a rural district, and so constantly watched over by our dear parents (bless them) that we knew not a single vice that curses permittedof this day. We were never perthitted, nor do we ever remember going out of an evening and away from home without asking consent of one or both of our parents. Our infancy, childhood and youth, were passed in the cradle, the schoolroom, and on the farm. All those days,


Vol. III-31


as we remember them, were passed pleasantly. We do wish we could live them over again. We never shone as a ladies' man. Many of our schoolmates that came to maturity at about eighteen, put us entirely in the background among the ladies, but in the schoolroom we could sew them up in a bag. Our early days were all spent as above stated in the cradle, in the schoolroom and on the farm. Our young manhood we brought all untarnished to the wife. The ,efforts of our middle and old age have been given chiefly to the family, and ourself, when it can no longer maintain its identity, we expect to give back to nature. In looking over our past life, it seems as but yesterday, and when we look forward to what may be added to the past, whether of days or weeks, or months, or years even, we know of a certainty they must be few, and we must submit to .the inevitable. Now already the twilight begins to gather about our heads on this side the river—and the morning light begins to brighten upon the other shore. Now if any of you have happened to discover an anomaly in the sentiment of the foregoing, you will understand that the one point represents ourself, and the other the woman. We perceive by a singular coincidence, that the beginning and ending of this is—DEAR WOMAN.".


Mrs. Lucy B. Ormsby, the eldest daughter of the couple, read the following poem :


We meet tonight, respected friends,

To retrospect the past ;

To gather up its odds and ends,

The present to contrast.

Just fifty years ago today—

The record tells the tale—

A fair young lady, blithe and gay,

Offered herself for sale.

A young man present in the crowd,

Though destitute of pelf,

Stepped forward, and devoutly vowed

For her to give himself : 

The bargain entered into then,

With pleasure and delight,

Has, after two-score years and ten,

Convened us here tonight ;

To ratify the solemn vow

The pledge that then was given,

Which, as it seems to us, somehow

Was ratified in heaven.

An unseen friend has guided them

Since that eventful day,

Enabled them life's tide to stem,

And held their foes at bay.


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Has scattered blessings full and free,

Has made their cup run o'er,

Till they admit His Majesty

An object to adore.


That there's a God who reigns on high

Is most distinctly- taught

In air and ocean, earth and sky,

By Him in wisdom wrought;

This sovereign God, supremely good,

Ere 'human form was known,

Saw and distinctly understood

Man should not be alone.

And when His crowning work was done—

That of imparting life—.

He fashioned still another one,

That man might have a wife.

A wife ! almost a duplicate

Of man, to man was given,

To be to him a true helpmate,

The choicest gift' of Heaven !

Henceforth the twain should be but one,

United heart and hand,

Each striving not to be outdone,

Whatever the demand ;

For sacrifices, toil and care,

Forbearance, trial and grief ;

Nor, will the truly wedded pair

Withhold the kind relief.

These statements have been verified,

As we, their children, know,

Concerning these, the groom and bride,

Of fifty years ago.


Of course, they have not always sailed

Upon a placid sea,

Storms have arisen and prevailed

To mar their unity.

Still, have they triumphed o'er each storm,

Subdued the stubborn. will,

Removed the causes of alarm,

And whispered, "Peace be still."

With gratitude we gaze tonight

Upon this aged pair,

And count it our supreme delight

Their growing ills to share ;

For in the slippery paths of youth,

And childhood's tender years,

They taught us to revere the truth

And hushed our rising fears ;

In all the petty ills of life,

So common to the child,

Their constant care and cheerful strife

Our tedious hours beguiled.

In riper years they've heard our prayer

When needed Aid was sought,

And we, their children, now declare

They shall not be forgot.

When, bending 'neath the weight of years,

They look to us for aid,

We'll heed their oft-repeated prayers

Immediately when made.


The little presents we have brought,

We trust may ever prove

Sacred mementoes—as they ought—

Of our unfeigned love.

Three of the pledges of their love

Have long since passed away,

But if they share in realms above

The light of endless day,

Why should we murmur or complain ?

Or mourn our early loss ?

For, if our loss has been their gain,

We'll glory in the cross !

Indeed, 'twas hard to part with those

:We loved so tenderly,

And yet the future may disclose

God's warmest sympathy,

In snatching from our fond embrace

These objects of our love,

And our affections may, by grace,

Our choicest blessings prove !

May God direct us day by day,

And needful grace be given,

That when we, too, shall pass away,

We all may meet in Heaven.

After the conclusion of the formal exercises the guests and friends, to the number of 160, sat down to a magnificent banquet. Letters from absent friends were read by Mrs. Mattie Long, :another daughter, and the naming of a great grandchild, "Alta _Pinney Collier," by Mr.. Belden, and music and social intercourse occupied the rest of the evening. The Henrietta band early in the evening appeared on the lawn in front of the residence and played a number of appropriate airs.

Too much praise cannot be given Mr. and Mrs. Belden's relatives for the management of the wedding and especial mention should be made of Mrs. Hattie S. Delker, of Vermilion, for her untiring efforts in her parents behalf. Meeded merit was also won by all. Mr. A. L. Spitzer, who managed the formal exercises of the evening, deserves special praise for the masterly manner in which he performed his duties.

The nine children of Mr. and Mrs. Belden are : Perry Stanton Belden, the eldest of the children, who was a farmer by vocation and a resident of the state of Michigan at the time

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1753

of his death ; Mary M., a fine scholar, died May 6, 1851, at the age of sixteen years ; Lucy A. is the wife of Conrad G. Ormsby, of Amherst, Lorain county ; Martha J. is more specifically mentioned in an appending paragraph ; Ellen E., who was her mother's twenty-eighth birthday gift, is the widow of Edward R. Huene and resides in Los Angeles, California ; Harriet S., who was a fine artist, became the wife of Henry G. Delker and died in Amherst, Ohio, on June 9, 1901; F. Antoinette, a lovely girl, died November 22, 1865, at the age of fifteen years ; Hiram L. is a representative farmer in North Olmstead township, .Cuyahoga county ; and Halsey W. is a resident of Amherst, this county.

Martha J. Belden, the fourth child and third daughter of the hotwred subject of this memoir, was born and reared in Lorain county, and she received excellent educational advantages, having taught in the ,district schools a number of terms while in her youth. In 1866 she was united in marriage to David Long, who died May 26, 1878, and was respected and revered by a large circle of friends ; he is survived by no children. On July 15, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mrs. Long to John P. Jenne, who was born at Amherst, Lorain .county, Ohio, on May 1, 1832, and who was .a son of Ansel and Elizabeth (Brown) Jenne. John P. Jenne became one of the successful agriculturists, and influential citizens of his native county and was a great lover of fine horses. He continued to reside in Amherst until his death. He was called upon to serve in various positions of public trust in the community, including that of mayor of Amherst, assessor for many years and justice of the peace. He was well known throughout the county, where he commanded unqualified pop'ular confidence and esteem. He died on December 27, 1905, as the result of burns received, whereby he gave up his life in attempting to save his horses while fighting a fire that destroyed his barns. His tragic death -was deeply deplored in the community in which he had so long maintained his home and in which he had ever borne an unblemished reputation, and the oration given at his last services by Mayor F. J. King, Of Lorain, gives but a faint glimpse of his real worth. He said : "Could the kind and humane deeds and :acts of our brother be known, it would fill this room with lovely flowers and their fragrance would be far-reaching and lasting, when being wafted and borne on the winds to his many friends that he so loved and helped while here." Of his five children born to him by his former wife, who was Ann Eliza Sherman, three are still living. Cora L., who is the wife of Luther McQueen ; Rose M., who is unmarried, and Mattie E., who is the' wife of B. K. Lindsley, of Brownhelm. He left four grandchildren. He was a staunch adherent of the Democratic party, was identified with various fraternal and social organizations. He believed in the Christian faith and worshipped, but was not formally a member of the Unity church. It is also the belief of his widow, who still resides in Amherst, where she is surrounded by a wide circle of devoted and esteemed friends. She has taken an active part in the best religious and social life of the community and is a women of gracious refinement and winning personality. To Mrs. Jenne, for her kindly beneficence, "all honor is due" in giving and arranging the memoirs commemorative to those we have given in this biography.

DR. EDWARD V. HUG, of Lorain, Ohio, was born at Navarre, Ohio, May 12, 1869, and is a son of Victor. U. and Sarah (Dagen) Hug. Victor Hug was born in Switzerland, in 1838, and his wife at Navarre, Ohio, in 1845 ; both now reside at Navarre.

 


After graduating from the Navarre schools Dr. Hug taught school one year, and attended Mount Union College at Alliance, Ohio, in the years of 1889-90. In 1893 he graduated from the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and in a competitive examination of 125 applicants Dr. Hug was appointed resident physician of the Philadelphia Hospital, which post he filled until September 1, 1894, when he located in Lorain, settling. there in December of that year. He served on the staff of St. Joseph's Hospital, of Lorain, from its organization until the spring of 1909, when he resigned.


Dr. Hug is a man of ability and experience in his chosen field for a young physician, and is universally respected and esteemed. He was one of the organizers of the Lorain County Medical Society in 1896, was its first secretary and also served as president. He is also a member of the Ohio State Medical Society. In May, 1901, he was appointed health officer of Lorain City, and he still holds that important and responsible office. He is a member of the Lorain Library. Board, and belongs to the American Public Health Association, inter-

 

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national in its character, also, to the National Tuberculosis Congress. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, the Knights of St. John, Woodmen of the World and Eagles. He belongs to St. Joseph Roman Catholic church. Dr. Hug is unmarried.

 

RICHARD EDWARD SHELDON is a lumber dealer in Wellington. He was born in Washington county, Kansas, near the city of Hollenberg, on December 22, 1868, a son of William and Mary (Dunnick) Sheldon, the father born in Pittsfield township, Lorain county, Ohio, and the mother in Indiana. William Sheldon served 'in the Civil war as a member of Company F, Third Ohio Cavalry, and after the close of the war he moved to Kansas and subsequently to Illinois, where he is yet living.

Richard E. Sheldon was bereft of his mother when but a child, and after her death he was reared by his maternal grandparents until he attained his sixth year. He came to Wellington in 1883, and during the following six years he worked on farms in this vicinity, returning at the close of that period to Illinois, where he learned the carpenter's trade. of his father. After about a couple of years- in 'Illinois he returned to Wellington, was next in the west for a time, and returning once more to this city he took up the carpenter's trade. He worked as a carpenter for one man for eleven years, and he then engaged in the business for himself, and in the intervening time has built many of Wellington's leading structures. On January 6, 1905, he began business as a lumber merchant in this city.

Mr. Sheldon married Sarah Alida Ware, born in Missouri but they were married in Wellington, and she is a daughter of Joseph and Sophronia (Wray) Ware.


HARRY CLYDE BROOKS.—Prominent among the native born citizens of Painesville, Lake county, who have won honor and distinction, is Harry Clyde Brooks, who has met with unqualified success as an instructor in voice culture and artistic singing, being now at the head of the musical' department of Lake Erie College. His voice is a flexible tenor of the most brilliant and sympathetic quality, fresh and clear, and invariably in tune.

Mr. Brooks was born February 15, 1859, in Painesville, Ohio, a son of the late John Franklin Brooks, coming from honored New England ancestry, who trace their descent through various branches of the family from the Pilgrim fathers who came over in the Mayflower. His father was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, in 1832. Learning the painter's trade, he became master painter for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company, and having settled in Painesville, Ohio, served in that capacity for fifty-three consecutive years. He married in 1857, in Lake county, Ohio, Antoinette Jenkins, who was born in Concord, Lake county, Ohio, in 1835, a daughter of William B. and Harriet (Huntoon) Jenkins. She died in 1885, but he lived many years longer, passing away in 1904.


Receiving his early education in the public Schools of Painesville, Harry C. Brooks subsequently entered Oberlin College, and in 1881 was graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he was thoroughly trained in piano, theory and voice. Going to Galesburg, Illinois, in 1882, he filled the position of musical director at Knox College for a year, when he resigned in order to continue his studies abroad. Going to Milan, Italy, in 1883, Mr. Brooks was for two years under the private tutorship of Signor Antonio Sangiovanni, of the Royal Conservatory, with him studying the tenor roles of twenty-five operas, besides various songs and arias. At the same time he studied dramatic action with Signor Francesco Mottino, while he took lessons in the Italian and French languages of Madame Gaetana Bogoni. In 1885, after taking part in an artists' recital at the Royal Conservatory, he returned to Oberlin, Ohio, and the following three years was a teacher in the Conservatory of Music in that city. Wishing to still further perfect himself in his art, Mr. Brooks went, in 1888, to Berlin, Germany, where for several months he made a special study of German songs and arias under the instruction of Madame L. Heritte-Viardot, and on his return to America resumed instruction in voice culture and artistic singing.

Assuming the charge of the Bach Society of the Woodland Avenue 'Presbyterian church, Cleveland, in 189o, Mr. Brooks gave concerts and pupils' recitals in that city 'for three years, gaining an enviable reputation as an instructor of the .voice. Ill health causing him then to retire to the country, he taught private pupils for a time, in 1898 accepting his present posi-

 

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1755

 

tion as head of the music department of Lake Erie College in Painesville. In this capacity Mr. Brooks has met with notable success, the growth of the department, in which the courses of music are systematically arranged, according to the most approved conservatory methods, having been almost phenomenal.


Since Mr. Brooks took charge of the department many artists of distinction have visited the college, and have been enthusiastically greeted by the pupils and patrons, among those more especially worthy of note having been such leaders in the musical world as Messrs. Joseph Slivinski and Leopold Godowsky ; Fraulein Aus der Ohe and Mrs. Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler ; Mr. E. A. MacDowell ; Mme. Maud Powell, Mrs. Leonora Jackson, Miss Bertha Bucklin and Miss Lillian Little-hales ; Messrs. Alexander Guilmant, Frederick Archer, Samuel P. Warren, Edwin Le-mare, William Carl, Francis F. Powers, William Rieger, Max Heinrich, and Dr: Carl Dufft ; Miss Julia Heinrich, Herbert Witherspoon and Mrs. S: C. Ford.

Mr. Brooks has achieved some reputation as a soloist, having taken the principal part many times in "Elijah," the "Messiah," Gounod's "Messe Solennelle to Saint Cecilia," and other works of a like character ; while in concerts and recitals he has appeared on the programme with such talented artists as Mrs. Corinne Moore-Lawson, Christine Nielson, Myron W. Whitney and many others.

An extensive traveler, Mr. Brooks keeps himself in close touch with the most advanced methods used in teaching the various branches of music, frequently visiting Boston, New York and other musical centers of our own country, and has listened to concerts and operas in all of the larger European cities and countries during his trips through England, Scotland, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. In 1902, after a visit to Bayreuth and Munich; he gave lectures, illustrated by stereopticon views, on Richard Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival, which were exceedingly interesting and instructive. Mr. Brooks has written and published music for use in his own work, and has compiled works on theory and harmony for his classes. He has been very successful as a director of church choirs and vocal clubs, and his pupils have held prominent positions in the choirs of different churches in Cleveland, and have also won favor in concerts and oratorios.


In 1905 Mr. Brooks undertook an elaborate tour of two years around the world, traveling extensively throughout nearly all of the great civilized countries, and afterward lived some time in Paris.


In his political views Mr. Brooks is independent, being without party affiliations. He is not connected by membership with any religious organization, and belongs to no secret society. At present he resides in Painesville, Ohio, and has a music studio in Cleveland. He has never married.


HENRY. B. HAMLIN.—Prominent among the best known and highly respected citizens of Wellington is Henry B. Hamlin; whose father, Alamanza Hamlin, was. a pioneer settler of the Western Reserve, and for many years a valued resident of Huron county. He comes from honored New England ancestry, being a lineal descendant of one James Hamlin, who emigrated from London, England, in 1639, becoming one of the original settlers of Barnstable, Massachusetts, where, according to early records, he was a landholder.

The descendants of James Hamlin, the emigrant ancestor, became scattered throughout the country, some of his more immediate ones locating in Sharon, Connecticut, where Deacon Benjamin Hamlin, the grandfather of Henry B., was born, his birth occurring in 1760. He married Deborah Rowley, who was born. in 1762. Deacon Hamlin lived about three-score years, his death occurring October 6, 1820, but his widow survived him many years, passing away September 8, 1848, at a venerable age. Of the twelve children born to Deacon and Mrs. Hamlin, four died in early childhood, Alamanza, the eleventh child, being the father of the subject of this sketch.

Alamanza Hamlin was born November 21, 1797, in Sharon, Connecticut, and was there brought up and educated. Coming to the Western Reserve as a young man he bought large tracts of land in Huron and Lorain counties, and from the forest improved a good homestead, on which was spent his remaining years, dying January 1, 1854. He married Mary R. Webster, who belonged to a prominent family of that name in Wellington, Lorain county, Ohio, their marriage being solemnized May 13, 1847. She survived him many years, her death occurring January 4, 1899. Three children were born to them, namely: David, born May 8, 1849, died in April, 1859 ; Henry B., the special subject of

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this brief biographical sketch ; and William, born January 4, 1853, died in 1854.


Henry B. Hamlin, born October 5, 1850, lived on the home farm until 1858, when he came with his widowed mother to Wellington to live. He subsequently began his early studies in the public schools of this place, and afterward attended Oberlin Commercial Institute in Oberlin, Ohio, and Berea College. in Berea, Kentucky. On his return to Wellington, Mr. Hamlin was employed as a clerk in .a dry goods store for a year or two, after which he was in the First National Bank of Wellington for about a year. Embarking then in the grain business, he carried it on successfully for a period of ten years. In March, 1883, Mr. Hamlin made a decided change of occupation and residence, going to Wadena, Minnesota, where he was engaged in business as a lumber dealer and farmer for seven years, being exceedingly prosperous in his operations. Removing then to Tennessee, he lived in Knoxville for two years, from there coming, in the spring of 1893, to Wellington, where he spent a year. Returning to Minnesota in March, 1894, Mr. Hamlin located in Duluth, where he purchased a seat in the Duluth Board of Trade. A few months later, on account of the ill health of his mother, who made her home with him, he returned to his old home in Wellington, where he has since resided.

Although not engaged in active business pursuits, Mr. Hamlin has been financially interested in the extensive business of The HorrWarner Company since 1894, when he bought the stock of the late C. W. Horr, one of its founders, and since the incorporation of the company has been one of its directors.


On January 8, 1873, Mr. Hamlin married Abbie C., daughter of the late Hon. Rollin A. Horr. She was born July 15, 1854, in Huntington, Lorain county, where her father was for many years a man of prominence. Removing with his family from Huntington to Wellington in 1864, Rollin A. Horr assisted in that year in the organization of the First National Bank of Wellington, and the following twenty-seven years served as its cashier, afterward becoming its vice-president. Mr. Horr was also a member of the W. R. Santley & Co. lumber firm, and of the Clarksfield Stone Company. Prominent and influential in political circles, Mr. Horr served as a Republican member of the Ohio state senate in 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1883, while from October 8, 1891, until June I, 1893, he was a special employe of the United States treasury department, serving under Secretary Foster. Mr. Horr married in 1853 Sarah A. Ames, and the children were : Abbie C., Roswell P., Rollin C., Walter S., Warner M., Charles P., Nell A. The mother of these children died September 23, 1909.

ARKINSON B. POND.—The substantial and esteemed citizens of New London, Huron county, have no better representative than Arkinson Pond, who is now serving his fourth term as postmaster of this city. A son of Rev. Vallorus Pond, he was born June 15, 1855, in Batemantown, Knox county, Ohio. He comes from distinguished Revolutionary stock, and his great-great-grandfather, Daniel Patriark Pond, who reared thirteen sons and three daughters, had nine sons in the Revolutionary army, among them being his son, William, next in line of descent. William Pond spent a large part of his life, if not all of it, in Vermont, and there his son, Charles, grandfather of Arkinson Pond, was born.

Charles Pond, inheriting the spirit of patriotism that inspired his father and uncles, served as a soldier in the war of 1812. About 1816 he migrated to Ohio, making the journey with ox teams. Locating. in Knox county, he bought a tract of timbered land in Berlin township, paying one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre for it. Clearing an opening in the forest, he built a rude log cabin, putting in a split puncheon floor, and made all of the furniture with which it was supplied, fitting it up in fine style for his bride. There were neither railways nor canals ; in fact, no public thoroughfares, all travel being over trails marked by blazed trees. Deer, bears, wolves and all kinds of game native to this section were abundant, oftentimes furnishing the chief subsistence of the pioneers. There being no stoves, all cooking was done by the fireplace, and there being no mills, grain was pounded in a mortar. Having by means of untiring industry cleared quite a portion of his land, Charles Pond remained there until about 1855, when he sold out and removed to Indiana. Buying land in Whitley county, he was there engaged in general farming until his death, at the age of seventy-nine years. He married Hannah Kirby, who was born in Maryland and came with her parents to Ohio. She died about 1829, leaving eight children.

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Rev. Vallorus Pond was born November 27, 1821, in Berlin. township, Knox county, where he was reared and educated and subsequently learned the trade of a saddler. He was converted in his youth, united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and later became a preacher in that denomination. He joined the Ohio conference and held pastorates in va rious places in the state, including among others Antwerp, Cardington, Shiloh and Westerville, being active in the ministry for forty years. He spent the latter years of life on his farm in Middlebury township, dying there in 1883. He married Emma Bateman, who was born in Batemantown, Knox county, June 15, 1821. Her father, Alvin Bateman, a native of Vermont, came across the country to Knox county, Ohio, in 1816, bought land in Middlebury township and in the midst of the wilderness built a log cabin for the first residence of the family. He lived to clear two nice farms, to replace the cabin with a substantial frame house and built a good barn and other necessary farm buildings, in addition setting out various kinds of fruit trees. He died in 1857, while his wife, whose maiden name was Flora Sampson, survived him, passing away at the age of ninety years. She, also, was born and bred in the Green Mountain state. Mrs. Emma (Bateman) Pond died in 1875. She reared eight children, namely : Caroline, Alvin, Dell, Helen, Clara, Arkinson B., Mary and Charles.

Arkinson B. Pond was educated in the district schools and at Waterford Academy. Beginning his active career as clerk in a New London dry goods store, he was thus employed a number of years. In 1897 he was appointed postmaster of New London by President McKinley, and has since been twice .reappointed by President Roosevelt and also by President Taft, his length of service in this position showing conclusively that his labors are appreciated by the general public.

Mr. Pond married, in 1885, Sallie Mackey. She was born in Harmony, New Jersey, a daughter of William and Mary (Gorman) Mackey, who came from New Jersey, their native state, to Ohio, settling in Sandusky. Mr. and Mrs. Pond had two children, M. Owalette and Isadore F. Politically Mr. Pond is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party. Fraternally he is a member of Flora Lodge, No. 260, F. & A. M. ; of New London Lodge, No. 615, I. O. O. F. ; of Chadsey Encampment, No. 275 ; of Lodge No. 51, D. of R.; and of Carnation Lodge, No. 734, K. of P. Mrs. Pond died June 5, 1909.


BENJAMIN STEVENS, one of the pioneer cloth manufacturers of Warren, Ohio, and for many years a prominent business man of that city, was born in Old Canaan,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connecticut, July 2, 1788. The deceased was a lineal descendant of Henry Stevens, who settled at Stonington, Connecticut, as early as 1668, and took part in King Philip's war. Jonathan Stevens, the father of Benjamin Stevens, was also a native of Old Canaan, Connecticut, where he was born March 7, 1767. After his marriage he moved to Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and thence in 1799 to Addison county, Vermont. Being within the active field of operation in the war of 1812, he joined the American forces when the British invaded the western shore of Lake Champlain and was one of the participants in the battle of Plattsburg. At this time. and for many years previously, he had owned and operated a farm on Lake Champlain. Later in life he settled at Newton Falls, Ohio, where he passed his remaining years. His first wife was Susan Wells, and she was of an old Connecticut family prominent in the colonial history of the county. She was a granddaughter of General Burrall, a Revolutionary soldier, and she died in Vermont. Afterward Jonathan Stevens married a second time.

When fourteen years of age, Benjamin Stevens, of this review, was apprenticed to a manufacturer of cloth, and having mastered the industry and business he engaged in the manufacture of cloth himself. During the progress of the war of 1812 the demand for this product was large and the business was very profitable, but with the conclusion of the war and the withdrawal of the army from the field the demand fell off so greatly that his enterprise suffered, in common with that of other like manufacturers. In 1816 Mr. Stevens decided to settle in the territory northwest of the Ohio river. He first landed at Fairport, in the Western Reserve, but finally settled at Warren, Ohio. He there purchased two mills that were then in operation, and engaged extensively in the making of satinettes and fulled cloth. Later, his brothers, Charles and Augustus, became associated with him and the three continued in profitable business for several years. Benjamin Stevens was actively engaged in business at Warren for


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thirty years, until 1846, when he disposed of his interests and was able to retire from active life. He died July 31, 1884. The deceased was certainly a remarkable man in many respects, for despite his long and strenuous labors he retained his robust health until the last, and was also bright and cheerful mentally. He was married in 1825 to Mary Case, a native of Pennsylvania, a daughter of Meshach Case, her father being born in New Jersey and removing from Pennsylvania to Warren, Ohio, in 1800. Mr. Case is recorded in northwestern history as being the third settler at that point, and the land which he improved now adjoins the city of Warren. Before marriage his wife was Magdalena Eckstein, a native of Virginia and of German descent. Mr. Stevens' faith was that of Methodism and in the work of the denomination he was long. prominent throughout his mature life, being for about fifty years a class leader in the local organizations, and it may be added with decision that his morality, and every detail of his life were in strict accord with that of his profession.


Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Stevens became the parents of five children : Benjamin, Jr., Mary, Harriet, Lucy Wells and Leonard Eckstein. Mary and Harriet have been. lifelong residents of Warren,. Ohio; Benjamin; Jr., died in childhood ; Leonard E. died when twenty-two years of age ; and Lucy Wells married Emerson Opdycke. Her husband enlisted in the Civil war and entered the service as lieutenant, but was promoted for his gallant and faithful conduct to brigadier-general. He is now deceased and his widow resides in New York.


PETER FIEBACH, of this review, is one of the most extensive landholders and most successful representatives of the great industry of agriculture to be found within the borders of the beautiful county of Lorain, with whose annals the family name has been identified for more than half a century, and which 'has been the home of Mr. Fiebach since his boyhood. His career has been marked by consecutive industry and invincible integrity of purpose, and thus his success is the more gratifying to contemplate, as it has been worthily won. He holds a secure vantage place in the esteem of the community which has been the scene and stage of his well directed endeavors, and his status is such as to eminently entitle him to special recognition within the pages of this

work, dedicated, as it is, to the Western Reserve and its people.


Peter Fiebach was born at Breidenbach, on the river Fulda, in Kreis Rodenburg, Germany, and is a son of Philip and Anna (Schaub) Fiebach. He was a boy of about fourteen .years at the time of the family immigration to America, and in 1853 his father took up his residence in Lorain county. The financial resources of Philip Fiebach were limited, and upon coming to this country he purchased merely one acre of land, upon the bank of the Vermilion river. Upon this little plot of ground he established the family home. He secured employment on the farm of Elisha Swift and while he gave himself with all of energy and fidelity to the work in hand he was extremely frugal and economical, and after- a time he was enabled to purchase a small tract of land and to engage in farming on his own account. Indefatigable in his labors and moved by definite ambition to press forward to the goal of independence and success, he carefully conserved his resources and as opportunity afforded he added to his landed holdings from time to time until he finally became the owner of a valuable estate of 200 acres, a portion of which was in Henrietta and Brownhelm townships, Lorain county, and the remainder in Florence township, Erie county. Mr. Fiebach exemplified the energy, industry and pragmatic ability so characteristic of the sturdy German race, which has contributed a most valuable element to the complex social fabric of our American republic, and he brought his land under most effective cultivation, developing the same into one of the most valuable agricultural tracts in this favored section of the state. It will thus be seen that he made of success not an accident but a logical result, and he so ordered his life in all its relations as to merit and retain the inviolable esteem of his fellow men. About six years prior to his demise he removed from his fine old homestead farm to the village of Vermilion, where he lived retired until his death, which occurred on the 24th of November, 1879, at the age of seventy-one years and nine months. His first wife, Anna (Schaub) Fiebach, died in Brownhelm township in 1866, having proved a devoted companion and helpmeet, and both were consistent and zealous members of the Evangelical Association. For his second wife, Philip Fiebach married Mrs. Anna Will, who survived him by several years.


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Concerning the seven sons of the first marriage the following brief data are given : Two died in infancy, before the family immigration to America George is a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan ; Peter is the subject of this sketch ; Augustus resides in Florence township, Erie county, Ohio ; Adam maintains his home at Nashville, Michigan ; and Martin is a resident of Metamora, Fulton county, Ohio.


Peter Fiebach early learned the lessons of practical industry and his educational advantages were limited to an attendance in the district schools for three weeks. When but fourteen years of age he became a farm workman for the Swift family, of Henrietta township, on the Vermilion river, and that his services did not lack appreciation is evident when recognition is taken of the fact that he continued in the employ of this family for the long period of fourteen years. Improvidence has characterized no stage of his career, and he has never lacked appreciation of the value as well as the dignity of honest toil and endeavor, so that he has worked toward definite ends and has bent his energies to the securing of an honorable competency through worthy means. After the death of his mother he purchased the old homestead farm, which at that time comprised 104 acres, and here he has since maintained his home, while the passing years have brought to him generous prosperity. Upon purchasing his father's farm he assumed a heavy burden of indebtedness, but by unremitting industry and the exercise of the most strenuous economy of a legitimate order he soon removed this incubus. He has shown excellent judgment in the utilizing of his increasing capital in the purchasing of additional land, and the result is seen in his present ownership of about 400 acres of as fine farming land as can be found in this section of the state. The property is located in Brownhelm and Henrietta townships, Lorain county, and Vermilion Village, Erie county, and Mr. Fiebach is a stockholder of Linwood Park. Though in the earlier stages of his independent career he was compelled to consult ways and means at every stage of progress, he has always shown a progressive attitude, and the policies he has pursued have enabled him to make the substantial advancement that has marked his course. He has shown much discrimination in the handling of the various departments of his farm work and in addition to diversified agriculture he has given much attention to the raising of livestock of excellent grades, and each year has a bunch of fat cattle to sell on the local market. He has not been self-centered in the long years of close application to his private affairs, but has taken a loyal interest in all that has touched the welfare of the community, and has never lacked the respect and confidence of those with whom he has come in contact in the various relations of life.


To Mr. Fiebach's lasting honor must stand the evidence of loyalty that he gave when the integrity of the nation was jeopardized by armed rebellion. In 1864 he enlisted as a private in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, having been assigned with his regiment to duty in guarding prisoners of war on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie. In politics he has ever given an unqualified allegiance to the Republican party, but the only office in which he has consented to serve is that of school director in Brownhelm township. He and his family are numbered among the most zealous and valued members of the Evangelical Association in Lorain county, and he was one of the most influential in effecting the church building of this denomination in Brownhelm township, where he contributed with much liberality to the erection of the attractive church edifice. His course has been guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and. honor and through his own efforts he has achieved success worthy the name, while he has been mindful of the rights and interests of others and has aided in the support of every worthy cause advanced for the general good—along religious, social, political and industrial lines.


On the 20th of October, 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fiebach to Miss Sarah K. Leuszeler, who was born at Doylestown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of June, 1843, and who is a, daughter of John and Catharine (Lange) Leuszeler, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Leuszeler passed the closing years of her life in Brownhelm township, Lorain county, and Mr. Leuszeler's last years were .passed in Kansas, and his active career was largely one of identification with agricultural pursuits. Mr. Fiebach accords no small measure of credit to his wife for the success that has attended his efforts as one of the world's workers, as she has not only


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exemplified industry, domestic economy and constant helpfulness, but has also been a devoted companion and a gracious and loving mother. Concerning the six children the following brief record is consistently given in conclusion of this sketch. All of the children are living except two, one son dying in infancy, and each of these four has been afforded the best of educational advantages, including those of Oberlin. Anna J., the eldest of the children, is the wife of Fred Braun, of Lorain, and they became the parents of three children—Clara, Leroy and Lillian, of whom only the son is living ; Lucy K. is the wife of Elton Davis, of Los Angeles, California, and they have one son, Clarence E. ; Lucy K. was first married to Frank Wyatt, of Amherst, in 1891, and he was accidentally killed in 1894. She then took up music for her life work; attended Oberlin Conservatory and became quite a musician, teaching both vocal and instrumental music and being also a choir director, and still follows that occupation. Franklin W. died in 1887, at the age of fifteen years ; Albert H. is made the subject of more specific mention in the following paragraph ; and Cora M. is the wife 'of Henry Emmerick, who has the practical supervision of the homestead farm of Mr. Fiebach.


Albert H. Fiebach, the only surviving son of the honored subject of this review, was born on the home farm, in Brownhelm township, on the 28th of August, 1876, and after completing the curriculum of the public schools he continued his studies in Oberlin Academy.. and Oberlin College, in which latter he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899 and froth which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was for a time a student in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and in preparation for the work of his chosen profession he entered the law school of historic old Harvard University, in which he was graduated in 1902, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He soon afterward located in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where he is now engaged in the practice of his profession, in which he is winning unequivocal success. He married Miss June L. Bogart, of Shenandoah, Iowa, November 30, 1905.


HON. FREDERIC C. HOWE, one of the associate editors of the Western Reserve history, is a Cleveland lawyer, author and lecturer of high standing. He was born at Meadville, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1867, and in 1889 graduated from Allegheny College with the degree of A. B. He pursued post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins and Halle (Germany) Universities, and at the University of Maryland Law School and New York Law School ; was admitted to the bar and located at Cleveland. For fifteen years he was associated with .the Garfield Brothers in law practice, under the firm name of Garfield, Garfield & Howe. During this time he was elected to the Cleveland city council and was chosen president of the Cleveland Sinking Fund Commission. Later he was elected to the state senate and served as special United States commissioner to investigate the question of municipal ownership in Great Britain. He was also vice-president of the Municipal Traction Company of Cleveland.


Mr. Howe is an eminent economist and writer, being author of "The City, the Hope of Democracy," "The British City," "The Confessions of a Monopolist," and "Privilege and Democracy in America." He is a contributor to leading American periodicals on political and economic subjects. Mr. Howe took the Ph. D. degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1892, and has been a lecturer on taxation at the Western Reserve University and on municipal administration at the University of Wisconsin. At the latter, in 1909- 10, he also lectured on "European Politics" and "American Politics." In 1903 he married Miss Marie H. Jenney, at Syracuse, New York.


GENERAL JAMES BARNETT.—An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent reference to the one whose name initiates this paragraph. He holds distinctive precedence as a leading banker and merchant of Cleveland and as a valiant and patriotic soldier, who in every relation of life has borne himself with such signal dignity and honor as to gain him the respect of all. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has wielded a wide influence. At the present time his relation to the public life of the city is that ,of director of the First National Bank and of President of the extensive hardware business conducted under the name of the George Worthington Company.


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General Barnett was born June 20, 1821, at Cherry Valley, New York. His father, Melancthon Barnett, was born in Amenia, Dutchess county, New York, in 1789, and when six years of age was taken, with others of _the family, to Oneida county, New York, where he remained until 1812. He then located at New Hartford, near Utica, New York, where for two years he was engaged as a clerk in a general store. From there he went to Cherry Valley, Otsego county, where he followed merchandising in connection with a partner until 1825. In the latter year he removed with his family to Cleveland to accept a clerkship in a store just opened by a Mr. May. Later he was admitted to a partnership under the style of May & Barnett, which existed until 1834, when they closed out their mercantile interests and began dealing in real estate, continuing in that line very successfully for many years. In 1844 Mr. Barnett was elected a member of the city council and the same year he was elected treasurer of Cuyahoga county and proved himself to be a most capable and scrupulously honest official. He was elected in 1846 and again in 1848. The duties not occupying his entire tithe, he also filled the office of justice of the peace and conducted his real estate transactions. Almost immediately after leaving the office of county treasurer he was elected a director of the City Bank and from that time until. his death took a prominent part in the affairs of that institution. He was one of the .best known citizens of Cleveland in his day. Plain in manner, he made no pretense at display and detested sham and trickery. The wisdom of his counsel in business circles was highly regarded. A man of wonderful vitality and vigor, he lived to the advanced age of more than ninety-two years and at his death was as active as most men twenty years his junior. His death occurred July 1, 1881. At Cherry Valley, New York, on the 18th of May, 1815, he had married Miss Mary Clark, a daughter of Captain Clark, who participated in the battle of Bunker Hill and other engagements of the Revolutionary war, so that General Barnett came to his membership with the Sons of the American Revolution. The death of Mrs. Mary Barnett occurred April 21, 1840. By her marriage she became the mother of five children : William Augustus, Martha, Melancthon, Mary and James, but only William A. and James lived to adult age.


The youthful days of General Barnett were spent in Cleveland, which at the time of his arrival contained a population of about. 700. He was then four years of age. In due course of time he entered the public schools, where he pursued his education, and when he put aside his text-books, his activities and energies were directed to the accomplishments of such tasks as were assigned him in the hardware store of Potter & Clark, where he was employed for three years. On the expiration of that period he entered the employ of George Worthington, owner of a hardware store of this city, and through gradual stages of promotion worked his way tipward until he was admitted to a partnership under the firm style of George Worthington & Company. The business grew and expanded with the growth of the city and he was elected president after the incorporation a few years ago. The death of Mr. Worthington made him senior partner of the firm, of which he is now president.


His military record forms an interesting chapter in his history and he is to-day one of the oldest representatives of the militia. Having become a member of the Cleveland Grays, he was detailed to artillery service in the gun squad of the company in 1839 and served in that capacity until the formation of the Cleveland Light Artillery. He was promoted from time to time until, in 1859, he was commissioned colonel of the regiment. The previous year he had been appointed division inspector of the Fourth Division, Ohio Volunteer Militia. Five days after the fall of Fort Sumter the order came from Governor Dennison : "Report with your six gunF, horses, caissons at Columbus ; you to retain colonel's rank." Colonel Barnett lost no time in obeying the command and with his troops went to Marietta, Ohio, remaining at the post there until May, when they were ordered to West Virginia and participated in the battle of Phillippi, June 3, 1861, their guns firing the first artillery shots on the Union side in the great Civil war. A contemporary biographer, in speaking of General Barnett's service in defense of the Union, said : "He and his men were at Laurel Hill, June 7th, through the West Virginia campaign July 6th to 17th, which included Belington, July 8th, Carrick's Ford, July 13th and 14th, and the pursuit of Garnett's forces, July 15th and 16th. The three months' term of service having expired, the command was ordered to Columbus, Ohio, for muster out late in July. Upon returning


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to Cleveland the command was received with highest honors and the city council unanimously tendered General Barnett and his men a testimonial vote of thanks for their gallant services.


"In August, 1861, General Barnett was commissioned by Governor Dennison to raise a regiment of light artillery, twelve batteries of six guns each, and he at once began the work of recruiting and equipping. Upon the organization of the regiment he was commissioned its colonel, September 3, 1861. He reported to General Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio at Louisville, with four batteries, in January, 1862, and was assigned to the command of the Artillery Reserve, Army of the Ohio. He participated in the movement to Nashville, Tennessee, February 17, 1862, and in the occupation of that city a month later. He was at Duck river, March 16th to 21 st, and was thence sent to Savannah, Tennessee, to reinforce the Army of the Tennessee. With his command he was engaged in the terrific battle of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, and participated in the siege and occupation of Corinth. He then marched his command to Tuscumbia, Florence and Huntsville, Alabama, in June, 1862.


"On July 18, 1862, General Barnett was ordered to Ohio to recruit men for the batteries, which had become much depleted. Returning with 404 recruits, he was assigned to the staff of General C. C. Gilbert, commanding the Third Corps, Army of the Ohio, as chief of artillery. He was engaged in the pursuit of Bragg to Crab Orchard, Kentucky, October 1st to 15th, and in the battle of Perryville. After this battle he was appointed chief of artillery on the staff of General A. McD. McCook, commanding the right wing, Fourteenth Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, until assigned to duty as chief of artillery, Army of the Cumberland, November 24, 1862. He then participated in the Murfreesboro campaign, serving also as chief of ordnance, -and was .in the great battle of Stone River, December 28th to 3oth, and of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862, and January 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 1863. Then came the Tullahoma campaign, the Chattanooga campaign, the battles of Chattanooga, Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge, in all of which General Barnett served with bravery and distinction. For his gallant and efficient conduct in these actions, he received special commendation from General Rosecrans. General Thomas, General Rosecrans' successor, also held him in high esteem and placed implicit confidence in his military skill, judgment and bravery.


"At the close of these operations he was assigned to the command of the Reserve Artillery, Army of the Cumberland, requiring organization. He organized two divisions and was engaged in this duty at Nashville until mustered out of service October 20, 1864. He then became a volunteer aid-de-camp to General George H. Thomas and participated in the battle of Nashville in November and December of that year. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier general for gallant and meritorious service during the war.' "


When General Barnett returned home he again became an active partner in the hardware house of George Worthington & Company and contributed largely to its success through his capable management and unflagging industry. This remains as one of the oldest and important commercial enterprises of the city and his name was therefore a prominent factor in the wholesale hardware trade. His resourceful ability also enabled him to carry his efforts into other fields, so that he became prominently connected with iron manufacturing interests and also with banking In 1872 he was elected a director of the First National Bank and in January, 1876, was chosen to the presidency of that important financial institution, which position he retained until May, 1905, when the bank was reorganized and he withdrew, continuing as a director. In May, 1882, he became a member of the board of directors of the Merchants National Bank. He was also identified with railway interests, having in March, 1875, been elected a director of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway Company. He was also a director of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company until a few years ago. He is now vice-president of the Society for Savings ; president of the Garfield National Memorial association ; and a director of the National Commercial Bank, upon consolidation with the Merchants National Bank, and of the Guardian Savings & Trust Company.


On the 12th of June, 1845, General Barnett was united in marriage to Miss Maria H. Underhill, a daughter of Dr. Samuel Underhill, of Granville, Illinois, and they became the parents of five daughters, three of whom are now living : Mary B., the wife of Major Thomas Goodwillie, by whom she had three children ; Laura, the wife of Charles J. Shef-


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field, and the mother of one son ; and Carrie M., the wife of Alexander Brown, vice-president of the Brown Hoisting Company, by whom she has a son and a daughter.


No citizen has ever lived in Cleveland of whom every one speaks so highly as they do of General Barnett, who is often referred to as "the grand old man of Cleveland." He is most democratic in spirit. Kind hearted and sympathetic, his aid has never been denied to a worthy charity. During all the years, of his residence in Cleveland he has taken an active and helpful interest in the various measures of public moment. On the 1st of May, 1865, he was appointed by Governor R. B. Hayes one of the police commissioners. He was also appointed one of the early directors of the Soldiers & Sailors Orphans Home established in Xenia, Ohio, and upon the reorganization of the board he was reappointed one of the trustees by the governor in 1870. From Governor Allen he received appointment of the directorate of the Cleveland Asylum for the Insane and was one of the trustees of that institution for seven years. He has held few elective political offices, yet in March, 1878, was chosen by popular suffrage as a member of the city council and served for two years. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention in Chicago, when General James A. Garfield was nominated for the presidency. They had been friends from boyhood and had served together on General Rosecrans' staff. In 1900 he was delegate to the National Convention at Philadelphia when McKinley was renominated for president. In 1881, by a joint resolution of Congress, General Barnett was made. a member of the board of managers of the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and so served until the 21 st of April, 1884. His interest in military affairs has never ceased and since its organization he has been a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and also of the Military order of the Loyal Legion since its establishment in Ohio. He was a member of the monument committee and of its executive committee for the Cuyahoga county soldiers' and sailors' monument and so served until its completion. Various municipal interests have benefited by his cooperation and his influence. For .many years he has been president of the Associated Charities and also of the Cleveland Humane Society. There is only one other living. of the original trustees of the Case Library and General Barnett has served continuously since its establishment. He is one of the trustees of the Western Reserve Historical Society and has cooperated in every movement that was deemed essential to the welfare of his city or the promotion of its interests along the lines of material, political and moral progress. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Union Club. A strong mentality, an invincible courage and a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of public opinion, and while he has now passed the eighty-eighth milestone on life's journey, he still retains a deep interest in public affairs and keeps well informed on all important questions of the day. With a business career extending over more than seventy years his record is without blemish. The simplicity of his manner, his honorable life and his high type of citizenship cannot be pictured in too glowing colors. On the occasion of the presentation of his portrait by Samuel Mather, to the Chamber of Commerce in April, 1907, he was proclaimed `the first citizen of Cleveland.' "


BARTON OSMAN HULL, who is a respected farmer in Nelson township, near Garrettsville, is of a family which is identified with the early history of Trumbull county and the later progress of Portage county. He was born at Burg Hill, in the former county, on December 17, 1871 ; received a district school education at that point, and subsequently pursued courses at Hartford (Ohio) High School and Oberlin College, leaving the latter institution in 1891. Since that year he has resided on his present homestead. On June 3, 1896, Mr. Hull wedded Miss Edna Francelia Bancroft, and six children have been born to them, as follows : Helen, who was born November 3, 1897, and died December 12, 1898 ; Stanley Bancroft, born December 16, 1899 ; Emily Undine, born November 2, 1902 ; Stuart Barton, born September I 1, 1904 ; Rolland Grosvenor, born June 2, 1906 ; and Roger Aljean, born June 25, 1908. Mrs. Hull was born in Nelson, July 7, 1874, daughter of Henry L. and Emily (Grosvenor) Bancroft, the former born in Nelson July 14, 1836. Their marriage occurred at Claridon, Geauga county, Ohio, on June 3, 1868. Her mother was the daughter of Nathan Ebenezer and Laura (Fuller) Grosvenor, the former dying at Nelson April 25, 1889. Several members of the Grosvenor family settled at Elyria and Hudson at an early


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day, and were especially connected with the educational progress of Lorain and Summit counties. It should be added that Mr. Hull, of this sketch, is a Chapter. Mason, a Republican in politics, a Congregationalist in his religious faith and one of the most respected residents of this section of Portage county.


The Hull family originated in England, and on the paternal side is descended from the Hydes, who gave the name to the famous Hyde Park in London. The great-grandfather, William Hull, came to the Western Reserve with his wife and five children in the pioneer period of northern Ohio, the first homestead of the family being founded at Burg Hill, Trumbull county. Osman Mattox Hull, one of the sons, was then about four years of age. He was born in Connecticut ; at an early date settled at Hartford, that county, and married Lorina E. Raper, by whom he had two children. The head of this family was the grandfather of Burton O. The father, Ransom Hull, who was born at Burg Hill October 2, 1843, married Miss Helen G. Porter, daughter of Hiram and Pauline (Gleason) Porter, and through this union became the father of six children.


WILLIAM S. BACON was born in Brownhelm township, Lorain county, Ohio, March 28, 1847. He is a son of William and Mary (Cooper) Bacon, both natives of the same township; his grandparents were Benjamin and Ruth Bacon, natives of Connecticut, andAnsoni and Phebe (Pelton) Cooper, natives of Massachusetts. The Bacon and Cooper families came to Brownhelm township about 1817, and bought land in the wild timber, which they cleared and made into improved farms. At that time there were many Indians here and an abundance of game. William Bacon and his wife were reared in the same township, and like their parents endured therigorss and hardships of pioneer existence. They settled on part of the land secured by their parents. He was born in September, 1821, and died in January, 1899, and his wife died in 1868; they lived on the home farm all their lives. They had three sons and one daughter who lived to maturity, namely : William S., the oldest ; Lemuel A., of North Olmsted, Ohio; Benjamin A., on the old farm ; and Mary R., married W. H. Molton, of Col-Linwood, Ohio.


William S. Bacon received his education in the district school and Oberlin Business Col lege, and remained with his parents until one year after his marriage, when he purchased sixty-seven acres adjoining the home farm. The place was well improved, but needed new and more modern buildings, which he erected. He added fifty acres, which he afterward sold and still owns the original sixty-seven acres. He is an intelligent farmer and a good business man, and has been very successful.


Mr. Bacon is a Republican and takes an active interest in public affairs, and he served many years as personal property assessor. He belongs to the Knights and Ladies of Security, and his wife was a member of the Congregational church. He is well known and stands high in the estimation of his fellows.


In November, 1870, Mr. Bacon married Amanda Church, born in New England and reared in Brownhelm, Ohio, by George Bacon, an uncle of William Bacon. Mr. Bacon and his wife became parents of the following children : Grant, who died in infancy ; Ella, Mrs. Tenant W. Wilson, of Brownhelm, Ohio ; Mary Gertrude, who married Milo McQueen, of Brownhelm. Ohio ; and Leonard S., on the home place. Mrs. Bacon died in March, 1880. Mr. Bacon married in March, 1895, Carrie Lockhart Allen, a widow ; they have no children.


HENRY K.WICK.—Inn the annals of Ma-honing county no name is better known or more highly honored than that of the family of which the subject of this review is a prominent and worthy representative. He is a scion of the third generation of the family in the Western Reserve, with whose history the name has been identified for more than a century, representing practically the period marking the entire development and upbuilding of this section of the great Buckeye commonwealth. He whose name initiates this sketch is one of the prominent and influential citizens and leading business men of his native city and county, being president of the corporation known as H. K. Wick & Company and engaged in the wholesale and retail coal trade, besides which he is also prominently identified with the iron industry and other Lines of enterprise.


Henry K. Wick was born in the city of Youngstown, Ohio, his present home, on August 31, 1840, one of the ten children of Colonel Caleb B. and Maria Adelia (Griffith) Wick. Colonel Caleb B: Wick was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1765


October 1, 1795, and passed nearly his entire life in Youngstown, the capital of Mahoning county, Ohio, where he died on June 3o, 1865, secure in the unqualified respect and confidence of the community to whose progress and development he had contributed in most generous measure. He was a man of distinctive business acumen, of sterling integrity of character and of marked progressiveness and public spirit. He was a citizen of much influence in industrial and civic affairs and was prominently concerned in the initiation and upbuilding of many important industries and commercial enterprises through which the advancement and material prosperity of Mahoning county were advanced during the years of his essentially active and successful business career. Wick avenue, one of the most beautiful thoroughfares of Youngstown, was named in his honor. He was a son of Henry and Hannah (Baldwin) Wick, the former of whom was born on Long Island, New York, on March 19, 1771, being a scion of a family of Holland Dutch extraction that was founded in America in the early colonial epoch. He was twenty-three years of age at the time of his marriage to Hannah Baldwin, who was born at Morristown, New Jersey, a member of one of the prominent old families of that state. Henry Wick finally removed to Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in the general merchandise business for several years, at the expiration of which, in 1801, he came to the Western Reserve and established his home in Youngstown, where he engaged in the same line of enterprise and where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. He was one of the sterling pioneers of Mahoning county, and his name merits an enduring place on the roll of those who contributed to the development of its civic and business interests.


Colonel Caleb B. Wick likewise became a leading merchant of Youngstown, where he was reared to maturity, receiving such educational advantages as were afforded in the schools of the locality and period and having been about six years of age at the time of the family removal from the old Keystone state to Mahoning county. He was one of those far-sighted and progressive citizens who were early concerned in the operations of the iron industry, through which has in large measure been conserved the magnificent development of this favored section of the state. Colonel Wick was twice married, his first wife dying when comparatively a young woman, and the two children of this union are likewise deceased. On November 3, 1828, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Wick to Miss Maria Adelia Griffith, who was born in Caledonia, New York, a daughter of one of the honored pioneers of Mahoning county, Ohio. Both Mrs. Wick and her husband were zealous church members.


Henry K. Wick, whose name initiates this review, was reared to manhood in Youngstown, to whose common schools of the middle-pioneer epoch he is indebted for his early educational discipline, which has since been rounded out and most effectively supplemented by the lessons gained under the direction of that wisest of head masters, experience. In 1856, when sixteen years of age, he secured a clerical position in the Mahoning National Bank in his native city, and with the passing of years he assumed greater and greater business responsibilities, rising to prominence and success as one of the representative factors in the industrial and civic affairs of the community, which has been the scene of his earnest and well directed endeavors throughout his entire active career, covering a period of more than half a century. He has been intimately identified with many important enterprises of broad scope and especially with the development and upbuilding of the coal and iron industries, with which lines of enterprise he has been concerned for forty years. As already noted, he is president of the corporation of H. K. Wick & Company, which controls an extensive trade in the handling of coal at both wholesale and retail. His offices are located in the fine building of the Dollar Savings and Trust Company, in which he is a stockholder.


Though never imbued with aught of ambition for public office, Mr. Wick has ever been known as a loyal, progressive and public-spirited citizen, contributing liberally of influence and tangible co-operation in the promotion of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community, and in politics he .gives a stanch allegiance to the Republican party. He and his wife are zealous members of the Memorial Presbyterian church, and he is identified with various civic and social organizations of representative order. The family home, on Wick avenue, is one of the beautiful residences that add to the attractiveness of Youngstown and is a center of gracious and refined hospitality.


Mr. Wick was united in marriage to Mrs.


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Millicent R. Clarke, a daughter of the late Daniel T. Hunt, of Rochester, New York.


JAMES A. CAMPBELL.—Prominent among Youngstown's builders and successful men stands James A. Campbell, the president of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, an industry known over Ohio and her sister states. He is also one of the directors of the First National Bank and the Dollar Savings and Trust Company, the vice-president and one of the directors of the Youngstown Ice Company, the president and a director of the Central Store Company, president and director of the Crystal Ice and Storage Company, and withal one of Youngstown's most prominent, energetic, far-seeing and successful business men.


Mr. Campbell was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, but he was reared at Austintown in Mahoning county, and he completed his education at the Niles High School and at Hiram College. After leaving college he was with the Morris Hardware Company for some time, and then organizing the Youngstown Ice Company he served as its manager until embarking in the iron business in 1890. On November 28, 1900, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company was organized and incorporated, with a capital of $600,000, but this has subsequently increased to a $10,000,000 paid up stock, with a bond investment of $3,200,000 and undivided profits of over $7,000,000, making over $20,000,000 capital used in the business. The officers of this immense concern are : J. A. Campbell, president ; H. G. Dalton, of Cleveland, first vice-president ; C. S. Robinson, second vice-president ; George E. Day, secretary ; Richard Garlick, treasurer ; and W. B. Jones, auditor. The company manufactures pig iron, steel billets, steel sheet bar, galvanized iron and steel sheets and plates, black and galvanized iron and steel pipe and all kinds of wire and wire products. The works furnish employment to 6,500 men, and the company's pay roll amounts to about $425,000 per month, and will probably reach a much higher mark in the ensuing year. Mr. Campbell is a member of the board of trustees of the Chamber of Commerce and was formerly its president, and he has membership relations with the National Union and the Royal Arcanum.


He married in 1880 Etta Place, from St. Petersburg, Pennsylvania, and their three children are Louis J., Helen Marie and Rebecca Walton. The son is attending Yale University and the daughters are students in schools in the east.


THOMAS FOLGER, who passed away at his summer home on Avon Point,

Lorain county, on the 13th of October, 1909, held a secure place in popular confidence and esteem, and the community gave evidence of its appreciation of the loss of a most valued business man, a worthy and loyal citizen, and a sterling representative of one of the pioneer families of the Western Reserve.


Mr. Folger was a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, served with marked ability as the mayor of Elyria, was prominently identified with the development of the grape industry in this section, and was a business man of unusual capacity and discrimination, as was shown in the marked success achieved by him along normal lines of productive enterprise.


Thomas Folger was born in Wadsworth, Medina county, Ohio, on the 14th of February, 1842, and was a son of Henry G. and Elisa A. (Ingersoll) Folger, the former of whom was born in London, England, the latter being a native of Auburn, New York. Henry G. Folger was the founder of the family in the fine old Western Reserve and he passed the closing years of his life at Avon Point, Lorain county, but he died on the 26th of November, 1883, in Elyria. His devoted wife survived him a number of years, until the 7th of March, 1904, having passed the closing years of her life in the home of her son Thomas, of this memoir.


The Folger family was founded in America in the colonial epoch of our national history, and a lineage is traced in a direct way to one of the name who was one of the seven original proprietors of the Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, where Thomas Folger, grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, resided for a long term 0f years. The grandfather was extensively engaged in operations in connection with the whaling industry. in the early days, and was an interested principal in the ownership of several whaling vessels. When the English government passed a law providing for the payment of an appreciable bounty on whale-oil products, Thomas Folger found it expedient to remove to the city of London, England, in order to avail himself of the privileges and provisions 0f the law. mentioned, but 'after the abolishment of the whale-oil bounty he found it unprofitable to continue his business operations in England,


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1767


whereupon he returned, with his family, to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he passed the residue of his life. He was married while a resident of London and there his son, Henry G., was born, as already noted in this context. Another of his sons was the late Hon. Charles J. Folger, who was United States sub-treasurer under the administration of President Grant, and who held the post of secretary of the treasury under President Arthur, besides which he was incumbent of other distinguished government offices. Henry G. Folger devoted the latter portion of his active career to agriculture and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the Western Reserve. He took up his residence in Medina county at an early day and he continued to be identified with the business and civic interests of the fine old Reserve throughout the residue of his long and useful life.


Thomas Folger, the immediate subject 0f this memoir, gained his early educational discipline in the common schools of Medina county, Ohio, and later continued his higher academic studies in the Western Reserve College at Hudson. He was nineteen years of age at the inception of the Civil war and forthwith 'gave distinctive evidence of his intrinsic loyalty and patriotism by tendering his services in defense of the Union. In August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company H, Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he continued to serve until the close of the war. He was mustered out and received his honorable discharge in July, 1865. The Twenty-ninth Ohio was first assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and in this connection Mr. Folger participated in the memorable battles 0f Gettysburg, Chancellorsville and Cedar Mountain, besides many minor engagements. Finally the regiment was transferred to the Army of the Southeast, under command of General Sherman. Through this association Mr. Folger took part in the Atlanta campaign, and after the capitulation of Atlanta accompanied Sherman on the historic march to the sea and through the Carolinas. The regiment finally proceeded to the national capital, where it was in line during the Grand Review of the victory-crowned veterans of the greatest civil war known t0 history. Mr. Folger was promoted from the ranks to the office of lieutenant and adjutant, and later received the brevet rank of captain. His record as a leal and loyal soldier of the republic was one of utmost fidelity and gallantry, and he


Vol. III-32


ever continued to show his deep interest in his old comrades in arms, as was indicated by his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic.


After the close of the war Mr. Folger returned to Ohio and took up his residence in the city of Cleveland, where he engaged in the produce and commission business, with which he continued to be identified about nine years, at the expiration of which he turned his attention to the wholesale commission trade, in which he was there concerned until about the year 1878, when he identified himself with the grape-culture industry, finding both pleasure and profit through his association therewith. He carried on extensive operations in this field of enterprise for a long term of years and not only gained noteworthy success but also a far-reaching reputation, by reason of the fine products sent forth from his vineyards located on Avon Point, Lorain county, on the shores of Lake Erie, where he had a landed estate of 150 acres. The business is still continued by the family and the vineyards are recognized as being among the best in a state that has gained wide fame for its grape production. Although the family home was maintained in the city of Elyria for more than twenty years prior to his demise, Mr. Folger's inclinations and business interests led him to pass the major portion of each year on his beautiful country estate, where he found great pleasure in supervising in a personal way his attractive vineyards. He was one of the prime factors in effecting the organization of the Lorain County Grape Growers' Shipping Association, which has effectively handled the products of the vineyards in the leading markets of the country. For fourteen years he was manager of the above organization, having charge of the selling and shipping of the crops 0f the 150 growers in the organizati0n.

Though essentially modest and unassuming in his attitude, Mr. Folger was a man of positive and well fortified 0pinions and was ready to defend the same when expediency demanded. He was specially loyal to all civic duties and manifested a lively interest in all that touched the general welfare of his home county and state. In politics he acc0rded a stalwart allegiance to the Democratic party, and while he was not ambitious for official preferment his civic loyalty was such that he did not deny himself or his services to the public. He served for several years as a member of the city council of Elyria, and his efforts


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in behalf of good municipal government led to his being made the candidate of his party for the office of mayor of the city in 1903. He was elected by a gratifying majority and gave a most discriminating and effective administration, being the first Democratic mayor of Elyria in fifty-two years. He was again the candidate of his party for the mayoralty at the time of his death, and it was practically a foregone conclusion that he would have again been the popular choice for the office of chief executive of the city in which his interests were so long centered. He was stricken while apparently in the best of health, and his illness, terminating in his death on the 13th of October, 1909, was of the briefest duration. Mr. Folger was a Royal Arch Mason for over forty years, and was also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the G. A. R.


On the 6th of May, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Folger to Miss Delia M. Beswick, who was born and reared in Medina; Ohio, and who is a daughter of the late Asahel and Emma A. (Richards) Beswick. Mrs. Folger survives her honored husband and still resides in the beautiful family home in Elyria. They became the parents of four daughters, concerning whom the following brief data are given : Anna B. is the wife of Charles M. Braman, cashier of the Central Bank Company in the' city of Lorain ; Josephine D. is the wife of Dr. Charles H. Cushing, of Elyria ; Ida A. died at the age of eight years ; and Jean P. is the wife of Arthur D. Pettibone, of Cleveland. In conclusion is consistently reproduced an editorial that appeared in an Elyria paper at the time of the death of Mr. Folger :


"The sudden death of Thomas Folger came as a sad blow to his many friends in the city. Mr. Folger's personality had won for him, during his long residence in the city, a place in the respect of all of his fellow citizens. His quiet, unassuming way spoke of a big nature, and those who knew him intimately were attracted strongly by his frankness and honesty, as well as by a cordiality that never failed. He was quick to make up his mind, and his decisions were announced positively. One always counted on a square deal with Thomas Folger and was never disappointed. He attended to his business affairs in a quiet manner, accomplished successful results and won friends, which is much to say for a man in these days. His successful election as mayor a few years ago, against a strong party opposition, showed the confidence of the commmunity, and he made a most effective official. He was impartial in his court work, rich and poor receiving impartial justice, while his rulings were ever tempered with good sense. He has always been a Democrat in politics, and in his death the party loses one of its most loyal supporters. The city loses a good and patriotic citizen. His early years were cheerfully given to the service of his country; and he also cheerfully undertook those civic duties entrusted to him. He was just preparing for a vigorous campaign. for re-election to the mayoralty when death cut him down, and he was entering into it with a zeal born entirely of a desire to help toward a needed reform in the various branches of the city government. He was glad to assume the burden which mould follow if his fellow citizens desired it. A good man indeed has gone from us."


HIRAM LESLEY LARNARD. - Noteworthy among the prosperous and practical agriculturists of the Western Reserve is Hiram Lesley Larnard, distinguished as a native-born son, as the worthy representative of an honored pioneer family, and for the excellent New England ancestry from which he is descended. A son of Amos J. Larnard, he was born December 3, 1844, in Bazetta township, Trumbull county, Ohio. Amos J. Laniard was born March 6, 1808, in Westfield, Massachusetts, where he grew to man's estate and subsequently married Eunice Kellogg, who belonged to an old and highly respected family of Hampden county. Soon after that important event he came with his bride to Trumbull county, Ohio, locating first in Fowler township, but afterwards taking up land in Bazetta township, where he improved a homestead, and was engaged as a tiller of the soil until his death, March 6, 1892. His wife survived him, dying in 1897, in the spring of the year, her body being laid to rest beside his in the Cortland cemetery. He was active in local affairs, serving for over twenty years as justice of the peace in Bazetta.


Brought up on the home farm, Hiram Lesley Larnard was educated in Bakersburg, now called Cortland, attending the district and high schools. In 1861 he began working for himself, for a year being employed on the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. Returning then to his old home, he worked on the farm and in the mill, making cheese boxes, which were then in great demand, until 1864. Early


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1769


in, that year, in March, Mr. Larnard started westward in pursuit of fortune, and was away from home six years, spending the greater part of the time as a miner in Montana, although he was in British Columbia two years and in the winter of 1866 and 1867 was a resident of Salt Lake City. In 1870 he returned to Cortland, and in 1881 assumed possession of his present farm, which he has since managed with both pleasure and profit. While living in Montana Mr. Larnard served two years as deputy sheriff in Diamond City, that being at a time when the country around about him was in its wildest state, inhabited to a large extent with a lawless people.


On December 3, 1873, Mr. Larnard married Mary E. Adams, who was born on the present home farm, December 3, 1839, a daughter of Origin B. Adams. Mrs. Larnard comes from a family that has long been prominent in the annals of Massachusetts and which has furnished our country with two presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and many statesmen of distinction. The family, originally called Ap Adams, was of Welsh origin, and in 1296 a member was called to the Parliament of Edward the First as Baron of the Realm. Mrs. Larnard is a descendant in the eighth generation from Henry Adams, the immigrant, the line of descent being as follows : Henry, Edward, Henry, Ebenezer, Ebenezer, Ebenezer, Origin B. and Mary E.


Henry Adams emigrated from England in 1632 or 1633, bringing with him his wife, eight sons and a daughter, and becoming one of the first settlers of Boston, whose authorities allotted him forty acres of land called "The Mount." He died in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1646, on October 6, and was there buried. Ensign Edward Adams was born in England in 1630, and died March 3, 1676, in Massachusetts. He married, in 1652, Lydia Rockwood, daughter of Richard and Agnes (Bicknell) Rockwood. Henry Adams, born in Medfield, Massachusetts, October 29, 1662, married December 19, 1691, Patience Ellis, daughter of "Thomas and Mary (Wright) Ellis. Ebenezer Adams, born in Providence, Rhode Island, February 11, 1704, married October 11, 1744, Elizabeth Sears, and settled in Becket, Massachusetts. Ebenezer Adams, born in Can

 Massachusetts, August 19, 1746, married April 30, 1770-1, Mary Carpenter, who was born in Becket, Massachusetts, July 9, 1752. Ebenezer Adams, born in Becket, Massachusetts, July 27, 1779, married Betsey Gilford, of Lee, Massachusetts, and in March, 1833, moved with his family to Portage county, Ohio, where he resided until his death, January 16, 1857.


Origin B. Adams was born in 1804 in Becket, Massachusetts, and died in Nelson, Ohio, February 14, 1842. He married March 1, 1831, Kittle Ann Lewis, a daughter of Isaac and Jemima Lewis, of Dryden, New York. She was born December 16, 1809, in New York, and died in Nelson, Ohi0, March 6, 1889. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Origin B. Adams, one of whom, Mary E. Adams, is the wife of Mr. Larnard.


FRED JOHN QUIRK, a prominent and successful farmer of Hiram township, Portage county, was born November 19, 1876, in Richmond, Missouri, and is a son of John T. and Mary Emily (Whitmer) Quirk. His grandfather, John Quirk, a native of the Isle of Man, emigrated to the United States with his family when his son, John T., was an infant. John T. Quirk was born in 1832 on the Isle of Man and died in 1886, in Richmond, Missouri. He was married in Hiram township by Clinton Young to Mary Emily Whitmer, December 19, 1855, and they became parents of four children, of whom three survive, one residing in Kansas City and two in the Western Reserve. Mary E. Whitmer was born May 16, 1835, in Independence, Missouri, and came to the Western Reserve when three years old, with her mother, to Hiram township in 1838. Her father, Peter Whitmer, was a native of New York state ; he married Vashti Higley and they had three children. Her grandfather was also named Peter Whitmer.


Fred J. Quirk attended the public schools of Richmond, Missouri, until 1890, when he went to Hiram and for five terms attended Hiram College, under President E. V. Zallors. Upon leaving college he returned to Missouri and entered the employ of the Daggett Dry Goods Company, of Kansas City, where he continued two years. Returning to Hiram, he took up farming at his present location, at first on shares in company with his stepfather, but for the last two years he has been in independent possession of the farm. Mr. Quirk married Bessie Dyer, born November 5, 1883, in Cleveland ; they were married in Cleveland February 8, 1907, and have no children. She is a daughter of Franz B. Dyer, born September 19, 1844, in Windsor, Ohio, and died January 27, 1902. He married, in Garrettsville,.


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Ohio, May 5, 1881, Cora Hutchinson, born September 17, 1846, and they had four children, all living in Cleveland. Cora Hutchinson is a daughter of Egbert Hutchinson, born November 7, 1826, in the Western Reserve, and died October 15, 1901 ; he married Sabrina B. Baker, who was born in 1839. Of their four children three are living in the Western Reserve ; Mrs. Hutchinson died in 1879. Egbert Hutchinson is a brother of Mrs. Mary Hutchinson Stevens, of whom further mention is made in connection with the article of her husband, William Stevens, found elsewhere in this work.


GIRDEON LEWIS RILEY was born January 12, 1841, on the farm he now occupies. He is a son of Eppy and Diana (Parish-Boise) Riley. The great-grandfather removed from England to Middletown, Connecticut, and his son Julius was born June 1, 1750, at Middletown. Julius Riley married Mabel Adkins and then moved to Chester, Massachusetts, where they lived for some time ; he died December 1, 1838, and his wife October 12, 1837. He was a minuteman in the Revolution, and one 0f the light horse cavalry of General Henry Lee. Among his eight children was Eppy, born December 24, 1789, in Chester, Massachusetts ; he served through the war of 1812. Eppy Riley married (first) May 29, 1811, Rebecca Parish, by whom he had six children ; he died April 5, 1874, and she September 1, 1834. He came to the Western Reserve in 1812, making the journey from Chester, Massachusetts, on foot. He made two trips back, each time on foot and barefoot. He married (second) July 2, 1835, Diana (Parish) Boise, a widow, sister of his first wife, and their three children were : Rebecca, born May 30, 1836 ; Charles, August 24, 1838; and Girdeon Lewis.


Girdeon L. Riley was educated in the district schools of Aurora and spent one term at Hiram College, at the time Garfield was its principal. He then went to work on the farm he still operates, where his grandfather lived and died. He is a substantial man in the community and universally liked and respected.


Mr. Riley married, March 1, 1866, Adelaide, daughter of William Henry, and born October 16, 1845, in Bainbridge, Geauga county, Ohio. Her father was born November 3, 1794, at Middlefield, Massachusetts, and married in Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, in 1823, Rachel McConoughely, who was born March 16, 1801, and came to the Western Reserve with her

parents when four years of age. William Henry served through the war of 1812, for which his widow afterward drew a pension. His father, Simon Henry, was born November 27, 1766, in Lebanon, formerly Windham, Connecticut, which was set off in 1800 as the town of Columbus. He married Rhoda Parsons May I, 1792 ; she was born in Enfield, Connecticut, March 17, 1774. They had five sons and three daughters. They started for the Western Reserve September 18, 1817, and arrived in Bainbridge forty-four days afterward, after a weary time of travel, and purchased a tract of land of Simon Perkins, of Warren.


Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Riley had two children, namely : Kittie, born April 16, 1867, at present living at home, and Caroline Melissa, born February 13, 1875, died at the age of fourteen years.


JAMES BURDETTE FROST.-Especially worthy of mention in a work of this character is James Burdette Frost, of Mantua, Portage county, who is distinguished not only as a successful agriculturist, but as a native born citizen and the representative of the pioneer family of prominence. He was born December 10, 1851, on the farm which he now owns and occupies, and which was the farm consisting of 700 acres of his father, Elmer Frost. On the paternal side he comes of honored New England ancestry, his grandfather, James Frost, having been a native of Massachusetts.


Springing from a family of note James Frost was born February 8, 1790, in Blandford, Hampden county, Massachusetts, and among its rugged hills grew to manhood. In May, 1816, animated, by the restless spirit characteristic of the true born American, he started westward in search of cheaper lands, his mind instinctively turning toward that part of the country settled by men from his' own section of New England. Investing his ready money in a horse and wagon, he dr0ve across the country to the Western Reserve, where, being pleased with the country round about, he decided to locate. Having no ready money, .he soon exchanged his horse and vehicle for 100 acres of land and immediately began its improvement. Ere long the ringing strokes of his axe, which is now one of the highly prized treasures of his grandson, James B. Frost, could be heard, as he levelled the giants of. the forest in order to clear a space in which to erect his first dwelling house. He labored untiringly, in course of time placing a large part


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1771


of the land under cultivati0n, and was here employed as a tiller of the soil until his death, September 18, 1877. On January 8, 1818, he Married Samira Forward, who was born October 29, 1798, in Warren, Ohio, a daughter. of Judge Forward, and they became the parents of seven children.


Elmer Frost, born on the Frost homestead in Mantua October 22, 1826, passed away February 14, 1885. On November 8, 1848, he married in Mantua, Ohio, Rhoda Ann Reed, and into their home two children were born, namely : Eva Adele, who lived but six months, and James Burdette, the special subject 0f this brief personal narrative. Lyman Reed, Mrs. Frost's father, was born June 5, 1789, in Hartford, Connecticut, and died August 15, 1873. He married Rhoda Clark on November 12, 1812, and she died February 19, 1855. She was born in Hartford September 11, 1795, and they came to Ohio in 1818.


Brought up on the ancestral homestead, James B. Frost received excellent educational advantages, attending first the common schools, afterward continuing his studies at Hiram, where for several winters he was under the instruction of B. A. Hinsdale, principal of the school. Choosing the independent occupation with which he was familiar from childhood, he assisted his father in the management of the home estate, which is one of the most desirable and valuable in this part of Portage county, and as a general farmer has been eminently successful.


Mr. Frost married, February 29, 1876, Persis Ann Barker, who was born in Mantua, Ohio, and was here bred and educated, having been one of his early playmates and schoolmates. Her father, Norman Barker, was born in Newbury, Geauga county, Ohio, April 21, 1831, and died February 22, 1885. He married Roxsah Winchell, their marriage being solemnized in Mantua January 12, 1851. The mother died May 31, 1864, leaving five children. Mrs. Frost's paternal grandfather, George Barker, who was born January 22, 1804, in Venango, Pennsylvania, and died March 15, 1867, married Mary Ann Bissell, by whom he had eight children. Her maternal grandfather, Chauncey Winchell, was born in. Suffield, Connecticut, and when a lad of sixteen years began the battle of life on his own account. With a solitary sixpence and a jackknife as his only assets, he came then to the Western Reserve in search of a fortune. Active, energetic and thrifty, he succeeded well, in course of time accumulating a sufficient property .to maintain himself and family in a befitting manner. He married in May, 1825, Persis Parker, who bore him twelve children. Mr. and Mrs. Frost have one child, Elmer Norman, who was born June 27, 1887. He married, August 27, 1908, Emma Krohn, a native of Auburn, Geauga county, Ohio, and they have one child, Mildred Adele, born April 24, 1909. Politically Mr. Frost supports the principles of the Democratic party, and though not an office seeker is now township trustee. He is also one of the directors of the First National Bank of Mantua.


MILTON FRENCH.-The venerable and honored Milton French, now a retired citizen of Austinburg, has spent all but five of his fourscore years in the township, and until about two years ago lived on the old farm to which his parents brought him as a little boy of three. He is therefore justly classed as one of the real pioneers and reliable citizens of Ashtabula county. He is a Massachusetts man, born April 2, 1829, and in 1832 his parents brought him from their little farm in Massachusetts to their new and larger homestead in the Western Reserve. On the family farm between Austinburg and Jefferson the son advanced to, older boyhood and youth, attended the district school, and at the age of twenty-one attained his independence in fact as in years ; for from that time he worked along independent lines as an agriculturist and a citizen.

For more than seventy years the fine old farm in Austinburg township was Mr. French's home and the field of his labors, his only absences from home being his year's visit to northern Michigan and the same length of time spent in Hudson, New York ; and this temporary desertion of his home township and county was as late as 1898-9, when he was approaching his seventieth year. Some two years ago he retired from active work, his agricultural specialty having always been dairying. This was also his father's special calling, and his son Robert, who now carries on the home place, has adopted the same line. The farm, which comprises 140 acres, is situated in the gas belt of northern Ohio and, although no wells have been devel0ped, the Phillips Gas Company pays Mr. French one dollar per acre for the purpose of barring all prospecting parties from his land.

In 1858 Mr. French married Miss Eliza-


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1772


beth Bull, daughter of Henry and Rebecca! Bull and a native of Stephentown, New York, who was reared in Rochester. Mrs. Milton French died in April, 1891, mother of four children, of whom Nettie did not survive her sixth year. Robert, who is on the old homestead, married Miss Florence Penny ; Mary F. is a teacher in Lake Erie College, at Painesville ; and Harry E., who resides in Cleveland, married Miss Emily Clemens and is the father of a daughter, Elizabeth (named after her grandmother).


WILLIAM A. LADD, a well-known farmer of Randolph township, Portage county, represents a family of substance and good standing, which has been established in this part of the Reserve for nearly seventy years. He is a son of William C. and Martha C. (Bard) Ladd, who located in Mantua township, in the northern part of the county, during the year 1840, and was himself born in Ravenna, March 8, 1852. In 1854 he moved to Randolph, Portage county, Ohio. There the family homestead had been founded on a tract of about Ex) acres, and it was in that locality that William and Minnie, the two children, were reared and educated.


The son resided with his parents until his marriage, April 3, 1873, to Miss Eliza Stallsmith.

His wife, who was born May 1, 1852, is a daughter of David and Julia (Gonby) Stallsmith. Their son, William, D. Ladd, who resides at home, is married to Grace Steffy, and they have two children, Martha C. and David C. In politics the elder Mr. Ladd is a Republican, and has been honored with several township offices.


JAMES B. STEWART.—A highly intelligent and much respected resident of Edinburg township, Portage county, James B. Stewart is widely and favorably known throughout this section, not only as a prosperous agriculturist, but as a skillful carpenter and as a man of considerable prominence in public affairs. A native of Canfield, Mahoning county, Ohio, he was born March 25, 1857, a son of Hugh Stewart. Hugh Stewart immigrated to the United States from Ireland, landing in Boston. Spending but a brief time on the Atlantic coast, he pushed his way westward, locating first in Canfield, Ohio, where he lived a few years. Coming from there to Portage county in 1859, he bought a farm of fifty-three acres in Edinburg., and here carried on general farming with gratifying results, placing the larger part of the land under cultivation and erecting a substantial set of farm buildings. He married Sarah Bigham, also a native of Ireland.


Until after attaining his majority James B. Stewart resided with his parents, in the meantime learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed most successfully until his marriage. Buying then fifty acres now included in his present farm, he labored with well directed efforts, and has since added by purchase to his landed possessions, having now eighty-eight acres of rich and arable land, from which he reaps satisfactory harvests. He also works at times at his trade of a carpenter.


On October 7, 1884, Mr. Stewart married Sarah J. Wilson, who was born March 17, 1858, a daughter of Samuel and Eliza Wilson. Her parents were born, reared and married in Ireland coming from there to Ohio in the later fifties and settling in Canfield, Mahoning county. Mr. Stewart is an active member of the Congregational church, which he is serving as deacon and trustee. He is a thoroughly upright, honest man, and for eight years has been township trustee, filling the position in a manner reflecting credit upon his ability and judgment. Two sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, one of whom died in infancy, and the other, Walter Stewart, lives at home.


WILLIAM G. KING.—Exceptionally well equipped for his chosen vocation, as well by natural gifts and temperament as by his legal knowledge and skill, William G. King, of Chardon, stands high among the leading lawyers of Geauga county. His integrity and character,. compacted of generations of a stalwart New England ancestry, are above reproach both in public and in private life. He was born, February 1, 1863, in Chardon township, on the farm on which his father,. Leverette G. King, also drew the first breath of life. Mr. King's paternal grandfather came from his native place, Suffield, Connecticut, with his father and four of his brothers to the Western Reserve and settled west of Chardon, in Geauga county, on the road known now as King street, it having received its name in honor of that sturdy little company from New England.


Born on the homestead which his father redeemed from the wilderness, Leverette G. King early became familiar with agricultural labors, which he followed with success during

 

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1773


his active life. Succeeding to the ownership of the paternal acres, he carried on general farming and stock raising until his death, November II, 1894. A man of intelligence and wise judgment, he was active in the affairs of the community in which he spent his life, and, notwithstanding that he was one of the few Democrats of the neighborhood, he was several times elected to fill local offices of importance, his worth as a man and a citizen being recognized and appreciated. He was a devoted churchman and very active in the organization and maintenance of the Disciples church. He married Nancy L. Merrill, who was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, and came with her parents to Chardon in 1835. She died on the home farm May I, 1891.


As a boy William G. King assisted in the labors incidental to farm life, acquiring his first knowledge of books in the rural schools of his community. After his graduation from the Chardon High School he taught school in the country for two years, in the meantime reading law in the office of Hon. Orin S. Farr, a noted jurist in the Geauga county courts. On December 6, 1886, Mr. King was admitted to the bar. The following April he went west, and for two years was engaged in the practice of his profession in Kansas and Colorado. Returning to Chardon in the spring of 1889, he formed a partnership with W. S. Metcalf, of Chardon, and here continued his professional work, building up an extensive and lucrative law practice. From 1894 until 1898, under Cleveland's second administration, he served as postmaster of Chardon, continuing his legal duties at the same time.


Although a. tried and true Democrat living in a Republican Stronghold, Mr. King has ever been active in political circles. In the early part of 1887 he was elected justice of the peace, but resigned the office when he went west. In 1902 he was honored by an election to the highest municipal office, and for one term filled the mayor's chair. In 1905 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Geauga county, a compliment showing his great popularity, he being the only Democrat that has been elected to a county office in Geauga county for upwards of half a century, and served ably during the ensuing term.


Mr. King married, June 18, 1894, Kate Hovey, who was born in Geauga county, a daughter of Elijah F. and Hannah M. (Philbrick) Hovey, both natives of this county. Her Grandfather. Hovey came to the Western Reserve in pioneer days from Springfield, Massachusetts, while her Grandfather Philbrick migrated from Maine to Ohio, settling in Geauga county. Her father died September 15, 1905, in Munson, but her mother is still living. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. King, Merrill L. and Kenneth W. Fraternally Mr. King is a member of Chardon Lodge, No. 210, I. O. O. F., and of Chester Lodge, K. of P. A man of recognized ability professionally and in business circles, Mr. King stands high in the estimation of his fellow men, and is eminently worthy of the respect and c0nfidence so generously accorded him throughout the community.


THOMAS W. PAPE.—Standing prominent among the well known and able citizens of Lorain is Thomas W. Pape, a master plumber and president of the City Council. He is held in high respect as a man of honor and integrity, and his influence and assistance are always sought in behalf of undertakings for the public good. Distinguished as a native of the Western Reserve, he was born, October 17, 1867, in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Thomas Pape, was born and brought up in Yorkshire, England. He came to this country as a young man, and subsequently settled permanently in Cleveland, Ohio. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Hutchinson, was born in England, came to Ohio with her parents, and was married in Cleveland, where her death occurred some years later.


Completing his early education in the public schools of Cleveland, Thomas W. Pape began at the age of eighteen years to develop his native mechanical ability in the plumber's shop, where he served an apprenticeship at the plumbing trade. He afterwards followed his chosen occupation in Cleveland until 1901, when he established himself in Lorain, where he has since had charge of the practical plumbing of the Lorain Hardware Company, filling the position in a manner satisfactory not only to the firm, but to the firm's patrons.


In 1904 Mr. Pape had the honor of being elected to represent the Third Ward in the City Council, and in 1907 was made president of the organization, serving in that capacity so ably that in 1909 he was re-elected for another term of three years. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and to the Knights of the Maccabees.


Mr. Pape was united in marriage with Ella Leach, a native of Buffalo, New York, and to


1774 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


them four children have been born, namely : Gertrude, Ellsworth, Frank and Catherine.


HERMAN C. PARKER, of Franklin township, Portage county, is the owner and operator of Lake Side Farm, one of the prettiest and most productive pieces of fruit property in this section. His family was among the pioneers of Lake county, Ohio, his paternal grandfather, Edmund Parker, .locating at Madison, in 1821, purchasing land in the locality and spending his last years there.


Herman C. was born at Harpersfield, Ashtabula, county, Ohio, 0n the 22nd. of July, 1848, and is a son of Silas and Phebe D. (Beckwith) Parker. The father was a native of the Berkshire Hills country in Massachusetts and his wife was born at New London, Connecticut, daughter of Samuel and Phoebe (Powers) Beckwith. The parents were married at Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, and commenced housekeeping near Madison, Lake county, later moving to Shalersville township, Portage county, and subsequently to Harpersfield, Ashtabula county. Some eight years afterward they located in Geauga county, where the wife died on June 21, 1858. The husband and father then returned to Ashtabula county, where he married Mrs. William Norton, a widow, and died there in October, 1879. There were five children by the first marriage, the four brothers of Herman C. being Orie C. E., now a resident of Trumbull, Ohio ; Lorrin, deceased ; Manville, who lives in Geneva, this state ; and Silas, who spent his last days as a Union soldier.


Herman C. attended district school until he was fourteen years of age and lived at home until he had attained his majority. He then entered the Pennsylvania oil fields and was also engaged in the lumber business at Bay City, Michigan, where he remained for a year after his marriage, in 1876. Mr. Parker's next move was to Franklin township, where he purchased the forty-six acres of land which he .has since so successfully devoted to the raising of small fruits and vegetables. Since he became a voter Mr. Parker has been a worker for Republicanism, and for many years has been an active member of the township board of education. His fraternal identification is with the Foresters .of America No. 43. In January 1867, Mr. Parker married Miss Mary A. Beckwith, daughter of Samuel and Susan (Ettinger) Beckwith, his wife's father being a native of Portage county. The children of this union were Rollin Custer Parker, who resides at home ; Flora L., now Mrs. Everad D. Nichols, of Ravenna township ; and Leslie B. and Ralph E., who also live with their parents.


DELOS C. RANSOM.—During many years Mr. Ransom has been numbered among the representative

business men of the city of Sandusky, and he is a native son of Erie county, with whose annals the family name has been long and prominently identified. He represented his native county and state as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and in the "piping times of peace" he has shown a civic loyalty and personal integrity of purpose that compare well with the intrinsic patriotism which he manifested when the integrity of the nation was imperiled through armed rebellion. He is now one of the prominent representatives of the real estate business in Sandusky and as a citizen he commands unqualified confidence and esteem.

 

DeLos C. Ransom was born in Perkins township, Erie county, Ohio, on the 28th of August, 1840, and is a son of Isaac W. and Mary (Wright) Ransom, the former of whom was born near Hartford, Connecticut, in 1814, and the latter of whom was born near Fishkill, Dutchess county, New York, in 1818. The father came to Erie county in 1823, and the mother came here with her parents in 1835 her marriage to Isaac W. Ransom was solemnized about the year 1839. Russell Ransom, grandfather of him whose name initiates this sketch, was numbered among the sterling pioneers of Erie county, where he took up his residence in 1823, and here he reclaimed a farm from the forest wilderness. He became one of the honored and influential citizens of the pioneer community and continued his residence in Erie county until his death. He was a son of Joseph Ransom, who was a soldier in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, and who was wounded in the battle of Saratoga, New York—"Burgoyne's Surrender." This honored patriot, when venerable in years, came to Erie county, Ohio, to visit his son Russell, and on his return journey to his home he embarked on a lake vessel at Huron ; from that time no trace of him was ever found, and his fate is but a matter of conjecture today, as it was to his anxious family at that time. The lineage of the Ransom family is traced back (vide "The American Ransoms," by Wyllys C. Ransom, A. M.,) to


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1775


Robert Ransom, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, who is supposed to have been 'a native of either Ipswich or Kent, England, and who came to America prior to 1654, his son Mathew, his son Joseph, and his son Joseph, the Revolutionary soldier above mentioned.


DeLos C. Ransom was reared on the old homestead farm in Perkins township, Erie county, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of the locality and period. He graduated in the Sandusky high school in 1860. He continued to be associated in the w0rk and management of the farm until the time of the Civil war, when his intrinsic loyalty and patriotism were quickened to decisive action, as shown in the fact that in August, 1862, he tendered his services in defense of the Union by enlisting as a private in Company G, One Hundred and Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he continued in service until the close of the great internecine conflict. He took part in a number of the important battles marking the progress of the war, including that of Cedar Creek under General Sheridan, October 19, 1864; New Market, Virginia, under General Sigel, 1864 ; Winchester, Virginia, under General Milroy, 1863 ; same place under General Hunter, 1864 ; same place under General Sheridan, 1864 ; Shenandoah Ford, Virginia, 1864 ; Fisher Hill, Virginia, 1864 ; Lynchburg, Virginia, 1864; Berryville, Virginia, 1864 ; Piedmont, Virginia, 1864 ; Hatcher's Run, Virginia, 1865 ; and capture of Fort Gregg, Virginia, 1865. In 1863, with his entire regiment, he was confined in historic old Libby prison after he and his comrades were captured by the enemy at Stevenson's Junction. The regiment is made the special mention in the memoirs of General Grant, who there enters record concerning the effective service rendered by this regiment on this special occasion; told also by Historian General Horace Porter, in "Battles of Civil War." The regiment was sent out to burn Farmville bridge in Virginia, and again captured in toto by Lee's army. The little. band, consisting of less than 600 men, made several gallant charges in an unsuccessful effort to break through .the enemy's ranks, and inflicted upon the ,Confederate forces a loss, in killed and wounded, more than equal to their entire number. Here Colonel Reed, commanding, fell mortally wounded, as did also General Washburn, and at the close of the conflict on this occasion nearly every officer of the regiment, as well as a great number of the rank and file, had been killed or wounded. Under these conditions the little band of survivors, after having contended gallantly against fearful odds,. was compelled to surrender. It is thus a matter of record that this valiant command of less than 600 men had checked the progress of a strong detachment of the Confederate army. In connection with this event the personal memoirs of General Grant state that this arrest of the advance of Lee's army undoubtedly saved to the Union forces the trains following General Lee. Mr. Ransom was mustered out at Columbus, Ohio, after the close of the war and duly received his honorable discharge. He proved one of the brave and gallant two million soldiers and his military record shall ever redound to his credit as one of the loyal sons of the republic and as a man who had the courage of his convictions at this climacteric period of the nation's history, even as he has in all other relations of life. He has ever manifested a deep interest in his old comrades in arms, and this is signified by his membership in McMeens Post, No. 19, Grand Army of the Republic, in Sandusky, Ohi0.


After the close of the war Mr. Ransom returned to Erie county, where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until 1877, when he engaged in the real estate business in Sandusky, where he has since continued in this line of enterprise, in connecti0n with which his operations have been of wide scope, having been a member of the Sandusky Platting Commission to lay out an orderly city in advance of population. He won in a hardly contested suit for its enforcement, and it has inured greatly to the civic and material progress and upbuilding of the city. He is the inventor of the "Ransom Internal Combustion Heater." He is a man of broad mental ken. and is known as a great reader and independent thinker. He has relied upon his own deductions and has ordered his course in accord with the dictates of mature judgment and earnest and well fortified convictions for a "fair deal" and equal opportunity for all. He is essentially individual, and while sincere, tolerant and kindly in his association with his fellow men, he never has compromised with convictions or conscience for the sake of personal expediency. He views men and affairs in correct proportions and his intellectual per-


1776 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


spective is broad and comprehensive. He has not failed to gain his quota of victories, and when victory perched on opposing banners he bore injustice with equanimity, waiting time's remorseless righting of I wrong under the grateful influence of peace,. and as a soldier of the republic his attitude is well shown in the quotation from Shakespeare, of whose works he is a close and appreciative student—"Lay on, Macduff, and damned be he who first cries 'Hold ! Enough !' " In politics Mr. Ransom has ever been found arrayed as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and while never a seeker of official preferment he has shown a loyal interest in public affairs, especially those of local order.


In the year 1869 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ransom to Miss Caroline Taylor, who was born in Perkins, Erie county, Ohio, on the 24th of March, 1839, and who was a daughter of Nelson and Martha (Akins) Taylor, the former of whom was born in Connecticut and the latter: in Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Ransom was summoned to the life eternal in 1901, and is survived by her husband and two nephews (adopted), whom she greatly assisted in giving an education and honest character. Ross D. L. Ransom, twenty-six years of age, is a farmer at Perkins, in Erie county, Ohio. He married Rosalie Badgeley, born in Canda in 1881 and they have a daughter, Bessie Ransom, two years of age. Webster H. Ransom, the younger of the two nephews, born in 1886, is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying for the United States forestry service.


The joint engraving accompanying this sketch is a picture of the happy intellectual life of Mr. DeLos C. Ransom and wife, Caroline Taylor, for their closed life's journey of a third of a century. "Plato, thou reasonest well ; whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire for immortality."


IRVIN B. DAVIS is numbered among the younger representatives of the business interests of Portage county, and his home is in Atwater township. Born on the 22nd of November, 1879, he is a son of James and Delilah (Miller) Davis, both of whom were born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. The son remained at home with his parents until nineteen years of age, in the meantime moving with them to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, -and since the early age of ten he has been identified with business life as a miner.


On the 23rd of December, 1904, he was united in marriage with Bertha M. Wilson, from Fayette county, that state, and together they came to Portage c0unty, Ohio, on the 23rd of November, 1908, Mr. Davis resuming his mining operations here. The one child of this union is a daughter, Amelia M. Davis. Mr. Davis affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the American Mechanics, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.


ARTHUR L. DUDLEY, a prosperous farmer of Henrietta township, Lorain county, Ohio, and a public-spirited and useful citizen, is a native of the township and county, born in 1856, on the farm where he now resides. He attended the local public school and also took a course at Oberlin, Ohio. Returning home, he took up farming, which he has since continued on the old homestead: He is well known and highly esteemed in the community.


In 1894 Mr. Dudley married Ella W. daughter of Ellis and Elizabeth (Sanders) Whitlock, the former from Vermont and the latter from Nova Scotia. This union has been blessed with the following children : Helen A., born March 5, 1895 ; Lorina Marian, August 13, 1896 ; Lumer Whitlock, September 22, 1898 ; Joseph Harwood, June 22, 1900; Dyte Sanders, born December 15, 1901, died June 6, 1904 ; Grace E., born July 14, 1907 ; and Lewis Arthur, March 27, 1909.


ABRAHAM BEAR.—The Bear family is one of the oldest in Sandusky, and the name has been prominently associated with the business life of this city for many years. Nathan and Harriet (Wiener) Bear, both from Germany, were married in Cleveland, and when their son Abraham was a year old they came to Sandusky, Nathan beginning work at his trade of cabinet making. He afterward embarked in the grocery business, later was associated with the wholesale fish business and still later with the wholesale fish and pork business, finally establishing the pork packing house with which his name was so prominently associated for many years, that of the Hosmer, Bear & Company. He continued as a member of that firm until the time of his death and in the same he has been succeeded by his son.


Abraham Bear, born in Cleveland in 1842, received his educational training in the high school of Sandusky, and after its completion he became associated with his father in the pack-


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1777


ing house, the firm name subsequently becoming Beat & Son.. A year after the death of the senior member of the firm the name was changed to Bear & Ruth, and has thus continued to the present time.


CHARLES W. REDFIELD is identified with the professional life of Portage county as an educator, and he has taught at Charlestown and other places. Born on the 21st of June, 1889, he is a. son of Frank Albert Redfield, who re- sides at Jerome, this state, and he in turn is a son of L. D. Redfield, also of that place. For a time Charles W. Redfield resided with his mother at Atwater, engaged in general labor, and then. coming to Charlestown has since taught in its schools. He is a self-made m.an in the truest sense of the word, and deserves much credit and honor for the success he has achieved thus far on his life's journey.


EMANUEL R. SPIERS has left his impress upon many of the different interests of Portage county, being an educator, farmer and soldier. In his early youth he attended the district schools, and at the age of thirty-three he matriculated in and graduated from a normal school at Worthington, Ohio, and from there entered Mount Union College, which he attended up to the senior year. Upon leaving school he was made the superintendent of the graded school at Mt. Union, and corning from there to Charlestown he has ever since made his home in this township. Three years of his early life were spent as a Union soldier in the Civil war, entering the ranks in 1862, and after his marriage he bought his farm of 162 acres in Charlestown township, where he reared his family and farmed for many years. He has served as a justice of the peace for three years, and also as a member of the board of education, being president of the said board for four years.


Mr. Spiers was born oh the loth of July, 1843,. in Portage county, and his father, William Spiers, was from England, but coming to America and Portage county, Ohio, he secured a farm of sixty-six acres in the township of Atwater. In his farnily were five sons and a daughter, and the number included Emanuel R. Spiers, who married Ellen Baith, and they have had ,two sons and three daughters—Arthur P., who is attending school at Lima, New York ; Mabel, engaged in educational work in Beloit ; Bessie, a student in the high school at Ravenna ; and Ina and Robert, at home with their parents. Mr. Spiers is a member of the Grange, of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Sons of Temperance. His life in the main has been very quietly and pleasantly passed thus far on its journey, and he is one of the honored residents of his community.


RALPH M. CURTIS is numbered among the younger representatives of the agricultural interests of Portage county as well as among its. native sons, born on the 29th of November,. 1882, to Frank C. and Anna M. (Mahon) Curtis, who are natives of the Western Reserve, and were married here on the 23rd of October, 1880. Frank C.. Curtis is a son of Anson and Harriet G. Curtis, who were from Massachusetts. Anson Curtis came to Portage county when eighteen years of age, journying with ox teams, and he secured a farm here of 111 acres. He cleared and improved his land, and the log cabin which he first built thereon was in time superseded by the frame building which now does service as a buggy shed. By his marriage to Harriet Greenleaf he became the father of three children, Homer A., Frank C. and Mary E., but the last named is deceased. Frank C. Curtis in time came into possession of his father's old homestead, and the property is now owned by his son, Ralph M. Curtis, the subject of this review, he having inherited the place five years ago. His home is rich in antiques, including his great-grandmother's spinning wheel, with the flax on its head just as she left it. He also has a geography and primer used by his grandparents, and one of the clocks- of this historic old home is now over a hundred years old.


Mr. Curtis married on the 23rd of June, 1904, Mary E. Gardner, born in Freedom township October 28, 1883, a daughter of Frank P. and Kate P. (Weigand) Gardner, and the father is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are both members of the Congregational church, and he is a Republican in his political affiliations. He has served as a justice of the peace and as a school director.


HARRY T. ZELNAR, Brimfield township, is a progressive farmer of substance and honorable standing. He is a native of Magadore, in the township named, born on the 27th of January, 1877, and is a son of George N. and Mary (Moulton) Zelnar. His parents were also born in Brimfield township—the father, April 16, 1839, and the mother, January 1, 1851: the paternal grandfather settled there in 1835


1778 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


and the maternal grandfather was also native to it. In both a broad and special sense, therefore, the Zelnar family is notably connected with the pioneer history of Portage county. When the grandfather on the paternal side came to Brimfield township he continued his life as a farmer, and in quite young manhood married Miss Mary Harter, daughter of Jacob Harter a neighboring agriculturist. Jeremiah. C. Moulton, the grandfather on the mother's side, was of mixed blood, his father being half-Indian. The latter located in Brimfield township about 1812, and afterward married, at Devil's Lake, Minnesota, Miss Columbia Houghaboon, a Canadian girl of Scotch-Irish parentage. Besides Harry T., the children born to Mr. and Mrs. George N. Zelnar were as follows : Eugene L., who resides in Magadore and married Miss Nettie Potts ;

born in Springfield township in 1867 ; Myrtle, born in Tallmadge, in 1880, who, in September, 1907, married Edward Dussel, son of Peter Dussel of Randolph township, and is now a resident of St. Louis, Missouri ; Perry, also a native of Magadore township, born in 1884 ; and Bessie, who was born in Brimfield township in 1888, married Roy Kels0 in 1907 and now lives in Kent. Harry T., of this sketch is unmarried, and has spent seventeen industrious and honorable years on his present homestead.


CHARLES HAHN.—Noteworthy among the substantial and progressive agriculturists and solid business men of Black River township, Lorain county, is Charles Hahn, a

 

well known farmer and the president of the National Bank of Commerce of Lorain. He was born, June 11, 1848, on the farm where he now lives, which is finely located on the lake shore, five miles west of Lorain. He is of German ancestry and a s0n of George Hahn, who came with his father, Peter Hahn, to Ohio in 1837. On 'coming from, Germany to Ohio with his family Peter Hahn settled on a farm in Black River township., about two and one-half miles west of Lorain, and was there employed in tilling the soil until after the death of his wife. Subsequently, with two of his sons, he removed to Iowa, going there about 1856, and was there a resident until his death.


Obtaining a thorough knowledge of agriculture while living with his parents, George Hahn became a farmer from choice, and after his marriage began life for himself on the farm now owned and 0ccupied by his son Charles, the subject of this sketch. True to the principles in which he was brought up, he practiced thrift and economy and accumulated a good property, and is residing on his farm at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. He married Elizabeth Bretz, who was born in Germany and came to Lorain county with her parents in 1833. She died March 3, 1889, aged eighty years.


The only surviving child of his parents, Charles Hahn was reared on the home farm and was educated in the district schools and at the Oberlin Business College. Succeeding to the management of the farm on which he has spent' his entire life, he has followed his chosen vocation with exceptionally good results. In addition to adding substantially to the improvements of the place, he has from time to time bought more land, increasing its area to 400 acres, which it at one time contained. The Nickel Plate and Lake Shore Railway companies t0gether t0ok ten acres belonging to his farm, leaving Mr. Hahn now with 390 acres of as rich and fertile land as can be found in this part of the state. A man of superior business tact and sense, Mr. Hahn wisely invested a part of his accumulations in land, and formerly owned two other valuable farms, one of 126 acres, near Oberlin, and another, containing 236 acres, in Erie county, Ohio. These farms he has given to his sons. He was one of the

organizers of the National Bank of Commerce of Lorain, of which he has been president since its incorporation.


Mr. Hahn married Catherine Baumhart, who was born in Black River township, Lorain county, March 17, 1852, a daughter of Adam Baumhart, who came to Ohio from Germany with his father, Elias Baumhart, when he was about sixteen years of age, in 1837. Adam Baumhart was born in 1821, in Germany, and died January 1, 1894, in Ohio. He married Christina Herwig, who was born in January, 1826, in the fatherland, and came to this country as a child with her parents. She died in 1904. Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Baumhart, as follows : Amelia, wife of Benjamin Claus, of Brownhelm township, Lorain county ; Elias, living in Amherst township, married Margaret Jacobs ; Jacob, deceased ; Henry, deceased ; Mrs. Hahn ; Armina, widow of the late Samuel Garrett ; James, of Brownhelm township, married Margaret Trinter ; Edward, deceased;


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1779


Adam, a resident of Houston, Texas, married Mabel Gregory ; Martha, wife of Henry Ferber, of Brownhelm township ; and Jac0b, of Vermilion, Ohio, married Mary Krapp.


The union of Mr. and Mrs. Hahn has been blessed by the birth of eight children, namely : Lewis E., residing in Berlin township, Erie county, married Lucy D. Ludwig, and they have five children, Edward C., Ge0rge L., Walter A., Carl J. and Herbert H. ; George A., of Russia township, married Carrie A. Schaible, and they have three children, Kathryn B., Harold S. and Marion C. ; Caroline C. died in 1877, aged three years ; Martha A., wife of Charles Schaible, of Elyria township; Minnie K., wife of Arthur C. Wangerien, has one child, H. Stanley ; Bertha Elizabeth married G. Henry Schmitkons, and lives at Middle Ridge, east of Amherst ; a son that died in infancy ; and Amelia M., at home. Mr. Hahn was for many years supervisor of Black River township. Religiously he and his family attend the Evangelical Church at Amherst.


CHARLES HAYES FRANK, a pioneer of the railway mail service on the Grand Trunk Railroad, a leading banker and ex-mayor of Painesville, was born at Kirtland in 1840, the year that Lake county was erected and not long after the final Mormon migration from Ohio. He lived at home until he was sixteen years of age, when he became clerk in the Painesville postoffice, under Landon Smith. In 1863, during the incumbency of Edwin Cowles, he was advanced both in position and salary, and soon after was appointed railway clerk on the Erie line between Buffalo and New York. From this position he was detailed to inaugurate and superintend railway mail service on the Lake Shore Railroad between Buffalo and Toledo, and upon the raid of the Confederates into Ohio, under Morgan, he enlisted and served with the so called 'Squirrel Hunters." Going then to New England he became bookkeeper at the State School for Boys. at Meriden, Connecticut, a position which he filled for three years.


Returning to Painesville, Mr. Frank served for some time as teller of the First National Bank, and was then advanced to the position of cashier, which office he faithfully and ably filled until his resignation in 1906. During his incumbency as cashier he was city treasurer for eight years and served as mayor from 1904 to 1906.


In 1868 Mr. Frank married Miss Susan Lines, daughter of Major O. J. Lines, of Painesville ; she died in 1877 without issue. In 1879 he wedded as his second wife Miss Helen Dunning, of New Milford, Connecticut, sister of Rev. Dr. Dunning, a celebrated Boston divine. Klara, the offspring by this marriage, is now the wife of George A. Smith, cashier of the Merchants' National Bank, of Newton, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, George A., Jr. Mrs. Charles H. Frank is a cousin of the renowned Henry Ward Beecher, and is widely known as an educated and cultured lady, having served as principal of the Painesville grammar school from. 1883 until 1904, and during that long period made a remarkable record for faithfulness and efficiency.

George Frank, father of Charles H., came to Kirtland about the time of the great Mormon hegira, became a farmer and kept a well-known tavern on the old Chillicothe road within a st0ne's throw of the celebrated Mormon temple built in 1834. Mr. Frank was born in 1812, the first white child born in the town of Busti, Chautauqua county, New York, and died in Painesville in 1892, at the residence of his son. He was of a genial, optimistic nature ; a leader in the promotion of all worthy enterprises and, like other kindly souls, had many warm friends to whom his death was a heartfelt grief. Mrs. Frank, who preceded her husband to the beyond, was of the Milliken family, who came by ox team all the way from Saco, Maine, at a very early period of Western Reserve history.


BENJAMIN E. DEELEY was born in the city of Sandusky on the 31 st of August, 1841, and his entire life has been spent here and he has proved one of the city's substantial residents. His parents, Edmond and Dora (Kinney) Deeley, the father from England and the mother from the north of Ireland, were married in the city of Newark, New Jersey, and in 1840 they came to Erie county and established their home in Sandusky. Edmond Deeley followed his trade of shoemaking here for some time and later became identified with the fish industry, being the first representative of that business in Sandusky, and he in time built up a large industry and continued actively in the enterprise until moving to Michigan in 1865. In that state he became a farmer.


Benjamin E. Deeley in his early life was en-


1780 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


gaged both at his trade of carpentering and with his father in the fish industry, but from 1859 until 1861 he followed his trade exclusively. This brought him to the opening of the Civil war, and at the first call for three months' service he enlisted on the 19th day of April, 1861, in Company E, Eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but on the l0th of the following June he was discharged from the service and he returned to his home in Sandusky and continued his trade until in the fall of 1862 he became a member of Company G, One Hundred and Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and continued in the service for three years, receiving his honorable discharge on the 12th of June, 1865, at Camp Chase, Ohio. From the 13th to the 15th of June, 1863, he participated in the battle of Winchester and in that of Newmarket on the 15th of May, 1864, and he was made a prisoner of war at both engagements. After his return to Sandusky from the war he began work in the railroad shops at car building. He has given a lifelong support to the Republican party, and he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.


On the 8th of June, 1866, Mr. Deeley was married to Jane Steen, a daughter of Charles and Lorenda (Stevens) Steen, who journeyed from Vermont to Erie county, Ohio, with an ox team and located in Berlin township. There they erected- a stone building, which also contained a roof of stone and gun holes through which to fight the Indians. They sold this property in 1858 and started 'for Kansas, but the husband and father was drowned en route. The six children, three sons and three daughters, born to Mr. and Mrs. Deeley are living.


GEORGE FREDERICK ANDERSON has gained a distinguished position in the industrial life of Sandusky and of Erie county as a manufacturer. He is a native son of Sandusky, born in .1860, a son of George J. and a grandson of George Anderson, names well and prominently known in this community. George Anderson, the grandfather, was born in Cherry Valley, New York, and after studying medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. McCracken in Rochester, New York, and of Dr. Rush in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he came to Venice, in Erie county, Ohio, in 1818, and thence to Portland City, now Sandusky, in 1819. He was one of the earliest practitioners of medicine and surgery in this city, and he continued actively in the work until he died 0f cholera, in 1834. He had married on the 14th of June, 1821, Eleanor Hull, who was born at Ballston Spring, in Saratoga county, New York, a relative of the General Hull who won fame in the war of 1812. The two children of that union were Pallos E. and George James.


George J. Anderson was born in Sandusky, Ohio, May 4, 1827, and he received his early educational training in its city schools and later was a student of Kenyon College, but he was obliged to leave college on account of sickness. In September of 1864 he enlisted for the Civil war in the one-hundred-day service, but again sickness interfered and caused his discharge from the ranks, and after his return to Sandusky and his convalescence he engaged in the insurance business and followed that line of business until appointed, in 1867, a collector of internal revenue. After retiring from that position he was associated with Lawrence Cable, Peter Gilcher and others in organizing the Third National Bank, of which he was made the cashier. On account of a serious illness he resigned that office, although he was subsequently elected the vice-president of the Third National and remained the incumbent of the office until his death, in 1887. He was a member of Sandusky's board of education, was a Knight Templar Mason and a past commander of the order, and was a member of the Grace Episcopal church. In politics he gave his allegiance to the Republican party.


On the 18th of October, 1852, George J. Anderson was united in marriage with Miss Emilie Louisa Coan, a daughter of Peter and Abigail Frothingham (Camp) Coan, both of whom were born in Connecticut, the father in Madison and the mother in Middletown. They came to Lorain county, Ohio, in the fall of 1839, and spent a number of years on their farm near Ridgeville. Peter Coan died in the year of 1867. The two children born to Mr. and. Mrs. Anderson are Jesse, who died at the age of ten years, in 1864, and George Frederick, the Sandusky manufacturer.


George F. Anderson married Miss Kingsbury West, a daughter 0f Abel Kingsbury and Caroline E. (Wood) West, born respectively in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The father, born on the 22d of October, 1817, died on the 16th of April, 1880, and the mother was born April 27, 1830, and died on the 31st of December, 1892. A daughter, Marjorie, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson in 1892. George F. Anderson is


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1781


affiliated with the Republican party, and is a member of both the Masonic fraternity and of the Episcopal church.


GEORGE ZABST.—An upright, honest man of sterling worth and character, the late George Zabst, Of Groton township, was a self-made man in every sense implied by the term, his success in life furnishing a forcible illustration to the present generation of the success to be attained by industry, untiring energy and a diligent use of one's faculties and opportunities. A native of Germany, he was born in 1824, and lived in the Fatherland until seven years old. In 1831 John Zabst, Sr., emigrated with his family to America from Germany, bringing his Wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Lantz, and their children; among whom was the son George. Locating in Crawford county, Ohio, he bought land near New Washington, where he cleared and improved a valuable homestead. Eighty acres of his old farm are owned and occupied by the widow of his grandson, Adam Zabst,. the youngest son of John Zabst, Jr.


Coming with the family to Ohio when a small lad, George Zabst assisted his father in clearing a farm, and at the age of sixteen years began the battle of life on his own account, his father giving him his time, telling him that whatever he made should be his own. Drifting northward in search of employment, he worked for different farmers, working in Huron county for a year for a Mr. Long. Subsequently entering the employ of Rufus Russell, an extensive farmer of Erie county, he remained with him a long time, finally buying from him one hundred and one acres of unbroken prairie land. Placing much of his purchase under cultivation, he made other wise improvements, erecting a good frame house, and setting out a fine apple orchard. In 1865 he disposed of that property, and bought two hundred and eighteen acres of land, mostly oak openings, on the west side of Groton township, the place being partly improved, with a large orchard in bearing condition. In 1874 he erected a large two-story residence, which is still standing, it being one of the best farm houses in the vicinity. On this farm, located five miles north of Bellevue, he carried on mixed husbandry, raising large crops of wheat each year, and in his agricultural labors was uniformly successful. He died May 1, 1874, an honored and respected citizen. In his early life he was a Democrat, but when the question of slavery arose he joined the Republican party

and was ever after an earnest supporter of its principles. Both he and his wife were faithful members of the German Lutheran church.


George Zabst married, in 1851, Lavinia Harmon, a daughter of John Harmon, who was born in Pennsylvania, but was then a resident of Crawford county, Ohio. She survived him, passing away in 1895. Six children were born of their union, two of whom have passed to the life beyond, George, Jr., dying in 1884 and Charles in 1883.


Otis Zabst, the oldest child, was brought up on the parental farm, which, after the death of his father, he and his brother operated until 1905, when it was sold by the heirs of the estate to their youngest sister, who now owns and occupies it. Removing to Bellevue in 1905, he has since made this his place of residence, and has carried on a substantial business as a dealer in sugar beet feed. He has also an office in Sandusky, where he is engaged in the real estate and ken business, his operations in that line being quite extensive. Inheriting the political views of his father, he has always been an adherent of the Republican party; and for three years was trustee of Groton township.


Otis Zabst married, in 1876, at the age of twenty-three years, Lizzie S. White, a daughter of Ebenezer and Ellen White, the former of whom was born in Connecticut and the latter in New York state. Three children have blessed their union, namely : Fred Leroy, who died in infancy ; Ellen L., born October 28, 1879, married W. B. Snyder, of Bellevue ; and Myrtle May, born October 28, 1882, is the wife of Fred H. Schuster, of Bellevue.


THOMPSON H. WRIGHT.—A thriving and enterprising agriculturist of Leroy township, Thompson H. Wright is distinguished not only as a native-born citizen of Lake county, but as the son of a representative pioneer and as a brave soldier in the Civil war. He was born April 2, 1833, at Paine Hollow, or Paine's Creek, where his father, James Wright, lived for many years. His grandfather, William Wright, came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, locating in Leroy township, at Indian Point, on the banks of the Grand river, and some of the apple trees that he set out are still standing, having for nearly a century braved the winds and storms that have proved destructive to other trees.


James Wright was born in Beaver, Pennsylvania, and as an infant was brought by parents to Leroy township, the babies in the

1782 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


little party of emigrants being drawn on a rack made with poles placed on each side of a horse and drawn along the ground. When a boy he lived for some time with an old man named Joy, on the north side of Grand river, and after his marriage was located for a while at Indian Point. He subsequently bought forty acres of land that was still in its pristine wildness, earning money to pay for it by working at Paine's mill, keeping busy all day and half of the night, clearing his land as he could find opportunity. When an old man he sold his farm to his youngest son and spent his last years with his daughter, dying at the venerable age of ninety-one years. James Wright married Fanny F. Holcomb, a daughter of Joel Holcomb. She was born in Connecticut, and as a little girl moved with her parents to New York State, the journey being performed with ox teams, she, in the meantime, walking behind the heavily loaded wagons and driving a pig or a calf. While she was still a maiden her parents migrated to Ohio, settling in Leroy township. Joel Holcomb served in the Revolutionary war, belonging to a Connecticut regiment. He improved a homestead in Leroy township, and here lived until his death, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. James Wright six grew to years of maturity, namely : Eliza Ann; Who married Arad Baker, of Leroy township, and died at the age of seventy-four years James E. died in Leroy, aged seventy-four years ; Thaddeus E., of Perry. township, Lake county ; Thompson H., the subject 0f this brief biographical sketch ; Oliver G., of Blakeman, Rawlins county, Kansas ; and Barton F., who died at the age 0f forty-eight years.


Living at home until twenty-two years old, Thompson H. Wright did his full share in clearing the homestead, which, owing to a defective title, his father had to pay for twice. Money was then scarce, and he and his brother, Thaddeus E. Wright, worked out, receiving fourteen dollars a month, and turning their wages over to their father, in this way paying for the land and also buying another tract of fifty-two acres and building a frame house. Beginning life on his own account a year after attaining his majority, Mr. Wright worked for wages until 1856. Going then to J0hnson county, Iowa, he invested his money in eighty acres of land, which he soon sold. He afterwards spent a short time in Wisconsin, from there returning to his old home. On August

20, 1861, Mr. Wright enlisted in the Fourteenth Ohio Battery, under Captain Burrows, who had charge of six guns and a squad of fourteen men. He enlisted as a private, but became quartermaster, with the rank 0f sergeant, and he foraged and took part in forced marches to get rations for his comrades. With the battery he took part in many engagements, being at the battle at Pittsburg Landing, thence on to Atlanta with the battery and back to Nashville. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, Mr. Wright veteranized and served until after the close of the war, being mustered out August 12, 1865. After his return he spent eight years in Missouri, but not content to remain permanently in that state came back to Ohi0, and for three or four years lived on rented land. About 1889 Mr. Wright purchased his present farm of forty acres in Leroy township, and has since been prosperously employed in agricultural pursuits.


In the fall of 1864, while home on a furlough, Mr. Wright married Philena Shipman, who was born September 30, 1840, at New Lyme, Ashtabula county, Ohio. Her father, Joseph Shipman, born in Old Lyme, Connecticut, came to Ohio when a young man, settling in Ashtabula county, where he carried on general farming for many years. Subsequently removing to Michigan, he spent his last days in Tuscola county, dying there at the age of four score years. He married first, February 16, 1837, Mary Sterling Carey, who was born August 15, 1807, in Old Lyme, Connecticut, came to Ohio with her parents when a girl and died in Cherry Valley, Ashtabula county, Ohio, about 1853. He married for his second wife Huldah J. Cutler. Mrs. Wright's grandparents, Elijah and Catherine Shipman, were also settlers of Ohio, and died in Lake county. Her grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, going to the front with the brave boys from Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Wright have two children, namely : Carrie M., wife of Charles Reed, of Perry township, Lake county, has one child, Elsie C. Reed. Etta E., who married L. R. Fobes, of Cherry Valley, Ashtabula county, has one son, Raymond Wright Fobes.


PHILIP S. COWELL.—An early settler of Erie county, the late Philip S. Cowell, of Margaretta township, was an honored type of the energetic, hardy and enterprising men who bravely dared the privations and hardships of frontier life, and, through their industrious and persistent


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1783


toil, actively assisted in the development and advancement of the agricultural resources of this part of the Western Reserve. A son of Christopher and Rachel (Colbaugh) Cowell, natives of Pennsylvania, he was born, in 1800, in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and was there reared and educated. Following the march of civilization westward, he came in 1818 to Erie county, Ohio, locating at Castalia, while it was yet known as Margaretta township, no village having then been thought of. Subsequently taking up a tract of heavily timbered land, he reclaimed a homestead from the dense forest, and was prosperously engaged in general .farming until his death, April 3, 1869. He was Whig in politics until the formation of the Republican party, with which he was afterwards identified.


In 1826 Philip S. Cowell married Mrs. Anna M. (Duncan ) Snow, who was born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1796, and died February 12, 1890. Left an orphan in childhood, she came when quite young with an uncle to Bloomfield, Ohio, and was there during the exciting time of the terrible Indian 'massacre, when Mrs. Snow and her child were killed by the savages. She subsequently married Erastus Snow, who died a few years later, leaving her with one child. Of her union with Mr. Cowell eight children were born, six sons and two daughters, of whom both daughters and the youngest child, Alvin T. Cowell, are now living.


Growing to manhood on the home farm, Alvin T. Cowell received his early education in the public schools of Castalia, afterwards continuing his studies for a year at Notre Dame University, near South Bend, Indiana. Returning to Castalia, he has since been profitably employed in agricultural pursuits on the parental homestead, his farm being finely located on the Bellevue road, about two miles from Castalia. Mr. Cowell, however, is not carrying on his land himself -as far as actual labor is concerned, but is living in Castalia, retired from active business. During the Civil war, in 1864, he enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until August of that year. He is a stanch Republican in politics, and for six years was township trustee.


In December, 1871, Alvin T. Cowell married Catherine Cooper, daughter of Cyrus and Sarah (Mitchell) Cooper, who were born and reared in Ohio, and settled in Margaretta township in 1836. Two children have been



Vol. III-33


born to Mr. and Mrs. Cowell, a son that died in infancy, and a daughter, the wife of Rev. Charles J. Dole, of Springfield, Ohio. Mr. Cowell is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.


WILBUR F. SMITH.—Especially worthy of mention in a work of this character is Wilbur F. Smith, of Painesville, a distinguished representative of one of the early pioneer families of the Western Reserve, and for many years one of the leading merchants and bankers of Lake county. A man of push and energy, possessing far more than average financial.. and executive ability and judgment, he accumulated a competency in his mercantile and banking career, and is now living retired from active business. A native of Indiana, he was born, in 1846, at Boonville, a son of George Smith, and a grandson of Levi Smith, who came from Connecticut to the Reserve in 1818, bringing his family with him, and locating in Kirtland, Lake county. Born in 1806, in Derby, Connecticut, George Smith resided there until twelve years old, when he came with his parents to Kirtland, Ohio. In 1838 he married Marianne 'Kendall, a bright New England girl, who previous to her marriage had taught school several terms in Deerfield, Massachusetts. They subsequently removed to Boonville, Indiana, where he engaged in business. His earthly career, however, was brief, his death occurring while he was yet in manhood's prime, on October 3, 1851. His widow survived him, also four daughters and one son, and the widow subsequently became the wife of Benjamin Brainard, Esq., of Unionville, Ohio.


After the death of his father Wilbur F. Smith lived for a while with relatives in Boonville,. Indiana. When eight years old he started alone to join his mother, who was then a widow and resided at Kirtland, Ohio, very near the celebrated Mormon Temple. He was endowed with true American grit and persistency, as shown by the following incident that occurred during his journey : He went by boat from Evansville, Indiana, to Cincinnati, Ohio. There, just after landing, his pocketbook was stolen by a little street Arab, to whom he immediately gave chase, following him through the dingy streets and alleys. Seeing the youthful robber dive into a squalid basement, he bolted in after him, and found the


1784 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


mother of the thief surrounded by her vagabond brood examining the newly-acquired loot. He sharply demanded the return of his money, and got it without loss, save that of breath in the exciting chase. At thirteen years of age, his mother in the meantime having married again, he began clerking in a drug and grocery store in Unionville, Ohio, continuing thus employed three years.


At the age of sixteen years Mr. Smith concocted a formula for making a superior quality of ink, and in his endeavors to put it on the market traveled for three years in the Middle West, beginning at Adrian, Michigan, with one lone dollar in his pocket for expenses. He found good demand and sale for his ink, and at the end of three years sold out and returned .to Ohio with quite a sum of money.


Locating in Painesville, he bought a drug and grocery store and conducted it successfully for a few years. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Henry E. Marvin, now of Toledo, Ohio, and was with him two and one-half years. In 190o his business was incorporated as the W. F. Smith Company, and he retired from its active supervision. In 1893 Mr. Smith ,organized the "Dollar Savings Bank," of Painesville, and served as its first vice-president and executive officer until 1907. After fourteen years of uninterrupted prosperity it was sold to the "Cleveland Trust Company," a branch of which is located in Painesville. Since that time Mr. Smith has lived retired from active business pursuits, enjoying a well deserved leisure.


Mr. Smith has been twice married. He married first, in 1873, Frances Miller, of Austinburg, Ohio. She died March 16, 1903, her death being a loss not only to her immediate family and friends but to the entire community, more especially in church and social circles, in both of which she was prominent and active. She left two children, Percy K. and Mae Gertrude. Percy K. Smith, a prominent manufacturer of Painesville, married Florence Stockwell, and they have three children, Frances, Marjorie and Norris. Mae Gertrude married Albert M. Means, who is associated with the house of Otis & Hough, in Cleveland, and they have one child, Sidney Wilbur Means.


Mr. Smith married for his second wife, October 31, 1907, Miss Julia Howe Stockwell, who was born, in 1868, in New York city, a daughter of Alden B. and Julia (Howe) Stockwell, and granddaughter of Elias Howe, the original inventor of the sewing machine. Mrs. Smith's great-grandmother, Mrs. Hannah (Parmly) Burridge, came from Vermont to Ohio as a bride, she and her husband journeying across the forest covered country in a covered wagon drawn by oxen, locating in Perry township, on the shores of Lake Erie, in 181o. Mrs. Smith is closely related to the Parmly and Burridge families, prominent in the early settlement of Lake county, more especially in the townships of Perry and Painesville, where they owned large tracts of land and subsequently erected some of the most notable buildings in what is now the city of Painesville. The house in which Mr. and Mrs. Smith now live was for sixty years the home of Mrs. Smith's grandmother, Mrs: Betsey Stockwell.


The Smith family originated in England, and it is known that the emigrant ancestor was living near Boston in 1636. Abram Smith, the great-grandfather of Mr. Smith, married Sarah French, whose ancestors are frequently mentioned in Colonial records. Their son Levi, an early settler of Derby, Connecticut, married Ruth Holbrook, and in 1818 settled in Kirtland, Ohio, as mentioned above.


HONORABLE CHARLES DICK.—There has been an element of peculiar coherency in the career of General Charles Dick, of Akron, Ohio, representative in the United States Senate, from Ohio. His life has been one of consecutive accumulation and giving out of splendid abilities and powers along varied lines of endeavor. In view of the multiplicity of his efforts, it is significantly apparent that the above statement is true. Through his own ability he became successful in practical business affairs ; he attained to no little distinction in the legal profession, and as a statesman and a leader in political affairs his eminence is uniformly conceded. In the affairs of state, as taken aside from the extraordinary conditions of warfare (and General Dick has also touched the latter phase), there are demanded men whose mental ken is as wide and whose generalship is as effective as those who insure successful maneuvering of armed forces by the skilled commander on the field of battle. The nation's welfare and prosperity may be said to hinge as heavily upon individual discrimination and executive ability in the one case as the other. It requires a master mind to marshal and organize the forces for political purposes and produce the best results by concerted action. Such a leader has been found in the person of Senator Dick, who may well be designated as one of the commanding


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1785


officers of the Republican party, to whose victories his contribution has been powerful and generous.


In a more localized sense the following words, taken from a previously published sketch of the career of Senator Dick, are worthy of reproduction in this article : "The state of Ohio has come only once to Summit county for a United States Senator. That was in February, 1904, when Charles Dick, then representing the Nineteenth District in Congress, was triumphantly elected to the higher station. The fact that trainloads of representative citizens of Akron journeyed to Columbus to be present at the joint session of the Legislature electing him, is evidence of the esteem in which he is held by his neighbors. Most of those who have risen to high places during their residence in Summit county were born elsewhere, most of them had the advantage of splendid educations obtained elsewhere. General Dick, on the other hand, is in all respects .a product of our own county."


Charles Dick was born in the city of Akr0n, Ohio, November 3, 1858, and is a son of Gottlieb and Mary M. (Handel) Dick, the former of whom was born in Germany, and the latter of German lineage. The history of the lives of his parents may be consistently noted as the "short and simple annals of the poor," as the immortal Lincoln so feelingly wrote of his own parents. Gottlieb Dick was able to rear his family in comfort and to give his children the .advantages of the public schools, but his efforts, marked by industry and impregnable integrity, never raised him above the plane of comparative financial independence. Both he and his wife continued to reside in Akron until their death," a very worthy couple, meriting the esteem in which they were uniformly held.


In September, 1864, at the age of six years Charles Dick was inducted with due pomp into the public schools of Akron, where his wondering eyes and brain were brought into requisition in acquiring knowledge of the mysteries of "Webb's Word Method," and other rudimentary text-books. He continued his studies until .he had completed the curriculum of the high school, in which he graduated as a member of the class 0f 1876. At this early age, owing to conditions in the family finances, he was compelled to initiate his connections with the practical duties of life, and he secured a place as clerk in a men's furnishing store, conducted by the firm of Chipman & Barnes. He continued in this position two years, and meanwhile such was his ambition that he continued his studies, especially along those lines which touch practical business. He thus reinforced his natural capacity, and the Citizens' Savings & Loan Association, since merged with the Second National Bank, offered him a position as bookkeeper and teller, of which he continued the able and popular incumbent for a period of six years, within which he gained a wider acquaintanceship with business methods and business men. In 1879 he became bookkeeper for the J. F. Seiberling Company, manufacturers of the Empire mowers and reapers, and in 1881 he entered into partnership with Lucius C. Miles, a son-in-law of J. F. Seiberling, and they engaged in the grain and commission business, under the firm name of Dick & Miles. They built up a large and prosperous business and the alliance continued until February, 1890, when J. Edward Peterson, 'brother-in-law of Mr. Dick, succeeded Mr. Miles, after which the firm of Dick & Peterson continued the enterprise with great success until the increasing political responsibilities of Mr. Dick necessitated his withdrawal from active association with the business.


Senator Dick's entrance into the domain of practical politics was made in the spring of 1886, when he was nominated for the office of county auditor on the Republican ticket, which was victorious in that year by good pluralities. Mr. Dick assumed the duties of his new office early in 1887, and was chosen his own successor in 1889. He continued in tenure of this position until the expiration of his second term, in 1893, and his service was marked by the same fidelity and high sense of stewardship that have characterized his entire public career. It is significantly true that among all the exactions and perplexities of a particularly active and prolonged association with political affairs he has never been one to "bend the pregnant hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning." On the contrary, his independence and adherence to the course he believed right have been conspicuous characteristics of his career in all its relations. Concerning his labors in the office of auditor the following pertinent statements have been written by one familiar with the same : "In the conscientious discharge of his duties he felt obliged to proceed against some of Akron's wealthy and most influential citizens, because of their failure to list personal property for taxation. It was at best a disagreeable and unwelcome task, but he performed it faithfully and to the satis-


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faction of the great mass of citizens of the county, even though one or two unavoidable enmities resulted from his resolve as a conscientious office-holder to perform his full duty, without fear or favor. As an evidence of the commendation accorded his course, his second election as county auditor was by a largely increased majority over the first."


Meanwhile Mr. Dick had found or made opportunity to direct his mental energies along another line, as he began the reading of law, in the assimilation of which he made such rapid and effective progress that he was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1894. In 1897 he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. For about a decade he was senior member of the exceptionally strong law firm of Dick, Doyle & Bryan, of Akron, and this gratifying alliance came to an end only when Mr. Doyle was elected to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas. The versatility and assertive energy of Senator Dick were still further shown through his identifying himself with various of the more important industrial and financial institutions of his native city, and with the affairs of the same he continued to be more or less actively identified until, as has well been said, "the point was reached when his genius for organization in the political field was .afforded full opportunity to display itself and consumed most of his time." He became a member of the Summit County Republican Committee, on which he rendered active and efficient service for a number of years. Ire noting his further progress it is found expedient to draw again upon the excellent review of his career, from which extracts have already been made : Splendid success crowned his efforts, and throughout his entire public career of more than a score of years, practically all political contests under his leadership have resulted victoriously. No one having knowledge of his record would assume to question his fame and merit as a political general. In 1892 he was made chairman of the Ohio Republican state executive committee, in which capacity he is still serving, and during more than a decade and a half of his service as state chairman increasing majorities have piled up for the Republican ticket. In 1895-96 he co-operated most effectively with Senator Hanna in promoting the canvass of William McKinley for nomination as Republican candidate for president, and during the ensuing campaign officiated as secretary of the Chicago headquarters of the Republican National Corn-

mittee, continuing as secretary of that committee until 1900. He was a delegate to the Republican National conventions of 1892 and 1896, and was .delegate at large from Ohio to the Republican National conventions of 1900 and 1904. In recognition of the statesmanlike qualities he had displayed, and of his efforts in behalf of the party, the Republican Congressional convention, at Warren, in June, 1898, nominated him as its candidate for the House of Representatives. He was selected from a field of most worthy opponents, after a hard fight. In March, 1899, he began his duties at Washington as congressman, and he has been a national figure ever since. He was re-elected in 1900 and in 1902. In February, 1904, upon the death of Senator Hanna„ he was elected to the United States senate, to serve the remainder of the term expiring in 1905, and also for the full term expiring in 1911, receiving the unanimous vote of his party in the Ohio general assembly. Mr. Dick's career in congress has been such as to justify fully all the confidence and hopes which the people of Ohio have had in him. Senator Dick is the author of the Dick militia law, was the main instrument in securing its passage, and has actively participated in much other important legislation. The law in question put the affairs of the entire National Guard on a practical and efficient basis for the first time in its history. He is now chairman of the committee on mines and mining, and a member of several other important committees, including that on naval affairs."


There is propriety in reverting to another feature in the career of Senator Dick, and that of an order distinctly different from all others that have been briefly discussed in this article. When a young man he became interested in military affairs, and he became a member of Company B, Eighth Regiment Ohio National Guard. Here he likewise manifested his characteristic enthusiasm, and here he won promotion through the various grades until he became captain of his company. In 1888 he was elected major of the regiment, and later he became in turn colonel and brigadier general. The crowning distinction of his service with the National Guard came in 1904, when he was made the head of the Ohio organization of the same, with the rank of major general. He has served as president of the Interstate National Guard Association, and he remained the commanding officer of the National Guard of Ohio for some time. In 1898, at the inception of


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the Spanish-American war, he was lieutenant colonel of his regiment, and as such he went to the front with the Eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he participated in the Cuban campaign. He was chosen and defailed by General Shafter as one to make personal representation to President McKinley and the war department concerning the precarious situation of the United States troops in Cuba after the cessation of hostilities.


Even this brief outline will afford an idea of the varied and worthy activities marking the career of this honored son of the historic old Western Reserve, and here those who know him best and are familiar with every stage of his advancement are the ones who accord to him the fullest measure of esteem, confidence and honor. He is identified with various fraternal and civic organizations.


June 30, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Senator Dick with Miss Caroline May Peterson. Of the seven children of this union, five are living, namely : Carl P., James E., Lucius A., Grace and Dorothy.


WILLIAM SPRAY.-A well-known and successful agriculturist of Mantua township, Portage county, William Spray has spent the larger part of his life in this vicinity, and as a man and a citizen is held in high repute, having by his excellent character and straightforward business dealings fully established himself in the esteem and confidence of his neighbors and friends. He was born, August 19, 1853, in County Sussex, England, a son of Edwin Spray, and grandson of William Spray, a lifelong resident of England.


Edwin Spray was born in County Sussex, England, February 18, 1825, and was there reared and married, the maiden name of his wife being Jane Carey. Emigrating with his family to 'the United States in 1855, he came directly by rail to Ohio, first to Cleveland, thence to Ravenna, from there driving across the country to Shalersville, where he bought a tract of land, from which he improved a good farm.


Obtaining his early education in the district schools, William Spray was well drilled in the numerous branches of agriculture during the days of his boyhood and youth; and until twenty-five years of age worked on the parental farm. He his since continued in agricultural pursuits, his present farm being what is known as the old Wilmot place.


On December 24, 1878, Mr. Spray married Carrie Wilmot, who was born on the farm where she now lives, April 7, 1858, a daughter of Amzi Wilmot, whose birth occurred on this same farm, in the log cabin then standing on the place, February 18, 1823. Amzi Wilmot, the son of Ella Wilmot, was one of the early settlers of Mantua and performed his full share of the pioneer labor of clearing up this section of the county, and during his active life was successfully employed in tilling the soil. He married, October 25, 1849, Minerva S. Dudley, who was born in Aurora, Ohio, April 3, 1825, their marriage being solemnized in Amherst, Ohio. She was of substantial New England ancestry, her father, Charles Dudley, having been born and bred in Massachusetts. Four children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Spray, namely : Ethel Dean, born August 25, 1880 ; Lucretia Ruth, born March 15, 1883 ; Maud Wilmot, born November 30, 1888 ; and Ralph Wilmot, born May 10, 1892. Ethel Dean, the oldest child, married Wilbur Clyde Deeds, on November 26, 1904, and they have three children, Dorothy, born October 7, 1905 ; Ethel, born August 3, 1907 ; and Katheryn, born April 17, 1909.


ANDREW PHELPS LINCOLN is a member of a family of long standing and of prominence in Lorain county, and he himself is one of the well known and influential agriculturists of Pittsfield township. Joseph H. Lincoln, his father, was born at Peru in Bennington county, Vermont, January 31, 1818, and when a young man he moved with his parents to Ionia county, Michigan. In 1848, his parents having died in the meantime, he came to Pittsfield township in Lorain county, Ohio. On April 3, 1849, he married Hannah U. Phelps, who was born at New Marlborough, Massachusetts, January 9, 1819, a daughter of Bethuel Phelps, who was born in Connecticut February 16, 1787, a son of Launcelot Phelps, born in Connecticut June 4, 1750, a son of Timothy. Launcelot Phelps served in the Revolutionary war, and moved to Colebrook, thence to South Norfolk, later to Groton, Tompkins county, New York, where he died on November 12, 1836, at the age of eighty-six years. He married on July 6, 1779, Jerusha Pinney, born at Windsor, Connecticut, November 1, 1760, and she died on March 16, 1842. Bethuel Phelps married Levina Norton, and they had two daughters, Orpha Irene and Hannah U. The elder daughter, born at Norfolk, Connecticut,


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February 27, 1814, married first Jesse Bradley and for her second husband Erastus Bradley, brothers, and by her last marriage she had two children : Mary Bradley, born July 13, 1843, and died July 12, 1846, and Delphine Bradley, born May 6, 1845, and died September 18, 1872.


After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln settled on the old Phelps homestead, and followed farming there. In 1861 he enlisted in Company H, Forty-first Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and he died at his home on February 20, 1862, from disease contracted in the army. His widow survived her husband until April 12, 1896. Two children were born to Joseph H. Lincoln and his wife Hannah U., and Louise, the elder, was born January 21, 1850, and died on February 13, 1882. She had never married.


Andrew P. Lincoln, the younger of these two children, was born on the old Phelps. farm, the one where he now lives and which he owns, on July 25, 1859, and he attended the common schools and Oberlin school. He succeeded to the old home after the death of his mother, with whom he lived until that time, and he has during many years been one of the prominent farmers of Lorain county. He is a director in the Wellington Home. Savings Bank and a member of its finance committee, a director in the Home Telephone Company of Wellington and he has served several terms as a township trustee. He is both a Mason and an Odd Fellow.


On November 27, 1899, Mr. Lincoln married Adelia Lee Barker, who was born at Welling- ton on January 21, 1864, a daughter of Orlando Barker, who was born at Peru, Massachusetts, December 10, 1810, a son of Thomas Barker, a Revolutionary soldier. Orlando Barker came to Huntington township, Lorain county, Ohio, in 1847. He married Adaline A. Hemstead, who was born at Columbus, Ohio, March 25, 1822, a daughter of Charles Phelps Hemstead, who married Rachael Cregg, a native of Virginia. The maternal grandparents came to Ohio during the early history of this state and settled near Columbus, where they `subsequently died. Orlando Barker died on March 3, 1876, and his wife died on February 8, 1899. Six children blessed their marriage union, namely : Dwight, who was born December 21, 1851, and died at the age of nine months ; Monroe, who was born November 21, 1853, and died when eight years of age ; Wallace, who was born on July 9, 1857, and is living at Aitkin, Minnesota, a real estate dealer there ; Charles, who was born on May 25, 1859, married Laura Butler, from Hart, Michigan, and he died on June 15, 1905 ; Adelia L., and one other. Mrs. Lincoln graduated from the Wellington high school in 1883 and from Oberlin College with the class of 1886, and she afterward taught in the Union school at Wellington for ten years. She is identified with many of the clubs of her home city and is interested in literary work.


GUY ANDREW O'BLENIS is a tinner and plumber in Wadsworth, and he has been engaged along this line of work since the early age of thirteen years, becoming in the meantime proficient in its various branches. He was born in Huron county, Ohio, December 4, 1877, a son of John and Susan Elizabeth (Pollinger) O'Blenis. The paternal family was founded in America by his greatgrandfather, who came to this country from Ireland when a boy, while the mother's family is of English stock. Both Mr. and Mrs. O'Blenis were born in Ohio, and the father is a plasterer. The mother was first married to William Pollinger, and they had 0ne daughter, Luella, and by her second marriage, to John O'Blenis, six children were born, three of whom were sons.


Guy A. O'Blenis was the first born of the six children, and after a good education in the schools of Findlay and Cleveland he began learning his trade in the shop of. George H. Englehart, a hardware merchant, with whom he remained for two years and nine months. During the memorable hard times of 1892-3 he worked at various places, and entering the tin shop of William Fiesler at Cleveland in 1894, he completed his trade there and left that city in April of 1896 for Lodi, Ohio, where he worked for C. M. Fullerton for two and a half years. From there he came to Seville as a plumber and tinner in the employ of J. D. Gressinger, with whom he also learned the trade of a slater, and after three years he came to Wadsworth and entered the employ of W. A. Kreider, with whom he worked for four and a half years. During the two years and eight months following that period he conducted the tin shop for the Diamond Rubber Company at Akron, going then to Pittsburg, he followed roofing in the employ of Philip Carey Company for a year and three months, for eight months was again with the Diamond Rubber Company, and then return-


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ing to Wadsworth has since been in business for himself. His long and varied experience as a tinner and plumber have made him very competent in his various lines of work, and he is rapidly building up a large trade.


Mr. O'Blenis married Miss Beulah C. Laux, a daugher of I. R. Laux, of Wadsworth. He has been a Mason since the age of twenty-one years, his membership being with Seville Lodge No. 74, and he is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.


VIVIAN B. SMALL.—Vivian Blanche Small, the honored and popular president of Lake Erie College, at Painesville, Ohio, is a prominent figure in the educational affairs of the historic old Western Reserve and is a woman of distinguished attainments. She has shown marked administrative ability and has been identified with educational work in a most successful way for the past decade and a half, having been called to her present incumbency in May, 1909.


Miss Small was born at Gardiner, Maine, on September 17, 1875, and is a representative of old and honored families in New England, which-was the cradle of so much of our national history. She is a daughter of Leander Marshall Small and Annie Blanche (Paine) Small, the former of whom was born at Bowdoinham, Maine, in 1849, and the latter of whom was born at Gardiner, that state, in 1852.


Miss Vivian B. Small gained her early educational discipline in the public schools of Gardiner, Maine, where she was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1892. She was then matriculated in Mount Holyoke College, from which splendid institution she was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It was later her privilege to do effective post-graduate work in the great University of Chicago, from which she received the degree of Master of Arts in 1905. Miss Small began her pedagogic career soon after her graduation at Mount Holyoke College, having been engaged as a teacher in the high school at Gorham, Maine, from 1896 to 1898, after which she was similarly employed in the high school at Billerica, Massachusetts, until 1901. During that year she was called to her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, in which she became instructor in Latin, retaining this position until 1908, when she was made associate professor of Latin in the institution. She continued her services in this capacity until May, 1909, when she was appointed president of Lake Erie College, one of the leading institutions for the education of young women to be found in the middle west. Here she is devoting herself with earnestness, zeal and ability to the work of the college of which she is the head, and her gracious personality and unfailing sympathy have gained for her the uniform confidence and affectionate regard of the student body. Miss Small is a member of the Congregational church.


GEORGE D. BILLINGS, D. D. S., had long stood as one of the able exponents of the profession which represents both a science and a mechanic art, and as a practitioner he kept fully abreast of the wonderful advances which have been made in both operative and laboratory dental work. He was numbered among the oldest practicing dentists in Ohio and was long engaged in the work of his profession in the thriving little city of Medina, where his success was of the most unequivocal order, and where he was held in the highest esteem as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. His active labors in his profession covered a period of more than forty years, and during all this time he maintained his offices in Medina. He was a veteran of the Civil war and was a man whose entire course in life had been guided and governed by sterling principles.


Dr. Billings was born at Oxford, Butler county, Ohio, on November T0, 1842, a son of Charles F. and Susan (Ross) Billings, the former of whom was born at Hatfield, Massachusetts, May 19, 1816, and the latter was born in the vicinity of Covington, Kentucky, March 8, 1821. The paternal grandfather of Dr. Billings was Abraham Billings, who likewise was born in Massachusetts, as was also his wife, whose maiden name was Morton. The Billings family was founded in New England in the early colonial epoch, and in England the lineage of the family is traced back to the thirteenth century. "Times change and we change with them," and thus there can be naught but distinction, as viewed from the relative valuations then placed upon men, in saying that, so far as can be ascertained, the remote ancestors of Dr. Billings in the paternal line were daring Danish pirates on the high seas. The maternal grandfather of the Doctor was William Ross, a farmer in the northwestern part of Kentucky.


Charles F. Billings was reared and educated


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in his native place, and he came to Ohio about 1834. He located at Oxford, Butler county, and there was solemnized his marriage to Miss Susan Ross. He engaged in business in Oxford and was for many years one of the leading business men and most honored and influential citizens of that place. He passed the closing years of his life in Oxford, Ohio, where he died on February 18, 1895. His first wife died on June 26, 1858. They became the parents of four children, of whom the eldest was Dr. Billings ; Charles E. is a resident of Bloomington, Indiana ; William H. died in his twenty-second year ; and James A. died in 1858, in infancy. Both parents were zealous members of the Universalist church, and in politics the father gave his allegiance to the Republican party. For his second wife he married Miss Eliza J. Keely, and she died February 8, 1901, being survived by two children.


Dr. George D. Billings gained his early educational discipline in the schools of his native village, and was also afforded the advantages of a select school, in which higher branches were taught. Upon leaving school he became a student of dentistry, under the able preceptorShip of Dr. J. W. Keeley, of Oxford, Ohio, and he was thus engaged at the time of the inceptiOn of the Civil war, when, in response to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, he promptly subordinated all other interests to tender his services in defense of the Union. On September 9, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Sixty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was forthwith assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and with this command he continued in active service for three years and four months, at the expiration of which he received his honorable discharge, on December 31, 1864. He participated in many of the most important engagements marking the progress of the great conflict,—about twenty-seven engagements in all,—and among the principal battles in which he took part may be noted the following : Stone's River, where he was wounded ; Chickamauga ; Peach Tree Creek, ,where he was again wounded ; and Resaca, Jonesboro and Atlanta.


After the close of his long and gallant career as a leal and loyal soldier of the Union, Dr. Billings returned to his home in Oxford, Ohio, where he resumed his study of dentistry, in which he perfected himself according to the standards obtaining at that time. Dental colleges were then almost unknown, and the training of practically all practitioners was gained in the same manner as that under which Dr. Billings secured his early knowledge of the business in which he was an expert workman during all the stages of advancement. In June, 1867, Dr. Billings took up his residence in Medina, where he opened an office and engaged in the practice of his profession, to which he devoted his attention during the long intervening period. The doctor drew his large and representative practice from Medina and the territory tributary to this city, and his reputation in his profession made his name a familiar one in all parts of the county. He was a member of the Ohio State Dental Society and the Northern Ohio Dental Society. His long experience and distinctive ability made his counsel prized by his professional confreres, and he took an active interest in the work of both organizations mentioned. He was a stockholder and director of the Deposit Savings Bank of Medina, and the owner of valuable real estate in Medina, including his attractive residence, which was a recognized center of gracious hospitality and a favorite rendezvous for the large circle of friends which he and his wife drew about them.


Essentially progressive, liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, Dr. Billings never desired public office, but was aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party. He with his wife was a zealous and valued member of the First Congregational church; and he had long been an uncompromising advocate of the cause of temperance. He affiliated with H. G. Blake Post, No. 169, Grand Army of the Republic, and for twelve years was secretary of the Sixty-ninth Regimental Association of Ohio. He was identified with Morning Star Lodge, No. 26, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and also held membership in the Lincoln Farmers' Association.


On October 3, 1867, Dr. Billings was united in marriage to Miss Olive M. DeWitt, of Oxford, Ohio, who died on February 27, 1877, leaving no children. On October 1, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Billings to Miss Mary J. Welty, who was born in Billingsville, Indiana, and who is a daughter of Henry I. Welty, a representative citizen and business man of that place for many years. They had one daughter, Susie M., who remains at the maternal home.


Dr. Billings died, October 6, "1909, and the community was shocked by the announcement


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of his death, which was wholly unexpected, and marked the final disappearance from Medina streets of one of its most familiar faces. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Dr. Kirby at the Congregational church, and the burial services at the grave were in charge of the H. G. Blake Post, G. A. R. The active pall-bearers were Odd Fellows and brother lodge members, both the G. A. R. and Odd Fellows attending. Outside of his profession Dr. Billings was a good citizen, a kind friend and neighbor whose cheery word and sunny disposition always bespoke the real kindness of his nature. He was honest and upright in every business relation and had the confidence of the business community. No citizen of Medina was more honored or respected than he, and his sudden going has left a vacancy that cannot be better expressed than by the oft repeated expression heard on the streets since his death, "It will seem lonesome around here without Dr. Billings."


WILLIAM DICKERHOFF.—Lenox township includes among its residents, farmers and busi- ness men William Dickerhoff, who owns a splendid estate of 205 acres, and is engaged in dairy and general farming. He is a son of John Dickerhoff, born in Maryland and for many years a farmer in Franklin township, Summit county, Ohio, and of Mary (Rhodes) Dickerhoff, both now deceased, the former dying in 1893 and the latter, September 22, 1888. The mother was born in Ohio. Their family numbered three children : Joseph Dickerhoff, yet living in Franklin township, Summit county, was born in 1848, and married Mary Wolf, and they have eleven children living. Ellen, the only daughter, was born in 1855, married William Limebaugh, living at Barberton, Summit county, and has nine children.



William Dickerhoff, the eldest child in his father's family, was born on July 15, 1850, attended the schools of Franklin township, and was later married to Catherine Frase, born in 1855. They have an adopted daughter, Lizzie, now the wife of C. A. Mills. Mr. and Mrs. Dickerhoff are members of the Congregational church and Mr. Dickerhoff has served his community several terms as a trustee. He has a fine farm, one of the finest in Lenox township, and is still engaged in farming. Mr. Mills is farming 115 acres of the homestead and has a half interest in the home. The residence on the farm is one of the finest in Lenox township.


CARLOS KELSEY, who was a prominent farmer of Lake county and is now running a regular shop at Unionville, was born October 19, 1853, at Harpersfield, Ohio. He is a son of John and Mary (Neely) Kelsey. Mary Neely was born on the vessel which was crossing the ocean with her parents, who were coming from Dublin, Ireland, to the United States. John Kelsey was from Delaware county, New York, and when nine years of age was brought by his parents to Ohio. He was a son of Daniel and Sarah (Woolsey) Kelsey, who came to Ohio in 1829 and settled on what is now the Bishop farm. Later they settled on the river road, where the present Kelsey home is situated. Daniel Kelsey died when about seventy-nine or eighty years of age.


John Kelsey lived near Cork, near the Harpersfield church, and cut his farm of 183 acres out of the timber. He died in 1889 at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife, who was two years younger than he, lived on the farm until her death at the age of eighty years. The old home is still in the family. They had six children, namely : Delos, living on the old homestead ; Carlos of this sketch ; Carlyle, died at the age of twenty-two years ; Phroscene, wife of Levi Chapin ; Delsene, who married Charles Warring ; and Sherman.


Carlos Kelsey lived at home until his marriage, owning a farm near that of his parents. At the age of twenty-seven years he married and removed to his own home, where he made many improvements, and where he resided until 1907; he now lives at Unionville, opposite the blacksmith shop. A United States His. tory, used as a reader by John Kelsey, when as a boy he attended school in Harpersfield, is still owned by his son, Carlos Kelsey. He also has an old slate brought West by David Hall in 1827, and among his other relics is a matchbox z00 years old, and a violin made in Germany in 1760, by Hopfh. Mr. Kelsey takes great interest in the history and exploits of his family, especially as regards their early hardships and struggles when pioneers of Ohio.


September 12, 1880, Mr. Kelsey married Elnora, daughter of Loton and Frances (Evans) Montgomery, and they have two children, Loton, born July 7, 1881, a merchant living in Unionville, and John, born January 17, 1893, living with his parents. Mrs. Kelsey's grandfather, Alanson Montgomery, came to Harpersfield. from New York, some ninety years ago. He came West with his father and settled next to Grand river. His father having died, his mother married a Mr.. Tower and


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the farm is still called the Tower farm. Alan-son Montgomery married Sarah Bishop, whose father was also a pioneer. They had five children, namely : Loton ; Levi, a soldier, living in Madison township ; Lewis, a soldier, who afterward went to Kansas ; Jane, who married Pitt Brokeman and died young ; and Almira, married Lorenzo Parker, and died at the age of sixty-five or six. Four brothers served throughout the war and but one was injured, and that but slightly. Mr. Montgomery's second wife was Jane Shumway, by whom he had three children, as follows : Ellen, married Miles Blakesby ; John Bach, a soldier in the Civil war, now a resident of Madison, Ohio ; and Oscar.


Loton Montgomery was born in Harpersfield, and there spent his life. He served three years in the Fifteenth Ohio Battery as orderly sergeant. When twenty-two years of age he married Frances, daughter of Ora and Sarah (Snediker) Evans, both of New York, who came to Harpersfield. Ora Evans served in the War of 1812; he was a carpenter by trade, and settled first in Geneva township, on the county line, one mile from Lake Erie, where his children were born... Later he became a farmer in Harpersfield, three-quarters of a mile west of Cork. He died October 24, 1877, and his widow died April 19, 1885. Loton Montgomery died in Harpersfield at the age of sixty-five years, and his widow now lives in Painesville. Their children were : Elnora, Mrs. Kelsey ; Lillian, who married Ernest Atkins, lives at Painesville, and has six children, five boys and one girl, two of the sons being in the navy ; Julia, died in childhood; Frances, also died in childhood ; and Theda, married Chris Sorenson, of Madison, and has one son, Roy. Loton Montgomery had been justice of the peace for some years and was engaged in the undertaking business. He lived at the village of Cork, where his farm was located. He was a prominent man in the village and at one time served as postmaster. He operated a ' shingle and cider mill and was a man of compartive prosperity and importance in the community. He was greatly esteemed and respected and of high standing with his fellows. In religion he was a Universalist.


FREDERIC HEWITT MURRAY—No family in Lake county is better known than that of which the subject

of this brief sketch is a scion in the third generation, and from the early pioneer days to the present time its representatives have held a secure place in popular confidence and esteem. The name has been prominently identified with the civic and industrial development and upbuilding of this favored section of the historic old Western Reserve, and there have been strong men and noble women to uphold the prestige of the name as one generation has followed another on to the stage of life's activities.


Mr. F. H. Murray is president of the Painesville National Bank, of which his honored father was a director, as was his grandfather of the immediate predecessor, the Bank of Geauga. This mere statement indicates in a measure the material stability that has distinguished the family since the time it was founded in Lake county, fully a hundred years ago.


The pioneer of the family on the Western Reserve, Mr. John Murray, the grandfather of Mr. F. H. Murray, was born on March 1789, in mid ocean while his parents were en route to America. The family first settled in Somerset, Pennsylvania, but when the son John had reached young manhood he married Sarah Blaine and came to Concord, Lake -county, Ohio, in 1811, thus becoming one of the earliest settlers of the township. Some years later his elder brother, Robert, also settled in Concord, with his wife, six sons and four daughters. After John Murray had established his home in Concord, he returned to Pennsylvania, and brought back his parents—Albert (1745-1820) and Margaret Hewitt Murray (1743-1839), to spend with him the last years of their lives. Thus today in the cemetery at Concord there rest side by side four generations of the Murray family.


When John Murray first came to Concord, he secured a large tract of wild land which he succeeded in reclaiming from the forest and for many years before his death in 187o, he had developed a large and productive farm of some six hundred acres. He was one of the first men to go with large droves of cattle through from Ohio to the Atlantic Coast, a business to which his six sons and three grandsons succeeded, driving cattle to Pittsburg, Philadelphia and New York.


The children of John and Sarah Blaine Murray were, Thomas, born 1812 ; Robert, 1814 Margaret, 1817, who died in youth ; Mary Ann, 1818 ; John Hewitt, 1820 ; Jared, 1823 ; George Sheldon, 1825 ; Sarah Jane, 1827 ; and Wilson, 1830.


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1793


The third son of the pioneer John Murray, John Hewitt Murray, was a resident of Concord during his entire life. He was born July 31, 1820, died April 17, 1897 ; he married on December 25, 1849, Miss Ann Kelly, who was born on the Isle of Man October 10, 1820, the daughter of Thomas and Jane Boyd Kelly, who in 1827, had emigrated to Lake county from their native island when the little daughter Ann was seven years of age.


Mr. John H. Murray was one of the most influential citizens of his township, and achieved marked success as an extensive buyer and dealer in cattle. Politically he was a stanch Republican. He was known as a man of genial disposition, of sterling qualities and of keen business insight.


John Hewitt and Ann Kelly Murray had three children, Frederic Hewitt—the immediate subject of this review ; Ida Jane who became the wife of Ranson L. Stillman, and died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1891 ; and Margaret A., who remains in the home in Concord.


Frederic Hewitt Murray was reared in Concord, which is still his place of residence, he pursued his studies in the district school, of whose advantages he made good use, supplementing this by a business education received in Cleveland. Mr. Murray was married in 1888, to Miss Martha Haskell, a daughter of William J. and Maria Mitchell Haskell ; their one child, John Haskell Murray, was born October 31, 1895, and Mrs. Murray died on November 10, 1895. For many years Mr. Murray has been President of the Painesville National Bank, an institution which was organized in 1862, as the direct successor of the Bank of Geauga, which was founded in 1831. In 1834 was erected the present, bank building, used first by the Bank of Geauga, and later by the National Bank. This building was three years since finely remodeled and the structure in its simple and graceful lines is regarded as the best style of colonial architecture to be found in Lake county.


Mr. Murray has made individual achievement and had not depended upon inheritance to the extent of foregoing worthy endeavor in a personal way. In politics he accords a stalwart support to the cause of the Republican party, and has served both as clerk and as trustee of Concord township, as well as justice of the peace and a member of the school board. In a fraternal way he is identifled with the Painesville Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has been progressive, liberal and public-spirited as a citizen and has not denied his aid to any worthy measure projected for the general good of the community.


JOHN P. RIEG.—For nearly half a century has Mr. Rieg been numbered among the honored residents of Conneaut, and here he has wielded a potent influence in forwarding the material and civic advancement and upbuilding of the attractive little city which he has seen grow from a village of eleven hundred population to a thriving city of teh thousand inhabitants. As editor of the Conneaut Reporter for a period of thirty-six years, he was enabled to do most effective work in promoting the interests of his home village and city, and his influence has ever been given to the furtherance of all measures and enterprises tending to advance the general welfare and normal progress of Conneaut. Not alone through his editorial utterances has he done his full share in conserving the upbuilding of the city, but his liberality and public spirit have been further manifested by his lending capitalistic support to worthy causes and business undertakings. For the past twenty-two years he has held the office of collector of customs at Conneaut, and here he is also president of the Conneaut Printing Company, which succeeded to the printing and publishing business which he had long conducted in an individual way. As one of the representative citizens of this favored section of the old Western Reserve Mr. Rieg is clearly entitled to consideration in this publication.


John Phillippe Rieg was born in Baldenheim, France, April 18, 1840, and in the same place were born his parents, who there passed their entire lives. The father, who was a farmer by vocation, died when John P., the only child, was one year old, and the mother passed away when he was a lad of fourteen years. Mr. Rieg was afforded the advantages of the schools of his native province, and after coming to America he attended school for a period of three months. It has been well said that the discipline of a printing office is equivalent to a liberal education, and this has verification in the broad and exact fund of knowledge which Mr. Rieg has gained in the course of a signally active and productive career. In 1854 he left his native land and came to the


1794 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


United States. He resided in the state of Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, until 1861, vhen he took up his residence in Conneaut, )hio, which has been the scene of his effective ndeavors during the long intervening years. He had previously learned the printer's trade, and he eventually became the editor and pubisher of the Conneaut Reporter, which under is able direction became a forceful and valued xponent of local interests. He continued in :ditorial charge of this paper for thirty-six rears and is now president of the company publishing the same, as already noted in this context. Mr. Rieg is known as a good writer end as one well fortified in his opinions as to natters of public import. Through his well directed energies he has accumulated a competency, and his course has been guided and governed by that sterling integrity of purpose which ever begets popular confidence and eseem. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and he has rendered yeoman service in its cause. He has served as collector of customs for Conneaut from 1876 to 1885, Ind from 1898 to the present time. He is at present president of the board of sinking-fund :ommissioners of the city of Conneaut, and has held this office since the branch was established. He has completed the circle of Masonry and is affiliated with Evergreen Lodge, No. 222, F. & A. M., with the R. A. M., No. 76, and the R. & S. M. No. 40, and Cache Commandery, No. 27, M., Templars, the chivalric body of this time honored Fraternal order.


In Erie, Pennsylvania, on June 12, 1861, Mr. Rieg was united in marriage to Miss Julia K. Brooks, daughter of Samuel C. and Mary (Hoyt) Brooks, both of whom were born at New Market, New Hampshire, in which state the respective families, of English origin, were founded in the early period of our national history. Representatives of the Brooks family were found as valliant soldiers in the Continental line during the war of the Revolution, and by reason of this fact Mrs. Rieg was eligible for and held membership in the Daughters' of the' American Revolution. She died on August 22, 1908, and in the golden autumn of mature years the useful life of a woman widely known and highly esteemed by many' intimate friends ended. A life replete with cheerfulness, kindliness and friendly consideration was hers ; hopeful, buoyant aspirations the dominating characteristic of her nature. In the performance of duties and requirements of whatever kind, she possessed capabilities always equal to their accomplishment. Strength of character was manifested in all her many activities in life, modified by a most genial disposition and Christian spirit of humaneness. Interestedly participating in the diversified activities incident to affairs in the general social life of the community during the many years of her residence here, it was to her home and family that she gave her unsparing. time and loving devotion. Regretfully missed as she is by a large number of her older friends, upon her husband and children falls the unutterable bereavement and loss, the more poignant in its having been the wife and mother to break first the family circle and desolate the home which was to them a haven and a comfort during all the long years it was made such by her presence.


In conclusion are given the following brief data concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Rieg. Frank F., born May 8, 1863, is a printer by vocation and is now a resident of Montgomery, Alabama. He married Miss Georgia Lambert. John B., born December 15, 1872, is likewise a printer by trade and vocation and is now a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He married Miss Clara Olds, and they have one son and one daughter. Mary S., born December 5, 1866, is the wife of C. E. Corbett, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and they have one daughter, Mary Janette. Florence F. born October 28, 1883, is the wife of John J. Murphy, of Conneaut, and they have one daughter.


HIRAM F. RUGGLES.—One whose name is worthy of a place of honor in this work is the sterling pioneer whose name initiates this paragraph. He was one of the early settlers of Cuyahoga county and the land which he there secured upon coming to the Western Reserve is now included within the corporate limits of the city of Cleveland.


Hiram French Ruggles was born in New Milford, Connecticut, in 1799, and was a scion of a family, of English origin, that was founded in New England in the colonial era of our national history. He was reared to manhood in his native state, where he continued to reside until '1834, when he came to the Western Reserve in company with his wife and their three daughters—Betsey Janette, Sarah and Caroline. He had . an opportunity to secure farming land in what is now the center of the city of Cleveland, but he deemed it expedient


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1795


to proceed six miles south of the little city that then represented the future metropolis, of the state. He purchased a tract of land in and adjoining the village of Newburg, (now known as South Cleveland), and the property which he thus acquired is now within the city limits of Cleveland, being located on Miles avenue. For many years Mr. Ruggles continued to devote his attention to agriculture and blacksmithing. He was one of the pioneers who aided in building the first Methodist church in Newburg, and lived until after the present church was erected. The wood for the First Methodist church at Newburg was cut from the timber lands on the farm of Lyman Ferris, who came to Ohio from Vermont in 1832 and settled in Newburg on what is now Marceline avenue.


Recognizing the need of a church he provided a place of worship until a church could be erected. He and his wife, Jerusha, were among the best loved of the early settlers.


Hiram F. Ruggles was a man of strong individuality and impregnable integrity of purpose, and he held a secure place in the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. Both he and his wife continued their residence in Cuyahoga county until their death, and he passed to the life eternal in 1891, at the patriarchal age of ninety-two years. It was given him to witness the development of the country and the upbuilding of the fine city of Cleveland, and he was ever found loyal to all civic, duties and responsibilities, though he had no ambition for public office. Both he and his wife were earnest and consistent members of the Methodist church.


Betsey Janette Ruggles was ten years of age at the time of the family removal to Ohio, in 1834, and she was reared. and educated in Cuyahoga county. In 1844 was solemnized her marriage to Daniel W. Ferris, who died in 1855, leaving five children. In 1861 Mrs. Ferris became the wife of Joseph Gazeley, and they became the parents of two children—Arthur E., who is now engaged in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and Julia A.; of whom definite mention is made in appending. paragraphs. Mr. Gazeley, born at St. Albans, England, was for many years a harness dealer in the city of Cleveland, where his death occurred in 1882, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was also a local preacher and frequently conducted services in various small churches in and about Newburg, often walking many miles to an outlying church. He was a loved member of the South Park Methodist Episcopal church until his death, in 1882. The most of his life was spent in Cleveland. His wife survived him by a quarter of a century and she likewise passed the closing years of her life in Cleveland, where she died in 1903, when nearly eighty years of age.


Mrs. Julia A. (Gazeley) Babcock, who is now the efficient and valued librarian of the public library of Willoughby, Lake county, Ohio, an institution of which record is made on other pages of this work, was born in the village of Newburg (now South Cleveland), Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and gained her early education in the public schools of Cleveland, where she was graduated from the Central high school as a member of the class of 1883. Later 'she was graduated from the Cleveland Normal Training School, and was a teacher in the Broadway school, in Cleveland,' for four and one-half years. She resigned this position in 1889, when she became the wife of John Evans Erwin, of Painted Post, New York. The one child of this union is Julia Evans Erwin, who is now attending the public schools of Willoughby. Several years after her marriage Mrs. Erwin made special study and preparation for library work, and in September, 1898, she was elected librarian of the public library at Painesville, Lake county, Ohio, where she remained thus engaged until March, 1905, when she resigned. Both the library board and the general public expressed much appreciation of her work at the time she thus severed her connection with the Painesville library. In 1905 Mrs. Erwin was united in marriage to Ralph Gray Babcock, and the one child of this union is Arthur James, who was born in November, 1906. In January, 1907, she was engaged to organize the public library of Willoughby and she has since continued as its librarian. In her association with library work Mrs., Babcock has been thorough and painstaking, and has striven, with much of success, to make the library' helpful and inspiring to the community and to the public schools.


THOMAS FERRIMAN, of the firm of Nichols, Ferriman and Company, leading dealers in clothing and gentlemen's furnishing goods of Medina, and otherwise interested in important business enterprises of the locality, is one of the most enterprising and liberal citizens of the county. He is a native of Sharon town-


1796 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


ship, Medina county, born April 9, 1845, and represents a long established and most honorable family widely known in that section of the state. Holden Ferriman, his father, was born in England, and, coming to the United States as a young man, settled on a well-timbered farm in Sharon township. The elder Mr. Ferriman cleared and improved this tract of land and for a number of years operated a sawmill in connection with it. In 1862 he moved to Brunswick township, also in this county, continued on his farm there for a number of years, and late in life moved to the village of Medina, where he died in 1877. Not long after, his widow followed him, dying as the mother of nine children, all of whom reached mature years, as follows : Robert, who died in battle during the Civil war; Hattie, who passed away in 1879, as the wife of Joseph Fetterman ; Thomas, of this sketch ; Margaret, who married C. Blakesley ; Rosey, now Mrs. Frank Rettiker ; Alfred, who was twice married, first, to Miss Mary Hunt Frest ; Emma, who became the wife of Charles Wilbur ; William, who married Miss Nellie Knox ; and Alice, who is the wife of Harry Carpenter. All of the above are active and respected members of the community, the record of Thomas Ferriman being especially strong.


Mr. Ferriman of this sketch was educated in the district school of Sharon township and at a select establishment near his home, remaining on the home farm until his sixteenth year. He then enlisted in Company A, Battery A, First Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, the chief battles in which he participated being those of. Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville! He served throughout the war under Generals Thomas and. Sherman, and upon his honorable discharge, in July, 1865, went to his home in Brunswick township, to which his parents had moved during the progress of the conflict. There he was soon employed by B. H. Wood and Company, who had large agricultural and business interests, chiefly in Michigan and Ohio. Locally they were warehouse men and dealers in wool, lumber and general merchandise. Severing his connection with this firm, Mr. Ferriman returned to Medina and purchased an interest in the clothing and gentlemen's furnishing business of Lewis and Nichols, buying out the former partner. He remained with the firm throughout its changes, and finally the present co-partnership of Nichols, Ferriman and Company was formed, both Mr. Ferriman and his son, M. H., being members of the firm. The senior Mr. Ferriman is also a director of the Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company, with which he has been connected for a number of years and which is recognized as one of the solid institutions of the state. Further, he is a stockholder in the Granite and Marble- Company of Medina and has other interests of a business and industrial character. His Masonic relations are with Medina Lodge and Medina Chapter and he belongs to H. G. Blake Post, Grand Army of the Republic.


In 1868 Mr. Ferriman married Miss A. Meacham, a native of Cuyahoga county, Ohio, who died April 26, 1891, the mother of Arleen and Myron H. By his second marriage, to Miss Mary Kunitz, the following children were born : Ruth B. and Thomas C. Ferriman, both attending school.


ELY FAMILY.—Among the first land proprietors of what is now Lorain county, Ohio, was Justin Ely, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, a very extensive dealer in real estate, and one of the original proprietors of what was then known as "The Connecticut Western Reserve," in Ohio, under the Connecticut Land Company.


Hon. Heman Ely, fourth in the family of Justin Ely, and who succeeded to his father's estate in what is now Lorain county, was born April 24, 1775, in West Springfield, Massachusetts. He was a linguist of ability, and a traveler of no small experience, having visited, prior to 1810, many of the leading places of interest in Europe. In that year he returned to America, and in 1811 came west as far as Cleveland, with the view of opening up for settlement the land owned by his father, then known as "No. 6, Range 17, Connecticut Western Reserve." The impending war between the United States and Great Britain, however, made it an inauspicious time for colonization, and Mr. Ely returned to his New England home. In 1816, peace being now concluded between the two countries, he again ventured west, and immediately commenced operations for the development of his forest covered land, contracting for the building of the first house that marked the spot whereon now stands the prosperous city of Elyria, together with a grist mill and a saw mill.


Having accomplished so much, he returned to West Springfield, and in February, 1817, finally left for his new western home, where the remainder of his life was passed in the


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1797


development of its resources, and the converting of the wild forest into prosperous farms, villages and towns.


He erected several houses, including the one on East Broad street, now known as the "Old. Ely Homestead," and the oldest house in Elyria.


The town was laid out by him in its present form, and bears his name, as also the township. On the organization of the county, in 1824, he named it Lorain from Lorraine in France, in which province he spent some time while in Europe, and with which beautiful spot he was much delighted. He was also the founder of the educational, religious, and other public institutions of Elyria, giving liberally of his means, and his name is still revered by the many descendants of the early settlers of Elyria. He passed from earth on February 2, 1852.


His son, Heman Ely, Jr., was one of the leading business men of the county, prominent in financial circles and a man identified with every movement for, the advancement and betterment of the community as well as one of the best known Masons in the North.


Among the latter's sons is the present Hon. George H. Ely, of Elyria, banker, ex-state senator and leading citizen.


HENRY C. BECHTEL, now living retired at Amherst, Lorain county, was born at Olmsted Falls, Ohio, September 4, 1856. He is a son of William and Catherine (Kinsley) Bechtel, both natives of Wurtemburg, Germany. His grandfather, Christian Kinsley, was also a native of Germany. William Bechtel came to the United States alone, and settled in Ohio, spending some time in Cleveland. He later removed to Olmstead Falls on a farm, and there lived about two years, then removed to the eastern part of Elyria township, near Ridgeville, and lived a short time on Center Road. Subsequently he purchased a farm in the western part of Elyria township and carried it on until his death, on March 5, 1909. He was a stanch Democrat, and actively interested in politics. Of his twelve children, 'eight were boys and four girls, and all are living .with the exception of one son and one daughter.

 

Henry C. Bechtel Was the oldest child, and received a common school education. He lived with his parents until his marriage, and then for four years resided with. his wife's parents. He then worked a farm in Camden . township for G. Washington Quigley, and two years later, on the death of his mother-in-law, he and his wife again moved to the Kress homestead,. where they spent a year and a half. They then purchased a fifty acre farm. of unimproved land in Amherst, adjoining the Kress farm on the south, built a house, barn and granary, and otherwise made many improvements. By putting in thirty-three thousand feet of tiling, Mr. Bechtel has made it one of the finest pieces of land in the township. In November, 1902, he drilled a gas well, from which he secured a 'sufficient quantity of natural gas for lighting and heating his residence. He has added to his farm from time to time, and now has sixty-four acres. Both the Wabash and Ramsey railroads have cut through the farm. Besides carrying on general farming, he also raised Jersey cows and Chester white hogs. In April, 1910, he turned the management of the farm over to his son, and removed to Amherst.


Mr. Bechtel is a Republican on national issues, but in local affairs votes for the men he believes best fitted for the office, and has served on the school board, and for many years was township road supervisor. He is a director of the Amherst Banking Company, and is president of the Quarrymen's Supply Association. Mr. and Mrs. Bechtel are members of the Evangelical church, of which he has served many years as, trustee. He also belongs to Hickory Tree Grange at Amherst, and to the Knighted Order Tented Maccabees. He was ever an industrious, up-to-date farmer, and naturally takes. pride in his agricultural achievements. He gives freely of his time and money towards all worthy objects, and uses his influence toward the public welfare and progress. Mr. Bechtel married, March 29, 1883, Anna Margaret Sundergelt Kress, born in Black River township, this county, May 19, 1861, daughter of Martin Sundergelt, but later adopted by William and Catherine Kress. Mr. and Mrs. Bechtel have children as follows : Ada K., wife of Stephen Steveson, of Vermilion; Ohio ; Walter J., who married Minnie Shultz and conducts the farm ; Alice B., wife of Theodore Kuntz, of Lorain, who has one child, Georgia D.; and Hale G. and Harold E., living at home. Mrs. Bechtel is a member of the Women's Missionary Society, an auxiliary to the Evangelical church.


1798 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE


JOHN C. BECHTEL, a successful dairy farmer of Amherst township, Lorain county, was born, in Avon township, October 28, 1860, a son of William and Catherine (Kinsley) Bechtel, both natives of Wurtemburg, Germany. The parents are mentioned in connection with the sketch of Henry C. Bechtel, given above.


John C. Bechtel was the fourth of a family of twelve children, and received a common school education. He resided with his parents until he came of age, and then began working on farms away from home. In January, 1894, after his marriage he moved onto his present farm of seventy-five acres, in Amherst township, formerly known as the Daniel Gawn farm. The Wabash and Ramsey railroads run through his farm, he having sold seven acres of his farm to furnish a right of way. He carries on general farming, has a fine dairy, and also raises registered Jersey cows. He is a prominent farmer, and has been successful in his various enterprises. In 1910 Mr. Bechtel purchased the homestead farm in Elyria township, owned and occupied by his father until his death in 1909. Mr. Bechtel is a member of the German Evangelical church, and has served as trustee since 1907, and since 1905 as secretary of the Sunday School. In political views he is a Republican, and is a public-spirited, patriotic citizen. He is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security, of Amherst.


Mr. Bechtel was married June 8, 1893, in Amherst, to Olive L. Spiegelberg, born in Amherst, September 9, 1866, a daughter of George W. and Elizabeth (Kolbe) Spiegel-burg, the father a native of Connecticut, and the mother a native of Hesse Cassel, Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Bechtel have one daughter, Amelia Elizabeth, born December 18, 1897.


STEPHEN T. STORM.—The history of the milling industry of Willoughby, Lake county, is largely included in the personal careers of Stephen T. Storm and his father, John J. The latter was born at Coxsackie, New York, and his wife (nee Marie Hollenbeck), at Sheffield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. They both moved to Chenango county in early life with their parents, where they were married and where their nine children were born with the exception of Stephen T. In the spring of 1825 they came into the Western Reserve and settled at Willoughby, two miles west of Cleveland, where their youngest child was born, on November 28, 1826. At that point the father worked at his trade as a millwright, building many of the early plants of Lake county. One of the best known, the Willoughby mill, which stood below the Lake Shore railroad, was completely upset by the high waters of recent years, the building being turned over upon its roof in the hole below the dam, but it was demolished and scattered along the river. John J. Storm died in 1836, while still a young man, his widow surviving him until her sixty-seventh year.


Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. John J. Storm. John, who was born December 29, 1805, was a farmer who died in Kirtland, Lake county, May 24, 1884, at the age of seventy-eight. - His wife (formerly Maria Truman) survived him but a few years. Their three children were : Solon, now a retired citizen of Willoughby ; Mary, who married Zeb Whitman, a farmer of Chester, Geauga county, Ohio ; and Cornelia, who became the wife of Alden Sanborn, a farmer of Kirtland. Maria, the eldest daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. John J. Storm, married Samuel Miller, whose family name is descriptive of his occupation. He spent his life in Willoughby, where he was born in August, 1802, as the first white child of the place. His mother reached the century mark. Mrs. Maria Miller reached the age of eighty-six and died without issue. Cornelia, her younger sister, married Peter McCauley, died at twenty-seven, leaving a daughter, also Cornelia, who passed away, single, at the age of twenty-three. Daniel P. Storm, the second son in John J. Storm's family, was born December 16, 181o, and returned to New York in his boyhood, where he followed his trade as a carpenter and joiner, and in his later life moved to Monroe, Michigan. There he married Miss Elizabeth Gibson, still later settled at Willoughby, and died there May 20, 1879. He was the father of three children. Elizabeth Storm, the third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John J. Storm, is the widow of Frank Bond. A former husband, Charles Stowe, was accidentally killed in the falling of a bridge at Willoughby. Ransom Storm, one of the younger sons, was born November 16, 1818, and was a well-known miller at Willoughby, as well as a preacher of the Disciples' church. He married Miss Grace Grover and died June 1, 1871, his wife surviving him several years. Their daughter, Maria, became the wife of Frank Gilbert, of Cleveland, Ohio. George W. Storm, M. D., was born August 2, 1822,.and was engaged in the active practice of home-


HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1799


opathy at Willoughby until 1884. He died June 2 of that year, leaving a son and a daughter : George, also a homeopathic physician, who died at the age of forty-six, the father of two daughters, Dorothy (unmarried) and Shirley, Mrs. Ralph Allen, of Boston ; and Emma; who died in childhood.


Stephen T. Storm spent most of his earlier life in thee old Willoughby mill, whose violent destruction has already been recorded, and twenty years of his later life at the Kirtland mill. Altogether he has devoted four decades to the milling business, a portion of that long period as proprietor. On April 22, 1852, Mr. Storm wedded Miss Sarah Haggert, daughter of Daniel J. and Magdalene (Servis) Haggert, who came from Palmyra, New York, to Mentor, Ohio, where the father followed his trade as a blacksmith until his death at the age of fifty-seven. Mrs. Storm has three brothers and one sister living—Alexander J., of Grand Ledge, Michigan ; Charles, who resides in Chicago ; James, of Chagrin Falls, Geauga county, Ohio, and Mrs. William Thomas, of Willoughby. Her uncle, Archibald Haggert, who died in Cleveland in May, 1909, at the age of ninety-five years, was the last of nine brothers and three sisters in the family, of which Mrs. Storm's father was the eldest. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen T. Storm are as follows : Fred, who is engaged in the coal and insurance business at Willoughby, married Miss Jeannette Ganies and is the father of Susie (wife of Frank Andrews) and Bessie ; and Sophia, who died in 1882 at the age of eighteen years, after having taken a course at the Lake Erie Seminary, Painesville. Mrs. Storm is a member of the . Episcopal church and, while her husband is not a regular adherent to any denomination, he is a firm believer in the efficacy of a moral life and in the duty of every man to do his share in advancing the welfare of the human family.


JAMES H. TAYLOR.—Though available data are somewhat meager, it is desired to enter in this publication at least a brief memorial record 'concerning this honored pioneer of Lake county, where he maintained his home for many. years, having been one of the honored citizens and representative business men of Painesville, the metropolis and official center of the county.


James H. Taylor was a native of Essex county, New Jersey, in which state the family was founded in the colonial epoch of our na-


Vol. III-34


tional history, having been of stanch English lineage. Mr. Taylor was reared and educated in his native state, where he learned the tanner's trade in his youth and where he was identified with this line, of business for a number of years. He' came to the Western Reserve in the pioneer days, and it is a matter of record that he made practically the entire trip on foot from Bloomfield, New Jersey, to Lake county, Ohio, being accompanied by a companion of the same place. He first made settlement in Madison township, where he secured a tract of land and where he also worked at his trade. After making due provision for them, he sent for his wife, whose maiden name 'was Mary Ann Munn, and their eight children, and they came by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, where they embarked on one of the old-time lake vessels for Lake county, Ohio. They arrived. at the primitive dock in Madison in due course of time and were made comfortable in their new home in the wilds of this section. It is worthy of note that the boat on which they took passage was wrecked and went to the bottom of the lake on its next trip. Mr. Taylor finally purchased a tannery in Painesville, and he continued to operate the same during the remainder of his life. This old tannery stood on the bank of Grand river, near the present Abbott mill. Mr. Taylor was a man of industry and good business judgment, and through his well directed efforts he was able to make ample provision for the care of his large family. He died in 1873, at the age of sixty-nine years, and his devoted wife survived him by more than a score of years, being summoned to the life eternal in 1894, at the age of eighty-five years. The old homestead which this w0rthy pioneer couple 0ccupied for more than forty years is still standing, in a good state of preservation, but not on its original* site, which is now occupied by a club house. The building was removed to Jackson street and is now owned by the youngest daughter, Miss Eva Taylor, who utilizes the same as a millinery establishment.


James H. Taylor became a supporter of the principles of the Republican party at the time of its organization, but upon the organization of the Greenback party, with Horace Greeley as its standard bearer, he espoused its cause, being aligned as a supporter of the same at the time of his demise. Both he and his wife were consistent church members. They became the parents of twelve children, and it is a matter worthy of particular note that all of the chil-