1150 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE The line of descent toward Alfred E. touches successively Nathaniel, William and John, the last named marrying Sarah .Foster, daughter of Edwin Foster, of Middletown, Connecticut, on the 3rd of December, 1728. There were nine children of that union, Comfort being born November 16, 1743, and dying February 19, 1826 ; his son Asa became the grandfather of Alfred E., of this sketch. Rev. Asa Butler was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on the 13th of August, 1778, and in March, 1817, was licensed to preach in the Baptist church of his native town. In October of that year he moved to Worcester, New York, and in September, 1823, was called to ordination by the First Baptist church of that place. Mr. Butler was twice married-first to Orpha Hall, daughter of Hezekiah and Elizabeth Hall, of Wallingford, Connecticut, on the 9th of October, 18o5. She died August 26, 1824, and on the 29th of September, 1825, he wedded Betsey Lord, daughter of Marvin Lord, of Lyme, Connecticut. Eight children were born of the first union, of whom four reached adult age ; of the latter, Rosander Hall Butler, father of Alfred E., was the eldest. Rosander H. Butler was a native of Hartford, Connecticut, born July 20, 1806, and on April 28, 1835, he married Harriet Wright, daughter of Deacon Orange Wright, the ceremony occurring at Worcester, Otsego county, New York. The father spent his life in his native county as a farmer, a carpenter and a citizen of high repute and public prominence.; He was a man of quite remarkable information and a leading Republican of his county. Fourteen children were born to him, of whom five sons and five daughters reared families of their own. Mr. Butler's death occurred in New York March 19, 1878, his widow surviving him until February 25, 1885, when. she passed away, in her sixty-eighth year. Alfred E. Butler, who was born in Worcester, New York, on the 19th of November, 1849, was educated in the district schools of his native county, and resided at home 'until he reached his majority. In 1870 he commenced work on a neighboring farm, and in January, 1872, located in LaGrange township and Obtained employment in a saw mill which was operated by an uncle. There and in a similar line he continued for about fifteen years, but in 1887 purchased a furniture and undertaking business at LaGrange, which he operated .for another fifteen years. Mr. Butler then closed out the furniture branch, but has continued the undertaking business to such good purpose that he is the leader in that line in this part of the county. Mr. Butler has also been prominent in the local government, having served as a councilman for two terms, village marshal for a like period and as constable, truant officer, and in other capacities which mark him as a citizen of earnest purpose and usefulness to his home community. He is closely affiliated with the F. & A. M., K. of P. and K. O. T. M. of LaGrange. In politics he is a Republican, and in his professional capacity is a member of the State Funeral Directors' Association. On July 3, 1870, Mr. Butler married Miss Florence A. Tucker, who was born at Westford, Otsego. county, New York, on the 5th of February, 1853, and is a daughter of Anson A. and Sophia (Hagerty) Tucker. Her father was born at Orwell, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, November 5, 1824, and died at LaGrange on the 27th of February, 1906. His wife, to whom he was married June 6, 1848, at Cooperstown, New York, was horn in Herkimer county, New York, November 5, 1824, and died April 26, 1899. Mrs. Butler's parents came to LaGrange in April, 1878, and resided with Mr. and Mrs. Butler until their decease. The daughter, Tillie B., who was born July 9, 1876, was appointed postmistress of LaGrange; August 19, 1909, having been manager and operator of the branch at LaGrange of the Elyria Southern Telephone Company from 184 JOEL H. CHAMPION.-An able representative of the horticultual, floricultural and agricultural interests of Lake county, Joel H. Champion is a valued resident of Perry township, where he has an extensive nursery, which he established in 1891. He has a large farm, and utilizes about sixty acres o is it in his work of raising a general line of nursery stock, keeping eight men busily employed. He was born December 22, 1847, in Schoharie county, New York, and at the age of four years, in 1852, came with his parents, Joel and Jemima (Gardner) Champion, to Perry township, where he has since resided. His father was a cooper by trade, having a shop in Lane village. Growing to manhood in Perry township, Joel H. Champion was employed for five seasons as an orchard 'grafter, working in Yew York, Ohio and Iowa. He was subsequently employed as a general farmer for many years, in 1891 moving to his present estate, which HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1151 was formerly owned by Nelson Norton, who built the present commodious brick residence in 1870. The farm itself contains but forty-eight acres, but Mr. Champion rents the sixty acres used for nursery purposes.. He is a man of good business ability, energetic and enterprising, and endeavors to make the best use of every acre of his land, among his other ventures having devoted a part of his nursery to the cultivation of ginseng, which brings a good market price. Mr. Champion married, in 1870, Orinda Neely, who was born in Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, and is .a sister of Mrs. B. F. Merriman, of Perry township. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Champion, namely: Emma H., 'wife of Thomas B. West, of Perry township, of whom a brief sketch may be found on another page 'of. this work ; Ada G., wife of Amherst Thompson, a son of Thomas Thompson, whose sketch also appears in this volume ; and Arthur N., who is in. partnership with his father, married Maud Arthur,' and they 'have' five. children: Roger, Gladys, Geraldine, Vera and Russell. ELSWORTH A. ALDERMAN, an old soldier and a prosperous farmer. residing on his fine homestead at West Windsor, also represents one of the leading pioneer families of. Ashtabula county and the Western Reserve. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors of New England were residents of Windsor, Goshen' or Newgate, Connecticut. The paternal. great-grandfather, Elijah Alderman, Sr., was born in Connecticut in 1755, served in the Revolutionary war, and died April 29, 181o. His son, Elijah, Jr.; was born at Newgate in 1777, and at the age of eighteen years married Rosanna Phelps. In the early years of the nineteenth century, still a young man, he moved his family to the wilds of Ohio and settled as pioneers in the little town .of Windsor, in what is now known as the Western Reserve. Isaac .Newton Alderman, the youngest of the thirteen children born to Elijah Alderman, Jr., .and his wife, became the father of Elsworth A. He was born in Windsor, Ohio, November 23: 1823, and when twenty years of 'age married Elizabeth Bacon. Elsworth A. Alderman was born at West Windsor, Ohio, August 10, 1844, and was the first child of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac. N. Alderman. He was educated in the district schools of that section and also engaged in farming until August 12, 1862, when he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served during the remainder of the war with the western division of the Union army. He participated in Sherman's .march to the sea ; was taken prisoner by John Morgan near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on the 21st of January, 1863, and during the Atlanta campaign was under fire eighty-three out of 120 days. In 1866 Mr. Alderman married Miss Florence L. Turner, daughter of Warren and Laura L. (Skinner) Turner. In 1873 he purchased the present family homestead at West Windsor, the large and comfortable farm buildings having all been erected since. The place has not only a wide reputation for its general productiveness and attractive appearance, but, as being one of the best sugar camps in the vicinity. Mrs. Alderman's maternal grandfather, Hezekiah Skinner, Jr. was one of the prominent pioneers of Ashtabula county. 'Born September .2, 1792, he was a stanch Episcopalian and did much to build. the old church of that denomination at Windsor Mills. also owned the only flour mill for. rniles, around, as well as a saw mill, and his plants gave the place its distinctive name. Their proprietor Was accidentally killed in his grist mill November 14, 1862. His wife (nee Laura Moore), whom he married November 27, 1817, was born November 23, 1797, and when eight years of age came to. Ohio on the. back of a. horse, riding oehind Phelps Tim Alderman. Her subsequent girlhood and the early period of her married life were spent in a wilderness infested with wolves, bears and Indians, all of which made inroads into the domestic animals of the family, killing and eating them, or stealing them alive. Six children .were born of this marriage, of whom Laura Lovira, the second, became the mother of Mrs. Alderman: She was born March 4, 1820, married Warren Turner, of Medina county, February 24, 1839; and died July ,20, 1849. The only child of this union was Florence. L. Turner (Mrs. Alderman), who was born May 29, 1844, and is herself the mother of three children. Ada L. Alderman, the oldest, was born March I3; 1867; is unmarried. She enjoyed educational advantages at Orwell, Chardon and Jefferson, Ohio, and since she was.. sixteen years of 'age .has taught in the district schools of 'Windsor and the graded schools of Huntsburg, Trumbull, Mesopotamia and New Lyme. Besides doing her school work and assisting her mother with household duties, she 1152 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE has given much time to public service, being the first woman to be elected president of the Windsor school board, which position she held for three years. As a member of the Methodist church she has been active in Sunday, school work and in the affairs of the Epworth and Junior leagues, for five years having served as recording secretary of the District Epworth League. Bernard K. Alderman, the elder son, was born October 9, 1871, on the day of the great Chicago fire. He received his early education in the district school near his home and after a year at the New Lyme Institute began teaching school, but soon abandoned that profession to adopt electrical engineering. His first experience was at the Geneva power station ; afterward he went to Crestline and Hebron, and is now located at Springfield, Ohio, in the important position of superintendent of the power houses on the eastern, central and western divisions of the Ohio Electric Railway Company. While a resident of Hebron he was a member of the city council ; at Crestline was a leader of the' Methodist choir and the city band, and with whatever community he has identified himself has exerted a good and a strong influence. On October 25, 1899, Mr. Alderman married Miss Mary C. Sparrow, of Windsor, and both are stanch members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Coridon W. Alderman was born September 26, 1875, and resides on a farm a mile and a half from his birthplace. Like his brother, he attended district school and at the New Lyme Institute, as well as Huntsburg High School, afterward teaching in the Windsor and Burton schools. At present he is township clerk and secretary of the Windsor Telephone Company ; is an active Granger and superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Methodist church. On May 22, 1901, he married Miss Nellie E. Adams, of Windsor Mills, who is also active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church and the local Grange. Their daughter, Helen Estelle, was born September 13, 1906. REV. JESSE BOSWELL.—Little rues it what we say. Better far what we are and what we do. . Life's influence, like a pebble thrown in the water, ripples out to the farthest shore ; or like a voice sent out in the ether, gores on vibrating until it reaches the eternal shores. We set in motion what we never can stay. If it is good, well ; we cannot—and who would want to—stay it. But if evil, who can tell the fearful influences of such a life. With a burning desire to do the right, and with some sense of the baleful influence of wrong, Mr, Boswell has tried to live and teach and preach the gospel. We owe much 'to parentage. The gift by blood, the first impressions, the mold of character and trend of life, given by parents, have much to do with all that may be named as real success in life. The subject of this sketch would wish to give due credit for whatever has been accomplished in his life work to God loving, God fearing, God serving parents, who loved the church, who worked in it, and gave for its success. Jesse Boswell was born November 19, 5849, in.a log house, near the village of Monroeville, Huron county, Ohio. Here, with an older brother, John, born February 15, 1848, and a younger sister, born March 16, 1851, and a brother, Asa Willie, born March 9, 1859, the subject of this sketch spent his childhood and youthful days. The log house soon gave way to a good, substantial brick house. The land was cleared of stumps and stones, ditches were dug and drains put in. Here he learned the art of toil, constant, persistent application which was a pleasure. Here was implanted the principle that toil was honorable, work was no disgrace. The ties of home were very tender and loving. The parents never having had the advantages of education, though they had acquired the art of reading, writing and first principles of arithmetic, were desirous that their children should have the advantages of a liberal education. They began early. When five years of age, Jesse, with his brother John, trudged to the Standardsburg school, two miles distant. Rain and sunshine, heat and cold and snow storms bore witness to a faithful school attendance. If the drifts were new and deep, the horses were hitched to the sleigh for a merry ride. Happy childhood days—going to school, in the school, on the farm, in the home —how sweet their memory ! But joy was clouded with sorrow. When Jesse was twelve years old, the loving mother Was called from home and loved ones and friends, to her heavenly reward. The triumphal' death, the lonely home, the absence of the mother love had a telling influence. The father never 'married again. A cousin, Sarah Cooper, kept house for three years, and then sister Lydia took charge of the home. From the death of his mother, Mr. Boswell's education consisted of four months of winter school, until, when eighteen, he went to Sandusky HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1153 Business College, and graduated from there in the spring of 1869. He was called, the following fall, to teach in the above college ; but his brother's illness made it necessary that the brother take a trip abroad to recover his health, and this made it necessary that Jesse stay on the farm. But a hungry mind, and a deep conviction that he was called to preach the gospel, turned his steps to Dennison University, Granville, Ohio. Here, after six years of study, Mr. Boswell graduated, carrying off the highest honors of his class—the class of '77. The three following years were spent in the Baptist Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York. In the fall of 1880 he settled in Storm Lake, the county seat of Buena Vista county, Iowa, as pastor of the Baptist church,, and was ordained the following June by a council of Baptist ministers and laymen called by the Storm church. Here Mr. Boswell found and married his wife, Miss Mary A. Angier, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Levi Angier. Immediately after the marriage, January 24, 1883, they made their wedding trip to Mr. Boswell's old home, Monroeville, Ohio. While there he was called to take .charge of a new interest in Bellevue. Subsequently he filled pulpits in New London, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania ; Weston, Michigan ; Toledo, Ohio, and now is back to the old home and church of his parents—the First Baptist church, Monroeville, Ohio, where he is the pastor. Mr. Boswell was converted in early life and baptized by Rev. I. D. King' in the Monroeville Baptist church. The dark cloud which came to. their home was the death of their only child, Walter Cyril, who was instantly killed by the Lake Shore electric car, while crossing the track west of town. He was out as a newsboy, delivering his papers. Now a word of history of the parents of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Boswell. Joseph Boswell, the father of Jesse, was born in Lincolnshire, England, March 16, 1807. His father died when he was a little child, leaving his mother with five children to care for. According to the laws of that day, Joseph, when twelve years old, was bound out by the parish to serve in a home, for which he received his board and a meager covering of clothes. In early manhood he came to the United States, landing in New York. He found work near Elizabeth; New Jersey, and spent two and one-half years there. He heard the cry before Horace Greeley uttered it "Young man, go West." So up the Hudson river, through New York state on the Erie canal, and from Buffalo by boat to a little town called Huron, at the mouth of the Huron river, and riding on shanks' ponies, he landed in Monroeville, Ohio, the new west. It was about the first of June. The first man of the village was James H. Hamilton, and for him Mr. Boswell worked the three months of June, July and August, for the sum of eleven dollars a month and board. Where the Presbyterian church now stands he raked and bound wheat.. He continued to work for Mr., Hamilton for a. year or more, and at the close received as pay a team of horses and harness and wagon, and an order on Hamilton's store for clothing. With this outfit he began his career as a farmer, renting land at Cook's Corners, now North Monroeville, on. Edward Reed's farm. Here he was married to Miss Mary A. Cooper.. It was noised a minister had come to the Corners to preach. So, without delay, it having been agreed that they were to be married as soon as a minister came, Miss M. A. Cooper, coming from her house work, washed hands and face and robed herself, and Mr. Boswell came from his outdoor work, washed and dressed, and by this time the parson was there and the two were declared husband and wife. This was ,a little before the noon hour. After dinner each put on their working clothes and went about the common every-day duties. This was their romantic wedding tour. But the bond that bound them grew in love, sweetness and affection as they .toiled on in life's work. Six children were the fruit of this union. Three died in infancy, and three—John, Jesse and Lydia M.—came to years of manhood and womanhood. Joseph Boswell and wife toiled on, on the farm of Mr. Reed, and at the end of nine years bought of James Hamilton the farm now owned by Jesse Boswell, and on which was the old log house in which he was born. Joseph Boswell was a man of good judgment, a wise planner, and one of the most successful, and among the best, if not the best farmer of that time. He made the fields yield largely. A new brick house soon graced the farm, and ere long another farm of 120 acres was purchased and paid for. At this time, when they were planning for a less strenuous life with more of leisure and ease, the wife and mother was taken out of the home to her haven of rest. 1154 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Let us give here a brief account of her life. She was born in Kent, near London, England, August 21, 1825. She was the youngest of a large family of children, five of whom with the father came to this country. Their names are Robert, Fred, Caleb, Maria and Mary Ann Cooper. Soon after coming to Monroeville she met Mr. Boswell, and friendship ripened to love and marriage. She was a devoted wife and loving mother. She died March 30, 1862. She united with the Baptist church soon after coming to this country. Joseph Boswell united with the Baptist church February 4, 1843, soon after its organization, and continued a prominent and active member, ever interested in its progress. He departed this life May 4, 1894. John Boswell, brother of Jesse, married Miss Mary E. Lyon, and lived on the second farm purchased by Joseph Boswell. In the strength of manhood's years he was called home August 8, 1889, in the forty-second year of life. Lydia M. Boswell, sister of Jesse, died in her twenty-second year, departing June 29, 1872. Asa Willie Boswell lived eleven months and eleven days, dying February 20, 1860. Now just a bit of history of Mrs. Jesse Boswell. Mary A. Angier was the daughter of Levi and Sarah Angier, and was born August 4, 1859, in Garnavillo, Clayton county, Iowa. Her father, Levi Angier, was a native of Westport, New York, and son of Elijah Angier. His birthday was February 6, 1815. In 1849 he Migrated to Iowa, by canal and boat to Chicago and thence by team to Garnavillo. He taught school, carried on a mercantile business, and afterward, in Wisconsin, in company with others, carried on a. saw mill and grist mill: He died in the home of Mr. and, Mrs. Boswell at the advanced age of ninety-four years and three months, May 7, 1909. The wife of Levi Angier was Sarah M. Gay, daughter of John M. Gay. In 1842 he went to Garnavillo, Iowa, and in 1859 went to Mt. Sterling, Wisconsin. There, having filled out his four score years, he passed to the other shore. ORRIN GILES HARMON is numbered among, the agriculturists of Portage county, and he was born in its .city of Ravenna on the 13th of March, 1864, a son of Julian, a grandson of Orrin and a great-grandson of Judge Elias Harmon, who was one of the prominent political leaders of Portage county in his day and the founder of the family here. Judge Harmon was born in Suffield, Connecticut, Septemper 7, 1773, and during the early history of tnis community he made the journey by boat from Connecticut to Ohio, and, establishing his home in Aurora township, of Portage county, he cut roads through the dense woods to the farm he had selected, cleared the tract of its dense growth of timber, erected a little log cabin thereon, and there this brave and hardy pioneer of the Western Reserve lived and labored for a few years, until the 1st of October, 1799, when he moved to another farm in Mantua township, and once more established his home in a little log cabin which he built. There he passed away in death on the 18th of September, 1851, and his wife died on the 25th of May of the same year. She bore the maiden name of Sabrina Gillett, and was born on the 9th of October, 1776. Their marriage was celebrated on the 6th of January, 1799. Orrin Harmon, a son of this pioneer couple, was born on their farm in Mantua township, on the 22d of February, 1805. He learned the art of surveying in his early life under the instructions of Judge Atwater, a surveyor with the Connecticut Land Company. Mr. Harmon also became an agent for the Connecticut Land Company, and did much of their surveying throughout the Western Reserve. He served Portage county as its surveyor for many years, and was prominently identified with much of the early history of this section of the state. He died on the 14th of December, 1885, surviving his wife for a number of years, for she passed away on the 17th of June, 1878. She bore the maiden, name of Camilla King, born in Charlestown township, Portage county, Ohio, November 14, 1802, and they were married on the 27th of September, 1832. Among the children of Orrin and Camilla Harmon was the son Julian, who was born in Ravenna, Ohio, February 17, 1835, and the first thirty-three years of his life were spent in that city. At the close of that period, in 1868, he moved to a farm of 212 acres, two miles northeast: of Ravenna, about 100 acres of which were under cultivation, and this land had been secured by his grandfather Harmon from the Connecticut Land Company. He served his township as trustee, and in politics was a Republican. On the 6th of October. 1862, he was married to Sarah Kneeland, who was born in Freedom, Ohio, November 4,1841, a daughter of Giles .W. and Etarista (Barber) Kneeland, born respectively in the townships of Shalersville and Freedom, Portage county. The three children of this union are: Orrin G., HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1155 0f this review ; Nina, the wife of Dana K. ileman, of Ravenna township ; and Olin F., on the old Harmon homestead. Mrs. Harmon passed away in death on the 24th of August, 1886, and two years later her husband joined her in the home beyond, dying on May 1o, 1888. The old Harmon homestead in Ravenna township served as the playground for Orrin G. Harmon in his early youth, and it has also witnessed his later successes and accomplishments. Since the death of his parents he has .operated the land in connection with his brother and sister, they farming jointly, and in addition to their general farming pursuits they also conduct a dairy. Mr. Harmon started out in life for himself equipped with a good educational training, having attended both the district and high schools of Ravenna, and during one year he was a student at Traverse City, Michigan. He married, on the 28th of June, 1898, Lillie A. Armstrong, who was born in Ravenna township, a daughter of John and Emily (Neighman) Armstrong, the father born in Ireland and the mother in Franklin township, Portage county, Ohio. Mrs. Harmon is a granddaughter of Thomas and Sarah (Louckard) Armstrong and of William and Eliza Ann (Tucker) Neighman, William Neighman having been born in Franklin township, Portage county, and his wife in Trumbull county. Mr. and Mrs. Harmon reside in the home built by his father in 1886, an historic old homestead of eleven rooms, and the timber for its erection was secured from the' land surrounding it. They are members of the Congregational church. Mr. Harmon in politics is a Republican, and he is also a member of the fraternal order of Masons, Unity Lodge, No. 12, and of Cressett Lodge, No. 225, Knights of Pythias. Of the latter order he also belongs to Buckeye Company, Uniformed Rank, No. 97. MRS. ADELAIDE AMELIA ( NORTON) NICHOLS.—The descendant of a pioneer family of the Western Reserve, Mrs. Adelaide A. Nichols has an exceedingly interesting family record, tracing her ancestry back in an unbroken line for nineteen generations, to a prominent family of France, bearing the name of Nordville. This name was subsequently corrupted to Northville or North-Town, in America becoming Norton, and is now known throughout the length and breadth of our land as Norton. A daughter of Seth Deming Norton, she was born July 23, 1846, in the village of Hiram, Portage county, Ohio. Her great grandfather, Hiram Norton, came to the Western Reserve in 1807, locating in Hiram township as one of its earliest householders. Sewell Norton, Mrs. Nichols's grandfather, married Harriet Harrington and spent the greater part of his life in Summit county, being engaged in tilling the soil. On August 19, 1825, the birth of Seth Deming Norton occurred in Middlebury, Summit county, Ohio. On June II, 1845, he married Maria Wetherell, in Hiram, Ohio, and they became the parents of six children, of whom Adelaide Amelia, now Mrs. Nichols, was the first-born. Mrs. Nichols was given excellent educational advantages, attending school in Garrettsville, where she was under the instruction of James Norton, for four years. On February 20, 1867, in Ravenna, at the home of her parents, she was united in marriage with George F. Nichols, and for the ensuing twenty-three years lived in Freedom township, Portage county, on the old Marcy place. In 1895 she moved to her present home, in Mantua township, the old Nichols homestead, which was given to her husband by his father, Noble H. Nichols. Two children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, namely : Edith Norton, born March 7, 1874, and Esther Seth, born December 27, 1881. Edith N. married, December 26, 1899, Samuel Heflick, and they have one child, George Norton Heflick, born May 21, 1892. Mr. Nichols, through his mother, whose maiden name was Ursula B. Drake, is related to the distinguished Drake family, which has long been prominent in American history. His mother was born November 28, 1822, in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, a daughter of Stimpson W. and Abigail ( Joslin) Drake, natives also of the old Bay State. SELDEN J. POTTER is numbered among the few remaining veterans of the Civil war, and he is honored not only for the brave and valiant part he performed in the war between the north and south, but also for his sterling citizenship and honorable business career. Born on the 29th of August, 1840, he is a son of James B. Potter and a grandson of James Potter Sr., the founder of this branch of the family in Portage county. He cleared and improved his farm of too acres here, erected thereon a little log dwelling and other neces- 1156 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE sary farm buildings, and carved a home from out the wilderness for himself and family, which numbered two children. His son James accompanied him here from his native state of Connecticut, the journey being made with ox teams, and he was here married to Mary Horton, a native daughter of the state of New York, and they began their married life as farmers on the old Potter estate. Two sons and two daughters blessed their union, Eliza, Selden J., Amelia and Cornelius. Selden J. Potter was left fatherless when but a small boy, and he remained with his mother until he went into the army to fight for the north, entering Company B, Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain Smith, and left for Cleveland in August of 1861, while in the following December he went with his command to Camp Denison and participated in his first battle at Flat Rock, Arkansas. Going from there to Fort Scott, and thence to Columbus and Kenton, Tennessee, he took part in the battle of Knoxville, and assisted in driving the rebels out of Tennessee. After the reconstruction period he returned home on a furlough, and rejoining his command in Virginia he served under Grant through the Wilderness campaign, through Harpers Ferry into the Shenandoah Valley, where they drove Early from that part of the country, and then followed Lee until the final surrender. On the night preceding this event Mr. Potter's horse was killed while under him, and obtaining another horse, he rejoined his company in the valley, went with Sheridan to Washington, and thence back to Winchester, and, although twenty miles distant from the heart of that battle, he plainly heard the deafening roar of the artillery. Just preceding this event his company was charged by rebels, and they were obliged to charge through their infantry. He took part in the battle of Cedar Creek, and from there went into Georgia, thence to Petersburg and on to Washington to participate in the Grand Review there. His command was then sent to St. Louis to guard against bushwhackers, and after a long and valiant service in the interest of his country and native northland he received his discharge in 1865. Returning to his home in Portage county, Mr. Potter turned his attention to farming near Windham, where he conducted a tract of fifty acres, and then coming to his present location near Freedom Station, he became the owner of fifty acres here, ten acres of which he improved, and he has since been engaged in agricultural pursuits. On the 24th of Apri 1866, soon after returning from the war, he was married to Frankie Shurtleff, who was born June 15, 1839, a daughter of William and Emily Shurtleff, who were natives of Vermont. Mrs. Potter came to this county on a visit in 1865, and thus became acquainted with her future husband, and was married, their union having been blessed by the birth of son and daughter, but the latter, Emily May, is deceased. The son, J. B. Potter, resides Freedom. Mr. Potter is a member of th Grand Army of the Republic and the family are members of the Methodist Episcop church, and he has served his township as supervisor. CHARLES W. PECK was born in Shalersvill township July 26, 1856, and his entire life has been spent within its borders and he is now one of the most prominent and successful of its agriculturists. After his marriage he bought an improved farm of 150 acres in the southeastern part of this township, and with the passing years he has continued the improvement and cultivation of this place, has rebuilt and remodeled its buildings, and has now one of the fine large frame residences an bank barns of the community. He follows general farming and dairying, and has a maple sugar orchard of about 600 trees. Mr. Peck is not only a native son and a prominent business man of Shalersville township, but he is also a member of one of its oldest families. His father, Burton Peck, born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, was brough here by his parents when a small child, riding in a one-horse wagon, and the family located on a heavily timbered farm. The senior Mr. Peck in time cleared and improved the place and became a prominent man in the township. Burton Peck after his marriage located one mile east of Shalersville, and remained on his farm there until his death January 30, 1890 when he had reached the age of fifty-six years. His wife, nee. Arilla Chapin, a native of Portage county, was a member of another of the early families of Shalersville township, a daughter of Edmond and Nancy (Nichols) Chapin, from Champlain county, Vermont. Mrs. Peck has continued to own the farm since her husband's death, and resides there during the summer months, while she spends the winters with her daughter, Nellie M., the wife of Dr. F. J. Morton, in Cleveland. Charles W. Peck is the elder of their 1157 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE children, and at the, age of twenty-five years, on the 22d of February, 1880, he was married to Hattie L. Hinman, from. Ravenna township, a daughter of. Ansel and Helen (Reed) Hinman, natives respectively of Atwater and Ravenna townships, Portage county. The two children of this union are : Warren, born on the 5th of April, 1892, and Gertrude, born March 29, 1894. During three years Mr. Peck served his community as a member of the school board, and he is at present a township trustee, elected in January of 1907. He is a member of the Ravenna Grange No. 32, and he is a Republican in his political affiliations. WILLIAM T. COWLES.-A representative citizen of Painesville, where he has important capitalistic. interests, though living essentially retired, William T. Cowles is a scion of one of the old and prominent families of the Western Reserve, and this also is true of the maternal line. He has lived in the Reserve from the time of his birth and has so ordered his course as to gain not only marked success in connection with the practical activities of life, but also as to retain at all times the inviolable confidence and esteem of his fellow men. He has thus , maintained fully the prestige of the honored name which he bears. Mr. Cowles was born in the village of Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, on the 18th of August, 1842, and is a son of Benjamin and Lodisa (King) Cowles. His father was a native of the state of New York and was a son of Elliott Cowles, who was a native of Connecticut, whence he removed with his parents to New York state: He came in the pioneer days to the Western Reserve and settled in Middlefield township, Geauga county, where he developed a valuable farm and became a citizen of influence in his community. He died in that county when his son, William T., was a boy. Lodisa (King) Cowles was born in Geauga county and was a daughter of Samuel King, who was one of the first three permanent settlers in Chardon, where he continued to reside until his death. When William T. Cowles was a child of four years his parents removed from the village of Chardon to a farm two miles northwest of that place. This farm Mrs. Cowles had received from her father, and there she passed the residue of her life, having been summoned to eternal rest in 1876, at the age of fifty-nine years. Her husband died in 1885, at the age of seventy-four years. They were persons of superior intelligence and of sterling character. They became the parents of four sons : Elliott, who died in Adams county, Iowa, was one of the pioneers of that state ; Franklin, who died while serving as a member of General Garfield's regiment, the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil war, was twenty-three years of age at the time of his demise ; William T., whose name initiates this article, was the third son ; and Louis C. is a resident of the city of Cleveland. William T. Cowles was reared to manhood on the fine old homestead farm in Chardon township, Geauga county, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of the locality and period. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the homestead mentioned until he was thirty-one years of age, and in company with his brother, L. C., settled the affairs of the estate after the death of their father. He then came to Lake county and took up his residence in Concord township, where he gave his attention principally to agricultural pursuits for the ensuing fifteen years, at the expiration of which, in 1887, he removed to Painesville, in which city he has since maintained his home. He is now treasurer of the Painesville Elevator Company ; vice-president of the Dollar Savings Bank, one of the substantial financial institutions of the county ; and he is also a stockholder in the Cleveland Trust Company and a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Chardon, his native village. In politics Mr. Cowles is a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and while a resident. of Concord township he was called upon to serve in various local offices. He is at the present time a member of the building commission which has charge of the erection of the fine new court house of Lake county, said commission comprising the three members of the board of county commissioners and four members appointed by the judge of the circuit court. The work is in progress, and the cost of the building, in addition to the finishing work, will aggregate $350,000. The fine structure, under contract stipulations, will be completed in 1909. At the age of twenty-seven years Mr. Cowles was united in marriage to Miss Emerett Hodges, who was born in Concord township, Lake county, Ohio, a daughter of Joshua and Juliet (Vesey) Hodges, who were pioneers of this county, whither they came from 1158 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE the state of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Cowles became the parents of one daughter, Anna Lodisa, who died in Concord township, Lake county, at the age of eight years. Mrs. Cowles passed to the life eternal in 1905, at the age of fifty-seven years. Her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gracious influence. SAMUEL JAMES CRAINE, of Leroy township, is a native of the Isle of Man, and was born April 16, 1841. He is a son of William and Ann (Watterson) Craine, who came to Leroy township in 1842. They settled first where the Crane brothers now live, and ten years later removed to the adjoining farm, now occupied by Samuel J. The house was built just before he came into possession of the farm. Here William Craine died, June 21, 1887, aged ninety-one years, he having been born March 17, 1796. He retained his faculties to the end of his life. He worked at his trade of stonemason until an old man, and nearly all the walls in the vicinity were built by him ; his farm was carried on by his sons. His wife died January 10, 1882, and the date of her birth was January 1, 1802. They had eight children, namely : William R:, married Isabel Cowan ; Eleanor, married John T. Cowan ; John Thomas, died in his twenty-third year ; Elizabeth, married Gardner Wright ; Edward H., died at the age of twenty-eight years ; Kate Jane, married Van Buren Brockway ; Samuel J. ; and Eliza, married R. B. Taylor. Of these eight children but four are living. Samuel J. Craine lived with his parents until his marriage, and has resided on his present farm since. He is now the oldest Manxman in Leroy township. He is a Republican and served nine years as township trustee. He has been an active worker in the Northeast Leroy Methodist Episcopal church, the church attended by all the original Manxmen. He is a man of solid worth and probity, and universally liked and respected. Mr. Craine married, June 2, 1869, Nellie A. Radcliffe, who came' from the Isle of Man at the age of ten years with an uncle and aunt, to Cleveland ; she was reared by Robert Corbett and wife in Concord until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Craine have no children of their own, but a number of children have called their residence home, and have been given all Ake privileges of sons and daughters. All were sent to school and well reared. Mrs. Craine's cousin, Susie Radcliffe, came to the home at the age of seventeen, and she taught school nineteen terms in the home district, until her .marriage. She married Thomas Watson, superintendent of the Globe Ship Yard at Cleveland. Allen. Kermode,. a boy who was reared by them, came at the age of nine years and remained eight years; he is now a carpenter living in Painesville, on Erie street. His sister, Belle Kermode, was three years old when she came, and she remained until she was grown; her brother, Willie Kermode, also found a home with these kind people. Fredrick Kermode, commonly known as Freddie, was also raised by Mr. and Mrs. Craine and is now married and lives at Rochester, New York, being a prominent architect. PERRY SPERRY.—The farming interests of Ravenna township find an able representative in Perry Sperry, the owner of one of its valuable and well improved estates. He is numbered among the native sons' of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, born at Springtown on the 18th of November, 1828. Joseph Allen Sperry, his father, born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, was a farmer throughout life, and moving to Crawford county, Pennsylvania, about the year of 180o, he located amid the timber which then covered the land of that community. After a time he cleared his farm, but four years after the death of his wife, in 1838, he came Ito Ravenna township, in Portage county, Ohio; and from here three years later he moved, to Michigan, and died shortly afterward. Before leaving his native state of Connecticut he was there married to Ann Shumaker, from New York, and her death occurred in the year of 1834. Perry Sperry, the fourth born of their eight children—four sons and four daughters—remained with the Hotchkiss family in Ravenna township after his father's removal to Michigan, until his marriage in 1853. After that event lie started on the overland journey with ox team for Michigan, and arriving in Clinton county he purchased eighty acres of timber land there, built a log cabin, and in time succeeded in clearing forty acres of his farm. This property was further improved by a splendid barn, thirty by forty feet, and he lived on that farm' for twelve years, lacking a few months, after which he sold his interests there and returning to Portage county, Ohio, bought a farm in Freedom township. When he left for Michigan his Wealth consisted of a yoke of oxen and $100 in money, but on leaving that HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1159 state he had increased his possessions to $3,000. Purchasing fifty-two acres in Freedom township, he sold the land six years later, and then for four years conducted the Babcock farm in Shalersviille, a dairy farm. Next he bought fifty-two acres of land adjoining his former place, but this he also sold after four years ; then for two years rented land in Freedom township, and at the close of that. period bought his present homestead of seventy-seven acres in the northeast corner of Ravenna township, thirty acres of which is under cultivation and the remainder is timber and pasture land. He is quite extensively engaged in the raising of sheep, and another leading feature of his farm is its sugar orchard of over 600 trees, from which he makes on an average of 200 gallons of maple syrup each season. Mr. Sperry married, on March 3o, 1853, Ann Eliza Sweet, born in Edinburg township, of Portage county, in 1832, and they have had the following children : Ella U. who became the wife of Frank Dutter and- in 1905 ; Elida A., the wife of N. E. King, of Cuyahoga county, Ohio ; Elmer E., a resident of Akron, Ohio ; Franklin P., of Garretville, this state ; and Anna M., who became the wife of Robert Payne and died in 1906. Mr. Sperry supports the principles of the Republican party, and he is an active local political worker. CHARLES D. KENDEIGH, a leading farmer of Henrietta township, Lorain county, Ohio, was born in this township, December 7, 1858, a son of Samuel and Jane (Streckler) Kendeigh. Samuel Kendeigh was a farmer and carried on a grist mill. Charles D. Kendeigh attended the public schools, spent one year at Oberlin Academy, and from there went to Chicago, where he spent six months at a business college. After finishing his education he returned to his father's farm, where he resided a few years, until his marriage, after which he located on his present farm. He is an enterprising farmer and very successful. He is a Democrat in political views, and in 1898 was elected township treasurer ; he has also served ten years as a member of the school board, and at present is a member of the board of township trustees. Mr. Kendeigh married, in 188o, in South Amherst, Ohio, Ella May, born March 2, 1860, daughter of Luther W. and Ann E. (Reynolds) Clark, the father being from Plymouth, Connecticut. Mr. Kendeigh and his wife have Vol. II-29 been blessed with children as follows : Clarence George, born February 26, 1886; Earl Samuel, April 16, 1890; Nelson Clark, born September 1, 1892, died January 6, 1893 ; Minnie Belle, born October 12, 1895, died March 8, 1896; Ruth Miriam, born August 27, 1899 Hubert Clark, born October 11, 1900; and Charles Ward, born August 9, 1902. Mr. Kendeigh and his wife are attendants of the Baptist church. RICHMOND O. -WHEELER.—Occupying a prominent position among the active and prosperous agriculturists of Medina county, Richmond O. Wheeler is the owner of a well managed and productive farm in Lafayette township, his estate in point of improvements and equipments comparing favorably with any in that part of the state. The oldest son of the late Charles Wheeler, he was born January 3, 1853, in Wayne county, Ohio, of English ancestry. Born and reared in England, Charles Wheeler immigrated to the United States in the early fifties. After landing in America he came to Ohio, locating in Westfield township, Medina county, where he purchased a farm of sixty-five acres, and in its care was so successful that he bought additional land, becoming owner of 176 acres of choice land. Engaging in mixed husbandry, he tilled the soil, and raised cattle, horses and sheep, continuing thus employed until his death, in 1885. He married Mary Ann Blizzard, also a native of Wittshire, England, and they became the parents of four children, as follows : Lovina, wife of Hibbard Offley, of Nashville, Michigan ; Louisa died . in her ninth year ; Richmond O., the second child, the subject of this sketch ; and Frederick B., a farmer in Lafayette township. Passing his youthful days on the home farm, Richmond O. Wheeler attended first the district schools, subsequently completing his early education in a private school at Lodi. He subsequently worked on the farm ever since his school days. After the death of his father, he assumed management of the homestead, of which he purchased sixty-two acres at first, afterwards buying out the interests of the remaining heirs. Mr. Wheeler is exceedingly prosperous in his labors, raising grain, hay, cattle, horses and sheep, being one of the extensive live stock growers in the vicinity, and particularly a producer of fine coach horses, and has raised some of the best ever raised in the Western Reserve. His farm is well sup-- 1160 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE plied with convenient buildings and all the appliances for successfully carrying on his work after the most approved modern methods. Mr. Wheeler married, January 25, 1887, Cora I. Nichols, a daughter of Lyman and Helen M. (Gates) Nichols, of whom a brief biographical sketch may be found on another page of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have two children, Charley R. and Elon C. Politically Mr. Wheeler is a Republican, and, although never an office seeker, has served five years as township trustee, and for the past twenty years has been a member of the school board. EDGAR WILLIAM MAXSON.---This representative member of the bar of Portage county, established in the successful practice of his profession in the city of Ravenna, is a scion of the third generation of the Maxson family in the Western Reserve, with whose annals, the name has been prominently identified for the past eighty-five years. The old state of Connecticut sent forth many sterling pioneers into her Ohio Western Reserve, and among this number were the paternal grandparents of the subject of this review. Edgar William Maxson was born at the home of his maternal grandparents, in Troy township, Geauga county, Ohio, on the 3d of February, 1848, and is a son of William and Selina C. (Mumford) Maxson. The father was born in Colchester, Connecticut, and was a representative of a family founded in New England in the colonial era of our national history. He was a son of Joshua and Teresa (Smith) Maxson, and when he was fourteen years of age his parents immigrated from Connecticut to the Western Reserve, where, in the year 1824, they numbered themselves among the pioneer settlers of Portage county. Joshua Maxson purchased an entire section of land in Hiram township, and from the primeval forest he there reclaimed a productive farm, in the meanwhile having lived up to the full tension of the pioneer life. He became one of the influential citizens of his township and continued to reside on his old homestead until his death, in his eighty-fifth year. William Maxson, father of Edgar W., was reared to manhood on the old farm just mentioned, early beginning to contribute his himself its work and duly availing himself of the advantages afforded by the primitive schools of the pioneer days. His rudimentary education had been secured in his native state. He continued to be identified with farmork and management of the home farth until he had attained to years of maturity, and he never found it expedient to withdraw his allegiance from the great basic industry of agriculture, in connection with which it was his to gain definite success, as one of the representative farmers and stock-growers of Portage county. He was given eighty acres of the old home farm., and to this he added by the purchase of a contiguous tract of forty-five acres. He developed one of the valuable farm properties of the county. and was known and honored as a citizen of unswerving integrity, superior mental endowment and distinctive public spirit. He continued to reside on his fine farm until his death, at the age of sixty-two years, and his wife passed away at the age of seventy-four years. In politics he was aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican' party. He contributed to the development and civic progress of the county in which he so long maintained his home, and his name merits a place on the roll of the sterling pioneers of the fine old Western Reserve. Selina C. (Mumford) Maxson, mother of Edgar W. Maxson, of this sketch, was born at Milford, Otsego county, New York, and was a daughter of William and Susanna (Morris) Mumford, who came from the Empire state to the Western Reserve in 1825 and 'located in Troy township, Geauga county, where the father reclaimed a farm from the wilderness, and where bothof theirhis wife passed the residue of-their lives. William and Selina C. (Mumford) Maxson became the parents of two sons, of whom Edgar W. is the elder; the other, Victor R., is one of the representative farmers of Hiram township, Portage county. Edgar William Maxson passed his boyhood and youth on the old ancestral homestead in Hiram township, and his preliminary educational discipline was that afforded in the district schools. He later continued his studies in the old Western Reserve Institute, at Hiram,and eventually he was matriculated .in both the literary and law departments of the celebrated 'University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, then, as now, the greatest of all the state universities, and in the two departments he prosecuted his respective courses simultaneously; a fact that indicates how marked was his ambition and how great his powers of application and assimilation. .He was graduated in both departments in 1866, and received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1161 Laws. Prior to this, Mr. Maxson had devoted more or less attention to teaching in the district schools, and he was identified with successful pedagogic work for a total of about eleven years, within which he had been engaged as teacher in the graded schools of Springfield; Illinois, and those of Eaton county, Michigan. In the same year that he was graduated in the University of Michigan, Mr. Maxson was admitted to the bar of that state and also that of Ohio, but for some time he was engaged in the insurance business, in which connection he traveled in Michigan and Ohio, in the capacity of special agent. In 1872 he established himself in the practice of law at Garrettsville, Portage county, Ohio, where he continued to maintain his home and professional headquarters until 1887. He had in the meanwhile built up an excellent practice and gained no little prestige in his chosen vocation. In the year last mentioned he was elected prosecuting attorney of Portage county, and he then took up his residence in the' city of Ravenna, the judicial center and metropolis of the county. in the office of public prosecutor he made an admirable record, and in the department of criminal law he showed his powers in connection with a number of very important cases, including that of the notorious "Blinkie" Morgan, who was accused of murdering Hulligan, and whose prosecution was so ably conducted by Mr. Maxson that Morgan was convicted and hanged. Other causes of equal celebrity came before the courts of the county during the time that Mr. Maxson was incumbent of the office of prosecutor, and his success gave him precedence as not only one of the best criminal lawyers in the county, but also as one admirably equipped in all departments of his profession. He has 'continued without interruption in the practice of his profession at Ravenna, and his clientage has been at all times of representative order. He is recognized as one of the representative members of his profession in the Western Reserve, and commands unqualified confidence and esteem in the county which has represented his home from his childhood to the present. He is identified with various professional organizations, is one of the leaders in the local ranks of the Republican party, and is affiliated with the local lodge and chapter of the Masonic fraternity, in which bodies he has passed the various official chairs, including that of high priest of the chapter, and he is also identified with the Ravenna Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church at Ravenna. In 1867 Mr. Maxson was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Mull, who died in 1875 and who is survived by one daughter, Maud M., who is now the wife of F. N. Foote, who is manager of the Cleveland Audit Company, of Cleveland, and resides in East Cleveland. In 1876 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Maxson to Miss Dora E. Lockwood, who was born in Otsego county, New York, and who is a daughter of the late Philander Lockwood, and she became one of the well known citizens of Portage county. Mr. and Mrs. Maxson have no children. THOMAS B. WEST.—Prominent among the leading nursery men of Lake county is Thomas .B. West, of Perry township, proprietor of the Maple Bend Nursery, which he started in 1893, and has since conducted with profit and pleasure, each year adding to his stock, and increasing the scope and value of his trade. A son of the late James West, he was born April 28, 1864, in Lincolnshire, England, where the first year of his life was spent. James West emigrated to America in 1864, locating first in Cleveland, Ohio. The following year his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah A. Richardson, joined him in Quebec, bringing her little family of children, two daughters and six sons. They lived in or near Cleveland until 1874, when they located in Perry township, where both he and his wife spent their remaining days, his death occurring in February, 1905, and hers the preceding October. All of the children are living with the exception of the daughter, Nellie, who died, unmarried, in 1877, the others being as follows : Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Langshaw, of Perry, Ohio ; James R., of Cleveland ; R. S., of Perry; Samuel, of Salem, Ohio ; Henry E., of Perry ; George F., also of Perry ; Thomas B., the subject of this brief biography ; and Charles O., of this township. Remaining beneath the parental roof tree until attaining his majority, Thomas B. West spent the following year as a commercial salesman, being in partnership with his brother, James R. West. From that time until 1893 he was engaged in general farming, in the meantime becoming familiar with the 1162 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE various branches of agriculture and developing a taste for horticulture. In 1893 Mr. West invested his savings in land, buying the Newton "Watts homestead, which is advantageously located on the Narrows road, in Perry township, and establishing his present nursery. He has 100 acres of rich and fertile land, seventy-five of which he devotes to horticultural purposes, has erected new buildings and installed large tree cellars, having one of the best equipped nurseries in the county. He carries an extensive stock of fruit and ornamental trees, hardy shrubs of all kinds, many of them being rare and valuable, and a large variety of plants and flowers. By sturdy industry and close application to the details of his business, Mr. West has built up a lucrative trade, employing about fifteen or twenty assistants in the nursery, and in addition to keeping salesmen on the road has a valuable catalogue trade. Mr. West married in 1893, Emma Champion, a daughter of Joel H. and Orinda (Neely) Champion, of whom a brief account is, given elsewhere in this work, and to them five children have been born, namely : Margaret Ellen, Florence Ada, James. Hartwell, Dorothy Ann, and Thomas Edward. Politically Mr. West is a straightforward Republican, but not an office seeker. Fraternally he belongs to Perry Lodge, No. 792, I. O. O. F., in which he has passed all the chairs, and to Madison Lodge, A. F. & A. M. Religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. FRANKLIN RAY.—Franklin Ray, of Amherst, Ohio, who has now retired from active business life, was born in Black River township, Lorain county, Ohio, April 23, 1847. His father, Joseph Ray, was born in Scotland, and came to America as a young man with his mother, brother and sister, settling in Lorain county, Ohio, where he married, in April, 1842, Catherine, born June 24, 1820, in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, daughter of Michael and Cornelia (Sherman) Schneider, of Hessen-Cassel, Germany, who brought their family to Black River township, Lorain county, in 1835 ; they settled in the woods and began clearing land, living on the place until their deaths. Joseph Ray and his wife settled in Black River township on a farm he had acquired, where they lived many years, and Mr. Ray died in 1872 on this farm. Mrs. Ray is now living in Amherst at an advanced age, remarkably well preserved for her years. Mr. and Mrs. Ray were parents of six children, namely : Lucinda, widow of Adam Holistine, of Brownhelm township, Lorain county ; Margaret, who married Lorenz Horn and died July 13, 1896 ; Elizabeth, who married Henry Abel and died in Cleveland February 14, 1887 ; Franklin ; Mary, widow of Frederick Krouder, of Lorain ; and Cornelia, wife of Jacob Krouder, of Cleveland, Ohio. The boyhood of Franklin Ray was passed on his father's farm, and he attended the district schools ; he has always resided at home, and at the death of his father bought the shares of the other heirs and carried on general farming until November, 1906, when he sold his farm of sixty-three acres to the Knox Syndicate Company, having previously sold twenty acres to a neighbor. He and his mother then removed to the village of Amherst, where they purchased a comfortable home on School street, since which Mr. Ray has retired from active life. However, at times when his services are greatly needed, he helps his neighbor on his farm. Mr. Ray is a Republican in political opinion, and has served in several township offices, such as school director, road supervisor, etc. His mother is a member of the German Evangelical church, and Mr. Ray is a supporter of any good cause. They have the respect and esteem of the community, where they are so well known. Mr. Ray is unmarried. He was an intelligent and enterprising farmer, and was financially successful while cultivating his land. ALFRED ALONZO KING, ex-mayor of the city of Lorain, was born on .a farm in Mount Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, November 4, 187o. He is a son of Amos and Martha (Lear) King, both natives of the same county ; his grandparents on both 'sides were natives of Pennsylvania, and the great-grandparents were natives of Germany. Amos King and his wife still live in Pennsylvania. They became parents of eleven children, of whom nine survive. Mr. A. A. King was reared on a farm until he was fourteen years of age, when his parents removed to the town of Mount Pleasant, an he received his education in the district an town schools. When between fifteen and si teen years he began learning the trade of pipe-fitter, serving an apprenticeship. Previous to this he had worked vacations in coal yards. Mr. King took advantage of an opportunity HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1163 to enter the employ of the Southwest Gas Company, as assistant foreman on the line, and later went to work for the Brown & Emory Company, of Philadelphia. He next worked for Patrick Bennett, who had a contract for putting in water works. in Fairmont, West Virginia, and subsequently began work for a railroad company, firing on an engine on the western division of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. In 1892 Mr. King began work for the Johnson Company, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he remained three years, and when that company came to Lorain in 1895 he came with them and worked at his trade, later becoming assistant general foreman of the pipe fitting department, which position he held until elected mayor. Mr. King has taken an active interest in municipal affairs since his residence in Lorain, and in 1902 was elected to the city council, from what was then the Seventh ward, now the Fourth ward; he served in this office until January 1, 1908, and was president pro tern of the council the last two terms. In 1907 he was signally honored by being elected to the office of mayor, in a close and historic campaign, serving one term. He has the best interests of the city at heart, and enjoys the fullest confidence of his fellow-icitizens. Fraternally Mr. King is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Protected Home Circle. Mr. King married Ida J. Horner, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where she was born, and the union has been blessed with one son, Raymond Earl, sixteen years of age, a junior in high school. ENOS TEW, Leroy township, Lake county, born in Bergen, Genesee county, New York, October 2, 1830, is a son of Enos and Betsy (Carrier) Tew, of New London, Connecticut. The parents settled in New York, and in 1833 removed to Ohio with two children. The father had located land near the center of Leroy township, in the fall of 1832; and made the trip with an ox team. It was in the midst of heavy timber, and the first log house on the farm was built by him. John Tew, a brother who had also come to Ohio that year, died the night that Enos and his family reached the neighborhood, leaving a widow and one son, Henry, who died at the age of eighteen years. Enos lived in his brother's house a year and then erected a house on his own farm, three-quarters of a mile distant. He was a cooper by trade, put up a shop and made a living at his trade, hiring the land cleared. He continued to work at his trade and also on the farm. His youngest son, Richard J. Tew, now owns the farm and lives on it. Enos Tew died in 1879, in his seventy-ninth year, and his wife, who was born in Connecticut in 1806, died in February, 1876. They had four children, Enos Jr., Armenia, DeLos J. and Richard J. Armenia married Bud Wilson, who died when .t. young man of thirty-five ; she is housekeeper for her brother Enos, with whom she has lived about forty-five years. Enos himself never married. DeLos J. Tew is at Rushford, Minnesota, where he operates a flour mill, having been gone from his old home thirty-five years ; he worked for a time for the government at carpenter work. Enos Tew was three years old at the time his parents moved to Ohio, and has since lived in Leroy township. He lived with his parents till past his majority, and in 1856 went to Minnesota for a few years ; in 1863 he removed to his present farm, near Breakman Church. He has 200 acres, and the farm originally belonged to the grandfather of Riley J. Breakman, though it also contains part of the original John Valentine farm. The son of John Leander built the present house in 1864; Enos Tew was then living on the Breakman farm. His main business is keeping sheep, and he has been very successful. He is an industrious and practical farmer, and enterprising in his methods. When a young man he taught school ten- or twelve years, near home and also in Illinois. In political views he is a Republican. Mr. Tew's sister, Mrs. Wilson, has three daughters, namely : Alma J., wife of John Adams, school superintendent of Madison township, living at Unionville ; Emma A. married J. C. Phillips, a farmer living at A., ville, and Mary E., married John Cowle, of Conneaut, Ohio. GEORGE W. LEWIS, M. D.—Talented and cultured, Dr. George W. Lewis has been a close student of diseases and their treatment for many years, and now holds an assured position among the physicians and surgeons of Pierpont, where he has been in active practice for nearly fifteen years. His father, Eber Lewis, was born September 20, 1845, in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, where he is still a resident. To him and his wife, ,whose maiden name was Marilla Harned, five children have been born, namely : Ida, George W., Lena, John and Homer. 1164 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE After obtaining the education provided in the public schools of his native district, George W. Lewis attended .a higher institution of learning in Linesville, Pennsylvania, afterwards continuing his studies at the Edinburg State Normal school, and in 1891 being graduated from the Perrins school, in Buffalo, New York. He subsequently read medicine with Dr. Hotchkiss, of Edinburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1892 entered the medical department of the Western University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1895. Coming in the same year to Pierpont, Dr. Lewis opened an office just north of his present location, and has here built up a large and remunerative practice, his ability and professional skill being recognized and highly appreciated by the people of his community. The doctor takes an active part in local affairs, and has served as justice of the peace three years, and is now notary public, captain of the State Police, and manager of the Pierpont Band. He is a stanch Republican, and a member of the Republican county committee. Dr. Lewis married, September 4, 1892, Nannie R. McArthur, who was born August 5, 1872, in Shenango township, Westford, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Andrew and Sally (Thompson) McArthur, of Cherry Hill, Pennsylvania. Of the union of Dr. and Mrs. Lewis, five children have been born, namely : Methyl H., born August 3o, 1896 ; Eber H., born November 4, 1898 ; Arthur R., born November 9, 1900 ; Myron F., born October 17, 1904 ; and Marina M., born October 18, 1906. Dr. Lewis is a member of the Ashtabula County Medical. Society. Fraternally he belongs to the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd, Fellows and to the Knights of the Maccabees. In 1907 he was appointed examiner for the United States Marine Corps. Since coming to Pierpont, the doctor has built the pleasant home which he row occupies, on North Main street. STEPHEN E. GILLETT is the proprietor of the Cottage Grove Stock Farm, and he is one of the largest stock raisers of Portage county, shipping to all parts, of the United States and to other countries as well. He raises the registered Oxford Down sheep, Jersey cows and Poland China hogs. Although the raising of registered stock is one of the principal features of his business he also follows a general line of farming and conducts a dairy and creamery.   Mr: Gillett was born in Otsego county, New York, November 8, 1850, a son of Albert an Hannah (Cross) Gillett, both of whom were also born in that county. He is a grandson of John and Olive (Granger) Gillett and of Aliab Cross, all of whom. were from the state of New York. Albert Gillett spent his life as an agriculturist, and he made a specialty of dealing in general produce and the raising of and dealing in live stock. Both, he and his wife died in the commonwealth of their nativity. Their family numbered six sons and five daughters, of whom three sons and four daughters are now living, and all are residing in New York with the exception of Stephen E. Stephen E. Gillett was the first born child, and residing with his parents until twenty-three years of age he then went to Jones coun- ty, Iowa, and engaged in the stock business with I. R. and J. E. Carter, brothers of his wife. After one year there he came to Ra venna township, and after his marriage he farmed his father-in-law's place for one year: He later on built a splendid residence and barns on seventy-five acres of land belonging to his wife, and subsequently added fifty-two acres more to that place. He has been very successful in his several lines, and is accorded a foremost place among the business men of Portage county. Mr. Gillett married on February 22, 1877, Ellen E. Carter, who was born in Ravenna township, a daughter of Erastus and Delia (Skiff) Carter. The one child of this union is Addie E:, a graduate of the Ravenna high school. Erastus Carter was born in Ravenna township, Portage county, Ohio, on May 25, 1808, and he died on April 7, 1889. He was a son of Erastus and Lois (Fuller) Carter, who were born in Warren, Connecticut. With five companions Erastus Carter, Sr., started for the west on foot, but three of the party becoming discouraged turned back, Mr. Carter and the two other young men continuing on to Ravenna township. He secured a location in the north Central part of the township of about 1,280 acres of wild timber land, and after remaining a year .he returned to Connecticut for his family, the second journey westward being made with an ox team. Before leaving Connecticut. his grandmother placed her hand upon his head in benediction and told him. that she would never see him again, as he was going to the land of the. Indians, who would kill them. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1165 But Mr. Carter lived to be over ninety years of age, and during those years he cleared and improved his place. Erastus Carter, a son of Erastus and Lois, the pioneers, married on July 2, 1838, Delia Skiff, who was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, August 20, 1816, and she died on December 1, 1889: She was his second wife, her sister having been his first, and to that union were born two sons and a daughter : Ira, who died at Oxford Junction, Iowa, in May, 1889 ; Julius E., of California; and Hannah M., who died on April 7, 1889. Two sons and ,a daughter were also born of his second marriage, but Julius Erastus, of Los Angeles, California, and Mrs. Gillett only are Jiving of all his family. The children of his second union were : Myran Howard, who died in Ravenna on November 12, 1908 ; Mrs. Gillett ; and Addison S., who died in Davenport, Iowa, March 17, 1905. The wives of Mr. Carter were daughters of Julius and Julia (Botsford) Skiff, from Litchfield county, Connecticut. Julius was a son of Nathan and Abigail (Fuller) Skiff, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, while Nathan was a son of Nathan Skiff, Sr., who with his father were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Nathan was a son of James Skiff, who was born in England. -Julius Skiff, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Gillett, came with his family to Portage county, Ohio, journeying via the canal to Buffalo, and. thence by sail boat on Lake Erie to Fairport, this state, spending sixteen days and nights on the trip. They located in the southern, part of Shalerville township, where the death of Mr. Skiff subsequently occurred, and his widow then resided with her daughter in Ravenna until her death. GORDON FREEBORN MATTESON.-It was largely through the efforts, strenuous efforts, and heroic sacrifices of staid New England's sons that the Western .Reserve derived her courage, her enterprise, her public spirit, and her inspiration for converting the forest covered lands into thriving hamlets, populous villages and towns, and valuable and attractive agricultural regions. Conspicuous among those that dared the dangers .and privations of frontier life in the early part of the last century. was Major Matteson„ father of Gordon F. Matteson, of this brief sketch. A son of Freeborn Matteson, Major Matteson was born October 10, 1799, in Shaftsbury, Vermont, and there spent the earlier years of his life. He married, while living in Bennington county, his native place, Patience Matteson, whose birth occurred July 4, 1800. In 1834 Major Matteson and his family came to Ohio, locating in Hiram, Portage county, in the very house from which Rigdon and Smith, Mormons, were taken by the mob that tarred. and feathered them. They subsequently moved to a place near the present Matteson homestead, and the following year bought the farm now owned and occupied by their son Gordon. They improved the land, and carried on general farming the remainder of their lives, the major dying December 21, 1872, while his wife, who preceded him to the better land, passed away May 13, 1861. They were the parents of four children, two of whom were born in Vermont, and the other two in Ohio. Succeeding to the ownership of the parental acres, Gordon F. Matteson is numbered among' the foremost agriculturists of this part of the county. As a boy he assisted his father in clearing and improving the homestead, watching with gratification its gradual development from a dense forest to a valuable farm, yielding abundant harvests each season, and in its transformation he was an important factor. He was born April 25, 1839, in the old log cabin that stood upon the place when his parents bought it, and in the schools of the neighborhood acquired his elementary education. He subsequently completed his studies at the Hiram Eclectic Institute, of which James A. Garfield was then the principal, that being before the organization of the school into Hiram College. Mr. Matteson married first, in 1864, Mary Roberts, of Hiram, Ohio, and they became the parents of two children, namely : Hugh Frank, born May 28, 1871, and a child that died when but a week old. Hugh Frank Matteson married first, in Garrettsville, Ohio, in 1891, Birdie Holcomb, who died December 1, 1892. He married second, in Ravenna, Ohio, Emogene Ramsdell, and they have, two children, Fred James and Frank Gordon, twins, born February 24, 190o. Mrs. Mary (Roberts) Matteson died in 1876, and Mr. Matteson married for his second wife, June 19, 1879, Carrie Sherwood. Mrs. Matteson was born in Nelson, Portage county, Ohio, of New England stock. Her father, Ebenezer Sherwood, was born January 24, 181o, in West Cornwall, Connecticut, and when a young man drove across the country from his New England home to Portage county, Ohio, locating in Nelson. There, on May 24, 1835, he married Joanna 1166 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE McCall, who was born at Parkman, Ohio, and to them five children were born. Mrs. Sherwood's paternal grandfather, Deacon Sherwood, a native of West Cornwall, Connecticut, married Anna Bonney, who was born and bred in Cornwall, Connecticut. GUY S. KING prominently represents the younger element identified with the farming interests of Portage county, where he was born on September 5, 1882, to Julian and Edna (Scoval) King, who also had their nativity in Portage county, in its township of Charlestown. After their marriage they began farming on land given them by his father, Thomas B. King, .who had come to this community with his father, Dr. Robert King, one of the most prominent and honored of the early pioneers of Portage county. The wife of Thomas B. King drove through with her mother from Hopkinton, Rhode Island, to Portage county, Ohio, during an early period in its history, the two women making the entire journey alone. Mrs. King was born July 5, 1819. When very young Guy S. King's parents died and he lived with his grandparents during the remainder of their lives, and after their death he .inherited 208 acres of land, but he has since added to this tract until his possessions now include 215 acres, a valuable and well improved estate in Charlestown township. Among the many splendid improvements of this property is its maple orchard of 800 trees, from which Mr.. King averages 300 gallons of maple syrup a year. He is numbered among the leading agriculturists of Charlestown township, an efficient and successful representative of the calling. On November 1, 1906, he was united in marriage to Gail Francis Ingram, who was born January 24, 1887, a daughter. of Silas Ingram, a native of the state of West Virginia, as was also his father, Silas A. Ingram, born in 1817, while his .wife, Hanna (Phillips) Ingram, was born there in 1819. Silas A. Ingram was a member or the committee of the men appointed to form the dividing line between Virginia and West Virginia. He came from Philadelphia with his father, Abraham Ingram, and they took up 2,000 acres of government land, a part of which, 121 acres, Mrs. King and her father have since inherited. Mrs. King also traces her ancestry in ,a direct line to Joseph Lazear, who came from the south of France in 1718 and established his home in Greene county, Pennsylvania, there securing 40o acres of government land. His. son Francis Lazear married Mary Crow, and her family were entirely wiped out by Indian massacres. Mr. King has in his short but successful life been quite an extensive traveler and has visited many of the principal resorts of his native land. CARL W. PAYNE is numbered among the farmers of Austinburg township, Ashtabula county. He was born September 21, 1860, in this county, a son of Orlando and Mary. ane (Chapman) Payne, and a grandson on the maternal side of Thomas Chapman, who located in this community many years ago. He was born in the mother country of England August 5, 1805, and he married there on June 2, 1830, Mary Humberstone, from Leicestershire, born March. 17, 1799. Two years after his marriage Thomas Chapman with his wife and little daughter Sarah, who was one year old, started for America, and owing to heavy storms spent six weeks on the ocean en route. In his native land Mr. Chapman had had control of hunting grounds belonging to the royalty, and in Ohio he bought fifty acres of land southwest of Austinburg, where their first home was a little log cabin, which furnished them shelter during the arduous days of clearing the land and preparing it for cultivation. He later built a more comfortable home, and in time bought fifty acres adjoining his original purchase: He was a general farmer, a Whig and a Republican, and both he and his wife were active members of the Methodist church. He died on the 5th of August, 1890 while his wife Mary followed on the 12th of July, 1891. Their children were as follows : Sarah, born May 24, 1831, married David Hoyt, of Austin-burg, by whom she had one child, Frank, and she died December 12, 1903 ; Robert, born in October, 1833, married Mary Chandler, from New Hampshire, by whom he had two children, Ida and Clara, and their home was in Austinburg ; Mary Jane became the wife of Orlando Payne ; Emily, born November 15, 1841, never married, lived in Austinburg and died January 23, 1904. Mary Jane (Chapman) Payne was born May 19, 1838, in Austinburg, and on the 5th of November, 1859, she was married to Orlando Payne, who was born in that city August 12, 1837, a son of Henry and Armenia (Wolcott) Payne. Henry Payne, born in New York October 21, 1800, came overland to Ohio in 1820, locating his home a half mile west of Grand River, near Cold Springs, where he HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1167 built a log cabin and later a more pretentious home. He was by trade a cooper, and in politics voted with both the Whigs and Republicans. His home during the latter part of his life was at the present Henry Abeln estate, and there both he and his wife died, Henry on the 16th of .February, 1889, when eighty-eight years of age, and the wife Armenia on May 5, 1885, at the age of seventy-six. Their eleven children were as follows : Mary, born January 23, 1829, wedded Salmon Hills, Jr., and had one child, and Mrs. Hills died August 17, 1893 ; Ellen was born May 2, 1831; Rufus, born June 3, 1832, died March 29, 1898, and Orrin, Emily, Orlando, Horace, Selden, Lewis, Dwight and Willard. Orlando Payne, of this family, was a dairyman and general farmer in Austinburg township for many years and a carpenter by trade. He was also a notary public and a constable, and was a man who commanded the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens. He was a member of the Grange both in Austinburg and Geneva, and was associated with the fraternal order of Odd Fellows. Although not members, both he and his wife were actively identified with the Methodist church, and lived their lives in conformity with its teachings. Their home for sixteen years was at Cold Springs, wher Orlando Payne 'conducteda summer .resort, and he died in May of 1906, of heart failure. Carl W. Payne, the only son and child of Orlando and Mary Jane (Chapman) Payne, received a good education. in the district schools and in Grand River Institute, and before his marriage taught school for a number of years inn the districts surrounding Austin-burg and also farmed with his father. On May 18, 1887, in Austinburg, he was married to Minnie E. Johnston, from Mahoning county, this state, born June 28, 1865, a daughter of Andrew C. and Missouri L. (Jones) Johnston; whose family numbered eleven children, as follows : Frank M., Rose F.4,. Charley H., Clarence W., Walter G., Ida M., Alice C.; Henry H.; Bertha L., Loretta E. and Minnie. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Payne are : Mabel L., born October 11, 1888, married Claude Buck, of Harpersfield, Ohio, and they have a daughter, Doris ; Grace ., born November 4, 1890, married ,Pearl Truax, of Geneva ; Clara L., born September 7, 1894.; an Evelyn M., born May 14, 1907. In addition to his general farming pursuits .Carl W. Payne conducts a summer resort on Grand river and is a stockholder in the Cork Telephone Com pany. He is a Republican politically, and has served his community as a supervisor and as a, member of the school board. He is a member of the Grange, and Mrs. Payne belongs to the Congregational church. CHARLES A. MOODEY.—In both the paternal and maternal lines is Charles A. Moodey, the present able and popular postmaster of Painesville, representative of honored pioneer families of Lake county, and the name which he bears has been identified with the annals of the county in a prominent way for nearly a century. His. father and grandfather were long concerned in mercantile pursuits in Painesville and had much to do with the civic and material development of the city. Other members of the family also have been well known in business life in this favored section of the Western Reserve. Mr. Moodey himself has had a somewhat varied and interesting career, as further paragraphs in this sketch will indicate, and in his native city and county he is well known as a sterling, citizen and as a man eminently worthy of the unqualified esteem in which he is held. Mr. Moodey was born in Painesville, on September 14, 1847, and is a son of Samuel and Lucinda (Merrill) Moodey, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Concord township, Lake county, Ohio, a daughter of ______ Merrill, who came to this county in the early pioneer days, from Connecticut, and who purchased his land an Concord township from the Connecticut Land Company, which originally held title to all of the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio. Samuel Moodey was a son of Robert and Margaret (Kerr) Moodey, and was an infant at the time of his parents' removal from the old Key-stone state to Lake county, Ohio, in 1816. The Kerr family settled in Mentor township, this county in the opening years of the nineteenth century, not long after the admission of Ohio to the Union. Robert Moodey took up his residence in Painesville in 1813, and the present thriving little city was then represented by an obscure and straggling little village in the midst of the forest. He later returned to Pennsylvania, but remained only a short interval. In 1816 he engaged in the general merchandise business in Painesville, as one of the pioneer merchants of the town, and he continued in this line of enterprise for many years,—a substantial and honored citizen and one, who wielded not a little influence in 1168 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE local affairs of a public nature. He reared three sons, of whom the eldest was Samuel, father of the present postmaster of Painesville ; Moses K., the second son, went to New York City when a young man and was there engaged in the hat business for many years, continuing his residence in the national metropolis until his death ; Robert A., who passed his entire life in Painesville, where he was a dealer in caps and furs, died at the age of fifty years. Samuel Moodey was reared to manhood in Painesville; in whose somewhat primitive schools his early educational training was secured. As a youth he became a clerk in his father's general store, and finally he was admitted to partnership in the business, under the firm name of Robert Moodey & Son. He continued in the drug and grocery business in an individual way after the death of his honored father, and was continuously identified with local business interests for fully half a century, having been one of the oldest merchants of the city at the time of his retirement. He died in 1885, at the age of seventy years, and his wife passed to the life eternal in 1885, at the age of seventy years. Samuel Moodey was a man of unostentatious habits, of good business ability and of unimpeachable integrity of character. He was loyal as a citizen and though he was never active in public affairs, he was a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, with which he identified himself at the time of its organization. He ever held the unequivocal confidence and regard of the people of the community in which practically his entire life was passed, and his name merits a place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Lake county. They became the parents of two children, of whom the only one to attain years of maturity is he whose name initiates this article. Charles A. Moodey secured his rudimentary education in the village school of Painesville, and later he attended the ably conducted academy, in Painesville, of which the head was Professor Moses Harvey, who later became state superintendent of public instruction and who was long one of the foremost figures in educational circles in Ohio, as well as the author of Harvey's grammar, a textbook long in use in the public schools throughout the Union. After leaving school Mr. Moodey entered his father's store, where he learned the drug business, and later he entered Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1870' with the degree of A. B. In 1870 Mr. Moodey located in Manistee, Michigan, then one of the important points in the great lumber regions of the northern part of the Wolverines state,. and there he was engaged in the drug business for a period of three years, after which he passed ten years on the great plains of the west,—in Colorado and Wyoming. There he was identified with.the largest horse and cattle. ranch of that section, the range covered being fifty by one hundred and fifty miles. He had many hazardous experiences, but greatly enjoyed the untrammeled life of the plains. Indian depredations 'were frequent and there was a constant menace from the uprisings of the aborigines, but he never suffered any appreciable loss of property at their hands. In 1883 Mr. Moodey returned to Painesville, where he purchased and rebuilt the old “City Mills," in the operation of which, as. general flour and feed mills, he was thereafter associated with his cousin, F. C. Moodey, for .a period of about ten years. He also became the owner of valuable farm property in the county. He invested in land at Fairport, and for a number of years his real estate operations enlisted much of his time and attention. Though never active in the field of "practical politics," Mr. Moodey has given a stalwart support to the cause of the Republican party. He served eight years as county commissioner, and since 1906 has held the office of postmaster at 'Painesville. Within his regime the business of the office has shown a gradual increase, and the office is of the second class, though Painesville has the distinction of being the smallest incorporated city in Ohio. In the office Mr. Moodey has under his direction twenty-one employes, including five city carriers, and from this office as headquarters is handled the work of five rural free delivery routes. Mr. Moodey gives his entire attention to the duties of his office and has made many improvements in the service, as well as in the facilities and accessories of the postoffice itself. In the Masonic fraternity the affiliations of Mr. Moodey are with Temple Lodge No. 28, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past worshipful master ; Painesville Chapter, No. 46, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is past H. P. ; and Eagle Commandery, No. 29, Knights Templar. In the year 1878 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moodey to Miss Margaret Sterling, a resident of Iron Ridge, Wisconsin, and HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1169 a daughter of William Sterling, who removed to that state from. Cleveland, Ohio. In conclusion is entered a brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Moodey : Harry S. is employed in drafting department of the offices of the King. Bridge Company, of Cleveland; George R. is manager of the Painesville gas works; Mary remains at the parental home ; Theodore B. is a civil engineer by profession and is employed in the office of the city engineer of Painesville ; Florence, who is a graduate of the Lake Erie College, at Painesville, is a teacher in the high school at Chardon, Geauga county ; Margaret, a skilled artist, is engaged in teaching oil and water-color painting in Cleveland ; Laura is a student of kindergarten work at the time of this writing, (1909) ; and Charles W. and Sterling G. are attending school. CHALMERS. LAMAR QUINE, deceased, was born May 11, 1847, on the farm. where his widow now lives, in Leroy township. He was a son of James and Ann (Harrison) Quine. James was the son of James and Gaum Quine, horn on the Isle of Man. He came to America in 1827, when James, Jr., was five years of age, and settled near Breakman Church, in: Leroy township, building the house that is still standing. He died in old age. His son James married, at the age of twenty-four years, Ann Harrison, (sister of John Harrison, deceased, mentioned elsewhere in this work), six months his junior. They settled on the farm where their son Chalmers . afterward lived, about 1846, and lived there until Chalmers was about eighteen years old, and then removed to a farm on the Girdled road, now occupied by their grandson, Lynn Quine, where they lived the remainder of their lives. He died February 8, 1899, and his wife died in 1888. Jam.es Quine's sister became Mrs. Edmund Callow; another sister, Mary Duke, lives in Geneva, Ashtabula county, Ohio, and his brother, Thomas. Quine, lives near Warsaw, Indiana. James Quine had but one child, Chalmers. Chalmers L. Quine inherited his father's farm, and at his marriage removed to the farm where he was born, where he. lived until his death, July 8, 1907, at the age of sixty years. He kept adding to his land, until, in company with his father, he had nearly 400 acres, 120 of which was in Hampden, Geauga county, 113 acres in the home farm, and his wife had twenty-five acres. His son Lynn inherited his grandfather's farm, and Chalmers Quine's farm is now occupied by his daughter. Mr. nine took an interest in public affairs, although he cared nothing. for political parties or for public office. His father, however, had taken an active interest in political affairs. Chalmers Quine married September 6, 1872, Helen, daughter of Sylvanus and Caroline (House) Hovey, at that time twenty-two years of age. Sylvanus Hovey was a native of New York and his wife of Massachusetts. He, with his brother Marlow, was brought to Ohio by Sylvanus Hovey, when young Sylvanus was about twelve years of age, and they remained in Leroy township. Marlow lived on the old homestead, where he died at the age of eighty years. His first wife was Belinda Bates, and his second wife, who survived him, Lydia Gere. He had three children, Mariette, Addison and Emeline, all now deceased. Sylvanus Hovey's farm adjoined that of his brother and he lived there most of his life, removing in his old age to Hampden, Geauga county, 'where he died in 1881, in his seventy-first year, his wife having died thirteen, years previously. They had . two sons and four daughters, namely : Franklin, of Midland, Michigan; Cornelia; married James Drake, and died at the age of thirty-six ; Adeline, widow of John H. Valentine, of Leroy ; Amelia, married DeLoss Rogers, of Hampden, Geauga county ; Helen, Mrs. Quine ; and Byron, of Kansas. Chalmers Quine and his wife had but two children, Bernice, the wife of Carl Crellin, who has no children, and Lynn. Lynn Quine was born on his father's farm, April 30, 1876, and now lives in his grandfather's old house, coming to it at his marriage, when twenty-five years old. He cared for his grandfather before his death ; the farm contains ninety-seven acres. He married Mabel McNutt, who was born in Leroy township, and lived in Ashtabula county from the age of four years until her marriage. They have one son, Kenneth. CLARENCE CLAY CARLTON, superintendent of the public schools of Medina, in the county by that name, is one of the rising young educators of northern Ohio. He is a native of the Buckeye state, born at Akron on May 17, 1882; and is the eldest son of Wallace L. and Ella. (Tinker) Carlton. The father, who. was born at Mantua, Ohio, in the year 1854, was an efficient employe of the Aultman Miller and Company of Akron. for nearly twenty-five years. Upon the assignment of that company 1170 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE he was employed by the International Harvester Company, who acquired the property of the old Buckeye Company, and he is at present traffic manager of the Akron division of the International Harvester Company. Clarence C. passed his boyhood in the city of Akron and after graduating from the Akron high school entered Buchtel College, also located at that place. He was graduated from Buchtel with the degree of Ph. B. and the same year became a reporter on the Akron Beacon Journal. During his college career he had for three years been editor of the Buchtelite, the official organ of the students of Buchtel College, and for two years the representative of his college at the Ohio State Oratorical Contest. In the fall of 1904 Mr. Carlton accepted a position as superintendent of the centralized schools of Mantua township. Here he organized one of the strongest centralized school systems in Northern Ohio. After remaining in the centralized schools for three years, his faithfulness and efficiency were recognized and he was promoted to the superintendency of the Mantua Village schools. Since graduating from Buchtel College Mr. Carlton has found time to attend the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago, for one term each. At both of these universities he has taken post graduate work, his major subjects being economics and sociology. In 1908 Mr. Carlton received a high compliment in his being chosen as superintendent of the Medina public schools, succeeding the popular and able J. R. Kennan, who had held the position for over twenty years. Mr. Carlton has been fully equal to his newly assumed responsibilities, and under his superintendency are an earnest, smooth-working corps of twenty teachers and an educational system which is well organized and equal to every demand made upon it by scholars and parents. Mr. Carlton is a Mason,—a member of Medina Lodge No. 68,—and an active worker in the Medina county Y. M. C. A., but his school duties are paramount to all others. His wife, whom he married in 1906, was formerly Miss Anna L. Durling of Wadsworth, daughter of J. K. and Lydia (Copley) Durling, who were pioneers of Medina county. Mrs. Carlton is also a graduate of Buchtel College and for several years was a teacher in the public schools of Wadsworth and Akron, Ohio, and Idaho Falls, Idaho. James Clay Carlton, born March 18, 1908, is the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Carlton. ERNEST LYNN BURR„ the present superintendent of the Portage county infirmary, was born at Meadville, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1878, a son of Lynn and Winifred (Newton) Burr, who were born in Portage county, Ohio, the father in Deerfield township and the mother in Charlestown township. On the maternal side Mr. Burr is descended from prominent old residents of Connecticut, who moving from there became early pioneers of Charlestown township in Portage county, Ohio. His great-grandfather, Newton, was very poor when he came here, but in time he accumulated the vast estate of 3,300 acres and he died a rich man. Lynn Burr before his marriage worked at farming in .Portage county, but after that important event in his life he became a trainman on the A. & G. W. ,Railroad, which later became the .Erie road, and in tim.e he was promoted to the position of a conductor. 'He resided in Oil City until his death, and his widow then returned to Charlestown township, Portage county, and resided with her father for a year, after which for two years she was in St. Louis, Missouri, and then coming to Youngstown, Ohio, she married Benjamin F. Cooke, an insurance agent. But he was killed about two years after his marriage, and after a year his widow went to Wayland in Paris township and purchased a general store. While there she married E. L. Phillips, and after conducting the store about four years she sold it and moved with her husband to his mother's farm in Paris township. After one year there they moved to Rootstown township, purchased a farm, and resided there three years, when Mr. Phillips was appointed superintendent of the county infirmary of Portage county, and held the office for five .years. Mrs. Phillips died on October 19, 1907, after an operation for c cer of the stomach. Her husband had resign his position on July i of the same year, but he is still employed at the infirmary as a night watchman. The children born to Lynn and Winifred Burr were Ernest Lynn and Ralph Clifford, and the younger son, born on March 5, 188o, conducts a basket factory at Wayland. Ernest Lynn Burr was about eight years of age at the time of his father's death, and he then resided with his grandfather Newton at HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1171 Newton Falls in Trumbull county one year, or until the grandfather's removal from Wayland, where he now lives retired. He is an old-time basket maker. After his mother purchased the store at Wayland her son remained with her until his twentieth year, and then became a brakeman on the B. & O. railroad. But after one year he resigned that position, and for three years was a switchman at Youngstown for the Lake Shore Railroad Company, and then being promoted to a conductor he filled the latter office for one year. Resigning at the close of that period he returned to Wayland and worked for two years in his grandfather's basket factory. During a similar period he was an employe at the Portage county infirmary, and on July I, 1907, was appointed its superintendent, succeeding his stepfather, Mr. Phillips. Mr. Burr married on January I, 1902, Cora Pash, who was born in Auburn township, Geauga county, Ohio, a daughter of Andrew and Carrie Pash, natives respectively of the countries of Germany and England. WESLEY A. SEELEY-A retired farmer and justice of the peace at Lodi, Medina county, Wesley A. Seeley has also a faithful Civil war record to add to his honors in civil affairs. He was born in York township, this county, on January 11, 1835, and is a son of Jesse and Prudence (Brown) Seeley. His parents were both New Yorkers, his father being born in Schoharie county August 8, 1808. They came to York township in October, 1834, to locate on the tract of eighty acres of timber land which Mr. Seeley had purchased. He soon made a clearing and built a log house, with a huge old-fashioned chimney place, and as he gradually cut away the timber from his land he extended the area of his farm. He engaged in general farming for many years, and was for some time also connected with Steele, Lehman & Co., of Springfield, Ohio, who cultivated flax quite extensively, as well as dealt in oil. During the Civil war Jesse Seeley served two terms as trustee of his township, and was sheriff of Medina county, having been elected in 1863. Five of his sons were in the ranks of the Union army. In the late. sixties he retired from active work and died January 9, 1888, his wife having gone before, in 1884. They were the parents of fifteen children, as follows Marietta, John V. K., Esther (deceased), Caroline, Elizabeth, Wesley A., Samuel B., George D., Harmon J., Delia (deceased), Emma I., Niron G., Nathan S., David O. and Charles M. Wesley A. Seeley was educated in district and private schools. He remained on the farm in York township until he was twenty-one years of age and in 1861 enlisted in Company K, Eighth Ohio Infantry, Colonel Depuy commanding. After serving three months in that command he was transferred to Company B, Forty-second Ohio Infantry, with Colonel James A. Garfield in command, and as a part of the army of Ohio participated in the battles of Black River, Vicksburg and Cumberland Gap. Mr. Seeley was honorably discharged December 2, 1864, and then resumed farming in York township. Four of his brothers were also soldiers in the Civil war. John V. K. was a member of the Forty-second Ohio Regiment, as was Mr. Seeley himself ; Harmon J. was identified with the Eighty-fourth Ohio and Nathan S. with the Second Ohio Cavalry and the Eighty-fourth Infantry. All served faithfully until honorably discharged. On Christmas, 1864, about three weeks after his discharge from military service, Mr. Seeley married Miss Lucy A. Crosby, of Chatham township, daughter of Silas and Jane O. ( Jones) Crosby. Her parents were natives of Vermont and early settlers of Ohio. Three children were born of this union. Lora married J. L. Knapp ; Arthur V. is a prosperous farmer of Westfield township and Mark T. is the station agent at Lodi of the Cleveland, Southwestern and Columbus Railroad. Of late years Mr. Seeley has not been engaged in active farming pursuits, but has resided in Lodi largely occupied with his duties as justice of the peace,. to which position he was elected in 1901. In the discharge of his official duties he has acquired quite a knowledge of the law and is also recognized as a fluent speaker and a racy writer. His fraternal relations are solely with- the James Young Post, G. A. R., at Burbank, Ohio. RUFUS KNOWLES, a venerable and highly respected citizen, is one of the large land owners and representative citizens of LaGrange township, Lorain county. He was born in Dutchess county, New York, May 13, 1830, a son of Horace and Catherine (Lown.) Knowles, both of whom were also born in Dutchess county. They drove from there in 1832 with ox teams to LaGrange township, Lorain county, Ohio, Horace Knowles buying here a tract of timber land, and he improved his land and kept adding 1172 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE to it until at the time of his death he owned 618 acres, all in LaGrange township. He was a hard working man, enterprising and progressive, and he became one of the influential men of his community. He died on August 8, 1882, when eighty-six years of age, and his wife died on May 12, 1879, aged seventy-one years. In their family were six sons and six daughters, as follows : Horace was a farmer and resided in LaGrange, and there died ; Nelson is residing at LaGrange ; Rufus ; Betsey married Albert Foster and resided at LaGrange, but is now deceased ; Porter was a farmer and .died at Deshler, Ohio ; Martha is the widow of Porter Merriam and resides at LaGrange ; Mary married James Beaver and died at LaGrange ; Lyman O. resides in Elyria ; William, was in the One Hundred and Third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died in Libby Prison ; Emma died young; Sarah is unmarried and resides in LaGrange and Ellen is Mrs. William Wilcox, of LaGrange. Rufus Knowles spent the days of his boyhood on the home farm in LaGrange township, but after his marriage he left the parental home and bought a farm on Vermont street, LaGrange township, their home for ten years, and they then spent three years on a rented farm in Penfield township. Mr. Knowles then bought thirty-four acres within the corporation limits of LaGrange, where he has ever since, resided. He owns large tracts of land in several farms, fifty acres in one tract, half lying within the corporation limits of LaGrange, and three other farms containing respectively forty, thirty-five and ninety acres, all in LaGrange township. He is one of the county's largest land holders. Mr. Knowles married on October 28, 1852, Hanna Foster, .born in Windsor county, Vermont, May 5, 1835, a daughter of Addison and Lucy (Pease) Foster, from the same state, and on the maternal side she is a granddaughter of Enoch Pease, also from Vermont. Addison and Lucy Foster came with a three-horse team in 1836 to LaGrange township, Lorain county, Ohio, and establishing their home on Vermont street they lived there until moving to LaGrange Center in 1861, Mr. Foster afterward living retired until his death in 1874, and his wife died in the following year of 1875. They became the parents of six. children, but Mrs. Knowles is the only one of the family now living. A son and a daughter have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Knowles, Charles William and Eva Lura. The son is yet with his parents and the daughter is the wife of Frank Batcheler and living in Penfield township. Charles \V. Knowles married Minnie Willard, and has three children, William, Frank and Mamie. Mrs. Batcheler has had four children, Roy, Ray, Mattie and Carl, the latter dying in April. 1909; aged sixteen years. Mr. Knowles is a Mason and a Republican, and he served the village of LaGrange thirty-two years as a member of its board of councilmen. Mrs. Knowles is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. SHELDON F. HANSELMAN.—The legal profession in the Western Reserve has ever maintained high prestige, and from its ranks many have risen to distinction in national affairs. One of the representative members of the bar of this favored section of the old Buckeye state is Mr. Hanselrnan, who is engaged in .the practice of law in the city of Ravenna, of which he was formerly mayor and where he is now serving as city' solicitor, besides which he gave an effective administration during his incumbency of the office of prosecuting attorney. of Portage county. Sheldon Fitch Hanselman was born at Angola, Steuben county, Indiana, on April 1858, and is a son of Rev. David C. and Lucy A. (Thomas) Hanselman, both of whom were born and reared in Columbiana county, Ohio, being representatives of honored pioneer families of this state. Their marriage was solemnized in Steuben county, Indiana, where they maintained their home for a number of years. David C. Hanselman was a man of marked native talent and strong intellectuality, and was one of the able members of the clergy of the Christian church, in whose service he labored long and faithfully. In his youth he learned the carpenter's trade, and to this he devoted his attention to a greater or less extent for a number of years, while his versatility wash shown by his also having been a farmer and a tanner. He became a man of broad information and well fortified opinions, and his advancement was made entirely .through his own efforts, as he was essentially self-educated. In 1870 he became a student in Hiram College, a number of years after his marriage and when his son Sheldon F. was .a lad of twelve years, and through this discipline he effectively amplified his academic education.. For a full quarter of a century he labored with all of consecrated zeal in the ministry of the Christian church, principally HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1173 in the Western Reserve, and the angle of his beneficent influence is continuously widening through the lives and services of those touched and aided by his ministrations and admonition. He died in 1900, at his old home in s Steuben county, Indiana; and was seventy-four years of age at the time of his demise. He was specially, prominent and successful in the field of evangelical work, and in the history, of his church his name will be held in lasting reverence and honor. His cherished and devoted wife, who was ever his gracious helpmeet, now maintains her home in Angola, Indiana, and has attained to the venerable age of seventy-eight. years (1909). They became the parents of three children, of whom the only one surviving is he whose name initiates this sketch. Sheldon F. Hanselman secured his rudimentary education in the public schools of Indiana and was twelve years of age at the time when his parents took up their residence at Hiram, Ohio. There he continued his studies in the public schools and college, and later he attended the schools of Bethany, .West Virginia, and Butler College, at. Indianapolis, Indiana. As a youth he was identified with the work and management of his father's old homestead in Steuben county, Indiana, later he was employed as a clerk in a shoe store at Canton, Ohio, and thereafter he passed one year as a traveling salesman for a wholesale glove house. After his marriage he was for some time associated in the management of the farm and flour mill of his father-in-law, in Deerfield township, Portage county, and while thus engaged he began reading law, in which he secured effective preceptorship. He made rapid progress in his accumulation and assimilation of minutiae of the science of jurisprudence, and in June, 1888, he was admitted to the bar. He then located in the city of Ravenna, where he entered into a professional partnership with Philo B. Conant, with whom he continued to be associated in practice until the death of the latter, in 1889. Since that time he has continued in the successful practice of his profession in Ravenna, where he is now associated with L T. Siddall, under the firm name of Siddall and Hanselman. He has been concerned in much important litigation in the courts of this section of the state and is known as both an able trial lawyer and well fortified and conservative counselor. Mr. Hanselman has been identified with the Republican party from the time of attaining to leis legal majority and he has rendered effective service in the cause of the "grand old party." He served for six consecutive years as prosecuting attorney of Portage county,. and his long tenure of this office affords the best. voucher for his efficiency and for the popular estimate of his services. He was appointed a member of the Ohio state board of pardons by Governor Bushnell, through whose administration he continued incumbent of this office, and he was chosen to, the office of mayor of Ravenna in 1899, retaining the office for a term of two years and giving a progressive and business like administration. He has served consecutively as city solicitor since 1905. Mr.. Hanselman is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the chivalric degrees, being identified with Akron Commandery, Knights Templar, of Ravenna, as well as with the local lodge and chapter of 'the order. He is also identified with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. As a citizen he is essentially loyal and public-spirited and his aid and influence are ever accorded in support of enterprises and measures conserving the general welfare of his Nome city and county. Both himself and his wife are members of the Christian church. In the year 1878 Mr. Hanselman was united in marriage to Miss Laurie. R. Slack, daughter of Jesse L. and Mary (Hubbard) Slack, honored residents of Deerfield township, Portage county, and they have five children, namely : Jesse L., Grace M., Catherine, Marie, and Charles. S. THOMAS LANGSHAW.—A well-known farmer and dairyman, having a comprehensive knowledge of the vocation in which he is engaged, Thomas Langshaw is carrying on a prosperous business in Perry township, his land being on the Narrows road. A native of England, he was born July 29, 1846, in Lincolnshire, a son of Stephen Langshaw. In 1848, inspired by a laudable desire to improve his financial condition, Stephen Langshaw and his wife, whose maiden name was Hannah Bates, sailed with their family for the United States. From New York he came by way of the Erie canal and Lake Erie to Cleveland, Ohio, where he followed the trade of a carpenter for a while, his residence being on St. Clair street. He afterwards lived for a while in Newburg, from there going to Willoughby, where he lived for thirty years, having a farm at Scram's Corners; on the Chardon road. There he died, at the age of 1174 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE seventy-two years, his death being caused by a fall from an apple tree. His wife survived him, attaining the age of eighty-four years. The farm is still in the possession of the family, being now operated by the son John. Until he married, Thomas Langshaw remained with his parents, assisting in the care of the farm. He subsequently lived in various places, including Mayfield and Mentor, a part of the time being in Cuyahoga county, near Cleveland. In 1890 Mr. Langshaw bought his present farm, which was formerly owned by Milton Shepherd, it being a valuable estate of 16o acres, lying in Perry township. This he now manages in partnership with his son, Thomas H. Langshaw, who lives on an adjoining farm, and carries on general farming on a somewhat extensive scale, in his dairy keeping from twenty to thirty cows, the milk being sold in Cleveland for family use. Mr. Langshaw married, May 4, 1870, Susan Elizabeth West, who lived on a neighboring farm in Willoughby when they were children, and of their union four children have been born, namely : Frank W., a general merchant in Perry ; Clara Ellen, who was educated in Cleveland, is now a teacher in the Painesville schools ; Sarah Alice, in the store with her brother ; and Thomas Herbert, in partnership with his father. Mrs. Langshaw has succeeded to the ownership of the old West homestead, on Middle Ridge, in Perry. HENRY A. BECK, a general contractor, of Elyria, who has erected many fine buildings in the city, was born in Medina; Ohio, November 25, 1869, and is a son of Fred and Elizabeth (Freidt) Beck. Fred Beck was born in Germany, near Stutgart, and came to the United States when seventeen years of age. He located first near Philadelphia, and from there moved to Clinton, Stark county, Ohio, thence to Wadsworth, Medina county. For years he worked at his trade of blacksmith, and later became a farmer. He served two terms as a county recorder, and now holds the office of deputy recorder. His wife was born near Allentown, Pennsylvania. Henry A. Beck was reared on a farm in Guilford township, Medina county, Ohio, and received a common school education. He began learning the trade of carpenter when eighteen years of age, and worked at his trade in Cleveland, Akron and other cities, locating in Elyria in 1893. He was a good workman and thoroughly understood every branch of the trade, and in 1901 began contracting on his own account. He has erected business houses as well as residences, and among the finest of these buildings is the residence of Lee Stroup, on Washington avenue. Mr. Beck is an enterprising and representative business man of the thriving city and takes active interest in the welfare and growth of Elyria., He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Builders' Exchange, having served as trustee of the latter. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees. He belongs to the Second Congregational church and is a Republican. Mr. Beck married Pearl, daughter of Henry and Caroline Kindy, both of whom are deceased; she was born in Medina county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Beck became the parents of two daughters, Nellie A. and Pauline A. REV. REUBEN E. BENJAMIN.-A man of earnest convictions, strong in character, and broad and liberal in his views, Rev. Reuben E. Benjamin, now serving as pastor of the Congregational church at Pierpont, Ashtabula county, is an effective and pleasant speaker, both in and out of the pulpit, and is highly esteemed as a man and as a citizen. The representative of one of the earlier pioneers of this part of the Western Reserve, he was born, April o, 1868, in Pierpont township, a son of Reuben Perry Benjamin, grandson of Reuben Benjamin and great grandson of Asa Benjamin, who settled in this part of Ashtabula county more than a hundred years ago. A native of Vermont, Asa Benjamin was born in 1753. He fought in the Revolutionary war, enlisting in 1776, and was for a while a member of Washington's life guard, having in that capacity stood upon the present site of the city of Cleveland when it was covered with forest trees. Leaving Vermont in 1808, he came with his family to Ohio,. performing the journey with oxen, following a large part of the way a path marked by blazing trees. Taking up a tract of wooded land in Pierpont township, he cleared a homestead, on which he spent his remaining days, passing away December 28, 1825. Reuben Benjamin, grandfather of Reuben E., was born in 1793, and as a boy of fifteen years he and his father came together in an ox cart to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on the home farm, in Pierpont township, January 3o, 1864. He was a farmer, succeeding to the ancestral occupation. His second wife, whose maiden name was Almira: HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1175 Prince, was born in 18o8, and died June 18, 1861. They had four children : Rhoda, Reuben Perry, Emily L., and Eli P. He married first Lydia Pratt, who bore him one child, namely : Caroline. Reuben Perry Benjamin was born on the, original Benjamin homestead, in Pierpont township,. July 11, 1827. He was a lifelong agriculturist, in addition to carrying on general farming for eleven years has been engaged in the manufacture of lumber, operating a saw mill. A man of sterling character, he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fellow-townsmen, being everywhere respected. He was for many years an Odd Fellow, and served as school director. He married first Lydia Huntley, and married second. Matilda Aldrich, who was born in 1845, and now resides at Pierpont Center. Of his second marriage three children were born, namely : Lulu, born December 24, 1864, died July 31, 1881; Edson, born March 2, 1866, died October 19, 1879; and Reuben E.; with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned. Leaving the public schools, Reuben E. Benjamin attended Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Michigan, where for a year he was director of the gymnasium. He was graduated from the School of Theology in 1898, but while yet a student began his pastoral labors in Algansee, Michigan, where he had charge of a church. After his graduation, Mr. Benjamin accepted a call for the Free Baptist church in Conneaut, Ohio, and was there for seven and one-half years. He subsequently filled the pulpit of the First Congregational church of Pierpont for a year and a half, after which he resumed work in his own denomination, having charge of a' Baptist church for two years. Resigning on account of ill health, Mr. Benjamin, who had much need of outdoor occupation, turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, engaging in farming. At the present time, however, he has charge of the Pierpont Congregational . church, and :in his ministerial labors he is eminently successful. Mr. Benjamin has a finely improved farm of 210 acres, and in its management has found health, pleasure, and profit. . He keeps about a hundred head of sheep, has a small dairy, while his sugar brush of fifteen hundred trees yields about three hundred gallons of pure maple syrup every season. He is a member of the State Police, a member of the Grange, and as president of the Law and Order League is an active worker in the cause of temperance. Vol. II-30 He is a Prohibitionist in politics, and a member of the local school board. Mr. Benjamin married, September 20, 1888, Cora C. Bolton, who was born December 14, 1868 a daughter of Charles and Jeannette (Pardee) Bolton. Mrs. Benjamin was educated in the Berea high school, and for four years prior to her marriage was engaged in teaching. Two children have blessed their union, namely : Velma, born February 27, 1891, and Reuben Paul, born June 18, 1898. JAMES A. FISHER.—In both the paternal and maternal lines is James A. Fisher a representative of honored pioneer families of the Western Reserve, and it has been his to attain to marked success in connection with the productive activities of life. As a business .man he has been identified with enterprises of wide scope and importance, and he is today a stockholder in a number of successful financial and industrial concerns, to whose promotion he has given his able co-operation and fine executive powers. He is now living virtually retired in the attractive little village of Windham, Portage county, and is one of the well known and 'highly esteemed citizens of this favored section of the historic old Western Reserve. Mr. Fisher was born in Paris township, Portage county, Ohio, on November 17, 1845, and is a son of Daniel, and. Betsy A: (McKelvy) Fisher, both natives of Palmyra township, this, county, where he was .born on July 21, 1820, and she on the 31st of the same month and year. Daniel Fisher was a son of George H. and Esther (Symons) Fisher, the former of whom was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on January 28, 1800, and the latter of whom was born in Palmyra township, Portage county, Ohio. Mrs. Betsy (McKelvy) Fisher was a daughter. of Dr., James and Sallie (Calvin) McKelvy, whose marriage was solemnized at Ravenna, Portage county, on September 20, 1819. Dr. McKelvy was one of the earliest settlers in Palmyra township and was one of the able and honored pioneer physicians of Portage county, where he endured the strenuous labors of his profession at a time when its demands called for great self-abnegation and arduous toil, in the ministering to the widely scattered settlers. His visits were customarily made on horseback, and he thus traversed the primitive roads, through summer's heat and winter's cold, in his humane mission of ministering to those in affliction. George H. Fisher likewise was numbered among the first .perma- 1176 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE nent settlers of Palmyra township, where his marriage was celebrated about the beginning of the second decade of the eighteenth century. He lived up to the full tension of the pioneer epoch and endured its vicissitudes and deprivations, but he succeeded in reclaiming from the primeval forest a productive farm, so that his later years were not denied their reward in the goodly gifts of peace and comfort. Both he and Dr. McKelvy were numbered among the influential men of their county and the names of both merit an enduring and honored emblazonment on the roll of the sterling pioneers of the Western Reserve. The marriage of Daniel Fisher and Betsy A. McKelvy was solemnized in Palmyra township, on September 18, 1841, and for two years thereafter they resided on a farm near those of their respective, parents, while the young husband gave himself energetically to clearing the land and making it available for cultivation. At the expiration of the period noted Mr. Fisher purchased fifty acres of heavily timbered land in the southern part of Paris township, and there the family home was maintained until 1848, when he sold the farm and purchased another, of fifty acres, in the central part of Paris township, which was then known as Newport. He continued there to be actively and successfully identified with the great basic industry of agriculture during the residue of his active career, having in the meanwhile added to his landed estate. He passed to his reward on January 17, 1889, secure in the unqualified esteem of all who knew him, and his cherished and devoted wife entered into eternal rest in January; 1896. Conerning their children the following brief data are entered : Harriet S. is now the wife of Isaac Hudson, Jr., of Wayland, Portage county, Ohio ; James A., subject of this review, was the next in order of birth ; Esther M. became the wife of Joseph Jones and is now deceased, as is also George H., the next in order of birth ; David Lloyd died at the age of five years ; and Ella is the wife of Edward Lewis, a representative farmer of Paris township. James A. Fisher passed his boyhood and early youth on the home farm, to whose work he contributed his quota of aid, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of the middle pioneer era in Portage county. At the age of sixteen years he went to Oil City, Pennsylvania, where he initiated his independent career by securing employment as engineer and drillet of oil wells, to which line of work he continued to devote his attention for the ensuing five years, at the expiration of which he returned to the parental home and shortly afterward began learning the stone:cutter's trade, under the direction of a contractor on the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, in connection with whose. interests he continued to be employed at his trade until his marriage, in 1868. He then began independent and successful operations as a contractor for stone-masonry in the construction of bridges in Portage county, and after being thus engaged for a period of about eighteen months he became general foreman for Delmarter Brothers, large contractors, of Cleveland, Ohio, for whorn he had the supervision of mason work on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, in addition to which he also had charge of important work for this firm in the city of Cleveland. In 1877 Mr. Fisher entered into partnership with Henry A. Stanley and they engaged in contracting for mason work and the building of sewers, under the firm name of Fisher & Stanley. In this connection Mr. Fisher completed the mason work of the central viaduct and all other bridges over the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland, and the partnership alliance continued until 1891, when it was dissolved by mutual consent. Within the intervening years the firm filled many large and important contracts and their success was on a parity with the high reputation maintained in the matter of fidelity to contract and ability in handling all details of the assigned. work. They constructed the heaviest masonry on the lines of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad ; built about one and one-half miles of way locks on the Ohio & Pennsylvania canal; constructed the Kingsbury viaduct in Cleveland, as well as the Main street bridge and the lower central way and Columbus street bridges across the river in that city ; and did a large amount of railroad contracting in their special line, for various railroads. They also built the Cherry street bridge across the Maumee river, in the city of Toledo, and they were numbered among the leading mason, contractors in the state. After the. dissolution of the partnership Mr. Fisher continued operations as a contractor in an individual way for one year, and he then admitted to partnership his cousin, Chester G. Fisher, with whom he was thereafter associated, under the firm name of Fisher & Fisher, until 1903, when they disposed of HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1172 their business to Isaac D. Tuttle, of Kent, Ohio. Since that time the subject of this review has lived retired from active business, after a career of signal success in his chosen field of endeavor and one marked by the most impregnable integrity of purpose. In the year 1881 Mr. Fisher purchased five acres of land in the village of Windham where he erected the commodious and attractive residence which has since constituted the family home. Though retired from the more strenuous affairs of business Mr. Fisher is by no means inactive, for he has important capitalistic interests which place ample demands upon his time and attention. He is president and general manager of the Windham Telephone Company, a member of the directorate of the First National Bank of Newton Falls, Trumbull county, and a director of the J. F. Byers Machine Company, of Ravenna, the judicial center and metropolis of his native county. He is also a stockholder in many other banking institutions and industrial concerns. Mr. Fisher has ever stood exponent of liberality and public spirit as a citizen, and has shown a lively interest in the wellbeing of his attractive little home town.. In politics he is aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and he served six years as trustee of Windham township, eight years as a member of the board of education of Windham, and five years as mayor of his home town, of whose council he has been a member during practically the entire period, of his residence here. He is affiliated with Garrettsville Lodge No. 246, Free and Accepted Masons ; Silver Creek Chapter .No. 144, Royal Arch Masons ; Warren Commandery No. 19, Knights Templar ; Al Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the city of Cleveland ; and the Windham lodge of the Knights of Pythias. On December 24, 1868, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fisher to Miss Hannah E. Morgan, who was born in Paris township, Portage county, Ohio, April 23, 1849, and who is a daughter of Reese and Margaret (Davis) Morgan, who were pioneers of this township. Reese Morgan was born January 2, 1810, and his wife was born in 1817. Mr. Morgan was born in the southern part of Wales and came to America when a young man. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher became the parents of three children, of whom the first born, Fannie G., died at the age of three and one-half years ; Arabella is the wife of Henry Herbert, cashier of the First National Bank of Newton Falls, Trumbull county; and Maud died at the age of fifteen years. OLIN FISK BRADFORD, of Ravenna, and during many years one of the prominent and well known agriculturists of Portage county, was born in Newburg, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, September 4, 1846, a son of Grafton and Charlain (Rice) Bradford, and a grandson on the paternal side of Pardon Bradford, all of whom were born in Massachusetts, the parents in Hampshire, and they were the only ancestors of Olin F. of this review to come to the Western Reserve. They were married in their native commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in 1838 or about that year journeyed via the overland and water route to this then far western country. Reaching Newburg in Cuyahoga county they purchased land and resided there for ten years, and then selling their possessions there they came to the northeastern part of Ravenna township and purchased another farm. There they lived and labored until called to their final reward, Mr. Bradford dying on November 7, 1879, when seventy-two years of age, and his wife survived until October 2, 1888, dying at the age of seventy-nine years. There were five children in their family : Sarah J., deceased ; Lewis, who died at the age of four years ; Harland P., also deceased ; Olin F., mentioned below ; and Ella, who was born on December 25, 1849, became the wife of Professor Harding and died in 1894. Olin F. Bradford attended the district schools and the Ravenna high school, and he remained at home with his parents until thirty years of age. He married at the age, of twenty-four and later purchased a farm a mile and a half north of Charlestown Center, which joined the former home of his wife, and there he lived for twenty years. From that time until. the fall of 1908 they were residents of Charlestown township, and then selling his land he moved to Ravenna and bought the old historic house built in 1822 for the Rev. Charles B. Stores, the first pastor of the Ravenna Congregational church, and who afterward became the \first president of the Western Reserve College at Hudson. It was also in this famous old homestead that Salmon P. Chase and Joshua R. Giddings and other prominent men of those days met and formed the essential principles which were later adopted by the party of Lincoln and liberty. In truth this home of old and honorable lineage may rightly be revered as the 1178 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE birthplace of the Republican party in Ohio. General Louis Kossuth was at one time a guest within its walls, through the hospitality of its former owner, the late Captain Isaac Brayton, himself of high political and judicial position and one of the counselors of Chase and Giddings. Captain Brayton's daughter, the late Mary A. Woodbridge, of world-wide fame in Women's Christian Temperance Union circles, was mistress of its hearth for many years, and from this famous old mansion both she and her husband were borne to their last resting place, she in 1894 and he in 1903. The house has long been equipped with a hot air furnace and natural gas, which was burned in old-fashioned grates, and Mr. Bradford has added a large front porch thereto and has also modernized the interior. He was elected an infirmary director in the fall of 1905 and re-elected in 1908, was for two terms the trustee of Charlestown township and also served as a real estate assessor for the same township. On December 25, 1870, Mr. Bradford was married to Edith Amelia Coe, who was born in Charlestown township, Portage county, December 10, 1851. Her father, Jacob L. Coe, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as were also his parents, Claudius and Nancy (Emery) Coe. Jacob L. Coe, born on July 22, 1816, came with his parents to Charlestown township, Portage county, Ohio, in 1820, and he spent the remainder of his life there and died on October 10, 1894. He first married. Liddia Brown, of Butler, Pennsylvania, and she died May 28, 1848, at the age of twenty-eight years. He then married in Charlestown township on July 10, 1849, Ann Jenette Knapp, who was born in the township February 26, 1825, a daughter of Ezra and Lydia (Witherell) Knapp, who were born in Northampton, Massachusetts. They came with ox teams by way of Buffalo, New York, where they could then buy land for three dollars an acre, to Charlestown township, Portage county, in 1805, and both died on their farm there. Mrs. Coe lived on the old Coe farm for two years after her husband's death, and has since lived with her daughter, Mrs. Bradford. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are : Lyman Coe, born on October 22, 1871, died on November 3, 1880; Byron Grafton, born October 9, 1873, is farming in Ravenna township ; and Lila Coe, born June 17, 1882, is the wife of William A. Abbott, the superintendent of the concrete block plant at Nottingham, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are both members of the, Methodist Episcopal church and Mrs. Coe is' also a member of that faith. CHARLES M. TAYLOR, a venerable and respected resident of Mantua, Portage county, and a veteran agriculturist as well, Charles Mix Taylor is a worthy representative of one of the prominent pioneers of the Western Reserve, and for nearly four score years has been conspicuously identified with its agricultural progress and prosperity. A son of Hezron Taylor, he was born September 11, 1818, in Suffield, Connecticut, which was the home of his ancestors for several generations. He is lineally descended from one of two brothers,, printers by trade; who emigrated from England to this country in colonial times, settling permanently in Connecticut. His grandfather, Thaddeus Taylor, spent his entire life in Suffield.. Gad Taylor was the wealthiest merchant in Hartford and Connecticut. Hezron Taylor was born in the above mentioned town in the year 1796, his special birthplace being the old tavern on Main street which has for centuries defied the ravages of time and the elements. In 1816 he married Miss Mary Ann Mix, daughter of Rev. Joseph Mix, of New Haven. In 1831 Hezron Taylor came with his family to Ohio, locating in that part of Mantua afterward known as Cobbs Corners. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812 and took an active part in the attack on New London, Connecticut. To Hezron Taylor and wife were born the following children : Charles Mix Taylor, September 11, 1818 ; Joseph Mix Taylor, July 22, 1825; Mary Ann Taylor, 1826 (died in 1828) ; Antoinette Hubbell Taylor, 1829; and Andrew Hezron Taylor, May 1, 1833. When a lad of ;thirteen years, Charles Mix Taylor came with his parents to Ohio, by way of the Erie canal and the lake, leaving Connecticut on September 10, 1831. The father had intended to leave the boat at Newport, but on account of a severe storm went to Salem, where he took a conveyance to Chardon, his destination. During the ensuing three weeks the family remained at the home of David Cobb, who advised the father to buy the land now included in Mr. Taylor's farm, as it could be purchased cheaper than any similar piece of property in the vicinity. He therefore purchased the fifty-two and a half acres, from which he cleared and improved a good estate. Charles Mix, being an intelligent boy, keenly observant of everything about him, re- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1179 membered well the vast numbers of black squirrels seen on the way from the lake port to Chardon, and often recalled that when the family settled at Mantua game of all kinds was so abundant as to furnish new settlers with all the meat food they required. Leaving school when he was seventeen years old, Charlei. M. Taylor found employment as a clerk in a store at Mantua Corners, but during the following summer was called home to assist his father in building the present substantial farm house. He subsequently worked as a carpenter and joiner for fifteen years and then turned his attention to agriculture. Succeeding to the ownership of the home farm, he has managed it so successfully that his skill and ability as a general farmer are fully recognized. He has also erected two saw mills and, in addition to lumbering, has for fifty years been engaged in the manufacture of cheese boxes, which have a ready sale throughout the Western Reserve. On September 1o, 1840, at the age of twenty-two years, Mr. Taylor married Miss Sabrina Day, the ceremony being performed in Mantua by Elder Moulton. Mrs. Taylor was born April 19, 1819, daughter of Alfred and Lydia (Calkins) Day, who came to the Western Reserve from Massachusetts just after their marriage, spending their last years at Pittsfield, Ohio, and Castle Rock, Minnesota. Mr. Day, who reached the remarkable age of ninety-nine years, was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, on May 20, 1794, and was married to Lydia Calkins August 20, 1815. In 1818 they came by ox team to Mantua, their second son accompanying them (the elder had died in Massachusetts), and cleared and cultivated their forest homestead in these western wilds. As stated, Mr. Day spent the first years of his western life as a resident of what is now Mantua. In 185o he moved to Pittsfield, Lorain county, Ohio, and after residing there for ten years made his home at Castle Rock, Minnesota, where he spent the remainder of his patriarchal life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Day were born; reared and educated at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and Mr. Day's father, Alvin, was also a native of that .place. The latter married Temperance Snow. The grandfather was Adonijah, a native of Colebrook, Connecticut, and the great-grandfather, Robert, was brought over from England in 1634 as a passenger of the bark "Elizabeth." The ten children born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Day were as follows : Ditus, born October 10, 1817, who married Cordelia Bis sell, of Aurora ; Sabrina, born April 19, 1819 ; Denison, born January 13, 1821, who died March 14, 1823 ; Temperance, born December 14, 1822, who became the wife of Jonathan Parks, of Chardon ; Lucia, born January 19, 1826, who became Mrs. Schuyler Hendricks, also of Chardon ; Aradne, born June 19, 1828, who married Edward Osborn, of Chardon ; Esther, born March 24, 1830, who became Mrs. Robert Willard, of Munson, Ohio ; Sarah, born March 6, 1832, who married Steven Carter, of Oberlin ; Alfred A., born May 29, 1834, who wedded Laura Judd, and Levi E., born in December, 1837, who married Ellen Mills, and resided at Pittsfield, Ohio. All, of these children were married on the Western Reserve and five of them died there ; and it may be added that they themselves became the parents of thirty-five children. Six children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Taylor, namely : Henry Charles, Laura Melissa, Lusira V., Lillian Esther, Herman Hezron and Herbert Thaddeus. Henry C. Taylor, the eldest child, was born May 8, 1842, and spent his busy life in operating a saw mill and dealing in lumber. He was married October 16, 1875, to Emma Folder, and they had one child, Merton, born October 1876. The father died June 19, 1904. Laura M. Taylor was born February 22, 1845 ; married John Muscell, a Canadian cheese maker, in November, 1867, and died January 25, 1898, mother of the following : Charles, born November 5, 1868, and Arthur, born November 28, 1871. On August 18, 1866, Lusira V. Taylor married William J. Fisher, a farmer, of Mantua, who was born in York state September 16, 1846, and died September 30, 1885. She herself was born April 10, 1847, and has become the mother of the following: Emma Stella, born December 12, 1868, and died August 3o, 1894; Clara Bell, who was born December 1o, 1870, and died June 29, 1871; Nellie Adele, born July 6, 1871; and Burt William, born April 28, 1878. Nellie A. Fisher married Alvin .Burk in 1889, and died at Mantua May 23, 1894, mother of Forrest Burk (born August 16, 1890). Burt W. Fisher was married December 24, 1905, to Josephine Van Nostrum, and they have two children : Coyla Marvel, born July 26, 1906, and Lyle William, born March 5, 1909. Mrs. Sabrina D. Taylor died March 26, 1854, while yet a comparatively young woman. Mr. Taylor married for his second wife, October 23, 1856, Clarissa Parker, who was born in Mantua March 20, 1827, and they 1180 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE became the parents of eight children, as follows : William Charles, Edd, Charles, Ezra B., Frank H., Mary Ann, Martha B. and John J. Taylor. William C. was born August 12, 1857, and is a farmer at Bainbridge, Ohio. On October 25, 1882, he married Mary Kingsley, born September 26, 1856, and they have one daughter, Vera May. The latter was born September 4, 1883, and on December 24, 1902, was married to Thurston Taylor by Rev. McKee, of ;Aurora. They have had one child, Olive Gertrude, born July I, 1905. Thurston Taylor is a native of Hiram, Ohio, born September 16, 1875. Edd Taylor, the second born to Charles M. Taylor's second marriage, had as his natal day February 1, 1859, and is a farmer, of Russell, Ohio. On May 20, 1891, he was married to Miss Nellie Andrus, at Cleveland. The wife was born at Courtland, Ohio, on August 29, 1866. Charles Taylor, the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Taylor, was born August 28, 186o; is a Bainbridge (Ohio) farmer, and April 27, 1882, married Miss Laura Alice Kingsley, the ceremony being performed at Bainbridge by Rev. A. J. Hyatt. His wife is a native of Bainbridge, born April 8, 1864, and has borne him Clell Kingsley Taylor, November 7, 1890; Clem Charles, February 22, 1892 ; and Laurence Will, who was born January 28, 1894, and died February 20, 1894. Ezra B. Taylor, who has been a street car conductor in Cleveland for twenty-six years and is also a merchant of that city, was born December 25, 1861, and was married June 4, 1890, at Castle Rock, Minnesota, to Miss Pearl Esther Day, his wife's birthday being February 23, 1871. The children of their union were Douglas Taylor, who was born March 23, 1891, and died on the 11th of the following month ; Glen Ezra, born October 20, 1892 ; Lloyd Otis,. born July 22, 1895 ; and Virgil Day, born October 8, 1898. Frank H. Taylor, who is a farmer, was the fifth child born to Charles M. Taylor by his marriage to Clarissa Parker. He was born May. 9, 1864 ; married Laura May Day, at Cleveland, July 2, 1895, and one child has been given to him, Gladys Louisa, August 27, 1899. His wife is a native of Castle Rock, Minnesota, born April 12, 1869. Mary A. Taylor, who was born September 5, 1865, was married in Cleveland, December 21, 1890, and has become the mother of Edna Lucile, born November 16, 1892, and Laurence Ellery, born May 29, 1895. Martha B. Taylor was born December 27, 1866 ; married Andrew M. Parker, in Cleveland, in the 1890, and they have become the parents of the following : Paul Adelbert, born June 13, 1892; Welden Manning, born October 6, 1898, and Dwight Dudley, born December 20, 190o. Mr. Parker is a street car conductor at Elyria, Ohio. John J. Taylor, the youngest of the eight children born to Charles M. Taylor's second marriage, was born April 6, 1869, and is engaged in the grocery business at Cleveland. On May 12, 1891, he was married, in that city, to Miss Ida M. Trimple, of Solon, Ohio, by whom he has had one child, Blanch Isabel, born February 19, 1892. HARRY C. HOLDEN.-From a long line of tillers of the soil comes a worthy representative of a sturdy ancestry in Harry C. Holden. He, too, is an independent farmer,. owning a splendid estate of ninety-three acres in Charlestown township, Portage county, which he is cultivating to the highest extent. He was born here May 26, 1881, to John and Olive (Curtis) Holden, who were from Massachusetts. John Holden, however, was but a baby when brought by his parents to Portage county, Ohio, the family driving through with ox teams as early as 1826, and Joseph Holden, the grandfather, secured 1,000 acres of land here. John Holden became a farmer and stock raiser and prominently connected himself with the business life of this community. He first married Julia Brown, who died about forty years after their marriage, and he wedded for his second wife Olive Curtis, by whom he had three children, Julia, Essie and Harry. Harry C. Holden, the oldest member of that family, married on January 1o, 1903, Catherine Fulton, who was born June 22, 1882, a daughter of William Fulton, from Monroe county, Ohio. The issue of this union is two children, Margaret and Mildred. Mr. Holden in politics votes with the Democratic party, and Mrs. Holden is a member of the Congregational church. SAMUEL D. POXON.-On July 1, 1887, Mr. Poxon assumed his present responsible position of general yardmaster of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Painesville and Fairport Harbor. A vast amount of business is handled in the yards over which he has supervision, and in the busier seasons of the year he has about 15o men and twenty engines under his .direction.. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad handles the huge tonnage of iron ore brought to the Fairport Harbor docks by the HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1181 lake vessels, and also the coal shipped from that point to the various lake ports. In the summer season about twenty engines are kept in operation in the yards and in handling freight shipments from Painesville and Fairport Harbor. All of these come under the direct official supervision of Mr. Poxon. The train movement in. the yards of which he has control has increased fully 400 per cent since he assumed his present office, twenty-two years ago. The road was made standard gauge in September, 1886, and he has been identified with the operations in his present field since April of the following year, so that he has witnessed and aided in practically all of the development of the gigantic business handled by the Baltimore & Ohio system incidental to the yards under his jurisdiction. He is well known in railroad circles, enjoys marked popularity among the men under his supervision, and has the confidence of the superior officers, as is indicated in his long retention of his present position. Mr. Poxon is a native of Staffordshire, England, where he was born on the 30th of January, 1865, and is a son of Samuel and Catherine (Kelly) Poxon, who came to the United States in 1867, when he was a child of two years. His father, a man of industry and integrity, was employed as a laborer during his entire active career. He settled in Pennsylvania upon coming to America and there passed the remainder of his life, which came to its close when he was seventy-six years of age. His widow still maintains her home in Pittsburg. The subject of this sketch was reared to manhood in Pittsburg, and owing to the condition of the family in a financial way he early assumed the practical responsibilities of life, having attended school only until he had attained to the age of fourteen years. He then became dependent upon his own resources, and for a time he worked on the Pittsburg. division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and there he learned the trade of telegraph operator, at which he found employment on the same road when but sixteen years of age. He remained identified with the Pittsburg division of the system until he was assigned to a position as telegraph operator in Painesville. He assumed this position in April, and in the following July was promoted to his present office, when but twenty-two years of age. He has been careful and discriminating in handling the multifarious details of business committed to his charge, and is known as an able executive and effective, disciplinarian. Mr. Poxon is well known in business circles in this section of the state, and enjoys unqualified popularity in his home city. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and, while he has never been ambitious for public office, he served one term as city clerk, to which office he was elected on an independent ticket. He has attained to high degrees in the York Rite of the Masonic fraternity and is an appreciative and enthusiastic member of this time honored organization. He was made a Mason in Temple Lodge, No. 28, Free and Accepted Masons, of Painesville, in which he was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in May, 1888. In 1894-5 he was worshipful master of this lodge, and in the latter year, he was its representative in the grand lodge of the state. He became a member of Trice Chapter, No. 46, Royal Arch Masons, in 1888, and is still affiliated with the same in an active way. In the following year he took the chivalric degrees in Eagle Commandery, No. 29, Knights Templar. In his chapter he has passed the various official chairs, and he was its high priest in 1900 and 1909. He is a past eminent commander of his commandery, and is also identified with Al Koran Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the city of Cleveland. He was a charter member of the Grand River Lodge, No. 321, Knights of Pythias, and was its second eminent commander. He attends the. Baptist church, of which his wife is a zealous member. On the 17th of July, 1889, Mr. Poxon was united in marriage to Miss Della Stevens, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who was born and reared in that locality, where her father was a successful farmer. They have two sons, Russell L. and Fayette. AMOS D. SHELDON, who has served as county surveyor of Medina county for twenty-five years, will probably retire (not be retired) at the conclusion of his term, in the fall of 1909. He has resided in the county since he was four years .of age, when his parents brought him from Herkimer county, New York and settled their family on the 120-acre farm near Lafayette Center which Amos D. has owned for many years. At the conclusion of his long period of public service, which also includes most useful work as school director, township clerk and trustee and land appraiser, Mr. Sheldon intends to retire to the old and fine farm of his boyhood, and there spend the 1182 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE later years of his life in the most satisfactory occupation with which mankind ever busied itself and helped to maintain and benefit the community. The county surveyor is a native of Herkimer county, New York, and a son of Hiram and Eirene ( Jacobs) Sheldon, also born in the Empire. state. Earlier ancestors were long established in Connecticut, and different members of the family have become prominent in New England and the middle west. Both of his grandparents, Amos and Anna (King) Sheldon, were born in Sheffield, Connecticut—the former May 1o, 1769, and the latter March 17, 1770. The great-grandfather, Elijah, is known to have served in the Revolutionary war, and to have carried honorable wounds from the battlefield. Hiram Sheldon, the father, was born in Montgomery county, New York, being the fourth in a family of eight children. At the age of ten years he accom- panied his parents to Herkimer county, where his father died May 1o, 1832, and his mother, November 12, 1839. With the exception of one year spent away from home, Hiram remained with his parents until their decease. In July, 1830, he married Miss Jacobs, who was a native of Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, born September 29, 1805, to John and Sallie Jacobs. In May, 1849, the parents brought their family west and located on the farm near Lafayette Center, Medina county, on which they spent their last years, the mother dying in 1865 and the father in 1884. The deceased were Close Communion Baptists and true, un assuming, Christian people. Amos D. spent his early boyhood and youth on the Lafayette township farm, and in 1864, when nineteen years of age, enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel H. G. Blake. He served in that command until near the close of the war and, upon receiving his honorable discharge, returned to his home. During the fall and winter of 1892 and 1893 he attended a private school taught by Professor R. M. McDonnell, one of the most efficient instructors of the county. On May 6, 1866, when a few months in his twenty-second year, Mr. Sheldon married Miss Cordelia Childs, a native of Lafayette township, born August 18, 1842, and a daughter of Charles and Sallie (Abbott) Childs. Mrs. Sheldon's father was a Vermonter and her mother a native of New York. They located in Lafayette township in 1833 and eventually had a family of twelve children, including triplets. Mr. and Mrs. Amos D. Sheldon have become the parents of five children, as follows : May E., who is now the wife of F. D. Phillips, of Wellington, Ohio ; Emma E., who was accidentally killed at the age of eighteen years, while witnessing a game of baseball at Chatham, Ohio ; Bert C., who is a farmer of Lafayette township ; Bessie B., who married M. B. Halliwell, of Medina, and William H., a marine engineer on Lake Erie. After his marriage Mr. Sheldon settled on a ,farm in Lafayette township and spent five years of his life in its cultivation and development. His present country place embraces 160 acres. In 1871 Mr. Sheldon was elected surveyor of Medina county on the Republican ticket, and by continuous re-elections has continued in office, except ten years from 1892 to 1902, his record being both remarkable and also highly creditable to his faithfulness and ability. Further to his credit are ten terms of thorough teaching in the district schools of Medina county, and good service in various township. offices. He has earnestly supported the Congregational church for many years, and has been an active member of. the Grand Army of the Republic, H. G. Blake Post No.169. EDWARD FRENCH, of Leroy township, was born in a log house on his present farm, June 7, 1832, and has spent all his life there. He is a son of Amos C. and Sally A. (Edwards) French, both of Springfield, Massachusetts, who, the day after their marriage, in 1831, started for the. Ohio frontier. The grandparents, Nathan and Mary French, died in Leroy, the father aged 1eighty-seven years and the mother eighty-four. They built a double log-house, where both families lived, right in the depth of the forest, and blazed trees for a mile and a half, to reach the main road. Two other families lived near them, those of Nathan Chappell and Roswell Rogers, brothers-in-law, who were the only ones for a long distanc Amos French worked out away from home to make a living. As his land had water in ponds on it, it took a good many years to get it cleared and drained so he could make his living from it. For many years he worked at haying, etc., for only fifty cents a day. His father, Nathan French, who took part in the Revolutionary war, owned 150 acres and gave his son Amos sixty acres. Nathan French, junior, came to Ohio at the age. of eighteen years, returned to New York and there mar- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1183 ried, but as his wife died leaving three children, he removed to Ohio, living in the house where his father had lived. His father gave him twenty acres on the north end, and each of the daughters also received a share. Amos French bought out two of them, thus making his farm contain ninety-one acres. Amos French erected a new house about 1840, which is still standing ; his father Nathan died in the old log house. Amos died at the age of seventy-nine years, and his wife died one year before him. They had six children, namely : Edward ; Eliza, who married Isaiah Phelps, and died when past sixty-five years of age ; one child died in infancy ; Elizabeth died when three years old ; Jane, unmarried, lives with her brother Edward ; and Chauncey was two years old when he died. Edward French, when a boy, wanted to be a sailor, and when twenty-one years old he went 'to Cleveland for that purpose, but not finding a berth open, his father told him he had better stay at home, so he remained with his father, to whom he was a great comfort and help, as long as he lived. He is a successful and energetic farmer, and very industrious. Edward French married February 23, 186o, Elizabeth, daughter of Job and Maria Upson, natives of England, who came to Ohio and settled in Leroy, where their daughter was born. She and Mr. French had been schoolmates, and at the time of their marriage she was twenty-two and he twenty-eight, and they have lived happily together for forty-nine years. They had but one child, Alice, the wife of Henry F. Callow, mentioned elsewhere iii this work. WILBUR ALONZO JENKINS, deceased, was for many years one of the foremost citizens of Ravenna and of Portage county, prominent both as a business man and public official. In 1882 he was. made the treasurer of Portage county, and he filled the office well and efficiently for two terms, and he was the author of the present system of collecting taxes, and also put the system in operation. He was born in Ellisburg, New York, March 10, 1837, but he was almost a lifelong resident of Portage county, for he was brought here during the year of his birth, his parents driving through from New York and carrying their baby on a pillow. He was a son of Samuel and Ursula (Brewster) Jenkins, and both they and the grandfathers, Samuel Jenkins and Jonathan Brewster, were also from the Empire state. Wilbur A. Jenkins was a descendant of Elder Brewster, who came over, in the Mayflower, and who was one of the framers of the constitution, Mr. Jenkins being the eighth removed in line of descent. On coming to Portage county the Jenkins family purchased and located on unimproved land in Streetsboro township, and they cleared and improved their land and spent the remainder of their lives there. They gave to their son Wilbur a splendid education, he having attended both the public schools and a college at Cleveland, and when he had reached the age of twenty-three he bought the home place of 30o acres and his parents lived with him during the remainder of their lives. In 1875 he moved to Aurora, he having sold the farm in 1870, and taking charge of the general mercantile store of Charles Harmon he conducted the 'business until becoming the county treas- urer in 1882. Moving to Ravenna one and a half years later he bought the Williams place, and after retiring from office purchased the furniture and undertaking business of George E. Fairchild and was in business until the time of his death, on the 28th of August, 1898. On the 31st of December, 1862, Mr. Jenkins married Arlie Bartholomew, who was born in Streetsboro township, April 16, 1843, a daughter of John and Harriet (Blackman) Bartholomew, the father born in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1792, and the mother in Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, in 1801. The paternal grandparents. were Jacob and Rebecca (Beech) Bartholomew, and on the maternal side -Mrs. Jenkins is a granddaughter of Elijah and Lucy (Austin) Blackman, both families being from Connecticut. Elijah Blackman, grandfather of Mrs. Jenkins, was a 'captain in the Revolutionary war, and his father, Elijah Blackman, married Lucy Hall and was a major in the same war. John Bartholomew came with his parents to Parkman, in Geauga county; Ohio, when but four years of age, and the Blackmails arriyed in this state in 1800, locating in Aurora township, Portage county. John Bartholomew and Harriet Blackman were married in Aurora township, but after two years they bought land in Streetsboro township, which was their home for forty years, and they then resided with their daughter, Mrs. Jenkins, until their deaths, the father dying in 1897 and the mother in 1898. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins are : William Grant, born November 6, 1863, died February 9, 1881; Florence Leil, born April 5, 1885, is the wife of 1184 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Dr. Floyd Bartell Jones, and graduate of Columbus Medical College, and now a practicing physician at Ravenna, Ohio. After the death of her husband Mrs. Jenkins sold the furniture business, and now owns the old Bartholomew farm of 300 acres in Streetsboro township. In the fall of 1901 she moved to Oberlin, this state, but after one year returned to Ravenna and rented for three years. She then moved into the modern .house on Meridian street which she had built, and there she now resides. Mr. Jenkins was in his life time a splendid musician, and founded and was the leader for many years of the Portage County Band. He was a member of the Masonic order and of the Baptist church, and during many years served as a Sunday school superintendent. HOMER W. CAMPBELL.—Within the pages of this publication will be found mention. of many of the representative citizens of the Western Reserve, and the records thus given touch all lines of professional, industrial and general business activity, thus constituting a valuable and interesting addition to the general historical chapters, which deal with the results, while the personal sketches indicate the services of those through whom these results have been attained. One of the native sons. of Portage county who has here achieved success and precedence in the exacting profession of the law and who is established in practice in Ravenna, the judicial center of the county, is Homer William Campbell, who is a member of one of the old and distinguished families of this section of the Western Reserve. Mr. Campbell was born at Campbellsport, this county, a place named in honor of General John Campbell, a brother of his paternal grandfather, and the date of his nativity was May 16, 1862. He is a son of Edward H. and Mary E. (Woods) Campbell, the former of whom was born at Campbellsport and the latter at Mount Union, Stark county, this state. Edward H. Campbell is a son of Homer Campbell, who was numbered among the early settlers of Portage county, as was also his brother, General John. Campbell, who gained his title through service in war and in whose honor Campbellsport, this county, was named, as has already been stated. Edward H. Campbell was reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer epoch in Portage county, where he has ever maintained his home and where his vocation during all the active years of his wife was that of farming, in connection with which he attained to well merited success. He still resides on his old home farm near Campbellsport, and is one of the best known and most venerable of the native sons of Portage county, being now eighty years of age (1909), and having witnessed the development of this county from the status of a pioneer section to its present position of advanced civilization and opulent prosperity. His devoted wife, who was a daughter of William Woods, a sterling pioneer of Stark county, where she was reared and educated, died at the age of sixty-eight years, and of the three children, Homer W., of this sketch, is the eldest ; John R. is engaged in business at Campbellsport; and Charles E. is a representative business man of Youngstown, this state. The father has been a stanch supporter of the cause of the Democrat party from the time of attaining to his legal majority, and he has rendered effective assistance in promoting the party cause, besides which he has been. called upon to serve in various public offices of a local nature. Homer W. Campbell was afforded the advantages of the. public schools of Ravenna, after, which he was matriculated . in the Ohio, Normal University at Ada, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the Class of 1892, after having completed the scientific course. For seven years he was engaged as an instructor in historic old Hiram College and he was most successful and popular in the field of pedagogic service. Having determined to prepare himself for the legal profession, he began reading law under effective preceptorship and with the facility of one thoroughly trained as a student along academic lines, and in 1905 he was admitted to the bar of his native state. He forthwith established himself in the general practice of his profession in Ravenna, where he has been distinctively successful and gained a clientage of representative order. He is a notary public, and in connection with more specific professional work he has devoted special attention to public accounting. The political faith of Mr. Campbell is thoroughly well fortified and is indicated in the stanch allegiance which he accords to the Democratic Party, in whose cause he has rendered yeoman service: In 1903 he was the Democratic candidate for the office of auditor of Portage county, but while he made an excellent showing at the polls he was unable to overcome the large and normal Republican majority, and met defeat with the remainder of HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1185 his party ticket. He is a member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian church. In the year 1893 was 'solemnized the marriage of Mr. Campbell to Miss Alice L: Graves, daughter of Nelson and Helen (Perry) Graves, of Ravenna, and they have one son, Glenn H., who is now a student in the high school. EUGENE DANIEL SHEPARD.-A man of keen foresight and good financial ability, Eugene D. Shepard is numbered among the leading agriculturists of Perry township, and occupies a secure position in the consideration and respect of his fellow townsmen. A son of Daniel Shepard, he was born, July 3, 1846, in Mayfield township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. He is of English descent, the emigrant ancestor of the Shepard family having come to America in colonial times. His grandfather, John Shepard, married Mary Howe, and settled in New York state, where his children were born and reared. Daniel Shepard was born in Marcellus, Onondaga county, New York, in 1806. After his marriage he came to Ohio, where an older brother, Major Shepard, had settled a short time before, locating in Orange, Cuyahoga county. He afterwards bought wild land in Mayfield township, and there, in 1837, began the arduous task of reclaiming a farm from the forest: When he had a part of it cleared, he was unfortunately burned out, losing everything. Going then to Ashtabula county, he operated a dairy farm. for two years, when, having obtained a start in his work, he returned to his old home in Mayfield township. In 1854 he sold that farm, and moved to Perry township, where he bought the farm now occupied by his son, Eugene D., it being about five miles east of Painesville. It contains one hundred and six acres of land, about half of which was cleared when he purchased it, and on it had been erected a house, which he subsequently rebuilt and enlarged, and afterwards lived in until his death, March 21, 1884. He was active in public life, serving as clerk of the township, and for many years as justice of the peace. He was a Republican in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was class leader, and for many years Sunday school superintendent. He married, in Marcellus, Nevi York, Rebecca Ann. Gordon, who Survived him, dying June 14, 1886. Of their eleven children, ten grew to years of maturity, and, in June, 19o9, five were living, namely : Gordon, engaged in farming at White Earth, South Dakota; George, of Sacramento, California; a railroad employe ; Mary, of Erie, Pennsylvania ; John L.; and Eugene Daniel. Eugene D. Shepard received excellent educational advantages, attending the old Madison Seminary three or four winters, afterwards being graduated from Bryant & Stratton's Business College in Buffalo. He began his active career as a clerk, being employed for a while in a store at Painesville. Preferring, life on a farm, he returned to the old homestead, and has since been prosperously engaged in general farming, and now owns' a goodly part of the original farm. In his operations, he shows excellent judgment, and is meeting with well merited success, being widely known as a skilful and capable agriculturist. Mr. Shepard married, January 1, 1873, Gertrude Shattuck, who was born in Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, and at the age of thirteen years came with her father, Isaac Shattuck, to Perry township, Lake county. Isaac Shattuck married, first, Sarah Kays, who died when her daughter Gertrude was but eleven years of age. He was a pioneer of Chautauqua county, New York, and after coming to Lake county was for many years a resident of Perry township, although he spent his last days at the home of his son, William Shatttuck, dying June 26, 1890, in Painesville. His second wife, Dollie H. Shattuck, survived him a very brief time, passing away the day that he was buried, July 29, 189o. Mr. and Mrs. Shepard are the parents of two children, namely : Frank Eugene, of Cleveland, graduated from the Painesville high school, and is now a job printer ; and Agnes, living with her parents. A citizen of prominence, and a Republican in politics, Mr. Shepard has served the past eighteen years as township clerk. ISAAC A. FREEMAN is one of the most prominent of Lorain county's business men, and he also represents two of its earliest pioneer families. He was born in the city of LaGrange on the 8th of October, 1848, a son of P. W. and Susan (Cornell) Freeman, born respectively in Otsego county, New York, and in Lorain county, Ohio, and he is a grandson of Stephen V. and Laura (Wolcott) Freeman, from New York, and of Isaac Cornell, one of the earliest of Lorain county's pioneers 1186 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE and the second to locate in this community. Stephen V. Freeman came to LaGrange in 1832, and in the following year of 1833 his family joined him here. Two years later he bought a farm a mile east of the town of LaGrange, and this timber tract of eighty acres he cleared and improved and eventually converted into a rich and valuable farm. He was the first large dealer and raiser of Duff Greens and Gray Morgan horses, and he bought horses for the United States government during the Civil war. He was known in this vocation over a wide section of country. P. W. was the first born child of Stephen V. and Laura Freeman ; George G., the second, became prominent in Republican politics. :and held many county offices, and he is now deceased ; C. A., also deceased, was a railroad constructor ; Stephen is a .retired Union soldier and a resident of • LaGrange ; Ellen is the widow of Ted Hastings and a resident of LaGrange township ; Sevill is the widow of Marion Porter, and living in Lorain ; and Dorliska is the wife of Alex Porter, of Lorain. P. W. Freeman remained at home with his parents until his marriage, and he then established his home on an uncleared farm a half mile east of LaGrange Center. He held many of the public offices of his county, including that of delinquent tax collector from every township in Lorain county. He died at his home there on the 18th of September, 1889, when sixty-six years of age, and his wife survived until the 1st of June, 189o. The following children blessed their marriage 1union, namely : Isaac A., whose name introduces this review ; Sarah, the wife of J. E. Wilbur, of Wellington, this state ; Ellen, the widow of J. Lindsley, and a resident of Cleveland ; Elsie, wife of L. Pullman, of Akron ; Frank, in the employ of the Chicago and Southwestern Railroad Company, and residing in Wellington, Ohio ; Abram, a carpenter living in New London, this state ; Laura, who became the wife of Albert Ward; of Pittsfield township, and she is now deceased ; and Georgian a, wife of Free Bedee, of Wellington. Isaac A. Freeman in 1864 joined the ,U. S. navy, and after six months of duty on the Mississippi river, he was discharged and returned home. Soon afterward he started on a prospecting tour throughout the western states, and returning home, followed carpenter work until 1873, accepting in that year a position with what is now the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, as a freight conductor, but after three years in that position resumed carpenter work. From 188o until 1882 he was engaged in millwright work, and then, moving to LaGrange, he was for three years in the hardware business. with T. D. Gott. After a time he purchased his partner's interest, and continued the business alone fo six years, selling out at that time and embarking in the commission business, which he continued for a few years. During the following four years he was actively associated with the Lorain County Agricultural Society, serving two years as its president, and in 1894 he was made manager of sales for the Prairi State Incubator Company of Homer City, Pennsylvania, his territory extending over the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, while since 1908 his territory has covered Illinois, Wisconsin, and portions of New York and Tennessee. Since July of 1909 he has had the entire management of the sales de partment. On the 12th of July, 1882, Mr. Freeman was married to Angeline H. Clark, born in Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio, to the marriage union of Mathias and Mary Ann (Hemming) Clark, the father from Pennsylvania and the mother from Steubenville, Ohio. She is a granddaughter of William and Rachel (Bridendall) Clark, natives of Pennsylvania, and on the maternal side of George W. and Rebecca (Hickman) Hemming, born respectively in Indiana and Pennsylvania, and they were among the earliest of the pioneers of Seneca county, Ohio. Both were from prominent English families, and they lived on a farm in Seneca 'county. A daughter, Elizabeth, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Freeman, and she is now Mrs. Ernest Bye, and a resident of Pasadena, California. Mr. Freeman is a member of the Baptist church and of the Republican, party. He served the town of LaGrange nine years as its mayor, and in 1890 he was a U. S. census enumerator. IRA WESTOVER, who is a most successful raiser of fine merino sheep and road and draft horses, operates a valuable farm of 225 acres in Palmyra township, Portage county. He is a representative of one of the oldest and most substantial families in this portion of the Western Reserve. Mr. Westover is a son of Frederick and Ellen (Woodward) Westover, the former born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, August .4, 1804, and the latter in Union county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1827. The paternal grandparents were Luman and Sabr HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1187 (Snedley) Westover, of Litchfield county, and Amos and Mary (Mallaby) Woodward, of Union county. In 1816 the Westovers migrated from Pennsylvania by means of an ox team and an .old horse and settled on a tract of timber land Which the head of the family had purchased, being located on the east line of Palmyra township and Portage county, and for many years cleared and improved it. Mr. Woodward came to Milton, Ohio, in 1840. In 1849 he moved to Palmyra township and settled on a farm adjoining that of the Westovers. After his marriage Mr. Westover bought a, farm near the parental- .homestead, upon which his wife died in 1863 and he himself in 1878. Of their two children, Ira was the elder and Irene is now the widow of Evan Jones and resides still in Palmyra township. Mr. Westover lived with his parents until his marriage in 1874 and at his father's death, four years later, owned a good farm of seventy-five acres. He then inherited 150 acres of the paternal estate, and has since been one of the large ,and successful raisers of sheep and horses in Portage county. He is an independent voter, without political aspirations, and his fraternal relations. are with the following: Charity Lodge, No. 53o, of Palmyra, F. and A. M., and Diamond Lodge No. 136, Knights of Pythias. On September 9, 1874, Mr. Westover married Miss Alice Wilson, born in Paris township, Portage county, daughter of Lester P. and Margaret (Beck) Wilson, also of that township ; in fact, the Wilsons have been natives of this portion of Portage county for a number of generations.. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ira Westover were : Frederick, who lives in Paris township ; Lester, a resident of Trumbull county ; Frank, of Superior, Wisconsin ; Margaret and Minnie (twins), the latter being Mrs. Stephen Harris, of Paris township.;‘ James, of Palmyra township, and Grover, who is living at home. FRED. N. SMITH.—One of the important industrial enterprises in the. city of Elyria is that represented by the Garford Manufacturing Company, which is engaged in the manufacture of automobiles, and of which Mr. Smith is treasurer. He is one of the progressive business 'men of the Western Reserve and is a citizen to whom is accorded the fullest measure of esteem in his home city, of whose council he is president at the time of this writing. He has done much to further good municipal government and has also contributed his quota to the civic and industrial prosperity of Elyria. Fred Norton Smith was born at Mowsley, Leicestershire, England, on the 18th of August, 1848, and is a son of William L. and Juliette (Hamlin) Smith. His father, who, died in Elyria on the 28th of April, 1902, was born in Laughton, Leicestershire, England, in 1822, and was reared to maturity in his native land. At the age of eighteen years William L. Smith came to America, and he first established his home in Avon, Lorain county, Ohio. Somewhat later he was matriculated in Oberlin College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1847. In the same year he married Miss Juliette Hamlin, of Elyria, Ohio, and her death occurred three years later, when the subject of this review was two and one-half years of age. He is the eldest of the three children, and the only daughter died in infancy ; his brother, William, is a resident of Elyria. In 1853 William L. Smith contracted a second marriage, being. then united to Miss Frances Perry, who died in 1862, and who is survived by three children : Frank, Mrs. Frederick F. Thomas and Guy. In 1863 the father volunteered as a soldier in the Civil war, but was rejected on account of physical disability resulting from an injury to one of his arms. He then left his farm at Avon and returned to his old home in. England, where he resided until the death of his father, in 1868, when he came again to America. In 1871 he married Miss Kate Moody, who survives him, as do also their four children : Fern, Kate, Hazel and Charles L. From 1888 until 1896 William L. Smith resided in the state of Washington, and he then returned to Ohio, passing the closing years of his life in Elyria. At the time Fred. Norton Smith was about one year old, his parents returned from his native town in England to the United States, and his early educational training was secured in the common schools of Ohio: In 1863, after the death of his mother, fie accompanied his father to the old home in England,, where he continued to attend school during the ensuing six years, at the expiration of which he came with his father to the United States and entered the latter's alma mater, Oberlin College, where he remained a student for two years. After' leaving college he devoted one year to teaching in the public schools, and in 1873 he assumed the position of bookkeeper for the firm of Topliff & Ely, of Elyria. In 1188 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE 1887 a reorganization of the business was effected, under the corporate title of the Topliff & Ely Company, and Mr. Smith became one of the interested principals in the company, of which he was chosen secretary and treasurer. In 1889 he became a member of the Garford Manufacturing Company, in the organization of which he was associated with Arthur L. Garford and Herbert S. Follansbee, and when this company was incorporated, in 1891, he became its secretary and treasurer. In the following year he resigned his executive offices with the Topliff & Ely Company. In 1901 Mr. Smith became treasurer of the Auto & Cycle Parts Company, of Elyria, and in the following year, when the name was changed to the Federal Manufacturing Company, he continued incumbent of the office of treasurer, which he held until 1905, when he resigned to devote his attention to the interests of The Garford Company, the upbuilding of whose fine industrial enterprise has been largely due to his able administration and progressive methods. Mr. Smith is essentially a loyal and public-spirited citizen, and in 1907 he was elected a member of the city council, as representative of the First ward. He has been president of the council since 1898, and has proved a most able and popular presiding officer. He was for five years an active member of the Ohio National Guard, and for several years he was a member of the fire department of Elyria, during the time when this important branch of the municipal service was maintained on the volunteer system. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and he holds membership in the National Union and the Kozy Klub, of which latter he has been a member since 1883. In 1880 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Louise M.. Porter, of Painesville, Ohio, and they have one daughter, Caryl Porter Smith, who was graduated in Lake Erie College, at Painesville, in 1908, and who is now studying, music in Berlin, Germany. AMOS CURTIS. — A resident of Pierpont township, Ashtabula county, for three score and ten years, Amos Curtis, a practical and prosperous agriculturist, has during that time witnessed many wonderful transformations in the county, the pathless forests giving way before the axe of the pioneer, the log cabins of the early settlers being replaced by substantial frame houses, while the settlements made in the openings have developed into thriving villages and populous towns and cities. A native of Knox, Cayuga county, New York, he was born October 8, 1836, and when three years of age was brought by his parents to Ohio. Amos Curtis, Sr., Mr. Curtis father, migrated from Cayuga county to Ashtabula county, Ohio, in 1840, thinking by the change to greatly improve his financial condition. Hosea Curtis, grandfather of Amos, Jr., also lived in New York and migrated to Ohio in pioneer days. The maternal grandmother was a native of Ireland. Locating in Pierpont township, Amos Curtis, Sr., bought from the Connecticut Land Company a tract of land lying just across the line from Pennsylvania. He began the improvement of a homestead, laboring with diligence and perseverance, during the first three years working also in a saw mill. He met with good success in his agricultural labors, and on the farm which he redeemed from the forest spent his remaining years. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Roxie Allen, eight children 'were born, as follows : Phila, Lois, Andrew, Lavinia and Ambrose, all deceased ; Amos ; Orlina, the first of the children whose birth occurred in Ashtabula county, born July 14, 1842, is the wife of Earl McArthur, of Pierpont Center ; and Alva, born in 1846, died n March, 1878. Growing to manhood on the home farm, Amos Curtis secured a practical common-school education, and as soon as old enough began assisting his father in his daily work. During the Civil war, in 1864, he enlisted in the Second Ohio Battery, Light Artillery, in which he served until receiving his honorable discharge at the close of the conflict. Mr. Curtis has since devoted his time and energies to the improvement of his valuable farm, which contains one hundred and forty-four acres of choice land, the greater part of which is in a yielding condition. He carries on general farming paying considerable attention to dairying, which is fast becoming a very profitable branch of industry. Mr. Curtis is identified with the Republican party, and has served five years as township supervisor. Mr. Curtis married, October 11, 1859, Jeannette Brayman, a daughter of Harry Brayman, and sister of Dr. Lorenzo Brayman, of whom a. brief biographical sketch appears on another page of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are the parents of four children, namely: Willard, born December 11, 1862, married Danette Martin, and lives in Pierpont Cen- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1189 ter ; Phila, born September 26, 1867, is the wife of F. J. Tanner, of Pierpont township ; Jessie, born July 26, 187o, married J. Irish, of Conneaut ; and Lena, born January 18, 1876, is the wife of Isaac Simons, also of Pierpont township. Mr. Curtis is a member of the Grange, to which his wife formerly belonged. He is a Member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and Mrs. Curtis belongs to the Woman's Relief Corps. Both are faithful and valued members of the Free Will Baptist church. ORRIN STEVENS, deceased, was during many years one of the well-known residents of Portage. county. He was born in Sherman, Connecticut, May 4, 1821, a son of David W. and Nancy (Giddings) Stevens, who were also from that state, and the father was a son of Samuel Stevens, and the mother a daughter of Baldwin Giddings. During their later life the parents lived one year with the son Orrin in Palmyra township, Portage county, Ohio. On the 2d of December, 1857, Orrin Stevens was united in marriage with Phebe A. Wheeler, who was born in Dover, Dutchess county, New York, August 8, 1830, a daughter of Sebastian and Phebe (Wing) Wheeler, who were also born in Dutchess county. Her :grandparents on the paternal side were John B. and Ruth (Sampson) Wheeler, from New .York, and on her mother's side she is a granddaughter of Thurston and Mary (Young) Wing, born respectively in New York and in Nova Scotia. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens were married in Dutchess county, New York, and came direct to Palmyra township, Portage county, Ohio, but after twenty-seven years they returned to Dutchess county, New York. After spending two and a half years in their old home there, they came again to Palmyra township, locating on their old farm, and after one year they moved just east of the city of Ravenna, where they bought thirteen acres of land. This little place contained a fine brick residence, and therein Mr. Stevens -lived retired until his death, on the 15th of January, 1901, and there, his widow yet maintains a home, but lives with one of her sons in Ravenna. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens was blessed by the birth of two sons : William W. and Thomas Howard, both in Ravenna. William W. Stevens married Ada Mott, and they have two daughters : Florence A. and Fern Ethel. Thomas H. Stevens married Pearl Ann Evans, and their three sons are Earl, Perry and Harold. Mr. Stevens gave his political support to the Democratic party, and he served his .community as a justice of the peace. He was a well educated man, receiving his education in a Quaker school in Dutchess county, New York, and he was well able to fill the positions to which he was called in his lifetime. He was affiliated with the Baptist church. ELIZABETH ASEVIA ( PARSONS) ROOT.—One of the oldest living residents of Portage county is Elizabeth A. Root, and she was born on the same lot in Aurora where she now lives, on the 15th of April, 1828. John Parsons, her father, was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and married Mrs. Amy Stewart Spencer, who had come to the Western Reserve with her parents when a maiden of sixteen years, the journey hither having been made in an ox cart. Her father was Alexander Stewart, and her grandmother was a member of a Carpenter family from France, where their name was spelled Charpentier. Amy Stewart was first married to George Spencer, their marriage having- been celebrated in Aurora, this state, and they had two children. By her second marriage, to John Parsons, there were eleven children. Elizabeth Asevia Parsons was one of these eleven children, and her educational training was received in the district schools of Aurora and in Windham Academy, presided over by George L. Mills, and she attended that institution for four years. This educational training was completed when. she was eighteen Years of age, and two years later; on the 22d of November, 1849, by Rev: S. G. Clark, in her father's home about one mile southwest of Aurora, she was united in marriage to Charles H. Root, and their union was blessed by the birth of two children : Ella C., born October 19, 1853, and Lizzie G., born August 20, 1855. The elder daughter married Arthur C. Dow On October 12, 1876, in St. Louis, Missouri, the ceremony being performed by Rev. C. L. Goodell, and their only child, Florence Dow, was born September 7, 1877, and was married in Chicago,, Illinois, on November 1, 1900, to Dana Estes, Jr., and they have one child, Elizabeth, born March 20, 1905. Lizzie G., the second daughter of Mrs. Root, was married by .the Rev. Dr. Roberts in Chicago, Illinois, to Leonard Wilcox, on the 25th of January, 1888. Charles H. Root was born in Aurora, October 25, 1826, and both his 'father and his 1190 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE grandfather bore the name of Jeremiah Root. This is another of the honored pioneer families of Portage county and the Western Reserve, and thus Mrs. Root is connected both by birth and marriage with the first families of this community. Charles H. Root was called from this life on the 12th of December, 1888, dying in Georgia, although his home at the time of his death was in Chicago, Illinois. WILLARD MAHAN is numbered among .the few remaining veterans of the Civil war, and his military career during that strife is one which will ever redound to his credit as a loyal and devoted son of the Republic. He served throughout the entire conflict and participated in many of its hardest fought battles, including those of Pittsburg Landing, Stone River, Chickamauga, Kenesaw Mountain, and the entire Atlantic campaign. Returning home from the war he resumed his connection with the business life of Portage county, and has proved himself equally as good a citizen as a brave and loyal soldier. Mr. Mahan is a native son of Portage county, born here on the 14th of September, 1835,- to Nicholas and Catherine (Baker) Mahan, from Pennsylvania, as was also his maternal grandfather, Henry Baker. A few years before the war, on the 6th of September, 1855, he was united in marriage to Catherine Hughes, who was born in New York in 1833, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Hughes, and their union was blessed by the birth of seven children : Mrs. Mary Curtis, Mrs. Anna Curtis, Mrs. Fannie Holden, Willard Mahan, Mrs. Hattie Fox, Mrs. Catherine Coe and Walter Mahan. All of the children are married, but Mrs. Holden is a widow and resides with her father. FRANK W. MARCH.—Prominent among the agriculturists, business men and public officials of Denmark township is numbered Frank W. March, a son of James E. March and a grandson of another James March. This last named James March was one of the early farmers of Ashtabula county. He came to this state from Vermont, cleared and improved a farm here and fought valiantly in the war of 1812. He married Susan Potter, and they became the parents of the following children : Daniel, John, Christopher, Phebe, Polly, Susan, Elizabeth and James E. Sallie died April 11, 1844, and Mary Ann died November 5, 1845. James E. March was born on the 22d of July, 1839, and he now lives in the city of Jefferson. In 1861 he enlisted for service in the Civil war, joining Company A of the Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, and during his war service of three years he served imprisonment for five or six months, and wounds in battle. He wedded Charlotte Crowson, and their union has been blessed by the birth of two sons, and the elder, E. Judson March, born February 16, 1864, is now living in Jefferson. He married Izza Brooks. James E. March belongs to the G. A. R., having joined in 1877, holding continuous membership since. Frank W. March was born on the 4th of May, 1866, and farming has been his life's occupation. He received his education in the Jefferson schools, and he later wedded Mary Herman, who was born June 12, 1872, a daughter of Matthew and Mary (Krouse) Herman, both living in Denmark township. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. March are: Charlotte, born February 29, 1895 ; Carl, on December 5, 1896; Elsie, June 23, 1898; Franklin, April 5, 1900 ; Herman, May 17, 1902 ; Hubert, December 5, 1903 ; Bernice, October .29, 1905 ; Helen, October 2, 1907; and Marian, May 24, 1909. Frank W. March is a member of the Grange and of the State Police. He is a charter member of the Denmark Grange, and was made the overseer of the order at the time of its organization. He is well and prominently known as a dairyman farmer, his herd consisting of twenty-five head of cattle, and he was formerly a breeder of Short-horns. His estate contains 135 acres of rich and fertile land in Denmark township, and he has served his township as a trustee for nine years. F. G. L. WARNER.—Three generations of the Warner family have largely contributed to the mercantile and financial stability and prosperity of the Western Reserve, and the broad sweep of their enterprises has carried their name for energy and ability into other states, both north and south. F. G. L. Warner, the widely known citizen of Painesville, is one of the leading merchants of that city, proprietor of a large department store, and is also identified with various bodies connected with the finances of the county and the city. He was one of the most active members of the commission which erected the new Lake county court house, and the last three mayors of Painesville have appointed him one of the sinking fund trustees of the municipality. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1191 The grandfather, Daniel Warner, Sr., was among the first to settle in the Western Reserve, locating in what is now Concord township, about seven miles from the mouth of Grand river. In 1842 he opened a large general store in Hamden, which so prospered that at the time of his death in 1873 he was a wealthy man. His four sons—Daniel, Jr., Martin, Asher and Field—inherited his abilities, all accumulating large competencies as general traders and cattle buyers. Field, the youngest (father of F. G. L. Warner), was the last of the four sons to pass away, dying at Painesville in July, 1898. Field D. Warner was a man of remarkable physique and mental activity. In the early days of his business career he sent many droves of cattle from the Western Reserve over the mountains to Harrisburg and Philadelphia. He also becam.e interested in some of the first oil fields opened in Pennsylvania ; at one time was associated with his uncle, Jonathan Warner, in the iron and steel business ; promoted a gold mine in North Carolina ; was a large operator in real estate in Ohio and elsewhere, and in these ventures and numerous others demonstrated the Warner ability to "make things go and bring money." F. G. L. Warner, the eldest son of Field D., was born in Geauga county, ,Ohio; in 1854, and in his early youth commenced to become associated. with his father in various local enterprises, as well 4s in others at Bryan, Burton and Cleveland. At one time they were partners in. a North Dakota land syndicate. But quite early in his manhood the son's activities began to crystallize in the mercantile field and for seventeen years he was a tireless commercial traveler whose field was virtually the United States. This experience laid the foundation for his signal success as a merchant and for the .facility with which he makes friends and raises up. warm supporters. The sure hand with which he retains the fealty of his supporters rests upon his solid ability and integrity. In national politics he is a Democrat ; but his policy with regard to Painesville and Lake county. is simply to do. all he can for their highest progress. Mr. Warner is a married man of family, his sons, Franz Jr., Wurt and Childs, promising to pass along the family name in all the luster of its honor and the vigor of its ability. DAVID L. ROCKWELL, SR.With the history of Portage county the name of David Ladd Vol. II-31 Rockwell was inseparably and prominently identified for many years, and through all the days to come shall there be accorded to him a tribute of honor as a man of high intellectuality, sterling integrity and pronounced business and professional acumen, and as one who contributed in no small measure to the industrial and civic progress and prosperity of his native county. Many men excel in achievements along some given course, but to few is it given to follow several lines of endeavor and stand well to the front in each. In the career of David L. Rockwell, of this memoir, is given illustration of such accomplishment. As a lawyer he won pronounced prestige ; as a business man he produced results of most positive character ; and as a citizen he exemplified the utmost loyalty and public spirit. He was a representative of one of the old and honored pioneer families of the Western Reserve, and it is most consistent that in this historical compilation he be accorded at least a brief tribute to his memory. David Ladd Rockwell was born at Franklin Mills, now the village of Kent, Portage county, Ohio, on the 13th of May, 1843, and was a son of David L. and Mary (Parmeter) Rockwell, of whose four children—three sons and one daughter—he was the second in order of birth. David L. Rockwell (1) was a native of Connecticut, and the family was founded in New England in the colonial days, being of stanch English origin. Mary (Parmeter) Rockwell was born in Jewett City, Connecticut, and her parents were pioneers of the Western Reserve. David L. Rockwell (1) was a son of Harvey Rockwell, who immigrated from Connecticut to the Western Reserve about the year 1820, becoming one of the very early settlers of Ashtabula county, where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness, continuing his residence in the Reserve until his death. David L. Rockwell (1) removed to Portage county, Ohio, about 1835 and first settled in Brimfield township, where he instituted the development of a farm, but in 1840 he removed to Franklin Mills, now the village of lent, where he became one of the first business men and where he conducted a general merchandise store for many years. He was one of the leading citizens of Portage county, which he represented in the state legislature- for two terms, and he otherwise wielded marked influence in the community which represented his home until the time of his death, which occurred in 1868; his wife 1192 -HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE survived him and was summoned to eternal rest in the year 1875. David L. Rockwell (2), the immediate subject of this memoir, was reared to manhood in what is now the village of Kent, and to its common schools he was indebted for his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course of study in Hiram College, at Hiram, Portage county. As a youth he assisted his father in his business affairs, but he early formed definite plans for his future career, taking up the study of law and making rapid progress in his assimilation of the minutiae of the science of jurisprudence. He was admitted to the bar of his native state when twenty-two years of age. He forthwith engaged in the active work of his profession in Kent, where he continued in practice until 1878, when he removed to Ravenna, the county seat, where he was engaged in successful practice until August, 1884, when impaired health rendered necessary his retirement from the vocation in which he had gained no little. distinction. He had in the meanwhile identified himself with various industrial and financial interests, and to these he continued to give his attention until his death, which occurred on the loth of May, 1901. In 1881 he organized the City Bank of Kent, of which he became president at the time of its founding, and when it was succeeded by the City Banking Company of Kent he continued in the presidency of the latter, an incumbency which he retained until the close of his useful and beneficent life. He was also a stockholder in various manufacturing concerns in his native county, and he was a man whose course was ever guided and governed by the most inviolable principles of integrity and honor, so that he held as his own the unequivocal confidence and esteem of his fellow men. He was an active and zealous advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and was' essentially progressive, liberal and public-spirited as a 'citizen. He was affiliated with Ravenna Lodge, No. 12, Free and Accepted Masons, and he attended and gave a generous support to the Protestant Episcopal church, of which his widow is a devout communicant. At the inception of the Civil war Mr. Rockwell tendered his services in defense of the Union. He enlisted in one of the early volunteer regiments raised in Ohio, but after a short period of service he became incapacitated by illness and was compelled to retire permanently from the ranks. On the 3oth of May, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rockwell to Miss Mary E. Metlin, who was born in Akron, Summit county, Ohio, which was then a part of Portage county, and who is a daughter of Samuel D. and Eliza ( Jennison) Metlin, the former of whom was born in Westmoreland county, .Pennsylvania,. and the latter in Saratoga county, New York, whence her father, Elias Jennison, removed. to Ohio in the pioneer days. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Rockwell, who still retains her home in Ravenna, were Thomas and Margaret (Foster) Metlin, natives of Pennsylvania, from which state they removed to Summit county, Ohio, in the pioneer epoch. There the grandfather purchased a large tract of land and reclaimed much of the same to cultivation. On this old homestead he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, honored pioneers of the Western. Reserve. Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell became the parents of three children—Mary E., who is the wife of Henry D. Hinman, of Ravenna; Dorena, who is the wife of Lardner V. Morris, of Garden City, Long Island, New York; and Judge David L., of whom specific mention is made in a sketch appearing on other pages of this publication. CAPTAIN, EDWARD C. MAYTHAM, a wealth vesselman, who until recently had large an profitable interests in the lake marine, has been retired from active work in that line for a number of years, and now chiefly devotes himself to the superintendence and development of a splendid farm in Lafayette township. He has one of the finest country places in the Western Reserve. a comprises 275 acres of land, not an acre of which is allowed to go to waste. When he took possession of the property, known as the old Daniel Foote farm, in 1904, it was a tract of 165 acres. To this he has not only added an adjoining 110 acres, but completely remodeled the homestead residence and farm buildings, raising everything to the most modern standard of convenience, comfort and good taste. He' employs an abundance of skilled help, and the stock used both in the general operations of the farm and in the support of his employes and household is an indication of his abundant means and good judgment. The horses seen on his place are especially of high grade. In a word, Captain Maytham is showing his numerous friends in his native township of Lafayette and county of Medina, how to be a true, open-handed and   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1193 successful country gentleman of the year 1910. And he has fully earned every detail of the substantial standing and enjoyment of the present, and all who know of his record congratulate him that he has found so fair a haven for his later years. Captain Maytham was born in Lafayette township, on. the, 13th of October, 185o, and is a son.of John and Catherine (Guckin) Maytham. His father was born in the county of Kent, England, April 25, 1813, and was the youngest son born to Edward and Elizabeth (Hopkins) Maytham. The great-grandfather, George Maytham, had six sons, viz—George, Thomas, Daniel, Edward, James and John. The George Maytham mentioned served in the war between England and Spain, and met his death while on a transport which was conveying prisoners to the mother country. Supposing it to be an enemy's ship, a British man-- of-war fired upon it, and with such true aim that the shell struck the craft full, exploded on deck, and among the resulting casualties was the death of George Maytham. At the age of nineteen John Maytham, the future father of Edward C., emigrated from England, and, after an ocean voyage of eight weeks, landed at New York during the height of the cholera epidemic. Not long afterward he located in Essex county, Massachusetts, where he- resided for five years prior to his removal to Cleveland. Euclid avenue was then just commencing to blossom into a beautiful thoroughfare, and as Mr. Maytham was a landscape gardener he assisted in planting some of the first trees which graced it. In January, 1837, John Maythani, married Miss Catherine Guckin, who was born in Ireland in November, 1820, daughter of Charles and Nancy (McDonald) Guckin. As the McDonalds are Scotch, the captain has the blood of united Britain in his constitution. In 1840 his parents moved from Cleveland to a farm which the father had purchased in Lafayette township, at five dollars an acre. At that time it was far from the well settled district of the Reserve, and there was no road near the place. But the land was finally,: improved into a good farm and became a comfortable homestead for the fifteen children which the years brought to this sturdy English-Irish-Scotch couple. Ten of them reached maturity and four, besides Edward C., are still alive. One of the daughters was Mrs. Frances Rolo, now Mrs. A. Q. Arnold, resident of the state of Washington ; Thomas, Edward and Charles are resi dents of Buffalo, the first named having large vessel interests ; and Mary, who married John House, and William are residents of Lafayette township. George Maytham died in Kansas and was buried with the impressive ceremonies due to his Knight Templarhood. Edward C., special subject of this sketch, received his summer trainings on the farm, and his education, until his seventeenth year, in the district school of Lafayette township, and at a select school in Chatham township. He then commenced his career as a lake mariner by becoming a hand on a tug boat, plying between Buffalo and Chicago, and eventually, was promoted to be captain. For some time thereafter he was manager of the Maytham's tug line, and had an owner's interest in the steamers "Maytham" and "Brazil," being part owner of the latter with his brother Thomas, who died in 1883. The business was incorporated in about 188o or 1882, with the captain as president and the owner of the greater portion of the capital stock of $100,000. He continued in the vessel business until 1904, when he disposed of most of his interests and purchased the Foote farm in Lafayette township, as already noted. In 1875 Captain Maytham married Miss Mary Mass, a Canadian lady, who died April 4, 1909, mother of four children—John A., who assists his father in the management of the home farm.; Roy G., agent of the New York Life Insurance Company at Buffalo, New York, who married Miss Elnor Brown ; Lillian, who married Dr. R. G. Strong, a leading physician of that city, and Nellie A., who married William Chedien, of Buffalo, New York. JOHN HUMBOLT DUSSEL.-It has been given Mr. Dussel to attain to marked prestige as one of the representative members of the bar of his native county and he is established in the active practice of his profession in the city of Ravenna, where he has long retained a large and representative clientage and where he is known as a loyal and progressive citizen. John Humbolt Dussel was born in Randolph township, Portage county, Ohio, on the 7th of May, 1847, and is a son of John C. and Barbara (Reisenbach) Dussel, the former of whom was born in Kirchwei, Rheinpfalz, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and the latter at Bierstadt, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. In the fatherland both were reared to maturity and it was their good fortune to form an ac- 1194 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE quaintanceship before sailing, as both embarked on a sailing vessel in immigrating from the fatherland to America. Both made Portage county, Ohio, their destination, and here the marriage of the young couple was solemnized within a short interval after their arrival. John C. Dussel was a worthy representative of that sturdy German element which has contributed so materially to the development and progress of the various American commonwealths, and after his. marriage he located in Randolph township, Portage county, where he eventually accumulated a good landed estate and became a farmer, having been a surgeon by. profession. He was a man of inflexible „integrity,- industrious and loyal, and ever animated by that generous spirit and kindliness which promotes strong and enduring friendships. He held the high esteem of the community in which he lived for many years and in which he achieved independence and definite prosperity, through his own well directed efforts. He was about sixty-six years of age at the time of his death, and his devoted wife, who survived him, likewise attained to the age of nearly three score years and ten. She held membership in the Catholic church, and Mr. Dussel was a Democrat in his political proclivities. This honored couple became the parents of two .sons and two daughters, all of whom are living, and of whom the subject of this review was the second in order of birth. John H. Dussel was reared on the old homestead farm in Portage county, and after completing the curriculum of the district schools he. continued his studies in the public schools of Akron. In pursuance of a higher academic education he was finally matriculated in Mount Union College, in which. he was graduated as a member of the Class of 1875, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the meanwhile he had taken up the study of law, under the preceptorship of Judge George F. Robinson, of Akron, and he, carried on his college work and technical reading. simultaneously. In 1879 he was admitted to the bar of his native state,. prior to which tim.e he had accomplished a very successful work as a teacher in the public schools of Portage county. After his admission to the bar he continued to be identified with the pedagogic profession until 1881, when he opened an office in Ravenna and began the active practice of law, in which he has here continued during the intervening period of more than a quarter of a century, within which he has built up a large and substantial legal business and been concerned in much important litigation. He has shown him self admirably fortified as a trial lawyer, and as a counselor his services are ever given with a comprehensive knowledge of the law and with a wise conservatism. As a stanch adherent of the Democratic party Mr. Dussel has been active in promoting its cause in his home county, but the only office of which he has ever consented to become incumbent was that of justice of the peace. He and his family are devout communicants of the Catholic church and take a deep interest in all departments of parish and diocesan work. He has so ordered his course as to maintain at all times the inviolable confidence and esteem of the people of his native county, and the high regard of his professional confreres. In the year 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Dussel to Miss Caroline Doerflinger, daughter of Frank and Mary Doer-flinger, well known residents of Portage county. Mr. and Mrs. Dussel have three children—Carl M., Martha M. and Joseph Sarto. The mother died April 30, 1909. FRANCIS M. HOWARD, a life-long resident of Ashtabula county, and during many years one of the leading business men and agriculturists of Plymouth township, is a son of Jeremiah Howard, one of the early residents of the county. The father of Jeremiah Howard (also Jeremiah) was the first. Howard to settle in the Western Reserve, coming here from Ncw York state. Jeremiah Howard, born on the 23d of July, 1815, followed lumbering and farming, first in Monroe township and later in Plymouth township, and he died on the 28th of April, 1879, while his wife passed away on the 29th of March, 1889, and both lie buried at Kelloggsville in Monroe township, Ashtabula county. She bore the maiden name of Fanny Ross, and was born on the 22d of August, 1825. In their family were the following children : George, who was born January I I, 1845, and died when but seven years of age ; Julian, born August 3, 1846 ; Jeremiah, born March 3, 1848 ; Francis, mentioned below ; Elsie, born August 31, 1851 ; Mary, now Mrs. Jesse Austin, of Kansas ; Lincoln, who also died when about seven years old; and Fanny, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Howard were Universalists in their religious beliefs. Francis M. Howard, born in the southern HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1195 part of Monroe township on the 3oth of September, 1849, is a representative business man of Plymouth township, prominently identified with its farming and saw milling interests. He located in Plymouth township in 1889, moving then to the old Howard homestead south of Ashtabula, and he also at that time moved his. saw mill from Monroe to Plymouth township. On the 17th of June, 1874, Mr. Howard was married to Ximena Shipman, who was born September 10, 1853, in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of F. D. and Wealthy (Wakefield) Shipman, and the children of this union are : Ora W., born April 3, 1875, married Thomas Warwick, living in Saybrook, and their three children are Mary, Howard and Edith ; Carroll S., born December 5, 1879, is engaged in dressmaking in Ashtabula ; and Arie, born April 27, 1885, married Royal Morse, and has two children, Dorothy and Donald. Mr. Howard in politics is allied with the Democracy, and he is both a Mason and. an Odd Fellow. F. D. Shipman, the father of Mrs. Howard, is a native of Gustavus, Trumbull county, Ohio. He spent all of his life. in this part of the country, living in Trumbull county, Ohio, and for a time in Crawford county, Pennsylvania. He died in 1909, but his wife passed away many years previous, dying in 1868. His father, David Shipman, was the first of the family to settle in the Western Reserve. SAMUEL VINCENT PRYCE.—The proprietor of a well equipped farm in Carlisle township, Samuel V. Pryce is actively identified with the agricultural growth and prosperity of Lorain county, and. occupies a secure position in the consideration and respect of his fellow citizens. A native of England, he was born, December 9, 1856, at Camborne, County Cornwall, the birthplace of his parents, Samuel V.; Sr., and Mary (Trevenen) Pryce: His father migrated to Australia a few years after his marriage, leaving his wife with four children to care for, as follows : Elizabeth, deceased ; Mrs. Mary T. Pascoe, of Truro, England ; Georgianna, widow of Joseph Trenerry, of Camborne, 'England ; and Samuel V., the subject of this sketch, then a babe. of fifteen months. The mother kept her little family together, training them to habits of honesty and industry, and lived to a good old age, passing away on 1901. Brought up in his home town, Samuel V. Pryce remained with his widowed mother until ready to establish himself in business. Desirous of trying life in a newer country, he started for America, long known as the poor man's paradise. Among his fellow passengers on shipboard was a fair young lady from Illogan, County Cornwall, with whom he 'fell in love, and they were subsequently married at Vulcan, Menominee county, Michigan. The following two years. Mr. Pryce worked in an iron mine in that place, after which he went to Keweenaw county, Michigan, where he was employed for a year in a copper mine. While here he went on a hunting trip, and while taking his gun from the wagon was wounded in the right arm by the accidental discharge of the weapon. His right arm was thus rendered useless for over a year, and he sought other employment. Coming to Ohio, he located in Oberlin, and soon after began studying telegraphy with the operator of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company. On May 8, 1887, Mr. Pryce entered the employ of the Cleveland Stone Company, and in addition to managing the Cleveland Stone Company's store, was given charge of the telegraph office, a -position that he is amply able to fill, as he is an expert telegraph operator. He still holds the position. Mr. Pryce subsequently bought sixty-five acres of land in Carlisle township, and this farm is well and skilfully managed by his wife and their only son, Samuel Vincent Pryce, Jr. It is well improved, and the buildings are of modern construction, the house containing all the conveniences necessary in this day, including hot and cold water, bath-room, telephone, etc., and is heated and lighted from gas obtained from an extraordinarily good well on the' estate. Black river runs through the farm just back of the house. In 1898 Mr. Pryce put up a steel cable, attached to two large trees, one on each side of the river, and has a trolley car on which two persons can cross at one time. The car is propelled by an endless rope, used by one of the parties on the car, and crossing is thus made possible when the river overflows the banks. This was the first arrangement of this kind for crossing Black river, and any one is allowed to use it, and it is well patronized. Mr. Pryce also owns a small water-power flour mill and fifteen acres of land at Mawnan, near Falmouth, England, which came into his possession in 1895. Because of its being entailed property, his father could not dispose of it only during his life. Fraternally, Mr. Pryce 1196 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE is a member of Calumet Lodge (Michigan), A. O. F. JOHN D. THOMPSON. - One of the best known and most highly esteemed agriculturists of Perry township is John D. Thompson the son of a pioneer settler, who has been intimately associated with the development and advancement of the highest interests of this part of Lake county from his earliest days. He was born on the homestead he now owns and occupies, in the log cabin which stood near the site of the present house, December 27, 1834. His father, Moses Thompson, bought this property in December, 1831, and lived here until his death, November 1, 1891, being then an aged man of ninety-one years, his birth having occurred March 15, 1800. Moses Thompson married first in Vermont, his wife dying in July, 1861. He subsequently married for his second wife a widow, Mrs. Amelia Johnson, who died in 1870. After leaving Kirtland Seminary, John D. Thompson continued his studies in the Painesville high school, and in 1851 attended the Kirtland Seminary. Going then to Iowa, he spent a year in that state, when, at the request of his father; he returned home to take charge of the farm and care for his parents. On August 7, 1862, he enlisted in Battery C, or Kinney's Battery, First Ohio Light Artillery, of which one squad of men from Geneva responded to the very first call for troops, in April, 1861, and at Philippi, West Virginia, fired the first shot of the war. Mr. Thompson joined the battery at Louisville, Kentucky, and served in the Army of the Cumberland, under General Buell. After the engagement at Missionary Ridge his company was sent back to Nashville, where the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps were consolidated, becoming the Twentieth Corps, and he and his comrades subsequently marched with Sherman to the sea, thence on to Washington, D. C., where the corps took part in the grand review. On June 16, 1865, Mr. Thompson was honorably discharged, having been in the service a little less than three years. Returning home, he immediately resumed the management of the farm, on which he has since lived. It contains one hundred and seventy-four acres of land, which he has placed under excellent tillage, and on which he has made substantial improvements. When Mr. Thompson was ready to establish a household of his own, a separate house was built for him, in 1867, and in 1874 a large barn was erected in place of one that was burned by lightning. Mr. Thompson carries on dairying on his place, keeping from twelve to twenty-four cows in his stable, and was one of the first in his neighborhood to put in a silo. On September 26, 1865, Mr. Thompson was united in marriage with Mary J. Tyler, who was born in Mayfield township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, September 2, 1835, a daughter of Ralph and Maria (Gorden) Tyler, and a sister of J. H. Tyler. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have no children of their own, but have reared and educated two children, namely: Lizzie Brinkerhoff and Lawrence Keller. Lizzie Brinkerhoff's mother, a . cousin. of Mrs. Thompson, died in Kansas, leaving five small children, and a short time later, in 1883, Mr. Brinkerhoff was killed, being shot while watching, as a bystander, a quarrel between two men. In 1884 Mr. and Mrs. Thompson took Lizzie, then a girl of six years. She was educated at the Geneva Normal School, and. at Lake Erie College, and is now the wife of Charles A. Bartlett, of Madison, Ohio. Lawrence Keller was left fatherless when nine years old, and Mr. and Mrs. Thompson opened their home to him; and gave him excellent educational advantages, after his graduation from the Perry high school sending him to Oberlin College. At the age of twenty years he entered the employ of the Michigan Southern & Lake Shore Railroad Company. He subsequently married Mabel Hurlburt, and spent two years on her father's farm. In the spring of 1908 Mr. Thompson placed him in charge of his farm. In November Mr. Keller was called to Cleveland on business, and on his return trip came on the latest car of the interurban, which at that time of the night ran to Painesville only. He set out on foot from there for his home, and his body was found the next morning on the tracks of the Lake Shore Railroad, two miles east of Painesville. He left no children. Mr. Thompson is not especially active in public affairs, but has served for three years as township trustee. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and takes great interest in the organization: CHARLES MANNING IRISH, secretary and treasurer, of the Lorain Banking Company, ex-treasurer of Lorain county and a prominent citizen of the city of Lorain, was born in Pittsfield, Lorain county, Ohio, September 14, 1862. He is a son of Charles and Jane (Ware) Irish, the father a native of New York state HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1197 and the mother of Vermont. The Irish family is an old one in the state of New York, and the Wares are an old family in New England. Charles Irish removed to Pittsfield just before the Civil war, and began work for Manning Ware, a blacksmith, who later became his father-in-law. After his marriage he made his home in the adjoining township of Camden until the death of his wife, in 18951 For two years Mr. Irish lived at Rock Creek, at Ashtabula county, Ohio, and in 1898 came to the city of Lorain, where he died in 1899. Charles M. Irish received his education in the public country school at Pittsfield, and began an independent career when fourteen years of age, from which time until twenty-three years of age he worked on. farms. He then entered the employ of B. F. Breckenridge, a general merchant of Kipton, in Camden township, where he remained three years ; at the end of that time he and another young man were sent by Mr. Breckenridge to run a branch store at Lorain, and Mr. Irish remained in. that city six years in this position. After the steel plant was established at Lorain, Mr. Irish and Raymond W. Austin purchased the store and changed it to a grocery ; a year later, they also established a 'branch store at South Lorain, which has developed into one of the largest grocery stores in the county. The firm, known as Irish & Austin, was dissolved in 19o5, Mr. Irish retaining the store in Lorain, which he still owns, and it is one of the leading business houses in the city. For many years, Mr. Irish has been prominent in municipal affairs ; he served in the city council, has been for nine years a member of the city school board, and is president of the board at the present time. In 1905 he received the nomination, on the Republican ticket, for county treasurer, and received the majority of votes, taking office in that year ; he was re-elected, and finished his second term on September 7, 1909. He then, on September 8, 1909, became secretary and treasurer of the Lorain Banking Company. Mr. Irish is greatly interested in the welfare and growth of business interests in the city. He has been a director and a. member of the finance committee of the National Bank of Commerce, of Lorain, ever since the organization of the institution in 1899, and is also interested in other enterprises besides his store. He belongs to the Lorain Board of Commerce, and is a member of the Industrial Committee. Fraternally, he is a Knight Templar Mason; affiliating with Elyria Commandery, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Lorain. In 1887 Mr. Irish married Florence, daughter of Horace and Mary (Groot) Baker, of Kipton, the father deceased. Their children are : Blanche Irene,. born August 26, 189o; Ruth Marie, June 21, 1892 ; Glenn Marion, February 6, 1894; and Warren Baker, August 26, 1898. LUKE COOK.—The son of a pioneer of Ashtabula county, Luke Cook grew to manhood in primitive times, when the dense forests hereabout were inhabited by bears, deer, wolves and smaller animals, while yet the early settlers subsisted on the productions of the soil and the wild game so easily obtained. During his long and active life he has pursued the even tenor of his way as an honest and good citizen, advancing the interests of his community, as he had opportunity. Luke C. Cook, his father, born about 1791, in Massachusetts, ,migrated to Ohio in 1833, settling on a farm in Andover, Ashtabula county. He brought his family and goods with him, coming with wagons drawn by horses, he and his older children walking a large part of the way: The land that he purchased was covered with a heavy growth of timber, which he was forced to clear off before beginning to cultivate the land. Here he carried on farming until his death, about 1859• To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Clarica, eight children were born, as follows : Polly, who was ninety years of age when she died ; Lucy ; Nathaniel ; Lydia ; Caroline ; Lucina ; Luke ; and Calvin. Luke Cook assisted in the pioneer labor of redeeming a farm from the wilderness, his assistance, although but eleven years old when the family located in Andover, having been of considerable importance to his father. He subsequently chose agriculture for his life work, and in addition to farming carried on a good business for many years as a well digger. On June To, 1862, Mr. Cook offered his services to his country, enlisting in Company G, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he remained until receiving his honorable discharge at the close of the war. He was at one time taken prisoner, .but was soon paroled. Mr. Cook lived for thirty years in Michigan, and while there was for four years treasurer of the Grand Army post to which he belonged, and was afterwards president of the post five years. A Republican in his political views, he was constable for 1198 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE three years, and for two years was road supervisor. Uniting with the Baptist church, he continued as one of its most faithful members. In September, 1843, Mr. Cook married Persis Merritt, and they became the parents of three children, namely : William, born in May, 1845, lives in Ensley township, Newaygo county, Michigan ; Wesley, born in 1850, is a resident of Dorset, Ashtabula county ; and James, born in 1853, married, and lives in Pierpont township. EDWARD JAMES CLAGUE.—Eminently worthy of special Mention in this volume is Edward James Clague, late of Leroy township, who spent his entire life in Lake county, enjoying the fullest confidence and esteem of his neighbors and associates. He was born, January 10, 1836, in Concord township, and died on his home farm, in Leroy township; May 20, 1909, his .death being a cause of general regret. Among the first Manxmen to settle in Lake county were Edward James Clague, Sr., and his wife, Letitia (Carlett) Claque, who were born on the Isle of Man, and emigrated to Ohio soon after their marriage. They lived first in Concord township, but in 1837 bought land adjoining the Clague homestead, and lived there nine years. In 1846 they removed to the present property of the Clague family, and there spent the remainder of their lives. Edward J. Clague, Sr., was born March 17, 1804, and died November 21, 1864, while his wife, whose birth occurred August 20, 1808, survived him, dying December 18, 1882. To them five children were born (who grew to maturity), as follows : Letitia, who 'married John Garrett, died at the age of fifty-seven years ; Edward James, the special' subject of this sketch.; Margaret married Thomas Kissick, and died when sixty-two years old ; John, who was born October. 1, 1843, and died August 7, 1892, in Painesville, was county recorder at the time of his death ; and Eliza, wife of Nathan Rogers, of Concord, Lake county. A lad of ten years when his parents removed to the present homestead, Edward J. Clague remained at home until his marriage, obtaining a practical knowledge of the science of agriculture. He was subsequently employed on the Pennsylvania Railroad for several years, first as fireman, and later as engineer. Leaving the road to assume the management of the home farm, his father being in ill health, he cared for his parents until the death of his father a year later; when he bought the interests of the remaining heirs in the estate. Continuing his agricultural labors, Mr. Clague met with gratifying results, and made marked improvements on the place, rebuilding and enlarging the house, and otherwise adding to the value and attractiveness of the farm. He took great interest in local affairs, supporting the principles of the Republican party, and served as school director several terms. On October 4, 1866, Mr. Clague married Susan Rogers, who was born September 5, 1844, in Concord township. Her father, Thomas J. Rogers,. a native of New Hampshire, came to Lake county, Ohio, as a young man, and spent the remainder of his forty-two years of earthly life in Concord township, where he improved a good farm. He married Lydia Hobart, who was born in New Hampshire and died in 1864 on the old home farm. They. reared four children, namely: Adaline, who married Sheldon Olds ; Perleyette was the wife of Benjamin Winchell, and she died about 1894 ; Nathan ; and Susan, now Mrs. Clague. Mr. and Mrs. Clague became the parents of six children, namely : Emma, wife of George Gorman, of Perry township; Burton, of Cleveland, an employe of the American Express Company; John, of Hudson, Ohio, is a farmer, and also a machinist in the Otis Steel Works ; Liddia married Nelson Vincent, of Michigan ; Letitia, wife of William H. Kewish, superintendent of the Portland Cement Company, in Richard City, Tennessee; Harry, a student in the University of Michigan. .Letitia is also finely, educated, having been graduated from the Woman's College of the Western Reserve University with the Class of 1906. JOHN, B. HEISER. — Throughout nearly his entire life, John B. Heiser has been identified with the interests of Portage county. When he started out in life for himself, at the age of twenty-two years, he established his home just opposite his father's residence in Atwater township, and for fifteen years worked with three brothers at carriage manufacturing. But at the close of that period the brothers discontinued business, although John. B. Heiser still continued the manufacture of buggy rims there. until the fall of 1907. At that date he came to. the town of Atwater, erected his building and resumed the manufacture of buggy rims. He ships his products to the Hardware Supply Company at Akron, Ohio. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1199 Mr. Heiser was born at Florida, in Defiance county, this state, May 19, 1861, a son of John C. and Elizabeth (Hull) Heiser, the mother a native of Mahoning county and the father of Germany, born in 1822. He was but two years of age when brought by his parents to Ohio, and after reaching manhood's estate he learned the blacksmith's trade. In 1850 he came to Atwater, and he remained here until his death in 1893, his wife, born in 1827, surviving until the year of 1898. John B. Heiser was the last born of their five children, and he received a common and high school education. In August of 1884, when twenty-two years of age, he married Jennie Garrison, born. in Deerfield township, and she died without issue in 1887. In September of 1889 he wedded Dena Parham, also from Deerfield township, a daughter of Hiram and Lyona (Kipler) Parham, and their only child is a daughter, Mildred, who was born in May of 1902. They also have an adopted daughter, Vaughnie, born in May of 1895. Mr. Heiser is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Yale, Ohio, and he is much interested in Sunday school work as a teacher, and has also served as the steward of his ,church. In politics he upholds the principles of the Republican party. HARVEY BALDWIN was born in Bainbridge, Geauga county, Ohio, April 14, 1823, and he. is a representative of a family who came to the Western Reserve from Danbury, Connecticut, as early as 1806. This western founder was his grandfather, Samuel Baldwin, who journeyed hither with a team of horses, crossing Lake Erie in the dead of winter on the ice, and locating first in Cleveland. Two years later, in 1808, he came to Aurora and bought about 400 acres of land in the township, including the property now the home of his grandson Harvey. He became prominently identified with much of the early history of this community, and reared a large family of sons, the eldest of ,whom, Smith Baldwin, served as the first sheriff of Cuyahoga county. Another of these sons, Harvey Baldwin, who became the father of the .Harvey of this review, was born in Danbury, Connecticut, December 31, 1796. While in Bainbridge, Geauga county, Ohio, about the year 1818, he married Laura Kent, born March 23, 1797, and they had four children-Laura Ann, Harvey, Philander and Oscar O. The second wife of Harvey Baldwin was before marriage Lucinda Brown, of Louisville, Kentucky, and there were four children also by this marriage-Ellen, Belle, Hester A. and Wesley. Harvey Baldwin Jr., a son of Harvey and Laura Baldwin, attended school in Aurora when it was held in the old town house, and he also attended school in the town of Streetsboro. His father moved from Bainbridge to Aurora when he was but four years old, and after leaving school he worked on his father's farm here. He has served his township as a trustee, and in politics he is a Democratic voter. On the 23d of December, 1847, in Aurora, he was married to Emily Carver, born in this township November 8, 1823, a daughter of Chester and Annie (Eldridge) Carver, prominent old residents of the Western Reserve, where they were married about the year of 1818. Six daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin, the eldest being Ella F., who was born September 11, 1848, and on the 1st of September, 1874, in Aurora, she was married to E. R. Merrell, and the three sons of this union are Ernest Baldwin, Richard K. and Gilbert Harvey. Alice M., the second daughter, was born November 10, 1850, and married, on August 25, 1869, T. A. Gould, and their two children are, Lee Harvey, born December II, 1870, and Carrie Edna, born August 21, 1876. Carrie Estelle, the third daughter, was born June II, 1855, and died on the 21st of March, 1871. Hattie Eulalia, born August 24, 1858, married George W. Snyder June 10, 1906. Anna Laura, born July 23, 186o, married on the 1st of June, 1891, George F. Rehm, and their son, Vernon F., was born in Chicago, Illinois, April 9, 1893. Mr. Rehm died on the 17th of November, 1893, and on the 14th of November, 1899, she married James H. Nichols, who died on the 17th of November, 1908. Minnie Carver, the youngest of the six daughters, was born December 17, 1862, married Frank H. Warren in January, 1885, and died in Chicago, Illinois, March 1, 1891. JAMES W. COPELAND has long been identified with the agricultural life of Portage county, where he and his son Roy now own a splendid and well improved estate of 200 acres in Charlestown township, but he is a native of Ireland, born on the 14th of February, 1842. He was but a youth of six years, however, when he came with his parents, John and Agnes (Wright) Copeland, to this country, arriving in New York on the 5th of Novem-