100 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. BETSEY MIX COWLES.* Among those whose strong convictions and outspoken zeal in the cause of humanity made Ashtabula County famous in the history of the State, not one did more, in proportion to opportunity, than the subject of this sketch, Betsey M. Cowles. Born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1810, she was brought an infant to Austinburg, when her father, the Rev. Dr. Giles Hooker Cowles, removed his family thither. The homely surroundings of pioneer life, its hardships and its pleasures, united with the culture and refinement which at that day always pervaded the atmosphere of a minister's dwelling, served to develop a character singularly sweet and strong. Like all strong and energetic natures, an out-door life was a necessity to her childish happiness, and this built up for her the fine constitution and commanding presence which so greatly enlarged her sphere of usefulness in afterlife. Her struggle for an education was that incident to those early days. We hear of her now at the district and now at the select school, or perhaps bending with anxious brow over the difficulties of algebra under the guidance of the young tutor of Grand River Institute ; but wherever found, the steady aim and unwavering purpose of the student were clearly apparent. Like all great and generous natures, there was in her character a vein of mirthfuiness and humor which neither care nor study could suppress, and which, bubbling out at the slightest provocation, made her an especial favorite with her companions. Her energy and independence fitted her for a leader, and she quietly took her natural place among her associates without assurance and without diffidence. Although her life-work was to be that of a teacher, her first essay in her profession she never considered a success. When about seventeen years of age, the little brown school-house on the " East road" was without its accustomed summer teacher. Some zealous committee-man asked the Rev. Dr. Cowles if one of his daughters might not take charge of the flock for the summer. He selected Betsey, on account of her " discretion," and the following Monday morning she went over to take possession. One weary week passed by, and at its close our young teacher took a direct line through the woods for home, simply remarking, when she arrived there, that she should not go back. Entreaty was of no avail, and her elder sister, Cornelia, completed the term. It is related that the five lunches sent by her kind hostess for her mid-day meal were found carefully put away in the little desk, together with sundry and divers adverse opinions concerning the desirability of school-teaching. The next year, however, she began in earnest, and taught a small school near Warren, in Trumbull county. In after-years it was her delight to gather around her a group of students, some of whom were about to try the unknown experiment of self support, and relating her own experiences, cheerily say, " Now you can't possibly do worse than I did." For several years she taught and studied alternately, until at last a friend, Miss Hawley, came on from New York, bringing with her the plan and organization of the infant-school system, which had been introduced into this country from England during the first decade of this century. Here was a field for which her nature was fitted, and she entered upon it with great enthusiasm. Her remarkable power over children, her profound sympathy with them, the fascination she seemed to exercise over them, all came into play, and her " infant schools" were the wonder and the delight of the surrounding country. Grave divines and learned judges, mothers oppressed with cares, and business-men in the whirl of trade, all, indeed, who ever attended, look back to the hours spent in Miss Cowles' infant school, as the one glimpse of fairy-land amid the prosaic interests of life. The wonders of the lessons in natural history, the pathos of the Bible stories, and the glories of the "solar system," illustrated with various-sized cotton balls, carried by children, moving around in planetary orbits, live in memory still. In 1831, shortly after her father's retirement from the ministry, there was held in Austinburg a four-days' revival meeting, such as were then common on the Western Reserve. Although carefully reared in the Puritan customs of those days, yet it was during this meeting that Miss Cowles for the first time made profession of that faith of which her life had ever been the expression,—her love and trust in her Saviour. With the majority of her associates she united with the church, and having been a leader in secular things, she now became a leader in spiritual things. Her letters, written at this time, and for fifteen years thereafter, breathe the most devoted spirit of prayer and trust in Christ. In 1835 her father died. According to the ideas of those days, a proper provision for daughters was held to be to billet them upon the brothers portion, rather than provide for their separate maintenance. Hence Miss Cowles and her two sisters found themselves, by their father's will, entitled to support." It is needless to say that Betsey much preferred to support herself, and, although the * By Harriet L. Keeler. homestead and farm were by the brothers generously and equally divided from choice, yet it was evident that there must be a separation, caused by a feeling of independence, among those who hitherto had lived so closely and so happily together. As a result of this decision, Miss Betsey went to Oberlin, in order to prepare herself for the battle of life. Her Oberlin life was ever recalled with pleasure. She was one of the pioneer students, and her name occurs in the triennial catalogue as a member of the third class graduated from the ladies' course. When the time of graduation came she looked about her for a position as teacher. But none offered itself: However, quite undaunted, she determined to find one, and started bravely for the southern part of the State. As she used afterwards to express it, " Providence did not seem to open any door for me, so I pushed one open for myself." And we next hear of her at Portsmouth, Ohio, teaching a select school, the idol of her pupils and admiration of the community. She remained there three years and then returned to Austinburg to take charge of the female department recently added to Grand River Institute, and became its lady principal. The maples now growing in the grounds of the Institute aro the living witnesses of her interest in the school, for she, with the assistance of the students, planted them. About this time, through some of her friends in Stark county, she became personally acquainted with the leaders of the anti-slavery movement. All her life long she had hated cruelty and oppression, and now came the touchstone of character which should test the strength of her convictions. She realized that heretofore she had but dreamed, had beheld vaguely, dimly, men as trees walking ; but now she was privileged to see aright. Through Austinburg ran the turnpike north and south, and along this line from time to time came a fugitive from slavery. Women, telling the story of their wrongs, and bearing the marks of the whip upon their backs, were arguments which set soul and brain on fire ; and the strong sense of right and justice, which had ever been her birthright, fired up, regardless of all expediency, all titue-serving, all political relations, and, bearing directly to the heart of the question, cried out, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his, paths straight." She became what was then and is still known as It Garrisonian abolitionist." It was her influence more than that of any other person which brought to Ashtabula County that baud of early workers in the cause of freedom,—William Lloyd Garrison, Stephen S. Foster, Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, Oliver Johnson, Lucretia Mott, and Abby Kelley,—who, by the force of their reasoning power and the might of their eloquence;sueeeeded in planting in the minds of the people of Ohio a realizing sense of the horrors of slavery, resulting eventually in that State taking the stand she did during the war of the slaveholders' rebellion. Whoever remembers the events of those days must recall the strange apathy and conservatism of many of the churches, and the bold and almost fierce denunciations of the early reformers against them. For this reason it was feared that Miss Cowles, in her intense sympathy for the slave, and her vehement abhorrence of oppression, had cut loose from the moorings of her early faith and drifted upon a sea of doubt and disquietude. To some degree, undoubtedly, this . was true, but she never drifted away from the dictates of eternal truth and justice, but rather towards them. She did not give up her trust in God, for it was his justice she invoked. She did not drift from her religion, for her religious training had taught her to trust in righteousness. She did not lose her reverence for Christ, since they who sold his children upon the auction-block, and they who palliated the deed, seemed to her to crucify Him afresh and put Him to an open shame. A brief extract from an address delivered by Miss Cowles before the county anti-slavery society, held at Orwell in 1845, will explain her true position on this subject. The day before the meeting there came to her home a poor woman, who had felt the curse of slavery in all its bitterness, whose limbs bore the marks of the bloodhounds' teeth, whose soul, the deeper degradation of womanhood's dishonor. No wonder, then, that Miss Cowles' address burned with righteous indignation, and that she called upon God and upon man to suppress the horrid traffic. " We have," she says, "in our nominally Christian country, a system which robs mothers of their children and children of their mothers; a system which robs wives of their husbands and husbands of their wives; a system which degrades and brutalizes woman, sells her for gold, and destroys the virtuous emotions of her nature; a system which robs man of his manhood, and extinguishes that spark of divinity which emanated from the Almighty when He breathed into him a living soul. We have a system which is drinking out the life-blood of liberty, and, unless speedily prevented, will soon drain the last drop. We have a system which to-day chattelizes, brutalizes, and barters Jesus Christ Himself, in the person of hie poor. For inasmuch as ye have done it nnto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. "To perpetuate this system the whole policy of our government is enlisted. To protect it, the teachings of Him who came to preach deliverance to the captive are wrested from their true meaning, and mon are taught to believe a lie,--that burdens, yet more grievoue to be borne, may be heaped upon them. To extend it, the treasury of our nation is drained; and HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 101 to cover its hateful deformity, men who minister at the altar in holy thing. sacrileglonaly defame God their Creator and Christ their Redeemer. . . . Ao Christians, we ask you to do all that you can for its overthrow. In the name of humanity, in the name of Him who lived and died for man's redemption, we appeal to you. By the better principles of your nature; by the tender ties of sympathy whioh bind you to the whole family of man; by the pure principles of the religion of Jesus Christ; by all that is good on earth or in heaven, we entreat you to unite with us in doing all that we can to overthrow a system so vile, eo demoralizing, co subversive of the interests and rights of man and of the government of God. Slumber we may, yet the eye of eternal justioe slumbers not. To-day the death-shrieks of an innocent nation are mingling with the dismal groans of the captive in the great prison-house of American bondage, loudly calling for retribution as they ascend into the ears of the Lord of Sabauth. "We oak you to aid us in miscuing the bondman from the consuming fires of slavery ; we ask you to labor to regenerate public sentiment co that the bondman may have his freedom; to labor faithfully in the came of emancipation till the last yoke be brOken, till the last fetter falls from the last slave;* to do what you can to undo the heavy burdens, to give freedom to the captive, and to establish the Christian principles of love and human brotherhood." Such words as these live; they live in the memory of those who hear them, they bear fruit unto a better life. During the entire anti-slavery agitation Miss Cowles and her sister Cornelia. were foremost in this work. Often, after a stirring address, an impromptu quartette would be improvised, Miss Cornelia sustaining the soprano and Miss Betsey the alto ; and as their strong, sweet voices rang out in the touching strains, " Say, Christian, will you take me back ?" or that other saddest of lamentations,— " Pone, gone; 'sold and gone To the rice-swamp dank and lone, From Virginia's hills and waters,— Woe is me, my etolen daughtere!" bosoms, hardened before, thrilled in sympathy with an influence they could not but feel, and melted before a power they could not withstand. It is true that Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua R. Giddings represented the sentiment of Ashtabula County in the congress of the nation ; but Betsey M. Cowles, more than any other one person, created the sentiment in Ashtabula which upheld those men. Nor was it alone for the slave that she made her voice heard and her influence felt. The position of women before the law, especially the married woman, early arrested her attention. In 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York, a convention was called by Lucretia Mott and Mrs. H. B. Stanton, for the purpose of obtaining from the constitutioual convention about to meet in that State jester laws regarding women. Over this convention Lucretia Mott presided. The next one held was in Salem, Ohio, for a similar purpose, in 1850, and Betsey M. Cowles pre. sided. We of this day can scarcely realize that those who wrought the mighty changes in our social fabric are either still with us, or have just now fallen by the wayside. The broad, generous, charitable thought of the present is due to the unceasing effort of a few earnest souls, who counted all things as naught if only they might win some to a broader outlook. Of those zealous workers not one was more earnest, and in her circle more efficient, than the subject of this sketch. In the mean time she never swerved from her devotion to her chosen vocation. The public schools of Massillon and Canton were nursed in their infancy by her care. Among the people of both these cities her name to-day is a household word. From Canton she was called to assist in organizing and carrying forward the normal school at Hopedale, in Harrison county, Ohio, where she remained until another call took her to Bloomington, Illinois, to again apply her genius and talent to establishing the State Normal school of that city. From there she went to Paineeville, where she held the position and performed the duties of superintendent of schools, with great satisfaction, for three years. Her last teaching was done at Delhi, New York, where she remained until admonished by threatened blindness to rest, and if possible avert the impending calamity. There, as elsewhere, she made for herself a place in the hearts of her pupils and of the people, and the mention of her name is but the signal for the warmest expressions of love and affection. It was during her stay in Delhi that Mr. Lincoin issued his emancipation proclamation, and as she read it she said, "The two great tasks of my life are ended together,—my teaching is done, and the slaves'are free." In 1865, having lost an eye through an unsuccessful surgical operation, she went back to her childhood's home to spend the remaining days of her life. She went back to no ignoble rest, no useless repining, but to do as she had always done,—care for the weak, counsel the doubting, aid the strong, encourage all who came within her influence. Those who were privileged to enjoy her intimate association during this time feel that at no period of her life were her labors more helpful to others than then. In June, 1869, her sister Cornelia died, and for the first time Betsey staggered under a blow which seemed heavier than she could bear. Their love for each other had been as the love of David and Jonathan, and half of Betsy's life seemed stricken away. Soon, however, she rallied, and how deeply she mourned Cornelia's death was never known until, after her own departure, the daily entries of her diary attested it. For seven years had she kept the time by years and weeks since the day of her great bereavement: " 6 yrs. and 45 weeks since dear Cornelia left us. The Lord is my helper. " 6 yrs. and 46 weeks since the light of our house went out. Do they love there still ?" And the last entry, July 16, nine days previous to her own death, she writes: "7 years and 7 weeks since our dear Cornelia was hidden from sight." The last recollection the writer has of her is of that nature to which we can always turn with consolation when thinking of a departed friend. It is the memory of that sweet, strong voice ringing out, with a pathos which was not human and a passion which was not mortal, the words— "He leadeth me; He leadeth me; By his right hand He leadeth me." Those who knew her intimately during the last years of her life could not but observe how the strong faith of her youth surged back, in an overwhelming tide, either to sweep away or to fill with its own completeness all the doubts of a lifetime, and the words of that passionate hymn were but the expression of the firm trust of her own spirit,—" He leadeth me." The last public work in which Miss Cowles was engaged was the building of the new Congregational church in Austinburg. It was mainly through her exertions that the structure was erected, and the first public gathering within its walls was the funeral service held over her remains. She died July 25, 1876, at the homestead in Austinburg, after an illness of a single week. Her death was sudden and unexpected. A long ride in the heat, a hearty meal when exhausted, an acute attack of inflammation, and death. Her friends, save those in Austinburg, were scarcely notified of her illness ere the telegraph bore them the sad news that she was gone. Her diary, however, attests that this result might not have been wholly unforeseen, since for three months previous the sad refrain of every exercise was, "So tired; I am so tired." The weakening of the vital forces was slowly going on; but she never complained, and no one knew until it was too late. Her ashes lie buried in the little cemetery opposite her home, whose care for the last ten years had been her charge, and for which she made provision in her will. To that place of graves her own is added. Green grass covers it, blue skies arch it, the birds sing near it. But greener than the grass, fairer than the sky, sweeter than the birds, and more hallowed than the grave itself, is the memory of her name and virtues enshrined in the hearts of those who knew and loved her. Useful as was her life, fitting as were her words and deeds, all who knew her felt that she herself was greater than all she did. "It was not so much," writes one who loved her, "what she said and did, as the atmosphere she created, which influenced all hearts." So sunny and genial and hospitable was that great soul, it seemed as if the instinct of all sufferers drew them to her side. From her counsels none went empty-handed away. To her all occasions were equal, and she was equal to all occasions. She was indeed a perfect woman, nobly planned. CORNELIA RACHEL COWLES. In this work the biography has been given of a woman of whom Ashtabula may well be proud—Miss Betsey M. Cowles. In order to make that biography complete, a sketch is given of the life of her sister Cornelia. These sisters had a most intense affection for each other, for they had lived together, traveled together, sympathized with each other, drawn from a common fund, advocated the same cause, and lived apparently only Mt each other. Their names are household words in many homes throughout Ohio, and their social acquaintances extended over the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Lakes and the Gulf, and they were known only to be loved and admired. Cornelia Rachel Cowles was one of the nine children of the Rev. Dr. Cowles. She and her twin-brother, LysaUder, were born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1807. As stated in the sketch of her sister, her father moved with his family to Austinburg in the year of 1811, when the country, to use a common but emphatic expression was a howling wilderness. She grew up with the growth of civilization on the Western Reserve, under the teachings of her learned father, the influence of her Christian and intellectual mother, and amidst the circle of the superior class of minds that were wont to partake of the ever-ready hospitality of her father's house. Her mother was a woman of great force of character, of culture and refinement, gifted with a most sweet voice for music, and in her younger days, according to the language of the late Judge Quintus F. Atkins, " When she stood up at the baptism of her eldest child she was the most beautiful woman I ever set my eyes upon." Cornelia and Betsey both inherited from their mother their strong sense, their naturally refined feelings, their amiability of character, and their musical gift. In addition, nature made Cornelia 102 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. inclined to be somewhat witty, which, combined with the self-reliance she had in common with her sister, and moving in all circles of society from the brightest and most cultivated to the humblest, the high standing she had in the estimation of all who knew her can thus be realized. She was educated mainly in the humble district school in vogue during the early days of the Western Reserve, and finished her education in her " father's study," which at that time had the largest and most complete library in the county, and which contained many of the standard works of the day. The education she thus acquired—" picked up" as some would call it—under all these disadvantages was far more thorough and practical than is obtained by many daughters of wealth at the fashionable seminaries of the present day. She acquired her musical education at the singing schools and singing clubs under the leadership of Squire Lucretius Bissel, who was quite proficient as a leader for those days. In 1857 she sang on a salary in the Rev. Dr. Aiken's church, Cleveland. The following year she went to New York city, and sang in St. Peter's Episcopal church. Brooklyn, as a professional, and placed herself under the instruction of Professor Ives, who was then celebrated as a teacher of music. In 1840 she returned to her home, and afterwards taught music in some of the neighboring villages. In 1845 she was employed to sing in the Rev. Dr. Tucker's church, Buffalo, and afterwards she sang in a prominent church in Cincinnati. In 1836 the family circle was composed of her brother Lysander, Rachel, his wife, Lewis, Martha, and Betsey. This circle received a most acceptable addition in the person of Dr. Theodore Harry Wadsworth, a grand-nephew of Dr. Cowles, and who came from Farmington, Connecticut, and was connected with the old Wadsworth family of that State. Although only twenty-four years of age, he was a thoroughly-educated physician, and of a scientific turn of mind. He made his home with his maiden cousins, Betsey, Cornelia, and Martha, and to the time of his death was considered as a brother. His attainments, generous nature, perfect integrity, honor as a man, and fine conversational power made him a favorite with all, and be was a welcome visitor wherever be went. He never would allow anything to interfere with the performance of his professional duties. Many were the times that he has risen at night and ridden several miles through storm and clay mud to visit a poverty-stricken patient, knowing all that time he never could expect any pay, except in gratifying his benevolent heart and having the consciousness of having performed his duty to suffering humanity. From this it can be seen that his nature was in full sympathy with those of the sisters, hence the brotherly and sisterly feelings between them. In 1843, while in the discharge of a professional duty, in making a post-mortem examination, a cut finger came in contact with the blood of the subject, and the poisonous virus was instilled into his system. After his arrival home he felt ill, and he promptly realized that he was beyond the reach of human aid. After enduring in a most heroic manner intense suffering, that young man passed away to join his kindred in the blessed land. He was surrounded by the weeping household and friends, and everything that the hands of affection could do to alleviate his suffering was done. His funeral was attended by nearly the entire community, and largely from the neighboring towns, among whom were his poor, nonpaying patients, who felt they had lost a noble-hearted friend. The death of Dr. Wadsworth was a severe affliction to the sisters. Miss Betsey was absent at the time in Portsmouth, Ohio, where she received. the sad intelligence, and she was stricken with sorrow, for she loved the " noble-hearted Harry" as her own brother. Cornelia, assisted by the magnificent alto voice of Betsey, and the sweet tenor of her brother Lewis, frequently sang some of the stirring anti-slavery songs at Anti-Slavery and Free-Soil meetings. In those days the " Cowles Family" was considered a necessary adjunct to a meeting of that kind. Their singing by many was considered superior to that of the famous Hutchinson Family. Cornelius voice was a most powerful soprano, and yet she could sing as softly as an angel's whisper. In 1860 her brother Lewis died, leaving a sad vacancy in that trio of sweet singers. During the War of the Rebellion the hearts of the sisters were with the gallant boys in blue. They aided in forming the Austinburg branch of the Northern Ohio Soldiers' Aid society. At many entertainments given for the benefit of that society the music of their songs were invariably called into requisition. During the height of the war their niece, Mrs. Helen C. Wheeler, a daughter of Dr. E. W. Cowles, a brilliant specimen of the daughters of Ashtabula, a woman of most majestic presence and of remarkably fine appearance, was living in Washington. She spent her entire time visiting the hospitals and ministering to the wants of the gallant Union wounded. She saw great suffering among the thousands that could have been greatly alleviated by simple articles, such as fans, handkerchiefs, napkins, certain kinds of vegetables, canned fruits, jelly, etc. She wrote a series of letters to her aunts vividly describing the sad scenes she had witnessed in the hospitals, and suggesting that the women of Ashtabula should take hold and provide these articles to the fullest extent of their power. These letters were published in the Sentinel: and they awakened the most intense interest among the wives, mothers, sisters, and affianced of the two thousand sons of Ashtabula who were then in the service, for they thought a loved one might be among the occupants of the hospitals. They went to work and collected a large number of boxes and barrels of supplies, and forwarded them to Mrs. Wheeler, to be distributed by her in the hospitals. In 1864 the community was shocked by the sad intelligence of the death, at the attack on Petersburg, of' a nephew of the sisters,—Sergeant-Major Giles H. Cowles, son of Mr. William Elbert Cowles. This young man was the favorite among the nephews of the sisters, and in common with the venerable, grief-stricken parents, they were almost crushed. At the breaking out of the war young Cowles was a student at Grand River Institute, and enlisted as a private in the Ashtabula regiment, and participated at Harper's Ferry and some other engagements. At the end of his term of enlistment he returned to his home, and resumed his studies. In 1863 his feelings of patriotism impelled him to enlist again. When at Camp Chase he applied to Governor Brough for permission to be examined before the board with a view of promotion, which was granted, and he was appointed sergeant-major of his regiment. At the siege of' Petersburg his sense of duty required him to expose himself to the fire of the enemy by passing up and down the line of his regiment, intrenehed as it was behind low earthworks, and he was killed. This gallant student-soldier, the light of his venerable father, was only twenty-one years old when he gave up his young life on the altar of patriotism. Miss Cowles died in June, 1869, at the old homestead, after an iliness of two weeks, aged sixty-one years. Her sweet voice was silenced, never to be beard again in this world. It has pleased Him "who doeth all things well" to transfer her from the earthly choir where she sang so long during her life to the great Heavenly choir, where her golden-toned voice is being heard by her kindred who have preceded her, and where it will be heard forever. She lies buried by the side of her twin-brother, Lysander Mix Cowles. Of all her brothels and sisters only two are now living,—William Elbert, aged eighty years, and Martha Hooker, aged seventy-four years. She was followed in 1872 by her eldest sister, Mrs. Sallie B. Austin, and by her sister Betsey, in July, 1876. JUDGE SAMUEL COWLES. Hon. Samuel Cowles, of San Francisco, a son of Austinburg, was born in that township, in March, 1823. He was a son of Dr. E. W. and Almira M. Cowles, and a grandson of the Rev. Dr. Cowles. His boyhood days were spent in Mantua, --Austinburg, Detroit, and Cleveland. He attended Grand River institute fur several terms, and finished his education at the Western Reserve college. In 1844 he studied law in Cleveland, with the Hon. S. J. Andrews, Hon. John A. Foot, and Hon. J. M. Hoyt, then composing the firm of Andrews, Foot & Hoyt, and in 1846 he finished his lq;al studies in the office of the Hon. S. B. Prentiss and his brother, F. J. Prentiss, and was admitted to the bar that year. He formed a copartnership with Loren Prentiss, Esq., practiced law with him till 1850, when they dissolved, and he then formed a partnership with Edwin B. Mastick, Esq., and they practiced till March, 1852. That year they were taken with the California fever, and, although they had built up a very respectable practice, they concluded they would emigrate to the new Eldorado and try their fortune there. In common with thousands of the early Argonauts they had their full share of the deprivation of the comforts of life. In 1856 he was elected police judge of the city of San Francisco by the law and order party, in spite of the pppoaition of the gamblers and lawless portion of the population, and served with credit to himself and to the cause of justice. In 1860 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of judge of the court of common pleas, and was re-elected in 1863, and served till January 1, 1868. It was on the bench that he made for himself the reputation of being a profound lawyer and jurist, which is proved by the fact that of all his decisions, many of them involving intricate Mexican land-titles to the amount of millions of dollars, that had been appealed to the State supreme court during his entire judicial career of six years, only three were reversed. At the expiration of his term he was presented with a series of resolutions, engrossed on parchment, signed by the entire bar of San Francisco, regardless of political affinities, expressive of their appreciation of his eminent integrity as a judge, his standing as a jurist, and their regret at his leaving the bench. Previous to his re-election he was pressed to accept the nomination for the State supreme bench, but declined on account, as it is generally supposed, of his being afflicted with too much modesty. In 1856 he took part as a member of the famous vigilance committee that was formed to punish the assassination of James King-of-Williams, the editor of the Bulletin, and to rescue the government of the city from the control of the prize-fighting, gambling, and thieving portion of the HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 103 community. That committee was composed of sixty companies of one hundred men each, six thousand in all, comprising the entire law-abiding and business community of San Francisco. The murderers of King-of-Williams were formally tried according to rules of law, and executed, and the leaders of the lawless element were driven from the State, and from that date the prevalence of order and decrease of crime were noticeable features of the result of the doings of that committee. It was not a vulgar mob,—it was a revolutionary body. In 1877, during the prevalence of the great railroad strike, which had spread all over the country, resulting almost in a reign of anarchy, the lower and foreign elements of San Francisco commenced a series of riots against the Chinese residents of that city. Although the authorities had succeeded in keeping the mobs in check, yet it was deemed that the situation was terribly critical, and great danger existed of the city being sacked. Judge Cowles was a member of the committee of safety, consisting of twenty-five of the principal citizens, which was appointed, into whose hands, in conjunction with the authorities, the protection of the city was placed. After Judge Cowles retired from the bench he formed a copartnership with A. N. Drown, Esq., and has practiced his profession ever since with distinguished success. He was married in 1849 to Miss Anna L. Wooster, a great-granddaughter of General Wooster, who was killed in one of the battles of the War of the Revolution. He is a brother of Mr. Edwin Cowles, editor of the Cleveland Leader; of Mr. Alfred Cowles, of the Chicago Tribune; and of Mrs. Helen C. Wheeler, of Butler, Missouri. He has a family of six children, mostly grown up. ALFRED COWLES. Alfred Cowles, printer and publisher, was born in Mantua, May 13, 1832, a son of Dr. E. W. and Almira M. Cowles, and grandson of the Rev. Dr. Cowles. His early days were spent in Cleveland, Detroit, and Austinburg. At the latter place be attended school at Grand River institute for several terms. For some years previous to attending that school and afterwards he picked up his trade of printer in the printing-office of his brother, Mr. Edwin Cowles. He finished his education in the University of Michigan, and in 1853 entered the office of the Cleveland Leader as book-keeper. That paper at that time was published by John C. Vaughan, Mr. Joseph Medill, now of the Chicago Tribune, and Mr. Edwin Cowles, its present editor. In 1855, Messrs. Vaughan and Medill sold out their interest in the Leader to Mr. Edwin Cowles, and moved to Chicago, sod purchased the Tribune. Appreciating the business ability of Alfred, then a young man of only twenty-three years, they offered him inducements to take charge of the business department of the Tribune, then in a deplorable financial condition, which be accepted. The result of the swarming out of the Leader office of these three gentlemen was the resuscitation of the Tribune, then considered on its last legs, and the making of that paper what it has been since, one of the foremost journals in the land, both editorially and financially. The success of this great paper was owing to the editorial abilities of its leading writers, at various periods, Messrs. Medill, Dr. Ray, Horace White, and Governor Bross, and to the management of the business and mechanical departments by Mr. Cowles. Measuring the standing of the Tribune by the amount of its business and its profits there are only two papers that excel it in these respects, namely, the New York Herald and Philadelphia Ledger, the New York Times taking equal rank with the Chicago Tribune. When it is considered that this remarkable specimen of journalistic success is located in Chicago, a new city of less than half a century's growth, and only one-third of the size of New York and Brooklyn, which are properly the field of the New York papers, and a city one-half the size of Philadelphia, the field of the Ledger, a realizing sense can be attained of the newspaper talent shown by Mr. Cowles. Furthermore, the Tribune publishes more telegraphic news, several times over, more general news, and more reading matter than are given by the greatest of European journals, the London Times, backed as it is by a city of seven times the size of Chicago, saying nothing of the almost innumerable cities and villages within a few hours' ride of that great metropolis. In his business intercourse, Mr. Cowles has always made it a point to be governed by rules founded on strict integrity and fair dealing, which, combined with his shrewd judgment and tireless industry, have resulted in his taking a position among the wealthy capitalists of Chicago. In 1860, Mr. Cowles was married to Miss Sarah F. Hutchinson, a sister of Mrs. Edwin Cowles, and daughter of the Hon. Mosely Hutchinson, of Cayuga, New York. Although Mr. Cowles was not born in Ashtabula County, yet a great portion of his childhood days were spent in Austinburg, and he considers himself to be a son of Ashtabula, on the score of his being a descendant of his good old grandfather and a son of his respected father, who both were among the early settlers of Austinburg. A year never goes by when he did not make his accustomed tisit to his venerable aunts and uncles and the numerous cousins in the township. - 26 - HON. WILLIAM COOPER HOWELLS was born on the 15th of May, 1807, in the Welsh village of Hay, county of Brecon, Great Britain. In the following year his father, Joseph Howells, came to the United States to live, and settled, with his little family, consisting at that time of his wife and one son, the subject of our present sketch, upon Manahattan island. A few years later he removed up the Hudson, several miles from New York. There he remained until 1812, when he again moved, this time to Loudoun county, Virginia, but only to find himself, in the spring of 1813, on the way to Jefferson county, Ohio. It is needless to recount the trials and hardships met with in the life of " an early settler," for these are well known to us all. It is only necessary to say that Mr. Howells and his rapidly-growing family did not escape their full share of them. The capital be had brought with him from England was soon exhausted, and he was left to his own resources. But fortunately he had at his command a knowledge then exceptionally valuable in our new country. Not only was he versant in the art. of making woolen cloth and able to superintend its manufacture, but he could draw plans of the necessary machinery and take charge of establishing new factories. As these machines could not at that time be imported from England, his skill was often called into requisition. During these early years of his life, Wm. Cooper Howells was learning the lessons of untiring industry and economy,—those proficient teachers in the great practical school of life whose teachings, when heeded, will often take one farther in the path of knowledge and progress than would a more classical education under other circumstances. His parents were both people of refined tastes, and he did not thus feel greatly the loss of regular schools, since in his home an atmosphere of cultivation always prevailed. It was the pride of his mother that she had taught him to read before he was quite four years old. The home training inspired him with a love of books, and especially poetry, which led him into useful studies and established a taste that was itself one of the best of schoolmasters. Young Howells was about twenty-one years of age when his family, which up to this time lived in Jefferson and Harrison counties, removed to Wheeling, West Virginia. Here he availed himself of the first opportunity to learn the art of printing, then the important avenue to a literary life. At this plaoe he was tempted to start a printing-office without sufficient support, and from it he issued for one year a monthly paper called The Gleaner. This was followed by the Eclectic Observer, a weekly sheet, independent and free from any party in politics or religion. It was very radical withal, and did not succeed ; it was abandoned at the end of six months. The printing of a book that was never paid for closed this first enterprise. But all the world knows that it is very difficult to wash printers' ink from his hands if it once gets there, and fortunately for the history of the press in Ohio, Mr. Howells never removed the dingy traces, nor did he try to do it. He was one of the newspaper men who loved their profession and elevated it, and wherever his career is known it is 'easy to point to an honorable, consistent, and quietly able course. In Wheeling, on the 10th of July, 1831, he married Mary Dean, a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, a woman of exceptionally fine mind, who brought into his life the most enduring and beautiful traits, faithfully and cheerfully sharing 104 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. his varied fortunes until October 10, 1868, when her earthly,life ended, though not its influence and lesson, for with her husband, children, and friends they will ever remain. After leaving Wheeling be filled situations upon different papers in St. Clairevile, Mount Pleasant, and Chillioothe until 1840, when, upon the nomination of General Harrison, he bought the Hamilton Intelligencer, the Whig paper of Butler county, Ohio, and entered upon the campaign with great spirit, and with difficulties to encounter which only those who know what were at that time the narrow prejudices of the opposing party in that part of Ohio can realize. From his early youth he was strongly anti-slavery, so much so that at times he found it difficult to harmonize with his party, and in 1848, when General Taylor was nominated by the Whigs, he refused to support him, and joined his interests with the Free-Soil organization then formed. This obliged him to sell the Intelligencer, when he bought the Dayton Transcript, a paper not strongly Whig. But ever ahead of his party in radical spirit this change proved for him a most disastrous one financially, and the failure which followed swamped the labor of years. But halting not to rest from the political battle in which he had enlisted all his energies, he was soon upon his feet again. His next move was to Columbus, where he remained for a time upon the Ohio State Journal, chiefly preparing the legislative reports. While living in Columbus he made the acquaintance of Hon. L. S. Sherman, then in the senate, who recommended him to join Mr. Fassett on the Ashtabula Sentinel; and upon visiting Mr. Fassett at Ashtabula, he as a partner assumed charge of the Sentinel on the 15th of May. 1852, the day he was forty-five years of age.. This partnership continued until the following January, when Mr. Howells and James L. Oliver bought the Sentinel and moved it to Jefferson, where Mr. Joe. A. Howells soon entered Mr. Oliver's place, as his father's partner in the ownership of the paper, which has ever since oontinued to be under the editorial management of Mr. Howells, Sr. From 1840, Mr. Howells' life has, been political, and from 1856 until 1865 he almost constantly occupied a legislative office, first as journal clerk and afterwards as official reporter. In 1863 he received the Republican nomination for the senate from this twenty-fourth district. This nomination was indorsed by a majority of eleven thousand votes, the largest ever given in the State for a dietrict office, " a figure which showed the strength of the party at that time," Mr. Howells modestly says, when the fact is alluded to. It did show strength in the ranks, but it showed also the esteem in which he was held by the party he had always labored so faithfully to sustain. The honor of his life which Mr. Howells best loves to recall, is that it was his privilege while a senator, he the life-long slavery-abolitionist, to introduce the joint resolution by which his State ratified the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. In 1874, on the 2d of June, he was appointed United States consul at the old Canadian port of Quebec, at which post he is at the present time ; still keeping up, however, a constant connection with the Sentinel by weekly letters. His wife, Mary Dean, died October 10, 1868, in her fifty-sixth year. Mr. Howells' family consisted of five sons and three daughters. His oldest son, Joseph A., is publisher of the Ashtabula Sentinel, residing in Jefferson ; his second son, William Dean, is the well-known author and editor of the Atlantic Monthly, residence, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Samuel Dean it connected with the Sentinel office, and resides in Jefferson ; John Butler died in his eighteenth year, in Cleveland, in 1864 ; Henry I. and Victoria M. and Aurelia H. reside with their father in Quebec ; Annie T. (now Mrs. Achelle Freichette) lives in Ottawa, Canada. HON. HENRY FASSETT was born in Beverley, Canada, September 14, 1817. His great-grandfather, John Fassett, removed from Hardwick, Massachusetts, to Bennington, Vermont, in 1761, and was one of the earliest settlers of that town ; was a member of the first legislature held in that State, and clerk of the first Congregational church of Bennington, the first church organized in the State. Jonathan, the grandfather, was a youth when he arrived in Bennington, and subsequently became active in public matters; was an officer in the Revolutionary war. Samuel Montague Fassett, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Bennington, Vermont, October' 5, 1785 ; was married October 18, 1807, to Dorcas, daughter of Captain John Smith, one of the first settlers of West Rutland. About 1810 he removed to western New York, and a few years later to Canada. He was a school- and music-teacher. He died at Southwold, Canada, November 3, 1834, leaving seven children, Silas S., Harriet M., William, Henry, Marietta (now Mrs. George Hall, of Cleveland), John S., and Samuel. M., all of whom moved to Ashtabula in October, 1835, with their mother, except Silas, who had settled there the year previous. The mother died November 15, 1862, aged seventy-six years ; the others are all still living. Henry Fassett, at the age of fourteen years, left St. Thomas academy to learn the printing business. On arriving at Ashtabuli be was eighteen years of age, and worked at his business in that and other towns until January 1, 1837, when, in company with a practical printer, he purchased the office of the Ashtabula Sentinel, and commenced its publication with the first number of the sixth volume. The next spring he sold out to his partner and went to Newark, Ohio, where he remained until October following, when he returned and became the sole editor and proprietor of the- Sentinel, and continued its publication for most of the time until it was removed to Jefferson, January 1, 1853. From the first issue of his paper he took strong grounds in favor of thCenti-slavery movement just then beginning to agitate the country, and the Sentinel bore no, small part in the formation of that public sentiment which has so distinguished this county during the last forty years. He was fully identified, politically, with the Whig party until the year 1848, but at that time abandoned it on account of its subserviency to the slave power, and gave his support to the Free-Soil organization, unti.-it was superseded by the Republican party, with which he has since acted. Photo. by Blakeslee et Moore, Ashtabula, 0. In September, 1859, he was appointed probate judge of this county, by the governor, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Plumb, and in October he was elected to that office, which he filled with acceptance to the public for about one year, when, not wishing to remove his family, he resigned, and returned to his home in Ashtabula. In September, 1862, on the organization of the internal revenue department, President Lincoin appointed him as collector of internal revenue for the nineteenth district of Ohio, embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahofling, Portage, and Geauga , with his office at Ashtabula. He held that position until January 1, 1876,, when, owing to the great reduction in taxes, his district was consolidated with others in northern Ohio, and the business transferred to Cleveland. He was highly complimented by the commissioner of internal revenue for the marked ability and integrity with which he had discharged the . duties of his office. On the 23d day of Maroh,1842, he was married to Mary, the youngest daughter of John I. D. Nellie. She was born in Lenox, Madison county, New York, February 13, 1822, and died January 5, 1859, leaving five children: Hattie E. (who became the wife of David W. Haskell), born March 26, 1843, and died September 7, 1862 ; George H., born June 28, 1.845 ; John N., born November 28, 1847, and died October 18, 1871 ; Samuel M., born June 17, 1850 ; and Henry, born September 20, .1855. He married his second wife, Maria, daughter of Colonel Lynda Jones, of Jefferson, October 3, 1860. She was born in Jefferson, August 20, 1836, and died December 20, 1865, leaving one child, Willie J., who was born October 7, 1863, and died September 23, 1872. HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 105 He married his present wife, Lucia A., widow of Dr. Nathan Williams, of Ionia, Michigan, June 12, 1867. She is the daughter of the late Peter Tyler, of New Haven, Oswego county, New York, where she was born March 11, 1822. In religion he is true to the faith of his New England ancestors. May 12, 1838, he united with the Presbyterian church of Ashtabula (which was then Congregational in its government), and was for some time one of its elders. In 1852 he was elected by Grand River presbytery as a delegate to the general assembly, which met that year in the city of Washington. At the organization of the First Congregational church of Ashtabula, on the 9th day of May, 1860, he united with that body by letter from the Presbyterian church, and was chosen as one of its deacons. He was also elected as president of its board of trustees which positions he still holds. In 1871 he was elected by Grand River conference to the National meeting of Congregational churches, at Oberlin, where the National council was organized ; he was also elected as a delegate to the National council, which was held in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1874. He labored earnestly in the contest which resulted in establishing the union school system, now the pride of Ashtabula ; was a member of the board of education, and most of the time its president, for the first ten years. He has been president of the Ashtabula National bank since it was established in 1872. His influence and means have never been wanting in any of the enterprises of his town or county which he believed would best promote their true interests and welfare. Photo. by Loomis, Jefferson, 0. CHARLES STETSON SIMONDS was born at Westminster, Windham county, State of Vermont, May 1, 1815. His parents were of the Puritan stock. His father, Moses Simonds, was a native of New Hampshire, and his mother, Priscilla Cook Stetson, was born and reared in sight of Plymouth Rock, where her ancestors landed from the " Mayflower." They removed to Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1821, among the settlers of the country along the old South Ridge road, then the great thoroughfare for emigrant travel from New England to the great west. The people were generally poor (and none more so than this new arrival), living in log houses and wearing clothes of home manufacture. On the 1st day of April, 1828, the family removed to Saybrook, and on the 3d of May following the husband and father died, leaving his widow with six minor children. A woman of more than ordinary mind and character, her influence was at once an education and inspiration to her children, who clustered around her until, by their joint industry and prudence, they acquired a competence, and she lived to see them among the most affluent-citizens of that township. William T., the oldest, still resides in Saybrook, where he has held places of trwat, either in the township or county, for more than thirty years. One of the alters died unmarried. Louisa married Rufus Harris, and Maria married David H. Kelley, and they with their families are all honored and respected residents of that township. Moses H., the youngest brother, settled as a lawyer in Missouri, wad died a captain of cavalry volunteers in the war with Mexico. Charles, the subject of this sketch, was industrious in his habits, and while the any was spent in the labors of the field, his evenings were studiously devoted to the acquirement of an education that might fit him for the duties of life. His opportunities were limited to winter common schools and a few terms at the village academies. His principal reliance was upon his own unaided efforts by the evening fire. Indeed, some of the schools of that period furnished but little aid to the scholar, as an instance will illustrate. During the summer that he was eight years old, he was sent to school with a copy of Murray's grammar. The teacher marked off all his lessons to be committed to memory, and they were daily recited, without note or comment, until the book was completed. The teacher then for the first time asked him a question on the subject, " What is a noun ?" The boy was astonished, and thought he had never heard of such a thing. The book was returned, and he was bidden to find the word and its definition. To him it seemed like the task required by the king of the Egyptian magi, " to find the dream and the interpretation thereof." But the feat was as and the information having been so acquired was not likely to be forgotten. Although the people were poor in the neighborhood, there were many books scattered through the community within the radius of three miles, and those were interchanged like a circulating library. Among those he borrowed and read at an early day were a History of the United States, a History of England by Hume, Bisset, and Smollett, Josephus, Rollin's Ancient History, Plutarch's Lives, and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of Rome; and occasionally he obtained a work of fiction, such as the Children of the Abbey, Thaddeus of Warsaw, and some of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. David F. Harris, of that township, was a man of wealth and intelligence, and was possessed of a respectable library of miscellaneous works. From that library the boy borrowed . and became familiar with many poetical works, among which were Pope's Iliad and Odyssey, the /Eneid of Virgil, Paradise Lost and Regained, Poems of Sir Walter Scott, Montgomery, Campbell, and others. At the age of seventeen he was employed to teach a district school for the term of three months, for which he was paid thirty-six dollars,—the first money he had ever called his own, except a few shillings at a time, which he had obtained from the sale of peltries, chiefly mink and musk-rat. In the winter of 1835-36 he taught a school at Geneva village, for which he received the sum of sixty dollars. With this sum in hand he left in the spring of 1836 for the great west to seek his fortune, designing to go over the plains to New Mexico. He went to Pittsburgh, and there took a boat to St. Louis. On his arrival at St. Louis he found that no trains for Santa Fe could start over the plains in lees than two weeks, on account of the backward state of the grass. Going back to the boat on which he had arrived, he watched the laborers on the docks and wharves, which were lined with boats ; they were all colored or parti-colored, and spoke in an unknown tongue, principally French. From the deck of the boat a spot was pointed out on an island where, the fall previous, two rival candidates for congress had shot each other down. Soon some of his acquaintances on the boat returned from an exploration of the upper portion of the city, and among other discoveries they reported a negro burning at a stake, on the charge of' having killed a deputy-sheriff. On the whole, our traveler was not pleased with the country or its inhabitants. He took the first boat up the river bound for Galena, the farthest place he could hear of. He taught school during the summer, and in the fall of 1836 made his way over Indian trails to Rock River, in Illinois. Here he opened up a farm which he improved about two years. Meantime he had the use of a good private library owned by a neighbor. Among other works he found a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries, which he read, and followed up with Kent's Commentaries. He became interested in the study of law, and returned to this county in the fall of 1839, with accumulations sufficient to enable him to pursue and complete the study of his chosen profession. In the spring of 1840 he entered the office of Messrs. Wade and Ranney, at Jefferson, as a student of the law. He was admitted to the bar at Marion, Ohio, June 30, 1842, and soon after opened an office and commenced yiractice at Jefferson. He soon acquired a respectable business in his profession, and in February, 1844, he was married to Louisa Warner, a daughter of Jonathan Warner, of Jefferson. In April, 1846, he was elected a justice of the peace, and in October, 1847, prosecuting attorney, which office he held for two years. In the spring of 1847 he entered into partnership with Rufus P. Ranney and Darius Cadwell, under the firm-name of Ranney, Simonds & Cadwell. This firm succeeded to the business of the former partnership of Wade & Ranney. In 1851, Mr. Ranney was elected judge of the supreme court, and at that time the partnership of Simonds & Cadwell was formed, which continued for twenty years, terminating when Mr. Cadwell removed to Cleveland, in October, 1871. Including the time embraced in the partnership of Ranney, Simonds & Cadwell, the partnership of Simonds & Cadwell continued twenty-four years. In January, 1872, he formed a partnership with Edward C. Wade, which still continues. He has devoted himself to his profession in the same place for about thirty-six years, during which time he has been identified with all its interests, and has maintained a 106 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. reputation for integrity. He has brought up a family of two sons and three daughters. Though always an active partisan in politics, he is especially distinguished by never having sought or received offices of public trust or serious responsibility, but has rather taken pride in maintaining an independent position as a private citizen. Yet the biography of those who were early in the field and who from nothing have acquired competence and respectability among their fellow-men, although honors have not clustered about their heads, may not be without interest as connected with the early history of the country, and may be useful as showing the means by which they rose from indigence and acquired and maintained positions of usefulness in society. HON. ABNER KELLOGG. Abner Kellogg was born in Alford, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, January 8, 1812. He was the fourth of nine children,-five sons and four daughters. The oldest, Laura, born August 4, 1806 ; married to Dr. Greenleaf Fifield, of Conneaut, February 28, 1830 ; now living in Conneaut a widow. Second, Louisa, born January 22, 1808; married to S. B. McClung, November 23, 1826, who died May 22, 1829 ; again married June 23, 1832, to James M. Blocs, since deceased. Third, Walter, who died in infancy. Fifth, William, born in Salem, Ohio, July 8,1814. Sixth, Lucius Dean, born in Salem, June 9, 1816 ; studied medicine ; attended medical and surgical lectures, and graduated at Geneva, New York, in 1840 ; now living in East Ashtabula, Ohio. Seventh, Clarissa, born October 12, 1819, in Monroe ; married, January 16, 1841, to Robert Lyon, of Conneaut ; now living a widow. Eighth, Amos, died in infancy; and ninth, Pauline, born in Monroe, January 13, 1824 ; married to William B. Dennison, January 3, 1844, and died in the city of Buffalo, New. York, September 10, 1844. Like boys of his age in those early times, Abner attended the common schools of the district, sustained by the voluntary contributions of the patrons according to the number of pupils sent, for a few months during the winter ; attended a district school taught by the late Hon. B. F. Wade for one term, and labored on the farm during the summer until, at the age of eighteen years, he graduated, after six weeks' attendance at the old Jefferson academy, under the instruction of L. M. Austin, Esq., of Austinburg. In his early manhood his business occupations were keeping a village tavern, farming, buying and driving cattle to an eastern market for sale. In December, 1834, was elected a justice of the peace for Monroe township, re-elected in 1837, and resigned November 13, 1840. He was one of the early anti-slavery men of the county, and an ardent Whig, and, at the Whig County Convention of 1839, with the late Colonel G. W. St. John, of Morgan, was nominated as a candidate for a member of the legislature, a nomination by the Whig party at that time being regarded as equivalent to an election. The ticket presented by that convention to the people of Ashtabula County for their support and approval contained the names of the late Benj. F. Wade, for State senator ; Colonel Gains W. St. John and Abner Kellogg, for members of the house of representatives; Platt R. Spencer, for county treasurer ; and Flavel Sutliff, then the law partner of Hon. J. R. Giddings, and a younger brother of Judge Milton Sutliff, of Warren, for prosecuting attorney, with others for the different offices,-all of whom were then known as anti-slavery Whigs. Upon the nomination of this ticket some disaffected Whigs, with the few Democrats then in the county, united in calling a union convention, and nominated a ticket made up of Whigs and Democrats, each one of whom was then regarded as a pro-slavery man. And, what may now be regarded as a singular fact, the opposition to the agitation of the slavery question was such at that time in Ashtabula County that the entire Whig ticket, with B. F. Wade at its head, was defeated at the election, and pro-slavery me elected instead. In 1843 he was again nominated as a candidate for a member of the house of representatives by the Whigs, and elected by his party. In the spring of 1845 he exchanged property in Kelloggsville for farm-lands in Sheffield, to which he removed with his family in the early part of April of that year, where, for the next four years, he engaged in farming and making lumber. In 1846 he was appointed, and performed the duties of, one of the appraisers of real estate in the county, and in November, 1847, was elected justice of the peace for Sheffield, which office he held until the spring of 1849. At the spring term of the court of common pleas in 1849 he was appointed clerk of that court, and in May of that year removed from Sheffield to Jefferson, where he has since resided. Under this appointment he held the office of clerk until the adoption of the new constitution, in 1852, when he was elected to the same office, and re-elected in 1855. At the September term of the district court, 1857, he was admitted to the bar, and in the spring of 1858 commenced the practice of his profession in company with the late Colonel A. S. Hall and Judge D. S. Wade, which partnership continued until the retirement of Colonel Hall and the election of Wade to the office of probate judge, when, in the autumn of 1860, he formed a partnership with E. Lee, Esq., which continued until the appointment of the latter to the office of common pleas judge, in the spring of 1875, soon after which he formed a partnership and is now doing business with E. Jay Pinney, Esq. At the general election in 1863 he was elected a member of the house of representatives, where he served two sessions. On the expiration of his term in the house he was elected to the State senate, when, on the first day of the first session of the senate of 1866, he, among other things, introduced his resolution to amend the State constitution by striking the word " white" from article five, section one, thereby giving the elective franchise to the colored man, which resolution was adopted by the requisite two-thirds majority, with an objectionable amendment at the close of the session of 1867, submitted to the people and defeated the same year ; thus showing that as late as 1867 the people of Ohio refused to give the elective franchise to the colored man, thousands of whom had volunteered and been accepted to fight the battles of the War of the Rebellion and save the nation from dissolution and ruin. On the expiration of his term in the senate, in 1867, he retired from political life, since which time he has devoted his time and attention to private business and that connected with the Second National bank of Jefferson, of which he is and for some years has been director and president. Being uncompromisingly hostile to human slavery and ardently attached to the Union, and believing from the first that the Rebellion would ultimately work the extinction of slavery from all our fair and proud land, he gave the best energies of his mature manhood towards raising men and means for the support of the government, and contributed of his time and money for that purpose. Politically a Whig, Free-soiler, and Republican successively, he always attached himself to and acted with those that he believed would administer the government most in accordance with the spirit of the constitution and the natural rights of man, and gave his earnest and active support to Mr. Greeley, for President, in 1872. Making no profession of any distinctive religious faith or dogma, he for many years contributed of his means to the support of that branch of the church known as Congregational. Mr. Kellogg died, suddenly and unexpectedly, on the,27th day of April, 1878. Matilda Kellogg, his wife, was born at Vernon, Trumbull county, Ohio, October 4,1815 ; was the daughter of Allen and Maria Spencer, and granddaughter of General Martin Smith, who emigrated from Hartland, Connecticut, to Vernon, with his family, in 1799, and died at the age of ninety-five, after a long, useful, and, exemplary public and private life. The mother of Matilda dying in her infancy, and her father contracting a second marriage, after a"few years spent with her father and step-mother in Hartford, Trumbull county, Ohio, and the death of het' father in 1830, went to Kelloggaville, and remained wIth an aunt until she was married to the subject of this sketch, October 2, 1834, at the age of nineteen years. Having a delicate physical organization illy able to resist the demands and strain made upon it by the rearing of a family, and the cares, labors, and responsibilities incident thereto, her life has been one of much pain and suffering, all which she has borne with great fortitude and patience, and discharged all the duties of an affectionate and devoted wife and a wise and conscientious mother, regardless of any and all consequences to herself, and is still living at the age of sixty-three years, the mother of three sons and three daughters, all living. HISTORY OF ASHTABUI4A COUNTY, OHIO - 107 HON. WILLIAM KELLOGG. This gentleman was born in Salem, now Monroe, Ohio, July 8, 1814. He emigrated to Canton, Fulton county, Illinois, in 1837; read law ; admitted to the bar; practiced his profession ; acquired an extensive practice, especially in respect to land titles ; member of the State legislature in 1849 and '50 ; judge of the circuit court, which position he held for three years; elected to congress from the Peoria district in 1856; re-elected in 1858, and again in 1860. In 1864 was appointed minister resident in Guatemala by President Lincoln, and in 1865 chief-justice of Nebraska, which position he held until the organization of the Territory into a State, in February, 1867. In 1869 he was appointed one of the judges under the provisional government of Mississippi, and retained it until the inauguration of Governor Alcorn, in February, 1870, and died at Peoria, Illinois, December 20, 1872. PLATT ROGERS SPENCER. INTRODUCTION. I have read with deep and affectionate interest the sketch of the life of Platt R. Spencer, which has been prepared for the History of Ashtabula County. I am sure the authors of that work will honor their pages by an extended notice of that noble character. I first saw Mr. Spencer in 1857, when he came to Hiram, Ohio, and delivered a lecture before the students of the Eclectic institute. I was struck with the clearness and originality of his mind, and with the pathetic, tenderness of his spirit. Soon afterwards he and his sons took charge of the department of penmanship in the institute, and from that time forward I was intimately acquainted with hie mind and heart. I have met few men who so completely won my confidence and affection. The beautiful In nature and art led him a willing and happy captive. To know what books a man delights in enables us to know the man himself, and when I say that Robert Burns was one of his favorite authors it is equivalent to saying that a keen relish for the humorous, sympathy with the lowly, and love of all that is beautiful in nature and art, were the distinguishing traits of his character. Like all men who are well made, he was self-made. Though his boyhood was limited by the hard lot of pioneer life, his love for the beautiful found expression in an art which his genius raised from the grade of manual drudgery to the rank of a fine art. It is honorable to undertake any worthy work and accomplish it successfully. It is great to become the first in any such work, and it is unquestionably trne that Mr. Spencer made himself the foremost penman of the world. And this be did without masters. He not only became the first penman, but he analysed all the elements of chirography, simplified its forms, arranged them in consecutive order, and created system which has become the foundation of instruction in that, art in all the public schools of our country. But his mind was too large and his sympathy too quick and active to be confined to any one pursuit. The poor and the oppressed found in him a friend and champion. He was always ready to lend a helping band to those who were struggling for a higher culture; for he had experienced in his own life the obstacles which poverty places in the pathway of generous and ambitious youth. To such a nature the right of every man to his freedom was as clear as his right to the air and sunshine, and hence we find that in the beginning of the anti-slavery agitation, at a time when sympathy with the slOre meant not only political but social ostracism, Mr. Spencer was outspoken in his denunciation of slavery in all its forms. I shall never forget the ardor with which he supported the cause of the Union against the daveholdere rebellion, and the sadness with which he referred to the fact that he was too old to serve his country in the field. He did not live to see the final triumph of the Union, but he saw the light of coming victory and shared the joy of its promise. To the thousands of young men and women who enjoyed the benefit of his brilliant instruction, to the still larger etre'e of his friends and acquaintances, and to all who love a gifted, noble, and true-hearted man, .the memory of his life will remain a perpetual benediction. JAMES A. GARFIELD. Washington, D. C., April 20, 1878. - 27 - Platt R. Spencer was a man of a rare combination of qualities. With an intellect clear and active, and a memory exceedingly tenacious, he united a strong poetic sense, lively imagination, and sincere love for the beautiful in nature and -in art. At times subject to melancholy, he was in general of a cheerful disposition, prolific in anecdote, and possessed of a keen relish for humor. With a fine sense of justice and honor, he was inclined to be more exacting of himself in his dealings than of others. His affections were strong and his friendships abiding. He was a generous, open-hearted man, overflowing with good-will, with few enmities, and not a particle of guile or hypocrisy in his nature. The father of the subject:of our sketch was Caleb Spencer, a native of Rhode Island, and a soldier of the Revolution. He married a Massachusetts woman, Jerusha Covell, from the town of Chatham, on Cape Cod. They settled in the eastern part of the State of New York, living for a few years in Dutchess county. Then for a time in Westchester, when they returned to Diftchess, and occupied a farm on the high bills of East Fishkill. It was here, on the 7th of November, in the first year of this century, that Platt Rogers Spencer was born. He was the youngest of a family of eleven, nine of whom were boys. Two of these gave their lives to their country in the War of 1812,—one dying at Malden, Canada. in the army under, Harrison, and the other while a prisoner by the surrender of Detroit. In Platt's third year we find the family removed from Fishkill and living near the Hudson, in the vicinity of Wappinger's Falls. Their next home was upon the Catskill mountains, in Windham, Greene county, New York. The parents were true children of New England, born and reared upon its rugged coast, and nothing seems to have pleased them better than to face the mountain winds, and wring from intractable soils the necessaries of life. They had few riches beyond the promising band of young hearts that gathered at their fireside. These they gave such educational privileges as their scanty means would afford, and trained to the exercise of sterling virtues. The beautiful scenery of the Catskills and the Hudson left a lasting impress upon Platt's susceptible young mind, and over afterwards in his western home, among attractions less picturesque, and of a quite different order, he cherished a delightful remembrance of the charms of nature,—the blue mountain ridges, the glens, cascades, and expansive views that surrounded him in early childhood. It was here in Windham, at the age of seven, that he began to exhibit a fondness for his favorite art. His taste manifested itself, almost before he had begun to handle the pen, in his observations and criticisms of the handwriting of the public notices posted at the door of the school-house. His first, and, it seems, his only instructor in writing, was Samuel Baldwin, the district schoolmaster. Of the beginning of his " chirographic pilgrimage," seated upon a slab bench in the Windham school-house, and armed with the indispensable goose-quill and Barlow knife, he afterwards gave one of his characteristically graphic and humorous accounts. Nothing will better illustrate the intensity of his boyish passion for his art than the story of his first whole sheet of paper, which we cannot forbear reciting in his own words. He says, "Up to February, 1808, I had never been the rich owner of a whole sheet of paper. At that- time, becoming the fortunate proprietor of a cent, I dispatched it by a lumberruan to Catskill, which, though twenty miles distant, was the nearest market, and instructed him to purchase the desired paper. He returned at midnight, and the bustle awakening me, I inquired eagerly for the result of his mission. He had been successful, and brought the sheet to my bedside, rolled tightly and tied with a black linen thread. Having carried it the entire distance in his bosom, it was of course much wrinkled. I at once arose, and having smoothed it commenced operations. Before its arrival, my imagination had pictured to me what beautiful work I could do thereon. But tho trial proved a failure. I could not produce a single letter to my mind ; and after an hour's feverish effort, I returned to my bed disappointed, and to be haunted by feverish dreams." Paper being to Platt a luxury rarely attainable in those days, he had recourse to other materials. The bark of the biroh-tree, the sand-beds by the brook, and the ice and snow in winter, furnished his practice sheets. One of his favorite resorts also was the shop of his indulgent old friend the shoemaker, whose depleted ink-horn and sides of leather covered with the efforts of the young enthusiast, gave frequent proof of his boyish zeal. Platt had lost his father in his sixth year, and the care of the family had devolved upon the mother, a woman of much energy and perseverance, and upon the elder brothers. The pioneer spirit seized the family, and quitting their mountain home, they turned their faces towards the new State of Ohio, in the then far western wilderness. After a tedious journey of fifty-one days in wagons, they arrived in Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio, on the 5th of December, 1810. The family gradnally separated, settling in the shore-towns of Kingsville, Ashtabula, and Geneva. 108 - HISTORY OF ASHTALBULA COUNTY, OHIO. Platt had left his eastern home with reluctance. He feared that even the meagre advantages of schools and education he there enjoyed would in the new country be denied him, and the hopes that had begun to dawn in his young breast be doomed to disappointment. In the many privations and rugged labors of the pioneers he had to bear his part, but his love for his pen and desire for learning were too deeply rooted to die out. Of books there were few, and teachers almost none ; yet, without repining for denied advantages, he made industrious use of those at hand. The poet's injunction, "That is best which lieth nearest, Shape from that thy work of art," found an early lodgment in his heart. The shore of the noble lake near which he dwelt had a peculiar fascination for him. There he loved to spend his leisure hours, and its broad, beautiful beach from spring till autumn, and its expanse of ice in winter, he covered with endless* chirographic tracings. To a mind like his, keenly responsive to Nature's touch, such a school, even in such an art, could not be fruitless. The perfections of form and movement in the things about him—in wild flowers and trailing vines that adorned the bank, the rounded pebbles at his feet, the birds that soared or skimmed the surface of the lake, and, more than all, the restless, unwearied, rhythmic sweep of the waves—diffused through him their influence upon his work, and, as he practiced on, those forms and ideas grew that in after-years lent a charm both to his teachings and to the products of his pen. Of the impress thus received, he long afterwards beautifully wrote, under the title " Origin of Spencerian Writing," the following: "Evolved 'mid Nature's unpruned scenes, On Erie's wild and woody shore, The rolling wave, the dancing streams, The wild rose haunts in days of yore. "The opal, quarts, and ammonite Gleaming beneath the wavelet's flow, Each gave its lesson how to write, In the loved years of long ago. "I seized the forms I loved so well, Compounded them as meaning signs, And, to the music of the swell, Blent them with undulating vines. " The grace that clustered round me came Through the rapt sense to living forms, And flowing lines, with rapture traced, The broad and shining beach adorned. "Thanks, Nature, for the impress pure; Those tracings in the sand are gone; But while the love of thee endures Their grace and ease shall still live on." In his twelfth year Platt enjoyed for a time the privileges of a school opened by Mr. Harvey Nettleton, in Conneaut. In order that he might not be disturbed by the mischief-loving, or lose a grain of this golden opportunity, he partitioned off from the rest his desk in the corner, and there applied himself eagerly to his studies. The copies and instructions in writing required in the school were furnished by him. Here, also, he made his first attempt, that has been preserved, at versification. Being anxious to complete the study of arithmetic, we find Platt a while after this walking twenty miles, barefooted, over a frozen frontier road to obtain the loan of a copy of Daboll. His sole refreshment upon this trip was a lunch of raw turnips at a wayside patch, and being overtaken by night, upon his return, he sought his lodging in a settler's barn, being too bashful to apply at the cabin near by for accommodations. After leaving Mr. Nettleton's school he was employed as a clerk in a store, first by Mr. Ensign, of' Conneaut, and afterwaids by Mr. Anon Harmon, of Ashtabula. With the latter he remained some years. It is related that while in the employ of that gentleman, who, among other things, was a ship-owner, Platt was at one time, when about seventeen, sent out with a vessel as supercargo, and that on her return to port the decks, cabins, and sides of the craft were covered with multitudinous chirographic embellishments, the handiwork, it need not be said, of the young supercargo. Use in actual business now gave to his writing the required practical mould, and continuing to think and practice much upon his art, with increased facilities, his ideas and skill developed so rapidly that ere his twentieth year, it is said, the beautiful style and system were essentially formed, which he afterwards practiced, taught, and published. Mr. Spencer seems now to have been employed for some years in teaching writing and common schools. His fine social and intellectual qualities also, and his talents as a public speaker, were manifested, and, together with his skill as a penman, were continually increasing his reputation and widening the circle of his friends. In 1825 he re-visited the east, and continued for two years teaching in the vicinity of the homes of his childhood. Then, returning to the west, he was married in the year 1828 to Miss Persia Duty, also one of the teachers of those pioneer times, and a woman of sterling character. They settled in Ashtabula for a time, and then removed to Geneva, where, save short residences in Jefferson and Oberlin, they continued thereafter to make their home. Here upon his farm, and not far distant from his house, with the forest in the background, a pleasant grassy lawn in front, and groups of peach-trees and thrifty chestnuts shading its sides or growing near, stood the famous rustic structure he used as a school-room, and known as Jericho, or the Log Seminary. He would alternate his teaching at cities and villages abroad with classes at the Log Seminary, and at this shrine, year after year, were gathered from far and near the devotees of the chirographic art to light their tapers at its genial flame. Here the atmosphere of cheerful kindliness surrounding the master, the works of his pen, and the charm of his instructions, quaint, humorous, wise, and full of quiet enthusiasm, made the times spent at Jericho " red-letter days" in the memory of those who enjoyed its advantages. In 1838, Mr. Spencer was elected treasurer of Ashtabula County, and he served the people with such acceptance in that capacity, that he was retained by them for twelve years in the discharge of the duties of that office. In the establishment of commercial and business colleges Mr. Spencer was a pioneer. In 1852 we find him at the head of the Spencerian Commercial college in Pittsburgh, his eldest son, Robert, one of the principal teachers of commercial branches. That prosperous institution after two years, owing to the protracted sickness of Mr. Spencer, was sold to Peter Duff, and merged into the well-known Duff college. In 1855, two of Mr. Spencer's pupils, Messrs. Lusk & Stratton, arranged to open an institution in Cleveland, and were soon joined by Mr. H: B. Bryant, and the school called Bryant, Lusk & Stratton's Commercial college. Mr. Spencer was the chief benefactor of the enterprise; his ideas, his extensive acquaintance and high reputation as a teacher, and his famous system of penmanship, under the business tact and management of Mr. H. D. Stratton, especially, were utilized not only in the establishment of the Cleveland institution, but in the establishment successively of forty or more similar colleges in the important commercial centres of the United States and Canada. These have made a grateful mark upon the business interests of our times, and shaped the career of many thousand young men. As early as in 1842 he became interested in the temperance reform, then beginning to engage the attention of the people. His own prolonged struggle with the tempter iu earlier life—in which he was helped to gain the victory by the kindly, Christian influence of his wife—brought this subject home to him with a vital interest. From the first he took the strong and safe ground of total abstinence from everything which could intoxicate. He was active in forming and maintaining temperance associations, was constantly using his personal influence, and frequently his gifts as a public speaker and poet in behalf of the cause. This stanza is from one of his temperance poems, entitled " Touch not, taste not" : "Touch not the juice that wooer the taste, Its promises are false and frail; Its siren pleasures quickly waste, And all its proffered treasures fail." When the crusade against slavery began in this country, Mr. Spencer was among the first who rallied to the standard. Human slavery was a thing abhorrent to his generous, liberty-loving soul ; and he joined earnestly in the work of freeing his country from that terrible blot of crime and suffering. A friend of Joshua R. Giddings, he was one of those men whose hearty co-operation and sympathy at home upheld the hands of that gallant old disciple of freedom in the national councils. It was the influence of such spirits that, when two-thirds of the north cowered at the feet of the slave power, made the Western Reserve one of the strongholds of freedom. In his public addresses, particularly in the Fourth of July orations he was called upon to deliver from time to time, Mr. Spencer would frequently employ the opportunity to raise his voice effectively against the great national crime. Among his papers we find the following note from Mr. Giddings, addressed to him from the ball of representatives at Washington : " Thanks for that speech, which I presume was delivered on the Fourth. That is the true style ; let us have the words of independent freemen on every hand, in every place, and on every occasion. These are stirring times. Our cause is onward." HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 109 He lived to see the contest between freedom and slavery transferred from the court of reason to the terrible arbitrament of the sword: And although be was not permitted to see the end, he retained a firm faith that the principles he so cherished would eventually triumph, and his country emerge from the conflict a truly united people. Mr. Spencer took a deep interest in historical subjects, especially those relating to his own county. When the Ashtabula Historical and Philosophical society was formed, in 1838, he was chosen its secretary ; an office he continued to fill till the time of his death. He loved the annals of the early times, and it was mainly through his efforts that the history of his county was gathered and recorded for preservation. While Mr. Spencer was widely known for his noble personal qualities and generous sympathies in matters of general interest and welfare, his name, in connection with his own profession, has become a household word throughout the land. The admirable system of writing which he produced forms the root whence nearly all others taught in the schools of our country to-day are but outgrowths. In style he chose the golden mean between the labored fuliness of the round hand and the rigid sharpness of' the angular, aiming to combine the legibility of the one with the ease and directness of execution of the other. He introduced, also, improved forms of capitals, a simple and beautiful analysis and classification of both small letters and capitals, and a tasteful mingling of light and shade. With these ho combined a correct theory of position and movement, and a free use of exercises to discipline and develop the muscles employed to wield the pen. His idea was, as expressed in his own words, to present a system "Plain to the eye, and gracefully combined To train the muscles and inform the mind," and he must be accorded the praise of' having well achieved his high ideal. The first publication of the system by himself was in the year 1848, and in the form of copy-slips with printed instructions. In this he was associated with Victor M. Rice, a former pupil, and afterwards superintendent of public instruction for the State of New York. In 1859 he was induced to present the system in copy-book form. In 1861, in connection with his sons and Mr. James W. Lusk, an old pupil and well-tried friend, he revised his system and produced a new and beautiful series of copy-books, which were first published by Phinney & Co., Buffalo; but in 1869 were transferred to the house of Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., of New York, the present publishers. The popularity of the system was shown by the fact that, during the year succeeding the publication of this series, more than a million of copies were distributed to the youth of the country. Since Mr. Spencer's death the care of the system has fallen to his sons, assisted from time to time by other teachers of experience. And they have been enabled to build's() well upon the noble foundation laid by the father, that his system now meets with perhaps wider use and favor than ever before. Mr. Spencer's poetical spirit found early and frequent expression. His first attempt at versification, that has been preserved, was written at the age of twelve, when a pupil at Mr. Nettleton's school. This youthful effusion was again read at a reunion of the survivors of that pioneer school fifty years afterwards. It celebrated, in humorous style, the fall of the master through a rotten puncheon in the floor into an excavation beneath. His emerging thence, greeted by the unbounded merriment of his scholars, is thus expressed in one stanza of the rhyme: "He straggles up—he's out again, Greeted with sturdy roar, A shout that burst our paper panes, And died on Erie's shore." Most of his poetical productions appeared from time to time under his own name or the assumed titles, " Cleonora," " A Young Lady," and " The Western Bard," in the periodical press. These embrace poems humorous and sentimental, temperance and religious poems, and those historical and chirographic. They evince the presence of a genuine poetical instinct, and reflect well the rich current of their author's thought and feeling through life. His favorite poet was Burns, and the influence of his fondness for that poet may be traced in some of his own productions. His love for versification was continually manifesting itself, even in those things seemingly farthest removed from the realm of the muses. No prospectus for a writing class, no circular advertising his copy-slips, and no copy-book cover or sheet of instructions to accompany his slips or books, was regarded as complete without a few pertinent lines of poetry, which were usually of his own composition, and some of them veritable gems. On one of his copybook covers we find the following: "The tongue is not the only way, Through which the active mind is heard ; But the good pen as well can say, In tones as sweet, a gentle word. Then speed we on, this art to gain,— Which leads all others in its train ; Embalms our toils from day to day,— Bids budding virtues live for aye; Brings learning home, the mind to store, Before our school-day scenes are o'er." In the calls for meetings of the historical society, which as its secretary he issued from time to time, he was wont to weave in bits like the following : " Gather wo from the shadowy past The struggling beams that linger yet, Ere o'er those flickering lights is east The shroud that none can penetrate." It was this poetical spirit, in the main, that enabled him to throw about an art commonly regarded as dry and uninteresting a charm that made it attractive often to the most stolid and indifferent. While Mr. Spencer's occupation through life was mainly that of a teacher, he lived upon a farm which he owned and carried on. Though the work of the form was intrusted to other hands, yet he was fond of joining at times in its labors: which afforded a pleasant and healthful relief from the confinement of his profession. Fishing and bathing parties to the lake were also favorite recreations with him, into which he entered with the utmost zest even to the last years of his life. In his domestic relations he was peculiarly happy. One could hardly be found fonder of his own fireside or more loved and respected there than was he. Called much from home by his profession, it still remained to him the one greenest, sunniest spot on earth. He wrote,— "I would not change my humble cot, Reclining o'er blue Erie's waves, For India's richest, spiciest spot, With nought that friendship gives or craves." These lines occur in a poem on " Home," written when that home was a log cabin in the woods. He loved to have his children about him, and for them would draw forth from his rich resources of knowledge, humor, and experience such things ate would amuse and instruct, always inculcating lessons of the highest honor and truth. In 1862 he met with a sad loss in the death of his wife. His intense sympathy for her in her long and trying iliness, together with the affliction of her death, so wrought upon him that he seemed never to regain fully his wonted spirit and vigor; nor, though continuing in the discharge of his duties, did he retain in the affairs of life the interest of former days. He did not long survive his loved companion. As the spring of 1864 was beginning to open, his declining health obliged him to lay down his faithful pen, which was not again to be resumed. An iliness protracted through several weeks, but comparatively ft'ae from pain, seemed to be yielding kindly to the treatment of his physicians, when an unexpected change in its character left little room for hope; and on the 16th of May,—when it was expected that he would still survive some days or weeks,—with scarcely a struggle, he passed peacefully away. From the tributes to his memory we select the following from the gifted pen of his nephew, W. P. Spencer, as a fitting conclusion to this imperfect sketch of a truly noble, useful, and beautiful life : "A dole of gratitude is due to thee, Great master of the Pen ! Thy beauteous forms, so bold, so free, In all the walks of life wo see Amid the haunts of men ! "Wherever commerce spreads her wings To bear the wealth of trade, This noble art its offering brings, And on its record daily springs The forms thy genius made. " The Pen glides on, but others guide Its track along the page; But while time rolls its ceaseless tide, Who loves this art will point with pride To this, its golden age. "Nor less than in this peerless art Host thou in memory shine; Per thou vast kind and pure in heart,— In life's great drama was thy part Played with a will sublime. 110 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. " Gone but too soon, Teacher and Friend, Yet thou halt earned thy fame; It lives in all thy hand bath penned,— The work of art with which we blend Thy loved and deathless name." HENRY CALEB AND HARVEY ALDEN SPENCER, twin sons of' Platt R. Spencer, were born in Geneva, Ohio, February 6, 1838. During infancy, childhood, and early manhood they bore such dose resemblance to each other that even their own mother was often puzzled to distinguish between them. Their identity was the more difficult to establish from their roguish unwillingness during childhood to tell their names. When they were old enough to accompany young ladies to social gatherings, it was not unusual for one to escort home the young lady the other had called for, and spend an hour in the family circle without the slightest suspicion of the exchange on the part of the young ladies or their friends. After the marriage of the brothers the continued resemblance caused laughable mistakes even on the part of their wives, each of whom was confident of the superiority of her choice, and wondered that people in general could not observe the marked difference. Persons who had met one of the brothers would invariably claim the acquaintance of the other ; so that for many years their friends and reputations were common property. The pictures preceding this sketch show that other a separation of' twelve years, living in different climates and under different conditions, the resemblance has not been maintained. In childhood the "twins" were in constant companionship. They attended district and select schools, Hiram Eclectic institute, and the business college, manifesting early the family talent for writing and teaching. During their minority they taught writing-schools together and separately in East Ashtabula, at Ashtabula Harbor, Saybrook, Geneva, Jefferson, Madison, Hiram, and elsewhere. Their father gave each of his sons and daughters practical training as teachers by making them assistants in his numerous schools and classes. Here it is proper that the twins be noticed separately. HENRY C. SPENCER, at twelve years of age, was regarded by his father and other competent judges the best penman of his age in the country. He assisted his father in many of his writing-schools, and in the public schools of Buffalo and Sandusky. In 1858 be taught in the Bryant & Stratton Cleveland business college, the first of the celebrated chain of colleges, and, being then nineteen years of age, was offered a partnership. Having other plans in reference to Spencerian, he did not accept. In 1859 be was in charge of penmanship in the public schools of Buffalo and in the Buffalo business college. Subsequently, when the Spencerian copy-books were published for general use, he introduced them and systematized instruction in penmanship in the public schools of many cities and towns east and west. Among them were Rochester, Syracuse, and Oswego, in New York ; Detroit and Ypsilanti, in Michigan ; Richmond and Fort Wayne, in Indiana ; Madison, Wisconsin ; and St. Louis, Missouri. He was called the " Prince of Blackboard Writers," and in this respect never found a successful competitor. In 1861 he located in New York city, teaching in the various institutions of the great metropolis and adjacent towns, introducing and firmly establishing the Spencerian systemf and aiding in founding the Brooklyn business college. He also taught in the Bryant & Stratton New York business college. In 1863 his father and himself had together prepared copies for engraving for new copy-books, and upon submitting them to Mr. Jas. W. Lusk, that he might select the most perfect, he selected for one book, from Henry's writing, twenty-two out of twenty-four of the written copies, and for another all of Henry's copies were chosen. His father was proud of the result. In 1864 he was appointed superintendent of penmanship in the Bryant & Stratton chain of business colleges, comprising forty institutions located in the most important cities of the country. In December, 1864, he married, in Poughkeepsie, New York, Miss Sara 3. Andrews, a talented and estimable lady, whose acquaintance he had formed in St. Louis. They have two promising boys. In 1865 be had main charge of the revision of the Spencerian publications. In 1866 he located in Washington, District of Columbia, where, for more than twelve years, he hart successfully conducted the Speneerian business college, of which he is principal and proprietor. As a penman his reputation and acquaintance is co-extensive with our country. He has instructed personally more than fifty thousand persons within twenty years, and has trained many teachers for the profession. His penmanship, on large specimens, may be found upon the walls of business colleges in all parts of the country. Henry enjoys the confidence, respect, and fellowship of the best citizens of Washington, and may be counted an-honored representative of Ashtabula County at the national capital. HARVEY A. SPENCER is a fine penman and an experienced commercial teacher. From 1864 to 1866 he was engaged as teacher in the business colleges of Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston, Massachusetts. Since then he has taught chiefly in the western and southern States. He married, in 1866, a Boston lady, one of his pupils; who has the usual New England energy and force of character. Mr. Spencer was for several years superintendent of writing in the public schools of St. Louis, and later occupied the same position in the public schools of New Orleans. He has traveled extensively through the south, teaching in the principal cities and towns. During the last five years he has been a citizen of Dallas, Texas. He is business manager of the. Commonwealth business college, and is also a dealer in Texas State lands. Harvey has the genial characteristics of his father, a clear bead, a ready flow of language, and a rare faculty of making warm personal friends. LYMAN POTTER SPENCER, youngest son of Platt R. Spencer, was born May 11, 1840. He early manifested a talent for drawing, inherited from his father. At the age of ten years he would draw striking likenesses, with pen or pencil, of those who sat for him, and he also sketched readily and faithfully from nature. At the age of thirteen he designed and executed with pen the index page of Township Maps of Ashtabula County. This piece of work, remarkable for a boy, consists chiefly of appropriate lettering, pen portraits of Mr. Giddings and Mr. Wade, and may be seen in the office of the county auditor at Jefferson. Lyman was a faithful student in the district schools, attended Hiram Eclectic institute and Oberlin college. In September, 1862, Lyman was one of the Ohio " Squirrel Hunters," specially called out to protect the State from invasion. In June, 1863, enlisted as a private in the Second Regiment, Ohio heavy artillery, for three yearior during the war. Was made quartermaster-sergeant of the regiment, and subsequently promoted to second lieutenant, and acted as aide-de-camp on staff of Colonel H. G. Gibson.. Was on duty with his regiment and disconnected from it, to the grid of the war. Was engaged in actions in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Decatur, Alabama, and in the celebrated battle of Nashville. To the pages of his sketch-book he committed many interesting views, and curious and amusing incidents of camp and army life. Since the close of the war, with the exception of two years in the "State department at Washington, Lyman has been employed chiefly upon the publications of Spencerian penmanship, his skill in designing and producing work for the engraver being considered as eminently adapted to that work. Those who visited the Centennial Exhibition may have seen the remarkable display of Spencerian penmanship by the Spencer brothers. Prominent in the collection was a mammoth piece, the " Declaration of Independence," designed and chiefly executed by Lyman. It is without doubt the most artistic finished specimen of pen-work in the world. It is valued at five thousand dollars. With the soul of an artist, Lyman Spencer has studied and practiced art from boyhood, and producad many gems. Some of his fine vignettes and beautiful ornamental designs and many specimens of his matchless writing have been rendered imperishable by the engraver, and multiplied in almost countless numbers by the press. In 1863, Mr. Lyman Spencer, the subject of this sketch, married Fidelia Bartholomew, daughter of Calvin Bartholomew, Esq., of Geneva, Ohio. She is a devoted wife and mother. They have four children,—two sons and two daughters, and reside in Washington, D. C. PLATT R. SPENCER, JR., third son and namesake of his father, was born May 3, 1835, in Geneva, Ohio. At three years of age he entered school at Jefferson, where his parents were temporarily residing. Their return to Geneva two years later secured to him the advantages of the " old red school-house," near the homestead, and the healthful exercise incident to farm life. When eight years of age be entered the academy at Jefferson, his father being engaged, incidentally to his duties as county treasurer, in teaching writing in the ball-room of the Jefferson House. The youthful Platt was one of his most zealous pupils, and it soon became evident that the peculiar gifts of the father were inherent in the son. When he had attained the age of twelve years the fame of "Spencer's Log Seminary" was attracting pupils from all parts of the land, and Platt junior was .relegated from the position of learner to that of assistant teacher. He labored successfully in this capacity, with HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 111 intervals of work upon the farm, until fifteen years of age, when he opened his first school in East Ashtabula, followed by others in neighboring towns. A year later we find him at Hiram college, zealously pursuing his studies and defraying his expenses by teaching writing. The same system of labor and study was maintained subsequently at Kingsville academy. In the spring of 1856 he entered Bryant & Strattou's college at Cleveland, and completed the business course during the following year, having charge of the writing department during the time. He then went to Pittsburgh as instructor in the Iron City college. The next year he became connected with the Bryant & Stratton college of Chicago, where he remained several years. In 1860 he assumed a similar position in the Bryant & Stratton college of Philadelphia. In December of this year Mr. Spencer married Mary Duty, of Cleveland, a lady of fine culture, a daughter of one of the pioneer residents of that city, and began his married life in Philadelphia. They have, living, four interesting children. A little later the certainties of civil war began to divert the energies of the youth of America from the peaceful pursuits of learning to the sterner duties of the camp and field. Mr. Spencer therefore turned his attention to a new field of labor and secured the position of teacher of writing in the public schools of Cleveland, which office he discharged for two years with great credit to himself and profit to the city. In 1863, Mr. Spencer became resident principal and half-owner of the Bryant & Stratton college of Indianapolis, and conducted a very successful business. While in Indianapolis Mr. Spencer was baptized and confirmed in Christ church, of the Episcopal denomination, of which he is still an active member. In 1865, Mr. Spencer established the Spencerian Institute of Penmanship at Geneva, Ohio. The great advantages of the school, aided by the historic associations of the town as being the place where the illustrious author of the " Spencerian" had lived and labored, drew hither as pupils a great number of ladies and gentlemen from all parts of the Union. Mr. Spencer here enjoyed the privilege of residing at the " old homestead," amid the cherished associations of his boyhood ; but his duties became too burdensome, and the institute was removed to Cleveland and incorporated with the Union (old Bryant & Stratton) college. In 1877 he became sole owner of this college, and later changed its name to " Spencerian Business College." This college, under other names, has for twenty-six years occupied a leading position among schools of its kind; but under Mr. Spencer's intelligent management, aided by a large corps of teachers of wide experience and ability, and in the closest sympathy with his plans and principles, the college has attained a popularity hitherto unknown. In Mr. Spencer's peculiar department, his reputation as penman and teacher is second only to that of his father, and undoubtedly a greater number of the best penmen of the United States owe their proficiency to his instruction than to any other living teacher. But it is not alone in his skill with the pen that Mr. Spencer seems most worthily to bear his father's name. The same close sympathy that existed between the father's pupils and himself seems to be a marked feature of the son's work as teacher. Mr. Spencer not only takes a genuine, practical interest in the welfare of all his pupils, but strives to imbue them with his own high sense of honor and refinement of taste and character. This has proved very helpful and elevating to his pupils generally, but especially to the young when at the formative period of character. ROBERT CLOSSON SPENCER, son of Platt Rogers and Persia Duty Spencer, the oldest of eleven children,—six eons and five daughters,—was born June 22, 1829, in the village of East Ashtabula, Ashtabula County, Ohio; removed in infancy with his parents to Geneva, in the same county, where he grew to manhood, attended the district schools, worked on the farm, with several terms at Jefferson and Kingsville academies; graduated at Gundry's Mercantile college, Cincinnati, in 1851 ; soon after joined Hon. Victor M. Rice in a commercial school at Buffalo, New York ; then united with Bryant, Stratton & Co. in organizing and extending their chain of commercial colleges, having charge successively of schools at Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, and at Milwaukee, where he went in 1863, and has established his permanent residence. At the outbreak of the war of secession he was in the St. Louis college, but joined the Union army under General Nathaniel Lyon. On his return to the St. Louis college, he found the sentiment in the school strongly disloyal. Confederate flags were raised by students over their desks without objection from teachers. Mr. Spencer announced that the college would live or die under the Stars and Stripes, and at once proceeded to gather and destroy all emblems of secession that were displayed in the institution. This act drove away nearly all the students and made enemies of the secessionists in the community, but enlisted the warm sympathy and support of Unionists, and the college soon began to prosper more than ever before. - 28 - In 1865, Mr. Spencer led a reformatory movement in business colleges that separated him from Bryant & Stratton and some of his old professional associates and co-laborers. The movement caused a somewhat heated and bitter conflict, but resulted successfully in the formation of the International Business College association upon a basis that enlisted Mr. Spencer's hearty co-operation, in which he served two years as corresponding secretary and member of the executive board ; was then elected president, and in his annual address to the association outlined what was pronounced the most comprehensive, practical, and elevated view of the scope, functions, and future of business education and business colleges that had ever been presented. It was the opinion that the ground mapped out and the work indicated in that address comprehended all that could be accomplished in the next half-century. In the field of business education Mr. Spencer's influence and views are widely felt, and are distinguished for their solid merit and elevated character. Although his best energies are devoted to his college in Milwaukee, in the education and training of young men for business, he is at the same time an ardent and active friend of public schools, advocating and leading the most liberal and progressive measures on that subject. Through his instrumentality organizations have been formed in Milwaukee around the public schools of the city " to promote public education, encourage culture, develop social life, and foster general improvement in the interest of all the people." In the board of school commissioners of Milwaukee he has done much for the improvement of the public schools and the development of the school system. Although it was thought that he could have been elected, he declined to allow his name to be used as a candidate for the office of mayor of Milwaukee. The known liberality of his views induced the Socialist party of Wisconsin to seek Mr. Spencer as their standard-bearer for governor of the State, which he peremptorily declined, on the ground that he was opposed to some of their views and tendencies regarding property, etc. The independence of his political and religious opinions disincline him to the restraints of public office, and attract him toward reform movements, in which he is moderate and judicious though firm and resolute. The National Liberal league, having for its platform of principles " the total separation of religion and the state," " national protection to national citizens in their equal religious, civil, and political rights," and " universal education as the basis of universal suffrage in this free republic," appointed Mr. Spencer on its national executive board and head of the organization in Wisconsin. To these measures he lends his influence with characteristic liberality and energy. Mr. Spencer has been twice married. May 15, 1853, he united in marriage with Miss Sarah Elizabeth Beach, second daughter of William and Susan Roop Beach, Erie county, New York, a lady of rare talents, refinement, and beauty of character, whose acquaintance he formed in Buffalo, where she was known as a most accomplished teacher. She died in 1856, leaving an infant son, Junius. June 22, 1863, he married Mrs. Ellen Whiten King, widow of Chancy P. King, a lawyer of Janesville, Wisconsin, daughter of Hon. Daniel G. Whiten, and niece of Edward V. Whiten, first chief-justice of Wisconsin. By this marriage there are seven children, Robert C., Jr., Edward W., Henry K., Anna E., Charles L., George S., and Earnest D. The residence of Mr. Spencer in Milwaukee, on Prospect avenue, is by the shore of Lake Michigan, looking out upon Milwaukee bay, a most delightful spot, not unlike the haunts of his boyhood, the shore of Lake Erie, at Geneva. The Spencerian business college at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of which Mr. Spencer is founder and proprietor, holds the highest rank, and is widely and favorably known for its thoroughness and success in educating and training young men for business life. During the past twenty-five years Mr. Spencer has instructed thousands, who are well represented among the best business men of our own and other countries. As a business educator he makes a deep impression upon the minds and character of his students, inspiring the best spirit and giving safe direction to their ambition and energies. CAROLINE L. RANSOM.* The defect in the American character is on the art side. The art elements in the nature of individuals remain comparatively undeveloped. The aggregate effect on the national character in the eye of an educated foreigner is somewhat striking, and is not unfrequently charged to the account of defective moral sentiments; a something in the climate, they say, tending to savagery, of which there has been a deal of twaddle. This deficiency is not due to any lack of native en- * By Ron. A. G. Riddle. 112 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. dowment, that we inherit from our polyglot ancestry, but to the want of means, the helps for its development. Our present greatest need, in the way of education, is far deeper, higher, more universal art culture. When a shoal of poets come they create their audience. This would be true of a school of painters, but there always must be some prophecy and preparation for a Messiah. You cannot make an artist ; the schools and colleges never produced one, and never will. If any man should ask me what is their use, I should attempt no reply to him ; the question could never be answered to his apprehension. He is not far enough removed from the Digger Indians. The labor should have been with his ancestors. We have much well-considered writing and criticism of art and artists. What we most need are collections of works of art, a better and wider diffusion of genuine specimens. The man who carries a really good picture, even when translated into an engraving, to a remote village, is a benefactor in a small way. The city that decorates one of its squares with a fine piece of statuary, has done as much for its people as if it bad endowed a free school. None will pass it with indifference. To some it would be a perpetual pleasure ; to the few a celestial revelation, giving point to their own aspirations, suggesting the needs of their own natures, and leading the way to the possibilities of their own powers. The story of one artist soul, born in exile from artistic surroundings, I am briefly to sketch. Genius is sexless, when lodged, as in this instance, in the feminine form, and finds expression by a woman's hand ; it nevertheless asserts itself as undeniably genius, a part of the great art soul of which the favored few are endowed. John Ransom is a lineal descendant of Edward Hyde, the great Earl of Clarendon, and chancellor of Charles II. In this branch of the family, the name of Ann Hyde, Edward's daughter, and the mother of two queens, was repeated in every generation till the present. Elizabeth Orms is the daughter of General Orms, of Castleton, Vermont, a strain of people, if less exalted, worthy to mate with the descendants of Hyde. From the union of these two was born Caroline L., at Newark, Ohio. In her infancy the family emigrated northward, and found a home near the Mormon temple, in the beautiful region of Kirtland. In 1840 the Ransoms formed a permanent seat in Harpersfield, on the picturesque banks of Grand river, Ashtabula County. There was much, both at Kirtland and about this final resting-place, that appealed to the imagination and poetic nature of the young girl. We are told she exhibited an aptitude amounting to rare precocity in the study of some branches of education, which, united to an ambition quite masculine, enabled her to maintain a position in advance of her classmates. With less than a girl's aptitude for mathematics, she easily surpassed her male competitors in the Greek and Latin classics, receiving her education at an academical school open to both sexes. She was a graduate of the Grand River Institution, where she afterwards remained as principal of the ladies' department, and had charge of the Greek and Latin classes of the whole. school. She was early aware of a strong predisposition to art, and looked about eagerly for the means of indulging her bent. These were of the scantiest. During her vacations she took lessons in linear drawing, and doing flowers in water-colors, from a strolling teacher of slender capacity. Small as the aid was, it kindied the latent aspiration, and induced her to grasp at the elusive forms of beautiful nature. Nothing escaped her eye, which caught at every point. At that time she had never seen but one real painting. Think of a young poet who had never read but one poem I With this scant furnishing forth she herself established a class in water-colors, and gave herself, as far as she could conscientiously, to nature. While looking out eagerly for help a special Providence, in the form of a wandering portrait-painter, was vouchsafed her. Him she employed to paint herself, and at once went about procuring him orders. Had he sat to her she could not have studied him closer. What can be more fascinating to a young art soul than a painter at his easel ? His colors, brushes, palette, the way he uses, and the marvels he works with them—nothing escaped her; every moment she could snatch from duties was spent at the temporary studio. Everything he did observed, every word treasured, little scraps of old masters, stories of their wonders, talks of their lives, of living painters he had known, had read about, or heard of. She induced her father to have portraits of all the family. These, five in number, were painted in the family home. She felt in her soul that she could paint. The artist had a portrait which he claimed to have painted under Chester Harding. She copied it. Her success astonished her master, friends, and, most of all, herself. She now essayed a living subject. A kind old aunt of her mother was specially raised up to be her first sitter. We may fancy the opening scenes of this experiment. The eager young girl, her fair face flushed, her blue eyes large and flashing, with the masses of wavy hair dashed back as by the hand of the wind. The good, patient, dear old aunt perked up, posed and pushed about by the dainty fingers of the girl artist, who would tell her to look this way and that, step back and view her, with her head first on one side and then on the other, till everything is adjusted ; and then, with a long, quivering breath, the crayon is applied to the canvas. What a picture it would make. What anxious days those were, big with the fate of artist and sitter, both to be immortal, or neither. Days of going on, going wrong, and then off, and then all right again. It was a triumph. Old aunty, at least, was made famous. What a moment for the neophyte, as amid the wonder and plaudits of the eager friends, in the rush and gush of emotion, with her face in her hands, she heard her soul saying to itself, " I, too, am a painter I" It is true, the outlines were a trifle hard, and the half-tints might' have been better adjusted, but the hand that fashioned it was the hand of an artist. It was a likeness and full of life and flesh. She repeated the experiment with other sitters, and so found her career. From her love of nature, and the seeming ease with which she sketched the features of a view, she thought that landscape would afford the best subjects for her pencil. Horace Greeley's father had been a tenant of one of her Grandfather Orms' farms, and Horace and her mother had been playmates in childhood, and grew up fast friends. With a letter to him from her mother, she made her way to New York, was kindly received, and became an inmate in the family of his sister, Mrs. Cleveland. Here she was placed under the care of the landscape-painter, Ashur B. Durand, successor of Professor Morse as president of the National Academy of Design. After many months of studious and quite successful work, he assured her that her talent and genius, which were decided, were better fitted for portraiture. She was then placed under the care of Thomas Hicks, and devoted herself exclusively to portraits and figures. After six months she painted the portrait of Mrs. Goes, of New York, which received high commendation from her master and his brother-artists. For eight succeeding years she spent about one-half of each under the best instruction in New York, and the other in Ohio, painting portraits to defray her expenses, being a member of John F. Cleveland's family while in the city, enjoying the care and affection of a daughter of the house. The latter part of this time she was a pupil of the celebrated Huntington, when she painted her portrait of the Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, which was purchased by congress, and now hangs in the old ball of the house, in the capitol, where he served so long and faithfully. This was hung by the side of Huntington's best, in the exhibition of 1859, and received the highest commendation of him, and of the art critics, and the press of New York. It is characterized by strength and boldness, and remarkable for its life-like expression. This purchase by congress was its first patronage to a woman. Among the distinguished subjects of Miss Ransom's pencil were the late Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, the naturalist, Governor Brough, General Garfield, Governor Huntington, and Governor J. D. Cox—the two last for the governor's room in the capitol, at Columbus. Chief-Justice Chase sat to her twice while secretary of the treasury,—for a bust once, and again for a full-length portrait. The last, representing him standing in the south portico of the treasury building, was the one he wished to be known by in after-years. In July, 1867, she went to Europe, where she remained two years, seeing much of its countries, many of its great cities, and visiting some of its most famous collections of art, painting and copying several of them, making the acquaintance of many distinguished artists; correcting, widening, and deepening her art impressions and instincts, perfecting her education and judgment in matters of her profession, and improving her style. A woman of wide and general culture, it was not in art alone that she was profited by these two most valuable and treasured years. I think their influence can be clearly traced in her work since her return, when it may be said that she is quite at the maturity of her powers. Her master-piece, what she may not be expected to ever excel, what few artists in this country can equal, is her now famous full-length portrait of General George H. Thomas, so often described that effort in that direction is tautology. The subject was one which peculiarly appealed to the sensibility and appreciative sympathy of Miss Ransom, artist and woman as she is. The grand, massive head, weight, strength, and firmness of the figure, which she has so planted that nothing but an upheaval of the earth's crust can ever shake it ; the moveless will, the changeless resolve, the calm courage, the serene daring, the combination of the great solid qualities of the man, the general, and the hero, found in her the soul and intellect that could appreciate and reverence, and the hand that could express them in the face and form which she has given to the eyes of men. All men and women have eyes with which to scan the faces and forms of their fellows. Scarcely any two see all of the same things in the face of any worth looking at. It is the gift of the artist in human portraiture to see all that the external face and form contain,—the nice lines and subtle expressions that elude common though acute observers. They see vastly more. The countenance reveals to them the best there is in the man, the best which they attribute to a given man; and something of this a true artist will bring forth, and make to appear in the faces of those worthy of their pencils. Two faculties the artist must have : The power of idealizing in his own soul his best conceptions of the man, and then such trained skill and deftness of hand that he can realize to HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 113 the eye, to all eyes that have the power to see, that ideal in oolors on the canvas before him. Miss Ransom is a poet, as many artists are ; she also has the gift of a poetic utterance, which few possess. There is also a martial tone and touch in her being, something to which the stir and pomp of arms, belted knights, and embattled hosts appeal, and find response. She oonoeived Thomas standing solitary on kindred rook, facing the near battle, swelling and lifted up with its spirit and inspiration, yet holding himself calm, proud, great, and as if in his single person he was to encounter; resist, and overcome the foe, and he looks not only as if he had made up his mind to the encounter, but would certainly vanquish the assailing host. The likeness is said to be admirable. It is much more than a likeness of the outer man ; soul, intellect, weight, manhood, winning and ready to be crowned with a great victory, are all there. The old comrades of Thomas come into its presence, look and unoover, remain silent, and burst into tears. It has been present at many of the reunions of the armies he oommanded, and was the most observed and honored personage present. It is true, newspaper men, who don't know a palette from a plate, still continue to take their little flings at it. Nothing better marks the position it occupies at the capital. They have never heard of the works of older and better-known artists, but they have heard-of this, and cannot rest until they have advertised the fact, and their own ignorance; and it is pitiful to think that the painter of General Thomas can be wounded by these " midgets." I am not to write a history of this work, nor of the sort of criticisms it has received. I mast add a word of its creation. In the autumn of 1871, Miss Ransom produced the first portrait of General Thomas, now awned by Colonel Squire, which was a study and preparation for the full-length. This was commenced in the spring of 1872. She secured a studio in New York, where she spent 'six months of the autumn and winter upon it. The Army of the Tennessee held its reunion at Toledo, in the fall of 1873, when the work as then completed was exhibited. It was a bold teat which the artist challenged. Its reception by his old comrades in arms was most enthusiastic. It received as much attention as the great living commanders of the armies who were present and did it homage. Thus approved, the artist determined to fully execute her original purpose—paint in the battle of Chickamauga as a back-ground. For this purpose she visited the scene of that conflict, which she carefully studied and sketched, completing the work as it now meets the eye. In the autumn of 1874, at the solicitation of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, it was placed in the hall of their reunion at Columbus, Ohio, who marked their appreciation of it by the following resolution : " Resolved, That the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, at Columbus in session assembled, hereby tender to Miss Ransom their thanks for the presence of her magnificent portrait of our old and much-beloved commander, Major-General George H. Thomas. We hereby indorse the great excellence of the portrait, and the accuracy of the landscape of the field of Chickamauga, and we respectfully request the congress of the United States to place it permanently in the Capitol at Washington." Afterwards it was placed on exhibition in the rotunda of the capitol, during the opening weeks of congress, where it daily attracted crowds. It is now the most conspicuous object in the studio of the artist, at Washington, where it is accompanied by the fine bust portraits of General McPherson and B. F. Wade, and surrounded by many works of her brush, among which are the notable copies made in Italy. The Wade should be purchased and returned to Ohio, where it belongs. I hardly dare venture a word further upon the qualities of Miss Ransom as an artist. She seems to me to be remarkable for the certainty and firmness with which she grasps her subject, and the strength and fidelity with which she works out her conception of it. She never fails of producing a striking likeness. No one can greatly excel as a painter who is not to some extent a colorist. Miss Ransom has a large gift of that power. Her spirit is steeped in its rich sensuousness, which sometimes finds happy expression in poetic forms, some of which have been given to the public. The best remain in MSS. She has admirable judgment of works of art ; is broad, just, and generous in her appreciation of the works of others ; is a kindly, sympathetic, noble, lovable woman. Her studio has been for many years in Cleveland. For three winters past she has occupied one on Pennsylvania avenue, in Washington, where her Friday afternoons are among the pleasant occasions in the art and literary circles of the capital, into which she was at once received, and where she is justly appreciated., Among the products of these riper years may be mentioned the portraits of Mr. French, sergeant-at-arms of the senate, Mrs. Garfield, and Mrs. Riddle, painted in Washington, all of which, and especially the last, are among the finest specimens of American portrait-painting. Now quite at maturity, Miss Ransom may look forward to coming years of increasing fame, and a realization of all the hopes which should crown the deservedly successful devotee of widening, growing, American art. Quintus Flaminius Atkins, the oldest son of Josiah Atkins, Sr., and Mary Gillett Atkins, was born May 10, 1782, in Wolcott, New Haven county, Connecticut. His father, descended from an English family of good repute, was a man of more than usual bodily vigor and energy. His mother, Mary Gillett, a daughter of Captain Zaccheus Gillett, and sister of Rev. Alexander Gillett, the first settled minister in Wolcott (then called Farmingbury), was a woman of superior intelligence and many virtues. Josiah Atkins was the yoimgest son of Joseph Atkins, one of the early and honored settlers in Wolcott, a man foreni.ost in every good word and work, during a residence of many years. During the years 1798 and 1799, a war with France seeming probable, an army was raised by the United States government, into which the subject of our sketch, at the age of seventeen years, enlisted. The regiment to which he belonged was encamped in or near New Haven, Connecticut. The war-cloud having passed away the forces were disbanded, and our young soldier sought employment in the west. In 1801 and 1802 he worked at road-making on the " Genesee turnpike," in central New York. In October, 1802, he joined a party of emigrants from Connecticut, bound for the then land of promise, " New Connecticut" They arrived in Morgan, Ashtabula County, in November, 1802. Two settlers (with their families) had preceded them by a few months, vis., Timothy R. Hawley, a surveyor, and agent for the proprietors of the town, and Captain John Wright. Mr. Atkins selected a farm in the east part of the town, but daring the first year worked chiefly for others, chopping and clearing lands, making roads, etc. On the 22d of February, 1804, he was united in marriage to 'Miss Sarah Wright, the youngest daughter of Captain John Wright, above named. During a considerable part of the year 1805 he was engaged in carrying the United States mail between Cleveland and Detroit, his usual route being from Cleveland to Sandusky. This difficult and dangerous service was performed on foot through the wilderness, carrying the mail, a gun and axe. It required great courage and untiring energy and perseverance ; but he was a man who never objected to any necessary service or duty, no matter what its hardships or privations. In the spring of 1806, Rev. Joseph Badger, then a missionary to the northwestern Indians, engaged Mr. and Mrs. Atkins as assistants at the missionary station at Sandusky. Having built a boat on Grand river in Austinburg, and loaded it with supplies for the mission, the party, consisting of Rev. Mr. Badger, Mr. and Mrs. Atkins, and their little daughter, Emily (afterwards Mrs. Colonel George Turner, of Geneva, Ohio), descended the river to its mouth, where they were joined by a party of Indians, who, with their families, in canoes, accompanied the missionary party along the southern shore of Lake Erie to Sandusky. Here they remained about one and a half years, when repeated attacks of ague and fever forced them to abandon the mission and return to Morgan. During 1808 he was again en- 114 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. gaged in carrying the mails on foot, in a more rapid manner than before, called the " express mail." His route was between Cleveland and Vermilion river. In June, 1811, the county of Ashtabula was organized, and Mr. Atkins was appointed its sheriff, serving until July, 1813, when he resigned to enter the United States service, as a lieutenant in the northwestern army under General W. H. Harrison. Previous to this service, however, in the fall of 1812, while sheriff, he, with other prominent citizens exempt from military services by age or official duties, viz., Colonel Eliphalet Austin, Major Levi Gaylord, Captain Roger Nettleton, Matthew Hubbard, Esq., Samuel Hendry, Esq., and many others, spent some time as mounted volunteers in scouting the country about Sandusky bay and Huron river, then threatened with invasion by the British forces and their Indian allies. Their effective service, it was believed, prevented an attack upon Camp Avery, an unfinished and therefore weak stockade upon Huron river. Upon the reduction of the army to a peace establishment, in 1815, Lieutenant Atkidreceived an honorable discharge from the service, and returned to his farm in Morgan. At the first general election after the close of the war (October, 1815), Mr. Atkins was again elected sheriff, and removed his family to Jefferson, where he continued to reside for the ensuing twenty-three years, save a brief sojourn on the lake-shore, in Geneva, about the year 1830. Having served as sheriff the legal limit of four years, he was appointed, in the winter of 1819-20, to the then new office of county auditor, and served in that capacity until March, 1822. At the next session of the Ohio legislature (1823-24) he was appointed to superintend the building of a turnpike-road through the " Maumee Swamp," so called, and to survey and sell the lands granted by congress to the State of Ohio, for the purpose of building said road. He was engaged in the duties of that appointment until the road was completed, occupying about three years. He next turned his attention to the Ohio canal, then being built from Cleveland to Portsmouth. In company with a young man of some previous experience on the Erie canal, New York, a considerable job was undertaken, which proved a much more expensive and difficult work than had been anticipated by engineers or contractors, involving a very heavy loss. To add to the difficulty, his partner, having possessed himself of all the company funds, suddenly decamped to parts unknown. This misfortune and treachery forced Mr. Atkins into hopeless insolvency. He voluntarily placed in the hands of a trustee, for the payment of' his liabilities, all the savings of his previous life, and having a large family, was unable in after-years to do much towards retrieving his ill fortune. In 1835 and 1836 he was in the employ of the " Arcole Furnace Company," in Madison, Ohio, and was a careful and efficient agent in its then large business. In the autumn of 1836 he went to Olean, New York, in the employ of a land company, to take charge of a considerable property, comprising most of East Olean, with grist- and saw-mills, pine lands, etc. The reverses of 1837-38 so crippled the company that it was forced to sell the property, and early in 1839, Mr. Atkins removed to the farm of Edward Wade, in Brooklyn, near Ohio city, now Cleveland. At this place he resided most of the time until 1854. While residing there he was appointed an associate judge of the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga county, and held the office until, by a change in the constitution, that court was abolished. In February, 1853, his amiable and much-respected wife, Mrs. Sarah Wright Atkins, died at their home in Brooklyn, they having lived together in the marital relation forty-nine years. Subsequently he resided for a time with his son, Captain A. R. Atkins, in Chicago and Racine, but usually had a home with his daughters, Mrs. H. R. Gaylord, in Geneva, and Mrs. F. Judson, in Brooklyn. He died at " Barber Cottage," Brooklyn, then the home of Mr. Judson, January 23,1859, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. During a large part of his life Mr. Atkins was an active and efficient promoter of religious observances, and during all his later years was an earnest and unwearied laborer for the abolition of slavery. At first he held aloof on the ground of its impracticability ; but the tendency of pro-slavery opinion to enforce its views with stale eggs and other objectionable arguments soon brought him to the side of the party weak in numbers, but using only reasonable arguments. He was a sturdy believer in free speech, and held mobs in utter abhorrence. Between the years 1841 and 1853, Mr. Atkins devoted much time and means in aid of the anti-slavery movement in northern Ohio and western New York. His earnest and able addresses doubtless assisted in awakening the public mind in the localities he visited to the great wrong and injustice of the institution of slavery then darkening the whole country. In a long service as justice of the peace in Jefferson, and later, as a judge of the courts in Cleveland, when party spirit, was often bitter and unreasoning, his sterling love of justice and fair dealing was ever apparent. And although his friendships and aversions were strong, he never permitted them to affect his legal administration of justice. Through a long life his bodily and mental powers were vigorous, and whatever he undertook to do, whether chopping and clearing lands, splitting rails (in his younger days he was a famous " chopper and rail-splitter"), making roads, carrying mails on foot through the wilderness, or arresting desperate criminals as sheriff, all was thoroughly well done. In his later years Mr. Atkins often wrote for the press ; his contributions of most general interest probably being " Recollections of Pioneer Life in Northeastern Ohio," "Road-Making in Central New York at the Beginning of the Present Centuiy," " A Trip through Iowa in its Early Days," and " Recollections of Military Service about Huron River and Sandusky Bay in the War of 1811-15." Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Atkins, ten (one son and nine daughters) lived to maturity. The son, Captain Arthur R. Atkins, is married and resides in Chicago. Five of the daughters are still living, in 1878, viz., Mrs. Stella M. Gaylord, in Saginaw, Michigan ; Mrs. Ophelia. Bostwick, in Oberlin, Ohio ; Mrs. Mary Lynch, in Santa Barbara, California ; Mrs. Martha Todd, in Tabor, Iowa ; and Mrs. Bertha Judson, in Cleveland, Ohio. Helen Atkins died in Brooklyn, Ohio, in 1839 ; Mrs. Emily Turner, in Geneva, in 1841 ; Mrs. Flora Wheeler, in Portville, New York, in 1850; and Mrs. Sarah L Wade, in Brooklyn, Ohio, in 1852. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Atkins are numerous, intelligent, and actively engaged in various pursuits in life. They reside in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, California, and Texas. They comprise clergymen, lawyers, college prof&,sors and teachers, railroad-builders and managers, manufacturers, mill-owners and lumbermen, ship-builders, ship-owners, and ship-captains, who have sailed on all our lakes and on every ocean and nearly every sea on the globe. One of the latter, Matthew Turner, a native of Geneva, Ohio, while engaged in commerce between San Francisco and the Amcor river, in Siberia, in the year 1863, was the first to discover and open to the traffic of the world the Pacific cod-fisheries, in the Gulf of Tartary and on the coast of Kamschatka, and subsequently about the Aleutian islands. HON. ELIPHALET AUSTIN.* Hon. Eliphalet Austin was born at Youngford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1761. His father was Aaron Austin. There were six brothers, and the most of them were soldiers in the War of 1776. The elder, Judge Aaron Austin, of New Hartford, was a captain in the Revolutionary war. Nathaniel Austin, father of Jacob Austin, was a lieutenant. Cyrenius died with the smallpox in the service. Eusebius was a physician, and settled in the State of New York. Colonel Samuel Austin settled in Vernon, New York, removed to Randolph, Portage county, Ohio. Colonel Eliphalet left the army in 1781, and married Sihette Dudley, of Bethlehem. He for some years remained in the old homestead, taking care of his then aged parents, but subsequently removed to New Hartford, and developed his natural bent and taste for a close business by keeping a tavern, a store, and an ashery, and buying beef cattle to supply the market at Hartford and New Haven, and was the president of a turnpike company. HIS TITLE OF COLONEL. He was colonel of an independent or uniform regiment, was one of the Torringford land company, and in his own name, and in that of the Connecticut land company, had some twenty thousand acres. He came to Austinburg in 1799, returned in 1800, and in 1801 moved his family to Ohio. The account of his journey and first settling has already been given. Judge Austin's business capacity was remarkable. He had a large amount of lands of his own in Summit and Medina counties, also in Morgan and Austinburg, Ashtabula County, and in Madison and Perry, Lake county. He owned lots in Cleveland and in Euclid, and at one time he had the title to over three hundred acres in the spot where. Cleveland now stands; he was also agent for a large amount of land for others. This land he bought at a very small price, as it was on the first apportionment. It was never complained of him that he had taken advantage of any one. His desire was to encourage settlement, and no doubt it was largely owing to his hospitality and his business capacity that Ashtabula County became settled at so early a date. His house served to be the centre of the whole region. It was a block-house, built on the summit of the hill, bullet-proof. Aaron Austin, his son, was early engaged in cutting roads through the forest, and it is said that nearly all the roads of those days centred at his house. Some of these roads still remain. He had much to do with the laying out of the first roads of the country. * By Rev. S. D. Peet. HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 115 The first road to the settlement was perhaps from Harpersfield, as that was the way to the landing and the mill. The old Salt road was, however, soon cut through from Ashtabula, and ultimately extended to Warren. He took a contract on a turnpike- or plank-road from Erie to Waterford. It appeared that money was scarce. As he had sold a large amount of land to young men, he found that they were not able to pay. Taking this contract, he enabled them to earn something to pay for their land, and at the same time helped himself. The amount received was about fifty-five dollars per mile, or four thousand five hundred dollais for the whole. Mr. Austin was also engaged in buying and selling cattle. Ile always had a large number of cattle about him, and by this means he could not only sell to settlers their land, but he could assist them in getting it subdued. Anecdotes are told where he very materially assisted many persons in this way, always turning over a cow or an ox to a neighbor, and then managing in some way to get his pay. Mr. Austin became a mail contractor. It is said that he was the first mail contractor along the lake-shore, and that at one time he had the contract for the mail from Cleveland to Detroit. There is a schedule among his papers giving the time of the arrival and departure of mail between Unionville and Meadville, and between Ashtabula atiS Poland. The promptness of Judge Austin is seen in connection with some of these mail contracts. His son says that he came one day and said to his wife, Mersey, " I want a clean shirt ; I am going to start for Washington to-morrow," and so he did. He mounted his horse and rode all the way to Washington, and arranged for the mail contracts for the whole region. It is stated that there were a large number of contractors together at Washington at the same time. In waiting on the President and postmaster-general, the question came up who should be spokesman. Mr. Austin was selected to perform this delicate task. Mr. Austin was early elected justice of the peace ; some of the first deeds on record bear his signature in that capacity. He afterwards became judge of the court of common pleas. A paper is in the possession of the family which bears the signature of Governor Wm. Huntington, governor of' the State, appointing him judge, in the place of John Walworth, who had resigned. In this capacity he had served for seven years; some of his decisions were regarded of very great importance. Mr. Austin was elected to the legislature as senator. He was a strong anti-Mason, and it was partially on this issue that he was elected. Mr. Austin's religious character was very decided, although he was not a member of any church. His religious principles expressed themselves in kindly sympathies, in genial disposition, and a mild and unruffled temper, a hopeful spirit, and a noble and pure life. His son says in all the instances of his life, though circumstances were trying, and often great provocations, he rarely knew him ruffled in temper, and never heard him utter anything profane. He died in 1837, leaving a large family. HON. JONATHAN WARNER was born at Chester Parish, in old Saybrook, Connecticut, December 11, 1782. His father, Jonathan, was a farmer, and also owned some interest in vessels engaged at that time in the coasting trade. The young man was bred principally upon the farm, but had acquired some experience as a sailor upon his father's vessels, and had at one time made a cruise to the West Indies. In the fall of 1804, in company with a man named Olmsted, he ventured on an exploring expedition to the western country. He was provided with a letter of credit, which spoke of him in high terms of praise. At Buffalo they procured a boat, and started upon the lake for New Connecticut, and his nautical experience was of value during a violent storm, which compelled them to run their boat ashore, where they spent a night under its shelter. They landed at the mouth of Ashtabula creek, and made their way to the interior as far as the present village of Jefferson. Here Mr. Warner selected lands embracing a part of the present village, while his companion made his settlement in what is now known as the township of Kingsville. At that time there was but one resident of the township of Jefferson, a man by the name of Mapes, who had previously settled upon a part of the same land, and had built a log house and cleared a few acres. Mr. Warner purchased his improvements and made provision for a future home, although before locating permanently he went back to Connecticut. In the spring of 1805 he returned, and fixed his permanent residence in Jefferson. In 1806 other settlers came into the township. Among them came Edward Frethy, with his family, from Washington city. He was the Srst postmaster, the first justice of the peace, and the first merchant in Jefferson. Mr. Warner was pleased with the wilderness in which he had located, and which he was making every effort to destroy. As a matter of choice he had settled in a hermitage far from human habitations, and yet he found it not good to be alone, and on the 4th day of May, 1807, he was married to Nancy, a daughter - 29 - of Edward Frothy. His residence was three-fourths of a mile distant, and he went for his bride on horseback. After the ceremony was performed he took her upon the crupper and carried her to his cabin, near the same spot where she now resides, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, and where she continued the partner of his joys and of his sorrows through his life. The first selection of land made by Mr. Warner embraced the land upon which the court-house was afterwards located; but to accommodate the new village and to secure the county-seat he was induced to exchange a portion of his selection for lands lying farther west and adjoining the proposed town. In the year 1815 he was appointed recorder of deeds for the county, for the term of seven years. In the year 1825 he was appointed treasurer of the county. Soon after this time the anti-Masonic excitement prevailed in politics, and Mr. Warner was an active leader in the anti-Masonic party. In the fall of 1831 he was elected a representative to the State legislature, and in the spring of 1839 he was elected by the legislature of the State an associate judge of the court of common pleas, for the term of seven years, his term expiring on April 1, 1846. He was always an active partisan in politics, and always in sympathy with the Democratic party, except during the few years that the anti-Masonic party had a political existence. He had eleven children, one of whom died in infancy. Of the ten who reached matarity,—four sons and six daughters,—all but one are now living, and all have families of their own, who now hold respectable positions in society. George, his second son, was killed by accident, March 25, 1877, in Washington Territory, where he left a wife and two children. Judge Warner died at his old residence in Jefferson on the 12th day of April, 1862, in his eightieth year, respected and honored by all. He was a vigorous man, possessed of a strong will, a kind heart, and affectionate disposition. He was a valuable citizen, exact and trustworthy in all his dealings, as well in public as in private life. And as one of the pioneers of the county, who has helped to found and build up its institutions, his life and character are worthy of commemoration by the present as well as by the future generations of this county who may follow after him. HON. AMOS AND MARTIN KELLOGG. Amos Kellogg was born in Alford, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, June 17, 1782, was married to Pauline Dean, July 30, 1805, and was the seventh in a family of nine children, each one of whom lived to maturity and reared families of their own. Amos and his brother Martin, two years his senior, who had previously married Miss Anna Lester, remained at home as the joint owners of and cultivating the old homestead until 1811, when one Colwell, of Albany, New York, who was the owner of a large tract of wild lands in western Virginia, by representing his land to be valuable for farming purposes and just coming into market, and offering him the position of surveyor and general agent for the sale of his lands, with a liberal compensation, induced Martin, who was a practical and skillful surveyor, to accept his offer. Accordingly, after the necessary preparations, on the 12th day of June, 1811, Martin with his family,—consisting of his wife and two children, aged respectively seven and three years,—started from the old homestead to seek a new home in the then far west; their outfit consisting of a pair of horses, wagon, and harness, carrying the family and household goods. The route taken was from Alford to Newburg, where they crossed the Hudson river, from thence to eastern New Jersey, Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading, Harrisburg, Carlisle, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania ; Cumberland, Maryland ; Clarksburg and Parkersburg, Virginia, to Belpre, Ohio. On arriving at his destination, after a journey of some six hundred miles, occupying some five weeks,—having crossed the Blue Ridge and seen the country,—he became satisfied that nothing could be done in the way of selling lands that then were hardly worth surveying. He was, therefore, on the point of turning back and retracing his journey, without unloading his goods, when he was offered a house to shelter him for a season. This induced him to remain until he could better determine what to do. He remained at Belpre, on the Ohio river, until the death of his father, late in the autumn of 1812, when, on the 24th of December of that year, he started on foot to return to the old homestead, following the same route traversed on his journey the year previous, arriving at Alford about the 1st day of January, 1813. On the failure of the land enterprise, the death of their father, and the return of Martin, the brothers concluded to embrace one of the then many opportunities to exchange cultivated farms in the east for wild lands in what was then known as New Connecticut. They accordingly made such exchange, receiving for the old homestead eleven hundred and fifty acres of uncultivated land situated in Ashtabula and Geauga counties. Early in 1813, Martin returned to Belpre, and with his family removed to their new lands in Salem, in this county, in time to erect a log house, one mile north of the present village of Kelloggsville, in which they spent 116 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. the winter of 1813-14. In February, 1814, Amos with his family,—consisting of his aged mother, wife, two daughters, aged respectively eight and six years, and a son, aged two years, with a hired laborer,—started from their old homestead for their new home in the wilderness of New Connecticut, the outfit being four horses with two sleighs, carrying the family and household goods. Arriving at Phelpstown, Ontario county, New York, where his wife had expected to meet her father, two brothers, and a younger sister, who had preceded her the year before and settled in that locality, she learned for the first time, by a messenger whom she met but a few rods from the door, that her father had died since she had started on her journey. After a short visit among relatives in what was then known as the " Genesee country," they pursued their journey until they arrived at their new home early in March, after a journey of more than five hundred miles entirely on runners, and occupying four weeks. On the arrival of Amos with his family, in the spring of 1814, the brothers, who were still partners, and held both real and personal property in common, commenced clearing and opening up their new lands preparatory to cultivation, and during the following six years, while they so remained in company, they cleared, fenced, and brought under cultivation some two hundred acres of original forest lands, being very largely assisted in their labors by Mr. John Hardy, now living in Kelloggsville, hale and strong in his eighty-third year. They continued to reside together with their families until February, 1815, when they purchased from the late Hon. Eliphalet Austin, of Austinburg, a large part of the tract of land now covered by the village of Kelloggsville, then known as the " Foggerson settlement." Martin moved on this tract, where he remained until 1819, when they dissolved their partnership and divided the property, Amos taking what was known as the Foggerson farm and Martin going back to the new one. In 1815, on account of some unsettled business matters and a strong desire to revisit the scenes of his childhood and early manhood, Amos made the journey on foot to and from the old homestead. Prior to the time he had hardly made up his mind to remain permanently in Ohio ; but on his return from this journey be abandoned all desire to return to Massachusetts, and cast his lot permanently with the new settlers of the Western Reserve. The business occupations of his life were farming, merchandising, buying, driving, and selling cattle, and keeping a village tavern. He was appointed to and held the office of justice of the peace in his native township for one or more terms before his removal to Ohio, and in March, 1816, was elected one of the justices for Salem township. Soon after the expiration of his term in Salem he removed to Monroe, and in July, 1822, was elected justice for that township, which office he held until he resigned it to accept the office of associate judge, to which he was elected by the legislature, December 31, 1823, and took his seat at the March term, 1824, of which office he discharged the duties until his decease, April 27, 1830. He was the first postmaster in Monroe, and from him was derived the name of the post-office and village of Kelloggsville. At the time of the severance of two miles in width of the territory from the south part of Salem and annexing it to Monroe, in 1818, the brothers were very much interested and were probably influential in procuring the annexation, for which they did not at the time receive very many thanks or congratulations from the citizens of Salem. Having had the advantages of a fair New England common-school education, and being a man of good judgment, he was very competent to transact such business as he had been accustomed to ; but having been induced, in 1821, to engage in the business of a country merchant, and intrusting the management of the business to younger men, like most enterprises of that kind the venture proved a failure, and caused him much embarrassment during the remainder of his life. He united with the order of Freemasons in early life, was a member of the Evergreen lodge, in Salem, and adhered to that organization through the troublous times subsequent to the alleged abduction of Morgan. Always among the foremost to assist in carrying forward any and every enterprise for the improvement and benefit of the public, and ready to contribute of his means to all worthy objects, he did much to develop the industrial and moral interests of the community in which he lived. Politically, he was of the old Federal school, but ardently supported Mr. Clay for President in 1824, and Mr. Adams in 1828. He was a kind, indulgent, and sympathizing husband and father, and, in short, "that noblest work of God," an honest man. MRS. PAULINA KELLOGG. Pauline Kellogg, wife of Amos Kellogg, Esq., was born in New Marlborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, May 21, 1782, and was married in the county of her birth July 30, 1805. She was the daughter of Captain Walter Dean, who entered the Massachusetts line at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, and remained in the service during the entire war, leaving the service with a captain's commission. Having the advantage of a common-school education, she taught a district school one season, but, being the oldest daughter, the early death of her mother made it necessary for her to assume the entire charge of her father's large family until her own marriage ; after which, the duties of a mother and the care of her own household devolved upon her. Nine children were born to her, two of whom died in infancy, and seven reached maturity. Being a woman of vigorous health, she was able to and did perform most of the household labor for a large family composed of the husband, children, and farm-laborers engaged in clearing, fencing, farming, and keeping a village tavern, and manufactured the cloth and made much of the clothing for her family. On the death of her husband, in 1830, she caused herself to be appointed administratrix of his estate, and with only the aid of her oldest son, then but eighteen years of age, she continued to keep the tavern, manage the business, and settle the estate; and to her good management and wise economy was her family largely indebted for the retention of a home to which all were very greatly attached. After giving up the responsibilities of business to her son, who relied upon her advice and counsel in reference to important transactions with great confidence and sought it for many years, she made her home with him, and spent much of her time with her several sons and daughters, rendering such assistance in nursing and caring for their young families as only a devoted mother and grandmother could. Her affection for and kindly remembrance of her children, grand and great-grand- children, never faltered, as she was always impartial, and always anxious to aid them in any lawful enterprise. Except the death of her husband, to whom she was ardently attached and a most devoted wife, the death of her youngest daughter Pauline, who married at the age of twenty and died at twenty-one, was the greatest affliction of her life. Being her youngest daughter, delicate and lovely, recently married with fair prospects of a happy and prosperous life, her death was long and deeply mourned. She died at. Conneaut, in this county, on the 21st day of' June, 1875, aged ninety-three years and one month, in the enjoyment of her mental faculties unimpaired, leaving behind her two aged sisters, two sons, and two daughters, twenty-four grandchildren, and nineteen great-grandchildren, to mourn her departure. She was an affectionate and devoted wife, a kind, indulgent, and wise mother, and in all the relations of life performed her duties with a conscientious devotion to the right. MAJOR LEVI GAYLORD. Levi Gaylord, well known in the early history of northern Ohio as " Major Gaylord," was born March 30, 1760, in New Cambridge (now Bristol), Hartford county, Connecticut. He was the oldest son of Captain Levi Gaylord and Lois Barnes Gaylord, and grandson of Benjamin Gaylord and Jeruaha Frisbie Gaylord, for many years (about 1720 to 1742) residents of Wallingford, Connecticut. The Gaylords (written also Gaillard, from the French mode, and sometimes Gaylard) now living in the United States are chiefly descendants of French Protestants who, in consequence of cruel and long-continued religious persecutions, left their pleasant homes in Normandy, about the year 1551, and took refuge in more tolerant England. From the period of the Lutheran Reformation they have usually been sturdy Protestants, doing their own thinking, both in religious and political matters. The subject of our notice was a lineal descendant of Deacon William Gaylord, who, with his family, came to America from the city of Exeter, England, or its vicinity, at the beginning of the year 1630, and who is also the ancestor of a majority of the Gaylords in the United States. He and the other immigrants of his company had one chief object in view in coming to America, viz., " freedom to worship God ;" and before embarking at Plymouth, England, formed themselves into a church, of which John Warham and John Maverick were chosen pastors and William Gaylord a deacon. They reached America in 1630, and settled at Dorchester, near Boston. In the years 1635, 1636, and 1638, Deacon William Gaylord was a representative in the general court at Boston. At the end of 1638 or beginning of 1639 he removed westward through the wilderness, and settled upon the banks of Connecticut river, where the Farmington river joins it. The place was named Windsor. Deacon William Gaylord was a "deputy" or representative from Windsor in the first general court of Connecticut, held at Hartford, in April, 1639. It is recorded of him that he was elected to the same office at forty-one semiannual elections. Levi Gaylord, Sr., was a soldier in the old French war of 1756-57, and at an early period of the Revolutionary war (June 10, 1776) was commissioned by congress as an "ensign in a regiment in the army of the united colonies, raised for the defense of American liberty." At a later period he was made captain in the army, a post of considerable honor at that period. HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 117 In all the relations of life he was a worthy man, honored and respected by all who knew him. After the close of the Revolutionary war he removed to Harpersfield, New York, where he died August 17, 1795, aged sixty-six years. His son, Levi Gaylord (2d), whose name heads this notice, at the age of fourteen years was apprenticed to the trade of manufacturing leather and shoes. Two years later, May 14, 1776, with the consent of his master, he enlisted in the company to which his father belonged, and marched to East Guilford, Connecticut, whence he sailed to NOW York, and up the Hudson to Fort Lee. Afterwards he returned to New York, and was with the troops under the immediate command of General Washington. At the battle of White Plains he participated in some sharp and uncomfortably close fighting, which he never forgot in after-life. However, he liked it much better than lying in trenches, or standing in the ranks to be fired at by distant or concealed batteries, without any chance to return the iron compliments. At the end of the year he again enlisted, and was in active service on Long Island sound and on the Hudson river. He was on the opposite side of the Hudson, but near enough to see the smoke of Esopus, when it was wantonly burned by the British, in October, 1777. At the end of his second year's service he enlisted for three years in a corps of artificers, so called, composed entirely of mechanics of every kind required in army service. They were to receive extra wages. During that period of service, being usually with the main army, except when in winter-quarters, he often saw the great generals then in service, viz., Washington, La Fayette, Lee, Knox, etc., and witnessed with admiration the training of cavalry recruits by that skillful general, Baron Steuben. He assisted in making and placing across the Hudson river the great chain by which it was hoped the British fleet would be prevented from going up the river to attack Albany and form a junction with General Burgoyne. But their hopes proved delusive, as the heavy war-ships broke the chain, to the great disgust of the young soldier and his comrades, who were anxiously watching the event. As an. artificer, unless on detached service occasionally, he was usually in the front, taking his place in the ranks with his musket when any fighting was to be done, then quietly returning to work for the army until called into battle. At the end of five years of arduous service he was honorably discharged, and returned to Connecticut, tired and somewhat broken in health. The Continental money with which he was paid was then nearly valueless. When returning home from New Jersey the kind people usually charged nothing for food and a chance to rest, but when otherwise, it required about one month's wages to pay for a frugal meal ; and when after his return home he desired to resume work, it cost over one month's wages to purchase a dozen shoemaker's awls ! But the years of service that he had cheerfully given to his country had taught him that patience and perseverance would generally secure success, and with a light heart, as well as purse, he engaged in work for himself. On February 22,1782, he was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Smith, second daughter of David Smith and Mary Potter Smith, of Southington, Connecticut, a young lady who possessed lively manners, a most amiable disposition, energy of character, and perfect health. He settled at first in Waterbury, Connecticut, but two years later (in 1784) removed to Harpersfield, Delaware county, New York. Here in the wilderness he bought a farm, and subsequently engaged in the business of tanning and shoemaking. That he was a worthy citizen is evident from the fact that he was successively elected to the offices of lieutenant, captain, and major in the New York troops, and also was several times elected supervisor of the town, the chief civil office. In the summer of 1804 he was induced to visit Ohio, for the purpose, if the country pleased him, of making it his home, and taking the agency for the survey and sale of the lands of Captain Caleb Atwater, an extensive land-owner in the Western Reserve. He took charge of the removal to Ohio of Mrs. Hannah Skinner, a widow lady, and her blind son, Joshua O'Donnell, well known to the early settlers in Ashtabula and adjoining counties. They were near relatives of the Harpers and Bartholomews of Harpersfield. Isaac Bartholomew and family, with some others, removed to Ohio at the same time, and the kind assistance rendered on the tedious journey was often gratefully mentioned by them in later years. Being pleased with the country,'he resolved to make it his home. On his return to New York he was requested by Oliver Phelps, then a. large holder of Western Reserve lands, to settle on and take charge of the survey and sale of his lands. Protracted sickness in his family prevented his removal for nearly two years. In the summer of 1806 be, with several of his neighbors, removed through the wilderness to northeastern Ohio, arriving at the Harper settlement, near the present village of Unionville, late in July. He concluded to settle on the Atwater tract in Geneva, and selected a farm on the south ridge, in the east part of the tract. He built a log house about one hundred rods west from the east line of the township, and soon after had the whole tract surveyed into lots. At a later period he had Denmark surveyed into sections, and afterwards into quarter-sections. After a time, there being an urgent demand for it, he established a tannery, and also erected a shoe-shop, and for several years carried on a moderate business in tanning and shoemaking. His tannery was probably the first one in the county. But the country was destitute of money, the people generally poor, so that by means of poor pay and bad debts his small capital was hopelessly sunk. Upon the organization of Ashtabula County he was, in 1812, elected one of the county commissioners, and made clerk of the board. These offices he held by re-election until elected a representative in the Ohio legislature, in October, 1817. His election district included nearly or quite all the " lake" counties from Pennsylvania to Sandusky. The journey to Columbus could only be made on horseback, and was scarcely a pleasant one late in November, as nearly all the streams had to be forded. The next year (1818) he was appointed county treasurer, which office he held until October, 1820, when he was again elected a representative in the Ohio legislature. At the next October election (1821), the new office of county auditor having become elective, although he did not desire it he was elected to that office, while he also came near a re-election to the legislature. However, he accepted the office thus forced upon him, and at the beginning of the second year of service (February, 1823) removed with his wife and a portion of his family to Jefferson, where he resided until the autumn of 1827, when he relinquished the active duties of his office to his son, who had long been his deputy, and returned to his farm in Geneva, where the remainder of his life was spent, except a summer trip, when upwards of eighty years old, to his old home and friends in Delaware county, New York. Until he attained the age of eighty-two years his bodily and mental powers remained vigorous. Then old age came upon him, and his vigor declined, until he suddenly passed away on the 3d of June, 1846, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. Probably no man ever lived in northern Ohio who was more venerated and beloved. His undoubted integrity, active benevolence, amiable temper, and gentle demeanor won the hearts of all who knew him. He was an early and active friend of emancipation and temperance, at a period when it cost much to be thus known. He was eminently a peace-maker, and was often appealed to for assistance in the settlement of disputed questions, both in civil and religious matters, and his decisions were always so just and wise as to give universal satisfaction, and leave the parties ever after, as before, his firm friends. Of his wife, Mrs. Lydia Smith Gaylord, so well and favorably known in the early history of Ashtabula County, some further mention may well be made. Indeed, if apace permitted, much might be written to illustrate and record the shining virtues and noble deeds of that excellent woman. Notwithstanding the lack of educational advantages shared with nearly all females of her time, she was a woman of varied knowledge as well as of superior mind. She was one who daily made her faith manifest by the practice of all good works. She visited the sick, nursed, and cured them. In cases where they were despondent, her cheerful counsels, active sympathy, and great knowledge of remedies and all the requirements of good nursing seemed like a charm to drive away disease. In the early settlement of the county she spent much time by day and night, undeterred by storms, darkness, or wild country roads, in visiting the afflicted for miles around and ministering to their needs. Sometimes she took the invalids to her home, that she might the better care both for them and her own somewhat numerous family. Especially did she do this where poverty was added to the other sorrows of the poor invalids. And all for sweet charity's sake ! Some ten years before her death she became totally blind, and subsequently received a fall with such severe injury that she was never again able to walk, but her cheerfulness under these complicated afflictions was unfailing. She neither repined at her sad fate nor seemed to wish it otherwise, except as it deprived her of the power of doing good to others. She had in her earlier days laid up a good store of religious reading, which now became a source of unbounded comfort to her. Her memory was remarkably retentive of all Bible lore, and she was able to give not only the exact language, but the book and chapter where it might be found. For more than sixty-four years this worthy pair had peacefully trod together the path of conjugal life. But the hour of her departure, for which she had cheerfully waited so long, came at last, and on May 17, 1846, she peacefully yielded up her life at the ripe age of eighty-two years. At the time when Major Gaylord and his wife died so nearly together (in May and June,1846) there had been no death in their immediate family for more than forty years. Eight of their children were married and had families, and with their husbands and wives were present at the funerals. 118 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. Of these persons (sixteen in number) only four now survive, viz. : Mrs. Polly Bowers, Mrs. Selina Prentice Gaylord, widow of Levi Gaylord (3d), and Harvey R. Gaylord and his wife, Mrs. Stella Atkins Gaylord. Their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren are numerous, and reside in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, and Texas. Harvey R. Gaylord, for nearly sixty years a resident of Ashtabula County, is the fourth son of Major Levi Gaylord and Lydia Smith Gaylord, and was born in Harpersfield, Delaware county, New York, July 25, 1805. In the succeeding year, 1806, his father and family removed to Ohio, settling on the south ridge in Geneva, then a part of Harpersfield. That part of the county was then an unbroken wilderness, heavily timbered, and for some years the huge forest trees remained at a short distance from the house, on the north side of the road, the earlier " clearings" being on the south and east. His earliest recollections are of the semi-annual migrations of the Indians, with their squaws and papooses, ponies and camp-kettles, between Sandusky and Cattaraugus (going east in the fall to hunt, and, after making sugar in the spring, returning west to plant corn), and of an intense childish desire to attend school with the older children. The school-house, the only one for several years within the present limits of Geneva, was a log structure on the west bank of Cowles' creek (then called Big brook), one and a.half miles from his home. When old enough he attended school there to a very limited extent, at first in summer only, but when old enough to gather up and burn the rubbish of a new farm in summer, then in winter only, and seldom for-more than six weeks in a year. One reason for the little time devoted to school undoubtedly was that, not being a strong, healthy child, he was often unable to endure the fatigue of the long walks to and from school, especially in bad weather. In those early schools the only branches taught in summer were the alphabet, spelling, and reading ; in winter, arithmetic (as far as ".The Rule of Three") was added ; also writing for a short time each day. Consequently his education was confined to the simplest rudiments of English studies. He never attended a school where geography or grammar, or any higher branches, were taught or studied. His father had a small library, larger indeed than most of his neighbors, but of rather too solid a character to interest children. Luckily for him a widow lady came to reside in the neighborhood when he was about eight years old, who had more attractive books, such as " Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress" and " Holy War," " Arabian Nights Entertainments," " Robinson Crusoe," and others of like character, from which she related wonderful stories to the little lad, and after his interest was aroused lent him the books to take home and read, until at length he came to regard everything except reading as irksome; and to be avoided when convenient. After a time a public library as established in Harpersfield and Geneva, and its books of history, biography, and travels, were procured and read with avidity. At the age of seventeen his father, believing that his health was too uncertain for a farmer, employed him in his office at Jefferson, and after a few months sent him to New York and Connecticut, hoping that his health would thereby be benefited, and that he would be able to attend a' gobd school for a few months. In the first he was to some extent successful, but failed to find among his relatives in Connecticut, where he spent the winter, such a school as he desired to attend. Being a green backwoods boy, the journey no doubt helped him to a better knowledge of the outside world than he could have obtained in home employments. At the age of nineteen or twenty he was an acting, if not (for want of proper age) a legal, deputy county auditor, and continued as such deputy until March, 1829 (some four years), taking nearly the entire charge of: the business for the last year or more, and apparently giving entire satisfaction to the public. In October, 1829, he was elected recorder, and was re-elected. in 1832, and again in 1835, serving in all nine years. On the la of May, 1830, he was united in marriage to Miss Stella M. Atkins, third daughter of Honorable Quintus F. Atkins, of Jefferson, Rev. Giles H. Cowles, D.D., officiating. He was assistant postmaster in Jefferson for some three or four years, and while holding that appointment (in 1835), by the construction of a map of Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, showing the leading roads and post-offioes for the use of the post-office department at Washington, with suitable reoommendations, he obtained an entire change and great improvement in the manner of carrying the mails, and especially of running stages between Ashtabula and Warren, which before that time had not passed through Jefferson. In the autumn of 1836 he made a journey on horseback through Ohio and Indiana, looking for a place for a home at the end of his term of office, intending to visit the present State of Iowa, then called the " Black Hawk purchase." Late in November he reached Vincennes, where a heavy rise in the Wabash river, with much ice, stopped his farther progress westward. He therefore turned south to the Ohio river at Riansville, and after some explanation purchased lands for a large farm in one of the river counties. But a protracted sickness in the spring of 1838 caused a change in his plans, and he sold his western lands and purchased a farm in Geneva, to which he removed at the end of his term of office, October, 1838. In October, 1839, he, with many other Ashtabula County men, attended a meeting of the American Anti-Slavery society at Cleveland, Honorable Myron Holley, of New York, ptesiding, and H. R. Gaylord, of Ashtabula, and F. D. Parish, of Sandusky, secretaries. At that meeting Mr. Holley brought forward his famous project for forming a distinct anti-slavery political party ; but the plan met with but little favor among the anti-slavery men of Ashtabula County at that time, and Judge Moffitt, of Monroe, was put forward as their representative to oppose it, which he did in an able and eloquent speech. Mr. Gaylord was, from early manhood, opposed to slavery in all its forms. At first the American Colonization society seemed the only available mode of action, and was fully indorsed by such men as Gerrit Smith and Arthur Tappan. He therefore, for several years, sustained a county society, of which Honorable Eliphalet Austin was sometimes president, Samuel Hendry secretary, and H. R. Gaylord treasurer, and freely spent his time and means in attending its meetings and promoting its objects. But a better acquaintance with the actual working of slavery and colonization, and of the views of slave-holders regarding the institution itself, caused a change in his views, and he became an ardent abolitionist in the year 1835. When the tide of fugitives from the south set northward through Ashtabula County, he never failed to assist them on their way to the extent of his ability. In politics he was an anti-slavery Whig;(though attending the Buffalo Free-Soil convention in 1848, and faithfully sustaining by word and vote its nominees); but he gladly joined the Republican party at its first organization in 1854, and has sustained it to the best of his ability since. While recorder in 1834, to obviate the great difficulty of tracing land-titles, he took measures to secure the passage of a law to authorize the transcribing of records from Trumbull and Geauga counties, and the necessary transcripts were completed in three large volumes before the end of his term of office. As the agent of the commissioners, he examined the land-titles and wrote the mortgages given for loans of the surplus revenue funds deposited with the county about the year 1838. In 1846 he was one of the district assessors to make a new assessment of lands at their value, including improvements. The previous assessment had been made without 'regard to improvements, except to a limited extent. At a later period he made a general index to the thirty-seven volumes of records in the recorder's office, a work of great benefit to the public, as many of the indexes were inaccurate, and all of them defective in the extent of information required. This is believed to have been the first index of its kind made in the Western Reserve. From 1831 to 1864 be was engaged to a limited extent in the sale of wild lands for settlement and cultivation in the townships of Geneva, Denmark, and Richmond. His youngest son, Henry T., having died from wounds received at the battle of Shiloh Church, HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 119 Tennessee, in April, 1862, and subsequent exposure, and his older children having previously migrated westward, he sold his farm in Geneva in 1864 and removed to Saginaw, Michigan, where he is now engaged in active business at the age of nearly seventy-three years. Recently he has sustained a severe loss in the death of his oldest son, Augustine S., one of the rising young lawyers of Michigan for some time, and, until sickness, long continued, compelled his resignation, assistant attorney-general of the United States for the interior department in Washington. While serving in that office, in August, 1876, he was appointed one of the commissioners and the law-adviser of the board to visit the Indians of the western plains, under Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, and endeavor to make treaties with them for the purchase of the Black Hills country and their removal to reservations, all previous attempts having failed. While fully successful in the objects of the mission, sickness was induced by the unwholesome water of the country, from which he died in June, 1877. His third and only living son, Edward W., resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has been, since quite a young man, engaged in building and managing railroads. His present family consists of his wife, Mrs. Stella Atkins Gaylord, an excellent and able woman, with whom he has lived forty-eight years in married life, two daughters, all that remain alive, two grandsons, and a granddaughter. The widow of his son, Augustine S., with two daughters and two sons, resides near him. Photo. by Woodworth, Geneva, Ohio. HON. FREEMAN THORP, of Geneva, a representative in the general assembly, and the subject of this sketch, was born in a log house in Geneva, June 16, 1844. He is a son of Dennis Thorp, Esq., a highly-respected citizen, and for many years a justice of the peace of Geneva township, is a grandson of Aaron Thorp, one of the early settlers of Austinburg, and a great-grandson of Peter Thorp, a soldier of the French and Indian war, from Massachusetts colony. Freeman is the youngest of a family of four, and is by education fairly the product of our common schools, supplemented by a constant habit of study in after-life. His early life was passed upon the farm and in the workshop up to the age of sixteen, when at the breaking out of the war for the suppression of the Rebellion, in 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company D, Second Ohio Cavalry, serving three years in that capacity. His commanding officer said of him at the close of his term of service, in a letter to the governor of Ohio, " He was a faithful, conscientious soldier, studious in his leisure moments, his moral and social qualities excellent, his habits perfect." This, which was true of him then, is true of him to-day, being a man of exemplary habits. After the war he engaged in the practice of photography, studying at the same time the profession of portrait-painting, in which he soon attained to high rank, without other aid than such as the best printed works' uponthe subject and his own genius and experiments afforded, and in 1870 was elected an honorary member of a Berlin society of art. This attracted considerable attention in this country, and coming to the notice of public men at Washington, they invited Mr. Thorp to come to that city, and he has practiced his profession there during a portion of each year with eminent success, standing at this time securely in the front rank of " American portrait-painters." In 1874 his picture was the one accepted in a competitive painting of portraits of General - 30 - Simon Cameron for the war department; he was honored soon after with a commission from the President for a portrait of himself, and also a portrait of Mrs. Colonel Fred. Grant. In 1873, Mr. Thorp declined an appointment as honorary commissioner to the Vienna exposition, tendered him by the President, to come home and engage in the political campaign of that year. In political discussion, Mr. Thorp, though earnest, is fair and courteous to his political opponents. In the campaign of 1877 he was nominated on the Republican ticket for member of the general assembly, having for competitors Hon. Eusebius E. Lee, Democrat; Professor Jacob Tuckerman, Independent Republican ; and Charles Talcott, Prohibitionist. After a spirited campaign, Mr. Thorp received a majority over all his competi tors, and the certificate of election. Soon after his election he went to Cincinnati, and entered into competition with other artists in painting portraits of ex-Attorney-General Alphonse Taft, for the department of justice at Washington. In this undertaking he achieved eminent success, distancing all his competitors, and adding greatly to his professional reputation. His work in Cincinnati was completed just in time for the commencement of the Sixty-third general assembly, which began its session in the city of Columbus, January 7, 1878. As a member of the legislature, Mr. Thorp has been an industrious, conscientious, painstaking member, opposing with manly firmness and marked ability every abuse of legislative power or encroachment upon the constitutional rights of the people. His legislative career begins auspiciously, and gives promise of great usefuiness to the State. Mr. Thorp was married August 25, 1865, to Miss Orlena A. Eggleston, of Geneva, daughter of E. M. Eggleston, Esq., a skilled mechanic, a foreman in the Geneva Tool company, and a man greatly respected. They have two children, a daughter, Miss Nellie I. Thorp, aged ten, and a son, Clark L. Thorp, aged eight. JOHN COLEMAN HUBBARD, M.D. Born in town of Trenton, Oneida county, New York, 1820. Graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, 1844-45. Has practiced his profession in Ashtabula since. Is a son of the late William Hubbard, of this town, and grandson of the late Isaac Hubbard, of Middletown, Connecticut. DR. ELIJAH COLEMAN. The name of Dr. Elijah Coleman is identified with the early history of the country, and will be held in grateful remembrance by many who have experienced" the benefits of his skill and kindness on the bed of sickness and pain. Dr. Coleman was born at Norton, Suffolk county, Massachusetts, on the 14th of May, 1782. He read physic and surgery in Castleton, Vermont, with his uncle, Dr. Witherill, since known as one of the Territorial judges of Michigan. Having completed his professional duties he commenced the practice of medicine in the State of Connecticut, but being assured that the west then held out desirable prospects for young men, he decided to trust his chance for fortune in that direction. He arrived in Jefferson, this county, in 1808 or 1809, and commenced his experience of the hardships of frontier life by resuming the practice of medicine among the new settlements in that region. Some idea of the nature of those hardships may be derived from the fact that his ride at the time comprehended the eastern ranges in our county (with the exception of Conneaut and vicinity), and likewise included portions of Erie and Crawford counties, Pennsylvania. In addition to the labors of his profession, he was agent of the late Gideon Granger in completing the first court-house and jail in Jefferson, and performed the duties of postmaster, justice of the peace, and township clerk for that township. He sustained the loss of all his effects, together with the mail and township records, in the burning of the Caldwell buildings in-Jefferson, in 1811, which accident was caused by the bursting of a barrel of high wines. In 1812, Dr. Coleman received an appointment of surgeon in the western army, to which he repaired in August of that year; was stationed first at Cleveland, and afterwards at Camp Avery, on the Huron river, then under the command of General Simon Perkins. In the month of April, 1813, Dr. Coleman left the camp at Huron in company with Titus Hayes, of Wayne, and Captain Burnham, of Bins-min, for Fort Meigs, on the Maumee. During this trip he had two very narrow escapes from capture and death at the hands of the Indians. Some incidents in Dr. Coleman's life, as furnished by Dr. J. C. Hubbard, and by his daughter, Mrs. Robertson, are as follows: The pioneer doctors of Ashtabula County were subjected to most extraordinary hardships. A large part of this county is flat, with a stiff clay soil, and was heavily timbered ; many parts of it were uninviting to the tide of settlers seeking homes in the far west. 120 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. Six months of the year many of the roads were almost impassable. As late as the year 1852 the regular stage-coach was abandoned between Ashtabula and Jefferson during the muddy season, and a lumber-wagotawas substituted ; four horses were required to draw the lighter conveyance. Physicians were obliged to keep in the saddle during the spring and fall months. The subject of this sketch, Dr. Elijah Coleman, and the late Dr. 0. K. Hawley, of Austinburg, rode for the first fifteen years all over the county on horseback by day and by night. Dr. Coleman was frequently called by night to ride as far as Pierpont through the forest, following the "bridle-paths" as hest he could, while hungry wolves were howling about in all directions. These visits were often paid to " newcomers," who had squatted in the woods, and were as poor as can be imagined: The doctor relates that he rarely got anything among them to eat except " johnnycake," fried salt pork, and "whisky pickles." These disagreeable rides were performed year after year without the expectation of adequate reward, and they deserve to be recorded in justice to the memory of a generous, resolute man. He had a keen appreciation of the humorous. Traveling at one time he was obliged to get his dinner at one of the primitive taverns. When he came to settle his bill they charged him for whisky. He said, " I drank no whisky." The landlord replied, " It makes no difference ; it was on the table, you might have had it. Ho paid his bill, concluding to be even with him at some future time. On his return he called at the same place for dinner. Sitting down at the table, he placed his saddle-bags, containing his medicines, by him. At settling he charged for medicine. " But I had no medicine," says the proprietor. " No matter; it was on the table, you might have had it," the doctor replied. Dr. Coleman was possessed of sound judgment, and was well up in the practical skill of the profession in his day. He was deliberate and faithful in bestowing his attention on the sick. He never hurried, but stayed long enough to do his work thoroughly in severe cases. He would sometimes spend several days in eases of critical sickness, not seeming to think of fees he might get by going his usual rounds among those of his patients who were not in danger. He was gifted with both wit and humor in a remarkable degree, and was a good story-teller, which was considered an accomplishment fifty years ago. He delighted many a fireside with quaint stories connected with his calling and his experiences in the army. The doctor was a philosophical practitioner, and though he flourished in a day when it was fashionable to dispense medicine with a lavish hand, he often exposed his faith in the healing power of nature by trying expectant plans of treatment. In 1811 he was married to Phebe Spencer, only sister of the "Spencer brothers," a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and to whom he owed much of his success in after-life. STEPHEN H. FARRINGTON, M.D. Dr. Farrington was born in Winchester, New Hampshire, January 10, 1800, and died in Ashtabula, March 8, 1875. He studied medicine and graduated at Castleton, Vermont, in 1823. Leaving his native State, he located in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1824, and continued the practice of his chosen profession until a few weeks before his death. I am informed by Dr. Hubbard, to whom I am indebted for this sketch, that Dr. Farrington was a thorough scholar, very painstaking and careful, and, as a natural result, enjoyed the confidence of the people to a remarkable degree. In his work he was self-sacrificing, sympathetic, and conscientious. Considering the backward state of the country at the time Dr. Farrington settled in Ashtabula, it will be conceded that few medical men were ever called upon to perform more arduous service for any community than devolved upon this resolute and good man. He was truly the friend and good adviser of the poor. He was an honest, independent, and bold thinker on all subjects likely to engage the attention of a thoughtful mind. In 1848 he was elected a representative to the legislature of Ohio. In the life of Dr. Farrington we have an example of honesty, faithfuiness, and capacity, both in the practice of his profession and the councils of the country. DR. S. S. BURROWS Sylvester Smith Burrows, son of William Burrows, a native of Noble, New York, was born in Busti, Chautauqua county, New York, November 11, 1826. His father was of English descent, and his mother, whose maiden name was Maria Smith,. and said to have descended from the Marshalls, was of Scottish descent. In the spring of 1831 his parents, with family, removed to the town of Ripley, in the same county, where they remained only a little more than two' years, when they settled in the adjoining township of North East, in Erie county, . Pennsylvania. Here, in quite a number of farm localities, the later share of his early life was spent, assisting in the farm-work in summer and attending the district school during the winter. With the exception of two terms at Westfield academy, under Professor Pilsbury, and two .terms at Kingsville academy, under Professors Graves and Fowler, all the education he received was at the district school. Afterwards he taught school for six successive winters. In the spring of 1849 he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Hall, of North East, and graduated in the spring of 1853, at the Michigan University of Medicine. The following winter attended lectures at Cleveland medical college. Meanwhile the family had removed to Ohio, settling in Ashtabula, near the township of Kingsville, in the spring of' 1850: In the fall of 1852 the family to which he belonged moved to Geneva; and here, in February, 1854, he married and commenced the practice of medicine. With the exception of eighteen months spent in the township of Lenox, in the years of 1855 and 1856, practicing his profession, his home up to the present time has been in Geneva. In the fall of 1861 he received an appointment as assistant-surgeon in the Twenty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, then in camp at Jefferson. He followed the fortunes of said regiment in their campaigns through Western Virginia, until, by reason of ill health, he was compelled to resign, in February, 1863. In the fall of same year he took a contract of surgeoncy and was assigned to duty at Camp Dennison, where he remained nearly one year, when he was commissioned as surgeon of the One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and remained with said regiment in the field until the close of the war. Returning home in June, 1865, he continued to practice his profession until the winter of 1876 and 1877, when he occupied a seat in the State senate, being elected to that position in the fall of 1876 from the twenty-fourth senatorial district. LUCIUS DEAN KELLOGG Born June 9, 1816, in Salem (now Monroe), Ohio, his education was acquired at the common district school and the old Jefferson academy. In early life he served as a clerk in a country store ; subsequently studied medicine with Dr. Greenleaf Fifield, of Conneaut, Ohio, and graduated at Geneva, New York, medir cal college in the spring of 1839. In the same year commenced the 'practice of his profession at Albion, Pennsylvania. Removed to Williamsfield, in this county, in 1840. Married, December 16, 1841, to Miss Emily R. Castle, daughter of Amasa and Rosalind Castle, at Ashtabula. Remained in Williasusfield, itt the practice of his profession, until 1851, when he removed to Conneaut to occupy the place left vacant by the death of Dr. Fifield, where he remained until 1855, when he removed to Canton, Fulton county, Illinois, where he practiced his profession until June 1, 1861, when he received the appointment of surgeon of the Seventeenth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, then in camp at Peoria, Illinois; soon after which the regiment was ordered to the front in Missouri. The first battle in which it took an active part was at Frederiektown, Missouri. It afterwards participated in the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Tennessee. From Donelson ordered to Pittsburg Landing, and took part in the fearful struggle of two days at Shiloh, in which engagement probably each of the contending armies suffered greater loss in killed and wounded, in proportion to the number engaged, than in any other engagement during the war. After marching and countermarching over a large part of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi, the regiment embarked at Memphis for Vicksburg, in the siege of which, being little less than a continuous battle for weeks, it participated until its fall and final surrender, in all of which engagements and service the surgeon of' the regiment was at his post of duty in the field and hospital, serving most of the time as brigade-surgeon. At Memphis he received the appointment of division surgeon-in-general, McArthur's division, which he held until the corps was reorganized, when, on account of ill health, he resigned and left the service. On regaining his health, in June, 1865, he was appointed by the then secretary of the treasury assistant appraiser of merchandise for the port of New Orleans, the duties of which office he discharged under that appointment until April 10, 1867, when he received a commission for the same office signed by Andrew Johnson, as President, and Hugh McCullough, secretary of the treasury. Continued to discharge the duties of the same office until April 21, 1869, when he was commissioned by. President Grant as general appraiser of merchandise for the south, which position he held, with headquarters at New Orleans, until the autumn of 1871, when, on account of protracted and dangerous sickness consequent upon the miasmatic and unhealthy character of the climate, he resigned the position and returned to his home in Canton, Illinois ; soon after which, on account of inability to resume the practice of his profession, by reason of ill health, he HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 121 disposed of his property in Canton and returned to his native State and the county of his birth. As an evidence of his reputation for official integrity, it was once said to the writer of this by a former resident of this county, whose public and private character for honesty and integrity is above reproach or suspicion, after a visit to New Orleans, " I believe he," referring to the subject of this sketch,' is the only man connected with the custom-house at New Orleans who is not charged, and proba bly truthfully, with peculation and fraud." Politically he is a supporter of President Hayes, his southern policy, and administration. As a religionist, not zealous or bigoted ; is willing that each shall enjoy his own faith, and demands the same tolerance from others, always regarding the moral obligation to do unto others as he would that others should do unto him. He now resides in East Ashtabula, on the premises formerly owned and occupied as a homestead by the late Amasa Castle, Esq., with health restored, in an independent and pleasant retirement, not permitting the common vicissitudes and perplexities of life to harass or disturb him. His wife, Emily R., daughter of Amasa and Rosalind Castle, born in Ashtabula, August 15, 1823, married in the township of her birth, December 16, 1841, was with her husband during most of his military service and residence at New Orleans, and probably saved his life by hastening, unattended, from Ashtabula to New Orleans, in July, 1870, to nurse and care for him during a dangerous iliness consequent upon the unhealthy climate of that locality. Without waiting or hoping for his recovery in that climate, she at once procured his removal to a steamboat and proceeded to the north. Her treatment of the ease proved to be judicious, and from the time of her assuming its management he began to mend, and continued to improve until final recovery. A lady of refinement, she calls around and attracts to herself the best society of her neighborhood, and makes her home the resort of the intelligent and refined. She is the mother of Augustus G. Kellogg, lieutenant-commander, United States navy, at present on duty at Portsmouth navy yard, an only child. And during all the years of her married life she has been an affectionate and exemplary wife and mother. AMOS K. FIFIELD, M.D., son of Doctor Greenleaf and Laura Fifield, was born February 14, 1833, in Conneaut, Ohio. Graduated at College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in March, 1855. Was married May 30, 1860, to Maria S. Kellogg, daughter of Hon. Abner Kellogg, Jefferson, Ohio. Has two children : Walter K. Fifield, born February 6, 1866; Catherine L. Fifield, born June 30, 1868. The subject of this sketch commenced the practice of his profession immediately after graduation, in Conneaut, and continued to reside there until the commencement of the American civil war. He entered the army as surgeon of the Twenty-ninth Regiment Ohio Volunteers, and was commissioned as such, and mustered into the United States service, August 25, 1861. He continued with the regiment during its organization at Camps Giddings and Chase, in this State. Left the State for the seat of war with the regiment. Was present and participated in the first battle of Winchester, when Stonewall Jackson was defeated, and General Shields badly wounded. After the battle he was placed in charge of Court-House hospital. This hospital was filled mostly by wounded Confederate prisoners, and while amputating the thigh of one of them, which had already become gangrenous, the doctor received a slight scratch from the point of the knife. Erysipelatous inflammation of a very malignant type speedily followed, and he was in great danger of losing an arm, if not his life. After partial convalescence, he was obliged to return home to recruit his health. At the expiration of thirty days, and while yet carrying his arm in a sling, he rejoined the army in the Shenandoah valley in time to participate in the march of General Shields to join General McDowell at Fredericksburg, on his route to Richmond. He, however, immediately returned with General Shields to intercept General Jackson on his return from his raid up the valley after General Banks. General Shields succeeded in intercepting General Jackson, and was himself disastrously defeated at Fort Republic, Virginia, June 9, 1862, one division of his army being nearly annihilated. After the wounded from this battle were cared for, and the field hospitals broken up, the doctor joined the army at Alexandria, Virginia, and proceeded with it to take part in the campaign of the valley of Virg,inja, the army being under the command of General John Pope. The disastrous results of this campaign are well known, and the army soon returned broken and shattered to the defenses of Washington, where they were again taken in charge by General McClellan. The duties of the medical officers during this march, and the series of battles which culminated as the second battle of Bull Run, were extremely arduous. The almost entire lack of proper supplies, and the constant moving of the wounded to the rear by railroad and wagon trains, made the position of the surgical staff one of unusual responsibility. While with the army on its march to the field of Antietam, he was detached by general order from army headquarters, and sent to Washington on special duty, which being performed, he joined his command at Frederick City, Maryland. He remained there on duty but a short time, and spent the winter of 1862-63 in performing various duties at Harper's Ferry, Dumfries, and Aquia Creek. While at the latter place, as surgeon-in-chief of the Second Division, Twelfth Army Corps, he organized a large field hospital, which, after the battle of Chancellorsville, grew to mammoth proportions. The doctor was present and on duty during the campaign and battle of Chancellorsville, under General Hooker, after which he again returned to Aquia Creek, and remained there until the inauguration of the campaign which terminated in the battle of Gettysburg. He was one of the chief opeiators during and after that battle, being at the operating-table two days and two nights continually, the operators of the surgical staff having after this battle an unusual number of severe or capital operations to perform*. Soon after the battle of Gettysburg, the doctor proceeded with the detachment ordered to New York to quell the draft riots of 1863 in that city. After returning from New York, the detachment again joined the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Soon after this the doctor proceeded with the Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps, under General Hooker, to reinforce the Army of the Cumberland, which they reached soon after the defeat of that army at the battle of Chickamauga. He passed the winter of 1863-64 in charge of the hospital at Bridgeport, Alabama, serving at that time with Second Division, Twelfth Army Corps. In the spring of 1864, previous to starting on the Atlanta campaign, the medical department of the army was entirely reorganized. Each division had now a complete hospital of its own, making reports to the medical director of the army corps, but otherwise acting independently. Each division hospital was composed of surgeon-in-charge and three corps of operators, consisting of three for each table, one of each of these to be chief of the table to which he was ordered. Besides these there were innumerable assistant surgeons, as many as the surgeon-in-charge might think necessary. These officers were all detailed and assigned by special orders from headquarters, and no surgeon was expected or allowed to perform an important operation except those detailed for that purpose. To this organization there was attached the regular equipment of a field hospital, consisting of ambulances, baggage- and supply-wagons, hospital tents, cooking apparatus, medical supplies, etc. It was expected that this hospital could care for many hundred wounded at a moment's warning. When we consider that the surgeon-in-charge was responsible for all this property, that the wounded were properly cared for, and that all operations were promptly performed, while it might be necessary to move the hospital with the wounded nearly every day, and as early as daylight, it will be readily seen that the position was one of great mental and physical labor. At the commencement of the Atlanta campaign, Dr. Fifield was detailed as surgeon-in-charge of the field hospital of the Second Division, Twentieth Army Corps, it being one of the organizations heretofore described. The labors of the surgical staff during this campaign were probably the most severe, unremitting, and long continued of any campaign of the war. The doctor remained in charge of this hospital during the remainder of his term of service, and was mustered out by expiration of commission, August 25, 1864. After leaving the army, Doctor Fifield resumed the practice of his profession at Conneaut, Ohio, where he continues to practice at this time. JOSEPH A. HOWELLS, born September 12, 1832, in St. Clairsville, Belmont county, Ohio,—the oldest son of William C. and Mary Dean Howells. His father was born in the town of Hay, in Wales ; his mother in New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio. In 1840, Mr. Howells' father moved to Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, where he published the Hamilton Intelligences for nine years. During this time J. A. Howells attended the public schools and worked in the office. In those days the printing business was much as it is now. It was hard to make it pay. Feeling a deep interest in everything that concerned his father, while still a mere boy he assisted him in the office, and was soon a full hand at the old-fashioned Washington hand-press. He has ever since been connected with his father in business. June 29, 1852, he came with the family to Ashtabula, and worked in the office of the Ashtabula Sentinel, his father entering into partnership with the Hon. Henry Fassett. January 1, 1853, the office being removed to Jefferson, he came with it. In October, 1854, he purchased J. L. Oliver's interest in the office, and began the publication of the Sentinel under the firm-name of J. A. Howells & Co. Mr. Howells is a man of good business qualifications, and has been quite successful in building up a large business, the credit of which he equally divides with 122 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. his father, with whom, in all business enterprises, he has always been associated. The great ambition of his life has been to publish a large, well-printed, and carefully-edited newspaper. Those who know the Ashtabula Sentinel of to-day can judge how successful have been his endeavors. A prosperous business has been built up, although a large amount is constantly being spent in the production of the paper. Yet they have built a fine building where are located a printing-office and book-store, the business of the firm being publishing, job-printing, and book-selling. On the 23d day of June, 1856, he.was united in marriage with Miss Eliza W. Whitmore, by the late William Barton. The result of this marriage has been four children, three of whom are now living, viz., William Dean, Jr., Mary Elizabeth, and Beatrice H. Mr. Howells' father and grandfather were Abolitionists in their day, and he has followed, as a radical Republican. He gives all whom he meets a cordial welcome, and generally endeavors to get an "item" out of them, for it appears the Sentinel and its readers are ever uppermost in his mind, and, in true editor fashion, he always stands ready to capture a straw. Mr. Howells is a member of no secret society. Ho has held various places of responsibility in the village of Jefferson, has been a member of the board of education for a great many years, chairman of the county Republican central committee, and postmaster since March 1, 1869. JAMES REED, the senior editor of the Ashtabula Telegraph, was born in the city of New York, in the year 1812, of parents from Canada, his mother being of English birth. It was in this city that his infancy and childhood were spent. Daring the latter period the family removed to Norwalk, Connecticut, where the rudiments of an English education were obtained at the district schools of the State. From parental preference and interest he entered early upon an apprenticeship to the business of a shoemaker, in which considerable progress was made ; but it not being to his taste, it was abandoned at about the age of sixteen, when his parents had become residents of the adjoining town of Wilton. It was here that the conclusion was reached to accompany the abandonment with a little dramatic effect, which should prevent any effort to induce a reconsideration. At the close of a week's work, in the presence of his shopmates, without a note of warning to any, the axe was procured and the bench upon which he had sat and labored for years was split into kindling-wood, and, with every article of kit, was thrust into the stove, and everything that was consumable was reduced to ashes. About this time an advertisement appeared in the Danbury, Connecticut, Recorder, the establishment that has since, it is believed, merged into the Danbury News,—so famous for its humor,—for an apprentice to the printing business. There was little delay in responding— perhaps less on account of the contumacy that preceded the burnt sacrifice, and the abandonment of a trade that it was hoped had been adopted for life. It was proposed to make application for the place in person. The distance was twenty miles, and there was no way to overcome the distance but to walk. This was accomplished in good time, and the applicant for the place met with a prompt acceptance. The day after his arrival was publication day, and he was at once introduced to the press,—an old Dr. Franklin, or Ramage press, such as the reader may have seen among the old relics of the patent office at Washington. The ink was put on with balls, the days of rollers not arriving until some time afterwards. Notwithstanding the youth and greenness of the young acolyte, the whole edition was " beaten off" in usual time. His term of service, though proving agreeable, was of short duration, owing to the death of the publisher, Mr. Osborn, after an apprenticeship of only three months. This occurrence left the subject of this biography without place or occupation. He then went to Norwalk, and became connected with the Fairfield County Republican, a paper started by a company of disaffected gentlemen in opposition to the Gazette. The publisher was an old school-fellow named Albert Hunford. The Republican soon died out, and he was again adrift. His fortunes were then cast with the old Norwalk Gazette. Here, too, he met with a wooden—Franklin --press, and became rather expert in both "beating" and "pulling" at the remarkable old machine. Here the days of his apprenticeship were completed under the tutorship of S. W. Benedict, editor and proprietor. His first efforts as a journeyman printer were made on the New York Daily Advertiser, published in Wall street, by Theodore Dwight. A situation upon a morning daily, where the natural order of day and night were reversed, was found to be wearisome and slavish,—too much so for endurance. It was, therefore, exchanged at the first opportunity for a much more pleasant one, upon the New York Evangelist,—weekly. The Evangelist was started by our old friend Benedict, who had sold out the Gazette, and, with Rev. Joshua Leavit as editor, set out with the new paper. This was about the year 1835. While here he was offered a situation as office manager of the New Orleans Observer, a religious paper, just about being started in connection with the new Presbyterian church of that city, under the pastorate of the Rev. Joel Parker. Two seasons—those of 1836-37—were spent here. The loss of health induced a return in the latter year to the north. His lot, by purchase, was soon cast again with the Norwalk Gazette, in the conduct' of which he was materially assisted by Dr. T. B. Butler, a practicing physician of Norwalk, and afterwards a member of congress from the fourth district of Connecticut, where the connection was dissolved. His residence in Norwalk continued until the spring of 1853. Connecticut was then taken leave of for the west,—Hudson, Ohio. The position of business agent for the Hudson Planing and Lumber company was accepted. The company, however, failed during the second year, and change was again the order of the day. From Hudson he went to Cleveland, and again into the printing business. A place was taken in the job-office of the Cleveland Herald, and from that he became the foreman of the Plain Dealer job-room. Printers' strikes and unions soon made it inconvenient to continue in that position, and hearing of the Telegraph, through Mr. E. W. Fisk, a visit was made to Ashtabula, and negotiations were at once opened for its purchase. It was then published by Messrs. George Willard, Alfred Hendry, and H. L. Morrison, under the firm of Willard, Hendry & Morrison, as a conservative organ. It was taken by the present proprietor in April, 1856. The drift of the paper remained substantially the same until the nomination of Fremont, when it entered that campaign under Republican colors, since which time its fortunes have been steadily cast with the Republican party. Of its usefuiness this is not the place to speak. With its history for the score of years since Mr. Reed became connected with the paper, the people of Ashtabula County are familiar. WARREN PLATT SPENCER. The Spencer family, of which the subject of this sketch is a descendant, were " Roger Williams'" people, and first settled in Rhode Island. His branch of the family removed to Connecticut in early times, thence to Fishkill Landing, Dutchess county, New York, and afterwards, about the year 1803, to Windham, Greene county, in the same State. Here the grandfather of the subject of this notice died soon after, and the grandmother, with the three younger sons,—Daniel M., Harvey S., and Platt R., with her only daughter, Phebe, afterwards Mrs. Dr. Coleman, of Ashtabula,—determined to remove to the "Now Connecticut." She made the long, perilous journey through the wilderness, reaching Jefferson, in Ashtabula, in the year 1807 or 1808. After a residence in that town of some two years she removed, first to Austinburg, remaining in that town about one year, when she again broke up her home, and settled in Geneva with her family, where the son, Harvey S., married Miss Louisa Snedeker, in the year 1817, and settled on a farm on the North Ridge road, about one mile east of the village of Geneva. Here Warren Platt, his third sou, was born on the 23d day of June, 1825. In the year following, his father removed to a new farm on the shore of Lake Erie, in Geneva, the locality being quite widely known at the present time as " Sturgeon Point." Here the son grew up in the rugged duties of farm life, with seasons of attendance at the district school. It was just the place at that early day to get deeply in love with nature as exhibited in the surroundings. The waters of the lake lay before, and the vast forests, almost unbroken, formed the background of, the scene. The limited facilities for study and improvement afforded by the schools of the time became apparent as the sou approached man's estate, and he determined to cut loose from the old home and seek other fields. The want of means to study abroad was met with the pen, in the use of which he had been carefully and kindly taught by his uncle, Platt R. Spencer, who had already become famous as the foremost penman and teacher of his time. Aided by the avails of teaching the art of writing, he was enabled to pursue his studies for several terms at Jefferson academy, taught by Ashbel Bailey, and at Farmington academy, Trumbull county, Ohio, under charge of Professor Thomas. In the autumn of 1846 he entered Twinsburg institute, in Summit county, Ohio, presided over by Rev. Samuel Bissell, and one of the most popular schools of that day in the State, where he remained, with the exception of two terms, for three years, leaving in August, 1849. On returning to Ashtabula County, in the month of September following, he entered the auditor's office as a clerk, the office at that time being presided over by that excellent officer, J. C. A. Bushnell. In the capacity of clerk he alternated between the auditor's and treasurer's offices for four years,—the last-named office being administered by P. R. Spencer and Caleb Spencer during 'the time. In September, 1854, he left Jefferson, went to Buffalo, New York, and took charge of the writing department of the public schools of the city for six months, and then became a teacher in the Buffalo mercantile college of Bryant, Lusk & HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO - 123 Stratton, the second college of the great chain that afterwards took in nearly all the principal cities of the Union and the Canadian provinces. Serving in such capacity about one year, he next was employed as teacher of penmanship and as book-keeper for the Buffalo female seminary, under charge of Dr. Charles West, serving till June, 1857. In August of that year, having for several years previous spent his leisure time in the reading of the law, he went to the city of Albany, New York, and entered the law department of the University of Albany as a student, graduating therefrom, on examination, in the class of 1858. Returning to Ohio in March of that year, he was employed as a teacher in the Cleveland business college, Dr. J. C. Bryant, principal, and in August following was united in marriage with Miss Parthenia H. Gaylord, daughter of Levi Gaylord, Jr., and granddaughter of Major Levi Gaylord, a soldier of the Revolution, who settled in Geneva in the year 1806. Finding his health failing from long and close labor and study, he set out in the month of March, 1859, for the terra incognita of that time,-the Pike's Peak gold country,-together with six companions, footing the entire distance from the Missouri river up the great Arkansas valley to Pueblo; in Colorado, thence north to the South Platte river, where the city of Denver is now built, and from there into the mountains to where the " Gregory mines" were located, now the site of Black Hawk and Central. City, driving an ox-train the entire distance, about eight hundred miles.' This train was reputed at the time to be one of the first dozen to reach the "diggins" after the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Spending the summer of 1859 with his companions in the mining region, he returned in the following fall down the valley of the Platte river to the Missouri, walking the entire distance, and assisting to drive the train of oxen. This campaign of " roughing it" restored his health completely, and he went back to Buffalo in November, 1859, entered into a copartnership with Messrs. Bryant & Stratton in conducting the Buffalo mercantile college, which existed for nearly two years, when he withdrew, and was chosen by the board of education to conduct the writing department of the Buffalo public schools. In the spring of 1864, after serving two years, he resigned the position and returned to Geneva, Ohio, for a home, but continued to teach at intervals in Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Buffalo, and other points till July, 1868, when he, with C. A. Vaughan, purchased the office of the Geneva Times newspaper, established January 1, 1867, by W. H. Thorp. Mr. Spencer was, however, the editor of the Times from the first, and wrote the " salutatory" for the first number of the paper, issued December 20, 1866. The copartnership of Spencer & Vaughan terminated September 30, 1873, by the purchase of Mr. Vaughan's interest by H. W. Lindergroen, the junior member of the present firm. The Geneva Times at this writing, 1878, is in its twelfth volume, with Mr. Spencer still at its head, laboring faithfully to make it a journal worthy of the enterprising town in which it is published, and of its numerous and intelligent readers. The Times was established as a Republican paper in polities, in which political faith it steadfastly remains. JOHN P. RIEG was born at Baldenheim, Canton de Markolzheim, France, April 18, 1840 ; was an only child, and an orphan at the age of fourteen years. He attended the public schools the number of years required by law, and afterwards was placed under a private tutor to fit himself for college. Becoming restless, and having an undo living in Warren, Pennsylvania, he conceived the idea of going to America. At the age of fifteen he found himself in Warren, possessed of a fair education in German and French, but entirely ignorant of the English language. He was apprenticed to Mr. Benjamin Nessmith, a harness-maker, whom he served for two years. Becoming dissatisfied with the trade he was learning, lie left Mr. Nesamith, and went to live with Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Weaver, and attended the public schools for six months, in the mean time looking about for some kind of employment that would suit his taste, when he finally entered the printing-office of D. W. C. James, and learned the " art preservative of arts." In 1861 he purchased the office of the Conneaut Reporter, and has ever since that time, with the exception of sixteen months, held an interest in said office and been a resident of Conneaut. June 12 of the same year he was married to Julia K. Brooks, of Erie, and three children have been born to them,-May 8, 1863, Frank F.; December 15, 1865, Mary S.; and December 5, 1872, John B. FERDINAND LEE. In the group of editors of leading newspapers in Ashtabula County will be found a fine portrait of this gentleman, who presides over the destinies of the Jefferson Gazette, and is the youngest editor in the county. He was born in - 31 - Normandale, Ontario, on the 1st day of October, in the year 1852, and is the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Lee, who are both of Canadian nativity. The father was in early days a seafaring man ; was at one time the owner of the schooner " Queen," and was for a time engaged in the coasting trade on Lake Erie. Among the peregrinations of Daniel Lee and family we find that their first move was to Georgian bay, in the north part of Canada West, where he was for a time engaged in the fishing trade, whence he removed to Wyandotte, Michigan, and thence to Miami, seven miles west of Toledo. Their residence at this point was located on the site of the old Fort Miami. Here Mr. Lee obtained, at district school, a rudimentary education. Their next halt was made in Weston township, Wood county. Here they remained some six years, Ferdinand in the mean time dividing his time between farm labor and the district school. In the year 1866 removed to North Madison, Lake county, in which township the family still reside. Here was finished the education of the gentleman under consideration. This was consummated at Madison seminary, under the respective administrations of Professors J. P. Ellenwood and W. N. Wight. During his attendance at this school he began the publication of an amateur paper, a monthly sheet, entitled the North Madison Star, and it was here that he first obtained a taste for the " art preservative." This paper was issued regularly for one year, when he removed to Madison village, procured the necessary outfit, and on January 3, 1872, issued the first number of the Independent Press, a weekly issue. This sheet was afterwards merged into the Dairy Gazette, as an adjunct in promoting that interest, which proving financially a failure, the title was changed to the Madison Gazette, under which name it was published until September 6, 1876. Shortly afterwards the office was removed to Jefferson, and on November 3, 1876, . the first number of the Jefferson Gazette was issued. This paper has, under his able management, acquired a large circulation, and is steadily increasing. On the 16th day of September, 1874, Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Effie A., daughter of Salmon G. and Lucy A. Mack, of Madison, Ohio. Politically Mr. Lee is unreservedly Republican. He is also a member of the fraternity of Masons, and is at this time affiliated with Lake Shore lodge, No. 307, Free and Accepted Masons, Madison, Lake county, Ohio. MATTHEW HUBBARD, oldest son of Isaac and Ruth C. Hubbard, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, April 29, 1783. At the age of fifteen he moved with his parents to Trenton, Oneida county, New York. There be first engaged in the war of civilization against the wilderness. There, also, on the 4th day of November, 1803, he married Mary Willard, daughter of Simon and Sarah R. Willard. From this union twelve children were born, of whom six survive, two being over seventy years of age. After a married life of nearly sixty-two years, the early portion of which was spent amidst the trials and deprivations incident to a settlement of a wilderness, his wife died, September 5, 1865, in the eighty-first year of her age. His death occurred July 9, 1869, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. The remains of both rest in Chesnut Grove cemetery, near the scenes of their manifold cares and labors. They took part in and lived to see an almost marvelous change in the condition of Ohio and the more western country. It was on the 4th day of May, 1804, that Mr. Hubbard started for Ashtabula, then an unbroken forest, as the agent of Nehemiah Hubbard, one of the extensive land proprietors in the " New Connecticut." He afterwards became the agent of Samuel Mather and Elijah Hubbard, who, also, like many other capitalists in "old Connecticut," had made large purchases of wild land in the Western Reserve. This journey was made on horseback in twelve days, and is described in the history of Ashtabula; but a more extended account of it, and of the early settlers and settlement of Ashtabula, may be found in the papers and records of the Ashtabula County historical society. During four summers Mr. Hubbard labored in his duties as agent, clearing land, and while thus engaged he built a log house on the land now known as the Scoville farm, but spent his winters in the east. On his first return in the fall of 1804, he drove fifty head of cattle from near Hubbard, Mahoning county, Ohio, to Onondaga, New York, being the second drove east from the Western Reserve. In the winter of 1807-8, he took his wife and infant son (leaving a daughter with grandparents) as far as Erie, Pennsylvania, then a small village of log houses, where he left them and continued on to Ashtabula, cleared eight acres of land, girdied as much more, and built a log house on the south ridge. In April following he brought his wife and son, then six months old, on horseback, mostly over an Indian trail, to their future home ; and thenceforth, during years of joy and sorrow, they became part of the band of permanent pioneers. Among the first in opening and constructing highways and turnpikes, he was, 124 - ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. also, one of the. chief early projectors and promoters of a railroad from Ashtabula to the :Ohio river, now, at last, by another generation realized. In the War of 1812 he went as a volunteer, under Captain Payne; to defend the threatened frontier. After the war there came an era of immigration, on foot, horseback, and by wagon, and no opportunity to reasonably assist the settlers was neglected by him. The Rev. John Hall, who arrived in 1811, in a paper furnished to the Ashtabula County historical society, and not. published entire in this work, referring as well to a later time, states, " He had a large family. of small children, was a farmer; land agent, and surveyor. He was one of the principal business men, public-spirited, liberal, helpful to the poor, and hospitable and kind to strangers and wayworn travelers."       . At the organization of the township in 1808, then including the territory of four or more. present townships, he was elected one of the appraisers of taxable property, and at the ensuing election, township. clerk... In after-years he was elected to and acceptably filled several civil and. military offices up to 1842; when his term of three years as one of the associate judges of the county court expired. . Under the administration of President Monroe he was appointed postmaster, and held the office until he resigned, in 1838, and his son received the appointment. In common with other citizens in eastern Ohio, he early saw the need of a harbor, at, this point on the lake. The plans and schemes at different times suggested proved ineffectual, but the growing necessity induced him to correspond on, the subject with the owners of unoccupied lands, and with Hon. Elisha .Whittlesey, long a faithful and pattern representative in congress, the result of which, largely due to the labors of Mr. Whittlesey, was shown in an impetus given to harbor improvements on our lakes, and an increase of business over an extensive region. It is sufficient for the purpose desired to. quote again from the papers of Mr.. Hall: "It is no disparagement to others to say that, with his innate public spirit, Colonel Hubbard was enabled and disposed to be a distinguished patron and promoter of this important enterprise, submitting himself to labors and expenses without which such valuable results could not have been realized." He furnished surveys and estimates by the aid of which Mr. Whittlesey obtained an appropriation of twelve thousand dollars "for re- moving obstructions from Ashtabula creek." He was appointed agent in the fall of 1826, and expended on the work that season over seventeen hundred dollars. He continued in this agency during the application of this and several other appropriations, including one for a beacon light, until they were all expended in 1841. The identification of Colonel Hubbard with the early settlement of the county of Ashtabula, and. his prominence and liberality in many of the enterprises that have secured its growth and prosperity, would justify a more particular history of hie life.. But the historical records of, the county and the memory of many still living will make amends for this imperfect sketch. WILLIAM HUBBARD. William, son of Isaac and Ruth. Coleman Hubbard, was born in. Middletown, Connecticut, in the year 1787. When he was ten years of age his father, with three other citizens of Middletown, removed with their families and took up a large tract of land in what was called Holland's patent, in the town of Trenton, nine miles from the city of Utica, Oneida county,. New York.. This new country was the scene of his, early and middle life, married Katharine Hulbert, In the year 1825 he was elected justice a the peaoe, and served in that capacity nearly twenty years: In the War of 1812 with England he went as captain of volunteer militia for the. defense of Saeket's Harbor, threatened at that time by the English navy on Lake Ontario. The appearance of Commodore Chauncy, with the American squadron, relieved this service. He received, in the year 1817, his commission as colonel of militia; and as it has the "yellow. look" and formality almost of old Continental papers, the document is given in full as a thing of antique curiosity. "The People of the State of New York, by the Grace of God, Free and Independent : " To WILLIAM HUBBARD, .ESQUIRE, greeting: " We, reposing especial trust and confidence as well in your patriotism, conduct, and loyalty as in your integrity and readiness to do us good and faithful service, have appointed and constituted, and by these presents do appoint and constitute you, the said William. Hubbard, colonel of the Seventy-second Regiment of Infantry of our said State. You are therefore to take the said regiment into your care as colonel thereof, and the officers and soldiers of that regiment hereby commanded to obey and respect you as their colonel ; and you are also to observe and follow such orders and directions as you shall, from time to time, receive from our general and commander-in-chief of the militia of our said State, or any other your superior officer, according to .the rules and discipline of war, in pursuance of the trust reposed in you. And for so doing this shall be your commission, for and during our good pleasure, to be signified by our .council of appointment. " In testimony whereof, we have caused ,our seal for military commissions to be hereunto affixed. Witnese our trusty and well-beloved John Tayler, Esquire, lieutenant governor of cur; said State, general and commander-in-chief of the militia, and admiral of the navy of the same, by and, with the advice and consent of our said, council of appointment, at our city of Albany, the Fourth. day. of :March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, and in the forty-first year of our independence. “JOHN TAYLER. " Passed the secretary's office the 24th day of, April, 1817. " Chas. D. COOPER, Secretary." In 1834 he removed. to Ashtabula, Ohio, where: he lived to see his only daughter and four sons settled, around him. He was a farmer and descended from a long line of ancestors,. almost invariably farmers' back to, the original George Hubbard, who came from England in 100, and settled in old: Middletown. Among active and enterprising men. William. Hubbard felt himself a kindred spirit by reason of the interest he took in the common object, and always sought to promote the moral and material prosperity of the community ; his disposition was to be public-spirited, and he considered that to maintain a character of unimpeachable integrity was the highest aim of a good citizen. He died in the year 1862, in the seventy-sixth year of his life. HENRY HUBBARD, son of Isaac and Ruth Coleman Hubbard, was born in Trenton, Oneida county, New York, July 19, 1803, at that time a newly-settled country. He enjoyed such advantages of edication as were offered. at a district school during the fall and winter terms, and laboring upon the farm the remaining portions of the year, with the exception of three terms at an academy in the adjoining. town of Steuben, and not far distant from the tomb of that &emus Revolutionary hero, Baron Steuben. He removed to Ashtabula, Ohio, in November, 1825, and took charge of the post-office, his brother being the postmaster; In December of that year the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, member of congress from- this, the nineteenth; district of Ohio, addressed a letter to Colonel . Matthew Hubbard, postmaster, requesting an estimate for the construction of a harborat the mouth of the Ashtabula river. Mr. Hubbard .assisted his brother in making tho surreys and. estimates, and in the circulation of petitions to congress praying for an appropriation of the necessary funds by the general government; '.'A grant was made by congress, May 20; 1826, of twelve thousand dollars, andin the autumn of that year . the work of building the piers was commenced by Major. T.: W. Maurice, United 'States engineer, Matthew Hubbard, disbursing agent, and Captain Daniel Dobbins as foreman. In the spring of 1830 Mr. Hubbard, engaged in the forwarding and commission business at the Harbor, which, in consequence of these improvements, had become the entrepot for the produce of the farmer and the merchandise of the tradesman for a large extent of country. In 1832 a post-office (Middlesex) was established at the Harbor, and Mr. Hubbard was appointed postmaster, which office he held until 1835, when he resigned the office, and was appointed deputy collector of the customs, and in 1844 received the office. of disbursing agent of the United States for the expenditure of moneys appropriated that year for the repairs and improvement of the harbor, which were expended by him to the entire satisfaction of the government Officials. Mr. Hubbard, in 1853, took an active part in the formation of the Ashtabula and New Lisbon railroad company, and was elected' a director; in 1857 vice-president, and in- 1859 , president. The results of the financial crisis of 1856 had so affected the finances of the company that it became necessary to make a compromise and settlement with the contractors to save the stockholders from personal liability. for the debts of the company. This was effected by him,.with the efficient aid of Henry Fes-sett, Esq., the secretary of .the cotopany. The organization, by this means and by the annual election of its officers, was preserved. until the year 1873, when the rights and franchises of that company were transferred to the Ashtabula, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh railroad company, by a vote of the stockholders of the first aforesaid company. The last-named railroad forma an important line of internal commerce between the waters of Lake Erie, the Ohio river, and the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, passing through a country rich in its agricultural and mineral productions. Mr. Hubbard took an active part in the formation of the last-named company and in the construction of the said road, and has been a director in Ile company since its first formation. In June, 1836, at Trenton, Oneida county, New York, he married Julia A. Hulbert, daughter of Joseph C. and Phiana Dewey Hulbert,