150 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. 1856, in South Milford, Ind., he was married to Sabra A. Pixley, who was born in October, 1838, in Clarksfield township, daughter of Eli and Czarina (Blackman) Pixley, who migrated from New York State to La Grange county, Ind,, and later moved to Minnesota, where they died. The following children came to the marriage of William W. and Sabra A. Twaddle: Herbert A., who married Sadie A. Campbell, and lives in Clarksfield township; and Rosa M., now Mrs. Nuland Lee, of Lorain, Ohio. For about a year after marriage they resided in an old log house on the present farm. He then became owner of the old Alexander Twaddle farm, where he has since resided. For the last two decades he has given much attention to the dairy business, which he has carried on in conjunction with general farming. Since 1867 he has been a Prohibitionist, and voted that ticket when there were but three votes cast for it in his township. He has served as trustee of Clarksfield township, and takes a deep interest in local political affairs. His wife is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and both are highly respected citizens of Huron county. DORR TWADDLE, a representative farmer of Huron county, was born March 28, 1852, in Clarksfield township. He is a grandson of Alexander Twaddle, and a son of John J. Twaddle, who was born February 23, 1820, in Jefferson county, Ohio. John J. Twaddle passed his youth in Holmes county, Ohio (where the family lived from 1823 to 1836), and he experienced all the hardships and privations incident to the life of a pioneer boy, but he was never found wanting in fidelity to his parents or the work which be was called upon to perform. He and his brother Alexander purchased land in Clarksfield township, Huron county, in 1835. Some time after locating thereon John J. Twaddle married Julia A. Palmer, a native of Westchester county, N. Y., who came to Ohio with her parents when a girl. After marriage the young couple resided near Norwalk, Ohio, where he worked for Isaac Underhill, a pioneer of that region. While employed there he saved sufficient money to pay for his land in Clarksfield township, where he resided until his death, December 28, 1885. His widow died November 8, 1889, and both lie buried in Clarksfield cemetery. Of their children the following record is made: Frank died in infancy; Ella married J. T. King, and resides in her native township; Dorr is the subject of this sketch; Charlotte married Eugene Fox, of Clarksfield township; Leroy and Lillie A. (twins), the former of whom resides here; Lillie A., Mrs. J. L. Judd, lives in Marshall county, Kansas. Dorr Twaddle entered industrial life on the farm at a very early age, but his education was not overlooked, for he attended the school taught by Miss Delia Dunham, who was his first teacher. At the age of fifteen years he set out for Michigan, and remained in that State three years, engaged in various businesses. At the age of nineteen years he began learning the cheesemanfacturing industry, and for four years worked in Parker, Morgan & Hovey's factory. Later he was appointed night superintendent of the factory, and subsequently was given charge of it. Some time after the last promotion he became a partner in the concern, also taking a half interest in another cheese factory located in the southern part of Clarksfield township. For seven years he carried on that factory, and later became the "Co." in the. firm of J. C. Ransom & Co., being known to the cheese manufacturers as a most successful operator. Mr. Twaddle's marriage with Celia Rowland took place December 30, 1874. She was born March 16, 1856, in Clarks- field township, to Daniel and Harriet (Chaffee) Rowland, and the children of this union are Wanda P., William E. and HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 151 Jay C., all residing with their parents. In 1882 Mr. Twaddle took up his residence on his present farm, and has since been engaged in general farming; he also gives some attention to the cheese manufacturing business. Since 1882 he has made many improvements on this farm; he is methodical in everything, and carries on the different departments of his business systematically. Politically a Democrat, he is one of the leaders of his party in this county. WASHINGTON SANGER, prominent among the well-to-do agriculturists of Wakeman township, is a native of New York State, born in Oneida county October 7, 1821. Richard Sanger, father of subject, a native of Massachusetts, removed to New Hartford, N. Y., and from there to Oneida county, N. Y., where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits during the rest of his life. His eldest daughter married Cyrus Butler, and moved to Birmingham, Ohio. After the death of Richard Sanger his eldest son came to Ohio, being shortly afterward followed by the rest of the family, including our subject, who was then between five and six years old. At the age of eleven years he went to live with John Carter, a farmer, in a part of Huron county that is now in Erie county, and remained with him until 1$50, in which year he married Miss Gitty J. Stryker, sister of Judge Stryker, of Birmingham, Ohio. After marriage they lived on a small farm in Erie county, two miles south of Birmingham, a couple of years, and then, in 1843, Mr. Sanger purchased eighty acres of wild land in Wakeman township, Huron county, on what is now known as the "Butler road." After Mr. Sanger had paid for these eighty acres at eight dollars per acre, he bought forty acres more near his former residence, at twenty-five dollars per acre, and set to work to clear the land; but he experienced adversity as well as prosperity. He had eleven acres of this new land seeded to wheat just after clearing it, and a heavy June frost completely killed it. In addition to cereals he raised sheep, etc., and in the long run became very successful in all his undertakings. Mr. Sanger has had two children, viz.: .Watson T. and Etta, who died in 1870. His wife died in May, 1883. In 1859 Mr. Sanger moved to Ashland county, Ohio, and was there engaged in mercantile business until 1861, when he traded his stock in trade for a farm; then carried on a grocery in Oberlin for a time (his farm being in the meantime conducted by his son), after which lie returned to Wakeman, in which township he now owns 120 acres of land. In politics our subject is a Republican. BRADLEY HAYES, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Wakeman township, is a native of Connecticut, born in New Fairfield, September 24, 1828. Sturgis Hayes, his father, was born and reared in the same locality, and taught the trade of wagon-maker. He married Anna Wakeman, also a native of New Fairfield, Conn., where for a few years thereafter he worked at, his trade, saving his earnings. About 1830, with their four children born in Connecticut, he and his wife came to Ohio, locating in Clarksfield township, Huron county, the journey being made via Buffalo and Cleveland. Here the father bought seventy-eight acres of wild land, which he cleared and transformed into one of the most productive farms in his section. In later years he added 122 acres, and in his success he was loyally assisted by his amiable wife and stalwart family of children, of whom the following is a brief record: Edward died in Missouri; Lewis is a farmer in Kansas; Bradley is the subject of sketch; Eli is a farmer at Hickory Grove, Mo.; Hanna and Phoebe are de- 152 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. ceased; Maria is the widow of Ezra Stone, and lives in Clarksfield, Huron county; Harriet is the wife of Abram Harris, also of Clarksfield; Francis is deceased. The father of this family died in 1869, the mother in 1880. Bradley Hayes was two years old when the family came to Ohio, and to Huron county; and here amid the dense forest, still haunted by wild animals, the boy was reared and educated. Until he was twenty- three years old he worked for his father, and then commenced for himself, laboring on a farm for three years on day wages for I. Underhill in a sawmill, while they had water, and on farm the rest of the time. From there he went to Branch county, Mich., remaining one year, at the end of which time he returned to Wakeman, and for the following six years worked for one Bissell. While in Michigan he bought eighty acres of land there. In 1857 Mr. Hayes married Mrs. Mary A. Hanford, who was born October 17, 1828, in South Britain, Conn., a daughter of Justus Wheeler. To this marriage were born Hinda J., who married Canarus P. Clawson, and is now residing in St. Louis; Jess. J., a resident of Wakeman township, married to Roxy C. Ross; and Hattie A., deceased. Mrs. Mary A. Hayes was two years old when she came from South Britain, Conn., to Wakeman, Huron Co., Ohio. Mr. Hayes is a stanch Republican, and is respected by all as a useful, loyal citizen. DAVID FOX, son of David and Barbara (Betts) Fox, was born July 19, 1817, in Columbia county, Penn., and when five years of age came to Ohio with his parents. David Fox, Sr., migrated in 1822 from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and settled near Tiffin, Seneca county, on a farm where, to use a pioneer phrase, "there was not a stick amiss." At that time the family comprised Isaac, Peter, William, David, Jr.,, and John. In Seneca county were born Lizzie, Jacob. Margaret, Charles and George. A brief record of this family is as follows: Isaac was engaged in teaching school and in farming until his death, which occurred at Madison, Wis.; Peter, a bachelor, opened a fishery at Marblehead, Ohio, where he was drowned; William is a farmer of Seneca county, Ohio; David is the subject of this sketch; John served in the war of the Rebellion, and suffered much from fatigue and hardship in the service(he is now a gardener at Muncie, Ind.); Lizzie married Irvin Burns, and died in Seneca county; Jacob, who resides at Columbia City, hrd., lost an eye in the service during the Civil war; Margaret is the wife of Isaiah Hartley, of Seneca county; Charles died in infancy; George is a farmer of Whitley county, Ind. David Fox, Sr., entered the Southeast quarter, Section Fifteen, Township One, Range Fourteen, now Seneca township, Seneca county, on June 3, 1823, and resided thereon until his death in 1830. He was in poor health for eleven years previous to his decease, and came to Seneca county with the hope that the change would check the consumption ,which was wasting him away. His widow died in July, 1851, and was buried beside her husband in the little cemetery on Wolf creek; lie was the first person interred there, and his brother-in-law, Peter Wagner, the next. The farm was cleared by his sons, who were earnest workers. David Fox, the subject of this memoir, was reared in Seneca county, where he attended the school of his brother Isaac, who after the father's death was appointed guardian of his younger brother. Some time afterward, Isaac was married, and for some reason young David did not become a favorite with his sister-in-law. The youth left his brother's home and went to Franklin county, Ohio. Isaac provided another guardian for the boy in the person of Christian Mussetter, and for awhile affairs ran along nicely; but the master HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 153 soon began to think that action rather than words was necessary to the boy's welfare, and the "gad" or " birch" appeared. David resented this, and in 1837 fled to Canada, where he joined the rebellion there of that year, serving some seven months, and participating in the destruction of McCormick's property (this McCormick set fire to the steamboat "Caroline," which contained provisions and ammunition for the rebels, and cutting her moorings let her drift down the Niagara river and over the Falls of Niagara). David returned to Seneca county, and Mussetter, glad to surrender his rights as guardian, allowed the lad to go free. Our subject then went to Bellevue, Ohio, entered the brickyard of Barney Kline, and remained in his employ for five years, less one month. On May 7, 1845, he married Louisa J. Johnson, who was born July 20, 1827, at Freedom, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., to Peter and Eliza Ann (Rose) Johnson. Her parents went in 1834 to Genesee county, N. Y.. then to Harbor Creek township, Erie Co., Penn.; next in 1844 to Noble county, Ind. (where the fever and ague warned them off), and in the same year to Sandusky county, Ohio. The children born to David and Louisa Fox are Sarah, widow of Samuel P. DeWolf; William F., a farmer of Gratiot county, Mich.; George R., a farmer of Clarksfield township; Alice, wife of John Kingsbury, of Hartland township; Florence L., Mrs. Salmon Haynes, and Alvah A., both of Clarks- field township; Clara B., wife of L. M. Kingsbury, of Hartland township, and Elsie C., wife of D. L. Justus, of Clarks- field. Mr. Fox received from his father's estate the sum of sixty dollars. After his marriage he located on the home farm in Seneca county, purchased the interests of five of the eight heirs, and made his home there until he sold the place and removed to Rock county, Wis., the trip from Ohio occupying eighteen days. On his arrival he purchased eighty acres, resided thereon for three or four years, and then sold the tract and bought other lands. Later he purchased land in Delaware county, Iowa, where lie also resided three or four years, until his health urged him to retire from farm life. Renting the farm he removed to Clinton, Wis., where he recovered his health; then returning to Iowa he resided there until 1861, when he traded his 320 Iowa acres for 120 acres in Clarksfield township, Huron Co., Ohio, where he took up his residence. In twenty-one years he moved eighteen times, making a profit by each move and improving his knowledge of the country. Politically he is a Democrat, but not a politician. The close personal attention which he gives to agriculture and stock growing, in which he is largely interested, militates against his political interests, withdrawing him from public circles. Mrs. Fox and the family hold a high place in the esteem of the community, while Mr. Fox is known and appreciated far beyond the boundaries of Clarksfield township. MAJOR SMITH. (deceased) was born August 17, 1809, in Onondaga county, N. Y., son of Elisha and Margaret (Matthews) Smith. Elisha Smith was born in 1766 at Plymouth, Conn., where he married Margaret Matthews, who was born in 1776. They lived at Plymouth, where Elisha carried on his trade of blacksmith, until 1805, when the family moved to a point near Syracuse, Onondaga Co., N. Y. In 1811 the father, mother, three sons and one daughter set out from their New York home for Ohio, traveling by wagon road via Buffalo (N, Y.), and Erie (Penn.), and then through the wilderness to the settlement called Beef, on the Allegheny river. There the father purchased a boat, loaded thereon the wagon and team, and then embarked with the members of his 154 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. family for a voyage to Pittsburgh. Arrived in safety, they proceeded to Cincinnati, Ohio (then a small place), whence they journeyed by wagon road to Springfield, Ohio, where they rested after a trip of forty days. While there Elisha Smith served in the war of 1812 as artificer in Gen. Harrison's army, shoeing horses and oxen, and performing all the work assigned to him. His wife died in Springfield July 28, 1814, he in September following, after which the eldest son, Sherman, assumed the direction of the family. Major Smith was reared in the manner of boys of that time and place. After the death of his parents, which occurred when he was five years old, he was cared for by his brother Sherman, and in 1815 accompanied his elder brothers to Huron county, Ohio. The journey was made with a wagon drawn by oxen, and was attended by many hardships and privations; nor did the hardships cease with their settlement in New London township, for the brothers had to work early and late and under circumstances trying even to pioneers. Major resided with his brother Sherman until June 6, 1831, when he married Eliza Knapp, and settled on a farm of twenty acres in Clarksfield township, which his brother Sherman helped him to secure. On it was a small log house in a small clearing, but the improvements were so rude that its change from the wilderness to a cultivated farm must be credited to Mr. Smith, as also the additions to the original farm. On May 6, 1866, he located on the place where he resided until his death, August 4, 1885, and it is now the property of his widow. Mrs. Eliza Smith was born March 16, 1813, at Danbury, Conn., to John and Mindwell (Wood) Knapp. John Knapp died at Danbury, and his widow afterward married Simeon Hoyt, with whom she came to Ohio in 1816, bringing her daugh- ter Eliza, and settling in the southern part of Clarksfield township. Simeon Boyt was the son of Comfort Hoyt, a merchant of Danbury, who received from Connecticut a large grant of the " Fire. lands" for damages his business interests sustained during the Revolution and the war of 1812. He sent his son Simeon to survey the tract in Huron county, and the latter made his home here. Major Smith was always a farmer, and succeeded in building up a valuable property by his own labor and industry. His illness in 1881 prevented the celebration of his "golden wedding," for in June of that year was the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage. Politically he was first a Jacksonian Democrat, in 1840 a Harrison Whig, and in 1884 a Blaine Republican. He took a deep interest in political affairs, held various township offices, and was esteemed in public and private life. The only child of Major and Eliza Smith was Dolly E., born July 27, 1835, who married Wesley Smith (son of John Smith), a native of Clarksfield township. He died November 12, 1863, leaving one child, H. A. Smith, who resides with his grandmother on the Major Smith farm. In 1866 his widow married W. F. Barnum, and two children were born to them: Charles P., August 4, 1866, and Jay M., August 29, 1870, both residing at Mica Bay, Kootenai Co., Idaho. Their mother died April 11, 1875. ELIAS EASTER. This gentleman, who is now living a retired life in the city of Norwalk, was for many years a leading, progressive agriculturist of Greenfield township where lie was born September 19, 1834. John Easter, grandfather of our subject, was a well-to-do farmer and cloth manufacturer in the town of Berragh, near Londonderry, Ireland. His son, Archibald, was born in 1783 in County Tyrone, Ireland, and received a very good common- school education, as his parents were in comfortable circumstances. When yet a young man he was sent to America on HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 155 business pertaining to some real estate which they (the family of John Easter) had in question, and, his business concluded, he was about to return home to Ireland, when he was prevented from so doing by the "Embargo Act" in force during the war of 1812. Being familiar with the art of weaving, he obtained a situation in some mills at Chambersburg, Penn., where he remained for three years, during which time he was given the position of foreman, a lucrative and responsible situation, and one which, notwithstanding his youth, he was perfectly capable of filling. Returning to Ireland he stayed at home a short time, and then again came to America, landing in New York in 1817. He came westward by canal and lake to Sandusky, Ohio, thence proceeding to the center of the State, and locating on a farm near Columbus, where he resided for some time; this farm is now included in the city of Columbus. Later he removed to Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), Ohio, where he owned some land, but the ague being very prevalent in that vicinity he left his farm and afterward sold it. Before purchasing the tract at Lower Sandusky, Mr. Easter rode around the country on horseback for many months in search of land, traveling through nine States, but the bottom lands of the Sandusky river seemed so inviting that he located there, as already related. In 1819 he came to Greenfield township, Huron Co., Ohio, and purchased a farm near the center of the township (which tract is now occupied by Robert Arthur), where he lived for several years. Here he was married, in 1824, to Rebecca Easter, who was born in 1801, in County Tyrone, Ireland, daughter of James Easter. The minister who performed the ceremony was "Elder John Wheeler," who, in observance of a custom of those times, stood in his shoes, but wore no stockings. About 1820 or 1821 there came from Ireland James Easter (maternal grandfather of subject) and family, John Easter (paternal grandfather of subject) and family, and along with them John Arthur and his family. The latter had been persuaded to emigrate, by Archibald Easter, who after their arrival took considerable interest in their success, and aided them materially during their first years in America. To the union of Archibald and Rebecca Easter were born six children, as follows: Two sons who died in infancy; Elias, subject of this memoir; Sarah, Mrs. John McLane, of Greenfield township, Huron county; Kezia, Mrs. Samuel Arthur, of Greenfield township; and John, who was drowned when a youth. About 1830 Archibald Easter settled on the farm where he passed the remainder of his days, and continued to follow agricultural pursuits until 1860, when he retired, worn out by a long life of unceasing industry. He died May 1, 1867, and his wife survived him until June 6, 1884, when she too passed away, and was buried by the side of her husband in Steuben cemetery. They were both members of the Congregational Church. Politically Mr. Easter was a Republican, originally a Whig, and he was an ardent party man, well posted in politics, in which he took considerable interest. Ho was a great reader, thoroughly conversant with current events, and through his business sagacity and able management of affairs became one of the leading farmers in the county in his day. His father, John Easter, died in Greenfield township at an advanced age. Elias Easter received his primary education at the common schools of his native township, and afterward attended select schools at various places. He was reared to farm life, and resided on the home place with his parents until his literary education was finished, and also for some years afterward, having charge of the farm for several years prior to his father's decease. On June 7, 1871, he was united in marriage with Jennie E. McMorris, a native of Greenfield township, daughter of John and Nancy (Arthur) McMorris, who had come from Ireland in an early day. This 156 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. wife died November 25, 1876, and was interred in Steuben cemetery. She was the mother of two children: Nancy, who died in infancy, and Charles A., now a well-educated young man. On June 14, 1888, Mr. Easter married, for his second wife, Mrs. Margery (Chilcott) Aiken (widow of James A. Aiken), who was born March 30, 1846, in Union township, Huntingdon Co., Penn., daughter of Richard Chilcott. Mr. Easter remained on the farm until May, 1892, when he removed to Norwalk, where he now lives a retired life, engaged in no active labor, but still overseeing the work of the farm, which is now in the hands of tenants. In politics he is a lifelong Republican, and has served in various township offices, filling the positions of trustee and justice of the peace with much credit to himself and satisfaction to all concerned. Mr. Easter is a member of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield, in which he has held office. He is very fond of reading, and is well informed on the topics of the day. E. M. DAY, a well-known farmer citizen of Clarksfield township, is a 1 native of same, born October 20, 1842, a son of Ephraim Day, who was born May 26, 1804, in Underhill, Chittenden Co., Vt., a son of Samuel Day, a farmer and "herb-doctor" of that place. When Ephraim was eight years old his mother died, the family circle was broken up, and he was obliged to begin life on his own account, doing such work as a boy of his age could. Whatever education he had was acquired after he was eleven years of age, though he continued to work. When sixteen years of age he migrated to Ohio, corning from Chenango county, N. Y., where he had located a year previous. In February, 1821, four brothers —John, Josiah, Ephraim and William— started on foot for Ohio, with twenty shillings each and a haversack full of provisions, and arrived after a journey of six weeks, having traveled over 700 miles. The year previous Josiah Day had come to look at the land, and had made arrangements for coining, he and his brothers John and William settling in New London township, Huron county. The next year the father of these boys, Samuel, came to Ohio with the remainder of the family, which originally consisted of eighteen children, one of whom died in infancy. The father gave John, Josiah and William their time before they reached their majority, but Ephraim was obliged to remain on the home farm until twenty-one. Samuel Day had learned much from an old Indian about the use of herbs, and was known as "Dr. Day." He passed the remainder of his life in New London township, where he died in 1840. After coming of age Ephraim Day purchased an axe, and went to clearing land, receiving fifty cents an acre, which took four days to clear. He continued in this for some time, and then with his hard- earned savings purchased a small piece of land in Clarksfield township, which he subsequently sold. He then purchased eighty- nine acres at three dollars per acre, which at the time was all timberland. On December 25, 1833, he was united in marriage with Sarah Parker, who was born November 4, 1816, in Ontario county, N. Y., daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Root) Parker, who came to Ohio in 1817, first located in Florence township, Erie (then Huron) county; Mr. Parker was a "clothier and dyer," and would dye and dress up the homespun. After residing for some time in Florence township he went to Birmingham, Erie county, where he conducted a mill; then became a farmer in Clarkefield township, Huron county, after which he followed his trade in Elyria, Lorain county; in later years be migrated to Wisconsin, where he died. After marriage Ephraim and Sarah Day settled on his farm in Clarksfield which HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 157 he cleared and improved, and where he passed the remainder of his life. The children born to their union were as follows: George M., born October 4, 1835, died September 13, 1838; Harriet L., born May 6, 1838, died June 9, 1865; Arriette E., born August 18, 1840, who married J. M. Rogers, and died in Clarksfield township; Edward M., subject of this sketch; Elmer P., born August 29, 1844, died September 2, 1850; and Isabel, born November 12, 1848, died September 6, 1850. The father of this family certainly fought well against adversity, and was rewarded with success. Beginning with a capital of determination, he overcame every obstacle, and left to his wife and children one of the best improved farms in the county, which at the time of his decease comprised 300 acres. He passed from earth June 14, 1872, and was buried in South Clarksfield cemetery, since when his widow has generally made her home with her son, Edward M. He was a Jacksonian Democrat until 1856, when he cast his vote for Fremont, and thereafter was faithful to the Republican party until his death. He was a lifelong member of the Baptist Church, while his wife has always been a Methodist Episcopalian. Edward M. Day was reared in Clarksfield township, and there received a primary education, the first school he attended being presided over by Miss Fannie Barnum, and held in his father's house. He completed his education in Milan Academy. From boyhood until 1867 he worked on the home farm, learning practical lessons in agriculture under his father. His marriage with Cynthia A. Waugh took place March 29, 1867; she was born October 13, 1846, in Camden township, Lorain Co., Ohio, daughter of Rev. Lansing and Docia (Minor) Waugh. Mr. Waugh was a minister of the Baptist Church, and gave every opportunity to his daughter to become well educated, sending her to the school at Norwalk and the college at Oberlin. To the marriage of Edward M. and Cynthia Day came the following named children: Nora M., born September 22, 1869, now Mrs. B. E. Meacham, of Clarks- field township, and Frank L., born April 23, 1872, died November 20, 1893. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Day settled on their present farm, known as "The Upton Clark Farm." In 1882 he erected there one of the finest farm residences in the township, and during the last decade has proved himself a most systematic agriculturist and a thoroughly progressive citizen. His first vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln. For twenty years he was recognized as an able young Republican, but in 1880 he joined the Prohibition party, and has since remained in their ranks; he is not a politician from the office-seeker's point of view. In religious affairs he affiliates with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is a trustee. LEVI HALES, a native of Ohio, born in Lorain county, September 24, 1840, is a prominent and progressive farmer and stock-raiser of New London township, Huron county. He is a son of William and Laura (Blackharn) Hales, the former of whom was of English descent, and one of the famous "Ludlow heirs"; lie lived to the patriarchal age of ninety years, and died a charter member of the Baptist Church of Henrietta Hill, Lorain county. Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hales, named as follows: Lucy, Harriet, Levi, Simeon, Ansel, Mary, Elon, Leah, Berton, Etta and Sarah. Mr. Hales was a successful farmer, owning 600 acres before retiring from active labor. Levi Hales, the subject of this biographical sketch, received a common- school education, and was reared on his father's farm up to the age of twenty-two years. In 1863 he married Miss Catherine Haynes, from whom at the end of a year and a half he was divorced, and he remained single four and a half years. In 158 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. 1869 he married, for his second wife, Miss Arabella Lee, daughter of James Lee, of New London. She died December 25, 1886, after a long illness, and September 24, 1891, Mr. Hales married his present wife, Miss Carrie Munger, of Oberlin, Ohio. On March 30, 1893, was born to him his first child, a daughter named Laura Elizabeth. In 1882 Mr. Hales made a trip to California, spending a year in traveling, and on his return he took up his home in New London, embarking in his present business of buying, selling and breeding fine horses, at the same time carrying on his farm. Poplitically he is an earnest and active supporter of the Republican party, and he and his wife are members of the Congregational Church. Mr. Hales is a thoroughgoing business man, and enjoys the respect and esteem of the community at large. WILLIAM DENMAN, who in his lifetime was one of the most 1 prosperous, wide-awake agriculturists of Wakeman township, was born August 16, 1822, in that part of the old county that is now included in Erie. William Denman, grandfather of subject, was a native of Kent, England, and when he came to America was a farmer in good circumstances. He made his home not far from Kingston, Ulster Co., N. Y., and in the neighborhood of the Catskill Mountains. He had marricd in England, and was blessed with a family of nine children. He died at the age of about ninety-eight years, after a life of active work. In England for eleven years he had been a pastor in the Baptist Church, but abandoned the ministry under the conviction that he had never produced any good results. However, in this country he preached the Gospel many years with marked success. John Denman, father of subject, was born in England, and was six years old when his father brought him to America and to New York State. Until the age of eighteen years his life at his new home was spent working at whatever he could find to do—making shingles, chopping wood, etc., and only attended evening school six weeks. When he had been safely piloted past the interesting age of eighteen, he set out from the paternal home to seek his fortune in the "wide, wide world." When he was about twenty- four years of age he came from Sullivan county, N. Y., to Huron county, Ohio, on foot, carrying on his back a quantity of apple seed, weighing about thirty pounds, which, having secured and cleared a piece of land in Huron county, he sowed, and this was the nucleus to the first nursery in Huron county. He then bought land; worked in the salt works at East Liverpool, and from his savings purchased oxen, wagons, and other requisites for the proper conducting of his farm and nursery. In 1819 lre married Miss Miranda Blackman, whose father was a captain in the war of 1812, living in Buffalo at the time that city was burned by the British. Fourteen children were born of this marriage, to wit: Edward, in Wakeman township, Unroll county; William, subject of sketch ; Roxanna (Mrs. White), in Toledo, Ohio; Ann, deceased; Laura (Mrs. Joseph Booth) and Charles (a traveler) both in Pueblo, Colo.; Amos, in Valparaiso, Neb.; Miranda, who died in Hampton,. Iowa; Henry, in Des Moines, Iowa; L. B., in Valparaiso, Neb.; John J., of Erie county, Ohio; Mary Fuller, in Norwalk, Ohio; A. B., in Elyria, Ohio; and Martin, in Elyria, Ohio. The father of this large family was a Whig and Republican; a member and earnest supporter of the Methodist Church. William Denman, the subject proper of this sketch, was reared on the home farm, and received his education at the district schools. He remained under the parental roof until he was twenty-one years of age, and then moved to his late home in Wakeman township. He had but three hundred HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 159 dollars when he first commenced for himself, and at the time of his death owned 183 acres of land in Huron county, together with an elegant and comfortable dwelling and commodious outhouses. On September 8, 1853, Mr. Denman was married to Cordelia Hough, daughter of John Hough, of Clarksfield township, Huron county, and three children were born to this marriage, viz.: (1) William, (2) Nellie, and (3) Ella Ann. Of these (1) William was in the real-estate business in various places in the West, making a great success; in Kansas alone he bought on speculation 13,000 acres of land which he sold at a great profit; he owned stores in Pueblo, Colo., and Boise City, Idaho, in which latter place he was killed by a fall from a horse, when he was thirty-four years old. (2) Nellie married M. L. Dorr, of Colorado Springs, Colo., and (3) Ella Ann was drowned in a cistern in 1858. The mother of these died in 1868, and in 1869 Mr. Denman married Miss Julia Partello, daughter of W. P. Partello, a farmer of near St. Louis, Mich. The children by this last union are Julia; Lester C., at home; and Freddy (now eleven years old) at school. Of these Julia was married to Harry G. Carter October 22, 1892, and lives on the east part of farm. The father died December 12, 1892. In politics he was a Republican; in religious faith he had been a member of the Methodist Church at Wakeman for many years, and at the time of his decease was filling the office of trustee. EDWIN S. PROSSER, well known in Wakeman township as a pro¬gressive and enterprising agriculturist, was born in Clarksfield township, Huron Co., Ohio, March 6, 1843, a son of Daniel Prosser. Our subject received his education at the public schools of his native place, and was reared to agricultural pursuits on his father's farm. At the commencement of the Civil war he enlisted in Company F, Third O. V. C., Capt. O. G. Smith, in which he served over a year. His regiment was attached to the army of the Cumberland, and participated in many battles. At Shiloh Mr. Prosser was seized with heart disease, but continued on duty at the front in the advance on Corinth until its evacuation. On May 30, 1862, he was taken ill of a violent fever, was sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was discharged on account of heart disease, returning home very much, emaciated. For some years thereafter he moved from place to place, being for a time in Iowa and Minnesota. In 1871 he returned to Clarksfield township, Huron county, where he married Mrs. Nancy J. Byron, daughter of Robcrt and Mary T. Barnes, and widow of John Byron. Mr. Byron was a member of Company H, Seventy-sixth O. V. I., and died in Georgia, leaving a son, Frank J. Byron, who was thirteen years old when his mother married Mr. Prosser. They moved to Minnesota in April, 1871, locating on a farm he had bought some time before marriage. Here they lived until 1872, when Mr. Prosser sold out and moved to Nebraska. On June 4, 1873, he entered a homestead of 160 acres, and eighty acres under the timber culture Act; also, as guardian of F. J. Byron, he entered 160 acres, all being prairie lands, and all adjoining, in Franklin county, Neb. While residing there they engaged in farming and the raising of live-stock, chiefly cattle, and there they remained until 1882, in which year they sold their stock and returned to Clarks- field, Ohio, in July, same .year. On August 8, following, Mr. Prosser and Frank J. Byron entered into copartnership and bought a farm of 103 acres in Wakeman township. In 1883, owing to impaired health, Mr. Prosser sold his land in Nebraska, as did also Mr. Byron. They have since added 170 acres to their property in Wakeman township, and have now one of 160 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. the finest farms in this part of the county. Here, in addition to general agriculture, they are extensively engaged in the raising of stock, making a specialty of sheep, and bestowing considerable attention to fruit raising. Mr. Prosser has one child, Guy O., born in Franklin county, Neb., October 14, 1884. Politically our subject is a Democrat; socially, he bas been a member of the F. & A. M. some twenty-five years. JAMES L. VAN DUSEN, one of most Huron county's best known and highly respected citizens, was born in Constantia, Oswego Co., N. Y., January 27, 1835. His father, Jude Van Dusen, and his mother, Anna Van Dusen, are now both deceased. By occupation they were farmers. In 1837 the family moved to Wayne. county, N. Y., and subsequently, in 1849, they removed to Ohio, having purchased a farm in Fitchville township, Huron county. Here, during the summer months, James worked on his father's farm, attending the sessions of the District school during the winter months. At the age of twenty-one years he was married to Cecelia A. Pray, a worthy and accomplished lady, daughter of Ethan A. Pray, Esq. The young couple purchased a piece of land in Henry county, Ohio, a portion of which land is now occupied by the village of Liberty Center. Here they remained for two years, succeeding admirably, notwithstanding the many trials and difficulties usually incident upon a settlement in a new country. In 1861 Mr. Van Dusen was tendered the office of Superintendent of the Huron County Infirmary. He accepted the position, disposed of his interests in Henry county, and returned to Huron county to undertake the discharge of his new duties. While at all times and in all respects these duties have not been to his liking, he has nevertheless in their discharge reaped the honors and enjoyed the pleasures of a noble work well done. For nearly thirty-three years he has retained this position of Infirmary Superintendent. At the end of each term his re-appointment has come unsought by him, and in a manner clearly showing the unqualified endorsement of the people of the county. Under his management the Huron County Infirmary has been made a model Institution of the kind, always referred to with pride by local and State authorities. To the accomplishment of this end he has at all times lent his untiring energy and splendid business and executive ability. Although in public life continuously for so long a time, not once has the voice of scandal, criticism, or of suspicion, even, been raised against him. This is indeed a marvelous record—more marvelous because true—more worthy of mention because deserved. While not a partisan in any sense of the word, Mr. Van Dusen has always been a firm supporter of the Republican party. He is naturally modest and unassuming, but nevertheless takes a decided interest in all matters pertaining to the public or private good, and never hesitates to advocate and to do what he considers to be his duty. His habits are strictly temperate. About twenty-five years ago he united with the First Presbyterian Church of Norwalk, Ohio, and was soon after elected one of the Church's Trustees. He served as a Trustee for three years, and was then elected one of the Elders, which office he now holds, by virtue of several re -elections. He is a faithful contributor to the spiritual and material welfare of his church. For nearly thirty years Mr. Van Dusen has been a prominent and active member of the Masonic Fraternity, being a member of Mt. Vernon Lodge, No. 64, F. & A. M., Huron Chapter, No. 7, R. A. M., Norwalk Council, R. & S. M., and Norwalk Cornmandery, No. 18, K. T. He has PAGE - 161 - PICTURE OF JAMES L. VAN DUSEN PAGE - 162 - BLANK HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 163 filled several offices in this Order with great credit, notably that of High Priest of the Chapter and Eminent Commander of Norwalk Commandery. In his private business he has been careful and conservative, but has acquired a goodly competence, and is regarded as one of the financially sound men of his county. While not given to extravagance, he is generous, and is liberal to his family, affording them every advantage. Three children of the five born to him are now living: Frank, an attorney, and now city solicitor of Norwalk, Ohio; Wallace, a student in the Medical Department of the University of Michigan; and Clara, a member of the senior class of the Norwalk High School. No biography of Mr. J. L. Van Dusen would be complete which failed to make mention of his most estimable wife. Side by side, mutually encouraging and helpful, they have thus far journeyed along life's pathway—he a kind husband and indulgent father; she a faithful wife and loving mother. Whatever success in life he has attained, with her must the credit and the honor be shared. A countless number of friends wish this worthy couple long life and continued prosperity and happiness. FRANK W. VAN DUSEN, Attorney at Law and City Solicitor, was born Feb. 15, 1862, in Norwalk, Huron Co., Ohio. He received his elementary education in the public schools, graduating from the Norwalk High School in 1879. His elementary education was supplemented by a four years' course in Adelbert College of Western Reserve University, from which institution he graduated in 1884 with the degree of B. L., and was subseuently honored by his Alma Mater with the degree of A. M. In college he was an excellent student, popular with his fellows, and received many College Honors. He was a member of the well-known D, K. E. College Fraternity. In the fall of 1884 he began the study of law in the office of Judge Stevenson Burke, of Cleveland, and at the September (1886) term of the Supreme Court of Ohio was admitted to the bar after passing a highly satisfactory examination. In 1887 he opened a law office in Norwalk, and has since been in the active practice of his profession. On August 22, 1888, Mr. Van Dusen married Miss Kittie B. Thomas, a well- known and accomplished lady. In the spring of 1889 he was elected to the City Council of Norwalk, Ohio, from the then Third Ward of that city, he being the only Republican councilman elected at that election. His excellent and marked services in that capacity won for him, in the spring of 1891, the nomination for the office of City Solicitor, to which office he was elected by a large majority, notwithstanding the general triumph of the opposing political party at that time. In the spring of 1893 he was unanimously renominated as City Solicitor, and was reelected by a majority nearly double that received two years before. Mr. VanDusen is universally recognized as a competent and expert lawyer. As City Solicitor of Norwalk, he has shown marked ability, and has given general satisfaction. In politics he is a Republican; socially, he is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, being an officer of Norwalk Commandery, No. 18, K. T. He is a prominent K. of P., and Captain of Norwalk Division of the U. R. of that Order. He is also a member of the Order of Elks, and of the Royal Arcanum. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian, being a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Norwalk, Ohio. REV. FREDERICK SCHULZ, pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Sherman township, was born in Leisten, Prussia, March 17, 1860, a member of an old and highly esteemed family, and is the only one of them who left the Fatherland. 164 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. He received his primary education in his native country, and after reaching America, in 1876, entered a college at Columbus, Ohio, from which he graduated with honors four years later. In the fall of 1880 he entered the Theological Seminary, where he remained until Easter, 1883, at which time he moved to Randolph county, 111. He took charge of a church near Chester in that county, and for six years labored faithfully for the temporal and spiritual welfare of his congregation. He then took charge of a church in Philo, same State, remaining one year, and in March, 1890, came to Sherman township, where he has since been pastor of St. Peter's Church. Rev. Schulz is a gentleman of noble impulses and religious mind, and teaches much of morality by his pious, godly life, and by the deeds of charity and mercy that characterize his actions. He is beloved by his entire congregation, and highly esteemed by the citizens of Sherman township. He is also instructor in the parochial school four months in each year. In 1889 Rev. Schulz was united in marriage with Miss Martha Sickmeyer, daughter of E. F. Sickmeyer, a prominent citizen of Bremen, Ill., and their union has been blessed with one daughter, Hulda, and one son, Paul. The subject of this biographical memoir is very happy in his domestic relations, and is devoting much attention to the intellectual, physical and spiritual development of his children. D. S. WASHBURN. This gentleman, one of the most prominent of Huron county's prosperous agriculturists, deserves more than a passing notice in the pages of this work. Mr. Washburn traces his ancestry to James Washburn, who was born about the year 1760, was a weaver by trade, and had his early home at Plainfield, Conn. As the writer understands the subject matter by data and traditions (such as he has been able to obtain), he fully believes that James Washburn is a direct descendant from John Washburn, who came over in the "Mayflower," and was subsequently secretary of the Plymouth Colony. He had born to him nine children, viz.: Walter, Joseph, Robert, Henry, Phoebe, Betsy, Hannah, Rosanna, and Sally Ann, all long since gathered to their rest, and their descendants scattered over many States. The eldest son, Walter, grandfather of subject, was born, in 1790, east of the Hudson river, in Westchester county, N. Y., whence in 1805 he moved with his father to Ulster county, same State, remaining there till 1833, in which year he came to Fitchville township, Huron Co., Ohio, where he passed the rest of his days, dying in 1865, at the age of seventy-five years. He was a lifelong and successful farmer, In 1809 he married Miss Nellie Van Benscoten, of Ulster county, N. Y., daughter of Larry Van Benscoten, and they had six children, viz.: Julia Ann, Henry G., Louisa R., John, Hannah and Maria. The mother of these died in 1825, and in 1827 Mr. Washburn ,wedded Mrs. Polly Van Benscoten, also of Ulster county, N. Y. D. S. Washburn, the subject proper of this sketch, was born April 8, 1843, in Greenwich township, Huron Co., Ohio, and was reared from early boyhood to the life of a farmer. His education was received at the common schools of the neighborhood of his place of birth, and at the academy in Milan, Erie county, after which he commenced to devote his entire attention to agricultural pursuits. In 1867 Mr. Washburn was united in marriage with Miss Sarah J. McComber, of Ripley township, born March 30, 1845, a daughter of Egbert McComber, by occupation a farmer, a native of Westchester county, N. Y. From his younger boyhood till shortly after his marriage with Miss Anna Benedict, of his native county, he HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 165 had his residence in Cayuga county, N. Y., and then moved to Ripley township. Here they lived until 1870, in which year they moved to Berlin Heights, Erie county, where he died October 5, 1888, his wife on March 30, 1892. After marriage Mr. Washburn and his bride moved to the farm whereon they are still living, and which comprises over 300 acres of prime land—considered one of the best in Ripley township. Five children have been born to our subject and wile, of whom the following is a brief record: Anna Mande, born September 24, 1868, is now Mrs. Oscar Hills, of Lorain county; Earnest Linton, born August 1, 1870, is at home with his father; Inez, born August 1, 1871, is now Mrs. Warren O. Smith, of Richland county, Ohio; Wayne was born November 25, 1880, and Leo on August 6, 1883. Mr. Washburn, in his political affiliations, has always been active as a loyal member of the Republican party. During the Civil war he served in the National Guards. JOHN McDONALD, a leading farmer of Clarksfield township, was born April 15, 1817, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Charles and Barbara (Stratton) McDonald, both also natives of Aberdeenshire. Charles McDonald was born in 1782, and grew to manhood and married in his native county. To his marriage were born three children, viz.: Margaret, who died in Scotland when twenty-three years old; John, and Charles. The mother of these died in 1820, and Mr. McDonald then took up his residence with his mother, John (subject of this sketch) being consigned to the care of his aunt Margaret. In 1838 Charles McDonald, bringing his son John and sister Margaret, sailed from Aberdeen on the schooner "Nimrod," landing, after a voyage of six weeks, in New York City. The youngest son, Charles, had emigrated three years previously; he taught school in Ashland, Richland and Wayne counties, Ohio, studied law at Mansfield, and after his admission to the bar moved to Lexington, Ky., where he taught school until his removal to Mississippi, where all trace of him was lost. Charles McDonald, Sr., traveled from New York to Ashland county, Ohio, by railroad, boat and wagon, the latter being the vehicle of transportation from the port of Huron to Savannah, Ashland county, then known as the "Scotch settlement." Owing to the poor condition of his health, the support of the family devolved upon John, and he labored for all until death relieved his father, February 12, 1843. His aunt Margaret lived with him until her death, which occurred February 19, 1859. John McDonald was reared in the manner then common to farmer boys in Scotland, beginning work as a farm hand when nine years old, and during the winters of his youth he attended the school of his native place. On his arrival in Ashland county, Ohio, in 1838, he found work on a farm, and was later employed as boss and timekeeper on St. Mary's Reservoir in Mercer county, Ohio. Within less than a year after his arrival in the United States, in July, 1838, he had paid one hundred and fifty dollars of the three hundred and twenty lie contracted to pay for a tract of forty acres of land. Before the close of 1841 the debt was cleared off, and a fertile farm in Ashland county was his without question. To accomplish this, lie accepted various offers of work—farming, cutting wood and laying stone. Strong and healthy, his friends held for him work too heavy for themselves, and paid for it at the rates prevailing at the time. In 1847 he moved to Clarksfield township, Huron county, where lie became owner of part of his present farm, received in exchange for the land in Ashland county. On April 7, 1855, he married Sally Phillips, daughter of James Phillips, of New York, where 166 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. she was born June 26, 1836. When fifteen years old she accompanied a sister to Huron county, and here met and married Mr. McDonald. The children born to them are as follows: Charles M., born July 10, 1856, died at about the age of twenty years; John, born August 5, 1858, a farmer of Clarksfield township; George W., born February 20, 1860, residing on the homestead; and Jesse K., born September 1, 1862, a farmer of Clarksfield township. The mother of these children died February 23, 1865, and was buried in Clarksfield cemetery. On September 30, 1865, he married, for his second wife, Mary A. Kingsbury, who was born in Genesee, N. Y., June 8, 1835, daughter of Lemuel and Jerusha (Durbon) Kingsbury ; she came to Ohio in 1838. To this marriage came one child, Jamie, born June 4, 1874, who died July 21, 1876. Since taking up his residence in Clarks- field township, Mr. McDonald has followed farming, gradually adding to the original place in Huron county, until now he owns 184 acres of fine land. This property has been accumulated by his own efforts, showing what can be done by industry and good management. Politically he is a Republican; but while influential in the party, he never took from his business a moment's time which it appeared to require prior to his retirement from active farm life in 1882. For forty years he has suffered from rheumatism, but only within the last decade could the disease make any headway against his naturally strong constitution. He and wife are members of the Congregational Church at Clarks- field, and both are highly esteemed. JOHN P. LEE, contractor and builder, of Clarksfield township, was born February 5, 1830, in Oswego county, New York. Thomas Lee, his father, was born January 17,1799, in Franklin township, Herkimer Co., N. Y.; was brought up there in the manner common to farmers' boys, and, when a young man, obtained the position of a "boss" on the Erie Canal. Subsequently he engaged in hauling wood to Utica, N. Y., and still later worked on a canal near Richmond, Va. In 1827 he was married, in Oswego county, to Lucinda Waugh, who was born there July 10, 1811, a daughter of 'Squire Norman Waugh. To this marriage the following named children were born in Oswego county: Truman T., a farmer of Rock county, Wis.; John P., the subject of this sketch; and Margaret, who married Elan- son Rose, of Camden township, Lorain Co., Ohio, and died in Norwalk in 1890. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lee located on a farm in Oswego county, and he was engaged in agriculture there until 1833, when with their three children they migrated to Camden township, Lorain Co., Ohio, where the father had purchased, in 1832, 150 acres, at three dollars per acre. On the journey to Ohio, the Waughs and Douglasses accompanied them, and the three fam ilies occupied one log cabin until Thomas Lee built a rude shelter on his farm, which he occupied until 1848, when he built a commodious dwelling house. During the first spring the family passed in Ohio, the father suffered from erysipelas, the disease causing him the loss of his left hand. He died in 1878, and was buried in Camden township. He left his widow and children a valuable property, including the old homestead, on which she resided since coming to Ohio. The children born to her in Camden township were as follows: George F., a fanner of Rock county, Wis.; Philip E., who died at Trinidad, Col., where he had resided for many years; Norman, a farmer of Camden township, Lorain county; and Andrew, who is also a farmer of Camden township. John P. Lee was a lad of three years when he settled 'in Ohio, but he well remembers the cooking of the first breakfast in Lorain county. Forked sticks, bearing HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 167 a pole, from which a kettle suspended over the fire, tell more clearly than words could of his primitive surroundings. He received a primary education in Camden township, his first school teacher being Experience Gifford, who presided over a few pupils in a log cabin not far from the Lee homestead. At the age of nineteen years he was apprenticed to Edward Gager, with whom he learned the carpenter's trade, his progress in acquiring a knowledge of same being very rapid. On January 23, 1856, he was married to Sarah J. Rood, who was born March 1, 1838, in Washington county, N,Y. Her parents, Lewis and Hulda (Mosier) Rood, came to Stark county, Ohio, in 1841, and located near Masillon, whence in 1847 they removed to Camden township, Lorain county, where the daughter met her husband. The children born to John P. and Sarah J. Lee are named as follows: Eva C. (Mrs. E. E. Rowland), of Clarksfield; John A., a farmer of Clarks- field, married to Sarah E. Barnes; Elma (Mrs. Almar McChaffin), of Eaton county, Mich.; Nuland W., a mason by trade, married to Rose M. Twaddle; and Lillie R. (Mrs. Lewis Johnson), of Clarksfield. For three years after marriage Mr. Lee worked at his trade in Camden. In 1859 he purchased a farm in that township, and carried on agriculture in connection with his trade until 1861, when he lost his left hand. He had just signed a contract for the erection of a dwelling house, and was planing lumber for the window frames, when he discovered that the adjusting screw of the planer had to be set. While setting it his thumb was drawn into the machine, the hand receiving such injuries that amputation became necessary. In the spring of 1863 he located in Clarksfield township, Huron county, on his present farm, and gave closer attention than formerly to agriculture, but later resumed carpentry, leaving the care of the farm to his family. Mr. Lee has been quite successful as a builder and contractor; one of the, largest lime-kilns at Lakeside, Ohio, is the result of his work, and several residences and barns, as well as the leading cheese factory buildings in Huron and Lorain counties, were built by him. He is known as a conscientious contractor, who will carry out his contracts to the letter. A Republican in politics, Mr. Lee has held the office of assessor for quite a number of years. In religious connection he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. MARK MYERS, a typical German —honest, industrious and well-to- do--is a native of Baden, born April 14, 1820, a son of Joseph and Agnes Myers, the former of whom was a hard-working man in Baden, where he lived many years, and, like most married poor men, had a large family. Joseph Myers was twice married, and had three children by his first wife, and ten by his second. In 1834, with his wife and ten children (the others being yet unborn), he set sail for the United States from the port of Havre de Grace, France, and after a stormy passage of fifty-two days, during which the mainmast was carried away, they landed at New York on the Fourth of July. Hearing the firing of cannon, the immigrants were somewhat dismayed, imagining that war must have broken out; but on learning that it was only their "American cousins" celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, their fears were at once dispelled. On the ocean another child was born, and was named Frank. From New York the family proceeded to Ohio, via the Hudson river and Erie Canal to Sandusky, thence to Monroeville, Huron county. In Ridgefield township Joseph bought seven acres of land at six dollars per acre, the payment of which exhausted all his savings, as the expense of bringing his family was very heavy. This land he bravely set to work to clear with the assistance of his sturdy sons, and his 168 - HURON COUNTY. OHIO. not less robust and industrious wife and daughters. Soon their efforts were crowned with success, and the rugged wildwood gave place to green fields and rich pastures. Here Joseph Myers was gathered to his fathers, dying on Easter Sunday, 1873, and was buried in the Underhill Cemetery. Before his death the original little homestead of seven acres had been increased, by his unceasing dilligence and perseverance, to 150 acres of excellent farm land. His wife was called from earth in 18—. Mark Myers, the subject of this sketch, received a fair education in his native land, and was fourteen years old when he came to the United States with the rest of the family. In Ridgefield township, Huron county, he found employment at various occupations, and all his earnings he gave over to his father until he was twenty-two years old. During part of this time he worked on the Wabash Erie Canal at twenty dollars per month, and for eight years was employed in a distillery at Monroeville, carefully saving his earnings, so that by the time of his marriage he had a nice snug sum laid by. In 1849 he bought land in Sherman township), to which two years later he and his wife moved, taking up their abode in a rude log house surrounded with woods, where by dint of hard work they effected a clearing and developed a farm. From this comparatively small beginning Mr. Myers kept on prospering until his original small farm had grown to one of 325 acres, a good part of which he has given to his sons, all of whom he assisted in their start in life. On October 12, 1847, our subject was married to Miss Mary Ann Harman, who was born November 15, 1825, in Buffalo, N. Y., a daughter of Henry Harman, and who came to Huron county in 1835. Thirteen children were born of this union, their names and dates of birth being as follows: Kate, April 28, 1849; Mary, December 23, 1850; Frank, December 30, 1852; Joseph, September 8, 1854; Gracie, July 10, 1856; George, May 20, 1858; Henry, October 16, 1859; Hannah, March 10, 1861: Lena, November 30, 1862; Mark L., May 23, 1865; Ida, November 18, 1867; Mark W., January 20, 1869; and Rosa R., May 13, 1871. Of these, Mary died August 27, 1885, and Mark died December 26, 1868. Politically our subject is a Democrat, but voted for Abraham Lincoln, on account of his views on the slavery question. He has held various offices of trust in his township, where he is highly respected, and with his wife is a worthy member of the Catholic Church. R. H. EMERSON, a resident of East Norwalk, where he carries on a lucrative blacksmithing business, is a native of Vermont, born in 1827, a son of Thomas Emerson, also a native of the Green Mountain State. The father of subject, who was a shoemaker by trade, came to Ohio in 1816, locating in Seneca county. In 1826 he married Miss Sarah Glick, and then moved to Fremont, same State, where he resided till 1839, in which year the family came to Huron county, settling on a farm near Monroeville. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Emerson, viz,: Thomas E., Christian, Anna, Laurel, and R. H. In Monroeville our subject remained till he was twenty-one years of age, when he went to Milan, Erie county, same State, and after two and one-half years' sojourn there came to Norwalk and engaged in blacksmithing, a trade he has followed there some forty years. He also carries on a farm of twenty-five acres. In 1864 he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Sixty-sixth 0. V. I., and served four months and nine days, on guard duty, after which he returned home, and for five years following was a sergeant in the State troops. In 1850 Mr. Emerson married 169 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Miss Jane Cortright, of Norwalk, who bore him children as follows: Sarah, wife of Nelson Bailey, of Townsend, Ohio; Louella Norman; Lewis, in Michigan; Laura Trumbull, in East Norwalk, Ohio; Mary Denman, of Townsend; Anna Sirls, of Lakeside, Ohio; Lilly, in Kansas; and Melinda, who died, in 1892; in Michigan. The mother of these died in 1878, and for his second wife Mr. Emerson wedded Mrs. Sarah Bender, of Chicago Junction, by whom there is no issue. Politically our subject is a Republican, and he is a member of the Methodist Church. JOEL ROSS. This well-known influential farmer and stock raiser of Wakeman township first saw the light March 12, 1828, the locality of his birth being the same farm wherc his father was born March 5, 1799, in Groveland township, Livingston county, New York. Joel P. and Maria (Ordaway) Ross, parents of the subject of this sketch, had a family, of thirteen children; of whom are living the following: Anna (Mrs. William Jeffries), a widow, living in Hartland; Fannie Jane, wife of William Harrison Fletcher, living in Wakeman, Ohio; Angeline, wife of John Moon, and Charity, wife of Melvin Gunn, both residents of Brighton, Lorain county; and William, a farmer of Michigan. When our subject was about eighteen months old he came down the Ohio river on a raft with his parents, and his father moved to Scioto county, Ohio, afterward coming to Lorain county, dying in Brighton, March 9, 1881, at the age of eighty-two years; for some time prior to his death he had resided in Florence township, Erie county. He was a lifelong farmer; politically, he was a Republican, and he was a member of the Methodist Church, as is also his widow, who is yet living in Brighton, Ohio, now in her eighty-eighth year. Joel Ross, whose name opens this sketch, received his education at the common schools of the vicinity of his home, at the same time assisting his parents in the work of cultivating and improving the farm. When he was nineteen years old he commenced working away from home by the month, and, saving his money, paid for fifty-three acres of land in Brighton township, Lorain county. After five years he went to California, where for four and one-half years he was engaged in mining, driving team, etc., saving his money with judicious care. Returning to Huron county he bought 150 acres of wild land in Wakeman township, and leased the fifty-three acres in Brighton to his father, who lived thereon to the time of his death. Clearing the land, our subject sold the timber, built himself a comfortable log house, barn, etc., and prospered. He now owns 150 acres, and successfully carries on general agriculture, including stock-raising. On November 25, 1858, Mr. Ross married Miss Ann E. Haines, a native of Bronson township, Huron county, daughter of George W. Haines, of Clarksfield township, same county, and children as follows were born to them: Anna (Mrs. Hayes), living in Wakeman; Dennis, married, and living near, working on the home farm ; Ida, married to Charles Fletcher, and living in Michigan; and Ella (Mrs. Charles Whitney), residing in Clarksfield township. In his political associations our subject is a straight Republican, and has served his township as school director and in other offices of trust. C. A. McCULLOW is a young and progressive business man of Greenwich, engaged in the merchant tailoring, clothing and men's furnishing trade. He is a native of Huron county, born in 1857, was educated here, and since the close of his school days has been engaged in various mercantile enterprises. In 1880 he and a Mr. Thomas established the present business, but in 1882 Mr. Mc- 170 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Cullow purchased his partner's interest, and for over a decade has carried on a successful trade. On October 24, 1881, he married Miss Lovezilla Riblet, of Cleveland, born in Galion, Crawford Co., Ohio, a daughter of David and Caroline (Mathias) Riblet, the former a native of Pennsylvania, the latter of Ohio. To this union one child, Mable, was born. He is a Republican in politics. J. E. and Agnes (Bartlett) McCullow, parents of the subject of this sketch, are old settlers of Huron county. J. E. McCullow was born in New Jersey State, came with his parents to this county when a child, and was engaged in farming until his retirement from active life a few years ago. He lives at Greenwich, but still owns the fine farm near that town, known as the McCullow homestead. He was married twice, C. A. McCullow being the only child of the first marriage, while to the second marriage was also born one son. C. A. McCullow devotes two floors to his business, each 20 x 52 feet in area. Here a large assortment of domestic and foreign cloths may be seen. From four to six journeyman tailors are employed, and an air of business pervades the whole establishment. He is a member of the National Union; and is popular in the commercial and social circles of Greenwich. GILBERT L. JOHNSON, a prominent representative agriculturist of Clarksfield township, was born Febrnary 26, 1828, in the town of Danby, Tompkins Co., N. Y., a son of Abraham Johnson, who was born in Connecticut. Abraham Johnson was educated in the schools of his native town, and there learned the two great branches of the building trade, becoming a stone mason and carpenter. When a young man he migrated to Tompkins county, N. Y., and located in Caroline township, where he met and married Sally Walton, also a native of Connecticut, who came to Tompkins county, N. Y., when a girl, and resided there until 1846, when the family migrated to Ohio. The children born to Abraham and Sally Johnson are as follows: Phoebe, who married Abraham Smith, and died in Clarksfield township; Wesley, a farmer of Crawford county, Penn.; George, who resides in Branch county, Mich.; Jane, who married Anthony Shipman, and died in Clarksfield township; Gilbert L., the subject of this sketch; Emily, wife of Aaron Thomas, of Henry county, Ohio; Lewis, residing in Branch county, Mich,, and Amanda, who first married John Wilson, and is now the wife of Anson Wheeler, of Henry county, Ohio. With the exception of Wesley the whole family came to Ohio in 1846, making the journey with a wagon drawn by two horses. On this wagon were packed the household goods, so that the adults of the family had, practically, to walk over rough roads from their old home in New York to their new one in Ohio. On arriving in Clarksfield township, Huron county, they found themselves in the midst of a dense forest, but a space for a cabin was at once cleared and the erection of a small log house begun. Before the structure was completed a storm swept over the forest, blew down the trees on one side of the little clearing, and one, falling on the house, demolished it. Undeterred, the work of building was resumed, and the pioneers occupied their first home in Ohio. The clearing away of the forest was then begun, and there was soon another open space in the wilderness. Subsequently the father built for his family a frame house, and followed his trades, giving much more attention thereto than to agriculture, until hie death, which occurred in February, 1866. He was buried in East Creek cemetery, in New London township, where the remains of his widow were interred in 1872. Poplitically he was originally a Whig, having voted for William Henry Harrison, later became an Abolitionist, a Free-soiler, and finally a Republican. HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 171 Gilbert L. Johnson was raised in the manner common to boys of the pioneer period, attending school only as circumstances permitted. When twelve or thirteen years old he assisted his father in making barrels, for the latter was a cooper as well as a stone mason and carpenter. When eighteen years old he accompanied his parents to Ohio, and at once went to work in clearing the farm, in which he was engaged until 1849, when he commenced to work for himself. He found employment at eleven dollars per month, cutting cordwood near Norwalk; and baying a knowledge of coopering, also earned money at that trade, and steadily advanced. His marriage with Rhoda Cotton took place March 1, 1855. She was born May 9, 1829, at Truxton, Cortland Co., N. Y., a daughter of Jonathan and Polly (Kingsley) Cotton, who settled in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1832, where Mr. Johnson met and married Miss Cotton, while he was an employe of the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley & Wheeling Railroad Company, then in course of construction. Mrs. Johnson was a schoolteacher in Wayne county, Ohio, and Mr. Johnson boarded at her father's house while working on the railroad in that section. The children born to this marriage were as follows: Effie, now Mrs. Reuben Knapp, of Huntington, Lorain county; Walton, who died in 1864 at the age of six years; Lewis, who married Lillie Lee, and resides in Clarksfield; and Clara, now Mrs. Earl Ketcham, of New London, Huron county. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Johnson moved to Coldwater, Mich., where he worked at the trade of cooper until he learned of the illness of his wife's parents, when he and his wife returned to Wayne county to care for them. For four years he was engaged in farming in Milton township. In 1860 he removed to Huron county, purchased a farm of forty acres in Clarksfield township, and there lived until 1866, when he took possession of his present farm. This tract contains 120 acres, well improved, with a substantial, well-furnished house, good farm buildings, fences, and large orchard, representing his savings since the close of the Civil war. Mr. Johnson cast his first Presidential vote for John C. Fremont, and has ever since been a Republican. He takes a deep interest in political affairs, studies current subjects, and is well posted on the issues of the day. He and his wife are Free-will Baptists, and he is trustee in the church. J. M. HARKNESS, leading liveryman, horse dealer and transferman, of Norwalk, is descended from an old New England family. His father, Abner Harkness, was born in Vermont, and became a pioneer settler of New Haven township, Huron Co., Ohio. He was married to Nancy Garrett, a native of Auburn, Cayuga Co., N. Y., and passed the later portion of his life in Norwalk. He purchased the first sheep brought to Huron county, having been a prominent agriculturist; in politics he was originally a Henry Clay Whig, afterward uniting with the Republican party. He was a member of the M. E. Church for over fifty years, his family being also members of the same. He was a strong man in early life, but had poor health for over fifty years. He died about 1870, at the age of eighty-three, his widow surviving him until 1877, when she passed away in her eighty-third year. Of the children born to this couple, seven grew to maturity and five are yet living. J. M. Harkness was born April 1, 1837, in Norwalk, Huron Co., Ohio, and was educated at the seminary in his native place. He then learned the trade of tile making, a business he followed till he went in the service, as follows: He enlisted for three months in Company C, Eighty-eighth O. V. I., June 6, 1862, at Norwalk, Ohio; mustered in at Camp 172 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Chase, Ohio, June 10, 1862; appointed second sergeant June 12, 1862; promoted to first sergeant June 27, 1862, and mustered out with the company as such at Camp Chase, Ohio, September 26, 1862. Re-enlisted as private in Company F, Tenth Regiment, 0. V. C., on the 1st day of November, 1862, at Cleveland, Ohio; mustered in U. S. service for the period of three years on the 15th day of January, 1863, at Cleveland, Ohio; appointed first sergeant January 15, 1863; commissioned second lieutenant June 14, 1864, and mustered as such July 19, 1864, at Cartersville, Ga., to date June 25, 1864; promoted to first lieutenant January 30, 1865; entered on duty as first lieutenant and adjutant May 1, 1865, and mustered out with regiment at Lexington, N. C., July 24, 1865. He was with the regiment in all its engagements from start to finish, including Sherman's celebrated march to the sea. After the war Mr. Harkness returned to Huron county, Ohio, and embarked in the livery business; he has dealt extensively in carriage horses, and also carries on a transfer business. Politically he is a member of the Republican party„ and takes an active interest in all movements tending to the advancement of the community. On August 18, 1856, he was married to Julia Boughton, a native of Lorain county, Ohio, and they are the parents of four children: George C., J. C., Willie and Katie, the only idolized daughter, who died in February, 1891, at the age of sixteen years, deeply mourned by the bereaved parents and relatives. F. E. WILDMAN. A leading representative citizen and prosperous merchant of West Clarksfield, this gentleman deserves more than a passing notice in the pages of this volume. He comes of old Connecticut stock, the homestead of his great-grandfather, Samuel Wildman, being now a part of the town of Danbury. The following is a brief record of the children of this Samuel Wildman: Esther, born in 1779, married Samuel Husted, and they came to Clarksfield township, being pioneers (she died at the age of sixty-three); Samuel died in October, 1842, in Danbury, Conn., aged eighty years; Mary married Levi Stone, in Danbury, and later moved to Kent, Ohio, where she died in September, 1845, when aged eighty-six years; Grace was married in Connecticut to Hezekiah Rowland, a Revolutionary soldier, and she died in Clarksfield, Ohio, in May, 1846, when aged eighty-five years; Eli, who was a farmer, died in Danbury, Conn., July 5, 1849, at the age of eighty-four; Ezra was the grandfather of our subject; he had a twin brother that died in infancy. Ezra Wildman, grandfather of F. E,, was born April 20, 1775, on his father's farm near Danbury, Conn., and learned the hatter's trade. On June 10, 1798, he married Anne Hoyt, who was born April 19, 1779, near Danbury, a daughter of Comfort and Eunice (Mallory) Hoyt, the former of whom was born May 4, 1751 (old style), the latter on March 23, 1751 (old style). After marriage Ezra Wildman continued his trade in Danbury, where were born to him and his wife children as follows: Mary Ann, born January 21, 1804, who married Daniel Stone and moved to Clarksfield, Huron county, where they both died; Cornelia, born November 14, 1806, died at the age of three years; William H.; Frederick A., born June 5, 1813, ex-county clerk, and a prominent citizen of Norwalk, Huron county; and Cornelia E., born June 18, 1816, who married Alfred R. Segar, and afterward became the wife of S. G. Wright (she died in Kansas City). Comfort Hoyt, Mrs. Ezra Wildman's father, who was a merchant in Danbury, had his store and contents damaged by British soldiers during the war of the Revolution, in compensation for which he was given, HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 173 by the Government of Connecticut, a tract of land in what was then known as the "Western Connecticut Reserve," afterward becoming the State of Ohio. This land Comfort Hoyt divided among his children, Anne's portion lying in what is now Clarksfield township, Huron county, the same being recorded as "Lot 10, Section 3." Ezra Wildman made several trips from the East to inspect this land, and have improvements made thereon. In May, 1828, lie and his son, William H,, drove to Ohio, arriving on June 1 following, and here the son remained, the father, after a brief sojourn, returning eastward. In the fall of the same year Ezra came finally with his entire family, both single and married, the journey being made by canal and lake, the party arriving in Huron county October 21, and they immediately took up their residence in Clarksfield township, at the home prepared for them, where they set to work to clear the land and cultivate the new soil. Grandfather Wildman died here February 26, 1858, his wife in June, 1859, after a married life of nearly sixty years. Their remains repose in Clarksfield cemetery, east of Hollow. Politically, Ezra Wildman was originally a Federalist of the old school, then a Whig, and finally a Republican. William H. Wildman, father of the subject proper of this sketch, was born July 23, 1810, in Danbury, Conn., and was there educated, first attending subscription school, afterward select school. When fifteen years old he commenced learning the hatter's trade with his father, and was eighteen years old when, as already related, he came to Ohio, where, in Milan, Erie county, he worked four years at his trade for Henry Lockwood. On April 20, 1831, in Fitchville, Huron county, he married Miss Mary Ann Seger, who was born February 27, 1814, in Connecticut, a daughter of Eli Seger, an early settler of Clarksfield township. This wife died childless July 29, 1834, and was buried in Clarksfield. On March 27, 1836, Mr. Wildman was united in wedlock, in Genesee county, N. Y., with Miss Fanny Knapp, born February 11, 1815, in Dan. bury, Conn., a daughter of Thomas B. and Mercy (Seger) Knapp, highly respectable farming people. The children born of this union were as follows: Elbert K., horn August 3, 1837, died when three years and nine months old; Alfred R., born August 31, 1844, now of Cleveland, Ohio, an attache of the Cleveland Plain, Dealer; and Frank E., the subject proper of this sketch. Until 1880, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Wildman resided in Clarksfield township, on their farm, which was a part of the Connecticut grant; afterward lived two years in Oberlin, then seven in Wakeman, and they now have their home with their son, F. E., in West Clarksfield, respected and honored by all who know them. F. E. Wildman, whose name opens this sketch, was born September 24, 1846, in Clarksfield township, Huron county, where he received a liberal education in part at the cotntnon schools and in part at select school. In early manhood he entered the employ of Bates & Gilbert, millers at Norwalk, Huron county, as a helper; later went west, and at Iowa Falls, Iowa, was engaged in a general store as clerk. Returning home, he resided for several years on the farm owned by his father. In 1880 he removed to Oberlin, Ohio, where he bought a wholesale notion wagon, and carried on a wholesale notion business. After a few years he bought a stock of goods in Kip- ton, Ohio, remaining there two years; then in 1889 he removed to Clarksfield, same State, and in 1891 to West Clarksfield, where he has since been engaged in merchandising, conducting one of the largest general stores in the county. Mr. Wildman's well-known pleasantness and courtesy, together with his thorough business principles, have won for him a wide popularity. In 1872 Mr. Wildman was united in marriage with Miss Mary Akers, who was born in Birmingham, Erie Co., Ohio, April 174 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. 2, 1850, a daughter of P. G. Akers, a farmer and mechanic of that town. Two children have blessed this union: William H., clerking in his father's store, and Mary Grace. Mr. Wildman is a stanch Republican, and April 1, 1892, he was appointed postmaster at West Clarksfield; at present with characteristic fidelity and ability he is filling various offices of trust. An active member of the Congregational Church, he is a deacon in same, and for several years was superintendent of the Sabbath-school. ALBERT GAGE, an influential and progressive citizen of Centerton, Norwich township, is a son of George Gage, who was a son of James, a native of Vermont, and a descendant of the family of which Gen. Gage was a member. He, James Gage, had a family of eight sons—James, Moses, John, George, Munson, Rodman, Theodore and Judah—and two daughters—Anna and Lucy. George Gage, father of subject, was born about the year 1802, in New York, at a place known as " the Grout," and there his boyhood days were passed on a farm, and in attending the subscription schools of the neighborhood of his boyhood home. He worked for a time in a salt factory, and in 1834 came to Ohio, settling in Lake county, where he continued farming pursuits until his retirement from active life. In 18— he married Miss Phoebe Hatch, of Herkimer county, N. Y., and they have three children, Albert, Adelia M. and Sarah L. Albert Gage, the subject of this sketch, was born, in 1825, in Syracuse, N. Y., and received a liberal common-school education. When a youth he went on the lakes as a common sailor, and was wrecked several times. In 1850 he came to Huron county, taking up his residence in Center- ton, where for ten years he was engaged in the lumber business. The Civil war hay ing then broken out, he enlisted, in 1861, in the Fifty-fifth Regiment O. V. I., participated in the battle of Cross Keys, and was discharged as sergeant in 1862 on account of disability. On his return home he was taken sick, and was invalided till 1864, when he joined the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth O. V. I., as orderly sergeant, remaining at the front one hundred days. On his return once more to the pursuits of peace, he clerked two years for Hester Bank, merchants of Centerton, Huron county, and then for Crow & Miller, general merchants of same place, one year, and after the death of Crow he took over his interest by purchase. In 1873 he bought out Miller, and has since been found at the same stand, doing a flourishing and profitable business. In 1854 Mr. Gage married Miss Elizabeth Van Horn, of Norwich township, Huron county, and five children were born to this union, viz.: Henry F., Eugene W., Stanley, Frederick and Bertha. In his political proclivities our subject has been a stanch Republican, and has held various township offices with honor. JAMES BELLAMY, a well-known farmer of Townsend township, was born August 12, 1839, in Huntingdon, England, and is the seventh child in a family of ten born to Samuel and Susanna (Highiarn) Bellamy, the former of whom was born in Huntingdonshire, England, and the latter in Glasgow, Scotland. Samuel Bellamy was educated and married in England, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits for many years, in fact most of his life. His educational advantages were very.limited in youth, consequently such literary knowledge as he possessed was mainly acquired in the practical school of experience. In September, 1862, he emigrated with his wife and youngest child to the United States, HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 175 all the other members of the family having preceded them. First stopping with their son, the subject of this sketch, in Huron township, Erie Co., Ohio, they remained until the following spring (1863) and then removed to Ford county, Ill., where Samuel Bellamy died August 3, 1863, when in his sixty-third year. Both he and his wife were consistent members of the Church of England; the latter, however, became in her later years a member of the M. E. Church at Townsend Center, Huron Co., Ohio. William Bellamy, grandfather of our subject, was a lifelong farmer in his native England, where for many generations the Bellamys were engaged in agricultural pursuits. John Highiam, maternal grandfather of our subject, was a non-commissioned officer in the British army, all his life being passed in the military service. He was born at a military post (as were also all his own children), his father being a lifelong soldier, as was also his grandfather, and the ancestors of the family for generations. James Bellamy, the subject of this sketch, received but meager literary advantages in youth, never having attended school more than two or three weeks in his life, and that in England before reaching his seventh year. He has, however, since attaining manhood's years, succeeded by his own efforts in acquiring a very fair business education. He is a man of good judgment, quick perceptions and a close observer of everything around him; and he is also quite a reader, well informed in current literature and in the Scriptures and Bible literature generally. At the age of sixteen, in 1855, he immigrated to the United States, landing at New York City on Christmas Day of that year, and arriving at his sister's home in Berlin township, Erie Co., Ohio, on January 1, 1856. He immediately went to work by the month on a farm in that neighborhood, for a Mr. James Oates, with whom he remained until the following spring. He continued working out by the month or day, occasionally taking a job of chopping cordwood or ditching, until the spring of 1873, when he bought wild land in Townsend township, Huron county. There were only four acres cleared on the place, out of which he has since improved the farm upon which he now resides, and to which he has added other lands, now owning two well-improved places. During eight or nine winters he chopped 1,200 cords of wood for Mr. Frank Pinney, in Townsend ,township. Prior to his settling in Huron county Mr. Bellamy had purchased wild lands in Wood county, Ohio, and also in Michigan, as a speculation, but never resided on either tract. On April 22, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment O. V. I., for three months, and was mustered out at Norwalk on August 22 following. Mr. Bellamy was married December 14, 1860, to Miss Eliza Coultrip, who was born in Kent, England, June 8, 1842, a daughter of James and Sophia (Fulligar) Coultrip, both of whom were also natives of Kent. Two sons have blessed their union, viz.: John Charles, born March 17, 1862, and William Porter, born December 12, 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Bellamy are devout members of the M. E. Church, and are identified with the the class at Townsend Center. Socially he is a charter member of Townsend Post No. 414, G. A. R., in which Post he has several times filled the office of chaplain. Mrs. Bellamy is an active member of Townsend W. R. C. No. 142, Auxiliary to Townsend Post No. 414, G. A. R. In politics Mr. Bellamy is a Republican, and he is one of the enterprising, successful farmers of the neighborhood, as well as one of her most prominent and respected citizens. Mr. Bellamy's brother, William Bellamy, in company with whom our subject immigrated. to America, was employed, like him, in working by the month, day or job until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he enlisted in the same company and 176 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. regiment with our subject, and on the same day. Soon after his discharge, in September, 1861, he re-enlisted, this time in Company C, Fifty-fifth 0. V. I., and served with his regiment in all its marches and engagements to the second battle of Bull Run, in which engagement he was killed by a cannon ball. No truer patriot or braver soldier ever stood upon a battlefield than he. He was always ready for duty, never hesitating or flinching from any post assigned him, no matter how arduous or dangerous the work. He was color bearer of his regiment, and fell while in the front ranks. He left a widow, having been married just before proceeding to the front. James Coultrip, father of Mrs. James Bellamy, was a shepherd by occupation, in his native land. In 1850 he immigrated to the United States, first halting near Albany, N. Y., where he was engaged in chopping wood for one winter. The next spring, 1851, he removed to Lorain county, Ohio, locating near Avon; where he was employed at shearing sheep and on a large ditch contract, until the fall of the same year, when he took a contract for grading a part of the northern division of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad in Lorain county. He completed the same, but was defrauded of the fruits of his labor, never receiving a cent of pay. After this he was employed at any thing which promised to bring him an honest dollar. In the fall of 1852 he sent for his wife and children, whom he had left behind in Old England, and the family, among whom was Mrs. Bellamy, then ten years old, arrived in New York in November, that year, and came thence by rail and steamboat to Berlin township, Erie Co., Ohio. There they rejoined Mr. Coultrip, who for several years afterward farmed on rented lands in both Erie and Huron counties. In about 1857 or 1858 he bought a farm in Townsend township, Huron county, upon which he remained until the spring of 1868, when he sold out and bought another place in Berlin township, Erie county. After a few years he sold this place, and later rented in various parts of Huron county. The last two years of his life were passed with his son- in-law, the subject of our sketch, at whose home his death occurred January 5, 1878, when he was aged sixty-three years. During the Civil war he served in the Nineteenth 0. V. I., from October 3, 1864, to June 8, 1865. He was not assigned to any company, and for a time did duty as a cattle guard, and afterward as nurse in a hospital at Moorehead City, N. Carolina. FRANK J. RUFFING, a prominent agriculturist of Sherman township, is a native of same, born September 13, 1859, a son of Joseph Ruffing, one of the pioneers of the county. His father numbered among those who came to Ohio when it was necessary to clear in the forest a place on which to build a log hut, and make a home in the wilderness. Our subject passed his childhood on his 'father's farm, and remained there until he was married. He attended the subscription school of his neighborhood, receiving such education as was furnished in those days, when the schoolhouse was a rude log hut, scarcely protected from the elements, and furnished with benches nailed to one side of the wall, and where the teachers were but indifferently prepared to impart information.. In 1884 Mr. Riffling married Miss Victoria Layman, daughter of Balsor Layman, a well-known farmer of Sherman township, and their marriage has been blessed with three children, viz.: Alfred, Bertha and Nora, all of whom are yet living. Mr. and Mrs. Ruffing are members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Rutting is singularly fortunate in his domestic relations, his ehildren being a great source of pride to him, and his interest in educational matters is demonstrated by the manner in which he controls HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 177 and directs the intellectual necessities of his children. He is public-spirited and enterprising, and readily endosres any project calculated to stimulate the development and prosperity of the township and county in which he resides. He is generous and affable, his sympathies expressing themselves in kindness to friends and in charities when they are merited. It may be said of him, that in all the relations of life in which he is called upon to act, he is trustworthy, constant and honest. His habits of industry and application have enabled him to accumulate a handsome property, and he owns eighty-four acres of valuable land, devoted to general agriculture; including stock raising. He is popular in political circles, and has served as supervisor for several years. J. H. McELHINNEY, M. D., a member of the medical firm of J. H. & F. B. McElHinney, of New London, was born in Washington county, Ohio, in 1850, a son of Dr. Joseph M. McElHinney, who was born within four miles of the city of Londonderry, Ireland. Brought to the United States when seven years old, the father of our subject was educated in Ohio, and while still a youth began school teaching, presiding over a school in the village of Newport, Ohio, for eight years. During that period he read medicine, and, entering the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, graduated, afterward establishing himself in practice at Newport. There he married Miss Arabella Hannold, and made his home. He served a term in the army in 1864, as captain of Company G, One Hundred and Forty-eighth 0. V. I. J. H. McElhinney, the subject proper of this sketch, grew to manhood at Newport, Ohio, received a practical education in the schools there, and completed his literary course in Marietta College. When not at school he assisted his father in office work. School days over, he read medicine under the direction of his father, and assisted him in practice, even before entering the medical college. He attended lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute, of Cincinnati, and, graduating from that institution in 1873, returned home, where he remained until his brother Frank won a diploma. From that time until 1881 he practiced at Hills, Washington county; then moving to Ruggles, Ashland county, and from there to New London, Ohio, in 1888, established himself at once as a skillful physician. In 1877 Dr. McElHinney married Miss Mary E. Greene, the second daughter of Christopher and Mary F. (Wood) Greene. Christopher Greene was born in Newport, Ohio, in 1809, son of John Greene, one of the first settlers of Newport, which was settled soon after the settling of Marietta, Ohio. He was fond of hunting in his younger days; also spent considerable time running flat-boats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, in the capacity of pilot. At the age of fifty-five he entered the United States service in Company G, One Hundred and Forty-eighth 0. V. I., under Capt. J. M. McElHinney, in Gen. Benj. F. Butler's corps on the James river, near Petersburg, Va. he is still (1894) living at Newport, Ohio. To Dr. and Mrs. J. H. McKlHinney have been born four children, namely: Mary A., Glenna E., Bessie G. and Clare B. The Doctor is a member of the Ohio Eclectic Medical Society, and is now the secretary; was a member of the Grand Lodge of the I. 0. G. T. for ten years, and is a member of the I. 0. 0. F. A Prohibitionist in politics, he is a consistent member of that party. He is recognized as an able general practitioner, and well known as a most successful surgeon. With the exception of the time devoted to field sports, he gives close personal attention to professional work. During certain seasons he seeks out some good hunting and fishing grounds, and passes a short season in 178 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. the role of hunter and fisherman. The trophies in his office speak of his success as a sportsman. He was mustered out of the United States service in the fall of 1864 when not quite fourteen years old. He still has a fondness for target shooting with the rifle, at which he is quite proficient. B. F. STARBIRD, a druggist of New London, was born in Stark county, Ohio, October 24, 1844. His father, Austin Starbird, a native of Pennsylvania, studied medicine at Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from the Medical College of that city. About the year 1850 he located in New London, and soon established himself as a physician and surgeon. His study did not at all cease with graduation. The responsibilities of practice led him to deeper studies and research, so that the reputation he won, in the profession, was based on a solid foundation; for his knowledge of medicine and surgery, in both theory and practice, was wide. He died in the spring of 1877, his widow, Mary J. (Fulton), in 1891. B. F. Starbird is the eldest in a family of five children. He received a practical education in the common school of New London, and completed a commercial course in Oberlin College. When he was of age his father presented him and brother with a fully equipped drug store, and this business he has carried on since 1867. In the spring of 1890 he purchased his brothersis interest in the store, at which time the brother was appointed postmaster at New London. The building in which his business is carried on is 20 x 85 feet in area, two stories high, with basement. Throughout, it is fully stocked with drugs, paints and oils. The prescription department receives the close personal attention of the owner, who gives general supervision to the whcle establishment. In 1878 Mr. Starbird married Miss Alice E. Kilburn, a daughter of one of the pioneers of New London, where she was born. To this marriage the following named children were born: Mary Ella, Burton Hoyte, Frank Kilburn and Margurite J. With the exception of three years passed in Chicago, Ill., and many days in school at Oberlin, Mr. Starbird has been a resident of New London since the family moved from Stark county, Ohio, and holds a high position in the social as well as in the commercial circle. He has held the office of township clerk for over fifteen years. The beginnings of the family in America were made in Maine, from which center they branched out. The grandfather of B. F. Starbird migrated to Stark county, and carried on a farm there until his removal to Maumee, Lucas Co., Ohio, where he died at a ripe old age. HIRAM SMITH. Ranking among the first and best of the early families of Huron county is the Smith family, descended from the New England pioneer, Erastus Smith, and his wife, Fannie (Spencer) Smith. Hiram Smith, although still superintending, and not actively engaged in farming, is one of Huron county's largest practical farmers and landowners. He was born in Greenfield township, Huron county, November 21, 1816. His father, Erastus Smith, was united in wedlock to Fannie Spencer on the 19th day of December, 1805, and of this union were born seven children, viz.: Martin, Lydia, Truman, Erastus, Lester, Hiram and Henrietta. At the time of the arrival in this county of Erastus and Fannie Smith there was but one cabin in Greenfield township, and in this Mrs. Smith stayed while her husband built their log cabin. This brave pioneer woman lived to the great age of ninety-seven years, retaining in a great measure her wonderful mental powers up to the time of her death. Erastus Smith died July 16, 1820. Hiram Smith and 179 - PICTURE OF HIRAM SMITH 180 - BLANK 181 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. family are owners of 800 acres of finely improved land in Greenfield township, the development of which is almost entirely the result of Mr. Smith's personal energy and resolution in overcoming all obstacles. In connection with his farming interests he, about the year 1850, engaged in mercantile business at Steuben. In this pursuit the results of his business sagacity were as apparent as in his farming and stock business. " Uncle Hi," as he has for many years been popularly addressed, is well and favorably known among the farmers and stock-raisers of Huron county, as his wool and stock buying tended to make his a familiar and welcome figure where his business called him in these pursuits. Mr. Smith is largely a self-educated man, and an extensive and profound reader. His views of political and financial affairs, fluently and lucidly enunciated, are eagerly solicited by many who admire and repose confidence in his well-demonstrated judgment in these matters. Among his most striking characteristic traits is his extreme fondness for children, his residence having been and being the chosen and favorite resort for his grandchildren; his presence and ever-open home preferred by them to that of all others. His kindness and generosity, extended even to those past the privileges of childhood's claim, is proverbial. Except as a matter of history, it is needless to state the esteem and confidence Mr. Smith is held in, in a business way. His honorable career has no blemish, and no man can or does regret any dealing ever entered into with him. In 1887 Mr. Smith, fully justified in retiring from active life, came to Norwalk, purchasing his present residence on West Main street, a quiet but luxurious home his exemplary life so richly deserves. Hiram Smith and Polly Rockwell were united in wedlock December 31, 1840; she was the daughter of Thaddeus and Polly Rockwell, then of Greenfield, but 10 formerly of New York State. To our subject and wife were born six children (of whom five are living), as follows: Emma Fanette, widow of Harry C. Sturges, residing with her parents; Hiram J., in Steuben, Ohio, who has eight children, seven of whom are living—three daughters and four sons—having lost by death one son, Rollin J.; Henry Dayton, a resident of Washington, w h o has one child, a son, H. J.; Sarah Frances (deceased); George Rockwell, of Kansas, who has three children—one son and two daughters; and Fannie Eliza (Mrs. Frank Lamkin), living in Norwalk, who has one child, a daughter, Mary Finette. Mr. Smith's immediate family worship at the Universalist Church, and are esteemed among the best of Norwalk's citizens. SAMUEL C. TOUGH, traveling salesman, in the agricultural implement line, with residence in Townsend township, is a native of Huron county, born November 11, 1845, in Ridgefield township. He is the eldest of two children born to Seth and Eliza(Fisher) Tough, the former of whom was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the latter in Northumberland county, Penn., of German extraction. Seth Tough was born March 25, 1807, and received in his youth a very good common-school education in his native country. Soon after attaining his majority he emigrated from Scotland to the United States, settling in Ridgefield township, Huron Co., Ohio, where he was married October 3, 1844. Here he engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he continued until his death, which occurred October 10, 1853. Mrs. Eliza Tough was born February 24, 1807, and was a devoted, lifelong member of the Baptist Church; she died October 13, 1879. Her father, William Fisher, was born in Pennsylvania, and received a fair English education in his native State, where he married and 182 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. engaged in farming pursuits. In about 185i he removed with his wife and family to Huron county, Ohio, where he bought a farm and successfully engaged in agriculture until his death. He was an earnest member of the Congregational Church. Samuel C. Tough, subject proper of this sketch, received in his early years a good common-school and academic education, and remained on the old homestead until reaching his majority. He then, for the next ten or twelve years, engaged in agricultural pursuits, during which time he also followed the profession of teacher. Since that time he has been employed as a traveling salesman in the agricultural implement trade, with the exception of two years, when he was engaged in the local trade at Norwalk. For eight years he was with the Bryan Plow Co., of Bryan, Ohio, and for the past three years has represented the Genesee Valley Manufacturing Co., of Mt. Morris, N. Y., having control of northwestern Ohio and the whole State of Michigan. On October 1, 1867, Mr. Tough was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. Kile, who was a native of Huron county, Ohio, daughter of Adam and Sarah S. (Milkes) Kile, and to this union have been born two children, viz.: Percy Washington and Sarah Gladys. Socially Mr. Tough is a popular member of Mt. Vernon Lodge No. 64, F. & A. M., and of Huron Chapter No. 7, R. A. M., both of Norwalk, Ohio. EUGENE L. McCAGUE, a prominent young citizen of Bronson township, is a son of Thomas J. McCague, and a grandson of Thomas McCague, whose parents, James and Janet (Cochran) McCagne, came to the United States about the year 1784. They had a family of four sons and four daughters. Thomas McCague, son of this pioneer couple, was born, in 1784, near Philadelphia, Penn. He was there married to Rosanna Coyan, daughter of Edward Coyan, by trade a weaver, and also a native of Ireland, and the young couple soon afterward (in 1819) came to Columbiana county, Ohio. There Thomas McCague bought land, but same year moved to a farm in Summit county, same State, which he had bought. In 1839 they moved to Holmes county, same State, remaining there eleven years; then settled in Hartland township, Huron county, where he died in 1863 at the age of seventy-nine years. He was a Democrat in politics; in religion Mrs. McCague was a member of the Presbyterian Church. She died in 1873, the mother of seven children, four of whom were deceased in youth and three are yet living, viz.: Samuel, living on the old farm in Hartland township; Thomas J., and Jane, wife of R. G. Bishop, of Akron, Ohio. Thomas J. McCague was born August 14, 1826, in Summit county, Ohio, and passed his youth on the home farm. He received a subscription-school education, and when nineteen years of age began life for himself by working on a farm for eight dollars per month. He continued to follow farming during his earlier years, and was also employed in the sawmills. In 1850 he passed a year in Olena, Huron Co., Ohio, and January 1, 1851, was married to Adeline, daughter of Bethuel Cole, who was a son of Ebenezer Cole, for twenty years justice of the peace in Vermont; his son Bethuel was born in Rensselaer county, N. Y. Thomas J. and Adeline (Cole) McCague resided as tenants on a farm in Hartland township, Huron county, for three years after their marriage. In the autumn of 1854 they moved to the old Cole homestead, where Bethuel Cole died in 1874, aged seventy-seven years, followed by his wife in 1890, who was ninety years of age. Mr. and Mrs. McCague continued to reside on the place after the death of her parents. The farm contains one hundred acres, where he conducts a general agricultural business. They were the par- HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 183 ents of one son, Eugene L. Mrs. Adeline (Cole) McCague died October 8, 1893, in her sixty-eighth year. Eugene L. McCague was born August 14, 1853, in Hartland township, Huron Co., Ohio, and received a good practical education in the county schools. On May 23, 1877, he married Mary E. Godfrey, a native of Ruggles township, Ashland Co., Ohio. Between the years 1881 and 1885 Eugene L. McCague was traveling salesman for dealers in agricultural implements. He then learned the painting business, to which he has since devoted some attention in connection with farming. He is a prominent member of the Republican party, and is now serving his third term as township trustee. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene L. McCague are Ida Vione, born January 14, 1880; Carleton Eugene, born March 21, 1890; and Harold B. Godfrey, born August 7, 1892. W. P. CURTISS, son of Charles Curtiss, and grandson on the maternal side of Ebenezer Treat, was born in Ashland county, Ohio, in 1841. Charles Curtiss was born in New York State, but passed his boyhood in Canada. About the year 1838 he migrated to Ohio, locating in Ashland county, and erected one of the first saw and grist mills in Ruggles township. Water power was used; so that, as the country was cleared and the swamps converted into fertile fields, the water courses dwindled into streamlets, the water-wheel became of little use, and the owner turned his attention to agriculture. Charles Curtiss was married in New York State, and ten children were born to him, of whom eight grew to manhood and womanhood, two being now residents of Ohio. The father of this family died in 1865, aged seventy-three years, and the mother, Jemima (Treat) Curtiss, died in 1872 at the age of seventy-two years. Charles Curtiss was a Democrat down to 1860, when he cast his vote for Lincoln, being a stern Union man during the war. W. P. Curtiss is an experienced manufacturer and employer. Raised on the farm in Ruggles township, he was educated in the school of his district and in the high school at Savannah. At an early age he ventured into the business world by operating a stone quarry on the home farm. In 1864 he commenced the bending business at New London, and this business was carried on by him and his brother, Charles L. Curtiss, for two years, when he bought his brother's interest. He then associated himself with W. R. Santley for the term of three years, at the expiration of which Mr. Curtiss sold his interests in the bending industry to his partner, and commenced the manufacture of cheese boxes, a business he carried on for four or five years. He then added to his business the manufacture of butter tubs, and again took his brother, C. L. Curtiss, as a partner. This firm continued the business about two years, when they organized a joint-stock company for the purpose of manufacturing cheese and butter packages, and other cooperage stock and lumber. The management of this then passed into other hands, and was operated by them some three or four years at a loss to the stockholders of nearly the whole investment of which Mr. Curtiss and his brother, C. L., owned a large amount. During the most of this time Mr. Curtiss was at work for the lumber firm of W. R. Santley & Co., of Wellington, Ohio. About nine years ago he purchased the old concern, and commenced the same business again, with Mr. O. C. Harvey (his nephew) as partner, under the name of Curtiss & Harvey. About one year later Mr. Harvey died, and. his widow (Mrs. Harvey) has retained his interest with Mr. Curtiss until the present time. The business of this firm has increased to four or five times its original amount within the past five years. The buildings now devoted to this industry comprise one two-story 34 x 88 feet in 184 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. area; one 30 x 60 feet two-story, and one 28 x 30 feet; one large steam- heated dry kiln, and two sheds, each one hundred feet in length; one seventy-five horse-power engine is used for driving the machinery. This is without doubt the most extensive and best equipped butter tub factory in the State of Ohio. Several of the machines used in this factory were designed especially for the business by Mr. Curtiss, some of which he has several patents on. Being located in a section of the country where there is an abundant amount of white ash timber of the very best quality for butter tubs, this concern anticipates a still greater increase in their business for the next few years. The part this industry has taken and now takes in the development of this section of the country is an important one, and worthy the study of the economist. The marriage of Mr. Curtiss with Louisa M. Fish, a native of New York, took place October 17, 1871. To this union two children—Mattie E. and William Rayinond—were born. William Raymond died in December, 1882, at the age of one year and fifteen days. In social affairs Mr. Curtiss is a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the National Union. As a citizen he is enterprising and progressive. PAUL WILLIAM PFRANKLIN, proprietor of meat market, Bellevue, was born at Venice, Erie Co., Ohio, February 6, 1866, son of David and Elizabeth (Keiser) Pfranklin. The parents were born in Baden, Germany, whence they came to the United States, settling at Sandusky, Ohio, where the mother still resides. The father died April 29, 1888, aged sixty years. Of ten children horn to them, seven are yet living. Paul W. Pfranklin grew to manhood in Sandusky, and received a practical education in the German Catholic schools of that city. When school days were ended he entered a meat market, and there learned all the details of the butcher's trade. About two years ago he purchased a half interest in a meat market, later bought out his partner's interest, and is now sole proprietor of the house. By industry and equitable dealing lie has built up a large trade, and is unquestionably the leading dealer in fresh and cured meats at Bellevue. He carries in stock all kinds of meat foods, while his abattoir furnishes fresh meats to supply the daily demand. His enterprise has made Mr. Pfranklin an important factor in the community. W. H. PEASE. This gentleman, who by his own individual efforts has become one of the leading successful citizens of Wakeman, is a son of Sylvester Pease, one of the first settlers of Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Sylvester Pease was a hatter by trade, and part proprietor of the first hat store opened in Cleveland, the firm being Dockstater & Pease, still within the recollection of the older business houses of that city. For many years he was a resident of Summit county, Ohio, and he had a family of two sons (of whom one is living) and two daughters—Mrs. Julia L' Hommedien, living at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Susie Case, of San Francisco, Cal. The father of Sylvester Pease, by name George Pease, was a quartermaster in the Revolutionary war, with headquarters at Hudson, Ohio. He was a native of New York State. W. H. Pease, the subject proper of this memoir, was born in January, 1839, in Cleveland, Ohio, whence when six years old he was taken to Cuyahoga Falls, Summit county, where at the age of twenty-two years he enlisted in the Nineteenth O. V. I., Capt. Andrew J. Konkle's company, the regiment being under the command of Col. Beatty. After three months' service he was commissioned lieutenant in HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 185 the First Ohio Light Artillery, Battery D, afterward transferred to Battery F as captain, and participated in all the engagements of the Tennessee and other campaigns, among which may be mentioned Stone River, Mission Ridge, Knoxville and Pumpkin Vine Creek, where he was wounded and captured by the Confederates. He was confined in Libby Prison for several weeks, then exchanged and rementurned to his battery. On resuming the pursuits of peace, Mr. Pease went on the road as a traveling salesman, continuing as such until 1868, when he went to Milwaukee, Wis., where for two years he was employed in the telegraph office. From there after marriage he moved to Chicago, and after a year's residence in that city came to Wakeman, Huron county, where for two years he conducted a hotel. We next find our subject embarked in the insurance, furniture and undertaking business, in which he is still prosperously engaged. On November 17, 1870, Mr. Pease was married to Miss Josephine Bright, daughter of J. Y. and Fanny M. B. Bright, and three children, as follows, came to their union: James S., born in May, 1874, died January 14, 1881; William L., born March 12, 1885; and Joseph B., born April 12, 1888, died April 9, 1891. In his political predilections Mr. Pease is a Republican, has held various township offices, and for twelve years has been a notary public. WARREN M. PECK, a well-to-do farmer of Wakeman township, is a native of same, born September 16, 1834. His father, Henry T. Peck, a native of Vermont, was at the age of nine years brought by his parents to Ohio, where, in Clarksfield township, Huron county, they made their first western home. The subject of this brief notice was reared to agricultural pursuits, and remained on his father's farm till he was thirty-three years old, when he moved to his present farm, at that time comprising ninety acres, now 141 acres of prime land, where he has since successfully followed general farming, including stock raising. His father aided him in a very substantial manner when he left the paternal roof, giving him one thousand dollars in hard cash, of which he made food use, for he has on his farm some as fine buildings as can be seen in the county. In 1867 our subject married Miss Millie J. Henry, daughter of Mendell Henry, of Erie county, Ohio, who was killed by " bushwhackers" in Kentucky, during the Civil war. Two children were born to this union, to wit: Clarence W. and Harry M., both at school. In his political preferences Mr. Peck is a strong Republican, his first Presidential vote being cast for John C. Fremont. He served in the One hundred and Sixty-sixth 0. V. I., N. G., and is a member of G. A. It Post No. 559, Wakeman. Edward Peck, a brother, was a member of the Twenty-fourth O. V. I., having enlisted at the commencement of the Civil war, and was killed at Pittsburgh Landing (Shiloh). JOHN HURST, who in his lifetime was a well-known and generally respected farmer of Wakeman township, was a native of Canada, born August 29, 1828, near Toronto, Ontario. His father, also named John, was born in Lancashire, England, and at the age of twenty-one enlisted in the British army as artilleryman, serving in all twenty-six years, six months. His battery being sent to America during the Revolution, it was present at the battle of Plattsburg; and at the conclusion of that struggle was ordered to Quebec, whence it sailed for Europe, to take part in the sanguinary Napoleonic wars. Under Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterward Duke of Wellington) he served in the Peninsular war (in Spain 186 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. and Portugal), and among the many engagements in which he participated may be mentioned the battles of Salamanca, Albuera and Badajoz; under Sir John Moore, in the same campaign, he was in the memorable six weeks retreat of the British army to the seaboard, the rations served out to the men for four weeks being one-quarter pound of biscuit and a gill of rum, each, per day, to which the soldiers added roasted or boiled acorns and chestnuts gathered in the woods as they passed along. He also participated in the battle of Waterloo a few years later, which under Wellington decided the liberties of Europe. On his discharge from the army Mr. Hurst came to Canada, where he married Margaret Flislop, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, a daughter of James Hislop, a stonemason by trade, who died in Canada at the age of over seventy years. Eleven children were born to this union, as follows: Isabella P., Ann, Jennette, Marian, Sarah. Ellen, two daughters that died in infancy, John (subject of sketch), James(in Vermont), Thomas (in Town- send, Huron county), and George (deceased in 1892); four of the daughters are living in the Province of Quebec, the other in Vermont. John Hurst, whose name opens this sketch, passed the most of his boyhood days about forty miles from Montreal, Canada, also in New York State and Vermont. On March 10, 1852, he married Miss Mary A. Longeway, daughter of Nicholas Longeway, a native of Lower Canada, whose father, John Longeway, came from France; Mrs. Hurst's mother was also born in Canada, of Dutch ancestry. To our subject and wife were born children as follows: Elizabeth Parmelia, Noble G., Margaret Hannah and Melvin John. Of these, Elizabeth P. was married February 11, 1871, to Charles E. Weeks, who died January 19, 1878; she passed away June 21, 1880, leaving four orphan children—three boys and one girl, the latter of whom died February 24, 1890. Noble G. was married November 29, 1876, to Ida A. Pierce, who died June 16, 1883, leaving one child, Mabel E., who was taken care of by her grandmother Hurst until she was about two years of age; at that time her father married Miss Margaret M. Morgan, of Camden, when he moved from Wakeman to that place, where he now resides; by this last marriage there is one child, Edna M., born July 23, 1887. Margaret H. married, in May, 1879, Robert McKinley, a prominent farmer of Ashland township, Newaygo Co., Mich., to which union were born seven children, as follows: Lulu, Permelia, Robert, John, Estella, Noble and Mary. Melvin J. was married January 4, 1890, to Miss Mary J. Beecher, and they have two children: Horace and John. Melvin now resides on the farm his father had bought in Wakeman township. In 1855 our subject, and family set out for Ohio, locating in Lorain county, near Kipton, where they arrived April 20. Here he rented a small farm. After a residence here of six years he bought forty-two acres, and then in Wakeman township, Huron county, purchased eighty-two acres. In 1871 he came to Wakeman, where, having sold his farm in Lorain county, he bought fifty-eight acres, and subsequently another piece of land. Here Mr. Hurst was successful in general farming and stock raising. He died October 21, 1892, a member (as are his widow and daughters) of the Congregational Church; in politics he was a Republican. In 1885 he took a trip to his old home in Canada. ROBERT SLY, a representative agriculturist of Townsend township, was born August 24, 1829, in Montgomery county, N. Y., the second in a family of seven children of John and Philena (Titus) Sly, both of whom were natives of New York State and of English descent. HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 187 John Sly, who was one of a family of four brothers, received in his youth but meager educational advantages, but in after years acquired an ordinary business training. He was married in his native town, and in the spring of 1831 removed, with his wife and family, to what was then the western frontier, near Buffalo, N. Y. Here he bought wild lands, and cleared and improved a farm, where he was successfully and extensively engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred December 26, 1886, when he was in his eighty-fifth year. Mrs. Sly, also deceased, was a member of the Baptist Church. Robert Sly, father of John, was a lifelong farmer of eastern New York State, where he died in 1855 in his eighty- fifth year. Both the Sly and Titus families were among the early English settlers in eastern New York State, • and several members thereof served with distinction in the Continental army during the Revolution. Robert Sly, whose name opens this sketch, received in his boyhood days a limited education in the primitive frontier schools of western New York, and never attended a day after he was twelve years old. He is in the main self-educated, is well-informed on current topics and literature, and has all his life been a careful and extensive reader. He remained with his parents, working on the homestead farm, until 1858, when he came to northern Ohio and purchased a partially improved farm in Townsend township, Huron county, to which he has since made numerous improvements and additions, now having a fine farm of 130 acres, where he successfully follows agricultural pursuits. On December 4, 1861, our subject was married to Miss Jane B. Draper, who was born January 25, 1837, in Bronson township, Huron county, daughter of Sheldon and Clarissa (Cole) Draper, both of whom were natives of New York State—the former of Dutchess, the latter of. Chenango county —and of English descent. To Mr. and Mrs. Sly have been born three children, namely: Clarissa P., now Mrs. S. G. Evarts; Arthur, and Nettie L., Mrs. A. T. Camber. Mrs. Sly is an ardent member of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Sly, though not a church member, is a firm believer in practical Christianity. In politics he is a Republican, stanch and uncompromising, and is recognized generally as a leading citizen in his community. In his early years Mr. Sly was a member of the New York Home Guards. J. M. STULTZ, a well-known farmer of Huron county, was born there on September 25, 1837, a son of Ralph and Ann (Fanning) Sttiltz, and a member of an old and highly respected family. His grandfather, Blodgett tultz, was born in New York, but came to Ohio at an early date, numbering among the pioneers who cleared the land and transformed dense woods into fertile farms. Ralph Stultz, father of our subject, was born in 1806 in Ontario county, N. Y. He moved to Ohio in 1833, locating in Huron county, where he devoted his attention to managing his farm, which consisted of 150 acres of valuable land. He was married in New York to Miss Ann Fanning, who was also born in Ontario county, and their union was blessed with seven children, three of whom are still living, viz.: B. F., A. J. and J. M. B. F. and J. M. served one hundred days in the Civil war. Mr. Stultz was trustee of Lyme township for a number of years, and also served as assessor. His family were members of the Baptist Church, and always took an active part in charitable work. He died in 1856, his widow in December, 1891. J. M. Stultz, the subject of. this biographical memoir, received his primary education in the schools of his neighborhood, and for three years attended school in Granville, Ohio, but before completing 188 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. his studies was compelled to withdraw on account of the Civil war. He now owns and lives upon the northern part of the farm formerly owned by his father, and is one of the progressive agriculturists who realize that as much judgment, study and executive ability are required by the farmer as by any professional man, and each year adds some improvement to his estate. On July 7, 1869, Mr. Stultz married Miss Ellen Seymour, daughter of John Seymour, a merchant of Huron county, and their marriage has been blessed with four children: Sadie, Bertha, and Ralph and Minnie (twins), the last of whom died at an early age. Mr. Stultz is prominent in business, social and political circles. He makes a specialty of raising Jersey cows and fine road horses. He has been president of the board of education, also school director for a number of years, and takes an active part in all movements that have for their object public advancement. EZRA S. JENNINGS, a retired farmer, and one of the most esteemed citizens of Fitchville township, was born near Bridgeport, Conn., August 21, 1827. Daniel Jennings, his maternal grandfather, was born October 14, 1770, and died March 14, 1840; his wife, Phoebe Jennings, was born February 14, 1773, and died December 26, 1856. Their children were as follows: Rhoda, born December 25, 1802, died March 12, 1869; Eunice, born February 10, 1804, died April 13, 1881; Gregory, born May 7, 1805, died October 12, 1805; Ezra, born September 1, 1806, died December 5, 1826; Abigail, born April 30, 1809, died November 5, 1870; Daniel, born May 4, 1811; Gersham, born May 29, 1813, died January 3, 1887; Sarah, born August 31, 1815, died December 27, 1856; Esther, born May 24, 1817, died September 27, 1873; Alva, born November 16, 1819, died February 28, 1893. Walter Jennings, father of subject, was born May 31,1798, near Bridgeport, Conn., the fifth son in a family of nine sons and two daughters, viz.: James (deceased January 28, 1846), Isaac, Nathan, Albin, Walter, Elijah, Peter, Barlow, Nehemiah, Anna and Esther. Educated in the primitive schools of his time and place, Walter Jennings saw in industry, rather than in school, a way to succeed, and, at the same time, win an education in the practical work-a-day life. At the age of twenty-one he began to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, and his inclinations running in this direction, he made rapid progress in acquiring a complete knowledge of the trade. In 1822 he married Rhoda Jennings, eldest child of Daniel and Phoebe Jennings, as above recorded, and by this union were children as follows: Mary A., born November 1, 1824, married F. C. Payne, and died in Ripley township December 25, 1889; Ezra S., subject of sketch; Nelson B., born October 14,1829, now a farmer near Buffalo, Mo.; Daniel G., born May 4, 1832, a farmer in Fairfield township; Sarah M. and Elizabeth S. (twins), born April 1, 1834 (Sarah M. died May 21, 1835, Elizabeth S. two days later); these six children were. natives of Connecticut, and in Ohio was born, December 27, 1836, one child, Sarah E., who became the wife of James Young, of Chicago, Ohio. The father of this family died February 12, 1843, the mother on March 12, 1869, and they lie side by side in Hinckley cemetery, Fairfield township. In Connecticut Walter Jennings was a farmer, using his knowledge of the trades he learned in improving his home and farm buildings there. From his brother, who was a shoemaker, he learned enough of that trade to make shoes for himself and family, and was thus possessed of a knowledge of three useful trades, as well as of farming. With confidence in himself he set out, with the family, for Ohio in 1835. Proceeding by wagon to Bridgeport, the journey was continued by boat HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 189 to New York and Albany, and thence by canal-boat to Buffalo. Here they re-embarked for huron, Ohio, but owing to gales on shallow Erie, the lake-boat could not approach the shore, so had to continue on her way to Detroit. The sufferings of the passengers during the storm, and the disappointments, fears and fatigues of the journey were never forgotten by the pioneers or their children. The twin sisters, Sarah M. and Elizabeth S., died shortly after the landing at Detroit, the result of exposure. When the storm abated its fury, the boat returned on its course and landed the family at Huron, whence they proceeded by team to Fairfield township, Huron county. There they passed one night at the home of John Wakeman, an old friend of the family in Connecticut, and next day Walter Jennings began active life in Ohio. Purchasing a tract of eighty acres at sixteen dollars per acre, with a log cabin thereon, he worked hard at clearing the tract and cultivating the new land. Soon he built a better log house, and made many substantial improvements prior to 1839, when the hard work of four years in the wilderness and the troubles of the journey to Ohio began to tell on his constitution, and brought on the lingering illness which ended with his death. The early taking away of the father left the burden of completing payment for the farm on the widow and her eldest son. How bravely they battled to finish the work, which Walter Jennings set going, was known and appreciated at the time, and how they succeeded is told in the subsequent history of the family. Walter Jennings was an Old-line Whig, and one of the voters for Harrison in 1840. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Church at Fairfield Center. E. S. Jennings, the subject proper of these lines, received an elementary education in Connecticut, and even after the coming of the family to Ohio he attended the school of the district at intervals until be was eighteen years old. Being the eldest son, many duties devolved upon him here. Owing to the failing health of his father, the boy was compelled to play the part of an able farm hand, and at the age of fifteen years was really one of the most industrious workers in his section of the township. Through his labors the farm was paid for, and at the age of twenty-one years, when he went forth to work for himself, his mother, brothers and sisters were left in possession of a good frame residence and a well-improved farm. In 1848 he began work for other farmers, and within two years saved enough to make a start in life. On November 28, 1850, he married Harriet R. Godden, born at Utica, N. Y., October 23, 1829, to William H. and Lucina (Butler) Godden, who settled in Fairfield township, Huron county, in 1834. William H. Godden was born August 6, 1804, in Albvy, N. Y., and at the age of thirteen he went by raft down the Ohio river with his married sister, landing at Dayton, Ohio, where he lived with her and her husband, learning the trade of mason, and he became a stonemason, plasterer and brick layer. At the age ofetwenty-one he set out on foot from Dayton for the purpose of visiting his parents in Albany, walking as far as Sandusky, where he took vessel for Buffalo, from which port he traveled by canal to Albany. In 1828 he married Lucina Butler, who was born June 19, 18(19, in the town of Lee, Oneida Co., N. Y., and they lived in Utica a few years, where were born to them two children: Harriet R. (Mrs. E. S. Jennings) and Elizabeth (born May 25, 1832). The family then moved to Buffalo, where the eldest son, John, was born August 17, 1834 (he died in October, 1841), after which (in 1834) they came to Ohio, settling in Fairfield township, Huron county. Here the remainder of the children were born, to wit: Emory, June 5, 1837 (died September 8, 1878); Mary, August 18, 1839; Jennie and Julia (twins), January 17, 1845 (Jennie died March 10, 1887, 190 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Julia in infancy); Sarah, March 21, 1848, and Lucina, February 14, 1850. The father of these died November 2, 1856, at the age of fifty-two years; the mother, now (1893) at the advanced age of eighty-four years, is still active, retaining all her faculties. When the family came to Ohio the country was nearly all covered with forest, there being but few clearings, and Mr. Godden had to work hard, suffering many privations and inconveniences. He followed his trade as well as he could in a sparsely settled district, in order to get money to support his family, and clear up his farm of one hundred acres which he had taken up. He would walk nine miles in the morning to do a day's work, returning same night, and following morning walk another nine miles in a different direction for a similar purpose. In those pioneer days mills were a long way off, and the settlers would send one man with a load of their wheat to be ground; on one occasion the carrier was so long gone that the Godden family ran out of flour, so that the father had to grind sonic wheat in the coffee mill, with which the mother made pancakes. Indians were still to be seen in the neighborhood, and there was an abundance of deer and great droves of wild turkeys, providing ample food of that description. Mrs. Lucina Godden, mother of Mrs. Harriet R. Jennings, is a daughter of Jonathan and Lucina (Wright) Butler, the former of whom was horn August 1,1781, the latter on December 23, 1779. Their children were as follows: Ezra, born September 12, 1804; kdin, born April 4, 1806; Lucina, born June 19, 1809; Harriet, born December 24, 1813; and Edward, born July 4, 1818. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Ezra S. Jennings the following named children were born: Desseline, who died when twelve years old; Byron E., a farmer of Fairfield township; Edwin K., a farmer of Fitchville township; Mary L., Mrs. George Pond, of Norwalk, Ohio; Edson G., who was drowned when two years old; Herbert F., a farmer of Fairfield township; Hattie M., residing with her parents, and Lena R., who died in infancy. After marriage Mr. Jennings purchased a farm of fifty acres in Fairfield township, leaving part of the purchase money outstanding. This tract he improved and, for seventeen years to a day, made his borne thereon; in 1876 he sold it to his son Byron E. In 1868 he purchased the farm on which his present home is located, and developed both tracts up to 1890, when he retired from active agricultural life, renting his lands to tenants. While -not a politician, Mr. Jennings takes a special pride in being a stanch Republican. He and his wife were formerly members of the Congregational Church. Socially they are held in the highest esteem in their neighborhood—for their individual merits; for their share in the development of Fitchville township, and for the example of progress their lives have shown. ELMER E. ROWLAND, one of the most prosperous and best known 1 young farmers of Clarksfield township, was born there in 1854, on the farm which he now lives on and owns. he is a grandson of the old pioneer, Aaron Rowland, who came in 1818 from Danbury, Conn., to Clarksfield township, and was for many years the leading miller in that part of the country. Daniel Rowland, father of the subject, was born in September, 1822, in Clarksfield township, Huron Co., Ohio, where in his early manhood he took an active part in the felling of the trees and making the clearings necessary to bring about the great change he witnessed in his lifetime —the converting of the grim forests into smiling farms, and the deep-tangled wild wood into fruitful orchards, clover-clad fields and meadows ripe with golden grain. After his marriage Mr. Rowland and his young wife commenced housekeeping a HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 191 short distance from where he was living at the time of his death. He built a new house on the same spot of ground on which the old log cabin used to stand, in 1877, where he died September 24, 1881, at the age of fifty-nine years and twenty-four days, his end, no doubt, being hastened by hard work, which seemed to be a second nature to him. he was first a Whig, afterward a Republican, and served as township trustee. His widow followed him to the grave June 1, 1889, and they now sleep side by side in Clarksfield cemetery. On November 9, 1843, Daniel Rowland and Harriet Chaffee were united in the bonds of matrimony. She was a native of the State of New York, born at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, in the picturesque town of Hunter, Greene county, a daughter of George and Purdy (Richards) Chaffee. Her father one day mysteriously disappeared, and was supposed to have been murdered. He left a widow, one son and four daughters. Some time later Mrs. Chaffee married Ezra B. Gray, who afterward came with the family to Ohio, landing at huron, on Lake Erig, where Harriet found employment in the millinery business, which she had learned in New York. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Rowland were as follows: Emma, who died March 30, 1853, at the age of two years and seven days; Carrie M., deceased November 18, 1870, when aged eleven years, ten months, and twenty-four days; Elmer E., subject of this memoir; and Celia, Mrs. Dorr Twaddle, of Clarksfield township. Elmer E. Rowland, whose name introduces this biographical notice, received his education at the common schools of his boyhood period, and was reared to farming pursuits under the preceptorship of his father, with whom he continued to live up to the time of his marriage. In addition to his literary training he took a course in bookkeeping at Oberlin, Ohio. On October 25, 1877, he was married to Eva C. Lee, who was born, in 1858, in Camden township, Lorain county, a daughter of John P. Lee, and two children have come to brighten their home: Ray L., born November 7, 1879, and Ralph D., born September 9, 1884. After marriage our subject and wife located on the old homestead, of which since his father's death he has had charge. In addition to general farming Mr. Rowland gives considerable attention to the rearing of fine-bred sheep. Politically he is one of the leading Republicans of his township, and he has served as trustee, and three years as justice of the peace, declining to serve longer. His wife is a member of the M. E. Church. MARTIN BEEBE, M. D. (deceased), was born September 1, 1836, at Dover, Lenawee Co., Mich. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Beebe, migrated from Massachusetts in an early day, and may be enumerated among the pioneers of Michigan. About the year 1840 the family moved to Ohio, and settled in Norwich township, Huron county.   Martin Beebe may be said to have been reared in Huron county. Brought here when a child, he received a primary education in the school at Norwich, later attended a select school and a seminary at Norwalk, and subsequently taught schools in Fairfield and Norwich townships. In 1863 he entered a medical college at Cleveland, where he attended lectures, and graduated in 1866. His marriage with Miss Mary L. Barrett took place December 27, 1865; she was born October 29, 1843, in Clarksfield township to Augustus and Clarissa (Cochran) Barrett, natives of Monroe county, N. Y. To this union came two children: Augustus C., born January 12, 1867, a farmer, residing on the homestead, and George P., born October 11, 1871, also residing at home. Early in 1866 Dr. and Mrs. Beebe located near Wakeman village, but within a short 192 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. time moved to Oberlin, where they remained until the fall of 1869, when they came to reside on the "Peter Hoag Farm." During his residence there he was actively engaged in the duties of his profession, while his leisure hours were given to the direction of farm work. Politically a Democrat, he was a man of influence in the local councils of that party. In religious connection he affiliated with the Disciple Church. He was an active, energetic man, whose soul was in his profession. As a farmer, too, he was most successful, and socially he made many friends up to the time of his death, March 28, 1890. His remains were interred in the cemetery at New London. Since her husband's death Mrs. Mary L. Beebe has managed the estate with singular ability. Her home is a modern house in its furnishings, and her lands are as well cultivated and as judiciously and economically managed as they would be under the direction of an experienced agriculturist. JOHN JAMES McGLONE, well known and highly respected in the community in which he lives in Wakeman township, is a native of New York State, born in Tyrone in 1822. Mr. McGlone is a son of Patrick McGlone, who in 1833 brought him when a boy of ten summers to Reed township, Seneca Co., Ohio. Leaving home after two years he worked on the canal near Toledo, Ohio, at twenty cents per day, receiving a portion of his education from his employer's wife, after which he attended regular school. At the age of eighteen years, having saved a little money, he went to school one winter, and boarded with Judge Lemon, in Attica, Seneca Co., Ohio, after which he worked summers for Thomas Reed, of Norwich township, Huron county, until he attained his majority, attending school in winter time. In 1843 he bought out of his savings fifty acres of land in Norwich township, Huron Co„ Ohio, which he resold for four hundred dollars. Two years after he was taken sick, and he was carried on an improvised ambulance to Berlin Heights, Erie Co., Ohio, whence he was conveyed by stage to Elyria, Lorain Co., Ohio, and on recovering found employment in Medina, Ohio, as porter in a hotel, his pay being twelve dollars per month and board. After a time he bought fifty acres of land in Litchfield township, Medina county, about seven miles from the county seat, and having improved same sold it for seven hundred dollars, He then bought a four-year-old horse, and moved to Berlin Heights, Erie Co., Ohio, where the horse was attached for the debt of former owner, but the horse being taken sick, a lawsuit ensued which resulted in his favor. In 1849 Mr. McGlone purchased about fifty acres of land in Wakeman township, Huron Co., Ohio, which he sold in 1855, and bought and sold several farms until 1884, when he bought the farm known as the Cyrus Strong place, where he has since resided. In 1848 Mr. McGlone married Miss Catherine Stryker, of New York State, and children as follows were born to them: Isadore (Mrs. Jackson), in Norwalk, Ohio; Mary (Mrs. Hall), in Wakeman; John L. (deceased at age of twenty-one years); and Florence (deceased at the age of nineteen), Mr. McGlone is now the owner of one hundred acres of prime land in Wakeman township, on which he has made many improvements. Politically he was at one time a Republican, having cast his vote for Lincoln, but is now a Democrat. EDWIN L. PERRY, a prominent and well-to-do farmer and stock raiser of Fairfield township, was born November 13, 1841, on his father's farm in Peru township, Huron Co., Ohio. Joseph Perry, grandfather of subject, was born in Orange county, N. Y., in 1785, and was there educated and reared. HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 193 Some time after marriage he was induced to go to Cayuga county, N. Y., and there remained until 1832, when he came to Ohio, settling in Peru township, Huron county. The journey was made by boat from Buffalo to Sandusky, and from there by wagon to Peru, where Mr. Perry took up wild land and cleared same. In New Jersey he married Miss Sarah Seward, a second cousin of Gen. Seward, and the children born to this union were Horace, Eineline, Catharine, Daniel S., Eliza, Julia, Sarah A., Joseph and C. O. H. The mother of these died in October, 1861, the father on May 31, 1859; he was a hardy pioneer of sterling worth, much respected, and in politics he was first an Old-line Whig, later a Republican. Daniel Seward Perry, father of Edwin L., was born, in 1815, in Cayuga county, N. Y., and was reared to agricultural pursuits. He was married December 11, 1840, to Elizabeth Dowe Tilson, of Peru township, Huron county, and children as follows were born to them: Edwin L., Charles H., in Nebraska; Seward N., a farmer, of Kansas; William D., in Nebraska; Dorcas A., Mrs. Wilcox, in Peru township; and Annie L. and Libbie C. (both deceased). The father died in 1866, the mother in 1886; they were members of the Baptist Church, and in politics he was a straight Republican. He was a hard-working, plodding man, and not only assisted in the clearing of his father's farm, bat also developed his own from the wild woods. Edwin L. Perry, the subject proper of this sketch, was educated in Peru township, Huron county, where he continued to reside until 1876, when he moved with his family to Fairfield township, settling on the farm where he has since had his residence. In November, 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Emily T. Ruggles, and there were ten children born to them, seven of whom are yet living: Ralph, Edith, Irene, Daisy, Gladdey, Branch and Thayer; those deceased are: One that died in infancy, Floyd, and Bethberyl. Mr. Perry owns eighty-eight acres of land, where he successfully follows general farming and stock raising. Politically he is a Prohibitionist, and, with his wife and family, he is an active member of the Baptist Church. ISRAEL GREENLEAF, one of the early settlers of Huron county, traces his ancestry to one Dr. Daniel Greenleaf, a pioneer of Boston, Mass., where his son was born. The latter was twice married, and was the father of twenty-two children. Of this family Tille Greenleaf was born in New Hampshire, and there learned the blacksmith trade. He was married to Mary Sparford, and when twenty-six years of age moved to a farm in Oneida county, N. Y., where his remaining days were passed. Politically, he was identified with. the Democratic party, and gave a liberal support to the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife was a member. She died in her forty-seventh year, the mother of seventeen children (of whom fifteen grew to maturity), as follows: Anna, William, Sophronia, Betsey, Lucinda, Melinda, David, Abel, Emily, Israel, Mary, Harriet, Maria, Joseph, Israel (whose name opens this sketch), and two deceased in infancy. After the death of the mother the father married Elizabeth Dickson, who bore him two children, of whom Levi is a physician of Chenango county, N. Y. The father . died in 1850, at the age of eighty-six years. Israel Greenleaf was born June 8, 1813, in Augusta, Oneida Co., N. Y., and on New Years day, 1833, he married Emily Whitney, who was born October 16, 1810, in New York. (her parents were natives of Vermont, and she was one of twelve children). They resided in their native State two years after marriage, and coming to Ohio in 1835 located on a pioneer farm near Charleston, Portage county. They 194 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. celebrated their golden wedding on New Year's day, 1883, and on the twenty-eighth day of the same January Mrs. Greenleaf passed away after fifty years and twenty- eight days of happy wedded life. On November 6, 1883, Israel Greenleaf was united in marriage with Mrs. Philotha (Sparks) Mowrey, who died February 7, 1892, leaving the bereaved husband alone and childless. Five children were born to his first marriage, as follows: One deceased in early infancy; John Whitney; Sarah, married August 23, 1851, to A. L. Curtis, and died June 29, 1871; Alcebe, born August 7, 1840, died October 16, 1866; and Harriet, born July 5, 1848, married March 6, 1867, and died in 1872. Of these children, John Whitney was born May 3, 1836, and grew to manhood on the home farm. His father had bought but a poor farm for him, which John, however, converted into valuable property by dint of assiduous labor. He was first married to Martha Wadsworth, who bore him two children: Sebe and Mark Israel, now living in the West. After the death of this wife John Whitney Greenleaf was married to Mrs. Sarah (Strong) Mason, which union resulted in two daughters: Ethel, born in 1864, and Mason, born March 5, 1881. The father died December 2, 1887; the mother is yet living. The life of Israel Greenleaf has been shadowed with heavy sorrows which none but a strong and noble nature could have borne so bravely. One by one he has seen his loved ones fall to rest by the way, leaving him alone, though in the midst of friends—for new friends cannot replace the old. Although he appreciates the kindly deeds of those who would cheer his loneliness, he is eagerly waiting till the white-robed angel comes, and "over the river, the silver river," the boat will drift to the loved ones on the other side. Home is there now; and with the poet his heart echoes those lines, which voice the grief of every mourner: "The hand of death may rend asunder our dearest earthly ties, yet faith unveils a world of glory, and there we long to rise." His loved ones sleep in the quiet churchyard of Charles. ton, Portage Co., Ohio. In addition to his domestic troubles, Mr. Greenleaf has suffered several serious accidents, having lost his teeth by a tree falling upon him, and also has had his hip broken. He is a member of the Congregational Church. In politics he cast his first vote for Jackson; he was a strong Abolitionist, and has been identified with the Republican party from the time of its organization. After his second marriage, in 1884, he retired to his present home in Norwalk, Huron Co., Ohio. On February 7, 1893, Mr. Greenleaf was married to Miss Wealthy Watros, of Carlisle, Eaton Co., Michigan. JOHN M. WHITON, a prosperous merchant of Wakeman, Huron coun.) ty, is a native of Massachusetts, born in Berkshire county, in 1830. He is a son of J. M. and Sallie (Bradley) Whiton, also of Massachusetts, respectively born in 1781 and 1793, and died in 1833 and 1867. The father was a consistent Christian; the mother after his death joined the M. E. Church, and was a devoted member. They came to what was then known as the "Western Reserve," and settled in Huntington when our subject was a one-year-old child, and he here received three months schooling during a few winter seasons, at the same time learning the trade of blacksmith. For his services his employer was to give him one hundred dollars and two suits of clothes when he reached the age of twenty- one; but at nineteen he left for California, in various parts of which State he worked at mining. In July, 1852, having returned to Ohio, he commenced mercantile business at Huntington, Lorain county, in which he continued until 1855, and then moved to Iowa, where he pre-empted and bought land in Hardin county. In the HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 195 spring of 1856 he helped to organize Pleasant township, Hardin Co., Iowa, and the winter of 1856-57 he passed in Platteville, Wis., clerking in a store. Returning in the spring of 1857 to Ohio, he engaged in mercantile business in Brighton, Lorain county, till. the spring of 1872, at which time he purchased a farm in Wakeman township, Huron county, carrying same on until 1880. In that year he moved into the village of Wakeman, and opened his present mercantile business. In 1860 Mr. Whiton married Miss Sarah Kimmel, by whom he has two children: Eva and 'William W. Politically our subject was a Republican, having assisted in forming the party; and when the Prohibition party was .organized he became a strong worker in their ranks. He is a member of the Congregational Church, is an earnest Sunday-school worker and has served many years as superintendent of different Sunday-schools. He is an active member of the Firelands Historical Society. A. D. STOTTS, a successful, representative agriculturist of Huron .A county, was born in 1822 in Belmont county, Ohio, and has been a resident of Huron county since 1823. Abram Stotts, grandfather of our subject, was born in Scotland, and, when a young man immigrated to the United States, finding a home in Maryland. After some years he became owner of a farm in that State, and there married Elizabeth Wine- burner, a native of same, where were born to them eight children, of whom John, the father of A. D. Stotts, was the eldest. John Stotts was born in 1791, and when ten years old left Maryland for Ohio, and located in Belmont county. He never attended school and never learned to read or write, but his natural ability conquered such disadvantages, and he succeeded on the farm. While little more than a youth he married Miss Eafy Winters, a daughter of Henry Winters, of Marshall county, W. Va. Her father, who was a soldier and officer in the war of 1812, was captured by the British and Indians, and held by them for five years, until he escaped from them near Detroit. Walking from Detroit to West Virginia, he resumed farming, became very prominent, and died about 1827. After his marriage John Stotts resided for a short time in Belmont county, Ohio, and then settled in Ripley township, Huron county. Of the nine children born to them, A. D., the subject of this sketch, is a native of Belmont county; while Isaac, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jacob, Martin, Daniel, Catherine and George are natives of Huron county. As has been stated, our subject came to Huron county with his parents about 1823, and he had no opportunity to attend school until he was ten years old. Huron county was then a veritable wilderness; deer were as common as sheep are now; the bear was monarch of the forest, and Indians were regular visitants. In his youth our subject acquired a good knowledge of. mathematics, geography and grammar, studying mainly without a teacher's aid. On October 23,1850, he married Miss Maryette Boughton, daughter of John Boughton, of Fitchville township, and settled on the farm on which he yet resides. He inherited from his father about one thousand dollars, and has added to his real property at intervals, until now he owns over 500 acres of as fine land as can be found in Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Stotts have been born four children, namely: Flora, who married John Hopkins, of Ripley township; Adilla, who married T. A. Hilton, of Coldwater, Mich.; Clarence, a grain merchant of Ripley; and Elmer, who resides on the homestead. Mr. Stotts has been a stanch Republican since the organization of the party, has served on the board of county commissioners for six years, and filled many township offices. In business matters, lie is president of the Huron County 196 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Farmers' Insurance Coin pany, and has held that position since the organization of the company in 1879. In religious connection he is a member of the Baptist Church at Fairfield, and is one of the best supporters of that body. While Mr. Stotts inherited considerable property, he may be considered a self-made man, one who by intelligent industry has carved a fortune out of the wilderness. The appearance of his home testifies to his energy, for it is a model one. In every branch of life with which he is associated he has won success, and to-day he is classed with the representative men of Huron county. GEORGE D. FULLER was a son of Samuel Fuller, who was born in Brattleboro, Vt., in 1793, and died in 1828. Coming to Ohio about the year 1825, Samuel located in Strongsville, Cuyahoga county, where he bought a small improved farm on the banks of the river, but the floods were so destructive that he had to sell out and move to near Cleveland, where he took up a farm on which a few improvements had been made. In the morning of the day he started from Vermont for Ohio he married Lorinda Doty, daughter of Ellis W. Doty, a Revolutionary soldier who enlisted in the patriot army at the age of sixteen. Samuel Fuller died at the age of thirty- five, a lifelong Whig, his wife in Middle- burgh, Ohio, when fifty-eight years old. George D. Fuller, whose, name opens this sketch, was born June 20, 1832, in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, the elder of two children born to his parents, the younger being Henry S. As will be seen, our subject was three years old at the time of his father's death, and an uncle then took charge of the farm and family. This uncle died at the home of George D. some years since. The latter received his education at the subscription schools of the neighborhood of his boyhood home, and was reared to farming pursuits. He remained on the old homestead until about thirty- five years of age, and then in 1867 came to Hartland .township, Huron county, where he now owns a well-cultivated farm of 167 acres. In 1886 they built a handsome residence, and made other substantial improvemenfs on the farm. In 1857 Mr. Fuller married Miss Lucy A. Humiston, daughter of Willis hurniston, a native of Massachusetts, and a pioneer of Summit county, Ohio, who lived in Huron county twenty-four years, dying in May, 1891. Five children, as follows, were born of this union: Frank H., an engineer on the "Big Four" Railroad, living in Cleveland; Hattie L., married to Marion Hood, of Denver, Colo.; George S., in Philadelphia, a veterinary surgeon, and a graduate of the New York College of Veterinary Surgery; Carrie E., residing at home; and William W. D., at school in Norwalk, Ohio. CHARLES W. MANAHAN. This gentleman was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., May 16, ,1813, a son of Thomas and Violetta (Silcox) Manahan, of New Jersey. the former born in 1770, the latter in 1780. His grandfather Manahan was a schoolteacher in Ireland before coming to America; the Silcoxes were from New England, and of those who came at an early day. Thomas Manahan and family migrated from Cayuga county, N. Y., to Norwalk, Ohio, in the spring of 1833, and with them was their son Charles, twenty years of age at the time. They were plain farmer people, braving the severe trials, dangers and the long self-denials of a frontier life with heroic fortitude. Here they passed the remainder of their honorable lives, the father dying in 1856, aged eighty-six, the mother in 1874, at the ripe age of ninety-four years. The family were Methodists; in political connection 197 - PHOTO OF CHARLES W. MANAHAN 198 - BLANK HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 199 the venerable head of the house was a Jackson Democrat, They could give their children but the meager school, and other advantages as the day and time afforded. In early life Charles was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade, which had not been completed fully when he came with his parents to Norwalk. Here, before he had reached legal age, his first business transaction was to purchase fifty acres of land near the town of Norwalk, at the price of three dollars per acre, to be paid as he could earn the money. This was an object lesson in the youth's life. Stopping one year in Norwalk the young man went to Monroeville, same county, when a mere hamlet, and here made his home for a long time. Both he and his brother George had considerable mechanical inventiveness, and as early as 1835, working at their odd hours, and with the scantest means, they constructed the firs' threshing machine ever built in Ohio—the second in the United States, all the work being done by hand, not even having a lathe to aid them. Such was their prevision that they well knew the wcrld's wants in this regard, and it was only their very limited capital that prevented them from starting a great factory. Charles then purchased a blacksmith shop, building a wagon shop by it, and in order to make this purchase he had to get a couple of his farmer neighbors to go his security for the purchase money. As primitive as were the tools he had, he soon was doing quite a business; but everything had to be " booked," and his debts were accruing, and his credit must be maintained. He traded his book accounts, notes and wagons for horses, and to sell these he started to the nearest market, which was Detroit, a long and terrible journey through the "Black Swamp," a trip those of this generation can have no idea of. At that time what is now Kalamazoo, Mich., was " Bronson's Land Office," where so many were then going through the " Swamp" to enter land. Without stopping to describe a trip through the " Black Swamp," it is enough to now say the young man successfully made his way there and sold his horses, and after a three weeks' trip returned home with money enough to pay every debt, and had the princely sum of twenty- five dollars left. His first financial venture was to purchase land on credit. While this was characteristic, yet this second financial transaction was quite as prophetic of his future life as was the first. All his debts paid, and a cash capital on hand of no mean proportions for that day, the young man began to enlarge his business affairs, and we soon find him also farming and beginning to trade in stock. The year 1836 marked the floodtide of town speculation in the West, and throughout the country was a fever to go West and get rich at a stroke. Milwaukee being the strong objective point, that year a number of young men from this section had gone thither, and their letters back to their friends raised a whirlwind of excitement in the minds of the average ambitious young and even old men. " Buying and selling city lots" was the dream of all. During the winter one of the young men had returned to Monroeville, and his reports completed the fever of excitement. And all believed that, like the valley brook, this would "go on forever." In April, 1837, four young men, including Charles and his brother Henry, were ready and started to the promised land. The hour of departure was a " red letter day " in Monroeville—to be eclipsed only by the arrival of a circus. Levi Ashley and James Handford were the other two young men of the party of four whc had provided a three-spring wagon and a pair of chestnut or sorrel horses; and thus equipped they sallied forth in high hopes, leaving behind a score of young men sad of heart that cruel fate compelled them to stay at home. As propitious as was the outset, they soon met trouble on the way. When 200 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. they reached Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) they began to hear of the awful road through the "Black Swamp." From Fremont to Perrysburg is thirty-one miles, nearly all the way through the terrible "Swamp," and one of the stories of the day was of the man found in the mud to his waist, who, when help was offered, said, " I've a good horse under me, and propose to go through." They took two days to journey from Monroeville to Perrysburg—fifty miles of hard traveling— and strung along the way they saw sights of others that were both laughable and pathetic. In Michigan, such was the scarcity of feed, that they gave their horses wheat to eat; and one was badly foundered; but here Charles Manahan's ready resources and knowledge of the horse enabled them to resume their journey with only the loss of half a day. The party stopped in Michigan City one day, and traded their team and wagon for lots in Winnebago City (one of the “boom" cities); on Winnebago Lake, and with the " boot " money the young men took the stage for Chicago. The stage driver went out of his way to show them a remarkable curiosity: In a tree some twelve feet from the ground was a pair of deer antlers imbedded and nearly grown over, the timber being all smooth and solid around them. They found Chicago a small, muddy and forbidding place, and here they took a sail vessel for Milwaukee, . glad to get away from the future " Fair city," and eager to reach the haven where cities grew in a night. At the "Leland Hotel," Milwaukee, they found about eighty millionaire boarders—all with beautiful maps showing their lots for sale— every one of whom seemed to own one or more great cities, and their wealth was simply incalculable, yet not one of them could pay his board bill. But they were happy as clams, waiting for the "spring run " of " suckers " to buy lots and get rich quick. The landlord was waiting for navigation to open, praying for it to be early, or they would soon have to eat million dollar lots, instead of bread and butter. Happy day! a boat came and among others landed eighty mechanics, all rich in hope of work and a quick fortune. By this time came the memorable financial crash of 1837, and the speculative bubble burst. In less than ten days any of these arriving mechanics could be hired for less than half they could have got at home, and one could have bought the erstwhile millionaires in "job lots" for a " grub-stake " to help them on their way back to where they came from. The one hundred dollars " boot" money they had got in their trade of team for the lots in the end proved to be their good fortune. In the scramble to get from under the financial ruins, it was a question with nearly every one how to save enough to return home with. They had carefully husbanded the one hundred dollars, and by so doing were enabled to return, bringing the deeds to a lot each in " Winnebago City," a metropolis like the squab, biggest when first hatched. They kept laid away their deeds which stood them in lieu of one hundred dollars each paid therefor, and in time Henry sold his for an overcoat, while Charles finally traded his for ten dollars to a man who worked on his farm. In the month of February, 1838, with a younger brother, Charles and Henry Manahan determined to revisit the scenes of their birthplace. In order to pay expenses of the trip they bought on credit, having no cash, a lot of work oxen, and were successful in buying twenty-four yoke of cattle. They borrowed one hundred dollars, at twenty per cent. interest, to pay the expenses of the long trip, which they made with forty-eight cattle, encountering deep snow, and occupying four weeks on the way. When they reached and crossed Cayuga bridge their funds were nearly exhausted, but their hard task was about accomplished. After they had been gone a few weeks, one of the men of whom they had purchased became uneasy, HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 201 and began to throw doubts on their ever paying for the cattle. He said " the Manahan boys had bought all the oxen in the county on credit." This was said in presence of Daniel Williams, who assured the min he need not fear, that the boys would pay every cent; if they did not pay him for his cattle that he, Williams, would. Their trip was successful, and it was said they brought more money back than had been paid into Campbell &Latimer's store during the season. Tne two trips mentioned give ample evidence of the young men's ability and shrewdness as stock traders. While carrying on his shop, owing to the great scarcity of money in the country Charles Manahan would exchange wagons for horses. When he had secured six head he wonld, alone, ride and lead them back to his old home and sell them, and in this way get money to pay on his land, having sold his first purchase and bought 200 acres near Olena. On one of these trips he first met Miss Delana B. Wheeler, his future wife. When he brought his schoolgirl wife to his home it was not the intention to live on his farm. She had been tenderly reared on her father's finely improved farm, with every comfort of the times. They rented rooms on a second floor in the village of Monroeville. He took his wife to show her the farm, and it was the brave little woman who said: "Let us fix up this old cabin and live in our own house." This squat old log house was where Mr. Manahan had often kept his horses when getting ready to go to market. He went to work, cleaned it out, spread abundant ashes, built higher the stick chimney, turned the " shakes," chinked and daubed the walls, and then they moved into their own house. The careful wife put down her new self-made rag carpet, but the rains descended and the house leaked like a riddle, washed the mud from the walls and nearly ruined the carpet. The "loft," which was reached by a ladder, was covered with loose boards, one of which was quite broad, and by sitting under this when it rained, if the rain was not too hard, they could keep tolerably dry. His recollection is now that they had to raise the umbrella but on one or two occasions. her father had given her one hundred dollars to buy furniture, but instead of so spending it, the young husband went into the woods, cut the timber and made beech blocks, used to make carpenter's planes, which he exchanged for a bureau, bedstead, looking-glass and two chairs. When they moved into their cabin, he made their second bedstead—a one-legged one, attached to the logs on two sides—and altogether they got to be very comfortable. Here were passed many of the happiest days of their lives. In time they were aware that they were slowly prospering, and Mr. Manahan set about the task of building a new house, and being a carpenter commenced with the ,material in the tree; and, except the sawing of the lumber, with his own hands built a nice frame cottage, even doing his own plastering, laid the stone wall foundation, built his chimnies and did his own painting. It was much of his labor for eighteen months, but when completed they had the satisfaction of moving from the poorest cabin in the neighborhood to the best frame house. In 1849 they left the farm and went to Olena, where he engaged in merchandising. With the view of providing capital to buy goods, he had purchased, the fall before, 300 sheep, fed them during the winter, and took them to New York in open cars, three days and two nights being occupied on the way, sold the lot and purchased his goods. He had no experience in the business, but he had faith in himself, that self-reliance that is the crown and glory of the highest type of true education. The old gentleman would doubtless tell you with a sigh, that he had not such advantages in schooling as those of this favored time. While the truth is of the thousands of over-trained and misedu- 202 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. cated of to-day, the most may ever regret that they were deprived of nearly all the opportunities of real education; such as the circumstances that surrounded the young life of Mr. Manahan. The most active part of his career was now on; his store, farm and trading in stock. The war was raging, and the need of the Government for supplies for the army was urgent. He filled an order in a brief time for 200,000 walnut gun stocks, the material loading 300 cars. He was appointed to inspect the horses of the first company of cavalry raised in Norwalk. He contracted to furnish cavalry horses, and supplied between 1,200 and 1,300 prime animals, shipping to New York, Columbus and Washington. He has in his possession an order, dated in the fall of 1862, from John Cooper, of New York, to furnish " sixty horses delivered at New York within eighteen days "; and in that brief time the order was satisfactorily filled. In 1862 Mr. Manahan was elected treasurer of Huron county, was re-elected at the end of his first two years' term, and served four years. When first elected he sold out in Olena, removing to Norwalk, and in 1867 was formed the partnership of Parker, Manahan & Tabor, merchants of Norwalk. This was successful from the start. Mr. Parker retired after six years, and the next six years it was Manahan & Tabor, when Mr. Manahan sold and retired from mercantile life. About this time he platted and laid off an addition to the city of Norwalk, which is now finely built up, he owning the improvements, and one of the principal streets of the town is " Manahan avenue." On February 18, 1841, Charles W. Manahan and Delana B. Wheeler were united in marriage, in the place of his birth—Cayuga county, N. Y. She was born at Fall River, Mass., the daughter of Cyrenus and Thursa (Evans) Wheeler. Her father lived to the age of ninety-five; he was the brother of Dexter Wheeler, who made the first iron shovel in the United States, at Lowell, Mass. Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., invented the first two-wheeled mowing machine. After years of litigation he fully vindicated his right to that important invention, and sold his patents for the sum of three hundred thousand dollars. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Manahan were as follows: Charles W. Manahan, born March 12, 1844; Jeroline, born May 30, 1847; William Kendall Manahan, born October 6, 1857. Mrs. Delana B. Manahan died March 29,1887. William Kendall Manahan died April 23, 1891. EDWARD DENMAN, prominent among the progressive farmers, of Huron county, was born, in 1820, in that part of the old county that is now included in Erie, his father, John Denman, having migrated thither in 1814. His early training was that of a pioneer farmer boy; hard and rugged work, in clearing the land, his lot from sunrise to sunset. His education was necessarily very meager, as the schools were of the most primitive kind, and his opportunities of attending them were but few. Until he was twenty-two years old he worked for his father, and the latter then gave him a start in life by. presenting him with a small piece of land to cultivate for his own account; and also allowed him wages for whatever work he might do on the old homestead. Industriously he plodded along, until at the end of about three years he had saved some eight hundred dollars. He then rented 160 acres of his father for three years, and stocked it with 400 sheep; then bought 183 acres of land in the woods of Wakeman township, for eight dollars per acre. In the course of time he cleared this and sowed it to wheat, his first crop Yielding 575 bushels, which he hauled to Milan, Erie county, distant about twenty miles. Thus he continued to prosper until HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 203 he found himself the owner of one of the finest farms in Wakeman township, one hundred acres of which are of the highest fertility. He has thereon a productive orchard, grown from apple seeds planted while working for his father on the old homestead. In 1866 our subject built a handsome residence, and the entire surroundings testify to the industry and judgment of the owner. On October 13. 1847, Mr. Denman was married to Jane Archer, daughter of Joseph Archer, of New York City, and seven children were born to them, of whom a son died in infancy. Their eldest son, Joseph, resides in Wakeman; Addie, the wife of Stanley Pierce, also resides in Wakeman; John E. resides in Norwalk, Ohio; Anna Belle, wife of Elmer Pierce, is also a resident of Wakeman ; two daughters, Jennie and Louise, are living at home with their parents. The family are all well educated, the sons having attended school at Berea and Oberlin. Politically, Mr. Denman was originally a Whig, later, on the organization of the party, becoming a Republican. He has served as school director and in other offices of trust with commendable zeal, and to the satisfaction of the community. R. HAENSLER, a well-known merchant of Bellevue, was born, in 1854, in Baden, Germany. His parents, Frank and Francesca (Egle) Haensler, were also natives of Baden, where the former followed farming until his death, which occurred in the eighty-second year of his age. The mother died November 24, 1893. R. Haensler received the ordinary public-school education in Baden, and at the age of sixteen years immigrated to the United States. Arriving at Monroeville, Huron Co., Ohio, he found work on a farm, and for the succeeding five years was engaged in agriculture. Subsequently he worked in the grocery store at Hunt's Corners, and in 1880 embarked in business for himself at Bellevue. In 1881 his marriage with Miss Mary Urlan, a native of Bellevue, was celebrated at Monroeville. Five children have blessed this union, namely: Rolertina, Edgar, Clarence, Marie and Corenia. The family belong to the Catholic Congregation of Bellevue. Mr. Haensler has built up a fine trade in general groceries since 1881. Attending to his own business closely, and dealing with his patrons as he would wish to be dealt by, he has made an enviable reputation, and is regarded as a man whose business methods are strictly upright and honorable. JAMES M. CAHOON. In the front rank of the influential, well-to-do agriculturists of Wakeman township stands this gentleman, a grandson of Joseph Cahoon, who was born on Block Island, R. I., and was an extensive manufacturer in the East. He built a large nail factory in Newark, R. I., and in an early day came west to Ohio, settling in Dover Bay, where he cleared land at a time when Indians and wild animals were more numerous than welcome. He died about the year 1838 at the age of seventy-five years, a Whig in politics, and a hardworking pioneer. Samuel Cahoon, father of our subject, was a native of Rhode Island, born in 1777, and received his primary education in the primitive old-time log schoolhouse, after which he attended Yale College, becoming a classmate of Perry Penfield. When yet a young man he came to Cleveland, Ohio, and was there employed by the Government in boat building. During the war of 1812 he carried the mail for Harrison's army, traveling at night, sometimes up streams, at other times over steep hills or through deep valleys, meeting with many adventures. After the war he bought a small farm in Lorain county, at that time 204 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. covered with timber, which by dint of hard labor he cleared. The Indians in those restless days were very hostile to the white man, and Mr. Cahoon organized a militia company, of which he was made captain; he also assisted in the building of Fort Columbus in Lorain county. Documents show that he received two commissions as captain from Gov. Worthington. His wife, Lucinda (Barnum), was a distant relative of P. T. Barnum, and a daughter of John Barnum, a native of Connecticut and a well-known iron manufacturer, who when well advanced in years came to Ohio, locating in Cuyahoga county, where he died a few years later. To Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Cahoon were born two children: John, living on the old homestead in Lorain county, and James M., the subject of this sketch. The father of these died in 1862. In politics he was originally a Jackson Democrat, but during the later' years of his life he was a stanch Republican. He was a devout Christian, a member of the Disciple Church. Socially he was a charter member of the F. &T, A. M., of Elyria. His widow survived him several years, dying at the advanced age of eighty-five years. James M. Cahoon, the subject proper of this sketch, was born March 3, 1826, on the old homestead in Lorain county, in an old doorless log house, and was reared to the arduous duties of the farm. In 1855 lie married Miss Cynthia D. Parish, daughter of John Parish, a native of New York, and shortly afterward they went to Wisconsin, where he invested his few hard- earned dollars in land, but the climate not agreeing with him, he sold the land and returned to Lorain county, where they continued to live from 1857 to 1863, at which time they moved to their present home in Wakeman township, huron county. Here Mr. Cahoon owns a farm of about 160 acres of as fine land as can be found in the county, on which he has built an elegant and comfortable residence, having no superior for many miles around. He has carried on general farming, and the raising of large quantities of fruit. To our subject and wife were born two children, viz.: Fred P., a very popular young man, and Julia, who died at. the age of seventeen months. Politically our subject is a Republican, and before he was twenty-one years old he served as school director. Both he and his wife are members of the Congregational Church at Wakeman. ALEXANDER TWADDLE, SR., may well be classed among the "sons of the American Revolution." He was born in 1782 in Allegheny county, Penn., and was a son of the Twaddles who emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland, to Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolution, took a part in that brilliant struggle for liberty, and died about the beginning of this century, leaving nine children, of whom the following is a brief record: (1) John Twaddle, the eldest son, died at Moore's Salt Works, Jefferson county, Ohio. He reared a large family, nearly all of whom were blind at birth. He received from the United States a grant of land, which he improved, and on which he resided until his death. (2) Margaret Twaddle married a Mr. Deffenbaugh, and they moved to Muskingum county. Ohio, where she died. (3) William moved to Muskingum county, Ohio, in early days, and was sheriff of that county for many years; he died at Zanesville. (4) James served in the war of 1812; after Harrison's and Perry's repeated victories, on land and water, over the British and Indians, enabled him to return, he engaged in the Ohio river trade. went down that river on a flat-boat, and was never heard of again. (5) Alexander, sketch of whom follows. Of the four other children, Philip, Archie, Mary and Sarah, but little is known. Alexander Twaddle was reared on the home farm. He married Elizabeth Ram- HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 205 age, who was born September 23, 1788, in Pennsylvania, and brought her to Jefferson county, Ohio, then on the frontier. He rented a farm near East Springfield, but soon after moved to a place called Moore's Salt Works, on Yellow creek, where he was employed for six years. While attending to his duties there, he was walking out on a plank, between two rows of boilers, when a false step cast him into one, scalding him so severely from ankle to hip as to make him a cripple for life. To him and his wife were born eight children in Jefferson county, namely: Jemima, born November 18, 1807, married Daniel Haley, of Holmes county, Ohio, and died in Kansas in 1893; Abner, born December 11, 1809, died at Rochester, Lorain county, where for several years he conducted an ashery; Lydia, born October 22, 1811, married Peter Justice, of Holmes county, Ohio, and died in Clarksfield township, June 1, 1873; Mary, born May 6, 1814, married Robert Barnes, of Huron county, Ohio, and died in Wakeman township; Alexander, born February 28, 1816; Elizabeth, born April 8, 1818, married Peter Bevington, of Holmes county, Ohio, and now resides in Clarksfield township; John J., born February 23, 1820, married Julia A. Palmer, of Westchester county, N. Y.; and Sarah, born July 21, 1822, married Adam Shank, of Holmes county, Ohio, and now resides in Clarksfield township. In the spring of 1823 the family left for the West, as Holmes county was then considered. Locating in Paint township, they bought 200 acres at one dollar per acre, occupied a log house which stood on the tract, and began the work of clearing the timber. Soon after Mr. Twaddle sold one hundred acres to his brother-in-law, Abner Ratnage, who had come from Pennsylvania. In 1835 he sold the remaining one hundred acres, and giving one hundred dollars to his son, Alexander, Jr., and another one hundred dollars to his son John J., as their share or inheritance, suggested the investment of the money in land. The boys proceeded at once to Clarksfield. township, Huron county, purchased 170 acres in the deep forest at three dollars per acre, erected a log house thereon, and in the fall of 1836 invited the rest of the family to come to the new land, which they found untouched by civilization. The father purchased fifty acres from the sons, erected a log cabin, and lived therein until within a few years of his death, which occurred February 11, 1859, at the home of his youngest son, William. The children born in Holmes county, Ohio, are named as follows: Susan, born December 17, 1824, widow of Royal Gridley, residing in Clarksfield township; Margaret, born January 8, 1827, who married Samuel Gaines, and died near Kinderhook, Ill., being the first of the children to die; Nancy, born January 27, 1830, now widow of Elijah Minkler, residing in Missouri (her first husband was Philip Maglone); and William W., born November 16, 1833, a farmer of Clarksfield township. The mother of this family died October 12, 1860, and was buried near her husband in Clarksfield cemetery. The life of the father was one of constant work. To provide for his family he had to seek employment outside, his farm, and with his son Abner labored on the Beaver and Sandy Canal. He was a Jacksonian Democrat, who always found time to vote that ticket. Alexander Twaddle, fifth child of Alexander Twaddle, Sr., and oldest of the family now living, was reared in Jefferson and holmes counties, and settled in Huron county in 1835. Before locating here he worked for four months on a farm near Maumee City, but was stricken with fever and ague. Returning to his father's home, he set out with his brother to locate in Huron county, where he has since resided. His marriage with Sarah Lee took place June 27, 1839; she was born February 5, 1816, in New York State, a daughter of David and Mercy (Barber) Lee, who settled in Townsend township in 1819. Her father and mother died in Clarksfield township, the former in his ninety-ninth year. 206 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Alexander and Sarah Twaddle resided on the farm until 1848, when he sold the pioneer home and located on his present farm of 211 acres. The children born to them are named as follows: Abner D., who served in Company D, Fifty-fifth O. V. I., and was killed at Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864, where he was buried; John J., a farmer of Clarksfield township; and Dorinda A., who married Clark Auble, and died in Clarksfield township. Politically Mr. Twaddle has been a Prohibitionist since 1872; his first vote was cast for Andrew Jackson, but in 1856 he became a Republican, and affiliated with that party until 1872. In church connection he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Society, and has served as steward and class-leader fcr many years. He was formerly superintendent of Sunday-school, and has always been influential in church affairs. M. R. COLEMAN, New London, is undoubtedly one of the most enterprising business men of Huron county. Philip Coleman, his father, was born in 1814 in New York State, where he was reared on a farm, and when a young man married Sarah A. Haight, a native of Dutchess county, same State, born in 1820. Immediately after marriage Philip Coleman and his wife migrated to Ohio, and settled on a farm near New London, Huron county, which is now in the possession of their youngest son, the subject of this sketch. Here five children were born to them, three of whom are living. Mr. Coleman was a progressive farmer. Poplitically a Republican, he was true to the faith of that party down to the period of his death, which occurred six years ago. His widow resides with her son at New London. M. R. Coleman was born in Huron county in 1850. The territory was then far advanced beyond pioneer condition, so that as a boy he enjoyed advantages unknown to older natives of that section. His education was received in the common and high schools of the district. About the year 1870 he began business for himself, and for eight or ten years was engaged in farming. Then he established himself in New London as a hay merchant—buying, baling and shipping this staple to correspondents in southern and eastern cities, New York being his leading market. The extent of his trade may be learned from the fact that in 1892 he shipped 250 carloads of baled hay. His flax mill is also an important industry, and contributes its quota to more than one American industry. The product of this mill is principally upholsterers' tow, in which a large trade is done. With his hay and flax interests, Mr. Coleman also carries on the farm, near New London, giving to it a full share of the attention it merits. Politically a Republican, our subject is influential among the men of his party; while as a citizen he is a boon to the neighborhood in which he exercises his business talents. ISAAC DE WITT, a prominent and much respected agriculturist of Ridgefield township, is descended from Dutch ancestry, the pioneers of his family having emigrated from Holland to New Jersey many years ago. Isaac DeWitt, the grandfather of our subject, was an extensive landowner along the Delaware river, and in Warren county, N. J. He reared a family of eight children, among whom is mentioned a son named Jacob. Jacob DeWitt was born in Warren county, N. J., went to school in his boyhood, assisting also in the farm duties, and then learned the trade of blacksmith. While yet a young man he married Elizabeth Winters, a native of New Jersey, who bore him six children, viz.: James, a farmer of Perkins township, Erie county, HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 207 Ohio, where he died in 1888; John, at one time a boot and shoe dealer, of Sandusky, Ohio, who died in 1866; Catherine, who was married in New Jersey to Barnett Matthews, and died in Ohio in 1888; Elizabeth, deceased in 1890, in Huron county, Ohio, wife of William Miller; Margaretta, deceased wife cf James Person, of Belvidere, N. J.; and Isaac.. whose sketch follows. In 1837 the father of this family, accompanied by his son Isaac and some of the other children, started west. They crossed the Alleghany mountains, then, proceeding to Pittsburgh, crossed the Ohio river and pushed westward to Ohio, After a long, tiresome journey they arrived at Milan, Erie Co., Ohio, and there made a temporary location. But this rude home in the wilderness offered little attraction for Mr. DeWitt, who had always been accustomed to the luxuries of civilization. He resolved to return to his native State, and would have done so had it not been for the persuasions of his son Isaac, who used all his persuasive powers to induce his father to remain. The latter finally concluded to do so, purchased land, and followed his trade at Cook's Corners (now North Monroeville). In politics he was actively identified with the Democratic party, and in religion he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church. She died in 1863, be in 1866, and both are buried in Perkins cemetery, in Erie county. Isaac DeWitt was born September 17, 1816, in Warren county, N. J., where he attended school. He was an eager student, and after leaving school fitted himself for the profession of civil engineer, which he followed for some time. After coming to Ohio he devoted his attention to agriculture, and on December 23, 1840, was united in marriage with Martha Young, who was born August 18, 1823, in Rochester, Windsor Co., Vt. She is a daughter of Josiah and Mary (Barden) Young, natives of New hampshire and early settlers of Huron county, Ohio. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. DeWitt moved from Ridgefield township to Groton township, Erie Co., Ohio, and in 1843 purchased a farm in Ridgefield township, to which they removed. In 1857 he bought the place which is now their home, and has since been engaged in farming, with the exception of a few years when he carried on the grape industry on Catawba Island. He has been an energetic and successful business man, and though now far advanced in life is yet able to do a great deal of work. He possesses remarkable vitality, and knows nothing of sickness from per- Ronal experience. In politics Mr. DeWitt has been a Republican since the organization of that party, at the same time sympathized with the Prohibition movement, and is now a strong Prohibitionist. In religion he and his wife are members of the M. E. Church, with which he has been connected fifty-six years. In 1890 this couple celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding day, on which occasion they were the recipients of many beautiful presents. They have had three children: Mary Ellen (deceased in 1867), wife of James G. Fish; Isaac E., a successful prospector and miner of Colorado; and Burton L., formerly in business at North Monroeville, now a traveling salesman for several large wholesale houses of Cleveland. S. E. SIMMONS, M. D., a well-known practicing physician of Norwalk, was born in Huron county, Ohio, son of Charles B. and Aura (Palmer) Simmons. Our subject received his primary education in the public schools, and subsequently became a student at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio), and also at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio. He studied medicine with Dr. Keith, of North Fairfield, Ohio, and graduated in Cincinnati, in 1881. The Doctor practiced his profession in North Fairfield, Ohio, from 208 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. 1881 to 1883; then in Milan, same State, from 1883 to 1891. In the latter year he took a special course of study in Chicago, and in 1892 came to Norwalk, where he is at present located, being surgeon to the huron County Infirmary. He is a member of the Board of Pension Examiners; a member of the State Homeopathic Society and of the National Society. Dr. Simmons was united in marriage with Miss Hattie Dimon, a native of Milan, Ohio, and two children-Charles and Mary—have been born to them. GEORGE M. DILLON, active in real-estate interests in Bellevue, is a native of the State of Ohio, born March 19, 1851, in Zanesville. In 1854 he was taken by his parents to Minnesota, where he remained until 1864, at which time the family returned to Ohio, locating in Zanesville, but subsequently settling in Chicago Junction, Huron county. George M. Dillon received his education in the common schools of Zanesville. he then entered the service of the old Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company, serving for ten years as conductor on that division, and he is to-day one of the great army of 300,000 railroad men in the United States. In 1882 he entered the employ of the N. Y. C. & St. L. R. R. Company, as passen- ger train conductor, and lie is at present one of the most popular officials on that division of the "Nickel Plate." On November 3, 1872, Mr. Dillon was united in marriage at Zanesville, Ohio, with Miss Jennie S. Ogier, who was born July 12, 1850, at Cambridge, Ohio, a daughter of John P. and Martha Ogler, natives of the Isle of Wight, England. To this union have been born five children, viz.: Thomas E., George B., Edith P., Sidney R. and Gracie M., all of whom reside with their parents. Politically Mr. Dillon is a Republican; in religious connection he is a member of the M. E. Church. In social and benevolent affairs he is a member of the F. & A. M. (thirty-second degree), I. O. O. F., Royal Arcanum, and of the Order of Railroad Conductors. Since locating at Bellevue he has been prominent in real-estate enterprises, owning considerable property, and dealing generally in real estate. He is the builder and principal stockholder of the "Commercial Hotel" at Bellevue, and is interested in many other projects. In the spring of 1883 he was elected a member of the city council, and with the exception of one year has since continuously served in that capacity. The interest which he takes in town affairs overmasters party interests, for in this Democratic city the people have elected and reelected him without questioning his Republicanism. A natural leader, he is popular among railroad men, for through him they have made their influence felt, not only in Bellevue, but also in the other towns on his division of the "Nickel Plate." As a citizen he is held in general esteem. HENDRICK W. LAMOREUX. This gentleman traces his genealogy to natives cf the " Sunny Land of France." His pioneer ancestors immigrated to America in an early day, locating in Luzerne county, Penn., where Joshua Lamoreux was born August 30, 1793, and reared to manhood. He was married to Martha Ives, who was born July 24, 1796, and their children were named as follows: Samuel A., Josiah, Darius, Thomas, Elizabeth, Clarissa, William, Elmira, Lucy, Emily and Mary J. Samuel A. Lamoreux, eldest son of Joshua and Martha (Ives) Lamoreux, was born October 11, 1815, on the home place in Luzerne county, Penn. He attended the schools of the period, and possessing marked mechanical ability followed various trades. In 1837 he selected a life com- HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 209 panion in the person of Amelia M. Skadden, who was born March 12, 1819, in Luzerne county, Penn., daughter of Anson C, Skadden. After his marriage Samuel A. Lamoreux located on a farm, and in connection followed the lumber business, working also at the trade of millwright. His children were there born as follows: Joshua, January 14, 1840, deceased in infancy; Delia, November 6, 1841, wife of W. F. Bradley, of Sandusky, Ohio; Emmeline, January 6, 1843, living in California; Hendrick 'W., whose name opens this sketch, January 30, 1845; Anson, August 29, 1846, a carpenter of Monroeville, Ohio; Benton L., January 23, 1849, now living in South America; Albert and Absalom (twins, both deceased in infancy), December 31, 1851; and Elmira J., April 15, 1853, wife of David Wilkinson, of Norwalk. The parents of this family left Pennsylvania December 25, 1854, locating on a rented farm in Oxford township, Erie Co., Ohio. Mr. Lamoreux, being in limited circumstances, remained a tenant four years after coming to Ohio, and then bcught a small tract of land. In 1874 he purchased' a farm in Ridgefield township, Huron county, and in 1876 moved upon it. He was actively interested in politics, and was first a Democrat, becoming a Republican after the war; he served in various local offices. He was a member of the Baptist Church for forty- three years, and subscribed regularly to The Examiner, a Baptist periodical which had been known as the Baptist Register since 1837. He was an officer in the church, and taught the Bible class for twelve years. He died October 31, 1890, leaving many friends to mourn his death, who knew his worth as a Christian man and progressive citizen. His widow is yet living on the home farm with her son, Hendrick W. She has been a member of the Baptist Church for fifty-five years. Hendrick W. Lamoreux was born on the home place in Luzerne county, Penn., where he attended the district schools. On October 26, 1870, he was united in marriage with Ruth H., daughter of Daniel Frazier, and a native of Erie. county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Lamoreux have resided on his father's farm in Ridgefield township, Huron county, since their marriage, where two children have been born to them: Bertha E. and Wilbur L. Mr. Lamoreux is a prosperous business man, and takes an active interest in the Republican party. ,1-le and wife are members of the Baptist Church, with which he has been connected twenty-two years. GEORGE SUTLIFF, who represents an old and well-known family of Bronson township, is a son of Na,1 than Sutliff, who was born near Genoa, New York. Nathan Sutliff passed his youth in Cayuga county, N. Y., and in early manhood was there married to Loretta Lawrence, a native of Genoa, same State. The young couple resided in the home neighborhood some time after their marriage, and then came to Huron county, Ohio, where Mr. Sutliff purchased 200 acres of land. At the time cf this purchase Bronson township was a wilderness, the only marks then evident of coming civilization being two log cabins in Norwalk, and one which had been erected the previous year on the land now owned by Martin Kellog. With these few neighbors to brighten the lonely wilderness, Nathan Sutliff and his wife set bravely to work and prepared a home for those who followed. He was a Whig in politics, and in religion was one of the first members of the Presbyterian Church in Peru township. Some time after the death of his wife this pioneer was laid to rest at a good old age. They were the parents of eight children: Alice, Samuel, Mary, David, Loretta, John, Nathan and George. George Sutliff, son of Nathan and Loretta (Lawrence) Sutliff, was born March 210 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. 14, 1832, on the farm where he is now living, in Huron county, Ohio. He received a limited country-school education, passing his early youth on the home farm, and then worked four years at the carpentry trade. On February 1, 1854, he was united in marriage with Emily Fancher, a native of Huron county, and daughter of Daniel Fancher, who was married to a Miss Mitchell, and settled in Greenwich township, Huron county, many years ago. In the autumn following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff moved to De Kalb county, Ind., where lie bought eighty acres of land (about sixteen of which were then tillable), afterward adding twenty acres. He continued to farm on this place seventeen years, but finally returned to Ohio, and purchasing the old homestead, consisting of 104 acres, has since resided upon it, and has made many improvements. Politically he votes with the Republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff have three children: Ella S., Oberka F. and Gertrude L. Oberka F. was married January 8, 1887, to Clara Barto, who has borne him two children: Lelia Gertrude and .Nathan Roy. BARNETT ROE, one of the most progressive farmers of Greenfield township, is a descendant of Thomas Roe, the pioneer of the family in America. Thomas Roe, a native of Northamptonshire, England, left his country in 1822, and with his wife and seven children came to the United States, locating near Fleming, Cayuga Co., N. Y. He had eight children born to him in England, of whom one, Thomas, died there. The seven who accompanied their parents to America were Charles, married to Corinna Carver, of Fleming, Cayuga Co., N. Y., who bore him one daughter, Selina (Mrs. George W. Atherton), of Peru township, Huron county (Charles Roe died in Peru township in 1891); Anna, who married Samuel Weeks, and died at Pioneer, Williams Co., Ohio; Mark, now residing at Granville, Ohio; Joseph, a sketch of whom appears in the biography of A. G. Roe, of Peru township; Barnett, a short record of whom follows; Mary Ann, who married Hiram Barnum, and died in Fairfield township, and William, who was a farmer of Fairfield township, where he died. While residing in New York State, two more sons were born: Thomas, now a resident of Oregon, and Reuben, of Toledo, Ohio, About 1834 Thomas Roe and his son, Charles, came to Huron county and purchased a tract of land in Peru township. The father remained here, while the son went back to Cayuga county, N. Y., for the remainder of the family, with whom he returned and introduced to their new home. Here the father and mother both died. They were members of the Baptist Church, and were much esteemed citizens of the community. Barnett Roe, son of Thomas, was born in 1810, in England, and, accompanying his parents to America, resided with them in New York State, later moving with them to Huron county, Ohio. His school days were passed in Cayuga county, N. Y., where he also began to learn the carpenter's trade, which he followed with such a measure of success that he was enabled from time to time to invest in small tracts of land, in Greenfield township, increasing his number of acres annually. While still a young man he married Harriet Brightman, of Peru township, who was born in 1814, and the children of this marriage are Elizabeth, Mrs. C. H. Strong; Anna, Mrs. James White, of Cleveland; Barnett, subject of this sketch; Maria and Mary (twins), of whom Maria is married to Theodore Niver, of Norwich (Mary died at the age of five years), and James K., who was a miner in Colorado, where lie met his death in his thirty-second year. Immediately after marriage Mr. and Mrs. Roe made the homestead their residence, where he engaged in agriculture and HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 211 carpentry. In 1856 he erected what is known as the Phoenix mills in Greenfield township, and operated same for twelve or thirteen years with marked success. After that long term in the milling business his health failed, compelling him to retire from active life. He resided on the farm, now occupied by his son, Barnett, until his death, which was the result of paralysis. His wife died January 27, 1851, and both are interred in the Steuben cemetery. He was a strong advocate of the principles of the Republican party, held various offices in the township, and also served as county commissioner. He was one of the most progressive citizens who ever lived in Greenfield township. His farm, mill and stone quarries were parts of his plan for the development of the township, so that the death of such a man was a serious losg, not only to his family, but also to the entire community. Barnett Roe, whose name opens this memoir, was born January 26, 1843, on the home farm. He, received a primary education in the district school, and while yet a boy began work in his father's mill, where he continued to labor until 1864. On August 29, that year, he enlisted in Battery M, First Ohio Heavy Artillery, was mustered in at Sandusky, and proceeded at once to Loudon, Tenn., where he joined his company. He served with his command in all the spirit-stirring engagements in which it participated, until discharged, at Knoxville, Tenn., June 20, 1865. At Strawberry Plains, Dandridge, Bean Station, and Greenville, Battery M did good service, and on other fields offered timely aid. Mr. Roe was taken sick at Leadvale, and was taken to a negro hut, where a colored woman, known as “Aunty Jane," nursed him to convalescence. On his return to Ohio he reentered the service of his father in the mill, and there worked some three or four years. On May 16, 1867, he was married to Martha J. Lowther, who was born August 5, 1843, in Greenfield township, daughter of Capt. E. H. Lowther. The children of this union are Earnest B., born September 29, 1869; Frank L., born November 2, 1871; Anna B., born October 8,1875, and Alto F. and Otto J. (twins), born February 14, 1884, all of whom are living. After marriage the young couple occupied the homestead, and here Mr. Roe carried on the farm in connection with a sawmill and other businesses. In 1880 he located on his present farm, and has since given close attention to agriculture and stock growing. Mr. Roe and wife are members of the Disciple Church. In politics he is a Republican, and has served as treasurer and trustee of Greenfield township, proving himself, in every particular, worthy of the confidence and esteem of the people. H. S. FANNING, a progressive agriculturist of Clarkstield township, is a native of the same, born November 5, 1864. His grandfather, James Fanning, was born August 13, 1789, and on January 2, 1809, married Sarah Westbrook, who was born October 25, 1789. he died near Rushville, Onondaga Co., N. Y., June 9, 1827, on which day he was present at a barn raising for the proprietor of a neighboring hotel. A rain storm came up suddenly, driving the men to shelter, but when the rain ceased all resumed work. The water made the heavy timbers slippery, and one of the bents fell, crushing Mr. Fanning's head, killing him instantly. He left a widow, and eight children all born in Onondaga county, as follows: Ann, horn October 23, 1809; Eliza, born August 18, 1811; Richard, born April 27, 1813; Asenath, born June 4', 1816; Julia, born May 2, 1819; John C., born April 8, 1821; Benjamin G., born September 11, 1823, and William M., born May 13, 1826. In 1832 the widow, determined to seek a wider field for her children, sold her 212 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. home in New York State, and migrated to Huron county, Ohio. Her son, Richard, who had settled in Clarksfield township a year before the family left New York, sent glowing reports of the new country, and to that township the family directed their steps. Here Mrs. Fanning purchased a farm of sixty-five acres, where she resided for twenty years, or until her marriage (in 1842 or 1843) with Jonas Clark, with whom she moved to Sandusky county. She died there July 17, 1863, and was buried in the cemetery at Townsend. Benjamin G. Fanning came with his mother to Ohio in 1832, and received a primary education in the rude school of the period. While a youth he left home to learn the shoe trade from a man named Long, in Lyme township, an old tradesman of Huron county. Mr. Fanning was an apt mechanic, and became as good a shoemaker as his teacher; but the trade did not suit him, so he went into the fruit business and became the owner of a farm in Clarksfield township. Returning thither he found employment in Sherman Smith's shoe store, and while there engaged married Sabra, daughter of Sherman Smith, the wedding taking place July 4, 1846. Sabra Smith was born January 12, 1829, in Clarksfield township, a daughter of Sherman and Caroline (Knapp) Smith, pioneers of Huron county. The young couple settled on the sixty-five acres which Mr. Fanning's mother purchased in 1832. Leaving that, he bought himself a farm, but preferring to travel as a patent-right salesman, he left the care of the farm to his wife and hired help. In 1852, however, he assumed charge of his land, and resided thereon till his death, which occurred December 12, 1891. In 1886 he was stricken with paralysis, and suffered much from the disease. He was a fluent speaker and an able salesman, and admirably filled the two positions of fruit-tree grower and sales agent. He was a man of progress, always encouraging improvement. A friend of the unfortunate, his kindness did not consist alone in words; and when his remains were carried to Butterfield cemetery for interment, there was a host of mourners present. Mr. Fanning was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party, when he cast his political fortunes with them. The children born to Benjamin G. and Sabra Fanning are named as follows: Escdorah, born March 11, 1847, died August 26, 1850; A. S., deceased June 9, 1849; Ida B., born January 27, 1853, wife cf Theodore Clark, a soap and perfumery manufacturer, of Chicago, Ill.; and Henry S., who manages the home farm, where he resides with his mother. Henry S. Fanning was educated in the common schools of his district. With the exception of five years which he passed at the home of Sherman Smith, his grandfather, he has made the house where he was born his home. His marriage to Edith Day took place April 28, 1887. She was born October 31, 1870, in New London township, daughter of Hiram K. and Sophia (Brenstul) Day, who were old settlers of New London. To this marriage one child was born August 18, 1887, named Ruth D. Politically Mr. Fanning is a Republican, and takes an active interest in local, State and national affairs. Like his father, he is a friend of progress, and a most successful farmer. D. L. JUSTICE, a progressive, influential farmer citizen of Clarksfield township, Huron Co., Ohio, is a native of same, born June 18, 1852, His father, Peter Justice, was born July 23, 1796, in Milford township, Somerset Co., Penn., son of Nathan Justice, who was a distiller (then a very common pursuit), and manufacturer of linseed oil. Peter received a common-school education, obtained some knowledge of farming on a place which his father owned, and when yet a youth learned the trade of carpenter HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 213 and joiner. He enlisted in the war of 1812, but was not called into the service, and after the close of that conflict worked at his trade for five years. In early manhood he started for the West in company with a cousin, Adam Mikesell, crossing the Ohio river at Steubenville, and traveling through Zanesville, Columbus and Delaware toward Upper Sandusky, meeting Indians and passing through Indian villages around Delaware, thence to Fulton county, Ohio, in search of land. He returned to Pennsylvania (making the entire journey, coming and going, on foot), and for some time gave his attention to his trade. Later he came to Holmes county, Ohio, where, on December 13, 1827, he was united in marriage with Miss Lydia Twaddle, who was born October 22, 1811, in Jefferson county, Ohio, daughter of Alex. and Elizabeth (Ramage) Twaddle. While living in Holmes county children as follows came to this union: Thomas W., born January 23, 1829, deceased April 27, 1862; Nathan, born May 4, 1831, merchant and postmaster at North Morenci, Mich.; George W., born June 17, 1833, deceased March 23. 1886; and Henry H., born December 31, 1835, a farmer of New London township, Huron county. In 1837 the family moved to Clarksfield township, Huron county, coming with an ox team by way of Wellington, and as the roads were few and very bad they had to pick out their way by marked trees. He purchased 1164 acres (which lie paid for by working out by the day), where he passed the remainder of his life, and which at the time of his settlement contained no improvements but a small log house. Here the remainder of his family was born, as follows: John A., born January 10, 1839, a farmer of Brighton township, Lorain county; Susan, born August 25, 1841, living on the old homestead in Clarksfield township (she has been blind all her life, having been born so); Royal F., born April 16, 1844, died September 23, 1891, in Brighton township, Lorain county; Andrew A., born December 24, 1846 (he was born blind); and Daniel L., subject of this memoir. Andrew uses horse power to cut his fodder, and has a mill to grind his feed. In winters he does all his own chores alone, only in summers hiring some one by the day to assist him. After the death of the mother, Susan kept house for the family, and all the work is now done by them with the assistance of a hired woman. Peter Justice was by trade a cabinet maker, and for years made all the coffins used in his section. The coffin for his eldest son was among the first factory coffins brought to those parts, and after that he gradually ceased to follow his trade, finally, about 1875, discontinuing it altogether. He was a very robust, well-preserved man, and the day he was seventy-five he walked fourteen miles and cradled over five acres of wheat ground. In pioneer days he would walk to Ruggles, Ashland county, taking his grist to the mill, where he would often have to wait over night, as there were so many before him. Roads were few and difficult to follow, and on one occasion he got lost and wandered to Troy, Ashland county, before he could tell where he was. He was never sick, and never bad occasion to call a physician until the illness which caused his death. Once, while chopping in the woods, he was struck by a falling timber, and received a cut some inches long across his forehead, which was sewed up by his wife, as there were no doctors near. He passed away March 7, 1881, preceded by his wife on June 1, 1873, and both are buried at Rochester, Lorain Co., Ohio. He was a member of the Democratic party, but never took any further interest in politics than to cast his vote at each election. D. L. Justice was educated in the common schools of his vicinity, and was reared to farm life. When a young man he commenced to learn photography in New London, Ohio, having previously read much on this subject, in which art he became quite proficient. He remained on 214 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. the home farm until March 23, 1890, when he was united in marriage with Miss Elsie C. Fox, who was born September 30,1866, in Clarksfield township, daughter of David Fox. Shortly afterward they settled on a farm which he had owned for some time, and where they have since made their home. On October 30, 1893, a son was born to them, named Peter A. Mr. Justice, who is engaged in general agriculture, is a well-informed, intelligent, progressive citizen of the community. In politics he is a Democrat. JAMES GILBERT GIBBS, Norwalk, is the lineal descendant of one of the earliest pioneer families that came and settled in Norwalk township. He is secretary, treasurer and manager of the Reflector Printing Company, printing the daily and weekly Reflector, which are among the leading publications of northern Ohio; also publishing several other newspapers, and the Norwalk City Directory. Mr. Gibbs was born August 7, 1852, in Norwalk, where had lived his ancestors since 1816, the date of their coming here from Norwalk, Conn. He is a son of Ralph M. and Mary (higgins) Gibbs, the former of whom was also a native of Norwalk, born in 1824, and died of cholera in August, 1854, then but thirty years of age. David Gibbs, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Norwalk, Conn., became an officer in the regular army in the war of 1812, and did efficient service as Capt. David Gibbs of the Thirty-seventh Regular Infantry. At the close of the war, having meanwhile resigned from the army, he came to Ohio and located where is now Norwalk, at which time there were but two other families in the township, and the site of the present city of Norwalk was an unbroken wilderness. He came here a licensed lawyer, and in 1820 was appointed by the court as county clerk of Huron county, in which service he continued until his death in 1841. This fact of itself points him out, not only as among the first settlers, but as one of the most prominent. His father-in-law, Henry Lockwood, of Norwalk, Conn., was a wealthy merchant of that place, one of those who sustained heavy losses during the Revolution, through the raids of the traitor Benedict Arnold upon the Connecticut coast, and who received from the State, as recoil' pence, lands in the " Firelands " of the Connecticut Western Reserve. These lands descended by inheritance to his posterity, several of whom are residents; but James G. is the only male descendant now living in Norwalk of the Capt. Gibbs branch of the Lockwood family. James' mother came here in 1835 to make her home with her grandfather, Rev. David Higgins, pioneer preacher of the Presbyterian Church, who at that time lived here. His son, Judge David Higgins, of the common pleas court, was the uncle of Mary Higgins; the young man, Ralph M. Gibbs, was a son of the clerk of the court, and the young people formed an acquaintance, then a friendship that in due time ripened into the holier passion, and they were joined in wedlock in 1846. Mrs. Mary H. Gibbs is living, the beloved mother of four children--three daughters and one son, whose name heads this article. James G. Gibbs, the father dying when the boy was but two years of age, was reared as a member of the family of his uncle, Hon. Joseph M. Farr, who was the foinder in 1835 of the Norwalk Experiment, and who was also a member of the Constitutional convention of 1850, that formed the present State constitution of Ohio. In this pleasant home the lad passed his young days, and was given more than the usual advantages of youth; he graduated from the high school in 1869, and at once entered the Reflector printing office, to learn the trade of 215 - PHOTO OF JAMES GILBERT GIBBS 216 - BLANK HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 217 setting type and the art of publishing and editing a newspaper. Mastering rapidly the mysteries of the " art preservative of all arts," he laid down his " stick " and entered Lafayette College, being enabled to do so by the assistance of his uncle; but his college course was much shortened by the unfortunate death of this kind relative. On leaving college the young man went to Chicago, where he was a reporter on the Inter Ocean newspaper, under Hon. E. W. Halford, since eminent as President Harrison's private secretary. In 1873 he returned to Norwalk and purchased an interest in the Reflector, becoming the associate of Judge F. Wickham in that publication, and has since continued in that connection. In 1881 the firm was changed to a joint-stock company, and soon after the Daily Reflector was first issued, the initial number appearing in 1882, and from the first number to the present time it has had unusual prosperity. The Reflector has long been the official city and county organ of the party. As printer, editor and publisher, the young man soon rose to prominence among the craft, and for a number of years has been a member of the various newspaper associations. His interest in his chosen vocation is manifest by his unfailing attendance upon each annual convention of the National Editorial Association of the United States since 1889; and at the meet, ing in Chicago, 1893, he was unanimously elected its treasurer. He owns stock, and is a director in several companies; is vice-, president of the Ohio Savings, Loan Trust Company of Norwalk; a director in the Laning Printing Company, who are the State Printers of Ohio; has been president, secretary or treasurer of numerous organizations, and, more than all, in public spirit and enterprise he is well established as one of our foremost citizens, widely respected at home and favorably known abroad. He has been elected and re-elected a member of the city board of education. James G. Gibbs and Carrie L. Wickham were united in wedlock, June 30, 1880; she is a daughter of Judge F. Wickham, and presides with quiet grace over their comfortable home. They have two interesting children: Esther, a girl of eleven years, and Ralph, a lad of five. ANDREW J. MOREHEAD. Among the leading influential and representative men of that part of Lyme township known as Hunts Corners, there is no one who enjoys a greater degree of confidence and esteem than the subject of this brief memoir. He was born in Lyme township on the 28th day of May, 1836, and has never lived anywhere else (only for temporary purposes) since. He resides now where he has lived for the last fifty-two years at Hunts Corners, Lyme township, and only one and one-half miles from where he was born. He is now the oldest resident of that noted burgh. His parents being poor could only give him the benefits of a cornmon-school education (and the schools were not fine in those days). After getting what education he could at these schools, he was able to earn money enough to pay his expenses at Oberlin College, where he remained until he was satisfied with his education, working through the summer for farmers by the day to get money with which to pay expenses of a fall term at Oberlin. On leaving Oberlin he commenced teaching school (and by the way he got his first teachers' certificate at Oberlin). His first school was a "select school," situated less than a half mile from home. He then rented lands, and worked on the farm through the summer, teaching school in the winter for five consecutive winters. Finding that teaching was too confining and enervating for one of his constitution, he finally made up his mind to try blacksmithing. His father owned a shop and HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 218 tools, and Andrew had occasionally helped his father in the shop. The latter was now old and crippled. Andrew took hold of this with a will, determined to succeed, and by hiring at first competent help did succeed in supporting respectably an aged parent who had been a widower for many years, and whose daughters had married and left him. During this time our subject had served the township in several important offices, and in 1879 he was elected Justice of the peace, which office he has held almost continuously since with great credit to himself and satisfaction to his fellow citizens. His most distinguishing trait is that of a peace maker, there having been less litigation during his administration than ever before for the same length of time. About this time he contracted the asthma in its worst form, consequently had to quit blacksmithing. He then turned his attention to gardening and bee keeping for several years. Becoming less able to do hard work, he next opened a grocery store at the old homestead, and notwithstanding the hard times that soon came on, is satisfied with the trade that he has secured, which is still increasing. Being an original and independent thinker, and seeking to avoid popularity or notoriety he has never joined any church or secret society; but claims that he has always been a consistent Christian in the true sense of the word. Having ever lived a moral life, he says that he would not "swap" his chances of future bliss with nine-tenths of the modern "saints." Mr. Morehead has always enjoyed single blessedness, but now that he is weaker and wiser admits that one of the greatest mistakes of the many that he has made in life was in not marrying early. George Morehead, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Harrison county, W. Va., in January, 1795. When but a boy of seventeen or eighteen he enlisted to fight the battles of his country, and was sent with other Virginia troops to join General Harrison in order to help to drive the British and Indians from their forts along the Maumee. He had not proceeded much farther than the center of this State, when he was stricken down with the camp or swamp fever, and consequently had to be left. After a long struggle between life and death, he recovered, but only as a cripple for life. He then lived for several years in the southern part of Ohio, where he became acquainted with and married Miss Charity Patton. Of this union were born three children, the youngest of whom is the subject of this sketch. The father came to Huron county in about 1831, and moved into Lyme township about 1832. People have a good deal to say now-a-days about hard times, but if they were obliged to live as the pioneers did in those days they would have some cause to complain. All of the meat those early pioneers got was procured from the woods by their trusty rifles. Sometimes they had to go twenty or thirty miles to get a bushel of corn ground, with which to make a johnnycake. Such was the case when Mr. Morehead first came to Huron county. The eldest child born of this union was Mary, who afterward married Philip Heyman, and now resides in Wood county, this State, surrounded by prosperous children and grandchildren. The second eldest, named Emily, was married to Joseph Morris, and now lives in Nebraska. Charity Morehead died in 1838; George Morehead died in 18'73. WILBER G. FERVER, M. D. Among the most prominent of Huron county's young professional men is the gentleman whose name is here recorded. Although not a native of the county, he has, in the brief period of his residence here, established for himself an enviable reputation as a physician and surgeon. HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 219 Dr. Ferver was born February 22, 1859, in Lawrence county, Penn., near the town of New Castle, and his boyhood was passed on his father's farm, in the successful conducting of which he proved himself of material assistance. At the age of seventeen, having graduated from the common schools of the vicinity of his birth, he entered the Edinburgh State Normal School, and for the succeeding three years diligently pursued his studies. He then attended Allegheny College, Meadville, Penn., one year, thereafter taking a course in medicine and surgery at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating therefrom in 1884. The Doctor then at once located at Worth, Mercer Co., Penn., where fur three years he successfully pursued the practice of his chosen profession. From there he returned to the place of his nativity, and after a brief sojourn came to Wakeman, Huron county, in which thriving town and for miles around he has since been in the enjoyment of a most successful practice. On June 15, 1885, Dr. Ferver was united in marriage with Miss Emma V. Goodge. They are members of the Congregational Church of Wakeman, and, socially, enjoy the regard and esteem of a wide circle of friends. Dr. Ferver is a straight Republican, but is not active in politics, his profession demanding and receiving his undivided attention. JESSE E. WHEELER is a member of the old and well-known family of that name in Greenfield township. He is a grandson of Rev. John Wheeler, who came to Ohio in 1818, and settled with his family in Greenfield township the following year. Rev. John Wheeler was born in Massachusetts, but when seventeen years old moved to western New York, where he studied for the ministry, and received license to preach at a quarterly meeting of the Free-will Baptist Church. While living in Ontario county, N. Y., he married Polly Franklin, also a native of Massachusetts, and with her took up his residence on a new farm in that county. The young preacher cleared his farm, and made it his home until 1818, when, as previously related, he brought his family to Ohio. The children horn to him in New York State are named at follows: Sylvester F., John H. and Benoni, all of whom died in Huron county; Aaron, now a resident of Norwalk, and Calvin, the father of the subject of this sketch. The children born in Greenfield township were Chauncey, who died in Crawford county, Kansas; Almira, widow of — Tucker (her first husband was a Mr. Van Tine), and Samuel B., who resides at Parsons, Kansas. Calvin Wheeler, the fifth child of John and Polly Wheeler, was born January 19, 1818, in Ontario county, N. Y., and was but an infant when his parentg settled in Ohio. He grew to manhood on his father's farm, and made his home there until 1870, when he established himself in mercantile business at Steuben. In February, 1842, he married Mary Richards, who was born January 27, 1821, in Herkimer county, N. Y,, and came to Huron county, Ohio,' in 1837. Twelve children were born to, this union, a brief record of whom is as follows: Nancy Genette, born January 15,. 1843, married E. Trimmer, and died in, Kalamazoo county, Mich.; Agnes E., born March 9, 1844, is now Mrs. Marion Par. sons, of Shiloh, Ohio; David M., born December 29, 1846, is a traveling salesman, his home being in Plymouth, Huron county; Benjamin R., born November 20, 1848, is a farmer and stock buyer of Greenfield township; Calvin G., born July 31, 1850, is a farmer of Peru township; Chauncey B., born January 3, 1852, is an engineer on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad; Jasyn A., born January 22, 1854; Jesse E. (twin of Jason A.) is the subject of this sketch; Alice, born January 18, 1857, is the widow of Henry 220 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. Bronson, and is now engaged in mercantile business at Chicago Junction; Alfred, a twin brother, born January 18, 1857, is now a harness maker at Plymouth, Ohio; Lillis, born November 14, 1861, is now the widow of Dayton L. Green, residing at Steuben, and Linda Belle, born October 3, 1863, is now Mrs. Elmer McMorris, of Steuben. Jesse E. Wheeler was born January 22, 1854, in Greenfield township, was reared on the farm, and received his education in the district schools. He made his home with his father until 1875, when he migrated to California, where he was engaged in floriculture until 1885. In the last named year he returned to Ohio, worked in his brother's store, and after the burning of that place labored on the home farm. In 1889 he purchased from his brother a stock of goods, and his interest in the store, which he had opened at Chicago JunCtion, and in partnership with his sister, Mrs. Alice Bronson, established the present business in dry goods, notions and wall-paper. Mr. Wheeler was married in February, 1890, to Mary Keesy, daughter of Rev. W. Allen Keesy, mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Wheeler is an able business man, and takes an active interest in all enterprises for the benefit of his community. C. R. CALLAGHAN, editor and part proprietor of the Bellevue Gazette, was born at Bellevue, Ohio, April 12, 1861. He was educated in the public and parochial schools, and when twelve years old entered a printing office here, and devoted his youth to the "art preservative of arts." For some years he worked at the case, mastering every detail of the work in the office of a weekly newspaper, and over eleven years ago became interested in the Bellevue Gazette, purchasing an interest therein, and changing the name of the firm to C. R. Callaghan & Co. The Gazette is well managed. Neutral in political affairs, it is never silent when a wrong has to be righted, or a dangerous candidate unmasked. In ordinary local affairs, the Gazette is an authentic record, for it is the aim of the editor to give all the news of the city and tributary district. Its certified circulation is 1,400, and its merits, as an advertiser, are acknowledged by the number and variety of businesses, etc., which seek publicity through its columns. On May 6, 1886, Mr. Callaghan was united in marriage with Miss Johanna Connors, who was born in Ireland, daughter of Patrick Connors. JOHN E. MENGES (deceased) was born in September, 1813, in Fayette ) township, Seneca Co., N. Y. His youth was passed in the manner common to boys of that time and place, but before his boyhood days were over he developed a rare mechanical genius, and worked at several trades in his native county. In 1833 he followed his father, John Menges, to Ohio. This John Menges was drowned while crossing Lake Erie, and the son came hither to settle the estate and take care of the property. After working for some time on a farm in Greenfield township, Huron county, he moved to Seneca county, Ohio, where he purchased land. On June 12, 1836, he was there married to Margaret Seed, who was born May 25, 1819, in New York, and accompanied her parents westward to Venice township, Seneca Co., Ohio. Mrs. Margaret Menges died May 12, 1839, without issue, and was buried at Attica, Ohio: On April 27, 1841, he married Lydia F. Wilbur, who was born January 30, 1820, in Cayuga county, N. Y. In 1826 her parents, Nathan and Esther (Labarre) Wilbur, settled in Sherman township, Huron Co., Ohio, where they passed the remainder of HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 221 their lives. The children born to John E. and Lydia Menges were: Margaret E., Mrs. Alonzo Simmons, of Fairfield, H uron county; Flora, wife of Frank Marriot, a lawyer of Delaware, Ohio; and Desse, Mrs. Frank R. Williams, of Toledo, Ohio. In 1855 Mr. Menges came to Huron County, locating in Fairfield township; thence removed to Greenfield township, and in 1878 settled in Peru township, where he died January 26, 1885, He was a prosperous merchant at Attica, Seneca county, and later carried on a successful business at Fairfield, before establishing his farm in Greenfield township. While a resident of Peru he was engaged in various enterprises, at that place. and was known as a most active and enterprising citizen. A Republican in politics, he was also an Abolitionist, and carried his principles into practice by harboring fugitive slaves. In religious affairs he was a Wesleyan Methodist. Since the death of Mr. Menges his widow has managed the business successfully. The manner in which she transacts the affairs of the estate stamps her as a woman of executive ability, and gives proof of what woman, may accomplis- in the business world. Mrs. Menges attends the Methodist Episcopal Church. MRS. AMANDA J. SKILTON, I widow of Alvah S. Skilton, is the j oldest child of John Sowers Davis and his wife, Catharine Pasco Nave. Mr. Davis was born in Baltimore county, Md., March 28, 1806. He was among the earliest settlers in Ridgefield township, having accompanied his grandparents to this locality when a mere boy. He attended school in the first school house built in Ridgefield township. In early manhood he removed to Lexington, and thence, after a short time, to Galion. He lived in Galion twenty-eight years, and during his residence there was married to Catharine Pasco Nave, May 17, 1843. She was born in Path Valley, Franklin Co., Penn., June 10, 1822, and moved to Galion with her father's family in 1839. In 1866 Mr. Davis with his family rementurned to Monroeville, his early home, and there he lived until his death July 1, 1888. In early life Mr. Davis was a farmer; in middle life he was a merchant and banker; his last years were spent in retirement from active business. Mrs. Davis died at the family homestead in Monroeville, February 6, 1890. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis: Amanda Jane, born at Galion, married Alvah S. Skilton; Johnnie and Kittiebell, born at Galion, died in infancy; Mary Elizabeth, born at Monroeville, married Thomas W. Latham and now lives in her father's old home. Elijah Steel Skilton was born near Watertown, Conn., May 17, 1800. When a young man he left his boyhood home and taught school at Hunter, Greene Co., N. Y. Here he was married, April 4, 1827, to Elizabeth Wilson, who was born at Hunter March 5, 1805. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Skilton emigrated to Ohio, and settled on a farm near Ravenna, Portage county. Five children were born to them: Lucy Cornelia, John Wilson, Jeannette Parthenia, Melicent Guernsey and Alvah Stone. Elizabeth Wilson Skilton died near Ravenna October 3, 1836. Elijah Skilton was subsequently married a second and a third time, and died at his home near Ravenna, having passed the age of three score and ten years. Alvah Stone Skilton was the son of Elijah Steel Skilton and his wife, Elizabeth Wilson. He was born near Ravenna, Portage Co., Ohio, April 12, 1836, and when but six months old was left motherless. His father committed him to the care of Jonathan and Catharine Thompson, with whom he lived until young manhood. At the age of twelve years he accompanied them to Mercer county, Ohio, where they settled in a locality then a wilderness. When he left the home of the Thompsons 222 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. he entered the employ of the Bellefontaine & Indianapolis Railroad Company, and was soon made an engineer, retaining this position until he entered the Union army. On November 1, 1861, Alvah Skilton enlisted in the"Fifty-seventh Regiment, O. V. I., and on the tenth of the following February he was commissioned captain of Company I of that regiment. Capt. Skilton was severely wounded in the right forearm at the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, and returned to Ohio on sick leave. When sufficiently recovered from the effects of his wound, he resumed command of his company, and subsequently participated in the siege of Vicksburg and in many battles, among them being those at Missionary Ridge, Resaca and Kenesaw Mountain. Upon three occasions he received slight wounds, and at the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, he was wounded and captured. He was held a prisoner of war at Camp Oglethorpe, Macon, Charleston, Columbia, Asheville, Saulsbury, Castle Thunder and Libby. He escaped from prison several times, and was once within sight of the Union camp fires, but was recaptured and compelled to travel three hundred miles on foot to Asheville, North Carolina, where he and his companions were confined in an iron cage. Among his papers Capt. Skilton left a diary which he kept during his retention as a prisoner of war, and this little book tells a most pathetic story of prison life in Dixie. Capt. Skilton was released from Libby Prison April 2, 1865, and on the 13th of the same month was honorably discharged from the military service of the United States. After his discharge from the army he returned to Galion, his former home, arid engaged in the lumber business. On December 20, 1865, he was married to Miss Amanda J., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Davis, and soon afterward the newly married couple moved to Monroeville with Mr. Davis and family. With the exception of one year spent in Logansport, Ind., Capt. Skilton resided in Monroeville the remainder of his life. During the early part of his residence here he was Express agent for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, but "soon engaged in the grain and commission business, continuing therein until the time of his death. He died in Monroeville July 27, 1887, aged fifty-one years, three months, fifteen days, the cause of his death being a carbuncle at the base of the brain. In 1877 he was elected junior warden of Zion Church, Monroeville, and served in this capacity until he died. Be was at the time of his death chairman of the Huron County Soldiers' Relief Commission. Capt. Skilton was one of the charter members and the first commander of Asa R. Hillyer Post, No. 532, G. A. R. He was also a charter member of Roby Lodge, No.. 534, F. & A. M., and was its first worshipful master. He was a member of Huron Royal Arch Chapter No. 113, Norwalk Council No. 24, and Norwalk Cornmandery No. 18. In politics Capt. Skilton was a stanch Republican. Four children were born to Capt. and Mrs. Skilton—one son and three daughters: The Rev. John Davis Skilton, A. M., is assistant minister in Saint Paul's Parish, Cleveland; Elizabeth Roby, Mary Grace and Catharine Amanda live with their widowed mother in Monroeville in her pleasant home, which embraces a part of the original tract purchased by her ancestors when they settled in the wilderness during the early part of the present century. CHARLES A. SUTTON, a son of one of the pioneers of northern Ohio, was born July 4, 1844, in Greenwich township, Huron county. Aranson Sutton, his father, was born April 1, 1802, in Cayuga county, N. Y. While yet a boy his father died, and, transferred to an uncle's care, the youth received a practical training in farm work, HURON COUNTY, OHIO - 223 and the education which the early frontier schools afforded. In 1822 or 1823 he was employed by the Erie Canal Company at Lockport, N. Y., as bookkeeper, having charge also of all the storehouses, and keeping the time of all the workmen. For his services he received twenty dollars per month, and after accumulating about three hundred dollars he set out, in 1824, for the "Firelands" in Ohio, traveling by canal and lake boat. He landed at Sandusky, and proceeded on foot southward to Huron county, where he passed his first night in the cabin of Willis Smith, in Greenwich township; thence he walked to Ruggles township, Ashland county, where he joined a twin brother and a man named Carver in the purchase of a tract of wild land. His marriage with Emeline Brady took place in 1828.. She was burn in Westchester county, N. Y., in 1812, and came to Greenwich township with her parents when a child. The children born to them are as follows: Charity, born November 29, 1829, married Hiram Townsend, and died August 31, 1892, at Cleveland; Mary J., born March 9, 1832, is the widow of Harvey Noble; Sarah A., born September 2, 1837, married Dr. William Reynolds, and died in April, 1885, in Seneca ccunty, Ohio; Louisa, born November 27, 1838, Mrs. James Fancher, of Greenwich township; and Charles A., the subject of this sketch. The father of this family was accidentally killed November 17, 1870, by being run over by a wagon loaded with wood. On January 28, 1873, his widow died, in hospital, at Columbus, Ohio, where she was under treatment; both were buried in East Greenwich cemementery. Aranson Sutton was a systematic farmer. At one time he hauled a load of wool to Greenwich depot which brought him over two thousand nine hundred dollars. He made money out of every other venture as well as agriculture and stock growing, and at one time was owner of 700 acres here. In politics he was a Democrat, until the Free-soil movement won him. When the Republican party was established in Ohio he cast his political lot with it, and was faithful to its principles until his death; he filled almost every township office, and for fifteen years served as justice of the peace; during which time he performed more marriage ceremonies than any contemporary justice in the southern half of Huron county, and became a believer in secular marriage. He was an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and always held an important office in that body. A liberal contributor to the religious organizations of his neighborhood, he won the reputation of being both tolerant and benevolent. Charles A. Sutton was reared in the manner common to contemporary youth, working on the farm for nine months and attending school in winter until he entered Berea University. He afterward studied for eight months in Oberlin College, and later took up telegraphy and bookkeeping, and, refusing the offer of his father to educate him in any college in the United States he would select, returned to the farm, preferring to be a useful rather than an ornamental citizen. On April 28, 1870, he married Ann E., daughter of Benson and Esther (Rickard) Ellis, who came from Onondaga county, N. Y., and settled in Greenwich township. Mrs. Sutton was born in this township, July 16, 1845, and here, too, the following named children were born to her: Edward A., born April 2, 1872, now residing at Oberlin; William B., born May 30, 1875, and Charles D., born February 17, 1880, both residing at home. After marriage the young couple took up their residence in the Sutton home, and the improvements which have been made here since 1880 speak for the owner's progressive ideas. In that year the capacious barn was constructed, and in 1883 the elegant brick residence which now adorns the farm was erected, these being the two principal improvements. Fences, small buildings and drainage have been carefully looked after and restored, and the 224 - HURON COUNTY, OHIO. old farm revamped as it were, until now it is as fertile as it was when first reclaimed from the wilderness. Mr. Sutton is a Republican in politics, and a Methodist in church connection. For the past twelve years he has served the township as school director, and has taken a personal, active interest in all measures which appeared to him to promise benefits to the township and county. CHARLES D. STONER, member of the well-known lumber firm of Gross & Stoner, Bellevue, is a son of Jacob and Hannah (Webb) Stoner, natives of New York State, and grandson of Stoner, who came to the United States from Germany about the close of the last century or the beginning of the present one. Charles D. Stoner was born in 1835 in Chautauqua county, N. Y., and when fifteen years old accompanied his parents to Wisconsin, in which State he grew to manhood. In later years he made the trip to Pike's Peak, and after his return located at Conneaut, Ohio, where for several years he was connected .with the Conneaut Reporter. In 1876 he removed to Bellevue, became interested in the publication of the Gazette, of which paper he later became sole proprietor. Over eleven years ago he sold a half interest to Mr. C. R. Callaghan, in partnership with whom he still conducts the paper. Notwithstanding his mercantile and manufacturing interests, he still finds time to devote to newspaper work, and may often be found in the Gazette office, busy at the case or at the editorial table. Some time after locating in Bellevue, Mr. Stoner established a boot and shoe store, subsequently adding a full line of men's furnishing goods, and he did a most satisfactory business until 1888, when he closed out the stock. In that year he purchased a half interest in the lumber yard and planing mill, and directed his attention to the development of the trade and industry. This is the only concern of the kind at Bellevue, and is the supply depot for a large area. The owners are practical business men, who understand the principles of low profits, quick sales and prompt returns. Mr. Stoner takes charge of the office, and directs the sales department, while Mr. Gross gives direct attention to the planing mill and stock. Mr. Stoner was married at Conneaut, Ohio, to Miss Mary E. Fowler, and to this marriage was born one child, Susan, who resides with her parents. Mr. Stoner is a Republican, and has at all times been faithful to his party. He is well known in Masonic circles. While not a Church member, he is a strong supporter of religious effort, and always gives financial aid thereto. As a citizen he is broad-gauged and enterprising, and must be credited with a large share in the development of Bellevue's interests. [Since the above was written we have been informed of the sudden death of Mr. Stoner in his office, January 16, 1893.—ED. MATTHEW GREGORY, son of George and Polly (Warring) Gregory, was born July 7, 1829, on the same farm which he now owns and resides upon in Clarksfield township. George Gregory, his father, was born November 12, 1786, atWilton, Fairfield Co., Conn., and there attended school until apprenticed to a saddle-tree maker, with whom he remained until he learned the trade. On December 31, 1810, he married Polly Warring, in the southeastern part of Dutchess county, N.Y., where she was born November 25, 1792. In his earlier years he was a very active man. After his marriage he followed his trade until 1828, when he set out with his family for Ohio. The journey was made by river and canal to Lake Erie, thence by boat to Huron, Erie county, from which point they came by wagon to Clarksfield