750 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. band, one child, a son, who is a successful telegraph operator in the West). In his political faith Mr. Baldwin is a stanch Republican; he has served as township trustee several years, and is now president of the Board of Education in his township. JACOB GOODMAN (deceased) was born September 13, 1818, in Seneca county, N. Y., to Jacob and Elizabeth (Meyer) Goodman, who about the year 1833 came to Medina county, Ohio, from the East, settling in the woods of Brunswick township. Our subject attended the public schools of his early day, but being one of a large family of children, twelve in number, did not enjoy many educational advantages. In December, 1849, he married Mary Euga, a native of Baden, Germany, born December 11, 1828, daughter of Jacob Euga, who came with his family. to the United States in 1834, landing in New York after a three weeks' passage. Thence they proceeded by Hudson river and Erie Canal to Buffalo, N. 17.. , from which city they came by lake to Cleveland, thence by road to Liverpool township, Medina county, where the father bought a small tract of land totally unimproved, on which he erected a log house, and where his family were reared. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Goodman located on a farm, where he had previously resided, in Grafton township, Lorain county, and here a new log cabin was erected. On this farm children as follows were born to them: Sarah, Mrs. Frederick Wise, of Eaton township; Charlotte, Mrs. W. E. Saddler, of Bloomdale, Wood Co., Ohio; Adaline, Mrs. Charles Reisinger, of Grafton township; Mary, now Mrs. Edward Killup (her first husband, Henry Reisinger, was killed by lightning in Columbia township), and Charles. About the year 1861 Mr. Goodman built the frame house in which he resided until his death, which occurred Sep tember 0, 1884, after a lingering illness; his remains were interred in Belden cemetery. He was a lifelong successful farmer, and his death was hastened by overwork, as he was a most energetic man in all his undertakings. In politics he was an enthusiastic Democrat, and though not a member of school board, was a strong advocate of free schools and compulsory education. In matters of religion he was a member of the Congregational Church at Belden, as is also his widow, who continues to reside on the old homestead, which is under the management of her son Charles, a brief sketch of whom is here given. CHARLES GOODMAN was born in March, 1862, in Grafton township, Lorain Co., Ohio, and received a liberal education at the district schools. On August 1, 1888, he was united in marriage with Hattie D. Bradley, who was born in Monee, Ill., February 17, 1870, a daughter of George and Eleanor (Harper) Bradley, and three children were born to them, viz.: Mary E., Bert B., and Henry, who died in infancy. After marriage Mr. Goodman continued to reside on the old farm, which now comprises 244 acres of prime land, for his age controlling more land than, any other fanner in the township, and he long since gave evidences of his competency to do so. He is a typical "hustler," and one of the most prosperous go-ahead and wide-awake young farmers of Grafton. In politics he follows in the footsteps of his father, being an uncompromising Democrat. J. FRANCIS HARMON, the well-known druggist of Oberlin, was born in Randolph, Portage Co., Ohio, January 22, 1836, a son of Chauncey and Comfort (Dickinson) Harmon. The father of subject was born in Berkshire county, Mass., in 1796, and in 1816 came west to Ohio, settling in Randolph, Portage county, where he carried on farm- LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 751 ing up to the time of his death in 1862. In 1821 he married Comfort Dickinson, who was born in Granville, Conn., and in 1806 came west with her parents. Both families were of English ancestry. J. F. Harmon was educated at the common schools of his native place, and at Oberlin, whither he had come when yet in his "teens." On leaving school he commenced to learn the trade of printer, and after a three-years apprenticeship, he and V. A. Shankland purchased, in 1858, the Evangelist, a weekly paper in Oberlin, which they continued to publish jointly till during the Civil war, when fired with the spirit of patriotism Mr. Harmon entered the service of the Union, having previously sold out his interest to his partner; but the paper collapsed during the war period. There was another periodical established in 1858, and published in the Evangelist office, entitled The Oberlin Students' Monthly, the students of Oberlin College' supplying the editorial matter, and this also "came to grief" during those troublous days. They also established the Lorain County News in 1860, which under the title of Oberlin News is still published. Our subject enlisted April 19, 1861, in Company C, Seventh O. V. I., in the three months service, and went to Cleveland, Ohio, as corporal, there to join his regiment. Thence they proceeded to Camp Dennison, where they were drilled till the end of the following June. At the expiration of his term Mr. Harmon reenlisted for three years, as did also nearly every member of the company. They were then ordered to West Virginia, where they spent their first summer and fall, and at the affair at Cross Lanes, where they encountered Gen. Floyd's force, about thirty of the company were taken prisoners, and some died of their wounds. In December, 1861, the regiment proceeded to central Virginia, and participated in the engagement at Winchester with Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's force, in which four or five of Company C were killed; thence they moved down the Shenandoah Valley, where they remained during April, May and June, 1862, and the regiment did good service at the battles of Port Republic and Cedar Mountain, where they lost many men, killed and wounded. They then served in what is known as Pope's Campaign, and at the battle of Antietam they again lost several men. Shortly after this last battle, the brigade to which the Seventh was attached went into camp on Bolivar Heights, Harper's Ferry. In the spring of 1863 the Seventh again encountered the enemy, this time at Chancellorsville, where it lost heavily.. In June, same year, they were at Gettysburg, Penn., and did gallant service. From there they were ordered to New York to assist in quelling the riots; about September 1, following, they returned and occupied the old camp on the Rapidan. Soon after, with the Twentieth. Army Corps, under Gen. Hooker, they were transferred to the Western Department, and participated in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge. Two days later, at Ringgold, in storming the heights of Taylor's Ridge, the gallant Seventh were severely handled, and re, pulsed with a loss of nineteen killed and sixty-one wounded, only one commissioned officer being left uninjured. In January, 1864, the regiment returned to its old camp at Bridgeport, Ala., where it passed the winter in comparative quiet. In the spring of the year they saw some service at Resaca and elsewhere, and this ended their campaign, for in June they were mustered out, and returned home. Of the original 1,000 men of the Seventh Ohio only about 270 were left, and of the one hundred original members of Company C, only seventeen answered their names at the muster-out roll. On Mr. Harmon's return home he bought an interest in the Oberlin Hews, and a short time afterward purchased the entire concern, and this paper he conducted during the summer of 1865, when he sold out. For nine years thereafter he was postmas- 752 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. ter at Oberlin, at the close of which incumbency (in 1874) he embarked in the drug business in the same town, and has continued it ever since, enjoying an excellent trade. In 1864 Mr. Harmon was married to Miss Cecelia C. Viles, who was born in Camden township, Lorain Co., Ohio, daughter of William and Dorlisca (Heath) Viles, and by this union there is one son, William, who recently graduated at the Massachusetts School of Pharmacy in Boston. Mr. Harmon, in his political predilections, has always been a straight Republican, and his first Presidential vote was cast for Lincoln. In the G. A. R. Post, No. 364, Oberlin, he has been quartermaster, adjutant and commander. WILLIAM H. PHILLIPS. This gentleman is the oldest living settler of .Eaton township, having been a resident of same for the past sixty-seven years, during which time he has seen the wild woods give place to fertile farms, and the untutored Indian and fierce animals of the forest vanish before the inevitable onward march of civilization. Mr. Phillips is a native of the State of Now York, born in Greene county in 1809, a son of Henry J. and Abigail (Finch) Phillips, also of New York State, where they were reared and married. In 1826 they migrated westward to Lorain county, Ohio, settling in October of that year in Eaton township, our subject being then a lad of seventeen summers. The father was a wagon maker by trade, and made the first wagon used on Butternut Ridge. He died in Eaton township, February 11,1864; he was a lieutenant in the State militia during the war of 1812. The mother had passed away July 13, 1833. They were the parents of nine children, as follows: William H., subject proper of sketch; Deborah, married, who died some years ago in Omaha, Neb.; Edward, married, who was a sailor on Lake Erie, and was wrecked October 24, 1851, on the "Henry Clay;" Catherine, who was the wife of William Webster, and died in Carlisle township, Lorain county; Jeremiah, who died in Boone county, Ill., in 1891; Mary, who was the wife of William Webster, and died in Texas in 1891; Martin O., who died in Wisconsin; Savilla W., wife of Samuel Sweeley, residing at Adel, Iowa; and Abbie, who is the wife of William White, of Denison, Texas. William H. Phillips received part of 'his education in Ithaca, N. Y., and part in the old log schoolhouse of Eaton township, Lorain county. He learned wagon making with his father, and followed the trade some years; he made for his own use the first buggy that ever ran on Butternut Ridge, Eaton township. For the past sixty years or so he has given his attention exclusively to his farm. In 1840 Mr. Phillips was married, in Carlisle township, Lorain county, to Maria S. Slater, who was born in New York State, daughter of Johiel Slater, who died in Ridgeville township, Lorain county. To this union were born children as follows: William A., an oculist and aurist in Cleveland, Ohio, and a member of the Faculty of the College of Homeopathy, Cleveland, who has been at college some twelve or fourteen years, and graduated from the New York Institute for the Eye (he married Marian Nickerson, and they have one son, Roland); Edgar A., who enlisted in Elyria, Lorain county, and was shot during the retreat from Martin's Ferry, Va.; Edward E., who is married to Mary Schuyler, is a professor in Marietta College (he has been engaged in educational work all his life, and has visited Europe); Corda C. is the wife of Ezra Atwater, and lives in Newburgh, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio; Lena M., the wife of .D. H. Stevenson, resides in Eaton township, Lorain county, and has one child—Phil W. The mother of this family was called to her long home LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 753 in 1868. Politically Mr. Phillips is a Republican, formerly a Democrat, and he voted for Gen. Jackson. He served as assessor of Eaton township for nearly thirty years, and as justice of the peace about twenty years; has also been supervisor and member of the school board. He is a member of the Universalist Church. G. D. FOOT. Dell Foot, the courterous, obliging and popular " mine host " of a leading hotel and livery ,I in Wellington, is a native of Lorain county, born September 21, 1836, in Huntington township. Amos Foot, father of subject, was born March 5, 1812, in Chester, Hampden Co., Mass., and in 1835 came to Ohio, locating in Huntington township, Lorain county. He brought with him one hundred and fifty dollars in cash, which latter he invested in fifty acres of land. He married Miss Mary Chapman, a native of Montgomery, Hampden Co., Mass., and for years thereafter he followed farming; then became a preacher in the Wesleyan Church, holding forth for a considerable time in Avon, Lorain county, afterward in Olmsted Falls, Cuyahoga county. Returning east he preached for ten years at Cochitnate, Mass., near Boston, where his wife died April 20, 1869, and then once more came to Lorain county, where he married his second wife, his last days being spent at the home of his son, our subject. He died in 1888, his second wife in 1882. He was a very large man, in his prime weighing some 290 pounds, and he had a voice remarkable for its strength and volume. He had two children—G. D. and Emma J. (wife of George Royce, of Wellington) —by his first wife, none by his second. The subject of this sketch was reared to agricultural pursuits on the farm of his father, with whom he lived until 1856, when he purchased the farm. To the original tract he added until he had 500 acres of as fine land as could be found in the township, and carried on general farming, including dairying and stock-raising. During seven years he milked an average of one hundred cows, and dealt in cattle, horses and hogs. In 1873 he moved, to Wellington, where he is engaged in the hotel and livery business, his house being most complete in every respect, fitted with water and gas supply, although there is neither system in the town—in fact it is essentially a metropolitan hotel. In 1856 Mr. Foot married Matilda Rush, who was born in Greene county, Penn., and they had five children, viz.: Celia, Lucy, Jessie, Dell and Orrie, of whom Celia married E. D. Bush, a successful farmer and proprietor of a meat market; she died in January, 1891, aged thirty-six years, leaving four children, Walter, Charles, Fred and George. Lucy married George Lambert, one of the firm of the Wellington Milling Co., and has two children, Robert and Celia. Jessie married Chris. McDermott, one of the proprietors of the Machine Co., at Wellington, and has three children, Lucile, James, and Louise. Mr. Foot in his political faith is a stanch Republican. Personally he is most affable, good-natured, social, and is in every respect, as a caterer to the wants of the public, " the right man in the right place." MORELL E. SEELY, a prominent and well-to-do farmer of Brighton township, is a son of Humphrey S. Seely, who was born November 22, 1817, in Oneida county, N. Y., and whose father, Cornelius, was born in the same county September 3, 1796, a son of Daniel. During the Revolutionary war the last named, while fishing with some other boys, was kidnapped by the "Tories," and induced to enter the British service, which he did, acting in the capacity of officer's servant. 754 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. Cornelius Seely, grandfather of subject, in 1817 married Rachel Smith, who was born October 1, 1800, in New York, only daughter of Thomas Smith, a farmer and cooper. The children by this union were the following: Humphrey S.; Joseph W., who died in Kansas; Thomas, an M. E. minister of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Esther A., widow of John Cockrel, deceased; Almira H., widow of William Hubbard, a tailor, who died in the service during the Civil war; who married Hart Smith, and died in New York State; Daniel F., a farmer of Waukesha, Wis. (he was formerly in the lumber business); Phineas, also a farmer of Waukesha, Wis.; Renette, who died of scarlet fever when six years old; Amanda, deceased in infancy; James W., a farmer of Ridgeville township; Florentine, who married Asa Frary, and died in Canaan, Wayne Co., Ohio; Rachel N., who died in childhood; Ursula, wife of William Vandervere, of Kalamazoo, Mich.; Elroy Mc., who served in the same regiment with the subject of this sketch, and died in the hospital at Nashville, Tenn. Cornelius Seely, who was a lifelong farmer, came in 1821 to Lorain county, Ohio, with his family, consisting then of a wife and three children, the journey being made with a covered two-horse wagon, which conveyed two families, for his brother, Daniel, wife and child accompanied them. (This child, by name -William, became a Methodist Episcopal divine, was presiding elder, and was superannuated). The party camped out by the roadside at such times as taverns could not be reached by night, and they were kindly treated wherever they went. Their route was by way of Cleveland, where they forded the Cuyahoga river, then traveled along the beach of Lake Erie to Avon township, where the brothers secured a tract of land of 300 acres, north of the ridge, by trading his farm in New York State for it. The land was all covered with timber and underbrush, but by dint of hard work and incessant toil they succeeded in making a clearing for their farm, and on it built a log house to shelter both. families, but afterward each had a cabin. Money was a scarce commodity, and the brothers would make a journey on foot to Cleveland, a distance of twenty miles, and the same day after arrival each cut an average of four cords of wood. About the year 1846 Cornelius Seely moved to Wisconsin, locating for some time near Waukesha, and then returned to Avon township. Here he died March 4, 1866, and his remains lie buried in Avon cemetery. He was a pillar of the M. E. Church, serving as class-leader and in various offices. Mr. Seely had been twice married ; his first wife, Rachel, died October 18, 1843, and for his second spouse he wedded Mrs. Mary Cadwell, nee House, widow of Capt. Cadwell (her first husband was a Mr. Kinney), whom she married in New York. She died in her ninety-third year at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Leavitt Taylor, in Elyria, Ohio. Mr. Seely had no children by this union. Humphrey S. Seely, father of subject, received his primary education at the subscription schools of his native place, and after reaching maturity attended select school, later the seminary at Norwalk, the principal thereof being Bishop Thompson, who died while on a trip around the world. Mr. Seely was a man of considerable ability, and advanced rapidly in his studies. He remained on his father's farm till after his marriage, when he located on that of his father-in-law for two or three years. He then bought wild land in Brighton township, same county, and here cleared a farm, remaining on same until 1889, when he removed to Wellington village, in the township of that name, where he is now living a retired life. On March 25, 1841, he married Miss Cordelia Loveland, who was born November 12, 1823. in Brighton township, a daughter of Leonard H. and Margaret V. (Whitlock) Loveland (a sketch of whom immediately follows), and two children were born to them, viz.: Morell E., subject of this memoir; and Amina R., LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 755 born November 6, 1843, now Mrs. John Eddy, of Wellington; her first husband was Oliver Rulison, who during the Civil war served in the Second Ohio Cavalry, and died from injuries received in the war. The mother of these died March 23, 1852, and was buried in Loveland cemetery, which was situated on the home farm. For his second wife Mr. Seely married, in 1852, Miss Julia Crosby, born December 23, 1825, in Brighton township, Lorain county, a daughter of John Crosby, a pioneer of same. Two children came to this union, viz.: DeForest C., born October 12, 1858, died April 26, 1878; and Dwight F., born July 9, 1860, a farmer of Brighton township. This wife was called Worn earth August 13, 1876, and was buried in Brighton cemetery. Mr. Seely's present wife, whom he married February 14, 1877, was Mrs. Julia E. Andrus (née Smith), widow of John Andrus. In politics Mr. Seely is a Prohibition-Republican, and he and his wife are devout members of the M. E. Church, respected and honored by the entire community. Morell E. Seely, the subject proper of this sketch, was born May 22, 1842, in Brighton township, Lorain Co., Ohio, on the farm he now owns and lives on. He received a liberal education at the schools of his district, his first teacher being Sarah Boardman, and under his father's careful tuition he was thoroughly posted in the business of general farming. On August 5, 1862, he enlisted, in Brighton township, in Company F, One Hundred and Third O. V. I., and was sent to Camp Cleveland for purposes of drill, joining the command at Covington, Ky. At Knoxville, Tenn., November 25, 1863, he was wounded so severely as to necessitate being sent to hospital. After convalescence he was furloughed, and April 18, 1865, was honorably discharged from the service, and returned to Brighton township, where he worked one year for his father. He then came to his present farm, where his grandfather, Leonard H. Loveland, was then living, and with him made his home until the death of the latter, when the farm was transferred by inheritance to our subject. He has now 214 acres of prime land, on which he carries on general farming, including dairying on an extensive scale, and he is conceded to be one of the best managers and financiers among the agriculturists of his township. As a steady, progressive farmer, he has no superior, and in many ways is a leader in the community. On September 30, 1868, Mr. Seely was married to Miss Rachel Rulison, who was born February 5, 1852, daughter of James Rulison. She died without issue March 28, 1873, and was buried in Brighton cemetery, and Mr. Seely married, May 18, 1874, her sister, Cordelia, born March 18, 1849. The children by this union are Herbert E., born March 2, 1875, clerk in a bank at Oberlin, Ohio; and Leonard E., born March 22, 1877, residing at home, who takes an active interest in the mechanics, especially in electricity, and who is somewhat of a genius in that direction.. In his political preferences our subject is a stanch Republican, and has frequently been elected to office, but invariably declined to serve. LEONARD H. LOVELAND (deceased), maternal grandfather of Morel' E. Seely, was a native of Massachusetts, born in Southfield, Berkshire county, October 3, 1794, a son of Abner Loveland, with whom he lived until he attained his majority. He was educated at the common schools, and studied in spare hours at night by the flickering light of a burning pine log, thus qualifying himself for a teacher, a vocation he followed two years with marked success. On March 13, 180, he married, at South Brunswick, N. J., Margaret V. Whitlock, born in that town September 10, 1802, and three children were born to them: Abner, Cordelia and Emeline. The mother of these died October 3, 1860, in Wellington, Lorain county, and on August 3, 1862, Mr. Loveland married Mrs. Anna 756 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. Rulison, who was born December 22, 1809, in Knox county, N. Y. He passed from earth August 18, 1887, and was buried in Brighton cemetery. Politically he was a Democrat until the firing on Fort Sumter, after which he united with the Republican party. He served as a justice of the peace twenty years, county commissioner two terms, and had charge of the extensive land' interests of O. Bliss. As a consistent member of the M. E. Church, he was ever a liberal contributor to same. He was a man of fair legal ability, excellent judgment and sound common sense, while his unswerving personal integrity, and the general rectitude of his life, gained for him an enviable reputation in the community where he was best known. ARTHUR LOVETT GARFORD, president of the Garford Manufacturing Co., and Cashier of the Savings Deposit Bank Co., Elyria, is a native of that town, born August 4, 1858, and comes of old English lineage. William Garford, his grandfather, was manager of a large estate in England—where his ancestors had lived for generations. His son, George, father of Arthur L., was a native of that country, born in Northamptonshire, where were passed the earlier years of his life. In 1851 he was married to Miss Hannah Lovett, daughter of Edward and Hannah Lovett, of Keg-worth, Leicestershire, England. Mr. Lovett was the proprietor of a large silk and lace factory, and was a manufacturer of wide repute. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lovett lived to a ripe old age, and died in Kegworth but a few years ago. All but one of their children survive them. The eldest son, John Lovett, is at present manager of a large factory in England, and is a genius of high merit. James, another son, served for many years in the British Navy, and is now on the retired list. Five sisters are still living in and around Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 1853, Geo. Garford, who felt that America offered more favorable opportunities for an ambitious young man, severed his connection with Dr. Daniels, a physician of large practice and repute, in whose service he had been for a number of years, and came alone to the United States and to Ohio; his wife and child, Geo. ET:, following him to the new western home in 1854. They settled in Elyria township, Lorain county, where he had engaged in landscape gardening, and later on in stock farming. Some of the most picturesque gardens and artificial landscapes in Elyria to-day bear tribute to the early efforts of Mr. Garford. As a stock raiser he achieved a national reputation. For a number of years his stock was to be seen at the Annual State Fairs, where, successively, he bore off the highest awards. For nineteen years prior to 1882 he occupied the Elywood Stock Farm of nearly three hundred acres. Since 1882 he has not been actively engaged in farming personally, his sons, Geo. H. and Charles E., having charge of his interest in a large farm in Ashtabula county, which he now owns. His love for fine stock is still manifest, however, as he continues to raise, in a small way, some very fine 'horses at his attractive home on Harrison street, in Elyria. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Garford, as follows: Geo. H.; Elizabeth A., wife of C. H. Miser, Conneaut, Ohio; Kate S., wife of Edmund F. Smith, Buckland, Mass.; Arthur L.; Ella Louise, wife of Samuel S. Rockwood, assistant cashier, Savings Deposit Bank Co.; Charles E.; Edith G., and Carrie M. The mother and daughters are all active members of the Episcopal Church. The father, in politics, has always been a stanch Republican, and the sons have grown up in like mind. Arthur L. Garford was named after C. Arthur Ely—the original owner of Elywood farm—and one of the, greatest philanthropists who has ever lived in Elyria. LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 759 Though a young man when he died, in 1865, his name is yet revered, and his memory kept green by many of the older citizens who knew him, and by the later generation because of his gift of the public library, now one of the greatest attractions of the town. An attraction sprung up between William Arthur Ely—only son of the late Charles Arthur Ely—and the subject of our sketch in very early boyhood, and has continued to exist without interruption ever since. For a number of years Arthur L. made his home with his friend, and widowed mother, and many evidences still exist of the regard in which he was held while thus intimately associated with this family. Be received a liberal education at the public schools of Elyria, where he graduated at the age of sixteen years. One year later he entered the arena of business by accepting the cashiership in the large importing house of Rice & Burnett, Cleveland, Ohio. Here his natural ability soon asserted itself, and it was not long before he was promoted to head bookkeeper, being then but eighteen years of age. In this capacity he remained until April, 1880, at which time he resigned on account of ill health—later on accepting the position of bookkeeper in the Savings Deposit Bank, of Elyria. In 1882 D. B. Andrews, well known as one of the most expert accountants in northern Ohio, resigned the position of teller of the above-named bank, to associate himself with the Mercantile National Bank, of Cleveland, and Mr. Garford was promptly installed in the vacancy, which incumbency he filled until January 1, 1888, when he was promoted to assistant cashier. On the re-organization of the bank, after the death of Mr. T. L. Nelson, its president, in January, 1891, Mr. Gar-ford was further promoted to cashier, and at the same time was elected a director, positions he yet holds. Outside the routine of office Mr. Gar-ford for several years found pleasure and invigorating recreation in bicycle riding, and while so engaged, not being pleased with the saddle on his machine, his inventive faculties were brought into play, resulting in the invention of an improved bicycle saddle. He had no idea at first of turning his device to any account, but its originality and value being favorably pronounced upon by friends, he applied for and received a patent, which he at once took steps to dispose of. Receiving, however, but little encouragement from proposed purchasers, he concluded to manufacture his invention himself, beginning in a small way. Prospects of success in his enterprise brightening, he associated with him H. S. Follansbee and Fred N. Smith, a partnership being formed under the firm name of "Garford Manufacturing Co., " and at once proceeded to have the saddle placed on the market, the goods being manufactured by the Topliff & Ely Co., of Elyria. This was in 1889-90, from which time the business developed so rapidly, and the demand for the goods increased so fast that in November, 1891, the firm found it expedient to form an incorporated company under the laws of Ohio, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, the old company turning over their patents, goodwill and business to the new concern for that amount: On May 4, 1892, the works of the Topliff & Ely Co. were badly damaged by fire, and the saddle department completely destroyed, thus causing a large loss to the Garford Mfg. Co. After mature consideration the directors of the Company concluded to build a factory peculiarly adapted to their business; accordingly, in August, 1892, they began the construction of their present factory in Elyria, the main building of which is 40 x 100 feet, three stories and basement, and is admirably located directly alongside the tracks of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, a spur from which runs to the receiving door in the rear. The basement is used for heavy machinery, the blacksmith shop, spring formers, etc. The 760 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. first floor contains the offices—finished in oak throughout—the tool-room and the polishing-room. The second floor is devoted to nickel-plating, buffing and leather-room, in which latter the hide, by special process, is transformed into the perfect saddle top. The upper floor of all is used for shipping purposes, stock .and assembling. The engine house is detached from the main building, and the engine has a capacity of 150 horse-power. Although in 1893 the output reached 800 saddles per day, yet the supply proved inadequate to the demand, and the Company found it necessary to largely increase their capacity, and have recently built an addition, containing coal sheds and enameling-room, providing ample storage accommodation. Over one hundred men are now employed in all departments, and during the past six months the factory turned out the enormous number of sixty thousand saddles. In addition to their own goods, leather furnishings for bicycles and several specialties are here made. The present Company at its organization had among its stockholders the following prominent citizens: Hon. W. A. Braman, Hon. Geo. H. Ely,M. M. Ely, J. C. Hill, Hon. Parks Foster, W. A. Ely, G. W. Baker, F. H. Foster, F. P. Hill, H. S. Follansbee, F. N. Smith, and A. L. Garford; the directors being Hon. Geo. H. Ely, Hon. Parks Foster, A. L. Garford, F. N. Smith and H. S. Follansbee. Mr. Garford was elected president; H. S. Follansbee, vice-presideut ; and F. N. Smith, secretary and treasurer. In February, 1893, a suit for infringement brought against the Hunt Manufacturing Co., competing saddle manufacturers, of Westborough, Mass., resulted by way of settlement in two-thirds interest of that company being passed to the Garford Manufacturing Co., and the Company being at once re-organized with a paid-up capital of thirty thousand dollars, A. L. Garford being elected president and a director of same. The Garford Manufacturing Co. is by far thz largest and most extensive exclusive bicycle saddle manufacturing company in the world, and their product enjoys the reputation of being the standard of excellence, and is used almost exclusively by the largest and best manufacturers of bicycles in the United States. Mr. Garford and his associates have become very widely and favorably known among the Cycling fraternity, and prominent manufacturers generally. The following clipping from Cycling Life, one of the most prominent Cycling journals, under date of October 19, 1893, illustrates the regard in which Mr. Garford is held by the fraternity. " Upon starting out in life A. L. Gar-ford must have had conspicuously in front of him the inspiring reflection, now an apothegm, that youth must be served. We behold him to-day the king of the craft of saddle making, and hence well entitled to a place in our gallery of Leaders in the Cycle Industry.' Very interesting, indeed, is it to trace the rise of Mr. Garford. The son of a farmer, he must have early become imbued with higher ambitions and aims than most men, for when scarcely out of his teens' we find him in a banking institution, from which he graduated with such distinction as falls to the lot of few men. At financing he is an expert, and doubtless it was while engaged in such work that he acquired that solid reputation for integrity which is inseparable from the characters of those who are successful in that line. Some will ascribe his success simply to ability, some to fortunate circumstances and some to the close practice of honorable business principles; but we prefer to credit him with being the rare possessor of all three qualifications, and choose to find the secret of his distinction in the faithful practice of them. It is said of Mr. Garford that the contemplation of his own success does not yield him as much pleasure as it may afford to those who are his biographers in a small way. Perhaps this is because he feels that he is not yet spent —that he has in him the power to climb to greater heights." LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 761 On December 14, 1881, Arthur L. Gar-ford was united in marriage with Miss Mary Louise Nelson, second daughter of the late T. L. Nelson, of Elyria, and two children have come to brighten the Gar-ford home—Mary Katharine, born July 17, 1883, and Louise Ely, born July 19, 1885. Mr. Garford is a stanch Republican, and though frequently approached by friends to allow his name to be used in connection with party office, he has invariably declined all proffered political honors. He is a prominent member of the Royal Arcanum, having occupied all the Chairs of Elyria Council, and is now a past regent. The high school of Elyria has an Alumni Association, of which he has served as president. In addition to his other extensive interests above recounted, he is secretary and treasurer of the Republican Printing Co., of Elyria, and of the Beal Mining Core Drill Co.; is a stockholder in the Sunol Bicycle Co., of Chicago, and of the Topliff & Ely Co., of Elyria; is two-fifths owner of the Fay Manufacturing Co., and a stockholder in the National Bank of Elyria. He was city treasurer for Elyria some five years, resigning in 1892. At the death of T. L. Nelson, his father-in-law, he was one of the executors of the will, and he has since helped in the management of the entire estate. Busy as he is with his endless variety of commercial interests, Mr. Garford yet finds some little time for the farm, and he is the proud owner of some fine-bred horses, noted for both blood and speed, and he is the possessor of considerable real estate in and about the city of Elyria. Mr. Garford is a typical self-made American, with the strain of British blood in his veins that adds to his American progressive impulses an indomitable will and a tenacity of purpose that are some of his more pronounced characteristics. From a plain farmer's son, he has risen in the commercial world by his own marked executive ability and untiring energy ; and though not yet past the heyday of young manhood, he is already prominently identified with nearly every enterprise located in Lorain county. D. C. NICHOLS, one of the well-to-do, native-born farmer citizens of LaGrange township, is a son of James Nichols, who was born August 9, 1801, in the State of Rhode Island. When six months old James was brought by his father, Stephen Nichols, to Washington county, N. Y., and there remained until eighteen years of age, when he went to Jefferson county, N. Y. His parents followed him to that county some time afterward, and there passed the remainder of their lives. James Nichols was reared to farm life, and his education was received in the common schools. He was married in Jefferson county, N. Y., at the age of twenty years, to Miss Leonora Johnson, who was born in that county February 14, 1803, daughter of Joshua and Experience (Tibbals) Johnson, who were natives of Connecticut, and early settlers in Jefferson county, N. Y.; the father died at the home of our subject, D. C. Nichols, in LaGrange township, Lorain Co., Ohio; the mother died in Michigan. While residents of New York State children were born to James and Leonora Nichols, as follows: Eliza, now the widow of Bennett Rockwood, of Pittsfield, Lorain county; Cyrus, who died in LaGrange township, October 19, 1891; George, who died when three months old; Philander, a carpenter of Wellington, Ohio; Sarah, who married Dittamus Johnson, and died in LaGrange; Alfred, a carpenter of Lorain, Ohio; and Cordelia, Mrs. William Disbro, of Cass county, Iowa. James Nichols followed farming in New York State, and also worked as a lumberman in the pineries. He owned a small place, which he sold, and in June, 1836, came west to Ohio, via canal to Buffalo, and thence by lake to 762 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. Cleveland, from which city he was driven to LaGrange township, Lorain county, where his father-in-law had located some years before. The roads were almost impassible, and it was only after much work that they reached their destination, where for a short time they made their home with Joshua Johnson. Mr. Nichols purchased a tract of land containing fifty acres, on which he made payments, and by hard labor had partly cleared; in spite of his toil he lost his home through an unscrupulous land-dealer. Not being dis couraged by his misfortune, however, he purchased fifty acres lying south (the farm on which our subject. now resides), which he finally succeeded in paying for, by hard labor, such as chopping and clearing the land, raising what crops he could, and also going to the northern part of the county, where he chopped four-foot wood at two shillings per cord. After coming here the family was increase& by the following children: Miranda, a resident of South Dakota, the widow of Garrison Archer; who was drowned while going to the war, as a recruit; Ozias, who died when five years old; Stephen, a resident of Cass county, Iowa; and D. C., the subject proper of this sketch. After coming to Ohio Mr. Nichols engaged exclusively in agriculture, made for himself a comfortable home, and became a respected, well-to-do citizen. He died on the homestead in May, 1872, his wife September 5, 1864, and both lie buried in LaGrange cemetery. Though Mr. Nichols never made any profession of religion he was a thorough Christian; Mrs. Nichols was a member of the Methodist Church. In politics he was a stanch Republican. D. C. Nichols, whose name appears at the opening of this sketch, was born May 13, 1847, in LaGrange township, Lorain Co., Ohio. He received his education at the common schools of the neighborhood of his birthplace, and then remained on the home place, engaged in agricultural pursuits, to which he had been trained from boyhood. On January 28, 1869, he was united in marriage with Miss Jeanette Holcomb, who was born October 5, 1845, in LaGrange, a daughter of Asahel and Fannie (Hastings) Holcomb, who were from Jefferson county, N. Y. After marriage the young couple located on the farm where they yet reside, and which he now owns, consisting of 113 acres of land highly improved and equipped with all necessary buildings, etc. To Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have been born children as follows: Charles H. (attending school), Guy S., Claude M. and James A. (all three living at home). In politics our subject was a Republican until 1876, when he became a Democrat. EDGAR H. HINMAN, probate judge of Lorain county, is a prominent figure in the galaxy of legal lights in the county. He is a native of Ohio, born December 16, 1846, a son of Edward and Mary B. Hinman, the former of whom was born in .Catskill, N. Y., the latter in Lee, Mass.; they both came when children to Ohio and to Portage county, where they were married, and here Edward Hinman carried on farming, until his death, which occurred March 7, 1875, in Oberlin, where Mrs. Hinman still makes her home. The first of the Hinman family, in America, came to the United States, from England, in 1655, making a settlement in New England. The subject proper of this memoir received his literary education at Oberlin College, Ohio, and studied law at Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1864 he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Fiftieth O. V. I. (one hundred-days service), which regiment was stationed around Washington, and participated in the defense of the capital at the time it was attacked by the Confederates. On leaving the army Mr. Hinman went to Missouri, and for one LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 765 year was deputy clerk of the supreme court at St. Joseph, after which he was engaged as foreman in the building of dikes along the Missouri river, preparatory to building a bridge. In 1872 he returned to Ohio, and for a time resided in Oberlin, where he commenced the practice of his profession, but soon afterward moved, in 1873, to North Amherst, in the same county, where he opened an office, practicing law for nearly nine years. For two terms he was mayor of Amherst, resigning this when elected probate judge, upon the duties of which office he entered February 9, 1882. He is now serving his fifth con-secutive term, and is also president of the Elyria Savings and Loan Company. His residence is now in Elyria, and has been since 1882. Judge E. H. Hinman and Miss Ada M. Faxon were united in marriage in Novem-ber, 1877, and the following named four children were born to them: Harold F., Scott, Lucile and Edgar, the latter of whom died in infancy. Active in politics, the Judge has been chairman of the Republican County Committee about six years, and has been a delegate to State and Congressional conventions. Socially he is a mem-ber of the F. & A. M., of the G. A. R. and K. of P. One of the pleasant incidents of Judge Hinman's life was a trip. he made in 1886 to Europe with Hon. E. G. John-son, of Elyria. Many people will long re-member the humorous letters written by Mr. Johnson to home papers, giving ac-counts of their adventures abroad. J. W. WILBUR, dealer in general hard-ware, Wellington, is a native of Canada, born in Markham, near Toronto, Ontario, May 12, 1839. John Watson Wilbur, father of subject, was born April 14, 1811, in Schodack, N.Y., whence when he had attained his majority he moved to Canada, and for four or five years following farming there. He then removed to Ohio, stopping in Port-age county for a few months, after which he came in 1841 to Lorain county, and took bp a farm in Huntington township, where he made his home for over thirty-one years, at the end of which time he retired and took up his residence in the town of Wellington, dying there in January, 1891. Politically he was first a Whig, then a Free-soiler and finally a Republican. He was a strict temperance and strong anti-slavery man. In 1837 he married Miss Lucinda Chapman, a native of Canada, born near Toronto, February 23, 1814, and she is yet living. Five children were born to them, as follows: J. W., the subject of this biographical memoir- Henry, born March 23, 1841, residing in Wellington township; George W., born June 7, 1843, a farmer in Hartland township, Huron Co., Ohio; Josiah L., born October 10, 1845, residing in Wellington; and Martha NI., born September 12, 1849, died November 5, 1852. The brothers and sisters of John Watson Wilbur were the following.: Clark T., born December 24, 1804, now a resident of Darlington, Ontario; Mary, born January 25, 1807, died March 27, 1891 (she married a Mr. Leek, who died in Canada); Phoebe, born July 10, 1809, died in Wellington; Eliza Ann, born February 23, 1813, died in Schodack, N. Y.; George W., born February 8, 1815, died in Canada; Martha, born September 8, 1817, residing in Sullivan, Ashland Co., Ohio; Israel, born November 29, 1819, residing in Canada; and Deborah, born July 13, 1823, died April 30, 1891, in Albany, N. Y. The father of these, Thomas Wilbur, was born October 18, 1780, was a farmer, and died in New York State; his wife was Anna Cline, born June 24, 1783, died August 25, 1862. John Chapman, the maternal grandfather of sub-ject, was born January 27, 1783; he mar-ried Margaret Ferris, and their children were as follows: Hannah, born September 9, 1807, deceased; Jerusha C., born July 15, 1809, died January 26, 1889; Martin 766 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. Chapman, born August 19, 1811, living in Lorain; Lucinda, mother of our subject, born February 23, 1814; John T., born August 17, 1816; Nathan, born April 3, 1819, residing in Huntington; Laura, born September 15, 1821, deceased; Lorena, born June 24, 1824, living in Cleveland; Lorenzo, born April 8, 1827, living; Thomas, born December 8, 1829; Joseph, born January 8, 183-. J. W. Wilbur, the subject proper of this sketch, received a liberal education at the common schools, after which he attended select school, working also on the farm till he was eighteen years old, when he came to Oberlin, attending school there some seven months, after which he taught school for some years. On June 15, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Forty-seventh 0. V. I., and was assigned to duty in West Virginia. He participated in several en- gagements, and was ordered to Vicksburg, Miss., being present at both the assaults there. After forty-seven days siege, the regiment proceeded to Jackson, Miss., in the capture of which it participated; thence was transferred to Memphis and Missionary Ridge; took part in the Atlanta campaign, and marched with Sherman to the sea. At Savannah it assisted in the capture of Fort McAllister. Here it was that the dispute arose between the Forty-seventh and Seventieth Ohio as to whose colors were first planted on the fort, but several of Gen. Hagen's staff, who were overlooking the entire movement, decided that the colors of the Forty-seventh were the first to appear on the fort, and the captured flag is now in the State House at Columbus. The regiment set out from Ohio with 870 men, and at the close of the Atlanta campaign there were only 120; after the Atlanta campaign it was re-enforced by 400 drafted men and substitutes. Our subject was mustered out November 11, 1864, the regiment on August 11, 1865. He entered the service as a private, and was mustered out as second lieutenant of his company; when he arrived at home he weighed but ninety pounds. After the war he resided in Huntington township about three months, at the end of which. time (February, 1865,) he embarked in the stove and tinning business in Wellington, in company with his uncle, J. B. Lord, which he has since continued in. In September, 1865, Mr. Wilbur was united in marriage with Miss Anna E. Collins, born October 16, 1841, daughter of Charles and Dorcas (Abbott) Collins, the former of whom was born March 28, 1811, died October 1, 1883, the latter born February 25, 1811, and still living, having her home with her daughter, Mrs. Wilbur. By this union there were three children, viz.: Mabel C.; born August 14, 1866, married to D. B. Harris, now in California (they have one child, Zoe); Carl C., born April 29, 1868, a musician, now in California; and Rollin A., at home. In his political preferences our subject is a Republican; socially he is a member of the G. A. R., I. O. O. F., K. of H., Royal Arcanum and National Union. J. W. DOANE. Columbia township has good reason to feel proud of her wealthy, intelligent farming community, of which the subject of this sketch is a leading member. Mr. Doane was born March 21, 1831, in Jefferson county, N. Y., a son of Isaiah and Betsy E. (Giddings) Doane, natives of New York State, whence in the fall of 1833 they moved to La Fayette township, Medina Co., Ohio, making a clearing in the woods, and building a log cabin. From there the father came in 1846 to Columbia township, Lorain county, where he passed the rest of his days, dying in 1852. He was twice married: first time to Betsy E. Giddings, who died in Medina county, in 1846; afterward to Hannah Jewett, who passed from earth in 1878, on the farm of the subject of this sketch. LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO -767 Mr. Doane was a soldier in the war of 1812; in politics he was a pronounced Democrat, and for many years served as a justice of the peace in Medina county. The children born to his first marriage were as follows: Luther W., who died in Medina county at the age of nineteen; Rosella L., widow of Dougal McDougall, of Medina county; Diana H., deceased wife of Levi Herrington; Frank Johnson, residing in Harper county, Kans.; Mary M., widow of Don A. Clark, who died in the service during the Civil war; William H. H., married, and residing in Berrien county, Mich.; Almeda E., widow of Benjamin Chamberlain, of Cuyahoga county, Ohio; Orlando A., married, and residing. in Durand county, Wis.; J. W., our subject; Frederick W., who enlisted in the Civil war in Michigan, and died some years Ng(); Lydia A., who was the wife of A. W. Bishop, of Medina county, and died in York township, Medina county; and Martha B., wife of Gerome Osborne, of Benton Harbor, Michigan. J. W. Doane received a liberal education at the common schools .of Medina county, and was fifteen years old when he came to Columbia township, Lorain county. His lifework from his early boyhood years has been agriculture, and he is now the owner of a good, farm of 115 acres, all in a high state of cultivation, and which he has improved, erecting a comfortable residence and commodious barns. In 1854 Mr. Doane was united. in marriage, in Columbia township, Lorain county, with Miss Amelia Hitchcock, a native of that township, daughter of Samuel and Amelia (Osborne) Hitchcock, of Connecticut, who in 1812 came to Lorain county, where they died. By this union two children were born, namely: A son that died in infancy, and Alice, wife of Judd Arthur (she died at the age of twenty-three). The mother of these was called from earth January 3, 1890, and in April 1892, our subject married Mrs. Melissa Lanphier, widow of Austin Lanphier; she has one child, a daughter named Clara, married to Charles Hutchinson, of Columbia township, Lorain county. Politically, our subject is a Democrat, and is now serving his fourth term as trustee of his township. He has been a delegate to conventions, and has proven a most useful member of the community, both politically and socially. For about eleven years he served as postmaster at Columbia Station. EZRA S. JACKSON, for nearly three score years a resident of Avon town] ship, whither he had come in 1837, is a native of New York State, born in Herkimer county in 1816. He is a son of John and Patience (Payne) Jackson, also of New York State, where the father, who was a farmer, died in 1863; he had served in the war of 1812. His widow came to Avon township, Lorain county, and spent' the remainder of her life at the home of her son Ezra S. Jackson, dying in 1876. She had another son, R. P., who came here in 1837, but moved to Michigan in 1863, and died there in 1864. The subject of these lines received a liberal education at the schools of Herkimer and Cattaraugus counties, N. Y., and in the latter county learned carpentry, which he followed several years. In 1837 he came to Avon township, and erected many buildings in both Lorain and Huron counties, after which he engaged in the business of millwright. In December, 1844, Mr. Jackson was married to Miss Cordelia Q. Moon, a native of Avon township., daughter of Abraham and Theresa (Durand) Moon, early settlers of Avon township, Lorain county, where they died. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, the following being s brief record of same: Theresa, wife of H. A. Kenney, lives in Wisconsin; Jennie is the wife of R. E. Loveland. superintendent of schools at Lodi, Wis.; Ernest S., married, 768 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. is county surveyor and resides in Elyria; and Lena is living at home. In 1845 our subject settled on his present farm of 117 acres prime land in Avon 'township, which he improved from the primeval forest. In his political sympathies he was originally a Whig, later, on the organization of the party, a stanch Republican; he served his township as trustee, and has been a justice of the peace. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are members of the M. E. Church, in which he is steward. MOSES HERNER LEVAGOOD. This prominent citizen of Elyria is widely and favorably known in business circles, not alone by reason of his public and social positions, but also for his frank, genial and cordial disposition and scholarly attainments. Mr. Levagood's ancestors came from England, France, Prussia and Holland some two centuries ago, and a more immediate progenitor served in the war of 1812 between this and the mother country. Our subject is a son of George and Sophia E. (Herner) Levagood, the former of whom was a native of Pennsylvania, the latter of New York. M. H. Levagood was born February 2, 1845, in Wilmot, Ontario, Canada, where he received his literary education. In 1863 he removed to Michigan, and at the age of nineteen years entered into business; but wishing to better fit himself for a commercial career, he entered Bryant, Stratton & Goldsmith Business University, at Detroit, Mich., graduating from same April 15, 1869. Thence proceeding to Adrian, same State, he taught the advanced classes in the science of accounts and mathematics in Evans Business College in that city. In 1871 he entered the employ of Mr. B. P. Howe, sewing machine manufacturer in Detroit, as bookkeeper, and later had charge at Cleveland of Mr. Howe's west ern correspondence, covering the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. This responsible position Mr. Levagood filled with thorough efficiency, but resigned in order to associate himself with a screw factory in Cleveland, which business was in 1874 removed to Elyria, Ohio, its present title being "The Western Automatic Machine Screw Co." With this, the second largest screw manufactory of its kind in the United States, our subject has been actively and officially associated for twenty-one years, and its high Position among the manufacturing interests of the country is largely due to his enterprise, good management and fidelity. The fol lowing brief sketch of this prominent institution will be read with interest: The Western Automatic Machine Screw Co., Elyria, Ohio. This establishment, which well merits the distinction of being one of Elyria's most influential and valuable trade exemplars, was founded in the city of Cleveland about 1870, and in 1874 was moved to Elyria. Some twelve years ago it was reorganized, taking the above name, and ..with abundant capital, combined with superior management, has become a gigantic business enterprise, with large and increasing demands for its productions. When the additional buildings erected this year are fully equipped with machinery, employment will be given to about two hundred and twenty-five men, who, in character and skill are very much above the general average. Under its present supervision its business growth has become phenomenal, so much so that it now ranks as the second largest screw manufactory of its kind in America. Screws and all kinds of special milled pieces are here made, and in almost endless variety, adapted to every conceivable use, and varying in size from the infinitesimal, requiring 15,000 and more to weigh a pound, to the larger sizes, weighing three or more pounds each. The buildings are all of brick, and present an imposing appearance. The main factory is 50 x 150 feet, with an L 44 x 98 feet, four stories high ; blacksmith shop 22 x 70 feet; case-hardening shop 38 x 43 feet; engine house 16 x 37 feet; boiler house 34 x 82 feet, one story high; machine and tool shop 35 x 86 feet, and office and warehouse 35 x 105 feet, two stories high. The power is supplied by three engines aggregating three hundred and twenty-five horsepower, and three boilers aggregating five hundred horse-power. To-day this institution is the pride of Elyria, and its business manager, Mr. Levagood, a respected and honored citizen of the place. On December 4, 1866, Mr. Levagood was united in marriage, at Greenwood, Mich., with Miss Mary J. Nichols, a LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 771 native of Ontario, daughter of Henry B. and Mary (Ayers) Nichols, both of whom were from New York. On December 4, 1891, was celebrated at their residence in Elyria the " silver wedding " of Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Levagood, on which occasion a large number of friends responded to the invitation to be present, to whom their host and hostess, in their usual frank and cordial manner, gave hearty welcome. When the guests dispersed it was with the unanimous feeling that this social event was one of the most enjoyable they had ever attended, while a large number of presents were left by them as tokens of their goodwill and respect. Through all the disappointments and trials incident to human life, Mr. Levagood is always the same genial, hopeful and good-natured man, which makes him an honored and valued member of several Fraternal Orders, and in this respect few in the State have greater prominence. He is a member of King Solomon Lodge, F. & A. M., and treasurer of Marshall Chapter No. 47 Royal Arch Masons, Elyria, Ohio; he is a past officer of the Knights of Honor, Royal Arcanum and the American Legion of Honor, in which latter he has held the responsible State offices of grand trustee and grand treasurer, served two terms as grand commander, is now sitting past grand commander, and is Ohio's representative to the supreme council. He is a member of the city Council, now serving as its first president; as vice-president and a director of the Elyria Savings and Loan Co., and president of the Elyria. Aid Society. He is a trustee of the First Congregational Church Society, and is actively identified with other charitable and benevolent enterprises. With a generous sympathy, kindliness and a desire to live a helpful life, regardless of class or condition be has a large circles of friends, and has endeared himself to those in his employ, where mutual confidence, goodwill and respect prevail. The natural fruitage of such a life, with a hearty reciprocal response from the members of his family, produces the charm of his home, to which he retires for rest and pleasure, when the duties and responsibilities of the day are laid aside. The business motto of Mr. Levagood is " never postpone until to-morrow what can and should be done to-day; business first, pleasure afterward." With these characteristics governing his life, his success is but the fulfilling of a natural law, and has earned for him the prominence he has attained in the commercial world. WILLIAM DOUGLASS, the well-known retired merchant of Kipton, was born June 21, 1835, in Camden township, Lorain Co., Ohio, a son of Robert Douglass, who was born in Lyme, Conn., September 27, 1795. Robert Douglass, grandfather of our subject, when a young man came with, his father's family from Scotland to Connecticut, about the year 1775. He was there married, and reared a family of six children, viz.: Nancy, Lovisa, Prudence, Robert, William and John. The father of these died in Connecticut, where he was an extensive farmer, keeping a large dairy; he also owned and kept slaves to do his work, but finally sold off. the slaves, the last two for the sum of eighty-five dollars. After his death the widow, with her six children, removed to Hamilton, New York. Robert Douglass, father of the subject of this sketch, moved with his widowed mother to Hamilton, N. Y., and soon afterward, in 1817, he married Susan A. Waugh, who was born August 26, 1799, in Camden township, Oneida Co., N. Y. In 1833 he came to Ohio, traveling by canal and lakes to Huron, Erie county, thence by road to Camden township, Lorain county, accompanied the entire trip by Thomas Lee and Gideon Waugh, also heads of families. Mr. Douglass bought twenty-five acres of wild land in Camden township at two dollars and fifty cents per 772 - LORAIN COUNTY , OHIO. acre, and the three families settled together, at first erecting a single cabin for the shelter of all, until the Lee and Waugh families could be provided for. In this cabin two years afterward was born the subject of this sketch, and on this farm. the parents passed the remainder of their days, the father dying April 19, 1863, the mother April 9, 1856, and they now " sleep the sleep that knows no wakening " in Camden cemetery. Their original twenty-five acres increased from time to time till the property became a farm of considerable size, but prior to his death Mr. Douglass sold off all except the original twenty-five acres; and the old log cabin was superseded by a more modern and comfortable residence. The record of the children born to this honored pioneer couple is as follows: Lovisa, born January 6, 1818, married J. G. B. Babcock, and died in Oswego, N. Y.; Nancy, born October 2, 1819, married B. Bayless, and died in Kipton, Ohio; Adeline, born August 4, 1822, died in New York before her parents removed to Ohio; Charlotte, born January 0, 1825, married A. Boswell, and died in Michigan (she was buried in Camden cemetery); Lucinda, born March 8, 1827, married S. B. Williams, and died at Vermillion, Ohio (she was also interred in Camden cemetery); Robert H., born April 22, 1830, is a resident of Kipton, Ohio; Sally Helen, born October 9, 1832, married Bethel Sabins, and died in Michigan, where she was buried; William, subject of sketch, is spoken of more fully further on; John G., born February 2, 1838, of Cleve-land, Ohio; Susan A., born June 5, 1840, Mrs. A. L. Howe, of Cleveland, Ohio; Harrison, born January 13, 1843, who en-listed at the age of eighteen in Company H, Forty-third Regiment O. V. I., and was killed February 3, 1865, at River,s Bridge, 5. C., after having served through four years of the war. Politically Mr. Douglass was for several years an Old-line Whig, in later years a stanch Republican, and a strong Abolitionist, sheltering many a fugitive slave on his way to freedom in Canada. He held several township offices, and was in all ways a most useful member of the community. As a sportsman he was a keen shot, and as there was abundance of game of all sorts, including deer, turkeys, etc., his home was seldom without a well-stocked larder, and his neighbors were abundantly supplied by him with wild meat. He and his wife were of the close communion Baptist faith, as early members of the church at Center. William Douglass, whose name introduces this sketch, received his education in a primitive old log schoolhouse situated about three-fourths of a mile from his home, and this was the only one he ever attended. He was reared to agricultural pursuits, and remained under the parental roof until he was twenty-one years old, when he found employment in the woods, making staves; and being a powerful young man, he was able to earn good wages. Up to his twenty-fifth year he divided his time between helping his parents, who needed his assistance, and making a little money for himself. A land grant his father had secured for services in the war of 1812, and which consisted of 160 acres in Mower county, Minn., was bought by our subject, and he remained thereon for some time. In 1860 he came to Kipton, Camden town-ship, Lorain county, and traded this land for a. stock of groceries, and the rent of a building in Kipton for two years. From the time he opened out his business, he continued in it thirty successive years, and not long after commencing he bought also the building, then a frame one. His trade expanded so that in course of time he had to put up a substantial brick store, which he still owns. In 1888 he disposed of his stock of dry goods and groceries, since when he has been living in retirement. A couple of months each year he spends in an elegant lakeside cottage he owns at Linwood, Ohio, and his leisure time is spent in fishing and hunting. LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 773 On July 3, 1862, Mr. Douglass was united in marriage with Josephine Ransom, born January 16, 1843, at Berlin Heights, Erie Co., Ohio, daughter of Russel M. and Caroline (Tenant) Ransom, and the child born to them is Cora C., born July 26, 1863, wife of O. L. Wright, of Toledo, who has one child, Gurtha D., born July 5, 1886. Republican in his political sympathies, our subject's first Presidential vote was cast for J. C. Fremont, and he has frequently been solicited to accept office, but invariably declines, his business interest at such times demanding all his attention. He and his faithful life partner are consistent members of the Disciple Church. CHARLES ALEX. TWINING, one of the most prosperous and wealthy of the prominent farmers of Henrietta township, is a native of the State of New Jersey, born in Hunterdon county May 23, 1821. Samuel Twining, father of subject, was born February 22, 1796, in Hunterdon county, N. J., and moved his family to Broome county, N. Y., in 1823, where he died April 10, 1831. On September 23, 1815, he married Elizabeth Stout, who died October 17, 1882. Her people were wealthy, but on the death of her parents she lost all that she became heiress to. Samuel was a farmer, miller, cloth-dresser and distiller, and at the time of his death owned fifty acres of land near Binghamton, N. Y. He left five children, a mother-in-law and sister-in-law for our subject to assist in providing for, and, although the latter was hut ten years old when his father died, he was the "main spoke in the wheel." Charles A. Twining, whose name opens this sketch, received but a limited education at the subscription schools of the place of his nativity. On October 18, 1842, he was married. by. Squire Jesse Richards, to Miss Nellie Schermerhorn, and for abort seven years thereafter they continued to reside in Broome county, N. Y. In 1849 they came to Lorain county, Ohio, and Mr. Twining, having saved some five hundred dollars from his earnings, bought a small piece of land in Pittsfield township, Lorain county, where he resided three years. At the end of this time he sold out to his three brothers and returned to Broome county, N. Y., where he bought the old home farm formerly owned by his father. After residing here three years he sold out, returned to Ohio, and bought a farm in Camden township,. Lorain county. Sold this farm and bought in Russia township; sold this and bought a farm in Henrietta township, which he still owns. In 1888 he built a comfortable modern dwelling, situated in Henrietta. township. and his property has increased from time to time till he now owns 720 acres of prime farm land, divided into seven farms, with good buildings. He has owned farms in Brownhelm and West Henrietta, and in Erie county, in Florence township; three farms in West Clarksfield, Huron county, Brighton township, Lorain county, and Wakeman, Huron county, and resided on all of these except the one in Wakeman. He has given his daughter Sarah Ann a good farm in Camden township, and has settled his six living sons on good farms, and has also dealt quite extensively in live stock. Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Twining, as follows: Mrs. Sarah Ann Gibson, living in Clarksfield, Huron Co., Ohio; Herbert, deceased; Orlando, deceased; William T., living on the home farm, near his father; Gertrude E., deceased; Alva P., Floyd, O., Virgil L., Perry E. and Fred A., on farms near their father; and one that died in infancy. The entire family are members of the Baptist Church, except Perry, who is a member of the Methodist Church, and all brought up in the path of Christian rectitude, which they have in no instance deviated from. The sons have never used liquor or tobacco 774 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. in any form. Mr. Twining in his political affiliations has always been a stanch Democrat, and has served his county to the best of his ability, and held offices of trust. Mr. Twining formerly belonged to the Methodist Church, where he was class-leader and superintendent of Sabbath-schools for a number of years, and also held an exhorter's license. In 1866 Mr. Twining spent one year with his family in Ocean county, N. J., stopping at a pleasure resort in Point Pleasant. NATHANIEL MARTIN, who for the past quarter of a century has been identified with the agricultural interests of Columbia township, is a native of England, born in Devonshire in 1830. His parents, John and Sarah (Osborn) Martin, were also natives of Devonshire, where they spent their entire lives, the mother dying in 1844, the father at the age of eighty-eight years. They had a family of six children (four of whom came to America), as follows: Mary was the wife of Edward Spetigue, and died in England, leaving a family; Maria, who was the wife of John Tubb, went to Australia, and there she died leaving six children ; Jeremiah, who came with our subject to Lorain county, where he owned a farm, and thence moved to Jasper county, Mo.; John, who came to Lorain county in 1849, located first in Ridgeville township, then became a resident of Eaton township, and finally of Columbia (he is now living in Pennsylvania); Nathaniel, the subject of this sketch ; and Jane, wife of William Palmer, of Eaton township. Nathaniel Martin was reared and educated in the land of his birth, and in 1863 was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ann Moyse, a native of Cornwall, England, whence in 1867 they came to the United States, settling at once in Columbia township, Lorain Co., Ohio. Here Mrs. Martin died in 1869, leaving three children, viz.: John R., Elizabeth E., and Anna Maria, who is now teaching in Antwerp, Ohio. In 1870 Mr. Martin was married, in Columbia township, for his second wife, to Mrs. Caroline (Ruple) Reed, daughter of Dr. Boltis and Clarissa (Osborn) Ruple, natives of Connecticut, who in an early day came to Columbia township, Lorain county, where the father died; the mother, who is now in the ninety-fourth year of her age, still survives. Since coming to Lorain county Mr. Martin has engaged in agriculture and he now owns a good farm of seventy-six acres, in an excellent state of cultivation. He read medicine in Columbia township, and also at:- tended Cincinnati Medical College, graduating therefrom in 1879, and subsequently practiced his profession for some years. He now conducts a general farming business, operating 216 acres in Lorain and Medina counties% In politics he is a Prohibitionist, and has been a member of the school hoard. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Martin are both members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church at West View. JOSEPH H. MULL, junior proprietor of the Oberlin Citizen, has been identified with the printing business for the past seventeen years, rising from "devil" to " boss." For the most part he was employed on local papers in Oberlin, and in job offices, and in 1892 became associated with Mr. Disbro in the publication of the Citizen, a flourishing weekly, in Oberlin. Mr. Mull was born in November, 1857, in Dubuque county, Iowa, a son of Jacob and Altnira (Sage) Mull, natives, the father of Pennsylvania, the mother of Connecticut. In the early days of Iowa as a State they moved thither, locating in Dubuque county, whence in 1860 they came to Ohio, where the father died in 1891; his widow is now living in Pittsfield township, Lo- LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 775 rain county. He was a farmer by vocation, in politics a Republican, and was a member of the Christian Church. The subject of our sketch was educated in the schools of Pittsfield, and in the preparatory department of Oberlin College, after which he embarked in the printing business, as already narrated. In 1884 he was married to Olivia Stone, and they have had four children, two being deceased, Ernest at the interesting age of three years; those yet living are George and Julia. In his political sympathies Mr. Mull is a Republican; socially he is a member of Oberlin F. & A. M. Lodge, No. 380. FLOYD M. PELTON is a son of David C. Felton, who was born February 4, 1800, in Hartford, Washington Co., N. Y., a son of James Pelton, who was among the earliest pioneers of LaGrange township, having settled there in 1824. David C. Pelton married Lydia Dodge, who was born March 12, 1807, and they had six children, four of whom lived to be named, as follows: Maria, Martha, Mary and Charles; the last named of these came to Ohio with his father, and is now a farmer in the State of Illinois. The mother of these died, and in 1832 Mr. Pelton was married, in New York, for his second wife, to Hannah Smith, and in the fall of 1833 started with his wife and one child for Ohio, where his father, James, had been living, as will be seen, for some few years. They came by way of canal and lake to Cleveland, and thence drove to Lorain county, locating in the eastern -part of LaGrange township, near his father. He remained there eight years, and then removed to the western part of the township (then a very wild section, and all new country, the roads not being cut), locating on the farm where our subject now resides. By his second wife he had ten children, viz.: Lydia, Mrs. Charles Crowner, of LaGrange; Mary, married to Manford Ripley, now of Eaton county, Mich.; Clark, of Cheboygan, Mich.; James K., of Waukesha, Wis.; John, of Rising Sun, Wood Co, Ohio; Grovener, who enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Third Regiment, and died in hospital at Hickman's Bridge, Ky., where he was buried; Adeline, Mrs. Edward Beaver, of LaGrange; Hannah, Mrs. Thomas Cornell, of Eaton county, Mich.; Elizabeth, Mrs. Lawrence VanWarner, of Elsie, Mich.; and Winfield, a farmer of Eaton county, Mich. The mother of these died June 30, 1852, and was buried in LaGrange, and for his third wife he married a native of New York State, Mrs. Mary (Tippin) Burns, widow of Thomas Burns. By this union there were five children, as follows: One that died in infancy unnamed; Clarissa, who married Augustus Vanlinder, and died in New York in 1885, leaving five children; Sylvester, who died young in 1864; one died of spotted fever when seven or eight years old; and Floyd M., subject of this memoir. Mr. Pelton died on his farm February 11, 1890, being then over ninety years old, and was buried in LaGrange township. Politically he was a Republican. After his death his widow resided on the home farm with our subject; she died September 8, 1893, at the age of eighty-three years. Floyd M. Pelton was born June 18, 1860, in LaGrange township, youngest of the twenty-one children of David C. Pelton. He attended the common schools of his day, and was reared a farmer boy, receiving his first instructions under the direction of his father, on the farm he now owns and resides upon. He was united in marriage June 18, 1879, with Miss Lottie Johnson, who was born September 15, 1864, in LaGrange, daughter of Elijah and Lydia (Haines) Johnson, and they have had four children: Cora B., Mary E., Clara M. and Charles W. Since his father's death Mr. Pelton has had charge of the home farm, which he now owns, and to which he has added eighty acres, making 776 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. him in all a tract of 160 acres. He has met with some misfortunes, having had his barns destroyed by fire three times, but he has rebuilt each time, and in 1891 he erected one of the finest and most convenient barns in the township. He also conducts a dairy in connection with his farming operations, and has at present thirty-eight fine Holstein cattle. He is also a member of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America. He is an energetic, hard-working man, and has been very prosperous. Politically he is a Republican, and has held various township offices; in religious faith he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church of LaGrange. HENRY WISE, one of the progressive German agriculturists of Grafton township, was born in Byron, October 5, 1847, a son of Peter Wise, who was born November 5, 1810, also in Byron, and married a native of that place in the person of Miss Louisa Miller, born May 18, 1817. In 1853 the family, consisting of father, mother and six children—Louisa, Fredericka, Henry, Lewis, Frederick and Christian—set sail from Havre, France, for the United States, and after a voyage of twenty-one days landed at New York toward the latter part of December. From that port they came west to Liverpool, Medina Co., Ohio, by way of Hudson river, Erie Canal and lake Erie to Cleveland, from which point Peter's brother brought them by wagon to Liverpool township, Medina county, where they arrived on Christmas Day. In Germany Peter Wise had been well-to-do, but through going security for a friend, who afterward failed in business, he lost over two thousand dollars. In Liverpool township, Medina county, he rented a farm for a short time, and then removed to Columbia township, Lorain county, later coming to Grafton township, same county, where he bought fifty acres of wild land on credit, and here lived seven years, at the end of which time he moved to the farm whereon he died August 8, 1886; his wife had passed away June 19, 1883, and both are interred in Belden cemetery. In Ohio the family was increased by three children, as follows: Hannah J., born September 11, 1857; Catherine S., born September 12, 1859; and Jacob J., born July 25, 1864. The parents were hard-working, industrious people, accumulating a comfortable competence, and they were honored and respected by all. Henry Wise, whose name introduces this sketch, was six years old when his father and family came to America and to Ohio. Before leaving Germany he. had attended a Kindergarten for a time; and after coming here he received the rest of his education at a German school, but he never entered an English educational institution. While yet a lad he was put to work on his father's farm, where he remained until he was fourteen years old, at which time he commenced work for Benjamin Corning at six dollars per month, all his earnings being turned over to his parents to help pay for the home. On March 28, 1870, Mr. Wise married Mary Law, who was born March 13, 1851, in Grafton township, Lorain county, daughter of Jacob Law, and children as follows were born to them: Twins (stillborn), Rosa, Bertha, Alice, Edith, Amanda, Elmer, Anna, Lorena, Agnes, Henry and Ralph. In 1871 he and his brother Lewis purchased land, going into debt nine thousand six hundred dollars for it, and the predictions of many were that " the Wise boys would fail." But these ominous words were not fated to come true, for " the Wise boys" did not fail; on the contrary they succeeded, by dint of hard work and judicious economy, in paying off every dollar of the indebtedness. At the end of thirteen years (in 1886) the brothers effected an amicable division of the property, each one settling on his own share. Our sub- LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 777 ject has an excellent piece of land and a good home, equipped with all modern improvements, including commodious outbuildings. Politically he is a Democrat, and he and his family are members of the Lutheran Church of Liverpool, Ohio. JOSEPH S. WHITNEY, retired agriculturist, well known and highly respected in Lorain county, now residing in the town of Camden, is a typical "Green Mountain Laddie," born July.10, 1814, in Bennington county, Vermont. Joseph Whitney, father of subject, first saw the light in Westminster, Mass., February 21, 1785, a son of Elisha Whitney, and April 27, 1811, was married to Abigail Townes, who was born January 22, 1791, in Andover, Vt., where she was married. After their marriage they continued to live in Vermont till 1838, when they came to Ohio, making a settlement in Pittsfield township, Lorain county, the entire family (excepting two sons, who had preceded them) making the journey in a wagon, the trip occupying three weeks. The head of the family had in 1833 made a prospecting visit to Lorain county, coming by way of the lakes. and at that time bought the land in Pittsfield township to which the family afterward removed, as above related. The two sons, spoken of as having preceded the rest, came, Joseph S. in 1836 and Aaron in 1837; and in preparing the new home they cleared thirty acres of land, and erected a rude frame house in which the family lived after their arrival. Here the parents died, the father May 2, 1877, at the patriarchal age of nearly ninety-three years, the mother on May 3, 1872, and they lie buried in Pittsfield cemetery. Mr. Whitney was owner of a fine farm in Vermont, and was worth two thousand dollars at the time of his coming to Ohio; when he died his estate was valued at twenty thousand dollars. His political proclivities were of a pronounced type, at first as a strong Whig, and later as a stanch Republican. He and his wife were members of the Congregational Church. Their children, all born in Vermont, were Hannah T. and Abigail (twins), born July 5, 1812, of whom Hannah married Reuben Stone, in Vermont, and died in Oberlin, Ohio (Abigail died in infancy); Joseph S., born July 10, 1814, who is the subject proper of this memoir; Aaron T., born July 5, 1816, who died in 1870, in Collinwood, Ohio; Mark, born December 17, 1818, a farmer of Russia township, Lorain county; Augustine, born December 27, 1820, of Pittsfield township; Richard, born. February 16, 1823, of Grinnell, Iowa; Susan A.. born July 20, 1825, who married John Mills, and died in Pittsfield; Norman, born January 20, 1828, of Anthony, Kans.; Ira, born September 13, 1829, of Harper county, Kans., where he owns over 1,200 acres; and Loren, born February 26, 1833, of Texas. The subject of our sketch received but a limited education at the subscription schools of his native place, consisting of two months' tuition during a few winters; but what he lacked in that respect he made up for by after study, and a close observation of men and things. In 1836 his father sent him to Ohio to prepare a new home for the family, as above related, and in this then wild locality he did many a hard day's work, being a. stout, active young man, and frequently had encounters with wild animals who were disposed to assert their prior right to the 'forest wilds.. After his marriage he and his bride settled on 100 acres of land in Pittsfield township,. which he had bought on credit, and here they lived four years, their house being an old log cabin, very much the worse for age and exposure to the elements, and through: the many cracks between the logs would often creep into " the sacred penetralia of the home" snakes and other reptiles. Buying another farm near by, Mr. Whitney lived there many years; then for two years 778 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. made his home in Brownhelm township, same county, and then returning to Pittsfield township lived there till 1870, in which year he came to Camden township, taking up his residence at Kipton, where he has since lived a retired life. On September 19, 1839, Mr. Whitney was married, in Sullivan, Ashland Co., Ohio, to Lucy A. Ward, who was born October 7, 1818, in Orwell, Vt., a daughter of James and Lucy (Abel) Ward, who came to Ohio in July, 1836, locating in Pittsfield township, Lorain county. The children born to this union are four in number, of whom the following is a brief record: Melva A. is the wife of Roswell Adams, of Wellington, Ohio; Agnes A. is the wife of E. Jones, of Fostoria, Ohio; Everetta H. is the wife of Frank Sheffield, of Pittsfield township; Mary M. is an educated young lady of Cleveland, Ohio. Politically our subject was originally a Whig, later a Republican, and he held various offices of trust in Pittsfield township. On September 19, 1889, Mr. and Mrs. Whitney celebrated their golden wedding; and they are yet hale and hearty, enjoying in their declining years the good will and esteem of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. F. H. FOSTER, member of the flourishing clothing firm of Baker & Foster, Elyria, was born in Carlisle township, Lorain Co., Ohio, December 7, 1849, a son of I. B. and Hannah (Taylor) Foster, natives of Tompkins county, N. Y., the father born September 12, 1822, died July 7, 1882, and the latter born March 2, 1828, in Enfield, died February 4, 1890. Both parents were reared on farms, and received common-school educations. They were married in their native county, and moved westward to Ohio, settling in Carlisle township, Lorain county, about the year 1847. They had four children, viz.: F. H.; Frederick K., now a farmer at Saint John's, Clinton Co., Mich.; DeWitt, a farmer, now residing at Oberlin, Ohio; and Charles H., a clerk with the firm of Baker & Foster. Our subject's paternal grandparents were both natives of New York State, where they passed their entire lives, and were descended from old Massachusetts stock. The maternal grandparents were of the same nativity, and the grandmother is yet living, now at the advanced age of eighty-four years. I. B. Foster, father of subject, was by trade a carpenter and joiner and cabinet maker. After coming to Lorain county he followed the business of contracting and building, was recognized as a first-class mechanic, and had in his employ at times as many as thirty hands. His health failing, however, he abandoned this line of trade, taking up fruit culture, including tree grafting, and also carried on a mercantile business in a small way at LaPorte, in Lorain county, up to the time of his death, which occurred at his home in LaPorte. He was very active in business, and made a success of it. In politics he was a strong Republican, and a pronounced temperance advocate and Abolitionist, often concealing in his house run-away slaves during the " Underground Railroad" period. His wife was a slight, delicate woman, and, like her husband, was possessed of strong religious convictions. They were married November 1, 1846. F. H. Foster, subject of these lines, remained with his parents till he was nineteen years old, attending during the winter months the schools of LaPorte, Lorain county, and working in the summer season. He got some ideas of mercantile business in his father's store, and always had an ambition to lead a commercial life. At the age of nineteen he left the paternal roof, and proceeded to Oberlin, in the same county, where he entered the employ of J. M. Johnson & Son, with whom he remained two years and four months; LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 781 then came to Elyria, and for seven years clerked with Starr Brothers & Co., general merchants. In both these houses Mr. Foster filled positions with ability and energy in all departments, and during the last three or four years he was with the last named firm he had charge of the clothing and manufacturing of clothing, becoming a thorough expert in all the departments of that branch of the business. Leaving the firm of Starr Brothers & Co. on account of their going out of business, he entered into an equal partnership with G. W. Baker, under the firm name of Baker & Foster, and in 1878 they bought out the clothing department of Baldwin, Lersch & Co.; since then they have been the leading clothiers in Elyria. Both are admirably adapted to the trade, having had long experience in the business, and being well known to the public. They commenced in a careful, conservative way, and as business increased enlarged their premises, making three additions to their rooms; after which they bought out Cogswell & Co., and added their late room to their own store. Mr. Foster is one of the best huyers and salesmen to be found anywhere, and in discretion and judgment in both buying and selling he has no superior in the State. He does all the buying for the firm. Mr. Foster was married, November 1, 1871, to Miss Emma Inez Prindle, a native of Carlisle township, Lorain county, born October 6, 1851. She is a daughter of H. H. and Christiana Elizabeth (Spafford) Prindle, the former of whom was born about the year 1822 in Carlisle township, Lorain Co., Ohio, where he lived and died, the latter born in Richfield, Summit Co., Ohio, January 13, 1822, and died at Elyria, Ohio, October 13, 1885, aged sixty-three years, eight months and twenty-eight days. Mrs. Emma Inez Foster was educated in the country schools till the age of fourteen, when she came to Elyria to attend the high school there, making her home during that time with her grandparents. She is the mother of two children: Clarence H., born October 21, 1877, and Maud Inez, born December 15, 1881. Politically Mr. Foster is a Republican; socially he is a Master Mason and a member of the Royal Arcanum. He is interested in the Independent Horse and Cattle Company at North Park, Colo., and for recreation and the benefit of his health he makes frequent trips to that place. He and his wife are members of the Episcopal Church. REV. J. A. SCHMIDT, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Elyria, was born April 5, 1854, in Shelby county, Ohio, the fifth child of J. A. and Rosina (Bertch) Schmidt, both of whom were born in Wurtemberg, Germany. After coming to this country they lived in Ohio and Indiana; the mother died in 1892; the father is now a resident of Liverpool, Ohio. The subject of this sketch received his literary education in part at Fort Wayne, Ind., and pursued his theological studies at Concordia College, St. Louis, Mo., where he graduated in 1877, in July of which year he was ordained. Coming, then, direct to Elyria, he took charge of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. The appointments in the parish were poor, a small frame edifice serving as church, parochial school and pastoral residence. By and by Mr. Schmidt agitated among his flock the question of building new accomodations for the flock and pastor, and as a result of his labors the Evangelical Lutheran Church building, schoolhouse and pastoral residence are among the finest buildings in Elyria. The congregation have never solicited aid from outside sources. it being a principle of the denomination that to donate to Church work is a privilege and purely a matter of religion. Mr. Schmidt was united in marriage, April 22, 1878, with Miss Johanna 782 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. Schwan, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, daughter of Rev. H. C. Schwan, D. D., and Emma (Blum) Schwan, the former of whom is a native of Hanover, Germany, the latter of Brazil, South America; they reside in Cleveland, Ohio. To this union have been born the following named four children: Stella, Flora, Esther and George. In politics our subject is independent. At Grafton, Ohio, he has a station which he visits monthly to preach the good tidings of salvation. WILLIAM N. SHOOP, one of the foremost citizens of Grafton township, was born May 31, 1828, in Fairview township, York Co., Penn., son of Peter and Susan (Nelson) Shoop, who were of German extraction. Our subject received a common-school education, attending school during the winter season, and doing chores for his board, his duties being so numerous that he was obliged to labor very industriously to perform all the work assigned to him before school began. Thus he struggled on until he was sixteen years of age, when he commenced to learn the blacksmith's trade, working for one year under John Whitmer, of White Hill, Cumberland Co., Penn., and then for two and a half years under James Denning, on Third street, Harrisburg, Penn. He was then employed for a short time at Baltimore, Md., in a shop on Utah street, when failing health compelled him to give up the trade, and he obtained work in the limekilns along the Lebanon pike from Harrisburg, Penn. In 1849 his father died, and was buried in Fairview township, York Co., Penn., by the side of the mother, who had preceded him to the grave in 1841. They left five children, of whom William N. was the youngest; the latter was taken sick after his mother's death with a disease very much like la grippe, and during his illness incurred a doctor's bill of five dollars, to settle which he gathered roots and herbs after his recovery. After the death of his parents, being dissatisfied with his wages, Mr. Shoop concluded to migrate to Ohio, and came to West Salem, Wayne county, but failing to find work there, walked to Westfield township, Medina county, carrying his budget. He worked for twelve dollars a month until October, 1854, when he returned to Harrisburg, Penn., remaining there until the following spring, when, in company with three other young men, he started for St. Paul, Minn., traveling by rail to Galena, Ill., and thence by boat to their destination. He found employment with a surveying corps (then laying out Stillman's addition to St. Paul), but after a short time returned to northern Illinois, working near Freeport, Stephenson county, until the spring of 1856. He then went to Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where he helped to burn the brick for the college of that place; and then returning to his native State, remained there for some time. In the latter part of 1858 he returned to Ohio, and locating in Westfield, Medina county, engaged in farm work for about one year, when, his health failing, he obtained a situation with the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company, his former employer signing his bond for two thousand dollars. He commenced his career in March, 1860, in Grafton township, Lorain county, making his first business call at and taking his first risk on the house in which he was afterward married, and which subsequently came into his possession. Though he had no experience whatever in the insurance line, during the first year alone he increased the number of applications from 123 (the highest number obtained by his predecessor) to 365. He subsequently worked in portions of Erie, Huron, Cuyahoga, Logan, Union, Knox and Champaign counties, Ohio, and for various companies, continuing in business until 1872. On December 22, 1863, Mr. Shoop was married to Miss Sarah Thorp, who was born May 15, 1843, in Grafton, daughter of Ira S. and Sarah (Johnston) Thorp, and LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 783 to their union has come one child: Jessie, Mrs. John G. Gardner, of Grafton township. In 1867 he removed to his present farm, and here, since 1872, has been successfully engaged in general agriculture. In political faith he is a Republican, and has served in various township offices. Mr. Shoop is one of the representative self-made men of Grafton township. He is a leader in public affairs, and his opinions on agricultural subjects are highly valued. As a citizen, he is public spirited, progressive and enterprising, and is ready to assist in every measure tending to benefit the community in general. THOMAS CHOPE, a representative prosperous agriculturist of Columbia township, of which he is a native, was born in April, 1841. His parents, Thomas and Ann (Rowlan) Chope, natives of England, where they married, came in the year 1835 to the United States and to Ohio, first locating on the Public Square, Cleveland, whence they moved to Columbia township, Lorain county, where they settled in the woods and commenced clearing a farm. Their first piece of land was thirty acres which they improved, and they added thereto from time to time till it is now a fine property of 230 acres. Here they passed the remainder of their days, the father dying in 1884, a lifelong Whig and Republican, the mother in 1885. They had a family of four children, all now deceased except our subject, their names being Thomas, William (deceased at the age of twenty-four), Mary (deceased when twenty-two years old) and Ann (who died at the age of eighteen). Thomas Chope, the subject proper of this sketch, was educated at the schools of his native township, and learned the butchering business, which he followed for some years in Cleveland and Chicago. After the death of his father he took up farming, which has since been his life work, and he is now the owner of 125 acres, all in a good state of cultivation; on it he erected, in 1890, a commodious barn, 40 x 60, standing on twenty posts. In 1863 he was married, in Columbia township, to Miss Addle Van Dorn, by whom he had five children, viz.: Clara, born in 1865, married in 1891 to A. Roth, of Columbia township; Charles W., born in 1867, married to Miss Ida Robins in 1891, and has a daughter, Florence M., born in May, 1892 (he resides in Strongsville, Cuyahoga county); Edward T., born in 1872, married to Miss Percy Viola Hillman in 1890, and has one son, Clyde A., born in 1891 (they reside in Cleveland); one son, born in 1878, died at the age of three months; Henry, born in 1882, is living at home. Politically Mr. Chope is a straight Republican, and he takes a lively interest in all matters tending to the advancement of his township and county. N. KELLING. The Kin dons of Prussia has given to the United States not a few of her steadiest, most progressive, useful and loyal citizens, and this volume would be incomplete were prominent mention not made of the gentleman here named, a native of Prussia. Mr. Kelling was born March 22, 1829, a son of John and Catherine (Schuster) Kelling, also natives of Prussia, farmers, who in 1844 set sail with their family from Antwerp for the New World. Arriving after a voyage of fifty-two days at New York, they proceeded westward to Ohio, reaching Sheffield township, Lorain county, in August, same year, and here they settled on the farm whereon our subject now lives. The father died in December, 1845, the mother in March, 1887. They reared a family of eight children, as follows: George, married, and residing in Sheffield township; N., subject of sketch; 784 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. Michael, married, and living in Sheffield township, Lorain county; John, married, and now in Pennsylvania; Joseph, married, and a resident of Elyria, Ohio; Elizabeth, wife of Anton Junglas, of Salem, Mich.; Anton, married, and residing in Elyria, Ohio; and Jacob, somewhere in the West. N. Kelling, whose name opens this sketch, received his education at the schools of his native place, and was fifteen years old when the family came to America. In their new home in Sheffield township he assisted in clearing up the farm, and converting the forest wild into smiling fields of golden grain. For a trade he learned that of carpenter and joiner, at which he worked some ten years in Cleveland; three years at Wellington, Lorain county, and built a church at East Avon; he also worked for a time at boat building. In 1865 he settled down to agricultural pursuits, and bought the old homestead of fifty-three and three-quarters acres of land, to which he has since added till he now owns 120 acres, all in a high state of cultivation. In 1854 Mr. Kelling was united in marriage, in Sheffield township, with Margaret Diederich, who was born in Prussia in 1833, and died in Sheffield township, Lorain Co., Ohio, in 1855. To this union was born one child, Gertrude, who is the wife of Chris Laubenthal, of Ridgeville, and has four children. In 1858 Mr. Kelling married, for his second wife, Miss Anna Mary Diederich, who died in 1875, and by that marriage there were six children, as follows: Katie, wife of Thomas Monroe, of Elyria, Ohio, has three children; Margaret, married to Andrew Ferner, died in March, 1884, leaving one son; Mary, wife of Peter Schneider, of Kansas, has three children; Thursa, wife of Michael Sterbenc, has one child; John, married, resides in Elyria, Ohio; and Eva, in Atlanta, Ga. In 1875 Mr. Kelling married, for his third wife, Miss Ferner Kunne, a native of Prussia, and five sons have been born to them, named respectively: Andrew, Peter, Henry, Conrad and Barney. In his political sympathies our subject is a Democrat, and he has been township trustee and supervisor. He has been postmaster at Crandall, Lorain county, since 1878, the office being at his residence. Mr. and Mrs. Kelling are members of the Catholic Church. P. D. BEEFY, M. D, a prominent physician of Elyria, is an Ohioan by birth. He received a common-school education at the district school, which he attended three months in the winter, working on the farm the balance of the year. At the outbreak of the Civil war, while yet a boy in his " teens," he enlisted in Company F, Nineteenth O. V. I., as private, and served from September 7, 1861, to November 25, 1865, with the army of the Cumberland. He was engaged in all the battles fought by that army, from Shiloh to its last general battle at Nashville, in December, 1864, participating, altogether, in eighty-four engagements. He held every rank from private to captain; served as adjutant of his regiment for one year; commanded a company two years; served on the staff of Maj.-Gen. Wood as mustering officer of the Third Division, Fourth Army Corps; served as ordnance officer of the Central District of Texas, and as assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Maj.-Gen. Sam. Beatty. Immediately after the war our subject spent two years at school, and in 1867 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied medicine, and graduated in 1869. At Bellevue Hospital, N. Y., he spent half a year, and in 1871 graduated from Cleveland Medical College. In 1873 he went to Europe, and studied in Vienna and Berlin, returning to Ohio in 1874, since when he has been in active practice at Elyria. In 1877 Dr. Beefy was married to Libbie Mountaine, to which union have been LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 787 added two rollicking children, Karl and Bessie. In politics and religion the Doctor is strictly in-dependent; neither parindependent can hold him in alliance, but he acts on the impulse of his own opinion, caring little for the conventionalities of society or their influence. GEORGE BRYANT, retired, weGEORGEown and highly respected in the community, is a native of England, born in the parish of King Stanley, Gloucestershire, November 1,1814. John Bryant, father of subject, was born in Wales, and was there married March 18, 1813, to Miss Pamelia Collins, who bore him six children, as follows: George, subject of this sketch; Jane, deceased wife of A. H. Redington; Ann, wife of George Collins, of Amherst; J. C., residing in Buffalo, N. Y., a member of the faculty of the Bryant & Stratton Business College; H. B., founder of the Bryant & Stratton Business College; and Pamelia, wife of Henry Dwight Stratton, of the firm of Bryant & Stratton, proprietors of the well-known business colleges. The father, who was all his life a farmer, came with his family to this country in 1830, arriving in South Amherst, Lorain Co., Ohio, October 18, 1830, and here bought the farm property owned by his son George. He died in 1880, aged ninety-one years and six months; his wife had preceded him to the grave in August, 1864, when seventy-six years old. Her father was a clergyman in the Church of England in the mother country, very prominent as a "High Church" ecclesiastic. Nathaniel Bryant, grandfather of our subject, was coachman to the Duke of Wellington for some time; he died at Amherst, Lorain county, at the age of eighty-nine years. George Bryant, whose name introduces this sketch, was, as will be seen, sixteen years old wheh the family carne to Lorain county. With the exception of three weeks' schooling in South Amherst, he received all his education in his native parish in England, at the same time being thoroughly trained to agricultural pursuits under the immediate tuition of his father. He followed farming all his active life, and made a thorough success of it. In 1836 he was married to Miss Adeline L. Webb, born February 6, 1817, in Amherst township, Lorain county, and six children, as follows, Were born to them: Ellen T., deceased wife of Darius Plumb; Mary D., who married James H. Redfern, and had one child, Lottie B., who died When eighteen and a half years old (our subject now resides with this daughter); George W., who has three children—Maude L. (wife of John Harper), Adeline L. and Sadie G.; Pamelia, who married George Camp, and died without issue; E. C., who had four children—Charles, Nina May, Harvey (deceased) and Della; and Charley C., residing on the old home farm, who has one child, Eva. Mrs. Adeline L. Bryant was a schoolteacher before marriage, and afterward she aided her husband very materially in improving his education. It may be here mentioned that his schooling in this country was abruptly terminated by himself, as the other boys "made too much fun of his Gloucestershire accent; " but in after years his clever wife came to his assistance, and imparted to him an interest in study, whereby he became a great reader and one of the best informed men in the community. Mrs. Bryant died February 29, 1888. A Republican in politics, formerly a Whig, Mr. Bryant's first vote was cast for Andrew Jackson. He is now retired from active life, and makes his home with his daughter and son-in-law--Mr. and Mrs. James H. Redfern. [Since the above was written, we have received information of the death of Mr. George Bryant, which occurred August 13, 1893.—Ed.] H. B. Bryant, our subject, was the founder of the famous Bryant & Stratton Business College, the nucleus of 788 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. which was a small class gathered together by him for a Mr. Folsome in Cleveland, with whom he became a partner, ultimately succeeding him; and from this small be-ginning he developed the great commercial school, establishing no less than forty-nine business colleges in various parts of the United States and Canada. James H. Redfern, Son-in-law of George Bryant, was born February 13, 1840, near Toronto, Ontario (Canada), a son of Robert and Ellen (McClarendon) Redfern. In his boyhood he came to Ohio, where, at Olmsted Falls, North Amherst, and South Amherst, he completed his educa-tion. For a trade he learned harness-making in South Amherst, and followed same till 1862, in which year he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Third O. V. I. He served in the army of the West, and participated in the following battles: Armstrong's Hill, Knoxville (Tenn.), Atlanta and Resaca, besides many others; he was promoted to corporal, and received his discharge June 20, 1865. After the war he applied himself to his trade about one year, part of the time keeping a shop of his own, and then worked on a farm in Amherst township till 1878, when he paid a visit to Hays City, Kans., taking up a claim whereon he remained about two years, at the end of which time he returned to Lorain county, and engaged in his present coal business in Elyria. PITT McROBERTS, one of the most prominent citizens and well-to-do farmers of Pittsfield township, is descended from a well-known pio-neer family of Lorain county. He was born December 22, 1834, in Pittsfield township, son of Peter and Eliza (Wait) McRoberts. Our subject was reared to farm life, and received such education as the common schools of his time afforded; the old school-house which he attended stood in the midst of a forest, which has since become a productive field, and now forms part of his farm. The father died when Pitt was but twelve years of age, and he then went to live with Orlando Hall, a wealthy farmer, with whom he remained several years. On December 12, 1860. he was united in marriage with Abbie Barnard, a native of Vermont, daughter of Wood Barnard, and they located in Pittsfield township on a farm of forty acres, which he had purchased. In 1856 they went to live with the widow of Orlando Hall, and here they have since remained. This farm comprises 140 acres. and Mr. McRoberts owns, altogether, 239 acres, divided into two farms. He is an industrious, hard-working farm-er, and has attained considerable success in his life vocation. He is a man of prac-tical education, has a good memory, and is quite an extensive reader, keeping well up with the times. In 1892 he took a trip through the South, viewing southern bat-tle fields and other places of interest. In his political tendencies he is a Republican, and an influential man in his party, but does not dabble much in affairs of state. JACOB KNELLMER, one of the leading representative farmers of Brownhelm township, is a native of Lorain county, born in Henrietta township, April 12, 1852, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Battenhousen) Knellmer. The parents were born in Germany, and soon after their marriage emigrated to the Western World, making a settlement in Lorain county, Ohio, first in Henrietta township and finally in Brownhelm, in which latter township the father died at the age of sixty-four years; the mother is yet living, now aged seventy-eight. She is a member of the Reformed Church; her husband was associated with. the Evangelical Church, and in politics was a Republi-can. In the Fatherland he lived the Arcadian life of a shepherd, and in this country be followed farming. LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 789 The subject proper of this sketch received a liberal common-school education, and was reared to agriculture on his father's farm. In 1876 he was married to Miss Mary Schnuck, who was born in 1849 in Brownhelm. Lorain Co., Ohio, daughter of Henry and Barbara (Clops) Schnuck, natives of Germany, and seven children have come to bless their home, viz.: Melissa, Benjamin Franklin, Albert, Emma, Bertha, Ella and Clara. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Knellmer settled on their present farm of 165 acres, where they have met, thanks to their industry and judicious thrift, with well-merited success. He is a Democrat, and has served his township as trustee and assessor. CHARLES STONE, a prominent and highly respected citizen of Lorain county, is a native of same, born October 12, 1837, in Pittsfield township. His father, Reuben Stone, son of Samuel Stone, was born in 1812, in Bennington county, Vt., received a common-school education, and afterward taught school. When a young man he married Hannah T. Whitney, who was also born in 1812, in Vermont, daughter of Joseph and Abigail (Townes) Whitney. In 1835 the young ample came to Pittsfield township, Lorain Co., Ohio, and here bought 101 acres of timber land at three dollars per acre, upon which he erected a small frame house. At the time of their settlement the country was still in a primitive state, and wild animals abounded. Here their children were all born, as follows: Franklin, who became marshal of Oberlin, and was killed in 1880, while attempting to arrest a colored boy; Charles, subject of sketch; Eliza L., wife of Wesley Hill, of Madison, S. Dak.; Betsey A., Mrs. Scott Mongar, of Nuckolls county, Neb.; Almeron R., of Cincinnati, Ohio; and Abbie A., wife of Dr. R. J. Cummer, of the National Vapor Stove Co., in Cleveland. Mr. Stone became a successful farmer, and remained in Pittsfield township until 1860, when he removed to Oberlin and embarked in the lumber and sawmill business. Mrs. Stone died in 1873, her husband in 1884, and both are buried in Oberlin. Inpolitics he was originally a Whig, then a Free-soiler and finally a Republican, and served in various local offices in Pittsfield township and later in Oberlin. He was possessed of good common sense and sound judgment, and was selected to fill many positions of trust, in which capacity he settled up a number of estates, and transacted considerable business of a like nature. He and his wife were both members of the Congregational Church. Charles Stone received his early education in the common schools, and later attended Oberlin College, but did not complete a course there, though his parents desired him to. For two years he worked for A. Whitney, of Pittsfield township, and while in his employ spent a winter in the lumber regions of Mississippi and Tennessee. On September 18, 1860, he was united in marriage with Lucy H. Ives, who was born in 1839 in Pittsfield township, daughter of John and Rebecca (McCloen) Ives. After marriage Mr. Stone bought 118 acres of land in Pittsfield township, going into debt for same, and went to work on this farm (a comparatively new one, and heavily timbered), which he sold, however, in a a few years. He then bought the "old homestead farm" from his father, and resided there until 1876, when he bought land one mile south of Oberlin in Pittsfield township; in 1879 he erected a fine residence on this place, where he has since made his home. In 1876 he was elected sheriff of Lorain county, and served during 1877 and 1878, when failing health caused him to retire from that office, having no desire to remain. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have one foster-child, Nellie L., who enjoys all the 790 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. advantages of an elegant home and fine school at Oberlin. Since his retirement to private life Mr. Stone has completely recovered his health, but does not engage in active farm work. He deals extensively in hogs and sheep, and is also somewhat of an auctioneer, being, altogether, a very successful business man. In his political affiliations he is an ardent, lifelong Republican, and is a leading, highly esteemed member of the community. Our subject is a great lover of sport, every now and then allowing himself a hunting expedition in the Northwest; and he frequently makes a short angling tour through Michigan, being a devoted follower of Izaak Walton. CHAPMAN FAMILY. Nothing definite is known of Robert Chapman, the first of the family under consideration in the country, previous to his emigration hither. According to the family tradition, he came from Hull, England, to Boston in 1635, from which place he sailed, in company with Lyon Gardiner, for Saybrook, as one of the company of twenty men who were sent over by Sir Richard Salstonstall, to take possession of a large tract of land, and make settlement near the mouth of the Connecticut river under the patent of Lord Say and Seal. At this time he is supposed to have been about eighteen years old. After the Indians were subdued, they proceeded to clear up the forests and form a permanent settlement. For about ten years after leaving England he kept a journal. The colony records show that each of his three sons were representatives to the Legislature, to which he himself had also been elected forty-three times. The eldest son served there twenty-two Sessions, the second eighteen Sessions, and the third twenty-four Sessions. Robert Chapman seems to have been a soldier, as his name appears as a sentinel in the Pequot war in 1637. It appears from the records of Saybrook, that he was a very large landholder in the town of Saybrook, and East Haddam. He left at his decease 1,500 acres to each of his three sons, which had been received by him as one of the legatees of Uncas,an Indian chief. Robert himself resided on a tract of land in the Oyster River Quarter, about two miles ,west of Saybrook Fort, which has descended in the line of the youngest son of each family, never having been bought or sold, and which in 1854 was occupied by George H. Chapman, Esq., the youngest of the fifth generation. Robert Chapman was a man of exemplary piety, and but a short time previous to his decease he wrote an address to his children, who were all members of the church, in which he exhorted them to a devoted life, and to abide by the Covenant into which they had entered with God and his church. Robert's parents were Puritans, whose religious zeal had been transmitted to him. There are several letters on file in the office of the Secretary of State, written to Robert Chapman. Robert Chapman was married to Ann Bliss, April 29, 1642. According to the family tradition he was born in 1616, and died October 13, 1687, aged seventy-one years. He had seven children, as follows: John, Robert, Anna, Hannah, Nathaniel, Mary and Sarah. Robert Chapman, Jr., the second son of the first settler, was born in September, 1646, at Saybrook, Conn., and was an extensive agriculturist, owning at the time of his decease not less than 2,000 acres of land. The town records show him to have been a man of extensive influence in civil affairs. He was for many years clerk of Oyster River Quarter, as well as commissioner and surveyor for the town of Saybrook. He was a member of the Legislature from 1692 to 1711. He was also a member of the Assembly that drafted the Saybrook Platform in 1708, a work that has preserved the purity of the Congregational Churches of Connecticut for 185 LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 793 years. Mr. Chapman was twice married, first to Sara Griswold, of Norwich, Conn., July 27, 1671, by whom he had nine children. This wife died April 7, 1692, and Octoher 29, 1694, he was married to Mrs. Mary Sheather, by whom he had four children. His children by the first marriage were: Samuel, Robert. Sarah, Francis, Dorcas, Steven, one son that died in infancy, Sarah, and a son that died an infant. By the second marriage there were Benjamin, Steven, Mehetabel and Abagail. Mr. Chapman died suddenly in the Hartford courtroom November, 1711. He was buried in the old burial ground at Hartford, Conn., in the rear of the Centre Church, where his tombstone now stands, about a rod north of the monument on which are inscribed the names of the first settlers of Hartford, with this inscription—" Here lyeth the body of Robt. Chapman who departed this life November ye 10th 1711 aged 65 years. " Capt. Samuel Chapman, eldest son of Robert Chapman, Junior, was born September 12, 1672. On December 6, 1693, he married Margaret Griswold, a daughter of Capt. Samuel Griswold, of Norwich, Conn., and by her he had ten children. Mrs. Chapman died December 21, 1750. Mr. Chapman was a prominent man in civil and military affairs. He resided in what is now the town of Westbrook, and was one of the first fourteen persons organized into a church at that place June 29, 1726. The date of his death is not known. His children were Sarah, Margaret, Samuel, Martha, Temperance, Jedediah, Mehetabel, Caleb, Lucy and Aaron. Jedediah Chapman (1), the second son of Capt. Samuel Chapman, was born at Westbrook, Conn., October 9, 1703, and was married to Miss Hester Kirtland, June 5, 1723, by whom he had eight children. He was a very prominent man in the society of Westbrook in military, civil and religious affairs. He was a major of infantry, a lawyer by profession, and held the position of deacon in the church from 1732 until his death, which took place at Westbrook February 10, 1764, in the sixty-first year of his age. The following were his children: Hester, Temperance, Jedediah, Ann, Reuben, Charity, Chloe and Tabitha. Jedediah Chapman (2)„ eldest son of Maj. Jedediah, was born at Westbrook, December 15„ 1726,, and was married to Miss Mary Grinnell in 1755. He was deacon of the church of Westbrook from 1771 until his death, which transpired February 29, 1816, a period of forty-four years, and was for twenty years justice of the peace. At his decease he was ninety years of age. His children were Dan, Jedediah, Constant, Hester, Lucilla, Mary„ Ann and Aaron. Constant Chapman, son of Deacon Jedediah Chapman (2), was born at Westbrook, Conn., December 27, 1760, and was, married to Miss Jemima Kelsey, of Killingworth, Conn., January 27, 1785, by whom he had nine children. At the early age of sixteen he entered the Revolutionary army, was for six years under the immediate command of Washington, and was for some time, one of his body-guard. He was at the battle of Long Island, Germantown, Princeton, and Trenton, experienced all the rigors of Valley Forge, and was at the final surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He also followed the sea for many years, rising to the position of captain of a merchant vessel, trading on the coast of South America, and to Lisbon, and other foreign ports. In 1793 the vessel, of which he was commander, was captured by the French off Porto Rico, scuttled and sunk, while he and his crew were carried prisoners to the French Island of Guadeloupe, and after four months he was liberated. The latter part of his life was spent in Brimfield, Portage Co., Ohio, where he died in 1850, aged ninety years. His children were Lydia K., Thurot F., John K., Anna M., Cloe P., Mary C., Joseph G., Jemima T. and Henry C. The children of Constant Chapman, it will be 794 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. seen, all had middle names, while none of bis ancestry were thus favored. Thurot F. Chapman, eldest son of Con-stant Chapman, was born at Old Killingworth, Conn., December 7, 1789, and was twice married: first, November 17, 1810, to Lydia Andross, by whom he had one child; second, October 16, 1833, to Elizabeth Furray, by whom he had three children. In the war of 1812 he enlisted in Col. Van Rensselaer's Regiment of New York Militia, crossed the Niagara river into Canada, and was at the battle of Queenston Heights, and taken prisoner there but afterward paroled. Mr. Chapman was for some time a sailor in the coasting trade, and also in the business of codfishing off Newfoundland and the Straits of Belle Isle. He was a man of sterling integrity and of the most generous impulses. The poor and the oppressed were never turned away empty from his door, and many a poor slave escaping from bondage was by him fed, sheltered and helped on his way to freedom. Mr. Chapman first set up his family home in Smithville, Chenango Co., N. Y., but emigrated to the wilderness of the Ohio Western Reserve in 1817, where he followed clearing land a number of years, having chopped, cleared and fenced nearly 300 acres of land. He here died December 16, 1860, aged seventy-one years, a practical Christian of the Congregational school. His children were Alonzo A., a sketch of whom follows; Emily A., wife of Lucius R. Fields, of Oberlin, Ohio; Degrass S., who enlisted, during the Civil war, in Company K, Twenty-third O. V. I., was wounded at the battle of Antietam, and died six days later in the field hospital, aged twenty-four years; and Harlan P., special mention of whom will presently be made. The mother of the three last named children was born in New Durham, Greene Co., N. Y., March 9, 1804, and was killed by accident in Oberlin June 12, 1876. Alonzo A. Chapman, eldest son of Thurot F. Chapman, was born August 25, 1811, at Smithville, N. Y., and was mar-ried September 30, 1832, to Miss Margaret Taylor, by whom he had seven children. He was for many years a farmer in Eaton township, Lorain Co., Ohio, and was one of the first residents of that town-ship, doming there with his parents in 1817. He was called upon to fill various positions of trust in civil and religious affairs. He was a member of the M. E. Church over fifty years, and was a member of the first class organized at LaPorte, Ohio. He moved his family to Ridgeville, Henry Co., Ohio, in 1866, and was for many years in the lumber business. :Mr. Chapman died at Ridgeville Corners, Ohio, August 5, 1890, aged seventy-nine years. His children were as follows: William T., Mary L., Henry L. (1), Emory N., Pamila A., Facelia S. and Henry L. (2). William T. Chapman, eldest son of Alonzo A. Chapman, was born in Eaton township, Lorain Co., Ohio, on Butternut Ridge, July 10, 1833, and was married March 21, 1854, to Miss Fidelia S. Banistee, by whom he has had three children. His vocation has been that of teacher, having entered that profession in the fall of 1852, and continuing therein until the spring of 1890, a period of thirty-eight years. He has taught, in all, fifty-seven terms in the following counties of Ohio: Eighteen terms in Lorain, one in Cuyahoga, two in Defiance, two in Lucas, twenty-three in Henry and eleven in Fulton. In 1867 he removed with his family to Henry county, settling in Ridgeville, where he now (1893) resides. On August 4, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in the Union army to assist in putting down the slaveholders' Rebellion, and upon the organization of the company he was made a sergeant. In December, 1862, he was made orderly sergeant, and in June following received a commission as second lieutenant of Company H, One Hundred and Third O. V. I.; in March, 1864, he was discharged for physical disability by LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 795 order of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. His children are Minnie E., Myra O. and Myrta J. Emory N. Chapman, second son of Alonzo A. Chapman, enlisted August 11, 1862, in Company H, One Hundred and Third O. V. I.; discharged September 17, 1864, on account of wound received at Resaca, Ga., May 14, 1864. Henry L. Chapman, fourth son of Alonzo A. Chapman, enlisted December 24, 1863, in Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-fourth O. V. I.; was left in tobacco shed with the smallpox at Concord Station, East Tenn.; both feet were frozen so that the toes came off; discharged for same May 31, 1865. HARLAN P. CHAPMAN, the subject proper of this family sketch, and the youngest child born to Thurot F. and Elizabeth Ridge, Chapman, was born on Butternut Ridge, in Eaton township, Lorain Co., Ohio, September 6,1844. In his boyhood and early youth be attended the common schools of the vicinity, and Oberlin College two terms, in the meantime being reared on the farm. On August 4, 1862, he enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Third Regiment O. V. I., which was first sent to Camp Cleveland, thence to Cincinnati, Ohio, whence they marched to Kentucky, wintering at Frankfort. In April, 1863, they moved across the State to the Cumberland river, where they had several skirmishes with the Confederates, and following August were placed under Burnside, after which they crossed the Cumberland Mountains into East Tennessee. Mr. Chapman participated in the battles of Blue Spring, Knoxville and Armstrong's Hill, at which latter engagement, which took place Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1863, he received a serious wound, from which he never fully recovered, a musket ball being left imbedded in the hip joint; after nine months' confinement to hospital, he returned home on furlough. Before he was ordered back to hospital he was married March 31, 1864, to Miss Mary C. Pitkin, of Brunswick, Medina Co., Ohio, and he was not called upon for further service in the army. After his discharge, June 27, 1864, he settled on his present farm in Carlisle township, village of LaPorte. Here were born to him and his wife three children, viz.: Erie D., educated at Elyria and Oberlin; Otto B. and Oleo. Politically our subject is a sound Republican, and for three years served as postmaster at LaPorte; in November, 1892, he was elected treasurer of Lorain county, and was duly installed into said office on September 4, 1893. THOMAS WILFORD, a representa tive farmer of Amherst township, is a native of " Merrie England," born in Clipston, Northamptonshire, in 1827, a son of John and Sophia (Falkner) Wilford, of the same county. The mother died at Clipston, England, in 1835. John Wilford, who was a shoemaker, in 1838 came to the United States and to Elyria, Lorain Co., Ohio, where he followed his trade. From there he moved to North Amherst with one Thomas Quirk, and together they carried on a boot and shoe business till in 1840, when he bought Quirk out. He then went to Lorain, same county, where he opened out both a shoe store and a meat market, and passed the rest of his days, dying in 1872. In North Amherst he had married Nancy Stanton, and three children were born to them,viz.: Richard (married), living in Cleveland; Lucy, wife of George Peach, of Toledo, Ohio; and George, married and living in North Amherst, Ohio. The subject of this sketch came with his father to the United States and to Lorain county, and received his education partly in the schools of England, partly in those of Lorain county. In 1862 he enlisted in North Amherst, in Company I, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth O. V. I., 796 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. for three years or during the war, and served on Johnson's Island to the close of the struggle—twenty-one months in all. Returning to Lorain county, he recommenced the pursuits of peace, cultivating his farm, and he now owns a good property of sixty acres in a prime state of cultivation. Mr. Wilford in politics is a Republican, and is a strong Prohibitionist; at one time he joined the Murphy movement, and he is a strong advocate of temperance. He is a member of Rice Post, No. 148 G. A. R., at North Amherst. When a young man he sailed the lakes two or three seasons, and spent two years in Kankakee county, Ill., working at day labor. JAMES JACKSON, who for the I past half century has been actively identified with the agricultural interests of Lorain county, Ohio, was born October 5, 1816, in Champion, Jefferson county, New York. He is a grandson of Reuben Jackson, and son of Daniel, who was born in 1775 in Pittsfield, Mass., where he learned the blacksmith's trade under his father. He was married in his native State to Patty Kellogg, who was born in Pittsfield in 1785, and while residing in Massachusetts three children were born to them, as follows: Jane, who married Harvy Birdseye, died in Trenton, Oneida Co., N. Y., when aged eighty-four years; Pliny, born in 1806; and Sally, who married William Gillett, and died at the age of thirty-six in Penfield, Ohio. Between 1812 and 1815 the family removed west to Jefferson county, N. Y., and bought the farm where- on the parents passed the remaining years of their lives, the father engaging chiefly in agriculture, although he also followed his trade to some extent. In New York State were born the following named children: Susan, who married William Chapman, and died in Chicago at an advanced age; Maria, who married Ferdinand Turni cliff, and died in Pittsfield, Ohio; Jason, a farmer, who died in Champion, Jefferson Co., N. Y.; Daniel, also deceased in Champion, N. Y.; James, the subject of this sketch; Charille, who married Hiram Hopkins, and died in Wellington, Ohio; Jesse, a farmer of Humboldt county, Iowa; and Belah, who died after reaching adult age in Champion, Jefferson Co., N. Y. Mr. Jackson was a very successful farmer. He was a man of wonderful vitality, active and capable of performing a hard day's work to the very end of his life; he died suddenly, while chopping wood, in his eighty-fourth year. He frequently remarked that he did not know what it was to feel tired. In politics he was an Old-line Whig, a stanch member of the party. His wife died at the age of ninety-three years, and lies buried by his side in Champion cemetery; they were devout members of the Old-school Presbyterian Church, and he was a man so highly respected, esteemed and loved everywhere, that it could almost be said he had not an enemy in the world. James Jackson attended the common schools, but in his youth cared so little for study that he preferred to stay at home and assist with the duties on the farm. His first knowledge of agriculture was obtained under his father on the home place, where he remained until he was twenty-five years of age. In June, 1843, he set out for Ohio, traveling, on the first railroad he ever saw, to Buffalo, where he took passage on a lake boat for Black River (now Lorain), Lorain county, his destination being Pittsfield, Lorain county, where he had a brother-in-law, named Turnicliff, with whom he resided for some time. Then, in company with his brother Daniel, he purchased an interest in a tract of fifteen acres in Pittsfield township, which, after many days of hard labor, clearing and preparing the land, which was all in the woods, they sowed to wheat; but just a few weeks before harvest time a heavy frost destroyed the crops, and eighteen LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 797 months of labor were lost. On February 10, 1848, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Jael K. Coats, who was born January 22, 1819, in the town of Amherst, Erie Co., N. Y., daughter of Josiah and Dianthe (Harmon) Coats, who came to Ohio in 1836, locating first in Clarksfield, Huron county, and later removing to New London township, same county, where the parents died and were buried. After marriage Mr. Jackson took up his home in a small frame house, 18 x 22, which he had erected, and there resided until 1859, when he came to Penfield township, and purchased, from David Curtice, 114 acres of land, which then contained no improvements but a log house and barn. Here he has since resided, and he has cultivated and improved the land, and put up all the farm buildings thereon, as well as a comfortable residence, which was erected in 1873. Having had but little assistance in life, his present prosperity is all the direct result of his own efforts. In his political preferences he was originally an Old-line Whig, casting his first vote for William H. Harrison, and is now a stanch member of the Republican party, never missing an election, though he is not an active politician. In religious matters he is a member of the U. B. Church, his wife of the M. E. Church, with which she united in 1838. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are the parents of children as follows: Albert K., a resident of Curtice, Ottawa Co., Ohio; Sally, who died young; Antoinette, who died at the age of twenty-one years; Charles E., of Farnam, Dawson Co., Neb., a carpenter by trade; and Emma L. (at home) and Amy E. (Mrs. August Griffis, of Farnam, Neb.), twins. CLAYTON J. BELL, a well-known wide-awake and go-ahead young farmer of Brighton township, is a native of same, born June 4, 1859, on the farm which he now owns and lives on. John Bell, grandfather of subject, was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1800, and in early boyhood was apprenticed to a carpenter; but not liking the trade he ran away from his employer before completing his apprenticeship. In his native land he married Miss Mary Ann Grundale, also born in 1800, and in 1831 they came to the United States, bringing their little son, John, and locating near Clarksville, N. J., where he found employment, first as a common laborer, later as gate tender on the Morristown Canal, he doing the night work, his wife the day work. There were born to them children as follows: Mary Jane, now Mrs. Sheldon Clark, of Brighton township, Lorain county; Montgomery, a farmer of Eaton county, Mich.; Amanda M. (deceased), married to Michael Backins; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Newton Snow, of Bedford, Ohio; Henry, born in 1842, a farmer in Eaton county, Mich.; and Margaret (Mrs. Lucas), of Camden, Ohio, now forty-four years old. In 1842 the family, attracted hither. by an old friend, Isaac Griggs, who some years before had settled in Brighton township, Lorain county, followed him to that township, where the father bought land. Here he passed the rest of his days, dying May 2, 1863, and was buried in Brighton cemetery; his widow still survives him, now aged ninety-three years, wonderfully hale and hearty considering her patriarchal years. Mr. Bell was a hard-working man, one who prospered and made his mark in the community in which he lived. Politically he was originally a Democrat, but during the later years of his life voted under the banner of the Republican party; in his native country he was a member of the Church of England, but did not unite with any denomination in the United States. John Bell, Jr., father of Clayton J. Bell, was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, in December, 1830, and was but an infant when his parents brought him to America. At the age of twelve he came with the rest 798 - LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. of the family to Ohio, and when old enough worked out as a farm hand, thus securing a fair start in life as an agricul-turist. By untiring energy, patient toil and judicious economy he found himself the owner of 115 acres of prime land, on which he built a comfortable residence and commodious outhouses. On March 17, 1879, he departed this life, and was buried in Brighton cemetery; his wife was called from earth March 20, 1889. She was Miss Sophronia Kingsbury, born in Brighton township, Lorain county, of an old pioneer family, and their children were two sons: Clayton J. and Elmer, both of whom grew to maturity; Elmer died when twenty-three years old, and was buried in Brigh-ton cemetery. Clayton J. Bell received his education at the common schools of the neighbor-hood of his place of birth, and was reared to farm life from early boyhood. On the death of his father in 1879, the charge of the farm fell to him, and he has ever since retained it, owning the entire homestead, and representing the third generation who have lived on it as owners. On November 9, 1887, he married Ella Dugan, who was born August 15, 1868, in Oberlin, Lorain Co., Ohio, a daughter of John and Mary (Coughlin) Dugan, the former of whom was born in 1826, in County Tipperary, Ireland, and died April 8, 1881, the latter born in 1836, in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have one son, Walter J., born June 25, 1889. In political predilections Mr. Bell is a Democrat; Mrs. Bell is a member of the Catholic Church at Wakeman, Ohio. A. N. GARVER, M. D., Lorain, is a native of Ohio, born in Wayne County in 1858, a son of John and Catherine (Shoemaker) Garver, also natives of Wayne county, where the father followed agricultural pursuits all his life, dying in 1871. The mother is now residing in West Salem, Ohio. They were the parents of eleven children, nine of whom are yet living. Grandfather David Garver was a native of Pennsylvania, and an early pioneer of Wayne county, Ohio, where he passed the rest of his life in farming. The subject of this sketch received his literary education in his native county, and at Lodi, Medina Co., Ohio. In Wayne county he followed teaching for a time, and then, in 1876, entered Wooster (Ohio) Medical University, where he graduated with the class of 1879. The Doctor then commenced the practice of his profession in Medina county, where he continued until 1882, at which time he came to Lorain county, and here he has since been engaged in successful practice, his office being now in the "South End." His residence is on Bank street. In 1879 Dr. Garver was married, in Medina county, Ohio, to Miss Alice Driskell, a native of same, and daughter of Hugh and Florilla (Allen) Driskell, of Ohio, the father deceased in Medina county in 1876; the mother now resides with her daughter, Mrs. Garver. To our subject and wife have been born two children: Birt and Lou. Dr. Garver in his political predilections is a Republican; and he is a member of the K. of P. He and his wife are members of the M. E. Church, of which he is a trustee. HENRY MOLE. Among the representative self-made agriculturists of Grafton township, who, beginning life with little or no aid, have reached the top round of the ladder of success, is the subject of this sketch, who was born July 20, 1824, in Devonshire, England, son of John and Sarah (Bauman) Mole. He was reared to the arduous duties of farm life, and, his parents being poor people, he had but limited educational opportunities, as he could not be spared from the farm. When a young man he was LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO - 799 married March 20, 1850, in his native country, to Ann Gardner, and same year, deciding to try his fortune in America, sailed from Plymouth, England, on the vessel "Cornwall." During the early part of the voyage a storm arose, and the vessel put back into port until it subsided, but their passage to New York, which lasted three weeks, was very rough. They immediately proceeded to Eaton township, Lorain Co., Ohio, and on his arrival Mr. Mole had about fifty dollars in cash, which he had saved from his meager earnings. Here be purchased land (going into debt for same), and, as the forest thereon was very dense, a great amount of labor was required to clear it for crops. After a ten years' residence on this farm he disposed of it at a profit, and bought land in other parts of the same township, acquiring different tracts, which he improved, and invariably sold at a good profit. In 1870 he came to Grafton township, locating on his present farm, where he has since resided, successfully engaged in general agriculture and dairying. To Mr. and Mrs. Mole were born eight children, namely: John, deceased; William, a farmer in Grafton township; Henry and James, both farming in Michigan; George, farming in Eaton township; Mary J., wife of Perry D. Mennell, of Grafton; Charles and Rosa. The mother of these children died November 14, 1874, at the age of forty-five years, and for his second wife Mr. Mole married, April 5, 1879, Mrs. Elizabeth Cousins, who died in April, 1881. For his third wife he married, August 31, 1881, Mrs. Melvina (Holly) Adams, who was born February 18, 1849, in Lake county, Ohio. Mr. Mole is an energetic, hard-working industrious man, and has accumulated considerable property. He has given each of his children a good start in life, expending therefor about nine thousand dollars in cash; but he still retains 122 acres of choice land. He has paid several visits to his native country, and in his affluence he has not forgotten his relatives who have been less prosperous, as is shown by his frequent remittances to them. He is a stanch member of the Republican party, but does not mingle in politics; while not a member of any church, he is a devout believer in the principles of Christianity, and contributes liberally toward its support. MAX MOREHOUSE, senior member of the firm of Morehouse & Starr, dealers in Ladies' Furnishing Goods, Elyria, and the youngest merchant in the place, is a native of Elyria, Ohio, born October 15, 1866. He received his education at the common schools of the city of his birth, and in Oberlin. At the age of fifteen years he entered the dry-goods store of Mr. Marx Straus, a leading merchant of Elyria, with whom he remained until the spring of 1890, when he commenced business on his own account. It may be said of him that he literally " rose from the ranks," having made a beginning as errand boy, closing his industrious career with Mr. Straus in the position of head buyer and junior member of the firm. When Mr. Morehouse and Mr. Starr commenced business together the amount of their stock did not exceed three thousand dollars, while to-day it averages fully eight thousand dollars. In November, 1892, Mr. Morehouse opened, in conjunction with Mr. Carter and Mr. Beese, a dry-goods store in Lorain (the leading house of the kind there), the style of the firm being Morehouse, Carter & Beese. The store is 40x80 feet in size, and seven clerks handle the fifteen thousand-dollar stock, which is all bought by Mr. Morehouse himself, everything being under his personal supervision; and both enterprises are doing a good business. The subject of our sketch is a son of Andrew and Edith (Brown) Morehouse. His father died in 1883, since which time