here, a prosperous and contented farmer. His farm contains eighty acres of well improved land, to the care of which he is skillfully devoting his energies, carrying on general farming and dairying in such a manner as to secure the best returns. He has also another source of income from his farm, having 600 maple trees on his place, from these making each season large quantities of syrup and sugar, both of which bring the highest market price.
Mr. Stanton married, September 19, 1883, Emily Delight Kent, who was born in Aurora
township,. Portage county, a daughter of Zeno and Almira (Gould) Kent, natives, also, of this
county. Mrs. Stanton died. August 9, 1904, and her body was laid to rest in Evergreen cemetery,
Streetsboro. She was the mother of two children, namely : Guy K. a teacher in Bethany College,
Bethany, West Virginia ; and Claude A., living at home with his father. In his political
affiliations Mr. Stanton is a straightforward Democrat, and although never an aspirant for official
honors has served three years as township trustee.
CHARLES BABCOCK, of Cleveland, is a member of the widely known firm of wholesale
grocers, Babcock, Hurd & Co., of which his father was one of the founders in 1853. He is also a
director of the National City Bank ; a member of the advisory board of the Guardian. Savings and
Trust Company, and largely concerned in the financing and management of several
manufacturing companies in Cleveland, as well as in street railways, timberlands and city real
estate. Mr. Babcock is further interested in the promotion and building of the Kansas City,
Mexico arid Orient railway, being a business man and a capitalist whose strong influence is felt
in numerous activities and over a widely extended territory.
A native of Aurora, Ohio, Charles Babcock was born on January 28, 1853, and is of a family the
American branch of which was founded by James Babcock in 1642, according to the Babcock
Genealogy as written and compiled by Stephen Babcock, M. A., of New York City, instructor in
New York School for the Blind. This original emigrant came from Essex county, England, and
about the year mentioned located at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He was a citizen of stanch
character who served his community in many ways. He was married twice, but only the Christian
names of his wives are known; the first being Sarah and the second Elizabeth. The genealogical
line descending from him is as follows: John, who was born in 1644, and died in 1685, married
Mary Lawton ; .George, born in 1673, died in 1756, wife of Elizabeth Hall ; David, born in 1700,
died 1783, married Dorcas Brown ; Jonathan, born in 1735, was married to Susanna Perry ; Perry
H., I, born in 1766, died in 1833, married Cynthia Hiscox. His son Almon, the grandfather of
Charles of this sketch, was born in 1788 and died in 1850, having married Miss Mary Collins.
Perry H. Babcock, II, the father, was born at Ravenna, Ohio, January 23, 1816, and received a
common school education. In 1853, with Hopson Hurd, Jr., he founded the wholesale firm of
Babcock, Hurd & Co. Later, were admitted, George H. Babcock, son of Perry H.; C. A.
Woodward, Charles of this sketch, H. A. Bishop, McClelland Hurd, nephew of Hopson Hurd, Jr.
; Harry C. Hurd, son of the latter, and John F. Collins. The present extensive business is still
conducted under the old style, Babcock, Hurd & Co., the firm being composed of Charles
Babcock, McClellan Hurd, Harry C. Hurd and John F. Collins, The founder of the house, Perry
H. Babcock, was a man of great executive and business abilities and of high moral. standing. For
a number of years he was vice-president and director of the National City Bank of Cleveland and
was interested in other large enterprises ; was trustee of the Lake View Cemetery Association,
member of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and a citizen of breadth as well as of sterling
moral worth. His death occurred in Cleveland April 15, 1897.
Charles Babcock was married at Bridgeport, Ohio, in January, 1875, to Miss Kate Holloway daughter of William W. and Martha A. (Pryor) Holloway. William Holloway was a wholesale merchant of Bridgeport, .Ohio, president and director of the First National Bank of that city and of the Aetna Iron and Steel Company of Bridgeport, vice-president and director of the Cleveland & Pittsburg railway, director of the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling railway, and interested in other important enterprises. His religious faith was that of the Society of Friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Babcock are the parents of the following children all born in Cleveland: Virginia Marie, born January 2, 1876, who, January 7, 1908, married Niles B. Hasbrouck, broker and banker of Cleveland ; Lyda (Lila)
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Pryor, born November 27, 1877, who was united in marriage on December hi., 1898, to Edwin H. Janes, a well known manufacturer; Perry Holloway, Jr., born September 7, 1879, died March 15, 1883: and Georgie Kate, born July 17, 1885, whose marriage June 17, 1908, in Clevland made her the wife of Joseph W. Sutphen, a lawyer of her native city. All of Mr. Babcock's daughters were educated in the Young Ladies' Seminary. For a number of years Mr. Babcock has been a trustee of the Euclid Avenue Christian (Disciples) church, being an active worker and a generous contributor in the support of that denomination. in relation to national politics, he is a Democrat, but in matters of local nature he applies his individual judgment irrespective of party affiliations. He is a member of the Ohio Society of New York, charter member of the Colonial Club of Cleveland, member of the Union, Euclid and Country clubs, and Winions Point Shooting Club, also of the New England Society of Cleveland and the Western Reserve.
George H Babcock, brother of Charles Babcock and son of Perry H., and Marie (Hurd) Babcock, was born September 17, 1844, he was a man of high standing and business ability, and a member of the firm which his father founded. He never married. His death occurred November 15, 1883.
REV. CHARLES REICHLIN.—One of the able and honored representatives of the priesthoodof the great mother church in the Western Reserve is Father Charles Reichlin, who is in pastoral charge of St. Joseph's Catholic church in the city of Lorain. In this field he has labored with beneficence, zeal and popular appreciation of this service, and his gracious personality has gained him a secure place in the regard of the community and in the affection of the members of his immediate parochial charge.
Father Reichlin claims as the place of his nativity the fair little republic of Switzerland, having been born in the canton of Schwyz, on December 10, 1863, and having received his early education in various church and national schools in his native land. As a youth he came to the United States, and immediately after his arrival in 1882 took up his residence in the city of Cleveland. Ohio, where within the same year he entered the Catholic seminary, in which he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1886. In December of that year he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop R. Gilmour, of the diocese of Cleveland, and his first pastoral charge was that of St. Michael's church, on Kelley's Island in Upper Lake Erie, where he remained nine years and gave most efficient service.
In 1896 Father Reichlin came to Lorain, Ohio, and organized St. Joseph's parish, the second Catholic congregation established in the city. The first church services were held in St. Joseph's hospital, and the church building was completed and dedicated in 1897.. This is a handsome. brick edifice of pleasing and impressive ecclesiastic architecture. Under the same roof provision is made for the parochial school. When the church was organized about seventy families were represented in the parish, and its spiritual and temporal growth has been most gratifying, under the able and faithful care and direction of Father Reichlin. Two hundred families are now represented in the communicant list of the church, composed almost exclusively of Americans of German descent. The German and English languages are therefore ordinarily used in the church services, whilst Father Reichlin, on account of his knowledge of French and Italian, also administers to the spiritual wants of these people. The parish school, in charge of the Sis-' ters of St. Francis, of Tiffin, Ohio, now has an average enrollment of more than 200 pupils. The curriculum embraces, besides German, the branches ordinarily taught in primary and grammar schools, and the institution is in a flourishing condition. In the autumn of 1908 was completed the fine brick parsonage of St. Joseph's church, and the affairs of the parish are in all respects in a most satisfactory condition. Father Reichlin has had. the earnest and devoted co-operation of his people in every detail of his work, and the upbuilding of the church in Lorain is therefore a cause of mutual satisfaction and pride.
E
LBERT L. LAMPSON, of Jefferson, Ohio, at present reading clerk in the national house of
representatives, has held that position continuously since December 15, 1895, a longer period
than the office was ever held by any of his predecessors. He was reader in the Republican
national conventions which met at Philadelphia in 1900 and an Chicago in 1904.
Elbert L. Lampson was born July 30,1852,
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at Windsor, Ashtabula county, Ohio, upon the same farm where his father, Chester Lamp-son, was born, and upon which farm his grand-.father, .Ebenezer Lampson, who served in the Revolutionary war, settled in 1809, having moved to Ohio in that year from Connecticut. His mother was Emerette A. Griswold, who was born at New Ipswich, New Hampshire. He was the oldest of seven children and attended and taught district school, and in 1875 graduated from Grand River Institute. In 1878 he graduated from the Law Department of Michigan University. He was admitted to practice law at Chardon, Ohio, and opened a law office in Jefferson, Ohio, where he had located in 1876.
He was married August 5, 1875, to Mary L. Hurlburt, of Hartsgrove, Ohio. They have four children and two grandchildren, E. C. Lampson, Lillian D. Anthony, L. V. Lampson, Clara May Lampson, E. Carolynn Lampson, and Elbert W. Lampson respectively.
Our subject served as county school examiner from 1877 to 1885. In May, 1883, he purchased the Jefferson Gazette, now owned and published by his son and brother, respectivelyE. C. and R. D. Lampson, owners and publishers of the Ashtabula Sentinel, until recently
published by J. A. Howells and Company.
Elbert L. Lampson was a delegate to the national Republican convention, in 1884. In 1885 he was elected a repesentative in the general assembly. He was re-elected in 1887 and chosen speaker of the house of representatives, In 1888 he was permanent chairman of the Republican state convention. In 1889 he was elected. lieutenant governor of Ohio and after a service of eighteen days was unseated supported for over forty ballots, by his county in convention, for the Republican nomination for Congress to succeed Hon. S. A. Northway. On the forty-seventh ballot Mr. Lampson's support went to Senator Charles Dick, who was nominated. Mr. Lampson was again a candidate in 1904 and was unanimously supported by his county: He led in the convention by a Democratic senate. While lieutenant governor he presided over the joint assembly of the two houses and declared the election of Calvin Brice to the United States senate. In 1891 he was nominated over James R. Garfield for the state senate, in which body he served as president pro tem, for two years. As a member of the assembly, he voted for John Sherman for United States senator in 1886 and in 1892. In 1895 he was appointed to his present position, that of reading clerk in the national house of representatives. Under the auspices of the Republican national committee he has taken part in five national campaigns and spoken many times in a dozen different states. In 1898 he was unanimously for eighteen ballots, when he was defeated by W. Aubrey Thomas.
He is a member of Cache Commandery, Knights Templar, and of Almas Temple of Shriners and of other fraternal societies. His wife, Mary L. Lampson, is a Past Matron of Sunshine Chapter, O. E. S., and is Grand Electa in the Grand Chapter of that order. They are members of the Congregational church and reside in their home on North Chestnut street in Jefferson, Ohio, and in Washington, D. C., when Congress is in session.
EDWARD CHESTER LAMPSON:—Although still a young man, Edward C. Lampson, of Jefferson, has already earned a substantial reputation as a newspaper editor and a bond broker, and has been largely instrumental in forwarding the public improvements of the village and Ashtabula county. Born at Hartsgrove, Ohio, October 3, 1876, he is descended from a family whose first American representatives are believed to have settled in New Jersey about 163o. Ebeneezer Lampson, his great-grandfather, was a Revolutionary soldier, who removed from hiS native Connecticut and settled at Windsor, Ohio. His maternal great-grandfather (a Griswold) was a participant in the French and Indian war, and in one of his engagements captured a sword made by the world-famed fabricator of metals, Adreah Farara, who flourished in Madrid Spain, from 1530 to 1560. This famous make has been celebrated in the song, "The Sword of Farara," and this particular specimen, which is still . in possession of the Lampson family, is probably the only genuine Adreah Farara sword in America.
Hon. Elbert Leroy Lampson, the father of Edward C., who has been reader of the national house of representatives for nearly four. teen years, was for years one of the most prominent Republicans in Ohio. After serving two terms as a representative in the legislature from Ashtabula county, he was nominated by acclamation for a third term, but
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1353
resigned in order to become a candidate for lieutenant governor. He was elected by a
plurality of twenty-three votes, served seventeen days and was unseated by a Democratic
senate. Later, he served as speaker of the Ohio house of representatives and as president
pro tem of the senate, completing his term of two years in the upper house of the legislature.
Mr Lampson's appointment as reader of the national house of representatives, in 1896, was
the result of a competitive examination, taken by thirty-six candidates, and since that year
he has never had a competitor for the position. The mother, Mary Luella Hurlbut, is also a
native of Hartsgrove, Ohio, her parents being Hon, E. G. and Jane Hurlburt. Her father
was county commissioner of Ashtabula county for thirteen years, and in early days a member
of the Black String Society, an Abolition organization with which John Brown was connected.
Edward C. Lampson, of this review, graduated from New Lyme (Ohio) Institute in 1894, afterward spending two years at Oberlin College and the Western Reserve University. At the latter he was initiated into the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity, of which he was chaplain. Mr. Lampson left college to edit the Jefferson Weekly Gazette, which had been founded in 1875 and purchased by his father in 1883. After six years of hard work and pronounced success in that capacity he changed the Gazette into a tri-weekly newspaper, and in the same year purchased the establishment. On March 1, 1905, lie sold a half interest to his uncle, R. D. Lampson, a graduate of the Michigan State University and also a Beta Theta Pi man. On June 1, 1906, the entire< plant was destroyed by tire, at a loss of $10,000, with little insurance, but R. D. and E. C. Lampson had other quarters rented before the flames were extinguished and in three days completely resumed publication. In twenty-four days, under the direction of E. C. Lampson, a two-story brick building with a one-story addition was erected, and in fifty days the new machinery was all installed and in operation. Notwithstanding this temporary set-back the Casette has rapidly grown in popularity and solid influence, being now the leading newspaper in Ashtabula county and a Republican power in the state. No local agency has contributed more to forward the public improvements of Jefferson, in the list of which may be mentioned the natural gas enterprise and the water works.
Mr. Lampson's success in the newspaper field has brought him into the field of inventors. He has invented and patented a simple, inexpensive and effective device for the elevation of the assembler of the linotype machine, which is operated by a lever near the space band. By actual trial it has been found to increase the output of average operators ten per cent. The patent covers any machine which can be controlled at the will of the operator. Mr. Lampson has also inaugurated a side line in the handling of municipal bonds and real estate mortgages, which has already developed into an extensive and profitable business, and added to his reputation as a man of progress and strong influence. Neither is his literary work confined to the ordinary topics of journalism, as he is the author of a series of articles on "The Black Strings," dealing with the work of John Brown in Ashtabula county previous to his raid upon Harpers Ferry ; another on "Natural Religion," and another on "Two Weeks in Temagami," Ontario; and he also has in preparation a novel dealing with the legends and romances of that Canadian region.
On November 14, 1901, Mr. Lampson married Miss Pearle May Evans, daughter of 0. W. and Emma Evans. Mr. Evans served four years in the Seventh Kansas Regiment, recruited by John Brown, Jr., his enlistment being from Jefferson, Ohio. Mrs. Lampson's great-great-great-uncle was Lord Nelson, of Trafalgar fame. Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Lampson have two children : Elizabeth Carolynn, born at Jefferson, September 7, 1902, and Elbert Wellington, born in the same place, May 18, 1904.
SAMUEL DAWSON .—Inheriting from his forefathers an unlimited stock of energy and perseverance, Samuel Dawson, of Streetsboro township, is one of the many well-to-do agriculturists who came to the Western Reserve poor in purse, but rich in courage, and who by untiring industry and good management have achieved success in their line of work, acquiring
a handsome competency. A native of Massachusetts, he was born, June 10, 1851, in the town of Ipswich, a quaint little village, not far from the Atlantic coast.
His father, Frederick Dawson, was born in England, and there educated. Running away from home when a lad of sixteen years, he
1354 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
emigrated to the United States, landing in Boston. Learning the carpenter's trade, he settled in Ipswich, where he wooed and won for a bride Martha Eunice Wallace, a native of that town. He subsequently removed with his family to Quebec, Canada, where he was engaged in tilling the soil for fifteen years. After the death of his wife, which occurred in 1870, he returned to Massachusetts, and there spent his remaining days, passing away in 1884. To him and his good wife, ten children were born, and of these four daughters and two sons are now living.
Going to Canada when a child, Samuel Dawson lived with his parents there until nineteen years old, acquiring in the meantime an excellent knowledge of the many branches of farming, especially that of dairying. Coming in 1869 to Streetsboro township, he was for five years employed in cheese making, after which he worked on the farm of his father-in-law for ten years. While thus engaged, Mr. Dawson accumulated a goodly sum of money, which he wisely invested in land, buying 103 1/2 acres in the northern part of Streetsboro township. To the improvements already inaugurated he has made constant additions, enlarging and repairing the farm buildings, and increasing the size of his home estate by buying eighty. acres of adjoining land lying in Aurora township. His land is under a good state of cultivation, and since the laying of six carloads of drainage tile yields abundant harvests each year, regardless of wet or dry weather. Mr. Dawson has also twenty-one acres of land, which he bought in the spring of 1909, in the southern part of the township. He pays especial attention to dairying, but carries on general
farming on an extensive scale.
On November 27, 1872, Mr. Dawson married Elvira Ellsworth, who was born in Streetsboro township, a . daughter of Henry F. Ellsworth. Her father came to Ohio in 1827, settling in this township, where he was for many years one of its largest land owners. He married Betsey Meach, who was born in Wayne county, Ohio, while he was a native of Vermont. Neither of Mrs. Dawson's parents are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson have one child, Cora, widow of the late Benjamin Rose, who lives with them. Politically Mr. Dawson is a Democrat, and fraternally he t elongs to Streetsboro Grange, No. 1972.
EDWARD BURKE.-A man of sterling character and worth, Edward Burke, of. Nelson township, occupying the old Beardsley homestead, is numbered. among the prosperous and respected citizens of this part of the Western Reserve. He was born, March 1, 1846, in Clarenden township, Pontiac county; Canada East, a son of David Burke, and grandson of Thomas Burke, who was a nepheW of Edmund Burke, the renowned Irish orator and statesman.
David Burke was born, in 1805, in Letterkenney, County Donegal, Ireland, where he lived for twenty-five years. Emigrating to America in 1830, he settled in Canada, and there, in 1835, married Elizabeth Sadler, who was born, July 17, 1816, in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, and they became the parents of eleven children.
When a young child Edward Burke was taken by his parents to Ontario, Canada, where he grew to manhood, receiving his early education in the district schools of Peckingham. In 1866, he came to the Western Reserve, and has since been a resident of Nelson township, and one of its most loyal and valued citizens.
On December 31, 1874, at the home of the bride's parents, he married Sarah A. Couch, who was born January 1, 1846, a daughter of Ferris Couch, and granddaughter of Samuel Couch, a pioneer of this part of Ohio, Samuel Couch, born in Redding, Connecticut, August 28, 1758, married Hannah Ferris, who was born, June 19, 1768, in New Milford; Connecticut. He subsequently lived for awhile in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, coming from there to the Western Reserve in 1816, on a prospecting tour. Pleased with the possibilities of the country roundabout he returned to Massachusetts for his family, and died while on the way back. His wife died November 14, 1806, in Lee, Massachusetts, where she was buried.
Ferris Couch was born November 13, 1806, in Lee, Massachusetts, and as a young man located in Nelson township, where he succeeded to the ownership of the land which his father had located in section six, it being a narrow strip extending to the Parkman line. He subsequently cleared and improved what became known as the William. Paine place, and he was actively engaged in tilling the soil until his death, August 27, 1881. He married, February 9, 1832, Antoinette Johnson, who born in Cornwall, Connecticut, March 19, and died July 6, 1884, in Nelson towns
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1355
Her father, Alanson Johnson, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, October 25, 1792, came to the Western Reserve about 1816, and on the farm which he redeemed from its primitive wildness spent the remainder of his long and useful life, dying July 8, 1880. Alanson Johnson, a son of Charles and Rhoda (Sperry) Johnson, who came to the Reserve from Connecticut in 1816, married Betsey Northrup, who was born in Connecticut about 1795, and died in Nelson township, on the home farm, March 6, 1877.
Joseph Northrup, father of Betsey Northrup, married Charity Benjamin, who was a descendant on the maternal side of the house of Sir Francis Drake, the noted British admiral, who, in 1579, rounded Cape Horn, and sailed along the Pacific coast as far north as Oregon, stopping in San Francisco bay to refurnish his ship.
Two children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Burke, namely : Antoinette May, Born July 28, 1877, died, unmarried, February 19, 1906; and Elsie Elizabeth, born August 31, 1879. On June 26, 1907, Elsie Elizabeth Burke married Charles Adelbert Cartwright, who was born, September to, 1875, in Newton, Ohio.
A man of excellent business capacity, ever interested in the growth and prosperity of his adopted town and county, Mr. Burke has contributed of his time and means to further their interests, and has served in various offices of trust and responsibility. He has been township assessor and trustee, and is now president of the local school board. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Grange.
GEORGE ABBEY.-A man of strong personality, strong in his convictions, possessing sound, judgment and great business tact and ability the late George Abbey, of Leroy township, was an important factor in promoting the growth and improvement of this section of Lake county, and as a man of sterling integrity and high moral principles exerted an influence for good in the community of which he was so long an esteemed resident. A native of England, he was born, April 29, 1806, in Althorp where he was bred and educated. His father, also named George Abbey, reared four children, William, llary, George and Maria. The entire family came to this country to live in the earlier at of the last century, the son George coming nearly a year before the other members of the family.
On December 24, 1827, George Abbey, married, in his native land, Ann Maltby, who was born, April 6, 1807, in Beebwith, England, and shortly after that auspicious event sailed with his bride for the United States. He lived for awhile in New York, from there coming in 1829 or 1830 to Ohio, and settling in Leroy township, where he cleared and improved a fine homestead. He carried on general farming with satisfactory success, putting a large part of the land under cultivation, and erecting all the buildings necessary for carrying on his operations after the most approved methods. He was a man of upright character, possessing a vast fund of general information, and being a fluent and ready conversationalist was most entertaining to both old and young, talking intelligently and interestingly on any topic, keeping to the last in close touch with the issues of the day. On Christmas day, 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Abbey celebrated the sixty-sixth anniversary of their marriage, which was one of unusual happiness, and of notable duration, their children, grandchildren and friends gathering in large numbers to assist them in its observance. A few short months later, Mr. Abbey was called to the life beyond, his death occurring April 8, 1894. He was for many years a leader in township affairs, and served with rare ability, and fidelity in various public capacities, having served as trustee, justice of the peace and assessor. His wife died February 20, 1896. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Abbey twelve children were born, namely : George, John, Ann, Rose, William, Ellen, Jason, Hannah, Albert, Letitia, Vashti and Walter. George, living on an adjoining farm, is widely known as a citizen of worth. John died at the age of eight years. Ann, who married Wesley McGee, of Warsaw, Indiana, died, leaving five children. Rose, who married Wells Cone, of Leroy township, died a few days after her father's death, passing away April 17, 1894, leaving three children. William, a farmer in Leroy township, is highly esteemed throughout the community. Ellen, wife of Charles Hicks, living on a farm near Warren, Illinois, has seven children. Jason enlisted in the Fourteenth Ohio Battery, and was killed in battle on July 22, 1864. Hannah is the wife of William Northard, of Northeast Leroy. Albert, who served during the Civil war in the same battery as his brother, died April 14, .1865, in New Orleans. Letitia married Mortimer Pe-
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poon, of Warren, Illinois ; Vashti, widow of the late John Garrett, lived, with her children, on the home farm after the death of her husband and is now in Leroy, Illinois.
Walter Abbey, the youngest child of the parental household, was born October 24, 1848, on the old homestead, in the northeastern part of Leroy, about one-half mile from his present home, and it was his father's desire that he should have the homestead property. He is an expert agriculturist, and is managing the estate with characteristic ability and success.
On March 24, 1875, Mr. Walter Abbey married Emma Benjamin, who was born, January 4, 1853, in the southern part of Madison township, on the farm where her father, Foster Benjamin, was born, his birth occurring May 28, 1827, and on which he spent his entire life. He was a son of Levi and Rebecca (Emerson) Benjamin, natives of Massachusetts, who located in Lake county, in Madison township, in 1822, coming here from their New England home with teams. Foster Benjamin married, February 1852, Jane Fowler, and on May 28, 1902, it being the seventy-fifth anniversary of his birth, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin celebrated their golden wedding in the old homestead. Mr. Benjamin died July 4, 1904, but his widow still occupies the homestead on which they spent so many years of happiness and content. Mr. and Mrs. Abbey have three children, namely : Alice, wife of John Q. Adams, Jr., lives one mile south of Madison, Lake county ; Gertrude, wife of Furnice Crane, resides in Thompson township, Geauga county ; and George Foster, a student of the Geneva high school.
THOMAS HOPE BROOKS is a scion of one of the pioneer families of the Western Reserve and has himself long occupied a prominent place in the civic and business life of the city of Cleveland. He was born in the village of Patriot, Indiana, on October 10, 1846, and is a son of Dr. Martin L. and Frances Rebecca (Hope) Brooks, the former of whom was born in Connecticut and the latter in Virginia. Dr. Martin Luther Brooks was a lad of six years at the time of his parents' removal from New England to the Western Reserve, in 1818, and his father purchased his farm directly from the Connecticut Land Company, as did also two or more of the latter's brothers, and all became pioneer settlers of Lorain county, where they reclaimed their land and became substantial citizens. In that county Dr. Brooks passed his boyhood and early youth on the farm of his father and later entered Oberlin College. He became a teacher in the common schools and followed that profession during the winter terms while during the summer seasons he was engaged in farm work. In the meanwhile he began the study of medicine and in due time he found it possible to continue his professional studies in a medical college in the city of Cincinnati. In this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1840. In the meantime he had been for a time engaged in teaching school in Kaskaskia, Illinois, where he formed the acquaintanceship of his future wife. He was married at Kaskaskia and after his graduation in the medical college he took up his residence in Patriot, Indiana, where he engaged in the work of his profession and continued' to reside until 1847, when he removed with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he continued in the practice of medicine until within a few years prior to his death, which occurred in 1899, at which time he was eighty-seven years of age. He was a man of fine intellectual and professional attainments, was one of the leading physicians of Cleveland for half a century and his memory is revered as that of a man of generous impulses, lofty integrity and large accomplishment in connection with the practical activities. of life. He was a member of the faculty of Cleveland Medical College for a number of years, was identified with representative medical societies of local and national order, and for many years was superintendent of the Government Marine Hospital in Cleveland. For about fifty years he was an elder in the Second Presbyterian church, and exemplified his deep Christian faith in the daily walks of life. He was a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party from the time of its organization until his death, and in the period leading up to the Civil war he was known as an uncompromising Abolitionist. His wife, who was a representative of a family founded in America in the early part of the eighteenth century, when members of the same came from England and settled in Virginia. From the Old Dominion state her parents removed to Kaskaskia, Illinois, about 1835, and there her marriage to Dr. Brooks was solemnized, as has already been stated. She was summoned to the life eternal in 1886, and of the three children the subject of this sketch is the youngest. Mary, the eldest of the number, is the widow of the late Dr. Henry J. Herrick, of
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1357
Cleveland; and Dr. Martin Luther Brooks, Jr., who was a graduate of Hudson College and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in New York City, served as a surgeon in the United States army in the Civil war, after which he was for many years engaged in the practice of his profession at Newburg, Ohio; he met his death in a street car accident, in 1896.
Thomas H. Brooks attended the public schools and was graduated from Williams College in 1870. In 1875 he engaged in the foundry business in Cleveland, and with this important line of industry he has been identified during the intervening years. The business is conducted under the title of T. H. Brooks & Co., and the concern is one of the most important of its kind in Cleveland.
As a citizen and business man Mr. Brooks has upheld the name which he bears, and his interests naturally center in Cleveland, which has represented his home during practically his entire life and to the promotion of whose welfare and advancement he has ever lent a ready co-operation. lie is interested in many of the financial and manufacturing concerns of the city.
Mr. Brooks has relationship with the civic and business activities of his home city and is ond of its representative men. Though never afflicted with any desire for political office he is a supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party and manifests at all times a loyal interest in public affairs of a local order. He and his wife are members of the Second Presbyterian church, of whose board of trustees he is chairman. He is a member of the Union, Country and Euclid Clubs of Cleveland and the University Club of New York City.
Mr. Brooks was married in 1873 to Miss Anna I. Curtis, a daughter of the late Charles Curtis, who came from Connecticut to Cleveland when a young man and became one of the prominent and influential citizens and business men of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have one daughter; Mary, who is the wife of Harrison G. Otis, of Cleveland.
DWIGHT CROWELL, the subject of this sketch, was a notable citizen of Ashtabula county,
Ohio, in which famous region of the Western Reserve he held positions of public responsibility
for many years. His ancestors came of the good old Puritan stock of New England. His father's
ancestors emigrated from England and made their first home in the Cape Cod country, at
Chatham, Barnstable county, Massachusetts, soon after the landing of the Pilgrims.
The founder of the American family was William Crowell, Sr. He was illustrious in the annals of the country and was a leading member of the Episcopal Church. The name Crowell is of English origin, and is authentically stated to have formerly been Cromwell, the lineage linking with that of Lord Cromwell, of English history.
Samuel Crowell was born at Chatham, Barnstable county, Massachusetts, March 16, 1742. He immigrated to Connecticut and married Jerusha Tracy and had six children—William, Samuel, Eliphaz, John and Hezekiah, and a daughter who died in infancy. William was apprenticed at the age of fourteen years to learn the carpenter and joiner's trade. He served the full term of seven years and was a fine workman. He was married to Ruth Peck, August 20, 1792, and they had nine children, one of whom died in infancy. After the removal of the family to Ohio, the number of children was increased to fourteen. The journey to Ohio was made with two other families. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and the journey required more than forty days. Their route was through Pennsylvania, over the mountains to Pittsburg, and thence to Rome, Ohio. They arrived the last of November, 1806. From Bristol to Rome station the wilderness was unbroken; there was not a house to shelter them, and they were compelled to came out in the most primitive style. The wolves howled about their campfire and the gloom of the November
night, combined with the savage surroundings, made it an ordeal that taxed strength and resolution.
The log cabin which had been built for them was not a large one for three families. It was divided by a stone wall five or six feet high, extending partly across the space. On each side of the wall fires were built for comfort and convenience, and over these an opening was left in the roof for the smoke to escape. One part of this log cabin was occupied during the winter by William Crowell and his family. The following spring he built a log house on his farm and commenced clearing it for cultivation. He found employment at his trade in the older settlements, where frame houses were being constructed to take the places of log houses. The family remained upon his farm in Rome, Ohio, where he died
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July 15, 1852, at the age of eighty years. He became a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church when the Diocese of Ohio was organized, and was often a member of the diocesan
convention in the time of Bishop Chase, who mentions him very kindly in his reminiscences published several years before his death. Bishop Mcllvaine was also his special friend. Mr. Crowell was a very devoted member of the Episcopal communion. He organized a parish and built a church in the neighborhood of his residence, and in the graveyard attached to it his remains repose. His wife died June 12, 1856, at the age of eighty-four years, and her dust slumbers beside him. These worthy pioneers settled in Rome township when their little son William, father of Dwight, was but three years old.
William was one of the contractors to construct the Ashtabula and Warren turnpike. In later life he engaged in mercantile business, and for many years was an honored resident of Geneva, Ohio. He died in Jefferson in 1872, aged seventy-six years. His brother John was a prominent attorney at Warren, Ohio, served several years in congress, and removed from Warren to Cleveland, where he practiced law, and was connected with the law college.
Nancy, Hewins Crowell, mother of Dwight Crowell, was a woman of superior gifts. She was spared to her children until her ninety-fourth year, and was held in veneration by them and watched over with tender solicitude. She died March 20, 1893, at the home of her son, W. H. Crowell, at Washington, D. C., and her remains were brought to Jefferson and placed beside those of her husband.
She was the daughter of Ebenezer Hewins, a native of Massachusetts, who removed at an early day to New York, from whence in 1820 he went to Ohio, which was then the extreme frontier line. He settled on a farm near Harpersfield and became prominent as a man of superior worth and intellect. In the organization of Ashtabula county he became one of the associate justices and held other positions of public trust.
Dwight Crowell, the son of these worthy pioneers, was reared in Ashtabula county. He received his education in the Geneva high school. He early entered the mercantile business, and for eight years was in the employ of Stephens, Fitch & E. Mills and Company. He made a record of being an excellent salesman, and was very popular.
He was married to Miss Sheldona Frary, a lovely and estimable young lady of Geneva, in 1852. Her father, Sheldon E. Frary, moved to Geneva, Ohio, from Becket, Massachusetts, in 1829, with his mother and several sisters. There were eleven children in the family, six brothers and a sister coming the year named, the rest remaining East. They came within the following two or. three years to Windham, Ohio. They were all noble men and women, and were useful in society and made honorable records to the end of their lives. Sheldon E. Frary married Clarissa Mills, of Geneva. Her father was Eliphalet Mills, the founder of the town, and he owned a large part of the land at one time.
Dwight Crowell continued in the mercantile business fifteen years, enjoying the. confidence and respect of the community. In 1869 he went to Jefferson and entered the auditor's office as deputy, which position he held eleven years. In 1880 he was elected clerk of the Supreme Court, in which capacity he served three years, making his home at Columbus. In March, 1884, he returned to Jefferson and resumed the position of deputy in the auditor's office, in which he continued until November, 1889, when he was elected auditor of the county. He was re-elected auditor in 1892 and continued in that office four terms. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His creed was belief in "the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man and the Golden Rule," and these principles he reduced to practice in the conduct of his long, industrious and useful life.
Three children blessed his marriage—William Sheldon Crowell, who died in 1901; Kate F. Crowell, who became the wife of Frank Nearing, of Geneva ; and Nancy E., who married E. B. Lynn, and died while still in life's morning.
Mrs. Kate Crowell Nearing has been court stenographer at Jefferson for many years. She is an expert in her official line. In addition to the court work which she so ably accomplishes, she has done much individual legal work. She is a brilliant woman, and possesses many winsome qualities of heart and mind. Like her father, she has a fine physique and is socially very attractive. She was the mother of one son, Dwight Crowell . Nearing, who lived three months and died December 22, 1901.
In politics Dwight Crowell was a staunch
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Republican. He was earnest in loyalty and was active. lie was frequently a delegate to the state conventions. His elder brother, Ralph had marked literary ability. He served in the War of the Rebellion lived to a venerable age, and was a remarkable character in the Crowell family. Major W. H. H. Crowell, of New York, is another brother. He has retired from the regular army. He
served with distinction in the Civil war, was promoted, and later joined the regular army. A brother, W. H. Crowell, of Washington, D. C., has been connected with the treasury department at Washington for twenty-five years. Prior to his connection with the national treasury he was auditor of Ashtabula county fourteen years. The only sister, Mrs. Ruby Crowell Swan, married a nephew of Judge Swan, the author of "Swan's Treatise," one of the best law books ever known, and the writing of which made him famous. Judge W. S. Crowell, of Medford, Oregon, cousin
of Dwight Crowell, was at one time senator from Coshoction county, Ohio, and was consul to Amory, China, under President Grover Cleveland.
The subject of this sketch had many talented relatives who achieved fine positions, but none were more faithful, more painstaking, more popular and appreciated than he. He was a tender father, a kind and generous husband, a good neighbor, a faithful friend, and few men in the state of Ohio had more friends then he. He served his constituents to their entire satisfaction, and then retired to his beautiful Geneva home, where he spent his sunset hours of life, lovingly attended by his daughter, Mrs. Nearing, who was the only survivor of his immediate family. He was an honest public officer, and all who knew him will keep his memory green.
JOHN W. LOWE, M. D., one of the leading physicians of Mentor, being a practitioner of over twenty years standing, was horn in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, July 17, 1855, first son of John and Ann ( Wilson) Low, natives of Aberdeen, Scotland. John Low came to British America when a young man, and located near Brantford, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. He and his wife were members of the old Scotch Presbyterian church. They were parents of ten children. The family name was changed to Lowe in this country.
Dr. John W. Lowe was reared on his father's farm, two and a half miles north of the city of
Brantford, at a place known as Tranquillity. At the age of twenty he obtained permission to venture out for himself. He secured employment with Thomas D. Batson, of Tranquillity, as business manager of a farm of 310 acres and fifty of pine woods. While in the employ of Mr. Batson, Dr. Lowe was assigned the task of soliciting the money for, and superintending the building of Tranquillity Methodist church, and was actively concerned in all departments of its work at that place. Being naturally a close and careful financier, he saved his earnings and in eight years had accumulated a sufficient amount to enable him to launch out in business for himself. At this time an opportunity presented itself. A general store on the corner of Duke and Waterloo streets, Brantford, was for sale on account of failure. He secured the assistance of an old school mate of some experience in mercantile business, the stock was purchased with the farmer's money and the store reopened under the name Lowe & Atkins. They did a flourishing business, but could not endure the trust system and sold out. Mr. Lowe's partner took up theology, and he himself went into medical science.
The doctor's early educational advantages were confined to the district schools. In 1879 he became a member of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and graduated with the class of 1883. When a boy he was a member of three debating societies, one at Tranquillity, one at the Paris road school, and the famous Farrington Debating Society of the city of Brantford. The debate in which he attained the greatest degree of success, and which he led in the affirmative was, "Resolved, That Canada is destined to see a greater future than the United States." He was a non-commissioned officer in Company No. 4 of the Canadian Dufferin Rifles, a regiment of sharp-. shooters. In fraternal societies, he first became a member of the Sons of Temperance, and next of Gore Lodge No. 34, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Brantford, Ontario, advancing to the Patriarchial Encampment and receiving the Royal Purple degree in Brant Encampment No. 4. He is a social member and tent physician of Mentor Tent No. 241, of the Knights of the Maccabees of the World; is also a member of Mentor Avenue Lodge No. 659, Knights of Pythias, and a past chancellor of that Castle Hall. From this he went into Columbian Company No. 4, Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias, and is now assistant sur-
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geon of the Second Ohio Regiment. In this order he is also a member Jan Ben Jan Temple No. 27, Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan, of Cleveland, Ohio.
Being naturally averse to weakness, disease and diseased conditions, Dr. Lowe took up the healing art as an avocation. He was not guided by any family physician, for a physician had not been in the house ten times in rearing ten children. On entering the fight against disease he soon found that there were many theories with reference to cure, that each had a respectable following, and each was attended with some degree of success ; but in none did he find an exact science, except in surgery. After some investigation and observation, he decided that in the science of electro-therapeutics, as taught by the Philadelphia school, with a branch at Brantford, Ontario, there was presented to him what seemed to be the most logical explanation as the first cause of disease. He therefore entered the Brantford Electropathic Institute, and graduated in 1882. In 1883 he left Canada and located in Midland City, Michigan, where he opened an office and cured the afflicted by the use of the various forms of electricity, coupled with Dr. J. H. Kellogg's hydrotherapy. While there he edited and published a journal, in newspaper style, known as The Electric, Times. Being desirous of a larger field, after two years of experience, he removed to Bay City, Michigan.. Before getting established he was offered a position in the British-American Medical and Surgical Institute at Detroit, Michigan, and accepted the proposition. For two years he had charge of the electropathic, oxygen and vacuum treatment departments. He also figured in other departments of the institute, where he gained much valuable information that has been of practical benefit to him since. While there he gave attention to the eclectic system of cure, passed an examination before the state board of censors and was admitted to the Michigan State Medical and Surgical Society of the Eclectic School of Medicine. He next spent two years in the study of the homeopathic method of treatment, for six months of this time he had charge of the homeopathic laboratory in the British-American Medical and Surgical Institute, under J. D. Kergan, M. D., professor of materia medica in the Detroit Homeopathic Medical College. Learning that a new school with advanced theories had been established at Rutland, Vermont, known as the Vermont Medical College, he took a special course of studies there, and graduated in 1889. Desiring to locate on the Western Reserve he opened an office at 1098 Pearl street, Cleveland, Ohio, until a better opportunity presented itself. The death of Dr. C. B. Bixby, at Mentor, opened a field for a physician at that point, he decided to venture. make Mentor his home, and grow up with the town. He now enjoys a lucrative. practice, in addition to conducting the only medical supply store in the place. He is a member of Lake County Medical Society, in which he served as secretary for nearly three terms. He is a member of the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland, the State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Health League, and an active (1908) member of the International Congress of Tuberculosis. On March 9, 1899, he was appointed examining surgeon for the Bureau of Pensions at Painesville, Ohio, and was a member of the National Association of United States Pension Examining Surgeons. He is now medical examiner for the United States Marine Corps in the recruiting district of Pittsburg, and also holds examiners commissions for the Royal Templars of Temperance, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Provident Savings Life. Assurance Society, the Canada Life Assurance Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Reliance Life Insurance Company, the Midland Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Home Life Insurance Company, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, in addition to making examinations for the Equitable Life Insurance Company, the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, the Union Mutual and the Fidelity and Casualty Company. He is one of the staff physicians of Painesville Hospital; and lecturer to the class of nurses in training. Dr. Lowe is also member of the United States Press Writers League. He first began as a newspaper correspondent in 1878, contributing to the Brant Union, of Brantford, Ontario, and has continued to use his pen in newspaper work ever since. At present he is Mentor's local correspondent for the Cleveland Leader and Press, the Painesville Telegraph-Republican, the Willoughby Independent and the Chagrin Falls Exponent. His most importan newspaper contributions were letters to th Painesville Telegraph-Republican descriptiv of Southern California, where he spent o winter ; an article on the "Importance
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Hygiene;" an attack on "Professor Koch's bacillus;" "Dreaded Smallpox," and some articles
to the Cleveland Leader on "Medical Legislation."
As a citizen, Dr. Lowe has always taken an active part in whatever seemed to promise advancement, and has served on the council and as mayor, and president of the board of education. He was one of the promoters of the Mentor Telephone Company and served as president for the first five years of its existence. He launched the Mentor Lake Front Park idea and championed it to a successful issue. In fact the only public movement in which he was ever thoroughly defeated, was his first effort or a Central Union High School at Mentor. At present he is health officer for Mentor and Mentor township. lie is also one of the directors of the Eagle Copper-Gold Mining Company of Wickenburg, Arizona. As a Canadian he was a Reformer in politics. In Michigan, he was a member of the Prohibition party, working for St. John and Daniels. On coming to Ohio he was soon convinced that the Republican party dominated in strength of statesmanship and was rendering the most reliable service to their country. He was president of the McKinley club at Mentor during the compaign against free silver and is still a loyal supporter of that political party. In religion, he has always been a Methodist. He united with the church at the age of twenty and has held official positions in that denomination ever since, having been superintendent of Sunday school both in Brantford and at Midland City. At Mentor he has been secretary and treasurer of the Methodist Episcopal church for more than fifteen years, and was one of the active workers in the recent erection of a new brick church building. He so arranges his professional duties as to be in attendance at preaching services nearly every Sunday morning, and evening.
By his own efforts the doctor has paid for and improved his place of residence, which is central and regarded as one of the most desirable locations in the town. He also has a cottage lot in the original forest at Salida, on the bank of Lake Erie, and some real estate at Findlay, Ohio. In order to keep himself informed and be abreast of the times, in all fields of knowledge he takes three leading newspapers of county, the Cleveland Daily Leader, Literary Disgest, five medical journals, three popular magazines and his church paper, the New York Christian Advocate. His medical library is made up of the highest and most scientific books obtainable and in his profession, he is a deep and tireless student.
Dr. J. W. Lowe is a married man and has one daughter. The maiden name of his wife was Jennie B. Ackley. She was born at North Bloomfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, and is a descendant of a long line of American ancestors, many of whom were eminent in the early history of the country. Her parents, Walter Scott and Martha Howe (Green) Ackley, are still living and residents of Geneva, Ohio.
GEORGE F. HESS, master mechanic for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and councilman-atlarge of Lorain, Ohio, was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, January 1, 1872. He was reared in his native city and there attended public school. At the age of fourteen years he began his railroad career as messenger boy in the office of the master mechanic of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad at Fort Wayne. Eleven months later he became an apprentice in the machine shops of the same company, putting in four years in this capacity, after which he began work for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad Company at Wellsville, Ohio, where he remained but a short time. Subsequently he worked . for a time for the Cleveland, Canton & Southern Railroad Company at Canton, and then for eight months worked for the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Company, resigning to go west. He worked as a machinist for various roads and traveled for three years with a view to seeing the country a,nd gaining experience in railroad work. Returning to Fort Wayne, he spent four months, in the employ of the Wabash Railroad Company, and was promoted and sent to Montpelier, Ohio, as roundhouse foreman ; this was in 1886. After spending nine months in Montpelier, Mr. Hess was sent to Delray by the same company, in charge of the roundhouse there, and while there he resigned his position and began working for the. Grand Trunk Railway Company, taking charge of their roundhouse at Detroit ; eighteen months later he resigned and went to Horton, Kansas, as a machinist with the Rock Island railroad, from which place he was sent to Pratt, Kansas, as a promotion, in charge of the roundhouse, later being sent to Caldwell, Kansas, for the Rock Island. The company transferred him to Chicago in charge of their machine shops at
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Forty-second street, where he remained two years. He then became foreman for the Balti' more & Ohio erecting shop at Newark, Ohio, and after a short time was sent by them to Chicago to become general foreman of the South Chicago shops. Sixty days later he was promoted to the position of master mechanic at Lorain, which position he has satisfactorily filled six years. Mr. Hess is a thorough mechanic, enterprising and industrious, and most conscientious in the performance of his duties.
For some time Mr. Hess has taken an active part in municipal affairs in Lorain, and is now one of the three councilmen-at-large of the city. Fraternally he is a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the .Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is also a member of the Lorain Board of Commerce.
Mr. Hess married Odelia, daughter of Henry Hageman, of Lorain, and they have one son, Franklin Edward, now three years, old.
GILES N. LARKCOM was born in Freedom township, Portage county, November 7, 1837, and is a son of Samuel and Lucy (Hawley) Larkcom, both natives of Otis, Berkshire county, Massachusetts ; he is a grandson of Paul and Comfort (Norton) Larkcom, natives of Massachusetts, and great-grandson of Silas and Mollie (Harbord) Larkcom, natives of England. Silas Larkcom emigrated to America between 175o and 1760, settling at Otis, Massachusetts, and was killed in 1765. Paul Larkcom removed from Massachusetts to Ohio with his youngest son Linas in 1825, locating in Freedom township ; he purchased 240 acres of wild land, which he afterward added to, and eventually owned several hundred acres, lying both north and south of Drakesburg. Samuel Larkcom and Lucy Hawley were married January i, 1822, in Massachusetts, and in 1826 removed to Freedom township, settling in the southern part of the township. The Hawleys were old settlers in Massachusetts. Samuel Larkcom had to cut a place out of the timber in which to build his log cabin, and as the settlers of those early days had no roads, they located directions by means of blazed trees. At this time the woods abounded in deer and other wild game. He cleared his farm and made all possible improvements, and became possessed of 105 acres in one spot and forty acres in another. Samuel Larkcom. died May 30, 1873, and his wife May 28, 1867.
Samuel Larkcom and his wife had five children, namely : Lester, deceased ; Levitt, a soldier in the Union army, died August 20, 1863, in Nashville, Tennessee ; Eliza O., Mrs. Ira Baker, died December 17, 1862 ; Giles N.; and Miles N., died March 12, 1841.
Giles N. Larkcom always resided at home, and at the death of his parents became possessed of the estate of 145 acres, which he has since occupied. He carries on a line of general farming, and keeps a fine dairy. He is an enterprising and ambitious farmer, and has met with splendid success. In political views Mr. Larkcom is a Republican, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Larkcom has been twice married, (first) in 1854, Laura, daughter of George and Nancy Jones, born in Newton Falls, Ohio, and their children were : Eliza, died at the age of fourteen years ; Addie, Mrs. Carl Newton, a widow residing at Warren, Ohio ; and Miles, who died in infancy. Mr. Larkcom married (second), December 25, 1867, Louisa, daughter of David and Mary (Lindley) Safford, born in Brunswick, Medina county, Ohio, September 12, 1848. David Safford was born March 22, 1822, and his wife July 21, 1828 ; his parents were Perry and Maragaret (McKilley) Safford, natives of New York state, and his grandfather, Perry Safford, was the son of David and Orra (Simpson) Safford. Mr. and Mrs. Larkcom had children as follows: Bertha, Mrs. George Gothem ; Edith, Mrs. Roland Phipps ; Lucy, Mrs. Albert Kropp; and Mable, Mrs. Lynn White.
JOHN R. BARCLAY was born in Edinburg, Ohio, December 26, 1841, and is a son of George Wilson and Hannah (Dawson) Barclay, both natives of Mahoning county, Ohio; they located in Edinburg in 1832 and purchased one acre and later 1,114 acres of Iand, paying for only one acre at the time, and for the rest as they were able. John Barclay received his education in the district and high schools of Portage county, and afterwards engaged in stone cutting, which he followed some ten or twelve years. He resided with his parents until the time of his marriage, after which he settled on eighty-nine acres of land and took up farming, which he has successfully. followed since. He is Democratic in his political views and takes 'great interest in public affairs.
Mr. Barclay married in June, 1889, Ann, daughter of David E. and Ann (Jenkin) Owen who was born December 12, 1851, and they
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have two daughters, Mary and Helen, both of whom live at home with their parents, in Charlestown township.
GEORGE WILSON ODEN, D. V. M., dairy and food inspector of the city of Lorain, in which city he is the leading veterinarian, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, October 7, 1880. He is a son of Phillip and Anna ( Egar) Oden, the former a native of Cleveland and the latter of Waverly, Pike county, Ohio.
After leaving the high school, Dr. Oden took up the study of veterinary surgery in the Ontario Veterinary College at .Toronto Canada where he spent the years of 1899 and 1900. He next took a course of study in the Ohio State College at Columbus, Ohio, where he graduated in 1904, with the degree D. V. M. In August, 1904, with he located in Lorain and engaged in the practice of his profession, and continued successfully in private practice until his appointment as dairy and food inspector of Lorain, in November, 1907. He still keeps as large a private practice as his official duties will permit of his handling.
Dr. Oden takes an active interest in the progress and development of Lorain, and is an enterprising, public-spirited citizen. He stands well in his profession, and Is universally esteemed, enjoying the confidence of the entire community. Fraternally he is a member of
the Knights of Pythias. He also belongs to the Lake Erie Veterinary Association.
Dr. Oden married Myrtle M. Roling, of Columbus, Ohio, daughter of Charles Roling, and they have on daughter, Helen Gertrude, born February 11, 1907.
ROBERT BENTLEY.—A man of practical ability and great energy, enterprising and
progressive, Robert Bentley, of Youngstown, Mahoning county, has attained noteworthy success
in business circles, and as president of the Ohio Iron and Steel Company and also of the Carbon
Limestone Company has become a power in advancing the industrial life of the city. A son of the
late Martin Bentley, Jr., he was born, August 30, 1854, in Youngstown, Ohio, and is an excellent
representative of the native-born citizens who have contributed full share in promoting the best
interests of this section of the state.
Martin Bentley, Sr., grandfather of Robert Bentley, was a pioneer of the Western Reserve,
and for many years served as cashier of the Western Reserve Bank in Warren, Ohio. He was a man of strict integrity, highly respected throughout the community in which he lived. He married Elizabeth Fitch, a native of New York city.
Martin Bentley, Jr., was born July 16, 1832, in Warren, Ohio, and died in Youngstown, Ohio, April 11, 1862, while yet a young man. He inherited the business ability which characterized his father, and after filling the position of assistant cashier of the Mahoning Bank of Youngstown for a time, became a partner in the banking firm of Wick Brothers of this city. He married Mary McCurdy, who was brought up and educated in Youngstown, Ohio, being a daughter of Dr. Robert McCurdy. Dr. McCurdy was born in the north of Ireland, of excellent Scotch-Irish ancestry. Immigrating with his family to the United States in 1843, he bought land near Crab Creek, Mahoning county, Ohio, and for many years was engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was twice married, by his first union having three daughters—Isabella, Catherine and Elizabeth—all of whom have passed to the higher life. Dr. McCurdy married for his second wife, Eliza Henry, who was born in Ireland, of Scotch ancestors, and died in Mahoning county, Ohio. at the early age of thirty-five years. Of this union six children were born, namely : Mary, widow of Martin Bentley, Jr.; John, one of the leading physicians of Youngstown ; Robert, deceased, in whose sketch, which appears elsewhere in this work, a more extended sketch of the McCurdy family may be found ; William, deceased ; Thomas, deceased : and Samuel H., living. Mrs. Bentley, the oldest child, died June 23, 1909. Her hospitable home at 75 Bryson street, was a center of social activity. She was greatly interested in philanthropical works, being identified with various of the city's charitable organizations, and was one of the promoters of the City Hospital. Possessing literary taste and much intellectual force, she had the distinction of being the founder of the first Woman's Club of Youngstown, and was one of its most interested members. To her and her husband four children were born, namely : James, who died in infancy ; Robert, the special subject of this sketch ; Eliza Henry, a graduate of Vassar College, and for several years a teacher in the Rayen School, Youngstown, is the widow of Rev. O. V. Stewart, a Presbyterian minister, who died November 12, 1894, leaving her with two children, Robert Bentley Stewart and James Wilbur Stewart ; and John
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M. Bentley, assistant auditor of the Carnegie Steel Company (of Pittsburg), who married Mary Yeager and has two children, Harry and Josephine.
Robert Bentley married, October 16, 1895, Augusta F. Zug, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Annie E. and Jacob T. Zug. Mr. and Mrs. Bentley have three sons, namely : Robert Bentley; Jr., Martin Zug Bentley and Richard McCurdy Bentley. Politically Mr. Bentley is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party. Religiously he and his family are members of the Presbyterian church. The beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Bentley is located at No. 718 Wick avenue, and beneath its hospitable roof they take delight in entertaining their many friends and acquaintances.
H. A. STURDEVANT, a retired stock farmer of Freedom township, Portage county, was born in Bath township, Summit county, Ohio; September 4, 1825, and is a son of Joel and Diana (Capron) Sturdevant, natives of Litchfield, Connecticut. They removed first to Pennsylvania and from there to Summit county, Ohio, and in 1834 settled in Freedom township. Joel Sturdevant bought a farm, which he cleared, and remained there many years, finally, however, removing to the house of his son, above mentioned, where he died in 1882, at the age of ninety-one years. His wife died in 1869. They were the parents of ten children.
H. A. Sturdevant was the fifth and youngest son, and lived with his parents until the time of his marriage, and then settled on a farm he owned in Shalersville. After living there twelve years, he sold this property and removed to Freedom township, where he purchased a farm of 163 acres just north of his father's farm. This property had some improvements made, and Mr. Sturdevant has made others, building some fine barns. He has done a general line of farming and made a specialty of stock raising, having a fine flock of delaine sheep. He has been unable to perform any of the actual work of carrying on the farm since January, 1909, on account of failing health, and can only oversee the work of his employes. In political views he is a Republican, and he has held all the township offices. He is a member of the Freedom Grange, and has always taken a keen interest in the affairs and prosperity of the town.
Mr. Sturdevant married, November 17, 1853, Wealthy Ann Tuttle, born at Stockton, Chautauqua county, New York, February 3, 1831; she is a daughter of Eli and Mary (Hale) Tuttle, the former born at Rowe and the latter at Florida, Massachusetts. They traveled by way of the Erie canal to New York, where they resided until 1833, at which time they removed to Shalersville, Ohio. Mr. Tuttle died September 3o, 1874, aged sixty-eight years, and his wife died April 5, 1870, at the age of sixty-four. They were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom Wealthy Ann was the oldest. Mr. and Mrs. Sturdevant have no children.
MARCELLUS RILEY DOWNS.—No more worthy representative of the pioneer settlers of Nelson, Portage county, can be found in the Western Reserve than Marcellus Riley Downs, whose birth occurred in Nelson, August 23, 1847. His father, Joseph Root Downs, was one of the original householders of Nelson, and his grandfather, Zina Downs, who married Betsey Root, once visited the Reserve, but returned to his Massachusetts home and spent his last years among the Berkshire Hills.
The Downs family originated in England, and was first represented on American soil by two brothers who came over in early colonial times and loyally stood by their adopted country in its times of peril and need. Mr. Downs now has in his possession a very handsomely carved old powder horn, which was taken from an Indian at the battle of Ticonderog by his great-grandfather, November 20, 1759.
Joseph Root Downs, 'born in Sandisfield Massachusetts, February 23, 1807, migratee with his family to the Western Reserve in 1836, traveling by way of the Erie canal from Albany to Buffalo, thence by the lakes to Cleveland, and from there to Nelson, Portage county, with teams. While on the journey the oldest child of the family was taken ill with scarlet fever, and the entire party was detained two weeks. on that account. He took up a tract of land that was so heavily timbered
nothing could be seen of any neighbors and only one and one-half acres had been cleared. He moved with his family into the log cabin standing on the place, and by dint of strenuous labor improved a fine homestead, erecting substantial farm buildings, and placing a large part of the land under cultivation Here he carried on general farming successfully until his death, March 29, 1901. He married, in 1831, Esther Hawley, who was
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born December 25, 1805, in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, where her father, John Hawley, settled when coming to the United States from England. He married Betsy Adams, who belonged
to that distinguished New England family that gaye to the United States two presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and from which Charles Francis Adams was sprung.
Brought up in Nelson, Marcellus Riley Downs, one of a family of four children, two boys and two girls, was educated in his native town, attending the common schools and the village academy.
On September 1, 1878, in Charden, Ohio by Rev. R. M. Keyys, Mr. Downs was united inmarriage with Abbie S. Risley, who was forn May 4, 1847, in Trumbull county, Ohio, a daughter of Sylvester Risley, being one of a family of ten children. Sylvester Risley, born in Madison, New York, December 30, 1814, came to the Western Reserve about 1837, and settled near Oberlin. He married, September 1, 1835. Harriet Richards, who was born November 15, 1810, in York state, a daughter of Charles and Abigail ( Manley ) Richards. Both spent their last years in Portage county, and were buried 'in the Nelson cemetery, his death occurring September 24, 1880, and hers July 30, 1886.
Three children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Downs, namely: Ellis Sylvester, born June 22, 1879; Lawrence Joseph, born March 17, 1881; and George Risley, born November 27, 1882. All of these children were born and bred in Nelson. Lawrence J. Downs died October 22, 1892, being accidentally killed while hunting. Ellis S. Downs married, June 21, 1905, Iva Stoddard, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and they have two sons, twins, Carl and Kenneth, born January 15, 1907. George R. Downs married Emma Pinkerton, of Freedom, Ohio, on May 2, 1901, and they have three children, Mabel Ortensis, born November 3, 1902 ; Lawrence William, born October 10, 1904; and Nemar Ethelbert, born October 1, 1906. Mrs. George R. Downs was born March 22, 1880, a daughter of Mary Jane and William Pinkerton.
ASHBEL G. SMITH.-It is the earnest desire of the publishers of this work to offer in its pages a
permanent mark of the appreciation due them to that venerable and honored citizens of
Painesville, Lake county, Ashbel Grattan Smith, whose able co-operation has been most
courteously accorded in the providing of much valuable and interesting historical data that enters
into this compilation. Few citizens of the Western Reserve have a wider or more intimate
knowledge of its history than has he, and this fact gives emphasis to the value of his
contributions to this work. A man of fine literary appreciation, of comprehensive reading and
study, and of distinctive intellectual force, he has pursued the even tenor of his way without
ostentation or desire for publicity, but those privileged to know the man as he is can not but have
respect and reverence for his worthy thoughts and worthy deeds, his kindly and generous
attributes of character, and the fine intellectual attainments that represent the long years of study
and of association with men and affairs. The province of this publication is necessarily
circumscribed, but it is a matter of gratification to be able to present a brief review of the career
of the. venerable citizen whose name initiates this paragraph.
Ashbel Grattan Smith was born at Winsted, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on the 25th of July. 1829, and is a scion of a family that was founded in New England in the early colonial epoch of our national history. The lineage is traced back in a direct way to Sir William Smith, who gained the order of knighthood in England prior to the reign of Henry VIII. The family as represented in America is presumed to be of blended English and Scotch strains. Moses Smith, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born at Hartford, Con necticut, and was "an active, resolute man of sterling worth." He became the father of four sons and one daughter, namely : S. Curtis, Ashbel, Henry Grattan, George A., and Caroline. The maiden name of his first wife was Adams, a relative of the distinguished Massachusetts family of that name. The second wife of Moses Smith was a collateral descendant of the Seymour family of England.
Solomon Curtis Smith, son of Moses and ______ (Adams) Smith, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in which state he was reared and educated, and there was solemnized his marriage to Sarah R. Hayden, of Litchfield county. In 1830 he came with his family to the Western Reserve and settled in that part of Geauga county that is now Lake county. Here he became a successful farmer and mechanic. Of his seven children the eldest is he to whom this article is dedicated. Ann Caroline was born in 1831 ; Sarah Margaret,
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in 1833 ; Samuel Hayden, in 1836 ; Henry Hubert, in 1838; Cassius. M., born 1840, died in 1872 ; and Mirabeau L. is the youngest of the children. All are living except Cassius M. but Ashbel G. Smith is now (1910) the only representative of the immediate family in the Western Reserve, the others residing at various points in the west.
Colonel Ashbel Smith, the second of the children of Moses Smith, remained a bachelor until his death. He was a graduate of Yale College and was a man of high intellectual attainments, and was a distinguished figure in connection with the early history of the state of Texas, his adopted state, and served as minister to both England and France. He was long a prominent and influential factor in public life and was an intimate friend of the great Texan, General Sam Houston. He served as a member of the Texas legislature and was for many years president of the "Board of Regents of the University of Texas," at Austin, an incumbency which he retained until the time of his death. He supported the cause of the Confederacy during the Civil war and served as colonel in command at the seige and fall of Vicksburg, in 1863. One familiar with his career spoke of him at the time of his death as "the most learned man that Texas ever produced."
Henry Grattan Smith, third son of Moses Smith, was likewise graduated in Yale College, and he became one of the most prominent members of the bar of Memphis, Tennessee, in which state he wielded much influence in public affairs. He was at one time urged to accept nomination for the office of governor of that state, but declined the honor. He was a stanch supporter of the Union during the Civil war.
Dr. George A. Smith, youngest of the four sons of Moses Smith, was likewise afforded the advantages of Yale College, in which he was graduated, and he was also an able physician and surgeon. He was a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war and was an extensive cotton planter in that section. He was an uncompromising and outspoken Union man and successfully defied an attempted conscription into the Confederate army. He died about a decade ago, September 29, 1900, at Galveston, Texas.
Caroline Smith, only daughter of Moses Smith, was.born at Hartford, Connecticut, and was a woman of fine education and much culture. She became the wife of Dr. Kittridge of Keene, New Hampshire, and they became the parents of two sons and one daughter.
Solomon Curtis Smith, father of the subject of this sketch, was afforded the advantages of the common schools of his native state, and, like his brothers, he was a man of strong mentality
and independent views. He was influential in the affairs of his community after coming to what is now Lake county, Ohio (1830) and his name merits a place of honor on the roster of its sterling pioneers. He held various offices of public trust in Concord township, including that of postmaster, and continued to reside in that township until 1855, when he removed to the western part of Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life. He died at Kirkwood, that state, in 1896, at the venerable age of ninety-four years, and his .cherished and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest in 1886. Early in life he favored the Universalist belief but later became a Presbyterian, and when about fifty years of age he severed all church associations and followed the trend of broad and liberal religious views.
Ashbel G. Smith was an infant of about one year at the time of the family removal from Connecticut to the Western Reserve, and he was reared to maturity in Concord township, Lake county, where he was afforded the advantages of the pioneer schools; including the select or high school maintained in the "Little Red School House" at Wilson's Corners in Concord township. Thereafter he attended the preparatory academy, kept by Rev. Samuel Bissell, at Twinsburg Summit county, for about two terms, leaving shortly before his graduation, his original intention having been to enter the Western Reserve College, at Hudson. Upon leaving school, however, he went to Galveston, Texas, in 1846, and he attended the first public school organized in that then frontier town, in which his uncle, Colonel Ashbel Smith, had established his home. In the school mentioned Mr. Smith "graduated out" at the expiration of three weeks, as his prior instruction had covered the same ground and he could not secure classical training and under the teachers employed. In 1847 he returned to the north. On the 1st of February, 1855, at Cleveland, .Ohio, was celebrated his marriage to Miss Alma J. Huntoon, daughter of Major Corbin Huntoon, a veteran of the war of 1812, and Jane (Gage) Huntoon. Soon after his marriage Mr. Smith removed to Warren coun-
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1367
ty, Illinois, and in the summer of 1855 he there erected the second dwelling house in the prospective town of Linden, now known as Kirkwood. The town rapidly grew in population and became an important shipping point. Mr. Smith assisted in the organization of the village, and was elected a member of the first village council, besides which he was called upon to serve in other offices of local trust. He became one of the active business men of Linden, where for some time he condusted a large and prosperous enterprise as a buyer and shipper of grain.
In 1866 Mr. Smith returned to Lake county, Ohio, and established his home in Painesville. In the following year he here purchased a half interest in a planing mill and sash and door factory, and the operation of the same proved profitable. In 1871 he disposed of his interest in the business, and in the financial panic of 1873 he sacrificed his entire capital, gained by close and earnets application in preceding years. After that time he gave his attention principally to minor contracting work, and since 1875 he has lived virtually retired from a stated business, yet is still active in lighter labors (1910). For several years he served as secrretary of the "County Board of Visitors," whose duty is to have a general survey of the various public institutions of the county and while in this position he was several times a delegate to the annual meetings of the "State Board of Charities and Corrections." In later years Mr. Smith has peen occasional correspondent for various newspapers, and has made many interesting contributions on different subjects news local and general history, physicans and philosophy. He has a well trained mind, has shown fine powers of observation and ratiocination, has covered a wide realm of literature in his reading and study, and from every source has gained something to place in his storehouse of knowledge.
Liberal and progressive as a citizen, Mr. Smith has, always shown the highest civic ideals and has ever stood ready to lend his influence and aid in support of all worthy measures advanced for the general good. He pronounces himseIf a "Lincoln Republican." He has served as a member of the city council of Painsville, was a United States census enumerator in 1890, and has held other minor offices of local order. Broad and tolerant in his religious views, Mr. Smith has a deep reverence for spiritual verities, but holds no sympathy with set creeds and dogmas. He has epigramatically stated his position in the following words : "I believe all that I know, but do not assume to know all that I may believe." For four years he had charge of the Sunday meetings of a society of Spiritualists and liberal thinkers, 1867-71—an organization which had a membership of full one hundred persons. For many years he has been a zealous member of the Lake County Humane Society.
Mrs. Alma J. (Huntoon) Smith passed away in 1896, at the age of sixty-four years. She was a woman of most gracious personality and of marked culture and refinement, and she was held in affectionate regard by all who came within the sphere of her gentle influence. Ashbel G. and Alma J. (Huntoon) Smith became the parents of three children, concerning whom the following brief data are given : Estelle J., who was the first child born in the embryo town of Linden (now Kirkwood), Illinois, in 1856, is now the wife of Frank P. Pratt, of Painesville, and they have two sons and two daughters. Wynne S., who was born in 1860, is an up to date artist at Painesville, is married and has three sons, and Gertrude A., who was born in 1867, became the wife of John C. Barto ( 1892), Clerk of Courts, Lake county. They have three sons.
The Smith family has long been known as one of fine musical ability and its reputation in this line has far transcended local limitations. Mrs. Alma J. Smith was possessed of an exceptionally fine contralto voice, and all three of the children have inherited the musical ability of the father and mother, especially Mrs. Pratt. who has been designated as the most effective mezzo-soprano in northern Ohio. She was offered a leading position in a fine opera company, but declined the overture. For many years the Smith family sang the songs of home and sentiment, as well as compositions of the most classical order, and have appeared before thousands. For a quarter of a century the three children and Mr. Pratt, the husband of the eldest daughter, have constituted a salaried and most effective quartet church choir. Mrs. Pratt has trained and led large choral bodies and has been specially successful in such ensemble work. Originally the family were known to the public as "The Smith Family of Singers," and they touched the best in all departments of vocal music, including oratorio. It may be added that they have rendered their sympathetic and comforting harmonies on nearly one thousand recorded funeral and memorial occasions, carrying hope and conso-
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lation to many an aching heart. The family, including Mr. Smith himself, have at various times enlivened, with appropriate songs, great camps and convocations of people, where Henry Ward Beecher, Col. Robert G. Ingersoll and other distinguished speakers, were the chief attractions.
In the city of Ashtabula, Ohio, on the first of February, 1901, Mr. Smith contracted a second marriage, having then been united to Mrs. Sarah E. Dwight, who was born in the state of Pennsylvania and who presides with gracious dignity over their pleasant home. She is a woman especially qualified for society work and is a member of the secret order of Rebekahs, and for years has held the dignified office of chaplain in that grand' and humane organization, "The Woman's Relief Corps," No. 84, auxiliary to the Grand Army Republic.
Mr. Smith's descendants of the third and fourth generations, who have come into his life to bless the Indian summer of his declining years, are as follows : Children of Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Pratt : Donald Smith (Pratt), born 1887, now cashier of the Pullman dining service ; Alma Louise (Pratt), wife of Samuel House, Jr., electrician of Colorado, born 1889, married October, 1908, and has one representative of the fourth generation, Victor Herbert House, born March 5, 1910 ; Francis Victor Pratt, born 1895, and Helen Antoinette Pratt, born 1898. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Wynne S. Smith : Harold Burnell Smith, born 1893 ; Sterling S. Smith, born 1896, and Julian Kerr Smith, born 1899. Children of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Barto : Philip Smith Barto and Robert.
Smith Barto (twins), born 1893, and John Ashbel Barto, born 1904.
Without a single exception the ten grandchildren above named have evinced a decided taste for music and six of the ten have been or still are members of the "boy choir" at St. James Episcopal church, of Painesville.
GEORGE W. CRILE, A. M., M. D., is one of the distinguished representatives of the medical profession in the Western Reserve and one who has attained marked reputation in the field of surgery. Dr. Crile was born in the village of Chili, Coshocton county, Ohio, on the 11th of November, 1864, and is a son of Michael and Margaret (Deeds) Crile, both of whom were born in Ohio, and both representatives of honored pioneer families of Coshocton county, where the father devoted the major portion of his active career to agricultural pursuits. After completing the curriculum of the public schools Dr. Crile continued his academic studies in turn in the Ohio Northern University and Wooster University. In 1887 he was graduated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Since his graduation Dr. Crile has done advanced post-graduate work in his profession in Vienna, London, Berlin and Paris. He has been engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Cleveland since 1887, and his success is indicated by the high reputation which he enjoys. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Science, of the American Geographical Society, of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and a member of the American Physiological Society, the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the American Pathological and Bacteriological Society, the American Bio-Chemical Society, the American Surgical Society, the American Society of Clinical Surgery, the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society, the American Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, the International Surgical Association, the American Society for Cancer Research, the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, the Mississippi Valley Medical Society and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He is also professor of clinical surgery in the Western Reserve Medical College and a member of the surgical staff of Lakeside Hospital. He served as brigade surgeon on the staff of General Garretson during the Spanish-American. war, in connection with which his service was principally in Porto Rico, and he is at the presen time surgeon in the reserve corps of the United States army.
Amid the exactions and heavy responsibilities of his private practice Dr. Crile finds time to give to original research and study, and to take active part in the work and deliberation of the many important professional organizations with which he is identified, as noted in the preceding paragraph. He is the author of the following technical works, issued under the titles here designated : "Experimental Research into Surgical Shock ;" "Experimental and Clinical Research into Certain Surgical Problems ;" "Experimental Research into the Respiratory System ;" "Blood Pressure in Surgery," an experimental and clinical research; and "Hemorrhage and Transfusion," an experimental and clinical research. The first four
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volumes mentioned were published by the Lippincott Company of Philadephia, and the last by D. Appleton & Company of New York. These contributions have met with most cordial appreciation and reception by the medical fraternity.
In politices the doctor gives his support to the principles and policies for which the Repulbican party stands sponsor, and he is identified with the Union, Country, Tavern, and University Clubs, of Cleveland, and with the Winous Points Shooting Club and Castalia Sporting Club.
He is descended from stanch colonial stock, and records extant bear authentic evidence that ancestors in borth paternal and maternal lines were enrolled as patriot soldiers in the war of the Revolution. In 1900 Dr. Crile was united in marriage to Miss Grace McBride, daughter of John Harris McBride, and the three children of this union are: Margaret, Elizabeth and George Harris.
Dr. JOHN F MCGARVEY, a leading physician and surgeron of Lorain, is a native of Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania, born October 3, 1857, and son of Thomas and Mary (Adams) McGarvery. Thomas McGarvey, son of Harry McGarvey, was a native of Pennsylvania, and Mary, daughter of John Adams was a native of Ireland. John Adams brought his family to the United States when his daughter Mary was but three months old. Thomas McGarvey spent his entire life as a resident of Huntingdon county, PennsyIvania, and, with the exception of about evenve years spent in the hotel business, followed farming; he died in 1893. His widow still resides on the old farm in Pennsylvania, now in her eighty-fifth year.
Dr. McGarvey attended the public schools and spent the years 1878-9 as a student in the university at Wooster, Ohio. He graduated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia with the class of 1883, and began his practice of Lewistown, Pennsylvania. Later he moved to Cloquiet, Minnesota, where he spent eight years in private practice, and then spent three and half years in Colorado. Dr. McGarvey has been a resident of Lorain since 1894, and has built up a fine practice. In 1893, he took a post-graduate course in the Polyclinic in Philadelphia, also a similar course of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is one of the foremost men of his profession in Lorain, and is a member of the staff of St. Joseph's Hospital as well as surgeon for the Lorain plant of the American Shipbuilding Company. He also acts as surgeon for the Thew Automatic Shovel Company and for the Lorain Lumber Company. He is a member of the Lorain County Medical Society. He has won an enviable reputation not only in Lorain, but throughout that section, and is universally respected and revered. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic orders up to the degree of Knight Templar.
Dr. McGarvey married Alice G. Crowther, born in Jackson, Ohio, and daughter of Joseph J. Crowther, a well known furnace man of the Pittsburg-Youngstown district. They have one son, Frank C., born March 3, 1890. He graduated from the Lorain high school and has entered Western Reserve University at Cleveland.
JOHN BERGIN.-With the exception of a few years (three of which were spent at the front as a Civil war soldier), John Bergin, the substantial farmer of Franklin township, has spent his life since very early boyhood in the virtual vicinity of the place which he now occupies. He carries both the scars of wounds from Confederate bullets, as well as the honorable marks left by his many years of faithful toil in the fields and forests of Portage county; but is still a hardy and patriotic son of the soil. justly proud both pf his country and his calling. He is now the owner of 117 acres of land, all in one body, and is in a position to thoroughly enjoy the fruits of his labors —both the material comforts of life and the general respect of the community.
Mr. Bergin is a native son of England, born in Yorkshire, at Holmes Church, on the 1st of November, 1841, a son of Patrick and Mary (France) Bergin. His father was born at Parsonstown, Kings county, Ireland, and his mother in Yorkshire, their marriage occurring in England, where they remained until 1843. In that year they emigrated to the United States, landed at New Orleans and then ascended the Mississippi and Ohio rivers by steamboat to Portsmouth, Ohio, whence they went by canal to Northfield, that state. After remaining at that point a year, they located at Twin Lakes, Franklin township, 'this county, and a year later purchased a farm in section 72 of that township. There his wife died, in 1847. She was a widow (a Mrs. Robinson), with two sons and a daughter, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Bergin, and two sons and a daughter were also born of this second union.
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The latter was drowned at the age of eleven, while William, the younger son, was born in February, 1843, and is still living. Patrick Bergin married for his second wife, Miss Eleanor Donahue, a native of Ireland. The father died about 1873.
John Bergin, of this sketch, the oldest child born to Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Bergin, passed a rather unsettled period of his life between the death of his mother and his father's second marriage. When he was sixteen years of age he left the family homestead to take up an independent career, and worked as a farm hand until 1859. In October of that year, while still lacking a month of his eighteenth year, he married Miss Martha Mathews, a native of Chariton, Ohio. The youthful couple resided on a farm near that place until the wife's death, in October, 1860, almost exactly a year from the time of her marriage. Mr. Bergin then returned to Franklin township, and in 1861 purchased a fifty-acre tract of land in that section, subsequently buying two and a half and nine acres in other localities. With the exception of ten acres, the pieces were cov ered with timber. This was cleared away, the land cultivated and other improvements made which resulted in fixing Mr. Bergin in the township as a substantial citizen. But before making any decided progress in his career of peaceful industry he was to have his awful experience as a Union soldier. He first enlisted as a teamster in August, 1861, and was attached to the Seventh Ohio Regiment. He was discharged on account of sickness, January 16, 1862, and on the loth of October, 1862, re-enlisted in Company F, of the same regiment. As a part of the Grand Army of the Potomac he participated in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and, accompanying his command to the scenes of operations further to the south, also fought at Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, Georgia. At the last named engagement, November 27, 1863, a Confederate bullet entered his right creek, crashed through eight teeth and a part of his jaw and came out on the opposite side of his neck. The wound was a frightful one, and he lay in the Union hospitals at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Cleveland, Ohio, until July, 1864, when he was sufficiently recovered to be discharged and sent home.
As soon as possible the returned and sorely wounded soldier resumed the improvements on
his timber lands, and in 1873 again married. His second wife was Miss Betsey Reinhart, a native of Ravenna township and a daughter of Jacob and Susan (Willard) Reinhart, both born in West Virginia. Their daughter, Maggie, is now Mrs. Martin S. Myers, and is her father's housekeeper. After his second marriage Mr. Bergin moved to St. Clair county, Michigan, bought a farm there, upon which he resided for eight months, and then sold his property to locate at Kent, Ohio, where he entered the employ of the Erie Railroad. After working two years in the shops of that company, he located permanently on the farm in Franklin township which is still his property and his homestead. Mr. Bergin's second wife died in 1876, and in 1878 he married Miss Emma Waters, a native of Franklin township and daughter of Ashbury and Abagail (Waters) Waters, both of Portage county. The child of this union, Alma, became the wife of Dr. O. C. Hudson, of Painesville, Ohio. Mr Bergin's third wife died in 1881 and, as stated, Mrs. Maggie Myers, his daughter by his secand marriage, is now at the head of his do m.estic affairs and the comfort of his later years.
JOSEPH EDWIN UPSON has been an important factor in the industrial and civic developanent of Cleveland, where his interests are many and varied, and where he is recognized as a thoroughly representative citizen and business man and as one whose progressive ideas and loyalty are proving duly potent in connection with the upbuilding of the "Greater Cleveland." He is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Ohio, is a veteran of the Civil war, and in all the relations of life his course has been guided upon the highest plane of integrity and honor, so that he merits and holds the confidence and regard of all who have appreciation of his life and services as one of the world's workers.
Joseph Edwin Upson was born at Tallmadge, Summit county, Ohio, on the 14th of August, 1842, and is a son of Edwin and Betsey (Blakeslee) Upson, both of whom were natives of the state of Connecticut. Edwin Upson settled in Summit county, Ohio, in1822, and became one of the influential neers of that section of the state, where he reclaimed a farm and where he was prominent in public affairs. The names of Edwin Upson and wife merit a place on the roster of those
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who have contributed in due quota to the upbuilding of one of the great commonwealths of the American Union.
Joseph E. Upson was reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm and was afforded in the educational advantages as were offered in the somewhat primitive common schools of the locality and period. After leaving the schools, however, he completed a course in the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, and he then went to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he became clerk and bookkepper in the offices of the Waterbury, Savings and Loan Association. He retained this incumbency one year and then entered the employ of Abbott Brothers, manufacturers of and dealers in photographic supplies in New York City. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war he returned to his old home in Summit county, Ohio, where he again assisted his father in the work of the old homestead farm. In 1862 he joined the volunteer company known in the history of the Civil war as the "Squirrel Hunters." This, as well as similar companies, was organized in response to a call on the part of Governor David Tod, and the little command was sent to a point four miles below Covington, Kentucky, to repel the attack of General Kirby, of the confederate forces striving to make raids into northern Kentucky and southern Ohio. After a short period of service the company returned home and was disbanded. In 1864 Mr. Upson enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel John C. Lee, and this regiment was sent to Arlington Heights, Virginia, in defense of the national capital. The acommand received honorable discharge at he expiration of its 100 days' term of enlistment, and the regiment passed in review before President Lincoln, who was in position at the Whte House for this purpose. After his return to Ohio Mr. Upson received his honorable discharge, and shortly afterward he took up his residence in Cleveland, where he entered the employ of William Bingham & Company, hardware merchants, on Water street. He continued with this concern until he fall of 1866, when he entered the employ of L. L. Lyon, who was engaged in the ship chandlery business on River street. In 1871 Mr. Upson entered the same line of enterprise in an independent way, by forming a partnership with John W. Walton, under the firm name of Upson & Walton, and the two have since been continuously identified with the ship chandler's business, as manufacturers and dealers. The enterprise is now conducted under the corporate title of the Upson-Walton Company, and of this company Mr. Upson is president.
Mr. Upson's fine initiative powers and administrative talents have led him to identify himself with other important enterprises, in which his co-operation has been a factor making for distinctive success and progress. He is president of the Wilson Transit Company, the Cleveland Block Company and the Upson-Walton Company ; is vice-president of the Ma-honing & Lake Erie Coal Company ; and is a member of the directorate of each of the following named corporations : Central Grain Elevator Company, Cleveland Grain Company, Keller Transit Company, Lake Carries' Association and Volunteer Transit Company. He has played an important part for many years in connection with lake-marine commerce and his various business enterprises have conduced greatly to the benefit of his home city, in which his interests have naturally centered. The family home is located at 11447 Euclid avenue, Cleveland's far-famed and beautiful residence thoroughfare.
In politics, while never animated by aught of ambition for public office, Mr. Upson has ever been arrayed as a stanch advocate of the cause of the Republican party. He is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian church.
In the year 1868 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Upson to Miss Cornelia M. Lyman, daughter of the late Luther F. Lyman, of Cleveland, who was one of the early settlers and influential citizens of Newton Falls, Trumbull county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Upson have four children : Frances is the wife of Robert Young, of Los Angeles ; Oliver W. is associated with the business of the Upson-Walton Company, already mentioned in this article ; Walter L., who was graduated in Princeton University, receiving the degrees of E. E. and M. S., is now assistant professor of electric engineering in the Ohio State University; and Clara C. is the wife of Eugene H. Churchill, of Cleveland.
ADAM FEICK.—German industry and thrift were largely in evidence in the upbuilding of
Sandusky, and foremost among the contractors and builders who erected many of the city's
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finest residences and most important business blocks was Adam Feick, head of the firm of Adam
Feick & Co., which was in existence for many years.
Born and reared in Darmstad, Germany, a son of Philip Feick, Adam Feick left the Fatherland September 21, 1852, resolving in his mind to secure for himself a part of the good fortune awaiting those who ventured into the newer territories of America. Immigrating to the United States, he came directly to Ohio, locating in Sandusky, where for awhile he worked at his trade of a carpenter and joiner as a journeyman, winning an excellent reputation for skilful, durable and honest workmanship. When ready to embark in business on his own account, he formed a partnership with his brother, George Feick, under the firm name of Adam Feick & Brother. Successful from the first, this firm subsequently filled many contracts of note, having charge of the erection of many large and handsome structures. After the death of the senior member of this firm, Adam Feick, which occurred March 9, 1893, the business was continued by his brother, George.
Mr. Feick married, in Sandusky, January 8, 1859, Johanna Fulton, who was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1841, a daughter of John Frederick Fulton. A native of Germany, born June 7, 1807, John F. Fulton emigrated from Wurtemberg, his native place, when young, settling first in Pennsylvania. Coming to Ohio in 1843 with his family, he located in Hancock county, and was a resident of this state until his death, April 24, 188r. In 1832, in Pennsylvania, Mr. Fulton married Magdalena Koli, and of the twelve children born to their union seven were living at the time of his death.
The union of Adam and Johanna (Fulton) Feick was blessed by the birth of ten children, namely : John Adam, born in Danbury, Ohio, in 1862 ; Ida Elizabeth, born in Sandusky, in 1863 ; Christina, died in infancy ; also George, died at the age of one year, and Alford ; Henrietta Katherine, born in Sandusky, April 1, 1869; Emma Helena, born March 3, 1871 ; Cora Wilhelmina, born July 22, 1873 Minnie Louisa, born March 4, 1874 ; and Lewis Alfred, born April 16, 1879.
John Adam Feick, who was graduated from St. Mary's Institute, and is now a contractor and builder, married, in 1884, Elizabeth Zipfel, and they have one son, John Charles. Ida E. Feick married John Mertz, a prosperous hardware merchant and a contractor, and their only child, Alma Louise, married, in 1908, Dr. D. D. Smith. Henrietta Katherine Feick married Louis Zerbe and has two children, Helen and Lawton ; Emma Helena, wife of E. W. Odenbaugh, passenger agent on the Pennsylvania Railway, has two daughters, Mabel and Florence. Cora W. Feick married John F. Renner, a piano dealer. Minnie L. Feick, wife of W. C. Schaub, an insurance and real estate dealer, has four children, Corlouise, Fulton, Elizabeth, and Dorothy. Lewis Alfred Feick, engaged in the laundry business in Sandusky, married Ada Bloker, and they have three children, Mary Lucille, Lewis W. and John Adam. The death of Mr. Feick occurred at his home in March, 1893, and that of Mrs. Feick November 17, 1908, the deaths of these estimable people being a great loss not only to the immediate family, but to the community, and more especially to the German Lutheran church, in which both were active and faithful workers, Mr. Feick having served as elder and treasurer, and being a member of the vestry while Mrs. Feick was a prominent member of the Humane Society connected with thw church. The children have recently torn down the residence, at the corner of Central and Adams street, occupied by their parents for over forty years, and have erected a handsome nine-suite apartment building, which in honor of their parents they have named the A. Feick Flat.
EDWARD S. TRIPP is one of the honored piooeers of Wellington, and one of the city's oldest residents in point of continuous citizenship. He was born at Perry in Genesee county, New York, in June of 1819, and he came to Ohio in about the year of 1835, settling first on a farm in Wellington township. Charles Tripp, his father, had come to this township in the spring of that year and had bought fifty acres of land. He built a log house thereon, cleared a part of the tract and in the fall of the same year, 1835, he, brought his family here. Charles Tripp descended from a Rhode Island Quaker family. He married Sarah Cook, and her brother, Benjamin Cook, was one of the surveyors sent out by the government to explore the Pacific coast country.
In the early years of the fifties Edward S. Tripp moved from his farm to the village of Wellington, and he and his brother-in-law. Leander Church, built a shop and engaged in the manufacture of buggies and carriages, this
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1373
having been the first shop of that kind built in this part of the county. Mr. Tripp's ambition was to place on the market the best carriage that could be manufactured, and that he achieved his highest ambition is evidenced by the fact tht his reputation as a carriage builder extended over the entire northern part of the state. During forty-one years he continued in that business, his being the largest carriage works in northern Ohio at that time, and after retiring from the business he traveled for six or seven years for the H. P. Nail Company of Cleveland. During the past fifteen years he has lived retired from an active industrial life. lie has the honor of having served Wellington as its second mayor. The village was organized in 1855. and in April of 1856 he was elected its mayor, serving a full term of two years, and again in 1865 he was returned to that office and served another term of two years. He recalls to mind that during his administration as mayor there was but one violation of the village laws, and this disturbance arose from a man driving on the sidewalk. He was discharged after a lecture from the mayor. Mr. Tripp witnessed the historical Wellington slave rescue which took place before the Civil war.
He married many years ago, Adaline Magraugh, who was born in New England and escended afrom a pioneer family of Wellington. Mrs. Tripp died on the 16th of February, 1903. She bore her husband four children Charles Edward Tripp, the eldest, was born in the family home in Wellington in November of 1846. He attended the Hummiston Military School at Cleveland, and afterward joined the engineering corps of the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company, now the Lake Shore road. Subsequently returning to Wellington lie was for a few years with his father in the carriage business, later becoming interested in the Cleveland Rolling Mill with the Chisholm brothers, and next, with New York City as his headquarters, he traveled throughout the New England states in the interests of the Chisholm industries. Next he went to Chicago as the representative of the French Car Spring Company, the H. P. Nail Company and the Page Car Wheel Company. He conducted an office in that city until 1892, and in that year bought an interest in the Auditorium Hotel of Chicago, and continued as the manager of that celebrated hotel from 18922 until 1903, returning in the latter year to his old home in Wellington, and he is now living retired from an active business life. Mary, the second born child of Edward S. and Adaline Tripp, married Sidney Terry, a graduate of Oberlin College, and they reside in Chicago. Adelaide, the third child, married W. L. Hemenway and resides in Wellington. Carrie A., the youngest of the family, married William B. Vischer, of the firm of William Vischer & Son, and their home is in Wellington.
ALFRED L. BROWN AND FREDERICK H. BROWN.—Numbered among the sturdy, energetic and successful farmers of Lake county are Messrs. Alfred L. and Frederick H. Brown, of Concord township, who thoroughly understand the vocation which they follow and are enabled to carry it on with both profit and pleasure. They are of honored pioneer stock, their grandfather, Hosea Brown, having been one of the original settlers of Concord township.
Elijah Brown, their father, born in Lake county, was reared to agricultural pursuits. Ile married Margaret Winchell, who was also born in Lake county, a daughter of Harvey Wincuell, a pioneer settler. In 1871 he bought out the heirs of his father's estate, and lived on the old homestead, carrying on general farming until his death in 1894.
Alfred L. Brown was born May 25, 1853, in Geauga county. In 1881 he married Emeline King, a daughter of William King. She was brought up in the family of an uncle, Grandison Sear!, with whom she lived from the time she was five years old until her marriage. Their only child, Bert Brown, a painter by trade, living in Painesville, Ohio, married Gertrude Eminger.
Frederick H. Brown, born December 8, 1854, in Geauga county, Ohio, married, February 8, 1900, Abbie Huntoon, a daughter of Henry and Abigail Huntoon, of Hampden, Geauga county, and they have one son, Elijah, born in 1902.
MRS. PHILIP YODER was in her maidenhood Lucy J. Roth. and she was born in Wayne county,
Ohio, September 29, 1854, a daughter of Reuben and Lydia (Baughman) Roth, the father from
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a representative of the sturdy and thrifty German race, and the mother
was from Ohio, although her people were from the former commonwealth. Their daughter Lucy
received her education in the public schools in the vicinity
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of her home and in the high school of Doylestown, and following her school days she gave her hand in marriage to Philip N. Yoder, for many years a prominent and well known resident of Medina county. He was a native born son of Pennsylvania, where he was born to John and Magdalena (Nice) Yoder, and he became a business man of more than ordinary ability, aggressive and energetic in commercial affairs. He assisted in the organization of the Wadsworth Salt Company, and it was largely due to his acumen and foresight that the business of this corporation developed to its splendid proportions, and prior to this he had been engaged in the milling business and in grain buying. He served as a member of the municipal council of Wadsworth, where his opinions were valued and sustained, and he was honored and revered by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. Death claimed him on October 20, 1904, and he passed to his final reward, while his community mourned the loss of a true and valued citizen. Two sons were born to Lucy and Philip Yoder, Oliver R. and Benjamin R., and the younger son is now residing in Wadsworth, a director of the Wadsworth Salt Company and the active manager of the office. He is a graduate of the high school of Wadsworth and Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. He married Miss Lillian Huffman. Mrs. Yoder is a member of the Reformed church and of the Woman's Relief Corps in Wadsworth.
Oliver R. Yoder, the elder son of Lucy and Philip Yoder, a young man of the highest promise, was called from this life at the age of twenty-nine years. He was a native born son of Wadsworth, where he received his educational training, a graduate of its high school with the Class of 1893, and he also graduated from Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, in the spring of 1897. From that time on he held a responsible position with the Wadsworth Salt Company, of which he was an officer, and he was held in the highest esteem by all with whom he had dealings. He was received into the Trinity Reformed church in his boyhood and became a member of its choir, and he was also prominently identified with the fraternal order of Odd Fellows. In the hearts of his friends and family are enshrined many pleasant memories of Oliver R. Yoder, and his influence for good remains with those who knew him.
Abraham Yoder, a brother of Philip N. Yoder, was born in Upper Hanover township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1834. As a youth of sixteen he came to Ohio with his parents, the family home being established near Wadsworth in Medina county, and the last thirty-five years of his life were spent in this city, where he died on the 27th of August, 1908. He was identified with both the saw and planing mill business, and he built the splendid residence in which his widow now resides. She bore the maiden name of Mary Ann Ruth, born December 17, 1860, to Eli and Anna (Smith) Ruth, and is descended from an old Pennsylvania Dutch family from Hilltown township in Bucks county. The Ruth family were established in this country over 26o years ago.
ARTHUR FALKNER is one of the prominent and successful agriculturists of Ridgeville township, and he is also one of the township's trustees. He was born in Avon township, Lorain county, on the 14th of September, 1868, a son of Robert and Mary Ann (Fox) Falkner, both of whom were born in England. The father, born at Mosely, in Northamptonshire in January of 1832, came .to the United States in the spring of 1857, and afterward made his home for a short time with his cousin, W. Falkner, at Avon Center, Lorain county, 0hio. He was married there in 1860 to Mary Ann Fox, a daughter of Charles Fox, the keeper of an old-time tavern, the "Bullseye," at Clipstone, Northamptonshire, England. Robert Falkner came to this country almost penniless but at his death he owned an estate of 125 acres and a fine large stone residence one mile south of Avon Center. He died on the 29th of October, 1897, and his widow survived until the 3d of July, 1905, both dying in Avon township. They were also married in that township, and the following children blessed their union : Martha, who married Jasper Henson and is living in Avon township ; Elizabeth, the wife of Daniel Fitch, of the same place; Charles, who married Fanny Barrow, deceased, and he was killed in 1891 by a falling tree ; Arthur, the subject of this review; Julia the wife of George Buck, of Avon township; and Emily, who married Charles Glendenning and they are living. at Dover in Cuyahoga county.
Arthur Falkner was early inured to the work of the farm, and he attended in his early life the district schools of Avon and Ridgeville townships and one term in the Cleveland Business College. On leaving the school room he
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farmed with his father for a year in Avon township, and in the following spring married and moved to Ridgeville township, renting for eight years afterward the old Lewis farm of 200 acres and other lands. While attending the Cleveland Business College Mr. Falkner worked in a shoe store in the evening and Saturdays, thus making his own way. In the spring of 1898 he moved to the Culver farm, but still continued to work the Lewis place for two more years, and in 1894 he bought thirty-eight acres of the old Laurel Bebee estate. while in 1901 he bought the old Briner farm of sixty acres. In 1905 he purchased the remaining seventy-two and a half acres of the Bebee place, selling the Briner farm in November of 1909, and he, expects to make the Bebee farm his future home. Mr. Falkner also owns city property, having in 1904 bought 383 Furnace street, Elyria, and in 1907 he bought residence property at 224 Furance street,and in 1908 another house and two lots at 111 Hillsdale court.
On he 25th of March 1891 he was married to Mary Belle Daley, who was born in Avon Township on the 8th December, 1867, and they have the followingchildren: Charles Robert, who was born February 25, 1892, and is now attending the Elyria Business College Helen Doris, who was born December 28. 1893, and is now in her junior year in the Elyria high school; Glenn Walter, who was born August 20, 1895, and is in his first year in the Elyria high school; and Zelma Frances, born May 1, 1903, attending the Ridgeville Centre school. In 1907 Mr. Falkner was elected by the Republican party as a trustee of Ridgeville township, and in 1909 he was returned to that office. During a number of years he served as the treasurer of the Farmers' Mutual Home Insurance Company.
MARCUS H. HEIGHTON, proprietor of the widely known Pippin Lake Fruit Farm in Franklin Township, Portage county, both in his own person and in his family connections. stands for as fine and substantial a strain of pioneer blood as can be found in this section of the Western Reserve. He is a native of Edinburg township, this county, born on the 14th of June, 1849, and is a son of Joseph and Oliver (Case) Heighton, the former of whom . was a native of Northamptonshire, England, and the latter of Rootstown township. Portage county, of which her family constituted very early pioneers. The paternal grandparents were Thomas and Ann (Goodess) Heighton and the maternal ancestors of the same generation, Ariel L. and Minerva (Colton) Case. Ariel L. Case was born in Tolland county, Connecticut, in July, 1804, and was the son of Ariel Case, who was a soldier in the war of 1812, and while thus serving had the honor of going to the defense of Detroit against the' British. Ariel L. located on a tract of timber land in Rootstown township as early as 1808. He resided with his grandson, Marius H. Heighton, from 1878 to 1879 and afterward, until his death, made his home with Joseph Heighton, the father of the latter. In 1831 the paternal grandfather located at Newgarden, Ohio, where he remained for a few years prior to his settlement in Edinburg township. lie there followed his trade as a blacksmith for many years. Both before and during the Civil war his son Joseph was a widely known Abolitionist, and an industrious and bold operator of an Underground Railway in the Western Reserve. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Heighton, the parents of Marius H., settled in Edinburg township, on the paternal farm. In 1862 they moved to Rootstown township, where they remained until April 8, 1863, when the husband purchased a farm on the shores of Pippin Lake, Franklin township, and during the succeeding sixteen years devoted it chiefly to fruit raising. In 1879 he bought a farm and homestead one mile east of Kent, where both he and his wife spent their last years—the former dying August 11, 1908, and the latter, June 9, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Heighton were the parents of the following: Marius H., of this sketch ; Ann, who became Mrs. Nelson E. Olin. of Kent ; Parker, who is a resident of Brimfield township ; and L. B. Heighton, who died in 1901, aged forty years.
M. H. Heighton was in his fourteenth year when his parents, with their family, moved to the beautiful farm on Pippin Lake, and he has had the good fortune to reside upon it ever since. In 1879 he purchased the property, which he has developed into one of the finest horticultural estates in the Western Reserve. At different times he has added to the place, until the farm now embraces 140 acres, twenty acres of which is planted to apples, eight acres to pears and two acres to peaches. As indicated by its title, the Pippin Lake Fruit Farm is chiefly devoted to horticulture, but certain tracts are also given up to general farming. and the raising of beef cattle. As a home-
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stead, also, the place bears every evidence of comfort and good taste. On January I, 1879, Mr. Heighton married Miss Ida Hubbard, who was born June 16, 1855, daughter of John and Rebecca (Bergin) Hubbard—the former being a native of Ohio and the latter of New Hampshire. Their four children—Helen, Ralph B., M. Herbert and Robert Ingersoll Heightonare all living at home, the sons assisting their father in the conduct of the farm.
MARIE (GREENLEAF) BARCLAY was born August 27, 1820, and is a daughter of Tillie and Mary (Spofford) Greenleaf, both natives of New York. They came from Augusta, Oneida county, New York, by rail and canal, and settled in Charlestown, where they purchased over 100 acres. They were parents of fifteen children, five sons and ten daughters, of whom Marie is the only one surviving.
Marie Greenleaf taught in district and private schools seven terms, and after her marriage removed with her husband to Edinburg. She is a member of the Congregational church of Charlestown.
September 7, 1848, Marie Greenleaf married George W. Barclay, and they settled on a farm of fifty-six acres, which they have since increased to 112 acres. They had two children, one of whom died in infancy ; the other, Heriott, married Thomas Owen, of Edinburg.
C
HARLES D. AINGER, an attorney at law and a notary public in Andover, has been identified
with the annals of Ashtabula county from an early epoch in its history, and he has attained
prominence here as a lawyer, farmer, business man and citizen. Born in Perry township, Genesee
county, New York, November II, 1825, he is a son of Jesse and Anna (Mann) Ainger, and a
grandson on the paternal side of a Revolutionary soldier, Jesse Ainger, Sr., from New
Hampshire. He served through the entire period of the struggle for American independence, a
part of the time being under the direct command of Washington, and died in Sutton, Caledonia
county. Vermont, at an advanced age, surviving his wife.
Jesse Ainger, his son, went to New York as a young man before the war of 1812, and served in
that conflict, and after his marriage he lived in Genesee county and followed mechanical
pursuits. In 1831, with his wife, he made the journey to Ohio in a covered wagon, and they took
up their abode in Wayne township, Ashtabula county, but in 1832 moved to Andover township,
locating north of Andover, in the northwest corner of the township. There Jesse Ainger spent the.
remainer of his life and died, and the unimproved land where he had located so many years
before he transformed into one of the most valuable and highly cultivated farms of the township,
its boundaries embracing 300 acres. He died in the year of 1863, when seventy-four years of age,
and after his death his widow lived with her son Charles until her death on her nineetieth
birthday. Jesse Ainger served in many of the township offices, and he brought from New York
the first matched team of horses ever in Andover, and this proved an impetus for the raising of
good stock in this community. In the family of these revered pioneers were three sons and a
daughter. The eldest William W. Ainger, became a practicing attorney at Chagrin Falls, Geauga
county, Ohio. At the opening of the Civil war he raised a company and was made its captain, and
he died from exposure caused by his war service when he was forty-five years of age. He had
served in an Ohio regiment during the Mexican war as a lieutenant. Maryett P., the only
daughter, married John Mann, Jr., a cattle dealer and breeder and also a real estate dealer, a
wealthy man. She died at Warren, Ohio, at the age of eighty-four years. George W. Ainger
became a veterinary surgeon in Cleveland, and died in that city at the age of about forty years.
Charles D. Ainger, the only surviving member of that family, remained in the parental home until twenty years of age, receiving his education in Grand River Institute, then a manual labor school, studying there under the preceptors Tenney, Smith and Walker from 1840 until 1844. In the fall of 1844 he went to Bellevue in Huron county, but a few months later returned to the old home farm, and at the opening of the Civil war engaged in buying and shipping horses for the armies, continuing in that occupation throughout the conflict. Some time after this he was admitted to the bar, and he has practiced his profession for fifty years or more, and during the same period has been a notary public. Andover has been his home since leaving the farm, and he has enjoyed an extended law practice here and in the surrounding country. He also had the honor of assisting to organize the Republican party here, and was also prominent in the underground railroad institution during the period of the war. He was an intimate friend
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1377
of the celebrated John Brown, and was a member of the Black String Society organized to protect that gentlemen from the United States marshal. Although prominent in public affairs, Mr. Ainger has never sought office, preferring instead to give his time to his professional work and to his farming, owning at the present time from seven to eight hundred acres of land, which he rents. For some years past he has taken an active interest in the raising of fine stock, and his finely matched carriage horses have won many premiums at the fairs. He assisted in the organization of the First National Bank atJefferson, and in many ways is identified with the business life of Ashtabula county
On the 1 st of June, 1846, he was married to Almira Brainard, a daughter of Dr. Brainard, of Fremont, Ohio, and she died nineteen years later, in the fall of 1865. The six children of this union are: Florence I., the wife of W. J. Lawyer, on her father's farm at Leon ; Marlea O., the wife of Chauncy J.Cornwell, of Andover; Ida M., the wife of William Gape, of Ashtabula; Catherine, wife of James Paden, of Oil City, Pennsylvania; Charles E., the postmaster at Andover; and Jesse Brainard, a photographer at Youngstown. On the 29th of September, 1869. Mr. Ainger wedded Myra Barber, from Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and they have a son, Carlos D. Ainger, Jr.. an attorney at law In Cleveland. Charles D. Ainger was made a Mason at Meadville, Pennsylvania nearly sixty years ago. He was formerly a member of the Templars of Honor and the Good Templars, and has done much correspondence for newspapers. He had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of the monument erected to the memory of Commodore Perry fifty years ago, and at about the same time visited the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York City. He also attended the first fair held in Minnesota, the name of Charles D. Ainger is meffaceably traced in the history of Ashtabula county and figures on the pages which records the principal events from the early days down to the present time.
WILLIAM A. BLAIR—The late William A. Blair, who spent the larger part of his long and useful life within the boundaries of Lake county, occupied a foremost position among its worthy and respected citizens, and from his early manhood was conspicuously identified with its best interests, generously using his influence to promote the public welfare. Of substantial New England ancestry, he was born January 13, 1815, in Ware, Massachusetts, and at the age of three years was brought by his parents to Ohio. After attaining his majority, he was associated with his father and brother in business in Painesville, being a member of the Geauga Iron Company, with which he was connected until 1849.
In 1840 Mr. Blair bought the present Blair homestead property in Perry township, located five miles east of Painesville, on which the old Railroad Furnace, built by Thorndyke & Drury at the same time that the Geauga furnace was erected in Painesville, formerly stood. The coal shed was situated on the top of the hill, near where the present Blair residence stands, the furnace being at the foot of the hill. A double track railway connected the two, and the cars were operated by a cable, one car ascending the hill as another came down. It was a blast furnace, using bog ore, which was found on the lake shore many miles away. Remains of the old stacks are still standing, although the furnace was sold before Mr. Blair bought the land. His farm contained 200 acres when he bought it, extending to the south side of the Grand river. At the end of four years Mr. Blair was elected county auditor, and removed with his family to Painesville. At the expiration of his term of service, he returned to the farm, and was here engaged in farming, and at the same time operated the saw mill standing on the place until the spring of 1856, when he gave up milling. He met with success in his agricultural labors, and was prominent in public affairs, serving as justice of the peace for nearly a score of years. In 1886, retiring from active business, Mr. Blair returned to Painesville, where he resided until his death, June 1, 1897.
Mr. Blair was twice married. He married first, in 1841, Mary Ladd, a daughter of Jeduthan Ladd, of Kirtland, Ohio. She died October 22, 1843, leaving no children. He married second, December i8, 1845, Julia Beard, a daughter of Captain James Beard. She was born July 2, 1816, at Black Rock, near Buffalo, New York, and came with her parents to Painesville, Ohio, in 1823, a child of seven years. Captain Beard was born and bred in Connecticut, and was there for a time engaged in seafaring pursuits, sailing as master of a vessel. During the war of 1812 he was located in Buffalo, and his house was burned by the British. He died at his home in Painesville, Ohio, in 1824, of consumption. Captain
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Beard first visited Ohio in 1796, coming here with the surveying party that surveyed the Western Reserve. , The captain married Harriet Wolcott, who was born in Connecticut, and was a niece of the first Governor Wolcott of that state. Captain Beard had command of a lake steamer at the time of his marriage, and in Chicago, while on their bridal trip, they visited Fort Dearborn, Mrs. Beard being the first white woman ever in the fort. She survived her husband for more than half a century, passing away February 9, 1876, aged eighty-seven years. Mrs. Julia (Beard) Blair died on the home farm, in Perry township, February 19, 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Blair became the parents of seven children, namely : Harriet, residing with her brother Harry on the old home farm ; Frederick died in May, 1908, aged fifty-seven years, having lived in the west, either in Kansas or Colorado, since early manhood ; Robert lives in Kansas ; Catherine, at home ; Harry, who has spent two years in the west, now operates the homestead property ; and Margaret, an artist, is connected with the Ceramic department of the Cleveland School of Arts ; Caroline, the third child in succession of birth, is the wife of J. H. Tyler, of Perry township. Catherine Blair went to Calcutta, India, under the auspices of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, in 1888, and with the exception of three years spent at home on a vacation, remained there as a missionary for twenty years, returning to Ohio in 1908. Her work was largely literary; being employed in editing church papers, young people's papers, and papers that went to the homes of the natives. She also had charge of a school in Tamluk, of which she was the only white inhabitant, the village being fifty miles from Calcutta, and she was superintendent of the women's work.
DELL JOHNSON.—Prominent among the best known and most respected citizens of Elyria township, Lorain county, is Dell Johnson, who is contributing his full share towards the growth and upbuilding of this section of the Western Reserve, his energy and enterprise making him an important factor in advancing the leading interests of the community in which he resides. A native of Ohio, he was born March 27, 185o, in Rome, Richland county, a son of the late John H. Johnson.. His paternal grandfather, James Johnson, was born May 6, 1785, in Ireland. Coming to the United States when a young man, he subsequently settled in Venango county, Pennsylvania, becoming owner of a farm of 200 acres, upon which oil was afterwards found. He married Mrs. Elizabeth (Sutley) Cousins, a widow, whose birth occurred April 5, 1791. Of their union five children were born, namely: John H., Sarah R., Robert H., Harrison R. and Hugh.
Born August 11, 1815, in Canal township, Venango county, Pennsylvania, John H. Johnson there grew to manhood, and as a youth learned the trade of a blacksmith. Locating in Warren, Pennsylvania, in 1841, he remained there until June, 1845, when he bought land in Blooming Grove township, Richland county, Ohio, erected a shop and engaged in blacksmithing. He subsequently. purchased a farm in Ripley township, same county, and in addition to managing his estate followed his trade for several years. He afterwards lived for a while in Greenwich township, Huron county, moving from there, in 186o, to Brighton township, Lorain county, Ohio, where he spent his remaining years, passing away February 25, 1864. He married, in Warren, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth P. Snyder, who was born June 1, 1823, at Penn Yan, Yates county, New York, a daughter of John and Eliza (Pierce) Snyder, natives of New York state. She still occupies
the old homestead in Brighton township, Lorain county, being a woman of venerable years.
Dell Johnson was brought up on the home farm., acquiring his early education in the district schools. Beginning life for himself after his marriage, he was for four years engaged in agricultural pursuits near Freeport, Wood county, Ohio. Returning then to Brighton township in 1878, he was for three years successfully employed in general farming and dairying. Purchasing then a factory, Mr. Johnson carried on an extensive and successful business as a manufacturer of cheese arid butter for thirteen years, building up a good reputation for his dairy products, and a fine trade. Accepting the appointment of superintendent of the Lorain County Infirmary in November, 1893, he had charge of the institution for fourteen years and seven months, during which long period of continuous service he performed the duties devolving upon him with ability and fidelity. Soon after resigning his position Mr. Johnson purchased the north h of the Worthington farm, which is. adv tageously located at stop number five on Green Line cars, on Lake avenue, and
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1379
since platted the estate. He completed, in March, 1908, a handsome bungalow-cottage, fitted with all modern improvements. Of the forty house lots which he laid out, he has already sold more than one-half, and all have been finely improved and form quite a village.
On May 30, 1874, Mr. Johnson married Julia A. Emmons, who was born in Huntington township, Lorain county, Ohio, February 6, 1856, daughter of Joshua and Julia (Taylor) Emmons, natives respectively of western Pennsylvania and of Portage county, Ohio. Her parents were married about 1835, in Portage county, Ohio, and subsequently removed to Lorain county, where the death of Mrs. Emmons occurred in 1886, and that of Mr. Emmons in 1895. Of the two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, but one is living, namely: Pearl Marinda, wife of Chester F. Nichols, Jr., and she resides near her parents. The younger daughter, Lillian Amanda, died September 1, 1908, aged thirty years. She married Marce P. Cromling and left one son, Dell F. Fraternally Mr. Johnson is identified by membership with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, having been made a Master Mason at Wellington, but he is now affiliating with King Solomon's Lodge, A. F. & A. M.> and is a member of Marshall Chapter, R. A. M.
AM
BROSE ELBRIDGE KELLEY, for many years a leading farmer and citizen of Geneva
township Ashtabula county, is one of the few
surviving California miners of the early fifties. It stands to reason that those young men who undertook the long and arduous journey westward, more than half a century ago, were of the enterprising, hardy breed, and Mr. Kelley, although now in his seventy-fifth year, still proves himself in possession of those qualities. A native of Geneva township, he was born on the North Ridge February 3, 1834, and was the eldest of fourteen children born to David Hanford Kelley. His father was a son of the Granite state, born at Elbridge to John and Ellen (Page) Kelley, the former being a Revolutionary soldier whose services gained him a land claim in the west. Late in life he moved to the Western Reserve, where he died at an advanced aged. David H., the son, was apprenticed to the tanner's trade when quite a small boy, and when eighteen years of age bought his time pf a Mr. Merrick, a Geneva tanner. With a single cent in his pocket, he commenced an Independent business, and, with courage and confidence, at his majority had earned his financial freedom, and thereafter, for a number of years, continued in the tanning business. The old tannery in which he thus started his career stood on or near the Saybrook township line. Altogether he was engaged in the same line for nearly a quarter of a century, and only abandoned it with the shutting down of the tannery. He then purchased some 400 acres of land covered with timber and nearly in a body, and spent the remainder of his life in the clearing and improvement of his property. The last fifteen years of his life were spent at Geneva, in partial retirement. He divided his large landed estate equally among his children, and died a successful, conscientious and honored citizen, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. The house now occupied by his youngest son, H. S. Kelley, in Saybrook township, was erected in 1845, the brick of which it was constructed being made on the farm. The deceased was a leading promoter of some of the most substantial of the early institutions of the township, being one of the original directors of the First National Bank of Geneva, and assisted in the organization of several of its factories. In politics he was a Whig and a Republican, a stanch supporter of the Congregational church, and an able, moral man, who became a leader in the community, although he never thrust himself into public prominence. He was twice married and became the father of fourteen children. His first wife was Lucy Ann Webster, daughter of Norman Webster, and the four of the seven children who reached maturity were Ambrose, of this sketch ; Jesse Page Kelley, a Geneva dentist, who died in 1908, and whose son, Jay Kelley. is a member of the same profession there ; Ruth Ann, widow of O. R. Higley and a resident of Battle Creek, Michigan ; and Ellen Louisa, who married George Olmstead, a citizen of Cleveland, Ohio. David Kelley's second wife was Miss Maria Simonds, daughter of Priscilla Stetson Simonds, one of the grand pioneer mothers of the Reserve. She survived her husband two years, becoming the mother of the following : David Edward, who is a dentist practicing at \shtabula ; Lucy, who died as the wife of Stiles Dodge ; Mary M., who married Henry Johnson, a resident of Saybrook ; Cynthia, now Mrs. William Morgan, of Geneva ; Hattie, who became the wife of Warren Cowdry, general superintendent of the Hoe and Fork Company,
1380 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
of Cleveland, and Eva, who is Mrs. Charles Hurd, wife of a Cleveland dentist.
Ambrose Kelley, of this sketch, was educated and reared in Geneva township, being a student at Jericho Seminary, a penmanship school conducted by Platt R. Spencer, and working in the old tannery until he was twenty-one years of age. He was then taken with a severe attack of the California gold fever, and started for the Pacific coast by way of the Isthmus of Panama. His experience of several years in that country was invaluable and varied, as it did not consist of the monotonous digging for gold, although he spent his winters in the mines. The other months of the year he spent in teaming over the Sierra Nevada mountains with four yoke of oxen, his principal freight being timber and hay. Thus he became thoroughly innured to hard work and his business wits were sharpened.
On November 8, 1859, Mr. Kelley married Miss Phebe Chamberlain, of Ashtabula, daughter of Peter and Sarah (Faulkner) Chamberlain. Her father was a native of New York and her mother of New Hampshire, the latter coming to Ohio at the age of eighteen with her parents, Timothy and Sarah Faulkner. About 1856 the Chamberlain family moved from Ashtabula to Iowa, and Ambrose Kelley, who had formed an attachment to the daughter, Phebe, followed and married the woman of his choice, as stated. As she was the only child, her parents returned to -Ohio after the marriage, both dying in Ashtabula county —the father at the age of sixty-eight and the mother at the advanced age of ninety-one.
Ambrose Kelley had a good' and generous father, who presented each of his children with $1,800, and his landed possessions were divided among his children equally. Ambrose Kelley now has 135.79 acres, and eventually improved and organized one of the best country places in the county. As a Republican and an earnest and able citizen, he has also largely participated in the politics and government of the township, having served as a delegate to many of the county conventions and as trustee. He is also a leading Congregationalist, and his wife has been superintendent of the Sunday. school. Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose E. Kelley have four children : Page, who is an employe in the Hoe and Fork factory at Ashtabula ; Albert, who operates the home farm ; Harry, a carpenter. who lives in the old homestead, and Fannie, who is married to Walter Andrus, a Saybrook township farmer.
ROBERT REED.—Three generations of the Reed family have been strong promoters of the industrial and business interests of Kent, Portage county, and prominence in these fields has brought them, more or less, into the public service of the city. Robert Reed, of this sketch, is at the head of the oldest grocery business in the county and has served both as city clerk and as a member of the library board, being now identified with the latter body. Born on the 4th of April, 1858, Mr. Reed is a son of William and Mary Electa (Day) Reed, both of whom are natives of Franklin township. His grandfathers on both sides were John Reed of West Virginia, and Captain Jacob Day of Massachusetts. The latter held a command in the war of 1812, having been one of the early pioneers to settle at Lake Brady, the reservoir of the old Pennsylvania and Ohio canals. He married Miss Mary Spears and he and his wife settled at Franklin Mills, for many years conducting the old Cuyahoga House, the first hotel at Kent. The maternal grandparents both died there at the age of eighty-five years. John Reed, the paternal grandfather, with his family, was also an early settler at Franklin Mills and owned farming land two miles and a half northwest of Kent, where he died at about eighty years of age. His wife survived him some years, spending her last days at Elkhart, Indiana. Mr. Reed's parents were married in Kent, and his father died there in September, 1886, after having been engaged in various important carpenter work in connection with the Erie Railroad. He was, in fact, one of the most expert and best known men of his trade, and for many years served as superintendent of bridge construction for. the Mahoning division of that line, extending from Cleveland to Pittsburg. He was also one of the foremen in the erection of the railroad shops at Kent, but spent the later years of his life in retirement. His widow still resides at Kent, aged eighty-six years. William Reed, the father, was born in Franklin township May 30, 1823. His wife, to whom he was married December 6, 1845, was formerly Mary Electa Day, was born in Franklin township, near Lake Brady, on the loth of January, 1823, and was therefore about four months her husband's senior. Besides Robert, the children born to Mr. and Mrs. William Reed were as follows : W. D., now a resident of DeForrest, Ohio ; Roland; who died at the age of six years ; Charles, who lives at Kent, Ohio ; Nellie, who resides with her mother;
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John W., of Springfield, Massachusetts, and Frank J., of Huntington, Indiana.
Robert, who is the fourth child in the family, completed his district schooling at the age of fourteen, and then commenced work in a grocery store. He was an employe until 1883, when he associated himself with Frederick Foote in the establishment of a general business in that line. In 1899 he purchased his partner's interest, and now has the oldest, as well as one of the leading groceries in Portage county. He is most favorably known both for his mercantile ability and his useful municipal service, and in Masonry has advanced to the Akron Commandery, through Blue Lodge No. 316 and Ravenna Chapter. In politics he is a Democrat of the firmest kind.
In October, 1887, Mr. Reed married Miss Hattie M. Thomas, born at Cleveland, Ohio, and daughter of Charles and Harriet (Sturdevant) Thomas, natives respectively of Connecticut and Shalersville township, Portage county. The father was of the firm of the Arnold Wooden Ware Company, of Cleveland and his death occurred in 1878. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Reed were Harriet L., who married James S. Green, of Kent, and Robert D., who is associated with his father in the grocery business.
JAMES CLYDE KNOWLTON occupies a provaluable farm of 164 acres, about half a mile east of Nelson Center, Portage county, which was purchased and cleared by his grandfather when, as a young man, the latter came to the Western Reserve from Massachusettss. The pioneer mentioned, James Knowlton, was a native of Blanford, Massachusetts, born on the 21st of February, 1793. On October 29, 1835, he married Miss Isabell Nicholson, who bore him three children. Both parents died and are buried in Nelson, the grandfather having passed away March 24, 1867. It may also be stated that the great-grandfather of James C., Jared Knowlton, was a native of Massachusetts.
Jared Benjamin Knowlton, the father, was the homestead now occupied by James his son, on February 21, 1844. He was a lifelong farmer and died September 7, 1907. The elder Mr. Knowlton had been twice married first, to Miss Mary McCall, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Sherwood) McCall, the ceremony taking place taking place in Nelson township May 18, 1865. Mrs. Mary Knowlton (lied in the following year and Mr. Knowlton wedded, as his second wife, December 15, 1868, Pollie Dutcher, the daughter of Thomas and Polly (Tillotson) Dutcher. Six children were born to this union, of whom James C. is the eldest.
Mr. Knowlton, of this biography, was born on the old homestead near Nelson Center, August 5, 1870 ; was educated at the district and high schools of that locality, graduating from the latter in 1890. Before resuming his agricultural pursuits on the home farm, however, he pursued a business course at the Spencerian College in Cleveland, which occupied his time during the winter of 1890-1. This practical education has assisted him materially in his career as a successful farmer and citizen of affairs. He has served with credit as a member of the board of education ; is an active member of the Grange ; is identified with the Democracy, in politics, and, as an earnest churchman, is a believer and worker in Methodism.
On October 20, 1892, James C. Knowlton married Miss Clara Clark, daughter of Andrew and Marian (Clark) Clark, who was born May 27, 1872, and died August 18, 1904. Their children are as follows : Ethel Marion, born October 1o, 1894, and Robert Benjamin, born November 17, 1895. The Clark family is Norman-French in origin, the successive spelling of the name having been Clerocq, Clerck and Clark. The maternal branch of the Clarks first planted itself in America, some of its members landing at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1630. The father of Mrs. Clara Knowlton,. Andrew Clark, was born at Newton Falls, Ohio, June I I, 1833, and on January 13, 1863, married Miss Marian Clark, daughter of William and Ann (Hopkins) Clark. Of their three children, Mrs. Knowlton was the youngest. Her mother died September 15, 1887, and her father, July 20, 1898, both being buried at Nelson Center. The grandfather was Dr. Andrew Clark, who married Miss Polly Ferry (a Connecticut lady) and practiced his profession at Newton Falls, Ohio, until his death in 1866.
Mr. Knowlton's second wife, whom he married December 5, 1906, was Miss Olive Augusta Pixley, daughter of Asa and Leora (Young) Pixley, born in Nelson township, November 7, 1877. There are no children by this marriage. Miss Young, who was a (laughter of Stephen and Maranda (Stowe) Young, was born in West Farmington, Ohio, February 19, 1847, and by her marriage to Mr. Pixley became the mother of three chil-
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dren. The Pixley family is of Scotch-Irish descent. E. J. Pixley, Mrs. Knowlton's grandfather, was born at Stafford, Vermont, September 12, 1805, and married Miss Susan McMaster, also a native of the Green Mountain state, born August 29, 1804. Their marriage occurred on Christmas of 1832, and about five years afterward they moved from Vermont to the Western Reserve of Ohio, settling in Nelson township, Portage county, where the grandfather died April 28, 189o, and his wife August 8, 1847. It should be added, to complete the family record for at least three generations, that Mr. Knowlton's maternal grandmother, Polly Tillotson, was born in Massachusetts, May 28, 1804, and married John Pritchard on the 13th of February, 1823. She died March 20, 1886, and is buried in the Nelson cemetery.
GEORGE MORTON BROWN, vice president of the Conneaut Mutual Loan & Trust Company,
at the age of nearly eighty is one of the most influential citizens of Conneaut. His active career
has covered a wide diversity of experience and residence, in business and industry, in military
life, and in public Service. He was born on the old Brown homestead, two miles west of
Conneaut, February 24, 1830, and most of his home life has centered in this vicinity, although he
has answered the call of duty and business in many parts of the west and south.
John Brown, his father, was born in Vermont, near the close of the eighteenth century, and learned the trade of tanner and shoemaker. At the age of twenty-one, in 1816, with all his earthly possessions on his back, he came afoot to the Western Reserve and settled on land near Conneaut. He continued to follow his trade in the journeyman fashion of that time, traveling as far west as Michigan, and on the way cobbled shoes, and for such service and cash bought hides, which he brought home to be tanned into leather during the summer season. In 1824, having acquired some property, including a team and wagon, he made the trip back to Vermont and there married Arethusa Hosford, and they returned on the wagon to the farm in the woods near Conneaut. Most of his later years were spent here, and with the aid of his sons he cleared the heavy timber from his place and made a fine homestead, which has never passed from the family. The old house was eventually moved to the city and new modern buildings replaced them. John Brown had four brothers who came to the Western Reserve, all of them buried in Center cemetery, the site for which was donated by him and his brother Ruben. The entire family of this generation, consisting of nine sons and one daughter, lived to advanced age.
John and Arethusa Brown were the parents of seven children, namely : Laura E., deceased; Hosford A., who died in Washington city, where he had worked in the postoffice department for twenty years ; Hannah, deceased George M., who is next in order ; Ralph E., who died while visiting in San Francisco; Edna, aged seventy-five, unmarried, now living with her brother George M. ; and John Soloman, a bachelor, aged seventy-three, also in the home of George.
The schools in and about Conneaut at which George M. Brown obtained his education were at that time very primitive. When nineteen years old he began working on the lakes, and for several years was employed in Chicago. In 1859 he went to Pike's Peak, and in 1860 returned to Chicago. These different occupations busied him until the breaking out of the war. He had returned to Chicago in time to vote for Lincoln, and in April, 1861, responded to the first call for troops. He enlisted in Company A, First Illinois Light Artillery, and the following clay was sent to Cairo, Illinois. He was first corporal at the time of his discharge at the close of the three months service, and then enlisted for three years. He was with his regiment in all its service, being in the Fifteenth Army Corps, and was never wounded nor taken prisoner. His military record was one to be proud of, as will be easily understood on a reading of the annals of the organization of which he was a member. He received his honorable discharge at Springfield, Illinois, in August, 1864.
After the war he returned to Conneaut, and, though twenty-five years of his life were passed in the west, he always regarded this as hishome, and came home at every. opportunity From 1875 to 1886 he was in the mail contracts service, being associated with a brother and a man from Colorado, and they handled these contracts in every state of the west.
In 1892 Mr. Brown became associated with the Conneaut Mutual Loan Association, being one of the heavy investors in the company, and when the president died that year the other members of the association prevailed upon him him to assume the presidency. In 1905 the bisiness was reorganized as a loan and banking and savings company, and moved to its pres-
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1383
dent quarters, and Mr. Brown has since been vice president.
Mr. Brown is a member of Custer Post, No. 9, G. A. R., department of Ohio, and has been quartermaster for the past eighteen years. He also Affiliates with the Elks Lodge, No. 256, at Conneaut. He is an attendant of the Congregational church. Mr. Brown has a unique political record, having voted for every Republican candidate for the presidency, and also voted for General Scott, the Whig candidate, in 1852.
ZIMRI ALPINE SHAW is a well known citizen and the agent for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company at Shawville Station. Samuel Horatio Shaw, his father, is on of the oldest citizens of Ridgeville township, where he located on April 9, 1851, purchasing in that year thirty-eight acres of land, which he afterward cleared and to which he added until he owned sixty-five acres, all highly improved.. With the exception of about eighteen months the spent in Medina county, Samuel H. Shaw has lived in Ridgeville township since locating there in 1851, and he has served the township as a trustee and as a school director. He is an attendant of the Congregational church, of which his wife and youngest daughters are members, and in politics he was orginally a Democrat, but he voted for President Lincoln's re-election and has since been allied with the Republicans. He is the father of the following children : Zimri A., Arthur B., president of the Star Varnish Company and residing in Cleveland ; Dianna B., who married La Fayette C. Phillips, a real estate dealer, and resides at Carbon, Indiana; Dora D., who died at age of two years ; Oscar H., a broker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Alfaretta, the wife of Morris K. Bills, of Elyria, and Lola M., who has never married.
The Shaw family in America trace their ancestry to Constant Shaw, born in 1778, and died at Bath, Summit county, Ohio, December 27, 1863. He married Mercy Pitts, born in 1781, and died at Bath. They moved to that place from Bristol, New York. Samuel Shaw of Constant, was born at Bristol, New York, in 1804, and died at Bath, Ohio, January 24, 1836. He married Charlotte Hale, born at Bristol February 28, 1809, and died at Bath December 24, 1894. They were married in 1827. Charlotte was a daughter of Stoten and Lydia (Allen) Hale, both born in the state of New York.
Samuel Horatio Shaw, son of Samuel and Charlotte, was born at Bristol, New York, April 9, 1829. He married on January 14, 1851, Juliaett Wiley, born at Harbor Creek, Erie county, Pennsylvania, September 5, 1830, a daughter of Joseph B. Wiley, born at Schenectady, New York, June 22, 1800, and who died at Wesleyville, Erie county, Pennsylvania, in 1837. He married, in 1821, Anna Shaw, born at Fall River, Massachusetts, in April, 1801, and she died at North Ridgeville, Ohio, December 28, 1867. She was a daughter of Abraham Shaw, who was born in 1770, and died at North Ridgeville, Ohio; in April, 1861. He married Anna Phillips, born in 177o, who died in North Ridgeville in 1861. Joseph B. Wiley was a son of William and Mary (Fanning) Wiley.
Zimri Alpine Shaw, son of Samuel H. and Juliaett (Wiley) Shaw, was born at North Ridgeville, Ohio, May 2, 1852. He was educated in the public schools and at Oberlin Academy and as a boy of sixteen entered the employ of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company as an assistant at the Shawville station, then known as Ridgeville station. While there he learned telegraphy, and for two and a half years before entering the academy was in charge of the station as night operator. On leaving school he became agent at Shawville, and has since remained in that position. He has served as a school director, and is one of the most prominent and influential men of Ridgeville township. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, affiliating with King Solomon's Lodge, No. 56, at Elyria. He married, on March 9, 1875, Lizzie Lucinda Ramsdell, and two sons have blessed their union. Archer Hayes, the elder, born January 6, 1876, attended the Elyria High School and graduated from Oberlin College with the class of 1897. He is now a member of the editorial staff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He married Clara Annis Terrell, a daughter of Orson J. Terrell, of Ridgeville township, and they have children, Howard Dana, Norman Riedinger and Althea Marion. Stanley Garfield Shaw, the younger son, born June 23, 1881, is now the deputy treasurer of Lorain county, in which he is serving his third term. He married Ellen Elizabeth Wright, daughter of Professor Herbert H. Wright, formerly of Oberlin Col-
1384 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
lege and at present filling a chair at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. They have children, Margaret Frances and Ralph Herbert.
Mrs. Zimri A. Shaw was born at Ellisburgh, New York, October 6, 1856, a. daughter of Olney Ramsdell, born at Henderson, that state, February 10, 1829. He married at East Cleveland, Ohio, April 8, 1853, Mary Jayred, born at Mendham, New Jersey, May 19, 1833. Frederick Jayred, her father, was born in Saratoga county, New York, July 27, 1804, and died at East Cleveland, Ohio, March 6, 1859. He married on July 17, 1828, Eliza Carey, born at Mendham, New Jersey, April 20, 1801, and died at East Cleveland, Ohio, August 28, 1873. Eliza Carey was a daughter of Daniel Carey, born April 12, 177o. He married in 1791 Eunice Dodd, born March 12, 1766, a daughter of Lebbeus and Mary (Baldwin) Dodd. Daniel Carey was a son of Beriah Carey, born in New Jersey.
Abner L. Ramsdell, the father of Olney, was born at Utica, New York, February 10, 1805, and died at Ellisburgh, that state, September 8, 1872. He married Lucinda Healy, born in Oneida county, New York, January 25, 1807, and died at Ellisburgh, that state, May 19, 1886. Lucinda Healy was a daughter of D. Fuller Healy, born in Rhode Island November 24, 1777, and he died at Clinton, New York, January 20, 1829. He married Desire Leach, born in Connecticut in June, 1784, and she died at Ellisburgh, New York, January 18, 1838. D. Fuller Healy was a son of Resolved Healy.
Moses Ramsdell, the father of Abner L., was born in Rhode Island May 16, 1761, and died at Ellisburgh, New York, May 16, 1834. He married Nancy Lapham, born on Nantucket Island June 16, 1770, and she died at Ellisburgh, New York, April 3, 1844.
Abednego Ramsdell; the father of Moses, was killed in the Revolutionary war.
Both the Shaw and Ramsdell families have been long identified with the commonwealth of Ohio, and their representatives are substantial citizens and representative men and women.
HARRIET B. OWEN, one of the prominent members of society at Edinburg, Portage county, is a native of that county, and was born July 15, 1851. She is a daughter of George W. and Marie (Greenleaf) Barclay, mentioned elsewhere in this work. Harriet Barclay received her education in the district school, and afterward resided with her parents until her marriage to Thomas Owen. Thomas Owen was born in Wales, and was brought to America when seven years of age. His parents located at Edinburg township, and he remained at home until the time of his marriage, when he took up stone cutting, and later farming, on a farm of fifty-eight acres. He was an enterprising farmer, and met with. pleasing success in this pursuit.
Mr. and Mrs. Owen are parents of three children, one daughter and two sons, namely: Mary E., Walter L. and Leland B. Mrs. Owen is an earnest member of the Disciple church, and carries out the teachings of her religion in her daily life.
FRANCIS B. PHELPS.-The interesting records of the Phelps family form additional evidence
to the mass already accumulated that the Western Reserve has always possessed special
attractions for substantial people and the lovers of. comfortable and permanent homes. It was
established by the grandfather of Mrs. Sarah (Phelps) Holden on the present site of North
Kingsville, Ashtabula county, in the year 1811 ; her father, Francis B., passed the eighty-five
years of his wisely-ordered life on the homestead founded by his own father, and Mrs. Holden
herself was born in the old paternal log house on the Phelps farm, which is still her property. This
clinging to the old home place by the people of the Western Reserve has given them a
well-deserved reputation for stability and fixed in them a sharply defined sectional character
which enters into the composition of the most sturdy patriotism.
The Phelps family originally came from England, its American progenitor taking passage on the ship "Mary and John" in the year 1630. Mrs. Holden's great-grandfather, Daniel Phelps, was a native of Windsor, Connecticut, and married Elizabeth Barnard ; his son, Daniel Calvin Phelps, was also born in Windsor in 1780, his wife before marriage being Miss Phebe Bird Alderman. Daniel C. Phelps first came to the Western Reserve in 1800, two years before Ohio was even a state, but finding the country literally a "howling Wilderness," swarming with wolves and Indians, returned to good old Connecticut on foot. But in 1811, after the Reserve had received quite a colony of Connecticut and New Engiand colonists, he was able to return under such conditions as warranted him in transferring
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1385
his family and his household to the new country. He made the long journey by way of Pittsburg,
the great wagon covered with the thick linen canvass woven at home being drawn by a team of
oxen and a horse. At the risk of breaking into the straight thread of the narrative, it well
illustrates the pioneer shifts of those days to learn that this same honest wagon cover, after it had
served its original purpose for forty days of journeying in all kinds of weather, was cut up and
made into garments for the children : and the clothes wore! When Mr. Phelps arrived at his
destination he forthwith fixed the family homestead on the tract of 200 acres which he had
purchased, and a part of which is now occupied by the handsome residence on North Ridge
occupied by his granddaughter, Mrs. Holden. Daniel C. Mips not only established the family
fortunes in that locality, but before his death had imprinted his personality upon the community
as a persistent influence for good.Among the children who came to the Western Reserve was William Calvin Phelps, the oldest of
the juvenile members of the family. He seems to have spent his life of a hundred years in an
uncertain vibration between Ohio and Connecticut. After receiving a good education in the
Reserve, he returned to the east and taught school for many years. He made repeated visits to the
western home of his boyhood and early youth; so many, in fact. that long before he had made his
remarkable life span of a century he had enjoyed forty round trips, between middle west and
Connecticut - his first, of forty days, under the home-spun canvass of the pioneer's slow-moving
wagon, and the last in a in lern palace. flying on wheels of iron. During the last eight or nine
years of his life he wrote a postal card daily to either Mrrs. Holden or her daughter, in which he
gave many interesting incidents of his early life in the Western Reserve. In one of these
communications he tells of the first frame building erected in Kingsville, a carpenter's and
joiner's shop, built in 1812 by Nathan Blood.
Another son, Daniel ilton Phelps, was but two years old when he came with the family from
Connecticut to the Western Reserve. He lived in the vicinity of the old homestead for the
remainder of his life, excepting a few years which he spent in Sheffield township. He (lied on the
old Phelps homestead, lacking but a few months of ninety years.
Francis B. Phelps, Mrs. Holden's father, was born on the old homestead on the North Ridge, lived there all his life, and died in 1902, aged eighty-five years, being buried in the yard where he played as a boy and within two rods of his birthplace. Like his father, he was both an able and a good man. He had studied law, but pioneer conditions prevented him from thoroughly qualifying himself, although he often appeared as counsel in minor courts, where he forcibly proved himself to be endowed with keen perceptions and natural eloquence. He also served as justice of the peace for thirty-three years, and was so trustworthy a friend so thoroughly honored by all, that he settled far more disputes outside his courtroom than within. Judge Phelps married Miss Margaret Sanders, (laughter of Rev.. Abram Sanders, a well known Disciple clergyman of the Reserve, and they reared one child to Maturity—Mrs. Holden ; the mother died March 9, 1894. at the age of seventy-six years.
Sarah Phelps inherited her father's love for books, for knowledge and for justice, and received a good education in the district schools and at the Kingsville Academy. Ira Holden, her husband, is a native of Kingsville, and a son of Vermont parents, Ambrose and Abigail (Sanborn) Holden. His father came to the Western Reserve in 1821 and his mother in 1833, Mr. Holden being one of six children by a second marriage. The first marriage of Ambrose Holden was to Silva Parks, by whom he had thirteen children, all of whom reached maturity. Mr. and Mrs. Holden have one child, Frances E. Holden, who lives at home.
WILLIAM WALTER REED.—The life record of the late William W. Reed, formerly a valued citizen and successful agriculturist of Perry township, Lake county, furnishes a forcible example to the rising generation of the material success to be obtained by persevering industry and a wise system of economy. Beginning life even with the world, as regarded finances, he worked steadily, saved his earnings, and, in course of time, had secured title to a most desirable tract of land, from which he improved a good homestead. He was born, December 2, 1828, in Chautauqua county, New York. His father, Herman Reed, was born August 17, 1797, and died December 4, 1862. On December 31, 1821, he married Lois Bartholomew, who was born August 8, 1797.
Coming as a young man to Ohio, William W. Reed lived first in Kingsville, where he
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assisted his father in clearing and improving a homestead. Prior to his marriage he bought land in Perry township, Lake county, running in debt for it, as he had no ready money. To look after his household affairs, he employed as housekeeper a Miss Proctor, whose sister, Alvira Proctor, a bright, active girl, he subsequently married. She had subsequently worked as a domestic, being employed in this township, in the Haskell and Allison families, and turned in her savings toward the payment of the farm. She proved an able and faithful wife and companion, and in the course of time they were out of debt, and prior to the death of Mr. Reed, in December, 1878, were people of means. Mrs. Reed survived Mr. Reed for more than twenty years, dying on the home farm May 4, 1900.
Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Reed, namely : Herman, living in Perry township, on a farm which his father purchased Walter, living on an adjoining farm, and Charley. Charley Reed, born April i 1, 1864, has always lived on the parental homestead, from the time of his father's death until that of his mother, having been in partnership with his brother, Walter. He is now engaged in general farming, in his dairy, keeping seven cows. He married, in November, 1896, Carrie M. Wright, a daughter of Thompson H. Wright, of whom a brief sketch may be found on another page of this work, and they have one child, Elsie.
ALVA BRADLEY.—Long and conspicuously identified with lake marine interests, in connection with which his operations were of wide scope and importance, Alva Bradley held precedence as one of the influential and honored citizens of Cleveland, where he maintained his home until the time of his death, which occurred November 28, 1885. He was a man of sterling character and was a scion of a family founded in America in the colonial era of our national history. He achieved a worthy success and left the heritage of a good name, so that there is all of consistency in according in this publication recognition of his life and services.
Born at Ellington, Connecticut, on the 27th of November, 1814, Alva Bradley was a son of Leonard and Betsey Bradley, both of whom were natives of the state of Vermont. They came to Ohio about the year 1820 and numbered themselves among the pioneers in the vicinity of Brownhelm, where the father turned his attention to farming, in connection with which he reclaimed his land from the virgin forest and he there passed the residue of his life, as did also his wife. Alva Bradley, owing to the exigencies of time and place, received limited educational advantages in his youth, but he rounded out his training in the broad school of experience, in the long years of a signally active and useful business career. When but ten years of age, about 1824, he identified himself with that line of enterprise in which it was his eventually to attain to marked success and much prominence. He at that time connected himself with boats engaged in freighting wood, wheat, etc., between Ohio and Canadian ports, and while still a youth he demonstrated his business capacity and acumen by his rapid advancement. He soon became the owner of boats of his own, and with the gradual development of the lake-marine navigation and commerce he increased the extent of his operations until, finally, he owned and operated about twenty vessels of the best type of their time. At the time of his death, in 1885, he had the distinction of being the largest individual vessel owner, on the entire Great Lakes system. His keen business prescience and his progressive spirit, ever marked by liberality and by an earnest desire to further the advancement of his home city and state, led him to give his co-operation in divers other lines of industrial enterprise, . in which connection he was a stockholder and director in many important manufacturing and commercial concerns in Cleveland. Loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and ordering his course upon a high plan of integrity and honor, he gained and retained the unqualified confidence and esteem of the people of the city in which he so 1png maintained his home and to the promotion of his welfare he contributed in no insignificant measure. Though never active in the arena of practical politics he gave a stanch support to the cause of his party and was a man of well defined convictions and opinions. He was one of the pioneer business men of Cleveland at the time of his death and was one who did much to further the development of commerce on the Great Lakes
As a young man Mr. Bradley was united in marriage to Miss Helen Burgess, who was born in 1825 at Milan, Ohio, where her father John Burgess, was a pioneer and a prominent citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley became the parents of four children—Morris A., of whom more specific mention is made following: Eliz-
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abeth who is the wife of N. S. Keller, of cleveland; and Eleanor and Minetta, both of whom are deceased. The devoted wife and mother survived her honored husband by more than a decade, and her death occurred in 1896. Her memory is held in reverent affection by those who came within the sphere of gentle and gracious influence.
MORRIS A. BRADLEY, the only son of Alva Bradley, has well upheld the prestige of the name which he bears, and is recognized as one of the representative citizens of Cleveland, where his capitalistic interests are varied and important. He was born in Cleveland, on the 15th of August, 1859, and to the schools of his native city he is indebted for his early educational training, which included a thorough course of study in a well ordered private school. At the age of twenty years he left school and assumed a clerical position in the hardware establishment of Lockwood, Taylor & Company, of Cleveland. About one year later he became associated with his father in the lake freighting business, and to the large interests built up in this line by his father he succeeded upon the death of the latter. To this important business enterprise he continued to give the major portion of his time and attention until the autumn of 1893, and at the present time he still owns and operates about twelve large and well quipped freighting vessels.
The individual operations through which Morris A, Bradley has done most to advance the interests of the native city have been in connection with the improving of local realty. Since the year 1892 he has constructed in Cleveland thirty-six of the largest and most modern business blocks, besides which he has become the owner of many other and valuable improved properties, in both the business and residence districts. He is today one of the largest real estate owners in Cleveland and his progressive ideas and business ability lead him forward in such manipulation of his various properties as to conserve the material and civic advancement of the city. He enjoys marked popularity in the community which has ever represented his home, and is one of Cleveland's public-spirited and influential citizens and substantial business men. He has various capitalistic interests aside from those to which reference has been made, is a valued member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, is a successful and enthusiastic breeder of standard-bred horses, is stanch in his political allegiance, and is identified with the Cleveland Yacht Club, the Union Club, the Euclid Club, the Country Club, the Roadside Club and other representative social and fraternal organizations.
In 1883 was solemnized the marriage of aMorris A. Bradley to Miss Anna A. Leininger, a daughter of Charles C. Leininger, of Cleveland, and they have five children—Alva, Charles, Helen, Eleanor, and Katharine.
LYMAN C. NICHOLS.—Having, during his long and active career as a carpenter and builder,
accomplished a satisfactory work in his chosen occupation, Lyman C. Nichols is now enjoying to
the utmost the well merited reward of his many years of long continued toil, living retired from
active pursuits at his pleasant home in Chippewa Lake, Medina county. He is held in high esteem
both as a loyal, public-spirited citizen, and as a brave soldier in the Civil war. A native of New
York state, he was born May 22, 1831, a son of Ira R. and Cornelia (Blakeslee) Nichols, life-long
residents of the Empire state, where the father was engaged in general farming and carpentering.
Educated in the public schools of Madison county, New York, Lyman C. Nichols subsequently served an apprenticeship of three years at the carpenter's trade, afterwards working in different places as a journeyman. Coming to Ohio in 1857, he located in Lafayette township, Medina county, where he soon found plenty of employment at his trade. Enlisting, in 1861, in Company B, Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was commanded by General James A. Garfield, he participated with his regiment in various engagements of importance, for a while remaining in and around Vicksburg, continuing there until after the fall of that city, when he was taken ill and granted a furlough of thirty days, which he spent at home. Rejoining his command at Berwick Bay, Louisiana, he was subsequently sent to Baton Rouge and other points, doing garrison duty in that state for several months. On September 29, 1864, after serving for three years, he was honorably discharged from the army. Returning to Medina county, Mr. Nichols was for a time engaged as a teacher in the rural schools. Settling then in Lafayette Center, he followed his trade of a carpenter and joiner, and in the years that ensued was kept busijy employed at his chosen occupation, building many of the dwelling houses and
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barns in the village and in the surrounding country.
On December 1, 1857, Mr. Nichols married Helen N. Gates, a daughter of Silas Gates, and they have one child, namely : Cora I., wife of Richmond O. Wheeler, of Lafayette township, whose sketch may be found elsewhere in this volume. A man of intelligence and sound judgment, Mr. Nichols has ever taken great interest in local affairs, and for five years was treasurer of Lafayette township, while for four years he was township clerk. On May 8, 1866, he was made a Mason, and is a member of Medina Lodge, No. 54, F. & A. M. He is also a member of H. G. Blake Post, No. 169, G. A. R. He has a fine home, modern in its appointments, and here he and his good wife are spending their clays in comfort and pleasure.
WILLIAM GOLDE.-A man of good business intelligence and enterprise, William Golde, of Elyria township, Lorain county, is numbered among the more thrifty and prosperous agriculturists of this section of the Western Reserve. He pays especial attention to the breeding and raising of poultry, and on his estate, which is appropriately named "The Quill-Hurst Farm," he is carrying on an extensive and successful work. A son of the late Conrad Golde, he was born, November 10, 1859, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, of substantial German ancestry.
Conrad Golde was born in Rosenthal, Germany, December 5, 1807, and was there reared and educated. In 1836 he married Catherine Sahl, who was born, November 5, 1817, in the city of Hamburg, Germany. In 1849 they emigrated to the United States, locating first in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. A few years later, in 1856, they removed to Conemaugh township, Cambria county, where they spent their remaining years, his death occurring September 21, 1877, and hers at Johnstown, on December 29, 1896. Six children were born to them, the first two dying in the Fatherland and the others, born in the United States, were as, follows : John, a flour merchant in Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; Conrad, living near the did homestead in Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; Henry, who was a wood-worker and died in Johnstown May 7, 1898 ; and William, the subject of this brief biographical sketch.
Having acquired his elementary education in the district schools of Conemaugh township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, William Golde completed his early studies in the city
of Johnstown. In 1877, at the age of eighteen years, he assumed charge of the truck garden and produce business established by his father, and managed it for two years. During the ensuing two and one-half years Mr. Golde was engaged in a wholesale coffee business in Johnstown, carrying it on until the memorable flood, May 29, 1889, which wiped out forever so many commercial establishments. Entering then the employment of the Johnson Company, at Johnstown, he had for five years charge of a press for straightening rails. He was transferred to Lorain when a part of that concern was moved there.
Coming then to Ohio, February 22, 1894, he was in the employ of the Johnson Company and its successor for about eight years, when he resigned and erected a block at 1612 Penfield avenue, Lorain, and was subsequently there engaged in the shoe business for two and one-half years. Coming from there to Elyria township in 1903, he lived nearly a year on the river road, from there moving to Lake avenue. A few weeks later, on May 9, 1904, Mr. Golde bought 'his present farm of twenty-five acres, which is finely improved, and has since met with undoubted success in his chosen occupation as a poultry breeder and raiser and truck farmer, being widely and favorably known.
Mr. Golde married, April 14, 1897, Anna Sabina Brand, who was born, December 28, 1876, in Ersrode, Kreis, Rotenburg, BerzirkCassell province, Hesse-Nassau, Germany, a daughter of Henry Brand, who died in Lorain September 10, 1901. Catherine Klein, his wife, died July 22, 1901. Mrs. Golde passed to the life beyond May 22, 1909, leaving one child, Florence Catherine Golde, who was born June 14, 1898. Politically Mr. Golde is an adherent of the Democratic party, although in local affairs he votes according to the dictates of his conscience for the best men and measures, regardless of party prejudice. Fraternally he is a member of Cambria Lodge, No. 785, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Johnstown, and William F. Packer Encampment, No. 127, of the same place. Mr. Golde is a member of the Lutheran church. as was his wife.
EDGAR C. LIVENSPIRE, whose career is one of varied industry and usefulness, is now engaged in farming and blacksmithing at Kent, Franklin township, Portage county. He was born at Mount Gilead, Morrow county,
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Ohio, on the 3oth of July, 1858, and is a son of Charles and Nancy (Blakely) Livenspire. His father was born near Reading, Pennsylvania, and his mother in Belmont county, Ohio, and his maternal grandfather, John Blakely, was a Virginian ; so that the family combines in its composition elements of the south and north. While still young, Charles Livenspire came to Richland county, Ohio, and lived with his parents until his marriage to Nancy Blakely in Morrow county. There they settled. Mr. Livenspire followed his trade as a harness maker, and both he and his wife spent their last years there. They had three chidren, of whom Lafayette resides with his brother, Edgar C.. of this sketch, and Lockwood died at the age of three years.
Edgar C., lived with his parents until his marriage to Miss Dora Thomas, April 9, 1883. His wife is a daughter of Smith and Elizabeth (House) Thomas,, the former born near Belfast, West Virginia and the latter in Knox county, Ohio. The paternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth (Evers) Thomas, were also natives of West Virginia, or Virginia, as it was called in their day. After his marriage Mr. Livenspire was engaged for a year at Mount Gilead as a blacksmith and a horseshoer, going then to Prospect, Marion county, where he conducted a shop until 1890. Selling his establishment, he then went to Finley. Hancock county, and soon afterward to Ashland, Ohio. At the latter place he conducted a restaurant for a time, but returned to Prospect. reopened his blacksmith shop and also had charge of the electric light plant at that point. these occupations consuming his time until 1894. Within the succeeding three years he was variously employed at Mount Gilead, Marion and Plains City, and in 1897 bought the -blacksmith shop in the last named place which he conducted until 104. In that year he located at Kent, operating his shop until September. 19o7, when he sold it and purchased the Chapman farm at Earlville. This he still conducts, besides doing considerable at his trade. Mr. Livenspire has always voted the Republican ticket, and while residing in Plains City was somewhat active in politics, serving there as a councilman. Ile has been quite active in the fraternal and benevolent orders, being connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fel!ows, Ridgely Camp ; with the Rebecca's of Mount Gilead and the Royal Arcanum lodge of Kent.
LUCIUS W. PRICHARD, M. D.—One of the successful and popular representatives of the
medical profession in the Western Reserve and a scion of a well known pioneer family of Portage
county, Dr. Prichard is established in the practice of his profession in the city of Ravenna, where
he has not only lent dignity to the humane vocation which he has made his life work; but has also
maintained the high standard of citizenship which has ever characterized the name which he
bears and which has been intimately linked with the annals of Portage county from the pioneer
epoch to the present time.
The birthplace of Dr. Lucius Warner Prichard was the fine old homestead farm which was secured by his paternal grandfather and which is located in Nelson township, Portage county, two miles north of the village of Garrettsville. On this ancestral farmstead he "first ope'd wondering eyes to view a naughty w pn the 19th of October, 1864, and he is a son of George and Emily (Bosworth) Prichard, natives of the Western Reserve, and of stanch New England stock. George Prichard is a son of John Prichard, who was born in the state of Connecticut and who came to the Western Reserve when a young man, becoming one of the early settlers of Portage county, where he reclaimed from the forest the fine farm to which reference has been made in this paragraph. He lived up to the full tension of the pioneer era and was a citizen who wielded no little influence in local affairs and who left the generous heritage of a good name and of worthy deeds.
George Prichard was reared to manhood on the home farm, to whose reclamation and other work he early began to lend his aid, the while he duly availed himself of the advantages of the district or subscription schools of the locality and period. It has been his to carry forward the work of his honored father and to contribute materially to the. development and progress of his native county. His entire active career has been one of close and successful identification with the great basic industry of agriculture, and it is interesting to record, in view of the nomadic tendencies of the average American of the twentieth century, that he has lived from the time of his birth to the present on the homestead farm which he now owns and which he secured through inheritance and purchase. The place comprises more than one hundred acres, and is one of the
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model farms of Portage county. He gives a general supervision to the farm, and is enjoying, at the venerable age of seventy-seven years (1909) the serene repose and the generous comforts which are the fitting reward for years of earnest toil and endeavor. His wife, whose parents were likewise numbered among the honored pioneers of Portage county, whither they came from New England, is now seventy-four years of age, and they have passed down the pathway of life together, sustained and comforted by mutual love, solicitude and helpfulness, to find the evening of their days made roseate from the lengthening western twilight. In politics Mr. Prichard is a stalwart in the camp of the Democratic party. This honored pioneer couple became the parents of one son and two daughters, of whom the first born died in infancy. The only son, Dr. Prichard, was the second in order of birth, and the younger daughter, Cordelia, is now the wife of Robert H. Crevoisie, a representative business . man of Canton, Ohio.
The earliest recollections of Dr. Prichard are the gracious memories of the old home farm, on which he was reared to manhood and in connection with whose work he gained his initial experience in the practical responsibilities which must canopy every worthy life. His rudimentary education was received in the public schools in the village of Garrettsville, two miles distant from his home, and he made the splendid record of never being absent or tardy during a period of three years and one term, though he walked to and from his home each day to con his lessons in the village mentioned. He graduated in the Garrettsville high school in 1884, and six years later he was matriculated in Hiram College, in which he completed a course in the literary department and was graduated as a member of the Class of 1890, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and three years later as Master of Philosophy. In the meanwhile he had taken up the study of medicine under effective preceptorship, in addition to carrying forward his college work, and in 1892 he was graduated in the medical department of Wooster. University, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The doctor also was a student for two years in the medical department of the Western Reserve University, in the city of Cleveland, and he spared no labor in thoroughly fortifying himself for the exacting duties and work of his chosen profession.
After receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine Dr. Prichard located in the village of West Farmington, Trumbull county, Ohio, where he .won his professional spurs in good order and where he continued in successful practice about five years, at the expiration of which, in 1897, he established his home and professional headquarters in Ravenna, where he has found a wider field of labor and where he has built up a most successful professional business. In 1906 he completed a course of post-graduate work in the celebrated New York Polyclinic, in the national metropolis, and through constant study of the best standard and periodical literature of his profession, as well as through individual investigation and research, he has remained in the vanguard as a physician and surgeon, fully abreast of the advances made in both departments of his chosen vocation. He holds membership in the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Society and the Portage County Medical Society. Through these he maintains close relationship with his professional confreres, of whose friendship and counsel he is appreciative and whose esteem and confidence he retains.
With broad intellectual grasp and mature judgment, Dr. Prichard has found that the principles and policies of the Republican party merit his support, and he has ever been a stanch supporter of its cause, though he has had no desire for public office. He has completed the circle of York Rite Masonry, in which he is affiliated with the lodge, chapter and council in Ravenna and with Akron Commandery, Knights Templar, in the city of Akron. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, the Independent Order of Foresters, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Arcanum. Both he and his wife are members of the Congregational church.
On the 14th of October, 1895, Dr. Prichard was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Young, who was born in Geauga county, this state, and who is a daughter of George B. and Sarah H. Young, well known residents of that county. Dr. and Mrs. Prichard became the parents of five children, of whom one, John H., died in infancy. The four surviving are : Sarah Irene, Llewellyn Willard, Charles Bosworth and Hilda Louise. .
CAPTAIN LEVI T. SCOFIELD has the distinetion not only of being the oldest archit following this important profession in the c
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of Cleveland but he is also a native son of the Forest City and a member of one of its honored pioneer families, of which he is a representative in the third generation in the historic Western Reserve. He has been identified with the erection of many important public buildings in Ohio and other states of the Union and has contributed in splendid measure to the building and material progress of his native city, besides which there is to his lasting honor the record of gallant service as a soldier during practically the entire period of the Civil war. Known and revered as one of the representative citizens and business men of Cleveland, it is signally consistent that in this somewhat comprehensive historical work be incorporated a review of his career.
Levi Scofield was born in the old family homestead on Walnut street, Cleveland, Ohio, on he 9th of November, 1842, and is a son of William and Mary (Coon) Scofield, borth of whom were natives of the state of New York and members of families early founded in that commonwealth. The genealogy in both lines is traced back to stanch English and Scotch orgin, and the names of both families have been identified with American anals since the early colonial period of our national history. William Scofield was a lad of six years at time when his father, Benjamin Schofield, came with his family from the old Empire state; in the year 1816, and became one of the pioneers of Cleveland, whose population at that time was about two hundred, Benjamin Schofield was a carpenter and building by vocation in the city of New York, as had also been his father, and thus for four generations has the family name been identified with the great material industry of building and architectural work, through which the definite progress of every community is conserved. Benjamin Schofield was concerned in the erection of numerous buildings in the pioneer locality and continued to be one of the respected and influential citizens of Cleveland until his death. The letter "h" was dropped by the sons of Benjamin Schofield in the spelling of the family name in the year 1852. William Scofield was reared to maturity in Clevland, where he secured a common school education and where he learned the trade of carpenter under the able direction of his father. He eventually became one of the leading architects and building contractors of the Western Reserve and by him were erected a large number of the earliest business blocks and public buildings of the better order in Cleveland, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1872, at the age of sixty-two years. His name merits an enduring place on the roll of the founders and builders of the Ohio metropolis, and his life was characterized by the loftiest integrity and honor. His cherished and devoted wife died in 1889, at the age of seventy-six years, and of their five children two are now living. The parents were zealous members of the Baptist church, and in politics the father gave his support to the cause of the Republican party.
Levi T. Scofield, the immediate subject of this review, gained his early education in the public schools of Cleveland, and here he became associated with his father in his building operations while still a youth. In 1861, soon after the fall of Fort Sumter, he manifested his intrinsic patriotism by responding to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers. In April of that year he enlisted as a private in Battery D, First Ohio Artillery, with which command he proceeded to the front and was in active service during the initial period of the great internecine conflict. In 1862 he was commissioned second lieutenant in Company E, One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and a year later was promoted to the first lieutenancy. He continued in active service until the close of the war. He was finally commissioned captain of his company, and continued as such until he was mustered out on the 14th of June, 1865, at Greensboro, North Carolina. During the last two years he was the engineer on the staff of General J. D. Cox, commanding the Twenty-third army corps. He participated in many important engagements and his record is one that bears perpetual honor to his name.
After the close of the war Captain Scofield went to the city of New York and there devoted his attention to architectural draughting until the spring of 1866, when he returned to Cleveland and opened an office as an architect. During the long intervening years he has continued to be actively engaged in the work of his profession, in which he has gained distinctive prestige and success. He has been the architect and supervised the construction of many important public buildings, and the first work of this order which he accomplished was the construction of the Cleveland work house, in 1867. In the same year he prepared the plans for the erection of the state asylum for the insane at Athens, Ohio, "and in 1869
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was architect and supervisor of construction on the state insane asylum in the city of Columbus, the capital of the state. In 187o he erected the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home at Xenia, Ohio, and in the same year instituted work on the North Carolina state penitentiary at Raleigh, North Carolina. In 188o he had charge of the erection of the postoffice building in Cleveland ; in 1884 he erected the state reformatory buildings in the city of Mansfield ; in 1886 the fine soldiers' and sailors' monument which adorns the public square in Cleveland ; and in 1905 he was associated with his sons in erection of the Y. W. C. A. building in Cleveland. In 1901 Captain Scofield erected the fine building which bears his name and which is located on the southwest corner of Euclid avenue and East Ninth street. This is a fireproof office building, fourteen stories in height and is one of the most modern structures of the kind in Cleyeland. He has manifested his public spirit by giving his influence and co-operation to measures and enterprises projected for the general good of his home city and state, and while he has never sought or desired the honors or emoluments of public office he gives an uncompromising allegiance to the Republican party. He is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion and is a. valued member of Army and Navy Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in Cleveland. He and his family attend the Euclid Avenue Baptist church, of which both his wife and daughter are members.
In 1867 Captain Scofield was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Clark Wright, daughter of Marshall W. Wright, a representative citizen of Kingsville, Ohio. Five children were born of this union, and in the concluding paragraph of this article is given brief record concerning them. deplorable railway accident at Clifton station, near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, while en rout to the inauguration of President Roosevelt, was thirty-one years of age at the time. He was first lieutenant in command of Company D, Engineering Battalion of the Ohio National Guard, other members of which lost their lives in the same accident. Sherman W. Scofield,
William Marshall Scofield, who was born in Cleveland on the 5th of June, 1868, was afforded the advantages of the public schools of his native city, and since his youth has been associated with his father in business. He served as captain of Troop C of the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in the Spanish-American war, and thereafter was captain in the Thirty-first United States Volunteer Infantry during the period of insurrection in the Philippine Islands, where he served on the staff of General Kobbe, in the engineering department. Donald C. Scofield, who met his death in the the third son, served as a private Troop A, First Ohio Cavalry, in the Spanish American war, and he likewise is associated with his father in business, as is the youngest of the brothers, Douglas F. Harriet E., the only daughter, is a talented portrait and Iandscape artist and is prominent in the art ane social life of her home city.
CHARLES NEWTON LINES is one of the prominent and influential residents of Ridgevile township. He was born in Eaton township of Lorain county on the 9th of August, 1853 a son of Charles and Jane (Newton) Lines, natives of the mother country of England, and a grandson on the paternal side of William and Elizabeth (Facer) Lines. In the late forties William Lines and his son, Charles, came to the United States, and they located on what is now known as the John Coles farm on Chestnut Ridge, Ridgeville township, Lorain county, Ohio. William and Elizabeth Lines lived on this Coles farm for a number of years, but they died on the farm now owned by Charles Newton Lines in 1870 and in 1875 respectively.
Charles Lines married in England. He made his first settlement in Eaton township and he lived there until 1866, then buying the Peter Jailor farm in Ridgeville township, the place now owned and occupied by his son, Charles, and there he spent the remainder of his life and died in November of 1891, when seventy-three years of age. His wife survived until 1896, dying at the age of seventy-three years. Charles Lines was a Republican in his political affiliations, and he was reared in the faith of the Episcopal church.
Charles N. Lines was the only child born to Charles and Jane Lines, and he was reared in Eaton township and attended the district and Berea city schools. Remaining with his arents on the Ridgeville township farm until his marriage, he then went to Eaton township and farmed until 1891, and returning to Ridgeville township, following the death of his father, he took charge of the homestead and
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has since lived there. This place contains twenty-five acres, and he has sold his Eaton farm.
Mr. Lines married, in 1875, Lavinia Watson, who was born on Chestnut Ridge in Ridgeville township on the 16th of March, 1849, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Colley) Watson, both of whom were born in England. They were married, however, at Ridgeville, where both were pioneers, and the following children blessed their union : Mary Jane, who married C. A. Thompson and is living in Lake county, Indiana ; William, deceased ; Elizabeth, who married Warren Blaine and lives in Ridgeville township ; Frederick, who volunteered in Company E, Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry (Garfield's Regiment), for the Civil war, and was killed at Vicksburg, Mississippi ; John, a Ridgeville township agriculturist ; Lorenzo, of Ridgeville, and Lavinia and Lavinous, twins, the latter also of Ridg.eville. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lines, Frederick and Lavina, but the son, born February 22, 1877, died January 2, 1883, aged but five years. The daughter, born on the 18th of June, 1884, is a graduate of Baldwin University in Berea with the class of 1907, and is now teaching in the Ridgeville public schools. Mr. Lines is allied with the Republicans in his political affiliations.
B. F
. SONNANSTIN E.—A f ter a successful and honorable business career IL F. Sonnanstine
has passed to the life beyond, loved and respected by all who knew him. An honored veteran of
the Civil war, a manufacturer of renown, one of the organizers and incorporars of the Ohio
Injector Company and of the Ohio Match Company, one of the directors of the Wadsworth
Electric Light and Water Company, a former postmaster of Wadsworth and a township official,
such in part was the life and achievements of B. F. Sonnanstine in the business world. He was
born at Shenandoah, in Richland county, Ohio, December 5, 1845, that town having been laid out
by his father, Joseph Francis Sonnanstine, a professional man and a graduated physician,
although he never practiced the profession. His father was also a physician. Joseph F.
Sonnanstine was a Virginian from the Shenandoah valley, from whence he came to Richland
county. Ohio, and as above stated laid out the town of Shenandoah, a locality built up mostly by
Virginia people who sought homes in the then new commonwealth. He married Saloma
Auldeffer. Among their children was numbered B. F. Sonnanstine, whose early educational
training was received in the district schools in his home vicinity of Shenandoah, and his youth
was spent in assisting his father on the farm. At the inauguration of the Civil war he enlisted on
the 13th of June, 1862, in the First Ohio Cavalry, Company A, which formed a part of the First
Ohio Squadron under Major McLaughlin. He was placed on detail as private orderly to Chief of
Commissar), Lieutenant McKray, and during his military service of three years took part with
General Sherman in the famous march to the sea. He had three brothers who were Union
soldiers. Major Joseph was major of the Sixty-fourth Ohio Infantry ; Corniel lost his life in the
war ; and Charles, who survived the war, now a resident of Bryan. After the close of hostilities
Mr. Sonnanstine returned to his home in Ohio, and during the two and a half years which
followed that period he devoted his time to farming. Coming then to Wadsworth, where he
arrived on the 12th of April, 1871, he embarked in the agricultural implement business, and
during twenty-four years or more was engaged in that occupation. He was then for eleven years
engaged in the manufacture of injectors, being largely instrumental in the organization and
incorporation of the Ohio Injector Company, and at the time of his death he was a director in
both that corporation and the Ohio Match Company, and for about twelve years had been
traveling salesman for the Ohio Match Company. During Cleveland's entire administration as
president of the United States, Mr. Sonnanstine served Wadsworth as its postmaster, also served
his city as a member of its school board, and he held the office of township treasurer, the only
Democrat in thirty years to hold that office. He was a member of the Masonic order and of the C.
T. A.
On November 28, 1872, Mr. Sonnanstine was married to Miss Sarah Jane Deshler, from this locality, and their five children are : Willard, who died at the age of two and a half years ; Charles L., a traveling salesman ; Walter G., of Wadsworth ; Thomas E., a dentist at Marion ; and Joseph Francis at home. Mrs. Sonnanstine is a daughter of Thomas and Anna (Barkharmer) Deshler. Thomas Deshler came from his native state of Pennsylvania to Medina county, Ohio, when sixteen years of age, making the journey in a wagon, and locating in Montville township, acquired land
1394 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
there and began farming. He was an enlisted soldier in the Civil war, serving with the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company I, and he lost his life during his service by the accidental discharge of a gun in 1863. His wife's people were from Ohio, and her grandfather, John Barkharmer, was the founder of the family in the Ohio country, whence he came from Pennsylvania, as a young widower. He was again married here, and reared a family of eleven children, Mrs. Deshler being the third born of the second family. These children were all reared in this vicinity, and two of the sons served with distinction in the Union army during the Civil war. Mr. Deshler now lies buried in the National Cemetery at Knoxville, Tennessee, and his wife sleeps in the Wadsworth burying ground. Mrs. Sonnanstine was the second born of their ten children, and she was educated in the schools of Sharon township, coming to Wadsworth in 1869, and here she was later united in marriage to Mr. Sonnanstine. He died October 30, 1909, at his residence in Wadsworth.
NATHAN PARKER, who operates a thoroughly improved farm of one hundred acres in Freedom township, Portage county, was born on the homestead which he partially inherited, on the 1st of March, 1848. He also inherited good and substantial traits from his parents, John P. and Almira (Martin) Parker, both of whom were natives of the old Green Mountain state which has sent so many of her sons and daughters to people the middle west with a hardy and a useful stock. Mr. Parker's grandfathers were Nathan Parker and Reuben Martin. In 1839 John P. Parker migrated from Vermont to Freedom township and bought the tract of land, which, by subsequent additions and improvements, became a fine country homestead of two hundred and twenty acres. The mother died April 10, 1885, and the father January 2, 1891, having become the parents of Elmore M. and Nathan, of this sketch.
After having obtained a public and a high school education Nathan Parker continued to assist his father in the general work of the farm until his marriage in 1875, and since that year has been an independent farmer and a dairyman. At the death of his father he inherited one hundred acres of the family homestead, and for the past seventeen years has been engaged in improving his place both as a productive farm and a home for his family. Although an Odd Fellow in good standing of Ravenna Lodge No. 65, Mr. Parker has had little time to devote to organized fraternities. He is a man of decided domestic tastes and commenced to earnestly cultivate them when he married Miss Esther J. Howard, on the 26th of October, 1875. His wife is a native of Vermont, a daughter of Charles and Alvira (Churchill) Howard, and the mother of two sons. Edgar N., born January 26, 1877, is now an expert accountant of Cleveland, Ohio, and Howard W., born November 20, 1878, is connected with the Carnegie Steel Company.
RONEY H. FETTERMAN.—One of the representative business men and popular citizens of Cleveland is Roney Hiram Fetterman, who has here maintained his home from the time of if nativity and who has gained, through his owh enterprise and well directed endeavors a position as one of the successful merchants of the beautiful old "Forest City," in whose progress and prosperity he ,maintains a deep and appreciative interest.
Mr. Fetterman was born at the family home on the west side of the city of Cleveland, on the 7th of January, 1860, and is a son of John and Appolonia (Enz) Fetterman, the former of whom was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and the latter in the kingdom of Baden. The father took up his residence in Cleveland in 1845, and in the following year his future wife became a resident of this city, where their marriage was solemnized and where they passed the residue of their lives, secure in the esteem of all who knew them. The father had learned the mason's trade in his native land and he eventually became one of the leading mason contractors of Cleveland, where he continued to be identified with this line of enterprise until his death, which occurred in 1879. His wife survived him by many years and was seventy-two years of age at the time of her death, which occurred in 1908. Both were devout church members. They became the parents of eight children, of whom the subject of this review was the first born ; Katheribe is the wife of John Ranchert ; John C. is one of the interested principals in the Cleveland Ice Company ; Pauline is the wife of Charles W. Davis, of Cleveland ; Theresa is the wife of Joseph Williams ; George is a resident of Los Angeles, California ; and Louis and Rose reside in Cleveland.
Roney H. Fetterman duly availed himself
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1395
of the advantages of the public schools of his native city and supplemented this discipline by a course in the Spencerian Business College, in this city. At the age of eighteen years he initiated his business career by assuming a clerkship in the retail shoe store of Weber & Bender, on Superior street. He gained a thorough knowledge of the business and, when twenty-one years of age, he succeeded his former employers in the ownership of the store in which he had gained his experience and proved his value and ability as a salesman. His energy, discrimination and personal popularity brought to him definite success, and in 1885 he opened a branch store on Euclid avenue, on which famous thoroughfare he continued in business until 1905, when he removed to more eligible and attractive quarters on East Sixth street, where he has since continued in business and where he caters to a large and essentially representative trade. His reputation in his chosen field of enterprise is now such that his patrons would seek him in whatsoever location he might assume, and during the years of his successful business career in his native city it has been his to gain and retain the confidence and esteem of those standing thoroughly representative in both the business and social circles of the community. His establishment is most metropolitan in its appointments, service and equipment and is one of the attractive mercantile places of the Forest City.
Mr. Fetterman is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, though he has never entered the domain of practical politics and he is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Singing Society, the German-American Club, and the local lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.
In 1885 Mr. Fetterman was united in marriage to Miss Amelia James, a daughter of Ralph T. James, of Cleveland, and they have three children, concerning whom the following brief data are entered : Ralph Hiram, a graduate of the University of Ohio, and Milton and Hazel Pauline are both graduates of the East high school in Cleveland.
DR. GEORGE S. ANDERSON is the owner and manager of the celebrated Hot Springs Bath
House, one of the most
celebrated health resorts in Ohio. Andover lies two and a half miles south of the divide, twenty-three miles from Lake Erie, and owing to its medicinal water it has become the best known village in Ohio. For great distances in the land underneath this village is found three distinct stratas of sea sand, separated by rock, and each carries abundance of water. The upper strata, ninety feet deep, affords special medicinal water, analysis showing it to possess in great quantities the elements especially adapted to the cure of blood and skin diseases, rheumatic conditions and liver complaints. Iodine is abundant, a great curative property found only in two other sections in the United States and in very limited quantities. Iodine is formed from sea weed, and proves the geological theory that this region was a former ocean. It is a saline property, highly magnetic and extremely buoyant. In 1905 Mr. Anderson began to develop the land surrounding Andover, securing first a tract of land which had formerly been used as a cow pasture. A bath house was soon built, to which additions have twice been added, and the results attained have surpassed the most sanguine expectations. Hundreds of cures attest the curative virtues of these waters, and as above stated this resort is one of only three water resorts in the United States where iodine, the greatest healer of blood diseases, is found.
Dr. Anderson has been identified with the interests of Andover since 1889, but he had practiced medicine for five years previous to this time, and he stand's at the head of the medical profession in Ashtabula county, while the wonderful health resort which he has developed has made him famous over the United States. He is a member of the different medical societies, and in 1889 was made the surgeon of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. He married Lucetta A. Sterling, from Chenango county, Pennsylvania, and they have a son and a daughter, Darl C. and Grace L.
THE MILLS FAMILY.—The first representative of the Mills family to locate in Ridgeville township, Loraine county, was Samuel Mills, the grandfather of Alfred L. Mills, the well known' agriculturist of Ridgeville township. He was born at Watertown, New York, on March 5, 1794, and in about 182o he came to Lorain county, Ohio, purchasing fifty-three acres of land from Mr. Bebee, agent for the Connecticut Land Company, owners of the Western Reserve. In the following year of 1821 his intended bride, Sally Van Atten, born at Watertown, New York, July 15, 1802, came
1396 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
to this county, and they were married in the house Samuel had built the year previously, the wedding taking place on the 2d of July, 1821. Samuel Mills increased his land holdings to one hundred and seventeen acres, and he died on the 24th of June, 1839, the father of the following children : Hiram, David, Alfred, Hugh, Pemelia, Charles, Lydia and Samuel.
Hugh Mills, the fourth born son of that family, was born on the old homestead in Ridgeville township January 5, 1826, and on the 2d of January, 1859, he was married to Charlotte M. Johnson, who was born in New Jersey May 8, 1834, a daughter of William Johnson. Hugh Mills died on the 12th of October, 1898, and his wife had died the year previously, on the 15th of October, 1897. Their children were : Alfred L., mentioned below ; Abbie H., who married Joseph Paddack and lives in Ridgeville township ; Clara M., the wife of Matthew Harwedel, of the same place ; Millie H., who married William Donaldson, and both are deceased.
Alfred L. Mills was born on the old Mills homestead November 20, 1859, and he was reared on that home farm and received a district school training. After the death of his parents he bought out the remaining heirs to the home estate, which now comprises two hundred acres, and he, has been farming there since. At the same time he has taken a prominent part in the affairs of his township, and in 1901 was elected its trustee and re-elected. at the following election. During the past eleven years he has served Ridgeville township as a school director, and in January of 1907 he was appointed a member of the road commission of road district No. i, comprising the townships of Ridgeville, Elyria, Carlisle and Eaton.
On the 13th of January, 1882, Mr. Mills married Elizabeth Lattimer, who was born in Cleveland, a daughter of David arid Anna (McLane) Lattimer, the father a native born son of Ireland, of Scotch-English parentage, and the mother was born at Geneva, Pennsylvania, of Scotch parentage. She died in November of 1878, and the father died on the 28th of August, 1880. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Mills are : Clara Elizabeth, born August 7, 1892 ; David Lattimer, who was born on December 4, 1895, and died on the 19th of May, 1897 ; Sterling Culver, born September 18, 1897 ; and Alfred Lattimer, born January 24, 1909. Mr. Mills is a Mason, affiliating with Dover Lodge, and Mrs. Mills is a member of the Congregational church.
FRANCIS MARION CADY was a native born son of Rootstown township and during many years he was numbered among its agriculturists and business men. Born on the 16th of October, 1857, he was a son of Julius and Alma (Wilcox) Cady, who also had their nativity in Portage county, and he was a grandson of Benjamin and Kansas Cady, from Connecticut, and of Edwin Wilcox, also from that state, and both families were early residents of this county.
From the .time of his marriage until his death Francis M. Cady lived on what is known as the old Cady farm in the northeastern part of Rootstown township, bordering Sandy Lake, a valuable tract of fifty-nine acres, and there he passed away in death on the 25th of November, 1906. His widow has since lived on this homestead and superintended its work, her mother living with her. She bore the maiden name of Lula Wilcox, and was born in Ravenna August 12, 1872, a daughter of John and Mary (Bolton) Wilcox, born respectively in Summit county, Ohio and in New England. The father was a son of Edwin and Rebecca Wilcox, and the maternal grandparents were William and Margaret (Beach) Bolton, from the New. England states, from whence they came to Cady in Geauga county, Ohio. Francis Cady and Lula Wilcox were married October 6, 1891, and five children blessed their union, namely : Vernon, born January 29, 1892 ; Lottie, June 25, 1895; Edith, August 20, 1897 ; William, August 1, 1900 ; and Emma, November 2, 1903. The family are identified with the Universalist church and its Sunday-school, and during his lifetime Mr. Cady supported the principles of the Democratic party.
ALBERT JAMES FORD, president of the Geneva Savings Bank, and for years one of the ablest
financiers and business men of Ashtabula county and the Western Reserve, is a fine
representative of keen and honorable New England stock grafted into the progressive elements
of the middle west. He was born in Madison, Lake county, Ohio, January 2, 1850, his father
(James Ford) having been a native of Plainsfield, Massachusetts, and his mother (Jane Cowles)
of Harpersfield, Ohio. The latter is called the connecting link between the Ford and Harper
families (both of whom so
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1397
largely figure in the annals of the Western Reserve), having thirteen half brothers and sisters with Harper blood in their veins. She was born at the old Cowles homestead, Harpersville, January 22, 1829, and on December 15, 1847, a few weeks before her nineteenth birthday, married James Ford. She then went with her husband to the old Ford homestead in Madison, and for forty years lived the busy but quiet life of farmer's wife. The father died January 18, 1887. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. James Ford. Their youngest child, Nellie, had died in 1873 ; they lost their eldest daughter, Mrs. Althea Hills, in 1886, and the widow after that made her home either with her (laughter in Nebraska, or Albert J., of Geneva. Although well advanced in years when she died, in 1905, Mrs. Jane Ford was a very bright and active lady, as is strikingly proven by a dainty and interesting booklet of which she was the author, entitled "Records of the Harper Family."
Albert J. Ford, of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Madison, Ohio,and at Oberlin College, and during his early manhood was engaged in farming and the operation of a grist mill. He then became vice president and director of the First National Bank of Geneva, remaining seven years in that position. In the fall of 1872 he became a citizen of Geneva, being identified for one year with the dry goods firm of Maltby Brothers, and in February, 1873, purchased Mr. Higley's interest in the firm of Norris and Higley, dealers in feed. After a year, the firm of Norris and Ford became Ford and Cowles, E. R. Cowles having purchased a share in the business of Mr. Norris. The style remained unchanged for eighteen years, during which period a china and crockery department had been added and so developed as to become second in importance in the county. Since Mr. Ford has had sole control of his business it has steadily advanced to No. i of its kind. His accommodations are of the most complete, as in February, 1892, he erected a block on Main street of the most modern construction, which provides for his business, as well as the book and stationery store of S. F. Young and the dry goods establishment of A. F. Hickok. In 1903 Mr. Ford admitted his son, Albert M., into partnership, the style now being A. J. Ford and Son. Besides being the head of this fine business, he is the president of the Geneva Savings Bank, which he with others organized. On July I, 1902, he also organized the Grant Trust and Savings Company, of Marion, Indiana, with a capital of $100,000. Harry A., his son, was appointed cashier of that institution and is now its secretary and treasurer. Mr. Ford's wife was formerly Miss Anna Alena Tibbitts (to whom he was married December 14, 1871), and they have become the parents of four sons and two daughters.. Besides those mentioned, there are Charles J., Nellie, Dean F. and Florence Allena. The sons have all been educated in Oberlin College and inherit their father's ability and good character.
WALTER WILLIAM REED.-A farmer of wide experience and good ability, Walter William Reed owns and occupies a farm, which in point of improvements and equipments is one of the best in the vicinity. The family residence has a beautiful location on the bank of the Grand river, which is two hundred feet high, and commands an extensive view of the. stream and valley. A son of William W. Reed, of whom a brief biography may be found elsewhere in this volume, he was born, December 2, 1860, on the old Reed homestead, now occupied by his brother, Charles.
Succeeding to the free and independent occupation to which he was reared, Mr. Reed carried on general farming in partnership with his brother, Charles, for about twenty years, managing the home estate, while thus employed buying fifty acres of his present farm. In 1900 Mr. Reed assumed possession of this property, and has since bought twenty-eight acres of adjoining land. Originally this land was wet and stony, but Mr. Reed has materially changed its condition, having put in about five miles of tile, the main tile being twelve inches in diameter, with laterals extending all over the farm, and having an outlet in the large township ditch. His land is now well drained, at least fifty acres of it being a sure crop-raiser. He carries on mixed husbandry most successfully, devoting his especial attention to dairying, a profitable industry in this section of the country.
On March 29, 1900, Mr. Reed married Anna Baker, who was born in 1880, a daughter of Byron and Mary (Cunningham) Baker, and granddaughter of John and Mary (Rawson) Cunningham, being one of a family of three children. Mr. and Mrs. Reed are the parents of four children, namely : Florence Almira, Ivah May, Walter Kenneth, and Dorothy Gertrude. Fraternally Mr. Reed is a member of
1398 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
Perryville Lodge, No. 792, I. O. O. F.. and religiously Mrs. Reed belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church.
WILLIAM L. DAY.—As incumbent of the office of United States district attorney for the northern district of Ohio, with headquarters in the city of Cleveland, Mr. Day is entitled to representation in a publication of the province assigned to the one at hand ; but, further than this, he has attained to no minor distinction in a profession dignified by the lives and services of both his father and paternal, grandfather, whose names and labors have an enduring place in the annals of the state of Ohio, and he himself is recognized as one of the able members of the bar of his native commonwealth.
Mr. Day was born in the city of Canton, Stark county, Ohio, on the 13th of August, 1876, and is a son of Judge William R. and Mary E. (Schaefer) Day, who now reside in the city of Washington, where the father is an associate justice of the supreme court of the United States, after long having been a distinguished figure in the civic life of Ohio as well as in the work of his profession. He was, born in Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, and is a son of the late Judge Luther Day, who was for many years a judge of the Superior Court of Ohio.
After completing the curriculum of the public schools of his native city, William L. Day continued his studies in Williston Academy, at Easthampton, Massachusetts. In 1897 he was matriculated in the law department of the University of Michigan, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of two and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. He forthwith returned to his home in Canton, where he engaged in the active practice of his profession and where he became a member of the well known law firm of Lynch, Day & Day, whose business has been one of wide scope and importance. He was elected to the office of city solicitor in 1906 and at the expiration of his first term was chosen as his own successor in this office, of which he remained incumbent until March, 1908, when he resigned the same to enter upon the duties of the office of United States district attorney for the northern district of Ohio, to which preferment he had been advanced through appointment by President Roosevelt. His administration has been marked by a secure grasp upon the legal and practical details of the important work assigned to him and has gained to him unequivocal commendation on the part of his professional confreres and the general public. He has maintained his residence in Cleveland since September, 1908. Mr. Day has been an enthusiastic and efficient worker in the cause of the Republican party, and prior to receiving his present official appointment he was actively identified with party affairs in the eighteenth congressional district of Ohio. He is identified with various fraternal organizations and with the. Hermit, the Nisi Prius and the Athletic Clubs of Cleveland, as well as representative clubs in Canton.
In 1902 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Day to Miss Estelle McKay, daughter of Hon. William McKay, of Caro, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Day have one son, William R., who was born in 1904.
O
TTO E. HASERODT.—Among the able and popular officials of Lorain county is Mr.
Haserodt, who is county auditor and who is also a representative of one of the old and honored
families of the Western Reserve, with whose annals the name has been identified for
three-fourths of a century. In the different generations the members of the family have well
acquitted themselves and have at all times commanded unequivocal confidence and esteem. The
original progenitors of the Haserodt family. in the Western Reserve were Henry C. and Margaret
(Berdz) Haserodt, both of whom were natives of Prussia, where the former was born in 1799 and
the latter in 1807. In 1834 they immigrated to the United States, and shortly after their arrival in
the new world they made their way to the fine old Western Reserve in Ohio. They settled on a
farm in Medina county, where they continued to reside for many years and where Henry C.
Haserodt attained to success and independence through his well directed labors in connection
with the great basic industry of agriculture. Both he and his wife passed the declining years of
their lives in Elyria, where he died in 1887 and where she passed away in 1891. Both were
devout members of the Evangelical Lutheran church.
John F. Haserodt, son of Henry C. and Margaret (Berdz) Haserodt, is now living virtually retired in the city of Elyria, where for many years he was actively identified with business and civic affairs and where he holds a secure place in popular confidence and esteem. He was born on the old homestead farm
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1399
in Liverpool township, Medina county, Ohio, on the 8th of July, 1836, and his early educational privileges were those afforded in the common schools of the middle pioneer epoch in this section of the Union. At the age of seventeen years he went to the city of Cleveland; where he served a thorough apprenticeship to the trade of harnessmaking, in which he became a specially skillful workman. In 1857 he went to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was engaged in the work of his trade until 1861, when, his sympathies being with the Union, he returned to the north on account of the outbreak of the Civil war. He again took up his residence in the city of Cleveland, where he became foreman in a large harnessmaking establishment, in which he continued to be thus engaged until 1867, when he returned to the old home farm in Medina county. With the work and management of the farm he thereafter continued to be actively identified until 188o, when he engaged in the harness making business in Elyria, where he soon gained a high reputation for his ability in making light harness of the best type. He built up a large and substantial trade throughout this section of the state and he continued to be actively engaged in business until 1904, when he sold his establishment. He has since lived essentially retired and still maintains his. home in Elyria. He has taken much interest in the progress and -prosperity of his home city and was formerly actively identified with public affairs of a local order. For three full terms he represented the Fourth ward in the city council, and he proved a valuable member of that body. He is a stanch Republican in his political proclivities, and both he and his wife are influential and zealous members of Grace Evangelical church, in which he is an elder.
In the city of Cleveland, in the year 1861, was solemnized the marriage of John .F. Haserodt to Miss Johanna M. Meyer, who was born in Germany, and concerning their children the following brief data are entered : George F. is employed in the Heldmyer hardware store in Elyria ; Rev. Henry H. is a clergyman of the Lutheran church and now holds a pastoral charge in Alameda, California ; Lillie C. is a professional nurse and resides in Elyria ; Edmund B. is a resident of the city of Cleveland and is a member of its council, as a representative of the Twenty-third ward, serving his third term. William L., who is in the United States railroad mail service, between Cleveland and Syracuse, New York,
Vol. III-9
maintains his home in Elyria ; Otto E., the immediate subject of this review ; Oscar P. is a member of the Critz-Haserodt Jewelry Company, of Elyria ; Paul M. is engaged with a wholesale tea and coffee house in the city of Cleveland ; Violet L. remains at the parental home ; Emanuel is engaged with a leading jewelry establishment in Cleveland ; and Elmer is a student in Corncordia Theological Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Otto E. Haserodt was born at Liverpool, Medina. county, Ohio, on December 24, 1873, and thus became a welcome Christmas guest in the home of his parents. His early educational discipline was secured in the public schools of Elyria, and at the age of fourteen years he became a clerical assistant in a grocery store in this city. Under these associations he gained a valuable business experience while still a boy, and through self-discipline he effectually amplified his educational training. When twenty-one years of age Mr. Haserodt assumed the position of bookkeeper for the Elyria Lumber Company, and in September, 1898, he received appointment to the position of deputy auditor of Lorain county. In October, 1905, he was appointed county auditor, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry J. Barrows, auditor-elect, who had died before assuming the work of the office. In 1906 Mr. Haserodt was elected to the office of auditor, without opposition, and the same gratifying evidence of popular appreciation and esteem was accorded him in 1908, when he was chosen his own successor, without opposition, and receiving the largest vote cast in Lorain county for any candidate on either the county or state tickets. He has given a signally able administration of the important office of which he has thus been in tenure, and his course has brought to him unqualified commendation. After a regular examination by the state bureau of accounting the efficiency of the office was most highly complimented, and Mr. Haserodt has ever been on the alert to adopt or inaugurate any method to facilitate the workings of his office for thoroughness and for the convenience of his constituents. In politics he is arrayed as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, he is a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, is a stockholder and director of the Lorain County Banking Company and is a stockholder in one other banking institution. Both himself and wife are members of Grace Evangelical church. On October 8, 1901, Mr. Haserodt was united in marriage to