1000 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE dolph township with other members of the family in 1868. The first family homestead consisted of eighty acres, but George Royer afterward purchased the 164 acres which constitutes his present place. Elmer E. obtained his education in the district schools of Randolph township, remaining with his parents until his marriage, October 12, 1886, to Miss Elma Maxwell. His wife, who was born June 12, 1864, is a daughter of John and Elsie (Honeywell) Maxwell, both natives of Ohio. Their daughter and only child, Elsie A., was born February 5, 1894, and is being educated at Randolph. In completion of the record of the father, it should be added that Mr. Royer has long been known as a stalwart Republican, and that for several terms he has served his township as trustee. In the discharge of the duties of that office, as of all entrusted to him, he has evinced faithfulness and thorough intelligence. AMOS L. SLABAUGH, who successfully operates a farm of 150 acres in Randolph township, Portage county, was born in Pennsylvania, December 16, 1822. He is a son of Christian and Nancy (Roods) Slabaugh, who migrated from the old home in Lancaster county, in 1827, and located in Mahoning county. There the family settled on a farm of 160 acres. The sons assisted their father in clearing the land, and in the log house which was the family home was reared the twelve children of the household. Amos L., who is the only surviving son of the family, resided with his parents until his marriage to Miss Julia A. France in 1853. He then located at Akron, Ohio ; subsequently resided in Indiana for three years ; lived for a time at Rootstown, Portage county, and finally settled on his present farm in Randolph township. His wife, who was born in 1832 and is therefore ten years his junior, has borne him three sons and one daughter, as follows : Dr. Warren Slabaugh, a practicing physician of Omaha ; Willard W., a lawyer in , that city ; Watson E., a lawyer, who resides at Akron, Ohio ; Frank is an Omaha dentist ; and his sister Mary lives at home. ADELBERT W. WHEELOCK.—Himself one of the most progressive agriculturists of Portage county, with his. private interests located. in Randolph township since the early period of his manhood, Adelbert W. Wheelock is also a widely known character in this section because of the prominence of his maternal an cestry in the early history of the Western Reserve and his own earnestness as a student of pioneer times and as a collector of curios connected with them. He is a native of Allegan county, Michigan, born on the 2d of March, 1862, and is a son of Benjamin F. and Catherine M. (Clark) Wheelock, natives of New Hampshire. His mother was a daughter of Billings and Rachel (Brigden) Clark, natives of Connecticut, who came to the Western Reserve in 1816, taking up land in both Lake and Portage counties, but fixing their homestead in Edinburg township. There Billings Clark erected what was then the largest residence in Portage county, and was a prominent man. Artimus and Rachel (Renolds) Wheelock, the paternal grandparents of the family, first flourished in New York state, the great-grandfather of Adelbert W., who was a native of Connecticut, being William Wheelock. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Wheelock, four sons and two daughters are still alive—Adelbert W., of this sketch; Wilford A., who is also a resident of Randolph township ; Maurice R., a citizen of Ravenna ; Nettie G. (Wheelock) Bailey, who now lives at Shreve, Wayne county ; Carrie V., of Cleveland, and Arthur A., who resides at Salem, Columbiana county, all in the state of Ohio. Until he was fifteen years of age, Adelbert W. resided with his parents, but his independence then came to the foreground and made him the self-supporting member of the community which he has since been, with a great surplus of energy and ability which have been applied to the advancement both of his private affairs and those of the township and the county. On September 20, 1887, when he was twenty-five years of age, Mr. Wheelock married Miss Alice B. Switzer, and after residing in Edinburg township for ten years, settled in Randolph and purchased the farm which he now occupies. His wife, who was born May 5, 1865, is a daughter of Tobias and Rebecca Switzer, natives Of Columbiana county, Ohio, and is herself the mother of Charles B., Franklin T. and Edith M., all living at home. Mrs. Wheelock's grandfather, Jacob Switzer, was born November 8, 1788, and died March 28, 1859, while her grandmother, Catherine, who was born in the same year as her husband, passed away March 17, 1850. Mr. Wheelock has always taken a deep interest in the general progress of agricultural HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1001 matters in the county, and for years has been active in Grange work, having served for the past seven years as worthy master of the local body. He is independent in politics, but his religious faith is firmly grounded in Methodism, and for nine years he has served as trustee of the Randolph church. Brief reference has been made to Mr. Wheelock's interest in historic relics, and, being a man of action and enterprise, he has become an industrious collector. Among other interesting articles now deposited in his private museum is a United States mail bag representing the kind used when the national postal service was first placed in operation. This particular pouch was last used by Colonel Taylor from 1796 to 1800. Then there is the great basting fork wielded by his great-grandmother in the days when the roasting and cooking was done in open fireplaces, over the blazing logs or golden beds of partly burned wood. A bell originally the property of Job Clark, a maternal ancestor of several generations back, was transferred by him from Rhode Island to the later home of the family in Connecticut ; descended to Billings Clark, the maternal grandfather, who brought it to Edinburg township when he came hither in 1816 ; next it became the property of Catherine Clark, his daughter, who carried the much-traveled bell with her to Michigan, after she became Mrs. Benjamin F. Wheelock ; and the treasured family heirloom remained in her household when it was shifted to Randolph township, finally passing to the careful hands of her son, Adelbert W. He has a wooden sugar bowl which has been in the family for more than a century ; a hatchel, or comber, with the flax which was last used by his grandmother, which was a gift to the girl in 1805; and a spoon owned. by Isabel Eliott 150 years ago. Of the relics which may be said to be of more general historic interest are the section of a grape vine set out by George Washington ; a chip of George Washington's barn wall at Mt. Vernon ; a copy of the "Psalms and Hymns" published by John Ripon, D. D., in 1803, and a portrait of Justine Eddy, painted. by W. A. Waterman in 1818. Connected with the periods immediately before and after the Civil war, Mr. Wheelock also possesses a life of George Washington by Hon. J. T. Headley, with an interesting account of Mount Vernon, issued in 1860, and both volumes of the "History of the Civil War," as published by John S. C. Abbott in 1866. He has also a fine Indian collection, minerals and fossils. REV. EDWIN H. HAWLEY. - Measured by its beneficence, its nobility and its fruitful labors as one of the able ministers of the gospel in the Western Reserve, the life of this honored pioneer, Rev. Edwin H. Hawley, was such as to make the influence thereof continue to manifest itself in ever widening angle, through the effects upon and labors of those who came within the sphere of his personal or subjective influence during his long and faithful service in the vineyard of the divine Master. It is signally fitting that in this publication be entered a tribute to the memory of this venerated pioneer clergyman of the Western Reserve. Rev. Edwin H. Hawley was born at 'New Canaan, Columbia county, New York, on the 12th of October, 1812, and was a scion of a family of English lineage,' whose name has been identified with the annals of American history from the early colonial days ; representatives of the same were numbered among the founders and first settlers of Canaan, Connecticut, and the same name was applied to the New York settlement made by members of the family in later generations. Mr. Hawley's parents were in comfortable financial circumstances and he was afforded excellent educational advantages, in his youth, besides which had the beneficent influences of a home of culture and refinement. He was for four years a student in Union College, at Schenectady, New York, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1838, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later Master of Arts. Soon after his graduation he was matriculated in Newton Theological Seminary, in the city of Boston, in which institution he was graduated in 1840. In November of the same year he was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist church, in New York City. Prior to this, in 1837, he had received from this church denomination a license to preach. After his ordination Mr. Hawley was sent as a missionary to Lorain. county, Ohio, and upon his arrival in this state he took up his residence in the little village of Lorain, on the shores of Lake Erie. In Lorain county, on the 3d of November, 1841, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Dinah R. .Morse, and in the following year 1002 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE they removed to Bedford, Cuyahoga county, where he became pastor of the Baptist church. There his wife died, and he later married Miss Hannah Spafford, whose death occurred within the same year. On the 5th of February, 1846, Mr. Hawley was married, while still residing in Bedford, to Mrs. Rachel (Peffers) Rose, of Burton, Geauga county ; she was born in Washington county, New York. While pastor of the Baptist church in Bedford, Mr. Hawley also had pastoral charge of the church in the little village of Twinsburg, three miles distant, in Summit county. While actively laboring as pastor of the church in Bedford, Mr. Hawley became interested in the teachings and doctrine of the Christian church, then known as Disciples of Christ. So strong an appeal did the tenets of this denomination make to Mr. Hawley that he finally visited the Rev. Alexander Camp- bell at his home in Bethany, West Virginia, and his interview and discussions with this honored founder of the Christian church resulted in his espousing the faith of said denomination, to which he transferred his membership and of which he became a clergyman. His first pastorate under the auspices of this church was at Braceville, Trumbull county, Ohio, and later he held pastoral charge of the church at Newton Falls, Trumbull county, for three years, at the expiration of which, in the autumn of 1854, he took up his resi dence in Painesville, Lake county, in which village he became the first settled pastor of the church of Disciples of Christ. Here also he served one year as principal of the public schools. He was a man of profound erudition and was familiar with several languages. After a successful pastorate of four years in Painesville, Mr. Hawley was called to the pastorate of the church at Wilmington, Clinton county, Ohio, where he remained two years. He then returned to the Western Reserve and soon afterward he became pastor of the church of his faith in the village of Mentor, Lake county, one of the oldest churches of the denomination in Ohio, and while he retained this incumbency Alexander Campbell visited Mentor and preached from the pulpit of this church. After leaving this charge Mr. Hawley preached at Perry and other places in the Western Reserve, and in 1864 he was called to the pastorate of the Euclid Avenue church in East Cleveland, then known as Doan's Corners. A year later he became minister of the Disciples' church at Hiram, Portage county, where he served for two years, during which period his children attended the Eclectic Institute, the nucleus of the present Hiram College. Owing to a disordered condition of his vocal organs, Mr. Hawley found it impossible to continue regular pastoral work for some time, and under these conditions he took up his residence in the city of Cleveland, from which place he was called to supply temporarily the pulpits of his church in various parts of the state. Finally he became pastor of the church at Geneva, Ashtabula county, where lie remained two years, after which he preached at varying intervals in various churches in the Reserve, without holding a permanent charge. Mr. Hawley was for many years a regular and valued contributor to the Christian Standard, of which the editor-in-chief was the Rev. Isaac Errett. Mr. Hawley was well known to and held in high regard by the ministers of his church in Ohio and elsewhere. He was an earnest speaker, and his every utterance betokened a courage of conviction and a desire to be helpful to his fellow men. His character was one of gracious kindliness, and he won to himself the love and esteem of all who came within the circle of his influence. He had naught of intellectual bigotry and intolerance, but placed true values upon men and affairs, understanding the well-springs of human thought and action and having a deep and abiding sympathy for all sorts and conditions of men. His was the faith that makes faithful, and of him it may consistently be said that he "remembered those who were forgotten" and those who "sat in darkness." In 1869, so greatly had his voice been impaired, Mr. Hawley found it imperative to withdraw from active ministerial work, and he became a dealer in antiquarian books, in Cleveland — a vocation signally in harmony with his fine literary tastes and habits. He continued in this line of business for a few years, and about 1873 he returned to Bedford, Cuyahoga county, where he remained a few years. He passed the last years of his long and fruitful life in Cleveland, where he died on the 18th of November, 1893, at the age of eighty-one years. His memory is revered by all who knew him and it is assuredly true that "his works do follow him." His widow survived him by six years, and was eighty-seven years of age at the time of her death, which occurred in Painesville. All of the five children were born of the last marriage, and concerning them the following brief data is given : Dr. Charles M. is individually men- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1003 tioned in this publication ; Alice E., who became the wife of Alden H. Matthews, died in the city of Cleveland ; Helen L. is the wife of Theodore F. Hollinger, of Detroit, Michigan ; Dr. Edwin P. is a successful medical practitioner in the city of Cleveland, and Kate L. is the wife of John Colman, of Cleveland. Standing in the great white light of a life and character like that of Rev. Edwin H. Hawley, we are moved to veneration and admiration, and poor, indeed, is he who can not find in his life record both lesson and incentive. DR. CHARLES M. HAWLEY is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Painesville, Lake county, where he has maintained his home for more than a quarter of a century and where he is held in unqualified esteem both as a physician and as a citizen of the utmost loyalty and public spirit. In view of the fact that on other pages of this work is entered a memoir to his honored father, the late Rev. Edwin H. Hawley, it is not necessary to here offer further review of the family history, as ready reference may be made to the article mentioned. Dr. Hawley was born in the village of Bedford, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on the 1st of February, 1849. He gained his early educational discipline in the schools of the various cities and villages in which his father had pastoral charge, and in 1864 he entered Hiram Eclectic Institute, at Hiram, Ohio, where his father was then located, and in this institution he continued higher academic studies for a period of two years. In preparing for the work of his chosen profession he was matriculated in the Pennsylvania Eclectic Medical College, at Philadelphia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1871 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medizine. After his graduation the doctor spent cue year in Europe, and within this interval he visited Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Holland and Belgium. He made the trip through Europe largely on foot ; he arrived in France soon after the evacuation of Paris by the Germans, after the Franco-Prussian war, and he kept "outside the beaten path" in his itinerary, so that his journeys proved of far more interest and value and less expense was entailed. In fact he expended in making this extended tour the sum of only five hundred and fifty dollars. After his return to Ohio Dr. Hawley passed four and one-half years as first assistant physician of the Ohio state hospital for the insane, in the city of Cleveland, and thereafter he was engaged in the practice of his profession about eighteen months in his native town of Medford, where his father was living at the time. In the spring of 188o Dr. Hawley took up his residence in Painesville, where he practically succeeded to the practice of the late and honored Dr. L. C. Stebbins, and here he has since continued in the active work of his profession, having a large and representative practice and being one of the leading members of his profession in this section of the state. For thirteen years he was attending physician at the county infirmary of Lake county, and he has been a member of the Painesville board of health since 1893. He holds membership in the Ohio State Medical Society, American Medical Association and Lake County Medical Society. In politics. Dr. Hawley is an advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and while he takes a deep interest in all that touches the well-being of the community, he never has sought public office. His interest in educational matters was signified by his.serving for seven years as a member of the board of education of Painesville. He and his wife hold membership in the Disciples, or Christian church, of which his father was a distinguished clergyman, and they are actively identified with the work of their church in Painesville. Dr. Hawley has inherited much of the fine literary taste of his father, and is a constant reader of the best literature, both professional and standard. He is fortunate in being the owner of the large and finely selected library collected by his father, whose discrimination was ultimate in 'regard to such matters.. This library is undoubtedly one of the choicest private collections to be found within the borders of the Western Reserve. In his library the Doctor also retains the old working desk, revolving book-case and chair so long and constantly used by his father, of whose gentle and noble character he is ever mindful and to whom he pays a perpetual tribute of love and honor. In 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Hawley to Miss Emma Burridge, daughter of Captain Eleazer Burridge, of Mentor, Lake county, and they have two sons,—Edwin H., who is a railway postal clerk and who maintains his headquarters in Cleveland ; and Charles B., who is a graduate of the Case School of Applied Science, in Cleveland, and who is a civil engineer by profession. 1004 -HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE FRANK BARNES has long been associated with the varied interests of Ashtabula county, but he is a native son of Connecticut, born March 7, 183o, to the marriage union of Zenus and Flora (Goodwin) Barnes. Zenus Barnes, born at New Hartford, Connecticut, December 28, 1798, came to Ohio in 1837, and in 1866 he became a resident of Austinburg and one cif its agriculturists. His death occurred at Lansing, Michigan, July 19, 1870. Mrs. Barnes was born April 9, 1805, and died on the 31st of May, 1872. The following children were born of their marriage : Elizabeth, who was born September 30, 1826, and died on April 30, 1849; Walter, born in 1829, married Amelia Gould and died in California in 1865, his widow now living at Columbus Junction; Iowa; Frank, born March 7, 1830, is mentioned below ; Homer, born in April, 1832, died in 1865 ; Mary, born July I I, 1838, died September 28, 1849 ; Norman, born July I, 1842, died October 11, 1849 ; and Lizzie, born in 1847, died in Iowa in 1886. Frank Barnes received his educational training in Geauga county, Ohio, where he attended both public and select schools, and he started on his business career as a farmer, but after a short time went into a store and clerked until 1854. During the following ten years he resided in Minnesota, engaged in teaming and farming, and returning to Ohio in 1864 he located at Huntsburg, and a year later moved from there to his present home in Austinburg township, his residence there covering the long, period of forty-two years. He is .yet interested in a general mercantile business at Austinburg, and has served as the postmaster of the little city. for twenty-two years, while during several years he has served his township as treasurer. He married in his earlier years Angenette Wright, who was born on the i8th of June, 1831, and died on the 16th of June, 1897. A son, Walter P. Barnes, was born to them on the 14th of April, 1866. He attended the Grand River Institute in Austinburg, and is now a member of the executive board of that institution, and is also interested in his father's mercantile business. He married Almeria Wire, and is a Master Mason, a member of Geneva Lodge of Ohio, and a Republican. Frank Barnes is also a Master Mason, but belongs to Tuscon Lodge at Jefferson, where he is also a member of .the Chapter No. 222 and of the Odd Fellows fraternity. In the latter order he has served as noble and vice grand and as recording and permanent secretary of Seal No. 691, and he is now a member of Ensign Lodge, No. 400. His political allegiance is with the Republican party. JUDSON C. BEERY, who has been a substantial farmer and a good citizen of Portage county for more than forty-three years, has been identified with the progress of. Randolph township for a decade. He was born at Canfield,. Ohio, September 15, 184o, a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Strock) Beery, the former a native; of Pennsylvania and the latter of Canfield. They located at Canfield in early times, and fixed the homestead on a tract of one hundred and seventy-five acres. This locality witnesses the development of Judson C. into manhood, his residence being with his parents until he himself established a household by his marriage to Miss Aucelia Davidson, on the 12th of October; 1866. Less. than a year before, on the 15th of November, 1865, he had received his honorable discharge' from the Union army, in which he had been serving since 1863 as a member of Company G, First Ohio Light Artillery. After his mar-' riage Mr. Beery moved to Freedom township, Portage county, where he engaged in farming for a quarter of a century. In June, 1902,. he transferred the family homestead to Randolph township, where he has continued his industrious career as an agriculturist and added to his character for stanch citizenship. He has the further honor of being the father of eight sons who are the highest credit to him and the places of their residence ; they are Adelbert J., Clifton J., Austin, Clarence, Edward, Charles, Chauncy and Harry. THEODORE F. MERIAM, a venerable and revered citizen of Randolph, Portage county, was one of the earliest to organize the agriculturists for co-operation and the improvement of their calling. More than forty years ago he founded the Farmers' Club, which proved beneficial to the farming community until the present time, and he has also been secretary of. the Mutual Insurance Company for some years. Mr. Meriam has worthily served the township as clerk and constable, and since boyhood has continued his father's loyal work for the Congregational church and the general cause of Christianity. He has long been a deacon of the local church and is now serving as president of the Portage County Bible Society. On January 6, 1832, Mr. Meriam became a, native of Randolph township, as a son of Rev. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1005 Joseph and Emeline (Bidwell) Meriam, the father being born in Massachusetts and the mother in Connecticut. Rev. Joseph Meriam settled in Randolph township in the fall of 1823, occupying ten acres of land and quietly commencing his ministerial work as a cultivator in the Lord's vineyard. With Randolph Center as the nucleus of his pastoral labors, he continued in the good work for sixty-four years, and the people for miles around had constant and abundant cause to rise up and bless him for his faithful help in a spiritual and, often, a material form. When a. young man, he was sent by his church as a delegate to a convention held in Lake county, Ohio, and while thus serving met the girl who afterward became his wife. He was a thoughtful husband and father and carefully provided for the comforts of his family, erecting one of the first frame residences in the township and so honestly and stanchly built that it was occupied for many years after his death by his son, Theodore F. Besides the latter, who was the. third child born into his family and is the only survivor, there were Joseph Bidwell, Emeline A., William M. and Elizabeth. Theodore F. Meriam received most of his education at the Shaw Academy, of East Cleveland, Ohio, and lived with his parents until his marriage to Miss Sarah Adams, a native of that place. Mrs. Meriam was born January 6, 1836, of good New England stock and Ohio pioneers, and died in the year 1879. The children of the union were Howard F., Ruth E., Chester A., Morrison E., Junius L. and Joseph B. In 1881 Mr. Meriam married Miss Mary Moos, and Oliver F., the only child of this union, lives adjacent to his parents. Theodore F. Meriam's mother's family (the Bidwells) was originally settled in Connecticut, but migrated afterward to Pennsylvania and thence to Lake county, Ohio. ABELINO GRAHAM.-A brave and loyal soldier during the Civil war, a public official of well-known ability, a successful farmer and a true and worthy citizen such in part is the life work of Abelino Graham, a native son of Trumbull township. His father, Samuel Graham, born in Hadley, Massachusetts, November 4, 1804, came to this state about the year 1835, locating first in Geauga county, remaining there four years and then located in Ashtabula county. His death, however, occurred in Iowa, May 15, 1855. He was by trade a shoemaker. He married Sylvia Heminway, who was born on October. 18, 1807, and died on the 7th of January, 1862, and they became the parents of the following children : Mary, who was born January 27, 1833, in Massachusetts, and died March 27, 1863 ; Marilla, born February 23, 1835, married William Cook, and lives in Auburn, Bay county, Michigan ; born March 26, 1834, married Randolph Elliot, and lives in Kawkawlin, Michigan ; Abelino E. was born June 17, 1839 ; Rosalva W., born May 8, 1842, married Emma Gaines, and for his second wife Ann Deeda, and he lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan ; Rocelia, born December i6, 1844, married Henry Page, and lives in Kawkawlin, Michigan ; Joel P., born June 15, 1847, married Maria Perry, and is a blacksmith in Trumbull township ; Emerson, born May 22, 1850, married Jane Edsell and lives in Kawkawlin, Michigan ; and Samuel, born June 25, 1854, married Lettie Bedell and lives in California. Abelino Graham received a district school, education in the schools of Trumbull township, and September 9, 1861; he enlisted in Battery C, Firt. Ohio Volunteers, being promoted later to corporal and on the 13th of July, 1864, to sergeant. He re-enlisted at Nashville in his old battery for three years or until the close of the war, and received his honorable discharge. July 15, 1865. He is now a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, C. Brainard Post, No. 503, at Trumbull Center, and he served as its commander for two years and is its present adjutant, having held the latter office for six years. During a period of nine years he served his township of Trumbull as a trustee, and has also been a member of the school board. He owns a farm of ninety-six acres of good and well improved land, and is engaged in general agricultural pursuits. Mr. Graham married on May 18, 1871, Martha Stevens, who was born December 9, 1843, and their union has been without issue. They are worthy and acceptable members of the Church of Christ. FREDERICK T. PYLE.-One of the representative business men and influential citizens of the thriving little city of Painesville, Lake county, is Mr. Pyle, who is president of the Pyle Abstract & Loan Company, of which he was the founder and in the upbuilding of whose large and substantial business he has been the dominating force. Frederick T. Pyle was born in Dodge county, Minnesota, on the 12th of October, 1858, and is a son of Jesse and Ade- 1006 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE line (Lucas) Pyle, the former of whom was born in the state of Maryland and the latter in Ashtabula county, Ohio. In 1861, on account of the Indian outbreak in the northwest, Jesse Pyle removed with his family from Minnesota, where he was a pioneer, to Saybrook, Ashtabula county, Ohio, the former home of his wife, and she died the day after their arrival, having been a victim of consumption. Jesse Pyle was reared and educated in Maryland, where he learned the carpenter's trade, and as a young man he came to Ohio and took up his residence in Saybrook, Ashtabula county, where he engaged in the work of his trade and where his marriage was solemnized. Mrs. Pyle was a daughter of Thomas Lucas, who was, so far as .available data indicates, a native of Connecticut, whence he came to Ashtabula county, Ohio, in an early day and numbered himself among the pioneers of the Western Reserve. In Saybrook, Ashtabula county, he passed the residue of his life, and here all of his children were born ; all are now deceased. Jesse Pyle became a manufacturer of lumber after his return to Ohio, and he conducted operations at various places. For many years, in connection with the general manufacturing of lumber, he made a specialty of the manufacturing of suckers for oil wells, and as a business man he was energetic, discriminating and progressive, so that he gained definite success in his chosen field of application. It is worthy of record in the connection, as a notable coincidence, that Jesse Pyle was one of twin children, as was also his wife, and their two sons, Frederick T. and Frank P., likewise are twins. After the death of his wife Jesse Pyle provided for his two boys by securing them board and care in the home of an excellent family in Trumbull county, where they remained until they were fifteen years of age, in the meanwhile duly availing themselves of the public schools. After their father's second marriage, to Miss Addie Ransom, of Chautauqua county, New York, they again found a home of their own under the paternal rooftree. The father had associated himself with Warren Packard, of Warren, Ohio, and established a lumber mill at Grant Station, Chautauqua county, New York, where he remained for some time after his second marriage. He then established a mill at Waterford, Pennsylvania, in 1873, where his two eons remained with him about three years.. He finally went to the Pacific coast, remaining- for several years in California and Washington, and he passed the closing years of his life in the home of his son,- Frederick T., where he died at the age of seventy-four years. Frank, the other son, is now identified with the work of drilling oil wells and resides at New Martinsville, West Virginia. The father was a Republican in politics, was a member of the Methodist church, and was a man of inviolable integrity. His second wife preceded him to the eternal and is survived by one child, Nellie M. Pyle. Frederick T. Pyle gained his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of Trumbull county, Ohio, as has already been noted, and in that county he was also afforded the advantages of Hartford Academy. After leaving this institution he was for some time engaged in teaching in the district schools of the same county, and was successful in the work of tree pedagogic profession. His natural inclination, however, was for a business life, and he secured employment in the drug store of W. C. Andrews, at Cortland, Trumbull county, where he learned. the business in all its details and became a skilled pharmacist. In 1883 he purchased a drug store in the village of Sterling, Wayne county, Ohio, where he remained three years, at the expiration of which he removed his stock of goods to Madison, Lake county, where he built up an excellent trade, and where he purchased, in 1885, the stock and business of a competitor. In 1892 Mr. Pyle was elected to the office of county recorder of Lake county, whereupon he removed to Painesville, the judicial center of the county. By successive re-elections Mr. Pyle continued an incumbent of the office mentioned until September, 1907,—a period of almok fifteen years—and the best evidence of the popular estimate placed upon his adminis- tration is that offered by his long tenure of this important office. Within his regime as county recorder Mr. Pyle made a most exact and complete set of abstracts of title to all real estate in the county, and upon his. retirement from office he organized the Pyle Abstract & Loan Company, of which he has been president from the start and of whose affairs he has had the general supervision. The company utilizes the fine set of abstracts prepared by him, and makes a specialty of financial loans upon approved real estate security. From the abstract department the best of service is given, and an abstract issued by the company is certain to be comprehensive and accurate in every detail. Mr. Pyle is the owner of a well-im- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1007 proved farm in Painesville township, Lake county, about one mile distant from Painesville, and on this place a specialty is made of growing onions. He is recognized as one of the representative business men of Lake county, where he is well known and held in unqualified esteem, and as a citizen he is essentially liberal and public-spirited. As a stanch adherent of the Republican party, Mr. Pyle has rendered effective service in its cause. He was the first Republican ever elected clerk of Milton township, Wayne county, Ohio, where he was then engaged in the drug business. He was elected to this office in 1884, after a residence of but one year in the county, and his election as a Republican made a break in the power of the Democratic party, which considered that county and township one of its strongholds. Mr. Pyle is identified with various fraternal and social organizations in his home city. On the 12th of April, 1883, at Johnson, Trumbull county, Ohio, Mr. Pyle was united in marriage to Miss Susie Elder, who was born and reared in that county and who is a daughter of the late George D. Elder, one of the sterling pioneers of that section of Ohio. Mrs. Pyle's ancestors settled in America in the early colonial epoch. Mr. and Mrs. Pyle have two children—Raymond F., who is cashier of the Painesville National Bank, and Marjorie M., who was graduated in the Painesville high school as a member of the class of 1909. The original copper plate from which the map of the Western Reserve shown herein was made is the property of F. T. Pyle, and was found nailed over a stovepipe hole in a house in Madison about 1896, and was purchased by F. T. Pyle. SALMON SWETLAND.—On the shore of Lake Erie, in Madison township, Lake county, is the fine old homestead farm, which was the home of Salmon Swetland during the major portion of his life, and which is now owned and occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Frederick Brown, who was born in the house which has been her place of abode from the time of her birth. The farm adjoins the Madison township park and is one of the many beautiful country estates in the historic old Western Reserve. Mr. Swetland was a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Reserve and was long numbered among the successful farmers and honored and influential citizens of Lake county. He died on the homestead on the 12th of June, 1901, at the venerable age of eighty years. Salmon Swetland was born in Bristol township, Ashtabula county, Ohio, in the year 1821, and was a son of Salmon and Betsy (Talcott) Swetland, both of whom were natives of Dalton, Massachusetts, whence they came to the Western Reserve about the year 1818, settling in Ashtabula county, where the father secured a tract of wild land and instituted the development of a farm. He was killed, accidentally a number of years later, and his widow finally, about 1831, removed with her family to the locality known as Middle Ridge, Lake county, near the site of the present Soldiers' Home of Ohio. Then she moved to the homestead of Mrs. Brown and died there. She was born in 1794 and was seventy-six years of age at the time of her death. Salmon and Betsy (Talcott) Swetland became the parents of two sons and three daughters—Salmon, Jr., Leonard T., Harriett, Rosetta, and Mariette. Leonard T. settled in Lake county, on the shore of Lake Erie, where he reclaimed a farm and continued to reside during the greater portion of his mature life. He attained to The age of seventy-four years. The eldest of the three daughters, Harriett, became the wife of Aaron Gager, who was long engaged in business in the village of Madison, where he followed his trade, that of carriagemaker. One of his daughters is the wife of Lemuel K. Ritscher, of Madison, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this publication. Rosetta became the wife of Alvin T. Scoville, a shoemaker, and they maintained their home in Madison, where she died when more than seventy years of age. He was an accomplished musician and was for many years a successful teacher of vocal music. Mariette, the youngest of the daughters, became the wife of Alonzo Crocker, and they resided for many years at Amherst, Ohio. She likewise was past seventy years of age at the time of her death. Salmon Swetland, Jr., of this memoir, was indebted to the pioneer schools of the Western Reserve for his early educational training, and he remained identified with the work of the home farm, of which he became the owner at the death of his stepfather, Isaac N. Martin, whom his mother had married several years after the death of her first husband. Mr. Martin had made substantial improvements on the farm, upon which he erected the dwelling now occupied by Mrs. Frederick Brown, previously mentioned in this context. Upon his death 1008 -HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Mr. Martin gave the farm to his stepson, Salmon Swetland, who there passed the residue of his long and useful life. At the age of twenty-one years Salmon Swetland was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Ann Williams, who was about one year his senior. She was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and at the age of fifteen years she came to Ohio to join her half-brother, John Williams, one of the sterling pioneers of Lake county. She passed her entire married life on the old homestead mentioned and was summoned to eternal rest on the 28th of September, 1888, about thirteen years prior to the death of her husband. She was a consistent member of the Congregational church and her life was marked by integrity and other generous attributes of character. Of their children, three attained to years of maturity—Celia, who is the wife of Frederick Brown and the owner of the fine old homestead farm, which was devised to her by her father ; Rosette died on the list of May, 1875, unmarried, and was twenty-five years of age at the time of her demise ; and Charles A. died at the age of sixteen years. Mrs. Celia (Swetland) Brown was born in the attractive old homestead which she now occupies, and the date of her nativity was March 6, 1846. She was afforded the advantages of the common schools of Madison township and in the community which had represented her home from the time of her birth she is held in affectionate regard, as a gracious woman of most gentle and kindly nature. On the 18th of August, 1901, after caring for her honored father with true filial solicitude during his declining days, she was united in marriage to Frederick Brown, who was born in England in 1837 and who came to America when a youth of fifteen years. In 1859 he took up his residence in Ohio. He represented the old Buckeye state as a valiant soldier in the Civil war, in which he served three years and nine months as a member of Battery G, Ohio Light Artillery, and of this gallant command he was one of the five from Madison township, Lake county, who lived to return home, all the others having sacrificed their lives in the cause of their country. He was wounded by sharpshooters on one occasion, but his injury kept him out of the ranks of his battery for only one month. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and maintains a deep interest in his old comrades in arms. In politics he accords a stanch support to the Republican party, and he has ever shown an unqualified loyalty to the country of his adoption. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have no children, but they reared in their home Miss Maud Vrooman, whose mother was a daughter of Mrs. Brown's uncle, Leonard Swetland, previously mentioned in this article. Maud Vrooman was born at Dewitt, Ne braska, and is a daughter of Alva W. and Frances Minerva (Swetland) Vrooman, the latter having been the only child of Leonard and Sabra Jane (Seaman) Swetland. Alva Wood Vrooman and his wife removed to Nebraska from Ohio about the year 1876; and' they later removed to Kansas, where Mrs. Vrooman died when her daughter Maud was three years of age. The latter was thereafter cared for by other relatives in Ohio until she was seven years of age, when she was taken into the home of her great-uncle, Salmon Swetland, subject of this memoir, where she has since remained, and where she has been carefully reared by Mrs. Brown. She was married on the 4th of January, 1898, to. Charles Hall, who now has the active supervision of the farm of Mrs. Brown. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have one daughter, Frances Augusta, who was born on the 7th of November, 1899. Salmon Swetland was a man of prominence and influence in his community, taking an active interest in public affairs of a local nature and having served as township assessor. His political support was given to the cause of the Republican party. He was an excellent tenor singer, and his only brother, Leonard, was equally facile as a basso. The Swetland family has long been known for musical talent, and its members have in this line been prominent in church and social affairs. Salmon Swetland was a man of strong mentality, was entirely free from ostentation, and was generous and tolerant in his association with his fellow men, whose implicit confidence and esteem he ever commanded. ALONZO JOHNSON is one of the old citizens of Kent, or of Franklin Mills (as it was called when he became a resident of the little settlement forty-six years ago), having spent a long, and active period in both mercantile and farming pursuits. He is a native of Shalersville township, born May 25, 1835, and a son of Ebenezer and Anna (Stoddard) Johnson—the former of Rutland, Vermont, and the latter of Clairmont, New Hampshire. The paternal grandfather was Sylvester Johnson. In .1834 the father first came to Stow township, Summit HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1009 county, but remained only a month, moving thence to Shalersville township, Portage county, where he bought a tract of timber land consisting of seventy-five acres. He cleared and improved half of this land, and at the time of his death in 185o had a productive farm of one hundred and fifty acres. His wife died in 1901, aged eighty-seven years, the mother of seven children, five of whom are living. As Alonzo was the oldest of the children and his father died when he was fifteen years of age, he was placed in charge of the farm at an early age. He married in 1855, when only twenty years of age, but remained on the homestead until 1863, when he located in Franklin Mills, Portage county, and for two years conducted a grocery store. He then erected the hotel called the Johnson House, and after operating it for three years sold it and opened a butcher shop. During the succeeding eighteen years he conducted a flourishing meat business, as well as operated his farm in Franklin township. He then sold the business to his brother Eben and his son Willard, each of whom now conducts a meat market. After selling his business, Mr. Johnson purchased ninety acres of land a mile north of Kent, and resided thereon for several years, the farm. being actively and profitably cultivated. He then retired to the town of Kent, where he erected a modern residence and has since resided in the enjoyment of a well-earned competency. The grounds of two acres surrounding his home are tastefully improved and materially add to the value and attractiveness of his homestead. In politics, Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and has served the township for two terms as assessor. His religious convictions are founded on the faith of the Christian denomination, of which he has been an earnest member for many years. In 1855 Mr. Johnson married, as his first wife, Mary Jane Cook, a native of Geauga county, Ohio, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Labley Cook, natives of Massachusetts. The children of this union were as follows : Willard and Perry, residents of Kent ; Emma, who is Mrs. Griffin, and lives in California; Albert, of Barberton, Ohio ; Ora, who died in February, 1906, as Mrs. John Moore ; Nellie, now Mrs. Frank Conley, of Franklin township ; Clayton, who resides in Cleveland, Ohio ; Cora (Mrs. Arthur Wise) and Selah, both of Kent. On September 18, 1889, after the death of his first wife, Mr. Johnson married the widow of Charles O. Taylor (nee Sabina Cook), who was then the mother of the following : Edith, now Mrs. J. W. Foust, of Mangadore, Ohio ; and John O. and James H., both of Kent. Mrs. Sabina Johnson is the daughter of Calvin and Mary A. (Stout) Cook, the former a native-of Suffield township and the latter of Delaware, Portage county. By her marriage to Mr. Johnson she has become the mother of Annis and Calvin. ARVIN OLIN HAYMAKER.—East Twin Lake Park, which lies along the shores of the beautiful body of water by that name in Franklin township, Portage county, is owned, by Arvin O. Haymaker and is one of the most picturesque country places in this section of the Western Reserve. Mr. Haymaker is a native of the township in which he has always resided,. and has continually engaged in agriculture, the care of land, teaching, and affairs of a public-nature largely devoted to educational matters: He was born April 5, 1844, to James D. and Mary R. (Olin) Haymaker. James D. Haymaker was also born in Franklin township, and as his mother died a few days after his birth he was brought up by his uncle, James, Davis, whose home was Beaver, Pennsylvania ; subsequently, by going to an aunt, . Rebecca Warner, of Franklin township, Portage county,. and after some of his older brothers had become self-supporting, he went to live with his father. Mr. and Mrs. James D. Haymaker became the parents of twelve children, of whom two died in infancy, three passed away in maturity and seven are yet living. Arvin O. Haymaker, who is the fifth born into the large paternal household, resided with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age, when he purchased one hundred and thirty-four acres adjoining the family homestead on the shores of East Twin Lake. He engaged in farming, taught winter schools for twenty-five years and, for many years, has-been prominent as a Republican and a public man. He has served many terms both as township trustee and as a member of the board of education. Mr. Haymaker is a representative citizen and, although his regular education has been confined to district schooling and one term at Mount Union College, he has been a careful and a wide reader. During the years which have passed since his younger manhood he has also added to his charming place on East Twin Lake, so that the Park now consists of one hundred and sixty acres of land, beautifully diversified by nature and tastefully improved by its proprietor. 1010 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE On April 5, 1866, Mr. Haymaker married Miss Harriet E. Norton, who was born in Brimfield township, daughter of Joseph and Jenette (Graham) Norton, who were of New England birth and ancestry. The children born to them were Charles A. Haymaker (connected with the publications Farm and Fireside, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Woman's Home Companion, of Springfield, Ohio, and Hattie E., now Mrs. Frank Felger. Mrs. Harriet Haymaker died in April, 1869, and in May, 1870, the widower married Miss Harriet Powell, a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, and daughter of William and Catherine (Berger) Powell, the parents being of Maryland. Four children were born to Mr. Haymaker's second marriage—Homer A., who is a book broker of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; Deborah, a high school teacher of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; Frank P., who is an electrical engineer of that city, and Abby Rosetta, now Mrs. J. Paul Teas, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. MARCUS D. SATTERLEE, M. D., AND BERTHA SATTERLEE, M. D.—Prominent in the medical fraternity of Ashtabula county are numbered Dr. Marcus D. Satterlee and Dr. Bertha M. Satterlee, who have been in practice in the city of Andover since 1894. They are both practitioners of scholarly attainments, and have made deep and careful research in the sciences to which they are devoting their lives. Dr. Marcus is a graduate of the medical department of the University of New York City with the class of 1879 and both are graduates of the Cleveland Medical College, he with the class of 1893 and she with that of 1894. They are general practitioners of medicine, but Dr. Bertha M. Satterlee has made a specialty of the diseases of the eye and is an oculist of well-known ability. They are both entirely devoted to their professional duties, and have attained a high place in the fraternity. Dr. Satterlee and his wife are natives of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and their marriage union has been blessed by the birth of four children—Lois, Ruth, Herbert and Emma. ERNEST D. MAYHEW.—On following pages of this publication appears a brief review concerning the Nickel Plate Milling Company, of Painesville, one of the successful and important industrial concerns of Lake county, and to the article in question reference can be made in connection with this brief sketch of the career of the able and popular president and general manager of said company. Ernest D. Mayhew is one of the progressive young business Men ' of Painesville and as he is a native son of the fine old Western Reserve, there is still further consistency in according him representation in this compilation. Mr. Mayhew was born in the village of North Bristol, Trumbull county, Ohio, on the 27th of November, 1872, and is a son of Benjamin H. and Abbie (Downs) Mayhew, who are still residents of that county, where the father is a successful farmer and stock-grower. Benjamin H. Mayhew himself was born and reared in Trumbull county and is a scion of one of the old and honored pioneer families of that section of the Western Reserve. Ernest D. Mayhew passed his boyhood days on the homestead farm, and his earliest experience in connection with the practical affairs of life was gained through the assistance he was able to render as a farmer boy. He was afforded the advantages. of the excellent public schools of his native county and remained on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, after which he was employed for two years in a flouring mill at North Bristol, his native town. For the ensuing two years he and his wife had charge of the ladies' department of the county infirmary of Trumbull county, near the city of Warren, and they then removed to Jefferson, Ashtabula county, where he purchased a half interest in a flouring mill. He continued to be actively identified with die operation of the same for a period of three years, at the expiration of which he disposed of his interest in the mill and removed to Painesville, where he purchased stock in the Nickel Plate Milling Company, of which he became salesman. He represented the company through its trade territory and was most successful in placing its products on the market. He continued his labors in this capacity until the mill was destroyed by fire, and upon the reorganization of the company and rebuilding of the mill he secured additional stock, being elected president of the company in June, 1902. As its chief executive he has .handled its affairs with marked ability and discrimination, as his executive and technical ability well qualify him to supervise both the operative and commercial interests of the company. He is loyal and progressive as a citizen, is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, is identified with various fraternal and social   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1011 organizations, and he and his wife hold membership in the Disciples church. On the 26th of April, 1893, Mr. Mayhew was united in marriage to Miss Elnora H. Height, of Painesville, who was born and reared in Farmington, Trumbull county. She is a daughter of Adam and Julia Patchin Height, deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Mayhew have two children—Mildred Irene and Wade H. THE NICKEL PLATE MILLING COMPANY.—The city of Painesville, the thriving capital of Lake county, offers attractive inducements for the prosecution of industries of magnitude, and, in particular, to manufacturing enterprises, by reason of available supply sources, desirable internal facilities and ready financial fostering. That these facts are realized is shown by the wide scope and importance of the industrial and commercial activities of the city, and the advancement along normal lines of business activity had been greatly accelerated during the opening decade of the twentieth century, through the application of that progressive spirit which is making for the upbuilding of the larger and greater city. Among the manufacturing enterprises contributing materially to the commercial precedence of Painesville is that conducted under the title designated at the head of this article, and the finely equipped mill of the company is located at the junction of South State street and the tracks of the Nickel Plate Railroad. The Nickel Plate Milling Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio in July, 1903, with a capital stock of $25,000, and the personnel of the interested principals was as follows : George Morse, S. E. Hill, George W. Buck, F. T. Pyle and A. G. Reynolds. Mr. Morse was president and principal stockholder of the company and had been associated with Messrs. Hill and Buck in the erection of a mill On the site of the present one 1899. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1899, after having been in operation only a few months. In 1901 the company erected a new mill on the same site, and the same had a capacity for the production of 150 barrels a day. The mill was erected at a cost of about $23,500, and the best modern roller process equipment was installed. Mr. Morse continued as president and manager of the concern, and on the 14th of May, 1902, a second disaster by fire destroyed the entire property, after the mill had been in operation only about, one year. The loss entailed at this time was about $10,000, with partial insurance indemnity. In the autumn of the same year was instituted the work of erecting the present mill,. which was completed in time to begin operation the following spring. In the meanwhile. Messrs. Buck and Pyle had retired from the company and Ernest D. Mayhew had bought a large block of the stock. Under the reorganization effected on the 21st of June, 1902, Mr. Mayhew was elected president of the company, an office of which he has since continued incumbent. The mill now has a capacity for the output of 125 barrels of flour per day, is equipped with the best of mechanical facilities throughout, utilizing the full roller process and being a general custom and merchant mill. Many improvements in the machinery have been made since the mill was erected, and the company keeps the establishment up to the highest standard at all times. The business is of substantial Order, and much of the time the mill is operated at its full capacity, to meet the demands placed upon it. Ten employes are retained in handling the various departments of work, and a large local market is controlled in the production of flour and feed. Each year the company ships an average of about 300 cars of feed, and besides the wheat utilized in manufacturing a department is given to the buying and shipping of wheat and other grain. This jobbing trade in grain and feed now extends over several counties in northeastern Ohio. The annual business transactions now represent an average of about $400,000. The stock of the concern is all held by residents of Painesville, and the present officers of the company are as here noted : Ernest D. Mayhew, president and manager ; B. H. Rust, secretary, and George E. Mosley, treasurer. WILLIAM M. NICHOLS.—As one of those progressive business men and public-spirited citizens who typify the fine initiative power and commercial acumen which have brought about the splendid industrial development of the city of Cleveland, William M. Nichols, who is general manager of the Cleveland Brick & Clay Company, is eminently entitled to consideration in this publication, which takes due cognizance of the beneficent forces which have conserved the progress of the fine old Western Reserve. William. Merrell Nichols views with no small reed of satisfaction the fact that he can claim the Western Reserve as the place of his nativity and that it has been his to gain distinctive 1012 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE success in connection with the business activities of this favored section of the Buckeye commonwealth. He was born in Hiram township, Portage county, on the 3 st of May, 1855, and is a son of Paris C. and Hannah C. (Younglove) Nichols. Paris Chandler Nichols was born at Crown Point, Essex county, New York, on the loth of July, 1823, and in 1832, when he was nine years of age, his parents came to the Western Reserve of Ohio and settled in Portage county, where they passed the residue of their lives and where his father became a representative farmer. There he himself was reared to manhood, receiving such advantages as were afforded in the common schools, and in 1851 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Hannah Caroline Younglove, who was born at South Lee, Massachusetts, whither Mr. Nichols went to claim his bride, who returned with him to Portage county, Ohio, immediately after their marriage. In Hiram township, that county, Mr. Nichols became the owner of a well improved landed estate and gained precedence as a successful farmer and influential and honored citizen. He wielded marked influence in public affairs of a local nature and held various offices of trust, including that of county commissioner, to which he was elected in the same year that marked the election of General James A. Garfield, an honored son of the Western Reserve, to the presidency of the United States. Mr. Nichols continued to serve in the office of county commissioner for six consecutive years. He made his life count for good in all its relations and held the unequivocal esteem of those among whom he lived and labored for so many years. He was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party. He lived to attain the age of seventy-two years and his devoted wife was seventy-two years of age at the time of her death. Captain Andrew Nichols, grandfather of him whose name initiates this sketch, was a native of the state of New York, and was a scion of a family which was founded in America in 1700, by three brothers of the name who came from England and established their homes respectively in New York state, Rhode Island and Connecticut. From the one who settled in the old Empire state the Ohio branch of the family is descended. Captain Andrew Nichols was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812, in which he served as captain of his company, and in 1832 he came with his family to Ohio and settled in Portage county. Paris C. and Hannah C. (Younglove) Nichols became the parents of two sons and four daughters, of whom two are deceased, Paul having died at the age of seventeen years and Grace at the age of nineteen. Caroline L. is the wife of Ben H. French, of Garrettsville ; William M., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth ; Blanche A. is the wife of Byron W. Jackson, of East Cleveland ; and Lucy M. is the wife of Louis V. Miller, of Garrettsville. Portage county. William M. Nichols passed his boyhood days on the old homestead farm in Hiram township, Portage county, and after completing the curriculum of the district schools he continued his studies in the high school, at Garrettsville. After his school days he continued to be associated in the work and management of the old home farm, which comprises 300 acres, until the 4th of February, 1896, when he took up his residence in Garrettsville, whence, in the following year, he removed to the city of Cleveland, with whose business interests he has since continued to be identified, as general manager of the Cleveland Brick & Clay Company, an important industrial corporation in which he is a stockholder and to the upbuilding of whose extensive business he has contributed in large measure. The company manufactures shale brick, paving brick, hollow-block conduits and fire proofing, and the industry is one of distinctive importance in its line of operations. The company gives employment to about seventy-five persons and the plant is of the most modern type. Mr. Nichols is a progressive business man and as a citizen is loyal and public-spirited, though he has never had aught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party. On the 16th of September, 1890, Mr. Nichols was united in marriage to Miss Frances Higley, who was born and reared in Windham township, Portage county, Ohio, and who is a daughter of John L. and Elizabeth (Frary) Higley, who were early settlers of that county, and both of whom are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have no children. JONATHAN SHOOK.—An industrious and skilled carpenter of thirty-five years standing in Randolph, Portage county, and one of that dwindling phalanx of Civil war veterans, Jonathan Shook is a native of the township in which HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1013 he has always resided-excepting only the period in which he wore the blue. He was born April 6, 1841, and is a son of Philip and Sarah (Bartholomew) Shook, natives of Pennsylvania, who, shortly after their marriage, located in the western part of the township on a 120-acre farm. This was in 1830. The father was also a carpenter by trade, and between that avocation and that of farming provided his family with a good living. Jonathan resided with his parents until a few months past his majority, when (on August 8, 1862) he enlisted in Battery A, First Ohio Light Artillery, and served under Captain Cotter with soldierly faithfulness for nearly three years, or until the end of the war. On November 4, 1865, he wedded Miss Alvina Brockett, and at once located on a farm of fifty acres in Randolph township. His wife was born March 17, 1841, daughter of Albert and Betsey (Sleath) Brockett, her parents being natives of Wallingford, Connecticut, who migrated to the township in 1825. Mr. Brockett became prominent in both the civic and military affair's of the county, serving as captain of a state militia company for many years. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Shook were : Carlos A. born December 15, 1868, and who married Miss Louisa Unger, April 20, 1892 ; Eliza A., who was born March 4, 1871, and died April 25, 1892, and Florain, born January 8, 1882, who is married and a draughtsman by profession. As stated, Mr. Shook has combined carpentry and farming nearly all his life. For some years he has also been an insurance solicitor, and in this work, as in all other which he has undertaken, has been thoroughly faithful and efficient. In politics he is a Republican, and his religion is based on the faith of the Disciples' church. Mr. Shook is not only the father of affectionate and respected sons, but is the grandfather of Donald H. Hartman Shook, who married Miss Jessie Halman May 2, 1906. HENRY. W. BROCKETT AND MARY B. FENTON.-The Brockett family is one of the oldest and most substantial in Randolph township, Portage county, having been established in that section during 1825 by the grand father of .Henry W. and the father of Mary (Brockett) Fenton. Henry W. Brockett, who enjoyed a long business experience in the west, has resided for the past twelve years at Randolph, not far from the scene of his birth, which took place May 8, 186o. He is a son of George and Eunice (Ward) Brockett, and the only survivor of their five children. Mr. Brockett remained with his parents until his marriage to Miss Jennie L. Bancroft, November 15, 1882, when he moved to Randolph Center. After remaining there for five years, he went to Kansas and, still later, to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was bookkeeper for G. H. Hammond and Company for a period of nine years. Mr. Brockett returned to Randolph in August, 1897, and has since been a respected citizen of that place. The children born into his household were as follows: George A., who is now connected with the Root-McBride wholesale house of Cleveland, Ohio ; Mary B., a teacher in Randolph township, and Warren, who lives at home. Mr. Brockett's mother was born September 1, 1836, and was a daughter of Calvin and Lydia (Sabin) Ward, the former having been recognized as one of the real pioneers of Portage county. Mary (Brockett) Fenton was born in Randolph township, July 27, 1839, and is a daughter of Albert and Betsey (Sleath) Brockett, both natives of Connecticut. In June, 1825, they settled in Randolph township on the farm of two hundred acres upon which they spent the remainder of their lives. There they raised to useful and honorable lives their eight children-Jared, Lucretia, William, Eunice, Lodema, George, Mary and Alvina. Albert Brockett, father of Mary (aunt of Henry W.), was a son of Jeremiah and Eunice (Marks) Brockett, and was a native of Connecticut, born May 24, 1795, dying in Randolph township on the 6th of February, 1878. His wife (nee Betsey Sleath), to whom he was married January 17, 1817, was born in England, January 4, 1798, and died in Randolph township on the 11th of August, 1843. In 1811, when in his seventeenth year, Albert Brockett settled at Guilford, Connecticut, to learn the trade of coach building, under Ames Bradley. He afterward established a business of his. own and was so engaged when he moved to Portage county. In Randolph township he continued his trade, in connection with farming, for a period of fifty years. He was also active in the public affairs of the locality, serving as trustee of the township and as captain of a rifle company of the state militia. Further, this founder of the family in. Portage county. was 1014 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE a faithful member of the Disciples' church, did much to further its pioneer interests, and was a man of unimpeachable character. OSCAR F. HAYMAKER, who for so many years held farming and property interests on the shores of Twin Lakes, was born in Franklin township, and to the agricultural, horticultural and public interests of Portage county he devoted his life. He was born in the township named on the 21st of May, 1838, son of James D. and Mary Rosetta (Olin) Haymaker, and his mother was a native of Perry, Wyoming county, New York, born on the 22nd of February, 1820. Oscar F. was the second of her fourteen children. Mr. Haymaker assisted his father about the home farm and taught school until his marriage in 1862, his entire career as an educator covering three decades from his nineteenth year. On May 21, 1862, Mr. Haymaker, was married to Miss Mary S. Burlingame, who was a native of Newbury, Geauga county, Ohio. Born June 26, 1842, daughter of Dr. J. M. and Mary (Ferris) Burlingame, born respectively in Cattaraugus county, New York, February 7, 1813, and in Madison county, that state, February 28, 1817. The grandparents, Fritz and Lydia Burlingame, were natives of Germany, while John Ferris, the maternal grandfather was born in New York, May 19, 1782, and the grandmother, Hannah Ferris (nee Hannah Black) in Massachusetts, April 15, 1787. The latter were among the first settlers of Newbury, Geauga county, Grandfather Ferris dying January 18, 1870, aged eighty-seven years, and his widow, December 24, 1875, aged eighty-seven. The parents of Mrs. Mary S. Haymaker, Dr. John M. Burlingame and Mary (Ferris) Burlingame, were married at Newbury, on the 4th of April, 1840, and her mother passed away August 31, 1842. A sister of the deceased, Hannah Ferris, became Dr. Burlingame's second wife, and she died November 1o, 1848, mother of George W. who lived to be but thirteen years of age. The third marriage occurred in 185o, to Miss Elizabeth Campbell, born in Stow township, Summitt county, Ohio, and a daughter of John and Rosanna Campbell. Otis Burlingame the only child by this union, died in 1867, at the age of fifteen. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Haymaker joined his brother-in-law Stephen. Green, in the purchase of the Rodney Adams farm, just south of West Twin Lake, but four years afterward sold the property to Thomas Gray. He then bought one hundred and eighty acres on the east shore of East Twin Lake, engaged in general farming for many years and rented the property when he retired to Kent a short time before his death, May 4, 1907. The deceased was a man of sturdy moral character and practical ability and served for many years as trustee of the Universalist church and of Buchtel College, a denominational institution. He was also an active Republican, being county commissioner for one term and county examiner for fourteen years. Among other indications of his interests and standing, it may be stated that he served as president of the Portage County Horticultural Society for two years and at the time of his death was a Mason in affiliation with Rockton Lodge, No. 316. Mr. and Mrs. Oscar F. Haymaker were the parents of three daughters : Ida A., now Mrs. Frank Merrill, a resident of Franklin township ; Cora M., wife of Elmer E. France, and Lillie E., wife of Herbert A. Swan, who are both connected with the France Dry Goods Company of Kent, Ohio. ROBERT BRUCE CARNAHAN.-A native son of Portage county, who has attained to prestige as one of its representative business men is Robert Bruce Carnahan, who is incumbent of the responsible executive office of cashier of the Ravenna National Bank, of Ravenna, one of the stanch and popular financial institutions of the Western Reserve. Mr. Carnahan was born in the city which is now his home, and the date of his nativity was March 10, 1860. He is a son of William and Harriet (Beeman) Carnahan, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Ravenna township, Portage county, Ohio. William Carnahan was reared and educated in the old Keystone state of the -Union, and when about twenty-one years of age he came to the Western Reserve and located in Ravenna, where he engaged in the work of the carpenter's trade, to which he had served a thorough apprenticeship in his native state. He became one of the leading contractors and builders of the county, and among the old homesteads which are now landmarks in Ravenna are a number of substantial houses and other buildings which were erected by him. He lived to attain the venerable age of eighty-eight years, and was a man who ever commanded the most unequivocal confidence and respect in the com- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1015 munity in which he so long maintained his home and to whose development and progress he contributed in no small measure. He was well known throughout this section of the state and was a citizen loyal and public-spirited and one who lived a life of signal integrity and honor. He traced his lineage to stanch Scotch-Irish origin and took just pride in his ancestry. He was a man of strong individuality and marked intellectual powers, so that he was ever well fortified in his opinions, and in public affairs used his influence with discrimination and intelligence. His political support was given to the Republican party, and he was a zealous member of the Congregational church, as was also his wife, who was about eighty-two years of age at the time when she was summoned to the life eternal and who was at the time one of the most venerable and revered pioneer women of Portage county, where her entire life was passed. As before stated, she was born in Ravenna township, and she was a daughter of Anson Beeman, who was a native of Massachusetts, and who came to Portage county in an early day, becoming one of the pioneers of Ravenna township, where he developed a valuable farm and where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until his death. William and Harriet (Beeman) Carnahan became the parents of five children, all of whom attained to years of maturity and two of whom are now living, Harriet E., who is the wife of George Poe, of Ravenna, and Robert B., who is the subject of this review. Robert Bruce Carnahan, the youngest of the five children, was reared to manhood in Ravenna, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early educational training. At the ages of eighteen years he initiated his connection with the line of business in which he has won so much precedence. He became office messenger and teller in the First National Bank of Ravenna, and with this institution he continued to be connected until the lapse of its charter, in 1902. Through faith-' ful and effective service he won advancement through various grades of promotion, and in 1885 was chosen cashier of the bank, an office of which he continued incumbent until the institution was reorganized as the Ravenna National Bank. The .appreciation of his ability and excellent service gained its best voucher when he was elected to the position of cashier of the new bank, which succeeded to the business of the First National, and he has since continued to give his atten- Vol. II-20 tion to the practical administration of the affairs of the Ravenna Nationial Bank. He has done much to further the success of the institution, both under the original and present regime, and is known as .one of the able financiers and representative business men of Portage county. He is a stockholder in the bank of which he is cashier, and is one of the executive officers that was formerly connected with the old First National, and is the only mane now connected with the bank who remains of those who were associated with it at the time he first became connected with it. Though in the very prime of life he now has the distinction of being in point of active service, one of the oldest bankers in his native county, and his popularity is based upon the objective recognition of the sterling attributes of his character, for he has lived in Ravenna from the time of his nativity and has .so ordered his course as to command the esteem and confidence of those familiar with every step in his career. It is scarcely necessary to state that Mr. Carnahan maintains an abiding interest in his native city and does all in his power to further its material and civic prosperity. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party. He is affiliated with Ravenna Lodge, No. 1076, Benevolent. and Protective Order of Elks. In the year 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Carnahan to Miss Mary F. Smith, daughter of Frank J. and Catherine Smith, honored residents of Ravenna. Mr. and Mrs. Carnahan have two children,— Frank W., who is engaged in the music business in Ravenna, and Sidney, who is attending the public schools. In the social activities of the community Mr. and Mrs. Carnahan play a generous part, and their home is one in which a hospitable welcome is ever assured to their wide circle of friends. HIRAM MORSE.—The son of a pioneer family of prominence, Hiram Morse spent his entire life in the Western Reserve, being throughout his active career an able promoter of the industrial interests of Ashtabula county. A son of Phineas Morse, he was born, September 27, 1820, in Kingsville, Ashtabula county, Ohio, of thrifty New England ancestry. Phineas Morse was born. March 2, 1795, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Migrating from there to the Western Reserve, he lived for a number of years in Kingsville, Ashtabula county, 1016 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE being industriously employed during the time. Going back to his native state, he was not contented to stay among the scenes which brightened his childhood days, but returned a few years later to Kingsville, and there spent his remaining days, passing away July 2, 1878. He married Abigail Luce, who was born August 12, 1798, in Massachusetts, and to them nine children were born, as follows : Huldah, born September 17, 1819, died about 1905 ; Hiram, the subject of this brief biographical review ; Mary, born September 7, 1822, also deceased ; Almira, born September 10, 1826, resides in Kingsville ; Angeline, born February 4, 1828, is also a resident of Kingsville ; Almon, born August 28, 1829, deceased ; Laura, born August 10, 1832, died in January, 1903 ; Alden, born September 28, 1835, lives in Kingsville ; and George, born April 8, 1837, deceased. Born September 27, 1820, Hiram Morse was educated in the district schools, and when young began the development of his natural mechanical ability in a machine shop connected with the casted iron works. He subsequently learned the trade of a wagon-maker, after which he was employed for a time in a saw mill. He afterwards worked at the trades of a carpenter and joiner, in that capacity erecting many of the residences and buildings of his day. He is a man of much influence, serving as township trustee, and being a valued member of the Baptist church. Mr. Morse married, September 29, 1849, Louisa Colegrove, and into their household two children were born, namely : Charles H., born July 5, 1850 ; and Albert, born March 17, 11353, married Jennie Gee and now resides in North Girard, Pennsylvania. Charles H. Morse engaged in general farming in Monroe township, married, April 14, 1874, Marcia Bushnell, who was born August 7, 1851, in Monroe township, a daughter of Harley and Sarah Bushnell. A Republican in politics, Mr. C. H. Morse served as supervisor, and is now a member of the State Police. JUDGE EDGAR H. HINMAN.-AS judge of the probate court of Lorain county, Judge Edgar H. Hinman holds high rank among the distinguished members of the legal profession, and is without doubt one of the best known men in the county. Coming from honored English ancestry, he was born, December 16, 1846, in Randolph township, Portage county, Ohio, a son of Edward Hinman, Jr. The Hinman family originated in England, and was first represented on American soil by Sergeant Edward Hinman, who was an officer under King Charles Second, and escaped to this country to save his head. He settled in Connecticut, becoming the founder of a family, whose descendants are to be found in nearly every state of the Union, many of them occupying places of prominence in professional and financial circles. Edward Hinman, Sr., the Judge's grandfather, was born and reared in Connecticut. Coming to the Western Reserve in 1815, he settled as a pioneer in Atwater township, Portage county, and there spent the remainder of his life, an honored and respected citizen. Edward Hinman, Jr., was born in 181o, in the village of Catskill, New York, where his parents resided a few years. But five years of age when he came to Ohio, he grew up and was educated in Portage county. He subsequently removed with his family to Michigan, where he lived and labored a few years. Forced on account of ill health to return to Ohio, he located in Oberlin in order to give his children good educational advantages, and died in that city in 1875. He married, in Portage county, Ohio, Mary Brush, who was born in Lee, Massachusetts, a daughter of Richard and Charity (Campbell) Brush, both of whom were of Scotch descent. Mary Brush and her twin brother, John Brush, were brought by wagon to Ravenna, Ohio, in infancy, in a basket which is now in the possession of Judge Hinman. She survived her husband, passing away in 1889. Three children were born of their union, as follows : John B., Edgar H., and Charles C. John B. Hinman, who died in 1900, was graduated from Oberlin College, and became editor of the Chicago Times, when that newspaper was owned and controlled by Wilbur F. Story, the noted Chicago journalist. Charles C. Hinman was graduated from Oberlin College, and for twenty-five years was Eastern agent for the Cleveland Stone Company, having headquarters in Philadelphia. He died in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1897. Obtaining his rudimentary education in the rural schools of Portage county and Michigan, Edgar N. Hinman was a student at Oberlin College when the Civil war broke out. When the entire country was aroused by the terrib1016 -attle at Gettysburg, he offered HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1017 his services to his country, but was rejected on account of his youthfulness. In 1864, however, when but seventeen years old, he enlisted for a hundred days in Company K, One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and took part in the engagement at Fort Stevens, when the Confederates attempted to capture Washington. On August 27, 1864, he was mustered out at Cleveland. For two years after leaving the army, Mr. Hinman was in poor health, and during his enforced leisure began reading law. He afterwards entered the law department of the University of Michigan, but on account of ill health was unable to complete the course. In April, 1869, he was admitted to the Ohio bar at Norwalk, and sometime afterwards removed to Missouri, intending to practice his profession there, and soon after his arrival was admitted to the courts of that state. While living in Missouri, Judge Hinman served as deputy clerk of the Supreme Court of Missouri under Chief Justice Bliss, at St. Joseph. Returning to Ohio, he opened an office at Amherst, Lorain county, and during the eight years that he continued in practice there, was twice elected mayor of the village, being an incumbent of that office, when, in 1881, he was elected probate judge of the county. Taking the office in 1882, the Judge has since held it continuously, his last re-election having been in November, 1909, for a term that will not expire until February, 1913. Judge Hinman is the oldest judge of probate in point of service in the state. Judge Hinman married, in November, 1877, Ada M. Faxon, who passed to the higher life August 25, 1909. Her parents, Hiram and Mary A. (Roberts) Faxon, were natives, respectively, of Portage county, Ohio, and of the state of New York, and resided in Lorain county, until about three years before their deaths, when they removed to Olmstead, Cuyahoga county, where in 1909, they celebrated the sixty-eighth anniversary of their marriage, Mr. Faxon being then in his ninety-second year, and his wife in her eighty-eighth year. Both died within one week in October, 1909. Mr. Faxon passing away the day following the funeral of his wife. Four children were born to Judge and Mrs. Hinman, namely : Harold F., who was a chemist and went to the mining region to work in the laboratory, died in 1904 in Minnesota, aged twenty-four years ; Scott, a clerk in the Elyria Water Works department ; Mary Lucile, living with her father ; and Edgar, who lived but ten months. Judge Hinman is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and belongs to the Masonic and other fraternal organizations. HARRY HINKSON, president of the contracting, real estate and insurance firm of Hinkson & Buttenbender, Elyria, Ohio, has been a resident of this city for twenty years and.is prominently identified with its best interests. Mr. Hinkson is a native of Dubuque, Iowa, born September 15, 1867, but was reared in Buffalo, New York. His father, Ransom Hinkson, when a boy, came with his parents from Canada, his native land, and settled in Iowa. The grandfather owned and kept a tavern on the old overland route to California. That was in the memorable days of '49, and many were the travelers en route to the gold fields who were entertained at the Hinkson tavern. This house was the last of its type on that route to give place to the more modern hostelry. Ransom Hinkson hauled the first poles for the first telegraph line that was built through that part of Iowa. He was a general contractor. In 1872 he moved east to Buffalo, New York, where he has since resided, and where, since the first administration of President Cleveland, he has been a meat inspector. His wife, Hattie (Barnett) Hinkson, who was a native of England, died in Buffalo, in 1906, at the age of fifty-eight years. At the time his parents left Iowa and established their home in Buffalo, Harry Hinkson was only five years old. He attended the city schools until he was thirteen, when he left school to go to work in a planing mill. He continued in the employ of this mill, in Buffalo, until 1889, when he came to Elyria to take charge, as foreman, of the door and sash department of the John Hart planing mill. A few years later, on account of ill health, he went to the country and spent a year in farm work. Returning to Elyria in 1895, he engaged in contracting. Soon he found a larger business on his hands than he could take care of, and in 1903 he organized the Hinkson-Halpin Company, contractors and builders ; but he sold his interest in this concern, and subsequently organized the Hinkson-Buttenbender Company, general contractors and dealers in real estate and insurance, of which he has since been president. Also he has other industrial interests here. He is a stockholder in the Liquid Force Company, of Elyria ; is a stockholder in the Elyria Foundry Company, of which he is also a director, and is a member of 1018 -HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE the Hinkson, Buttenbender. & Murbach Co., dredgers. Mr. Hinkson belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and to the Builders' Exchange, and, fraternally, he is identified with the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen. He is married and has one son, Roland E., aged seventeen years. Mrs. Hinkson, formerly Miss Bertha M. Eckler, of Carlisle, Lorain county, Ohio, is a daughter of John and Cornelia M. (Hart) Eckler. QUINCY A. GILLMORE, attorney at law, Elyria, Ohio, has been identified with this city since entering upon the practice of his profession twenty-five years ago, and belongs to a family whose identity with this part of Ohio dates back a hundred years. Mr. Gillmore's paternal grandfather, Quartus Gillmore, a native of Massachusetts, came to Lorain county, Ohio, in 1810 and settled on land about one mile west of Black river. There he followed farming for a number of years. On leaving the farm he went to the town of Charleston (now Lorain), where, with others, he helped to plat the town, and where he passed the rest of his life. Mr. Gillmore's maternal grandfather was named Alanson, and he, too, was a native of Massachusetts ; he came to Ohio about the time Grandfather Gillmore landed here, and settled on a farm about four miles west of Lorain. Later, in 188o, he removed to Lorain, where he died at about the age of ninety years. Edmund and Adelaide E. (Gillmore) Gillmore, the parents of Quincy A., were born in Lorain, the former February 1o, 1833, the latter September 24, 1833. They were married in 1858 and lived together nearly half a century, until his death on Thanksgiving Day, 1902 ; she is still living. Edmund Gillmore was in early life a sailor on the Great Lakes. He met with an accident in a ship yard, thereby sustaining an injury which caused him to be an invalid' the rest of his life; for forty-four years he never walked a step. He was able, however, to attend to business, and he filled various local offices, such as justice of the peace, treasurer of the school board, etc. The office of justice of the peace he filled for forty years. He was well known and highly respected. Quincy A. Gillmore was born in Lorain (then called Black River), May 12, 1859, and as he grew up took advantage of the excellent educational opportunities which were offered him. He attended the common schools until 1872, when he entered the Elyria high school, where he took a four years' course. Then he spent one year at Oberlin College and one year in, the Western Reserve College, after which he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he graduated with the class of 1881. All this time he had the law in view, and after his graduation at the university he went to Cincinnati, and spent two years in the Cincinnati Law School. His diploma from this institution bears the date of 1883. In the fall of 1884 Mr. Gillmore took tip his residence at Elyria and entered upon the practice of his profession, and here he has since lived and prospered, giving his influence and support to the movements which have advanced the welfare of the town. Politically he has always been a Republican and has taken an active part in party affairs. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Country Club, and, fraternally, is identified with the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias, in the former having taken the thirty-second degree. Mr. Gillmore is married and has mason, Scott E., a student at the University School, Cleveland, preparing himself to enter Yale College. Mrs. Gillmore, formerly Miss Frankie G. Brown, is a native of Delaware, Ohio, and a daughter of Jacob A. and Nancy A. (Graham) Brown. CHARLES J. CREHORE.—A business man of distinctive ability and one of the popular citizens of his native county, Charles J. Crehore is incumbent of the position of manager of the Elyria Lumber & Coal Company, one of the important industrial concerns of the city of Elyria, the judicial center of Lorain county. Mr. Crehore was born on a farm in Sheffield township, Lorain county, Ohio, September 22, 1872, and he is a son of George and Kasiah (Walker) Crehore, both of whom are now deceased. The father was born in Surrey, New Hampshire, June 16, 1832, and was a son of George Crehore, Sr:, a native of Connecticut and a member of a family that was founded in America in the early colonial epoch. The father of Charles J. Crehore of this review was reared and educated in his native commonwealth and as a young man he came to the Western Reserve and secured a tract of land on the shores of Lake' Erie, in Sheffield township, Lorain county, where he became a successful agri- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1019 culturist and stock-grower and where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in July, 1876. His wife was born and reared in Sheffield township, Lorain county, where her father, Wing Walker, was a pioneer settler, and she survived her husband by about seven years, her death occurring in December, 1883. Concerning their seven children the following brief record is entered : Clara, Hattie and Frederick are deceased ; George resides upon the old home farm in Sheffield township ; Grace is deceased ; Charles J., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth, and Robbins B. is now a resident of Bay City, Michigan. Charles J. Crehore was about four years of age at the time of his father's death, and when he was eleven years old his mother also was summoned to the life eternal. He was then taken into the home of his guardian, Edward P. Burrell, who died about four years later, and he was then placed in the care of Lewis D. Boynton, who had been appointed his guardian, and with whom he remained until he had attained the age of twenty years. Mr. Crehore secured his earlier educational discipline in the district schools of his native township and thereafter availed himself of the advantages of the Elyria high school, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893. He then devoted one year to reading law under effective preceptorship. The first independent business venture of Mr. Crehore was in connection with the buying and shipping of live stock, and in 1895, when twenty-three years of age, he effected the organization of the firm of Crehore, Fauver & Robinson, which was thereafter engaged in the clothing business in Elyria for a period of five years. In 1899 Mr. Crehore organized the Weller Engineering Company of Elyria, and two years later he was the chief promoter of the organization and incorporation of the Elyria Lumber & Coal Company, which assumed the control of the property .and business of the Weller Engineering Company, though the latter still continues operations under its original title. Mr. Crehore is the manager of both concerns and is recognized as one of the alert, progressive and substantial young business men of his native county, where he has won marked success and precedence through his own well directed efforts in connection With normal lines of business enterprise. He is a charter member of the. Elyria Chamber of Commerce, in which he is a director, as well as chairman' of its educational committee. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and, while he takes a lively interest in public affairs of a local order, he has found no allurement in the honors or emoluments of political office. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. Both himself and wife are members of the First Congregational church. In 1894 Mr. Crehore was united in marriage with Miss Harriett Hancock, who was born and reared in Avon township, Lorain county, Ohio, a daughter of Henry and Betsey Hancock, well known residents of that part of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Crehore have had three children—Robert Henry, Lester Charles, who died August 16, 1909, at the age of three years, four months, and Marian Louise. The attractive family home in Elyria is known as a center of gracious hospitality and Mr. and Mrs. Crehore are prominent in the social life of the community. THOMAS W. LATHAM.—The representative of one of the earlier families to settle in the Western Reserve, Thomas W. Latham comes of substantial New England ancestry, and, like his father, Hiram Latham, is a native of Huron county, his birth having occurred October 17, 1864, in Lyme township. The emigrant ancestor of the family from which he is descended was Cary Latham, whose name is frequently mentioned in "Caulkins' History of New London, Connecticut," the line of descent being thus traced : Cary,1 Joseph,2 Joseph,3 Joseph,4 Ebenezer,3 Alexander Wolcott,6 Hiram,7 and Thomas W.8 Quoting from the above-named volume, we find that Cary Latham is mentioned by John Winthrop, founder of New London, in a document upon record stating that said Cary Latham was with him in the beginning of the plantation, February 22, 1648-9. He was one of the committee to act upon all town affairs. In 1645 the marshes and meadows at Fog Plain were mowed by Cary Latham. In 1647 he was granted a house lot. Cary Latham's name appears upon a list of the names of those who wrought at the mill darn ih July, 1651. In 1654 articles of agreement, were entered into with said Cary Latham, granting him a lease and monopoly of the ferry over the Pequot river, at the town of Pequot, said lease to run for a period of fifty years from March 25, 1655, the said Cary to take three pence off every passenger for his share, six pence for every horse or great beast, and three pence for a calf or swine. He also had privi- 1020 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE lege given him to keep some provisions and some strong wine for refreshment of passengers. For his part, said Cary Latham bound himself to attend to the service immediately with a good canoe, and to provide within a year's time a sufficient boat to convey man and beast. He also engaged to build a house on the ferry lot, east of the river, before the next October, to dwell therein, and to keep the ferry carefully, or cause it to be so kept, for the whole term of years. As lessee of the ferry, he was the first man to be domesticated upon the Groton Bank. A neck of land extending into the sound was allotted to him, and he in a short time sold it to Thomas Miner, the transfer being made in 1653-4. Cary Latham was one of the three chosen to make the country rate, June 9, 1663 ; and one of the committee chosen to meet Sir William Berkley, January 1, 1663, for the settling of him among us. On October 9, 1662, Cary Latham and Hugh Roberts were chosen by the town to meet the men chosen by the court order to settle the town bounds. Cary Latham served in various town offices. He was selectman sixteen years, and six times deputy to the General Court, serving from May, 1664, until 1670. He died in 1685. Joseph Latham (2) was born in 1639. Joseph Latham (3) was a native of Groton, Connecticut, but after his marriage he settled in New London, Connecticut. Joseph Latham (4) was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1728. Ebenezer Latham (5) was born November 6, 1776, in New London, Connecticut, and was there a resident until 1817. Making a bold venture in that year, he started with his family for the extreme western frontier, making the perilous journey with ox teams, and bringing with him to the Western Reserve all of his worldly effects, making his way much of the time by means of blazed trees. Coming to Huron county, which was but sparsely settled, he bought land in Lyme township, and from the wilderness reclaimed a homestead, on which he spent the remainder of his life, passing away at the age of four score and four years. He married Betsy Smith, who was a New England girl, born and bred in Connecticut. Alexander Wolcott Latham (6) was born, in 1806, in New London, Connecticut, and as a boy came with his parents to Lyme township, Huron county, where he attended the pioneer school, in the typical pioneer log school house, and was afterwards a member of the. state militia. He began farming on his own account on a tract of twenty acres which he purchased, for a number of years doing all of his work with oxen, having no horses on the place. The cart which he used was a rude affair, the wheels being sections sawed off a large log. He was very generous and charitable, with the utmost faith in mankind. On one occasion a man called on him and said that he had bought some land about three miles away, and asked to borrow his oxen and cart. Although the man was an entire stranger, he willingly made the loan, but he never saw oxen, cart or man again. He was very lib-- eral, gladly assisting those less fortunate than himself, not only lending money without security, but cheerfully giving to those in need. Very successful in his labors, he accumulated a competency. He died at the age of eighty-four years, honored and respected by all. He took great interest in public affairs, and after the formation of the Republican party was one of the earnest supporters of its principles. He married Anna Wood, who was born in Massachusetts, a daughter of Ira Wood, a pioneer of Erie county, Ohio, a they reared two sons. She died before her husband, at the age of seventy-two years. Hiram Latham (7) was born in Sherman township, Huron county, Ohio, in 1835, on the home farm. Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, he chose farming as his life work, and was actively engaged in tilling the soil in Lyme township until 1888. Having then, by judicious labor and wise management, accumulated a fair share of this world's goods, he removed to Bellevue, where he .has since lived retired from active pursuits. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Ann Evans, a native of London, England. Her parents, Thomas and Sophia (Smith) Evans, emigrated from England to the United States in 1849. Landing in New York, they came by way of.. the Hudson river, Erie canal and Lake Erie to Sandusky, Ohio, thence across the country to Monroeville, Huron county, where they located. A short time later, Mr. Evans bade good bye to his family, and started for California in search of gold, making an overland trip. He remained away for seventeen years, and then returned to Monroeville, where he spent the remainder of his life of eighty-four years. Mrs. Evans died at the age of four score years. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Latham, namely : William Thomas W., Fred, Arthur, and Stella. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1021 Thomas W. Latham (8) acquired his elementary education in the district schools, after which he attended the State Normal School at Ada, subsequently taking a course of study at Eastman's Business College, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Going to Iowa at the age of eighteen years, he was for five years engaged in the grocery business at Corwith. Returning then to Monroeville, he formed a partnership with Robert Martin, and for four years carried on a substantial hardware trade under the firm name of Martin & Latham. He was subsequently vice president of the First National Bank of Monroeville, and later accepted the position of cashier of the Century National Bank of Cleveland. Resigning the position at the end of three years, Mr. Latham has since lived retired in Monroeville, where he devotes his time to his private affairs, looking after his farming lands and property. Mr. Latham married, June 26, 1889, Mary E. Davis, a daughter of John E. and Catherine (Neff) Davis, and into their home two sons have been born, namely : Davis and James. Politically Mr. Latham is a straightforward Republican. Fraternally he is a member of Monroeville Lodge, No. 534, F. & A. M., and of Norwalk Commandery, No. 18, K. T. Religiously he belongs to the Episcopal church, and Mrs. Latham is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. CHARLOTTE COE KÜMMEL.—Charlotte Florence Coe, who, on June 20, 1899, married Dr. Henry B. Kümmel, since 1902 state geologist of New Jersey, is a daughter of Henry Hayes and Lucy A. Coe. Her father, who died in Painesville, in 1908, was one of the prominent business men and public leaders of the city, and her grandfather, Rev. David L. Coe, was one of the pioneer educators and clergymen of the Western Reserve. In fact, four lines of her family radiated from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and brought their intellectual and moral influences to bear upon the best development of the Western Reserve in its formative periods. A general idea of what they accomplished, and what they were, is given in the matter which follows. The founder of the Coe family in America was Robert, born at Long Melford, Suffolkshire, England, in 1596, and who on the last day of April, 1634, sailed from Ipswich with his wife and three sons, bound for Massachusetts. The family first settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, and the father died in Jamaica, New York, about the year 1687. When the son, Robert Jr., was seventeen years of age he left the family home, then in Stamford, Connecticut, and moved to Stratford, that state, where he died in 1659. The year before his decease, his wife gave birth to a son John, at Stratford. He, in turn, had ten children, who with the coming Of the years were blessed with families of their own. The successive steps .of descent from John Coe to David Lyman Coe, the grandfather of Mrs. Kummel, are through Ephraim, of Middletown, Connecticut, and Samuel and Captain David Coe, of Granville, Massachusetts. The last named came to Charlestown, Portage county, Ohio, in 1813, when his son, David L., was seventeen years of age. But the youth found that he could not obtain the educational advantages which he craved in the undeveloped west, and therefore returned to Massachusetts to take a course at Williams College. His diploma of graduation from that institution is in the possession of Mrs. Kummel. Not long after completing his course, David L. Coe located at Burton,. Geauga county, where he taught the first academes in the Western Reserve, one of his pupils afterward becoming the wife of Governor Ford. He married (second) Polly Hayes Brainard and later preached at Charlestown, Ohio, where his son, Henry Hayes Coe, was born June 6, 1830. Soon afterward he moved to Tallmadge, where he prepared the first class which entered the Western Reserve College. He continued to reside in that city from 1831 to 1835, and during that period (1832) was born Albert-L. Coe, who died in 1901, as one of the leading Citizens of Chicago. For years the latter was an active partner in one of its oldest and best known real estate firms ; was prominent in the Civil war as a major in the quartermaster's department, participating in the great battles and campaigns of the southwest, including Sherman's great march ; was an organizer of the Union League Club, Royal Trust Company and other leading institutions of a political, social and financial character. and was also a steady and liberal supporter of the city's reforms and charities. Returning to the father, Rev. David L. Coe, it may be added that he was one of the deepest scholars of the Western Reserve, being a master of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, as well as of pure English, and that, besides preaching regularly as a Presbyterian clergyman, his services as a 1022 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE private tutor were in wide demand. His death occurred at Richfield, Ohio, July 20, 1836. Henry Hayes, Coe, the father, was educated at Grand River Institute, Austinburg, and Western Reserve College, Hudson, but his career was marked more as, a director of business and public affairs than as a scholar and educator. His training, however, and the influence of his father, made him a champion of the schools, and he was an active figure on the board of education for many years. At one time he was county treasurer and served as mayor of Painesville in 1892. But probably he was most widely known as the promoter and organizer of the largest industry devoted to the manufacture of veneer cutting and drying machinery in the world, a forty-thousand dollar order coming from Vladivostock, Russia, about the time of his death, May 19, 1908. These machines were all based on the personal patents taken out by Mr. Coe, the result of years of study and experiment. The deceased served in the Union army, participating in the battles of Winchester, Mobile and others, and never flinching from any soldier's duty. He was twice married—first, to Miss Eliza L. Whiting, who died In 1856. leaving a daughter, Elizabeth, who also died in 1863 ; and secondly, to Miss Lucy A. Proctor, eldest daughter of Ariel and Susan Proctor, their union occurring in August, 1858. Their eldest daughter, Harriet Proctor, died in 1863, at the age of three years. Their son, Harry Proctor. Coe, was born in Painesville, February 18, 1865, and is the head of the business of the Coe Manufacturing Company, established by his father and with which he has been identified from boyhood. He also has been mayor of Painesville. In 1888 he married Miss Letta Daggett Tabor, of an old Connecticut family, but has no children. Charlotte Florence, the second daughter born to Henry Hayes and Lucy Proctor Coe, is a native of Painesville, born February I, 1867, and was graduated from the Painesville public school and the Lake Erie College, of that city. She afterward took a library course at the University of Chicago, and for six years continued on the library staff of that institution. After her marriage to Dr. Henry B. Kummel, in 1899, she moved to Trenton, New Jersey; where were born her two daughters, Charlotte Proctor, on January 23, 1903; and Lucy Barnard, on March I5, 1907. Dr. Kummel is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, born May 25, 1867. He was educated in the public schools of Milwaukee, graduated at Beloit College, Wisconsin (A. B., '89), studied geology at Harvard (A. M., '92), and in the University of Chicago (Ph. D., '95), served as assistant geologist on the New Jersey survey in 1892-8, and assistant professor of physiography, Lewis Institute, Chicago, 1896-9 ; and from the latter year served as assistant state geologist of New Jersey until his appointment to the head of the office. As Polly Hayes has already been mentioned as the wife of Rev. David L. Coe, Mrs. Kummel's grandfather, the tracing of her family genealogy is next in order. Richard Hayes, who appears to be the first well authenticated ancestor in America, was born in Lyme, Connecticut, April 3, 1714 ; was ensign of the third company, or train band of his town, in 185o; and served in the French and Indian war as first lieutenant of .the eleventh company of the Third Connecticut Regiment. His son, Titus Hayes, born in the same Massachusetts town, was a Revolutionary soldier from Connecticut, and wintered with Washington at Valley Forge. As showing the straits to which the families of the patriots were reduced, Mrs. Hayes wa obliged to sew rags on her children's feet to MI) them from freezing. The four sons of Titus Hayes served in the war of 1812, he himself dying at Vernon, Ohio, June 20, 1811. In 1804 ten families left Hartland, Connecticut, to settle in the Western Reserve, among whom was the Hayes family, embracing Titus and his son, Richard, then twenty-three years of age, and himself the father of a family. Richard Hayes was a colonel. in the war of 1812, commanding a brigade of the Ohio militia at Fort Wayne, and was prominent all through the campaign conducted by General Wadsworth. For many years after the war he was an associate judge. He died at Burghill. where the Hayes family had originally settled, November 5, 1837. His daughter Polly had been born at Hartland, Connecticut, four years before the migration to the Western Reserve, was educated in a girls' boarding school at Pittsburg, and was thrice married. Her first husband was Henry Brainard, Jr., who died in 1826, and her second marriage was to Rev. David L. Coe, as already mentioned. The latter died in 1836 and two years later she married Dr. O. K. Hawley, of Austinburg. She was the mother of four children. She was an affectionate and domestic woman, and at the same time a lady of thorough education and strong intellectual HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1023 and moral convictions, being one of the most ardent opponents of slavery in the Western Reserve. When living in Austinburg, Polly Hayes Hawley established at her house one of the most enterprising "underground railway stations" in the region, often feeding, clothing and harboring many of the colored race while escaping to Canada. The two sons, Henry H. and Albert L., while yet in their early teens, frequently were called from their beds at night to assist their mother in her ministrations to her kitchen-full of negroes ; their duty was to harness the family horses to lumber wagons and transport the fugitives to the harbor of Ashtabula before daylight. For three days and nights the brave woman brought food to the negro Clark, whom she had concealed beneath a haystack and whom she aided in every way to escape to Canada ; it will be remembered, that Clark was the original of Harriet Beecher Stowe's character of Harris. This noble woman, Who died in Painesville, May 17, 1877, still bright and cheerful, although in her seventy-eighth year, was honored with one of the two hundred plates presented to anti-slavery leaders of the United States by the English Anti-Slavery Society. This rare historic relic is in the possession of Mrs. Kummel. It bears the quotations from the preamble to the American Constitution, beginning "We hold that all men are created equal," and "of one blood are all nations of men"; also a picture, with the inscription, "Lovejoy, the first martyr, Alton, Ill.," and a long quotation from the Constitution. David Hinckley, Mrs. Kummel's great-great-grandfather, resided in Willington, Connecticut, and served in the Revolutionary war from that colony. He died at that place in 1835, and his wife in 1809, parents of two sons and three daughters. Benjamin, who married Susanna Davis, came to the Western Reserve in 1813. The two families of the party were transported from Buffalo, along the shores of Lake Erie, in two wagons drawn by a yoke of oxen and a span of horses. As nothing but the absolute necessities were taken one of the babies of the party was snugly cradled in the huge brass kettle of the times. From Fairport the little caravan proceeded to Chardon, breaking down in the mud about five miles north of that village, whence the women and children proceeded on horseback. Susan, the daughter of Benjamin Hinckley, who headed one of the families, was then six years of age. Mr. Hinckley proceeded from Char don to Hiram and Hiram Rapids, where he definitely located the two square miles of fire-lands, which he had purchased from the Connecticut Company and which he fortunately found to be fertile and valuable. As he was a graduate of Yale College, the care of his lands by no means occupied his time ; for he not only taught the first common school in Hiram but tutored such likely youths as Joshua R. Giddings, Elisha Whittlesey and ( Judge) Newton, of Mahoning county, who traveled over many miles of wilderness to study with him. Both Benjamin Hinckley and his wife are buried at Hiram. Susan Hinckley, already mentioned, married Ariel Proctor, of an old New Hampshire family, and became the maternal grandmother of Mrs. Kummel. She was the mother of nine children ; was well educated and partook of the intellectual brilliancy of her father, •dying at Hiram, aged eighty-four. Lucy A., the eldest daughter, was, as stated, the mother of Mrs. Kummel. She was born at Hiram, September 4, 1828 ; was educated at Grand River Institute, Austinburg ; taught school for a number of years ; passed an honored married life of nearly fifty years in Painesville, and is still a most respected pioneer of that city. PERCEPTEMAS J. MIGHTON.—One of the important industrial enterprises of the city of Painesville is that represented by the Painesville Elevator Company, of which Mr. Mighton is president. The company not only maintains a large and modern elevator but also operates a flour and feed mill, and does a general wholesale and retail business in the handling of grain, flour, feed, salt, seeds, etc. The company was organized and incorporated in 1892, and assumed possession of the elevator which had been erected in the previous year by the firm of Mighton & Barnes. Mr. Mighton became president of the company, and the other officers of the same at the present time are as here noted : 0. L. Barnes, vice-president ; C. J. Scott, secretary ; and W. T. Cowles, treasurer. The flour mill was erected in 1898, is equipped with full roller process, has a capacity for the output of forty barrels of flour per day, and is one of the best mills in the county ; the best accessories are also supplied for the grinding of feed, in the manufacture and jobbing of which product a large business is handled by the company. The company is incorporated with a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars. While of this amount only fifteen thousand dollars of the stock have been issued, 1024 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE there is utilized in the prosecution of the business a capital of fully thirty thousand dollars. The average annual transactions aggregate about one hundred thousand dollars, the trade being largely local and extending to the various villages and towns in a sense tributary to Painesville as a commercial center. The company gives employment to seven men, and the elevator and warehouses are eligibly located on the Nickle Plate railroad. Perceptemas J. Mighton is recognized as one of the progressive and substantial business men of Painesville and as a citizen of utmost civic loyalty and public spirit. was born in Bedford township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on the 8th of July, 1861, and is a son of Thomas and Amelia Ann (Dawson) Mighton, both of stanch English lineage. The father was born June 3, 1831, in Yorkshire, England, and was twelve years of age at the time his father, Joseph Mighton, came with his family to America and located in the province of Ontario, Canada, where Joseph Mighton became a successful farmer. There Thomas Mighton was reared to maturity and in his youth he learned the trade of machinist, becoming a specially skilled artisan and also having marked mechanical and inventive ability. He had the distinction of inventing the first practical steam gauge, upon which he secured patents about 1854. He had in the meanwhile come to Ohio, but after perfecting his invention he went to New York City, where he engaged in the manufacturing of his valuable device. He was very successful in this venture at the start, but the great financial panic of 1857 worked havoc with his business, as with thousands of other manufacturing enterprises, and he lost practically his entire fortune. He had been worth at one time fully one hundred thousand dollars—considered a large fortune in that period of our national history—and after having encountered severe financial reverses in the national metropolis he disposed of his interests in New York and returned to Ohio, where he located on a farm in Bedford township, Cuyahoga county, which continued to be his home during the remainder of his life. He was killed ,in a railway crossing accident on the Pennsylvania railroad, on the 12th of May, 1891, and was sixty-one years of age at the time of his death. The gauge which he invented is still in practical use on steam engines, and only minor or incidental improvements have been made upon his original device. He was a man of impregnable honor and integrity, and was a citizen who ever commanded unequivocal confidence and esteem. His wife was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, in the year 1832, and is a daughter of Robert and Jane Dawson, who came to America from Durham, England. They settled in Ontario, Canada, and when Amelia A. was a child the family removed to Cuyahoga county, Ohio, about the year 1834. Robert Dawson, who was a man of ample financial resources, purchased four hundred and fifty acres of land in Bedford township, that county. He erected a saw mill on his property and manufactured in the same a large amount of oak lumber. Through his well directed operations after coming to Ohio he added largely to his already substantial fortune. He died about 1867, at the venerable age of seventy-five years, and his wife also died in Bedford township. Their daughter Amelia A. (Dawson) Mighton, mother of the subject of this review, now resides at the home of her daughter Adah, wife of Dr. Rowland, of South Euclid, Ohio. Thomas and Amelia Ann (Dawson) Mighton became the parents of six children, of whom five are living. The father was a Democrat in his political allegiance, and his religious faith was that of the Christian church, of which his wife also is a devoted member. Perceptemas J. Mighton passed his boyhood and youth on the old homestead farm in Bedford township, Cuyahoga county, and was afforded the advantages of the excellent public schools of the locality, including the high school at Bedford. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the farm until he had attained to his legal majority, and he then purchased what was known as the Mitchell mill, at Little Mountain, Geauga county, Ohio. This was a flour and feed mill, operated by water power and doing a custom trade. Mr. Mighton gave careful attention to every detail of work and management, and through the returns from its operation was enabled to pay the entire purchase price within a period ofw six years, besides which he installed new machinery and developed the mill into a valuable property. While on the home farm he had worked in his father's saw and cider mill and had familiarized himself with machinery, so that lie did not come to his independent business venture as a novice. He assumed an indebtedness of three thousand dollars in buying the mill, and he made it pay for itself and also for the improvements made in its equipment. In 1889 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1025 he traded the property for real estate in the village of Chardon, Geauga county, but when seeking an eligible location for continuing in business he came to Painesville, which place he selected on account of its excellent railroad facilities. Here he entered into partnership with Harley Barnes, under the firm name of Mighton & Barnes, and they forthwith instituted the erection of the grain elevator of which mention is made in the opening paragraphs of this company. From the time of the organization of the Painesville Elevator Company, nearly twenty years ago, Mr. Mighton has been its president and has had charge of its property in a practical as well as an executive sense. Under his able direction the business, in the several departments noted, has proved eminently successful, and from his large holding of stock in the company Mr. Mighton has received returns which place him among the substantial capitalists of Painesville, while he is still in a comparative sense a young man. He has large real estate interests, including city and village property, and one investment in this department is represented in what is known as Mighton's subdivision of Painesville —an eligible tract of four and one-half acres which he has platted into lots and placed on the market. This is being developed into one of the attractive residence sections of the city. As a citizen he is liberal, progressive and essentially public-spirited, and he has at all times given his aid and influence in support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the material and civic welfare of his home city. Though never active in the domain of practical politics, he is aligned as a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife hold membership in the Church of Christ. On the 27th of August, 1884, Mr. Mighton was united in marriage to Miss Lillian Carver, daughter of L. D. Carver, of Little Mountain, Geauga county, and they have four children,—Ellis D., Marion A., Elgin R., and Austin R. Ellis D., the eldest son, is a graduate of the Bliss Electrical School, at Washington, D. C., in which he was a member of the class of 1906, and he is at present identified with the operation of the mill of the Painesville Milling Company, of which his father is president. The mill has its own electric plant, for lighting as well as power purposes, and this system was installed by Ellis Mighton, who is thoroughly reinforced in both the theo retical and practical knowledge of his profession. MERRILL H. BLAKE, who has long been an active figure in the varied progress of Portage county—who has been an able school teacher, merchant and agriculturist—is now the proprietor of the old Swan farm in Franklin township, on which he not only conducts a large dairy but raises the finest celery and onions in the county. While a resident of Shalersville township, he was an active Republican and served as trustee for two terms ; but as he has been located in Franklin township only since the spring of 1907 his time in that section of the county has been fully absorbed in organizing and developing the agricultural enterprise which is already such a pronounced success. Although a newcomer into that part of the county, Mr. Blake is one of its natives, and on both sides of the family is descended from pioneers of 1822. Born in Mantua township July 13, 1859, Mr. Blake is a son of Orvil and Emily (White) Blake, respectively natives of Connecticut and Massachusetts. The paternal grandparents were James and Elizabeth (Avery) Blake, and those on the maternal side Jonas and Sarah (Gregory) White. It is a matter of record that one of the White children of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims was born aboard that ship before it reached Massachusetts shores. In 1822 the maternal grandparents journeyed from their Massachusetts home by slow transit (ox team) and located on a farm in Mantua township, and the Blake grandparents arrived from Connecticut the same year, but settled in Brimfield township. Most of the members of the two families were agriculturists ; some of them were educators also, at different periods of their lives, while several have devoted themselves entirely to pedagogy. In the latter class is Dr. Emerson E. White, who at one time wad president of the Purdue University. Merrill H. lived on the home farm in Mantua township until 1878, after which he attended Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, for a year, and also spent two years at Hiram College and a term at Oberlin. He then taught school in his home locality until his marriage in 1885, after which he moved to Shalersville township, where he continued his educational work and spent the seasonable months at farming. In the fall of 1891 he associated himself with a cousin, C. C. White, in the establishment of a grocery business at 1026 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Mantua, but after conducting the enterprise for two years his health failed and he devoted himself to farm work entirely. For this purpose he returned to Shalersville township, where he remained from 1893 until he settled in Franklin township, in the fall of 19o7. As stated, he purchased the H. Swan farm in the spring of 1909, and this tract of one hundred acres has been skilfully and profitably adapted to dairying and truck farming. In both specialties it "sets the pace." On September 1, 1885, Mr. Blake married Miss Jennie C. Coit, a native of Shalersville township and a daughter of Noble and Jane (Sterling) Coit, both also natives of that part of the county. His first wife died January 26, 1899, leaving three daughters-Grace and Nettie, both at home, and Bell, residing at Ashland, Ohio. On January 1, 1901, Mr. Blake wedded, as his second wife, Miss Susan M. Hinds, born at Kent, a daughter of Ambrose and Malissa (Beckwith) .Hinds. Her father is a native of Michigan and her mother of Franklin township. The children of this union are Marion, Helen and Frances. Both parents are members of the Methodist church. E. W. TALCOTT, proprietor of a well conducted and thoroughly cultivated farm of one hundred and five acres, which was formerly a portion of the old Stewart homestead in Franklin township, Portage county, is himself the son of an old settler of the Western Reserve. He is a son of Hezekiah E. and Betsie D. (Burdick) Talcott. His father was born at Lydon, Lewis county, New York, May 9, 1809, to Joel and Zilphia (Kelsey) Talcott, and his mother was a native of Stow township, Summit county, where he himself was born on the 14th of August, 1852. The maternal ancestors were Massachusetts people. The father of E. W. Talcott became a settler of Stow township in 1830, being then a young man. He married, bought a farm, and both he and his wife died on the family homestead, his decease occurring May 29, 1882. Ten children were born to this union, as follows : Henry L., who was born October 29, 1834, and died in the fall of 1908 ; Asher, born November I, 1836. who is now a resident of Ottawa county, Kansas ; Charles G., born October 31, 1838, who lives at Akron, Ohio ; Myra V., who was born December 3, 1840, and is Mrs. Edward R. Peck, of Stow township ; Zilphia A., born November 15, 1842, widow of Orissa Moore, who is also a resident of Summit county ; Lorenzo A., born February i6, 1844, who resides at San Jose, California; Ellen J., born August 27, 1847, who married Dascom Barnard, of Stow township ; Emma E., born October 11, 1848, and the wife of Martin Holdredge, of Ravenna, Ohio ; E. W., of this sketch Electa M., born July 18, 1856, who is the wife of Clarence Wright, a California mining engineer. Mr. Talcott obtained his education in the common and high schools of Kent, and resided on the home farm until a year after his marriage in 1881. He then located at Ravenna, where he conducted a photograph gallery for seventeen years, and with the proceeds of its sale purchased the portion of the Stewart place which is now his homestead. Since that time he has devoted himself to general farming. He is also an active fraternalist, belonging to the Knights of Pythias and the F. O. W. In politics he is a Republican. On June 1, 1881, Mr. Talcott was united in marriage with Miss Mary, E. Stewart, a native of Franklin township, born November 17, 186o, to Thomas C. and Adeline (Hart) Stewart. Her father was born in Shalersville township, Portage 'county, on the 1st of March, 1826, and her mother at Brandon, Vermont, September 27, 1834. Mrs. Talcott's grandfather, Jonathan Stewart, was a native of Scotland, and his wife (nee Betsie Clements) was of Washington county, Pennsylvania. Both Grandfather Stewart and Homer Hart, the maternal grandfather, were very early settlers of Shalersville and Aurora townships, the Hart ancestry of an earlier day having been established in Vermont. In later years the Harts fixed their homestead in Franklin township. Mrs. Talcott's father died July 28, 1898, and her mother March 7, 1904, parents of the following: William A., born September 3, 1855, who is now a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Adeline, born August 19, 1857, who became the wife of Charles Case, of Jefferson, Ohio ; Homer, who was born September 14, 1858, and lives at Ferry, Oklahoma; Mrs. E. W. Talcott ; Clara, born March 28, 1863, and is the wife of J. C. Yeend, of Ravenna, at the time of her death, March 11, 1902 ; and Julia, born January 19, 1865, who became Mrs. William Getz, of Kent. Mr. and Mrs. Talcott's daughter, Mable, was born February 24, 1882, and on July 26, 1905, became the wife of Dr. Leslie A. Wolf, who is identified with the private hospital of Dr. W. W. White, at Ravenna. Dr. and Mrs. Wolf have one child, Greta Louisa, born May 30, 1908. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1027 ROBERT L. BREWSTER.—One of the representative farmers and honored citizens of Madison township, Lake county, is Robert L. Brewster, who resides in the old homestead in which he was born and is the owner of a portion of the fine landed estate which was secured by his paternal grandfather in the early pioneer epoch of the history of Lake county. The family has been one of prominence and influence in this section of the fine old Western Reserve, and the name has ever stood exponent of the most sterling attributes of Character and of definite usefulness in connection with the productive activities of life. Jasper Brewster, the founder of the family in the Western Reserve, was a native of Washington, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, as was also his wife, whose maiden name was Theodosia Lyman. There also all of their children were born prior to the immigration of the family to the wilds of northern Ohio. The genealogy in the agnatic line is traced back to Elder Brewster, who was one of the Pilgrims who came to the Massachusetts colony on the first voyage of the historic old "Mayflower," and records extant indicate in authentic way the direct line of descent. to the Brewsters of Lake county, Ohio. Jasper Brewster and his family left the old home in Washington, Massachusetts, in the year 1817, and started on the long and weary journey to Ohio. The trip was made with wagons and ox teams, and one horse also was brought to the new home. The trip consumed six weeks and was made in the winter. In effecting the crossing of the Windsor river extra teams were secured, and the family, including the father and mother and their five children, finally arrived at their destination in Lake county. Jasper Brewster purchased a large tract of heavily timbered land in Madison township, Lake county, and bought first in Tallmage township, Geauga county, the land being all in one body. On his land he made a clearing and erected a log house of the type common to the pioneer epoch. Here the family home was established and here maintained until about ten years later, when a brick house was built on the farm. This was one of the first brick dwellings erected in this part of Lake county, and the brick utilized were manufactured on the farm. Jasper Brewster devoted his attention to the reclamation of his land, but was not permitted to see the fruition of his earnest labors, as he died about five years after coming to Ohio, being fifty-five years of age at the time of his demise. His wife survived him by many years and was seventy-five years old at the time of her death. Both were devout members of the Congregational church. Their five children were Jasper, Sidney, Marshall, Wadsworth, and. Amanda. Jasper Brewster, Jr., the eldest son, continued to reside on the old homestead in Madison township until his ,death. He became the head of the family after the death of his father, and carefully provided for his widowed mother and the other children. He married Miss Lucetta Freeman, of Strongville, Ohio. She died about 1861, and he married for his second wife Mrs. Reeves Safford, of Madison. He died in 1885, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was one of the honored citizens of his township, where he wielded no little influence in public affairs, and he continued in the ownership of a portion of the old home farm until he was summoned from the scene of life's mortal endeavors. Both he and his wife were lifelong and zealous members of the Congregational church. Of their children only one, Mary, attained to years of maturity. Mary Brewste4r, who inherited the old homestead, became the wife of Philo Safford, and they now reside in Lorain, Ohio, whither they removed from the farm about twenty years ago. Of their children the following brief data are given : Grace is the wife of Harry D. Sheldon, of Lorain, Ohio ; Kate is the wife of Dr. T. T. Church, of Salem, this state ; Miss Bertha is matron of the Woman's Christian Association building in the city of Cleveland ; Mary Daisy is the wife of Dr. C. Campbell, of Hopedale, Massachusetts ; Brewster died, a bachelor, at the age of thirty years ; and John is a resident of New York City. Sidney, the second son, removed to Wood county, Ohio, and he died on the old homestead, while making a visit to the same, in 1864. Marshall Brewster was graduated in Yale University and was ordained a clergyman of the Congregational church. He did not long continue in the active work of the ministry as a vocation, but took up his residence in Indiana, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits on account of his health. Later he removed to the state of Kansas, where he remained until his death at a venerable age. His two sons, Jasper and Samuel, are now representative citizens of Kansas. Wadsworth Brewster, the father of Robert L. Brewster, is more specifically mentioned in the following paragraphs. Amanda, the only daughter, married Philander 1028 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Raymond, and they were for some years residents of Brady's Bend, Pennsylvania, where. Mr. Raymond operated an iron furnace. Later they returned to Ohio and located in Wood county, where she died in 1880, when about sixty-five years of age. Wadsworth Brewster was born at Washington, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on the 2d of April, 1804, and there received his rudimentary education. He was a lad of thirteen years at the time of the familly removal to Ohio, and he was reared to manhood on the old homestead farm in Madison township, Lake county, and he was associated in the work and management of the same until the time of his marriage, when the property was divided and he received 100 acres of the same as his share. On the 31st of January, 1838, when about thirty-five years of age, he was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Keep, who was born in Munson, Massachusetts, on the 21st of June, 1813. She received fine scholastic training and had come to Ohio with her sister, the wife of Mr. C. Blodgett, her intention having been to devote her life to pedagogic work. She was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of Mentor and Painesville, and while boarding in the home of Silas Ladd, a relative of the Brewster family, she formed the acquaintance of Wadsworth Brewster, who finally persuaded her to abandon her profession and become his wife. She ever retained a deep interest in literature and educational matters, and was a woman of fine attainments and most gracious personality. Wadsworth Brewster made his farm one of the model places of. Madison township, and the present substantial house on the -place was erected by him in 1840. He continued to reside on this homestead until his death, and no man in the county had a more secure hold upon popular confidence and esteem. He was ordained a deacon in the Congregational church, and as such rendered faithful service up to the time of his demise. His faith was one of earnest devotion and good works, and in his devotion his church was second only to his family. He and his wife were numbered among the original members of the Congregational church at North Madison and he assisted liberally in the erection of the church building, as did he later in the building of the first edifice of his church in the village of Madison, to which latter he and his family transferred their membership. In politics he was a stanch supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and while he was essentially loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, he never sought or desired the emoluments or honors of public office. He died on the 22d of March, 1876, and his cherished and devoted wife survived him by nearly a score of years, as her death occurred December 15, 1894. Concerning their children the following brief data are consistently entered: Julia Keep Brewster, the widow of R. S. Wilcox, still resides on a portion of her grandfather's old homestead, and she has no children ; Oliver Raymond sacrificed his life on the altar of his country, having enlisted as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and having died on October 18, 1862, as the result of a wound received October 8, in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky ; he was twenty-one years of age at the time of his death ; Robert Ladd, whose name introduces this article, was the next in order of birth ; Joseph Wadsworth died in 1850, at the age of three years ; Mary Jeanette is the wife of E. C. Silsby and they now reside in Talladega, Alabama. Robert Ladd Brewster was born in the house which he now occupies, on the old Brewster homestead farm, and the date of his nativity was October 4, 1843. He was reared to manhood under the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the farm and is indebted to the common schools for his early educational training, besides which he had the generous advantages of a home of distinctive culture and refinement. He was associated with his father in the work and management of the farm until the death of the latter, and since that time he has here continued to devote his attention to diversified agriculture and stock-growing, in which he has been duly successful. His farm now comprises 100 acres of most productive land, and the permanent improvements are all of the best order. As a citizen he has ably upheld the prestige of the honored name which he bears, and he enjoys unqualified popularity in his native county. His political support is given to the Republican party, and both he and his wife are valued and zealous members of the Congregational church in the village of Madison, of which he is a deacon. On the 24th of August, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Robert L. Brewster to Miss Sarah C. Williams, who was born in York township, Medina county, Ohio, 2n the 28th of September, 1848, and who is a daughter of John and Hannah (Branch) Williams, who passed the closing years of their lives in Ober- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1029 lin, Ohio. Her father had previ0usly been one of the representative farmers of Medina county. Mrs. Brewster was graduated in Oberlin College as a member of the Class 0f 1873, upon the completion of the literary course. She had been a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Medina county for a period of eight years, and after her graduation in Oberlin she passed eight years in American Missionary Association work at Selma, Alabama, where she taught in the school of which Professor E. C. Silsby, husband of Mr. Brewster's younger sister, was then principal. She continued in active work as a teacher until her marriage, which was celebrated at the home of her parents in Oberlin. Mr. and Mrs. Brewster have two children : John Wadsworth, who was born October 14, 1882, now has the practical management of the home farm ; and Ethel May, who was born November 28, 1883, was graduated in the Madison high school, in which she also completed a post-graduate course ; she remains at the parental home and is rendering efficient service as a teacher in the public schools of her native county. WILLIAM L. HOLDEN.-Few residents of Monroe township are more highly honored for what they have done and what they are, than William Holden, a substantial agriculturist of Monroe township, Ashtabula county, who has rendered his country valiant service in the Civil war, as well as given such a creditable account of himself in the peaceful fields of industry. Mr. Holden is a son of Richard and Lucretia (Rockwell) Holden, and was born in Erie county, New York, on the 25th of September, 1842. His father, who was born April 21, 1808, died June 4, 1871, while his good mother, born December 1, 1820, is still living with her son William (December, 1909), at the venerable age of more than ninety years. Aroused to a high pitch of patriotism by the breaking out of the Civil war, in 1861, although not then of age, William L. Holden enlisted in the Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was at the front in many notable engagements. By re-enlistment, when his original term expired, he served as a veteran until he received his honorable discharge, July 20, 1865. Returning to Ashtabula county, he has since successfully devoted his energies and abilities to the cultivation of the soil, being a general farmer of independent income and a citizen of the highest standing. On the 1st of January, 1866, less than six months after his return from the front, Mr. Holden married Miss Lucy Sweet, who was born July 11, 1850, a daughter of the late Gilbert Sweet and his wife (nee Harriet Shaw). Her father was born in Hanover, Dutchess county, New York, on the 17th of March, 1823, and died in Monroe township, Ashtabula county, June 17, 1898. He came to the county in 1834, and married Miss Shaw, January 19, 1848. The wife and mother, who was born December 7, 1827, is living with her daughter in Conneaut, Ashtabula county, her offspring being as follows : Lucy, Mrs. William L. Holden ; Elizabeth, who was born July 15, 1852, and resides in Conneaut township ; Loretta, born July 9, 1854, and a resident of Ashtabula ; and Bert, who was born February 4, 1856, and lives in Monroe township. Mr. and Mrs. Holden have one child, Frank E., who was born July 28, 1868 ; on December 24, 1900, he married Miss Millie Petsehka, and resides in Monroe township. The parents are active and influential members of the Christian church and are also identified with the local Grange. Mr. Holden's stirring experiences of the Civil war are kept ever green through his comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic, his wife being a loyal member of the Woman's Relief Corps. ROLLIN E. WISWELL.-Edward Wiswell, father of Rollin E. Wiswell, was born in 1813 in Essex county, New York, and died September 18, 1898. He came to Ohio by way of the Erie canal,' and spent one year in Portage county, after which he removed to Windsor and there spent the remainder of his life. He was a tanner and shoemaker by trade and came to Ohio on account of being able to procure fresh hemlock bark for use in his business. He set up a shop on his own account, which he carried on for several years. Mr. Wiswell became a prominent citizen and served several years as trustee of the township. He was three times married, first to Hilpa Cook, by whom he had two children, Marian, born September 12, 1846, married I. C. Humphrey and lives in Windsor, and Orresta, born May 25, 1848, married O. S. Kinney, and also lives in Windsor. Mr. Wiswell married (second) Verann Nye, born in 1826, died June 12, 1856, and they had two children, Lilian, born 1852, died at the age of twelve years, and Rollin E., born May 23, 1854. Edward Wiswell married (third) Emily Hale, born March 15, 1833, who now lives with her 1030 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE son Bert. By his third wife Mr. Wiswell had three children, namely ; Bert, born April 16, 1858 ; Laura A., born November 27, 1860, lives in Chardon, married twice, (first) Luther Preston, deceased, and (second) Oscar Pitkin, deceased ; and Anna, born January 21, 1867, married John Gooding, November 10, 1887, and died June 2, 1889. Rollin E. Wiswell attended the Normal at Orwell, Ohio, and taught school one term. He is an intelligent farmer, and owns two hundred and fifty acres of land. His flock of sheep numbers some one hundred, and he also raises Percheron horses. He takes an active interest in public affairs, and is a public-spirited citizen. Mr. Wiswell married Jessie Warner, born March 31, 1861, and they have three children, namely : Roy A., born October 10, 1880, married, September 23, 1907, Winnie Hollis, of Orwell, Ohio, is a brakeman on the Lake Shore railroad and lives in Cleveland ; Vergne E., born July 16, 1882, is unmarried and lives in Windsor, where he runs a grist mill and is a bridge contractor ; and Glen W., born December 1, 1886, enlisted in the United States navy, was on board the battleship "Maine," went around the world with the Evans fleet, and re-enlisted in September, 1909. They also have an adopted daughter, Lorena, born June 8, 1895, living at home ; her twin, Lorhea, was adopted by Mr. Wiswell's brother Bert. BERT WISWELL was born April 16, 1858, in Windsor township, Ashtabula county, and is a son of Edward and Emily (Hale) Wiswell, mentioned at length in connection with the sketch of Rollin E. Wiswell, to be found elsewhere in this work. Bert Wiswell attended school at Orwell and Austinburg, and taught school one term. He is now a farmer, and owns 250 acres of choice land. He raises Percheron horses and keeps a good flock of sheep. Besides carrying on general farming, he also has a good dairy. He is an industrious, up-to-date farmer, and carries on his farm in a business-like manner, which assures success. He is actively interested in local affairs, and is an enterprising, highly-respected citizen. Mr. Wiswell married, in 1882, Nettie Hoskin, daughter of Albert and Emeline Hoskin. Mrs. Wiswell was born November 18, 1862, died January 7, 1907. They had no children of their own, but adopted one child, Lorhea, born June 8, 1895, twin sister of Lorena, who was adopted by his brother, Rollin E. Wiswell. Lorhea was adopted February 7, 1897, and lives at home. In political views Mr. Wiswell is a supporter of the Republican party, but always supports the best men for any office, regardless of their party affiliations. WILSON PECK was born at New Lyme, Ohio, March 10, 1852, and is a son of Hiram and Harriet (Simmons) Peck. His grandfather, Edward C. Peck, was born October 20, 1790, in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and died December 20, 1866, at New Lyme, Ohio. He came with his parents to New Lyme, in 1811, in a colony from Connecticut, with horses and wagons. His father, Daniel Peck, born April 17, 1762, died January 16, 1839. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and April 19, 1786, married Lovina Huntly. Edward C. Peck married Lovisa Chapin, January 11, 1818, and their children, all born at New Lyme, Ohio, were : Sally, born November 5, 1819, died in April, 1909; Hiram, born March I I, 1821; Edward C., born October 18, 1823, died April 18, 1870; Matthew, born May 30, 1826, died when about eight years old ; Ansel, born March 26, 1828, died December 29, 1846 ; Marriette, born March 30, 1834, died May 3, 1866; and Louisa, born February 21, 1836, widow of Mr. Woodruff, living at New Lyme. Hiram Peck was born March 11, 1821, and died November 18, 1882. He was a farmer, and a prominent member of the Presbyterian church, active in church work and for many years an elder. He was respected and popular throughout the region. He married Harriet Simmons, May 20, 1851, and their children were : Wilson ; Florence, born November 7, 1853, married Clinton Sperry, and lives in New Lyme ; Lois, born October 14, 1864, in Rome township, at present a resident of Cleveland, has been one of the matrons at Oberlin College ; and Hiram L., born March 14, 1869, married Leighla Rose, of New Lyme, and lives at Oberlin. Wilson Peck attended school in Rome township, and later entered Grand 'River Institute at Austinburg. After leaving school he turned his attention to farming, and now owns two hundred and twenty acres, which he has improved. He moved the 'barns and put them on a good foundation, remodeling them. He keeps sheep and runs a fine dairy. He and his wife are members of the Grange. He is a prominent and respected member of the community, and actively interested in public affairs. In political views he is a Democrat. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1031 November 12, 1890, Mr. Peck married May H. Cook, born January 7, 1867, daughter of Amherst and Helen (O'Connor) Cook, the latter deceased. Her father still resides in Windsor township. Mr. Peck and his wife have no children. ELMER COOK LIVINGSTON is one of the well known residents of Trumbull township, Ashtabula county, his farm and homestead being near Rock Creek. He was born in Trumbull township, Ashtabula county, August 15, 1840. His people on his father's side were English and his mother's came from Germany. The father, Philetus Swift Livingston, was born in Steuben county, New York, in 1812, and after a common-school education engaged in farming, which was his regular occupation through his career. He came to Ashtabula county in 1836 and bought seventy-five acres from the Connecticut Land Company. His wife, Susan Baker, was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1816, and died in 1889. Philetus Livingston died in April, 1901. He was not connected with any church organization, and in politics was a Republican. Mr. Livingston, like his father, was educated in the common schools, and is a prosperous farmer of Trumbull township, owning a dairy farm of 120 acres. He is an active Republican, whose career shows a large amount of public service in his communty. He served as township clerk three years, and township trustee for twelve years. For seven years he was assessor of personal property in this township, and assessor of real estate one year. He has always retained the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, and the many years of his residence have continually increased his value as a citizen. He is not a member of any church society. Mr. Livingston married, in Trumbull t0wnship, Ashtabula county, on September 10, 1862, Miss Elizabeth Adell Clark, who was born October 24, 1844. Her parents were John and Emily (Johnson) Clark, who were once active members of this agricultural community, the father dying in 1889 and the mother in 1902. The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Livingston were born as follows : Byron Eugene, in Trumbull township, April 22, 1864 ; Frances Josephine, December 28, 1865 ; Jennie Delphene, January 4, 1868 ; and Susie Emily, April 9, 1878, all being born in Trumbull township. Byron is a farmer and the husband of Amelia Parker ; Frances married Charles Hollenbeck and lives Vol. II-21 at home, and Jennie is the wife of Eugene Horton, a farmer of Trumbull township. NATHAN T. BREED, a leading hardware merchant of Lake county. and the Western Reserve, a business man of Painesville of broad experience and marked successes, and a citizen of strong and elevated public influence, is of a family which acquired prominence in the business and industrial development of Venango county, Pennsylvania, in the early portion of the nineteenth century, and at an earlier date was identified with the material and patriotic history of Connecticut. The original American ancestor came from England in 1630, and Joseph Breed, great-grandfather of Nathan T. was a native of that col- ony and a skilful ship carpenter. During the Revolutionary war he was an ardent patriot and an active soldier, migrating to Venango county, Pennsylvania, in 1818, where he cultivated a farm and developed a homestead on which he resided until his death at the age of eighty-four years. His son, also a native of Connecticut, married Miss Fanny Hancox, of that state, and when a young man located in Venango county with his wife and child. He commenced life in this part of Pennsylvania by working for five years at the rate of ten dollars per month. He was then drafted for the war of 1812, but his employer thought so well of him that he hired a substitute. Not long afterward he bought a farm of his own and continued agricultural pursuits the remainder of his life, his death finding him in comfortable circumstances and in honorable standing as a citizen. The deceased was a man of vigorous constitution, and spent the first five years of his residence in Venango county as a hard-working farm hand on ten dollars a month. He was drafted for the war of 1812, but his employer thought too well of him to let him go to the front and so hired a substitute for him. Nathan Breed, Sr., became the father of eight children by his first marriage, Nathan, Jr. Eliza, Reuben, Franklin, William F., Nathan II and Amos. The mother died in 1836 and the father married as his second wife Ruth Gleason, who bore him three children—Gleason, Lucy and Sallie A. Franklin Breed, the father of Nathan T., was reared on the old farm in Venango county, Pennsylvania, on which he had been born February 15, 1822. When he was seventeen years of age his father died, and as a clerk in a general store he commenced to not only support himself but to assist in the maintenance 1032 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE of his mother and her household, and in the education of his sisters and younger brother. At the age of twenty-three he married and settled on a farm near Titusville, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1852. In that year he established a general store in that city, being thus engaged for twelve years, when he sold his business and operated a grist mill for another dozen years. In 1870 Franklin Breed withdrew from the mercantile field and purchased a farm of two hundred and ten acres near Painesville, subsequently becoming one of the prosperous agriculturists and honored citizens of Lake county. In 1845 Mr. Breed was first married to Miss Angelet Daggett, a native of New York state, and their daughter, Frances, who died in 1868, married a Mr. Taber. His second marriage, in 1869, was to Miss H. Pamelia Tracy, who was born in Chautauqua county, New York, and bore him three children—Nathan T., Vernie (deceased) and Flora E. Nathan T. Breed was born at Titusville, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1861, and received his education in the public schools of Painesville and at the Western Reserve College. After completing his education he engaged in the dairy business at Painesville, and conducted it on an extensive scale for fourteen years. He then sold his establishment and entered the field of general fire insurance, from which he withdrew to become a partner in The Doolittle Bros. Company, of Painesville. The large business represented by that concern was incorporated in 1904, the present officers being as follows : C. E. Doolittle, president ; R. E. Doolittle, vice-president ; Nathan T. Breed, secretary, and H. M. Doolittle, treasurer. The business of the company is in the general hardware line and its store is one of the largest and most completely stocked in Lake county. Personally, Mr. Breed has a most substantial standing both in business and civic affairs. He has served as township trustee for about twelve years ; was a member of the Painesville city council for one term of two years, and is now on the Painesville Township Park Commission. In national, as well as in local matters, he freely exercises his individual judgment, and is a Liberal or Independent always. His high standing as a Mason is indicated by his membership in the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Eagle Commandery of Painesville ; Lake Erie Consistory of Cleveland, and the Al Koran Temple of the same city. On October 31, 1900, Mr. Breed married Miss Henrietta M. Hine, daughter of H. H. Hine, of Painesville. Flora E. Breed, the last surviving sister, died June 2, 1904, so that Mr. Breed is now the only living member of the paternal household. ABRAHAM SKINNER.—One of the oldest and most prominent settlers in the neighborhood of Fairport Harbor was Abraham Skinner, who was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, October 18, 1755, and died January 14, 1826. He was the foremost citizen of the neighborhood for years, and his influence was widely felt, is his home and purse were always at the service of any movement for progress or improvement. In 1795 Mr. Skinner went to England, and when he returned he imported four thoroughbred horses, from which have descended some of the most noted horses in the United States. In 1800 he first visited Ohio, then a wilderness, and in 1803 he settled there for life, purchasing land in Painesville township, also in Springfield and Twinsburg, Summit county, and Brecksville, Cuyahoga county. In February, 1805, Mr. Skinner brought his family west, in three two-horse sleighs, and from Buffalo they traveled over the ice on Lake Erie. In this year he erected his house, which he lived in the remainder of his life, and this house is still in use, having been embodied in the present residence of his great-granddaughter and her husband, N. T. Breed. Mr. Skinner was one of the original proprietors of Fairport, and also of Newmarket, three miles up the river at the head of navigation. He owned three warehouses, stores, taverns, a distillery and many other buildings. His house was the headquarters for gatherings of a public nature, in any good cause, and the first jail in the county stood in his yard ; the first court in the county was held in his frame barn, and he put forth every effort to increase. immigration. He built a court house at New Market of hewed walnut logs. He was universally respected and admired by his friends and neighbors, and was helpful to all. He helped many of the early settlers in a financial way, and notes of his neighbors to the amount of many thousands of dollars are still in existence. Abraham Skinner married, in 1788, Mary Ayers, who died in 1812, and their children were : Mary, married Homer Hine, an attorney of Youngstown, Ohio ; Abram Ayers, died in 1831 ; Paulina, married Nathan Perry, of Cleveland ; Roderick Washington, died in 1871; and Augustus, died February 25, 1880. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1033 CHARLES MERTZ.—In the enlisting of men of notable enterprise, ability and integrity in the furtherance of her commercial, financial and industrial prestige, the city of Ravenna has gained its solidity, its substantial growth in population and material wealth, and its prestige as one of the thriving and beautiful municipalities of the historic old Western Reserve. America has ever paid honor to the man who has achieved a worthy success through his own efforts, and such accomplishment has been significantly marked in the career of Charles Mertz, who started out in life as an orphan boy, with no influential friends or financial resources, and who is now president of the Ravenna National Bank and a representative financier and business man of Portage county, where he has maintained his home for more than half a century, and where his course has been 1such as to gain and retain to him the confidence and high regard of all who know him. It has become trite in later years to speak of the young man as the dominating force in business, but in the light of sober investigation it will be found that the substantial business interests of the country have been conserved and broadened under the control of men of ample experience and past the stage of comparative youth. Thus Mr. Mertz, still in the harness, has attained to more than the psalmist's span of three score years and ten, but none can doubt that his powers to-day show no diminution, but rather have been strengthened and matured by his long years of able and faithful service in the field of business activity. He has never been inferior to any emergency confronting him, is positive in his individuality, and has clearly shown the qualities which make for successful leadership. In his youth he felt the lash of necessity, and the stern schooling of earlier days has made him appreciative of the true values in the scheme of human existence, so that he has a due sense of his stewardship and a tolerance for failings and mistakes of others. As a man who has achieved much and won success through worthy means, he is well entitled to consideration in this work. Charles Mertz was born in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of September, 1833, and was but three years of age at the time of the death of his parents. The father, Carlos Mertz, was a professor of ability, who was born in Frank fort-on-the-Main, coming from a family of culture and refinement. He had one brother who was one of Germany's most noted surgeons. Carlos Mertz was the only member of his family that ever came to America. He .came here in 1830, with his wife and children, in search of health and bought an estate on the outskirts of Pittsburg, where his son Charles was born. The father and mother died within six months of each other, leaving five children alone in a strange country, among a strange people, with neither kin nor friends. After the parents' death neighboring farmers offered homes to the children, and thus it was that Charles Mertz passed his boyhood days on a farm, assisting with the work during the summer and being permitted to attend the district school during the short winter terms. His courage and ambition were not to be held long in abeyance after he became cognizant of the possibilities for personal accomplishment, and when he was sixteen years of age he returned to Pittsburg, the city in which he had been born, and there entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of carriage-making. He was thus engaged for a period of three years, within which he became a skilled workman, and in 1855 he came to Ohio, where he was employed as a journeyman at his trade for about seven years. In 1861 Mr. Mertz associated himself with Henry W. Riddle, and they engaged in the manufacturing of carriages and other vehicles in Ravenna. These two honored pioneer business men continued to be thus associated for the long period of thirty years, within which they built up a large and prosperous industry and one that has continued to add materially to the commercial precedence of the city of Ravenna. At the expiration of the period noted Mr. Mertz sold his interest in the business to his long-time friend and partner, Mr. Riddle, and ,he has since given the major portion of his time and attention to his banking interests and the executive duties pertaining to the same. At the time of his retirement from the manufacturing business noted Mr. Mertz was a member of the directorate of the First National Bank of Ravenna, whose charter soon afterward expired. A reorganization took place and the business was continued under the corporate title of the Ravenna National Bank. Upon the incorporation under this title Mr. Mertz was elected president of the institution, which office he had previously held with the First National Bank. He continued in the presidency of the Ravenna National Bank, whose administrative policy he directed with much conservatism and discrimination, and when this institution was reorganized in 1902 1034 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE he was chosen as his own successor in the office of president, of which he has since remained incumbent. The bank is one of the solid and popular financial institutions of the Western Reserve, a section known for its opulent prosperity, and the same bases its operations upon a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. Reared in the school of adversity, Mr. Mertz has ever maintained a deep appreciation of the dignity of honest toil and endeavor, and in the gaining of his success as one of the world's workers he has not hedged himself in with selfish bounds, but has continued mindful of his own struggles, so that his human sympathy has not been lessened through the prosperity which has attended him and through the advancement that he has gained by well directed effort. As a citizen he is liberal, progressive and public-spirited, but he places a true valuation upon man and affairs, and is discriminating in the according of his aid and influence, as well as in the dispensing of his charities and benevolences, which are ever unostentatious. He gives his support to the cause of the Republican party, and the only public office in which he has ever consented to serve is that of member of the city council. He has contributed in large measure to the upbuilding of Ravenna and to the advancement of its various material and civic interests. He takes pride in the city which has represented his home for more than half a century, and here he is held in high regard as a man of integrity and honor and as a citizen ever ready to lend his co-operation in the support of worthy enterprises and measures tending to promote the general good of the community. He is affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fraternity and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church. In the year 1855 Mr. Mertz was united in marriage to Miss Mary Riddle, a sister of his former partner, Henry W. Riddle, in the sketch of whose career, on other pages of this publication, is given an outline of the family history. Mr. and Mrs. Mertz have two daughters—Lida is the wife of Charles W. Franzheim, of Wheeling, West Virginia, and Katharine is the wife of James W. Holcomb, a representative attorney in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. GEORGE S. BECK is accorded a prominent place among the farmers and stock raisers of Guilford township, as well as of Medina county. He was born on the old Beck homestead in the vicinity of River Styx, October 1, 1857, a son of Joseph L. and Elizabeth (Long) Beck, both of whom were born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania. In 1851 the Beck family moved westward to Ohio and settled on a farm near River Styx, in Guilford township, Medina county, where during many years they were engaged in general farming and where they spent the remainder of their lives and died, Joseph L. Beck on the 5th of April, 1903, in his eighty-sixth year, and his wife Elizabeth many years previously, on the 24th of December, 1874. This farmstead contained 124 acres of first and second bottom land, and Mr. Beck was among the first to introduce into this community a high grade of Durham cattle, and later on he stocked his farm with pedigreed cattle, and, although this venture proved unprofitable financially to Mr. Beck, it was the means of introducing and interesting the farmers here in fine graded cattle and in improving the stock generally am0ng the agriculturists of the county. He also introduced here the Cotswold sheep, which he raised for their wool and mutton qualities, and he was for many years extensively engaged in buying sheep and feeding them for the market. He added to his farm until it contained 250 acres, which served as pasture for his sheep and cattle. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Beck, five were born in Pennsylvania, and the remaining two on the farm in Guilford township, namely : Sarah, who married William Reese, of River Styx ; Jane, deceased; Maria, who married Newton N. Reese ; Mary, the wife of Albert Kulp ; Jacob J., a butcher in Seville ; Josephine, wife of Daniel H: Markley, of Lafayette township, Medina county; and George S. George S. Beck received a good common school training during his boyhood, attending school during the winter months until his sixteenth year and working on the home farm during the summers. After attaining his twentieth year he left his father's home and worked for a time for other farmers, but after his marriage he returned to the Beck homestead and took up the work of general farming and stock raising, and in the breeding of fine cattle and sheep he is taking a leading interest in producing some of the finest specimens in the county, which he has exhibited at the county and state fairs, where they have received first premiums and also the sweepstakes. He has served Gtiilford township for. a number of years as a trustee, and is a member of the HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1035 Republican party and a member and also a past president of the Agricultural Society of Medina county. Mrs. Beck bore the maiden name of Catharine S. Reagle, and was born in Summit county, Ohio, a daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Seford) Reagle. Ten children blessed this marriage union, five sons and five daughters, namely : Clarence, Edward, Elva M. (who married Ray Ream, of Guilford township), Joseph D., Alfred N., Laura and Lavina, twins (Laura married Dayton Rohrer and Lavina is deceased), Cora E., Julia (who was drowned), and John M. No man living within the borders of Medina county has taken a greater interest in improving its grade of stock than has Mr. George S. Beck, a representative citizen and a prominent business man. A. D. ROBINSON.—As editor and manager of the Ravenna Republican, A. D. Robinson has gained prestige as one of the able representatives of the newspaper fraternity in the historic old Western Reserve, and prior to identifying himself with this line of enterprise he was a successful teacher in the public schools. Mr. Robinson was born at Ticonderoga, Essex county, New York, on the 8th of January, 1876, and is a son of A. B. and Christina (Mason) Robinson. He was reared to maturity in his native town, in whose public schools he gained his early educational discipline, and after his graduation in the high school he entered the New York State Normal School at Plattsburg, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1898. He forthwith turned his attention to the pedagogic profession, in which his success was instant and unequivocal. In 1900 he came to Portage county, Ohio, and assumed the position of principal of the high school in Garrettsville, where he continued his' labors until 1903, when he became superintendent of the public schools of Seville, Medina county, an incumbency which he retained until 1905 and one in which he made a record of splendid accomplishment. In July, 1905, Mr. Robinson took up his abode in the city of Ravenna, where he assumed the position of city editor of The Ravenna Republican, with whose interests he has since continued to be identified and in connection with which he has done most excellent work, both in an editorial and an executive capacity. In 1908, upon the death of the editor and publisher of The Republican, the late C. W. S. Wilgus, Mr. Robinson became the editor-in-chief of the paper and also manager of the business, which includes the operation of a finely equipped job department. He has since continued in charge of The Republican, and has well maintained its high standard in all departments. He is well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public polity, and gives an unswerving allegiance to the Republican party, whose cause he does much to further through the columns of the paper of which he is editor. He is a member of Cresset Lodge, No. 225, Knights of Pythias. He is recognized as one of the representative business men of the younger generation in Ravenna, and his popularity is measured only by his circle of acquaintances. In 1903 Mr. Robinson was united in marriage to Miss Evelyn Crane, daughter of C. M. Crane, a well known citizen of Garrettsville, Portage county, and they are active in the social life of their home city. JAMES S. ALLEN.—In connection with a line of industrial enterprise which is one of maximum importance in every populous community James S. Allen, of this review, has conducted extensive and successful operations and is today numbered among the leading real estate dealers of Portage county. He maintains his home and headquarters in the city of Ravenna and is known as one of its progressive business men and thoroughly representative citizens. Farther consistency in according him consideration in this publication is that implied in the fact that he is a native son of Portage county and a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of this favored section of the state. James S. Allen was born at Deerfield, Portage county, Ohio, on the 30th of May, 1857, and is a son of Stephen and Sarah (Rex) Allen, both natives of England. Stephen Allen was reared to maturity in his native land, whence lie came to America on one of the sailing vessels of the type common to the period, and the voyage consumed seven weeks and three days. He was accompanied by his wife and soon after their arrival in America they came to Portage county, Ohio, and took up their abode in the village of Deerfield, where for a time he followed his trade, that of shoemaker. Subsequently he opened a meat market in Charlestown, and with this line of enterprise he continued to be successfully identified for many years. He continued t0 reside in 1036 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Portage county until his death, at the age of seventy-eight years, and was one of the sterling citizens and honored business men of the county which so long represented his home. His first wife, who died in England, became the mother of two children,—Charles D. and Emma A., both of whom are still living. Stephen Allen's marriage to Miss Sarah Rex was solemnized in England, and she lived to attain the age of sixty-five years. Of this second marriage were born four children,—Ellen, Anna, James S., and William A., who died aged thirty years ; and the remaining three children survive the honored parents. James S. Allen; whose name initiates this review, was a child tw0about two years at the time his parents removed from his native village of Deerfield to Charlestown, in the same county, in which latter place he was reared to years of maturity, in the meanwhile having duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools. Upon attaining to his legal majority he engaged in the meat market business, in connection with which he passed two years at Oberlin, Ohio, and North Bloomfield, Trumbull county. In 1880 he established his residence in the city of Ravenna, where he engaged in the same line of enterprise and where he conducted a meat market for a quarter of a century, within which time he built up a large and representative business and gained prestige as one of the substantial business men and loyal citizens of the community. He retired from the meat business in 19o5, since which year he has been successfully engaged in the real estate business, in which his operations have attained to wide scope and importance and in which his transactions include handling of both farm and suburban properties. His books show at all times most desirable investments, and his success has been fortified through his well known reputation as a reliable and straightforward business man. He is a stockholder in the Ravenna National Bank, and is the owner of much local realty of the better class, including thirty-six houses. In politics Mr. Allen is found arrayed as a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and though he has never sought or held public office he takes a zealous interest in the furthering of the cause of the "grand old party" with which he is allied. He is a member of the board of directors of the Ravenna Board of Trade and is president of the city board of health. For thirty years Mr. Allen has been affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has attained to no slight distinction. He is past noble grand of the lodge of the order in Ravenna, and in the local lodge 61 the Knights of Pythias he is past chancellor commander. In the latter order he is also identified with the uniform rank. He has served two terms as regent of the Royal Arcanum, Lodge No. 376; and is a charter member of the Ravenna lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and take an active part in the various departments of its work. On the 23d of December, 188o, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Allen to Miss Hattie M. Loosmore, whose family name was Wolcott and whose parents died when she was a child, after which she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. William Loosmore, of North Bloomfield, Trumbull county, by whom she was reared and educated. She is prominent and popular in the social activities of Ravenna and is a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have two sons : William J. was born October 23, 1881, and was married October 9, 1901, to Miss Ruth Sawyer, of Ravenna, and they have one child, Treva Mae Allen, born July 18, 1902 ; and Frank S., who was born December 11, 1882, married Miss Grace Rosenberger, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1901. Both brothers are engaged in the grocery business in Ravenna under the firm name of Allen Bros. and enjoy unqualified popularity. FITCH AND WINCHESTER FAMILIES.—For more than eighty years the name of Fitch has been typical of the dignity and progress of the bar of Ashtabula county, of prominence and faithfulness in the public affairs of Ohio, of national patriotism, broad scholarship, and unfaltering integrity. For over two centuries and a half the family has played a leading and a loyal part in the development of the intellectual, professional, public and religious life of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Ohio and, through the mediums of these great commonwealths, of both New England and the west. It is characteristic of the family interest in religion and politics that Rev. James Fitch, the American pioneer, preached the first election sermon ever delivered in the colonies, at Norwich, Connecticut, in 1667. This clergyman was the son of Thomas and Anne (Reve) HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1037 Fitch, who were .married at St. Mary's church, Bocking, Essex, England, on the 8th of August, 1611. The genealogical lines connect numerous patriots of the Colonial and Revolutionary wars with the forefathers of the nineteenth century. Nathan Fitch, who married Hannah Huntington and died in Lebanon in 1750, was a soldier in the Colonial wars, and Abraham, who passed away in the same place in 1821, was captain of the Second Connecticut Light Horse Cavalry in the Revolutionary war, having previously served in the French and Indian war. He was a man of such remarkable vigor that it is said of him that "he was never ill a day in his life and walked out of doors an hour before his death," which occurred in his eighty-fifth year. His son, Azel Fitch, was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, April 29, 1771, and married Miss Fannie Hinckley, a grandniece of Governor Hinckley, of Plymouth colony, and a descendant of Major James Fitch and Governor Bradford. Azel Fitch was a farmer, merchant and manufacturer. During the war of 1812 he invested in woolen manufactures. With the peace of 1815 the American markets were so flooded with foreign goods as to cripple his business, and in 1829 he followed his son Orramel H. to Ashtabula county, where he made considerable investments in land. Orramel Hinckley .Fitch was a native of Lebanon, Connecticut, born January 12, 1803, and his early life was spent in attending and teaching school. As an educator he was connected with Mason Hill Seminary, Richmond, Virginia; with the Westfield (Massachusetts) Academy, and was principal of the Union Academy, of Windsor, Connecticut. In 1824-6 he studied law at Westfield, and in the latter year entered the office of Hon. Calvin Goddard, of Norwich, Connecticut, a distinguished judge and congressman. On March 16, 1827, he was admitted to practice before the Connecticut courts, but in the following May he located in Stark county, Ohio, near Canton; and in March, 1828, settled in Ashtabula for a busy and notable sojourn of half a century: In the fall of 1829 his parents joined him. and resided with him until their decease, the father dying in 1831 and the mother in 1842. On May 19, 1828, Mr. Fitch was admitted to the Ohio bar and for many years practiced his profession with M. M. Sawtell and his son, Hon. Edward H., Fitch, the latter association terminating in 1863 with the retirement of the senior partner. Orramel H. Fitch had the honor of being not only one of the ablest of the pioneer lawyers of Ashtabula, but the first editor of the county, his journalistic connection with the Ashtabula Sentinel being of fifteen years' duration. The paper was afterward managed by Hon. W. C. Howells, father of William Dean, the famous novelist. In 1848 Mr. Fitch became one of the founders and president of the Farmers' Bank, of Ashtabula, and continued to head its affairs until his death, thirty-four years later. From 1832 to 1841 he served as Justice of the peace ; represented. his county the state legislature in 1837-9 ; was prosecuting attorney in 1841-2, and, Without solicitation, received other public marks of public esteem and confidence. In 1861 Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury, appointed him a government agent to solicit subscriptions for the congressional war loan, and his connection with the leading events of the county up to the time of his death, September 17, 1882, was of the most prominent and honorable character. He was a trustee of Lake. Erie College, at Painesville, until his death. His contributions to the historical annals of the Western Reserve were therefore highly valued, and at the time of his decease he held the presidency of the County Historical Association. In 1835 Orramel H. Fitch married Miss Catherine M. Hubbard daughter of Colonel William Hubbard, her death occurring November 29, 1859. In 1836 Mr. Fitch united with the Presbyterian church, of which both he and his wife were earnest members, the former having served as a ruling elder for many years before his death. Mrs. Fitch's father was a colonel in the war of 1812, and a nephew of Colonel Nehemiah Hubbard, of the Connecticut Land Company. Edward H. Fitch was born in Ashtabula, May 26, 1837, and obtained his, preparatory education in his native town and St. Catherines, Canada ; then took a course at Williams' Col lege, Massachusetts, from, which he received the degree Bachelor of Arts in 1858 and Master of Arts in 1861. There he formed a warm friendship for James A. Garfield, which endured throughout the life of the great soldier and president., Mr. Fitch studied law under his' father ; was admitted to the bar in 1860; and was successively associated with his father, Judge Horace Wilder, Judge L. S. Sherman and Hon, S. A. Northway. On the formation of his last partnership in 1878 he moved to Jefferson, the County seat: Being associated 1038 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE from the first with eminent practitioners, Mr. Fitch never permitted himself to be outdone in courtesy, dignity and the unfailing application of the moral ethics of his profession. The high appreciation of his abilities was therefore never marred by insinuations of unprofessional conduct. While zealous and suczeal0us as an advocate, he always remembered that he was a gentleman and a man before all, and often neglected to collect his own fees from needy clients. In his political activities he held himself to the same high standard, his Republicanism being a matter of the most profound thought and the firmest conviction. Officially, he was first a justice of the peace, then prosecuting attorney, and in 1869 was elected to the legislature. From General Garfield's entrance into politics, Mr. Fitch, who was an active member of the Republican State Committee, had been one of his stanchest supporters, and to him was largely due the renomination of the elder statesman to Congress when bitterly attacked in the convention of 1872. In 1870 Governor Hayes appointed Mr. Fitch a delegate to the national capital convention at Cincinnati. Mr. Fitch was in demand as a speaker, and delivered the historical address at the Conneaut Centennial. For many years he had been convinced of the necessity for a systematic registration of land titles, being an earnest advocate of the Torrens system, which was presented to various state legislatures for adoption in the early nineties. In May, 1893, largely as the result of an exhaustive paper on the subject which he read before the Ohio Bar Association in the previous year, Mr. Fitch was appointed by Governor McKinley as chairman of the commission created to formulate a law for Ohio based on the Torrens system. His work was thorough and impartial, and, although the law was pronounced unconstitutional by the supreme courts of both Ohio and Illinois, he was supported in his able efforts to reform the system by the leading attorneys and business men of his state. It should also be added that after his, death the Torrens system was introduced into the laws of the state of New York. Mr. Fitch's achievements were notable in both professional and public life, but his intellectuality was even of a broader sweep. His scientific and literary knowledge was deep and exact ; he devoted considerable time from his early manhood to his death in the field of scientific research, and for forty years was a member and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Only a few days before his death he started for Detroit, Michigan, to attend a meeting of that association, but on reaching Ashtabula illness turned him back to his home in Jefferson. A short time afterward he rejoined his family at the summer home in Conneaut, and there he passed to the future life on September 9, 1899. His last hours were as he wished—passed in the midst of those whom he had ever cherished and who had returned his love and care in reciprocal affection and service. On October 27, 1863, Edward H. Fitch was married to Miss Alta Deirexa Winchester, daughter of Philander and Elizabeth Gilman (Calkins) Winchester, of Columbus, Ohio, and granddaughter of Mrs. Joseph Cowles, of Austinburg. Five of the eight children born to this union are living, as follows : ( 1) Winchester, whose biography follows and who was the second in order of birth ; (2) Annette, born January 31, 187o, a graduat1870,Lake Erie Seminary, who married I. C. Brewer, Jr., and has one son ; (3) Edward Hubbard, born in Ashtabula, March 31, 1873, a graduate of Cornell University law school and now of Philadelphia, who married Miss Bess McFarlin, at Akron, Ohio, and has a son, Edward Hubbard Fitch 3d, and a daughter, Juliana ; (4) Alta, born in Ashtabula, July 25, 1876, educated at Huntsville (Alabama) College and Lake Erie College (Painesville), married Howard L. Ingersoll, assistant general manager of the New York Central Railroad in New York City, and has a son, Winchester Fitch, and a daughter, Cornelia ; and (5) Flora C., born in Ashtabula, August 6, '1879, who was educated at Lake Erie College and in Europe and married Samuel E. Kramer, of Cleveland, a graduate of the Western Reserve University and a member of the city council. Mrs. Edward H. Fitch was born at Painesville, Ohio, September 11, 1839, and graduated at Esther Institute, Columbus, undei Professounderyl and Wormley and Miss Agnes Beecher. She is still living at Jefferson, and her son, Winchester Fitch, is the only descendant of Rev. Jonathan Winchester, still associated with Madison, Ohio. The Winchester family had its American origin in the John Winchester, who came to Boston from England on the "Elizabeth," in 1635, and in 1638 married Hannah, daughter of Deacon Richard Sealis, of Scituate. He died in 1694. Their son John was the first repre- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1039 sentative from Brookline, Massachusetts, to the general court of the colony in 1709, and served in King Philip's war. Henry Winchester, the next in the direct line, married Frances White, daughter of Joseph White, and first cousin to the grandmother of President John Adams. Rev. Jonathan Winchester, son of the foregoing, was a graduate of Harvard, active in school and church work, and first minister at Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where he died in 1767. The son of Rev. Jonathan, Henry Winchester, was a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, and at the age of twenty-one fought at Bunker Hill. One of his sons, the second Rev. Jonathan Winchester, was born at Ashburnham, April 28, 1781, and in 1811 married Miss Hannah Mills Bunn, daughter of John Bunn, of London, England, and Bethiah Field, daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Field and cousin of Hon. David Dudley Field. In 1842 she married for her second husband her cousin, Deacon Joseph Cowles, of Austinburg, Ohio, uncle of Hon. Edwin Cowles, editor of the Cleveland Leader. Rev. Jonathan Winchester graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1809 ; prepared for the Presbyterian ministry, and held charges at Madrid and Waddington, New York, for ten years ; at Rochester, New York, five years, and Madison, Ohio, ten years. He was very influential in founding and strengthening the pioneer churches of the Western Reserve ; was a deep biblical student, and from his study of the prophesies became a believer in the ultimate restoration of the Jews to Palestine, which movement is now widely discussed as Zionism. In 1833 he visited England, called on Mr. Rothschild and undoubtedly influenced the great banker in his subsequent endowment of a Home for Aged Jews in Palestine. He died August 17, 1835, father of five children, of whom the eldest, Philander, was the father of Mrs. Fitch. Philander Winchester was born at Madrid, New York, October 4, 1812, and in 1824 came with his father to Madison, Ohio. He was mainly educated in Rochester, New York, although he pursued his studies in Hebrew, Greek and Latin under his father. Not only was he a highly educated man, but a brave and philanthropic character. A fine singer, he took an active part in the Harrison campaign of 1840, in which political songs were a prominent feature. For years he was editorially connected with the Painesville Telegraph and the Cleveland Leader; was an active abolitionist, showing marked bravery in the rescue of Milton Clarke from the hands of the slave catchers at Madison in 1842, and even greater heroism when he nursed the neglected prisoners in the Ohio penitentiary during the terrible cholera epidemic. His death occurred at Detroit, Michigan, April 24, 1879. In 1838 he married Miss Elizabeth Gilman Calkins, daughter 0f Rev. Charles Calkins, a pioneer minister of New England and Ohio, and Marian Gilman, his wife, a descendant of Governor Thomas Dudley, of Massachusetts. Her father preached in Madison as early as 1833 and died at Lakewood, near Cleveland. Her nephew, Captain Carlos Gilman Calkins, commanded Admiral Dewey's flagship, "Olympia," at the battle of Manila Bay. Mr. and Mrs. Philander Winchester were the parents of nine children, of whom Mrs. E. H. Fitch was the first. Ellen Bowdiman (2), born in 1842, thoroughly educated, resided for many years in Washington, married William O. Hipwell, cashier of the Union National Bank,. Chicago, now retired, and for years both have devoted their lives to church and philanthropic work. Persis Annette (3), born February 2, 1843, married William S. Ranney, of Cleveland, and their only child, Fitch W. Ranney, is a talented artist, having been educated abroad. Charles Jonathan Winchester (4), born November 6, 1845, married Grace Gilbert, of Columbus, Ohio, and they have two children—Annie, now wife of John Putnam, of Highland Park, Illinois, and Frederick C. Winchester, of San Diego, California, who married Miss Mary T. Hill, daughter of the late Edgar Hill, general manager of the Big Four railroad, and is the father of Charles J. Winchester (2d). Arthur Henry Winchester (5) married Miss Ella Spaulding, daughter of Captain Spaulding ; was a prominent lumberman and United States commissioner of forestry at the Paris exposition and commissioner from West Virginia at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He died in 1908, leaving a son, Charles, and three daughters, his eldest son having died in the Spanish war. Mary Elizabeth Gilman Winchester (6) is now the widow of Henry C. Carver, prominent in the business and social life of Chicago, and the mother of four children, as follows : Jonathan W., a resident of Seattle ; George, of San Francisco ; Robert Knowlton, a veteran of the Spanish war, also of Seattle ; and Helen Priscilla, a pianist of thorough European training and remarkable ability. Frances Winchester (7) was first married to Charles Spaulding, of Cleve- 1040 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE land, and Ranney Winchester, the child by this union, married Cecil Norton, of the well known Chicago family. Mrs. Spaulding, now the wife of William Holmes, of Los Angeles, California, still retains her high accomplishments as an artist and musician. Elizabeth Gilman Winchester (8), born July 24, 1853, married Hubbard F. Bannard, brother of Hon. Otto T. Bannard, of New York City, and they reside at San Gabriel, California ; their two children, who died young, are buried at Madison, Ohio. Philip Winchester, the ninth child born to Mr. and Mrs. Philander Winchester, is now identified with the Standard Oil Company at Cleveland. He married Miss Dora Dunnica, daughter of Captain Dunnica, of St. Louis, descendant of the Lewis family of Virginia, so closely associated with the Washingtons, and is the father of Phyllis and Theodore Winchester. Rev. Jonathan Winchester's daughter Melana (Mrs. Orcutt) left a daughter who married Dr. Frederick Hart ; and his son Amandus, who married a niece of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, M. C., left one child, Miss Stella Winchester, of St. Joseph, Michigan. Winchester Fitch is a native of Ashtabula, born on the 21st of November, 1867. He is a graduate of Cornell University, Class of 1888, and while in college was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the fraternity with which his father was identified while a student at Williams, and to which his brother and his brother-in-law belonged while at Cornell. On completing literary education Mr. Fitch was engaged for some time in journalistic work in Chicago, and developed striking force and originality in this field. In 1892 he purchased an interest in the Geneva Times and edited that publication while he was studying law and until his admission to the Ohio bar in June, 189,4. He then located in Ashtabula, where he practiced his profession for several years, and took a leading part in educational and political affairs. In the early part of his career he was associated with his father, the late Hon. Edward H. Fitch, until the death of the elder man, and later formed a partnership with Hon. Theodore Hall, removing to New York City in 1898. Mr. Fitch is highly and thoroughly cultured outside the field of his profession, being a master of both ancient and modern literature, and widely known as a keen, finished and forcible writer. While in Chicago he was a member of the Twentieth Century Club, and in 1901 was elected vice- president of the Northwestern Cornell Alumni Association. In 1892 he was appointed a member of the board of school examiners of Ashtabula county, and was active and influential in the introduction of the plan providing for the free transportation of pupils to school and the organization of an efficient corps of teachers. He is a life member of the Western Reserve Historical. Society of Cleveland, Ohio Society of Colonial Wars, New York Historical Society, and New York Society of Mayflower Descendants, and of many other clubs and associations. His political affiliations have always been with the Republican party. He served for years as a member of county and senatorial committees and as delegate to party conventions, and in 1896 was assistant to Colonel W. C. Haskell and Major C. W. F. Dick (now United States senator) in the campaign managed by the Republican national committee with headquarters in Chicago. Since becoming a resident of the metropolis, Mr. Fitch has long been chairman of the library committee of the Ohio Society of New York and registrar of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He is also author of "The Throope Family and the Scrope Tradition," and of numerous historical papers. As one of the representative citizens of New York who has become authoritative in matters of history, Mayor McClellan honored him with appointment to membership on the Hudson-Fulton celebration commission. On the 30th of June, 1897, Mr. Fitch married Miss Florence Hopper, daughter of George H. Hopper, of New York City, the wedding ceremony being performed at Elmwood, the country residence of the Hopper family, near which Mr. Fitch now has a summer home. He resides at 300 West Eighty-first street, New York. Three daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, Alta Jane, Katherine Elizabeth and Dorothy Harriet Fitch, and one son, George Hopper Fitch. In concluding this memoir of the Fitch and Winchester families, it should be added that a record of the Hopper family is also published in this work. THE HOPPER FAMILY.—Mrs. Harriet A. Hopper, widow of the late George H. Hopper, of the Standard Oil Company, is a public-spirited summer resident Of Unionville, Lake county. Her husband was a remarkable man of varied successes and accomplishments. He was born at Shebbeare, in Devonshire, Eng- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1041 land, on the 21st of April, 1837, several members of the family emigrating to the United States and settling in Cleveland at the time of the Corn Law troubles in 1841, among whom was his father, John Hopper. The son received his education in Cleveland and Montreal, and developed marked talents of an inventive and mechanical nature. He served in the War of the Rebellion in an Indiana regiment and as a member of the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteers. Later he became widely known as a manufacturer and for many years was closely associated with John D. Rockefeller and his partner, Samuel J. Andrews, the latter of whom married his cousin. For a long time he was a contracting manufacturer for the Standard Oil Company, but eventually sold his factories to that corporation and became a stockholder and an official in the larger concern. His wife's sister Marie is the wife of James G. Newcomb, who at Mr. Hopper's decease succeeded him as head of the department he founded for that company. A lover of country life, as a recreation, he established a famous stock farm at Unionville, and became noted as a breeder of fine horses, one of the most valuable of which was "Bell Boy," burned in a California stable, after its owner had refused to sell him for $102,000. Mr. Hopper was a generous patron of art, music and the drama, and his beautiful country. home at Unionville, with its fine collection of paintings and other charming features, is still a striking evidence of his artistic and refined tastes. It was there that he passed his last days, dying February 15, 1898, and being buried by the side of his parents at Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland. After the transfer of his chief business interests to the east, Mr. Hopper's city home was in New York, where his honored widow continues to reside except in the summer months. On April 10, 1860, Mr. Hopper married, at Cleveland, Miss Harriet Almeda Ganson, daughter of Joseph Freeman and Mary (Curtis) Ganson, born at Newbury, Ohio, December 14, 1840. Her ancestors were Massachusetts pioneers, her great-grandfathers, Nathan Ganson and Daniel Curtis, being among the little band of brave men at Bunker Hill. The family name was originally Howper, and the arms of the Devonshire branch, as recorded in 1620, are thus described : "Gyronny of eight; or and ermine, over all a tower triple towered, sable ; crest, a demi-wolf hold ing a pine branch yert, fructed or." The will of Tristram Hopper, of Musbury, was proved November 27, 1545. In the seventeenth century note is made of Sir Edward Hopper, of Boveridge, who married Catherine, widow of Sir Hugh Wyndham, knight and justice of the court of common pleas under Charles II, and who died July 23, 1684. William Hopper, who was born in 1775 and married Mary Harris, of Shebbeare, in that shire, was of a junior branch of the preceding family. During the business depression and widespread suffering caused by the corn law agitation, several of his children, with Henry Harris, emigrated to America. The Harris family had also long been settled in Devonshire. John Hopper, the eldest of the six children of William and Mary (Harris) Hopper, was born in Shebbeare in 1808 ; married Lydia, daughter of James and Susan Ayrscott Griffin ; sailed from England in June, 1841, and spent nine weeks aboard the "Lord Ramsey" before she sighted New York harbor. The family settled at Cleveland, where Mrs. Hopper died March 16, 1851, leaving four children, as follows : ( ) William Griffin Hopper, deceased, of Richmond, Ohio, president of the bank at Andover, Ohio ; (2) George Henry Hopper, before mentioned ; (3). John Edward Hopper, father of Dr. Archie. Hopper, of Fairfield, Nebraska ; and (4) Jennie, wife of the late Nelson Elliott Miner, of Madison, Lake county, and mother of Mrs. Francis Hearn, deceased, and Mrs. Ora Neville, of that place. John Hopper married for his second wife Mrs. Chloe Parker, daughter of Ezra Parker and widow of Emerson Parker, of Bainbridge, Ohio, who had died leaving five children, to whom Mr. Hopper was a just and devoted step-father. He was an able man, as well as a good one, and was widely known as an earnest and forceful speaker on political and religious themes. In his early life he and his wife were lay preachers in the Wesleyan church in England, and in Cleveland he became a valued worker in the Whig, Abolitionist and Republican causes. He was a stanch believer in the duty of exercising the right of franchise, and continued faithfully to cast his vote until he had reached the age of ninety-two. His death occurred at Madison, September 17, 1902, in his ninety-fourth year, and he was buried by the mother of his children in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland. The other children of William and Mary (Harris) Hopper were : (1) Katherine (Mrs. 1042 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE Fay) ; (2) Hannah (Mrs. Cole), mother of Mrs. Samuel Andrews, Mrs. Furze, and James, Elijah and Silas. Cole, of Cleveland ; (3) Rebecca (Mrs. Hooper) ; (4) Dorothy Harris Hopper, wife of Thomas Dedham, of Devonshire and Montreal, and mother of—Katherine, who married James Wood and had two daughters (Clare, Mrs. Chase Witzel, of Cleveland, and Ida, Mrs. George Bradford Boyd, of Sharon, Pennsylvania), and Mary, Mrs. Eager, who resides in Philadelphia and had one son and one daughter ; and (5) William. Mr. and Mrs. George H. Hopper became the parents of three children : ( 1) Jennie Marie, born at Pulaski, Indiana, on the 4th of February, 1860, graduated from Miss Salisbury's school at Cleveland, 1880; married Frederick M. Nicholas, a popular club man and accomplished musician ; has one child, Marjorie, and resides on Euclid avenue, Cleveland, and at their magnificent Elizabethan summer home, "Broadfields," in Unionville. (2) Charles Henry Hopper, born at Francisville, Indiana, February I, 1862, received a liberal education at Brooks School, Cleveland, and Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. He is a member of Delta Psi. After marked success as an amateur he became a professional singer and actor, having created the role of the Duke in De Koven's "Fencing Master" and the title role in Townsend's "Chimmie Fadden." He is unmarried and resides at the Lambs' Club, New York, and "Roads End Lodge," Unionville. (3) Florence Lynette Hopper, born in Cleveland, June 21, 1876, was married, June 30, 1897, to Winchester Fitch, by Rev. Dr. William M. Brown, now bishop of Arkansas. They have 0ne son, George Hopper Fitch, and three daughters—Alta Jane, Katherine Elizabeth and Dorothy Harriet—and reside at 300 West Eighty-first street, New York, "Lyndsell Farm," in Unionville, Ohio, and sometimes at their farm near New Canaan, Connecticut. Mrs. Fitch, who is a fine linguist and musician, completed her education in Paris, and as a dramatic soprano of more than amateur ability has distinguished herself in singing for social and charity functions. Mrs. Hopper is deeply interested in all that tends to beautify the village of Unionville and its environs, and is a generous contributor to churches and institutions. Her charity is proverbial, her hospitality unbounded. At her cottage on Lake Erie she entertains large house-parties during the summer and has erected a beautiful casino which serves as a club for the neighboring cottagers. Like their mother, each of her three children, whose country houses are near hers, shows a similar spirit, and through their influence the historical village, founded by Colonel Alexander Harper in 1798, has become one of the most delightful suburbs of Cleveland. JOHN F. Dix.—One of the scientific, sanitary and practically successful dairy farmers of Westfield township, Medina county, John F. Dix was an educator of high reputation for a quarter of a century before he entered his present field of agriculture, and has been an active and valued participant in the township government since his early manhood. The dominant trait of his character is thoroughness, or faithfulness, which produces the men of invaluable service in every advanced American community. Mr. Dix is a native of Se, ville, Guilford township, this county, and was born January 24, 1850. His parents were John P. and Mary Jane (Hay) Dix, the father being a native of New York, born in 1819, and the mother a native of the Green Mountain state. The latter came with her parents. to Guilford township in 1832 and the family was considered in the early pioneer class. John P. Dix purchased an "eighty" in Guilford township at an early day and, after wrestling for a time with its dense timber, disposed of that tract and bought 100 acres in Westfield township near Seville. This continued the family homestead and the paternal farm until 1883, when Mr. Dix became the owner of the farm near Chippewa Lake which he conducted until his death March 17, 1899, in his eightieth year. He was an active and prominent Abolitionist and assisted in the Underground Railroad. His wife had died in 1850, in her twenty-fourth year, the mother of three sons. The eldest, A. A. Dix, who is deceased, was a soldier of the Civil war, a member of the. Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel James A. Garfield. Charles H. Dix, the second born, is a resident of New York City, and John F. Dix is the youngest. The latter received his primary education in the village of Seville, passing through a select school and completing a -thorough preparation for teaching. He was an active figure in the educational field for a continuous quarter of a century, and from 1885 to 1891 served as school examiner of the county. Upon retiring HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1043 from that profession Mr. Dix engaged in farming and the dairy business on a portion of the original Chippewa Lake homestead of 100 acres. He has taken a particular pride in the development of his dairy farming, carefully selecting his milch cows. both for their healthy and producing qualities. He is also a practical exponent of the modern theory that too much care cannot be exercised to ensure cleanliness and other sanitary conditions in the handling of dairy products. Buildings, apparatus and employees are all included in these precautions. The general farm buildings are also models of convenience and cleanliness, and everything shows the marks of a skilful hand and a well regulated mind. The homestead residence is comfortable and tasteful in appearance and its interior arrangements conform to the best type of modern convenience ; one of the latter features consists of the lighting and heating of the house by acetylene gas, a method of quite recent date and one which has proved of great economy in heating. In 1872 Mr. Dix married Miss Sarah A. Loveless, of Seville, daughter of Thomas and Mary A. (Crabb) Loveless, and their home has always been the center of a refined social circle. Both are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Seville, of which Mr. Dix has long been a trustee. In public affairs, he is a Republican of many years firm standing and has served his township both as trustee and assessor. Such salient facts as the foregoing fully sustain any general remarks of a eulogistic nature which may also have appeared. JUDGE HAMILTON B. WOODBURY.-With the death of Judge Hamilton B. Woodbury, June 19, 1895, the state of Ohio lost an able, popular and upright judge and statesman, who had adorned its benches for nearly twenty years and been concerned in the revision and perfection of the fundamental laws of the commonwealth, as had his father nearly a quarter of a century before. In his relations to Jefferson, his home city, he held an attitude of warm fatherly interest, which originated in his service as mayor of the place in the early sixties when he was still a young man, but a few years engaged in practice. His private and domestic life was founded on a kind, friendly nature, and an unselfish and pure affection, and his full-bearded, wholesome-looking face and bright, sympathetic brown eyes, were fitting physical manifestations of an intellectual, firm, yet loving and lovable character. Judge Woodbury came of a family which gave to North America the first popular civil official, in the person of John Woodbury, who, on September 28, 1630, was elected constable of Salem, Massachusetts, by the governor and his eleven assistants. This Woodbury, who was variously and popularly known as the Pioneer, the Old Planter, etc., migrated from Dorsetshire, England, and settled at Cape Ann in 1624, his farm lying across the bay from what is now Salem. He appears to have attained both prosperity and popularity, and a few years after settling at Cape Ann was delegated by the settlers to return to England for a shipload of supplies. Having accomplished this mission, as the first "American envoy," he again landed on Massachusetts shore, this time accompanied by his son Humphrey, a youth of twenty. The date of his landing at Nahumkeik was in June, 1628, and three years afterward his younger brother William, with his family, settled at Salem. In fact, quite a colony formed around the Old Planter, who afterward became Salem's constable, and also was a thoroughly qualified land surveyor. In 1636 he received a grant of 200 acres from the crown, and died five years thereafter, a well-to-do man of substantial and honorable parts. His brother William, referred to, also acquired considerable property, and died in 1677, at the age of eighty-eight years. It is from his large family of children that Hamilton B. was directly descended. His grandfather was Wheeler Woodbury, a native of New Hampshire, who moved to Ohio in 1812, being a pioneer farmer of Ashtabula county. The grandmother (nee Maria Pease) was of a distinguished New Hampshire family, and cousin of General Israel Putnam. There were eight children in the family, Ebenezer B., the father of the judge, being the second son. He was born at Acworth, New Hampshire, August 5, 1805, and died in Jefferson, Ohio, on the 12th of August, 1870. In early manhood a successful distiller and merchant, and residing for many years in Kelloggsville, rather late in life he studied law and was admitted to the Jefferson bar. Subsequently he formed a partnership with Judge Chaffee and the firm became one of the leading law firms in the county, continuing for some twenty years. Mr. Woodbury was elected to the constitutional convention of 1850, where he distinguished himself for his earnestness and practical efficiency. By his wife Sylvia he became the father of six children, as follows : Hamilton 1044 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE B., of this sketch ; Almira, who became the wife of James A. Davidson, of Jefferson ; Ed- ward B. ; Sylvia M., Mrs. F. W. McEntyre ; Delia, who died when twelve years of age ; and Lucius K. Judge Woodbury was born in Kelloggsville, Ashtabula county, on the 27th of November, 1831, and received his education in the commercial and high schools of his native county. At the age of seventeen he entered his father's office and began his law studies ; was admitted to the bar at Jefferson when twenty-one, and in 1857 became the junior member of the law firm of Chaffee, Woodbury & Woodbury. Upon the elevation of the senior partner to the bench, in February, 1862, the firm became Woodbury, Woodbury & Ruggles. In 1875 he was chosen judge of the court of common pleas, the duties of which he ably discharged until 1885, when he was elected to the beach of the Seventh judicial circuit, being re-elected in 1891 for the second term of six years. As a judge his decisions were rendered with clearness, force and impartiality, his courtesy and thorough knowledge as an attorney being gracefully carried to the more dignified functions of the bench. But it was as foreign to his nature at the bar as on the bench, to resort to any unworthy quibbles of the law. He was always fair and honorable, whether arguing a case as an attorney, or sitting upon it as a judge. On October 24, 1854, Judge Woodbury was united in marriage at Jefferson, to Miss Mary E., daughter of Peter and Sallie (Wellington) Hervey, a native of New York and a lady of culture and strength of character. Besides the widow, the four children survive—Fred H. ; Jennie, now the wife of Ralph Stone, a prominent farmer of the county ; Hamilton B., Jr., and Walter W. Woodbury. DR. GERTRUDE S. KING, of Painesville, Lake county, is one of the successful homeopathic physicians of the Western Reserve. She is a native of Geneva, Ashtabula county, Ohio, and is the daughter of Captain A. E. and Diantha (Hart) Shepard. Her father's title was not a military one, but was conferred upon him by his fellow mariners in recognition of the fact that he became not only master of the vessel which he navigated, but at one time owned five vessels and three large steamers which plied the upper lakes. Her grandfather, Captain Charles Shepard, was also a master lake mariner, and the two made the family name a familiar and honored one in the great lakes. In 1882 the father abandoned the northwestern waters for the lands of Texas, buying a ranch near San Antonio, upon which he resided until his death, in 1909, at the age of seventy-one. His wife was the daughter of Elijah Hart, a native of Connecticut, who later became an Ohio farmer at Geneva, where she was born. Gertrude Shepard was fourteen years of age when she went with her parents to the ranch near San Antonio and completed her' education at the Ladies' Seminary of Austin. It was there, upon her father's extensive sheep ranch, that she was married, in 1886, to Josiah H. King, then captain of the Eighth Cavalry of the United States army. He was a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, and saw continuous service of many years' duration at various points in Texas and the west. The three years previous to his retirement in 1891 were spent at Fort Keogh, Montana. Upon the retirement of her husband from the army, Mrs. King removed to Geneva, Ohio, and soon afterward was matriculated in the Homeopathic Medical College of Cleveland, from which she graduated with the customary professional degree in 1902. That city was the field of the first four years of her practice, the intervening period to the present having been spent as a progressive member of her profession at Painesville. Her residence is the old Page homestead on South street (where she is conducting a private sanitarium for women), one of the handsome houses of the city, to which the atmosphere of the early times still clings. Captain King and his wife became the parents of four children : Mary, Shepard and Alfred, who are alive, and Sarah, who died in 1907, at the age of twelve. MARTIN ADAMS TUTTLE. - Painesville and Lake county have always been Republican strongholds in the Western Reserve, notwithstanding which, Martin A. Tuttle., for years a strong Democrat, is now serving his third term as city solicitor—a fact which constitutes a tribute to his professional and personal character. Previous to assuming the practice of law in 1898, he had made a fine record as an educator, especially as an organizer of township schools, and the later portion of his career as a lawyer has been signalized by his stanch advocacy of local option. Mr. Tuttle enjoys the advantages both of pronounced individual ability and of fine family connections HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1045 as regards the founding of the Western Reserve as the source of much of the strong and progressive character which has always attached to Ohio as a member of the Union. His earliest American ancestors were drawn from England and genealogically connected with the wife of Jonathan Edwards, of Massachusetts, and Governor English, of Connecticut. His great-grandfather, Joseph, brought his family from the old Bay State to Palmyra, Portage county, in 1807, his overland journey taking him through Painesville, which then contained little more than two frame houses and "The Little Red Tavern." The great-grandparents afterward returned to New York, where they died, but Joseph, the grandfather, when far advanced in years, located on a farm in Concord township, Lake county, re-established the family in the before named section of the Western Reserve, where he died in 1884, a man of comfortable means and an earnest, outspoken radical on the anti-slavery side of politics. His son, Grandison Newell Tuttle, was reared on his father's farm in Concord township, which was his birthplace March 20, 1837. After obtaining a preliminary education in the neighborhood district school and at Orwell Academy, he taught for a number of years and then commenced the study of law, graduating in 1862 from the Union Law College, Cleveland, and commencing practice at Willoughby, Lake county, where he resided until 1869, when he moved to Painesville to occupy the probate judgeship. He continued thus for two terms, and has made a noteworthy record as an independent politician, an advocate of Prohibition, and a Democrat of the Bryan school. (The details of his life and work will be found incorporated in a separate biography, published elsewhere.) Martin Adams Tuttle was born at Willoughby, Lake county, on the 12th of March, 1869, and is a son of Judge Grandison N. and Elizabeth A. (Wilder) Tuttle, who is descended from an old New England family, born at Vernon, New York, February 27, 1834. A few months after his birth, the family moved to Painesville, that the father might assume the duties of probate judge, and in the, public schools of that city the boy was trained in the elementary branches. In 1888 he graduated from the local high school ; completed his course in Adelbert College of the Western Reserve University in 1892, and spent the succeeding year in studying law with his father. In the fall of 1893 Mr. Tuttle entered the sophomore class of the Western Reserve Law School, and during that year not only continued his law course, but carried on postgraduate studies at Adelbert College, in history, economics and philosophy. In June, 1894, he was granted the degree of Master of Arts and also passed the state bar examination at Columbus and was admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio. In the summer of 1894 Mr. Tuttle accepted the position of superintendent of schools for Painesville township, and as the work occupied but a portion of his time, in the fall of 1895 he assumed the superintendency of the Willoughby township schools, carrying along the duties of his dual office until June, 1898. His work in the township schools was largely along the lines of systematic organization, in which educational specialty Mr. Tuttle so proved his practical ability that largely through the result of his labors every township in the county adopted similar plans of reorganization. For several years he also served as member and secretary of the board of trustees of the Painesville Public Library, and was one of the incorporators and has been a continuous member of the board of trustees of the Painesville Hospital Association. In June, 1898, Mr. Tuttle withdrew from his official connection with the township schools and has since given the bulk of his attention to the practice of his profession, although at one time he had quite an interest in a local business embracing insurance, abstract and real estate matters. Previous to 1896 he had been independent in politics, but in that year became an ardent supporter of William J. Bryan, and has since acted with the Democratic party in national political issues. Although his county and legislative district is overwhelmingly Republican, he has frequently consented to become a candidate for various offices on the party ticket, and in the case of the city solicitorship of Painesville his earnestness, ability and strong personal popularity have carried him into office and maintained him there, despite the general status of politics. In 1903, after a very heated campaign, he was elected to that office on a non-partisan ticket, and has since been twice returned without opposition, although Painesville is normally Republican by a majority of two to one. In 1908 Mr. Tuttle demonstrated his moral bravery and sturdiness by taking a most active part in the advocacy of local option in Lake county, in this being an able assistant of Judge Tuttle, his independent and respected father. 1046 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE On September 3, 1902, Mr. Tuttle married, at Painesville, Miss Florence Abigail Allen, a graduate of the city high school and later a student at Lake Erie College. She is a daughter of Horace W. and Tamzin M. (Churchward) Allen, of Painesville, her father dying in 1891 and her mother being still a resident of that city. The Allen family came to Ohio from Rutland, Vermont, and has among its historic ancestors General Ethan Allen. The maternal family of Churchwards is of English origin and was transplanted from Devonshire to the Western Reserve about 1830. Mrs. Tuttle's great-grandfather, Harvey Woodworth, was twice treasurer of the Lake county, being well known at Painesville as an early-day contractor and builder of the old court house, the jail, National Bank building and several of the old-time business blocks. Mr. Woodworth was also widely known throughout the county for his liberality and public spirit, being remembered with special gratitude for his part in the erection of the soldiers' monument at Painesville, to which he contributed a large portion of the funds. Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Tuttle have become the parents of the following children : Margaret Acenath, born November 21, 1903 ; Charlotte Irene, born May 11, 1905 ; and Allen Grandison Tuttle, born June 14, 1907, all natives of Painesville. ADAM C. WILLIAMS.—Among the large and successful industrial enterprises of the city of Ravenna, the judicial center of Portage county, is that conducted under the title of the A. C. Williams Company, and of this manufacturing corporation, which contributes its quota to the commercial prestige of the Western Reserve, Adam C. Williams is president and manager. To his initiative talent, well directed efforts and progressive policy has been essentially due the upbuilding of the fine enterprise, and he merits consideration in this publication as one of the representative business men of that favored section known as the Western Reserve. Adam Clark Williams was born at Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on the 22d of January, 1848, and is a soli. of John W. and Fanny (Tenny) Williams, both natives of Monroe county, New York, where they were reared and educated, and where their marriage was solemnized. John Wesley Williams was a son of Rev. Benajah and Jerusha (Smith) Williams, both of whom were natives of Connecticut and representatives of families founded in America in the colonial era of our national history. Rev. Benajah Williams was a devoted worker as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he served as presiding elder of his district in Monroe county New York, for a number of years. In 1841 he removed to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where he lived retired during his declining years, and where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death, secure in the veneration and affection of all who came within the sphere of their kindly influence. John W. Williams and his wife came to Ohio in the same year as did his honored father, and in 1844 he established himself in the foundry business in Chagrin Falls. The enterprise to which he thus gave inception figures as the foundation of the successful industrial concern of which Adam C. Williams of this sketch is now the head. The father continued to be identified with this line of manufacturing in Chagrin Falls until his death, which occurred in July, 1886, and his wife died in Cleveland in the following. January. They became the parents of five children, concerning whom are the following brief data : Frances S., who became the wife of Edward Whipple, died in 1860 ; Mary D., who became the wife of Francis A. Smith, died about 1863 ; John W., Jr., died in 1866; Adam C., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth ; and Helen E. is the wife of Harry L. Cole, of Ravenna. The parents were both devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics the father gave his allegiance to the Republican party, and as a citizen and business man he was loyal and public-spirited, while he so ordered his course as to ever command the unqualified esteem of all who knew him. Adam C. Williams gained his early education in the common schools of his native place, but while still a boy he identified himself with the practical affairs of business, in which he made good use of his experience and advantages, and his education has been broadened and matured through association with men and affairs during the course 0f a long and signally active business career. When but fourteen years of age he found employment in the office of his father's manufacturing establishment, with whose operation he continued to be identified as an employe until 1872, when, at the age of twenty-four years, he was admitted by his father to a copartnership in the business, which at that time was devoted principally to the manufacturing of HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 1047 wagon skeins. After the death of his honored father, Mr. Williams became sole owner of the business, which he continued along the original lines until the factory was destroyed by fire, in 1889. The plant was promptly rebuilt, its equipment was greatly improved and its functions amplified, but in 1892 disaster, through the same element of fire, again overtook the enterprise, with virtually the total destruction of the factory. In the following year, appreciative of the advantages, offered in the city of Ravenna, Mr. Willia,ms removed from Chagrin Falls to this place and here erected a large and modern plant, whose facilities are of the best type in all departments. The enterprise has been practically revolutionized and is now one of wide scope and importance. The plant is given over largely to the manufacturing of specialties in the line of house furnishings, hardware specialties and iron toys, and each season has seen a distinctive advance in the variety and extent of the output. The products of the establishment now found sale in the most diverse sections of the civilized world, and thus the name and fame of. Ravenna are signally promoted. In 1905, to meet the requirements of the rapidly expanding business, the enterprise was changed from one of individual control, by the organization and incorporation of a stock company, with a capital of $200,000. Mr. Williams has since been president and general manager of the company ; his only son, John W., is vice-president and secretary ; his son-in-law, James H. Bigelow, is assistant manager and treasurer ; and his brother-in-law, Harry I.. Cole, is superintendent of the factory. The stock of the concern is practically all held in possession of the family. In his native city of Chagrin Falls it was given Mr. Williams to gain marked precedence as a loyal citizen and leading business man, and he was called upon to serve in the office of mayor, of which he was incumbent for two terms, in addition to which he was a valued member of the city council for nine years. He has ever been arrayed as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party. In the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the lodge and chapter in Ravenna, the commandery of Knights Templar in the city of Cleveland, and the Lake Erie Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in the city of Cleveland, in which latter branch of the fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second degree. He is also identified with the auxiliary organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the No- Vol. II-22 bles of the Mystic Shrine, in which his affiliation is with Al Koran Temple, of Cleveland. On the 1st of December, 1866, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Williams to Miss Jennie F. Willey, who likewise was a native of Chagrin Falls, and who was a daughter of Benjamin and Polly (Smith) Willey. She was summoned to the life eternal in October, 1906, and is survived by two children : Mary Helen, who is the wife of James H. Bigelow, of Ravenna ; and John W., who is vice-president and secretary of the A. C. Williams Company, as has already been noted. He is also a director and vice-president of the Second National Bank. In June, 1907, Mr. Williams was united in marriage to Mrs. Daisy R. (Reed) Blair, widow of Frederick Blair, and a daughter of Gustavus and Caroline L. (Buck) Reed, natives of Portage county, Ohio, and representatives of sterling pioneer families of the Western Reserve. Mrs. Williams has two children by her first marriage : Lawrence R. and Reed C. Blair, both of Ravenna. SIDNEY GEORGE HILL.—A systematic and thorough-going agriculturist of Monroe township, Sidney G. Hill is carrying on general farming after the most approved modern methods, everything about his premises indicating the existence of cultivated tastes and ample means. A son of Chauncey Hill, he was born, August 18,, 1864, in Monroe township, Ashtabula county, in the house where he now resides, coming from pioneer ancestry. His grandfather, John E. Hill, was a son of Almeron C. Hill, who was born August 12, 1782, and migrated to Ohio in early life, becoming a pioneer of Ashtabula county, where he was known among the first settlers of the county as "Hunter" Hill. A further account of him may be found on another page of this work, in connection with the sketch of William W. Hill. John E. Hill was born September 18, 1805, in Ashtabula county, Ohio. Reared to agricultural pursuits, he was employed as a farm laborer until becoming of age, when he began learning the blacksmith's trade in Kelloggsville, Ashtabula county. In 1852 he made two trips to Pike's Peak, but was afterwards engaged in farming in Monroe township, where his death occurred in 1882. His wife, whose maiden name was Emma Deyoe, was born in 1807, and died April 9, 1889. They reared six children, as follows : Chauncey, father of Sidney G. ; Lucius, who Married Mrs. Watrous Cartright, was born March 14, 1834, in Ash- 1048 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE tabula county; and died, November 18, 1892, in Monroe township ; Hamilton, born August 29, 1837, died January 21, 1870, at sea, and was buried at Charleston, South Carolina ; Lucia, born May 6, 1840, is the wife of Chester Felch, of Rhode Island ; Sidney, born December 23, 1843, died November, 1861, and is buried in Monroe township ; and Leslie, of Monroe township, bbrn January 26, 1850, is employed on the Great Lakes as a marine engineer. Chauncey Hill, born December 26, 1829, was educated in the Kelloggsville schools, and as a lad assisted his father in the pioneer labor of redeeming a homestead from the primeval forest. He subsequently purchased land, and was successfully engaged in general farming and dairying until his retirement from active business. He is a Republican in politics, and served as school director four years. He was formerly a Granger, and for a number of years belonged to the State Police. He is an influential and worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church, which he served as steward thirty-seven years, and of which he has been a trustee for a long time. In 1907 he was a delegate from his church to the General Conference, which met in Cleveland. On September II, 1853, he married Mary Torrey, who was born January I1, 1834, and died September 7, 1906, leaving three children, namely : Harmon J., born October 3; 1854, lives in the west ; Sidney, the special subject of this sketch ; and Dora L., born December 5, 1868, is the wife of I. B. Clark, of East Conneaut, Ashtabula county. Having completed his early education, Sidney G. Hill was well trained in the various branches of agriculture while working with his father. Finding the occupation pleasant and profitable, he has continued thus occupied during his entire career. He has a well improved farm of 115 acres, on which he is carrying on general farming with satisfactory results. For a number of years he paid a good deal of attention to dairying, keeping Jersy stock. Mr. Hill married June 26, 1895, Minnie Dean, a daughter of Chauncy and Calista (Miles) Dean, of whom a brief account may be' found elsewhere in this volume. She was born October 24, 1862, and received a practical common education in her native town. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hill, namely : Florence; born October 4, 1896 ; Walter, born July 7, 1901; and Edna, born October 26, 1903. Fraternally Mr. Hill is a Master Mason, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hill are members of the Grange, and Mrs. Hill belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. WYNNE S. SMITH, a successful photographer of Painesville, was born at Kirkwood, Warren county, Illinois, and is the son of Asahel Grattan and Alma Jane (Huntoon) Smith, the former a teacher of vocal music and a singer of considerable prominence in local circles. W. S. Smith came to Painesville with his parents when five years of age, and there attended the public schools ; he started at the age of nineteen years to learn photography, and has since followed this occupation, having been independently established in business in Painesville for twenty-six years. He takes a great interest in the welfare of the city, and gives his time and efforts toward advancement and improvement. He is now a member of the city council, at large ; some time ago he served one term, and after a lapse served another term, since which he has been re-elected. He is chairman of the finance committee. In political views he is a Republican, and enjoys the confidence of all parties. Mr. Smith is one of the well-known Smith Quartette, who for several years sang in the Episcopal church, and for the past eleven years in the Congregational church, of Painesville; they have sung at over seven hundred funerals. The present members of the quartette are: F. P. Pratt ; his wife, who was formerly Estella Smith ; her sister, Anna Gertrude (Smith) Barto, wife of the county clerk, and Wynne S. Smith. When first organized, the quartette were : Asahel G. Smith, his wife and children, all fine singers. The father was a bass singer of considerable ability, and well known. W. S. Smith married, in 1892, Jessie Bunnell, and they are the parents of three sons, namely : Harold, Sterling and Julian. EDGAR L. WILLIAMS, engineer at the city electric light plant of Painesville, was born in that city, May 10, 1869 Larned)s the son of D. E. and Helen (Larned Williams. D. E. Williams was born in Leroy township, Lake county, in 1835, his parents having removed to that location from Massachusetts, about 1820. He carried on a farm at his native place until 1892. when he removed to Painesville, where he died in 1908. After spending his boyhood on his father's farm, Edgar L. Williams became an engineer, HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 1049 and in 1893 became employed by the Commercial Light & Power Company, where he was given charge of the engine and the dynamos ; after spending fourteen years with that company, he entered the employ of the city, where he has since remained. He is well informed along the line of his chosen work, and well fitted for his position. Mr. Williams is an active member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, belonging to the blue lodge, commandery and Lake Erie Consistory of the Valley of Cleveland. Mr. Williams married, December 8, 1904, Maud, daughter of Wright S. and Sarah (Bosworth) Stacy, of Painesville. Mr. Stacy was born in Ontario county, New York, August 21, 1831, and came to Painesville in 1865; he became a clerk in the mercantile house of Tisdale & Martin, and later spent fifteen years in the same business on his own account, retiring in 1904. His family lived since 1870 in the old homestead on Mentor avenue, where Mrs. Williams was born, and which has always been her home, as she and her husband now reside in it. She is an only child. Her mother died eight years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have no children. ANTHONY NIEDING, a prominent attorney of Elyria, was born on a farm in Elyria township, August 2, 1875, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Neufer) Nieding, the former now sixty-one years of age and the latter fifty-four. Henry Nieding has followed farming all his life and now owns a farm of one hundred acres in Ridgeville township. He is a member of the Disciples church. He came to America with his parents, who settled near Oak Point, Black River township, Lorain county, where his father died in 1889, and his mother within a week. Elizabeth Neufer was born in Michigan, and is a daughter of George Neufer, born in Germany, who came to America and served in the Civil war. Anthony Nieding received his early education in the district school and later attended Baldwin College, and spent two years in the Cleveland Law School. He was admitted to the bar June 12, 1903, and then engaged in active practice of his profession in Elyria, since which he has continued with flattering success. He is an able lawyer, and .has the respect and confidence of his clients. Mr. Nieding is well informed on all the leading topics of the day, has taken advantage of his opportunities for education and culture. In his political views he is a Republican, and a member of the county central committee. Fraternally, he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of Pythias and the Order of Eagles. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce of Elyria, and takes an interest in the business progress of the city. He is also a member of the Lorain County Bar Association. Mr. Nieding became identified with the Lorain County Agricultural Society in 1901, when he was elected secretary of the organization, in which post he has since served continually. During this time they have paid off over nine thousand dollars indebtedness. Mr. Nieding married Grace B., daughter of George P. and Lois A. (Mathison) Babcock, of Lorain county. Her parents removed to New Jersey, where Mr. Babcock was in the employ of the United States government, and there he died in 1891, at the age of thirty-nine years. lie was originally from New London, Connecticut. To Mr. and Mrs. Nieding one daughter was born, Lois E., June 14, 1905. JOHN KAISER, of Elyria, Ohio, has made a name for himself as a general contractor and builder in this locality. Mr. Kaiser is a native of Ohio. He was born in Dover township, Cuyahoga county, April 2, 1862, son of An-tone and Catherine (Werch) Kaiser, the former a native of Canada, the latter of Germany —both now deceased. Moving from Dover township in 1872, the Kaiser family lived successively in Wood county, Dayton, Cleveland and Cincinnati, and in these places John's boyhood and youth were passed. At an early age he began to learn his trade ; he worked at different places, under different contractors, and thus had greater opportunity for better insight into the business than had he remained at one place. At Dayton he was with John Ranor & Co. for nearly ten years, three years of which time he was foreman, and he was connected with the work of building the Barry & Smith Car Works of that city, the Springfield College, and the court houses at Tiffin, Sidney and Columbus: After going to Cincinnati, he worked as a stair builder, and there, in 1889, he engaged in a contracting business for himself. He completed a large addition to the University of Ohio ; he put up a big block on Walnut Hills, and he built about forty other houses in Cincinnati and vicinity. In April, 1898, he came to Elyria. Here, until 1905, he was engaged in business under the firm name of John Kaiser & Bro. Then the John Kaiser Company was organized and incorporated, with John Kaiser president and