(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 899 JAMES C. LLEWELLYN 900 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 901 rural estate in the entire Buckeye commonwealth. It comprises four hundred and seventy-five acres of land, a large portion of which is in a high state of cultivation and the remainder of which is used for pastures and grazing land for the stock. The owner of this splendid farm is James C. Llewellyn, who is a native son of Westfield township, where his birth occurred on the 11th of August, 1858. He is a son of Dr. Ephraim Llewellyn and Nancy (Trindle) Llewellyn, the former of whom was a native of Meigs county, Ohio, where he was born on the 21st of February, 1824, and the latter of whom claimed Morrow county, Ohio, as the place of her nativity, her natal day being the 2nd of April, 1824. Dr. Llewellyn was long one of the leading physicians and surgeons in Morrow county, his professional headquarters having been in Westfield township, where he was recognized for his innate talent and acquired ability along the line of one of the most helpful professions to which a man may devote his time and energy. Dr. E. Llewellyn was a son of Phillip Llewellyn, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in agricultural operations during his entire active career. Phillip Llewellyn was a son of Samuel Llewellyn, who in turn was a son of Phillip Llewellyn. The family is of pure Welsh extraction, the original progenitor of the name in America having immigrated to this country from Wales in the Colonial era of our national history. The mother of Doctor Llewellyn was Miss Hannah Chase in her girlhood days and she was born and reared in the state of New York, being a daughter of Lewis Chase, a native of the old Empire state of the Union and a direct descendant of one of the three brothers who came to America from England in an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Chase immigrated to Meigs county, Ohio, about the year 1815, and they were the parents of three sons and one daughter.- Hannah (Chase) Llewellyn was twice married, her first husband having been a Mr. Birch, by whom she became the mother of four children, namely : Electa, who was the wife of Jonas Foust, is deceased ; Herman resides in Delaware county, Ohio ; Almira is deceased ; and Melinda is the wife of Elijah Bishop, of Delaware county, Ohio. The parents of the Doctor were married in Meigs county, Ohio, in 1822, and after that important event they removed to Delaware county, where they resided for a period of two years, at the expiration of which they established their home in Waldo township, Marion county, where the father died in 1833 and the mother in 1891. The only child born to this union was Dr. E. Llewellyn, who was reared to the age of sixteen wears on the home farm. In 1840 he came to the village of Westfield, Morrow county, to learn the tanners' trade, in the work of which he was engaged for four years. His health becoming impaired, he began the study of medicine under the able preceptorship of Dr. George Granger, of Westfield. Subsequently he was graduated in the Eclectic Vol II-24 902 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY Medical Institute, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and for five years thereafter he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Westfield, in partnership with Dr. Granger. Upon the retirement of Dr. Granger, Dr. Llewellyn continued as a practitioner alone, controlling a large and representative patronage and continuing to devote his entire time and attention thereto during the remainder of his life, with the exception of four years, during which he conducted a drug store at Delaware, Ohio. On the 14th of December, 1853, Dr. Llewellyn was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Trindle, a native of Morrow county and a daughter of James and Anna (Brundage) Trindle. Dr. and Mrs. Llewellyn became the parents of two children : Clara Estella, born April 1, 1857, was summoned to eternal rest on the 30th of August, 1880; and James C. is the immediate subject of this review. In his political convictions Dr. Llewellyn was originally an old-time Whig, but upon the organization of the Republican party he transferred his allegiance to its principles and policies. In his religious faith he was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he long served as steward. In connection with his profession he was a valued and appreciative member of the State Eclectic Medical Society. He owned and operated an extensive farming property during his life time and he was called to the life eternal on the 16th of January, 1910, his cherished and devoted wife surviving her husband until the 29th of January, 1911. James C. Llewellyn, whose name forms the caption for this article, grew to adult age on his father's farm and his educational discipline consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the district schools of his native place, this training being effectively supplemented by instruction from the father, who was an exceedingly well-read man, and by a course of study in Union Institute, at Delaware, Ohio. After attaining to his legal majority he became interested in the work and management of his father's farms and with the passage of time he began to devote more and more attention to the raising of full blooded stock. Of the original three hundred and thirty acres belonging to him and his father, two hundred and fifty acres were devoted to diversified agriculture. He is now, in 1911, sole owner of the widely renowned Olentangy Stock Farm, consisting of four hundred and seventy-five acres of land in Westfield township, the same being located on the Mansfield and Delaware road, about half way between Mount Gilead and Delaware, Ohio. It is decidedly one of the finest farms in Morrow county and on it are raised cattle and horses that have taken premiums at Delaware and Morrow county fairs. He is a most successful breeder of English Hackney, Belgian and Percheron horses, one of the first-mentioned of which was twice a first-prize winner at the Illinois state fair, his sire having been first at the World's Fair at Chicago. He is also an extensive HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 903 breeder of Aberdeen Angus (Black Polled) cattle, the very best breed of beef cattle, as was made manifest at the International Show at Chicago. On the 9th of June, 1897, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Llewellyn to Miss Clara M. Wagoner, who is a daughter of James W. and Martha J. (Rollston) Wagoner. James W. Wagoner was born in Henry county, Indiana, on the 7th of January, 1836, and he was a son of James and Marcia (Baker) Wagoner, the latter of whom was born and reared in the old commonwealth of Virginia. To Mr. and Mrs. James Wagoner were born five children, namely : Noah, who is cashier of the First National Bank at Knightstown, Indiana ; James W., father of Mrs. Llewellyn; he was a traveling salesman for Wagoner's Disinfectant Company during the greater part of his active business career and he was summoned to the Great Beyond on the 17th of December, 1904 ; John H. died as a young man ; Perry is a dentist at Knightstown, Indiana; and Sarah E., who became the -wife of Peter Reddick, of Knightstown, is a local writer of poetry. James W. Wagoner married Miss Martha J. Rollston, who was born in the city of Liverpool, England, on the 12th of June, 1838. This marriage was prolific of nine children, six of whom are living in 1911 : Flora R. is the wife of Professor Geeorge E. Long, of Brownstown, Indiana ; Clara M., who is now Mrs. Llewellyn and who was born on the 28th of March, 1861 ; Dr. Emmett W. is a dentist at.Knightstown, Indiana ; John H. is a manufacturer and salesman of disinfectants, his business headquarters being at Knights-town ; Richard R. is a carpenter and builder by trade ; and Marcia was graduated in the Knightstown High School, attended the State University of Indiana, at Bloomington, and is now a teacher in the public schools of New Castle, Indiana. Those deceased are Walter P., whose death occurred on the 24th of July, 1895; Hattie B., who died at the age of nineteen years ; and Fannie B., who died at the age of three years. Mrs. James C. Llewellyn received an excellent education in her youth, having attended school at St. Mary's Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Llewellyn have three children : Grace E., born May 7, 1898 ; Harold, born September 8, 1900 ; and Marcia R., born June 11, 1902. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Llewellyn are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, in the various departments of whose work they have been most active factors. In a fraternal way he is connected with Ashley Lodge, No. 407, Free and Accepted Masons; and with Ashley Lodge, No. 457, Knights of Pythias. Mrs. Llewellyn is a member of the Rathbone Sisters, being connected with Good Hope Temple, No. 266. He is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies set forth by the Republican party, and while he has never had time nor ambition for political preferment of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all measures projected for progress 904 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY and development. He is a man of fine mental caliber and all his acts are characterized by that broad human sympathy which is so important an element in all the relations of life. He is highly esteemed by his fellow men and business associates and is known throughout Morrow county as a man of sterling integrity and the utmost reliability. REVEREND JAMES WHEELER closed the many eventful years of a busy life as a resident of Morrow county. He died as the result of an accident at Bucyrus, Ohio, on the 27th day of February, 1873, in the seventy-second year of his age. He was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, October 24, 1801, and came to Ohio with his parents when about eighteen ,years of age. His people settled in Berkshire township, Delaware county, Ohio. When about eighteen years of age he was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church. At this period of his life he learned the trade of a wheelwright and there are, no doubt, stored in some of the attics of Delaware and adjoining counties, spinning-wheels, reels, swifts, etc. made by Mr. Wheeler. He only worked at this business but a short time when he went to Sunbury, Ohio, and began clerking in the store of a Mr. Atherton. While engaged in this capacity he was united in marriage to Mary Atherton, a daughter of the man for whom he was clerking, and he finally became a partner in the business. About this time he felt that it was his duty to enter the ministry. He was ordained as a deacon in the Ohio Annual Conference at Springfield, Ohio, on the 23rd of August, 1835. On the 10th day of September, 1837, he was made an elder, or regularly ordained minister at Detroit, Michigan, and entered the Michigan Annual Conference, which at that time included a large portion of northern Ohio. He now entered into the life of the itinerant preacher with all its cares, its trials and its pleasures. He would be from home for weeks at a time, compelled to ford swollen streams, to sleep out of doors with his saddle-bags for a pillow and preaching in the cabins or barns of the settlers, and oft times in the woods. Upon his return to his home from one of his long tours of preaching he found his wife very sick, her illness in a short time resulting in her death, and the remains were taken to her girlhood home at Sunbury for burial. On the 4th day of June, 1838, he was married to Miss Caroline Condit at Utica, Ohio. In 1839 Mr. Wheeler was appointed as a missionary to the Wyandot Indians at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and here remained for five years, when they were removed to the territory of Kansas by the United States government, and given a reservation where Kansas City, Kansas, is now located, but long before Kansas City was ever dreamed of. Mr. Wheeler accompanied the Indians on HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 905 their trip and remained with them through the summer superintending their work in building their new homes and a church. In the fall he returned to Ohio, where he had left his family and early in the following spring left with the family and a few household goods for the new home. They went by canal from Columbus to Portsmouth and then down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to the mouth of the Kaw river, where the new home was to be. While yet in the Buckeye state and going down the Ohio canal, the boat was snagged and their goods were all soaked in water. They had no chance to either air or dry them till their long journey was ended, hence most of their effects were ruined. Mr. Wheeler's duties as missionary while in Kansas were not confined to the Wyandots alone, but he made frequent trips to the Shawnees and other tribes and would often be a hundred or more miles from home, preaching to the red man. In all of his life among the Indians he was never molested but was always shown the greatest respect and was beloved by them all. In fact, the Wyandots loved him so that they regularly adopted him and his family into their tribe and made him one of their chiefs. At the division of the Methodist church north, and south, the adjoining state of Missouri, and the Wyandot mission fell into the bounds of the portion that adhered to the South, and in May, 1846, Mr. Wheeler with his family returned to Ohio. In the following fall he united with the North Ohio Conference, of which he remained a member up to the time of his death. Soon after his return to Ohio Mr. Wheeler raised a fund to aid him in having the bodies of a number of the leading Indians, who were buried in different places, removed to the Indian graveyard at the old mission church at Upper Sandusky. The body of Sum-mum-de-Wat was brought from Wood county, where he and his wife were murdered by white men. Mr. Wheeler also had stones erected at the graves of Between-the-Logs, Grey-eyes, Sum-mun-de-Wat, Reverend John Stewart, the first mission ary, and others. At the time Mr. Wheeler was adopted into the Wyandot nation he was given the name of Hetascoo, which signified "Our Leader," while his wife was called Queechy, owing to the fact that she wore shoes that squeaked when she was walking. The last execution of a Wyandot in Ohio, who was tried, convicted and sentenced to be shot, took place in October, 1840. The trial was before their highest tribunal, the assembled nation, and the question of life or death was decided by ballot. Although Mr. Wheeler did not attend the execution, yet his two sons, young lads, witnessed the affair. In 1860 several of the leading men of the Wyandots were in the City of Washington, on business with the government, in regard to the Indians becoming citizens of the United States, and on their way back to Kansas, they stopped at the home of Mr. Wheeler, who was then living in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and pleaded 906 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY with him to take his family to Kansas, and become one of them, promising them a share in the nation's possessions ; but W. Wheeler could not see his way clear to comply with their appeals. During Mr. Wheeler's ministry he filled appointments at Elyria, Norwalk, Ashland, Utica, Spring Mountain, Homer, Frederick-town, Chesterville, Millersburg, Martinsburg, Mt. Vernon, Galena, Gambier, Woodbury and a number of other places. While with the Indians, both at Upper Sandusky and in Kansas, he was not only the missionary, but the mission school with its teachers, was under his charge, and during the absence of the government's agent he acted in that capacity. Several of the old familiar hymns of the Methodist hymn book were translated by him into the Wyandot language. His remains rest in River Cliff cemetery, Mt. Gilead. ORSON A. LEE.-A man of keen intellect and excellent judgment, far-sighted and sagacious, Orson A. Lee has been preeminently successful in life, his name being synonyomous with thrift, enterprise and prosperity not only in Peru township, his home, but throughout Morrow county. He was born November 17, 1830, in Peru township, which' was then a part of Delaware county, but is now included within the limits of Morrow county, a son of Asa Lee, a pioneer settler of this part of the state. Asa Lee, a son of Benjamin Lee, was born in New York state, of English ancestry, being descended from a family that settled in in New England on coming to the United states from England. Soon after assuming the responsibilities of married life, he came with his bride to Ohio, locating about 1823 in Peru township, Morrow county, where he took up heavily timbered land and begun the pioneer labor of reclaiming a farm from the wilderness. He subsequently lived for a comparatively brief time in Columbus, Ohio, from there moving to Blendon township, Franklin county, where he was engaged in tilling the soil until his death. Prior to coming to Ohio he was a cloth-dresser, following the fuller's trade, at which he had served an apprenticeship. Asa Lee married Sarah Meacham, a daughter of Paul and Roxanna Meacham, who were also of New England stock, and of English ancestry. Five children were born of their marriage, namely : Newton D., M. D., was engaged in the practice of medicine in Saginaw, Michigan, until his death ; George A., M. D., deceased, settled as a physician in Bowling Green, Missouri, and there spent his last days; Charles B., deceased, was for many years a farmer in Peru township, and died in Ashley, Ohio ; Harriet A. married Amasa Grant, and both died on their home farm in Peru township ; and Orson A., the subject of this sketch. The son of a farmer, Orson A. Lee was educated in the common schools of Morrow county, and at an early age began life as a farmer, assisting in the management of the home estate. At the HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 907 age of twenty-four years he bought out the interests of the remaining heirs in the parental homestead, which contained eighty-four acres of good land, and began enlarging his operations. In addition to general farming he made a specialty of stock raising and dealing, and as his money accumulated he wisely invested in land, owning at the present time between seven hundred and eight hundred acres of as fine agricultural land as can be found in this part of Ohio. Mr. Lee lived for a number of years in Ashley, Ohio, where he loaned money, carrying on a banking business on a small scale, his financial ability winning. him success in his venture. Of recent years Mr. Lee has spent his winters in Florida, renewing his youth and vigor beneath its sunny skies. Politically he has always been a zealous champion of the principles which have guided the Republican party's members. REVEREND ANNA SHELDON,—Among the noble and representative women of Morrow county who have so materially contributed to the advancement and high standing of this section, none are more worthy of mention within the pages of this work than the Reverend Anna Sheldon, an ordained minister of the Christian church, residing at Sparta. Her good works and fine abilities are known over a wide area. For eleven years she was a lecturer of the Ohio Women's Christian Temperance Union, giving nearly all her time to this line of Christian work. She has been president of the Morrow county Women's Christian Temperance Union for twelve years and in June, 1910, she was one of the delegates from this state to the World's W. C. T. U. Convention, held in Glasgow, Scotland. Later in the same month she represented the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Board, Christian church, of the United States and Canada at the World's Missionary Conference at Synod Hall, in Edinburg, Scotland. She is a woman of the highest and strongest character, is intensely interested in the different lines of work to which she is giving her life and lives only to serve the good causes which she represents She is of splendid pioneer stock, of the sort which gives patriots and stalwart citizen to the nation and her own and her husband's forbears will receive mention in succeeding paragraphs. Mrs. Sheldon, whose maiden name was Rossilla Ann Linscott was united in marriage to Judson Sheldon, on January 5, 1868, Reverend Mills Harrod of the Christian church officiating. They began housekeeping in Sparta, Ohio, April 2, 1868, and there the subject still resides on the same street where she has lived for forty-three years. Two children came into the home : Ella, born June 21, 1870, and Alba, born September 16, 1874. Both children graduated from the Sparta High School and Ella took a classical course at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, graduating from that well known institution in June, 1891, and afterward teaching in the college for two years. She was then for a time 908 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY associated in deaconess work in Springfield and Dayton, Ohio. On June 18, 1895, Ella Sheldon was united in marriage with the Reverend J. P. Watson, of Dayton, Ohio, and became the mother of three boys: Josiah, Judson and Ernest. The father died May 20, 1908, and the mother with her boys went soon afterward to Wyoming where they now reside, she having two quarter sec tions of land in whose cultivation she engages. while at the same time teaching school at Keeline, Converse county, that state. Alba Sheldon, the son, has been twice married, the maiden name of his first wife being Miss Jessie Knox, of Columbus, Ohio; and that of his second wife Miss Myrtle Nold, of Abilene, Kansas He has two sons, Raymond Knox (by the first marriage), and Vernon Dale. He travels for a wholesale grocery concern in Abilene, Kansas, where he resides. The Reverend Mrs. Sheldon's husband was also a zealous member of the Christian church. The demise of this gentleman occurred in Sparta, February 9, 1897, and his funeral sermon was delivered by Reverend Mr. Harrod, who thirty years before had officiated at his wedding. The father and mother of Reverend Anna Sheldon—Thomas Linscott and Sarah Anderson, were married by Elder Ashley, January 1, 1850, and on the 25th of November of the same year their daughter, Rossilla Ann, now known as Anna, was born. In the spring of 1851 the father joined a large number of people who were seeking gold and journeyed overland to California, where he endured the hardships of mining with no results such as he had hoped to receive. His wife died June 14, 1861, and the little girl was cared for in the home of her grandmother Anderson, who resided near this village. The father returned to Ohio in 1874 for a visit, but made his home in Michigan until 1893, when he came to the home of his daughter and with her spent the remainder of his life, dying with cancer, October 13, 1906. Thomas Linscott's parents, Samuel and Maria (Gould) Linscott were natives of New York and were married in New York City. The mother was a cousin of Jay Gould, the railroad magnate. They migrated to Ohio in 1820, locating in Trumbull county, and afterward removing to this part of the state. Seven children were born to them: William, Eli, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Francis and Thomas. The father was a farmer, and three sons were ministers in the Christian church. Of the entire family only one survives, this being Francis, who resides in El Paso, Texas. In politics the Linscotts were Republicans. Mrs. Sheldon's maternal grandparents were David Anderson, of Vermont, and Elizabeth Taylor, of New York. They were married February 2, 1812, and located near Bennington, New York, but migrated to Ohio in 1815, settling for a time near the city of Columbus, in a day when the stumps in that locality were far more numerous, than the cabins. Mr. Anderson's parents came to Ohio with them, but stopped in Cuyahoga county. In HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 909 1816 the father came to Columbus to visit David and decided to remove his family to that place, but while returning and when within ten miles of his home, he fell from a precipice and was so badly injured that he died alone. In all probability while he was resting overnight, the bell on his oxen indicated that they were straying away, and in his efforts to reach them in the darkness, he lost his life. Twenty-four hours later the oxen returned to the farm house where they had been fed, and it was then that search was made for the owner, but it was two days later that his body was found. His immediate family, consisting of the wife, two sons, and two daughters were removed to David's home and cared for until able to care for themselves. In June, 1817, David removed his family to this community and located one mile east of Sparta. At that time the only clearing on his land was one made by cutting down the trees with which the cabin was built and here they endured the privations known only to the pioneers of that day. Eleven children blessed their home, namely Amasa and Mary, who were born in Vermont ; James, Benjamin, Phillip, David, Harriet, Sarah, and Julia, and two who died in infancy. The father was a blacksmith by occupation ; in politics a Republican; and in religious belief, a Baptist. Not one of this, family is now living. Upon glancing at the history of the family of the subject's husband—the Sheldons—it is found that his parents, Alba and Eliza (Sanford) Sheldon were married in Poultney, Rutland county, Vermont, December 13, 1828. They migrated to this part of Ohio in 1836, and located two miles south of Sparta, where they resided until April, 1866, when they removed to this village and here spent the remainder of their lives, the father dying May 10, 1887, aged eighty-five years, and five months, and the mother surviving until December 14, 1896, when she passed away, aged eighty-seven years, and eleven months. They were the parents of six children : Judson, Mary, Caroline, Raymond, Ella and Sophia. Raymond died at the time of the Civil war, in November, 1862, and the daughters survived him only a few years. In religious belief the parents were Baptists, but as there was no church of that faith here, Mrs. Sheldon united with the Methodists until the Civil war broke out, when she joined the Wesleyans on account of their anti-slavery principles. She afterwards joined the Christian church. WILLIS T. PHILLIPS.-A wide-awake, brainy man, full of vim and energy, Willis T. Phillips, of Bennington township, holds a place of prominence among the foremost agriculturists of Morrow county, and has made his mark in insurance circles, in the year 1910 doing an especially large business as agent for the Ohio State, Life Insurance Company. He was born April 27, 1872, in Coshocton, Ohio, a son of Reverend W. L. Phillips, a well known Methodist Episcopal minister. 910 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY Born in Pennsylvania, Reverend W. L. Phillips was educated for the ministry, and subsequently came to Knox county, Ohio, and was assigned to the Northern Ohio Conference. He preached in different places, spending the larger part of his time, however, in Morrow county, where he held various pastorates. He was a regularly ordained preacher at Iberia, and likewise at Fulton, where he built up a large church. He was a man of great intelligence, public-spirited and progressive, and while in Morrow county represented his district in the State Legislature. He married Mary Madden, who was born in 1840 in Perry county, and came with her parents to Morrow county in 1841. The only child of his parents, Willis T Phillips attended first the graded schools, completing his early education in the Marengo High School. As a young man he began his active career as an agriculturist, and now owns, in Bennington township, a well improved farm of one hundred acres, which he devotes to general farming and stock raising, meeting with good success in these lines of industry. On October 1, 1909, Mr. Phillips accepted a position with the Ohio State Life Insurance Company, and the following year was credited by the company with doing more business along certain lines than any other of the company's representatives. At the age of nineteen years, on February 19, 1891, Mr. Phillips married Jennie Randolph, who was born in Stantontown, Peru township, Ohio, December 22, 1871, a daughter of Hiram and Anna (Chase) Randolph. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the parents of three children, namely : William, born November 1, 1892, was graduated from the Marengo High School with the class of 1911; J. Foster, born May 29, 1894; and Leno L., born August 7, 1898. Politically an earnest supporter of the principles of the Republican party, Mr. Phillips is an active worker in its ranks, and is now one of the supervisors of election. Both he and his wife are congenial, pleasant people, prominent in social affairs, and are held in high esteem throughout the community. SANFORD D. POWELL —Numbered among the substantial and progressive citizens of Morrow county is Sanford D. Powell, farmer and stockman, who also devotes a part of his well-improved farm of eighty-five acres to the profitable keeping of bees. He is one of the loyal citizens of Morrow county and has paid this favored portion of the Buckeye state the compliment of remaining within its borders throughout nearly the entire course of his life. By the circumstance of birth Mr. Powell belongs to Auglaize county, for it was there that his eyes first opened to the light of day November 28, 1865. His parents were John and Mary (Stevens) Powell, and his paternal grandfather, Peter Powell, was a well-known and highly honored elder of the Baptist church and a native of the state of Virginia. John Powell, like his song our subject, was a farmer and stock-raiser and the owner of an ad- HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 911 vantageously situated farm of one hundred and seventy-one acres, upon which were reared his family of six children. They are •as follows: Peter Christian, deceased; George Monroe Powell, residing in Perry county, Ohio ; Isaiah Douglas Powell, of St. Louis, Missouri; the subject, who is third in order of birth ; Maria, wife of Marion Hart, near Stanton, Ohio ; and John W. Powell, who makes his home in Lincoln township. The early days of Sanford D. Powell were passed amid rural surroundings and to the schools of the county is he indebted for his educational advantages. When he was about twenty years of age he had the misfortune to lose his father and much of the responsibilities of the operation of the farm fell upon his youthful shoulders. He remained upon the homestead with his mother until her death, which occurred in 1904. This admirable lady was previous to her marriage Miss Mary Stevens, daughter of Benjamin Stevens, and she was born in Ohio, in the year 1828, being seventy-six years of age at the time of her demise Upon the settlement of the property after the death of his parents Mr. Powell received one sixth of it, and he has added to his share, now owning eighty-five acres. As previously mentioned, in addition to his general farming and stock-raising he also cultivates honey for the market, and has twenty-two stands of bees. His agricultural methods are of the most advanced and enlightened sort and have been crowned with abundant success_ Mr. Powell is a prominent member of the time-honored Masonic Order, his membership being with Mt. Gilead Lodge, No. 206, Free and Accepted Masons; and with Cardington Chapter, No. 163, Royal Arch Masons; while he is also affiliated with Fulton Lodge, No. 433, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In addition he is identified with the Crystal Lodge of Rebekahs, Lodge No. 487, of Fulton, Ohio. In his political proclivities he is Democratic and at one time served as justice of the peace of Lincoln township. He is a man of more than ordinary ability, a wide reader, who studies current events and keeps abreast of the times. He is well known in this section of Morrow county and that favorably, for his honesty and integrity are unswerving, and in consequence he enjoys the respect of the community in which he has spent almost his entire life. His parents removed from Auglaize county to Morrow county in the year 1866. Mr. Powell comes from a sturdy old Virginia family, and his forbears were prominent in the life of the Old Dominion His grandfather was a noted clergyman, and although Mr. Powell is not united with any church, he is a liberal supporter of them. He finds his lodge relations a source of great pleasure. Mr. Powell is unmarried. FREDERIC PANT BRIGGS, the elder son of the late William H. Briggs and wife, was born in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, September 6, 1868. 912 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY His childhood and early youth were passed in his native village with his parents and younger brother Charles. He attended the public schools and was graduated in a class of seven in 1886, he and Dr. Frank G. Wieland, now of Chicago, being the only boys in the class. The paternal grandparents of Mr. Briggs were James M. Briggs, an honored physician of Morrow county, Ohio, for many years, who was a native of Washington county, New York, and Sarah Layton Briggs, a native of Erie county, New York. The maternal ancestors were Stephen Fant, a pioneer circuit rider of the Methodist church in Ohio, and Hannah S. Fant, a native of Canada. Our subject's mother was Mary Fant Briggs, who was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan Female College in the class of 1864. Frederic F. Briggs received many high ideals from his father and mother. His father served nearly three years in Company D, Ninety-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in the V. R. C. For two years, after completing the high school course, he remained at home for test and study, taking up the study of Greek and other branches with his former instructor, Professor M. W. Spear. In 1889 he entered the University of Michigan, completing his course and taking his degree of A. B. in June, 1893. During his junior and senior years he became active with others in reviving interest in the "Inlander," a literary monthly magazine established a few years previous by the higher classes of the university ; during both years he was on the editorial staff. During his senior year he was managing editor with Professors F. N. Scott and John Dewey (now of Columbia) as advisory board. The magizine had among its regular contributors men and women who are now stars in the literary world. I. K. Friedman, Steward Edward White, Harry Carleton Porter and George Wesley Harris, are names familiar to magazine readers. So that, this little College Monthly came to rank among the first, as a production of high literary merit. Mr. Briggs was elected Professor of English and History at Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, in 1894, and remained two years, when he resigned to accept a professorship in St. John's College at Annapolis, Maryland, founded in 1784. He taught at this historic old school for four years, when he resigned to go to Chicago to enter the University there, to pursue advanced study in English. At the end of one year there he removed to Los Angeles, California, to join his father's family. Since going there he has been engaged constantly in educational work and has met with marked success. J. H. Tims, M. D.—In the death of Dr. J. H. Tims, which occurred on the 23rd of May, 1905, at his home' in Sparta, Morrow county, this locality not only lost a good citizen but one of its most HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 913 estimable and worthy residents. Dr. Tims was a physician and surgeon of excellent equipment and his citizenship was ever characterized by loyalty and public spirit of the most insistent order. His sphere of work and influence was broad and he had correspondingly large attributes of mind and character, so that he was capable of gaining success in whatever department of work he engaged. Throughout his career he was a scholar and student of more than ordinary ability and he constantly kept abreast of the times in all advancements made in his particular field of usefulness. Dr. Tims was born on a farm one mile from Sparta, in Morrow county, Ohio, the date of his nativity being August 23, 1833, and he was a son of James and Sarah (Cook) Tims, both of whom were born and reared in the state of New Jersey, whence they immigrated to Ohio in an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Thus were numbered among the industrious and honored citizens of Morrow county, where they passed the residue of their lives on a farm. They became the parents of a large family, only three of whom are now living however, the Doctor being one. He was reared to adult age on the old homestead farm but being of a frail and rather delicate constitution he was unable to lend his aid in the work and management of the home farm. Being of a very studious nature it became the intent of the family to fit him for teaching. Accordingly he was afforded the best of educational advantages and his progress in his school work was of most rapid order. He received his first certificate of teaching when he was but eighteen years of age and for a number of terms he was a popular and successful teacher in the schools of Morrow county. He gained a widespread reputation as a particularly efficient pegagogue and a splendid disciplinarian. Early in his career Dr. Tims decided upon the medical profession as his life work and with that object in view entered the Homeopathic Medical College, at Cleveland, Ohio, in which excellent institution he was graduated, duly receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He initiated the active practice of his profession at Sparta, where he soon gained recognition as one of the most skilled physicians and surgeons in the entire county and where he rapidly built up a large and lucrative patronage. He was engaged in active practice for a period of forty-two years, during which time he affected some marvelous cures as the result of his innate talent and acquired ability along the lines of one of the most, helpful professions to which man may devote his energies, namely, the alleviation of human pain and suffering. In connection with his life work he was affiliated with a number of representative professional organizations and in politics he was a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor. In his religious faith he was a devout member of the Advent Christian church, to whose good 914 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY Works he gave a most liberal support, several churches of that. denomination in the Ohio Conference having been materially assisted as a result of his generosity. He was looked upon as one of the best informed Bible student, in Morrow county and no one could enjoy his companionship and conversation for any length of time without heing very materially benefited thereby. Dr. Tims was twice married. His first wife was Miss Maria Cook, leaving at her death one daughter, Maria, who is now Mrs. Ely, of Fredericktown. The Doctor was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Whitney. Mrs. Tims preceded her honored husband to the life eternal by a few months. There were no children born to the latter union. Dr. Tims was a strong temperance man and on a number of occasions, when parties tried to establish a liquor trade in Sparta, he would energetically marshal the temperance forces together and insist on keeping it out. The village of Sparta owed much to Doctor Tims for its high standard of morals and purity of Christian principles. No man in the entire county possessed a wider circle of acquaintances nor a greater number of devoted and loyal friends than he. For a number of years lie had suffered from heart trouble and finally, on the 23rd of May, 1905, after eating dinner, he walked into his office, where he was later found seated in his rocker, with hands peacefully folded, "Asleep in Jesus." His death was uniformly mourned by a wide circle of friends throughout Sparta and Morrow county, many of whom attended his funeral, bringing with affectionate hands the beautiful flowers he loved so well. His funeral discourse was delivered by his pastor, Mrs. M. Grove, whose beautiful sermon was an enlargement of the text : "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." A choir of his Sunday school scholars contributed music in the way of songs and the Doctor's favorite selection "Consolation" was sung by Mrs Linn Austin and Mrs. Grove. His death was the passing of a great and good man. JOHN ALLISON- A substantial and prosperous farmer, and a respected citizen of Morrow county, John Allison is eminently deserving of special mention in a work of this kind. He has spent the larger part of his long life in this vicinity, and has been actively identified with the advancement of its agricultural prosperity, his farm of one hundred and twelve and one-half acres being advantageously located in Bennington township, its rich and arable land being well improved and judiciously cultivated. A son of Obadiah Allison, he was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, June 29, 1834. Obadiah Allison was also born and reared in Columbiana county, Ohio, being of pioneer stock. About 1844 he moved with his family to Morrow county, purchased land in Bennington town- HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 915 ship, and was here engaged in tilling the soil until his death. He was twice married, his first wife, whose maiden name was Jemima Burt, having spent her entire life in Columbiana county, her death occurring there in 1838, when their son John was but four years old. Coming with his father and step-mother to Bennington township when a boy, John Allison was brought up- on the home farm, and educated in the district schools. In 1861, responding to President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand troops, he enlisted in the Union army for a term of three months, and at the expiration of his time returned home, being unable to reenlist on account of rheumatism, which he had contracted while serving as a soldier. Resuming work on the parental homestead, he has since made farming and stock raising his permanent occupation. For the past fifty years Mr. Allison has been extensively engaged in the sheep business, and has operated extensively in wool, handling all kinds. At the present time, he is not actively engaged in agriculture, having relinquished the management of his farm to his son Fred, who is carrying it on with characteristic ability and success. Mr. Allison married, May 4, 1862, Mary A. Vail, who died in 1897. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Allison, of whom but two are living, namely : Fred V., born July 25, 1868, and Ralph H., born September 16, 1879. The eldest son, Fred V., was twice married, his first wife being Nora Duncanson, to which union was born one son, Otto McKinley, graduating in the class of 1911. His second marriage was with Addie Harrison, and one son has also been born to this union, Howard William. Mrs. Allison received a splendid education, having been educated in the public schools, which education was supplemented by a course at Ada Normal School. She after, ward taught for some time in the schools of Morrow and Delaware counties. Mr. and Mrs. Fred V. Allison now reside on the home farm which Mr. Allison manages in a very able manner. Mr. John Allison's second son, Ralph H. was graduated from the Sparta High School, and from the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, and is now superintendent of the public schools of Chicago, Huron county, Ohio. He married Mary Osborn, and they have two children, Hilan and Richard Hamil. A stanch Republican in politics, Mr. Allison takes much interest in local affairs, and has served as land appraiser in Bennington township. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has long been an active worker, and has the distinction of being one of the oldest Free Masons in Morrow county, having united with Chester Lodge, No. 34, Free and Accepted Masons, in 1859. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, belonging to the Post at Sparta, Ohio. 916 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY WILLIAM GRIFFITH BRENIZER.-A venerable and highly respected man was taken from the community, when the close to the holiday season of 1910, William Griffith Brenizer, a man long and favorably known here, passed on to the Undiscovered Country. Although a native son of Maryland, he had passed practically his entire life here and among his other distinctions was his record of having given valiant and faithful service as a soldier in the northern army at the time of the Civil war. Mr. Brenizer was born February 26, 1827, and thus at the time of his demise on December 21, 1910, he was thirteen years beyond the psalmist's span of life. He was the son of Jacob and Margaret (Griffith) Brenizer, both of whom were natives of the state of Pennsylvania. They removed to Maryland and when the subject was an infant but two years of age they came across the intervening hills and vales as pilgrims to Morrow county, Ohio. Mr. Brenizer was one of a family of eleven children. The father, Jacob Brenizer, was long a representative agriculturist in Westfield township and his demise occurred October 25, 1869, his wife, Margaret surviving him for nearly a decade, or until March 31, 1879. William Brenizer was reared under the invigorating influences of farm life and he early became associated with his father in clearing and cultivating their farm of eighty-seven acres. He completed the curriculum of the district schools, to which his father furnished wood in order to pay for his children's tuition. When a young man he worked in the fanning mill factories and he was employed in this business for two years in Indiana, one in Newport, Kentucky, and one in Lima, Ohio. When twenty years of age he went into the cabinet business, with which he was identified for a period of five years, at the expiration of which he turned his attention to agriculture. He purchased a tract of fifty acres of land in Westfield township, which he subsequently sold. In 1853 he bought a tract of one hundred acres in the same township, later adding thereto until he owned an estate of two hundred very valuable acres. At the beginning of the Civil war Mr. Brenizer was a strong sympathizer with the cause of the Union and in 1862 he enlisted as a soldier in Company C, Eighty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until the close of the war. For some time previous to his death he received twenty dollars a month pension as a reward for his former services, and he was a member of St. James Post, No. 82, Grand Army of the Republic. In addition to his farm, Mr. Brenizer owned a beautiful home in Cardington where he resided from the year 1890. On February 17, 1853, occurred the marriage of the subject to Miss Beulah Ann Shaw, a daughter of John and Permelia (Messenger) Shaw, Reverend Deerholt performing the ceremony. Mrs. Shaw's parents were prominent and influential citizens of Westfield township where the father was an agriculturist. The HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 917 subject and his wife became the parents of two sons: Nelson O., was born in 1854, and received his higher education in Otterbein College at Westerville, Ohio, being graduated from that institution with the class of 1878. After two years in a medical college in Cleveland, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine and is now engaged in the active practice of his profession in Austin, Texas. William C., the second son, who was also afforded excellent educational advantages in his youth is now a farmer in Westfield township. Mr. Brenizer's wife, Beulah A., preceded him to the spirit land July 31, 1909, her death being deeply mourned by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. In polities Mr. Brenizer gave his allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and he held the office of county commissioner at the time of the building Of the jail at Mount Gilead, the judicial center of Morrow county. He was converted in 1844 and baptized in June of tMooname year by Reverend Mr. Mbon. Three years after their marriage he and his wife joined the United Brethren church at Fairview under the pastorate of Reverend F. Clymer. He was a constant worker in hiss church and he held at different times all the offices in the local church, only giving them into other hands when old age came upon him. Although Mr. Brenizer had attained to the great old age of eighty-three years, nine months and twenty-five days, his age rested but lightly upon him and to the last he retained in much of their pristine vigor, the alert qualities of his youth. He was a man of genial disposition and much kindliness of character and he held high place in the confidence and regard of his fellow men. Besides his sons and daughters-in-law, he left to mourn him, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, two sisters, and a large number of relatives and friends. The Cardington Independent in an appreciation of his life, concluded with this paragraph : "The services were held Friday forenoon. A short service was conducted at the home by the Grand Army of the Republic, of which post he was a member, and afterward the body was taken to the Fairview church where his pastor, Reverend J. G. Turner, conducted the service in the presence of a large and attentive audience. The choir furnished excellent music. The body was interred in the cemetery near by to await the resurrection. He will be greatly missed by his children, grandchildren, friends, the church and his fellow citizens." SAMUEL A. FATE.—One of the many attractive and well ordered farmsteads of Morrow county is that owned by Samuel A. Fate, and it comprises one hundred and four acres of most arable land in section 27, Canaan township Here are to be found well tilled fields, productive meadows and high grade stock, and the owner is recognized as one of the progressive agriculturists of the Vol. II-25 9l8 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY county that has ever been his home since his boyhood days. He is one of the popular influential citizens of his township where he has served in offices of public trust, and in addition to his farming enterprise he has for many years given more or less attention to the painter's trade in which he is a skilled workman Samuel A. Fate was born in Washington county, Maryland, on the 4th of July, 1856, and is a scion of families founded in that historic commonwealth in an early day. His parents were John and Margaret (Amick) Fate. John Fate was born January 30, 1833, in Bavaria, Germany, and was a child of four years when brought to America by his parents, John and Barbara Fate. They settled in Washington county, Maryland, where they lived for many years. Of their family but five now survive : Joseph, of Hancock, Maryland; Mrs. Richard, of the same place ; Mrs. Littell, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Colbert, of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Peter Koon, of Cardington. At the age of twenty-two, John Fate, father of Samuel, was married in Washington county, Maryland, to Margaret Amick In 1861, they settled in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, where they resided for over ten years. In. 1872, they came to Morrow county, Ohio, and here the father purchased a farm in Canaan township near Edison, and continued to be actively identified with agricultural pursuits for many years. By his first marriage, he was the father of ten children, and eight of this number still survive. May 26, 1894, Mrs. Fate died, and five years later, John Fate married Catherine Heffelfinger, of Westpoint. He was living virtually retired in the village of Westpoint, when he died February 18, 1911, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was a man of probity and integrity and had been given the fullest measure of popular esteem in the county that was so long his home. In his political proclivities he was a Republican and religiously he was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife is still̊ a resident of this county and maintains her home in the village of Westpoint. Samuel A. Fate, the eldest in his parents' family, was fourteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Morrow county and thus he had received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. He continued to attend school after coming to Morrow county, and his educational discipline included a two years' course in the high school at Mt. Gilead. That he made good use of the advantages thus afforded him is evident from the fact that, at an early age he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors. He passed the required examination and secured a teacher's certificate, after which he continued as a successful and popular teacher in the district schools of Morrow county for a period of eleven years. He taught principally during the winter terms and in the summer seasons continued his identification with the great industry of agriculture, under whose HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 919 benignant discipline he had been reared. He purchased his present farm which comprises one hundred and four acres and made many improvements on the plump and it is now one of the model farms of Canaan township. Diversified agriculture and stock raising give from this farm excellent returns, as the owner brings to bear not only energy and industry, but also progressive methods, modern facilities and scientific principles. A man of strong individuality and broad views, Mr. Fate naturally takes a lively interest in public affairs and gives his aid and influence in support of measures tending to conserve the material and civic advancement and prosperity of the community. He is found aligned as a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party and is well fortified in his political opinions. He served several years as township assessor and has also given efficient service as township clerk, of which office he was incumbent for several years. Mr. Fate is an appreciative member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is affiliated with Denmark Lodge, No. 760, in the neighboring village of Denmark. He is past noble grand of this lodge and has represented the same in the grand lodge of the state. Mr. Fate was united in marriage to Miss Nettie Worden, who was born and reared in Canaan township and who is a daughter of the late Richard Worden, one of the representative farmers and honored citizens of this township. Mr. and Mrs. Fate have two children. Oscar, who was born on the 31st of July, 1880, is now one of the representative farmers of the younger generation in his native county and resides upon a farm two miles distant from the village of Edison, in Canaan township. Maude, who was born on the 5th of June, 1883, is the wife of H. S. Gruber, a prosperous young farmer of Canaan township FRANK WAKELY GUNSAULUS.—As the native sons of America go forth from their home communities into the untried outer world, as uncertain if not as portentuous as the wierd west was to Columbus, they little know how many of those they leave behind are tracing their actions and their careers with trembling interest and warm affection. When those who thus venture into larger fields are blessed with the privilege of radiating a wide and strong influence for good, the home people cannot but glow with a sort of proprietary love for their children who have thus gone into a far country and stimulated greater communities than theirs to high thoughts and high actions. Thus it is with Frank Wakely Gunsaulus, with Dr. Gunsaulus, of Chicago, who spent those periods of his life in Morrow county, which fixed those tendencies, if they did not fully form his character. Those who were his mates in the public and high schools of Chesterville until he was well into his sixteenth year are now middle-aged men and women; bit when they have visited Chicago and sat under his words of 920 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY inspiration and fraternity at Plymouth church or Auditorium Hall, they could not but turn back into the mist of forty years and see and still love him as their bright-eyed, enthusiastic and affectionate comrade of the youthful times. The home ties are the strongest, after all, both for those who break them and for those who keep them fast. Dr. Gunsaulus was born in Chesterville, Ohio on the 1st of January, 1856, and is a son of Joseph and Mary (Hawley) Gunsaulus. The father was born on the family homestead in Cayuga county, New York, April 29, 1825, and when thirteen years of age was brought by his parents to the farm in Chester township where he spent his boyhood, and commenced to deal in real estate and live stock at a later date. He also read law for a number of years previous to his election, in the fall of 1861, as a representative from Morrow county on the Republican ticket. Taking his seat in January, 1862, he was admitted to the bar during the same winter, and represented his county during the succeeding four years, spending his vacations in the promotion of the Union cause at home. While in Columbus he served on the Military Committee and on the Committee on Municipal Corporations. Returning from the state capital in 1865, he located at Chesterville, where he continued to practice, superintend his farming and real estate interests, and serve his home town as mayor, president of the school board and in other positions of local honor. Frank W. Gunsaulus spent his boyhood and youth at Chesterville, passing through its grammar school with commendable industry. After graduating from the local high school he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from that institution at his graduation in 1875. His alma mater conferred Master of Arts upon him in 1887, and Beloit College, Wisconsin, D. D.1. in the same year. Shortly following his graduation from Wesleyan University, Dr. Gunsaulus was ordained to the Methodist ministry, and preached within the pale of that denomination from 1875 to 1879, but in the latter year became a Congregational clergyman,: believing that the tenets of that creed would give him greater freedom in the exercise of his individual views. He served as pastor of the Eastwood Congregational church at Columbus, Ohio, until 1881; of the Newtonville church, Massachusetts, during the succeeding four years; of the Memorial church, Baltimore, from 1885 to 1887 ; of the Plymouth church, Chicago, from the latter year until 1899, and of the. Central church, that city, from 1899 to the present. He has been president of Armour Institute of Technology, with its fourteen hundred students since it was founded by him, through the muniflucence of the late Philip D. Armour, in 1893. Dr. Gunsaulus became a lecturer of the Yale Theological Seminary in 1882, and for many years has served as professional lecturer at the University of Chicago. As an author he is widely HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 921 known through the following: "Metamorphosis of a Creed," 1878; "November at Eastwood," 1879; "Phidias and Other Poems," 1887 ; "Loose Leaves of Song," 1888; "Songs of Night and Day," 1889; "Monk and Knight," 1889; "Transfiguration of Christ," 1892 ; "Life of Wiliam Ewart Gladstone," 1898; "The Man of Galilee," 1899; "Paths of Power," 1905; "Path to the City of God," 1906; "Higher Ministries of Recent English Poetry," 1907. The above sketch gives but an imperfect idea of the range of Dr. Gunsaulus' thought or activities. One of the Doctor's Chicago friends and admirers, who gratefully acknowledges the good influence of his printed and spoken words, has rounded ou this work in the western metropolis in the following fashion : " The twenty-four years which Dr. Gunsaulus has spent in Chicago have placed him in the front ranks of pulpit orators, organizers, scholars and literateurs. The warm friendship which the late Philip D. Armour conceived for him early in his career suggests a parallel between the practical union of their forces in the establishment of moral and educational institutions, the work carried on by Dwight L. Moody and John V. Farwell. Dr. Gunsaulus was ordained a minister and preached within that denomination for four years, joining Congregationalism in 1879 and preaching in Ohio and Massachusetts before going to Baltimore. While pastor of Plymouth church, Chicago, he accomplished wonders in the development of the Armour missions, and throughout his pastorate showed a strong and practical interest in the young men of the community. In one of his sermons he drew a general outlines an ideal picture of an institution which should scientifically prepare them for the practical duties of life and make special provision for those in humble circumstances, but of moral, ambitious and able characters. After the discourse Mr. Armour, in his impulsive way, met his pastor and offered to found such an institute as he had pictured, provided he would assume its organization and management. This was the origin of the great Armour Institute, of which Dr. Gunsaulus is still president. Notwithstanding that for years he carried the noted technical school upon his shoulders, at the same time he developed a church organization which became so strong and broad in its influences that Central church was formed in 1899, and he commenced his notable services at the Auditorium. This great hall is also filled to overflowing every Sunday forenoon, and Dr. Gunsaulus has long been called the Wendell Phillips of the west and the David Swing of his day." WINTERS M. BUMP.-A prominent member of the farming community of Bloomfield township, Winters M. Bump is widely and well known throughout this section of Morrow county as an upright, honest man, of sterling worth. He is held in high respect by his fellow-men, and has a host of friends, among whom is Captain Robert F. Bartlett, editor of this volume. A son of 922 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY Hiram Bump, he was born, January 13, 1843, in Morrow county, which he has always claimed as home. Born in New York state, June 15, 1803, Hiram Bump came with his parents to Ohio at an early day, and for many years was successfully employed in tilling the soil in Morrow county. He died when in the prime of life, in 1843. His wife, whose maiden name was Sally Hultz, was born, October 12, 1801, in New Jersey, a daughter of Thomas and Leah (Weatherby) Hultz, who came to Ohio in an early period of its settlement, locating first in Knox, county, but afterwards removing to Morrow county. Winters M. Bump remained on the parental homestead until after the breaking out of the Civil war, when he enlisted in defence of his country, and remained in active service, taking part in many of its more important engagements, until receiving his honorable discharge from the army, June 13, 1865. Returning then to his native county, Mr. Bump has since been profitably engaged in agricultural pursuits. He is an excellent neighbor, a sincere friend, and a genial companion, but he has never assumed the responsibilities of married life. JAMES. A. HIXENBAUGH.-A well-known citizen of South Bloomfield township, James A. Hixenbaugh served with distinction in the Civil war, and has since been actively identified with various pursuits, having been a merchant, mill owner and operator, ant a farmer, in connection with his agricultural labors having for upwards of a quarter of a century threshed much of the grain produced in this part of the state. A son of II. B. Hixenbaugh, he was born, August 31, 1842, in Stark county, Ohio. He is of thrifty German ancestry, his paternal grandparents, Jacob and Emeline (Aucherson) Hixenbaugh, having emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1819, locating in Pennsylvania, where their children were reared. H. B Hixenbaugh was born, April 4, 1819, in midocean, while his parents were en route from the Fatherland to this country. Leaving home on attaining his majority, he located on a farm in Stark county, Ohio, and by dint of hard labor improved a good homestead. He married, in 1840, Mary Baxter, who was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1819, a daughter of James and Sarah (Harchester) Baxter. Her father, left an orphan when a child, was a man of unusual energy and ability, and by his own efforts achieved success in life, in 1840, at the time of his daughter Mary's marriage, having been one of the wealthiest men of Carroll county, where he was owner of eleven hundred and forty acres of land. Soon after the breaking out of the Civil war, James A. Hixenbaugh's patriotic spirit was fully aroused, and he bravely offered his services to his country, enlisting in Company A, Seventy-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, at Columbus Going with his command to Washington, D. C., he subsequently took an active HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 923 part in the engagements at Cold Harbor and Bermuda Hundred, during the campaign of the spring of 1864 being under fire at times from twelve to fifteen days at a stretch. While at Cold Harbor, Mr. Hixenbaugh was taken ill with the measles, and for nine days was in a Philadelphia hospital. He was afterwards stricken with typhoid fever, sent home on furlough, and subsequently discharged. Recovering his health, Mr. Hixenbaugh enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for one hundred days, and at the expiration of his term of enlistment, September 2, 1864, was honorably discharged from the service. Not of age when he first enlisted, Mr. Hixenbaugh obtained his mother's consent to do so by promising to abstain from the use of all intoxicating drinks, a promise that he religiously kept. On the second day out, he, with his comrades, was lined up to receeive his portion of whiskey Taking the cup as it was passed to him, Mr. Hixenbaugh emptied its contents on the ground, and the Colonel, who witnessed the act, commanded him to report at headquarters, and there inquired why he threw it out. On being told, the colonel arose, shook Mr. Hixenbaugh's hand, and said that he was the first soldier he had met who had brought his mother with him to the army, and immediately placed him in a more lucrative position, and later favored him in various ways. The daring bravery of Mr. Hixenbaugh in saving the lives of himself and twenty comrades by stamping on the fuse of a shell that fell within two feet of where he was standing was warmly commended, and gave evidence of his coolness and courage in the face of danger. Returning to Knox county, Ohio, after his discharge from the army, Mr. Hixenbaugh began farming in Mount Vernon, which he has seen grow from a small hamlet into a thriving city of nine thousand souls. Subsequently disposing of his farm, he opened a general store in Sparta, Morrow county, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits a few years. Selling that business, he was engaged in the manufacture of lumber and shingles for seven years, owning and operating a saw mill and a shingle mill successfully. Until thirteen years old Mr. Hixenbaugh was unable to speak a word of English, but beginning then to attend school in South Bloomfield township, he soon acquired a good knowledge of the English tongue. For twenty-six years, he ran a threshing machine in and around this township, beginning at the age of sixteen years, when horse power was used, and finishing with the traction engine. Mr. Hixenbaugh married, November 24, 1864, Nancy White, who was born, August 15, 1847, in Ohio, the parents migrating from Pennsylvania to this state in 1833. Her mother died when she was sixteen months old, and she was reared by her father, with whom she remained until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Hixenbaugh have three children, namely: Minnie, born February 2, 924 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY 1867, is the wife of H. T. Burcly, of Mount Vernon; William B., born August 5, 1869, is a resident of Sunbury, Ohio; and Floy, wife of R. Mellinzer, of Mount Vernon, was born April 5, 1885. A. strong supporter of the principles of the Republican party, Mr. Hixenbaugh has served on the local school board, and has held the various township offices within the gift of his fellow-citizens. He is a member of Crayton Orr Post, No. 501, Grand Army of the Republic, and draws a pension of twenty-four dollars a month for his services in the army. Although he has usually been successful in his active career, Mr Hixenbaugh has met with some handicaps, among others having been unfortunate enough to lose two thousand, six hundred and sixty-five dollars through the failure of the James Trumbull Bank at Mount Gilead. ELMER S. STULTZ.—Most of the successful men of America are self made and it is one of the glories of our republic that this is so. It shows that opportunities are afforded to the citizen of the United States and that they possess the courage, determination and strength to make the best use of the advantages which surround them. An enterprising and progressive citizen of the younger generation in Morrow county Ohio, is Elmer S. Stultz, who is preparing himself to launch forth on the sea of life as a representative of the pedagogic profession. He was born at Richmond, Jefferson county, Ohio, on the 10th of January, 1890, a son of Adam and Delilah A. (Harper) Stultz, both of whom were born and reared in Ohio. George and Mary A. (Fendrick) Stultz, paternal grandparents of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, were natives of Germany, whence they immigrated to America about the year 1845, locating at Columbus, Ohio. George Stultz was a shoemaker by trade and he was identified with that line of enterprise at Columbus during the remainder of his life. He died in 1880 and his wife passed away in 1895. Adam Stultz attended the public schools of Columbus until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, at which time he entered upon an apprenticeship at the turner's trade. In. 1885 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Delilah A. Harper, who was born in this county on the 16th of January, 1865, a daughter of William H. and Mary J. (Bower) Harper. Mr. Harper was a carpenter by trade and for a time he conducted a general merchandise store at Bloomfield. Mrs. Adam Stultz was summoned to eternal rest on the 21st of October, 1902, being survived by her husband and three sons : Albert L., born June 3, 1886, is now employed in a railroad office at Crestline, Ohio ; William H., born August 11, 1888, is engaged in business at Sparta ; and Elmer S., the immediate subject of this review. Immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stultz established their home at Mount Gilead, where he was identified with the work of his trade for a period of ten years, at the expiration of which removal was made to Richmond, Ohio, where they remained HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 925 seven years and whence they came to Sparta, in 1902. Mr. Stultz is a Democrat in his political proclivities and while he has never been ambitious for the honors or emoluments of public office he is most loyal and public-spirited in his support of all measures and enterprises advanced for the general welfare. His religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1895 he affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled all the official chairs and in which he is treasurer at the present time, in 1911. Elmer S. Stultz was reared and educated at Mount Gilead and at Richmond, later supplementing his preliminary training by a course in the high school at Sparta, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1907. For the past three years he has been engaged in teaching in this township and he is gradually fitting himself for work as a high-grade teacher. In the fall of 1911 he will begin to study in the Ohio State University. He is a young man of most exemplary habits, is highly esteemed in this town and it may be said concerning him that his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. He is a successful and popular teacher and his entire career thus far has been active, progressive and determined. He carries forward td successful completion whatever he undertakes and he is a young man whose strong individuality is the strength of integrity, virtue and deep human sympathy. ALBAN YOEMANS.—One of the best known and most influential of the citizens of Cardington and Morrow county is Alban Yoemans, agriculturist, lumberman, dealer in horses, in short one of the most active men of affairs in the locality. His various vocations have been such as to .give him an unusually wide acquaintance; in his early days he was a sawyer, then an engineer; he has shipped horses for years, which has brought him into contact with many men ; and he has that geniality and magnetism which makes a man not easily forgotten. His strenuous life has agreed with him remarkably well and to-day he has the appearance of a man of not over forty-five years of age, when in reality he can lay claim to nearly twenty more. This gentleman who has spent so many years within the borders of Morrow county is a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred not far from the city of Philadelphia, June 17, 1847, and he was the third in order of birth in a family of ten children, equally divided as to sons and daughters. Of this number only three are living at the present day, and all are Morrow county residents. Hannah Jane is the widow of Paul C. Wheeler, and Margaret is the wife of A. E. Criswell, an agriculturist. The parents of Alban Yoemans were Thomas and Nancy (Goodman) Yoemans. The former was born in Lincolnshire, England, about the year 1818 and died in 1900, at a very advanced 926 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY age. He sailed with his parents from Liverpool when he was but a child and the little party of immigrants to the freedom and opportunity of the new world were three weeks crossing the ocean. They arrived at Baltimore, Maryland, and went thence to Chester county, Pennsylvania. The head of the household was a stone mason by trade and soon found work to do. Young Thomas was reared to manhood's estate in Chester county and he followed the example set by so many of the easterners and came to Ohio, where he looked about him and finally located in Morrow, here purchasing a farm upon which he spent many years and reared his large family. The family lived in a log cabin at first and although they came about the Civil war period, many conditions, compared with those of the present, were still rather primitive. Politically .Thomas Yoemans was an old line Whig. He voted for the first Republican presidential candidate, General Fremont, and until his demise he continued to give unswerving allegiance to those principles. He was everywhere known for his strictest integrity and honesty, these virtues being the keynote to his life. 'He made a firm stand for right principles and he was of benevolent nature, with ever a kind word and a kinder deed for the poor and unfortunate. He did the state the greatest service within his power by teaching his children to lead useful and honorable lives. In the matter of religious conviction he was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church, a member for over fifty years and for a long period 'holding the office of deacon in the church. It is indeed gratifying that so fine a citizen should have been granted so long a life. His wife was born May 8, 1820, and died July 24, 1896. She was a native of the Keystone state. Mr. Yoemans was a lad about fifteen years of age when the family located in Morrow county. For such educational advantages as it was given to him to enjoy he is indebted to the public schools. He is, however, to a great extent, self-educated and self-made and his success is owing to his extreme honesty and never-tiring energy. As suggested in preceding paragraphs he has had varied experience in the world of affairs. He began his struggle to gain foothold in the business world when about twenty years of age and he was empty handed, without a ten dollar bill to his name His first experience was in the lumber business. Then the walnut trees stood thick upon the broad acres of Morrow county and he prepared for commerce hundreds of thousands of feet of beautiful walnut lumber, selling it for a pittance, compared to modern prices for this prized commodity He erected a saw-mill east of Cardington and for fifteen years was engaged in conducting that. He has sold first-class walnut lumber for forty dollars per thousand, where the same commodity will now sell for one hundred and thirty dollars per thousand. It was about the year 1878, that Mr. Yoemans first engaged in the shipping of horses in which he has since conducted extensive HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 927 operations. He dealt in horses—driving, draft and street-car—and his first large shipment was to Cincinnati. His operations in this line steadily increased and he eventually became known as one of the most extensive, if not, indeed, entitled to the superlative term, of the shippers of the state of Ohio. For fifteen years, his dealings with the people of Morrow and adjoining counties amounted annually to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.' He shipped extensively to Boston, New York City, Newark (New Jersey), Buffalo, and St. Louis. He has had a wide experience and is rightfully accounted as one of the most successful men of his township He is and always has been an extensive property owner, having owned three farms in Morrow county, and to-day he owns one of the most beautiful and well improved agricultural properties hereabout, the same being situated not far from the corporate limits of Cardington. Having so much to do with the equine species, he erected one of the finest and best equipped barns in all Morrow county.. It is a wonder in the excellence of its fittings and well repays inspection, for Mr. Yoemans is one of those who believe that "Order is Heaven's first law," and here everything has a place and is found in its place. Alban Yoemans, although very young when the first guns were fired at Sumter, was nevertheless one of the brave boys who went to the front at the time of his country's danger. He enlisted from Mt. Gilead, in May, 1863, in Company G, of the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, his captain being John Baxter. The regiment was sent to Fort Williams, south of Washington, D. C., to guard the forts and there a large portion of his term of service passed. He received his honorable discharge August, 1864, and at once returned home to don civilian's garb. In September, 1869, Mr. Yoemans was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Sipe and their union has been blessed by the birth of four children. Ella is the wife of Ralph Shockley and resides in California; Cora, widow of Henry Hutchinson, makes her home with her father. Edson Leroy died at the age of twenty-one years and in the fullness of his promise. Ida, the youngest daughter is at home. Mrs. Yoemans was a daughter of Jobe and Hannah Sipe, a native of Morrow county, educated in the public schools and reared upon her father's farm. She was a member of the United Brethren church and devout in her religious belief. The demise of this worthy lady occurred in May, 1879. Mr. Yoemans chose for his second wife, Huldah Ann Barge, daughter of Lewis and Susan Barge, and a native of Morrow county, Ohio, and their union, solemnized in the year 1882, resulted in the birth of three children, only one of whom is living at the present. This is Lewis B., a blacksmith by trade. The second Mrs. Yoemans was removed from those scenes in which she had passed a life of usefulness and honor, March 5, 1907. The subject is a stanch adherent of the Republican party and cast his first vote for General 928 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY Grant. He has ever stood firmly for the cause of the Grand Old Party, but has never aspired to any official position. He was once, however, prevailed upon to accept the duties of sheriff and his energy and diligence in carrying out its various duties was admirable, and his cleverness as a detective of wrong doing was widely heralded. Although so long in the horse business, Mr. Yoemans was free from any of the habits which frequently accompany the vocation. He never smoked a cigar, has never used tobacco in any form ; has eschewed gambling and betting and was never intoxicated in all his life. His influence is admirable and this is particularly well for Morrow county, that one so widely known and one so widely admired, especially by the young, should be of such exemplary life. The beautiful farm upon which the Yoemans home is made has changed hands but once since it was entered from the government so many years ago. It is adorned with a commodious and modern home and is a favorite gathering place in Morrow county. BENJAMIN F. THUMA has long been numbered among the able exponents of the great basic industry of agriculture in Morrow county and he is the owner of a fine farm of one hundred acres in Perry township. There he continued to maintain his home until April, 1910, when he was appointed superintendent of the Morrow County Infirmary in Gilead township, an office of which he remained incumbent until the newly elected Democratic Board of the Morrow County Infirmary appointed his successor to fill the position. In this office he gave a most effective administration, the while he had due appreciation of the necessities and misfortunes of the county wards entrusted to his care. He showed an abiding and helpful sympathy for the inmates of the infirmary, but never allowed this to interfere with proper discipline and his executive policy and discriminating service well justified the official preferment conferred upon him. He is one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of the county and is well entitled to recognition in this publication. Mr. Thuma views with due satisfaction and pride the fact that he can claim the fine old Buckeye commonwealth as the place of his nativity and that he is a scion of one of the old and honored families of Morrow county. He was born on the homestead farm of his father in Perry township, Morrow county, Ohio, on the 25th of January, 1854, and is a son of Simon and Eliza (Shuler) Thuma, natives of Pennsylvania. Simon Thuma, whose ancestors came from Switzerland, was one of a family of fourteen children, ten boys and four girls, two of whom died in infancy. He was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1817 and in 1835 he came on foot to Perry township, Richland county, Ohio, and worked at the blacksmith trade. He was married to Eliza Shuler in the year, HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 929 1842. She also was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1824, and was one of a family of six children. She came with the family to Perry township, Richland county, Ohio, in the year 1832. Mr. and Mrs. Thuma lived in a log but three miles northeast of Johnsville, where two children were born ; Estervilla, June 18, 1844 and John Wesley, March 17, 1846. In the spring of 1846 they moved to Johnsville where they lived for one month only, until a log house could be built on the farm of one hundred and fifty acres in the woods one mile southwest of the village. Here were born William Otterbein, May 18, 1848 ; David Edward, March 8, 1851; and Benjamin Franklin, the subject of our sketch, January 25, 1854. The father died October 18, 1855, of pneumonia. He was an earnest Christian, a member of the United Brethren church and a strong anti-slavery advocate. He was numbered among the industrious agriculturists of Morrow county, where he reclaimed and developed a productive farm and where he continued to reside until his death, secure in the high regard of all who knew him. The mother remained on the farm and raised the family until they were able to take care of themselves, being left a widow at the age of thirty-one years. With the determination of a loving mother, the children were brought up with strict discipline which was highly appreciated and commended in after years. Living a christian life from childhood, she resigned this life at the age of eighty-four years and was buried beside her husband in Shauck cemetery. B. F., as he was usually known, left his parental roof when sixteen years of age, to accept a position in a general store of S. W. Wagner & Brother, later clerking for his brother, John Wesley. in the drug store. He became a practical pharmacist and for several years conducted• a drug store of his own at Butler, Ohio. In 1876 he disposed of the drug business and went back to his native town. In 1877 he entered the employ of Talmage Brothers, of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, for the sale of the Champion mowers, reapers and binders in the northern part of Morrow county and in Richland county, with whom he remained until the year 1883, when he purchased the stove and tin store of Johnsville and conducted the business successfully. A few years later he took in plumbing, pump and general machine work, and is generally known as an all round mechanic. After the election of President McKinley, his name was mentioned in connection with others for postmaster at Shauck, and he received the appointment. As soon as his daughter, Marie Avalie, became eighteen years old, she was sworn in as his assistant and conducted the office nearly eight years and was praised by all for her accuracy and ability. In 1896, after the death of his father-in-law, Abraham Miller, Mr. Thuma purchased part of the farm and now has one hundred acres of as good fertile land as the county has. The improvements are all new and on his own plans, he built one of the first silos 930 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY in the county. He made dairying a specialty and owns one of the finest Jersey herds in the country and prides himself in trying to do things well and advocates alfalfa hay and ensilage with confidence of its economical essentials in the economic production of milk and believes the salvation of our country depends on intensive agriculture. Bringing to bear marked energy and mature judgment, he has achieved special success in all departments of his farming enterprise. His farm is located in section 4, Perry township and is one of the valuable farm properties of the county and shows forth thrift and prosperity as the direct result of the efforts of its owner. Mr. Thuma has ever been unflagging in his allegiance to the Republican party and has been an active worker in its local ranks. Since retiring from the position of superintendent of the infirmary he has devoted his time with his son, Mark, to his farm and the stock industry. On the 5th of September, 1875, Mr. Thuma was united in marriage to Miss Nevada L. Miller, a daughter of Abraham and Jane Miller. She was born and reared in Morrow county, Ohio, and they have five children, two sons and three daughters, each of whom has been afforded the advantages of the high school of Johnsville. Marie Avalie, born December 18, 1879, was united in marriage to Dr. Clarence W. Bixler, August 31, 1905, and is now living in Erie, Colorado. Mark Abraham, born March 13, 1882, chose school teaching as his profession, but is now living on the home farm adopting agriculture and being interested in dairying. On August 26, 1909, he married the only daughter of S. A. Durbin. Ada Celestia, born April 8, 1886, was united in marriage to Jacob. R. Dawson, February 10, 1910, and is now living near Frederick-town, Ohio, on a farm. Loy Edward, born May 27, 1888, was united in marriage to the daughter of J. I. Sowers, June 9, 1910, and is living in Johnsvile, Ohio, following plumbing and the sale of gasoline engines. Ruth Elizabeth, born May 28, 1895, now attending high school in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, will soon graduate. All the children, excepting Ruth, have graduated from high school. ZENAS B. PEOPLES.-A prominent agriculturist of Congress township, Morrow county, Ohio, is Zenas B. Peoples, who here owns and operates a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres. Everything about his highly cultivated estate is indicative of thrift and prosperity and throughout this region Mr. Peoples is recognized as a man of sterling integrity of character and as a citizen whose contribution to progress and development has ever been of the most insistent order. Mr. Peoples was born in this county, the date of his nativity being October 9, 1857. He is a son of William and Mary (Cook) Peoples, the former of whom was a prominent farmer of this section of the fine old Buckeye state whose demise occurred on the 5th of June, 1880, at the age of fifty-five years. William Peoples was a son of David Peoples, who was reared in Jefferson HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 931 county, this state, his parents having been natives of Ireland, whence they came to America about the year 1780. David Peoples accompanied his parents to Franklin township, Morrow county, in 1810, at which time he was a child of but five years of age. At that time Franklin township was an uninhabited wilderness and Robert Peoples, great-grandfather of Zenas B., entered a tract of two hundred acres of government land, which he cleared and on which he reared to maturity a large family of children. His son, David Peoples, died in 1865 at the age of seventy-three years. The marriage of William Peoples to Miss Mary Cook was solemnized on the 11th of May, 1854, and to them were born four children : Louisa, whose birth occurred on the 28th of February, 1855 ; Zillah and Zenas, born October 9, 1857 ; and Kate, born April 2, 1866. Louisa married Davis Hetrick and resides in Congress township, this county ; Zillah is the wife of Michael Hirth and maintains her home in the city of Cleveland, Ohio ; Zenas is the immediate subject of this review ; and Kate married Jacob Volk, of Cleveland, Ohio. William Peoples at the time of his death, was the owner of a farm of one hundred and ten acres of most productive land, which was divided among his children. Mary (Cook) Peoples, the mother of him whose name introduces this article, was a descendant of a long line of illustrious people. She was a daughter of William P. and Louisa (Mann) Cook and her birth occurred on the 29th of August, 1830. William P. Cook was a native of the state of Maryland, whence he came to Ohio in the early pioneer days, locating on a farm in Morrow county, where' he raised a family of four children. He was a son of Reverend John Cook, a minister in the Baptist church, who was long a noted preacher in Maryland and who served as chaplain in the war of the Revolution. After immigrating to Ohio, Reverend Cook settled in Morrow county on the north fork of Owl creek, where he purchased a tract of seven hundred acres of land and where he divided his time between preaching and farming. Zenas B Peoples was reared to adult age on the old homestead farm and his preliminary education consisted of such advantages as were offered in the public schools of the locality and day. When nineteen years of age, through reading and close application to his studies, he was enabled to teach school, which he did for the ensuing eight years. He is now the owner of a fine farming property of one hundred and twenty acres and he devotes his attention to diversified agriculture and the raising of high grade stock. He is a prominent member of the Pleasant Grove Christian church, in which he was an elder for two years and in which he has served as clerk for the past year. In politics he accords a stalwart allegiance to the principles and policies of the Democratic party, in the local councils of which he has long been an influential leader. He is an ardent temperance advocate and is a member of the township board of school directors. Mr. Poples is a well informed, 932 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY affable gentleman and one whose dealings have all been characterized by uprightness and most honorable methods. On the 13th of May, 1882, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Peoples to Miss Jennie Maxwell, a daughter of James P. and Susan (Swallum) Maxwell. She was born on the 12th of February, 1860, and was reared on the farm on which she and her husband now reside. Her father was summoned to the life eternal on the 2nd day of May, 1898, at the age of eighty years, and her mother passed away on the 24th of January, 1902, at the age of seventy-nine years. James P. Maxwell came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, as a young man. He was an early pioneer in this county and he traced his ancestry back to stanch Scotch-Irish extraction Mrs. Peoples' great-grandfather, on the maternal side, was John Swallum, who was taken from school when a- mere boy and forced into service as a soldier in the Hessian army. Subsequently he was captured by the American forces and then became a gallant and faithful soldier under General Washington. To Mr. and Mrs. Peoples were born two children : Jessie, the elder, and Ward M. Jessie was educated in the public schools and at Angola, Indiana, Normal School, and she has been a popular and successful teacher in the schools of Morrow county and at Cleveland, Ohio, for the past nine years. Ward M. lives on a farm adjoining his father's and he is married to Miss Norma Elizabeth Fish ; they have one child, Maxwell Beck Peoples, whose birth occurred on the 13th of May, 1909. COLONEL JOHN S. COOPER.—When Colonel John S. Cooper, commanding the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was so honorably mustered out of his four years' service in the Union army, he was only twenty-four years of age. Soon afterward he located in Chicago to study law and was absorbed into the great civil body of the nation as a vital and vitalizing personal element ; that fine type of manhood, whose steadfast courage and brilliant deeds of war were founded on moral convictions and a high standard of faith. He had smoothly melted into the blue ranks of the Federal army with several hundred other fine, bright-eyed students of Oberlin College, and by merit and an irresistible something— which, in war and peace, has been branded "dash"—he rose through the consecutive grades to the lieutenant-colonelcy, commanding his regiment during the last year of his military service. As a lawyer, Colonel Cooper never lowered his standard of faithfulness, thoroughness and prompt and fine execution of whatever movement he undertook, his legal character being well indicated by the remark of a professional friend and opponent. "When Colonel Cooper was on the opposite side of a suit," he remarked with a reminiscent twinkle, "we knew we were engaged in a legal contest to be finally decided in the court of last resort." HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 933 No higher tribute can be paid to this beloved soldier, lawyer and citizen, than to say that he was ever a brave, a manly, a generous opponent, when the battle was on, and the first to extend the friendly hand when the conflict was over, whether he had emerged from it loser or victor. John Snider Cooper was a native of Mount Gilead, Morrow county, Ohio, born on the 23rd of July, 1841, to Isaac and Elma ( Talmage) Cooper, pioneers themselves and widely connected with the pioneer families of the locality. The son was orphaned at an early age, and was lovingly received into the family of his uncle, James Madison Talmage, where he reached young manhood in close friendship with his cousins Viola and Eugene Talmage, and (now) Mrs. Annis Olds and Mrs. Emma Barton. His ideals of life were therefore largely received through the precept and example of his good uncle. Colonel Cooper obtained his earlier education in the Mount Gilead schools. Although usually active, both physically and mentally, he was never unbalanced or unruly, but seemed to instinctively perceive the value of combining discipline with alertness and of curbing ambition with common sense. His progress was therefore both rapid and substantial. About his last school days at Mount Gilead were in 1857, when Professor Edward Miller presided over the old school house which stood near the present high school structure. At the age of sixteen he entered Oberlin College, in which he was a senior at the outbreak of the Civil war. On April 25, 1861, almost at the outset of hostilities, he enlisted in Company C, Seventh' Ohio Volunteers, in which regiment he was later made sergeant, and in October, 1862, was promoted from sergeant to captain in the Eighth Regiment, United States Colored Troops, and on November 17, 1864, was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out of the service July 10, 1865, after more than four years of fighting, marching and soldierly campaigning. He was severely wounded in one of the battles before Richmond, Virginia, in 1864 ; but notwithstanding this, and his hard and continuous service, both in the engineering corps and as a commander of troops, he came to Chicago soon after his discharge, entered vigorously into the study of the law and was admitted to practice. Colonel Cooper's fame as a Chicago attorney was largely gained in the practice of corporation law, and as one of the leaders handling of suits which involved important business and financial of the bar had a most substantial reputation for the successful interests and broad questions of the law bearing upon them. He saw deeply, quickly and clearly into the most profound and complicated litigation, and spared nothing to master every detail, technicality and fact affecting the matter at issue. The result of the complete mastery of his subject matter was that he always Vol. II-26 934 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY presented his cases to jury or court with the same force and clearness as its conception and evolution in his own mind. No wonder that his clients had unbounded confidence in him, and that his fellow-attorneys "on the other side," highly respected and, sometimes feared him—the latter, only if their cause was not just. One of Colonel Cooper's acts which earned him fame far beyond the bounds of his home city or state was his organization of the Minnesota Park and Forest Association, which resulted in the establishment of the Minnesota National Park by congressional act. He was one of the leaders in the movement which, even since his death, has so gathered in strength looking toward the conservation of the vast natural resources of the United States, which the past generation have dissipated with such criminal carelessness and avariciousness. The persistent agitation, under his leadership, by which congress was induced to set aside the splendid park in Minnesota, was in direct line with the general movement which is sweeping the nation at this time. During his long residence in Chicago he also kept in affectionate touch with his old comradesin-arms, being an active member of the George H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery of Illinois. On the 23rd of July, 1873, Colonel Cooper was united in marriage with Miss Minnie A. Curtis, of Michigan. Their union occurred in that city and to the old home of the mourning widow were taken the remains of the gallant soldier, able lawyer and high-minded citizen, after his mortal life flickered away, November 20, 1907. ISAAC HICKSON.—Distinguished not only as a prosperous agriculturist and a highly respected citizen, but as a fine representative of the self-made men of our times, Isaac Hickson has been a resident of Morrow county for upwards of forty years, and during that time has established for himself a reputation for honesty and integrity such as any man might. well be proud of. Many of Ohio's most thrifty and successful farmers were born on the other side of the Atlantic ; and to England, especially, is the state indebted for some of her most enterprising and thrifty citizens. Prominent among these is the gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch. He was born, February 26, 1856, in Lincolnshire, England, his father dying two years later, in 1858. Mr. Hickson's mother married for her second husband William Denton, an Englishman born and bred, and in 1869 came with her husband and children to the United States, locating in Westfield township, Morrow county, Ohio. Six months after arriving in this country Mr. Denton died, and his widow married for her third husband Cunningham McFeter. Of her union with Mr. Hickson, four children were born, one of whom died in early life, and three HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 935 are living, as follows : Mary J., wife of John Erby, of England ; Betsey, wife of John Skinner, of London, England ; and Isaac, the subject of this brief sketch. By her second marriage, she had one child, William Denton, a resident of Cardington, Ohio. The family being poor, Isaac Hickson was early thrown upon his own resources, and for five years lived with a neighboring farmer, working for his board and clothes, and attending the district schools of Westfield township. Subsequently continuing in the employ of the same man, he worked for wages for two years, receiving two hundred dollars a year for his work, and at the end of the time had saved up enough money to buy a team, and embark in farming on his own responsibility. Energetic, industrious, and ambitious, he farmed, teamed, and worked at anything which he found profitable, laboriously toiling onward and upward, until through his own efforts he has gained a position of affluence and influence in the community, being now one of the foremost agriculturists of Westfield township. He has brought up his children to habits of thrift and usefulness, and given to each superior educational advantages, making them valued and trustworthy citizens. Mr. Hickson married at the age of twenty-three years, on April 13, 1879, Miss Alice Coomer, a daughter of Morris and Sarah (Cluck) Coomer and the descendant of an honored pioneer family. She was born on the farm where she now resides, and was educated in the district schools of Westfield township, while under her mother's teaching she was well trained in all domestic arts, becoming a fine housekeeper and home maker. Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hickson, namely : Dean M., born September 25, 1881; Ray C., born September 2, 1883 ; and Ross, born June 18, 1887. Acquiring his preliminary education in the graded schools of Ashley, Dean M. Hickson was subsequently graduated from the Ashley High School, after which he taught school a while. Desirous of further advancing his education, he entered the Ohio State University, where he received the degree of bachelor of arts, and later, in 1911, was given the degree of master of arts. Ray C. Hickson, the second son, was educated in the public schools, and is now mail carrier on rural free delivery, route No. 2, Ashley. He married Margaret Curren. Ross, the youngest son, received a practical common school education, and is now profitably engaged in general farming. Mr. Hickson and his sons are all members of Ashley Lodge, No. 407, Free and Accepted Masons, of which Ray Hickson is now Master, and Dean M. Hickson is also a member of Marion Commandery, Knights Templars. Politically Mr. Hickson is a firm supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and for many terms has served as township trustee. 936 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY ALFORD F. RANDOLPH.—To Mr. Randolph belongs the distinction not only of being one of the older native born citizens of Morrow county, but also of belonging to one of the oldest families of America. He is of the seventh generation from Elizabeth Blossom, who in the first year of her life came with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock "on the stern and rock-bound coast" of New England, December 21, 1620. She was born in the year 1620, in the city of Leyden, Holland, whence her parents had fled a few years previous, under the leadership of Brewster and Robinson, in order to escape religious persecution in England, their native land. On the 10th day of May, 1837, she was married by the Reverend John Lathrope, pastor of the churches at Scituate and Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Edward F. Randolph, who was born in Nottinghamshire, England, in the year 1617, and had come to Plymouth, Massachusetts in the year 1630. About the year 1668, Edward F. and Elizabeth Randolph left Massachusetts and removed to New Jersey, locating at Piscataway, where he soon after died. Later his widow married Captain John Pike, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, who was an ancestor of General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was killed at the attack on Toronto, (then York) Canada, in 1813, and who won distinction for having discovered the source of the Mississippi river and the mountain in Colorado that still bears his name—Pike's Peak. Nathaniel F. Randolph, son of Edward F. and Elizabeth Randolph, was married at Barnstable, Massachusetts to Mary Holby, in November, 1660, and about 1667 he removed to Woodbridge, New Jersey. In the year 1693, he represented Woodbridge in the state assembly held at Perth Amboy. From 1705 to 1713, the church services of the Friends were held in his house and his descendants were members of that church for several generations. His son Edward married Katherine Hartshorn, daughter of Richard and Margaret Hartshorn, of Middleton, Monmouth county, New Jersey. Richard Hartshorn was sheriff of Monmouth county and represented his county in the assembly in which he served as speaker and he was also a member of the governor's council. George Fox, founder of the Friends church, makes mention in his published journel of travel in America of having been entertained in the Randolph home. The younger son of Edward and Katherine Randolph, was Hartshorn F. Randolph, for whom the township of Randoph in Morris county, New Jersey, was named. The wife of Governor Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, was his granddaughter. Edward F. Randolph, son of Edward and Katherine Randolph and an older brother of Hartshorn F. Randolph was born July 5, 1706, and was married to Phoebe Jackson, of Flushing, Long Island, in August, 1734. Their oldest son, James F. Randolph, born August 16, 1735, was twice married and reared a large family. He migrated to what was then considered the far west and located near Rice's Landing on the Monongahela river in HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 937 Green county, Pennsylvania, where he died June 1, 1828. His son, James F. Randolph, the second, was born September 9, 1767, and married Catherine Baker, of Rahway, New Jersey, in 1793. She was a member of the Presbyterian church and for this offence her husband was excommunicated from the Friends' church. He removed with his father to Green county, Pennsylvania, where he resided a few years, but being imbued with the pioneer spirit of the times, he pushed on farther west and in the year 1817, in company with his family, located on Alum creek, in Peru township, Morrow county, Ohio. His wife, Catherine Baker, was born at Rahway, New Jersey, April 18, 1767, and was the daughter of Cornelius Baker. Her mother's maiden name was Susanna Lee, who was born February 28, 1736, and she was the daughter of. Adam Lee. Cornelius Baker was born May 5, 1739, and died November 5, 1815: His father, Henry Baker, was born. in England in the year 1700 and came to America about the year 1730, settling near Rahway, New Jersey, on the road from Rahway to Elizabethtown, in the Province of East New Jersey. He died March 17, 1760. Mary Hatfield, his wife, was born in the year 1705 and died in 1755. Their remains lie buried in the burying-ground of the First Presbyterian church in Rahway, New Jersey. Henry Baker was a son of Vice-Admiral Baker of the English navy. James F. Randolph, the third, was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1811, and when but six years of age he came with his parents, James F. and Catherine Randolph, to their new home on Alum creek, in Peru township, where with parents, brothers and sisters, he shared the hardships incident to the establishment of a new home in the wilderness. He was married to Miss Marry Butters in Bennington township in 1829, his wife being the daughter of Rev. Alford Butters; a physician and minister, who immigrated to Bennington township from the state of Maine at the close of the war of 1812. He was a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal church and a practicing physician, which profession he followed until the close of his life, which occurred in the year 1837. He built the first frame dwelling house in Bennington township, which is still occupied and in a fair state of preservation. James F. Randolph, the third, studied medicine with his father-in-law (Dr. Butters) and began the practice of his profession at his home on Alum creek, in Peru township, later moving to Ashley, Delaware county, Ohio, and afterward to Bennington township, Morrow county, where he operated a farm in connection with his practice. He built what was then considered to be the most elegant residence in this part of the state and laid out a flower garden, all of which have since been razed. He was a man of culture and refinement, of delicate sensibilities and keen perception of the aesthetic. He and his wife were life-long members of the Wesleyan Methodist church. His wife died in 1876 938 - HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY and he afterward married Mrs. Martha Brestler. After his second marriage he removed to Marengo, Morrow county, Ohio, where he died April 14, 1883. His widow afterwards married Amos Harris, of Licking county, Ohio, and both are now deecased. The children of James F. and Mary Randolph who lived to years of maturity, were Cornelia, wife of Harvey Chambers; Margaret, wife of O. Meredith ; Mary, wife of Ganza Evans ; Amaretta, wife of Frank Ghant ; Jefferson and Alford, the subject of this sketch, who was born in Bennington township, November 18, 1833. Alford F. Randolph acquired a common school education and in his early manhood assisted in the operation of his father's farm. He inherited from his pious ancestors a natural inclination toward religious thought and conduct. He has always taken a firm stand for whatever he considered to be for the best interest of the community and society in general and has always endeavored to follow after the things that make for harmony, and as much as possible has lived peaceably with all men. In politics he has always been a stanch Federalist, which belief naturally induced him to affiliation with the Republican party, and when the doctrine of state sovereignty became so chrystallized as to attempt, by armed rebellion, the disruption of the nation, he laid down the implements of peace and took up the implements of war, and bidding adieu to kindred, home and all that life holds dear, he laid, as it were, his young life, upon the altar of his country and beneath the fluttering folds of the star-spangled ensign of liberty, marched out to the bloody field of carnage, there to dare, to do, and to die, if need be, that this Republic might not perish from among men. He enlisted in Company D of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry which became a part of the Army of the Cumberland. He did active service on the battlefield and was captured at Columbia, Kentucky, and was subsequently in the hospital for a while. He was paroled as a prisoner of war, having been captured by the raider, Morgan. Upon the expiration of his term of enlistment, he again offered his services to his country, but was rejected on account of disabilities received while in the service. Upon his. return home, he beat as it were, his sword into a plough-share, his spear into a pruning-hook, and again resumed the pursuits of peace. On September 10, 1865, Mr. Randolph was united in marriage to Mrs. Sarah J. (Chambers) Brokaw, widow of Joshua Brokaw, who died at Bowling Green, Kentucky, while in the service of his country. Soon after his marriage to Mrs. Brokaw, Mr. and Mrs. Randolph established a home on a farm about two miles south of Marengo, where they have ever since resided, and where now in conjugal bliss and domestic felicity, respected by all who know them, they are spending their declining years in the enjoyment of the well-earned blessings of peace and prosperity. In early life they united with the Wesleyan Methodist church and are still HISTORY OF MORROW COUNTY - 939 engaged in the activities of church work. Their children are as follows : Eva, the wife of Nelson Mead ; Daisy, wife of Hanson Fowler; Florence, wife of Douglas Moore ; Luella, wife of William Chilcote ; and James Elsworth Randolph. The latter was born July 8, 1868, and on October 18, 1893, lie was married to Miss Orrie C. Barr. To their union two daughters were born, Delta Eva, November 25, 1894 ; and Mary Augusta, September 28, 1896. Mrs. Randolph died in the year 1900 and Delta the following year at the age of seven years. At the time of Delta's death the children were living with their grand-parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilber Barr, near Centerburg, Ohio, and Mary still resides with them. On October 1, 1902, Mr. J. E. Randolph was united in marriage to Miss Nellie M. Sipe, of Fulton, Ohio, and they have three children : Sarah Alice, born June 7, 1904 ; Niles Elsworth, born July 12, 1906 ; and Harold Eugene, born January 29, 1911.