USA > Ohio > Trumbull County > A twentieth century history of Trumbull County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vol. II > Part 1
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Gc 977.101 T77up v.2 1411088
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00824 4383
A TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY
OF
TRUMBULL COUNTY OHIO
A NARRATIVE ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORICAL PROGRESS, ITS PEOPLE, AND ITS PRINCIPAL INTERESTS
BY HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON OF WARREN
VOLUME II
GC 977.101
ILLUSTRATED T77up V.2
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO 1909
1411088
SURNAME FILE
James MiGianamu
HISTORY
OF
TRUMBULL COUNTY
JAMES MCGRANAHAN .- The death of James McGranahan, at Kins- man, Trumbull county, on the 9th of July, 1901, removed from earth one of its sweetest and most spiritual singers, its most prolific and perhaps the greatest writer of Gospel music of his day, and his daily life and his life work was blessed with inspiration and apostolic power. His gifts came from above in the name of genius, and were faithfully trained and devel- oped as talents from a divine source. His influence, therefore, pierced deep into the hearts of the masses and also was an inspiration to the refined and broadly educated. For more than a decade his voice and pen carried the Gospel to thousands of hearts, and as an evangelist he stood related to Major D. W. Whittle as Sankey was associated with Moody. Mr. McGrana- han's consecration to the work was accompanied by circumstances which were peculiarly pathetic and impressive.
Thoroughly educated under the most eminent masters of voice culture in Europe and America, and, from his early manhood, possessed of a won- derful tenor, Mr. McGranahan was besieged on all sides by unqualified advice and enthusiastic solicitation urging him to adopt an operatic career. But there was one of his most intimate friends who drew him powerfully in another direction; that was P. P. Bliss, who begged that he consecrate his wondrous voice and gifts as a composer to the Gospel cause. While matters were in this undecided state came the dreadful catastrophe at Ashtabula, in which Bliss was killed-but Major Whittle himself has told the story in these words: "A week before Mr. Bliss left me he was writing at the table one day, and he read me a letter he had written. He said it was to a man he very much wanted to see in Gospel work; he could write music and sing, and he wanted him to sing for the Lord. He asked me if I knew of any evangelist who would go with his friend MeGranahan.
Vol. II-1
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
I said I did not know anybody ; but if he would consecrate himself to God someone would be raised up to accompany him. At Ashtabula a man came up to me and said, 'Mr. Bliss was one of my dearest friends; my name is McGranahan.' There stood before me the very man whom Mr. Bliss had chosen. We went to Chicago; and there it pleased God to give my brother a great blessing in his soul."
During the following eleven years Mr. MeGranahan and Major Whit- tle were associated in evangelistic work in various parts of United States, Great Britain and Ireland, but before entering into the details of his great career it is well to learn what were his preparatory steps. He was of a Scotch-Irish family, his grandfather emigrating from a locality near Bel- fast, Ireland, prior to the Revolutionary war. The latter married an Eng- lish lady, and during the later years of his life resided in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and it is of record that most of his twelve children evinced unusual musical talents. James spent his boyhood upon the paternal farm, and was designed by his practical father to be its final manager and pro- prietor. But his singing school and his bass viol soon became dearer to him than the farm, and at the age of nineteen he was the teacher of one of the most popular institutions of that kind in the state. He finally pre- vailed upon his father to further his musical ambitions by enrolling him as a student at the Normal Music School, Geneseo, New York, where he pursued his studies under T. E. Perkins, Carlo Bassini and other eminent teachers. At this institution he not only obtained his first real scientific and systematic insight to the wealth and beauty of song, but met the young lady who afterward became his wife and was ever the great human inspira- tion of his life. In 1862 he became associated with the late J. G. Towner, and for two years they made concert tours through Pennsylvania and New York. Mr. MeGranahan afterward continued his musical studies under Bassini, Webb, O'Neill and others, studying normal methods with Dr. George F. Root, the art of conducting with Carl Zerrahn, and harmony with J. C. D. Parker, F. W. Root and George A. Macfarren. From 1875 to 1878 he served as director and teacher in the National Normal Institute, of which Dr. Root was principal, also carrying on his convention work and composing glee, chorus and class music. Then came the eleven years of his harvest, both of fame and regenerated souls, in association with Major Whittle and his talented, faithful and Christian wife. The first of their evangelizing visits to Great Britain was made in 1880, and their meetings held in London, Perth, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Belfast and other places, were events of the religious world. The second visit was made in 1883, when they were associated with Messrs. Moody and Sankey. It was in London that Mr. MeGranahan organized the first male chorus in England for Gospel singing. There were about one hundred men in the chorus, all said to be converts of the meetings, and for many years the organization remained intact and accomplished splendid work in the evangelical field.
In 1887, on account of a general undermining of Mr. McGranahan's health, the evangelist of music and song was obliged to relinquish active
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
work. It was then that he erected his beautiful home at Kinsman, Ohio, and among his old friends, with his wife beside him, devoted himself to the composition of those Gospel hymns which have strengthened and cheered so many both within and without the church. His hope of again returning to the field was not to be realized, and valiantly and cheerfully he met the death which had been near him for eleven years. It lacked about a year of a quarter of a century since he had wedded his kindred soul, Miss Addie Vickery. True to her troth, she had been beside him in health and in sickness, in life and in death, his partner in music and in song, as well as the domesticities of the years. Although children were denied them, they have left a priceless legacy in the uplifting and salvation of many of the downcast of the earth.
As well stated in a beautiful memorial of his life, "Mr. MeGranahan's music has a quality that is all its own. It is characterized by strength and vigor. Much that he has written will live in the permanent hymnology of the church. Such songs as 'My Redeemer,' 'I Shall Be Satisfied,' 'The Crowning Day,' 'Showers of Blessing,' 'O, How Love I Thy Law,' and many others will voice the praise of future generations in their worship of God. Among the more elaborate pieces that Mr. MeGranahan wrote, 'I am the Resurrection and the Life' has a power in its cumulative effect and grandeur of treatment that would be hard to surpass. The United Presbyterian church owes much to Mr. MeGranahan in the service he rendered in setting to appropriate music the Psahns as used in the 'Bible Songs.' Some of his best music was written for this purpose.
"Mr. MeGranahan was pioneer in the use of the male choir in Gospel song. When holding meetings at Worcester, Massachusetts, a draught which had not been noticed laid aside for the time being all the female voices, and he found himself with a chorus of male voices only. Always resourceful, he quickly adapted the music to male voices and the meetings went on with great power. What was necessity at first became a most popu- lar and effective agency in the Gospel work. Soon was published Gospel Male Choir' Nos. 1 and 2, and the male choir and quartet are recognized forces in the church today. To Mr. McGranahan was due also the introduc- tion of the unadorned words of Scripture to striking airs and harmonies. He loved the Word, and if he could make the exact words of Scripture do service as the chorus of a hymn he always did so." To the foregoing may be added the words of Dr. Henry Ostrom, spoken in a touching address delivered in a memorial meeting held at Kinsman, in the month following Mr. MeGranahan's death : "As a man he was noble, at home he was lovely, in the church he was Christly, in the community he was honorable, but the world on land and sea cherishes his musie, and it is for that he will be more widely known."
HENRY BISHOP PERKINS .- No family in the Western Reserve section of Ohio has ever stood higher or contributed more to the material deveiop- ment and moral worth of the community than the family of General Simon
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Perkins and his descendants. Inheriting that sturdy integrity which seemed inherent in the early pioneers of this country, General Perkins trans- mitted to his children the same strong qualities for which he was noted.
Henry Bishop Perkins, the youngest son of General Simon Perkins, was born at Warren, Ohio, March 19, 1824. General Perkins died when Henry Bishop Perkins was but twenty years old, yet, at that early age, he had already manifested those splendid qualities of manhood, justice and unimpeachable integrity, which he carried through his long and useful life. Possessing a keen sense of responsibility, a fine dignity, and attractive physical presence, he immediately took the position in the community made vacant by the death of his distinguished father. Remaining at the old homestead in the town of his birth, he devoted his entire life toward higher ideals of good citizenship in the community. He bestowed generously of his time and money to the encouragement of those less fortunate than he and contributed a very large share toward making Warren the beautiful city it is today. Mr. Perkins, with that true democracy which had charac- terized his ancestors and descendants, was a student in the schools of Warren and later entered one of Ohio's first institutions of higher learning, Mari- etta College. After a tour of Europe where he gained valuable experience by travel and broadened his sympathies by contact with people of many lands he entered diligently upon the work of the management of the estate left to his carc.
Notwithstanding the many demands upon his time, in conducting his private business, Mr. Perkins never failed to assume and discharge every duty which falls to a good citizen in a growing community. He served fifteen years on the Warren Board of Education and to his excellent judg- ment in a large degree the high standard of Warren schools and her beauti- ful schoolhouses are attributable. Nor did he confine his educational interest to his home city, but in connection with his brothers, endowed a professorship in the Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio.
Removed but a generation or two from the pioneers who had blazed the first trails in a new country, Mr. Perkins inherited also that love of nature without which one rarely becomes a sympathetic and well-rounded man. The grounds surrounding his home on Mahoning Avenue were filled with rare trees, shrubs, plants and flowers, while his fine farms in Trumbull county were examples of the painstaking husbandman who appreciates that Nature is a good accountant and gives in the measure that she receives. Mr. Perkins realized that agriculture is the true basis of all prosperity and he farmed well, just as he did everything well. He was twice elected presi- dent of the Trumbull County Agricultural Society, was twice appointed a member of the State Board of Agriculture and was for many years a trustee of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. To the duties of each position he gave that same thorough attention which he devoted to his private business. Always a lover of the beautiful and artistic, Mr. Perkins laid out, ornamented and maintained Monumental Park, in Warren, which among other things, will always remain to hallow his memory in the city he loved so well.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
With a multiplicity of private and public duties demanding his con- stant attention, Mr. Perkins was in the most ideal sense a home man, devot- ing every attention to his family and extending the radius of his sympathy and assistance to his neighbors and friends. In 1855 Mr. Perkins was mar- ried to Miss Eliza G. Baldwin, a daughter of Norman C. Baldwin, a promi- nent and popular man, who was conspicuous in the early business life of Cleveland. Mrs. Perkins is a woman of keen intellect, generous impulses, remarkable dignity and has contributed her full share in maintaining the high standards of excellence and worth of the descendants of General Simon Perkins. Four children were born to them : Mary B., now Mrs. H. A. Lawton, of Warren; Olive D., now Mrs. Samuel W. Smith, of Cincin- nati: Jacob, who died in 1902, and Henry Bishop, Jr., who died in 1900.
Mr. Perkins believed in teaching people to help themselves, and in a practical way he tided many business men over crises, helped young men through college and without ostentation gave assistance to helpless women and children. Before the days of bonding companies, men of means were called upon to stand sponsor for men in public office. Mr. Perkins during his lifetime was probably on the bond of more men in public and private matters than any other man in his community. When thanked for these favors, he always quietly replied that he could perhaps better afford to take the risk than others, and did not therefore deserve any praise. He served as president of the Oakwood Cemetery Association, and gave a great deal of time and thought to the beautifying of the grounds.
A generation ago the Warren Library was not the prosperous institu- tion it is today. It was then without means, and it seemed that unless assistance came the library must close its doors, but it was enabled to continue its work by generous donations from Mr. Perkins. His practical experience and sound advice were always in demand, and when Trumbull county's stately new court house was being planned and erected in 1895 Mr. Perkins was appointed to advise with the commissioners in carrying out that important work. Ile never at any time sought public office, but accepted it rather as a duty which a good citizen owes to his community when called upon to serve. Thus in 1849 he was elected to the Ohio Senate, and re-elected in 1881, which position he held four years. In 1888 he was a Republican elector for Benjamin II. Harrison, then a candidate for president, which honor was particularly gratifying to Mr. Harrison, as Mr. Perkins' father, General Simon Perkins, had been a personal friend to President William Henry Harrison, the grandfather of Benjamin Har- rison.
Mr. Perkins was one of the commissioners chosen by Governor Bishop to establish the boundary line between Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1879. Perhaps one of the most notable incidents of Mr. Perkins' public career was in connection with the great Garfield-Grant-Conkling mass meeting, which he was largely instrumental in bringing to Warren in 1880. It was at this historic gathering that bitter and warring political interests were reconciled, which assured the election of James A. Garfield for presi- dent in the November following. Senator Conkling, Senator Cameron,
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
General Grant and William McKinley were all entertained at the hospitable home of Mr. Perkins upon that occasion.
Mr. Perkins early became one of the stockholders and directors of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, now one of the most important branches of the great Erie System. In 1852 Mr. Perkins was elected a director of the Western Reserve Bank, which was one of the oldest banking institutions in Northern Ohio. Upon the expiration of its charter in 1863, the First National Bank was organized, and Mr. Perkins was chosen presi- dent, which office he held until the time of his death, nearly forty consecu- tive years. Mr. Perkins' conservative business judgment, his unquestioned integrity and his general popularity fitted him for this position of trust. Recognizing his high standing, experience and ability, in 1861 Secretary Chase, of the United States Treasury, selected Mr. Perkins to assist in making the first national loan necessitated by the Civil war.
Added to his many other public duties, Mr. Perkins served for many years as trustee of the Cleveland Historical Society, and was appointed by Governor Mckinley a trustee of the Cleveland State Hospital. With lib- eral and unselfish views, he lived his life from day to day, and when he died, March 2, 1902, there was left a vacancy in the community that has never been filled. Mr. Perkins was a supporter of the Presbyterian church, but in his philanthropy and liberality he did not confine himself to any one church or denomination.
For more than three score years Hon. Henry Bishop Perkins stood a pillar of strength in the old Western Reserve city of his birth, and his entire life was without stain. Kind, exemplary to a high degree, thought- ful, industrious, systematic in all he thought and did, generous and dignified, but ever finding time to aid the lowly and encourage the ambi- tious, his career forms the best possible example for those who have come after him. His was the old school of citizenship, embodying in his life a certain chivalry, yet with all a becoming simplicity, which formed a con- necting link between the old and the new and rendered him one of the most beloved men Trumbull county ever produced.
CHARLES A. HARRINGTON, president of the Second National Bank, at Warren, Ohio, who has been for many years a prominent character in the affairs of the Buckeye state, is a native of Ohio, born in Greene township, Trumbull county, June 16, 1824. He descended from the Puritanic stock of New England, being the son of William and Helena (Bascom ) Har- rington, who were natives, respectively, of Brookfield, Vermont, and Ches- ter, Massachusetts. The father was born February 5, 1794. William Harrington. whose father died early in life, was bound out in his youth, but purchased his time before attaining his majority and went to Canada, which country he left on the outbreak of the war of 1812. In March, 1817, in company with his mother, he came to Trumbull county and settled in the midst of the woods on his claim, his mother keeping house for him until his marriage in 1821. He followed agriculture, and was
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
much interested in the early development of the county, acting many years as a justice of the peace of honor, ability and popularity. Both he and his faithful wife were communicants of the Congregational church, in which he was frequently a lay-reader. He died in 1885, more than ninety- one years of age. Their five children all survive save William A., who passed from earth June 5, 1893, and Coydon, who died about 1896.
Charles A. Harrington, one of the five children mentioned, was reared on the farm, continuing to reside there until twenty-one years of age; attended the public schools of his home neighborhood, after which he was for a time a student at the Grand River Institute, Austinburg, Ohio, and subsequently entered Oberlin College, which institution he left during his junior year. For about twelve winters following he taught school, and in 1845 established a select school in Greene township, which proved a decided success, through the able management and assistance of the able corps of assistants whom Mr. Harrington drew about him. While teaching he also studied law, and in 1849 was admitted to practice. In 1860, after eleven years of constant practice, he was elected clerk of the court of common pleas, serving two terms and retiring from that office in 1867. During that year, without solicitation, he was nominated by President Johnson, and confirmed by the Senate, as assessor of internal revenue for the nineteenth district, which office he held until it was abol- ished by law. Mr. Harrington then resumed his law practice in partner- ship with William T. Spear, which relation existed until 1879, when Mr. Spear was elevated to the bench as judge of the comnon pleas court. Mr. Harrington practiced alone until 1887, and in November of that year accepted a position as cashier of the Second National Bank, at Warren, which position he resigned in May, 1898, and in January, 1900, was elected to his present office as president of the bank. Mr. Harrington was orig- inally a Whig, but upon the formation of the Republican party he imme- diately joined its ranks. His constituents have honored him by an election to the board of education of Warren, in which capacity he faithfully served . for twenty-five years. Fraternally, he is a Master Mason, and was one of the first trustees for the Children's Home for Trumbull county, at Warren. His greatest happiness has been noted while serving others, rather than himself.
In 1848 Mr. Harrington was married to Elvira, daughter of William A. Bascom, by whom two children were born: Charles Frederick and Frank Wales, both of whom are deceased. The mother died in February, 1892. In 1864 the elder son, a graduate of the Western Reserve College. entered the army and served until the close of the Civil war. He returned home, and was for a number of years in the United States coast survey service, with which he was connected when he died, in the month of October, 1871. He had married Miss Skinner, of New York, but left no children. His death was caused by diseases con- tracted while serving his country. In November, 1893, Charles A. Har- rington married for his second wife Sophia M. Smith.
Frank Wales Harrington, the younger son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
A. Harrington, graduated at the Western Reserve College in 1829, and was a practicing lawyer for several years, but, on account of ill health, was obliged to abandon his profession. He married Miss Park, daughter of S. W. Park, a merchant, and a son and a daughter were born to them: Charles A. Harrington, Jr., now a senior at Cornell University, and Priscilla Park Harrington, a student at Wellesly College. The husband and father died on October 7, 1893.
CYRUS B. SNYDER was one of the most extensive land owners and stock raisers within Trumbull county, and had possessions in Ohio and far away Texas, where his interests were large. He was a native of Brookfield town- ship, this county, born June 1, 1830. the son of David and Mary A. (Combs) Snyder, the former born in Perry county, Pennsylvania, in 1805, and the latter in Brookfield township, December 3, 1807. The paternal grandparents were Thomas and Mary Snyder, of Pennsylvania, who were of German parentage. On the mother's side the grandfather was Ebenezer M. Combs, of Connecticut. The father came with his mother to Hartford, Ohio, in 1808, cutting a wagon road through the dense forests. The mother of Cyrus B. Snyder came to Vienna with her parents when a small girl.
David and Mary A. (Combs) Snyder were united in marriage Novem- ber 21, 1827, in Trumbull county, Ohio, and settled in the northern part of Brookfield township. David, a blacksmith by trade, conducted a shop there until 1848, when he sold his shop and moved to a farm in Bloom- field township, where he resided several years, then came to the village of North Bloomfield, and there ran a shop for ten years. after which he re- tired, about the spring of 1875. His faithful wife died in 1890. They had nine children, three of whom still survive: Cyrus B., of this narrative, the eldest : Mary, Mrs. Harrison Lee, of Enid, Oklahoma; David T., of North Bloomfield.
Cyrus B. Snyder had the advantages of the common schools and the Vienna Academy. He resided with his parents until eighteen years of age, when he entered the employ of Charles Brown, who was in the live stock business, raising cattle and horses. Mr. Snyder was in the employ of this stockman three years and caught a full glimpse of what a great business was being carried on in such an industry and at once purchased land and began the role of a stockman himself. He steadily forged his way to the front rank, and was the owner of twelve hundred acres of land in Mesopo- tamia and Bloomfield townships at the time of his death. He cultivated a portion of this land and pastured the remainder. He also owned forty- six hundred aeres in Shackelford county, Texas, which land is chiefly devoted to grazing purposes. In all of his business transactions he proved himself a competent factor in the great live stock business of this country. Politically, he had ever voted the Democratic ticket. He was justice of the peace, township trustee and school director, besides holding other local positions. He was a member of the Masonic order when this fraternity had a lodge at North Bloomfield.
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