USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
Lucas County (Ohio)
TOLEDO-LUCAS COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY TRJQT LOCAL HISTORY
qR920.71 Mem Loc. Hist.
Memoirs of Lucas County and the city of Toledo #24893236
C. N. Sombrer,
MEMOIRS
OF
LUCAS COUNTY
AND THE
CITY OF TOLEDO
FROM THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL TIMES DOWN TO THE PRESENT, INCLUDING A GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF REPRESENTATIVE FAMILIES
HARVEY SCRIBNER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME DE - LUXE
MADISON, WISCONSIN WESTERN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 1910
MOTT
003.10T
Jun 36 9K
INDEX
PAGE
Allen, Willard Ezra.
125
Baker, William .
99
Bigelow, Henry Waite.
213
Bills, George W. .
207
Birckhead, Peter Hoffman.
37
Braun, Carl F.
31
Brumback, Orville Sanford.
59
Close, George W.
131
Cook, Josiah Davis.
115
Cray, William Henry
151
Cronise, Thomas Jefferson
157
Curtis, Charles F
33
Davis, Elmer E.
175
Doyle, John Hardy
203
Dunscomb, Daniel.
205
Fassett, Elias.
191
Fisher, George H
217
Fitch, Hudson.
123
Flower, Stevens Warren
143
Ford, Edward.
17
Fuller, John W
45
Grosh, Emil.
141
Harvey, Stimpson G.
171
Hays, Lincoln J.
201
Hitchcock, Bailey Hall
135
Huber, Frank.
211
Kendall, Cornelius
177
King, Harry Eldridge
91
Kirk, Edward A.
95
Kirk, Ezra B.
41
Lang, Albion E.
77
Libbey, Edward Drummond.
49
McCaskey, Fred Eugene.
111
McLaren, Selah Reeve.
39
Melvin, James.
35
Mills, George Strafford.
103
Montville, Louis.
29
Norton, Elijah Harper
197
Osthaus, Edmund H.
149
Owens, Michael Joseph .
83
Robison, David, Jr.
63
Sala, Frank M ..
85
Scott, Jessup Wakeman.
13
Scott, Maurice A.
27
Scott, William Henry.
21
Scribner, Charles Harvey
9
Scribner, Harvey.
25
Secor, James.
69
Seney, Joshua Robert.
161
Shaw, Daniel Coffin.
105
Simmons, William H.
89
Stophlet, Manfred Milton .
167
Strausz, Philip Hurt.
153
Sullivan, Lafayette Sylvester.
185
Tait, George.
113
Thomas, Frank Pierce
195
Walbridge, William Spooner
73
Wilson, Charles Granville.
53
Wilson, Robert Bruce.
81
Woleott, Joseph Lake.
181
MOTT 652360 9R920
MEMOIRS OF Lucas County and the City of Toledo
BIOGRAPHICAL
CHARLES HARVEY SCRIBNER
(Taken from a volume of the Circuit Court Reports.)
Charles Harvey Scribner was born Oct. 20, 1826, near Norwalk, Conn., and is of English descent. During his early childhood his parents moved to Newark, N. J., and in that city he received the rudiments of his education. In 1838 the family removed to the village of Homer, in Licking county, Ohio, where, like most farm- ers' boys, he spent his time working on the farm in summer and going to school in winter. For a short time he worked on a news- paper for pay so small that a well-regulated boy of this generation would scorn to take it. When eighteen years of age he was apprenticed to learning the trade of saddler and harness maker, but while he worked at learning his trade during the day, earning three dollars a week, at night he put in his time studying law, and in October, 1848, he was admitted to the bar at Mt. Vernon.
In 1850 he entered into a professional partnership with H. B. Curtis, of Mt. Vernon, which continued for nineteen years, when Mr. Scribner removed to Toledo and became associated with the late Frank H. Hurd. Prior to this Mr. Scribner had been elected a member of the Ohio Senate from the district comprising Holmes, Wayne, Knox and Morrow counties, and while there he was chair- man of the Judiciary Committee. In the Senate he introduced the Criminal Code prepared by Frank H. Hurd, his predecessor in the Senate, and himself prepared the Municipal Code of the State.
10
MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY
In the spring of 1873 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention. In the same year he was nominated for Supreme Judge on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by a small majority.
In November, 1887, Mr. Scribner was elected one of the judges for the Sixth Circuit, in which position he continued until the time of his death, Feb. 23, 1897.
While still practicing at Mt. Vernon, Judge Scribner found time to write a two-volume work on The Law of Dower, which has taken a high rank among the legal text books.
Judge Scribner was married Oct. 20, 1847, to Miss Mary E. Morehouse, of Homer, Ohio, and was the father of four daughters and four sons, the eldest of whom became his business partner, in 1871, and is still a well known member of the Toledo bar.
It is fitting that Judge Scribner's associates and successors at the bar should testify to the high character he displayed in his intercourse with them and acknowledge the value of the tradition which he leaves behind. The innate gentleness of the man, com- bined with the impress he received from the unusually able and distinguished lawyers with whom he practiced in the little city of Mt. Vernon, rendered Judge Scribner's manners as a practitioner well nigh ideal. He has been known to say to a young lawyer: "The bar is composed of the best fellows in the world-strain a point to keep their friendship." In the trial of cases he was not only fair and courteous to rival attorneys, but his manners to wit- nesses were so far removed as possible from the insulting, intimi- dating style which, happily, we may now describe as a remnant of a past age. It was in consequence of this that one of the Com- mon Pleas judges was able to say that he did not recollect, during all his career at the bar, hearing a single word against Judge Scribner. The ethics of the profession he held in high esteem. He felt that their observance gave dignity and self-respect to the profession. He once lost an important case by refusing to permit a client to pay a man to tell the truth. In professional work he was extremely painstaking and laborious. The letter-press books of his office tell in this respect a surprising and pathetic story. In 1885 the Common Pleas made a vigorous attempt to dispose of an
11
BIOGRAPHICAL
accumulation of cases, and as a result Judge Scribner, then attor- ney for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, was kept in court for several months at a time, trying one case after another. Yet the letter-press reveals the fact that even during this extreme strain Judge Scribner actively oversaw other cases in which his firm was interested, conducted a large correspondence with his own hand, and personally copied his letters-the mute witnesses of his indomitable industry. The lamentable result of all this was a nervous collapse from which he never fully recovered. Judge Scribner, like his illustrious predecessor, Chief Justice Waite, has left the bar a tradition and an influence for courtesy, for honor and for industry whose extent we easily overlook because we are accustomed to it.
The character which Judge Scribner displayed at the bar shone with equal luster on the bench. A former circuit judge, who once sat with Judge Scribner in another circuit, has described the tem- per in which Judge Scribner performed his duties. When they took up a batch of cases for decision he said he did not feel well, and asked the presiding judge to give him something easy. "Well," said the presiding judge, "here is the case of vS. -; I guess we will all agree on that ; the plaintiff's interpretation of the statute will not hold for a moment. Suppose you give the decision in that case." Judge Scribner assented and disappeared. An hour afterward he was found in the midst of a heap of books, laboriously tracing the origin and modifications of a statute through successive legislatures. "Why, Judge," said the president, "I thought you wanted something easy. What are you doing?" Judge Scribner smiled and said, "Well, I felt as if I would like to convince the man that we have got to beat that he was wrong." Regretting, no doubt, that he had to decide against anybody, he was anxious to reconcile the defeated to the result by convincing him of his error.
Judge Scribner's political ideas lent a romantic tinge to his personality. While very little of a partisan in the sense of being always for everybody on his party ticket, his democratic prin- ciples were so deep-seated, so ingrained, so much a part of him that it is impossible to overlook this side of his character. Liberal in all things else, on principle he was as firm as a rock. His political
12
MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY
convictions gave his life that coloring of sentiment, that impersonal ideal, without which our lives are incomplete.
It is pleasing to know that the life of a man so immersed in work, so self-restrained, and to whom so few relaxations came, was exceptionally happy in its domestic relations. Many of us have been witnesses of the extraordinary devotion of which he was at once the recipient and giver. Thus, if our friend's life, on the retrospect, seems a hard and grinding one, we may feel glad that he had the greatest of life's consolation.
After a life of intense and highly intelligent labor Judge Scribner died comparatively poor. He never held high political position, and his fame was circumscribed within comparatively narrow limits, both in time and space. He attained no conspicuous eminence in wealth, fame, or position. Yet must we not feel that his life will leave a larger inheritance than many who reach the highest rounds on the ladder of ambition? Must we not feel that his gentleness, his charity, his character, leave behind a larger immortality than most of the most distinguished careers? We feel, we know that he has attained the poet's aspiration-an immor- tality not made up of earthly renown, but living in the lives of other men :
"May I reach That purest heaven, be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feel pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused And in diffusion ever more intense."
Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Go New York.
A.m. Scott
13
BIOGRAPHICAL
JESSUP WAKEMAN SCOTT
Jessup Wakeman Scott was a leading man among the pioneers of Lucas county, and he attained to such prominence that it is fitting that extended mention be made of him in a work intended to record and preserve the names and deeds of those who have achieved distinction in the years that have elapsed since the Mau- mee Valley passed through the transition epoch of red-man to pale-face domination. He was born at Ridgefield, Conn., Feb. 25, 1799, and died in Toledo, Jan. 22, 1874. His ancestors were of the old New Haven Colony stock. The literary bent of his mind was developed at an early age, he having with the advantages of the dis- trict schools of that date qualified himself at the early age of six- teen years to become a school teacher, commencing in Connecticut, and pursuing the profession in New Jersey, Georgia, and South Carolina, and meeting with success. At the age of eighteen he studied medicine, and a few years subsequently changed that pro- fession for the law, and was admitted to the bars of Georgia and South Carolina in 1822. Although devoting several years to the practice, it seems never to have proved fully adapted to his peculiar tastes and habits, and he soon turned his attention to the more con- genial pursuits of literature. While in the practice of the law he was the partner of Chief Justice O'Neal, subsequently a very prominent jurist of South Carolina. He was at one time a teacher in the State Female College at Columbia, S. C. The political ques- tions peculiar to that State becoming exciting and the lines between the State's Rights and National parties sharply drawn, Mr. Scott, as a Northern man and an Anti-Nullifier, soon found himself unpleasantly situated, and in 1830 he came North. Having in May, 1824, married Miss Susan Wakeman, daughter of Jessup Wakeman, of Southport, Conn., he determined to remove to Ohio, and in the spring of 1831, with his wife and three sons-William H., Frank J., and Maurice A .- he came to Florence, Huron county, where his father-in-law owned a large tract of unimproved land.
14
MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY
Here he divided his time between farm labor and the conduct of a monthly periodical entitled the "Ohio and Michigan Register and Emigrant's Guide," printed at Norwalk, and devoted, as the title indicates, to intelligence desirable with those seeking information of the Western country. As early as 1828, and while yet in South Carolina, Mr. Scott's attention had been specially called by the map to the remarkable natural advantages of the vicinity of the head of Lake Erie as furnishing a future city of great importance, and in July of that year he addressed to Gen. John E. Hunt, then post- master at Maumee City and later a resident of Toledo, a letter in which he said: "I wish to obtain all the information in my power respecting your section of country, with the view of making it my future residence." The result of his inquiries was such that after remaining about one year at Florence he visited Maumee City, in 1832, and made a purchase of seventy acres of wild land, now in the center of Toledo and embracing the present location of the court house, making a payment of $300. He subsequently unsuccess- fully tried to sell this tract at twelve dollars per acre, and got lost in the woods in showing the land to his brother, J. Austin Scott, who thought the price too high. In 1833 Mr. Scott removed his family to Perrysburg, where he resumed the practice of the law, and was chosen prosecuting attorney. In 1834, still bent on liter- ary pursuits, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Henry Dar- ling, he started the first newspaper on the Maumee river, naming it the "Miami of the Lake," that being the legal appellation of the river. The tide of speculation was then rising in this region, and Mr. Scott invested freely in lands, which largely appreciated in value, and he soon found himself a man of great wealth; but the collapse of 1837 destroyed the bright vision of riches so exciting to his imagination and left him with hundreds of others in great embarrassment. About this time he wrote a series of articles on "Internal Trade," in which he advanced the theory that some- where in the Valley of the Mississippi, or about the Great Lakes was to be the future great city of the world. In 1836 he "retired on his fortune" to Bridgeport, Conn., but, upon the crash of 1837, he returned to Maumee City, which was his residence for about seven years. It was in 1844 that Mr. Scott first made Toledo his
15
BIOGRAPHICAL
place of residence, and, once more turning to the press, he became the editor and co-proprietor of the "Blade," which he conducted for several years. In 1856, he removed to Castleton, on the Hud- son, a short distance below Albany, and there he devoted himself largely to literary pursuits, and wrote for different publications, chiefly on subjects of trade and population. After spending several years at Castleton, he returned to Toledo, which place was there- after his residence. In 1868, he prepared with great care and pub- lished a pamphlet setting forth his theory of the "Future Great City of the World," in which he claimed and sought to show that Toledo had the location most likely to become such metropolis. In October, 1872, sensible of the near approach of the end of life and anxious to give effect of his deep interest in the welfare of his fellow-citizens and their posterity, Mr. Scott devised and executed a scheme for the endowment of an institution of learning to be known as the "Toledo University of Arts and Trades." For this purpose he prepared a deed of trust for 160 acres of land, located near the city, to be platted and leased on favorable terms, the pro- ceeds to be used for the benefit of the institution named, under certain limitations. He did not live to participate in the inaugura- tion or the management of the enterprise, but his name is remem- bered with gratitude for his thoughtful consideration for the gen- erations to come after him. He was the originator of the idea of manual training schools in this country, as at that time most of the expert labor came from Europe. As a husband and parent he endeared himself to his family by ties of unusual tenderness and strength, as a citizen he was a model of propriety, and in precept and practice he was the supporter of public and private virtue. His venerable partner in the struggles of his early manhood and middle life and the joys and peace of maturer years survived him more than eight years and died at her residence in Toledo, April 20, 1882. Mrs. Susan (Wakeman) Scott was born in Southport, Conn., March 7, 1797, and was the eldest of eight children of Jessup Wakeman and Esther Dimon. Her father gave her a thorough education, taking her in his own carriage, in 1809, from the home in Southport, Conn., to Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, to place her in its noted Moravian school, where she became an accomplished musi-
16
MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY
cian. On May 4, 1824, she was married to Jessup W. Scott. For the succeeding six years they made their home in South Carolina and Georgia, and the subsequent removals of the family already have been noted.
Edward Ford
17
BIOGRAPHICAL
EDWARD FORD
Edward Ford, president of the Edward Ford Plate Glass Com- pany, of Rossford, Ohio, is a native of the Hoosier State, having been born in the little town of Greenville, Floyd county, Indiana, Jan. 21, 1843, the sixth in a family of seven children-five sons and two daughters-born to John Baptiste and Mary (Bower) Ford. The paternal grandfather was Jonathan Ford, who married Margaret Baptiste, and the father of the latter was John Bap- tiste, who was married, near Danville, Ky., to Margaret Schuck. He came from France, and was the first pioneer in Kentucky to introduce the domestic grape. The father was born near Danville, Ky., Nov. 17, 1811, and the mother was a native of Pennsyl- vania. In early life John B. Ford learned the trade of saddler and shipbuilding at New Albany, Ind., and followed that vocation for several years. He then became interested in glass manufacture and founded the Star Glass Company, at New Albany. Some fifteen years before his death he removed to Creighton, Pa., where he died at the age of ninety-one years. He is generally known as the father of the plate glass industry. The mother also died at Creighton. Edward Ford was educated in the New Albany public schools and the Bryant & Stratton Commercial College, at Indianapolis, Ind. After leaving school he began his business career as a clerk on a steamboat running between Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans, La. He followed the river for several years, when he engaged in the glass manufacturing business, in connec- tion with the Star Glass Company of New Albany. In 1873 he severed his connection with that concern and went to Columbus, Ohio, where he established the Columbus Window Glass Company, with which he remained for about three years. He then went to Jeffersonville, Ind., and engaged in the plate glass business exclu- sively, erecting there a plant for the Jeffersonville Plate Glass Com- pany. Five years later he went to Creighton, Pa., where his father was then living, and built a plate glass works, which at first was
18
MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY
known as the New York Plate Glass Company and later as the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company. Mr. Ford remained with this establishment for thirteen years, as president and manager, but in 1897 he sold out his interest in the concern and went to Wyandotte, Mich., where he became connected with the alkali works owned by his father. In 1898 he came to Toledo and founded the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company, which is the largest plate glass works in the United States. The factory at Rossford covers thirty-five acres, all under roof, and is equipped with the most modern machin- ery and appliances for turning out large quantities of the finest plate glass. The officers of the company are: Edward Ford, president; J. B. Ford, first vice-president ; Claud L. Lewis, general manager ; George R. Ford, second vice-president and treasurer, and G. W. DeMaid, secretary and general sales agent. The company employs 600 men, and the works are in operation day and night, the product of the factory going to all parts of the country. The town of Ross- ford was put on the map of Ohio by the establishment of this great manufacturing concern, whose employes and their families alone constitute a town of considerable size. Mr. Ford erected the nine- teen-story office building known as the "Ford Building," in Detroit, Mich., and which is built of white glazed brick. He is identified with other prominent institutions in Toledo. He is one of the directors of the Second National Bank and one of the trustees of the Chamber of Commerce. He is an enthusiastic member of the Toledo Yacht Club, in which he holds the rank of rear commodore, and in the spring of 1909 built for himself a fine steam yacht, concerning which the "Toledo Blade" of May 7, 1909, says: "Caro- line, the fine steam yacht built for Rear Commodore Edward Ford, of Toledo, and regarded by all local yachtsmen as one of the future flagships of the Toledo Yacht Club, was launched at Lawley's shipyards, in South Boston, Wednesday afternoon. The launching was accomplished without a hitch. The yacht was christened by Edward Ford MacNichol, a grandson of Edward Ford. The event was witnessed by Capt. Ed. Gruber and Engineer J. H. Cunning- ham, of Toledo, who went to Boston several weeks ago to super- intend the completion of the craft. Caroline is 125 feet over all, beam 18.3, and draft six feet. Her motive power consists
19
BIOGRAPHICAL
of a triple expansion engine of 750 horse power, and she is fit- ted with twin screws. Caroline is equipped with electric lights throughout and contains all the modern conveniences expected in such a craft. She will carry a crew of eight men, with Captain Gruber in command." In his political convictions, Mr. Ford is a firm believer in the principles advocated by the Republican party, and his religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian church of Wyandotte, Mich. While residing in New Albany, Ind., he became a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and since coming to Toledo has identified himself with several of the leading social organizations, including the Toledo, the Country, the Middle Bass and the Toledo Yacht clubs. Mr. Ford is universally recognized as one of Toledo's most pro- gressive and public-spirited men, always willing to lend a hand to any movement for the advancement of the city's material progress, or to aid any charitable enterprise for the relief of her poor and needy. Mr. Ford has been twice married. In 1861 he was united to Miss Evelyn C. Penn, who died in 1870, leaving two children- Mrs. M. R. Bacon, of Wyandotte, Mich., and John B. Ford, of . Detroit, Mich. In 1872 Mr. Ford married Miss Carrie J. Ross, of Zanesville, Ohio, and this union has been blessed by two daughters and a son, viz .: Mrs. George P. MacNichol, Mrs. W. W. Knight and George Ross Ford, all of Toledo. Mr. Ford resides at 2205 Collingwood avenue.
WH Scott
21
BIOGRAPHICAL
WILLIAM HENRY SCOTT
William Henry Scott, deceased, was at the time of his death one of the oldest and most influential of Toledo's pioneer citizens, and in his demise the community lost a citizen who was a blessing in his spirit of loyalty to public interests and in his generosity to public objects-one whose leadership in good works was an inspira- tion to all and an occasion of progress in all helpful institutions. He was indentified with nearly every bit of progress made by the city from the time that he was old enough to think for himself, and many of the institutions in which Toledo takes pride are directly due to his agitation and intelligent influence. Mr. Scott was born in Columbia, S. C., in 1825, son of Jessup W. and Susan (Wake- man) Scott. The parents are given extended mention on another page of this volume, to which the reader is referred for the ances- tral record of the family. William H. Scott came with his parents to the Maumee Valley in 1833, and lived in the city of Toledo dur- ing the greater portion of his life, his residence being at Adrian, Mich., for a few years. In early manhood he engaged in the han- dling of real estate as a business, with which line of endeavor he was ever after identified, but he steadfastly pursued intellectual and literary studies during his entire life, and the result of his constant research and observation was of great value to the city in which he made his home. When Toledo emerged from its primi- tive condition and took to drainage, paving, and the creation of parks and fine buildings, he entered into the spirit of each improve- ment and with wise suggestions aided in the beautifying of the now handsome municipality. He devoted considerable effort to creating an adequate system of parks, and, while all of his sug- gestions were not carried out, many of his ideas were adopted by the city. One of his pet fancies was the establishment of a boule- vard along the line of the old canal bed through the city, and an- other was the extension of the court-house square to Orange street, thus transforming "Smoky Hollow," through the forbid-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.