USA > Ohio > Clark County > Springfield > 20th century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 75
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Adam Baker, bearing his father's name. was reared on the old home farm, on which he has lived continuously, with the exception of fifteen months spent at Snyderville. He has followed farming and stock-raising, buying, selling and feeding many cattle and hogs. Mr. Baker is a good business man-industrious and practical-and he has accumulated a com- fortable fortune. Although other mein- bers of his family have filled publie of- fices in German Township and Clark County, his inclinations never lay in that direction and he has kept out of politics.
Mr. Baker married Amanda Wilson, in October, 1869. They have no children. Hle is prominent in Masonry, being a "Shriner" and has attained the thirty- second degree. He belongs also to the Knights of Pythias.
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IRA W. WALLACE, president of the Mitchell Post, Grand Army of the Repub- Wallace Company, who has been identi- tied with Springfield business interests for the past thirty-three years, was born in 1844, in Mahoning County. Ohio. Mr. Wallace was reared in his native connty and was mainly educated at Poland Semi- nary, having as a classmate, the late Presi- dent William McKinley.
In 1862 Mr. Wallace entered the Fed- eral army, in which he continued as a soldier until the close of the Civil War. He was a member of the Ninth Independ- ent Company of Ohio Sharpshooters and served as orderly sergeant, was commis- sioned second lieutenant and later first lieutenant, and was mustered out of the service at Cleveland, in September, 1865. He returned to Mahoning County and from there in the fall of that year went to Missouri, where he was engaged for seven years in an insurance and real estate business. Upon his return to Ohio, he was occupied in the same line of in- dustry at Cleveland, until 1875, when he opened up an insurance business in Springfield, where he has his two sons associated with him. He represents the leading insurance companies of the comm- try, including, the Royal, the North Brit- ish Mercantile, the Liverpool and London, the Niagara and New York, the Connecti- ent, of Hartford, the Hanover. of New York, and the Aetna Life, together with a number of other organizations. In 1879, Mr. Wallace was married to Lizzie C. Cornwell, and they have two sons, Gail C. and Fred M.
Politically, Mr. Wallace is a Republican and for a mimber of years has been a member of the Republican Executive com- mittee. He is a valned member of
lie. He was chairman of the committee of this post that called the meeting that resulted in the organization of the Clark County Historical Society, and he has been a member of its board of directors ever since. He is a very active member of the Lagonda Club and at present is its vice president. He is in close sympathy with all movements of a public-spirited nature which promise to.be of substantial benefit to the city.
R. G. CALVERT, postmaster of Selma and proprietor of the Selma Grain Ele- vator is one of the leading citizens and in- Anential business men of the village and was born in Pennsylvania, in 1856, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Paist) Calvert, and a grandson of Reese and Deborah (Piatt) Calvert, life-long residents of Pennsylvania.
Thomas Calvert was one of a family of seven children. He was reared and edu- cated in Montgomery County, Pennsyl- vania, later engaging in farming which oe- eupation he followed there until his death. He married Elizabeth Paist, a daughter of James Paist, also a resident of Penn- sylvania, and to them were born eight children, six of whom are living.
R. G. Calvert, spent his early boyhood days on his father's farm in Montgomery County, and in 1868 came alone to Selma, Clark County, Ohio and here obtained his education in the district schools and also a private school, in the meanwhile living with his uncle until 1875. He then ob- tained a position as clerk for Hollings- worth & Company with whom he remained until 1880, when he went west to Iowa for
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a period of three years. Upon his return to Selma in 1883, he and his brother be- came associated with William Wildman, in operating a store, and a grain and coal business, under the firm name of Calvert Brothers & Company, until 1894, when they dissolved partnership, Mr. Wildman taking charge of the store, and Mr. Cal- vert retaining the grain and coal busi- ness. With the exception of two years which he spent in California, on a pleasure trip. Mr. Calvert has continued in the grain and coal line, establishing the business upon his return to the East in 1904. Mr. Calvert has served continuous- ly as postmaster of Selma with the ex- ception of three years, 1894 to 1897 in- clusive, and is the present incumbent. Politically he is a Republican. His re- ligious connection is with the Society of Friends.
Mr. Calvert was united in marriage with Ethel Kirk, a daughter of Charles and Rachel Kirk of Richmond, Indiana, and they have three children.
ASA W. HODGE, residing on his ex- tensive farm of 261 aeres, which is situ- ated in Sections 33 and 34. Moorefield Township, was born in this township Oc- tober 3, 1873, and is a son of J. Milton and Mary Ann (Hunter) Hodge.
The founder of the Hodge family in Clark County was Andrew Hodge, who came here from Kentucky. He was a na- tive of Virginia, but had accompanied Daniel Boone to Kentucky, and subse- quently tiring of the dangers of pioneer- ing in that state, known in early days as the "Dark and Bloody Ground," came on
into Ohio and entered a section of land in Pleasant Township, Clark County. James Hodge, his son, was born in Clark County and the latter's son, J. Milton, was also born on the old farm. The lat- ter married the daughter of a neighbor, Lemuel Hunter, also an early settler in this section. Of their seven children three reached maturity, namely: Asa W .; Ida M., who married Harry S. Andrew, of Dayton, Ohio; and Anna, who resides on the home farm. a part of which lies in Moorefield and a part in Pleasant Town- ship, the residence being in the former and the farm in the latter. After their marriage, J. Milton Hodge and his wife settled on this farm, on which he carried on agriculture, becoming also an exten- sive stock-raiser. He acquired 900 aeres of land in the two townships. He erected the comfortable brick residence, where he died in April, 1901. His widow survived him until October, 1904.
Asa W. Hodge was reared in his native township and attended the country schools through boyhood. From choice and environment he has always been en- gaged in agricultural pursuits. After his marriage he moved to the present farm, which was originally the old James Foley place. Here he has made many improve- ments, which include the building of two barns and the modernizing of the resi- dence. He is actively engaged in raising Shorthorn cattle, Delaine sheep and Po- land China hogs.
On October 3, 1901, Mr. Hodge was married to Bertha Page, who is a dangh- ter of Charles and Melissa Page, residents of Pleasant Township. The family is a prominent one in this section and is one of the most substantial. Mr. Hodge is not
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an active politician, but he takes the in- in business of this nature that his death terest of an intelligent citizen in local af- took place in Rotterdam, Holland, May 25, fairs.
EDWARD C. GWYN, formerly pres- ident of the Merchants' and Mechanics' Loan Company, also formerly manager and treasurer of the Safety Emery Wheel Company, as well as president of the board of trustees of the Springfield Water Works and a director in the First National Bank of Springfield, occupied an assured position among the leading citizens and responsible men of this sec- tion. He was born in Springfield, Ohio, August 12, 1851, and died at his beautiful home in this city November 1, 1907.
The Gwyn family can be traced to John Gwyn, of London, England. Edward Gwyn, son of John and father of our sub- ject, was born in London, May 12, 1816. He there married Isabella Turnbull and they came to America in 1847. They set- tled first in Wood County, .but subse- quently moved to Cincinnati, where he he- came a builder and contractor of gas and water works. He came to Springfield from Dayton and established the first gas plant here, which he operated for a num- ber of years. He was engaged in other enterprises, notably the manufacture of small arms during the Civil War, and still later he was associated, as agent in for- eign lands, with the Champion Reeper and Mower Company, of Springfield. Accompanied by his wife, the father of the late Edward C. Gwyn visited various expositions in his own and other coun- tries, and pushed the sale of the products of the great concerns he represented to the fullest extent. It was while engaged
1879. His remains were brought to Springfield and laid to rest in Ferncliff Cemetery. His widow survived him un- til 1899. Their living children are: Amelia (Spencer), who resides in Spring- field; Rosa (Driscoll), also residing in Springfield; Mary (Sheibley), of Tiffin. Ohio, and Violet (Hyde), who is at pres- ont residing at Santa Anna, California.
Edward C. Gwyn acquired his educa- tion in private schools in his native city of Springfield, and at Hamilton, Ohio. where the family spent their winter months. Upon completing his literary studies he became his father's assistant and worked with him in various gas and water plants located both in Ohio and in Pennsylvania. After coming to Spring- field he was interested for a time in the wood and lumber industry. Later, in the interests of a gas company, he resided for a time at Upper Sandusky, coming back to Springfield in 1881, where for six months following he served as superin- tendent of the construction of the water works and then was made secretary and assistant superintendent of the Spring- field Gas Light Company, serving as such for four years. In June, 1885. he was elected president of the board of trustees of the Springfield Water Works. As indicated, he had many important business interests in this city and was a large property owner. In politics he was a Republican, and, religiously, a member of the First Congregational Church.
On September 1, 1887, Mr. Gwyn was married to Isabella W. Smith, who was horn at Springfield and is a daughter of William R. and Mary ( Ege) Smith.
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They had two children, a son and daugh- ter, Charles W. and Mary Belle, the for- mer of whom is a graduate of the Spring- field High School and a student at Wit- tenberg College, the latter being a student in the high school.
JOSEPH CRABILL, JR., member of the Springfield Township School Board, resides on a well improved farm of 128 acres in Springfield Township, where he carries on a general agricultural line. He was born in Madison Township, Clark County, Ohio, June 4, 1862, and is a son of William Jr .. and Sarah (Wise) Crabill. The Crabill family is an old agricultural one of Clark County. The grandfather, Thomas V. Crabill, was born in Moore- field Township, above Lagonda, on what was then known as the old Crabill farm, and he became a large landowner.
William Crabill, Jr., was born in Springfield Township in March, 1834, on a farm now occupied by his brother, J. F. the Knights of Pythias. Crabill. After his marriage he moved to Madison Township, where he rented a farm for several years, then moved to Harmony Township, where he resided un- til the spring of 1874, when he bought a farm of 180 acres in Springfield Town- ship, to which he moved in the following September. He owns also the well im- proved farm of seventy-eight acres on which his son, Joseph, Jr., located Sep- tember 30, 1892.
Joseph Crabill, Jr., was twelve years old when he accompanied his parents to Springfield Township, where he has re- sided ever since. He obtained his educa- tion in the public schools and has ever since given his best efforts to farming.
For a time after his marriage, he con- tinued to reside with his father and then moved to the farm the latter had formerly purchased, subsequently buying his own farm of fifty acres from Dr. Laybourn. He does a large wholesale milk business in addition to general farming, and is ranked with the representative business men of this section.
Mr. Crabill married Mary Hinkle, who is a daughter of Michael Hinkle, who was a prominent pioneer settler and large farmer of Springfield Township. They have five children, namely: Lester H., Sarah Wise, Alice, Joseph Elden and William. Mr. Crabill and family belong to the Lutheran Church, and he is a mem- ber of the church council.
Mr. Crabill, as a citizen, is interested in all that concerns the general welfare of his community and he has testified to his sincerity by consenting to serve for many years on the School Board, of which he was president in 1907. He is a member of
WILLIAM BALDWIN, formerly jus- tice of the peace in Moorefield Township, and a surviving veteran officer of the great Civil War, was born at Urbana, Ohio, January 11, 1834, and is a son of Samuel V. and Catherine (Van Meter) Baldwin.
The paternal grandfather was Joseph Baldwin. He was a Virginian by birth and married in his native state. When he decided to come to Ohio he traded a tannery for 120 acres of land in Moore- field Township, Clark County, Ohio. In a flat-boat he brought his family and pos- sessions from Wheeling down the Ohio,
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and when they landed, he traded the boat for a wagon and they traveled overland in this to Clark County. Eventually he be- came one of the largest capitalists of the county, largely through the business sagacity of his eldest son, William Bald- win. The latter went, from Virginia to New York and there prospered in the mer- cantile business and invested a large amount of money in land in Ohio. He died unmarried and his father was his heir to 2,000 acres of land. Joseph Bald- win died on the farm which is now the home of his grandson, William Baldwin.
Samuel V. Baldwin was born in Vir- ginia and was ten years old when his father came to Ohio. He was afforded excellent educational advantages and was a man of brilliant parts. He graduated from Miami University, at Oxford, and subsequently became a leading member of the bar at Urbana, of which city he was prosecuting attorney for many years. He married Catherine Van Meter.
William Baldwin's youth was passed on his grandfather's farm and at Urbana, with his parents, and he grew to man- hood with a fortunate environment. When the Civil War was precipitated he was eager to take part in the struggle and his first enlistment was for three months in Company K, Second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry Militia. His second enlistment was in the Sixty-sixth Regi- ment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served for twenty-three days as a pri- vate and was then promoted to be second lieutenant in Company D, Twenty-sixth Regiment, later to be first lieutenant and still later to be captain of Company G, which continued to be his rank through the period of the war. He was on special Kansas State Legislature when he decided
duty, however, during the greater part of the time, serving as brigade inspector and as aid-de-camp to General E. P. Fyffe, and also on the staff of General George B. Buell as assistant general inspector of brigade. Captain Baldwin was ever at the post of duty and he did not escape some of the terrible wages of war. At the battle of Missionary Ridge he was shot in the head while in the lead of his company charging the enemy. Before Kenesaw Mountain, June 22, 1863, he re- ceived a bullet in the leg which debarred him from field service ever after. For a period of eighteen months he served in the Veteran Reserve Corps, and he filled the position of post adjutant of the bat- talion, during the discharge of the state troops at Augusta, Maine. Captain Bald- win's executive ability was still further recognized when he was sent to take com- mand at Fort Sullivan, and after his duties were over there he was sent home on waiting orders, and subsequently re- ceived his honorable discharge.
After the close of his army service he returned to peaceful pursuits and in 1869 he went to Wichita, Kansas, where he lived until 1876, when he accepted a gov- ernment clerkship in the quartermaster general's office at Washington City, where he remained for five years. Prior to entering the army Mr. Baldwin had graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and had engaged in the practice of his profession at Urbana. During his res- idence at Wichita he practiced law, and for five years was city attorney, and for one term was judge of the Probate Court. He had become a very prominent political factor and was a member of the
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to remove to Washington. In 1882 Mr. to his present responsible position. From Baldwin returned to Clark County and subsequently he served as a justice of the peace in Moorefield Township. He is one of the representative citizens of this sec- tion.
After his return from the army Captain Baldwin was married to Emily Read, who is a daughter of Joel Read, and they have four children, namely: William residing at Osborn, Ohio; Blanche, who married James W. Roberts; Leah, who married Andrew G. Dey, residing at Springfield; and Read, residing at home. There are five grandchildren in the family. Mr. Baldwin is a Mason.
C. E. WADE, formerly secretary and treasurer of the Owen Machine Tool Com- pany, and now serving in the capacity of purchasing agent and office manager for the Oscar Lear Automobile Company, has been also, since 1905, secretary and treasurer of the Yieldable Gear Company, all of which are among the more prom- inent business concerns of Springfield. Mr. Wade is a native of Springfield and a son of John A. Wade.
C. E. Wade was educated in the Springfield public schools and his first business position was with the District Isaiah Wood was reared in Pleasant Township and attended the district schools. He married a Miss Malinda Endsley, whose parents were born in Vir- ginia and came to Ohio in the early for- ties. They settled first in Logan County, where they remained until 1852, when they moved to Champaign County and for the next twenty years lived on a rented farm near Mechanicsburg, after which they Telegraph Company, where he was em- ployed for eight months, going from there to MeGregor Brothers, and later to the George H. Mellen Company. With the latter firm he remained for two years and a half, after which he was bookkeeper for the Foos Gas Engine Company for two years. As each business opening pre- sented itself. Mr. Wade proved his abil- ity to fill it and has climbed step by step moved to Pleasant Township. There Mr.
October 1905 to March 1908 he filled the position of secretary and treasurer for two important business combinations at Springfield. He is also a stockholder and a member of the advisory board of the Republic Life Insurance Company.
ISAIAH WOOD, one of the representa- tive men of Pleasant Township, where he owns a small farm of fifteen acres, has been engaged for a number of years in raising fine horses and in dealing in live stock. He was born in Pleasant Town- ship, Clark County, Ohio, January 18, 1842, and is a son of Albert Wood.
His paternal grandfather, Benjamin Wood, removed from New Jersey to North Carolina about 1800. From there he went to Cincinnati and thence to the vicinity of Urbana, Champaign County. Ohio. Abont 1805 he came to Clark County. Albert Wood came to Clark County from New Jersey and married here some ten years later. His children were: Mary, Benjamin, Sarah, Juliet, Anna, Henry and Isaiah, five still sur- viving. Albert Wood was a well edu- cated man and taught school. He died in 1843, aged thirty-five years.
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Endsley died, aged sixty-nine years, and Mrs. Endsley at the age of sixty-seven. Mr. Endsley served in the Civil War as a member of the Sixty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, until after the battle of Bull Run, when he returned to Pleasant Township.
Mr. Wood has always lived in this sec- tion with the exception of a period of twenty-seven months, during which he was in the army. He enlisted in 1862 in the Ninety-fourth Regiment, Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, starting in as a private, and for gallantry was promoted to the rank of corporal. He took part in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Resaca, at the latter receiving a serions wound that put an end to his military career. A bursting shell so shattered his left leg that it was necessary to amputat. it, but before receiving surgical attention he had the painful experience of lying ap- parently deserted on the battlefield from one o'clock in the afternoon until ten o'clock at night. While lying in this posi- tion he received four additional wounds. Even after receiving aid he had to en- dure the pain of the amputation and the dressing of his other wounds while fully conscious, there being no anaesthetics at hand, and the danger of blood poisoning being also increased owing to the lack of that antiseptic treatment that forms an inseparable part of the surgery of today. In his weakened condition Mr. Wood was conveyed first to Chattanooga and thence to Nashville, and subsequently reached the hospital at Camp Dennison. There he remained for six months and finally was honorably discharged and received his papers in December, 1864.
After Mr. Wood returned to Pleasant Township he established a harness busi- ness at Catawba, in which he continued for eighteen years. Since then he has de- voted his attention to raising fine horses and other stock. He owned the noted Helen P. and also American Boy, which had a record of 2:0914, and which was the best race horse ever known in this section. He was also the owner of Ivanhoe and Gambetta, the latter a French horse; the former was valned at $2,000, and the lat- ter at $1,600. He has also dealt exten- sively in cattle.
Mr. Wood has two sons and three daughters. namely: Addie, born in 1868. who married Albert Tavenner in 1891, and has one son, Ralph; Albert, born De- cember 21. 1870, who married Annie Hoss, and has one child, Lois, born in 1903; Lorell, born in 1876, who married Kemp Coffey; Roy, born in 1882, who was married in 1904, to Nora Runyan and they reside at Muncie, Indiana; and Blanche. who was born in 1885, and resides at home. Mr. Wood is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Catawba. and is a class leader. He belongs to the local Grand Army post. Mrs. Wood taught several terms of school before her marriage.
JOSEPH VAN HORN, senior member of the Van Horn & Gilbert Lumber Com- pany, of South Charleston, Ohio, dealers in hardwood and lumber, which is the largest concern of its kind in this section of the country, was born August 31. 1850. in Harrison County, Ohio, and is a son of Edward and Eliza (Gilbert) Van Horn.
Edward Van Horn was a native of
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Bucks County, Pennsylvania, of which his father, Christopher Van Horn, was also a native. The family was an agri- cultural one. Edward was one of seven children. three boys and four girls, all of whom are now deceased. When about fifteen years old his parents moved to Harrison County, Ohio, and later to Cedarville, Greene County, where they both died. Edward engaged at various kinds of work, operating a well drill dur- ing his younger days and farming prior to his military service. For four years he was a member of the Tenth Ohio Battery during the Civil War and saw much hard service, his death, which occurred in Cedarville, Greene County, being due to rhenmatism, which was contracted while in the army. He married Eliza Gilbert, of Harrisonville, Harrison County, Ohio, and to them were born four children: Ed- ward, who died in 1885; Martha F., who married Thomas Carlyle, of Yellow Springs; Susanna, who married Frank Hilttabridle, of Baltimore, Maryland; and Joseph.
Joseph Van Horn was two years old when his parents moved from Harrison- ville to Cedarville, Greene County, and there was reared and received his educa- tion. He remained at home, working at various things, as opportunity offered, n- til his marriage at the age of twenty-eight years, after which he remained in Cedar- ville for four years as lumber buyer for a Dayton firmn. He then moved to Harmon Township, Madison County, Ohio, where he owned a mill, which he operated three years and then moved to South Charles- ton, where he has since been engaged in the lumber business. Abont 1903 Mr. Gil- bert was made a member of the firm,
which is one of the substantial business enterprises of Charleston.
Mr. Van Horn was married in 1878 to Sally Milburn, of Cedarville. Politically Mr. Van Horn is a believer in the doctrine of the Republican party and has served as a member of the town council. Fra- ternally he is a member of the Odd Fel- lows.
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