A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 62

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156

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It had been granted to Aaron Ogdon in 1800 by President Adams for mili- tary services. Later Mr. Phelps bought two hundred and fifty acres more land two miles north of his first purchase, where his son Edward, and daugh- ter Chloe, who married Menzes Gillespie, settled. He was a successful man for those days, and his advice was sought by his neighboring pioneers in many matters of importance. Azubah Moore, who became his wife, was born at Torrington, Connecticut, February 13, 1765. She was baptized a member of the Christian church in Alum creek in 1843, and died October 18, 1849, aged eighty-four years. Their cabin was built on the north side of the road now leading east from Worthington, and three-fourths of a mile west of Alum creek. She and her husband kept "open house," and religious meetings were held in their house and barn in the pioneer days. Mr. Phelps built a frame barn in 1808, which was one of the first buildings of the kind in the neighborhood.

Edward and Azubah ( Moore) Phelps brought six children with them to Ohio: Edward, aged sixteen years; Abram, aged fifteen years; Azubah, aged twelve years; Lucinda, aged nine years; Chloe, aged seven years; and William, aged four years. Azubah was never married. She had a good education, was a great reader, and was a very useful member of the pioneer society and of the community during her life. She had a wonderful memory, and much of the history of the township's early settlement was related by her to her nephew and written down in 1859. She died April 14, 1860. Their youngest son, Homer Moore Phelps, was born after they came to Ohio. Isaac and Ursula (Clark) Griswold and their two children, Isaac Mortimer and Edwin, and Ethan Palmer and Salina Griswold came with them, the party numbering fourteen souls all told. Miss Salina Griswold taught the first school in Blendon township in 1809 and taught several terms later. Mr. Griswold bought a farm of two hundred and fifty acres adjoining Mr. Phelps's place. Mr. Phelps died August 10, 1840.

Homer Moore Phelps married Elizabeth Graham Connelly, a daughter of Edward and Mary (Graham) Connelly, who was born at Strasburg, Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1811, and came to Columbus in 1833 with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Connelly were both natives of Ire- land and came to America before they were married. Miss Mary Graham was a daughter of Rev. William Graham, who was born at Paisley, Scotland, and was sent to Ireland as a missionary, and in 1789 was sent to America as a missionary by Rev. John Wesley. He died while on the voyage. His widow (Catherine Thompson) with eight children were safely landed and went to Christine, Maryland, where she died three weeks afterward. The children were cared for by bishops of the Methodist church. Mary was reared in the family of Jacob Boehm. of Strasburg, Pennsylvania, and there married Mr. Connelly, who was a farmer and shoemaker. On coming to Ohio they located ten miles north of Columbus, where they lived out their days. Homer Moore Phelps and Elizabeth Graham Connelly were married January 14, 1835. Mrs. Phelps died August 12, 1899, aged eighty-eight years.

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She had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church from the time she was sixteen years of age,-seventy-two years,-and was a consistent Christian worker. Her children revere her memory. Edward and Mary Connelly, her parents, were life-long Methodists, although Mr. Connelly's parents, Henry and Rosanna ( Moss) Connelly, were Scotch Presbyterians. Mrs. Phelps left three children: Fredonia C., wife of Francis B. Dean, a farmer of Mifflin township, Franklin county ; H. Warren; and Edward Clin- ton, who is engaged in the real-estate business in Chicago, Illinois. He mar- ried Ella Louise Stanley, of Columbus, Ohio, September 2, 1891. She was a daughter of Edward Stanley, Sr.

H. Warren Phelps was reared on the home farm and educated in the public schools, and remained at home until he was twenty-three years old. August 1, 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Ninety-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a private. He was at once promoted to be first ser- geant and was mustered into service with that rank. December 5 following he was made second lieutenant, and on the last day of the same month he was made first lieutenant. He took part in the fighting at Richmond, Ken- tucky, the siege of Vicksburg, and in minor engagements, and participated in a ten months campaign through southern Tennessee and Mississippi. After that he took part in the operations against Sterling Price and Jeff. Thomp- son in Arkansas and Missouri, September I to November 16, 1864, and saw some service in Kansas under General A. J. Smith. He returned to St. Louis, Missouri, November 16, 1864, after marching eleven hundred miles, and went south with his command to Nashville, Tennessee, was in battles there, and went thence to New Orleans, and thence to Mobile. He was pres- ent at the siege of Spanish Fort, March 24 to April 9, 1865, thence he marched back to Vicksburg. He saw some other service and was mustered out August 19, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. At the close of the war he returned home and engaged in farming and stock raising. He drifted into stock dealing as a distinctive business and followed it with success until 1896, when he moved to Westerville to educate his chillren. In 1900 the family removed to Columbus.

January 1, 1868, Mr. Phelps married Miss Louise M. Clarke, a native of Blendon township, and a daughter of George B. and Mindwell E. (Gris- wold) Clarke, and granddaughter of Isaac and Ursula (Clark) Griswold, pioneers of Blendon. Miss Louise M. Clarke was a school teacher for several years. She has been an active worker in Soldiers Aid and Woman's Relief Corps societies, holding prominent offices. George B. Clarke and wife were natives of Blendon township, and spent the greater part of their lives here. H. Warren and Louise (Clarke) Phelps have had six children. Their eldest son, George H., was born December 23, 1868, and died in his thirty- first year, October 23, 1899. He received his education in this town- ship and took a business course at Columbus. He was employed for a year as a stenographer by a wholesale house in Columbus, and after that was for a year and eight months with the general manager of the Moline

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Plow Company, at Kansas City, Missouri. He was later employed by the Armour Packing Company, in that city, but was obliged to give up his position on account of overwork. In 1895 he was employed in the home office of the Milwaukee Harvester Company, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was soon afterward given charge of its collections in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Oklahoma. Some idea of the extent of his duties is afforded by the fact that he had seven clerks working under him. His sudden death, October 28, 1899, after only two days' illness, cut short a career which was full of brilliant promise. He was united in marriage with Miss Bertha E. Swickard, a daughter of Shannon and Anna S. Swickard, of Montrose, Colo- lado, at Chicago, Illinois, September 28, 1893. A daughter, Margaret Eliza- beth, was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 22, 1899. He left property worth seven thousand dollars, his own savings. Rolland C. Phelps, next in order of birth of the children of H. Warren and Louise (Clarke) Phelps, is a farmer and sawmill proprietor and creamery butter maker in Blendon township. January 26, 1898, he was united in marriage with Miss Elva M. Carpenter, of Plain township. W. Dwight is a successful business man and farmer in the same township, having many of the characteristics of his grandfather Phelps. Grace C. is a teacher in the high school at Columbus, Ohio. Mary Louise is a stenographer at Columbus, Ohio, and Homer M. is a student at Columbus.

Mr. Phelps is an active and influential Republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and of the Grand Army of the Republic, being a comrade in James Price Post, No. 50, G. A. R., of Westerville, Franklin county, and a member of Encampment No. 35, U. V. L., of Mount Vernon, Ohio. He was a delegate to the World's Congress of Farmers at Chicago, Illinois, at the time of the World's Fair, in October, 1893. He has been statistical agricultural reporter to the department of agriculture for many years, also reporter to the weather bureau. He is the president of the Phelps, Griswold, Moore and Meacham Pioneer Families' Associa- tion, which holds annual reunions on the fourth Thursday in August. Mrs. Louise M. Phelps is the secretary of the association. He has been engaged for a number of years in tracing genealogical records of the families of his ancestors, and has succeeded in locating the place of birth of his ancestors in the sixteenth century.

FREDERICK HALDY.

One of the substantial and most respected citizens of Franklin township, Franklin county, Ohio, was Frederick Haldy, who resides upon a fine farm of one hundred and ninety-eight acres a half mile from the limits of the city of Columbus. He was a resident here from 1862 until his death.

He was born in Germany January 19, 1819, a son of Lewis and Henrietta Haldy, the former a native of France, the latter of Germany. They never came to America, and they reared a family of eight children in their old home

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in Germany, our subject being the fifth in order of birth. He attended school until his fifteenth year, after which he learned the trades of jeweler and watch- inaker, working at those occupations until his emigration to America, in 1849. For three years thereafter he followed these trades in New York city, and then came to Columbus, here finding plenty of work in his line. In 1862 he removed to his final location and engaged in general farming until IS96, when he retired from the active duties of life.

Before coming to America Mr. Haldy was married to Miss Louisa Lin- demann, a native of Germany. She was born February 4, 1824, and was the third child of Lewis and Jacobine (Lang) Lindemann. She remained in her old home until one year after the departure of her husband, reaching the United States in 1850, accompanied by her mother, who lived to be sev- enty-seven years of age. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Haldy : Frederick, a jeweler in Cleveland; Charles W., a farmer on the old home- stead; Louisa, deceased; Lewis, a farmer in Delaware county, Ohio; Matilda S., wife of Clinton Alspach, a teacher near Columbus, Ohio; and Emma, wife of O. W. Scott, a farmer of Franklin township. The four last named were born in America.

Mr. Haldy was' a very prosperous man, bringing with him to this country the habits of thrift and economy learned in his native land. He accumulated much property in a very desirable locality, near the heart of the city of Columbus, erected three houses and earned the ease and comfort which he in later years and his estimable wife still enjoy. He was a consistent member of the Evangelical church, and was most highly regarled by his neighbors. He died on July 2, 1901, at 8 A. M., from old age. Mrs. Haldy, surviving, is also a member of the Evangelical church.

EDWARD B. THOMAS.

As one of the capable attorneys of Columbus and as a representative of several of the most distinguished pioneer families of Ohio, Edward Barton Thomas certainly deserves representation in this volume. He was born in 1861, in Wheeling, Virginia, now West Virginia, a son of Llewellyn Griffith Thomas, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1837. When a young man he went into business in Wheeling, West Virginia. He devoted his life mainly to literary work and travel, at one time spending three years in making a trip around the world. His death occurred in Wheeling in 1894. His wife bore the maiden name of Angeline Barton, and was a daughter of Thomas J. and Elizabeth (Delp) Barton, of Belmont county, Ohio. The Bartons were Quaker people who resided near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but the family were represented in the Revolutionary war by a Captain Bar- ton. After the independence of the nation was achieved representatives of the name became pioneer settlers of Ohio.

Edward Thomas, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was a native of Wales, and in 1820 came to Ohio. This was about the time coal was first

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shipped down the Ohio river, and he became connected in business with Jacob Heatherington, the pioneer coal shipper. This commodity was sent down the river on flatboats, and in the conduct of the enterprise Mr. Thomas became a wealthy man. His last years were spent in quiet retirement upon a large farm which he purchased in Belmont county, and there he died in 1872, when more than seventy years of age, one of the most highly respected citizens of the community. He married Miss Catherine Clark, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Zane) Clark, the former a relative of General George Rogers Clark. His wife was a daughter of Daniel Zane and a sister of Colonel Ebenezer Zane. Her father was descended from French Huguenot ancestry, and on emigrating from France to America located in Charleston, South Carolina, whence he made his way to the Shenandoah valley and later to Wheeling. He was the first settler there, locating a farm in the midst of the forest, upon the site of the former capital of West Virginia. His de- scendants owned all the land there. Colonel Ebenezer Zane built the first coad in Ohio, and the city of Zanesville was named in honor of his brother Jonathan. The bravery of Elizabeth Zane during the Revolutionary war is a matter of history. She was a young lady of eighteen, and had just returned from school in Philadelphia to her home in Wheeling. The place was attacked by a band of Indians under command of some British. The settlers had taken refuge in the fort, near which stood a block-house in which the ammunition was stored. During the attack the soldiers discovered that their supply of powder was almost exhausted, and Elizabeth Zane volun- teered to secure a keg from the block-house, saying that none of the men could be spared from the fort. At her utmost speed she ran to the place, and the Indians were so surprised that not a shot was fired, but as she returned with her keg of powder a hail of bullets followed her, several piercing her garments. The dress which she wore, with its bullet holes, is still preserved and has been seen by the subject of this review.

Mr. Thomas may certainly be proud of the pioneer history of his ances- tors and the part which they took in reclaiming the state of Ohio for purposes of civilization. He was educated in Wheeling, also pursued a college course, and on leaving the latter institution began teaching in country schools in West Virginia, in 1878. He afterward engaged in high-school teaching in Belmont county, Ohio. Next he accepted the superintendency of the schools at Clarington, Ohio, where he remained until 1888, when he became princi- pal of the schools of Woodsfield. While thus engaged he took up the study of law in the office of Spriggs & Sons, and later pursued his reading under the direction of W. F. Hunter, now dean of the Ohio State Law School. Mr. Thomas also studied for a tlme under Lorenzo Danford, a member of congress from Belmont county. In 1891 he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, and has since engaged in practice in this city.

Mr. Thomas was married in Woodsfield to Miss Sinclair, a daughter of Dr. Western Sinclair, of the same place, formerly a probate judge. She is of Scotch-Irish descent. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have been born four

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children : Edward Sinclair, Jacob Clark, George Alfred and Elizabeth Zane. Mr. Thomas is a member of the Ohio Society of Sons of the American Revo- lution, and belongs to the Masonic fraternity, to the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, is a past grand in the Odd Fellows lodge, has been a rep- resentative to the grand lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and is one of the leading officers and the state lecturer for the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is also a recognized leader in Democratic circles, and his opin- ions carry weight in the councils of his party in the city and county. He is a man of strong mentality, of keen analytical power and has won prestige at referred to.

JAMES HENRY DANIELL.

The story of an eventful life is always interesting, and the story of one who has been a pioneer and a soldier possesses peculiar value because it not only sheds light upon history but incites to progress and to patriotism. The history of the life of the late James Henry Daniell, of Norwich township, Franklin county, is such an interesting biographical story as has been referred to.

Mr. Daniell was of English descent. His grandfather, James Daniell, passed all his life in Cornwall, England, and his son James, the father of James H., was born in the town of St. Agnes, Cornwall, in 1805, and came to the United States when about thirty-two years of age, bringing with him his wife and only child. He found employment in the mines of West Vir- ginia, and afterward was a mine superintendent in Schuylkill county, Penn- sylvania. In 1841 he abandoned coal-mining for a time and turned his attention to lead mining in Wisconsin. In 1845 he returned to Schuylkill county in the Keystone state, where he resumed his place as a mine superintendent and prosecuted the duties connected with that position with success, being paid twelve hundred dollars a year, and was offered four- teen hundred dollars a year if he would relinquish a plan he had formed to go to California and dig for gold, and remain in Pennsylvania and direct the coal-producing interests of his employers. But the gold fever was upon him, and, accompanied by four of his sons, he set out for California, and, going by the way of the isthmus of Panama, he arrived at San Francisco March 17, 1855. Not long afterward he died, at a mining camp known as Whisky Town, and he was buried at Shasta, in the northern part of Cali- fornia. His wife, who had come with him from England, died at Potts- ville, Pennsylvania, in 1847. His second wife was by maiden name Annikiah Lathlane, who remained in Pennsylvania with their family when he went to California and died near Pottsville. By his first wife his children were Mary Ann, deceased; James, a resident of California; James Henry, James Francis, James John, James John and James Mark. By his second marriage his chil- dren were James Mark (2d), James Samuel, James George (deceased), and James George (2d), who lives at Steelton, Pennsylvania.

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James Henry Daniell was born at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pennsyl- vania, November 16, 1835, and was educated in the public schools of that city. When he was about twenty years old he went to California, with his father and three brothers. In 1861 he enlisted in Company K, Fiftieth Regi- ment of California Volunteer Infantry, with which he served continuously until honorably discharged in New Mexico, November 27, 1864. Immedi- ately thereafter he started upon a walk of seventeen hundred miles across the plains to Kansas City, Missouri, and from there he proceeded by public conveyances to his old home in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. There he took up the work of a blacksmith, from which he at length drifted into other occupations. In September. 1865, he was married, in Schuylkill county, to Miss Sarah Burnish, a daughter of John Burnish, who with others erected the first mill at Pottsville. In 1868, with his wife and child, he went to Wis- consin, with the intention of settling there, but did not like the country and returned to Pennsylvania, whence he soon went to Lynchburg, Virginia, Returning again to Pennsylvania, he lived at Allentown from 1872 to Decem- ber, 1875. Later he was a resident for a time at Hamburg, same state. Subsequently he was employed in a rail-mill in Wyoming territory for two years, until the company owning it was ready to put in operation another mill at Topeka, Kansas, when he was transferred to that point and was employed there until the mill was destroyed by fire a few months later. He was next sent by the same corporation to Columbus, Ohio, where he remained from 1881 to 1891, when he was obliged to retire from his old occupation on account of a failure of his eyesight, which had been coming upon him gradually until it became complete, the result of a sunstroke received while in service as a soldier in the Civil war. He died in 1901 and was buried under the honors of the Grand Army of the Republic. He had always been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

James Henry and Sarah (Burnish) Daniell had children named as fol- lows : James H., who married Mary Redman, of Wisconsin; Sarah, who married Matthew William Knick; James' John, who died in boyhood; Mary Eleanor, who became the wife of John Falwell; James Francis, a resident of Columbus ; James John (2d), deceased; James William, also deceased; and James Samuel, who is still a member of his father's household. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Daniell was a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic and was held in peculiar regard by his comrades because of the sad affliction of which he was a victim. He learned much by observation during the active and eventful years of his life and was a man of wide and accurate information.

WILLIAM WALL.

The name of the late William Wall has been perpetuated in that of Wall street, Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Wall was born at Clominell, county Tipperary, Ireland, in 1827, and died at Columbus in December, 1899, aged seventy-

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two years. He came to America in 1852 and located at Boston, Massachu- setts. In 1855 he located at Columbus, Ohio, where, in 1856, he married Miss Bridget Dowlan, a native of Kings county, Ireland, who came to the Ohio capital city in 1853. Immediately after his arrival he engaged in busi- ness and was very successful for twenty years. In 1876 he turned his atten- tion to real estate and bought much valuable property centrally located on State, Front, Wall and near-by streets. As a Democrat he devoted himself to public affairs. For two terms he filled the office of councilman and after that he filled the office of county commissioner of Franklin county for eight years, during which time he was president of the county board. It was under his administration that the courthouse, the county infirmary, the west side water-works building and the Broad street bridge were erected and he was instrumental in pushing forward other needed improvements. He was one of the first men appointed on the board of public works and served as a mem- ber of that body for four years. His distinguishing characteristics were energy, industry and generosity and his public spirit was always in evidence, and he took the greatest interest in Columbus and all its institutions. Before his death he gave twenty-one acres and a house to Saint Mary's Academy, and he donated money in considerable sums to the orphans' home and to each hospital in the city. It may be truthfully said of him that in all his life he never turned away a deserving applicant for charity. He was a member of the congregation of St. Joseph's cathedral, but gave to churches of all denominations with equal liberality.

For more than forty years Mr. and Mrs. Wall lived in the same block in Columbus in which she now has her home. Miss Margaret L. Kelly, Mrs. Wall's niece, was in her childhood adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Wall, and is at this time a member of Mrs. Wall's household.

HENRY ARCHER WILLIAMS.

The bench and bar of Columbus, Ohio, have long sustained an enviable reputation for everything that makes for integrity in legal and judicial pro- cedure. As the profession of any county cannot be higher than the average character of its representatives, it is obvious that Franklin county has been peculiarly fortunate in the personnel of those who have administered the law therein. One of the best known of the younger lawyers at Columbus is Henry Archer Williams, who was graduated at Wittenberg College, at Springfield, in 1885, after which he read law under the preceptorship of Gov- ernor Foraker and was admitted to the bar in October, 1887. His primary education was received in the public schools at Springfield, Ohio, at which he was gradtiated in 1881.

Mr. Williams was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, December 4, 1864, a son of Rev. Charles Holliday Williams. a native of Pulaski county, Kentucky. who died at Parkersburg, West Virginia. Rev. Charles Holliday Williams mar- ried Harriet Langdon, a daughter of James D. Langdon, of Cincinnati, Ohio,

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who in 1806, at the age of fourteen, came with his widowed mother from New England to Hamilton county, Ohio. The first Langdon in America was Lieutenant Paul Langdon, of the English navy, who settled in Massachusetts in 1630; and Governor Langdon, of New Hampshire, who in his official capacity signed his name to the constitution of the United States, was of the same family. James D. Langdon died in Cincinnati, in 1887, on a home- stead which stood on the same land which came into possession of members of the family early in the nineteenth century. Henry Archer Williams' father and grandfather. came to Ohio from Virginia. One of his great- grandfathers, William Hamilton, espoused the patriot cause in the Revolu- tionary war. Mr. Williams began the practice of his profession in the office of Governor Foraker, at Columbus, Ohio, and filled the office of commission clerk until 1890. Since then he has given his attention entirely to the law, and has been so successful that he has acquired a large and lucrative practice. As a Republican he has wielded a recognized influence in state and local politics, and was the chairman of the Republican county executive committee in 1898 and in 1899. He was assistant prosecuting attorney from March, 1895, to March, 1898, under Prosecuting Attorney Dyer, who is now his law partner. He is a member of the Greek-letter college fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, and is the chairman of the national board of trustees of the American In- surance Union, a fraternal and insurance society, with headquarters at Columbus.

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A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 62

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1156

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156