USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio > Part 65
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He has successfully engaged in general farming and the raising of fruit, his land being particularly adapted to the latter.
Mr. Watts was married, October 24, 1865, to Miss Martha Chambers, who was a native of Franklin county, born November 27, 1843. She is the second daughter in the family of William B. and Elizabeth ( Haughn) Cham- bers, who were early settlers of the county. She was reared upon a farm and her education was obtained in the district school. She and her husband became the parents of six children, namely: Lizzie, the wife of F. G. Gould, of Columbus, by whom she has two children,-Jay and Martha E .; Olive, the wife of A. B. Birch, of Columbus, by whom she has two children,- Leland and Ada M. ; Ella, who died October 7, 1899, at the age of twenty- seven years; Albert H., an electrician for the Consolidated Street Car Com- pany, of Columbus, for some time, but now engaged as electrician in the mines in West Virginia; William R., a clerk in a grocery in Columbus; and Jessie, now a scholar in the Central high school of Columbus.
In his political faith Mr. Watts is a Republican, has done much for the party and is always earnest in his efforts to secure the spread of its prin- ciples. He has been honored by his fellow citizens many times by election to office, frequently being judge of election, supervisor, constable and a mem- ber of the school board for nine years. He is a most consistent member of the Methodist church, having become connected with it in 1864, and in this religious belief he is joined by his estimable wife. Mr. Watts has been church treasurer, church trustee, and has always done even more than duty demanded in support of it. His assistance very materially aided in the build- ing of the Glenwood Methodist church, and in all the relations of life he has been a good citizen, deserving of the high esteem in which he is held.
WALTER N. P. DARROW.
Walter N. P. Darrow has been a resident of Columbus since 1890, but though he is numbered among the comparatively recent arrivals he has already gained a wide circle of friends. A native of Rochester, New York, he was born in the year 1863, and is a son of Wallace Darrow, a lieutenant of light artillery in the New York National Guard. The family is one of the old and prominent ones of the country. When the Mayflower brought its band of pilgrims to the shores of the new world that they might have religious liberty the ancestors of the Darrows were among the number, and when the colonists attempted to throw off all allegiance to England Titus Darrow, the great-grandfather of our subject, was among those who voted for the independence of the nation. Leavitt Darrow was a native of Plymouth, Con- necticut, and served in the war of 1812. On the maternal side General Dar- row is a representative of the Paine family, his mother having been in her maidenhood Miss Ellen Louise Paine, a daughter of Nicholas E. Paine, who was born in Maine and subsequently removed from the Pine Tree state to Rochester, New York. He became prominent in public affairs there and about
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1854 was elected to serve as the mayor of the city. He had previously resided near Sanford, Maine, and was a colonel on the staff of one of the governors of that state.
General Darrow, whose name introduces this record, spent his youth in the east and was appointed a cadet at West Point, where he completed the four-years course and was graduated with the class of 1886. He was made second lieutenant of the Fourth United States Artillery and resigned in 1891. For two years he was stationed at Fort Monroe and was graduated in the artillery school. In 1891 he took command of the Columbus Light Battery, Company H, and continued to serve in that capacity until elected, in 1893, liteutenant-colonel of the Fourteenth Ohio National Guard. 111 1896 he was elected colonel of the First Artillery, Ohio National Guard, having command of eight batteries until his resignation in 1897. In 1900 he was appointed by Governor Nash a member of his staff, with the rank of brigadier general and chief of engineers. He is a man of fine appearance, of soldierly bearing and is prominently and widely known in military circles. His interest in military affairs continued unabated from the time when he wore the country's uniform as a cadet at West Point.
The General is also a leading representative of the business interests of Columbus. When he came to the city in 1890 he opened a real-estate office and has since conducted many important realty transactions. He is thor- oughly familiar with the values of property and is thus enabled to assist his clients in making judicious investments. He is also a director in the Park Building & Loan Association and is a trustee of the Ohio Medical Uni- versity.
In 1890 he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Neil, a daughter of IV. A. Neil, deceased, who was a very prominent citizen of Ohio's capital city.
General Darrow is a member of the Loyal Legion, of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the Society of the War of 1812. He is a man. who is very popular by reason of his genial manner, cordial disposition and unfailing courtesy. In business he has a strict regard for the ethics of com- mercial life and has won and retained the confidence and patronage of the public.
IRA H. CRUM.
Ohio has always been distinguished for the high rank of her bench and bar. Many of her attorneys and jurists have been men of national fame, and there is scarcely a town or city in the state than cannot boast of one or more lawyers capable of crossing swords in forensic combat with any of the distinguished legal lights of the United States. Among the prominent attorneys of Franklin county is Ira H. Crum, director of law of the city of Columbus, and the head of the firm of Crum, Raymund & Hedges, whose office is in the Hayden block, that city.
The Crum family is of Holland origin and was founded in America
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during the seventeenth century. Our subject's great-great-grandfather, John Crum, was born and reared in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, and was a soldier in Washington's army during the Revolutionary war. At the close of that struggle he settled in Cumberland county, Maryland, where he oper- ated a forge and iron foundry. In 1800 the great-grandfather, John Crum, Jr., located at what is now Ennisville, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, where he bought a farm with money brought with him in a belt around his waist. There he reared his family. His son, Cornelius Crum, our subject's grandfather, was a member of the constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, in 1837. Three years later he came to Franklin county, Ohio, bringing with him his family and household goods in wagons. Five or six weeks were consumed in making the journey. He located in Perry township, a part of his farm being now owned by Daniel Thomas, while the remainder is inside the city limits of Columbus. Later he purchased two farms in Norwich township, and upon one of these he died in 1853. His wife bore the maiden name of Rebecca Grey. In early days his older brother, William, was stolen by the Indians and finally taken to St. Joseph county, Indiana, where he later became a wealthy farmer. He died while visiting relatives in California.
William A. Crum, father of our subject, was born in Ennisville, Hunt- ingdon county, Pennsylvania, January 15, 1829, and came with his parents to Ohio in 1840. In 1851 he married Miss Martha Walton, and for several years they made their home on a farm in Norwich township, but in 1883 moved to Hilliard, where he purchased a general store and engaged in mer- chandising until his death, which occurred on the 22d of November, 1899. From boyhood he was an active and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and contributed liberally to its support. Politically he was first a Whig and later a stanch Republican, and served as township clerk for many years. His first wife died in 1887, and the following year he mar- ried Elizabeth Stewart, who still survives him.
Ira H. Crum, the only child of William A. and Martha (Walton); Crum, was born in Norwich township January 6, 1855, and attended the country schools for about four months during the year until fourteen years of age, the remainder of the time being devoted to farm work. On account of his eyes he did not resume his studies until seventeen, when he attended Westerville College for one year. During the following three years he was a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, and was graduated there in 1876. He read law with Judge Evans, of Columbus, two years and the late James E. Wright one year, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1879. Mr. Crum began the practice of law with Judge Lorenzo D. Hagerty in the Deshler Block, Columbus. In 1888 he was appointed assist- ant prosecuting attorney, Cyrus Huling then serving as prosecuting attorney, but resigned that position in January, 1892, and resumed general practice. On the 17th of April, 1899, he received the appointment of director of law of Columbus, under Mayor Samuel J. Swartz, and is now filling that position in a most creditable and satisfactory manner. Both public offices which he
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has filled have come to him unsolicited, as he was not a candidate for either, which fact plainly shows his high standing among his professional brethren. He is thoroughly versed in the law, is a man of deep research and careful investigation, and his skill and ability have won for him a lucrative practice. Prominence at the bar comes through merit alone, and the high place he has attained attests his superiority. Socially Mr. Crum is a member of Goodale Lodge, F. & A. M., of Columbus, and Norwich Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Hilliard. He has been a lifelong supporter of the Republican party, and on that ticket was candidate for prosecuting attorney in the fall of 1891, against C. C. Williams, but was defeated.
Mr. Crum was married, in May, 1891, to Miss May Sherwood, of Brown township, this county, and to them were born three children, but the oldest died in infancy unnamed, and Sherwood also died in infancy. The youngest, Martha, is still living.
SIMON SHATTUCK.
Simon Shattuck, deceased, was numbered among the honored pioneers of Franklin county, locating in this locality when it was a wild and unimproved region. In the work of development he took an active part and aided in open- ing up the country to civilization. As the years passed he faithfully per- formed his duties of citizenship, and his interest in the welfare and progress of the county never abated. Becoming widely and favorably known, he made many friends, and his death occasioned a loss to the entire community.
A native of Massachusetts, Mr. Shattuck was born in Groton, that state, in 1793, and was a brother of Captain Alexander Shattuck. Our subject grew to manhood in his native state, and was probably married there August 5, 1819, to Miss Sarah Simpson, who was born June 9, 1798, a daughter of Daniel and Sarah Simpson, natives of Maine.
On the arrival of Mr. Shattuck in Franklin county, in 1819, he pur- chased a tract of land in Perry township, for which he paid six dollars per acre. At that time it was entirely unimproved, not a stick of timber having been cut. He erected a small log cabin, with the proverbial puncheon floor, stick chimney and other accessories of a pioneer home. Into this cabin he and his family moved, and he at once turned his attention to the arduous task of clearing away the forest and converting the land into productive fields. He became a successful farmer, prospering in most of his undertakings, and afterward bought more land near his first purchase, on which his daugh- ter, Mrs. Tipton, now resides. By trade he was a cabinet-maker and an expert in that line.
Although not a member of any church, Mr. Shattuck was religiously inclined, and donated liberally to the support of churches, though always doing it in an unostentatious manner, never letting his left hand know what his right hand did. He was a reticent, reserved man, who never discussed his affairs with others, and was never known to attend to other people's busi-
JONATHAN TIPTON.
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ness. A pronounced temperance man, he was probably the first in his sec- tion to refuse to supply whisky to his harvest hands. In all of life's rela- tions he was found true to every trust reposed in him, and commanded the confidence and respect of those with whom he came in contact either in busi- ness or social circles. He died in 1876, and his estimable wife departed this life May 27, 1881. In 1835 she united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and ever lived a consistent Christian life, devoted to her home and family. Her children were ten in number, namely: Mary Ann, Harriet Ann, Rebecca Dana, Jerome, Alexander, Daniel, Thomas T., Simpson, Mary M. and George G. Of these only two are now living: Harriet Ann, now Mrs. B. F. Jaqueth, of Boston, Massachusetts; and Rebecca Dana, now Mrs. Tipton, of Perry township, this county.
Mrs. Tipton was born in that township September 16, 1825, and is now one of the oldest living native residents of Franklin county. On the 15th of November, 1847, she gave her hand in marriage to Jonathan Tipton, who was born near Harrisburg, this county, December 14, 1818, and died June 27, 1895. His parents were Thomas and Elizabeth (Tomlinson) Tipton, who came from Maryland to this county in the earliest days of its history, and first settled in Pleasant township. In their family were eleven children,. none of whom are now living in Franklin county. Two sons, Richard and Thomas C., became distinguished as physicians, and were both army surgeons in the Civil war. The latter is now living in Williamsport, Ohio. Jonathan Tipton and his wife began their married life upon a farm in Pleasant town- ship, where they lived for a number of years, and then removed to Perry township, soon afterward locating on the Shattuck homestead, where Mrs. Tipton still resides. Her husband was one of the leading and representative men of his community, and was honored with local office, serving as assessor and treasurer in Pleasant township for several terms. Before attaining his majority he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and always took a very prominent and active part in church work, serving his church faith- fully and well as steward, class-leader and Sunday-school superintendent. As a citizen he was upright and honorable, as a neighbor kind and consid- erate, and was a loving husband. Mrs. Tipton is also a devout and faith- ful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, joining the same with her mother at the early age of twelve years. She is well known for her many excellent qualities of mind and heart and is beloved by a large circle of friends. She is still well preserved for her years and possesses an excellent memory, being able to recount with clearness many of the events that transpired here in pioneer days.
CHARLES SMITH PROSSER.
Charles Smith Prosser was born March 24, 1860, in Columbus, Chen- ango county, New York. His father was Smith Prosser, the son of William H. Prosser, who left Vermont and became one of the early settlers of the 34
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Unadilla valley in central New York. William Prosser married Mary Her- rick, of Duanesburg, New York.
Smith Prosser married Emeline O. Tuttle, of the branch of Jonathan Tuttle, and from his sister Elizabeth are descended Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr and Timothy Dwight, a president of Yale College. Will- iam and Elizabeth, Tuttle, the parents of Jonathan and Elizabeth, came from England in the Planter and landed at Boston in 1635.
In 1893 Charles S. Prosser married Mary Frances Wilson, of Albany, New York, whose ancestor, William Lawrence, came to this country with the Tuttles in 1635. At the age of sixteen Charles S. Prosser entered the Union school of Brookfield, New York, and graduated with the first class in 1879 and that summer he spent in Professor Wait's preparatory school at Ithaca, entering in the fall Cornell University, from which he graduated in 1883 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. The following year he was a graduate student in natural history at Cornell and in 1884-5 was the first one elected to the Cornell fellowship in natural history. 1885-8 he was instructor in paleontology at Cornell, and continuing his graduate work received the Master of Science degree in 1886. From 1883-88 he was an assistant of Dr. Henry S. Williams, who had charge of the Devonian geology for the United States geological survey, and spent the greater part of the summer vacations in field work in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In 1888 Mr. Prosser was appointed an assistant paleontologist on the United States geological survey in the division of paleobotany under Dr. Lester F. Ward, where he remained until 1892, and while in the division was detailed for field work in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir- ginia and Arkansas. From 1892 to 1894 he was professor of natural his- tory in Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, and in 1893-94 an assistant geologist on the United States geological survey and spent the two sum- mers in the field studying the carboniferous and Permian formations of Kansas. In 1894 Mr. Prosser was called to Union College, Schenectady, New York, to organize the department of geology, where he remained as professor of geology until 1899. From 1895 to 1899 he was an assistant geologist of the New York geological survey, studying especially the Devon- ian and Silurian formations of the eastern portions of the state and contrib- uting several reports to the survey. The summer of 1896 was spent in study- ing the Permian and cretaceous formations of southern Kansas and the Per- mian of eastern Nebraska as an assistant geologist of the Kansas University geological survey.
Since 1898 he has been chief of the Appalachian division of the Mary- land geological survey, spending the summers in field work on the paleozoic formations of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. In 1900 he was appointed an assistant geologist on the Ohio geological and the United States geological surveys. In 1899 he was selected by Dr. Edward Orton as his suc- cessor and elected associate professor of historical geology in the Ohio State
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University, and in 1901 was elected professor of geology and head of the department.
Mr. Prosser was one of the first members of the Alpha Chapter of the Sigma Xi, the honorary scientific society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University, and one of the original fellows of the Geological Society of America. He is also a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, Congres Geolo- gique International, American Society of Naturalists, and other organizations for scientific research.
Professor Prosser has published more than fifty geological papers and reports, some of the more important being : The Devonian System of Eastern Pennsylvania and New York ( Bulletin No. 120, United States Geological Survey ) ; the Classification of the Upper Paleozoic Rocks of Kansas (Journal of Geology, volume iii), in which the names for the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian formations of the Great Plains are proposed and described ; the Upper Permian and Lower Cretaceous of Kansas (volume ii, University Geological Survey of Kansas, 144 pages, with thirty plates, sec- tions and maps) ; the Classification and Distribution of the Hamilton and Chemung Series of Central and Eastern New York ( Fifteenth and Seven- teenth Annual Reports of the New York State Geologist, 390 pages, with 88 maps, plates and sections ).
Professor Prosser is a contributor to the American Journal of Science, American Geologist, Journal of Geology, Kansas University Quarterly, Bul- letin Geological Society of America, Science and other scientific periodicals.
SILAS BORROR. i
The name of Borror has long been prominent in the history of Jackson township, Franklin county, Ohio, and one of its best known and most highly respected representatives at this time is the gentleman whose name is above.
Silas Borror, son of Jacob Borror, was born on the old Borror homestead in Jackson township August 17, 1834. A biographical sketch of his brother, Jacob Borror, Jr., which will be found elsewhere in this work, affords informa- tion as to his ancestors. He is the seventh of the nine children of his par- ents and was brought up on a pioneer farm and afforded opportunity to attend such schools as were kept in log school houses near his home. These structures were most primitive affairs, with one log cut out on each side and one end for windows, which was filled with a sash two by about twelve feet, filled with glass eight by ten inches. The scholars sat on slab benches, made from the slabs off sawlogs, their feet resting on the floor; and they studied at desks made of two-inch plank sawed from large logs and supported against the walls of the schoolrooms by pins driven in auger holes at convenient distances. The large scholars sat on high seats made from two by twelve sawed plank.
Silas remained at home, assisting with the work of the farm, until
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1855, when he was twenty-one years old. November 4, that year, he mar- ried Clorinda Orders, a daughter of Allen Orders . (a biographical sketch of whom appears on another page), who had conned her lessons in the same rude temples of knowledge above described. Immediately after their mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Borror began housekeeping in a sixteen-by-eighteen-foot log house (with a clapboard roof held on by weight poles, and a stick-and- mud chimney) on the farm where they now live. That primitive domicile was superseded by their present residence a year later. Their household outfit consisted of six chairs, a cook stove and a few cooking utensils and two beds and a table, and poorly equipped as they were to entertain company they testify that they had a good deal of it. They procured some additional furniture when they moved into their new house. When Mr. Borror bought the farm fifty-four acres were cleared. He cleared the balance, all but eighteen acres, as rapidly as was possible and eventually got the whole farm under a good state of improvement and cultivation. Looking out over their hundred acres, Mrs. Borror recalls the fact that she dropped the seed for the first hill of corn ever planted upon it.
To Mr. and Mrs. Borror have been born sixteen children, thirteen of whom are now living-seven sons and six daughters-and all of these except one son and one daughter are married. Mary C. married Henry Turner ; Christiana has never married, nor has Frank H., the youngest. The others are Allen ; George B. M. C .; Amanda, who married John Mellen; Silas C .; William J .; Emily, who married E. E. Dysart; Jonas; Clorinda M., who married Joseph Harvey ; Clara L., who married Abner Rader; and Seymour W. Two of their children died in infancy, and another, named Jacob R., died at the age of two years. Mr. and Mrs. Borror have had born to them forty-two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and their family is believed to be the largest numerically in Franklin county.
Politically Mr. Borror is a Democrat. He has been supervisor and school director and has refused other township offices, and is recognized as a man of unusual public spirit.
RICHARD JONES.
This work contains several biographical sketches of natives of Wales and descendants of Welsh ancestors who have attained prominence as farm- ers and citizens in Brown township, Franklin county, Ohio. None of those referred to is more worthy of extended mention than is the subject of this sketch.
Richard Jones is a grandson of Richard Jones, who was born in Card- iganshire, Wales. The first Richard Jones was a shoemaker and it is stated that though he had little opportunity for education he more than once showed that he was a man of ability. He owed much of such book learning as he acquired to Mary George, who became his wife and was his teacher. He was one of the best shoemakers in his vicinity and was well patronized,
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and it has been narrated that he worked always with a book before him, studying as opportunity presented itself, and that it was not long after he came under his wife's tuition before he was able to keep accounts in a satis- factory manner. In 1800 he came with his wife and four children to the United States, sailing from Liverpool to Philadelphia, landing at Penpeck, afterward called Pennypeck, within the limits of the Pennsylvania metropolis. When he arrived he was one hundred dollars in debt, but he soon paid his creditors with the proceeds of his labor at his trade. He was a religious man of the Baptist faith and had early experienced a call to preach the gospel and had preached with considerable success from the time he was married. He continued preaching in America until the end of his life, and preached once after he was eighty-four years old. He remained at Philadelphia about five years and then removed to New York state, where he farmed, worked at his trade and preached the sacred word until he died in the eighty-fifth year of his age, his wife dying at the age of eighty-three. Following will be found some items concerning their children, the first four of whom were born in Wales, the others in the United States: David R., who died on the Welsh Hills, north of Granville, Ohio, was the father of the subject of this sketch and more will be said of him further on. Nancy, who married Rich- ard Jones, died at Prospect, New York. Jane married Robert Jones and died at Remsen, New York. Hannah married Jenks Jenkins and died near Prospect, New York. Pollie married David Morris and died at Prospect, New York. Thomas married and died at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Remsen and Prospect are in Oneida county, New York, and it was near Remsen that the Rev. Richard Jones had his farm and home. Jenks Jenkins, who mar- ried Hannah Jones, had a great-grandson, Friend Jenkins, a lieutenant in the United States navy, attached to the Maine, who lost his life when that vessel went down in Havana harbor.
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