USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 11
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Alonzo A. Chapman, eldest son of Thurot F., was born August 25, 1811, at Smithfield, New York, and was only a child when his parents brought him to Lorain County, Ohio, in 1817. He was married Septem- ber 30, 1832, to Miss Margaret Taylor, and had seven children by that union. He grew up in Eaton Township, and for many years was a farmer there, and was also called upon to fill various positions of trust in civic and religious bodies. For more than half a century he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and belonged to the first class organized at LaPorte. In 1866 he moved his family to Ridgeville, in Henry County, Ohio, and for many years was in the lumber business. His death occurred at Ridgeville Corners, August 5, 1890, at the age of seventy-nine. His children were: William T., Mary L., Henry L. (first), Emory N., Pamela A., Facelia and Henry L. (second).
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William T. Chapman, eldest son of Alonzo A., was born in Eaton Township of Lorain County on Butternut Ridge, July 10, 1833. He was married March 21, 1854, to Miss Fidelia S. Bannister, and became the father of three children. Perhaps no man in Lorain County made a more notable record as an educator than William T. Chapman. He entered the profession in the fall of 1852 and followed it practically continuously save for his service in the army until the spring of 1890, a period of thirty-eight years. His record aggregates fifty-seven terms. Eighteen of these terms were taught in Lorain County, one term in Cuyahoga County, two terms in Defiance County, two terms in Lucas County, twenty-three terms in Henry County, and eleven terms in Fulton County, all in Ohio. In 1867 he removed with his family to Henry County, settling in Ridgeville, and lived there for a number of years. His children were: Minnie E., Myra O., and Myrta J.
The sons of Alonzo Chapman made a notable record as soldiers in the Civil war. Willian T. enlisted as a private August 4, 1862, and upon the organization of his company was made a sergeant. In Decem- ber, 1862, he was made orderly sergeant, and in June following received his commission as second lieutenant of Company H, One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In March, 1864, he was discharged for physical disability by order of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
The second son of Alonzo A. Chapman, Emory N. Chapman, enlisted August 11, 1862, in Company H of the One Hundred and Third Ohio
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Infantry, and was discharged September 17, 1864, on account of wounds received at Resaca, Georgia, on May 14, 1864.
Henry L., fourth son of Alonzo, enlisted December 24, 1863, in Com- pany F of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio Infantry, and being taken with the smallpox was left in a tobacco shed at Concord Station in East Tennessee, and while there both feet were frozen so the toes came off. For these injuries he received an honorable discharge May 31, 1865.
HARLAN P. CHAPMAN. A gallant soldier during the war, a success- ful farmer, and long identified with public affairs in Lorain County, Harlan P. Chapman has well upheld the traditions of the Chapmans for loyal and upright citizenship, and is one of the most honored members of that worthy family, the lineage of which down to recent generations has been traced on preceding pages.
The youngest child of Thurot F. and Elizabeth (Furray) Chapman, Harlan P. Chapman was born on Butternut Ridge in Eaton Township, Lorain County, September 6, 1844. In his boyhood and early youth he attended the common schools of that locality, and had the benefit of two terms at Oberlin College. The wholesome environment of a farm pro- vided bone and sinew for his intellectual training, and he had not yet reached years of manhood when the Civil war came upon the country and he responded to the call to help preserve the Union. August 4, 1862, he enlisted in Company H of the One Hundred and Third Regiment of Ohio Infantry, and was first sent to Camp Cleveland and then to Cin- cinnati, whence his command marched into Kentucky and spent the following winter at Frankfort. In April, 1863, the regiment moved across the state to the Cumberland River, where it was engaged in. several skirmishes with the Confederates. In the following August they . were placed under the command of Burnside, then crossed the Cumber- land Mountains and participated in the historic campaign in East Tennessee. Mr. Chapman participated in the Battle of Blue Springs, Knoxville and Armstrong's Hill, and at the latter battle, which took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1863, received, a serious wound, from which he never fully recovered and carries to this day a musket ball imbedded in the hip joint. For nine months he was confined to a hospital, and then went home on a furlough. Before being ordered back to the hospital he was married on March 31, 1864, and a pair of crutches were under his arms as he took his part in the ceremony which made him and Miss Mary C. Pitkin man and wife. Miss Pitkin's home was at Brunswick, Medina County. Mr. Chapman was not called upon for further active service with the army and received his honorable discharge June 27, 1864. Having in the meantime become head of a family he then settled upon his present farm in Carlisle Township near the Village of LaPorte.
While fully half a century has been given to his duties as an agricul- turist, this has been frequently interrupted by periods of public service. A stanch republican, Mr. Chapman has enjoyed the position of a leader in his party in this county. For three years he served as postmaster at LaPorte and at the same time conducted a general store there. In November, 1892, he was elected treasurer of Lorain County for a term of two years and re-elected, so that he served altogether four years as county treasurer. Since then he has been mainly retired from public duties and from the active work of the farm, and now lives quietly at his attractive home in LaPorte, three miles south of Elyria. His valuable farm of fifty-three acres is nicely situated on the electric interurban line.
Mr. Chapman is a charter member of Richard Allen Post, G. A. R., at Elyria, and has several times been honored with the office of post
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commander. At the recent general census he was sent as enumerator for Carlisle Township. In January, 1911, the Sons of Veterans organ- ized the H. P. Chapman Camp at Elyria, and the naming of this camp was a fit recognition of the services of one of Lorain County's gallant. soldiers.
Mr. Chapman and wife are the parents of three children. The oldest, Erie D., is individually mentioned on other pages. The son Otto B. is married and is now managing the old farm at LaPorte. Oleo E. is now the wife of A. E. Giles, also living at LaPorte. The two younger children were born at LaPorte, and the oldest was born at Brunswick in Medina County. Otto and his sister Mrs. Giles were educated at LaPorte and in the public schools of Elyria, and Mrs. Giles is a graduate of the high school of the latter city. Possessing exceptional musical talent, she was trained in that art in the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin and is now a well known teacher of piano. Her husband is also a graduate of the Elyria High School, and has been prominent in musical circles, being a member of the Elyria City Band and of the local orchestra. Mr. Giles is now pursuing a business course in the Oberlin Business College.
ERIE D. CHAPMAN. The actual administration of the Elyria post- office has been in the hands of Erie D. Chapman now for more than seventeen years. As assistant postmaster he has every detail of that office at his fingers' ends, and has proved himself vigilant, diligent, pro- ficient and well worthy of the responsibilities reposed in him. He is one of the best known citizens of Lorain County and possesses the sub- stantial character and solid ability for which the Chapman family have always been noted. He is a son of Harlan P. and Mary C. (Pitkin) Chapman, and a member of the noted Chapman family whose line has been traced on preceding pages since it was first established in America upwards of 300 years ago.
Born at Brunswick, Medina County, Ohio, March 21, 1868, Erie D. Chapman as a boy attended the public schools both of Elyria and Ober- lin, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Business College. His practical career began as clerk in a dry goods store in Oberlin, and from there he came to Elyria and during the four years his father was county treasurer, during the '90s, was chief assistant in that office. O. F. Carter of Oberlin succeeded Harlan P. Chapman as county treasurer, and the latter's son remained on duty under County Treasurer Carter for a little over six months, from September to March.
It was in March, 1898, that Mr. Chapman became identified with the Elyria postoffice as assistant postmaster. At that time I. II. Griswold was postmaster. In a short time he had made himself master of the varied details of the local office, and made his services so invaluable that he was retained in the same position by J. H. Bath, who succeeded Mr. Griswold, and when in 1913, following a change from republican to democratic administration, D. W. Seward was appointed under the new regime, Mr. Chapman was retained as assistant, and his work has been such that he ought to be held in that office as long as he desires it. In March, 1915, he completed seventeen years of continuous service, and during that time had helped reorganize the local management to provide for the successive improvements made in postal affairs, first looking after the arrangements of rural delivery routes and in more recent years having a part in the introduction of the postal savings and parcel post features to the local service.
In politics Mr. Chapman is a stanch republican, and has served on a number of committees of the party. Fraternally he is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 56, F. & A. M., at Elyria, with the Royal Arch Chapters, the Council, with the Knight Templar Commandery and with Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Cleveland. He is a charter
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member of Lodge No. 465 of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, belongs to the H. P. Chapman Camp, Sons of Veterans, which was organized and named in honor of his father in January, 1911. He is also a charter member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce. Though his duties confine him closely he takes his recreations out of doors in fishing and hunting trips whenever possible.
On April 20, 1898, Mr. Chapman married Miss Minnie Elizabeth Thayer of Elyria. Her father, James Thayer, is now living with Mr. and Mrs. Chapman, and her mother died here several years ago. They were Ohio people, lived near Zanesville for a number of years, but Mrs. Chap- man was born in Medina County. She was educated in the Elyria public schools, and as a musician has a reputation of more than local note. She attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland School of Music, and also took instruction under private teachers at Cleveland both in piano and violin. An honor that recently came to her was her appointment as director of the Elyria Extension Department of the Sherwood Music School of Chicago. The Sherwood Music School, which was founded by the late William H. Sherwood, whose reputation as America's greatest pianist is hardly disputed, is the only conservatory of established reputation to adopt the plan of extension work, though several of the noted European schools of music have long applied that system. Mrs. Chapman for the past ten years, since 1905, has been leader of the theater orchestra of Elyria, and has conducted a large class of students in the study of violin and piano. It was her standing in local musical circles which led to her selection by the Sherwood School to take charge of the local branch of its extension department. This extension department affords the prestige and experience of one of the best known conservatories to Elyria, so that local students, without the expense involved in months of residence away from home, may secure the advantages of metropolitan conservatory training and earn credits and diplomas that entitled them to recognition for proficiency in their chosen art. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are the parents of three sons: Harlan Thayer, who is in the U. S. Navy, Erie Degrass and Max Joslyn. They were all born in Elyria and are the two youngest students in the graded schools of that city.
ERWIN WORCESTER. For a great many years the Worcester family have been identified with that part of Lorain County adjacent to Oberlin, and Erwin Worcester, whose enterprise as a dairyman is the largest business of its kind in Oberlin, is a brother of P. G. Worcester, in con- nection with whose name are published many facts of family history and interest.
Born near Oberlin. January 31. 1871, Erwin Worcester has had a very active career. He grew up in the country, attended the public schools and high school, and his first regular occupation was as a car- penter. which he followed ten years. He then went to the Far West and from San Francisco sailed out on various vessels along the Pacific Coast and in the Pacific trade as a salt water mariner for four years. With that experience he came back to Lorain County. graduated from the business college in 1895. and then continued his studies in the Oberlin Academy for one vear. For five years Mr. Worcester was connected with a mail order house in Toledo, and after that for nine years was at Cleveland. engaged in contracting and in the railway mail service.
On returning to Oberlin in 1910 he engaged in the dairy business and now has the largest concern of its kind tributarv to the city.
In March. 1897. he married Bertha C. Baggaley, daughter of Edwin Baggaley, who was a native of England, and since coming to America
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has lived in Wood County, where he has been connected with various lines of business and at one time was postmaster at Weston. Mrs. Worcester was born at Weston, Ohio. To their union have been born four children: Marion Emeline, now attending high school; Madge in the sixth grade of the public schools; Irene in the fourth grade; and Kenneth Edwin, who is four years of age. The family are members of the Second Congregational Church at Oberlin, and in politics Mr. Worcester is independent. His success in life is due to the fact that he has devoted himself absolutely to the business in hand and he is now giving his time and attention to the dairy business.
HEMAN ELY. By its name Elyria will always be a memorial to the enterprising activities of the Ely family. While there were a few earlier settlers than Judge Heman Ely, he is properly considered the founder of the town, gave it its name, and breathed into the community that spirit of vitality and progress which in more modern years has made Elyria "the hundred per cent city." While the history of the city found on other pages is a reflection of the life of Judge Heman Ely, it is proper to combine in a special sketch the main facts of his interesting career.
He was born at West Springfield, Massachusetts, April 24, 1775, and died in Elyria February 2, .1852. His father, Justin Ely, of West Springfield, was a very extensive dealer in real estate, and was one of the original proprietors of what was then known as "the Connecticut Western Reserve" in Ohio, under the Connecticut Land Company. Judge Ely, who was the fourth in the family of his father, subsequently succeeded to his father's properties in what is now Lorain County. As a young man, early in the nineteenth century, he became interested in buying extensive tracts of land in Central and Western New York, and under his direction much of this land was surveyed and sold to settlers. Nearly coincident with these enterprises he was engaged in partnership with his brother Theodore in New York City, and for ten years they managed an extensive exporting business, dealing with European coun- tries and the East Indies. As a matter of business Heman Ely was one of the few Americans of that time who frequently "went abroad." He visited England, Holland, France and Spain, and remained in France long enough to acquire the language, for that purpose separating himself from pleasant friends and living entirely with French families. His residence in Paris, from July, 1809, to April, 1810, made him a witness of events of world-wide significance. It was the high tide of Emperor Napoleon's reign. In August, 1809, Judge Ely witnessed the grand fete when Napoleon appeared with Empress Josephine, and in the evening he attended a ball at the Hotel de Ville, where a cotillion was danced by a set composed exclusively of kings and queens. A few months later Empress Josephine was divorced, and Judge Ely was a spectator of the formal entrance into Paris of Emperor Napoleon with Empress Maria Louise of Austria, followed by the religious ceremony of their marriage at the Chapel of the Tuilleries. As all students of European history are aware, practically every nation was then engaged in warfare, with Napoleon and France combating practically the entire civilized world except America. Consequently, and partly in view of the embargo placed by the French emperor upon all commerce between England and the continental countries, it was no easy matter for any foreigner to pass from country to country. Judge Ely apparently possessed that typical American quality of being able to make his way anywhere and under any circumstances, and was always quick to act in any emergency or adventure. He frequently ran the blockade, was shot
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at by privateers, and whenever means of transportation failed he would seize a small fishing boat to make his way from one country to another. In entering France he was accompanied by one friend, Mr. Charles R. Codman of Boston. They took passage from England to Holland in a Dutch fishing boat. Gendarmes patrolled the coast of Holland, and fired upon the little vessel as it attempted to land. Waiting until the cover of darkness, they quickly landed on the shores of an unknown country, where neither of the Americans had knowledge of a word of the Dutch language. For eight miles they carried their baggage, avoid- ing towns and fine mansions, and finally found a peasant who was willing to give them food and look after their baggage, which he later buried in the sand in order that it might not be discovered in case soldiers should search his cottage. The travelers then walked to Rotterdam, and soon found means to send a servant into the country to get their baggage. The travelers were closely questioned at Antwerp and other places, but finally reached Paris on July 9, 1809. While in Paris one morning they were ordered from their beds to the police courts on suspicion of speak- ing ill of Napoleon, but after some delay and annoyance were released. All France was then under an elaborate system of espionage, and cau- tion and courage were absolutely necessary to safety.
In 1810 Judge Ely returned to America and the following year he paid his first visit to Ohio, going as far west as Cleveland. In some of his correspondence he made a special note of his trip by steamboat up the Hudson River. That was only several years after Robert Fulton's Clermont had made its pioneer voyage propelled by steam. From the Hudson River he had made most of his journey on horseback. The Ely possessions in Northern Ohio aggregated about 12,000 acres lying around the falls of the Black River. On going back to New England Mr. Ely passed by Niagara Falls, and thence went up the St. Lawrence River and through Montreal. The war with England, which broke out in 1812, made it unadvisable to open or settle new territory in Ohio, and it was not until 1816 that he again visited the lands best known as "No. 6, Range 17, Connecticut Western Reserve." At that time he made arrangements for future settlement, contracting for the construction of a grist and sawmill and a log cabin to be completed early in the follow- ing year.
In February, 1817, accompanied by his step-brother, Ebenezer Lane, who subsequently became chief justice of Ohio, and attended by a con- siderable company of skilled workmen and laborers, he left West Spring- field for the Western Reserve of Ohio. He and Mr. Lane rode in a stout covered wagon, while the others walked or rode on ox cart conveyances which also carried provisions and implements. March 17, 1817, the company forded the stream known as Black River and took possession of the log cabin already erected. The site chosen was high land be- tween the two branches of the Black River. Each branch had a fall of forty feet within a comparatively short stretch, and thus afforded some splendid water power, unusual in a country so prevailingly level as Northern Ohio. To the settlement Judge Ely supplied the name "Elyria," improvised from his own name, and from that time forward gave the best energies of his life to the development of the little com- munity of which he was the founder.
In 1818 several houses were built, the largest being the home of Judge Ely, a cut of which appears on other pages of this work, and another was the Beebe Tavern on the opposite side of Broad Street, which is also illustrated. Judge Ely's residence, the first frame house erected in Elyria, has been described as follows: "In dimensions 45x40 feet, two stories. with cellar under the main part; kitchen in the rear; fire-
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place in every room, and brick oven in the kitchen. No stoves were known at that time. The siding of the house was made from a single whitewood tree cut on the place near a bend in the road. A large barn was built at the time. Invitations were sent to Ridgeville, which was settled before Elyria, and both frames were raised on the same day."
Up to this time Mr. Ely had lived a bachelor, but in the fall of 1818 he returned to his old home in West Springfield as a passenger on Walk-on-the-Water, the first steamboat that ever plied Lake Erie to Buffalo. On October 9th he married Miss Celia Belden, who soon afterwards returned with him to the new village. As the house above described was not yet completed, they lived for a time in a log house. Mrs. Ely was a woman of lovable disposition and it was to the deep grief of her many friends that she did not long enjoy the home which she helped to make. She died January 7, 1827.
In 1818 a postoffice was established at Elyria. Six years later a new county was formed, and to it Judge Ely gave the name Lorain, with Elyria as the county seat. While abroad he had spent some delightful months in the Province of Lorraine, France, and it was in honor of that country of such diversified national experience that Lorain County was named. At the same time the First Church of Christ was organized at Elyria, with Rev. Daniel W. Lathrop as pastor. Religious services, however, had been conducted in previous years. Judge Ely collected members of the little colony and read them a sermon, and called upon professing Christians to offer prayer. While not a member of any church himself, he valued Christian institutions, and contributed liberally to their maintenance. However, in 1841, the reading of a""'Child's Book on Repentance," written by Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, wrought a vital change in his personal experience.
Nowhere is Judge Ely's influence more permanently impressed upon the present city than in the plan of the town. He arranged for broad intersecting streets, ample public grounds, and on opposite sides of the square assigned lots for a church and schoolhouse. He subsequently was the prime factor in erecting a building for a high school or academy, in a more retired locality, and built a commodious house for the residence of the principal in order that boarding pupils from the surrounding country might be accommodated. Thus more perhaps than any other individual he influenced the early institutional life of Elyria.
Among the early settlers Judge Ely naturally possessed a leadership consequent upon his broad activities and his world travels and experi- ence. The range of his interests was remarkable. He was especially fond of horticulture, and spent much of the time in the summer seasons in his garden, where he collected the choicest varieties of vegetables, trees and vines, and this avocation likewise had its beneficial influence upon the community, since he freely distributed samples of his trees and shrubs to all who desired them. Thus in one way or another he was almost constantly engaged in some form of vital public service. During 1831-32 he served as a member of the state board of equalization, and from 1835 to 1845 was one of the associate judges under the old state constitution.
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