USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 12
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Miss Celia Belden, who married Judge Ely at West Springfield, Massachusetts, October 9, 1818, was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, October 5, 1796, a daughter of Col. Ezekiel Porter and Mary (Parsons) Belden. She died at Elyria January 7, 1827. There were three children of the union : Heman, Jr., Albert and Mary Belden, all now deceased. At Mansfield, Connecticut, August 20, 1828, Judge Ely married Harriet M. Salter, daughter of Gen. John Salter. She was born at Mansfield, Connecticut, March 20, 1792, and died at Elyria August 6, 1846. The
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one son of this union, Charles A., died in 1864. On December 7, 1846, he married for his third wife Mrs. Cynthia Sergeant, widow of John Sergeant of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and daughter of Dr. Jeremiah and Amelia (Ely) West of Tolland, Connecticut. She was born at Tolland July 21, 1791, and died at Hartford, Connecticut, August 5, 1871.
HEMAN ELY, JR. Son of Judge Heman Ely, the founder of Elyria, whose life and services have been sketched on other pages, Heman Ely, Jr., likewise made himself a conspicuous factor in the business and public life of Elyria. Born at Elyria October 30, 1820, he died in that city July 8, 1894, at the age of seventy-four. As a boy he attended the old Elyria High School, and also attended a school at Farmington, Connecticut. In his father's office he acquired a thorough training and insight into the real estate business, which he followed for many years. Like his father, though at a later period in the development of the county, he identified himself with many of its leading institutions. He was connected with the old Lorain Bank, established in 1847, with its successor, the First National Bank, organized in 1864, and with the successor of the First National, the National Bank of Elyria, organized in 1883. He was president of the National Bank of Elyria at the time of his death, and had been in each successive institution a director, and for a number of years had been vice president. In 1852, with a number of other men, he secured the building of that section of the Lake Shore &, Michigan Southern Railway, then known as the "Junction Road," from Cleveland to Toledo. From 1870 to 1873 he was a member of the State Legislature, and assisted in molding the first insurance laws for the State of Ohio.
On September 1, 1841, Mr. Ely married Miss Mary Harris Montieth, a daughter of Rev. John and Abigail (Harris) Montieth. To this union were born three children : Celia Belden; George H. Ely, who is a well known citizen of Elyria, and former state senator; and Mary Montieth. The mother of these children died at Elyria March 1, 1849. On May 27, 1850, Mr. Ely married for his second wife Miss Mary F. Day, daughter of Hon. Thomas and Sarah (Coit) Day, of the prominent family of that name originating in Hartford, Connecticut. To the sec- ond marriage were born four children: Edith Day, Charles Theodore, Albert Heman and Harriette Putnam. Mrs. Ely died at Elyria in 1895, about a year after her husband.
The late Mr. Ely was very prominent in social affairs and was really a gentleman of the old school. Distinguished honors were paid him in the Masonic fraternity. He took his first degrees in that order in 1852. From 1858 to 1871 he was worshipful master of King Solomon Lodge No. 56, at Elyria. In 1857 he received the Order of Knighthood in Oriental Commandery of Knights Templar No. 12, at Cleveland, and served as eminent commander there from December, 1861, to December, 1865, and from 1864 to 1871 was grand commander of the grand com- mandery of Knights Templar of Ohio. He was also identified with the supreme council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, and was its treasurer from May, 1867, to September, 1891. He received the much coveted honor of a thirty-third degree. The Congregational Church of Elyria has much for which to be grateful to members of the Ely family, and to Heman Ely, Jr., in particular. He was a member of that congregation from 1838, and for many years one of its officers and for ten years superintendent of the Sunday school. In politics he was a republican. Personally, while the range of his interests was widely extended, he was averse to undue notice, and preferred the unassuming, charitable and dignified position of the private citizen.
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JOHN J. NICHOLS. It was given to the late John J. Nichols to become one of the representative agriculturists and stock-growers of Lorain County, and he was a child at the time when the family home was established in Ohio. He was born at Elzing, Norfolkshire, England, and was a son of John and Elizabeth (Dent) Nichols, the former of whom was born and reared at Elzing and the latter of whom was born at Castle Acre, England, a daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Titeringim) Dent. John Nichols was born in the year 1800 and bore the full patro- nymic of his father, John Nichols, Sr. John and Elizabeth (Dent) Nichols came to America in the year 1835, and their voyage across the Atlantic was made on a sailing vessel of the type common to that period, six weeks and one day elapsed ere they disembarked in the port of New York City, whence they soon afterward continued their westward journey and established their home on a pioneer farm near Sandusky, Ohio, the remainder of their lives having been passed in Erie County. Of their eleven children five were born in England, and the other six claimed the United States as their place of nativity.
John J. Nichols was a child at the time of the family immigration to the United States and he was reared to adult age on the pioneer farm of his father in Erie County, Ohio, where his early education was obtained in the common schools of the period. He continued his active association with agricultural enterprise in Erie County until about the year 1855, when he came to Lorain County and instituted the development of a . farm in Black River Township, where he engaged also in the manufacture . of brick. He became one of the representative men of the township and here both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives, as promi- nent and honored citizens of Lorain County. They were pioneer mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lorain County and were zealous members of the First Methodist Church of Lorain for many years.
The marriage of Mr. Nichols to Miss Martha Elwood was solemnized in Erie County, and they became the parents of three children. After the death of his first wife Mr. Nichols wedded Miss Deborah W. Lowe, daughter of Stephen and Rebecca Lowe, and she survived him by a number of years.
Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols the following brief data are given: Ezra C. married Miss Ella Thomas; Violet E. became the wife of William E. Lowe; Elmina died in infancy ; Byron G. is indi- vidually mentioned on other pages of this publication; Charles A. is likewise the subject of a specific sketch in this work; J. Bert married Miss Jennie Ramsdell; Erwin H. first married Miss Ida M. Hicks and after her death wedded Miss Eva Bryant; and Miss Grace E. is a popu- lar teacher in the public schools of Lorain County.
Of the eleven children of John and Elizabeth (Dent) Nichols the five who were born prior to the family immigration to the United States were Thomas, Mary, Susan, John J. and Ann, and the names of those who were born in Erie County, Ohio, were as here noted: George, William, Samuel, Elizabeth, Delia and Benjamin.
CHARLES A. NICHOLS. He whose name introduces this paragraph is a native son of Lorain County and is a scion of staunch English stock, his paternal grandparents having come from England to establish a home in America somewhat more than eighty years ago. He has been a resident of Lorain County from the time of his nativity and is now engaged in the real estate and insurance business as one of the representative exponents of these lines of enterprise in the City of Lorain.
Charles Arthur Nichols was born in Black River Township, Lorain County, Ohio, on the 2d of February, 1870, and is a son of John J. and
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Deborah (Chase) Nichols, concerning whom more specific mention is made on other pages of this work. In the public schools of Lorain County Mr. Nichols acquired his early educational training, and in the meanwhile he gained effective discipline in connection with the operations of his father's farm. As a youth he became a clerk in a grocery store in the City of Lorain, and after he had gained a thorough knowledge of the details of this line of enterprise he engaged in the retail grocery business in an independent way, as a member of the firm of Nichols & Gawn, in which his coadjutor was Harry B. Gawn. This alliance continued eight years, and since that time Mr. Nichols has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Lorain, where he has built up a substantial and representative enterprise in these important lines and where he gives special attention to the handling of city property.
Mr. Nichols is a progressive business man and alert and public- spirited citizen of his native county, where he takes lively interest in all things that tend to advance civic and material prosperity. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Tribe of Ben Hur.
On the 26th of December, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Nichols to Miss Hattie Burtis, a native of New York State, and they have six children, namely : Lucille, John Raymond, James Burtis, Nina May, Charles Arthur, Jr., and Virginia.
MISS ALMA ROSE MORIARTY. In a list of the prominent citizens of any community today, mention is made of women as well as men, for whether they are actively in the business world or not, the high position of woman as a factor in civilization is being recognized as it has never ยท been before. Any person, regardless of sex, who has accomplished as much real service in a community as Miss Rose Moriarty has performed in Elyria, is entitled to all the commendation and respect which true ability should command anywhere.
For nearly fifteen years Miss Moriarty has been identified with the municipal government of Elyria. She has served through six successive administrations as deputy city auditor, and is not only a master of the routine detail of office but has always been equal to any of the emergen- cies and it is said that she possesses a broader, more exact and pertinent knowledge of municipal law than any member of the local bar. Few individuals are better qualified for civic leadership than this splendid young Ohio woman, Rose Moriarty.
She was born at Elyria, December 19, 1882, a daughter of Thomas and Ellen (Enright) Moriarty, both of whom are now deceased. Miss Moriarty acquired her early education in the Elyria public schools, graduating from high school in June, 1900, and immediately entering the Elyria Business College, in which she completed her course by Janu- ary, 1901. With the exception of a few months of employment in the office of Topliff & Ely, she has always worked for the city. Her appoint- ment as deputy city clerk came on October 3, 1901, from W. H. Park, and when the office of city auditor was created in 1903, she was appointed the deputy. She became clerk of the department of public safety May 3, 1903, and at the same date was appointed clerk of the sinking fund department, and has been clerk of the civil service department since January 1, 1910. By her industry, earnestness, broad comprehension, Miss Moriarty has gained the esteem and admiration of all the friends and leaders in the good government movement at Elyria. One of the strongest testimonials to her ability is found in the public statement recently made by C. M. Braman, in his announcement of his candidacy
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for the office of city auditor. Mr. Braman said: "I declare it my intention, if nominated in the primaries and honored by an election in November, to retain the services of Miss Rose Moriarty as deputy, who has served in an admirable capacity through three administrations. She is too well known to the voters of Elyria to require any extensive intro- duction in this article. Not only has she served with high credit in the auditing department of the city, but has rendered invaluable service in every department of the city government by reason of her broad and correct knowledge of municipal affairs. I would regard it a duty to retain her in office so long as her services are of such high order, and cooperate with her to the extent of my ability. A victory for myself I shall construe quite as much a tribute to Miss Moriarty, who has honored her city here at home and brought much credit to it over the State."
Miss Moriarty out of her experience and study is a woman who has something to say, and has the ability to state her position and her argu- ments with an earnest forcefulness which has frequently brought admir- ing comments. She has quite frequently delivered addresses before various gatherings and one of her addresses which attracted wide atten- tion was that on Civic Righteousness, which she delivered several times in Lorain County. Miss Moriarty is a republican in politics, and is one of the local leaders in the equal suffrage movement, and a member of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. She is also affiliated with the Ladies of the Maccabees, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Ohio. Miss Moriarty is numbered among the stockholders of the Lorain County Bank.
SUMNER G. CROOKS. A native of the old Buckeye State, Sumner George Crooks has gained prestige as one of the representative business men of the younger generation in the thriving City of Lorain, where he is the efficient and popular manager of the substantial business here con- ducted by the Sumner Creamery Company, which is a branch of an extensive business which has its headquarters in the City of Akron, the enterprise in Lorain having been established on the 1st of March, 1909, and the progressive, careful and energetic administration of the present manager having been the force through which the business has here been developed to its large volume, making it a valuable contribution to the industrial prestige of the City and County of Lorain.
Mr. Crooks was born in Medina County, Ohio, on the 16th of March, 1886, and is a son of Earl E. and Elta (Sumner) Crooks, likewise natives of this state and representatives of sterling old families of Medina County. He whose name introduces this article acquired his early education in the public schools of his native county, and when but twelve years of age he gained his initial experience in the creamery business, with which he has been continuously associated from his boyhood, and in the details of which, both technical and commercial, he is specially well informed, so that his judgment is authoritative in this important field of enterprise. He manifests loyal interest in all that concerns the civic and material welfare and progress of his home city and is essentially a wide-awake and reliable young business man who has secure place in popular confidence and esteem.
In the City of Akron, on the 3d of July, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Crooks to Miss Flora Felver, and their three children are : Audrey Burdell, Ruth Gene and June Agnes.
LEVI MORSE. In this venerable and honored citizen who died at his home in Elyria July 28, 1899, aged eighty-seven years twenty-seven days, the city possessed not only one of its oldest residents but also a man who
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represented in his long career the prominent social and civic element which composed the citizenship of this community throughout its growth from frontier settlement to a modern municipality. The late Levi Morse was a very remarkable man. Of his eighty-seven years of life, he had spent sixty-four at Elyria. He was both a witness and actor in the changing development of this long time. A substantial degree of ma- terial prosperity rewarded his industrious efforts, but the honor paid to his memory is more specially due to his fine independence of char- acter, his active influence in the civic, social, religious and business community. He was a pioneer settler, a successful business man, and a broad minded, vigorous, charitable citizen.
He brought with him to Elyria the stock of ideas, traditions, and character of a sturdy New England community. His ancestors were English, and he was descended from one of three brothers who came from England in the very early days. Many members of the Morse fam- ily are still living in and about New Haven, Connecticut, and in the county of that name at the Village of Prospect Levi Morse was born July 1, 1812, in the same year that the second war broke out with Great Britain. His parents were Lent and Lydia (Doolittle) Morse. His father was born in Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticut, was a farmer by occupation and died at the age of sixty-seven. Mrs. Lydia Morse died at the age of fifty, and of her six children, Levi was the fourth in age.
He was reared and educated at his native village and in 1835, at the age of twenty-three, came West in company with S. W. Baldwin and David B. Andrews. With these enterprising associates he boarded a sailing vessel at New Haven for New York, went by boat up the river to Albany, by canal packet to Buffalo, sailed up the lake as far as Cleve- land and from there came by stage coach to Elyria, where he arrived May 13, 1835. He found here a hamlet, with only three stores, a log house used for a jail and no church building, the population of the little community being about 400 inhabitants. He was associated with the enterprise of S. W. Baldwin, who established a store in the town, and his first years were spent as a trader among the settlers of Northern Ohio, exchanging articles of merchandise for furs and other frontier products. For a number of years he was in the employ of Mr. Baldwin, and then in 1848 embarked in the dry goods business with another one of his companions who came West in 1835, David B. Andrews, under the firm name of D. B. Andrews & Company. About two years later Mr. Andrews died and Mr. Morse carried on the business alone for a time.
One of the interesting facts which identifies him with the early history of Elyria was his appointment as the first ticket agent for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, and he assisted in running the first train to Berea and return on July 4, 1853. He filled that office for three years, after which for a time he was in the produce trade, buy- ing and selling grain. For many years he was associated with the firm of Baldwin, Laundon & Nelson.
In 1863 Mr. Morse was elected township trustee, and with the excep- tion of one term filled that office continuously up to the time of his death. He was also superintendent of the county infirmary for over two years and at one time was township treasurer. In politics he was a repub- lican, but had cast his first vote for the whig candidate in 1833, and beginning with 1836 voted for every successive whig or republican candidate until the end of his life. In church relations he was a Methodist, joining the church when he first came to Elyria, when the society itself was only six or seven years old and was one of its oldest
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members when he died. He had been foremost in encouraging and sup- porting every interest of the church, had continuously held a position on the official board, and again and again had sacrificed time and money for the benefit of the organization. He was of the type of Christian who takes his religion into his daily life and affairs and expressed through his life many of the highest ideals of Christian manhood. He took a prominent part in building the first church home of the Methodists, now used by the Disciples Church on East Second Street, the church edifice having been dedicated there in 1851. Since 1843 he had held an official position in the church, and at the time of his death was one among less than a dozen of the original membership of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Elyria. He was also the oldest living member of Elyria Lodge No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and always exemplified its highest mottos and symbolisms in his daily life.
On December 15, 1840, Levi Morse married Miss Betsy Minerva Mann. She was born in New York State December 7, 1818, and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. F. Brant in Boston, Massachusetts, June 29, 1909, having succumbed to the infirmities of an age that made her ninety-one years old when she died. Following the death of her husband she had removed to Boston to live with her daughter in that city, but her remains were brought back to Elyria and laid beside those of her husband. To their marriage were born six children: Milo Wes- ley, who was born April 21, 1842, and in the full tide of his youth in 1862 enlisted in Company E of the Forty-second Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was killed while on duty as a sharpshooter at the siege of Vicksburg, May 25, 1863; Clara Adelia, who was born Jan- uary 15, 1846, and died February 18, 1849; Alfred D., born January 20, 1851, and now a resident of Elyria; Edward F., born November 11, 1853, also a resident of Elyria; Lydia May, who is the wife of Rev. J. F. Brant, now prominent in the anti-saloon movement and living at Boston ; and Charles L., the youngest of the family, a resident of Elyria and mentioned on other pages.
At the death of Levi Morse an entire community paid the sincere tribute of their respect and admiration for his good and purposeful life. Addresses and resolutions of respect came from the church which he had so long served from the lodge of which he was the oldest initiate, and from men and women in all the walks of life. While these cannot be included in this brief sketch, it is only a matter of justice to quote somewhat at length from the remarks of his old friend and associate, William A. Braman, who spoke from intimate knowledge of the life and works of the good man who had gone to his reward. Mr. Braman spoke of Mr. Morse's coming to Elyria when the present city was but a hamlet and when poverty was a common inheritance and when the ties of com- mon brotherhood were strong and enduring. He knew Mr. Morse as a boy and one of the first faces he remembered outside of his home circle was that of the citizen who had just died. That face he spoke of as kind and sympathetic, "such a one as boys do not run away from. There was nothing forbidding about it, there was nothing imperious in his bearing. Our friend had early learned an important secret, namely, that in order to have friends it is necessary to be friendly.
"As a merchant Mr. Morse was popular. I recall remarks which were made by my father and mother, showing their estimate of his worth. In our family living six miles away, Mr. Morse was known as Levi. He was sought out as the favorite of the men doing business in Elyria at that time as being the one to trade with. They felt safe in his hands. Their faith in his honesty and integrity was unbounded.
"In later years, when I became associated with him on the board of
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trustees of the. township, I was impressed with his fidelity to his con- stituents and his scrupulous regard for every detail pertaining to his office. His early education in his New England home had fitted him for the duties which he was called upon to perform. He early learned the value of money and in all my acquaintance I have never known a public officer in the distribution of the people's money to be more pain- staking and conscientious. For nearly forty years his office brought him in contact with the poor and unfortunate, and his hand, though not lavish, never closed against worthy objects.
"He died in the harness at eighty-seven, having been chosen but a few months previous by his fellow citizens as their representative for the following three years. What a record! In full possession of all his faculties at eighty-seven. What a commentary! It speaks of his good habits and his correct life. Mr. Morse was one of the pillars of society, one of that class of sturdy men of character without which society would be a failure. His citizenship was always of a high order. In the agitation of every moral and social question he was always to be found on the right side. It was never necessary to see him to find out where he stood. He was in favor of temperance, social order and the enforcement of laws. Not in a sensational sense, but his firmness was like the rock of ages."
In conclusion Mr. Braman quoted as typical of the conditions under which Levi Morse had quitted the earthly tabernacle the following beau- tiful lines :
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