USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 19
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As a result of his growing prosperity Mr. Davidson was able in 1910 to put up a comfortable and commodious two-story frame house, and by home advantages and otherwise he has provided liberally for his family. He also put down a well on his land and has a sufficient supply of gas for domestic uses. In October, 1899, Mr. Davidson married Miss Eliza- beth Geist. Her father, Adam Geist, was a native of Germany and when quite young came to Camden Township but is now living retired at Kipton. Mr. and Mrs. Davidson have four children: Mildred A., Earl E., Florence E., and Melvin Howard, all of whom are at home and are getting their education in the Kipton schools. Mrs. Davidson is a mem- ber of the Disciples Church at Kipton. In politics Mr. Davidson has always affiliated with the democratic party.
V. ADAIR, M. D. It is as a very capable and skillful physician and surgeon that Doctor Adair has contributed his best known and most useful services to the City of Lorain, where he established his home and office after an unusually thorough training for his life vocation.
A native of Ohio, he was born at Winterset, December 1, 1882, a son of P. M. and Letitia A. (Johnston) Adair. His father was a farmer
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MR. AND MRS. ANDREW W. DAVIDSON
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and stock raiser, and the son grew up on a farm, attended country schools, finishing his literary training in the Muskingum College, and soon afterward entering the Starling Medical College at Columbus, where he was graduated with the degree M. D. in 1906. Doctor Adair before coming to Lorain had unusual opportunity for experience by the four years passed as assistant physician in the Massillon State Hospital. From there he came to Lorain, December 1, 1910, and has since enjoyed a very fine practice, and his capabilities were recognized in his appointment in May, 1914, as health officer for the City of Lorain. He is a member of the Lorain County and Ohio State Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
Fraternally Doctor Adair is identified with the Masonic order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On October 8, 1913, . he married Miss Mabel MacRae of West Bay, Novo Scotia, Canada.
HON. LAERTES B. SMITH. The distinction gained by the late Judge Smith during his long career as a lawyer and man of affairs comprise an important addition to the many worthy associations of the name in Lorain County. His was one of the first families to make permanent homes in this section of Northern Ohio. The year 1914 was the centen- nial of the Smith family residence in this county, and it is due to the varied achievements of the family during the century as well as to the individual attainments of the late Judge Smith that the following brief history is offered for permanent record.
This branch of the Smiths was long identified with New England and was of Puritan stock. The founder of the name in the wilds of Lorain County was Chiliab Smith, grandfather of the late Judge Smith. He was born in the colony of Connecticut, November 11, 1765, and died in 1840, his boyhood having been spent in the midst of the Revo- lutionary war. For a number of years his home was in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he married Nancy Marshall, who was born January 19, 1765, and died December 5, 1824. In 1814, toward the close of the second war with England, they set out with their family for the old Western Reserve of Ohio. Wagons drawn by oxen conveyed them by tedious stages to the present site of Elyria, and from there they were five days in cutting a road through the heavy forest to their permanent place of settlement, where they arrived October 16, 1814. Their home was included in the territory which in April, 1817, was organized as Amherst Township. The land came into the Smith posses- sion through a trade of eastern property with the Connecticut Land Company. Chiliab Smith was a tailor, and while looking after the work involved in clearing up a new tract of land he also gave his services to such of the pioneer families as required his skill in the cut- ting and fashioning of the homespun garments then almost universally worn. He was also an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the absence of regular preachers or missionaries he held many meetings in his neighborhood and frequently the Smith home was the scene of a gathering for prayer and the reading of the gospel. When old age came upon him, grandfather Smith turned his farm over to his children, who also inherited the good name of one of the finest pioneer characters in Amherst Township. The Smith homestead was located on Little Beaver Creek, four miles west of the present City of Elyria, and the home was also employed for purposes as an inn, and was the first tavern in that locality.
In the next generation was David Smith, who was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, March 20, 1797, and was a growing youth of seventeen when the family moved to Lorain County. In 1824 he mar-
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ried Miss Fannie Barnes. She was born in Berkshire County, December 23, 1802. To their union were born nine children, six of whom reached maturity. David Smith was a man who lived at peace with his neigh- bors and accomplished a great deal in his quiet way. In politics he was a democrat. He died April 30, 1861. His wife survived until August, 1888. She was of the Presbyterian faith, and attended the congrega- tion at Elyria until 1840.
The third in his father's family, Laertes B. Smith was born in Amherst Township of Lorain County, September 21, 1828, and was sixty-nine when he died at Elyria, May 12, 1897. Though a lawyer for many years, his early experiences were all of the farm and mechan- ical trades. Educated in the common schools of his native township, he left the farm at twenty-one to learn the trade of harness-maker, which he followed for several years as his chief means of livelihood. At twenty-five he accepted employment in a hardware store at LaPorte, Indiana, and lived there about five years. His commercial experience had not entirely satisfied him, and on returning to Lorain County in 1858 he began to prosecute his law studies as vigorously as circum- stances would permit. The firm with which he studied was Vincent & Sheldon in Elyria. Admitted to the bar in 1860, he began his practice with the same firm. During the following year Mr. Vincent retired, leaving Sheldon and Smith together, but soon after the outbreak of the war the former went into the army. The next year he formed a part- nership with Judge W. W. Boynton, the venerable lawyer and jurist, who remains as one of the oldest figures in the Lorain County bar. They were in practice together about four years.
In June, 1871, Mr. Smith was appointed probate judge of Lorain County to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John W. Steele, and by subsequent elections his services were continued in that capacity until February, 1882, more than eleven years. It was often remarked that the widow and orphan had a firm and just friend as long as Judge Smith was on the probate bench. For the greater part of his remaining years Judge Smith performed the duties of justice of the peace in addition to his private law practice. He was not only well known but had hosts of warm friends throughout the county.
His marriage occurred December 26, 1871. Mrs. Smith, who is still living in Elyria, bore the maiden name of Margaret Smyth. She was formerly from Ontario County, New York. To their marriage were born seven children, four of whom are still living: Mrs. S. H. Squire, of Elyria; Mrs. A. B. Taylor, of Elyria; Frank C., who is now city editor of the Elyria Evening Telegram; Mrs. Frank T. Horan, of Elyria. Leroy B. died in 1907 in New Mexico. In politics the late Judge Smith was a democrat until Civil war times, after which he was firmly allied with the republicans.
WESLEY L. GRILLS. Another of the native sons of Lorain County who is doing much toward upholding the high standard of the bar of the county and who is one of the representative young members of his pro- fession in the City of Lorain, is he whose name introduces this review and who has here built up an excellent general practice. In numerous litigated cases of important order, in both criminal and civil departments of practice, he has tested and proved his power as a resourceful and efficient trial lawyer, and as a counselor he has shown himself well forti- fied. He subordinates all other interests to the demands of his profes- sion and continues a close and appreciative student of the involved science of jurisprudence.
On his father's well-improved homestead farm, in Carlisle Township,
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Wesley S. Grills
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Lorain County, Mr. Grills was born on the 6th of February, 1885, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Grant) Grills, who still maintain their home on the farm and who are well known and highly honored citizens of this section of the state. In the public schools of the City of Elyria Mr. Grills pursued his youthful studies until he had completed the curriculum of the high school, and thereafter he attended the literary department of the great University of Chicago for four years. In preparation for the profession in which he has achieved marked success and prestige, he entered the law department of Western Reserve University, in the City of Cleveland, where he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a member of the class in 1911, his admission to the bar of his native state being virtually coincident with his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
In June, 1911, he opened an office in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, and there remained until June, 1913, when he opened an office in the City of Lorain, where his ability, close application and personal popularity caused his professional novitiate to be of brief duration, as he soon developed a substantial practice, to which he has since continued to give his close attention, with a clientage of representative order. He is a member of the Lorain County Bar Association, is a republican in his political allegiance, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the chivalric degrees, a member of Lorain Commandery, Knights Templars. He holds membership also in the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias and other fraternal organizations, and is affili- ated with the Phi Alpha Delta college fraternity.
On the 18th of October, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Grills to Miss Virginia Morehouse, of Elyria, she likewise being a native of Lorain County, where she was reared and educated, and their only child is a winsome little daughter, Ida Virginia.
REV. SAMUEL L. STEWART, D. D. On other pages of this work will be found an interesting article on "Methodism in Elyria," the author of which is Dr. Stewart, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Elyria. Dr. Stewart has spent nearly twenty years in the active ministry of the Methodist Church in Ohio, and is well known not only for his power and influence as a preacher, but also as one of the able construc- tive workers in church development.
Samuel Lemen Stewart was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, Novem- ber 24, 1870. His father, Robert Stewart, spent his life in Guernsey County as a farmer, and also saw active service during the Civil war in the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The mother, whose maiden name was Emiline Ferguson, has also been a resident of Guernsey County most of her life.
It was the public schools of Guernsey County that gave Doctor Stewart his early education, and from those he entered the Ohio Wes- leyan University at Delaware, where his work gained him several de- grees. He was graduated A. B. in 1894, received the Master of Arts degree in 1896, and his alma mater conferred upon him the degree Doctor of Divinity in 1913. In 1896 Doctor Stewart was graduated S. T. B. from the Boston University School of Theology, and immedi- ately after graduation joined the North Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a member of the North Ohio Conference until it was merged with the East Ohio Conference, making the Northeast Ohio Conference the largest body under conference organ- ization in all Methodism. In the course of his active ministry Doctor Stewart has held pastorates at Chicago Junction, Clyde, and for six years before taking the pastorate of the First Methodist Church of
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Elyria in September, 1911, was pastor of the First Methodist Church at Mansfield. While at Mansfield his successful work was signalized by the erection of a church edifice costing $85,000. Doctor Stewart has been an active member of the church since 1882.
On September 2, 1896, at West Lafayette, Ohio, he married Miss Margaret Rogers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Rogers, lifelong resi- dents of Coshocton County. Her mother's father was Judge James Burt, one of the early settlers of Coshocton County. Mrs. Stewart is also descended from Morris Fought, who was a soldier in the American Revolution. To their marriage have been born four children: Ruth Evangeline, Paul Rogers, Mildred Margaret, and James Robert Stewart.
ROBERT GEORGE ANDERSON, M. D. In 1915 Doctor Anderson con- cluded his twentieth year of consecutive practice as a physician and surgeon at Elyria. There is abundant testimony of his ability and standing as a physician in his large private practice, his influential asso- ciations with the local profession, and the general esteem paid him as a man and citizen.
Though Elyria has been the scene of all his work and experience as a professional man, Doctor Anderson was born on a farm in the Province of Ontario, Canada, May 25, 1868, and lived in Canada until coming to Elyria. His parents, Archibald and Mary (Burns) Anderson were Protestant people from the north of Ireland, came with their respective families to America, and Archibald Anderson cleared away the forest from a tract of land and developed a good farm home in Ontario, where he lived many years and died at the age of seventy-eight in July, 1895.
It was on this farm that Doctor Anderson spent his boyhood, acquir- ing the equivalent of a high school education, and after some varied experience in paying his own way finally entered Trinity Medical Col- lege, now the Toronto Medical College, where he was graduated in 1895. A few months later he was in Elyria and began practice on the West Side. For twenty years now he has given his professional service to a widening circle of patrons and has also been actively identified with The Elyria Memorial Hospital as a member of its medical staff since it was opened.
Doctor Anderson is a member of The Lorain County Medical Society, The Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and in Masonry is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons, and Marshall Chapter No. 47, Royal Arch Masons. He married Miss Laura E. Ferguson, who was born in Toronto, Canada. 'Their children are Eva Louise and George Bertram.
MARK A. WHITNEY. Representing one of the oldest and most sub- stantial family names of Pittsfield Township, Mark A. Whitney was for many years a prosperous farmer in that locality of Lorain County, and is now engaged in the grain business at Oberlin.
He was born on a farm in Pittsfield Township November 22, 1869, a son of Mark and Cordelia K. (Gifford) Whitney. The grandfather, Joseph Whitney, was a native of Rutland, Vermont, and about 1836 pioneered into Lorain County and acquired a tract of land in Pittsfield Township. The maternal grandparents were Cornelius and. Hannah (Nye) Gifford, the former born at Lee, Massachusetts, and passing away at a great old age November 13, 1900, while his wife was born November 17, 1782, at Columbus, New York. The Gifford family estab- lished a home in Lorain County in 1833. Mark Whitney, father of Mark A., was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1818, and died in 1882. His wife was born in Columbus, New York, April 5, 1825, and died March 10, 1916, at the age of ninety years, eleven months and five days.
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Mark and Cordelia Whitney were married in Pittsfield Township April 27, 1848. He had come to Lorain County when eighteen years of age . and was a man above the average in education and reading and one of the leading farmers of the township. Though with little capital to start on he acquired a good estate, and built a fine brick residence which at the time was one of the best in Pittsfield Township. He spent his last years in Oberlin.
Mark A. Whitney was the fifth in a family of six children. He acquired his early education in the schools of Oberlin, also took a busi- ness course there, and made farming the first object of his effective endeavors. He prosecuted his industry in that line until 1905, when he moved to Oberlin, having sold his farm, and has since enjoyed the comforts of a good home in the college city. For two years he was in the carriage and implement business with O. E. Peabody. Since April, 1911. he has been associated with Mr. C. W. Ward in the grain business and they have one of the principal establishments in that line in this part of Lorain County.
In October, 1893, Mr. Whitney married Miss Lula Avery, daughter of William Avery, a well known Lorain County citizen who was born in Pittsfield Township where his father, Carlos Avery, was one of the first settlers. Mr. and Mrs. Whitney have one adopted child, Alice Mills. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, the Royal Arch Chapter and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. As a republican he served for a number of years as clerk of his home township. -
WILLIAM ANDREW HISCOX. To his present duties as county super- intendent of Lorain County's schools, Mr. Hiscox has brought a broad range of experience as a capable educator, and from the time he taught his first country school near Lisbon, Ohio, has lived in almost constant association with his duties as a school man.
Born at Lisbon, Ohio, he is the son of Joseph and Rose Anna (Fife) Hiscox, both of whom are now deceased. His father was born at Brad- ford-on-the-Avon in England, the son of John Hiscox, who brought the family to America and settled at Lisbon, Ohio, when Joseph was three years of age. Grandfather Hiscox died at Lisbon, and his wife at Hicks- ville, Ohio. Grandfather Hiscox was a weaver in England, but after coming to Ohio settled on a farm, did a great deal of the pioneer work of clearing and lived there the rest of his days. Mr. Hiscox's mother was born at Lisbon, her parents having come from Germany when young and married in Ohio and spent most of their lives around Lisbon. Jo- seph Hiscox likewise spent his active career as a farmer at Lisbon, and died there March 12, 1906, being survived by his wife until April 6, 1915.
W. A. Hiscox spent his early life on a farm, learned its duties and shared in its toils, and laid the foundation of his education in the com- mon schools of Lisbon. His higher education was acquired in the North- eastern Ohio Normal, from which he was graduated Bachelor of Science in the class of 1892, and in 1910 he was given the degree Master of Science by Baldwin University. His first work as a teacher was done in Center Township near Lisbon, where he taught about four years. Of his more important service in administrative positions, Mr. Hiscox was superintendent of schools at Washingtonville, Ohio, six years; at Grafton, Ohio, six years; at LaGrange, Ohio, two years; at Waterford, Pennsyl- vania, four years; and at New Cumberland, West Virginia, two years. He also taught in the Wooster University Summer School for nine summers.
On July 20, 1914, Mr. Hiscox was elected county superintendent of
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schools in Lorain County, and on June 1, 1915, was re-elected for a . term of two years. He is a hard working and enthusiastic educator, and has done much to increase the efficiency of both the personnel and of the organization of the local schools under his supervision.
While not a farmer in the practical sense, Mr. Hiscox owns a place of fifty acres near Lisbon in Columbiana County. He is a republican, and fraternally is affiliated with the lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Washingtonville, in which he is a past grand, and is a mem- ber of Lodge No. 399, Free & Accepted Masons, at LaGrange, Ohio. At Elyria he belongs to The Elyria Chamber of Commerce and is active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church of that city.
At his old home Town of Lisbon November 24, 1892, Mr. Hiscox married Miss Ella S. Lindesmith, daughter of Jacob and Nancy Linde- smith, who were old settlers of Columbiana County. Her father died there in August, 1892, and her mother now lives at Malvern, Ohio. Mrs. Hiscox was educated in the rural schools of Columbiana County. To their marriage have been born three children: Ethel May Hiscox was graduated from the New Cumberland High School in West Virginia in 1913, taught the following year in the fourth grade at Weirton, West Virginia, and then entered Oberlin College, where she completed her freshman year in 1915. Harold W. Hiscox, the second child, is now a junior in the Elyria High School, while Norman L., the youngest, is in the seventh grade of the public schools. The daughter was born at Washingtonville, Ohio, while the sons are natives of Grafton, Ohio.
ELISHA M. PIERCE. One of the men most prominent in making Lorain an industrial center is Elisha M. Pierce, whose influence can be traced through the principal financial, manufacturing and other business con- cerns that have their headquarters in that city. He is president of the Lorain Casting Company and is treasurer of the Thew Automatic Shovel Company, these being perhaps the two largest plants at Lorain, except the National Tube Works. Some facts regarding the Thew Automatic Shovel Company will be found on other pages. The Lorain Casting Company was organized in November, 1906, with a capital of $100,000. Its first officers were : Elisha M. Pierce, president; Richard Thew, vice president; F. A. Smythe, secretary. During the first year about fifteen men were employed in the firm, while now the average payroll includes about fifty. The present officers are.Mr. Pierce, president and treasurer; and Richard Thew vice president and secretary. The company has an average output of about 175 tons of castings each month. The main building plant is 110x130 feet; pattern house, 40x90 feet ; storage house 20x24 feet; and the office building a two story structure 25x25 feet.
Elisha M. Pierce was born at York, Medina County, Ohio, June 26, 1845. His parents were Thompson and Harriet (Little) Pierce, both of whom were born at Peru, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Grandfather Levi Pierce brought his family to the Western Reserve of Ohio in 1836, locating in Medina County. The maternal grandfather was Samuel Lit- tle, who came to Medina County about the same time.
Educated in the schools of Medina County and at Oberlin College, Elisha M. Pierce began his career as a telegraph operator at his native town of York. He next became station agent for the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling Railroad Company at Uhrichsville, but in the spring of 1880 came to Lorain to take charge of the Tuscarawas Valley Coal Com- pany. In 1882, resuming railroad work, he took charge of the terminals of the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling, and only resigned that important responsibility in 1907.
In the meantime he had identified himself in many ways with other
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institutions in Lorain. He assisted in organizing the Lorain Savings & Banking Company, of which he was president until 1905, when it was succeeded by the Lorain Banking Company, of which he was secretary and treasurer. In 1908 he became secretary and treasurer of the Thew Automatic Shovel Company. He helped promote the Black River Tele- phone Company and became president of the company on its organiza- tion and still holds that office. From 1887 he was agent for the trustee of the Black River Land Company. On the organization of the Lorain Chamber of Commerce, now known as the Board of Commerce, he became its president, and has also served as president of the Lorain Library Association, as president of the Young Men's Christian Association, was for six years president of the Lorain School Board and for eight years a member of the city council and also president of that body for a time. Considering these various activities and relationships, there is no ques- tion that his public spirited influence has been one of the large factors . in making the town. By his marriage to Almira Penfield, who died in 1887, he has two daughters: Marian F. is the wife of Thomas M. Duncan, postmaster of Bridgeport, Belmont County, Ohio, and they have one child, Mary Margaret. Inez J., at home, is a graduate of Lake Erie Col- lege and has for the past eight years been connected with the work of the Cleveland Day Nursery and Free Kindergarten Association. The second wife of Mr. Pierce was Mary Penfield, a sister of Almira. She died January 7, 1916. Both were daughters of Samuel Penfield, who was born in New York State and came as a boy to Lorain County, the Penfields having been the first settlers in Penfield Township, Lorain County, the town taking its name from that family. A local publica- tion in writing of the death of Mrs. Pierce paid the following tribute :
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