USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 24
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Ora B. Cahoon, through whom this sketch of the family relationship is continued, was born in Herkimer County, New York, May 25, 1804, and was almost seventy-seven years of age at the time of his death. As a boy of ten years he retained many recollections of the interesting jour-
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ney which brought himself and other members of the family from New York State to Lorain County. A trip around the world in modern times is fraught with not half the difficulties which attended a migration from one of the eastern to one of the states of the Ohio Valley a century ago. It required the Cahoon family a month of tedious travel. The first ob- jective point in their migration was Dover in Cuyahoga County, where Wilbur Cahoon had a brother, Joseph, who in the local history of Dover is likewise distinguished as the first settler, having located there in 1810. After a visit at Joseph's home the family came on to their chosen spot in the Northern Ohio wilderness in Avon. Ora B. Cahoon had attended school in Herkimer County and also had the limited ad- vantages afforded by some of the first district schools in Avon. His life was spent as a farmer, and his home was a portion of his father's old estate in Avon. For a number of years his fellow citizens in that town- ship honored him with the office of trustee. In politics until the advo- cation of the slavery question became acute he was a regular democrat, but his views changed about war time and as a republican he gave his support to the grand old party until his death. He and his wife were members of the Baptist Church in Avon. On December 10, 1834, Ora B. Cahoon married Miss Jane T. Jameson in Avon. She died August 29, 1890, having survived her husband several years. She was a daughter of Joseph B. and Thankful (Smith) Jameson, who came to Avon from Monroe County, New York, in 1820. In the family of Ora B. Cahoon and wife were seven children, six sons and one daughter, all of whom reached maturity. The oldest of these is Horace J. Melissa A., who died at her home in Avon March 30, 1884, was the wife of James M. Lent. Joseph B. still occupies a portion of the old Cahoon homestead in Avon. Wilbur D. died in California in March, 1912. Ora B., Jr., also died in California February 11, 1890. Burritt E. lives in Monterey County, California, and in the same county lives his brother Charles S.
The early life of Horace J. Cahoon was spent in that environment and times which represented the middle period between the conditions of the true pioneer epoch and the great progressive age of modern years. He attended the public schools of his native township, grew up on a farm, and his practical career. was that of a farmer until his fellow citizens of the county required his services elsewhere. At the fall election of 1891 he was elected county recorder and assumed the duties of that position January 1, 1892. He was twice re-elected as his own successor in office and thus served three regular terms. Owing to a change in the law making some new provisions as to the length of terms in county offices, he was appointed at the conclusion of his third term for eight months of service until the beginning of the new term under revised conditions. Thus for nine years eight months he was continuously county recorder of Lorain County. From 1907 to 1913 inclusive Mr. Cahoon was clerk of the Board of Review at Elyria. Before removing to Elyria, the county seat, he served one term as justice of the peace in Avon and for fifteen years was personal property assessor of that town- ship and also held the offices of school director and clerk of the board.
A public record of Mr. Cahoon would not be complete without ref- erence to his experiences as a soldier in the Civil war. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company E of the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment which was distinguished by having as first colonel James A. Garfield, later President of the United States. This regiment was at- tached to the southwestern army, and during most of its service operated along the Mississippi River. Mr. Cahoon had a part in the strenuous campaign leading up to the siege and capture of Vicksburg, and was present at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou when the army of Sherman was repulsed in 1863. He was also at Arkansas Post when that point
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was wrested from the control of the Confederates, and was soon after- ward taken ill and sent to hospital at Jefferson barracks in St. Louis. He was discharged from hospital March 25, 1863, and sent home after nearly eight months of life as a soldier. He then resumed the labors of peace on the old farm.
Mr. Cahoon has had his residence in Elyria since 1892. He is a member of the Richard Allen Post No. 65, Grand Army of the Republic, and was its quartermaster two years. He attends and is a supporter of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Elyria, of which his wife is a member.
On February 10, 1861, in Avon, Mr. Cahoon married Miss Elizabeth Lucas, daughter of Jonathan and Ann (Ire) Lucas. Mrs. Cahoon was born in Avon, and her parents were born and reared in England, having come to Avon in 1831. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Cahoon were born five children. Carrie L., who was born and received part of her education in Avon, also took a course in the Normal at Milton, was a popular teacher for several years in Avon, Ridgeville and Sheffield, and for nearly nineteen years was a clerk in the county recorder's office up to 1912, and is now living at home. Ella S., the widow of Don John- son, lives on her farm with her family in Elyria Township. The son Fred W. also lives at home. Maud, who lives at home, has for the past twenty-three years been a clerk in the county recorder's office, having entered that office under her father. Anna B., who died December 12, 1903, was the wife of Claud Poyer. All the children were natives of Avon Township and received at least part of their education there.
On September 10, 1914, the descendants of the original settlers of Avon Township celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the first settle- ment and Mr. Cahoon was chosen historian of the occasion and prepared and read a historical account of Avon which appears elsewhere in this history.
WILLIAM E. CAHOON. Bearing a name that has many intimate re- lations with the early settlement of Lorain and Cuyahoga counties, Wil- liam E. Cahoon was for many years actively identified with merchan- dising and with public affairs in Elyria, was a veteran of the Civil war, and the memory which he left behind him was that of a thoroughly capable citizen, honest and true and steadfast in any position to which duty called him, and the type of man who makes any community the better for his presence.
He was born in Elyria May 15, 1846. His parents were William O. and Melissa (Eldred) Cahoon. His maternal grandfather, Judge Eldred, settled at Ridgeville in Lorain County as early as 1812. The paternal grandfather, Joseph Cahoon, settled in Dover Township of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1810, and was the first actual permanent settler in that township, where he lived and died on a farm. William O. Cahoon was born in the State of New York and was only two years of age when his parents settled in Dover Township at Cuyahoga County in 1810. He lived there until he was about seventeen years of age, then went to the southern part of the state for a year or so, and on returning to the North located at Elyria in 1835, and made his home in that city until his death. He passed away in Elyria in 1878. In politics he was a republican and a free soiler, and in religion a Methodist. His wife died at Elyria in 1888. There were six children who lived to grow up, five sons and one daughter. The only one now living is Charles A. Cahoon, deputy sheriff of Lorain County. and a resident of Elyria. The oldest son, E. A. Cahoon, was a member of Battery E, First Ohio Artillery, and served two and a half years with that command until his honorable discharge.
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The late W. E. Cahoon acquired his early education in the graded schools in Elyria, and the first business in which he regularly engaged was the stove and tinware business at Elyria. He followed that for eight years, being located on West Broad Street where the Elyria Block now stands.
In the meantime he had made a record as a soldier. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in Company K of the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry for the 100 days' service. His regiment was sent East and saw some campaigning in Virginia and Maryland, being stationed at Harper's Ferry, Martinsburg and Maryland Heights, and participating in the fight at John Brown's Schoolhouse. On his return home from the army Mr. Cahoon learned the trade of tinner, and fol- lowed this altogether for about twelve years. On Decoration Day, 1874, while assisting in firing off a cannon he accidentally lost his right arm, and this interfered so much with his active work that he closed up his business in 1878.
In 1875 Mr. Cahoon was elected assessor of Elyria Township, and filled that office four consecutive years. In 1882 he was elected county recorder of Lorain County, and filled that position until January 1, 1892. After that he was engaged in business as an abstractor of titles until his death. He filled the office of county recorder three successive terms. This gave him an unusual knowledge of local titles, and he did a great deal of work in looking up abstracts for others. He was an active mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Royal Arcanum.
On July 30, 1874, Mr. Cahoon married Mrs. Maria P. (Bush) Tyler of Cleveland, a daughter of Rev. E. H. Bush, who was a Methodist minis- ter at Cleveland, but is now deceased. Mrs. Cahoon, who is still living in Elyria, was born in Fremont, Ohio, a daughter of Rev. Eurotus H. and Mary ( Goodsell) Bush, both of whom were born in Rochester, New York. In politics the late Mr. Cahoon was a stanch republican and did much to promote the interests of his party in Lorain County and was a citizen whose support could always be depended upon to forward those interests most closely in harmony with real and substantial welfare.
STANLEY ADDISON AULT. Among the business men of Lorain, none stands higher either in business reputation or in social character than Stanley Addison Ault, vice president and general manager of the Hoffman Heater Company. While still in the prime of life, he has by his energy and steadfastness of purpose obtained a name in the com- mercial world well worthy of his labors and of which he has the strongest reasons to be proud.
Mr. Ault is a product of the farm, having been born on his father's homestead at Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, March 2, 1870, a son of Reason and Catherine (Comer) Ault. He was educated in the public schools of his native vicinity and brought up in the atmosphere of the farm, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits until reaching the age of twenty-four years, when he decided upon a business career. At that time he became a solicitor for life insurance, and after working in his native place for four years came to Lorain, in 1898, where he believed he would find a better field. Mr. Ault continued to work as a life insurance salesman, representing various concerns until he entered the service of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, in which he rapidly rose to be district manager for Ohio. He left that position in 1907 to become manager of the Lorain and Elyria Ice and Coal Company, a capacity in which he acted for one year, and in 1908 joined the Hoffman Heater Company as traveling salesman. Mr. Ault was successful in this line, and when the company was incorporated, in 1911, he was made vice president and general manager, positions which he has since retained.
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The Hoffman Heater Company, whose slogan "We Start the Fire With Water," is now known all over the country, was incorporated in 1905, with a capital of $25,000, and at that time was housed in a building consisting of 4,000 square feet of floor space, employing a force of five men. Some idea of the great growth and development of the industry, during the ten years of its existence, may be gained from the facts that it is now a $100,000 corporation, with a floor space of 40,000 square feet, all on the ground floor, and employs on an average of more than ninety people. The plant is modern in structure and equipment, and includes its own brass foundry in which all the brass used in the manufacture of the product is made, and its own japanning plant for the japanning of castings; the company also owns its own land. All kinds of gas-fired water heaters are manufactured and the product of the company has / gained a wide and substantial reputation. In 1915 the concern secured the contract for furnishing all heaters for the Panama-Pacific Interna- tional Exposition Company at San Francisco, where, June 11. 1915, the company was awarded the medal of honor on its entire line exhibited at the fair. The present officers of the company are: A. H. Babcock, president ; S. A. Ault, vice president and general manager; and J. M. Jones, secretary and treasurer. In addition to discharging the duties of his positions with this company, Mr. Ault is also concerned in a like manner with the Troike Muffler and Manufacturing Company, of Lorain, as vice president and general manager. He is well known in fraternal circles, being a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in Masonry is a Knight Templar and Shriner.
Mr. Ault was married March 2, 1892, to Miss Ella M. Wheeler, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and they are the parents of five children, namely : Clarence W., Harold G., Merle S., Marguerite G. and Janice Jeanette. -
WILLIAM WHITNEY. There is no little significance in the motto which Mr. Whitney used during his campaign as republican nominee for sheriff of Lorain County in 1914. "Bill Whitney always knows you" suggests one of the qualifications most needed in political life, and in this case the reverse of the motto was also true, since practically every responsible citizen of Lorain County knows Bill Whitney. The citizens of Elyria knew him on account of his fourteen years of capable and efficient service on the police force, and the people of the county at large are now becoming well acquainted with his admirable manage- ment of the office of sheriff. Sheriff Whitney is by no means a passive factor in the civic life of his home county. His name everywhere suggests the character of an upright citizen, and he has been a vigorous force in behalf of clean politics, and like his father is strongly opposed to the domination of the saloon element.
William Whitney was born in Camden, Lorain County, Ohio, within seven miles of the University Town of Oberlin, May 13, 1874. His parents are Thomas and Philena (Johnson) Whitney. His father was born at Kipton in Lorain County and the mother was born at Paines- ville in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Grandfather William Whitney came to Ohio from England, and was one of the early day settlers of Lorain County. The maternal grandfather, Solomon Johnson, was for two terms sheriff of Fulton County, Ohio. Thomas Whitney and wife are now living on a small farm which they bought for their declining years south of the Village of Kipton. At one time Thomas owned 800 acres of land in Lorain County, including the site of the present Village of Kipton. During the Civil war he served from the beginning to the end of hostilities, as a private in the Forty-third Ohio Regiment. He is a man of exemplary personal habits, never drinks and never has, and
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has proved a decided influence in his community in behalf of permanent restrictions upon the liquor traffic. He attends the Disciples Church of which he is a regular member. In the family were six children, two of whom died in infancy, and there are two daughters and two sons still living: Anna, Mrs. Claud Jenkins of Berlin Heights, Ohio; Wil- liam; Hattie, wife of B. A. Perkins of Elyria; and George, who is a farmer and has eighty acres adjoining his father's place near the Village of Kipton. All the children were born in Lorain County, and attended the public schools of Camden.
Sheriff Whitney's vigorous personality and ability are reflections from his rugged and thorough experience and training as a young man. He lived at home on the farm, worked in the fields and attended school until the age of twenty, and after his marriage moved to Oberlin, where for a little more than a year he was foreman in the lumber yards of George Persons. He then came to Elyria and found work under the superintendent of streets. At the same time he put in an application for a place on the Elyria police force. It was the custom then for the members of the city council to vote upon such applications, and a majority was required for the employment of any applicant. When Mr. Whitney was taken on to the force he received a unanimous verdict from the councilmen and thereafter continued a member of the police force of Elyria fourteen years, and throughout that time, at each recurring spring election, when the council formally voted upon the police force, he received an endorsement from every member of the council. That is a record of confidence which is well deserved and of which Sheriff Whitney is properly proud. For three years he was a patrolman, and three years a police detective, and was then made captain and chief. He continued chief of police until 1911, when a change in administration occurred, the democratic mayor removing most of the republicans from the municipal offices and substituting democrats in their stead. In the meantime Mr. Whitney had already determined to become a candidate for the office of county sheriff, and as his plans were already. well under way he left the position of chief of police without regret.
During the primaries Mr. Whitney was one of thirteen candidates for the nomination for sheriff, and gained the nomination by about 1,300 votes more than his nearest opponent. In the election he was chosen by over 3,800 votes in majority of those received by the democrat- progressive candidate. He was regularly installed in the office of sheriff on January 4, 1915, for a term of two years.
While Mr. Whitney is new in the office of sheriff he has already shown a vigor of administration which has proved gratifying to his many supporters and is an earnest of a strong and sufficient force for law and order in Lorain County. He had been in office about four months when he discovered nine automobiles that had been stolen by a clique of Cleveland automobile thieves operating in Lorain and other counties. At the present writing an automobile case is being tried before the local courts of the circuit and is attracting wide attention not only in Ohio but in other states. Several convictions have been pro- nounced upon the members of the gang and they were sentenced to prison. This is an organization which has worked with a great deal of cleverness in stealing and disposing of automobiles. They have made a practice of stealing cars in first class condition, hurrying them to a plant in Cleveland, where the cars are made over and so completely changed in all ordinary identification marks that the original owners from whom they were stolen could by no possibility establish proofs fitting their original machines. The remade cars are sold and the profits divided among those interested in the steal.
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Sheriff Whitney is a man thoroughly honest and competent in his official duties, and is moreover a gentleman and has hosts of friends. He is affiliated with Harlan P. Chapman Post of the Sons of Veterans at Elyria, with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He also belongs to the Elyria Chamber of Commerce and in politics is a republican.
Last but not least there should be mentioned another important factor in the career of Sheriff Whitney. This was his marriage to Miss Mary Dunkle of Wellington, Lorain County. They were married at Elyria. Her father, Frank Dunkle, was a soldier in the Civil war on the Union side, and lived for many years at Wellington, where he died in 1913. Mrs. Whitney was only seven years of age when she lost her mother. Mrs. Whitney was born in Pennsylvania, was educated at Lattisburg, Wayne county, Ohio, where her parents lived during her girlhood, and since her marriage has proved herself an excellent home- maker and a devoted mother to their only daughter, Reva Mae Whitney, who was born in Elyria, received her education in that city, was married July 22, 1915, to Hugh McCray, of Oberlin, Ohio.
PHILIP BRUNK. The career of Philip Brunk well illustrates what may be accomplished by the following out of an honorable purpose with firm determination and self-reliance. His only resource when he began active life was natural ability, but he possessed also will-power and was able to make the most of his opportunities. He learned early the value of self-help and the virtues of industry, frugality and fidelity, set him- self a high ideal, and in a practical common-sense way has directed his every effort toward its attainment, with the result that now, still in the strength and vigor of manhood, he has achieved a most gratifying success.
Philip Brunk, secretary and treasurer of the Brunk Machine and Forging Company, Incorporated, of Lorain, Ohio, was born in Germany, December 22, 1858, and is a son of Philip and Dorothy Brunk. He was educated in the public schools of his native land and as a youth learned the blacksmith's and still later the machinist's trades. He found his opportunities limited in the Fatherland, and as a young man came to the decision that America offered a more advantageous field for the display of his abilities. Accordingly, in 1884, he emigrated to this coun- try, settling at Lorain, where he secured employment in the shops of the C. L. & W. Railroad, which is now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio System. After seven years with this road, during which he gained promotion through industry and faithful performance of duty, and carefully saved his earnings, he established himself in business as the proprietor of a machine shop. From small beginnings, this venture was developed into an industry of pretentious size, and in 1903 was incorporated under the style of the Brunk Machine and Forging Company, with a capital of $35,000, its present officials being : W. M. Dabney, president ; C. Krentz, vice president ; and Philip Brunk, secretary and treasurer. The company employs twenty skilled mechanics, and its products meet with a ready sale in the large markets of the state, shipping to all points. The plant consists of two buildings, both two stories in height and of modern con- struction and equipment, a machine shop 50 by 100 feet, and a garage, 132 by 30 feet. the latter erected in 1915. The life of this firm has been ' typical of the life of the city itself, for its foundation and resources were principally the sound judgment and accurate foresight of its founders, and as the city stands prominent for its rapid development, so of the firm, for its founders builded better than they knew, and from a small begin- ning the amount of business transacted has grown to large proportions.
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Mr. Brunk was married in 1884, shortly after coming to Lorain, to Miss Emma Heyer, and to this union there have been born three children, namely : Lena, who is the wife of Arthur Eppley, a foreman in the plant of the National Tube Company, of Lorain; Eda, who is now Mrs. Edward Merthe, wife of a machinist of this city; and Laura, who is the wife of Gilbert Irish, connected with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Lorain.
Mr. Brunk is a popular member of the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of the Maccabees. He is a member of the Immanuel Evangelical Church. In politics his work for his party's interests is as a citizen and a voter rather than in active participation in political affairs. In Mr. Brunk's life are found all the habits, methods and qualifications which have rapidly brought the American nation to the forefront, as compared with the older countries, in all that pertains to the growth, prosperity and development of the national spirit and life.
JOHN F. HASERODT. A life which strongly impressed its influence on the commercial and civic affairs of Elyria for many years was that of John Haserodt, who died in his home in Elyria in the fullness of years on April 26, 1910. He had spent practically his life in this part of Northern Ohio, and had lived in Elyria for thirty years. He was an excellent business man, always industrious and a master of his own circumstances and as he went through the world he did much good for others.
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