USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 28
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On January 2, 1861, at the outset of his career as a lawyer. Mr. Hill married Miss Etta M. Wilson, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. They first became acquainted while schoolmates under Horace Mann at Antioch College. Mrs. Hill lacked one year of graduating from Antioch. To their long and happy union were born five children, of whom two are still living. Frank, the oldest, graduated from Oberlin College with the class of 1883 and died in Denver, Colorado. Ralph W., was reared and educated in Elyria where he is still living. Arthur E. also died in Colorado. Edith L., who was born at Elyria, was graduated from the
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high school and pursued a higher education at the National Park Seminary in Washington, District of Columbia, is now the wife of Ernest Motimer, a manufacturer of ladies corsets at Derby, Connecticut. The youngest child, Harry, was accidentally shot at Elyria by a com- panion some years ago.
In politics Mr. Hill is a republican, but his work has been more notable in the broad fields of citizenship than as a partisan. For many years he was a member of the board of education of Elyria and its president from 1888 to 1908. He is now the oldest living member of King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a past master of the lodge, and also a Knight Templar Mason. He belongs to the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, and is a stockholder but not now a member of the Elyria Country Club. Mr. Hill is a man of broad views, of extended experience with men and affairs, has a keen quick perception, and at the basis of his unusual success as a financier is the sterling integrity of his character, the quality which has secured him the unlimited confidence of the people with whom he has come in contact. As an executor he has settled several large estates in addition to his duties as a banker, and these duties he has discharged with characteristic fidelity. Mr. Hill is also president of the Citizens Build- ing Company of Elyria; president of the Home Land Company of Elyria; president of the Hill Realty Company; and treasurer of the Lorain Realty Company.
FRANKLIN PELTON CROSSE. The present Lorain County surveyor is a civil engineer of more than fifteen years' practical experience in his profession, in which he has made a record of constant advancement. In 1899 Mr. Crosse was a rodman in the employ of the Sheffield Land and Improvement Company of Lorain. In 1901 he became connected with the United States Geological Survey as an assistant, and in 1903 was made engineer with the Ohio Engineering Company.
In 1905 Mr. Crosse was appointed assistant and deputy to the county surveyor. In 1914 he was elected county surveyor for the term begin- ning September 6, 1915, and on February 15, 1916, was appointed surveyor by the county commissioners for the unexpired term of T. L. Gibson, deceased. In politics Mr. Crosse is affiliated with the republican party.
Franklin Pelton Crosse represents some old and honored family lines both in Ohio and in New England. He was born at North Amherst, Ohio, February 20, 1880, a son of Dr. Asahael Allen and Ella G. (Pelton) Crosse. The paternal grandfather was Rev. A. A. Crosse of Cincinnatus, New York. At Cincinnatus Dr. A. A. Crosse was born, and leaving home at the age of thirteen took up the struggle of life for himself. Later he paid his way through a medical school at Willoughby, Ohio, an institution now absorbed in the Western Reserve University. He began practicing medicine at the age of eighteen, and after his marriage located at Amherst, where he continued his work as a physician and surgeon until his death. He had a large practice, covering a wide scope of country, and was also a good business man, and at one time owned 640 acres of land in Amherst and Brownhelm Township. He sold some of this land but at his death owned 312 acres. He and his wife were married at Vermillion, Ohio, where Miss Pelton was born, and after a residence of a number of years at Amherst he moved to his farm and tried to retire from his heavy practice. It was almost impossible, since his patients were insistent upon his tried service, and he was the trusted medical adviser in many a household until his death. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and held the offices of township clerk and justice of the peace of Amherst
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Township and was the first mayor of the incorporated Village of North Amherst, and during the term of President Johnson was postmaster of that village. He died on his farm west of North Amherst, September 13, 1882. His widow is now living in Elyria, and Franklin P. Crosse was the only one of their children to reach maturity.
Mr. Crosse comes of a notable maternal ancestry. His maternal grandfather was Franklin Pelton of Vermillion, Ohio, and a descendant of John Pelton. John Pelton was born in England about 1616 and belonged to the Essex branch of Peltons or Poltons. He came to Boston between 1630 and 1633, as is proved by the appearance of his name and a description of his property in the "Book of Possessions" the oldest land record of Boston. In Boston his possessions were described as one house and household lot bounded with Owen Roe west; the street north; the cove south; and the marsh on the east. The land comprised lots 104 to 108 on the south side of the Essex Street from Washington Street eastward. About 1635 he moved to Dorchester, then a few miles up the Boston Peninsula, but now a part of the City of Boston. Dorchester had been settled a few months earlier in that year. Either in 1635 or 1636 he became by grant or purchase a joint owner of the Dorchester Patent, and received his share as did also his heirs in its many divisions. He was one of the forty-seven owners of the "Great Lots." That he was admitted among the very select company at Dorchester is sufficient proof that his character and religious opinion were considered correct. The only item of information concerning his wife is found in his will, which gives her Christian name as Susanna. They were probably married about 1643. He was a young man when he came to Boston, and some additional light is thrown on his occupation by the words of the will which shows that he was engaged in the fisheries, then as now an important industry. He died in Dorchester, January 23, 1681. He had three sons, John, Samuel and Robert, and a daughter Mary. His widow probably lived until May 7, 1706, and various circum- stances indicate that she was the "old Mother Pelton" who was buried May 10, 1706. Mention is made of her burial in Clapp's History of Dorchester (page 281) compiled from the records of the oldest church there, and as it was an unusual record she must have been a very well known person.
From John and Susanna Pelton the line of descent runs as follows: Samuel Pelton, second son of John, was born at Dorchester, Massa- chusetts, about 1647 and died about 1713-14. John Pelton, second son of Samuel, born at Dorchester January 9, 1682, died July 15, 1735. Josiah Pelton, the fifth son of John, probably born in IIaddam, Con- necticut, in 1714, died February 2, 1792. Josiah Pelton, Jr., fourth son of Josiah, was born at Chatham, now Portland, Connecticut, March 5, 1772, and died July 9, 1834. He had an eventful career. He went to sea as a cabin boy, became a sailor before the mast, and later captain and owner of a vessel. He was engaged in trade with the West Indies and also the Spanish Main, touched at many ports in both North and South America, and did much business in Brazil and Guiana. In 1811, during the Mexican insurrection under Hidalgo, he was captured while in command of a vessel owned by himself and his brother Moses. The vessel and $30,000 in specie were confiscated and he was held as a captive for three years. On being released he found that his vessel had been sold and owing to the destruction of his papers was unable to recover any of the property. After this disaster he abandoned the sea, and in June, 1815, gathered up his family and with a wagon drawn by an ox team started for Ohio. In August he arrived at Euclid, near Cleveland, where in the previous year his cousin Jonathan Pelton, a son of Joseph Pelton, had settled. In 1819 he bought land a portion of
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which had been cleared, and with it a log house, from John Sherrart, in Vermillion, Huron (now Erie) County, and removed to the new farm. It was in the midst of the wilderness, and his home was close to the haunts of wolves, deer, bear, and wild turkey, and even the Indians still roamed the woods. Though he had applied himself vigorously to the new life of farmer, he could not forget the old vocation, and living close to the Lake Erie shore he built a small vessel, which he named Franklin in honor of his youngest son. He died at Vermillion in 1834. Franklin Pelton, the fifth son of Josiah, Jr., was born at Portland, Connecticut, November 13, 1814, and died February 27, 1897, in Vermillion, Ohio. Among his eleven children Ella Gertrude, who became the wife of Dr. A. A. Crosse, was the eighth. She was born April 2, 1855, and is still living at Elyria.
Franklin P. Crosse secured his education in the Elyria public schools and the Ohio Northern University at Ada. From that he entered his practical career as a civil engineer at the age of nineteen, and has been steadily engaged in some department of his profession to the present time. Mr. Crosse has taken both the Scottish and York Rite degrees in Masonry. He belongs to all the Masonic bodies from Blue Lodge to Knight Templar at Elyria, including Elyria Commandery, and the Consistory bodies at Cleveland, including Lake Erie Consistory of the thirty-second degree and also Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He attends the Congregational Church of Elyria.
At Wooster, Ohio, December 22, 1906, Mr. Crosse married Miss Gertrude Elizabeth Marnin, daughter of William and Mary (Herwick) Marnin. Her father was a miner and coal mine superintendent through the Ohio fields, and died in 1910 at Doylestown, Ohio, where his widow is now living. Mrs. Crosse was born near Doylestown at Silver Creek, and is a graduate of the Doylestown High School. She received her musical education, both instrumental and vocal, at the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes, Cleveland, Ohio. She is a member of the Eastern Star. They have one son, Franklin Pelton Crosse II.
OSCAR G. DUNN. For a young man who only recently passed his thirtieth birthday, Oscar G. Dunn has proved an exceedingly live member of the Elyria business community, and has identified himself in so many ways with local affairs that he was recently chosen to the important office of county commissioner. He began to be self support- ing when only a boy, and consequently his practical career has been longer than his years would indicate.
He was born in Bellwood, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1884, and is a son of William Henry and Mattie K. (Godard) Dunn. His parents were married in Mapleton, Pennsylvania, where the mother was born, while the father was a native of Bellwood. William H. Dunn was a contractor in the tinning, plumbing and hardware supply business at Mapleton and later at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Owing to the disastrous flood / at Johnstown in 1889 he moved to Lorain in Lorain County and became assistant superintendent in the tinning department for the Johnson Steel Company. This company it will be recalled was later merged with the National Tube Company. On account of health the father finally returned to Johnstown, where he died in 1899. The mother is still living at South Lorain. The father was a very active member of the Baptist Church in Johnstown, served as superintendent of the Sunday school, but had formed no active church connections in Lorain. The mother is now equally diligent in her attention to church duties as a member of the Presbyterian Church at South Lorain. In the family were eight children, three sons and five daughters, seven of them reach- ing maturity. In order of age they are: Mrs. Charles Drusendahl of
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Elyria; Mrs. Harry Kirtley of Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Oscar G .; Mrs. Anna Barclay who lives along Rural Route No. 2 out of Lorain; Mrs. R. Glasser of Spokane, Washington; Stewart Dunn, who lives with her mother in South Lorain; Hershel, who is a wireless operator, and as his whereabouts have been unknown to his family for the past two years it is not known whether he is living or not. All the children were born in Mapleton and Bellwood, Pennsylvania, with the exception of Stewart, who was born in Johnstown and is a twin sister of the one who died at the age of two years.
Oscar G. Dunn for his education attended the public schools of Johnstown, and when nine years of age came with an aunt from Johns- town to Lorain, and after that had practically no schooling, since he became a boy worker with the Johnson Steel Company of Lorain. After four years in that industry he was a clerk in the South Lorain Savings Bank, now known as the City Bank of Lorain, remaining in that service four years. There were no prospects of advancement and his salary was low, consequently he resigned, and was soon engaged in learning a trade with the National Tube Company of Lorain in the electrical department. That might have constituted for him a permanent busi- ness, since he was connected with the company for seven years, until a serious injury caused him to leave his work, to which he has never returned. His next work was with the Pennsylvania lines in the ticket office at Pittsburgh for two years, but by that time having considerable experience and with confidence in his own ability he left the railroad and engaged in business for himself at Elyria, opening a real estate and insurance office. Mr. Dunn has been a permanent resident of Elyria since 1906 and none of the young business men of the city has a better standing in the community. In November, 1914, he established the Amherst News, a weekly paper that has served its purpose well. Mr. Dunn was its principal owner and manager, but a few weeks after the business was incorporated in 1915, retired from the enterprise in order to have more time for his duties as county commissioner, and while he has sold his real estate and insurance business to enable him to devote his undivided time and attention to the office of county com- missioner, he still retains some valuable investments in real estate in Elyria and vicinity.
He has the distinction of having been the youngest man ever elected to the Elyria City Council, on which he served two terms or four years. In November, 1914, he was elected one of the county commissioners of Lorain County, for the term of two years beginning in September, 1915. In politics he is a republican and very active, having been a voter and worker in the party interests since he reached his majority.
Mr. Dunn is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of the Maccabees. His name is also found among the members of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, and he belongs to Harlan P. Chapman Camp of the Sons of Veterans at Elyria. His eligibility to that order is based on the fact that his maternal grandfather George Godard was a gallant soldier in the Civil war.
Mrs. Dunn before her marriage was Miss Clara E. Dreitzler, daugh- ter of B. F. and Martha (Schwartz) Dreitzler of Lorain, Ohio. She was born, reared and educated in Lorain and since her happy marriage on January 15, 1908, they have lived in Elyria. Their one son, Ronald Oscar, was born at Elyria, September 15, 1910.
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HENRY W. INGERSOLL. The family to which this prominent and old established attorney of Elyria belongs is one of the very oldest in Lorain County, where it was founded almost a century ago by his great- grandfather, Maj. William Ingersoll, who came from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and was the first of the name to penetrate the wilderness which then prevailed over Grafton Township, with whose history and development the subsequent generations of the Ingersoll family have been so closely identified. Mr. Ingersoll still owns part of the ancestral domain in Grafton Township, a place that had been developed and owned for many years by his grandfather, William Ingersoll, and which was the birthplace of his father, George M. Ingersoll, as well as his own place of birth. Of these well known characters of successive periods in the history of Grafton Township, further information is supplied on other pages of this work.
Born on the old Ingersoll farm, a son of George M. and Mary (Preston) Ingersoll, Henry W. Ingersoll had a rural environment for his youth, attended the public schools of Elyria, and received his higher education in the University of Michigan, partly in the literary depart- ment and in the full course of the law school, from which latter he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1885. Mr. Ingersoll has been engaged in practice at Elyria since 1886, his first partner having been Lester McLean, who in 1891 left Elyria and removed to Denver, Colorado. In July, 1903, Mr. Ingersoll formed a partnership with Frank A. Stetson, who is now assistant prosecuting attorney of Lorain County, and their relations were continued until September 1, 1910. In October, 1912, Mr. Ingersoll became associated with R. F. Vandemark, under the firm name of Ingersoll & Vandemark, and this firm continued until October 1, 1915, since which time Mr. Ingersoll has maintained his practice of law alone, with offices in the Masonic Temple.
Mr. Ingersoll has taken an active part in Masonry, being affiliated with King Solomon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Marshall Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Elyria Council, Royal and Select Masters, and Elyria Commandery, Knights Templar, and was the local citizen who procured the site for the Masonic Temple Building and was first presi- dent of the Masonic Temple Company. He belongs also to the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, the Elyria Automobile Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Tippecanoe Club, of Cleveland.
In the course of his long practice as a lawyer, Mr. Ingersoll has acquired varied and important interests and is first vice president of The Elyria Savings and Banking Company, secretary and director of The Machine Parts Company, chairman of the board of directors of The Elyria Enameled Products Company, a director of The Lorain County Savings and Loan Company, the Fay Stocking Company, The Elyria Knitting Company, the Home Land Company and the Citizens Building Company, secretary and director of The Parts Realty Company, and president of the Cadillac Veneer Company, of Cadillac, Michigan, and is officially identified with a number of other corporations. For many years he has been treasurer and one of the trustees of the Elyria Library and for more than thirty years has been active in the First Congregational Church, having held several of the church offices and also serving as superintendent of the Sunday School.
Mrs. Ingersoll before her marriage was May Belle Hamilton, a native of Berea, Ohio, and a daughter of Leonard G. and Cassandra M. Hamil- ton. Their children are: Mary Cassandra, who graduated from Elyria High School in 1909, spent one year at Maryland College for Women, Lutherville, Maryland, and graduated from Oberlin Kindergarten Train- ing School in 1912, and now lives with her parents; and Henry Walter, who is now attending the public schools of Elyria.
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THOMAS LOTHROP NELSON. Few men did more to impress their strength and individuality upon the business and civic life of Elyria than the late Thomas Lothrop Nelson, who was continuously identified with that locality for over forty years preceding his death, which occurred February 21, 1891, and during that time rose to a first rank among the county's leaders and philanthropists.
His was a career in which character was the all dominating factor. Of New England birth and ancestry, he possessed the rugged qualities which have long been familiarly associated with that people. With an indefatigable vigor and extraordinary capacity for taking pains he combined an incorruptible honesty which allowed him to aspire only to that kind of success which is accomplished with truth and righteousness.
Mr. Nelson was born at Lyme, Grafton County, New Hampshire, January 11, 1823, a son of Asa and Sarah (Gilbert) Nelson. His mother's father, Maj. Thomas Lothrop Gilbert, in whose honor he was named was long a prominent citizen of Lyme, New Hampshire. The Gilbert family had emigrated to Lyme from Hebron, Connecticut, and at the time of the birth of the late Mr. Nelson his ancestors had lived in that one locality for at least 180 years, and the old Gilbert homestead, in which he was born, is still occupied by one of the family's relatives. Asa Nelson, his father, was a merchant at Lyme, but died when his children were still small, leaving his widow without means. She possessed a strong heart, and made a courageous battle with adverse circumstances in rearing her small children. The conditions of his childhood were such that Thomas L. Nelson had to face the serious aspects of life at an early age. He spent much of his boyhood in the family of his grandfather Gilbert. Early manifesting a practical and studious nature he made the best use of the few educational advantages which the locality afforded. For a time he attended Thetford Academy, a noted institution in Vermont not far from his old home. All his life Mr. Nelson was a close student and careful reader, and wisely mingled the knowledge gained from books with his observation of men and affairs. On leaving school he spent about two years as clerk in a dry goods store in his native town, and this was his preliminary training for a business career. On attaining his majority, he started for the great West with its golden opportunities. He reached Oberlin, Ohio, where he spent some time in the home of Deacon Porter Turner, who had married an aunt of young Nelson. His ambition at that time was to acquire an education in Oberlin College but conditions were such that he went through a long and successful career without a collegiate degree. On arriving at Oberlin his possessions consisted of $1 in money and a small bundle which he carried in his hand. Out of his early struggles Mr. Nelson gained a sympathy for aspiring youth which never left him, and which in fact led him to extend a helping hand on many occasions to boys whose lot seemed similar to his own. He soon left Oberlin, walked all the way to Mansfield in Richland County, and after many attempts and failures to find employment secured a position as clerk in a dry goods store. That clerkship he held about six months.
A kind Providence directed his steps toward Elyria, where he entered the store of Baldwin, Starr & Company. In their employ he quickly showed the stuff of which he was made. At the end of five years of industry, strict economy and self-denial he was promoted to a partner- ship, and the business was reorganized under the name Starr & Company. In 1857 the firm of Baldwin, Laundon & Nelson was formed, and Mr. Nelson became known throughout Lorain County as an honest, upright and successful merchant. His house conducted the largest busi- ness enjoyed by any mercantile establishment in Lorain County, and there were very few families who did not have more or less regular
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dealings with the establishment. The firm also conducted a large store at Wellington in this county. In 1872, having retired from merchan- dising, Mr. Nelson became associated with J. C. Hill in organizing the old Savings Deposit Bank of Elyria, became its chief stockholder, and was the honored president of that institution until the date of his death.
His business success constituted only a part of his attainments as a citizen and factor in local prosperity. He was one of the most valuable men of the community and was regarded as a tower of strength in any movement or meeting for the consideration of business, civic or religious or moral problems. Perhaps as a result of his own early struggles to secure an education, he showed particular interest in broadening those facilities which would make schools and their advantages free to all. For thirty-one years he served as a member of the board of education in Elyria, and for eighteen years was president on the board. For nearly twenty years he was a trustee of Oberlin College. The only other public office which he held was as mayor of Elyria for one year, and he stead- fastly declined all other political honors urged upon him. As to politics Mr. Nelson cast his first vote for a whig candidate, and afterwards was a member of the liberty and republican parties as they successively came into existence.
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