USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 31
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renting his place in Eaton Township, until his death on February 28, 1887. His widow is still living in Elyria. There were two children, and the daughter Mildred Louise now lives with her mother and is a teacher in the Elyria public schools.
Harry A. Pounds has lived at Elyria since he was nine years old. His education was continued in the public schools of that city, and he grad- uated from high school in 1891. After a brief attendance at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware he entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and remained until graduating LL. B. with the class of 1898. In October of the same year he was admitted by examination to the Ohio bar, and began active practice in Elyria on March 1, 1898. He soon came to be known as a young attorney of excellent habits and ability and the skill and energy which he put into the conduct of his cases soon brought him an important practice. He was engaged in individual practice until January, 1915, at which time the present partnership of Pounds & Redington was established. His associate is Harry M. Redington, a well known lawyer whose name is mentioned on other pages.
Mr. Pounds has not given all his time to private practice. From 1908 to 1912, a period of four years, he served as city solicitor of Elyria. He was director of public safety for one year from January 1, 1912, to February 1, 1913. He is a republican in politics and a member of the Lorain County Bar Association.
On June 4, 1908, Mr. Pounds married Miss Nellie M. Hastings, daugh- ter of Lewis and Harriet (Gott) Hastings of Elyria. Both the Gott and Hastings families have been long established in LaGrange Township of Lorain County, and Mrs. Pounds was born and educated in the Village of LaGrange in that township.
HARRY HINKSON. One of the old established men in the contracting and building business in Lorain County is Harry Hinkson, who has recently opened offices alone in the Masonic Temple at Elyria, and now looks after a large business as a contractor and builder and also in real estate and insurance. He came to Lorain County more than a quarter of a century ago, and has been almost continuously identified with contract- ing and has acquired a number of other interests.
His early life was spent mainly in Buffalo, New York, though he was born in Dubuque, Iowa, September 15, 1867, a son of Ransom and Hattie (Barnett) Hinkson. His father was born in Ottawa, Canada, and the mother was born in Wiltshire, England, and when about two years of age was brought to the United States by her parents who located in Dubuque, Iowa, in which city she was reared and married. In the spring of 1873 the family removed to Buffalo, New York, where she died in 1907, at the age of fifty-eight .: Ransom Hinkson when a boy went with his parents to Iowa, and lived there until the removal to Buffalo already mentioned. Grandfather Hinkson owned and kept a tavern on the old overland route to California. It was a flourishing institution during the memorable days of '49 and following, when all the roads of the West were crowded with emigrants and gold seekers, and large numbers of them were entertained at the Hinkson Tavern. This house was the last of its type along that route to give way to a more modern hotel. The Hinksons were thus among the early settlers of Iowa, and Ransom Hink- son hauled the first poles for the first telegraph line built through that section of the state, not many years after the telegraph had become a practical means for the transmission of intelligence. By business he was a general contractor and since 1873 has lived in Buffalo, and begin- ning with the first administration of President Cleveland has continuously
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served as cattle inspector at the Buffalo Stock Yards. He is now sixty- eight years of age. Of the five children in the family, two sons and three daughters, two died in infancy and the three now living are: Harry; Ruby, Mrs. Glen Fargo of Buffalo; and May, wife of Harold Martin of Cleveland, Ohio. All the children were born in Iowa.
About five years of age when the family left Iowa and established their home in Buffalo, Harry Hinkson regularly attended the public schools of that city up to thirteen. Since that age he has been doing for himself, and his first employment was in a planing mill. He remained with that industry in Buffalo until 1889, and in that year came to Elyria to take charge, as foreman, of the sash and door department of the John Hart Planing Mill. A few years later ill health compelled him to give up the confining work of the mill, and for a year he was employed in farm labor in the country districts. Since returning to Elyria in 1895 he has been engaged in contracting and his business record now covers fully twenty years. A general opinion in that community is that Mr. Hinkson put the full force of his character and ability into every under- taking, and it was as a result of this characteristic that in a few years he had a larger business than he could individually attend to, and con- sequently in 1903 he organized the Hinkson-Halpin Company, contractors and builders. After retiring from this concern, he organized the corpora- tion known as Hinkson-Buttenbender Company, general contractors, and dealers in real estate and insurance. He became president of the new organization, and after the Elyria Block in which the offices were located had burned the company moved its headquarters to the Masonic Temple. On March 1, 1915, the corporation was dissolved, and throughout its existence Mr. Hinkson had been president. As already stated he is now in business alone. In the course of his career at Elyria he has constructed a large number of the more substantial business buildings and residences, and has done an important work in developing unimproved real estate. He is also treasurer of the Park Amusement Company of Elyria, is president of the Elyria Fence Supply Company, and a stockholder in several other enterprises. He is the owner of considerable real estate and his own home is on Lake Avenue in Elyria Township just outside the city limits.
In politics he has been active as a democrat, though the subordinate position of that party in Lorain County has not permitted his able qualifications to represent the people in public office. He was the unsuc- cessful candidate of his party for sheriff in the fall of 1914. He is a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, belongs to the Elyria Auto- mobile Association, and takes a prominent part in fraternal orders. He is chairman of the trustees of the local branch of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and a member of its building committee, and is also affiliated with Elyria Lodge No. 465, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees, and in Masonry belongs to King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons, Marshall Chapter No. 47, Royal Arch Masons, and Elyria Council No. 86, Royal and Select Masters.
October 23, 1890, he married Miss Bertha M. Eckler of Carlisle, Lorain County, daughter of John H. and Cornelia M. (Hart) Eckler, who were old settlers of Carlisle having come originally from Connecticut. Her father died on the homestead in Carlisle and her mother is now living in Elyria. Mrs. Hinkson was born and educated in Carlisle. Mr. and Mrs. Hinkson have a son, Rollin E., who was born at Elyria and following the work of the public schools finished his education in the Elyria Business College.
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HUGH D. GREER, D. D. S. Of the many professional men who have their headquarters in the Masonic Temple at Elyria, Dr. Hugh D. Greer, dentist, is regarded as one of the ablest members of his profession and during his residence in Lorain County has made himself an influential factor in local affairs. Doctor Greer has a wide and varied experience in his profession, covering more than twenty years, and has seen a great deal of the country and of men and affairs generally.
His birth occurred in Lexington, Missouri, April 4, 1864. His parents were Joseph R. and Tabitha (Dickinson) Greer. His father was born in Virginia and his mother in Kentucky. When Doctor Greer was six years of age his father died and he was only two years old when deprived of a mother's care. The parents were married in Mecklin, Jackson County, Missouri. Joseph R. Greer was descended from the old McGregor stock of Scotland, where his father was born. Grandfather Greer on coming from Scotland brought two other brothers and first settled in New York and then moved to Virginia, where his son Joseph was born. Tabitha Dickinson was a Kentucky girl from the Blue Grass State, but her mother and father were both natives of England. Joseph R. Greer and his wife are buried in a little country churchyard located four miles west of Mecklin and about twenty-eight miles east of Kansas City, Missouri, a place which their son Doctor Greer visits whenever he is in that vicinity. Doctor Greer has one sister, one brother and a half brother: Mrs. Charles H. Ayers of Independence, Missouri; Thomas S., a physician and surgeon of Edgerton, Kansas; and Charles L., a half brother, whose mother was Nannie (White) Greer and who died at the birth of this only child, who is now a resident of Kansas City, Missouri. Nannie White's father lived at Pleasant Hill, Missouri. She died in April, 1870, and Joseph R. Greer passed away November 30, 1870. All the children including Doctor Hugh were reared in the home of an uncle and aunt, William Thomas and Elizabeth J. (Greer) Bell at Lexington, Missouri. In the spring of 1913 Doctor Greer visited these worthy people, for whom he has the strongest affection, for the first time in four years, but prior to that time had made it a practice to see them every year. Mr. Bell was an active farmer but has been retired for the past thirty years.
Doctor Greer lived with Mr. and Mrs. Bell on their farm until the age of fifteen. His education came from the public schools of Lexington, Missouri, but when quite young he found work as weighmaster in the coal mines at Wellington, Missouri, for the Wellington Coal Company, and was with that firm about four years. His next position was in the wholesale grocery house of Beckham-Mercer & Company at Kansas City, beginning as stock boy and having a place in the bookkeeping depart- ment when he left. It was while in that business that he gained his real education and training for life except his equipment for his profession. On leaving the grocery house he went to Texas and was at first one place and then another for about a year, after which he returned to Independence, Missouri, spent one year in the retail coal business, and then entered the dental office of Parker & Monser, dentists, and after being with them two years received a preceptor's certificate, which in those days entitled the holder to practice after registering the same with the county clerk. After ten months of practice Doctor Greer determined that he was insufficiently equipped for the profession, at least to pursue it independently, and accordingly gave up his office and went west to San Francisco. While he practiced dentistry there to some extent, his ill health interfered with any regular vocation and he put in his time chiefly in recuperating his strength. He lived on the Pacific Coast from the spring of 1888 to the fall of 1891, and after returning East his physician confided to him that he had sent him out to the coast to die,
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but was pleasantly disappointed at the rapid recovery. On returning to Kansas City Doctor Greer entered the office of Dr. George S. Monser, dentist, who had in the meantime moved to that city from Independence. He remained with him in practice about a year, and then going to Wichita, Kansas, was for six months in the employ of Doctor Boyd, a dentist there. He then opened an office for himself in Wichita, but at the end of six months sold out, and his next home was in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where for about a year he was employed in the offices of the New York Dentists in that city. He then opened an office of his own in Allegheny, now a part of Greater Pittsburg. This was about 1894. While in practice at Allegheny he also attended the Pittsburg Dental College, and few members of the profession have studied harder and done more to acquire proficiency and expertness in this calling. In 1898 Doctor Greer registered for practice in Ohio, and in May of that year located at Elyria. For nearly ten years he practiced with offices in the Wurst Block at 535 Broad Street, but sold out his practice in October, 1907, and for the following six years practiced in the metro- politan City of Cleveland, where his office was located just across from Higbee Company's big store on Euclid Avenue. On leaving Cleveland Doctor Greer returned to Elyria in June, 1913, and in the subsequent two years has acquired a large and profitable practice.
In politics Doctor Greer is a democrat, and that is unfortunate for the community, since he is eminently qualified for public service, but Lorain County has long been unfavorable to democratic candidates how- ever well qualified, and it is only seldom that the individual popularity of a candidate overcomes the normal party prejudice. Doctor Greer in the fall of 1914 was on the democratic ticket as nominee for county auditor, and at an earlier date in 1902 had been a candidate for council- man at large in Elyria.
Fraternally Doctor Greer is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons, at Elyria, with the Knights of the Maccabees at that city, and is well known both professionally and socially. His favorite recreation is mountain climbing, and whenever able to take a vacation he generally finds his way to the mountainous districts, usually in the West.
At Wichita, Kansas, November 25, 1892, Doctor Greer married Miss Ida M. Crawmer, daughter of James P. and Elizabeth Crawmer of Wichita. Mrs. Greer was born in Iowa, and was educated in the public schools of her native village and at Randell in that state, graduated from the high school at Superior, Nebraska, and subsequently . finished a course in the Kansas State Normal School. Dr. and Mrs. Greer have a happy family of six children, five sons and one daughter: Arthur G. is now an engineer and is on one of the Great Lakes boats; Reed C. is in the real estate and insurance business with offices in the Masonic Temple at Elyria; Hugh D., Jr., is in high school; William Thomas Bell is also a high school student; Elizabeth D., is in the grades; and Richard H. begins school life in 1915. The first three children were born in Pennsylvania and the others in Elyria.
LORENZO DOW HAMLIN. At an early stage in his career, about thirty years ago, Lorenzo Dow Hamlin was known to a limited circle of people in Lorain County as a country school teacher. For some four or five years he was a faithful and rising employe in the service of the Penn- sylvania Railroad, and the next stage of his career found him a Lorain County farmer. From this business he turned his attention to the law, and now for more than ten years has been one of the able and successful attorneys at Elyria.
Born at Ridgeville Corners, Henry County, Ohio, August 21, 1867,
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Mr. Hamlin comes of one of the oldest American families, and his people have been identified with Ohio for several generations. Going back along the line of ancestry for a number of generations we come to the record of James Hamlin, who emigrated from London, England, in 1639, to the Massachusetts Colony, and settled at Barnstable, Massachusetts. He and his descendants became connected by marriage and otherwise with nearly all the old New England families. The next in line is James, II, and following him comes James, III, and then James, IV. A son of the last James was Job Hamlin, whose life fell in the historic period that concluded with the separation and independence of the American colonies. Job Hamlin was a colonial volunteer in the French and Indian wars, was with General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec, and later became an officer in the War of the Revolution. Although an official member of the church, a record is found of his being fined for profane swearing and doubtless he possessed the violent temper which has been always more or less an inalienable characteristic of the family. Continuing the lineage from Job the next is David Hamlin, whose son was David II, the last being the grandfather of Lorenzo Dow Hamlin of Elyria. David Ham- lin II, married Roxanna Crocker, and both were of the Puritan stock and the Crockers were likewise among the first settlers of New England. David and Roxanna came from Lee, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and became early settlers at Dover, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. At their home there Noah Crocker Hamlin, father of the Elyria lawyer, was born December 14, 1832. He was a farmer, an earnest and consistent Christian and for sixty-five years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and for more than sixty years class leader in that church. He is now living at the age of eighty-three on his farm two miles southeast of Elyria. Noah Crocker Hamlin married Lydia Lucinda Fauver on March 27, 1860. She was born April 8, 1840, in Eaton Township of Lorain County, a daughter of Walter and Alzina (Cornell) Fauver, who came to Ohio from New York State many years ago.
This brief account of the family shows that Lorenzo Dow Hamlin began life with the fortune of a good heritage and he grew up in a home of Christian ideals and with influences tending towards substantial char- acter and good citizenship. During the winter of each year from 1873 to 1883 he attended the country district schools. In the latter year he spent one year in the Oberlin Academy, and then qualified and began teaching district schools in Lorain County. He alternately taught and attended school in Oberlin and Berea for the succeeding five years. Not being satisfied with the prospects arising from teaching, Mr. Hamlin in 1889 went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in search of employment, and while there attended a technical school. He never graduated from any institution except that of hard experience.
Soon after going to Pittsburg he found employment with the Penn- sylvania Railroad as common brakeman on the main line east. He possessed qualities which make for advancement in any calling, and after ten months was promoted and spent two years as a conductor and master of wrecking train and crew, and the company then sent him into the Union yards at Pittsburg as assistant yard dispatcher. Resigning from the railroad service in June, 1893, with a certificate testifying to his good service, he returned to Lorain County and took up the vocation of farmer in Carlisle Township. That was his work for seven years. In 1900 he began the study of law with Judge Lee Stroup in Elyria, who was at that time prosecuting attorney of the county. Mr. Hamlin was admitted to the bar in 1903, and has been in active practice at Elyria since May, 1904, with offices now in the Turner Block. It should also be mentioned that while a student of law between 1900 and 1902 he paid part of his expenses as a teacher in the Elyria Business College.
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MARY EVERSON
ISAAC EVERSON
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For a number of years Mr. Hamlin has been active in republican politics, and is a man of progressive inclinations, but believes that all reforms should be conducted within the ranks of the party rather than by the familiar practice of "bolting" or disruption. For three years he was a member of the Republican County Executive Committee. Though an active party worker Mr. Hamlin's scrupulous integrity and rigid adherence to the ideals of public service have not been entirely favorable to his political advancement. His first public office was as clerk of Carlisle Township to which he was elected in 1894 and in which he served six years. In 1902 Governor George K. Nash appointed him a member of the Ohio Investigating Canal Commission and he remained with that commission eighteen months and it is said that during that time he was the only man who had ever personally inspected or even seen the entire canal system of the state. In the fall of 1903 the same governor appointed him to fill a vacancy on the State Board of Public Works caused by the death of Hon. Charles Goddard. He was on that board until Hon. George Watkins who at the time of the last appointment was the repub- lican nominee for the office, was elected and qualified. Mr. Hamlin spent most of his time in Columbus in the service of the Canal Commission until the close of the 1904 session of the State Legislature. In 1904 he was a candidate before the Republican State Convention for nomination as a member of the State Board of Public Works, and in that convention openly contested the nomination against the "electrical mule" group of exploiters of state property. It was a bold and admirable stand to take in the interests of good service in the state, but as Mr. Hamlin says him- self he was so badly licked that he has not "come to" yet politically. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order at Elyria, and in church matters was formerly a Methodist, but is now an independent thinker so far as independent thought is possible in that sphere.
On November 21, 1890, in Carlisle Township of Lorain County, Mr. Hamlin married Stella J. Brush, daughter of William and Facelia (Hum- phrey) Brush. She was descended on both sides from New England ancestry. On September 7, 1910, at Akron, Ohio, Mr. Hamlin married for his present wife Lillie O. Bloom, who was then a widow, daughter of William and Margaret (Hahns) Gault. The Gaults are of Protestant Irish descent, while the Hahns are Pennsylvania Dutch. William Gault, her father, was a volunteer in the Union army and served throughout the Civil war. By his first marriage Mr. Hamlin has the following children : Facelia Brush Hamlin, born April 19, 1892, and now living in Chicago, Illinois; David Walter Hamlin, born August 28, 1895, and living in Lorain County ; Lydia Irene Hamlin, born September 24, 1897, and a student in Oberlin College; and James Thurman Hamlin, born December 19, 1906, and now in the public schools.
ISAAC EVERSON. In the course of a long life Isaac Everson has had many interesting associations with Lorain County. It was his birth- place, the home of his youth and mature manhood, and while for all these reasons he is loyal to the county he has also made himself useful by active work and real service as a farmer and in every position to which the destiny of life has assigned him.
His birth occurred in Brighton Township of Lorain County, April 10, 1840. His parents were Isaac and Hannah (Hammond) Everson. His paternal grandfather was also named Isaac Everson and died in Massachusetts when the second Isaac was seven years of age. The maternal grandparents were Edmondson and Hannah Hammond, who were early settlers in Lorain County, where Mr. Hammond followed shoemaking at Brighton for many years. Isaac Everson, Sr., was born
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in Massachusetts in 1777 and died in 1868. He came to Brighton Town- ship in 1836, buying 120 acres and clearing it up, erecting a log house as his first habitation, and spending the rest of his days on a farm. His first wife was Mary Usher, and their children were Franklin, Samuel, Norman, Orville, Lafayette, George, Mary and Lucy, all of whom are now deceased. By his marriage to Miss Hammond there were three children : Harriet, who graduated from Oberlin College and who died in 1879 as the wife of Howard Burrill, who was also a graduate of Oberlin College, and for a number of years was an editor in Iowa and is now living retired at Washington, in that state; Elizabeth, who, died in infancy ; and Isaac. Isaac Everson, Sr. and wife were active members of the Baptist Church, and he was a whig and a republican in politics. He developed a farm of 120 acres well improved, and nearly all of it cleared by his own hands, and he put up some very substantial buildings. He was one of the prominent men of the township in his day. His wife was born in Chenango County, New York, twelve miles from Utica, New York, in 1800, and died March 12, 1883.
Isaac Everson, Jr., has made his own way in the world for many years. He started with a district school education acquired in Brighton Township, and took up farming as his first vocation.
On May 8, 1879, he married Mary Collen, a daughter of Ephraim and Mary (Drayton) Collen, both of whom were natives of England. They came to Chatham in Medina County, Ohio, where her father fol- lowed farming until his death at the early age of thirty-nine. His widow survived to be eighty-two. Of the seven Collen children the three now living are Mrs. Everson, Elvira Whitney of Toledo and William T., a farmer at Norwalk, Ohio. Mrs. Everson was born in England, April 14, 1847.
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