USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 40
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His education thus having been interrupted Mr. Parsons returned to the old farm and took an important share in its management. On December 31, 1873, when in his twenty-first year he was married at Oberlin to Miss Mary E. Blanchard, daughter of Darwin E. and Lucinda L. (Obits) Blanchard. After his marriage Mr. Parsons continued run- ning the old homestead, since his father had moved into Oberlin. The farm at that time contained 170 acres, and at one time Mr. Parsons and his father together owned 260 acres, but these possessions have since been reduced until his present homestead comprises 105 acres, an excel- lent farm, with fine improvements and is a valuable and productive prop- erty. The old homestead had been bought by his father eighty years ago when the family came to Lorain County.
Mr. Parsons continued to give his active supervision to his farming interests until the death of his wife on June 27, 1906. Since then he has rented his farm and has lived part of his time at his home in Elyria and part of the time in the country. He has given much time to public affairs, served as trustee and township assessor a number of terms in LaGrange, and has long been a figure in the republican party in the county. Eight years ago he began his duties as county commissioner, having been elected to the office in the fall of 1905 and assuming its duties in the fall of 1906. He remained in office five years was then out two years, and in the fall of 1912 was again elected, his term beginning in the fall of 1913 and terminating in September, 1915. No member of the board has given a more conscientious and capable administration than Mr. Parsons.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Grafton, with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Knights of Pythias at LaGrange, with Elyria Lodge No. 456, Benevo-
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lent and Protective Order of Elks, and is an active member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce. He is a working member of the Second Con- gregational Church of Elyria and helps supports two churches in La- Grange Township. He and his wife had only one daughter, Grace J., who was born on the old farm in LaGrange Township December 10, 1879, and died there September 11, 1880, at the age of nine months. Mrs. Parsons died suddenly of apoplexy. They were greatly devoted to each other, and her death was the most severe bereavement which he has been called upon to suffer, and with home ties broken and with his love of home and children unsatisfied, he has found the cares of public office a grateful diversion from his own personal bereavement and has exercised his big hearted nature in performing many kindly services for others.
CAREY T. WINCKLES. One of the flourishing business concerns of Elyria is the Elyria Construction Company, which is the outgrowth of the individual enterprise of Carey T. Winckles in general construc- tion work. The construction company was incorporated March 16, 1912, with Mr. Winckles as president, treasurer and general manager. The offices of the company are in the Elyria Block. Mr. Winckles had for some years prior to that time been engaged in road building and pav- ing construction, and has a notable record to his credit in the construc- tion of many miles of high grade highways and city streets throughout Lorain County. The company has an organization and ample facilities for almost unlimited work in excavating, grading, paving, road build- ing, sewer construction, and other contracts of that nature.
While this business has naturally brought Mr. Winckles into special notice among Lorain County business men he is primarily a farmer and dairyman. He now owns and resides upon a fine farm of 187 acres at North Ridgeville, the old homestead where he was born May 23, 1869. His parents are Thomas T. and Lucy (Hurst) Winckles, both of whom are now living in Elyria retired. His father for a number of years operated the old home farm in Ridgeville, but about 1884 moved to Elyria. He served as a trustee of the township and held various other offices there, and both he and his wife were especially active in the Con- gregational Church at Ridgeville, and from their home in Elyria they still drive out almost every Sunday to attend worship in their old home church. Thomas Winckles has been a deacon in the church for a great many years. This is one of the older families of Lorain County, and Thomas Winckles was born in Avon Township. His wife was born in Dover Township in Cuyahoga County. A brief record of their four children is: Lillian, now Mrs. William Barnes of Cleveland; Lena, who died at the age of eighteen; Carey T. and Harvey T. of Elyria. All the children were born on the old homestead in Ridgeville and attended public school there and in Elyria.
The old farm on which Mr. Winckles was born is known as the Meadow View Dairy Farm, and he has made it one of the finest of the farms in Lorain County. He keeps a herd of high grade cows, about sixty in number, and sends his milk products daily to Cleveland by the electric lines. It was in 1908 that Mr. Winckles took up the business of road building and paving contracting, and now divides his attention between the business of the Elyria Construction Company and his dairy farm. Mr. Winckles is also president of the Farm Implement Company of Elyria.
He is actively identified with local organizations, being a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce and a member and director of the Elyria Automobile Club, and fraternally he is identified with the Knights
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of the Maccabees at North Ridgeville. He was married in Hudson, Michigan, to Miss Grace V. Hollister, who was born and educated there. Her father, John H. Hollister, is now living in Hillsdale, Michigan, and her mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Olds, died several years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Winckles have a daughter, Ruth E., who is now attending the high school at Elyria.
FRED E. DENN. An enterprising and progressive citizen of Elyria Township, this county, is Fred E. Denn, who lives at Stop 93, Oberlin Line, where he is engaged in truck gardening, in addition to which he is rural mail carrier for this section. He is a man of keen intelligence and he gives a loyal support to all matters tending to improve local conditions.
A native of the fine old Wolverine State, Fred E. Denn was born at Tecumseh, Michigan, August 12, 1874, and he is a son of Frederick and Catherine (Dueree) Denn, the former of whom was born just south of Oberlin, Ohio, and the latter at Geneseo, New York. Frederick Denn left home in 1870, at the age of nineteen years, and entered a veterinary college, in which he was subsequently graduated, with the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Surgery. He entered upon the active practice of his profession at Tecumseh, Michigan, and continued to re- side in that city until 1880, when he began to travel in order to improve his health. He had contracted consumption and that dread disease ended in his demise three years later, at which time he was living in Grafton, Ohio. He was but thirty-two years of age when death called him but his kindly disposition had made an indelible impression on those who knew him and his memory will ever be green in the hearts of his friends. Mrs. Denn survives her husband and is now a resident of Elyria Township, where she is beloved by all who know her. Two chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Denn, namely : Charles Henry, engaged in the electrical business and accidentally killed by an electric shock in 1901; and Fred Ernest, the subject of this review.
Fred E. Denn was bereft of his father at the tender age of nine years. He completed the prescribed course in the common schools of Elyria Township and for a time attended the high school at Elyria. On leaving school he entered the service of the United States Express Company and for the ensuing thirteen years was driver of their only wagon in this section. Later he became agent for this company at South Lorain, remaining there for one year, at the expiration of which he was train messenger for the same concern for two years. In 1903 he was appointed rural mail carrier on Route No. 3 and he has continued to fill this position with the utmost efficiency to the present time, in 1915. On his plot of sixty-five acres Mr. Denn is most successfully engaged in dairying and general farming, finding a good market for his produce in Elyria.
June 15, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Denn to Miss Anna F. Arndt, a daughter of Charles and Fredericka (Schultz) Arndt, residents of Amherst, where Mr. Arndt was for many years engaged in the stone quarry industry. Mr. and Mrs. Denn have two children, both boys : Charley Ernest, born May 25, 1899, is a junior in the Elyria High School; and Clarence Albert, born November 11, 1901, is a pupil in the graded schools.
In politics Mr. Denn is a stalwart republican and in a fraternal way he is a valued and appreciative member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mrs. Denn is a devout member of the Lutheran Church at Elyria and she takes an active part in both its religious and social work. Mr. and Mrs. Denn are
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popular with their neighbors and they are looked upon as substantial and progressive citizens.
DEWITT ELDRED. An evidence of thrift and industry exists in the cozy and comfortable residence of Dewitt Eldred, located in Elyria Township, in the midst of a fertile tract of land which has within its borders sufficient gardening and other interests to beguile the compara- tive leisure of this erstwhile general farmer and stock raiser.
Mr. Eldred was born in 1840 in Elyria Township, Ohio, a son of Noah and Mary Minerva (Murray) Eldred. His paternal grandfather was Moses Eldred, who came from Rome, New York, to Cuyahoga county, Ohio, settling on a farm west of Rocky River. He served in the War of 1812, following which he settled on what was known as the Shore Road, but later, finding that this was not to be the main thoroughfare, moved to a location on the Center Ridge Road, 21/2 miles east of Elyria, in Lorain County. There he built a log tavern and later a frame house, which, substantially built of heavy timbers, is still standing as a land- mark of pioneer times. He continued to conduct the tavern until his wife's death, when he gave up the business, and from that time until his death, at the age of eighty-three years, made his home successively with his several children.
Noah Eldred, his son and the father of Dewitt Eldred, was born at Rome, New York, in 1798, and accompanied his parents to Ohio at the age of ten years. He was eighteen years of age when he engaged in farming on his own account, purchasing a property on Murray Ridge Road, in the western part of Elyria Township, and there accumulated 105 acres of good land. His health failing he sold a part of his land, re- taining but fifty-five acres, but lived to the age of eighty-three years, dying in 1881. He was three times married, his first wife being Betsey Murray, who was an aunt of his second wife, Mary Minerva Murray. By his first union he had one son, Albert, who grew to manhood and died about 1909. The mother died about six months after his birth, and Mr. Eldred was again married, there being six children in this fam- ily : Charley and Betsy, deceased; Dewitt; one who died in infancy; Newton, and Mary. After the death of his second wife Mr. Eldred was married a third time, being united with Harmony Redington, of Amherst Township, Lorain County. There were two children born to them: Frank, deceased, whose widow is living on the old farm in Elyria Township; and Martha, who resides at Elyria.
Dewitt Eldred was reared on the family homestead and remained at home until attaining his majority, when, in 1861, he enlisted in Colonel Barnatt's regiment of light artillery, with which he served three years, receiving his honorable discharge in 1864. During his service he re- ceived a severe injury to his back, and this has troubled him more or less all of his life, although, at the age of seventy-five years, he is still erect, with a good carriage, and appearance of one many years younger. His military career ended, he secured employment with the Lake Shore Railroad, on the section between Cleveland and Erie, but after five years was compelled to resign as his injury troubled him severely, and his next employment was in the handling of a stationary engine at Cleveland, a calling which he followed for five years. Mr. Eldred then turned his attention to farming pursuits in Dover Township, Cuyahoga County, where he resided until 1890, and in that year practically retired from farm work. He has resided on his present place on Murray Ridge Road, Elyria Township for two years, this being a part of the old home- stead, where he has a small but comfortable residence, with a handsome garden. Mr. Eldred has been industrious, honest and thrifty and is
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THE COLUMBIA STEEL COMPANY
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richly entitled to the exemption from care which attends his later years.
On September 17, 1865, Mr. Eldred was married to Miss Mary Crawl, a native of Cleveland, whose father came from Pennsylvania. Her mother died when she was a small child and her father two years later. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Eldred: Edwin, Burton, Arthur, Claud, Melville and Scott, all living with the possible exception of the last-named, who left home when sixteen years of age, and has not since been heard from directly.
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THE COLUMBIA STEEL COMPANY. Perhaps no local industry at Elyria has had a more satisfactory record since it was established some thirteen years ago than The Columbia Steel Company. Moved to Elyria in 1903, from small beginnings it has developed into a business that now supplies material not only to all parts of America but to foreign coun- tries as well. Its product is known technically as cold rolled strip steel, largely employed in the manufacture of stamped, drawn and formed parts used in automobile equipment, typewriters, sewing machines, light hardware, and many other lines. The company specializes in the finer grades of this material, as for the most part the strips and sheets it makes are electroplated in the finished article.
It was through the efforts of Arthur L. Garford, who was at the time general manager of the Federal Manufacturing Company, that what is now The Columbia Steel Company was removed from Chicago and re-established at Elyria under the present corporate name. ' At that time the plant was laid out on a generous scale, with a view to the require- ments of a growing business. In 1905 The Federal Manufacturing Company was liquidated, and The Columbia Steel Company plant then came into the possession of The Pope Manufacturing Company of Hart- ford, Connecticut. At the same time Mr. Garford retired to look after his other extensive affairs. In May, 1905, the present manager, Mr. Charles E. Lozier, was installed by the Pope interests as general manager of the plant, and he still retains that position.
It was the growth of the automobile industry which most favorably affected and brought about the rapid progress and prosperity of The Columbia Steel Company. Its products were used for many of the most important parts in automobile construction, though the output by no means goes exclusively to automobile factories. During the brief finan- cial panic of 1907-08, The Pope Manufacturing Company failed, and within less than a year the control of The Columbia Steel Company passed into the hands of a Chicago syndicate whose successors are largely included in the present official roster as follows: C. D. Smith, president; W. L. Smith, treasurer; E. J. Scott, secretary ; C. E. Lozier, vice president and manager.
Probably nowhere in the country is a factory so well equipped for producing cold rolled strips and sheets of steel in accurate gauges and of excellent quality. Special attention is paid to the matter of finish, and in consequence the Columbia product can be electro-plated without expensive pre-treatment, and for this reason the company enjoys the patronage of a wide circle of buyers who have grown to be fast friends of this Elyria industry. While a very large proportion of the company's products is of basic open-hearth quality suited to deep drawing opera- tions, the Columbia people sell also a considerable tonnage of high carbon and alloy strips, used in certain lines of manufacture. While The Columbia Company can be considered somewhat of a "specialty con- cern," its output is of such staple character, that the mill operates the entire year through and furnishes steady employment to about two
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hundred and fifty men, constituting a most valuable asset to the general prosperity of the city. The warehouses of the company contain a great tonnage of semi-finished strips in the form of hoops, bars and bands, so that most orders can be promptly filled, and often with greater expedi- tion than by some of the larger competitors of this local industry. Wherever cold-rolled strips are in demand, the reputation of Columbia steel is that of the first rank in quality. The company has facilities for strips ranging in width from 5/16 inch to 20 inches, and in the matter of unusual widths it has practically no competition. The plant is most eligibly located at the junction of the tracks of the Lake Shore & Michi- gan Southern and the Baltimore & Ohio Railway, and no industry at . Elyria has better shipping facilities.
W. G. NICHOLS, besides representing one of the oldest families of LaGrange Township, has made his own career count effectually for im- provement and progress in that section and there is no resident there who shows greater capability in the management of the soil and his live- stock, and who enjoys more esteem among his neighbors.
The founder of the family in Lorain County was grandfather James Nichols, who was born in Rhode Island in 1800, and in 1836 brought his family West and settled in LaGrange Township. His tract of land was completely covered by a heavy growth of timber, and he literally cut a farm out of the woods. The Nichols family in America dates from the time, in early colonial days, when three brothers named James, Coe and John left England and settled on Rhode Island.
Cyrus Nichols, father of W. G. Nichols, was born at Champion in Jefferson County, New York, in 1823, and was thirteen years old when. he came to Lorain County. He was well educated, always kept himself well informed, and having a retentive memory was a recognized author- ity on all matters of local history and carried in his mind a great fund of general knowledge as well. In his generation he stood among Lorain County's most successful farmers. He is given credit as being the first to use commercial fertilizer in growing his crops. He was an active member of the Baptist Church, and took much interest in school affairs, serving as a director. Politically he was a republican. Cyrus Nichols was twice married, his wives being half-sisters. His second wife was Bessie S. Pearce, who was born in Pittsfield Township of Lorain County March 26, 1841, a daughter of Daniel Pearce, who was born in Herkimer County, New York, and became one of the early settlers of Pittsfield Township. Cyrus Nichols died October 19, 1891, while his wife passed away December 29, 1887. Of their five children the four now living are : W. G .; George H., who is a farmer in LaGrange Township; Nora, wife of John Miller, a baker at Lansing, Michigan; and Mrs. Lizzie Edmonds, wife of a farmer at Oberlin.
W. G. Nichols acquired his early training in the public schools of LaGrange Township, and for fifteen years he alternated between the duties of the schoolroom as a teacher and his farm as a practical agri- culturist. He bought a farm in Penfield Township, on which he lived four years, and since 1899 has had his home in LaGrange Township, where he owns a well improved and well stocked place of ninety acres. When he bought the land it had no improvements, and its present con- dition is ascribable entirely to his own work and management. Much of his time has been devoted to dairying.
In 1891 Mr. Nichols married Lillie Walkden, who was born in Colum- bia Township of Lorain County, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Walkden. Her parents were born in England, and came to Lorain County when young people. Her father died in Columbia Township
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and her mother is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols had two children, but Andrew, their son, died March 23, 1916, aged twenty-three years. He was his father's right hand helper on the farm. The daughter Alice is now attending high school. Mrs. Nichols is a member of the Baptist Church. Not only in the management of his own interests as a farmer but also in the broader movements of community life and rural improve- ment, Mr. Nichols has accepted every opportunity for useful service. For six years he was a master of the Grange in Penfield Township and has also served as master of the County Pomona. He has filled some minor township offices and was a member of the board of education twelve years. In politics he is republican.
PERKINS KIRKLAND CLARK. One of the most picturesque country homes in Lorain County is Clarkhurst, in Carlisle Township, four miles south of the City of Elyria and located on the Diagonal Pike and also on the Elyria and LaGrange Road. This place exhibits the care and management of Mr. P. K. Clark, who has been its proprietor for upwards of half a century. Few men in the county have been so successful in directing farm enterprise.
While the Clark family has been identified with Lorain County since early times, the ancestral line in America extends back to the early half of the seventeenth century, when the Puritans came out of England and established the first settlement along Massachusetts Bay. Mr. Clark's lineage goes directly back to one William Clark, who came to America in 1630, about a year after the first colony of the Massachusetts Bay Company was established and located at first at Dorchester, Massa- chusetts, but subsequently joined that numerous body of dissenters who established Windsor on the Connecticut River in the state of that name. Still later he moved back to Massachusetts and died at Northampton July 18, 1670, when about ninety years of age.
William Clark, son of the immigrant, was married to Hannah Strong. They had eleven children, some of whom subsequently returned to Con- necticut. Of these eleven children three lived to be above the age of ninety, one attaining the age of ninety-nine, four passed the fourscore mark, and three of the others were past seventy when they died. The sons without an exception lived beyond the age of fifty, and all of them had wives and buried them, but none of them ever took a second wife. On April 7, 1789, at the death of the youngest of these sons, Josiah, the six sons enumerated their descendants as 1,158 in number, of whom 925 were alive at that time.
One of the sons of William and Hannah Clark was John Clark, who was married March 16, 1679, to Mary Strong. Of their children Josiah was born June 11, 1697, and died April 7, 1798. Their son Enoch Clark was married June 16, 1763, to Mercy Kingsley, and they were the great- grandparents of Perkins K. Clark of Lorain County.
The latter's grandfather, Enoch Clark, was born March 15, 1777, at Northampton, Massachusetts, and was married December 6, 1801. He died March 31, 1831, probably in Massachusetts. The maiden name of his wife was Abigail Kirkland.
Lorenzo Clark, father of Mr. P. K. Clark, was born at Westfield, Massachusetts, February 6, 1814. He married Charlotte A. Blanchard. Lorenzo Clark was still a young man when he came to Lorain County. He possessed a fair common school education and had learned the trade of cabinet making and followed that line in Elyria for several years and also conducted the first regular furniture store in the town. His mar- riage was celebrated at Penfield, Lorain County. There were just two children, and the sister is Mrs. Charlotte A. Jones, whose home is now at Orlando, Florida.
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Perkins Kirkland Clark was born in the City of Elyria, April 4, 1843. Four weeks after his birth his mother became an invalid and remained so for seven years. During that time Mr. Clark lived with his maternal grandmother and then returned home. His parents about that time moved to the farm which Lorenzo Clark had bought in Carlisle Town- ship, and on that old homestead Mr. Clark grew to manhood. For some eight or nine terms he attended school at Oberlin.
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