USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 48
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the work of clearing. Charles Box did well as a farmer and home maker and eventually had a place of 120 acres, on which he built the comfort- able farm dwelling in which his son George now resides. George is next to the youngest in a family of seven children, six of whom are still living.
He grew up on the home farm, had a common school education, and lived at home working for his father until 1896.
In the meantime, on December 30, 1885, he married Miss Nellie Wil- son of Eaton Township, where she was born a daughter of George and Magdalene (Caldwell) Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Box have seven children. The oldest Charles H. has a common school education, lives in Eaton Township and married Ina B. Nichols. Naomi is the wife of Guy Ams- bary and they live on a farm in LaGrange Township. Percy has com- pleted his public school work and is still at home. Clyde is in the Elyria High School. The youngest children are Mildred, Claude L. and Fos- ter D.
In 1896 Mr. Box began conducting the home farm on the shares. His father died in that year and he then undertook to buy out the interests of the other heirs in the farm, and for the past twenty years has gone steadily ahead in the acquisition of land until he now owns 240 acres and has also spent much money and labor in making improvements. He has remodeled the farm home, and has two substantial silos outside of his farm equipment.
A republican, Mr. Box cast his first presidential ballot for Blaine in 1884. He was formerly a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, filling several chairs in the local lodge, and at one time belonged to the Knights of Pythias, of which he was a charter member. He is a charter member of the Grange at Grafton, and his son Charles is sec- retary of the Grafton Grange and also secretary of the County Pomona.
George H. Wilson, father of Mrs. Box, was born March 6, 1848, in Eaton Township on a farm which he still owns. His parents were Wil- liam and Nancy (Fink) Wilson. His father was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1808, and came to America at the age of twenty-two, locating in Lorain County, at first in the north part of the county. Nancy Fink was born in New York State, and when a child was stolen, and brought to Lorain County. She was never informed as to her parents and family, and when she became grown she worked in Elyria until her marriage to William Wilson. After their marriage they bought seventy-three acres in the midst of the woods in Eaton Township, and they lived in a log cabin. Later they built a frame barn and a frame house, and that house is still in use, having been erected in 1847. George H. Wilson is the youngest of six children and the only one born in the house just men- tioned.
In December, 1863, when still a boy, George H. Wilson enlisted in Company H of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and most of his time was spent in guarding prisoners on John- son's Island. In the spring of 1865 he was detailed to assist in escorting 101 prisoners south to Richmond. On returning he was transferred to Company H and was honorably discharged in July of that year at Colum- bus. On March 30, 1867, at the age of nineteen he married Miss Magda- lene Caldwell of Eaton Township, daughter of William and Magdalene (Fauver) Caldwell. Mrs. Wilson was born in Lagro, Wabash County, Indiana, December 9, 1849, and was about a year and a half old when she came with her mother to Eaton Township. After their marriage George Wilson and wife lived for a short time on Butternut Ridge, and then moved to Eaton Township, where they lived on a rented farm a few years and he then bought his father's old place. That was his home and the center of his activities for eighteen years, following which he was
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C. L. Jackson
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for eight years a resident of Elyria, and during part of that time served on the police force. He then returned to the farm and in 1914 built his present home on a small tract of land just across the road from the old home place.
The five children of George H. Wilson and wife are : Nellie May, wife of George H. Box; Charles C. Wilson, who lives in Grafton and married Gertrude Sheldon; Carrie Estelle, wife of Charles Daly of Elyria; Fred, who died at the age of three years; and Harley J., who runs the home farm and married Hilda Mason. George Wilson is a republican, and he and his wife are active members of the Disciples Church at Eaton Center.
ALEXANDER L. JACKSON. A live and energetic representative of the automobile business at Elyria, Alexander L. Jackson, formerly of the Jackson-Harrison Company, has built up a thriving enterprise at 625 which has placed him prominently in the forefront among the dealers of Lorain County. Since coming to Elyria in 1894 he has been engaged in a variety of ventures, in all of which he has gained success through his own efforts; in fact, his entire career is typical of the self-made manhood of which the Middle West is so justifiably proud.
Mr. Jackson was born at Ogdensburg, New York, March 17, 1868, and is a son of William and Sarah (Kerrigan) Jackson. His father, a carpenter by trade, passed his entire life at Ogdensburg, where he died at the age of thirty-one years, the mother passing away when twenty- eight years of age. There were two sons in the family: Alexander L .; and William F., who resides at Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Jackson's early education was secured in the public schools of his native place, where he attended while not at work on a farm, for he began to be thus engaged when a lad of nine years and continued to occupy himself so until he was fifteen. Later he secured employment as a steward on the Great Lakes on boats running from Buffalo to Chicago, and while thus employed managed to obtain a commercial course at Bryant & Stratton's Business College, at Buffalo, New York. After ten years on the Lakes, in the fall of 1894 Mr. Jackson came to Elyria, where he established himself in business as the proprietor of a restaurant. This he conducted with a fair share of success for four years, then purchasing the old American House, one of the old landmarks of Elyria, located at the corner of Broad Street and West Avenue, which he rebuilt and named the Hotel Jackson, in 1905. He conducted it as a popular-priced hostelry and built up a large patronage, conducting it personally until 1908, since which time he has leased the property, although he still retains the ownership. During the years 1910 and 1911 Mr. Jackson was proprietor of the Book Shop, located at No. 509 Broad Street, a business which he sold to A. E. Side, its present owner. At that time Mr. Jackson embarked in the automobile business, in company with M. J. Harrison, adopting the firm style of Jackson-Harrison Company, which continued until October 1, 1915, at which time Mr. Jackson withdrew from the firm and established himself in the automobile business inde- pendently, having built one of the most complete garages in Northern Ohio, and where (1916) he handles the celebrated Overland car. The garage and sales agency are located at No. 225 Broad Street, the main business thoroughfare of Elyria, an excellent location for selling and repairing automobiles. Mr. Jackson is what is known as a hustler, with up-to-date ideas and energetic methods, and is rapidly making a name for himself in automobile circles. He belongs to the Elyria Automobile Club and the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, and is well known and popular in fraternal circles, belonging to the Independent Order of Odd
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Fellows; Elyria Camp, Modern Woodmen of America; Lodge No. 465, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and Elyria Lodge No. 431, Fraternal Order of Eagles.
On January 1, 1896, Mr. Jackson was married to Miss Katherine Greenfield, of Elyria, who was born in Avon Township, Lorain County, and educated in the township and Elyria public schools, daughter of Sebastian and Katherine (Miller) Greenfield. Mr. Greenfield is now deceased, but his widow still survives, residing on the homestead in Avon Township during the summer months, but spending her winters at the home of Mr. Jackson, who declares "she is one of the best mothers- in-law in the world." To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson there have been born four children: Irene, who will graduate from the Elyria High School in the class of 1916; Leona, who in the fall of 1915 became a sophomore in the Elyria High School; Raymond, who is attending the graded schools; and Vivian, who was born in 1911.
JOHN COWLEY. The name of John Cowley has a special significance in agricultural and stock farming enterprise in Eaton Township. He has spent some thirty or forty years in farming, has done much in the dairy business, and in recent years his place has become noted for its thoroughbred Holstein cattle. His home is in the southeast part of Eaton Township, where he owns ninety-one acres of highly improved land on rural route No. 1 out of Columbia postoffice.
Mr. Cowley is a native of the Isle of Man and was therefore born a British subject. His birth occurred December 18, 1849. When he was about a year and a half old his parents John and Catherine (Kermode) Cowley left the Isle of Man and set out for America. For a time they lived in Cleveland, where John Cowley died in a year or so, leaving his widow and two sons, John and William. William died in childhood. The mother married again and moved to Warrensville, where John Cowley grew to manhood on a farm and acquired a common school edu- cation.
At the age of twenty-one he went to Cleveland and served an appren- ticeship at the bricklayer's trade. This trade he has used chiefly for his own benefit, since most of his work has been along agricultural lines. On March 20, 1878, Mr. Cowley married Miss Hattie Radcliffe, whose home at the time was on the place where Mr. and Mrs. Cowley now live, at North Eaton. Mrs. Cowley was born on a farm near Warrensville in Cuyahoga County, a daughter of James and Louise (Radcliffe) Rad- cliffe. Both her parents were natives of the Isle of Man and her father after coming to Ohio bought fifty acres in Eaton Township of Lorain County, a part of the farm now owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Cowley. Mrs. Cowley was about a year and a half old when the family took pos- session of this place. The land was heavily timbered, and Mr. Radcliffe had to cut away some of the trees in order to make a space for the small frame house which was their first home and which is still standing, being now used as a granary. Mrs. Cowley has one full brother H. J. Radcliffe, who went to Larned, Kansas, when a young man and studied law there, was admitted to the Kansas bar, and now for many years has successfully practiced law at Mena, Arkansas, and has filled the office of prosecuting attorney ; he is married and has two children. Mrs. Cow- ley's half sister by her mother's second marriage is Mary, wife of Fred Marsh, who lives in Grafton Township and has three children, Bernice, Willard, Geneva and one child who died in infancy.
Mr. and Mrs. Cowley became acquainted in Warrensville, and after their marriage they lived in that village for about a year, and then moved to North Eaton. Mrs. Cowley's parents had both died and she had
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inherited a half interest in the fifty acre farm. Mr. Cowley then bought the other half interest, and about 1896 he remodeled the old house, which had been moved from the Harrison farm and he also remodeled the barn into a bank barn. This was afterwards struck by lightning and burned and he at once rebuilt it with one of the best barn structures found in that neighborhood. Through all the years that he has occupied this farm Mr. Cowley has carried on a successful dairy business. In 1912 he started the nucleus of his fine Holstein herd, and he has now ten head of thorougbreds and eighteen high grade cattle of the same strain but not full-bloods. His prosperity has also been measured by three dif- ferent purchases of land, and he now has ninety-one acres in his home farm. Since living in this community Mr. Cowley has seen land advance in price in Eaton Township from an average of $50 an acre to $100 or more.
Mr. and Mrs. Cowley are the parents of five sons. John Bernard, who was born at Warrensville January 16, 1879, was well educated and now owns a twenty-two acre farm across the road from his father; he mar- ried Florence Silsby and they have a daughter Alta, now nine years of age. Frank Clarence, born in Eaton Township January 12, 1881, took a course in the public schools and also learned telegraphy at Oberlin, but followed that only a few years and is now a farmer in Eaton Town- ship; he married Vira Hathaway and their two children are Grant Rutherford and Willis Elwin. H. Erie, born April 17, 1884, is a carpen- ter by trade, and by his marriage to Mary Coleman has one son Wayne M. Chester Arthur was born November 12, 1887, is active manager of his father's home farm and by his marriage to Grace Tomes has two chil- dren, a son and a daughter, Lester and Mona. Glenn was born July 2, 1900, and is now a freshman in the Berea High School.
Not all his time has been devoted to farming and his private interests, since the name of John Cowley has been quite prominently associated with public affairs in Eaton Township for a number of years. Politi- cally he is an independent republican. For twelve years he served as township trustee, and during that time was chiefly instrumental in secur- ing the construction of the stone road known as the Cowley stone road. In 1910 he was land appraiser for Eaton Township. He was formerly affiliated with Woodward Lodge No. 508, Free and Accepted Masons at Cleveland.
ALLEN MASON NICHOLS. That farming can be conducted as a success- ful business in the same class as store or factory need no other proof than a visit to the excellent estate of Allen Mason Nichols, situated in Eaton Township. Mr. Nichols has a reputation in Lorain County as a progres- sive farmer and a skillful dairyman and is now vice president of the Lorain County Dairymen's Association.
His farm comprises 160 acres on Center Road one mile north of Eaton Center, and it has always been a matter of pride with him to maintain the highest standards as an agriculturist.
The farm where he now lives and which he owns was also his birth- place. He first saw the light of day in a log house January 27, 1858. His parents were Mason E. and Joan (Mead) Nichols. His father was. born at Crown Point, Essex County, New York, February 26, 1830, and . while still a boy went with his parents Andrew and Mrs. (Haven) Nichols to Shalersville Township in Portage County, Ohio, where his parents bought land, improved a farm, and spent the rest of their days. There he grew to manhood and at the age of nineteen, desiring to get married, he bought his time from his father for $75. He was married in Freedom Township of Portage County to Miss Joan Mead, and soon afterward
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came to Lorain County, where some of his Havens relatives had pre- viously located. For $12 an acre he bought eighty acres of land still included in the Nichols homestead occupied by his son Allen. Only about six acres of this was cleared at the time. Mason Nichols was a very industrious man and a good manager, and from time to time pur- chased other land until he had accumulated an estate of 421 acres in one body. Among other improvements there arose a substantial frame house in 1860, and there were also several barns, the largest of which was burned in 1867. It was about that time that his first wife, Joan, died, being survived by four children. Arthur, the oldest, who became a well known lawyer in Elyria and died December 26, 1886, married Net- tie Squiers of Elyria and is survived by one child, Mason. The second of the four children is Allen Mason. Celia J., the only daughter, died in Cleveland as the wife of F. H. Jackson. The youngest, John D., owned and occupied a farm in Nelson Township of Portage County for a few years, afterwards became manager of the Bell Vernon Creamery at Gar- rettsville, and then became assistant manager of the Cleveland plant of this creamery concern, remaining about ten years, and is now connected with the Schneider Becker Dairy Company of Cleveland. He was at one time president of an United States Dairymen's Association. By his marriage to Adel Felt of Eaton Township he had two children, Paris and Lula. For his second wife Mason E. Nichols married Mahala Cousins of Dover, Cuyahoga County. The only child of this marriage died quite young. Mason Nichols was a republican in politics, served as a trustee of Eaton Township, was a member of the Disciples Church, and his death occurred in 1883.
While growing up on the old farm Allen M. Nichols acquired a good country school education. At the age of eighteen his father removed to Elyria and he continued his schooling there and at Berea. He then began working out, and for a time was employed in a cheese factory at Eaton Center.
On March 29, 1882, in Hiram, Portage County, Mr. Nichols married Miss Frances D. Gage, who was born on a farm in Freedom Township, Portage County, January 7, 1861, a daughter of Martin B. and Mandana (Hart) Gage, her father being a native of Portage County and her mother a native of Michigan. Mrs. Nichols was reared in Hiram Town- ship and had a common school education. To their marriage have been born seven children. Bessie D. is the wife of O. V. Hudson of Akron, and they have had three children, but a son, named Paul V., is the only one living. Louis G., who lives on a farm in Eaton Township, married Metta Sayers and has one child named Ethel F. Arthur A. is an em- ploye of the Big Four Railway Company. Martin E. is a motorman on the Green Line. Ralph A. is a clerk in a hardware store at Akron. Olive M. is the wife of Edward Bainbridge. Paul C. lives at home and assists his father in the management of the farm and dairy.
Mr. Nichols is a stanch republican, and for twenty years has served his township as assessor and was reelected for another term in 1915. He . was elected trustee in 1896, and in 1915 was again chosen for that responsibility. In the way of public improvements he has always favored the construction and maintenance of good highways. He has also at- tended various county conventions as a delegate, and wherever possible has manifested his influence in behalf of improvement and progress. In 1916 he was appointed vice president for Eaton Township of the Lorain County Dairymen's Association, and since taking the office has succeeded in adding 167 to the membership of the association in his own township. For twenty-two years Mr. Nichols has been a member of the Knights of the Maccabees in Eaton Center, has filled all the chairs in the local or-
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ganization and has represented them in the Grand Lodge. There are many things about his farm which indicate his stand for improvement. In 1899 he put down a gas well 800 feet, has thoroughly tiled his land, and a few years ago he put up a silo 14x16 feet with a capacity of 150 tons.
CHARLES F. CUSHING, M. D. The dean of the medical profession in Lorain County is Dr. Charles F. Cushing, who, bearing the weight of more than eighty-six years, is still a loved and venerated member of local society at Elyria and has spent more than fifty years in kindly and skillful service to his fellow men. While he only occasionally coun- sels some of his former patients, Doctor Cushing was for years a friend and a physician to a wide circle of people in Lorain County. He was the pioneer of the homeopathic school of medicine in Lorain County, and in the early days did much through his own personal ability and character to overcome the prejudice with which at one time homeopathic doctors were regarded. Doctor Cushing is a man of gentle manner in all his dealings, and this quality, together with an expert knowledge and skill in medicine, won for him the strong affections of hundreds of families in this county.
The name Cushing has many familiar historical associations with New England. The early annals of Scituate, Massachusetts, frequently make mention of the name. Doctor Cushing's grandfather was Francis Cushing, who was born at Scituate, and became a shipbuilder. His greatest distinction was in acting as master builder during the con- struction of the frigate, renowned in American annals and song and story, the old Constitution. Charles Cushing, son of this shipbuilder, followed the calling of a farmer, and was also born at Scituate. He married Miss Sally R. Thayer, whose ancestors included members of the Turner family, also prominent in the early history of New England. Charles and Sally Cushing spent their lives in the East, and became the parents of ten children, one of whom is Dr. Charles F. Cushing of Elyria.
Charles F. Cushing was born in Turner, Maine, October 28, 1829. His eighty-six years have been filled with interesting experience and service. As a boy he had the surroundings and advantages of the average New England youth, his muscles being strengthened and dis- ciplined by the work of the farm, while he sharpened his intelligence in the common schools and by three months of attendance at a select school. This brought him to the age of seventeen, at which time he bought "his time" from his father for $100. During the next four years he worked at any honest employment he could find, repaying the debt to his father, and also earning sufficient to carry him through higher school privileges at Lewiston Falls in the State of Maine. He worked at times on the farm and also as a school teacher, and after leaving New England followed teaching for three years in the South. After a short visit back East, he spent the five years from 1854 in Cali- fornia. His experiences there were of a varied nature. He was in the cities, at the gold diggings, for a time was proprietor of a hotel in the mountains, and finally became associated with a friend in improving a tract of land, which they fenced, prepared and planted with fruit trees and grape vines, and thus became pioneers in one of the greatest of modern California industries. It is interesting to recall the contract which existed between these partners: "He who first marries, to him shall this property belong." In fulfillment of this curious arrangement, the "ranche" finally went to the friend, while the other partner soon afterward returned East and located at Elyria.
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While still in California Doctor Cushing took up the study of medi- cine with a Doctor Norman in Suisun Valley, and continued his readings at Cleveland, Ohio, with Dr. John Wheeler. He subsequently entered the Western Homeopathic College at Cleveland and graduated M. D. in the spring of 1861. For two winters he remained with his alma mater in Cleveland as demonstrator of anatomy. It was thus with an unusual equipment of natural talents and training that Doctor Cushing located in Elyria and began practice as an exponent of the Hahnemann principles of medicine.
Doctor Cushing was just the man to act as a pioneer in establishing new ideas against popular prejudices. He had the qualities of the real leader of men, readily won popular confidence, and the local esteem in which he was held is shown by an incident which occurred soon after he moved to Elyria. In 1862 he was requested to form a company of "squirrel hunters," for service in the Union army. He responded with alacrity, and a number of people can still recall his departure from Elyria as head of the company. For weeks he and his comrades were encamped at Gen. W. H. Harrison's old homestead, and finally after gallant and efficient service Governor Tod sent them home under Captain Cushing, who had been not only captain, but physician and friend to the men under him. Doctor Cushing has well deserved the honors which are paid to the veteran physician and surgeon of Elyria. While really retired, some of his friends still insist upon his ministra- tions as a medical adviser and physician. During his active career he enjoyed one of the best practices given to any physician in Lorain County. At one time he was surgeon for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, having succeeded Dr. E. P. Haines in that position after the latter's death. He continued as surgeon with this railway company until by general order the office was abolished. The most courteous relations have always existed between Doctor Cushing and his brother physicians, and at times too numerous to mention he has proved himself a sympathetic friend and adviser to young men starting out on their professional career. He is a member of the Lorain County Medical Society and Ohio State Medical Society, and is a consulting member of the staff of the Elyria Memorial Hospital. He also belongs to the Elyria Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Men's Club of the Congregational Church. In politics he is classed as a progressive republican.
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