USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 57
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C. B. Ingersoll grew up on his father's farm, attended district schools, and when still young became a practical farmer. He now owns a fine place of 275 acres and besides general crops gives much attention to stock. He keeps about 125 sheep. His farm is well improved, has all the tile necessary to thorough drainage, and the building equipment comprises two very commodious barns and a comfortable residence. Mr. Ingersoll is still active and giving all his time to his business, though his prosperity is such that he might be justified in retiring and spending the rest of his life in comfort and ease.
In 1887 he married Miss Anna Watson, who was born in Ireland, a daughter of William and Martha (McNeilly) Watson. Her mother is still living and resides in Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Ingersoll are the parents of ten children, named as follows: William, a farmer at Brighton, Ohio; Emma, wife of Allen E. Hayes, a farmer at Clarksfield; Mary, now deceased; Gracie, at home; Seth, Charles, Walter, Mabel, F. A., and Blanche, all of whom are living at home. Mr. Ingersoll is a republican in politics.
WALTER HICKMAN WATTS, official stenographer of the courts of Lorain County, Ohio, was born in the City of London, England,. Decem- ber 31, 1865, being the third in a family of eleven children born to William Andrews and Louisa (Hickman) Watts. His forbears on his father's side were principally engaged in farming and stock raising in the fertile valleys of the West of England, although in different generations the family has given to the world men who have distinguished themselves as soldiers, artists, writers and preachers, among the last named being the immortal hymnologist, Dr. Isaac Watts. The family
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has also furnished to the American continent a fair share of pioneers. On his mother's side, Mr. Watts is descended from a family that has produced statesmen, lawyers and physicians, some of whom were dis- tinguished in their day. His maternal grandfather, John Hickman, of Old Smithfield, London, was a famous character in the social life of London, in the early Victorian days.
When Walter Hickman Watts was two years of age, his parents set- tled at Blackley, a suburb of Manchester, noted as a Saxon settlement and rich alike in its historic lore and romantic scenery. He received his education in the famous Allsop Foundation School, at Blackley, and at the Albert Memorial School, Manchester. His parents were prominent church and Sunday school workers and enjoyed in common the study of Biblical literature, on which subject they were regarded as authorities. The father of Mr. Watts was also a deep student of English literature, and numbered among his close friends, writers and literary critics. In addition to the care of a large family, he and the mother found time to engage in various lines of altruistic labor and left the impress of their high character upon the community in which they lived.
The male members of the Watts family were all engaged in news- paper work, the father and three sons being identified at the same time with one newspaper, the Manchester Evening News. For the past forty- five years some one or more members of the family have been at work with this publication in various departments, and at the present time representatives of the second and third generations are engaged in the production of this paper, which is one of the greatest of English journals. It was on this paper that Walter H. Watts received his early training as a newspaper man, beginning as an amanuensis to the editor and eventually working into the reporting department. Then for a few years he was engaged with a firm of law reporters, at the head of which was R. R. Dodds, known to literary fame as "Rab Robinson." Subsequently Mr. Watts joined the staff of the Bolton Guardian, where he rose to the position of chief reporter, being reputed to be the youngest man in the North of England to occupy such a responsible position. In his newspaper work he specialized in court work and municipal affairs and achieved distinction as a free lance. In his English newspaper expe- rience Mr. Watts reported many of the famous trials of the day, includ- ing the case at Liverpool of Florence Maybrick, the American woman who was convicted of poisoning her husband by means of arsenic extracted from fly papers. He also followed the leading statesmen of the country on the "stump" and figured as a descriptive writer on the occa- sion of some of the great mining disasters of his time.
In the summer of 1892, on the verge of a breakdown from overwork, Mr. Watts came to visit the United States, and was so much impressed with what he saw that he soon decided to stay. It was while visiting in Cleveland that he was offered a position with a Cleveland paper, which he accepted, and went to Sandusky, where he later became city editor of the Sandusky Register. His newspaper work at Sandusky brought him into contact with Governor Mckinley, who became much interested in his labors and who was friendly with the Englishman until his death. Having shown his familiarity with court procedure, Mr. Watts was offered the position of official stenographer of Erie County, in April, 1894, which office he held until April, 1907, when he resigned to accept a similar position in Lorain County. He recently (1916) rounded out twenty-two years of service in court work in Ohio, and in that time has . been engaged in many famous cases, his services being called into requi- sition in surrounding counties when cases of more than usual importance have been on trial. The Billow murder trial, at Fremont, the famous
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Hayes dog case there, the Hoyt will case, at Tiffin, and the more recent Rasor murder trial at Medina are among the big cases in which he has figured. When the municipal code was being considered by a special committee in the House of Representatives at Columbus (of which Mr. A. G. Comings, of Oberlin, was chairman), Mr. Watts was one of two expert stenographers who were called in to report the proceedings.
Mr. Watts is deeply interested in the cause of public education and has given largely of his time to the interests of the public schools of Elyria. He was first elected to the Elyria Board of Education in the spring of 1909, to fill a vacancy, and was elected at the general election in 1911 for a term of four years. At the time of the death of W. N. Gates, in the spring of 1913, he held the office of vice. president and was then elevated to the office of president, which position he held until his retirement in January, 1916. Mr. Watts is known as a progressive school man and takes great pride in the new school buildings erected during the past few years from funds raised by a bond issue of $300,000 authorized by a vote of the people in 1912, particularly in the large manual training building connected with the high school, which he believes will accomplish much in the training of the high class of artizans which the industries of Elyria require. Among Mr. Watts' many activi- ties are his connection with the Elyria Social Settlement Association, which devotes its energies to uplift work among the foreigners of the city, and of which he is a trustee and a former chairman of the council of workers. He is also a director of the Elyria Associated Charities, a member of the Elyria Memorial Hospital Association, of which he was formerly chairman, and a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce.
For many years Mr. Watts has been active in republican politics, although never seeking an elective office of profit. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, having been a member of Science Lodge No. 50, Free & Accepted Masons, since 1894, and is a member of Sandusky City Chap- ter, Royal Arch Masons, of Sandusky City Council, Royal and Select Masters, of Elyria Commandery No. 60, Knights Templar, of Lake Erie Consistory, Valley of Cleveland, and of El Koran Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He occupied the office of prelate of Elyria Com- mandery from 1910 to 1915. He is also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, in which body he held the office of worthy patron in the years 1911-12. Mr. Watts was connected with Company B, Sixth Ohio National Guard from 1902 until 1905, first as first lieutenant and later as captain.
Although he was reared in the faith of the English Established Church, Mr. Watts and his family worship at the First Congregational Church of Elyria. Despite the fact that his many activities make heavy demands upon his time, Mr. Watts indulges an inherited taste for good literature and finds his greatest recreation in his well-chosen library, one of the largest private collections at Elyria, to which he is constantly adding.
Mr. Watts was married July 30, 1888, at Ashton-on-Ribble, England, to Clara Reed, only daughter of Capt. William Reed, a retired salt-water mariner, and Maria Reed, who now reside at Sandusky, Ohio, where in 1915 they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Mr. and Mrs. Watts reside at the family home on Furnace Street, Elyria, their family consisting of two charming daughters, Alice Reed and Dorothy Louisa.
JUDSON N. HURD has been one of the live factors in the country around Kipton for a long period of years. The old homestead on which he grew up in Camden Township is the place where he still resides. He acquired the interest of the other heirs in the property but ill health
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compelled him some years ago to sell off most of his land, and he now keeps only forty-five acres, with which he does a business as a general farmer.
Mr. Hurd has a fine family, and has always taken much interest in local affairs. He has held the principal township offices and for a num- ber of years was road supervisor and much of the constructive road work in his community is due to his capable leadership and encourage- ment. He and his family are especially active in the affairs of the Baptist Church. He and his wife and children are all musicians, espe- cially talented in singing, and for years he has been a choir leader and prominent in other branches of such work. He is still called upon to sing on many occasions, and for years has sung at most of the funerals in his community.
He was born in Camden Township of Lorain County, December 21, 1849, a son of Harrison and Rebecca (Stillson) Hurd. His grandfather. was Norman Hurd, who died in New York, and the maternal grand- father, Phineas Stillson, came to Camden Township, where he spent the rest of his days with his daughter, Mrs. Hurd. Mr. Hurd's parents were both natives of Jefferson County, New York, where his father was born in 1804 and his mother in 1807. The father passed away in 1895 and the mother in 1885. After their marriage in New York State they came to Ohio and located in Camden Township in 1834. In the previous year Harrison Hurd had bought some land and after making a per- manent settlement he applied himself vigorously to clearing it up. The first home of the Hurds in the county was a log cabin, but in 1854 this was replaced by the substantial home where Judge N. Hurd now resides. Harrison Hurd took a very prominent part in the early affairs of Cam- den Township, particularly in church matters. He was one of the six members who organized the Camden Church, was the first chorister and for years led the choir and was widely known as Deacon Hurd. In his private business affairs he was likewise prosperous, and at the time of his death owned a good estate of 153 acres. He served as township trustee and as a member of the school board, and while living in New York was a member of the state militia. In politics he was a democrat. Of the twelve children of the parents those now living are: Mrs. Weeks of Lorain County ; Mrs. G. R. Parker of Lorain; Albert, a retired citizen at Elyria; Judson N .; and Mrs. Norman Lee.
Judson N. Hurd grew up in Camden Township when most of the country was still wild and from the district schools of his community he later attended school at Oberlin. After his school days were over he took up work as a farmer and has spent practically all his life on the old homestead.
On October 12, 1871, he married Miss Nancy Bartlett, daughter of Nelson D. and Jane (Rankin) Bartlett, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Massachusetts. Her parents came to Lorain County when young people, and both died in Oberlin. Her father was a farmer until he retired late in life. Of the six children in the Bartlett family, four are living: Horace G., a farmer in Pittsfield Township; Maro L., who is a musician and for a number of years was head of a musical conservatory at Des Moines, Iowa; Mrs. Hurd; and Harry M., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mr. and Mrs. Hurd have four children. Maurice Hurd was formerly a machinist and now doing work as a janitor at Warren, Ohio; Roy D. is in the grocery business at Elyria; Mabel J. is the wife of Clayton Whitney, an insurance man at Springfield, Ohio; Myrtle L. still lives at home.
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ANDREW DAVIDSON has traveled along the highway of mortal experi- ence for more than ninety-three years and is now dwelling in the shadows of an old age after a lifetime of usefulness. He arrived in Lorain County in time to participate in some phases of its early development and the labors of his vigorous young manhood helped to convert some of the unshorn wilderness into a productive and fertile landscape. Many years ago he was able to retire with a satisfying competence for all the needs of later years, and besides his material prosperity he is able to take a satisfying retrospect over the past. Mr. Davidson still owns 152 acres, constituting an excellent farm in the vicinity of Oberlin, and all this prosperity has been the direct result of his own hard work.
He was born at Rathfryland, County Down, Ireland, November 19, 1822, a son of Andrew and Jane (McGaw) Davidson. Both parents spent all their lives in County Down, and the father was born there in 1795 and died in 1860. He was a farmer and also did an extensive business in the buying of horses and cattle, and was quite well to do. In the family were five sons and two daughters, and the three still living, all of them quite old, are Andrew; Joseph, a farmer in Ireland; and Jane, wife of Robert Martin, an Irish farmer. The family were members of the Presbyterian Church.
Andrew Davidson received his early education in Ireland and first came to America in 1855, when he was about thirty-three years of age. After spending about nine years in this country and having good pros- pects for the future he returned to his native land and on March 1, 1864, married Miss Martha Edgar, who returned with him to the United States as his bride. Mrs. Davidson died March 2, 1914. The day before her death they had completed fifty years of married companionship.
Mr. Davidson on first coming to Lorain County farmed on the shares and bought his first place in 1868. The land could hardly be considered a farm, since it was almost completely covered by woods and brush, and a less vigorous man would have become discouraged at the prospect of so much hard labor necessary to convert it into a profitable place. He cleared it up, and every year marked an advance in success. In the meantime he erected an attractive home for himself and family and also improved the land with substantial outbuildings.
To Mr. Davidson and wife were born nine children, and the seven still living are: John Edgar, who is a well known 'farmer and stock buyer at Kipton; Andrew William, also a Lorain County farmer ; Joseph Henry, an engineer with the New York Central Lines and with head- quarters at Toledo; Frank E., a farmer living at home with his father; Herbert H., a farmer; Lona, wife of C. A. Glass, a traveling salesman with home at Elyria; and James G., at home. Mayme Vera, who died March 13, 1916, was a graduate of the Oberlin High School and was housekeeper for her father, to whom she was greatly devoted.
Mr. Davidson and wife were both reared in the Presbyterian Church in their native land. In politics he has always supported the democratic party.
CHARLES FRANCIS PARK, M. D. For more than forty years Doctor Park has been in the active practice of medicine in Lorain County. His service has been commensurate with the length of years in practice, and among the wide circle of his patients he has been both a friend and a physician. Doctor Park is a man of gentle manner in all his dealings, and this quality, together with an expert knowledge and skill in medicine, combined to win him the strong affections of hundreds of families, par- ticularly in the vicinity of Grafton, where he has had his home for so many years.
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He is a native of Massachusetts, born at Chelsea, November 16, 1846, a son of Richard and Sarah Turner (Cushing) Park. His father was a contractor. With his early boyhood spent in Massachusetts and with a public school education, Doctor Park was graduated from high school at an early age and at fifteen came to Elyria, Ohio, where he lived with his maternal uncle, Dr. Charles F. Cushing. In 1868 Doctor Park went to the Northwest and lived along the frontier in Montana and was in the service of the quartermaster's department of the United States Army stationed at Fort Shaw. He enjoyed the exciting and novel life of the Northwest until 1870, and then returning to St. Louis took his first course in the Medical College at St. Louis. He then came to Elyria, Ohio, where he was granted a certificate to practice his profession by the Lorain County Medical Society. He had also read medicine to some extent while living in Montana. Doctor Park paid all the expenses of his higher education, and did his first work at Chatham in Medina County. He practiced there from the spring of 1871 until the fall of 1872, and then entered the Homeopathic Medical College, where he was graduated in the spring of 1873. From that year until 1875 he was associated with his uncle Doctor Cushing in practice at Elyria. In October, 1875, Doctor Park located at LaGrange, Ohio, and remained in active practice there until October, 1888, when he came to Grafton, where he has since resided.
On May 3, 1876, at the home of Dr. C. F. Cushing at Elyria, Doctor Park and Miss Helen Isabelle Gamble of Elyria were united in marriage. Mrs. Park was born at Toronto, Canada, daughter of Robert and Mary A. (Colby) Gamble. Of the five children born to Dr. and Mrs. Park three died in childhood. The two now living are Dr. William Cushing Park, a sketch of whose career is given in following paragraphs, and Olive Park. The daughter is a graduate of the Grafton High School, and later of Baldwin University at Berea. After several years of teaching she continued her studies in the Columbia University at New York City, from which she graduated in June, 1914, and is now engaged in church extension work and physical education in the City of Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Charles F. Park has been a lifelong republican though not an office seeker, and has served only in local affairs, spending two years in the Grafton City Council. He is a member of the Knights of Mac- cabees and the Knights of Pythias, and was at one time examining phy- sician for several life insurance companies. He twelve times represented his local as a delegate to the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He is well known in his profession, and is one of the oldest members of the Lorain County Medical Society.
WILLIAM CUSHING PARK, M. D. With a career which has exemplified its thorough usefulness in the field of medicine and surgery, Dr. Wil- liam C. Park is a worthy successor of his honored father, one of the veteran physicians of Lorain County, and has been in practice at Grafton for the past ten or fifteen years.
He was born in the Village of LaGrange, Lorain County, October 7, 1877, and was eleven years of age when his parents removed in 1888 to Grafton. He was fourteen years of age when he graduated from the Grafton High School in the class of 1892 and was the first to receive a diploma from the high school of that town. He then spent three years in Baldwin University at Berea, and as a practical experience and as a means of paying his way through higher schools he taught for several years in Lorain County. Entering the medical department of Western Reserve University at Cleveland, he continued his studies there four years and during vacations read medicine with Dr. C. H. Cushing of Elyria. He was graduated M. D. in 1902 and at once became associated
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in practice with his father at Grafton, and he now enjoys the largest individual practice of any physician in that part of the county.
On January 14, 1903, Dr. Park married Miss Grace Angie Bruce, of Elyria. She was born in Carlisle Township of Lorain County, daugh- ter of Isaac and Julia (Pangborn) Bruce. Mrs. Park graduated from the high school at Ionia, Michigan. To their marriage have been born two children : Marian B. and Jean Frances.
Dr. Park is a republican and was for five years a member of the Grafton School Board. He has filled all the chairs in the Knights of Pythias Lodge, is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and belongs to the Lorain County Medical Society.
R. HATHAWAY, M. D. One of the oldest medical practitioners in Lorain County is Dr. R. Hathaway of Wellington, where he has looked after the welfare of his patients and has been both a physician and friend to many of the leading families in that section for a period of nearly forty years. He is held in high esteem, and has performed a service which entitled him to the respect and admiration of his fellow men.
His birth occurred in Sandusky, Ohio, July 21, 1847, and he is of English ancestry, the first of the name having come from England and settled at Deposit, New York. Robert Hathaway, father of Doctor Hathaway, was a native of New York State and in early manhood moved to Sandusky, Ohio, where for thirty years he was in the grocery business. Considering his opportunities, he was a very successful man, and late in life he retired from business and spent his last years with his son, Doctor Hathaway, in Wellington. . He was a republican in politics and a member of the Sons of Malta. Robert Hathaway married Sarah Porter, a native of Ohio. They were married in Sandusky. Her father, Thomas Porter, was born in Ireland and was the oldest of four- teen children, not a girl in the entire family. Thomas Porter was an early settler near Sandusky, and followed the occupation of farming.
Doctor Hathaway is the only one living of two children. As a boy he lived in Sandusky, graduated from the high school there, and in 1876 completed the course of the medical college at Cleveland. Soon after finishing his medical course he moved to Wellington, and has been con- tinuously in practice. When he first located there his was almost entirely a country practice, and it was long before the introduction of telephones and automobiles, and he frequently rode horseback over the bottomless roads and in all kinds of weather to attend his patients. It was by such rugged service that he endeared himself to all the older people of that section.
Doctor Hathaway is affiliated with the Masonic Order and in politics is a republican.
In 1875 he married Miss Mollie Gordon of Sandusky. Mrs. Hatha- way died leaving three children, and the two now living are: George, who resides in Cleveland; and Roselle, widow of H. M. Horr and living at Wellington. Doctor Hathaway married for his present wife Emily Waite of Ravenna, Ohio. Mrs. Hathaway is a member of the Congrega- tional Church.
REV. ROSWELL CHAPIN. The honored citizen whose name initiates this review was for thirty years actively engaged in effective service as a clergyman of the Congregational Church, and since his retirement from this high calling he has resided upon his fine farm in Russia Township, Lorain County,-a man of broad intellectuality and one whose gracious life and noble services have gained to him impregnable place in the confidence and affectionate esteem of all who have come within
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the sphere of his benignant influence. Mr. Chapin is a native son of Ohio and a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Buckeye State, both his paternal and maternal ancestors having settled in New England in the early colonial era of our national history.
Mr. Chapin was born on a pioneer farm near the Village of Seville, Medina County, Ohio, and the date of his nativity was October 18, 1844. He is a son of Calvin and Susanna (Stiles) Chapin, the former of whom was born at Enfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, in 1805, and the latter of whom was born near Westfield, Hampden County, Massa- chusetts, in 1812, their marriage having been solemnized in Ohio in 1831. Calvin Chapin was reared to years of maturity in his native state and received in his youth excellent educational advantages, as indi- cated by the fact that he became a successful and popular school teacher. In 1830 he came to Ohio and numbered himself among the pioneers of Medina County, where he obtained a tract of heavily timbered land and set to himself the arduous task of reclaiming a farm from the virgin wilderness. He became one of the prosperous farmers of Medina County, where he marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement and where he became a prominent and influential citizen. Through his own ability and well ordered endeavors he accumulated a valuable landed estate of three hundred acres, and he was one of the organizers of the Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company, of which he served as the second president. He commanded unqualified popular confidence and respect and was called upon to become administrator of numerous estates in his home county. His political allegiance was given to the republican party, with which he united at the time of its organization, and both he and his wife were zealous members of the Presbyterian Church in the Village of Seville, to which place he had removed from his farm about six months prior to his demise, his death having occurred in 1873, and his widow having survived him by a quarter of a century, as she was sum- moned to the life eternal in 1899, a gracious, kindly woman who had been loved by all who knew her. Mr. Chapin's father, Ebenezer Chapin, passed his entire life in Connecticut, where his vocation was that of farming and where he was a representative of one of the Colonial fami- lies of that part of New England, the cradle of much of our national history. The father of Mrs. Susanna (Stiles) Chapin was a native of Massachusetts, and when venerable in years came to Ohio, where he passed the residue of his life with his children. Of the eight children of Calvin and Susanna Chapin only two are now living,-Eben S., who is a retired farmer and well-to-do citizen of Appleton City, St. Clair County, Missouri; and Rev. Roswell Chapin, to whom this sketch is dedicated.
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