USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 63
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Mrs. Boise is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and both she and her husband are active in the Grange and he is also affiliated with the Maccabees. Politically he is a republican and has served as trustee, assessor and in all the various township positions. He had charge of the improvement of the local cemetery, and has done much to make that a place of beauty.
It was in 1898 that Mr. Boise bought his farm of fifty-six acres in Penfield Township. He had also lived for five years in Kansas, and for eight years was a farm renter. Starting life with little capital he has succeeded by the exercise of much good management and constant hard work. He does general farming and dairying, and has a herd of thirty registered Holstein cattle.
EDWARD H. WEST. Success consists in a steady betterment of one's material condition and an increase of one's ability to render service to
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others. Measured by this standard, one of the successful men of Lorain County is Edward H. West, who has spent most of his life in the county and now has' an attractive and valuable farm in the vicinity of Spencer. Hard working, thrifty, genial and progressive, Mr. West has a host of friends in this part of the county and is a valuable factor in community enterprise.
He was born in Huntington Township of Lorain County, October 17, 1859, a son of Turner and Lorena (Dimock) West. His paternal grand- parents spent all their lives in the East. The maternal grandfather, William Dimock, moved to Medina County, Ohio, and thence to Cuyahoga County, where he spent his last years. He was a Baptist minister. Turner West was born in Connecticut, March 5, 1821, and died Septem- ·ber 26, 1875. His wife was born in 1826 and died May 5, 1910. They were married in Medina County, Ohio. Soon after marriage they set- tled in Huntington Township, where for two years Turner West rented a farm, then bought some land, cleared it up, and though he started life at the bottom of the ladder he succeeded in acquiring a handsome com- petence represented by 266 acres of well improved farm lands. He attended the Baptist Church, of which his wife was an active member, and he actively supported the church and was a good Christian man, well read and well educated, and doing a useful part in life's affairs. He was a republican, though inclined to independence in voting. At one time he served as assessor and as township trustee. Edward H. West has two brothers: John, a retired farmer of Wellington Town- ship; and J. O. West, also a retired farmer of the same township.
Mr. West received his early education in the district schools and started life on a farm. When quite young he went west to Colorado and invested all his savings in a gold mine. He lost the investment, and after that experience he decided that farming was the surest road to wealth. He spent four years in Kansas and his father died in that state, where at one time he owned over 200 acres of land. After his disastrous experience in mining, Mr. West worked for his brother by the month on the old homestead, and then bought the farm he now owns, comprising 154 acres of land. He has effected many improvements on his farm, has rebuilt his barn, repaired the residence, and now has one of the best rural homes in Huntington Township.
In 1882 he married Miss Edith Stroup, who was born in Spencer, Ohio, a daughter of John and Christina (Wood) Stroup, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Medina County, Ohio. Her father was an early settler at Spencer, where he conducted a hotel and also had a farm. Mr. and Mrs. West have two children. Florence is the wife of Perrins Brenenstul of New London, Ohio, a printer by trade. Blake is a conductor on the street railway lines in Elyria, married Treva Boice and has a daughter Constance, born June 1, 1912.
The family are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. West is affiliated with the Maccabees, and both he and his wife belong to the Grange. Politically he acts with the democratic party. In the way of public service he was for nine years a trustee of Huntington Township and filled the office of assessor for two years. He is now enjoying a well earned prosperity, and manages his good farm and conducts a small dairy.
FLOYD M. PELTON. One of the oldest families of Lorain County is represented by Floyd M. Pelton, whose name and personal activities as a farmer and cattle breeder are well known to stockmen throughout Ohio. Mr. Pelton many years ago turned his attention to stock farming, at which he has made such a success as few men in the country might ever
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attain. He has demonstrated that his peculiar fitness among the world's workers has been for the development of farming and stock enterprise and through this avenue he has done his greatest service, not only to himself but to the world.
His is one of the fine country homesteads in La Grange Township. The 160 acres comprised in his farm is the southwest quarter of Lot 24, Range 17 West, Township 4 North. It is particularly noted as the home and breeding place of some of the finest thoroughbred Holstein Fresian stock in Ohio.
It was on this farm that Mr. Pelton was born June 18, 1860, a son of David C. and Mary (Tippin) Pelton. David C. Pelton was born in Jefferson County, New York, a son of James K. Pelton, who first came to Lorain County about 1824, and his family followed in 1833. They located in the eastern part of LaGrange Township, where James K. Pelton acquired about a hundred acres of land. David C. Pelton later bought sixty-six acres in the woods and the family lived for.a number of years in a log cabin. This was subsequently replaced with a substantial frame building and another twelve acres was added to the homestead. David C. Pelton was the father of twenty children, only three of whom grew up, and Floyd M. is the only one still living. His sister Clarisa married A. E. Van Linder and left five daughters. The son Sylvester died when about seventeen years of age. David C. Pelton was about ninety years of age when he died, and his wife passed away at the age of seventy-three. He was a republican in politics.
Floyd M. Pelton grew up on the home farm, and gained his education in the country schools. Early in life he took a companion and helpmate whom he has always considered an essential factor in his substantial success. On June 18, 1879, he married Miss Charlotte Johnson, who was born in LaGrange Township September 15, 1864, a daughter of Elijah and Lydia (Haynes) Johnson. Her father was born in LaGrange Town- ship, a son of Nathaniel and Rhoda (Crowner) Johnson. The Johnson family came to Ohio from New York State and located in LaGrange Township. Mrs. Pelton's father died when about seventy-six and her mother passed away at the age of sixty-five. Of the six Johnson children five grew up and four are still living. The son Bird died leaving a wife who before marriage bore the name of Lillie Woodmansee, and two children, Ford and Luella. The second in age is Mrs. Pelton. Lizzie, who married Merton Perkins, lives in Wellington and has three children, Flossie, Frank and Howard. Carrie is the wife of John White, and they live in Akron and have six children, Grace, Lydia, Archie, Herbert, Bessie and Lincoln. John, who lives in LaGrange Township, married Gertie Richards and has three children, Marion, Marjorie and Charlotte; and a son, Kenneth, who died aged about one year.
About thirteen years after his marriage Mr. Pelton bought eighty acres adjoining his father's farm, and that is included in his present estate. He took care of his parents during the last fourteen years of their lives, and then succeeded to the ownership of the farm where he was born and on which he spent his boyhood days.
Everything indicates the progressive nature of Mr. Pelton. There has never been a year in which he has not accomplished some improve- ment on his fine farm. It is one of the features of the landscape in Lorain County. One of the splendid buildings is the large barn covering a foundation 37 by 110 feet and with 20-foot posts. This barn has cement floors, a slate roof, and all facilities and equipments for handling of stock, for expeditious feeding, and it is one of the model barns of the county. In 1908 Mr. Pelton built a fine home. Another feature of the farm that deserves mention is a 160-ton silo, constructed in 1911.
It was in 1881 that Mr. Pelton began the breeding of registered
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. IIolstein cattle. In fact he was the man who introduced this class of cattle into Lorain County, bringing two imported cows from Pennsyl- vania, and he was the first man to sell a bull in Ohio that brought more than a thousand dollars. A number of years ago he exhibited his stock at the county fairs, and won many prizes and trophies. On his farm is a splendid young bull from King of the Pontiacs for which he paid $750.
. In recent years Mr. Pelton has had three notable sales of stock. The first one, in which he sold forty-nine head, he received an average of $200 a head. The second sale comprised fifty-three head and brought an average of $180. In the spring of 1915 he sold thirty-eight head of cattle, and the average price was $165.
Through farm husbandry and stock raising Mr. Pelton has performed his best service to mankind. He has never been a seeker for official honors, though he is a steadfast and loyal republican. He and his wife and four of their daughters are active members of the Baptist Church.
There are six children. Cora, who graduated from the LaGrange High School, is the wife of Alonzo Jones of Penfield, Ohio, and they have a daughter named Dorothy. Mary, who also graduated from the LaGrange High School, married Mark Kelner of LaGrange, and their two sons are Aubrey and Malcolm. The daughter Clara is the wife of George Dague of LaGrange, and their three children are Byron, Celia and Maurice. Charles, who lives at home, has completed a technical education fitting him especially for the work of dairying, an industry which has reached considerable proportions on Mr. Pelton's farm, and he took a course in the Ohio State University where he specialized in the milk testing department. He married Treva Pierce and they now reside in Akron. The two younger children are Esther and David, the latter a freshman in the local high school.
David C. Pelton was married three times and was the father of twenty-one children. For his first wife he married Lydia Dodge and they had six children, four of whom lived to be named as follows: Maria, Martha, Mary and Charles, the last named coming to Ohio with his father and is now living in Illinois. The mother of these died, and in 1832 Mr. Pelton married, in New York, for his second wife Hannah Smith. By his second wife David Pelton had ten children: Lydia, Mrs. Charles Crowner, of La Grange, Ohio (now deceased) ; Mary, mar- ried to Manford Ripley, of Eaton County, Michigan (deceased) ; Clark, of Portland, Oregon (deceased) ; James K., of Waukesha, Wisconsin; John, of Rising Sun, Ohio (deceased) ; Grovener, enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Third Regiment, and died in hospital at Hickmans Bridge and was buried there; Adeline, Mrs. Edward Beaver, of La Grange, Ohio; Hannah, Mrs. Thomas Cornell, of Eaton County, Michi- gan; Elizabeth, Mrs. Laurence Van Wormer, of Elsie, Michigan (de- ceased) ; Winfield, a farmer of Eaton County, Michigan. The mother of these died June 30, 1852, and was buried in La Grange. For his third wife Mr. Pelton married Mrs. Mary (Tippin) Burns, widow of Thomas Burns. By this union there were five children, as follows: One who died in infancy unnamed; Clarisa, who married A. E. Vanlinder, and died in New York in 1885, leaving five children; Sylvester, who died young in 1864; Fredric, died of spotted fever when seven years old, and Floyd M., of this memoir.
GEORGE SIMONSON is one of the native sons of Lorain County who has found in farming a congenial and profitable vocation, and for a number of years he has carried on operations as a farmer and dairyman and at the same time has borne his share of responsibilities as a citizen of the community.
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He was born in Rochester Township of Lorain County, October 11, 1874, a son of Asa and Eliza (Shubers) Simonson. His father was born in New Jersey and his mother in Ashland County, Ohio, and they were married in Rochester Township of Lorain County. There were two children, and the daughter Emma is the wife of Charles Leach of Huntington Township. Asa Simonson was a democrat in politics, fol- lowed farming all his active career and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. In Rochester Township he owned a good farm of 160 acres.
Mr. George Simonson grew up in Rochester Township and gained his education in the public schools. In 1895 he married Clara Jones of Huntington Township, daughter of Albert Jones, who was a carpenter by trade. To their marriage have been born five children: Claude, Harry, Donald, Pauline and George, all of whom are living at home. Mrs. Simonson is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Maccabees and the Grange and is a democrat in politics.
Most of the people in Wellington Township are familiar with the activities of his farm, which comprises 142 acres, and where he carries on general farming and a dairy business. He keeps some thoroughbred cattle of the Holstein breed, and he also raises some first class Percheron horses.
GEORGE N. SNYDER, M. D. In 1868 a young man arrived in the com- munity of LaGrange and after being engaged in the practice of medicine for a year and a half he taught school. He made a favorable impression whenever his services were requested in a professional line, and in the course of about a year and a half his practice had reached such pro- portions that it required all his time and he gave up teaching as a vocation. Since then for forty-eight years Doctor Snyder has been one of the leading physicians and surgeons in his section of Lorain County, and is also founder and proprietor of the principal drug store at LaGrange. He is a type of the kindly family physician, is a friend to all his patrons, and there is no citizen in that community who stands higher in popular regard and esteem.
He was born in Vermont July 8, 1845, a son of Hiram and Sophronia (White) Snyder, but about a year after his birth his parents moved to Ohio, lived in Medina County a time, and then went to Wood County, where the father acquired a farm. When Doctor Snyder was about ten years of age he returned to Medina County, and somewhat later went to Lorain County, where he attended country schools during the winter terms. Returning to Medina County he worked on a farm until he was about twenty years of age. At the age of eighteen, however, he had begun teaching country schools, and the earnings of his teachings during the winter he employed to pay his way as a student in summer sessions.
While teaching he took up the study of anatomy and physiology, and later entered the medical department of what is now the Western Reserve University, where he was graduated M. D. with the class of 1868. He was at that time twenty-two years of age, and he soon after located in LaGrange. There he taught school and practiced his profession until he had established a good practice.
On April 30, 1868, at Spencer, Medina County, Doctor Snyder mar- ried Miss Mary J. Welcher, who was born at Spencer November 21, 1847, a daughter of Jacob H. and Elizabeth (Wood) Welcher. Her father was born on a farm at Phelps, near Rochester, New York, June 29, 1803. After growing to manhood and marrying he came to Ohio about 1845, locating on a farm at Spencer in Medina County. Mr. Welcher served many years as county commissioner and as justice of the peace, was Vol. 11-27
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also postmaster, and was a vigorous exponent of the temperance cause in his locality and did much temperance lecture work. Mrs. Snyder's mother died at Spencer in 1881, and in the same year her father moved to Hillsdale County, Michigan, where he died at the age of eighty-six, January 2, 1889.
Mrs. Snyder grew up in Medina County and had a common school education, also attended a select school for three or four years. Doctor and Mrs. Snyder have one son, Mark A. Snyder, who was born January 28, 1873. He has distinguished himself as a musician. He was graduated from the Union School at LaGrange, took up the study of music at home, and when hardly more than a boy in years became a teacher of that art. He studied music in the conservatory at Oberlin for five years, and then went abroad and continued his studies under some of the best masters of Europe at Berlin, Germany, for three years. Returning to America in 1897 he became an instructor of music at a conservatory in Springfield, Ohio, with which he remained six or seven years, and at the same time he was one of the members of the noted Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a membership which in itself is a high distinction for any musician. Later he established a school of his own at Spring- field, and is regarded as one of the leading music teachers in his section of the state. Mark A. Snyder was married at LaGrange June 11, 1898, to Miss Gertrude Schultz. They had met at Berlin, Germany, where Miss Schultz was born and reared. Mark A. Snyder and wife have three children : Mary Emilie, who was born in LaGrange May 13, 1899, and was graduated from the Wittenburg Academy in 1916; George W., born at Springfield, March 9, 1903; and Gertrude Amy, born at Springfield, March 29, 1906.
In 1875 Doctor Snyder established a drug store at LaGrange. The store was opened in a building which he had constructed and which is still standing. It is a two-story frame building 24 feet in front and 47 feet depth, and is a combination store and resident property, and it served as the home of Doctor Snyder and wife until February 10, 1899, when they moved into a commodious residence and store building which he also built .. Doctor Snyder is a registered pharmacist, while his wife is a registered assistant pharmacist.
A republican in politics, Doctor Snyder cast his first presidential ballot in 1868 for General Grant. While not an office seeker, he has twice served as postmaster of LaGrange, first to fill an unexpired term, and then by regular appointment for several years. He took his first degree in Masonry at LaGrange and has served as junior warden of LaGrange Lodge No. 399. He is a charter member of the Maccabees, and has been examining physician for that order since its organization. Mrs. Snyder's name was proposed as a charter member for the Chapter of the Eastern Star, but on account of ill health she was unable to take part in the initiation, and she never became a member of the order. Doctor Snyder at one time was a leader in the choir of the Baptist Church, and his wife also sang there, although neither has membership in the church. Mark A. Snyder also took his first degree in Masonry at LaGrange, and is now a Knight Templar in Springfield, and before going abroad took his chapter degrees at Elyria.
GEORGE C. CASSELL. The record of George C. Cassell of Huntington Township, includes a service of upwards of twenty years as a teacher, but in recent years he has applied his energy with much success to the business of farming, and he is one of the substantial men in his part of Lorain County.
He was born in Ashland County, Ohio, December 9, 1871, a son of
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Michael Cassell and Catherine (Marks) Cassell. His paternal grand- parents were John and Margaret Cassell, who came from Pennsylvania and settled in Ashland County, being originally of German stock. The maternal grandparents were George and Sophia (Hartman) Marks, who were early settlers in Ashland County, Ohio. George Marks died quite young, when his daughter Catherine was three years old. Of the five children in the Marks family the three now living are: Mary Binehour of Wellington; Mrs. Catherine Cassell; and Hannah, wife of Christian Zahnley, formerly of Ashland County, but now living on a farm in Kansas.
The late Michael Cassell, who was born in Orange Township, Ash- land County, May 12, 1848, passed away January 26, 1916, aged sixty- seven years nine months fourteen days. He was the youngest of the ten children of his parents. Three of these children died very young. Three of his brothers, John, George and Frederick served in the Civil war. John went through the war and was one of the victims of the ill-fated steamer Sultana, which was sunk in the Mississippi River in 1865, while carrying home a large number of discharged soldiers from the South. George is still living in Ashland County, and Frederick is a resident of Sandusky. Of the daughters in the family Sophia, Lanah and Barbara died several years before Michael. When his brothers went to the war Michael remained with his mother and assumed many of the responsibilities connected with the farm. At the age of fourteen he went to Mansfield and enlisted as a soldier, but his brother George at once wrote home and secured his release. Michael Cassell made a success as a farmer, and about 1899 bought a farm in Huntington Township, and at the time of his death owned an estate of 312 acres. He was a democrat and for a number of years served as trustee and assessor. When only a boy he joined the United Brethren Church and remained steadfast in that faith until his death. He was a man of many com- mendable qualities, faithful to duty whether private or public, was devoted to his home and family, and performed all the numerous responsibilities which come to a good citizen with credit to himself. In Ashland County on April 2, 1868, he married Miss Catherine Marks, who was born in Ashland County, December 16, 1849, and is still living. She became the mother of twelve children, and the oldest child, Clara, died in 1887, and the daughter Mary passed away in 1891. Those still living are: John, who is assistant postmaster at New London, Ohio; George C .; Richard Addison, who conducts the home farm in Huntington Township for his mother; Charles, who also lives at home with his mother; Clyde, a farmer at Homerville in Medina County; Mort, at home; Mrs. L. B. Crittenden, wife of the foreman for the General Elec- tric Company in Shelby, Ohio; Mrs. W. H. Linderman, of Akron, Ohio; Mrs. Lyle Wolfe, whose husband is connected with the Goodyear Rubber Company at Akron; and Mrs. Lee White, wife of a farmer in Sullivan, Ohio.
George C. Cassell grew up in Ashland County, and largely by his own efforts acquired a liberal education. He attended the Ohio Wes- leyan University at Delaware and also the college at Wooster, but on account of illness did not remain to graduate. When quite young he was qualified and began teaching and continued that profession in Ashland and Lorain counties for about twenty years. Since then he has been farming and he also owns a saw and grist mill.
In 1899 he married Lucy May Nimocks, a daughter of Edgar Nimocks, a well known farmer in Huntington Township. Mr. and Mrs. Cassell are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and are very active in church affairs. He is now superintendent of the Sunday school.
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Fraternally he is record keeper for the Knights of the Maccabees, be- longs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which his father was at one time a member, and is also a member of the Grange. Politically he is a democrat, and exercises considerable influence in local affairs. He has served as clerk and treasurer and health officer of the township.
ANDREW J. JACKSON. Much attention is paid to that type of business man who makes a specialty of reorganizing run down plants and rehabili- tating industrial enterprises that have been mismanaged. A place of equal usefulness is that of the practical agriculturist who finds his prov- ince and sphere of activity in reorganizing old farms and putting into effect a system of efficiency which restores the fertility and value of the land.
In this class one of the best examples in Lorain County is Andrew J. Jackson, who is proprietor of Riverside Villa, a ninety-six acre farm about two and a half miles south of Elyria on the Grafton and Elyria Pike at Stop No. 12 on the Interurban Railway. Mr. Jackson has made somewhat of a specialty of giving vitality to misused acres and is well known in several communities in this section of Ohio.
He was born on a farm in Elyria Township three miles north of Elyria March 9, 1854, a son of James W. and Samantha (Cheney) Jackson. Both his parents were natives of New York State, where they grew up and married, and later came from Buffalo to Cleveland by boat and secured a small farm in Elyria Township, where the father spent the rest of his days. It was on that farm that Andrew J. Jackson grew to manhood, had a fair common school education, and was with his father until the age of twenty-one. He had strength, self-reliance, in- dustry and with experience he soon became very competent in handling all kinds of matters connected with farm industry. He started out on his own account as a farm laborer, and did different lines of work. During one summer of his early manhood he was in Minnesota, and another summer he spent in the copper regions of northern Michigan.
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