USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 70
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Doctor Houghton's father was Asa Houghton, representing the sixth generation. Asa was born in Vernon, Vermont. September 1, 1795, and died at Wellington, Ohio, September 10, 1875. In younger years he was a noted athlete. He was a natural mechanic, and in pioneer days when the nearest village was twenty miles away and roads only trails he became his own shoemaker, blacksmith, carpenter and joiner, cabinetmaker, brick and stonemason, and it is said that he could fabri- cate or do almost anything that needed to be done in a new country. This was a skill and variety of accomplishment that stood him and his neighbors in good stead when he moved to Northern Ohio more than eighty years ago. He was in his element when working with machinery and constructed several labor-saving devices. While practical in many ways, he was also a great reader, and works of theology, philosophy, astronomy and poetry furnished him his greatest pleasure. Though possessing little more than a common school education, he gained knowl- edge far beyond the ordinary, had taught in his youth, became a farmer at Batavia, New York, and in twenty-two years had put himself in com- fortable circumstances for that day and generation. After selling out he bought a large tract of heavily timbered land in Northern Ohio, and settled in the middle of a section a mile and a half from neigh- bors, with no roads in any direction, and a second time started to hew his way out of the woods. Asa Houghton had come to Ohio and invested in raw land with a purpose to make homes for his children about him that they might not be separated from parents and one another as he had been. He was a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in pioneer times, and retained that relation to the end. In politics he was a whig until the republican party was born, and thereafter affiliated with that organization. He was reserved and modest to excess, and avoided all public places of responsibility. How- ever, his nature and sound convictions made him a reformer, and he kept in active sympathy with human progress. Intolerance and bigotry found no place in his genial soul. With every opportunity to do so he never allowed himself to lapse into indolent ease. His brave and noble
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patience, his cheerfulness, dignity and courtesy were a rare example of a fine nature tempered by grace.
Asa Houghton was first married May 16, 1816, to Tamzin Bigelow, of Batavia, New York. She died September 17, 1829, the mother of four sons and two daughters, all of whom lived to a ripe age and had not only physical vigor but intellectual and moral powers that made them quite the equal of those of their day and opportunities. . For his second wife Asa Houghton married Clarissa Cole. She was born August 27, 1798, and died March 17, 1881. As the mother of Doctor Houghton it will be proper to trace her American lineage briefly to the first ancestor in this country.
James Cole, born in Highgate, a suburb of London, and married in 1624, Mary Lobel. In 1632 he came to Saco, Maine, and in 1633 located in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He bought land on which rests the famous Plymouth Rock, and soon afterwards opened the first public house in Plymouth, if not the first in all New England. The second generation from James was represented by Hugh Cole, who was born in 1627, and married Mary Foxwell. He was a surveyor, a shipwright, civil engineer, a man of great prominence and influence, served as representative from 1673 to 1689, and was active in the war against King Philip. The third generation is also represented by Hugh, who was born March 8, 1658, and died February 17, 1738. He married Deborah Buckland. Their son, Hugh, of the fourth generation, was born May 30, 1683, and died June 14, 1753. He was married December 13, 1705, to Martha Luther, and his home was at Swansea, Massachusetts. In the fifth generation was another Hugh, who was born September 19, 1706, and was married August 13, 1730, to Jane Sisson. He lived at Swansea. In the sixth generation was Sisson, who was born June 20, 1746, in Rhode Island, and died in Richfield, New York, March 28, 1845. Sisson Cole was a soldier in the Revolution. He married Elizabeth Hunter, who was born January 18, 1746, and died November 12, 1842. James Cole, of the seventh generation, was born February 16, 1778, in Rhode Island, and died in 1873 in the State of Michigan. He married Lydia Paine. He was an active member of the Free Will Baptist Church from its organi- zation, was a pronounced anti-slavery man, and as a farmer and business man succeeded well.
Clarissa Cole, of the eighth generation, and the wife of Asa Hough- ton, was a woman of great energy. She was proficient in all the arts of the pioneer housewife, including the skill to card wool by hand, spinning, weaving cloth for men's clothing and woolen sheets for bedding, and working up linen made from the raw flax. From girlhood she was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In her long line of ancestry were many who were distinguished in law, medicine, religion, art and science. Clarissa Houghton had a remarkable memory for names, dates and events, and retained her mental faculties to the last.
A son of Asa and Clarissa (Cole) Houghton, Dr. John W. was only a child when he came with his parents to Northern Ohio. Up to about twenty he lived on a farm for the most part, and gained his early education in common schools that were far below the standard of the equipment and facilities found in schools of the same grade of the present time. Like others of the family his horizon and outlook were never bounded by immediate circumstances and necessity. After completing the freshmen year in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, he taught for a short time, then entered Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, and on June 13, 1860, was graduated A. B., and in 1863, the same insti- tution awarded him his master's degree. In the meantime he had carried along with his literary studies work in medicine and received his
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degree M. D. in the spring of 1860, the same time he graduated from the department of arts and literature.
In the year of his graduation Doctor Houghton settled at Welling- ton, and has thus been identified with that community fully fifty-five years. He took up the practice of medicine, and served a large and appreciative clientage for about fifteen years. On account of frail health he then gave up active practice and engaged in the drug and book trade, which was continued to the spring of 1909. Since that year he has only been engaged in the practice of optometry, which he had practiced along with his drug business. From 1876 to 1885 Doctor Houghton owned, edited and published the Wellington Enterprise.
In politics he has been a republican since the party was organized in 1856. However, his voting has not been entirely confined to one party, and in later years he has been actively engaged in temperance reform. His public service has been as a member of the town council, school board, as president of the school board, as mayor, and as justice of the peace. Since he was eighteen years of age he has been a mem- ber of the Methodist Church, has served on the official board of the Wellington Church in various capacities continuously since 1866, and had charge of the building of the present Methodist Church and was largely in charge of the addition for the Sabbath school. He is president of the board of trustees.
November 26, 1861, Doctor Houghton married Mary E. Seymour. She was born April 13, 1839, in Rochester, New York, and died Sep- tember 6, 1873. Her parents were Henry and Clarissa ( Whitney) Sey- mour, of Tallmadge, Ohio. Her father was a draughtsman and car- riage builder, had a leading part in the Methodist Church, and held various township offices at Tallmadge. Mrs. Houghton gained a some- what limited education at Baldwin University in Berea, and taught school for several terms before her marriage. She is remembered as a woman of great dignity and strength of character, and one who com- bined with intelligence a remarkable fortitude and courage.
On October 22, 1874, Doctor Houghton married Mary E. Hayes. She was born March 26, 1837, in Penfield, Ohio, daughter of William L. and Aurilla (Lindsley) Hayes. Her father was a pioneer in that town- ship and an active and prominent leader in civil, religious and educa- tional enterprises. In Mrs. Houghton's ancestry were many dis- tinguished persons, a record of whom has been kept in continuous line from their first coming to America. Mrs. Houghton early in life manifested a passionate fondness for literature, read widely and well, developed unusual clearness, force and elegance of diction as a writer, and for nine years was associate editor and the chief contributor to the columns of the Wellington Enterprise. She also contributed to the columns of various other newspapers and periodicals. She is a mem- ber of the Cleveland Woman's Press Club, which was the Ohio Woman's Press Club until that of Cleveland withdrew, taking its present name. She is also a member of the oldest literary club of Wellington, is an honorary life member of the Ohio Womans Christian Temperance Union and of the Woman's Missionary Society, both home and foreign.
The children of Doctor Houghton, all by his first wife, were three in number. Elmer Seymour Houghton, born September 11, 1862. is a graduate of the Wellington High School, was a student in Oberlin Col- lege, and all his life has been a reader of literary and scientific work and a forcible writer. Since school days he has been a compositor on the Cleveland Leader and Plain Dealer, and since 1903 has operated a lino- type machine in the Plain Dealer composing room, and it is said that he has scarcely ever lost a day from his duties and has a record that is a
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model of faithfulness, energy and conscientiousness. Elmer S. Hough- ton married Ellen Miller, of Cleveland, who was born February 10, 1860, and died February 3, 1892. For his second wife he married Mary John- son, on December 24, 1894. She was born November 8, 1869.
The second child of Doctor Houghton was Flora Ellen, who was born April 19, 1864, and died February 7, 1879. His daughter Mary Josephine, born February 10, 1872, was handicapped from early child- hood by an attack of cerebro-spinal meningitis. Notwithstanding she has acquired an unusual literary culture and her memory of historical events, names and dates is almost unexampled. She has fairly mastered the use of the typewriter and prepared for the press the principal part of the genealogical history of the Houghtons in America, lately pub- lished. She is also active in church work, and is still at home with her parents at Wellington.
While only the briefest outline of Doctor Houghton's activities has been attempted, it will be appropriate in conclusion to express an esti- mate of his character and activities from the viewpoint and largely with the words of a friend and associate. He is a man of decided opinions, keen moral sense, admitting of no prevarications, and almost entirely lacks those instincts of policy that safeguard self interest. In fact he is liberal to prodigality in dealing with his fellow men, and is charitable to everyone's faults and weaknesses but his own. His pronounced liter- ary tastes are in the realm of the philosophic and logical rather than the imaginative or descriptive. He is disposed to get to the foundation of things and always requires proof or good reasons for conclusions. To study in his company is not to find easy reading. To engage his time or attention a piece of writing must be worth while. At the same time this seriousness in his reading pursuits does not preclude his hearty enjoyment of humor and social life. He has always been a contributor as well as a participant in the genial companionship and friendship with his equals. His friends are not hastily chosen but once in the enclosure of his confidence are likely to abide there. His domestic virtues dominate all others. He is known as a liberal in theology and takes into his fellowship all of whatever name or doctrine who are trying to "deal justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God."
WALTER E. BROOKS. In the management of large business affairs Elyria has had no more conspicuous figure during the last forty-five years than Walter E. Brooks. With an inheritance of the rugged New England stock which peopled Northern Ohio in pioneer times, with a vigorous training from the country districts of Lorain County, Walter E. Brooks first became a figure in commercial affairs at Elyria in 1870. Since then his name has been associated with some of the largest companies and industrial and business affairs in the city.
Born in Avon Township, Lorain County, August 13, 1846, he is a son of James E. and Elizabeth (Sweet) Brooks. The paternal grand- parents were Joshua and Polly Brooks, who were natives of Vermont and were among the early settlers of Avon Township, where his grand- father cleared a home from the wilderness and was an influential figure as long as he lived. The maternal grandparents also came from Vermont, and the names of Waterman and Amy Sweet are also to be numbered among those found in the early history of Avon Township. James E. Brooks, the father of Walter E., came when a boy from Vermont to Ohio, and for many years conducted a typical country store in Avon Township. He also held the office of justice of the peace while living there, but after 1870 lived in Elyria until his death.
Walter E. Brooks was twenty-four years of age when he identified
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himself with the City of Elyria. In the meantime he had attended country schools, and had gained considerable knowledge of business in his father's store and elsewhere. On moving to Elyria he engaged in the agricultural implement and hardware business, and he laid the foundation for his larger success by eighteen years as a merchant. For many years one of his distinctions in business affairs has been as president and active head of the prominent local firm of Topliff & Ely Manufacturing Company. He first became interested in this concern in 1888, and afterwards acquired most of its stock.
The range of his business interests has been very extended. From 1890 to 1895 he supplied the capital and enterprise for the drilling of many oil wells in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and he also carried on extensive operations in the Ohio oil fields. Mr. Brooks for a number of years has served as president of the American Construction & Trading Company, a million dollar corporation with headquarters at Elyria, Ohio. For the past ten years he has also been prominent in the construction and extension of telephone service both in this and other states. In 1905 he became president of the Elyria Telephone Company, and likewise was president of the Elyria Southern Telephone & Telegraph Company. He took an active part in a number of companies that built telephone exchanges in various sections of New York State. Mr. Brooks is a director of the Elyria National Bank and his property interests include real estate at Elyria and Lorain and in cities outside Lorain County.
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As a business man he has never failed to live up to his obligations as a citizen. For four years he was president of the Elyria City Council. The public spirited movements which have been undertaken and carried out under the auspices of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce have always had his hearty support and approval. He is a member of the Country Club, is a thirty-second degree Mason, and has served as exalted ruler of Elyria Lodge No. 456, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was initiated April 27, 1868, into King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons; into Fellow Craft, December 28, 1868; and was made a Master Mason March 8, 1869. He and his family attend the Congrega- tional Church.
In 1877 Mr. Brooks married Fannie Topliff, daughter of the late John A. and Caroline (Beers) Topliff. At her death in 1893 Mrs. Brooks left two children: Margaret B., who married Theodore E. Faxon; and John Prentice. In 1902 Mr. Brooks married Marella Davis, daughter of Professor Noah K. Davis, formerly of the University of Virginia.
DAVID A. WILLIAMS. The career of David A. Williams is a noble illustration of what independence, self-faith and persistency can accom- plish in America. He is a self-made man in the most significant sense of the word, for no one helped him in a financial way and he is practi- cally self-educated. As a young man he was vigorous and self-reliant; he trusted in his own ability and did things single-handed and alone. Today he commands esteem as a successful business man and a loyal and public-spirited citizen. Much of his time has been devoted to his business as foreman of the Thew Automatic Shovel Company.
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A native son of the Buckeye State, David A. Williams was born in Norwalk, Ohio, January 21, 1870, and he is a son of David O. and Cornelia Ann (Spoors) Williams, both of whom are now deceased. The father was born in Ohio and the mother in Pennsylvania, their marriage having been solemnized in the former state. Mr. Williams was an engineer on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad during the greater part of his active career and he met with death by accident at the railroad crossing in Jackson, Michigan, while on duty, at which time
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he was but thirty-eight years of age. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served as corporal until he was promoted to the office of captain in Company A, that regiment. He received the latter distinction for recapturing the flag which had been taken by the enemy. This flag is now on exhibition at Columbus, where Mr. and Mrs. David A. Williams saw it while on a visit recently. Mrs. Williams, mother of the subject, passed to the life eternal at Norwalk, in 1914, aged eighty-nine years. There were ten children in the Williams family-five boys and five girls, of whom five are living at the present time, in 1915, as follows: William Henry is a resident of Norwalk, Ohio; Ellis O. is a passenger conductor on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and resides at Galesburg, Illinois; Phoeba Ann is the widow of Thomas Cherry and makes her home at Norwalk; Addie is the wife of Joseph Lillard, of Gilroy, California; and David A. is he whose name forms the caption for this review.
After the demise of his father David A. Williams lived at Bowling Green, Ohio, with his aunt, Adafna Slinker, and in that place received his early schooling. Subsequently he began to work in a grocery store and at the age of sixteen years he returned to Norwalk and entered the shops of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, where he learned the trade of forger. After twelve years' experience in those shops he accepted a position in the Wheeling & Lake Erie shops at Norwalk, remaining there for fifteen months. Thence he went to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where he worked at the trade of forger in an automobile shop for a time. In 1901 he came to Elyria, Ohio, and here he has since resided. His first position in this place was as a forger for the Thew Automatic Shovel Company and he has been with this concern during the past eleven years, during most of which time he has served as foreman.
At the time of the inception of the Spanish-American war, in 1898, Mr. Williams enlisted in Company G, Fifth Ohio Volunteer Regiment, as a sergeant and he subsequently served as sergeant-major in the Third Battalion. He did not see active service in the war, however, but went as far as Tampa, Florida. Prior to the outbreak of the war he was a member of the Ohio National Guard.
In political allegiance Mr. Williams is a stalwart republican and he has recently become actively interested in local politics. In the primary results of August 10, 1915, he was nominated on the republican ticket for the office of president of the city council of Elyria, winning over his opponent, J. A. Rawson, by a vote of 691 to 467. In his campaign for the nomination he announced himself in favor of a municipal lighting plant and of other public utilities as conditions might warrant, and was elected at the November election and made president of that body. He considers the sidewalks of as much importance as the streets and believes in considering the interests of the property holder in establishing new grades.
In a fraternal way Mr. Williams is a member of Elyria Lodge, No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is now past noble grand; and he is likewise affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fra- ternity, being a member of King Solomon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Marshal Chapter, No. 47, Royal Arch Masons; Elyria Council, No. 86, Royal and Select Masters, of which he is present conductor; and Elyria Commandery, No. 60, Knights Templars, of which he is past eminent commander. He and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star and he is likewise connected with the Yeomen.
October 11, 1899, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Williams to Miss Sarah Gladys Tough, a daughter of Samuel C. and Mary Ellen (Kile) Tough, who are residents of Townsend Center, Ohio, where Mr. Vol. 11-30
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Tough is engaged in the grocery business. Mrs. Williams was born at Norwalk, Ohio, and she completed her educational training at Collins, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have one daughter, Ethel Bernice, a pupil in the graded schools of Elyria. The Williams family occupy a beautiful residence at No. 627 East River Street, directly opposite the beautiful grounds of the Elyria Memorial Hospital, and the same is the scene of many attractive social gatherings. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Williams are devout members of the Congregational Church, to whose good works they are liberal contributors. Mr. Williams is a progressive citizen, a splendid business man and a great lover of the home fireside.
J. H. CALKINS. For about three-quarters of a century the Calkins family has been substantially identified with Lorain County. They have been known as energetic and successful farmers, as loyal and public spirited citizens, and as people who have carried more than their in- dividual burdens in the affairs of the community. Of the second genera- tion in Lorain County is J. H. Calkins, whose fine home and farm is located near Kipton in Camden Township.
He was born in Huntington Township of Lorain County, April 5, . 1866, a son of Nathan and Sarah (Cook) Calkins, and a grandson on the paternal side of Archer Calkins, who died soon after he brought his family to Lorain County from New York State, and on the maternal side a grandson of William W. Cook. William W. Cook, a native of New York State, came to Camden Township in Lorain County in 1832 and was one of the pioneers, only two or three families having preceded him to that locality. He acquired his land direct from the government, and spent his life as a practical farmer. He cleared up with his own labor a large acreage, and built and lived for a number of years in a log house.
Nathan Calkins was born in New York State in 1816 and died in 1897. He was married in Lorain County in 1858 to Miss Cook, who was born in Camden Township in 1837 and died in 1911. Nathan Calkins was twenty-one years of age when he came to Lorain County in 1837. He had been educated in New York State, and on arriving in Lorain County assumed the heavy responsibilities of a pioneer farmer. He started out in the midst of the wilderness, bought a tract of land, and finished clearing it up and developing it before he left it. His home for twenty-five years was in Huntington Township, after which he moved to Camden Township and after about eighteen months of retirement bought a farm and started over again the work of improvement and develop- ment. He burned brick on his own land, and that brick was molded into the structure of a beautiful two-story home which is still standing and for years has been one of the model farm houses of Camden Town- ship. Nathan Calkins before his death had acquired the ownership of 517 acres of land, and all of it was the direct result of his labor and intelligent management. While regarded as one of the wealthiest men of the township he was equally noted for his kindly interest in the community and his progressive spirit. He was a republican and his wife was a member of the Baptist Church. To their union were born seven children, and the five now living are: Nathan Webster, who is unmar- ried and lives on a farm in Camden Township; J. H. Calkins; William W., a farmer in Camden Township; Reuben, who is unmarried and is a Camden Township farmer; and Frank J., a farmer in Camden Township.
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