USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 72
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He was born in Rochester Township of Lorain County, December 10, 1846, and is now approaching the seventieth milestone on life's journey. His parents were Peter and Catherine (Conklin) Mitchell. His father was born in the North of Ireland in 1790, came to the United States when young, and was married in New York State to Miss Conklin, who was born near Kenyon, New York, in 1815, and died in 1904. They came to Lorain County and settled in Rochester Township in 1844, where Peter Mitchell died in 1853. When he came to Ohio he brought with him twenty oxen and one horse and wagon, and was a rather successful man for his time. He cleared up a tract of land in Lorain County, and owned 165 acres at the time of his death. He was a whig in politics, and adhered to the abolitionist cause and afterwards was a loyal republican. His wife was a member of the Baptist Church. They had a large family of sixteen children, three of whom are still living: Sidney, a farmer in South Dakota: Frank, a farmer in Rochester Township; and A. W. Mitchell, who is the youngest of the family. Several of the sons served as soldiers in the Civil war. George was a soldier, and was murdered shortly after his return home. Sidney was in the army from 1861 until his honorable discharge in 1865. and was in all the engagements in which the Third Ohio Cavalry participated.
A. W. Mitchell was not yet fifteen years old when the war broke out, and after restraining his patriotism several vears he enlisted August 13, 1864, in Company F of the Third Ohio Cavalry and was with that regiment until the close of hostilities. He took part in practically all
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the campaigns from Chattanooga to Atlanta and thus participated in one of the severest campaigns of the entire war. At Peachtree Creek he was wounded and he still carries the bullet in his body.
Prior to entering the army he had attended the district schools and afterwards he learned the blacksmith's trade and followed it steadily at Rochester for twenty-six years. He then bought on credit his father's old homestead, paid for it after a number of years of hard work and good management and finally sold out and retired. Mr. Mitchell still owns a nice place of fifteen acres in Rochester, and his means are such that he is under no necessity to perform hard labor any longer.
He first married Dora Vosburg, who died in 1885, leaving one daugh- ter, Rena, now the wife of Charles Call, a worker in the foundry at New London. In 1887 Mr. Mitchell married Rachel Curry, who was born at Troy, Ohio, but came to Lorain County with her parents when a small girl. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell attend the Baptist Church, he is a member of the Grand Army Post, and in politics is a republican. For seven years he acted as marshal of Rochester and was a member of the village council seventeen years.
PERRY MENNELL, farmer and dairyman whose homestead is on Island Road in Eaton Township, near Grafton Postoffice, was born on the old family homestead in Grafton Township May 29, 1844, and is a son of Crispin, better known as Duke, and Mary (Hardy) Mennell. The history of the Mennell family is given on other pages.
He grew up as a farmer boy, lived with his father until twenty-one, and then started farming on a place of fifty acres given him by his father. He also spent some time in his early life in Kansas and Nebraska.
April 10, 1887, he married in Grafton Township, Miss Mary Mole, who was born in Eaton Township a daughter of Henry and Ann (Gard- ner) Mole, natives of England. Her parents after marriage came to Lorain County, and her father lived on a farm in Eaton and afterwards in Grafton townships. Mr. Mennell since his marriage has accumulated property and made a striking success as a farmer. He now owns 172 acres in Grafton Township, and in 1897 bought his present home place.
He and his wife are the parents.of four children : Louis M., born in Grafton Township, married Treva Benton, and they have one child; their home is on a farm in Grafton Township. The son Harry died at the age of seven years. Thena is now a sophomore in the Elyria High School. Alton is also in the sophomore class of the Elyria High School. Mr. Mennell is independent in politics, and he and his wife attend the Disciples Church at Eaton.
L. F. CLIFFORD of Wellington Township, is one of the oldest living native sons of that locality in Lorain County. He is now eighty-two years of age, and he represents a family which has been identified with Wellington Township since the first settler broke open trails into that then wilderness. That was nearly 100 years ago. L. F. Clifford on his farm home has some interesting relics of pioneer times in this town- ship, in the shape of a frame barn which was the first frame building erected in Wellington.
His great-grandfather was a native of Germany and came to America in time to serve in the Revolutionary war. In the archives at Wash- ington is a record of his honorable discharge. His wife, the great- grandmother, lived to be ninety-three years of age, and passed away December 9, 1844.
The pioneer in Lorain County of this family was John Clifford, the grandfather of L. F. Clifford. John Clifford was born in 1777, while the revolution was still in progress, at Providence, Rhode Island. He
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married Miss Margaret Williamson, and their family of children was as follows : John, Jr., born September 8, 1797, and died December 25, 1857; Daniel, born February 7, 1799, and died January 31, 1886; Luther L., born March 8, 1801, and died March 12, 1864; Hannah, born July 15, 1803, and died April 2, 1857; Theodosia, born May 15, 1805, and died May 31, 1880; George W., born June 18, 1807, and died September 28, 1861; Elijah, born March 13, 1810, and died in July, 1880; Pollie M., born June 6, 1813, and died July 1, 1849; Benjamin F., born Janu- ary 9, 1816, and died December 21, 1885; Harriet, born March 30, 1819, and died December 5, 1869; Adeline, who was born September 23, 1821, after the family came to Ohio, and died September 2, 1841. The mother of these children was born March 15, 1779, and died May 22, 1845.
It was in 1818 that John Clifford came to Ohio, accompanied by four men, making the journey during the dead of winter and driving a horse and cutter. The other four, who should also be remembered as the first pioneers of Wellington Township, were Ephraim Wilcox, William Well- ing, Joseph Wilson and Charles Sweet. Having selected a suitable tract of land on the bank of Wellington Creek about half a mile from the present Town of Wellington, John Clifford returned east for his family. Then with wife and ten children he arrived at his new home in March, 1820, and a week later had cut the timber and erected a log house. This first home of the Cliffords in Wellington Township was a place of much historic interest. It served as the first schoolhouse, the first meeting house and the first tavern, and it was the first point that a traveler would reach on coming into the settlement. It was in that humble home that the first sermon was preached by Presiding Elder McMahon, a Methodist, and at that meeting Adam Poe received his license to preach. John Clifford was proverbial for his industry and thrift, and while clearing up a farm he also followed his trade as shoemaker, and for many years supplied his neighbors with all the footwear. When John Clifford died September 17, 1869, he possessed 79 grandchildren, 97 great-grand- children, and 1 great-great-grandchild-188 in all.
Daniel C. Clifford, father of L. F. Clifford, was born February 7, 1799, at Tyringham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and was about twenty-one years of age when he came to Wellington Township of Lorain County. There he spent the rest of his life as an active and prosperous farmer. On March 13, 1825, he was married in Lorain County to Sarah P. Hall, who was born in Connecticut in 1802. They became the parents of twelve children, and the four still living are: Christopher, of Medina County ; L. F. Clifford ; A. J. Clifford, who lives near Toledo; and C. T. Clifford, who lives with his son at Ypsilanti, Michigan. On March 13, 1875, Daniel C. Clifford and wife celebrated their golden wedding. Both survived past their sixtieth wedding anniversary. Daniel Clifford died January 31, 1886, after having lived on one farm for sixty-six years. He was a man of industry and encountered all the difficulties of pioneer existence. He was a member of the First Methodist Church in Welling- ton Township. His widow passed away January 23, 1887. She should also be remembered as one of the remarkable pioneer women, full of energy, with a courage equal to all difficulties of existence in an un- settled country, and always cheerful and happy in every circumstance. She was widely known and loved as "Aunt Sarah."
A son of these honored parents, L. F. Clifford was born in Wellington Township, April 18, 1834. He has a keen recollection of the primitive circumstances and environment of his early boyhood, and for an educa- tion he attended one of the subscription schools in his home township. His schooling was confined to a few months each winter. For half a century or more he was one of the active and prosperous farmers of
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Wellington Township, and he still carries on his farming and keeps a dairy herd of thoroughbred Jerseys. His farm now comprises seventy acres, and is well improved and a valuable place. Mr. Clifford also served as township trustee twelve years and as town assessor four years. He is a republican and a member of the Methodist Church.
In 1866 Mr. Clifford married Mrs. Alice (Houghton) Drake. She was born in Medina County, a daughter of Edwin Halpin. To their union were born two children: Paul Carlton, born August 18, 1870, was educated in the Wellington High School, and now actively managing his father's farm. He married Elsie Mitchell, and their three children are Pauline, Albert and Merritt. Robert Houghton, born December 28, 1872, is a graduate of the Wellington High School and of the Case School of Applied Science at Cleveland, and is now a civil engineer at Tiffin, Ohio. He married Ella Warren, but they have no children. The mother of these sons died in 1900.
FRANK FANNING JEWETT. A scholar and author who has attained national and international recognition, Frank Fanning Jewett has been a resident of Oberlin for thirty-five years, and during the greater part of that time, until recently, held the chair of chemistry and mineralogy in Oberlin College.
The Jewett family in America was founded by Edward Jewett, who came from Lincolnshire, England, in 1638 and settled at Rowley, Massachusetts. His grandson, Eleazar, moved to Griswold, Connecticut, and founded Jewett City. Mr. Jewett's grandfather was Joseph Jewett, who was born in 1762 and died in 1832, having spent all his life in Connecticut as a farmer. Charles Jewett, father of Professor Jewett, was born at Lisbon, Connecticut, in 1807 and died in 1879. He became a practicing physician at Providence, Rhode Island, but finally gave up that profession in order to become one of the early advocates and promoters of the temperance cause and followed it steadily until his death. In the early days he went out to Minnesota, and while living there he took up a claim and also served as a member of the State Legislature. In politics he was a republican. Two of his sons, Charles and Richard H. L., also proved up claims in the Northwest. and both were soldiers in the Civil war. R. H. L. Jewett was badly wounded in one of the battles in which he was engaged. These brothers were iden- tified with the first colored regiment to enter the service of the Union army from Massachusetts. The other brother, John, was killed in Chickamauga. The mother of Professor Jewett was Lucy A. Tracy, who was also born in Lisbon, Connecticut, in 1811, and died at Norwich in that state December 13, 1898. The parents were married in 1830. Both were very active members of the Congregational Church. Of their thirteen children Professor Jewett is the only one now living.
Frank Fanning Jewett was born at Newton Corner, Massachusetts, January 8, 1844. He inherited the best traditions of New England life and it is noteworthy that his maternal grandfather, Fanning Tracy, after graduating as valedictorian of his class at Yale in 1796 spent nearly all his career as a teacher. Professor Jewett acquired his early education in several schools and institutions, and prepared for college at Norwich Academy in Connecticut. He attended Yale University and is now the oldest living member of the class of 1870. He graduated A. B. and in 1873 was awarded the degree A. M. During his freshman year he was a member of the Gamma Nu, later, in his junior year, became a member of Alpha Delta Phi, and received admittance to the honorary scholarship fraternity Phi Beta Kappa at his graduation.
After leaving Yale Professor Jewett spent two years as an instructor
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in the Norwich Free Academy. He returned to New Haven to pursue graduate studies in chemistry and mineralogy in the Sheffield Scientific School and for one year was abroad as a student of chemistry in the University of Goettingen. On his return he was invited by Dr. Wolcott Gibbs of Harvard University to become his private assistant. From 1875 to 1880 he was professor of chemistry in the Imperial University at Tokio, remaining there nearly four years. Then in 1880 he accepted the chair of professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Oberlin College.
The credit must be given to Professor Jewett for organizing and establishing on a permanent basis the chemistry department of Oberlin College. He built it right up from the beginning and in recent years there have been few institutions of the country that offered a more com- plete and thorough course of this science than Oberlin. After serving fifteen consecutive years as professor and the last year as dean of the college, he went abroad for another year of study under Professor Lieber- man of Berlin, Germany. He then resumed his work at Oberlin and continued his active professorship until 1912, when he retired on the Carnegie Foundation.
He has been a member of a number of scientific societies. He is a member of the American Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft. He is author of "Tables of Qualitative Chemical Analysis," 1883; "Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Chemistry," 1885.
He has also taken an active part in public affairs at Oberlin. For eight years he was a member of the town council and is now president of the board of trustees of public affairs, and has served as president of the Oberlin waterworks and as a member of the board of health. He and his wife are both active in the Second Congregational Church and also in Sunday school affairs. Professor Jewett was at one time clerk and has been a deacon in the church for a number of years. He has served as trustee and treasurer of the Oberlin Missionary Home Association.
At Tokio, Japan, on July 30, 1880, Professor Jewett married Frances Gulick, who was also teaching in Japan at that time. The only child of their marriage, Charles, died in infancy.
Mrs. Frances Gulick Jewett is one of the distinguished women of Ohio. She was born at Ponape, Micronesian Islands, October 13, 1854, a daughter of Luther Halsey (M. D., D. D.) and Louise (Lewis) Gulick. Her father was a distinguished physician and was for several years agent for the American Bible Society in Japan and China. Mrs. Jewett is a sister of Luther Halsey and Sidney Lewis Gulick, the former dis- tinguished as a physician, educator and author, and the latter as a missionary whose work has identified him largely with Japan. Mrs. Jewett was educated in the seminary at Painesville, Ohio, and by private tutors and with a special course at Berlin in 1894-96. She is a member of the Ohio Woman's Press Club. In literary circles she is known as the author of the following works: "Luther Halsey Gulick, Mission- ary," 1895; author of five books of the Gulick hygiene series: "Good Health," 1906; "Town and City," 1906; "The Body at Work," 1908; "Control of Body and Mind," 1908; "The Body and Its Defenses,' 1909; "The Next Generation," 1914.
JESSE E. FORD, a resident of Lorain County since 1908, owns a farm of seventy-five acres in Russia Township, and has devoted his time to general agriculture and dairy farming.
A native of New York, and a representative in both the maternal and paternal lines of families that came to America in the colonial period,
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he was born in Chautauqua County December 7, 1874, a son of John H. and Helen U. (Brightman) Ford. His father was born in Chautauqua County in 1833, and his mother at Brookfield in Madison County, New York, October 4, 1838. The paternal ancestry in America goes back to Joseph Ford, who came from England in colonial days. From him the line descends through Nathanial, Amos, Nathaniel to Stephen Ford, the father of John H. Ford. Stephen Ford was one of the early settlers of Chautauqua County, New York. John H. Ford during his active career was a farmer in New York State, and had his home in Chautauqua County until 1916, since which time he has lived with his son, Jesse E. Ford, in Lorain County. He is an active supporter of prohibition, is a member of the Grange, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife, who died May 24, 1901, in Chautauqua County, was also a member. January 29, 1856, occurred the wedding of John H. Ford and Helen U. Brightman. She was a daughter of Joseph Bright- man, who was born in Madison County, New York, and afterwards became a farmer in Chautauqua County. Members of the Brightman family were soldiers in the War of the Revolution. John H. Ford and wife had three children. The two older are: Arthur, a farmer in North Dakota; and George, a fruit grower near Tacoma, Washington.
Jesse E. Ford spent his early life on the old homestead in New York State, attended the district schools and also the high school at Mayville, the county seat of Chautauqua County. After reaching his majority he bought a farm in Chautauqua County and remained there for a number of years. Selling out he came to Lorain County March 17, 1908, and at that time bought his present farm. He has introduced a number of improvements, and has a substantial residence and other farm buildings. Most of his time is taken up with dairy business, and his dairy products are sold in the City of Cleveland. His farm is sit- uated half a mile south of Oberlin.
Mr. Ford joined the progressive party in the national campaign of 1912 and is thoroughly in accord with the principles of its platform. He is a member of the local Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, while he and his wife are members of the Second Congregational Church of Oberlin.
On April 18, 1900, he married Clara Abigail Hewes, a daughter of Jared and Lorilla (Weir) Hewes of Chautauqua County, New York, where her father was born in 1848, and where he still resides. Her mother, who was born in Washington County, New York, in 1846, died in April, 1915. Jared Hewes is a public spirited farmer and secretary of the Chautauqua County Patrons Fire Relief Association. His father, Daniel Hawks Hewes, was born at Richfield Springs, Otsego County, New York, November 15, 1819, and died February 12, 1915. Robert Hewes, father of Daniel, was a native of New York State, and a son of George Robert Twelves Hewes, who was a soldier throughout the Revo- lution and was a member of the Boston Tea Party and at his death the last survivor. He was one hundred nine years of age when he died, and on his hundredth birthday the women of the City of Boston tendered him a reception to honor him for his service to his country. Another ancestor of Mrs. Ford was Mehitable Wing, wife of William Prender- gast and daughter of Jedediah, who was the fourth great-grandfather of both Mr. and Mrs. Ford. William Prendergast was a colonist who led an uprising to oppose the impositions of unjust taxation levied by the English government, and when the Colonists were defeated by the King's soldiers, was sentenced by King George to be hanged, but escaped the penalty owing to the bravery of his wife. Their son. Mathew, was one of the first white children born in Chautauqua County, New York.
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Lillius Prendergast, daughter of Mathew, became the wife of Jared Irwin, a pioneer of Chautauqua County, and their daughter, Abigail, became the wife of Daniel Hawks Hewes. Hiram Weir, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Ford, was born and reared in Washington County, New York, but in 1865 moved to Chautauqua County. Mrs. Ford was born and reared in Chautauqua County, attended the public schools, including the Mayville High School, and afterwards took a course in Pratt Institute at Brooklyn, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Ford have two children : Helen Lorilla, born June 15, 1902, and now a student in the public schools of Oberlin, and Jared Hewes, born June 14, 1911.
PERRY S. WILLIAMS. Of the editors and newspaper publishers who now control the destinies of the Lorain County press the name of Perry S. Williams has longer been prominent than any other, Mr. Williams having since 1896 been identified with the publications of The Republi- can Printing Company. These now include The Elyria Republican, the oldest journal of the county, and The Evening Telegram, the most widely read daily publication between Cleveland and Toledo. During Mr. Wil- liams' administration the company has also taken over The Lorain County Reporter, daily and weekly, and The Elyria Democrat, weekly, merging them with the publications of his company, of which he has been the general manager and editorial head since 1900.
A native of Toledo, Ohio, and a son of R. H. and Lucy (Stearns) Williams, Perry Williams has spent most of his life in Elyria. His father was of Welsh descent and his mother belonged to the Stearns family, originally represented in Vermont, and also identified with the pioneer settlement of Lorain and Cuyahoga counties, Ohio.
Since graduating from the Elyria High School with the class of 1895, Mr. Williams has been almost continuously identified with newspaper work in some form or other. In 1900 he became editor and manager of the Elyria Republican which was founded in 1829 and is now one of the oldest papers in the Western Reserve. A few years later Mr. Wil- liams became the instrument in effecting one of the most important con- solidations in the history of the Lorain County press. In March, 1907, ' the Elyria Reporter, the principal competitor of the Republican, went into the hands of a receiver. Mr. Williams, acting for his company, bought the property at the receiver's sale, and combined the Weekly Reporter with the Republican, continuing the daily issue under the new name of the Evening Telegram. In 1916 the subscription list and good will of the Elyria Democrat were also taken over by Mr. Williams and merged with his above mentioned publications. The company also operates the largest commercial printing business in the county.
For many years Mr. Williams has identified himself with the im- portant affairs of Lorain County particularly politically, but always as a side line incident to his publishing enterprises. He has never sought or accepted any office or commission which would take his whole time and attention to the exclusion of his newspaper work. His political activities began in 1900 when he was president of the First Voters Club of Elyria at that time the only active republican club in the city. Later he became secretary of the Republican County Executive Committee, serving two terms. He was elected city treasurer in May, 1902, and twice re-elected, serving for seven years in all, and holding that office until January 1, 1910, at which date President Taft commissioned him as supervisor of census for the Thirteenth Ohio District, comprising seven counties.
In 1912 he was a representative of the Fourteenth Ohio District at the National Progressive Convention in Chicago which nominated
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Theodore Roosevelt for president. From August, 1913, to August, 1915, he was Lorain County License Commissioner, acting as chairman of the board for the troublous first year of its operations when it put seventy Lorain County saloons out of business to meet the requirements of the new Ohio law.
In 1914 Williams was chosen chairman of the Lorain County Pro- gressive Executive and Central Committees and in 1916 was again named a representative to the National Progressive Convention at Chicago.
Mr. Williams is affiliated with King Solomon's Lodge No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons, with Elyria Lodge No. 465, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, Elyria Lodge Fraternal Order of Eagles, Sons of Veterans, Young Men's Christian Association, Elyria Chamber of Com- merce, Elyria Country Club, and other local organizations.
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