USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 73
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
M. G. BROWN represents a very old family in Ohio, one which has been identified with this state for upwards of a century. Mr. Brown's home has been on a fine farm in Henrietta Township for the past twenty years, and he is well known in Lorain County.
He was born in Freedom, Portage County, Ohio, October 19, 1842, a son of D. A. and Minerva (Sherman) Brown. His paternal grand- father, Daniel Brown, was born in Massachusetts and came to Portage County, Ohio, in 1820, and spent the rest of his days there. The ma- ternal grandfather was Pardon Sherman, a native of Connecticut and was also a pioneer farmer in Portage County. D. A. Brown was born in Massachusetts in 1812, came to Ohio at the age of eight, finished his education in this state and after many years spent in practical farm- ing moved with his wife to Oberlin, where he died in 1886. His wife was born in Connecticut in 1815 and she also died at Oberlin in 1887. They were married in Portage County. She was a member of the Baptist Church, while D. A. Brown, though a member of no denomination was a good moral Christian, a worthy citizen, was affiliated with the whigs and afterwards with the republicans, and for a number of years served as justice of the peace. He was also a Knight Templar Mason. Of six children the two now living are M. G. Brown and D. R. Brown. The latter resides in Portage County and has been quite successful in con- ducting a plant for the manufacture of horseradish.
M. G. Brown was brought to Lorain County at the age of four years by his parents and grew up and received his education in Camden Town- ship. He lived there until he was thirty years of age, then spent fifteen years in Huron County, and in 1896 returned to Henrietta Township.
In 1864 Mr. Brown married Addie Kingsberry, a native of Lorain County. She died in 1875, and her one son, Fred Brown, is now in the ice business at Newark, New Jersey. In 1882 Mr. Brown married Hannah Cook, daughter of C. M. Cook, who was an early settler in Henrietta Township and after clearing up a farm from the wilderness spent the rest of his life there.
M. G. Brown is a member of the Masonic Order at Wakeman in Huron County. and in politics is a democrat. For a number of years he has devoted his time and attention to the improvement and cultivation of his eighty-five-acre farm in Henrietta Township, and he also owns another place of fifty acres.
REV. JOSEPH G. SHEFFIELD, who has devoted all the strength and resources of his life to the service of the Catholic Church, is pastor of St. Joseph's at Amherst. His work as a priest has been characterized not only by spiritual leadership but also by constructive ability of a
Digitized by Google
1035
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY
high order, and every parish with which he has been identified has been left the better and stronger for his effort.
He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, August 8, 1872, a son of John Bernard and Christine (King) Sheffield. His grandfather, John Shef- field, was born in Alsace Lorain, and on coming to the United States settled in Baltimore. He was the father of six sons and three daughters, and one of these sons, John T. Sheffield, was for a number of years a beloved priest of the Catholic Church in Elyria. The maternal grand- father was August King, also a native of Alsace Lorain, who on coming to America settled in Baltimore. Father Sheffield's parents were both natives of Baltimore. His father was born in 1839 and died in 1885 and his mother, who was born in 1835 is still living at the venerable age of eighty-one. They were married in Baltimore and had three children of their own besides two adopted : John T. for the past three years has been pastor of St. Michael's Church at Cleveland, the largest church in that city, and was graduated in 1880 from Canisius College at Buffalo; the second in age is Father Joseph G .; Albert J. is now assistant super- intendent of the Consolidated Electric Railway at Cleveland; Charles J., an adopted son, is transient manager of a lyceum bureau; and Sarah, now deceased. The father of these children was a very prominent architect and builder. Immediately after the Civil war, in which he served with a creditable record, he located in Cleveland and followed his profession there for many years. The most substantial buildings of the early days still standing were erected by him. He was a very active republican in politics. During the war he enlisted at Baltimore in the Fifty-sixth Maryland Volunteers and was in service throughout, par- ticipating in the battles of Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge and many others marking the progress of the Union armies through Eastern Ten- nessee, Georgia and the Carolinas. He was twice captured but made his escape both times, once from Knoxville.
Father Sheffield as a boy attended the St. Ignatius Jesuit College in Cleveland and went abroad for his university course in the Royal Im- perial University at Innsbrueck, Austria, where he spent six years. He was ordained a priest in 1896 and his first charge as pastor was at Payne, Ohio, where he built a church. The next twelve years were spent in St. Augustus Church at Barberton, Ohio, and while there he erected a church school, a home for the sisters and a priest's house. He was connected with St. Michael's Parish in Cleveland during its period of reconstruction, and on December 16, 1915, was called to St. Joseph's Church in Amherst. Already he has formulated plans for important constructive work, including the erection of a new church building. Father Sheffield presides over a parish of 116 families and is not only popular in his church but is a very broad minded and public spirited citizen. He is a member of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce and belongs to the Knights of Columbus.
WELLS A. CHAMBERLAIN, now living retired at his farm home in Grafton Township at the age of seventy-one, has had a quiet and unpre- tentious career, but nevertheless one of worthy activity and broad use- fulness to his community. He is an honored veteran of the Civil war and has made farming his principal vocation. For nearly half a cen- tury he and his wife have lived in Grafton Township, and they have reared a family of children who do them credit and honor.
The Chamberlain home is 21/2 miles south of Grafton on Rural Route No. 3, and comprises an estate of fifty-three acres, while Mr. Chamberlain owns another farm of eighty acres in the same township. He was born at Virgil, Cortland County, New York, March 7, 1845, a Vol. II-35
Digitized by
1036
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY
son of John and Amy (Perkins) Chamberlain. His father was born on a farm near Burlington, Otsego County, New York, and in the same locality the mother was also a native. They grew to maturity there, were married, and a few years later, in 1850, came to Lorain County, settling in Grafton Township a mile south of where Wells A. Chamber- lain now has his home. There the father acquired thirty acres of land, which had been improved to the extent of some clearing of the forest and had a log cabin on it. About a year later the father died there, and his widow was left with ten children, several of whom were grown and married, and she kept the younger children together and did a worthy part by them.
Wells .A. Chamberlain grew to manhood on the old home farm, and gained a country school education. He was only sixteen years old when the war broke out and two years later he went to Cleveland and on October 19, 1863, enlisted as a private and was assigned to Company F of the Twelfth Ohio Cavalry. He spent some time drilling in camp at Cleveland and on Johnson's Island, and later was at Camp Dennison. From there his regiment was sent south to Nashville, later to Lexington, Kentucky, and finally went into Eastern Kentucky to cut off General Morgan's raiders at Mount Sterling, and many of the regiment were killed though Mr. Chamberlain came through safe. He was hit by a spent bullet, but it struck a package of hardtack in his pocket, and that saved him from a hip wound. In the same battle he captured the red sash of a Confederate major and he still has that trophy in his possession. From there his command followed Morgan to Lexington and at Cynth- iana, Kentucky, took part in a battle in which Morgan's troopers were completely routed. The following is the list of battles in which Mr. Chamberlain participated, together with the locality, date and officers:
Mount Sterling, Kentucky; June 9, 1864; Confederate commander, John Morgan; Federal commanders, Gen. S. G. Burbridge and Lieut. Col. R. H. Bently; Cynthiana, Kentucky ; June 12, 1864; Confederate commander, John Morgan; Federal commanders, Gen. S. G. Burbridge and Lieut. Col. R. H. Bently; near Lebanon, Kentucky; July 30, 1864; Confederate commander, Captain Alexander; Federal commander, F. A. Dubois; Cumberland Mountains; September, 1864; Confederate com- mander, Breckenridge; Federal commanders, Col. R. W. Ratliff, Lieu- tenant Colonel Bently ; Saltville, Virginia, No. 1; October 2, 1864; Con- federate commanders, Breckenridge and Early; Federal commanders, Gen. N. C. McLean and Lieutenant Colonel Bently ; Moosberg, Tennessee; December, 1864; Confederate commanders, Breckenridge and Outpost; Federal commander, Lieut. Col. R. H. Bently; Kingsport, Tennessee ; December, 1864; Confederate commander, Basil Duke; Federal com- manders, Gen. Geo. Stoneman and Lieutenant Colonel Bently; Bristol, Tennessee; December, 1864; Confederate commander, Basil Duke : Fed- eral commanders, Gen. Geo. Stoneman and Lieutenant Colonel Bently ; Abingdon, Virginia, No. 1; December, 1864; Confederate commander, Vaughan; Federal commanders, Gen. Geo. Stoneman and Lieut. Nelson Holt; Abingdon, Virginia, No. 2; December, 1864; Confederate com- mander, Vaughan; Federal commanders, Gen. Geo. Stoneman and Lieu- tenant Colonel Bently; Wilkesville, Virginia; December 16, 1864; Con- federate commanders, Vaughan and Duke; Federal commanders, Gen. A. T. Gallen and Maj. J. F. Herrick; Marion, Virginia; December 17 and 18, 1864; Confederate commander, Breckenridge; Federal com- manders, General Stoneman and Maj. J. F. Herrick; Saltville, Virginia, No. 2; December 21, 1864; Confederate commander, Breckenridge; Fed- eral commanders, General Stoneman and Lieutenant Colonel Bently ; Chick River, Virginia; December 23, 1864; Confederate commander,
Digitized by
1
!
1037
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY
Colonel Prentice; Federal commanders, General Burbridge and Major Herrick; Salisbury, North Carolina; April 12, 1865; Confederate com- manders, Pemberton and Graham; Federal commanders, General Stone- man and Lieutenant Colonel Bently; Dallas, North Carolina; April, 1865; Confederate commanders, Vann and Duke; Federal commander, Maj. E. C. Modwell; Catawba Bridge, South Carolina; April 18, 1865; Confederate commanders, Vann and Duke; Federal commander, Maj. E. C. Modwell. Mr. Chamberlain's command rode sixty-eight days with- out drawing a ration from the Government.
After considerable service in the Mississippi Valley the war closed, and on November 21, 1865, he received his honorable discharge and returned to his mother's home. On February 7, 1867, he was married in Grafton Township to Miss Cynthia A. Aldrich. She was born on a farm in Grafton Township, Lorain County, May 21, 1849, a daughter of James L. and Harriet (Clark) Aldrich. She was well educated and before her marriage had taught three terms of school. She was married when only seventeen years of age. The thirty acres of the old home farm fell to Mr. Chamberlain as his inheritance, but after a short time he sold that and bought the eighty acres in Grafton Township which he still owns. For several years he and his wife lived on the farm of the latter's father until 1873, and they then acquired the homestead which they have continuously occupied for more than forty years.
Mr. Chamberlain's father was a democrat but the son soon adopted the principles of the new republican party and cast his first presidential ballot while in the army for Abraham Lincoln. Besides looking after the duties of his farm he has at various times filled posts of responsi- bility in the local government. He served two terms as trustee and afterwards as assessor for Grafton Township. He was then elected justice of the peace, an office he filled for eight years and it is noteworthy that only one appeal was ever taken from his decisions, and his decision in that case was sustained by the higher court. During its existence he was an active member of the Grand Army Post at LaGrange, and has attended many of the national reunions, being accompanied by his wife. He was reared in the Baptist faith and both he and his wife are active members of the church at LaGrange, in which he is a deacon, while his wife was formerly a teacher in the Sunday school. Mr. and Mrs. Cham- berlain have three children, and a brief record of each will conclude this article on one of Lorain's most respected citizens.
The daughter Lucia, who was born in Grafton Township, was given a liberal education, having taken a course in the New York State Normal School at Cortland, where she graduated, and after teaching one year in New York she returned to Lorain County and taught a year in the high school at Elyria. She then married Calvin P. Wilcox, who was at that time night editor of the Cleveland Leader. By this marriage there is one child, Kathryn, who was born in Cleveland and is now a student in the high school of that city. After a few years of happy married life Mr. Wilcox died, and Mrs. Wilcox then resumed her profession as a teacher and is now principal of the Gordon School at Cleveland.
Clark W. Chamberlain, the older son, was born at Litchfield in Medina County, Ohio, where his father was at that time a renting farmer. From the country schools he continued his education in Doane Academy at Granville in Licking County, and then entered Dennison College, where he was graduated, spent three years as a teacher at Hudson, Ohio, and then entered the University of Chicago and after- wards Columbia University at New York, from which institution he has the degree Doctor of Philosophy. As a scholar he has already made his mark in scientific lines, and has invented several instruments of value in
Digitized by
1038
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY
scientific research. He was married in Norwalk, Ohio, to Miss Jessie Husted, of Norwalk, daughter of Daniel Husted. Doctor and Mrs. Cham- berlain have four children : John H., Margaret, Stewart and Elizabeth. Doctor Chamberlain is now president of Dennison College, a school in which he was once a student. For five years he was an instructor in Vassar College, and while there he continued his education in Columbia University and was granted his Ph. D. degree.
John A. Chamberlain, the youngest child, was born in Grafton Town- ship of Lorain County, attended the same academy and college as his older brother, and then entered the Western Reserve University Law School, where he was graduated LL. B. He began the practice of law and is now a member of the well known firm of Stearns, Chamberlain and Rogan at Cleveland. He is also a well known author and contributor to legal literature. He is author of "Principles of Business Law," pub- lished in 1908, and of another work on commercial law which was published in 1910 and has been adopted as a text book by the American School of Correspondence at Chicago: He was one of the leading workers in closing the saloons on Sunday and at midnight in Cleveland, Ohio. John Aldrich Chamberlain was married at Cuyahoga Falls to Miss Frances Hind. They have one child, Mary Louise.
F. M. SPONSELLER, M. D. For the past six years Doctor Sponseller has quietly and efficiently performed his duties as a physician and surgeon in the community of Wellington. There is no profession which presents greater opportunities for usefulness to humanity than that of medicine, and Doctor Sponseller, though young, has already become recognized as one who has accepted every opportunity for faithful per- formance of duty and through his extended practice has gained an esteem which is not less satisfying than the other material accompani- ments of a successful career.
A native of Seneca County, Ohio, where he was born June 4, 1879, Doctor Sponseller is a son of David P. and Eleanor (Moore) Sponseller. His people were of moderate circumstances but of great intrinsic worth, and he inherited from his ancestors some very valuable qualities in his own makeup. His grandfather, Frederick Sponseller, was born in Stark County, Ohio, moved from there to Seneca County, and died on his farm there. Grandfather Moore was a native of Wood County, Ohio, and was killed in a railway accident. David P. Sponseller was born in Bloomville, Ohio, in July, 1850, and died in October, 1914. His wife was born in Wood County, Ohio, in 1853, and is still living. They were married at Bloomville. Of the ten children born to them seven are still living. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the father was a democrat. He followed farming until about a year before his death, when he rented his farm and moved to the little town of Melmore. By hard work he accumulated a small com- petency, and he and his wife sacrificed much in order to give their chil- dren educational advantages.
The third in the family of children, Doctor Sponseller, grew up on the farm in Seneca County, attended the country schools, and in 1903 graduated bachelor of science from Heidelberg College at Tiffin. From there he entered the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, where he was graduated M. D. in 1907. With a thorough literary and scientific training, Doctor Sponseller entered upon the practice of his profession at Sycamore, Ohio, but after three years moved to Wellington in 1910. Considering the brief time he has lived in that community he has acquired a really remarkable patronage, and has more than his time and strength permit him to attend. He is a member of the Lorain County
1
Digitized by Google
---
F. M. Sponseller, M. D.
Digitized by
Digitized by
1039
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY
and Ohio State Medical societies and of the Eclectic State Society, and the National Eclectic Medical Association.
On September 11, 1904, Doctor Sponseller married Bertha Wilson of Tiffin, Ohio. Their three children are William H., Marian Maude and Fred M., Jr. The two older children are already in school. Doctor and Mrs. Sponseller are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and take much part in church affairs. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Tribe of Ben Hur, and is medical examiner for both the local lodges. Politically he is a democrat.
CYRUS W. HAWLEY has spent all his life in Lorain County, received his education in the local schools, and by much hard work and good management has acquired a gratifying success. He bought his present farm from his father, and now owns eighty-two acres. Most of its improvements represent his individual labor and supervision and he is cultivating it to general crops.
He was born in Huntington Township of Lorain County, April 11, 1861, a son of Myron and Emily (Haley) Hawley. Both the Haley and Hawley families were New England people and came to Ohio in early times. Grandfather Hawley first settled in Cleveland when it was a small village and from there moved to Lorain County and afterwards went to Michigan, where he died. Myron Hawley was born July 20, 1824, and died June 20, 1890. His wife was born February 24, 1828, and died November 15, 1881. They were married in Huntington Town- ship of Lorain County. Of their twelve children four are living: Cyrus W .; Charles L., a farmer in Huntington Township; C. C. Hawley, a retired farmer at Sullivan, Ohio; and Lillie, widow of Oliver Sprinkle of Huntington Township. Myron Hawley was a democrat in politics, and filled the offices of township trustee and township assessor. He was a very progressive and prosperous man, and acquired 330 acres of land in Huntington Township, and also operated an extensive dairy.
On August 1, 1901, Cyrus W. Hawley married Hannah Kelsey, a daughter of Elam and Lois (Tillitson) Kelsey. Elam Kelsey was born at Berlin, Connecticut, February 1, 1810, and died in Huntington Town- ship of Lorain County, February 23, 1866. His wife was born at Pitts- ford, Monroe County, New York, October 2, 1817, and died March 31, 1897. Of their nine children the three now living are: Mrs. Hawley; Astor Kelsey, formerly a lumberman and now living retired at Cala- donia, Michigan; and Frank Kelsey, who is employed in the rubber works at Akron. Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey were members of the Universalist Church. They were married in Huntington, Lorain County, and Elam Kelsey came to this county with his parents when only two years of age. During part of his youth he worked for wages, and finally bought fifty acres of land, later fifty more acres, and cleared up and developed a good farm in Huntington Township. His father was Zenas Kelsey, who was one of the very first settlers in that township.
Mr. and Mrs. Hawley are both members of the Grange, and he is a democrat and has served as township supervisor for a number of years.
MILES S. BASSETT. Throughout a period of more than eighty years there has accumulated a great wealth of associations for the Bassett family in Russia Township. More than four score years ago there arose on a small clearing in the midst of the heavy woods in that section a log cabin, 14x16 feet, which was the first home and shelter of the family of Nathan Bassett in Lorain County. That humble dwelling was replaced a year or so later, in 1836, by a frame house, and that stood for a great many years. It was finally relegated to a second place, and the advance-
Digitized by
1040
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY
ment and prosperity of the family were given further material evidence in the large house of more modern type and the splendid group of barns and outbuildings which are still standing in that part of the county. It was in the second homestead that Miles S. Bassett was born, and for a great many years he has been an active factor in the farming and dairy- ing enterprise of the township, and is one of the best known citizens of Oberlin.
Nathan Bassett, grandfather of Miles S., was born August 12, 1763, at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and was descended from some of the first settlers of the Massachusetts colony. On April 4, 1793, Nathan Bassett married Sarah Standish, who was also born at Bridgewater, December 10, 1775. She was a lineal descendant, being in the sixth generation, from the noted Miles Standish, who landed at Plymouth Rock from the Mayflower in 1620.
Nathan Bassett has been described as a man of extraordinary vitality and of wide and varied experience. Toward the close of the Revolu- tionary war, which had begun when he was about twelve years of age, he volunteered in a regiment which went to Rhode Island to assist in repelling a threatened British invasion. He also spent seven years in the early merchant marine, in the service of the West India Company. During the War of 1812 he was an American soldier stationed at Buffalo, New York, and was wounded in one engagement. About 1812 he moved to Chili in Monroe County, New York. He showed his indomitable will and courage by his final removal and migration, when past seventy years of age, into the still wilderness of Lorain County, where he arrived in 1834. In Russia Township he located on the farm subsequently occu- pied by his son Charles and began the heavy task of improvement. He .bought sixty-seven acres of land, and in that community spent the rest of his days. He and his wife had traveled the journey of life together for sixty years. Nathan Bassett died in 1853 and his wife in 1854. He was ninety when death came to him and it is said that until the last few months he had been almost as active as many men of sixty. In politics he was an old line whig. He died about the beginning of the new move- ment which culminated in the republican party. After coming to Lorain County he filled several township offices, particularly that of school examiner. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, named Thomas, Phoebe, Sarah, Naomi, Betsey, Freelove, Amanda, Emily and Charles.
Charles Bassett, who was for many years an active, vigorous factor in Russia Township, was born at Chili, Monroe County, New York, March 10, 1820, and was the youngest in the family. He was fourteen years of age when the parents came to Lorain County, and he finished his educa- tion in some of the primitive schools then taught in this section of Ohio. He followed in the footsteps of his father as a farmer, and made that a very profitable vocation. Beginning with the original sixty-seven acres bought by his father in 1834, he developed his interests until he owned several hundred acres of well improved land in Russia Township. He was very practical and industrious, and was always relied upon as one of Lorain County's most trustworthy citizens. For a number of terms he filled the office of township trustee, also justice of the peace, and beginning with early manhood he filled the office of school director for thirty years or more.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.