USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 12
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"The Ohio Reformatory at Mansfield has been built since I left the office of governor. It was started while I was governor. The principal gentleman engaged in the enterprise was General Brinkerhoff, of Mansfield. He is not responsible, more than many others, for its location, but he is responsible that the state of Ohio started to build this institution. That its completion still lingers a dozen years after the laying of the corner-stone is
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due, primarily, to the fact that the law (known as the Scott law) upon which its appropriations were based was declared unconstitutional, and thereby the revenues of the state were so badly crippled that only small appropriations could be secured from year to year, and therefore the completion lingered and its very existence was often jeopardized. However, patience and perse- verance again triumphed and at last, in 1896, the institution was ready to accommodate a limited number of prisoners, and on the 15th of September of that year it received from the Ohio Penitentiary one hundred and fifty sup- posed first offenders, and the new era was inaugurated.
"In the meantime the name of the institution was changed to that of the State Reformatory, and the laws governing it were made to conform to those governing the New York State Reformatory at Elmira, and a board of managers was created comprising six members, not more than three of whom should belong to the same political party. (Vol. 88, page 382.) On August 29, 1896, the prison proper was occupied, but everything was in a crude and unfinished condition both inside and outside; but, as stated by the board of managers, with hard labor we managed to bring forth partial order out of the confusion, so that on September 15, 1896, we received one hundred and fifty prisoners from the Ohio penitentiary. Our first experience was with a very tough, incorrigible and vicious element, the influence of which we found to be very undesirable and hard to get rid of.
"On September 30th following we received the first prisoners sentenced direct from the court to the reformatory. Up to the present time we have received nine hundred and thirteen, of which number five hundred and ninety- eight have been discharged by parole and otherwise. So far as we have been able to learn, over eighty-five per cent. of those boys have become honest, upright, law-abiding citizens. These young men have been employed prin- cipally grading and farming. The grounds when we came were in a deplor- able condition. We have up to this writing a number of industries, such as carpentering, stone-masonry, tailoring and the manufacturing of gloves. The occupation is of course varied. We are looking forward now to the completion of the east cell wing and the construction of new shops, at which time we hope to be able to adopt a much more thorough system of reforma- tory work."
MRS. SARAH A. SUTTER.
Mrs. Sarah A. Sutter, who resides on section 2, Sharon township, Rich- land county, and whose postoffice is Shelby, is the widow of John Sutter, who was born in Canton Basle, Switzerland, in 1818, and came to the United
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States in 1840, landing in New York, after a voyage of six weeks on the Atlantic ocean. Coming to this country with small means, he first began working on a farm, which he continued for some time. Then taking up the business of peddling clocks, he worked his way west to Ohio about 1843, and was one of the first to volunteer in the Mexican war. After serving in the ranks fifteen months he returned to this portion of the state of Ohio, where he had known the family of Adam Hockingsmith, whose daughter, Sarah, he married. Adam Hockingsmith married Sarah Myers, she being of Penn- sylvania and he of Maryland. They settled in Ohio in 1830, when Mrs. Sutter was one year old, and when this entire section was one wild, wooded wilderness, filled with deer, wild turkey and many other kinds of game. Mr. Hockingsmith took up forty acres of land, which he cleared of its timber and made for himself and family a good home. After getting his farm well under way in the matter of improvements, he began working at his trade, that of weaver, weaving linen and woolen cloths and renting his fields. He and his wife were the parents of four children: Sarah, the subject of this sketch ; Margaret, who died at the age of two years; Henry Peter, who died at the age of three years, and Ervilla, the wife of William Smith, who lives in the same township with Mrs. Sutter. The father of these four children died at the age of seventy-eight, and the mother about three years later, at the age of seventy-seven. They both quietly repose in the Myers church- yard, which was given for a burial place by Mrs. Sutter's maternal grandfather, Myers.
Mrs. Sutter was married in 1847, on November 9, and settled with her husband on his forty-acre farm, mentioned above, which he purchased with such improvements as had been made upon it, which were but few and crude. Two years later Mr. Sutter rented a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre farm, which he purchased in 1876; but he died on his old farm in Plymouth township. Mr. and Mrs. Sutter were the parents of seven children-four sons and three daughters,-as follows: John A., who died at the age of two years; Sarah Ann Amanda, the wife of Butler Albertson, who is living on the old home- stead farm; George F., who is living in West Unity, Williams county, Ohio, and has one daughter living; Alice, who died at the age of four years ; Leona E., who died at the age of three years; Henry F., a farmer, living some dis- tance south of the old home farm; and William J., living on his sixty-acre farm.
Butler Albertson was born in Perry county, Pennsylvania, in 1848, and is a son of William K. Albertson, whose biographical sketch appears following
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this. He married Sarah Valk, and they came to Ohio in 1856, locating in Richland county. As stated in the brief sketch of William K. Albertson, he and his wife reared four daughters and one son : Lewis Butler Albertson, who married Sarah Sutter, January 4, 1872. After living on a rented farm some time they removed, in 1876, to their present farm, containing sixty acres, of which Mrs. Albertson inherited forty acres, to which Mr. Albertson added twenty more acres. To the marriage of Lewis Butler Albertson and his wife has been born one son,-John William Albertson,-a musician and salesman of musical instruments, who received his education first at the home dis- trict school and later at a business college in Toledo. He is an accomplished business man in his line, which he has followed for the past six years, and intends soon to locate in Shelby, where he will establish himself in business on his own account. Mrs. Sutter is a woman of many fine qualities and is highly esteemed by all.
WILLIAM K. ALBERTSON.
William K. Albertson, deceased, formerly of Shelby, Ohio, was born in New York, a son of Cornelius and Margaret (Shiltz) Albertson, who removed to Columbia county, Pennsylvania, in the early part of the nineteenth century. The date of his birth was March 13, 1823, and on October 12, 1844, the autumn of the election of James K. Polk to the presidency, he was married to Sarah Valk, a daughter of Peter and Mary (Parkes) Valk, the former of whom was a native of Holland and the latter of New Jersey. She was a member of a family consisting of seven daughters and two sons.
Mr. and Mrs. Albertson were the parents of one son and four daugh- ters, as follows: Manervia Ann, the wife of Amos P. McBride, and who died in 1884, at the age of thirty-two years; Mary Matilda, who died in 1882, aged twenty-four years; two daughters that died in infancy; and Lewis Butler, who was born in 1848, and has always followed farming for a living. He married Miss Sarah Sutter, a daughter of John Sutter, of Shelby, and to this marriage there has been one son, William, in 1871.
William K. Albertson, the subject of this sketch, four years after his marriage removed to Richland county, Ohio, driving through from his former home in Pennsylvania with a team of his own. For several years after reaching this county he followed farming, then buying a home in Shelby, where he lived the remainder of his years, making his livelihood as a mill- wright and carpenter. He was a most excellent citizen, was a stanch Demo-
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crat in politics, and attended the United Brethren church. His death occurred on August 25, 1889, when he was sixty-six years of age, and was keenly felt by all his friends as well as by his family and other relatives. He is well remembered for his many fine qualities, being an upright, honorable and highly esteemed member of the community in which he lived.
GEORGE W. CHARLES.
This honored and highly respected citizen of Mansfield has devoted much of his life to public service, and is now a member of the board of county commissioners of Richland county. A native of Ohio, he was born in Lake county, December 17, 1826, and on the paternal side is of Irishi descent, his grandfather, John Charles, having emigrated to this country from Ireland when about forty years of age. He first located in New York state, on Lake Cayuga, where he married, and about 1836 moved from that place to Rich- land county, Ohio, settling in Washington township, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying at about the age of one hundred years.
John Charles, Jr., the father of our subject, was born in New York, in 1799, and was married near Bedford, Ohio, to Harriet Comstock, a native of Connecticut and a daughter of George Comstock, who brought his family to this state when Mrs. Charles was only four years old. Mr. and Mrs. Charles lived in Lake county, Ohio, until our subject was three years of age and then moved to Cuyahoga county. On the 28th of March, 1841, they came to Richland county, and the father secured eighty acres of land in Wash- ington township, upon which he made his home until called to his final rest at the age of eighty-one years. He taught school near Bedford, Ohio, in his younger days, and served as township trustee one term.
George W. Charles attended the common schools near his boyhood home and at the age of eighteen started out in life for himself as a farm hand. In the winter of 1840-41 he came to Richland county, and after work- ing for others for some time was finally able to purchase a farm of one hun- dred and twenty acres in Washington township, where he employed himself for many years, but since 1896 has made his home in Mansfield.
At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Charles married Miss Hester Young, a daughter of George Young, of Madison township, this county. Both her parents died before her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Charles were born four children, two sons and two daughters, namely: John Warner, a farmer of
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Washington township, who married Lavina Robinson, a daughter of Thomas Robinson, of Jefferson township, this county; William Sweeney, a farmer of Washington township, who married May Frederick, a daughter of Chris- topher Frederick, of Jefferson township; Harriet Elizabeth, the wife of H. C. Collins, of Mansfield; and Samantha L., the wife of George Snavely, of Washington township. The wife and mother, who was a consistent and faith- ful member of the Christian church from the age of fourteen, died at the age of sixty-four years.
Mr. Charles also is an active member of the Christian church, to which his parents belonged. He now makes his home with his daughter, Mrs. Collins, in Mansfield, and devotes all of his time to public affairs. By his ballot he supports the men and measures of the Democratic party, and since attaining his majority has held some office continuously. He was a member of the school board in Washington township for sixteen years and the presi- dent of the same most of the time; for four years he was the treasurer of the township; was a trustee of the township from 1888 to 1896; was the super- visor a great many terms; in 1896 was elected a county commissioner, and was re-elected to the same office in 1899 for another three-years term.
He has now been a resident of Richland county for almost sixty years, and is a public-spirited and progressive citizen, who has given his support to all measures for the public good. Over his life record there falls no shadow of wrong; his public service has been most exemplary, and his private life has been marked by the strictest fidelity to duty.
NEWTON HERSH.
A student of the history of Richland county cannot carry his investiga- tions far before he will learn that the Hersh family has, through many decades, been connected with the agricultural interests of this section of the state. Newton Hersh is a prominent representative of one of the pioneer families of Monroe township. His grandfather, Abraham Hersh, was a native of Pennsylvania, belonging to one of the old Dutch families, and in the '20s he came to Ohio, locating in Monroe township, where he purchased a quarter sec- tion of land. The tract was covered with a heavy growth of wild forest trees. There he built a log cabin and began the work of clearing the land and developing the farm, continuing its further cultivation until his death.
Joel Hersh, the father of our subject, was born in Pennsylvania in 1806, and was a young man when his family came to Richland county. Here he
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began work as a farm hand for John Tucker, and after two or three years he married and Mr. Tucker built a log cabin for him and his bride. Through the succeeding two years they lived in that cabin home and Mr. Hersh con- tinued to cultivate Mr. Tucker's farm. He then leased the farm now owned by Marion Schrack. This proved a profitable business venture, and after four or five years, with the capital he had acquired through his energy and capable management, he was enabled to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of land, the place upon which his son Newton now lives. This was a tract of wild timber land for which he paid four hundred dollars. Not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made, but he built a log cabin and soon acre after acre was cleared and placed under cultivation. Throughout his business career he continued to work that farm. When the Civil war broke out he permitted two of his sons, Joel and Albert, to go to the front, as members of the Sixth Ohio Battery. The troops were almost continually engaged in skirmishing for one hundred days near Marietta, Georgia, and in an encounter with the enemy Albert Hersh lost his life, from the explosion of a shell. While on a visit to Georgia to see his sons, Joel Hersh, the father, contracted a fever which terminated his life soon after he returned home. He gave his political support first to the Whig party, and afterward to the Republican party. He was a strong Abolitionist, and when the Republican party opposed the further extension of slavery he espoused its cause and became one of its stalwart advocates. He possessed an observing eye and retentive memory, and from reading and observation he became a well informed man. He was a leading member of the Odd Fellows lodge in his place, and in his life exem- plified the beneficent principles of that fraternity. He died in 1862, at the age of fifty-six years. His wife bore the maiden name of Catherine Berry, and by her marriage became the mother of twelve children, of whom seven are yet living, namely: Newton; Sarah, the widow of George Alexander, of Kansas ; Joel and George W., who are residents of Dickinson county, Kan- sas; Isabelle, the wife of James Chew, of Dickinson county, Kansas; Monroe B., who is living in Great Bend, Missouri; and Norman, a carpenter of Mansfield, Ohio.
Newton Hersh, the eldest of his family, devoted his boyhood days to the work on the home farm, to the acquirement of a common-school educa- tion and the enjoyment of pleasures such as claim the attention of farmer lads. After he had arrived at the age of maturity he chose as a companion and helpmate on life's journey Miss Lydia Chew, a native of Richland county and a daughter of Samuel Chew. The wedding was celebrated in 1858, and
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unto them have been born three children, of whom two are now living, namely : Lorenna C., the wife of Franklin Andrews, a farmer of Kansas; and Joel G., an attorney at Lima, Ohio. The mother died about 1867, and Mr. Hersh afterward married Miss Hannah Huston, a native of Richland county and a daughter of John Huston. By the second marriage there were two children : Willis B., at his parental home; and Mary L., the wife of Lavern Mitchell, a resident farmer of Monroe township. Mrs. Hersh passed away about 1876, and our subject subsequently wedded Mrs. Mary J. Smith, the widow of David Smith and a daughter of Samuel Henry, who was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and one of the highly esteemed residents of Richland county. By her former marriage Mrs. Hersh became the mother of three children : Emanuel, who is now in the oil fields of Wood county, Ohio; Effie, the wife of Marcellus R. Taylor; and Lawrence, a farmer of Spring- field township, Richland county. By the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hersh they have one child, Emma E.
After his first marriage Mr. Hersh located on the old homestead, and after his father's death purchased the property. He has one hundred and forty acres of rich land and is engaged in general farming, his being one of the attractive and desirable farms of the community. An unswerving allegiance he gives to the Republican party. He was at one time a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding a dimit from Monroe township. His business methods are progressive and his labors are guided by careful management. He deserves the success which has come to him, for in all his dealings he is honorable. His friends throughout the community are many, and the record of his life cannot fail to prove of interest to many of our readers.
GENERAL WILLIAM MCLAUGHLIN.
William McLaughlin was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 3, 1802, and his boyhood years were passed on the farm of six hundred acres upon which his father had settled in 1792. He attended country schools until he was seventeen years of age, when he went to Beaver Court House to read law under the direction of General Robert Moore, then a member of con- gress. After his admission to the bar he came to Canton, Ohio,"and entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1828 he came to Mansfield, where he resided until his death, July 19, 1862.
General Mclaughlin's father, Neal Mclaughlin, was a native of Ireland, who after coming to America was a farmer ten miles from Beaver, Penn-
Horas coughlin
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sylvania, and his mother, whose maiden name was Isabella Carr, was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1840. General Mclaughlin mar- ried Mrs. Irwin, whose maiden name was Harriet Cairns. She had one child -Mary Jane-by her first marriage, who became the wife of John E. Ritter. Mrs. McLaughlin was the daughter of Joseph Cairns, who was a captain in the war of 1812 and settled in Mansfield soon after Hull's surrender. The Cairns family is of Irish descent.
Mrs. McLaughlin was born July 31, 1816, in Mansfield, on the north- west corner of Main and Third streets, where her father had a store. The family later removed to the northeast corner of the same streets, where Mrs. Mclaughlin was married. General Mclaughlin had built a home on the west side of Main street, about midway between Fourth and Fifth streets, where he took his bride, which was ever afterward their home and where Mrs. McLaughlin lived as wife and widow for fifty-six years, until her death, April 14, 1896. She was a life-long member of the Presbyterian church. The home is now owned by the youngest daughter, Miss. Jennie. Ceneral and Mrs. McLaughlin were the parents of four children, three daugh- ters and one son, namely : Harriet Lucretia, who married George W. Smith, and resides at Avalon, Pennsylvania ; they have one child, Edna by name; Isabella, who married Alphonse Mennel and resides in Toledo; they have two children,-Louis Alphonse and Mark Neal; Virginia, known among her friends as Jennie, who resides at the old homestead ; and William H., of Pitts- burg, who married Lollie Christian and has two children,-William and Marie. Mary Jane Irwin-Ritter was the mother of four children,-three daughters and one son,-Harriet, Lena, John and Katherine.
The Mclaughlin family are Presbyterians in their religious faith. Miss Virginia, the only representative of the family now in Mansfield, is active in her church work. She is a prominent member of the Woman's Relief Corps auxiliary to Mclaughlin Post, No. 131, G. A. R., which is honored with the name of her father. She has served a number of terms as the president of the corps, and has been a delegate to its state conventions upon several occasions.
General McLaughlin was a successful lawyer and was also a lawmaker, having served in the senate of Ohio from 1835 to 1841,-through six general assemblies. He was the speaker of the senate from 1839 to 1841, as the presiding officer of that body was called under the old constitution. When the United States declared war against Mexico General McLaughlin raised a company of volunteers, of which he became the captain. They left Mans- field June 9, 1846, for Mexico. This company was put into the Third Regi- 8
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ment, under Colonel Samuel R. Curtis, and took part in the principal battles of that war. After peace had been declared General Mclaughlin left the vocation of war and returned to the occupations of peace, resuming the pur- suits of his profession.
At the commencement of the Civil war, when President Lincoln, on April 14, 1861, issued his proclamation for seventy-five thousand troops to serve three months, General Mclaughlin was the first man in Richland county to respond to the call and raised the first company and was its captain. He was a model soldier, tall, erect and manly in his bearing, and patriotic to the heart's core. This company became Company I, First Ohio Volunteer Infan- try, and participated in the first battle of Bull Run. A number of men who were privates in that company later obtained position and distinction in the war. In October, 1861, General Mclaughlin was commissioned to raise a battalion of cavalry for the Sherman brigade, of which he became the major, and was afterward brevetted general for brave and gallant service. Although the Mclaughlin squadron was raised as a part of the Sherman brigade, it was afterward detached from that command. This squadron was through some of the hardest campaigns of the war.
Owing to the hardships and exposure of the service, General Mclaughlin became ill and was placed upon a hospital boat on the Big Sandy river in Kentucky, where he died on Saturday, July 19, 1862, at 9 A. M. The remains were brought to Mansfield and buried with the honors of war. The funeral took place from the family residence on North Main street, and was one of the largest ever held in the city.
During his service in the field General Mclaughlin sent home to his wife the request that the flag of his country should be raised and kept floating over his home during his absence. In compliance with that request Mrs. Mclaughlin and some of her lady friends made a flag, and a pole was raised on their lawn, from which the stars and stripes floated to the breeze and streamers of red, white and blue were extended from the windows of the sec- ond story of the residence to the pole, as beautiful in their artistic arrange- ment as they were expressive of patriotism. The occasion was an inspiring one and hundreds of people gathered to witness the ceremony. Colonel B. Burns was one of the speakers, and paid a handsome tribute to the husband and father of that home. At General Mclaughlin's funeral this flag was draped around his coffin and buried with him, but the pole stood for many years as a memorial of the past.
As a citizen General Mclaughlin stood second to none in the community. He was universally respected and beloved. He was possessed of unbounded
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charity and kindness. He was bold, fearless and resolute in his advocacy of what he thought was right. He was a thorough patriot, who called the whole country his home and gave his life that the nation might live.
ALEXANDER McBRIDE.
Since an early epoch in the development of Richland county Alexander McBride has been numbered among its citizens. He was born in Monroe township, October 8, 1820, and is one of eight children whose parents were Alexander and Susanna (Pettit) McBride. Only three of the children are now living, however. The parents are mentioned at length in connection with the sketch of Calvin McBride on another page of this work.
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