USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 43
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In 1860 Mr. Parker married Miss Cristie N. Gibbons, a daughter of Tobias and Ursula (Newkirk) Gibbons, of Wayne county, Ohio. Mr. Gib- bons is a farmer and justice of the peace, a citizen held in high respect, whose judgment carries weight in the community,-a positive man of Welsh descent who is utterly fearless in expressing and living up to his convictions. The following items concerning the children of Silas Chauncey and Cristie N. (Gibbons) Parker will be found interesting in this connection: Sallie L., the first born, is dead. Essie May also is dead. Edith Jane is the stenographer and bookkeeper for Brown's Mills, Mansfield, and is one of the trustees of that concern. Amasa Cephas Parker is the local manager for the Prudential Life Insurance Company, Cincinnati. Frank Alonzo Parker, formerly assistant editor of the Pittsburg Dispatch, is located at New Orleans, in charge of the southern bureau of the Scripps-McRae League. His prose and poetry have found place in the best periodicals. Libbie Colter Parker is a member of her father's household. Kary Gibbon Parker is a student at a leading medical college at Cincinnati.
It seems pertinent to add something concerning Mr. Parker's brothers and sisters. Alonzo Priest Parker is a farmer of Stark, Kansas. Calvin Parker, also a farmer, lives at Ashland, Ohio. William Priest Parker is a merchant at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Laura is dead. Other sisters are Mrs. George Smith, deceased; Mrs. Harrison Fisher, of Union City, Penn- sylvania ; and Mrs. Wilson Morris, of Loudonville, Ohio, who is an artist of ability. James Loudon Parker is a resident of southern California, and Rev. Isaac Dillon Parker, of Chicago, is a lecturer on Bible studies in sev- eral colleges. Mr. Parker's aunt, Edith Parker, attended school in New York and was so well educated that, though she was only ten years old when the family came to Ohio, she immediately after their arrival became the first teacher in Newkirk settlement.
In 1897 Mr. Parker wrote and published an excellent work, entitled A Treatise on Such Postal Laws and Regulations of the United States of America as Relates to Thefts and Counterfeiting of Postage Stamps, Stamped Envelopes and Postal Cards, and to Other Wrongs Against the Postal Service, with Suggestions as to How These Wrongs may be Reduced to the Minimum.
Mention has been made of a poem written by Mr. Parker, descriptive of events, some of which were peculiar even in those pioneer days and all of which were important in connection with his family history. The author has named these verses "Chain Links, or Links of Gold," and has intro- duced them as follows: "These lines were suggested by links now in pos- session of the writer, taken from an old ox chain used by James Loudon
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Priest, founder of Loudonville, Ohio, in moving to this part of Ohio in 1808, when he settled on the farm on the Lake fork of the Mohican, now owned by the Schauweker heirs, the same being located in Holmes county, Ohio, on the line of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, three and a half miles east of Loudonville."
CHAIN LINKS, OR LINKS OF GOLD.
These chain links, one hundred years old, Though of iron, are links of gold; They are rich in family lore, Recalling deeds of days of yore.
Links taken from an old ox-chain That over hill, through wood, o'er plain, Drew precious freight of living weight To Lake Fork hills at slow ox-gait.
The oxen were named Buck and Bright : They trudged by day and grazed by night, Always faithful and always strong, Trundling covered wagon along.
The wagon, containing seed-corn and plow, Followed by the faithful family cow, With pigs and sheep and calf and colt as well, Was filled with things too numerous to tell.
Then, from beneath the wagon's white cover, Peeped forth children, sister and brother ; And there was also our dear grandmother, Snugly tucked beneath warm bed cover.
For, as I've been told and am proud to say, A daughter-my mother-was born on the way. Though this to the load added just one more, The oxen trudged on the same as before,- Taking no part in the mirth of the day Caused by the baby born on the way.
Then there came on foot six sons, strong and brave. Father, with grandfather, from over the wave, And daughters aback, sixteen in all, Moving west to carve with ax and maul From Mohican's hills homes for one and all.
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Of the sixteen that came by slow ox-train, Not one is living now : none now remain. Link by link each family chain is broken: Death, with golden links, binds earth and heaven.
This is why I say these links so old That, though of iron, they are links of gold. -SILAS CHAUNCEY PARKER.
GEORGE AND HANNAH COX.
Mr. George Cox and his noble wife, whose maiden name was Hannah Funk, are one of the most highly respected and venerable couples of Rich- land county, he being ninety years of age and she eighty-five. They are living a retired life on their small farm in section 20, Sharon township, Rich- land county, Ohio, their postoffice being Shelby. Mr. Cox was born in Brooke county, Virginia, February 25, 1810, and came to Ohio in 1827, driving through with a team of horses, thirty sheep and two cows. He came with his father, stepmother and six other children. His father was Joseph Cox, whose first wife, though named Jane Cox before her marriage as well as afterward, was not a relative. She died in Virginia, leaving one daugh- ter, who later was married in that state. Joseph Cox was afterward mar- ried twice, and has three other children. He managed his father's farm, that father being George Cox, who was a spy in the war against the Indians, and received from the government one hundred and sixty acres of land, by what was known as the "tomahawk right,"-wild land, upon which he settled.
George Cox, the subject of this sketch, received a fair common-school education, but in what was then known as a subscription school, conducted in a log schoolhouse. From his early youth he was for many years the main stay of the family. His father bought one-half a section of land of a Mr. McGuire's administrator, who made entry of the land and soon afterward died. Joseph Cox settled on his farm when there were but three houses and an old horse-mill in Shelby. This farm was just south of where the subject of this sketch now lives, and on the east side of the road. All his life the subject of this sketch has been a great worker, having not only chopped and logged all his own timber but has also used the sickle in the wheat, before such an implement as a reaper was known, or even a cradle for cutting the grain, working many a day in the harvest field for half a dollar per day. He was married September 8, 1836, to Hannah Funk, who was born in Penn- sylvania July 3, 1815, and who is a granddaughter of the Rev. William
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John Webber, whose funeral she attended when but ten days old, being carried thereto on horseback in her mother's arms. Rev. Mr. Webber was a Hollander by birth, and was the first minister of the gospel to preach in Pittsburg, riding a circuit of fifty miles in extent, carrying his saddlebags on his horse. But he began life in that then new country as a teacher of youth, finishing his life work as a teacher of men.
David Funk, the father of Mrs. Cox, was a man of unusual intelli- gence. He married Catherine Webber, who was born in Pennsylvania April 12, 1795. David and Catherine Funk were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, one of the sons dying in infancy. William Web- ber, the father of Catherine Webber, was born in Holland in 1735, was a preacher of the gospel until he was about eighty years old and died at the age of ninety. A book of psalms and hymns in the German language bear- ing the date of 1807 is one of the precious possessions of the family. David Funk died in Shelby February 17, 1868, and his widow died August 15, 1874, in her eightieth year, he being seventy-seven at the time of his death. Of their children three are still living, Mrs. Cox being the oldest of the three. Upon her marriage to Mr. Cox they settled at once in the woods, occupying a hewed-log house, 18x20 feet in size, she doing her cooking over a fire in a huge fireplace, using a large crane from which to suspend her pots and kettles.
Mr. and Mrs. Cox are the parents of eight children-three sons and five daughters, as follows: Joseph O., who was a member of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry and died of disease during the late war of the Rebellion, at the age of twenty-five ; he never married and was a great student and fine scholar ; Catherine M., born in 1839, and now the wife of Dr. Kochenderfer, of Galion; she is the mother of two sons; the third child died in infancy ; Mar- garet, who died at the age of five months; David, who was born in 1845, and who served as a soldier in the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the years 1864 and 1865, and who was an epileptic for many years, dying at the age of thirty-three years and ten months; Charles M., born in 1847, who was twice married and died at the age of fifty, leaving seven children : Elizabeth, who was born June 19, 1850, and has remained at home; and Narcissa, born March 12, 1852, and now the wife of William R. Crall, a farmer living in the immediate neighborhood.
Mrs. Cox has one brother, David W. Funk, living in Los Angeles, aged seventy-eight, and one sister, Elizabeth, the widow Rayl, living in San Diego, California, who was born December 2, 1824. She was married, in April, 1849, to Henry Rayl, at Bucyrus, Ohio, he dying December 3, 1853, at
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the age of thirty-one. Mr. Rayl was a farmer, and his widow is one of the best preserved women of her age, both physically and mentally. Both Mrs. Cox and Mrs. Rayl have excellent memories and much more than ordinary intelligence. Mrs. Cox, though somewhat feeble and bowed down with her four-score years and five, yet is still bright intellectually and her faculties remain sound and strong. Death has no terrors for this noble old lady, and she awaits the summons from the grim reaper with a sublime faith that enables her to approach the grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.
WILLIAM LEPPO.
The descendants of pioneers in Ohio are among the leading citizens of to-day in every walk of life, and this is especially true of the sons of farm- ers, themselves pioneers in all but actual proprietorship of the land, who helped to clear primitive farms and put them under profitable cultivation, and who, coming to the state in boyhood, or even younger, have witnessed the whole process of development from the day of small but significant things to the things of fruition which characterize the state as one of the foremost in the Union at this time. Such a citizen is William Leppo, of Springfield township, Richland county, some account of whose interesting antecedents and worthy achievements it will be attempted now to give.
Mr. Leppo was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, October 14, 1821, a son of John and Sarah ( Pheasant) Leppo, and the youngest of their ten chil- dren and the only one of them now living. In 1833 his father brought his family and portable belongings to Richland county, Ohio, making the journey with a five-horse team hitched to a heavy wagon, in which the mother and smaller children rode and in which the family lived and slept by the way, except such of them as camped out by the wayside from time to time as locality and the weather offered opportunity. They located on one hun- dred and twenty acres of land, which is a part of the present farmi of the subject of this sketch. At that time young Leppo was twelve years old. The first school he attended in Ohio was kept in a small log schoolhouse. with a stick chimney and benches of hewn slabs which were supported by hewn legs driven into auger-holes bored in the under side of the slabs to receive them. He was brought up to the hard and ceaseless round of farm work and instructed in all that makes for successful farming, and in 18.46, at the age of twenty-five, took the management of the homestead and con- ducted its affairs in conjunction with his father until the death of the latter.
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Mr. Leppo's career as a farmer and man of affairs has been so successful that at this time he is the owner of four hundred and forty-two acres of land, which he devotes to the purposes of general farming and stock- raising. In politics he is a Democrat, and he is a member and trustee of the Lutheran church.
John Leppo died April 19, 1869, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, and is held in grateful memory by the older residents of the township for patri- otic service in the war of 1812 and for his long and active labors in behalf of the German Reformed church. November 28, 1854, William Leppo mar- ried Miss Margaret W. Barr, a daughter of Alexander Barr, and she died December 21, 1889, after having borne him five children, named as follows in the order of their nativity: John A., who is dead; Sarah J., the wife of Frank Davidson, of Richland county; Harriet E., the wife of J. E. Fergu- son, a resident of Kansas; William H., of Richland county; and Marion F., who is a member of Mr. Leppo's household.
ISAAC HESS.
Among the prominent and influential business men of Butler is Isaac Hess, the president of the Richland County Bank and the proprietor of a well appointed undertaking establishment. Success is not a matter of genius, as held by some, nor does it result from fortunate circumstances, but comes as a logical result of well directed effort, guided by sound business judgment. It is thus that Mr. Hess has attained his position among the leading repre- sentatives of the financial interests of Richland county.
He was born in Ankenytown, Knox county, Ohio, just across the Rich- land county line, July 2, 1845, a son of Henry Hess, who was a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. The latter was a son of David Hess, also a native of Westmoreland county. About 1840 he left the Keystone state and emigrated to Knox county, Ohio. He took up his abode on a farm, where he is still living, at the age of seventy-seven years, in the enjoy- ment of good health. He votes with the Democracy and holds membership in the Dunkard church. His business interests have been attended with a fair degree of success and he is now comfortably situated in life. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Frederick, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and died in 1876, at the age of fifty-two years. She, too, was a member of the Dunkard church and an earnest, consistent Christian woman. Her parents were natives of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. By
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her marriage she became the mother of six children, namely: Isaac; Amanda, who became the wife of John Cocanower, and died in 1881, at the age of thirty-two years; Eli, who died when about forty-three years of age; Jacob, who is a traveling salesman, representing a Chicago house; Martha, the wife of Jackson Bechtol, of Knox county; and Alice, the wife of Will- iam Brubaker.
Upon the home farm Isaac Hess remained until he was twenty-four years of age and the labors of the field and meadow early became familiar to him through practical experience. When he started out in life for him- self he rented land for a few years and then purchased a farm in Knox county, upon which he remained until 1880, when he sold that property and came to Butler, working at the carpenter's trade for two years. Since that time he has engaged in the furniture and undertaking business and has built up an extensive trade. He now has a well equipped store, fitted with a large stock calculated to meet the wants of a general trade. His business methods are straightforward, his prices reasonable and his courtesy to his patrons unfailing, and these qualities have enabled him to command a liberal patron- age. A man of resourceful business ability, his efforts have not been con- fined to one line and his counsel and aid have proven important factors in the successful establishment of the Richland County Bank, of Butler, of which he was one of the organizers and is the president and treasurer. He was also one of the founders and is the treasurer of the Butler Steel Furniture Company. In addition to his furniture business he sells monu- ments and is widely recognized as one of the leading and enterprising busi- ness men of the city in which he is located.
On the 30th of December. 1869, Mr. Hess was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Grubb, a daughter of Samuel Grubb, of Knox county, Ohio. They have an adopted daughter, Blanche. The Democracy finds in Mr. Hess a stanch advocate who does all in his power to promote the growth and secure the success of the party. He served as the township treasurer for eight years, has been the treasurer of Butler for a similar period, was the treasurer of the school board for twelve years, a member of the school board for nine years and of the city council three years. His honesty is proverbial, a fact which is indicated by the many kinds of financial interests that have been entrusted to him. He has ever conducted himself in such a manner and performed his duties with such promptness and fidelity as to win the high commendation of all concerned. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Brethren church and he withholds his support from no move- ment or measure which is calculated to advance the general welfare along
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social, moral, material or intellectual lines. His unassailable reputation in business and his worth as a man and a citizen well entitle him to be classed among the leading men of Richland county.
CALVIN ROBINSON.
:
Of the great department of agriculture which forms so important an element in our national prosperity, Mr. Robinson is a representative, being successfully engaged in farming and stock-raising in Jefferson township. He was born in this township January 25, 1837, and, like so many residents of this section of the state, comes of a family that was founded in Ohio by emigrants from Pennsylvania. His grandfather, John Robinson, was born in Ireland and when five years of age became a resident of America. He was reared in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and became a farmer, following that business throughout an active business career. He took up his abode in Richland county, Ohio, in 1814, and from the government entered one hundred and sixty acres of timber land in Jefferson township. This tract he cleared and transformed into richly cultivated fields. He served in the war of 1812 and in return was given a land warrant. Of the United Presbyterian church he was an active member and died in that faith about 1864, at the age of eighty-three years.
William Robinson, the father of our subject, was born in Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, in 1807, and when five years of age was brought to this county, where he was reared amid the wild scenes of the frontier, experiencing all the hardships and trials of pioneer life. When a young man he entered a farm in Marion county, Ohio, but remained there only for a short time, and in 1840 purchased from a Mr. Durbin the farm upon which his son Calvin now' resides. This he cleared and improved, making it his home until his death, which occurred when he had attained the age of sev- enty-five and a half years. His early political support was given the Democ- racy, but later he joined the ranks of the Republican party and was ever afterward one of its stanch advocates. He held various offices, discharg- ing his duties in a prompt and faithful manner. Of the United Presby- terian church he, too, was a member. In December, 1835, he married Miss Maria Lafferty, who was born in Harrison county, Ohio, in 1817, and came to Richland county with her parents. Her father, John Lafferty, was one of the representative agriculturists of his community and died here, when about sixty-five years of age. Mr. Robinson's grandfather, Thomas Leadom, was one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Robin-
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son survived her husband about ten years and was called to her final rest at the age of seventy-five. She was a consistent Christian woman, her church relations being with the United Presbyterian.
Calvin Robinson, her only child, remained at home with his parents through the period of childhood and youth, and the public schools afforded him his educational privileges. During the Civil war he responded to his country's call for aid, enlisting on the 2d of May, 1864, as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Sixty-third Ohio Infantry, serving near Washington, D. C., for a time and afterward in the vicinity of Petersburg and at Fort Pocahontas on the James river. He was discharged at Camp Chase September 10, 1864, and then returned to his home.
The following year Mr. Robinson was married to Miss Elizabeth Leedy. The marriage occurred January 19, 1865, and their union has been blessed with six children: William G., now in South Dakota; Margaret, at home ; Mary, wife of Levi Fry; John C., a farmer of Jefferson township; and Fred A. and George L., both at home.
At the time of his marriage Mr. Robinson purchased a farm in Jeffer- son township and continued to cultivate that land until his father's death, when he inherited the old homestead, upon which he has since resided. He here owns one hundred and sixty acres of land and also has a small farm of forty-eight acres. He carries on general farming and the breeding of sheep, and conducts both branches of his business in a profitable manner. He has never been an active politician in the sense of office-seeking, yet for three years served as township trustee in a miost capable manner and then resigned. He voted with the Republican party until 1884, since which time he has been a Prohibitionist, and he holds membership in Moody Post, G. A. R., of Bell- ville. He and his wife belong to the Presbyterian church, in which he is serving as an elder. He has a nice home, a family which does credit to his name, and his personal career has been an honorable one, commending him to the confidence of all.
ABRAHAM BENEDICT.
Well known in Richland county, Mr. Benedict is a worthy representa- tive of its farming interests and is a man whose sterling traits of char- acter have gained for him the high regard of those with whom business or social relations have brought him in contact. A native of the Keystone state, he was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, on the IIth of August, 1834, and is a son of Joshua and Margaret (Ickes). Benedict. The father
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also was born in Franklin county and was there reared upon a farm. Hav- ing arrived at years of maturity he married Miss Margaret Ickes, and some time afterward came into possession of the old homestead, residing thereon until 1844, when he sold the property and removed to Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, purchasing there a farm near Shippensburg, where he spent the succeeding three years of his life. On the expiration of that period he again sold out and came to Richland county, Ohio, where he bought a farm of forty acres in Blooming Grove township and continued its manage- ment for ten years, when he removed to Williams county. Several years later he went to Hillsdale county, Michigan, where his last days were passed. His study of political questions and interests led him to give his support to the Whig party in early life, and after the organization of the Republican party he became one of its stanch supporters, but was never an office-seeker. From early manhood a member of the Church of God, he was highly esteemed through the long years of an active and honorable life. His wife was born in Maryland in 1806, and during her early girlhood accompanied her parents on their removal to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where they lived and died. Mrs. Benedict passed away in Angola on the 3d of July, 1900, at the very advanced age of ninety-four years, one month and twenty-one days. By her marriage she became the mother of five children, all of whom are yet living, namely : William, a resident of Angola, Indiana; Abraham, of this review; Barbara, now the wife of Frank Taft, of Oklahoma; Mar- garet, the wife of Orlando Bennet, of Arkansas City; and Jacob, of Will- iams county.
Abraham Benedict was educated in the common schools and reared on the home farm, taking his place in the fields almost as soon as he was old enough to hold the plow handles. He thus received the practical training which fitted him for successfully carrying on active business on his own account. In the spring of 1858 he removed with his wife and his parents to Williams county, where he remained for eighteen months, then returned to Richland county and for twelve years devoted his energies to the opera- tion of his father-in-law's farm. In 1871 he became a resident of Ashland county, where he cultivated a tract of rented land for some years. Again coming to Richland county he purchased eighty acres of the farm upon which he now resides and to which he has since added thirty-four acres, so that the place now comprises one hundred and fourteen acres. In 1878 he erected thereon a substantial residence and in 1882 built a barn. The place is now splendidly improved and the well-tilled fields yield to him a good return for the care and cultivation given to them.
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