USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 54
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Returning to Mansfield, the Doctor became identified with the law firm of Douglass & Mengert, one of the best law firms of northern Ohio, and in his practice he has met with excellent success, securing a constantly growing clientage which connects him with some of the most important liti- gation tried in the courts of his district. He is a gentleman of genuine worth, of industrious habits and broad-minded views. He possesses many excellent qualities and some rare ones. He is a constant contributor to the press and has written many articles which reflect credit on his ability and indicate his strong and well disciplined mind. His leisure moments outside of his law practice are spent in literary work and he is especially successful as a writer of short stories, having won considerable fame in this direction. Among his productions are Blue Envelopes, Dott, the Flower Girl, Her Father's Secret and Weedles. He also published a novel in book form called A Dowie Elder, and has written a one-act play called the Flower Girl, which is a dramatization of his story of Dott.
ROSS C. WINTERS.
Ross C. Winters has one of the fine farms of Monroe township, Rich- land county. The place is located on section 23, where he owns eighty acres of richly cultivated land. In the midst of the farm stands a handsome resi- dence, which he erected in 1883, and good barns and outbuildings furnish shelter for grain and stock. The latest improved machinery enables him to perform his work in a progressive manner, and all the conveniences and accessories of a modern farm are found upon his place.
Mr. Winters was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, on the 25th day of February, 1847, his parents being Stiles and Drusilla (Gladden) Winters. His father was also a native of Jefferson county, born in 1820, and his death occurred in 1865. He was reared in the county of his nativity and there resided until after the birth of three of his children. In 1848 he removed to Ashland county, Ohio, locating near Petersburg, where he pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres of land, the greater part of which was covered with timber. The only improvement upon the place was a log cabin, in which the family lived for six years, when the pioneer home was replaced by a more modern and pretentious residence. Throughout his life he car- ried on farming in pursuit of fortune, and made for his family a good liv- ing. He voted with the Republican party. He was recognized as one of
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the leading and influential citizens of his community. ' Of his seven chil- dren all are yet living, as follows: Hannah, the wife of John Applegate, of Monroe township, Richland county; Martha, the wife of Steve Airsman, of Macon county, Missouri; Ross C .; Isaiah, also of Macon county, Mis- souri; William, of Petersburg, Ohio; Curtis, who is living in Weller town- ship; and Alice, the wife of J. Lemon, of Lucas, Ohio.
To the public-school system of Ohio Ross C. Winters is indebted for the educational privileges afforded him. He was early trained to habits of industry and economy upon the home farm, and these have proved of value to him in later years as he has carried on business for himself. In 1873 he chose as a companion and helpmate on life's journey Miss Amanda Harlan, and they took up their abode upon a rented farmn owned by William Peter- son. There they lived for six years, when his success enabled Mr. Winters to purchase his present home farm of eighty acres. This is one of the most desirable places in the neighborhood, its many excellent improvements rendering it very attractive. In 1893 he also purchased a farm of sixty acres on which, his son, Trevanion E., now resides. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Winters have been born three children: Trevanion E., who married Anna Hackett; and Ira J. and Bessie E., both at home.
The Republican party receives the political support of Mr. Winters. He is a progressive and public-spirited citizen, deeply interested in all that pertains to the welfare of the community and in all that is calculated to advance the general good. He and his family are widely and favorably known in Richland county, and enjoy the high regard of many friends.
WILLIAM H. ELSTON.
For many years Mr. Elston has been an active factor in the commercial circles of Bellville and is still to a limited extent engaged in the tailoring business, although he is virtually living retired. He has certainly earned his rest, for through long years he has labored earnestly and steadily, endeavor- ing to gain that competence for which all are striving.
He was born in Litchfield, England, August 11, 1829. His father, Will- iam Elston, was a native of Noblesville. England. and later resided in Birmingham, where he followed shoemaking until after his wife's death. He married Ann Osborn, a native of Litchfield, England, who died in Birmingham, when about thirty-five years of age. She was a consistent member of the Congregational church and an earnest Christian woman. In 1836 the father came with his family to America, locating in Lowell, Massa-
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chusetts, where he engaged in the manufacture of shoes and also conducted a shoe store until 1854, when he came to Bellville, where he followed the same business until his death. He was an active member of the Presby- terian church and for many years served as its chorister. He had three children, but the first born died in infancy. Mary, the second, has been a preacher and elder in the Shaker church at Shirley, Massachusetts, for over fifty years.
William H. Elston, the other member of the family, went to live with an uncle in England at the time of his mother's death, but when ten years of age he crossed the Atlantic to the new world, joining his father in Lowell, Massachusetts. He made the voyage on the ship Concordia, which arrived in Boston in July, 1838. For a few months he resided with his father, and then went to Providencetown, Massachusetts, where he lived with a merchant tailor, under whose direction he learned the trade, making his home there until his marriage, with the exception of the time spent on the sea. He made two voyages as ship keeper on whaling vessels and was afterward in the navy as seaman and commodore's cockswain for three years and ten months. His experience on the sea covered a period of about eleven years. When only eighteen years of age he was made the second mate and when on a trip to the West Indies the entire crew, with the exception of Mr. Elston and one seaman, died of yellow fever. Our subject then secured a crew of colored men and brought the ship safely back to Boston. He twice experienced shipwreck on the coast near Boston.
At length he abandoned life on the ocean wave and accepted a position as cutter in a large tailoring establishment in Boston, where he remained until July, 1856, when he arrived in Bellville to visit his father. Being greatly pleased with the country and its prospects Mr. Elston determined to locate here and began working at the trade in the employ of a Mr. Moore. About a year later he entered into partnership with his employer, conducting a clothing store and merchant tailoring establishment. Two or three years later he purchased his partner's interest in the store and carried on the business for many years, having the leading establishment of the kind in the town until about fifteen years ago, when he sold out. He now does a small tailoring business, for indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature and he would not be content to put aside altogether the care and responsibility of business life. His excellent workmanship as a tailor and his honorable methods of business secured to him a liberal patronage and brought to him a richly merited competence.
On the 7th of April, 1852, Mr. Elston was united in marriage to Miss
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Elizabeth L. Alexander, of Providencetown, Massachusetts. She was a daughter of Isaac Bemis and Elizabeth (Glyspie) Alexander. Her father was born in Boston June 10, 1810, and died in Providencetown January 8, 1890. He was twice married, his first union being with Elizabeth Glyspie, by whom he had seven children. The mother died in Providencetown April 10, 1848, at the age of thirty-five years, and he afterward wedded Caroline Patten, by whom he had two children, both now deceased. The children of the first marriage were as follows: Elizabeth L., the eldest, became the wife of our subject. Sarah Willston, born February 24, 1837, died July 6, 1838. Margarette S. and Nancy, twins, were born February 8, 1848, and the latter died on the 17th of May of the same year. Robert Glyspie married Amanda Melvina Clifford, by whom he had three children, and for his second wife chose Lucy Hamilton. Mary H., born in Providencetown September 26, 1842, married George H. Lewis. Martha A., born in Provi- dencetown April 1, 1845, is the wife of Captain Elisha Holmes Tillson.
Mrs. Elston was a member of the Episcopal church during her resi- dence in the east, but had no church connection in Ohio, as there was no organization of that denomination near her home. She was an earnest Chris- tian woman in whom the poor and needy found a faithful friend, while those in distress always received her earnest sympathy and assistance. She died November 28, 1898, respected by all who knew her and greatly beloved by her family and many friends. She left three children: Lizzie, now the widow of Benton Garber, of Bellville; Nellie G., the wife of Dr. J. B. Lewis, of Bucyrus, Ohio; and William Blake, who was graduated at the high school at Bellville, at the age of seventeen. Soon afterward he was offered the position of assistant superintendent of the schools of Bellville, but refused and began learning the tailor's trade of his father. He was employed as a cutter in large establishments in Chicago and other cities for some time, but is now conducting a profitable and extensive business of his own in Peoria, Illinois.
Mr. Elson, of this review, gives his political support to the Republican party, but has never been an aspirant for office. He belongs to Bellville Lodge, No. 376, F. & A. M., and is the second oldest living member of Clinton Commandery, K. T., at Mount Vernon, Ohio. He is now the oldest living member of Bellville Lodge, No. 306, I. O. O. F. He was the presi- dent of the Beneficial Insurance Company for a great many years, and when it failed closed out its business without employing an attorney. A faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, he served for a quarter of a century as the superintendent of its Sunday-school and for about twenty-
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three years he was a church steward. He withholds not the hand of assist- ance from those in need of aid and is well known for his charity and benev- olence. In business he prospered and was always willing to share his suc- cess with those less fortunate. His life has been an active and useful one, commending him to the confidence and respect of all, and his name deserves mention upon the pages of the history of his adopted county.
. Mr. Elston recently made a visit to the home of his youth and the . grave of his mother in England, and also to the Paris exposition. He found in England two aunts, ten cousins and other old friends. The trip altogether, was one of the most interesting events of his life.
JAMES HERVEY COOK.
James Hervey Cook, an honored and upright citizen of Mansfield whose entire life was spent in Madison township, died December 2, 1897, at his home in Mansfield, Ohio. He took to his bed November 23, having had a slight stroke of paralysis the day before, but retained consciousness until his death. He had been identified with Mansfield's interests for many years.
Mr. Cook was born on a farm two and a half miles south of Mansfield, September 3, 1816, a son of Jabez and Hannah Cook and a twin brother of Dr. Thomas McCurdy Cook, who died at his home in Sandusky, March 14, 1896. The family lineage is traced to Francis Cooke of the Mayflower, the deceased being the eighth generation from him. The following article, from the Mansfield News at the time of his death, gives succinctly his history and shows the prominence he occupied in our community :
"The Cooks trace their lineage back to the twelfth century, when Walter and Richard Cok served in the wars in the Holy Land, in 1191. In 1462 a Cook was the lord mayor of London. Later William Henry Cooke was the recorder of Oxford, judge of the county courts and a historian of note. In 1543 Sir Anthony Cooke was a tutor to King Edward VI. In 1612 a Cooke was the chancellor of the Irish exchequer. (The name, whether spelled Cok, Cooke or Cook, refers to the same family.) Sir Thomas Cook, of Wor- chestershire, founded Worchester College at Oxford; and Sir Thomas Cook, of Middlesex, was the governor of the East India Company. The History of Essex. England, contains favorable mention of the Cook family-men of influence by birth and marriage-filling positions in the army, the navy, the church, in literature and in learned professions.
The founder of the Cook family in America was Francis Cooke, who came over in the Mayflower, and was the seventeenth signer of the Mayflower
I.N. book
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compact. It is supposed that the ancestors of the Cooks were Romanists; and there are no data to show when Francis Cooke espoused the doctrine of the Separatists; but his name was in the list of those designated as exiles from Scrooby, joining Brewer and Bradford in worship there, and going with them to Leyden and on to their haven of rest on Cape Cod.
Francis Cooke was born in 1577, and was about forty years old when he came to America in the Mayflower. He died in 1663, aged eighty-six years. His wife survived him several years. The position Francis Cooke occupied in the Plymouth colony is attested by the fact that he held positions of trust and honor, and his social standing was high, his home being on Leyden street and adjoining the residence of Edward Winslow and Isaac Allerton.
Of his lineal descendants we note his son (2) Jacob Cooke, who was born in 1618; (3) Jacob Cooke, born in 1653; (4) Jacob Cooke, born in 1691; (5) Jacob Cooke, born in 1725; (6) Noah Cook, born in 1758: (7) Jabez Cook, born in 1792; (8) James Hervey Cook, born in 1816; and (9) James M. Cook, born in 1859.
Jacob Cooke, of the fifth generation from Francis Cooke, born in 1725,. in Plymouth county, Massachusetts, removed with his father's family to Mor- ris county, New Jersey, in 1744, and emigrated with his family to Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1767, and died there in 1808. He was the father of Noah Cook, who came to Richland county, Ohio, in 1814, and died in Lexington in 1834.
Jabez Cook, the son of Noah Cook, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, July II, 1792 ; came to Ohio in 1815, and died February 6, 1875. His wife's maiden name was Hannah Pierson. Jabez and Hannah Cook were the parents of the following children : James Hervey and Thomas McCurdy, twins, born September 3, 1816; Alice, January 13, 1819; Abba Ellen, August 7, 1821 ; Emily, December 22, 1823; William Mortimer, Sep- tember 15, 1826; Elizabeth, July 19, 1828; Willis Merriman, August 5, 1830; and Lydia Jane, November 20, 1832.
Noah Cook served several terms of enlistment in the war of the Revolu- tion, and was also with Colonel Crawford in his march and defeat. His pension certificate was dated October 30, 1832. He did much to promote the religious interests of Troy township. He announced a meeting for a religious service at a schoolhouse, but at the appointed hour "Uncle Noah" was the only one there; but he held the service! Some passers-by heard him singing and stopped to listen; then he prayed and read and preached as though the benches were listeners with ears to hear and souls to save! The report of 33
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this service was noised abroad, with the result of good congregations of people at subsequent services.
Hannah (Pierson) Cook, the wife of Jabez Cook and the mother of James Hervey Cook, was a daughter of John and Sarah ( Van Dyke) Pierson. John Pierson we trace back to Thomas Pierson, of Bonwicke, Yorkshire, England, a relative of Rev. Abram Pierson, the founder of Newark, New Jersey, in 1666, and one of the promoters of Yale College. John Pierson served eight years in the war of the Revolution. Through the Van Dykes the Cook family is related by marriage to the Schencks, of the same family as General Robert C. Schenck, one of Ohio's statesmen and warriors.
In taking up the personal history of James Hervey Cook, we note that his elementary education was secured at the Sandy Hill schoolhouse, after which he continued his studies at Granville. He worked on the farm in the summer months and taught school for several winters. In the winter of 1840- I he came to Mansfield and has lived here continuously since. He taught school at the corner of Fourth and Mulberry streets in a little red school- house. In the spring of 1849 he took possession of the Wiler House and was engaged in the hotel business there continuously for ten years. He then sold out, but later was again the proprietor of the Wiler House, from 1864 to 1869. He was one of the first conductors on the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad, after that road was constructed.
Until within very recent years Mr. Cook was remarkably alert, both mentally and physically. During his years as a septuagenarian it was a mat- ter of comment that he was one of Mansfield's very youngest old men. His constitution was a hardy one. His early life developed a perfect physical or- ganism which in after years he retained by a regularity of habits seldom fol- lowed. Always punctual as to his hours of labor and of rest, and methodical in all his ways, he carefully conserved his strength and energy. He was seldon seen to wear an overcoat, as his splendid vitality needed none; but he was always carefully gloved. None knew him but to admire him. He was ever generous and charitable, but always without ostentation. His hearty, cheering "How do you do, sir?" with a marked accent on the "sir," will be remembered by all, and his greeting to the humble toiler was ever as cordial as to the man of wealth. His attitude toward his fellow men was ever that of one who felt
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp;
The man's the gowd for a' that."
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Mr. Cook was an officer of the Richland Mutual Insurance Company for about thirty years, being for many years its president. He was also the president of the cemetery association for nearly that length of time. Besides four children, Mr. Cook left seven grandchildren.
On the 27th of March, 1842, James Hervey Cook was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ann Wiler, a daughter of John and Margaret Wiler. Her father was born in Herisau, Appenzell county, Switzerland, June 4, 1780, and was the eldest of a large family of children. When very young he learned the weaver's trade in his native town. While yet in his 'teens he concluded to see something of the world and for a number of years traveled through Europe, working at his trade as a journeyman weaver. During the campaign of Napoleon I in Austria Mr. Wiler enlisted in the Swiss army for duty on the frontier. Having concluded to seek his fortune in the new world, he sailed for America from Amsterdam on the 19th of May, 1817, and landed at Phila- delphia on the 26th of August, after a voyage of ninety-nine days. Of the five hundred passengers on board the vessel, one hundred and five died of ship fever during the voyage. Selecting Ohio for his home Mr. Wiler resided for one year in New Lancaster and one year in Columbus, after which he located permanently in Mansfield, where he engaged in business and built the Wiler House, which still bears his name. . He was married April 25, 1819, to Margaret Steyer. The couple lived happily together and prospered and left to their children a competence and an untarnished name. John Wiler died August 1, 1881, and his wife passed away May 25, 1868.
Their daughter, Mrs. Cook, together with her four children, survives the subject of this review. The daughters of the family are: Mrs. George W. Blymyer, Mrs. Laura C. Bunker, and Mrs. Clada Sturges. The one son, James M. Cook, was born December 14, 1859, and was married May 22, 1889, to Miss Janie M. Vennum. Mr. Cook is the secretary of the Mansfield Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He is a young man of fine ability and gives close application to business ; is upright in character and maintains the reputation and dignity of a long line of worthy ancestors.
The death of J. H. Cook removes another citizen whose life was well nigh coextensive with that of the city. Nor was he one who simply aged with the city. His was an active, honorable business life. He did his full share to- ward the development of the city and his duty toward his fellow men. His life was a useful one and he leaves an unsullied name and an influence for good that will ever be of fragrant memory.
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JOHN DITWILER.
There have been few residents in this portion of Ohio who have enjoyed to greater degree the esteem and friendship of a large circle of acquaint- ances than John Ditwiler, now deceased. He was a man of sterling worth, of genial disposition and unfailing courtesy, and these qualities rendered him popular, while his sterling character enabled him to retain friendship when gained. He was born in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1825, and was a son of Jacob Ditwiler, who died during his infancy, while his mother passed away in 1876, at which time she was visiting her children in Ches- terville, Ohio. During the days of his boyhood and youth John Ditwiler remained upon the farm and assisted in the labors of field and meadow, while in the schools of the neighborhood he acquired his education. On attaining his majority he became connected with the dry-goods trade, but after two years' failing health, caused by confinement in the store, forced him into other fields of labor and he became a traveling salesman, in which enterprise he was very successful. He had the ability to dispose of goods readily, for he was well known for his integrity and trustworthiness in trade transactions. He remained upon the road through a long period, but at length became connected with the manufacturing interests of Mansfield, organizing and establishing the Buckeye Suspender Company.
Mr. Ditwiler was united in marriage to Miss Olive J. Gurney, a daugh- ter of Samuel and Jane (Cross) Gurney. The family is of English lineage and the ancestry can be traced back to James VI. The family coat of arms has been furnished by a cousin. Nathaniel Gurney, the grandfather of Mrs. Ditwiler, was born in England in 1786, and after coming to America took up his abode on a farm in Maine, about 1816. He carried on agri- cultural pursuits throughout his entire life and in addition to farming he was also a stockholder in a bank, was the owner of a vessel and was a very wealthy man. He died in Belfast, Maine, in 1871.
Samuel Gurney, the father of Mrs. Ditwiler, was born in Maine in 1813, and died in early manhood, in New Orleans. His wife, who was born in 1811, died in Bellville, Ohio, in 1878. In their family were three sons : John, a farmer of Huron county, Ohio; Oliver, who is living in Bellville, Richland county ; and Louis, of Mansfield. The daughter became the wife of John Ditwiler, and their marriage was blessed with the following named : Harvey G., who is now forty-nine years of age and was married, in 1879, to Miss Nettie J. Redrup, and they had two children : Mary Olive, now the wife of Fred Martin Bushnell, who is the cashier of the Richland Savings
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Bank, of Mansfield; and Harold R., a bright boy of seven years; Hulbert W., who is forty-six years of age, married Helen Corlies in 1889, and they have two children, Herbert C. and Dorothy, aged, respectively, ten and seven years; Homer B., who is now forty-two years of age, married Miss Hattie H. Johnson in 1884; in 1897 she departed this life, leaving two children : Ethel May, who is now fifteen years of age, and Jolin Chester, a youth of thirteen.
Since the father's death the three sons have continued the business which he established, being now successfully engaged in the manufacture of skirts and suspenders on an extensive and growing scale. All are enter -. prising and progressive men, the labors of the one supplementing the efforts of the other, so that the firm is a strong one and its success is assured. The sons and their families are communicants of the Congregational church of Mansfield. Hulbert W. is the only one connected with a secret society and he belongs to the Odd Fellows fraternity. The brothers follow in the polit- ical footsteps of their father and have been stalwart Republicans through- out the period of their majority.
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