A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 159

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > Ohio > Scioto County > A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record > Part 159

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Mr. Streich enjoys the advantage of being well acquainted with every one in the city of Portsmouth and every one in the county, and he enjoys the good will and friendship of all who know him. He is a gentleman who makes no antagonisms. He is known for his uprightness, truthfulness and integrity as a business man. He has been very successful in business and has deserved it all, and no one stands any higher in the estimation of the community than he, and the better he is known the more he is liked.

Hadley Herbert Summers

was born July 30, 1866 at Dayton. O. His father is Lewis Augustus Francis Summers who resides on Robinson avenue in Portsmouth. His mother's maiden name was Elenor Mills. When he was three years of age, his father moved to Bellbrook, Green county, O. where he resided until he was 14 years of age. Then he resided in Xenia two years and in Jackson three years and attended the public schools of all these places. He completed his education in Ports- mouth and here he has resided since he was 19 years of age. At the age of 20, he began as a stenographer and on July 1, 1886, took a position as such in the office of Drew, Selby & Co., shoe manufacturers in Portsmouth. On Jan- uary 1, 1887, he began traveling for the same firm as a salesman and has been engaged in the same busines ever since.

He was married to Miss Minta Jewis of McConnellsville, O. in March 1894 and has two children Ivan Harry Summers. aged four, and Herbert Julia Summers aged two. He is a member of the Sixth Street M. E. church. In his political views he is a republican on national and state affairs, but in municipal affairs he is a "free-lance." He has a most attractive home on the northeast corner of Fourth and Waller streets, and is happily situated in all respects. He is one of the most successful of the Drew-Selby Co's. commercial salesmen and enjoys the confidence of his employers to the fullest extent.

Joseph Jackson Sutton

was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, June 17, 1842. His father was John W. Sutton of Baltimore county, Maryland, who lived in Ohio for more than fifty years and in Scioto county twenty-eight years. He died in Portsmouth, Ohio. October 31, 1892. His mother's maiden name was Catharine Gard, of York county, Pennsylvania. She died November 14, 1900. Mr. Sutton received only a common school education in the schools, but was a great reader. He in- formed himself on all current events and is well read in history.

May 26, 1862 he enlisted in Company H, 87th O. V. I. for three months, was at the seige and surrender of Harper's Ferry. Va .. September, 1862. He was paroled and honorably discharged Oct. 1. 1862, returning to his home in Jackson county, Ohio. He remained there until March 29, 1863, when he enlisted in Company H, 2nd West Virginia Cavalry at Charleston, W. Va., in a Company which had been raised in Jackson county, Ohio, the entire regiment having been recruited in Ohio. No regiment saw harder service than this. It was on the perilous Wytheville raid, the ill-fated Lynchburg raid, and numerous engage- ments in West Virginia. In July, 1864 the command was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley in the Army of Major-General Phillip H. Sheridan. Our subject was in the following battles under that gallant commander: Winchester. Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, Appomattox Station, and Appomattox C. H., the latter, being the surrender of Lee. He was in fifty-five battles and skirmishes, was never wounded, although engaged in a number of hand-to-hand encounters

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

and never missed a scout, nor fight in which his company was engaged. He prides himself in his army service in that, although not very strong physical- ly, he was never sick nor in the hospital during the war. He boasts that he never cost the Government a cent for medicine or hospital treatment. He was honorably discharged June 30, 1865. 1

From the service he returned to Scioto county, where his parents had located in 1864. He was a resident of Portsmouth for a number of years. He was a member of the Board of Education in that city in 1893 and 1894, was a member of the Sixth Street Methodist Episcopal church and one of the official board of that church. He was also a member of Scioto Lodge No. 31, of Orient Encampment and a charter member and Captain of Canton Orient Patriarchs Militant I. O. O. F., of Portsmouth, Ohio. Mr. Sutton was married to Malissa Jane Westfall in Scioto county, February 15, 1866. Six children were born to them, two of whom survive, George C., of New York city, who was educated in the schools of Portsmouth, and Mrs. Ethel Trahelot of Chillicothe, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Sutton are temporarily living in the mountain section of Pike county, Ky. Mr. Sutton is engage in the lumber business.

Mr. Sutton is one of the most agreeable companions. He is a good conver- sationalist on any subject upon which he has read. He has a fine sense of humor. He is one of the most genial and courteous of men. When he makes a friend, he retains him. If he has any weakness it is his pride of his army record and he is fully justified in that. In 1892 he wrote and published a his- tory of the Second regiment of West Virginia Cavalry. It is a book of 262 pages and very interesting. This regiment while being designated the Second West Virginia Cavalry was really from Ohio. Mr. Sutton was not only a first- class soldier but is a first-class citizen. Whenever a duty is presented to him he always tries to do it, to the best of his ability. This has been charac- teristic of him from boyhood to the present time. He was reared a Democrat, but cast his first vote in 1864 for President Lincoln in the Shenandoah valley under the sound of the enemy's cannon. While he has usually been known as a democrat, his political views are liberal. He is universally liked and re- spected, and has no enemies he knows of. Certainly there has been nothing in his life and character which would invite the enmity of anyone.

William Swabby

was born April 6, 1849, at Center Furnace, Lawrence county, Ohio. His par- ents were Hiram Swabby and Ellen Brinkenmire. They were married in Ger- many. William Swabby was the fifth of a family of ten children. He received a common school eucation in the schools at Howard Furnace. Hiram Swabby was an engineer and our subject learned that trade. He began as assistant engineer with his father at the age of fifteen and worked at that until he was twenty-one He then worked at Howard furnace as a teamster for four years. He decided to go west and went to Hamilton furnace, Missouri, and remained there for two months, then came back and ran the engine at Cambria furnace for two years. In 1877, he came to Scioto county. He worked for Peter Som- ers from 1876 until 1880. Since that time he has been a farmer.

In 1876, he was married to Barbara Somers, daughter of Peter Somers. They have five children: George, who is employed in the Portsmouth post- office; Charles, an assistant superintendent of a rolling mill in Pittsburg; Howard, employed at the Big Four depot in Cincinnati; Cora and Roscoe at home. He is a republican and a member of the Methodist church. He was a Trustee of Clay township in 1886. In 1901, he was elected an Infirmary Di- rector. Mr. Swabby is a good example of the self-made man. Starting with industry and honesty for his capital, he has made a success of life. His rep- utation is that of an honest, capable, industrious and level-headed citizen. The respect in which he is held by the community is evidenced by his nomination and elcetion as Infirmary Director, his majorities being a just tribute to his ex- cellences as a citizen and his admitted qualifications for the place.

Rev. David Stanton Tappan, D. D., LL. D.

The name was originally Topham (Upper Village.) It is purcly Anglo Saxon. The first Tappan of whom we have any knowledge, was Robert of Linton, near

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Paley Bridge, West Riding, of Yorkshire. Our subject is the twelfth in the direct line of descent from this Robert Tappan, who died in 1550. Out of the twelve in the line of descent, nine had Scripture names, Samuel, Abraham and Benjamin were among them, the latter being the favorite. Abraham, the fourth in descent from Robert, came to Massachusetts, in 1637, and settled in Essex county. He was made a selectman the next year. Benjamin Tappan, the grand- son of Abraham, graduated at Harvard College. The Tappans have always be- lieved in education, but the son of the last named Benjamin, great-great- grandfather of our subject, was a goldsmith. However, a goldsmith in 1770, was a very different occupation from a goldsmith now. The early goldsmiths were the bankers and money lenders of their time.

The first Tappan in this country had eight children; the next, ten; the next, twelve; the next, eleven, and the Doctor, our subject, has followed the family fashion, for he has had eleven. The Tappans have always been distin- guished for three things, conscience, learning and piety, and these character- istics are as strong in the present generation as in the past ones. The Doctor is in a peculiar situation as to this sketch. He was not consulted about it. It is written by his classmate and he is not responsible for anything in it. He never mentions his ancestry unless directly questioned about it, and the writer has inflicted that part upon him.

His grandfather, Benjamin Tappan, afterwards Judge and U. S. Senator, came to the Northwest Territory, in 1799. In 1809, he located in Steubenville, and there his grandson, our subject, son of Dr. Benjamin Tappan and Oella Stanton, daughter of Dr. David Stanton and sister of the great War Secretary, was born, April 2, 1845, the third of five children. He attended the public schools of Steubenville, until September, 1860, when he entered the Freshman Class at Miami University. He was a faithful and diligent student and learned well all there was to be learned. It was known through his entire course that he had the ministry in view. He took the first honors in a class of twenty- five, at graduation, in June, 1864, and delivered the valedictory oration. While in college, he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity and the Miami Union Literary Society. Directly after his graduation, he took up the study of Theology, in the Western Theological Seminary, at Alleghany, Pennsylvania, and graduated in April, 1867. In the summer of 1865, he had charge of the State Lick Academy. in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1866, he was in charge of Callensburg Academy, in Clarion county, Pennsylvania. Alleghany Presbytery licensed him to preach, in the spring of 1866. In Septem- ber 1867, he took charge of the Chariton Presbyterian church in the Presbytery of Des Moines, Iowa.

On August 12, 1869, he was married to Miss Anna Grandgirard, daughter of Rev. Emilius Grandgirard, at Hillsboro, Ohio.

In February, 1871, he took charge of the Presbyterian church at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he remained until April, 1890. While in Iowa, he was honored with the offices of Moderator and Permanent Clerk of his Presbytery in turn. He was permanent clerk of the Iowa Synod South, from 1870 to 1882, when the two Synods were consolidated. In 1882, he was made Stated Clerk of the Synod of Iowa, and served until his removal from the state. While a resident of Iowa, he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Wooster Uni- versity. He received the Degree of Doctor of Divinity, from Lenox College, Iowa, in 1886. While a resident of Iowa, he was a commissioner to the Gen- eral Assembly of his church three times. He was for six years president of the school board of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. From 1887 to 1890, he was a Trustee of the Presbyterian College, at Fairfield, Iowa. On April 1, 1890, he took the pas- torate of the First Presbyterian church, of Portsmouth, Ohio, the largest and strongest church in the Presbytery of Portsmouth. He held this until Septem- ber 1, 1899, when he became President of the Miami University.

In the Presbytery of Portsmouth, he was the leader among his minister- ial brethren. He was often Moderator. In 1893, he was a commissioner to the General Assembly from the Portsmouth Presbytery, and was one of the Clerks. He was chairman of the Committee on Home Missions in the Portsmouth Presbytery during his entire connection with it. In the Synod of Ohio, he was for three years chairman of the Committee on Education, and for three years

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

was chairman of the Committee on Home Missions. In November, 1899, he re- ceived the degree of LI. D. from Wooster University, Ohio.

His elest child, Benjamin, died an infant, in Iowa. His eldest daughter, Oella, is the wife of Edgar H. Lowman, of Springfield, Ohio. His second daughter, Julia, is the wife of Prof. William B. Langsdorf, Ph. D., Lit. D., late Professor of Latin in Miami University, but now a Presbyteran minister. His second son Paul, is a graduate of Wooster, and a Doctor of Medicine, and an as- sistant physician at the Dayton Hospital for the Insane. His sons, Frank and George, are students of Washington College, Pa. His daughter Helen is at home. He lost a son, Edwin Stanton, aged eighteen months, while a resident of Ports- mouth, and his daughter Lucy, aged sixteen, died since he has resided in Ox- ford. His youngest daughter, Margaret, is aged seven years.

Doctor Tappan is a well educated man. He is thorough in all his methods. What he knows, he is certain of and it is available to him at any time. He is strong physically and strong mentally. As a preacher and public speaker, he has a voice which can be heard and understood. His sentences are well chosen and expressive. Whatever he has to say is interesting. His discourses are full of treasures of thought. Dr. Tappan has had but three churches in a min- istry of thirty-two years. He could have remained in either a life-time. Each change was a promotion and a call up higher. His call to the Presidency of Miami University, his Alma Mater, was a tribute to his thorough education and his love for and devotion to teaching. He is conservative in all things. He is the last minister in the Presbyterian church to be suspected of heresy or heter- odoxy. He is no theorist and is always found on the safe side of every question presented to him. When one goes to hear him preach a sermon, he is sure to be instructed and edified. He is sure to hear every word uttered and that the diction will be perfect. He is sure that there will be no sensationalism and he is sure of the Orthodoxy of every utterance. Dr. Tappan is a man of powerful will, and of great strength of purpose and the trait is inherited from both sides of the home. But for the fact that he is a minister, he would be as overbearing as his grandfather, the Senator, or his uncle, the great War Secretary, neither of whom could tolerate opposition. He is a tower of strength at the head of any institution, whether it be a church or college. He is a safe man at all times and under all circumstances. In a number of courses presented to him, he can always be relied on to take the wisest and the most just. Since the above was written. in June, 1902, Dr. Tappan resigned the Presidency of Miami University and in November of the same year accepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Circleville, Ohio.

Addison Taylor

was born in Harrisonville, Scioto county, Ohio, March 17, 1866, a son of Martyn Taylor, M. D., and Lydia J. Draper, his wife. Several of his paternal ances- tors were soldiers of the Revolutionary War and his father was an acting as- sistant surgeon in the Civil war. Addison was educated in the common schools of the county and was a teacher for eight years, the last four of which he taught in the grammar grades at Sciotoville. He has been a consistent political pro- hibitionist since arriving at his majority, never having voted any other ticket. on a state, or national election, and has been a candidate for various offices in the county on the Prohibition ticket. He has been a member of the Methodist church for eighteen years. In 1890, he was married to Miss Anna Frank, of Sciotoville. They have two children: Wendell and Ella. Mr. Taylor is sec- retary and treasurer of the Scioto Star Brick Works, west of Sciotoville, and has been connected with the company for ten years, having worked his way up from a laborer in the yard. A good part of his time is spent traveling over the country selling fire brick. He has a large business acquaintance among the iron and steel trades. He is active in church work and what might be termed a "radical" in his opinions.

James Landon Taylor, M. D.

The Taylors are of English ancestry and settled first on coming from England in the state of Connecticut, in the early part of the 18th century. From there this branch emigrated to the. wilds of central New York, where

JAMES LANDON TAYLOR, M. D. Æt. 63.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

we find James Taylor, the grandsire of this sketch, organizing a Methodist Episcopal church in or about Elmira, then called Newtown, in 1807. His mother Anna Landon, was a member of the Landon family, now widely dis- tributed through the United States. About 1835, he came to Scioto county with his family, one daughter, Olive, and seven sons, two of whom preceded him. Of the sons, four also became Methodist ministers: James, Harvey, William and Landon, the latter marrying Jane Vincent, daughter of A. C. Vincent, one of the original French Grant settlers. Landon and wife took up their residence at Franklin furnace, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born February 1, 1840.

Owing to the invalidism of his mother, the infant was taken by his ma- ternal aunt, Mrs. John S. Baccus, near Wheelersburg, and reared in that family. Here he learned to speak French, which he ever after cultivated. His first rec- ollection of school life was going to a subscription school in Wheelersburg, taught by Miss Elizabeth Crichton.

At the age of fifteen, he obtained a certificate to teach school and taught his first school in the Kettles district in 1856, at $33 1-3 per month. Mr. A. J. Finney, afterwards Sheriff and County Clerk, was one of Doctor Taylor's pupils, as well as many other gray-headed men and women out in that district which comprises part of four townships: Vernon, Bloom, Harrison and Porter. When the winter term was over. young Taylor started for a term in college. After completing the Junior year of his college course in Delaware. Ohio, young Tay- lor obtained from President Merrick an honorable dismissal, and a certificate of standing in college so flattering that it virtually passed him into the Univer- sity of Michigan, where he graduated in 1863. From that time until 1870. he spent in teaching, and in 1872, took the degree of M. D. in the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. He then took up the practice of medicine in Wheelers- burg, Ohio, following Doctor Arthur Titus, where he has resided ever since.

In 1867, he married Melissa Folsom, of Green township, a daughter of J. S. Fulsom, whose biography appears in this volume. There were born to them one daughter and two sons, both of the latter being physicians. The daughter Katy, died unmarried in 1900. The older son, Wesley, is rounding up his medical and literary education in the universities and hospitals of Eu- rope, and the younger son John, has a similar course in prospect.

Doctor Taylor has now been identified with Wheelersburg, Porter town- ship and vicinity, as a teacher, farmer, doctor and well known citizen for near- ly half a century. For eleven years consecutively he served on the School Board. In March, 1870, he succeeded Captain N. W. Evans as County Examin- er, serving for nearly a year on the Board with Doctor Burr and John Bolton. He is a member of the local medical societies, the National Association and the American Academy of Medicine, the Vice Presidency of which he held from 1901-2. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is planning to attend the International Medical Congress of Tu- berculosis to be held in Paris in 1903.

Doctor Taylor is still engrossed with the cares of his business, his lands and his profession, leading even a busier life than when he set out in the practice of his profession thirty years ago. He is ot athletic build, six feet in height, an active mover, a republican in politics and a protestant in re- ligion. Doctor Taylor is in no way responsible for what follows in this sketch. He is a very difficult subject to make a character estimate of and do him justice. The reason of that is, there are so many points of view, and our sub- ject will show up well from any of them. Doctor Taylor is a well educated man. He has been trained to think and investigate. His mind is like a wonderful piece of mechanism. It is bound to accomplish certain results. Give him a sub- ject to investigate and reason out and he will first ascertain all the facts and then he will reach the most logical and wisest conclusion. He was not only trained to this but he has given himself a thorough course of self-discipline and training. The facts he learns are always available to him. They will come to him and he can use them at any time. The Doctor has a reputation as a first class business man and financier. It is because he knows how to reason on predicates and thereby anticipate results. In all things he undertakes he does his work thoroughly. He never acts until he knows the uttermost facts, and

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when he has learned them all, he reasons out a course to pursue and that course is unerringly the wisest which could have been discovered or chosen. When he comes to a conclusion, he has faith in it and never hesitates. This habit of thought and action avails him in every thing he undertakes whether it be farming, medicine, literature or finance.

The Doctor is one of those rare characters who would succeed in any- thing they undertake. He is a first class farmer, he stands at the top of his pro- fession and as a financier and business man he has no superior. The editor be- lieves he would have acquired national distinction as a medical or historical writer, but no one could justly say that Doctor Taylor has missed his calling. To a layman, his medical essays, mentioned in the Bibliography of this work, show that he is master of every subject he has treated and that on a condition of facts given, his hypotheses are the most consistent with the highest wisdom in his profession, and his ideas are the most advanced. The esteem in which the Doctor is held by the fellow members of his profession, show that the lay- man's ideas of him are correct. But the Doctor is not only fortunate and suc- cessful in handling medical subjects; some years ago he was a contributor to the Ohio Farmer and his articles on Tariff Reform were unanswerable. He can write an essay on the money question which would command the respectful consideration of the best financiers. He would be equally interesting in writ- ing on stock raising. The editor has read all of the Doctor's essays on Medi- cal Topics with great interest and believes that the community in which he dwells does not appreciate his learning or his acquirements in his profession. Fifty years from now his learning and talent will be appreciated. As the Doctor has taken good care of himself in his present life, in the life hereafter, he will not be concerned at the failure to appreciate him while living. His neighbors do appreciate him now as a, business man, and they have the utmost confidence in him in his profession, but they will never realize the extent of his acquire- ments until he has passed beyond this life and his finished career can be com- pared with others.

Harry Edmund Taylor

was born in McConnellsville, Morgan county, Ohio, September 29, 1873. He was the son of William and Frances Bell Taylor. William Taylor was the owner of various salt furnaces in the Muskingum valley, and was the first democrat elected to office in Morgan county after the war, being elected Sheriff in 1883. The subject of this sketch graduated from the McConnellsville schools in 1889, and then entered the office of the Morgan county "Democrat," where he learned the printer's trade. In 1891, he became a reporter on the Akron, Ohio, "World" and the Akron "Beacon and Republican." In 1894, Mr. Taylor came to Ports- mouth to take charge of the city news work on the Portsmouth Daily Times, about to be started by J. L. Patterson. He has held that position up to the present time. In 1898, he, with Vallee Harold purchased the controlling inter- est in the Times Publishing Company, and upon the organization of the com- pany Mr. Taylor was chosen Secretary and Treasurer. He married Decem- ber 5, 1899, Leah Pauline, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry H. Grimes, of Ports- mouth, Ohio.

Lafayette Taylor

was born December 25, 1856, in Susquehanna, county, Pennsylvania, near the town of that name. His parents were William and Mary E. (Kelley) Taylor. who resided on East Mountain in Gibson township, in the above named county. William Taylor was a son of Amos and Dolly (Starks) Taylor. They settled about a mile below Smiley, Pennsylvania, on the west side of Tunkhannock, soon after 1800. Amos was the son of David and Mercy Taylor, who settled at Smiley about 1804, and built a hotel which was then one of the three frame houses in Gibson township. Mr. Taylor is one of a family of twelve children. John F. resides at Scranton, Pa. Sarah Jane married S. C. Avery, and is de- ceased. Josiah resides on the old home farm in Pennsylvania and was in a construction corps during the Civil war. Freeman F. is a railroad contractor and a ranchman at Colorado City, Colorado. Leslie D. is deceased. Leroy Eugene resides in Lackawanna county and is the overseer of a coal breaker at

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A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 159

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612