A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1, Part 77

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1310

USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1 > Part 77
USA > Ohio > Allen County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1 > Part 77

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John Cremean, our subject, received the usual common-school education granted to farmer lads and enlisted, before he was twenty- one years of age. March 3 !. 1862, at Lima, Allen county, for three years, in the first Ohio sharpshooters, under Capt. S. A. Taylor, served out his term of enlistment, veteranized in the same organization, and served until the citizen and kind-hearted neighbor.

close of the war, receiving an honorable dis- charge at Springfield, Ill., April 26, 186 ;. He fought at Corinth, Iuka, Lookout Mount- ain, Pea Ridge, Cedar Bluff, Sandy Point, Duck Diver, Ostenado River, and at other points, and he was on the famous Atlanta campaign, in which he was under fire continu- ously for nearly four months, and fought at Dalton, Resaca, Pumpkinvine Creek, Buzzard Roost, Kenesaw Mountain and other points; also at the battles of Atlanta, where, being close at hand, he saw Gen. McPherson fall. Mr. Cremean was also at Jonesboro, as well as on the renowned march with Gen. W. T. Sherman to the sea; took part in the fall of Columbia, and in skirmishes unnumbered. marching through to Goldsboro, N. C. Mr. Cremean passed all through the war without a wound, and during all his services was confined to hospital only one week.

After his return from the army, Mr. Cre- mean married, September 28, 1865. Miss Lu- cinda Brand, who was born January 31. 1843. in Allen county, Ohio, a daughter of John and Harriet (Creger) Brand, and after marriage lived on the Brand homestead for two years, and then, in 1867, came to Van Wert county and located in York township on a tract of forty acres, which he cleared of the heavy timber and developed a farm that any man might be proud of-all well drained and fenced. To Mr. and Mrs. Cremean have been born the following children, all still living to bless the household: Dora, Alpha, Charles, Daisy, Min- nie, Thomas, Jessie, Molly and Myrtle. In politics Mr. Cremean is a democrat and has served as school director. He is a man who advocates the cause of education and moral progress and public improvements, and has won the esteem of the public for the interest he takes in the public welfare, and for his per- sonal character as an upright and conscientious

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

LONZO CONANT, president of the First National Bank of Van Wert, Ohio, and one of the most enter- prising business men in the state, descends from one of the oldest families in the country, of whom any record is extant. The Conant family appears to be, primarily, of Celtic descent, for the name Conan, or Conon, from which the name is derived, is found at every early period among various races of Celtic origin, including the Britons, Welsh, Irish, Gaels and Bretons. Nobody knows when the Celts first settled in Britain, for at the beginning of authentic history the island was inhabited by them. When Britain was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons, these Celtic inhabitants retreated before them into Corn- wall and Wales, where they retained their language and customs for a long time. Some crossed the English channel southward and joined their kinsmen in Armoric Brittany, and others found homes elsewhere.

Whether the family was of the Britain, or Cornish, branch of the Celtic race it is impos- sible to say; as the name is somewhat Gallic in form. it is possible the family is descended from some Breton follower of William the Conqueror. At all events, members settled in Devonshire as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century. Three hundred years later, in the very vanguard of English emigration to America, two brothers of the name left Devon- shire for the new world, from the youngest of whom nearly all the Conants in America are descended. The Conants almost invaria- bly married into families of English descent. and moreover, into families long settled here, so that the branch of the family on this side of the ocean inay be regarded as typically American.

and a more extended search would doubtless reveal its earlier existence. This is, however, a very respectable antiquity for the name, when the difficulty of tracing any particular name, and the fact that surnames, which have been in use for only eight hundred years, are considered.

Roger Conant, the emigrant and ancestor of most of those bearing the name in America, was baptized at All Saints church, in the par- ish of East Budleigh, Devonshire, England, April 9, 1592. He was the youngest of the eight children of Richard and Agnes (Clarke) Conant, who were esteemed for their exemplary piety. He was married in London, in Novem- ber, 1618, and remained in London until he emigrated to New England in 1623. The name of the vessel in which he came is not certainly known, but it is extremely probable that it was the Ann, which arrived at Plymouth about July, 1623. He did not, however, remain long at Plymouth. owing to a differ- ence of religious belief between himself and the Pilgrim fathers. They were Separatists, and he a non-Conformist or Puritan. The ship Charity arrived in March, 1624, bringing supplies to the colonists, and also bringing the Rev. John Lyford, a Puritan minister, who was sent at the company's expense. Soon Rev. Lyford and the leaders of the colony began an intrigue against the colonists, which ended in their expulsion in July, 1624. Roger Conant was not expelled with them, but joined them soon after at Nantasket, where they had settled from a dislike of the principles of rigid separation which prevailed at Plymouth. It was probable, while at Nantasket, that he mnade use of the island in Boston Harbor, now called Governor's Island-but then, and some- time after, was known as Conant's island During the winter of 1624-5. Rev. John White of Dorchester, and his associates, hear-

Records remain to show that the name Conant, in very nearly its present form, has existed in England for over six hundred years, ; ing of the settlement at Nantasket, and of

V. X

ALONZO CONANT.

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Roger Conant, chose him to manage or govern their affairs at Cape Ann.

Although he is not universally recognized as the first governor of Massachusetts, Roger Conant is fairly entitled to that honor, for the colony of which he was the head made the first permanent settlement in the Massachu- setts territory, which settlement was the germ from which the Massachusetts Bay colony sprung. His influence in calling the attention of prominent persons in England to the ad- vantages of Massachusetts for purposes of colonization was greater than had been pre- viously recognized, and we have seen that, but for him, the colony would have soon becn abandoned. Upon good authority it is stated that Roger Conant was made governor of Salem, Mass., in 1625, and in 1628 was super- seded by John Endicott; he also built the first frame house in Salem.

Benjamin, the grandfather of Alonzo Co- nant, our subject, was born August 29, 1756, in Bridgewater, Mass. In April, 1775, he was one of Capt. Nathan Mitchell's company that marched to Cambridge on the Lexington alarm. About 1795, he removed from Bridgewater, Mass., to Turner, Me., where he died. His son Benjamin, father of our subject, was born September 24, 1794, in Bridgewater, Mass .. moved to Turner, Me., with his parents, where he received his education and engaged in farm- ing, and there married, October 30, 1816, Althea Staples, who was born in Massachusetts July 8, 1793; there they lived the remainder of their lives-his death occurring in 1868-his wife having died October 8, 1848. They were the parents of nine children, of whom but two are now living, viz: Louis and Alonzo (our subject). The parents were Universalists in religious belief, while in politics the father was a democrat.

Alonzo Conant was born March 17, 1817, was reared on the farm in Maine, and received

his education in the common schools of that day, which he attended until his twenty-first year, when he spent several months as a mem- ber of a militia company in his native state, and then engaged in various pursuits of busi- ness until 1839, when, in company with sev- eral companions, he came to Ohio, stopping near Columbus, and there engaged as a laborer in a stone quarry, where he was employed six months; the succeeding winter he taught school in the same neighborhood. For five years following be was engaged in clerking in and about Columbus; then went to Sunbury, Delaware county, Ohio, in company with David Heyden, and engaged in the grocery business for one and a half years; then, in 1852, our subject carne to Van Wert, and in company with Simon Swineford engaged in the grocery business, in which. he continued until 1868. At this time a stock company was formed by the business men of Van Wert for the purpose of manufacturing staves, of which he was elected principal manager, and held this position for three years; he then became interested in the First National bank, in 1871. and acted as a director of the same until its reorganization in 1878, when he was made its president, which position he has since held. Mr. Conant was married. November 22, 1849, in Delaware county, Ohio, to Miss Esther A. Clark, who was born in Zanesville, Ohio, Sep- tember 13, 1825, and by this union four chil- dren have been born, viz: Mary E. (deceased), Myrtle A., Ione E. (deceased) and Lida E. Mr. Conant is one of the oldest members of the I. O. O. F. lodge in this city; in politics he is a stanch republican, and has served as common councilman, and also on the board of education, and is interested in many of the inore important enterprises of the city and county. The business career of Mr. Conant has been marked throughout by the purest in- tegrity, and his name is a synonym of all that

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is honorable in mercantile or other transac- tions, and that he enjoys the highest regard and most implicit confidence of his fellow-citi- zens "goes without saying."

OBERT L. CROOKS, M. D., of Con - voy, Tully township, Wan Wert coull- ty, Ohio, is one of the leading prac- titioners of the county, and with one exception the oldest in practice in Convoy, his experience having extended through a period of eighteen years. He was born in Carroll county, Ohio, January. 17, 1853, a son of Josiah F. and Catherine (Walters) Crooks, pioneers of Pennsylvania. The grandfather of Mrs. Crooks, Lancaster S. Walters, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution; the pater- nal grandfather of the doctor was Robert E. Crooks, who was a pioneer of Tuscarawas county, Ohio.

Rev: Josiah F. Crooks, father of the doc- tor, was born near New Philadelphia, in that county, in 1831, was highly educated, and was chaplain of the Ninety-eighth Ohio infantry, having been promoted from the ranks of com- pany H, in which he had enlisted to serve dur- ing the Civil war. After his return he entered the ministry of the Methodist church, moved to Van Wert county with his family, and was first placed on the Coldwater circuit and after- ward on the St. John circuit, and in these groups of adjoining counties preached for the remainder of his life, dying in Elida, Allen county, at the age of sixty-two years. He and his wife were parents of five children -- Annie, Laura, Louise, William and Robert L. He * was very patriotic and was in constant demand at G. A. R. camp-fires, and on decoration days, as orator.

Dr. Robert L. Crooks received a liberal education: he attended the Normal college at Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated from the Eclec-

tic Medical institute at Cincinnati, March 13, 1872; from the Fort Wayne Medical college in February, 1878, and from the Chicago Poly- clinic, February 11, 1889. He began practice at Gilbert's Mills, Paulding county, Ohio, in 1872, and four years later came to Convoy. Van Wert county, where he has met with phe- nomenal success down to the present time. He is a member of the Northwest Ohio Medical society and the Van Wert County Medical society, and is the advisory surgeon of the leading life insurance companies doing business in Van Wert and adjoining counties. He is a patron of the leading medical periodicals of the United States and Europe and is a frequent contributor to several of the more important of them; is still a hard student and keeps well abreast with the progress made in medical and surgical science and practice; he has a fine library of medical and other works, and is well read in scientific as well as lay literature and history. When the doctor began practice in Van Wert county the primeval forest reached the very streets of Convoy, and he was forced to make his visits on horseback to the pioneer cabins through dense woods, occasional clear- ings, and over the most ill-conditioned roads, in winter and in summer, and in daytime and at night, to attend his meager clientage, but his practice now extends through Allen county, Ind., and Mercer, Allen, Paulding and Van Wert counties, Ohio, and his mode of convey- ance is more convenient than of old. The doctor has been an extensive traveler and has visited every state in the Union. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. of Convoy, in which he has held all the offices, and is a mem- ber also of the I. O. R. M., in which he has been chief of records. In politics he is a re- publican and has been a member of the town council of Convoy four years, and he served on the United States pension board during the administration of President Harrison. The

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marriage of Dr. Crooks took place November 11, 1872, to Rachael I. Little, to which union were born three daughters-Hiley M., Cleo and Leo-all now dead, Mrs. Crooks having died August 19, 1875.

HEODORE CULP, an enterprising farmer of Hoaglin township, Van Wert county, Ohio, and an ex-soldier, was born in Salt Creek township, Pickaway county, Ohio, October 27, 1843. His great-grandfather, Boyleston Culp, was a native of Pennsylvania, but early entered land in Salt Creek township, Pickaway county, Ohio, where he ended his days. Peter Culp, subject's grandfather, also born in the Keystone state, settled with his father in Pickaway county, Ohio, and there also died, a prominent church member. James A. Culp, son of Peter and father of Theodore, our subject, was born in Pickaway county, August 12, 1822, married Ann Crouse, of Ross county, and had born to him the following children: Jerome, Theo- dore, George, John, Maria (deceased), Henry, Mary (deceased), Jacob and Jane. The par- ents remained on the home farm, in Pickaway county, until 1848, when they removed to Auglaize county, where he is now a wealthy land owner. but lost his wife March 3. 1894. Fraternally he is a Freemason and politically a republican.

Theodore Culp was reared a farmer, and in February, 1865, enlisted in company C, One Hundred and Ninety-second Ohio vol- unteer infantry, did gallant duty in the cam- paigns of Virginia and Maryland, and was hon- orably discharged September 5. 1865. The marriage of Mr Culp took place in Allen county, Ohio, September 16, 1866, to Miss Marimna Long, daughter of Jacob and Re- becca A. (Westerfield) Long, the former of whom was born in Clermont county, Olio,

December 1, 1821, and the latter, in the same county, February 14, 1826, and whose mar- riage took place December 22, 1844. Mrs. Long died in Allen county. Ohio, January 6, 1890, where Mr. Long died July 31. 1895, the owner of a fine farm of ninety-six acres, where he had his residence for over forty-two years. He was quite prominent in the Methodist church and in politics was a republican. In 1875 Mr. and Mrs. Culp settled on their farmi in Hoaglin township, Van Wert county. This farm comprises eighty acres of excellent land. is finely tilled and is adorned with a neat and tasty cottage residence. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Culp are three in number, viz: Effie L., Ollie A. and Daisy O. Of these, Effie L. is in Toledo, taking lessons in music, and the other two are at home. Mr. and Mrs. Culp are both members of the Methodist church and highly respected members of so- ciety. In politics Mr. Culp is a republican, and is a member of Zeller Hamilton post, No. 260, G. A. R., and few men stand higher in the esteem of the citizens of Hoaglin township than he.

MOS T. DAILEY, ex-probate judge of Van Wert county, Ohio, was born in Athens county, in the same state, March 16, 1832, a son of Esaias and Mary Ann (Thompson) Dailey. The father, Esaias, was born in Harrison county, Va., now W. Va., December 6, 1805, and was a son of Thomas and Mary (Majors) Dailey. Thomas Dailey was born in Delaware about 1775. and liis parents, who were natives of Ireland, were married in that country. Thomas was reared in Virginia by his aged mother, was married in 1798, and lived in Virginia until 1820, when he moved to Meigs county, Ohio, where he farmed until his death in 18oo, his wife sur- viving until 1864. Thomas and Mary Majors)

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Dailey were the parents of ten children, viz: Nimrod, Robert, Mary, Matilda, Eliza, Esaias, William, Julia, David and James. Their son, Esaias, the father of Amos T. Dailey, was rearcd in Meigs county, Ohio, but was married in Athens county, May 20, 1831, to Mary Ann Thompson, who was born in Virginia in Octo- ber, 1810, a daughter of Amos and Jane (McBain) Thompson, also natives of Virginia and of Irish and Scotch extraction, and to this marriage were born the following children: Amos T., whose name opens this paragraph; Jane, now Mrs. John Smith; Nimrod, deceased; Esaias, of Kankakee, Ill .; Albert William, of Walkerton, Ind .; Victoria, wife of Joseph Fos- ter, of Adams county, Ind. ; Clayton, of Deca- tur, Ind., and Mary Ann, wife of D. Foor. After his marriage Esaias Dailey remained in Athens county for a year, engaged in farming; in 1833 he moved to Auglaize county and stopped a year at Saint Mary's; thence moved to Willshire, Van Wert county, in 1834, and a short time afterward entered land two miles west, just across the Indiana line, and farmed until his death, October 14, 1869, having lost his wife from cholera July 22, 1854. Mr. Dailey was a republican in politics, and was a successful business man, and, in connection with farming, kept an old-fashioned country tavern from 1837 to 1850.

Amos T. Dailey enjoyed the advantages of private schools, and at the age of twenty-four years engaged in buying and driving stock, taking several droves of horses and cattle to Chicago in 1853. July 14, 1856, he married, in Van Wert, Miss Eliza Jane Ainsworth, who was born in Madison, Ohio, January 1, 1831, a daughter of Williamn and Susan Ainsworth- this marriage resulting in the birth of the fol- lowing children: Orsini and Susan, deceased; Laura B., Sara G., William H .. and Esaias. Immediately after marriage, Mr. Dailey lo- cated in Adams county, Ind., where he en-

gaged in farming until 1864, when he ciu. barked in general merchandising at Pleasant Mills, Ind., and did a successful business until 1870, when he located in Willshire township. Van Wert county, Ohio, and re-engaged in farming until 1882, when he assumed the of- fice of probate judge, and filled that respon- sible position until 18SS, then, until 1889, he employed himself in buying and shipping stock, when, in the latter year, he was appointed postmaster in Van Wert, and for four years faithfully and satisfactorily performed the du- ties of the arduous position, and then retired from the active business affairs of life. In politics Mr. Dailey is a stanch republican, and fraternally he is a chapter Mason, and is highly respected by the citizens of Van Wert county, in which he still owns a fertile farm of 1 50 acres.

3 ACOB DANNER, one of the oldest and wealthiest agriculturists of Ridge town- ship, Van Wert county, Ohio, was born in Shenandoah county, Va., October 9, 1824, a son of Jacob and Catherine (Culiers) Danner, both also natives of the Old Domin- ion. In 1829 the parents came to Ohio and settled in Licking county, bringing with them their children-John, who became, later, a Union soldier, and died of disease contracted in the army-his brother Jacob, our subject, having brought him from Camp Dennison to his, Jacob's, own home in Ridge township. where John expired; Mary, the second in the family, was married to Basil Tracy and is now. deceased; Nancy, married David Tracy, and is also deceased: Susan was married to Lanty Shannon, and both are now deceased: Sarah, married to John Hann. is also deceased; Eliza- beth died as the wife of Abraham Inlow; Jacob, our subject, and Isaac, the youngest of the family, who died in infancy The father

----

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of this family was a shoemaker by trade and both he and wife died in Licking county.

Jacob Danner was but eleven years of age when he lost his father, and, his mother being in cramped circumstances, he hired out to work at $6 per month, and continued to work out until his marriage, October 27, 1846, to Miss Hannah Ships, daughter of John and Eliza- beth (McCagne) Ships, natives, respectively, of Virginia, and Washington county, Ohio, and both of whom were brought to Licking county in childhood. To the marriage of Mr. Shipps, who was a farmer, were born six chil- dren, all now deceased, with the exception of Mrs. Danner. In 1848, Mrs. Danner's parents came to Van Wert county, buying lands in York township, and in the following spring bought in both York and Jennings townships, end there lived for six years, then bought, in 1857, what is known as the Griffin farm, where they lived until their retirement to Van Wert, where Mr. Ships died October 2, 1872, and Mrs. Ships. November 9, 1873. Sep- tember 10, 1848, Mr. Danner settled in Allen county, where he lived until 1849, when he came to Van Wert county, in the spring, and here purchased a farm on Jennings prairie. which farm he later sold and bought eighty acres, in 1861, in Ridge township, all in the woods, but now a well improved and elegant farm; added to which, also, is a portion of a 100-acre tract that had been purchased some years ago by Mrs. Danner's father. The family born to Mr. and Mrs. Danner comprise the following children: Elizabeth Catherine, deceased wife of John Parent; Mary Ann, wife of J. F. Anschutz, of Van Wert; Sarah Emily, who died in infancy: J. S., of Harrod, Allen county; Nathan Ira, of Van Wert; David Marion, who died in infancy, and Milton As- bury, still at home. The political affiliations of Mr. Danner are with the democratic party. but he never excites himself over party affairs.

He is an excellent farmer, however, and is, in every sense in which the term is used, a self- made man, and stands most deservedly high in the esteem of his fellow-citizens.

ILLIAM DAVIS. a substantial farmer of Washington township. Van Wert county, Ohio, and an ex-soldier of the late Civil war, was born in the south of Wales, June 5, 1837, and is a son of Thomas Davis, who, by his first wife, was the father of four children, who grew to maturity and were named And, Thomas, Elizabeth and Margaret; by a second marriage, to Elizabeth Williams, he became the father of two chil- dren-William and John: this wife died in America, and by his third marriage, to Sarah J. Gloss, a widow, there were born one child -Celissa.

Thomas Davis came to America in 1842. bought land in New York state and cleared up a farm; later he sold his place and came to Chio and located in Darke county, and still later, in 1863. came to Van Wert county and purchased land in Washington township, en which he resided a number of years, but again sold out and settled in Ridge township, where his life terminated at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a substantial farmer and a respected citizen, a pious member of the Congregational church, a democrat in politics, and furnished to the defense of the flay of his- adopted country two sons-Thomas and Will- iam, the former of whoni served under the 100. day service, in an Ohio regiment.

William Davis, the subject proper of this memoir, was but five years of age when he came to America with his parents, and after the death of his mother came with his father to Ohio. In Butler county, Ohio. he enlisted, October 3, 1861, in company I, Fourth Ohio cavalry, to serve three years or until the con-

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clusion of the war. Serving out the full term of his enlistment and receiving his honorable discharge, at Columbia, Tenn., October 20, 1864; he re-enlisted, entering company K, Thirteenth Ohio cavalry, February 27. 1865, and serving about six months, when he was again discharged in Virginia, August 10, 1865, the war having been triumphantly ended. A partial enumeration of the terrific contests in which he took an active part comprises only Stone River, Chickamauga, the Atlanta cam- paign and Kenesaw Mountain, but he was never off duty in any skirmish or engagement in which his regiment was called to serve, save when confined in hospital. As a cavalryman he was always in the advance and much exposed, and at Huntsville, Ala., was shot through the right thigh, but after recovery rejoined his regiment and followed its fortune with fortitude and genuine courage.

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A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1, Part 77

Author: Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Bowen Number of Pages: 1310

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1310