USA > Ohio > Portage County > A portrait and biographical record of Portage and Summit counties, Ohio > Part 14
USA > Ohio > Summit County > A portrait and biographical record of Portage and Summit counties, Ohio > Part 14
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Richard Case, great-grandfather of subject, was the father of Richard Case, the grand- father of subject, who was a farmer of Hartford county, Conn., and to his marriage were born Richard, Sterling, George, Chauncy, Gideon, Ruth, and others not remembered. Richard, the grandfather of subject, lived to be an aged man and died in Connecticut. He had a brother who was a soldier in the war of the Revolution and was killed by a spent cannon ball. \ premium was offered for British can- non balls found in battle, and he and another soldier attempted to stop an apparently slow- moving ball and was instantly killed.
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Chauncy Case, son of Richard, was the father of Lora Case, was born in Hartford county, Conn., November 20, 1775, and be- came a farmer. He married, in 18or, Cleo- patra Hayes, born September 4, 1779, and the children were Laura, born August 30, 1802; Chauncy, born October 26, 1803; Clar- inda, born January 27, ISO8; Parintha, born April 10, 1810; Lora, born November 17, 1811; Edward, born August 15, 1814; Lucian, born July 3, 1816; Henry, born October 30, 1817; Amelia, born November 6, 1819; Maria, born May 8, 1822. Chauncy Case owned a good farm in the town of Granby, Hartford county, Conn. He moved with his family to Summit county, Ohio, arriving at Hudson July 4, 1814, having made the journey with a two- horse team, and had a milk cow tied on behind for milk for the children. They were six weeks on the way. His brother-in-law, Gideon Mills (who had married his wife's sister, Dorothy Hayes), and his family came with the party. Chauncy Case settled in Hudson, in the east part of town, on a farm of 160 acres, about twenty acres having been cleared and a hewed log house having been built, but not finished, having neither door, chimney nor window nor floor. Mr. Case put in a puncheon floor, and improved his house, and built, the second year, a frame barn. He cleared up his farm and be- came a substantial farmer and made a good pioneer home, and here the last five children were born. Mrs. Case was a member of the Congregational church and Mr. Case was an old-line whig in politics and an abolitionist. He was a sturdy pioneer and lived to be about eighty-four years old, and died in May, 1865. He was a very industrious and hard-working man, much respected as a substantial farmer and good citizen.
Lora Case, son of above and the subject of this sketch, was born November 17, 1811, in Granby township, Hartford county, Conn.,
and was about two and a half years old when brought by his parents to Ohio; was brought up among the pioneers and received a pioneer common-school education in a log house at Darrowville, but always took a great interest in reading good books and a wide interest in all political matters, and improved his mind. He worked hard at clearing land and on the farm when young. He married, at the age of about twenty-five years, May 10, 1837, in Hudson, Ohio, Sarah A. Wright, born May S, 1814, in Sharon, Conn., a daughter of Thomas and Clarissa (Hollenbeck) Wright. Thomas Wright was a farmer born in Connecticut and married there, and was of English ancestry. Their children were William, Samuel, Sarah A., Mary, George, Jeremiah, Henry and Fred- rick. Thomas Wright moved to Summit county, Ohio, in 1815, and settled in Hudson township, cleared up a farm from the woods, and there passed the remainder of his days. He was a member of the Congregational church and highly respected by all. He died at the age of seventy-five years. Lora Case and wife settled on a farm of 160 acres in the woods in Streetsboro township, Portage county, near the line. He cleared up this farm and had paid $5 per acre, his father giving him the first payment of $5, and by diligence and hard work, aided by his helpful wife, he made a good farm and home, and in 1864 sold this farm and moved to another, which consisted of 164 acres when he bought it, but he sold all but sixty acres. He built good buildings and made a good home.
To Mr. and Mrs. Case were born Chauncy, Ellen, Julian and Wilbert. Mrs. Case died December 8, 1888, a member of the Congre- gational church at Hudson, and a woman of many virtues. In politics Mr. Case was a whig and an abolitionist, and was one of the founders of the republican party in Portage county, and voted for John C. Fremont. He
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was a stanch lover of freedom and was con- nected with the under ground railroad, and his house was a station on this famous secret route, and he, a number of times, afforded shelter to the down-trodden slaves on their way north. At one time in the 'fifties, in the fall of the year, a colored man from Ravenna (a hackman for Samuel Taylor, who was a Quaker tavern-keeper of that place), drove out in the uight and called upon Mr. Case and told him that Samuel Taylor had sent him seven fugitive slaves, and that men were on their track at Ravenna. Mr. Case's house was selected because it was a little off the usual route, which was via David Lane's, who lived at Streetsboro, and thus the pursners were thrown off the track. Mr. Case kept them from Friday night until Sunday night, and then drove them to Hudson to John Markley, who immediately drove them to a Mr. Johnson's, at Northfield, who drove them to Cleveland, where they were placed on a steamboat and taken safely to Canada. This party consisted of four men and two women- all young-and a child. They kept very quiet and seeined depressed and fearful, and said but little and kept close to the barns, and could not at first be induced to come to the house for food. This kind of work in the cause of liberty was dangerous, for many would have gladly given information and caused the arrest of those who aided the slaves to escape, as they were liable to a fine and imprisonment and the price of the slaves. Thus these fear- less men risked their property and even liberty to help the down-trodden to freedom -- who were strangers to them and whom they never saw again. They were simply instruments for the great cause of liberty, and many a slave was thus taken to Canada and freedom. Mr. Case was always industrious and has all his life been an active temperance worker, and voted for prohibition during its advocacy by Green
Clay Smith, and was a faithful laborer in the good cause. He was a much respected and well-known pioneer, was a man of intelli- gence and ability, and died July 14, 1897, deeply mourned by the entire community. Ilis reminiscences are just now appearing in the Hudson Independent.
'ILLIAM E. CHAMBERLAIN, M. D., of Akron, Ohio, is of sterling English descent, and is the son of a physician, who reared four sons to the profession of medicine, to which compli- cated science natore seems to have peculiarly adapted the male members of this honored family.
The ancestors of the doctor, on coming to America, settled near Charleston, S. C., and from these descended Jacob F. Chamberlain, the grandfather of Dr. William E., and the father of Dr. Charles W. Chamberlain. The last-named is a renowned practitioner and has had an extended experience in Cumberland, Md., Wheeling, W. Va .. and in Ohio, and is still in active practice. He married, in Alle- gheny county, Pa., Miss Lovinah LaCock, daughter of David LaCock, and to this union have been born Dr. William E., Dr. G. W. E., Dr. Jacob F., Dr. Norman W. (deceased), Louisa, Adelaide (deceased) and Lovinah P. Of the sons, three served in the Civil war- Doctors William E., G. W. E. and Jacob F. -- Dr. G. W. E. serving as chief of saddlery in the Sixth Ohio cavalry, and Dr. Jacob F. in the Second Ohio, same branch of service.
Dr. William E. Chamberlain was born in Allegheny City, Pa., November 29, 1840, and received his preparatory education at Marietta, Ohio. He then studied medicine under his father, Dr. Charles W. Chamberlain, and also pursued a course of study in chemistry and pharmaceutics; in 1863 and 1864 he attended
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the medical department of the university of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and later graduated from the Charity Medical college, at Cleve- land, Ohio (in the spring of 1879), receiving his degree of M. D., and still later received an ad eundem degree from the medical department of the Wooster university, Cleveland, and is now, also, an alumnus of the Western Reserve college of Cleveland, a member of the North- eastern Ohio Medical society and of the Cleve- land (Ohio) Medical society; he possesses a valuable library of well-selected works pertain- ing to his science, and keeps well abreast of every advance made in its progress.
Dr. Chamberlain began the actual practice of his profession at the age of seventeen years, at Peninsula, Ohio, in conjunction with his father, with whom he remained until the out- break of the Civil war, when he enlisted in company D, First Ohio light artillery, and was soon afterward detailed as surgeon. He served at Ivy Mountain, Green River, Preston- burg, East Liberty, Louisa, Ky., and was also in many skirmishes, but was finally taken sick from exposure during a severe snow-storm, which led to his confinement in hospital at Louisville, Ky., and at Columbus, Ohio, and also received other injuries, from which he never fully recovered, being still deprived of hearing in one of his ears. His term of service continued through thirteen months, when he was honorably discharged on account of disa- bility, although he was a man of very robust constitution prior to his enlistment.
The first marriage of Dr. Chamberlain took place March 31, 1862, at Liverpool, Medina county, Ohio, to Miss Mary Prichard, a native of the place, and a daughter of Sheldon and Marietta Prichard, and.to this union was born one child- Myrtle. M., February 3. 1868. Having been deprived by death of his first companion, the doctor next married Miss Elizabeth R. Greer.
January 10, 1875, Dr. Chamberlain came to Akron, and here has made a reputation that might be envied by any physician, being indis- putably recognized as the most skillful prac- titioner in the city, to which recognition he is well entitled, having now been in active prac- tice in Summit county for over thirty-two consecutive years. Here his social relations are of the most pleasant character, and fra- ternally he is an honored Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and of Buckley post, No. 12, Grand Army of the Republic.
The doctor's maternal ancestors, the La- Cook family, were of sterling Scotch-Irish origin. The founder of the family in America settled in Westmoreland county, Pa., in 1727, where he purchased several hundred acres of land, and reached the patriarchal age of 107 years, and then met his death by violence, being shot with arrows by Indians in the war of 1812.
David LaCook, the maternal grandfather of the doctor, married a Miss Pattent, the union resulting in the birth of five children, viz: Sarah, David, Joseph, Mary and Lovinah P. The father of this family also lived to a great age -- 100 years-and at his death his hair had not turned gray and his teeth were still per- fectly sound. His wife also reached the age of 100 years, and the demise of both took place in Pennsylvania, where they were among the most honored of the pioneers.
a HARLES C. CONAGHAN, one of the old soldiers of the Civil war, and a respected citizen and merchant of Tallmadge, Ohio, was born in Carey, Wyandot county, Ohio, October 16, 1842, a son of Charles C. and Mary A. (Bardoon) Cona- ghan. The Conaghans were of Irish, and the Bardoons of French ancestry.
Dennis Conaghan, the grandfather of C.
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C. Conaghan, the subject of this memoir, was born in Ireland, first settled in Adams county, Pa., and was a pioneer farmer of Stark coun- ty, Ohio, where he settled about 1825, but moved to Wyandot county. Charles C. Cona- ghan, the father of subject, was a farmer of Wyandot county, Ohio, and his children were Charles C., our subject, and A. F. Mr. Cona- ghan died a young man, aged thirty-two years, and his widow then married William Best, to which union four children were born, viz: Mary E., Agatha, Louisa and Matilda.
Charles C. Canaghan, the subject of this mnemoir, was reared on a farm in Wyandot county, and enlisted in Tiffin, Ohio, August 12, 1861, in company B, Forty-ninth regiment Ohio volunteer infantry, for three years or during the war, under Col. W. H. Gibson and Capt. B. S. Porter, served out his time and was honorably discharged at Chatanooga, Tenn., September 5, 1864. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Liberty Gap, and Chicka- mauga, where he was wounded September 19, 1863. He was also in the Atlanta campaign and in the battles of Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, Adairsville, Cassville, Pickett's Mills, Pine Mountain, Kencsaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and the siege and general assault of Atlanta. The Forty-ninth Ohio has 113 men buried at Marietta, Ga., in the National ceme- tery. Mr. Conaghan was taken prisoner at Lawrenceburg, Ky., October 8, 1862, by Kirby Smith's command and paroled on the spot and sent home.
The wound Mr. Conaghan received at Chickamauga was by a shot through the right leg just above the knee, from which he was confined in hosaital No, 5, at Nashville, for four weeks and then received a furlough home for sixty days; after partial recovery he served with the Sixty-eighth Indiana volunteer infan- try two months, not being able to join his regi- ment, but finally rejoined it at Cleveland,
Tenn. Mr. Conaghan considers his hardest march to have been from Battle Creek, Tenn., to Louisville, Ky., a distance of about 300 miles, leaving Battle Creek, Tenn., August 16, 1862, and arriving at Louisville, abont September 29 -- 30, 1862, suffering severely from heat and dust, lack of salt and food, liv- ing on green corn and bread which the soldiers baked at the camp fires themselves. Mr. Conaghan crossed, with his regiment, the state of Kentucky three times and five times across the state of Tennessee. His regiment traveled about 12,000 miles on foot, by water and by rail. Pickett's Mill he considers to have been his hardest-fought battle. Mr. Conaghan was always an active soldier, and with the ex ep- tion of the battles fought while he was wounded and a paroled prisoner, was in all the bat les of his regiment, its skirmishes, marches and campaigns.
Alter the war Mr. Conaghan returned to Carey, Wyandot county, Ohio, and in the spring of 1865 went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he took a commercial course at Bryant & Strat- ton's college and immediately thereafter en- gaged in bookkeeping in Cleveland, where he remained six months. In February, 1866, he came to Akron, Ohio, and engaged in the coal trade, at which he continued one year. He married, while living in Akron, Miss Olive R. Ellis, who was born December 15, 1847. in Akron, a daughter of Joseph D. and Mary A. (Brown) Ellis, and to this union were born two children-Nellie L. and Mary B.
After marriage Mr. Conaghan located in New Portage, where he was engaged for one and a half years in the grocery bus ness, and came to Tallmadge in 1870. Here he was em- ployed as clerk for W. E. Hinman until 1885; in 1886 Mr. Conaghan engaged in business at Tallmadge with Frank E. Hine, bot Mr. Hine died in 1892, and since that time Mr. Coua- ghan has conducted.the business alone. Mr.
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Conaghan is a member of the G. A. R., Buckley post of Akron, Ohio, and has been delegate to the department encampment. He is also a member of the K. of P. at Tallmadge. In politics Mr. Conaghan is a stanch republican, has been clerk of Tallmadge ten years, and has been a member of the school board. Mrs. Conaghan died October 27, 1885, a woman of many virtues. Mr. Conaghan next married, March 25. 1897, Margaret E. Hine, née Hall, widow of Frauk E. Hine.
Mr. Conaghan was a brave soldier, and of his regiment, the Forth-ninth Ohio volunteer infantry, 202 men were killed in battle. This was the heaviest loss of any regiment from Ohio. Out of every 1,000 men in the army forty-seven died of disease and thirty-seven were killed, making eighty-four who perished out of every 1,000, and never saw their homes again. Mr. Conaghan's brother Frank enlisted for the war when only seventeen years old in company B, Forty-ninth Ohio volunteer in- fantry, and was killed at the battle of Kenesaw mountain. Mr. Conaghan was not yet nine- teen years old when he enlisted from purely patriotic motives, and first offered his services to his country in the first call for 75,000 men, but this call being most promptly filled, his offer was declined, but he seized the next op- portunity and was accepted, as narrated above.
HOMAS BLACKBURN of Hudson, Summit county, Ohio, and a veteran of the Civil war, was born October 9, 1833. in Lincolnshire, England, a son of William and Jane (Emerson) Black- burn.
William Blackburn was a son of James and Mary (Fowler) Blackburn; James was a soldier seven years in the British army and had a brother in the battle of Waterloo. James Blackburn was the father of two chil-
dren-James and William. He died in Eng- land, a venerable man of eighty-two years. William Blackburn was born October 9, 1799, in Yorkshire, England, was married there, and his children were John, Mary, George, James, Thomas and Henry. After marriage William Blackburn lived in Lincolnshire, and died there. His wife came to America with her youngest son Henry, in 1878, and died at the home of her son Thomas-having at- tained the unusual age of ninety-three years- in 1883.
Thomas Blackburn was entirely self-edu- cated. He left home at the early age of eleven years and worked for a farmer in Lin- colnshire-William Slight-for two years; with another farmer two years, and for Will- iam Davis one year, and others in Yorkshire until he was twenty-three years old. During that time he gained what education he could from books and at Sunday-schools. At the age of twenty-three years, in 1859, he came to America, sailing from Liverpool to New York in the steamer City of Washington, ar- riving in New York May 26, after a passage of eleven days. He came immediately to Ohio and worked on the farm of his brother, John Blackburn, in Boston township, Summit county, eighteen months, and then worked for George Haskell, in Boston township, until he enlisted, September 1, 1861, in Capt. A. J. Konkle's battery D, First Ohio light artillery, for three years or during the war, and served until honorably discharged Jan- uary 1, 1864, at Nashville, Tenn., when he re-enlisted in the same organization, to serve three years more, or during the war, and was again honorably discharged July 15, 1865, at Cleveland, Ohio, the war having come to a close.
He was in the battles of Ivy Mountain (at Piketown), Ky., November 9, 1861; Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862; Corinth, and Green River
Thomas Blackburn.
3
Mrs Anna b. Blackburn.
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OF PORTAGE AND SUMMIT COUNTIES.
Bridge (or Mumfordville, Ky.), in September, 1862. He was then transferred to the Sixth regiment battery, Capt. Parsons, and was in the battles of Chaplain Hill; Perryville, Oc- tober 8, 1862, where the Sixth lost this battery with the exception of one gun, which was drawn off by four men and three horses, and Mr. Blackburn was one of these men; at least one-third of the command was also lost, and the remainder of the men were trans- ferred to a new battery. D, of four guns, un- der Lieut. Nathan Newell, and was in the first battle of Franklin and then in the first battle of Nashville; also in that at Murfreesboro, December 27. 1862, to January 3, 1863-his battery opening the fight-and then was en- gaged in scouting and skirmishing about two months. He was next in the battle of Brady- ville, Tenn., March 2, 1863; the fight at Co- lumbia, Tenn., March 14; Liberty, Tenn., April 4, with Forrest and Wheeler; LaVergne, Tenn .; at McMinnville, they captured a train of cars and burned seven large cotton facto- ries and great quantities of government stores. April 23, they charged Shelbyville Pike, Tenn., and captured it, with a battery of four guns and 600 infantry. Mr. Blackburn was also in the battle of Chattanooga, Tenn .; Middleton, Tenn., January 25, 1863; at Murfreesboro, fighting Forrest and Wheeler's cavalry, and in many skirmishes; was on Dutch Road, and on skirmishes in Sequatchie Valley, Tenn., and captured 400 prisoners; was at Chick- amauga; fought all day in front of Chatta- nooga; October 2, had a fight with Forrest and Wheeler, and marched to Green river, and November 23, 1863, was in the battle at Baldwin Ridge, and in the second battte of Chattanooga, November 26, 1863; was at Missionary Ridge, and other points; at the bat- tle of Knoxville, Tenn., and then was on the great Atlanta campaign and in the battle of Rocky Face Ridge, Pumpkinvine Creek, Ken- 24
esaw Mountain, the battles of Atlanta, Jones- boro-and went with "Pap" Thomas to Nashville, Tenn., and was at Athens and Co- lumbia, Tenn., and at the great battle of Franklin, Tenn., and then in the first battle at Nashville and in Franklin and Columbia. He was then transferred to Washington, and then to North Carolina, and did some service at Fort Fisher and Fort Anderson, and was in the battle of Smithville Creek, and captured 200 prisoners, and marched to Wilmington, N. C., then to Jonesboro, N. C., and joined Sherman's army, lying at Greensboro, and served under him until discharged. Beside this long list of battles, Mr. Blackburn was in many skirmishes, too numerous to mention. During his services as a soldier, he traversed over 26,000 miles, including passage by vehi- cles and steamboats, and marches. He had two horses killed under him in battle -- one at Shelbyville and one on the Atlanta campaign, and at different times three horses were wounded under him, and a bullet at one time struck his knapsack on his saddle. Mr. Black- burn was not sick in hospital worth mention- ing, and was not wounded nor prisoner, and was always prompt and cheerful in the dis- charge of his duty.
After the war Mr. Blackburn returned to Ohio and married, April 10, 1866, in Hudson, Anna L. Cowley, who was born December 1, 1846, in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, England, a daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Hunt) Cow- ley. Joseph Cowley was born in Molten, Sea's End, Lincolnshire, England, April 15, 1815, a son of William and Mary (James) Cowley. William Cowley was a farmer and lived on the farm owned by James Cowley, that had been in the family (from Lord Cowley) since 1610. Williamn Cowley and wife were the parents of William, Mary and Joseph. Will- iam Cowley, Sr., lived to be an aged man and died in England. Joseph Cowley was a black-
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smith by trade, having been apprenticed at twelve years of age. . He married in England, and came to America in 1852, sailing from Liverpool in March, and six weeks later land- ing in New York. He at once came to Ohio, and arrived in the last of May, 1852. Here he worked at his trade one year, when his wife joined him, bringing their children, the eldest being twelve years old, and the youngest four years. In 1854 Mr. Cowley bought a fertile farm, consisting of eighty acres, and improved it with substantial farm buildings and a pleas- ant residence, but nevertheless worked at his trade for several years in Akron. His children were Maria D., Abraham J., William R .; Joseph, died eight years old on lake Erie and is buried at Hudson, Ohio; Anna L. and Lottie R. Mr. and Mrs. Cowley were both members of the Methodist church, in which, in his younger days, Mr. Cowley was a class leader. In politics he was a republican and was an in- dustrious and respected citizen. The death of Joseph Cowley took place September 25, 1897, and his remains were interred beside those of his wife in the cemetery of East Akron, where a beautiful marble shaft marks their last rest- ing place.
After marriage, Thomas Blackburn settled on the Cowley homestead. He has bought ad- ditional land and now has a fine farm of 128 acres. He and wife are the parents of Flor- ence J., Harry J., Lotta A., and Mary Edna. Mr. and Mrs. Blackburn are members of the Congregational church at Hudson and politi- cally he is a republican, casting his first presi- dential vote for "Honest " Abe Lincoln, and for twelve years has served as township trustee. He is a member of Gen. William T. Sherman post, No. 68, G. A. R., at Hudson, in which he has held the office of commander and other positions, and is also a member of the K. of P., Gen. Sheridan lodge, No. 323, at Hudson.
Miss Florence Blackburn was educated in
the Union schools at, Hudson and one year at the academy at Hudson, and was one of Sum- mit county's honored teachers for three years, She is secretary of the Young Ladies' Aid so- ciety at Hudson and a member of the Congre- gational church. She has also been training in music, both vocal and instrumental. Harry J., was a recipient of a high-school course, graduated in 1889 from the academy, and is now teller in the First National bank at Akron, Lotta A. is a graduate of the class of 1891, and also a graduate in the class of 1893 at the Western Reserve academy, and was at first a teacher in the common schools; was in one district for three years, and now has charge of the A. & B. primary in the Union schools in Hudson. Mary Edna is a student in the I) grammar grade in the Union schools. It will be seen that Mr. and Mrs. Blackburn have given their children good practical educations.
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