USA > Ohio > Portage County > A portrait and biographical record of Portage and Summit counties, Ohio > Part 39
USA > Ohio > Summit County > A portrait and biographical record of Portage and Summit counties, Ohio > Part 39
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June 13, 1855, Mr. Mendenhall was mar ried at Canton, Ohio, to Miss Asenath Mich- ener, who was born in Goshen, Mahoning county, Ohio, in 1831, a daughter of James and Eliza Michener, natives of Pennsylvania. who came to Ohio in the same year in which their daughter, Asenath, was born. To Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall have been born three children, viz: Carrie, now Mrs. D. S. Perkins; Nina, married to C. J. Stanford, and Ella, wife of Dr. C. S. Hiddleson, whose biography ap- pears on another page.
Mr. Mendenhall is a republican in politics, and has held the office of township trus- tec, for a period of six years. He is very popular personally, and his family, as well as himself, are among the most respectable resi- dents of Atwater township.
LIAS MILLER, one of the most re- spected, old-time farmers of Bath township, Summit county, was born in Jackson township, Stark county. Ohio, March 12, 1824, and is a son of Petet and Mary (Williams) Miller, the former of whom was born October 5, 1796, and was a son of George Miller, who was born Noven .. ber 7, 1763.
Peter Miller married Miss Mary William .. February 13, 1823, and came to Bath town ship, Summit county, in 1838, and settled on a farm, one-half mile east of the center thea: of, where he continued to follow his life-lon ; vocation as an agriculturist, and attained :
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considerable degree of popularity and influence with his fellow-townsmen, whom he served as township trustee, school director, and justice of the peace, having been elected by the re- publican party. In religion, he was converted to the Evangelical faith fourteen years prior to his death, and was a consistent member of the church of that name. He lost his wife, Mary, in 1826. She had borne him two chil- dren -- Elias, the subject of this biography, and Robert S., who died in infancy. For his second helpinate, he married Nancy Sprankle, who gave birth to three children-James, Jo- seph (died in infancy), and Milton, the death of Peter Miller occurring March 31, 1867.
Elias Miller was tolerably well educated in the district schools of Stark and Summit counties, and was reared by his father to the honorable and noble pursuit of agriculture. He married, April 16, 1848, Miss Sarah Sprankle, who was born June 16, 1827, a daughter of Jacob Sprankle, who was born in Pennsylvania, in 1798. Mrs. Sarah Miller died of a tumor, May 10, 1895, the mother of the following-named children: Jacob S., born November 12, 1849-died of consump- tion of the lungs, May 7, 1878; Etta Ann, who was born November 28, 1851, was mar- ried to Wait Hopkins, and died of a tumor, January 13, 1896; Nancy, born December 18, 1854, now the wife of Daniel Mull, and a resi- dent of Cleveland; Mary A., who was born February 27, 1857, is married to Newton Hockett, and resides in Bath township; Ama G., born February 19, 1859, died of typhoid fever, October 3, 1871; Dora, born June 13, 1864, was married to John Rothrick, and died of consumption of the lungs, July 18, 1892, and Peter Milten, born in Bath township, February 6, 1867, died of consumption of the bowels, October 22, 1885. The subject of this sketch was married again, April 11, 1897, to Margaret A. Drushal, which was her maid-
en name, but who was twice married before she married Elias Miller -- first to Samuel Tins- ler, and secondly to William Watts.
Mr. Miller had led a very active and indus- trious life, having cleared up nearly all of his 1 30-acre farm and made all the improvements, the buildings being substantial and neat and tasty in appearance, while the farm itself, which is situated three-fourths of a mile east of the center of Bath, presents an aspect of thrift and good management unsurpassed by any farm of its dimensions in Bath township.
In politics Mr. Miller affiliates with the republican party. He has long been a mem- ber of and leader in the Evangelical church, and fraternally is a member of Richfield lodge, No. 266, F. & A. M., in which he has held the chair of junior deacon. He is now living in comparative retirement in Homer township, Medina county, Ohio, having done no practical farm work for the past ten years, his ample means affording him the privilege of enjoying in ease the fruits of his early indus- try, although he keeps a general oversight in the management of his estate. He is an honorable and upright gentleman in every sense of these words, and holds with a lasting tenure the respect of his neighbors.
ILLIAM B. MICLE, long a re- spected resident of Aurora town- ship, Portage county, Ohio, and for over three years a soldier of the Civil war, was born in Pottsdam, Saint Law- rence county, N. Y., a son of Benjamin W. and Mary (Hoggett) Micle, who were of French descent and had a family of four chil- dren, viz: Malinda, Emma. George and Wil- liam B. The family early came to Ohio, but the parents some years afterward returned to the state of New York, where the father
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
, passed the remainder of his life, and died at about the age of forty-five years.
William B. Misle, when about nine years old, was brought to Aurora township by his parents, received a good common-school edu- cation, and was reared a farmer. October 7, 1861, he enlisted, at Streetsboro, in company F, Forty-second Ohio volunteer infantry, and served until honorably discharged. November 19, 1864, at Columbus, Ohio. He fought in seven rebel states during this period-Ken- tucky, Virginia. West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas --- and among other battles in which he took part were those of Middle Creek, Chickasaw Ileights, Fort Hinman, Port Gibson, Ray- mond, Champion Hill, Black River Bridge and Vicksburg, and was, beside, in several se- vere skirmishes, bu! passed through all without a wound, although several rifle-balls passed through his clothing. Mr. Micle is small of stature, being but five feet, three inches in height, and weighing but 137 pounds, yet he endured the long marches better than the large men, many of whom fell in the ranks fron fatigue. His hardest march was with Gen. Morgan, from Cumberland Gap to the Ohio river, a distance of 237 miles, many skir- mishes occurring on the way. The troops were without regular rations and subsisted on the forage of a very poor country. The reb- els captured all the stragglers, and blockaded all the roads, and when the troops reached the Ohio river, they were dirty, ragged, shoe- less and hungry, a little green corn having sus- tained Mr. Micle through the march. On two occasions he marched with his company 700 miles, and while many a robust soldier fell ex- hausted, Mr. Micle came through intact. He was not in the hospital, excepting about three weeks in the early part of his service, when he was suffering from measles, although for four months, during the latter part of his
term, he suffered from chronic diarrhea, yet did not leave his company.
Mr. Micle was united in marriage, Janu- ary 14, 1869, at Shalersville, Portage county, with Miss Margaret J. English, who was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, in 1851, a daughter of John and Martha (Piburn) Eng lish John English came to America shortly after the birth of his daughter, Margaret J .. and settled in Shalersviile, where he engaged in saw-milling. His children were seven in number, and were named Eliza, Martha, Eliza- beth, Hattie L., Margaret J., Joseph and john, and of these, Joseph was in the three months service in the late war. Mr. English de- parted this life in Shalersville, at the age of sixty-four years, a respected citizen, and an industrious, temperate, honest man. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Micle, have been born the following-named children: John, Henry. Eugene Arthur, Harry, Maud and Maggi ... Since the war Mr. Micle has been much dis- abled, and for a year at a time has been un- able to do any work. Generally, he has engaged in teaming in Shalersville, Ravenna, Newburg and Aurora, having lived in the last- named place since 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Micle are consistent members of the Disciples' church, and in politics Mr. Micle is independ- ent, voting for the candidate he deems to be best fitted for office. He is a quiet, unassumu- ing, honest man, and is held in great respect in the community in which he lives.
IDEON H. MILLS, JR., of Twins- burg, Ohio, an old soldier of the Civil war, springs from old New England ancestry, of Holland-Dutch stock, and is the seventh generation of his family named Gideon.
Gideon Mills, grandfather of subject, was one of the pioneers of Iludson, and Gideon
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Mills, father of subject, came with his father, when a boy, to Hudson, Ohio. The last- named Gideon was reared a farmer, and mar- ried Matilda Case, daughter of Gideon and Temperance (Minor) Case, and to this union were born six children, viz: Julia, Lucy, Gideon, Eliza O., Almon D. and Harlow. Mr. Milis located in Streetsboro, where he cleared up a farm. He enlisted as a soldier in the Civil war in the fall of 1861-probably September-for three years, and had nearly served out his time when he was honorably discharged on account of disability, and re- turned to Streetsboro. His first wife died, and he next married, in Streetsboro, Mary Wilcox, and they were the parents of two children-Edward and William. Mr. Mills was a member of the Congregational church, and in politics was a whig and republican. He was an honored and respected citizen, a well-known and substantial farmer and owned a good farmi, and died at the age of eighty- four years.
Gideon H. Mills, Jr., was born October 29, 1834, at Twinsburg, Ohio, received a common- school education and became a farmer. He enlisted in Capt. George Wetmore's Ninth Ohio independent battery, November 2, 1861, to serve three years or during the war, was promoted to corporal in 1863 and re-enlisted in the same organization as a veteran volun- teer February 11, 1864, at Tullahoma, Tenn., and was honorably discharged July 25, 1865, at Camp Cleveland, Ohio. He was in the battles of Mill Springs, Cumberland Gap, Franklin, Tenn., second battle of Franklin, Tazewell, Tyrone, Nashville, Stone River, Tullahoma, and Chattanooga, and several others, fifteen battles in all. His service was principally in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ala- baina, and he was always an active soldier, Mompt and faithful in the discharge of his luty. He kept a memorandum in a diary of
each day's events while in the army, which is of great interest. He was not sick in hospital nor wounded, nor a prisoner, but was all the time with his battery, although he was rup- tured in 1863. After the war Mr. Mills re- turned to Suminit county, and married, Jan- uary 22, 1868, in Twinsburg township, Sarah White, widow of Elisha White (nee Sarah Lane), daughter of Luman and Irene (Thomas) Lane. Luman Lane was born at Killingworth. Conn., in 1796, and came on foot to Ohio with a pack on his back, in 1820, when a young man of twenty-four years, in company with Hanford White, the father of Elisha White, the first husband of Mrs. Mills, and located at. the place now occupied by our sub- ject, then all woods. They built a cabin and lived together nearly two years, as bachelors, when Human Lane married Irene Thomas, who came from Connecticut with Ethan Alling and family. He cleared up a farmi of 100 acres and made a good home. Ilis chil- dren were Charles, Albert, Augusta, Edward, Emeline and Sarah. Mrs. Lane died and he married Emma Parrish, and they had one child -- Philena. Mr. Lane was an honored pioncer and upright man. He lived to be eighty-two years old, and died a member of the First Congregational church at Twinsburg, and in politics was a republican.
Gideon H. Mills, Jr., after marriage. first lived on the White fann and then twelve years in Hudson township, where he bought 106 acres; then returned to the White farm, bought a lot and built a feed-mill, cider-mill and a factory, and for twenty years ran a threshing machine and a portable saw-mill. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Mills are Lottie P., and Gideon L. Lottie P. is the wife of George M. Wall, a bookkeeper of Wilming- ton, Del. They have one son and daughter, Adelbert, Marion. Gideon L. is a resident of Solon, Ohio, and is an engineer; he married
.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Miss Electa Sheets, a native of Ohio. Mir. and Mrs. Mills were pupils in the Rev. Samuel Bissel's Twinsburg institute, and are now members of the Twinsburg Congregational church, in which he has held the office of deacon. In politics he is a republican, casting his first presidential vote for Gen. John C. Fremont, is a member of the W. T. Sherman post, G. A. R., at Hudson, and has held the office of vice-commander. He is a member of the school board, and for two years was a supervisor. Mr. Mills is a veteran of the late war, with a fine military record. The famous John Brown of Kansas was a relative of Mr. Mills, John Brown's mother having been a sister of 'Squire Gideon Mills of Hudson, the grandfather of our subject. The Mills are of Holland-Dutch stock. The first of the name was Peter Walter Mulen, as the name was spelled, who came from Holland to America. Gideon Mills, Jr., and Samuel Bediant made the first traction engine, at Hudson, and ran this engine twenty years.
J OHN B. MOECK, an ex-soldier of the late Civil war and a well known resident of Streetsboro, Portage county, Ohio, is a native of Germany, born in Wurtem- berg November 12, 1830, ason of John and Mar- garet (Ruetz) Mocck. He received a good education in the excellently managed public schools of his native city, and then learned the butchering business. In the latter part of May, 1851, he embarked at Havre, France, on board the A I swift-sailing packet ship Isabel for New York, and landed in that city july 2, after a short passage, for those days, of a little more than thirty days. He readily found employment and worked in New York city. Albany, N. Y., Philadelphia, Pa., and then for a few years in Bucks county, Pa.
In March, 1862, Mr. Moeck came to Ohio
and worked in Stowe township. Summit county, then moved to Brimfield township, where he lived until his enlistment, October 2, 1862, at Cleveland, in company C, Sixth Ohio cavalry, Maj. Bingham commanding, for nine months. but served ten, and was honorably discharged, at Cleveland, July 29, 1863. Ife was assigned to the army of the Potomac and took part in the destructive raid through the Shenandoah valley. He fought at Kelly Fort, Va., was in the charge on Fort Thompson, was in the bat- tle at Cross Roads, and the engagements at Warrenton, and was in many brisk skirmishes during Gen. Stoneman's famous raid. At Stoneman's headquarter's, Mr. Moeck's com- pany acted as body guards, and its members were selected as bearers of dispatches, accord- ing to trustworthiness and daring, and in this hazardous service Mr. Moeck met with many adventures and hairbreadth escapes from capture. He endured many hardships and privations, and at one time, when his boots were burnt up by accident in camp, was bare- foot for a whole week in cold weather. He was taken sick and was in field hospital on the Potomac river for about a month, was then taken to Washington, D. C., and thence sent to Cleveland, where he was discharged at the date mentioned above, and given transporta- tion to Ravenna, where he was confined to his bed for three months, and after recovering en- gaged in farm work.
Mr. Moeck married in Ravenna, October 15, 1863, Mrs. Barbara Shaffer, who was born April 2, 1845, in Germany, a daughter of John and Mary (Mades) Shaffer. John Shaffer was a farmer in Baden province, Germany, and owned his land, which had been in the family for generations. To his marriage with Miss Mades, daughter of Jacob Mades, a farmer were born Joseph (who died at twenty-four years of age), Mary, Visula, Mary A., Eliz- abeth, Catherine, Eva and Barbara. Mr.
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Shaffer died March 25. 1850, when his dangh- ter Barbara (now Mrs. Moeck) was but five years of age, and when six years old she came with her sister, Mary, to America. She was reared by strangers in Randolph, Portage county, Ohio, and at the age of eighteen years she became the bride of Mr. Moeck.
After marriage, Mr. Moeck continued to reside in Ravenna until 1867, when he went to Minnesota, where he lived three months and then returned to Portage county and located in Kent, where he resided until 1879, when he came to Streetsboro and bought his present home. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Moeck has been blessed with one child-Rosa-who is married to William Shoemaker, and is the mother of one son, Jolin. In politics Mr. Moeck is a republican. He and wife attend the Methodist church, although Mr. Moeck is in belief a Lutheran. He has always been an industrious, moral, temperate man, and is as good a citizen as he was a soldier.
ALTER E. MOWEN, M. D., a physician and surgeon of Portage county, Ohio, was born July 31, 1856, in Deerfield, in the county named, and here he still has his residence, his ability in his profession being fully recognized by those among whom he was born and reared to manhood-a recognition not usually ac- corded professional men. He descends from a long line of American ancestors, of whom three generations, at least, have been resi- dents of the Buckeye state.
Daniel Mowen, the paternal grandfather of the doctor, was a native of Berks county, Pa., was a tailor by trade, but came at a very early day to Ohio and engaged in farming in Colombiana county, and later moved to Fred- ericksburg. To his marriage with Elizabeth Kudisall were born nine children, of whom
six are still living, viz: Humphrey, T. R. (father of the doctor), both residing in Decr- field; Simeon J., of Chicago; Oliver P., of Deerfield; Harriet, wife of Richard McGowan, and Sophina, wife of Daniel Koons, of Cleve- land. Of the three deceased, Nancy died April 8, 1857, at the age of nineteen years; Hiram, who was a soldier in the Civil war and died in Tennessee, and Samantha, the de- ceased wife of Orison Diver. The father of the family died April 9, 1845. a member of the Lutheran church, of which his deceased wife was also a member. .
Ephraim Hubbard, the maternal grand- father of the doctor, was born February 10, 1792, in Stratford, Com., and in 1800 was brought to Ohio by his parents, who settled in Deerfield township, Portage county, where they purchased a farin. On this farm Ephraim was reared to manhood. He took part in the war of 1812, and later became a prominent citizen and a leader of men, repre- senting his district in the state legislature two termis, and later serving for a number of years as chaplain in the state penitentiary, his polit- ical affiliatious having first been with the whig party and later with the republican, and by the latter was elected to nearly all the township offices. He first married Miss Mary Mc- Gowan, who bore him eight children, of whom two are still living, viz: Mrs. T. R. Mowen, the mother of the subject of this sketch, and Mary, wife of Jesse L. Slack, of Deerfield. The deceased were Rebecca, wife of M. L. Streetor; Homer, Edgar, Cyrus, Horatius, and Samantha, who died suddenly in the rail- road station at Alliance, the wife of Andrew Slack. Mrs. Mary (McGowan) Hubbard was also called away, dying in 1838, and Mr. Hub- bard next married, in 1840, Mrs. Julia Reed, who bore him two children, viz. Alma, wife of Michael Edler, and Helen, who died in in- fancy. Mr. Hubbard died on his farm July
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
10, 1876, at the age of eighty-four years, and Mrs. Julia (Reed) Hubbard, his wife, departed this life a few years later, aged eighty-eight years, and both in the faith of the Disciples' church. The father of Ephraim B. Hubbard, above alluded to, was also named Ephraim B., was a resident of Dutchess county, N. Y., where he married Miss Mary Kidd, a niece of the famous Capt. Kidd, for whose supposed buried treasures visionaries are digging along the banks of the Hudson river, and elsewhere, up to the present day. From New York Mr. Hubbard came to Ohio and bought a tract of land near Deerfield, on which he died in 1825, at the age of sixty-one years, the father of four children -- Sophia, who was married to Harvey Mills, of Nelson, Ohio; Ephraim B., subject's grandfather, and Stephen A., who became a minister of the Methodist church.
T. R. Mowen, father of Dr. Walter E. Mowen, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, April 14, 1824, and when a small boy was bound out to a farmer, with whom he re- mained until he attained his majority, when he began work as a farm hand for the neighbor- ing agriculturists, and through frugility was enabled to purchase his first farin in 1859, which was situated in Deerfield township, and on which he resided until 1887, when he re- tired to the town of Deerfield, where he had purchased a fine residence, and where he still resides in ease and comfort. The marriage of T. R. Mowen took place December 25, 1844, to Miss B. E. Hubbard, who was born January 3, 1824, a daughter of Ephraim B. and Mary (McGowan) Hubbard, of whoin full mention is made in a foregoing paragraph. To this union there was but one child born -- Dr. Wal- ter E. Mowen-who still resides with his parents, and of whom further mention will be inade in the paragraph following. T. R. Mowen and wife are devoted members of the Disciples' church, of which Mr. Mowen has
been a deacon for more than thirty years, and no family in Deerfield is more highly esteemed than theirs.
Dr. Walter E. Mowen, with whose name this biographical memoir is opened, was feared on his father's farin, which, to some extent. he assisted to cultivate, but the major portion of his early days was passed in attending the district school and Mount Union college, after which he engaged in selling farm machinery and agricultural implements until 1886, when he succumbed to an urgent desire to become a physician. Accordingly, in that year, he began reading under Dr. Oglesby, of Deer- field, and for six months was an assiduous student under his preceptorship; the next six months' study was had under Dr. C. M. Hoover, of North Benton, Ohio, and in the following fall he entered the Cleveland Medical college, where he studied three years, gradu- ating March 9, 1889. He then returned to Deerfield and purchased the business which had been established by Dr. Henry Powers, and this he has since increased from year to year, until he has the longest list of patients of any physician in Deerfield.
Dr. Mowen was united in marriage July 1. 1877, with Miss Alice B. Randall, daughter of H. S. and Sarah (Alberta) Randall, and this happy union has been blessed with four chil- dren, named, in order of birth, Don T., Chit S., Blanch and Ned W. The doctor and family are members of the Disciples' church at Deerfield, and Mr. and Mrs. Mowen are free contributors of their means to its support Fraternally the doctor is a member of Charity lodge, F. & A. M., and also of the Cleveland Medical society. In politics he is an active republican, and is the present chairman of the republican township committee. The soon. i standing of the doctor and his family is with the most respected of the residents of Deerfield township, and individually he is highly e -.
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L' Waterman
Gro & Watermano 2ยช Link Co. B. 115 LOV
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OF PORTAGE AND SUMMIT COUNTIES.
teemed as a gentleman of integrity, morality, and unfailing charity, reaching, in fact, the virtue of philanthropy.
RS. LAWSON WATERMAN, of Peninsula, Ohio, is one of the pa- triotic ladies of the Civil war. Her husband, Lawson Waterman, was born in Otsego county, N. Y .. at Decatur, January 21, 1811, and at the age of nineteen years went to Rochester, N. Y., where he was employed in a ship-yard. He went on the lakes as a sailor the following summer and for several years was engaged working in the ship-yard winters and sailing summers. He caine to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1836, and here met Angelina C. Rogers, to whom he was married October 24, 1840. Jinmediately after marriage Mr. and Mrs. Waterman came to Peninsula, where Mr. Waterman died, after a short illness, September 21, 1892. There were two sons born to Mr. and Mrs. Water- man-George Lawson, who was born Septein- ber 5, 1841, and who grew to manhood in Peninsula, and Lewis Rogers, who was born Angust 6, 1844, and died October 20, 1844. Mr. Waterman was a very charitable man, and no worthy person in need ever applied to hit in vain. He was many years in the canal boat building business and prospered by his steady adherence to his vocation. He began a poor man at Peninsula, in 1838, but suc- ceeded in establishing a large business, em- ployed many men, built many canal boats, and in 1852 built the home where his widow now lives. He was a man of sterling integrity of character, and much respected by all who knew him. The home place consists of 300 acres of fine land, cleared from the woods. Politically a democrat, he was postmaster at Peninsula several years, also a member of the town board, and was township trustee; like- 35
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