USA > Ohio > Erie County > A standard history of Erie County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic, and social development. A chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs > Part 66
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The first of the Peck family who pioneered to Ohio was one Charles Peck, grandsire of the subject. Ile was born in Connecticut, there reared, and there married to Mary Barnum, the daughter of a sturdy New England family. Soon after the birth of their first child they, in company with a goodly number of their neighbors, formed a colony and migrated west to Ohio. They made the trip from Danbury, Connecticut, which was long and tedious, fraught with many hardships and perils, hy wagon train, and when they reached Ohio they located in the year 1810 on the shores of Lake Erie, calling the plaee Danbury, in Ottawa County. Their second child, Rachel, was the first white child born on the Fire Lands. Charles Peek was a blacksmith, and his neighbors were able to give him work to maintain his family. When the War of 1812 broke out their position was deemed unsafe, and the little village was forth- with deserted, the people moving to Trumbull County, and settled in Canfield. The Pecks remained there until the close of the war, and in 1816 made another move, this time settling in Florence Township, Erie County. Mr. Peck set up a smithy at Florenee Corners, and he was the only blacksmith in the township for a good while. He prospered there, reared his family in keeping with their station, and died at his home in 1832, when he was forty-four years old. His widow lived to reach a fine old age and when she died was living in the home of her daughter, Rachel, the wife of Mr. Ingham. Mrs. Peek was a sister of Eli S. Barnum, well known as the agent for Jessup & Wakeman, owners of immense traets in Erie and Huron counties.
Seven children were born to Charles and Mary Peek. Mary, the eldest, became the wife of I. T. Norton, and spent her entire life in Erie Vol. II-28
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County. She left three children. Rachel, the second born, married S. R. Ingham, and died well advanced in years, leaving two children. Eliphalet Barnum Peek, father of the subject of this sketeh. was born in Canfield, Ohio, 1814, and died April 12, 1908, at the home of his son, George S. Further mention of his life will follow in a later paragraph. Rebecca married Virgil Squires, who was president of the First National Bank of Defiance, and she died in that eity. Sarah married Nathaniel R. Daniels, and spent her life in Erie County. George S. moved to Iowa in 1854 and there married a Miss Scoville. Ile became a prosperous and prominent farmer and died at his home in that state. Thomas B. became a physician and died a bachelor while in the prime of life.
Eliphalet B. Peck, father of George S., of this review, lived and died on the old farm, which is now the home and property of the subject. He spent a busy and active life on this place of about 100 aeres, and the ninety-two years spent in this township are a monument to his good name and worthy accomplishment. No man was better known or more highly esteemed than this old patriarch, and the name of Peek lost nothing of its original luster through him. He married his wife, Mary E. Reding, in the log-cabin home of her brother-in-law; Nathan Downs. in Wakeman Township, Huron County. She was born in Ridgeville, Lorain County, on May 4, 1819, and was one of the charter members of the old Episcopal Church at Wakeman. This church was organized eighty years ago, Mrs. Peck being only sixteen years at the time. She passed away at the home of her son on March 1, 1889. She was the daughter of John and Betsey (Barnum) Reding, natives of the State of Vermont, where they were married, coming soon thereafter as pioneers to Ohio and taking up a farm in the wilds of Lorain County. After the death of her husband the widow married Justin Sherman of Wakeman. Huron County. Fortune prospered them, and they spent many happy years in Wakeman Township, where they died in later life.
Eliphalet B. Peck was the father of six children. ('lara E .. the eldest and only daughter, married William Higgins of Defiance, Ohio, where she spent her married life and died there many years ago. Minor B .. the eldest son (now deceased), married Carrie M. Sweet of Norwalk, Ohio. and the family is now living in Dallas, Texas. John R. married Flora E. Ileath, of Florence, Ohio, and has long been a resident of Toledo, Ohio. Willis E., the third son, was an invalid, and lived with his brother George, where he died in 1913. George S. is the subject of this sketch. Charles II., who married Nora M. Alpangh, of Hillsdale, Michigan, and is now a resident of Los Angeles, California.
George S. Peck was the youngest but one of the six children of his parents, and he was born on the farm he now operates, and in the house his father built in 1844. All his life he has been sheltered by this kindly roof. His birth occurred on February 27, 1856, and he had his education in the common schools of the community. Since he came into possession of the home place he has added something to it in the way of general improvements, and has lived the life of a good citizen and snecessful farmer. Ile was married by the Rev. Geo. II. Peeke, in Sandusky, Ohio. to Josephine Daniels, who was born in Townsend Township. Huron County, March 16, 1867. and is the daughter of Linus Lee and Enna ( Kyle) Daniels. Mrs. Peck's maternal grandfather was Dr. Salem Kyle. of Birmingham, Ohio, a prominent physician of Erie County. Mr. Daniels was born in Berlin Township on February 14, 1839, and is a well-known implement dealer of Berlin Heights. He is still in good health, and "Doe" Daniels, as he is widely known, has a large circle of staunch friends in the county. His wife died in August. 1875, while in middle life. He is a republican and is prominent in local polities.
Two children have been born to George S. and Josephine Peek. George S., the first born, is connected with the state hospital at Column- bus. Mary B. is a skilled pianist and whistler, and with her husband
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eondnets a studio in Columbus. She followed her high-school education with a course of training in the Capital College of Oratory and Music at Columbus, of which her husband, Walter Harrison Hill, is also a grad- mate, and after their marriage opened a studio for the instruction of pupils in piano musie. They have been very successful in their work.
Besides their two children, the Pecks adopted one child, Linus Bar- num Peck. They are members of the Congregational Church. Mr. Peck has given considerable attention to curio collecting, and has in his pos- session an admirable assortment of Indian arrowheads, many of which he found on his farm. The stone implements commonly used by the Indians are found in his collection, and he is the possessor of the cradle in which his father was rocked 101 years ago.
In a sketch of this nature lack of space forbids any extended mention of any member of the family, but it may here, be mentioned that the Peck family is the subject of an authoritative history and genealogy. dealing with the name in its various branches back through a period of more than 400 years. In this review, however, an effort has been made to outline the life of the family in its connection with the State of Ohio, regardless of earlier activities in other parts of the country, and it is a pleasing task to incorporate in this historical work even so brief a family sketch as this must necessarily be, in connection with the honored name of Peck.
F. GILBERT PIERCE. Eighty or ninety years ago when the Pierce family first came into Northern Ohio this country was still largely a wilderness. Village communities were small and far apart. The pio- neers had effected some clearings and tilled fields, a few roads were ent or blazed through the woods, but still the heaviest burdens rested upon the newcomers in cutting down countless trees, uprooting the stumps and brush, and starting cultivation whtere never before had been the civilized activities of white men. Mr. F. Gilbert Pierce, one of the most prominent agriculturists of Florence Township, thus represents one of the early families, and the work of pioneering performed by his father and grandfather has been continued under modern conditions through his own efforts.
Born at Oberlin, in Lorain County, September 24, 1860, F. Gilbert Pierce is a son of Benjamin L. and Almira (Dayton) Pierce. His father was born in Bennington, Vermont, of old and rugged New England ancestry. He was born in 1812, and was about twelve or thirteen years of age when the family came out to Northern Ohio. From Buffalo they made the journey by lake steamer as far as Cleveland, and thence eame out into the back country, locating at Carlisle, in Lorain County. That was still a wilderness, and the family settled on a tract of land which by the farthest stretch of imagination could hardly be called a real farm. Some years later the parents of Benjamin Pierce left Ohio and moved to Michigan, locating near lonia, where Grandfather Pierce died when quite an old man. His widow subsequently returned to Ohio, and lived with her grandson, F. Gilbert Pierce, for a time, and also with her son, Artemus Pierce, and died at the latter's home in Portage County, Ohio, when abont eighty years of age.
Benjamin L. Pierce was continuously a resident of Lorain County from the time he arrived there as a boy back in the early '20s. He learned the stone and briekmaker's trade at Carlisle and at Oberlin, and for years as a mason foreman and contraetor performed much of the hard work connected with his trade and industry. At both Elyria and Oberlin he and his brother-in-law, A. P. Dayton, under the firm name of Pierce & Dayton, constructed many of the leading store buildings and laid many foundations for homes and other structures in both eities. The substantial quality of their work is still testified by a number of
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buildings which are still standing in Lorain County. Finally Mr. Pierce sold his interests at Oberlin, and about the elose of the Civil war located in Florence Township of Erie County, buying land situated along the Vermilion River, a mile southwest of Birmingham. There he spent the rest of his days in the less strenuous vocation of farmer, and died Oeto- ber 6. 1876. He was a republican in politics, and a member of the Congregational Church. The distinguishing and striking characteristie of this well-remembered citizen was his hard-working industry. Physic- ally he was large and powerful, but even so, his strength did not equal his ambition and determination, and it was largely due to overwork that he finally retired from the mason's trade, and took up the quieter routine of farming. His wife died at the birth of her only child, F. Gilbert Pierce. Benjamin Pierce married again, but there were no children of that union.
F. Gilbert Pieree grew up in his father's home, attended the publie schools, and for the past fifty years, since he was a small boy, has lived continuously on his present farm. He now owns eighty-two acres located on the Vermilion River, and this is regarded as one of the most pro- ductive farms in Florence Township. For many years, season in and season out, he has regularly produeed large erops of grain and has spe- cialized in the handling of good stock. He and his family reside in a sightly eight-room home, surrounded with a number of other building improvements. One feature of the place is a sixty-ton silo. He also has a four-acre apple orchard.
At Berlin Heights Mr. Pieree married Miss Florence Harris. She was born in the State of Maine, but was reared and edueated in Erie County, whither she was brought by her mother when she was small. Her mother died in Erie County and her father subsequently returned East. Mrs. Pieree has a brother, William D. Harris, who is manager of the Buckeye Lake Resort in this state, and by his marriage to Nellie Morris, of Huron, has a family of sons and daughters. A sister of Mrs. Pierce is Lavilla, who died after her marriage and the birth of her first child. Eva, another sister, by her first marriage, to C. C. Bryant, has a daughter, Eva Jane Bryant. Mrs. Bryant married second Irvin Nichols, and is living at Lorain, Ohio. Another sister is Ora, wife of A. J. Nelson, of Medina, Ohio.
Mr. and Mrs. Pierce have two children. Elizabeth, born April 1. 1889, graduated from the Birmingham publie schools and the Oberlin ITigh School, and soon afterwards began a career as teacher which has been her vocation for a number of years. She has taught in Florence Township, also on Kelley's Island, and was one of the first students to graduate from the State Normal at Kent, and has now for several years filled a responsible position in the Elyria schools. Benjamin L., the only son, born March 18, 1894, also took the same course of studies as his sister, and has already attained no little standing as a teacher. At the present time he is teaching in the Birmingham publie schools. He is an ambitious young man, studious and industrious, and has the promise of a career of great usefulness before him.
Besides his fine farm in Florence Township, Mr. Pierce is known in business circles as president of the Farmers Co-operative Milk and Supply Company of Birmingham and Elyria. This company has a capital stock of $10,000, and was organized in July, 1913. It maintains two modern plants for the handling of milk and its products, one at Birmingham and one at Elyria, and the company is one of the chief distributors of butter, cream, ice cream and milk, of the best quality, in these two counties. Every stockholder in the company is a practical dairyman. The vice president and director is Jay C. Parker, another well-known citizen of Florence Township, and the secretary and treas- urer of the company is W. H. Wasen.
Ges Blander
MRS. ALICE HI. BLANDEN
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Mr. Pierce and family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church at Birmingham. The son is a trustee in the church and a leader in Sunday- school activities. Both Mr. Pierce and son are republican voters, and his fellow-citizens have shown their confidence in his integrity and civic standing by electing him to the office of township assessor, a place he held for several years.
GEORGE BLANDEN. For more than four score years has Mr. Blanden maintained his home in his native Township of Florence, and the only appreciable period of absence from the borders of Erie County was when he was rendering to the nation the loyal service of a Union soldier in the Civil war. He has been a man of thought and action, has accounted well for himself in all of the relations of life, achieved substantial success through his long and vigorous identification with the great basic industry of agriculture, and the true character of the indi- vidual has been shown in no one way more distinctively and worthily than in the constant care and loving devotion which he has given to his invalid wife during the long period of eight years of her affliction, which she has borne with gentle patience and Christian fortitude, their mutual sympathy and unselfish solicitude breathing forth the spirit of the ideal harmony between man and wife, and their devotion finding its supreme test and greatest glory in the gloaming of their long and useful lives. After years of earnest endeavor in connection with the productive activities of human existence Mr. Blanden is living in gra- cious retirement in his attractive home in the Village of Birminghanı, and he and his cherished companion and helpmeet are held in reverent affection by a circle of friends whose number is limited only by that of their acquaintances.
In Florence Township, Erie County, Ohio, George Blanden was born on the 5th of December, 1833, and he is the only surviving child of James and Caroline (Reed) Blanden, both natives of the State of New York and members of families early founded within the borders of the old Empire commonwealth, Mrs. Blanden having been a daugh- ter of John and Charlotte (Morgan) Reed, the former of German lineage and the latter a member of the old and well known Morgan family of New York State. Mr. and Mrs. Reed attained to advanced age and passed the closing years of their lives in Birmingham. Erie County, Ohio, where they maintained their home in a house standing just opposite the present home of the subject of this review.
James Blanden was reared and educated in his native state and there learned the trade of mason. Within a comparatively short time after his marriage he and his wife came to Ohio and established their permanent home on a farm in Florence Township. Erie County, where they passed the residue of their lives. Mr. Blanden not only reclaimed one of the excellent pioneer farms of the county but also did a large amount of work at his trade, his services as a mason and plasterer hav- ing been much in demand throughout all parts of the county. He and his wife were early and honored members of the pioneer Methodist Episcopal Church at Birmingham, and their abiding Christian faith was shown forth in their daily lives .- in kindly thoughts and kindly deeds. Mr. Blanden gave his allegiance to the whig party and he preceded his wife to the life eternal, his death having occurred many years ago and his widow having passed away in 1884. the remains of both being interred in the Methodist Churchyard at Birmingham. Of the children George, of this sketch, is the only survivor, as has already been noted, and he was one of the three sons to represent Erie County as gallant soldiers of the Union in the Civil war. His older brother. Jolin, and his younger brother, Allen, lived up to the full tension of the great conflict between the North and the South, John having sae-
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rificed his life on the field of battle, as he was instantly killed when shot through the forehead, at the battle of Resaca, Georgia, where he was laid to rest in a soldier's grave and with such military honors as were possible to bestow under existing conditions. Allen Blanden served as captain of his company in the Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and took part in many important campaigns and battles. He accompanied General Sherman's forces in the Atlanta campaign and thereafter took part in the historic march from Atlanta to the sea. After receiving his honorable discharge, at the close of the war, he returned to Erie County, where he followed the trades of wagonmaker and painter for some time. He finally removed to Michigan and his marriage.was sol- emnized at Breckenridge, Gratiot County, that state, where he continued to reside until his death. Hle was survived by two sons and two daugh- ters.
George Blanden was reared to manhood on the old homestead farm in Florence Township and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the pioneer schools of Erie County. He continued his asso- ciation with agricultural pursuits until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he subordinated all personal interests to go forth in defense of the Union, the integrity of which was placed in jeopardy. In response to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers to aid in suppressing the rebellion, he enlisted in Company E, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for a term of three months, under Captain Sprague and Colonel Tyler. The regiment was mustered in in June, 1861, and forthwith proceeded to the front. At the expiration of his term of enlistment Mr. Blanden re-enlisted as a veteran and for a term of three years, but the fortunes of war did not permit him to remain in the ranks until the close of the great struggle. While in the command of General Kimball at the battle of Cross Lanes, West Virginia, he had his first experience in fieree polemic confliet but he escaped injury. Later he took part in the memorable battle at Winchester, Virginia, and on the 21st of March, 1862, he was shot through the left arm, near the elbow, the minie ball so shattering the bones of the arm that the member was rendered use- less, five sections of bone being taken from the arm. Thus incapaei- tated for further active service in the field, Mr. Blanden received his honorable discharge on the 28th of June, 1862, after having made a record for faithful and valiant service. In later years he has perpetu- ated his interest in his old comrades through his affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republie.
After his physical injury had compelled his retirement from the ranks of the Union Army Mr. Blanden returned to his home in Erie County and within a short time after the close of the war he became the owner of the old Blanchard farm, of eighty-six acres, in Florence Township. There he continued to be successfully engaged in farming and stockgrowing for a period of fully thirty-five years, his retirement from the active labors of the farm having occurred abont the year 1900, when he removed to the Village of Birmingham, where he has since maintained his home and where for eight years past he has devoted himself alnost constantly to ministering to his cherished wife, their loving companionship having continued for more than half a century. Mrs. Blanden suffers from paralysis of such severe form that for fully eight years she has had control of none of her museles, thus being virtually helpless but being at all times representative of the incarna- tion of spiritual patience and gentle submission to her great affliction, the heavy burden of which has been lightened by the devoted care given to her by her venerable husband. Both have been for many years devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Blanden has always been aligned as a staunch supporter of the principles of the republican party. He served in past years as township trustee and was
A.J. Sickola 1
Curtis Nichols
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called upon also to serve in other positions of local trust. Ile was affiliated with the Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons at Bir- mingham until the organization lapsed, and since that time has main- tained no direct Masonie association.
In Florence Township, in the year of 1864, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Blanden to Miss Alice Bristol, who was born in Ilen- rietta Township, Lorain County, Ohio, on the 14th of September, 1846, but who was reared and educated in Florence Township, Erie County, where her father established his home on a farm when she was a child. Mrs. Blanden is a daughter of Charles and Charlotte (Dennison) Bris- tol. the former of whom was born in the State of New York and the latter of whom had the distinction of being the first white ehild born in Henrietta Township, Lorain County, Ohio, her parents, John and Marian Dennison, natives of the State of New York, having been the first permanent settlers in Henrietta Township, Lorain County, where the latter died when her daughter Charlotte was but seven years of age. Mr. Dennison lived to a venerable age and passed the closing years of his life near Birmingham, Erie County. Within a few years after their marriage Charles Bristol and his wife established their home on a farm in Florence Township, Erie County, and they continued as honored citizens of this county until their death, Mr. Bristol having passed away in 1901, at the venerable age of eighty-two years, and his devoted wife having died on her seventy-ninth birthday anniversary, May 17, 1898. It is interesting to record that she married Mr. Bristol on her twenty-fourth birthday anniversary and that her daughter Emma was born on the anniversary date of the mother's birth.
Mr. and Mrs. Blanden have two children: George, who celebrated in 1915 his forty-sixth birthday anniversary, resides on the old home- stead farm of his parents, and has been carrier on the rural mail route of that locality from the time this free service was established there, in 1903. He wedded Miss Lois Curtis and they have two sons, June and James. Ray, the younger of the two children of the honored eitizen to whom this sketch is dedicated, is the wife of Wilber Struck, of Bir- mingham, and they have two sons, Rolland and Donald.
ARTHUR J. NICKOLS. A native of Erie County, Arthur J. Nickols has spent practically all his life within the limits of Berlin Township, and in that time has acquired those things most appreciated by a man of industry and ambition. Ile has a fine farm which represents his diligence and good business judgment, has provided liberally for home and family, and has gained the esteem of all citizens in that locality for his uprightness and the practice of high ideals of manhood.
He was born on the old farm, a part of which he now owns, and adjacent to his present place of residence, on October 7, 1859. Ilis father, Curtis Nickols, was a very prominent man in his day in Erie County. IIe was a skilled worker both in wood and iron, and practiced his craft in the days before machinery began to turn out such enormous quantities of cheaply made wagons and buggies. Many of the articles. which he made are still to be found in the homes of prominent people in Erie County, and he was the type of workman who made things useful and attractive, and with such qualities of stability that they could be handed down from one generation to another. Curtis Niekols and his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Lewis, were both born in New York State. The grandfather of Curtis was a native of Germany, while his grandmother was a native of England. Curtis was a son of Joseph Niekols, who was born in New York State, and when his son Curtis was six years of age brought his family to Vermilion Township, in Erie County. Joseph was married in 1825. After about a dozen years of residence in Erie County, and when Curtis was between eighteen and
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