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 74
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Church, and in polities he was a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Latteman were the parents of four children. George, born November 19, 1880, is still unmarried and is his mother's capable manager on the home farm. Katie is the wife of John Bohn, and they live on a farm in Lorain County and have one son, Theodore. Theodore, the third child, is now farming on part of his mother's estate, and by his marriage to Bertha Nason has a son named Harold and a daughter named Dorothy. Anna Dorothea. the youngest, born October 28, 1897, is still at home and has completed her education in the district schools. Mrs. Latteman is a member of the German Reformed Church, with which denomination her husband was also identified, while politically he was a democratic voter.
ADAM BERG. What Florence Township now represents as an agri- cultural and social community ean be credited in a great degree to the splendid industry and thrift of the German settlers in this section, espe- cially during its development through the last half century. It is of this fine stock that Adam Berg is a representative. Ilis family has been identified with Erie County since the years preceding the Civil war and in gaining material prosperity for themselves they have also helped to forward the community good.
In Florence Township and near his present homestead Adam Berg was born November 22, 1863. His parents Frederick and Elizabeth (Ber- lip) Berg were both born in Hasefeld, Germany, the father on March 15, 1843, and the mother in 1839. They were of old German stock, and Evan- gelieal Church people. Almost immediately after their marriage in Ger- many they embarked on a vessel at Bremen and started for the United States. This was about 1857. The voyage on the sailing vessel was characterized by roughness of the seas and slow movements, and after some weeks they landed in New York, and came on direct to Erie County, first locating in Vermilion Township. A few years later they moved to Florence, and the father secured a small tract of two acres near Vermilion River. It was in that small homestead and in the midst of few comforts that all their children were born. Having advanced himself in prosperity the father then moved east of the first farm, and bought seventy-seven acres on the township line and opposite Henrietta Township of Lorain County. The new home was within a mile of the Village of Birmingham. The parents made some improvements on that land and spent the rest of their days there. Frederick Berg died May 27, 1908, and his widow passed away on March 31, 1915. They were industrious, kind neighbors, regular in their church attendance, and after becoming a naturalized citizen Frederick Berg adopted the prin- ciples of the republican party as his own.
There were three children. Catherine, born November 17, 1862, was reared and educated in Florence Township, has never married and is now sharing the comforts of the old home and keeping house for her brother Adam. The other daughter, Minnie, born August 30, 1870, married Theodore Ward of Pittsfield, Ohio, who died in April, 1910. Hle was a farmer. By this marriage there is one daughter, Leona. born February 19, 1903, and now attending the seventh grade of school. Mrs. Ward and her daughter live at the old Berg homestead, and all the three children share in its management and comfort. Adam Berg, who is also a bachelor, grew up in Florence Township, gained his education from the public schools and for the past thirty years has steadily pursued a successful career as a farmer. In polities he is a republican.
RANSON F. MCLAUGHLIN. To mention the name of this fine old citizen and retired farmer of Milan is to recall one of the oldest and
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Wss H F. We Laughlin
RT. Me Laughlin
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most prominent of the early families of Erie County. It was due to the enterprise of his Scotch-Irish grandfather that the family was established in the wilderness of Erie County, long before it became a county, and before the Northwest had been completely won from the dominion of the English and the Indians. Happily the county possesses a permanent memorial to this family of pioneers in the old community of MeLaughlin Corners in Berlin Township.
The pioneer settler was John MeLaughlin, who was born in Ireland of Seoteh-Irish ancestry. IIe came to America with ten brothers, in the early years of the nineteenth century. Most of these brothers remained in the State of Pennsylvania, but John, who was one of the youngest in the number, showed his enterprise by pushing on a few years later into the wilds of Ohio, and found land that suited him in the vicinity of what was then only an Indian camp ground, but is now the Village of Milan. He and his little family were living here when Hull surrendered Detroit, and he heard the guns that announced the battle between Perry's fleet and the English vessels at Pnt-In Bay on Lake Erie. While living in Pennsylvania John Mclaughlin married Elizabeth Hoak, who was a great-aunt to Nathaniel Iloak of Erie County. She was born at Georgetown in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. After their marriage they came out to what is now Milan Township, and settled on lot 10 in Berlin Township, where John Melaughlin secured 100 acres of completely wild land. It was about 1810 that they took possession and built a rude log cabin for their first shelter and home. After Hull surrendered to the American forees at Detroit it was feared, and with reason, that the Indians, the constant allies of the British, would swarm all over Northern Ohio and carry devastation and slaughter to all the settlements. Consequently the MeLaughlins buried all they could in a well, and hurried back to Pennsylvania to her home in Georgetown. They did not return to Erie County until the American forces were once more in control, and not until 1814 or 1815. This faet is known because their son Milton, father of Ranson F. MeLaughlin, was born at Georgetown, Pennsyl- vania. on Christmas Day, 1815. Not long afterwards the little family reoccupied their home in the western part of Berlin Township, and around their settlement grew up in time a community which from that day to this has been known as MeLaughlin Corners. John MeLaughlin and his wife spent many years in quiet industry and useful and peace- able living there, and both died before the Civil war. John was seventy-seven when he passed away. His first wife, Miss IToak, had died a number of years before, and he afterwards married a Miss Leach, who died without children. John MeLaughlin and wife were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and among the first of that denomination in Berlin Township. In politics the MeLaughlins were ardent supporters of the whig party from the time it came into existence until it was supplanted by the republican party, and most of the later generations have been republicans. They were also prominent as early abolitionists in Northern Ohio, and many a fugitive slave from the South, en route to Canada and freedom, found a haven of refuge in the MeLaughlin home. John MeLaughlin and his first wife had nine children, three sons and six daughters: Mary, better known as Polly, Catherine, Nancy. Elizabeth, Henry, Belinda, Milton. Anna and John. All married except Nancy and John, and those that married had quite large families. Most of them lived to be past middle age, but all are now deceased. The sons of John MeLaugh- lin were all skillful and noted nimrods in the early days in Erie County. Milton MeLaughlin was one of the most successful hunters in the state. In the fall of one year in order to provide meat for his
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family he killed twelve deer, besides much other wild game. In a single year he killed seventy-five opossums, hundreds of squirrels and wild turkey. Practically every item of pioneer experience made familiar through the pages of this history would apply to the MeLaugh- lin family. It is recalled as only one incident that the meal for their corn cake was pounded and crushed in a mortar hollowed out from the stump of a tree.
Milton MeLaughlin, whose birth date has already been recorded as occurring on Christmas Day of 1815, grew up in the wilderness of Erie County, and besides his activity as a hunter he was distinguished by great strength and industry in his more permanent vocation as a farmer. He was also employed in the early shipyards at Milan, and was an expert whip sawyer. From his own land he cut large quantities of timber and had the logs sawed in the mills at Milan, and then sold and delivered the dressed lumber to the markets in Liverpool, England. Ilis industry largely improved the old home known as the MeLaughlin homestead of 100 acres, and much of this land is still owned by his son William. Milton MeLaughlin and wife spent nearly all their active years there, but finally retired to Milan Village, to a pleasant home on Center Street, where he died in 1887 and she in 1893. He was a member of the Methodist Church, while his wife was a Presbyterian. LIe voted for a number of whig candidates for President, and later became an equally strong republican. Milton MeLaughlin was married at Milan to Miss Mary Krom. She was born in Ulster County, New York, April 28, 1822, and was seventy-one years of age when she passed away at Milan. Her parents were Abraham and Mary ... ( Cotrant ) Krom, both New York State people. In 1840 the Krom family came to Ohio, and her parents spent the rest of their days in Erie ('ounty. Abraham Krom was born in Paris, France, was educated there, taught school, and after coming to the United States was married in New York to Miss Cotrant, who was a native of Scotland. They were both birthright Quakers, and their daughter Mrs. MeLaughlin was also reared in that simple faith.
Ranson F. MeLaughlin, who with his descendants might well take pride in his sturdy pioneer ancestry, was born on the old farm in Berlin Township June 9, 1839. He has already lived more than three quarters of a century. As a boy he attended school in Berlin Heights. and much of his education came from that great teacher, the venerable Job Fish. After reaching his majority he started out in the permanent vocation of his career as a farmer, and for fifty-three years occupied and operated 114 acres in Berlin Township near MeLaughlin Corners. On that one place he and his wife spent fifty-three years, but in 1913 they returned to Milan Village and bought an attractive home on Seminary Street, overlooking the Huron River valley and adjoining the birthplace of Thomas A. Edison.
In 1860 Mr. MeLaughlin married Miss Sarah Desire Springer. She was born near the Village of Berlin January 12, 1842, and besides such education as the local schools supplied she attended Oberlin College. HIer parents were Job L. and Lydia (Sayles) Springer. They were both born in Cayuga County, New York, her father on September 3. 1804, and her mother in 1810. They were married there in 1829, and their first son, Lorin L. Springer, was born in New York State. Then in 1832 the Springers came West, following the Erie Canal as far as Buffalo, and thenee by small boat up Lake Erie to Huron Village. They finally located on a farm in Berlin Township, at a time when nearly all the surrounding country was new and undeveloped. On that farm Mr. and Mrs. Springer spent the rest of their lives. He died there in September, 1862, and his wife on March 6, 1874. They were consistent
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church people, and deserve mention among the worthiest of the early settlers. Mr. Springer and all his seven sons were active republicans, and there were also two daughters in the family that grew up. All the children married except one son who was accidentally killed when a log rolled upon him.
Mr. and Mrs. MeLaughlin have two children. Charles W., who died at his home in Berlin Heights in 1905 at the age of forty-four, married Louisa A. Weitzman, who died in 1900, leaving two children, ('lifford Ranson and Mildred May. Franklin E., the younger son, was born December 11, 1870, and was married in 1901 to Maude Wells of Milan. They now live in Waterbury, Connecticut, where he practices dentistry, being a graduate of the dental department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Doctor and Mrs. MeLaughlin have four chil- dren : Dorothy II., Herbert E., Harold Ranson and Eunice Eugenia. Mr. and Mrs. MeLaughlin are active members of the Milan Presbyterian Church, and they have been members of Berlin Heights Grange No. 345 of the Patrons of Husbandry sinee 1884. In polities he is a repub- lican, thus maintaining the political traditions and principles so long supported by the family.
WILLIAM HUMM. In the western part of Florence Township, Eric County, will be found the attractive farm home of William Humm. who is known in and about the community as a leader in progressive and scientific farming. Mr. Hummm's acreage, while not large, is ample for his needs, his traet of 111 acres being enough to oeeupy his every mo- ment and to require as well the added labors of one or more assistants throughout the year. Ninety-nine acres is maintained in a high state of cultivation, while the remaining twelve acres is heavily wooded and is held in reserve by its owner.
William Humm was born in Switzerland on January 31, 1853. and is a son of Jaeob and Catherine (Roth ) Humm, born on March 23, 1813. and January 10, 1825, respectively. They were of Swiss birth and parentage, though residents of Bremen, Germany, for some time prior to their removal to America. Their son, William, of this review, was eight- een months old when his parents brought him to their new home, so that he is essentially Ameriean, though of foreign birth.
With reference to the American experiences of the family of Jacob Humm, it may be said briefly that from New York they came west to Ohio, stopping first in Cleveland, where they remained about three years, and later moving on to Erie County, Ohio, where they established a home and where they passed the remaining years of their lives. They moved about some in Erie County before finding their real home, but Florence Township ultimately came to claim them as her own. They owned a 100 aere.farm there, and it was reckoned among the fine plaees in the township. They were people who possessed many worthy traits of character and their lives were splendid examples of good citizenship. and of wholesome and thrifty living. Much credit was due to them for the organization and faithful support of the German Reformed Church at Henrietta, Ohio, and Jaeob Humm was an elder in its ruling body for some years. He died in 1894 and his widow followed in 1897.
Twiee married, Jacob Humm was the father of fourteen children. The seven children of his first wife reached maturity, but all are now deceased. William Hummm was the first child of his father's second marriage, and two other sons and a daughter survive. The daughter, Martha Humm, is the wife of Sebert Curth, of Ashland County, Ohio, and Charles is a prosperous farmer of Florence Township, as is also Edward. Both are married.
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William Humm had such educational advantages as the common schools of his home community afforded, and he continued at home with his parents until his marriage to Catherine Geist, of Henrietta, Loraine County, Ohio, in 1873. She was born in Germany, on July 17, 1855, and was but nine months old when her parents, William and Catherine ( Eckhart) Geist, eame to the United States. Lorain County became their home, and they passed the remaining years of their lives within its borders. William Geist manifested his allegianee to his adopted country by enlisting for service in the Civil war, and his service covered a period of twenty-two months. In that time he participated in many important engagements, and not once was he disqualified for aetion as a result of injuries. Ilis reeord was a praiseworthy one in all respeets. With the close of the war he took up farm life again in Ilenrietta, and there he passed away when he was in the sixty-eighth year of his well-spent life. llis widow survived a few years and died at the age of seventy-nine. Both were charter members of the German Reformed Church of Hen- rietta, and ably assisted the parents of William Humm in its establish- ment. To them were born a son and daughter, the latter becoming the wife of the subject. as has already appeared. The son, Adam, resides near Kipton, Ohio, and there has reared a family of eight children.
To William and Catherine ( Geist ) Ilumm one child was born, Caro- line, born January 13, 1876, the wife of Aaron D. Webber, who was born April 13, 1873, in JJamestown, Pennsylvania. The Webbers make their home with Mrs. Webber's parents and are the owners of a twenty- five acre tract adjoining the Humm property. They have two living sons, Clarence William, born March 28, 1899, and Karl Elmer, born August 17, 1910. Their first born child, Warren, born March 25, 1897, died on October 1, in the same year.
The home of William Ilumm is one that is worthy of special notice. The house, a comfortable and appropriate structure, with nine airy rooms and all modern conveniences, presents the cheerful and home-like exterior that a white house with green blinds invariably will, and all about are the evidences of the love of home that is a dominant eharae- teristie in the family. Mr. IIumm is justly proud of the record of his aeres, and bumper erops are the rule with him. Twenty-five bushels of wheat to the aere, forty bushels of oats and 100 of corn are average crops on his place, and the meadow lands yield abundantly. He keeps a good deal of livestock on the farm, all of which is fed on the produce of the land. Mr. IIumm came into ownership of the farm in the spring of 1894 and the many improvements there in evidence today have been made by him since that time.
All considered, Mr. IInmm is properly considered in the community to be a farming man of much ability, and his record and standing in matters of citizenship will bear rigid inspection. With his wife he is an attendant of the Congregational Church of Florence as is also the daughter and her family. He has no political affiliations, and has not entered into that phase of the community life beyond the reasonable activities of a voter.
ILARRY J. THOMPSON. Among the prosperous rural residents of Florence Township few have had a more active and varied career than Harry J. Thompson. Mr. Thompson, who has passed the psahnist's span of three score and ten, saw active service as a soldier during the eritieal time of the rebellion, and later for a number of years was one of the pioneer rubber manufacturers in America, and helped to found one of the greatest concerns for the manufacture of rubber goods in the world. For the past thirty years his home has been in Erie County, and he has employed his time and energies in the quiet routine of agriculture.
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Though born in Cleveland, Ohio, July 26, 1842, Mr. Thompson spent inost of his early career in the eastern states and cities. His parents were Andrew and Henrietta (Joslin) Thompson. His father was a native of Norway, and grew up in the industries connected with mari- time enterprise, beeame a ship earpenter, and in the course of his em- ployment in that work came to America locating at Cleveland. For some years he was connected with the Great Lakes marine, but finally removed to Brooklyn, New York, and died there in 1846 at the age of thirty-nine. While in New York City he married Miss Joslin, who was a New Jersey girl. She married for her second husband William Haga- dorn, and she died in New York City in 1852, at the age of twenty-nine. Her second husband also married again, but his subsequent career is not known to Mr. Thompson beyond the fact that he was a sailor.
It was in New York City that Harry J. Thompson spent his early years, and along with publie training educated himself as a pharmacist. He gave this up to become a student of rubber manufacturing, but in the meantime had made his reeord as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war. Hle enlisted in 1861 at Trenton, New Jersey, in the Third New Jersey Regiment of Infantry for the three months service. In 1862 he again enlisted, this time in the Fourteenth New Jersey Regiment, and was in active service with that command from August, 1862, until March, 1863. Ile was then assigned to the medical department in the regular army, and during the rest of the war served as a hospital steward.
Mr. Thompson originated some of the processes which are at the basis of the modern industry of rubber goods manufacture. In 1871 he came to Akron. Ohio, and soon afterward introduced his formula for the mak- ing of rubber goods into the small plant of Doctor Goodrich. He became the first superintendent of the Goodrich concern, and his processes served as the basis for that great industry. It was largely through his man- agement that the business became prosperous and after two years of experimenting he had the plant started toward permanent success. The prodnets of the Goodrich Rubber Company are now known and in use practically all over the world, and it is an important distinction that an Erie County man should have been so closely identified with the early suceess of this eoncern. For several years Mr. Thompson also earried on a small factory of his own, but in 1884 came to Vermilion, Ohio, and after one year as superintendent of Linwood Park moved to Florence Township, where he has since followed farming.
For his first wife Mr. Thompson married in St. Louis, Missouri, Ruth A. C'ubberley, who was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and died in Florence Township of Erie County November 24, 1893, at the age of fifty-nine. No children survived her. In December, 1895, Mr. Thompson married in Florence Township Mrs. Anna E. Clary. Mrs. Thompson, whose maiden name was Anna E. Morse, was born in Brown- helm Township of Lorain County July 11, 1846, and since she was six years of age has lived on the farm now occupied by her and Mr. Thomp- son. She belongs to one of the old families of Northern Ohio, and was formerly the wife of Fred M. Clary, of the prominent Florence Town- ship family sketehed on other pages.
Mrs. Thompson is a daughter of Mark and Harriet (Bartlett) Morse. Her father was a kinsman of Samuel B. Morse, famed as the inventor of the magnetic telegraph. Iler father was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and was married in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County, whither both he and his wife had settled when young. In 1852 they removed to Florence Township, and lived on their farm until retiring to Birmingham. IIer father died March 17, 1898, at the age of eighty-three. Her mother, who was born in Keene, New Hampshire,
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in May, 1821, died in June. 1883. Mrs. Thompson's mother was a mem- ber of the Baptist Church, and her father was a republican.
The farm now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Thompson is one of the noted country estates of Florence Township, comprising 100 acres lo- rated near Birmingham. Mr. Thompson, who is a strong republican. served as postmaster of Birmingham under President MeKinley, and has also filled the office of justice of the-peace in his township with great credit. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
BENJAMIN ISAAC HILL. The Ilill family is one of the oldest continu- ously identified with Erie County for almost a century. Benjamin 1. Hill, who occupies a fine country home in Berlin Township with post- office at Berlin Heights, has himself witnessed fully seventy years of changes and developments in this part of Northern Ohio.
The record of the Hill family in America begins nearly 300 years ago. The emigrant ancestor was John Hill, who emigrated from North- ampton, England, in 1644, and first located in the Barbadoes in the British West Indies. He made the voyage on the Hopewell, and lived in the Barbadoes with his family for about ten years. In the mean- time he married Frances Symonds, and in 1654 removed to Ginilford, Connecticut, where his first wife died in May, 1673. He married for his second wife Catherine Chalker of Saybrook, Connectient. John Hill died at Guilford June 8, 1689. ITis son James Hill, who was born in 1646 and died March 25, 1715, married Sarah Griswold, and they were the parents of eight children. The second child and the first son was Isaac Hill, who was born at Guilford September 5, 1685, and died Feb- rmary 7, 1775. Ile married Ann Parmelee and had a large family. Their son James, born early in the eighteenth century, died March 10. 1734. Hle married Mary Fry, and they were the parents of three chil- dren, including James, Jr., who married Hannah Nettleson. A son of James and Hannah Ilill, Noah, Sr., who was born February 27. 1754. died in May, 1826. Noah, Sr., married Carolina Parmelee, and had a large family.
Next in line is Noah IJill, Jr., grandfather of Benjamin 1. Hill. Noah. Jr., was born October 4, 1784, and died May 27, 1864. He married Susan Ingalls, who was born in Connectiont April 27, 1784. This pioneer couple established the family name and fortunes in Erie County, having left Guilford, Connecticut, in 1818. They came by way of river, canal and Jake to Iluron, Ohio, and thence through the dense woods to the present site of Berlin Heights. Noah Hill bought a traet of raw land, now situated in the eastern part of Berlin Heights Village. There he erected his first home, a humble log cabin, and was soon regarded as a man of influence and high standing in the community. At that time Berlin Township was ealled Eldridge Township, part of the land being owned by a man named Eldridge. This land owner was unserupulons. and not only sold but resold the same pieces of land and defrauded many of the early settlers. In consequence of this conduct Noah Hill led a movement which brought about a change in the name of the town- ship from Eldridge to Berlin. In many other ways he showed his influence as a man of strictest honesty and upright character. By trade Noah Hill was a boat builder, an ocenpation which took him out of Erie County and he frequently made business trips as far as Detroit. llis widow survived him about sixteen years and died when about ninety-seven years old. She was a vigorous woman almost to the last and had been a successful teacher for ten years before her marriage. Both she and her husband lived the religious faith and doctrines as preached by the Episcopal Church. In polities he was a whig for many
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