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 75
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years and joined the republican party at the time of its organization. He was likewise an ardent abolitionist, and courageously practiced the doctrine in which he believed at a time when the abolition movement. was decidedly unpopular. Noah Ilill and wife had eleven sons and daughters.
In the next generation is Edwin Ingalls Hill, who was the father of Benjamin I. Hill. He was born in Guilford, Connectient, August 9, 1809, and was still a boy when the family came to Erie County in 1818. He grew up on a farm not far from Berlin Heights, and for many years he lived in nothing better in the way of a home than a log house. After his marriage he acquired the possession of part of the old Hill home- stead, farmed there for a time, and eventually bought a farm that is now included in the village corporation limits. There he constructed a sub- stantial residence, now occupied by his widow. Edwin I. Hill was first married March 5, 1833. to Miss Luey Ann Tennant, who came to Erie County when a girl from New York State. She died August 30, 1842, leaving the following children: Horace who was born March 6, 1834, and was the second man to enlist at Berlin Heights for service in the Civil war, joining Company C of the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio Infantry, under Captain Spragne, and continuing a faithful soldier until shot down on the battlefield of Resaca, Georgia: Benjamin Isaac, who is next in order of birth : Alphia Amelia, who was born November 30, 1838, and died after her marriage to Charles Tillinghast : and Henry E., who was born December 11. 1840, and died in Erie County in the fall of 1913, his widow. whose maiden name was Louisa Harter, now residing at Akron, Ohio, and the mother of four children. On May 7. 1843, Edwin I. Hill married Catherine Wendell, who was born in Ger- many but was reared in Erie County. She died January 27. 1855, leav- ing a daughter Incy Ann, who was born in 1844, and died May 10, 1864. On June 15, 1857, Edwin I. Hill married for his third wife Sallie Bowler Peabody. She was born at Newport, Rhode Island, July 20, 1837, and has lived in Erie County since she was ten years of age. Her parents were George A. and Ann (Spencer) Peabody. By the third marriage Edwin I. Hill had two children: Sterling L., who was born on the old homestead in Berlin Heights November 24, 1859, and is now one of the largest fruit growers in Erie County; and Louise Augusta, who was born June 4, 1868, and is now the wife of a Congregational min- ister near Chicago, Illinois.
Benjamin I. Hill, a son of Edwin I. and Lucy Ann ( Tennant) Hill, was born on the farm where he still lives near Berlin Heights in a log cabin on February 20, 1836. With the exception of one year he has spent practically all his life of nearly eighty years in this one commun- ity. That exception of a year was due to a trip which he took in early manhood in search of wealth in the western goldfields. At the age of twenty-three in 1859 he and five others started out for Pike's Peak. Colorado, going from Milan, by way of Leavenworth, Kansas, and there equipping themselves with four yoke of oxen and a wagon. Their jour- ney over the plains required about six weeks, and Mr. Hill drove the team all the way. While in the West he met Horace Greeley, who at that time was deeply interested in Colorado affairs. His experience in Colorado were of an arduous and varied character, but without the attainment of the principal object, riches in the gold mines. On the way out the party met a band of Cheyenne and Pawnee Indians, and while unmolested the travelers had to summon up all their coolness and resolution when the Indians circled around them and made a conspieu- ous display of scalps taken from the heads of white men. These Indians employed every resource and method of persuasion to induce the white
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men to part with the only woman of the party, Mrs. George Wafful of Berlin Township. The chief of the Indians offered ponies and almost every article he had to secure this woman for himself.
Mr. Hill since returning from his western tour has been content to pursue his career quietly as a farmer and has been bountifully prospered from the crops of the soil and has gained a greater wealth of goods and popular esteem there than he could have found in the West had he been moderately successful as a miner. He has one of the best home- steads in Berlin Township. lle has eighty acres under cultivation, eligibly situated near Berlin Heights, and has a fine orchard of fifteen aeres, apples, three acres of peach trees, and some pear trees. His home is a large and commodious dwelling of twelve rooms, and for many years he has had all the means necessary for his comfort and convenience.
In the course of his long career Mr. Hill has performed his share of public duties. He has held the office of township trustee and other local positions and thus keeps up the honorable record of the family. his father and grandfather having similarly held local places of trust and responsibility.
In Berlin Township not long after he started upon his independent career as a farmer, Mr. Hill married Miss Sarah Willey, who was born in New York State October 27, 1837, a daughter of Salmon and Durinda (Snow ) Willey, who were born and married in East Haddon, Connecti- eut. Her grandfather Willey was a patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution and a man of the highest standing in his community in Con- nectient. ller maternal grandfather was Ebenezer Snow of Connecticut. who late in life moved to Ohio and died at Berlin Heights when quite old. Salmon Willey and wife moved from Conneetient to New York State, where Mrs. Hill was born, and in 1863 made the trip from Albany to Erie County, where Mr. Willey died at the age of eighty-two. His widow subsequently returned to Albany, New York, and died in the home of a daughter Mrs. Marietta J. Pultz at the age of ninety-two. Mrs. Ilill received her education partly at Albany and partly in the high school at Kinderhook. New York. Mr. and Mrs. Hill had one son, Willey Harvey, who was born in 1866, and was educated at Berlin Heights and pursned commercial courses in Oberlin College. For a time he was a teacher and later was employed by the firm of Carnegie & Phipps at Pittsburg. but subsequently returned to live with his parents and died here March 24, 1908. Ile was a man of active and progressive powers. and his early death was widely mourned in the county. He was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias order. Willey H. Hill was married at Port- land, Connectient, to Ann Goodspeed Strickland. She was born in Con- nectient, and reared and educated there, and is a woman of high culture and refinement. One of her ancestors was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. and she is also connected with the Kilburn family of Connecticut. Mrs. Willey HI. Hill has two children : Benjamin Sage, who died in in- fancy ; and Willey Harvey, who was born August 25, 1908, and is now attending school. The younger Mrs. Hill was reared in the faith of the Episcopal Church. Both Mrs. Benjamin Hill and her daughter are active members of the Tuesday Tourist Club at Berlin Heights, and both have held offices in that leading social and literary club of the vil- lage. Mr. Hill is a republican and his son was of the same political faith.
GEORGE DENMAN. A member of the class of men who have stepped aside from the path of active labor to allow to pass the younger genera- tion of workers, with their enthusiasm, hopes and ambitions, George Denman of Birmingham is one of the highly respected residents of his
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community. Throughout the period of a long and useful career he was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Florence Township, and with the exception of four years in the State of Missouri has passed his entire life in Erie County, having been born on the farm which he still owns, 11. miles from Birmingham, in Florence Township, November 7. 1843. a son of Thomas and Fatima ( Parker) Denman.
William Denman, the grandfather of George Denman, was born in England, was there reared, educated and married, and with his wife emi- grated to the United States prior to the year 1800 and settled in Sulli- van County, New York, where they passed the remaining years of their lives. Their son, Thomas Denman, was born in that county, April 20, 1800, and received a common sehool education, being reared to agricul- tural pursuits under his father's direction. Ilis brother, John, had pre- reded him to the then far West, and when still a young man Thomas Denman set forth on foot to make the long journey, carrying with him his trusty axe. Finally arriving in Erie County, he purchased land in Florence Township, paying therefor $3 and $4 an acre, hewed himself a home from the wiklerness, and continued to be engaged in agricultural pursnits here during the remaining years of his life, his death occurring July 28, 1858. This property, which subsequently beeame the home of his son and is still owned by him, was the site of one of the most famous campmeetings in the history of Ohio. Chosen as the scene of the event because of the presence of a fine spring of clear, cool water, it was at that time, some eighty-one or eighty-two years ago, in the midst of a veritable wilderness, with no roads leading thereto save small openings which led to the state highways. Nevertheless the gathering, called together by one Reverend Shelby, a pioneer minister, was a large one, the pioneer farmers and their families traveling from their new homes for miles and miles around and from far beyond the limits of Erie County.
Thomas Denman was imbued with the true spirit of the pioneer. a longing for a home of his own on which he could work out his own des- tiny and aeeumulate his own fortune. Ile belonged to the sturdy. hardy type without which the wilderness would have remained unconquered. While content to remain as a private citizen, and not desirous of public preferment, he took a keen and intelligent interest in the affairs of the day and voted stanchly with the whig party until the formation of the republican party, and his last presidential vote was cast for Gen. John C. Fremont, the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains," in 1856. Mr. Denman was married in Florence Township to Miss Fatima Parker. who was born in Vermont, July 4, 1816, and was brought to Erie County in 1820 by her parents, Zachariah and Ruth Ann Parker, natives of Ver- mont, who settled as pioneers of Florence Township. Mr. Parker's first wife died soon after coming to Erie County, and he was subsequently married twiee. Thomas and Fatima Denman became the parents of six sons and one daughter, George being the second in order of birth.
George Denman received his edneation in the public schools of Flor- ence Township, and was reared to agricultural pursuits, in which he has been engaged throughout his life. As a young man he was engaged in a venture in the State of Missouri, but after four years of experience there returned to the homestead place, which he did not leave until his retire- ment, in 1913, when he moved to Birmingham. Mr. Denman is the owner of 142 acres of rich, productive land, with not an aere of waste, well improved in every respect, and with a fine orchard. It is adapted to raising all the standard erops of the state, and its water is gained from the famous spring of campmeeting fame, while its broad pastures make it particularly desirable for stoekraising. During his career as a farmer, Mr. Denman established a reputation for strict integrity, and his standing since his retirement has been equally high. As a citizen he
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has contributed to the movements which have made for civic and county welfare and has denied his support to no movement which has had the betterment of the community as its object. In polities he is a stanch and unswerving republican, but has not sought preferment at the hands of his party.
Mr. Denman was married in Florence Township to Miss Cordelia B. Townsend, who was born in New London Township, Huron County, Ohio, December 30, 1852, and brought to Erie County as a child of fif- teen years, here completing her education in the public schools. She is a daughter of Lemuel and Elizabeth (Bishop) Townsend, the former of whom was born in March. 1812, in New York, and died February 7. 1892, in Florence Township, and the latter born near Bath, England, in December, 1821, and died in Florence Township, August 27, 1906. They were married at Carman Center, New York, March 20, 1845, and came west to Ohio in 1850 or 1851, locating first in Huron County. They resided at the Village of Greenwich, where Mr. Townsend followed his trade as a mechanie until 1867, and in that year, owing to failing health, turned his attention to an outdoor life. He came to Florence Town- ship, Erie County, and settled on a farm, in the work of which he found the means to recover his health, and here continued to be engaged in farming throughout the remaining years of his long and active life. He was a republican in politics and a man who stood high in the esteem and confidence of his community. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend were the parents of three children : Mrs. Denham; Robert, who died after marriage, leav- ing no children ; and Emma, who became the wife of Gustave Delafield, a farmer of Florence Township, and has no family.
CHARLES Z. MONTAGUE. Of the many honored citizens of Ohio who have been long and actively concerned with marine service on the Great Lakes few are better known, have achieved greater prominence and have shown such ability and zeal, as well as love of the sea, as has Captain Montague, who may be said to be a devotee of his vocation both by natural predilection and long and varied experience. He owns one of the fine modern residence properties in the thriving little ('ity of Huron, and here he and his gracious wife delight to extend hospitality to their troops of friends. The captain at one time attempted to retire from active service on the great inland seas, but their lure proved too strong for him to resist his inelination, with the result that he resumed his labors with all of satisfaction and pleasure, eager once more to eope with the winds and waves of the "merciful, mereiless sea."
The lineage of the Montagne family traces back to ancient Norman French origin, and records extant mark the family as one of prominence and influenee both in France and England, genealogical data being available and running back to the beginning of the eleventh century. The family became one of much distinction in the annals of English history, and from the "right little isle" came William Montagne as one of the early colonial settlers in New England, that stern but gracious cradle of much of our national history. From this worthy ancestor the lineage is clearly traced through the various generations to Captain Montague of this review. Maj. Richard Montague, a son of Deacon Samuel Montagne, was born on the old homestead, near the present Town of North Leverett, Franklin County, Massachusetts, and the date of his nativity was May 7. 1729. He was a gallant soldier and officer in the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution, and his valor and tactical ability brought to him promotion to the rank of major. He became a member of the official staff of General Washington, and he not only proved a true patriot and valiant soldier but was known as a man of strong character and as one notable for consideration and
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kindliness in all the relations of life. Ile took part also in the French and Indians wars, and his death occurred February 21, 1794. By virtue of descent from this honored patriot Captain Montague is eligible for membership both in the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of American Colonial Wars. Zebina Mon- tague, grandfather of the captain, was a son of Oreh Montagne, and the latter was a sou of Maj. Richard Montague, the Revolutionary soldier.
Zebina Montague was born at Whitstone, Queens County, New York, on the 10th of October, 1795, and early became a resident of Cazenovia, Madison County, that state. For a short time prior to the close of the War of 1812 he served with the American troops stationed at Sacketts Harbor, New York. In 1817. at Cazenovia, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Olive Adams, who was born August 22, 1796, and who passed the closing period of her life at Huron, Ohio, where she died on the 5th of November, 1862, her husband having survived her by a decade.
Robert Bruce Montague, son of Zebina and Olive (Adams) Mon- tague, was their only child and was born in Madison County, New York, on the 23d of December, 1839. His parents came to Ohio by way of Buffalo, where they embarked on a sailing vessel that transported them to their destination. They landed in the port of the little forest hamlet of Huron, Erie County, in 1846 and thus became pioneer settlers of this section of the state. Zebina Montague was a skilled mechanie and while working on a threshing machine he received injuries which necessitated the amputation of one of his arms. Upon coming to Huron he purchased a tract of wild land on the east bank of the Huron River, and this he reclaimed into a productive farm, the home- stead having continued the ahiding place of both him and his wife until they passed from the stage of their mortal endeavors, he having entered into eternal rest in the year 1872. Both he and his wife were earnest members of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics he was aligned with the whig party until the organization of the republican party, when he espoused the cause of the latter, his active identification with the same continuing until the close of his life.
Capt. Robert Bruce Montague was reared to manhood in Erie County, where he acquired his early education in the pioneer schools. As a youth he became interested in the building and sailing of small boats on Lake Erie, and finally he superintended the construction of the sailing vessel Winona, at Milan, this county. At the age of twenty-one years he was serving as master of a grain vessel of 20,000 tons burden, this boat operating between Ohio ports and the City of Buffalo. After a few years he severed his connection with this vessel, and the same was shortly afterward wrecked and lost at sea. He was thereafter identified with the operation of other vessels, and finally he became master of the grain schooner Jury, of 30,000 tons capacity, the building of which, at the IIuron port, he had personally supervised. He was master of this vessel several years, and he then had charge of the completion and launching of the grain schooner John B. Williams, 45,000 tons capacity, as master of which he operated the same eight years, in the transportation of grain to the Buffalo market. IIe was known as a careful and skillful navigator, met with few accidents at sea and never lost a boat of which he had command, though, as a matter of course, he buffeted with the old-time sailing vessels many a severe storm on Lake Erie. For twenty-six years Capt. Robert B. Montague gallantly sailed his staunch vessels out of the port of Huron, and in the lake marine service he made a record that gave him prestige as one of the most able, brave and successful of navigators on the inland Vol. II-32
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seas. In 1884 he retired from a seafaring life and removed to the City of Duluth, Minnesota, where he became a marine merchant and where his death occurred on the 2d of August of the following year. his remains being laid to rest in beautiful Forest Hill Cemetery at that place. and those of his wife repose by his side, she having continued her residence at Duluth until her death, in 1892, at which time she was sixty years of age. Both were members of the Presbyterian Church and Captain Montagne was a stalwart and uncompromising advocate of the principles and policies of the republican party. He took a loyal interest in community affairs and, to insure the betterment of con- ditions in the local "God's Aere, " he served as president of the Huron Cemetery Association for some time. Of the children Capt. Charles Zeben (or Zebina) Montague, of this review, was the first born ; William A., who resides in Kansas City, Missouri, and is a commercial salesman for a Chicago wholesale house, has three children, Richard, Roland and Margaret, the wife and mother, whose maiden name was Alice Bacon, having met her death in 1914, as a result of an automobile accident ; Minnie M. is the wife of Henry D. Pierson, a representative business man in the City of Cleveland, and they have three children. Marjorie, Montagne and Marian: Olive E. is the wife of John W. Bowes, who is a prominent representative of the real estate business in the City of Oakland, California, and they have one son, Stuart.
Capt. Charles Z. Montague was born at Huron, this county, on the 7th of July, 1857. and in the local schools he continued his studies until he had completed the curriculum of the high school. At the age of sixteen years he joined his father in the navigation activities of the Great Lakes, and as a sailor he served a most thorough and effective apprenticeship, his father having been a striet and always consistent disciplinarian. By effective work and ambitious effort to further him- self in knowledge of all details of the vocation of his choiee, he won advancement through the various grades of maritime promotion. and when twenty-two years of age he assumed his first independent com- mand. as master of the Oswasco, a 600-ton vessel, on which he trans- ported to the City of Buffalo his first cargo. Later he was a sailing executive in the employ of Mr. Axworthy. a prominent ('leveland vessel owner, and in 1896 he became master of a 1.200-ton ore vessel operated by the Republic Iron Company. This position he retained. with marked success. until 1890, when he resigned his command to become associated with others in forming a corporation that built the steamer Elphewiek, 3,000 tons, of the construction of which he was superintendent and manager, besides being one of the chief stockholders of the company. The vessel was placed in commission in the transporta- tion of coal and ore, and a most prosperous business was developed. with Captain Montague in command of the boat, the stockholders realizing good returns from their investments. Captain Montagne con- timed as master and superintendent of this vessel until 1893. when he was prevailed upon to supervise the construction of a modern steel vessel, the Arthur Orr, of which he was made master. After operat- ing this vessel two years he had charge of the building of a larger vessel of the same type, the George Enorr, and after having been its captain for two years after it was placed in commission. he directed the construction of a still larger steel vessel, the "William L. Brown." 6,000 tons, which he commanded two years, in the transportation of ore and general lines of freight. In 1896 Captain Montague associated himself with the Carnegie Steel Company, for which he built and assumed command of the steel steamer "Cornell," 7,000 tons, which he operated four years. During the following two he lived a disquieted and unsatisfactory existence as a landsman, and he has stated that his
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feelings were about those that harass a "fish out of water," and with all of verve and enthusiasm he then returned to his loved vocation, by associating himself with the Great Lakes Steamship Company, which operated at the time twenty-one vessels. He was assigned to the post of master of the "Harry Colby," the largest vessel of the company's fine fleet, and of this excellent craft, with a capacity of 12,000 tons, he has since continued in successful command, with unalloyed satisfac- tion to himself and to the best interests of the company. Each snc- cessive season that he has commanded this vessel he has won with the same a "bonus" of a few hundred dollars, an honorarium offered by the operating company, and in the navigation season of 1914 he made a specially admirable record in the avoidance of all accidents, losses and minor contingencies that are usually encountered. The captain is widely known in marine circles on the Great Lakes system, and his genial nature, his ability and sterling attributes of character have won him troops of loyal friends.
Captain Montague has never wavered in his allegiance to the cause of the republican party and he has given effective service in its ranks. He was at one time made the party nominee for representative of Erie County in the State Legislature, but his official duties on the lakes made it impossible for him to conduct an adequate canvass and cam- paign in his district, notwithstanding which fact his defeat was com- passed by the small majority of twenty-nine votes. The captain is an appreciative member of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which his ancient craft affiliation is with Marks Lodge, No. 359, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in Huron. In the City of Sandusky he is affiliated with Erie Commandery, Knights Templars, and in the City of Cleveland he holds membership in Al Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The captain and his family are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and he has been one of the prominent and influential members of the Huron Parish of historic old Christ Church, in which he is now serving as junior warden of the vestry.
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