USA > Ohio > Fulton County > A standard history of Fulton County, Ohio, an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. II > Part 62
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Mrs. Butler was active in promoting the organization of Oak Shade Methodist Episcopal Church, and there are few sessions when she is not in her place at Sunday school. She has been both su- perintendent and teacher, and her home has always been open to the itinerant minister. The family church membership had been at Spring Hill until the organization of the Oak Shade class. The meetings migrated from the town hall to the school house, and in 1916, the Oak Shade church edifice was open to the community.
While there is Revolutionary ancestry in the history of the Valentine family, there is no record extant of the Butler family that long ago. Lewis Harlow Butler and an older brother, A. N., and a younger brother, M. W., all served as privates in the Civil war. A. L. Butler was a drummer and gave an impetus to the "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," of the northern soldiers and a similar service was rendered later by Marshall H. Butler in the war of the nations. G. W. Valentine and other relatives were Civil war soldiers.
Few pioneer families have given more to the community than has been' given by the Butlers. They knew the hardships of the pioneer and the later generations have enjoyed the blessings of civilization. There are few families who round out four score years on the same "four corners," but such has been the Butler family history.
DANIEL BROWN. It is a rare thing for a man to live sixty years in one community and never appear as a witness in court, but such is the record of Daniel Brown of Dover. While he never brought suit in court, he did one time confess judgment on a security debt and he paid it. While in that time he has suffered other losses, he has been clear of litigation and the expense of court proceedings. Arbitration has served his purpose in everything. While Mr. Brown has served as juror, he has studiously avoided complications that entail lawsuit difficulties.
Mr. Brown was born September 4, 1843, in Chemung county, New York. His father, Abram Westbrook Brown, and his grand- father, Isaac Brown, three generations in the family, were residents of that community. Back of that the family is English-the age old story of three brothers who came to America and were separ- ated from each other. Isaac Brown married Hannah Clark. Their children were: Abraham W., Daniel, Nathaniel, Harris, Aaron,
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William, Patty, Phoebe and Mary Ann. It had been so many years since there was any one with whom he could talk that Mr. Brown was unable to name the contemporaries of Isaac and Hannah Brown.
It was in Chemung county, New York, that A. W. Brown mar- ried Morelda Brees. She was a daughter of Hosea Brees and was a young woman of the same community. Her sisters were Matilda, Rachel, Mary and Betsey, and her brothers, Arad and Moses. The children born to A. W. and Morelda Brown were: Mary A., Hosea, Isaac, Rachel L., Daniel, John, Frank P. and Judson. All were born in New York and all but the two older ones came with their parents to Lenawee county, Michigan, in 1855-good weather con- ditions when they came by rail to Adrian, but they encountered a great deal of snow that first winter in Michigan. In March, 1860, the family removed to Fulton county, Ohio, and the Ottokee Ceme- tery became the last resting place of the father and mother. To- day only one sister, Rachel L. Handy, and Mr. Brown are residents of Fulton county. Frank and Judson Brown live in Michigan.
Daniel Brown married Lucilia Thompson, March 17, 1866, in Morenci, Michigan. She was a young woman who came from Che- mung county, New York, to Fulton county as a teacher in the school at Ottokee. She was a daughter of Isaac V. and Ardia Thompson. She was the only one of her family who came to Ohio. Her brothers and sisters were: Elijah, Alonzo, John, Nathan, Mary, Ardia, Melissa, and Elizabeth. Four children were born to Daniel and Lucilia Brown: Ardia M., Mabel, Gertrude and Thomp- son. Ardia M. is the wife of W. S. Todd. Mabel is the wife of F. A. Knickerbocker, and their children are: Iona, Blanche, Wilma and Elsie. Gertrude became the wife of Wilker First, but is de- ceased and he is buried in Novell, Michigan. Their son, Thompson, is also deceased and is buried in Ottokee Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Todd live in Dover and and Mr. and Mrs. Knickerbocker live at Leslie, Michigan. Iona Knickerbocker is the wife of B. O'Neal. Their children are Owen and Beth-Dale. Blanche is the wife of Frank Holmes.
"Mixed up," describes the political outlook, although Mr. Brown usually votes the republican ticket. As to church: "Well, my par- ents were Methodists," said Mr. Brown. While there is Revolution- ary blood in the family ancestry, the lineage has never been traced, but Mr. Brown and three brothers, Hosea, Isaac and John, enlisted in the Civil war. In a short time Isaac went to the relief of Hosea, whose health was broken, and he died in a hospital at Newark, New Jersey. John died in a hospital in Covington, Kentucky, but Daniel was at the front and in actual service 21/2 years. He was discharged from the Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry after one year on account of physical disability, but in March, 1864, he re-enlisted in the Thirteenth Ohio Cavalry, and served until the end of the war. Soon after his return from the service he was a visitor among old friends in Chemung county, New York, and there he met Lucilia Thompson.
A short time later Lucilia Thompson came to Ohio as a school teacher at Ottokee, and she remained as the homemaker in the newly established family of Daniel Brown. She died March 23, 1893, and since that time Mr. Brown has traveled and divided his time between relatives in Michigan and Ohio. He has always main- tained his place of residence at the family homestead in Dover. He is a member of Losier Grand Army of the Republic Post in
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Wauseon, there being about forty Civil war soldiers in the com- munity. While Mr. Brown has always been a farmer, the farm in Dover is rented and he is free to come and go at pleasure. The place was in the wild when he bought it, and he has lived there to witness the transformation. There were no roads and no drainage, but there is a different story to relate in Fulton county today.
ELIZER BIDWELL BEATTY. At Old Homestead Farm in Chester- field, A. D. 1919, there are three generations sheltered together, Elizer Bidwell Beatty looking backward at his father, Sidney S. Beatty, and forward at a son and daughter, David S. and Elizabeth. Old Homestead has been the Beatty habitation since 1858, it being the first land acquired by S. S. Beatty in Fulton county.
It was October 20, 1845, that Sidney S. Beatty landed in Chester- field, coming direct from Sussex county, New Jersey. His father, Holloway H. and his mother, Elizabeth (Jefferson) Beatty, and their eight children constitutes the immigrant family from New Jersey to Ohio. They went by wagon to New York City, and from thence by steamboat up the Hudson to Troy, New York. From Troy they went to Buffalo via the Erie Canal, and from Buffalo to Toledo across Lake Erie by steamboat. In Toledo they hired a team for the remainder of the journey, and since he was a boy ten years old S. S. Beatty has lived within a few miles of the original home- stead of the family in Chesterfield. For a short time he lived in Morenci-barring that, always in Chesterfield.
The children in this immigrant family were Nancy, Margaret, Sidney S., Julia, Mahala, Whitfield, Samuel and Jane, and those born in Ohio were Elizabeth and George. The pioneer Beatty family certainly understood all about wilderness conditions in Fulton county. Today only Mr. Beatty and one sister, Mrs. Julia Gates of Morenci, remain to tell the story. The Beatty family burial plot is in the Roos Cemetery in the immediate community-East Chester- field.
It is another case of some brothers who ventured into the New World in search of their fortunes, and in the Beatty family, Thomas, father of H. H. and grandfather of S. S. Beatty, was one of three brothers who came over from Scotland in 1812-the second war with England, being British subjects engaged in warfare against the United States, but as time went by they deserted the British Army and became citizens of the country they were fighting against -transferred their allegiance to another country.
After the smoke of battle cleared away Thomas Beatty located in New Jersey-the head of the family now living in Chesterfield, and at Cleveland and Columbus there are branches of the Beatty family who are descended from the two brothers, Daniel and Samuel Beatty. The manufacturers of the Beatty organ are known to have the same lineage as the family in Chesterfield. Such was the beginning of the Beatty family history in the Western Hemisphere -the New World. It is understood that Admiral David Beatty of Scotland, who commanded an English fleet in the recent war of the nations, is from the same parent stock-the Beatty family tree having its beginning in Scotland,
On November 22, 1859, Sidney S. Beatty married Elizabeth Welch. She was a daughter of James and Amy (Clark) Welch, and was an Ohio woman. There was a sister, Mary Jane, and two brothers, Elizer and Chester, and one child who died early, Perry.
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Elizer Welch and Mrs. Mary Jane Briggs are still living in the community. Mr. Beatty and his wife establislied their home where he lives today, although for a number of years they had lived in Morenci. After the death of Mrs. Beatty, April 28, 1905, lie re- turned to the old home in Chesterfield.
Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Beatty: The first born, Albert, died before the birth of the others. Clarence C. married Viola Lester. He lives in Freedom Center, Michigan, where he conducts a general store. His children are: Dawn, wife of William Kass, and they have one son, Gaylord, Margaret, wife of Clarence Deittle, and the others are Carrie and Whitfield, the latter having been "Over There," in the World war. He spent three years in training camps and service, and was "Somewhere in France," and later in the Army of Occupation in Germany.
September 30, 1866, was a momentous day-two sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Beatty. Elias C. and Elizcr B. Beatty were born the same day, and they have never been long separated from each other. To their friends they are "Chuck" and "Pune" Beatty- names that have always attached to them because of their physical characteristics. Indeed, they were old enough for school before other names were given them, and today they seldom hear anything but Chuck and Pune. Chuck was always lusty while Pune was puny-a delicate child, although in manhood one is as robust as the other-different physiques, but both are strong men. At one time when the father tipped the scales at 220 pounds, Chuck weighed 219 and Pune was just one pound lighter, although he is 21/2 inches taller than his brother. The older brother, C. C. Beatty, stands six feet and five inches high, although his weight has always been under 200 pounds. The Beattys have always been portly men and women.
Elias C. Beatty married Melinda Jane Ferguson. Their chil- dren are: Lira, wife of John Maitland and they have two children, Virginia and Hilda; Lena, wife of Cleve Garsuch, and they have one child, Ellsworth; Sidney S., who married Mary Lamb, and they have one daughter, Adonna Belle; and Letha is the youngest daughter.
Elizer B. Beatty, who enrolls the family in the History of Ful- ton County, married Frances Grace Taylor January 22, 1905, and beside David S. and Mary Elizabeth, already mentioned, there was another child, Elias C., who died at two years of age. Mrs. Beatty is an only daughter of George and Laura (Shaffer) Taylor, and she was reared in the family of her grandparents, David and Eliza- beth (Hochstetter) Shaffer, in Delta. The Shaffers were pioneers in Fulton county. It was in territorial days that they came, and there is a "mixed multitude" in the blood lines of the ancestral families. They are all blended, and today there is an American citizenship of the first order in the Fulton county branch Beatty- Welch-Taylor relationship. In all its past history these families have lived in Fulton county.
"There's nothing in politics," said Pune Beatty, and yet the family is slated democratic. While he lived in Michigan a few years, he served as deputy sheriff in Lenawee county. Mr. Beatty is a member of the Chesterfield Centralized School Board, and he has the different medals showing his activities in the war loans. He was in every Liberty Loan drive, and Mrs. Beatty is secretary of the Oak Shade branch of the American Red Cross Society.
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The Beatty family church relation is with East Chesterfield Christian Church, and both E. C. and E. B. Beatty are members of Royalton Union Lodge No. 434, Free and Accepted Masons, al- though E. B. Beatty's original membership was in Morenci. The family belongs to Chesterfield Grange, and they all attend the meetings.
The family military history began with the coming of Thomas, Daniel and Samuel Beatty as British soldiers in the second war with England, but they became American citizens instead of British sub- jects. The Mexican war claimed Amos and James Beatty, who were cousins to S. S. Beatty. In the Civil war his brother, Whitfield H. Beatty, represented the family, and in the World war was William Whitfield Beatty. The Beatty family name stands for loyalty to home and country.
When S. S. Beatty was a young boy he trapped wild animals and sold the furs in Adrian, Michigan. One night he surprised his mother by bringing home the first cook stove. He had seen her cook before the hearth fire always. Many of the settlers came to see the stove, and in a short time others had them. They made their own maple sugar, and Mr. Beatty relates that "Old Uncle Johnny Roos" would say it was time to dig out the sugar troughs, make the spiles and tap the trees, and when he was supplied the Beatty family next used the camp, and then the privilege was ex- tended to others. That was in "the good old days" of Lucas and Fulton county pioneer history.
While S. S. Beatty remembers Thomas Beatty "who used to talk Scotch to us," he can only name very few of his contemporaries. They are almost all gone the way of the world. He was the only Beatty present at the 1919 Old Settlers Reunion at the Fulton county fair, while there were eight members of the contemporary Shadle family present. The Beattys came in October and the Shadles in November, 1845, but longevity was greater in the Shadle household.
S. S. Beatty was a farmer and later a cheesemaker in his days of activity, and agriculture claims the attention of Chuck and Pune today. For a time E. B. Beatty owned and operated barber shops in Morenci and Delta, and he was a journeyman barber for a num- ber of years. Since 1908 he has lived at Old Homestead in Chester- field. The children attend Chesterfield Centralized School, and the family is identified with all of the community interests.
EDWARD J. HAM. While the ancestral family name of Ham- the line through which Edward J. Ham of Chesterfield is descended, dates back to Holland, it is known that John C. Ham, who planted the family tree on American soil, was born March 1, 1812, at Wadebridge, Cornwall county, England. Relatives of the Ameri- can branch of the family still live there, although little is known of them.
John C. Ham crossed the Atlantic in young manhood, coming to America by a sailing vessel and living along the Atlantic sea- board until he was twice married, there being one son, William H. Ham of Raymond, Ohio, born of his first marriage. There is no record available of the name of the woman. In 1842 John C. Ham married Mary Keyes, of Carbondale, Pennsylvania, although she was a Connecticut woman. When she was twelve years old she
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went by wagon with her father and his family to Pennsylvania, a distance of 200 miles in eleven days.
The children born of the second marriage of John C. Ham are: Henry H., Thomas F., Lucius K., Libbie, Charles B. and Alice, all of whom with the half brother, William H., reached adult years. Those dying in childhood were: Ida, John, Edwin and Sarah. Henry H. and Thomas F. Ham, who are attorneys at law, were the first to locate in Fulton county, and in 1871 Lucius K. Ham, father of Edward J. Ham, who enrolls the family history, located in Wauseon. He had married Ella Delphene Hewitt in Slatersville, Tompkins county, New York, and their bridal journey was the new home in Ohio.
Ella Delphene Hewitt was a daughter of the Rev. Jasper W. and Clarissa J. (Wright) Hewitt. Her father was a Methodist minister. She was one of seven: Louis E., Sarah J., Martha L., Edmond J., Ella D., Mary L. and J. Talcott. Only one, Martha L. Bushnell, survives, and she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Of the Ham family six are living and half of them live in Fulton county. Mrs. Ella D. Ham died November 28, 1913, while the family lived on a farm near Wauseon.
The children born to Lucius K. and Ella D. Ham are: Louis H., who married Mina Denson, and their children are Iva Lou, the wife of Harold Ingall, Clair E., Fred and Vera. Nellie M., who lives with her father in Wauseon, has one daughter, Della Clark, the wife of Albert Seiler. Bertha L. is the wife of Clyde Randall.
On July 25, 1901, Edward J. Ham married Helen Louise Hib- bard. Their children are: Donald Edward, Helen Louise, Ken- neth Hewitt, Alice Lenore, Ida Mary and Charles Lucius. All are in attendance at the Chesterfield Centralized School, and they range from the first to the tenth grades-all riding by private conveyance a distance of four miles. although other children use the township wagons. In this way they have more time at home of mornings and evenings.
Mrs. Ham is one of five children born to Charles A. and Mary Jane (Riddle) Hibbard. The Hibbard family story is elsewhere given. but the Hibbard-Riddle marriage, July 11, 1868, introduces the Riddle family story. C. A. Hibbard died February 6, 1914, and Mrs. Hibbard is a resident of Spring Hill. Her son Lowell E., mar- ried Margaret Watkins, and they have three children. Lloyd. Can- dace and Gladys. They buried one, Arvah. Maud L. Hibbard lives with her mother. Helen Louise Ham is the third child. Clark D. Hibbard married Blanche Miley. Their children are Ir- ving, Geneva, Irene and Vivian. James R. Hibbard married Eliza- beth Kaennfer. Lowell E. Hibbard died in March, 1917, but the others all live in Fulton county. Their mother is a daughter of James S. and Matilda (Siddons) Riddle. She was the third and is now the last of the family. She had one sister, Lonisa, and four brothers: John Quimby, Clark, Thomas Harrison and James Irving.
The Riddle family home was in Franklin Township. They came in an early day from Holmes county. The occupation of the family had been agriculture until the four brothers of Mrs. Hib- bard changed the order in the Riddle family, all of them being engaged in commercial pursuits. When James S. Riddle first lo- cated in Fulton county he always went to Maumee to mill, the trip reaniring two days absence and a great deal of exposure and diffi- culty.
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The Ham family history began in Fulton county about the time the seat of government was removed from Ottokec to Wauseon. While the family relationship has representation in all the learned pro- fessions, the youngsters growing up about Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. Ham belong to the countryside, and near to the soil is the best place in all of the world. Mr. Ham was a teacher and pursued the course of study in the Metropolitan Business College of Toledo. For a few years he was engaged in the hardware trade and a short time in the sale of drugs, but farming finally claimed his attention. Although a tenant, since March 1, 1916, he has lived at the G. Scott Roos homestead in Chesterfield, where he combines farming and dairying, having an excellent herd of Holsteins.
"Politics! Local? Well, not exactly hide bound, but as a gen- eral thing republican," said Mr. Ham. The church relation is with East Chesterfield Christian Church, where both Mr. and Mrs. Ham are teachers in Sunday School and where he is chorister and the daughter Louise is pianist. He is a member of Morenci Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge, and the family is connected with Chesterfield Grange.
There were Civil war soldiers in both the Ham and Hewitt fam- ilies, but that was before they lived in Fulton county. Charles A. Hibbard was a soldier in Company I, Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and his grandson, Lloyd Hibbard, was an instructor in sharp shooting in the training camp at Paris Island. There is Revolutionary blood in several different channels, and Mr. Ham had his part in the necessary increased crop production required by the Council of Defense in time of the war of the nations.
Treasured as an heirloom by Mr. Ham is an old chest that his grandfather, John C. Ham, made from a wardrobe carried by the Keves family from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. In it arc hand made tools he frequently uses, and the metal in the blades is the kind that holds an edge. A friend of the family remarked: "They're tenants-yes, but there are more newspapers and well chosen maga- zines in the house than are seen in most rural households," among them the Youths' Companion, which had been read by the parents when they were youngsters.
ARCHER ALSTINE BRADLEY. While the name Bradley is English, only a few generations ago the branch of the family from which Archer A. Bradley of Maplehurst in Chesterfield is descended came from West Chester county, New York, to Lenawee county, Michigan, and later to Ohio. John Wesley Bradley was born March 2, 1818, in the State of New York, and in 1851 he made his pilgrimage west- ward, remaining in Michigan only long enough for his land to be submerged, when he sought a higher level in Ohio. When he dis- covered the Lenawec county farm under water he sought another investment in Fulton county.
Archer A. Bradley, of Maplehurst, was born July 23, 1854, on a farm in Chesterfield, a short distance from his present home, and when he was four years old his parents located where he lives to- day. Except for temporary absence in the west, Mr. Bradley's en- tire life has been spent in Fulton county. It was June 14, 1843, that John W. Bradley married Amanda Jane Caldwell on Long Island, and they lived for a time at Sheepshead Bay, where he was a "deep water sailor." The Caldwells were fishermen there when
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he met the daughter. She was born in Pennsylvania, but as a child she went with her parents to the seaside, where they made their livelihood with fishing boats.
The first child in the Bradley family was named Cornelius, but at the age of six months it died and the same name was later given to another child. Emery Anderson was the second son, and the third was Cornelius Tompkins. There was a daugliter ealled Rachel Frances, and when she was a babe the parents left Long Island and were located in Ohio before the birth of Areher Alstine Bradley. C. T. Bradley of Oklahoma and A. A. Bradley are the remnant today. The parents attained to a ripe old age in Chesterfield, the mother dying in 1902, and the father one year later. The Roos Cemetery is the burial ground of the Bradleys.
On December 2, 1876, A. A. Bradley married Martha Ellen Welles. She is a daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Jane (Whitaker) Welles. Their children are: George, Thomas Jefferson, Nancy Catharine, Martha Ellen (Mrs. Bradley), Simeon Peter, Nellie, Al- fred Eugene, twins, Della May and Addie May, and William. Two sisters, Naney C. and Nellie, are gone from earth and the rest are widely scattered, only Mrs. Bradley a resident of Fulton county today. The Welles family eame from Fostoria county, and later they removed to Michigan.
Horace Greeley's famous injunction: "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country," influeneed Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, and Angust 14, 1877, they began the overland journey in a covered wagon. Eleven weeks later they reached Hobart, Kansas, where they located a claim of 14 section, and they construeted a dugout and a stone granary on it. Both were good rifle shots and they fre- quently had prairie chicken on their humble bill of fare-not so humble, when they enjoyed it.
Mr. Bradley soon made the acquaintance of Dr. George Sowers, who had a stock raneh on the Kansas plains, and under his train- ing he obtained his first knowledge of veterinary surgery and medi- cine. From this practical frontier experience he mastered the science and today he responds to many calls in Fulton county. The stories Mr. and Mrs. Bradley tell of the life along the trail would fill an entire volume, but just one will serve to illustrate the diffi- culties under which housekeeping and cookery was performed in transit, the vehicle a covered wagon. When Mrs. Bradley began frying a buffalo steak by a stump, a heavy rain set in and she boiled it. There were twenty-one wagons in the train, and a fellow traveler from Fayette, Upton MeDaniels, kept a diary along the way. The Bradleys have always wished he might publish it.
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