USA > Ohio > Trumbull County > A twentieth century history of Trumbull County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vol. II > Part 19
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In 1906, Fred P. MeBerty formed a partnership with C. B. McCurdy and engaged in the manufacture of transformers and electric appliances. One year later, 1907, he formed a corporation in which R. A. Cobb was president, N. H. Cobb secretary and Mr. McBerty treasurer and manager. They employ about fifteen men. Mr. McBerty is the patentee of a device used in the construction of fan motors and another for running adding machines, typewriters, etc. Also patented a brush holder for power motors and another device for the construction of transformers.
In his politics, Mr. MeBerty is Republican in principle, but aims to support the best man for public office. He is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders. He was married in the month of October, 1893, to Minnie Jones, a daughter of D. D. Jones and wife. She was born in Jackson township, Mahoning county. They have two sons: Paul and Donald.
JOHN A. FULLER, proprietor and manager of the Park Hotel, Warren, Ohio, was born in Bristol township, Trumbull county, Ohio, June 12, 1863. His father was John P. Fuller, whose sketch and family history appear in this work.
John A. Fuller is the older of two children born to his parents, Ida L.,
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wife of U. M. Hashman, of Warren, being the younger. Mr. Fuller was reared on the old homestead in Braceville township and educated at the common schools and at Newton Falls. When aged sixteen years, he engaged in school teaching, but three years later bought a grocery business, con- tinuing about eighteen years at Warren, most of the time named being alone. He sold out in 1900, then engaged in the shoe business, which is carried on under the name of the Fuller Shoe Company. He managed this shoe store until 1906, when he purchased the Park Hotel and remodeled the same and has made it a first class hotel. He is a member of the order of Elks, No. 295, and of Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 90, of Warren.
In 1884 he was united in marriage to Fannie R. Brackin, daughter of Dr. James Brackin, of Warren: she died in 1896, leaving one son, named James J., who died the same year. For his second wife Mr. Fuller married Blanch C. Brackin, daughter of Dr. Robert Brackin, of Kinsman.
EDWARD A. VOIT, one of the enterprising furniture dealers doing busi- ness at Warren, was born in Bloomfield township, Trumbull county, Ohio, August 31, 1865, a son of Lewis Voit, who was a native of Germany, and who came to America in 1847, locating in Warren, Ohio, but later settled in Bloomfield township. He was a painter by trade and lived to be seventy years of age. The mother of Edward A. Voit was Fredericka Clinite, also a native of Germany, who came to Warren when three years of age with her parents who were farmers. Mrs. Voit lived in Trumbull county sixty-nine years and died aged seventy-two years. She became the mother of six sons, all but one of whom grew to manhood and are living in Warren : Charles L., George Frederick, Henry A .. William S. and Edward A.
Edward A., the second son, was educated at the public schools of Warren. He learned the upholsterer's trade when about sixteen years of age, and in September, 1878, engaged in the furniture business, which he has followed ever since in a successful manner. He, in company with A. R. Hunt, is the owner of the Colonial Hotel.
Mr. Voit is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in all of its degrees and has filled most of its important offices. He has been a life-long resident of Warren and interested in her growth and welfare. He takes much interest in educational matters and has been on the school board.
DR. G. N. SIMPSON, who is among Warren's leading physicians and surgeons, is a native of Millersburg, Holmes county, Ohio, born June 8, 1858, a son of David T. and Sarah (Walkup) Simpson, both parents being natives of Pennsylvania. The doctor is the second child among the six children, three of whom were sons and three daughters, all growing to manhood and womanhood. He was reared in Holmes county, and when twenty-five years of age, he began the study of medicine at the medical department of the Wooster University, Cleveland, now the Ohio Western
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University. He graduated in 1888 and located at Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was associated with Dr. Lashell for two years, after which he went to Warren, in 1890, during the month of April, sinee which time he has been in active, general practice. The doctor is a member of the County, State and American Medical Societies and Association. He enjoys a large practice and stands eminently among his fellow-practitioners. IIis office is located at 115 Main street. He is at this date (1908) health officer for the city of Warren, as well as resident physician to the county infirmary.
Dr. Simpson was united in marriage in 1896 to Minnie Bayard, daugh- ter of Mrs. Margaret Bayard, residing in Warren. All that is useful, and thoroughly up-to-date in the medical literature of the day, Dr. Simpson is in possession of, and makes use of every scientific and practical measure known to his profession,
ANDREW F. SPEAR, retired, of the old business firm of Spear & Voit, now residing at No. 33 Monroe street, Warren, Ohio, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, February 21, 1835, a son of William Spear of Hunt- ingdon county, Pennsylvania, where he was reared and educated. He moved to Butler county, where he married Susan Dodds, a native of Butler county, Pennsylvania. They then located on a farm, where they lived several years, removing to Warren in 1865, where the father died, aged about seventy-nine years. Ilis father, William Spears (Andrew's grand- father), was a native of Pennsylvania, and a Revolutionary war soldier, having re-enlisted three times during that awful struggle of eight years. The Spear family is of good old Scotch origin. The mother's side were of Irish extraction, and she lived to be eighty-three years of age. Three sons and one daughter, who lived to manhood and womanhood, blessed their union, but only one brother is living- Mathew W., of Warren. Andrew F. is the third child and second son. He was reared and obtained' his educa- tion in Butler county, Pennsylvania.
The paternal grandfather was a brother of Colonel Edward Spear, who was killed at Fort Jefferson. The present Supreme Judge Spear is an own cousin of Andrew F., their fathers being brothers.
Andrew F. Spear remained at home, assisting on the farm until he enlisted in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serving nine months as a private soldier, being mus- tered out in 1863. He married Martha 1. Dunn, daughter of Andrew Dunn, a native of Scotland. Mrs. Spear was a native of Allegheny City, Penn- sylvania. Mr. Spear went to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1865, locating in Warren. In 1871 he embarked in the furniture business, being a salesman, which business he followed for seven years. Subsequently, he formed a partnership with Edward A. Voit, the firm being known as Spear & Voit, which firm continued twenty years, when Mr. Spear sold his interest and retired, but has been actively engaged in public affairs. He has served on the board of education for eighteen years in succession. In polities he is a
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radical Republican, who gives a reason for his political views. He has served on the election board and been generally interested in politics.
Mr. Spear is a member of the Odd Fellows order, and in church con- nection is of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, in which work he has taken an active part, serving as class leader and member of the official board.
Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Spear and two now survive --- Anna, a teacher in the public schools of Warren, and Eva L., wife of G. F. Herrick, of Youngstown, Ohio, managing editor of the Telegram.
CANFIELD L. WHITNEY, proprietor of the evergreen nursery (only one of its kind in the country), who resides at 116 Belmont avenue, Warren, Ohio, is a native of Geauga county, Ohio, born January 28, 1848, a son of John V. Whitney, a native of Granville, Massachusetts, who was born in 1818 and lived in Granville until seventeen years of age, when he went to Geauga county, Ohio, with his parents, Samuel P. and Lois (Buttles) Whitney. John V. Whitney was a teacher and married at Granville, Ohio, to Mary Lansing. She was the widow of J. Sylvester Graves. After his marriage Mr. Whitney located in Montville, Geauga county, and engaged in farming up to about 1863, when he began the nursery business. For a period of more than forty years he was school examiner, county com- missioner and county surveyor, and held other public positions. He sur- vived until he was seventy-five years of age and his wife died aged about eighty years.
The Whitneys were among the very early pioneers of this county, which is within the Western Reserve, and they became prominent in its history. They readily trace their ancestry back to the "Mayflower." Mr. Whitney has in his possession a genealogy of three volumes, of a thousand pages each, one of the most complete extant of any family in America. John V. Whitney was the ninth in a family of twelve children, all deceased but one, the widow of Horace B. Everitts. In the family of which Calvin L. was one of the children there were eight born, six of whom still survive and all grew to manhood and womanhood, he being the second child.
Canfield L. Whitney was reared in his native place and received a good common school education, after which he attended Burton and Madi- son Academies, then taught school twelve terms during the winter in country districts, while he was employed on the farm during the summer months working for his father, up to the date of his marriage in 1872 to Roseltha White, a daughter of James White, by whom he had one daughter, Gladys. Mr. Whitney married for his second wife, in 1893, Emma L. Smith, of Montville, Ohio, and they have an adopted daughter, Dora Eloise Whitney.
Mr. Whitney with his brother operated a nursery for some years. In 1885, however, he went to Warren, purchased one hundred acres just out- side the city limits, where he erected the necessary buildings, three houses in all, and made other improvements. Here he conducts the only evergreen
MHle Bailer
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nursery of its kind in the country, east of Illinois. He does a large whole- sale trade, exclusively in evergreen stock, which he propagates from the seed. He also has a small fruit farm and does truck gardening. He has been very successful in his large business operations. He went in debt seven thousand dollars to install his nursery, but has long since paid it all and is in good financial circumstances, owning a tract of one hundred and seventy-six acres at Thomasville, Georgia, one hundred acres of which are planted to pecan trees and one thousand peach trees, also two hundred Japanese persimmon trees, together with other fruits.
Mr. Whitney is a member of the Masonie order, belonging to the commandery degree ; is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Ile is a truly representative citizen of Trumbull county, of which he has been a resident for twenty-three years. Politically, he is a believer in Repub- lican principles, but is independent, and not bound by any party platform or set of politicians.
Mr. Whitney's mother's family came from east of the Allegheny moun- tains, traveling by means of ox-teams. These families have performed well their part in the subduing and developing of this portion of the Middle West.
NELSON HOMER BAILEY .- Especially deserving of mention in this biographical record is Nelson Homer Bailey, who served bravely as a soldier of the Union Army during the Civil war, and is now carrying on a substan- tial business as a contractor in stonework, his home being at No. 5?1 East Market street, Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio. A son of Russell. Bailey, he was born, November 5, 1842, in Gustavus, this county, of honored New England ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Ido Bailey, was born and reared in Connecticut, and served as a soldier in the War of 1812. Coming from New England to Ohio in 1802, he took up land in Gustavus, having previously visited Gustavus in 1797, and the farm which he improved from its primitive condition is still in possession of the family.
Born in Connecticut, Russell Bailey was but a child when he was brought hy his parents to Trumbull county. He was brought up and educated in Gustavus, and was there employed in agricultural pursuits dur- ing his active life. He married Dorothy B. Hart, who was born in Gus- tavus township, this county, a daughter of Joseph H. Hart, who came from Connecticut, his native state, to Ohio in 1807, becoming a pioneer settler of that place. Of their union, three daughters and two sons were horn, two of whom are living, namely : Nelson Homer, who was the fourth child and second son ; Huldah A., widow of the late Charles Herriek. One son, Am- brose J., served as a soldier in the Civil war, and died while in the army, in 1864, belonging to Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry : Malinda A., married Albert Farnsworth, of Mentor, Ohio, and Cornelia E., married Benton Whiston, of Gustavus.
Reared and educated in Gustavus, Nelson H. Bailey was well drilled in agricultural pursuits while on the home farm, and until eighteen years of age
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ably assisted his father in its care. In August, 1861, responding to his country's call, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-ninth Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, as a private, veteranized by enlisting in the same company and same regiment in 1863, and was discharged, two years later, as orderly sergeant of his company. With his comrades he endured all the hardships and privations incidental to life in camp and on the field, and for twenty days was in the camp hospital at Duval, Virginia. He was at the very front in many of the more prominent engagements of the war, in March, 1862, taking part in the battle of Winchester. On June 9, 1862, he was taken prisoner, and was held for ninety-one days by the enemy, first at Lynchburg, and then at Belle Island. Being paroled, he was sent to Fort Delaware to recruit, and on February 15, 1863, rejoined his regiment. On May 1, 2 and 3 of that year Mr. Bailey took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, and just two months later was in the thickest of the fight at Gettysburg. He was subsequently sent, with the veterans of the Army of the Potomac, to New York City to quell the draft riots. In September, 1863, Mr. Bailey's regiment was transferred to Hooker's command, and was sent south, where he participated in the battles at Wauhatchie and Lookout Mountain, and in the various engagements that took place between Chattanooga and At- lanta, while with Sherman. As a part of the Twentieth Army Corps, Mr. Bailey marched with Sherman to the sea, thence through the Carolinas, Bentonville and Richmond to Washington, where he took part in the Grand Review. Receiving his honorable discharge July 22, 1865, he returned to the parental home, in Gustavus, and for a number of years was a resident of that place, being employed for seven years in the hotel business, and after- ward as a contractor. In 1891 Mr. Bailey located in Warren, and as a contractor in stonework has since carried on a large and lucrative business.
On March 5, 1872, Mr. Bailey married Minnie M. Roberts, who was born in Gustavus. Trumbull county, Ohio, December 14, 1852, a daughter of William and Electa ( Humphrey) Roberts, natives of Connecticut, and early settlers of this county. She comes of patriotic stock, her great-grand- father. William Roberts, having served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Her brother, Frederick Roberts, had the distinction of being the first man in Gustavus to offer his services to his country. He enlisted in Com- pany H. Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and at the end of two years was honorably discharged on account of physical disability. Mrs. Bailey's other brother, Lorin Roberts, also served in the Civil war for more than two years, belonging to Company C, Second Ohio Cavalry. He was a graduate of Oberlin College, and for many years was a judge in the court of common pleas, in Traverse City, Michigan, and a man of much prominence in that locality. To Mr. and Mrs. Bailey two children have been born, namely: Nelson Burdette, born July 2, 1874, married Addie Mentzer, and Frances C., born February 21. 1878, wife of David R. Estabrook, of War- ren, has one child, Dorothy Ruth.
Politically Mr. Bailey is a sound Republican. In 1900, he was elected county commissioner to fill a vacancy and served for six years, being chair- man of the board one term, and on November 3, 1908, was elected a director
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of the county infirmary board. The infirmary was enlarged, improved and modernized while he served as commissioner. While living in his native town, he was township trustee for a number of years, rendering excellent service in that capacity. Fraternally he is a member of Bell-Harmon Post. No. 36, G. A. R., and of Prisoners of War Association.
KENDRICK O. BRAINARD .- Living in retirement after an industrious and honorable mercantile career, deeply respected by all his associates and revered by his relatives and intimate friends, Kendrick O. Brainard, of Warren, Trumbull county, is reaping the rich harvest of his life-long sowings. Born at Watertown, Jefferson county, New York, on the 20th of April, 1831, he is a son of Obediah and Nancy (Pack) Brainard. The father, who was born in the same county as the son, in 1799, was a farmer, a wood-worker and a skilled general mechanic. At one time he operated a machine shop and woolen mills at Kent, Ohio, and while there built his first steam engine for Judge Spear, of Warren-his customer being the father of Hon. W. T. Spear, of Columbus, who now sits upon the supreme bench of Ohio. In 1842 Obediah Brainard located at Warren, where he applied his remarkable mechanic skill to various enterprises and lines of work. In fact, he founded the first machine shop in Warren, jointly occu- pying a building with Judge Spear, located on Market street, just east of the present marble works. Mr. Brainard had the first story and basement for his machine shop, in which he chiefly constructed steam engines and saw-mills, while the Judge occupied the second story and attic with his sash, door and blind factory. After a highly useful and strictly honorable life he died in his seventy-fourth year. The deceased was one of the oldest and most active members of the Warren Baptist church, of which he was deacon and chorister for many years.
The Brainard family was established in Vermont at a very early day, the paternal grandfather being a native of the Green Mountain state. Nancy Pack, as she was known before her marriage, who became the mother of Kendrick O. Brainard, was born in 1798. George Pack, the pioneer of her family to come to America, was one of the first settlers of Elizabeth- town, New Jersey, and his grandson, Job Pack, was the maternal great- grandfather of Kendrick O. Brainard. The former died when his son, George, was very young, and the boy was apprenticed to a man who, on account of his loyalty to King George, fled, at the outbreak of the Revo- lutionary war, to St. Johns, New Brunswick. The man also took with him his apprentice, who grew to manhood in that city and married Philotte Greene as his first wife. Their twelve children, who were all born in St. Johns, were George, Rufus, John, Caleb, James Benjamin, Margaret. Sarah, Nancy, Phoebe, Mary, Harriet and Eleanor. The parents spent the re- mainder of their lives in Jefferson county, New York, where Nancy Pack met and married Obediah Brainard. Three sons and three daughters were born of their union, all of whom reached manhood and womanhood.
Kendrick O. Brainard, of this biography, is the sixth and the only
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surviving child. When the family located in Ashtabula county, at Jeffer- son, he was only four years of age, being reared in that section of Ohio and receiving his education in the district schools of Kent. Until he was twenty-five years of age he remained at home assisting his father in busi- ness. In 1856 he removed to Kansas, locating at Osawatomie, near the house of old John Brown and in the very hotbed of abolitionism and of the fierce border warfare which was then being waged. He warmly espoused the free-soil movement, his Kansas experience forming the most dramatic and vivid chapter of his life.
Mr. Brainard did not leave Kansas until 1860, returning then to Warren, where after a time he built a store on Main street and established a business for the sale of harnesses, farm implements and kindred goods. Within the succeeding years he developed and held a large trade in these lines, and in 1890 retired from business with an honorable business record. Many years ago he joined the Methodist Episcopal church and has never been content to be a passive member, but has proved his faith by his activity in its behalf, as well as by his spiritual life and his works of charity. He has served for years as trustee of the Warren church and has otherwise been prominent in the work of its official board. Mr. Brainard married Miss Mary Ann Pew, a lady of gentleness and refinement and of exalted Christian character. Two sons and one daughter were born to their har- monious union, as follows: Edward, now manager of the American Lin- seed Oil Company, of Toledo, Ohio; Carrie, who married John Van Wormer, also a resident of that city, and George Brainard, who died in Texas. Mr. Brainard's present wife was Jennie Lind Davis, a daughter of David Davis, a niece of Hon. Benjamin Stanton. Her family were all of Bellefontaine, Ohio. She is a relative of Hon. William Lawrence, who was a former Congressman from this state. Benjamin Stanton, as the older citizens will readily recall, was lieutenant governor with Governor Tod during the war, and also served in Congress many years. Mrs. Brainard's grand- father was Dr. William Hamilton, of Steubenville.
GEORGE W. POND, who is numbered among the retired merchants of Warren, Ohio, residing at No. 404 East Market street, was born in Eng- land, January 25, 1841, and accompanied his parents to America in 1842, when he was about eighteen months old. The family located in North Bloomfield township, Trumbull county, Ohio. George W. was reared and educated in Bloomfield. When twelve years of age, he left home and remained with Dr. Howe, of Bloomfield, for about eleven years. April 6, 1863, he went to Warren and there clerked for Reed & Adams, dealers in clothing and furnishings for men. He continued with this firm for four- teen years and eleven months, then in 1878 he engaged in the clothing business with Mr. Camp, under the firm name of Pond & Camp, which partnership relation existed until 1899, when he was succeeded by his son under the firm name of Cottle & Pond. George W. Pond has been engaged in active business pursuits as a merchant for thirty-six years, in the city
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of Warren, thirty years being within one store building. He has been a resident of the city forty-five years.
During the war of the Rebellion, Mr. Pond served a hundred and twenty days and was taken prisoner of war by John Morgan, the raider. He was in what was known as the "Squirrel Hunters" in 1862, he being a fourth corporal in the One Hundred and Seventy-First Ohio Regiment. He is a member of Bell-Harmon Grand Army Post, No. 36, of Warren.
Beginning at the bottom round, Mr. Pond has forged his way to the front rank among the business factors of his enterprising city. He was married in 1867 to Helen Ilunt Camp, daughter of Alanson and Mary Camp, of Warren. Mrs. Pond died January 29, 1907. The children born of this union were Fra, George, Helen and William A.
REV. WILLIAM CODVILLE, D. D., of this biographical notice, and now residing in the city of Warren, Ohio, is a retired Baptist clergyman of about fifty years' standing in the ministry. He was born in the city of Quebec, Canada, March 13, 1841, and was the fourth son of John Codville, a merchant of that city. His father, born in 1800, was a native of Guern- sey, one of the English channel islands; his mother, Ann Elizabeth Heron, born fifteen years later, was a native of Morpeth, a town in the north of England. Both of these in early life sought a new home in Canada and in 1834 were united in marriage, this, however, being Mr. Codville's second marriage, for, by a former wife, Lizzie White, he had two children, John of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Margaret Mowat, of Grand Rapids, Mich- igan. The former of these deceased in 1868, leaving a wife and two daughters, Mary and Lizzie, the former being the accomplished wife of Prof. L. Briggs, dean of Harvard University.
Mr. John Codville by his second marriage had eight children, six of whom are still living, viz .: James, Henry, William, Benjamin, Joseph and Annie Elizabeth, the wife of Samuel Martin of Toronto, Canada. The father of these, after a useful life in the church and community, suddenly died of cholera in 1849. He was followed by his wife in 1887. They were both active members of the Wesleyan Methodist church. In 1856 Widow Codville removed, with her family, to the city of Toronto, where she found a more desirable home for the education of her children.
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