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 2
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
He was happily married September 22, 1852, to Mary Clark, a native of Bloomfield, and the daughter of Isaac G. and Polly ( Bundy) Clark, of Connectieut. Mrs. Snyder died April 19, 1859, leaving one child, Mary Lovira, born April 26, 1853, now Mrs. Herbert F. Griffith, of West Farm- ington, Ohio. For his second wife, Mr. Snyder married September 19, 1860, Mary J. Bugby, born October 23, 1839, at Orwell, Ashtabula county, Ohio, a daughter of Henry and Paulina (Cook) Bugby. The father was born in October, 1816, in Chautauqua county, New York; his wife was born No- vember 25, 1818. in Windsor, Ohio. The grandfather Bugby was named Wymand; he was also of New York. Mrs. Snyder's father and mother were Zera and Chloe ( Loomis) Cook, natives of Windsor, Connectieut. All of these families were early pioneers in the famous Western Reserve of Ohio. Mrs. Snyder's parents lived on a farm in Ashtabula county, Ohio, where the father died in 1883 and the mother in the spring of 1889.
The children born to Mr. Snyder, by his second marriage, are: Elva, Mrs. Elsworth Yoder, of Wymore, Nebraska; Clara V., Mrs. Charles Hol- lister, of Warren, Ohio, who died February, 1892; Gertrude L., Mrs. Sam- uel S. Marquis, of Detroit, Michigan, and Cyrus Byron, of Baird, Texas. After a short illness Mr. Snyder passed away October ?, 1908, honored and respeeted by all who knew him, and Trumbull county citizens will long mourn him as one of their most valuable citizens.
Mr. Snyder had a horse twenty-eight years old which was a great favorite of his and known all over the country. Being crippled, Mr. Snyder had to use a cruteh, but the horse would assist him to mount by sidling up to a stump or rise of ground. She would wait for him on the roadside or field without being hitehed all day and night if necessary. Mr. Snyder had become very mueh attached to her and on his deathbed requested his wife to be good to Dora, which is the horse's name.
WHITTLESEY ADAMS. a publie and unusually brilliant and sueeessful business man of Warren, Ohio, was born at Warren November 26, 1829, a son of Asael Adams, Jr., and Lucy Mygatt Adams. The father was a prosperous merehant in Warren from 1813 until his death in 1852. He was a director of the Western Reserve Bank and a member of the first town couneil in 1834. While young, during the war of 1812, for three years he carried the weekly United States mail on horseback from Pittsburg to Cleveland. He taught the first school of a publie character in Cleveland in 1804-05. The grandfather, Asael Adams, Sr., was born in Canterbury, Connectieut, September 13, 1254, and was a gallant soldier in the Revo- lutionary struggle. He emigrated from Connecticut to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1800, and was a member of the Conneetieut Land Company, which owned the whole of the Western Reserve in 1796. He was a charter mem- ber of Old Erie Lodge No. 3 (Masonic) of Warren in 1803 and was an original stockholder of the Western Reserve Bank in 1812.
Whittlesey Adams was born in a dwelling house that stood where the Franklin block now stands. His father erected the building for a store
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
and dwelling about 1814 and occupied it as a general store for a period of about forty years, and for seventy-five years it stood as a landmark in Warren, until replaced by the present Franklin block. Mr. Adams re- ceived his education in the schools of Warren, Western Reserve College and Yale College, from which latter institution he graduated in the month of June, 1857. He was admitted to the practice of law, but devoted his entire business career to his chosen field in the fire insurance business, his efforts in this line building up a business which is the most prodigious of any in Ohio. When Whittlesey Adams was born Warren had but four hundred inhabitants, no railroads, and only the daily stage coach and slowly moving canal boat as a means of public travel. Homespun clothing was the garb of all. Today the city has a population of more than fourteen thousand and all the wonderful modern improvements.
To give a concise conception of the various changes of Mr. Adams' busy life, some of the many positions which he has so ably filled are enumerated: From 1849 to October, 1852, he was clerk in the Warren postoffice; entered Western Reserve College in 1853; was president of the Philozetian Society of that college from 1853 to 1855; graduated from Yale College (University), New Haven, Connecticut, in 1857; was ad- mitted to the bar in Springfield, Ohio, 1860; clerk of the probate court at Warren from October, 1858, until April, 1860; was appointed additional paymaster with rank of major, U. S. V., in July, 1864, by President Lin- coln ; from 1859 to 1868 was Trumbull county school examiner ; one of the three examiners for the Western Reserve College in 1867; from 1878 to 1882 was largely interested in the American Cattle Company and Western Cattle Company of Wyoming: was vice-president of the Mutual Fire In- surance Company of Toledo, Ohio. He has been a director in the Miller Table Company, the Warren Paint Company, the Warren Opera House Company, and as a stockholder is interested in the Ohio German Fire Insurance Company of Toledo, the National Union Fire Insurance Com- pany of Pittsburg, the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company of Cleveland, the First National Bank and Dollar Savings Bank of Youngstown, Ohio; also the Union National Bank, Second National Bank, Western Reserve National Bank of Warren, and the Youngstown Foundry & Machine Com- pany of Youngstown, as well as the Bostwick Steel Lath Company of Niles, Ohio, the Peerless Electric Company and the Iddings Company of Warren.
Mr. Adams was a member of the firm of MeCombs, Smith & Adams, the largest dry goods store in Warren, from March, 1865, to 1869. He has been the executor, administrator and trustee of several estates. In 1857 he established the Adams Fire Insurance Agency in Warren, which now represents twenty-three leading fire insurance companies. He served from 1858 to 1863 as an active member of Neptune Fire Engine Company, also of the Volunteer Fire Department of Warren ; was a trustee and treasurer of the Warren Presbyterian Church in 1858-59 and the secretary and treasurer of the Warren and Lake Erie Plank Road Company in 1859-60. In the early sixties he was the regular paid correspondent of the Cleveland
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Daily Herald, and later found pleasure in furnishing historical sketches for the two leading newspapers of Warren.
In his society affiliations Mr. Adams is a member of the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, and of the Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Ohio. He was a trustee of Independence Lodge No. 90, Knights of Pythias, was a charter member of the Knights Templar (Masonic) Lodge of Warren; was also an officer in Old Erie Lodge No. 3 F. & A. M. and Mahoning Chapter, at Warren; charter member of El Zaribah Temple of the Mystic Shrine in 1896, of Phoenix, Arizona. He spent most of the years of 1896, 1898 and 1904 in Arizona and Southern California.
Mr. Adams was happily married May 19, 1864, to Miss Margaret S., daughter of Charles Smith, Esq., and wife, of Warren. Charles Smith was a leading and prosperous merchant of Warren for a term of thirty years and the first president of the Trumbull (now Western Reserve) National Bank, from 1864 to his death in 1882. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Adams are: Charles Smith Adams, born February 27, 1866, married July 2, 1908, Miss Jennie Terry; Frederick W. Adams, born February 28, 1868, married August 2, 1892, Miss Ollie Parmiter; Scott M. Adams, born April 28, 1876.
A wonderful record, indeed, is the story of this man's life and activ- ities. His knowledge of the law, especially insurance law, has been of inestimable value to him throughout his career. Notwithstanding he has been in active business life a half century, and is now seventy-eight years of age, he is still able to attend to his many duties as well as a man of fifty years of age.
CHARLES MCCOMBS WILKINS, a practicing attorney, residing at War- ren, Ohio, was born in that city February 14, 1865, a son of Robert S. Wilkins, who was born in Champion township, Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1847 and is a resident of Warren. His father, John Wilkins, was a native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and came to Trumbull county in 1832, locating as a pioneer in Champion township. He was an ardent Republican worker but in early days was a Whig. He was a life-long Presbyterian in church faith. His father came from Ireland to Pittsburg and then on to Ohio prior to 1800, and subsequently returned to Pittsburg. Margaret D. Oakes, mother of Charles M. Wilkins, was born in Northumberland county, Penn- sylvania, a daughter of Isaac Oakes. She came to Trumbull county about 1857 and died aged sixty-three years. In this family were born two sons and two daughters, all grown to manhood and womanhood, and three of whom still survive: James G., of Warren; Gertrude, Charles M., Mabel, who died when nineteen years.
Charles MeCombs Wilkins is the second child and son. He was reared and educated at Warren, Ohio, attending the high school and
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Lehigh University. He spent a year and a half in the middle west, being in St. Paul, Minnesota, a part of the time connected with the St. Paul News. He also engaged in the electrical construction business and in 1889 began the study of law, being admitted to the bar in June, 1891, since which time he has been practicing law at Warren. He was city solicitor about four years and in 1902 was elected county prosecuting at- torney, and November 3, 1908, was elected on the Republican ticket judge of the Common Pleas Court, second subdivision, ninth district.
Mr. Wilkins is a Mason and advanced to the degree of Knight Temp- lar and Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Elks, No. 295, and Knights of Pythias No. 90, at Warren. Politically he is a Republican, and during the 1900 national convention he served as a delegate when Roosevelt was nominated for President. He has been chairman and secre- tary of the county central committee in Trumbull county eight years and secretary and chairman of the county executive committee five years. He was married June 22, 1907, to Fredena Lewis, daughter of Thomas Lewis of Youngstown, Ohio.
GIPSON P. GILLMER, city solicitor, elected on Republican ticket prosecuting attorney of Trumbull county and practicing law at Niles, Ohio, was born in Newton township, Trumbull county, July 31, 1872. His father was James A. Gillmer, a native of the same township and born on the same farm in 1841. The grandfather, Alexander Gillmer, supposed to have been born in Connecticut, was among the early settlers of this county. James A. Gillmer is now a resident of the farm where his mother began housekeeping. His wife's maiden name was Laura A. Byers, a native of Pennsylvania of Holland or "Pennsylvania Dutch" descent. She is still living. This worthy couple were the parents of three sons: David J., now associated with James McGranahan & Sons, lumbermen, at Alliance, Ohio; William W., residing at Warren, connected with the car-builder's trade, and Gipson P. Gillmer, of this notice, the youngest of the family.
He was reared on the old homestead in Newton township. His first schooling was in the district where he lived and at Newton Falls high school. Subsequently he attended the Northern Indiana University, at Valparaiso. He graduated in the scientific course in 1898, finishing by a two-year classical course at Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania, at which time he was superintendent of the public schools of that city. He read law with T. H. Gillmer, at Warren, finishing his legal studies at the Cin- cinnati Law School, being admitted to the bar in June, 1903, after which he began practice at Niles in September of that year. In 1905 he was elected solicitor for the city and re-elected in 1907. In 1908 he was nomi- nated by the Republican party for prosecuting attorney. Politically, Mr. Gillmer is a staunch Republican. In fraternal matters he is connected with the Masonic order, being a Knight Templar and Shriner; he also belongs to the Odd Fellows' order and Knights of Pythias.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
He was married in 1900 to Maud Ella Kern, daughter of Edwin A. and Dianna (Musser) Kern, of Niles, of which city she is a native. She was the principal of the Latin-English department of the high school at the time of her marriage. Mr. Gillmer is a stockholder of the Dollar Savings Bank, besides being interested in the Niles Car and Manufacturing Company, the Standard Boiler and Plate Iron Company, and other local enterprises at Niles. He has been highly successful, both as a lawyer and a business man. He was well informed on many branches and taught school in Newton township, Newton Falls public school and principal of the Gustavus, Ohio, high schools and principal of the mathematical de- partment of Niles high schools, and was also superintendent of public schools at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. He was engaged in various callings, all of which have worked together to develop for him a character at once strong and many-sided, he being able to cope with many problems by reason of his excellent attainments.
PETER L. WEBB .- Almon D. Webb, the father of Peter L., of this sketch, was one of the early residents of Johnson, Trumbull county. In 1855 Almon D. Webb moved to Warren, where he became identified with the early business interests of that city. He was clerk of the courts, mayor of the city, and did a general office business. He owned much property, among which was a block now occupied by Byard and Voit, the third floor of which contained the only hall for public amusement. This was called "Webb's Hall," and many people now middle-aged remember attending what seemed to them "marvelous shows" in this hall, and likewise taking part in home entertainments of tableaux, plays and light operas. Mr. Webb was identified with the Presbyterian church, was a member of the building committee when the present church was built, and not only gave financially, but had an oversight of the construction. During the fire of April 30, 1860, which destroyed a large part of the business portion of the city, he saved the old church by climbing onto the roof and directing a "bucket brigade." The roof was afire several times. Mr. Webb's wife was Emily Pitcher, of Norway, Connecticut. She was a lovely character and greatly respeeted in the community. She died in 1884, ten years after Mr. Webb. The Webb home for many years was on the southeast corner of Vine and High streets and later the house which became the property of Miss Maria Eaton. Mr. and Mrs. Webb had the following children : Amelia (Lyman), Washington P., Jerusha H., Amoretta S., Frances C. and Peter L., who was the second child.
Peter L. Webb was educated in the common schools of Warren and entered into the business and social life of the city as soon as he had com- pleted his education. He has spent almost his entire life in this city. From the time the new Opera House was built until a few years ago Mr. Webb managed that in connection with other business. He was deputy revenue collector for this district for thirteen years. He was president and
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
general manager of the Warren Manufacturing Company, is now treasurer of the library board, director in the Peerless Electric Company, director in the hospital board, director of the American Lumber Company, an $8,000,000 lumber corporation located at Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is a member of the city council.
Several years ago he organized the Savings Bank Company, becoming its president. Since the union of that bank with the Western Reserve National Bank, he has not been in active business. He is a member of the Presbyterian church. He has been commander of the local G. A. R. and during the Rebellion served several months in Company G, Eighty- sixth Ohio Volunteers. He was but a boy and enlisted for six months' service. In 1876 he married Marie Louise Simonson, of Holly, Michigan. They have a pleasant home on Mahoning avenue, although they spend their winters in Florida and travel a great deal throughout the rest of the year. Mr. Webb is the only representative of his family living in this county. His sisters, Amelia, Jerusha and Fanny, are deceased.
HUGH H. SUTHERLAND .- Coming from the land of sturdy habits, in- dustry and thrift, Hugh H. Sutherland inherited to a marked degree those qualities of mind and character that command success in life, and is now occupying an assured position among the valued citizens of Warren, Trum- bull county, where he is a well-known builder and contractor. He was born, December 1, 1858, in Scotland, and there grew to man's estate.
In 1882, having previously, in Edinburgh, spent an apprenticeship of five years at the trade of a stonecutter and builder, Mr. Sutherland emigrated to America, and the following four years was employed in the construction of bridges on the Erie Railroad. In 1886, forming a partner- ship with Watson and Craig, he began his career as a contractor and builder in Warren, and under the firm name of Watson, Craig and Suther- land, carried on a prosperous business until the death of the senior mem- bers of the firm in 1904. Since that time Mr. Sutherland has continued the business alone, and in his undertakings has met with signal success, having built up a large patronage in the city and the surrounding country. A man of intelligence and ability, Mr. Sutherland takes an active interest in promoting and advancing the welfare of his adopted town and county, and has never shirked the responsibilities of public office. He is a staunch Republican in politics, an influflential member of his party, and served two years on the city council and is now serving his second term as a mem- ber of the board of education of Warren.
On February 26, 1884, Mr. Sutherland married Annie Sutherland, who was born in Scotland, a daughter of John Sutherland, and who came to this country in 1884. Their union has been blessed by the birth of one child, Marguerite, a graduate of the Warren high school. Fraternally Mr. Sutherland is prominent in Masonic circles, and one of the most active and useful members of the craft, belonging to lodge (past master), chap- ter (high priest), council and commandery, being past eminent commander.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
ANDREW J. LEITCH, M. D., who died on the ith of May, 1904, was a native of Donegal, Ireland, born January 22, 1848, but when only four years of age he was brought by his parents, Robert and Elizabeth Leitch, to America, the family locating on a farm in the southwestern part of Weathersfield township, Trumbull county, Ohio, where Dr. Leitch grew to manhood in the manner of most of the lads of his time and location, working, playing and attending the country schools during a few months of each year.
As a young man he entered Hiram College, of which James A. Gar- field was principal, but who then little dreamed of the future honors await- ing him as the President of the United States. While yet a student in that college young Leitch conceived the idea of becoming a physician, and without remaining for graduation entered the Western Reserve College at Cleveland, Ohio. where he pursued courses in medicine and graduated with the class of 1871. Within a few weeks after his graduation he became a practicing physician at Niles, Ohio, and although at that time just enter- ing the threshold of manhood he was soon in possession of a good practice and within a decade or less he ranked with the ablest in his profession. After practicing in Niles, Mineral Ridge, North Jackson and other points within the southern portion of Trumbull county he retired from the profes- sion in the autumn of 1898 to engage in the iron business. The medical profession of this county had numbered him among its faithful devotees during the long period of twenty-seven years, and his name will long be remembered for the excellent work he accomplished.
In company with R. G. Sykes, Dr. Leiteh purchased the sheet and galvanizing mill in Hammond, Indiana, but a year and a half later he sold the mill to the United States Steel Corporation. This was just four years prior to his death, and returning to Niles he again identified himself with the manifold industries of the city. He was one of the incorporators of the First National Bank in 1889, ever afterward remaining a stoekholder in that institution, and he was its president from 1901 until the time of his death. He was also a stockholder in the Bostwick Steel Lath Plant and at one time its president, and was a direetor in the Ohio Galvanizing and Manufacturing Company, and treasurer of the Eureka Springs Cattle Company, of Phoenix, Arizona. He was also interested in the Bradshaw China Company, the Niles Car Manufactory and the Standard Electric Works. But however great was his business relations he never neglected his duties as a citizen and filled several local offices with honor and faithful- ness. He was made a member of the Niles city council, in which he served in the capacity of treasurer, and was the first president of the board of publie safety. Fraternally he was associated with the Masonic order at Niles and Warren, affiliating with the Knights Templar at the latter place and with the Trumbull Couneil of the Royal Arcanum at Niles. In church faith he was identified with the Presbyterian denomination and was a lover of its sacred institutions. His life, although short in duration, was replete with good deeds toward his fellow men, and he was known and hon-
Vol. II-2
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
ored for his loyalty to home and native land. He died of paralysis at ten o'clock on Saturday evening of May 7, 1904.
He was married in 1881, at Niles, to Ella M. Ward, and they became the parents of the following children: Harriet E., Isabella, Florence E., Alma G., Robert Andrew, and Paul Ward. Harriet, the eldest, is a grad- uate of the Niles high school, the Rayen school of Youngstown, and of Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts, where she studied for four years. Isabella graduated at the Raven school and then attended the Emma Willard school, in Troy, New York. She also graduated from the Pitts- burg Kindergarten College, and is now connected with the Pittsburg Kin- dergarten Association in that city. Florence, after graduating from the Rayen school in Youngstown, attended the Rye Seminary, at Rye, New York, where she pursued a musical course. Alma is now attending Ober- lin College, Robert is at Hiram College and Paul is at home. All of the children received their early educational training in the Niles public schools.
Mrs. Leitch was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, a daughter of Vol- ney and Eliza Ann (McCombs) Ward. She received her educational train- ing in the graded and high schools of Warren, and at the Poland Union Seminary, and taught both in Niles and in Warren.
HON. ROLLIN A. COBB, a leader in the business and industrial life of Warren and a prominent Republican in this section of Ohio, is a native of Jamestown, New York, born on the 2nd of December, 1852. His father, Norval B. Cobb, was also born in that town, where he was reared and educated, migrating westward in 1860 and locating in the West Mecca oil district of Trumbull county. There he engaged in the oil business until his retirement in 1873, when he returned to Jamestown, where he passed the balance of his life, dying at the age of fifty-six. The mother, known before marriage as Amelia M. Lord, was a native of England, her father coming to the United States when she was eighteen years of age and settling with other members of the family at Busti, Chautauqua county, New York. Mrs. Norval B. Cobb died at the age of sixty-four, the mother of Rollin A. and Willis H. Cobb, a resident of Jamestown. The Cobb family is of good New England stock, the paternal grandfather, Adam B. Cobb, being a native of Vermont and in his mature life became an early settler of Jamestown, New York.
Rollin A. Cobb was eight years of age when his parents removed from Jamestown to the oil fields of Trumbull county, and he received all the education which he has ever imbibed from regular school teachers at what was known as the Red school house of district No. 2, at Mecca. At the age of nineteen years he located at Warren, his first employment there being as a clerk in the drug store of H. G. Stratton and Company, in which firm he afterward became a partner. He was also an independent propri- etor in the business at various points. In 1881 he removed to Alliance, but disposing of his store there, returned to Warren and became identified with The Winfield Manufacturing Company, of which he was secretary
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
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