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 28
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Dr. Moore spent his boyhood days on the home farm until he was nineteen years of age, when he entered the Wesleyan University, at Dela- ware, Ohio. After remaining there a year he spent a like period at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, returning then to Kinsman. He com- menced the study of medicine under Dr. Allen Jones, and remained under his tutelage for about three years. During this period he attended a course of lectures at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City. He also spent one year at the Long Island College, Brooklyn, from which he was graduated in June, 1873, returning then to Kinsman and establishing himself in practice at his old home. At the present time he is the oldest physician engaged in active practice at Kinsman. Dr. Moore has also gained considerable prominence as a Republican since 1896, when he joined that party. Previous to MeKinley's first nomination he was a Democrat, and served under the first Cleveland administration as United States pension examiner. His admiration for President Mckinley, both as a man and as a statesman, turned him into the Republican ranks, and since that time he has been a stanch admirer and supporter of the party. As to his connection with the business and industrial development of Trumbull county, it may be said that he was one of the organizers of the Kinsman Banking Company, of which he was the vice-president from the
W. W. Wilson
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time of its founding until he was elected president (about 1903). He is also vice-president of the Wallace-Davis Company, of Kinsman, and secre- tary and general manager of the Kinsman Milk Sugar Company, of Andover, Ashtabula county, and secretary of the Royal Phosphoric Coffee Company, of Kinsman. Dr. Moore is a Mason long in high standing, being connected with Kinsman Lodge No. 442, with the chapter, council and commandery at Warren, and the Mystic Shrine and Consistory at Cleveland, Ohio. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Lodge No. 742, of Kinsman.
In May, 1871, Dr. Moore married Miss Elizabeth B. Patterson, a native of Delaware, Ohio, a daughter of Andrew H. and Lucy Bixby Patter- son. Their children are as follows: Carrie, eldest daughter, died at age of sixteen months ; Minnie, now Mrs. Bruce Holcomb, of Newton Falls, Ohio, her husband being in the employ of the United States Gypsum Company, of Omaha, Nebraska; and Luman G., Jr., practicing medicine with his father, and who married Miss Anna Kernon and is the father of Luman G. Moore III.
WESLEY W. WILSON, who is well known in farming circles, as well as among the business men of Warren, Trumbull county, is a native of War- ren township, this county, born November 25, 1839, a son of Thomas Wilson, native of the same county. The parents of Thomas were William and Lydia Wilson, natives of Virginia and of Scotch and German ancestry. They went to Ohio about 1800 and were among the little band of early settlers of what is now Trumbull county. Then, the Indian tribes were in full possession of the country, but seemed on friendly terms with the whites. No trouble was experienced by their presence, save when some thoughtless white man sold them liquor, and at such times the Indians were very quarrelsome. For many years after Mr. Wilson's settlement deer, bear, wild cats, panthers and wolves were plentiful. Fish were also very abundant in the streams whose waters had not been contaminated by coal and other mining operations. The early settlers all raised sheep and cul- tivated flax from which the women would spin and weave into cloth with which to clothe the family. The grandfather, William Wilson, secured a tract of timber land, from whose dark forests he cut away sufficient clear- ings to obtain enough tillable land on which to raise all that the family and their stock needed to subsist upon. There the good old man lived, labored and finally died, aged eighty-seven years. His faithful wife had died a few years before.
Thomas Wilson, father of Wesley W., was reared amid the pioneer scenes of his native county and attended the common district schools, whenever an opportunity afforded itself. These primitive schools were generally taught in log houses, but by much study he secured a good, prac- tical education, as then counted. After Mr. Wilson had reached manhood, he bought a tract of land in Warren township and there built a log cabin, the same in which his son was born. The heavy timber was slowly but
Vol. II-13
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surely cleared away and the land put under a high state of. cultivation. Here he lived and enjoyed life in common with other hardy pioneers, until about five years before his death, when he purchased land close to the city of Warren, and there built a home where he died, when he was seventy-six years old. He, too, had seen the great forests of Ohio transformed into a veritable grain field and a handsome, fertile garden spot.
Thomas Wilson was first an ardent Whig in his political views, joining the Republican party upon its formation. He was twice married, first, to Elizabeth Riddle, a native of Venango county, Pennsylvania, and daughter of Marinus Riddle, who was, as far as can be learned, a life-long resident of Venango county. She died in 1859, having reared seven children : Emily, Henry C., Martha L., Albert and Mary (twins), Wesley W. and John.
Wesley W. Wilson attended the common schools in his youth and ad- vanced to the high school grades at Warren. At the age of eighteen years, he commenced teaching school and at twenty years of age, began to master the carpenter's trade. When the first war cloud of the rebellion hovered over the national sky, in April, 1861, he enlisted for three months, as a member of Company C, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front at once. He was in the battle of Rich Mountain. Soon after that, he was stricken with typhoid fever and was sent home, and did not return again to join his command, but was discharged, August 29, 1861. He enlisted again, July 13, 1863, in Company G, Second Ohio Regiment, Heavy Artillery. He went South, and was attached to the Twenty-third, which served under General Scoville, also under Rosecrans and "Pap" Thomas, in the states of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. He was with his regiment on all of its tedious marches and long, dangerous campaigns until the close of that terrible Civil conflict. He was honorably discharged, August 23, 1865, when he returned home, in impaired health.
In 1866, he went to Marion, Iowa, in search of health and resided there two years, then returned to Warren township, Trumbull county, Ohio. He succeeded to the ownership of a portion of the old homestead, which he still occupies. He has constructed a good and valuable set of farm buildings, planted out and cared for fruit and shade trees, making his farm one of the many fine ones seen on a drive through this goodly county of Trumbull. He has eighty-three acres in good state of cultiva- tion, and all about the premises looks thrifty.
Mr. Wilson has been twice married, first in September, 1866, to Melissa Templeton, born in Champion township, Trumbull county, Ohio, a daughter of William and Maria (Shafer) Templeton. She died, De- cember 7, 1871, and for his second wife, he married, December 25, 1873, Amanda Brobst, a native of Warren township, Trumbull county, a daughter of John and Mary (Kistler) Brobst. Their children died in infancy. Mr. Wilson's first daughter by his first marriage, Gertie E., married Willis P. Vesey, and they have two children-Morris and Blanche.
In their church affiliations, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically, he is a Republican, casting his
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first vote for President Lincoln. He has served his share of local positions, including that of trustee of his township seven years and also county com- missioner. During his term as commissioner, the county court house was erected. He belongs to Bell-Harmon Post, G. A. R., and Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Masonic order.
CHARLES A. HAEFNER, M. D .- Greater than in almost any line of work is the responsibility that rests upon the physician. The issues of life and death are in his hands. A false prescription, an unskilled operation may take from man that which he prizes above all else-life. The physi- cian's power must be his own, for he can not purchase it nor gain it by influence. He must commence at the very beginning, learn the very rudi- ments of medicine and surgery, continually add to his knowledge by close study and earnest application, and gain his reputation by merit. Realizing deeply this truth, Dr. Haefner has labored earnestly and successfully in his chosen field of endeavor.
The foundation for his future life work was laid in the public schools of his native city of Kinsman, from which he passed to the Normal College of Valparaiso, Indiana, now the Valparaiso University, and graduated with its class of 1896 in pharmacy. He then located in Akron, Ohio, and spent seventeen months in completing a practical training in that line, and in January of 1898 passed the state examination for a pharmaceutical license. Locating in Kinsman in the same year, he was engaged in the drug busi- ness in that city until entering the Maryland Medical College of Baltimore in September of 1900, where he spent three years in study and graduated on May 7, 1903. In the following fall he completed the law course at the College of Law in Nashville, Tennessee. But not satisfied with these scholastic achievements, he went to Cleveland and completed an interneship of one year at the general hospital of that city, afterward taking a post- graduate course in medicine at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, where he completed his course July 1, 1904. During the week beginning July 15, 1904, Dr. Haefner passed the conference medical board examina- tion at Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attained a general average of 88.7 in twenty-one branches, varying in grades from 80 to 97 per cent, and was the third highest of this entire class of one hundred and forty-two contest- ants, competing against university graduates throughout the land. His third medical degree was obtained from the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons at Indianapolis, now the medical department of the Uni- versity of Indiana, graduating from that institution April 20, 1905. Dur- ing the last week in June of that year he passed the state board medical examination at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and on the 10th of July follow- ing received the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania license to practice medicine and surgery within the state, which was recorded on the 18th of the same month in Mercer county.
On July 6, 1904, Dr. Haefner received a license to practice medicine and surgery from the state board of health of Kentucky, and in June, 1906,
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took his final examination before the Ohio state board of medicine at Cincinnati, and the honors which came to him in this competition were most signal. The license which he obtained on the following 3d of July, together with those previously mentioned, makes him eligible to practice in twenty- three states of the Union.
Dr. Haefner is a native son of Trumbull county, Ohio, born in Kinsman on the 30th of April, 1844, of German descent and a son of Charles and Barbara (Schlund) Haefner. Charles Haefner, born in Bochurn, Germany, came alone to America when a youth of seventeen, and from Indianapolis, Indiana, where he had first located, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became identified with the shoe business, and later continued the same line of trade in Cleveland. In the fall of 1872 he located in Kinsman, where for about fifteen years he was the proprietor of a shoe store. Then with the profits from that business he purchased a farm of two hundred acres in Kinsman township, and this homestead is now considered one of the finest in this section of the county. He is quite extensively interested in the raising of live stock, making a specialty of Holstein cattle. Barbara Haefner, his wife, was born in Heidelberg, Germany, but was only three years of age when brought by her parents to the United States. Her life before marriage was principally spent in Cleveland, Ohio, where she was reared and educated. Their five living children, three sons and two daugh- ters, are as follows: Charles A., Frank E., John J., Catherine B. and Minnie L. Catherine is the wife of William Manning, of Conneaut, Ohio. Minnie is at home with her parents. Frank E. is an engineer at Conneaut. John J. is located at Farmdale, Ohio, engaged as proprietor of a hotel.
Dr. Charles A. Haefner attained to mature years in his native city of Kinsman, and in 1899 he was married to Miss Margaret V. Britton, a daughter of Eli and Elizabeth Britton. He is an active member of the Masonic fraternity, and also has membership relations with the fraternal orders of Elks, Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and with the college fraternity Kappa Psi.
DR. HUBERT L. ROOT, a leading physician of Kinsman, Trumbull county, was born in the township by that name, October 19, 1867. His father, Lyman Root, is also a native of Trumbull county, and the mother, nee Irene S. Matthews, a daughter of Thomas Matthews, was born in Kins- man township. The ancestors on both sides of the family were among the earliest settlers of this section, Charles Root, the paternal grandfather, being one of the first of the Connecticut emigrants to locate in the Western Reserve. Dr. Root is the oldest of three children, his brother, Ralph R., being a practicing physician of Youngstown, Ohio, and his sister, Alice S., being the wife of C. S. Summerson, of Kinsman, Ohio.
The doctor was first educated in his native township, attending the district schools there and the Kinsman Academy. He commenced his systematic medical studies as a student at the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, and graduated therefrom in 1894, first locating for practice
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at Burghill, Trumbull county. After remaining there for two years he removed to Kinsman, where he has since resided and engaged in professional work. He is a member of the Trumbull County and the State Medical societies and is active in Masonic work, as well as being connected with the Modern Woodmen of America.
In 1894 Dr. Root married Miss Jennie G. Wagstaff, a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of John Wagstaff. There are two daughters by this union : Mary M. and Frances J. Root. The doctor has been a continuous resident of Trumbull county with the exception of the period which he passed at Starling Medical College, and his present substan- tial and honorable standing speaks volumes for his ability and prosperous career.
C. A. HOBART, cashier of the Kinsman National Bank, at Kinsman, Trumbull county, was born in Vernon township, in the county named, April 9, 1878. His parents were T. C. and Lizzie (Storier) Hobart. The father was one of the early settlers of the county, son of Luman Hobart, who was a native of Connecticut and came to the Western Reserve with other colonists who migrated from that state in the early part of the nineteenth century. The mother was a daughter of Alexander and Jeanette Storier, and was a native of Trumbull county.
C. A. Hobart is the second of six children and was educated in the township schools and at the Kinsman High School, completing his training by pursuing a business course at the Spencerian Business College at Cleve- land, Ohio. He then secured a position as bookkeeper at the Kinsman National Bank, subsequently was promoted to assistant cashier, and in October, 1904, assumed his present position as cashier. He is also one of the stockholders of the bank and is a promising young business man of the county. In November, 1904, Mr. Hobart was married to Miss Merta Marvin, daughter of Joseph and Jennie Marvin, of Trumbull county. They have one child, M. Josephine. Mr. Hobart is a Republican and in his fra- ternal relations is a member of the Masonic lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maccabees. During his life-long resi- dence in Trumbull county his ability and honorable conduct have gained him unqualified esteem.
L. C. VAN NESS. cashier of the Hubbard Banking Company, was born at the place named September 1, 1866. He is the son of Aaron M. and Sally A. VanNess, his father being a native of New Jersey, born in 1812, and moved to Trumbull county in 1814. His mother was born in this county in 1830. Mr. VanNess received his education and practical train- ing as a farmer near the place of his birth and continued to be an agri- culturist until, by an injury to his left arm, he was obliged to relinquish active labor. In November, 1892, he became identified with the Hubbard
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Banking Company as bookkeeper; in January, 1899, was elected assistant cashier, and five years later was promoted to his present position.
On June 5, 1890, Mr. Van Ness married Miss Emily M. Kerr, youngest daughter of Samuel L. and Sarah J. Kerr, of Hubbard, Ohio. They became the parents of two children-Alice H., born October 14, 1891, and Leonard K. VanNess, born September 6, 1901. Mr. VanNess has had no inclination to attain public honors, having devoted himself entirely to his private affairs and the promotion of the moral and religious welfare of the local com- munity. He united with the Baptist church in 1879 and holds the offices of deacon, treasurer and trustee.
DR. JOHN MCCARTNEY, who is the well known physician and surgeon practicing at Girard, Ohio, for almost half a century, was born in that place September 26, 1838, a son of James and Sarah (Erwin) McCartney, both of whom were natives of Youngstown township, Mahoning county, Ohio, but at that date the domain in which they were born was a part of Trumbull county. The father was born in 1814 and died in November, 1887. The mother was born in 1818 and died in 1894. Andrew McCart- ney, the paternal grandfather, was born in Pennsylvania, some place within Indiana county, and came direct to Girard in 1836. He bought a grist mill and saw mill. When the canal was constructed through this county he leased the grist mill to other parties, keeping the saw mill property, and continued to operate it until his death in 1858.
James McCartney purchased a farm in Weathersfield township when twenty-one years of age, and resided on the same until 1873, then moved to Girard, where he died in the month of November, 1887. The maternal grandfather, Jacob Erwin, was a native of Virginia and an early settler in Youngstown township, where he owned three hundred and eighty acres of land at the time of his death. Dr. McCartney was the oldest of three children in his parents' family. They were as follows: Dr. John; Eliza- beth Ann, married in 1866 Daniel E. Moyer, of Youngstown, a retired grocer and capitalist; Andrew, residing on the old homestead, a farmer.
Dr. John McCartney attended the district schools in Weathersfield township and also the school at Girard. In 1856, having chosen the pro- fession of medicine as his life's work, began the study of this science, under Dr. Barclay, of Girard, with whom he remained until the spring of 1861, when he attended a medical college at Cleveland. He remained with his parents, however, until twenty-two years of age, then commenced the practice of medicine at Girard, forming a partnership with Dr. Barclay, his old preceptor. This partnership existed five years, then Dr. McCartney took the entire practice over to himself. Since that time he has been constantly in practice, and has made his profession a success in every way. Financially he has been able to accumulate much valuable property. He owns a fifty-acre farm in Weathersfield township and six houses and lots in Girard. He also owns a forty-acre tract of land adjoining Girard, which land he purchased in 1873 and which he expects to plat into town lots.
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He is now the oldest practitioner within Trumbull county, having been in constant practice for forty-eight years, a record seldom reached by a physician. At one time or another he has built and owned fourteen houses within Girard, six of which he retains still, thus showing that he has spent his money within the community where it was earned.
He was united in marriage, first, in 1872, to Miss Sarah Crumb, born in Austintown township, Mahoning county, Ohio, in 1838, a daughter of John Crumb and wife. They came from Pennsylvania and were Penn- sylvania Dutch people. The father was a very early settler in the township named last, and is now deceased. Mrs. McCartney died in March, 1875, and Dr. McCartney was married November, 1893, to Miss Sophia E. Hauser, born at Petersburg, Mahoning county, Ohio. Her father was a tanner by trade, who came to Girard and engaged in that business under the firm name of Kreil & Hlauser. He died at Girard in 1905, having lived a retired life the last ten years of his life. Mrs. McCartney's mother died in 1903.
Dr. McCartney is an honored member of the Masonie fraternity; also of the Knights of Pythias order. In his church connection he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Girard. In politics he votes the Democratic tieket. During all the years, making in total almost a half century of practice, Dr. McCartney has won friends and admirers by the thousands throughout the community in which he has practiced. The science of medicine has made wonderful advancement since he first began its practice, but he has kept up with the passing decades, and stands high in its ranks today.
HENRY CLAY RANNEY, for many years a prominent attorney at the Cleveland, Ohio, bar, now retired, was born at Freedom, Portage county, June 29, 1829, his parents being Elijah and Levanna (Larcomb) Ranney. His father, who was a merchant, died in 1836, and Henry C. was taken into the family of his uncle, Rufus P. Ranney, a lawyer at Jefferson, Ohio, and subsequently one of the justices of the Ohio supreme court. He attended school, read law with his uncle, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar. Three years later he became associated with another uncle, John L. Ranney, of Ravenna, and the partnership thus formed continued until the death of his uncle in 1866. When the war broke out he was appointed assistant adjutant general of volunteers, with the rank of captain, by President Lincoln, and was assigned to duty on the staff of Gen. E. B. Tyler, commanding the First Brigade, Third Division, Fifth Army Corps, and ordered to Virginia. He was with his command in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, in both of which he won honorable mention in General Tyler's reports, and was also in numerous minor engagements. After two years' military duty he resigned, returned to Ravenna and resumed his law practice.
After the death of his uncle and law partner already mentioned he continued alone until 1872, when he came to Cleveland and formed a
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partnership with his uncle, Rufus P. Ranney, and his son John. The two young men were later associated with Henry Mckinney, under the firm name of Ranney & Mckinney. John Ranney and Judge MeKinney with- drew from the firm in 1890. Judge R. P. Ranney died in 1894, and for some time Henry C. practiced alone, later becoming an associate of Clifford W. Fuller.
In 1880 he gave up active practice for a time and traveled abroad to regain his health, which had become affected by too close application to his professional duties. In 1884 he again visited Europe, and on this occasion paid considerable attention to the art galleries of the Old World. The knowledge of art thus acquired came into good play when, after his return to his native land, he was elected president of the Western Reserve School of Design, of Cleveland. His association with this school marked him out as a suitable trustee for the Hurlbut and Kelly estates, both of which made large bequests to the erection of an art gallery in Cleveland, of which Mr. Ranney is president.
During the days of his active labors, few attorneys in northern Ohio had a higher standing at the bar than Henry C. Ranney. He never ceased to be a student of the law, was always an indomitable worker, a forcible and earnest advocate and a careful and judicious adviser. Although he has retired from active practice, he still has enough to occupy his mind and time. He is trustee of the John Huntington Benevolent Trust, the Society for Savings, and the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust; a member of the State Board of Charities, a director of the Guardian Savings & Trust Company, the Cleveland Stone Company, the Continental Sugar Company, the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railway, the Citizens' Savings & Trust Company ; the Buckeye Fish Company, and the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railway, and is vice-president of the American Surety Com- pany. He was one of the founders of the Western Reserve School of Design, and is a life officer in the Case Library, where he has done excellent service as one of the trustees. He is also a life member of the Chamber of Commerce, a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine : a member of the Army and Navy Post No. 187 of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Companion of the Loyal Legion. in which he was senior vice-commander in 1903-4: belongs to several of the leading social and literary clubs of Cleveland, the American, Ohio State and Cleveland Bar Associations; is senior warden of St. Paul's Episcopal church and one of the trustees of the diocese of Ohio.
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