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 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
25
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
grand chancellor ; he has served ten years as captain of the Pythian Mili- tary Company, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Masonic fraternity, having attained the degree of a Knight Templar in the latter order.
Another mark of distinction fell to Mr. Ritezel in 1896 when he was chosen by Governor Bushnell as one of the seven members of the Ohio Cen- tennial Commission, of which he was later appointed secretary. Associated with him on the commission are such well known men as R. F. Dawes, of Marietta, Samuel Mather of Cleveland, Guy G. Major of Toledo, Frank T. Huffman of Dayton and Ralph Peters of Cincinnati. Mr. Ritezel's inti- mate acquaintance with leading party workers and politicians of the state places him in the foremost rank.
At the declaration of war between the United States and Spain, Mr. Ritezel enlisted a company of volunteers and was commissioned a captain by Governor Bushnell. The company was unattached to any command and participated in no active service outside of the state. At the re- organization of the Ohio National Guard after the Spanish war, Mr. Ritezel was commissioned a captain in the Fiftieth Infantry, O. N. G., and in 1899 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and assigned to division staff, O. N. G., Major General Chas. Dick, commanding. He holds a life commission with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and at present is chief signal officer of the Division of Ohio. He has had eleven years of military experience.
He married Isabella Graeter, the daughter of one of the early and substantial citizens of Warren, the Graeter House being one of the hos- telries in the stage coach days. They have two sons just entering college life, who promise to become useful citizens.
GEORGE W. SNYDER .- No citizen of Trumbull county has served more continuously or more acceptably in public positions tending to conserve the good order and fair government of the community than George W. Snyder, of Orangeville, Hartford township. This splendid example of American citizenship is a lawyer of forty-eight years' practice, served twenty-six years as mayor of Orangeville and for the past eighteen years has been an honored justice of the peace-which is a record of private faithfulness and public usefulness which it would be difficult to duplicate. Mayor Snyder was born in Hartford, September 22, 1838, son of George Snyder, a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, who, as a youth of eighteen, located in Trumbull county. The sole possessions of the young Pennsylvanian were then an English shilling and a good ax, and the latter he found of great value to him in Brookfield and Hartford townships. He married within a few years of his coming to Trumbull county, spent several years as a furniture and pump maker, and eventually owned a sawmill and 340 acres of timber land. He was also an active Democrat and a member of the Lutheran church. George Snyder's wife was formerly Miss Elizabeth
26
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
Carnes, daughter of Godfrey Carnes, a resident of Mercer county, Penn- sylvania, who had the honor of serving as a general in the Revolutionary war. The eight children born of this union were as follows: Mary, who married Daniel Artherholt, and is deceased; Margaret, who died as the wife of Asa Artherholt; Jane, who married Warren Alderman and is now a resident of Sharon, Pennsylvania; Ruhama, now Mrs. Aaron Vinton and living in Vienna ; James, who resides at Brookfield; A. Cornelius, deceased ; Uriah, who lives at Hartford, and George W. Snyder, of this review.
Mr. Snyder received his education, in its early stages, through the public schools of Hartford township. He afterward graduated from the Hartford Academy, and in 1858 completed a course at Folsom's Mercantile College, Cleveland, Ohio. The year 1860 was very important in the life history of the mayor, for it marked his birth as a voter and the casting of his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln, as well as the commencement of his legal studies. In the year 1862 he enlisted in Company C, Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, and although he was on duty as a three months' soldier, he was not called into action. He commenced and completed his legal studies with L. C. Jones, of Hartford, and has since continuously practiced in the local courts, his professional specialty being that of collections. The judge has also a long and honorable record as a school teacher, commencing in his eighteenth year (when he received one dollar per day, exclusive of board) and covering sixteen terms, all in Trumbull county. His first school was at Tyrrell. Since he east his first vote for Lincoln, forty-eight years ago, Mr. Snyder has been active supporter of Republicanism and his long and able service as mayor and justice of the peace has been both as a representative of that party and as a strong champion of honest govern- ment and impartial justice. Aside from the performance of the duties connected with his profession and judicial offices, he gives considerable of his time to the cultivation of bees and has now about forty colonies on the home place.
On the 25th of December, 1812, Mr. Snyder wedded Miss Julia A. Wilson, daughter of Nathaniel Wilson, a native of Vermont, and Betsey Broekway Wilson, a native of Ohio. Mrs. Snyder was born, raised and educated in Hartford township, and has become the mother of the follow- ing children : Sharlie L .. deceased; Blaine C., who resides in Hartford township; Vera E., who is a stenographer in Akron, Ohio, and Bessie J., who married Professor F. O. Pinks and lives at Scranton, Pennsylvania.
CHARLES HARSHMAN, a retired farmer of Southington township, and quite recently incapacitated from work by a stroke of paralysis, is one of the prominent citizens of this section of the county, both as regards its progress in agriculture and the administration of county affairs. He was born April 5, 1833, in Jackson township, this county. David Harshman, the father, was a native of Pennsylvania, coming to Trumbull county with the grandfather of Charles, was reared in this locality and married Miss Rosanna Stewart, a native of Ireland and of Scotch-Irish descent. The
27
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
children of this family were as follows: Mary, who married W. B. McCon- nell, of Garretsville, Ohio, and has now reached the age of eighty-seven years; John, who died at the age of twenty-one; Mathias, who, at the age of eighty, is a resident of Dunn county, Wisconsin; Jacob, who is a resi- dent of Pierce county, Wisconsin; Margaret, who married Ezra Wildman, and is now deceased, and Charles, the sixth and youngest, who is now in his seventy-sixth year. David Harshman, the father of this family, was an active Democrat until 1840, when he became a Whig and afterward joined the Republican party. He was a life-long farmer and died a stanch Methodist.
Charles Harshman was educated in Southington township and after taking all possible advantage of the district school entered Hiram College, at West Farmington, for several terms. During this period James A. Gar- field was a teacher in that institution and Mr. Harshman was a pupil in several of his classes. Mr. Harshman has engaged in farming nearly all his life, commencing for himself at the age of twenty-one years. About twelve years ago he had reached such a position that he was enabled to retire from active work, but a stroke of paralysis on March 13, 1903, in- capacitated him from even active recreation and he now lives in quiet at his home in Southington Center. During the Civil war Mr. Harshman served as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His year (1862) of active work, both as a private and as lieutenant of his company, so shattered his health that he was un- able to work for three years after the close of the war. In 1821 he was elected commissioner of Trumbull county and served in that capacity for two terms of three years each. He also held various township offices and served as justice of the peace for about twenty years. It will thus be seen that he has lived a life of great activity and broad usefulness.
On September 5, 1854, Mr. Harshman married Eda White, a daughter of Dennis White and a native of Southington township. They became the parents of five children, as follows: Ida, who married Eli Overly and lives at Youngstown, Ohio; Lenora, Mrs. Evander Heathman, but recently deceased ; William, who is a resident of the township; Lydia Naomi, who married Edwin Mercer and is now deceased, and Mary, who married Clar- ence Viets and is a resident of this township. Mrs. Eda Harshman died in 1894 and her husband afterward married Mrs. Nancy Ann Haughton, who is still living. They are ardent members of the Methodist church. Mr. Harshman is a member of Hall Post, G. A. R., and was formerly identified with the Old Erie Lodge No. 3, of Warren, Ohio, but has taken his demit.
WILLIAM L. CHRISTIANAR, member of the firm McConnell and Chris- tianar, proprietors of the Colonial Hotel, Warren, is a native of the city, where he is highly honored for his life of industry, intelligence and useful- ness. His birthday is January 14, 1853, and his parents were Henry and Eliza (Bishop) Christianar, both of whom were natives of Germany and
28
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
came to the United States in the earlier period of their lives. They were married in Warren. The father, when he came to this country in his young manhood, located at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he worked at his trade of wagon making for several years. He came to Warren about 1850, and was employed for some time by H. C. Belden. In 1860 he established a shop on East Market street for the manufacture of wagons and carriages, and continued to be thus engaged until his death in 1891, at the age of sixty-seven. His wife also died in Warren, at the age of sixty-nine. They were the parents of the following six daughters and two sons: William L .; Emma, wife of A: R. Hunt, of Homestead, Pennsylvania; Frederick and Mary, deceased; Alice, a teacher in Cleveland, Ohio; Lucy, deceased ; Laura, also a teacher at Cleveland, and Carrie, who lives in Warren.
William L. Christianar was reared in Warren, and from 1871 to 1890 industriously and profitably followed his trade as a blacksmith. He then founded his own establishment, and continued both as master workman and proprietor for some time. He worked for the Homestead (Pennsyl- vania) Steel Works for about two years, or until the great strike of 1892, when he returned to Warren and for several years was engaged in the grocery business. In February, 1908, with Mr. McConnell, he purchased the Elliott Hotel, which was remodeled and greatly improved and, under the name of the Colonial Hotel, has taken its place as a first-class hostelry. In September, 1883, Mr. Christianar married Miss Ella Linn, a native of Warren, Ohio, who died in 1884. He has always stanchly supported the Republican party with his vote and expressed sentiment, although he has never sought public office. For twenty-five years he has been a member of the I. O. O. F., but otherwise is unconnected with the fraternities.
SERVETUS W. PARK, the venerable and venerated citizen of Warren, Trumbull county, has been, until a comparatively recent day, an active participant in the mercantile and financial life of his community. He is still in superintending touch with many of its large interests, but as he is approaching his eightieth birthday and his long career has been surcharged with stirring and wearing events, it is but natural that he should now crave repose. As a business man he has achieved such success as come to but few, for during the forty-six years of his activities and developments in that field, while a resident of Warren, he has guided his many enterprises safely through the depressions and panics which have swamped so many of his associates, without ever having a note protested, or compromising a single dollar of just indebtedness. Neither has Mr. Park confined his vigorous mind to the successful conduct of such practical affairs, for he is a liberally educated and a liberal-minded man; through all his pressing duties of business and finances has continued his studies in literature, arts and the sciences; has always been a sturdy promoter of education in all its forms and a hearty and efficient worker for the public good in general. His good, substantial British blood has always been in evidence. That his great-grandfather was Scotch-Irish can well be credited, as Mr. Park
29
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
has all the persevering, thrifty moral traits of the one race combined with the keen, versatile, elastic qualities of the other.
S. W. Park is a native of Moriah, Essex county, New York, born on the 5th of July, 1829, his infant home being near Fort Henry. He is a son of John and Sophia (Broughton) Park, of Wells, Vermont, who, in 1831, journeyed from their New York farm in a covered wagon to the homestead which was purchased in Weathersfield, Ohio. There they spent the remainder of their peaceful and useful days in the agricultural com- munity of that "far western" country. The father lived to be ninety-seven years of age; was a great reader, as well as a deep thinker and fair investi- gator; was a consistent supporter of educational and progressive move- ments, and, as a man of generous and tender impulses, was a defender of the oppressed-therefore, in politics, an earnest Free Soiler, a rank Aboli- tionist and a stanch Republican.
The son of such a father naturally received, as a preliminary mental training, a thorough course in the common schools, and was afterward a student in the old academy at Warren. Ile maintained a proper balance between the physical and mental by working on the farm in summer and teaching school in the winter, from the age of seventeen until that of twenty- one. In the summer of 1850, when he attained his majority, Mr. Park commenced reading medicine with Drs. Daniel B. Woods and John R. Woods, of Warren, and during the progress of his studies also clerked in the drug store of W. W. Collins. In February, 1853, however, the Cali- fornia fever proved too contagious for his peace of mind and body, and, relinquishing his professional ambitions, he formed a small party and started for the gold fields via the Panama route. Instead of going into the diggings he took the more conservative and the wiser course of engaging in business at San Francisco. From 1854 until his return to the States in 1858 he was a partner in the prosperous book and stationery firm of Park & Tyler (C. W.). It is not to be supposed that Mr. Park could live in San Francisco in those stirring times without becoming an active factor in them. He was, in fact, a member of the vigilance committee of 1856, which saved the city from the rule of thugs, gamblers and ballot-box stuffers and made it one of the best governed cities of the west for many years. On the 14th of May of the year named the long series of outrages by the criminal element culminated in the assassination of James King, editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, by James P. Casey, an ex- convict from the Sing Sing (New York) penitentiary, who had earned a record in San Francisco as one of its most notorious gamblers and ballot- box stuffers. His cowardly murder of Mr. King aroused the citizens to a white heat, with the result that they organized what is known as the Second Vigilance Committee, whose work was so prompt and thorough. Of this, Mr. Park had the honor to be one of the organizers.
Upon his return to the east Mr. Park married, located in Louisville, Kentucky, and for two years engaged in a mercantile business under the firm name of N. S. Glore & Company. While thus engaged he traveled largely through the southern states and, foreseeing the Civil war, con-
30
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
cluded to sell his interests in the Lonisville concern and return to his old northern home in Warren. In 1860 he therefore re-located there, becoming a member of the firm of O. H. Patch & Company, wholesale dealers in carriage and saddlery hardware. At the breaking out of the war one of the partners. Emerson Opdyke, enlisted in the Forty-first Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and within three years had reached the rank of a general. In 1861 Mr. Park took over the entire business, adding general hardware to its scope and doing both a wholesale and retail business. This was the establishment of the house which he conducted and developed in such masterly fashion for forty-six years.
Although Mr. Park did not "go to the front" during the Civil war, his services at home were of an invaluable character. As his business required his constant attention he sent a substitute, and was tireless in his work of raising troops and money for the support of the Union cause. As his own contributions were always generous, he accomplished far more for the north than if he had merely shouldered a musket. In 1863 he was chosen first lieutenant of Company B, First Regiment, Ohio Militia, under Governor David Tod, and although not called into the service in that capacity, was active in raising men for the 105th, 41st, 19th and 125th regiments.
Besides founding the substantial business house with which his name was identified for nearly half a century, Mr. Park was one of the organizers of the Trumbull National Bank, of which he is still a director. He is also president of the Western Reserve National Bank and of the Warren Paint Company. With Marshall Woodford and B. J. Taylor he organized the present public library, sustained the enterprise until it reached a sound footing, and is still a trustee of the Warren Library Association, as well as of the Warren Opera House Company. He is, further, interested in several corporations of the city not mentioned ; in fact, it would be difficult to mention any large interest or beneficial public movement to which he has not contributed.
In 1858 Mr. Park was united in marriage with Miss Priscilla A. Welch, a native of Pulaski, Pennsylvania, and the children born to their union were as follows: Illa W., September 8, 1859, at Rockport, Indiana; Carrie L., June 20, 1862, at Warren, Ohio. The tender and beloved wife and mother died June 5, 1875, and on September 17, 1885, Mr. Park married as his second wife Miss Lucia A. Darling, of Akron, Ohio, a niece of Governor Sidney Edgerton. She was a graduate of Oberlin College, for eleven years principal of the ladies' department of the Berea (Ken- tucky) College and a lady of broad culture and of remarkable practical abilities as well. Mr. Park was naturally attracted to such a woman, having never allowed his business responsibilities to overwhelm his intel- lectual duties. His private reading has always been constant, and covered a broad field, and he has been connected with several literary societies. He is an old member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, joining the order in 1859, at Louisville, Kentucky, and being at present identified with Mahoning Lodge No. 29, through all of whose chairs he has passed. Although never
Willbry Thomas
31
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
a denominational member, Mr. Park has assisted in the support of different churches, his attitude toward them being one of liberality based on his belief that they are all engaged in good works which he may conscientiously further.
HON. W. AUBREY THOMAS, of Niles, Trumbull county, who since 1904 has been a representative in Congress from the nineteenth Ohio district, was for many years an active iron manufacturer of substantial standing. He is of Welsh lineage, born on the 7th of June, 1866, being a son of John R. and Margaret ( Morgan) Thomas. The family resided for many years at Youngstown, where the father was a manufacturer both of iron and brick, being one of the pioneers of the former industry in the Mahoning valley. In the seventies the Thomas homestead was removed to Niles, and there the father died in 1898. The mother is still living, with children as follows: John M. Thomas, of the Thomas Furnace Company, Mil- waukee, Wisconsin; T. E. Thomas; W. Aubrey Thomas; Mrs. Dr. T. O. Clingan and Miss Mary A. Thomas, all residents of Niles, Ohio.
Mr. Thomas, of this review, was educated at the Niles high school (graduating in 1883), and at the Mount Union College and Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, making a specialty of metallurgical chemistry. He has resided continuously at Niles, since completing his edu- cation, except while actively engaged with the Thomas Furnace Company at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Jenifer ( Alabama) Furnace Company. For some years he was manager of the Thomas furnace at Niles, and is still interested in the plant at Milwaukee, managed by his brother, John M. Thomas; in the furnace at Jenifer, Alabama : in the Niles Fire Brick Company, managed by his other brother, T. E. Thomas, and in other enter- prises of a related nature.
Mr. Thomas has been a lifelong Republican, and in 1892 was elected to the Niles city council, serving as president of that body. He held no other office until elected to Congress in 1904, although he had been active and influential in party affairs since attaining his majority. As a member of the naval affairs committee and as a general representative of the nine- teenth Ohio district, he has proven a hard-working member of the house, faithful in the performance of his committee duties, and meeting with promptness and practical suggestions the requests for legislation made by his constituents and interests of his district. He has been elected for a third full term. Mr. Thomas has also attained much prominence as a fraternalist. He became a Mason in 1887, and when serving as the head of his lodge for two terms was the youngest Master in the state of Ohio. He is also a member of the chapter, council, commandery and consistory and Mystic Shrine. Further, he is identified with the Royal Arcanum; became a member of the Elks at Youngstown in 1892, helped organize the Niles lodge of that fraternity and was its first exalted ruler. In his relig- ious faith he is a Presbyterian.
Vol. II-3
32
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
CHARLES P. KINSMAN, retired, residing at Warren, Ohio, comes of a family whose ancestors were English people, and trace the line from the time of leaving that country and embarking in the ship "Mary and John," at Southampton, which boat landed at Boston, Massachusetts, about 1634.
Frederick Kinsman, land agent and farmer, of Warren, Ohio, was born in Kinsman, Trumbull county, March 14, 1807. His education up to 1825 was confined to the common district school of the township, with the exception of a summer at Burton Academy and two winters at the academy at Warren. In February, 1825, he, with his eldest brother, took horses and rode on horseback to Hartford, Connecticut, where he sold his horse and entered Plainfield Academy in that state. He remained there nearly a year, and was then transferred to the Military Academy of Captain Partridge at Middletown, Connecticut, where he remained another year. In 1826 he, with about three hundred of his fellow cadets, under the lead of their captain, on the 3rd of July embarked on board a steamboat (camp- ing out for the night on deck) for New York City, to participate in the first Fifty Years' Jubilee of American Independence. Arriving at the city on the morning of the 4th fully armed and equipped, they were marched to the battery under an escort from the City National Guard, there meeting a large display of military companies, which were reviewed by the governor and many other notables. Aaron Burr, a small man with keen black eyes and long white locks, was pointed out in the crowd, apparently unattended by anyone. Mr. Kinsman regarded this day as one of the great and eventful periods of his school boy years. On that day two of our venerable ex-presidents, Adams and Jefferson, closed their long and useful lives. His time at Middletown was principally devoted to the study of mathematics and engineering. Late in the fall of 1826 he, with his class in engineering, was engaged in making a topographical survey of the country. While thus employed, one bright morning, he started alone for Durham, to establish a flag station on a high point of Meriden Mountain, some eight or ten miles distant. He there found a point from which could be seen Hartford, New Haven, Middletown, Guilford, etc., where he set up a flag, fixed a post for observation, and then returned at night to Middletown, making a trip of some twenty miles, in part through woods, brambles and rocks. The next day found him unable to attend to military or other duties. Typhus fever set in, from which he slowly recovered ; and without pursuing his studies further he returned home, and held a position as clerk in his brother's store until 1830, when he engaged in a similar capacity in the land office of General Perkins, of Warren.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.