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 48
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The seventh born of his five sons and four daughters, six of whom grew to years of maturity, was Lucius V. Sturdevant. He attended in his youth the common, schools and three terms in Hiram College. He remained at home until attaining his twenty-first year, and then for ten years worked out by the month for others. He then bought a farm west. of Mesopotamia, but after twelve years there sold the land and bought
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another farm south of that village, but this he also sold after five years, and in 1908 rented the Jerome Sweet homestead a half a mile north of Mesopotamia, where he has sinee been engaged in general farming and dairying.
On the 8th of April, 1891, Mr. Sturdevant was married to Mary ( White) Harrison, the widow of Frank White and a daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Adair) Harrison, both natives of Ireland, the father of county Cavan and the mother of near Belfast. Mrs. Sturdevant had one child by her former marriage, Franc, now engaged in teaching school. Mr. Sturdevant is a Republican politieally, and in the fall of 1905 was elected on that ticket to the office of trustee of Mesopotamia township.
HOWARD A. BRIGDEN, a native son and throughout the greater part of his life identified with the interests of Mesopotamia, was born on the 29th of November, 1841, and attended in his youth the common schools of this city. His mother, nee Mary A. Sperry, was also born in Mesopo- tamia, but his father, Charles A. Brigden, was a native son of New Haven, Connecticut. The maternal grandparents were the first to settle in Mesopotamia township, and the grandfather was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812, having been wounded by the Indians at Sandusky. Charles 1. Brigden and Mary A. Sperry were married in Pennsylvania, but soon afterward took up their abode in Mesopotamia, where Mr. Brigden was a merchant and for one term the county auditor, residing during that time in Warren.
When Howard A. Brigden had attained his fifteenth year he started out in life for himself, working for some years afterward at various em- ployments. During the year of 1855 there were many political celebra- tions in Bloomfield. Ohio, and there was to be raised there a political pole one hundred and forty-two feet high, at the top of which was to float a banner for Fremont and Dayton. This had been wound up while the pole was being raised, but in the raising the string to which it was attached broke and young Howard climbed to the top of the pole and unfurled the streamer. For this brave and gallant act a purse of $33.36 was collected and presented to him, with which he purchased a rifle, for he was then a great hunter. At the age of seventeen he began to learn carriage painting, and shortly afterward, on the 19th of April, 1861, enlisted under Captain Pierce in the Ohio State Militia, being undoubtedly the first to enlist from Trumbull county in the Civil war. He was sworn into the United States service June 1st of the same year, a member of Company B. Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the same company and regiment of which Me- Kinley and Haves were also members. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, but while in winter quarters at Montgomery's Ferry Mr. Brigden's left arm was broken and he was obliged to resign from the army in the spring of 1862 and return home. After six weeks he was able to return and was thereafter sutler's clerk until his brother George
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was killed in 1864, when Howard became brigade color bearer on General Hayes' staff. Mr. Brigden's father and the latter's four sons were all in service in the war, but all are now deceased with the exception of Howard A., who after his discharge returned home and learned the trade of marble cutting.
In 1881 he went to Michigan and assisted in the organization of Montmorency county of that state. He took up one hundred and sixty acres of timber land there, and his was the first family to locate in the township in which his land was situated. He placed thirty acres of his farm under cultivation, and resided there until 1889, when he sold his land and returned to Mesopotamia. His home was on a farm during the first two years following his return, was then one year in Painsville, and he has since been at the old home. He is an artist of ability in stone sculpture, painting. drawing and all allied accomplishments.
Mr. Brigden was married in February, 1865, to Elsie A. Beldin, also from Mesopotamia and a daughter of Henry and Louisa (Woolcot) Beldin, from Farmington township, Trumbull county. The two children of this union are Earl H. and George Il., the elder an attorney at Middlefield, Ohio. The younger, born July 13, 1875, died on the 17th of August, 1908. Mr. Brigden is an active worker in local Democratie circles. He has served his township as a trustee, and while living in Michigan served as a supervisor. He is a member of the Masonie fraternity.
CHARLES A. BRIGDEN was born in New Haven, Connecticut, February 20, 1817. and died in Mesopotamia, Ohio, September 29, 1881. He was identified with the interests of this city from the age of eighteen years, coming here at that time and entering upon a clerkship in a mercantile store. But after several years there and in company with a Mr. Collar he embarked in the same business for himself, and continued as one of the city's successful merchants until elected the audtior of Trumbull county. At that time he gave up his mercantile interests to enter upon his duties in that office. During the Civil war he enlisted as first lieutenant of Com- pany I, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but after six months of service his health became so impaired that he was obliged to resign his commission and return home. Again he became identified with the business life of this city, conducting a dry goods store for a time, but in time disposed of that store to become a hardware merchant, which business was later carried on by his sons, and he also sold a portion of his stock to his nephew, Charles Halcomb. His interests with the city of Mesopotamia were long, intimate and beneficial, and he commanded the respect and confidence of all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.
Mr. Brigden, the father of Charles A., served for many years as mate on a ship running from New Haven to Liverpool, England, and died on board his ship when his son was but four years of age. The child's mother married again and died in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Charles A. Brigden married first, in September, 1836, Mary Ann Holcomb, a native of Mesopotamia, and they had seven children: Emily, wife of Edward Donaldson of Painsville, Ohio; Howard, engaged in the monument business, whose sketch is given preceding this; Edward C .; George, who was a color bearer in Gen. Hayes' regiment, and was killed in action ; Irvin, also deceased; Harriett, wife of Pierce Means, of Geneva, Ohio; and Charles, deceased. The mother of these children died in about 1882, and in 1889 Mr. Brigden wedded Frances Pinney, born in Plymouth, Vermont, a daughter of Horatio and Sally (Woodbury) Pinney, also from that state. Mrs. Brigden married first Stephen Max- ham, by whom she had two children, Harriett and Walter, both now de- ceased, and Mr. Maxham died in March of 1885. Mr. Brigden was a member of the Masonic order in Bloomfield and of the Grand Army Post in Warren, Ohio.
EMORY G. NORRIS, prominently identified with the farming and stock raising interests of Trumbull county, Ohio, and more especially of Mesopo- tamia township, was born in Hartsgrove, Ashtabula county, this state, March 31, 1841, a son of Benjamin and Clarissa A. (Hurlburt) Norris and a grandson of Cornelius Norris and Erastus and Clarissa Hurlburt. The grandparents on both sides were from Connecticut, but were early settlers in Hartsgrove, Ashtabula county, Ohio, where they spent the re- mainder of their lives. Benjamin and Clarissa A. (Hurlburt) Norris were born respectively in Windsor, Ohio, October 11, 1813, and in Farm- ington, Connecticut, February 9, 1814. They were married in Windsor, Ohio, September 3, 1837, and located on a farm near Hartsgrove, the birthplace of their son Emory, and there Mr. Norris, Sr., died on the 24th of July, 1875, and his wife on the 30th of December, 1879. There were two children in their family, and Cornelius, the younger, born on the 6th of November, 1855, died in infancy.
Emory G. Norris spent his early life in his boyhood's home, and after his marriage he lived one year in Mesopotamia, spent a similar period as a hotel proprietor in Rock Creek, and then returned to his parents' farm, and began farming and stock raising and shipping. Remaining there until March 28, 1882, he then sold the farm and returned to Meso- potamia. He now resides on the farm which was formerly the property of his wife's parents and is extensively engaged in farming and stock rais- ing, at different times associated in the latter line with J. Y. Hall and Job Reynolds. In the spring of 1905 he purchased another farm of one hundred acres in Mesopotamia township. He is also a director in the Middlefield State Bank of Middlefield, Ohio.
Mr. Norris married, December 22, 1864, Harmony H. Newcomb, born in Mesopotamia August 6, 1844, a daughter of Zala and Sarah A. (War- ner) Newcomb, and a granddaughter of Daniel Warner, from Windsor,
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Connecticut, and one of the earliest pioneer physicians of Mesopotamia township.
The only child of this union is a son, Walter E., born September 15, 1868, the cashier of the Middlefield Banking Company since its organiza- tion in 1902. Previous to that time he worked for several years in the Pennsylvania relief department in Cleveland, Ohio. He married Edith E. Lampson, who was born in Windsor, Ohio, a daughter of Chester and Emeret (Griswold) Lampson, and their children are Lucile I., born December 2, 1896, and Emory C., born April 11, 1901. Mr. Norris, Sr., represented the Republican party two terms in the office of township trustee. Fraternally he is a charter member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Mesopotamia, Lodge No. 789, to which he was demitted from Windsor lodge. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, Lodge No. 507 of West Farmington.
GEORGE GOLDNER, a farmer of Mesopotamia township, Trumbull county, was born in Jackson township, Mahoning county, Ohio, December 28, 1839, a son of Stephen and Rebecca ( Mesmer) Goldner, natives of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. The paternal grandparents were Martin and Catherine (Andress) Goldner, natives of Pennsylvania, while the maternal grandparents were Christian and Eve (Sytle) Mesmer, of Penn- sylvania.
The grandfather Goldner went to Mahoning county in 1828 and set- tled on a partly cleared tract of land. There the grandparents spent the remainder of their days. The parents, Stephen and Rebecca Goldner, married and settled in Jackson township, where the mother died in 1854. The father, who was born February 14, 1813, died February 8, 1892.
The only son in the family of five children, two of whom were younger than he, George Goldner, resided with his father and stepmother, and attended the district schools. On November 11, 1862, he married Rachel Shivley, born in Jackson township, Mahoning county, Ohio, May 12, 1838, daughter of John and Hannah (Miller) Shivley. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and the mother in Virginia. The grandfather, Frederick, and wife Elizabeth (Flick) Shivley, were natives of Pennsylvania, while Jacob and Eve (Ficks) Miller were from Virginia.
After his marriage, George Goldner resided with his father until 1866, when he bought a farm near by, where he lived until 1877, when he traded for a hundred and twenty-five acres in Mesopotamia township. This place is located in the northwestern part of Trumbull county. It was all timber and brush land at the time he bought it. He soon placed forty acres of it under cultivation, and left the balance in timber and pasture land. Upon his place is a large sugar grove which originally had twenty-two hundred hard maple trees, used as a sugar bush, the same yielding from five to eight hundred gallons of syrup a year. Mr. Goldner now lives a retired life, while his sons conduct the farm.
Politically a Democrat, he served as trustee of Jackson township,
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Mahoning county, for many years. He was also a member of the board of education. He is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, No. 789, of Mesopotamia. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gold- ner are as follows: Willis Herbert, who married Jennie B. Hammond, residing at home; Emma Amelia, married Albert Bell; Llewellyn Eugene, residing on a portion of the homestead farm, married Alice D. Marsh of Ashtabula county.
JOHN M. WILCOX, farmer and stock breeder of Mesopotamia town- ship, Trumbull county, is the third of seven sons and two daughters born to his parents. He was born March 9, 1844, in the township in which he now resides, his parents being Robert and Lucy (Easton) Wilcox. The father was born in Somersetshire, England, while the wife and mother was a native of Mesopotamia township, Trumbull county, Ohio. The paternal grandparents were John and Deborah (Taylor) Wilcox. The maternal grandparents were Joseph and Lucinda (Sanderson) Easton, natives of Vermont, and who became early settlers in Trumbull county, coming about 1818. They located in Mesopotamia and the father died there about 1878.
Robert Wilcox went to Mesopotamia township with two brothers when they were quite young. For one year Robert drove a meat wagon. He then returned to England, from which country, with some friends and relatives, he returned to America about six months later. After Robert and Lucy (Easton) Wilcox were united in marriage, they settled a mile and a half east of the center of Mesopotamia, where they remained a year or more, then moved a mile to the north where they both died. Seven of the nine children in their family still survive and all reside in Trumbull county. The date of Robert Wilcox's death was 1897, while that of his wife was 1887.
John M. Wilcox had the advantages of the district schools and one term at the Western Reserve Seminary. He resided with his parents until he was married, that event occurring November 8, 1869. He married Emma E. Griffin, daughter of Jesse and Edra (Wilcox) Griffin, natives of England. After his marriage he resided in various places in Mesopo- tamia township, conducted two saw mills in the township for eight years and bought and sold hogs and cattle, carrying on a shipping business for about twelve years. Previous to 1882 he owned several farms which he sold. He then purchased one hundred and twenty-three acres in lot No. 30, of Mesopotamia township, where he has since carried on a successful general agricultural business, including the raising of registered trotting horses. Mr. Wilcox usually has in stock from fifteen to thirty of these superior animals. He also raises black-faced sheep, keeping from seventy- five to a hundred head on his premises. In addition to his home farm, he has an undivided half interest in one hundred and twenty-eight and a half acres, a mile to the east of his original place.
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Mrs. Wilcox died October 22, 1905, without children. They reared a girl from the age of eleven years-Winnie Jeffry, who is now Mr. Wilcox's bookkeeper. Politically, Mr. Wilcox is a Republican, and has served as assessor of his township with much efficiency.
ISAAC MORFORD, one of the venerable citizens of Vernon township. Trumbull county, comes of a family whose immediate ancestry, both pa- ternal and maternal, were among the pioneers of Mercer county, Penn- sylvania. Thomas and Ann Morford, his great-grandparents, were born respectively in Scotland and Ireland, the former in 1:16 and he died in the state of New Jersey at the age of eighty-one years. John and Mary (Cox) Morford, the grandparents, came from New Jersey in the latter portion of the eighteenth century and settled near Sharon where they spent the remainder of their lives, the first coal bank opened in that part of the country being located on their farm in 1835. James Morford, a granduncle of Isaac, also accompanied his brother, John, to Mercer county, where they spent the remainder of their lives. John Morford served his country as a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
Isaac Morford was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1822. son of Richard and Elizabeth ( Morford) Morford, both natives of New Jersey. Isaac was a child by his father's first wife, his brothers and sister being James (., John, Ann, William and Joseph. Mrs. Elizabeth Morford, who was born November 24, 1284, died July 20, 1826, and Mr. Morford married as his second wife, Mrs. Mary Brown. The children of this union were: Emeline, Eliza, Andrew and Richard Judson, who is the only one now living and who resides at Kinsman.
Mr. Morford made his home with his parents until his marriage in 1847 and the year after bought a tract of land in Vernon township, con- sisting of one hundred and seven acres, upon which was established a homestead. Originally there was only a small log house on the place and in this they resided until 1856. when the husband erected a comfortable two-story frame house in which he has since resided. Mr. Morford also purchased a farm in Pennsylvania which he operated for many years, sub- sequently selling all of this property with the exception of six acres.
On October 28, 1847, he was united in marriage with Miss Celestia L. Williams, a native of Vernon township, born March 10, 1822. She was a daughter of Osmand and Mary ( Sheldon) Williams, natives of Massachusetts. Mrs. Morford's parents were among the earliest migra- tors to Trumbull county. In 1814 they drove from Massachusetts to Buffalo, New York, with an ox team and one horse, and upon their arrival learned that peace had been declared between the United States and Great Britain so they continued their journey into Ohio. Arriving in Vernon township the husband purchased a tract of land for which he had nearly paid before finding that the title was imperfect, and the result was that, though he obtained possession of the land, he was obliged to pay for
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it twice. He at once commenced to clear the forest growth from his land. He bought apple seeds from the east and raised his own orchard and continued to do general farming. It was here that both he and his wife passed their last days. The father died in April, 1865, and the mother in October, 1869. They were the parents of nine children, five of whom grew to maturity : Joseph; Mary, who became the wife of John Morford; Celestia, Mrs. Isaac Morford; Permelia, who became the wife of Josiah Brown; and Rodelia, who married Nicholes Mizner. All except Mrs. Brown spent their entire lives in Vernon township.
Mrs. Isaac Morford, before her marriage, spent a number of years teaching district school with a salary of one dollar per week in the summer months, and one dollar and twenty-five cents per week for winter months, and boarded among the patrons, or as it was commonly called, "boarded around." She died February 26, 1906, her children being as follows: Sheldon O., now an attorney of Seward, Alaska; Permelia I., residing with her father; Carey J., who resides in Greene township, this county; Curtis R., also a lawyer located in Alaska; Araminta, who became the wife of F. F. Main, of Columbus, Ohio; and Emma C., now Mrs. Harvey Fowler, of Hartford township.
LOUISE (WILLER) SANS .- Mrs. Louise Willer Sams resides on the beautiful estate in Howland township, Trumbull county, where she and her husband labored together for many years. She was born in England on the 10th of October, 1842, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Simms) Willer, who came from their native land of England to the United States about the year of 1870 and located in Newberry, Ohio. There they pur- chased the small farm which they conducted during the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of ten children, namely: William, whose home is in Ohio; Ann, who died at the age of sixteen years ; Emily, of Warren, this state; Louise, who is mentioned below; Thomas, who was vet in England when last heard from; Fannie, deceased; Jane, whose home is in Burton, Ohio; Dorcas and John, both deceased; and one who died in infancy.
Louise, the fourth born of the ten children, received her educational training in the mother country of England, and on the 10th of March, 1870, she gave her hand in marriage to George Sams, who was born there on the 27th of May, 1842, a son of James and Eliza (Broom) Sams, who spent their entire lives as farming people in England. In the year of 1880, with their five living children, Mr. and Mrs. Sams left their native land and joined her parents in the United States, but her father had died ere their arrival, and the mother survived but three or four years. Shortly after their arrival in this country the Sams family established their home in Howland township. Trumbull county, Ohio, where the husband and father worked as a farm hand for two years, and then during the following year he conducted a rented farm. Moving then to another place they
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remained there for four years, were then on the Kennedy farm for seven years, and at the close of that period they purchased and moved to the homestead farm of one hundred and twenty-four and a half acres in Howland township, where the widow yet resides. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Sams was blessed by the birth of six children, namely: Fannie, the w.fe of Henry Green and a resident of California; Emma, who is at home with her mother; William, who is also with his mother and operates a steam roller in Warren; James, who conducts the home farm ; Jolin, who farms with his brother James, and together they also operate a threshing outfit ; and Frank, deceased. The husband and father of this family died on the 26th of February, 1908, honored and revered wherever known, and during many years he was numbered among the leading agriculturists of Howland township.
HENRY C. JEWELL, who conducts a general farm and dairy and a large sugar camp in Vernon township, is a native of Mercer county, Penn- sylvania, born September 22. 1851. He is a son of Collins H. and Eunice (Brown) Jewell, the father being a native of Vernon township and the mother of the state of Connecticut. The grandparents on both sides of the family were natives of Connecticut and in 1818 migrated to what was then the west, by means of ox teams. Mr. and Mrs. Moses Jewell, the paternal grandparents, located in Vernon township, Trumbull county, while the maternal grandparents (Brown) settled in West Salem township, Mercer county. The latter resided in Mercer county for many years, after- ward removing to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the wife died about five years later and the husband then returned to Pennsylvania where he passed his last years. The father of Henry C. Jewell, in the early times, had one of the finest orchards in this part of the country. Mr. Jewell of this sketch was the eldest of five sons and seven daughters, and remained with his parents until he was seventeen years of age, when he became an inde- pendent farmer worker in Vernon township. He was thus engaged for four years and then removed to Clinton, Iowa, and afterward wandered into Indian territory as an employe of one of the government surveys. The three months of his labors in that part of the country were rich with Indian episodes. At the conclusion of his government work Mr. Jewell secured employment in a Texas saw mill, and after being thus employed for two years returned to Kinsman township and engaged in agriculture as a renter, also being employed in the various creamery and cheese factories of the locality for about four years. He was thus variously employed until April, 1904, when he bought the Weston Smith farm in Vernon township, which he has since cultivated and developed in the ways already mentioned. His sugar camp consists of about six hundred trees and his dairy is com- plete and modern. He also not only engages in general farming but raises hogs, and his wife has established a comfortable business as a raiser of chickens for the market. Mrs. Jewell has on hand an average of about
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one hundred and fifty chickens and sells about one hundred broilers each spring.
On September 16, 1871, Mr. Jewell was married in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, to Viola D. Stahr, a native of Greenville, that county, and a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth A. (Mizner) Stahr. Her father was accidentally killed near Topeka, Kansas, June 12, 1874, and the mother passed away May 30, 1900, at Viola, Illinois. The family is of German descent, but Mrs. Jewell's father was born in Saulsburg, Pennsylvania and her mother in Hubbard township, Ohio. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Jewell are: Cora, Mrs. Durias Stedman, of Andover, Ohio; Lnella, Mrs. James N. Britton, who is the mother of two sons; Merle S. and Lawrence N., Willis, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who married Leam Gilmore; and Guy C., who resides at home. Mrs. Jewell has been a wide traveler, her journeys having extended into sixteen different states of the union.
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