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 52
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James J. Winans spent his boyhood days with his mother until Sep- tember 28, 1861, when he enlisted in Company C, Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Kinsman, Ohio. He experienced his active service in the Indian Territory, and upon his discharge in September, 1865, he had traveled twenty-eight thousand miles in the campaigns of the west and southwest. The regiment was transferred to Kansas and Missouri to maintain order among the so-called "bad men" of that country, and Mr. Winans received his honorable discharge at St. Louis, Missouri, September, 1865. About a year prior to the termination of his services he received a severe injury at the battle of Winchester by being thrown from his horse, which had been shot from under him. After his discharge from the mili- tary service Mr. Winans returned to Mecca township where he purchased land and continued farming until about 1897, when he removed to War- ren, Ohio. There he established a humber yard which he conducted for several years, then sold the property to the Freedom Oil Company. In September, 1904, he returned to Mecca township, where he has since resided in retirement on an attractive little homestead of two acres.
Mr. Winans married. March 20, 1861, a few months before joining the army, to Miss Lovira Huntley, a daughter of Calvin and Louisa (Fair-
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child) Huntley. The children born to them are as follows: James, who died at the age of twenty-two years; Sidney, a resident of Johnston town- ship, this county ; Venloo, now Mrs. William Armstrong, of Warren, Ohio; -- William, who lives in Greene township; Nelson, a resident of Mecca town- ship : Vernie, who died at the age of nineteen years; and Julia and Bird V., who died at the respective ages of eighteen and twenty-nine; Mand, now Mrs. John Downs, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and Todd, who lives at home.
NEWTON CHALKER .- The history of the Chalker family in America, according to the best information now attainable, dates back to about the year 1650, when according to an unauthenticated tradition three brothers of that name emigrated from England and located in the then Colony of Connecticut, where, ever since that time, people bearing that name have continued to reside. There are people of that name also residing in Plymouth, England, at this time, 1908.
The following genealogy is furnished by Samuel Alfred Chalker, of Saybrook, Connecticut, 1908, aged eighty years :
Alexander Chalker married Patience Post, September 29, 1649, in Saybrook, Connecticut. Their children were Stephen, Samuel, Mary, Abraham, Patience, Sarah, Jane and Alexander.
The above named Samuel Chalker, who was born April 27, 1651, married Phoebe Bull, October 31, 1676. Their children were: Stephen, Samuel, Phoebe (deceased), and Phoebe.
The last named Samuel, who was born October 6, 1679, married Rebecca Ingram, June 24, 1711. Their children were: Samuel, Alexander and Gideon.
The last named Samuel, or Samuel III, was born probably about the year 1:12. He married and had the following children: Daniel, Selden and Sarah.
Newton Chalker, of this sketch, furnishes the following supplement to the above: The above named Daniel was born probably about the year 1740, and was married probably about the year 1765. His children were Samuel, Sarah, Daniel, Anna, Patty, Phoebe and James (twins), Joseph, Charles and Nathaniel. All of the above, except the immigrant Alexander Chalker, are supposed to have been born in or near to Saybrook, Connecticut.
The above named Daniel Chalker, Sr., his wife and several of their children. about the year 1800, removed from Connecticut and settled in Choconut township, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where the parents passed the remainder of their lives and their children married and reared families.
The history of the Chalker family in Ohio begins with the settlement in Southington township, Trumbull county, of the above named James Chalker, the grandfather of Newton. In his youth he emigrated from Saybrook, Connecticut, in the year 1805, bringing with him by means
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of an ox team and wagon, his young wife Mercy (Norton), an infant son Orrin, and all of his earthly belongings which then consisted only of his faithful ax, his trusted gun and a few household utensils. In the summer of that year he moved upon a tract of woodland one-half mile west of the center of Sonthington, where, out of the dense forest which confronted him in every direction, inhabited only by bears, wolves, deer and other wild game, he carved for himself and family a home which he continuously occupied until his death in the year 1867 at the age of about ninety years, his faithful wife preceding him in the year 1860. They and Luke Veits and wife Hannah Norton were the first families who settled in Southington.
In that home, which consisted at first of a rude log cabin but later of a convenient frame dwelling, taken down in the year 1906 to make room for the present commodious home of his grandson Lewis Chalker, that pioneer couple reared to manhood and womanhood a family of nine sons and four daughters, viz .: Orrin, Joseph, Edmond, James, Phoebe, Anna, Polly. Daniel, Calvin, Philander, Harrison, Allen and Mercy. All of whom except Polly and Mercy, who removed to the State of Indiana, and Anna, who removed to Nelson, located in Southington and reared families. There in that early wilderness home with neighbors few and far between that couple and their large group of rugged children braved and endured the privations and hardships known only to pioneer life. In the graveyard at the center of Southington their ashes and those of all of their sons but one ( Philander) who is still living (1908), and of all of their sons' wives are now reposing.
James Chalker, Jr., the father of Newton, was born in Southington, June 15, 1811. He received but a very limited education having attended school only about three winter terms during the whole of his childhood and youth and that was in a log schoolhouse one mile east of Southington Center. But by much reading in after years he became well informed in history and a thorough student of the Bible. During many years of his life he frequently engaged in public debate upon various religious and secular questions and was always regarded as a formidable antagonist in the forensic arena. Early in life he purchased, on credit. fifty acres of land located two miles west of Southington Center, where like his father before him, with only an ax, a strong body and a resolute mind, he carved out of the forest a home for himself and family. From time to time he added to his first purchase and eventually became one of the largest land owners and one of the most thrifty farmers of his township. He first married Miss Eliza Jane IIyde, of Farmington, October 27, 1836. To them were born Benson, who died in childhood; Byron, who became a farmer and died in Southington, 1892, aged fifty-two; Newton; and Columbus who also was a farmer in Southington and died in 1876, aged twenty-seven. Mr. Chalker having lost his wife, December 24, 1849, mar- ried Miss Adeline Timmerman, of York state, 1851. To them were born Mary Jane, subsequently the wife of A. J. Morris, of Southington, where she died 1888. aged thirty-six, and Bertha, now Mrs. Thomas McConnell
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of Youngstown, Ohio. Mr. Chalker was a Republican in politics and he and both of his wives were members of the Methodist church. He departed this life September 23, 1893, aged over eighty-two years.
Newton Chalker was born in Southington, Trumbull county, Ohio, September 12, 1842, the third son of James Jr. and Eliza J. Chalker, referred to above. He remained on his father's farm in Southington muost of the time until twenty years of age, attending the district schools of his neighborhood until fourteen years of age. At the latter age he began and continued for six years to attend at irregular intervals the Western Reserve Seminary at West Farmington, this county. At that school Mr. Chalker, without encouragement and with but little assistance, made his greatest efforts to obtain an education. Some of the time he worked for his board but most of the time boarded himself; at one time when but fifteen years old chopping his own firewood and hauling it with ox team to his school, a distance of more than six miles; at other times doing the janitor work of the Seminary building for his room rent and tuition, and most of the time walking home, a distance of six miles, at the end of each school week to help on the farm on Saturday, then returning to school on foot carrying the following week's supply of provisions. At the age of sixteen he began teaching the winter term of a country district school, teaching successively in the townships of Braceville, Southington and Champion in Trumbull county, and Parkman in Geauga county, and in the state of Michigan. In the spring of 1862 he enlisted in Company B, Eighty-seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was in the hard fought battle of Harper's Ferry, Virginia, which began on the 12th and terminated on the 15th of September of that year. In that battle the Union forces were under command of Colonel D. H. Miles and numbered about 14,000. The rebel forces were under command of General "Stonewall" Jackson and numbered two or three times as many. After three days' hard fighting, the Union forces were surrendered by their commander and 12,000 infantry were taken prisoners, the 2,000 cavalry having made good their escape during the preceding night. These prisoners, among whom was Newton Chalker, were soon paroled and sent North. Later in the same year, by reason of expiration of term of enlistment, this regiment was mustered out of service and Mr. Chalker returned to his home.
In the spring of 1863 Mr. Chalker entered Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom in June, 1866, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and later Master of Arts. The year 1866-7 he was principal of Dixon Seminary, at Dixon, Illinois, and the following year he was superintendent of the public schools at Darlington, Wisconsin. In September, 1868, he entered the Law School of Albany, New York, and graduated therefrom the following year and was at once admitted to practice at the bar of that state. After passing a few months in a law office in the city of New York he located, in the autumn of 1869, in Cameron, Missouri, and there began the practice of his profession. He remained in Cameron nearly five years but not realizing his expectations which he entertained of the West he returned, in 1874, to Ohio and on the
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14th day of August of that year he located in Akron, where he resumed the practice of law and continued therein the ensuing twenty years. As a lawyer Mr. Chalker's fellow members of the bar readily accord to him the reputation of being able, industrious and honorable. In addition to his profession Mr. Chalker has engaged in various lines of business. He was one of the founders of the People's Savings Bank of Akron and during the entire time of his connection therewith he was a member of the board of directors and also of its advisory board. He was one of the founders and for a long time a stockholder of the Savings Bank of Barberton, Ohio. He is a charter member and a stockholder of the Central Savings and Trust Company Bank of Akron, one of that city's largest and most prosperous financial institutions.
Mr. Chalker has dealt extensively in real estate, his principal trans- actions being the purchase of a tract of land within the limits of the city of Akron and also the purchase of twenty-one acres in the north suburb of that city, known as "North Hill," and allotting them into more than a hundred residence lots and selling to individual purchasers. He has dealt largely also in real estate in the island of Cuba since the Spanish-American war there, his holdings at one time amounting to more than two thousand and two hundred acres of the most fertile lands in the province of Puerto Principe of that island. These with other enterprises in which Mr. Chalker has at various times engaged, together with a lucrative practice at the bar, have constituted for him a life of varied labor and much activity which he has ever enjoyed far more than he ever did the trivial pleasures of life.
At the close of the year 1893 Mr. Chalker practically retired from the practice of law and his other business, and devoted several years there- after to travel. Seven times he crossed the continent visiting nearly every state and territory of our Nation. He traveled extensively in Canada, Alaska and Mexico. In June, 1895, he started on a tour abroad and visited the chief places of interest in Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Palestine, Egypt, India, Burmah, China, Japan and the Sandwich Islands, making a complete tour around the world in one year. In February, 1905, Mr. Chalker made his second tour abroad visiting the Azores Islands, Morocco, Algeria, the island of Sicily, Italy, southern France and Spain, returning the following June.
Notwithstanding the busy life which Mr. Chalker has led he has never lost his interest in education, nor forgotten his native township. In the vear 1907 he completed and equipped, at a cost of over twenty thousand dollars, and presented to the board of education of Southington, a high school building which for beauty of design, completeness of equipment and commodiousness of appointments is scarcely equalled in any other rural township of the state. It contains a public auditorium with check- room, dressing-rooms and stage; assembly and recitation rooms for the high school students of the township; a public library of the choicest books. and a banquet hall and kitchen fully equipped to accommodate one hundred guests. The building is lighted with gas and heated by furnace
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throughout. Its dedication on August 22, 1907. was the most notable event in the history of Southington. The assembly of people was the largest that had ever convened within the borders of that township, being estimated at two thousand, and was addressed by the most distinguished speakers that had ever spoken there, viz .: United States Senator Charles Dick of Ohio, President A. B. Riker of Mt. Union College, and President C. C. Rowlinson of Hiram College.
In the year 1878 Mr. Chalker inaugurated the "family reunion" among the descendants of the pioneer James Chalker and wife. Later the descendants of the pioneer Norton and Viets families united with them. These descendants have continued to hold their reunions annually ever since. The reunion in the year 1905 was made the occasion for celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement in Southington of those pioneers. Next to the dedication of Southington's high school building that celebration is the greatest event in the history of Southington. It was held at the old home of the deceased pioneer James Chalker and wife. A thousand people were present, coming from five different states. A most fitting program for the occasion was successfully carried out.
In politics Mr. Chalker is a Republican. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was commander of Buckley Post of Akron when that post had a membership of about five hundred comrades, which was not equalled by more than one or two other posts of the state.
GEORGE M. SMITH, the leading real estate dealer of Warren, Trumbull county, is still of early middle life, as he was born in Geauga county, Ohio, as late as 1862. He attended school at the Western Reserve Seminary in West Farmington, and became interested in landed property many years ago. But to say that Mr. Smith is the leading dealer in real estate by no means defines the scope of his business; for, although his annual sales of farm property in Trumbull county reach many thousand acres and his transactions in city real estate amount to several hundred thousand dollars every year, he is an extensive dealer in bonds and local securities. There are always several conclusive reasons to account for pronounced success in any chosen field, and those which apply to Mr. Smith's case are as follows: Generous and discriminating advertising, in both the daily press and in farm journals; a complete equipment, both of trained assistants and modern office furnishings, and business dealings which are universally accepted as "square and above board."
Mr. Smith's domestic and social relations are the American type of harmony and breadth. His wife, to whom he was married in 1885, was Miss Grace L. Wolcott, and he is the father of two children, a son, Howard Wolcott, who is a reporter on the Youngstown Telegram, and a daughter, Martha Kibbee, now in school. Mr. Smith is an active member and an officer of the Presbyterian church.
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SETH L. LOVE .- No finer representative of the self-made men of our day can be found in Trumbull county than Seth L. Love, of Warren, who began life at the foot of the ladder of achievements, and by sturdy toil, excellent judgment, and wise management has attained a noteworthy posi- tion among the prominent and influential men of his community. He was for many years identified with the agricultural growth and prosperity of Trumbull county, but having acquired a competency is now retired from active labor, enjoying all of the comforts of life at his pleasant home, No. 309 Porter Avenue, Warren. A son of Wilkins Love, he was born, February 15, 1839, in Cayuga county, New York. He is of English descent, and comes of Revolutionary stock, his great-grandfather Love having served as a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army.
Wilkins Love was born in Vermont, which was the birthplace of his father, John Love. Leaving New England when a young man, he bought land in Cayuga county, New York, and there resided until his death, about 1850. He married Sarah French, who was born in New York state, where the emigrant ancestor of her family settled on coming to this country from France. Their union was blessed by the birth of eight sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to years of maturity. Five of these brave sons, including Seth L., served in the Civil war, and another was anxious to do so, but was not accepted by the examining officer. Three enlisted when but sixteen years old, one in 1861, one in 1862, and another in 1863. One was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville, but the others all returned home. The Love family has always been famed for its patriotism, and in every national conflict from the time of the Revolution has been repre- sented in the army, two of Mr. Love's sons having served in the Spanish- American war.
Brought up in New York state, Seth L. Love received excellent advan- tages in his youth, completing his education in Ithaca, at Cornell University. He subsequently learned the trade of a harnessmaker in Knoxville, Penn- sylvania, and was there working at his trade when the Civil war broke out. His patriotic ardor being aroused, he enlisted, in 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served until May, 1863, when he was honorably discharged. Returning to Knoxville, Mr. Love resumed work at his trade, continuing there until 1871. Coming then to Warren, Ohio, Mr. Love was connected with Dana Institute for a year or two. After his marriage, in 1873, he bought land lying four and one-half miles from Warren, and was there extensively and prosperously engaged in general farming for twenty-three years, when, in order to give his children better educational advantages he moved to Warren, and has since resided here.
Mr. Love married, in 1873, Grace J. Ewart, who was born in Trumbull county, the only daughter of Jacob Ewart, one of the early pioneers of this part of Ohio, and prominently identified with its early history. He married Maria Sefingwell, who was born in Connecticut, of English ancestry, and was a direct descendant of John Knox, who was burned at the stake, a martyr to his religion. She was an accomplished and talented woman, and
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a graduate of Dana's Musical Institute. Of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Love, one died in infancy, and four are now living, namely : Olive M., wife of Glenn Webster, of whom a brief sketch may be found on another page of this work; Frederick R., of Cleveland, a member of a wholesale firm; John, connected with the Western Electric Company, of Chicago, Illinois ; and Jacob W., who has charge of the order department of the Sterling Works.
Mr. Love is active and prominent in fraternal circles, being a member of Bell-Harmon Post, No. 36, G. A. R., in which he has filled all of the offices, including commander, and of which he has for many years been chaplain. For forty-one years he has been identified with the Masonic order, and is an active member of the Royal Arcanum. Both Mr. and Mrs. Love united with the First Presbyterian Church of Warren thirty-four years ago, and for twenty-two years he has served as elder. A life-long Republican, Mr. Love has been active in party work, and is now assessor of the second ward of Warren.
ALFRED REA HUGHES .- The name of Alfred R. Hughes is well known in connection with the Warren City Tank and Boiler Company, of which he was the founder and is now the president. He is a native son of the mother country of England, born at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire on the 24th day of July, 1862. He married at Niles, Ohio, September 4, 1888, Miss Jennie Edwards, a daughter of John Fletcher and Nancy (Martin) Edwards, and their two children are Master Raymond Edwards Hughes, born at Warren on October 22, 1893, and Miss Margaret Elizabeth Hughes, also born at Warren, Ohio, September 2, 1906.
Mr. Hughes is a Republican voter, and is identified with both the fraternal orders of Masons and Elks. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.
HON. THOMAS KINSMAN, who has represented Trumbull county in the seventy-fourth and seventy-fifth general assemblies and the twenty- third senatorial district in the seventy-sixth and seventy-seventh sessions of the upper house, is of the old, prominent and historic family, whose members were among the founders of the state. His father was one of the first white children born in Ohio and his grandfather gave his name to both the township and the town of Kinsman, while representatives of every generation have materially added to the professional, agricultural and financial progress of Trumbull county and the Buckeye state.
Thomas Kinsman was born at Kinsman, this county, on the 21st of May, 1857, and is the third of the five children born to Thomas and Sophia (Burnham) Kinsman. His father was the son of John and Rebecca (Perkins) Kinsman, the former (known as Judge Kinsman) having removed from Lisbon, Connecticut, with his family, in 1804-less than two years after the admission of Ohio as a state. The homestead was
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fixed on land now included in Kinsman, where Thomas was born on the 26th of August, 1804, being the second son of the family. There he resided all his life, chiefly engaged in farming, and leaving behind him a name bright with Christian and kindly deeds. At his death, April 26, 1875, he had entered his seventy-first year, and was the oldest native inhabitant of Kinsman. The deceased was not only a Christian and benevolent gentleman, but buoyant in spirit, social, genial and eminently hospitable, and all who came under his influence were cheered, elevated and benefited by it. He was a loving and faithful husband and father, and alike true to his Christian professions and to the church of which he was a member and constant attendant. His wife (nee Sophia Burnham), to whom he was married December 29, 1847, was a daughter of Jedediah and Sophia (Bidwell) Burnham.
Thomas Kinsman, Jr., received his education in the public schools of Kinsman, and at the Western Reserve College, then at Hudson, Ohio. The sudden death of his father made it necessary for him to leave college and assume the management of the home farm and estate, and since that time, either in the development of his private interests as a general farmer, a dairy man or a raiser of livestock. he has kept in close touch with the country's fundamental industry. He has been especially prominent in dairying and the raising of cattle and the thoroughbred trotting horse, and for the past dozen years has been secretary of the Kinsman Stock and Agri- cultural Society. Further, he is president of the Kinsman National Bank, and his influence with the entire agricultural and business community of this section of the state is strong and fully merited. The fact that he is a Western Reserve Republican is positive proof of the stanchness and continuity of his fealty. While he has never posed as an orator in either house of the legislature Mr. Kinsman has always been classed with the working, alert, practical members-a man of action and sound counsel, rather than one of flighty words and dramatic effects. Inheriting his father's geniality and sociability, he is also able to accomplish more in the way of personal influence than if he relied upon brilliant oratory. Senator Kinsman was married November 16, 1904, to Mrs. Bertha Wilson Smith, of Columbus, Ohio, eldest daughter of ex-Congressman George W. Wilson, of London, Madison county, Ohio.
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