Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake, Part 98

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake > Part 98
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake > Part 98
USA > Ohio > Lake County > Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake > Part 98

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).

Politically, Mr. Merrell was a Republican until 1864, since which time he has been independent. He joined an artillery com- pany when eighteen, and trained for several

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years in military tactics. No one has contrib- uted more to the general advancement of his community, and he is justly numbered among its representative citizens.

E UGENE N. WARNER, who is known throughout northeastern Ohio as one of the most successful fruit-growers in the State, is a son of Elbridge O. and of . Nancy (Nellis) Warner; his father was born in Massachusetts, a son of Nathan and Polly Warner, and one of a family of · four children. Eugene N. was born January 10, 1847, and is one of a family of five; Cas- sius was born August 4, 1844, and died at the age of seven years; Josephine was born August 7,1849, and was married November 3, 1868, to Wilbur Cleveland; Arthur E. was born De- cember 22, 1851, and is married; Isadore was born January 22, 1856, and died January 21, 1862. Eugene N. is the second of the family. He was reared on the farm, and early in life began to observe the working of nature and to study those laws which govern the vege- table world, meanwhile attending the common school, in which he received a fair education.

He was married April 27, 1873, to Miss Kate Hutchins, a daughter of Calvin and Emily E. (Crosby) Hutchins, and one of a family of nine children, she being the seventh in order of birth.

Mr. Warner has devoted his life to agricul- tural pursuits, and has been especially active in promoting the fruit-growing interests of this section ; he has 28 acres in grapes, 1,000 peach trees, 250 pear-trees, and 500 quince trees, all of which are bearing; he has 70 acres in Harpersfield township, where he has planted 1,000 quince trees and 1,000 pear trees; altogether he has one of the finest fruit

farms in the State. He has been very suc- cessful in acquiring property, owning 140 acres of the old homestead, seventy acres in Harp- ersfield township, sixty-six acres in Morgan township, a half interest in eighty acres in Madison township, Lake county, a half inter- est in sixty-six acres in Harperstield township, and a house and lot in Unionville.

Mr. and Mrs. Warner are the parents of six children: Dorr Eugene, born December 6, 1873, is a student at Princeton; Otto Nellis was born December 21, 1874, he is a graduate of the Geneva Normal school, class of 1893; Josephine C. was born September 26, 1877; George E. was born January 21, 1880; Nettie N. was born August 26, 1881, and Mary E. was born November 17, 1884. The father and mother and four older chil- dren are members of St. Michael's Church. Mr. Warner has taken a deep interest in the educational facilities afforded the present generation, and has aided very materially in advancing the standard. In politics he voices the principles of Democracy.

OSEPH WORDEN is one of the hon- ored early settlers of Lake county, Ohio, his birth having occurred in Willough- by township, November 30, 1822, in a log house erected by his father, who was one of the very first pioneers of the township. He was Noah Worden, a native of Groton, Con- necticut, and a descendent of an old New England family. His father, Joseph Worden, of the Nutmeg State, emigrated at an early day to Stephentown, Rensselaer county, New York, where he engaged in farming. His wife in her girlhood was Rachel Grant, who was born in Rhode Island, and was a member of the same family from which General Grant descended.

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Noah Worden, with his brother, James, came to Ohio in 1809, and purchased land for a permanent home in Willoughby town- ship. After building a log house he married Miss Hannah Grover, and brought his bride to the humble home. Mrs. Worden had emi- grated with her parents from New York State several years previously. She died in 1828, leaving three children, of whom our subject is the eldest. James died in 1890, and the only daughter, Rachel, became the wife of Dr. John W. Hamilton, a noted sur- geon of Columbus, Ohio. After his first wife's death, Noah Worden married the widow of Zophar Warner. Their two chil- dren died in infancy. Mr. Worden improved and cleared his farm, bringing it under high cultivation At various times he held local and township offices of responsibility and trust, and was a highly esteemed citizen of the com- munity. He died at the age of eighty-six years, in the faith of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, to which he had long belonged.

Our subject assisted his father in the work of the farm during his youth, and such edu- cation as he gained was that afforded by the district schools of the period, which were conducted on the subscription plan. He and his brother James were apt scholars and the latter taught school for several terms. The education of Joseph Worden was completed in the academy at Chagrin Falls. He has always devoted himself to agricultural pur- suits and is a successful farmer. He is the owner of 291 acres of land on the banks of the Chagrin river, which property is very valu- able.

Until 1852, Mr. Worden was a Democrat, after which for four years he supported the Free Soil party, and in 1856 joined the Re- publican ranks. He now deposits his ballot in favor of the candidates of the People's

party. He has been quite a reader and is well informed on the leading topics of the day and items of interest, both of national and general import. In his early manhood he and his brother James were surveyors. He has many interesting reminiscences of pioneer life and is a good conversationalist. At one time, when the river was blocked with ice, his father gave a great quantity of corn, which was ground cob and all; to people who could not get their corn ground at the mill Mr. Worden is a man of integrity and correct business methods, who by his upright life has won the esteem of his neighbors to a marked degree.

AMES E. STEPHENSON, one of the oldest members of the bar in Geanga county, Ohio, was born on Staten Isl- and, August 17, 1819, a son of Thomas B. Stephenson, a native of New York city. The paternal grandfather, Ebenezer Stephenson, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the young- est of six brothers, whose father assisted in celebrating the Boston Tea Party. In early youth he went to New York city and opened a tannery for preparing morocco goods ex- clusively, having mastered the trade in Bos- ton; this business he followed all his life, which ended July 4, 1852, at the age of sev- enty-five years. Thomas B. Stephenson passed his boyhood and youth in New York city cared for by an aunt, his mother having died when he was four years old. He was edu- cated in the schools of the city, and at the age of twenty-one years was ordained a. Baptist minister. He preached five years on Staten Island, and was then sent as a missionary to the Western Reserve in the spring of 1823, by the societies of Dr. Cone's and Bethel

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churches of New York city. He remained one year, and then brought his family, who arrived August 8, 1824. He was largely in- strumental in the establishing of the Baptist Church in this section. He married Hannah Demott, of New York city. They reared a family of five children: J. E., the subject of this notice; George B .; William; Mary and Eliza. The mother died at the age of sixty- three years; she was very active in assisting her husband and was ever faithful to the cause they had espoused. The father's death occurred November 4, 1861. J. E. Stephen- son is the eldest of the family; he was tive years old when he came to the West, and so received his education in the common schools, which were of the primitive pioneer type; he was also a student at Chester Academy sev- eral terms, and at the age of twenty-one years began the study of law, having determined to make this profession his vocation in life. He went to Columbus, Indiana, and read under the supervision of Samuel Smith, then county Prosecuting Attorney. Returning home at the end of one year he engaged in mercantile pursuits for many years at Chester, Geauga county, during all of which time he was Jus- tice of the Peace of his township. He com- pleted his law studies in the office of Thrasher, Durfee & Hathaway, and was admitted to the bar. In 1878, he was admitted to practice before the United States Court. Possessed of many noble traits of character he has brought to his profession a fine sense of jus- tice, tempered with that broad charity which recognizes the universal brotherhood of man. He is widely known for his many kindly, generous deeds, and is held in the highest esteem by the bar throughout the State.

Massachusetts, to Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, in 1812. Four children were born of this union: James P., professor of Greek in Des Moines (Iowa) College; Herbert N., who has charge of the mortgage department of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Savings Bank, Min- neapolis, Minnesota; George R., a lawyer by profession residing in Woodson county, Kan- sas: and Charles F., of Chardon, a tinner by trade. Mrs. Stephenson died May 27, 1891; both father and mother are consistent mem- bers of the Baptist Church.

In his legal practice Mr. Stephenson was associated with Lucius E. Durfee, now de- ceased, for twenty-five years. Politically, he has supported the Whig party, and assisted in the organization of the Republican party in Ohio. He was a member of the first con- vention which organized the Republican party in the State. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Tod Draft Commissioner for Geauga county. He has served the people of his county as Prosecuting Attorney, discharging his duties with that rare fidelity characteristic of his every endeavor.

To the above sketch is added a few thoughts by a life-long friend of the subject of this biography. Mr. Stephenson, in many re- spects, is a remarkable man, and deserves from history more than a passing notice. To him, more than usual to the lot of men, came the endowment of a wealth of physical, mental and moral qualities which developed into the highest conception of perfect manhood and an illustration of an upright, pure and suc- cessful life; a man of decisive character, open, frank and fearless in the expressions of the right, on the side of which he has always been frank, cautious and deliberating, he possesses to a high degree the powers of self-content and severity of mind amid exciting surround-

Mr. Stephenson was married July 6, 1843, to Lavelia Norton, a native of Geauga county, Ohio, whose father emigrated from Litchfield, | ings. Unambitious, he has without malice or

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envy ever exhibited a broad and liberal re- spect for and consideration of the rights of those with whom he has come in contact. Thoroughly honest and just, he has always been relied upon to be the same to others. True in his friendships and eminently just in his judgments of others ; true as steel to friends and to those in adversity, a willing helper. Whether as a public man or in the fireside circle, there are few men more sincerely re- spected and esteemed. His mental character- istics are strength and depth rather than brill- iancy. He has fine professional abilities, is an able advocate and a good, sound lawyer, and occupies an honorable position at the bar. His genial and generous disposition and ur- bane manners have made him universally popular, but his natural modest temperament, shrinking from publicity, has undoubtedly prevented him from receiving that political preferment his merits deserve. However the universal judgment of all who know him is that in his life he exemplifies the characteris- tics of an ideal man whose life is worthy of emulation.

H P. PITCHER, a photographer of Con- neaut, Ohio, has long been identified with the interests of this place, having an established reputation as a skilled photographer and also being regarded as a most worthy citizen.

Mr. Pitcher was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, October 2, 1847, and when quite young came with his parents to Ashtabula county. His parents, E. B. and Esther Pitcher, were born in New York State. His father is a farmer by occupation, has resided at Pierpont for the past forty years, and is well known all over the county. He is a member of the

Congregational Church. His wife died when her son, H. P., was a child. They were the parents of four children. Mr. Pitcher re- mained on the farm with his father until he was about twenty years of age. When a young man, and soon after the war, he came to Conneaut to learn photography, and has been engaged in that business here ever since, with the exception of six years spent in Madison, Ohio.

He was married Christmas, 1872, to Miss Jennie Press, of Conneant, and has three children, namely: J. E., aged seventeen, is news agent on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad; Ralph Hubert, aged eight years; and Margaret Louisa, aged four.

Mr. Pitcher is a member of the Protected Home Circle and also of the Junior Order of American Mechanics. In politics, like his father, he adheres to the principles of the Re- publican party.

Mrs. Pitcher is a daughter of James and Phebe (Olds) Press, her father a native of Canada, and her mother of Ashtabula county, Ohio. When the former was one year old he was taken by his parents to New York State, where he was reared and married, and where he lived until 1865, when he moved to Conneaut. He was a dealer in agricult- ural implements, and was engaged in that business up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1875. His wife, born February 28, 1815, is still living, a venerable resident of Conneaut. Following are the names of their seven children: Mary, widow of Oscar Gifford, has two children, Minnie and Jay, and resides in Conneaut; John, married, and a resident of New York; Ezekiel, married, and living in New York, has one child, Eliza- beth, married and a resident of California; James W., who married Candice Proctor, resides in Conneaut, their children being

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George, Willie (who died at the age of twelve years), Carl and Mabel; Henry, who died Oc- tober 3, 1876, left a widow whose maiden name was Flora Fenton, and who is now Mrs. I. Sanders; Mrs. H. P. Pitcher; and Frank, a farmer in Conneaut township, is married and has one child, Hattie.

P LIN SMITH, deceased, was born in Sheldon, Franklin county, Vermont, An- gust 5, 1802, a son of John Smith, a native of New London, Connecticut. The latter died when Plin was fourteen years of age. The subject of this memoir, how- ever, remained at home until 1821, when he came to Ohio, the greater part of the way on foot, arriving at the house of his uncle. Roger Cadwell, in Andover, February 15, of that year. His first occupation, on reaching this wilderness, was chopping. To procure an ax he cut an acre of heavy timber and piled the brush, and he estimated that this ax cost him at least $7. Mr. Smith then hired out to chop, and continued to prosecute this vocation until he had cleared 100 acres of forest. From the effect of this labor he became an invalid, and returned to his native place. In doing this he was so fortunate as to engage for a gentleman to drive cattle over the mountains to Philadelphia. B. F. Wade was his companion, and they received $9 per month for their service. After arriving home, Mr. Smith learned the trade of wagon- making. In January, 1829, he went to Ver- mont, and in the following October again started for Ohio, and, after about two weeks spent on the road, arrived at the home of the above mentioned uncle. He purchased twenty-five acres of wild land, erected a log house, and began housekeeping. The first

wagon he built was hewed from the adjacent timber, his wife assisting him in turning the hubs, and also in sawing logs from which to make the rails necessary to fence their farm. Mr. and Mrs. Smith lived for a time in each Richmond and Austinburg township, but the greater part of their lives was passed in Andover. Mrs. Smith now resides at Conneaut. - Mr. Smith died March 20, 1881, aged seventy-nine years.

Mr. Smith was married January 25, 1829, to Aurelia Weeks, who was born August 26, 1810, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Chapman) Weeks. The grandfather of Mrs. Smith, Timothy Chapman, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and afterward drew a pension of $96 a year. After his death his wife, nee Avis Curtis, drew the pension while she lived. Mr. and Mrs. John Weeks had two sons and four daughters, and Mrs. Smith and a sister, Anna Traver, are the only ones now living. The father died in 1810, and the mother afterward married John Ellithorp. They had six sons, three of whom still sur- vive. The youngest, Albert Ellithorp, is the inventor of the Ellithorp air cushion for ele- vators. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had eleven chil- dren. The eldest, Philo, born June 6, 1830, married Elsie Frink, who died September 22, 1892, aged fifty-six years. He now resides in Madison, Lake county. Josette, born No- vember 4, 1832, is the wife of E. B. Linn, a physician of Richmond township. Sagito, born August 23, 1834, married Alicia Lake, and now resides in Conneaut. Delia, born April 17, 1836, married Olmstead Baker, and lives at Andover. Mary, born March 28, 1838, married Rev. L. E. Beardsley, a men- ber of the East Ohio Conference, and his death occurred June 14, 1889, at the age of seventy-four years; their two children are: Mark L. and Jay W., the latter a resident of

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Conneaut. Mark L., a resident of Ashtabula county, married Dora Snow, and they have two children, Don and Retah. John Harri- son, born March 29, 1840, married Martha Hartshorn, and resides at Conneaut, Ohio. Aurelia, born March 12, 1842, married Cyre- nus Laughlin, and their home is at Conneaut, Ohio. Eliza Ann, born March 19, 1844, died May 29, 1867. Plin Weeks, born January 1, 1847, married Mary Kelley, and died at Chi- cago, May 11, 1880, aged thirty-three years. Amelia, born May 6, 1849, married Prof. N. L. Guthrie, of Conneaut, and died No- vember 10, 1881, aged thirty-four years. Lizzie, born December 12, 1853, married Charles Morris, and died August 21, 1887, at the age of thirty-three years. The eldest child of Dr. and Mrs. Linn, Harriet A., is the wife of Dr. Bebee. Both she and her husband were missionaries to China for seven years, after which they returned to this coun- try for a year, and then went again to China. Dr. Bebee is superintendent of the Philan- der Smith Memorial Hospital at Nanking, China. The eleven children of Mr. and Mrs. Plin Smith were raised to years of maturity, and ten were married. There are now twenty- two grandchildren and sixteen great-grand- children. Mr. Smith was a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which his widow is still actively identified, having been a member from early youth.

A METCALF .- As a member of a his- storic pioner family of Ashtabula county, Ohio, a well-known business man and public-spirited citizen, the subject of this sketch deserves special men- tion in connection with the history of his community.

John Quincy Metcalf, his father, brother of E. R. Metcalf, whose biography appears in this history, came to Ohio in an early day. He married Nancy Barnes, also from the East, whose father, Josiah Barnes, was born in Connecticut. She was the oldest of six children: Nancy; Adaline, wife of L. D. Metcalf; Charles, living in Geneva; Thomas, deceased; Harriet; Martha, deceased in 1891, was twice married, first to a Mr. Graham, whose son was murdered at Fairport, and next to Rev. Mr. Burris. J. Q. Metcalf was the father of ten children: Cassius, deceased; the subject of this sketch: Matilda, wife of Fred Carpenter of Benton county, Iowa; Martha, wife of A. B. Bisby of Oakland, Michigan; Alice, wife of J. B. Northrup; Clara, wife of E. A. Bird; John; Minnie, married to C. H. Mott, of Detroit, Michigan; Thomas, a railroad man residing in Ashta- bula; and Lillian, unmarried.

The subject of this sketch was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, November 8, 1851, and was reared in his native county, receiving his education at the district schools. He re- mained under the parental roof until he at- tained his majority, when he commenced life for himself by entering the employ of N. S. Humphrey as a clerk, where he continued as an employe for six months, receiving $10 a month and his board and lodging. At the end of this time, he bought a half interest in the business, which arrangement continued for eighteen months, when he purchased the entire establishment, with the exception of the building, and two years and a half later bought that. This prosperity continued until he was enabled, after a few years' time, to purchase another tract, on which he now resides, hav- ing made many improvements which have greatly enhanced it in value. He also owns a frontage of 148 feet on Lake street, a most

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desirable piece of property. Few men have been more continuously prospered than he, all of which is directly traceable to his per- sistent industry and economical habits, sup- plemented by shrewd business ability and excellent judgment.

September 17, 1885, Mr. Metcalf was married in Jefferson, Ohio, by the Rev. Mr. Blinn, to Miss Minnie Humphrey, a lady of many estimable traits of character, daughter of George and Caroline (Kelley) Humphrey, both early settlers of Ashtabula county, the latter being a daughter of Charles Kelley, for many years a prominent resident of Con- necticut. Mrs. Metcalf was one of two children: Nina, who married Henry Hobbs of Michigan; and Minnie, born August 25, 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf have one child, Hazel May, born May 15, 1891. Both he and his worthy wife are useful members of the Congregational Church.

In politics, Mr. Metcalf advocates the principles of the Democratic party and takes an active interest in all questions of public importance. Upright, industrious and pro- gressive, he is a citizen of which any commu- nity may feel prond, and justly enjoys the highest esteem of his fellow men.

G EORGE H. BUNNELL, a prosperous farmer and stock-raiser of Jefferson township, Ashtabula county, Ohio, of which he is an old and respected resi- dent, was born in Chenango county, New York, June 3, 1841. He comes of good old New England stock, his parents, Hiram and Fidelia (Melendy) Bunnell, having been na- tives of Connecticut and Vermont, respect- ively, the former born in 1800 and the latter in 1810. IIavilla Bunnell, grandfather of

the subject of this sketch, removed in an early day from New England to Dutchess county, New York, whither he afterward went to Chenango county, the same State, where he owned a sawmill and farm. He was a pro- gressive, industrious, honest man, prominent in his vicinity and much respected by all who knew him. Hiram Bunnell, father of Mr. Bunnell of this notice, accompanied his par- ents to Dutchess county, New York, where his boyhood was spent, and afterward removed with them to Chenango county, where he worked in his father's sawmill and on the farm. He was married in the latter county, where he continued to reside until 1850, at which time he joined the westward tide of emigration, removing to Jefferson township, Ashtabula county, Ohio. Here he bought a farm, part of which he cleared and which was his home for a few years, but which he later exchanged for a tract lying half a mile north of the present home of the subject of this sketch. This he cultivated and it continued to be his home until death. He was a man of energy and ability, extremely upright in his transactions and of the highest morality. He was reared in the strict faith of the Pres- byterian Church. In politics, he was origi- nally an old-line Whig, later a Free Soiler and Abolitionist and finally a Republican. He died in 1880, in his eighty-first year, greatly lamented by all who knew him. His wife was reared in her native county, where she was married about her twentieth year. She was trained to the household duties of the early day, being well versed in spinning and the weaving of cloth and linen. She united at an early age with the Congrega- tional Church, and had led a good and con- sistent Christian life. She is still in the en- joyment of health at the age of eighty-three years, and finds a comfortable home with her

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eldest daughter, Mrs. Covell, in Morgan township, where all is cheerfully done that can contribute to the mother's happiness. Of five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Bunnell, three attained maturity and now sur- vive, of whom the subject of this sketch is the only son. Salina A., the oldest surviving daughter, is the wife of Elijah Covell, a resi- dent of Morgan township, Ashtabula county, and they have three children: Villa, Selden and Edith. Emily, the other daughter now living, is married to Edward A. Cowles, a prominent farmer of Austinburg township, and nephew of Edwin Cowles, founder of the Cleveland Leader. They have three children: Myra, Howard and Giles.

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Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake, Part 98

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1094