Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning, Part 54

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 786

USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning > Part 54
USA > Ohio > Trumbull County > Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning > Part 54
USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning > Part 54

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).

In 1867, after his father's deatlı, the sub- ject of this sketch came to Hubbard, Ohio, where, in company with W. C. Winfield, he was engaged in the hardware business for a year and a half. In the spring of 1869, he

450

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

sold his interest in the store and went to Tennessee, where he was engaged in the lum- ber trade for two years and a half. At the end of this time, he accepted the principalship of the public schools in Hubbard, in which three teachers besides himself were then em- ployed. Later, in company with W. C. and T. A. Winfield, he engaged in the hardware business at Hubbard, in which he continned for three years. In 1876, he was appointed secretary of the Hubbard Savings Bank, and ever since that time has been connected with this institution, having served, since 1886, as its cashier, and been a stockholder and direc- tor in the bank since his first connection with it. Indeed, much of the present prosperity of this institution may be attributed to his unfailing insight and judgment in financial matters and his unimpeachable business in- tegrity and high sense of individual honor, sustaining and strengthening the confidence of the people. During the recent financial stringency leading to panic in many localities no deposits were withdrawn, and all the bank's customers were accorded their usual business accommodations.

February 14, 1871, Mr. March was mar- ried to Caroline Jackson, a native of Hubbard and a daughter of Cyrus and Rebecca M. Jackson, well known and esteemed residents of that place. This happy union was destined to be of short duration, for in 1874 Mr. March was deprived by death of his loving helpmeet and companion. Mrs. March was a member of the Presbyterian Church and an active worker in the Sabbath-school. Decem- ber 30, 1879, Mr. March was married to Amy L. Applegate, a native of Ohio and daughter of Calvin and Sarah J. Applegate, prominent residents of the State. Mrs. March is a lady of refinement and culture, possessed alike of domestic and social accomplishments.

Politically, Mr. March is a Democrat and has been prominently identified with his party's interests in the county. He was elect- ed the first Clerk of Hubbard, in 1868, and has also served as Township Clerk, Trustee, Treasurer and Councilman, as well as having been an efficient member of the School Board. Fraternally, Mr. March is Recording Secre- tary of the I. O. O. F., Hubbard Lod . No. 495. Both he and his worthy wife are useful members of the Presbyterian Church, in which Mr. March is Treasurer.

S ANFORD L. STEWART was born on the old Stewart farm in Fowler township, Trumbull county, Ohio, October 5, 1819, and is one of the prominent men of this township. His father, Sanford Stewart, was born in Tolland, Massachusetts, and was married to Bridget Tew, also a na- tive of that place. They emigrated to Ohio in 1815, and settled in Fowler township, Trumbull county, where Mrs. Stewart's father had a large tract of land. Their settle- ment here was before there were any roads in this section of the country, when settlers' cabins were few and far apart, and when wild animals and Indians were the chief inhabitants of eastern Ohio. Sanford and Bridget Stew- art passed the residue of their lives and died on their farm in this township. Both were about forty-five years of age at the time of death. They left a family of five children: Malissa, Belinda, Caroline, Sanford L. and James, all having passed away except the subject of this sketch.

Sanford L. Stewart was reared amid pio- neer scenes, and was educated in a log school- house. He is now the owner of a fine farm, comprising 191 acres, well improved and well

451

OF NORTHEASTERN OIIIO.

cultivated. His comfortable cottage home is located on a natural building site, and is sur- rounded with an attractive lawn and orchard.

Mr. Stewart was married at the age of twenty-one, to Clarinda Hall, a daughter of Linues Hall, a prominent early settler of this township. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have three children, as follows: Lucy, wife of Austin McClarry, has one daughter, Nettie; Pluma, deceased; and Eliza, at home. They also reared and educated Frankie Squires.

Mr. Stewart affiliates with the Republican party, and has been a member of the School Board. He and his wife are members of the United Brethren Church. His father was a Presbyterian.

P ROF. EDWARD J. SOUTHWICK .- The educational interests of Gustavus are in the hands of a thoroughly com- petent and reliable person, as his suc- cess in this calling indicates, namely, Prof. Edward J. Southwick, who for the past two years has been in charge of the schools of the the town, during which time they have im- proved in quality and increased in the volume of attendance. Prof. Southwick was born in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, November 29, 1857, a son of Erastus and Susan (Haskins) Southwick, who removed to Iowa about 1869, where occurred the death of the latter, of small-pox, about twenty years ago. Mr. South- wick died at North Madison, Ohio, in June, 1891. He served in the late war with the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteer In- fantry, with which he saw some very severe service. Prior to his marriage to the mother of our subject, Mr. Southwick was married to Eliza White, by whom he had

three children, two of whom, Eugene and Eliza Day, still survive. By his second mar- riage he had five children, three of whom still survive, and of them onr subject is the young- est, the others being: George, who died in Dubuque, Iowa, over twenty years ago; Frank, who now resides in Columbus, Ohio; Charles, who is a merchant at North Madi- son, Ohio; and Herbert, who died in Massa- chnsetts over twenty-five years ago.

Edward J. received his early education in the district schools of his section, later attend- ing Orwell Academy, which was then under the charge of R. P. Clark. After graduating he accepted the position of superintendent of the Mesopotamia schools, which position he retained with signal success for six years, giving the most entire satisfaction. At this time ill healthı compelled him to abandon school-teaching and he then engaged in farm- ing. After recovering his health he resumed his occupation of teaching, accepting the position of principal of the high school of Gustavus, and the following year was made superintendent of schools in Green, a posi- tion which he resigned to assume control of the schools of Gustavus, where he has since remained, giving eutire satisfaction to all parties. Making a specialty of philosophy and natural seience, Prof. Southwick has collected considerable apparatus, and his class work in these branches of study is very interest- ing and instructive. His library, which is freely thrown open to all his pupils, is a large and constantly increasing one, and contains many valuable volumes relative to the branches of study in which he is particularly interested. In addition to his duties as a teacher, Prof. Southwick is managing in Gus- tavus township a fine farm of 100 acres, which he acquired in 1893 by trading off two other pieces of property. Politically, he is a

452

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

staunch member of the Prohibition party, and upholds its platform upon any and all occasions.

Prof. Southwick was married March 9, 1887, to Laura A. Gardiner, of Mesopotamia, Ohio, by whom he' had one child, Herbert, born February 13,1891. In all the relations of life Prof. Southwick has proven himself a loyal, true-hearted and public-spirited man, and his pleasant, genial mauner and accom- modating spirit have gained for him a wide circle of friends, by whom he is most highly esteemed.

OSEPH K. WING .- The Wings, of Bloomfield -as probably of other lo- calities in America -are all of direct descent from --

John Wing, who, with his wife, Deborah Batchelder (a daughter of the Rev. Stephen Batchelder), and their four sons, arrived at Boston from England in the ship, William Francis, June 5, 1632.

John Wing first settled at Sangus, now Lynn, Massachusetts, but soon thereafter mi- grated to the region known as the peninsula of Cape Cod, a district which could offer to the home-seekers of the day a larger propor- tion of acres ready for the plow and a less in- clination on the part of the savage aborigines to interfere with the plowman than could other portions of the colony.

As early as 1637, a patent was accordingly procured to "the men of Saugus"-composed of Edward Freeman and nine others-to erect a town at Plymouth. With them were afterward associated, as a part of the original company, fifty others, who together pre- scribed the qualifications of those who should thereafter enter the settlement. John Wing's

name occurs as the forty-fifth in the list of "the first associates" to the nine "Men of Saugus."

The spot they chose for their purpose was at the point on Cape Cod bay, where the shore first curves outward from the main- land, about sixty miles from the site of Bos- ton. The name of Shawmne, which was given to their town when they first took possession thereof, in 1638, was, in the year 1639- after the final act of incorporation-ex- changed for that of Sandwich. By act of the general court, Mr. Alden and Captain Miles Standish were deputized " accurately to de- fine the limits of each man's allotment of land with all convenient speed," and in due time, all the civil and personal relations of the little community became suitably ad. justed.

The individual fortunes of John Wing, of Sandwich, as of most of his fellow colonists, were but lightly chronicled. Casual mention of him occurs in the meagre records of the time, chiefly in connection with matters af- fecting the general concern, but, as has been reasonably assumed, he was doubtless a man never much seeking public distinction, and only ambitious to cultivate his land and to decently bring up his family.

The place in Sandwich where John Wing resided, and the home of the elder branch of the family for subsequent generations, was about a mile from the present village of Sandwich, near a stream of water between two beautiful ponds, and on a highland over- looking the lower sheet of water and the town. No more attractive location could be found in the vicinity. The farm connected with this homestead consisted of two or three hundred acres of valuable land np the stream and along the borders of the lower pond.

453

OF NORTHIEASTERN OHIO.

John Wing died about the year 1659. His second son was also named John, and, to- gether with his brothers, Daniel, Stephen and Matthew, had accompanied their father, in 1632, to America.

John, the second son of John and Deborah (Batchelder) Wing, married Elizabeth, of Saugus. He died at Yarmouth in 1699, where he had been a large land owner, and had lived for forty years to the time of his death.

Ananias was the eldest living child of John of Yarmouth at the latter's death. He was an inhabitant of Brewster, which had been set off from Yarmouth, and died on August 30, 1718. He figures in the records of the pe- riod as actively participating in the troubles with the Narragansett Indians, going out against King Philip in the second expedi- tion, and, long after his death, was men- tioned, in the grant of public land in 1733, as among those who were entitled by virtue of service in the Indian wars. His will, dated March 5, 1717, shows him possessed of a large estate in lands. His widow, Han- nalı, survived him many years.

John, a son of Ananias and Hannah Wing, was born on April 3, 1702, and died in or near the year 1773. In 1728 he married Mary, the daughter of Richard Knowles, early at Plymouth, but, before 1655, a legal voter at Eastham. They had twelve children, the second of whom was born May 8, 1732, and was also named John.

John, the son of John and Mary (Knowles) Wing, first settled in Harwich, in the part now called Brewster, where he married Abi- gail, the daughter of John Snow, of the same town. He removed to Conway, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, at or very near its earliest settlement, probably between 1763 and 1767. Soon after his removal here his

wife, Abigail Snow, died. Seven children were born to them of whom the fifth, Bani, was born on August 10, 1763. John had a sec- ond wife, Abigail Isham, by whom he had eight children and three who died in infancy. By a third wife, Jane Trescott, he had three other children, the youngest having been born January 12, 1800. His death occurred De- cember 12, 1822, when he was aged ninety years and seven months. He is said to have possessed extraordinary health and activity through his entire life, and, to his last day, was able to be about in the severe winter weather of the year.

His sons James, Isaiah and Bani were Re- volutionary soldiers, and John (by his second wife) was a Captain during the war of 1812.

Peter, the first born of John, was lost at sea December 29, 1783, while trading with the West Indies. He was a resident of Balti- more, and left a considerable property to be disposed of by his father as his executor. The latter duly empowered Bani, his son, to act in his stead in the matter, and Bani ac- cordingly visited Baltimore and Havana upon the business. Letters of administration were granted to Bani-in the place of his father- in Baltimore county on June 16, 1784, and a formal power of attorney from John to Bani Wing regarding the estate of Peter ap- pears upon the records of that county in Liber W. C. No. 1, folio 80. An existing deed of indenture shows the sale by Bani under this power for £400 current money, of a lot of ground in Baltimore, for which Peter appears to have paid £200.

Bani married Lucy, a daughter of Lieu- tenant John Clary, of Conway, in 1788, and by her had nine children, of whom Joseph Knowles was the youngest. In June, 1795, Bani bought 100 acres of land on the Deer- field river in Wilmington, Windham county,

454

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Vermont, to which he subsequently made several additions. Here all his children, ex- cept the first two, were born and reared, and here his wife, Lucy, died on November 15, 1819. October 9, 1821, Bani married Thirza, a daughter of Benjamin and Olive Flint, of Northı Reading, and by her had Lucius Bliss Wing. In 1837 he removed to Charlemont, Massachusetts, where lie died April 2, 1847, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

Bani's Revolutionary service began in his seventeenth year on his enlistment in Colonel Chapin's regiment. He subsequently served in a regiment commanded by Colonel Wes- ton, which was principally engaged in the defense of the Hudson river. He was pres- ent with his company at the execution of Major Andre, October 2, 1780. A pension was regularly awarded him as a Revolution- ary soldier, and continned to his widow.

For more than half a century Bani was a communicant in the Congregational Church. He was fond of reading, had acute percep- tive powers, and was full of genuine good humor. His anthority in the family and his temper in general society were mild, and his judgment of others was always charitable.

Joseph Knowles Wing, the youngest child of Bani and Lucy (Clary) Wing, was born at Wilmington, Vermont, July 27, 1810. When sixteen years old he left his parental home to take a clerkship in a store at Rennselaer- ville, Albany county, New York, where he remained for the next five years. While here he was appointed Quartermaster for the Twenty-fifth Regiment of New York State Infantry, and served under his commission on General DeWitt's staff for three years until March 31, 1831, when he resigned to go to Ohio.

The occupation and development of the territory northwest of the Ohio, was at that

time engrossing the enterprise and resources of the East, and, already the fertile region comprising the Western Reserve had been taken up in large tracts by original proprie- tors for the purpose of resale to the newly arriving settlers. As early as 1815 Ephraim Brown and Thomas Howe, with this view, jointly purchased the 16,000 acres of land that constitute the township of Bloomfield. In the following year Mr. Brown with his family removed to this home.

Aside from the agricultural superiority of the land, this range of townships had fnr- ther possibilities of advantage that were not to be overlooked. It is difficult at this dis- tance of time to fully appreciate how closely early emigration was limited to the lines of least resistance. We of a later generation have beheld a vaster numerical movement of population and across the same sweep of con- tinent, but a inovement that was deterred by no natural obstacles, and followed only the direct route of the engineers. In 1815, how- ever, the mighty agency of steam in trans- portation, which made this later movement possible, had not been even dimly visioned, and was not for years to receive any real at- tention among men. Water and wagon-roads were the only highways; wind and muscle the only motive power. Those stretches, therefore, on the world's surface, which best met these natural conditions of travel, would first become known and in demand. Already was this manifest throngh central and west- ern New York, along the favored route to Detroit by way of Buffalo and the lakes, and, the increasing importance of the market, thus chiefly monopolized by Boston and New York, was soon to attract thereto the trade of Philadelphia and Pittsburg.

To reach this market, however, from the latter points the portage must be made from

455

OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO.

the Ohio river to the lake-from the one navi- gable point to the next-and by those easy gradients on the right bank of the Grand river which attain their highest altitude at Bloomfield itself.

On the other hand the magnificence and mystery of Burr had fired the imagination and youthful ardor of an entire generation toward the boundless empire in the South that only waited possession. Thither, through a long future, would the steady transit of men and merchandise tend, but, just as the waterways of the lakes were the destined high- way to the North, so the one great course to the South would always be sought near the upper waters of the Ohio.

This latter highway, therefore, must also draw patrons down the same portage tract which spanned from lake to river, and doubly certain seemed Bloomfield's favored site, thus standing at the parting of the ways.

Such the conditions; and such, it may be presumed, the predictions therefrom by the early proprietors and settlers in this vicinity. That no lasting realization of these expecta- tions was in any degree experienced, was un- questionably due to the application of the then undreamed-of power of steam. In the lights at hand, however, the conception was none the less eminently correct and far-seeing, and those who were moved thereby are enti- tled to our own unqualified respect.

By the year 1830 all the conditions above sketched seemed fullest developed and as- sured. Ashtabula and Fairport had steadily grown to be the only considerable ports in eastern Ohio, and were rapidly increasing in tonnage. From each of these points finely- constructed thoroughfares, following the nat- ural courses of the country, led through Bloomfield, by the shortest ronte to the Ohio, and, on their paths, in perpetual procession,

the many-horsed wagons of the Alleghenies moved their slow freights along.

The Trumbull and Ashtabula turnpike was constructed by a substantial stock company, and, under the active presidency of Mr. Brown, was, for years, maintained in a degree of excel- lence that can be but illy judged of by a present view. Up and down its length fast packet coaches of the most approved type daily plied, and kept their changes at the Bloomfield tav- ern with a precision that was scheduled there to all the finer fractions of an hour.

As to the community itself-arrivals were frequent in those days-and few who were looking for a home would depart.

These, with other considerations, in 1830, doubtless determined Mr. Wing's future home. He accepted an advantageous offer by a merchant of Albany county, who had discerned his integrity and fitness, to join him in a general mercantile business at some favorable point in the West, and Bloomfield was selected for the purpose. Thereupon, being then in his twenty-first year, Mr. Wing immediately visited New York city and bought and paid for a full stock of goods for shipment to Ohio. In May, 1831, he proceeded to Bloomfield to there await the slow arrival of their stores and to take up the residence which was not thereafter to be permanently changed.

Early as was this period, the town had nevertheless, within its limits, not a few con- genial families and friends, and as the years went on it was found that Bloomfield's early advantages in this regard were not wholly to depart.

Mr. Wing's estimate of the business ad- vantages and possibilities of his new home was fully justified through the years preced- ing the development of the railway and canal systems in the State. Thereafter, however,

456

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

he gradually withdrew from all mercantile interests, and, for the past forty years or more, his chief local concerns have been ag- ricultural. In October, 1842, he married Mary, a daughter of Ephraim and Mary (Huntington) Brown.

At the outbreak of the Civil war President Lincoln appointed Mr. Wing as Assistant Quartermaster, with the rank of Captain. Afterward he was successively commissioned Major and Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet.

From the first his duty was with the ad- vanced armies in Tennessee and Mississippi. Upon the concentration of General Rose- crans' army within and around Corinth, he was ordered in charge of the cavalry division of the Quartermaster's department at that point, and soon thereafter assigned as Chief Quartermaster of the district. He was in the battle of Corinth, October 2 and 3, 1862, and the desperate hand-to-hand struggle for the mastery, that turned the fortune of war against the assaulting forces of the rebels, was enacted in the very yard of General Rosecrans' headquarters and around Colonel Wing's adjacent tent.

The following year General Rosecrans was relieved, but Colonel Wing remained at Cor- inth on the same duty, attached to the staff of General Grenville M. Dodge, who suc- ceeded to the conunand. In 1864 the post was reduced and the armies of the West finally crossed the Tennessee for the Atlanta campaign, whereupon Colonel Wing, as Chief Quartermaster of the Sixteenth Army Corps, participated in all the movements of that body until Atlanta was reached and taken.

During the campaign the command marched 500 miles, was engaged in thirteen distinct engagements, and was under fire almost the entire time. In his official report to the War Department at that time, General Dodge ex-

pressly mentions and commends Colonel Wing for efficiency during this campaign. (See Re- port No. 524, by Major-General G. M. Dodge, of operations of left wing Sixteenth Army Corps between August 19 and September 18, 1864, published in Vol. XXXVIII., Series 1, War of the Rebellion, Record of Union and Confederate Armies.) In November, 1864, by special order No. 51 of the War Department, he assumed control of the Quartermaster's department in the district of Beaufort, North Carolina, where he remained until the close of the war. August 10, 1865, he was honorably mustered out of the service.

The following copy of a letter, on file in the War Department, indicates the character of his services during the war, and the esti- mate thereof by his corps commander and fellow-officers:

"No. 26 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, ) December 9, 1866.

" HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.

"Sir :- I have the honor to recommend for Brevet Brigadier General, Captain J. K. Wing, A. Q. M.

"Captain Wing served in my command for three years, first as Chief Quartermaster for the district of Corinth, and finally as Chief Quartermaster of the Sixteenth Army Corps. For four months, while I was in middle Tennessee, we were entirely depend- ent upon his energy to supply the command of 15,000 mnen and 10,000 animals with forage from the country; and I desire to say that in his department he received the com- mendation of all the officers for the ability with which he discharged his duties, and for his integrity and excellent habits. For his services as Chief Quartermaster of the Six- teenth Army Corps during the Atlanta cam- paign, he was specially recommended for

457

OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO.

promotion, but could not attain it, as the command was not a full corps. After leaving the Army of the Tennessee he was assigned to the Department of North Carolina, in which he served until the surrender of Johnston and the close of the war.

" I desire to most earnestly and emphat- ically recommend him for the promotion asked for, and trust his valuable services will now be acknowledged. I am confident it would have been done heretofore had his case not been overlooked.

" I am, sir, respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " G. M. DODGE,

" Late Major-General U. S. Volunteers."

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.

Biographical history of northeastern Ohio : embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning, Part 54

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 786

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 786