USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > Lancaster > Centennial history of Lancaster, Ohio, and Lancaster people : 1898, the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the spot where Lancaster stands > Part 4
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Frederick Arney, father of John Arney, was a resi- dent at an early day, but did not remain many years, removing to the northern part of the state.
HENRY ABRAMS
Henry Abrams lived on his farm near Lancaster. He was an early pioneer and his name will always be closely associated with that of Lancaster. He was early engaged in surveying the government lands. October 12, 1802, he was elected a member of the first Ohio Constitutional Convention, receiving 181 votes. In 1806, 1807 and 1808, he was one of the associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas. His son, John Abrams, was a farmer of Greenfield Township. His son Henry went to New Orleans and died in Grand Gulf, Miss. He was a hotel keeper. His daughter Nancy married George Sanderson and died in Lan- caster at an advanced age. Emma married Mr. Har- per, an officer of the United States Navy. But little is known of his history. He made the circuit of the globe and occasionally visited his family. Jemima Abrams married a man named Clark and they moved to Marion, Ohio. Another daughter became the wife of Christian Musser. He was a chairmaker and lived for a time in Rushville. From there they moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he died some years since. Sarah Harper, granddaughter of Henry Abrams, was edu-
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cated at Bardstown, Ky., and became a good scholar and an artist of considerable ability. She is an accom- plished woman, having been a teacher in two or three Catholic institutions, and has many friends in Lan- caster. Henry Abrams died in 1821, aged 68 years.
LANCASTER IN 1805
Josiah Espy, long a cashier of Columbus, Ohio, made a tour of Ohio in 1805 and visited Lancaster. He says: "October 23, I arrived at Pitcher's in New Lancaster, although sickly it is growing very rapidly, and property now sells for more than its real value. The number of emigrants is greater than can be ac- commodated with buildings to reside in. It already contains about ninety dwelling houses, some of them very commodious. Another cause of the high price of property here, and of its rapid growth, is the expec- tation of its being the future seat of the State govern- ment."
LANCASTER IN 1815
Dr. John Cotton, of Marietta, before he settled down to his life work, made a trip of exploration to Ohio, and among other places visited Lancaster. He says that he found it a flourishing town, of eight hundred or one thousand inhabitants (largely German), sur- rounded by beautiful and well cultivated farms.
CHARLES ROBERT SHERMAN
Charles Robert Sherman, father of John and Wil- liam T. Sherman, was born in Norwalk, Conn., 17th September, 1788. He was the eldest son of Judge Taylor Sherman and Elizabeth Stoddard. Taylor Sherman, son of Judge Daniel Sherman, was born in 1758, and was married in 1787 to Elizabeth Stoddard.
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They moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, where he spent his life, dying May 15, 1815. Elizabeth Stoddard was born at Woodbury, Connecticut, June 17, 1767. After the death of her husband she came to Ohio with her children, living first with Charles R. Sherman in Lan- caster. Here her daughter Elizabeth ยท married the future Judge Parker, who studied law with Charles R. Sherman, and she went with them to live in Mansfield, Ohio. She was a granddaughter of Rev. Anthony Stoddard, of Connecticut. She died in Mansfield, Ohio, August 1, 1848. Charles R. Sherman received a good education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1810. May 8, 1810, he was married to Mary Hoyt, of Norwalk, Connecticut, a playmate from child- hood. She was the daughter of Isaac Hoyt, a promi- nent citizen of Norwalk, a man in comfortable circum- stances. She was educated at the Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Female Seminary. In 1810, some months after he was married, he went to Ohio to look up a location. He visited Lancaster and decided to make his home there, and in December of that year or in the winter of 1811 he returned to Connecticut, where he remained until the summer of 1811, when he in company with his wife, and young child Charles T. Sherman, returned to Lancaster.
The trip was made on horseback, most of the way through a wilderness, and the babe was carried the entire distance, resting on a pillow. The trip showed the pluck and spirit of this New England couple. Charles R. Sherman immediately became one of the leading spirits of his new home, and we find him within one year the Major of the First Regiment of Ohio Militia. He was the brilliant young orator who ad- dressed the militia, called together by the Governor
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for the purpose of obtaining volunteers for the war against Great Britian. This event took place April the 16th, 1812. His speech was reported by Sander- son's Independent Press and may be found in John Sherman's Autobiography. The result of this meet- ing was the raising of a company by George Sander- son, which was soon to be surrendered by General Hull at Detroit. November 9, 1813, he was appointed by President Madison Collector of Internal Revenue for the third district of Ohio, which position he held four years. In July, 1817, without previous notice, the government refused to take any money from col- lectors, except paper of the Bank of the United States. This order found large sums in the hands of his depu- ties in currency that soon became worthless. To add to this calamity some of his deputies failed, and failure on his part could not be averted. Sherman went down, and his bondsmen, Judge Samuel Carpenter and Judge Daniel Van Metre, went with him. It is well known that Mr. Sherman subsequently made good their losses, and squared his accounts with the government. In 1823, he was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio, by the Legisla- ture. His associates were Judges Pease. Hitchcock and Burnett, men of great ability and wide experience. It is sufficient evidence of his ability as a lawyer to know that the Ohio Legislature thought him worthy to be the associate of such eminent jurists. He died at Lebanon, Ohio, June 24th, 1829, in his forty-first year, in the prime of life and in the midst of usefulness. It is safe to say that at the time of his death he was the ablest lawyer and most popular citizen of Lancaster, second to no man.
Judge Sherman is described as gentle and genial,
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with a brilliant mind and sound judgment, and both as judge and man of stainless integrity. He had the esteem and confidence of his associates upon the bench, and made friends in every courtroom and was the idol of the young lawyers of Ohio. For many years he was a very prominent and enthusiastic member of the Masonic fraternity and master of the lodge in Lan- caster. Judge Sherman was a hospitable man and his home was the center of a refined society. He enter- tained many distinguished guests. Governor De Witt Clinton and the Duke of Saxe Weimar were enter- tained by him in the year 1825. He was a trustee of the Ohio University at Athens, and a member of the committee that examined Thomas Ewing in grammar, rhetoric, languages, geography, natural and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy and mathematics. The committee expressed much gratification at his proficiency, and May the 3d, 1815, recommended him for the degree of bachelor of arts and sciences. The death of Judge Sherman left his widow with the care and training of eleven children, none of whom had reached their majority, and with limited means for their support. The friends of Judge Sherman came to her relief and assisted in caring for the children. In the year 1844 she removed to Mansfield, Ohio, where John Sherman and the two youngest daughters made up the family. The young people soon married, but she continued to keep house up to the time of her death, September 23, 1852. Her remains were brought to Lancaster and interred beside those of her husband in Elmwood Cemetery. The history of the eleven orphan children of Judge Sherman is a very remark- able one. The daughters were all happily married to men who made their mark in the communities in which
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they lived. The sons were all successful men in busi- ness or in professions. Elizabeth married William J. Reese; Amelia, Robert McComb, of Mansfield; Julia, John G. Willock, of Lancaster; Susan, Thomas W. Bartley, of Mansfield, who became Governor of Ohio and Judge of the Supreme Court; and Fanny married C. W. Moulton, of Cincinnati. There are those still living in Lancaster who witnessed the sorrow and dis- tress of the mother and her small children on that awful day when news came that Judge Sherman was dying in a distant town. But kind friends, and time with its healing power, soothed their sorrows and dried their tears. The good mother lived to see her children well established in the world and her two favorite boys just entering upon careers as wonderful and as honor- able as any of the century. The first case of Charles R. Sherman as attorney at the Lancaster bar, that is recorded, is Fanny Mills against Jacob Boos and the overseers of the poor for the restoration of her child Peggy, who had been taken from her on the plea that she could not support her. She was an unmarried woman, the child a mulatto. The petition in this case is dated December 18th, 1810. At the January term, 1812, he was prosecuting attorney. But his name is not again mentioned in that connection, and the pre- sumption is that R. F. Slaughter was sick or absent and that he performed the duty of prosecutor that term by direction of the court.
SAMUEL F. MACCRACKEN
Samuel F. Maccracken came to Lancaster from Pennsylvania in July, 1810. He was born in the year 1785. Upon his arrival in Lancaster he immediately opened a general store upon the Green corner. In
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1815 he was the proprietor of a tanyard at the foot of Broad Street. September 15th, 1815, he married Miss Sarah Craft at Carlisle, Pa. In 1824 he opened a branch store in Circleville, which was conducted by Jacob Lutz. In 1829, with William J. Reese as part- ner, he opened a branch store in Newark, which was conducted by a former clerk, Daniel Duncan. In time Lutz and Duncan purchased the stocks of goods. Lutz became a prominent merchant of Circleville and Daniel Duncan a distinguished citizen of Newark and a promi- nent politician. He was the father of Charles Duncan, son-in-law of Dr. Effinger. General Maccracken sold his tannery, in what year cannot be ascertained, to William V. Thorne, and James M. Pratt became his partner. After Thorne's death Pratt became sole pro- prietor. In the year 1826 General Maccracken was an insurance agent. He had previously been advertised as an agent for a New Jersey lottery scheme. He also served as a director of the Ohio penitentiary. General Maccracken retired from the mercantile busi- ness in the year 1830. About this time he was ap- pointed one of the fund commissioners of the state of Ohio, a very important office at that time. He con- tinued to hold this position and disburse the funds of the state until the Ohio canals were completed. In the year 1838 or 1839, he made a trip to England as the financial agent of the state of Ohio, for the pur- pose of securing a loan. He was accompanied by his son, James C. Maccracken. In the year 1830 General Maccracken sold his store to Myers, Fall and Dres- back (George Myers). Dresback dying, the business was continued by Myers and Fall up to April 1st, 1835, when Henry T. Myers was admitted as a partner. Myers retired March 21st, 1837. March 31st, 1838,
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John A. Collins became a partner of Myers and Fall and invested $10,000 in cash. The firm name was Myers, Fall & Collins. This firm built what is now known as the Martin, Kirn and Mumaugh Block. January 1st, 1841, this firm dissolved, John C. Fall retiring. In his stead Myers & Collins took Zenus McElroy as partner and commenced business in the newly completed building called the Collins Block. January, 1841, John C. Fall, John Maccracken and Thomas C. Griffin formed a partnership. Griffin re- tired January, 1843. Fall and Maccracken continued business until 1845. At this time Fall withdrew and Maccracken gave Work Galbreath an interest in his business. Upon the death of Galbreath James C. Mac- cracken became a partner and they continued busi- ness up to the year 1847, when John Maccracken re- tired and moved to Cincinnati. James C. continued the business until 1849, when he sold out to Jacob Plout, and went to California. Jacob Plout sold out to Rising and Lyons in 1853. John C. Fall, after retir- ing from the firm, became a clerk in the store of Reber & Kutz and in a year or two removed to Cincinnati, and thence to California, where he became a very prom- inent and wealthy man. Myers, Collins & Co. con- tinued business a year or two but the crash finally came and they went down to rise no more. We have traced the history of the Maccracken store, and will now re- turn to the General. General Maccracken was hon- ored with the position of Brigadier-General of the Ohio Militia. He was a man of integrity and great ability. On one of his trips East to purchase goods he carried with him $100,000 belonging to Ohio banks. Express companies were unknown in that day. Near Ellicott's mills, Maryland, the stage was held up and
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Centennial History of Lancaster
robbed, but the $100,000 in Maccracken's trunk was overlooked by the robbers. General Maccracken spent several years in retirement, broken in health. About the year 1852 he built and occupied a hand- some cottage on the corner of High and Mulberry Streets and sold his fine residence on Wheeling and Broad Streets to John D. Martin. The cottage has since been changed into a fine three-story residence by F. C. Whiley. General Maccracken, after a long, busy and eventful life, died in the year 1857. His amiable wife survived him a number of years. She was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and at one time superintendent of the Sunday school. Her funeral was attended by Colonel Gran- ville Moody.
THE CARPENTER FAMILY
The Carpenter family was one of the largest, wealth- iest, most prominent and influential of the pioneer period. They came to Fairfield County and settled on land adjoining the future town plat in 1798. They were natives of Lancaster County, Pa. The pioneers of this family were Emanuel, Sr., and his cousin, Colonel Samuel Carpenter. They were settled on their farms in log cabins before Lancaster was laid out. Emanuel was present at Zane's sale of lots and made a purchase. To him we are indebted for the name. He had made the acquaintance of Zane in Wheeling, Va., and was by him induced to settle on the Hock- hocking. At the request of Emanuel Carpenter, Zane named the new town New Lancaster. Soon after their arrival in the valley they purchased four sections of land south of the Zane section on the Hockhocking River. They came here with the intention of erecting
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mills, and selected land upon water courses. In 1802 Colonel Samuel Carpenter returned to Pennsylvania and brought out John Carpenter and his family. John was the patriarch of the family and did not long sur- vive his removal to the West, dying in 1807. With John Carpenter came Captain Roland, a soldier com- panion of the Revolutionary War. He was a mill- wright by trade and came out to erect mills for the Carpenters. The Carpenters were very enterprising men. They put Captain Roland to work and brought out machinery from Lancaster, Pa., by ox teams, and soon had a flour mill and sawmill propelled by the waters of the Hocking. The Deed's mill stands upon the same spot and is a part of the old building. In later years this mill was operated by Isaac Koontz. They also built a flouring mill on Carpenter's Run, where Christian Hartman now lives. Captain Roland was a good mechanic, and in addition to the mills built a factory for making sickles or reaping hooks on Baldwin's Run, where the canal now crosses. His usefulness was cut short in the year 1810, a stroke of lightning causing his death. Emanuel Carpenter, Sr., was a member of the first Constitutional Conven- tion in 1802. He was complimented by the highest vote received by any candidate. In 1801, when the Court of Quarter Sessions was organized by Governor St. Clair, Emanuel Carpenter was appointed presiding judge of that court, and his brother, Colonel Samuel Carpenter, was made an associate judge of that court. In 1803 Colonel Samuel Carpenter was elected one of the associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas under the new constitution. This position he held until the time of his death in 1821. Emanuel Carpen- ter died, full of years and honors, at the home of his
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Centennial History of Lancaster
son-in-law, David Carpenter, in 1822, on what is now known as the Prindle farm. His daughter Sallie mar- ried David Shellenbarger, who died early. In Feb- ruary, 1809, she married Isaac Koontz. Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., married Mary Shellenbarger. He was a dandy of that day and on dress occasions appeared in short clothes, wearing a queue. When but twenty- four years of age he was elected Sheriff of Fairfield County. He owned a half section of land at the Springs now called Clarksburg. He built a flouring mill there and a whisky distillery. He built the brick house that is still standing on the Clarke farm. In the year 1813 he was a member of the Ohio Legislature. About this time he met Miss Salome Hess, the woman who became his second wife. In the year 1814 he purchased of Ebenezer Zane four hundred and thirty- seven acres of land, part of the original Zane section. For this land he paid $6,782. A good price for those early times. On this land he laid off what will always be known as Carpenter's Addition to Lancaster, Ohio. He donated a lot to the Methodist Episcopal Church, one to the African Church, and to the Methodist So- ciety the graveyard on the hill in the rear of the M. E. Church, where many of the early pioneers are buried. He was a farmer, miller and distiller, and in addition to all this opened a store in the town. This was in 1816 and Rev. Samuel Carpenter was his partner. Emanuel Carpenter built the frame house on Broad- way which Samuel Carpenter purchased and occupied after Emanuel's death. This was after the close of the War in 1815 and times were booming, and everybody was speculating, with the usual results; some men be- came rich, others became deeply involved. The crisis came, banks failed, and the whole country was in a
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Centennial History of Lancaster
bankrupt condition. Emanuel Carpenter was greatly embarrassed and while struggling with his debts and creditors sickened and died, February, 1818, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. His son, Ezra Carpenter, was in later years well known in Lancaster. His grandson, Captain Lewis Carpenter, son of Ezra, served in the Union Army and is now a Methodist preacher in the Missouri Conference. Rev. Samuel Carpenter, his nephew and partner, closed up his estate, married his widow and spent a long and happy life in the Broad Street home. Rev. Samuel Carpen- ter was a man of high character and great ability. He was one of the engineers in charge of the construction of the Hockhocking canal. Colonel Samuel Carpen- ter, previously mentioned, was a bachelor and son of John Carpenter. In 1803 he was a surveyor. He built the first brick house in the county on the Koontz hill. The original house is still standing with some improvement. He was known as the best dressed man in the county, and prided himself upon his fine horses. In his old age he became one of the bonds- men of Judge Sherman, Revenue Collector of the United States. He did not recover from the embar- rassment caused by Sherman's failure during his life- time. He died in the year 1821 at the age of sixty years. Of this once prominent and influential family but few remain of the name or blood in this county. Charles F. Shaeffer, an attorney, son of Frederick A. Shaeffer, now an old man, married a daughter of the Rev. Samuel Carpenter. Gabriel Carpenter, the mer- chant, who came with Paul Carpenter in 1827, died in 1841, aged thirty-four years. The last named were brothers. F. H. Carpenter, who at two different periods lived in Lancaster, was a surveyor by profes-
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sion and a relative. In the year 1805 the Ohio Legis- lature appointed Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., one of the appraisers of two townships of lands belonging to the Ohio University in Athens County for the purpose of fixing their value for leasing. Colonel Samuel Car- penter was appointed by Governor Tiffin a trustee of the Ohio University in 1804, in which capacity he served until the year of his death, 1821. Colonel Carpenter was also appointed by the Board of Trustees with Rufus Putnam a committee to lease the lands. The Carpenters, as this sketch reveals, during the first twenty years of Lancaster, were among the leading men of the community, leaders in business and promi- nent in all public affairs, being men of integrity, ability and influence. The public positions they held are evidence of their high standing in the community. They were fair samples of a long list of brainy, stal- wart men who opened up our forests and built up the civilization we to-day enjoy. The pioneers of Fairfield County, indeed, of the state of Ohio, were a very remarkable set of men.
MRS. CATHARINE M. GUSEMAN
Mrs. Catharine M. Guseman, widow of the late Jacob Guseman, is the oldest living resident of Lan- caster. Her maiden name was Catharine M. Pfifer; her father's name was Jacob Pfifer. She was born in Pittsburg, Pa., December 18, 1801. Her father moved from Pittsburg to Huntington, Pa. In 1806 he emi- grated to Fairfield County, Ohio, and settled one mile west of Lancaster. While living here she remembers going to town with her mother to trade with Rudolph Pitcher, who kept a store and a tavern in the same building on Main Street. She was often with her
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Centennial History of Lancaster
mother gathered wild plums, in a thicket, on the ground where now stand the store buildings of Chris- tion Keller and E. H. Binninger. The plat of Lancas- ter was then a wilderness, except three or four streets. On these streets were a number of small buildings, but very much scattered. The Hockhocking River was then quite a large stream.
When Catharine was eighteen years of age her father moved to Lithopolis and operated a tannery. She came to Lancaster and has ever since resided here, a period of seventy-eight years. She was mar- ried to Jacob Guseman October 10, 1824, and in 1832, moved upon the lot where she has ever since lived. She has known Lancaster for ninety-one years, and has witnessed its gradual growth from a wilderness to a city.
For the greater part of her life she has been a con- sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in a peaceful frame of mind awaits the coming of the Master, being ready and willing to go. A stranger, conversing with her, would not place her age above eighty years. She is well preserved, hale and hearty. She is doubtless the oldest living native of the city of Pittsburg.
MRS. RUTH ANN CLASPILL
Mrs. Ruth Ann Claspill, widow of R. O. Claspill, who died in 1844, is the daughter of one of the first pioneer citizens of Lancaster, Jonathan Lynch, Brigadier Gen- eral of the Ohio Militia. General Lynch was a native of Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa., and settled on the Baldwin farm, two miles from Lancaster, in the year 1799. He built a cabin on that tract for his family and there, on the twenty-third day of December, 1799, his son Levi Lynch was born.
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Centennial History of Lancaster
As soon as the town was laid out, November, 1800, the sale of lots occurred. General Lynch purchased a lot at the foot of Wheeling Street and built a log house. This house is still standing, and is a part of the present residence of James Kinney. In this house Ruth Ann was born November 24, 1809. She is now the oldest living woman born in Lancaster. Mrs. Cas- sel and Mrs. Reese are the next, in the order men- tioned.
General Lynch was a tanner, the first in the town, a public-spirited citizen and very popular. When Governor Meigs called out the Ohio Militia to go to the relief of General Harrison, General Lynch was in command of a brigade. His soldiers camped on what is now the Pioneer addition. General Lynch spent a large sum of money in clothing and equipping his men and was never fully reimbursed for his outlay. The army marched to Upper Sandusky. Here the Gover- nor soon learned that his force was not needed and the army was disbanded and the soldiers ordered home.
Colonel Jno. Williamson commanded a regiment in General Lynch's brigade.
General Lynch died in 1816 in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness.
A sister of General Lynch was the wife of Samuel Matlack, Sr .- and the mother of Mrs. H. H. Hunter, Mrs. G. H. Smith and Mrs. J. B. Reed.
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