USA > Ohio > Wayne County > Commemorative biographical record of Wayne County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 2
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lives, which contains 166 acres of well- improved land. That same year he mar- ried Miss Sarah Lance, daughter of James Lance. She died in 1886. To them were born seven children, four of whom are living: Peter, of Medina Coun- ty, married Adeline Hollowell, and has five children-Azilpha Aun, Mary L., Cora L., Andrew J. and Charles P .; James A., of Milton Township, married Lydia E. Hollowell, and has ten children -Mary E., Martha A., James H., Henry II., Rosa A., Franklin P., Ethel R., Elvie C., Lydia L. and Weston; Sarah, wife of Edward Shook, of Medina County, has seven children-Henry A., Franklin W., Arthur L., William E., Rosa C., Pearl and Rebecca; and Elizabeth J., wife of Edgar Steele, of Milton Township, has five children-Wilson, Arthur, Mary, William and Floyd. Mr. Lance married again in 1888, his present wife being formerly Mrs. Elizabeth J. Moore. He is a Democrat in his political views, and in religion is a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church.
AMES M. PALMER, M. D., was born in Akron, Ohio, June 5, 1539 son of Samuel and Elisabeth ( En- glish) Palmer. The subject of this memoir was reared in Akron, Ohio, in
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which place he received his early educa- tion in the public schools until 1853, when he moved with his parents to Kent, Ohio, where he attended the Franklin Seminary, pursning the study of Latin and the higher mathematics. In 1857 he graduated from Folsom's Commercial Cellege of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1859 he came to Dalton, Wayne Co., Ohio, and took charge of the union schools, a posi- tion he held for four years, until he re- signed in the latter part of 1863, when he moved to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for a year. In 1864 he was appointed superintendent of the Orville, Ohio, pub- lic schools, in which capacity he served four years. During this time he read medicine with the late Dr. A. C. Miller, and attended his first course of lectures in the medical department of Wooster University, at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1866- 67. Ile then entered the medical depart- ment of the University of the City of New York, from which he graduated in 1869, and immediately located at Dalton, Ohio, where he has since successfully practiced his profession. Dr. Pahner has served for three consecutive terms ( nine years ) on the Dalton Board of Education.
In 1861 he was united in marriage with Mary Elisabeth, daughter of John and Priscilla Wertz, of Dalton, Wayne Coun- ty, and to this union have been born five
children, all of whom are dead except Blanche, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, for two years in attendance at the high school of Steubenville and Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduating from the Dalton High School in the class of 1889. The Doctor and his family are members of the Dalton United Presby- terian Church. He has been a member of the Ebenezer Lodge No. 33, F. & A. M., of Wooster, for more than twenty- five years, and has always been an ardent supporter of the Republican party.
W ILLIAM SCOTT, a son of James and Susan Seott, was born in Franklin Township, Wayne Co., Ohio, in 1837. His grandfather, Matthew Scott, a native of Ireland, came to America with his parents when he was a child of twelve years. The family lo- cated in Lancaster County, Penn .. where they remained some time, and where Mat- thew married. He then removed to Co- Immbiana County, Ohio, where his wife died, leaving him with a young family of five children: William. Robert, James, Elizabeth and Mary, Robert, who is now eighty-six years old, being the only sur- vivor. He afterward came to Salt Creek Township. Wayne County, where he mar-
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ried Lusinda Bovington, and by her had nine children, viz. : Reason, Nancy, Mat- thew (deceased ), Thomas, Henry, John (deceased), Seth, Catherine and Wesley (deceased). James Scott was born in Pennsylvania in 1807, came with his par- ents to Ohio, where he was educated, and married Susan Bechtle. He then located on the old homestead, but removed to Franklin Township, where he remained until 1868, in which year he came to Woos- ter, where he died; his widow has her home now with her son Robert, in Frank- lin Township. Their children were Rob- ert, Elizabeth, Charlotte, William, David (deceased ), James Martin. Of these, Rob- ert is in Franklin Township, Wayne County; Elizabeth is Mrs. James F. Cris- well, of Salt Creek Township, Wayne County; Charlotte is now the widow of William McCormick, of Fredricksburgh, Wayne County ; James Martin is in Frank- lin Township, Wayne County.
William, subject of this biography, was born January 12, 1837, in Franklin Town- ship, on the place now owned by J. M. Seott, and in 1862 married Charity Cutter. They then settled on the old Matthew Scott farm, which William Scott now owns, and here their two children were born, viz. : James C., who is married and lives on the homestead, and Laura Etta, now the wife of Adolph Gabriel, of Salt Creek Township, Wayne County. Mrs. Scott
died March 29, 1869, and in 1872 Mr. Scott married Mary L. Burbridge, and they remained on the old farm until 1888, when he purchased the farm formerly owned by P. Appleman, and which our subject still occupies. Mr. Scott has by his second wife four children: Burton R., Ehner A., Victor H. and Hershel L., all at home. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are mem- bers of the Methodist Church. Politically he is a Democrat.
P ROF. PHILIP C. PALMER. prin- cipal of the Northern Ohio Normal School, at Smithville, Wayne Co., Ohio, was born at Bolivar, Tus- carawas Co., Ohio, November 21, 1851. His father, Jacob Palmer, was a native of Westmoreland County, Penn., born in May, 1828. His mother was Barbara Ann Schue, also a native of Pennsylvania, born in December. 1828. Both were of German ancestry. The father was brought to this State when three years old; was brought up on the farm near Bolivar, Tuscarawas County, lived in that vicinity all of his lifetime, and was always a farmer. He was of a retiring disposition, was a good citizen, and rarely held any public position. He was married in 1849 to Barbara Ann Schne, who had also
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accompanied her parents in their immi- gration to Ohio. He died in Tuscarawas County March 4, 1885. His widow lives at Bolivar, that county, with her twodangh- ters, Sarah M. and Lucy A. The only other member of the family is Philip C.
Philip C. Palmer attended the dis- triet school until he was seventeen years of age, when he engaged in teaching. The following spring he attended Mount Union College, in Stark County, Ohio, teaching the ensuing winter. This rou- tine he followed for several years, attend- ing various academies, finishing his education at Mansfield, Ohio, where he graduated in 1881. Shortly after leaving college he organized the Eastern Ohio Normal School, at Sparta, Stark County, Ohio, which he successfully condneted for three years. Not having such facili- ties as he desired at Sparta, he removed lis school to the fine school building erected some years before by the citizens of Smithville, who subscribed to its stock in order to have a first-class institution in their place. Prof. Palmer had the school incorporated in November, 1885. the fol- lowing being its board of incorporators: President, P. C. Palmer; vice-president, T. A. Krysher; secretary, E. P. Willa- man; treasurer, H. S. Thomas: trustees, P. S. Greenamyer, M. D., J. W. Buchan- an, M. D., John E. Zimmerman, Rev. S. P. Keiffer, H. E. Baker and E. D. Hart-
man, all residents of Smithville, except Mr. Hartman, who lives in Wooster. Since establishing himself here Prof. Palmer has been successful. He conducts an excellent institution, with a complete corps of teachers, and aims to give his pupils an education that will fit them for the practical duties of life. The school is not counceted with any church, society or party, and makes no attempt to further any special interests, relying for success wholly upon the work done by its teach- ers, who devote their entire time to its interests. Its snecess is thus assured, as good work must necessarily be the result. This school, prior to passing under the control of Prof. Palmer, had a somewhat checkered career. Its starting point was in a school established by James B. Tay- lor, now an attorney in Wooster, in Octo- ber, 1861. He opened the school in the Presbyterian church, familiarly known as the old synagogue. This he carried on until August, 1862, when the fires of patriotism burned out cold calculation, and most of the male pupils, and their principal as well, enlisted in the Union army, abandoning the school, and Mr. Taylor became captain of Company HI, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which most of his boys enlisted. The school was shortly after reopened by Prof. J. B. Eberly, who had been a pupil of Mr. Taylor, and who carried it on in the
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same place for some time. Meantime the citizens of Smithville, desiring to have a normal school in the town, subscribed liberally to the stock of a company to build a fine edifice, where a high class school was to be conducted by Prof. Eberly. The present building was the , worthy, Christian gentleman, who has
result, and here Mr. Eberly carried on a school until a few months before Prof. Palmer took it in hand. The school was not a financial success, however, and it became involved in debt, and it passed under the control of the Western Reserve Annual Conference of the United Breth- ren Church, who were to pay its indebt- edness. This they failed to do, and the property was sold for its debts and bought by Mr. E. D. Hartman, of Wooster, its present owner. It is expected that under the efficient management of Prof. Palmer the present era of prosperity will be per- manent.
Prof. Philip C. Pahner was married November 6, 1879, in his native county, to Miss Josie Schidler, born in Stark County, Ohio, Angust 29, 1858. Her parents were Elias and Sarah Aim ( Ebi) Schidler, both now deceased. The former died in 1869, aged thirty-seven, and the latter in 1873, at the age of forty-eight. Prof. Palmer and wife have one child, Ray Emerson, born March 14, 1886. In politics Prof. Palmer, is a member of the Prohibition party, and socially is a mem-
ber of the order of the Knights of Mac- cabees. Since making his home in Smith- ville Prof Palmer has made many friends, and is deservedly popular. His neighbors who know him best speak in terms of high praise of his character as an honest, trust- the esteem of every one who knows him.
E A. BROWN was born six miles east of the city of Wooster, Ohio, May 7, 1827. His parents, who were of German descent, came to Wayne County in 1814, and settled upon a farm. His father married Jane Boyd, who bore him ten children, of whom five still live, none, save our subject, being now in Wayne County. In June, 1867. the mother was called from earth, the father following her to the grave in 1873. He was a man of considerable influence in his township, for fifteen years holding the position of justice of the peace, and was always a strong Democrat. E. A. Brown spent his boyhood years upon the farm, and had the limited school advantages found in the old log school-house of the neighborhood. He resided upon his father's farm until January 18, 1849, when he was united in marriage with Miss Jane Hunter, daughter of David Hunter,
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who lived on a neighboring farm. By this union eight children were born, as follows: Mrs. Esther Ann Wynn, of Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Mary J. Mackey, of Apple Creek; Mrs. Ellen C. Baker, deceased; John H., a clerk in the C. C. C. & I. R. R. freight office, at Cleveland Ohio; David W., in Canton, Ohio; Charles Lee, in Cleveland, Ohio; Laura Bell, who married a Mr. Peppard, and died at Mount Vernon, Ohio; Minnie, youngest daughter, at home. Mr. Brown, after his marriage, became a teacher, and continued in that profession for five win- ters, laboring on the farm in the summer.
In 1856 he was appointed freight and ticket agent at Apple Creek, Wayne Co., Ohio, where he remained for some ten years; then resigned and came to Woos- ter, Ohio, where he has since made his home. He was appointed court consta- ble and bailiff in Wayne County Common Pleas Court, and for four years had charge of the high school building of Wooster, after which he again served as court constable under Sheriff Coulter, and also under Sheriff's Messmore and Mongey. In the spring of 1888 he re- ceived the nomination on the Democratic ticket for county sheriff, and in the fall was elected by 711 majority, the largest majority that was ever given to any sher- iff. Mr. Brown is well known and respected. He is a member of the
Knights of Pythias and Improved Order of Red Men; a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Wooster.
S OLOMON H. JOHNSON was born in that part of Richland County (Vermillion Township) which is now Ashland County, Ohio, April 12, 1529, and is a son of John E. and Sarah ( Har- mon) Johnson, the former a native of New Jersey, the latter of Pennsylvania. Other members of their family are Will- iam E. Johnson, in Canaan Township, Wayne County ; Thomas Henry, in Medina County; John E., in Clay City, Ind., and Abraham, in Gratiot County, Mich. Our subject was reared on the homestead farm, receiving but a limited education, means being slender. He remained at home until the age of eighteen years, when he worked for two years at carpentering. In 1848 he came to Wayne County. Ohio, and for one year found employment as a carpenter. In 1849 he rented a farm for six years, in Milton Township, and then purchased a farm in Medina County, Ohio, which he carried on for eight years; then purchased a farm at Sterling, and in 1876 he moved to his present place in Milton Township, Wayne County. ' In addition to farming Mr. Johnson has followed the
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occupation of an auctioneer for twenty-five years, with an average of fifty-five sales per year. He is popular as an auctioneer in four or five of the surrounding counties.
November 20, 1849, Mr. Johnsou mar- ried Rosana, daughter of John and Sarah Lance, of Milton Township, Wayne County. She died July 12, 1866, leaving eight children: Sarah, wife of Barnhart Bartholomew, of Medina County, Ohio (has three children: Wesley, Irvin and Charles ) ; Polly, wife of C. G. Bessey, of Abilene, Dickinson Co., Kas. (has two children: Fay and Ray) ; John O. (de- ceased) ; Casper, in Milton Township, mar- ried to Emma, daughter of J. H. Ruggles, of Creston, Ohio, who died, and he after- ward married Mamie, danghter of H. P. Fasig, of Medina County, Ohio, and they have two children: Nellie and Carl; Hettie, wife of George Spooner, of Gratiot County, Mich., has one child, an infant; Rosana, Alice Tiola, Solomon J. In 1872 Mr. Johnson married his present wife, Harriet, daughter of John M. and Eliza- beth Smith, of Milton Township, Wayne County, and by her has six children. as follows: Thurman, Corwin, Thomas, David, Belle and Frank. Mr. Johnson is an ardent Democrat in politics, and has always taken an active part in the affairs of his township. He has served as con- stable, supervisor, school director and assessor, and at the present time (1885)
he is one of the township trustees. He is a member of Seville Lodge, No. 74, F. & A. M., and of Seville Council, No. 474, R. A., also of Sterling Lodge, No. 173, K. P. He is a member of the United Brethren Church in Christ at Sterling, Wayne Co., Ohio.
M ARTIN WELKER, retired dis- triet judge of the United States Court, Wooster, Ohio, was born in Knox County, Ohio, April 25, 1819. His father, who was of German descent, was an carly settler in Ohio, and having but little means to educate a large family. his son was obliged to rely upon his own resources. His educational ad- vantages in youth were necessarily limited to a few years' schooling during winters in the log cabin school-house of the West. This primeval educational structure, the antiquated and vanished predecessor of the modern university, is well described by the judge himself in the following par- agraph taken from his speech delivered at the dedication of the Wooster High School, October, 1870:
The scene before me to-day recalls to me days of other years, far back in the history of common schools in our State. I shall never forget the first school in which I entered, and the house in which it was held. On a cold December morning I
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walked through a heavy snow, three miles, to the school-house, on the banks of Owl Creek, in Knox County. I there found a little log cabin, sixteen feet square, with puncheon floor, clapboard door and roof, and greased paper on the windows. The whole end of the house one wide fire-place, with a chimney, made of clay and sticks, built on the out- side, and a blazing log fire in the ample fire-place. The benches or seats were split logs, with the flat side uppermost, with round sticks for legs, on which we sat with our feet dangling above the rude floor. The master, as the leader was then called, bad the only desk, and that was a flat board with four legs, standing in one corner. The writ- ing tables consisted of wide split slabs along one side of the room, supported by pins driven in the logs of the house. In this public building-and it is a fair representative of its day-we were pro- vided a school for three months in the year, the winter season only.
It was under such circumstances, and possessed of such meager facilities of education, that Martin Welker was to re- ceive the mental training requisite to the active public life which lay before him. At an early age he developed a strong inclination for books and the acquisition of knowledge, and his habit of assiduous application soon enabled him to become master of the branches as taught at that time in the schools. At the age of four- teen he abandoned his father's farm, and obtained a situation as clerk in a store in a neighboring village, where he remained four years, in the meantime appropriating much of his leisure time to the investiga- tion of the higher branches of an English education. When a clerk in the store an
event occurred which, no doubt, largely influenced, and to an eminent degree im- parted purpose and determination to his career in life. He was called as a witness before a grand jury at Mount Vernon. He had heard of courts and judges, but this was his first opportunity of witness- ing either. . The Hon. Ezra Dean was they presiding judge, and was a man of commanding appearance and dignified deportment and manner. This single but extraordinary circumstance so wonderful- ly impressed the then plastic mind of the young witness for the first time in court that he then and there resolved to be a lawyer, and, if possible, to be worthy to attain that higher and nobler distinction of judge. This resolution ripened into a firm and settled purpose. His boyhood associates heard his declarations, and many of them lived to see them verified. He never lost sight of his young ambi- tions, and how earnestly, zealously and indefatigably he has labored to accom- plish and vindicate those ambitions his remarkable judicial record most eloquent- ly explains. At the end of eighteen years of hard and unremitted labor, and of many changes of fortune, he was elected judge of the district over the same Judge Dean, who was his competitor, and actual- ly occupied the same chair in the same old court-house at Mount Vernon. This was the position he had declared to an
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associate he would aspire to attain; and, on its attainment, his youthful friend, now an eminent physician, warmly congratu- lated him on the fulfillment of his boyish dreams-a most landable early ambition.
At the age of eighteen, having made considerable progress in a general educa- tion, he entered a lawyer's office at Mill- ersburgh, Holmes County, and commenced the study of the legal profession, in the multitudinous and complex intricacies of which he has acquired a national reputa- tion. While engaged in the study of law he occupied a portion of the time in prob- ing the roots and exploring the beauties of the Latin tongue; nor did he omit carefully to peruse the pages of ancient and modern history, and thus lay deep the foundation for the superstructure of his future eminence. In the literary so- cieties with which he was identified he soon acquired reputation as a cogent rea- soner, an apt and skillful debater, as well as an accomplished and vigorous writer. In the political campaign of 1840 he took a very active part for one so young and inexperienced. The editorial department of the Whig paper published in the town in which he resided received many keen and valuable contributions from his pen. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, and rapidly rose to distinction as a jurist and advocate. Since then we might almost say of him what Phillips
said of Bonaparte, that his path has been "a place of continued elevations." In 1846 he was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas of Holmes County for a term of seven years, serving but five, when he resigned and resumed the practice of law. In 1848 he was nominated by the Whig party as its candidate for Congress in the district then composed of Holmes, Coshocton and Tuscarawas, but the dis- trict was largely Democratic, and he failed of an election. After he had been prac- ticing ten years he was nominated and eleeted judge of the court of common pleas for the Sixth District of Ohio, which then included Wayne County, and served the constitutional term of five years, At the close of this period he was unani- mously renominated, but, on account of much political excitement at the time, growing out of the presidential contest of 1856, himself being a Whig in politics and the district largely Democratic, he failed of re-election, although running largely ahead of his ticket. In the fall of 1857 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Ohio, at the time that S. P. Chase was elected governor. In this position he served one term, but declined a re- election.
At the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he was appointed aid-de-camp to Gov. Dennison, and assigned to the duties of judge advocate-general of the
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State. He acted as such, and was the confidential assistant of the governor, generally, until the expiration of his term of office. His business qualifications in this position contributed valuable service in calling out and organizing the Ohio troops. He was afterward appointed a major on the staff of Gen. J. D. Cox, after- ward governor of Ohio and secretary of the interior, and served out the term for which the first soldiers were enlisted. In 1862 he was appointed by Gov. Tod as- sistant adjutant-general of the State of Ohio and State superintendent of the draft for that year. While in discharge of that duty he was nominated for Con- gress by the Republican party, but was defeated (as were many others in that dis- astrous campaign) by a majority of only thirty-six. In 1864 he was nominated again, and was elected by a large majority to the XXXIXth Congress, from the Four- teenth Ohio District, then composed of the counties of Holmes, Ashland, Wayne, Medina and Lorain. In 1866 he was re- elected to the XLth Congress, serving on the joint committee on retrenchment and on the committee for the District of Co- lumbia. In 1868 he was again elected, to the XLIst Congress, where he served as chairman of the committee on retrench- ment of the House, on the committee of the District of Columbia and the commit- tee on private land claims, of which Jatter
he was acting chairman during the last session of that Congress. In the summer of 1869 the congressional retrenchment committee crossed the continent to Cali- fornia with a view of visiting and investi- gating the custom house of San Francisco. Mr. Welker was chairman of the House committee, and Patterson, of New Hamp- shire, chairman of the Senate committee. While on the Pacific coast they were most hospitably entertained, and were the re- cipients of much attention and many fa- vors by the citizens. They visited the Geysers, Yosemite and the Cliff House, groves of big trees, crossed the beautiful bay, and were saluted by cannon from Alcatraz. In connection with his duties on retrenchment committees he made himself familiar with the working machin- ery of the Government. This committee had charge of the organization of the at- torney-general's office, and made it the department of justice. During his serv- iee in Congress he made one of the first speeches on reconstruction, and several other speeches on finance, agricultural department, impeachment of the Presi- dent and several eulogies on the deaths of members, besides often engaged in gen- eral discussions. In November. 1878, he was appointed, by President Grant, district judge of the United States for the Northern District of the State of Ohio, vice Hon. Charles Sherman, resigned, and
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was immediately confirmed by the Senate. This is a life appointment, and is the key- stone in the handsome and enviable arch which crowns the reputation of Mr. Welker. He brought to the discharge of its duties the matnrer products of a life of toil, the solid experiences of professional manhood, an enlightened and discriminat- ing mind in the highest state of culture, a sound judgment, and a keen and lucid comprehension of the law. The office honored him no more than he has honored it. On his application he was retired, June 1, 1889, under the laws of the Unit- ed States, which provide for the retire- ment of United States judges, he having served sixteen years and arrived at the age of seventy years.
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