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 31
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I PLY, O FATHER, TO THY BREAST.
I fly, O Father, to Thy breast, In these dark hours to Thee I turn; I feel in Thee alone is rest, In Thee the peace for which I yearn.
These wintry hours are dense with glooms, They press and pierce my sorrowing heart: I sigh for joys, unfading blooms, I can not find from Thee apart.
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I eloy amidst these festive throngs. This whirling trance of life and things, This sound of feet, these scenes and songs, The viol and its vibrant strings.
This is the winter of the lands, Ah, me! the winter of my soul; I feel, yet not with conscious hands, Within my heart its wild control.
I gaze upon its prostrate snows. Now sullied by the wordling's feet, Its birdless trees in bare repose, Its dead parterres so summer-sweet.
I sadden in these aisles of palms, A blest retreat for nymphs and fawns; I walk possessed of stolid calms, Amid these mute and sleeping lawns.
I see thy hand, O Father, here, I feel the ruin of Thy breath; But then, to Thee. Thy flowers are dear- Thy greatest blessing is in death.
Again Thon'lt come in tenderer mood. And all this sere world. dead and dumb, Will rise and shout from lawn to wood. For, with a loving smile Thou'lt come.
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Then at thy shrine again I'll kneel. As I have prayed before and knelt; Then voice my worship in Thine ear, And know Thy pleasure here is felt.
verdant prose dabsters and half-feathered songsters. He has written articles accept- able to such magazines as the " Galaxy," in the day of its prosperity. He was a regular correspondent for years of " Leis- ure Hours," and before the consolidation, a frequent correspondent of the Cincin- nati Commercial and Gazette, which latter published, during the concluding days of the war, his letters advocating manhood suffrage, which were widely copied and extensively circulated. In politics Mr. Donglass is a Republican, but the writer knows him to be a conservative one. He has always been active in local campaigns, and was a candidate of his party for county auditor in 1864, but, with the bal- ance of the county ticket, was defeated at the election, the county then being strong- ly Democratic. While at Washington, that whirlpool of vices and vanities, he be- came thoroughly disgusted with politics and politicians, believing that one party can manage the affairs of Government
In 1882 he was appointed to a position in the Government service, in the post- { about as well as the other, as both are master-general's office, and was there three equally honest and patriotic. years. While in Washington City he Mr. Douglass is a fine specimen of manhood, six feet three inches high, and weighs over two hundred pounds. lle is a scholarly, entertaining gentleman, a true friend and congenial companion, and the writer of this sketch will be greatly pleased if it is preserved in the annals of the county. published in the Daily Star a history of the colonial postal service, and wrote many interesting letters, which were published in the Wooster Republican and other papers. His first contributions of literary pretensions were to the " Wa- verly Magazine" a sort of a type-trap for
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D AVID JAMES is a son of George and Ann (Sealy ) James, natives of England, who immigrated to America in 1832, and located in Franklin Township, Wayne Co., Ohio, on the farm now owned by their son David. They purchased 100 acres of land for $700, there being at the time but two houses between them and the town of Wooster. George James and his family were mem- bers of the Episcopal Church of Wooster. He died in 1859; his widow in 1870; politically he was a Whig. Their family consisted of four children, viz .: William Alfred, who died at the age of twenty- three years; John S., in Franklin Town- ship, Wayne County; Amelia, widow of J. C. James, in Wooster, Ohio, and David, who was born in England, October 7, 1826, and emme to Wayne County with his parents. He was apprenticed to the blacksmithi's trade, but never followed it as an occupation, and has always lived on the homestead in Franklin Township, making great improvements in the build- ings, ete., and now owns over 250 acres of land.
In 1858 he married Miss Ellen, daugh- ter of Thomas and Dorothy Gilmore, of Hohes County, and seventeen children have been born to them, as follows: a son, who died at the age of seventeen years; a daughter, who died at the age of five years; one that died in infancy, and the
following named yet living: Thomas A. and Dorothy Ann, at home; William Alfred, in Franklin Township, Wayne Connty, married to Minnie F., daughter of Hugh and Sarah Morgan, of Franklin Township (they have one child, Hugh C.); Jesse Gilmore, at home; Mary Nellie, now Mrs. Frank E. Langell, of Wooster, Ohio (they have two children, Mark B. and James M.) ; Martha Nettie, at home; Wesley David, in Illinois, and John Charles, George Walter, Frederick H., Frances Asbury, Amelia, Sealy and Anna Hortense, all at home. Mr. James and family are members of Moorland Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a trustee and elass-leader; politically he is a Republican.
J W. BRINKERHOFF, M. D., the youngest son of John Brinkerhoff, of Wooster, was born in Wooster, February 16, 1852. He received his classical education at the high school of Wooster, and immediately entered the . office of Dr. L. Firestone, where he read medicine, and in 1573 he graduated from the medical department of Wooster Uni- versity at Cleveland. He first began the practice of medicine in Missouri, but re- mained there only six months, when he returned to Wayne County, locating at
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Burbank, where he now enjoys an exten- . sive practice. He is also teacher of phys- iology in the public school of that place. He is a member of the borough council; a member of the Northeastern Ohio and Wayne County Medical Societies.
In November, 1874, Dr. Brinkerhoff became united in marriage with Miss Ella M., daughter of James C. Hemler, of Lieking County, Ohio. Both Dr. and Mrs. Brinkerhoff are prominent members of Burbank Methodist Episcopal Church; politically he is a Republican.
D ANIEL T. HOFFMAN has been a resident of Wayne Township since 1853, and has by his long resi- dence become one of the well-known citi- zens. He has devoted his attention to agriculture, and now has a good farm of 100 acres, all under cultivation, with good improvements, thus making it one of the pleasantest homes in the county. He was married, in 1846, to Miss Anna Mary, daughter of Samuel Groff, and to them were born three children, two of whom are living: Sybilla, wife of William Switzer, and Mary Ann, wife of Jacob Switzer. Mrs. Hoffman dying, Mr. Hoff- man afterward married Miss Matilda, daughter of Joseph Grosh, and by her had eight children: Joseph, Daniel, Mar- , estimable couple had twelve children
tin, Jacob, Benjamin, Lawrence, Laura and Clara. Of these, Joseph died when nine months old, and Laura when two years old: Daniel is married to Miss Anna Groop; Martin is married to Miss Lola Herington. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman are members of the Church of God.
Mr. Hoffman's father was Jacob Hoff - man, whose father, a native of Europe, came to this country when single, and was married to Miss Shriner, a native of Pennsylvania. Their union was blessed with six children-three sons and three daughters-Jacob being the youngest in the family. He was born in Manor Town- ship, Lancaster Co., Penn., January 16, 1792, and December 16, 1816, was mar- ried to Magdalena Thomas, a native of the same township, born December 13, 1791. They had a family of twelve chil- dren. Father Hoffman came to Wayne County in the year 1850, purchased a farm of 200 acres in East Union Town- ship, and afterward moved to Wayne Township, where his wife died in the eighty-fourth year of her age. She was converted when sixteen years old, and was a faithful servant of the Lord until her death. Father Hoffman died August S, 1884, aged ninety-two years, six months and twenty-two days. He was converted when about forty years of age, and lived a Christian life until his death. This
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(seven of whom are living), forty-three grandchildren (thirty-three living) and thirty-one great-grandchildren. on the farm which is now his home. He has been a successful farmer, making practical use of the lessons taught him in early life. He is a representative citizen of Plain Township, a public-spirited and progressive man, and is respected by all who W ILLIAM ROUCH, a prominent farmer of Plain Township, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1820. His father, William Rouch, was a native of Maryland, of Dutch ancestry, and was a soldier in the War of 1812. He married Miss Mary Stair, and to them i know him. He was married in 1855 to Susan, daughter of Jacob Bower, of Plain Township, Wayne Co., Ohio, and they have a family of five children, viz. : Tread- well S., William P., Sarah Agnes (now Mrs. Rouch ), Lydia A. (now Mrs. Mul- linger), and Mary, at home. In politics were born nine children, six of whom are ; Mr. Rouch is a Democrat. Mrs. Rouch living, viz .: John, Polly, Naney Eliza- is a member of the Entheran Church. beth, Susan Rebecca, Lydia Sarah and William. At an early day William Rouch, Sr., with his wife and three children, moved to Columbiana County, Ohio, where he bought 160 acres of land, on which he lived several years, and in 1815 came to Wayne County and entered 160 acres of land, a part of which is now the home of his son William. At the time of his death he owned 320 acres of valuable land. He in early life learned the mason's trade, but gave his attention wholly to agricull- ural pursuits during the last years of his life. He died at the age of eighty-three years and three months, his wife having preceded him, at the age of seventy-four years.
The subject of our sketch was reared in his native township, and has always lived
LYSSES CHATELAIN was born in Canton Bern, Switzerland, April 7, 1828, and immigrated to Amer- ica in 1848. Hle first engaged in mannal labor in Hoboken, N. Y., remaining there For eleven months. He then spent three months in Cleveland, Ohio: thenee moved to Wayne County, where he worked near Maysville and Fredericksburgh, for abont one year. January 1, 1851. he married Miss Lena, daughter of Lewis Dodez, of Paint Township, Wayne County, and fol- lowed farming near Mount Eaton, remain- ing there until 1856, when they purchased their present farm. Although Mr. Chat- elain came to this country without capital
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except his hands, he has, by industry and perseverance, made himself and is to-day one of the wealthiest and most prosperous farmers in Paint Township, owning be- tween 400 and 500 acres of land. His family consists of nine children, viz. : Celia E. is the wife of J. B. Finney, of Holmes County, Ohio, and has four chil- dren: D. Alvin, Lanra, Lena and Ward; Lewis A., at home; Emma, wife of Ran- dolph Rosenberg, of Paint Township, has
four children: Ida L., Orie D., Clyde and an infant; Lucy, wife of Israel Stuck, of Stark County, Ohio, has two children: Beatrice and Raymond Wilbur; Laura, Julia, Rebecca, Ida and William. In con- nection with general farming Mr. Chat- elain does considerable in stock breeding. He has held the office of president in the French Reformed Church for many years; he is a member of Massillon Lodge, No. 346, F. & A. M. : politically a Democrat.
EANDER FIRESTONE, M. D., LL. D. (deceased). The following sketch is from the pen of Ben. Douglass, of Wooster.
Man's sociality of nature evinces itself in spite of all that can be said with abundant evidence, by this one fact, were there no other: The unspeak- able delight he takes in biography .- Carlyle.
Lord Bacon expressed his regret that the lives of eminent men were not more frequently written; and added that, "though kings, princes and great personages be few, vet there are many excellent men who deserve better than vague reports and barren elegies."
The history of the world is principally the record of conspicuous names and the biogra- phy of illustrious characters. The history of Rome is little more than the biography of inthe men who were conformation, and ull enclosed within the walls of the Eterual City. No marvel that the proud metropolis that can boast of anlins Casar, Pompey, Brutus, Cato, Attiens, Livy, Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Hortensius, Angustus and Marcus Varro, should aspire to the proud title of
mistress of the world, and vannt herself secure from all mortal wounds, save only those that might be inflicted in an evil honr by parricidal hands.
Mankind delights to register the acts and syllables of men who risk investments in the thought exchanges of the world. The stand- ard of civilization and the advancement of human progress has been made and deter- mined by the augmentation in the proportion of those who achieve intellectual triumphs, and by a corresponding decrease in the ratio of those who are consecrated to pleasurable pursuits, and nogleet the higher moral and mental development and discipline. The principle of leadership is acknowledged and universal. It commands our respect and von- eration. Among the North American Indians each tril has it's oracular leader, who sim. mona to the cup five the dusky faces, and regalos them with chapters from the nnwrit. ten bible of savagery.
When King Harold went westward, fol- lowed by the chosen men of Norway, to con- quer France and England, though his men were distinguished for wisdom and courage
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as a body, yet they recognized and rewarded the leadership of those most prominent in energy and valor. The true Briton of to-day venerates the names of Hengst and Horsa, his Saxon prototypes, for the inspiration and memory of their horsemanship is ever present at the boiling heats of Ascot and Newmarket. Through the grim galleries of the centuries, the Deity has spoken through his own chosen interpreters. It is the few indeed, who are genins-anointed. The lines of history from the first records of Grecian story to the moment when Elsinore heard the war moan along the distant sea, and, further on to later combats amidst hieroglyphic obelisks and near the shadow of the Sphynx, vividly expose the records of grand men who clenched oppor- tunity and forced her to decree and command their triumph. In the progress of events marching on with power and grandeur, we discover the hand of Phidias among the features of the gods; the trowel of the Egyp- tians; the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; the swords of Caesar and Alexander: the ora- tious of Cicero, Bnrke aud Webster; the speculations of Newtou, Coperniens and Kaut; the metaphysical wisdom of Bacon and Locke; the prowess of Charlemagne, Murat and Sheridan; the achievements of Sir William Hunter and Sir Astley Cooper; the legal pro- fundity of Blackstone, Erskine and Story: the religions zeal of Baxter, Hooker and Bossuet; the military skill of Wellington, Von Moltke and Grant; the statesmanship and martial grandeur of Washington; the astuto and overmastering sagacity and judg- ment of Lincoln; the romantic intrepidity of Columbus and Hudson; the grand pootie out .. bursts of Sophocles, Homer, Shakespeare, Milton and Longfellow. Their lives, their thoughts and deeds have imparted stability, character, example and inspiration to human. ity and civilization, and, in their individual
histories, in their recorded work and the thoughts they have furnished, can almost be found the material for a history of the race.
Wherefore, it may properly and naturally be affirmed, that history may be contemplated as but the biography of a few earnest, toiling, self-reliant men.
It has been said that the hardy growths of nature are those which battle the storms; the fiercer the conflict the more robust becomes the trunk, and the deeper down do the roots descend. Mau is but a segment of nature. The successful one is not he who dreams or toys with images, but he who acts, and when we see a man who has hewn his way through difficulties . and endured the storms of life from childhood, he is the strong man, the man of will and genins. Such was the sub- jeet of this memoir.
DR. FIRESTONE was born in Salt Creek Township, Wayne Co., Ohio. April 11, 1819. His father, Daniel F. Firestone, removed from Beaver County, Penn., to Wayne County, in 1815. With him ho remained until he was fourteen years old, performing such work as he could on the farm in the summer, and attending the country school in the winter. He then entered the academy at Salem, Colombiana County, and under the tntorship of Mr. Mills aud Mr. Kingsbury, received prelibations of that education which he had an ambition to acquire, but which was beyond his power to then attain. He thence went to Portage County, Ohio, where he contracted with a farmer for three months to chop cord wood, at three shillings por cord. His stout aris folled the forest monarchs, uolwithstanding the lines of Morris:
Woodman, spare that tree, Touch not a single bongh.
Who knows but his youthful, imaginative and poetic mind, as he looked upon the prostrate
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onk, did not dwell on masts of navies in its ribs; of storms; of battles on the ocean; of the noble lyrics of the sea: of Robin Hood and his merry men; of old baronial halls with mellow light streaming through diamond- shaped panes upon floors of oak, and wain- scotings of carven oak? I doubt not that his boyish fancy saw all this.
At the age of sixteen be returned to Wayne County. going to Chester Township, where. with his unele, John Firestone, a few miles north of New Pittsburgh, for two years, he made his home. He was penniless, but eager and earnest. The history of these two years could be given in a line -" The short and simple annals of the poor." Thrust apon his own resources, he became the archi- teet of his own fortune. Ho toiled in the fields during the day, and after the drudgery of it was over, he devoted himself to his books by the light of the fire of kindlings carefully prepared as a substitute for lamp or candle. With him it had to be nothing, or, self-schooling, always the fhm, sure sub- stratum upon which the successful student, whether at home or school, or at the miver- sity, must ereet his superstructure, In what- over he engaged, whether in contact with the products of the soil, or the resistance of the forest, or in the path of mental improvement, he was distinguished for unqnailing diligence and energy. Under such circumstances and surroundings he laid the basis of his educa- tion and life, and that a man who can thus edneato himself, possesses intellectual morale, no one, however captions, will deny.
During the winters of these two years spont with his uncle, he taught school, his first term being in the region now known as Perry Township, then in Wayne, but now in Ashland County. For his services he re- ceived $12 per month. He was now equipped for teaching, was a good grammarian and
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mathematician, everding, in fact, the sale of ard of the average English schola. Bythe reading of standard authors, such as Tacitas and Plutarch, Home and Gibbon. Shake. speare and Milton, Dr. Johnson and Field. ing, etc., which he had borrowed, he wa- in- troduced to the best style and thought of these brilliant writers, and in early life acquired a degree of familiarity with their language, and found sincere pleasure in the companionship of their reflections. Mean- time, he had not circumscribed the area of his studies to such as merely equipped him for the service of the teacher. His range of penetration and vision was lifted to wider and higher skies. He had been making periodical recitations to Rev. Thomas Beer, ascholarly Presbyterian minister of Ashland, familiarizing himself with botany. geology, philosophy, chemistry, and natural science in other departments. His inquiring mind impelled him to make researches in germs and plant-life, and its organic and inorganic . nature, and into flowers, their organs and food, and the physiology of the vegetable world; to explore Old Red Sandstone and the Cosmos; to sit with Plato in the academy, or Seneca at the Symposimm of death; io wander with Silliman and Berzelins amid reactions and relations, the composition of substances and the mysterious laws of com- bination.
At the age of nineteen, August 26. 1838, he was married to Miss Susan Firestone, a lady of dignified and affable manner mich esteemed by hor acquaintances as a wife, mother, friend and Christian. The intimacy which resulted in this nion was formed in early life, and his ardent attachment to his wife was evinced on all occasions to the period of his death. By this marriage eight children were born, five boys and three girls, all of whom are dead, except W. W. Fire.
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stone, M. D., who inherits many of the strong traits of his father, and under whose intorage he studied his profession and its collateral sciences.
At the age of twenty, Dr. Leander Fire- stone began the study of medicine with Dr. S. F. Day, a noted practitioner and eminent surgeon, under whose care and instruction he continued for three years, when he attended a course of lectures at. Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. When he received his diploma, unlike many students who re- linguish or abridge their reading and hours of study upon gradnation, he realized that he was but
An infant struggling on its mother's lap,
and that he was just in the first stages of discipline which would ultimately enable him to grapple with the broad and almost illimi. tablo field of medical and surgical literature. His passion for these investigations was manifested in his writhings in the grip of his first clonch with lito, and continued until time had faintly blurred into gray back- ground the splendid picture of his former years. His steadfast assidnity and zeal in his professional work gave him the applause of co-laborers and brothers, and won him load- ership where to win it was to be erowoed; won him believers and imitators, where to be hi- tated and to be recognized as an example, was to have attained to the eminence of human ity's benefactor.
But the thne had come when he innst lift his shield and bare his arm to "the sad, stern ministry of pain," and on March 28, 1811, he opened an office in the village of Congress, where he continued for thirteen years, acquiring a wide and remunerative practice, and a degree of popularity and eminence not confined to his visiting cirenit. During this time, and expanding the horizon
of his aims, he graduated from the Medical Department of the Western Reserve College, then located at Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1817 was summoned to that institution as demon- strator of anatomy, which position he held until 1853. Here he achieved new honor and distinction, and bore the reputation of being one of the most popular, fluent and instruet- ive lecturers in the colleges. In the same year he was appointed first superintendent of Northern Ohio Asylum for the Insane, at Newburgh, now a part of the city of Clove- land.
In 1859, being vice-president of the Ohio Medical Convention, then in session in Co- Irunbus, Obio, in the absence of the president he provided, appointing all the committees, and otherwise controlling its deliberations. Inne 7, of the same year, he was elected president of the convention, and " in remarks accepting the office tendered him, thanked the society in a brief but manly speech, and urged the members to consider carefully and . earnestly the importance of the work before them.
June 13, 1860, he delivered his valedictory address to the Convention. In 1861 he was promoted to the professorship of obstetrics . and diseases of women in Charity Hospital Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio. In IS6S he was elected to the chair of surgery. In ISTO the college at Cleveland was made the medical department of Wooster University. where he continued as professor of obstetries and the medical and surgical diseases of women, and class lecturer ou anatomy, physiology and hygiene, to the students at Wooster University.
June 21. 1871. the title of LT. D. was con. ferred upon him, at Athens, by the University of Ohio. Gov. William Allen appointed him. February 1, 1876, one of the trustees "From the Medical Report.
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for three years, of the Northern Ohio Hos- pital for the Insane. In 1878, Gov. Bishop designated him as superintendent of the In- stitution for the Insane at Columbus, Ohio, and during his administration of the office, he established a reputation in the public benevolent circles of the States, as being one of the successful and efficient professional and executive superintendents, of which any State might be consistently jealous.
In private life he was characterized by great benevolence of character. Other re- markable traits were his disinterestedness, his regard for the rights and enjoyments of others, his generous disposition, his gentle and forbearing temper, his plain, easy and unostentatious manner. He was an answerv- ing friend and a delightful companion. In social circles he charmed with the grace and full, rich naturalness of his expression. "Con- versation to him was the music of the mind, an intellectual orchestra, where all the in- struments should have a part, but where none should play together." He was possessed of warm and wide and ardent sympathies, and his genial nature unconsciously called for sympathy; yet, he was heroic and inde- pendent, and bore the occasional uneven fric- tions of circumstance with placid equanimity and stately strength. He had the ability to sustain the mind's tone nuder adverse en- virouments and preserve it sensitive to work, study, meditation, nature and to God. In the relation of father and son, of husband, brother and friend, he always displayed the highest excellencies of feeling and character. Expanding onr view to the comprehensive circle of his personal friends, rarely did any man win a stronger hold upou the confidence of those with whom he was associated. Ho has with equal propriety mingled in the free and open exchanges of private life, and sus- tained the dignity and honor of official station.
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