USA > Ohio > Wood County > Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 2 > Part 4
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In all his arduous efforts our subject has been ably seconded by his wife, who was formerly Miss
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Sarah E. Bishop, a native of Hancock county, born January 27, 1856. They were married May 30, 1872, and have two children: Eva B., born January 13, 1874, who is a student in Otterbein (Ind.) University, and John D., born October II, 1878, who is at home, and is now attending the high school. Our subject is independent in pol- itics. Fraternally he is a member of the I. O. O. F. Lodge at Bowling Green.
EDWARD BEVERSTOCK, the junior member of the well-known law firm of James & Beverstock, Bowling Green, was born in Tontogany May S, 1862. As one of the brightest of Wood county's sons, the people of this locality look upon his success in his chosen profession with pride, and regard his future as assured. Reared upon a farm, his educational. advantages were limited to an attendance at the neighboring district school until January, 1883, when he entered Oberlin College, where he completed the classical course and graduated in 1889, with the degree of A. B. Having determined to enter the legal profession, he took the course offered by the Cincinnati Law School, defraying his expenses while there by acting as librarian of the School and secretary of the Faculty. The degree of LL. B. was con- ferred upon him May 27, 1891, and he was ad- mitted to the bar a few days later.
In August of the same year Mr. Beverstock entered the office of Hon. Benjamin F. James, and in November they formed a partnership which still continues, with an office also at Toledo, Ohio. This firm has become better known, and acquired a larger practice, than any other has done in an equally short time in this county. Mr. Beverstock is a close student and is remarkable for his well-balanced abilities. With a clear insight into legal principles, and the power of ready application, he possesses also a high order of practical talent. In politics as well as in legal affairs his advice is valued, and he was chairman of the Wood County Republican Cen- tral Committee for the year 1894.
Mr. Beverstock was married July 7, 1891, to Miss Elizabeth Ferguson, who was born in Oak- land county, Mich., February 1, 1866. They have two daughters, Mary V. and Helena I. Mr. Beverstock and his wife are prominent mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church.
A. M. RUSSELL, the deputy auditor of Wood connty, and a prominent resident of Bowling Green, is an official whose worth has been proven in various positions of public trust. He comes of sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestry, and pos-
sesses many of the admirable traits of character which distinguished that race.
His father, James W. Russell, was born in Washington county, Penn., in 1784, and came to the Western Reserve in early life, locating upon a farm in what is now Mahoning (then a part of Trumbull) county, where he married Miss Jane A. Wolfcale, a native of Virginia, born near Harper's Ferry, in 1792. She died in 1847; her husband lived at his old farm to an advanced age, and died in 1870 at the home of a son in Paulding county. They reared a family of ten children, as follows: Nancy, born in IS!2, mar- ried John Cushman, and lives in Michigan; John, born in 1814, died in Wood county in 1884; Robert, born in 1816, died in Bowling Green in 1860; Caroline, born in 1818, married Davis Randolph, and lives in Mahoning county; James M., born in IS21, died in Paulding county, in September, 1879; Jonathan W., born in 1824, died in Trumbull county in 18,5; Betsey, born in 1826, married John Williams, of Trumbull county; Abraham W., born in 1829, lives at Ithaca, Mich .; Martha Jane, born in 1832, is the widow of John Moore of Mahoning county; and our subject, the youngest.
A. M. Russell was born March 7, 1835, and remained at home until the age of fifteen. He attended Antioch and Oberlin Colleges for some time, and later engaged in teaching and clerking in a dry-goods store. On the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted at the first call to arms, and went to the front as first lieutenant of Com- pany G. 14th O. V. I. At the end of his three- months' term of service he returned home, and being injured on the way, at Columbus, did not re-enlist until 1863, when he went as a private in Company C, 68th O. V. I., and served until the end of the war, receiving by well-earned promo- tion the rank of sergeant-major. His regiment was attached to the army of the West, and took part in the battles at Atlanta and Bentonville, besides niany other lighter engagements. After being mustered out, July 10, 1866, he came to Bowling Green as deputy treasurer, and later clerked in a hardware store at Perrysburg until his appointment as county treasurer in Septem- ber, 1868, to serve out an unexpired term. So well did he perform the duties of the office that he was elected on the Republican ticket for the succeeding term, serving until 1871. For the next four years lie was in the drug business at Perrysburg, but sold out in 18;5, and a year later began clerking in different offices in the county court house. In i879 he was again elected county treasurer, and since his terin ex-
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WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
pired, in 1881, he has served as deputy auditor under three administrations.
Mr. Russell has been twice married, first time in 1861, to Miss Rachel A. Carey of Pauld- ing county, who died in less than a year after- ward. His second wife was Miss Alta Sullivan, who was born in Defiance county, July 7, 1843. They have two children living: (1) Charles H., born June 21, 1867, is a druggist's clerk at Bowl- ing Green (he is married to Miss Charlotte Mor- rison), (2) Maude, born September 23, 1875, a young lady of fine social gifts, lives at home. Mr. Russell is a member of the G. A. R., and of the Masonic fraternity.
HON. ELIJAH P. EMERSON, of Bloomdale, is one of the representative citizens of Wood coun- ty, a business man and farmer, having won a dis- tinguished success in every line of effort which he has entered. He is a self-made man, who as a boy walked into Ohio, accompanying the slowly-moving wagons which conveyed his par- ents and their household goods to their new home on the frontier.
Mr. Emerson was born January 23, 1834, in Berkeley county, Va. (now W. Va.), which had been for many years the home of his father's family. His grandfather Emerson was a slave- holder, but his father, Noble Emerson, being opposed to this, in early manhood determined to seek a home in a free State. He had been em- ployed in boyhood as a boatman on the Poto- mac, and as a steersinan on the Chesapeake & Ohio canal, but later he learned the cooper's trade, which he followed throughout life. He married Miss Mary Keesecker, and had ten chil- dren, of whom three were born in Ohio. In 1833 the family removed to Beaver county, Penn., and in May, 1848, they came to Mexico, Wyandot Co., Ohio, traveling in a small two- horse wagon, our subject with others walking most of the way, a tedious journey for even a healthy lad of fourteen. One day his feet became sore, and mounting one of the horses he rode for a few miles; becoming weary, he fell asleep, tumbled off the horse without waking up, and narrowly escaped being run over. The father had but limited means, and on reaching Mexico found employment at his trade, later buying the shop, the trade in potash and in pork barrels furnishing him a good business. In 1859 he moved to Sycamore, where our subject's mother died December 7, 1862. The father survived her thirty years, dying September 10, 1892, at the age of eighty-three, and their remains now rest in the cemetery at Sycamore. Two years after
his wife's death he moved to Pike county, Mo., and bouglit a farm, which he sold later. He worked at his trade for some time, and in 1871 carne to Eagleville to live in the home of our sub- ject. He was a man of industrious habits, was over six feet two inches tall, and was spare in flesh. While he was no politician he took an intelligent interest in all the questions of his time and was a regular voter, being a Whig in his early years and later a Republican.
Our subject is one of six surviving children of the following family: Samuel B. died in Ohio, a wealthy man, after many years spent in the practice of medicine at Eagleville; Elijah P. comes next; John M. enlisted in Company G, 123d O. V. I., and it is believed is one of the many who perished in Andersonville prison; Rachel A. died in Virginia; William W. lives in Bloomdale; Enoch died in Virginia; Mary J. is the wife of Rufus W. Lundy, a hardware mer- chant of Myrtle Point, Ore .; Milton L. is a pros- perous resident of Sycamore. Ohio, a blacksmith by occupation; Frank N. lives in San Francisco; Rufus A. is a merchant at Bloomdale.
Elijah P. Emerson attended the subscription schools of his time until he was fourteen years old, and after coming to Ohio availed himself of the privileges afforded by the district schools. Later he studied for three terms at Heidelberg College, Tiffin, and one term in the Seneca County Academy. At the age of twenty he began teaching, and was very successful; he taught thirteen terms in Wyandot and Seneca counties, and spent his vacations making shin- gles, owning a complete outfit, shaving-horse, drawknife, froe and brake. He received twenty- five cents per hundred when the timber was pre- pared, and $3.75 per thousand when the wood was taken from the stump, white and red oak being used principally. In March, 1865, he went to Pike county, Mo., and taught there for a short time. On April 17. 1866, he was married at Crawfordsville, Ohio, to Miss Catherine Sinalley, and they began housekeeping at Eagleville, where Mr. Emerson previously fitted up a home. His brother, Dr. Einerson, who was then practicing there, had pointed out an opening for a mercan- tile business, and, as our subject had several hundred dollars saved, he made the venture. The cost of goods was high after the war, and his stock was small, but trade increased year by year, bringing liim prosperity.
In 1874, when Bloomdale was only a cross- road, he built a store there, which was conducted by his brother R. A., and in April, 1877, he sold it to him and another brother. In the spring of
ER Emerson
Emerson Rate
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WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
18;8 he sold his Eagleville store. In 1882 he opened a dry-goods store in Bloomdale, but sold it after a few months; in 1889 he bought a hard- ware store in Bloomdale for a son, but subse- quently sold it. He has been engaged in farm- ag since 1876. He was then the owner of eighty arres in Bloom township, but had not given much Attention to it, and one day, at a sale of the " French farm" of 232 acres, he made a bid merely to enliven the proceedings, and the farm was " knocked down" to him. The business was new to Mr. Emerson, but that could be said of all his other enterprises, and, despite the predic- tons that his uniform good fortune would desert him if he tried farming, he ventured, and suc- reeded. He now owns 352 acres in Bloom town- ship, and fifty-eight and one-half acres in Hancock county, which he works in a thoroughly syste -. matic and progressive manner.
Politically Mr. Emerson has been identified with the Republican party nearly all his life. He cast his first Presidential vote for John C. Fremont, and continued to vote regularly with that party until 1890, when, feeling fully con- vinced that nothing would be done by the Re- publican party to seriously interfere with the whiskey traffic, he began to enter his protest to the manufacture and sale of intoxicants by vot- ing with the only party that makes public declaration of its intention, if clothed with power, to close the saloon by stopping the manu- facture and removing the national sanction of partnership in the business, viz .: the Prohibition party. He has never aspired to office, but has been chosen to different positions. At one time he was clerk of Bloom township, declining a. second terin; from January 1, 1867, to 1875, he was postmaster at Bloom (now Ted), and when the office was transferred to Bloomdale he be- came the first postmaster there, serving until 1877. In 1883 he was elected to the Legislature as Wood county's representative, and filled the place four years.
He served four months in the Civil war, en- listing April 22, 1861, in Company G, 15th O. V. I., with Capt. Tyler, in the 100-days' service, being sent to West Virginia. On his return home he prepared to go again, helped to raise a company for the 123rd Regiment, and was one of the three men whose activity in recuiting was to be rewarded by positions of honor in the com- pany. Mr. Einerson was elected by the men to the office of second lieutenant, but through some manipulation of the County Central Com- mittee he was not appointed.
A prominent feature of Mr. Emerson's
charming home is his library, filled with well- selected books which he finds pleasure in perus- ing. He and his wife are leading members of the Church of Christ, in which he has been an elder, and for many years he was superintend- ent of the Sunday-school. He contributes also to the support of other Churches in the locality. Their nine children were as follows: John J. died in infancy; Scott S. is a farmer in Bloom township; Olive L. married Benton Leathers, of Bloom township; Horace W. is at home; Dow P. died in infancy; Howard H. is at home; Elijah P., Jr., died in childhood; Lola E. and Florence E. are at home. Socially, Mr. Emerson was for some years a member of the I. O. O. F., but on moving to a distance from a lodge he "dropped out," and for the same rea- son he has withdrawn from active membership in Urie Post No. 11O, G. A. R., of Bloonidale.
Mrs. Kate (Smalley) Emerson was born Au- gust 20, 1844, near Rowsburg, Ashland Co., Ohio. She was the sixth child born to Isaac and Elizabeth (Smith) Smalley, whose family was subsequently augmented to the number of seventeen-eleven sons and six daughters-of which number but seven grew to manhood and womanhood. At the age of nine years Mrs. Emerson was brought by her parents to Wyandot county, Ohio, and settled on a farm adjoining the village of Crawfordsville, near the site of the memorable spot where Col. Crawford was burned by the Indians. Her father was classed among the progressive farmers of his day. He was strongly imbued with the belief that a well-raised child-one to whom the parents had faithfully dis- charged their duty-should be sent out to combat the realities of life, fully panoplied in head, heart and hands for whatever position fate held in store or whatever condition circumstances might de- velop. Hence Mrs. Emerson was early sent to the district school, and during the intervals between terms was schooled by the mother in the duties pertaining to housekeeping. Not infrequently she was also found in the field with her father, dropping corn -- at which she was an adept ---- dig- ging potatoes, and aiding in gathering corn and storing fruit, etc. Early in her 'teens she commenced teaching in the district schools, at which time she assumed all charges for clothing. and also managed by economy to pay her ex- penses at a select school in Carey for three terms, Mrs. Emerson was during the war of the Rebel- lion an active sympathizer in the cause of the Union, and spent much time in soliciting and forwarding supplies for the sanitary and com- missary departments of the army. She is uat-
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WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
urally inclined to faith in the teachings of Chris- tianity, and early in life united with the Metho- dist Church, of Carey, Ohio. When she removed to Wood county with her husband, not finding near her home a Church of her first connection, she united with the membership of the Church of Christ, at Eagleville, and has remained a con- sistent Christian and constant attendant at the various services, and a helper in the many labors of the Church up to the present. She served as superintendent of the Sunday-school several years, and in the Church diligently labored to unite the congregation with the missionary wing of the Church.
During the period of her teaching she met Mr. Emerson -- her subsequent husband-at a teach- ers' examination. An attachment-inutual-was formed, that afterward culminated in their union for life, which was sealed April 17, 1866. To- gether their life barque has floated down the stream of time for over thirty years. Of the nine children born to Mrs. Emerson, six remain to bless her life -- three having passed to the silent beyond. Like nearly all mothers she is devotedly attached to her children, and no sacrifice of time or labor is withheld when duty calls. Her father and mother are dead. Her brothers and sisters have all been married, and are living in their own homes. The elder brother, Allen, is known as Judge Smalley, and M. A. has recently been ap- pointed and confirmed as U. S. marshal of north- ern Ohio. The distinguishing characteristics of Mrs. Emerson's life are patient industry, devo- tion to home, family, kindred and friends, and a conscientious regard for the rights and feelings of others.
FRANK A. BALDWIN, a leading attorney of Bowling Green, whose abilities and attainments won for him at an early age a high standing among the legal fraternity, was born near Geneva, N. Y., July 30, 1854.
His parents, Sanford and Juliette (Smith) Baldwin, were also born in New York State, the father December 7, 1825, at Saratoga Springs, and the mother October 12, 1827, at Seneca Falls. Soon after their marriage they came west, in 1846 settling at Perrysburg. Wood county, where Mr. Baldwin soon became a prom- inent and influential worker in municipal affairs. holding various official positions during his res- idence there. In 1860 he moved to Weston and opened a hotel, which he conducted some twelve years. He then transferred the active manage- ment to other hands, and he and his wife settled down in Weston to spend their declining years
free from business cares; there he died August :, 1895. They had twelve children, five of whoin grew to maturity: Mary, the wife of W. R. Worth, who manages the hotel at Weston; Hat- tie, the wife of Judge Young, of Bowling Green; Frank A., our subject; Nellie, the widow of Dr. G. W. Pennington, of Weston; and Lulu, a book- keeper for J. W. Long & Co., of Weston, who lives at home with her parents.
Our subject attended the public schools at his home during his boyhood, and later studied in the high school at Toledo, and the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Under the direction of J. R. Tyler, of Perrysburg, and McCauley & Pennington, of Tiffin, he prepared for the bar, and was admitted April 12, 1877. In June of the same year he began the practice of his profession at Weston, and a few months later he received an extraordinary evidence of the esteem of his fellow citizens in an election to the responsible office of prosecuting attorney of Wood county; as he was the Democratic candi- date this is the more remarkable, Wood county having been a Republican stronghold ever since the Civil war. Retiring from this office at the end of two years, he engaged in practice at Bowling Green. An able advocate, his profes- sional efforts have been attended with uniform success, and at the present there are but few cases of importance in which he is not retained on one side or the other, this being especially true of those which involve questions of criminal law. Mr. Baldwin is at present a member of the building committee for the Wood county court house. In 1879 he was married to Miss Clara Foote, who was born April 22, 1855, in Washington township, where her father, Joel Foote, was a prominent resident for many years. He died February 22, 1896.
D. H. HILL, the deputy recorder of Wood county, and one of the most able and liard-work- ing officials in the service of the county, was born in Milton Center, June 30, 1841.
His father, William Hill, was born in east - ern Ohio, and in 1836 came to Wood county, locating in Milton Center upon wild land which he cleared and cultivated. He was prominent ainong the pioneers of his neighborhood, and was a Whig in politics. He raised a family of twelve children - two girls and ten boys- the subject of this sketch being the youngest. Only three of the twelve are now living, viz .: Mrs. Eliza Stewart, wife of Robert Stewart, of Bowling Green, Ohio; Joseph B. Hill, of Piqua. Ohio; and the subject of this sketch.
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WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
Our subject attended the district school in boyhood, and afterward learned the carpenter's trade. In May, 1862, he enlisted for three monthis in Company K, 84th O. V. T., and went to the front. He returned home October I, of that year, and three weeks later joined Company G, 10th O. V. Cav. for three years; was ap- pointed sergeant January 18, 1863, and first ser- geant in September, 1864. His regiment was assigned to the army of the West, and did gal- lant service under Kilpatrick. In May, 1865, our subject was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant of Company C, but was wounded dur- ing a skirmish at Ringgold, Ga., was sent to the the hospital, and was mustered out with his company, July 24, 1865. After his return he followed farming at Milton Center, and for some years was postmaster there. Since September 2, 1895, he has held the office of deputy recorder, giving faithful and efficient service. In 1889 he was married to Miss Susan Masks, a native of Wood.county, and they have one child -- E. A. Hill, of Custar. Ohio. Politically our subject is a Re- publican; socially he is a member of the G. A. R.
G. W. HELFRICH, the efficient manager and secretary of the Wood County Tribune Com- pany, was born in Tiffin, Ohio, February 14, 1854. His grandparents, John and Barbara Helfrich, came from Germany to America in 1832, and died in Pennsylvania at an advanced age.
His father, Adam Helfrich, was a native of Darmstadt, Germany, born May 4, 1828, and when four years old came with his parents to Franklin county, Penn. In early manhood, in company with some other young men, he walked to Tiffin, Ohio, where he secured work in a grist- mill at ten dollars a month. He was married there to Miss Margaret Ruch, and not long after he bought eighty acres of school land near Mc- Comb, Ohio, to which he removed. Not being a skilled chopper of trees, and lacking money to hire help, he was obliged to resort to primitive . methods of preparing logs for his new dwelling, burning them into proper lengths, after "pacing them off " for want of a better way of measur- ing them. However, he built the house. After a year he sold that property and bought twenty acres in the same county, six miles east, lived there ten years, then bought 116 acres within one-half inile of the first eighty acres, where he made his permanent home. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company G, 2ist O. V. I., assigned to Gen. Rosecrans army, 14th Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Thomas, ed Divis-
ion, commanded by Gen. James S. Neegly, 2d Brigade, Col. John F. Miller. At the battle of Murfreesboro he was captured and taken to Libby prison; but was released on parole eleven days after, having had nothing to eat in the meantime but some "hard tack." Taken to Annapolis he there contracted the smallpox, and lay for seven weeks in the hospital. Returning home, with his health ruined, he never received a pension because, having never been ill for a day before entering the army, he had no " family physician " who could certify to his physical condition previous to that time, as required by the pension office. Politically, he was a Jackso- nian Democrat, and in religious faith was a member of the U. B. Church. His death oc- curred September 29, 1892. His wife who was born in Canton, Stark county, Ohio, September 2. 1831, died December 11, 1895, at her home at Deweyville, Ohio. Our subject is the eldest of their nine children: the others being B. F., a butcher and stock buyer at North Baltimore, Ohio; Mary L. , the widow of E. L. Ward, Findlay, Ohio; Jacob R., who is engaged in the real-estate business at Eldon, Mo .; Amanda Cordelia, who died when sixteen months old; Permilla J., the wife of E. O. Dexter, of Chicago, Ill .; Calista A., who married John Arnold, of Findlay, Ohio; Charlotte Elizabeth, the wife of M. Brooks, of Shawtown, Ohio; and Caroline May, the wife of Byron Powell, of Benton, Ohio.
G. W. Helfrich was educated in the district schools near McComb, also in the high school at Findlay, and at the age of eighteen began to teach. After two terins he secured employment in a drug-store, and shortly afterward bought a half-interest in a harness shop, investing his en- tire capital, thirty-five dollars. This concern was closed by the sheriff two weeks later for old debts contracted prior to his entering the bus- iness. With most men this would have ended the matter, but a certain indomitable perseverance which is characteristic of our subject revealed it- self, and he determined to go on, with no money, no tools, no stock, no custom, and no knowl- edge of the business. He borrowed a few tools, and as he was opening the shop a tanner called to collect an old bill for leather. After discussing the situation Mr. Helfrich obtained credit for forty-eight pounds of leather, which he brought on his back from the tannery, ten miles distant. He had never watched any one make a set of harness, but he was not to be daunted by a trifle like that, and he proceeded to manufacture one according to his own ideas. As trade came in he gradually learned the business, being assisted
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