USA > Ohio > Genealogical and family history of eastern Ohio > Part 2
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To General Asahel W. and Jennette Jones were born the following chil- dren : Kate Mary, born February 4, 1865, and married Robert A. King, September 1, 1891. He was born at Kinsman, Ohio, September 25, 1862, and is at present professor of modern languages of Wabash College at Craw- fordsville, Indiana. William Palmer, born June 30. 1868, died at Youngs- town, Ohio, March 17, 1891.
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In 1861 General Jones was made a member of Old Erie Lodge, F. & A. M., at Warren, Ohio, subsequently took a demit to Western Star Lodge, at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1864; was there made member of the chap- ter, the council, and St. John's Commandery No. 20, at Youngstown, Ohio, and of the Al Koran Shrine at Cleveland, Ohio.
General Jones is not the oldest member of the Mahoning county bar, but he has for a long period of years been one of the most able, conscientious and trustworthy lawyers of the commonwealth.
In 1902 General Jones published a volume entitled "History and Geneal- ogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of Captain Israel Jones." This vol- time of three hundred pages and sixteen hundred names covers a period from 1629-30 to 1902, and upon it much time and money were expended; it is a credit to its author, L. N. Parker, of Wick, Ohio, who compiled it for General Jones, and of much interest to the family therein treated. General Jones has one of the most extensive private law libraries in the country and excelled by no other private law library in Ohio.
SOLOMON KLYNE.
Connected with the life of this octogenarian farmer of Berlin township, Mahoning county, is much history of the earliest settlers of this part of Ohio, and in the course of this sketch a number of characters well known to all residents of the county will be mentioned. The first of the name with whom this writing will deal was Phillip Kline (as the name is often spelled), who was the keeper of a famous old tavern in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and his sign of the "Barley Sheaf" was known far and near to all who sought good cheer. He was several generations removed from the original German ancestor.
Abram Kline, the son of the innkeeper, was born in Pennsylvania in 1770, and died in Youngstown at the age of forty-six years. There were six children in his family: Polly, the wife of Conrad Neff, had twelve chil- dren, and seven of them reached maturity. Sarah became the wife of Daniel Everett, and they had six children. Betsy married John Neff, a brother of the Neff before mentioned, and they had five children. Jonathan, the eldest of the sons, will be spoken of in the following paragraph. Solomon, who was a wealthy stock-dealer for those times, was born in 1800 and died in 1884, when nearly eighty-five years of age. Peter Kline was also a wealthy farmer and stockman in Liberty township, Trumbull county, and was ac- customed to drive large numbers of cattle and horses across the Alleghanies to eastern markets; he owned some very valuable animals, some worth as
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Holyne
MRS SOLOMON KLYNE.
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much as one thousand dollars; when he died at the age of eighty-eight, he left a large property to his two sons and two daughters.
Jonathan Kline, whose name was mentioned in the above family, was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1796, and died at Canfield, Ohio, July 28, 1871. He followed farming and stock-raising, and after his marriage settled near New Buffalo, Canfield township. He began on two hundred and sixty-two acres in the woods, but eventually became the owner of four hundred acres, on which he raised large herds of cattle, but seldom drove them to market, finding ready sale at home. In 1822 Mr. Kline was married to Miss Elizabeth Arner, who was born in Ellsworth township, October 2, 1806, the daughter of Phillip Arner and Susan Broadsword, and as the latter were people of prominence in the county, it will be well to say something of their history.
Phillip Arner was born in Pennsylvania in 1776, and was married in 1801 to Susan Broadsword. In the following year he came out to Ellsworth town- ship, this county, and bought two hundred and sixty acres of land on Meander creek. His small clearing is said to have been the first in that township. After building his log cabin he brought his family in 1804, being compelled to cut a road from Canfield to their place, and for some years they were obliged to keep their live stock well housed to protect them from the prowling wolves. There were eight children in their family: Peter, Eliabeth, Chloe, Lewis, Mary, Caleb, Daniel and Eli T.
Five sons were born to Jonathan Kline and Elizabeth Arner, as follows : Solomon, whose life will be described in the following paragraph; Gabriel, who was born on July 3, 1826, is a retired farmer in Youngstown, and his eighty thousand dollars have been gained by successful farming and operating a large coal bank; he has three daughters and one son. Peter, who was a farmer and stock-raiser, died in Canfield at the age of sixty-seven, leaving a widow and one son. Caleb died at the age of four years. The fifth son was Heman, a farmer and grocer of Buffalo, Ohio, who died in March, 1903; he had four children.
The birth of Solomon Klyne occurred in Canfield township, July 23, 1823. He enjoyed but meagre schooling, but his parents gave him a good start in his chosen vocation of farming, and he has been successful far above the average. He came to Berlin township in 1847 and in the course of time accumulated a large amount of fine property. He made most of his money in raising stock, which seems to have been almost the family vocation, and as he was very judicious in his investments and progressive in his methods he was soon on the way to success. He at one time owned five hundred
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acres, but in 1902 he disposed of his principal farm of one hundred and sev- enty-five acres for the sum of eighty-eight hundred dollars, which was very cheap, as it was one of the finest farms in the county and excellently situated near Berlin Center. But Mr. Klyne was then ready to retire from his long and active career, in which he had won no mediocre success, and he is now enjoying the fruits of a well spent life.
Mr. Klyne was married on August 18, 1847, to Miss Mary Lower, who was his loving companion through fifty-three years of life's journey, and whose bright disposition and ambitious spirit cheered him over the rough spots and no doubt had much to do with his subsequent success. Mrs. Klyne's grandfather brought his two motherless sons, John and Jacob, on horse- back to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; there he married a lady by the name of Arner. He came to Columbiana county, leaving his family in West- moreland, and entered land near Columbiana. The following year he brought his family and put up a log cabin and a log barn. The first court held in Columbiana county was in that log barn. Mrs. Klyne's father, Jacob, settled in Ellsworth township, as one of the early settlers, about eighty years ago; he married Nancy Moore, and they became the parents of two sons and two daughters: David, Mary, Sarah Ann and Henry. There were four children of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Klyne: Caroline, a sketch of whom follows; Lloyd F. Klyne, a farmer of Berlin township, who has one son, Ralph; Clarke J., who is a farmer and has a fine vein of coal under his land: and C. M. Klyne, a physician in Youngstown. Dr. Klyne is a graduate of the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati, and during the eight years of his practice has gained a large patronage. The children were all born and reared on the farm on which Mr. Klyne settled in 1847, and on which their beloved mother passed away, February 20, 1901, when over seventy years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Klyne had joined the Methodist church two years after their marriage, and were always loyal to their faith and willing to help in any good cause. Mr. Klyne is still vigorous for one of his age, and it is to be hoped that he still has some further years of usefulness before him. for his place in the community is one that will not be easily filled.
CAROLINE (KLYNE) LEONARD.
Mrs. Leonard is a widow lady, residing on her pleasant farm one mile from Berlin Center, Mahoning county, and is the only daughter of Solomon Klyne, whose life has been given above. She was born and reared on the old homestead and remained there till 1867, when she was married to Lewis S. Leonard. Mr. Leonard was also a native of this part of the country and
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FAMILY GROUP, SOLOMON KLYNE, FIVE GENERATIONS ON BOTH SIDES, TAKEN AUGUST 18, 1897.
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was a son of Benjamin and Frances (Foulk) Leonard, who came to this county in pioneer times. Mrs. Leonard's only child, Leonora M., is the wife of R. S. Hawkins, a farmer on the old Benjamin Leonard farm. Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins have had five children, but two died in infancy, and those liv- ing are Clyde L., a youth of fourteen; Helen L., aged nine; and Earl R. is three years old. Mrs. Leonard is very proud of her daughter and grand- children, and the entire family is one which enjoys a most respected position in the community. An interesting picture is in the possession of the family which shows the boy Clyde L. Hawkins when nine years old in a group of eight grandmothers. And a souvenir of which Mrs. Leonard is very proud is a linen towel which was spun by her great-grandmother in 1801; it is a beautiful piece of domestic linen, soft and even, notwithstanding its great age.
JAMES HILL WEAVER.
Though a minister of the gospel, the gentleman whose life is herein briefly traced has of late years only occupied the pulpit on rare occasions, as his time is principally occupied in educational duties. To this vocation, in fact, most of his adult years have been devoted, though now and then he has taken an "excursion," as it were, into other lines, including a dip or two into politics. To whatever he has undertaken Mr. Weaver has brought that earnestness of purpose and energy of character which are his most notable characteristics, and these traits have been especially noteworthy in connection with his work as instructor or executive head of schools. The Weaver family originated in Germany; its early emigration and long resi- dence have completely Americanized the descendants, so that they are not to be distinguished from those "to the manner born." Conrad Weaver, the emigrant founder of the branch of the family now under consideration, was born in Germany in 1775 and came with his parents when a child to Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, where he died about 1855 near Beallsville. Conrad left a son named Henry Weaver, whose birth occurred in Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, in 1814, and his death in Kansas in 1889. He was trained from early boyhood to farm work and followed that occupation during all the years of his adult life. Nancy Hill became his wife, and by her he had seven children, of whom the four survivors are James H., the sub- ject of this memoir : Frank L .; Anna, wife of Eli Wherry; and John F.
James Hill Weaver was born on a farm in Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1840, and experienced the usual vicissitudes, as well as advantages, that attend life in the country. Being naturally of a literary turn, and ambitious
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to rise in the world, he early experienced the benefits to be derived from a good education, and made diligent use of the opportunities afforded him.
Equipped with such learning as the common schools could confer, he entered Mt. Union College at Alliance, Ohio, and was given the degree of B. S. by that institution in the class of 1870. Three years later the degree of M. S. was conferred upon him by the same college, and shortly afterward he was appointed superintendent of schools at Hanover, Ohio, which posi- tion he retained three years. His next step forward was to the principalship of the grammar department of the schools at Salem, Ohio, whose duties also absorbed his attention for three years, and then he took charge of a farm in Carroll county. For the fifteen subsequent years, Mr. Weaver de- voted all his energies to farming during the summer, while his time in winter was occupied in teaching in the neighborhood schools. He has taught, in all, more than fifty terms of school. Having been admitted to the Chris- tian ministry in 1870, it was his custom, during this period, to deliver a sermon at some convenient church almost every Sunday, and in his various lines of employment he managed to make himself both useful and popular. As his residence at this time was in Carroll county, near the dividing line, his educational work embraced schools both in Columbiana and Carroll coun- ties, and his ministerial labors were also divided between the two coun- ties. In 1899 he took a step which has doubtless settled his future life work, by purchasing the proprietary rights of the Ohio Valley Business College, of which he took charge as president, and which he has since conducted with marked skill and ability.
While residing in Carroll county, Mr. Weaver was elected justice of the peace and discharged the duties of that office for three terms. Still higher honors were within his reach when in 1899. he was a candidate before the Republican convention for the Ohio state senate from the eighteenth district, composed of the counties of Stark and Carroll, but of the 2,781 votes cast in Carroll county for the delegates, Mr. Weaver had 2,757 and would un- doubtedly have received the nomination but for the fact that the opportunity then presented of buying the business college, of which he is now the presi- dent, caused him to change his plans and drop all aspirations for political preferment. There can be little doubt either of his nomination or election. and there is an equal assurance that he would have made an unusually able and faithful legislator.
In 1862 Mr. Weaver was united in marriage with Hannah, daughter of Eli Taylor, of Columbiana county, and the six children resulting from this union are: Rosella, wife of Walter Reeder; Lindley L., supervisor of pen-
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manship and drawing for city schools of Alliance and Salem, Ohio; Mary B., teacher in Ohio Valley Business College; Frank T., business man- ager of Ohio Valley Business College, East Liverpool, Ohio; Howard E., supervisor of penmanship and drawing at Niles, Ohio; and Ottie, teacher in Ohio Valley Business College. Mr. Weaver has lost none of his inter- est in religious work, though his appearance in the pulpit is not so fre- quent as in the earlier days of his life. He has also long been connected with the Masonic fraternity and has reached the Royal Arch degree.
JOEL S. BONSALL.
Salem, the largest, handsomest and most enterprising of the towns of Columbiana county, has an interesting history extending back to the earliest pioneer period. It owes its name, as well as its settlement, to members of the Society of Friends, who came from Salem, New Jersey, in search of homes in.Ohio, during the first decades of the nineteenth century. Among the families who arrived about this time were those of Sharp, Stratton, Davis, Bonsall and others, who became related or closely connected by inter- marriages and business ties. Owing to the well known aversion of the Friends to vice in all its forms, their horror of war and love of orderly liberty, the community in and around the new Salem received a distinct im- press from these New Jersey colonists. When the slavery agitation became acute in later years, the fleeing slaves found friends among these quiet and unobtrusive people, whose hatred of oppression made them naturally aboli- tionists. The mysterious "underground railroad" which became so famous during the two decades immediately preceding the Civil war, numbered among its conductors more than one member of the Salem settlement. None were more active in this historic contest, and none fought more valiantly against the infamous institution of slavery than the Bonsalls and their immediate relatives.
The first of this name who came to Ohio was Edward Bonsall, who arrived in Columbiana county about 1810 and was followed a few years later by his son Daniel. The latter, owing to his mother's death, had re- mained in childhood with his uncle, Daniel Gibbons, at the old home in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. It was about 1820 that Daniel Bonsall came to the Salem community, accompanied by his uncle. While in Pennsylvania, Daniel Gibbons had been active in the anti-slavery cause and trained his nephew from boyhood to fight the slave power in every possible way. After their arrival in Columbiana county, they became conspicuous in their efforts
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to assist escaping slaves, thus earning the undying hatred and persecution of the master in the south and their "dough-face" sympathizers in the north.
Daniel Bonsall married Martha, daughter of Joel and Rebecca (Tynell) Sharp, and sister of the brothers who afterward founded the Buckeye En- gine Works. The Sharps came from Little Egg Harbor, on the Jersey coast, and were among the first settlers of the Salem community, arriving about 1806 and locating on a farm about two and a half miles from the town site.
Joel Bonsall, son of Daniel and Martha (Sharp) Bonsall, was born on a farm four miles from Salem, Ohio, in 1826, and grew up in the atmos- phere of piety, industry and high thinking incident to such a community. In after life he was fond of recalling the exciting events of his boyhood, growing out of the efforts of his neighbors and relatives to help the escap- ing "Elizas" and "Uncle Toms" who crossed the Ohio in search of freedom. He remembers one night in particular, when as high as thirteen fugitive slaves were hidden in his father's house. One of the most active lieutenants of his father was Dr. Stanton, a pioneer physician, and a student of the latter named Keiser Thomas. They looked out for escaping slaves and when found took them to the hospitable home of Daniel Bonsall, often using as a conveyance the horse and wagon belonging to one William Waterworth. Dr. Thomas died many years ago at Alliance, but at a late date Joel Mc- Millan, James Bonaty, Charles Grizzell,-in fact all the members of the Society of Friends,-took some part in this patriotic movement. When the expected Civil war finally began, the feeling had grown so intense that many of the young Quakers were so worked up that they broke away from the teachings of their religion against fighting and enlisted for the service. Most « of them enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment, Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, of which Thomas C. Boone, afterward secretary and treasurer of the Buckeye Engine Company, became lieutenant colonel. On the field of battle, as well as on the trying marches and other hardships of army life, these scions of noble sires made good their former efforts for liberty by their soldierly bearing and uncomplaining fortitude.
Joel S. Bonsall, who had a natural turn for mechanics, left the farm when twenty-two years old, entered the engine works of his uncles and there learned the trade without previous education in that line. He proved an apt scholar, soon became a valuable workman and rose gradually to the highest position in the company. As originally organized in 1871, the offi- cers were: Joel Sharp, president; Milton Davis, vice-president; Thomas C. Boone, secretary ; Joel S. Bonsall, superintendent; and Simeon Sharp,
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assistant superintendent. On the death of Joel Sharp in 1898, Mr. Bonsall was promoted to the presidency. Colonel Boone was succeeded after death by Stephen B. Richard; D. M. Davis took his father's place as vice-president after the latter's retirement in 1892; and Mr. Bonsall's son, C. S. Bonsall, was given his father's place as superintendent. A. K. Mansfield holds the position of mechanical engineer, and Charles Bonsall, brother of Joel, is the bookkeeper. The company has grown from small beginnings to recognition as one of the most important industries of Salem, employing nearly three hundred hands, and making an engine which as the "Buckeye" has become famous and in large demand all over the country.
Mr. Bonsall was first married to Abbie Sharpnock, of Salem, who died in 1865, leaving one son, Charles Sumner Bonsall, who is, as stated above, the present superintendent of the Buckeye Engine Company. In 1870 Mr. Bonsall married Millie Vaughan, by whom he had one son, named Ward. In addition to his principal employment with the engine works, Mr. Bonsall was at different times connected with other industries at Salem. He was vice-president of the Salem Plow Company for some time, and for twelve years held the same position with the Deming Pump Manufacturing Com- pany. His son Charles S. and himself were partners in Vaughan, Bonsall & Company, manufacturers of pure Salem bone-dust and phosphates, grain, feed and kindred commodities, which were shipped to all parts of the United States, their goods having established a high repute for pureness of quality. Originally an Abolitionist, Mr. Bonsall, like all of his family connections, became a Republican when that organization arose on the ruins of the Whig party.
In all relations of life, whether as mechanic, organizer of useful in- dustries, or as father and friend in the home circle, it would be difficult to find a man who was more deserving of the title of model citizen than Joel S. Bonsall, and as such he was mourned at his death, which occurred on June 2, 1902.
CHARLES READER WALLACE.
The ancestry of this prominent physician and surgeon of Struthers, Mahoning county, Ohio, is Scotch-Irish, and grandfather Colonel William R. Wallace was a merchant, owned a good farm, was a justice of peace for many years in his community, and in other ways manifested his public spirit. He was prominent in army affairs and had charge of the drilling of a com- pany of soldiers. He married Isabella McCracken, and their six children are all living and have families, their names being Robert, William, Jacob, John,
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George and Mary. In 1896 Grandfather Wallace was accidentally killed by a fast train on the P. & L. E. R. R., near his home, at the age of eighty- four : his widow is still living.
William, the second of these children, was born at Harlansburg, Penn- sylvania, in 1841, and in 1861 was one of the first volunteers to enlist in Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Pennsylvania. He became a corporal, re-enlisted as a veteran, and served the remainder of the war in the heavy artillery, from which he was honorably discharged at the close of the war, having taken an active part in some of the most severe bat- tles of the rebellion. At present he resides on his farm near Edinburg, Penn- sylvania, and is still an active man for his years. In 1864, while he was home on a furlough, he was married to Amanda Wigton, of Pennsylvania. There were three children of this union. The oldest is Charles R .; Wilbert, who has a wife and two children near Edinburg, is foreman of railroad construction work; Anna is a teacher near home.
The birth of Charles Reader Wallace occurred at Edinburg, Pennsyl- vania, October 13, 1866. He graduated from Volant Academy in 1890 and from Mount Hope College in 1893, taking the degree of Ph. B., and has also attended Grove City College and the State Normal College at Edin- boro, Pennsylvania. He was a teacher for six years and holds a life cer- tificate which entitles him to teach anywhere in the state without further examination. He began the study of medicine and entered Cleveland Medi- cal College, from which he received his degree of M. D. in 1897. He then took the hospital training, and he has a diploma from the Huron Street Hos- pital. He was located in practice in Cleveland until 1899, but has had his office in Struthers for nearly three years. He is a member and medical exam- iner for two lodges, the Knights of Pythias and the Protective Home Circle, and also is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy. He is a very popular and rising young physician and has a bright future in store for him. He is a devotee of Republican principles, is a member of the Methodist church, and identifies himself with the best interests of the town.
JOHN WISHARD NESBITT.
Mr. Nesbitt has lived in Mahoning county for over sixty years and has been one of its most exemplary citizens; he is one of the few survivors of the Civil war, in which he did such faithful service, and has been a carpenter by occupation, until he was appointed to his present position of postmaster, the duties of which he has discharged so satisfactorily that he has been re- tained for ten years. The Nesbitt family in America goes back to an ancestor.
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probably the great-grandfather of this gentleman, who came from the north of Scotland and settled in southern Pennsylvania before the Revolution. James Nesbitt was one of twelve sons born to his father by his two wives, and he married Mary Carver. They had a son by the name of Nathaniel, who was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1806, and was brought to Ohio by his parents when a small boy. In 1834 Nathaniel married Jane Wishard, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1806, and came to Ohio in 1812, when the country was very sparsely settled; her grandfather was a stonemason. There were six children born of this mar- riage: James, born in 1836, served four years and three months in Com- pany E, Second Ohio Cavalry, and died in 1883, leaving three sons and three daughters ; Mary J. is the widow of Isaac C. Raub; the third in order of birth was John Wishard; Sarah A. died in 1868 at the age of twenty- six; Miranca, the wife of Adam Frankfort, died in Iowa about 1882, aged thirty-six, and left four children; William Henry died at the age of four years. Mr. Nesbitt died in 1868, and his wife passed away in 1882 at the age of seventy-six.
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