USA > Ohio > Genealogical and family history of eastern Ohio > Part 33
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Dr. Rhodes has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Linnie Campbell, of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania. His second wife was a Miss Jennings, of Cleveland, Ohio, by whom he has a five-year old son named Philip Augustus. Dr. Rhode's fraternal connections are with the Maccabees and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
ALBERT M. OSBORN.
Albert M. Osborn, who is farming on the old family homestead in Jackson township, Mahoning county, was born here October 21, 1843. His father, Jonathan Osborn, was a native of Virginia, born May 28, 1804, and when a babe of only a few weeks was brought to Ohio, the family locating in Youngstown township, Mahoning county. Jonathan's parents were
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Joseph and Margaret (Wolfkale) Osborn, both of whom were natives of Virginia, and on coming to the west Joseph purchased eleven hundred acres of land covered with a dense growth of timber. He made a trip in 1800, at which time he invested in the property, and later he was enabled to assist all of his children by giving them farms. At the time of the war of 1812 he entered his country's service and fought in the second series of engage- ments with England. His son Jonathan Osborn was reared here and with the other members of the family shared in many of the hardships and trials of pioneer life, as well as in its pleasures. He wedded May Ann Goff, who was born in 1818, the wedding taking place about her eighteenth birthday. They settled in Jackson township, where Mr. Osborn had purchased two hundred acres of land, on which stood the native forest trees. These he had to cut down and clear away before he could cultivate his fields, but he continued the work of development and improvement, and in course of time was the owner of a productive farm. When he was married he moved into the frame house which he had built, and in which our subject was born, and it now stands upon an adjoining farm. To Mr. and Mrs. Osborn were born six children, but William Nelson and Jonathan Wallace died at about the age of two and five years, respectively; George Washington was born March 12, 1837, is a widower with one daughter and one son, and lives upon seventeen acres of the original home tract of two hundred acres; Margaret Jane, who was born June 14, 1840, became the wife of Joel Woodward, and died when past middle life, leaving her husband and one son; Albert is the third of the family ; Alice is the wife of H. C. Orr and lives on the farm adjoining the old home place, which was bought by the father, who there owned two hundred and ninety-three acres, and also had one hundred and four acres near Paris, Portage county. In politics Jonathan Osborn was a Democrat and for many years served as justice of the peace. He also acted as county commissioner while living in Trumbull county. He was one of the land appraisers, was called upon to settle many estates and was ever found faith- ful to the trusts reposed in him, discharging his duties to the best of his ability. His wife long held membership with the Methodist church and he was a moral man, respected the Sabbath and lived at peace with his fellow men. While serving as justice of the peace he often induced litigants to settle their differences outside of the courts.
Albert M. Osborn was reared to farm labor from early boyhood. He was the first man drafted for service in the Civil war in Jackson township, when a call was made for twenty-six men from this township, but he fur- nished a substitute, to whom he paid three hundred dollars. On the 16th
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of May, 1867, he was married to Miss Nancy C. Moherman, a daughter of Abraham Moherman. She became the mother of four children: Cora M., the wife of E. S. Goldner, who resides on the home farm and by whom she has a daughter; Dallas J., who has a wife and a daughter and a son, and is now in East Las Vegas, New Mexico; Alma A., in business in Cleveland, Ohio; and Albert Otis, a dentist of Cleveland, is a graduate of the Cleveland Dental College and is well versed in his profession. The older son was grad- uated at Hiram College, and all the children taught in the district schools. Dallas went to New Mexico for his health and is now a prominent business man there; he married Pearl Miller, of Tiffin, Ohio. Mrs. Nancy Osborn, who was born in 1848, died February 27, 1878, and Mr. Osborn afterward married Christine Yoxtheimer, of Jackson township, Mahoning county. She became the mother of two daughters, Maud Hazel and Mabel Fern, both at home. Mr. Osborn was bereft of this wife by death, March 14, 1892, when she was forty-six years of age.
Fraternally, Mr. Osborn is connected with the Knights of Pythias, in which he has passed all the chairs. He votes with the democracy, and for two terms served as assessor of his township and as township trustee for fif- teen years. He was also a school director, and in official service has been most loyal to the obligations devolving upon him. He belongs to the Disciples church, in which he has been an elder almost continuously since 1885. Farming claims his attention the greater part of the time and he pays taxes on two hundred and forty-five acres of land. He and his son-in-law are carrying on general farming, and he also makes a specialty of the grazing of stock keeping from fifteen to thirty head of cattle, a high grade of short- horns. He also has from six to ten head of horses and has kept from seventy-five to two hundred head of delane sheep and from ten to forty head of Berkshire hogs. He raises corn, wheat and oats, and has a well improved and productive farm, his labors thereon resulting in the acquire- ment of a comfortable competence. He has two good frame houses and two good barns on the place, and the latest improved machinery facilitates the farm work.
RODERICK D. CAMPBELL.
When we enter the name of the subject of this sketch in its full form, Roderick Donald Campbell, the combination becomes one which indicates beyond peradventure what must be the nationality of his ancestors, and the name cannot but suggest most potently the fair land of hills and heather, and thus it is to the sterling clan Campbell of the highlands of bonnie old Scotland may the lineage of our subject be traced. We of this electrical
120Gampbull
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twentieth century, materialistic in many senses, and representing the most magnificent industrial progress, cannot afford to hold in light esteem the record of worthy lives and worthy deeds, and not to honor those who take just pride in the bearing up of the standard of an honored name. While each man must practically work out his own destiny, it should ever be held as a privilege and satisfaction to revert to the lives and labors of worthy forebears, and such a privilege is given to the gentleman whose name initiates this review and who is one of the highly esteemed business men of the city of Youngstown, Mahoning county, where he is incumbent of the re- ponsible position of master carpenter in the Ohio works of the National Steel Company, one of the most important corporations of the Union.
Of stanch Scottish lineage, Roderick D. Campbell is himself a native of the Dominion of Canada, having been born in Middlesex county, province of Ontario, on the 6th of October, 1867. His father was there engaged in farming, and thus the youth grew up under invigorating and sturdy dis- cipline, while his educational training was secured in the schools of that lo- cality. He remained in his home county until he had attained the age of seventeen years, having in the meantime begun his apprenticeship at the car- penter's trade, and he then, in 1885, proceeded to British Columbia, where the line of the Canadian Pacific was then in process of construction. In connection with this work he found employment at his trade, which he had followed for the two preceding years, and he became an expert artisan and one in whom implicit confidence could be placed at all times and under all conditions. He was employed on construction work along the line of the Canadian Pacific from Winnipeg to the Pacific coast, being thus engaged for a period of about two years, within which time his parents had removed to the village of East Tawas, Michigan. To that place he proceeded and in that locality he continued to work at his trade until 1890, while for two years prior to that date he had held the position of assistant master carpenter for the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railroad Company. In April, 1890, Mr. Campbell came to Youngstown, where he was engaged in the work of his trade in a general capacity until 1898, when he entered upon the duties of his present position. He has given such faithful and effective service and shown such marked discrimination and executive ability as to gain the endorse- ment of those by whom he is employed, while he has the good will and esteem of those whose work he directs, as well as of all others with whom he has come in contact in a business or social way.
In politics Mr. Campbell pins his faith to the principles of the Republican party, and fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd
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Fellows, of which he is now noble grand, while his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian denomination. On the 14th of December, 1893, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Campbell to Miss Anna Rundel, a daughter of Thomas Rundel, of Vienna, this state, and they are the parents of a little daughter, Isabella B., born August 9, 1897.
John Campbell, the father of our subject, was born near the city of Glas- gow, Scotland, in the year 1814, and thence accompanied his parents on their removal to Canada, about 1830. He chose as his companion and helpmeet on the journey of life Miss Catherine Beaton, who was born in Nova Scotia, and they became the parents of four children, namely: Emily, Isabelle B., Roderick D. and William J. The devoted wife and mother was summoned into eternal rest at East Tawas, Michigan, in 1897, and in death she was not long separated from her loved husband, whose death occurred in the follow- ing year. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Duncan Campbell, who was born in Scotland in 1784, and died in Canada in 1872.
JAMES A. AND MARY ANN BEGGS.
The American branch of the Beggs family originated in county Ty- rone in the north of Ireland, where Alexander Beggs was born in 1794. He married Susan Dickson, and in 1822 they emigrated to this country, settling in Coitsville township, which at that time was a part of Trumbull county, Ohio. He was a mechanic and a maker of weaver's reeds, and he followed that occupation in Ireland and for awhile after coming to Ohio, from the pro- ceeds of which he was able to make his first payment on his land here. But after becoming a landed proprietor he had weightier business to attend to in the clearing of the heavy growth of timber and building a double log house. The logs which entered into the construction of this abode he had only time to scotch, but the building was perhaps more commodious than a majority of such structures, for it contained, besides the usual living apartment, a sleep- ing loft. In that early day bears and panthers were a constant menace to the settler's stock, and more than once, while he was driving the cows from the neighboring common a bear would frighten them so that he was compelled to spend many hours in rounding them up again. At the time of his death he owned one hundred and twenty-eight acres of well improved and culti- vated land, and a good frame house now occupies the site of the original log dwelling. Alexander Beggs was a well read man, notwithstanding the early limitations upon his education, and the record of his life in the com- munity was that of a modest but worthy citizen, who did what was right for his family and his fellow men. He was independent in politics, voting for
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awhile with the Democrats and for awhile with the Republicans, and still later united with the Prohibitionists in their effort to overthrow the liquor traffic. He and his wife were both esteemed members of the United Presbyterian church. Mrs. Beggs lived to be only fifty years old, her death occurring March 15, 1851, but her husband lived to be over ninety-eight years old, dying on June 7, 1887. There were four children of this union: George is a farmer in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, with seven of his nine children living; James A. and Mary Ann are the names which head this sketch; William D. lives on the old farm, although at present he is away for the purpose of educating his daughter.
Neither James A. nor Mary Ann ever married, owing to their loyalty in remaining at home to care for their father. Mary Ann has, since her mother's death, been keeping house for her father and her brother, but in spite of these restrictions she is a most intelligent lady, reading a great deal and taking a lively interest in matters of public concern. There are one hundred and twenty-eight acres in the farm of the old homestead, a good orchard and correspondingly substantial improvements. Having no children of their own, they naturally take much interest in their nephews and nieces, the first children of their brother, W. D. Beggs, and their pride in them is very justifiable. One of these is Samuel Sterrett Beggs, who was named after his maternal grandfather, Rev. Samuel Sterrett. Samuel is a college- bred and scholarly man and is a successful educator, having held positions in Beardstown, Illinois; Olathe, Kansas, for three years; and in Lansing. Michigan, for the past four years; he is married and has one son and one daughter. Elizabeth Susan Frances is the wife of Rev. J. G. Houston. William Alexander was a fine student and a good farmer, and after suffer- ing a year and a half from an injury and the pleuro-pneumonia, he died at the age of twenty-four. Mable F. is a member of the class of '04 at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing a musical course; her parents are residing there temporarily until she finishes.
JESSE SIMON.
The student of the history of Mahoning county cannot carry his investi- gations far without learning that the Simon family is an old, prominent and honored one here, and that its representatives in different generations have taken an active and helpful part in the upbuilding of the county from the period of its pioneer development down to the present. Jesse Simon was born February 15, 1830, in the old family home which had been built in 1819 and which is still standing, but is now used as a sheepfold. His father,
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Jacob Simon, was a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, born Janu- ary 12, 1786, and his father, Michael Simon, was born of Swiss parentage, either in Switzerland or in the Keystone state, early in the eighteenth cen- tury. He came to Mahoning county when there were no roads between the old family homestead in Broadman township and Canfield. He paid eight dollars per bushel for salt in those days and the commodity was brought on horseback from Georgetown on the Ohio river, forty miles away. As there were no roads, he had to follow the old Indian trails. He owned six hundred and forty acres of land, which he purchased of Mr. Broadman, and he afterward sold to his son Jacob one hundred and fifty-one acres for the nominal price of three hundred and thirty dollars, the deed of this property being dated February 4, 1813.
Jacob Simon was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Stemple, a native of Preston county, West Virginia, born in 1790. The young couple began their domestic life in most humble financial circumstances. They were mar- ried January 13, 1811, and their first home was a little log shanty. The following year Mr. Simon was drafted for service in the war of 1812 and went to Youngstown and paid ninety dollars whereby he obtained release from military service. It took all the household goods to pay for the release, leaving them nothing but their land. Their first frugal meal consisted of plain flour mush and their fare for some time was limited in quantity and quality. They ground their own cornmeal in a hand-mill and went through all the hard- ships and experiences of pioneer life. Mrs. Simon had been reared in West Virginia, coming to Mahoning county during her girlhood, and when the young couple wished to be married they went on horseback to Canfield, mak- ing the trip in a snow storm. As the years passed, however, their earnest labors brought to them a reward in the shape of a good improved farm. They were both strict and conscientious Christians, holding membership in the Lutheran church, and in that faith they reared their family, making it their daily work to instil into the minds of their children principles which would result in making them upright men and women. In the work of field and meadow they also continued, and were largely engaged in making maple sugar, this section of the country being almost an unbroken sugar-tree forest. Wolves made the night hideous with their howling, and the men in the camp would take turns in watching to protect the others from these animals. Jacob Simon passed away in this county on the 12th of September, 1861, when about seventy-five years of age, and his wife died in 1879 at the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. This worthy couple were the parents of nine children, five sons and four daughters, all of whom were married with
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the exception of one son and one daughter and had children of their own, the families of some being as large as that of the parents. David Simon, the eldest, was born in 1811; Lydia, born in 1813, became the wife of Elias Rupert, and died in Indiana; Delilah, born March 23, 1815, became the wife of George Wormley; Levi Simon, born January 21, 1817, died in Wood county, Ohio, in the fall of 1901; Stilling was born December 25, 1818; Gideon, born October 7, 1820, had the greatest affection for his brother Jesse, and they were the firmest of friends and companions and spent much of their time together in hunting, and also did much of their work to- gether ; Salome, born October 20, 1822, is the widow. of Masus Weber; Selinda, the next of the family, is the wife of John Shaffer, of Maysville, Indiana; Jesse is the youngest of the family. Levi was the scholar of the family and was a self-educated man, who became a very successful educator, and, like his father, was an excellent penman. David's oldest son, F. M., is an able business man, a resident of New York, and the overseer of a large oilcloth manufactory, receiving a salary of four thousand dollars per year; he also draws a large pension for his services in the Civil war, having been wounded at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky. David became the county auditor of Mahoning county and his books show fine penmanship, neatness and accuracy.
Jesse Simon was reared upon the home farm and early became familiar with the work of field and meadow. He assisted his father throughout the period of his minority and in the district schools obtained his education. On the 24th of August, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss Betsey William- son, who was born in Youngstown, in April, 1831, on the old homestead farm where her grandfather had settled. Her father was Piatt Williamson, who was born in the same place in 1815, the grandfather, Joseph Williamson, having been one of the pioneers who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, and he established his home in Youngstown. To Mr. and Mrs. Simon have been born the following children: Wilber, who follows farming on the old home place and has a wife and five children, two sons and three daughters; Wade E., who is a farmer and stock-dealer and also a meat merchant at Flint Hill, Mahoning county, and is married and has one son and one daughter; Eben N., of Portage county, Ohio, who is married and has four sons and three daughters; Edith, who became the wife of Professor W. H. Wagner, of Findlay College, and who died at the age of twenty-five years, also losing her infant daughter; Fitch, who died at the age of four years; Della, who was scalded to death at the age of sixteen months.
Mr. Simon is the owner of one of the fine farms of Mahoning county.
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He makes sugar from six hundred trees, and in the past year had four hun- dred gallons of syrup and seven hundred pounds of sugar. He also has a fine orchard of fifty fruit trees which were planted by himself. His farm comprises one hundred and fifty-one acres, an excellent timber tract, includ- ing many sugar maples, and everything about his place is neat and thrifty in appearance, for the farm is equipped with all modern conveniences and accessories, and everything is kept in first-class condition. His home, a most attractive one, was erected about 1874 and it is an ideal place in which to spend the summer, having a shady retreat with a fine lawn, on which are growing many splendid forest trees. Mr. Simon is a Republican, active in support of the party, and has served as a trustee and school director. He has also been a delegate to the county and congressional conventions, and he and his wife and a number of their children are members of the Disciples church. The life record of Jesse Simon is in harmony with the family his- tory. The name of Simon has ever been synonymous with honorable dealing and with sterling worth, and the subject of this review well deserves prominent mention in the annals of his adopted county.
JOHN T. GARDNER.
Numbered among the enterprising business men of Youngstown is John T. Gardner, who is now serving as superintendent of the rolling mill of the National Steel Company in this city. He was born in Buffalo, New York, October 31, 1859, and in the place of his nativity he was reared until after the close of the Civil war, when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Springfield, Illinois, that city continuing to be their place of residence for five years. For a similar period they made their home in Decatur, Illinois, and while there our subject, then a lad of ten and a half years, entered a roll- ing mill as "butt puller" and water boy, and when this mill was moved to Rosedale, Kansas, he, too, went to that city and continued with the company until 1879. During the following year he led the wild and dangerous life of a cowboy in Benton county, Texas, and from there made his way to Dodge City, Kansas, continuing his adventurous life in that state, Colorado, Wyom- ing, Nebraska, Indian Territory, New Mexico and Arizona for two years. At Pueblo, Colorado, he assisted in the erection of a steel mill, continuing his residence in that city for one year, while for the following eighteen months he was engaged in prospecting, mining and running cattle in New Mexico.
Growing tired of this wild and adventurous life on the plains Mr. Gard- ner returned to his parents' home in Rosedale, Kansas, where he was employed in an iron mill until the corporation was compelled to suspend business, and in
John T. Sandnes
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1884 he went to Birmingham, Alabama. Three months later, however, he returned to Rosedale, Kansas, but as times were dull and steady employment could not be secured there at that time he went to Pullman, Illinois, where during the following three months he found work in a bar mill. From that place he started on the journey to Pueblo, Colorado, but stopping at Las Animas, that state, he was induced to take charge of a bunch of cattle. Un- fortunately, while thus engaged, he was badly hurt by his horse and was sent to Pueblo, Colorado. When he had sufficiently regained his strength he accepted a position in the steel works there, thus continuing for a year, on the expiration of which period he again returned to Rosedale, and while there was elected by his fellow townsmen to the office of city marshal, which im- portant position he continued to fill for a year. Going thence to Pueblo, Colo- rado, he went to work at "roll turning," thus continuing until the mill ceased operation, and from May until November. 1888, he was an employe in a bar mill at Gate City, Alabama, while for the short period of two weeks he was engaged in a similar capacity at Toledo, Ohio, after which he worked as a roll turner in that city for one year. Work then became scarce in that lo- cality, and Mr. Gardner again made his way to Rosedale, Kansas, where for a year he was engaged as a foreman for a contractor and builder. In 1890 he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he worked at roll turning until the com- pany failed, was next employed in a mill in South Chicago for a year, was then made superintendent of the roll turning department in the Tudor Iron Works of St. Louis, Missouri, for one year, and after various removals finally returned to Chicago and secured the position of foreman in the roll turning department of the Illinois Steel Company. In 1897 he took up his abode in Dent county, Missouri, where he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, owning and operating a farm there for two and a half years. For the third time he made his way to Chicago, where he was engaged as foreman of the night shift in the roll turning department of the Illinois Steel Company, and thus he continued until he came to Youngstown, Ohio, in March, 1901, and accepted the position of superintendent of the roll turning department for the Ohio works of the National Steel Company. In October, 1901, he was made superintendent of the rolling mill, which position he has since continued to fill. Mr. Gardner steadily worked his way upward in the business world, gaining success and winning the public confidence, and he is now ranked among the substantial and foremost citizens of this thriving city.
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