USA > Ohio > Genealogical and family history of eastern Ohio > Part 37
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William Weasner followed farming in New Jersey for a time, and then, selling his property in that state, came to Ohio, making the journey in a cov- ered two-horse wagon. He was two weeks upon the way and was accompanied by his wife and five children. The father of Robert Weasner was three times married; by the first union there were no children. By the second marriage there was one daughter, and by the third marriage there were twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, hereinafter named, and one of whom was Rob- ert, the subject of our sketch. Reaching his destination, William Weasner be- gan farming in Mahoning county, and the family was surrounded by pioneer conditions. He carried on the work of improvements and development on his land until his death, which occurred in 1862. His widow, Mahala Weasner, is still living at the advanced age of ninety years and makes her home with her daughter Margaret in Newton Falls, Ohio. The children of William and Mahala are as follows: Susan Maria, who became the wife of Jeffry Vaughn, died in middle life, leaving two sons and two daughters; Rebecca, the wife of Leonidas Carson, she being now deceased, left six chil- dren, a son and five daughters; Robert is the third of the family; William joined the army and went to the war of the Rebellion in 1861, and at Tus-
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cumbia. Alabama, in the summer of 1862, he died of typhoid fever, being then about twenty-two years of age, and his body now rests under the clods at Tuscumbia; James is a prominent farmer of Milton township and has two sons and four daughters; Margaret is the wife of William O. Beck, of Trum- bull county, Ohio, by whom she has three sons and two daughters; Sarah is the widow of Moses McClure and has four sons; Hannah is the wife of John Van Winkle and has five sons and two daughters; Horace resides near Garretsville, Portage county, and has two sons; Jeffrey died when about thirty years of age; Lois died at the age of sixteen years; and Grace is the wife of Addison Cronke, by whom she has five sons and one daughter. One son of Grace, Harry Cronke. is now a member of the United States navy.
Robert Weasner was reared on the home farm in Milton township, in said county of Mahoning, and while the work of the fields largely occupied his attention in youth, he also had opportunity to acquire a good education. He attended the district schools and subsequently spent two terms as a student in Hiram College, and he spent the winter of 1856-7 as a teacher. In Septem- ber, 1861, he offered his services to the government as a defender of the Union and was mustered in as a member of Company D, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, becoming a corporal. He remained with the regiment until it reached Spring Hill, Tennessee, when he became ill and was sent to the hospital at Columbia. In April, 1862, he was sent home on a sick leave and in July was honorably discharged because of physical disability.
On the 5th of March, 1857, Mr. Weasner was married to Miss Rachel Best, who was born in Berlin township, Mahoning county, Ohio, on Sep- tember 24, 1839, a daughter of William and Anna (Morrison) Best, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania after their marriage, in 1834. The father, Mr. William Best, was born December 7, 1806, and was married October 28, 1834, to Anna Morrison. They had three children, of whom John, born December 4, 1835, died July 29, 1842. Mrs. Weasner is the second. Her brother, William Morrison Best, the third, was born December 28, 1841, and enlisted in the same company and regiment to which Mr. Weasner be- longed, entering the army as a private for three years' service. He was wounded at the battle of Stone River and died and was buried there, when twenty-one years of age. His remains were removed to and now rest in the churchyard in Berlin, Mahoning county, the scene of his birth and the home of his childhood.
Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Weasner: Alvah H., a physician, who was educated in Mount Union College and the Cleveland Eclectic College. He began the practice of his profession at Berlin Center
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with Dr. W. K. Hughes, doing business under the firm name of Hughes & Weasner, physicians and druggists. This relationship was continued for six years, when Dr. Weasner was called to his final rest. He died October 26, 1887, when about thirty years of age, leaving a widow and daughter. Maud Albertina, the second child of Robert Weasner, died in 1874, when about eleven years of age. Lee Etta Alvirda was his third child; she is the wife of Charles Kline, of Berlin township. They have a daughter living, Dorothy Rachel Kline; one little son, Robert Olin, died at the age of twenty months. Dr. Weasner's widow bore the maiden name of Hattie Shilling, and their daughter, Ivy Lulu, has now reached mature years, and is the wife of Charles Baringer; they have one son, Alva Delmer Baringer.
Robert Weasner has been a member of the Grange for a quarter of a century and has filled many official positions therein. In politics he is a Dem- ocrat and has served for fifteen consecutive years as justice of the peace. After retiring from the office he was twice re-elected, but refused to qualify. Certainly no higher testimonial of his capability could be given than the fact of his re-election. When sixteen years of age he became a member of the Disciples church, and when the organization in his neighborhood dis- banded he joined the Lutheran church, in which he has almost continuously held office, acting as superintendent of the Sunday-school for thirty years. His wife is also a member and they are earnest Christian people, deeply in- terested in the growth of Christianity and the moral development of the race.
As before stated, Mr. Weasner is the owner of a very fine farm. He owns nearly four hundred acres, of which one hundred and sixty acres is rich river-bottom land, very fertile and productive. He raises wheat, corn and oats, the average production of wheat being from twenty to twenty-eight bushels per acre, while fifty bushels of shelled corn to the acre is the produc- tion of said land. He has kept from sixty to sixty-five head of high-grade shorthorn cattle and some thoroughbreds, and he has from twenty-five to thirty head of hogs and from four to fourteen horses. He has good buildings for the shelter of grain and stock, and in 1897 he erected his present attractive residence, a two-story structure containing ten large rooms, with a cellar under the entire house. The cellar is divided into six apartments, for vari- ous purposes, one room containing a large furnace, which heats the entire house. The residence is finished throughout in quarter-sawed oak and is richly and tastefully furnished. In fact it is one of the best country homes in Ohio, and is a monument to the life of industry and enterprise of the owner. For many years Mr. Weasner, generally speaking, devoted his energies to his
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business affairs, but at the same time he gave consideratble attention to other matters, including the performance of official and public duties. In addition to serving as justice of the peace, as hereinbefore mentioned, he was post- master of his village (Frederick) during the administration of James Bu- chanan; on his return from the army he was elected and commissioned cap- tain of the militia of Berlin township, and served in that capacity until that office was discontinued by the state; he served as coroner of Mahoning county one term and was again nominated for that office by his party, but declined to accept. He has also settled twelve different estates, including the Forder estates, which were involved in litigation for nine years, and included real property of eleven hundred acres in Mr. Weasner's neighbor- hood. In all of life's relations he has been found true and faithful to the trust reposed in him, never taking advantage of the necessities of his fellow men in the slightest degree, and while he has won prosperity he has also gained an honored name.
JOHN LOMAX.
This gentleman, after a long and fruitful life of eighty years, in which he has engaged in several pursuits by which to gain a livelihood, principally in mining, has retired, and spends his remaining days in peace and quiet in Lowellville, Mahoning county, Ohio. His ancestors were of the sturdy yeomen of England, and William Lomax, his grandfather, was a native of Duxbury, England. He, as well as his son and grandson, was a coal miner, and by his wife, Elizabeth Wignall, reared five sons and four daughters; he died when about seventy years old, in 1846. Henry Lomax, one of the above sons, was born November 5, 1797, in Duxbury, England, and on reaching manhood married Nancy Fisher, who became the mother of two children; one of these, William, met his death in 1848 from a fire in a mine, in his twenty-fourth year, and left a widow and three children.
The other son of these parents was John Lomax, who was born in Dux- bury, Lancashire, England, January 10, 1823. He was only eight years old when he went to work in the mines, and the highest wages he received up to his sixteenth year was two dollars and a quarter per week, while he never was paid more than seven dollars and a half while he remained in England. He married and some years later sailed for America, embarking on September 12, 1854, and landing in New York forty-six days later. His destination according to his ticket was Philadelphia, and when he arrived there he had small means and few effects, his bedding having been stolen enroute. He still recalls how despondent he felt when he left his wife and children with only twelve cents in money and went to work in the mines in Minersville,-
John Sommar and Wife
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although those early hardships and privations throw an appreciative glow of contentment around his present better fortune. He walked four miles to the mines and was then given a job by the foreman, who chanced to be an Eng- lishman. He then returned for his family and was soon at work at fair wages. In 1856 he went from Minersville to Hornersville, near Pittsburg, thence to Sixmile Ferry, and from February to September 9, 1857, he was in Mckeesport; from that time till 1865 he lived at Syracuse, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and from there removed to East Palestine, Ohio, where his first wife died on June 12, 1866. He soon afterward came to Lowellville and worked in the mines and quarries until December 2, 1867, when he re- turned to England for his present wife. Returning early in the following year, he worked in the iron mines for a few months, but having made a small investment of one hundred and twenty-five dollars in a tinshop before going to England, he took up his business in his store and shop. He added hard- ware and groceries to his establishment and made a success of his ventures until in 1899 he retired with a competency sufficient to keep him in comfort for the rest of his days. Besides his nice brick residence in the center of the town, he owns various other properties in the city. He once lost by fire three thousand dollars' worth of buildings, but his prosperity has steadily in- creased, and today there is no more respected citizen in Lowellville than Mr. John Lomax.
Mr. Lomax was first married in England, April 14, 1845, to Margaret Taylor, and when she died she left four sons and three daughters of the eleven children born to her. The four now living are: Thirza, the wife of Thomas Planton of Lowellville, four children living; Ann is the wife of Almond Webb of Warren, Ohio, and has one daughter; Alpheus lives at Danville, Illinois, and has three sons and four daughters; and Eliab of Youngstown has a sec- ond wife and has one son and three daughters. When Mr. Lomax returned to England he married his cousin, Alace Lomax, the ceremony taking place December 26, 1867, in St. George's church. She was born April 25, 1835, and is the daughter of John and Alice (Morris) Lomax; the former was a sawyer in the days when lumber was cut by the whipsaw, with one man above the log and the other below. She has proved an excellent helpmate to her husband and appears much younger than she really is, performing all her household duties with case and tenderly caring for her husband, who is now rather infirm. By this marriage two sons and one daughter were born. William died March 2, 1885; Ralph Morris is a railroad conductor at Ash- tabula, Ohio, and has a wife and one son; Maud is the wife of Howard Pyle and is the mother of two sons and one daughter. This is a most estimable family, and all seem to have inherited the excellent traits of their parents.
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GEORGE WESLEY ASHBAUGH.
As the potteries have been a prime factor in building up East Liverpool and adding to its population, those prominently connected with these useful industries are deserving of special notice in any history dealing with the developments of eastern Ohio. These potteries have attracted people from all over the world and have given employment to many thousands, it being the custom in this as in other lines of the mechanic arts, that the son followed the pursuit of the father, and taught the same to his own descendants, so going on for generations. The gentleman whose name is above given, and whose life history is now to be traced, is a sample of this general rule, as he is not only a potter himself, but the son of a life-long potter. Commencing at the lowest rung of the ladder, Mr. Ashbaugh rose gradually but steadily through the various grades until at present he holds the presidency of one of the im- portant pottery companies of Columbiana county.
The family is supposed to have originated in Holland, from which coun- try John Ashbaugh emigrated many years ago, found his way to Ohio and ended his days at East Liverpool. His son, Samuel Ashbaugh, was born in East Liverpool, March 25, 1824, became a potter after he grew up and worked at that trade until his death in 1899. In 1864 he enlisted in the Ohio National Guard for the hundred days' service, but being unfit for the field, spent most of his time as a nurse in the hospital at the national capital. He was a Methodist in religion, first a Whig then a Republican in politics and held membership in the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He married Narcissa, daughter of John Knowles, and their nine children are thus recorded in the family register: Eliza J., wife of M. Soudders; Cath- erine died in infancy; George W. and Nimrod T .; Rachel C., wife of Richard Till; Sarah M., wife of Benjamin Bishop; Ella, deceased wife of Clarence Laird; Narcissa Florence, wife of James White; and John A., who died at the age of eighteen years.
George Wesley Ashbaugh who, as will be seen from the above enum- erated list, was the third of the children in age, was born at East Liverpool, Ohio, August 22, 1848, and in infancy went with his parents to live on a farm in Pike county. When nine years old he returned to his native place and was engaged in the Knowles & Harvey Pottery as straw-boy, later getting promotion to the packing and subsequently to the shipping departments. Eventually he was employed as traveling salesman, in which capacity he spent four years, the firm name in the meantime having been changed to Knowles, Taylor & Knowles. The foregoing services covered a period of twenty-eight consecutive years and at the end of that time Mr. Ashbaugh de-
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cided to go into business on his own account. In 1889 he joined others in forming the Sebring Pottery Company, in which he held his interest three years, and then disposed of the same. In 1892 he was one of the stockholders in the organization of the West End Pottery Company, of which he was made president, and has since continued to hold that position.
In May, 1864, Mr. Ashbaugh enlisted in the Ohio National Guard as a musician and after serving one hundred and eighteen days was honorably discharged. On April 16, 1871, he was united in marriage with Mary H., daughter of James A. W. and Elizabeth J. (Ruth) Koonz, from which union four children were born, the two survivors being Charles C., secretary and treasurer of the West End Pottery Company, and Ada B. Mr. Ash- baugh served for four years as a representative in the city council from the fourth ward of East Liverpool. His religious affiliations are with the Metho- dist Episcopal church and his fraternal connections with the Elks, Odd Fel- lows and General Lyons Post No. 9, G. A. R.
D. E. McNICOL.
In the cosmopolitan life of America all nations are on equal footing. And to the worthy emigrants from Europe we owe some of our best citizens. Among the descendants of the hardy Irish we find Daniel E. McNicol. a prominent and representative citizen of eastern Ohio.
The grandfather of our subject was John McNicol, and he was born in Ireland, meeting death by drowning at an early age. His son, John McNicol, was born in county Donegal Ireland, in 1822, and in early boyhood went to Glasgow, Scotland, where he learned the potter's trade. There he married Mary McCarron and in 1848 emigrated to America, settling in East Liverpool, Ohio. In 1869 he started a pottery in a small way and continued his increasing business for ten years, when he retired, leaving the business to his son. His death occurred in 1882 and his wife died in 1880.
The son of the above and the subject of this brief history, Daniel E. McNicol, was born in East Liverpool in 1856. His education was received in the public schools and was supplemented by a course in Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. After completing his education he entered the pottery company of which his father was a member, the McNicol, Burton & Company, first as a clerk, but later, in 1879, as stated above, suc- ceeded his father. In 1892 the company was incorporated as the D. E. McNicol Pottery Company, of which he became president. This company has constantly increased its business and is now one of the leading potteries of the state.
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In 1881 Mr. McNicol was married in Liverpool to Hanora Cronin, and they have the following children: Mary, Anna, John, Hugh, Daniel and Cornelius. Mr. McNicol has always been interested in the affairs of his town and served for two years on the city sewer committee. He is a member of the Republican party; his church membership is in the Roman Catholic church.
JOHN J. PURINTON.
This gentleman, long and favorably known at East Liverpool on ac- count of his influential connection with the legal, banking and other business interests of the city, is well worthy of a prominent place in any history of eastern Ohio. During his residence of twenty-seven years his life has been an active as well as useful one, especially in connection with affairs of in- terest to the pottery industries and their army of workers, with whom he has been identified in the most intimate way since his arrival over a quarter of a century ago. The various stages of his activities will be given in detail later on, but meantime a word or two is necessary concerning the family's genealogical history, which is ancient and honorable. It commences in America with two brothers who emigrated from London, England, early in the eighteenth century, one of them settling in Massachusetts and the other in Maine. Jonathan Purinton, a descendant of one of these brothers and great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1732 and died February 9, 1818. In 1756 he was married to Elizabeth Chase, by whom he had two sons, Chase and James. The latter was born in New Hampshire, July 10, 1764, and was married three times. By his first wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Powell, and whom he espoused November 26, 1790, he had three children : John, born in 1793; Jacob, born in 1795 ; and Jonathan, born in 1796. His second wife was Mary Challis, whose only child died in infancy. The third marriage, which occurred in 1804, was with Phoebe Felch, who had four children, of whom one died in infancy and three grew to maturity. The latter were Nathan B., born in 1805; Elizabeth, born in 1812; and James E., born in 1818.
Jonathan Purinton, third son of the first marriage above described, was born at Kensington, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, in 1796, removed to Marietta, Ohio, in 1818, and at a later date settled in Vinton county. For two years, commencnig in 1822, he was employed in the gov- ernment service teaching the Indians of the Choctaw nation the art of work- ing in iron. Returning to Vinton county, he spent some years there and in 1842 removed to East Liverpool, where his death occurred in 1882.
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January 28, 1828, he married Julia A. Booth, who died in September, 1834, leaving a three year old child named Charles B. By a second marriage, contracted in 1836 with Margaret Riley, he had four children: Mary A., who died in 1858 at the age of eighteen years; Jonathan J., who was born in 1842; Margaret J., who became the wife of Thomas Worcestor and died in 1902; and George W., who died in infancy in 1851. Charles B. Purinton, only child of his father by the first marriage, was born in Vinton county, Ohio, in 1831, became a steamboat engineer after reaching his majority, and is at present living at East Liverpool. In 1860 he was united in mar- riage with Mary Negley, by whom he had six children: John J .; William H .; George F .; Charlotte, wife of John Durbin; Charles A .; and Gertrude E., wife of Fred A. Nichols.
John J. Purinton, eldest of the children last enumerated, was born at Warsaw, Hancock county, Illinois, in 1862 and remained at that place until the thirteenth year of his age, when he came with his parents to East Liver- pool. He went through the public schools here, graduating in the class of 1879. Compelled to help earn a living, in September, 1879, he was employed as invoice clerk in the office of the William Brunt Pottery Company and remaining with that firm during the subsequent four years, meantime being made bookkeeper, which place he held at the time of resigning. In 1883 he was elected city clerk, served in that office four years and during this period employed his leisure time in the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1887, and since that date has practiced his profession, more or less, when his time was not employed in other business engagements. In 1887 Mr. Purinton organized the East Liverpool Building and Loan As- sociation, of which he was made secretary, and two years later, in 1889, he organized the Potter's Building and Savings Company, which has grown to be the leading and largest financial institution in the city, having over $1,700,000 of assets, and over five thousand accounts on its books. He was retained as secretary of the new organization. At present he is a director of the East Liverpool Potteries Company, a corporation of which Mr. Purin- ton was one of the principal figures in organizing, and which is a continua- tion of what was formerly the East End Pottery Company, the Elbe Pottery Company, the Wallace & Chetuyna Pottery Company, the George C. Murphy Pottery Company, the East Liverpool Pottery Company, and the United States Pottery Company. Mr. Purinton is a member of the Carnegie Library Board and for many years was one of the directors of the Potter's National Bank, and is at present vice president of the Ohio League of Building and Loan Associations, an organization representing over $105,000,000 of in-
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vested capital in this state. Several years ago he was elected to the East Liverpool city council, and during his term acted as president of that body.
In 1887 Mr. Purinton was united in marriage with Miss Mary L., daughter of Bernard Walker, and his three children are Bernard S., Allen C. and Miriam L. It will be seen from the foregoing particulars that Mr. Purinton comes from good stock, his ancestors for generations being people of worth and respectability, and that he himself has proved worthy of the line by contributing of his time and means to worthy enterprises and to assisting in building up his community.
JAMES B. GORDON.
This gentleman is one of the few model bachelors of the world, and his system of housekeeping in the little home on section 23, Coitsville town- ship, might furnish an example to many a lady who considers herself an expert in this branch of domestic activity. He is the son of John Gordon, a native of Holland, who came to this country in 1846. He had owned a small farm in the old country and when he came here he had considerable means, but was fleeced out of it all by sharpers in America. He first settled in Buffalo, New York, and for four years was employed in a lead factory. About 1850 he moved to Lowellville, Ohio, and obtained work in the little iron furnace at that place, which had a capacity of three tons per day, and later in one which could make eight tons a day. He afterward removed to Youngstown, but receiving an injury there in a furnace, he was ordered by his physician to seek some other employment; accordingly, in 1864 he bought thirty-one and a half acres in what is now East Youngstown, where he lived and farmed until his death, which occurred February 6, 1883, when he was almost seventy-six years old. He and his wife were members of the German Protestant church and were numbered among the most respected citizens of the county. He lost his first wife in Buffalo, and in 1847 he was again mar- ried, to Miss Jane Gertrude Young, also a native of Holland, who survived him many years and died July 21, 1902, aged eighty-two years. Of this union there were seven children : William lives on a part of the old place and has two daughters and two sons; Sarah is the wife of Alexander Treaster, in this township, and has two sons and two daughters; Henrietta Spangle- hour lives in this township and has three children; the fourth is James B .; Mrs. Elizabeth G. Chapman lives in Struthers; John A., who lives in this township, has one son and one daughter ; Mary J. Maust resides in this town- ship and has two daughters.
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