USA > Ohio > Genealogical and family history of eastern Ohio > Part 5
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Mr. McNabb was married to Miss Louise Maria Montgomery, a native of Haselton and a daughter of Lewis W. and Isabelle (Cubbison) Mont- gomery. Randall Morris McNabb is the only child and was born January 14, 1898. Mr. McNabb usually votes the Republican ticket, but on the Citizens' ticket he was elected the first treasurer of Struthers. He and his wife are Presbyterians with their membership in the United Presbyterian church in Struthers, having been formerly members of the First Presby- terian church in Youngstown.
LEMUEL T. FOSTER.
It is a source of considerable gratification to every man who, besides mak- ing a creditable record in life for himself, can point to a long line of ances- tors who have likewise been good and worthy members of society; for, as Carlyle has so well expressed it, the elements of hero-worship are strong with us all, taking form in many different ways, especially in reverence for those of the same blood who have gone before. Colonel Lemuel T. Foster, the well known and prominent citizen of Mahoning county, is de- scended on both his paternal and maternal sides from men and women of worth and eminence.
Going back as far as possible on the paternal side, Mr. Foster finds substantial record of the fact that his great-grandfather Timothy was an Englishman, came to this country long before the Revolution, and he and six of his sons were soldiers in that war. One of these sons was Richard,
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who was born near Boston or Salem, Massachusetts. He was one of the "minute men" in the battle of Lexington, Bunker Hill, and other conflicts. Soon after the war he moved to eastern New York and bought one thousand acres of land in Washington county, two hundred and fifty acres of which came as a legacy to the father of Lemuel, and part of it remains in the fam- ily to this day. Before leaving Massachusetts he had married a Miss Titus, and they reared six sons and three daughters ; the sons all married and had families, and the daughters, Huldah, Sibyl and Lydia, lived past middle life. One of the sons, Richard, settled in Ottawa, Canada; another, Samuel, in Ithaca, New York; and one, Titus, in the Black river country of New York.
The son of the above family in whom the reader is particularly interested is Jonas, who was born in Hebron, Washington county, New York, May 18, 1792. He grew up here, and when the war of 1812 broke out he joined the army as a fife major, was several times promoted, and served in the naval campaign on Lake Champlain. He then settled down on the two hun- dred and fifty acre tract which his father had given him, and was soon after- ward married. Not long after this event he traded his land for some in the Black river country, where his brother Titus had located before him. After farming here for awhile he sold out in 1823, was a tenant farmer near Roches- ter for about a year, and on August 31, 1825, arrived in Youngstown, Ohio, having made the journey in emigrant style. This was a village at that time of only a few log houses, and the first venture which he tried was the running of two sawmills, also buying and selling some realty. From the product of these mills he soon after erected one of the first frame houses in the neigh- borhood, and to this day Colonel Foster has a recollection of how that was done. The lumber was sawed at his father's' mill, the nails were made at the blacksmith shops in Youngstown, and the "house-raising" was partici- pated in by all the neighbors. Jonas Foster purchased, in 1852, one hundred and fifty-one and a quarter acres of land in the vicinity of Youngstown, paying five thousand dollars for it, and he then settled down to pass the remainder of his days in farm work. He was one of the men who will be long remem- bered in Mahoning county for his early identification with its interests. He was a strong Whig until that party was merged into the Republican body, for which he cast his vote till his death, which occurred when he was nearly ninety-two years of age, January 8, 1883. On June 29, 1820. he had married Miss Lavina Pierce, and this brings us to a consideration of the maternal branch of the family, which presents some very celebrated charac- ters.
Lavina Pierce was the daughter of Abraham and Lavina (Stoddard)
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Pierce. Her mother was the sister of the mother of the famous William Tecumseh and John Sherman, while Abraham Pierce was the uncle of Frank- lin Pierce, the president of the United States. The Stoddard family, as is well authenticated, goes back to the time of William the Conqueror, there appearing this note in a record in the office of heraldry in England: "Wil- liam Stoddard, a knight, came from Normandy to England in 1066, A. D. with William the Conqueror, who was his cousin." The line then is traced to the American progenitor, Anthony Stoddard, who in 1639 came to America and located near Boston. He was in the general council in 1650, 1659 and 1660, and for twenty successive years thereafter. There is at present in the possession of the family an original deed of parchment which conveys a grant to Phillip Stoddard and another gentleman, is dated the 20th of August 1662, and is signed by King Charles II and other dignitaries of the realm. And another interesting fact connected with the history of the family which Colonel Foster has unearthed by his diligent genealogical research, is a legal claim to three hundred acres of land in London, an untold fortune, but of course there are so many complications that it can hardly be regained. Many are the honored representatives of this house, and any book of American biography will contain some names which are connected with the Stoddards, but one in particular, Amos Stoddard, Lavina Pierce's uncle, deserves a few words. He was a soldier in the war of independence from 1779 till the close, then clerk of the supreme court in Boston, was a lawyer in Maine for a few years, became by appointment from President Jefferson the commissioner to Napoleon Bonapart to exchange the treatise between the United States and France in relation to the Louisiana Purchase, and then on his return was appointed governor of the territory of Louisiana, in 1804-05; was made a major in the army, took part in the war of 1812, and at the siege of Fort Meigs in 1813 received a wound which resulted in his death. He was a literary man, and among his works may be mentioned "Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana," "The Political Crisis," and his papers are at present in the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio. Lavina Stoddard and Abraham Pierce were married in Norwich, Connecti- cut, about 1794, and two children whom they reared were Lavina and Stoddard.
Lavina Pierce was born in Otsego county, New York, December 13, 1797, and grew up in the home of her aunt in Norwich, Connecticut, her mother having died in 1797. By her marriage to Mr. Foster she became the mother of seven children, as follows: Abby Phoebe, born in Johnstown, New York, July 10, 1821, married October 31, 1839, George H. Haskell,
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and is now a widow living in Portland, Oregon; Delia L. was born in the same place as her sister, January 28, 1823, was married to Josiah Dunlap, and died December 10, 1860; the next in order of birth was Lemuel T .; Adaline D., born in Youngstown, March 14, 1827, married E. W. Wood, an officer in the Civil war, and both are deceased; Sarah Stoddard, born March 17, 1829, became the wife of James W. Eckman, later of Benjamin McNutt, and is now a widow at Boardman; Laura Amanda, born August 27, 1831, married Clarke Wood, and died in 1886; the last one of the family, Orinda S., born November 18, 1841, is the wife of James Crandon at Niles, Ohio.
These converging lines of families come together in Colonel Lemuel T. Foster, who was born near Rochester, New York, October 23, 1824, and was brought by his parents, in 1825, at the age of ten months, to Mahoning county, Ohio. He was reared in Mahoning county, enjoyed good educational advan- tages, and was later employed for several years as a teacher in the village schools. He was a boyhood friend of the lamented Mckinley and still loves to tell of the days when they went fishing together in Mill creek, near where he now lives. He remained at home until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he aided in organizing the first Ohio Cavalry, being elected colonel; but this regiment was disbanded for lack of supplies from the government, and he then enlisted in Company I, Seventeenth Ohio Infantry, being elected captain. He was in the south most of the time, engaged in recruiting colored troops, and was at the taking of Island No. 10. Returning from the war he set- tled down to farming and stock-raising, which has occupied his attention for the greater part of his life. He owns some valuable tracts of land in the vicinity of Youngstown, and under most of it are rich deposits of coal. He was the organizer of the Foster Coal Company, and in the prosecution of this enterprise one of his strong traits of character came out. He had made a contract that the company should continue its prospecting for coal until he should be willing to stop. Already a number of holes had been sunk to the depth of about one hundred and seventy-five feet, and when his company had reached the depth of two hundred and twenty feet, they wanted to give it up; but he persevered, notwithstanding the grumblings of the wise- heads, and at the depth of two hundred and fifty-four feet a vein of splendid coal six feet thick was found, a block of which took the gold medal at the Centennial in Philadelphia. Many thousands of tons of coal have been taken from these lands, and Mr. Foster has derived a handsome revenue from it.
He has been active in political circles, has been identified successively with the Whigs, Republicans, Greenbackers and Populists, was in the con- vention that nominated Fremont for the presidency, was in the state conven-
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tion that nominated Salmon P. Chase for governor, was a delegate in the first county convention ever held in Mahoning county, in 1877 was nominated for Congress by the Greenback party, being defeated by only a narrow mar- gin, was again up for the same office in 1878 and 1880, and was the Populists' choice in 1891 for the Senate; he has been prominent in many other ways in public life, and is now independent in politics.
On March II, 1869, Colonel Foster was married to Florence E. Lan- terman, the daughter of German and Sally Ann (Wood) Lanterman, and she was born in 1843, near Youngstown. Una L., their first child, was born December 15, 1869, and is the widow of Hosea W. Simon, one son and one daughter being the result of this union; Ina Wood, who was born July II, 1871, is the wife of John Kennedy and has one daughter. Mrs. Foster died June 19, 1873, and on September 1I, 1878, Mr. Foster married Susannah B. Alexander, who was born March 28, 1848, of William and Elizabeth (Baird) Alexander. The Alexanders are connected with Revolutionary ante- cedents, various members of the family have been conspicuous in different parts of the country and in public and private life, and William Alexander was a large iron manufacturer in Pittsburg. The children who have been born of this second marriage of Mr. Foster are as follows: Charles L., who will graduate in the class of 1903 from the Case School of Applied Science at Cleveland and is preparing for the profession of civil and electrical en- gineer ; Lida L. and Alice Wood are both graduates of the Rayen high school in Youngstown, spent a year in the Laselle School in Boston and are now attending Oberlin College; Grace B. and Bessie B. are at home and are students in the high school, the former to graduate in 1904 and the latter in 1906. All these are taking lessons on the piano and violin except Lida, and are very accomplished and charming young women. Alice seems to inherit the talent and wonderful memory of Amos Stoddard, and Lida is an able elocutionist.
Mr. and Mrs. Foster reside in a beautiful home, and it is not only adorned with the ordinary furnishings of comfort, but there are arrayed on the walls many rare and interesting relics of the early history of the family, and curiosi- ties which have come from all parts of the world, tapestries from Japan and other articles from the orient. Besides the deed which has been described in a preceding paragraph there is an interesting letter from Major Stoddard to the Colonel's grandmother, Lavina Pierce, which is dated June 16, 1804, at St. Louis, and in which he describes the six hundred dollar dinner given in honor of the Spanish and French embassies and officers. The wallets in which this letter and other papers are contained are over two hundred
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and eighty years old and were brought to this country by Anthony Stod- dard. Another article of interest is four bills of continental currency amount- ing to thirty dollars, which were paid to grandfather Richard Stoddard for his services in the Revolutionary war, priceless heirlooms to be treasured by all succeeding generations. Mr. Foster owns a library of over three thousand volumes, one of the best selected and largest private collections in the state. Surrounded by all these comforts, happy in the affection of his wife and children, satisfied with the part he has played in the past in business, social and political life, Mr. Foster may well be termed one of the world's for- tunates, who has never lost his luck in life, and is passing his old age in quiet and peace.
JAMES A. COOPER.
Among the substantial men of Youngstown, Ohio, is James A. Cooper, a native of Coitsville, Mahoning county, Ohio, where the greater part of his life has been spent. He was born October II, 1845, and is a son of David Cooper, Jr., and a grandson of David Cooper, who was born in 1762, in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. Later he moved to Maryland and in 1798 came to Coitsville with the first band of surveyors sent out. So pleased was he with the locality that in 1800 he returned to settle and pur- chased four hundred acres of heavy timber land, and cleared up a fine farm, a part of which is still owned by his descendants. In 1806 David Cooper, Sr., married Rebecca Armstrong, of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, who at this time was aged twenty years. They reared eleven of their twelve chil- dren, six sons and five daughters, as follows: James, who served in the Mexican war and died in California, unmarried; Jane, who died in Coits- ville, at the age of seventy years ; John, who died at the age of eighty years; Rebecca, who died at the age of forty years: Sarah, who died aged forty- five years; David, who died aged sixty-six years; Eliza, who died aged seventy years; Mary, who died aged twenty years; William, who resides in Coitsville, aged seventy-seven years and has six living children; Robert, who died at the age of seventy years, leaving four children ; and Armstrong, who died at the age of thirty years, in Kansas, unmarried. David Cooper died in 1855, having reached the age of ninety-four years. Our subject was the oldest grandchild, and one of his cherished possessions is an ambro- type of his venerable grandsire and himself, taken about 1854.
David Cooper, Jr., was born in February, 1819, in Coitsville, on the old home farm. In 1844 he married Jemima Rany, who was born Septem- ber 25, 1829, in Poland township, and was a daughter of Alexander and
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Nancy (Dickson) Rany, the former of whom was accidentally killed by a fall from a tree, a large family surviving. A family of four children were born to this union, and of these, one died in infancy and Rebecca died at the age of eight years. The two survivors are James A., of Youngstown, and his sister Mary A., who is the wife of V. C. McFarlin, also of Youngs- town. The father engaged in agricultural pursuits almost all his life, living on the old farm which his father settled and enjoying the shade of trees which were but poplar switches when set out by his father, taken from the old home in the east and brought here on horseback. David Cooper pros- pered and became one of the worthy and responsible men of his locality. His wife was consistent in her membership in the Presbyterian church and he accompanied her and liberally contributed to its support. He died in No- vember, 1885, but his wife survived until August, 1898, when she was in her seventy-third year.
James A. Cooper was educated in the Coitsville schools and spent a few terms at the Mahoning Academy at Canfield, which was then the county seat, and then taught school for one term. On October 3, 1870, he was united in marriage to one of his fair pupils, Miss Alice Kirk Jacobs, who was born July 16, 1848, and who was a daughter of Nicholas and Phebe (Kirk) Jacobs, the former of whom was born in Beaver county, Pennsyl- vania, and the latter was a native of Coitsville. The mother of Mrs. Cooper died young, leaving five or six children. Mr. Jacobs married three times and had either six or seven children by each marriage and reared all but one. He died in 1881, aged seventy years. The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper are: David N., who for the past twelve years has been a clerk in the Wick National Bank at Youngstown, has a wife and one little daugh- ter; Sarah L., who is the wife of Hon. W. J. Williams, of Youngstown, has one daughter: Sheldon Dill, who is in the Ohio State University, in the class of 1905; and Helen Mildred, a bright student in the local schools.
Mr. Cooper has spent the main part of his life as a farmer in Coitsville township and held many of the responsible offices there, and to him no small amount of credit is due in making it the banner township in the county. He served as township clerk and as justice of the peace, and for a period of fifty years no man was indicted there; there are no saloons there, and so honest and upright is every resident that Mr. Cooper never found it neces- sary to even lock his granary. Mr. Cooper spent one year at Battle Creek, Michigan, and two years at Hazelton, and early in the winter of 1903 came to Youngstown to occupy his residence at 239 Spring street. He was one of the founders and is still the leading stockholder in the Struthers Gear
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Works, one of the leading industrial plants of the county, which is in a very prosperous condition.
In politics Mr. Cooper votes usually independent of party lines, although his leanings are toward Democracy. He is a thirty-second degree Mason. For fifty years he has attended the Coitsville Presbyterian church, and for thirty-five years was chorister there. Mrs. Cooper is a member of the same church. His residence in Youngstown has not been of long duration, and his old friends in Coitsville were loth to part with him and family, but the citizens of his present place of residence will do well to use every en- deavor to retain so estimable a man in their midst as James A. Cooper.
MERVIN WESLEY KING.
Mervin Wesley King, a very prominent citizen of Berlin Center, be- longs to one of the old pioneer families of this part of Ohio. He was born January 16, 1853, in Berlin township, and is a son of David King, who was born December 20, 1825, in this township, and was a son of Jonathan King, who was born January 5, 1804, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania ; Jonathan was a son of George King, a son of Jonathan King, the latter of whom died aged ninety years. The grandfather of our subject died in Ber- lin township in 1896, aged ninety-two years. In 1825 he married Lydia Keck and they reared two sons and five daughters; of these, Joseph is a resi- dent of this county; Susannah, widow of John Shively of Berlin township; Hannah, widow of ex-Auditor Hughes of Youngstown; and Sarah, wife of Richard Engle of Kansas. The grandmother died February 2, 1875, and both grandparents were interred in the Lutheran cemetery. Grandfather King was a man of much stability of character, and the limits of this sketch prevent doing him justice. At the age of twelve years the death of his father made his widowed mother dependent upon him, and instead of going to school he was obliged to labor for her support. He was a man of great natural ability, and although he did not learn to read or write until after his marriage, he then became proficient both in English and German, and later one of the best posted men in the county. It was the desire to assist his mother that prompted him to seek employment in Ohio, and with others he arrived in Springfield township, Mahoning county, in 1820, and here he lived until his death, at which time he was the oldest man in the township. In 1826 he located in Berlin township, where he accumulated a considerable fortune. He was known as a horseman and reinsman, operating a six-horse team on two routes, one from Pittsburg to Cleveland and one to the mouth of the Huron river. He was also captain
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of the local guardsmen until they disbanded. Both he and wife belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran church. His second vote was cast for General Jackson, but from 1856 to 1881 he voted with the Republicans, at which latter date his strong temperance principles took him into the ranks of the Prohibition party.
The mother of our subject, Mary (Smith) King, was born August 2, 1831, and is a daughter of Dr. and Levina (Caldwell) Smith, who were married November 9, 1825. Mrs. King died January 29, 1892, aged sixty- five years, but David King yet survives in the enjoyment of good health. Their marriage took place March 25, 1852, and a family of six children were born to them, as follows: Mervin W .; Clarke, born in 1855, died in 1871 ; Frank M., a physician in Damascus, with whom his father resides; George Lincoln, a specialist physician at Alliance; Ida Fidelia, wife of Clarence Cover, who resides on the old Smith homestead; and Lavina Lydia, who died an infant in 1876.
Mervin Wesley King obtained a good district school education, and after one year spent in the Mount Union College was graduated in the commercial department and later taught one winter term of school. During his younger years he spent some time in the cultivation of a marked musical talent. On June 12, 1877, he was united in marriage to Sarah A. Hard- grove, who is a daughter of George Hardgrove, a farmer of Stark county, and one of the early settlers of this section of the state. Mr. Hardgrove's death occurred May 20, 1902, in his eighty-first year, and he is survived by his widow, who was seventy-five years old in July, 1902; they reared two of their three children, Mrs. King, and Martin, who is in the furniture and undertaking business at Doylestown, Wayne county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. King have but one child, Clarence Martin, a young man of fine busi- ness ability, who is associated with his father in his many business interests. It has been noted that Mr. and Mrs. King and their son are "all young folks together."
Mr. King resides on his farm of eighty-five acres, which his grand- father homesteaded more than fifty years ago. In 1880 he embarked in the lumber business and has a large sawmill, feed mill and planing mill, which he runs by steam power. This part of the business he conducts while his wife and son manage the farm and operate a large dairy on the most improved plans. Here they use the milk of a fine herd of Jersey cows, and have a fine milk-house, built over a never-failing spring of soft water. They have had the water piped into their comfortable farm residence and thus enjoy many advantages which are not usually found in rural homes.
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In politics Mr. King has been a life-long Republican. He is a man of prominence and responsibility, as shown by his election to the position of township trustee, in which he has proved himself a very capable official. For a number of years he has been a leading member of the Methodist church and has taken a very active part in its services, as class leader, steward and trustee, and is now the Sunday-school superintendent. There are few fam- ilies in Berlin Center who are more prominent in social, business or religious life.
WALTER A. BEECHER.
The hope of the republic is in its public-spirited citizens, and when any community is plentifully supplied with these, this being true in a national as well as a local sense, the foul breath of publc scandal never rises to be- smirch its fair name. There is no reason in ethics why public office should not be a public trust, and the contrary is true only when there is a dearth of citizens who are non-participants in the public life of their community. The realization of the truth of this sentiment here expressed is responsible for the position which Walter A. Beecher holds in the esteem of his fellow townsmen, a position secure because he has demonstrated that a public trust is as sacred as one of a private nature.
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