History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 82

Author: Baughman, A. J. (Abraham J.), 1838-1913. cn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1012

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FRANCIS VANTILBURG.

For upwards of a century and a half the Vantilburgs have been connected with the farming interests of the state of Ohio and in addition to their valuable accessions to its commercial progress its members have also patriotically devoted themselves to sustaining the dignity of the nation as a world power and given of their martial forces to the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Henry Vantilburg, a native of Holland and grandfather of Francis, settled at New Holland, New Jersey. He served with the Minute Men in the Colonial army during the war for American independence and participated in the battles of Monmouth and Trenton. One day while he was in the army his wife was standing in the doorway of their home with a baby in her arms when she was shot by a Hessian soldier of the British army without provocation. Later he married Julia Ann Sunderland, a native of New Jersey. For his military service he was paid in colonial money, which proved to be of no value and he was left penniless. At the close of the war he came to Ohio and located near Somerset, where he resided until called from this life. He was one of the early pioneers of this state, where he cleared land and like his fellow settlers he resided in a log cabin of his own construction, there rearing a large family. He was known to be a man of great industry and at the time of his death, which occurred in his ninety-seventh year, he left a large and valuable estate. He cleared two large farms and became one of the leading men of the township in which he lived.

Henry Vantilburg, father of the subject of this review, was born in Jefferson county, this state, in 1778, and was noted for his uprightness and integrity, passing his entire life without any business differences necessitating recourse to

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law. With the exception of the money he paid to have his will drawn he never expended a cent for legal fees and this indubitably proves his sterling qualities of character. During the war of 1812 he was drafted but the cares of his farm being so pressing he was unable to enter the military service and gave the best horse he owned to a substitute. He located in this section of the state in pioneer days and it fell to him to clear the land he cultivated. After he had succeeded in transforming his claims into productive fields he was compelled to carry his grain to Mount Vernon, a distance of fifty miles, this being his nearest mill. In those days there were few sawmills and consequently one could not obtain boards with which to make their buildings. Mr. Vantilburg constructed a barn out of hewn logs and, desiring to have upon it a shingled roof, he was compelled to go ten miles in order to get the nails, in payment for which he traded wheat that he carried on horseback, giving one bushel of grain for two pounds of nails. The latter were very expensive at that time in as much as they were made by hand and it was necessary to hammer them one at a time. He spent his entire life in the pursuit of agriculture. His wife was Jennie Shaw, a native of Virginia, born in 1788 on the York river. She came to Jefferson county, this state, when a girl, with her father, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. By her Mr. Vantilburg had a family of ten children, but the only survivors are : Henry, born in 1821; and Francis, born January 20, 1829.

On the home farm Francis Vantilburg worked until he attained the age of maturity, in the meantime acquiring his education in the village schools. Later he engaged with his father in cultivating the land on shares and upon the death of his parents in 1862 he sold the estate of which he was administrator and pur- chased his present farm in Milton township, Ashland county, where he has since resided, cultivating one hundred and sixty acres. His specialty is sheep raising and wool growing and during the past forty-five years he has sold forty-five thousand pounds of wool and many thousand dollars worth of sheep. He breeds from the finest specimens of the Merino type, of which he keeps on hand about two hundred head. Aside from sheep raising Mr. Vantilburg is also interested in horse breeding and buys and ships registered stock, at the same time paying some attention to breeding mules, which animals he handled exten- sively during the Civil war and disposed of quite a number of head for use in military service.

In 1855 Mr. Vantilburg was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Shipley, of Ashland county, who is still living, and they are the parents of four children, one son and three daughters, namely : Mary Ida, now the wife of Frank Masters, of Ashland; Jennie the wife of R. M. Wharton, of Milton township; Herman D., who married Emma Balyeat and has three children; and Luzetta, the wife of H. L. Mason, of Orange township.

Mr. Vantilburg has had a wonderfully useful career, being well known throughout the county for his bene olences, and he reared and educated three of his sister's orphan children and ai>> his nephew, F. C. Goudy, who worked on the farm until he was sixteen years of age, when he began his college course and was graduated from Ann Arbor University, in Michigan, and also pursued a one year's course of study in the Iowa State University. At present he is located in Denver, Colorado, where he has the reputation of being one of the leading

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lawyers in the state. Being a well known politician, he was elected delegate at large when the late Hon. William McKinley was nominated for the presidency. Mr. Vantilburg is very proud of his nephew's career and deserves much credit for the interest he took in him which enabled him to attain such a prominent place in the esteem of the people of the city in which he resides and of the members of his profession.

In politics Mr. Vantilburg is an ardent republican who has always been loyal to the candidates of his party and during the Civil war, while he had a captain's commission, he did not enter the service but succeeded in enlisting forty men who participated in many battles. He has spent his life in doing good to others, his benefactions being known throughout the county, and although he has expended much means in noble causes he has plenty remaining to enable him to enjoy the comforts of life. He belongs to the Methodist church, of which he has been a member for the past fifty years and in which he has served as steward, trustee and class leader. Being a man who has always lived in harmony with the teachings of the Christian faith and at the same time being of a congenial disposition he has won many friends and is numbered among the excellent and substantial residents of the county.

G. I. HARRIS.

G. I. Harris operates the Valley farm, one of the fine properties of Mohican township. It comprises one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 17 and is about two miles south of Jeromeville. It is well improved with good buildings and the soil is very rich and arable, responding readily to the care and labor bestowed upon it. Mr. Harris is a native son of Ashland county, his birth having occurred in Perry township, February 14, 1859. His youthful days were there passed in the home of his parents, William and Katharine (Crites) Harris. The father was born north of Wooster, Ohio, in 1815, and still resides upon the old homestead farm in Perry township. Although ninety-four years of age, his mind is clear and active and he is a most entertaining old gentleman who relates in interesting manner many incidents of the early days. He worked hard in early life to attain success and became the owner of four hundred and fifty acres of fine land but has disposed of a part of it. During the greater part of his active life he operated a threshing machine and also gave general supervision to the improvement of his farm. He was a son of James Harris, whose wife died in Perry township at the very advanced age of ninety-six years, while one of her sisters was more than one hundred years of age at the time of her demise. It will thus be seen that William Harris comes of a long-lived ancestry. His wife died in Perry township after rearing the family of ten children, who are a credit and honor to her name. In order of birth they are as follows: Rachel Ann, the wife of William Cline, a resident of California; Ellen, who is the widow of William Onstott and resides with her father; Sarah Jane, the wife of Joseph Lucas, of Hayesville; Eliza, who became the wife of William Alkire and after his death married again; James, who is a merchant of

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

Jeromeville; Louisa, who became the wife of Enoch Selby and after his death married John Moore, now residing in Perry township; Lucy, the wife of D. F. Heizer, a resident of Oklahoma; G. I., of this review; Minerva, the wife of William Kennedy, a resident of Spring Mills, Ohio; and Esther, the wife of Henry Pickens, living in Perry township.

Reared under the parental roof, G. I. Harris entered the public schools at the usual age and therein mastered the branches of learning which were taught in the rural schools of those days. His training at farm labor was not meager, for at an early age his father instructed him in the best methods of planting the seed, cultivating the ground and caring for the crops when his labors of spring were rewarded by the harvests of autumn. He began farming for him- self on the place which is now his home and which is owned by his father. It is a tract of one hundred and twenty acres on section 17, Mohican township, known as the Valley farm from the fact that it contains first and second bottom land in the Mohican valley. It is only about two miles south of Jeromeville, so that the advantages offered by the town are easily accessible. He raises good grades of stock and also devotes his attention to the cultivation of the cereals best adapted to the soil and climate. Both branches of his business are sources of profit to him because his work is carefully managed.

In 1883 Mr. Harris was united in marriage to Miss Hattie M. Egner, who was born in Olivesburg, Ohio, in 1853, a daughter of Benjamin H. and Julia Ann (Baker) Egner. Her father died at the home of Mr. Harris in 1909. This marriage has been blessed with four children: Olive, Cora, Gladys and Dewey Durant. The family is well known in this part of the county and its social standing is indicated by the fact that the hospitality of the best homes of this section is freely accorded the members of the Harris household. In his political views Mr. Harris is a stalwart republican, interested in the success of the party, yet he does not seek nor desire office as a reward for party fealty. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church of Jeromeville and is one of the trustees of the parsonage. He endeavors to shape his life by the teachings of the church and is therefore widely known as a man ever upright and honorable, seeking to do to others as he would have them do unto him.

J. P. HUNTER.

J. P. Hunter is a representative of one of the old families of the county, his birth having occurred August 20, 1878, on his present home farm. He comes of Irish ancestry, tracing the line back to William Hunter who was born in Ireland in 1772 and came to America some time in the year 1788 when sixteen years of age. He located near Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and in 1794 he was made an officer in the federal service against the insurgents in the whisky insurrection. 3 He married Jane Steel, a daughter of James and Margaret Steel, and unto this union, which was celebrated in 1800, were born nine children : Elizabeth, who became the wife of R. Castor; Jane, the wife of Isaac Barger; Mary, the wife of S. Bower; Margaret, the wife of George Lincoln; Sarah, the

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wife of H. Hardesty; David, who married Catharine Scholes; James S., who wedded Esther Collins; William, who married Sarah Cummins; and John, who wedded Mary Dowell. It was in March, 1818, that William Hunter removed from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, with his wife and children and began the development and improvement of the north half of section 26, Green town- ship, Ashland county, which was entered from the government by himself and his brother-in-law, John Steel. A part of this is now in possession of R. R. Hunter. Mr. Hunter struggled with the privations and hardships which beset the early pioneers in clearing away the primeval forest and planting their crops among the blackened stumps. Their farm machinery was very crude compared to that in use at the present day. Mr. Hunter continued, however, to carry on the work of the fields until 1819, when he fell a victim of the then prevalent disease of ague and passed away at the early age of forty-seven years. He had been to mill at Newville ten miles distant from his home and upon his return his family discovered from his unusual appearance that he was ill. He remarked that he believed that he was poisoned and, lying down before the fire, he attempted to warm himself before the blazing coals. Neither he nor his family knew what was the matter but the attack proved to be a hard ague chill. Three months later he succumbed to the disease which had thus manifested itself.

Mrs. Hunter died two years later, leaving a family of nine orphaned children, the oldest daughter being but nineteen years while the oldest son was seventeen and the youngest member of the family but fourteen months old. The older children, however, did their duty to the younger members of the family and all grew to manhood and womanhood. The sons, David, James, William and John, were lifelong residents of Green township where they suc- cessfully followed the occupation of farming. They were all men of good business ability, displaying marked enterprise in carrying on their work and

sound judgment in making their investments. As the years passed they became among the heaviest land owners of the township. David married Catharine Scholes and to them were born seven children, Hetty, Jane, Isaac, David, Martha, Catharine and Ellen. The mother passed away in 1868 while the father died in 1873 at the age of seventy years. James, whose death occurred in 1886, when he was eighty years of age, was married in 1838 to Esther Collins and they had four children: Sarah, the wife of George Reinhart; Margaret, the wife of George Jordan; Eliza, who died at the age of eighteen years; and Mary J., who yet resides on the old homestead. While a boy James Hunter began working on a canal which was then under construction in southern Ohio and by persever- ance and strict economy through several years he saved enough money to purchase a farm in Green township. He then erected there a log cabin and began clearing the timber from the land that he might place it under cultivation. Upon this farm he spent his remaining days, passing away December 22, 1886, at the ripe old age of eighty years and eighteen days. His wife preceded him to the spirit world March 18, 1885, at the age of seventy-nine years and four months. William, the third son of the family, who died in 1875, at the age of sixty-five years, had married Sarah Cummins and their children were William, Rosana, Millard and Mary. John, the youngest son, who departed this life in

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1899, at the age of seventy-six years, had wedded Mary Dowell and had seven children, John, David, Amos, Lewis, Reuben, Mary and Jane.

J. P. Hunter, whose name introduces this review, has spent his entire life on the farm which is now his home and has always carried on general agricul- tural pursuits. In his youthful days he attended the district schools, while later he continued his education in the Loudonville high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1897. He has taught fourteen terms in the district schools of Hanover and Green townships and is recognized as a capable educator whose labors are a substantial element in promoting the interests of public instruction in this part of the county. In his farm work, too, he has been very successful and now has eighty acres of land on section 23, Green township, where he devoted his time to the raising of grain and stock, both branches of his business proving profitable.

Mr. Hunter belongs to Teutonia Lodge, No. 69, K. P. of Loudonville and also to the Masonic Lodge at that place. He is a democrat in politics and was assessor of Green township for two terms. He is much interested in the welfare of his party and has served on the county central committee from Green town- ship. He is well known as a stalwart champion of democratic principles and is active in advancing the party's good, while his efforts and influence have been no unessential factor in promoting the agricultural and intellectual progress of the southeastern part of Ashland county.

JACOB T. ROBESON.

Jacob T. Robeson is a substantial business man who keeps in touch with modern methods of trade and in all of his activity has manifested a spirit of justice and progressiveness that have won him the respect and also gained for him a gratifying trade. He is now engaged in the grocery and queensware business in Perrysville and his fellow citizens, recognizing his interest in the public welfare and his devotion to the general good, have elected him a member of the village board. He was born in Washington township, Holmes county, Ohio, not far from Loudonville, on the 1st of November, 1848, and there spent the days of his boyhood and youth. His parents were Elias W. and Paulina (Priest) Robeson, both of whom were born in the vicinity of Loudonville, the father's birthplace being in Knox county and the mother's in Holmes county, Ohio. She was a daughter of William Priest, a brother of Loudon Priest, who laid out the town of Loudonville. Mr. and Mrs. Elias W. Robeson spent their entire lives on a farm and there reared their family of six sons and five daughters. The father owned a large place and was extensively engaged in raising sheep so that there was much work for the children to do in their youthful days.

Jacob T. Robeson remained at home until twenty years of age, working in the fields and in the pastures and also acquiring his education by attending the public schools and Perrysville Academy. Leaving home he engaged in clerking in the store for T. W. Coulter until his employer died and in 1873 he entered the grocery business in partnership with John T. Fulmer, under the firm style of

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Robeson & Fulmer. This relation was maintained until 1876 when Mr. Robeson sold out and turned his attention to the occupation to which he had been reared. He purchased a farm of eighty acres north of Perrysville and there lived for about eight years, after which he returned to the town and entered the hardware business with John Coulter, his brother-in-law, under the firm style of Coulter & Company. This relation was maintained for ten or twelve years, at the ex- piration of which time Mr. Robeson sold out and bought his present store. He has since 1894 engaged continuously in dealing in groceries and queensware and has a well equipped establishment, tasteful and attractive in its appointments while his reliable business methods commend him to the confidence and patronage of the general public. He has never been known to take advantage of the necessities of another in any trade transaction but seeks his success along legitimate lines of commerce, his close application, unfaltering diligence and carefully directed labor constituting the foundation on which he has built his prosperity.

In 1872 Mr. Robeson was united in marriage to Miss Jane Coulter, a native of Perrysville and a daughter of T. W. and Elmina (Hill) Coulter, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Robeson have been born two sons, who are yet living, Ralph Coulter and Elias Ray, both of whom are in the grocery business with their father. One son, Willie, died at the age of two years.

In his political views Mr. Robeson is a stalwart republican, thoroughly in sympathy with the principles and policy of the party. He served as postmaster of Perrysville under President Mckinley and President Roosevelt, filling the position for eight years although his son Ray was the active man in the office. He has also been a member of the board of education and at the present writing is serving as a member of the village council. He is opposed to anything like misrule in municipal affairs and believes in an honest, businesslike administra- tion. His fellow townsmen recognize his worth and have kept him in different offices for sometime. He cooperates in all movements for the public good of his town and county and belongs to that class of substantial men who uphold the political and legal status of the community and are factors in its substantial upbuilding and progress.

THOMAS W. COULTER.

No history of Perrysville would be complete without mention of Thomas W. Coulter, who for many years figured in the public life of the community and was ever a man whom to know was to respect and honor. He was born in Old Beavertown, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and with his parents, Jonathan and Mary (Wilson) Coulter, came to Ohio, locating in Perrysville. This section of the county was at that time a part of Richland county. Thomas W. Coulter, when the removal was made, was but ten years of age. The family home was established in a frontier district and their opportunities were limited but he made the best use possible of the chances which were given him to acquaint

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himself with those branches of learning which constitute the basis for all practi- cal advancement in life. He manifested such aptitude in his studies that the people of the community soon considered him abundantly qualified to teach school and he took up the profession which he followed very successfully for several terms, thus becoming identified with the early educational progress of his part of the county.

At different times Mr. Coulter was connected with various business enter- prises and ever displayed a spirit of industry and unfaltering energy. He was engaged in the tannery business for several years and in connection conducted a shoe and harness shop to work up the leather, employing a large number of the most proficient and able workmen obtainable. The business at that time was a very lucrative one for shoes and harness were manufactured by hand, the business being largely a local enterprise. Mr. Coulter likewise extended his efforts to the dry-goods business and for nearly forty years was numbered among the most reliable and progressive merchants of Perrysville. No word was ever uttered against his business integrity and he sought his success by close application and unfaltering energy. By this time he also engaged extensively in farming, having a large tract of land which responded readily to the care and labor which he bestowed upon it. There were in his life few leisure moments and yet he did not concentrate his attention and energy upon business affairs to the exclusion of other interests which are factors in the life and progress of the age. He realized the value of establishing good transportation facilities that Ohio products might be shipped to the markets of the east and became one of the early stockholders in the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. He also conducted the ticket and express offices at Perrysville for several years or until his son Samuel was fit to take charge of the business. He also acted as post- master of the town for many years. No trust reposed in him was betrayed in the slightest degree and in public service his record was the embodiment of loyalty as well as efficiency.

Mr. Coulter laid out what is now the main portion of Perrysville and con- tributed liberally to every measure calculated to improve and benefit the town. He was a recognized leader in all reforms which stood for the uplifting of humanity. A pioneer temperance worker, he was one of the charter workers of the first temperance organization of the community, the Sons of Temperance. He became allied with this when it was unpopular rather than a popular thing to do. Drinking at that date was very common but Mr. Coulter realized how far-reaching were the evil influences of intemperance and his principles led him to give stalwart aid to the work for its oppression. In politics he was a stanch · republican, joining the party on its organization. No one ever came to him for help and was turned away empty-handed.

On the 16th of December, 1828, Mr. Coulter was married to Miss Esther M. Baldridge, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel and Lucinda (Doke) Baldridge. Her father was a well known preacher of the early days and had come to Ohio as a missionary from Tennessee where he had studied theology under Dr. Doke, his father-in-law, who was the founder of Washington College of Tennessee. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Coulter were born four children, of whom Mary Lucinda died at the age of seventeen years. Samuel Baldridge was the second of the

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 82

Author: Baughman, A. J. (Abraham J.), 1838-1913. cn Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1012

Author: Baughman, A. J. (Abraham J.), 1838-1913. cn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1012