USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 42
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In his business intercourse, Mr. Cowles has always made it a point to be gov- erned by rules founded on strict integrity and fair dealing, which, combined with his shrewd judgment and tireless industry, have resulted in his taking a position among the wealthy capitalists of Chicago.
In 1860, Mr. Cowles was married to Miss Sarah F. Hutchinson, a sister of Mrs. Edwin Cowles, and daughter of the Hon. Mosely Hutchinson, of Cayuga, New York. Although Mr. Cowles was not horn in Ashtabula County, yet a great portion of his childhood days were spent in Austinburg, and he considers himself to be a son of Ashtabula, on the score of his being a descendant of his good old grandfather and a son of his respected father, who both were among the early settlers of Austinhurg. A year never goes hy when he did not make his accustomed visit to his venerable aunts and uncles and the numerous cousins in the township.
HON. WILLIAM COOPER HOWELLS
was born on the 15th of May, 1807, in the Welsh village of Hay, county of Brecon, Great Britain. In the following year his father, Joseph Howells, came to the United States to live, and settled, with his little family, consisting at that time of his wife and one son, the subject of our present sketch, upon Manahattan island. A few years later he removed up the Hudson, several miles from New York. There he remained until 1812, when he again moved, this time to Loudoun county, Virginia, but only to find himself, in the spring of 1813, on the way to Jefferson county, Ohio.
It is needless to recount the trials and hardships met with in the life of "an early settler," for these are well known to us all. It is only necessary to say that Mr. Howells and his rapidly-growing family did not escape their full share of them. The capital he had hrought with him from England was soon exhausted, and he was left to his own resources. But fortunately he had at his command a knowledge then exceptionally valuable in our new country. Not only was he versant in the art of making woolen cloth and able to superintend its manufac- turc, but he could draw plans of the necessary machinery and take charge of establishing new factories. As these machines could not at that time be imported from England, his skill was often called into requisition.
During these early years of his life, Wm. Cooper Howells was learning the lessons of untiring industry aud cconomy,-those proficient teachers in the great practical school of life whosc teachings, when heeded, will often take one farther in the path of knowledge and progress than would a more classical education under other circumstances. His parents were both people of refined tastes, and he did not thus fcel greatly the loss of regular schools, since in his home an atmosphere of cultivation always prevailed. It was the pride of his mother that she had taught him to read before he was quite four years old. The home train- ing inspired him with a love of hooks, and especially poetry, which led him into useful studies and established a taste that was itself one of the best of school- masters.
Young Howells was about twenty-one years of age when his family, which up to this time lived in Jefferson and Harrison counties, removed to Wheeling, West Virginia. Here he availed himself of the first opportunity to learn the art of print- ing, then the important avenue to a literary life. At this place he was tempted to start a printing-office without sufficient support, and from it he issued for one year a monthly paper called The Gleaner. This was followed by the Eclectic Observer, a weekly sheet, independent and frec from any party in politics or religion. It was very radical withal, and did not succeed; it was abandoned at the end of six months. The printing of a book that was never paid for closed this first enterprise.
But all the world knows that it is very difficult to wash priuters' ink from his hands if it once gets there, and fortunately for the history of the press in Ohio, Mr. Howells never removed the dingy traces, nor did he try to do it. He was one of the newspaper men who loved their profession and elevated it, and wherever his career is known it is easy to point to an honorable, consistent, and quietly able course.
In Wheeling, on the 10th of July, 1831, he married Mary Dcan, a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, a woman of exceptionally fine mind, who brought into his life the most enduring and beautiful traits, faithfully and cheerfully sharing
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
his varied fortunes until October 10, 1868, when her earthly life ended, though not its influence and lesson, for with her husband, children, and friends they will ever remain.
After leaving Wheeling he filled situations upon different papers in St. Clairs- ville, Mount Pleasant, and Chillicothe until 1840, when, upon the nomination of General Harrison, he bought the Hamilton Intelligencer, the Whig paper of Butler county, Ohio, and entered upon the campaign with great spirit, and with difficulties to encounter which only those who know what were at that time the narrow prejudices of the opposing party in that part of Ohio can realize. From his early youth he was strongly anti-slavery,-so much so that at times he found it difficult to harmonize with his party,-and in 1848, when General Taylor was nominated by the Whigs, he refused to support him, and joined his interests with the Frec-Soil organization then formed. This obliged him to sell the Intelli- gencer, when he bought the Dayton Transcript, a paper not strongly Whig. But ever ahead of his party in radical spirit this change proved for him a most disas- trous one financially, and the failure which followed swamped the labor of years. But halting not to rest from the political battle in which he had enlisted all his energies, he was soon upon his feet again. Ifis next move was to Columbus, where he remained for a time upon the Ohio State Journal, chiefly preparing the legislative reports.
While living in Columbus he made the acquaintance of Hon. L. S. Sherman, then in the senate, who recommended him to join Mr. Fassett on the Ashtabula Sentinel ; and upon visiting Mr. Fassett at Ashtabula, he as a partner assumed charge of the Sentinel on the 15th of May. 1852, the day he was forty-five years of age. This partnership continued until the following January, when Mr. Howells and James L. Oliver bought the Sentinel and moved it to Jefferson, where Mr. Jos. A. Howells soon entered Mr. Oliver's place, as his father's part- ner in the ownership of the paper, which has ever since continued to be under the editorial management of Mr. Howells, Sr.
From 1840, Mr. Howells' life has been political, and from 1856 until 1865 he almost constantly occupied a legislative office, first as journal elerk and afterwards as official reporter. In 1863 he received the Republican nomination for the senate from this twenty-fourth distriet. This nomination was indorsed by a majority of eleven thousand votes, the largest ever given in the State for a dis- triet office, " a figure which showed the strength of the party at that time," Mr. Howells modestly says, when the faet is alluded to. It did show strength in the ranks, but it showed also the esteem in which he was held by the party he had always labored so faithfully to sustain.
The honor of his life which Mr. Howells best loves to recall, is that it was his privilege while a senator, he the life-long slavery-abolitionist, to introduce the joint resolution by which his State ratified the thirteenth amendmeut to the constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States.
In 1874, on the 2d of June, he was appointed United States consul at the old Canadian port of Quebee, at which post he is at the present time; still keeping up, however, a constant connection with the Sentinel by weekly letters.
His wife, Mary Dean, died October 10, 1868, in her fifty-sixth year. Mr. Howells' family consisted of five sons and three daughters. His oldest son, Joseph A., is publisher of the Ashtabula Sentinel, residing in Jefferson ; his second son, William Dean, is the well-known author and editor of the Atlantic Monthly, residence, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Samuel Dean is connected with the Sentinel office, and resides iu Jefferson ; John Butler died in his eighteenth ycar, in Cleveland, in 1864; Henry I. and Victoria M. aud Aurelia H. reside with their father in Quebee; Annie T. (now Mrs. Achelle Freichette) lives iu Ottawa, Canada.
HON. HENRY FASSETT
was boru in Beverley, Canada, September 14, 1817. His great-grandfather, John Fassett, removed from Hardwick, Massachusetts, to Beunington, Vermont, in 1761, and was one of the earliest settlers of that town; was a member of the first legislature held in that State, and elerk of the first Congregational church of Bennington, the first church organized in the State. Jonathan, the grand- father,. was a youth when he arrived iu Beunington, and subsequently became active in publie matters; was an officer in the Revolutionary war. Samuel Montague Fassett, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Ben- nington, Vermont, October 5, 1785; was married October 18, 1807, to Dorcas, daughter of Captain John Smith, one of the first settlers of West Rutland. About 1810 he removed to western New York, and a few years later to Canada. He was a school- and music-teacher. Ile died at Southwold, Canada, November 3, 1834, leaving seven children, Silas S., Harrict M., William, Henry, Mariette (uow Mrs. George Hall, of Cleveland), John S., aud Samuel M., all of whom
moved to Ashtabula in October, 1835, with their mother, except Silas, who had settled there the year previous. The mother died November 15, 1862, aged seveuty-six years ; the others are all still living.
Henry Fassett, at the age of fourteen years, left St. Thomas academy to learn the printing business. On arriving at Ashtabula he was eighteen years of age, and worked at his business in that and other towns until January 1, 1837, when, in company with a practical printer, he purchased the office of the Ashtabula Sentinel, and commenced its publication with the first number of the sixth volume. The next spring he sold out to his partner and went to Newark, Ohio, where he remained until October following, when he returned and became the sole editor and proprietor of the Sentinel, and continued its publication for most of the time until it was removed to Jefferson, January 1, 1853. From the first issue of his paper he took strong grounds in favor of the anti-slavery movement just then beginning to agitate the country, and the Sentinel bore no small part in the formation of that public sentiment which has so distinguished this county during the last forty years. He was fully identified, politically, with the Whig party until the year 1848, but at that time abandoned it on account of its subservieucy to the slave power, and gave his support to the Free-Soil organization, until it was superseded by the Republican party, with which he has sinee aeted.
Photo. by Blakeslee & Moore, Ashtabula, O.
In September, 1859, he was appointed probate judge of this county, by the governor, to fill a vacaney occasioned by the death of Judge Plumb, aud in October he was elected to that office, which he filled with acceptance to the publie for about one year, when, not wishing to remove his family, he resigned, and returned to his home in Ashtabula.
In September, 1862, on the organization of the internal revenue department, President Lineoln appointed him as collector of internal revenue for the nine- teenth district of Ohio, embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Maho- ning, Portage, and Geauga, with his office at Ashtabula. He held that position until January 1, 1876, when, owing to the great reduction in taxes, his district was consolidated with others in northern Ohio, and the business transferred to Cleveland. He was highly complimented by the commissioner of internal revenue for the marked ability and integrity with which he had discharged the dutics of his office.
On the 23d day of March, 1842, he was married to Mary, the youngest daughter of John I. D. Nellis. She was born in Lenox, Madison county, New York, February 13, 1822, and died January 5, 1859, leaving five children : Hattie E. (who became the wife of David W. Haskell), born March 26, 1843, aud died September 7, 1862; George H., born June 28, 1845 ; John N., born November 28, 1847, and died October 18, 1871 ; Samuel M., born June 17, 1850; and Henry, born September 20, 1855. Ile married his second wife, Maria, daughter of Colouel Lynds Jones, of Jefferson, October 3, 1860. She was born iu Jefferson, August 20, 1836, and died December 20, 1865, leaving one child, Willie J., who was born October 7, 1863, and died September 23, 1872.
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
He married his present wife, Lucia A., widow of Dr. Nathan Williams, of Ionia, Michigan, June 12, 1867. She is the daughter of the late Peter Tyler, of New Haven, Oswego county, New York, where she was born March 11, 1822.
In religion he is true to the faith of his New England ancestors. May 12, 1838, he united with the Presbyterian church of Ashtabula (which was then Congregational in its government), and was for some time one of its elders. In 1852 he was elected by Grand River presbytery as a delegate to the general assembly, which met that year in the city of Washington.
At the organization of the First Congregational church of Ashtabula, on the 9th day of May, 1860, he united with that body by letter from the Presbyterian church, and was chosen as one of its deacons. Ile was also elected as president of its board of trustees, which positions he still holds. In 1871 he was elected by Grand River conference to the National meeting of Congregational churches, at Oberlin, where the National council was organized ; he was also elected as a dele- gate to the National council, which was held in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1874.
He labored earnestly in the contest which resulted in establishing the union school system, now the pride of Ashtabula; was a member of the board of edu- cation, and most of the time its president, for the first ten years.
He has been president of the Ashtabula National bank since it was established in 1872.
His influence and means have never been wanting in any of the enterprises of his town or county which he believed would best promote their true interests and welfare.
REA
Photo. by Loomis, Jefferson, O.
CHARLES STETSON SIMONDS
was born at Westminster, Windham county, State of Vermont, May 1, 1815. His parents were of the Puritan stock. His father, Moses Simonds, was a native of New Hampshire, and his mother, Priscilla Cook Stetson, was born and reared in sight of Plymouth Rock, where her ancestors landed from the " Mayflower." They removed to Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1821, among the settlers of the country along the old South Ridge road, then the great thoroughfare for emi- grant travel from New England to the great west. The people were generally poor (and none more so than this new arrival), living in log houses and wearing clothes of home manufacture. On the 1st day of April, 1828, the family re- moved to Saybrook, and on the 3d of May following the husband and father died, leaving his widow with six minor children. A woman of more than ordinary mind and character, her influence was at once an education and inspiration to her children, who clustered around hier until, by their joint industry and prudence, they acquired a competence, and she lived to see them among the most affluent citizens of that township.
William T., the oldest, still resides in Saybrook, where he has held places of trust, either in the township or county, for more than thirty years. One of the sisters died unmarried. Louisa married Rufus Harris, and Maria married David H. Kelley, and they with their families are all honored and respected residents of that township. Moses H., the youngest brother, settled as a lawyer in Missouri, and died a captain of cavalry volunteers in the war with Mexico.
Charles, the subject of this sketch, was industrious in his habits, and while the day was spent in the labors of the field, his evenings were studiously devoted to
the acquirement of an education that might fit him for the duties of life. His opportunities were limited to winter common schools and a few terms at the vil- lage academics. His principal reliance was upon his own unaided efforts by the evening fire. Indeed, some of the schools of that period furnished but little aid to the scholar, as an instance will illustrate. During the summer that he was eight years old, he was sent to school with a copy of Murray's grammar. The teacher marked off all his lessons to be committed to memory, and they were daily recited, without note or comment, until the book was completed. The teacher then for the first time asked him a question on the subject, " What is a noun ?" The boy was astonished, and thought he had never heard of such a thing. The book was returned, and he was bidden to find the word and its defi- nition. To him it seemed like the task required by the king of the Egyptian magi, " to find the dream and the interpretation thereof." But the feat was ac- complished, and the information having been so acquired was not likely to be forgotten.
Although the people were poor in the neighborhood, there were many books scattered through the community within the radius of three miles, and those were interchanged like a circulating library. Among those he borrowed and read at an early day were a Ilistory of the United States, a History of England by Hume, Bisset, and Smollett, Josephus, Rollin's Ancient History, Plutarch's Lives, and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of Rome; and occasionally he obtained a work of fiction, such as the Children of the Abbey, Thaddeus of Warsaw, and some of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. David F. Harris, of that township, was a man of wealth and intelligence, and was possessed of a respectable library of miscellaneous works. From that library the boy borrowed and became familiar with many poetical works, among which were Pope's Iliad and Odyssey, the Æneid of Virgil, Paradise Lost and Regained, Poems of Sir Walter Scott, Montgomery, Campbell, and others. At the age of seventeen he was employed to teach a district school for the term of three months, for which he was paid thirty-six dollars, -the first money he had ever called his own, except a few shillings at a time, which he had obtained from the sale of peltries, chiefly mink and musk-rat. In the winter of 1835-36 he taught a school at Geneva village, for which he received the sum of sixty dollars. With this sum in hand he left in the spring of 1836 for the great west to seek his fortune, designing to go over the plains to New Mexico. He went to Pittsburgh, and there took a boat to St. Louis. On his arrival at St. Louis he found that no trains for Santa Fé could start over the plains in less than two weeks, on account of the backward state of the grass. Going back to the boat on which he had arrived, he watched the laborers on the docks and wharves, which were lined with boats ; they were all colored or parti- colored, and spoke in an unknown tongue, principally French. From the deck of the boat a spot was pointed out on an island where, the fall previous, two rival candidates for congress had shot each other down. Soon some of his ac- quaintances on the boat returned from an exploration of the upper portion of the city, and among other discoveries they reported a negro burning at a stake, on the charge of having killed a deputy-sheriff. On the whole, our traveler was not pleased with the country or its inhabitants. He took the first boat up the river bound for Galena, the farthest place he could hear of. He taught school during the summer, and in the fall of 1836 made his way over Indian trails to Rock River, in Illinois. Here he opened up a faim which he improved about two years. Meantime he had the use of a good private library owned by a neighbor. Among other works he found a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries, which he read, and followed up with Kent's Commentaries. He became interested in the study of law, and returned to this county in the fall of 1839, with accumulations suffi- cient to enable him to pursue and complete the study of his chosen profession.
In the spring of 1840 lie entered the office of Messrs. Wade and Ranney, at Jefferson, as a student of the law. He was admitted to the bar at Marion, Ohio, June 30, 1842, and soon after opened an office and commenced practice at Jeffer- son. He soon acquired a respectable business in his profession, and in February, 1844, he was married to Louisa Warner, a daughter of Jonathan Warner, of Jefferson. In April, 1846, he was elected a justice of the peace, and in October, 1847, prosecuting attorney, which office he held for two years. In the spring of 1847 he entered into partnership with Rufus P. Ranney and Darius Cadwell, under the firm-name of Ranney, Simonds & Cadwell. This firm succeeded to the business of the former partnership of Wade & Ranney. In 1851, Mr. Ranney was elected judge of the supreme court, and at that time the partnership of Simonds & Cadwell was formed, which continued for twenty years, terminat- ing when Mr. Cadwell removed to Cleveland, in October, 1871. Including the time embraced in the partnership of Ranney, Simonds & Cadwell, the partner- ship of Simonds & Cadwell continued twenty-four years. In January, 1872, he formed a partnership with Edward C. Wade, which still continues. IIe has de- voted himself to his profession in the same place for about thirty-six years, during which time he has been identified with all its interests, and has maintained a
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
reputation for integrity. He has brought up a family of two sons and three daughters. Though always an active partisan in politics, he is especially distin- guished by never having sought or received offices of public trust or serious responsibility, but has rather taken pride in maintaining an independent position as a private citizen. Yet the biography of those who were carly in the field and who from nothing have acquired competence and respectability among their fellow-men, although honors have not clustered about their heads, may not be without interest as connected with the early history of the country, and may be useful as showing the means by which they rose from indigence and acquired and maintained positions of usefulness in society.
Photo, by Loomis, Jefferson, O.
HON. ABNER KELLOGG.
Abner Kellogg was born in Alford. Berkshire county, Massachusetts, January 8, 1812. He was the fourth of nine children,-five sons and four daughters. The oldest, Laura, born August 4. 1806 ; married to Dr. Greenleaf Fifield, of Con- neaut, February 28, 1830 ; now living in Conneaut a widow. Second, Louisa, born January 22, 1808; married to S. B. McClung, November 23, 1826, who died May 22, 1829 ; again married June 23, 1832, to James M. Bloss, since de- ceased. Third, Walter, who died in infancy. Fifth, William, born in Salem, Ohio, July 8, 1814. Sixth, Lucius Dean, born in Salem, June 9, 1816; studied medicine ; attended medical and surgical lectures, and graduated at Geneva, New York, in 1840; now living in East Ashtabula, Ohio. Seventh, Clarissa, born October 12, 1819, in Monroe ; married, January 16, 1841, to Robert Lyon, of Conneaut ; now living a widow. Eighth, Amos, died in infancy; and ninth, Pauline, born in Monroe, January 13, 1824 ; married to William B. Dennison, January 3, 1844, and died in the city of Buffalo, New York, September 10, 1844.
Like boys of his age in those early times, Abner attended the common schools of the district, sustained by the voluntary contributions of the patrons according to the number of pupils sent, for a few months during the winter ; attended a district school taught by the late Hon. B. F. Wade for one term, and labored on the farm during the summer until, at the age of eighteen ycars, he graduated, after six weeks' attendance at the old Jefferson academy, under the instruction of L. M. Austin, Esq., of Austinburg. In his early manhood his business occupa- tions were keeping a village tavern, farming, buying and driving cattle to an eastern market for sale. In December, 1834, was elected a justice of the peace for Monroe township, re-elected in 1837, and resigned November 13, 1840.
He was one of the early anti-slavery men of the county, and an ardent Whig, and, at the Whig County Convention of 1839, with the late Colonel G. W. St. John, of Morgan, was nominated as a candidate for a member of the legislature, a nomination by the Whig party at that time being regarded as equivalent to an election. The ticket presented by that convention to the people of Ashtabula County for their support and approval contained the names of the late Benj. F. Wade, for State senator ; Colonel Gains W. St. John and Abner Kellogg, for members of the house of representatives; Platt R. Spencer, for county treasurer ; and Flavel Sutliff, then the law partner of Hon. J. R. Giddings, and a younger brother of Judge Milton Sutliff, of Warren, for prosecuting attorney, with others for the different offices,-all of whom were then known as anti-slavery Whigs. Upon the nomination of this ticket some disaffected Whigs, with the few Democrats
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