USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 49
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Mr. Howells is a quan of good business qualifications, and has been quite suc- cessful in building up a large business, the credit of which he equally divides with
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
his father, with whom, in all business enterprises, he has always been associated. The great ambition of his life has been to publish a large, well-printed, and care- fully-edited newspaper. Those who know the Ashtabula Sentinel of to-day can judge how successful have been his endeavors. A prosperous business has been built up, although a large amount is constantly being spent in the production of the paper. Yet they have built a fine building where are located a printing-office and book-store, the business of the firm being publishing, job-printing, and book- selling.
On the 23d day of June, 1856. he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza W. Whitmore, by the late William Barton. The result of this marriage has been four children, three of whom are now living, viz., William Dean, Jr., Mary Elizabeth, and Beatrice H.
Mr. Howells' father and grandfather were Abolitionists in their day, and he has followed, as a radical Republican. He gives all whom he meets a cordial wel- come, and generally endeavors to get an "item" out of them, for it appears the Sen- tinel and its readers are ever uppermost in his mind, and, in true editor fashion, he always stands ready to capture a straw. Mr. Howells is a member of no secret society. He has held various places of responsibility in the village of Jefferson, has been a member of the board of education for a great many years, chairman of the county Republican central committee, and postmaster since March 1, 1869.
JAMES REED,
the senior editor of the Ashtabula Telegraph, was born in the city of New York, in the year 1812, of parents from Canada, his mother being of English birth. It was in this city that his infancy and childhood were spent. During the latter period the family removed to Norwalk, Connecticut, where the rudiments of an English education were obtained at the district schools of the State. From parental preference and interest he entered early upon an apprenticeship to the business of a shoemaker, in which considerable progress was made ; but it not being to his taste, it was abandoned at about the age of sixteen, when his parents had become residents of the adjoining town of Wilton. It was here that the con- clusion was reached to accompany the abandonment with a little dramatic effect, which should prevent any effort to induce a reconsideration. At the close of a week's work, in the presence of his shopmates, without a note of warning to any, the axe was procured and the bench upon which he had sat and labored for years was split into kindling-wood, and, with every article of kit, was thrust into the stove, and everything that was consumable was reduced to ashes.
About this time an advertisement appeared in the Danbury, Connecticut. Re- corder, the establishment that has since, it is believed, merged into the Danbury News,-so famous for its humor,-for an apprentice to the printing business. There was little delay in responding,-perhaps less on account of the contumacy that preceded the burnt sacrifice, and the abandonment of a trade that it was hoped had been adopted for life. It was proposed to make application for the place in person. The distance was twenty miles, and there was no way to over- come the distance but to walk. This was accomplished in good time, and the applicant for the place met with a prompt acceptance. The day after his arrival was publication day, and he was at once introduced to the press,-an old Dr. Frank- lin. or Ramage press, such as the reader may have seen among the old relics of the patent office at Washington. The ink was put on with balls, the days of rollers not arriviug until some time afterwards. Notwithstanding the youth and greenness of the young acolyte, the whole edition was " beaten off" in usual time. His term of service, though proving agreeable, was of short duration, owing to the death of the publisher, Mr. Osborn, after an apprenticeship of only three months. This occurrence left the subject of this biography without place or occupation. He then went to Norwalk, and became connected with the Fairfield County Re- publican, a paper started by a company of disaffected gentlemen in opposition to the Gazette. The publisher was an old school-fellow named Albert Hunford. The Republican soon died out, and he was again adrift. His fortunes were then cast with the old Norwalk Gazette. Here, too, he met with a wooden-Franklin -press, and became rather expert in both " beating" and " pulling" at the remark- able old machine. Here the days of his apprenticeship were completed uuder the tutorship of S. W. Benedict, editor and proprietor.
His first efforts as a journeyman printer were made on the New York Daily Advertiser, published in Wall street, by Theodore Dwight. A situation upon a morning daily. where the natural order of day and night were reversed, was found to be wearisome and slavish,-too much so for endurance. It was, therefore. ex- changed at the first opportunity for a much more pleasant one. upon the New York Evangelist .- weekly. The Evangelist was started by onr old friend Bene- dict. who had sold out the Gazette, and, with Rev. Joshua Leavit as editor, set out with the new paper. This was about the year 1835. While here he was offered
a situation as office manager of the New Orleans Observer, a religious paper, just about being started in connection with the new Presbyterian church of that city, under the pastorate of the Rev. Joel Parker. Two seasons-those of 1836-37- were spent here. The loss of health induced a return in the latter year to the north.
His lot, by purchase, was soon cast again with the Norwalk Gazette, in the conduct of which he was materially assisted by Dr. T. B. Butler, a practicing physician of Norwalk, and afterwards a member of congress from the fourth dis- trict of Connecticut, where the connection was dissolved. His residence in Nor- walk continued until the spring of 1853. Connecticut was then taken leave of for the west,-Hudson, Ohio. The position of business agent for the Hudson Planing and Lumber company was accepted. The company, however, failed during the second year, and change was again the order of the day. From Hud- son he went to Cleveland, and again into the printing business. A place was taken in the job-office of the Cleveland Herald, and from that he became the foreman of the Plain Dealer job-room. Printers' strikes and unions soon made it inconvenient to continue in that position. and hearing of the Telegraph, through Mr. E. W. Fisk, a visit was made to Ashtabula, and negotiations were at once opened for its purchase. It was then published by Messrs. George Wil- lard, Alfred Hendry, aud H. L. Morrison, under the firm of Willard, Hendry & Morrison, as a conservative organ. It was taken by the present proprietor in April, 1856. The drift of the paper remained substantially the same until the nomination of Fremont, when it entered that campaign under Republican colors, since which time its fortunes have been steadily cast with the Republican party. Of its usefulness this is not the place to speak. With its history for the score of years since Mr. Reed became connected with the paper, the people of Ashtabula County are familiar.
WARREN PLATT SPENCER.
The Spencer family, of which the subject of this sketch is a descendant, were " Roger Williams' " people, and first settled in Rhode Island. His branch of the family removed to Connectient in early times, thence to Fishkill Landing, Dutchess county, New York, and afterwards, about the year 1803, to Windham, Greene county, in the same State. Here the grandfather of the subject of this notice died soon after, and the grandmother, with the three younger sons,-Daniel M., Harvey S., and Platt R., with her only daughter, Phebe, afterwards Mrs. Dr. Coleman, of Ashtabula,-determined to remove to the " New Connecticut." She made the long. perilous journey through the wilderness, reaching Jefferson, iu Ashtabula, in the year 1807 or 1808. After a residence in that town of some two years she removed, first to Austinburg, remaining in that town about one year, when she again broke up her home, and settled in Geneva with her family, where the son, Harvey S., married Miss Louisa Snedeker, in the year 1817, and settled on a farm on the North Ridge road, about one mile east of the village of Geneva. Here Warren Platt, his third son, was born on the 23d day of June, 1825. In the year following, his father removed to a new farm on the shore of Lake Erie. in Geneva, the locality being quite widely known at the present time as ·· Sturgeon Point." Here the son grew up in the rugged dnties of farm life, with scasons of attendance at the district school. It was just the place at that early day to get deeply in love with nature as exhibited in the surroundings. The waters of the lake lay before, and the vast forests, almost unbroken, formed the background of, the scene. The limited facilities for study and improvement afforded by the schools of the time became apparent as the son approached man's estate, and he determined to cut loose from the old home and seek other fields. The want of means to study abroad was met with the pen, in the use of which he had been carefully and kindly taught by his uncle, Platt R. Spencer, who had already become famous as the foremost penman and teacher of his time. Aided by the avails of teaching the art of writing. he was enabled to pursue his studies for several terms at Jefferson academy, tauglit by Ashbe! Bailey, and at Farming- ton academy, Trumbull county, Ohio. under charge of Professor Thomas. In the autumn of 1846 he entered Twinsburg institute, in Summit county, Ohio, presided over by Rev. Samuel Bissell, and one of the most popular schools of that day in the State, where he remained, with the exception of two terms, for three years, leaving in August, 1849.
On returning to Ashtabula County, in the month of September following, he entered the auditor's office as a clerk, the office at that time being presided over by that excellent officer, J. C. A. Bushnell. In the capacity of clerk he alter- nated between the auditor's and treasurer's offices for four years,-the last-named office being administered by P. R. Spencer and Caleb Spencer during the time. In September, 1854, he left Jefferson. went to Buffalo, New York. and took charge of the writing department of the public schools of the city for six months, and then became a teacher in the Buffalo mercantile college of Bryant, Lusk &
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
Stratton, the second college of the great chain that afterwards took in nearly all the principal cities of the Union and the Canadian provinces. Serving in such capacity about one year, he next was employed as teacher of penmanship and as book-keeper for the Buffalo female seminary, under charge of Dr. Charles West, serving till June, 1857. In August of that year, having for several years prc- vious spent his leisure time in the reading of the law, he went to the eity of Albany, New York, and entered the law department of the University of Albany as a student, graduating therefrom, on examination, in the class of 1858. Re- turning to Ohio in March of that year, he was employed as a teacher in the Cleveland business college, Dr. J. C. Bryant, principal, and in August following was united in marriage with Miss Parthenia H. Gaylord, daughter of Levi Gay- lord, Jr., and granddaughter of Major Levi Gaylord, a soldier of the Revolution, who settled in Geneva in the year 1806.
Finding his health failing from long and close labor and study, he set out in the month of March, 1859, for the terra incognita of that time,-the Pike's Peak gold country,-together with six companions, footing the entire distance from the Missouri river up the great Arkansas valley to Pueblo, in Colorado, thence north to the South Platte river, where the city of Denver is now built, and from there into the mountains to where the " Gregory mines" were located, now the site of Black Ilawk and Central City, driving an ox-train the entire distance, about eight hundred miles! This train was reputed at the time to be one of the first dozen to reach the "diggins" after the discovery of gold in the Rocky Moun- tains of Colorado. Spending the summer of 1859 with his companions in the mining region, he returned in the following fall down the valley of the Platte river to the Missouri, walking the entire distance, and assisting to drive the train of oxen.
This campaign of " roughing it" restored his health completely, and he went back to Buffalo in November, 1859, entered into a copartnership with Messrs. Bryant & Stratton in conducting the Buffalo mercantile college, which existed for nearly two years, when he withdrew, and was chosen by the board of education to conduct the writing department of the Buffalo public schools. In the spring of 1864, after serving two years, he resigned the position and returned to Geneva, Ohio, for a home, but continued to teach at intervals in Chicago, Cleveland, Wash- ington, Buffalo, and other points till July, 1868, when he, with C. A. Vaughan, purchased the office of the Geneva Times newspaper, established January 1, 1867, by W. H. Thorp. Mr. Spencer was, however, the editor of the Times from the first, and wrote the " salutatory" for the first number of the paper, issued De- cember 20, 1866. The copartnership of Spencer & Vaughan terminated Sep- tember 30, 1873, by the purchase of Mr. Vaughan's interest by H. W. Lindergreen, the junior member of the present firm.
The Geneva Times at this writing, 1878, is in its twelfth volume, with Mr. Spencer still at its head, laboring faithfully to make it a journal worthy of the enterprising town in which it is published, and of its numerous and intelligent readers. The Times was established as a Republican paper in politics, in which political faith it steadfastly remains.
JOIIN P. RIEG
was born at Baldenheim, Canton de Markolzheim, France, April 18, 1840; was an only child, and an orphan at the age of fourteen years. He attended the public schools the number of years required by law, and afterwards was placed under a private tutor to fit himself for college. Becoming restless, and having an uncle living in Warren, Pennsylvania, he conceived the idea of going to America. At the age of fifteen he found himself in Warren, possessed of a fair education in German and French, but entirely ignorant of the English language. He was apprenticed to Mr. Benjamin Nessmith, a harness-maker, whom he served for two years. Becoming dissatisfied with the trade he was learning, he left Mr. Nessmith, and went to live with Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Weaver, and attended the public schools for six months, in the mean time looking about for some kind of employment that would suit his taste, when he finally entered the printing-office of D. W. C. James, and learned the "art preservative of arts." In 1861 hic purchased the office of the Conncaut Reporter, and has ever since that time, with the exception of sixteen months, held an interest in said office and been a resident of Conneaut. June 12 of the same year he was married to Julia K. Brooks, of Erie, and three children have been born to them,-May 8, 1863, Frank F .; December 15, 1865, Mary S. ; and December 5, 1872, John B.
FERDINAND LEE.
In the group of editors of leading newspapers in Ashtabula County will be found a fine portrait of this gentleman, who presides over the destinies of the Jefferson Gazette, and is the youngest editor in the county. Ile was born in
Normandale, Ontario, on the 1st day of October, in the year 1852, and is the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Lee, who are both of Canadian nativity. The father was in early days a seafaring quan; was at one time the owner of the schooner " Queen," and was for a time engaged in the coasting trade on Lake Eric. Among the peregrinations of Daniel Lec and family we find that their first move was to Georgian bay, in the north part of Canada West, where he was for a time engaged in the fishing trade, whence he removed to Wyandotte, Michigan, and thence to Miami, seven iniles west of Toledo. Their residence at this point was located on the site of the old Fort Miami. Here Mr. Lee obtained, at district school, a rudimentary education. Their next halt was made in Weston township, Wood county. IIere they remained some six years, Ferdinand in the mean time dividing his time between farm labor and the district school. In the year 1866 removed to North Madison, Lake county, in which township the family still reside. Here was finished the education of the gentleman under consideration. This was consummated at Madison seminary, under the respective administrations of Professors J. P. Ellenwood and W. N. Wight. During his attendance at this school he began the publication of an amateur paper, a monthly sheet, entitled the North Madison Star, and it was here that he first obtained a taste for the " art preservative." This paper was issued regularly for one year, when he removed to Madison village, procured the necessary outfit, and on January 3, 1872, issued the first number of the Independent Press, a weekly issuc. This sheet was afterwards merged into the Dairy Gazette, as an adjunct in promoting that interest, which proving financially a failure, the title was changed to the Madison Gazette, under which name it was published until September 6, 1876. Shortly afterwards the office was removed to Jefferson, and on November 3, 1876, the first number of the Jefferson Gazette was issued. This paper has, under his able management, acquired a large cireulation, and is steadily increasing. On the 16th day of September, 1874, Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Effie A., daughter of Salmon G. and Lucy A. Mack, of Madison, Ohio. Politically Mr. Lec is unreservedly Republican. He is also a member of the fraternity of Masons, and is at this time affiliated with Lake Shore lodge, No. 307, Free and Accepted Masons, Madisou, Lake county, Ohio.
MATTHEW HUBBARD,
oldest son of Isaac and Ruth C. Hubbard, was born in Middletowu, Connecticut, April 29, 1783. At the age of fifteen he moved with his parents to Trenton, Oncida county, New York. There he first engaged in the war of civilization against the wilderness. There, also, on the 4th day of November, 1803, he married Mary Willard, daughter of Simon and Sarah R. Willard. From this union twelve children were born, of whom six survive, two being over seventy years of age.
After a married life of nearly sixty-two years, the early portion of which was spent amidst the trials and deprivations incident, to a settlement of a wilderness, his wife died, September 5, 1865, in the eighty-first year of her age. His deathı occurred July 9, 1869, in the cighty-seventh year of his age. The remains of both rest in Chesnut Grove cemetery, near the scenes of their manifold eares and labors. They took part in and lived to sec an almost marvelous chauge in the condition of Ohio and the more western country.
It was on the 4th day of May, 1804, that Mr. Hubbard started for Ashtabula, then an uubroken forest, as the agent of Nehemiah Hubbard, one of the exten- sive land proprietors in the " New Connecticut."
He afterwards became the agent of Samuel Mather and Elijah Hubbard, who, also, like many other capitalists in " old Connecticut," had made large purchases of wild land in the Western Reserve. This journey was made on horseback in twelve days, and is described in the history of Ashtabula; but a more extended account of it, and of the early settlers and settlement of Ashtabula, may be found in the papers and records of the Ashtabula County historical society.
During four summers Mr. Hubbard labored in his duties as agent, clearing land, and while thus engaged he built a log house on the land now known as the Scoville farm, but spent his winters in the cast. On his first return in the fall of 1804, he drove fifty head of cattle from near Hubbard, Mahoning county, Ohio, to Onondaga, New York, being the second drove cast from the Western Reserve.
In the winter of 1807-8, he took his wife and infant son (leaving a daughter with grandparents) as far as Erie, Pennsylvania, then a small village of log houses, where he left them and continued on to Ashtabula, cleared cight acres of land, girdled as much more, and built a log house on the south ridge. In April following he brought his wife and son, then six months old, on horseback, mostly over an Indian trail, to their future home; and thenccforth, during years of joy and sorrow, they became part of the band of permanent pioneers.
Among the first in opening and constructing highways and turnpikes, he was,
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
also, one of the chief early projectors and promoters of a railroad from Ashtabula to the Ohio river, now, at last, by another generation realized.
In the War of 1812 he went as a volunteer, under Captain Payne, to defend the threatened frontier. After the war there came an era of immigration, on foot, horseback, and by wagon, and no opportunity to reasonably assist the settlers was neglected by him. The Rev. John Hall, who arrived in 1811, in a paper furnished to the Ashtabula County historical society, and not published entire in this work, referring as well to a later time, states, " He had a large family of small children, was a farmer, land-agent, and surveyor. He was one of the principal business men, public-spirited, liberal, helpful to the poor, and hos- pitable and kind to strangers and wayworn travelers."
At the organization of the township in 1808, then including the territory of four or more present townships, he was elected one of the appraisers of taxable property, and at the ensuing election, township clerk. In after-years he was elected to and acceptably filled several civil and military offices up to 1842, when his term of three years as one of the associate judges of the county court expired.
Under the administration of President Monroe he was appointed postmaster, and held the office until he resigned, in 1838, and his son received the appoint- ment.
In common with other citizens in eastern Ohio, he early saw the need of a harbor at this point on the lake. The plans and schemes at different times suggested proved ineffectual, but the growing necessity induced him to corre- spond on the subject with the owners of unoccupied lands, and with Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, long a faithful and pattern representative in congress, the result of which, largely due to the labors of Mr. Whittlesey, was shown in an impetus given to harbor improvements on our lakes, and an increase of business over an extensive region. It is sufficient for the purpose desired to quote again from the papers of Mr. Hall: "It is no disparagement to others to say that, with his innate public spirit, Colonel Hubbard was enabled and disposed to be a distinguished patron and promoter of this important enterprise, submitting himself to labors and expenses without which such valuable results could not have been realized." He furnished surveys and estimates by the aid of which Mr. Whittlesey obtained an appropriation of twelve thousand dollars " for re- moving obstructions from Ashtabula creek." He was appointed agent in the fall of 1826, and expended on the work that season over seventeen hundred dollars. He continued in this agency during the application of this and several other appropriations, including one for a beacon light, until they were all expended in 1841.
The identification of Colonel Hubbard with the early settlement of the county of Ashtabula, and his prominence and liberality in many of the enterprises that have secured its growth and prosperity, would justify a more particular history of his life. But the historical records of the county and the memory of many still living will make amends for this imperfect sketch.
WILLIAM HUBBARD.
William, son of Isaac and Ruth Coleman Hubbard, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in the year 1787. When he was ten years of age his father, with three other citizens of Middletown, removed with their families and took up a large tract of land in what was called Holland's patent, in the town of Trenton, nine miles from the city of Utica, Oneida county, New York. This new country was the scene of his early and middle life. He married Katharine Hulbert. In the year 1825 he was elected justice of the peace, and served in that capacity nearly twenty years. In the War of 1812 with England he went as captain of volunteer militia for the defense of Sacket's Harbor, threatened at that time by the English navy on Lake Ontario. The appearance of Commodore Chauncy, with the American squadron, relieved this service. He received, in the year 1817, his commission as colonel of militia ; and as it has the "yellow look" and formality almost of old Continental papers, the document is given in full as a thing of antique curiosity.
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