USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 51
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Were we asked to give the more prominent characteristics of Dr. Holbrook, we should say he was of the strictest integrity, severely conscientious, with au un- yielding sense of justice aud right. To a high standard of action he held himself and every one accountable. His word was as good as his bond. A shrewd ob- server of human nature, whenever he recognized in others, and especially in the young commencing the up-hill struggle of life, those qualities that he himself signally exemplified, his generous counsel and assistance were never wanting. To such he was a kind and revered friend. To those whose moral principles came
OR S. G.HOLBROOK.
DR. GREENLEAF FIFIELD
DR. H. H. WEBSTER
DR. E.M WEBSTER
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
not up to his high standard, his judgments, doubtless, sometimes appeared harsh and severe. The mysterious workings of the law of heredity, upon which he laid so much stress in his treatment of the physical man, he may have too often over- looked or underestimated in the realm of morals. To a mind so constituted, his early religious training of the strictest Calvinistic type lent great influence. He was naturally a believer in the doctrine of a hell. Indeed, his convictions upon this point were held with an earnestness and sincerity which might cheer and up- hold its faint-hearted advocates to-day. But in the sick-room were his gentler and best qualities abundantly manifest. Cautious in his treatment, gentle and sympathetic in his manner, humorous, and ever ready with a joke or story to chase away the gloom and sorrow ; multitudes will remember him for these, when the harsher aspects of his character have long been forgotten.
For his professional brethren, with whom he counseled in difficult cases, he cherished great respect and affection. On his death-bed, fully aware of his ap- proaching dissolution, to his attending physician, Dr. Hubbard, he exclaimed, " Coleman is gone, and Spencer and Fifield and Farrington,-all are gone,-and why should I stay longer ?" Then affectionately embracing, and charging him with a message of love to " A. F.," his brother, he bade him a long adieu ; and so, after fifty years of a professional career in Kelloggsville and vicinity, his well- rounded and useful earthly life closed at the ripe age of seventy-seven. As he was fond of quoting, so will we : " Let his virtues be inscribed in marble, but his faults -- let them be written in sand."
DR. HIRAM WEBSTER
was born in Lanesborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on May 17, 1800. He is the second child of Clark and Naamah Hall Webster. When he was five year of age his parents removed to Franklin, Delaware county, New York. After two years passed at this point his father made a trip to " New Connecticut," as the Western Reserve was then called, and without making a purchase of land put in a piece of wheat on the Ashtabula flats. This land was owned by Matthew Hubbard. Returning to Franklin for his family, he soon started for Ohio, calculating to reach Buffalo on runners. At Skaneateles he found two families named Pratt and Bartlett also en-route for the " promised land," and in company with them proceeded onward and in due time arrived at Black Rock, where they found a large open boat, which was offered them at a low price, as it had become unseaworthy,-indeed was almost a wreck. However, an arrangement was effected whereby Mr. Webster repaired the boat, and in return was given a passage for his family and goods to Ashtabula Landing. It was not altogether a safe voyage, as not one of the company was acquainted with handling a boat ex- cept Mr. Webster. The motive power was oars and setting-poles, aided by ex- temporized sails of bed blankets and sheets. There were twenty-one on board ; at night the boat was beached and made fast, the greater portion of the passengers going ashore to sleep. An incident is related in which the subject of this sketch was an active participant. He and a younger brother were sleeping on the boat in company with several other persons ; about midnight he was shaken quite roughly by an old lady of the party, and ordered to get off the boat quickly, as it was sink- ing. In the dense darkness he was unable to find his brother, and while groping about in search of him doubtless got in the way of the said female; be that as it may, the result was a sudden push and an equally sudden plunge into the lake ; being uear the bow, however, the water was not deep, yet before getting out his feet and his head became submerged, and he " shipped" considerable water. Reaching Ashtabula, tarried there until June, 1809, when the family removed to Kingsville and made a permanent settlement. In the twenty-first year of his age, Hiram Hall Webster commenced the study of medicine, and in 1825 entered upon the practice of his profession, and diligently pursued it until his son, Dr. E. M., was qualified to take the labors upon himself, when the doctor left the field. Those years of pioncer practice were fraught with hardship and often danger.
Dr. Webster was united in marriage, in April, 1824, to Corinna Lucinda, daughter of Russel and Corinna Loomis, of Windsor township, this county. The fruits of this union are Corinna Naamah, born March 10, 1825, married Rev. E. C. Williams (deceased) ; Eleazur Michael, born May 21, 1827; Laura Ann, born July 8, 1829, died in infancy ; Ann Eliza, born December 14, 1830, married Darwin P. Venen, and is deceased ; Clarinda L., born August 19, 1833, married D. P. Venen ; Charles Hiram, born July 21, 1836 ; and Henry Clark, the youngest, who was born February 11, 1842, was a soldier of the Union army, and died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1862. The wife of Dr. Web- ster is likewise deceased, since which time he has resided with his son, Dr. E. M. Dr. Webster, senior, is a worthy member of the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and a Republican in politics.
E. M. WEBSTER, M.D.,
was born in the township where he now resides, on the 21st day of May, 1827. Ilis parents were Hiram Hall and Corinna L. Webster. He received an academic education, and, on its completion, read medicine with his father, and graduated at Hudson medical college, Cleveland, Ohio, receiving his degree February 22, 1854. Has practiced medicine with eminent success uutil this tique, except a brief period passed at Philadelphia, as follows: in 1862 he was mustered into the United States armuy as an assistant-surgeon, and assigned to duty as post-surgeon at that point. Ilis brother, who was with the army, died soon after, when the doctor resigned his commission and came home. He has been physician for the county infirmary for the past fifteen years. Dr. Webster was married to Miss Emily A. Beckwith, June 4, 1851. Have had two children. Darwin P. was born June 28, 1852; died in infancy. George E. was born July 25, 1858. The doctor is thoroughly Republican in polities ; is a member of the Presbyterian church ; is a Knight Templar, and affiliates with Cache commandery, No. 27, at Conneaut.
GREENLEAF FIFIELD, M.D.
The doctor was a son of the late Colonel Edward Fifield. He was born in Vermont, October 27, 1801. Migrated to Ohio, with his parents, in 1814. Ar- riving at a suitable age, he returned to New England to study medicine, and grad- uated at Castleton, Vermont, in August, 1822. Settled first in Monroe, in this county, where he practiced about one year. Then he went to Conneaut, and pur- sued, unremittingly, his calling until his death, which occurred June 27, 1851.
He married Miss Laura Kellogg, daughter of the late Amos Kellogg, of Kel- loggsville, February 28, 1830. The issue of the marriage was three daughters- Sarah, who married G. A. Cozens ; Elvira M., married Thomas B. Rice ; Catherine L., married Rev. R. M. Keyes-and one son, Dr. Amos K. Fifield, of Conneaut. The subject of this sketch was quite remarkable. He possessed a good mind, clear and solid, with a well-balanced judgment. Add to these prime qualities his extraordinary physique, and you are presented with a man whose like it is some- what difficult to find in the ordinary walks of life. His head was large, his fea- tures prominent and clearly cut, and his countenance was expressive of intelli- gence, pleasantness, and mental force. ITis form was erect, shoulders square and broad,-he stood six feet, or more,-and in all his movements was as graceful as a knight. Mankind instinctively admire those who are favored with an imposing person, and especially if they also possess a pleasing address. These marked characteristics no doubt in part explain the great influence which the doctor cx- crcised as a physician in Conneaut and the surrounding country. The work of the physician is silent and unimposing, and it takes many years to build up an enduring reputation for skill, and fortunate it is for the young practitioner whom nature has endowed with an agreeable personal appearance and address. Not so with the lawyer and the parson : their works are more patent and showy, and they may rise rapidly to the summit of their importance, if they are gifted with elo- quence and force, though they be as ugly as Thersites. Dr. Fifield was ambitious and resolute, and his great physical force enabled him to do an immense amount of riding by night, as well as by day. It is said that he never refused to respond to the calls of his patients. Storms and mud never delayed his movements. It is difficult to rightly estimate the resolution exercised and the fatigue endured by this strong and generous nature during the twenty-nine years of unremitting toil. His practice, medical and surgical, in the surrounding countics was extensive, and, while he was ever ready to obey the sumiuons for his services from the sick, he rarely presented his bills for his pay. This exhibition of disinterestedness was not uncommon among the pioneer doctors. Old Dr. Johnson, of Harpersfield, never kept accounts. He lived along from month to month upon the produce which his more thoughtful patrons brought to him. And when occasion came for money he would go to some of his customers who were able to furnish the sum required, and between thein they guessed out the amount due. After his death a considerable sum was realized in this way for the relief of his family.
This negligent habit of many of the medical pioneers was partly owing to the temporary poverty of the carly settlers and the hopeless irresponsibility of the genus "squatter." Still, behind this superficial explanation there was in the hearts of these men the spirit of charity and kindness characteristic of the true physician. There is a silent current of sentiment in the mind of the earnest and intelligent physician, of the presence of which he takes no formal heed : he scarcely knows the power which impels him daily to deeds of charity and love towards his suffering fellow-creatures. With him charity becomes a habit. Except toil, it is the commonest event of his life. His profits and his charities march hand in hand. But let us not glorify ourselves above other good men in other walks of life, who, in answer to special appeals for help, open their purses and hearts, now and then, as occasion requires. They do their duty, and we only do ours, and no more. Charity is the essence and the color of our profession ; it is scarcely our
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
virtue. We only reflect it as an inevitable function, even as a shimmering sur- face brightens with light from some nobler source. The medical man of to-day, or of any future period, who ignores the self-sacrificing examples of these pioneers, and resolves that he will do the minimum amount of gratuitous and onerous work, will be more bitterly disappointed than anybody else, except those who employ him.
Dr. Fifield enjoyed jokes, humor, and fun. As an instance to illustrate his merry tendencies we will present a little story, told to the writer of this sketch by one of the principal parties in the scene. Captain Alanson Tubbs, of Con- neaut, was a stalwart sailor. One day he consulted the doctor, in an informal way on the street, about a slight ailment accompanied by trifling soreness in the chest. The doctor told him to put on a big hemlock-gum plaster. This Alanson did. He covered the whole front of his breast, carelessly forgetting to shave off the hair. IIe felt relieved for a while, no doubt, and thought it a capital thing. Pretty soon, however, the skin under the plaster began to itch intolerably,-that is a way hemlock-gum plasters always have. The man who puts on that kind of a plaster to please himself will be pleased twice,-when he gets it off, especially if he forgets the preliminary shave. The poor captain conld not muster courage to pull out so much hair, and went about itching and grumbling for several days, seeking for some painless device to free hinself of the gum. At last he con- fronted the doctor, in his gig, in front of one of the hotels on Main street, where a crowd had gathered to listen to the captain's exaggerated sufferings and his quarter-deck expletives. The doctor saw at once the necessity of its removal, and concluded to take the most funny, as well as humane, way of getting it off : for his muethod would give the patient great muscular action and mental diversion, which makes us all more or less oblivious to minor injuries. He ealled the cap- tain around behind the gig, when, after he had well exposed the plaster. he quietly got a good grip on the top of it, and tapped old Whitey with the whip. Away sprang the horse, the captain following, of course, as soon as he felt the pull. Away they flew. faster and faster, the captain's long legs making him second in the race. But four legs are better than two for speed, and off came the plaster. The captain used to tell of it, years afterwards, and laugh till the tears ran down his cheeks, always saying that the big stone which he hurled after the doctor had no sooner left his hand than he began to pray that it would not hit him, for it would have gone through him if it had. He was glad the plaster was off; he was too mad to feel it ; and the only drawback to the transaction was having so heavy a joke resting on him for months afterwards. If he ventured into town the hangers-on about the taverns would inquire about the plaster. He thought he paid for about five gallons of whisky-by the glass-before the subject became stale.
REV. JOHN HALL .*
The Rev. John Hall was born at Lee, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on the 5th of November, 1788. He was descended from Welsh ancestry, his great- grandfather, Ichabod Hall, having emigrated from Wales and settled in Falmoutlı, Massachusetts. His grandfather. Ebenezer Hall, was a commander of Massachu- setts volunteers for frontier defense, and became distinguished as a successful Indian fighter. His father, Moses Hall, was a soldier of the Revolution, having enlisted in the Continental army at the age of cighteen, near the close of the war. After the close of the war he was a cloth-dresser, and had a factory at Lee. Later on he removed to Lenox, in the same county, and engaged in farming.
John was the oldest of a family of fourteen children. At an early age hc began to develop a taste for literature. Wheu old enough to work his labor was required upon his father's farm ; but he devoted all his leisure to the pursuit of his studies-often under difficulties. He studied the higher English branches and the Latin and Greek languages under partial direction of the Rev. Dr. Hyde, a prominent Congregational clergyman at Lenox. At nineteen he commenced the study of medicine, which at the end of about two years was interrupted by his removal to Ohio, in 1809. His journey alone on horseback, through an almost unbroken wilderness, consumed more days than the number of hours that would now be required to accomplish the same distance by rail. He came to Ashtabula and engaged as a clerk in the store of Hall Smith,-a man well known to all the early settlers,-which position he retained for several years.
In 1811 his father and family followed him to Ashtabula. His father purchased tracts of lands in Ashtabula and Dover, Lorain county, which, like nearly all the wild lands on the Western Reserve, were covered with heavy timber. He gave to each of his sons one hundred and fifty acres, and to each daughter one hundred acres, to be cleared for farms, and sold the remainder from time to time to other settlers. The subject of this memoir cleared a large part of his one hundred and fifty acres, and otherwise improved and stocked it.
In September, 1813, he married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Badger, a Presbyterian clergyman, graduate of Yale college, who had emigrated from Connecticut about the year 1800 as a missionary to the Indians, and settled at Austinburg. This man was a genuine servant of Christ, possessing a spirit of true Christian charity towards all men.
Mr. Hall was reared a Congregationalist, but a few years after his marriage was converted to the Catholic faith, as taught in the Anglican communion, through the instrumentality of the Rev. Roger Searle, a zealous clergyman of the Episcopal church, a missionary with headquarters at Ashtabula, under whose direction he studied for the ministry. He was made a deacon at a diocesan convention held at Columbus in the summer of 1822, and a year later was ordained priest in the old school-house, which stood on the " green" in the east village of Ashtabula, after- wards burned down. He traveled sometimes with Mr. Searle, and sometimes alone over the Reserve as a missionary. After the death of Mr. Searle, at his house, in the summer of 1826, he was called to the rectorship of St. Peter's church, Ashtabula, which he retained for many years, dividing his labors during the early part of his rectorship between this parish, Unionville, Windsor, and other more distant parts of the Reserve.
Previous to entering the ministry he had been a justice of the peace, at the same time carrying on his farm, which he continued to do after taking orders, drawing from it a part of his support. He also taught school several terms during the early years of his ministry, earning something in this way to eke out his scanty income.
His rectorship of St. Peter's was not continuous. Twice he resigned it and engaged in missionary labors at Unionville, Rome, Painesville, Windsor, Plymouth, Jefferson, and other places, some of them west of Cleveland, including Dover, Norwalk, and Medina. At most of the places named he organized parishes. The duties of his ministry, to which he was zcalously devoted, were often attended with severe and long-continued hardships. Besides traveling on horseback, or by wagon, and sometimes on foot, frequently in driving storms of rain or snow, over nearly impassable roads, he was often called to fight the wolf of hunger from his door ; the meager salary which he contented himself with the promise of, sufficient only for his barest necessities, was not always promptly or fully paid. This was mainly due rather to the inability than to the unwillingness of his parishioners to meet their engagements. Most of them at that early day had to maintain the same struggle with poverty that he did. Sickness also was an alınost constant inmate of his house, and death a frequent visitor. IFis farm and stock were sold to furnish the means of living, and, what was worse, the appalling spectre of debt brooded like a nightmare over his own life and that of his family for a number of years. But no hardships ever made him falter in the work of saving souls.
His wife, to whom he was greatly devoted, and who was respected and beloved by all who knew her, died on May 6, 1828. He married for his second wife Harriet, widow of Horatio Wilcox. She died about four years after their mar- riage, near the beginning of 1833. He lived a widower for several years after her death, pursuing his missionary labors at Rome, Unionville, and Painesville.
In September, 1837, he married Prudee Tracy, widow of Anson Chester, of Norwich, Connecticut, then living with several of her children at Rome, in Ash- tabula County. She was a talented woman, a devoted wife, and a superior house- keeper. She died in 1853, while on a visit at her former home in Norwich.
Soon after his marriage with Mrs. Chester he assumed again, in compliance with a call of the vestry, the rectorship of St. Peter's, Ashtabula, and remained in charge of this parish for about sixteen years, when the infirmities of age com- pelled him to resign this charge for the last time. He afterwards became assist- ant minister of Trinity church, Cleveland, in charge of Trinity church mission chapel, officiating one Sunday in each month at St. Michael's, Unionville. He also gave up this position after ten months' service, and spent the remainder of his life with his eldest daughter at Ashtabula, both living most of the time in the family of his son, Joseph B. Hall, now residing at Chicago.
Four daughters and two sons were the fruit of his first marriage. The younger son died at the age of three years. the youngest daughter in infancy, and the second and third daughters in youth. The remaining son and daughter are still living,-the son at Chicago, Illinois, and the daughter at Cleveland. This daugh- ter, a woman of great strength of character, was from early youth entirely devoted to the fortunes of her father and his family.
Mr. Hall had two daughters by his second wife, both of whom married. The elder and her husband are both dead, and the younger is living with her husband, Dr. O. P. McDonald, a practicing physician, at Keokuk, Iowa.
The Rev. John Hall was emphatically a " self-made man" in every respect. His theological, like his literary, education was acquired by hard study, with very little instruction outside of his text-books. At the time he entered the ministry the " Protestant Episcopal" church in this country, like the mother
Written by his son, J. B. Hall.
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
church of England, had the apostolic ministry, together with the "form of sound words," but very little of the aggressive spirit of Christianity contemplated by the great Head of the church when He said to His apostles, "Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," etc.
There were so few Episcopal clergymen in the west, and they located so far apart, that he was nearly isolated, after the death of the Rev. Mr. Searle, from intercourse with his brethren in the ministry. He was a persevering student, and became well versed in the current church histories, Bible commentaries, and expositions of church doctrines. The Anglican communion had become so thoroughly Protestantized that many of the text-books of its clergy were written by members of Protestant religious bodies hostile to the church; and while it had retained the Catholic faith in its creeds, liturgies, and other formularies, it had lost its aggressive Catholic spirit, and fallen into a lethargy of indifference from which it began to awaken only about forty years ago, in the Oxford move- ment, with which was connected the publication of the celebrated "Tracts for the Times." But the same movement had begun in the mind and practice of the subject of this memoir before it began at Oxford, so that he was prepared to sympathize and keep pace with it. He had become a diligent student of the Book of Common Prayer, which the clergy as well as the laity had been accus- tomed to look upon as a mere service book, and he had used it as such for years before he came to appreciate that in it were formulated all the doctrines and worship of the church universal throughout all the ages from apostolic times to our own. He saw in it not only what the apostolic canons and the great councils had declared, and the church in all ages had accepted as her true Scriptural doctrines and worship, but also the inspired Word of God itself contained in its calendars, and appointed to be read daily to the people during divine service.
In the beginning of his ministry he accepted the precedents of the day, adopt- ing as nearly as his isolated situation would permit the practice of his brethren of the clergy. But as the light of his duty from the study of this book dawned upon him, he revived as fast as practicable the use in their true spirit and frequency of the offices prescribed therein, which for nearly two hundred years had fallen largely into disuse throughout the Anglican communion. He was the first in the United States to revive weekly and holy day celebrations of the Eucharist, the first to re-establish the free church system, and among the first to revive daily services. He also restored the use of other offices found in the prayer-book, and advocated the practice of sacramental confession, as enjoined in our communion office, and more unequivocally in the English.
He found that while the doctrines of the " Protestant Episcopal" church in this country were necessarily identical with those of the mother church from which its orders were derived, its Book of Common Prayer was also connected in its preface with that of the English church in such manner as to make all the services, offices, and rubrics (except those changed of necessity by " local circum- stances"), as well as all the vestments, ornaments, and ceremonial prescribed or allowed in that church, lawful, if not obligatory, in this. He carried the practice of ceremonial as far as his limited knowledge of liturgical history-almost inaccessible in his day-would permit, and fully recognized its utility in the promotion of more earnest and reverent worship and deeper faith. Far as he was behind the state of progress in this respect, reached through the catholic revival at this day, he was so far in advance of his own time, that most of his reforms were stigmatized by many even among his own flock as novcitics and
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