History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 35

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 35
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 35

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

As settlers came into the place her house was open to all comers, to whom she dispensed a cheerful and graceful hospitality ; and thus for sixteen years, but during the latter part of the time in feeble health, she fulfilled the duties of a wife and mother, and also met the additional demands upon her time and strength to which her husband's position subjected her. Shortly after her death he wrote thus of her: "To her husband she was an excellent companion, to her children an affectionate mother; she was warm in her attachment to her friends. Hers was a life of sickness, particularly the last seven years, but yet a life of un- ceasing industry. The preparations for the hour of her departure, which she saw steadily approaching, stimulated her in the exercise of her remaining powers to be useful to her family, and her last moments presented to her friends a most perfect blending of the concerns of both worlds. To the acute distress which in her last moments she experienced she submitted without a murmur, considering it as the chastening of a Father whose grievous afflictions are for the best good of his children, and in the full belief that he would watch over and take care of her family, and that in his own good time all would meet in a better world."

She died August 6, in the thirty-seventh year of her age.

In 1823, Mr. Parkman married Mrs. Mary Burt, of Onondaga, New York, who survived him, but died in 1848 from lockjaw, in consequence of a fall.

Mr. Parkman was attacked by sickness when away from home on business, and after a long illness died at Orwell, Ashtabula county, in March, 1832.

His characteristics can be described in few words. He was possessed of a cheerful temperament which no disappointments or reverses of his own were able to disturb; he was firm without being obstinate, hopeful without being over-con- fident, and was thus admirably fitted for the position which he occupied as the leader in a new settlement.

JOHN PHELPS CONVERSE.

John Phelps Converse was the seventh son and eleventh child of Israel Converse, and was born in Randolph, Orange county, Vermont, January 27, 1792. His father was a native of Stafford, Connecticut.

The Converse family had its origin in the province of Navarre, France, where it was known under the name of De Coignieres. Roger and Robert de Coignieres settled in Durham, England, in the latter part of the reign of William the Con- queror. When the Reformation spread in France, the De Coignieres became Huguenots, and many of the family fell in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Shortly after that event, Pierre de Coignieres, with his wife and two children, escaped to England, and settled in the county of Essex, In process of time the name, following the English pronunciation, became Conyers, and has been so called in England ever since.

In 1630, Edward Conyers, with Sarah, his wife, and his two sons, Josiah and James (with the addition of a third son, Samuel, born on the passage), sailed from England in the fleet with Winthrop, and settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts. During the passage across the ocean the name " suffered a sea-change" by drop- ping a part of the y, and became Convers, and so remained for several generations. Just at what time the e was added to the name does not appear. Some branches of the family have not yet adopted it.

Some time between 1735 and 1737, Josiab, the fifth in descent from Edward Convers, settled in Stafford, Connecticut, in which town was born, Aug. 7, 1743, Israel, the father of John Phelps.

At the beginning of the War of the Revolution, Israel Converse entered the

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

army as second lieutenant in one of the regiments of Connecticut troops, and the same year was raised to the rank of captain. He remained in the army till the close of the war, and was discharged with the rank of colonel. In 1787 he re- moved with his family to Randolph, Vermont, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that place, in which town his son, John Phelps, was born, as above stated.

By the death of his father, which occurred in his fifteenth year, the subject of our sketch was thrown upon his own resources. While quite young he served some time with his brother-in-law, a merchant in Montreal. He afterwards re- turned to Vermont, and was engaged in a store with his elder brother and in attending school.

LITTLE

HON. JOHN PHELPS CONVERSE.

His health at that time not being good, he left Vermont in 1812, and remained some time in the vicinity of Utica, New York. During the first year he engaged in teaching, and was afterwards for some time the superintendent in a glass-fac- tory. In 1816 he married Miss Betsey Collins, daughter of General Alexander Collins, of Whitestown, New York, who survived her marriage but one year. She died in February, 1817, leaving an infant son. A few months after this event Mr. Converse made his first visit to Ohio, taking the journey partly on ac- count of his health, which was not good, and in part to ascertain its business prospects, with a view to future settlement. The Western Reserve was then the centre of attraction to all whose faces were turned towards Ohio, and in the course of his journeyings he reached Parkman, where he remained a few weeks. At this time also he went to Detroit, and soon after returned to Oneida county.

In July, 1818, he was married, at Westmoreland, Oneida county, to Miss Hannah B. Parkman, the youngest sister of R. B. Parkman, whose acquaintance he had made when in Ohio, she being then on a visit to her brother.

Immediately after this event he removed to Parkman and permanently settled there. In October of that year he purchased a place in the village containing several acres, on the southwest corner of which stood an unfinished house, into which, after putting it in order, he removed with his family, and in which he resided fourteen years.

There being then no house of entertainment in the town, and the location being favorable for that purpose, he opened a hotel, which was kept, with some inter- missions, as long as he remained in the place.

For the purpose of creating a home market for the grain raised in the town and vicinity, Mr. Parkman and himself, in 1820, built, and for some years owned, a distillery near the river, and at that time it was looked upon as an important addition to the business facilities of the town ; but as the owners were in their own habits temperance men, it needed only the rise of the temperance reformation to cause the building to be converted to other uses.

In 1821 they built, on the left bank of the river, below the village, a mill for the manufacture of linseed oil, which continued in successful operation till 1835. In 1833 they began the erection of a paper-mill, some rods higher up the river, on the opposite side of the stream. At this point the banks of the river are so high that, although the building was one of three stories, the roof only remained above the bank. After the foundations were laid, and the frame put up and in- closed, the original plan was changed, and it was finished as a flour-mill. This mill was burned in 1838.

In the autumn of 1824 he opened a store in the village. The next year he

entered into partnership with his elder brother, Porter Converse, which continued till 1828, when it was dissolved and the business closed.

Shortly after this, Porter Converse removed to Unionville, entered into business as a merchant, and resided there till his death, which took place in 1870, in the ninety-third year of his age.

Prior to 1824 the mail through Parkman was carried on horseback once in the week.

Not far from this time Mr. Converse, with others, contracted with the post- office department to carry the mail from Fairport to Poland, Trumbull county, in a conveyance suitable for the accommodation of the traveling public, which was soon enlarged into a daily four-horse post-coach.

The route lay through Painesville, Chardon, Burton, Parkman, and Warren, and prior to the construction of railroads it continued to be the main line of travel for the section of country through which it passed.

His contracts were renewed and extended till the route reached Sandusky, Monroe, and Detroit. The prosecution of the business involved many journeys to Washington and a residence there of weeks, and sometimes months, during which time he became acquainted with Henry Clay and other leaders of the op- position in the time of the Jackson administration.

In 1832, the year of the first visitation of the cholera in the United States, he was dangerously ill with it at Monroe, Mich., but, not being acquainted with the forms of the disease, he was unaware of his danger, and thus recovered.

In 1833 the first mail ever carried across the territory of Michigan was carried by him to Chicago, then only a trading-post, with three or four houses, in the vicinity of Fort Dearborn, thus becoming a second time a pioneer.

He was present when the land upon which the city of Chicago is built was purchased of the Indians and their title extinguished, and, foreseeing the results which the advantages of the location would ultimately produce, he determined to transfer to it his interests and his residence, but a serious illness deterred him at the time, and the fear of sickness for his family, which was then the invariable attendant of western emigration, caused its ultimate relinquishment.

He closed his connection with the post-office department in 1836, after twelve years of service, in which time he had overcome all the difficulties of the route and literally made straight paths for the feet of those who should succeed him.

In 1825 he, with Eleazar Hickox, of Burton, and Isaac Mills, of Portage county, was appointed " to lay out, improve, and keep in repair a road leading from Chardon, in Geauga County, through Burton and Parkman village, in a direction towards Warren." The "working" of this road through Parkman devolved upon him, and was performed soon after the date of his commission. He also, not far from this time, superintended the putting in good traveling order several other roads in the township.

Mr. Converse was a member of the State Legislature during the sessions of 1842-43. In the winter of 1846 he was appointed one of the associate judges of Geauga County, and held the office till it was abolished under the new State constitution of 1851.

In 1863 he was appointed assistant assessor under the internal revenue law, but resigned the place on account of failing health in 1864.

Mrs. Converse died in 1859. She was the youngest daughter of Alexander Parkman, and was born in Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York, September 25, 1793. She was twenty-two years younger than her brother Robert Breck. She had been a longer resident in Parkman than her husband; her first visit was made in 1814, at which time, in company with her brother, she made the whole journey from Oneida county on horseback. They passed through Buffalo while it was still smoking from its burning by the British troops and Indians.

She was a woman of intelligence and energy of character, and in her own sphere met and discharged the arduous duties which devolved upon her in the various relations of life in which she was placed.

In 1862, Mr. Converse married Mrs. Rebecca Hahns, of Cleveland, who sur- vived him. She died instantly of apoplexy in September, 1877.

Mr. Converse always took a deep interest in all matters pertaining to the public welfare, both as regarded his own neighborhood and that of the country at large, and was ever ready to give to such his hearty support.

He gave an ardent adherence to the government during the war of the rebel- lion, and rejoiced with all good patriots in the overthrow of slavery.

When he met with reverses of fortune-and he had his full share of them-he did not give way to despondency or inaction. His usual phrase at such times was, " We will pick the flint and try again." In politics he was a Whig of the Giddings and Wade school. He was one of the delegates to the Buffalo conven- tion of 1848, at the time of the organization of the Free Soil movement, which culminated in the Republican party, to the principles of which he gave an un- wavering support.

He was kind and affectionate in his domestic relations, and for the last twenty-

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

five ears he was a member of the Congregational church. His death took place February 21, 1865, at the age of seventy-three.

His family consisted of four children ; the eldest, Oliver Collins, the son of his first wife, who was born at Cayuga, New York, January 18, 1817, died at Park- man in 1839.

His three daughters, the children of his second wife, are still living.

OLIVER WOODWORTH LUDLOW, M.D.

Here was a man sprung from the common people, who never achieved any measure of what is called success, was not greatly learned, performed no striking action, accumulated no wealth, made no discoveries in art or science, endowed no college or hospital, founded no sect or new order, belonged to no church, was a member of no association, filled no official position, was not in the war of the rebellion, who died at the age of sixty-five, and yet the people, his friends and neighbors, spontaneously erected a monument to his memory. There must have been much in the life worth the living; something worthy of a record, and that will repay study.

Francis Ludlow was of English origin, born in 1776, on Long Island, and for the rest " was a shoemaker by trade," and died in Chatauqua, New York, in 1837. Sally Coltron was of Welsh blood, born in Tolland, town and county, Connecticut, 1872. She was a woman of strong traits and mental endowments, with quite a wonderful memory. She died in Wisconsin in 1858. These two were married in 1798, removed a good many times, and found life a constant hard struggle. Of the children born to them, the boys, save Oliver, were sailors, some of them famous Lake Erie captains-one at least an ocean-skipper.

Oliver, the eldest, was born at Seneca, Cayuga county, New York, January 1, 1800, was his mother's New Year's gift, and partook largely of her qualities. He early evinced great aptitude for books and learning: and though his father taught him to make shoes, his mother must have taught him other things. He was slenderly as a child, and grew up a slim, dark, thoughtful boy, black-browed, with curling black hair, and quite extraordinary eyes, dark and striking. With man- hood came better health and fuller development, and at twenty-five he was an unusually handsome man, with a fine pose of the head and manly bearing.

At eighteen he taught his first school, and quite early showed a decided apti- tude as an instructor, a faculty with which he was endowed in an eminent degree. He early, without the aid of an instructor, acquired a knowledge of the Latin tongue, which was a source of great pleasure to him, and quite mastered the ru- diments of the various branches of mathematics. His first purpose seems to have been to follow this bent, and pursue teaching as a profession.

At nineteen, with a shirt in a cotton handkerchief, with a few shillings in his pocket, he walked from his mother's to Painesville, Ohio, where he was engaged for two or three years as teacher, and devoted his leisure with great ardor to the acquisition of knowledge. At twenty-two he went to Burton, where he remained three years. These were eventful, and had possibly, not a wholly favorable in- fluence on all his after-life. There was then a flourishing academical school at that place; a thoroughly-organized, rather rigid church, a circle decidedly aristocratic, at the head of which was the late chief-justice of the State, not without despotic traits of character. Seabury Ford had just returned from Yale, and Reuben Hitchcock graduated soon after, and took charge of the academy. Young Ludlow was a man of great ardor of temperament, of great enthusiasm, versatile, possibly a little volatile in the pursuit of objects, some of which did not possess the power to draw him permanently. Here the young man engaged as a teacher in the academy, and also commenced the study of medicine under Dr. Goodwin, a physician of considerable local celebrity.

There was also a very beautiful young lady, a daughter of one of the favored Burton families, who attracted the young stranger, and in turn was powerfully drawn to him. It was a mutual attachment, of two strong natures. The young man's religious notions and life were at that time quite in harmony with Burton orthodoxy. He had been kindly received, was admired, but was not to be thought of as a suitor, a husband, of the beautiful, well-endowed belle of Burton. A penniless adventurer, coming from nowhere, he was one of the proudest and most sensitive of men-perhaps too proud, when he had the heart of the maiden. Perhaps, after all, he acted wisely, though under the influence of not the wisest human aspirations. He went away. Whether driven away by her, or by mutual concurrence or desertion on his part, or the intervention of others, I know not. I have been told, by an eye-witness of the meeting of these two, years after, when she was a wife and mother, and he a husband and parent, in a flourishing business. The emotions were overpowering to both, showing deep wrong and deepest hurt to the most sacred of human loves, wherever the fault may justly lie.

He went to Chardon in 1824, took charge of an academical school, and became a student under Dr. Everet Denton, a very remarkable man, and one of the most famous physicians of his day. Here he engaged in teaching with his usual suc- cess. He spent three or four years in this school and study, when, being emi- nently fitted, he applied for admission into the Ohio Medical Society, whose diploma would have made him an M.D., with the rights and privileges of a doctor of medicine. Here he was met by a paper from the late chief-justice, referred to above, containing a statement that he was dissipated, and possessed a character which precluded his admission into a society of honorable men. It was a thunderbolt which for the time blasted him. He denounced it as untrue, calumnious, and protested the purity of his life. He was young, friendless, unknown, and it was as fatal as the brand of heaven. Most unquestionably it did him grave injustice, as unquestionably the ostensible author of it supposed it to be true. He was utterly incapable of intentional injury. He was undoubtedly made use of by enemies who could not be known. In Burton the statements to the young man's prejudice were believed. There was much in his after-conduct, under the development of an unfortunate hereditary tendency, to give counte- nance to the tales of his irregular habits. Whatever may have been the intention of the real authorities, on which the distinguished writer relied, the shaft for a time seemed fatal. The student of years was not merely "plucked :" the foundation of a professional life seemed to perish, and promise and hope withered. It struck home to the deep, strong nature of the young man, and called into exercise the courage and inflexible elements stored in him. The wound rankled long. It never gangrened, nor were thoughts of fierce revenge cherished. Marked and seemingly marred, the now mature man, returned from the slaughter of his hopes and personal fame, offered himself to the heart of a pure maiden, whose family understood his surroundings and misfortune, was accepted and married, when, with scanty wardrobe and slender purse, he made his way to New York city, and entered himself as a student in the academy of medicine. This could at least graduate him, the Ohio Medical Society to the contrary notwithstanding.

He was obliged to do something to meet expenses. He applied for a place as teacher in the public schools, and was sent to the examiners. He was a little seedy in dress, with possibly something of the Bohemian in his manner that did not prepossess them. As the readiest way to rid themselves of him, they turned him over to a flippant young examiner to test his acquirements. He understood the purpose, and would annihilate the proposed teacher. He tried it with an impossible grammatical problem, which to his confusion, the applicant pleasantly exposed. This was followed by a few random questions of intrusive severity, which were easily answered, when an older and wiser man came to the aid of both, and the stranger was furnished with the needed certificate of fitness, and a recommendation for employment. The first day he had a dozen scholars. He had worn out his shoes in the journey from Ohio, and walked the school- room in his socks. The marvels the scholars told of him filled the room the next day. The third it was found too small. On Monday of the next week he was provided with a more spacious school-room. In less than two years he graduated, and with his diploma he returned to his wife and infant daughter, who awaited his return in Chardon.

He now removed to Newbury, five miles west of Burton ; fitted up an empty log house; engaged himself to teach the winter school of his neighborhood, and held himself out to practice. Dr. Goodwin's ride extended daily into Newbury. It was here under the shadow, in the face, in defiance of those he was compelled to regard as his enemies, he resolved to fight the battle of his life. Few men possessed better personal qualities for such a contest, if true to himself. Mature, of superior personal advantages, fine address, a really learned man in his profes- sion, of much general culture, of marked superior ability, large magnetism, great enthusiasm of nature, volatile, and with a hereditary tendency to a fatal weak- ness, it was to be a struggle mainly with himself. His school was a marvel of success. He won his way rapidly in his profession. He undertook the school the second winter. His increase of practice quite destroyed it. During the fourth winter in Newbury, his day-book came to the hands of an elder brother of the writer of this sketch for posting, and for a period of time slightly in excess of a month, during the prevalence of pneumonia, then called lung-fever, the aggre- gate charges were in excess of one thousand dollars, although the prices were very low.

Few men were equal to such labor, and perhaps at no period of his professional life were his calls so numerous. His life in Newbury was in many respects pleasant and prosperous. His reputation was constantly widening, and in the hands of thrift the proceeds, though rarely realized in money, would have been considerable. He had many pleasant associations, and was the centre of a widen- ing circle of intelligent friends. His nearest neighbors on the west were the Riddles. He found there many books, periodicals, and newspapers. The third son of the Riddle family was then the male head of the house, whom he at once

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

strongly drew to himself, as he did one or two of the younger. He made himself their private instructor, inspired them with emulation and courage, supervised their studies, and gave direction to their ambition. When the elder of those referred to was deemed fitted to commence the law, he accompanied him to Jefferson, in- troduced him to Messrs. Giddings and Work, secured their interest in him and his entrance into their office. He watched his progress with the anxious care and hope of an elder brother, and on his untimely death, in 1837, he lamented him with a sorrow scarcely second to that of the stricken family. He was of the greatest service to a younger brother, and contributed largely to his education, and perhaps in a measure fashioned or gave bent to the purpose of his life.

In 1843 he removed to Auburn Corners, where he continued to practice his profession until his death, on the second day of August, 1865, driving his labor- ious rounds to the last, having visited a large number of patients on the day pre- ceding his death, which was very sudden and late in the evening.

Something further must be said of his mental and moral endowments, of his temperament, ere I can in any way possess others of any just conception of the man. He had great ardor of temperament, was by nature an enthusiast, was alive to many forms of natural beauty and grandeur, and capable of appreciating the most exquisite charms of literature, with a preference for poetic forms. He was an accomplished astronomer, and was perhaps more steadily devoted to its study and a contemplation of its wonders than to any other .branch of science.

He was at times a practical botanist, and while the passion was on he pur- sued it with a beautiful enthusiasm. I have known him to carry about fresh specimens, explaining the perfection and beauty of their structure, with a run- ning comment upon their habits and histories, to every man and woman who could appreciate the beauty and delicacy of such rare creations. With his great magnetism and quite wonderful power of teaching, he found a great many whom he could interest, so I have known him to carry round a book and read some rare, beautiful, or striking passage to different individuals. Sometimes he would be vexed and at others amused beyond measure at the stupidity of some of the subjects into which he would attempt to cut these exquisite things. Thom- son's " Seasons"' did duty in this way for a long time, as did Young's "Night Thoughts," Beattie, and Hervey's " Meditations," Gray's "Elegy," and many other authors. Somebody gave him an old copy of " Watts on the Mind," and he immediately became a mental philosopher, and had us all eagerly cultivating our memories and other faculties. Sometimes it was English grammar ; some- times Euclid's " Elements ;" Virgil to the very few; more usually astronomy. What I have called volatility does not at all accurately express what I mean. There were deep, changeless foundations of nature and character in him, seem- ingly never shaken, but he had many passions and enthusiasms, which seldom became chronic, but ruled quite sovereignly for the time. These were things, objects, purposes, and never persons. In 1836 he went for a week or so to Maumee to speculate. He took on Fourierism for a time, and lectured in his neighborhood. He was once asked to deliver a Fourth-of-July oration, and at once a due observance of the day was the chief end and aim of a normal Amer- ican citizen. He roused up the whole community ; went off to Gillmore's little furnace to secure the casting of a piece of ordnance, which was a failure. His patriotism carried him past the day, and he delivered an effective oration, al- though, I remember, he was, a few months later, not a little amused on coming across the manuscript of that locally famous performance. Phrenology lasted him two or three months, as did Owenism, and various megrims.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 35

Author: Williams Brothers Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 443

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443