History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 37

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 37
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 37

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).

HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

National Guards, and became its colonel, and was with it at the battle of Kellar's Bridge, receiving compliments for his services there. The regiment was known as the One Hundred and Seventy-first. In December, 1864, he removed to Chillicothe, Missouri, and practiced law successfully. In 1866 he commenced the publication of the Spectator, in which he advocated the nomination of General Grant. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention, also to the State conven- tion, where he secured the adoption of a suffrage amendment plank in the plat- form. He was elected to the Forty-first Congress as a Radical Republican, but was defeated in the nominating convention for re-election to Congress by one vote. He practiced law with success up to the time of his death, October 1, 1872.

Mr. Asper was widely known and generally esteemed. For a new member he occupied a fair position in the House. Mrs. Asper, who survives her husband, was well known and very highly esteemed in Chardon.

THE PHELPSES OF GEAUGA

are a remarkable strain of men. Physically finely formed, well endowed men- tally, men of strong, fine fibre, capable of endurance, with great will-power and force of character, and whose careers in the service of their country have been marked by the higher qualities of patriotism, courage, and conduct of the heroic cast. Three generations of them have manifested their devotion to the country by gallant service in every general war in which it has been engaged. I regret that I cannot give some account of the genesis of this family. It must have come of good stock. Such men do not spring spontaneously from the earth. Their roots must strike deep and reach back. The first of them,

HON. SETH PHELPS,

was a native of New England, and born Nov. 17, 1751, undoubtedly in Connec- ticut, yet of the place no record shows, nor can any of the descendants tell. Hon. E. B. Morgan, a near relative, says, " I always understood he was of Groton, Connec- ticut. The first glimpse I get of him has the germ of a romance. When a body of our troops in the Revolution were marching through a Connecticut town, a beautiful young maiden, one of an admired and admiring throng of such, said to a companion, pointing to the gallant officer at the head of the column, 'Do you see that handsome young officer ? He will be my husband some day,' and he was." The smitten maiden was Lucy Ledyard, a sister of General Ledyard, and niece of that Colonel Ledyard slain by a ruffian officer for a too heroic defense of a fort, on the invasion of Connecticut by Arnold. The young officer was Captain Seth Phelps, of the Continentals. I never heard the story of how the wished-for event was brought about. The condensed record says it occurred Sept. 10, 1780, so it was during the war. I know, also, that he was with Wayne when he carried Stony Point with unloaded muskets, and was an aid to General Washington on the great day at Monmouth, and that he served through the war.

The Ledyard family was not only historic, but of social distinction ; one sister was the grandmother of the Mr. Morgan referred to, who says that the Phelps and Lucy marriage also took place at Groton. Another sister was the wife of the patroon Livingston. After the war Phelps, in company with John Wal- worth, purchased a body of several hundred acres of land,-the site of the beautiful town of Aurora, Cayuga county, New York,-to which he removed in 1789 or 1790. Here he built a somewhat famous house, known as " Castle McComber." He laid out the town of Aurora, then with all that region in the old county of Herkimer; and, though not a lawyer, he was appointed the presi- dent judge of a court answering to the Ohio court of common pleas. On the division of Herkimer, Aurora became the seat of the new county of Onondaga, and Judge Phelps, as he was ever after called, became the judge of the new county. Among other positions he was many years a prominent member of the New York Legislature. He sold out his property in New York in 1817 or 1818, purchased quite a body of land in Ohio, which he may have visited much earlier, and removed to Parkman, Geauga County, where he died in 1826. Lucy, the wife, died at the birth of E. F. Phelps, the third son, March 9, 1796. His second wife was Sally Pierce. They were married in May, 1797. The eldest son, Dr. Seth Phelps, died in Demerara, South America. The daughters-Lucy became the wife of the late Judge Parkman; Ann became the wife of Samuel Ledyard, 2d; Mary was the wife of Captain Edward Paine, of Chardon. The other sons of this marriage, Alfred and Edwin F., will be spoken of hereafter. Of the second marriage several children were born. The sons were Theodore, Nelson, Hamilton, and the daughters, Phyana Mrs. Orlando Cutter, and Sally, who became Mrs. J. O. Granger.

In person Judge Phelps had singular advantages: tall, commanding, with a large head and aquiline features, a face handsome in youth and striking in middle life and old age.

From a letter written for my use I subjoin a sketch of his character : *

" Judge Phelps was a remarkable man. With limited education, he was one of nature's noblemen. Of strong good sense, firm as a rock, despising anything like a trick or misrepresentation, strictly honorable. His knowledge of law was like that of any good sound farmer, yet he was made the presiding judge of the county of Onondaga; when Herkimer was divided, and when Onondaga was divided, and Cayuga created, he was continued for several years. It was said he had little use for books; and in that day justice was sought, technicalities and quirks were left for the learned of this age. His decisions were seldom appealed from, and when done, seldom reversed."

ALFRED PHELPS,

the second son of Judge Phelps, was born at Aurora, on the 3d of April, 1792. He died at Chardon, April 24, 1864. Though his life was darkened by the loss of his mother in early life, his infancy and early childhood were passed in the lovely village of Aurora, on the shore of Cayuga lake, fondly spoken of by all the dwellers of that favored spot. A dreamy, imaginative boy, his name, Alfred, impressed him that in life he must press after knightly renown and all human ex- cellence. When eight or nine years old he accompanied his sister Lucy and her husband, R. B. Parkman, to Ohio, and became a resident of Parkman, where he passed several years of his life in the woods. He retained a vivid memory of the blind, and at places quite impassable trail from Painesville to Parkman, and especially of the crossing of the unlovely Cuyahoga he had a distinct recollection. At twelve he returned to Aurora. A good deal of care was bestowed upon his edu- cation. He evinced great ardor in study, and, though modest to shyness, he early gave indications of a superior mind. .

On the breaking out of the war of 1812, though a youth of eighteen, he was eager to enter the service, and was appointed a lieutenant of infantry in the regu- lar service. His regiment was ordered to the Niagara frontier, and formed a part of Van Rensselaer's force at the ill-starred battle of Queenstown, where, as will be remembered, the militia refused to cross over and sustain the regulars who had made a successful landing, on the ground that it was unconstitutional for militia to march off the national soil. In the effort to cross, the boat in which was young Phelps was swept below the proper point, and landed under a steep bank lined by British infantry, who opened their fire. Nothing daunted, he leaped ashore, formed his men, and attempted to lead them up the almost perpendicular bank under a murderous fire. Many of his command were killed ; many recoiled and sought cover. A few struggled up after their lithe leader, to be killed or captured at the top. Phelps, sword in hand, had nearly gained the height, when a plunging shot struck him across the forehead, carrying away the left brow, and leaving the ugly scar which he bore through life. He fell, rolled down the bank, and lay insensible till the dead and wounded were cared for when the battle was over. As will be remembered, the cowardice of the militia compelled Scott, then a colonel, to surrender, and Lieutenant Phelps became a prisoner of war. Soon after capture he, with several prisoners, were near being massacred by Brock's Indians, and were only saved by the daring intrepidity of Scott and the timely intervention of the British officers. Phelps and the other officers were paroled and sent to Albany.

The course of the war was adverse. We had no officers to give in exchange, and finally the magnificent idea came to Mr. Madison's war council that the paroled soldiers could do garrison duty, and Mr. Phelps and his associates were ordered to relieve the troops stationed in some of the forts, and enable them to take the field. There was no other alternative but to break his parole of honor or resign. This last the young lieutenant, with equal reluctance and indignation, felt compelled to do, and left the service quite at the commencement of the war. The step was taken rather at the command of his father, who, with other promi- nent men, made an unavailing effort to secure a change in the order of the war office at Washington. Judge Phelps was necessarily a Federalist, and this action of the administration did not lead to a change of his political sentiments. Young Phelps had an aptitude for arms, had a youth's ardor for military distinction, and his father's example before him. It was with the greatest anguish that he saw this career closed to him.

He now turned to his books, and finally returned to Ohio, studied law under Judge Parkman, an accomplished lawyer, and was admitted to the bar. He was married to Anne B. Towsly in July, 1820; a young maiden of his native Aurora, with whom he established himself as a lawyer in the village of Parkman, about 1821. Here they resided five years, and their two eldest children, Eliza and Seth L., were born. During this period he became prosecuting attorney of the county, and prosecuted and convicted Ben. Wright for the murder of Warner,- the only man ever hanged within the limits of the old county of Geauga.

" Hon. E. B. Morgan, July 12, 1878.

Digitized by

Google

HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

In 1826, Mr. Phelps removed to Chardon, and opened an office, which was for many years the only law-office in the village, and, with the exception of General Ford's, at Burton, the only one within the limits of the present county.

Here be established the first newspaper press in Chardon, and for several years successfully published it, conducted entirely by himself. He was not a printer, and depended wholly on his foreman for the management of the mechanical part of the enterprise. He was a fine, vigorous writer, with a relish and facility for the better walks of literature; was too elevated for the " slang-whang" style and contests of the press of that day. In politics he was an opponent of political Anti-Masonry, and a supporter of the Henry Clay school.

In 1841 he received A. G. Riddle as a partner, and later A. H. Thrasher be- came a member of the firm. This last firm continued till he retired from the bar.

In 1842 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Ohio Legisla- ture, and again in 1844.

In 1854 he became an independent candidate for probate judge, and was elected.

The duties of these stations he discharged with a high degree of ability and a most conscientious fidelity. Mr. Phelps' whole life was guided by the most exalted sense of justice and honor.

In person, Mr. Phelps shared largely the advantages of his race. Of full height, large head, aquiline features, erect, dignified, with a touch of the old- school gentleman in his manner, which removed him a little from the mass, and gave him the air of exclusiveness which distinguished all of the older members of the family. He was a man of marked ability, always underrated ; as a speaker, logical, forcible, using choice language; too diffident and indifferent to popular applause for a successful jury lawyer. As a chancery and probate lawyer, he had no superior in the West. As a high-minded, high-souled man, of stainless integrity, he was the peer of the best. His spirit and susceptibilities were a little too fine and nice, his tastes too cultivated to relish the rough mingling of the vulgar things about him ; and to the common man he seemed cold, distant, haughty, aristocratic. * A tenderer, gentler nature, capable of great firmness, with an inflexibility of will, seldom ruled a man's heart and soul. It was his fortune to be highly prized and greatly loved by those to whom he was fully revealed ; while to the mass he seemed cold and proud to the last, though universally re- spected and honored. The attachment between himself and his younger brother, Edwin F., a strong, brave, tender nature, with many of his peculiarities, was of an unusual character, and his devotion to his younger and less fortunate half- brothers was marked with great generosity. Never in command of great means, he was a liberal, public-spirited citizen, and the kindest of neighbors.

Mr. Phelps died several years ago. Mrs. Phelps survives him, living in Cleve- land. Of their five children, Eliza died unmarried. Seth and Alfred, Jr., are spoken of elsewhere. Mary became the wife of Dr. Mixer, and resides in Iowa. Edwin F. remains unmarried, and Lucius died in infancy. Dr. Mixer is & gen- tleman of learning and skill, and served as a surgeon in the gunboat service through the war, as did the younger, till his health failed.

EDWIN FORMAN PHELPS,

third son of Judge Seth Phelps, was born at Aurora, March 9, 1796. He was the youngest child of the loved and lamented Lucy, around whose memory lingers the glamour of romance, born of that one speech when she first saw her then fu- ture husband. It is said that from his dead mother's bosom he was carried away on horseback by Mrs. Forman, an aunt, a long distance and cared for through infancy.

His father was married a year from the following May, and another son, Theo- dore, was born in April, 1798. We find his elder brother, Alfred, going to live with his sister, Mrs. Parkman, and the younger, Edwin, doubtless found a home much of the time with his numerous friends. I may attempt but the slightest sketch of him. Something of adventure was in all the sons of Lucy, with a vein of romance. Seth, the elder, died in Demerara ; and I have heard of Ed- win as an early voyageur on Lake Ontario, and he became a most expert boatman, a builder of boats early. Indeed, he was an expert sailor and an accomplished hunter. I cannot speak of his education, but he was a man perhaps excelling Alfred in his acquaintance with belles-lettres literature; a man of finer tastes or capable of a nicer appreciation of the excellencies of a poem or prose composition, it has never been my good fortune to know. At an early day in life he became a member of the firm of Paine, Phelps & Co., at Chardon, one of the largest establishments ever in the county. He was a most accomplished business man, though ultimately the house became involved.

At what time he became an artist or how I am unable to state. For painting and crayon-drawing he had much talent, and did good work in both lines. I hear of his painting in Philadelphia, and there is still a fine head of Dr. Rush by his hand in the old homestead, the present residence of his son Ledyard. So I

know that at one time he and Bambro, an artist, were in the service of Audubon, the ornithologist, drawing his specimens, and that upon a time, when the three were hard pushed, they began to draw likenesses in crayon, quite the first of. por- traiture in that way. Mr. Phelps quite excelled in this style of art, and many fine heads show his excellence in this line.

Mr. Phelps married Cornelia, second daughter of Dr. Everet Denton, and is said to have attempted the romantic fancy of educating his own wife. They be- came the parents of one son, already named.

Edwin F. was in some respects the most highly favored of his family. Less erect than his brother Alfred, he had a remarkably finely-formed head, large and massive, yet of perfect symmetry. The face deserves to be called beautiful, manly, strongly featured yet rounded, softened, the face of a poet or artist. He had much imagination, and the whole cast of his very vigorous mind was high with nice and delicate perceptions and susceptibilities. More approachable than his brother Alfred, he had much warmth and gentleness and the elements of per- sonal popularity. Full of tenderness and sympathy, charitable of men's faults and follies, he had withal the high breeding and a touch of that air which in another might be pride or haughtiness, and which in him indicated the nice lines which forbid familiarity with things essentially vulgar.

His last years were saddened with misfortunes, darkened, perhaps, by errors. If these dimmed they did not sully him, and death came to redeem and restore him. As if to reassert herself and her works, Nature, with the finger of death, cleared away the clouds, purged away the errors and frailties, and restored the marks of a fine, high nature, a lofty and noble soul in the despoiled casket. His was the kingliest head and brow, the most beautiful and manly face and form, in death that my eyes ever rested upon, which they did with mingled awe, admira- tion, and wonder. Never before was it so apparent what he was; . no matter how dimmed or obscured, or how long the cloud had rested upon, death vindicated his claim as one of the noble and beautiful works of the hand of God.

ALFRED PHELPS, JR.,

second son of Alfred and Ann Phelps, born at Chardon, July 2, 1827, married to Jennie Pomeroy, of Chardon, October 17, 1854, and died at Kobi, in the East, in 1869. He received a fair English education, worked on the farm, studied law, practiced some, was full of energy and activity, a vigorous sportsman, with an abundance of ability, which would hardly be chained to the confinement and drudgery of a law-office.

He early volunteered for the war, and was placed as paymaster on the gun- boat " Conestoga." He was not intended for a paymaster,-no Phelps ever was in time of war. He finally got transferred to the soon-to-become famous " Eastport," where he filled the place of first master. He was then placed in command of the " Champion," and during the war commanded three different boats on the south- western rivers. He was in the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, and in most of the fights on the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland, and so down to the mouth of the Red river, where he was for a time stationed. He always performed his duty with bravery, promptly and manfully. His was one of the most manly spirits of the war. Whatever he was or failed to be, he was a man in every hair and fibre, in intuition, education, and bearing, and received numerous testimonials of his meritorious conduct. The war on the rivers ended in the autumn of '64, and he returned to Chardon.

His elder brother, Seth, was in the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's service, which may have led to his entering it also. This he did in 1866. On his way out to his post, in China or Japan, he suffered wreck, but reached land. He finally arrived at Hong Kong, where, as the company's agent, he remained a year. He was then sent to Yokohama, was promoted, and transferred to Hioga and Kobi, and died suddenly at the latter place, of pulmonary apoplexy, in 1869. Embalmed, his remains were returned, and rest by his father in Chardon.

Alfred had many of the strong peculiarities and qualities of his family. Frank, spirited, brave, generous, warm-hearted, the most approachable of men, free from the air of exclusiveness which surrounded the most of the elders, no man was better or more universally liked, or more deeply and sincerely deplored. No death could be more untimely.

Mrs. Jennie Phelps, a lady well endowed in person and mind, of charming manners, resides with their two daughters in Cleveland.

BARTON F. AVERY

was born at Aurora, New York, September 16, 1796; died at Chardon, Ohio, April 12, 1857.

The Averys had their pleasant seat at the beautiful town Aurora, on the shore of Cayuga lake; were related to the Ledyards, of Connecticut, and allied to the

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

numerous family of the Morgans. Daniel Avery was a man of wealth and consid- eration, and for many years a member of Congress. A younger brother, Dudley Avery, was married to Hannah Morgan November 8, 1792. Of these were born two sons and two daughters. Barton F. was the second son. The eldest son, Dudley, died in infancy ; one daughter, Hannah, in 1839; and one, Mrs. Caroline Fellows, widow of Henry Fellows, now of Cleveland, survives. The mother died in 1804. Soon after her death, the father left them, went southwest, contracted a second marriage, became a wealthy man, living near Baton Rouge, where he died in 1816. He never returned north, nor ever made any provision for these children, though it is said he intended it, but died ere his purpose was executed. The three fell to the care of their uncle Daniel, who had a numerous family of his own. Barton F. lived with him until he was eighteen or nine- teen years of age, faring as children thus left may, until at the age named, with a cousin, Austin H. Avery, of about the same age, he ran away to Ohio, and arrived in Parkman in 1814 or 1815. Here he remained until his removal to Chardon in 1834 or 1835. By those who remember him in youth, he is described as handsome, intelligent, quiet, and very gentlemanly. He possessed great mechani- cal talent, and with almost any possible tools could make anything of wood or metal and without previous apprenticeship. His mechanical talents were in great demand in the new, rude country, and he set up a shop for the production of various needed articles. At Chardon he purchased the tavern-stand previously known as the Hoyt, which was afterward known as Avery's, now Benton & Co.'s, which he carried on with great success till the division of the county, in 1840, which ruined the business. In 1842, being satisfied that the traffic in strong drinks was immoral, he abandoned it, and kept a temperance house for some time, sold out the property, removed to Cleveland, where he pursued the hotel busi- ness quite successfully, returned to Chardon, and set up an express, which ran between Chardon and Cleveland. While in Parkman he was postmaster for many years, also a justice of the peace. While he kept Avery's Hotel he was postmaster of Chardon. In 1848 he was elected by the Legislature one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas, and discharged his duties with ability and dignity, till the new constitution changed the judiciary. In politics he was always a Democrat. Of good person, pleasant manners, modest and retiring, he silently grew in the respect and confidence of men by the force and strength of the inherent excellences of his character, purity and integrity of life, joined with good sense and kindness of heart. He was widely acknowledged as one of the best and most prominent of the citizens of his town and county. Almost without a fault, quite without an enemy, a man of good judgment, whose friendship was sought, and whose counsel was prized, his success in the accumu- lation and management of property was not at all commensurate with the love and respect with which he was universally regarded. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Betsy Brown, September 23, 1817. She was born at Rutland, Decem- ber 3, 1800, and not seventeen at marriage, an orphan, living with an uncle, a lively, sparkling, black-eyed brunette, pretty and attractive. Her life, though shared by one of the kindest of men, was full of hardship, which she bravely met; cursed with infirm health, which she heroically endured. She became the mother of seven children, of whom the eldest died in infancy. The youngest, Mary, a beautiful girl, died at seventeen; Marie, wife of W. W. Bruce, of Cleveland, born in 1825, died March 20, 1878; Caroline, second child, wife of A. G. Riddle, born December 4, 1821 ; Elias, born January 21, 1823, resides in Dunkirk, New York ; and Frederick Dudley, of Chardon, born January 24, 1834. Mrs. Avery resides with the last named, a prominent citizen of Chardon, and in her advancing years enjoys the love and esteem of all the generations who have known her.

L. E. DURFEE, ESQ.

This gentleman is the senior of the well-known law firm of Durfee & Stephen- son, of Chardon. He was born Sept. 15, 1817, in Hopkinton, St. Lawrence county, New York. His father, Joseph Durfee, was a native of Connecticut, and his mother, Charlotte Hopkins, a native of Vermont. They were married at historic Ticonderoga, in 1810. The Durfees were of good Irish extraction, and first planted themselves in Rhode Island. They were probably refugees in Tre- land from France, and the name may have been D'Urfey. At what time Joseph Durfee established himself in Hopkinton, I am not advised. It was a wild, savage region, covered with forests and infested with wild beasts, against which the inhabitants had to band themselves for their own protection, and where young Durfee spent his boyhood and early youth, in the absence of many of the more refining pastimes in the hunting of wolves and other animals, for which it is said he early evinced a taste and aptitude. Fishing, hunting, and trapping re- ceived his early attention, the pelts of the smaller fur-bearing animals his main source of revenue. These were his pastimes. His serious business was work on

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 37

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

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