History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 49

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 49
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 49

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MRS. AUSTIN CANFIELD.

nomination, and the Congregational church in later days, he has been an active member, and most of the time deacon. It was as a nurse, however, that Austin Canfield has been most widely known through the later active years of his life. For a long period he was always called by neighbors and even people at a consid- erable distance in cases of sickness, and many persons now living bear thankful testimony to the care which he bestowed at the sick-bed through long night- watches. He seems to have been peculiarly fitted for this delicate duty, and in its discharge has, through tact and tenderness, done a vast amount of good, and endeared himself to hundreds of his fellow-creatures.

DAVID T. BRUCE AND THE BRUCES.

David T. Bruce was born at Winchinden, Franklin county, Massachusetts, December 15, 1784; was married to Lydia Forrester, August 12, 1821 ; and died at Chardon, May 12, 1857.

His childhood, boyhood, and young manhood were passed in Massachusetts, at the close of the last and beginning of the present century. His education must have been fair, and in addition to the common branches he understood surveying. In 1820 he visited the Western Reserve, was at Madison, Lake County, went back, was married, and returned to Ohio with his young wife. For one or two years he lived in Newbury, on the place now owned by W. A. Jenks, and was engaged as a partner with Amos Parker in a distillery, a business which he

. See sketch of Mrs. Sidney Converse, by Hon. A. G. Riddle.

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understood. He was at one time concerned in the distillery in the northern part of Claridon, and must have lived there for a time. In 1824 he removed to Chardon, purchased and built a residence on the north side of Water street, opposite the large spring, where he lived all his after-life. He and Merrick Pease were partners in merchandising, which he carried on in his dwelling-house, and they built the old brick store, on the west side of the square, north of the old academy, some time about 1827. Mr. Pease died in 1830, when Bruce established the first tin shop in the present limits of Geauga. With this was connected a grocery store. In 1842 he sold out that establishment to his eldest son, John Forrester.

In November, 1842, he purchased the printing establishment and paper, known as the Geauga Republican, of J. W. White, and in company with his younger sons, W. W. and Eli Bruce, he edited and published the paper, and carried on a general job office, till the infirmities of age induced him to retire.

For quite all his life Mr. Bruce was one of the widest known, most active, and influential men of the county, though filling no official positions, except in the township, where he was clerk, trustee, and justice of the peace. I think he never sought office. He was a man of more than ordinary intellect, well in- formed, a large reader, of positive opinions, frankly expressed, always defended. Nor was he free from dogmatism. The kindest-hearted of men, a highly esteemed neighbor, a sturdy friend, a liberal and public-spirited citizen. In religion, Uni- versalist ; in politics a Whig and Republican ; zealous in all. He was a man of great activity and industry.

Early in his career he began to appear as counsel in the magistrates' courts. Fluent of speech, with a quick, shrewd mind, of much resource, and that knowl- edge of law picked up from the statutes and the hand-books of practice in the magistrates' courts, a wide knowledge of men and acquaintance with affairs, not underestimating himself, he soon came to be widely known and greatly sought after in this class of cases. For many years he transacted a larger business before the magistrates than was ever before or since done by any man in or out of the profession in northern Ohio. Very popular with the mass, having the confidence of the magistrates, a full command of the language which might overwhelm an adversary, a master of all the arguments likely to lead or influence the common mind, he was in these forums a most formidable and often a dangerous advocate. He was generally treated with respect by the regular pro- fession, whom he often met, and for whom as opponents he expressed a preference which they doubtless reciprocated. After he became connected with the press he gradually withdrew from this practice. Probably the diminution of small litigation incident to an older stage of social life and manner of transacting business had much to do with it. In the heyday of his fame the country was full of anecdotes of his sayings and doings in the lower courts, and men went miles to see and hear him on these occasions.

Mr. Bruce was a born politician, and not averse from controversy. His infor- mation was extensive and quite accurate. Without attempting to write many leaders, he was a terse, pointed writer of paragraph-like articles.

Mr. Bruce was of the old Masonic fraternity, and, of course, on that side of the old profitless controversy ; was one of the first to revive the lodges. In his day, he was the associate, friend, or opponent of the elder Paines, Canfields, Kings, Phelpses, Squires, and that set of men who have passed away, and their friend- ships and feuds have passed with them. He had a vigorous dislike of a Democrat, little respect for orthodoxy as a dogma, but tolerant of the personal failings of even his opponents. Stout champion and bitter partisan, he was full of kindliness, and the older Chardon lost few better men. .

Mrs. Bruce was widely esteemed as a true woman, full of kindliness and charity. Of the daughters, the eldest, Charlotte, became the wife of Charles L. Knowles, and has resided most of her life since in Brooklyn, and survives her husband with several children. The youngest, Lydia, with much of the vigor and force of character of her father, resides in Chardon.

J. F. Bruce, the eldest, born June 6, 1822, was bred by his father to the tinner's business, which he still prosecutes in Chardon. His first wife, now many years deceased, was Amy Rockafellow, of Chardon, of whom were born two sons. The younger of these is in company with his father. His second wife is Laura, daughter of Moses Haydon. Mr. Bruce is a man of great personal worth, and highly esteemed.

William Wallace Bruce, second son, born in 1825, was bred a printer, and pursued the business, with his father and younger brother, Eli, for many years in Chardon and Cleveland, of which latter place he is a resident. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, and of extensive cultivation. A fine writer, though of retiring manners, William Wallace was well prepared to fill any position in life. For many years he was the efficient superintendent of the Cleveland post-office, which he filled with great credit to himself and usefulness to the public: His wife was Maria, daughter of Judge B. F. Avery, a woman of much excellence.

She died at Cleveland in the early part of 1878. The four surviving children, two sons and two daughters, reside with the father. As a family, they are noted for their devotion to each other.

Eli, the third son, born in 1827, also by profession a printer, publisher, and editor, and associated with William Wallace, married Caroline, daughter of Eleazar Paine, and granddaughter of Judge Noah Hoyt, for his first wife, and Caroline Eldridge became his second wife. By the last he leaves three sons. He died several years ago; was a man of rare excellence of character, fair ability, and universally esteemed. The Bruces have worthily filled their fair positions in life, and will leave excellent records for integrity and good citizenship.

THE HOYTS.

This family group formed for many years an important and interesting feature in the society and history of Chardon. The numerous descendants are widely scattered.

JUDGE NOAH HOYT

was a native of Danbury, Connecticut, and his wife, Rhoda Waters, a native of Richmond, of the same State. We have not the date of their marriage, nor removal to Chardon, Ohio, nor yet of their deaths. He died at Chardon, at the age of eighty-four. His wife survived him a few years, and died at the age of eighty-nine. In New York he was elected a judge, and removed to Chardon in 1822 or 1823. They were shrewd, intelligent persons, of whom many pleasant anecdotes are remembered. Mrs. Hoyt especially was noted for her quaint wit and shrewd sayings, a talent which is pleasantly shared by several of her de- scendants. Of their five children,

SYLVESTER N. HOYT,

only son, was born in 1795, and died in Chardon in 1854, at the age of fifty-nine. He held the office of county treasurer for fourteen years; was a man of more than average ability and superior intelligence.

His wife was Eleanor Converse, sister of Hon. Julius Converse, governor of Ver- mont, and also of the late Jude Converse, of Chardon. They were married in 1823, and removed to Chardon in 1824, where they resided until the death of Mr. Hoyt, after which Mrs. Hoyt removed to Cleveland, where she resides. Mrs. Hoyt is a superior woman, endowed with a fine person, great intelligence, and pleasing manners. In her young days was possessed of a fine voice, and excelled as a vocalist.

Of the children of Sylvester and Eleanor, one daughter, Susan, is the wife of E. B. Hale, Esq., the well-known banker of Cleveland. They have a fine family. The younger daughter, Mary, is the wife of J. S. Tilden, Esq., also of Cleveland. Of the sons, George, has for years been the popular city editor of the Plain Dealer, married Abbie Worthington, of Cleveland, and resides there. The second son, Henry, married Helen, the daughter of Orlando Cutter, of Cleveland, and resides in Pennsylvania. Frank, the youngest, unmarried, lived in Topeka, Kan- sas. He died recently.

The eldest daughter of the elder Hoyts, Mary Ann, became the wife of Dr. Scott, of Parkman, and the mother of a numerous family. The second daughter, Caroline, became the wife of Eleazar Paine, and mother of General H. E., George E., James H., and Mrs. Eli Bruce. Subsequently to the death of Mr. Paine, she became the wife of Rev. Mr. Eaton, moved away, became the mother of two daughters, and died several years ago. Another daughter, Susan, became the wife of Dr. L. A. Hamilton, late of Chardon, also the mother of Charles and Eugene, of New York ; Cornelia, the wife of Mr. Barna, of Cleveland; Mary, unmar- ried, who resides with Mrs. Barna; and Maria, the wife of Mr. Cowan, also of Cleveland. The third daughter of Judge Hoyt, Maria, at ripe years, became the wife of Ira Webster, Esq., late of Chardon, a well-known citizen of that town.

Of this whole group, all the seniors, except Mrs. Eleanor Hoyt, of Cleveland, have passed away.

SAMUEL MAGONIGLE.

This gentleman is by birth a Virginian, and was born June 23, 1810. Yet so near the line was his birthplace that he may claim to be a Pennsylvanian, if it suits him better. Indeed, some years of his infancy were spent at Cross Creek in Pennsylvania.

Early in life he became a resident of the near town of Steubenville, and grew to be a citizen of Ohio. Here he learned the carpenter's trade, and remained till he was twenty-three, when he took himself to Chardon, Geauga County, where he arrived in 1824. Here he actively prosecuted the business of a house-carpen- ter and joiner until age enfeebled his hand and dimmed his eye.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

At that time Chardon village presented about this appearance : one-half of the old brick court-house, then just built, with a little tin-covered cupola, stood.on the west side of the square; just south, and a little back, was James Bronson's dwell- ing, which was also a shoe-shop ; to the south was the old court-house, used as an academy, and the old hewed-log jail, where men could only be reached by habeas corpus or general jail delivery. On the corner near the Ira Webster place Mr. Magonigal very soon built a house for Hulburt, the young lawyer with whom William Wilber was then a student. The old Norman Canfield tavern-house, as it was built, was then occupied and kept by the Hoyts, I think. Across the street from it was the long, narrow, low wooden store building of Eleazar Paine. East and back was the new, freshly painted house of Captain Paine. North, on the east side of the square, was the first building put up for a store. It stood out on the common, was painted red, and a family by the name of Corbin lived in the east of its two rooms, and an Irishman by the name of Wheeler in the west. The next and only building on the east side was one-half of the Aaron Canfield tavern- house, where all the Canfield boys then lived. Mr. Canfield, Sr., was the jailor. On the north side, at the northeast corner, was the house of Dr. Denton, then in the heyday of his popularity and usefulness. Dr. Asa Metcalf and Dr. O. W. Ludlow, a brace of handsome young men, were students of his. Ludlow taught the academy, and blew a buglehorn as a signal for his school to assemble in the morning. At the northwest corner of the square was the small peachblow-colored house of Ralph Cowles. And these were all the buildings about the square. These, with one or two down South Hambden street and one or two down Water street, were the Chardon village of that day. The Langdons and Bonds lived down north, and a few others were not remote. Sylvester Hoyt came to Chardon that season, and the present E. V. Canfield house had been built and partly fin- ished by Dr. Justin Scott. Daniel H. Haws, the young lawyer, came there the same year. Captain Paine filled quite all the county offices, and was postmaster beside. Bruce went there about the same time,-and Chardon was a humdrum, lonely little town, perked up pretentiously on its hill quite by itself, when our young and very handsome carpenter arrived there with his broad-axe and jack- plane. He was quite an addition to the place, liked it, was liked, and so stayed.

Elizabeth Brunson, a sister of James Brunson, was born in Connecticut, Novem- ber 6, 1810, and came on to her brother's, at Chardon, in February, 1826,-a very sprightly and attractive girl, as she is still a sprightly and attractive woman. They became acquainted and lovers very soon, and were married the 11th of June following. They still reside in the village. Of their considerable family, the eldest daughter, Mary, a widow, Mrs. Marsh, and her daughter, reside with them ; the others elsewhere. Mr. Magonigle is of fair intelligence, was of fine person and pleasant address, early gained the esteem of his neighbors, and always retained it. He was all his life identified with Chardon village, filled the offices of the township and village, and is a good representative of the place and men of his time. He and his wife are now old people, both hale and cheerful, and both much respected and esteemed.

DR. D. A. HAMILTON

was born at Blandford, Massachusetts, March 12, 1807, and died at Chardon June 7, 1867.

He was graduated M.D. at the medical college of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and came to Hambden, Geauga County, in 1830, having, it is said, just fifteen cents when he arrived there. Here he commenced practice, and though he remained but a year, he made an impression of use to him, on his removal to Chardon, not remote, a year later.

April 26, 1833, he was joined in marriage with Susan, a daughter of Judge Noah Hoyt, a most excellent and highly esteemed woman, whom he survived and was married a second time .*

Dr. Hamilton was slight in figure, of pleasant countenance and address, of fair capacity and great industry. He was an enthusiast in his profession, and kept up with its current literature. After many years of practice, he attended a regu- lar course of lectures at the Willoughby Medical College, and was quite abreast of all advances of his school. Loving and honoring his profession above all things, an intense hater of every form of quackery, intolerant of all kinds of medical heterodoxy, his industry and zeal, his fidelity to duty and the sick, soon carried him to quite the head of his profession in Geauga County, which he maintained, notwithstanding his shattered health, to the day of his death. When once enlisted in a case, no time, no labor, no fatigue, no cost was counted, save as dross, against success. Kindly natured, tender, and full of sympathy, he became the warm and steady friend of his patients, estimating their steady regard and

confidence as vastly above all other compensation. Capable of great personal sacri- fice and devotion, a defection from his school, an abandonment of himself, was the sorest wound he could receive, and sometimes provoked resentment, when there was an element of personal ingratitude in the desertion. As he was the stanchest and warmest of friends, so his enemies found him always alert to return blows, which he sometimes anticipated.

In two memorable criminal cases he became an important expert witness,-in each for the defense. The case of Ohio vs. Barnes, for murder, arose soon after Dr. Hamilton became a resident of Chardon. It was a horrible case: a young girl set upon in the woods, outraged, and strangled. The prosecution permitted the case to rest largely on the proof of the outrage, in which the evidence was not precise, while there could be no doubt of the murder. Dr. Hamilton showed quite con- clusively on the stand the weakness of the criminative evidence on this point. The case, however, went off on the doubt of the defendant's identity with the murderer, and he was undoubtedly properly acquitted. Dr. Hamilton showed himself a master of all the medical aspects of the case.

In the later case of Cole, for the murder of his wife, tried once in Geauga, and again in Ashtabula, the defendant was indicted for cansing death by strychnine. The moral evidence was overwhelming; the scientific inconclusive. On this point the labors of Dr. Hamilton and his younger associate, Dr. Mixer, under the solicitation and urgency of Mr. Thrasher, counsel for Cole, were something amazing in the number and variety of their experiments, the time, skill, and zeal they expended in their cases under various conditions. Dr. Hamilton felt hurt by the manner in which the leading counsel for the State dealt with his testimony, and it led to a suspension, almost the destruction, of a life-long friendship.

Outside his profession, Dr. Hamilton was an ardent politician, and a liberal public-spirited citizen, of a high and fine sense of personal integrity and honor, never questioned by his enemies ; the kindest of neighbors, the truest of friends, the most zealous of patriots, his death was a loss still deplored, and in some re- spects not to be restored.

DR. POMEROY.

Dr. Orange Pomeroy, son of Horace Pomeroy, and grandson of the first pio- neer of Huntsburg, was born in Huntsburg, December 7, 1835, and educated at the Western Seminary. He commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Steer, then of Huntsburg, now of Burton. In the spring of 1857 he at- tended medical lectures at the college of medicine and surgery, at Cincinnati, from which he graduated March 1, 1860. He located at Fowler's Mills, in Mun- son, and the following May was appointed assistant surgeon in the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which his business would not permit him to accept. In 1863 he was appointed to the Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry ; joined his regiment at New Orleans, of which he had the entire medical charge. Under the heavy pressure of work and the unhealthful climate of the coast, his health broke down, compelling him to resign. He returned to Fowler's Mills, and resumed his practice as soon as he was able. In June, 1867, he moved to Chardon, and, wishing to advance himself in his ever-advancing profession, he went to New York to attend a course of lectures at Bellevue Hospital, where he gradu- ated, after which he returned to Chardon and established himself. He may be considered one of the most successful physicians, as well as one of the most enterprising citizens.

THE CONVERSES OF CHARDON.

My Chardon days began in the spring of 1841, and I lived for several years at the hotel of the late Judge Avery. Just west of the hotel, under pleasant trees, amid shrubs and flowers, was the cottage-home of the Converses. At that day Mrs. Converse and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Hoyt, were very comely young matrons, and quite the leading women of Chardon society,-would have been leaders anywhere. Famous singers were they of old-time fugue tunes and psalmody. The Converse mansion was the first house to which I was invited in the village. It was my fortune to at once secure the ever-continuing friend- ship of the gifted mistress, than which no greater blessing can fall on the giddy days of young manhood,-a wise woman is so much more than a wise man can be. It was also my luck to early acquire the regard of her husband, which attended me through all his life, and the memory of my Chardon days brings them ever to mind. I gladly undertake the office of a little sketch of them, too warin perhaps for history. I could not do a dry, hard outline, nor attempt a cold analysis of character. I approach them with the tender reverence with which we draw near the resting-place of cherished ones, and lay there an offering to their memories.

. For the fruits of the first marriage, see the Hoyts.

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It is seen that the form of the woman rises first in my thought. This is no disparagement to the man. There were few men of her time who would not have been second to her, and the deference to usage which requires me to draw his outline first on my sheet does violence to my nature and judgment, which places a true, noble woman before any man.

JUDE CONVERSE (" UNCLE JUDE" IN CHARDON).

Mr. Converse, born at Randolph, Orange county, Vermont, July 21, 1806, was the youngest of the twelve children of Joseph and Mary Converse. Of these but two survive, Governor Julius Converse, of Vermont, an eminent lawyer, and who reached the chief magistracy of his State through several of the most important subordinate stations in the gift of her people; and Mrs. Eleanor Hoyt, of Cleveland. Another sister, Mrs. Mary French, was for many years a highly- esteemed resident of Chardon ; was the mother of Mrs. Mary Foote, widow of the late Charles H. Foote; John French ; Hon. Warren C. French, an able lawyer and leading citizen of Vermont; J. Wales French, of Kirkland, Oneida county, New York ; Mrs. Calvin Knowles; and Henry French, of Cleveland.

Jude was reared in New England, where his ancestors were early planted, grew up amid its green hills, cold blue streams, and snowy winters. The youngest of a large family, one can easily understand he was the half-spoiled pet of older sisters, imbibed the ideas, inherited the traits of character, had the usual educa- tion and habits of thought of a genuine New England boy. His brother-in-law, Hoyt, was for many years one of the most prominent men of Geauga when its northern boundary was Lake Erie. In 1828 young Converse followed his sister to Chardon, where, with the exception of two years at Cleveland, he resided the rest of his life. Soon after his arrival he engaged in mercantile enterprises, which he pursued with varying success for many years. The final failure in business, that severest test of integrity and reputation, involved no loss of character and no diminution of esteem and confidence. During most of the administrations of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson he had the management of the Chardon post- office, which he was compelled to relinquish, on the invasion of disease, to the general regret of the people. On the 8th of November, 1832, he was joined in marriage to Mrs. Sidney Denton, widow of the late Dr. E. Denton, of Chardon. Of this union and its fruits I am to speak elsewhere. His death occurred at Chardon, on the 4th day of February, 1874, and there his remains repose.

The Converses were a well-looking race, a good share of which fell to Jude. Slenderly made, standing five feet eight, blonde, blue-eyed, with fair hair, pleasing manners, and one of the frankest of manly faces, in which the guilelessness of the heart and soul were written in the clearest characters. His was a joyous, loyal nature, rich in all the social qualities, tender, simple, pure, generous, just, sus- ceptible of enduring attachments, and endowed with the qualities which win much love. He received a fair intellect, which saw clearly, formed earnest con- victions, upon which he unhesitatingly acted. Not self-assertive, unambitious, modest, his name was rarely heard out of his village. No one perhaps ever lived in it more loved and esteemed, or died more regretted.

SIDNEY CONVERSE.

When one stands in the shadow of this woman, estimates her possibilities, and turns to the calm, tame serenity of her way in life, which any woman could have trod, he feels as if there had been a misapplication, a misappropriation of faculties. Of the usual height, commanding presence, full-corsaged, a massive head, broad brow, large-brained, large-hearted, large-souled, rich-natured, with a will that could be imperious, and an air and look that might become regal, one is prepared for the unusual, the striking in her career, and half-regrets her sex or curses its nar- row limits. Her life presents a fine subject for a study. A memoir would bring out her traits with breadth and fullness; a sketch in some sort will be a failure.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 49

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

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