History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 86

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 86
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 86

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HON. DAVID D. AIKEN.

Among the prominent men of Chardon, and one well and favorably known through the counties of Geauga and Lake, honorable mention should be made of Mr. Aiken. A native of New York, he was born September 20, 1794, and died at Painesville, December 12, 1861. His wife, Laura Tilden, was born in Connecticut, February 10, 1803, and died at Painesville, February 13, 1874.

The date of their marriage is not given us, nor of their removal to Ohio. They lived two or three years in Painesville, and went to Chardon on the appoint- ment of Mr. Aiken to the office of clerk for Geauga County, in 1828, which he held for two full terms. Afterward, he was elected an associate judge of the

court of common pleas for the county, and held the office until the change of the judiciary under the new constitution. A few years later he removed to Painesville, where he resided till the end of his life.

He was early engaged in mercantile pursuits, was a prompt, ready business man, made one of the ablest and most efficient clerks, was a man of unusual in- telligence, pronounced in opinions, and taking sides unhesitatingly. His long experience as a clerk made him a useful member of the old judiciary. With him sat Judges Taylor and Avery, which, in the absence of the law and president judge, made a very competent court for the dispatch of ordinary business. Judge Aiken had a large acquaintance, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of the public in a high degree. Judge Aiken's only child, Maria, became the wife of Doctor Moses M. Seymour.

Doctor Seymour was born in Connecticut, is of the old Seymour family of that State, a cousin of Governor Tom Seymour, of Connecticut, and of Governor Horatio Seymour, of New York. He was the graduate of a medical college, came early to Painesville where he had relatives, the Lockwoods, and where he successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. On his marriage, the Sey- mours became a part of a family with the Aikens, at Chardon, where the doctor continued to practice. They all returned together to Painesville, after which Seymour engaged in mercantile pursuits for several years.

He was appointed postmaster of Painesville by President Lincoln, and again by President Johnson. Mrs. Seymour, a woman of superior intelligence and much force of character, died greatly regretted at Painesville, January 10, 1869.

Doctor Seymour is a man of decided opinions, which he fearlessly expresses, and has great force of character. A man of superior intelligence, indifferent to his enemies, warm and steady in his friendships, of unquestioned integrity, and & resolute champion of the causes he supports.

The marriage of the Seymours was childless. Many years ago they adopted a daughter, reared her with care, and she is now the wife of Mr. George Crane, and the mother of an infant daughter of great promise. These, mother and daughter, in the old Aiken-Seymour homestead, supply a world of love and hope to Doctor Seymour, and present an attractive picture of serene home life.

BENJAMIN BLISH, SR.,

one of the early pioneers of this section of Ohio, was born in Botton, Tolland county, Connecticut, February 22, 1753. In 1774 he was married to Phoebe Skinner, sister of Captain Abram Skinner (also one of the early settlers of the Reserve), and moved to Middlefield, Hampshire county, Massachusetts. In Feb- ruary, 1804, he started with his brother-in-law, Captain Skinner, for Ohio, trav- eling by sleigh to Buffalo, and thence on the ice of Lake Erie to Grand River. They spent the spring and summer of 1804 in Painesville and vicinity, and pur- chased lands and made some preparations for removing their families. Returning in the fall of that year, Mr. Blish spent the winter and spring at his home in Hampshire county, and on the 20th of June, 1805, he started with his family, consisting of his wife, six daughters, and two sons, Benjamin, Jr., and Zenas, then aged respectively twenty-one and twelve years, leaving one married daughter, Mrs. Orris Clapp, in the East, who subsequently moved to Ohio. After much delay, caused by terrible roads through New York State, they reached Buffalo on the 7th of July. After leaving Buffalo, there being no traveled road except along the beach of the lake, they made slow progress by day, sometimes on the sand and sometimes compelled to go into the water to avoid bluffs along the shore, frequently in great danger from winds and waves, camping at night in the woods. They reached Erie on the 16th of July. From Erie the sons, Benjamin and Zenas, proceeded with the teams, and the rest of the family embarked on a small flat-bottom boat, working their way along the shore as the winds favored, and hauling their boat ashore in adverse weather. Leaving Erie July 17, after many narrow escapes they landed at Fairport, disembarking at Skinner's Landing July 30, 1805,-the boys having reached the house of General Edward Paine ten days before, and crossed the river to Captain Skinner's, awaiting the arrival of the boat. The family immediately found good quarters with Ebenezer Merry, Esq., then living in a comfortable log house on the farm now (1878) owned by Isaac Sawyer, Esq., and proceeded to put up a log house on the homestead farm now owned by Mrs. Horace Steele, eldest daughter of Judge Zenas Blish, and which was occupied by the family in December of that year, and began the work of clearing up the almost unbroken forest then existing west of the little settle- ment at Painesville. At that time there were but two or three frame houses in Painesville, and but one west of the town for four miles; the only road being an irregular track cut through the woods, running easterly and westerly considerable distance south of the present Mentor avenue.

Surrounded by his large family, and rejoicing in the fact that he had overcome

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the obstacles and privations incident to a new country, he spent a peaceful and cheerful old age, and died on the 11th of March, 1825, honored and universally beloved as a man of the highest integrity and purity of character. His widow survived him, and lived in the family of her youngest son, Hon. Zenas Blish, retaining to the latest hour of her life, and in a remarkable degree, a mind and heart clear and cheerful, intelligent and kind, and died October 5, 1844, aged ninety-one years, ten days.

HON. ZENAS BLISH,

youngest and second son of Benjamin Blish, Sr., was born October 20, 1793, at Middlefield, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, and at the age of twelve came to Ohio with his father's family in July, 1805, settling on the farm in Painesville township, on Mentor road, at which time it was almost one unbroken forest in Painesville and vicinity. Seven years later, being infirm in health, he started

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HON. ZENAS BLISH.

upon a journey to Massachusetts and to return by way of New York and Phila- delphia, traveling all the distance on horseback. A call being just made for United States troops, in the war of 1812 with Great Britain, at the time of his arrival in Philadelphia, he at once enlisted in the cavalry service, under the com- mand of General Scott, and served about three years. Stationed most of the time on Governor's island, in New York city harbor, and then procured an honorable discharge by furnishing two substitutes, and returned with restored health to his home in Painesville, and proceeded in the work of clearing up and improving the farm, which he thereafter conducted and owned till his decease. In October, 1820, he was married to Vashti Ingersol, second daughter of Calvin Ingersol, Esq., of Mentor, who survived him but three weeks. Soon after Lake County was organized he was appointed one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas, which place he filled for a term of years with honor to himself and satisfaction to the people.

As an agriculturist he was always in the advance, and was generally known as a " model farmer." In 1833 he, with his brother, Benjamin Blish, purchased and brought from Canandaigua, New York, four head of young blooded Durham cattle, paying three hundred and fifty dollars for them, a price regarded by most farmers in this section at that time as very extravagant, but the wisdom of which was soon amply demonstrated in greatly improved stock and correspondingly im- proved prices. Thoroughly imbued with its importance to the farming interest, he was always deeply interested in agriculture, and exerted great influence not only in promoting a better and more practical and scientific method of crop- raising, but encouraged by his example and influence the introduction in this section of higher breeds of cattle, and upon these subjects his opinion and judg- ment were often sought and gladly given, commanding always the highest respect and confidence.

His family consisted of his wife and two daughters, Lydia B. (now the only surviving member of the family), wife of Hon. Horace Steele, of Painesville, and Lucinda B., wife of Almon Sawyer, both now (1878) deceased.

Judge Blish was always interested in political affairs and somewhat prominent. He was a Democrat in sentiment, and was their candidate for Congress and for the State legislature several times, and, though never an aspirant for any office, was frequently preferred by his party (then as now greatly in the minority) as their standard-bearer for various official positions. By the strictest integrity and

industry he not only became a prosperous and model farmer, but built up an enviable reputation as a warm-hearted, generous, and honored citizen. He died April 5, 1870, aged seventy-six years.

BENJAMIN BLISH,

eldest son of Benjamin Blish, was born at Middlefield, Hampshire county, Mas- Bachusetts, June 9, 1784.

As stated in the foregoing sketch of Benjamin Blish, Sr., he came to Ohio in July, 1805, and immediately purchased the original farm of one hundred acres in Painesville, which he cleared up and improved, and on which he lived till his decease. It was then a dense forest, no roads or improvements of any kind be- tween his farm and Painesville village, then containing several families and but two or three frame houses. In 1813 he was married to Artemisia Perkins, of Solon, and taking with him an extra horse and side-saddle upon which his bride

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BENJAMIN BLISH.

rode back, making their " wedding-tour" through the wilderness together to their new home in Painesville. He became a member in early boyhood of the Baptist church east, and maintained his connection with that denomination until 1828. During that year the Disciple church was established in Mentor, under the min- istrations of Alexander Campbell and others, and he united with it, was made one of the elders, and thereafter continued a zealous, consistent, and prominent leader in that church to the close of his life.

He was especially interested and active in the local affairs of his township and neighborhood, and while he took little interest in general politics, he was chosen without regard to party and held for sixteen years the office of justice of the peace, always instrumental in preventing litigation rather than promoting it, dis- charging the duties of the office with singular impartiality and judgment, giving universal satisfaction.

As an agriculturist he stood very high, and joined his brother, Judge Blish, in 1833, in the purchase and introduction into this section of the first blooded cattle ever brought here, being four head of young Durhams, from New York State, costing three hundred and fifty dollars, a price at that date regarded as ex- tremely unwise by many, as good common cows were then selling at fifteen to twenty dollars, and other stock in proportion. Their wisdom was very 8000 acknowledged by the farming community, in the early realization of larger prices for improved stock afterwards rapidly introduced into this county.

His family consisted of two sons, George Blish, who is now (1878) the only survivor, who owns and occupies the homestead farm, and James M. Blish, who enlisted in the Twenty-third Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the beginning of the war of the Rebellion, was made sergeant of his company, and died in Camp Ewing, West Virginia, in November, 1861.

Deacon Blish was a devoted Christian, a kind neighbor, an honored and revered citizen. He died April 11, 1864, aged eighty years.

MRS. ANN KING.

This lady was the daughter of James Wallace, and was born in Acworth, New Hampshire, in the year 1784. She was united in marriage, July 4, 1806, to Hezekiah King, who was born in Toland, Connecticut, December 21, 1785.

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In the winter of 1807, they, with their son George W., emigrated to Ohio, the journey being performed with two span of horses and a sled. From Buffalo they traveled across the lake to Grand river, the ice being of an unusual thick- ness. Here they turned their direction southward, and proceeded until reaching Middlefield, Geauga County, in the northwest corner of which township they settled. They engaged in farming and resided here for about four years, when they removed to Painesville, where they rented a tavern, which then stood opposite the location of the present residence of C. A. Avery. A year or two subsequently they purchased the tavern, then located in the rear of the present site of the " people's store" of L. L. Parmley. They continued in the business a great many years, the burden of which was borne almost entirely by Mrs. King, her husband being engrossed in other affairs most of the time. Never was there a more loyal wife, kind and judicious mother, and helpful friend than she who heads this sketch. Of marked individuality and force of character, she was also possessed of such excellent qualities of heart as to endear her to all with whom she became acquainted. She could never be deaf to the story of want or distreess, to relieve which she gave of her means often and cheerfully. She will, especially, long be remembered for her kindness and efficiency in sickness, often rendering the visit of a physician unnecessary by her timely arrival and assistance. She was known throughout the community as " mother King," a term expressive of the affec- tionate regard with which she was held by all who came to know her.

Mrs. King united with the Congregational church of Painesville in about the year 1844, during the pastorship of Rev. James M. Gillett. Her death occurred December 23, 1852, and that of her husband May 17, 1863. Mr. King was a brigadier-general of State militia, and on hearing of Hull's surrender joined in the bloodless defense of Cleveland. He was elected sheriff of Geauga County in 1821.

Mrs. King was the mother of the following-named children : George W., Samuel, Harriet Ann, Edward W., Adaline, and James W.

George W. was born in Acworth, New Hampshire, April 1, 1806; Samuel in Middlefield, Geauga County, April 7, 1808, and died August 18, 1847; Harriet Ann in Middlefield, April 17, 1810, married William Adams and resides in Chi- cago; Edward W., born in Painesville, April 26, 1813, died March 2, 1862; Adaline in Painesville, September 13, 1815, became the wife of Frederick A. Palmer, and died June 1, 1836, about a year subsequent to her marriage; James W., born in Painesville, December 12, 1817, died April 2, 1865.

George W. King, married Sarah Adams, May 13, 1832, and resides about two miles southeast of Painesville. Following are the names of their children with the dates of their birth, etc.

Harriet Ann, born March 20, 1833, died February 5, 1837 ; Charles H., born July 5, 1836, married Esther Orendorff, December 1, 1868, and resides in this township; Benjamin H., born March 26, 1840, married Mary Beattie, January 12, 1871, and at present resides in Illinois; Libbie A., born January 25, 1843, died April 22, 1864.

AARON WILCOX,*

banker, of Painesville, was born March 8, 1814, at North Killingworth, Con- necticut, and is now living. His father, Moses Wilcox, and uncle, Aaron Wilcox, were twins, and had a singular history. In personal appearance they were alike to the minutest detail, and their resemblance was the occasion of numerous mis- takes. In physical and mental conditions also they were the counterpart of each other. Whether together or separated, they were as one in the fluctuations of health and the varying moods of disposition. If one sickened, the other was affected by similar illness; when one recovered, the other regained health. If one brother was in grief, the other sympathized in sorrow ; when one rejoiced, the other was light-hearted without knowing why. They served together as · officers in the war of 1812. They were both prominent merchants and manu-

. facturers. At one time they both taught schools in Middletown, Connecticut, and frequently changed schools without the fact being discovered. They married sisters, and both had large families, each having nine children. In 1824 the brothers, with their families, removed to northern Ohio, and settled at Twins- burg, that name being given to the settlement by them. They engaged in farming together, having purchased a quarter of the township, and by their in- dustry, correct lives, integrity, benevolence, and strong religious feeling exercised a beneficial influence in the settlement. The manner of their death was no less remarkable than their lives. Both had been ailing for some time, and were in bed at their homes, half a mile apart, suffering from the same disease. Within a few moments after the death of Aaron at his home, Moses rose in his bed, exclaiming, " My brother Aaron is dead, and I shall die too." A little later in the day he died.

The brothers were buried together, and in the same grave. The son of Moses, who had been named after his uncle, came from Connecticut in 1827, and attended the schools in the neighborhood, after leaving which he became clerk with Mr. Isaac Gillet, in Painesville, and at the age of twenty-one was taken into partnership, under the firm-name of Gillet & Wilcox, doing a general mer- chandising business. Two years afterwards the partnership was changed, and with many changes of the firm-name he always being the senior partner after the retirement of Mr. Gillet. The business was conducted in the same place for over thirty years. In 1865, having acquired considerable property in the course of his business, he retired from the firm, and established the widely-known Lake County Bank, for the transaction of a legitimate banking business. In 1873, Messrs. Wilson and S. K. Gray were admitted as partners, the firm-name being changed to Wilcox & Co., and the operations of the house extended, so that it became the leading banking-house of the county. In addition to his mercantile and banking- house business, he was for many years a director of the Bank of Geauga and its successor, the First National Bank of Painesville. He has taken a strong interest in all local enterprises and movements for the improvement of the place, has served many years in the council, and has been twice elected mayor.

In educational matters he has been especially active, being for many years a member of the school-board, giving time and means in support of the schools. He is a zealous friend of the Lake Erie Female Seminary, of which he was one of the founders, and at first the treasurer, working energetically to place it upon a sound financial foundation. His religious connection is with the Episcopal church, of which he has been thirty-five years a member, giving freely to its support. He has taken an active part in politics, holding very decided views, and working ener- getically to sustain them, being at first a Whig, and then a Republican when that party was organized. He is a thorough and consistent temperance man. He was chosen one of the presidential electors to cast the vote of the State for J. C. Fremont, and again on the second election of Grant to the presidency. He served for five years as associate judge of the court of common pleas, giving satisfaction by his course on the bench. During the war of the Rebellion he was an ardent . supporter of the cause of the Union, working hard for its support, and contrib- uting freely to that end. His devotion to business is unremitting, and his · regard for commercial honor very high. His reputation for personal and business integrity, and scrupulous adherence to his word once given, is untarnished by a single blot. His individual and business affairs are regulated with mathematical precision, which may account in a measure for the invariable success of his un- dertakings. He was married in 1837 to Miss Eliza Jane Morley, of Weedsport, New York, and has had seven children : A. M. Wilcox, of Cleveland, Ohio, of the firm of Cleveland, Brown & Co .; two daughters married to P. M. Hitchcock and Charles Doolittle, members of the firm of Cleveland, Brown & Co .; three daugh- ters at home, Eliza H., Mary E., and Carrie; and C. S. Wilcox, in attendance at Yale College in 1878.

EBER D. HOWE

was born of the genuine Connecticut Yankee stock, in the little town of Clifton Park, Saratoga county, on the 9th of June, 1798, and is still living, as hale at the age of eighty as most men who are his juniors by a score of years. He was the fifth in a family of six, the two youngest of whom, besides himself, only sur- vive. At the age of six years the subject of this sketch removed to Orid, a little town in the central part of New York State, and it was there that the next seven years of his childhood were passed. At the age of thirteen he removed with his father into the dominion of George III., and located eight miles from Niagara Falls. While residing here Mr. Howe saw much of the stirring times occasioned by the war of 1812, in which he afterwards had considerable ex- perience as a volunteer in a New York State regiment commanded by Colonel Swift. His recollections of this period of our national history are vivid and interesting. At the close of the war, emulating the example of Benjamin Franklin, young Howe apprenticed himself to the publishers of a newspaper,- the Buffalo Gazette,-receiving forty dollars for his first year's services. In 1816 he went forty miles farther west, to Chautauqua (now Fredonia), to assist in the printing of a paper started by the poet James Gates Percival; but after a seven months' sojourn there returned to Buffalo. A little later the young printer went to Erie, and there set up most of the type for the first issue of the Gazette. In the winter of 1818-19 he went to Cleveland, then a village of two or three hundred inhabitants, making the journey from Fredonia upon horsback. Here he soon conceived the idea of establishing a new paper, and, after some delay, did go, in connection with his old friend Willes, who had the year before started the Erie Gazette. This was the origin of the Cleveland Herald, a paper which was conveyed to its readers every week by Mr. Howe, who, mounted upon a horse

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

with a satchel full of Heralds under his arm, rode to Painesville and back again to Cleveland. The Painesville Telegraph was started on the 16th of July, 1822, by Mr. Howe, who had removed from Cleveland a few months before. Mr. Howe conducted the Telegraph until 1835, at which time it passed into the hands of his younger brother, Asahel Howe. Mr. Howe has reared a large family, and has lived long enough to see the fourth generation of his descendants. He has living two children, seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. He is the author of a book entitled " History of Mormonism," setting forth its fallacies, depicting in their true light the character of the principal founders of Mormon- ism, and tracing to its true source the origin of the Mormon Bible. He is also the author of the " Recollections of a Pioneer Printer," to which we are indebted for many items of interest that appear in this volume.

MRS. HARRIET BEARD.

Harriet Wolcott, afterwards Mrs. Harriet Beard, was born in the year 1788, at Hartford, Connecticut. In the year 1810 she was married to James Beard, a native of Derby, Connecticut, who was about twenty years her senior. Mr. Beard had been a captain on the Atlantic, but came to Ohio in 1796, with the first surveying-party of the Western Reserve, and landed at Conneaut. Captain

MRS. HARRIET BEARD.

Beard and his bride made a tour to Chicago by lake, and it was the first bridal trip to that place,-now famous as a stopping-point for all newly-married western tourists,-ever made. In fact, Mrs. Beard was the second white woman who visited Chicago, the wife of the commander of the fort there being the first. At that time there was but one house where the populous city of to-day stands, and the population was limited to the garrison of the frontier military post, numbering about ninety or a hundred men. Black River and Burton were the abiding- places of Captain Beard and his wife for a short term of years, and they came to reside in Painesville in 1823. The husband died in the following year, and Mrs. Beard was left with a family of five children to care for and educate. This she did well, as she was fully qualified to by nature and by her superior culture.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 86

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

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