History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 87

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 87
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 87

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It is a notable fact that Mrs. Beard lived for over fifty years upon the same lot where her first home in Painesville was, the present residence and property of her son-in-law, William C. Chambers, Esq. Her death occurred here on the morning of the 9th of February, 1876, and had she lived until the 19th of the following month she would have reached the age of eighty-eight years. Mrs. Beard was a woman of fine education, wide information, and carefully discrimi- nating literary taste, as well as a close observer of the public men and events of her time. Her fine qualities of mind and graces of person and address fitted her for the society of the highest classes, and she enjoyed the friendship and esteem of many eminent men and women. She was in every sense of the word a lady of the old school. Mrs. Beard was reverently religious, and her life was practi- cally conformed to her theory of piety. She was for sixty-nine years a member of the Episcopal church, and the first Episcopal service held in Painesville was at her house. Of her five children,-two sons and three daughters,-all are now living. They are James H., Harriet W., Julia E. (now Mrs. William Blair, of

Perry), Ann B. (Mrs. William C. Chambers, of Painesville), and William H. Beard. James H. Beard is eminent as a painter of animals, and his brother William, who is perhaps even better known in this immediate vicinity, is also an artist, his special line being the caricature of the vanities and foibles of men through the portrayal of their prototypes in the animal kingdom.

DAVID R. PAIGE

was among the active, energetic, influential men of Painesville. He was a farmer, merchant, and general man of business, but retired from active life in 1863. He was born in Rutland, Vermont, in the fall of 1806, and removed to Madison, Lake County, Ohio, where he went into the mercantile business in 1832. He remained there thirty years, removing to Painesville in 1863. He was one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas, holding his position for seven years. When the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula railroad was originated, Mr. Paige took an active part in organizing the movement, and was one of the first erecters of the company which established this line, afterwards developed into the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad. He was active in public affairs, and gave strong support to various institutions and interests of the places in which he dwelt, among these Lake Erie Seminary. In politics he was a Dem- ocrat, and one of the most influential in his section of country. He was a mem- ber of the convention of 1856, which nominated James Buchanan, and during the war gave support to the Union cause in various ways, being instrumental in raising a company of men, of which he was offered the captaincy. He originated the Painesville Savings and Loan Association, of which he was a director, and contributed in other ways to the business of Painesville. His religious preferences were with the Episcopal church, of which he was a member for many years and a vestryman. Mr. Paige died at his home in Painesville, July 7, 1877, aged seventy-one years. He was married in 1837 to Nancy J. Kimball, of Madison, and had seven children, of whom four are now living,-David R. and Albert in Akron, and Charles C. and Ralph K. in Painesville.

JOSEPH SEDGEBEER.

Few men, in the private walks of life, have had a career so checkered and event- ful as the subject of this sketch. Few men have exhibited more energy and per- severance in the accomplishment of their purposes. His history serves to illustrate the saying that " there is nothing impossible to him who wills." Joseph Sedge- beer was born at Bristol, England, December 3, 1805. His father was a king's guardsman, and for his services received a pension from the British government. His grandfather was an English farmer in comfortable circumstances. Through the death of his father, in 1811, and the marriage of his mother, two years later, an opportunity was afforded the boy for the gratification of his ambition to be a sailor. Late in the fall of 1814 he shipped as a cabin-boy on a merchant-ship bound for the West Indies. While on this trip, which occupied a year, the master of the ship, Captain Sands, became much attached to his cabin-boy, and treated him with great kindness. At the early age of ten the child showed himself to be the father of the man. From the first he declined to drink the customary ration of " grog," and formed the resolution of constituting himself a temperance society of one. And such was his inflexibility of purpose and strength of will that no persuasion or ridicule ever moved him from his boyhood resolution.

On returning to England he lost his place and his best friend by the death of Captain Sands. His step-father, Mr. Price, was not disposed to provide him a home, and he was compelled to seek employment on the ocean. For some six months he was employed on a coasting vessel, when, on his return to Bristol, he found his mother and step-father ready to sail for New York, with the intention of making their home in America. It was talked and understood that Joseph should accom- pany them; but on the night the brig was to sail, and a carriage ready, he was given a half-crown and sent on an errand to a neighbor, and on his return to the house they were gone. By this strange conduct on the part of his relatives he was left, at the age of ten, wholly dependent upon his own exertions and judgment. He sought and found work on a farm in the country for four months, and then, upon his return to Bristol, wandered, day after day, among the shipping to find a situation. At length, after a long and discouraging search, he found a chance, in 1816, to work his passage on a ship to New York. When he arrived at New York and went to the place where he had heard his relatives were stopping, he learned that his mother and step-father had gone to Canada, but could not ascer- tain to what place or part of Canada they had removed. In this dilemma a lady, Mrs. Hylamen, heard his story and welcomed him to her house. A few days later this lady saw in the list of advertised letters one directed to James Sedgbury, and immediately made inquiries for this person, in the hope that she might find a rel-

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RESIDENCE OF J. SEDGEBEER. PAINESVILLE, 0.

LITH. BY L. H. EVERTS, PHILA, PA.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

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ative of her protege. She had doubtless heard that the Sedgburys, Sedgmoors, and Sedgebeers were of the same family. Her hopes were soon realized by the discovery that James Sedgebury was Joseph's uncle, and that he was a brewer in good circumstances and lived in Amity street, New York. The uncle took the wayfarer to his home and gave him employment for several months. In the mean time, dissatisfied with being dependent upon his new-found relative, he kept a constant lookout for an apprenticeship to some trade, or to procure some steady employment. In this he was not successful. February, 1817, he accepted an offer of eight dollars a month as a sailor-boy on the ship " Margaret," of Glasgow. After a stormy voyage, upon which the ship was disabled and two men and a boy died from exposure and hardship, they reached the Clyde. Here he was appren- ticed for three years to the ship-owners.

After repairs they sailed to Nassau and Havana, and took cargo to Leghorn, on the Mediterranean. At Havana the crew were attacked with yellow fever, and recovered by putting immediately to sea. On arriving in Scotland they repeated the same voyage until they arrived off Toulon, when the ship, cargo, and two men were lost in a storm, and the survivors were sent to Scotland by the British consul. He had now served two years under his indentures. The owners put another ship of the same name in the same trade, with the same captain and officers. Just as she was ready to sail, believing her to be unseaworthy, Joseph deserted the ship, and was compelled to remain secreted for a time, as he was ad- vertised as a runaway apprentice. Working his passage to New York, he there hired as a sailor on the brig " Hibernia," bound for Dublin. On the return trip, when he was called out in the night to go aloft, after having been deprived of regular sleep, he went up into the rigging in a state of unconsciousness, and fell a distance of thirty-seven feet, striking upon a shipmate and crippling him for life. In the latter part of the summer of 1820 he arrived at New York, and re- solved to abandon sailing. While on the " Hibernia" the sailors called him " Old Head," on account of his steady ways and habits, and were accustomed to make him their banker while they would go ashore for a spree.

He had now learned that his mother lived near Port Hope, Canada, and imme- diately set out on foot to visit her. After remaining with her and Mr. Price during several months, and bestowing upon them his labor and the money he had saved while sailing, he worked a year in the vicinity as a farm-hand, and then entered a hundred acres of wild land, and lived alone in a shanty after the man- ner of the frontiersmen of that day. With his own hands he cleared and sowed twenty-five acres the first season, and with the aid of a boy cleared and sowed forty acres more the next year. In 1825 his entire crops of wheat and barley, and also his barn, were consumed by fire. One incident occurred about this time that illustrates the inconveniences of frontier life, as well as the resolute character of Mr. Sedgebeer. While chopping alone in the woods his leg was broken by a falling tree. Without the assistance of a surgeon he reduced the fracture, and managed the case himself. In 1826, upon arriving of age, he began to take part in political discussion, and expressed his opinions so frankly and vigorously that the crown commissioner threatened him with arrest. He thereupon sold his property and removed to Rochester, New York, and engaged for a year in the manufacture and sale of ship-timber. By economy and industry he had now accumulated between two and three thousand dollars, when he married, and pur- chased four hundred and fifty acres of land in Niagara county, New York, most of which was then a wilderness.

After clearing and improving this farm, he moved to Lockport in 1834, and there engaged in business, owning and managing a drug-store, four asheries, and afterwards a dry-goods store. Until 1837 his business projects were all successful, and speculation was at high tide. When the panic came he was worth twenty thousand dollars, but had indorsed largely for his friends, who failed, and in 1838 he was compelled to make an assignment and see all his property sold by the sheriff. In 1839 he gathered into a covered moving-wagon a few household goods saved from the financial wreck, and started with his family to find a home in Ohio and begin the struggle anew. He journeyed to Ashtabula, then to Colum- bus, and back towards the lake. The whole family became sick, and his wife died near Mount Vernon, and left him with three small children. Coming to Painesville, he purchased a small farm south of the village, and two years later married again, moved on the little farm, and built an ashery upon it. In three years the profits of this ashery, carried on against the most strenuous competition, exceeded five thousand dollars. Having leased his ashery, he removed to Roches- ter, New York, to take care of his aged mother and step-father, who died the following year. He then moved back to Painesville in 1848 and opened a daguerrean room, and for several months pursued that business successfully. In the spring of 1849 he started for the gold-diggings of California, but sold his teams and outfit at St. Joseph, Missouri, and returned to Rochester, New York, where he remained until 1852, when he engaged in the business of selling the Ross mill. He pursued this business with the greatest energy for three years,

and until the failure of Ross, when he determined to make a mill of his own. First at Nashville, Tennessee, and then at Cincinnati, he invented, improved, and tested different mills, until he finally invented the celebrated Nonpareil mill. To this mill first premiums have been awarded at the Centennial Exhibition at Phila- delphia, and at State fairs throughout the Union. The sales of the Nonpareil have already aggregated over four hundred thousand dollars. In the manufacture and sale of these mills, with the large correspondence and book-keeping required, he has been his own clerk, and has done the work with such perfect system and accuracy that it has been attended with no considerable dispute or litigation.

With great self-reliance and untiring industry Mr. Sedgebeer has become an adept in divers trades, arts, and professions.

In addition to his profession as a seaman, and occupation as a farmer, he is an expert manufacturer of potash, and the use of his own inventions and improve- ments was the secret of his success in that business. At one time and another, as opportunity offered or occasion required, he mastered the photographer's art, learned the shoemaker's trade, became a practical miller, lumberman, carpenter and joiner, cooper, as well as druggist, merchant, and inventor.

With no opportunity of attending school since a mere child, he has acquired a competent business education ; and whether in the solitude of the forest or on the trackless deep, his leisure has always been largely devoted to reading and study. With very little instruction he became proficient in painting and music, and in 1874 premiuins were awarded to his painting at the State fair of Ohio, and at the Northern Ohio fair, at Cleveland. He is naturally of a philosophic and religious cast of mind, and early gave the claims of Christianity and the Bible a careful and prayerful examination. After a patient and diligent investigation, he came to the conclusion, mainly from the study of the Bible itself, that it could not be accepted as of divine origin. In later years he carefully examined and investigated the phenomena of modern spiritualisin, and failed to discover any reliable proof that the spirits of the departed were in any manner concerned with these phenomena. He has always acted upon the wise saying, "To prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good." With an abiding faith in a First Great Cause, he occupies the position of rational skepticism as to the fact of a future life. Hoping for the immortality of the soul, he cannot find the clear evidence to confirm his hope. His religious tenets are best expressed in the maxim, as old as Confucius, which is known as the golden rule. Although deeply immersed in business, and never an applicant for office or place, he has taken a lively interest in public affairs. He was a zealous anti-slavery advocate, and has been a member of the Republican party since its organization. Mr. Sedgebeer is now retired from active business, and finds enjoyment in the investigation and discussion of moral, scientific, and theological questions, and the perusal of history and general literature. At the ripe age of seventy-three, after passing through trials and hardships of more than ordinary severity, he finds himself hale and hearty and in the full possession of every faculty as the result and recom- pense of a temperate, industrious, and well-spent life.

ROBERT BLAIR

was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, March 8, 1782. Removed with his family to Ohio in 1818, arriving in Kirtland March 8, having made the journey of six hundred miles in five weeks, on runners with two yokes of oxen, and hav-

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arrival here he opened .. the location of the pri - he concluded, in 1839. place, then of some im] of leather. Shortly afi of General Eli and S: December 4, 1815. ]. business there not prov ville, where he contin but with an energy, ( making preparations f Childs block, which } the enormous increase war.

He was not, howeve . ring in October of 18 prominent member of was an enthusiastic be fully to every laudable him a helpful friend. upright and honorable, a good name.

Mr. and Mrs. Childs were never blessed with children. In 1863, however, they adopted two children, brother and sister, with whom, in her pleasant home in Painesville, the widow of the subject of this sketch resides.

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banker, was born in Concord, Lake County, November 20, 1841. It , Robert Murray, second, and Sophronia, lived there until he was five years of age, and then moved to Mentor. R. M. Murray attended the common country

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William Rice

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

ing good sleighing all the way until near his destination. His family was the first to settle in the southeast quarter of Kirtland township. He bought and cleared up a large farm, upon which he lived seven years. In 1824 he built the first court-house (excepting a log house) which was built in Geauga County.

In 1825 he became associated with James R. Ford, Charles C. Paine, Eleazar Paine, Benjamin F. Tracy, and others in the furnace business. The company was known as the Geauga Iron Company. They commenced making iron in the fall of 1825, being the first to get started in that business in northern Ohio.

Mr. Blair was manager of the business of this company until its dissolution in 1851. In disposition he was very kind, genial, and hopeful; and his long and active business life was ever characterized by the strictest integrity and most faithful honesty.

He died, August 27, 1875, in the ninety-fourth year of his age.

ASA CHILDS

was the youngest of the five children of Asa and Sabra Childs, and was born in Shelbourne, Massachusetts, February 22, 1816. He was bereft of his father in infancy, and in early boyhood learned the harness-making trade. At this work he industriously applied himself until about the age of twenty, when he emigrated to Ohio. Young and compelled to depend upon his own resources, his knowledge of a good trade at this juncture stood him in good stead, and soon after his

ASA CHILDS.

arrival here he opened a shop on Main street, in a small frame building near the location of the present savings bank. His business steadily increased, but he concluded, in 1839, to remove to Kelloggsville, Ashtabula county, at which place, then of some importance, there was an establishment for the manufacture of leather. Shortly afterwards he was united in marriage to Sarah A., daughter of General Eli and Sarah Bond, of Painesville, the date of whose . birth was December 4, 1815. He remained in Kelloggsville only about two years, his business there not proving satisfactorily remunerative, and he returned to Paines- ville, where he continued his business. He was burned out in February, 1861, but with an energy, characteristic of him, immediately afterwards commenced making preparations for the erection of the fine brick building known as the Childs block, which he pushed steadily forward to completion, notwithstanding the enormous increase in the price of labor and building material caused by the . war.

He was not, however, long to enjoy the results of his busy toil, his death occur- ring in October of 1870, after an illness of some two or three years. He was a prominent member of the order of Free Masons, in whose aims and purposes he was an enthusiastic believer. He was a man of generous impulses, giving cheer- fully to every laudable object,-the poor and needy especially always finding in him a helpful friend. His life, while being an exceptionally busy one, was always upright and honorable, and at his death he left behind him the precious legacy of a good name.

WILLIAM RICE

was born in Pittstown, Rensselaer county, New York, June 24, 1796. He was the seventh in a family of ten, the children of William and Tabitha (Budlong) Rice. His education was obtained during the winter months at the common schools in his native State. When nineteen he went to West Bloomfield, Ontario county, and engaged at work there with an elder brother, who was a manufacturer of fanning-mills. He went to work with such energy, and showed such a fitness for the business, that his brother sent him, the 1st of March following, to Fre- donia, Chautauqua county, to take charge of his shops there. We next find him in Erie, Pennsylvania, whither he was sent by his brother, who was constantly extending his field of operations, to establish the business at that point. He sub- sequently returned to New York, where he remained until the expiration of his term of service with his brother, when he evinced a determination to strike out for himself. He accordingly engaged with a passing emigrant family, bound for the Reserve, for the transportation of his tools, while he set out on foot. Arri- ving in Madison (then), Geauga County, he immediately commenced the business he had so thoroughly mastered. He continued there about two years, meantime establishing his business at other points. He then, in the spring of 1818, re- moved to Youngstown, Mahoning county (then Trumbull). He prosecuted his business there, with branch shops at other points in the State, with remarkable success for a period of thirty-five years. He invested the surplus of income which his business yielded him in real estate in the vicinity of Youngstown. He resided for a time in Coitsville, and while there received the appointment of post- master,-the first in the township. After his return to Youngstown, being im- pressed with the future growth and prosperity of the place, he invested to some extent in land within its corporate limits, which purchase subsequently became very valuable. April 1, 1819, he was married to Christiana Potter, daughter of William and Catherine (Freeman) Potter, originally from New Jersey, then of Youngstown. She was born October 13, 1798. From this marriage were born the following-named children, William Freeman, February 8, 1820, who was killed by a runaway team, in the summer of 1845, while residing in Ravenna, Portage county ; Lucy, born May 30, 1825, married Edwin Beardsley (deceased), and at present resides with her parents; Laura, born December 25, 1832, be- came the wife of Lorenzo Lane, and is now a resident of Youngstown; Cornelia, born September 5, 1841, married Thomas Perrine, and resides in Danville, Liv- ingston county, New York.

. During his residence in Youngstown, at the earnest entreaty of some of the more prominent advocates of temperance there, Mr. Rice became a candidate for mayor on that issue, and was elected. He served but one term. His private business demanded his undivided attention, and he declined a re-election. During his incumbency of the office the law against liquor-sellers was vigorously enforced in all practicable cases.

He, with his wife, united with the First Presbyterian church of Youngstown in the year 1832, which connection was severed only by removal from the township in 1871. He was an elder in this church for over thirty years, and was efficient in the erection of this church edifice, and aided liberally in the building of others.

Politically, he was formerly a Whig, with strong anti-slavery sentiments, and on the formation of the Republican party became a member of it, and is to-day a firm believer in its principles. He was intimately acquainted with Joshua R. Giddings, for whose political principles and his fearless advocacy of them he had the greatest respect and admiration. His judgment, however, would not allow him to follow Giddings into the Free-Soil party with Van Buren as its leader.

Denied the opportunities for the acquirement of an education more than rudi- mentary, he stored his mind by reading and reflection with the most useful knowledge, and it requires but a few moments of conversation with him to dis- cover that he is a gentleman of more than ordinary intelligence and experience. Indeed, we have rarely met with one so thoroughly conversant with our political history and with the lives of the prominent actors in it.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 87

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

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