USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 5
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
Success has attended the efforts of Thomas Austin Bonnell, one of the best known of the younger members of the Guernsey county bar, because he has been endowed by nature with the qualities that win and also because
483
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
he has worked assiduously along his chosen line of endeavor. He was born on January 1, 1875, on a farm in Madison township, this county, and he is the representative of one of the excellent old families of Guernsey county, being the son of Thomas C. and Jennie (Boyd) Bonnell, both also natives of this county. The father grew to maturity and was educated in his native community and became a progressive farmer. When the Civil war was in progress he enlisted in the Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served two years until the close of the war, seeing some hard service. He was a Republican in politics and took much interest in public affairs. He served Madison township several years as a member of the board of trustees.
Thomas A. Bonnell remained on the home farm with his parents until he was eighteen years of age and assisted with the general work on the place. attending the country district schools in the wintertime. He applied him- self very assiduously to his studies and began teaching at the age mentioned above. He followed this during the winter months and attended college through the summer until he had prepared himself for some profession. He selected the law, and became a student in the office of Rosemond & Bell, of Cambridge, finishing his course under Judge J. A. Troette, of this city, and he was admitted to the bar in January, 1906. He has retained his interest in educational matters and is active in all efforts to promote and advance the cause of education. He is at present one of the county school examiners and resides in Cambridge, where he practices his profession, and he has built up a very large and rapidly growing clientele. As an attorney he is painstaking, accurate, cautious, deeply versed in jurisprudence and he is an earnest, logical and forceful speaker before a jury and his uniform courtesy to the court and his opponents wins the respect and admiration of all con- cerned.
Politically, Mr. Bonnell is a Republican and he takes an abiding inter- est in public matters, especially such as will promote the best interests of the people of Guernsey county. In May, 1910, he was nominated by his party as their candidate for representative in the Ohio Legislature, being successful at the election held in November, 1910, and his candidacy was regarded as a most fortunate one not only by his constituents but by support- ers of other parties, his peculiar fitness in every respect for this important public trust being universally recognized.
Mr. Bonnell was married on September 6, 1899, to Aurelia Wirick, daughter of Jacob C. and Elizabeth ( Shipley) Wirick, of Madison town- ship, Guernsey county. These parents are both natives of this county and are both living, being regarded as among the well established and highly
484
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
honored pioneer people of this locality. Mr. Wirick was one of the brave land of "fortyniners" who crossed the great western plains in 1849 to the gold fields of California, and he was successful in that venture. He is now one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of Madison township. He was one of the men of the Buckeye state who offered their services to the Union during the Civil war. Politically, he is a Republican. Mrs. Bon- nell is a lady of refinement and many estimable traits of character. She is the mother of one son. Rollo W.
Mr. Bonnell is popular with the masses, being a man of unquestioned character and ability. He is well versed in the law, a close student and is fast coming to the front not only in his profession but in all things that make for high grade citizenship.
HON. JOHN H. MORGAN.
The name of John H. Morgan is well known to the people of Cam- bridge and Guernsey county, where he has long been identified with important interests and has proved himself a loyal citizen, although he comes to us from foreign shores, having been born in Wales, February 14, 1862. He is the son of David T. and Elizabeth (James) Morgan. The father was an iron worker in the mills and furnaces of his native country and he came to Amer- ica with his family in 1869 and located at Newark, Ohio, where he was em- ployed in the iron mills for several years. This family then moved to Cleve- land, where Mr. Morgan also found employment in the iron mills, remain- ing there until he retired from business, and both he and his wife still reside in Cleveland and are people of high character and sterling Welsh integrity.
John IT. Morgan, of this review, was first employed in the glass works of Newark at the early age of thirteen years and his education was obtained in the public schools of that city before the age mentioned. When the family moved to Cleveland he went into the iron mills with his father in the sheet mill department. He began at the very bottom of the business and persevered until he became a sheet roller. In 1885 he left Cleveland and found employ- ment as a sheet roller in the mills of Bridgeport, and in May, 1890, he came to Cambridge when the sheet mill was started here. He was one of the origi- nal rollers of this plant and in 1899 he began working in the sheet mills of Niles and Pittsburg, continuing for several years, although retaining his resi- (lence in Cambridge.
485
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
Mr. Morgan was married, October 6, 1890, to Emma Wilson, daughter of Samuel I. and Sarah E. ( Moore) Wilson, of Bridgeport, Ohio, where they were born and spent their lives. Mr. Wilson was a farmer in early life and later became a carpenter and contractor. He and his wife are both de- ceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Morgan four children have been born, namely : Laura E. ; John H., deceased : Edna and Ethel ; all the daughters are at home.
Mr. Morgan is a Republican in politics and has been active in party affairs. He has served as district member of the Republican state central com- mittee and frequently as a member of the county committee, and a delegate to county, district and state conventions. In 1895 he was elected to the Ohio Senate from the eighteenth and nineteenth districts, serving two years in a manner that reflected much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents, making his influence felt in that body. He held member- ship on several of the important Senate committees. He was chairman of the labor committee and most of the legislation affecting labor was enacted during the sessions of which Mr. Morgan was a member of the Senate and chair- man of the labor committee. In December, 1901, because of his eminent fit- ness, he was appointed by Governor George K. Nash as chief inspector of the department of workshops and factories and having performed his duties in a very faithful and able manner he was re-appointed after four years of service, which everyone deemed most efficient, his last appointment being by Governor Myron T. Herrick, and he served with his usual fidelity to duty until June 15, 1909. During this time the department grew from a force of eight- een persons, clerks and deputy inspectors, to forty people, the scope and effi- ciency of the department being greatly extended. The child labor bill was passed and put in force, and during his term women district inspectors were placed in the department, having a supervising inspection over factories em- ploying women and children. The inauguration and passage of a law regu- lating the sale, use and storage of light explosives is credited to Mr. Mor- gan. He was an efficient and painstaking official and gave the state such high- grade service that he won the esteem of men of all parties throughout the commonwealth. While he has always been an ardent Republican, his work for his fellows has probably been more ardent in behalf of labor organization than in any other line. He is an unswerving advocate of better conditions for the laboring masses and an indefatigable worker to these ends. He is widely known as an uncompromising worker in trades union movements, his repu- tation along these avenues of commendable endeavor having far transcended the boundaries of the Buckeye state. For several years he was vice-presi- dent of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. He
486)
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OIIIO.
gave up the vice-presidency to accept a trusteeship in the same organization and he served until he was appointed chief factory and workshop inspector, then retired from the board of trustees. He was a member of the conference committee of the organization continuously for fifteen years. He took an active part in the organization of the Guernsey Valley Trades and Labor Assembly and was the first secretary of the organization. He has been active and prominent in all movements having in view the betterment of the condi- tion of the laboring classes. He is a member of the Masonic order, having taken the Knight Templar and Shrine degrees and he is prominent in Ma- sonic work, well known in state fraternal circles, and, judging from his daily life, he endeavors to carry out the noble precepts taught by this old and time- honored order in all the relations with his fellow men. Mr. Morgan is a member and liberal supporter of the Baptist church, while his wife and chil- dren are members of the Presbyterian church, all being active church workers. He has been resting since his retirement from state office, and on July I, 1910, he opened a grocery store in Cambridge, which is being well patronized. He carries a large and carefully selected stock of staple and fancy groceries and has a neat, up-to-date store.
Although Mr. Morgan's school advantages were very meager, yet he is a fine type of that class of men who deserve to bear the proud American title of self-made man. He has always been an ardent student and is well advised on current events, profoundly versed in the world's best literature, a broad- minded, cultured, generous, hospitable, genteel gentleman with high ideals and noble aspirations, whom to know is to respect and admire.
COL. GORDON LOFLAND.
Among the residents of Guernsey county in pioneer days none is more (leserving of having his name perpetuated on the pages of history than Col. Gordon Loffand, who has long been sleeping the sleep of the just. His life was fraught with so much good and his example so worthy of imita- tion that he is yet spoken of with reverence by the older inhabitants of the county. He performed his work well, whatever he had to do, never shirked his duty or quailed at dangers or obstacles.
Colonel Lofland was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, on September 19. 1794, and his death occurred on December 17, 1869, at his home in Cambridge, Ohio, at the age of seventy-six years. He was the son of Dorman
487
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
and Mary H. Lofland. In the year 1800 his parents moved from Virginia to Fairfield county, Ohio, and took up their residence near Lancaster, Ohio. In 1816 Colonel Lofland came to Cambridge, where he resided until his death. There was little connected with the growth and prosperity of the town and vicinity with which he was not familiar and actively connected. He was a public spirited man and stood in the front rank of progress and endeavored to keep pace with advancing civilization. He was very patri- otic and was one of the most useful citizens in the state during the Civil war, devoting much of his time and private means to the cause of the Union, which he held to be insoluble. He raised recruits and in endeavoring to keep alive the spirit of patriotism among the people he embraced every op- portunity, and his services along these lines were incalculable.
His patriotism was recognized by Governor Tod, of Ohio, who seldom, if ever, disregarded his counsels. He was appointed by the Governor as Ohio's commissioner for the Gettysburg cemetery in 1863 and in 1867 he was appointed commissioner for the Antietam cemetery. He was always prompt in the discharge of his duties connected with the several positions he was called upon to occupy, and the people were always pleased to dele- gate their interests to his hands, he being frequently called upon to repre- sent them in different ways and upon different occasions during most of his life. During the years of his activity he was seldom absent from public assemblies, political and patriotic, and even during the last year of his life he attended a meeting of the veterans of the war of 1812 and a political meeting addressed by Governor Hayes on September 2d preceding his death. He was a most worthy character and held a conspicuous position in the es- timation of all the people.
In 1824, Colonel Lofland married Mrs. Sarah P. Metcalf, widow of Thomas Metcalf and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Gomber, who came to Cambridge from Frederick City, Maryland, in 1808. Her father's name is intimately associated with the history of Cambridge, he being one of the original projectors of the city. Mrs. Lofland's death occurred on Novem- ber 5, 1870, in the seventy-sixth year of her age. She was a most worthy woman and in every way a fit life companion for her distinguished husband. She was kind and quiet in her disposition, and as a wife and mother looked well to the wants of her household. She enjoyed, as she well deserved, the love of her entire family and the respect and confidence of her acquaint- ances and all who knew her were her friends.
The representatives of the family yet living and residing in Cambridge are a son, Col. Gordon C. Lofland, and a daughter, Mrs. Caroline Hutcheson.
488
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
The deceased children are, Thomas A., Mary, Jacob G., Susan, and Sarah P. The parents and members of the family are all buried side by side in the first cemetery dedicated to burial purposes in the city of Cambridge. which is now near the center of the business section of the city.
WILLIAM H. TURNER.
.A distinguished citizen who needs no introduction to the readers of this work is William H. Turner, of Cambridge, who was born January 1, 1850, in Cambridge in the part of the city which at that time was woodland. He is a son of George and Eliza Jane (Porter) Turner, the father of English de- scent, but born near Cadiz, Harrison county, Ohio. The mother was of Irish descent and was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania. Grandfather James Porter came to Guernsey county with the early pioneers and was a school teacher and a shoemaker, was postmaster at Creighton, Guernsey county, a justice of the peace, and a man of affairs of high standing. Three of his sons, brothers of the mother of the subject of this sketch, went through the Civil war. They were Joseph ; James, who rose to the rank of major of an Iowa regiment ; and William : Joseph and William were members of Com- pany \, Seventy-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served with splendid records. James and Joseph are now deceased, but William is living in Winter- set, Iowa, engaged in the mercantile business, having gone West soon after the close of the war. The parents also moved West, locating at Monmouth, Illinois, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The maternal great- grandfather, Robert Porter, was killed by the Indians in the early pioneer days at a locality near Fort Pitt (at what is now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ), as were two of his children. James Porter, the grandfather, served through the war of 1812 as a drummer-boy.
The Turners came from England in about 1800 and settled in Harrison county, Ohio, where George Turner, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1812. In the family of Grandfather George Turner were: George : Mary, who became the wife of James Wagstaff, who emigrated to California, where they died; Margaret, who married James McGonigal, a prominent pioneer family, both now deceased.
The father of the subject of this sketch, George Turner, came to Guern- sey county with his mother, his father having been accidentally killed by a falling tree. Before coming to Guernsey county, the father had learned the
489
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
trade of a blacksmith and followed the trade here and was known far and near as "The Village Blacksmith." He was active in securing the right of way for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad to Cambridge, the opponents protest- ing that the railroad would see the grass growing in the streets of Cambridge. He was a man of affairs and he became interested in real estate, and Turner's addition to the city of Cambridge is an important addition. He also invented and patented the Turner corn-sheller, the first practical corn-sheller to be suc- cessfully operated in the country and has been the foundation of all shellers that have followed. He was a man active in everything to advance the com- mercial development of Cambridge. He also operated. with James McGon- igal, one of the first flour mills in Cambridge. He was in the mercantile busi- ness for a time and he also built houses and sold them to new comers and manufacturers. He burned the brick for the first brick church ( the Methodist Episcopal) in Cambridge. When he thus became active in affairs he gave up his trade of blacksmithing. He was one of the foremost citizens of his time and did much to advance Cambridge and give the city an important place on the Ohio map. In politics he was originally a Whig, a strong anti-slavery man and a worker in the "underground railroad," helping many a slave to freedom. He later became a Republican and a strong supporter of the Union cause, during the dark days of the Civil war, having three sons who served in the army. His family consisted of eight sons and three daughters, namely : Milton, deceased; James, killed at Atlanta during the war; George, now in Texas; Cassalin, deceased; William, the subject of this sketch; Hanna C., now the wife of H. H. Hunt, a railroad man in Nebraska ; Isabelle, now Mrs. James Hardesty, of Cambridge: Mary is the widow of Austin Siens; John P., a lawyer of Cambridge, and Samuel F., of Columbus, Ohio. The father died in April, 1864, by a sudden illness, in the prime of life at the age of fifty- two years. His widow survived until 1900, in July of which year she passed to her reward. Both are buried in the Lebanon cemetery, in Adams township. The mother was a school teacher before her marriage, and as her family grew up, she gave great attention to their education.
The son, William H., obtained much of his early education at his mother's knee, getting very little in the public schools, probably not more than a year all told. When he was ten years of age he began his life in the coal mines, in the year 1860. He began as a pick miner, when coal mining in Guernsey county was in its infancy, before even powder was used for mining, all done with a jack and wedge. He has been a miner or connected with mine work ever since. There is nothing about a coal mine that he has not done, except boss or superintend, and these two positions were not passed for lack of op-
490
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
portunity, but because he did not accept the preferred place. As soon as he became a miner, in 1860, he made up his mind to know all there was to known about mining and he began to study geology and coal formation. He made a close study of mine chemistry and ventilation, the formation of gases and how to prevent explosions. He began with a study of the best authorities, has probably as fine a library as there is in the state upon these subjects and he is recognized as an authority upon them. Because of his great ability along these lines he has been active in securing legislative protection for the miner and directing the operation of mines, which resulted in the establish- ment of the department of mines and mining in 1873. during the adminis- tration of Governor William Allen. This department was first organized with one inspector for the entire state. This was followed with one assist- ant inspector, and the department has grown in importance until now there is a chief inspector with twelve assistant inspectors and a corps of office clerks in the chief inspector's office in Columbus. Without application for the posi- tion, in 1891, Mr. Turner was appointed an assistant inspector by Hon. R. M. I laseltine, chief inspector of mines, for three years, for district No. 4. This appointment came unsolicited and because of his recognized ability in mining matters. At the expiration of three years, because of death in his family he was compelled to give up the work, and in 1900 was again appointed to the position by E. G. Biddison, then chief inspector, and served three years and was reappointed by the same chief for another term of three years. At the expiration of his term, in 1906, he was reappointed for three years by George Harrison, chief inspector, serving until August 1, 1910, serving fourteen months additional time before his successor was appointed. He has served in the department a total of thirteen years and two months and served under seven different governors of the state. During all these years he has never been reversed in his decisions, never has involved the mining department or operators in any legal action. His official duties have been very satisfactory to the department, the miners and the mine operators.
With all of his activity and study, he was one of the founders of the miners' organization in this section of the state. This was known as the Ohio Miners Association, formed in the fall of 1879, and in 1880 the first local union was organized in Guernsey county and Mr. Turner was made secretary of the organization, which grew through the activity of himself and others until it included several counties. When a district organization was secured. known as district No. 9. Mr. Turner became secretary and treasurer, and at the same time was made a member of the state executive board. He filled these positions for five years, and in 1887 he was made
491
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
president of the district organization and in 1890 he was elected national vice- president of what was known as the National Progressive Union of Miners, all over the country. He relinquished this to give his attention to that of in- spector in Ohio.
William H. Turner has been twice married, first on January 1, 1872. to Malissa O. Davis, daughter of Nathan G. and Amanda M. ( McVay) Davis. Her father was a miner, served through the war and again took up mining, when he became a resident of Guernsey county. and died here some years ago, as did his wife.
To this union were born five sons and four daughters: Frank, of Cam- bridge : Flora, now Mrs. John Shaw, whose husband is a farmer of Guern- sey county and a miner ; Anna Maude, now Mrs. Fred Gibbs, of Cleveland. Ohio; Hattie, now Mrs. John Evans, of Indiana Harbor. Indiana : George E., of Cambridge: John W., who died an infant ; Earl C., of Cambridge: Ada G., now Mrs. Ward Wilcoxen, of Cambridge. The wife and mother died on January 28, 1893.
Mr. Turner was married a second time October 12, 1897, to Mrs. Eva A. Earl, widow of John Earl, of West Virginia, and a daughter of John and Mary (Thayer ) Ward, of Lewis county, New York state, and the mother of two children, Roie E., wife of A. T. Jones, of Cambridge, and Percy D. Earl, of Cambridge. The Ward family never came West, but were of Revo- lutionary stock, and John Ward was a soldier in the Civil war. John Earl was also a soldier in the Civil war.
Mr. Turner is a Republican in politics, always interested and active, and has served as a member of the city board of education and president of the board for a time, also a member of the city water works trustees. He has served as a member of the Republican county committee, as secretary of the executive committee, has been a delegate to county, district and state conven- tions, and has been a very effective campaign speaker during various cam- paigns. At the time of the Manongah mine disaster at Fairmount. West Vir- ginia, on December 6, 1907, Mr. Turner joined a volunteer rescue squad of experienced and expert miners and assisted in rescuing three hundred and sixty-six bodies from the mine, after twelve days of unremitting work. He is essentially a self-made and self-educated man, with very little schooling and such instructions as his mother could give him, she having been a school teacher before her marriage. The care of a large family came to the parents of small means. The boy began life as a miner at the age of ten years, but all of his spare time was devoted to books upon mining and mine equipment. and after mastering these he broadened out and became a man of broad
-192
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
information and rare intelligence. He never played a game of cards in his life: while the other boys were thus engaged he was with his books, and he never read a book or story of light fiction, his mind being constantly on "What can I get the most good for the future from."
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.