History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 125

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Ohio > Knox County > History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present > Part 125

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CRUNKELTON, M. I .. , Pike township, retired, post office, North Liberty, born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1816, and came to Ohio when seven years of age. He was married in 1845 to Caroline Roch; who was born in Pennsylvania, in 1819. They had three children: Daniel (deceased), born in 1846, Sophia, in 1849, and James in 1851.

Mrs. Caroline Crunkelton died in Knox county, Ohio, in September, 1879.

Mr. Crunkelton came to Knox in 1854. He is a farmer by occupation, has always been in that business until his recent retirement.

CRUNKELTON JAMES, Pike township; farmer; post office, North Liberty; born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1851, was married in 1870, to Catharine L. Allen, who was born in Richland county in 1851. They have four children: Curtis O., born in 1873; Harry L., in 1876; Lucinda E., in 1878, and Daniel, in 1880. They came to this county in 1854, and have lived here since that time.

CULBERTSON, WILLIAM CRAIG, Mt. Vernon, at- torney, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1847. He spent his youth on the farm, and attend- ing the schools of the district during the winter. He is the second son of Franklin and Narcissa Culbertson nee Craig. In

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

1865 he attended the academy at Elder's ridge for two years, and then in 1867 he entered the junior class in Washington and Jefferson college at Cannonsburgh, Washington county, Pennsylvania, from which college he graduated in the fall of 1869. He came to Wooster, Ohio, and entered the law office of General Aquilla Wiley. He read law until 1871, when he was admitted to the bar in the fall of that year. In January, 1872, Mr. Culbertson came to Mt. Vernon, and formed a partnership with Mr. McClellan under the firm name of Mcclellan & Cul- bertson, which firm still exists.

CULP, ROWLAND D., farmer, is a native of Clay, was born September 9, 1848, and has lived on the farm of his birth ever since. He was married to Miss Mollie F. Harrington, of Martinsburgh, February 8, 1872. Mr. Culp engaged in farm- ing for several years, but owing to ill health he procured a printing press and material, and is engaged in the job and card printing business at present.

CUMINGS, ANSON D. Brown township (deceased), only son of Gilbert and Betsey Cumings, was born in Oneida county, New York, August 25, 1828. His father was a farmer, and em- igrated to Summit county, Ohio, near Akron, in 1838. His parents being unable to send their son to college, he received his education in the country schools of his day; attended the union schools of the city of Akron for a short time, and finished his education at the Haskell academy in Loudonville. Heearly developed a disposition to take care of himself, and engaged in teaching and other enterprises, among which the insurance agen- cy seemed to afford a field for which he was peculiarly adapted.

November 10, 1852, while a clerk in the American house- then the principal hotel of Cleveland-he married Clara R. daughter of Erastus and Julia Eldridge. After his marriage he engaged for some time in furnishing large contracts of timber tor ship-building on the lake shore, and also in taking and filling contracts for timber for railroad purposes. In 1853 he moved upon a farm three miles south of Loudonville, in Ashland county, where he remained with his family six years, engaged in teaching, farming, and lumbering, filling the office justice of the peace and other township offices, and acting as an insurance agent.

In 1859 he removed to Jelloway, in Knox county, where he remained until his death. After removing to Jelloway he en- gaged more earnestly in the insurance work, and in 1864 organ- ized the Farmers' Insurance company, of Jelloway, a mutual campany, of which he was for several years the secretary and general manager. In 1868 he reorganized the company, chang- ing it from a mutual to a joint stock company, with a paid up capital of one hundred thousand dollars.

In 1863-during the Rebellion-he organized a company of the Ohio National guards, of which he was elected captain. In the spring of 1864 his company was called into the hundred days' service, and on the Knox county companies reporting at Columbus it was discovered that there were not positions for all the commissioned officers, and it being known that Captain Cumings was interested in the new insurance company just or- ganized. and from which he could illy be spared, he was offered three hundred dollars to resign in favor of some other officer. To this proposition he answered: " Not a cent of your money, but if my company is willing I will resign." The matter was laid before the company and a vote taken, resulting in an unan- imous vote to retain Captain Cumings. That he went to the front and won the respect and confidence of the entire regiment

for bravery on the field and kindness to his men, will be attested by many of the old One Hundred and Forty-second Ohio Na- tional guard.

In 1869 a cancer devoloped itself in his lower jaw and neces- sitatcd an appeal to the surgeon, and at Good Samaritan hos- pital, Cincinnati, he had the entire bone of the lower jaw re- moved. The operation, however, was not successful, the disease causing his death June 26, 1870, after months of the greatest misery, but of which he was never heard to complain.

During his residence in Jelloway he was for a time deputy revenue assessor, and held a recruiting officer's commission under Governor Brough. He also held the office of postmaster for a number of years, and at his death his wife succeeded him to the office, which she still retains.

After his death the insurance company of which he was the founder was removed to Howard, Ohio.

Cut down by disease in the prime of vigorous manhood many of his cherished aims for the future were frustrated.

The fruit of his marriage was seven children, viz: Three sons -Frank A., Edgar L., and Anson B .; and four daughters- Julia D., M. Ella, Emma J., and Ansonette A.

The following, written by a friend at the time of his death, deserves a place in this sketch :

"Died at his residence at Jelloway, Knox county, Ohio, on Sunday, the twenty-sixth inst., of cancer. A. B. Cummings, aged forty-two years. Anson B. Cummings was born in Oneida county, New York, and has resided at Jelloway for twelve years. He leaves a wife, seven children, and many friends to mourn his loss. No one in this community enjoyed a more extensive acquaintance. Possessed of an honest, moral, genial, and pleasant character, with him to form acquaintance was to enlist a friend.

"The Farmers' Insurance company, of Jelloway, owes its exis- tence to the vigorous and fertile mind of Mr. Cummings, as he conceived the idea of its organization, and held an important office in the company from its beginning, until disease compelled him to resign.

"In 1864, when Governor Brough called on the National Guard of Ohio, Mr. Cummings took command of company F, of the One Hundred and Forty-second regiment, and spent the sum- mer in the service. That he was an acceptable officer, kind, pleasant, and agreeable to his command, every member of the regiment will attest. During his early life a cancer developed itself on his lower lip ; this was treated with the knife by a sur- geon in Cleveland, with apparent success, as no signs appeared of its return until some four years since it began to develop itself on his chin. In November, 1868, he went to Cincinnati, where Professor Blackman removed his entire lower jaw, back to the angle, or behind the teeth, but without success, as the dread disease remained, and gradually grew and increased in effect. To undertake to describe his sufferings would be vain. A faint idea of his sufferings could only be conveyed by having been with him. But through all he was not known to murmur or complain. That he dicd the death of a Christian, we think we have abundant evidence. Thus passed away one dear to his family, beloved by his friends, and respected by all.

"At a meeting of the directors of the Farmers' Insurance company, at Jelloway, Ohio, on the second inst., E. L. Waltz, E. A. Pealer, and James Barron, were appointed a committee on resolutions expressive of the feclings of the company, on the decease of one of its members. The following was read and adopted :

PHOTO ENS CONY

BENJAMIN CRITCHFIELD.

MRS. MARY CRITCHFIELD.

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

"'WHEREAS, In the events of His providence, it has seemed well for the Great Dispenser of all good to remove from our midst our friend and brother, A. B. Cummings, and

"'WHEREAS, The deceased was one to whom we were wont to look for counsel, as a corporate body, whose instructions were wise, and one whose society was always pleasant, therefore

"' Rezolved, That in his death we feel deeply humiliated, and recognize in his decease the divine workings of the Ruler of nations and of men, and that in his death we greatly sympa- thize with his bereaved family.

"'Resolved, That in his death the community has lost a valued citizen, the poor a friend, and his family a husband and father, marked for his kindness and affection.

"' Resolved, That these resolutions be recorded on the com- pany's journal, and that a copy thereof be presented to the family of the deceased as a token of our appreciation of his loss to the community, this company, and his family, and that a copy be furnished each of the county papers for publication.

E. L. WALTZ, Secretary.

JAMES BARRON, Treasurer."

CUMMINS, WILLIAM, farmer, Milford township, was born in Reckingham county, Virginia, December 1, 1823, and is the son of Thomas and Christian Cummins nee Fogle, both born, reared, married, and died in Virginia. They had a fam- ily of ten children, seven of whom are living: Catharine, Nancy M., Amanda, Elizabeth, Edmund, Joseph, and the sub- ject of this notice, who spent his youth on the farm until 1852, when he went to Texas, but remained only a short time. While in Galveston he had an attack of cholera. He shortly after went to Licking county, Ohio, and in 1855 married Miss L. Butcher. He remained in Licking county until 1858, when he came to Knox county, where he has since lived.

Mr. Cummins is a self-made man. While a resident of Lick- ing county he borrowed five dollars out, of which he has made a competency. He is one of the leading men of the township and county, and is a zealous advocate of the doctrines of the Democratic party, which honored him in 1871, by electing him infirmary director, which office he filled with credit. At the expiration of his term he refused a second nomination. He has held many of the different township offices. He is social and affable in his manners.

CUMMINS, JOSEPH, Milford township, farmer, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, March 19, 1833, son of Thomas and Christina Cummins, nee Fogle, of whom mention is made in the biography of William Cummins. The subject of this notice spent his youth on a farm. In 1854 he went to Lick- ing county, Ohio, and remained there until about 1862, when he came to Knox county and located in Mt. Liberty, where he remained for some time. He was married to Miss Ann Eliza Vankirk in September, 1864. They have three children: Car- rie Virginia, born July 12, 1865; Thomas, June 17, 1867; Wil- liam, May Ir, 1871. Mr. Cummins is a good citizen, quiet in his manners and hospitable to those who call on him.

Mrs. Cummins' father, Asher Vankirk, was a native of Penn- sylvania. He married Elizabeth Stephenson. They came to Ohio in 1862, and have had six children, four of whom are liv- ing. The parents are both dead. The living are Thomas, a physician in Delaware county, Ohio; Rachel, Adie, and Mrs. Cummins.

CUNNINGHAM, JAMES J., Wayne township, farmer, post office Fredericktown, born in Greene township, Ashland

county, April 19, 1817; married in 1845 to Nancy J. McGibbin, who was born in Pennsylvania. They had four children: Isa- bella, born January 26, 1847; Margaret, October 26, 1854; Alonzo, February 2, 1861; and James, July 19, 1857. Mrs. Nancy Cunningham died October 29, 186r.

Mr. Cunningham's second marriage was on March 1, 1866, to Sarah Jane Taylor, who was born August 9, 1839, in Richland county. They have the following children: Eliza May, born January 9, 1867; David, September 10, 1866; Lou Verta, July 29, 1870; William, September 3, 1872; Mary Ellen, April II, 1875; and Catharine, April 14, 1877.

Mr. Cunningham came to Knox county August 28, 1866, and was engaged in the mercantile business in Fredericktown for over eight years. He afterwards moved to his farm in Wayne township, and resides there still.

CUNNINGHAM, JOHN, ESQ., College township, son of Alexander and Mary Cunningham nee Thompson, was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, near Steubenville, February 2, 1820. His parents were natives of Ireland. His father born August I, 1784, his mother January 4, 1797. His paternal grandfather and grandmother came with their families to America and located in Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1804. His mother came with her parents to America in 1807. The parents of the sub- ject of this sketch were married in March, 1819, and moved into their little log cabin in the woods, in Jefferson county, Ohio, where they lived thirteen years. The old log cabin disappeared long years ago. Mr. Cunningham was reared a farmer, and has followed farming as his vocation to the present time. In 1841 he married Miss Isabella Foster, of Coshocton county, Ohio, who was born July 22, A. D. 1817, in Jefferson county, Ohio, daughter of James and Nancy Foster. They settled in Harrison, county, Ohio, where she died July 22, 1844. He was on the twenty-seventh of June, 1847, united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Bone, of Harrison county, Ohio, who was born in England December 11, 1824, daughter of James and Mary Ann Bone, nee Hillyer, and came to America il. 1836 with her mother, her father having died. They remained in Harrison county until September 1, 1852, when they started for Knox county, reached College township on September 4th and located on the farm on which they have since resided. They reared two children, viz: Robert Pittis and Isabella. Three of their children died in infancy. He filled the office of justice of the peace for twelve years in College township.

CUNNINGHAM, MILTON M., Pike township, farmer, post office Democracy ; born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1835, and was married in 1862 to Jane Armstrong, who was born in Canada in 1837. They have one daughter, Arminta, born July 18, 1863. Mrs. Cunningham came to Knox county in 1838. They own a well improved farm with good buildings.

CUNNINGHAM, ELI S., Pike township, farmer, post office North Liberty; born in Wayne county, Ohio, September 18, 1833, and was married May 17, 1855, to Sarah A. Ober- holtzer, who was born in Holmes county, Ohio, June 12, 1837. They have six children: Marrietta, born July 9, 1857; Milton J., February 22, 1860; Alvin H., March 16, 1862; Dillman F., January 25, 1866; Matthew E., August 2, 1868, and William, March 27, 1872. Mr. Cunningham came to this county about 1862, and owns a well improved farm with all the modern im- provements. He is engaged in farming, also owns a threshing machine, threshing all kinds of grain, and is an active and enterprising citizen.

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY

CURTIS, HENRY B., Mt. Vernon, retired. His father, Zarah Curtis, was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 1762. At an early age he entered the Continental army, in which he served five years, to the end of the war of the Revo- lution; first under his father, Jotham Curtis, of Watertown, Connecticut; subsequently joining Captain Webb's company, in which command he remained till the close of the war, when he received an honorable discharge with the rank of a sergeant.

In 1785 Zarah Curtis married Phally Yale, eldest daughter of Aaron and Anna (Hosmer) Yalc. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1762. Her family was quite prominent in its day in New England, and descended from a distinguished family in the Old World.

The first remove of the parents of the subject of this sketch was from Connecticut to Charlotte, Vermont, where some of his oldest sisters were born. His oldest brother, the late Hon. Hosmer Curtis, whose death occurred at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1874, was born at Litchfield, Connecticut The family subse- quently removed to and settled upon a farm on the west side of Lake Champlain, near the village of that name, where they re- sided until 1809, when they removed to Newark, Licking coun- ty, Ohio.

His father, a few years later, purchased a small farm on the South fork of Licking river, where the family resided at the time Henry B. left home. This farm was subsequently sold and another purchased on the North fork, in Washington town- ship, in the same county, where the father died, beloved and re- spected as a Christian minister, in 1849, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.

Henry B. was born near the village of Champlain, New York, November 28, 1799, and was nine years old when his father re- moved to Ohio. Many of the events of that long journey are still vivid in his memory.

At that time (1809), Newark was but a small hamlet of about fifty or sixty rude homes, mostly log houses. He can recall but two frame houses in the place, both very small tenements.

The opportunities of a thorough education were somewhat limited at this time. Henry was sent to the private school of Roswell Mills, and at a later period to that of Amos H. Caffee. To their faithful teaching, and that of some private instructors in a partial classical course, and his own hard study, he is indebted for an education, liberal under the circumstances, though falling far short of the plane to which his ambition inclined. During the whole course of his school studies he also.assisted his father in his farm work, and after he left his boyhood's home, though contrary to his indulgent parents' wishes, he continued to pay to them all his wages and carnings, except his necessary expenses, until he was twenty years of age, when his father remarked to him that he had nothing to give him as an outset in life but his education, and he therefore peremptorily insisted that he should retain all his earnings of the ensuing year. This constituted all the advancement young Curtis ever received from his parents, except a small patrimony at the sale of the homestead after his father's death.

At the age of seventeen young Curtis left his father's farm to make a home for himself. On the invitation of his brother, Hosmer, then a practicing lawyer in Mt. Vernon, he came to this place.

On the twenty-eighth day of April, 1817, young Curtis crossed the Kokosing, and paying the boy who ferried him across the river a silver sixpence, he found himself in Mt. Vernon, walking up Main street with the sum of twenty-five cents.

With the recommendation and assistance of his brother Hos- mer, he obtained a situation in the clerk's office, where his as- siduity to business and ready skill soon secured him the ap- pointment of deputy clerk. As he progressed in knowledge. nearly all the duties of that responsible position fell upon him. Elder James Smith was then clerk of the court, but being some- what advanced in years, he removed to a farm, leaving the office and its duties almost wholly to Mr. Curtis.

This official connection with the business and records of the court brought him into immediate contact and personal ac- quaintance with the principal lawyers of that period, who were then regular and constant practitioners at the court. Among them were Charles P. Sherman, Thomas Ewing, William Stan- berry, Wyllys Silliman, William W. Irwin, Charles B. God- dard, Samuel W. Culbertson, Alexander Harper, and several others, all of whom resided in other counties, but, as was the custom then, travelled on the circuit. These distinguished men of the bar, nearly all of whom then or subsequently held high political stations in the State, and who are identified with its history, constituted the bar of Knox county, for the foreign lawyers were as much a part of the court as the resident judges and lawyers.

As an evidence of the kindly estimation in which the judges of the court held young Curtis, after he had retired from the clerk's office and while studying for the bar, the court, then composed of four judges, unanimously appointed him to the re- sponsible office of recorder for the county, a situation which he held seven years. This appointment, in the outset of life was a material aid, and its fruits enabled him to supply himself with a good law library, which soon became one of the best in the country.

He entered the office of his brother, Hosmer, early in the fall of 1820, and December 9, 1822, he presented himself with his credentials before Judges Hitchcock and Pease of the supreme court, for examination and admission to the bar. The exami- nation took place at the Franklin house, in Newark, in presence of several resident lawyers. The oath was administered to him by Judge Peter Hitchcock.

When Mr. Curtis entered upon the practice of the law there were but two other resident lawyers in the county, his senior brother, Hosmer, and an older man, Samuel Mott, esq., who soon after withdrew from the profession, to engage in other pursuits. But the field was soon further occupied by the advent of others who were fellow students, but who came in a little later. Among these were John W. Warden, Benjamin S. Brown, Columbus Delano, Rollin C. Hurd, and John K. Miller. All of them were able and successful lawyers. Mr. Warden and Mr. Brown died early, and Mr. Miller and Mr. Hurd some time later. To the foreign members of the bar still practising at the court, were added Henry Stanberry and the late H. H. Hunter, who entered practice about the same date as Mr. Curtis.

In the earlier years of his practice Mr. Curtis' professional "circuit" embraced the counties of Licking, Richland, Dela- ware and Coshocton; with freqent extensions, in special cases, to the courts in Lancaster, Zanesville, Wooster, Canton, Nor- walk, and Sandusky. In addition to these regular terms of the supreme court, and the United States circuit and district courts at Columbus, were embraced in his practice.

Mr. Curtis was admitted to the bar of the United States su- preme court, Washington city, January 9, 1863. After a success- ful practice before the courts of his country for half a century, in December, 1872, Mr. Curtis concluded to withdraw from the

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

legal field, and devote his remaining life to the care and protec- tion of his large and increasing possessions, which had been somewhat neglected. This anniversary was held at his beauti- ful homestead, "Round Hill" (a cut of which appears else- where), and was in the form of a supper given to the resident members of the bar, with invitations to, and attended by many, old time friends, from adjacent counties and more distant parts of the State. It was a cheerful and happy occasion, bringing up pleasant reminiscences of the past, and the mutual inter- change of kind greetings. On that occasion Mr. Curtis an- nounced to his brethren that he declined all new retainers hereafter, and left the field for his younger brethren.

On the subject of politics Mr. Curtis wrote:

"In politics I am a Republican, and was present and took part in the convention in which that party was organized. I was of the Whig school, and united in the recommendation for the reorganization of the party under the new name of Repub- lican. Although I have ever preserved my identity with my party and acted with them in all their political movements, yet I never, except in one instance, allowed myself to become a candidate for a political office. I do not, of course, include city offices, of mayor and councilman, whose duties I have been called to fulfil, nor the candidacy for the Constitutional con- vention in the spring of 1873, to which I was pressingly urged by many of both parties, and which election I lost by reason of the Prohibition party having a third candidate in the field. The exception to which I refer was in 1840, when the Whig party selected me as their candidate for Congress from this district, then composed of Knox, Coshocton, Holmes, and Tuscarawas counties. My district was one hundred miles long and terribly Democratic. I stumped the district considerably during the campaign, as I did also other counties in the State the same season. I made a good run, cutting down my opponent's ma- jority about one thousand votes but not quite enough to defeat him. It was pleasant enough to go out and make political speeches for the principles of the party with which I acted, but I had no taste to run for office, or to make public speeches in my own interest. Twice after this I was designated by our county conventions as Knox county's choice as candidate for governor, but in both instances I prevented my name going be- fore the general convention. My name has also, on several oc- casions, been presented by my friends and members of the bar for the judgeship."

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 125

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096