History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 132

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 132

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He enlisted in company A of the Sixty-fifth Ohio volunteer infantry, October, 1861, served until January, 1865, when he was honorably discharged from the service, his time having ex- pired; thus having given three years and three months of his time to the service of his country. In 1874, his sons became his

partners in the mercantile business, and the firm is now known as L. Frost & Sons, dealers in dry goods, groceries, in fact everything kept in a village store.

FROST, MADISON H., Hilliar township, merchant, Cen- terburgh, Ohio, was born in Knox county in 1849. His father, Levi Frost, came to Ohio from Frostburgh, Maryland, with his parents about fifty-six years ago and settled in Jefferson town- ship, where Mr. Frost spent his youth, and where he married Keziah Harris, and had a family of twelve children, five of whom are living and doing well.

The subject of this notice clerked for about two years in Gam- bier. He then assisted his father in the store at Danville, and in 1875, he associated himself with his father, and in 1877 he opened a store at Hartford, Licking county, and succeeded in establishing a good trade. In the spring of 1880 he purchased the store of R. I. Pumphrey, in Centreburgh, which is now known as the store of M. H. Frost & Co. Thus they control three stores, which gives them a special advantage in the pur- chasing of goods, as they make large contracts and have the ad- vantage of close prices, and can afford to do well by their cus- tomers. Their stock is selected with special care, and from the long experience which Mr. Frost has had he is well calculated to carry on a successful business. He is affable and pleasant, always ready to answer all questions relating to his business. He does not misrepresent and will not allow an employe to do so. System is apparent in all departments of his business. He carries a full line of all goods usually kept in a first-class general store. Mr. Frost was married to Miss Arminta Shaw, August 30, 1873. They have a family of three children. "

FRY, JACOB, Pleasant township, deceased, was born near Strasburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1796. He was a tanner, and followed tanning as his vocation for many years. He then en- gaged in farming which he made his business during the re- mainder of his life. He married Miss Catharine Bowers, born nearStra sburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1795. They remained in Penn- sylvania until 1836, when he, with his wife and seven children, emigrated to Knox county, Ohio, and located on a farm in Monroe township, which he owned until his death. Septem- ber 19, 1877, his companion departed this life, aged eighty-two years. December 31, 1877, he deceased in his eighty-first year. They had eight children: John, Jacob, Wesley, Maria, Eliza, William, Simon, and Philip, only four of whom, John, Simon, Maria, and Philip, are living.

FRY, PHILIP, Pleasant township, farmer, son of the afore- said Jacob and Catharine Fry, was born in Knox county, Ohio, June 18, 1838. On the eleventh day of October, 1859, he mar- ried Miss Minerva Taylor, born in Knox county, December 6, 1847, daughter of John G. and Nancy Taylor. They settled in Monroe township, where they lived six years, then, in 1865, he purchased a farm in College township, and remained upon it until 1877, when he purchased and moved on the farm in Pleas- ant township, where they are now living. They have a family of eight children, three sons and five daughters.

FRY, HENRY, was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on the twenty-sixth day of March, 1801. At the age of fifteen he emigrated with his father, John Fry, to Ohio; was married to Darcy Huffman, January 20, 1830. They had nine children, viz: Amarian, Samuel, Christopher, Charlotte, William, Eliza- beth, Priscilla, Jane, and Mary. Mr. Fry died in the winter of 1880 -- 1.

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

FULLER, DANIEL, Wayne township, retired farmer, post office Mt. Vernon, was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, February 19, 1790, was brought to Ohio at the age of thirteen years, and has been a resident of this county for seventy-eight years. September 29, 1814, he was married to Margaret Rose, -who was born July 3, 1795. They had the following children: David, born March 7, 1816; Elizabeth H., December 15, 1818; Hannah, March 6, 1820; Ruth M., August 25, 1824; John, April 25, 1826; Job J., June 26, 1829; Maria, March 6, 1831; Miriam J., September 22, 1833; and Sarah A., August 21, 1838. Mr. · Fuller died September 22, 1838. Mrs. Margaret Fuller died August 7, 1867, at the age of seventy-two years. John Fuller and Job J. were in the late war. Mr. Fuller resided in Harri- son township, and has been identified with this county about seventy-eight years. He is one of the pioneers of this county, having come here when it was a howling wilderness, infested by wolves, bears, wildcats and Indians. He has done much to im- prove it, and to advance every good cause and work.

FULTZ, JOSEPH J., now of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, born April 26, A. D. 1845, on the banks of the Schuylkill, near Morris- town, in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, is the oldest of five children-Joseph Jackson, George Washington, Jacob Pierce, Albert Buchanan, and Elizabeth A .- all living. His parents, Joseph E. and Mary A. Fultz, nee Millington are de- scendants of the earliest pioneer settlers of Pennsylvania; emi- grated to Ohio in the year 1850, locating on the banks of the Ohio below Pomeroy, now Middleport, in Meigs county, where they now reside, and where their eldest children secured their early education, trudging some two miles or more, winter and summer, to an old log school-house of ye olden kind, where split logs, with sticks for legs, constituted the seating capacity of the backwoods structure dedicated to the cause of educa- tion, and where the domine's teaching qualities were best shown in his ability to handle the rod-in fact, his best hold-upon the boys, J. J. coming in for his full share of said ability, if not more. Anon, and during the years 1859-60, he attended a normal school for teachers under the management of H. C. Watterman, at Middleport, and in the winter of 1860 began his first term of many as a country school-teacher, at Carr's run, in said county of Meigs, where, among the big boys, he was the smallest among several, luckily getting through the term without being ducked in the stream running near by, as was his predecessor of the winter before.

After the close of the late war, and during the fall of 1865, he went south, visiting the States bordering on the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers, crossing over into Texas, making the trip in a little more than one year. Returning home he engaged with and took charge of the mathematical department of a commer- cial school then located at Pomeroy, Ohio. From there he went to Tiffin, Ohio, engaging with the same parties in the management of a branch school. During the winter of 1869 he came to Mt. Vernon, where he has since resided, and where, with J. W. Oldham, he opened a commercial college, of which, by the departure of his said partner, he was soon in entire con- trol. This school was successfully managed until 1871, when it was disposed of to R. G. Dildine and W. P. Harrison, and soon closed for repairs.

In May, 1871, he was married to Mary E. Calkins, (whose grandfather, Lewis Young, built the first frame house in Knox county), only child of Edward and Sarah M. Calkins, nee Young. During the same year he engaged with Judge C. E.

Critchfield as deputy probate clerk, and securing a contract under the judge compiled and arranged an alphabetical abstract of the probate court records from the origin of said court, which, for accuracy and completeness, has not its superior in the State.

Leaving Judge Critchfield he engaged for a time with Max Leopold, in the clothing trade, until the year 1875, when he was a candidate for, and received the nomination, for clerk of the court of common pleas, at a Democratic delegate conven- tion, receiving the nomination on the first ballot, with four competitors in the field, a compliment of which he was de- servedly proud. Owing, however, to the strong anti-temper- ance feeling that had been created by the women's crusade that had raged throughout the country the previous winter, as also the fact that he had ever been recognized as an advocate of temperance (although not radical), he was defeated by the Re- publican candidate.

After his defeat he turned his attention to, and made a spec- ialty of, insurance, in which field he has been more than suc- cessful. In 1879 he organized a company, associating with him such well known men as Hon. John D. Thompson, Colonel W. C. Cooper, General George W. Morgan, and David C. Mont- gomery. And almost alone in the working thereof, he (in four months) organized the Eagle Mutual Fire Insurance company, with a capital of over fifty thousand dollars in premium notes, which has already grown to a net capital of over two hundred thousand dollars.

Later, and during the same year, he originated, and, with the same association of gentlemen, organized the Ohio Mutual Aid, an association already widely known throughout the State, destined to be far-reaching in its benefits, and already number- ing its members by the thousands, and represented in several States of the Union.

As secretary and general manager of both companies, he has shown much executive ability, and, without clerical assistance, has labored early and late to bring both to their present solid, fast-growing condition, A. D. 1881.

GAMBLE, JOHN R., deceased, was born in Pennsylvania, September 27, 1796. His father, William Gamble, having emi- grated from county Antrim, Ireland. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage, having been obliged to flee the country for his demo- cratic principles, and on account of a personal collision with one of the king's officers. He settled in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, where John R. Gamble was born. He came to Delaware county, Ohio, about the year 1810. He was married in 1825, to Miss Lovina Collins, who still survives. The fruits of this union were six children, viz: William, George W., Horatio N., Sarah Jane, Constant, and John R., of whom William, George W., Jane, and Constant, still survive. Mr. Gamble subsequently resided in Columbus, Newark, Tuscar- awas, and Coshocton counties, removing to Butler township in 1836, where he resided until the time of his decease, which occurred in 1857. Mr. Gamble was a public spirited citizen, a prominent Democratic politician, and was much respected for his sterling qualities.

GANN, GEORGE, deceased, was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, January 24, 1810. While residing in Pennsyl- vania he was married to Miss Sarah Bridgen, in November, 1831. He came to Jefferson in 1834, locating in the southwestern

HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

corner of the township. He reared a family of six children, viz: Jacob, born October 23, 1832; Nancy, born in 1833; Mary, July 6, 1835; Margaret, March 3, 1837; Martha, Sep- tember 6, 1838; Maria, January 18, 1852. Nancy died March 12, 1834; Maria died, September 14, 1854; Sarah died Septem- ber 7, 1877.

Mr. Gaun was many years an influential citizen of Knox county, and of Jefferson township. By the detaching of a portion of Jefferson in 1876, and its annexation to Union, he became a citizen of Union township. He took an active part in the locating of the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon & Pittsburgh railroad at Mt. Holly, and in consideration of his services the station and village were named Gann. He was the owner of four hundred acres of good farming land at the time of his decease, which occurred September 7, 1877.

GANN, JACOB, Union township; farmer; post office, Gann, was born in Pennsylvania October 3, 1832, and came to this county in 1835. In 1844 he settled on the farm, where he now resides. He married Myrtilla Maxfield in 1866, and settled on the Gann homestead, where he has remained until the present time. He has two children: George W., born March 7, 1867, and John, January 13, 1871.

His father's will granted him one hundred and sixty-seven acres including the old house. This is to be divided between the children at the time of his death. His wife was born January 23, 1837, in New York, and came to this county in 1840. She taught school until her marriage.

GANTT, STEPHEN H., Hilliar township, farmer, born in Loudoun county, Virginia, February 16, 1818. His ancestors were Virginians. His father had been a soldier in the War of 1812, and served for some time in Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1835 the parents, Samuel and Mary Gantt, nee Andrews, came to Ohio, and settled in Morris township, where they re- mained about seven years, then came to Hilliar township, and settled near where their son Stephen now resides, and where they spent their lives, being respected and honored citizens. They had a family of eight children, six of whom are living.

The subject of this short sketch remained at home until he was about twenty-two years of age. In 1840 he came to where he now resides, and which was some time before his parents came.

There was no improvement, woods covered the land, and Mr. Gantt was compelled to do like the early pioneers, build his cabin first for a habitation, and then clear the land of the "giant oaks." He remained in his cabin for about twelve years, enjoying his life as well as ever he did, happy and con- tented with the result of his labor. He then built his present substantial and comfortable dwelling. He started in life poor, but by industry he has made for himself a competence. He is an intelligent and careful farmer, and an estimable citizen, and has the confidence, respect and esteem of the community. He is social in his manners, and hospitable to strangers.

Mr. Gantt has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Eliza Loveridge, to whom he was married May 14, 1840. They had a family of six children, three of whom are living, viz: Martha, married to Elmer Burgoon, farmer, and resides in Hilliar township; Cynthia, married to Henry Motley, farmer, Hilliar township, and Mary Jane, married to Charles Sager, farmer, in Union county, Ohio. Two children died in infancy. Mahlon died when about sixteen years of age.

Mrs. Gantt died May 19, 1858. He was afterwards married

to Miss Emily Barker. As a result of this marriage they have a family of four children, viz: Lucy Ellie, married to Charles Corwin, and resides in Morrow county, Ohio; Orlin, Flora Elsie and Alvah live at home.

GANTT, WILLIAM F., grocer, Jones' block, West High street, Mt. Vernon, is a native of Knox county, and was born near Fredericktown. At the age of fifteen he went into the dry goods store of his uncle, E. R. Gantt, Centreburgh, as a sales- man, where he continued three years. He next entered the em- ploy of James Johnson, Fredericktown, and clerked for thirteen years. His next engagement was with the late George B. Pot- win, grocer and provision dealer, Mt. Vernon, where he served four years. On the first of February, 1869, with A. B. Tarr as partner, they commenced the grocery business. In the spring of 1871 Mr. Gantt purchased the interest of Mr. Tarr, and con- tinued the business in his own name. He has done business in the same room for eleven years. On the sixth of January he sold his business to Mr. Trott. Shortly after this sale Mr. Gantt formed a partnership with J. M. Roberts, and rented the room in the same block formerly occupied by N. Whittington & Son, and filled it with a large stock of groceries and provisions, and opened out on the sixth of March, 1880, where they may still be found ready to wait upon old friends and new ones. This gives Mr. Gantt a business of thirty-two years-half a lifetime. Their stock embraces a full line of staple and fancy family gro- ceries and confectioneries. Their stock is valued at about two thousand dollars, and is frequently renewed to supply the de- mand. They have a successful and a daily increasing trade. Their establishment is one of the first-class family grocery houses in the city.

Mr. J. M. Roberts was in Mr. Gantt's employ for five years prior to his entering the firm as partner.

March 14th Mr. Gantt bought Mr. Roberts' interest, and at this time is conducting the business alone.

GARDNER, W. S., physician, . Union township, post office, Rosstown. He was born in Mt. Holly, Knox county, and was taken to New Jersey when he was small, and remained about three years, then he commenced his medical education as well as his literary. His mother died in New Jersey. After his father's second marriage he went to Philadelphia and finished his medical education, and commenced practice in the city. His health failed him there and he removed to Bladensburgh, Ohio, where he met and married Emma M. Gardner, in 1874. He practiced there for five years and built a good little home. He came to Rossville in 1879, where he has settled and is pleased with his success.

GATES, LYMAN W., Miller township ; born in Miller township, September 21, 1819. His father, Cyrus Gates, was a native of Rutland, Vermont, emigrated to Ohio in 1814. In the month of September, 1815, he purchased of the United States Government a quarter section of land in the west part of Miller township. In the month of September, 1816, he married Elizabeth McKee, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Ohio in 1795, with her parents, who settled at Marietta. In 1802 she removed to Zanesville, where she lived until after her marriage. In the month of December, 1816, they removed to Miller town- ship, then nearly an unbroken wilderness, with probably not more than fifteen families within the present limits of the town- ship. Then commenced the hardships of pioneer life in a howl- ing wilderness. They lived to see the fruits of their labors. The farm was cleared, and by industry, economy, and frugality,

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

acquired a competency. Both sank to rest in a good old age. Cyrus Gates died August 21, 1867, aged seventy-five years. Eliza- beth Gates died June 16, 1876, aged eighty-four years. They both died on the old homestead first purchased by Cyrus Gates. By this marriage there were ten children; six dead and four liv- ing. Of the dead, the first child died in infancy; Roena, Cyrus, Elizabeth, Dorcas (married Henry C. Harris), and Charles B. The living are: Lyman W., Lewis, Sallie, widow of A. G. Simons, and Lorancy, married to J. W. Baxter, and all reside in Miller township. Lewis owns the old homestead farm, and with Sallie Simons resides on the farm which has been owned by some of the family since 1815.

The subject of this notice was reared on a farm. He had the advantages of the common-schools of those days, which were very different from those of the present day. The first school- house in which he attended school, was located on his father's farm, situated on a small eminence near the road-side, on the west bank of the brook. It was probably ahout fifteen feet Ware, and built of round logs, and covered with split oak boards four feet long, with poles placed on them to hold them in place. The door was on the south side, next to the road; one window of six lights, with eight by ten inch glass; no ceil- ing of any kind overhead, except the roof ; the floor was white ash split slabs, and placed so near together that the children would not be in danger of falling through the floor, yet it was very rough. There were two seats, about ten feet long, made by splitting an inch log about one foot in diameter and boring two holes near the end of each piece, then pins of wood were inserted for feet. This done, the house was completed. This building was erected in the spring of 1825. Cyrus Gates was the principal superintendent of the building, and it occupied his time nearly three days. There were residing in the neigh- borhood, at this time, nine children, of school age, that at- ri'ed school in this house The first school was taught by Mo. Sophia Hillard and a sist .- of J. M. Hillard, who now resides in Miller township. The price paid was fifty cents per week of five and one-half days, or about nine cents per day. Schools were taught in this house only in the summer season, for five summers. In 1830 a district was organized and a more commo- dious school-house built of hewed logs, with a large fireplace at one end of the roort. A Mr Hall taught the first winter school at twelve dollars per month, or fifty cents per day.

The subject of this notice has some striking (?) recollections of the teachers of those days, and the teachers generally had some striking (?) qualifications for teaching. The prices paid teachers in those days were generally governed by their striking (?) qualifications, varying from eight to twelve dollars per month in winter, and from sixty to seventy-five cents per week in summer. In those days no teacher was required to obtain a certificate of qualification to teach a common-school. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, were the common branches taught.

At the age of twenty-one years he had acquired the necessary qualification to teach a common school, which business he fol- lowed in the winter seasons for thirty-seven years, teaching thirty-five terms. He learned the carpenter's trade, and worked at his trade during the summer seasons. He has lived all his life in Miller township, now sixty-one years. He served as township clerk sixteen years, and as justice of the peace six years; was elected county commissioner in the year 1867, by the Republican party, and served three years; and was nominated again in 1870 for the same office, but the Republican ticket was defeated that year in the countv. He now holds the office

of notary public, which office he has held nearly twelve years.

He served in the late war against the Rebellion, in the One Hundred and Forty-second regiment, in the summer of 1864, most of the time in front of Petersburgh, Virginia.

He always openly and fearlessly defended what he believed to be right, and was always ready to condemn whatever he be- lieved to be wrong, either morally, politically, or in matters of religion. Slavery he believed to be an evil and a wrong in every sense of the word, and he was recognized as one of the few Abolitionists as early as 1842, yet voting with the Whig party until 1848; then united with the Free-soil party until the Re- publican party was organized, in 1856, with which party he has acted to the present time. He has never failed to vote at every county, State, or Presidential election in forty years, and never failed but twice to vote at township elections in the same time. He never uses intoxicating drink of any kind, and is a zealous advocate of temperance.

In religion he is a liberalist, freely granting to others the right and privilege of expressing their own religious opinions; and at the same time asks the same rights and privileges for himself that he so freely grants to others. He was married April 14, 1841, to Miss Prudence Hooker, whose parents were also pio- neer citizens of Miller township.

By this marriage they have ten children. Three died in in- fancy; seven are living, viz: Caroline, married to Henry Robin- son; Orlinda E., married to William H. Taylor, of Palmyra, Otoe county, Nebraska; Lucretia, married P. W. Mason; Lo- rancy married J. C. Hartsock; Jennie married M. B. Rouse; Omar C. and Howard are the remaining two.

GATES, LEWIS, Miller township, farmer, was born October 16, 1825. He is the son of Cryrus and Elizabeth Gates, nee McKee, of whom mention is made under the biography of L. W. Gates.

The subject of this notice spent his early days on his father's old homestead, and at the common schools of the district. He remained in the community until April, 1862, when he enlisted in company A, Fourth Ohio volunteer infantry, for three years, and participated in the skirmish at Front Royal, Virginia. He was taken sick in Virginia, and was discharged, after being in the service five months. He was in the quartermaster's de- partment as carpenter at Nashville, Tennessee. He travelled in Missouri, Kansas, and the west for four years. He has been. suceessful in life. In religion he is a liberal, and accords to others the same privilege he claims for himself. He now resides on the old homestead, where he was born.

GAY, JOHN F., Mt. Vernon, ex-sheriff of Mt. Vernon, was born in Wesmoreland county, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1845. His paternal grandfather, Peter Gay, emmigrated to the United States from Wales prior to the Revolution, and settled in western Pennsylvania, where he became a leading citizen, and represented the county of Westmoreland in the legislature of the State. He married in Pennsylvania, and had a family of five children, two sons and three daughters.

William Gay, the father of the subject of this notice, was born in 1815 and died in 1866. He was a farmer by occupa- tion, and a leading citizen. He married Martha S. Speer, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania. They had a family of eight children, all of whom are living but Peter, who was a member of the Eleventh regiment, Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and died from wounds received at Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 132

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