History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 179

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 179

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WOOD, I. & T., brick manufacturers. Isaac Wood, man- aging partner of this firm, is a native of Yates county, New York, where he was born May 24, 1820, and came to Ohio when about sixteen years old and located first in Licking county, near Hartford, afterward resided in Delaware county, and came to this county in 1845 and located in Mt. Vernon where he engaged in working at the brick business, in which he continued a short time when in 1850, in company with his brother, Thomas Wood, they established the present business, in which they have con- tinued ever since with good success. They were located first north of the fair grounds until 1877 when they removed to their present location where they have all the needful appliances and facilities for the business. They have three kilns, twenty-five by forty feet each, and an extensive yard and four drying sheds, twenty-five by one hundred feet each, and have a ten-horse- power engine for grinding. This hrm have facilities for manu- facturing one million brick per year, and annually manufacture an average of from six hundred thousand to one million, vary- ing according to the demand, and in which they confine theni- selves to a first class building brick. This is the largest and longest established brick establishment in the county, and justly deserves commendation as one of the leading industries of the county.

WOOLISON, BYRON, farmer, a native of this county, and . son of Reuben D. and Mary Woolison, was born in Monroe township on the sixth day of October, 1832. Reuben Woolson, father of Byron, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1789. He married Miss Mary King, born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.

In 1828 they emigrated to this county and located in Monroe township, where they passed the remainder of their days. His wife deceased in October, 1875; he survived her until February, 1876. They reared a family of seven children: Eliza, William, Charlotte, Byron, David, Mary, and Angeline.

In 1854 Byron Woolison married Miss Mary Hall, born in Licthfield, Connecticut, in March, 1838, and emigrated to this county in 1847, and settled in Monroe township. In 1857 they moved upon the farm where they are now living, in same town- ship, one mile and a half north of Gambier.

They have a family of eleven children-seven sons and four daughters. He has followed farming as his vocation through life.

WORKMAN, JOHN, Union township, farmer, post office,

Rossville, born in 1803, in Belmont county, Ohio, and in 1824 was married to Hannah Baker. In 1825 he settled on his present farm. His wife died nine months after their marriage. In 1832 he was again married, but his second wife died June 6, 1875, leaving ten children: Susan, Jerome, Peter, Caroline, Rebecca, James, Samuel, Adeline, Delila, and John. Caroline, Rebecca and James are dead. Samuel married Julia Richards in 1875, and settled with his father. He has two children: Hannah and Amy.

John Workman's father died in his one hundredth, year on the old farm.

WORKMAN, SOLOMON C., Brown township, farmer and stock raiser, post office, Jelloway, and son of Joseph and Sarah Workman, was born near Frostburgh, Alleghany county, Maryland, January 12, 1807. In 1812 his father, with his family, moved to Ohio, and located in Union township, Knox county, near the present village of Danville, on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and there erected a log cabin for his family. In those days the country was thinly settled, wild Indians were seen occasionally, and a block-house was erected upon the farm on which he settled to protect the early settlers from those savages. There was also hereabouts in those days plenty of game, such as bears, turkeys, wolves, panthers, foxes, wild-cats and deer.

On the fourth day of October, 1827, he married Miss Polly Draper, daughter of Isaac and Nancy Draper, born near Morgantown, Virginia, November 7, 1800. Her father was one among the first settlers in Coshocton county, who came from Virginia on pack-horses, and endured all the hardships of frontiersmen. Hedied at the ripe age of ninety-three years.

Joseph Workman, his father, also endured all the hardships of a frontiersman, and reared a family of fourteen children- eight sons and six daughters, Solomon being one among that number.

Joseph died upon the farm, on which he settled, in the seventy-second year.

Some time after Solomon's marriage he rented his father-in- law's farm, remaining but one year. In 1829 he purchased two hundred acres of wild land in Union township, said county, of Hosmer Curtis, for the sum of four hundred dollars to be paid in four years, where he erected a cabin, and moved into it.

In May, 1833, Benedict Peherenbaugh came from Germany -a dealer in brass clocks. He at once engaged to help sell them for three months for the sum of seventy-five cents per day and one dollar on each clock. When his time expired he en- gaged the second time for three months on the same terms. He then sold the farm spoken of to said party for the sum of eight hundred dollars, to be paid for in brass clocks at cost and car- riage from Germany, which was in 1835.

In the spring of 1836 he gave possession of said lands to Peherenbaugh, moved to Rochester, Coshocton county, Ohio, on the Mohican river, and there commenced the sale of his clocks. He also traded for stock and other articles, particu- larly notes and obligations, at the same time paying strict at- tention to military wild lands, and titles and locations, as they were the only wood lands to be purchased, or for sale, as about all were taken up or sold. In the fall of 1836 he secured, of the heirs of Alexander Brevard, a Revolutionary soldier in North Carolina, a title for three hundred acres of land in Brown town- ship, Knox county, located in the Jelloway valley, where he moved in 1837 from Coshocton county, lodging in a cabin built

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

by squatters on said lands, and commenced to improve them. On the first day of January, 1837, he started east in search of land titles, crossed the Ohio river at Steubenville, travelled through a part of Virginia and Pennsylvania, crossing the corner of Maryland, returning home by the way of Pittsburgh Cleveland, Canton and Wooster, arriving at home the third week of February of the same year. Here he felt it to be his special duty to compliment his friends, Benedict Peherenbaugh and his three brothers, Fadilla, Peter, and Christian Peheren- baugh. From his first acquaintance to the last he found them gentlemen of truth and honesty. He failed to accomplish any- thing on his first trip, and in May of the same year he made the second journey to the State of Maryland, visiting some of its principal towns, but failed the second time in getting the re- quired and desired information. He then started for home by the way of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Canton, arriving at home in a short time in Brown township, and lodged in his cabin in the woods. He then gave his attention to the clearing of the land and erection of buildings, laboring from year to year until the present time, and he has now elegant buildings and a fine farm. He also attends to other matters, such as getting up petitions for roads, securing rights for opening and working the same for the benefit of the whole country.

Roads in early days were few and not in good condition, but as the country settled up they became better by working them thoroughly. At one time a tax was levied for the erection of school-houses and paying teachers for instructing the young. Knowing the difficulties a man labors under who has no educa- tion in the matter of keeping accounts and in conducting busi- ness generally, he, of course, favored those movements.

He believes that our common schools should be our high schools, language excepted.

In 1827, when he left his father's house to go into the world and transact business for himself, he could not read or write, and he very soon saw the necessity of an education. Procuring a few books, slate, and writing paper, making use of them all, in a short time he could read, write, and cipher. Seeing that he could learn as well as others he was not a long time in ac- quiring the rudiments of an education.

In early times it was difficult to sell produce for cash, and it had to be hauled to Bristor, Dover, Massillon, or Newark, and then get only from sixty to eighty cents per bushel for wheat, and seldom a dollar.

At the time of the grading of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, by the way of Loudonville, he had on hand five hundred bushels of wheat, worth from sixty to seventy cents per bushel. Hearing that the Clear Fork mill, situated near Newville, was buying and paying seventy-five cents, he con- cluded to go over and sell his wheat, but failed, and then went to Loudonville and Wooster and found no market. From there he proceeded to Elyria, Lorain county, but found the market dull. While at the latter place a dispatch came from the city of New York showing an advance in the prices. He contracted one thousand bushels of wheat, at one dollor per bushel, to be delivered at his barnin Brown township, Knox county, and received five hundred dollars on said con- tract, to be taken on or before the fourth day of July. He then started home, arriving the next morning, when he changed horses and started out, buying five hundred bushels at a cost of from seventy to seventy-five cents per bushel, to be delivered on short notice, the parties selling receiving one-half of said con- tract. Wheat declining they failed to take balance, although

tendered, but about the first of August of the same year, wheat began to advance, and kept on until it reached one dollar, when the company spoken of made a demand for the wheat, but as they failed to comply with the contract he, of course, declined to let them have it. Wheat continued to raise until October and November of the same year, when he hired teams and hauled it Massillon and Fulton, and realized one dollar and seventy-five cents per bushel out of this wheat.

May 13, 1868, just at twelve o'clock at night, the lady of the house discovered it to be on fire. Water was applied, with the assistance of neighbors, but without avail, the building soon being burned to ashes, and only a small amount of the house- hold goods saved. He then built the house he now lives in the same year, commencing on the tenth of August, and moved into it on the thirteenth of November.

Mr. Workman has been the owner of one thousand acres of land in the Jelloway valley, Brown township, a part of which he sold, and a part he gave to his children, leaving him the owner of three hundred and twenty acres.

Mr. and Mrs. Workman are the parents of eleven children, six living, and five dead, four of whom died in infancy, one at maturity; grandchildren, total forty-one; deaths, ten, leaving thirty-one living; great-grandchildren fifteen, fourteen living.

In politics he is a Democrat, and in religion a German Bap- tist. He was elected twice by this church to preach, but de- clined, not thinking himself a suitable man for a minister; for he believes that a minister should teach by example as well as words.

Mr. and Mrs. Workman are enjoying good health at the ripe old ages of seventy-four and eighty-one years.

Mr. Workman held the office of treasurer a number of years in the township, also justice of the peace for three years.

WORKMAN, SOLOMON, Brown township, farmer and stock raiser, post office, Danville, son of David Workman, born in Alleghany county, Maryland, May 7, 1813, was brought te Knox county by his parents when a boy thirteen years old, his father locating in Howard township, on Jelloway, where he erected a rude log cabin to shelter his family; then by the help of Solomon, the subject of this sketch, they went to work clear- ing the land and making it ready for tilling. This they contin- ned until they had a very good and comfortable home.

At the age of twenty-five years he married Mary A. Brand- bury, June 8, 1837, she being a daughter of Richard and Mary Brandbury, born in England, February 14, 1818. His father gave him eighty-five acres adjoining him, where he then moved and set up housekeeping, remaining about five years, when he exchanged said farm with his father for a farm in Brown town- ship, where he now resides, it being a very pleasant and com- fortable home. By their marriage they became the parents of ten children: Elizabeth, born May 27, 1838, died August 17, 1860; Richard, September 23, 1839, David, July 25, 1841; Mary, September, 1843; Barbara, October 14, 1845, died in August, 1880; Jerusha F., Junuary 1, 1848; Marilah H., Janu- ary 9, 1859; Normanda F., November 16, 1853; Columbus J., July 31, 1856; Amos C., February 22, 1859. He and his com- panion are consistent members of the German Baptist church of Danville.

WORKMAN, S. D., Howard township, farmer, post office, Howard .- He was born June 2, 1814, in Maryland, and at the age of thirteen years came to Howard township. He lived with his father until his twenty-fifth year, when he was married

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY

to Fileana Denison. They settled 'mmediately on their farm and commenced business in the woods.

In 1841 Mr. Workman loaded huis egon with rye and started for Loudonville; but while crossing the Clearfork river, just as he was in the centre of one of the spans of the bridge, the stringers gave away, and he with his grain and team fell a distance of twelve feet, the water being about five feet deep, the bridge fall- ing partially upon them. He was under the wagon bed, but by some good fortune he was rolled out from under it. One of his horses was held under water by a portion of the bridge The grain was in bags and sank to the bottom of the creek. By some means the alarm was given and the people flocked to the reseue. The most interesting feature of the affair was that all came out with but slight injuries. Another strange incident was that his vest was lying upon the bags of grain, and when the bridge went down it was carried to the bottom of the river. After reloading the grain they started off. Mr. Workman turned his head to gaze for the last time upon the spot, and by reason of the sun shining brightly, the first thing that he saw was his vest floating down the stream. He commanded his hired man, Mr. Snyder, who was with him to get it, as there was four hundred dollars in it.

He has four children-Amanda, Olive, Barbara, and Andrew, the latter at present a merchant in Danville.

WORKMAN, AMOS, Union township, farmer, post office, Danville. He was born in Union township, Knox county, July II, 1849. In 1870 he went to Illinois and worked in a mill for two years. In 1872 he returned and married Miss Amanda Jales, and settled upon a farm the following year. His father has lived in this county since 1830. He came from Maryland at that time, and died March 17, 1873, in his sixty-third year. March 16, 1871, his wife died.

Amos Workman's business has always been farming and raising sheep. He has two children: Donald, born December 10, 1873, and Mary Jane, February 27, 1875.

WORKMAN, THEODORE W., post office, Jelloway, physician and surgeon, son of H. H. and Sarah C. Workman; was born in Brown township, Knox county, September 7, 1855, where he was reared and received a part of his education, after which he attended a few terms of school at Danville, Knox county; he then taught school for about thirteen months. In the spring of 1876 he commenced the reading of medicine under the instructions of Dr. A. J. Hyatt, of Jelloway, and continued three years, during which time he attended two courses of lectures at the Medical College of Ohio, where he graduated in 1879, after which he located in Jelloway, where he at present resides, engaged in the practice of his profession. On January 1, 1880, at the age of twenty-five, he married Flora S. Patten, a daughter of William Patten, born in Brown town- ship, Knox county, July 18, 1857. Their union resulted in one child, a son.

WORLEY, JAMES, residence corner of High and Norton streets, Mt. Vernon. Mr. Worley is a native of Harrison county, Ohio, bom four miles south of Cadiz, July 6, 1814; and in the year 1828 he came with his parents to Knox county, and located in Brown township, where they resided one year. They then moved into Pike township. Mr. Worley left the home farm in 1836, and came to Mt. Vernon and engaged in the brick business, in which he continued about eight years. In the year 1844 he engaged with the firm of C. & E. Cooper to learn the moulding trade. After serving his time he remained with them

for twenty-two years, and in consideration of his faithfulness and abilities he served twelve of these years as foreman of the moulding department. In the year 1866 he quit the trade and purchased the elegant property where he now resides, opposite the Baltimore & Ohio depot, where he engaged in the hotel and boarding business, in which he has continued for fourteen years.

Mr. Worley has been twice married. His first wife was Mary Ann Haiell, daughter of John Harell, of near Leesburgh, Vir- ginia. by whom he had six children, two sons and four daugh- ters. One son died in infancy, and the other, Douglas E., was drowned in the Potomac river near Piedmont. He was a mem- ber of company B, Fourth Ohio volunteer infantry. The four daughters are all married, two of whom, Ida and Eva, reside at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mary E. and Alice J. reside in Mt. Ver- non. Mrs. Worley died April 29, 1858, and he was married to his second wife, Mrs. Uphemia Peters, nee Trump, who still survives and shares the joys, cares and responsibilities of life with him.

WORLEY, M. W., farmer, Howard township, post office, Howard, was born in Monroe township, Knox county, Ohio, in 1821. His father came from Maryland, settled in Monroe town- ship, and died July 2, 1835. His mother came from Virginia in 1818, and with her people located in Mt. Vernon, and remained there until the death of her father in 1833. Mr. Worley learned the harness making trade and followed it fourteen years, in dif- ferent places. In 1848 he was married to Olive Megs, and went to Mt. Pleasant, Illinois, and worked at his trade four years. He then moved back to Monroe township, and lived on a farm until 1835, when he bought and came to his present home. His wife died December 15, 1851. January 1, 1855, he was married to Eliza Patsfield, and shortly after moved to his farm. He had two children: Laura, who died in her second year; and Charles, who remains at home.

WRIGHT, ROBERT, deceased, of Gambier, son of Jona- than Wright, was born in England May 14, 1814. In 1828 he was apprenticed to the carpenter and joiner trade, and served as such until 1835, after which he went to London and continued working at his trade. November 27, 1839, he was married to Miss Betsey Edmonds, of London, born October 24, 1823, daughter of Mr. Henry I'Imonds of that city. After their mar- riage Mr. and Mrs Wright settled in Herdfordshire, and re- mained there until the fall of 1842, at which time they emigrated to America and located in Mount Vernon. His first work in his new home was at cabinet-making in the employ of Mr. James Ralff, with whom he worked some eighteen months. In 1844 he visited St. Louis, where he worked at his trade for some four or five months. On account of sickness he was compelled to return to Mt. Vernon. In April, 1844 he removed to Gam- bier, where he has remained ever since. Mr. and Mrs. Wright have a family of three children-Henry C., Elvira Emma, and Charles Norton.

After his settlement in Gambier, Mr. Wright at onee com- menced working at his trade, contracting and building. He built sixty-five dwellings in Gambier and vieinity. He built the Kenyon house and carried on the hotel for about fourteen years. He also built the Neff residence and many others of the best houses in the town. When he located in Gambier, he estab- lished a cabinet and undertaking warehouse, in connection with his cabinet and joiner shops, and for many years he supplied all calls in the undertaking line, manufacturing the coffins for many years, not only for Gambier, but for miles around the

HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

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village. He also manufactured and supplied the neighborhood with furniture of all descriptions

In April, 1868, his son, Henry C., became his partner. They are now prepared to dress lumber of all kinds, having in their shops, planers, turning and moulding machines, and scroll saws, all of the best and most approved patterns in the country. In fact their shops are better supplied with approved machinery than any establishment of the kind in Knox county. They manufacture sash, blinds, doors, cornices, and all kinds of mouldings.

The firm are now prepared to attend to all calls in their line of business, such as attending funerals, contracting for build- ings, etc. Mr. Wright's letter of recommendation as a con- tractor and builder was both wide and extensive, embracing his handiwork in nearly seventy tenements, has erected in and around Gambier, both in College and Pleasant and surround- ing townships, consisting of dwellings, school-houses and other tenements.

Robert Wright was one of the charter members of old Mt. Vernon Lodge No. 20, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, insti- tuted June 21, 1843, one of the oldest lodges of that order in Ohio. Mr. Wright unfortunately met with a severe accident in his shop lately, in February, 1881. He lingered a few days, dying from the effects of the injury February 24th.

WRIGHT, SR., WILLIAM, a native of Suffolk county, England, was born February 22, 1814; he was reared on a farm. In 1837 he emigrated to America, landing at New York, July 4th. He continued his journey westward until about the eighteenth of July, when he reached Gambier, this county, where he located and engaged as gardner with Bishop McIl- vaine. In October, 1837, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ransom, daughter of John and Mary Ransom. Miss Ransom was born in the county of Suffolk, England, January 5, 1820, and emigrated to America with her parents, in 1837. They came over on the same vessel, and reachel Gambier at the time that Mr. Wright did, where her parents located. Shortly after Mr. Wright's marriage with Miss Ransom, they settled in Gambier. He continued his work with the bishop for four years. In 1841 they moved to Mt. Vernon, remained until 1853, when he purchased and moved on a farın in Monroe township, this county; he then turned his attention to farming. In 1859 he sold his farm and moved his family to Gambier. He leased all of the college farming land for six years, and commenced farm- ing on a larger scale, which he made a success. In 1850 he moved his family upon the farm where they are now living in College township. At the time of the expiration of his lease of the college land, in 1865, he purchased one hundred acres of the farm on which he was living, from the college trustees, and has since bought one hundred acres more adjoining his first purchase, which makes him a farm of two hundred acres, one hundred and seventy-five acres of it is first-class bottom land, the remainder being upland. He makes stock-raising a specialty on his farm. He is the father of twelve children, ten of whom are now living, seven sons and three daughters. Two of his sons, William and John, served three years in the war of 1861. William served in the Ninety-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry, and John in the Fourth Ohio volunteer cavalry.

WRIGHT, DANIEL P., retired, Pike township, post office, Democracy, was born in Mt. Vernon in 1818, and was married in 1841 to Ann Harding, who was born in Belmont county in 1822. They had seven children, viz: William A., born in 1842;

Lewis A., in 1844; Mary E., in 1846, John .A., in 184/; Lauretta, mn 1849; Samantha, in 1851; and Sarah E . in 1856.

William A. Wright enlisted in the late war. as a member of the Ninety-sixth regiment Ohio volunteer infantry, and lied a! Milliken's Bend, March 10, 1863.

Lewis A. Wright died in Amity. April 3, 1880. He was a soldier in the late war, serving over tour years.

Daniel P. Wright, in the early part of his life, was a farmer. after which he was engaged in the plastering and stone-mason business He was also engaged in the mercantile business in Amity for some time, but has retired from the business.

WRIGHT, C. W., harness-maker, Pike township, post office, Democracy, was born in this township in 1828, and was married in 1868 to Amanda Ellen Peeler, who was born in 1840. They have five children: Elsie E., born in 1870; Tima Alice, in 1872; Alta Viola, in 1874; Carl K., in 1877; and Cary Austin, in 1879.

Mr. Wright learned the harness trade in Knox county, and has been in the business for about seventeen years. He is a practical mechanic and is doing general custom work. He was a soldier in the late war, being a member of company I, Second Colorado cavalry. He continued in the service for about three years and received an honorable discharge.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 179

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