USA > Ohio > Lorain County > History of Lorain County, Ohio > Part 37
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H. H. Doppleton
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
ELYRIA.
HOUSTON II. POPPLETON.
Houston H. Poppleton was born near Bellville, Richland county, Ohio, March 19, 1836, and is the youngest son of Rev. Samnel and Julia A. Poppleton.
Rev. Samuel Poppleton was born in the State of Vermont. July 2, 1:93, but while quite young moved with his father to Genesee county, New York, where he lived until 1820, when he moved to Ohio. He lived in Richland county, Ohio, from 1822, until March. 1853, when he moved to Delaware, Ohio, where he continued to reside most of the time until his death, which occurred at Delaware, September 14, 1864. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and served with honor and distinction. Shortly after its close he entered the ministry of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and continued to preach, as his health would permit. for nearly fifty years. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Parthenia Stein- back. of Genesee county. New York, and his second, Miss Julia A. Smith, of Richland county, Ohio. By the first marriage, four children were born, to wit: Rowena L., intermarried with F. W. Strong, of Mans- field. Ohio: Samnel D., killed in 1864, at the battle of Atlanta, Georgia: Mary Ellen, intermarried with Daniel Fisher, of Bellville, and Andrew J., who died at West Unity, Ohio, September 25. 1850.
By the second marriage, six children were born. to wit: Emory E., Parthenia P., Damaris A .. Earley F .. Houston H., and Zada C.
Emory E. has been engaged in business in Detroit and Chicago, and is now the secretary of the Cleve- land and Mahoning Valley Railroad. residing at Cleveland.
Parthenia P. married IIon. S. Burke, long promi- nently identified with the Lorain bar. and after resid- ing in Elyria for over twenty-two years; moved to Cleveland. She died at Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan- uary :, 1878, and is buried in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland.
Damaris A. was married to Hon. George B. Lake, formerly a member of the Lorain bar, and now chief justice of the State of Nebraska. She died in April, 1854, and is buried in the cemetery at Elyria. .
Earley F. read law, and was admitted to the bar at Elyria, and after practicing there several years, moved to Delaware, Ohio, where he has ever since been ac- tively and successfully engaged in law and polities. He was elected State senator from the counties of Licking and Delaware, and after serving one term was elected on the democratic ticket to the forty- fourth congress, from the ninth Ohio congressional district. Although one of the youngest members of that body. he was active and industrious, and served
with ability, and with credit to himself and to his party.
Zada C. was married to Thomas II. Linnell, of Elyria, and resided there during the whole of her married life. She died March 29. 1875, and is buried in the cemetery at Elyria.
Houston HI. Poppleton received his early education in the common schools at Bellville, but entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, in the spring of 1853. and, although his attendance was not continuons, he graduated from that institution in June, 1858. He taught school several winters in the counties of Delaware and Richland, while pursuing his studies at the university, and also had general charge of his father's mercantile house at Richwood, from April. 1855, to February, 1852. In September, 1858, he entered the law office of Hon. S. Burke, at Elyria, and prosecuted his studies there until October, 1859, when he entered the Cincinnati Law College. Completing the prescribed course there, he graduated from it April 16, 1860, and was admitted to the bar at Cincinnati the same day. Returning to Elyria, he formed a law partnership with Judge Burke, and commenced practice May 2, 1860. After Judge Burke's election to the bench, he formed a law part- nership with Hon. H. D. Clark, which continued about two years. On the 10th of February, 1864, at Cincinnati, he was married to Miss Lucina H. Cross, of that city. He resided on the northwest corner of Broad and Chestnut streets, in Elyria. until Septem- ber 24, 1875, when he moved with his family to Cleveland.
From the latter part of 1864 he continued in act- ive general practice at Elyria, without a partner, until November, 1873, when he was appointed gen- eral attorney of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis railway company, with headquarters at Cleveland. which position he still holds. He was prominent, active and successful in his practice, as the records of the courts of Lorain and adjoining counties abundantly show, and in his removal the bar of Lorain county sustained a serious loss. By accept- ing the position of general attorney of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis railway he became the head of the legal department of that cor- poration, and has had entire charge of its legal busi- ness along the whole line, as well as elsewhere. Giv- ing his personal attention to the details of all the litigation of the company-trying only causes that should be tried, and settling those that should be set- tled-he has, by his fair, honorable and judicious course, made many friends for himself, and seenred for his company a reputation and good will that any railroad in the country might well envy.
.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
CARLISLE.
DAVID BENNETT
was born in Westmoreland, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, May 26. 1:88. He was the second son of David and Abigail Bennett, and third in a family of fifteen children. When about fifteen years old. he was apprenticed to a man named Dutton, living in Dummerston. Windham county, Vermont. Becom- ing dissatisfied with the treatment he received, he ran away soon after he was sixteen. and went to llomer. Cortland county, New York.
On the 6th of December, 1810, he married Miss P'olly Wheeler, and lived in Londonderry. Vermont. on a farm on the east slope of the Green mountains. Ile came west, to look for a farm, in 182%. and moved from Londonderry, April 21. 1828, with his family. consisting of himself and wife, his wife's step-father. and his neice, Miss Malvina F. Bennett. They came by wagon to Troy, New York, in two days, thence by canal boat to Buffalo, by schooner to Cleveland, which took three days, then by wagon to Carlisle,-in all. a journey of three weeks.
On the 23rd day of August, 1828, he purchased of Joseph and Mary Perkins the south one-half of the southwest quarter of section twelve, town five, range "seventeen, where he spent the remainder of his life.
His wife died August 10, 1829, without children.
He married, the second time, February 6, 1830, Miss Jane Galpin, of Elyria, daughter of Neri and Betsey Galpin. They had six children, four of whom are living. He held various township offices from 1830 to 1860, being three times elected justice of the peace. lle was a man of strict integrity. and his word was as good as his bond. He died July 16. 1863, of par- alysis.
JANE GALPIN was born in Woodbury, Litchfield county, Connecticut, August 11. 1810. She was the daughter of Neri and Betsey Galpin. and the eldest in a family of nine children. Her parents moved to New Milford. Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, when she was abont nine months old. In May, 1818 they moved to Center township. Indiana county. Pennsylvania. In November, 1822. they left Center for Carlisle, Ohio. then called Murraysville, Huron county. They moved in a covered wagon drawn by a yoke of steers and a span of old horses. They were three weeks on the road and had but two pleasant days in the whole time. In some places the wagon hub would roll on the mud. They moved in with Abner Murray's family until Mr. Galpin built his house, which stood just over the line in Elyria township. February 6. 1830, she married David Bennett and moved on to the farm in Carlisle, where she still lives.
147
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OIIIO.
front of his office, which he had surrounded by for- est trees, dreaming his happy dreams of the future, Charles IL. Douglas lurked behind him and fired a fatal shot. The wounded man struggled to his feet, attempted to raise his arm, but aimed too low. He was borne into his office, where in intense pain he calmly awaited death, saying, "I am not afraid to die, but want to see my brother before I go. Am glad I did not hit Douglas when I fired, on account of his wife and little ones." Asking again if Theo-
dore had come, for whom a messenger had been dis- patched, he fell into a calm sleep, and as the Sabbath day dawned his spirit took its flight.
Marks of respect and tenderness were shown by the warm-hearted people, and with aching hearts lov- ing hands consigned him to his resting place. And while the breezes of his mountain home chant the requiem above his grave, loving hearts will entwine and bedew with their tears an imperishable garland to the memory of Edwin Dorr Holbrook.
COLUMBIA .*
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
In the western part of the township the surface is level. In the central and eastern portions it is undu- lating, but nowhere rough and broken.
The soil is generally a clay loam, varied in some places by gravel. It is one of the best watered town- ships in the county. Rocky river flows northward through the township, gathering up in its course many tributaries. Plum creek flows in a nearly par- allel direction through the western part of the town. The timber native to its soil was beech, maple, hiek- ory, black and white oak, black and white ash, bass- wood, elm, sycamore, buckeye, walnut and butternut.
PURCHASE.
Prior to the apportionment by draft of that part of the Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga river, Levi Bronson, Azor Bronson, Harmon Bronson, Calvin Hoadley, Jared Pritchard, and some fifteen others, formed an association called the " Waterbury Land Company." This company, together with William Law, Benjamin Doolittle, Jr., and Samuel Doolittle, drew at the fourth draft, April 4, 1807, this township as number five, range fifteen, with two thousand six hundred and tifty acres in the townships of Boston and Richfield, in Sunnnit county, annexed to equalize it. The draft was in the following proportions: to the Waterbury Land Company, twenty one thousand six hundred dollars; William Eaw, two thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars; Benjamin Doolittle, Jr., one thousand tive hundred and ninety-two dol- lars; Samuel Doolittle, eighty dollars. "The deed was executed on the 28th day of May, 1802, by John Cald- well, John Morgan, and Jonathan Brace, for the Connectient Land Company, to Levi Bronson, Calvin Hoadley, Jared Pritchard, Azor Bronson and Harmon Bronson, in trust for the Waterbury Land Company.
Pending the negotiation for the extinguishment of the Indian claim to the lands west of the Cuyahoga, the company bought of William Edwards a thousand acres of land in tract two, town eight, range eleven, Euclid, (now East Cleveland), and a number settled there the summer previous to the draft.
SURVEY.
In the summer of 1807 the township was surveyed. A surveyor by the name of Lacey was first employed, but his chain was found to be of an incorrect length and he was discharged. In August of the same year Robert Worden, a surveyor from Columbiana county, was engaged, who, with Levi Bronson, Daniel Bron- son, Benoni Adams, and Elias Frost of Euclid, as ax and chain men, set out from Cleveland taking a south- west course until the northeast corner of the town was reached. From this point they proceeded west two and a half miles, thence south a like distance to the center of the township. The party made their encampment here, on the west bank of Rocky river. A monghter of Levi Bronson, afterwards Mrs. Oliver Terrell, accompanied the party to do their cooking, to whom must be accorded the honor of being the first white woman that ever set foot on the soil of Columbia.
SETTLEMENT.
In September, 1807, a company numbering thirty- three persons, left Waterbury, Connecticut, for this township. They were, Bela Bronson, his wife and one child; Calvin Hoadley, wife and tive children; John Williams, wife and tive children; Lemuel Hoadley, wife and three children, his father and his wife's mother; Lathrop Seymour and wife: Mrs. Parker and four children: Silas Hoadley and Chaun- cey Warner. Two months afterwards tlie company reached Buffalo, west of which place there was then no road, and they were compelled to choose between the dangers, at that time of year, of lake navigation and those attending a journey along the beach. The company divided, four families embarking on the
*Our thanks are due Ransom Bronson, for information furnished in the preparation of this history. He has kept a record of early events, for the past twenty years, access to which has been of much service lo us.
148
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.
lake, while the remainder preferred the land route. The little party set sail under a bright sky and with a favoring breeze, but not long afterward encountered one of those sudden gales common at that time of year, which carried them back a distance of several miles, where the vessel went ashore. A week was spent before another start could be made. Arriving in sight of Presque Isle the vessel was again struck by a contrary wind and driven back to a point on the Canada shore under which the voyagers took shelter. They remained here two weeks for a favorable wind, when the journey was resumed.
They proceeded without further reverses until within sight of Cleveland, then a pretentious place of three log cabins, when a violent wind struck their craft. and they were forced to retreat until near the site of the present city of Erie, where they went ashore. They were now thoroughly discouraged with their ex- perience by lake. The season was growing late, and whether to make another attempt by water or under- take the long journey by land on foot was not a pleas- ant alternative. Calvin Hoadley determined to make another trial, and, with his family, arrived at Cleve- land after encountering many experiences similar to those we have mentioned. The most of them, how- ever, determined upon the land route. Bela Bronson, wife and child, were of this party; Mrs. Bronson carrying the child in her arms for a distance of fifty miles west of Erie, where they were met by teams with which friends had gone back from Cleveland in search of them. Arriving at Cleveland, the company made a location there, with the exception of Bela Bronson and family, who, with ox-team and sled, pushed on towards Columbia. They were accom- panied by Levi Bronson, Jared Pritchard, John Wil- liams, Silas Iloadley, Calvin Hoadley, and five or six others who went ahead and cut a road for them, The family brought along in the sled cooking utensils -- with which Mrs. Bronson prepared the food for the company-and camp equipage. Their progress was, of course, slow, eight days being consumed in reach- ing Columbia. Two days subsequently-on the 7th day of December, 180"-they arrived on lot twenty- seven, where Bronson and family made a location.
The company divided into three sections, com- mencing simultaneously the erection of three cabins, one for Bela Bronson, ou lot twenty-seven; one for John Williams, on sub-lot three; and-one for Calvin Hoadley, on lot thirty-four. During the ercetion of Bronson's house, the box of the sled was turned up against a tree, and under this the family took shelter until their cabin was built. The honse was ready for occupancy by Christmas.
In 1810, Mr. Bronson changed his location to the Center, where the cellar of the house in which he resided can yet be seen. He died here in October. 1811. Ile was one of the ten sons of Seba Bronson. His wife's maiden name was Sally Twitchell. Mrs. Bronson subsequently married Benoni Adams. Two children of this pioneer family are now living-Rev.
Sherlock A. Bronson, D. D., who was eight months old at the time of the settlement of the family in Columbia, now an Episcopal clergyman of ability and usefulness, resident in Mansfield, O .. and a daughter Sally, living in Ottawa county. In an address deliv- ered in this township July 4, 1859. Rev. Dr. Bronson gives the following interesting picture of their sitna- tion in the winter of 1807:
"Our post office was at Painesville, fifty miles distant; the nearest mill was at Newburgh, twenty-eight miles away; and but little pro- vision could be obtained short of Painesville. That winter my father wrote back to his friends that he was the richest man in town. IIe might have written himself down the greatest nabob of all of Ohio that lay west of Cleveland and north of Wooster, and there would have been none to dispute his claim. For a time, that winter, ours was the only residence in Western Ohio. Gloomy, desolate and lonely as those times were, my mother kept up good cheer, and said she always hoped for better times, Taking into account the time of arrival, late in December, no house ready for occupancy, that in the company was a woman with an infant only eight months old, and the nearest dwelling twenty miles distant, you have before you a rare picture of pioneer life."
The second family that settled in town was that of John Williams, who moved in from Cleveland after spending the holidays with his friends there, arriving January 3. 1808. They took up their abode in the cabin already partially prepared for them on sub-lot three. In tsto he removed to a farm a mile south of the Center on lot forty-eight. Mr. Williams died in the spring of 1813, and his remains lie in an un- marked grave in the Center burying ground. The only surviving member of the family is Mrs. Weaver llarrington, now residing in Eaton county, Mich.
Calvin Hoadley followed closely after Williams, arriving in the first part of March of the same year, and commenced life in the Columbia woods in the honse previously built on lot thirty-four. In the summer of 1809, he built a grist mill on Rocky river, south of the Center, the first mill in the county. He afterward built a grist mill and also a saw mill, on the same river, on lot twenty-one. Captain Hoadley was a man of great energy of character, and became one of the most prominent men of the town. He was a son of Lemuel Hoadley, S:, who raised a family of eight children. Calvin was the second child and oldest son. He was a carpenter by trade. Ilis wife's maiden name was Marian Terrell. They raised a fam ly of five children. A daughter, the only living representative of the family, resides in Berea, O.
Early in the spring of 1808, the following additions were made to the settlement: Lemuel Hoadley. Sr., and Lemuel Hoadley, Jr. on lot forty-seven; James Geer, on lot thirty-five, south part; Lathrop Seymour, on lot eleven; Jared Pritchard, on lot thirty-one; Silas Hoadley, on lot twenty-nine; Isaac Frost and his two sons, Elias and Lyman, on lot twenty-eight; Nathaniel Doan, on the north part of lot thirty-five; and Benoni Adams, on lot fifty.
The Hoadleys were originally from either Salem or Plymouth, Conn. Lemuel Hoadley. Sr., was the father of eight children. Mary, the eldest, became the wife of Asahel Osborn. Of Calvin we have already given a brief history. The next was Lemuel; he was a colonel in the war of 1812. Sally married Zephaniah
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149
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.
Potter. Lemuel was a mechanic, and much of his life was engaged in the erection of mills; be built most of the grist mills in this region of country. He removed to Brecksville in 1812, and built the first mill in that town; and two years subsequently he went to Bath and erected mills there. In 1819, he settled in Olmsted, Cuyahoga county, and erected for himself the pioneer mill in that township, and also built the first frame house there. In 1824, he ex- changed his farm and a mill in Olmsted for a farm in Ridgeville, west of the center of the town, and took up his abode there. In 1832, he sold ont and moved back to Olmsted, and with his son-in-law. John Bar- num, built a saw-mill at the mouth of Plum Creek, and laid out a village there. In 1838, he removed to Chillicothe. He married Chloe Tyler.
LIe was known everywhere as Major Hoadley, a title which he acquired, it is said, on the journey from Connecticut. The company would sometimes be obliged to construct a bridge across a swollen stream, and Mr. Hoadley was so perfectly at home at such work that his companions gave him the honorary title of " major," which he ever afterwards bore.
Luther was also a colonel in the war of 1812, and died in the service. David, a carpenter by trade, died in Connecticut. Urania married Riley Whiting, an extensive clock-maker of Winsted, Conn.
In 1810, James Geer changed his location to the north part of the township, exchanging his original purchase with Calvin Hoadley, for land on lot twenty- one. Here he established a rude tannery, using sap troughs for vats, and an axe to pulverize the bark. He also followed shoemaking, having learned the trade of his wife, formerly Mrs. Mary Parker, whose first husband was a shoemaker.
Of some of the other settlers mentioned, no knowl- edge can now be obtained of their fater history.
Nathaniel Doan was a man of more than average ability, and was a leading man in the settlement. He was the first justice of the peace of the township. Ile subsequently removed to Cleveland.
Benom Adams was at that time a single man, but in 1810 he married Mrs. Sally Bronson, widow of Bela Bronson, and settled at the Center. In 1808, Mr. Adams carried the mail on foot from Cleveland to Maumee. The only habitations of white men on his route were those of Nathan Perry, at the mouth of Black river, and a Frenchman at Milan. Two weeks were usually consumed in making the trip. lle lost his way on one occasion, and failed of reach- ing the end of his journey within the required time, and his pay was withheld for that trip. Sometimes the streams were swollen to such a degree that he was compelled either to travel a long distance to find a place through which he could wade, or to construct a raft with which to cross. His route lay through the Black Swamp, the passage of which, from its extent, could not be made in a single day, and he was obliged to spend a night in the woods, usually making his bed on the trunk of a fallen trec. Says Dr. Bronson,
whose mother subsequently became the wife of Mr. Adams: "I have heard him say he has traveled the swamp when the water was half-way to the knee, and he was obliged to break the iec the whole forty miles."
During the same year, Seba Bronson, Sr., and his two sons, Seba and Daniel, moved in from Ashtabula county. The elder Bronson settled on sub-fot four, Seba, Jr., living with him. Daniel located on the north prirt of lot thirty-six.
In 1812, Seba Bronson, Jr., removed to Liverpool, Medina county, remained a year, and then returned to Columbia. In the spring of that year, it is said, he dug out a canoe, and journeyed down the river io the lake, thence to the mouth of Sandusky river, thence up that river, to Lower Sandusky (now Fre- mont). There, in an opening in the forest, he planted a piece of ground to corn, under the protec- tion of Fort Stephenson. After harvesting his crop, he returned to Columbia, residing there untit his death, in 185t, aged seventy-five.
In 1809, Roswell Seovit, Horace Gunn, Timothy Doau, Daniel Bunnell, Zephaniah Potter, Win. Hload- ley, Noah Warner, Marcus Terrell, and Joseph Burke joined the settlement. Scovil settled on lot thirty: Gunn on fot -. The latter carried the first mail west of Cleveland, in 1808. In June, 1809, he married Ann Pritchard, daughter of JJared Pritchard, which was the second marriage in Columbia. Timothy Doan located on lot twenty-nine, buying out Silas Hoadley, who returned to Connecticut. Bonnell drew, by draft, lot one, which he exchanged with Samuel Pardee for land in Olmsted. Potter settled on lot -. He was a doctor-the first in the township. Hoadley settled on lot thirty-five, south part, but returned to Connec- tient in 1811. Marcus Terrell settled on the north- west corner of fot thirty-nine. Warner, in 1811, removed to Liverpool.
Joseph Burke was the carliest settler in Enclid. lle came from New York, in 1798, traveling from Buffato to Grand river in an open boat. Leaving his family there, he came on to take a look at the wilder- ness, in which he thought of settling, and after mak- ing a selection at Eaclid, returnel for his family. He resided in Euclid eleven years, and then removed to this township, locating on lot twelve. He died July 4th, 1814. His widow removed to Michigan, and died there.in 1832. Of their large family of four- teen children, only two are living: Ira Burke on the old homestead, aged seventy-five, and Mrs. Sophia Fonder, residing in Illinois. A little danghter, four years of age, while in the woods with her brother, who was making maple sugar, wandered away and was never found. The generally accepted theory as to her fate is, that she was carried away by Indians seen in the vicinity a day on two previous.
Silas Burke settled on the south part of lot twelve, in 1809.
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