USA > Ohio > Morrow County > History of Morrow County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vol. II > Part 47
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On the 5th of September, 1875, Mr. Thuma was united in mar- riage to Miss Nevada L. Miller, a daughter of Abraham and Jane Miller. She was born and reared in Morrow county, Ohio, and they have five children, two sons and three daughters, each of whom has been afforded the advantages of the high school of Johnsville.
Marie Avalie, born Deeember 18, 1879, was united in marriage to Dr. Clarence W. Bixler, August 31, 1905, and is now living in Erie, Colorado. Mark Abraham, born March 13, 1882, chose school teaching as his profession, but is now living on the home farm adopting agriculture and being interested in dairying. On August 26, 1909, he married the only daughter of S. A. Durbin. Ada Celestia, born April 8, 1886, was united in marriage to Jacob, R. Dawson, February 10, 1910, and is now living near Frederick- town, Ohio, on a farm. Loy Edward, born May 27, 1888, was united in marriage to the daughter of J. L. Sowers, June 9, 1910, and is living in Johnsvile, Ohio, following plumbing and the sale of gasoline engines. Ruth Elizabeth, born May 28, 1895, now at- tending high school in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, will soon graduate. All the children, exeepting Ruth, have graduated from high school.
ZENAS B. PEOPLES .- A prominent agriculturist of Congress township, Morrow county, Ohio, is Zenas B. Peoples, who here owns and operates a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres. Every- thing about his highly cultivated estate is indicative of thrift and prosperity and throughout this region Mr. Peoples is recognized as a man of sterling integrity of eharaeter and as a citizen whose contribution to progress and development has ever been of the most insistent order. Mr. Peoples was born in this county, the date of his nativity being October 9, 1857. He is a son of William and Mary (Cook) Peoples, the former of whom was a prominent farmer of this section of the fine old Buckeye state whose demise occurred on the 5th of June, 1880, at the age of fifty-five years. William Peoples was a son of David Peoples, who was reared in Jefferson
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county, this state, his parents having been natives of Ireland, whence they came to America about the year 1780. David Peoples accompanied his parents to Franklin township, Morrow county, in 1810, at which time he was a child of but five years of age. At that time Franklin township was an uninhabited wilderness and Robert Peoples, great-grandfather of Zenas B., entered a tract of two hundred acres of government land, which he cleared and on which he reared to maturity a large family of children. His son, David Peoples, died in 1865 at the age of seventy-three years. The marriage of William Peoples to Miss Mary Cook was solemn- ized on the 11th of May, 1854, and to them were born four child- ren : Louisa, whose birth occurred on the 28th of February, 1855; Zillah and Zenas, born October 9, 1857; and Kate, born April 2, 1866. Louisa married Davis Hetrick and resides in Congress township, this county; Zillah is the wife of Michael Hirth and maintains her home in the city of Cleveland, Ohio; Zenas is the immediate subject of this review; and Kate married Jacob Volk, of Cleveland, Ohio. William Peoples at the time of his death, was the owner of a farm of one hundred and ten acres of most productive land, which was divided among his children.
Mary (Cook) Peoples, the mother of him whose name intro- duces this article, was a descendant of a long line of illustrious people. She was a daughter of William P. and Louisa (Mann) Cook and her birth occurred on the 29th of August, 1830. Wil- liam P. Cook was a native of the state of Maryland, whence he came to Ohio in the early pioneer days, locating on a farm in Morrow county, where he raised a family of four children. He was a son of Reverend John Cook, a minister in the Baptist church, who was long a noted preacher in Maryland and who served as chaplain in the war of the Revolution. After immigrating to Ohio, Rever- end Cook settled in Morrow county on the north fork of Owl creek, where he purchased a tract of seven hundred acres of land and where he divided his time between preaching and farming.
Zenas B. Peoples was reared to adult age on the old homestead farm and his preliminary education consisted of such advantages as were offered in the public schools of the locality and day. When nineteen years of age, through reading and close application to his studies, he was enabled to teach school, which he did for the ensning eight years. He is now the owner of a fine farming prop- erty of one hundred and twenty acres and he devotes his atten- tion to diversified agriculture and the raising of high grade stock. He is a prominent member of the Pleasant Grove Christian church, in which he was an elder for two years and in which he has served as clerk for the past year. In polities he accords a stalwart alle- gianee to the principles and policies of the Democratic party, -in the local conneils of which he has long been an influential leader. He is an ardent temperance advocate and is a member of the town- ship board of school directors. Mr. Peoples is a well informed,
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affable gentleman and one whose dealings have all been character- ized by uprightness and most honorable methods.
On the 13th of May, 1882, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Peoples to Miss Jennie Maxwell, a daughter of James P. and Susan (Swallum) Maxwell. She was born on the 12th of Febru- ary, 1860, and was reared on the farm on which she and her hus- band now reside. Her father was summoned to the life eternal on the 2nd day of May, 1898, at the age of eighty years, and her mother passed away on the 24th of January, 1902, at the age of
seventy-nine years.
James P. Maxwell came to Ohio from Pen-
sylvania, as a young man. He was an early pioneer in this county and he traced his ancestry back to stanch Scotch-Irish extraction Mrs. Peoples' great-grandfather, on the maternal side, was John Swallum, who was taken from school when a mere boy and forced into service as a soldier in the Hessian army. Subsequently he was captured by the American forces and then became a gallant and faithful soldier under General Washington. To Mr. and Mrs. Peoples were born two children : Jessie, the elder, and Ward M. Jessie was educated in the public schools and at Angola, Indiana, Normal School, and she has been a popular and successful teacher in the schools of Morrow county and at Cleveland, Ohio, for the past nine years. Ward M. lives on a farm adjoining his father's and he is married to Miss Norma Elizabeth Fish; they have one child, Maxwell Beck Peoples, whose birth occurred on the 13th of May, 1909.
COLONEL JOHN S. COOPER .- When Colonel John S. Cooper, commanding the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infan- try, was so honorably mustered out of his four years' service in the Union army, he was only twenty-four years of age. Soon after- ward he located in Chicago to study law and was absorbed into the great civil body of the nation as a vital and vitalizing personal element ; that fine type of manhood, whose steadfast courage and brilliant deeds of war were founded on moral convictions and a high standard of faith. He had smoothly melted into the blue ranks of the Federal army with several hundred other fine, bright- eyed students of Oberlin College, and by merit and an irresistible something- which, in war and peace, has been branded "dash"- he rose through the consecutive grades to the lieutenant-coloneley, commanding his regiment during the last year of his military service.
As a lawyer, Colonel Cooper never lowered his standard of faithfulness, thoroughness and prompt and fine execution of what- ever movement he undertook, his legal character being well indi- cated by the remark of a professional friend and opponent. "When Colonel Cooper was on the opposite side of a suit," he remarked with a reminiscent twinkle, "we knew we were engaged in a legal contest to be finally decided in the court of last resort."
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No higher tribute can be paid to this beloved soldier, lawyer and citizen, than to say that he was ever a brave, a manly, a generous opponent, when the battle was on, and the first to extend the friendly hand when the conflict was over, whether he had emerged from it loser or victor.
John Snider Cooper was a native of Mount Gilead, Morrow county, Ohio, born on the 23rd of July, 1841, to Isaac and Elma (Talmage) Cooper, pioneers themselves and widely connected with the pioneer families of the locality. The son was orphaned at an early age, and was lovingly received into the family of his uncle, James Madison Talmage, where he reached young manhood in close friendship with his cousins Viola and Engene Talmage, and (now) Mrs. Annis Olds and Mrs. Emma Barton. His ideals of life were therefore largely received through the precept and example of his good uncle.
Colonel Cooper obtained his earlier education in the Mount Gilead schools. Although usually active, both physically and mentally, he was never unbalanced or unruly, but seemed to in- stinctively perceive the value of combining discipline with alertness and of curbing ambition with common sense. His progress was therefore both rapid and substantial. About his last school days at Mount Gilead were in 1857, when Professor Edward Miller pre- sided over the old school house which stood near the present high school structure. At the age of sixteen he entered Oberlin Col- lege, in which he was a senior at the outbreak of the Civil war. On April 25, 1861, almost at the outset of hostilities, he enlisted in Company C, Seventh Ohio Volunteers, in which regiment he was later made sergeant, and in October, 1862, was promoted from sergeant to captain in the Eighth Regiment, United States Colored Troops, and on November 17, 1864, was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out of the service July 10, 1865, after more than four years of fighting, marching and soldierly campaigning. He was severely wounded in one of the battles before Richmond, Virginia, in 1864; but notwithstanding this, and his hard and continuous service, both in the engineering corps and as a com- mander of troops, he came to Chicago soon after his discharge, entered vigorously into the study of the law and was admitted to practice.
Colonel Cooper's fame as a Chicago attorney was largely gained in the practice of corporation law, and as one of the leaders handling of suits which involved important business and financial of the bar had a most substantial reputation for the successful interests and broad questions of the law bearing upon them. He saw deeply, quickly and clearly into the most profound and com- plicated litigation, and spared nothing to master every detail, technicality and fact affecting the matter at issue. The result of the complete mastery of his subject matter was that he always
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presented his cases to jury or court with the same force and clear- ness as its conception and evolution in his own mind. No wonder that his clients had unbounded confidence in him, and that his fellow-attorneys "on the other side," highly respected and, some- times feared him-the latter, only if their cause was not just.
One of Colonel Cooper's acts which earned him fame far beyond the bounds of his home city or state was his organization of the Minnesota Park and Forest Association, which resulted in the establishment of the Minnesota National Park by congressional act. He was one of the leaders in the movement which, even since his death, has so gathered in strength looking toward the con- servation of the vast natural resources of the United States, which the past generation have dissipated with such criminal carelessness and avariciousness. The persistent agitation, under his leader- ship, by which congress was indueed to set aside the splendid park in Minnesota, was in direct line with the general movement which is sweeping the nation at this time. During his long residence in Chicago he also kept in affectionate touch with his old comrades- in-arms, being an active member of the George H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery of Illinois.
On the 23rd of July, 1873, Colonel Cooper was united in mar- riage with Miss Minnie A. Curtis, of Michigan. Their union occurred in that city and to the old home of the mourning widow were taken the remains of the gallant soldier, able lawyer and high-minded eitizen, after his mortal life flickered away, November 20, 1907.
ISAAC HICKSON .- Distinguished not only as a prosperous agriculturist and a highly respected citizen, but as a fine repre- sentative of the self-made men of our times, Isaac Hickson has been a resident of Morrow county for upwards of forty years, and during that time has established for himself a reputation for honesty and integrity such as any man might well be proud of. Many of Ohio's most thrifty and successful farmers were born on the other side of the Atlantic; and to England, especially, is the state indebted for some of her most enterprising and thrifty eiti- zens. Prominent among these is the gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch. He was born, February 26, 1856, in Lincolnshire, England, his father dying two years later, in 1858.
Mr. Hickson's mother married for her second husband William Denton, an Englishman born and bred, and in 1869 came with her husband and children to the United States, locating in Westfield township, Morrow county, Ohio. Six months after arriving in this country Mr. Denton died, and his widow married for her third husband Cunningham McFeter. Of her union with Mr. Hiekson, four children were born, one of whom died in early life, and three
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are living, as follows: Mary J., wife of John Erby, of England; Betsey, wife of John Skinner, of London, England; and Isaac, the subject of this brief sketch. By her second marriage, she had one child, William Denton, a resident of Cardington, Ohio.
The family being poor, Isaac Hickson was early thrown upon his own resources, and for five years lived with a neighboring farmer, working for his board and clothes, and attending the dis- trict schools of Westfield township. Subsequently continuing in the employ of the same man, he worked for wages for two years, receiving two hundred dollars a year for his work, and at the end of the time had saved up enough money to buy a team, and embark in farming on his own responsibility. Energetic, industrious, and ambitious, he farmed, teamed, and worked at anything which he found profitable, laboriously toiling onward and upward, until through his own efforts he has gained a position of affluence and influence in the community, being now one of the foremost agricul- turists of Westfield township. He has brought up his children to habits of thrift and usefulness, and given to each superior educational advantages, making them valued and trustworthy citi- zens.
Mr. Hickson married at the age of twenty-three years, on April 13, 1879, Miss Alice Coomer, a daughter of Morris and Sarah (Cluck) Coomer and the descendant of an honored pioneer family. She was born on the farm where she now resides, and was edueated in the district schools of Westfield township, while under her mother's teaching she was well trained in all domestic arts, becom- ing a fine housekeeper and home maker. Three children have ' blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hickson, namely: Dean M., born September 25, 1881; Ray C., born September 2, 1883; and Ross, born June 18, 1887.
Acquiring his preliminary education in the graded schools of Ashley, Dean M. Hickson was subsequently graduated from the Ashley Iligh School, after which he taught school a while. Desir- ous of further advancing his education, he entered the Ohio State University, where he received the degree of bachelor of arts, and later, in 1911, was given the degree of master of arts. Ray C. Hickson, the second son, was educated in the public schools, and is now mail carrier on rural free delivery, route No. 2, Ashley. He married Margaret Curren. Ross, the youngest son, received a practical common school education, and is now profitably engaged in general farming.
Mr. Ilickson and his sons are all members of Ashley Lodge, No. 407, Free and Accepted Masons, of which Ray Hickson is now Master, and Dean M. Hickson is also a member of Marion Com- mandery, Knights Templars. Politically Mr. Hickson is a firm supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and for many terms has served as township trustee.
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ALFORD F. RANDOLPHI .- To Mr. Randolph belongs the distine- tion not only of being one of the older native born citizens of Morrow county, but also of belonging to one of the oldest families of America. IIe is of the seventh generation from Elizabeth Blossom, who in the first year of her life came with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock "on the stern and rock-bound coast" of New England, December 21, 1620. She was born in the year 1620, in the city of Leyden, Holland, whence her parents had fled a few years previous, under the leadership of Brewster and Robinson, in order to escape religious persecution in England, their native land. On the 10th day of May, 1837, she was married by the Reverend John Lathrope, pastor of the churches at Seituate and Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Edward F. Randolph, who was born in Nottinghamshire, England, in the year 1617, and had come to Plymouth, Massachusetts in the year 1630. About the year 1668, Edward F. and Elizabeth Randolph left Massachusetts and removed to New Jersey, locating at Piscataway, where he soon after died. Later his widow married Captain John Pike, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, who was an ancestor of General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was killed at the attack on Toronto, (then York) Canada, in 1813, and who won distinetion for having discovered the source of the Mississippi river and the mountain in Colorado that still bears his name-Pike's Peak.
Nathaniel F. Randolph, son of Edward F. and Elizabeth Ran- dolph, was married at Barnstable, Massachusetts to Mary Holby, in November, 1660, and about 1667 he removed to Woodbridge, . New Jersey. In the year 1693, he represented Woodbridge in the state assembly held at Perth Amboy. From 1705 to 1713, the church services of the Friends were held in his house and his des- cendants were members of that chureh for several generations. Ilis son Edward married Katherine Hartshorn, daughter of Rich- ard and Margaret Hartshorn, of Middleton, Monmouth eounty, New Jersey. Richard Hartshorn was sheriff of Monmouth county and represented his eounty in the assembly in which he served as speaker and he was also a member of the governor's couneil.
George Fox, founder of the Friends chureh, makes mention in his published journel of travel in America of having been enter- tained in the Randolph home. The younger son of Edward and Katherine Randolph, was Hartshorn F. Randolph, for whom the township of Randoph in Morris county, New Jersey, was named. The wife of Governor Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, was his grand- daughter. Edward F. Randolph, son of Edward and Katherine Randolph and an older brother of Hartshorn F. Randolph was born July 5, 1706, and was married to Phoebe Jackson, of Flushing, Long Island, in August, 1734. Their oldest son, James F. Ran- dolph, born August 16, 1735, was twiee married and reared a large family. He migrated to what was then considered the far west and located near Rice's Landing on the Monongahela river in
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Green county, Pennsylvania, where he died June 1, 1828. His son, James F. Randolph, the second, was born September 9, 1767, and married Catherine Baker, of Rahway, New Jersey, in 1793. She was a member of the Presbyterian church and for this offence her husband was excommunicated from the Friends' church. He removed with his father to Green county, Pennsylvania, where he resided a few years, but being imbued with the pioneer spirit of the times, he pushed on farther west and in the year 1817, in company with his family, located on Alum creek, in Peru township, Morrow county, Ohio. His wife, Catherine Baker, was born at Rahway, New Jersey, April 18, 1767, and was the daughter of Cornelius Baker. Her mother's maiden name was Susanna Lee, who was born February 28, 1736, and she was the daughter of Adam Lee. Cornelius Baker was born May 5, 1739, and died November 5, 1815 : His father, Henry Baker, was born in England in the year 1700 and came to America about the year 1730, settling near Rahway, New Jersey, on the road from Rah- way to Elizabethtown, in the Province of East New Jersey. He died March 17, 1760. Mary Hatfield, his wife, was born in the year 1705 and died in 1755. Their remains lie buried in the burying-ground of the First Presbyterian church in Rahway, New Jersey. Henry Baker was a son of Vice-Admiral Baker of the English navy.
James F. Randolph, the third, was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1811, and when but six years of age he came with his parents, James F. and Catherine Randolph, to their new home on Alum creek, in Peru township, where with parents, brothers and sisters, he shared the hardships incident to the establishment of a new home in the wilderness. He was mar- ried to Miss Marry Butters in Bennington township in 1829, his wife being the daughter of Rev. Alford Butters, a physician and minister, who immigrated to Bennington township from the state of Maine at the close of the war of 1812. He was a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal church and a practicing physician, which profession he followed until the close of his life, which occur- red in the year 1837. He built the first frame dwelling house in Bennington township, which is still occupied and in a fair state of preservation. James F. Randolph, the third, studied medicine with his father-in-law (Dr. Butters) and began the practice of his profession at his home on Alım creek, in Peru township, later moving to Ashley, Delaware county, Ohio, and afterward to Ben- nington township, Morrow county, where he operated a farm in connection with his practice. He built what was then considered to be the most elegant residence in this part of the state and laid out a flower garden, all of which have since been razed. He was a man of culture and refinement, of delicate sensibilities and keen perception of the aesthetic. Ile and his wife were life-long mem- bers of the Wesleyan Methodist church. His wife died in 1876
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and he afterward married Mrs. Martha Brestler. £ After his second marriage he removed to Marengo, Morrow county, Ohio, where he died April 14, 1883. His widow afterwards married Amos Harris, of Licking county, Ohio, and both are now deecased. The children of James F. and Mary Randolph who lived to years of maturity, were Cornelia, wife of Harvey Chambers; Margaret, wife of O. Meredith; Mary, wife of Ganza Evans; Amaretta, wife of Frank Ghant; Jefferson and Alford, the subject of this sketch, who was born in Bennington township, November 18, 1833.
Alford F. Randolph acquired a common school education and in his early manhood assisted in the operation of his father's farm. He inherited from his pious ancestors a natural inclination toward religious thought and conduct. He has always taken a firm stand for whatever he considered to be for the best interest of the com- munity and society in general and has always endeavored to follow after the things that make for harmony, and as much as possible has lived peaceably with all .men. In politics he has al- ways been a stanch Federalist, which belief naturally induced him to affiliation with the Republican party, and when the doctrine of state sovereignty became so chrystallized as to attempt, by armed rebellion, the disruption of the nation, he laid down the implements of peace and took up the implements of war, and bidding adieu to kindred, home and all that life holds dear, he laid, as it were, his young life, upon the altar of his country and beneath the fluttering folds of the star-spangled ensign of liberty, marched out to the bloody field of carnage, there to dare, to do, and to die, if need be, that this Republic might not perish from among men. He enlisted in Company D of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry which became a part of the Army of the Cumberland. He did active service on the battlefield and was captured at Columbia, Kentucky, and was subsequently in the hospital for a while. He was paroled as a prisoner of war, having been captured by the raider, Morgan. Upon the expiration of his term of enlistment, he again offered his services to his coun- try, but was rejected on account of disabilities received while in the service. Upon his return home, he beat as it were, his sword into a plough-share, his spear into a pruning-hook, and again resumed the pursuits of peace.
On September 10, 1865, Mr. Randolph was united in marriage to Mrs. Sarah J. (Chambers) Brokaw, widow of Joshua Brokaw, who died at Bowling Green, Kentucky, while in the service of his country. Soon after his marriage to Mrs. Brokaw, Mr. and Mrs. Randolph established a home on a farm about two miles south of Marengo, where they have ever since resided, and where now in conjugal bliss and domestic felicity, respected by all who know them, they are spending their declining years in the enjoyment of the well-earned blessings of peace and prosperity. In early life they united with the Wesleyan Methodist church and are still
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engaged in the activities of church work. Their children are as follows: Eva, the wife of Nelson Mead; Daisy, wife of Hanson Fowler; Florence, wife of Douglas Moore; Luella, wife of William Chilcote; and James Elsworth Randolph. The latter was born July 8, 1868, and on October 18, 1893, he was married to Miss Orrie C. Barr. To their union two daughters were born, Delta Eva, November 25, 1894; and Mary Augusta, September 28, 1896. Mrs. Randolph died in the year 1900 and Delta the following year at the age of seven years. At the time of Delta's death the child- ren were living with their grand-parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilber Barr, near Centerburg, Ohio, and Mary still resides with them. On October 1, 1902, Mr. J. E. Randolph was united in marriage to Miss Nellie M. Sipe, of Fulton, Ohio, and they have three child- ren : Sarah Alice, born June 7, 1904; Niles Elsworth, born July 12, 1906 ; and Harold Eugene, born January 29, 1911.
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