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 8
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Mrs. Lewis-"You seen to be here from all countries."
The Crowd-"Yes, all nations are represented in this band."
At this point there was a lull in the cabbage throwing and the boys heard the following short dialogue from within :
Mrs. Lewis-"John, 'tis give them the money and spare our lives !"
John-"Tis give me my breeches and I'll give 'em money !"
The Hallowe'eners well knew what that meant and were soon scrambling over fences hurrying for Harmony township.
Professor Jinkins, son of David and Tryphena Jinkins, was born in Harmony township February 24, 1855, on the place now owned by William George, near the Harmony church. Soon after- ward his parents removed to the farm now owned by his brother William Jinkins in Chester township, in southeastern Morrow county. In this place he began his early career in school work, his first term being under Mathias Ewart, of the Ewart Brothers of Iowa. The school house was on the home place, for in an early day, when the board of education was casting about for a school
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site, Rev. Mr. Jinkins donated one, which has given to his children and now his grandchildren easy access to school. Here Byram had such excellent instructors as Mrs. Abigail (Barnes) Sprague, J. W. Evans, Esq., Mrs. Lena ( Howard) Searls and others. Here the children from the families of the Meads, the MeVeys, the Harrises, the Shoewalters, the Howards, the Beerses, the Thomases, the Jinkinses, and so forth, filled the little old school house and were a merry bevy seated around the room. It must be remem- bered that a seat started at the northeast corner of the building and extended along the sides around the room to the southeast corner, taking up a part of the east side in fact. Desks of beech lumber were made and put up to this long seat with spaces between for the pupils to enter; these desks were huge affairs some six feet long. In course of time young Byram was sent to the Chester- ville schools and there he had as classmate the boy who was after- ward to be world-renowned as preacher and lecturer, Frank W. Gunsaulus, now president of the Armour Institute of Chicago. Subsequently Byram attended the Sparta school in which Judge L. K. Powell was the principal teacher. Through Judge Powell he was influenced to attend college at Otterbein University, Wester- ville, Ohio. However, it occurred to his father, David, that he ought to teach a few terms in the country schools before going to college, and so he hired him out to teach his home school, Bethel, for a term of three months. His salary was to be forty dollars for the time, or thirteen and a third dollars per month, and he was to board himself. He remembers that this, the first money he ever earned, looked like a fortune to him.
But after teaching in the Washington district, the Salem dis- triet and Bethel again, it was decided that he should enter college. Accordingly he was bundled up one cold winter morning, and arrayed in a part of two extra suits of clothes that would not go into the suit case, and getting astride of a large horse with the suit case on the pommel of the saddle in front of him, he headed for Centerburg, where he was to take the Cleveland Akron & Columbus Railroad for Westerville, the seat of Otterbein University, the lead- ing school of the United Brethren denomination. As he recalls it now, he started about the middle of one of the courses and he took what studies he thought would be pleasant and practical, for he did not think he would ever graduate. He attended the spring and fall of 1875 and came home to teach in the winter, and he continued this for three years, teaching in the winter to secure the needed funds for his college expenses. IIe saw he could make little headway by missing so much, and he finally persuaded his father to furnish the funds to complete the classical course, with its four years of Greek and Latin. In fact, in the seven years he took about everything taught at the college, from a review of the common branches on through. He was graduated in 1883, with the degree of A. B., and in 1887 Otterbein University conferred
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upon him the degree of A. M. His class had twenty-one members, the largest in the thirty-five years of the history of the college.
Professor Jinkins was superintendent of the schools of Galena, Delaware county, in 1833-4 and then went to his home town of Sparta, where he was superintendent for eight years, and under his tuition twenty-five bright young people were graduated. He was superintendent of the Johnstown schools from 1892 to 1897 and there thirty-seven were graduated under him. It was his constant aim to develop his pupils in all possible ways and to aid the town and community in which he was located. It was in Johnstown that he inaugurated a series of Demorest contests and several of his pupils won silver medals. In a spirited contest in an adjoining neighborhood Miss Ethel Pratt, now Mrs. Frank Simpson, won a beautiful gold medal. Under him the idea of annual banquets and class meetings came into being there and these have ever since been held. It was while he was in the Johnstown school that one of the great whiskey fights of Ohio began. As it was believed that an illicit sale of liquor was being carried on, an anti-saloon league detective was employed and with the assistance of the Kiblers of Newark, one Joseph Friddle, druggist, was arrested. A three days hard fought battle resulted in the defeat of the prosecution by a jury disagreement. . Judge Hunter of Newark, was attorney for
the defense. Detective, lawyer and jury fees made this pretty expensive for the eight or ten of the prosecution; then by the defense damage suits were begun against them, amounting to nearly thirty thousand dollars, Professor Jinkins and his wife, who was president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, being sued for six thousand five hundred dollars and interest. However, the prosceution shortly after withdrew these suits. It was at this time that the fight against he liquor traffic in old Licking county had its beginning.
During this trial a member of the board of education, who was a great friend of Professor Jinkins and one of his staneh suppor- ters, came to the high school door one morning and calling the Professor outside, said to him, "Now we are more than friends and as a friend I want to say to you that you must quit taking any part in this fight here or your name will be Dennis." After a moments thought the Professor replied, "Well, I recognize that this whole community, drinking men and all, pay my salary-but the fight is on and every one will be compelled to take a stand and I think I shall say that you may count me with the temperance people." With a smile the other man replied, "All right, Profes- sor, we shall know where to find you," and he hurried down stairs. Several years afterward Professor Jinkins was passing through Johnstown when this friend, who was very near death's door, learned of his presence in the village, and although his doctor had forbidden him any visitors, yet he requested : "Let him in. I want to see him." And they had a very cordial little visit. Vol. II-5
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Professor Jinkins removed to the farm and remained there five years, looking after repairs and resting up for six years. Then the people of "Quakerdom," near the old Harkness Academy, employed him to superintend a two room school at ninety dollars a month, and he was here one year and one pupil gradnated. He severed this association to become superintendent of the Pleasant- ville schools, a fine brick and stone building heated by gas, requir- ing two large furnaces. While here he made friendships that will last as long as life. He remained here four years, graduating twenty-five pupils, who are doing excellent work in various fields, a large proportion being teachers in graded schools and even principals. He had had charge of the destinies of the Pleasant- ville schools but a short time when they were advanced to first grade. Here he again began the Demorest contests, and seven silver medals, a gold and a grand gold medal, all went to his pupils. Miss Faye N. Daubenmire of the class of 1908 won the last two medals. This lady a great friend of the Jinkinses and a frequent visitor at their home, was killed in a frightful railroad wreck at Middletown, Ohio July 4, 1910, while on her way to Cincinnati to study elocution .. This was a great shock to Professor and Mrs. Jinkins, who for some years had been assisting Miss Daubenmire in her excellent work. It was in the spring of 1908 that Pro- fessor Jinkins, after graduating a fine class of seventeen, removed with his wife to their farm near Chesterville, where they now reside. Professor and Mrs. Jinkins had one of their pleasantest experiences in attending the Jamestown Exposition as guests of the National Editorial Association. The editor's boat was the one of escort to President Roosevelt on President's day and in Music Hall the President made a speech to the editors alone. They were given free passes to everything on the grounds and were feted by differ- ent cities and organizations. The valuable school work of Profes- sor Jinkins is thus ended and he and his estimable wife are now superintending their farm in Chester township, Morrow county, the homestead being known as "Oak Hill."
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Although Mr. and Mrs. Jinkins never had children of their own, yet they have aided several relatives and friends in securing an education and getting positions. They have been married twenty-five years, and seventeen years of that time, in addition to helping others, they cared for a neice, Jennie Edith Jinkins, an invalid and a great charge. They receive many letters now thank- ing them for this work.
DAVID LOGAN UNDERWOOD, county surveyor of Morrow county, Ohio, was born in Canaan township, this county Angust 30, 1868, a son of William and Caroline (Shuey) Underwood.
His father, a farmer and blacksmith, David L., passed his boy- hood days assisting in the farm work and attending district school, and as a young man learned his father's trade and worked with him
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in the shop. Later he studied engineering and gave considerable time to the work of civil engineer. In the fall of 1905 he was elected to the office of county surveyor of his native county. IIe rendered such aceeptable service in this office that in 1908 he was elected to succeed himself, and at this writing, 1910, he has the nomination for a third term.
Mr. Underwood has always been a stanch Republican. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow, having membership in both the Lodge (No. 760) and Encampment, and he is also an honored member of the Charles H. Hull Lodge of Knights of Pythias No. 195. His religious creed is that of the Methodist Protestant church at South Canaan. He is unmarried.
THOMAS A. HUGGINS, M. D .- During the years which mark the period of Dr. Thomas A. Huggins' professional career he has met with gratifying success and though his residence at Sparta, Morrow county, Ohio, dates back only to 1897, he has won the good will and patronage of many of the leading citizens and families of this place. He is a great student and endeavors to keep abreast of the times in everything relating to discoveries in medical science, being a patron of the leading journals devoted to the discussion of the "ills that flesh is heir to" and the treatment thereof. Pro- gressive in his ideas and believing in modern methods as a whole, he does not, however, dispense with the true and tried systems which have stood the test of years.
Dr. Thomas Andrew Huggins was born in Chester Township, Morrow county, Ohio, on the 5th, of March, 1855, and is a son of Thomas and Nancy J. (More) Huggins, both of whom were born and reared in the state of Pennsylvania, whence they came to the fine old Buckeye state of the Union about the year 1844, locating on a farm of two hundred aeres in Chester township, this county. In 1864 removal was made to another farm of two hundred aeres in the same township, where the family home was maintained until the father's death, in 1893. Thomas Huggins was survived by a widow and five children-three sons and two daughters- Rebecca E. is the wife of George E. Mckinney, of Knox county, Ohio; Margaret J., is now a resident of Columbus, Ohio; James A., is an agricul- turist in Bloomfield township, this county ; Dr. Thomas A. is the im- mediate subject of this review ; and Edward C., is a business man in Sparta. Mrs. Huggins is deceased, dying about 1903.
Dr. Thomas A. Huggins continued to live at the parental home until he had reached his legal majority and his preliminary educa- tional training consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the district schools of Morrow county. When twenty-one years of age he engaged for a time in teaching school and then went to Valparaiso, Indiana, where he pursned a course of study in the Northern Indiana Normal University. Subsequently he was a student in a college at Mansfield, Ohio, and subsequently entered
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the office of Dr. Williams at Chesterville. Morrow county, under whose able preceptorship he studied medicine for two years, at the expiration of which he was employed in a drug store at that place for some five years. In 1885-6 he was a student in the Western Reserve Medical College, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and there- after he passed two years in the Starling Medical College, at Colum- bus, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1889, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately after his graduation he initiated the active practice of his profession at Cambridge, Guernsey county, Ohio, where he remained for four years, at the expiration of which he went to Chesterville, and there took charge of Dr. Williams' offices. In 1893, at the time of his father's death, he was on the home farm for a time and in the fall of 1897 he came to Sparta, where he has built up a large and lucrative practice and where he enjoys recognition as one of the ablest and most skilled physicians and surgeons in Morrow county.
In connection with the work of his profession Dr. Huggins is affiliated with various organizations of representative character and in a fraternal way he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed through all the official chairs. In politics he accords a stalwart allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and while he has never had aught of desire for political preferment of any description he is deeply interested in all matters projected for the good of the general welfare, con- tributing liberally to all philanthropical organizations. He is well read in the science of his profession and is up-to-date in the current literature of medicine and surgery. He was deeply interested in the old railroad survey work in Morrow county, Ohio, in which connection he spent much time and money.
On the 19th of August, 1903, was recorded the marriage of Dr. Huggins to Miss Almeda Pearl, who was born and reared in this state and who is a daughter of Peter and Phoebe (Dupy) Pearl, both of whom were likewise natives of this state. The mother was summoned to the life eternal on the 14th of March, 1897, and the father now maintains his home at Centerburg, Knox county, Ohio. Peter Pearl was a farmer and mechanie during the major portion of his active earcer and his ancestors were early pioneers in Mor- row county, having here entered large tracts of government land in the early days. His mother, Nancy (Doty) Pearl, was a Daugh- ter of the American Revolution, her father having been a soldier in that war for independence and she was also a member of the Chris- tian church. When John Doty grew up the country was infested with Indians and early manifesting an interest in their life and habits he became great friends with some of the local chiefs. He was frequently invited to dine with them, but having once seen them prepare a meal he usually refused that honor. Their method of cooking squirrels for dinner was very disagrecable to Mr. Doty ; the young animals were thrown into a kettle without being dressed
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in any way whatever. Dr. and Mrs. Higgins are devout members of the Christian church, in the various departments of which they have ever been active workers.
Dr. Huggins is strictly a self-made man, having himself built the ladder by which he has risen to affluence. He made all the money expended on his education and never received so much as ten dollars from any one for school purposes. In no profession to which man gives his attention does success depend more largely upon individual effort than the one which now claims Dr. Huggins as a follower, and it is gratifying to note that he has achieved dis- tinctive prestige and success in his chosen calling, all of which attests his superior ability and close application. Fairness characterizes all his efforts and he conducts his business. with the strictest regard to a high standard of professional ethics.
WILLIAM BROOKS .- This venerable and honored citizen of Mor- row county has here maintained his home for nearly half a century and, after long years of earnest toil and endeavor in connection with agricultural pursuits, he is now retired and is enjoying well earned repose in a pleasant home in the village of Edison. He has ever been accorded that unqualified popular confidence and respect that are the objective appreciation of sterling character, and he has been called upon to serve in various offices of local trust, including that of county commissioner and also that of township trustee of Gilead township. His liberality, loyalty and public spirit were especially shown forth during his incumbency of the office of county commissioner, and in this connection he did much to further the material and social advancement and prosperity of the county. Further interest attaches to his career as one of the representative citizens of this section of the stateby reason of the fact that he is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Ohio, which has been his home since the days of his infancy and in which it has been given him to attain to independence and substantial prosperity through his own well directed endeavors.
William Brooks was born in Cayuga county, New York, on the 3rd of March, 1831, and is a son of Jonathan and Rebecca (King) Brooks, both of whom were likewise natives of the old Empire state, where the respective families settled in an early day. The parents of Mr. Brooks were reared to maturity in their native state, where they remained until 1833, when they came to Olio and num- bered themselves among the pioneers of Seneca connty. The father purchased a tract of land six miles east of the present city of Tiffin, in Clinton township, and there reclaimed a productive farm from a virtual wilderness. There he and his wife continued to reside for twenty years, secure in the high regard of all who knew them, and they passed the closing years of their lives in Seneca county, Ohio. Their eight children, four sons and fonr danghters, reached years of maturity and of the number, two sons
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and three daughters are now living. In politics the father was originally a Whig and later a Republican. He was fifty-five years of age at the time of his death and his devoted wife passed to the life eternal at the age of fifty-three years.
As already noted, William Brooks was a child of two years at the time of the family removal to Ohio, and he was reared to adult age under the discipline of the pioneer farm of his father in Seneca county. From his boyhood onward there was no paucity of work assigned to his province, and he has ever been appreciative of the lessons of consecutive industry that he thus learned and which he later applied most effectively in fighting the battle of life on his own responsibility. Ile recalls the old log school house in which he gained his early education and in these days of opulent prosperity and splendid educational facilities it is difficult for the younger generation to understand how primitive were the schools of that time. The puncheon floors and slab benches, the wide fire place and other appurtenances of this old-time "institution of learning" are adverted to by Mr. Brooks in pleasing reminiscence. He
assisted in the reclamation and other work of the home farm until he was twenty years of age, and thereafter he worked for others at a compensation of fifty cents a day, and when working by the month as a farm hand he commanded the stipend of thirteen dollars for the month. Honesty, industry and frugality, those great cardinal virtues were much in evidence in those days, in which were solidi- fied the stanch foundations of the great state of Ohio, and these traits were admirably exemplified by him to whom this review is dedicated.
Mr. Brooks was finally enabled to rent a farm in Seneca county, and under these conditions he there continued his assiduous labors as an agriculturist for a period of eight years, at the expiration of which he purchased a farm of forty acres in Eden township, that county, and thus initiated his career as an independent property holder. The land which he thus purchased was in the main covered with virgin forest, and he put forth the reguired labor to compass its reclamation. IIe finally disposed of this property and in 1863 he came to Morrow county, whre he purchased a farm of eighty acres in Canaan township. As the years passed he developed this into one of the productive and valuable farmsteads of the coun- ty, making high grade improvements of a permanent order and so directing his energies as to reach the goal of generous and stable prosperity. Hard work and careful management made of suecess not an accident but a logical result, and the active career of Mr .. Brooks stands to his perpetual credit as one of the world's noble army of productive workers. There has been no parasitie element in his course and he has put mueh into life, with the result that he has gotten much out of it. Such a man and such a career dis- courage pessimism and offer both lesson and incentive. Mr. Brooks continued to give his active attention to the management of
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his farm until 1887, when he removed to the village of Edison, where he has an attractive and comfortable home and where, re- tired from active labors but well preserved in mental and physical faculties, he is enjoying the rewards of former years of assiduous application, the while he is surrounded by friends who are tried and true.
Mr. Brooks rendered service as a loyal soldier of the Union during the latter part of the Civil war. On May 2, 1864, he en- listed for the one hundred days' service as a member of Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he proceeded to the front and with which he was in active service for a period of four months, at the expiration of which he received his honorable diseharge. His principal service as a soldier was in the state of Virginia, and he remained with his regi- ment until the long and sanguinary struggle between the North and South had reached its close. The more gracious memories and associations of his military service are perpetuated through his identification with Hurd Post, No. 14, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, in Mt. Gilead, where both he and his wife are also zealous and valued members of the Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder.
A man of broad mental ken and mature judgment, Mr. Brooks has naturally been called to take an active part in public affairs of local order, and no citizen has shown more civic loyalty or public spirit. . He has been an active worker in behalf of the cause of the Republican party and in 1876 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and by successive re-elections he continued incumbent of this office until 1882. His service was far from perfunctory, as he gave generously of his time, thought and energy to furthering the best interests of the county, the while he advocated progressive policies and due liberality in administering the affairs of the county and in the making of public improvements. His efforts did not lack for popular appreciation and he was one of the best commissioners the county has had. Within his tenure of this office the present county jail was erected and other note- worthy improvements made. He is at the present time a trustee of Gilead township, and his entire service in this office covers a period of fully sixteen years, marked by the same devotion to the general welfare as was his work as county commissioner.
On the 18th of December, 1854, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brooks to Miss Hannah Braden, who was born in Morrow county, Ohio, on the 17th of October, 1836, and who is a danghter of William and Susannah (Mack) Braden, who were numbered among the sterling pioneers of Morrow county, Ohio, where they continued to reside until their death. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks became the parents of three children, and concerning them the following brief data are given in conclusion of this article: Emma S., who was born on the 11th of May, 1857, is the wife of Judge Archibald
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