History of Richland County, Ohio : (including the original boundaries) ; its past and present, containing a condensed comprehensive history of Ohio, including an outline history of the Northwest, a complete history of Richland county miscellaneous matter, map of the county, biographies and histories of the most prominent families, &c., &c., Part 106

Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio : (including the original boundaries) ; its past and present, containing a condensed comprehensive history of Ohio, including an outline history of the Northwest, a complete history of Richland county miscellaneous matter, map of the county, biographies and histories of the most prominent families, &c., &c. > Part 106

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

he came to this county with his parents, who emigrated in 1846; the family afterward returned to Ireland in 1852, and in the latter part of the same year again came to America, where they have since resided ; he began carpenter work in 1862, in this city, which trade he acquired and followed until 1875, when he was ap- pointed Deputy Sheriff under John J. Dickson ; he was elected Sheriff of Richland Co. in October, 1877, and re-elected in 1879, which position he now holds. He is the youngest man who has ever been elected to that office in this county. He was married in Mans- field to Kate Bell ; they are the parents of six children -Bertie B., born Sept. 19, 1870; Franklin D., born Dec. 6, 1872; William W., born April 4, 1873; Nettie May, born July 29, 1876; James J., born Oct. 13, 1879; Kate, April 19, 1880.

RITTER, WILLIAM, leather merchant. Was born in Canton, Ohio; Jan. 10, 1834, where his parents resided previous to their removal to Mansfield in 1836. Since reaching manhood, he has held a number of offices of honor and trust, both in the city and county, to the satisfaction of the people ; in 1860, he was elected City Clerk, which position he resigned at the breaking- out of the civil war, and entered the army in the three- months service, where he remained during his full term of enlistment; in the fall of 1861, he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, in which office he served two terms of three years each ; in 1877, he was elected a Trustee of the Board of Water Works, which office he now holds and is President of the same. In June 24, 1864, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Keech, daughter of C. C. Keech, of this city, now residents of South Main street, Mansfield.

RITTER, JOSEPH (deceased). In 1874, Oct. 20, Mansfield lost one of its old and respected citizens, in the person of Joseph Ritter, who had lived here nearly fifty years, honored and respected, always a gentleman, plain and frank in his intercourse with his fellow-men; he was proverbial for his kindness and rigid honesty ; he was born in Brakerl, Westphalia, Germany, in the year 1796, and emigrated to this country in 1818, landing in Baltimore, where he worked at his trade (tanner) until 1822, when he removed to Canton, Ohio, and in 1836, to Mansfield, having previously visited Ohio in 1819; after his retire- ment from business, a few years previous to his death, and on his fiftieth anniversary in this county, he visited the land of his birth and the scenes of his childhood, interesting incidents of which he was accustomed to relate with minuteness. Joseph Ritter was married in Baltimore, April 2, 1828, to Miss Magaline Eberly, who survives him, and by whom he had three children --- John, William and Louisa, who now reside in this city.

RITTER, JOHN, tanner and leather dealer. The senior of the present firm of Ritter & Sons, was born in Canton, Ohio, Jan. 9, 1829; when 7 years of age, he came with his parents to this city, where he has since resided ; while qnite young, he commenced work in his father's tannery, which trade he afterward acquired, and in which he continued until the organi- zation of the leather firm. He was married in Mans- field, May 8, 1857, to Miss Mary Jane Irwin, who died April 15, 1879, leaving four children.

ROBERTS, MARK L., mechanic and inventor. The subject of this sketch was born in East Whiteland Township, Chester Co., Penn., July 15, 1822, a descend- ant both on his father's and mother's side of old and well-known families, the one of Welsh and the other of French pedigree ; his younger days were spent on a farm in his native county, where he first began to show that inventive genius that has produced so many useful labor-saving machines during his life. While in his 17th year, he invented a thrashing machine, which he thinks was the second manufactured .; his second invention, a knitting machine and the Rob- erts Manufacturing Knitting Machine, was the work of sixteen years' hard labor before its accomplishment ; an adjustable cork horse-shoe, which is believed to be a great improvement over the old method, he invented in 1873; a rake and hay elevator in 1872; a seamless knit bag in 1869. Mr. Roberts' family consists of a wife and six children ; of the sons, Isaac Calvin is a painter ; Allen Lewis, an engineer ; Wayne K., a needle manufacturer. Mr. Roberts is now living on North Mulberry street, Mansfield, in a beautiful home, dili- gently at work in other improvements.

ROWLAND, REV. JAMES, was born near Pitts- burgh, Penn., Sept. 1, 1792, where he was reared, and graduted at Jefferson College in 1813; he was of Scotch-Irish descent, his family having come from the North of Ireland; after leaving college, he went to Washington City, where he taught a preparatory school ; he left Washington after a residence of four years, and opened a classical school at Darlington, Penn., where he remained as teacher and preacher of the Presbyterian faith until the spring of 1820, when he removed to Mansfield, where he was settled over the first church organization in Richland Co., preach- ing here part of the time and part six miles west on the Leesville road. He was married twice, first to Maria S. Christmas, of Wooster, Ohio, May 2, 1820, who died in November, 1839; second, to Mary A. Moody, of Shippensburg, Penn., May 12, 1841; Mr. Rowland was a ripe scholar, a man of fine personal appearance, and possessed more than ordinary talent ; after a life of usefulness he died at his house in Mans- field, Dec. 20, 1873.

RUMMEL, J. P., proprietor of suspender factory. Was born in 1840, Worthington Township, Richland Co. Married in 1866, to Eva Redrup, she was born in Cleve- land ; they have the following family : Wilber J. (de- ceased ), Lulu E., Arthur Clifton. Mr. Rummel is con- ducting an enterprise that is giving employment to a number of hands; the articles of his manufacture are growing fast in popularity, and consequently is increas- ing, and is taking the lead of this class of goods.

RUNYAN, BENTLEY S. (deceased). The subject of this sketch, who was one of the active and prominent business men of Mansfield for over twenty years, was born in Knox Co., Ohio, March 6, 1821; he was the eighth child of Hill and Mary L. Runyan, who were old residents of that county ; in the month of April, 1847, he removed to Mansfield, where he opened a hardware store, near the southeast corner of Walnut and Fourth streets; in the fall of the same year, he changed his location to a room south of Fourth on Main street, where he remained until after purchasing the

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CITY OF MANSFIELD.

building south of the present European Hotel, in which place for many years he did a large and extensive business, it being the chief hardware store in the city. During his residence in this city, he was prominent in all public and charitable enterprises, and his name was generally found at the head of the list of those citizens who petitioned and subscribed in the interest of the city and its inhabitants; he was one of the founders of the Mansfield Gas-light Company, and served as one of its offi - cers, and was elected on an independent ticket as Mayor of the city, in which capacity he gave universal satisfac- tion ; for many years he was an active member and officer of the Richland Co. Agricultural Society, the success of which was due in a great measure to his efforts. He was married in Mount Vernon, Ohio, to Miss Lucinda Murphy, of that place, Jan. 14, 1844 ; five children by this marriage are living-John Bent- ley, now a resident of Tiffin, Ohio, where he holds the position of Teller in the Tiffin National Bank ; Charles C., of the firm of Bush & Runyan, plumbers and gas- fitters in this city; Robert Mead, iron-roofer and painter, now in the employ of the Aultman & Taylor Co., and two daughters, Almeda and Mary E. B. S. Runyan died in this city Jan. 12, 1869 ; R. Mead Run- yan was married in Mansfield, Jan. 20, 1875, to Miss Ida Boyle; two sons were born to them-Frank, born in 1876, died March 18, 1878; Harry was born Jan. 15, 1877.

RUSSELL, REV. FRANK, Pastor Congregational Church. (The first part of this sketch was taken from the 3d vol. of the History of the city of Brooklyn, and the rest was written by a lay member of Mr. Russell's church, with the aid of the records). Rev. Russell was born May 19, 1840, at Marion, Wayne Co. N. Y., the eighth of nine children, all boys, and all reared to man- hood by the same parents; his father was a well-to-do farmer, and when Frank was 10 or 11 years of age, lost nearly all his property by the failure of business firms, who had used his name as security ; Mr. Russell's edu- cation was procured by his own efforts ; he taught school during the winters when he was 15 and 16 years old, and an academy in Niagara Co., when 17; at the same time taking his college-fitting from his 13th to 17th year, at the Collegiate Institute at Marion. In 1858, being prepared for the sophomore year in Yale College, he went to Phillips Co., Ark., with the determination of earning sufficient money by teaching to defray the ex- penses of the college and seminary courses. Associated with an elder brother, he was soon at the head of an academy which flourished beyond all expectation, and became the organizer of the first teachers' associations and normal work ever known in that part of the State. His home was with an eminent physician, where he improved an excellent opportunity of studying medi- cine, the advantages of which have been perceptible in all his subsequent work. Ile remained teaching with increasing success in every respect until the entrance of the Union army in the summer of 1862, when every dollar, all personal property, library, horses, etc., and even wardrobe, were lost amid the ravages of war. Three of Mr. Russell's brothers were in the army, one of whom was killed when leading the 2d Kansas Regi- ment, of which he was Lieutenant Colonel. Mr. Rus- sell made his way to Michigan, became Instructor in

Adrian College, where with highest honors he also took his degree in 1864, under Dr. Mahan; he entered Union Seminary in New York City the same year, con- tinned his self-support by teaching the classics and phonography, doing mission work, speaking and writing. Married the daughter of a clergyman in 1866; gradu- ated in 1867, and removed at once to Philadelphia, where, during his last Seminary year, he had gone weekly to preach to an unorganized congregation. He was greatly blessed in his labors, organized Plymouth Church, and on that occasion was both ordained and in- stalled Pastor, his friend, Dr. J. P. Thompson, preach- ing the sermon. He was unwearying in raising funds for the new building, which was built and dedicated at the corner of Nineteenth and Master streets. Mr. Rus- sell left this work, and was called to what was then the Fifth Avenue Congregational Church in Brooklyn, N. Y .; in April, 1868, very soon after, by a difficulty it had been rent in twain. One year from this division it was re-united with added forces, under the name of the Park Congregational Church, and Mr. Russell was in- stalled Pastor, his own previous Pastor, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, preaching the sermon. A new build- ing was erected on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Seventh street, he raising therefor over $9,000 outside the parish. After over five years of active labor here, his home was broken up by the death of his estimable wife, when at the suggestion and aid of his generous and loving people, he left his two young children in appro- priate care, and traveled in Europe, returning at the close of 1873; he very soon removed to the charge of the First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo, Mich. In May, 1876, Mr. Russell was married to a daughter of Judge Henry, of Detroit. He found his church the eighth in size of the churches of that order in the State, and after it had become the fourth in size and the church for the first time in twenty-two years en- tirely relieved of debt, he was visited with the sad calam- ity of the burning of his dwelling with almost its en- tire contents, including his fine library of over 1,100 volumes, and over 16,000 pages of manuscript, and also a valuable cabinet of minerals and curiosities. In the prime of his strength, his wife and children all in ex- cellent health, Mr. Russell was soon called to his pres- ent charge in Mansfield, where he was installed Pastor on the 15th of May, 1878. The pastorate of Mr. Rus- sell in Mansfield has thus far been marked by an earnest and systematic effort to promote the best interests of the church and the community. He has shown himself to be a severe student, and a zealous, painstaking laborer in the Master's vineyard ; his methods are practical, and his manner of teaching and preaching attractive and impressive ; his sermons are the result of thought and exhaustive preparation, and are fully committed and delivered extempore, entirely without notes ; his interest in the reform and philanthropies that seek the good of the community, calls him to im- press upon them the peculiar bent of his mind, and systematic and business-like efforts characterize the movements, which are quickened and expanded by the influence of his skillful touch, and made to bud and blossom with promise; within a year from the com- mencement of Mr. Russell's labors in the church, oc- curred the heroic and wonderfully successful struggle

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with the great and overshadowing church debt, in which $40,000 were pledged to wipe out the incubus. Within a year also, the great revival under the leader- ship of Messrs. Whittle & McGrannahan added sixty-four members by confession, the other churches of the city also reaping adequate harvests; temporally and spirit- ually the church has prospered greatly under Mr. Rus- sell's charge, the congregations have been enlarged, the prayer and conference meetings have been largely in- creased in numbers and intensified in interest, and the Sabbath school has had exceptional growth, and is the beautiful and flourishing garden of the church, which is to gladden the future with abundant'fruitage ; the enthu- siasm of the youth of the society has been stimulated and aroused as it never has been before, and the benefi- cence and missionary spirit of the church have been broadened and deepened, and bear onward unusual blessings. In all these realizations, the active brain and willing, practiced hand of Mr. Russell are visible. For the benefit of the community Mr. Russell has, to- gether with the Pastors of the other evangelical denom- inations, begun a work that cannot but be wide-reaching in its influences, blessings and comforts for the poorer classes. The Union Church work was great in its con- ception and noble in its purpose ; it seeks to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and lift up the degraded and sin-stricken, it is practical Christianity as taught by the Savior. Mr. Russell has taken active interest in this movement, and the resident clergy are working harmoniously and efficiently in its behalf; the larger success is yet to come. One of the principal efforts of Mr. Russell has been to promote brotherly feeling and unity of action among the evangelical churches, as the best way to assure God's blessings by deserving them ; he has been met in the proper spirit, and all is harmony and peace and promise. Among what has been pub- lished from Mr. Russell's pen apart from newspaper columns, special mention should be made of some out- line lessons of Biblical study, several addresses, quite a number of pamphlet sermons, and a volume on the "State of the Dead," and the geographical index to the collection of maps in one of the best-known teachers' Bibles, believed to be the first index of the kind ap- plied to Biblical maps. His largest work is entitled, " What Jesus Says," a large 12mo of 400 pages, being a compilation of all the utterances of the Savior arranged under topics, with a careful index ; the edition of this work was very soon exhausted, showing it has met and filled a want recognized among Christians.

SEAMAN, CONSTANTINE ORORICK, was born in Virginia, April 3, 1820, and came to Ohio and settled in Wayne Co. in 1833, and to Mansfield in October, 1842. C. O. Seaman was married in 1839 to Margaret Furgu- son, who died in 1849. In the year 1852, he was mar- ried to Miranda IIill, who died in 1866, and in the year 1870, he was married to Rebecca Furguson. Mr. Seaman, in his younger days, was considered one of the strong men of Richland Co., and during his resi- dence here has done much hard labor in assisting to clear up the country and make Mansfield what it is. Mr. Seaman is of English and Irish descent, and inherits a strong constitution ; is in active life, and a resident of the Third Ward, Mansfield, where he has lived many years.

SEWARD, JAMES P., attorney ; was born in Knox Co., Ohio, Oct. 6, 1851, at Mt. Vernon ; moved to Mansfield in 1856. He attended the Vermillion Insti- tute, Hayesville, Ashland Co .; also attended the Oberlin College ; read law with Manual May ; admitted to the bar, Aug. 22, 1876, in Lorain Co .; engaged in the practice of law in Mansfield in the fall of 1876, and still continues in the practice. In 1877, he was ap- pointed Secretary of the Democratic Executive Com- mittee; in 1878-79, promoted to the chairmanship of the committee. Mr. Seward ably conducted the cam- paign of 79, which, by his unceasing assiduity, result- ing in a great victory in Richland Co. for Democracy.

SHERMAN, JOHN, HON. The name Sherman is by no means common in England, though it has been highly respected and honored. Sir Henry Sherman, of Yaxley, was one of the executors of the will of the Earl of Derby, dated May 23, 1521; William Sherman, Esq., purchased Knightstown, in the time of Henry VIII; a monument to William Sherman is in Ottery, May, 1542. [Hollister History Conn., Vol. 2, p. 440.]

None of the records now accessible show precisely the relation between the Shermans of Yaxley, and Ed- mund Sherman of Dedham, Essex Co., whose descend- ants came to America. The latter was a clothworker and a man of means; his initials were found on a stained-glass window (his gift), one of the buttresses of the church was built by him, and the pupils of the free school indorsed by him were seen going to church in procession, by the Rev. Henry B. Sherman, now Pastor of the Church of the Ascension, Esopus, N. Y.

Edmund Sherman married Ann Pellet April 30, 1560; their son Edmund married Ann Clark June 11, 1584; their son, Edmund 3d, had a fourth Edmund, who came to this country with his three sons-John, Edmund and Samuel, and a nephew, John Sherman, but with his son Edmund, returned to England in 1636, and left the three boys to work their way in the new world. The nephew John was the ancestor of Roger Sherman. The son John was the Rev. John Sherman, of Water- town, Mass., the most noted mathematician at that time in New England. Samuel, his brother, was the ances- tor of the Ohio Shermans. His son, Deacon John Sher- man, died in 1730; his son, John 3d, died in 1727; his son, Daniel, was born Aug. 14, 1721, and was one of the noted men of Connecticut. Cothren (page 190) says of Daniel Sherman : "He was perhaps the most distinguished man that had arisen in the town (Wood- bury) previous to his day." He was a Justice of the Quorum for twenty-five years, aud Judge of the Litch- field County Courts five years from 1786. For sixteen years, he was Probate Clerk for the District of Wood- bury, and Judge of that District thirty-seven years. He represented his native town in the General Assembly sixty-five sessions, retaining the unbounded confidence of his fellow-citizens. It is to be remembered that there were two sessions a year, May and October. He was a man of commanding powers of mind, of sterling integrity, and every way well qualified for the various public trusts confided to his care. Ile died at a good old age, and full of honors.

The sixth son of the Hon. Daniel Sherman was Tay-

Ior Sherman. Ile was married in 1787 to Elizabeth

CITY OF MANSFIELD.

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Stoddard, a descendant of the Rev. Anthony Stoddard, one of the justly noted men of New England. To know what is in the present Sherman family, and whence it came, it is necessary to give some account of this line of their ancestry. The ministry of Mr. Stod- dard was remarkable for its duration and the peace and prosperity that attended it. From the date of his first sermon as a candidate, to that of his last, immediately preceding the brief illness that terminated his useful labors, he numbered sixty years in his holy calling. " We have contemplated him," says Cothren, (page 140), "hitherto only as a minister of the Gospel ; but his labors ended not here. He was at the same time minister, lawyer and physician. Like many of the early ministers of the colony, he prepared himself for the practice of physic, that he might administer to the wants of the body as well as the mind.

"He was Clerk of the Probate for the District of Woodbury, then comprising many towns, for a period of forty years ; in this capacity, he drew most of the wills for his parishioners, and did nearly all the busi- ness of the office. * * All the records of the * court during the time he was Clerk, appear in his handwriting."

The characteristics of the Rev. Anthony Stoddard appear in the widow of Taylor Sherman, his grand- daughter, for, as one of the grandchildren says, "She made us stand around."

The Hon. Taylor Sherman, having married Elizabeth Stoddard, lived at Norwalk, Conn., lost property by depredations of the enemy during the Revolution ; in- herited a part of the fire lands in Ohio, and came out in 1808 as Commissioner to make a partition of them.

The Hon. Charles R. Sherman, his son, married Mary Hoyt in Norwalk, Conn., in 1810; after being robbed as Internal Revenue Collector by his Deputies, and thus broken up, he came West with his wife and one child on horseback, and settled in the town of Lancaster.

Lancaster at that time was noted all over the State and the West generally, for the learning and talent of its bar, yet Mr. Sherman placed himself in a position in accordance with the splendid history of the Sher- man family. At the age of 35, when he had fairly en- tered upon a successful legal practice, before accumu- lating more than barely enough to pay the expenses of settling in a new country, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. In a brief memoir by Gen. Reese, it is said, " He rose rapidly to eminence as a polished and eloquent advocate and as a judicious and reliable counselor at law. Indeed, in the elements of mind necessary to build up and sustain such a repu- tation, few men were his equal in Ohio." While on the bench at Lebanon, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 24th of June, 1829.

He left a family of eleven children, of whom the eldest was 16 years of age, and the youngest 6 weeks. Of these Gen. W. T. Sherman was the sixth, and the Hon. John Sherman the eighth. The widow, having scant means to maintain herself and family, could do little toward educating them. The Hon. Thomas Ewing adopted William Tecumseh and had him made a cadet at West Point, and he thereby became a distinguished General, being now at the head of the Army of the United States.

John, at 8 years of age, was adopted by his father's cousin, John Sherman, of Mount Vernon, with whom he remained until 1831, when he went to Lancaster to school. In 1837, he was appointed junior rod-man on the Muskingum Improvement, under Col. Samuel Curtis. In the spring of 1840, his brother, Charles T., then in the practice of law in Mansfield, invited him here ; after four years' study, when 21 years of age, he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law. He began public life in 1855 as a Representative in Congress. His upward career was rapid and sure; he was kept at his post all through the war of the rebellion, doing valiant service, in the Senate and in organizing troops for the war. After the war, he was continued there until his call to the office of Secretary of the Treasury, which place he has so signally and success- fully filled.

All the other members of Judge Sherman's family lived to grow up and occupy respectable positions in society.

SHERMAN, CHARLES J. (deceased) ; Judge Sher- man was born in Norwalk, Conn., Feb. 3, 1811, and was brought by his parents to Lancaster, Ohio, about a year later ; he graduated at the Ohio University, at Athens, about 1829 ; he studied law with Henry Stod. dard, at Dayton, and, after being educated to the bar, came to Mansfield about 1835; he remained here, steadily engaged in practice, until 1867, when he was appointed United States District Judge at Cleveland, where he settled and lived until his death, Jan. 1, 1879. He was married, in 1841, to Eliza Williams, of Dayton ; they became the parents of seven children, five of whom are now living, viz .: Mary Hoyt, born in 1842, now the wife of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, of the U. S. A .; Henry Stoddard, born in 1845, now practicing law in Cleveland ; John, Jr., born in 1847, now U. S. Marshal in New Mexico; Charles F. Cook, born in 1848, died in infancy ; Anna Wallace, born in 1850, died Jan. I, 1870; Eliza A. Williams, born in 1852, now the wife of Colgate Hoyt, of Cleveland ; Elizabeth Bancroft, born in 1857, now the wife of J. D. Cameron, U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania. Judge Sherman re- signed his judgeship in 1873, and, during the remain- der of his life, held no office. Judge Sherman, while a resident of Mansfield and which crowned the very prime of his life, was active in promoting all the ma- terial interests of Mansfield and the county of Rich- land-specially in the organization of the agricultural society, in the introduction of better modes for the larger production of the better quality of fruits ; he was for years one of the officers of the S., M. & N. R. R. Co. (now a part of the B. & O. R. R.) ; took a very active part in the projection and building of the P., Ft. W. & C. R. R., and was the first general solicitor, or counsel, of said company ; he had a large practice as an attorney, but seldom appeared at the bar, preferring the work of a counselor in the office, and was one of the most genial of men in social life, a safe adviser and stanch friend.

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Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 968