History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 105

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 105

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when the family settled in this county. Of a robust constitution he was well calcu- lated for the toils and hardships which life in a new country imposed. Mr. Gard- ner, by working hard on his father's farm and for himself, accumulated some money which he invested in land then held at a very low price, but as improvements were made, gradually increased in value, mak- ing him by the time he had reached maturity, a man of considerable means. Mr. Gardner married, January 3, 1833, Ann Alexander, daughter of Theophilus and Mary Alexander, who came to Ohio in 1825, with a family of eleven children, from the State of New York. Ann was born in New York in 1811.

John S. and Ann Gardner have had a family of seven children, five of whom are living-John A., was born June 25, 1834, was married March 12, 1857, to Emeline J. Bemis; Theophilus E., was born August 6, 1836, married May 10, 1866, to Sarah Ann Thompson, she having deceased, he married Justina Alexander in 1869; Mary E. was born December 4, 1838; Charles C. was born June 9, 1842, married Rebecca A. Lemmon; Dyer C. was born July 23, 1845, served in the army, married, in 1870, Sarah R. Rowe; Ann, born April 15, 1847, married, in 1868, William Ritter; Julia, born January 9, 1850, married to Henry Thomas; Mary E., died July 25, 1867; Charles C., died October 26, 1877.

As will be seen by reference to the civil list of the county, John S. Gardner served as county commissioner for the period of four years. He was always prominent in the affairs of his township, and a working member of the Democratic party in the east part of the county. He was strong in physique and capable of doing much hard work. He was a persevering farmer and pushed work with a diligence which manifested itself in rapidly increasing

Ali. Ann Gardner.

John J. Gardner.

Janneah Jutt_

Mis KiSam Smith.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

landed possessions. He died May 23, 186 1.

Mrs. Gardner remains on the old farm. She has an excellent memory for a woman of her age, and narrates in an interesting manner the scenes and incidents of years gone by.

JEREMIAH SMITH.

Among the many courageous men and women who penetrated the forests of Ohio while the State was yet the hunting grounds of the Indians, the sons and daughters of New England hold a con- spicuous place. Bravery, generosity, un- wavering honesty, united to a strong re- ligious faith, were the virtues that charac- terized them, and the principles that an- imated them.

In 1822 a worthy couple, both natives of the State of Connecticut, settled on the South ridge, in York township. Their names were Jeremiah and Experience (Mills) Smith. Enough has been written in this volume to portray the condition of Sandusky county at that date. The trials, difficulties, and dangers which beset these bold representatives of the Yankee nation need not be rehearsed here. Here they lived, reared a family, and died. But one of their children survives, although the family consisted of three sons and three daughters. The names were as follows: Jeremiah, Edward, Barzilla, Lucy, Laura, and Triphena. Jeremiah settled in York township and resided here until the close of his days. Edward died in Lagrange county, Indiana. Barzilla died in New York State, where his parents had lived before coming to Ohio. Lucy married Charles Gardenier, of Montgomery coun- ty, New York, and died years ago. Laura married Abel D. Follett, of Bellevue, and now resides in Ventura county, California. Triphena died the year after her parents moved here, aged thirteen years.

Jeremiah Smith, sr., died October 7, 1826, aged forty-nine years. His wife, a most estimable lady, survived until Sep- tember 6, 1840, when she passed away at the age of sixty-six, universally respected as a woman of Christian benevolence and genuine worth.

Their son, Jeremiah Smith, was among the most worthy and highly honored of the citizens of York township. He was born October 15, 1801. On the 10th of June, 1835, he married De Lora Knapp, daugh- ter of Alvin and Lovisa (O'Bryant) Knapp. Mrs. Knapp's father, John O'Bryant, was an officer in the Revolutionary war. Alvin Knapp was born at Lebanon Springs, Columbia county, New York, and his wife in the western part of Massachusetts, about fourteen miles from the place of her husband's nativity. Mr. and Mrs Knapp lived in New York State until 1833. At this date they came to Ohio and settled near the centre of York township. They had thirteen children who arrived at. ma- turity, five of whom are yet living. Their names in the order of their ages were: Arad, Chester, Balsorah, Alanson, Kings- ley, De Lora, Mary, Wilson, Sarah F., Henry, Martha, Anna, and Amanda. These were all married and all came to Ohio, but scattered to various parts of the country. Those now living are, Chester, in Cass county, Michigan; Wilson, in Lucas county, Ohio; Henry, in Decatur county, Iowa ; Martha (Alexander), White- water, Wisconsin; and Mrs. De Lora Smith, York township.

Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah Smith, jr., had no children. Mr. Smith died August 21, 1874, in his seventy-third year. He was a man of sterling integrity, friendly and courteous in his manners, pure in motive, and honest and fair in all his deal- ings. He passed through a long life with- out losing a friend or gaining an enemy by any fault of his own. During the most

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

of his years he was a member of the Free-will Baptist church.

JOSEPH AND AMANDA B. BIRDS- EYE.

The oldest son of James Birdseye, whose ancestry and operations in this county are mentioned in the foregoing sketch of Nathan P. Birdseye, was Joseph Birdseye. He was born in Ontario county, New York, November 26, 1800. . His boyhood was spent at hard work on his father's farm. He had opportunity to at- tend school only a few months during the winter, affording a very limited education.

Mr. Birdseye married, in 1823, Amanda Beach, daughter of Jonathan and Betsy Beach, who were natives of Connecticut. After his marriage Mr. Birdseye purchased a farm in New York, now the site of Rochester, one of the most flourishing cities of the State. Through the failure of a neighbor to meet an obligation on which Mr. Birdseye was security, this farm was lost. . He then looked toward the West as a field for the restoration of his lost fortunes. In 1834 he purchased a farm in York township, on which he set- tled with his family in 1835. He was a hard worker, and continued making im- provements and adding to his possessions. In partnership with his brother, Nathan P., he discharged a contract for macad- amizing the pike between Bellevue and Clyde.

Mr. Birdseye, in 1853, sold his farm in York township and moved to Clyde, where he had purchased a tract of land, now embraced in that part of the town lying between the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad track and the turnpike. As the village grew he sold, in town lots, about fifty acres, a part of which was forest at the time of making the purchase.

This operation showed Mr. Birdseye's business sagacity, and leads to the conclu- sion that but for his early misfortune at Rochester, New York, he would have been a very wealthy man

The family of Joseph and Amanda Birdseye consisted of five children-two sons and three daughters. Eliza was born in March, 1824. She died in 1847. Ad- alaide was born October 16, 1825. She resides in New York City. Emily was born September 27, 1827. She is married to John Bruen and lives in Santa Cruz, California. Her husband is dead. Gould was born November 26, 1829. He re- sides in Clyde. Nelson H. was born October 6, 1832. He resides in Clyde.

Joseph Birdseye died April 19, 1868, and is buried in McPherson Cemetery in Clyde. Amanda B. Birdseye is still living in Clyde. She is of genial disposition, affable in manners, and possessed of good business qualifications. She manages the estate left by her husband with care and discretion.

Mr. Birdseye, in many of his character- istics, resembling his brother, Nathan P. and at the same time possessing many traits of character differing widely from those of his brother. Both were scrupu- ously honest in all business transactions, and social intercourse. Both were Whigs, and afterwards Republicans, in politics. They were simple in their manners and determined in their convictions. It was a characterisic of Joseph Birdseye never to withdraw a command, nor to modify an opinion deliberately formed. He was uni- formly kind and charitable to the sick or suffering. In him an iron will was coupled with a tender heart.

No family stood higher in York town- ship than the Birdseyes. They were always alive to the welfare of the commu- nity, whether in deeds of public improve- ment or acts of private charity.

Freph Birdseye

Amanda B. Birdseye

Inga by H.B. Hall, & Sons, 13 Barclay SI. NI

H. V. Adams

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

· H. R. ADAMS.

Horatio Rogers Adams was born in Montville, Connecticut, May 8, 1802. He was the oldest of three children, and only son of William Adams and Nancy Rogers, who were also natives of Con- necticut. When Horatio was about seven years of age his parents removed from · Montville to Albany, New York, where they afterwards lived. William Adams was a sea-captain, was the owner of a number of vessels, and a man of enter. prise and thrift. His wife died in the fall of 1820 aged about thirty-seven, and some two years afterward he married Delia Olmsted, an estimable lady of Albany, and sister of Judge Jesse Olmsted, the pioneer merchant of Fremont, Ohio. Of his three children by his first wife (his second marriage being without issue) only one is now living, viz : Sophia Adams, who still resides in Albany. The ‘youn- ger sister, Mary, died in Albany. Neither of the sisters ever married -

Horatio being. the only child, and his father well-to-do, was permitted to follow his inclinations, and grew to young man- hood surrounded by the social influences of city life. He attended school but little and employed a part of his leisure in fishing, his favorite sport, and in visiting at his uncle, Isaiah Adams's, a farmer living a few miles out of Albany. Dur- ing these visits he would help in the work on the farm and it was there, doubt- less, he formed the desire for the occupa- tion which he subsequently followed. When about eighteen he made his way to Norwalk, Ohio, where a relative of his mother, Frederick Forsythe, was then liv- ing. He left home in company with George Olmsted on the Ist day of Octo- ber, 1820, coming to Sandusky on the Walk-in-the-water, the pioneer steamer of Lake Erie. Shortly afterward he made a visit to his friends, the Olmsteds, in Low-

er Sandusky, now Fremont, being piloted thither through the wilderness by William Chapman, the mail-carrier. There was then no laid-out road west of where Bellevue now stands, which then consist- ed, according to Mr. Adams' recollection, of but one log-house. We next find him in Columbus, whither he journeyed on foot. He was now thrown upon his own own resources and among strangers, and he found it necessary to do something to earn a living. The first job he found to do was to take a horse for a man a dis- tance of thirty miles, for which service he received one dollar. Of course he had to walk back, but he was well. satisfied with his bargain. It was the first money he had ever earned. A short time afterward he went to Worthington, a little village nine miles north of Columbus, where he found employment for a time in a print- ing office. In Worthington he first met his future wife, Amy R. Bedell. They were married on the 4th day of May, 1823, and a few years afterward settled on Darby Creek, in Madison county. The farm on which they located had been partly cleared by a' former occupant, who had abandoned it, and the cleared part had grown over with a heavy undergrowth and practically required a second clearing. The first season he raised a small crop of corn and a few bushels of beans, which found a market in Columbus, twenty miles distant, at fifty cents per bushel. Cotton goods were fifty cents per yard, and other necessaries in proportion. It required a good deal of fortitude and hard toil to keep the wolf from the door during their stay there. While fighting under countless difficulties for a livelihood, Mr. Adams was much distressed by doubts as to the validity of his land title, his farm being embraced in what is known as the Virginia Military District. This tract comprised a large extent of territory lying

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers, and was reserved by act of Con- gress for compensation of the Virginia soldiers who had served in the Revolu- tionary war. Any soldier, or his repre- sentative, who held a warrant was at lib- erty to select his lands wherever he chose within the military tract ; and in conse- quence of the irregularity with which many locations were made, some locations encroaching upon others, considerable lit- igation ensued. This circumstance de- cided Mr. Adams upon disposing of his farm at any sacrifice, and consequently, after living there a couple of years, dur- ing which he and his always patient and helpful wife experienced every hardship incident to the lot of pioneers, they re- moved, in the summer of 1830, to Huron county, and located upon a farm rented of Jeremiah Sheffield, near Amsden's Corners, now Bellevue. He contracted with Mr. Sheffield to build a log-house on the farm, eighteen by twenty feet, in consideration of fifty bushels of wheat, and moved into this house on Christmas Day of the above year.

The following season being very wet, his crops were scanty, and he decided upon making another change. He was offered the farm on which he afterwards lived till his death, in York township, Sandusky county, Ohio, for one dollar and fifty cents per acre, but he hesitated about making the purchase, the "oak openings," as they were called, being regarded as almost worthless for farming purposes. Against the advice of some of his friends, he de- cided to make the investment. That his decision was a wise one, one of the finest farms in the county is a sufficient proof.

To this farm on New-Year's Day, 1832, he brought his wife and two children, and all his worldly goods, in an ox-cart, and moved into a log house eighteen feet square, with puncheon floor, clapboard

roof and stick chimney. The farm was then an almost unbroken wilderness, and the prospect anything but bright. But attacking his task with his accustomed en- ergy, he soon had a portion of his land in a condition to be cultivated, from which he managed to support an increasing fam- ily, while he continued to enlarge the boundary of his clearing. The next ten years were years of hard work, attended by trials and frequent failures, but instead of tending to discouragement it was an ex- perience which only developed the force and determination of a man by nature de- termined and forcible. In 1842 he erected the house which was afterwards his permanent home, and which is still oc- cupied by his widow. They took posses- sion of this home on Christmas of that year, and it is a somewhat singular cir- cumstance that on each removal they be- gan the occupancy of their new home on one of the winter holidays.

On the 8th of May, 1874, Mr. and Mrs. Adams celebrated their golden wedding. They had been inarried fifty years the 4th of May the previous year, but as sickness in the family prevented them from assem- bling that year, the reunion was postponed until the next year, and held on the 8th of May, which was Mr. Adams' seventy- second birthday. It was a happy occa- sion to all, and to the aged pair in whose honor it was held, an event second in in- terest only to their nuptial day. They had lived to see a large farm brought from a wild condition to a high state of cultiva- tion, having increased in value a hundred fold, and to raise a family of children es- teemed for their intelligence and moral worth.

Mr. Adams united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1829, and ever after- ward was an active member and devoted Christian. His family was brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,

Amy R. Adams

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

and he recognized no higher duties on earth than those of husband and father.

He contributed with liberality to the support not only of the church to which he belonged, but to that of others as well, and there is hardly a church in the region where he lived so long that has not been the recipient of his benefactions. His .business record was unimpeachable. It was characterized by energy, perseverance, and the strictest integrity, which was an integral part of his nature.

He stood the embodiment of all that was upright, honest and honorable. A conspicuous quality of his mind was the faculty of humor. He had a keen sense of the comic and the ridiculous, and he enjoyed nothing more than a visit with friends, for whose entertainment he would relate, in his droll way, some humorous incident, usually in connection with his pioneer experiences. In manner he was to some extent eccentric and blunt, but he was always courteous, and to those who knew him best he had a nature as tender and sympathetic as a child's. Mr. Adams, from force of habit, continued his labors, more or less, on the farm long after reach- ing an age when most men are compelled to rest. In June, 1879, while at work in the field, he was overcome with the heat, which resulted in an affection of the brain, and after suffering intensely, mentally and physically, many months, he died March 22, 1880, aged nearly seventy-eight.

AMY R. ADAMS.

Amy Rosalia Bedell, daughter of Ben- jamin L. Bedell and Sally Burr, was born in Manchester, Vermont, January 31, 1804. When Amy was quite small her mother married for her second husband Smith Bull, and about the year 1810 the family removed from Vermont to the vi- cinity of Plattsburgh, New York. There

they lived until the fall of 1815, when they removed to Worthington, Ohio. Mrs. Bull had by her first husband two children, a son and daughter, Burr and Amy. Burr Bedell was born September 1, 1802, and at the time of his death, a few years since, was residing at Clayton, Michigan. By her second marriage she was the mother of twelve children, viz: Huldah, Mason, Rosetta, Thomas, Smith, Sally, Squire, Alfred, Orrin, Henry, Anna, and Alonzo. Mrs. Bull died in Urbana, Illinois, in October, 1852, surviving her husband some twelve years. She was born in Adams, Massachusetts, August 2, 1782.

The strongest influence in the shaping of the character of our subject was that of her mother, who was a woman of much strength and excellence of character, ca- pacity, and directness of purpose. Her early years were spent in a country home, where her time was divided between a brief attendance at the rude district school and the exacting duties of home life on a farm. After the removal of the family to Ohio, through the perseverance of her mother she was sent out where she could work for her board and go to school. Possessing a naturally bright mind and an insatiable desire for knowledge, the op- portunity thus afforded for its gratification was improved to the utmost, and although her education at this time was very limited, she made rapid progress in her studies, and at the age of sixteen she began to teach school. Looking back to this time she says those were halcyon days and re- members them only with tender and grate- ful emotions. Mrs. Adams taught alto- gether, though not continuously, for a period of seven years, continuing to teach for a time after her marriage. For a time after she began to teach she continued at intervals to attend school and had recita- tions to different instructors ; so that final- ly she attained a considerable proficiency

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in the branches of study in use at that day. From the time she began to teach she sup- ported herself entirely by her own exer- tions. She had a laudable ambition to better her condition in the world, physical and intellectual, and she possessed in equal measure the necessary determina- tion and perseverance to accomplish it. An incident in the beginning of her career as teacher will illustrate this. She went to Columbus for the purpose of securing a school. A friend endeavored for some time to find one for her, but failing to do so suggested as an alternative that she accept a vacant position as chamberma d in a hotel. This suggestion she emphati- cally refused to entertain, and said she knew she was capable of something better. Considerably discouraged, but no less de- termined in the attainment of her object, she was about to return to Worthingto ) when another friend interested himself in her behalf and soon brought her the wel- come announcement that he had secured for her a room in which to teach and two scholars, and that she could begin the next day. The room was in a small building not far from where the Neil House now stands, and the scholars were his own children. Beginning in this small way the number of her pupils speed- ily increased and before her first terni closed she had a school of sixty scholars, and required an assistant.

At the age of nineteen she was married to Horatio R. Adams, and in the hopeful- ness of youth they entered upon that jour- ney of mutual cares and joys, which at its termination by the death of her husband, spanned by nearly seven years more than half a century.

In all the vicissitudes of the early years of their married life, when struggling against poverty and adversity, Mrs. Adams was the true helpmeet of her husband, sharing the hardships and privations as

well as the simple pleasures of frontier life. Mr. Adams in later years often re- ferred to the heroic conduct of his young wife during that trying period, whose Christian fortitude had smoothed the rugged path by which a virtuous inde- pendence had eventually been gained.

Mrs. Adams is endowed with more than ordinary intellectual gifts. She is a wo- man of ideas and originality of thought and possesses a happy faculty of expres- sion, both by speech and pen. She has written much in both prose and verse, and her productions evince a high degree of literary talent. The religious element in her character is predominant. For more than sixty years the Divine Word, the en- trance of which irradiated her soul when a girl of fourteen, and dispelled the dark- ness of doubt and sinfulness, has been a lamp to her feet and a light to her path- way. From her loyalty to her Master she has never swerved. She early connected herself with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has always remained a firm adherent of its faith and practices, and been a useful member. A good and use- ful woman, with remarkable endowments of mind and character, improved by high Christian culture, producing those graces which adorn society, the church, and the world, such is the subject of this sketch to those who know her best. We who thus know her feel the power of her single, earnest faith, the beauty and reward of a life "hid with Christ in God." Since the death of her husband Mrs. Adams has had the oversight of the farm, and although seventy-eight years of age, carries it on with admirable success.

Mr. and Mrs. Adams were the parents of nine children, two of whom died in infancy. The others are as follows: Lucia, born in Rochester, New York, April 22, 1828, is now the wife of Dr. William Mc-

Surdon Trondward

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Cormick, and resides in Grass Valley, California; they have two children liv- ing, Horatio and Jessie, and one (Willie) deceased. William, born in Lyme, Huron county, Ohio, in 1831, married Martha T. Pennell, and resides near Grand Rapids, Michigan; they have two chil- dren-Charles and Julia. Delia, born August 31, 1833, now widow of Upton F. Vore, and resides in Chicago; she has four children --- Delia, Horatio, Upton, and Milton. Sophia, born in May, 1837, now widow of John S. Berger, and resides in Bellevue, Ohio; she has one child, Binnie, at present attending school at Oberlin, Ohio. Julia, born July 11, 1841, now the wife of H. H. Queen, and resides in Toledo, Ohio; they have two chil- dren-Florence and Waldemar. Frank, born June 27, 1846, died September 8, 1866. Florence, born November 29, 1848, now the wife of H. Z. Williams, to whom she was married September 1, 1870. They have two children, Julia and Amy, born respectively May 16, 1872, and No- vember 14, 1874. All the children ex- cept the two oldest were born at the old homestead in York township.

GURDON WOODWARD

was of English ancestry and New England birth. His parents were Abishai and Mary Spicer Woodward. The Woodwards settled in New London, Connecticut, at an early day in the history of that State, and Abishai Woodward, the father of Gurdon, was a leading citizen of the town of New London during and following the revolutionary period. Though not of the number whose losses from fire by British soldiery were compensated by a donation of western lands made by the State, yet he became the owner, by purchase, of a large amount of these claims, and, upon

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 105

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040