USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 58
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
The funeral services took place at two o'clock of Tuesday, October 8th, at the family residence on North Market street. Wooster. The courts adjourned in honor of her memory, and the judges and members of the bar and the officers of the county and of the city attended the funeral in a body. The tribute of flowers, by the Century Club, was large and beautiful, in memory of her who was so pleasant a friend, and whose sad and untimely death brought profound sorrow to the hearts of numerous friends in the city of Wooster and elsewhere. She died as a martyr. Possessed of remark- able courage, seeing the home on fire, and attempting to extinguish it, she received her fatal injuries.
Mrs. Critchfield was a daughter of Dr. Moses Shaffer, and his wife, Margaret McClure, daughter of Matthew McClure, Sr. She was born in Wooster, May 12, 1834, making her age, at her death, sixty-one years, four months and twenty-four days. On October 2, 1854, she married Hon. L. R. Critchfield, by which union were the following sons and daughters: Edith. Grace, Mary, Blanche, Henry, Nellie and Lyman R., Jr.
The character of the deceased was, in many respects, a public one. She was born and reared in the city of Wooster and was intimately associated with the old families whose descendants constituted the society of the city. Her vivacity, her beauty and genial disposition, and the high standing of her family, made for her a ready welcome. Her grandfather, Jacob Shaffer. was a soldier of the war of 1812; her uncle, Hiram Shaffer, was an eloquent Methodist preacher; her father. Dr. Moses Shaffer, practiced medicine in Wooster for fifty years; he was a remarkable man for energy and courage. and this oldest daughter, Adelaide, became his companion in his professional visits, and her acquainatnce became general in every section of the county ; her brother, Dr. Hiram M. Shaffer, was celebrated for his genius and skill as a physician and surgeon; her brothers, Hiram, James and Horace, were soldiers in the Civil war; her mother, Margaret McChire, was one of a large and noble family of the carly settlers ; her grandparents, the MeClures. were a saintly couple of high and spotless character. The deceased had all
56014
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
the splendid virtues and splendid courage of her family so widely known, and she enjoyed in an eminent degree the popularity of the family descent and standing. She knew many of the distinguished men in public life, and was familiar with public thought and public matters. She was a practical woman of great attractions in manners and geniality ; well educated and thoughtful, she had a fine faculty of sociability in a public way; she was winning with her smiles and genuine womanly greetings; she loved and attended public meetings, religious, literary, musical, dramatic and political. With a num- ber of the leading ladies of Wooster, she attended a school of parliamentary teaching and became a parliamentarian. She was not a woman of no politics, but had views on the rights of women, and of the people; she had inherited anti-slavery principles ; she was wholly on the side of temperance and temper- ance organizations ; she had more than ordinary public spirit. In the Univer- sity of Wooster, in the State Agricultural Experiment Station, in the Balti- more & Ohio railroad, in the acquisition of manufactures, in the beautify- ing of the city, she manifested the greatest pleasure.
In her life with her neighbors, she was winning in her address, and in her last repose there lingered upon her countenance the expression of the lovely nature that was at peace with all the world.
In person she was esteemed as the most beautiful of women. Being five feet seven inches in height, and her development large and symmetrical, of beautiful face, dark, hazel eyes and dark hair; swift and agile in motion, tasteful in dress, she reminded one of the Miltonian Eve,
"Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eyes, In every gesture, dignity And love."
She was the offspring of magnificent parentage. The fine muscular perfection of her father, the healthy grace and elegant form of her mother, and the cultivated moral sensibilities of both, invested this first child of their love with the warmth and brilliancy of a beauty, and a purity of heart, that gave her a rivalry of charms over her generation; she was radiant without exertion, and the electric bloom of her exuberant health was in beaming and beautiful repose. There was royalty in the pulsations of her blood, and in the radiations of her graces, in the nobility of her delicacy and perfections of form, and in the persistent magnanimity of her nature. She was loftier and
56015
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
more queenly endowed than common life, classed with the now hundreds of American women who are subverting the depreciated lines of the aristoc- racy, and that transcend the Greek female of the magnificent reign of Pericles, or the dignity and beauty of the Roman matron whose splendor was deemed necessary to be suppressed by a decree of the Roman Senate.
How beautiful she was!
Look at her picture and see that admirable expression, that symmetry of head and neck and shoulders. She speaks her words of love with carmine lips; the bust significant of a form of beauty, graceful, open faced, beaming and reflective. They bespeak for her the admiration spontaneously given to superior personality ; the splendid evidences of the American woman.
Mrs. Critchfield's home was one of plenty and fashion. Her father was gentlemanly, refined, eminent as a physician, easy in his finances, and noted for his fine carriages and blooded horses; her mother was distinguished for her beauty, and both were in the social current of Wooster, then the most fashionable of towns, and noted for its expensively equipped and fash- ionable ladies and gentlemen. Of all was Adelaide the most admired, and the most loved for her gracious and gentle disposition and manners.
For all the members of her family circle she was endowed with personal regard. Love of her native place of Wooster and the nearby country life of her friends was characteristic, and she often expatiated on the beauties of nature, and revisited the scenes of her childhood, and often related her pedestrian and equestrian exploits that developed her wealth of muscle and limb. She was a lover of ancient trees and country landscapes. Her public spirit, the consciousness of her own graces; her spirit of family love, and love of all sublime things of nature, mingled in poetic enthusiasm in her domestic labors and pleasures.
In the conditions of life she was a creative artist. To have singing birds and flowers and gold fish, to hear the twitter of a canary, and feel the flutter of the flowers as she lifted their heads with dewy fingers; to see her gold fish rush, with burnished scales, to meet her approach, were her daily enjoyment.
The family life was constantly adorned with the versatility of her domestic genius, and sanctified by her elegant goodness and kindness that in a long life was never known to degenerate into anger. Taste in dress and beauty of conduct reigned supreme in her household. Upon the harp of domestic life, she played soft melodies by her magnetic presence. With her children she was like the deer with her young in the covert. The noises of
56016
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
the night met her springing with athletic solicitude to their rescue. Her social graces were an inspiration. She was hospitable and gracious, disarm- ing all doubt of welcome, and winning the love of every creature. Her benevolence not only was extended to prominent visitors, which was very frequent, but to every ragged and hungry wanderer that reached her door. There was genius in her management of home; in the art of preparing food she was a master; in the science of housekeeping she was a magician ; ever hanging beautiful wreaths upon dingy places.
She was divine in her home. Her patience, her industry, her faithful- ness, her wise teaching and influence, were the incarnated spirit of domestic life. The inspiration of heaven was upon her to make a happy home. a place that her family would love, and her love gave her the sublimest energy. Her children and family rise up and call her blessed. Her daughters loved her, and reposed their heads upon her bosom, encircled her with their arms, wooed her by endearing terms, and kissed away the lines of care: and her sons, with no less enthusiasm of love, attended her and worshipped her as a goddess.
Some special virtues of her life assumed peculiar prominence. A more than ordinary education illumined the life and family of this exceptional woman ; she was a counselor, comforter and inspirer. Her earlier years were taught in the Wooster schools of Mrs. Pope and Miss Kate Rex ( Mrs. McSweeney). She attended the female college at Granville, Ohio, and the female college at Delaware, Ohio. Accompanying the Wooster schools were institutions that taught and developed the graces of motion and manners which she. with other young ladies of Wooster, attended. During all her life her step was light and her motions graceful and polished. In her domestic life this grace and polish adorned her. Her soft footstep going and coming in daily duties, the rustle of her dress, the gentle voice of household govern- ment, her noiseless coming through the rooms, her swift touch, and grace- ful poise, and agile motion, and elastic manners, were the perfection of versatility, and in the days of trailing skirts, when in full dress, gave her a queenly stateliness equaled by few ; and this fine taste and educated grace- fulness distinguished her family; and her personal labors in clothing her children had the touch of rare and finished skillfulness.
There was a dramatic beauty in her love of children; she crooned sweet cadences over their cradles, and showered soft whistling bird-toned endearment, and the echoes of angelic sighs, and sweet-lipped wreaths of smiles, upon their tender lives; the benevolence of her life was a fixed habit and always marked the family epochs with generous presents.
56017
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Her peculiar habit of associating with the aged adorned her with a mild and gentle temperament ; the old mothers of Millersburg and Wooster loved her. Her tender vigils at the bed of the sick; her beautiful composure and skill; the enthralling advances of her greeting; the electricity of her touch, seem now a lovely presence.
She was an heroic woman, without fear and without reproach; she had the inflexible persistence of hereditary blood; she breasted the wintry roads, and rode down the storm, and lifted her family on, with the irresistibility of her royal nature; her brown eyes opened with inflexible pleasantness at precautionary suggestions ; she lived in the profundity of nerve repose ; she was not marred by disease, and rejoiced through all her years in the healthy functions of constitutional perfection ; she met each day with noble and fear- less purpose, and in the threatening moments made her way directly to the point of danger ; she had no drop of coward's blood, and to the demands for courage was a Joan of Arc; and to the demands of suffering, a Florence Nightingale.
She was a Christian. The family books marked by her in her moments of leisure were not the classical curiosities of mythology, but the story of a real Redeemer, and in this great trust she taught her household. She was a habitual reader of the Divine Word. From early life she attended the services of the church ; she was a lover of music and sang with great sweet- ness, and as her children grew, they were trained by her in the same religious impressions. Her religion was more than sectarian life; her education fitted her for larger associations; of the beauties of her life, none were more lovely than the generosity of her religious sentiments; she freely mingled with Christians of all denominations; she exemplified the character of her Savior in all the duties of life. In the album of her daughter Addie she wrote the story of her life :
"May 12, 1884.
"Dear Addie :
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
"Your affectionate "MOTHER."
Thus on her fiftieth birthday she found no philosophy so great as this jewel of the Divine Word.
(35b)
56018
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
The daily life of this mother and her children, in their maturing years, was a benediction. As soon the angry flash of ill-nature would be met in the soft petals of the rose, or in the blossom wafted upon a zephyr, as from the dimples that nestled in the mother's smiles, or from the eyes that wooed with her beckonings of melting azure. It was the management of angelic genius! In her daily motive there was progress. One by one she turned her children's footsteps along the grooves of knowledge; she led them by the hand, encouraged and instructed them in useful ways, and watched their slow ascent along the slopes of thought ; she taught them the divine mystery of the stars. Her love, like the electric flash over many zones, illumined her children's homes; as the eagle uplifts its young ones upon level plumes, and assays to wing them in her own ethereal heights, this noble mother, in her holy vigilance, guarded the tearful departure of her sons and daughters.
Along these fleeting years she lived a happy life : her home was charm- ingly decorated in artistic taste ; cool and clean as a temple, renovated with hygienic care ; picturesque, musical with laughter and song ; sanctified by the recognition of omnipresence.
The family nurture was an important part of her philosophy, in the practical performance of which her whole life was distinguished, and the phenomenal family health attested the wisdom of her early training as a physician's daughter. And all these beautiful habits of life were but the concomitants of elegant physical and mental power. Her hand was steady ; her writing small, exact and uniform, the characteristics of the refinement and polish of controlling nerve, and the beauty of her correspondence is but another phase of that same exceptional skill manifested in family nurture, in the preservation of leaves and blossoms in her books, and in her delight in the beauty of her family; just as her heroic impulses caused death. And in all her noble qualities she seems now to stand like a statue-something like Phidias made of Minerva, plated with gold, seventy feet high, before which the Athenians bowed as they approached the colonnades of the Parthenon.
This noble woman lived like a heroine and died like a martyr. Twenty- four grandchildren and one great-grandchild and the future innumerable descendants, will revere her memory.
When we last saw this noble woman, her beautiful soul had left the sunshine of its ascension upon every lineament, and the benevolence of her life sat upon her lips.
NOTE-In this attempted eulogy of one noble woman, the hundreds of noble women of Wayne county are intended to see their own.
56019
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
FRANK TAGGART.
In touching upon the life history of Frank Taggart, one of the best- known members of the bar in northern Ohio, the biographer aims to avoid fulsome encomium and extravagant praise, yet he desires to hold up for consideration those facts which have shown the distinction of a true, useful and honorable life-a life characterized by perseverance, energy, broad charity and well-defined purpose. To do this will be but to reiterate the dictum pro- nounced upon him by the people who have known him so long and well. And it is safe to say that no man in Wayne county occupies a more enviable position in her civic and professional life, not alone on account of the suc- cess he has achieved, but also on account of the honorable, straightforward business policy he has ever followed, both in public and private life.
Judge Frank Taggart was born in Smithville, Wayne county, June 6, 1852, and is the son of Dr. W. W. Taggart, now deceased. The elder Tag- gart married Margaret McCaughey. He came to Wayne county, Ohio, in 1840, from Belmont county, this state, locating near the village of Smithville, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he was very successful. He was a man of strong, logical mind, a scholar and espe- cially well grounded in historical and scientific subjects, a profound and methodical thinker and a mathematician of much more than ordinary attain- ments. During the past decade he abandoned the active duties of his profes- sion, which he long honored during a very energetic and useful life, having, while advancing his own interests and that of his family, at the same time contributed in no paltry degree to the general advancement of his community, being liberal, generous, public-spirited and scrupulously honest.
When his son, Frank Taggart, was five years of age he moved to a farm he had purchased about one and one-half miles northeast of Wooster, and there young Taggart remained until 1868, assisting with the work of devel- oping the home place, learning many valuable lessons that only he who "com- munes with nature" and breathes the pure air of the "sylvan wild" can imbibe, at the same time laying up a potential energy that has stood him well in hand during his trying career as a lawyer. His father was an advocate of thorough mental training and sought to encourage his son in whatever way possible, consequently the lad was first placed in the district schools, later the high school at Wooster, where he completed his preparatory work for entrance in the University of Wooster, which was soon to open its doors to the educational public, the date of its opening being September 8, 1870, and on that date Mr. Taggart had the distinction of being one of the first prospective
56020
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
students, registering as a freshman, remaining one of the original class of five that passed the prescribed course in the curriculum, receiving his degree in 1874. He made an excellent record in this institution and gave promise of a useful and successful career. His brother. Rush Taggart, a prominent lawyer of New York City, and a member of the firm of John B. Dillon, is general counsel of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and graduated in the class of 1871, the close of the first university year, and made the first graduating speech of the class.
After finishing his schooling, Frank Taggart began the study of the law, entering the office of Judge Joseph H. Downing, now deceased, and after a period of study there entered the law department of the university at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1875, remaining for two years, and on July 4. 1876, he was admitted to practice in the district court of Wayne county, Judge Reed, of Millersburg, sitting on the bench of common pleas. He at once opened an office in Wooster without an associate in practice, which has rapidly grown from that day to this until he now holds front rank at the Wayne county bar. He is a loyal Republican, but never stoops to the tricks of the demagogue. In the year 1896 he was appointed to the responsible position of judge of the common pleas court by Gov. Asa S. Bushnell, and in the year 1905 was elected circuit judge of the fifth circuit of Ohio and in 1910 elected chief justice of the circuit courts of Ohio.
In the year 1888 Judge Taggart was married to Lizzie Wallace, daugh- ter of David A. Wallace, D. D., LL. D. Their family consists of seven children, Margaret, William, Wallace, Martha F., Frank, Clementen. John F. and David.
JOHN A. MYERS.
The able and popular assistant cashier of the Wayne County National Bank at Wooster, Ohio, is most consistently accorded recognition in a work of the province assigned to the one at hand, since it has to do with the representative citizens of Wayne county, of which number he is unquestion- ably a worthy member and has played well his part in fostering the diver- sified interests of the same, and while yet a young man has shown what fidelity to duty, coupled with right principles, can accomplish. He is a native of this county, having been born near New Pittsburg, Chester township, on August 14, 1871, the son of David Myers, of Wooster, a sketch of whom appears
56021
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
elsewhere in this volume. He is a worthy son of a worthy sire,-in fact, takes a delight in keeping untarnished the brilliant escutcheon of the Myers name, which has long been highly honored in this locality. He received a good practical education in the district schools of his township, later attending the high school at Wooster. When eighteen years of age he removed to Wooster with his parents, and attended Wooster University for a period of two years, during which time he made a very commendable record for both scholarship and deportment. Desiring to fit himself for a business career, he took a course in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, graduating from the same with a very creditable record.
After he had finished his education, young Myers acted as deputy clerk of the courts at Wooster for six years, doing very creditable work,-in fact, he had mastered the details of the office so well that he attracted the notice of the officials of the Ashland & Wooster Railroad Company, who invited him to serve as their chief clerk with headquarters at Ashland, which posi- tion he held for a period of four years, giving his usual success. He re- turned to Wooster in 1903 and became assistant cashier of the Wayne County National Bank, which position he still holds, discharging the duties of the same in a manner that shows him to be a man of rare business qualities, alert, painstaking and eminently capable.
Mr. Myers was married on May 28, 1902, to Lydia C. George, a lady of culture and refinement, the daughter of D. C. and Harriet F. George, of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Myers was born and reared and where her family were long prominent. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Myers has been blessed by the birth of two children, namely: Laura Minerva, born Septem- ber 13. 1903, and Claudia Virginia, born May 5. 1907.
Mr. Myers is now a member of the city school board. being the youngest member ever honored thus. He takes an abiding interest in local educational affairs, and the cause of education here has been augmented since he became a member of the same. Fraternally, Mr. Myers belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a loyal Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church, being liberal supporters of the same.
The Myers residence on Beall avenue is modern, beautifully located and nicely furnished, and is often the gathering place for many of the best people of Wooster where hospitality and friendship ever prevail. Mr. Myers is a man of pleasing address, frank, generous, courteous and straightforward.
56022
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
JUDGE ROBERT L. ADAIR.
A name too well known to the readers of this history to need any formal introduction here is that of Judge Robert L. Adair, who for many years has been a conspicuous figure in the local courts and has won distinctive prestige in a community widely noted for the high order of its legal talent. He was born in Wooster township, Wayne county, Ohio, February 2, 1869, the son of Anderson and Emeline ( Yocum) Adair. The Judge's grandfather settled in this county in 1825 among the pioneers. His father, who took con- siderable interest in political matters, served as county commissioner from 1867 to 1872. Emeline Yocum was a teacher in the public schools of Woos- ter for a number of years, a daughter of Rev. Elmer Yocum, a pioneer Meth- odist minister who located in Congress township in 1826, and who, for a period of three score and ten years, actively engaged in the spreading of the gospel in Ohio and Wisconsin, dying in the latter state in 1898 at the ad- vanced age of ninety-two years. Rev. Elmer Yocum, the paternal grandfather of the subject, was born in Congress township, Wayne county, Ohio, in 1807. He preached in Ohio until 1840 when he moved to Wisconsin and there preached fifty-seven years. He was a delegate to the general confer- ence on four different occasions.
Robert L. Adair spent his boyhood days attending the common schools and assisting with the work about the home place. Being ambitious to make a name in the legal profession, he entered the University of Wooster, from which he was graduated with a very creditable record in 1891. He studied law with his brother, John S. Adair, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1893, and soon thereafter began the practice of his profession in Orrville, where he remained until 1895, having gained a promising start in his career as a lawyer which augured still greater things for the future. An oppor- tunity presenting itself at Wooster, he returned to this city and formed a partnership with his brother, with whom he had studied, and he has since re- mained in the practice here. having built up quite a satisfactory clientele. Since July 1, 1908, he has been in partnership with W. F. Kean.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.