USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 37
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When but a child the parents of Judge Given removed from Newville, to Westmoreland county, Pa., and settled at the village of Murryville. His father being a blacksmith, the deceased, when he was only a lad, commenced to learn his father's trade, and so determined was he to do so that his father had to erect a platform by the side of the anvil in order to give the youthful genius an op- portunity to display his skill. He was so expert and apt in learn- ing that, at a very early age, he was considered a good workman and prepared to perform the different labors of the village black- smith.
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His early education was limited, it being acquired while he was learning his trade. He attended the village school during the day and "blew the bellows " in the shop at night. In paper cap and leather apron, by the blaze of the forge, he read his books and first gave discipline to his mind. So far as the benefits of a regu- lar education are concerned, it was, to a great degree, neglected. By persevering energy and diligent industry, he had, by the time he came to Ohio, qualified himself to take charge of a common school. In 1836 he left Murryville and went to Pittsburg, to try the experiment of living, where he followed his trade in an exten- sive machine shop until 1838, when he emigrated, with his father, to Holmes county, Ohio, and settled on a farm, then in the woods, three miles west of Millersburg. Here a smithy was at once erected, and here Judge Given successfully blowed and struck for two years. From here he removed to Petersburg, in Ashland county, where he swung the noisy hammer for another year. In 1841 he returned to Holmes county, and began investigating Chitty, and unlocking the secrets of Blackstone. During the sum- mer he pursued the study of the law; during the winter taught school.
He was admitted to the bar at the July term of the Supreme Court, 1843, at Sandusky, Ohio. November 23 of the same year he was married to Miss Susan Croco, of Holmesville, Holmes county, Ohio. During the autumn of his admission to practice he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Holmes county before he had a single case in the court, to which office he was re-elected. At the termination of his prosecutorship he stood at the forefront of the Millersburg bar, having proven not only the peer, but the superior of Hoagland, Tannyhill and Sapp. In 1849 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Holmes county, and served in that body for one term with marked distinction.
In 1850, in the month of November, he came to Wooster, forming a partnership with John P. Jeffries in the legal practice, which continued till the spring of 1855. Subsequently he became associated in the law with John McSweeney, remaining with him until 1858, when he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court, of the Sixth Judicial District of Ohio, his commission bearing date of January 10, 1859. He remained on the bench until 1862, when he resigned, and on the 18th of August, 1862, was commissioned Colonel of the 102d O. V. I., serving in the army for nearly three years. March 13, 1865, he was commissioned Brigadier
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General by brevet, for his gallant defense of Decatur, Alabama, and was mustered out of service June 13 of the same year.
On returning from the army he again began the practice of his chosen profession, in which he was engaged when the voice of the grim escort said to him, "Tarry no longer ; come with me."
He died Sabbath morning, October 1, 1866, at Wooster, in the 47th year of his age.
As is apparent from what is above written, Judge William Given was, in the highest sense, a self-made man. Like his lin- guistic prototype, the Worcester blacksmith, he was the founder, builder and maker of himself. The university and the academy were unknown to him, and showered upon him no honors. What he possessed he gathered by "the process of accretion, which builds the ant-heap, particle by particle, thought by thought, fact by fact."
Did we not know his ancestry, we would nationalize him as a true son of Erin. His character supplied many of the conventional characteristics of the Irishman. He was sensitively tender and warm-hearted, generous and impulsive, ever ready to impart of his substance to a friend, to perform a charity or do a kindness to the lowliest and humblest of his fellow-men. His heart-goodness was exercised in behalf of no class or grade of the community-it extended to all; but the devoted sphere for its exercise was in the sacred circle of home and family. Here he was priest and king by the ministrations of perennial kindnesses and that sweeter author- ity which is conceded and justified of affection. We have heard him say, whilst in the army, that, though it was a needful and no- ble service, the thought of home and loved ones there nearly over- whelmed him, and that his "heart ached with its desolation."
Socially he was one of the most agreeable of men. He had extraordinary qualities of conversation, possessed the keenest per- ception of a jest or anecdote, and withal, had a streaming, lumin- ous wit which floated everything he looked upon. He had the piquant, scorching repartee of Foote, and the bonhommie and exu- berant humor of Maginn. We might almost infer that, somewhere in his early wanderings, he had found old Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth and drank of its waters, for he enjoyed a remarkable juven- escence of feeling, freshness and elasticity of temperament. His mind, however, at times, was of the self-contemplating, introspect- ive order ; he had vivid impressions of the vanity, hollowness and shortness of life, and it is possible that melancholy may have stolen
28
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upon him in those seasons when he turned his mind back upon itself, and wheeled his thoughts around to inspect his soul. This was a part of the higher consciousness of which we know William Given was capable, and which forms a portion of the suffering ex- periences of every contemplative mind.
He was well versed in English and American literature, and especially in the poetry of the two countries. Poesy had given to him her finer ear. Burns, to him, was a bread-tree in a garden of roses. He believed in the genius and inspiration of him who had
"left his land her sweetest song, And earth her saddest story."
His psalms had the fragrance of Israel's singer, and to him "Mary in Heaven" was true Love's collar of jewels. His poetic fancy was scintillant, intense and real, and under culture would have burst in song.
In the department of law was manifested his vitalized force and power. He was not a Judas to his client, like the professional thieves and confederated scalpers that go unhemped at nearly every bar, but he was an honorable lawyer. He did not belong to that class of licensed book-whackers-"men that hire out their words and anger; that are more or less passionate, according as they are paid for it, and allow their client a quantity of wrath pro- portionable to the fee which they receive from him." His manhood was the bond of fidelity betwixt him and his client, and he allowed no profanation of it by the unclean vulgar hands that sell the most sacred rights of their neighbors. In the arena of the law he allowed no man to beat him down. More than that, he was the equal, in many respects, of any man that ever confronted him at the Wooster bar. As Judge Dean said in his eulogy of him in court, November 20, 1866:
As an advocate he had few superiors in the State. He was a master in forensic skill. He sometimes appeared as forcible as Curran,
" Whose words had such a melting flow, And spoke of truth so sweetly well, They dropped like the serenest snow, And all was brightness where they fell."
His excellency and the various elements of strength which constituted him a good lawyer were not confined to a single de- partment of practice, or any special branch of the profession. He
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was an accomplished and able lawyer in every walk of it. In elicit- ing evidence he was fair and manly. In cross-examination he was thorough, searching and exhaustive. There was no harshness in- dulged toward the witness, unless he proved refractory or impu- dent, or took to prevarication or falsehood, and then woe to the man or woman against whom was directed the fury of his glance and the caustic of his tongue. A keen anatomiser of character and subtle penetrator of the springs of human motive, he seldom allowed the rogue to escape conviction. His wit was wonderfully wise and detective; it flashed upon a knave and lighted up a rascal like a policeman's lantern.
In the dissection of testimony he was adroit, crafty and dex- trous. To the Court he was uniformly gentlemanly and dignified ; to opposing counsel respectful and courteous. The rights of his client were maintained at all hazards. Incivilities and indecorums he heartily abhorred. He gave no insults; he took none. His motto was,
-" Beware Of entrance to a quarrel ; but, being in, Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee."
When aroused there was heat and gallantry in his onsets. "His dynamic brain hurled off his words as the revolving stone hurls off scraps of grit." In his arguments there was force, cen- trality, cogency and massive structural expression. He never was surprised and was powerful in sudden efforts. His word-facility was unusual, and his diction animated and fluent. When he em- ployed sarcasm he did not use the pen-knife, but the falchion and the rapier. Bombs of wit flashed from his batteries of speech like sparks from hot Vesuvius. He was the Hudibras of the Woos- ter Bar.
Says Mr. Dean in his eulogy :
As a jurist, he was highly eminent. Though naturally impetuous at the bar, he presided upon the bench with remarkable coolness, never yielding to the im- pulse of the moment in the most exciting cases. His well-balanced mind held his tongue in check until his deliberate judgment spoke the words of truth and justice. His mind appeared to be perfectly fitted for the duties of Judge, and he appeared to delight in the dispensation of justice; was never at a loss in the determination of a case. Even in pronouncing the sentence of the law upon criminals, his words were so tender and kind as to greatly relieve the culprit's punishment. He pre- sided with dignity, yet with a stern kindness remarkable.
" His look drew audience still as night, Or summer's noon-tide air. "
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Though several times elevated to places of public confidence and positions of decided honor, in nothing but a remote meaning of the word was he a politician. He contemned the oozy, mucky lowlands, in whose noxious atmosphere breathed this ungrateful brood. His patrician nature shrank from its festering airs. To such a man as William Given the descent was too steep from his plane of manhood to the stagnant lagoon-levels of the politician.
In remembrance of his virtues, and not unconscious of his frailties, we have woven this chaplet of memory with the only privilege left us, of laying it upon his grave. He may have had faults. In church, or camp, or state, who has not? We would not hide them in a cloud of periphrasis. He was of our house of flesh, of the tenement of a common blood, and we write remem- beringly and lovingly of him in the name of the brotherhood of all. He has realized the sorrows of living, and the pains and bliss of dying.
" Breathe for his wandering soul one passing sigh, O, happy Christian, while thine eye grows dim ; In all the mansions of the house on high, Say not that Mercy has not one for him."
It can be said of Judge Given that when he departed he "took a man's life along with him." As Thackeray wrote of Dick Steele :
" Peace be with him ! Let us think gently of one who was so gentle; let us speak kindly of one whose own breast exuberated with human kindness."
CONSTANT LAKE, SR.
Constant Lake is a scion of the Buckeye State, being born in Brookfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, August 30, 1812. His father at that time was in the military service, having a contract to fur- nish supplies to the army then resisting the encroachments of Great Britain. When but 10 years of age he was so unfortunate as to lose his mother, which resulted in a temporary disbanding of the family, when Mr. Lake went to his sister, Mrs. Mary Black, then living in Vermillion township, in what is now Ashland county, where he had his home until 1826. He then removed to Wooster, taking his residence with his brother, J. S. Lake, then engaged in mercantile pursuits. Constant, then a youth of 14 years, entered the store situated on what is now George Brauneck's corner, but
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subsequently removed to the lot now occupied by D. D. Miller, hardware merchant. Serving in the relation of a clerk until 1832, a partnership was formed between him and Joseph, under the style of J. S. & Constant Lake. This partnership lasted to 1838, when Joseph withdrew from the firm, three years thereafter re- moving to Cleveland, Constant prosecuting the business, and afterward receiving as a partner Isaac N. Jones.
Mr. Lake's life has been spent in commercial pursuits, entering upon the same in boyhood and continuing therein until the spring of 1870, having conducted at times an extensive business, and been largely interested in branch establishments in Toledo, Loudon- ville, Hayesville and Shreve. He was married May 25, 1836, to Eleanor Jones, only daughter of Hon. Benjamin Jones, by whom he had ten children, and whose death is recorded June 20, 1852. He was re-married August 18, 1853, to Anna P. McDonald, of Philadelphia, Pa., by which union he has 6 children. Of his rather numerous family but 7 remain-5 boys and 2 girls. Three of the first marriage are living, Benjamin, Constant and Mary, the latter marrying William D. Banning, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Of the second marriage there are living one daughter and three sons. Joseph, the second son of the first marriage, was among the first of the volunteers from Wayne county in the three months ser- vice, and at the expiration of which, in Camp Dennison, endeav- ored to re-enlist in Company E, Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for the three years' term, but was declined and rejected upon the grounds of corpulency.
Determined, however, to be a participant in the war, he was permitted to join the artillery service, enlisting in Hickenlooper's Fourth Ohio Battery. His ambition was soon gratified. At the battle of Pittsburg Landing his battery was called into action, and though he had been sick in hospital the three previous days, when the fire opened he hastened to his position, remaining by his gun until he was observed to fall, and was carried to the rear. He wandered to the river bank, where his condition was frequently remarked, when by some means he got on board a boat and was carried to St. Louis, where in the hospital he died.
Benjamin Lake received a commission of Captain in what was popularly known as the McLaughlin squadron, organized at Mans- field, recruited a company in Wayne county, and was in General Garfield's engagement at Prestonburg, Ky., where he encountered Humphrey Marshall, yclept "the greasy knight," sadly and em-
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phatically to his discomfiture. As an appreciation of his services, General Garfield made him one of his Aids, holding said position one year and a half, when, on account of ill-health, he resigned, separating from the command in Eastern Tennessee.
Mr. Lake still lives in our midst, and is esteemed as a generous, polite, benevolent and Christian gentleman. If, as Alexander Smith says, "Time gives for what he takes," Mr. Lake has little occasion to be dissatisfied or regretful over the exchange. If he has aimed a blow at the elasticity of the body, in its place he has given him a tranquil cheerfulness and spirit buoyancy, the mild autumnal weather of the soul. Non-emotional and seldom yield- ing to excitements or perturbations, he is nevertheless sympathetic and full of charities. His hospitalities in his own home are recog- nized and conceded by all, friend and stranger uniformly finding a welcome there. He has been a member of the Church of Christ for over thirty years and an Elder for more than twenty-five.
THE WOOSTER GAS LIGHT COMPANY.
June 18, 1856, the Council of the incorporated village of Wooster passed an ordinance "To provide for lighting the incor- porated village of Wooster with gas," by which it was provided that William Stephenson, of the city of Cleveland, and his asso- ciates, their successors, and asignees, should use the streets, lanes, alleys, and other public grounds of said village, for the purpose of laying down and maintaining therein pipes for the conveyance of gas in and through the same for the use of said village and the inhabitants thereof. This ordinance also gave Messrs. Stephenson & Co. the exclusive use of the streets for gas pipes for the period of 10 years, and restricted the company to three dollars per thousand cubic feet for gas to citizens, and two dollars per thousand for city, except lamp-posts, three dollars whilst the company owns the posts and lights and extinguishes them.
On the 20th of June, 1856, J. H. Kauke, J. H. Baumgardner, Isaac N. Jones, D. Robison, Jr., H. R. Harrison, John P. Jeffries and C. C. Parsons, Sr., duly incorporated, under the laws of Ohio, the Wooster Gas Light Company, with a perpetual charter, and said company was duly organized January 14, 1857, by electing J. H. Kauke, Daniel Black, J. H. Baumgardner, I. N. Jones and J. P. Winebrenner Directors, and by-laws were enacted for its govern- ment. The capital stock of the company was $20,000, divided into
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800 shares of $25 each. The gas works were erected in 1856 and 1857, and the village of Wooster was lighted with gas in Febru- ary, 1857, there being then 105 consumers and twenty street lamps. In 1859 the capital stock was increased to $23,700. The demand for the elastic fluid so greatly increased that in 1864 the company pulled down the old arches or ovens and erected larger ones, and greatly increased the gas-producing capacity of the concern.
In 1867 they extended the pipes and increased the capital to $30,000. In 1871 the old works, having become entirely too small to supply the demand, the Directors resolved to erect new works. They purchased the old oil well lot on East Henry street, from the heirs of William Henry, deceased, and four lots adjoin- ing from E. Quinby, Jr., giving them a frontage on Henry street of 310 feet, on which they have erected new works with all modern improvements, and which are of sufficient capacity to supply a city of 15,000 inhabitants.
JACOB FRICK.
Jacob Frick was born four miles east of. West Newton, West- moreland, county, Pa., on the 17th of December, 1834. His par- ents were of German ancestry, his father being in limited circum- stances, and pursued the vocation of a blacksmith during the entire period of his life. Jacob was among the younger members of the family. At the early age of eighteen he was cast upon his own resources, it being his first advent upon the great ocean of life. Not having acquired a knowledge of his father's trade, and unac- customed to any other mechanical pursuit, there was no alterna- tive but hard work. To this he set himself, and equipped both nerve and spirit. He first hired himself out upon a farm for two years at low wages, but made it a maxim to economize his earnings from the start. He adopted the Ben Franklin idea of saving the pennies and letting the dollars take care of themselves. He argued that if his wages were but a pittance, the greater neces- sity for a wise economy.
After the expiration of the stipulated two years, and in the year 1855, he removed with his father to Hancock county, Ohio. During this year his father died. But little time elapsed after his coming to the Buckeye State until he was again engaged. He now hired himself to drive a team, in and about the village of Van-
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Buren, in said county, for six dollars per month, which employ- ment he followed for twelve months. He next entered a produce and dry goods establishment, as a clerk and general subaltern, be- ing detailed principally as lard-receiver, egg-packer, etc., etc. Here he continued about a year, during which time the proprietor died.
Adopting the very practical, but somewhat hazardous commer- cial maxim of, "nothing ventured nothing won," he resolved to engage in business for himself. In pursuance of this determination he opened a provision store of his own, and in a year thereafter connected with him in business his brother, when they enlarged their sphere of business and embraced within its circle a dry goods department.
This condition of things existed about three years, during which period he was married to Elizabeth Shelly. Having resolved upon a change of territory for the advancement of his commercial and speculative aims, he came to Wayne county in April, 1859, locat- ing in Smithville, and embarking without delay in the dry goods trade. In this enterprise he persisted for a year, when he relin- quished all other pursuits to embrace the favorite project of his life-that of grain merchant. He first began the purchase of grain at what is known as the "Summit," north-east of Wooster, but desiring a point where conveniences would be more ample and facilities more inviting he removed to Wooster in the spring of 1865, where, for the last twelve years he has been engaged in the grain and milling business.
WILLIAM STITT.
William Stitt is a Buckeye by birth, first seeing the light in Jefferson county, Ohio, and settled in Wooster, in May, 1832. November 13, 1839, he was married, by "Priest " Jones, to Miss Margaret Bartol, a native of Pennsylvania. He engaged in the manufacture of saddle-trees, harness, etc., on his arrival here, and has successfully and profitably prosecuted that vocation to the present time. He is a prominent and zealous member of the Methodist church ; a man of scrupulous integrity ; unobtrusive but firm and radical in his opinions ; an earnest advocate of truth, and distinguished for a rigid morality and an upright life.
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MARKET-HOUSE DESTROYED BY A "MOB."
In 1833 a market-house, the first and last that Wooster ever had, was erected on the south-west side of the Public Square, under direction of the Town Council, whereof Thomas Wilson was Presi- dent, and J. H. Harris Recorder. Andrew Bostater, Joseph Fox and John Swain were contractors for its construction, the painting by David Barr. The structure was about 75x40 feet, one story high, paved with brick, with ceilings arched and plastered. It was supported by fourteen columns of brick, about two feet square, twelve feet high, firmly set on stone corners, eight or ten feet apart, between which were the stalls, each numbered.
In a few years, however, the citizens doing business around the Public Square pronounced a market-house located in such a prom- inent position a nuisance that ought to be abated; but the town authorities refused to remove it. As a result it narrowly escaped "purification by fire " at the hands of an incendiary. Finally, on Monday night, August 9, 1847, a number of men disguised beyond recognition, and said to be among the "first citizens," assembled at the market-house armed with axes, hooks, rope and tackle, and a horse of strong pulling qualities, with which they assailed it on all sides with destructive energy, so that when morning came the "garish blaze of day " rose upon its prostrate columns,
"Its broken arch, its ruined wall,"
and the "market-house," as such, was known no more forever. This nocturnal act created considerable excitement, and much de- clamatory discussion about "mobs." The Mayor offered a reward for the apprehension of the mysterious vandals who had so sacrile- giously profaned this Temple of Mutton and Soup Bones, but with- out resulting in anybody being arrested, although, of course, the perpetrators were known to many, but whose crime was condoned by the "public improvement " it was considered they made in de- molishing the market-house. A number of those who had a hand in this escapade are now living in Wooster, and will take pleasure in telling you, as they have us, how the thing was done.
THE FULLER SISTERS.
It may not be inappropriate to here introduce briefly the names of Francis and Metta Fuller. They were sisters, between whom
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a devoted attachment existed, and whose poetical creations were first collected in the same volume. Francis, the older of the two, was born at Rome, New York, and Metta, the third child of the family, was born in Erie, Pa., March 2, 1831. In 1839 the family removed to Wooster, Ohio, where, under the influence of good schools and interesting social relations, Francis made gratifying literary acquisitions, and at the tender age of fourteen she was supplying the press with acceptable rhythmic gems and prose contributions. She rose rapidly to popularity, and soon established a reputation in the belles lettres literature of the land.
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