History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers, Part 96

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Press of Leader Printing Company
Number of Pages: 726

USA > Ohio > Erie County > History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 96
USA > Ohio > Huron County > History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 96

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We have gleaned the most of the foregoing facts

Surdon Trondward

Mary & Woodward

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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

from a book of records and reminiscences in manu- script, partly compiled, but mostly composed, by Mrs. Mary E. Bull, a sister of Mrs. Chapman, who, at the time of writing it, was residing at La Salle, Illinois. She died at that place some four or five years ago. The work evinces much talent and would make a readable volume in print. If the poet, Campbell, had had access to it he might have avoided some of the mistakes which he fell into in writing his "Ger- trude of Wyoming" and he would have found in it plenty of incidents quite as romantic as those which form the basis of that affecting story.

The children of Eliphalet Follett, the father of Mrs. Chapman, were: Dewey E., Abel D., Julia, Clemence A., Mary, Thede, Elizabeth, Tryphena and Fannie. Dewey E. died at Alton, Illinois, in 1860. His wife was Sarah Bull. They had two children: Francis, who married a Mr. Moyer, a prominent citi- zen of Memphis, Tennessee, and Harmon, who is a leading lawyer of Brainard, Minnesota. Abel D. lives in California. He married Laura Smith. They have one child living, Clemence, who married an el- der in the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Follett buried three children: Clemence, Ellen and Edward. Julia is spoken of in the sketch of Dr. L. G. Harkness, and Clemence A. elsewhere in this me- moir. Mary married Mason Bull and resides at La Salle, Illinois. They had two sons killed in the army and buried two others, and have two still living: Fol- lett Bull, a prominent lawyer of Ottawa, Illinois, and Dewey, a resident of St. Louis. Thede married Wil- liam Harkness, a nephew of Dr. L. G. Harkness, and resides with her husband at Des Moines, Iowa. They have one son and two daughters: Daniel, Arabella and Florence. Elizabeth married John McKee and lives in Upper Sandusky. They have one son living: John, who resides at Dayton, Ohio. Tryphena mar- ried Cuyler Greene, by whom she has had three child- ren: Eliphalet, Malcolm and Ferguson. Mr. Greene died in 1848, and she married, for her second hus- band, Dr. J. W. Goodson, by whom she had one child: Nettie, now living with Mrs. J. A. Higbee. Fannie married Calvin Merrels and resides at Alton, Illinois. One child, Julia, died five years ago, and three, Franklin, Luella and Charles, are still living.

The members of the Follett family, from the grand- father of the above named children down, have all been exemplary christian men and women, devoted to the churches of their choice. Mrs. Chapman is the only one of her father's family who became a com- municant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and her fidelity to this branch of the Christian church has ever been of the truest kind.

Mr. F. A. Chapman was married to Clemence A. Follett on the tenth of May, 1830. They have had eight children, as follows: 1. Arabella, married to Dr. A. Woodward, one of the "solid men " of Belle- vue. They have two daughters: Louise and Arabella. 2. Julia T. married Charles Roberts, and died with- out issue in 1855. 3. Louisa C. married Cuyler

Greene, a prominent lawyer of Rushville, New York.' He died a few years after their marriage and she is now living with her mother in the old home. 4. Frederick A. lived to be a young man and died in 1861. 5. Nellie married George R. Finch, a whole- sale merchant of St. Paul, Minnesota. She died May 30, 1869, leaving one child-Clemence. 6. Mary G., who married the widower of her sister Nellie, and has three children: Nellie, George C. and William. 7. Florence married John H. Davis, a banker doing busi- ness in Wall street, New York City. They have one daughter-Flora C. 8. Kate married R. W. Mat- thews, of Boston. He is now engaged in business in Toledo, Ohio. They have had two children: Kittie, who died in November, and Frederick C.

Mr. Chapman died in 1861 of apoplexy. He was public spirited and generous almost to a fault; always ready to assist, with money or advice, those who need- ed assistance. He won the esteem and good will of all who knew him, and died deeply regretted by his fellow citizens. His widow still resides in the beau- tiful and luxurious home which he had provided, highly esteemed by hosts of friends for many ami- able qualities. And her devotion to the church, thongh not the church of her ancestors, is the most peecious inheritance which their deep religious nature has transmitted. Amid the privations of pioneer life, with which, in her maiden days, she was brought in contact; in her home life as wife and mother, and in the later years of her life, Mrs. Chapman has ever shown herself to be an amiable, kind hearted, gener- ous christian woman.

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 sol- diery 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 the partition of the Fire-lands, he acquired pro- prietorship of more than four thousand acres, all lying in sections, one and four of what now is Lyme township. The father of eleven children, he gave to each an equal, undivided interest is these lands. To the ownership, by his father, of western territory, is due the fact of Gurdon's coming to this locality. Mr. Woodward, Sr., came into the possession of his lands November 9, 1808, the date when partition was effected, and died the following year.

Gurdon Woodward was born February 21, 1795, in New London, Connecticut, and, at the age of four-

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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

teen, immediately after the death of his parents, went to reside at Whitestown, New York. There he learned the trade of millwright. His educational advantages were not the best, yet he made wise im- provement of such as were afforded, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the practical branches then taught, and, for his day, was more than an average scholar.

Upon the outbreak of the last war with England, he volunteered his services in behalf of his country, served her with fidelity, and, at the close of the war, received an honorable discharge at Sackett's Harbor, New York. This was in 1815. He had at this time reached the age of twenty years. His mind now turned with eager thoughts toward the distant west. At Whitestown, New York, lived, at this time, a young · lady to whom he had become attached, Miss Mary Shepard Savage, youngest daughter of John and Rachel Shepard Savage. She became his betrothed. Amos, the oldest brother of Gurdon, who was the youngest son, had married Rachel, the oldest sister of Mary, who was the youngest daughter.

In 1816, Gurdon Woodward started for the lands of his inheritance, and, after a temporary stay in Huron, where his sister Betsey and her husband, Mr. George Sheffield, located in the same year, he came on to Lyme in the spring of 1817, and made a selec- tion of his lands. His first night in Lyme township, then Wheatsborough, was spent by the remains of an Indian camp fire-his dog and gun his only com- panions-upon the very ground which was afterwards to be his home during many of the years of his life. His dreams, that first night, must have been filled with thoughts of far-away Whitestown, and of the loved one who awaited there his return.

Two years of heroic toil were now spent in fitting his chosen heritage for the advent of her, who, at the expiration of that time, was to be his bride. A log house was erected and portions of the land cleared and fenced. The day finally came when he retraced his steps to his former home, Oneida county, New York, and there, at the village of Whitestown, on the 14th day of April, 1819, he united his fortunes in holy matrimony with those of Miss Mary Shepard Savage. Westward the star of love, as of empire, took its way. Waiting only to receive the congratulations of their friends, the happy pair started for their western Ohio home, the husband, however, coming some weeks in advance of the wife, who came accompanied by Amos Woodward, Gurdon's oldest brother. Their journey hither, thus taken separately, was their only wedding tour, and the first days of their wedded life-in their wilderness home-their honeymoon. Those first sum- mer days which the young bride, then only eighteen, passed in the rude but comfortable home which her lover had, with dauntless perseverance, prepared for her, must have been in striking contrast to the life she had spent in her father's home in Whitestown. Yet who can doubt that they were happy days?

With energy and determination, enduring many

severe privations, and denied innumerable comforts to which they both had been accustomed, they strove together to better their worldly fortunes, to improve the condition of their farm and its surroundings, to beautify their home, and to make life attractive. Heaven smiled benignantly upon their constant love and patient labor. Seven children blessed the former, and, as a result of the latter, the rude log cabin, in which their wedded life began, gave place, in time, to a large, substantial and comfortable dwelling-at the time of its erection, perhaps, the best in the town- ship. Their beautiful home they christened "Wood- lawn." Here they dwelt together for forty years, and here were born to them all their children: Lucy, Abishai, Amos, William, Mary, Rachel and Julia M.

In 1859, Mr. and Mrs. Woodward removed to Belle- vue, and, purchasing the Dr. Lathrop property, on West Main street, spent there the remainder of their days, receiving kind attentions from relatives and friends. Each lived to a ripe old age, the former dying December 8, 1874, in the eightieth year of his life, and the latter February 25, 1879, nearly seventy- eight years of age.

On the fiftieth anniversary day of their marriage, April 14, 1869, their relatives and numerous friends assembled at their pleasant home to celebrate their golden wedding. It was a time of joyous greetings and hearty congratulations. The aged pair could look back upon a happy, well-spent life, and regard with pleasure, their present condition, blessed with every comfort that hearts could wish. Death had robbed them of three of their children, Lucy, William and Julia, and hence their happiness was tempered with sad recollections, but their surviving sons and daughters were all happily situated in life-a fact that must have been of great gratification to them. In their declining years, their four children and their grandchildren ministered to them with devoted atten- tions; and rarely in this life is seen so marked an exhibition of filial affection as was shown Mrs. Wood- ward by her sons and daughters during the four years of her widowhood.

Of the children, Lucy became the wife of George Sheffield; Abishai married Mary Amsden, the second daughter of Mr. Thomas G. Amsden, and is vice president of the Bellevue bank, and universally es- teemed by his fellow-townsmen; Amos married Ara- bella, eldest daughter of Mr. Frederick A. Chapman; he is vice president of the First National bank, and a man of wealth and influence; William died at about the age of fifteen; Mary became the wife of Rev. Mr. Hamilton; Rachel married Mr. Boardman, who died some years ago; he was a man of culture and intelli- gence, and was a resident of Lincoln, Illinois, at the time of his death; Julia M. died in early womanhood.

Gurdon Woodward was a man of marked and clearly defined characteristics. Of commanding person, he was possessed of sound judgment, a strong will and an inflexible purpose. In politics, he was a staunch adhe- rent to the Democratic faith, and never swerved from

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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

fidelity to party and Jacksonian principles. In reli- gion, though not a communicant, he was aetive in church affairs, and liberal in sustaining its service. He was ever a kind and devoted husband and an affectionate father. Of Mrs. Woodward's religious and domestic life the biographer can say nothing more to the purpose than to quote the following just words taken from an obituary notice published in the Standard of the Cross, at the time of her decease, and written by one who knew her intimately: "Amidst the trials and deprivations of pioneer life, she ever retained the grace and culture of her early life. She loved the church, and as soon as opportunity offered, received the apostolic rite of confirmation by Bishop MeIlvaine. There was nothing ostentations in her piety, yet she did not hide it under a bushel, but let her light shine before others. She took a deep inter- est in all that related to the prosperity of the church. She loved with a pure and earnest affection. In every relation of life she was admired and loved, but it was as a Christian woman that they who loved her best, love now to think of her. In her decease the com- munity in which she lived has lost a generous bene- factor, the church a devout and exemplary member, and her domestic and social circle a most kind and warm-hearted relative and friend. 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors.'"

THE REV. MOSES HAMILTON.

The subject of this brief sketch is a native of the "Emerald Isle," having been born near Belfast, in the year 1829. At the age of twenty years, that is to say, in the summer of 1849, he came to Ohio. For two years he taught school in Zanesville, and in the sum- mer of 1851, entered the sophomore class in Kenyon College, from which institution he was graduated in 1854, with the first honor of his elass. In 1856, he was made a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Rosse Chapel, Gambier, by Bishop Mc- Ilvaine.

After spending several months in missionary work in Henry and Defiance counties, he was ordained a presbyter at Piqua in 1857. Soon after the adjourn- ment of the Diocesan Convention of that year, he ac- cepted a call to the joint rectorship of St. Paul's Church, Bellevue, and Trinity Church, Lyme-the former a position which he has ever since held. On the 24th of April, 1860, he was married to Mary, daughter of the late Gordon Woodward, of Bellevue. They have had five children-four daughters and a son, all of whom are living.

In his pastoral calling Mr. Hamilton is an active, energetic and faithful worker. As a preacher he is plain, practical and forcible, and takes comprehensive views of the subjects on which he discourses.

AMOS WOODWARD,

the eldest son of Abishai and Mary Spieer Woodward, was born in New London, Connecticut, January 25, 1:80. His father and mother were the parents of eleven children, of whom there were five sons and six daughters-Amos, Abishai, Eben, William, and Gur- don; Hattie, Alithea, Alice, Mary, Betsey and Anna. The Wood wards are of English descent. Their names are to be found among those who came to settle in the valley of Connecticut at an early day. Abishai Woodward, the father of Amos, was a skillful and competent draughtsman, and drew designs for many of the elegant houses that were erected in New Lon- don during the period immediately preceeding and following the revolutionary struggle. That he is a prominent and highly esteemed citizen is attested by the fact that he held for many years the office of alder- man in his native village. Although his name does not occur among those of the original Fire-lands sufferers, he acquired ownership, by purchase of a large number, or amount, of claims, and at the time of the partition of the lands, received more than four thousand acres, so that he was enabled to give to each of his eleven children three hundred and sixty-five acres. These lands were aparted to him chiefly in section four of township twenty-four, now known as Lyme township. The partition of lands among the sufferers, or their assignees, was effected by a lottery plan. Through the workings of this singular dis- tribution of the sufferers' lands, the township, now ealled Lyme, became the place of residence of the Woodwards. Hither came first Gurdon and William in 1817, followed by Amos in 1820. The last named resided in New London, at the house of his parents, until the year 1804. Two years previous he had visited Whitestown, New York, where he met, for the first time, the lady who afterwards became his wife,-Miss Rachel, eldest daughter of John and Rachel Shepard Savage.

And here we pause to note a rather striking coinci- dence: Amos and Gurdon, brothers, the oldest and the youngest sons of Abishai and Mary Spicer Wood- ward, were married, the former to Rachel the eldest, and the latter to Mary the youngest, daughters of John and Rachel Shepard Savage. Thus brothers wedded sisters, the oldest brother the oldest sister, the youngest brother the youngest sister.

Amos came to reside permanently in New York State in 1804. He settled in Vernon, the home of Miss Savage, and next year, February 6th, the lovers were married. The following year, December 16, 1806, was born to them their only child-save one who died in early life,-Julia Ann Woodward, who is still living, the widow of Richard L. MeCurdy, in Lymet ownship, nearly seventy-three years old. He remained a res- ident of Vernon until the year 1811, when he re- moved to Whitestown, where he engaged in the mer- cantile business. This he successfully carried on for nine years, when, in 1820, he removed to Ohio. His

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brothers, Gurdon and William, had the advantage of prior choice in selecting their lands, and chose tim- bered tracts. Amos, in making his selection, chose a moiety of prairie with timber, and thus his lands were not all in one body. He selected for his homestead, a traet lying two and a half miles southeast of the pres- ent village of Bellevue, and about a half mile directly east of his brother Gurdon's home. Here was erected the first large frame house in the township, in the year 1821. The occasion of raising the frame for this structure, was an important event in the township. Word was sent far and near, and perhaps all the set- tlers in the township, and many from adjoining town- ships, were present. The custom, everywhere preva- lent in those days, of making free use of good whisky, was observed, and the frame was speedily placed in position. As soon as this was done, one of the raising-bee party mounted aloft and, standing upon one of the cross-beams with whisky jug in hand, which he swung to and fro with great zest, cried out in stentorian tones: "I christen this building 'Julia Ann's delight forever.'" Here, in this new Ohio home, Mr. and Mrs. Amos Woodward spent the re- mainder of their wedded life. The husband died February 21, 1841, and the wife October 1, 1854.

Amos Woodward was of a religious turn of mind and lived and died a worthy communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was ever very active in behalf of the church, and soon after his ar- rival in Ohio, interested himself and others in the organization of the church of his choice. On the 20th of January, 1821, he assisted in the organization of the first church in Norwalk, and was made its senior warden. The parish also chose him as one of its lay readers. In 1824, he was chosen one of the county commissioners, and was for a number of years a justice of the peace, both of which positions he filled with much credit to himself and acceptability to the people. He was a steadfast friend of Bishop Chase, and he and that good man, together, selected the site for Kenyon college, of which Mr. Woodward was one of the first trustees.

RICHARD LORD MCCURDY.

The excellent lady, who is the widow of the sub- ject of this notice, permitted the writer to see an in- teresting genealogical record, that shows the descent of the MeCurdys, through the wife of Rev. Stephen Johnson, to be direct from the learned divine and fa- mous writer, Rev. John Diodati, who was from the Italian nobility, and who lived at Geneva in the time of John of Barneveld. The ancestral families which this tree of genealogy exhibits to the observer are very numerous, and includes many worthy and distin- guished people. Among these, in addition to the Diodatis, may be mentioned the Griswolds, the Wil.

loughbys. the Digbys, the Pitkins, the Wolcotts, the Ogdens and the Mitchells.

The MeCurdy homestead, in Lyme, Connecticut, is described in the following words, by an able writer in Harper's Monthly, of February, 1876:

"Side by side with it" (the Mather homestead) "stands the oldest house in Lyme-a landmark which has been protected with generous care. Like Sydney Smith's ancient green chariot, with its new wheels and new springs, it seems to grow younger each year. It is the residence of Hon. Charles Johnson McCurdy, LL. D., an eminent jurist, who was for many years in the Connecticut legislature, was speaker of the house, lieutenant governor of the State, United States minister to Austria, and for a long period judge of the supreme court. It was he who, when lieutenant governor of Connecticut, in 1848, originated and car- ried into effect, through the legislature, that great change in the common law, by which parties may be- come witnesses in their own cases, a change which has since been adopted throughout this country and in England.

"This antique dwelling has the low ceilings and the bare polished beams of the early part of the last century Its doors and walls are elaborately carved and paneled. In the south parlor is a curious buffet, built with the house, containing a rare collection of china from an- cestral families. Between the front windows stands an elegant round table which descended from Gor- ernor Matthew and Ursula Wolcott Griswold, and around which have sat from time to time the six gov- ernors of the family. The whole house is a museum of souvenirs of preceding generations. In the north chamber is a rich and unique chest of drawers, which belonged to the Diodati wife of Rev. Stephen John- son; also mirrors, tables, pictures and other relies of great antiquity. This apartment was occupied by La Fayette at two distinct eras in our national history- for several days during the revolution, when he was entertained by John McCurdy, while resting his troops in the vicinity; and in 1825, as the guest of Richard McCurdy and his daughter Sarah, while on his mem- orable journey to Boston."

This interesting dwelling descended from John Mc- Curdy, the grandfather, to Richard McCordy, the father of the subject of this sketch, and within its time honored precincts was born Richard Lord Me- Curdy, on the 27th day of May, 1802. His mother was Ursula (Griswold) McCurdy, the Griswold family of which she was a member having furnished to the State two governors. He was christened Richard in honor of his father, and Lord in honor of his grand- mother, Mrs. John McCurdy, who was a daughter of Judge Lord, one of the supreme judges of the State. An interesting story is told by Mrs. McCurdy. of Lyme, concerning the marriage of her husband's grandfather with the daughter of Judge Lord. The Lords were very wealthy, of ancestral lineage, and at the time among the most consequential of the Connec- ticut families. The daughter was very beautiful,

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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

while her lover was proud spirited and a man of abil- ity. When married, the judge, her father, made her a present, as she and her husband supposed, of a gen- erous portion of the elegant furniture with which the Lord mansion was adorned. As the ox carts, then in use, were about to be driven away with their valuable cargoes, Mr. Lord, taken with some strange freak, summoned his servants to him and said: " I call you to witness that these goods are loaned, not given." "Dump the carts, dump the carts !" replied the hanghty McCurdy, and Mr. Lord, seeing him to be in dead earnest, and, most likely, admiring his spirit, said, " Never mind ! Go on! They are yours !"

It was this same John McCurdy, whose spirit of resistance to the arbitrary measures of Great Britain found ready and indignant expression on the eve of the Revolutionary struggle. It was under his roof that the first published article was written pointing toward unqualified rebellion, should an attempt be made to enforce the odions stamp act. Under his roof, too, the soldiers of Washington's army found safe retreat. Having a store, he told them to help themselves to anything they wished, and when remu- neration, after close of the war, was offered him, he refused it. The following letter shows plainly the character of the man, many of whose traits his grand- son, Richard L., inherited. He dealt largely in tea, and his London house shipped it, per his orders, to him in care of a Mr. Nelson, of New York; and it seems, that at one time the demand upon Mr. Nelson for tea being urgent, he took the liberty of selling some of Mr. McCurdy's tea, which called forth the following letter:

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History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers, Part 96

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Press of Leader Printing Company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Press of Leader Printing Company
Number of Pages: 726