History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 103

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 103

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Stephen B. Parsons remained at home with his parents as long as they lived, and becoming the owner of the homestead by purchase and inheritance he has been engaged in general agricultural pursuits and dairying, keeping. on an average about twenty-five cows. He has served his township as a trustee many years, and was one term a real estate assessor. He votes with the Republican party, and is a mem- ber of the Royal Arcanum.

On the 27th of September, 1871, Mr. Par- sons was united in marriage to Ellen M. Reed, who was also born in Rootstown township, a daughter of Otis and Melissa (Spelman) Reed. Their children are: Fannie R., the wife of O. B. Yarion, John S. and Arthur O., all in Rootstown township; and Charles, whose home is in Alliance, this state. Mr. Parsons and his family are members of the Congrega- tional church.

JAMES HENRY STEVENS is a prominent and successful farmer of Portage county, and re- sides on the farm which was his birthplace. He was born August 31, 1862, and is a son of William Wallace and Catherine ( Hutchin- son) Stevens. He is grandson of Jude Ste- vens and great-grandson of John Stevens, of Chester, Massachusetts. Jude Stevens was born July 31, 1788, in Chester, Massachusetts, and married July 13, 1815, at Chester, Polly T. Ayres, born in Chester, December 10, 1788. He had seven children and came to the West-

ern Reserve in 1833, with his family. One of his sons, Henry Homer, born December 20, 1823, in Chester, Massachusetts, died October 22, 1904, and is further mentioned elsewhere in this work. The only living child of this union is Permelia Sophia, the youngest, who was married June 8, 1854, to James A. Alcorn, by whom she had no children. She lives with her nephew, James H. Stevens.

William Wallace Stevens was born October 9, 1821, in Chester, Massachusetts, and was twelve years of age when he came west with his parents. He married, in Mantua, Cath- erine, daughter of Orin Hutchinson, and they had six children, only two of whom survive, James H. and Mary Ellen. The latter mar- ried Frank E. Dilley, April 20, 1905, and they have one child, William Stevens Dilley, born December 10, 1906. Mr. Stevens came west with his parents by way of the Erie canal, and crossed the lake from Cleveland. They pur- chased a farm at Kirkland and later traded farms with John Johnson, a Mormon, who wanted to get near the Mormon Temple. The present home of James H. Stevens was said to be the place where the Mormon Bible was written by Joseph Smith, and from this house Mr. Smith was taken and tarred and feathered in the back yard; Sidney Rigdon was treated similarly at the same time.

James Henry Stevens attended the district schools of Hiram, attended Garrettsville high school, and then spent two years at Hiram College, while President Hinsdale officiated in that institution. Returning home, he took up farming, which has since been his occupation. He married in Mantua, November 21, 1883, Jennie Burnett, born Januarv 12, 1860.

DR. SETH EUGENE MILLER, coroner of Lo- rain county, was born in Spencer, Medina county, Ohio, January 17, 1871. The family was established in the Western Reserve by his grandfather, John Miller, who came to Medina county from Washington county, Pennsylvania, at an early date. He settled at Homerville. His son, also John Miller, was born in Pennsylvania June 2, 1840, and came west with his parents when about two years of age. He married Candace Oakley, who was born in Spencer township, Medina county, a daughter of Joseph Oakley, of an old family in the county. John Miller has been a farmer all his life, and now lives retired at Spencer.

Dr. Miller was reared on a farm, and after attending the district school entered high

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school, from which he graduated. He attended college at Hillsdale, Michigan, and graduated from Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, with the class of 1896. He first prac- ticed his profession in Savannah, Ashland county, Ohio, where he remained a few months and then removed to Kipton, Lorain county, where he remained in successful practice for ten years. While there he was elected to the office of county coroner, and subsequently lo- cated in Lorain. In 1908 he was re-elected. He ably and acceptably fulfills the duties of his office, and when not so engaged spends his time in general practice. He has won the con- fidence and esteem of all who know him, and is one of the prominent and public-spirited citizens of Lorain. He belongs to the county and state medical societies.

Fraternally Dr. Miller is a member of Ober- lin Lodge, No. 380, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and Holman Lodge, No. 619, Knights of Pythias, of Lorain.

Dr. Miller married Mary Sibyl Stroup, of Spencer, Ohio, daughter of Jackson Stroup, and they are the parents of two children, Ralph G., born April 30, 1897, and Ruth S., born April 5, 1900.

MRS. CLARA (WHITTLESEY ) Goss, widow of the late Ambrose S. Goss, of Edinburg, Port- age county, Ohio, is a native born resident of this place, her birth having occurred Sep- tember 8, 1847. She is a daughter of Ran- dolph Whittlesey, who spent the greater part of his life in this vicinity, and granddaughter of John and Sallie Whittlesey, early pioneer settlers of the Western Reserve.

John Whittlesey came from Connecticut to Portage county about 1806, bringing with him his wife and children. Taking up 100 acres of unbroken land, he began the arduous task of redeeming a farm from the wilderness. Erecting a house and barn, he placed sufficient land under cultivation to support himself and family, and continued his residence here until his death. To him and his wife, who cheer- fully shared with him all the privations and trials of life in a new country, four children were born, namely : Randolph, Chauncey, John and Nancy.

Randolph Whittlesey was born in Walling- ford, Connecticut, in 1799, and when seven years of age came with his parents to Portage county, driving across the country with teams, oftentimes following a pathway made by blazed trees. On arriving at man's estate, he

bought land, cleared and improved a home- stead in Atwater township, and here carried on general farming during his active life, being numbered among the successful agriculturists of the community. His wife, whose maiden name was Clarissa Mansfield, was born in 1800, at Wallingford, Connecticut. She bore him five children, namely: Patrick; Edgar ; Friend; Randall R., who lives on the farm wrested by his father from the forest; and Clara, now Mrs. Goss.

Clara Goss was given excellent educational advantages, after leaving the district school continuing her studies at higher institutions of learning in both Atwater and Hiram. On De- cember 22, 1875, she married Ambrose S. Goss, who was born September II, 1832, in Fall River, Massachusetts. His parents, Dan- iel and Margaret Goss, emigrated from Scot- land to Massachusetts, and after living a few years in Fall River came to Ohio, locating in Cincinnati, where they spent many years. Am- brose Goss embarked upon a mercantile career in preference to any other, at the time of his marriage opening a store of general merchan- dise in Edinburg. Possessing rare business ability and judgment, he built up a thriving and lucrative trade, which he continued until 1891, when ill health forced him to retire from active pursuits, having been in the business for thirty-five years. He lived. however, until death relieved him from his sufferings, on October 23, 1903. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Goss, namely : Leonard W., residing in Manhattan, Kansas; Ernest died when ten years of age; and Wilbur C., a me- chanical engineer, lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Domestic in her tastes, Mrs. Goss, although living alone since the death of her husband, thoroughly enjoys her home life with its daily round of duties and its quiet pleasures. In her religious faith she is a Congregationalist. belonging to the church of that denomination.

CHARLES M. FENN, proprietor of a fine liv- ery and stables at Medina, is a native of that city, and has long been influential in its public affairs. He was born April 9, 1859, to Merri- man and Elizabeth (Morgan) Fenn, his father being a native of York township, Medina coun- tv, and a pioneer farmer of that place. He re- sided for a few years in Iowa, and was there drowned accidently. The paternal grand- father, Charles Fenn, was also an early settler of Medina county. Estelle. the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Merriman Fenn, married A.

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Van Valkenburg, and resides in Chesterfield, Ohio. After the death of the father, the widow returned to Medina county, and resided with her father-in-law. Our subject, Charles M. Fenn, was put seven months old when his father met his death. He was left with his grandfather when his mother went to Mich- igan, where she married a Mr. Clark, to whom she bore a son, Homer Clark, and she herself passed away while residing. in Michigan, in 1862.

When Charles M. Fenn, of this sketch, left the public schools of Medina, at the age of sixteen, he devoted himself solely to farming interests ; but, after a few years, he commenced to deal in horses and cattle, in connection with more independent work, on the farm, and gradually became established in the livery and feed business at Medina. Subsequently add- ing the sale of horses to his city enterprise, he is now the proprietor of a very complete establishment. His building is 120 by 40 feet in dimensions, the horses occupying the base- ment. Above are his offices and storage rooms for his large display of hacks, buggies, surreys and other vehicles demanded by the traveling public, or maintained by his regular patrons. In the busy season he keeps from a dozen to eighteen horses to accommodate his transient trade, which extends over the city and far into the surrounding country. Mr. Fenn's interest in the general affairs of his native city began many years ago and has never slackened, his service of three terms in the municipal council proving that he possesses a full knowledge of its needs and ability to further its interests. He is also an active participant in the work of the secret and benevolent orders, being a member of Comet Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias, and Morning Star Lodge No. 26, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1885 Mr. Fenn married Miss Lucy M. Wightman, of Medina, daughter of J. L. and Clara ( Bissell) Wight- man, old and respected settlers of the county. The children of this union are Ceylon W., Sid- ney M., Clara E. and Percy C. Fenn.

WILLIAM FOBES MIXER, who occupies a beautiful country homestead one mile north of Painesville, on the Grand river, is the owner of a portion of what was known in pioneer times as the Sessions farm. This ancestral place, so closely associated with the honorable activities of two of the substantial pioneer families of Lake county and the Reserve, lies on a noble rise of land and looks across and

down a valley of great beauty and fertility. The family home is a commodious residence of colonial style, standing in the shade of huge maples and surrounded by spacious lawns, which stretch out to beautiful and picturesque Grand river, on one side, and to a grand old forest of twenty acres on the other. Altogether the Mixer homestead has justly been called the handsomest country estate in a region of handsome farms. Mr. and Mrs. William F. Mixer, the representatives in this section of the Reserve of the honored family name, are most active in the advancement of desirable movements and institutions, and have earned universal respect.

Mr. Mixer is a son of Phineas and Emily Mixer, and was born on the old Fobes farm in Painesville, October 25, 1862. He gradu- ated from the local high school in 1882, after which he engaged in farming on the place where he was born and which he operates. On December 6, 1899, he married Miss Christine Jacobs, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Jacobs, his wife, who was born at Sandusky, Ohio, January 13, 1875, coming to Painesville with her parents in 1890. Both her father and mother were born in Germany, the former in' Alsace, July 25, 1839. When twenty-one years of age he emigrated to the United States, and soon afterward enlisted at Sandusky in Com- pany H, One Hundred and Seventh Ohio In- fantry, serving four years in the Civil war. He is still living in Sandusky. His wife (nee Elizabeth Appel) was a native of Baden, born March 26, 1838; in 1852 came to America with her father, two sisters and two brothers, and located at Sandusky, where, after the war, she married Mr. Jacobs. She died at Paines- ville August 7, 1900.

Mr. and Mrs. William F. Mixer are the parents of a daughter, Gertrude, who was born November 19, 1901, in the house where her father was born and which has sheltered four generations of the two families-William Fobes, maternal grandfather of Mr. Mixer ; Emily (Fobes) Mixer, his mother ; himself, and his daughter Gertrude.

Phineas Mixer, great-grandfather of Will- iam F., was born at Norridge, Massachusetts, February 3. 1756; was a Revolutionary sol- (lier, and after the war married Abigail Fobes. They had five children, and Phineas, the youngest, was ten years of age when he brought his family to the Western Reserve in 1805. He had bought 300 acres of the Con- necticut Land Company and, finding no roads

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west of Buffalo, in order to reach his destina- tion was obliged to follow the winding beach of Lake Erie. He finally located his tract one mile west of Madison Dock, his nearest neigh- bors (barring Indians and wild beasts) being five miles away. A few years afterward a road was opened between Buffalo and Cleve- land, and Phineas Mixer (I) bought ninety- three acres on the South Ridge, near Union- ville, two miles east of Madison, and there built a log tavern, which he conducted with the postoffice. This farm, now rightly known as the Old Homestead, has been the home of five generations of the Mixer family, its pres- ent owner being Don Barns, whose daughter Mary is a great-great-granddaughter of Phin- eas Mixer Sr., who died there November 3, 1821, aged sixty-five years.

Phineas Mixer Jr., grandfather of William F., was born at Norridge, Massachusetts, in the year 1795, and about 1821 married Dorcas Catlin Woodworth, at Unionville, Ohio. The Woodworths were descendants of John Rodgers, a Protestant preacher of London, who in 1555, during the reign of Bloody Queen Mary, shared the fiery fate of Latimer and Ridley. Dorcas Woodworth was a na- tive of South Hadley, Massachusetts, born in July, 1797, and after her marriage to Phineas Mixer resided at Unionville until her death, in September, 1853. Her husband died on the old Mixer homestead at that place when eighty-six years of age.

William Fobes, maternal grandfather of William F. Mixer, was born at Norridge, Mas- sachusetts, February II. 1793 : married Olive Webster and, coming to Ohio, settled at Kings- ville. In the spring of 1836, with his wife, four daughters and a son, he moved to Paines- ville, having bought of Carter Foote what was known as the Sessions farm of 206 acres, lying on the Grand river one mile north of that town. This farm, as a whole, has never been out of the hands of relatives since it was settled by Mr. Sessions, who was a relative of the Fobes family. Mr. Sessions had sold the property to Carter Foote, whose wife was Emily Fobes, daughter of Lemuel Fobes, the latter being a cousin of Grandfather Fobes. The family of Lemuel Fobes was the second to locate at Painesville. coming all the way from Massachusetts in their own conveyance, and the daughter Emily was the first white child born in the township. Grandfather Will- iam Fobes died July 30. 1860, and his wife. horn February 13. 1794. died July 10, 1867.

Phineas Mixer, father of William Fobes Mixer, was born at Unionville, Ohio, on the- 18th of October, 1828. He graduated from William's College in [855, and from Lane's Seminary in 1858, and on July 2, 1861, mar- ried Emily Fobes, daughter of William and Olive ( Webster ) Fobes. The wife and mother was born at Kingsville, Ohio, March 30, 1829, and came to Painesville when seven years of age. At her death, April 7, 1906, she had spent seventy years of her peaceful and Chris- tian life in the home to which she came in her childhood.

HENRY FRANCIS ARNDT, a well known citi- zen of public affairs, residing in Amherst, Lo- rain county, is a native of the city where he has such a substantial standing, born on the 4th of December, 1860. He comes of parents of strong characters and remarkable experi- ences, and takes a just pride in both. His father, John Ludwig. Arndt, was born in Prus- sia and as secretary of a society of revolution- ists of 1849 was imprisoned by the royal gov- ernment. The dungeon in which he was con- fined was so small that he could neither stand upright or lie at full length. Fortunately for the continuance of his life, he escaped from confinement after fifteen months of terrible suffering, his first wife dying while he was imprisoned. The revolutionary exile reached New York in safety, where he engaged in the practice of medicine and in preaching. While- thus engaged in Camden, New Jersey, he mar- ried Miss Catherine Grau, a native of Hobo- ken, but at the time of her marriage was a resident of Camden. She was a lady of edu- cation, strong character and warm affection. About 1857 they located in Cleveland, where Mr. Arndt continued his practice in medicine and his ministrations in the Methodist church, and two years afterward moved to Amherst, where the husband also followed his double professional life. During the Civil war he be- came most zealous and prominent in the Union cause, not only supporting it from the pulpit but becoming very active as a recruiter of volunteers. His zeal so earned him the enmity of the Copperhead element that he was as- saulted by his enemies in the fall of 1864, and received injuries from which he died in the spring, of the following year. After his death his widow, who had been his brave and en- thusiastic assistant in all his work and who had become especially interested in his medical labors, went to Cleveland, there pursued a four

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years' medical course, and returning to Am- herst practiced her profession in that place until her death in July, 1886.

Five children were born of John Arndt's second marriage, viz : John J., who is a resident of Cleveland; Anthony, who died at the age of five years ; Henry F., of this sketch ; Louise, who died at Coronado, California, as the wife of C. A. Westenberg; and Dr. George Arndt, a surgeon of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. There were two sons by the first marriage. Max died at the age of ten years. Professor H. R. Arndt is a physician of San Francisco, interested in a large sanitarium, and connected with the faculty of a medical college, as well as inter- ested in an extensive publishing business.

In the fall of 1868, when eight years of age, Henry F. was placed on a farm at Hen- rietta, Ohio; a year later went to live with a family in Birmingham, Erie county, Ohio, and remained with the latter until he was twelve, when he returned to Amherst. In 1876 he located at Oberlin, not to enter the college but to learn the carpenters' trade, and after he had mastered it applied himself to it in his native place until the winter of 1878, when he located at Mayville, New York. On July 24, 1880, he married, at Jamestown, New York, Miss Ella May Baker, of Chautauqua, New York. She was born May 15, 1865, at State Line, Pennsylvania, daughter of Stephen and Violetta (See) Baker, natives of Watts Flats, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Arndt have had five children, as follows: Katherine May, Inez Violetta, Leona Rebecca, a son that died in infancy, and Georgianna Henrietta. Katherine May is wife of Harry Newton, of Amherst, and they have two children, Robert Henry and Doris Yetive. After his marriage Mr. Arndt settled at West Salamanca, New York, where he became associated with his father-in- law in the contracting business for some time, next locating in Toledo during the winter and spring of 1882, and returning to Amherst. where, until 1886, he engaged in various lines of contracting. In that year he became identi- fied with the Cleveland Stone Company, taking charge of the construction work in most of its quarries. Since that time he has been engaged in that line, with headquarters at Am- herst, where he has also become prominent in other business fields and active in city and county legislation. In 1897 he was instru- mental in starting the co-operative store which has been such a success in Amherst. . Always an active Republican, Mr. Arndt has served

for two terms as a member of the city coun- cil, during which he was chairman of the light- ing committee when the municipal plant was installed. On July 13, 1909, he was appointed commissioner of Lorain county to fill a va- cancy, his term expiring in 1911. He is also a strong and popular figure in the fraterni- ties, being a member of Stonington Lodge, No. 503, A. F. and A. M .; Plato Lodge, No. 203, I. O. O. F., of which he is a past grand ; and of the Modern Woodmen of America.

HARLOW CASE STAHL .- As president and treasurer of the Ohio Cultivator Company, one of the foremost manufacturing corporations of the Western Reserve, Harlow Case Stahl, of Bellevue, is a prominent factor in promot- ing and advancing the industrial growth and prosperity of this part of Huron county. A man of excellent business qualifications and training, he possesses great financial and ex- ecutive ability. and by his persistent energy end wise forethought has been instrumental in building up a business that extends far to the southward and westward, the company of which he is at the head having plants in many cities of prominence. A son of Jacob B. Stahl. he was born February 12, 1849, in Sandusky county, Ohio, on a farm lying two miles south of Fremont.

John Stahl, his grandfather, was born in Strassbourg, Alsace, Germany, in 1773. Reared to agricultural pursuits, he was there engaged in farming until 1834. when, accom- panied by his wife and three of his five chil- dren, he came to America, and in Buffalo, New York, joined his two older sons, who had pre- viously located in that city. Buying a small farm, he resided there a year, and then sold out and came to Ohio, locating near Florence. Erie county, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying at the age of four score years. His wife, whose maiden name was Barbara. was born in Alsace, Germany, in 1777, and died in Erie county, Ohio, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. They were the parents of five children-one daughter and four sons. the names of the sons being John, Jacob B .. Philip and Christian.

Jacob B. Stahl was born February 10, 1814. in Strasbourg, Germany, and was there edu- cated in the public schools, after which he learned the cooper's trade. In 1832 he came with his brother John to this country, landing in New York City after an ocean voyage of sixty-three days. Going then, by way of the

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Hudson river and the Erie canal, to Buffalo, he was for three years employed in lumbering on Tonawanda Island. From there he came, in a sailing vessel on Lake Erie, to Sandusky, and for seven years thereafter worked as a farm laborer for Captain Case. With charac- teristic German thrift, he saved his earnings, and subsequently bought sixty acres of land in Ballville township, Sandusky county, and in the log house that stood in an opening he and his wife lived a number of years, and in it two of their sons, including Harlow C., and two daughters, were born. Selling, that place in 1851, he purchased a farm on the banks of the Sandusky river, known as the "Blue Banks," and was there engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, January 27, 1883, when he was accidentally killed by being thrown from his carriage in a runaway.

In 1841 Jacob B. Stahl married Rachel Camp, who was born in Westford, Chittenden county, Vermont, December 4, 1814, and died September 5. 1877. Her father, David Camp, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, January 2, 1778, and after his marriage moved to West- ford, Vermont, where he resided until 1814. Migrating then to Orange county, New York, he remained there eight years, when, in 1822, he again started westward, bringing his wife, children, and all their worldly possessions, in teams to Sandusky county, Ohio, which was then a wilderness. There were neither canals nor railroads in the state for many years there- after, and the forests were filled with bears, deer, wolves, and other wild beasts, they alone disputing the Indians' right to the territory. He first bought land in York township, but afterwards moved to Riley township, from there going to Fremont, Ohio, where he spent his declining years, dying in 1838, at the age of three score years, his death occurring De- cember 23 of that year.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 103

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 886

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 886