USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 30
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Renting then a building of his brother, Mr. Myers opened the first feed and livery stable in Geneva, starting at first with but three horses. In February, 1864, in company with his father-in-law, Charles Tinker, Mr. Myers opened a shop at Garrettsville, Ohio, and began the manufacture of wood-cutting and later mowing machines, making among others the Union Mower, for which Mr. Myers made the patterns. Previous to that time, however, Mr. Myers had spent a winter in Iowa, selling fruit trees, and when he returned to Geneva in the spring of 1864, brought back with him a bunch of horses, which he shipped to New York and sold for $5,000. This money he put into the Garrettsville shop, and when he withdrew from the firm he received thirty mowing machines as his share of the profits for two years' work. Returning to Geneva in 1866, Mr. Myers bought the old Union Hotel, enlarged it, put- ting in a brick front, and raising it, and con- ducted it until 1869, when he sold out for $14,000. He subsequently rented a stable, and bought and shipped horses to New York. In 1870 he hired out to sell lightning rods, receiv- ing $150 a month salary. In the meantime Mr. Tinker had continued his factory at Gar- rettsville, and Mr. Norman Caswell was at the same time making handles for hoes, forks, etc., in Geneva, and at Mr. Tinker's suggestion put in a trip hammer at Garrettsville, operating it there a year. In 1870 Messrs. Tinker and Cas- well consolidated, forming a stock company under the name of the Geneva Tool Company, into which Mr. Myers put $5,000. While selling lightning rods on the road, Mr. Myers subse- quently received a telegram urging him to return to build the shop for the company, and
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on July 15, 1870, began grading the grounds, his salary being $150 a month, and on January 1, 1871, the plant was in operation.
Mr. Myers was made superintendent of the factory, with a force of thirty-six men under him, and built up a good business in the mak- ing of tools of all kinds, including forks, rakes and hoes. Mr. Caswell succeeded Mr. Myers as superintendent, Mr. Myers, who was a director, going back to his business of horse- buying, while Mr. Tinker was president. In February, 1871, Mr. Tinker wired Mr. Myers to be present at the next board meeting, and he afterwards entered the shop as a workman, receiving four dollars a day wages. The first year, with Mr. Caswell as superintendent, the company lost $15,000, and Mr. Myers was then employed as superintendent, with a salary of $1,500 a year. The following year the debt- of $15,000 was wiped out, and a dividend of two per cent was paid the stockholders. Mr. Myers served as superintendent of the com- pany for twenty-seven years, and every year the company paid a dividend. His salary was increased until it amounted to $2,000 a year, besides which he had two per cent of the net earnings after a dividend of six per cent had been paid. The number of men under him had been increased from thirty-six to two hundred, and the output of the factory grew from $30,000 to $200,000, the capital stock remain- ing .at $100,000, with a surplus of $63,000. When, in 1897, it was decided that the com- pany enter the trust, Mr. Myers refused to go with it, and sold his stock and stepped out.
In 1882 Mr. Myers purchased eighty-two acres of his present farm, lying one and one- fourth miles from Geneva, and soon built his present residence. He has bought more land, having now three hundred and forty-five acres in his home farm, and has met with eminent success in horse raising and dealing, for the past sixteen years having bred Hackney horses of a superior grade, and makes a specialty of matching and breaking young horses.
In December, 1863, Mr. Myers married Maria A. Tinker, a daughter of Charles and Mary Tinker, of Garrettsville. She died in October, 1869, and their only child, Wick C. Myers, died in childhood. Mr. Myers married second, December 31, 1873, Ella K. Lockwood, a daughter of Jonathan and Emma Lockwood, of Geneva, and they have three children, namely: Don, working with his father on a salary ; Eva, at home ; and Eula, wife of John Seymour, of Ashtabula. Politically Mr. Myers
is a Democrat, and fraternally he was made a Mason in 1863.
ERHARD STEINBACHER .- A man of sterling character and one who left a definite impress upon the civic and business annals of the city of Akron was the late Erhard Steinbacher, who was for many years one of the prominent and influential business men of this part of the Western Reserve and whose name and per- sonality are held in grateful memory by all who knew him and had appreciation of his worthy life and worthy deeds. He came from the German fatherland to America when a young man, and through his own energy and ability gained distinctive success in connection with the productive activities of life, and he ever showed himself possessed of a strong, true and noble spirit, a full appreciation of his stewardship and an abiding sympathy and charity for "all sorts and conditions of men." He achieved material success of significant order through worthy means, was loyal as a citizen, and so lived as to retain the confidence and esteem of all with whom he came in con- tact. His nature was one of sincere and posi- tive order, and integrity was the dominating attribute of his long and signally useful career, whose termination came with his death, at his home in Akron, on the 27th of April, 1903.
Mr. Steinbacher was a native of the king- dom of Bavaria, Germany, where he was born on the 30th of March, 1825, so that he was nearly four score years of age when he was summoned from the scenes of life's activities. He came of stanch old German lineage and the family was long one of prominence in Bavaria. In the excellent national schools of his native kingdom he received his early edu- cational training, which was supplemented by further study in historic old Heidelberg Col- lege. In 1844, at the age of nineteen years Mr. Steinbacher severed the gracious ties which bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. He came to Ohio soon after his arrival in the United States, and here the first two years of his sojourn in a strange land were passed in Akron and Cleveland. In 1847 he returned to Germany, where he made a visit of a few months, at the expiration of which, in 1847, he returned to America and again took up his residence in Akron, which was then a mere village of inconspicuous order. With the dis- covery of gold in California, in 1849, Mr. Steinbacher was one of the adventurous spirits
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who journeyed to the far distant gold fields in that memorable year. He made the long and weary overland journey and joined the gold-seekers in their ardent quest, meeting with a fair measure of success. He returned to the east in 1851, by way of the isthmus of Panama, and in February of that year again took up his residence in Akron, where he entered into partnership with George Weimer and engaged in the drug and grocery business, utilizing a frame building which stood on the site of the present First National Bank. In 1851-2 he erected the three-story brick building which he so long occupied at 104 East Market street, and there he continued in the grocery and drug business in an individual way from 1865 until his demise. He was at the time of his death one of the oldest and pioneer business men of Akron, where he was known to all classes of citizens and where he was held in the most unequivocal confidence and esteem. He was also one of the organizers and incor- porators of the Citizens' Savings and Loan Association, in 1872, and was its president from its inception until the close of his life. He was also a stockholder in the First National Bank and was one of the organizers of the Akron Iron Company, of which he continued a director from its incorporation until his death.
At the time of the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Steinbacher, who had received thorough military training in his native land, held the office of major in the state militia of Ohio. and in addition to being a member of the local military organization designated as the "Squir- rel Hunters." a body of men who assumed the work of defending, the invasion of Kentucky and Ohio by Confederate raiders in 1862; he was also especially active in promoting enlist- ments for the Union armies and in providing supplies for the soldiers in the field, as well as in caring for their dependent families.
As a citizen Mr. Steinbacher was liberal, progressive and public-spirited, and in every possible way he did all in his power to promote the advancement and material and civic pros- perity of his home city. In politics he ac- corded an unwavering allegiance to the Repub- lican party, and his religious faith, exemplified in thought, word and deed, was that of the Episcopal church. He was identified with various social and fraternal organizations, and his popularity was of the most unalloyed order. based upon his sterling character and his genial personality.
In April, 1853, Mr. Steinbacher was united in marriage to Miss Phoebe Potter, of Suffield, Ohio, and they became the parents of four children,-Marie Louise, who died in infancy ; Kate L., who is the wife of George N. Tyner, of Holyoke, Massachusetts; Edward E., who died April 29, 1887; and Georgia Belle, now deceased, who married George L. Stewart. Mrs. Steinbacher was summoned to eternal rest on the 26th day of January, 1890, at the age of fifty-eight years.
In 1894, Mr. Steinbacher contracted a sec- ond marriage, being then united to Mrs. Jane Smith, widow of Dr. Jacob Smith, who was for many years one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Akron, where his name is held in grateful memory. Mrs. Steinbacher was born in the historic old city of Edin- borough, Scotland, and was a child at the time of her parents' removal from the land of hills and heather to America. She has ever taken deep interest in the history of her native land and takes pride in the long line of sterling Scottish ancestors through whom her geneal- ogy is traced on both the paternal and maternal sides, though her loyalty to the land in which she was reared and has maintained her home from childhood is of the most insistent and appreciative type. She is still most alert both mentally and physically, finding pleasure in the associations and the interests which surround her in the gracious twilight period of her life.
MAHLON E. SWEET .- The name of Mah- lon E. Sweet is prominently associated with the fruit growing interests of Lake county. He was born within a half a mile of his present home on the 16th of November, 1835, a son of John H. and Harriet (Harris) Sweet, both of whom were born in Wayne county, New York. Coming to Ohio during an early period in its history they located in the woods of Lake county, and shortly after the birth of their son Mahlon they left the farm on which they had first located and settled on land just east. There John H. Sweet lived and farmed until 1856, when he moved to the old Harris farm near Mentor. His wife was a daughter of Preserved and Nancy (Warner) Harris, who came to Ohio about the same time as the Sweets, about the year of 1830, and they lo- cated on this farm near Mentor in 1856. Mr. and Mrs. Sweet moved there to take care of her parents during their declining years, but she and her husband died before the parents. Just after returning from a visit to his son
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Benjamin in the hospital at Perryville, Ken- tucky, Mr. Sweet was taken ill, and died in the same year, 1863, and his wife survived him but eight weeks, their ages at the timeof death being sixty-three and fifty-seven years re- spectively. Mr. and Mrs. Harris survived their daughter ten years, and were quite old at the time of their death. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Sweet, namely: Nancy, the wife of Nelson Wilkins Groveland, Oakland county, Michigan; Preserved, who was a farmer and died at the age of sixty years in LaGrange, Illinois ; Mahlon, of this review ; Amos, an agriculturist near Mentor ; Benja- min, who served his country in the Civil war, but was discharged for disability, and he is a merchant at Western Springs, Illinois ; Job, who is farming near Mentor; Matilda, the wife of Joshua Long, of Newton Falls, Ohio; and Richard, a rancher and merchant at Oak- land, California. Two of these sons were rep- resented in the Civil war, Benjamin and Job. and the latter served until the close of the conflict.
Mahlon E. Sweet remained at home with his parents until their removal to Mentor, and during the six years following his marriage he farmed the old Sweet homestead. He then came to his present place, in which his wife owned an interest, and in addition to erecting its buildings he has since added to its bound- aries until it now contains one hundred and six acres. When he took up his abode here it was but pasture land, but he has since placed it under a high state of cultivation, planting it mostly with fruit, raising apples, peaches, pears, plums and grapes, with apples and grapes as leaders. The vineyard covers about eight acres of ground, and from twenty- five to thirty acres of the farm is devoted to fruit culture. It is well adapted for this pur- pose, lying high above the lake, and the remain- der of the place is devoted to general agri- culture.
Mr. Sweet married on September 1, 1857, Sarah Ellen Campbell, who was born in Mont- ville, Geauga county, Ohio, and was six years of age when she came with her parents, Henry and Electa (Allen) Campbell, to Lake county. they locating just east of Kirtland. Mr. and Mrs. Sweet had no children of their own, but they have given homes to many, including Jennie Wakely, whom they raised from six years of age, and she is yet with them. Nettie Campbell, a niece of Mrs. Sweet, was educated by them to teach, and she followed the pro-
fession until her marriage to F. S. Allen, and she is now living at Kirtland. They also gave a home to two of the children of Mr. Sweet's brother Preserved for two years. Benjamin Delmater was with them for three or four years when a boy, and James G. Cobean came to them at the age of ten and remained until about fifteen or sixteen years of age. During eight years Mr. Sweet has spent the winter months in Florida, at Eustis in Lake county, thus escaping the cold and rigorous months of the north. He has served his township as a trustee for two terms and has been many times a dele- gate to the county conventions of the Repub- lican party. He is a member of and an active worker in both branches of the Grange, and has represented the local order at the state Grange.
WILLIAM WALLACE STOCKING. - A wide- awake, brainy business man, full of energy and enterprise, W. Wallace Stocking is inti- mately connected with one of the leading in- dustries of Ashtabula county, being general purchasing agent for the Ideal Hoop Com- pany, of Ashtabula, his place of residence, however, being in Geneva. A son of William H. and Mercy (Talcott) Stocking, he was born, October 11, 1863, in Chester, Geauga county, Ohio. The Stocking family originated in England, its founder in America hav- ing been George Stocking, who located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1633, the line of descent being as follows: George (1), Samuel (2), George (3), Captain George (4), George (5), Elisha (6), Chester (7), William H. (8) and William Wallace (9). An ex- tended sketch of his ancestors may be found elsewhere in this volume, in connection with the sketch of Chauncey H. Stocking, his brother.
Obtaining his early education in the dis- trict schools, and at a select school in Thomp- son Center. William Wallace Stocking re- mained at home until twenty years old. He subsequently worked with his father and brother at the carpenter's trade for ten years, but since that time has been employed in the timber trade. For a while he had a saw mill and lumber yard in Madison village, carrying on a retail trade, but afterwards engaged in a wholesale lumber trade, doing business in Ohio, Pennsylvania and the South. Coming from Madison to Geneva in 1901, Mr. Stock- ing conducted a shoe store for two years, and the following two years was manager of the Painesville Veneer Company, in which he
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was a stockholder. Going back then to Ge- neva, Mr. Stocking became general purchas- ing agent for the Ideal Hoop Company of Ashtabula, and now has full control of the buying of the elm timber used in the manu- factory. He supervises all of its timber tracts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, hav- ing several assistants in his labors. In this capacity, Mr. Stocking handles a great deal of standing timber, having it cut by contract, and placing it in the mill to be cut as desired, oftentimes having to buy large tracts of land to obtain the needed timber. He is an expert in this line of business, and has an extensive knowledge of the forest resources of the great Middle West.
Mr. Stocking married, April 22, 1890, Fanny Benjamin, who was born in Kings- ville, Ohio, a daughter of Rice Benjamin, of Ashtabula county, and they have one son, Wallace Benjamin Stocking, born November 9, 1898.
SAMUEL G. BARNARD .- It cannot be denied that a publication of this nature exercises its most important function when it takes cog- nizance, through proper memorial tribute, of the life and labors of so distinguished a citizen as the late Judge Samuel Goodwin Barnard, of Medina, who was a native of Medina coun- ty and a scion of one of the most honored pio- neer families of the historic old Western Re- serve. It was given him to accomplish a not- able work in the field of popular education as well as in that of the law, and he ever stood exponent of the most real and loyal citizen- ship. His was a gracious, noble personality and his memory will long be cherished and venerated not only in the county and city in which the major portion of his life was passed, but also by the many who profited from his in- structions and admonition during the many years which he devoted to pedagogic work. He served for a number of years as judge of the probate court of Medina county, and thereafter was familiarly known by the title which he thus gained.
Samuel Goodwin Barnard was born in Guil- ford township, Medina county, Ohio, on April 4, 1828, and was the third in order of birth of the six children of Abner and Diana (Blanch- ard) Barnard. His father was born in the town of Simsbury, Scotland parish, Hartford county, Connecticut, on November 3. 1799, and his mother, who was a daughter of Thomas and Sylvia Blanchard, of Windsor, Poquonock
parish, Hartford county, Connecticut, was there born on February 15, 1799; their mar- riage was solemnized on February 22, 1820. Abner Barnard was a son of Captain Samuel and Roxana Barnard, representatives of old and worthy colonial families of New England and both of stanch English lineage. Captain Samuel Barnard, father of Abner Barnard, and grandfather of Samuel G. Barnard, the subject of this sketch, gained his title of cap- tain in the Revolutionary war. Abner Barnard continued his residence in Connecticut for sev- eral years after his marriage, and there two of his children were born. On May 10, 1827, Abner Barnard set forth for the Western Re- serve, which was then considered on the very frontier of civilization. The family journeyed in wagons to Albany, New York, from which point they found transportation to Buffalo by canal boat. In the latter city, which was then a mere village, they embarked on the primitive steamboat "Enterprise" for Cleveland. Con- sidering this portion of the long and weary journey the following has been written: "Ar- riving at a point three miles from that city, the captain of the vessel refused to go farther,- because, it is said, of some previous misunder- standing with the officials of the city,-and the passengers were compelled to trust themselves to the open boats. These, laden down nearly to the gunwales, in the darkness of the night. made their tedious way to what was then the hamlet of Cleveland, the passengers touching the water when resting their hands on the sides of the boats. Fortunately, the passage from the steamboat was made without accident, and the little family came from Cleveland, on the old pike, to a point on this road in Guilford township, Medina county, nearly a mile north of the village of Seville, settling on what is now known as the Martin farm." It may be inferred that this farm at the time was repre- sented essentially by the virgin forest, and here Abner Barnard provided as a home for his family a log house of the primitive type com- mon to the locality and period, after which he essayed the herculean task of reclaiming his land to cultivation. Here this honored pioneer passed the residue of his life, and his devoted wife also died on the old homestead. They were folk of superior mentality and sterling character, self-reliant and industrious, and well fortified for the vicissitudes of the pioneer era. Concerning their children the records extant are somewhat incomplete, but the following is of interest: Mary W., born in Connecticut,
S & Barnard
M. M. Barnard.
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December 31, 1822, died May 6, 1850; James E., born in Connecticut, August 22, 1825, died at Sterling, Ohio, October 19, 1905; Samuel G., subject of this memoir, was the first of the children to be born on the old homestead farm in Medina county, Ohio, where also the other three children were born; Albert G. was born October 14, 1831, and is a resident of Seville at this time; Charles H. was born September 12, 1836, and died April 4, 1852 ; and Hercelia was born April 25, 1842, is still living in Me- dina county.
Judge Samuel G. Barnard passed his child- hood days on the home farm, but as the care of a large family and the insufficient means of providing for the same, taxed the powers of the devoted parents, each of the sons began to depend largely upon his own resources from boyhood and to contribute his quota to the support of the other members of the family. Thus Judge Barnard began to work by the day or month when a lad of but twelve years, find- ing employment on neighboring. farms and at such other work as he could secure. It may be understood that under these conditions his early educational advantages were most limited. Indeed, the only advantages available were those of the primitive pioneer schools, which he was able to attend at brief and vary- ing intervals. Like many another who has risen from the obscurity of the pioneer farm and has essentially bent circumstances to his will, Judge Barnard had an insatiable ambition and an appreciation of the necessity for a broader education. Thus he made progress through self discipline and study during his leisure hours. That he made good use of these hours is evident when we advert to the fact that when but sixteen years of age he became eligible for the work of a teacher and was en- gaged as an assistant instructor in a select school in the little village of Seville. In the following year he successfully taught a winter term of school. Under such conditions he in- itiated his work in a profession in which he was destined to attain much of success, pres- tige and distinction. Concerning the various stages in his career of progress from this point it is deemed best to draw, with but slight para- phrase, from a previously published sketch of his life.
He continued teaching school in the winter for a number of years, and was then engaged as principal of the normal school at Wey- mouth. This school, which had an enrollment of more than one hundred pupils, he taught
with but one assistant, and with such distin- guished success that he was forthwith elected superintendent of the Medina public schools. This position he filled with great acceptability until his failing health forced him to resign. But teaching had become his chosen life work, and after a few months' respite he opened a normal school in Medina. Here his efficiency as a teacher was displayed in a marked degree and attracted a large attendance from a wide area of country. This school was a great suc- cess in every respect, and Judge Barnard had the gratification of knowing that under his guidance many of his pupils laid the founda- tion of an education that has placed them in positions of prominence and responsibility. Probably the leading characteristic of Judge Barnard as an educator was his skill in direct- ing young minds, and he was recognized as being especially successful in influencing those who were regarded as particularly wayward. It was this feature of his school that gained for it so wide a reputation and caused it to be sought for their children by wise and careful parents. It is needless to add that the school was highly successful, financially as well as professionally. Judge Barnard was appointed a member of the county board of school ex- aminers in 1853 and retained this incumbency until about 1870, save while occupying the office of probate judge. At the close of his second term in the latter position he was again elected to the superintendency of the Medina public schools, and he retained this position until he resigned to accept a similar appoint- ment at Ravenna, Portage county. Here again his zeal made too heavy demands upon his strength, and his declining health admonished him that he must resign his chosen work. Thereafter, and up to the time of his death, he was compelled to decline many invitations to resume his work as a teacher, and for many years he devoted himself to the practice of the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1852 and initiated practice in association with J. C. Johnson, of Medina, but abandoned it for teaching, after an experience of six months. In 1874, however, he again engaged in the practice of law, and he gained an enviable po- sition at the bar.
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