USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 32
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DAVID L. ROCKWELL .- When it is stated that Judge Rockwell is a scion in the fourth gen- eration of one of the distinguished pioneer families of the Western Reserve, an indication is at once given of the fact that the name which he bears has been identified with the annals of this favored section of Ohio for a long period of years. In his individual career he has not only upheld the high prestige of the family name but has also, through official pre- ferments conferred upon him, effectively set at naught any possible application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not with- out honor save in his own country." He is incumbent of the office of judge of probate of Portage county, has large and important busi- ness interests in this county, and as a loyal citizen and a man of sterling characteristics he has a secure place in the confidence and esteem `of the people among whom his entire life has been passed and who are familiar with every stage of his career.
Judge David L. Rockwell was born in the city of Akron, Summit county, Ohio, on August 11, 1877, and is a son of David L. and Mary E. (Metlin) Rockwell, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom maintains her home in Ravenna. the county- seat of Portage county. David L. Rockwell, Sr., was born in the village of Franklin Mills, now known as Kent, Portage county, Ohio, on May 13. 1843, and he became one of the prominent members of the bar of the Western Reserve, besides gaining precedence as a banker and financier. He was a man of fine
intellectual and professional attainments and was a distinguished member of the bar of Western Reserve for many years. He was engaged in the practice of his profession in the village of Kent until 1878, when he removed to Ravenna, the judicial center of the county, where he continued in the active and successful work of his profession until August. 1884, when he was compelled to withdraw from active practice on account of having received an apoplectic stroke, which induced partial paralysis. Thereafter he devoted his attention to exacting business interests. In 1881 he organized the City Bank of Kent, and he became president of the same at the time of its inception, retaining this chief executive office until his death and through his inter- position and personal popularity making pos- sible the upbuilding of a substantial banking business. He retained the presidency of the bank for twenty years and was, as already stated, its executive head at the time of his demise, which occurred on May 20, 1901. He was also a stockholder in various manufac- turing concerns and was known as one of the substantial capitalists of Portage county. As a man and a citizen none could claim a more gen- erous measure of popular confidence and re- spect, and by very virtue of his strong and noble character he drew to himself and held the most inviolable friendships. In politics he accorded an uncompromising allegiance to the Democratic party, of whose principles and policies he was a most effective exponent. He was prominently identified with the work of his party and represented the same as a dele- gate to its state and county conventions, as well as in national convention. In a fra- ternal way he was identified with the time- honored Masonic Order, in which he was affiliated with Ravenna Lodge, No. 12, Free and Accepted Masons. He was identified with the Protestant Episcopal church, as was also his father, and he was ever liberal and zeal- ous in his support of the various departments of parochial and diocesan work.
This honored citizen bore the full patro- nymic of his father and transmitted the same in turn to his son, who figures as the imme- diate subject of this review. Thus Judge Rockwell is a grandson of David L. Rock- well (1), who was a native of the state of Connecticut and a member of a family whose founding in New England dates back to the early colonial period of our national history. The grandfather came to the Western Reserve
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when a boy, and his father, Harvey Rockwell, became one of the pioneers of Ashtabula county, where he took up his abode about the year 1820. David L. Rockwell (I) came to Portage county, Ohio, between the years 1835 and 1838 and first settled in Brimfield town- ship, where he initiated the reclamation of a farm, but in 1840 he removed to Franklin Mills, now the village of Kent, where he engaged in the general merchandise trade and became one of the first business men of the village, even as was he an honored and influ- ential citizen of Portage county. He repre- sented this county in the state legislature for two terms and was otherwise prominent in connection with public affairs of a local order. His political support was given to the Whig party until the organization of the Republican party, when he identified himself with the lat- ter, whose principles and policies thereafter received his zealous advocacy.
Mrs. Mary E. (Metlin) Rockwell, the mother of Judge Rockwell, was born in Akron, Ohio, January 15, 1843. and is a daughter of Samuel J. and Eliza (Jennison) Metlin, who likewise became honored pioneers of the West- ern Reserve. Mr. Metlin came to Ohio from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and took up his residence in Akron about the year 1815, at which time that now populous and thriving city was a mere hamlet in a section of country which was but in small part reclaimed from the primeval forest. Summit county, of which Akron is now the county-seat, was then a part of Portage county. Mrs. Rockwell sur- vives her honored husband and resides in Ravenna, where she is held in affectionate regard by all who know her. Of the three children Judge Rockwell, of this sketch, is the youngest; Mary R. is the wife of Henry D. Hinman, of Ravenna; and Dorena is the wife of Lardner V. Morris, of Garden City, Long Island, New York.
Judge Rockwell was about eighteen months old at the time his parents removed from the village of Kent to Ravenna, and in the latter city he was reared to manhood. After duly availing himself of the advantages of the public schools he continued his studies in the Western Reserve Academy, at Hudson, and later entered historic old Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio. After leaving college he re- turned to the village of Kent, and with the business interests of this place he has since been prominently identified, having been associ- ated with his father in various enterprises until
the latter's death. He is vice-president of the City Banking Company of Kent, of which his father was the founder, as has been noted in a preceding paragraph ; he is a director of the Seneca Chair Company, of Kent, of which he was one of the organizers and incorpor- ators ; and he is also a member of the directo- rate of both the Kent Industrial Company and the Independent Tack Company, likewise important industrial concerns of Kent and of the Western Reserve.
Judge Rockwell is a most loyal and enthusi- astic advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party and he has been an influential factor in its affairs in his native state for a number of years, though he is still a young man. In 1900 he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention, held in Kansas City, and he was made secretary of the Ohio delegation to this convention and also the Ohio member of the notification committee appointed to formally impart to the vice- presidential candidate of the party the news of his nomination. From 1898 to the present time he has represented Portage county in every Democratic state convention in Ohio, and for two terms, 1902-03, he was a valued member of the state executive committee of his party. From 1904 to 1908 he represented the nineteenth congressional district of Ohio as a member of the state central committee and was vice-chairman of the same. In 1908 he was the candidate of his party for lieutenant governor, but met defeat with the remainder of the party ticket in the state, though he made an excellent showing at the polls.
On April 4. 1900, Judge Rockwell was elected mayor of the village of Kent, and so satisfactory was his administration that he was elected as his own successor in April, 1902. In the following November he was elected to the office of judge of the probate court of Portage county, whereupon he resigned the mayoralty and took up his resi- dence in Ravenna, the capital of the county. In November, 1905, he was re-elected pro- bate judge, and he has since remained incum- bent of this office, whose affairs he has handled with marked ability and discrimination. He was reared in the faith of the Protestant Episcopal church, in which he is a commun- icant, holding membership in the parish of Grace church, in Ravenna. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of the
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Maccabees, and the Kenyon College chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
In the year 1900 was solemnized the mar- riage of Judge Rockwell to Miss Catherine Arighi, daughter of Peter Arighi, of Kent, Ohio, and they have one daughter, Mary Catherine, who was born Nevember 16, 1908. Mrs. Rockwell is prominent in connection with the social activities of Ravenna.
SANFORD M. DOWNING was born on the lake shore, one mile west of his present resi- dence, December 26, 1845, and is a son of William and Eliza (Simmons) Downing. William Downing was born in New York, and there learned the trade of shoemaker. He mar- ried Eliza Simmons, January 1, 1829; she was born December 22, 1808, and was four years his junior. Soon after her marriage she chased a fawn nearly half a mile in the endeavor fo catch it ; it got caught in a brush, but just as she reached to take hold of its leg, it escaped. Her father, Peleg Simmons, at one time shot a deer on its horns, stunning it so that it fell, but just as he reached its side and prepared to cut its throat it jumped up and rushed towards him; after a struggle, he managed to get a small tree between its horns and put his knife into its neck so as to bleed it. Peleg Simmons was a minute man in the Revo- lution, and also served in a man-of-war during the war. He was born June 3, 1761, and married May 22, 1788, his wife Amy, who was born April 21, 1765. Mr. Simmons was from Hartford, Connecticut, and when his daughter Eliza was a young girl he removed with his family to Ohio, so she saw and ex- perienced the rigors of frontier life. They settled on the farm on the lake shore, now occupied by their grandson, Nathan T. Down- ing. Peleg Simmons died in 1854, in his ninety-third year, and his widow died one year later, at the age of eighty-seven. He had cleared land and had a fine fifty-acre farm.
William Downing secured land adjoining that of his father-in-law, along the lake, and made a farm of 100 acres, which he kept add- ing to until he owned 400 acres, and his life was afterwards devoted to the improvement and work of this farm. He died March I, 1878, aged seventy-four, and his widow died March 20, 1883, in her seventy-fifth year. They spent their last years in the old home of her father, Mr. Downing having purchased it of Horace Simmons, her eldest brother.
Her parents both were dead, and she was the last of the Simmons family of seven children, who were: Amy, Reuben, Peleg, Horace, Be- linda, John and Eliza.
William and Eliza Downing's children were : Andrew, died when past forty; William, of Belton, Cass county, Missouri; Myron died in 1861, aged twenty-eight; Eliza, married William Woods, of Fresno, California ; Maria, married James Campbell, and died when forty- three years of age; George, of St. Louis, Missouri ; Sanford M .; and Nathan P., on the old Simmons and Downing homestead.
Sanford M. Downing served three years in the Civil war, enlisting August 8, 1862, in Company C, Eighty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, though at the time not yet seven- teen. He was detailed as a drummer, and be- came drum major of the regiment; he saw active service, and the regiment band kept intact twenty-two pieces, his own instrument being the small drum. As a boy he had been taught to play by the old fifer, Corydon Hyde, and Jerry Campbell, a good snare drummer, and he began to play with them, so he was well qualified to fill the post of drummer boy. During battles they were organized into mar- tial band of fifes and drums, in case of march or battle. This experience was enough to try the mettle of a young boy, and of con- siderable value in the formation of his char- acter. His brother, George A. Downing, also served three years as private in the same regi- ment.
Sanford M. Downing rented his father's farm until securing his present one, nearly thirty years ago. He has twenty-one and one-half acres in the home piece, and in all has 109 acres, in three pieces. He has forty- seven and one-half acres of what was his father's first home, and twenty-five acres of the Lost Nation road. For many years he carried on general farming; his home place borders on the lake, as does the old home- stead.
Mr. Downing is a Republican in politics, and for years served in conventions. For three terms he was justice of the peace. For ten years continuously he served as township trustee, and has also held other minor offices, until he refused to serve longer. He has a fine home, in good surroundings, and thor- oughly enjoys it. He is a member and trustee in the Plain Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Downing married September 10, 1866, Sarah Eliza Kelley, who was born in New York and
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came to Ohio when a young girl, being nine- teen years old at the time of her marriage. They have three children, namely: Frank, in a confectionery store, in Cleveland ; Vernon in Redlands, California : and Angie, living at home.
HENRY L. SPELMANN .- A keen-sighted, wide- awake business man, Henry L. Spelman, of Kent. is widely known throughout this sec- tion of the Western Reserve in connection with many of the leading industries of this part of the state, being a wholesale dealer in xce, coal and produce. A native of Portage county, Ohio, he was born February 21. 1852, in Rootstown, coming from pioneer stock, his Grandfather Spelman having been among the original settlers of the Western Reserve, mi- grating to Ohio from Massachusetts.
Marcus F. Spelman, father of Henry L., was born in Granville, Hampden county. Massachusetts, and at the age of eight years came with the family to Portage county. He married Mary Ann Reed, whose birth oc- curred in 1811. in Rootstown, Ohio, where her father, Abram Reed, was an early pioneer, having settled there on coming to Portage county from Connecticut, his native state. The married life of Marcus and Mary A. Spelman covered a period of sixty-nine years, both living to the ripe old age of ninety-one years. Of the six children born of their union, three died in infancy, and three are now, in 1909, living, namely: Comfort A., wife of N. R. Collins, of Rootstown: Asa M., of Rootstown : and Henry L., of this brief bio- graphical sketch.
At the age of fourteen years, having com- pleted his studies in the district school, Henry L. Spelman began life for himself, measuring his own ability, and hewing his way straight to the line thus marked out. At the age of twenty years he embarked in the mercantile business at Rootstown. After five years he engaged in the produce business. About 1882 he moved his office and business to Canton, being thus engaged until 1900. In the mean- time in 1800 he engaged in the wholesale and retail ice business in Canton, where he still carries on the business, supervising it from Kent. Thus it will be seen that he makes a specialty of ice, having large ice houses at Brady Lake. Congress Lake and Silver Lake, in addition to having a large wholesale ice trade in Kent. Mr. Spelman is financially connected with the City Ice De-
livery Company of Cleveland, and as a dealer in produce has a large warehouse in Ravenna. in this particular line of industry dealing largely in potatoes and onions.
On September 9, 1874: Mr. Spelman mar- ried Julia A. Burt, who was born in Brimfield township, Portage county, Ohio, a daughter of Washington and Electra Burt, both natives of the Western Reserve. She is of excellent New England ancestry, her Grandfather Burt having been born in Connecticut, while her Grandfather Babcock, her mother's father, was a native of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Spelman are the parents of three children. namely: Comfort C., wife of Charles W. Mathivet, of Cleveland : Marcus Burt, of Kent : and Rollin H., who has charge of his father's business in Canton. Politically Mr. Spelman is identified with the Republican party, and is a stanch advocate of the temperance cause, during the local option fight having been a member of the county committee.
EDWARD W. HORNING is the president of the Portage Lumber Company, one of the leading industrial institutions of Ravenna as well as of Portage county. He was made the president of the company on July 1, 1905, at the time of its organization, Henry Horn- ing. of Kent, being made the vice president and Henry Paulus the secretary and treasurer. Soon after the organization the company bought a saw and planing mill and other prop- erty, and are extensively engaged in the sale and manufacture of lumber. Mr. Horning also served as a member of the board of edu- cation and clerk of Randolph township. His politics are Democratic.
Mr. Horning was born in Randolph town- ship, Portage county, Ohio, May 15. 1867, a son of Andrew and Mary ( Rothermel) Horning, who were born in Germany. George and Margaret Horning, his paternal grand- parents, and Peter and Margaret Rothermel, his grandparents on the maternal side, all emigrated from the fatherland of Germany to America in 1838, and coming to Portage county, Ohio, they located their homes on heavily timbered land in Randolph township. Andrew and Mary Horning after their mar- riage also located in Randolph township, and they became owners of land both there and in Suffield township. The father died at his home in Randolph township in September, 1902, and his widow has since made her home with a daughter, Mrs. M. Konkle, in Ravenna.
"INGLE -SIDE" RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. CORWIN N. PAYNE CONNEAUT
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Edward W. Horning, the fifth born of his parents nine children, five sons and four daughters, remained in the parental home un- til his marriage, although from the age of eighteen years he with two brothers con- ducted a saw mill in Randolph township. In 1906 their property was merged into the Portage Lumber Company, and as above stated Mr. Horning became the president of the company. He married on February 23, 1892. Fronia Shuman, who was also born in the township of Randolph, and she is a daughter of Philip and Margaret (Bauer) Shuman, and a granddaughter of John and Catherine (Shrader ) Shuman and Philip and Mary (Knapp) Bauer, all of whom were born in Germany. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Horning: Ruth G., on De- cember 31, 1892 ; Clotilda R., August 30, 1894 ; Gertrude E., November 18, 1896; Mary C.,. August 11, 1898; Margaret, July 8, 1901 ; and Claud H., December 16, 1906. The fam- ily are members of the Catholic church at Ravenna, in which Mr. Horning has served as a councilman for two years, and during twelve years he held the same office in the church in Randolph. He is a member and was for four years the recording secretary of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, Branch No. 100.
CORWIN NEWTON PAYNE, well known as a promoter of the dairy, agricultural and busi- ness interests of Conneaut township, Ashta- bula county, is a descendant of one of the oldest and most substantial families of Massa- chusetts. Through Moses Paine, a native of England, it was transplanted to America in 1630, and found its first abiding place at Brain- tree (now Quincy ). This original emigrant became a citizen of large property and high position, owning large tracts of land in Cam- bridge and Concord, and near the Blue Hills of Massachusetts. He died in June, 1643, hav- ing been married twice-first to Elizabeth Pares and secondly to Judith Pares-and be- came the father of Moses, Elizabeth and Stephen, all born in England. Stephen was born in 1628, settled at Braintree with his father, and by his marriage to Hannah Bass in 1661 had the following children: Stephen, Samuel, Hannah, Sarah, Moses, John and Lydia. Stephen Paine, of the third generation, was born March 8, 1652; married Miss Ellen Veasey February 20, 1682, and died in 1600. Their children were Stephen, Ellen, Samuel,
who died an infant, and the Samuel who continued this branch of the family genealogy. The last named was born April 14, 1689 ; mar- ried Susanna Ruggles November 5, 1778, and by her became the father of Susanna, Eleanor, Joseph ( who died an infant) and Joseph Rug- gles Paine, who reached manhood and reared a family to perpetuate the name. Born in Braintree June 30, 1735, he married Mehitable Giddings, in 1758. The family moved to Ash- field, Massachusetts, in 1767, and the husband died there February 18, 1831. Among the many creditable features of nis career was his service in the Revolutionary war. The chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Paine were Joseph, Abel, Ruggles, Asa, Benjamin and two daughters. By his marriage to Anna Bil- lings, Joseph Paine had two children-Samuel and Joseph, the latter replacing the old spell- ing. of the family name by Payne. Joseph Payne spent most of the year 1856 at Con- neaut, but returned to his native town of Ash- field, Massachusetts, where he died about two years later. Joseph Payne, who was born in Ashfield, September 12, 1796, came to Con- neaut township in 1836, and died at Conneaut in 1843, his wife ( Polly Mallory), born in Massachusetts in 1798, also spent her last years at that place. Their children were: Lexana, Newton B., Jane, Cyrenus M., Calista, Carlton J., Caroline and Julia, the second son ( New- ton B.), mentioned becoming the father of Corwin N. Payne.
Newton B. Payne was born in Deerfield. Massachusetts, on September 12, 1821 ; came to Ohio in 1836 and married Sarah Ann Thompson October 7, 1842. He was a faith- ful member of the Free Will Baptist church, and such a farmer patriot as would be ex- pected from his Massachusetts stock. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil war his health was greatly impaired, so that he was unable to join the Union ranks at the front. But his services at home were far greater than if he had simply shouldered a musket, and used it well: for he became one of the most active recruiting officers of the county, and also paid a substitute to perform the part of an actual soldier in the field. He died at Conneaut, on August 25, 1883. His wife (mother of Cor- win N.) was the daughter of Zebadiah and Polly Thompson, and settled at Conneaut with her parents about 1830. By her marriage to Newton B. Payne she became the mother of Corwin N., Adelbert O. and Corda S. ( Mrs. Harrison A. Andrews).
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Corwin N. Payne received his early educa- tion in Conneaut township, and at the age of seventeen entered Hillsdale College for a regu- lar course of four years. On account of his father's ill health, however, he was obliged to leave college before completing his senior year, and returned to the home farm, which he con- ducted for some time, in addition to operating a large dairy and a cheese factory. In 1895 Mr. Payne rented the farm and moved to Col- linwood, where for three years he was engaged as a contractor and a builder. Again return- ing to Conneaut, he sold the home place to W. A. Wheeler and has been continuously engaged in business as a painter, paper hanger and gen- eral building contractor. He has always had a strong aversion to all official or public life, and, outside of his agricultural and business affairs, has been content with the pleasures and comforts of the domestic circle, which often includes not only his children but his grand- children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Payne are ac- tively and prominently engaged in the work of the First Baptist Church of Conneaut, of which the former is one of the trustees.
Mr. Payne has been twice married. His first wife was Lydia E. Allen, born May 18, 1845, daughter of D. C. and Rachael L. Allen. Mr. Allen was publisher of the Conneaut Reporter for nearly thirty years, postmaster of the place for six years, and a member of the Ohio legis- lature-altogether one of the leading citizens of Ashtabula county. Mrs. Lydia E. Payne died September 1, 1882, and, as his second wife, Mr. Payne married her sister, Mary E., born at Conneant December 28, 1857.
The following are the descendants of Cor- win N. Payne and Lydia (Allen) Payne :
(a) Stella L. Payne, born July 8, 1869, who married W. A. Wheeler, November 29, 1893, and their children are: Corwin D. Wheeler, born December 7, 1895; Helen Wheeler, born February 7, 1897 ; Mable Wheeler, born Au- gust 19, 1900; Dora Wheeler, born May 4, 1906; and Dorothy Wheeler, born March 29, 1908.
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