USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 39
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the important town of Yauco and the railroad leading thence to Ponce, and resulted in the surrender of Ponce, then the largest town on the island, without resistance. In the com- manding general's official report of this action the name of Lieutenant Wright appears in a list of the names of eight officers "especially commended for gallantry and coolness under fire." Lieutenant Wright accompanied the troops under Generals Henry and Garretson on the march from Guanica, via Yauco, to Ponce ; and, in General Miles' subsequent con- certed movement of the four columns of troops from the southern coast northward, Lieutenant Wright accompanied the left-center column, under Generals Henry and Garretson, in its march from Ponce over the mountain trail, via Adjuntas and Utuado, toward Arecibo- which column penetrated farther north than any other American troops before the peace protocol put an end to hostilities.
Colonel (then Lieutenant) Wright was rec- ommended for brevets as first lieutenant and captain (recommendation indorsed and ap- proved by General Miles ) for meritorious serv- ices during the Porto Rican campaign, and for great personal bravery in action with Span- ish troops near Yauco, Porto Rico. July 26, 1898; and, after the close of the war, he was honorably discharged from the service of the United States, November 21. 1898. In 1899 he resumed the practice of the law, and is still engaged in active practice at Akron, Ohio.
In the Ohio National Guard Colonel Wright has held the following commissions and posi- tions : Second lieutenant, First Regiment, Light Artillery : second lieutenant and battalion adjutant, Eighth Regiment Infantry; captain and regimental adjutant, Eighth ·Regiment In- fantry ; acting adjutant general, Second Bri- rade ; lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant general, adjutant general of division : lieuten- ant-colonel and chief of staff of division; and colonel and chief of staff of division. He is now (June, 1909) chief of staff of division. with the rank of colonel, and also chief of ord- nance of the Ohio National Guard; and he has served as such chief of staff, or as adju- tant general and chief of staff, ever since Janu- ary 29. 1900-for very nearly ten years.
Colonel Wright is a member of the Philo- sophiical Society of Washington, D. C. He is also a member of the Alpha Delta Phi college fraternity, and a member of numerous military and patriotic orders and societies, in several of which he has held some of the higher offices.
Colonel Wright was married October 18,
1876, at Akron, Ohio, to Lucy Josephine Hale. of Akron, a daughter of James Madison Hale and Sarah Allen, his wife. Their children, all born at Tallmadge, Ohio, are: (1) Clement Hale Wright, born July 4, 1882, who gradu- ated at the United States Military Academy, June 15, 1904, and is now a second lieutenant in the Second United States Infantry, on duty with his regiment : (2) Allen Whitney Wright. born July 17, 1889; and (3) George Maltby Wright, born June 24, 1892. Lieutenant Cle- ment Hale Wright was married at Hartwell (a suburb of Cincinnati), Ohio, January 1. 1906, to Laura Mitchell, a daughter of Rev. Frank Gridley Mitchell, D. D., and Mary Electa Davis, his wife.
EDWARD WELTON BASSETT was born in Franklin township, Portage county. Ohio. March 19, 1834, a son of William and Eloise ( Welton) Bassett. The parents were married in Connecticut on the 27th of February. 1817, and soon afterward they started on the over- land journey with teams and wagons to the Western Reserve of Ohio, and, arriving in Portage county, they established their home in the then dense woods of Franklin township. In time they succeeded in clearing their farm there, and their names are enrolled among the earliest of pioneers of that community.
Edward W. Bassett, the third born of their four children, three sons and a daughter, be- came associated early in life with the Cleve- land & Pittsburg Railroad as a brakeman, and he had previously worked as a driver on the Erie canal. He continued his railroading work with the Atlantic & Great Western Company as a conductor and messenger for twenty-four years, then for eight years was an express agent at Ravenna, and during six months was a United States Express agent at Youngs- town. Coming to the city of Kent in 1886, he remained with the American Express Company until his death, two years later, on the 17th of August, 1888. He married at Norton, in Summit county, Ohio, on September 6, 1856. Harriet Brewster, and their two children were : Charles E., who died in infancy, and Georgi- anna, who became the wife of W. A. Simmons and resides in Rochester, New York. This wife died on the 21st of September. 1868, and on the 12th of January, 1870, Mr. Bassett was married to Adelia Woodard, who was born in Franklin township, December 20. 1838, a daughter of James and Maria ( Hopkins ) Woodard, natives respectively of Ravenna and of the state of Vermont. Her grandparents
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on the paternal side, Joshua and Rebecca (Wooden) Woodard, came from the New England states to Ohio in 1806, and her ina- ternal grandparents, Rudd and Ann (Scott) Hopkins, were from Vermont. Joshua Wood- ard worked for a time in a woolen mill in Port- age county, and then moved to Illinois, but he later returned and died in Kent. His son James was the first white child born in Ravenna township, and in his early life he began farm work. During a few years he was the pro- prietor of a hotel in Kent, and then, returning to the country, he purchased a farm just north- west of Kent and died there on the 2d of Sep- tember, 1882. He served two terms as sheriff of Portage county. His wife survived him but two years, and died on the 23d of March, 1884. Of their family of ten children, five are now living, namely: Adelia, who became the wife of Mr. Bassett; Stella M., now Mrs. Newton Hall, of Kent; Lucy A., the wife of George Furry, of Kent ; Mary E., the wife of Richard Williams, also of this city : and Charles, who owns the old home farm at Kent. The fol- lowing children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bassett : Harriet E., who died on the 17th of August. 1878, aged four years and seven months; Bertha, who died in infancy; and Carrie L., who was born on the 18th of March, 1881, and became the wife of Frank L. Galla- way. They reside with her mother, and he is engaged in the raising of celery. Mrs. Bas- sett resides in the home which her husband erected in 1871. He was a member of the Disciple church, and he was a Sir Knight Mason at Akron and a member of the Masonic order at Kent.
CARL H. CURTISS .- Engaged in the success- ful practice of his profession at Kent, Mr. Curtiss is a representative member of the bar of his native county, and is a scion of one of its old and honored pioneer families, as the context of this sketch will presently show. He was born in Charlestown township, Portage county, Ohio, which township was named in honor of his paternal great-grandfather, and the date of his nativity was July 25, 1872. He is a son of Alfred B. and Ellen ( Knowlton) Curtiss, both likewise natives of Portage county. The father was born on the farm upon which he now maintains his home, in Charlestown township, and he is one of the successful agriculturists and influential citi- zens of that section of the county, where he has a finely improved landed estate of 135 acres. He is a son of Henry Curtiss, who was born
in the state of Massachusetts and who was a youth at the time of the family immigration to the Western Reserve. He was a son of Charles Curtiss, likewise a native of the old Bay state, where the family was founded in the colonial days, and Charles Curtiss came to Portage county about 1809. He secured a tract of wild land in what is now Charlestown township, and there set to himself the arduous task of reclaiming a farm from the wilderness. The township of Charlestown was named in his honor, as derived from his Christian name, and it is a matter of historical record that a barrel of whiskey was donated to assist in the erection of a new church in the locality, on consideration of the name of Charlestown being applied to the newly organized township. In view of the latter-day attitude in regard to the association of the somewhat incongruous ideas of church promotion and spirituous liquors, it should be recalled that in the pioneer days ardent spirits were handled and used in a far different manner than at the present, and without abuse save in rare instances. The little general store had its liquor for sale, and in the isolation and lack of medical facilities whiskey found a definite place and usefulness in practically every household. In view of these conditions the transaction above noted loses much of its seeming inconsistency and robs later generations of a "good joke," as it would be considered today. Charles Curtiss and his family thus numbered themselves among the pioneers of the historic old Western Reserve, and the name has since been continu- ously and prominently identified with the an- nals of the township named in honor of its founder in Portage county. The name has stood for the highest type of citizenship-ex- ponent of sterling character, productive indus- try, loyalty to civic and moral duties and ob- ligations, and devotion to the elements through which are promoted the best interests of the community. Charles Curtiss passed to his re- ward in the fulness of years and honors, and the work of development which he instituted in Charlestown township was carried forward by his sons, including Henry, who likewise be- came one of the prosperous farmers of that section and who was a man who commanded unqualified esteem in all the relations of life.
Alfred B. Curtiss, father of Carl H., was reared to manhood in Charlestown township. to whose common schools he is indebted for his early educational discipline, and in his na- tive township he has been continuously identi- fied with the great basic art of agriculture
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from his boyhood days to the present time. It is a matter of satisfaction and pride to him that he is the owner of the fine old homestead farm on which he was born and which is en- deared to him by the gracious associations of the past. He is influential in public affairs of a local order, independent in politics, and is a member of the Congregational church. His first wife, Ellen (Knowlton) Curtiss, was born in Nelson township, Portage county, and was a daughter of Willard R. Knowlton, a native of Connecticut, and one of the sterling pio- neers of Nelson township, where he continued to reside until his death. Mrs. Ellen Curtiss was summoned to the life eternal when but thirty-six years of age, and of her three chil- dren two are living, of whom the elder is Carl H., to whom this article is dedicated; Emma V. is the wife of Professor M. O. Carter, who is principal of Hazel Green College, at Hazel Green, Kentucky, a school maintained under the auspices of the Christian or Disciples' church. For his second wife Alfred B. Cur- tiss married Miss Mary L. Hinman, and of the three children of this union two are living -Ansel B., who is engaged in the practice of law in the city of Cleveland, and Edward G., who is a student in the Buchtel College, Akron.
The earliest recollections of Carl H. Cur- tiss are those associated with the home farm and he early began to assist in its work, in the meanwhile duly availing himself of the privileges of the district school, after complet- ing the curriculum of which he continued his studies in the graded schools in the city of Ravenna, where he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1892. He began reading law in that city, under effective preceptorship, and finally was matriculated in the law department of the University of Ohio, in Columbus, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith admitted to the bar of his native state and located in Ravenna, the judicial center of his native county, where he was associated in the work of his profession with I. T. Siddall for three years, under the firm name of Siddall & Curtiss. He then, in 1898, took up his residence in the thriving little city of Kent, where he has since con- tinued in the active practice of his profession, in which he has been very successful both as an advocate and as a counsellor. In connec- tion with his professional work he is also agent for leading fire insurance companies. He has appeared in connection with much important
litigation and his clientage is of substantial and representative order.
In politics Mr. Curtiss is an uncompromis- ing advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and he has given effective aid in promotion of the party cause in his native county. He served one term as justice of the peace, but has never been ambitious for public office. He served as chairman of the county executive committee ot Portage county local option association and has been loyal and public-spirited in his atti- tude as a citizen. He and his wife are zealous members of the Congregational church and he is identified with various civic and social organ- izations in his home city. Mr. Curtiss is a member of the Masonic fraternity and his wife of the Eastern Star, to which Mr. Curtiss also belongs.
On February 1, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Curtiss to Miss Bessie A. Copeland, daughter of James W. and Susan (Shelliday) Copeland, of Charlestown town- ship, and they have three children,-Carl Harold, born in 1898: James Alfred, born in 1901 ; and Marjorie Ellen, born in 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Curtiss are prominent and popular in connection with the social activities of their home city and in their residence is dispensed a gracious hospitality.
AARON B. STUTZMAN, who has devoted near- ly his entire life to the work of education, has been identified with the educational interests of Portage county during many years, and his labors have been effective in raising the stand- ard of the schools until the system is one of which every citizen of the community has rea- son to be proud. In his early life he received a splendid training in the common schools of the vicinity in which he lived, in the Smith- ville high school and in Mt. Union College, where he completed the classical course and graduated in 1871 with the degree of A. B. His college life, however, was interrupted by his enlistment in the war while in his sophomore year, but after all his scholarship was of the highest grade in all his college work, and his relations with the students and the faculty were of the most pleasant. After his graduation from college he entered upon his long and suc- cessful career in connection with educational work, and his labors along this line include his principalship of the Smithville schools for one year, of the Dalton schools two years, of the Doylestown public schools two years, of the Wadsworth public schools three years, and it
Sam! Squire
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was while located at Wadsworth that he was appointed to the office of county school ex- aminer of Medina county. Mr. Stutzman filled that position three years. In 1878 he resigned his connection with the Wadsworth schools to assume the superintendency of the schools of Kent, and after many years of faithful and efficient service in their behalf he resigned in 1907 and now represents the Canada Life In- surance Company.
During. fifteen years Mr. Stutzman served Portage county well and earnestly as its school examiner. When he took charge of the schools of Kent there was but one large central build- ing, while now the city can boast of three large and splendid buildings, and the schools under his supervision took rank among the best in the state. He has received many flattering offers in the past to accept school work in larger cities, but he remained loyal to those of his adopted home. , During the winter of 1877 he passed a rigid examination before the state board of examiners and was granted a life certificate of a high school grade valid in any public school of the commonwealth. In 1888 he pursued a post graduate course in connec- tion with Wooster University, and that insti- tution conferred upon him the degree of Doc- tor of Philosophy.
Aaron B. Stutzman was born in Wayne county, Ohio, March 23, 1842, a son of Henry and Katherine ( Miller) Stutzman, of German descent. His great-grandfather on the paternal side came from the fatherland about the time of the Revolutionary war and located at Easton in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and there the grandfather of Aaron was born. When he had attained to manhood's estate he moved to Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and it was there that his son Henry was born and it was there also that the latter became acquainted with his future wife. After their marriage they moved to Ohio, this being in the spring of 1826, and they located in Wayne county. They made the journey hither with ox team, and on their arrival they pre-empted a quarter section of land and in time converted their land from a wilderness to a splendidly im- proved farm. There they lived and labored for twenty-five years and more, and there their children were born and reared to lives of use- fulness and honor, but in preparing their home and raising their large family of children the parents underwent many hardships and suf- fered much self denial. The faithful wife and mother died in May of 1848, but the father lived to see his children well settled in life and
finally passed away in October of 1878. Their family numbered six sons and three daugh- ters, and three of their sons served their coun- try well and faithfully in its Civil war, and two were called upon to lay down their lives on the altar of freedom. Aaron B. enlisted while a student in college, entering Company A, One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, and one of his cherished possessions is a card of thanks conferred upon him for patriotic and valuable service in the valley of the Shenandoah and at Monocacy, and this card bears the signature of Abraham Lincoln and the secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton. He is a member of A. H. Day Post, G. A. R., No. 185, and is a past post commander, while twice he has represented the order on the national encampment staff. He is also a member of the Masonic order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Kent, and a Republican in politics he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since child- hood.
Mr. Stutzman married on August 15, 1872, Jennie Clippinger, a daughter of Israel Clip- pinger, for many years a dry goods merchant at Dalton, Ohio. The children born of this union are Edwin, who died at the age of seven years ; Grace E. ; William G., and Charles A.
NANCY W. SQUIRE .- Prominent among the pioneer families of the Western Reserve were the Squires and the Wolcotts, and descendants of both are now numbered among the honored citizens of Oberlin and of Lorain county. The Squire family was established in the Western Reserve by Samuel Squire, who came from Massachusetts to Geauga county with an ox team soon after his first marriage, some time in the year of 1820. He was twice married, wedding. first Sophia Hurd, a member of a Maryland family, and his second wife was Mrs. Nancy (Hastings) Paine. This Samuel Squire was by trade a tanner, and he estab- lished a tannery at Chardon.
Samuel Squire, the second, and a son of the emigrant Samuel by his first marriage, was born at Chardon on November II, 1828, and in the fall of 1851 he married Nancy W. Wol- cott, born in Trumbull county, July 12, 1834. Her father was Josiah Wolcott, who came with his brother Theodore from Connecticut to Trumbull county, Ohio, during the last years of the seventeenth century. Josiah Wol- cott was a grandson of Captain Samuel Wol-
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cott, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, born on lin. He was formerly in the mercantile busi- November 13. 1720. He was a graduate ness with his father, they conducting the firm of Squire and Son. He married Mary E. Price, from Missouri, for his first wife. Her father was United States treasurer under President Buchanan. For his second wife Mr. Squire married Hadassa Torrey, from Ohio. Cecil Price was born of his first union, and Mary Wolcott is the child of his second mar- riage. Merton M., the second son of Samuel and Nancy Squire, was born in Chardon in 1854. He married Gussie Baker, of Bellevue, Ohio, and their union has been without issue. He is president of the State Savings Bank Company at Oberlin. Cora Squire, the only daughter and youngest child of Daniel and Nancy W. Squire, married J. William An- thony and is living in Evansville, Indiana. Their two children are Elizabeth Price and Thelma Wolcott. of Yale, and he married Lois Goodrich. He was in direct line from Henry Wolcott, who came over from England in 1630 and set- tled at Dorchester, Massachusetts. In this same family were Roger and Oliver Wolcott, governors of Connecticut and own cousins of Josiah Wolcott. This Josiah Wolcott, father of Mrs. Squire, was born on September 17, 1755, and he was a Revolutionary soldier. He married first Lydia Russell, born at Wethers- field, Connecticut, May 13, 1779. She died in 1805, and for his second wife he married Mrs. Nancy (Williams) Higgins, widow of Dr. Higgins, of Wethersfield. She died in 1824, and Mr. Wolcott married for his third wife Elizabeth, daughter of Fithian Brown, from Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, this third marriage occurring in May of 1829, and Mrs. Squire was their only child. Josiah Wolcott died on the 18th of January, 1838. He pur- chased 1,000 acres of land in Trumbull county, moving to that property in the fall of 1806 and building a log house thereon, and in the fol- lowing spring. he returned for his family.
Samuel Squire, second, was a merchant in Chardon with his father for a number of years, and he continued in that line of business in Oberlin, where he moved in 1871. He became one of the leading men of affairs in Oberlin, and was prominent in its business life for many years. He was one of the original stockholders in the Oberlin National Bank and in the Citi- zens' National Bank, and he was one of the or- ganizers of the Oberlin Building and Loan As- sociation, which institution had a long and prosperous career. He sold his old home place to Oberlin College, and upon its site stands the magnificent college library of today. He pos- sessed a quiet and unassuming disposition, shrinking from notoriety of all kinds, yet he was a force in the upbuilding of Oberlin and was withal a shrewd and successful business man. He died in Oberlin September 26, 1903. but he is yet survived by his widow, still resid- ing there, and she enjoys the honorable distinc- tion of being one of the very few living daugh- ters of a Revolutionary soldier. She is a mem- ber of Western Reserve Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Cleveland, and is the only real daughter in the chapter.
Milford Herbert Squire is the eldest of the children born to Samuel and Nancy Squire. He was born at Chardon in 1852, and he is now one of the prominent merchants of Ober-
ANDREW D. BRADEN .-- The Kent Bulletin, a weekly paper issued from a well equipped office in Kent, Portage countv, is recognized as one of the representative country news- papers of the Western Reserve, and of the same Captain Andrew D. Braden is the able and popular editor and publisher. His career has been varied and interesting and he is a native son of the historic old Western Reserve. It was his to render gallant service as a loyal soldier of the Union during the Civil war, in which he attained his rank of captain.
Captain Braden was born in Greene town- ship, Trumbull county, Ohio, on September 2, 1835, and is a son of George and Sarah ( Mc- Cartney) Braden, both natives of Ireland and representatives of old and sterling families of the Emerald Isle, which has contributed so valuable an element to our complex social fabric in America.
George Braden gained his rudimentary edu- cation in his native land and was about twelve years of age when his parents, Andrew and Mary Braden, immigrated to the United States. The family first located in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where he maintained his home about twelve years and where he learned the trade of brick and stonemason. His parents passed the closing years of their lives in Trum- bull county. They were worthy folk of sterling character and alert mentality, and in America they gained for themselves a secure place in the esteem of those with whom they came in con- tact. George Braden assisted in the construc- tion of the old Ohio and Beaver canal, in con- ncction with which he worked at his trade of
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