USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 40
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HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
stone mason, and about 1832 he became a resi- dent of the Western Reserve, by locating in Greene township, Trumbull county, where he purchased a tract of land and developed a pro- ductive farm and where he passed the remain- der of his life, which was terminated in the very prime of his useful manhood. He died in the year 1852, when forty-five years of age. Though not educated in the purely academic sense, he was a man of fine intellectual powers and kept himself well informed upon matters of public import, while he was well fortified in his opinions. He gave his political alle- giance to the Whig party and both he and his wife held membership in the Methodist Epis- copal church. His wife, who was his devoted companion and helpmeet, was a daughter of James and Elizabeth McCartney, who came from Ireland to America when she was about one year old and located in Youngstown, Ma- honing county, Ohio, which was then a part of Trumbull county. Her father was a shoe- maker by trade and followed the same in Youngstown for a number of years, within which he purchased a residence in that place. He finally traded his town property for a farm three miles east of Youngstown, where he de- voted the remainder of his active career to agri- cultural pursuits and where he died when about seventy-six years of age and where his wife also died, when well advanced in years. Mrs. Sarah (McCartney) Braden was reared and educated in what is now Mahoning county and there her marriage was solemnized. She sur- vived her honored husband by about forty years and was seventy-seven years of age at the time of her demise. George and Sarah Braden became the parents of eight children, of whom Andrew D. is the eldest and all of whom are living except the third son, who died in child- hood.
Captain Andrew D. Braden passed his boy- hood and youth on the home farm, to whose work and management he early began to con- tribute his quota, and his fundamental edu- cation was secured in the district schools of what may be termed the middle-pioneer period in the history of the Western Reserve. After duly availing himself of the advantages of the common schools he was enabled to continue his studies in a well ordered academy in Ash- tabula county, and for nine years he devoted his attention to teaching in the district schools during the winter terms, while in the summer seasons he attended school and employed him- self in farm work, bending his every energy to the satisfying of his ambition for a broader
education. In the year 1859 he was a student in the Farmers' College, in the city of Cincin- nati, and thereafter he began reading law under the able preceptorship of Charles A. Arring- ton, of Warren, Trumbull county, where he also held the office of deputy clerk of the courts.
Soon, however, the ardent young disciple of Blackstone and Kent felt himself impelled to lay aside his law studies to respond to the- call of higher duty, as his intrinsic patriotism was quickened to responsive protest when the rebel guns thundered against the walls of his- toric old Fort Sumter. He responded to Presi- dent Lincoln's first call for volunteers for the three months' service, and in April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company C, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to the Army of West Virginia and with which he was in active service until the close of his term of enlistment in 1861, after which he re- enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. He was in active service during the entire period of the great internecine conflict except for a furlough of twenty days. He was promoted first lieu- tenant of Company B, and on January 19, 1863, was commissioned captain of this company. upon the death of Captain Ephraim Kee. He continued in command of his company during the remainder of the war and proved a valiant and faithful officer and one who held the confi- dence and regard of the members of his com- pany as well as the officers of his gallant regi- ment. The One Hundred and Fifth Ohio was with the Army of the Cumberland in its various campaigns, and its record is that of the his- tory of that sterling army, in all of whose im- portant engagements it took an active part. Thus Captain Braden lived up to the full ten- sion of the great fratricidal conflict through which the integrity of the nation was per- petnated, and after the final victory of the Union arms he participated in the grand re- view in the city of Washington. He was there mustered out and he received his honorable discharge after his return to his home in Ohio. He was with Sherman on the ever memorable. march from Atlanta to the sea, and while Sherman's forces were in Atlanta Captain Braden served as acting judge advocate of the Thirty-ninth Division, Fourteenth Army Corps.
In 1866, after having been duly admitted to the bar of his native state, Captain Braden en- gaged in the active practice of his profession at Mt. Gilead, Morrow county, Ohio, where he-
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HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
remained until 1871, when he removed to the city of Canton, Stark county, where he con- tinued in the active practice of law until 1890. In the year last mentioned he received the ap- pointment and commission of postmaster at Canton, in which office he served for four years, during the administration of President Harrison. While a resident of Canton, the home of President Mckinley, he became a warm personal friend of the martyred presi- dent, and this friendship continued inviolable until the death of the president. In politics Captain Braden has long been recognized as one of the wheel horses of the Republican party in Ohio, and in its cause he has rendered yeo- man service in the various campaigns. After his service as postmaster of Canton he gave his attention to various lines of business enterprise, together with professional work, until 1902, when he removed from Caton to Kent, where he effected the purchase of the plant and busi- ness of the Kent Bulletin, of which he has since continued editor and publisher and which is one of the model country papers of the West- ern Reserve.
In the year 1872 Captain Braden was united in marriage to Miss Clementine Byrd, of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and they became the parents of one son, John, who died in 1901, at the age of twenty-five years. Captain and Mrs. Braden enjoy unalloyed popularity in their home city and are identified with its representative social. activities.
Hiram S. Beman remained at home with his parents until after the death of his mother, re- ceiving meanwhile his education in the com- mon schools and a select school at Ravenna, and then starting out in life for himself when but a boy of sixteen he bought a small farm. On May 2, 1848, he was married to Sally A.
King, who was born in Charlestown, Ohio, June 3, 1825, a daughter of Elisha and Hanna (Clark) King, the father born in Blanford, Massachusetts, and the mother in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Mr. King came to Portage county, Ohio, some years before the war of 1812, in which he was drafted for service, but he only got as far as Cleveland and was dis- charged. He came to this county before the advent of the railroads, and he was obliged to journey on horseback to and from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, for all his supplies and to have his grain ground into flour. The little log shanty which he first erected served as his home for many years, but in 1824 he left there and came to Ravenna township, where both he and his wife subsequently died.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Beman moved to their little farm of seventy-eight acres in Ravenna township, and there he in time cleared and improved his land and made of it a splendid homestead. Farming con- tinned as his life occupation, although in his early years he had learned both the tailor and shoemaker's trades from his father, and his life's labors were ended in death in October of 1874. He affiliated with the Disciple church, and in politics was a Republican. Since his death his widow has maintained her residence on the farm, and although she sold sixty acres of the land she has since added sixteen acres more near her home, making thirty-three acres in all.
HIRAM S. BEMAN, deceased, was during many years one of the prominent and well known agriculturists in Ravenna township. He was born in Charlestown township, Portage county, in October, 1816, a son of Anson and Lydia (Chamberlin) Beman, who were from Connecticut. The father learned the shoe- maker's trade in his native state, but in 1800 he left there and came, with a family named Ful- ler to Ravenna township, Portage county, Ohio, where they located in the dense woods which then covered this part of the state. He was reared in this family, and remained with them until his marriage, when he located on a farm of his own in Ravenna township and lived JOHN C. BEATTY .- In offering. record con- cerning the careers of those who have been prominently identified with the civic and busi- ness development of the historic old Western Reserve, there is eminent propriety in accord- ing particular recognition to him whose name introduces this, for he is not only one of the honored pioneer citizens of the city of Ra- venna, where he has been continuously en- gaged in business for more than half a century, but he has also played a large part in public affairs of a local nature, in which connection he has been called upon to serve in many offices of distinctive trust and responsibility. The high regard in which he is held in his home in this vicinity during the remainder of his life. . city and county offers most effective voucher
for the integrity of purpose and worthy at- tributes of character which truly denote the man as he is known and honored.
John C. Beatty was born at Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on February 4, 1833. and is a son of Robert C. and Catherine A. Beatty, both of whom continued to reside in
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HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
Bristol until their death. Robert C. Beatty was a native either of New Jersey or Pennsyl- vania, and was a son of Robert Beatty, who took up his abode in the old Keystone state in 1803, in which year he located on a farm in the vicinity of Middletown, Bucks county, where he passed the residue of his life. Robert C. Beatty was there reared to manhood and was afforded such educational advantages as the somewhat primitive schools of the locality and period could offer. He eventually became one of the representative business men and in- fluential citizens of the village of Bristol, where he became cashier of a banking institution. Of this position he continued incumbent for about half a century and up to the time of his death, in the fullness of years and well earned honors. His wife died in 1861, and of their six children the subject of this review is the eldest son.
John C. Beatty passed his boyhood and youth in the village of Bristol, Pennsylvania, in whose common schools he secured his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course of study in a well ordered school at Norristown, Pennsylvania. When about sixteen years of age he assumed a position as clerk in a general merchandise store in his native town of Bristol, and after being thus en- gaged about six years he came to the Western Reserve, where it has been his good fortune to attain to marked success and distinctive prestige as a business man and loyal and pub- lic-spirited citizen. He came to this section of the old Buckeye state in the year 1855 and forthwith took up his residence in Ravenna, where he became associated with his brother- in-law, John H. Bostwick, in the general mer- chandise business, under the firm name of Bostwick & Beatty. This alliance continued until 1859 when Mr. Beatty purchased his part- ner's interest in the enterprise, and he there- after continued in business as a drygoods mer- chant until 1869. In 1871 he established hin- self in the clothing and men's furnishing busi- ness, in which he has since continued with due success, and he has the distinction of being the oldest merchant in the city of Ravenna, not only in age but also in number of years of con- tinuous identification with local business in- terests. He has ever kept in touch with the spirit of progress and has thus made his busi- ness conform to the highest modern standard. This fact, together with his honorable methods and personal popularity has been the basis of his success in his chosen field of endeavor, and his finely equipped establishment today draws its trade from all sections of the territory nor-
mally tributary to Ravenna, the while he is known and honored throughout this entire section.
Ever maintaining a deep interest in all that has tended to conserve the civic and material advancement of his home city and county, Mr. Beatty has long been a potent factor in public affairs of a local nature. He has been a stal- wart in the camp of the Republican party from virtually the time of its organization, and he has rendered efficient service in the party cause. He served four years in the office of county treasurer, was postmaster at Ravenna for a term of four years, during the administration of President Harrison,-from 1890 to 1894, in- clusive,-and has been a member of the Ra- venna board of education for a full quarter of a century, during practically all of which period he has held the office of clerk of that body. For two years he served as a trustee of the state hospital for the insane, at Cleveland, having been appointed to this position by Gov- ernor Foraker and having resigned the office at the time of his appointment to that of post- master. From Governor Bushnell he received the appointment to the position of trustee of Ohio Industrial Home for Girls, at Delaware, and was reappointed by the governor elected after Bushnell, thus remaining in tenure of the office for ten years. He has also served as township trustee and as a member of the city council of Ravenna. In none of these various offices has he been content to be a mere figure- head, for he has endeavored in each position to prove of value and to foster and protect the interests committed to his charge. His course has been that of the loyal, upright and pro- gressive citizen, and no citizen of Ravenna is held in more unqualified confidence and regard than this veteran business man. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he is identified with the local lodge and chapter, as well as the commandery of Knights Templar.
The year 1860 bore record of the marriage of Mr. Beatty to Miss Henrietta G. Day, of Ravenna, and they became the parents of three children,-Robert G., who is now a resident of Ravenna; Harry L., who maintains his home in Ravenna ; and Mary, who died in 1891. The death of Mrs. Beatty occurred in 1869, and in 1871 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beatty to Mrs. Mary L. Beatty, of Bris- tol, Pennsylvania, where she was reared and educated. They have one daughter, Jane, who is the wife of Rev. William L. Torrance, a clergyman of the Episcopal church, now in- cumbent of a pastoral charge in the city of De-
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HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
troit, Michigan. The fine old homestead of Mr. Beatty has long been a recognized center of gracious hospitality and is a favorite ren- dezvous for a wide circle of loyal and valued friends.
CLARENCE B. GREEN .- Numbered among. the thriving and successful merchants of At- water, Portage county, is Clarence B. Green, a worthy representative of the native-born citi- zens of this part of Ohio. He comes of sub- stantial English stock, and of pioneer ancestry, his birth having occurred January 12, 1858, in Deerfield, this county, where his father, James Green, was an early settler.
Born, October 6, 1826, in Gloucestershire, England, a son of Thomas Green, James Green emigrated to this country when a young man, locating in Portage county, Ohio, in 1842. Taking up a tract of wild land in Deerfield, he labored with enthusiastic zeal, in the course of time reclaiming, a valuable farm from the wilderness. He married Sarah Cleverly, who was born in Connecticut, in 1834, a daughter of John and Minerva ( Mattoon) Cleverly, na- tives of the same state. She survived him, and with her son Clarence now resides on the old homestead, having an attractive home.
HON. WILLIAM GRAVES SHARP, of Elyria, member of Congress from the Fourteenth Ohio district, is a man who is remarkable for the versatility and the thoroughness of his at- tainments. Lawyer, writer, astronomer, and a power in one of the leading industries of the world-he is one of the men of balanced and broad attainments whom the state of Ohio is proud to claim as a native, and the Western Reserve to number among its most distin- guished citizens and national legislators.
Mr. Sharp's paternal ancestors were promi- nent in the earlier public affairs of Maryland, his grandfather, George Sharp, serving as state senator when quite a young, man, and after- ward becoming a leading figure in politics and journalism. George W. Sharp, the father, was well educated and enterprising, and mi- grated from Maryland to Ohio about 1830 as a pioneer newspaper man, attaining decided prominence in that field. He married Mahala Graves, whose first American forefathers were Revolutionary patriots of Connecticut and whose later ancestors resided in New York.
William G. Sharp was born at Mount Gil- ead, Morrow county, Ohio, on the 14th of March, 1859, and acquired his first knowledge
of books in the public schools of Elyria, grad- uating from the city high school in 1877. He then entered the law school of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1881; but after his admission to the bar he traveled for some time in the northwest, in Minnesota and Dakota, during which period he was largely engaged in journalistic work, being located for a time at Fargo, North Da- kota. Returning to Ohio in 1882, he com- menced the active practice of the law at Elyria, later forming a partnership with Lester Mc- Lean, and that city has since been his home. His large interests in the iron industries of the Lake Superior region, with his masterly de- velopment of iron and chemical industries, as well as his congressional duties at Washington, have taken him much abroad. In 1884 he became the Democratic nominee for prosecut- ing attorney of Lorain county, and was elected by overcoming a normal Republican majority of 2,500. After creditablv filling one term of three years, he declined to be a candidate for re-election, and in 1887 was nominated by his party for state senator. He led his ticket in the coming election, but was defeated with the balance of the Democratic nominees. In 1892 he was a Cleveland presidential elector. In 1908, entirely unsolicited and despite even his protest, Mr. Sharp was nominated by the Democrats as congressman for the Fourteenth district, his intellectual and practical abilities and his remarkable industrial success making him an especially fitting. representative of that cultured and prosperous section of the state. In connection with this honor it is known that Mr. Sharp regards the Fourteenth district as one of the most progressive and ideal in its industrial, commercial and agricultural inter- ests in the United States, and he values the confidence reposed in him as evidenced by the vote of his home city, as the most cherished tribute ever paid to him. The judgment of his party and personal friends proved sound, for he was elected to the Sixty-first congress in the face of a former Republican majority of 3.500 in his home county. His strong and engaging personality and his thorough knowl- edge of every political detail of the situation in Lorain county added to the strength of his candidacy.
Although abundantly equipped for the legal profession, which he practiced successfully for ten years, it is in the business and industrial world that Mr. Sharp has the broadest stand- ing. At the expiration of his term as prose-
4
Tomy Sharp
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HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
cuting attorney of Lorain county, in 1887, he became the legal adviser to a southern manu- facturing corporation. This business connec- tion indirectly furnished the beginning of the future success which he attained in industrial lines. From that work grew a number of large companies manufacturing pig iron and chemicals in Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada. He disposed of his Canadian interests, how- ever, and in 1907 he was chiefly instrumental in consolidating the various companies in which he was interested, and forming the Lake Superior Iron and Chemical Company. This is now the largest manufacturer of charcoal pig iron in the world, owning numerous fur- naces, mines, timber lands and chemical plants in Michigan and Wisconsin. The corporation has its headquarters in Detroit, and Mr. Sharp is one of its leading officers. He is also finan- cially interested in Elyria and Lorain improved real estate, having valuable holdings in each city, some of the finest business structures in both places having been built by him.
In 1895 Mr. Sharp was married at Elyria to Miss Hallie M. Clough, daughter of Henry H. and Margaret (Barney) Clough, of Elyria, and their five children are Margaret, George, Will- iam, Effie Graves and Baxter Sharp. Mr. Sharp is a member of the Masonic order, the I. O. O. F., Elks, Woodmen and several city clubs, besides being an active member of the city school board, to which position he was elected by nearly a unanimous vote of all par- ties. He is sociable and an interesting con- versationalist, as, aside from his fine educa- tion and his broad and varied experience in professional, public and business life, he has traveled extensively in the United States, Eu- rope, Mexico and South America. His scien- tific knowledge is also broad and exact, and if the subject of astronomy is touched it is found to be one which he has studied from his boy- hood; one in which his interest has never abated, and upon which he has often lectured for the pleasure and instruction of his friends. Among professional astronomers he is warmly received, and those who know of the far broader scope of his life work acknowledge him as one of the most remarkable men of the middle west.
GEORGE W. WELDY .- Occupying an assured position among the respected and valued citi- zens of Portage county is George W. Weldy, who has spent a large part of his life in At- water township, and has performed his full
share in developing and promoting its agri- cultural and industrial resources. A son of Peter Weldy, he was born January 3, 1839, in Mahoning county.
A native of Mahoning county, Peter Weldy was born, in 1818, in Berlin township, and was there brought up and educated. In January, 1838, he married Julia Hollister, a daughter of Horris Hollister, who was born and bred in Wallingford, Connecticut, coming from ex- cellent New England ancestry. The Hollisters were early pioneers of Palmyra, Portage coun- ty, settling in the midst of a dense forest, where they cleared and improved one of the first homes of the Western Reserve, and were for many years actively identified with its agri- cultural prosperity. After his marriage, Peter WVeldy resided for a number of years in Deer- field, from there removing with his family to Atwater township, where he was engaged in general farming until his death.
Brought up on a farm, George W. Weldy has spent much of his life as an agriculturist, although he has devoted his attention to me- chanical pursuits a part of the time, working as bridge carpenter on a railroad. He has been twice married. He married first, Jan- uary 24, 1866, Mary L. Whittlesey, who died in early life. Mr. Weldy married for his second wife, December 25, 1871, Sarah Baldwin, and the one child born of the first union died in in- fancy. Mr. Weldy is well acquainted with our country, having traveled extensively through- out the Union. He is influential in local affairs, and has served with ability and fidelity in the various offices within the gift of his townsmen, and for seven weeks, in the fall of 1898, served as juryman in Cleveland. Religiously he is a valued member of the Congregational church.
HIRAM A. HALLOCK .- Identified with the manufacturing and mercantile interests of Por- tage county as a miller, and a dealer in flour and feed, Hiram A. Hallock, with his brother, A. H. Hallock, is carrying on an extensive business in both Atwater and New Milford. He was born in Rootstown, Portage county, Ohio, March 4, 1867, the place in which the birth of his father, Gibbs Hallock, occurred, in 1830.
Gibbs Hallock married Malissa McKelvey, who was born, in 1832, in Motttown, Ohio, and into the household thus established, ten chil- dren were born, (eight of whom are now liv- ing), namely : Alice, Julia, Alphonso H., Law- rence, Bertha, Eva, William, Hiram A., Blanche and Irene.
Brought up on a farm, and educated in the
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