USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 56
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WILLIAM WALLACE HILL, honored alike for his sterling worth of character, his patriotism and his true citizenship, represents an early pioneer family of Monroe township. Almerian Hill, his father, came to Ohio from Genesee county, New York, about the year of 1810. He had been defrauded of his money by signing notes, and came to the west to replenish his lost possessions, living for a short time at Con- neaut, then called "Hunter Hill," and later es- tablished his home in Monroe township. He married Rachel Haskins in Canada, and their children were: John (deceased), Almerian, Jerusha, Robert, Judie Ann, Samuel, Alex- ander, Louisa, Hector, Marian, William Wal- lace and Luretta.
William W. Hill, born December 19, 1828, spent the early years of his life in helping to clear the home farm, in chopping. wood, build- ing fences and at various other labor necessary on a new and undeveloped farm. There were no roads and scarcely any houses in this com- munity at that time, and his young life was replete with pioneer conditions. He spent one year in a blacksmith shop, and enlisting for the Civil war in August of 1861, he was mustered in in the following September and was made member of Company E, Twenty-ninth Ohio
Calista a. Bacon
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Volunteer Infantry, under Captain H. Luce. But in 1862 he was honorably discharged from the service on account of sickness, thereafter receiving a pension until he relinquished it in 1865, owing to the then poor financial condi- tion of the government. He again in 1895 applied for his pension and received the pen- sion in full. During the past two years he has suffered the loss of his eyesight, but he bears this affliction with the same courage and forti- tude which has characterized his entire life.
He married in Espyville, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 21, 1848, Hannah Laird, who was born January 26, 1829, and her parents, Nathan and Hannah (Allen) Laird, were respectively from the Green Mountains in Vermont and from the state of New York. The following chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hill : Celestia, born October 10, 1849, married C. Wittwer and lives in Wright county, Missouri ; Calista, born October 23, 1851, married C. Bacon, men- tioned in the sketch of Constant Bacon, and they live in Monroe township, Ashtabula county ; Solyma, born December 1, 1853, mar- ried Hiram Sevey and is living in Monroe township; Jasper, born March 1, 1856, lives in Monroe township, and is mentioned more at length below; Lydia Louisa, born October 24, 1857, married Thomas Scribner, of Monroe township; Ida, born February 26, 1862, died in 1902; Nora, born September 26, 1860, mar- ried Andrew Lanum and lives at Painesville, Ohio; and Laura, born October 14, 1870, mar- ried Elmer Pitts and lives in Loveland, Colo- rado.
Jasper Hill, a son of William and Hannah Hill, has been a lifelong farmer, and he re- ceived his education in the district schools of Monroe township. He is a general farmer, and also maintains a small dairy and raises some stock for sale, keeping on an average about sixty sheep. He owns an estate of IIO acres in Sheffield township, Ashtabula county. Mr. Hill married on February 6, 1876, Ellen Patrick, who was born January 19, 1856, a daughter of William and Hannah (Leavitt) Patrick, the father born in 1811 and died in 1877, and the mother born in 1829, died in 1868. The two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Hill are Ray and Wallace. The elder, born March 28, 1877, married Janetta Cowan and lives in Sheffield township. The younger son, born June 19, 1879, married Ruby Crosby and also lives in Sheffield township. Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Hill are members of the Grange, and
she is also a member of the Congregational church.
HARLEY BARNES .- A citizen of Painesville standing high in its business, intellectual and religious circles, Harley Barnes is a native of Ohio, born at Chester, Geauga county, March 6, 1859. He was first educated in district schools and completed his scholastic training at Chester Seminary. Mr. Barnes was reared on a farm, but after leaving the seminary spent a number of years in newspaper work, which proved a valuable discipline for him, both in the way of mental training and in the cultivation of self-possession and adaptability.
Mr. Barnes' journalistic career was inter- spersed with the reading of law, and in 1884 he was admitted to practice at Painesville. Both his professional work and his labors for the Republican party were thoroughly appre- ciated by his friends and associates, so that in 1891 he was honored with appointment as re- corder of Lake county. The discharge of these duties led to the establishment of an ab- stract business, which gradually developed and expanded into real estate, banking and invest- ments, to which Mr. Barnes now devotes him- self, to his encouraging profit and increase of reputation as a broad, honorable and suc- cessful man of affairs. He is not only a suc- cessful promoter of various investment enter- prises, but has always held many positions of a fiduciary nature, which call for both execu- tive and managerial ability and an integrity which is proof against all temptation. Mr. Barnes' intellectual talents run along the line of history, and in that field he is widely known throughout the Western Reserve. He is a life member of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society and of the Western Re- serve Historical Society, and vice-president of the Old Northwest Genealogical Society. He is also deeply interested in church and Sunday school work, and in all else which tends to elevate the intellectual or moral life of those with whom he associates.
ELMER E. ROYER, cultivator of a valuable farm in Randolph township, Portage county, is the son of George Amos and Anna (Look- enbauch) Royer, who are still located on the old and productive farm in the center of the township, upon which their son was reared. Mr. Royer, of this sketch, was born in Penn- sylvania (also the birthplace of his parents), November 6, 1862, and was brought to Ran-
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dolph township with other members of the family in 1868. The first family homestead consisted of eighty acres, but George Royer afterward purchased the 164 acres which con- stitutes his present place.
Elmer E. obtained his education in the dis- trict schools of Randolph township, remaining with his parents until his marriage, October 12, 1886, to Miss Elma Maxwell. His wife, who was born June 12, 1864, is a daughter of John and Elsie (Honeywell) Maxwell, both natives of Ohio. Their daughter and only child, Elsie A., was born February 5, 1894, and is being educated at Randolph. In com- pletion of the record of the father, it should be added that Mr. Royer has long been known as a stalwart Republican, and that for several terms he has served his township as trustee. In the discharge of the duties of that office, as of all entrusted to him, he has evinced faith- fulness and thorough intelligence.
AMOS L. SLABAUGH, who successfully oper- ates a farm of 150 acres in Randolph town- ship, Portage county, was born in Pennsylva- nia, December 16, 1822. He is a son of Christian and Nancy (Roods) Slabaugh, who migrated from the old home in Lancaster county, in 1827, and located in Mahoning county. There the family settled on a farm of 160 acres. The sons assisted their father in clearing the land, and in the log house which was the family home was reared the twelve children of the household.
Amos L., who is the only surviving son of the family, resided with his parents until his marriage to Miss Julia A. France in 1853. He then located at Akron, Ohio; subsequently re- sided in Indiana for three years; lived for a time at Rootstown, Portage county, and finally settled on his present farm in Randolph town- ship. His wife, who was born in 1832 and is therefore ten years his junior, has borne him three sons and one daughter, as follows: Dr. Warren Slabaugh, a practicing physician of Omaha; Willard W., a lawyer in that city; Watson E., a lawyer, who resides at Akron, Ohio; Frank is an Omaha dentist; and his sister Mary lives at home.
ADELBERT W. WHEELOCK .- Himself one of the most progressive agriculturists of Portage county, with his private interests located in Randolph township since the early period of his manhood, Adelbert W. Wheelock is also a widely known character in this section be-
cause of the prominence of his maternal an- cestry in the early history of the Western Reserve and his own earnestness as a student of pioneer times and as a collector of curios connected with them. He is a native of Alle- gan county, Michigan, born on the 2d of March, 1862, and is a son of Benjamin F. and Catherine M. (Clark) Wheelock, natives of New Hampshire. His mother was a daugh- ter of Billings and Rachel (Brigden) Clark, natives of Connecticut, who came to the West- ern Reserve in 1816, taking up land in both Lake and Portage counties, but fixing their homestead in Edinburg township. There Bil- lings Clark erected what was then the largest residence in Portage county, and was a promi- nent man. Artimus and Rachel (Renolds) Wheelock, the paternal grandparents of the family, first flourished in New York state, the great-grandfather of Adelbert W., who was a native of Connecticut, being William Whee- lock. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Wheelock, four sons and two daugh- ters are still alive-Adelbert W., of this sketch; Wilford A., who is also a resident of Randolph township; Maurice R., a citizen of Ravenna; Nettie G. (Wheelock) Bailey, who now lives at Shreve, Wayne county ; Carrie V., of Cleveland, and Arthur A., who resides at Salem, Columbiana county, all in the state of Ohio.
Until he was fifteen years of age, Adelbert WV. resided with his parents, but his independ- ence then came to the foreground and made him the self-supporting member of the com- munity which he has since been, with a great surplus of energy and ability which have been applied to the advancement both of his private affairs and those of the township and the county. On September 20, 1887, when he was twenty-five years of age, Mr. Wheelock mar- ried Miss Alice B. Switzer, and after residing in Edinburg township for ten years, settled in Randolph and purchased the farm which he now occupies. His wife, who was born May 5, 1865, is a daughter of Tobias and Rebecca Switzer, natives of Columbiana county, Ohio, and is herself the mother of Charles B., Frank- lin T. and Edith M., all living at home. Mrs. Wheelock's grandfather, Jacob Switzer, was born November 8, 1788, and died March 28, 1859, while her grandmother, Catherine, who was born in the same year as her husband, passed away March 17, 1850.
Mr. Wheelock has always taken a deep in- terest in the general progress of agricultural
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matters in the county, and for years has been active in Grange work, having served for the past seven years as worthy master of the local body. He is independent in politics, but his religious faith is firmly grounded in Meth- odism, and for nine years he has served as trustee of the Randolph church.
Brief reference has been made to Mr. Whee- lock's interest in historic relics, and, being a man of action and enterprise, he has become an industrious collector. Among other inter- esting articles now deposited in his private museum is a United States mail bag represent- ing the kind used when the national postal service was first placed in operation. This particular pouch was last used by Colonel Tay- lor from 1796 to 1800. Then there is the great basting fork wielded by his great-grandmother in the days when the roasting and cooking was done in open fireplaces, over the blazing logs or golden beds of partly burned wood. A bell originally the property of Job Clark, a maternal ancestor of several generations back, was transferred by him from Rhode Island to the later home of the family in Connecticut ; descended to Billings Clark, the maternal grandfather, who brought it to Edinburg township when he came hither in 1816; next it became the property of Catherine Clark, his daughter, who carried the much-traveled bell with her to Michigan, after she became Mrs. Benjamin F. Wheelock; and the treasured family heirloom remained in her household when it was shifted to Randolph township, finally passing to the careful hands of her son, Adelbert W. He has a wooden sugar bowl which has been in the family for more than a century ; a hatchel, or comber, with the flax which was last used by his grandmother, which was a gift to the girl in 1805; and a spoon owned by Isabel Eliott 150 years ago. Of the relics which may be said to be of more gen- eral historic interest are the section of a grape vine set out by George Washington ; a chip of George Washington's barn wall at Mt. Ver- non ; a copy of the "Psalms and Hymns" pub- lished by John Ripon, D. D., in 1803, and a portrait of Justine Eddy, painted by W. A. Waterman in 1818. Connected with the periods immediately before and after the Civil war, Mr. Wheelock also possesses a life of George Washington by Hon. J. T. Headley, with an interesting account of Mount Vernon, issued in 1860, and both volumes of the "His- tory of the Civil War," as published by John
S. C. Abbott in 1866. He has also a fine Indian collection, minerals and fossils.
REV. EDWIN H. HAWLEY. - Measured by its beneficence, its nobility and its fruitful labors as one of the able ministers of the gospel in the Western Reserve, the life of this honored pioneer, Rev. Edwin H. Haw- ley, was such as to make the influence thereof continue to manifest itself in ever widening angle, through the effects upon and labors of those who came within the sphere of his per- sonal or subjective influence during his long and faithful service in the vineyard of the divine Master. It is signally fitting that in this publication be entered a tribute to the memory of this venerated pioneer clergyman of the Western Reserve.
Rev. Edwin H. Hawley was born at New Canaan, Columbia county, New York, on the 12th of October, 1812, and was a scion of a family of English lineage, whose name has been identified with the annals of American history from the early colonial days; repre- sentatives of the same were numbered among the founders and first settlers of Canaan, Con- necticut, and the same name was applied to the New York settlement made by members of the family in later generations. Mr. Haw- ley's parents were in comfortable financial circumstances and he was afforded excel- lent educational advantages in his youth, besides which had the beneficent influences of a home of culture and refinement. He was for four years a student in Union Col- lege, at Schenectady, New York, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1838, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later Master of Arts. Soon after his graduation he was matriculated in Newton Theological Seminary, in the city of Boston, in which institution he was graduated in 1840. In November of the same year he was or- dained to the ministry of the Baptist church, in New York City. Prior to this, in 1837, he had received from this church denomina- tion a license to preach. After his ordina- tion Mr. Hawley was sent as a missionary to Lorain county, Ohio, and upon his arrival in this state he took up his residence in the little village of Lorain, on the shores of Lake Erie. In Lorain county, on the 3d of November, 1841, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Dinah R. Morse, and in the following year
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they removed to Bedford, Cuyahoga county, where he became pastor of the Baptist church. There his wife died, and he later married Miss Hannah Spafford, whose death occurred within the same year. On the 5th of Feb- ruary, 1846, Mr. Hawley was married, while still residing in Bedford, to Mrs. Rachel (Pef- fers) Rose, of Burton, Geauga county; she was born in Washington county, New York. While pastor of the Baptist church in Bed- ford, Mr. Hawley also had pastoral charge of the church in the little village of Twinsburg, three miles distant, in Summit county.
While actively laboring as pastor of the church in Bedford, Mr. Hawley became inter- ested in the teachings and doctrine of the Christian church, then known as Disciples of Christ. So strong an appeal did the tenets of this denomination make to Mr. Hawley that he finally visited the Rev. Alexander Camp- bell at his home in Bethany, West Virginia, and his interview and discussions with this honored founder of the Christian church re- sulted in his espousing the faith of said de- nomination, to which he transferred his mem- bership and of which he became a clergyman. His first pastorate under the auspices of this church was at Braceville, Trumbull county, Ohio, and later he held pastoral charge of the church at Newton Falls, Trumbull county, for three years, at the expiration of which, in the autumn of 1854. he took up his resi- dence in Painesville, Lake county, in which village he became the first settled pastor of the church of Disciples of Christ. Here also he served one year as principal of the public schools. He was a man of profound erudi- tion and was familiar with several languages.
After a successful pastorate of four years in Painesville, Mr. Hawley was called to the pastorate of the church at Wilmington, Clin- ton county, Ohio, where he remained two years. He then returned to the Western Re- serve and soon afterward he became pastor of the church of his faith in the village of Men- tor, Lake county, one of the oldest churches of the denomination in Ohio, and while he re- tained this incumbency Alexander Campbell visited Mentor and preached from the pulpit of this church. After leaving this charge Mr. Hawley preached at Perry and other places in the Western Reserve, and in 1864 he was called to the pastorate of the Euclid Ave- nue church in East Cleveland, then known as Doan's Corners. A year later he became min- ister of the Disciples' church at Hiram, Port- age county, where he served for two years,
during which period his children attended the Eclectic Institute, the nucleus of the present Hiram College. Owing to a disordered con- dition of his vocal organs, Mr. Hawley found it impossible to continue regular pastoral work for some time, and under these conditions he took up his residence in the city of Cleveland, from which place he was called to supply tem- porarily the pulpits of his church in various parts of the state. Finally he became pastor of the church at Geneva, Ashtabula county, where he remained two years, after which he preached at varying intervals in various churches in the Reserve, without holding a permanent charge.
Mr. Hawley was for many years a regular and valued contributor to the Christian Stand- ard, of which the editor-in-chief was the Rev. Isaac Errett. Mr. Hawley was well known to and held in high regard by the ministers of his church in Ohio and elsewhere. He was an earnest speaker, and his every utter- ance betokened a courage of conviction and a desire to be helpful to his fellow men. His character was one of gracious kindliness, and he won to himself the love and esteem of all who came within the circle of his influence. He had naught of intellectual bigotry and in- tolerance, but placed true values upon men and affairs, understanding the well-springs of human thought and action and having a deep and abiding sympathy for all sorts and condi- tions of men. His was the faith that makes faithful, and of him it may consistently be said that he "remembered those who were for- gotten" and those who "sat in darkness."
In 1869, so greatly had his voice been im- paired, Mr. Hawley found it imperative to withdraw from active ministerial work, and he became a dealer in antiquarian books, in Cleveland -- a vocation signally in harmony with his fine literary tastes and habits. He continued in this line of business for a few years, and about 1873 he returned to Bed- ford, Cuyahoga county, where he remained a few years. He passed the last years of his long and fruitful life in Cleveland, where he died on the 18th of November, 1893, at the age of eighty-one years. His memory is re- vered by all who knew him and it is assuredly true that "his works do follow him." His widow survived him by six years, and was eighty-seven years of age at the time of her . death, which occurred in Painesville. All of the five children were born of the last marriage, and concerning them the following brief data is given : Dr. Charles M. is individually men-
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tioned in this publication; Alice E., who be- came the wife of Alden H. Matthews, died in the city of Cleveland ; Helen L. is the wife of Theodore F. Hollinger, of Detroit, Michigan ; Dr. Edwin P. is a successful medical prac- titioner in the city of Cleveland, and Kate L. is the wife of John Colman, of Cleveland.
Standing in the great white light of a life and character like that of Rev. Edwin H. Hawley, we are moved to veneration and admiration, and poor, indeed, is he who can not find in his life record both lesson and incentive.
DR. CHARLES M. HAWLEY is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Paines- ville, Lake county, where he has maintained his home for more than a quarter of a century and where he is held in unqualified esteem both as a physician and as a citizen of the utmost loyalty and public spirit. In view of the fact that on other pages of this work is entered a memoir to his honored father, the late Rev. Edwin H. Hawley, it is not necessary to here offer further review of the family history, as ready reference may be made to the article mentioned.
Dr. Hawley was born in the village of Bed- ford, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on the Ist of February, 1849. He gained his early educa- tional discipline in the schools of the various cities and villages in which his father had pas- toral charge, and in 1864 he entered Hiram Eclectic Institute, at Hiram, Ohio, where his father was then located, and in this institution he continued higher academic studies for a period of two years. In preparing for the work of his chosen profession he was matricu- lated in the Pennsylvania Eclectic Medical Col- lege, at Philadelphia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1871 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. After his graduation the doctor spent cne year in Europe, and within this inter- val he visited Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Hol- land and Belgium. He made the trip through Europe largely on foot ; he arrived in France soon after the evacuation of Paris by the Ger- mans, after the Franco-Prussian war, and he kept "outside the beaten path" in his itinerary, so that his journeys proved of far more interest and value and less expense was entailed. In fact he expended in making this extended tour the sum of only five hundred and fifty dollars.
After his return to Ohio Dr. Hawley passed
four and one-half years as first assistant physi- cian of the Ohio state hospital for the insane, in the city of Cleveland, and thereafter he was engaged in the practice of his profession about eighteen months in his native town of Medford, where his father was living at the time. In the spring of 1880 Dr. Hawley took up his resi- dence in Painesville, where he practically suc- ceeded to the practice of the late and honored Dr. L. C. Stebbins, and here he has since con- tinued in the active work of his profession, having a large and representative practice and being one of the leading members of his pro- fession in this section of the state. For thirteen years he was attending physician at the county infirmary of Lake county, and he has been a member of the Painesville board of health since 1893. He holds membership in the Ohio State Medical Society, American Medical Associa- tion and Lake County Medical Society.
In politics Dr. Hawley is an advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and while he takes a deep interest in all that touches the well-being of the community, he never has sought public office. His interest in educational matters was signified by his serving for seven years as a member of the board of education of Painesville. He and his wife hold membership in the Disciples, or Christian church, of which his father was a distinguished clergyman, and they are actively identified with the work of their church in Painesville.
Dr. Hawley has inherited much of the fine literary taste of his father, and is a constant reader of the best literature, both professional and standard. He is fortunate in being the owner of the large and finely selected library collected by his father, whose discrimination was ultimate in regard to such matters. This library is undoubtedly one of the choicest pri- vate collections to be found within the borders of the Western Reserve. In his library the Doctor also retains the old working desk, revolving book-case and chair so long and con- stantly used by his father, of whose gentle and noble character he is ever mindful and to whom he pays a perpetual tribute of love and honor.
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