USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 57
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In 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Hawley to Miss Emma Burridge, daughter of Captain Eleazer Burridge, of Mentor, Lake county, and they have two sons,-Edwin H., who is a railway postal clerk and who main- tains his headquarters in Cleveland; and Charles B., who is a graduate of the Case School of Applied Science, in Cleveland, and who is a civil engineer by profession.
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FRANK BARNES has long been associated with the varied interests of Ashtabula county, but he is a native son of Connecticut, born March 7, 1830, to the marriage union of Zenus and Flora (Goodwin) Barnes. Zenus Barnes, born at New Hartford, Connecticut, December 28, 1798, came to Ohio in 1837, and in 1866 he became a resident of Austinburg and one of its agriculturists. His death occurred at Lansing, Michigan, July 19, 1870. Mrs. Barnes was born April 9. 1805, and died on the 31st of May, 1872. The following children were born of their marriage: Elizabeth, who was born September 30, 1826, and died on April 30, 1849; Walter, born in 1829. married Amelia Gould and died in California in 1865, his widow now living at Columbus Junction, lowa : -Frank, born March 7, 1830, is mentioned below; Homer, born in April, 1832, died in 1865; Mary, born July 11, 1838, died Sep- tember 28, 1849; Norman, born July 1, 1842, died October 1I, 1849; and Lizzie, born in 1847, died in Iowa in 1886.
Frank Barnes received his educational train- ing in Geauga county, Ohio, where he attended both public and select schools, and he started on his business career as a farmer, but after a short time went into a store and clerked until 1854. During the following ten years he re- sided in Minnesota, engaged in teaming and farming, and returning to Ohio in 1864 le located at Huntsburg, and a year later moved from there to his present home in Austinburg township, his residence there covering the long period of forty-two years. He is yet inter- ested in a general mercantile business at Aus- tinburg, and has served as the postmaster of the little city for twenty-two years, while dur- ing several years he has served his township as treasurer. He married in his earlier years Angenette Wright, who was born on the 18th of June, 1831, and died on the 16th of June, 1897. A son, Walter P. Barnes, was born to them on the 14th of April, 1866. He attended the Grand River Institute in Austinburg, and is now a member of the executive board of that institution, and is also interested in his father's mercantile business. He married Al- meria Wire, and is a Master Mason, a member of Geneva Lodge of Ohio, and a Republican. Frank Barnes is also a Master Mason, but be- longs to Tuscon Lodge at Jefferson, where he is also a member of the Chapter No. 222 and of the Odd Fellows fraternity. In the latter order he has served as noble and vice grand and as recording and permanent secretary of
Seal No. 691, and he is now a member of En- sign Lodge, No. 400. His political allegiance is with the Republican party.
JUDSON C. BEERY, who has been a substantial farmer and a good citizen of Portage county for more than forty-three years, has been iden- tified with the progress of Randolph township for a decade. He was born at Canfield, Ohio, September 15, 1840, a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Strock) Beery, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Canfield. They located at Canfield in early times, and fixed the homestead on a tract of one hundred and seventy-five acres.
This locality witnesses the development of Judson C. into manhood, his residence being with his parents until he himself established a household by his marriage to Miss Aucelia Davidson, on the 12th of October, 1866. Less than a year before, on the 15th of November, 1865, he had received his honorable discharge from the Union army, in which he had been serving since 1863 as a member of Company G, First Ohio Light Artillery. After his mar- riage Mr. Beery moved to Freedom township, Portage county, where he engaged in farming for a quarter of a century. In June, 1902, he transferred the family homestead to Randolph township, where he has continued his indus- trious career as an agriculturist and added to his character for stanch citizenship. He has the further honor of being the father of eight sons who are the highest credit to him and the places of their residence ; they are Adelbert J., Clifton J., Austin, Clarence, Edward, Charles, Chauncy and Harry.
THEODORE F. MERIAM, a venerable and revered citizen of Randolph, Portage county, was one of the earliest to organize the agricul- turists for co-operation and the improvement of their calling. More than forty years ago he founded the Farmers' Club, which proved beneficial to the farming community until the present time, and he has also been secretary of the Mutual Insurance Company for some years. Mr. Meriam has worthily served the township as clerk and constable, and since boyhood has continued his father's loyal work for the Con- gregational church and the general cause of Christianity. He has long been a deacon of the local church and is now serving as president of the Portage County Bible Society.
On January 6, 1832, Mr. Meriam became a native of Randolph township, as a son of Rev.
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Joseph and Emeline (Bidwell) Meriam, the father being born in Massachusetts and the mother in Connecticut. Rev. Joseph Meriam settled in Randolph township in the fall of 1823, occupying ten acres of land and quietly commencing his ministerial work as a culti- vator in the Lord's vineyard. With Randolph Center as the nucleus of his pastoral labors, he continued in the good work for sixty-four years, and the people for miles around had con- stant and abundant cause to rise up and bless· him for his faithful help in a spiritual and, often, a material form. When a young man, he was sent by his church as a delegate to a convention held in Lake county, Ohio, and while thus serving met the girl who afterward became his wife. He was a thoughtful hus- band and father and carefully provided for the comforts of his family, erecting one of the first frame residences in the township-and so honestly and stanchly built that it was occupied for many years after his death by his son, Theodore F. Besides the latter, who was the third child born into his family and is the only survivor, there were Joseph Bidwell, Emeline A., William M. and Elizabeth.
Theodore F. Meriam received most of his education at the Shaw Academy, of East Cleveland, Ohio, and lived with his parents until his marriage to Miss Sarah Adams, a native of that place. Mrs. Meriam was born January 6, 1836, of good New England stock and Ohio pioneers, and died in the year 1879. The children of the union were Howard F., Ruth E., Chester A., Morrison E., Junius L. and Joseph B. In 1881 Mr. Meriam married Miss Mary Moos, and Oliver F., the only child of this union, lives adjacent to his parents. Theodore. F. Meriam's mother's family (the Bidwells) was originally settled in Connecticut, but migrated afterward to Pennsylvania and thence to Lake county, Ohio.
ABELINO GRAHAM .- A brave and loyal sol- dier during the Civil war, a public official of well-known ability, a successful farmer and a true and worthy citizen-such in part is the life work of Abelino Graham, a native son of Trumbull township. His father, Samuel Gra- ham, born in Hadley, Massachusetts, Novem- ber 4, 1804, came to this state about the year 1835, locating first in Geauga county, remain- ing there four years and then located in Ashta- hnla county. His death, however, occurred in Iowa, May 15, 1855. He was by trade a shoe- maker. He married Sylvia Heminway, who
was born on October 18, 1807, and died on the 7th of January, 1862, and they became the parents of the following children: Mary, who was born January 27, 1833, in Massachusetts, and died March 27, 1863; Marilla, born Feb- rnary 23, 1835, married William Cook, and lives in Auburn, Bay county, Michigan ; Maria, born March 26, 1834, married Randolph Elliot, and lives in Kawkawlin, Michigan ; Abelino E. was born June 17, 1839; Rosalva W., born May 8, 1842, married Emma Gaines, and for his second wife Ann Deeda, and he lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Rocelia, born December 16, 1844, married Henry Page, and lives in Kawkawlin, Michigan; Joel P., born June 15, 1847, married Maria Perry, and is a blacksmith in Trumbull township; Emerson, born May 22, 1850, married Jane Edsell and lives in Kawkawlin, Michigan; and Samuel, born June 25, 1854, married Lettie Bedell and lives in California.
Abelino Graham received a district school education in the schools of Trumbull township, and September 9, 1861, he enlisted in Battery C, First Ohio Volunteers, being promoted later to corporal and on the 13th of July, 1864, to sergeant. He re-enlisted at Nashville in his old battery for three years or until the close of the war, and received his honorable discharge July 15, 1865. He is now a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, C. Brainard Post, No. 503, at Trumbull Center, and he served as its commander for two years and is its present adjutant, having held the latter office for six years. During a period of nine years he served his township of Trumbull as a trustee, and has also been a member of the school board. He owns a farm of ninety-six acres of good and well improved land, and is engaged in general agricultural pursuits.
Mr. Graham married on May 18, 1871, Martha Stevens, who was born December 9, 1843, and their union has been without issue. They are worthy and acceptable members of the Church of Christ.
FREDERICK T. PYLE .- One of the repre- sentative business men and influential citizens of the thriving little city of Painesville, Lake county, is Mr. Pyle, who is president of the Pvle Abstract & Loan Company, of which he was the founder and in the upbuilding of whose large and substantial business he has been the dominating force. Frederick T. Pyle was born in Dodge county, Minnesota, on the 12th of October, 1858, and is a son of Jesse and Ade-
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line (Lucas) Pyle, the former of whom was born in the state of Maryland and the latter in Ashtabula county, Ohio. In 1861, on account of the Indian outbreak in the northwest, Jesse Pyle removed with his family from Minnesota, where he was a pioneer, to Saybrook, Ashta- bula county, Ohio, the former home of his wife, and she died the day after their arrival, having been a victim of consumption. Jesse Pyle was reared and educated in Maryland, where he learned the carpenter's trade, and as a young man he came to Ohio and took up his residence in Saybrook, Ashtabula county, where he engaged in the work of his trade and where his marriage was solemnized. Mrs. Pyle was a daughter of Thomas Lucas, who was, so far as available data indicates, a native of Con- necticut, whence he came to Ashtabula county, Ohio, in an early day and numbered himself among the pioneers of the Western Reserve. In Saybrook, Ashtabula county, he passed the residue of his life, and here all of his children were born ; all are now deceased.
Jesse Pyle became a manufacturer of lumber after his return to Ohio, and he conducted operations at various places. For many years, in connection with the general manufacturing of lumber, he made a specialty of the manu- facturing of suckers for oil wells, and as a business man he was energetic, discriminating and progressive, so that he gained definite suc- cess in his chosen field of application. It is worthy of record in the connection, as a notable coincidence, that Jesse Pyle was one of twin children, as was also his wife, and their two sons, Frederick T. and Frank P., likewise are twins. After the death of his wife Jesse Pyle provided for his two boys by securing them board and care in the home of an excellent family in Trumbull county, where they remained until they were fifteen years of age, in the meanwhile duly availing themselves of the public schools. After their father's second marriage, to Miss Addie Ransom, of Chau- tauqua county, New York, they again found a home of their own under the paternal rooftree. The father had associated himself with Warren Packard, of Warren, Ohio, and established a lumber mill at Grant Station, Chantauqua county, New York, where he remained for some time after his second marriage. He then established a mill at Waterford, Pennsylvania, in 1873, where his two sons remained with him about three years. He finally went to the Pacific coast, remaining for several years in California and Washington, and he passed the
closing years of his life in the home of his son, Frederick T., where he died at the age of seventy-four years. Frank, the other son, is now identified with the work of drilling oil wells and resides at New Martinsville, West Virginia. The father was a Republican in politics, was a member of the Methodist church, and was a man of inviolable integrity. His second wife preceded him to the life eternal and is survived by one child, Nellie M. Pyle.
Frederick T. Pyle gained his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of Trumbull county, Ohio, as has already been noted, and in that county he was also afforded the advantages of Hartford Academy. After leaving this institution he was for some time engaged in teaching in the district schools of the same county, and was successful in the work of the pedagogic profession. His natural inclination, however, was for a business life, and he secured employment in the drug store of W. C. Andrews, at Cortland, Trumbull county, where he learned the business in all its details and became a skilled pharmacist. In 1883 he purchased a drug store in the village of Sterling, Wayne county, Ohio, where he remained three years, at the expiration of which he removed his stock of goods to Madi- son, Lake county, where he built up an excel- lent trade, and where he purchased, in 1885, the stock and business of a competitor.
In 1892 Mr. Pyle was elected to the office of county recorder of Lake county, whereupon he removed to Painesville, the judicial center of the county. By successive re-elections Mr. Pyle continued an incumbent of the office men- tioned until September, 1907,-a period of almost fifteen years-and the best evidence of the popular estimate placed upon his adminis- tration is that offered by his long tenure of this important office. Within his regime as county recorder Mr. Pyle made a most exact and com- plete set of abstracts of title to all real estate in the county, and upon his retirement from office . he organized the Pyle Abstract & Loan Com- pany, of which he has been president from the start and of whose affairs he has had the gen- eral supervision. The company utilizes the fine set of abstracts prepared by him, and makes a specialty of financial loans upon approved real estate security. From the abstract department the best of service is given, and an abstract issued by the company is cer- tain to be comprehensive and accurate in every detail. Mr. Pyle is the owner of a well-im-
I livetland
MRS. SALMON SWETLAND
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proved farm in Painesville township, Lake county, about one mile distant from Paines- ville, and on this place a specialty is made of growing onions. He is recognized as one of the representative business men of Lake county, where he is well known and held in unqualified esteem, and as a citizen he is essen- tially liberal and public-spirited.
As a stanch adherent of the Republican party, Mr. Pyle has rendered effective service in its cause. He was the first Republican ever elected clerk of Milton township, Wayne county, Ohio, where he was then engaged in the drug business. He was elected to this office in 1884, after a residence of but one year in the county, and his election as a Republican made a break in the power of the Democratic party, which considered that county and town- ship one of its strongholds. Mr. Pyle is identi- hed with various fraternal and social organiza- tions in his home city.
On the 12th of April, 1883, at Johnson, Trumbull county, Ohio, Mr. Pyle was united in marriage to Miss Susie Elder, who was born and reared in that county and who is a daughter of the late George D. Elder, one of the sterling pioneers of that section of Ohio. Mrs. Pyle's ancestors settled in America in the early colonial epoch. Mr. and Mrs. Pyle have two children-Raymond F., who is cashier of the Painesville National Bank, and Marjorie M., who was graduated in the Paines- ville high school as a member of the class of 1909. The original copper plate from which the map of the Western Reserve shown herein was made is the property of F. T. Pyle, and was found nailed over a stovepipe hole in a house in Madison about 1896, and was pur- chased by F. T. Pyle.
SALMON SWETLAND .- On the shore of Lake Erie, in Madison township, Lake county, is the fine old homestead farm which was the home of Salmon Swetland during the major' portion of his life, and which is now owned and occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Frederick Brown, who was born in the house which has been her place of abode from the time of her birth. The farm adjoins the Madison town- ship park and is one of the many beautiful country estates in the historic old Western Reserve. Mr. Swetland was a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Reserve and was long numbered among the successful farmers and honored and influential citizens of Lake county. He died on the homestead on
the 12th of June, 1901, at the venerable age of eighty years.
Salmon Swetland was born in Bristol town- ship, Ashtabula county, Ohio, in the year 1821, and was a son of Salmon and Betsy (Talcott) Swetland, both of whom were natives of Dal- ton, Massachusetts, whence they came to the Western Reserve about the year 1818, settling in Ashtabula county, where the father secured a tract of wild land and instituted the develop- ment of a farm. He was killed accidentally a number of years later, and his widow finally, about 1831, removed with her family to the locality known as Middle Ridge, Lake county, near the site of the present Soldiers' Home of Ohio. Then she moved to the homestead of Mrs. Brown and died there. She was born in 1794 and was seventy-six years of age at the time of her death. Salmon and Betsy (Tal- cott) Swetland became the parents of two sons and three daughters-Salmon, Jr., Leonard T., Harriett, Rosetta, and Mariette. Leonard T. settled in Lake county, on the shore of Lake Erie, where he reclaimed a farm and continued to reside during the greater portion of his ma- ture life. He attained to the age of seventy- four years. The eldest of the three daughters, Harriett, became the wife of Aaron Gager, who was long engaged in business in the vil- lage of Madison, where he followed his trade, that of carriagemaker. One of his daughters is the wife of Lemuel K. Ritscher, of Madison, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this publication. Rosetta became the wife of Alvin T. Scoville, a shoemaker, and they maintained their home in Madison, where she died when more than seventy years of age. He was an accomplished musician and was for many years a successful teacher of vocal music. Mariette, the youngest of the daughters, became the wife of Alonzo Crocker, and they resided for many years at Amherst, Ohio. She likewise was past seventy years of age at the time of her death.
Salmon Swetland, Jr., of this memoir, was indebted to the pioneer schools of the Western Reserve for his early educational training, and he remained identified with the work of the home farm, of which he became the owner at the death of his stepfather, Isaac N. Martin, whom his mother had married several years after the death of her first husband. Mr. Mar- tin had made substantial improvements on the farm, upon which he erected the dwelling now occupied by Mrs. Frederick Brown, previously mentioned in this context. Upon his death
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Mr. Martin gave the farm to his stepson, Sal- mon Swetland, who there passed the residue of his long and useful life. At the age of twenty-one years Salmon Swetland was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Ann Williams, who was about one year his senior. She was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and at the age of fifteen years she came to Ohio to join her half- brother, John Williams, one of the sterling pioneers of Lake county. She passed her en- tire married life on the old homestead men- tioned and was summoned to eternal rest on the 28th of September, 1888, about thirteen years prior to the death of her husband. She was a consistent member of the Congregational church and her life was marked by integrity and other generous attributes of character. Of their children, three attained to years of maturity-Celia, who is the wife of Frederick Brown and the owner of the fine old home- stead farm, which was devised to her by her father ; Rosette died on the 21st of May, 1875, unmarried, and was twenty-five years of age at the time of her demise; and Charles A. died at the age of sixteen years.
Mrs. Celia (Swetland) Brown was born in the attractive old homestead which she now occupies, and the date of her nativity was March 6, 1846. She was afforded the advan- tages of the common schools of Madison town- ship and in the community which had repre- sented her home from the time of her birth she is held in affectionate regard, as a gra- cious woman of most gentle and kindly nature. On the 18th of August, 1901, after caring for her honored father with true filial solicitude during his declining days, she was united in marriage to Frederick Brown, who was born in England in 1837 and who came to America when a youth of fifteen years. In 1859 he took up his residence in Ohio. He represented the old Buckeye state as a valiant soldier in the Civil war, in which he served three years and nine months as a member of Battery G, Ohio Light Artillery, and of this gallant command he was one of the five from Madison town- ship, Lake county, who lived to return home, all the others having sacrificed their lives in the cause of their country. He was wounded by sharpshooters on one occasion, but his in- jury kept him out of the ranks of his battery for only one month. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and maintains a deep interest in his old comrades in arms. In politics he accords a stanch support to the Re- publican party, and he has ever shown an un-
qualified loyalty to the country of his adoption. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have no children, but they reared in their home Miss Maud Vroo- man, whose mother was a daughter of Mrs. Brown's uncle, Leonard Swetland, previously mentioned in this article.
Maud Vrooman was born at Dewitt. Ne- braska, and is a daughter of Alva W. and Frances Minerva (Swetland) Vrooman, the latter having been the only child of Leonard and Sabra Jane (Seaman) Swetland. Alva Wood Vrooman and his wife removed to Ne- braska from Ohio about the year 1876, and they later removed to Kansas, where Mrs. Vrooman died when her daughter Maud was three years of age. The latter was thereafter cared for by other relatives in Ohio until she was seven years of age, when she was taken into the home of her great-uncle, Salmon Swet- land, subject of this memoir, where she has since remained, and where she has been care- fully reared by Mrs. Brown. She was mar- ried on the 4th of January, 1898, to Charles Hall, who now has the active supervision of the farm of Mrs. Brown. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have one daughter, Frances Augusta, who was born on the 7th of November, 1899.
Salmon Swetland was a man of prominence and influence in his community, taking an active interest in public affairs of a local nature and having served as township assessor. His political support was given to the cause of the Republican party. He was an excellent tenor singer, and his only brother, Leonard, was equally facile as a basso. The Swetland fam- ily has long been known for musical talent, and its members have in this line been promi- nent in church and social affairs. Salmon Swetland was a man of strong mentality, was entirely free from ostentation, and was gener- ous and tolerant in his association with his fellow men, whose implicit confidence and esteem he ever commanded.
ALONZO JOHNSON is one of the old citizens of Kent, or of Franklin Mills (as it was called when he became a resident of the little settle- ment forty-six years ago), having spent a long and active period in both mercantile and farm- ing. pursuits. He is a native of Shalersville township, born May 25. 1835, and a son of Ebenezer and Anna ( Stoddard) Johnson-the former of Rutland. Vermont, and the latter of Clairmont, New Hampshire. The paternal grandfather was Sylvester Johnson. In 1834 the father first came to Stow township, Summit
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county, but remained only a month, moving thence to Shalersville township, Portage county, where he bought a tract of timber land consisting of seventy-five acres. He cleared and improved half of this land, and at the time of his death in 1850 had a productive farm of one hundred and fifty acres. His wife died in 1901, aged eighty-seven years, the mother of seven children, five of whom are living.
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