USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 6
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Mr. Hine was born at Shalersville, Portage county, Ohio, on the 26th of February, 1859, and is a son of Lyman T. and Sylvia (Crock- er) Hine. He was the only child of this union, and after the death of his mother, who was a young woman at the time, his father contracted a second marriage, being united to Miss Fida Terrel, and they are survived by one daughter, Hortense, who is now the wife of Frederick B. Haskins, of Mantua.
Lyman Hine, grandfather of Horace L., was the seventh child and fifth son of Daniel and Mary (Stone) Hine, the former of whom was born in 1750 and the latter in 1754. Daniel Hine died at Shalersville, Portage county, Ohio, September 16, 1828, at the ven- erable age of eighty-seven years, and in the same place his wife died February 6, 1812, at the age of fifty-eight years. They became the parents of eight children, of whom the last to pass to the life eternal was Lyman, whose name appears at the opening of this paragraph. All of these children were born in historic old Milford, Connecticut, where the family was founded in the early colonial days and where its representatives were found for several generations. In 1795 Daniel Hine re- moved thence to Warren, Litchfield county, Connecticut, where he maintained his residence until 1806, when he immigrated with his fam- ily to Ohio and settled in the region retained by his native state and known as the Western Reserve. He located first in Johnson town- ship, Trumbull county, where he remained two years and where he secured land and pro- vided homes for his eldest son, Daniel Jr., and his daughter Elizabeth (Mrs. Bradley). In 1808 this worthy pioneer, animated by the commendable desire of providing for others of his children, removed to Mahoning county, where he secured a tract of land, in Canfield township, where he tarried for two years and made provision for his third son, David. In 1810, in company with his sons Abel, Heze- kiah and Lyman, and his daughters Polly and
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Abigail, he removed to Shalersville, Portage county, where he passed the residue of his long and useful life. Upon his arrival in this township he took up about one thousand acres of government land, lying north of the center, or village of Shalersville, and the old home- stead became well known as the John George farm, later being owned by H. S. Beecher and many others. The landed estate was eventu- ally divided, and a considerable portion is still owned by the direct descendants of Daniel Hine, who left his old home in Connecticut and came to the wilds of Ohio in order to make better provision for his children. His unselfish devotion has had ample justification, as has his prescience in regard to the opulent develop- ment of the beautiful old Reserve, whither he came as a pioneer and with whose interests he continued to be actively identified until he was summoned from the field of life's mortal endeavors, in the fullness of years and well earned honors.
Lyman Hine, grandfather of Horace L., of this review, was born September 2, 1792, and thus was a lad of about sixteen years at the time of the family removal from Connecticut to the Western Reserve. He was reared to manhood in Portage county, and in Shalers- ville township he reclaimed and developed a farm of one hundred and fifty-four acres. He became one of the influential citizens of that section of the county, and ever commanded the esteem and confidence of all who knew him. At the time of the war of 1812 he and his brother Hezekiah, together with three other residents of Shalersville, were drafted for service, in the year 1814. They first reported at Cleveland and thence proceeded on foot to Detroit, Michigan, where they were engaged in garrison duty about six months, at the ex- piration of which they received honorable dis- charge and returned to their homes.
On the 30th of June, 1819, was solemnized the marriage of Lyman Hine to Miss Sabrina Crosby, who was born February 9, 1801, and they became the parents of two children- Lyman Tully Hine, who was born August 24, 1824, and who died at the age of forty-seven years, and Ellen S., who was born August 22, 1831, and who was the wife of Henry H. Ste- vens, of Ravenna. Lyman T. Hine was born and reared in Portage county, Ohio, where he passed his entire life and where he followed the vocation of farming until his death. He well upheld the prestige of the honored family name and was one of the prominent and influ-
ential citizens of Shalersville township. His political support was given to the Republican party. His first wife was a daughter of Silas and Cynthia (Goodell) Crocker, who were pio- neers of Portage county, where they continued to reside until their death.
Horace L. Hine was reared to maturity at Shalersville, in whose public schools he se- cured his early educational discipline. He was engaged in farming until 1885, when he took up his residence in Mantua, where he became one of the interested principals in the banking firm of Craft, Hine & Company. This firm conducted a private banking business until 1894, when it was consolidated with that of the First National Bank, under which latter title the enterprise has since been most suc- cessfully conducted. Mr. Hine became presi- dent of the First National Bank at the time of the Consolidation, and of this executive office he has since remained incumbent. He has di- rected the policy of the bank with marked dis- crimination and has gained recognition as one of the representative factors in the banking circles of the Western Reserve. He is also vice-president of the Ravenna National Bank, a member of the directorate of the Garretsville National Bank, and a member of the wholesale lumbering and milling firm of Hine & Cook, whose lumber mill is located in Mantua, where yards are maintained, as well as in the city of Cleveland. He is a practical, far-sighted and progressive business man, and his career has been marked by cumulative success, the while he has so ordered his course as to merit and retain the confidence and esteem of all who know him. He is one of the substantial cap- italists of the famous old Reserve, and in addi- tion to the interests already mentioned it may be noted that he is treasurer and a director of the Portage County Telephone Company and has extensive real estate investments in the west. As a citizen he is loyal and public- spirited, but the only office in which he has consented to serve is that of member of the board of education of his home village of Mantua-a position of which he has been in- cumbent for many years. His political alle- giance is indicated by the active support which he gives to the cause of the Republican party.
In 1886 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Hine to Miss Ella Blanchfield, who was born and reared in Portage county, and they have five children, namely: Burt H., Henry S., Leo B., Irving, and Coleta.
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JOHN AUBREY WRIGHT .- A prominent and influential citizen of Bellevue, John A. Wright is an important factor in promoting the growth and prosperity of this section of the Reserve, and is identified officially with some of its fore- most enterprises, being president of the Wright Banking Company, vice-president and director in the Bellevue Stone Company, and likewise in the Conway Steel Range Company. A native of Huron county, he was born, March 28, 1858, in Groton township, a son of John and Betsey (Ford) Wright. Further ancestral and parental history may be found elsewhere in this volume, in connection with the sketch of his brother, Hubert Wright.
Receiving his rudimentary education in the district school, John A. Wright afterwards at- tended the public school in Norwalk. Subse- quently taking a preparatory course at the academy in Hudson, he entered the Western Reserve College, from which he was gradu- ated with the class of 1880. Mr. Wright was salutatorian of his class and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Entering then upon a pro- fessional career, Mr. Wright taught school successfully for seven years, when he resigned to become vice-president of the Wright Bank- ing Company, established by his father. In that position he proved so capable and faithful that upon the death of his father he was made president of the institution, and is performing the duties thus devolving upon him with char- acteristic fidelity and efficiency.
Mr. Wright married first, in January, 1890, Ellen M. Mckeown, who was born in Youngs- town, Ohio, a daughter of William and Ade- line Mckeown. She died September 8, 1896, leaving two children, Adeline Ford and John Aubrey. Mr. Wright married second, in 1902, Gertrude W. Wood, who was born in Bellevue, Ohio, a daughter of Melvin and Helen Wood, and they are the parents of two children, Mar- garet and Paul Weber. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are members of the Congregational church, which he has served as trustee, while in its Sunday school he has been a teacher. Polit- ically Mr. Wright is a straightforward Repub- lican, and has served as a delegate to state and county conventions. He is interested in edu- cational matters, and has rendered appreciated service as president of the local school board.
COLONEL GEORGE TOD PERKINS is one of the representative business men and most honored citizens of his native city of Akron, and is a scion of families whose names have long been
prominent and distinguished in the annals of the Western Reserve. It was his to render to the nation the valiant service of a loyal soldier of the republic during the Civil war, in which he gained his title of colonel and in the various associations of "times of peace" he has mani- fested the same intrinsic loyalty which charac- terized him during his years of gallant service on the battle fields of the south. This fact alone stands voucher for his hold upon the confidence and esteem of the community in which the greater portion of his life has been passed, and to the progress and material pros- perity of which he has contributed in no insig- nificant measure. He was president of the Akron Rubber Company and the B. F. Good- rich Company, two of the important industrial concerns of Akron, and for a number of years he also held the office of president of the Sec- ond National Bank. He retired from the pres- idency of these companies when 70 years of age.
Colonel Perkins was born in Akron on the 5th of May, 1836, and is a son of Colonel Si- mon and Grace Ingersoll (Tod) Perkins, of whom more specific mention is made on other pages of this work, where appears a memoir of his honored father, who was long one of the most distinguished citizens of Summit county. George T. Perkins gained his pre- liminary educational discipline in the common schools of Akron and later took a course of study in Marietta College. In 1859 he went to Youngstown, where he became secretary of the Brier Hill Iron Company, in which the principal stockholder was his maternal uncle, the late Hon. David Tod, who became gover- nor of the state and left a deep and beneficent impress upon the history of Ohio. Colonel Perkins was thus actively identified with busi- ness interests at Youngstown until there came the call of higher duty, when the integrity of the Union was thrown into jeopardy through armed rebellion. He responded to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, and in April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His company forthwith elected him to the office of second lieutenant, and he was with his com- mand in active service in West Virginia until the expiration of his term of enlistment, when he received his honorable discharge. In the three months' service, in 1861, he re-enlisted and was made major of the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he became lieutenant-colonel on the 16th of July,
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1863, and colonel on the 18th of February, 1864. He continued in active service until victory had crowned the Union arms and he was mustered out in the city of Washington, June 3, 1865, after having participated with his command in the Grand Review. He re- ceived his honorable discharge upon his return to Ohio. He participated in many of the most notable battles which marked the progress of the great internecine conflict, including that of Perryville, Kentucky, where two of his cap- tains and forty-seven of his men were killed. He was also an active participant in the mem- orable battles at Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge and Kenesaw Mountain, and was with Sherman's forces in the seige of Atlanta, after which he com- manded his regiment on the historic march from Atlanta to the sea. He won promotion and distinction through his able and gallant services, and ever held the confidence and se- cured the hearty support of those in his com- mand. His continued interest in his old com- rades in arms is signified by his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, whose ranks are rapidly being thinned by the one invincible foe of mankind.
After the close of the war Colonel Perkins returned to Akron, with whose business in- terests he at once identified himself. From 1867 to 1870 he was secretary, being also one of the organizers, of the corporation of Taplin, Rice & Company, manufacturers of stoves and general founders, and in the year last men- tioned he became president of the Bank of Akron. In this office he continued until 1876, and thereafter he served as cashier of the in- stitution until its consolidation with the Sec- ond National Bank, in March, 1888, when he was elected president of the Second National, whose executive head he continued thereafter until he resigned the office, though he is still a stockholder and director. He has been a dom- inating figure in local business circles for many years, and no citizen is held in more unequivocal esteem in the community. His interest in all that concerns the advancement and civic and material welfare of his native city has been of the most insistent type, and through one generous benefaction long will his name be perpetuated, since in 1900 he pre- sented to the city a tract of seventy-six acres of land for park purposes, to be known as Perkins Park. This tract is most eligibly lo- cated, and is rapidly being transformed into
one of the most beautiful of parks-a place to be appreciated by all classes of citizens. In politics Colonel Perkins is found arrayed as a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and he has rendered efficient service in its'cause, though never ambitious for public office. He and his wife hold membership in the Congregational church, in whose work they have ever shown an active and zealous interest. The colonel is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. The beautiful home of Colonel Perkins is located at 90 North Prospect street, and has long been a recog- nized center of gracious hospitality.
On the 6th of October, 1865, Colonel Per- kins was united in marriage to Miss Mary F. Rawson, who was born in Massillon, and reared in Cleveland, and who is a daughter of Levi and Mary (Folger) Rawson. Colonel and Mrs. Perkins became the parents of three children, of whom the only survivor is Mary, the wife of Charles B. Raymond, of Akron.
WILLIAM A. SIMPSON .- No name is more honored in the history of the city of Sandusky than that of the subject of this memoir, and none is more worthy of a tribute in this record concerning the Western Reserve and its peo- ple. His influence permeated the civic and business life of the community ; his consecra- tion and noble efforts as a churchman of the Protestant Episcopal church indicated his thor- ough appreciation of his stewardship; and he contributed in large degree to the social and material advancement of the city of Sandusky, where he was a pioneer business man and where he maintained his home for more than half a century and where his death occurred on the 20th of December, 1887. Above all and dominating all was the personal exaltation of character that denoted the man in all the relations of life. His was of the faith that makes faithful, and this fidelity to duty in every form is what made his character dis- tinct, noble and inspiring. Strong in his con- victions but never intolerant, always firm in the right, but with no room in his heart for revenge, compassion and pity dwelt with him as constant guests. Flattery could not cajole him into compromise, nor power awe him into silence. His life, character and services are pre-eminently entitled to careful study, and such investigation can not but beget a feeling of objective appreciation, reverence and in-
MARY A . SIMPSON
Is a Simprove
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centive. He well exemplified the truth of the statements that "The bravest are the tender- est ; the loving are the daring."
William Ayres Simpson was born in the town of Nottingham, Nottingham county, New Hampshire, on the 27th of February, 1812, and thus was seventy-five years of age at the time of his death. He was the ninth in order of birth of the ten children born to John and Abigail (Guile) Simpson, and of the five sons and four daughters all but one attained to years of maturity. The Simpson family line- age is traced back to stanch Scotch-Irish ex- traction, and the name became identified with the annals of American history in the early colonial era, as records extant show the orig- inal progenitors in this country soon after the arrival of the historic "Mayflower" on its first voyage to the new world. The original place of settlement was at Londonderry, Connecti- cut, and John Simpson, father of the subject of this memoir, was the founder of the family in Nottingham county, New Hampshire, where he became a citizen of prominence and influ- ence, honored as a man of sterling character. He devoted his attention principally to agri- cultural pursuits, and his old homestead farm is still in the possession of his descendants. He died in 1832, at an advanced age, his devoted wife having passed to the life eternal twenty years later, at the venerable age of ninety years. Both were earnest and devout in their religious faith and exemplified the same in good works and kindly consideration for all with whom they came in contact. William Simpson, an uncle of him whose name initiates this article, was the first representative of the family in Ohio, having, settled in Meigs county, where he became the owner of a large landed estate and where many of his descendants still reside. He served under General Anthony Wayne in the early Indian wars in this section.
William A. Simpson was reared to matur- ity in his native county, where he received a good common school education, which was later developed and matured through his long and active association with men and affairs and also through effective self-discipline, de- rived from wide and appreciative reading of the best literature and through his lively inter- est in the questions and issues of the hour. In addition to his studies in the common schools of the locality and period he was for one year a student in Durham Academy, a well ordered institution at Durham, New Hampshire.
At the age of seventeen years Mr. Simpson severed the gracious home ties and went to the city of Boston, where he assumed a clerical position in the shipping house of John K. Simpson, a cousin of his father. In 1831, in company with his youngest brother, Samuel A. Simpson, he came to the west, making the trip by way of the Erie canal and the Great Lakes to Detroit, Michigan, where he was em- ployed in a clerical capacity until 1834, in the autumn of which year he came to Ohio and took up his residence in Sandusky, which was then a straggling village. This was destined to be the scene of his earnest and successful endeavors during the residue of his long and successful business career, and here he lived, secure in popular confidence and esteem, until he was finally summoned to "that undiscovered country from whose bourne 110 traveler re- turns." Soon after his arrival in Sandusky Mr. Simpson became associated with Horace Aplin in the retail grocery business, this alli- ance continuing for only a short time, at the expiration of which he formed a partnership with Leonard Johnson and engaged in the wholesale grocery and liquor business, under the firm name of Simpson & Johnson. Shortly afterward he purchased the interest of Mr. Johnson, after which he eliminated the liquor department of the business and added a dry- goods department. He continued the business individually, and with pronounced success, for many years, and during the last few years he was associated with David Everett, under the title of Simpson & Everett. In 1859 he dis- posed of his interest in the enterprise with which he had been so long identified, and after two years devoted to the ship-chandlery and grocery business he retired permanently from active business, having accumulated a com- fortable fortune through normal and legiti- mate lines of enterprise and having been a prominent factor in the upbuilding of his home city, where he had identified himself with vari- ous enterprises aside from those already men- tioned. He was one of the organizers of the Sandusky Gas Company, of which he was president for a number of years, having been its vice-president at the time of his death. He was a large stockholder in the Second Na- tional Bank, of which he was an organizer and of whose directorate he continued a valued member until the close of his life.
In politics Mr. Simpson was originally an old-line Whig, but upon the organization of the Republican party he transferred his alle-
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giance to the same, ever afterward continuing a stanch advocate of its principles, though he never sought or desired the honors of emolu- ments of public office. What the Protestant Episcopal church in Sandusky, and in the dio- cese of which this parish is a part, owes to William A. Simpson and his loved and de- voted wife, who still survives him, can not well be expressed in words, and few laymen have been more influential in the work of the church than was this appreciative and zealous churchman, who was one of the fathers of the Episcopal church in Sandusky, always ac- tive in its interests and always liberal in its support. He was a communicant of Grace church for more than forty years and was a member of its vestry for thirty-six years, dur- ing a considerable portion of which he served in the office of senior warden of the parish. He was loved and revered in the community that so long represented his home, and at his death the people of Sandusky uniformly mani- fested their sense of personal loss and bereave- ment, all classes and conditions of citizens pay- ing tribute to the honored citizen and friend who had lived and labored to goodly ends, whose heart was attuned to sympathy and of whom it may well be said, as Burke said of Herbert, that "he remembered the forgotten." To those who sat in darkness he was a com- forter and light, and his aid and sympathy were extended quietly and unostentatiously, so that none save himself and the recipients knew of his many benefactions to those "in any ways afflicted in mind, body or estate." He was a man true and loyal in all the relations of life, and, now that he has passed forward to the "land of the leal" none more fully deserves the "peace that passeth all understanding."
On the 5th of January, 1841, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Simpson to Miss Mary A. Denman, daughter of David and Mary (Wright) Denman. Mrs. Simpson was born in Frederick, Maryland, on the 16th of Janu- ary, 1816. Her father served under General Winfield Scott in the war of 1812, in which he was an officer and in which he took part in the battles of Lundy's Lane, Queenstown Heights and Fort Erie, being present at the burning of the little town that stood on the site of the present city of Buffalo. Captain Denman had been a recruiting officer at Fred- erick, Maryland, and at a ball given in that city the gallant young officer met Miss Mary Wright, who became his wife soon after the close of the war of 1812. Captain David and Mary (Wright) Denman both died while still
young. They became the parents of three chil- dren, Eliza, the eldest; Mary A., Mrs. Simp- son ; and Francis W. Mrs. Simpson, the sec- ond in order of birth, was but two years of age at the time of her mother's death, and her father passed away when she was seven years old. Francis Wyatt Denman, the youngest of the three children, has not communicated with his sister in many years, and Mrs. Simpson is thus not aware whether he is living or not.
After the death of her parents, Mrs. Simp- son was adopted by Major Jolın G. Camp, a friend of her father, and in his home she was reared to maturity at Buffalo, New York, where she received excellent educational ad- vantages. Her foster parents came to Ohio in 1841, and they passed the closing years of their lives in Sandusky. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Simpson was solemnized in the city of Buffalo. They had no children, but reared in their home two adopted children. Eliza D. Bartlett, daughter of Mrs. Simpson's only sis- ter, was taken into the Simpson home when a child, on the death of her mother, and here remained until her marriage to Mr. James W. Cook. She died the widow of Mr. Cook in 1907. Miss Jennie E. Simpson, who lost her parents in the cholera epidemic in Sandusky in 1849, was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, and she still remains at the fine old homestead with her venerable foster mother.
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