History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 60

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 60

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THOMAS W. LATHAM .- The representative of one of the earlier families to settle in the Western Reserve, Thomas W. Latham comes of substantial New England ancestry, and, like his father, Hiram Latham, is a native of Huron county, his birth having occurred October 17, 1864, in Lyme township. The emigrant an- cestor of the family from which he is de- scended was Cary Latham, whose name is frequently mentioned in "Caulkins' History of New London, Connecticut," the line of descent being thus traced : Cary,1 Joseph,2 Joseph,3 Jo- seph.+ Ebenezer,5 Alexander Wolcott,6 Hiram,7 and Thomas W.8

Quoting from the above-named volume, we find that Cary Latham is mentioned by John Winthrop, founder of New London, in a document upon record stating that said Cary Latham was with him in the beginning of the plantation, February 22, 1648-9. He was one of the committee to act upon all town affairs. In 1645 the marshes and meadows at Fog Plain were mowed by Cary Latham. In 1647 he was granted a house lot. Cary Latham's name appears upon a list of the names of those who wrought at the mill dam in July, 1651. In 1654 articles of agreement were entered into with said Cary Latham, granting him a lease and monopoly of the ferry over the Pequot river, at the town of Pequot, said lease to run for a period of fifty years from March 25, 1655, the said Cary to take three pence off every passenger for his share, six pence for every horse or great beast, and three pence for a calf or swine. He also had privi-

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lege given him to keep some provisions and some strong wine for refreshment of passen- gers. For his part, said Cary Latham bound himself to attend to the service immediately with a good canoe, and to provide within a year's time a sufficient boat to convey man and beast. He also engaged to build a house on the ferry lot, east of the river, before the next October, to dwell therein, and to keep the ferry carefully, or cause it to be so kept, for the whole term of years. As lessee of the ferry, he was the first man to be domesticated upon the Groton Bank. A neck of land extending. into the sound was allotted to him, and he in a short time sold it to Thomas Miner, the transfer being made in 1653-4. Cary Latham was one of the three chosen to make the coun- try rate, June 9, 1663 ; and one of the commit- tee chosen to meet Sir William Berkley, Janti- ary 1, 1663, for the settling of him among us. On October 9, 1662, Cary Latham and Hugh Roberts were chosen by the town to meet the men chosen by the court order. to settle the town bounds. Cary Latham served in various town offices. He was selectman sixteen years, and six times deputy to the General Court. serving from May, 1664, until 1670. He died in 1685.

Joseph Latham (2) was born in 1639. Jo- seph Latham (3) was a native of Groton, Con- necticut, but after his marriage he settled in New London, Connecticut. Joseph Latham (4) was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1728.

Ebenezer Latham (5) was born November 6, 1776, in New London, Connecticut, and was there a resident until 1817. Making a bold venture in that year, he started with his family for the extreme western frontier, making the perilous journey with ox teams, and bringing with him to the Western Reserve all of his worldly effects, making his way much of the time by means of blazed trees. Coming to Huron county, which was but sparsely set- tled, he bought land in Lyme township, and from the wilderness reclaimed a homestead, on which he spent the remainder of his life, pass- ing away at the age of four score and four years. He married Betsy Smith, who was a New England girl, born and bred in Connecti- cut.

Alexander Wolcott Latham (6) was born, in 1806, in New London, Connecticut, and as a boy came with his parents to Lyme town- ship, Huron county, where he attended the pioneer school, in the typical pioneer log school house, and was afterwards a member of the

state militia. He began farming on his own account on a tract of twenty acres which he purchased, for a number of years doing all of his work with oxen, having no horses on the place. The cart which he used was a rude affair, the wheels being sections sawed off a large log. He was very generous and charita- ble, with the utmost faith in mankind. On one occasion a man called on him and said that he had bought some land about three miles away, and asked to borrow his oxen and cart. Although the man was an entire stranger, he willingly made the loan, but he never saw oxen, cart or man again. He was very lib- eral, gladly assisting, those less fortunate than himself, not only lending money without secur- ity, but cheerfully giving to those in need. Very successful in his labors, he accumulated a competency. He died at the age of eighty- four years, honored and respected by all. He took great interest in public affairs, and after the formation of the Republican party was one of the earnest supporters of its principles. He married Anna Wood, who was born in Mas- sachusetts, a daughter of Ira Wood, a pioneer of Erie county, Ohio, and they reared two sons. She died before her husband, at the age of seventy-two years.

Hiram Latham (7) was born in Sherman township, Huron county, Ohio, in 1835, on the home farm. Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, he chose farming as his life work, and was actively engaged in tilling the soil in Lyme township until 1888. Having then, by judicious labor and wise management, accumulated a fair share of this world's goods, he removed to Bellevue, where he has since lived retired from active pursuits. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Ann Evans, a native of London, England. Her parents, Thomas and Sophia (Smith ) Evans, emigrated from England to the United States in 1849. Landing in New York, they came by way of the Hudson river, Erie canal and Lake Erie to Sandusky, Ohio, thence across the country to Monroeville, Huron county, where they lo- cated. A short time later, Mr. Evans bade good bye to his family, and started for Cali- fornia in search of gold, making an overland trip. He remained away for seventeen years, and then returned to Monroeville, where he spent the remainder of his life of eighty-four years. Mrs. Evans died at the age of four score vears. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Latham, namely : William H., Thomas W., Fred, Arthur, and Stella.

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Thomas W. Latham (8) acquired his ele- mentary education in the district schools, after which he attended the State Normal School at Ada, subsequently taking a course of study at Eastman's Business College, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Going to Iowa at the age of eight- een years, he was for five years engaged in the grocery business at Corwith. Returning then to Monroeville, he formed a partnership with Robert Martin, and for four years carried on a substantial hardware trade under the firm name of Martin & Latham. He was subse- quently vice president of the First National Bank of Monroeville, and later accepted the position of cashier of the Century National Bank of Cleveland. Resigning the position at the end of three years, Mr. Latham has since lived retired in Monroeville, where he devotes his time to his private affairs, looking after his farming lands and property.

Mr. Latham married, June 26, 1889, Mary E. Davis, a daughter of John E. and Cath- erine (Neff) Davis, and into their home two sons have been born, namely : Davis and James. Politically Mr. Latham is a straightforward Republican. Fraternally he is a member of Monroeville Lodge, No. 534, F. & A. M., and of Norwalk Commandery, No. 18, K. T. Re- ligiously he belongs to the Episcopal church, and Mrs. Latham is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church.

CHARLOTTE COE KUMMEL .- Charlotte Flor- ence Coe, who, on June 20, 1899, married Dr. Henry B. Kümmel, since 1902 state geologist of New Jersey, is a daughter of Henry Hayes and Lucy A. Coe. Her father, who died in Painesville, in 1908. was one of the prominent business men and public leaders of the city, and her grandfather, Rev. David L. Coe, was one of the pioneer educators and clergymen of the Western Reserve. In fact, four lines of her family radiated from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and brought their intellectual and moral influences to bear upon the best development of the Western Reserve in its formative periods. A general idea of what they accomplished, and what they were, is given in the matter which fol- lows.

The founder of the Coe family in America was Robert, born at Long Melford, Suffolk- shire, England, in 1596, and who on the last day of April, 1634, sailed from Ipswich with his wife and three sons, bound for Massachu- setts. The family first settled at Watertown,

Massachusetts, and the father died in Jamaica, New York, about the year 1687. When the son, Robert Jr., was seventeen years of age he left the family home, then in Stamford, Connecticut, and moved to Stratford, that state, where he died in 1659. The year be- fore his decease, his wife gave birth to a son John, at Stratford. He, in turn, had ten chil- dren, who with the coming of the years were blessed with families of their own. The suc- cessive steps of descent from John Coe to David Lyman Coe, the grandfather of Mrs. Kümmel, are through Ephraim, of Middle- town, Connecticut, and Samuel and Captain David Coe, of Granville, Massachusetts. The last named came to Charlestown, Portage county, Ohio, in 1813, when his son, David L., was seventeen years of age. But the youth found that he could not obtain the educational 'advantages which he craved in the unde- veloped west, and therefore returned to Massa- chusetts to take a course at Williams College. His diploma of graduation from that institu- tion is in the possession of Mrs. Kümmel. . Not long after completing his course, David L. Coe located at Burton, Geauga county, where he taught the first academy in the Western Reserve, one of his pupils afterward becoming the wife of Governor Ford. He married (second) Polly Hayes Brainard and

later preached at Charlestown, Ohio, where his son, Henry Hayes Coe, was born June 6, 1830. Soon afterward he moved to Tallmadge. where he prepared the first class which en- tered the Western Reserve College. He con- tinued to reside in that city from 1831 to 1835, and during that period ( 1832) was born Albert L. Coe, who died in 1901, as one of the leading citizens of Chicago. For years the latter was an active partner in one of its old- est and best known real estate firms; was prominent in the Civil war as a major in the quartermaster's department, participating in the great battles and campaigns of the south- west, including Sherman's great march: was an organizer of the Union League Club, Royal Trust Company and other leading institutions of a political, social and financial character, and was also a steady and liberal supporter of the city's reforms and charities. Returning to the father, Rev. David L. Coe, it may be added that he was one of the deepest scholars of the Western Reserve, being a master of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, as well as of pure English, and that, besides preaching regularly as a Presbyterian clergyman, his services as a

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private tutor were in wide demand. His death occurred at Richfield, Ohio, July 20, 1836.

Henry Haves Coe, the father, was educated at Grand River Institute, Austinburg, and Western Reserve College, Hudson, but his career was marked more as a director of busi- ness and public affairs than as a scholar and educator. His training, however, and the in- fluence of his father, made him a champion of the schools, and he was an active figure on the board of education for many years. At one time he was county treasurer and served as mayor of Painesville in 1892. But prob- ably he was most widely known as the pro- moter and organizer of the largest industry devoted to the manufacture of veneer cutting and drying machinery in the world, a forty- thousand dollar order coming from Vladivo- stock, Russia, about the time of his death, May 19, 1908. These machines were all based on the personal patents taken out by Mr. Coe, the result of years of study and experiment. The deceased served in the Union army, par- ticipating in the battles of Winchester, Mobile and others, and never flinching from any sol- (lier's duty. He was twice married-first, to Miss Eliza L. Whiting, who died in 1856. leaving a daughter, Elizabeth, who also died in 1863: and secondly, to Miss Lucy A. Proc- tor, eldest daughter of Ariel and Susan Proc- tor, their union occurring in August, 1858. Their eldest daughter, Harriet Proctor, died in 1863, at the age of three years. Their son, Harry Proctor Coe, was born in Painesville, February 18, 1865, and is the head of the business of the Coe Manufacturing Company, established by his father and with which he has been identified from boyhood. He also has been mayor of Painesville. In 1888 he married Miss Letta Daggett Tabor, of an old Connecticut family, but has no children. Char- lotte Florence, the second daughter born to Henry Hayes and Lucy Proctor Coe, is a native of Painesville, born February 1, 1867, and was graduated from the Painesville public school and the Lake Erie College, of that city. She afterward took a library course at the University of Chicago, and for six years con- tinued on the library staff of that institution. After her marriage to Dr. Henry B. Kümmel, in 1899, she moved to Trenton, New Jersey, where were born her two daughters, Charlotte Proctor, on January 23, 1903, and Lucy Bar- nard, on March 15, 1907. Dr. Kümmel is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, born May 25, 1867. He was educated in the public

schools of Milwaukee, graduated at Beloit College, Wisconsin (A. B., '89), studied geol- ogy at Harvard (A. M., '92), and in the University of Chicago (Ph. D., '95), served as assistant geologist on the New Jersey survey in 1892-8, and assistant professor of physi- ography, Lewis Institute, Chicago, 1896-9 ; and from the latter year served as assistant state geologist of New Jersey until his appoint- ment to the head of the office.

As Polly Haves has already been mentioned as the wife of Rev. David L. Coe, Mrs. Küm- mel's grandfather. the tracing of her family genealogy is next in order. Richard Hayes, who. appears to be the first well authenticated ancestor in America, was born in Lyme, Con- necticut, April 3, 1714; was ensign of the third company, or train band of his town, in 1850; and served in the French and Indian war as first lieutenant of the eleventh com- pany of the Third Connecticut Regiment. His son, Titus Hayes, born in the same Massachu- setts town, was a Revolutionary soldier from Connecticut, and wintered with Washington at Valley Forge. As showing the straits to which the families of the patriots were re- duced, Mrs. Hayes was obliged to sew rags on her children's feet to keep them from freezing. The four sons of Titus Hayes served in the war of 1812, he himself dying at Vernon, Ohio, June 20, 1811. In 1804 ten families left Hartland, Connecticut, to settle in the Western Reserve, among whom was the Hayes family, embracing Titus and his son, Richard, then twenty-three years of age, and himself the father of a family. Richard Hayes was a colonel in the war of 1812, commanding a brigade of the Ohio militia at Fort Wayne, and was prominent all through the campaign conducted by General Wadsworth. For many years after the war he was an associate judge. He died at Burghill. where the Hayes family had originally settled, November 5. 1837. His daughter Polly had been born at Hartland, Connecticut, four years before the migration to the Western Reserve, was educated in a girls' boarding school at Pittsburg, and was thrice married. Her first husband was Henry Brainard, Jr., who died in 1826, and her sec- ond marriage was to Rev. David L. Coe, as already mentioned. The latter died in 1836 and two years later she married Dr. O. K. Hawley, of Austinburg. She was the mother of four children. She was an affectionate and domestic woman, and at the same time a lady of thorough education and strong intellectual

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and moral convictions, being one of the most ardent opponents of slavery in the Western Reserve.

When living in Austinburg. Polly Hayes Hawley established at her house one of the most enterprising "underground railway sta- tions" in the region, often feeding, clothing and harboring many of the colored race while escaping to Canada. The two sons, Henry H. and Albert L., while yet in their early teens, frequently were called from their beds at night to assist their mother in her ministra- tions to her kitchen-full of negroes ; their duty was to harness the family horses to lumber wagons and transport the fugitives to the har- bor of Ashtabula before daylight. For three days and nights the brave woman brought food to the negro Clark, whom she had con- cealed beneath a haystack and whom she aided in every way to escape to Canada; it will be remembered that Clark was the original of Harriet Beecher Stowe's character of Harris. This noble woman, who died in Painesville, May 17, 1877, still bright and cheerful, al- though in her seventy-eighth year, was hon- ored with one of the two hundred plates pre- sented to anti-slavery leaders of the United States by the English Anti-Slavery Society. This rare historic relic is in the possession of Mrs. Kümmel. It bears the quotations from the preamble to the American Constitution, beginning "We hold that all men are created equal." and "of one blood are all nations of men": also a picture, with the inscription, "Lovejoy, the first martyr, Alton, Ill.," and a long quotation from the Constitution.

David Hinckley, Mrs. Kümmel's great- great-grandfather, resided in Willington, Connecticut, and served in the Revolutionary war from that colony. He died at that place in 1835, and his wife in 1809, parents of two sons and three daughters. Benjamin, who married Susanna Davis, came to the Western Reserve in 1813. The two families of the party were transported from Buffalo, along the shores of Lake Erie, in two wagons drawn by a voke of oxen and a span of horses. As nothing but the absolute necessities were taken one of the babies of the party was snugly cradled in the huge brass kettle of the times. From Fairport the little caravan proceeded to Chardon, breaking down in the mud about five miles north of that village, whence the women and children proceeded on horseback. Susan, the daughter of Benjamin Hinckley, who headed one of the families, was then six years of age. Mr. Hinckley proceeded from Char-

don to Hiram and Hiram Rapids, where he definitely located the two square miles of fire- lands, which he had purchased from the Con- necticut Company and which he fortunately found to be fertile and valuable. As he was a .graduate of Yale College, the care of his lands by no means occupied his time; for he not only taught the first common school in Hiram but tutored such likely youths as Joshua R. Giddings, Elisha Whittlesey and (Judge) Newton, of Mahoning county, who traveled over many miles of wilderness to study with him. Both Benjamin Hinckley and his wife are buried at Hiram. Susan Hinck- ley, already mentioned, married Ariel Proctor, of an old New Hampshire family, and be- came the maternal grandmother of Mrs. Küm- mel. She was the mother of nine children; was well educated and partook of the intel- lectual brilliancy of her father, dying at Hiram, aged eighty-four. Lucy A., the eldest daughter, was, as stated, the mother of Mrs. Kümmel. She was born at Hiram. September 4, 1828; was educated at Grand River Insti- tute, Austinburg ; taught school for a number of years; passed an honored married life of nearly fifty years in Painesville, and is still a' most respected pioneer of that city.

PERCEPTEMAS J. MIGHTON .- One of the im- portant industrial enterprises of the city of Painesville is that represented by the Paines- ville Elevator Company, of which Mr. Migh- ton is president. The company not only main- tains a large and modern elevator but also op- erates a flour and feed mill, and does a general wholesale and retail business in the handling of grain, flour, feed, salt, seeds, etc. The com- pany was organized and incorporated in 1892, and assumed possession of the elevator which had been erected in the previous year by the fırın of Mighton & Barnes. Mr. Mighton be- came president of the company, and the other officers of the same at the present time are as here noted: O. L. Barnes, vice-president ; C. J. Scott, secretary ; and W. T. Cowles, treas- urer. The flour mill was erected in 1898, is equipped with full roller process, has a capacity for the output of forty barrels of flour per day, and is one of the best mills in the county ; the best accessories are also supplied for the grind- ing of feed, in the manufacture and jobbing of which product a large business is handled by the company. The company is incorporated with a capital stock of twenty thousand dol- lars. While of this amount only fifteen thou- sand dollars of the stock have been issued,

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there is utilized in the prosecution of the busi- ness a capital of fully thirty thousand dollars. The average annual transactions aggregate about one hundred thousand dollars, the trade being largely local and extending to the vari- ous villages and towns in a sense tributary to Painesville as a commercial center. The com- pany gives employment to seven men, and the elevator and warehouses are eligibly located on the Nickle Plate railroad.

Perceptemas J. Mighton is recognized as one of the progressive and substantial business men of Painesville and as a citizen of utmost civic loyalty and public spirit. He was born in Bed- ford township. Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on the 8th of July, 1861, and is a son of Thomas and Amelia Ann (Dawson) Mighton, both of stanch English lineage. The father was born June 3, 1831, in Yorkshire, England, and was twelve years of age at the time his father, Jo- seph Mighton, came with his family to Amer- ica and located in the province of Ontario, Canada, where Josephi Mighton became a suc- cessful farmer. There Thomas Mighton was reared to maturity and in his youth he learned the trade of machinist, becoming a specially skilled artisan and also having marked mechan- ical and inventive ability. He had the dis- tinction of inventing the first practical steam gauge, upon which he secured patents about 1854. He had in the meanwhile come to Ohio, but after perfecting his invention he went to New York City, where he engaged in the manufacturing of his valuable device. He was very successful in this venture at the start, but the great financial panic of 1857 worked havoc with his business, as with thousands of other manufacturing enterprises, and he lost prac- tically his entire fortune. He had been worth at one time fully one hundred thousand dol- lars-considered a large fortune in that period of our national history-and after having en- countered severe financial reverses in the na- tional metropolis he disposed of his interests in New York and returned to Ohio, where he located on a farm in Bedford township, Cuya- hoga county, which continued to be his home during the remainder of his life. He was killed in a railway crossing accident on the Pennsylvania railroad, on the 12th of May, 1891, and was sixty-one years of age at the time of his death. The gauge which he in- vented is still in practical use on steam en- gines, and only minor or incidental improve- ments have been made upon his original de- vice. He was a man of impregnable honor

and integrity, and was a citizen who ever com- manded unequivocal confidence and esteem. His wife was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, in the year 1832, and is a daughter of Robert and Jane Dawson, who came to Amer- ica from Durham, England. They settled in Ontario, Canada, and when Amelia A. was a child the family removed to Cuyahoga county, Ohio, about the year 1834. Robert Dawson, who was a man of ample financial resources. purchased four hundred and fifty acres of land in Bedford township, that county. He erected a saw mill on his property and manufactured in the same a large amount of oak lumber. Through his well directed operations after coming to Ohio he added largely to his already substantial fortune. He died about 1867, at the venerable age of seventy-five years, and his wife also died in Bedford township. Their daughter Amelia A. (Dawson) Mighton, mother of the subject of this review, now re- sides at the home of her daughter Adah, wife of Dr. Rowland, of South Euclid. Ohio. Thomas and Amelia Ann (Dawson) Mighton became the parents of six children, of whom five are living. The father was a Democrat in his political allegiance, and his religious faith was that of the Christian church, of which his wife also is a devoted member.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 60

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 886

Author: Upton, Harriet Taylor; Cutler, Harry Gardner, 1856-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 886