History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 67

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 67

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Mr. Sawyer has been an industrious, unas- suming farmer all his life. His neighbors and fellow citizens, however, have long ago discovered his good points and useful quali- ties and have induced him to attend to the pub- lic affairs of the township to some extent. For seven years he has served as trustee, and in 1900 performed the duties of real estate assessor, giving complete satisfaction in both capacities. In politics, he is a Democrat. For many years he has been a stanch member of the Universalist faith and served as a trustee of the local church. On September 27, 1870, Mr. Sawyer wedded Miss Eunice S. Kelso, daughter of William R. and Lucy (Sawyer) Kelso, and there have been three children born to them, as follows: Frank E., born Septem- ber 20. 1871, now deceased; Lucy C., born January 24, 1877, and Addie C., born March 20, 1882. Nearly forty years of happy wedded life have therefore been spent by Mr. Sawyer on his present homestead, and as he had re- sided there, at the time of his marriage, since 1860, it has been the scene of his joys and sorrows, his struggles, setbacks and successes, from his early boyhood until this period of his life, when he can look backward with satisfac- tion and view the future with the serene confi- dence of one who has no blur on his record.

ALLEN N. BENJAMIN .- As a representative. of that class of men who are giving an endur- ing character to the industrial and civic make- up of the historic old Western Reserve, it is most consonant that in this compilation recog- nition be given to Allen N. Benjamin, who is one of the progressive business men and hon- ored citizens of the village of Madison, where he is engaged in the lumber, produce and feed business. Further than this, he is a native son of the Western Reserve and a member of one of its sterling pioneer families which came here

from Connecticut, the veritable "mother" of the Reserve.

Allen Nettleton Benjamin was born in the village of Kingsville, Ashtabula county, Ohio, on the 26th of June. 1866, and is a son of Rice E. and Sarah ( Nettleton ) Benjamin, the for- mer of whom was born in Andover, Ashtabula county, and the latter of whom was a native of Kingsville. Rice E. Benjamin was a son of Nelson Benjamin, who came from Connecti- cut in the pioneer days and established his home in Ashtabula county, where he engaged in the milling business, having erected and op- erated a mill at Andover. He passed the clos- ing years of his life in Kingsville, that county. Rice E. Benjamin learned the miller's trade under the able direction of his father, and as a young man he went to Sharon, Pennsylvania, where he operated a mill for a time. Later he became the operator of the "River"" mill, two miles south of the village of Madison, Lake county, Ohio, which he operated for the Datons, Frank and Arthur, for several years. He then removed to Nelson, Portage county, where he continued to be identified with the same line of enterprise until his death, in 1897, at the age of fifty-nine years. His first wife, mother of Allen N., died at the age of twenty- nine years, and he later married Mrs. Louise King, who survives him and who now main- tains her home in the city of Detroit, Michi- gan. Of the two children of the first mar- riage, Allen N. is the elder, and his sister Fannie is the wife of Wallace Stocking, who is engaged in the lumber business at Geneva, Ashtabula county, Ohio.

Allen Nettleton Benjamin remained at the parental home until the death of his mother, at which time he was about eleven years of age, and he was then taken into the home of his maternal grandfather, Alanson Nettleton, a representative farmer and citizen near Kingsville, Ashtabula county, where he was reared to maturity, in the meanwhile having been afforded the advantages of the public schools and also those of Kingsville Academy. Later he continued his studies in the high school in Madison.

Mr. Benjamin continued to be associated with his grandfather in the work and manage- ment of the farm until he was twenty-five years of age. when he engaged in the produce business in Madison, in company with H. G. St. John, and with whom he was associated for three years, after which he had as his part- ner, F. A. Cumings. This association contin-

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ued, under the firm name of A. N. Benjamin Company for a period of nine years, within which the firm built up a substantial business, and at the expiration of that time Mr. Benja- min purchased the lumber and feed business of the firm of Austin & Morley. In 1906 Mr. Benjamin erected his present finely equipped mill, which has the best modern facilities for the manufacturing of all kinds of feed for farm stock, chickens, etc. The mill is operated by Producer gas, and is complete in its me- chanical equipment and accessories. In addi- tion to the manufacturing department of his business Mr. Benjamin also handles seeds of all kinds and has a large and well stocked lum- ber yard, in which are to be found all kinds of building materials and supplies. He also makes a specialty of buying and shipping farm produce, including onions, apples and potatoes, and his annual shipments of produce have reached an average of 600 car-loads. He is one of the leading dealers in this line in Lake county, and his business extends over a wide radius of country, as the farmers recognize his reliability, fair treatment and correct busi- ness methods. As a citizen he is essentially progressive and public-spirited, and his aid and influence are ever to be counted upon in the promotion of enterprises and measures tend- ing to conserve the general welfare of the community. He gives an unqualified alle- giance to the Republican party, and, while never a seeker of public office, he has served several terms as a member of the village coun- cil, with which he is thus identified at the time of this writing, in 1909. In the Masonic fra- ternity he is affiliated with Lake Shore Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Geneva Chap- ter, Royal Arch Masons.

On the 15th of August, 1894, Mr. Benjamin was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Cum- ings, who was born and reared in Lake county. Data concerning the Cumings family may be found on other pages of this publication, in the sketch of the career of her brother, Homer P. Cumings, of Painesville. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin have two children-Mary Frances and Allen Cumings.

JAMES EDMUND FORD was born in Craw- ford county, Pennsylvania, near Conneaut Lake, July 4, 1830, and died June 25, 1903, at his home in Conneaut, Ashtabula county, Ohio, after a life of usefulness and honor, and one well worthy of emulation. He was a son of Thomas and Lydia (Rick) Ford, and a grand-

son, on the paternal side, of Christopher Ford, of Holland descent. Christopher Ford set- tled at the four corners of four 100-acre tracts of land east of Springboro, in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and this spot later be- came known as Ford's Folly. From there he later came to Conneaut Harbor (now Jester) and conducted a hotel during the remainder of his life. He was the father of seven chil- dren, five boys and two girls: Schedwick, Ed- ward, David, Isaac, Thomas, Julia A. ( How- ard) and Sarah (Wilson). Thomas Ford lived in Pennsylvania all his life. He was first married to a Miss Brown. Eight chil- dren blessed this union, five boys and three girls, as follows: Adinkins, Christopher, John, Thomas, Andrew, Liza, Julia and Loranda. Five children blessed the second union : David, William, Silas (now living in Pennsylvania), James E. and Daniel. His third wife was a Miss Wilson, and from this union three chil- dren were reared, namely: Margaret, Sarah (Johnson), now living in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, and Alexander (killed at Fred- ericksburg during the rebellion ). Christopher, David and Alexander were killed during the rebellion, while the rest died natural deaths. Thomas Ford's fourth and last wife was a Mrs. Dightman. No children came from this union.

It was Mrs. Julia A. Howard who induced James Ford, of this review, to come to Con- neaut, giving him her property here, and she remained with him until her death in 1886. During the later years of her life, a niece, Maggie Ford, lived with her, and to whom she willed her property, but the niece dying suddenly, the property was willed to James E. Ford, who cared for her in her old age. James E. Ford lived all his life in Pennsylva- nia, up to twenty years before his death, and then moved to Conneaut, Ohio. Before com- ing to Ohio he had lost heavily in oil specu- lations. He served his home county (Craw- ford, Pennsylvania) as auditor, and was at one time a candidate for county register. In early life he upheld the principles of the Re- publican party, but later became affiliated with the Greenback and Democratic parties.

James E. Ford was married on July 2, 1868, at Dicksonburg, Pennsylvania, to Sally Henry, who was born in the same vicinity as her hus- band and was thirteen years his junior, being born June 5, 1843. She is a daughter of Will- iam and Sally Henry (both now deceased), both born at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and on

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the paternal side she is of Irish descent. Her grandmother was a descendant of the Christo- pher Martin family of Mayflower fame, and the latter's father and two brothers were offi- cers in the Revolutionary war. Five children resulted from this union, namely, four daugh- ters and one son : Permilia (McGuire), Mary Ann (Wilcox), Marie Ann (Fish), Sally Ann (Ford) and John, of which two-Marie Ann and Sally Ann-are now living. William Henry died at the age of eighty-two and his wife (Sally Ann) died at the age of eighty.

Four children-three daughters and a son- were born to James and Sally Ford, namely : Lillian Zou, born in 1870, at home with her mother ; Pearley Victor, born in 1874, men- tioned below; Lulu G., born in 1876, the wife of Robert MacFarland, and for a few years a school teacher, her husband being engaged in the lumber business in Conneaut, Ohio; and Flossie D., born in 1882, a student of Dela- ware (Ohio) University, and now a stenog- rapher and bookkeeper in the Mitchell Hard- ware Company's store at Conneaut.

Pearley V. Ford is the manager of the car- pet and wall paper departments in the C. W. De Voe & Sons' department store at Conneaut. He is a graduate of the Conneaut high school, and is one of the city's rising young business men, now being director of the Board of Pub- lic Safety, of which he has been a member for several years. His wife before marriage in 1905, was Miss Laura LoLeta Cook, born in 1880, and they have a son, Edwin Cook Ford, born in 1905.

AMos E. LAWRENCE, attorney at law., Ely- ria, Ohio, was born on a farm in Florence township, Erie county, Ohio, February 9, 1862, son of Charles D. and Hanna E. (Green) Lawrence. He traces his ancestry back to Puritan stock which settled in this country in pre-Revolutionary times.

Charles D. Lawrence was born in Massa- chusetts, October 12, 1838, son of Amos Law- rence, who was born in New Hampshire. Feb- ruary 27, 1812, son of Amos Lawrence, a sol- dier in the war of 1812. The father of this last named Amos Lawrence was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.

About sixty years ago, Amos, the grand- father of Amos E., left New England and came out to the Western Reserve. He first settled in Cuyahoga county, from whence, a few months later, he moved to Erie county, and took up his abode on a farm in Florence

township, where the rest of his life was spent, and where his son, Charles D., carried on farming for a number of years. The latter is now living retired in a pleasant home in Birmingham, Erie county. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith, his father being a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church, but he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, with which they have long been iden- tified. Mrs. Lawrence was born in Michigan, daughter of Silas Green, of that state.

Amos E. Lawrence passed the first eighteen years of his life on his father's farm. The family then moved to La Grange, Lorain county, where the young man attended high school and qualified for the work of teaching. For eleven years he spent his winters in teaching district school and village high school. In the mean time he married. He and his wife owned a farm in La Grange township, where they made their home, he carrying on farm- ing operations and teaching at the same time. In 1897 he began reading law in the office of William B. Johnston, of Elyria, and in June, 1901, was admitted to the bar, immediately thereafter beginning the practice of his pro- fession, and continuing alone until May 1, 1907, when he entered into a partnership with Lorenzo D. Hamlin, under the firm name of Lawrence & Hamlin, which continued until September 1, 1909, when it was dissolved, Mr. Lawrence continuing in practice alone. Polit- ically, Mr. Lawrence is a Republican. While studying law, he was twice elected and served two terms as justice of the peace. In 1907 he was elected secretary of the Lorain County Bar, an office which he fills at this writing. Fraternally, he is identified with the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of the World.

At the age of twenty-two, Mr. Lawrence married Miss Josie Humphrey, a native of La Grange, Ohio, and a daughter of Sylvester G. and Laura (Ensign) Humphrey ; the two chil- dren of this union are: Eva J., born January 19, 1887: and Sylvia O., born November 27, 1889, is the wife of James M. Dougherty, of Lockport, Illinois, and they have one son, Harry L., born April 4, 1909.

REUBEN SYLVESTER SMITH .- A man of ex- cellent business capacity, energetic and pro- gressive, Reuben S. Smith, of Jefferson, is widely known throughout this section of the country as a representative of the Huber Man-

RSSmith.

Ellen M. Smith.

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ufacturing Company, with which he has been associated as traveling salesman for a quarter of a century or more. A son of Sylvester Smith, he was born March 10, 1844, in Frank- lin, Delaware county, New York, where he spent his boyhood days.

Sylvester Smith moved with his family from York state to Ohio in 1854, locating first in Lenox township, Ashtabula county, where he improved a farm of 175 acres. He subsequent- ly sold out, and bought ninety acres of land lying two and one-half miles south of Jeffer- son. He was quite successful in his farming operations, which he continued until his death, June 1, 1873, at the age of sixty-four years. He was a Democrat in politics, and a faithful and honored citizen, ever ready to advance worthy enterprises. He married Mary Gil- lette, a daughter of Major Joel Gillette, who served in the Revolutionary war, enlisting from Connecticut. The major moved with his fam- ily from New England to Delaware county, New York, in the early part of the nineteenth century. Some of the house furnishings which he took across the country with him are still in existence, being. in possession of his grand- son, who has succeeded to the ownership of the old Gillette home in Delaware county, among the things being a pork barrel, and a table that has been in the family 300 years. Mrs. Mary (Gillette) Smith survived her husband, dying September 24, 1888, at the age of seventy-eight years, her death being caused by a fall. They reared five children, as follows: Rachel, mar- ried George Plumley, of Jefferson, moved to Franklin, Delaware county, New York, and died November 16, 1861, aged twenty-eight years, leaving one child; Mary M., married Merrick K. Pulsipher, of Dorset township, and died January 1, 1908, aged seventy-two years ; Deloss, living in Cambridge, Cowley county, Kansas; Emma J. married James W. Pul- sipher, and died, in Dorset township, October 10, 1897, aged fifty-seven years; and Reuben Sylvester.

Ten years of age when he came with the family to Lenox township, Reuben S. Smith remained beneath the parental roof-tree until nineteen years old. He subsequently worked out by the month and season until he had ac- cumulated some money, when, in company with his brother Deloss, he bought the old farm, which he conducted for two years, when he sold his interest in the place to his partner. Returning home, Mr. Smith assisted his father until 1866, when he married, and began farm-

ing on his own account. In 1890 he located in Jefferson, where he has since resided. For the past twenty-seven years Mr. Smith has traveled for the Huber Manufacturing Com- pany, of Marion, Ohio, selling threshing ma- chinery in different parts of Ohio and Penn- sylvania. The firm, of which Mr. Smith and his son, Cecil U. Smith, are members, carries a complete stock, and is doing an extensive business, selling as high as forty threshing ma- chines and engines a year, the business amount- ing to nearly $50,000. Mr. Smith is interested in the Jefferson Banking Company, being one of its officers.

Mr. Smith married, December 19, 1866, Ellen M. Underwood, who was born in New Marlboro, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, April 30, 1847, and was brought when an in- fant to Lenox township, Ashtabula county, where she was reared and educated, and at the age of seventeen years began teaching school. Her father, Orville P. Underwood, married Elvira A. Chapin. He was a farmer by occu- pation, and died when but fifty-eight years old, of consumption. His widow passed away Au- gust 12, 1905, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Smith, at the venerable age of ninety-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, Cecil Underwood Smith, born September 7, 1867. He married Ruby M. Sheldon, and they have three children, Floyd S., Florence Ellen, and Robert Sylvester.

Politically Mr. Smith is a Republican. Re- ligiously Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the Congregational church, and at its rebuild- ing, in 1908, was a member of the building committee. Fraternally Mr. Smith is promi- nent in Masonic circles, being past master of his lodge, past worthy priest of his chapter, a Knight Templar and a Shriner. Both he and his wife belong to Sunshine Chapter, O. E. S. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have traveled extensively in the west, in 1909 going to Alaska, taking in the Seattle Exposition and Yellowstone Park while en route.

LORENZO DOW HAMLIN, attorney at law, Elyria, Ohio, dates his birth at Ridgeville Cor- ner, Henry county, Ohio, August 21, 1867. His parents, Noah Crocker and Lydia Lucinda (Fauver) Hamlin, were both born in Ohio, the former in Dover, Cuyahoga county, De- cember 14, 1833; the latter in Eaton town- ship, Lorain county, April 8, 1840.

On the paternal side, Mr. Hamlin is able to trace his ancestry back through many genera-

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tions to the founder of the family in America, who came here from England. David Ham- lin, his grandfather, was a native of Lee town- ship, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, the son of David, the son of Job, the son of James (4), son of James (3), son of James (2), son of James (I), who came from England in 1639, and settled at Barnstable, Massachusetts. This first James Hamlin was a member of Rev. Lathrop's congregation, most of the members of which came to America during the religious persecutions. Job Hamlin was an officer in the Revolutionary war: was on the Plains of Abraham and witnessed the death of General Wolfe.

Mr. Hamlin's mother is a daughter of Wal- ter and Alzina (Cornell) Fauver, both the Cornells and the Fauvers having emigrated to Ohio from New York state. The great- grandfather, James Cornell, married Betsy White; the great-grandmother Fauver was a Shepherd.

David Hamlin was the first of the Hamlin family to come to the Western Reserve. He bought eighty acres of land at the foot of Superior street, Cleveland, for which he paid one hundred dollars. Later, he sold this and bought farm land at Dover, to which place he moved about the time the Crocker family settled there, and there the grandparents were married about 1830. They had eight children, all born at that place. During the Civil war grandfather Hamlin moved to Henry county, Ohio, where he died in 1869; grandmother Hamlin died at Elkhart, Indiana, in her eighty- ninth year.

Noah C. Hamlin and Lydia L. Fauver were married in Eaton township, Lorain county, March 27, 1860, and that same spring they moved to Ridgeville Corner, Henry county, Ohio, where they remained until 1880. That year they returned to Lorain county, and he bought the old Cornell homestead, two and a half miles from the court house, where they still live.

Lorenzo D. was educated at Oberlin and Baldwin Colleges, and on leaving college he emtered the employ of the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company, with which he remained from 1889 to 1893. Before he had been with the company a year, he was promoted to the posi- tion of conductor, in which capacity he served two years. One year he was assistant dis- patcher in the Pittsburg yards. After leaving the employ of the railroad company, he re- turned to Lorain county and bought the old

William Brush farm, on the Grafton road, ad- joining his father's farm, and here for some years he gave his attention to farming. In 1900 he began reading law in the office of Mr. Lee Stroup, in Elyria. In 1902 Mr. Hamlin was appointed by Governor Nash to a posi- tion on the Canal Commission of the state, and served until July, 1903, after which he was appointed a member of the State Board of Public Works, and was on that board a year. In the mean time, December 8, 1903, he was admitted to the bar, and early in the following year he entered upon the practice of his profession, which he has since continued.

Mr. Hamlin's father voted for John C. Fre- mont and has ever since continued to give loyal support to the Republican party, and Mr. Hamlin's vote also has been cast with this party; more than that, he has been an active worker in Republican ranks, and at this writ- ing is a member of the Republican county ex- ecutive committee. Fraternally, he has mem- bership in the Masonic order, the Woodmen of the World, and the Tribe of Ben Hur.

In 1891 Mr. Hamlin married Miss Stella J., daughter of William and Facelia (Humphrey) Brush; and they have four children: Fay Brush, David Walter, Lydia Lorena, and James Thurman. Mrs. Hamlin also is de- scended from New England ancestry, both the Brushes and the Humphreys having come to Ohio from Connecticut.

F. E. GORDON stands at the head of one of the leading business enterprises of Conneaut and Ashtabula county-The Ohio Sand Com- pany. This company was organized in 1879, but as early as fifty years ago a Mr. Keogh began to mine molding sand at Kingsville, and this sand became the first successful com- petitor to the famous Albany sand. Deposits were later found at Conneaut, and it is also mined at Shinrock, in Huron county, Ohio, and is found in layers some two feet in thick- ness under the soil south of Lake Erie. Geolo- gists attribute its formation to the action of ice in the glacial period.

The Ohio Sand Company, in which Mr. Gordon became a leading factor in 1893, now produces some twenty-five hundred carloads of this sand annually, and it is sold direct to foundries in the United States and Canada, being shipped direct through The Interstate Sand Company of Cleveland, sales agents, of which Mr. Gordon is the vice-president. About one hundred men are employed by the com-

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pany, their pay roll amounting to thirty-five hundred dollars a month, while the annual output exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Besides his interests in the Ohio Sand Company and the Interstate Sand Company, Mr. Gordon is also the president and was one of the incorporators of the Citizens' Banking and Trust Company of Conneaut. He was made the first president of this banking com- pany, and has remained in the office continu- ously since.

Mr. Gordon was born in Cleveland, Ohio, July 9, 1856, a son of William L. Gordon, an Englishman, and a leading building contractor in Cleveland from 1845 until 1860, many of the old homes and leading business structures in that city before the war having been erected by him. He was one of the contractors inter- ested in the building of the Western Reserve Historical Society's edifice. F. E. Gordon, the son, served as the superintendent of the Taylor & Boggis Foundry Company in Cleve- land for a time, until 1890, and then for three years held a similar position with the West- inghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company of Pittsburg. During this time he had had wide use of the Conneaut molding sand, and after a thorough investigation of the supply, organized The Ohio Sand Company in 1893, and has succeeded in placing the industry among the important ones of this part of the state.

He was married in Cleveland to his second cousin, Cordelia M. Gordon, daughter of Rich- ard Harper Gordon, and a granddaughter of Horace Smith Cadwell, a pioneer of Padana- ram, in Ashtabula county, and is the father of four children, but two died in childhood. Bessie May, a graduate of Wellesley and Oberlin Colleges, is the wife of Arthur S. Bar- rows, son of the late Professor Barrows, presi- dent of Oberlin College, and is with the Hib- bard, Spencer & Bartlett Company of Chi- cago. Ruth, the second daughter, is at home with her parents, when not at Oberlin College. Mr. Gordon has a pleasant home just west of Conneaut, where he also maintains his office, and has a summer home on the shore of Lake Erie, known as Gordon Gables.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 67

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