History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 69

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 69

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In 1881 Dr. Moore was united in marriage to Miss Ida May Scott, of Luana, Clayton county, Iowa, and a distant relative of his step- father. Mrs. Moore was summoned to the life eternal in 1899, and of their two children one died at the age of three years. Florence Luana is now the wife of H. W. Meyer, of Pasadena, California. She received excellent educational advantages, having attended Harcourt College, at Gambier, Ohio; Hamilton Institute, in Washington, D. C., and also Throop School, in Pasadena, California. She is a talented musi- cian, being a specially skillful performer on the violin.

On February 5, 1908, Dr. Moore was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Ida Cadle, daughter of Edmund and Emily (Aston) Cadle, of Mentor, Lake county, where her father is now living retired, after having been for many years engaged in the produce business in the city of Cleveland. Mrs. Moore attended Lake Erie College, at Painesville, Ohio, and was a successful and popular teacher in the public school at Painesville, Lake county, at the time of her marriage.

REV. JOHN JAMISON PEARCE devoted many years of his life to the work of the ministry, but he is now living retired at Conneaut. He is known for his nobility and integrity of char- acter and for his high and peculiar gifts of nature. Born in Wilkesbarre, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1826, he is a son of the Rev. Marmaduke Pearce and Hannah Jamison, the latter a daughter of the last man killed by the Indians in the Wyoming Valley massacre. He was a descendant of John Alden, of Mayflower fame. Members of the Pearce family fought in the battle of the Boyne under William of Orange, and Colonel Crom- well Pearce, a brother of Marmaduke, was in the fort at the time General Pike was killed, and he was given the fallen General's com- mand in the war of 1812.

Marmaduke Pearce was one of the ablest members to grace the Methodist Episcopal ministry, an influential member of the Oneida Conference, and his last field was as presiding elder of Oneida Conference, where he was a presiding elder for years. He was born August 17, 1776, and died at Berwick,

James , Atomupphrup.

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Pennsylvania, August 11, 1852, when seventy- six years of age. He was the father of three sons, the eldest of whom was Stewart Pearce, the historian of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, the family genealogist, the postmaster of Wilkesbarre for eight years, a member of the state legislature during 1849-50, collector of tolls on canals and railroads in the state and who died in Wilkesbarre at the age of sixty- two years. During his lifetime he distributed twenty-seven thousand dollars to various benevolences. Cromwell Pearce, the second son, died at the age of fifty years.

The Rev. John Jamison Pearce, the young- est of the three sons, received his education in a Quaker seminary under Thomas Menden- hall, and when less than eighteen years of age he began to preach the gospel as a circuit rider. A strong and forcible speaker, earnest and eloquent in the presentation of the truth, his efforts were blessed and he rose to a high place in his conference, laboring mainly during the latter years of his ministerial work in the larger cities, and he also served as presiding elder in three districts. In 1854 the Rev. Pearce was elected to Congress from the Lycoming district, Pennsylvania, serving dur- ing the sessions of 1855-6, being the youngest member of that session, and he is now its only survivor. He refused a renomination at the close of his term. Ben Wade was then the U. S. senator, while Joshua R. Giddings sat in the house, and Horace Greeley was his per- sonal friend. In 1860 Rev. Pearce was a mem- ber of the general conference at Buffalo which changed the general rule relative to slavery. His influence has ever been found on the side of progress, of liberty and of right, and the effect of his labors have been far reaching. But in 1888 he retired from the active work of the ministry, and his home has since been in Con- neaut and at his winter home in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

He married Miss Elizabeth Dunn in 1848, a daughter of Washington Dunn, the owner of a large and valuable island in the Susquehanna river. The four children of this marriage union are : Stewart Pearce, connected with the Nickel Plate Railroad at Conneaut ; Anna, the wife of Harry Schalk, also of Conneaut ; Bessie, the wife of F. A. Howard, of Chester, Pennsyl- vania ; and Grace, wife of William A. Richey, connected with a packing house in St. Joseph, Missouri.

COLONEL ROSWELL HUMPHREYS was a pio- neer of Lake county, Ohio, and though he lived but comparatively few years after coming to the Western Reserve he left upon the pioneer community and its annals the impress of his sterling character and marked ability. Other members of the family also came to this coun- ty, and with its history the name has been iden- tified for many years, while numerous repre- sentatives went from Ohio to play well their parts in other sections of the Union.

Colonel Humphreys was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, and was a scion of a fam- ily founded in New England in the colonial epoch of our national history. The old home- stead in Litchfield county, Connecticut, was located at Winchester Center. Colonel Hum- phreys came to the Western Reserve in 1834, making. Lake county his destination and set- tling on a farm just east of the present village of Willoughby, in the township of the same name. This place is now occupied by mem- bers of the family of the late Jacob Viall and it is altogether probable that the present dwell- ing was erected by Colonel Humphreys. There he continued to reside until his death, when about seventy-five years of age. He died about 1840, and thus was a man venerable in years at the time of coming to Ohio. Colonel Hum- phreys had served as colonel in the state militia of Connecticut, and at the outbreak of the war of 1812 he took his command to the state of New York, where he and his regiment were active participants in the various maneu- vering of forces in the vicinity of Niagara Falls. He proved a gallant and able com- mander on the field of battle and his record in the war is a matter of history. He was ac- companied to Ohio by his sons Oscar, William, Hiram, George, Roswell, Jr., and Horace J., and also by his daughter Betsey, who later be- came the wife of Rev. Correct Viall, a brother of Jacob Viall, whose name was prominently linked with the history of Lake county. After the death of her first husband the sister Betsey married a. Mr. King, whom she survived, as did she also her third husband, whose name was Moore. She died in Lake county at a vener- able age.

All of the sons of Colonel Humphreys event- ually found homes outside of Lake county, with the exception of Horace J. Oscar, the young- est of the sons, was a carriagemaker by trade and vocation and he located in Chicago in the days when it was a mere village, having been

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a resident there at the time when the Indians held their great powwow to decide whether or not they should kill the aged chief who coun- seled friendship with the white settlers and then attack the whites or should follow his ad- vice. Oscar Humphreys became a successful business man in Chicago, whose development he witnessed until it became a city of more than a million population. He was there killed in a street car accident at the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, in 1893, at which time he was eighty-four years of age.

Horace J. Humphreys was reared and edu- cated in Connecticut, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth McCalpin, who was born at Winchester Center, Litchfield county, that state, in a house which had been erected in 1771. They had seven children at the time of the removal to Ohio, and they set- tled in the village of Willoughby, Lake county, about 1835. Here the father operated a wagon shop for several years prior to lris death, which occurred about nine years after the removal to this county. He was fifty-four years of age at the time of his demise. One child was born after the removal from Connecticut, Oscar, born 1836 and he thus left his widow with the care of eight children. Soon after the death of her husband this devoted mother secured the present family homestead, and she erected on the lot the dwelling which has here stood for more than sixty years. She was seventy- four years of age at the time of her death and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence. She was a devout member of the Presbyterian church and was instinct with kindly deeds and generous sympathy.

Concerning the children of Horace J. and Elizabeth (McCalpin) Humphreys the follow- ing record is consistently entered. Margaret, who became the wife of C. J. Koman, died at the age of fifty-two years. Helen, who was a teacher of painting and fancy work in the old Lake Erie Seminary, at Willoughby, never married and lived to the venerable age of eighty-five years. Several of her paintings are still to be found in the old family homestead, which she long graced with her presence. Louisa, who had been a successful and popular school teacher, died at the age of thirty-four years. John went to California in 1852, and there he remained many years, becoming a suc- cessful manufacturer of lumber. He returned to the east about 1886 and passed his declining days in the old family homestead in Wil-

loughby, where he died at the age of seventy- eight years. Mary became the wife of Curtis R. Merrill and was about thirty years of age at the time of her death. William accompanied his brother John on the long and perilous over- land trip to California, where he was engaged in mining until 1863. when he followed the rush into the gold fields of Nevada, whence he later went to Idaho, soon after the discovery of gold at Jordan Creek. He made the trail across the mountains, passing over Eagle mountain, and he was successful as a veteran prospector and miner, though he eventually lost a considerable amount of his money through the perfidy of a partner in his ven- tures. He lived up to the full tension of the wild life of the mining camps of the early days and remained in the west for forty-three years. He returned to the east in 1895 and since 1906 has lived a retired life in the attractive old homestead in Willoughby, in the companion- ship of his brother Oscar, both being bachelors. Hurlburt was a soldier in the Civil war and he died in Willoughby when sixty-two years of age. Oscar, the youngest of the sons, ten- dered his services in defense of the Union at the inception of the Civil war, enlisting in the First Ohio Independent Battery. He responded to President Lincoln's first call for infantry volunteers, but as the quota was full he entered the artillery arm of the service. He continued with his command for more than three years, starting as gunner and eventually being pro- moted to the office of sergeant. He was on detached duty at Charleston and Columbus, Ohio, after the Lynchburg and New River Bridge raid. He was given a sergeant's war- rant and a captured gun to go on the raid and tried to burn New River Bridge with the cavalry in the winter of 1862-63, but the ice thawed and they were sent to Fort Delany op- posite Charleston, West Virginia, and were there ten months before they were mustered for pay. Mr. Humphreys was mustered as corporal, but did not draw his pay as he wrote to his captain to muster him as a private. He was discharged as a private, but drew ser- geant's pay, having never been court mar- tialed or serving as a private. While in action Mr. Humphreys had charge of a No. I gun and had a horse on which to ride during the march. He carried Colonel Hayes' pass through guards and pickets until further orders for eighteen months, and when he was president at the reunion at Fremont, Mr. Humphreys was made an honorary member of the Twenty-

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third Ohio. As already noted he remains with his brother William, in the old homestead, and both are held in high esteem in the community. They are independent in politics and Oscar is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

NAHUM B. GATES .- A strong and noble character was that of the late Colonel Nahum Ball Gates, of Elyria, who exerted a beneficent and emphatic influence in connection with busi- ness, public and civic affairs in the Western Reserve during the course of a long and sig- nificantly successful career. The greater part of his life was passed within the confines of the Western Reserve and he gained success and prestige through his individual ability and application, ever standing exemplar of that integrity of purpose which figures as the plumb of character and makes for objective valuation in connection with the varied rela- tions of life. He held various offices of pub- lic trust, was a potent factor in industrial and business activities and was one of the honored and influential citizens of Lorain county. His strength was as the number of his days and he was summoned from the mortal life in the fulness of years and honors, his death occur- ring at his home in Elyria on the 9th of De- cember, 1890.

Colonel Gates, who gained his military title through his service in a local military organi- zation, was a native of the old Green Moun- tain state and a member of a sterling family, of English lineage, that was founded in Amer- ica in the early colonial epoch of our national history. He was born in St. Albans, Vermont, on the 28th of September, 1812, and was a son of John and Abigail (Ball) Gates, who took up their abode in St. Albans in 1800, upon their removal from their native state of Massachusetts. The parents continued to maintain their home in Vermont until their death. Colonel Gates was afforded the advan- tages not only of the common schools of the locality and period, but also pursued high branches of study in St. Albans Academy, a well ordered institution in his native town. That he made good use of his scholastic op- portunities is assured when we revert to the fact that after leaving the academy he was for three years a successful teacher in the schools of his native state.

In the spring of 1834, a few months after attaining to his legal majority, Colonel Gates came to Ohio and located in Elyria, where his elder brother, Horatio N., had established him-

self in the general merchandise business some time previously. Colonel Gates was employed as clerk in his brother's store in Elyria from September, 1834, until the following May, when he went to Cleveland, where he was em- ployed for several months. He then returned to Elyria and soon afterward went to the vil- lage of Black River, now known as Lorain, where he opened a general store for the firm of Gates & Green, of which his brother was the senior member. He remained in charge of this establishment until 1838, and during the panic that ensued he was associated with his brother Horatio in the forwarding and com- mission business at Black River, under the firm name of Gates Brothers. He continued to be thus identified with this line of enter- prise until 1844. In 1838 he was elected sher- iff of Lorain county, and from that time for- ward he maintained his home in Elyria, with whose development and progress he was most prominently identified. In 1843 he here erected a saw mill and a sash, door and blind factory, which he operated for a number of years, and he also conducted an ashery, for tne manufacture of perlash, for many years. In 1843 he was elected president of the vil- lage of Elyria, and this office he held for sev- eral terms, at varying intervals. As chief executive of the municipal government he did much to forward the best interests of the little city which so long represented his home and to which his loyalty was ever of the most in- sistent type. In 1844 he engaged in the gen- eral merchandise business in Elyria, where he conducted a profitable enterprise for a number of years. In 1850 he became a member of the board of directors of the Lorain Plank Road Company, and he was superintendent of its affairs for several years. In 1852 he was elected president of the Lorain County Agri- cultural Society, and during his regime the association enjoyed marked prosperity and popularity, since he gave to its annual fairs his personal supervision and made them excellent expositions of the varied industrial and com- mercial interests of the county. In 1862 Presi- dent Lincoln appointed him collector of inter- nal revenue for the Fourteenth district of Ohio, and he held this office until after the close of the Civil war.

In politics Colonel Gates was originally aligned as a Whig, but he united with the Re- publican party at the time of its organization, and thereafter continued a stalwart supporter of its cause. He was a man of great practical

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ability as a business man and of broad mental ken, ever taking an intelligent interest in the questions and issues of the hour and in all that touched the prosperity and progress of his home town and county. He and his wife were zealous members of the Presbyterian church, and his long residence in Elyria, his upright life and careful judgment, and the many services he rendered the local public, made his name a synonym for character and sterling worth.

On the 12th of May, 1841, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Gates to Miss Sarah S. Monteith, who was born in Clinton, New York, on the 9th of May, 1823, and whose death occurred in New York City on the 18th of April, 1893. She was a daughter of Rev. John Monteith, who was at one time professor of ancient languages in Hamilton College, New York, and who was a distinguished clergy- man of the Presbyterian church. Colonel and Mrs. Gates became the parents of eight chil- dren, namely : John Q., who died at the age of four years ; Elizabetn, who is the wife of Dr. Alex W. Wheeler, a representative physician and surgeon in Cleveland, Ohio; Mary, who died in infancy : Charlotte, who is the widow of the late Rev. Theodore Y. Gardner, of Cleveland ; Charles A., who married Miss Mary Kelley, and is now a representative busi- ness man of Massillon, Stark county, Ohio; Miss Nellie, who resides in Cleveland and Elyria ; and William N. and Frederic H., of whom more specific mention is made in fol- lowing paragraphs.

William N. Gates, of Elyria and Cleveland, was born in Elyria, Ohio, on the 17th of Octo- ber, 1857, and as a citizen and man of affairs has well upheld the prestige of the honored name which he bears. After attending the high school in Elyria he continued his studies in Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music for a period of two years. In 1878 he went to Massillon, Ohio, where he became book- keeper for Russell and Company, and in 1880 he located in the city of Cleveland, where he entered the employ of N. Harrison, who there conducted an advertising agency. The fol- lowing year Mr .. Harrison failed in business and Mr. Gates assumed control of such part of the enterprise as remained available, estab- lishing the newspaper advertising agency of W. N. Gates & Company, which title is still retained. By careful and honorable business methods, progressive policy and effective serv- ice he soon succeeded in building up a sub-

stantial business, and the same stands today on a parity with the leading enterprises of the kind in the Union. He is president of the company, to whose affairs he continues to give his personal supervision. The business now has ramifications throughout the most diverse sections of the United States, and the main of- fice is retained in Cleveland, where spacious quarters are occupied in the Garfield building. Branch offices are maintained in the Tribune building, Chicago, and the Brunswick building, New York City.

William N. Gates has proven himself a man of broad business capacity, and has not con- fined himself to the one line of enterprise just noted. He is a director and a member of the executive committee of the Cleveland Trust Company ; a member of the directorate of the Eastern Ohio Traction Company, of Cleve- land, director of the Maple Leaf Land Com- pany, of the same city ; a director of the Elec- tric Terminal Depot Company, of Cleveland : a director of the Elyria Savings Deposit Bank & Trust Company : and a stockholder in vari- ous other financial and industrial concerns of minor importance. He is a trustee of Oberlin College and a member of its financial commit- tee, a trustee of the Elyria Memorial Hospital, a member of Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and president of the Elyria Chamber of Com- merce (in 1909), and president of the Home Garden Association of Elyria. He holds mem- bership in the First Congregational church of Elyria, and he is now president of the Men's Club of the same. He is identified with the Elyria Country Club; the Union and Euclid Clubs, of Cleveland ; the Cleveland and Elyria Automobile Clubs, and the Ohio chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and re- cently was elected a member of the board of education. Though never a seeker of public office, Mr. Gates is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies for which the Repub- lican party stands sponsor, and he has ren- dered efficient service in the party cause. He is liberal and progressive as a citizen, and stands forth as one of the representative busi- ness men of the Western Reserve.

On the 12th of May, 1897, William N. Gates was united in marriage to Miss Ada Laura Cook. daughter of Edward Leigh Cook, of Buffalo, New York, a member of one of the old and honored families of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Gates have four children, William Nahum Jr., Geoffrey McNair and John Mon- teith, twins, and Edward Leigh. Mr. Gates

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owns and resides in the fine old Gates home- stead on East avenue, Elyria. This building was erected by his paternal grandfather in 1835 and is one of the oldest residences of the city. He remodeled and rehabilitated the building in 1901, but exercised scrupulous care in preserving the original lines and general interior arrangement of the old house, which is of effective colonial architecture. He has shown signal taste and consistency in retain- ing in the fine old homestead a full quota of its ancient and beautiful furniture, and he also has his grandfather's large and select library, which contains many rare volumes two and three hundred years old. The family is promi- nent in the social life of the community, and the attractive home is a center of gracious hos- pitality. Perhaps its greatest charm has lain in the rare musical taste and ability of the Gates family, as handed down for several gen- erations, almost every member being a singer or performer on some musical instrument.

Frederic H. Gates, youngest of the children of the late Colonel Nahum B. Gates, the im- mediate subject of this memoir, was born in Elyria, Ohio, on the 20th of January, 1860, and to the public schools of his native town he is indebted for his earlier educational dis- cipline, which was supplemented by a course in Williams College, in Massachusetts, in which institution he was graduated as a mem- ber of the Class of 1881, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the year which thuis marked his graduation Mr. Gates located in the city of Chicago, where he identified himself with the wholesale and retail coal business, and he thus continued until 1884, when he became a representative of Rus- sell and Company, of Massillon, Ohio, having the management of its southern branch, in Atlanta, Georgia, for a period of ten years. He then returned to the north and became as- sociated with his brother as a member of the firm of W. N. Gates & Company, newspaper advertising agents, already mentioned in this context, and gives to the same the major por- tion of his time and attention, maintaining his home in Cleveland. From 1899 to 1906 he was in charge of the company's branch in New York City, and he now has charge of the main office in Cleveland. He is a Republican in his political proclivities, has attained to the thirty-second degree in Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry, and is vice-president of the Singers' Club, a member of the Univer-

sity and the Athletic Clubs, of Cleveland, and the Alpha Delta Phi college fraternity.

On the 7th of February, 1887, Mr. Gates was united in marriage to Miss Annie Theus, of Savannah, Georgia. They have no children.

HENRY J. EADY .- Among the prominent and successful men of Elyria, Ohio, is Henry J. Eady, who for nearly half a century has been closely identified with the business and social interests of the town, and who during this period has contributed his full share toward the building up and development of the com- munity. Mr. Eady is a native of England. He was born at Cottesbrooke, Northampton- shire, April 28, 1846, son of Thomas and Susan ( Holt) Eady, and grandson of Samuel Eady, an inn-keeper at Brixworth, England, during the old stage-coach days. Henry J. attended the schools of his native town in his youth, and in 1864, at the age of eighteen, he came to the United States, and to Elyria, Ohio, arriving at the latter place on December 3, 1864, and which has since been his home.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 69

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