History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 77

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 77

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Charles W. Chalker received a thorough edu- cation in the district schools of Freedom town- ship, supplemented by two terms at Hiram Col- lege, and has made practical use of his training both in the school room and the farm. His intelligent citizenship and public usefulness are products of his mental training and, as an agriculturist, he has earned a good living for his family, maintained and improved his home- stead, increased his original estate in Freedom township and come into possession of a ranch of 160 acres in Perkins county, Nebraska. On July 28, 1896, Mr. Chalker married Miss Emma May Preston, a native of Auburn, New York, who died February 8, 1901, mother of two children, Linnie E. and Ira P. Chalker. His present wife, native of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, whom he married March 4. 1907, was the widow of Lenthiel A. Chalker and known in her single days as Carrie L.

Corson. By her former marriage she is the mother of Arthur A., now a resident of Bing- hamton, New York, and Cecil A. Chalker, of Cleveland, Ohio.

ROBERT GEORGE .- One of the noteworthy in- stitutions of Painesville is that of the Storrs & Harrison Company, which conducts the most extensive general nursery and seed- production business in the field of floriculture to be found in the world. Prominently identi- fied with the upbuilding of this magnificent en- terprise, of which he is now general manager, Robert George has given the best years of his life to the same and is recognized as an authority in this line of industry as well as one of the representative business men of Painesville, in and near which thriving city the enterprise has its headquarters. He is one of the stockholders of the company, which was incorporated in 1883, with a capital stock of $150,000, and whose facilities, equipment and management are unexcelled in every depart- ment. The annual business of the company now reaches an average aggregate of several thousand dollars, and the concern has had most potent influence in furthering the indus- trial prestige of Painesville.

Mr. George was born in Yarmouth, county Norfolk, England, January 14. 1849, and is a son of Robert and Eliza George. Mr. George came to this country when seven years old and received his education in the schools of Gen- eva, New York. He secured employment in a nursery and greenhouse in Geneva, where he was identified with this line of enterprise for a period of five years, within which he gained most varied and intimate experience in the business. In December. 1868. he came to Painesville. Ohio, where he found employ- ment in the greenhouses of the concern of which he is now general manager. One and one-half years after forming this association he had so thoroughly proved his ability and so entrenched himself in the confidence and esteem of his employers that he was given ac- tive charge of the greenhouses, of which he continued superintendent until the death of William G. Storrs, in 1901, when he succeeded him as general manager, of which office he has since continued incumbent. Upon the in- corporation of the company, in 1883. he be- came one of its stockholders and was chosen its treasurer, in which office. upon becoming general manager of the company, he was suc- ceeded by William C. Harrison, the present incumbent.

J. I Harrison and family.

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Mr. George has given his entire time and attention, his best thought and energy, to the development of the great enterprise with which he has been identified from the days of his youth, and in the perspective of all that has been accomplished and of the status of the enterprise at the present day, he has reason to feel the deepest satisfaction and to realize that his labors and devotion have not been in vain. Never desirous of publicity and finding ample demands upon his time in connection with his business interests, Mr. George has taken no active part in public or civic affairs, though he is loyal and public-spirited as a citizen. He and his wife hold membership in the Methodist church, and he has so ordered his course during the long years of his resi- dence in Painesville as to retain the confidence and good will of all who know him.

In the year 1873, Mr. George was united in marriage to Miss Hettie A. Barto, daughter of Carl Barto, of Painesville, and they have three children,-E. B., who is superintendent of the greenhouse department of the Storrs & Harrison Company; Hettie, who is the wife of William A. Davis, of Painesville ; and Fran- ces P., who remains with her father. Mrs. George died August 13, 1909.

HENRY SEYMOUR CLAPP is a retired farmer living at 120 West Main street, Norwalk, Ohio. He was born in Peru, Huron county, Ohio, October 2, 1841. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm in Peru. He re- ceived his education in the common school in Peru and the high school in Norwalk. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served two years in this regi- ment as private and corporal and was so for- tuinate as to escape sickness, wounds or cap- ture. He was with his company and regi- ment in every march or battle up to the time of his discharge. His service included Milroy's battle at Winchester; the famous Lynchburg raid, and Sheridan's campaign in the Shenan- doah Valley. In October, 1864, Mr. Clapp was discharged to accept an appointment as second lieutenant in the Nineteenth United States colored troops. He served with this regiment until its discharge at Brownsville, Texas, January 15, 1867. He was promoted to first lieutenant and was breveted captain for meritorius service and bravery in action. Mr. Clapp married in 1869 Miss Sarah D., daughter of Alvin and Pamila C. (Douglass) Brightman. Her parents were early settlers

of the Western Reserve and lived in Bronson, Huron county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Clapp have two daughters, namely: Mary B., wife of Edwin D. Cline, of Norwalk, and Katharine B., wife of Edward H. Horton, of Toledo, Ohio.

Mr. Clapp is the son of Dean and Betsy M. (Panforth) Clapp. Mr. Clapp's parents were natives of Barnard, Vermont. His grand- father on the father's side was Judge Benja- min Clapp, a native of Vermont, and on the mother's side, Dr. Samuel Danforth, also a native of Vermont. Dean and Betsey M. Dan- forth were married May 19, 1828. About one year later they came to the Western Reserve, purchasing a piece of wild land in Peru, Hu- ron county. Not a tree had been cut and they had but a few articles brought with them from Vermont with which to begin house keeping. when they moved on their farm in the winter of 1830. By their united efforts they were enabled to build a home and leave to their children an inheritance accumulated by en- deavors of which their descendants may justly be proud. Dean Clapp was a stanch Republi- can in politics and was honored by many offices of trust in Huron county, among which was county commissioner, infirmary director, presi- dent of the agricultural society and appraiser of public school lands located on the Western Reserve. Mr. and Mrs. Dean Clapp had three children, whose names and brief domestic his- tory are as follows: Aro D., born July 22, 1830, was married February 3, 1858, to Helen, daughter of Aruna and Mary Ann Eaton, of Peru. Mary Isabell, born January 18, 1834. married Dr. Alfred Terry, a dentist of Nor- walk, Ohio, and Henry S., the subject of this sketch. Mr. Clapp has always been a Repub- lican and a protectionist of the Mark Hanna "stand pat" order. In religion, Mr. Clapp and his family arc Universalists as were his father's family before him.

FREDERICK WALLACE HARRISON was born December 31. 1859, at Painesville, Ohio, and is a son of John and Hannah (Hull) Harrison, mentioned at greater length in another part of this work. Frederick W. Harrison lived at home on the farm until he started his basket factory. As they raised a great many straw- berries, and needed so many baskets, they began making these for their own use, having a saw-mill, and from this has grown the pres- ent large industry carried on by Mr. Harrison . and his son. The business, which began in so small a way, has built itself up until it occupies

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the entire time of Mr. Harrison; however, he also oversees the work on a farm of one hun- dred and twenty-five acres.

The firm is now F. W. Harrison & Son, Mr. Harrison being one of the original found- ers, and his son, Dan M., was taken into the firm in 1906. The son had not then reached his majority, being taken in as a partner at the age of eighteen years. He literally grew up in the factory and understands every phase of the business, being. ready to take hold in any department at any time. The plant occu- pies a two-story building, and contains about ten thousand square feet. They have a branch factory in Cleveland, and have about twenty employes. Their annual output of baskets is from twenty-five to thirty thousand dozen. The equipment is modern and up-to-date in every respect, and they sell the output to both the jobber and retail dealer. The veneer ma- chine which is used is driven by a thirty-horse power engine.

On account of the present volume of their business and their constantly increasing trade, the firm has located a site in Painesville, and on this will build a new factory into which they expect to move in the spring of 1910. After the removal of the business, the family resi- dence will also be in Painesville. The present home of the family was purchased by Mr. Harrison in 1880, and was then an unimproved farm. He built a good house, barns and out- houses and it is now one of the best improved farms in LeRoy township.

Frederick W. Harrison married January 14. 1886, Nevettie A. Manley, and they have four children, namely: Lila M., overseer of the Cleveland branch, who has spent much of her time in the factory ; Dan M., his father's part- ner; Lizzie A., a basket braider; and Frank M., a fireman. The family are all members of the Grange. Mr. Harrison is a Republican in politics, but always considers the man rather than the party. Mrs. Harrison is a member of the Baptist church in Painesville.

CHARLES SIIIVELY, editor and proprietor of the Norwalk Experiment-News Company, was born in Spencer county, Indiana, where he received his education in the public schools. He learned the trade of printer when a boy, serving some time as apprentice, and was editor and manager of several papers before coming to Norwalk, in 1896. In 1906 he pur- chased the paper he now edits, which is a con- servative Democratic paper. The Norwalk

Experiment was established in 1835, and in 1906 was purchased by Mr. Shively, who at the same time purchased the Huron County News, and consolidated them. The paper has a circulation of over two thousand in the county. In the hands of its present able man- ager it has gained considerable note, and is looked upon as one of the leading journals of the county.

Mr. Shively married, in 1884, Clara Thix- ton, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky, where her father, John Thixton, is a prominent banker and prominent in commercial affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Shively have one daughter, Ellen Thixton Shively.

SHERMAN BOOTH NORTHWAY. - Distin- guished not only as a veteran of the Civil war, but as one of the esteemed and valued citizens of Monroe township, Sherman B. Northway is a native of Ashtabula county, his birth hav- ing occurred September 5, 1843, in Orwell, on the homestead of his father, the late Rufus Northway. He belongs to a family noted for its patriotic ardor, three of his great-grand- fathers and seven of his great-uncles having served bravely in the Revolutionary war.

Rufus Northway was born, February II, 1800, in New York state, where he spent the earlier years of his life. In 1830 he migrated with his family from Otsego county, New York, to Ashtabula county, Ohio. Locating in Orwell, he took up 100 acres of timber-cov- ered land, and from the dense wilderness cleared and improved a homestead. He also followed the blacksmith's trade in connection with his agricultural labors, having a smithy on his farm. He raised stock, kept a dairy, and acquired an excellent reputation for making fine cheese. He married Beulah Ful- ler, who was born May 30, 1802, and they reared four children, as follows: George R .. born in November, 1827, died, in 1872, in Leavenworth, Kansas; William Augustus, born in 1832, died, in 1857, in Orwell, Ohio; Adelia, born in 1833, deceased; and Sherman Booth. George R. Northway enlisted, in 1861, in Company A, Sixth Regiment, Ohio Volun- teer Cavalry, and was promoted to sergeant for gallant conduct. At the battle of Enon Church, Virginia, May 28, 1864, he received five gunshot wounds, which crippled him for life and from the effects of which he died in 1872, at Leavenworth, Kansas.

Growing to manhood on the home farm, Sherman B. Northway obtained his education

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in the district schools. Inspired by the patri- otic spirit of his ancestors, he enlisted, in Au- gust, 1862, in an Ohio regiment, for service in the Civil war, but on December 29, 1862. was honorably discharged on account of ill health. On June 24, 1863, Mr. Northway re- enlisted, and served until mustered out, June 16, 1865. He was wounded in his first battle, receiving a buckshot which he still carries in his head. He was afterwards captured by the enemy, and was confined in the prisons at An- dersonville, Libby, Savannah and Milan. He has since been engaged to some extent in agri- cultural pursuits, for a number of years carry- ing on truck gardening.

Mr. Northway married, in 1866, Ellen Webb, who died leaving two children, namely : Almira E., born May 7, 1868, married G. H. Holmes, of Ashtabula, Ohio; and Ralph Elmer, born May 1, 1873, married Bessie Mil- lencamp, and now resides in South Cincinnati. Mr. Northway married second, August 22, 1886, Mrs. Estella I. (Green) Wheeler, and they have one child, Alton, whose birth oc- curred January 26, 1890. Mr. Northway is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and has served as adjutant of several posts, and is at present chaplain of his own post. He was formerly a member of the State Police.

EDWIN K. BENSON .- Wide-awake, enter- prising and highly progressive, Edwin K. Ben- son, of Monroe township, holds a prominent position among the substantial and esteemed residents of Ashtabula county. A son of Ju- lius and Della (Davis) Benson, he was born September 20, 1874, in Kelloggville, Ashta- bula county, Ohio. Further parental and an- cestral history may be found elsewhere in this volume, in connection with the sketch of his brother, J. C. Benson.

Completing his early education in the Jeffer- son high school, Mr. Benson began his career as a contractor when a lad of seventeen years, first taking logging contracts. He has since extended his operations in that line, and for the past two years has been working for the Kellogg and Kellahan Company, putting in macadamized roads. He has now a contract in Monroe township, Ashtabula county, to build two miles and two hundred feet of mac- adam road, the road to be twenty-two feet wide, with the stone inlaying fourteen feet in width, the total cost of the work being $16,000. In the filling of this contract, Mr. Benson employs fifty men and thirty teams.

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Mr. Benson is an expert farmer, owning one hundred and fifty-seven acres of rich and fertile land, the management of which he per- sonally superintends. He makes a specialty of raising and selling stock, and keeps a dairy of twenty or thirty cows, and for the last eight years has made a high grade of butter, for which he receives the best market price. He has good improvements on the place, and ex- pects soon to build a barn, sixty by eighty feet dimensions.

Mr. Benson married, in 1900, Tinnie Scrib- ner, who was born in 1877, a daughter of Carlos and Josephine (Sweet) Scribner. Po- litically a Republican, Mr. Benson has several times been a delegate to county conventions. He was road supervisor one year, and is now a member of the State Police.

LOREN HICKS .- A native, and to the manner born, Loren Hicks has been active in advanc- ing the agricultural and industrial interests of Ashtabula county, and is now carrying on gen- eral farming successfully in Monroe township, on the farm where his birth occurred May 26, 1844. He is of pioneer ancestry, his grand- father, David Hicks, having located in Ashta- bula county in the earlier part of the nineteenth century.

David Hicks was born in Batavia, New York, in 1778. He subsequently lived for a while in Canada, from there coming to Ohio. He married, in 1810, Orange De Moranville, who was born August 30, 1786, their marriage being the first one recorded in Ashtabula county. He died in 1819, while in manhood's prime, on his home farm, in Conneaut town- ship, near Amboy. His widow survived him, passing away September 1, 1879, at a venerable age. They became the parents of four chil- dren, as follows : Josiah, born about 1811, mar- ried Julia Badger, and died August 28, 1883; Electa, born in 1812, married Lorenzo Scrib- ner and died in 1878; Stephen, who was the father of Loren Hicks, and Almira, who died December 17, 1865, married first Rensselaer Bugbee, and married second Lewis Ward.

Stephen Hicks was born in Batavia, New York, October 4, 1815, and spent most of his life in Ashtabula county, passing away on his farm, in Monroe township, December 17, 1865. He was an industrious, hard-working man, and by his energetic efforts cleared a farm from the wilderness, being actively employed in lumber- ing and farming throughout his career. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was

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Polly Mitchell, five children were born, namely : Marcia, who married Wells Davis. was born in 1840 and died in 1890: Malinda. born in 1842, married Edwin Davis, and resides in Kansas; Loren, the special subject of this brief biographical review; Ellen, born in 1847, is the wife of Jerry Howard, of Kansas : and Cornelia, who was born in 1851, married first Eugene Beardsley, and after his death became the wife of Amilo Waterman, of Pier- pont, Ashtabula county.

Brought up on the parental homestead, Loren Hicks assisted his father in a part of the pioneer work of preparing the land for culti- vation, and likewise worked with him in the lumber camps and saw mill from the age of fifteen years. About twenty years ago Mr. Hicks gave up his operations in timber, whereby he and his father used to buy wood lots, cut down the giant progeny of the forest. convert the huge logs into lumber, and sell the lumber at the nearest markets. Buying then the interest of the remaining heirs in the old home farm, he has since been successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, devoting his eighty acres of land to general farming and dairying.

Mr. Hicks married, in October, 1870, Amy Chase. She died a few years later, leaving three children, namely ; William, born in 1872, married Lena Adams, and resides in Kelloggs- ville, Ashtabula county ; Herbert, born in 1874, married Lizzie Hoeg, and lives in Monroe township ; and Ernest L., born in 1877, married Lina Jary, and is a resident of Monroe town- ship. Mr. Hicks married second, in 1881, Nel- lie Brewster, and to them four children have been born, namely: Margaret, who was born in 1883, is the wife of Harold Anderson, of North Conneaut ; Flora, born in 1886, married William Van Schaik, of Monroe township; Jay E., born in 1888, married Grace Rose, and lives on the home farm; and Jesse, born in 1890, is chief cook in the County House. Politically, Mr. Hicks is a stanch Republican, and for twenty years served acceptably as township trustee. He is a member of the State Police, and also belongs to the local grange.

JACOB TUCKERMAN .- The history of educa- tion in Ohio presents no type of professional teacher finer than that which is represented by the high-minded, scholarly. unselfish Jacob Tuckerman, who devoted his long life with indefatigable energy and zeal to the intellectual and moral training of the young. His range of

labor extended from the borders of Lake Erie to the shores of the Ohio river, though the field of his most effective and longest continued work was the Western Reserve and especially the county of Ashtabula, so celebrated for its men and women of liberal culture and inde- pendent character. In his own section and by his multitude of appreciative and enthusiastic friends and disciples Mr. Tuckerman was not inappropriately regarded as one of the worth- iest, most accomplished and best loved of the many noble educators of his day and genera- tion. When in February, 1897, he ceased from his mortal toils, falling in the very harness of school work, a local newspaper, the Orwell News Salter, published an obituary of the de- ceased veteran, beginning with the words : "Professor Tuckerman is dead. Ohio's great- est educator has heard his last class, has re- ceived his final report."

Jacob Tuckerman was born July 31. 1824. in Sterling, Windham county, Connecticut, and was related to the Boston Tuckermans and the Putmans, whose ancestors were among the early colonists of New England. His father. Isaac Tuckerman, moved to Potsdam, New York, where Jacob attended public school, and in the year of 1836 the family came to Ohio and settled at Orwell, in which place Isaac Tuckerman established a tannery. The son in his teens worked in this tannery during the summers, but went to school, and later taught school, in the winter seasons. Opportunities for study took him in 1839 to Kingsville. where, becoming deeply interested in religion. he joined the Presbyterian church. The next year he taught in Saybrook, and in 1845-6 was a teacher in Rome Academy, interrupting his school work by intervals of labor in the tan yard. He entered Oberlin College as a senior in the teacher's course in 1847, but did not graduate, being obliged to return home in the spring of 1848 on account of his father's ill- ness. During the winter terni of 1848-9 he taught in Monroe, Michigan.

Mr. Tuckerman was married on April 23. 1849, to Miss Elizabeth Ellinwood; of Rock Creek, who like himself was of Revolutionary stock and Puritan lineage. Mrs. Tuckerman is a lady of education and refinement, a faithful worker in every good cause and a graceful writer in prose and verse. She was the inspi- ration and adviser of her husband in his pro- fessional' career.

Soon after his marriage Professor Tucker- man was elected the superintendent of schools

Jacob Inckeman

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for Ashtabula county, this office having been created by a special act of the legislature. He held the office two years, and during his ad- ministration, as is learned from a memorial sketch by T. P. Treat, "the school enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, new efficacy was in- creased and the cause of popular education was greatly advanced. * Dr. Tuckerman enjoyed the distinction of having been the sec- ond county superintendent of schools Ohio has ever had.'

In 1852, when Orwell Academy was built, he was made the principal, and there he re- mained during the following five years. There were at that time seven prosperous academies in Ashtabula county. Professor Tuckerman left Orwell in the fall of 1857 to accept the chair of mathematics in Farmers' College, near Cincinnati, while three years later, in 1860, he was elected president of the college, a position he retained until 1867, when he resigned and soon afterward organized the State Sunday School Union, in the interest of which he trav- eled for two years or more, partly as a means of checking the threatened appearance of a pulmonary disease. He was a delegate of the Ohio Sunday School Association to the world's convention of Sunday-school workers in Lon- don, England.

He was called in 1868 to Austinburg to take charge of Grand River Institute, an academy over which he presided for about fourteen years, and which under his administration at- tained prosperity and a proud reputation. From Austinburg he transferred his valuable services to the town of New Lyme, succeeding Professor D. J. N. Ward as principal of the institute in 1882, and this responsible post he continued to occupy until the date of his death, fifteen years afterward.

From the record here given it appears that Dr. Tuckerman devoted more than fifty years of his active service to the cause of education, in the daily, real work of the recitation room. The editor of the Ashtabula Standard esti- mated that "Probably there is not a teacher in Ohio who has instructed so many students as have been taught by Mr. Tuckerman," and adds "In Ashtabula county he was almost a family man in every household, there being but few families of which some member has not at some time been under his fostering care." And Mr. Howells, brother of the novelist, wrote in his newspaper, the Sentinel, "It has been our good fortune to know Professor Tuckerman for thirty years. He always im-

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 77

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