History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 85

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 85

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On July 3. 1870, Mr. Butler married Miss Florence A. Tucker, who was born at West- ford, Otsego county, New York, on the 5th of February, 1853, and is a daughter of Anson A. and Sophia ( Hagerty ) Tucker. Her father was born at Orwell, Bradford county, Penn- sylvania, November 5. 1824, and died at La- Grange on the 27th of February, 1906. His wife, to whom he was married June 6, 1848, at Cooperstown, New York, was born in Herkimer county, New York, November 5. 1824, and died April 26, 1899. Mrs. Butler's parents came to LaGrange in April, 1878. and resided with Mr. and Mrs. Butler until their decease. The daughter, Tillie B., who was born July 9. 1876, was appointed postmistress of LaGrange, August 19. 1909, having been manager and operator of the branch at La- Grange of the Elyria Southern Telephone Company from 1898.

JOEL H. CHAMPION .- An able representa- tive of the horticultual, floricultural and agri- cultural interests of Lake county. Joel H. Champion is a valued resident of Perry town- ship, where he has an extensive nursery, which he established in 1891. He has a large farm, and utilizes about sixty acres of it in his work of raising a general line of nursery stock, keeping eight men busily employed. He was born December 22, 1847, in Schoharie county. New York, and at the age of four years, in 1852, came with his parents, Joel and Je- mima (Gardner) Champion, to Perry town- ship, where he has since resided. His father was a cooper by trade, having a shop in Lane village.

Growing to manhood in Perry township, Joel H. Champion was employed for five sea- sons as an orchard grafter, working in New York, Ohio and Iowa. He was subsequently employed as a general farmer for many years, in 1891 moving to his present estate, which

Elsworth a. alderman & family.

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was formerly owned by Nelson Norton, who built the present commodious brick residence in 1870. The farm itself contains but forty- eight acres, but Mr. Champion rents the sixty acres used for nursery purposes. He is a man of good business ability, energetic and enterprising, and endeavors to make the best use of every acre of his land, among his other ventures having devoted a part of his nursery to the cultivation of ginseng, which brings a good market price.

Mr. Champion married, in 1870, Orinda Neely, who was born in Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, and is a sister of Mrs. B. F. Merriman, of Perry township. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Champion, namely : Emma H., wife of Thomas B. West, of Perry township, of whom a brief sketch may be found on another page of this work; Ada G., wife of Amherst Thompson, a son of Thomas Thompson, whose sketch also appears in this volume; and Arthur N., who is in partnership with his father, married Maud Arthur, and they have five children: Roger, Gladys, Geraldine, Vera and Russell.

ELSWORTH A. ALDERMAN, an old soldier and a prosperous farmer residing on his fine homestead at West Windsor, also represents one of the leading pioneer families of Ashtab- ula county and the Western Reserve. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors of New Eng- land were residents of Windsor, Goshen or Newgate, Connecticut. The paternal great- grandfather, Elijah Alderman, Sr., was born in Connecticut in 1755, served in the Revolu- tionary war, and died April 29. 1810. His son, Elijah, Jr., was born at Newgate in 1777, and at the age of eighteen years married Rosanna Phelps. In the early years of the nineteenth century, still a young man, he moved his fam- ily to the wilds of Ohio and settled as pioneers in the little town of Windsor, in what is now known as the Western Reserve. Isaac Newton Alderman, the youngest of the thirteen chil- dren born to Elijah Alderman, Jr., and his wife, became the father of Elsworth A. He was born in Windsor, Ohio, November 23. 1823, and when twenty years of age married Elizabeth Bacon.

Elsworth A. Alderman was born at West Windsor, Ohio, August 10, 1844, and was the first child of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac N. Alderman. He was educated in the district schools of that section and also engaged in farming until Aug- ust 12, 1862, when he enlisted in Company K.

One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, and served during the remainder of the war with the western division of the Union army. He participated in Sherman's march to the sea; was taken prisoner by John Morgan near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on the 21st of January, 1863, and during the Atlanta canı- paign was under fire eighty-three out of 120 days. In 1866 Mr. Alderman married Miss Florence L. Turner, daughter of Warren and Laura L. (Skinner) Turner. In 1873 he pur- chased the present family homestead at West Windsor, the large and comfortable farmi buildings having all been erected since. The place has not only a wide reputation for its general productiveness and attractive appear- ance, but as being one of the best sugar camps in the vicinity.

Mrs. Alderman's maternal grandfather, Hezekiah Skinner, Jr., was one of the promi- nent pioneers of Ashtabula county. Born September 2, 1792, he was a stanch Episco- palian and did much to build the old church of that denomination at Windsor Mills. He also owned the only flour mill for miles around, as well as a saw mill, and his plants gave the place its distinctive name. Their proprietor was accidentally killed in his grist mill Novem- ber 14, 1862. His wife (nee Laura Moore), whom he married November 27, 1817, was born November 23. 1797, and when eight years of age came to Ohio on the back of a horse, riding behind Phelps Tim Alderman. Her subsequent girlhood and the early period of her married life were spent in a wilderness infested with wolves, bears and Indians, all of which made inroads into the domestic animals of the family, killing and eating them, or steal- ing them alive. Six children were born of this marriage, of whom Laura Lovira. the second, became the mother of Mrs. Alderman. She was born March 4. 1820, married Warren Turner, of Medina county, February 24, 1839, and died July 20, 1849. The only child of this union was Florence L. Turner (Mrs. Alder- man), who was born May 29, 1844, and is her- self the mother of three children.

Ada L. Alderman, the oldest, was born March 13, 1867, and is unmarried. She en- joyed educational advantages at Orwell, Char- don and Jefferson, Ohio, and since she was sixteen years of age has taught in the district schools of Windsor and the graded schools of Huntsburg. Trumbull, Mesopotamia and New Lyme. Besides doing her school work and as- sisting her mother with household duties, she

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has given much time to public service, being the first woman to be elected president of the Windsor school board, which position she held for three years. As a member of the Metho- dist church she has been active in Sunday- school work and in the affairs of the Epworth and Junior leagues, for five years having served as recording secretary of the District Epworth League.

Bernard K. Alderman, the elder son, was born October 9, 1871, on the day of the great Chicago fire. He received his early education in the district school near his home and after a year at the New Lyme Institute began teach- ing school, but soon abandoned that profession to adopt electrical engineering. His first ex- perience was at the Geneva power station ; afterward he went to Crestline and Hebron, and is now located at Springfield, Ohio, in the important position of superintendent of the power houses on the eastern, central and west- ern divisions of the Ohio Electric Railway Company. While a resident of Hebron he was a member of the city council ; at Crestline was a leader of the Methodist choir and the city band, and with whatever community he has identified himself has exerted a good and a strong influence. On October 25, 1899, Mr. Alderman married Miss Mary C. Sparrow, of Windsor, and both are stanch members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Coridon W. Alderman was born September 26, 1875, and resides on a farm a mile and a half from his birthplace. Like his brother, he attended district school and at the New Lyme Institute, as well as Huntsburg High School, afterward teaching in the Windsor and Burton schools. At present he is township clerk and secretary of the Windsor Telephone Company ; is an active Granger and superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Methodist church. On May 22, 1901, he married Miss Nellie E. Adams, of Windsor Mills, who is also active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church and the local Grange. Their daughter, Helen Estelle, was born September 13, 1906.

REV. JESSE BOSWELL .- Little rues it what we say. Better far what we are and what we do. Life's influence, like a pebble thrown in the water, ripples out to the farthest shore; or, like a voice sent out in the ether, goes on vibrating until it reaches the eternal shores. We set in motion what we never can stay. If it is good, well; we cannot-and who would want to-stay it. But if evil, who can tell

the fearful influences of such a life. With a burning desire to do the right, and with some sense of the baleful influence of wrong, Mr. Boswell has tried to live and teach and preach the gospel.

We owe much to parentage. The gift by blood, the first impressions, the mold of char- acter and trend of life, given by parents, have much to do with all that may be named as real success in life. The subject of this sketch would wish to give due credit for whatever has been accomplished in his life work to God - loving, God - fearing, God - serving par- ents, who loved the church, who worked in it, and gave for its success.

Jesse Boswell was born November 19, 1849, in a log house, near the village of Monroeville, Huron county, Ohio. Here, with an older brother, John, born February 15, 1848, and a younger sister, born March 16, 1851, and a brother, Asa Willie, born March 9, 1859, the subject of this sketch spent his childhood and youthful days. The log house soon gave way to a good, substantial brick house. The land was cleared of stumps and stones, ditches were dug and drains put in. Here he learned the art of toil, constant, persistent application which was a pleasure. Here was implanted the principle that toil was honorable, work was no disgrace. The ties of home were very tender and loving. The parents never having had the advantages of education, though they had acquired the art of reading, writing and first principles of arithmetic, were desirous that their children should have the advantages of a liberal education. They began early. When five years of age, Jesse, with his brother John, trudged to the Standardsburg school, two miles distant. Rain and sunshine, heat and cold and snow storms bore witness to a faithful school attendance. If the drifts were new and deep, the horses were hitched to the sleigh for a merry ride. Happy childhood days-going to school, in the school, on the farm, in the home -how sweet their memory !

But joy was clouded with sorrow. When Jesse was twelve years old, the loving mother was called from home and loved ones and friends, to hier heavenly reward. The trium- phal death. the lonely home, the absence of the mother love had a telling influence. The father never married again. A cousin, Sarah Cooper, kept house for three years, and then sister Lydia took charge of the home. From the death of his mother, Mr. Boswell's educa- tion consisted of four months of winter school, until, when eighteen, he went to Sandusky

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Business College, and graduated from there in the spring of 1869. He was called, the follow- ing fall, to teach in the above college; but his brother's illness made it necessary that the brother take a trip abroad to recover his health, and this made it necessary that Jesse stay on the farm.

But a hungry mind, and a deep conviction that he was called to preach the gospel, turned his steps to Dennison University, Granville, Ohio. Here, after six years of study, Mr. Boswell graduated, carrying off the highest honors of his class-the class of '77. The three following years were spent in the Bap- tist Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York.

In the fall of 1880 he settled in Storm Lake, the county seat of Buena Vista county, Iowa, as pastor of the Baptist church, and was or- dained the following June by a council of Baptist ministers and laymen called by the Storm church. Here Mr. Boswell found and married his wife, Miss Mary A. Angier, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Levi Angier. Im- mediately after the marriage, January 24, 1883, they made their wedding trip to Mr. Boswell's old home, Monroeville, Ohio. While there he was called to take charge of a new interest in Bellevue. Subsequently he filled pulpits in New London, Ohio; Erie, Pennsyl- vania; Weston, Michigan ; Toledo, Ohio, and now is back to the old home and church of his parents-the First Baptist church, Mon- roeville, Ohio, where he is the pastor. Mr. Boswell was converted in early life and bap- tized by Rev. I. D. King, in the Monroeville Baptist church.

The dark cloud which came to their home was the death of their only child, Walter Cyril, who was instantly killed by the Lake Shore electric car, while crossing the track west of town. He was out as a newsboy, delivering his papers.

Now a word of history of the parents of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Boswell.

Joseph Boswell, the father of Jesse, was born in Lincolnshire, England, March 16, 1807. His father died when he was.a little child, leaving his mother with five children to care for. According to the laws of that day, Joseph, when twelve years old, was bound out by the parish to serve in a home, for which he received his board and a meager covering of clothes. In early manhood he came to the United States, landing in New York. He found work near Elizabeth, New Jersey, and spent two and one-half years there. He heard

the cry before Horace Greeley uttered it, "Young man, go West." So up the Hudson river, through New York state on the Erie canal, and from Buffalo by boat to a little town called Huron, at the mouth of the Huron river, and riding on shanks' ponies, he landed in Monroeville, Ohio, the new west. It was about the first of June. The first man of the village was James H. Hamilton, and for him Mr. Boswell worked the three months of June, July and August, for the sum of eleven dollars a month and board. Where the Presbyterian church now stands he raked and bound wheat. He continued to work for Mr. Hamilton for a year or more, and at the close received as pay a team of horses and harness and wagon, and an order on Hamilton's store for clothing. With this outfit he began his career as a farmer, renting land at Cook's Corners, now North Monroeville, on Edward Reed's farm. Here he was married to Miss Mary A. Cooper. It was noised a minister had come to the Cor- ners to preach. So, without delay, it having been agreed that they were to be married as soon as a minister came, Miss M. A. Cooper, coming from her house work, washed hands and face and robed herself, and Mr. Boswell came from his outdoor work, washed and dressed, and by this time the parson was there and the two were declared husband and wife. This was a little before the noon hour. After dinner each put on their working clothes and went about the common every-day duties. This was their romantic wedding tour. But the bond that bound them grew in love, sweetness and affection as they toiled on in life's work. Six children were the fruit of this union. Three died in infancy, and three-John, Jesse and Lydia M .- came to years of manhood and womanhood. Joseph Boswell and wife toiled on. on the farm of Mr. Reed, and at the end of nine years bought of James Hamilton the farm now owned by Jesse Boswell, and on which was the old log house in which he was born.

Joseph Boswell was a man of good judg- ment, a wise planner, and one of the most successful, and among the best, if not the best farmer of that time. He made the fields yield largely. A new brick house soon graced the farm, and ere long another farm of 120 acres was purchased and paid for. At this time, when they were planning for a less strenuous life with more of leisure and ease, the wife and mother was taken out of the home to her haven of rest.

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Let us give here a brief account of her life. She was born in Kent, near London, England, August 21, 1825. She was the youngest of a large family of children, five of whom with the father came to this country. Their names are Robert, Fred, Caleb, Maria and Mary Ann Cooper. Soon after coming to Monroeville she met Mr. Boswell, and friendship ripened to love and marriage. She was a devoted wife and loving mother. She died March 30, 1862. She united with the Baptist church soon after coming to this country. Joseph Boswell united with the Baptist church February 4, 1843, soon after its organization, and continued a promi- nent and active member, ever interested in its progress. He departed this life May 4, 1894.

John Boswell, brother of Jesse, married Miss Mary E. Lyon, and lived on the second farm purchased by Joseph Boswell. In the strength of manhood's years he was called home August 8, 1889, in the forty-second year of life. Lydia M. Boswell, sister of Jesse, died in her twenty- second year, departing June 29, 1872. Asa Willie Boswell lived eleven months and eleven days, dying February 20, 1860.

Now just a bit of history of Mrs. Jesse Bos- well. Mary A. Angier was the daughter of Levi and Sarah Angier, and was born August 4. 1859, in Garnavillo, Clayton county, Iowa. Her father, Levi Angier, was a native of West- port, New York, and son of Elijah Angier. His birthday was February 6, 1815. In 1849 he migrated to Iowa, by canal and boat to Chicago and thence by team to Garnavillo. He taught school, carried on a mercantile busi- ness, and afterward, in Wisconsin, in com- pany with others, carried on a saw mill and grist mill. He died in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Boswell at the advanced age of ninety- four years and three months, May 7, 1909.

The wife of Levi Angier was Sarah M. Gay, daughter of John M. Gay. In 1842 he went to Garnavillo, Iowa, and in 1859 went to Mt. Sterling, Wisconsin. There, having filled out his four score years, he passed to the other shore.

ORRIN GILES HARMON is numbered among the agriculturists of Portage county, and he was born in its city of Ravenna on the 13th of March, 1864, a son of Julian, a grandson of Orrin and a great-grandson of Judge Elias Harmon, who was one of the prominent polit- ical leaders of Portage county in his day and the founder of the family here. Judge Har- mon was born in Suffield, Connecticut, Sep-

tember 7, 1773, and during the early history of this community he made the journey by boat from Connecticut to Ohio, and, establish- ing. nis home in Aurora township, of Portage county, he cut roads through the dense woods to the farm he had selected, cleared the tract of its dense growth of timber, erected a little log cabin thereon, and there this brave and hardy pioneer of the Western Reserve lived and labored for a few years, until the Ist of October, 1799, when he moved to another farm in Mantua township, and once more established his home in a little log cabin which he built. There he passed away in death on the 18th of September. 1851, and his wife died on the 25th of May of the same year. She bore the maiden name of Sabrina Gillett, and was born on the 9th of October, 1776. Their marriage was celebrated on the 6th of January, 1799.

Orrin Harmon, a son of this pioneer couple, was born on their farm in Mantua township, on the 22d of February, 1805. He learned the art of surveying in his early life under the in- structions of Judge Atwater, a surveyor with the Connecticut Land Company. Mr. Harmon also became an agent for the Connecticut Land Company, and did much of their surveying throughout the Western Reserve. He served Portage county as its surveyor for many years, and was prominently identified with much of the early history of this section of the state. He died on the 14th of December, 1885, sur- viving his wife for a number of years, for she passed away on the 17th of June, 1878. She bore the maiden name of Camilla King, born in Charlestown township, Portage county, Ohio, November 14, 1802, and they were mar- ried on the 27th of September, 1832.

Among the children of Orrin and Camilla Harmon was the son Julian, who was born in Ravenna, Ohio, February 17, 1835, and the first thirty-three years of his life were spent in that city. At the close of that period, in 1868, he moved to a farm of 212 acres, two miles northeast of Ravenna, about 100 acres of which were under cultivation, and this land had been secured by his grandfather Harmon from the Connecticut Land Company. He served his township as trustee, and in politics was a Republican. On the 6th of October, 1862; he was married to Sarah Kneeland, who was born in Freedom, Ohio, November 4, 1841, a daughter of Giles W. and Etarista ( Barber) Kneeland, born respectively in the townships of Shalersville and Freedom, Portage county. The three children of this union are : Orrin G.,

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of this review; Nina, the wife of Dana K. Wileman, of Ravenna township; and Olin F., on the old Harmon homestead. Mrs. Harmon passed away in death on the 24th of August, 1886, and two years later her husband joined her in the home beyond, dying on May 10, I888.

The old Harmon homestead in Ravenna township served as the playground for Orrin G. Harmon in his early youth, and it has also witnessed his later successes and accomplish- ments. Since the death of his parents he has operated the land in connection with his brother and sister, they farming jointly, and in addition to their general farming pursuits they also conduct a dairy. Mr. Harmon started out in life for himself equipped with a good edu- cational training, having attended both the dis- trict and high schools of Ravenna, and during one year he was a student at Traverse City, Michigan. He married, on the 28th of June, 1898, Lillie A. Armstrong, who was born in Ravenna township, a daughter of John and Emily (Neighman) Armstrong, the father born in Ireland and the mother in Franklin township, Portage county, Ohio. Mrs. Har- mon is a granddaughter of Thomas and Sarah (Louckard) Armstrong and of William and Eliza Ann (Tucker) Neighman, William Neighman having been born in Franklin town- ship, Portage county, and his wife in Trum- bull county. Mr. and Mrs. Harmon reside in the home built by his father in 1886, an his- toric old homestead of eleven rooms, and the timber for its erection was secured from the land surrounding it. They are members of the Congregational church. Mr. Harmon in poli- tics is a Republican, and he is also a member of the fraternal order of Masons, Unity Lodge, No. 12, and of Cressett Lodge, No. 225, Knights of Pythias. Of the latter order he also belongs to Buckeye Company, Uniformed Rank, No. 97.

MRS. ADELAIDE AMELIA ( NORTON) NICH- OLS .- The descendant of a pioneer family of the Western Reserve, Mrs. Adelaide A. Nich- ols has an exceedingly interesting family rec- ord, tracing her ancestry back in an unbroken line for nineteen generations, to a prominent family of France, bearing the name of Nord- Ville. This name was subsequently corrupted to North-Ville or Northi-Town, in America be- coming Nor-Ton, and is now known through- out the length and breadth of our land as Norton. A daughter of Seth Deming Norton,

she was born July 23, 1846, in the village of Hiranı, Portage county, Ohio. Her great grandfather, Hiram Norton, came to the West- ern Reserve in 1807, locating in Hiram town- ship as one of its earliest householders.

Sewell Norton, Mrs. Nichols's grandfather, married Harriet Harrington and spent the greater part of his life in Summit county, being. engaged in tilling the soil.

On August 19, 1825, the birth of Seth Dem- ing Norton occurred in Middlebury, Summit county, Ohio. On June 11, 1845, he married Maria Wetherell, in Hiram, Ohio, and they became the parents of six children, of whom Adelaide Amelia, now Mrs. Nichols, was the first-born.

Mrs. Nichols was given excellent educa- tional advantages, attending school in Gar- rettsville, where she was under the instruction of James Norton, for four years. On Febru- ary 20, 1867, in Ravenna, at the home of her parents, she was united in marriage with George F. Nichols, and for the ensuing twenty- three years lived in Freedom township, Port- age county, on the old Marcy place. In 1895 she · moved to her present home, in Mantua township, the old Nichols homestead, which was given to her husband by his father, Noble H. Nichols. Two children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, namely : Edith Norton, born March 7, 1874, and Esther Seth, born December 27, 1881. Edith N. married, December 26, 1899, Samuel Heflick, and they have one child, George Norton Heflick, born May 21, 1892. Mr. Nichols, through his mother, whose maiden name was Ursula B. Drake, is related to the distinguished Drake family, which has long been prominent in American history. His mother was born No- vember 28, 1822, in Hampshire county, Massa- chusetts, a daughter of Stimpson W. and Abi- gail (Joslin) Drake, natives also of the old Bay State.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 85

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