USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 87
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In the same year that he was graduated in the University of Michigan, Mr. Maxson was admitted to the bar of that state and also that of Ohio, but for some time he was en- gaged in the insurance business, in which con- nection he traveled in Michigan and Ohio, in the capacity of special agent. In 1872 he established himself in the practice of law at Garrettsville, Portage county, Ohio, where he continued to maintain his home and pro- fessional headquarters until 1887. He had in the meanwhile built up an excellent prac- tice and gained no little prestige in his chosen vocation. In the year last men- tioned he was elected prosecuting attorney of Portage county, and he then took up his residence in the city of Ravenna, the judicial center and metropolis of the county. In the office of public prosecutor he made an admirable record, and in the department of criminal law he showed his powers in connec- tion with a number of very important cases, including that of the notorious "Blinkie" Mor- gan, who was accused of murdering Hulligan, and whose prosecution was so ably conducted by Mr. Maxson that Morgan was convicted and hanged. Other causes of equal celebrity came before the courts of the county during the time that Mr. Maxson was incumbent of the office of prosecutor, and his success gave him precedence as not only one of the best criminal lawyers in the county, but also as one admirably equipped in all departments of his profession. He has continued without in- terruption in the practice of his profession at Ravenna, and his clientage has been at all times of representative order. He is recog- nized as one of the representative members of his profession in the Western Reserve, and commands unqualified confidence and esteen in the county which has represented his home from his childhood to the present. He is identified with various professional organiza- tions, is one of the leaders in the local ranks of the Republican party, and is affiliated with the local lodge and chapter of the Masonic fraternity, in which bodies he has passed the various official chairs, including that of high
priest of the chapter, and he is also identified with the Ravenna Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church at Ravenna.
In 1867 Mr. Maxson was united in mar- riage to Miss Elizabeth Mull, who died in 1875 and who is survived by one daughter, Maud M., who is now the wife of F. N. Foote, who is manager of the Cleveland Audit Company, of Cleveland, and resides in East Cleveland. In 1876 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Maxson to Miss Dora E. Lock- wood, who was born in Otsego county, New York, and who is a daughter of the late Philander Lockwood, and she became one of the well known citizens of Portage county. Mr. and Mrs. Maxson have no children.
THOMAS B. WEST .- Prominent among the leading nursery men of Lake county is Thomas B. West, of Perry township, proprietor of the Maple Bend Nursery, which he started in 1893, and has since conducted with profit and pleasure, each year adding to his stock, and increasing the scope and value of his trade. A son of the late James West, he was born April 28, 1864, in Lincolnshire, England, where the first year of his life was spent.
James West emigrated to America in 1864, locating first in Cleveland, Ohio. The follow- ing year his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah A. Richardson, joined him in Quebec, bringing her little family of children, two daughters and six sons. They lived in or near Cleveland until 1874, when they located in Perry township, where both he and his wife spent their remaining days, his death occurring in February, 1905, and hers the pre- ceding October. All of the children are liv- ing with the exception of the daughter, Nel- lie, who died, unmarried, in 1877, the others being as follows: Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Langshaw, of Perry, Ohio; James R., of Cleveland; R. S., of Perry; Samuel, of Sa- lem, Ohio: Henry E., of Perry; George F., also of Perry; Thomas B., the subject of this brief biography ; and Charles O., of this town- ship.
Remaining beneath the parental roof tree until attaining his majority, Thomas B. West spent the following year as a commercial salesman. being in partnership with his brother, James R. West. From that time un- til 1893 he was engaged in general farming. in the meantime becoming familiar with the
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various branches of agriculture and develop- ing a taste for horticulture. In 1893 Mr. West invested his savings in land, buying the New- ton Watts homestead, which is advantageously located on the Narrows road, in Perry town- ship, and establishing his present nursery. He has 100 acres of rich and fertile land, seventy- five of which he devotes to horticultural pur- poses, and has erected new buildings and in- stalled large tree cellars, having one of the best equipped nurseries in the county. He carries an extensive stock of fruit and orna- mental trees, hardy shrubs of all kinds, many of them being rare and valuable, and a large variety of plants and flowers. By sturdy in- dustry and close application to the details of his business, Mr. West has built up a lucrative trade, employing about fifteen or twenty assistants in the nursery, and in addi- . tion to keeping salesmen on the road has a valuable catalogue trade.
Mr. West married in 1893. Emma Cham- pion, a daughter of Joel H. and Orinda (Neely) Champion, of whom a brief account is given elsewhere in this work, and to them five children have been born, namely: Mar- garet Ellen, Florence Ada, James Hartwell, Dorothy Ann, and Thomas Edward. Polit- ically Mr. West is a straightforward Repub- lican, but not an office seeker. Fraternally he belongs to Perry Lodge, No. 792, I. O. O. F., in which he has passed all the chairs, and to Madison Lodge, A. F. & A. M. Re- ligiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
FRANKLIN RAY .- Franklin Ray, of Am- herst, Ohio, who has now retired from ac- tive business life, was born in Black River township, Lorain county, Ohio, April 23, 1847. His father, Joseph Ray, was born in Scotland, and came to America as a young man with his mother, brother and sister, set- tling in Lorain county, Ohio, where he mar- ried, in April, 1842, Catherine, born June 24, 1820, in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, daughter of Michael and Cornelia (Sherman) Schneider, of Hessen-Cassel, Germany, who brought their family to Black River township, Lorain county, in 1835; they settled in the woods and began clearing land, living on the place until their deaths. Joseph Ray and his wife settled in Black River township on a farm he had acquired, where they lived many years, and Mr. Ray died in 1872 on this farm. Mrs. Ray is now living in Amherst at an advanced age, remarkably well preserved for
her years. Mr. and Mrs. Ray were parents of six children, namely: Lucinda, widow of Adam Hollstine, of Brownhelm township, Lo- rain county ; Margaret, who married Lorenz Horn and died July 13, 1896; Elizabeth, who married Henry Abel and died in Cleveland February 14, 1887; Franklin; Mary, widow of Frederick Krouder, of Lorain; and Cor- nelia, wife of Jacob Krouder, of Cleveland, Ohio.
The boyhood of Franklin Ray was passed on his father's farm, and he attended the district schools; he has always resided at home, and at the death of his father bought the shares of the other heirs and carried on 'general farming until November, 1906, when he sold his farm of sixty-three acres to the Knox Syndicate Company, having previously sold twenty acres to a neighbor. He and his mother then removed to the village of Amherst, where they purchased a comfort- able home on School street, since which Mr. Ray has retired from active life. However, at times when his services are greatly needed, he helps his neighbor on his farm.
Mr. Ray is a Republican in political opin- ion, and has served in several township of- fices, such as school director, road supervisor, etc. His mother is a member of the German Evangelical church, and Mr. Ray is a sup- porter of any good cause. They have the respect and esteem of the community, where they are so well known. Mr. Ray is unmar- ried. He was an intelligent and enterpris- ing farmer, and was financially successful while cultivating his land.
ALFRED ALONZO KING, ex-mayor of the city of Lorain, was born on a farm in Mount Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1870. He is a son of Amos and Martha (Lear) King, both na- tives of the same county ; his grandparents on both sides were natives of Pennsylvania, and the great-grandparents were natives of Ger- many. Amos King and his wife still live in Pennsylvania. They became parents of eleven children, of whom nine survive.
Mr. A. A. King was reared on a farm until he was fourteen years of age, when his parents removed to the town of Mount Pleasant, and he received his education in the district and town schools. When between fifteen and six- teen years he began learning the trade of pipe- fitter, serving an apprenticeship. Previous to this he had worked vacations in coal yards. Mr. King took advantage of an opportunity
Betsey Jews
Enos Pero
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to enter the employ of the Southwest Gas Com- pany, as assistant foreman on the line, and later went to work for the Brown & Emory Com- pany, of Philadelphia. He next worked for Patrick Bennett, who had a contract for put- ting. in water works in Fairmont, West Vir- ginia, and subsequently began work for a rail- road company, firing on an engine on the west- ern division of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. In 1892 Mr. King began work for the Johnson Company, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he remained three years, and when that company came to Lorain in 1895 he came with them and worked at his trade, later becoming assistant general foreman of the pipe fitting department, which position he held until elected mayor.
Mr. King has taken an active interest in municipal affairs since his residence in Lorain, and in 1902 was elected to the city council, from what was then the Seventh ward, now the Fourth ward; he served in this office until Jan- uary I, 1908, and was president pro tem of the council the last two terms. In 1907 he was signally honored by being elected to the office of mayor, in a close and historic campaign, serving one term. He has the best interests of the city at heart, and enjoys the fullest con- fidence of his fellow-citizens. Fraternally Mr. King is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Protected Home Circle.
Mr. King married Ida J. Horner, of Johns- town, Pennsylvania, where she was born, and the union has been blessed with one son, Ray- mond Earl, sixteen years of age, a junior in high school.
ENOS TEW, Leroy township, Lake county, born in Bergen, Genesee county, New York, October 2, 1830, is a son of Enos and Betsy (Carrier) Tew, of New London, Connecticut. The parents settled in New York, and in 1833 removed to Ohio with two children. The father had located land near the center of Leroy township, in the fall of 1832, and made the trip with an ox team. It was in the midst of heavy timber, and the first log house on the farm was built by him. John Tew, a brother who had also come to Ohio that year, died the night that Enos and his family reached the neighborhood, leaving a widow and one son, Henry, who died at the age of eighteen years. Enos lived in his brother's house a year and then erected a house on his own farm, three- quarters of a mile distant. He was a cooper by trade, put up a shop and made a living at
his trade, hiring the land cleared. He contin- ued to work at his trade and also on the farm. His youngest son, Richard J. Tew, now owns the farm and lives on it. Enos Tew died in 1879, in his seventy-ninth year, and his wife, who was born in Connecticut in 1806, died in February, 1876. They had four children, Enos Jr., Armenia, DeLos J. and Richard J. Armenia married Bud Wilson, who died when a young man of thirty-five ; she is housekeeper for her brother Enos, with whom she has lived about forty-five years. Enos himself never married. DeLos J. Tew is at Rushford, Min- nesota, where he operates a flour mill, having been gone from his old home thirty-five years ; he worked for a time for the government at carpenter work.
Enos Tew was three years old at the time his parents moved to Ohio, and has since lived in Leroy township. He lived with his parents till past his majority, and in 1856 went to Min- nesota for a few years; in 1863 he removed to his present farm, near Breakman Church. He has 200 acres, and the farm originally belonged to the grandfather of Riley J. Breakman, though it also contains part of the original John Valentine farm. The son of John Leander built the present house in 1864; Enos Tew was then living on the Breakman farm. His main business is keeping sheep, and he has been very successful. He is an industrious and practical farmer, and enterprising in his meth- ods When a young man he taught school ten or twelve years, near home and also in Illinois. In political views he is a Republican. Mr. Tew's sister, Mrs. Wilson, has three daughters, namely: Alma J., wife of John Adams, school superintendent of Madison township, living at Unionville ; Emma A., mar- ried J. C. Phillips, a farmer living at Union- ville, and. Mary E., married John Cowle, of Conneaut, Ohio.
GEORGE W. LEWIS, M. D .- Talented and cultured, Dr. George W. Lewis has been a close student of diseases and their treatment for many years, and now holds an assured po- sition among the physicians and surgeons of Pierpont, where he has been in active practice for nearly fifteen years. His father, Eber Lewis, was born September 20, 1845, in Craw- ford county, Pennsylvania, where he is still a resident. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Marilla Harned, five children have been born. namely: Ida, George W .. Lena. John and Homer.
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After obtaining the education provided in the public schools of his native district, George W. Lewis attended a higher institution of learning in Linesville, Pennsylvania, after- wards continuing his studies at the Edinburg State Normal school, and in 1891 being grad- uated from the Perrins school, in Buffalo. New York. He subsequently read medicine with Dr. Hotchkiss, of Edinburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1892 entered the medical department of the Western University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1895. Coming in the same year to Pierpont. Dr. Lewis opened an office just north of his present location, and has here built up a large and remunerative practice, his ability and professional skill being recognized and highly appreciated by the people of his community. The doctor takes an active part in local affairs, and has served as justice of the peace three years, and is now notary public, captain of the State Police, and manager of the Pierpont Band. He is a stanch Republican, and a mem- ber of the Republican county committee.
Dr. Lewis married, September 4, 1892, Nan- nie R. McArthur, who was born August 5, 1872, in Shenango township, Westford, Penn- sylvania, a daughter of Andrew and Sally (Thompson) McArthur, of Cherry Hill, Penn- sylvania. Of the union of Dr. and Mrs. Lewis, five children have been born, namely: Methyl H., born August 30, 1896; Eber H., born No- vember 4, 1898; Arthur R., born November 9, 1900; Myron F., born October 17, 1904 ; and Marilla M., born October 18, 1906. Dr. Lewis is a member of the Ashtabula County Medical Society. Fraternally he belongs to the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and to the Knights of the Maccabees. In 1907 he was appointed ex- aminer for the United States Marine Corps. Since coming to Pierpont, the doctor has built the pleasant home which he now occupies, on North Main street.
STEPHEN E. GILLETT is the proprietor of the Cottage Grove Stock Farm, and he is one of the largest stock raisers of Portage county, shipping to all parts of the United States and to other countries as well. He raises the regis- tered Oxford Down sheep, Jersey cows and Poland China hogs. Although the raising of registered stock is one of the principal features of nis business he also follows a general line of farming and conducts a dairy and creamery.
Mr. Gillett was born in Otsego county, New York, November 8, 1850, a son of Albert and Hannah (Cross) Gillett, both of whom were also born in that county. He is a grandson of John and Olive ( Granger) Gillett and of Aliab Cross, all of whom were from the state of New York. Albert Gillett spent his life as an agri- culturist, and he made a specialty of dealing in general produce and the raising of and deal- ing in live stock. Both he and his wife died in the commonwealth of their nativity. Their family numbered six sons and five daughters, of whom three sons and four daughters are now living., and all are residing in New York with the exception of Stephen E.
Stephen E. Gillett was the first born child, and residing with his parents until twenty- three years of age he then went to Jones coun- ty, Iowa, and engaged in the stock business with I. R. and J. E. Carter, brothers of his wife. After one year there he came to Ra- venna township, and after his marriage he farmed his father-in-law's place for one year. He later on built a splendid residence and barns on seventy-five acres of land belonging to his wife, and subsequently added fifty-two acres more to that place. He has been very successful in his several lines, and is accorded a foremost place among the business men of Portage county.
Mr. Gillett married on February 22, 1877, Ellen E. Carter, who was born in Ravenna township, a daughter of Erastus and Delia (Skiff) Carter. The one child of this union is Addie E., a graduate of the Ravenna high school.
Erastus Carter was born in Ravenna town- ship, Portage county, Ohio, on May 25, 1808, and he died on April 7, 1889. He was a son of Erastus and Lois (Fuller) Carter, who were born in Warren, Connecticut. With five com- panions Erastus Carter, Sr., started for the west on foot, but three of the party becoming discouraged turned back, Mr. Carter and the two other young men continuing on to Ra- venna township. He secured a location in the north central part of the township of about 1,280 acres of wild timber land, and after re- maining a year he returned to Connecticut for his family, the second journey westward being made with an ox team. Before leaving Con- necticut his grandmother placed her hand upon his head in benediction and told him that she would never see him again, as he was going. to the land of the Indians, who would kill them.
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But Mr. Carter lived to be over ninety years of age, and during those years he cleared and improved his place.
Erastus Carter, a son of Erastus and Lois, the pioneers, married on July 2, 1838, Delia Skiff, who was born in Litchfield county, Con- necticut, August 20, 1816, and she died on De- cember 1, 1889. She was his second wife, her sister having been his first, and to that union were born two sons and a daughter: Ira, who died at Oxford Junction, Iowa, in May, 1889; Julius E., of California ; and Hannah M., who died on April 7, 1889. Two sons and a daugh- ter were also born of his second marriage, but Julius Erastus, of Los Angeles, California, and Mrs. Gillett only are living of all his family. The children of his second union were : Myran Howard, who died in Ravenna on November 12, 1908; Mrs. Gillett ; and Addison S., who died in Davenport, Iowa, March 17, 1905.
The wives of Mr. Carter were daughters of Julius and Julia (Botsford) Skiff, from Litch- field county, Connecticut. Julius was a son of Nathan and Abigail (Fuller) Skiff, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, while Nathan was a son of Nathan Skiff. Sr., who with his father were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Nathan was a son of James Skiff, who was born in England. Julius Skiff, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Gillett, came with his family to Portage county, Ohio, journeying via the canal to Buffalo, and thence by sail boat on Lake Erie to Fairport, this state, spending sixteen days and nights on the trip. They lo- cated in the southern part of Shalerville town- ship, where the death of Mr. Skiff subsequent- ly occurred, and his widow then resided with her daughter in Ravenna until her death.
GORDON FREEBORN MATTESON .- It was largely through the efforts, strenuous efforts, and heroic sacrifices of staid New England's sons that the Western Reserve derived her courage, her enterprise, her public spirit, and her inspiration for converting the forest-cov- ered lands into thriving hamlets, populous vil- lages and towns, and valuable and attractive agricultural regions. Conspicuous among those that dared the dangers and privations of frontier life in the early part of the last century was Major Matteson, father of Gor- don F. Matteson, of this brief sketch.
A son of Freehorn Matteson, Major Matte- son was born October 10, 1799, in Shaftsbury, Vermont. and there spent the earlier years of his life. He married, while living in Benning .-
ton county, his native place, Patience Matteson, whose birth occurred July 4, 1800. In 1834 Major Matteson and his family came to Ohio, locating in Hiram, Portage county, in the very house from which Rigdon and Smith, Mor- mons, were taken by the mob that tarred and feathered them. They subsequently moved to a place near the present Matteson homestead, and the following year bought the farm now owned and occupied by their son Gordon. They improved the land, and carried on general farming the remainder of their lives, the major dying December 21, 1872, while his wife, who preceded him to the better land, passed away May 13, 1861. They were the parents of four children, two of whom were born in Vermont, and the other two in Ohio.
Succeeding to the ownership of the parental acres, Gordon F. Matteson is numbered among the foremost agriculturists of this part of the county. As a boy he assisted his father in clearing and improving the homestead, watch- ing with gratification its gradual development from a dense forest to a valuable farm, yield- ing abundant harvests each season, and in its transformation he was an important factor. He was born April 25, 1839, in the old log cabin that stood upon the place when his parents bought it, and in the schools of the neighbor- hood acquired his elementary education. He subsequently completed his studies at the Hiram Eclectic Institute, of which James A. Garfield was then the principal, that being be- fore the organization of the school into Hiram College.
Mr. Matteson married first, in 1864, Mary Roberts, of Hiram, Ohio, and they became the parents of two children, namely : Hugh Frank, born May 28, 1871, and a child that died when but a week old. Hugh Frank Matteson mar- ried first, in Garrettsville, Ohio, in 1891, Birdie Holcomb, who died December 1, 1892. He married second, in Ravenna, Ohio, Emogene Ramsdell, and they have two children, Fred James and Frank Gordon, twins, born Feb- ruary 24, 1900. Mrs. Mary (Roberts) Matte- son died in 1876, and Mr. Matteson married for his second wife, June 19, 1879, Carrie Sherwood. Mrs. Matteson was born in Nel- son, Portage county, Ohio, of New England stock. Her father, Ebenezer Sherwood, was born January 24, 1810, in West Cornwall, Con- necticut, and when a young man drove across the country from his New England home to Portage county, Ohio, locating in Nelson. There, on May 24, 1835. he married Joanna
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McCall, who was born at Parkman, Ohio, and to them five children were born. Mrs. Sher- wood's paternal grandfather, Deacon Sher- wood, a native of West Cornwall, Connecticut, married Anna Bonney, who was born and bred in Cornwall, Connecticut.
GUY S. KING prominently represents the younger element identified with the farming interests of Portage county, where he was born on September 5, 1882, to Julian and Edna (Scoval) King, who also had their nativity in Portage county, in its township of Charles- town. After their marriage they began farm- ing on land given them by his father, Thomas B. King, who had come to this community with his father, Dr. Robert King, one of the most prominent and honored of the early pioneers of Portage county. The wife of Thomas B. King drove through with her mother from Hopkin- ton, Rhode Island, to Portage county, Ohio, during an early period in its history, the two women making the entire journey alone. Mrs. King was born July 5, 1819.
When very young Guy S. King's parents died and he lived with his grandparents dur- ing the remainder of their lives, and after their death he inherited 208 acres of land, but he has since added to this tract until his posses- sions now include 215 acres, a valuable and well improved estate in Charlestown township. Among the many splendid improvements of this property is its maple orchard of 800 trees, from which Mr. King averages 300 gallons of maple syrup a year. He is numbered among the leading agriculturists of Charlestown township, an efficient and successful represen- tative of the calling.
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