History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 89

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 89

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Emma I., Niron G., Nathan S., David O. and Charles M.

Wesley A. Seeley was educated in district and private schools. He remained on the farm in York township until he was twenty-one years of age and in 1861 enlisted in Company h, Eighth Ohio Infantry, Colonel Depuy com- manding. After serving three months in that command he was transferred to Company B. Forty-second Ohio Infantry, with Colonel James A. Garfield in command, and as a part of the army of Ohio participated in the battles of Black River, Vicksburg and Cumberland Gap. Mr. Seeley was honorably discharged December 2, 1864, and then resumed farming in York township. Four of his brothers were also soldiers in the Civil war. John V. K. was a member of the Forty-second Ohio Regiment, as was Mr. Seeley himself; Harmon J. was identified with the Eighty-fourth Ohio and Nathan S. with the Second Ohio Cavalry and the Eighty-fourth Infantry. All served faith- fully until honorably discharged.

On Christmas, 1864, about three weeks after his discharge from military service, Mr. Seeley married Miss Lucy A. Crosby, of Chatham township, daughter of Silas and Jane O. (Jones) Crosby. Her parents were natives of Vermont and early settlers of Ohio. Three children were born of this union. Lora mar- ried J. L. Knapp; Arthur V. is a prosperous farmer of Westfield township and Mark T. is the station agent at Lodi of the Cleveland, Southwestern and Columbus Railroad. Of late years Mr. Seeley has not been engaged in ac- tive farming pursuits, but has resided in Lodi largely occupied with his duties as justice of the peace, to which position he was elected in 1901. In the discharge of his official duties he has acquired quite a knowledge of the law and is also recognized as a fluent speaker and a racy writer. His fraternal relations are sole- ly with the James Young Post, G. A. R., at Burbank, Ohio.

RUFUS KNOWLES, a venerable and highly re- spected citizen, is one of the large land owners and representative citizens of LaGrange town- ship, Lorain county. He was born in Dutchess county, New York, May 13. 1830, a son of Horace and Catherine (Lown) Knowles, both of whom were also born in Dutchess county. They drove from there in 1832 with ox teams to LaGrange township, Lorain county, Ohio. Horace Knowles buying here a tract of timber land, and he improved his land and kept adding

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to it until at the time of his death he owned 618 acres, all in LaGrange township. He was a hard working man, enterprising and progres- sive, and he became one of the influential men of his community. He died on August 8, 1882, when eighty-six years of age, and his wife died on May 12, 1879, aged seventy-one years. In their family were six sons and six daughters, as follows: Horace was a farmer and resided in LaGrange, and there died; Nelson is resid- ing at LaGrange ; Rufus; Betsey married Al- bert Foster and resided at LaGrange, but is now deceased ; Porter was a farmer and died at Deshler, Ohio; Martha is the widow of Por- ter Merriam and resides at LaGrange; Mary married James Beaver and died at LaGrange ; Lyman O. resides in Elyria; William was in the One Hundred and Third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died in Libby Prison ; Emma died young: Sarah is unmarried and resides in LaGrange and Ellen is Mrs. William Wilcox, of LaGrange.

Rufus Knowles spent the days of his boy- hood on the home farm in LaGrange township, but after his marriage he left the parental home and bought a farm on Vermont street, La- Grange township, their home for ten years, and they then spent three years on a rented farm in Penfield township. Mr. Knowles then bought thirty-four acres within the corporation limits of LaGrange, where he has ever since resided. He owns large tracts of land in several farms, fifty acres in one tract, half lying within the corporation limits of LaGrange, and three other farms containing respectively forty, thirty-five and ninety acres, all in LaGrange township. He is one of the county's largest land holders.

Mr. Knowles married on October 28, 1852, Hanna Foster, born in Windsor county, Ver- mont, May 5, 1835, a daughter of Addison and Lucy (Pease) Foster, from the same state, and on the maternal side she is a granddaughter of Enoch Pease, also from Vermont. Addison and Lucy Foster came with a three-horse team in 1836 to LaGrange township, Lorain county, Ohio, and establishing their home on Vermont street they lived there until moving to La- Grange Center in 1861, Mr. Foster afterward living retired until his death in 1874, and his wife died in the following year of 1875. They became the parents of six children, but Mrs. Knowles is the only one of the family now liv- ing. A son and a daughter have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Knowles, Charles William and Eva Lura. The son is yet with his parents and

the daughter is the wife of Frank Batcheler and living in Penfield township. Charles W. Knowles married Minnie Willard, and has three children, William, Frank and Mamie. Mrs. Batcheler has had four children, Roy, Ray, Mattie and Carl, the latter dying in April. 1909, aged sixteen years. Mr. Knowles is a Mason and a Republican, and he served the village of LaGrange thirty-two years as a member of its board of councilmen. Mrs. Knowles is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church.

SHELDON F. HANSELMAN .- The legal pro- fession in the Western Reserve has ever main- tained high prestige, and from its ranks many have risen to distinction in national affairs. One of the representative members of the bar of this favored section of the old Buckeye state is Mr. Hanselman, who is engaged in the practice of law in the city of Ravenna, of which he was formerly mayor and where he is now serving as city solicitor. besides which he gave an effective administration during his incumbency of the office of prosecuting attor- ney of Portage county.

Sheldon Fitch Hanselman was born at An- gola, Steuben county, Indiana, on April 11, 1858, and is a son of Rev. David C. and Lucy A. (Thomas) Hanselman, both of whom were born and reared in Coumbiana county, Ohio, being representatives of honored pioneer fam- ilies of this state. Their marriage was sol- emnized in Steuben county, Indiana, where they maintained their home for a number of years. David C. Hanselman was a man of marked native talent and strong intellectual- ity, and was one of the able members of the clergy of the Christian church, in whose serv- ice he labored long and faithfully. In his youth he learned the carpenter's trade, and to this he devoted his attention to a greater or less extent for a number of years, while his versatility was shown by his also having been a farmer and a tanner. He became a man of broad information and well fortified opinions, and his advancement was made entirely through his own efforts, as he was essentially self-educated. In 1870 he became a student in Hiram College, a number of years after his marriage and when his son Sheldon F. was a lad of twelve years, and through this disci- pline he effectively amplified his academic edu- cation. For a full quarter of a century he labored with all of consecrated zeal in the ministry of the Christian church. principally

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in the Western Reserve, and the angle of his beneficent influence is continuously widening through the lives and services of those touched and aided by his ministrations and admonition. He died in 1900, at his old home in Steuben county, Indiana, and was seventy-four years ·of age at the time of his demise. He was spe- cially prominent and successful in the field of evangelical work, and in the history of his ·church his name will be held in lasting rever- ·ence and honor. His cherished and devoted wife, who was ever his gracious helpmeet, now maintains her home in Angola, Indiana, and has attained to the venerable age of seventy- eight years (1909). They became the parents of three children, of whom the only one sur- viving is he whose name initiates this sketch.

Sheldon F. Hanselman secured his rudi- mentary education in the public schools of In- diana and was twelve years of age at the time when his parents took up their residence at Hiram, Ohio. There he continued his studies in the public schools and college, and later he attended the schools of Bethany, West Vir- ginia, and Butler College, at Indianapolis, In- diana. As a youth he was identified with the work and management of his father's old homestead in Steuben county, Indiana. later he was employed as a clerk in a shoe store at Canton, Ohio, and thereafter he passed one year as a traveling salesman for a wholesale glove house. After his marriage he was for some time associated in the management of the farm and flour mill of his father-in-law, in Deerfield township. Portage county, and while thus engaged he began reading law, in which he secured effective preceptorship. He made rapid progress in his accumulation and assimilation of minutiæ of the science of juris- prudence, and in June, 1888, he was admitted to the bar. He then located in the city of Ravenna, where he entered into a professional partnership with Philo B. Conant, with whom he continued to be associated in practice until the death of the latter, in 1889. Since that time he has continued in the successful prac- tice of his profession in Ravenna, where he is now associated with I. T. Siddall, under the firm name of Siddall and Hanselman. He has been concerned in much important litigation in the courts of this section of the state and is known as both an able trial lawyer and well fortified and conservative counselor.

Mr. Hanselman has been identified with the Republican party from the time of attaining to his legal majority and he has rendered effective service in the cause of the "grand old party."

He served for six consecutive years as prose- cuting attorney of Portage county, and his long tenure of this office affords the best voucher for his efficiency and for the popular estimate of his services. He was appointed a member of the Ohio state board of pardons by Governor Bushnell, through whose admin- istration he continued incumbent of this office, and he was chosen to the office of mayor of Ravenna in 1899, retaining the office for a term of two years and giving a progressive and business-like administration. He has served consecutively as city solicitor since 1905. Mr. Hanselman is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the chivalric degrees, being identified with Akron Commandery, Knights Templar, of Ra- venna, as well as with the local lodge and chapter of the order. He is also identified with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. As a citizen he is essentially loyal and public-spirited and his aid and in- fluence are ever accorded in support of enter- prises and measures conserving the general welfare of his home city and county. Both himself and his wife are members of the Chris- tian church.

In the year 1878 Mr. Hanselman was united in marriage to Miss Laurie R. Slack, daughter of Jesse L. and Mary (Hubbard) Slack, hou- ored residents of Deerfield township, Portage county, and they have five children, namely : Jesse L., Grace M., Catherine, Marie, and Charles S.

THOMAS LANGSHAW .- A well-known farmer and dairyman, having a comprehensive knowl- edge of the vocation in which he is engaged, Thomas Langshaw is carrying on a prosperous business in Perry township, his land being on the Narrows road. A native of England. he was born July 29, 1846, in Lincolnshire, a son of Stephen Langshaw.

In 1848, inspired by a laudable desire to improve his financial condition, Stephen Lang- shaw and his wife, whose maiden name was Hannah Bates, sailed with their family for the United States. From New York he came by way of the Erie canal and Lake Erie to Cleveland, Ohio, where he followed the trade of a carpenter for a while, his residence being on St. Clair street. He afterwards lived for a while in Newburg, from there going to Will- oughby, where he lived for thirty years, hav- ing a farm at Scram's Corners, on the Char- don road. There he died, at the age of

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seventy-two years, his death being caused by a fall from an apple tree. His wife survived him, attaining the age of eighty-four years. The farm is still in the possession of the family, being now operated by the son John.

Until he married, Thomas Langshaw re- mained with his parents, assisting in the care of the farm. He subsequently lived in various places, including Mayfield and Mentor, a part of the time being in Cuyahoga county, near Cleveland. In 1890 Mr. Langshaw bought his present farm, which was formerly owned by Milton Shepherd, it being a valuable estate of 160 acres, lying in Perry township. This he now manages in partnership with his son, Thomas H. Langshaw, who lives on an adjoin- ing farm, and carries on general farming on a somewhat extensive scale, in his dairy keeping from twenty to thirty cows, the milk being sold in Cleveland for family use.

Mr. Langshaw married, May 4, 1870, Susan Elizabeth West, who lived on a neighboring farm in Willoughby when they were children, and of their union four children have been born, namely: Frank W., a general merchant in Perry; Clara Ellen, who was educated in Cleveland, is now a teacher in the Painesville schools; Sarah Alice, in the store with her brother; and Thomas Herbert, in partnership with his father. Mrs. Langshaw has suc- ceeded to the ownership of the old West home- stead, on Middle Ridge, in Perry.

HENRY A. BECK, a general contractor, of Elyria, who has erected many fine buildings in the city, was born in Medina, Ohio, No- vember 25. 1869, and is a son of Fred and Elizabeth (Freidt) Beck. Fred Beck was born in Germany, near Stutgart, and came to the United States when seventeen years of age. He located first near Philadelphia, and from there moved to Clinton, Stark county, Ohio, thence to Wadsworth, Medina county. For years he worked at his trade of blacksmith, and later became a farmer. He served two terms as a county recorder, and now holds the office of deputy recorder. His wife was born near Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Henry A. Beck was reared on a farm in Guilford township, Medina county, Ohio, and received a common school education. He be- gan learning the trade of carpenter when eighteen years of age, and worked at his trade in Cleveland, Akron and other cities, locating in Elyria in 1893. He was a good workman and thoroughly understood every branch of the trade, and in 1901 began contracting on

his own account. He has erected business houses as well as residences, and among the finest of these buildings is the residence of Lee Stroup, on Washington avenue.

Mr. Beck is an enterprising and representa- tive business man of the thriving city and takes active interest in the welfare and growth of Elyria. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Builders' Exchange, having served as trustee of the latter. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees. He belongs to the Second Con- gregational church and is a Republican. Mr. Beck married Pearl, daughter of Henry and Caroline Kindy, both of whom are deceased; she was born in Medina county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Beck became the parents of two daughters. Nellie A. and Pauline A.

REV. REUBEN E. BENJAMIN .- A man of earnest convictions, strong in character, and broad and liberal in his views, Rev. Reuben E. Benjamin, now serving as pastor of the Congregational church at Pierpont, Ashtabula county, is an effective and pleasant speaker, both in and out of the pulpit, and is highly esteemed as a man and as a citizen. The rep- resentative of one of the earlier pioneers of this part of the Western Reserve, he was born, April 10, 1868, in Pierpont township, a son of Reuben Perry Benjamin, grandson of Reu- ben Benjamin and great grandson of Asa Ben- jamin, who settled in this part of Ashtabula county more than a hundred years ago.

A native of Vermont, Asa Benjamin was born in 1753. He fought in the Revolutionary war, enlisting in 1776, and was for a while a member of Washington's life guard, having in that capacity stood upon the present site of the city of Cleveland when it was covered with forest trees. Leaving Vermont in 1808, he came with his family to Ohio, performing the journey with oxen, following a large part of the way a path marked by blazing trees. Taking up a tract of wooded land in Pierpont township, he cleared a homestead, on which he spent his remaining days, passing away December 28, 1825.

Reuben Benjamin, grandfather of Reuben E., was born in 1793, and as a boy of fifteen years he and his father came together in an ox cart to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death oc- curring on the home farm, in Pierpont town- ship, January 30, 1864. He was a farmer, succeeding to the ancestral occupation. His second wife, whose maiden name was Almira

9.9. Sicher

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Prince, was born in 1808, and died June 18, 1861. They had four children: Rhoda, Reu- ben Perry, Emily L., and Eli P. He married first Lydia Pratt, who bore him one child, namely: Caroline.

Reuben Perry Benjamin was born on the original Benjamin homestead, in Pierpont township, July 11, 1827. He was a lifelong agriculturist, in addition to carrying on gen- eral farming for eleven years has been en- gaged in the manufacture of lumber, operating a saw mill. A man of sterling character, he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fel- low-townsmen, being everywhere respected. He was for many years an Odd Fellow, and served as school director. He married first Lydia Huntley, and married second Matilda Aldrich, who was born in 1845, and now re- sides at Pierpont Center. Of his second mar- riage three children were born, namely : Lulu, born December 24. 1864, died July 31, 1881 ; Edson, born March 2, 1866, died October 19, 1879; and Reuben E., with whom this sketch . is chiefly concerned.

Leaving the public schools, Reuben E. Ben- jamin attended Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Michigan, where for a year he was director of the gymnasium. He was graduated from the School of Theology in 1898, but while yet a student began his pastoral labors in Algan- see, Michigan, where he had charge of a church. After his graduation, Mr. Benjamin accepted a call for the Free Baptist church in Conneaut, Ohio, and was there for seven and one-half years. He subsequently filled the pul- pit of the First Congregational church of Pierpont for a year and a half, after which he resumed work in his own denomination, having charge of a Baptist church for two years. Resigning on account of ill health, Mr. Benjamin, who had much need of out- door occupation, turned his attention to agri- cultural pursuits, engaging in farming. At the present time, however, he has charge of the Pierpont Congregational church, and in his ministerial labors he is eminently suc- cessful.

Mr. Benjamin has a finely improved farm of 210 acres, and in its management has found health. pleasure, and profit. He keeps about a hundred head of sheep, has a small dairy. while his sugar brush of fifteen hundred trees yields about three hundred gallons of pure maple syrup every season. He is a member of the State Police, a member of the Grange, and as president of the Law and Order League is an active worker in the cause of temperance.

He is a Prohibitionist in politics, and a mem- ber of the local school board.

Mr. Benjamin married, September 20, 1888, Cora C. Bolton, who was born December 14, 1868, a daughter of Charles and Jeannette (Pardee) Bolton. Mrs. Benjamin was edu- cated in the Berea high school, and for four years prior to her marriage was engaged in teaching. Two children have blessed their union, namely: Velma, born February 27, 1891, and Reuben Paul, born June 18, 1898.

JAMES A. FISHER .- In both the paternal and maternal lines is James A. Fisher a represen- tative of honored pioneer families of the West- ern Reserve, and it has been his to attain to marked success in connection with the produc- tive activities of life. As a business man he has been identified with enterprises of wide scope and importance, and he is today a stock- holder in a number of successful financial and industrial concerns, to whose promotion he has given his able co-operation and fine executive powers. He is now living virtually retired in the attractive little village of Windham, Por- tage county, and is one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of this favored section of the historic old Western Reserve.

Mr. Fisher was born in Paris township, Por- tage county, Ohio, on November 17, 1845, and is a son of Daniel and Betsy A. (McKelvy) Fisher, both natives of Palmyra township, this county, where he was born on July 21, 1820. and she on the 3Ist of the same month and year. Daniel Fisher was a son of George H. and Esther (Symons) Fisher, the former of whom was born in Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, on January 28, ISoo, and the latter of whom was born in Palmyra township, Portage county, Ohio. Mrs. Betsy (McKelvy) Fisher was a daughter of Dr. James and Sallie (Cal- vin) McKelvy, whose marriage was solemn- ized at Ravenna, Portage county, on Septem- ber 20, 1819. Dr. McKelvy was one of the earliest settlers in Palmyra township and was one of the able and honored pioneer physicians of Portage county, where he endured the stren- uous labors of his profession at a time when its demands called for great self-abnegation and arduous toil, in the ministering to the widely scattered settlers. His visits were customarily made on horseback, and he thus traversed the primitive roads, through summer's heat and winter's cold, in his humane mission of minis- tering to those in affliction. George H. Fisher likewise was numbered among the first perma-

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nent settlers of Palmyra township, where his marriage was celebrated about the beginning of the second decade of the eighteenth century. He lived up to the full tension of the pioneer epoch and endured its vicissitudes and depri- vations, but he succeeded in reclaiming from the primeval forest a productive farm, so that his later years were not denied their reward in the goodly gifts of peace and comfort. Both he and Dr. McKelvy were numbered among the influential men of their county and the names of both merit an enduring and honored emblazonment on the roll of the sterling. pio- neers of the Western Reserve.

The marriage of Daniel Fisher and Betsy A. McKelvy was solemnized in Palmyra town- ship, on September 18, 1841, and for two years thereafter they resided on a farm near those of their respective parents, while the young husband gave himself energetically to clearing the land and making it available for cultiva- tion. At the expiration of the period noted Mr. Fisher purchased fifty acres of heavily timbered land in the southern part of Paris township, and there the family home was main- tained until 1848, when he sold the farm and purchased another, of fifty acres, in the central part of Paris township, which was then known as Newport. He continued there to be actively and successfully identified with the great basic industry of agriculture during the residue of his active career, having in the meanwhile added to his landed estate. He passed to his reward on January 17, 1889, se- cure in the unqualified esteem of all who knew him, and his cherished and devoted wife en- tered into eternal rest in January, 1896. Con- cerning their children the following brief data are entered: Harriet S. is now the wife of Isaac Hudson, Jr., of Wayland, Portage county, Ohio; James A., subject of this re- view, was the next in order of birth: Esther MI. became the wife of Joseph Jones and is now deceased, as is also George H., the next in order of birth: David Lloyd died at the age of five years; and Ella is the wife of Edward Lewis, a representative farmer of Paris town- ship.

James A. Fisher passed his boyhood and early youth on the home farm, to whose work he contributed his quota of aid, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of the middle pioneer era in Portage county. At the age of sixteen years he went to Oil City, Pennsylvania, where he initiated his independent career by securing

employment as engineer and driller of oil wells, to which line of work he continued to devote his attention for the ensuing five years, at the expiration of which he returned to the parental home and shortly afterward began learning the stone-cutter's trade, under the direction of a contractor on the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, in connection with whose interests he continued to be employed at his trade until his marriage, in 1868. He then began independent and successful operations as a contractor for stone-masonry in the con- struction of bridges in Portage county, and after being thus engaged for a period of about eighteen months he became general foreman for Delmarter Brothers, large contractors, of Cleveland, Ohio, for whom he had the super- vision of mason work on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, in addition to which he also had charge of important work for this firm in the city of Cleveland.

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History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 89

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