History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 91

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 91

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 the 17th of July, 1889, Mr. Poxon was united in marriage to Miss Della Stevens, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who was born and reared in that locality, where her father was a successful farmer. They have two sons, Rus- sell L. and Fayette.

AMos D. SHELDON, who has served as county surveyor of Medina county for twenty- five years, will probably retire (not be retired) at the conclusion of his term, in the fall of 1909. He has resided in the county since he was four years of age, when his parents brought him from Herkimer county, New York and settled their family on the 120-acre farm near Lafayette Center which Amos D. has owned for many years. At the conclusion of his long period of public service, which also includes most useful work as school director, township clerk and trustee and land appraiser, Mr. Sheldon intends to retire to the old and fine farm of his boyhood, and there spend the

I182

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

later years of his life in the most satisfactory occupation with which mankind ever busied itself and helped to maintain and benefit the community.

The county surveyor is a native of Herki- mer county, New York, and a son of Hiram and Eirene (Jacobs) Sheldon, also born in the Empire state. Earlier ancestors were long established in Connecticut, and different mem- bers of the family have become prominent in New England and the middle west. Both of his grandparents, Amos and Anna (King) Sheldon, were born in Sheffield, Connecticut- the former May 10, 1769, and the latter March 17, 1770. The great-grandfather, Elijah, is known to have served in the Revolutionary war, and to have carried honorable wounds from the battlefield. Hiram Sheldon, the father, was born in Montgomery county, New York, being the fourth in a family of eight children. At the age of ten years he accom- panied his parents to Herkimer county, where his father died May 10, 1832, and his mother, November 12, 1839. With the exception of one year spent away from home, Hiram re- mained with his parents until their decease. In July, 1830, he married Miss Jacobs, who was a native of Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, born September 29, 1805, to John and Sallie Jacobs. In May, 1849, the parents brought their family west and located on the farm near Lafayette Center. Medina county, on which they spent their last years, the mother dying in 1865 and the father in 1884. The deceased were Close Communion Baptists and true, un- assuming, Christian people.

Amos D. spent his early boyhood and youth on the Lafayette township farm, and in 1864, when nineteen years of age, enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, con- manded by Colonel H. G. Blake. He served in that command until near the close of the war and, upon receiving his honorable dis- charge, returned to his home. During the fall and winter of. 1892 and 1893 he attended a private school taught by Professor R. M. Mc- Donnell, one of the most efficient instructors of the county. On May 6, 1866, when a few months in his twenty-second year, Mr. Sheldon married Miss Cordelia Childs, a native of La- fayette township, born August 18, 1842, and a daughter of Charles and Sallie (Abbott) Childs. Mrs. Sheldon's father was a Ver- monter and her mother a native of New York. They located in Lafayette township in 1833

and eventually had a family of twelve children, including triplets. Mr. and Mrs. Amos D. Sheldon have become the parents of five chil- dren, as follows : May E., who is now the wife of F. D. Phillips, of Wellington, Ohio; Emma E., who was accidentally killed at the age of eighteen years, while witnessing a game of baseball at Chatham, Ohio; Bert C., who is a farmer of Lafayette township; Bessie B., who married M. B. Halliwell, of Medina, and William H., a marine engineer on Lake Erie.

After his marriage Mr. Sheldon settled on a farm in Lafayette township and spent five years of his life in its cultivation and develop- ment. His present country place embraces 160 acres. In 1871 Mr. Sheldon was elected sur- veyor of Medina county on the Republican ticket, and by continuous re-elections has con- tinued in office, except ten years from 1892 to 1902, his record being both remarkable and also highly creditable to his faithfulness and ability. Further to his credit are ten terms of thorough teaching in the district schools of Medina county, and good service in various township offices. He has earnestly supported the Congregational church for many years, and has been an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, H. G. Blake Post No. 169.

EDWARD FRENCH, of Leroy township, was born in a log house on his present farm, June 7, 1832, and has spent all his life there. He is a son of Amos C. and Sally A. (Edwards) French, both of Springfield, Massachusetts, who, the day after their marriage, in 1831, started for the Ohio frontier. The grand- parents, Nathan and Mary French, died in Leroy, the father aged eighty-seven years and the mother eighty-four. They built a double log house, where both families lived, right in the depth of the forest, and blazed trees for a mile and a half, to reach the main road. Two other families lived near them, those of Nathan Chappell and Roswell Rogers, brothers-in-law. who were the only ones for a long distance. Amos French worked out away from home to make a living. As his land had water in ponds on it, it took a good many years to get it cleared and drained so he could make his living from it. For many years he worked at haying, etc., for only fifty cents a day. His father, Nathan French, who took part in the Revolutionary war, owned 150 acres and gave his son Amos sixty acres. Nathan French. junior, came to Ohio at the age of eighteen years, returned to New York and there mar-

Sally A. French

Amos & French

1183

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

ried, but as his wife died leaving three chil- dren, he removed to Ohio, living in the house where his father had lived. His father gave him twenty acres on the north end, and each of the daughters also received a share. Amos French bought out two of them, thus making his farm contain ninety-one acres.

Amos French erected a new house about 1840, which is still standing; his father Na- than died in the old log house. Amos died at the age of seventy-nine years, and his wife died one year before him. They had six chil- dren, namely: Edward; Eliza, who married Isaiah Phelps, and died when past sixty-five years of age ; one child died in infancy ; Eliza- beth died when three years old; Jane, unmar- ried, lives with her brother Edward; and Chauncey was two years old when he died.

Edward French, when a boy, wanted to be a sailor, and when twenty-one years old he went to Cleveland for that purpose, but not finding a berth open, his father told him he had better stay at home, so he remained with his father, to whom he was a great comfort and help, as long as he lived. He is a success- ful and energetic farmer, and very industrious.

Edward French married February 23, 1860, Elizabeth, daughter of Job and Maria Upson, natives of England, who came to Ohio and settled in Leroy, where their daughter was born. She and Mr. French had been school- mates, and at the time of their marriage she was twenty-two and he twenty-eight, and they have lived happily together for forty-nine years. They had but one child, Alice, the wife of Henry F. Callow, mentioned elsewhere in this work.

WILBUR ALONZO JENKINS, deceased, was for many years one of the foremost citizens of Ravenna and of Portage county, prominent both as a business man and public official. In 1882 he was made the treasurer of Portage county, and he filled the office well and effi- ciently for two terms, and he was the author of the present system of collecting taxes, and also put the system in operation.

He was born in Ellisburg, New York, March 10. 1837, but he was almost a lifelong resident of Portage county, for he was brought here during the year of his birth, his parents driving through from New York and carrying their baby on a pillow. He was a son of Samuel and Ursula (Brewster) Jenkins, and both they and the grandfathers, Samuel Jen- kins and Jonathan Brewster, were also from

the Empire state. Wilbur A. Jenkins was a descendant of Elder Brewster, who came over in the Mayflower, and who was one of the framers of the constitution, Mr. Jenkins being the eighth removed in line of descent. On coming to Portage county the Jenkins family purchased and located on unimproved land in Streetsboro township, and they cleared and improved their land and spent the remainder of their lives there. They gave to their son Wilbur a splendid education, he having at- tended both the public schools and a college at Cleveland, and when he had reached the age of twenty-three he bought the home place of 300 acres and his parents lived with him dur- ing the remainder of their lives. In 1875 he moved to' Aurora, he having sold the farm in 1870, and taking charge of the general mer- cantile store of Charles Harmon he conducted the business until becoming the county treas- urer in 1882. Moving to Ravenna one and a half years later he bought the Williams place. and after retiring from office purchased the furniture and undertaking business of George E. Fairchild and was in business until the time of his death, on the 28th of August, 1898.

On the 3Ist of December, 1862, Mr. Jen- kins married Arlie Bartholomew, who was born in Streetsboro township, April 16, 1843. a daughter of John and Harriet ( Blackman) Bartholomew, the father born in Bristol, Con- necticut, in 1792, and the mother in Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, in 1801. The paternal grandparents were Jacob and Rebecca (Beech) Bartholomew, and on the maternal side Mrs. Jenkins is a granddaughter of Elijah and Lucy (Austin) Blackman, both families being from Connecticut. Elijah Blackman, grandfather of Mrs. Jenkins, was a captain in the Revolution- ary war, and his father, Elijah Blackman, mar- ried Lucy Hall and was a major in the same war. John Bartholomew came with his par- ents to Parkman, in Geauga county, Ohio. when but four years of age, and the Black- mans arrived in this state in 1800, locating in Aurora township, Portage county. John Bar- tholomew and Harriet Blackman were married in Aurora township, but after two years they bought land in Streetsboro township, which was their home for forty years, and they then resided with their daughter, Mrs. Jenkins, until their deaths, the father dying in 1897 and the mother in 1898. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins are: William Grant, born November 6, 1863. died February 9. 1881 : Florence Leil, born April 5. 1885. is the wife of

1184

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

Dr. Floyd Bartell Jones, and graduate of Co- lumbus Medical College, and now a practicing physician at Ravenna, Ohio. After the death of her husband Mrs. Jenkins sold the furniture business, and now owns the old Bartholomew farm of 300 acres in Streetsboro township. In the fall of 1901 she moved to Oberlin, this state, but after one year returned to Ravenna and rented for three years. She then moved into the modern house on Meridian street which she had built, and there she now resides. Mr. Jenkins was in his life time a splendid musician, and founded and was the leader for many years of the Portage County Band. He was a member of the Masonic order and of the Baptist church, and during many years served as a Sunday school superintendent.

. HOMER W. CAMPBELL .- Within the pages of this publication will be found mention of many of the representative citizens of the Western Reserve, and the records thus given touch all lines of professional, industrial and general business activity, thus constituting a valuable and interesting addition to the gen- eral historical chapters, which deal with the results, while the personal sketches indicate the services of those through whom these results have been attained. One of the native sons of Portage county who has here achieved suc- cess and precedence in the exacting profession of the law and who is established in practice in Ravenna. the judicial center of the county, is Homer William Campbell, who is a mem- ber of one of the old and distinguished fami- lies of this section of the Western Reserve.

Mr. Campbell was born at Campbellsport, this county, a place named in honor of Gen- eral John Campbell, a brother of his paternal grandfather, and the date of his nativity was May 16, 1862. He is a son of Edward H. and Mary E. (Woods) Campbell, the former of whom was born at Campbellsport and the lat- ter at Mount Union, Stark county, this state. Edward H. Campbell is a son of Homer Camp- bell, who was numbered among the early set- tlers of Portage county, as was also his brother, General John Campbell, who gained his title through service in war and in whose honor Campbellsport, this county, was named, as has already been stated. Edward H. Campbell was reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer epoch in Portage county, where he has ever maintained his home and where his vocation during all the active years of his life was that of farming, in connection with

which he attained to well merited success. He still resides on his old home farm near Camp- bellsport, and is one of the best known and most venerable of the native sons of Portage county, being now eighty years of age ( 1909), and having witnessed the development of this county from the status of a pioneer section to its present position of advanced civilization and opulent prosperity. His devoted wife, who was a daughter of William Woods, a sterling pio- neer of Stark county, where she was reared and educated, died at the age of sixty-eight years, and of the three children, Homer \., of this sketch, is the eldest; John R. is en- gaged in business at Campbellsport ; and Charles E. is a representative business man of Youngstown, this state. The father has been a stanch supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratic party from the time of attaining to his legal majority, and he has rendered effective assistance in promoting. the party cause, be- sides which he has been called upon to serve in various public offices of a local nature.

Homer W. Campbell was afforded the ad- vantages of the public schools of Ravenna, after which he was matriculated in the Ohio Normal University at Ada, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the Class of 1892, after having completed the scientific course. For seven years he was engaged as an instructor in historic old Hiram College, and he was most successful and popular in the field of pedagogic service. Having deter- mined to prepare himself for the legal profes- sion, he began reading law under effective pre- ceptorship and with the facility of one thor- oughly trained as a student along academic lines, and in 1905 he was admitted to the bar of his native state. He forthwith established himself in the general practice of his profes- sion in Ravenna, where he has been distinc- tively successful and gained a clientage of rep- resentative order. He is a notary public, and in connection with more specific professional work he has devoted special attention to public accounting.

The political faith of Mr. Campbell is thor- oughly well fortified and is indicated in the stanch allegiance which he accords to the Democratic party, in whose cause he has ren- dered yeoman service. In 1903 he was the Democratic candidate for the office of auditor of Portage county, hut while he made an ex- cellent showing at the polls he was unable to overcome the large and normal Republican majority, and met defeat with the remainder of

1185

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

his party ticket. He is a member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian church.

In the year 1893 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Campbell to Miss Alice L. Graves, daughter of Nelson and Helen (Perry) Graves, of Ravenna, and they have one son, Glenn H., who is now a student in the high school.

EUGENE DANIEL SHEPARD .- A man of keen foresight and good financial ability, Eugene D. Shepard is numbered among the leading agriculturists of Perry township, and occupies a secure position in the consideration and re- spect of his fellow townsmen. A son of Daniel Shepard, he was born, July 3, 1846, in Mayfield township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. He is of English descent, the emigrant an- cestor of the Shepard family having come to America in colonial times. His grand- father, John Shepard, married Mary Howe, and settled in New York state, where his chil- dren were born and reared.

Daniel Shepard was born in Marcellus, Onondaga county, New York, in 1806. After his marriage he came to Ohio, where an older brother, Major Shepard, had settled a short time before, locating in Orange, Cuyahoga county. He afterwards bought wild land in Mayfield township, and there, in 1837, began the arduous task of reclaiming a farm from the forest. When he had a part of it cleared, he was unfortunately burned out, losing every- thing. Going then to Ashtabula county, he operated a dairy farm for two years, when, having obtained a start in his work, he re- turned to his old home in Mayfield township. In 1854 he sold that farm, and moved to Perry township, where he bought the farm now occupied by his son, Eugene D., it being about five miles east of Painesville. It con- tains one hundred and six acres of land, about half of which was cleared when he pur- chased it, and on it had been erected a house, which he subsequently rebuilt and enlarged, and afterwards lived in until his death, March 21, 1884. He was active in public life, serv- ing as clerk of the township, and for many years as justice of the peace. He was a Re- publican in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was class leader, and for many years Sunday school superintendent. He married, in Marcellus, New York. Rebecca Ann Gordon, who sur- vived him, dying June 14, 1886. Of their

eleven children, ten grew to years of maturity, and, in June, 1909, five were living, namely : Gordon, engaged in farming at White Earth, South Dakota; George, of Sacramento, Cali- fornia, a railroad employe; Mary, of Erie, Pennsylvania; John L .; and Eugene Daniel.

Eugene D. Shepard received excellent edu- cational advantages, attending the old Madi- son Seminary three or four winters, afterwards being graduated from Bryant & Stratton's Business College in Buffalo. He began his active career as a clerk, being employed for a while in a store at Painesville. Preferring life on a farm, he returned to the old home- stead, and has since been prosperously en- gaged in general farming, and now owns a goodly part of the original farm. In his oper- ations, he shows excellent judgment, and is meeting with well merited success, being widely known as a skilful and capable agri- culturist.

Mr. Shepard married, January 1, 1873, Ger- trude Shattuck, who was born in Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, and at the age of thirteen years came with her father, Isaac Shattuck, to Perry township, Lake county. Isaac Shattuck married, first, Sarah Kays, who died when her daughter Gertrude was but eleven years of age. He was a pio- neer of Chautauqua county, New York, and after coming to Lake county was for many years a resident of Perry township, although he spent his last days at the home of his son, William Shattuck, dying June 26, 1890, in Painesville. His second wife, Dollie H. Shattuck, survived him a very brief time, pass- ing away the day that he was buried, July 29, 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Shepard are the parents of two children, namely: Frank Eu- gene. of Cleveland, graduated from the Paines- ville high school, and is now a job printer ; and Agnes, living with her parents. A citi- zen of prominence, and a Republican in poli- tics, Mr. Shepard has served the past eighteen years as township clerk.

ISAAC A. FREEMAN is one of the most prom- inent of Lorain county's business men, and he also represents two of its earliest pioneer families. He was born in the city of La- Grange on the 8th of October. 1848. a son of P. W. and Susan (Cornell) Freeman, born respectively in Otsego county, New York, and in Lorain county, Ohio, and he is a grandson of Stephen V. and Laura (Wolcott) Free- man, from New York, and of Isaac Cornell, one of the earliest of Lorain county's pioneers

I186

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

and the second to locate in this community. Stephen V. Freeman came to LaGrange in 1832, and in the following year of 1833 his family joined him here. Two years later he bought a farm a mile east of the town of La- Grange, and this timber tract of eighty acres he cleared and improved and eventually con- verted into a rich and valuable farm. He was the first large dealer and raiser of Duff Greens and Gray Morgan horses, and he bought horses for the United States govern- ment during the Civil war. He was known in this vocation over a wide section of coun- try. P. W. was the first born child of Stephen V. and Laura Freeman; George G., the sec- ond, became prominent in Republican politics and held many county offices, and he is now deceased; C. A., also deceased, was a rail- road constructor ; Stephen is a retired Union soldier and a resident of LaGrange; Ellen is the widow of Ted Hastings and a resident of LaGrange township; Sevill is the widow of Marion Porter, and living in Lorain; and Dorliska is the wife of Alex Porter, of Lorain.

P. W. Freeman remained at home with his parents until his marriage, and he then estab- lished his home. on an uncleared farm a half mile east of LaGrange Center. He held many of the public offices of his county, including that of delinquent tax collector from every township in Lorain county. He died at his home there on the 18th of September, 1889, when sixty-six years of age, and his wife sur- vived until the Ist of June, 1890. The fol- lowing children blessed their marriage union, namely: Isaac A., whose name introduces this review; Sarah, the wife of J. E. Wilbur, of Wellington, this state; Ellen, the widow of J. Lindsley, and a resident of Cleveland; Elsie, wife of L. Pullman, of Akron; Frank, in the employ of the Chicago and Southwest- ern Railroad Company, and residing in Well- ington. Ohio; Abram, a carpenter living in New London, this state; Laura, who became the wife of Albert Ward, of Pittsfield town- ship, and she is now deceased; and Georgiana, wife of Free Bedee, of Wellington.

Isaac A. Freeman in 1864 joined the U. S. navy, and after six months of duty on the Mississippi river, he was discharged and re- turned home. Soon afterward he started on a prospecting tour throughout the western states, and returning home, followed carpen- ter work until 1873, accepting in that year a position with what is now the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, as a freight con- ductor, but after three years in that position

resumed carpenter work. From 1880 until 1882 he was engaged in millwright work, and then, moving to LaGrange, he was for three years in the hardware business with T. D. Gott. After a time he purchased his partner's interest, and continued the business alone for six years, selling out at that time and em- barking in the commission business, which he continued for a few years. During the fol- lowing four years he was actively associated with the Lorain County Agricultural Society, serving two years as its president, and in 1894 he was made manager of sales for the Prairie State Incubator Company of Homer City, Pennsylvania, his territory extending over the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, while since 1908 his territory has covered Illi- nois, Wisconsin, and portions of New York and Tennessee. Since July of 1909 he has had the entire management of the sales de- partment.

On the 12th of July, 1882, Mr. Freeman was married to Angeline H. Clark, born in Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio, to the mar- riage union of Mathias and Mary Ann (Hem- ming) Clark, the father from Pennsylvania and the mother from Steubenville, Ohio. She is a granddaughter of William and Rachel (Bridendall) Clark, natives of Pennsylvania. and on the maternal side of George W. and Rebecca (Hickman) Hemming, born respect- ively in Indiana and Pennsylvania, and they were among the earliest of the pioneers of Seneca county, Ohio. Both were from promi- nent English families, and they lived on a farm in Seneca county. A daughter. Eliza- beth, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Free- man, and she is now Mrs. Ernest Bye, and a resident of Pasadena, California. Mr. Free- man is a member of the Baptist church and of the Republican party. He served the town of LaGrange nine years as its mayor, and in 1890 he was a U. S. census enumerator.

IRA WESTOVER, who is a most successful raiser of fine merino sheep and road and draft horses, operates a valuable farm of 225 acres in Palmyra township, Portage county. He is a representative of one of the oldest and most substantial families in this portion of the West- ern Reserve. Mr. Westover is a son of Fred- erick and Ellen ( Woodward) Westover, the former born in Litchfield county, Connecti- cut, August 4, 1804, and the latter in Union county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1827. The paternal grandparents were Luman and Sabra

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II, Part 91

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