USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, pt 2 > Part 43
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Mr. Wood married Amelia Conil and became the father of four children: HI. W. S., James, Charles and Walter.
II. W. S. Wood received a liberal school training and on beginning business for himself entered the employment of Wood, Perry & Company, lumber dealers, remaining two years. llis next engagement was to enter into a part- nership with his father, as previously mentioned, remaining actively in business until 1856, when he retired.
Mr. Wood was once elected a member of the Board of Education, and while serving in his official capacity was instrumental in secur- ing the abolishment of corporal punishment from the schools by a resolution of the board. Ile was chairman of the building committee of the board, and, the city not feeling able to ein- ploy an architect, Mr. Wood drew plans and exeented them as superintendent, in the con- struction of a number of buildings, saving the city a considerable item of expense thereby. Mr. Wood was twice elected to a membership on the Public Library Board, serving twice as its President. During his incumbency of the office he was influential in the adoption of the aleove system which has proven so beneficial to the institution. He also advocated establish- ing a branch library on the West Side. It was finally decided to try, and despite the petty drawbacks first encountered, this new branch is in a flourishing condition, exceeding even the expectations of the most sanguine members of the board.
Mr. Wood was first married in 186-, to Hat- tie Smith, of Livingston county, New York. Nine children were born of this union: Elea- nor, May, Hattie, Maud, Libbie, Irene, Pearl, larry and Charles. In 18- Mrs. Wood died. In 1889, February 26, Mr. Wood took in mar- riage Miss Clark, of Oberlin, Ohio, Principal of the Waverly Avenue School of Cleveland. Mrs. Wood graduated from Oberlin College and is a teacher of long experience.
Mr. Wood is a Director of the Arcade Sav- ings Bank, of the West Side Savings Bank, of the Western Reserve Building and Loan Asso- ciation, and of the Riverside Cemetery Associ- ation.
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Although long retired from business Mr. Wood manifests a deep interest in the welfare of Cleveland and her institutions, and is found in the front rank of her progressive and pros- porous men.
AMES M. COGSWELL is one of the venerable citizens of Parma township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Indeed, he is probably one of the oldest settlers in the county. A record of his life is herewith pre- sented.
James M. Cogswell was born in New London connty, Connectient, September 1, 1500, and in that county spent thirty years of his life. Ilis father, William Cogswell, was the owner of a large farm and was engaged in agricultural pur- snits up to the time of his death. James M. was reared to farm work, and remained at home and assisted his father until the latter's death, after which he went to Norwich and engaged in the mercantile business for some three years. Like many other ambitious and enterprising young men, he had a desirous to " go west," and the summer of 1834 found him on a pros- pecting tour through Ohio and Michigan. Pleased with the former State, ho selected Cuya- hoga county as a desirable location, and in Parma township purchased a tract of land, be- tween ninety and a hundred aeres. He then returned to Connectient for his family and in the fall of that year came with them to their new home. His land was at that time nearly all covered with a dense forest, and the work of developing a farm and establishing a home here was no littlo undertaking. But these brave pioneers knew no obstacle which they could not overcome, and as the years rolled by Mr. Cogswell's place, under his well directed efforts, assumed a different appearance. To-day he has a comfortable home and can view with pardon- able pride his well cultivated fields.
Of his private life, we record that he has been twice married. His first marriage was in Gris-
wold, Connectieut, to Charlotte Coit, a native of that State. They had three children, only one of whom reached adult years --- Jane, wife of Rev. C. B. Stevens, who died in Brecksville, Ohio, leaving one son. This son, William C. Stevens, is in the ministry, and is now a resi- dent of Los Angeles, California. Mr. Cogswell married his present wife, whose maiden name was Mary II. De Witt, in Norwich, Connecticut, October 8, 1833. She was born at that place, Jannary 14, 1815. They have had seven chil- dren, two of whom died in infancy. The others are as follows: Charlotte C., who is the widow of Thomas Whittlesey; II. De Witt, who mar- ried Miss Martha A. Bartlett, lives in Parma township; Anna E., wife of Frank W. Brown, died in Wood county, Ohio, in November, 1878; James II., a business man of Cleveland, Ohio; and Alfred W., engaged in business in Akron, Ohio.
Mr. Cogswell took a prominent part in local affairs here some years ago and held several important township offices. Ile and his wife have been members of the Presbyterian Church at Parma ever since its formation.
Such is a brief sketch of the life of a worthy pioneer.
P A. PATTERSON, chief engineer of the motive power of the Cleveland Electric Railway Company and a master at his trade, was born in Copenhagen, Den- mark, May 11, 1850, and from the age of thir- teen years was a student, apt and intelligent, laying the foundation for a liberal edneation. llis father, who died in 1858, was a merchant, but only in moderate financial circumstances; and had his wife not been of foree more than ordinary his two orphan children might have been thrown upon the world ignorant and penniless.
At the age of thirteen years Mr. Patterson went as a sailor before the mast in the Danish and English merchant trade, and after a time
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he went aboard a fruiter plying between Italian ports and St. Petersburg; next he shipped on a bark from Nova Scotia to Archangel, and then reshipped to Buenos Ayres, South America, where he happened to be present during the war between Buenos Ayres and Uruguay. On his return voyage he stopped at the port of Bahia, Brazil. While homeward bound he en- countered a severe storm in which fore, mizzen and top masts were lost, the supply of provis- ions was exhausted and the crew were com- pelled to subsist on raw sugar for seven days, with which the vessel was loaded; but the gale was finally weathered, and the trip to Falmonth, England, completed in seventy-two days.
Next Mr. Patterson shipped from Liverpool to Alexandria, Egypt, stopping at Gibraltar, Malta, and other important ports. His first trip to the United States occurred in 1872, when he went ashore at New York and joined the marching procession of Grant's supporters when the general was a candidate for his second term That fall he boarded a coffee clipper for Rio Janeiro and returned to New Orleans with a cargo of coffee. Then for four years and seven months he was in the employ of the Cunard line, making eleven voyages annually between America and Europe,-a total of 100 trips across the Atlantic. Next he was Cap- tain of a gravel schooner in Boston harbor, and then he left salt water and was engaged in the lake trade, on many vessels and in various capacities from cook to mate.
Then he left navigation altogether, in 1875, and entered the employ of Rhoades & Com- pany, of Ashitabula, as stationary engineer, when ouly six trains were running out of those doeks daily, with ore. Eight years afterward he removed to Cleveland and was engineer for Ifitcheock & Company at their ore doeks and remained five years. Next he was temporarily with G. C. Julier, the leading baker, before joining the Cleveland Electric Company in 1888. Here he has charge of a number of men, and is responsible for the care of much valuable property. Ife is very efficient and reliable.
His father, Paul Patterson, left only two children, the other than our subject being Caroline, the wife of Jans Jansen of Copen- hagen. In March, 1889, Mr. Patterson mar- ried, in Cleveland, Mina Collins, an American lady born in New Jersey. lle is a director of a benefit association, for employees, and was made a Mason in England twenty years ago. In 1882, after an absence of sixteen years, he visited his old home, and his mother again in 1887, thus renewing his acquaintance with old ocean as well as the scenes of his childhood.
A EBERT W. DE FOREST, son of Tracy R. de Forest, deceased, was born in Cleveland, August 3, 1849, attended the Rockwell street school and graduated there when about fifteen years of age; but, in- stead of entering the high-school and complet- ing the full public-school course, he launched ont on his business career. For about a year he was a boy of all work for E. Deeker, a pho- tographer; next he was collector for the Mer- chants' National Bank under President T. P. Ilandy, and rose through various positions to that of paying teller in the six years of his ser- vice there.
For several months succeeding his departure for the West, he traveled abont on a tour of in- spection and pleasure combined, visiting Oma- ha, Nebraska; St. Joseph, Missouri; Council Bluffs, Iowa, etc., finally alighting at Hannibal, Missouri, where he entered into an engagement with the C. O. Godfrey Association, coal dealers and miners through the States of Illinois, Mis- souri, lowa and Kansas. In a short time Mr. de Forest was made the company's traveling auditor, and of the nine years he was so en- gaged he spent two years at Fort Scott, Kansas, and two and a half in Des Moines, Iowa. Ile returned to Cleveland in 1880, remaining a year and a half, and then again went West, lo- enting this time in Quiney, Illinois, engaging again in the coal business. In September,
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1883, he again returned to Cleveland, and on the 11th of that month married Miss Delinda J. Stacey, and they resided at Quiney until 1888, and since that year they have been per- manent residents of this city. Mr. De Forest engaged as an accountant and bookkeeper until April 27, 1891, when he was employed by Sterling, Welch & Company.
Mrs. De Forest was a daughter of Leroy Stacey, who died many years ago, leaving three children: Mrs. De Forest, Miss Louise and George A., accountant for the Brown Lumber Company. The mother of these children is now the wife of William Norsworthy of Cleve- land. Mr. and Mrs. De Forest's children are Tracy Leroy and Lee Hewitt.
Mr. De Forest is a Knight Templar, being a member of Des Moines Chapter and Com- mandery.
H ENRY KRATHIER, one of the trustees of Parma township, was born in Ger- many, October 20, 1845, as a son of Ludwig and Magdalena (Rielhaller) Krather. They emigrated to America early in the '50s and settled in Brooklyn township, after- ward removing to Parma township, where the father died May 31, 1891. The mother still survives. They had two children: Henry, and Sophia, the wife of Philip Kuntz.
Ilenry Krather was quite young, being about five years old, when his parents brought him to America, and was reared to manhood in Brook- lyn and Parma townships, chiefly in Parma, IIe received a common-school education, and at fourteen years of age left home to learn the butchering business in Cleveland, and this busi- ness he has since followed, in connection with farming.
Mr. Krather was married in what is now South Brooklyn, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, De- cember 7, 1866, to Miss Elizabeth G. Pfeiffer, who was born in Parma township, May 9, 1851. She is a daughter of Philip and Susan ( Rechl)
Pfeiffer, both natives of Germany, where tho father was born December 6, 1825, and the mother February 19, 1826. They were married August 8, 1850, in Cuyahoga county, and set- tled in Parma township, where they have since been residents. They had eight children, two sons and six daughters. Mrs. Krather was the eldest of the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Krather since their marriage have resided on the farm where they now make their home. This consists of seventy-five aeres, furnished with a nice set of buildings. Our subject and his wife are the parents of four children, three of whom are living: Katie A., Susie M. and Permelia E. The name of the deceased child is Ella M., who was the wife of Matt. Koblentzer. She died in Cleveland, Ohio, February 25, 1892.
Mr. Krather has had the office of Trustee for several years. Ile has also held the office of Township Treasurer for two years, and has served as School Director. Ile takes quite an active part in all local affairs, and is connected wit the Democratie party. Mr. and Mrs. Krather are members of the Presbyterian Church.
0 LNEY P. LATIMER, a prominent citi- zen of Brecksville township, was born October 2, 1836, in Rock Creek, Ashta- bula county, Ohio. His father, Austin Lati- iner, was born July 4, 1807, in New York; and the father of the latter, William Latimer, came to Ashtabula county when that section was an unbroken wilderness. Austin was fourteen years of age when his father came to Ohio, and became a great hunter. At the early age of fifteen years he killed nineteen deer in three days, three of which he killed from the cabin door of his home. Amid such will pleasures, alternating with many privations and monoto- nous periods of pioneer life, was he reared to manhood.
Purchasing fifty acres of his father's place, ho made it his home for a time. On this farm
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a portion of the village of Rock Creek now stands. In 1838 he moved to the vicinity of Rome, same county. Ile died in 1848, as the result of over-exertion in expelling an idiot from the church, whose interrogation of the minister rendered such action necessary. Ile was buried in the cemetery at Rock Creek, Ashtabula county. In his political principles he was a zealons Whig and anti-slavery man. In Lenox township, Ashtabula county, he mar- ried Evaline Church, who was born in Catta- raugus comity, New York, October 11, 1814, a daughter of Elijah and Jemima Church, who came to Lenox township, Ashtabula county, in 1830. After Mr. Latimer's death she married W. P. Ilolt, and by that marriage there was one child, William, now of Pekin, Illinois. Mr. Holt died, and his widow now lives with her daughter Adelaide at Rock Creek. She has been a member of the Methodist Church ever since its organization there.
Mr. Austin Latimer's children are: Adelaide C., born August 11, 1824, in Rock Creek, is now Mrs. David Baldwin; and Olney P., our subject, also born in that place. In Rome, same county, the following were born: Eleanor, December 2, 1841, who is now the wife of John Webb of Rock Creek; Neima, born August 22, 1846, yet unmarried.
The gentleman whose name heads this memoir was thrown upon his own resources at the early age of fourteen years, when he began to contribute to the support of his mother and sisters. At eighteen he hired out as a tender for a mason, John Foot, and gradually picked up the mason's trade. Later he followed the trade on his own account.
After his marriage in 1836 he rented a home in the village of Rock Creek, and followed his trade in summer and worked in a tannery in winter. Afterward he moved to Geneva, that county, next to Austinburg, same county, and then, in 1860, rented the home farm and moved upon it. Hle had a desire to own the home place, but the intervention of the war changed his plans.
Ile enlisted for the Union, with the three- months men, in Company A, Twenty-eighth Regiment; but as there were too many volun- teers the married men were dismissed. August 22, 1862, in Chardon, Ohio, he enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Byron Can- field. This regiment left Cleveland on the 21st of that month for Covington, Kentucky, to cover the retreat of Nelson after his defeat at Richmond by Joseph E. Johnston. Then the regiment moved south and skirmished at HIoo- ver's Gap and Perryville, at which latter place the engagement was disastrous, and Mr. Latimer received three wounds, but went forward and assisted a surgeon in the work of amputation, etc. Next he was detailed to Antioch hospital for five weeks, and then rejoined his regiment at Greenville, Kentucky. lle therefore, with his regiment, participated in the engagements at Stone river, Murfreesborongh, Chickamanga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta eam- paign, Peach Tree ereek, the siege of Atlanta, ete. On the night of August 31, 1864, his company marched around to the right and struek Atlanta and Montgomery, whence the destruction of the railroad to Jonesboro was effected. At the latter place, on the next night,a shell struek his left leg midway between knee and ankle, and at the same time struck a log a foot distant, and a comrade named Williams was torn all to pieces! Also the ex- plosion of the same shell fatally wounded two others. Mr. Latimer had to have his limb amputated, and two days later he rode twenty- one miles in an ambulance in order to reach the general field hospital at Atlanta! From September 1 to November 8 he lay there, and was then moved to Chattanooga, where he re- mained until the 14th. Next he was taken to Nashville and remained there from November 16 to 18, when he was furlonghed house. January 18, 1865, he went to Cleveland, where he was discharged March 7, 1865.
Going to Geauga county, where his wife was living with her parents, he remained there till
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August, when he moved to Brecksville village, where he conducted the hotel until 1871, and then he moved to his present location, where he has a pleasant home, on ten acres of land, which he takes a pleasure in cultivating. IIe also does some small jobs of miscellaneous work. In politics he is a zealous Republican. Ile is a successful manager of business affairs, progressive, public-spirited, well known and highly respected.
In May, 1856, he married Lemira Mowry, who was born in March, 1834, in Montville, Geauga county, a daughter of George A. and Mary (Spencer) Mowry, of old New England families, who settled in Ohio in 1832. Mr. and Mrs. Latimer have two children, besides the care of Myra E. R'nz ever since she was three years old. This girl is an interesting child, and her foster parents supply her with every necessity and luxury their own children enjoy.
I ONAS COONRAD, a representative citi- zen of Brecksville township, was born March 11, 1837, in Rensselaer county, New York. His father, Jacob Coonrad, was a farmer and carpenter by trade, married Mary Wager, and they spent their lives in New York. At the age of eighteen years he began to learn the trade of molder in the Wager stove foundry at Troy, New York. After three years' work there, abont 1857, he came to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was employed as elerk by an older brother, Jeremiah, in mercantile business. At the end of two years he went to Quiney, Illi- nois, which was at that time a thriving city, and followed his trade there seven years in a stove foundry. In the fall of 1865 he married and located. At the end of a year he returned to Cleveland and entered the grocery business in company with his brother, and so continned for a year and a half. Next he settled in the southeast corner of Brecksville township, pur- chasing a farm of 300 acres, one of the best farms in the township. Although he had had
but a limited experience in farming he soon adapted himself to his new vocation and proved a success. IIe has improved the place in many ways, having erected in 1875 an elegant brick residence, which from its superb natural eleva- tion commands a grand view of the beautiful Cuyahoga coursing within a short distance, and some years ago starting a cheese factory and condueting it until the completion of the Valley Railroad to Cleveland made that market more accessible to the community in which he resides than before.
Originally, Mr. Coonrad was a Democrat in his views of general politics, but slavery scenes on the eastern border of Missouri where he lived for a short time so disgusted him that he turned Republican, and for the principles of this party he has ever since been an ardent ad- vocate. However, he takes no active part in the office-seeking efforts of others. Ile is an attendant at the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he liberally contributes.
In the autumn of 1865, as before stated, in Quincy, Illinois, he was united in marriage with Miss Catharine Morten, a danghter of David and Susannah (Mckay) Morten. She was born in Brecksville township, on the same farm where she and her husband now lives and which they own. Their children are: Jessie, now the widow of Fred. Knapp; Kitty, at home; and an infant who died in Quincy.
W ILLIAM BROWNELL SANDERS was born in Cleveland, September 21, 1854. His parents removed from Cleveland to Jacksonville, Illinois, when he was quite young, and his early life was passed there. When prepared for college, he entered Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois, and graduated from that institution in 1873. Subsequently he entered Albany Law School, from which in- stitution he graduated in 1875, and was shortly thereafter admitted to the bar of the State of New York. In August, 1875, he came to
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Cleveland, Ohio, and within a short time there- after became associated in the practice of the law with the Hon. Stevenson Burke. This as- sociation continued for some years, when the firm of Burke, Ingersoll & Sanders was formed. In February, 1888, Mr. Sanders was appointed by Governor Foraker Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga county, to fill the vacancy eansed by the resignation of Judge MeKinney. At the next annual election, he was nominated without opposition as the Re- publican candidate for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and elected, serving as Judge until January, 1890, at which time he resigned and resumed the practice of the law as a mem- ber of the firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, of which firm he is still a member.
R OBERT W. HENRY, of Parma town- ship, was born in Naples, Ontario county, New York, July 24, 1811, a son of John and Emma (Kinney) Henry. The father was a native of New York and the mother of Pennsylvania. They emigrated to Cleveland from Canada, opposite Buffalo, in the spring of 1818. They settled in Cleveland, where the father was engaged as a carpenter and mill- wright. He died about 1823 and his widow afterward married a Mr. Stone. She died in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
John Henry was the father of three sons and four danghters. Robert W. was the third of the family. Ile was about seven years of age when the family removed to Cleveland, and about twelve when his father died. His mother returned to Ontario county, New York, with the younger members of the family, and Robert was bound out to Henry L. Nobles till he was twenty-one years old, to learn tho carpenter's trade. lle continued with Mr. Nobles as fore- man for some time after he had reached his majority, and then carried on his trade on his own account in Cleveland for some twelve years, when he traded property in the city for the
farm which is now his home, and where he has resided since the spring of 1843. Until about 1885 he followed his trade in connection with farming. He owns 125 acres of land and has inade upon it valuable improvements.
Mr. Henry was married in Ohio City (now West Side, Cleveland), January 24, 1835, to Frances P. Castle, who was born in York, Upper Canada, January 25, 1816. They had twelve children, namely: William M .; Jefferson T., deceased ; Harrison F., who was killed at the battle of Chiekamanga, September 20, 1863; he was a member of Company A, One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry; Robert M., deceased; Mary D., wife of Dr. Martin Clark, of Nebraska; a daughter who died in infancy; Henry C .; Frances E., deceased, wife of Rev. Parker Pope; John C .; Julia F., wife of Eugene Wray; Sadie E., wife of Jacob Schaffer; Susie L., deceased, and Nellie I .. , the wife of Henry Kuntz. Mrs. Robert W. Henry died the last of November, 1881.
Mr. Henry has held some of the minor offices in the township, and has taken a good degree of interest in all local affairs.
C ACOB PFEIFFER, who owns and occu- pies a nice little farm in Parma township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, was reared to farm life, has always followed this ocenpation, has been fairly successful and is now the owner of thirty-three aeres of good land, upon which he has erected nice buildings and where he is comfortably situated.
Mr. Pfeiffer was born in the township in which he now lives, November 21, 1858, third in the family of eight children, -- two sons and six daughters,-of Philip and Susan (Reell) Pfeiffer, the former born in Germany, Decem- ber 6, 1825, the lattor, also a native of Germany, born February 19, 1826. They were married in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, August 8, 1850, and after their marriage sottled in Parma township, where they still reside.
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The subject of sketeh remained with his par- ents until his marriage, which event occurred in Brooklyn township, this county, October 16, 1884, to Miss Lizzie Hoehn. She was born in Parma township, September 21, 1862, daughter of Jacob and Lizzie (Usinger) Hoehn, residents of Brooklyn township. Her father was born in Germany, August 15, 1842, and her mother in this township, August 1, 1844. Mrs. Pfeiffer is the oldest of their five children, and their only daughter.
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