USA > Ohio > Clark County > The history of Clark County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, V. 2 > Part 34
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FRANCIS M. HAGAN, attorney and City Solicitor, Springfield. Mr. Hagan is a native of Clark County, and one of the self-made men of the city; he is of Scotch-Irish descent, and a descendant of a pioneer family of Mad Kiver Township, his grandfather, Denny Hagan, having settled there in 1814; his parents. Hugh and Anu (Furay) Hagan, were among the early residents of the vicinity of Enon, where Francis M. was born in 1844; his father was a farmer of limited means, and hence his education depended almost entirely upon his own exertions. Impelled by a desire for knowledge, his limited opportu- nities were carefully improved, and, by teaching district and select schools, dur- ing which he was a student, gained sufficient education and means to attend Antioch College, after which he began to read law, but was soon compelled to suspend his studies on account of his health. Up to this time, he had main- tained the most rigorous economy, boarding at home while attending Antioch College, requiring a walk of eight miles every day, and afterward, when study- ing law, "kept bach." The following two or three years was occupied in trav- eling, and in 1872 he had sufficiently recovered to resume his studies, teaching in the meantime. In the spring of 1873, he was admitted to the bar, and has since been in active practice here. Iu 1876, he was an independent candidate for the office of City Solicitor, his Republican opponent, A. T. Byers, defeating him by only forty-seven votes. In 1879, he was again an independent candi- date, and was elected by a majority of 730 over J. F. McGrew. the regular nom- inee of the Republican Convention. Mr. Hagan is a Democrat in politics, a strong advocate of temperance, takes an active interest in educational affairs. and is an active, public-spirited citizen.
HENRY HALLENBECK, Justice of the Peace, Springfield. With pleas- ure we speak of Mr. Hallenbeck in connection with his official position, and also as being one of the elderly and prominent men of Springfield. He has been connected in an official way with the county's interests for many years. He is native of New York, and was born April, 1815. His parents, Jacob aad Eliza- beth (Havnes) Hallenbeck, were also natives of that State, as were his parents. Matthias and Margaret Hallenbeck, and their parents. The Esquire is a des. cendant of one of the first settlers of Albany, N. Y., they emigrating from Holland in 1610, bringing their own ships. laden with agricultural implements. and brick to build their houses, and to this day can be seen the piles of brick that were brought from Holland more than two centuries age. Jacob and Eliza- beth Hallenbeck were parents of eight children, only two of whom are now living-our subject and his sister, Nancy Currey, who lives near Buffalo, N. Y. Henry was wedded to Miss Elizabeth Stewart, of Watertown, Jefferson Co., N. Y.,
Horatio Bancs, q. I. (DECEASED) MOOREFIELD TP.
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n February, 1836. Their eldest daughter, Julia E., is the wife of Eliphlet Cots, Principal of the Southern Building, Springfield. Ohio. She was born in New Vork previous to the removal of her parents, which occurred in 1810, they driving in their own conveyance from their home in that Stato to this beautiful city which, at that time, was a village of 850 inhabitants. From 1842 to 1846, Mr. Hallenbeck served as Deputy Sheriff under Absolom Maddox; in 1848, he was elected Sheriff and served two terms. During the war he was employed in the mail service, and previously engaging in the stock and grocery business. From 1865 to 1870, he was traveling agent for the Springfield Rock Paint Com- pany. He also established the manufactory of Whetstone Bros., manufacturers of colors. In 1870, he started for Missouri determined to open up a farm; he tried valiantly for four years, and finding it a losing business, sold out and came back to Springfield. In April, 1877, he was elected Justice of the Peace, and was re-elected in April, 1880. As an official his judgment is excellent, and his friends are legion: as a public-spirited citizen, he is ever at the front; his integrity is unquestioned, and is one of our practical men-loving right and hating wrong. We are glad to have this opportunity of perpetuating his name in the history of this county, of which he has been so long a resident. Two sons. William H. and John G. Hallenbeck, reside in Kansas City: Augusta Die. fendorf and Clara Barker, their two daughters, live near Leavenworth, Kan. Many things of interest to the readers of this history has been gleaned from Esquire Hallenbeck, and we are sure that facts furnished by him extending over a forty years' residence in Springfield, may be regarded as correct.
JAMES SMITH HALSEY, deceased, was born near Lebanon, Warren Co., Ohio, Dec. 7, 1801, and was the son of Ichabod Benton Halsey, a native of New Jersey. The family is of English origin, and it is believed that all of the name now living in this country are descendants of two brothers of that name, who landed at Long Island some time near the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the branch of the family to which the subject of this sketch belonged settled near Wheatsheaf Tavern. midway between Rahway and Elizabethtown, N. J., where they lived for a number of generations. Maj. Daniel Halsey, the grand- father of James S., received from the Government a large tract of land near Lebanon, Warren Co., Ohio, in consideration of services performed as an officer in the Revolution, which land he presented to his son, Ichabod B., on the condi- tion that he would settle upon and improve it, which he did, becoming one of the earliest settlers of Warren County. He was remarkable for intelligence, energy and great probity of character, and was one of the Commissioners who located the county seats of Green, Montgomery and Champaign Counties. Mr. Halsey became one of the wealthiest and most prosperous citizens of his county. but late in life. through the treachery of a party for whom he had indorsed, the results of a lifetime of industry, was swept away at one stroke. The mother of James Smith Halsey was the daughter of James Smith, a Methodist minister, who came from Virginia to Warren Co., Ohio, about 1790, where he had pro- viously been in company with two or three friends on a tour of observation, about 1795, his object being to secure for himself and family a home in a land uncursed by slavery. He finally settled on a farm not far from Cæsar's Creek, in Warren County, and it was there that his daughter. Sarah Watkins Smith, was married to Ichabod Benton Halsey, Dec. 25, 1802. At the time of his father's financial distress, James Smith Halsey was about 18 years of age, had received a fair common-school education, and had become fairly proficient in Latin, with a general fund of information acquired from books for which he had a great fondness., About this time he came to Springfield and secured em. ployment in the office of Saul Henkle, Sr., who was then Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Clark County. The distance of forty miles from Lebanon to .
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Springfield was performed on foot, it being before the time of railroads, and the payment of stage fare would have been too great a strain on liis scanty re- sources. During this period he worked for $6 per month and board, sending to his father at the end of the year the sun of $72. The first official position be held in Clark County was Justice of the Peace, was subsequently elected County Auditor, then appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, and on the ador- tion of the new constitution, in 1852, was elected Probate Judge. He was mar- ried Nov. 13, 1832, to Catharine T. Henkle, daughter of Saul Henkle who. with his wife, whose maiden name was Van Meter, were Virginians. They had four children who grew to maturity, viz. : Martha A., who died in Springfield; Irving. now an attorney residing in Cincinnati: Ellen Sterrit, deceased, and Sarah L .. the wife of Louis W. Bosart, of Springfield. Mrs. Halsey died in 1862, at La- gouda, of softening of the brain; she was a woman of unusual energy, of excel- lent mental gifts, and thoughtfully devoted to her husband and children: during the greater part of her life she, as well as her husband, was a member of the Baptist Church. After the expiration of his term as Probate Judge, Mr. Halsey removed from Springfield to a place near Lagonda, where he resided until 1865, and after a brief residence on a place about two miles cast of Springfield, on. the National road, he removed with his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Bosart, to Jasper Co., Ill., where he lived until the summer of 1875, when he, with his daughter Martha. went to Memphis, Tenn., where his son Irving then lived, with whom he resided until his death, which occurred on the night before the seventy-third anniversary of his birthday, in December, 1877. His remains were brought to Springfield and interred in the family lot in Green Mount Ceme- tery. For several years preceding his death, he was afflicted with symptoms of soft- ening of the brain, and of this disease he finally died. Judge Halsey was of a modest, retiring nature, preferring the seclusion of private life to the conflicts attending a public career, and although a somewhat zealous partisan, he was never prominently concerned in politics: and with the exception of an editorial connection with the Western Pioneer, he probably took no active part in political matters. His talents were those of the student and lover of nature rather than of the man of action, but few men collected and retained more information than he during the period of his mental activity, and before the powers of his mind had been partially paralyzed by disease, and even afterward the singular reten- tion of his memory often surprised his friends. Probably the characteristics by which Judge Halsey was most prominently known were his unswerving integ. rity and love of truth. In every transaction of his life, his word was his bond; even in jest he never deviated from the right line of truth, and whatever "Smith" Halsey said was known to be the exact truth, and as he never lied himself he had little toleration for falsehood in others. He had an innate scorn of mean- ness, mendacity and sham, which was as natural to him as it was to breathe the vital air. His charity was large, and while giving unostentatiously. he gave munificently: indeed in everything he did there was an entire absence of osten- tation, and next to dishonesty and fraud, it was probably the object of his pro- foundest contempt. His religion partook, as it always must, of the character of the man; like him. it was unobtrusive and unostentatious, and what Burns calls the "preaching cant," was never heard on his lips, and instead of talking relig- ion, he tried to act it. Like all strong natures, although sincere in his relig- ion, he had his religious doubts which caused him many melancholy hours, yet in the spirit of "Lord, I would believe, help thou my unbelief." he struggled faithfully to the end. His character was somewhat marked by the austerity of the Puritan: life to him was no holiday affair, but a time of work and not of pleasure, and it can be said to his credit that he did his work well. He was also somewhat puritanical in his habitual expression of emotion, but that he felt
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strongly and deeply, is certain: men like him always do; but he did not "carry his heart on his sleeve for daws to peck at." and the many friends whom he has left behind in Clark County demonstrate that he was held in the highest os- teem throughout this county. of which he was so long an honored and trusted citizen. Judge Halsey had two brothers and three sisters who lived to matur- ity: J. B. Halsey, who died in Plymouth, Ind .. in January, 1879. and Daniel W. Halsey, who died in Hamilton. Ohio. about 1860, were both citizens of Spring- field for many years: Mary E. was married to Gen. Charles Anthony, and died in the suminer of 1879; Martha. who married Dr. Isaac Jennings, is now living in Kosenisko Co .. Ind., and Cynthia A., who was married to James K. Hurin. is now residing at Wyoming, Hamilton Co., Ohio.
EDWARD HARFORD. Treasurer and Cashier, Springfield. Mr. Harford was born in Trowbridge. Wiltshire, England, Nov. 16, 1853; he emigrated to America with his parents. John and Caroline Harford. in 1856. coming to Springfield, Clark Co., Ohio, the same year: he received his education in the public schools of this city: entered Dr. Smith's drug store as clerk in 1867, where he remained until May, 1876, when he engaged as clerk in the Springfield Savings Bank. and, in July. ISSO, he was elected Treasurer and Cashier of said bank: his position constitutes him one of the Board of Managers. To show the importance of his position. we append a statement to the bank. Deposits and surplus fund Jan. 1, 1881, 8500,000.
JOSEPH HARRISON, carriage trimmer, Springfield. Joseph Harrison was born in 1809 m Yorkshire, England: he was the third of six brothers- Robert, John, Thomas, Peter and Richard, all of whom with one sister and their parents came to America in 1833, settling in Waynesville, Warren Co .. Ohio. In the spring of 1838, the subject of this sketch having, on the 28th of February previous, married Miss Phoebe Kindle, of Mount Holly, N. Y. To Mr. and Mrs. Harrison were born three sons and two daughters, of whom only two sons are living, one having died of yellow fever in Memphis in 1875. William Harrison, his first son. born in IS40 in Springfield. is a carriage trimmer; was two years in the army as a member of 110th O. V. I. He married Miss Louch and has one daughter. The younger son. Robert, is now 30 years of age, and is living with his father. After coming to this country, Mr. Harrison worked at the harness and saddlery trade several years: then went into the concern of E. & J. Driscol, carriage manufacturers, as carriage triminer and book-keeper. hav- ing general charge of their office and remained with them thirty years. Mr. H. has gone on the "slow-but-sure" principle, and owns his own comfortable home No. 146 West Columbia street. His father died in 1854. and his mother near 1856. His brother Richard read law cotemporaneously with Judge White. of this city, under Judge Rogers, and is now practicing law in Columbus, Ohio. One of his sisters died in England. and the other came over and a short time since married the Rev. Mr. Dolby, a Protestant Methodist minister, and died about a year ago. Mr. Harrison was for three years on the School Board: was for quite awhile a member of the City Council from his, the Second Ward, and is now Township Trustee. Mr. Harrison is a man of the massive. ponderous sort, gen- uine, courteous and square. A temperance man for years, and a worthy citizen in every sense of the word.
JOHN K. HARRIS, Springfield: is one of the few men who have combined inventive genius with successful business management; he is a native of Swit- zerland Co., Ind., born in 1522. At the age of 17, ho loft the parental roof and began the battle of life without means or influential friends. The latter. how- ever, he soon secured. and through the aid of J. F. D. Lanier. a banker of Madison, Ind .. he obtained two years' tuition at the college then conducted at Madison. During the two years following, by teaching and assisting in the
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bank, he secured a fair education, and in the meantime, by economy and indus- try, had repaid his benefactor and accumulated a little surplus capital. About this time he became interested in patents, which led to his experimenting and the development of inventive genius. A mowing machine with adjustable cut - ter bar, and probably the first harvesting machine to which the adjustable prin- ciple had been applied, was among his first inventions, but his principal success was in connection with a hay press, known as the "Beater Hay Press," which, though originally the invention of a neighbor. subsequently became the property of Mr. Harris, after which he so improved it as to make it more practical and portable, and finally, after years of labor and perseverance, achieved great success in the sale first of the presses and afterward of the patent, by which he realized a clean $100.000. A description of this press may not be uninteresting to the readers. We can give no better than to copy the main clause of the claim upon which the letters patent were issued. viz., "Filling the press-box with the sub- stance to be pressed into bales, by means of a beater or driver raised by machin- ery and made to descend upon the substance in the box. successively by gravity, whether effected in the manner described or in any other mode analagous thereto." This press still maintains its standing for excellence, and is in very general use. After the close of the war, Mr. Harris removed to Springfield, , having purchased the handsome residence property No. 265 North Limestone street, which has since been his home. During the past year, he has invented a button-hole attachment for sewing machines, which he is now perfecting and which will undoubtedly come into very general use, as it is very simple in con- struction and can be furnished at a moderate cost, and may be adjusted to any of the standard machines. Mr. Harris is now close to 60, but is still active. and though he has been all his life engaged in the invention, handling and sale of patents, he has never had a law suit in connection therewith. He at one time released a square and legal title, which he purchased of an agent handling Howe's Sewing Machines. upon Mir. Howe's representation that, while the agent had a legal right to dispose of the "right," it was by reason of a technical error, the intention being to grant power to sell machines only. Thus he allowed a fortune to pass from his grasp for a nominal sum, out of regard for the rights of a brother inventor. Mr. Harris has always been a reliable temperance man, and for many years a member of the Presbyterian Church, his present member- ship being with the first church of this city. He has been twice married. his first wife, nee Jane Patten, was also a native of Switzerland Co., Ind., and bore him five children, the youngest of whom, a son, died of accidental injury a short time previous to the decease of the mother, which occurred in 1870. Three daughters and a son survive, viz., Mrs. Charles M. Safford, of Cleveland; Mrs. B. P. Thieband, of Mt. Auburn: and Miss Anna M. and John Edward. who are members of the present household. Mr. Harris' present wife, was Miss Hanna L. Phillips, is a native of Indiana. Their marriage was celebrated at Moore's Hill, Ind., in 1872.
T. EDWARD HARWOOD. born in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 26, 1846: he resided there until the age of 5 years, when he moved to Newark, Ohio, with his parents, Francis Lee and Mary Harwood, where he spent the greater part of his childhood; his opportunities of attending school were very limited; he worked on a farm in the summer and attended the country school in the winter. At the age of 12 years, he was apprenticed to the Hon, William D. Morgan, pub. lisher of the Newark Advocate, to learn printing. In 1865, after a short resi- dence at Columbus, Ohio, he came to Springfield in search of employment. which he found in the Daily Nors. He was married, in 1968, to Miss Anna M. Hartstone. Six children are the result of this happy union, four boys and two girls, all of whom are now living. Mr. Harwood is a member in good standing
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of the Ephraim Lodge, No. 46, I. O. O. F., and the Ohio Editorial Association. In 1873, after working on the Springfield Weekly Gazette about a year, he pur- chased the paper. In 1879, he started the Springfield Daily Gazette, a four- column toho. A few months afterward it war increased to a five-column folio, and again to a six-column paper. The Daily and Weekly Gazette are both largely circulated, and are in the greatest prosperity.
GEORGE WILLIAM HASTINGS. the President of the Republic Print- ing Company, was born in Lisbon, Conn., on the 13th of January, 1827. He was the son of Oliver and Lemira (Bushnell) Hastings. He came, at an early age, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and, having been thrown on his own personal resources, for a livelihood, he became the architect of his own fortunes. He was, for sev- eral years, in his younger days, a resident of Oberlin, Ohio, where he learned the art of printing in the office of the Oberlin Evangelist, and, in the course of time, met and married Miss Candace L. White, from Niagara Falls, N. Y., in the spring of 1848. He went thence to Cleveland, Ohio, and worked in the office of the true Democratic newspaper, now known as the Cleveland Leader. From Cleveland he went to Cineninati, and. from Cincinnati, in 1852, came to Springfield, purchasing here a printing establishinent. In the spring of 1854, he commenced the publicatoin of a journal known as the Dollar Weekly Noupa- reil, and during the year following issued the paper as a daily, and it has been so issued, continuously, ever since. Subsequently the paper became known as the Daily News, and Mr. C. M. Nichols became associated with him in its own- ership and publication. In February, 1865. Messrs. Hastings & Nichols pur- chased the Tri- Weekly Republic, and the paper was known as the News and Republic, and afterward and permanently as the Republic, the concern absorbing, in the course of its career and history. successively, the Daily Telegram, the Daily Advertiser and the Daily Times. The firm of Hastings & Nichols was finally succeeded by an incorporated organization known as the Republic Print- ing Company, which now exists and owns the Republic building on Main street, and carries on a general publishing, printing and binding business, and owns and conducts the business of the Republic Wrapping Paper Mills, at Enon, seven miles southwest of Springfield. Mr. Hastings has three daughters and one son. By industry, honesty. perseverance and close attention to business. he has acquired not only a fair fortune, but an honorable fame. His influence on soceity has been most wholesome: every just cause and interest has found in him an advocate and supporter.
CHARLES D. HAUK, Secretary for Mast, Foos & Co., manufacturers of wind engines, lawn mowers and agricultural implements, Springfield; was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848.' His father was a "river man," having been a steamboat Captain on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for thirty-five years. The subject of this sketch was trained to business from early boyhood: he came to Springfield first in 1867. subsequently spent three years in Kansas City, and returned to Springfield in 1872. where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits until Jan. 1, ISSO, when Mast, Foos & Co. was re-organized as a stock company, and he became a stockholder and Director, and was elected Secretary. which position he now holds, having general direction of the business. Mr. Mast's time and attention being divided with the different interests with which he is connected. He married, in 1872. Miss Mary E., daughter of Hon. E. G. Dial, whose biography also appears in this work. From this union they have two children.
J. S. R. HAZZARD, M. D., physician and short-horn breeder, Springfield. This county contains few more active men in everything that pertains to its general welfare than the well-known physician and fine stock breeder whose name stands at the head of this sketch: he is recognized by all good citizens
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as a man of talent, and skill in his profession, as well as a valuable help to the farming community by encouraging and stimulating them in the growth and improvement of fine stock, and his efforts in this direction are so well known and appreciated, the it is used cars for us in this sketch to say more about them. Dr. Hazzard was born on the eastern shore of Maryland Jan. 21, 1827, and is the son of Cord and Mary P. (Rankin) Hazzard, the former a native of Delaware, and a relative of Gov. Hazzard, of that State; also of Com. Ferry of Erie renown, and his wife of Maryland, where they were married and had born to them four children, viz., Mary, Sally, Theodore and J. S. R. Hazzard, Theodore dying in childhood. Dr. Hazzard's mother died when he was an infant, and he was brought up under the care of his maternal rel- atives; his father was a wealthy merchant aud slave-holder of Maryland, and entering the political arena was elected Sheriff of his county, but, falling a victim to the intemperate customs of that day, he lost all his prop- erty, leaving his children penniless. After paying every cent of his losses to the county, he abandoned his intemperate habits, and became a rigid temperance man, liberated his slaves, and was so trusted and respected through- out the county. that he held official position during the remainder of his life, dying Judge of the Orphans' Court in 1849. The Doctor's early education was obtained at Snow Hill Academy, Worcester Co., Md., and, in 1813, he came to Clark Co., Ohio, and resided with his uncle, James Rankin, four years, at the end of which time he entered the office of Dr. Solon Curtice, of Vienna. and, in the winter of 1849-50, attended lectures at the Medical Department of the Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio, and, in April, 1850, he began prac -. tice in partnership with Dr. Joseph Orr, at Harmony. The Doctor received a diploma from the State Medical Society in 1864; he graduated from the West- ern Reserve College in 1870, and from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in 1874, from which can be gathered that his medical training has been extensive and varied, and has well fitted him for the successful practice of his profession, in which he has been engaged since April, 1850, a continuous practice extending over thirty-one years, and he has lived in the same neigh- borhood the whole period, with the exception of a short experience as a drug- gist of Springfield in 1566-67. He was married, Jan. 19, 1854. to Mary E. Price, daughter of the Rev. Thomas J. and Julia (Corw n) Price, who was born in Clark County Aug. 12, 1832. Her grandfather, James Price, settled in Harmony Township in 1820, and her father who was a native of Wales, was the well-known Baptist minister who lived on Sec. 4, south of Dr. Hazzard's present home. and who died in Champaign Co., Ohio, April 15, 1876. Her mother was a sister of Moses Corwin, of Urbana, and she died April 15, 1856. To Dr. Hazzard and wife have been born two children-Frank Corwin and Mary Julia, and he and wife belong to the Presbyterian Church. In 1867, he pur- chased his farm of 170 acres. remodeled the house, which is located on a beau- tiful hill overlooking the surrounding country, and here he devotes himself diligently to his profession. and in the growing of thoroughbred short-horn cattle, of which he is a recognized judge and authority, having been President of the Agricultural Society for about seven years. In 1864, he became a member of the Clark County Medical Society, and the same year was one of the delegates sent from Ohio to the Convention of the National Medical Association held at Washington: he was elected President of the society in 1867, and is also a member of the State Medical Society. Politically, a Republican. He is a man well fitted to represent the county in any capacity; of suave, pleasant manners, a well versed and agreeable conversationalist. temperate in all things, possess ing a strong, robust physique, a picture of prefect bealth, no obstacle could successfully intervene between him and his duty. Indomitable courage and
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