USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 34
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G. W. F. SHERWIN was one of Erie county's representative citizens and was closely identified with many of its important interests. He was born on a farm near Harbor Creek in this county, July 12. 1831. his par- ents being Dr. Ira and Sarah (Wilson) Sherwin. The father was a native of Windsor county, Vermont, and a graduate of the Castleton Medical College of that state. At an early day he came to this county.
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settling in Harbor Creek township, where he followed the occupation of farming and was also engaged in the practice of medicine for many years. He likewise taught three terms in the first schoolhouse built in the township and was closely associated with the material develop- ment and substantial progress of the region. His wife (nee Sarah Wil- son) was born in Erie county, August 10, 1800, and was a daughter of William and Sarah ( Barr) Wilson, who were natives of Mifflin county, this state, and became pioneer residents of Erie county. The children of Dr. Wilson's family who remained in this county were, G. W. F. Sherwin and the Misses Josephine B. and M. F. Sherwin. the lat- ter two still living in Harbor Creek.
G. W. F. Sherwin spent his youthful days on the home farm, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturalist. His early education was acquired in the district schools and was supplemented by study in the Erie Academy, after which he pursued a mathematical course in Kingsville (Ohio) Academy. Subse- quently he took up the profession of civil engineering, turning his at- tention to that work in 1846. He followed it in the summer seasons, while in the winter months he engaged in teaching school. In 1850 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he engaged in surveying for the North Missouri Railroad and later for the Belleville & Alton road. He made the first soundings for a bridge over the Missouri river for the Alton & St. Louis Railroad and was chosen engineer in charge for that line. His labors in the middle west in connection with railroad build- ing were of a very important character and brought him prominently before the public in his professional relation. In 1854 he was made assistant superintendent and paymaster of the Chicago & Alton Rail- road, filling that position until 1855, when he resigned to resume the private practice of his profession, in which connection he laid out Sioux City, Iowa, and Niobrara. Nebraska. In the latter town there were two thousand Indians living at the time. Throughout the period of his residence in the west he was a factor in the substantial development and in progress along intellectual and other lines. He was chosen one of the original eleven trustees of the Iowa Agricultural College and was twice elected county judge of Cherokee county, Iowa.
Upon the death of his father Mr. Sherwin returned to Erie and remained here to settle up the estate. Here he was called to public of- fice, being elected county surveyor, in which position he served for three years, while for five years he was city engineer and three terms water commissioner, acting as president of the board during the last year of his incumbency in that office. During his term as commissioner the de- partment advocated and introduced many needed reforms and re- modeled the pumping station. After his retirement from office Mr. Sherwin was engaged as chief engineer in the conduct of several en- terprises, the most important being the construction of the Franklin and North East water works. He also made the survey of Corry and established all the land marks and corners. He possessed marked abil- ity in his chosen field of labor. being widely recognized as one of the most capable civil engineers in this part of the state. He died in 1887.
On the 30th of January, 1861, Mr. Sherwin was married to Miss Jennie Moorehead, a daughter of Colonel James M. Moorehead, of Har- bor Creek township, Erie county. They became parents of five children but only two are living. M. F. and James M. While Mr Sherwin was widely known as a most capable and successful civil engineer, in which
NEW YORK D' OUC LIBRARY
LHX T BALAD TIONS
"ROSE HILL," RESIDENCE OF FRED ROSE
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connection he did much important public service, he also deserved thie gratitude of the community for his labors in lines of general improvement and progress. He was the founder of the boys' branch of the local Young Men's Christian Association, which is a monument to his dis- interested forethought and appreciation of the needs of the boys. He was ever deeply interested in the young and realized the fact that their environment has much to do with shaping character. He therefore be- lieved in surrounding the boys with good influences and they recognized in him a warm and constant friend. He was also one of the earliest members of the National Historical Society and was one of the founders of the Central Presbyterian church, in which he served as an elder, while in religious work he long took an active and most helpful part. His life contained the elements of greatness in that it was not self-centered but was largely devoted to the welfare of his fellow men, his influence being ever on the side of progress, reform and improvement. "Not the good that comes to us but the good that comes to the world through us is the measure of our success ;" and judged in this way Mr. Sherwin was a most successful man.
His son, James M. Sherwin, after attending Adelbert College studied law and was admitted to the bar. He has since practiced in the state and federal courts. He was the first president of the Erie Chamber of Com- merce.
FRED ROSE. The agricultural interests of Greene township, Erie county, number Fred Rose among its most prominent representatives, and in addition to the old Rose homestead where his parents lived and labored for so many years he also owns an estate near by where he resides. He is engaged in general farming and dairying pursuits, and is one the of community's most prominent business men. He was born in Greene township on the 6th of March, 1860, a son of Charles and Anna Mary (Goss) Rose, who were born in Germany, in Hamburg and Wittenberg respectively. After coming to this country Charles Rose worked for about two years in the brick yards in Erie, and he then purchased and removed to the sixty-six acre farm in Greene township near where his son Fred now lives, and he was the first to locate on that road. Anna M. Goss came to Erie county some time after the ar- rival of Mr. Rose, and after their marriage they located on their little farm of sixty-six acres in the uncut woods of Greene township, built their home, cleared their land and there reared their children named as follows : Emily and Christena, both deceased. Adam, Charles, Freder- ick, Mary, Herman, John and Jacob.
Fred Rose attended in his early life the Lawrence and the Pleasant Hill schools, both in Greene township, and with the exception of the three years spent in the Bradford oil fields his time since leaving the school room has been given to the work of his farm. He married Sep- tember 14, 1882, Miss Sophia Dunker, a daughter of Henry and Mar- garet Dunker, who came from Germany to the United States in their early lives and located in Mill Creek township, Erie county, Pennsyl- vania, the birthplace of their daughter Sophia. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Rose was blessed by the birth of five children : Anna, Lilly, Edward, Carl and Margaret. Mrs. Rose, the wife and mother, died on the 8th of September, 1906, after a happy married life of many years. Mr. Rose is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Samaritan No. 1143, in West Greene, and the Encampment No. 42, at Erie, and he
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also has membership relations with the Grange and the Royal Order of Moose, of Erie. In politics he is a Republican, and he has held the various offices of his township. The home of Mr. Fred Rose and family is known as "Rose Hill."
SAMUEL H. DROWN. Identified with a dual line of enterprise which is of distinctive importance in every community,-that of real-estate and fire insurance,-Mr. Drown is recognized not only as controlling one of the leading agencies of this kind in the city of Erie but also as being one of the loyal and progressive business men of the younger genera- tion in his native county, where he has attained to success and prece- dence through his well directed efforts along normal avenues of enter- prise.
Samuel H. Drown was born in Greene township, this county, on the 12th of September 1876, and thus made his advent into the world in the centennial year, one of the most notable in the history of his native commonwealth. He is a son of Hosea and Melvina M. (Hilborn) Drown, both likewise natives of Greene township, where the former was born on the 13th of July, 1833, and the latter on the 31st of March, 1848. Hosea Drown is a son of Cyril and Catherine (Zimmerman) Drown, whose marriage was solemnized in Greene township, this county, where the former took up his residence in the year 1818, so that both families are to be noted as having been pioneers of the county. Cyril Drown became one of the prominent and influential citizens of Greene township, where he became a successful farmer, and he was called upon to serve in various township offices. He continued to reside in that town- ship until his death, which occurred in 1869, and his wife also passed her declining years on the old homestead.
Hosea Drown was afforded better educational advantages than fell to the lot of the average youth of the locality and period, and that he put his acquirements to practical test and utilization is shown in the fact that for several years he was a successful and popular teacher in the district schools of his native county. His principal vocation, however, was that of farming, to which he devoted his attention during the major portion of his active career, having been the owner of a fine landed estate in Greene township, where he continued to reside until 1889, since which time he has lived virtually retired in the city of Erie, where his cherished and devoted wife died in 1906, secure in the affectionate regard of all who had come within the sphere of her gentle and gracious in- fluence. Their marriage was solemnized on the 11th of September, 1873, and she was a daughter of Samuel H. and Roxy A. Hilborn, the former of whom was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, October 5, 1802, and the latter of whom was a daughter of Martin and Mary Hayes, who were natives of New England. When a young man Samuel H. Hilborn removed to the state of New York, whence he later went to Ohio, and in 1835 he took up his residence in Greene township, Erie county, Penn- sylvania, where his marriage was solemnized on the 1st of October, 1834. He became a prosperous farmer and honored citizen of Greene township, where his death occurred February 25, 1877, and his wife survived him by several years.
Hosea and Melvina M. (Hilborn) Drown became the parents of four children: M. Cyril, who is one of the interested principals in the Erie Laundry Company, married Miss Marietta Voltz, of Erie: Samuel H., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Arthur L., also iden-
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tified with the Erie Laundry Company, married Bertha Sawtelle and they have two children; and Bertha C. is a student (1909) in Drexel Institute, in the city of Philadelphia.
Samuel H. Drown passed his boyhood days on the home farm and secured his preliminary education in the district schools of Greene township. He accompanied his parents on their removal to the city of Erie, in 1889, and here he continued his studies in the public schools until he had completed a course in the high school, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. He initiated his business career by taking a position in the office of the Erie Trading Stamp Company, and later became bookkeeper in the retail store of the Black Manufacturing Company. His next position was that of traveling representative of the celebrated International Correspondence School, of Scranton, Pennsyl- vania, in which connection he had charge in turn of the offices at Erie, Niagara Falls, and Rochester, New York, from which last he had charge of all territory in central New York. In February, 1901, Mr. Drown purchased one-half interest in the real estate and insurance business of M. H. Sawdey, of Erie, and the business was.thereafter conducted under the title of M. H. Sawdey & Company until August 7, 1905, when Mr. Drown purchased his partner's interest, since which time he has con- tinned the enterprise most successfully in an individual way and under his own name. He handles both city and country realty and on his books are at all times represented the best of investments, both for sale and in exchange. The fire insurance department, controlling a large and sub- stantial business, is based upon the agency of a number of the best com- panies in the world. Mr. Drown is known not only as an aggressive young business man of much initiative and executive ability but also as one whose methods and systems are such as to well entitle him to unqualified confidence and esteem. His agency is one of the most prominent and popular in Erie county and its business is constantly expanding in scope and importance under his effective management.
He is actively identified with the work and interests of the Erie Chamber of Commerce, of whose directorate he is a member, and he is a member of the Hamot Hospital Corporators Association. He is a member of the Erie Real Estate Exchange and the Business Men's Ex- change, besides which he holds membership in the Erie Board of Un- derwriters and is receiver for the Lakeside Cemetery. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he is one of the valued and zealous members of the Central Presbyterian church, being one of its trustees and superintendent of its Sunday school. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has completed the circle of the York Rite and advanced to the 14th degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, as a member of Presque Isle Lodge of Perfection.
In 1901 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Drown to Miss Bertha Russell. She moved to Erie from Clarendon in 1890 and graduated in the same class with her husband in 1897 from Erie high school. She was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of Thomas J. Russell, now a representative business man in the city of Erie.
JAMES D. HAY, treasurer and general manager of the Cascade Foundry Company of Erie and one of its leading manufacturers and citizens, is a native of Fairview township, this county, born August 31, 1848, being a son of William and Juliette (Demsey ) Hay. Mr. Hay is also
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one of the leading Republicans of the county and was for a number of years prominently identified with its progress as a leading official. He stands high not only on the basis of personal merit but from the fact that his family is one of the oldest and most prominent in this section of the state. It was in 180? that his grandfather. James, and his grand- uncle, John, came from their native state of Maryland and made their homes in Erie county. The former selected Fairview township as the family homestead, took up land in that locality and cleared and improved it. John Hay, the granduncle mentioned, became the first postmaster of Erie and John Hay, son of James and uncle of James D., served as captain in the war of 1812, seeing service in the vicinity of Erie and otherwise became an honored and prominent citizen. It is on record that he was a witness in the second will on file in the court house in Erie county. John Hay, the famous author and distinguished statesman, was also a member of this family.
William Hay, the father, was born in Maryland in 1802, the family removing to Erie during the same year of his birth. Here he was reared and spent his entire life in farming, dying in 1883. He married Juliette Demsey, a native of Erie and a daughter of John Demsey, a pioneer millwright and carpenter who built many of the early mills of the county. Her father also served in the war of 1812, participating in the battle of Tippecanoe and altogether spending a year under the military leadership of General William Henry Harrison. Mrs. Hay died in 1879, the mother of four sons and six daughters. Henry, the eldest child, who was born in Fairview township, is now deceased. William C., the sec- ond, also a native of that township, served in the Civil war as captain of Company H, One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry, and was also treasurer of Erie county for one term. John, the third son, born in Fairview township, enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer In- fantry, and was killed at the battle of Fredricksburg, December 13, 1862. His death was most untimely, as he would have been only eighteen years of age on the following fifteenth of June. James D., of this sketch, is the youngest of the sons. Caroline, the oldest daughter, married S. R. Miller, of Springfield, Pennsylvania, who served in Company K, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment during the Civil war, afterward removing to Kansas, where both he and his wife died. Lu- cinda married William Cole, of Fairview, later removed to Amboy, Ohio, and both died in that place. Mary became the wife of Joseph Wilcox. Her husband served in a Pennsylvania cavalry regiment dur- ing the Civil war and they both now reside on a farm near Amboy, Ohio. Eliza J., the fourth daughter, married Charles Loverin and they both now reside in Cleveland, Ohio. Adelaide is the widow of Charles P. Cummings, also a soldier in a Pennsylvania regiment. Mrs. Cum- mings is now a resident of Marshalltown, Iowa. The sixth and youngest daughter is Nellie, now Mrs. D. E. Waters of Marshalltown, Iowa.
James D. Hay, of this sketch, received his early education in the district schools of Fairview township, taught school for several years and subsequently became a student at the University of Michigan. As his training had been along agricultural lines, however, in the spring of 1882 he accepted the responsible position of superintendent of the large farm owned by Powell brothers of Shadeland, Crawford county, Penn- sylvania. He remained thus engaged for eight years, or until 1890, when he was appointed deputy revenue collector in the Erie office.
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He served in this position for three years, resigning with the outgoing of the Cleveland administration. He then re-entered the employ of Powell brothers and after continuing as superintendent of their interests for another two years, returned to Erie to assume the office of deputy, under Sheriff George W. Evans. The efficiency which he displayed in his official service as subordinate earned him both general respect and wide popularity and in 1896 his Republican friends and supporters elected him to the office of register and recorder of Erie county. He assumed office on the first of January, 1897, was re-elected in 1900 and altogether served two full terms of three years each. In the winter of 1902, Mr. Hay, in association with Edward Huer and U. P. Rossiter, obtained the controlling interest in the Depinet Foundry Company and in 1903 they assumed the management of the entire plant, reorganizing its business as the Cascade Foundry Company. This is its present style and represents one of the largest establishments of the kind in the city. In 1907 the present large brick buildings occupied were erected and the plant was removed to the corner of Nineteenth and Plum streets. From the time of the reorganization Mr. Hay has acted as its treasurer and general manager and in this position has done much to bring the estab- lishment to its present high standing in the industrial field. Mr. Hay is an active and influential member of the Erie Chamber of Commerce, is a Mason of high degree (a member of the Shriners), and also actively connected with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a man of wide and high social standing and has been long connected with the Country Club.
Mr. Hay was first married to Miss Lillian Davie, a native of War- ren county, Pennsylvania, and daughter of O. J. and Esther (Gallowhur) Davie, the family being of old Welsh descent. Mrs. Lillian Day died in 1892, at the age of thirty-six years, leaving three children. Donald D., the eldest, born in 1880, was a student at the University of Penn- sylvania and was afterward appointed lieutenant in the United States army and is now on duty with the Twenty-fifth Infantry at Parang Parang, Philippine Islands. It is interesting to know and decidedly to the young man's credit that at the time he passed the required examination for his lieutenancy he was under the legal age. When the department discovered this, proceedings were suspended for a time but the matter was carried to the secretary of war who, in view of his fine record, issued an order that he should receive the appointment as soon as he became of legal age without further examination or delay. The young man resumed his studies at the univeristy and upon his twenty-first birthday received his commission without formal application. Florence, the sec- ond child and only daughter, is now a student at the School of Industrial Arts of Philadelphia. John, the third and youngest child, has com- menced a six years' course at the University of Michigan from which he will graduate with the degree of A. B. and M. D. Mr. Hay's second wife was Anna Lipton, of Center county, Pennsylvania, daughter of E. B. Lipton, who for twenty-five years was head bookkeeper for the Jarecki Manufacturing Company of Erie. He is now retired from active work.
HENRY C. KELSEY, president of the Union Ice Company, Erie, Pennsylvania, was born in this city, October 29, 1844, son of Samuel H. and Mary H. (Johnson) Kelsey, natives respectively of Oswego, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Kelsey's paternal grand- father, Joseph Kelsey, moved from Oswego to Erie county at an early
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date and settled on a farm in Mill Creek township, where he carried on farming for a number of years. Subsequently he entered into a partner- ship with his son-in-law, Henry Cadwell, and they engaged in the hard- ware and tinning business. Samuel H. Kelsey, the father of Henry C., also became interested in this business, and was connected with the firm for a number of years. Later, under the administration of Postmaster Robert Cochran, he held a position in the Erie postoffice, and at the expiration of his service there he entered the employ of the late Gen- eral Charles M. Reed, as clerk on a lake boat, in which capacity he served two years, after which he was given a position as accountant in the office at the docks. He remained in the employ of General Reed for a period of upwards of twenty years, and after Rawle & Co. succeeded General Reed in business, he retained his place with the new firm and continued with it until the company went out of business. In 1866, asso- ciated with his son, Henry C., Mr. Kelsey established the Erie Ice Company, the son taking active management of the business. The father lived to the ripe age of seventy-five, and died August 14, 1892.
Henry C. Kelsey was reared and educated in Erie. From 1860 to 1862 he was in Canada, employed, in different capacities, in the oil fields. Returning to Erie in 1862, he entered the employ of Henry Rawle & Co., with which he remained four years, until he joined his father in the ice business. They established the first thoroughly equipped ice plant in Erie. In 1890, the Union Ice Company was organized, it being made up of the Erie Ice Company and the John R. Cooney Ice Company. The People's Ice Company, formed in 1892, was in 1893 added to the Union. Mr. Kelsey was made treasurer of the Union Ice Company at its forma- tion and so continued until 1900, when he was made president, the office he now fills.
September 3, 1868, Mr. Kelsey married Laura H. Johnson of Erie, and they have two daughters: Margaret Shannon, widow of the late Harry Saltsman of Erie, who married Frank M. Wallace in 1909, presi- dent of the Second National Bank of Erie, and one of the vice presi- dents of the Pittsburg Coal Company ; Blanche Elizabeth, wife of Charles F. Wallace, assistant cashier of the Second National Bank. Fraternally, Mr. Kelsey is a Mason of high degree.
RINALDO E. CLEMENS. When it is stated that Rinaldo E. Clemens is a scion of a family which was founded in Erie county more than a century ago, it will be at once understood that the name has been linked with the annals of the old Keystone state since the pioneer epoch. Fur- ther than this the name has been ever honored and has stood for definite accomplishment in connection with the civic and business activities of this section of the state. Not too often and not through the agency of too many vehicles can be recorded tributes to the memory of those who have thus wrought nobly in the past and who have left descendants to perpetuate in their lives and services equally worthy achievement.
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