USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 88
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On May 23, 1881, he married May Sperry, of Spring township. Their children are Ethel D. and Homer M.
Mr. Bail's father. Isaac S. Bail, was born in Chautauqua county, New York, on June 23. 1825, came to this state in 1836 and was both a carpenter and farmer. He married Hannah J. Sloan of Spring township, and had three children .- Dora E., Harry L. and Archie F. Dora married Wm. R. Potter. of Springboro, and has a daughter. Edith B. Isaac S. Bail survives his wife, who died on February 28, 1895. Mrs. Harry L. Bail's father, Amos Sperry, was a native of Spring township, born July 3, 1833. was brought up as a farmer and educated at the district schools. He was twice married .- first to Adeline Crain, whose only child was May ( Mrs. Bail). Mrs. Sperry died on July 28. 1858, and Mr. Sperry married, secondly, his present wife, Mrs. Eunice ( Morris) Nelson.
Frederick Bail, the grandfather of Mr. Bail, was a soldier of the war of 1812. Ancestry of family, New England with Scotch and German origin.
5.3
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Hiram Sheldon .- The late Hiram Sheldon, of Spring township, was born in Shoreham, Vermont, on September 27. 1812. When he was but a lad his parents removed to Steuben county, New York, where he obtained his edu- cation in the district schools and became a farmer. The family home was in Steuben county until 1831, when they came to this state.
Mr. Sheldon was three times married. By his first wife, nec Almira Gates, he had four children-Melinda, Ruth. Oscar and Amanda. For his second wife he married Mrs. Maria ( Hurd) Hall. They had one son, Wallace B. His third and surviving wife was Mrs. Lucy ( Humes) Andrews, for- merly of Greenfield, Saratoga county, New York, and his death occurred on May 10, 1895. Wallace B. Sheldon, now a traveling salesman, married Jessie M. Davenport, of Conneautville, and has one son and two daughters, --- Earl D., Winifred M. and Ruth M. Mr. Sheldon and family are members of the Baptist church. Mrs. Lucy Sheldon was married twice before she married Mr. Sheldon,-first to Allen Green, of Saratoga county. New York, by whom she had two children, Davis and Celia F. Green ; in 1847 Mr. Green died and his widow next married Allen Andrews, also of Saratoga, New York ; he died in 1852. Davis Green, his mother's only son, a soldier of the Union in the late war, was killed in the battle of Antietam in 1862.
John Taylor .- For nearly forty-five years this worthy citizen of Beaver township lias dwelt in this neighborhood, engaged in agricultural pursuits. No man is more highly esteemed hereabouts or is more worthy of the respect of his neighbors, for his life has been above reproach. He has followed the teachings of the golden rule in all his dealings with others and has had the welfare of his fellows deeply at heart. The cause of education and religion finds in him a sineere friend, and for five years he served efficiently as a school director. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Democratic party, and he was elected tax collector of this township on one occasion and acted in that office for about twelve months.
One of the native sons of the grand old Buckeye state, John Taylor was born in Trumbull county, on the 12th of August, 1832. From his earliest recol- lections he has been an agriculturist, as he was a mere child when he began to give his assistance to his parents in the work of the old homestead. He acquired an intimate and practical knowledge of every detail of farming, and long before he attained his majority he was fully competent to manage a farm successfully. He remained under the parental roof until he was twenty years of age, when he started out upon an independent career. At that time he rented a farm and industriously engaged in its cultivation and improvement until 1855, when he left Trumbull county and came to Crawford county, this state. Having purchased a farm in Beaver township. he proceeded with its development and has since made his home thereon. For a period of ten years
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he bought and sold cattle and live stock and was very fortunate in his efforts in that direction. His homestead, a place of one hundred and sixty aeres, is one of the best in this township and represents his own hard labor and indus- try. In every sense of the word he is what is termed a self-made man, for he lias had to rely solely upon his own efforts in the acquisition of a competence.
In all his struggles, joys and sorrows Mr. Taylor has been aided and en- couraged by his faithful wife, whose maiden name was Susan Read and whose early home was in this township. Three children, two sons and a daughter, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, namely, Josephine, who died at the age of twenty-four years and ten months, and Rodney and Osprey, both successful farmers of this locality. The parents are devoted members of the Christian (Disciples) church, and are liberal in their contributions to religious and ehar- itable enterprises.
Theodore J. Young, M. D., the oldest son of Colonel David Jung (Young), was born at Neustadt, on the Haardt mountain, in the Palatinate Bavaria, December 9, 1834. His father was a royal engineer and architect under King Ludwig of Bavaria. With his two sons, Theodore and William, Colonel Jung participated in the rebellion of 1848-9. The revolution failing, the father was exiled and the family fled to France, where, under an edict of Napoleon III, they were permitted to remain nine months. At the expiration of that time they joined Colonel Jung, who had preceded them to the United States, and located at Baltimore, Maryland. Soon afterward Colonel Jung was appointed to the United States coast survey, and Theodore J. went to Philadelphia to pursue his studies.
In 1854 he located in Meadville and devoted himself to the study of medi- cine. ( The medical record of Dr. Young is given in this work among that of the other physicians of Titusville. ) He was secretary twenty-six years of the Shepherd Lodge of Masons in Titusville, Recorder of the Rose Croix Com- mandery in the same city four years, and a member and secretary of the Titusville school board several years. He cast his first vote for Fremont in 1856, and he has been ever since a Republican.
Richard Graham, who occupies a responsible position in the office of the superintendent of the Meadville division of the Erie Railroad Company, was born in Slatersville, Tompkins county, New York, on the 19th of October. 1836. his parents being John Smith and Hannah ( Gee) Graham. He acquired his education in common and select schools in Jasper, Steuben county New York, and remained upon the farm with his father until eighteen years of age, when he entered upon an independent business career as clerk in a dry-goods store in Addison, New York. He was thus employed until twenty years of age, when he entered the service of the New York & Erie Railroad Company
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as clerk and telegraph operator, at Addison. He has since been connected with that road and its successor, holding the various positions of operator, station agent, train dispatcher and superintendent's clerk. He is now occupying the last named position, and is one of the most trusted and faithful employes of the corporation.
On the 14th of March, 1862, Mr. Graham was married at Ramsey, New Jersey, to Miss Julia Thorpe. Her death occurred in Meadville July 5, 1893, and one daughter was left to mourn her loss, May T., who was born in Mead- ville, April 13, 1872, and is now a teacher in the Pennsylvania College of Music in this place.
Mr. Graham has never hield political office save in connection with the edu- cational interests of his city. He has been school director of Meadville since 1882, and since 1888 has been president of the board of control of the Mead- ville public schools. He holds a membership in the Central Presbyterian church, in which he has been ruling elder for eighteen years, and in both church and educational work is deeply interested.
Daniel Bement, Rome township, is a son of Benjamin Bement, and was born in Middlebury, Connecticut, married Nancy Kimball and came to Rome township with an ox team and wagon in the fall of 1816, being six weeks on the journey. He built and operated one of the first tanneries in this section, on the place now owned by Webster Bement. He had eight children,-Henry, Julius, Silas, Nancy, George, Joel, Miranda, and Frank.
Robert Donaldson Crawford, the second son of Archy and Mary Jane ( McChestney) Crawford, was born at Pardoe, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1856. His father was born at East Liberty, Allegheny county, this state, and was one of a family of fourteen children. His father came in the latter part of the last century from a point east of the Alleghany mountains. His father's mother was a Donaldson. The ancestors on the father's side were Irish and Scotch. The maternal grandmother of the subject of this sketch was a Barnes, belonging to those of that name that were among the first settlers of Mercer county. The McChestneys were Scotch-Irish.
Mr. Crawford was educated at Grove City College, securing from that institution in 1884 the degree of A. M. He had received from the Edinboro Normal School in 1879 the degree of M. E. D. In 1897 he took a post-grad- uate course at the Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of Ph. D. He organized and conducted the North Washington .Academy one year, was principal of the Cambridge Springs public schools for three years, and was principal of the Tidioute public schools seven years. He established there a course, combining manual training with literary studies, one of the first schools of the kind in the United States. He was superintendent
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of the Titusville city schools from 1893 to 1897, four years. He is now en- gaged in business in Titusville. Prof. Crawford regards his achievements in introducing and perfecting the system of manual training as among the most satisfactory parts of his work as an instructor.
On November 24. 1879, he was married to Miss Hattie Blystone, at Edin- boro, Pennsylvania. Of this union four children are now living: George Hatch and Florence Esther, twins, born February 27, 1872; Josephine, born June 6, 1885 ; and Harriet Julia, June 16, 1892.
Dr. Andre L. Cowles, of Sparta township. is a son of G. W. Cowles, and was born in the town of Harmony, New York, August 7, 1850. His education was obtained at the Jamestown Academy, at which he graduated in 1868. He afterward attended the Bellevue Hospital, in New York city, at which he grad- uated in 1873, and was at the University of Buffalo in 1891 and 1892. In 1874 he settled at Bremen, Ohio, and in 1879 he came to Spartansburg, where he now resides.
Jolın Klippel, a farmer residing near the north border of East Fairfield township, was born in the city of Meadville, February 8. 1843, son of Daniel and Christiana (Walter) Klippel, deceased, former residents of Union town- ship, Crawford county. He is the third child of a family of four children, namely : Christina, wife of Henry Keburts; Henry, of Union township; John, the subject of this sketch; and Elizabeth, wife of Jacob Ehrgott, of Union township. In April, 1873, he married Margaret, daughter of John and Mar- garet Keburts, of the adjoining township, and to this union have been born four children: W. Frank, John D., Florence May, and Mary J., who died June 9, 1897, at the age of fifteen years and eleven months.
Mr. Klippel purchased and removed to his present location in April, 1879; and besides this highly cultivated farm of one hundred acres he owns another of seventy acres in the same township, on what is known as the Creek road.
Gilbert Gordon, drayman, Titusville, was born August 24, 1839, near Clyde, Wayne county, New York, a son of D. S. and Electa ( Betts) Gordon. The former died in 1897, at the advanced age of ninety-five years, and the latter in 1894, at the age of ninety-three years. Mr. Gordon was the seventh of eight children. In 1870 he was united in marriage with Almira Heald, a daughter of Albin and Mary Jane (Conley) Heald, of Rockland, Venango county. They are now residents of Hydetown, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Gordon is the third child of a family of eight children. They have five children, namely : Fred Raymond, William M., LeRoy Everett, Gilbert Floyde, and Ada E.
Mr. Gordon was first identified with Titusville and locality in the year 1861, during the early days of the oil excitement, beginning as an oil-producer
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at Petroleum Center, and was at Pithole during the days of adventure. He served in the war of the Rebellion, in Company I, One Hundred and Fiftiethi Pennsylvania Buck Tails, for three years, and was mustered out in August, 1862. He was in 'all the prominent engagements of his regiment,-thirteen in number,-including the battle of Antietam, until the close of the war; was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, and afterward made captain.
After the war he was engaged in various oil interests until 1872, as above mentioned, then engaged in the hardware business for five years at Petroleum Center. In 1886 he removed to Titusville, where he has resided ever since.
Joseph C. G. Kennedy, of Meadville, is the fifth child of Dr. Thomas R. Kennedy, and was born April 1, 1813, in Meadville, was educated at Allegheny College, which conferred on him the degrees of A. M. and LL. D. In 1833 he purchased and edited the Crawford Messenger, the pioneer newspaper of northwestern Pennsylvania. He was appointed by President Taylor to plan and superintend the national census of 1850, and showed such ability that he was also made superintendent of the census of 1860. In 1851 he visited Eu- rope as a United States commissioner on census and postal matters. In 1853 he was a member of the Statistical Congress held at Brussels, and later of one at Paris. In 1851 he was secretary of the United States commissioners to the World's Fair at London, and a delegate to and the reader of a paper in the International Statistical Congress, over which Prince Albert presided. In 1860 he was appointed by President Lincoln a commissioner of the Interna- tional Exhibition of that year. He served as corresponding secretary of the National Institute at Washington, and of the United States Agricultural So- ciety, and edited the journal of the latter. He was a member of numerous American and foreign scientific and historical associations, and in 1866 was presented with a gold medal by Christian IX, king of Denmark, as a token of his appreciation of his work on statistics.
James Jamison, one of the representative farmers and stock men of South Shenango township. Crawford county, Pennsylvania, was born in county An- trim, Ireland, January 15. 1836. His father, Alexander, and mother, nec Jennie Mckay, were of Scotch extraction, but were natives of county Antrim. The family came to America in 1842. settling on a farm twenty miles south of Shenango, Mercer county, Pennsylvania. Alexander Jamison was a stone- mason by trade and also a successful farmer. He and his wife were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He lived to be fifty years old, and his wife survived him many years and died at eighty-four. Of the eight chil- dren of this family seven are now living, Mr. James Jamison, our subject. being next to the youngest.
When twenty years of age Mr. James Jamison went to Ohio and engaged
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in general farming. In 1858 he removed to this county and purchased the farm which has since been his home, and which at the present time is of two hundred acres in extent. He has been extensively engaged in buying, selling and raising stock.
The Jamison farm is one of the most valuable and highly cultivated in the county. It is supplied with the best improvements, and its owner is a recognized authority on all matters pertaining to the purchase, sale and breed- ing of fine stock.
Mr. Jamison married Miss Nancy, daughter of James and Eliza McMas- ter. James McMaster was born in county Antrim, Ireland; when two years of age his parents sailed for America, and the voyage over was saddened by a terrible storm, during which his father was washed overboard and drowned ! His mother bought a farm in Shenango township, upon which he lived until his death, at the age of fifty-five. The wife of James McMaster was a native of West Fallowfield township, a daughter of Nancy and Robert Henry, born in Fayette county. She was a member of the United Presbyterian church and lived to the age of eighty-seven. Of the eight children of this family Luella married Anderson McGranahan: Sarah married Gibson Hurlbert, of She- mango ; Charles M. is a prosperous farmer of South Shenango: Nannie E. and Ross Clark are living at home: Martin Edgar, William F. and James H. are in the hardware and furniture business at St. Anthony, Idaho.
Mr. Jamison is a self-made man. He is a director of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Meadville, and is a stanch Democrat and inter - ested in all of his party's undertakings. He has held many offices, and was elected county commissioner in 1878, serving three years. The entire family are members of the United Presbyterian church.
William Kinney, a farmer of Sparta township. was a son of William Kin- ney, and was born in Hudson, Washington county, New York, married Susan Burch, and about 1823, with his wife and one child, came to Sparta town- ship, Crawford county, where he settled on one hundred acres of land, built a log house and began to improve the place ; but afterward he moved to the farm now owned by his son Eli and his widow, Mrs. William Kinney, he having been killed in 1851 by a falling limb while cutting a tree. One of his nine children, Charles W. Kinney, is well known at Spartansburg from having built the brick block where the bank is located.
Benjamin O. Fish, of Sparta township, was born in Washington county. New York, married Seraph Burton in 1840, and came to Sparta and settled at what is now called Fish's Flats, where he resided as a farmer. He and his family were members of the Free-Will Baptist church. Among his children by his first wife were Nancy ( Mrs. James Chase) ; Emma (Mrs. Stephen
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Jude) ; Lester, who lives at Waterford, Erie county; Adeline (Mrs. S. W. Davis), of Union City; and Willard. His second wife was before marriage Ellen Coyle, and by her he had two children,-Laverne and Dora, the latter of whom is dead.
Haron Akin, of Sparta township, was a son of. Loton, who built the first gristmill at Sparta, came to that place when it was called Akinville, and owned a gristmill and store. His son Daniel was born in Sparta and died here; and his son Daniel married Sarah M. Miller. He was engaged extensively in lum- bering, giving employment to a large number of men. He had six children 'and died in 1892.
A. M. Fuller, a Meadville merchant, is a native of Little Falls, New York, where he was born in 1847. son of M. A. and Mary ( Holcomb) Fuller, natives of New York, of English descent, and parents of two children. M. A. Fuller was one of Meadville's leading merchants prior to 1864.
A. M. Fuller came to Meadville in 1870 and embarked in the dry-goods business and has conducted a leading trade. His store, which was in the Opera House block, was destroyed by fire January 8, 1884, and he purchased a quarter interest in the property and after its reconstruction continued business in the same location. Mr. Fuller has attained local prominence as a leading business man, and has been identified with the interests of his own town and county. For several years he was president of the P. S. D. A. The dairy has for a long time been one of the leading industries of Crawford, and has contributed largely to the interest of the farming community of this section. He has been president of the New First National Bank of Meadville since its organization in 1893, and is also the president of the Leon C. Magaw Churn Company, of Meadville.
Mr. Fuller was elected president of the Meadville Glass Company ( lim- ited ), an enterprise he was active in establishing, and in which he has been a stockholder since its organization. He has always taken a special interest in all public improvements relating to Meadville, and in its general welfare and growth as a city.
January 27, 1876, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Leon C. Magaw, and to this union were born three children : Marian, Freder- ick, and Marguerite.
J. II'. Beers, an architect of Meadville, was born in Wallaceville, Venango county, Pennsylvania, April 10, 1869. His father, George W. Beers, was a native of Montreal, Canada, but when the Civil War in the United States came on he valiantly offered his services to our government, and in 1862 was made ship carpenter of the gunboat Bentin, which was assigned to the Missis-
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sippi squadron. Of the three hundred and fifty men who left the Brooklyn navy yard for service at the front at the same time as did Mr. Beers only eleven lived to return, he being one of the few survivors. He is now sixty-two years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Nancy E. Richey, and who was born in Venango county, this state, died when in her thirty-second year. They were the parents of four children, of whom J. W. is the eldest, and the others are C. W. and H. E., of Plum Postoffice, Pennsylvania; and George, de- ceased. H. E. served through the Porto Rican campaign in the war with Spain.
J. W. Beers received a liberal education in the common schools of his na- tive town and in Tidioute, where he lived for some time. Upon completing his studies he engaged in teaching for several terms at Pleasantville and Coop- erstown, this state, after which he joined his father in the building and con- tracting business in Cooperstown, their patronage extending to Oil City and Titusville. Later, the young man became a student in a Boston architectural school, at which institution he was graduated at the end of two years. In January, 1898, he concluded to locate in Meadville, where he will undoubtedly find abundant opportunity to display his genius, and that he has talent there can be no question, judging by what he has already accomplished. Mr. Beers · also has made a thorough study of the various systems of stenography, and it is his purpose to give to the public, at no distant day, a revised, simplified and comprehensive method of shorthand which he believes will supersede those now in use. He is a member of Bradleytown Lodge, No. 854, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Meadville Tent, Knights of the Maccabees, and Daughters of Rebekah of Bradleytown.
On the 10th of May, 1892, Mr. Beers married Etta M., daughter of Israel and Hannah (Kiester) Ferringer, and to them have been born two children,- Winnie Minola, and another daughter who died in infancy.
George A. Chase, Esq .- Jonathan Titus, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, settled, in 1784, in the vicinity of Titusville, and gave the name to the town of which he was the founder. Another noteworthy fact in the history of the family is that his father was the first merchant, first burgess and first postmaster of Titusville. The family has been largely identified with the development of that section of the oil country, and Mr. Chase himself is a gentleman known extensively in that region as a lawyer. He has established a wide-reaching practice and as an official has made a good record.
Mr. Chase was born at Titusville and received his education in Allegheny College. He commenced the study of law in the city of Pittsburg with Alex- ander Miller, and after his admission to the bar there was appointed United States commissioner, and since has continuously filled that office. He held the office of city clerk of the city of Titusville during the years 1869, 1870 and
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1871. He is a Republican, and in April, 1888, was elected city solicitor for a term of two years, and was re-elected in 1890, 1892, 1894 and 1896. His office is in the Chase & Stewart block .- a building erected by his father. Mr. Chase frequently attends state and county conventions.
He is a member of the order of Elks and of the Royal Arcanum.
William R. Elston, of Sparta township, is a son of Cornelius R. and Julia (Deland ) Elston, and was born in Ellicott, Chautauqua county, New York, October 25. 1831. He married Ellen M. Beach and moved to Sparta. Craw- ford county, Pennsylvania, in 1857, where he was a farmer. He enlisted in August, 1861. in Company C. Eighty-third Regiment of Pennsylvania Volun - teers, where he became a first sergeant. He was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness while acting as lieutenant, was discharged in 1864 and came home. where he resided until 1883, when he moved to Spartansburg, his present home.
He has been burgess of the village two years, one of the councilmen of the borough, also commander of John R. Russell Post. No. 626, G. A. R., and an active member of Spartansburg Lodge, No. 772, I. O. O. F .. and politically is a Republican .. He has one son, Emory A. Elston, who married Mary Bel- lows, is a representative citizen and an assessor of the township.
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