BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Page 231

< CLICK HERE to RETURN to TABLE of CONTENTS >

     BENAJAH AUSTIN was born in Suffield, Cfonn., in 1779, and, after living for some time in Ruport, Vermont, came to the Western Reserve in 1803.  He first purchased and occupied the Murberger Farm, and after the one now owned by Mr. Harmon Austin.  He was County Commissioner at the time the old jail was built, and the Sheriff from 1815 to 1818.  He died in February, 1849.

     CALVIN AUSTIN was probably in Warren in 1800.  He was a prominent man, and one of the first Justices of the Peace.  He was also Associate Judge.  His sons, Seymour and Calvin, were prominent merchants.

     ASAHEL ADAMS came to Trumbull County in 1807, and to Warren about 1814.  He built the old Franklin House, on the corner of Market Street and Park Avenue, where he lived and kept store.  Later he built and occupied the Adams Homestead on Mahoning Avenue, and died in October, 1852, aged sixty-five years.  His wife, whose maiden name was Lucy Mygatt, still survives him.

     ADAMSON BENTLY was born in Alleghany County, Pa., July 4, 1785, and at an early age came to Brookfield, Trumbull County.  He began life at nineteen years of age as a Baptist preacher, and was settled in Warren in 1810.  In addition to his work in the ministry he was a merchant, a cattle-drover, and managed a tavern.  He was a director in the Western Reserve Bank, and built a number of houses.  About 1820 Mr. Bently became interested in the doctrines advanced by Alexander Campbell, and eventually became one of his followers.  He died in November 1864.

     CYRUS BOSWORTH was born in Pllymouth County, Mass., April 12, 1791, and came to Warren in 1811.  He buried himself, at first, in teaching school, but soon was employed as an express messenger between Warren and Pittsburg, and carried to that last-named city the earliest news of Perry's victory.  In 1813 he married Miss Serina Strowbridge, of New England.  After his return to Warren, he built the National Hotel, and also engaged in mercantile business in a framed building standing south of the hotel, and afterward well known as "Stiles's Store."  He attempted to start a distillery on Red Run, where it is crossed by Woodland Street, but the enterprise soon failed.  Later, he purchased and occupied a farm in Lordstown, on the

[Page 232]
Canfield Road.  Having lost his first wife, he married again to Miss Sarah C. Case, a sister of the late Leonard Case, of Cleveland.  He was for many years prominent as a worker in the interests of the Disciple Church.  He also held the offices of Sheriff and Representative.  His death occurred in Warren, April 4, 1861.

     DAVID BELL occupied a farm and house where the Jacob Perkins place is, on the Bazetta Road, near Red Run.  He came to Warren probably previous to 1808, and was from Ireland.

     CAPTAIN OLIVER BROOKS came from New Jersey, and occupied the old Brooks Homestead, on South Street.

     LEONARD CASE was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., July 29, 1786, and died in Cleveland, Dec. 7, 1864.  Mr. Case came to the Western Reserve from Washington County, Pa., where his parents had been living, in 1800.  In 1801 he was prostrated with violent inflammation in his lower limbs, caused by chasing cattle through the Mahoning River when he was overheated.  He was confined to his bed a long time, and never entirely regained his strength.  When he was recovering from the long illness that ensued, he cultivated his love of study, and in a great measure educated himself.  He held during his life many offices of trust, all of which he filled with credit.  Removing to Cleveland in 1816, he was afterward identified with that city, acquiring great wealth by judicious investments in real estate.  At the time of his death he was the richest man in Northern Ohio.

     SAMUEL CHESNEY was born Mifflin, Juniata County, Penn., Apr. 18, 1778.  He came to the Reserve in 1803, having previously taught school near Pittsburg.  He for many years held the office of deputy postmaster, and was elected Justice of the Peace a number of years in succession, until he declined to serve.  His death occurred May 5, 1866.

     WILLIAM W. COTGREAVE was in Warren as early as 1807.  He was one of the active men of the place, and a major in the war of 1812; but he seems to be best known through the number of buildings that he erected, conspicuous aong which was a large house, standing upon what is now known as the Van Gorder property, and sometimes called "Castle William."  He married a daughter of John Reed, and finally, removing to Mansfield, Ohio, died there.

[Page 233]
     The following biographical sketch of John Stark Edwardsis from the pen of William J. Edwards, Esq., of Youngstown:

     JOHN STARK EDWARDS came to Ohio in the Spring of the year 1799.  He was a graduate of Princeton College, New Jersey, studied law at New Haven, attending the lectures of Judge Reeve at the celebrated law school at Litchfield, Conn.  After having completed his studies he was admitted to the practice of law at New Haven, March, 1799, being then in the twenty-second year of his age.
     As his father, the Hon. Pierpont Edwards, had become, in the distribution of the lands of the Connecticut Land Company, proprietor of the township of Mesopotamia, to that point Mr. Edwards directed his steps and took measures to open a settlement.  What other persons preceded him or went with him, or how long he stayed, or what he accomplished, I am not informed, but I have understood he was specially glad when he got a few trees cut down to let in the sun.  He had the usual experiences of the time.  Of course, every thing was crude.  I known of no incident but only of his first night of Warren, to which he referred in after times with amusement.  The place was the floor of a cabin, crowded with emigrants, and somewhat promiscuous.
     In the Fall of the year he returned to New Haven, where he spent the Winter.  I here insert the first letter written to him by his father, as showing in interest of his friends in his enterprise.  The letter is addressed to John Stark Edwards, Esq., at Meadville, County of Alleghany, State of Pennsylvania, to the care of Messrs. Denny & Beeler, Pittsburg:

"New Haven, July 9, 1799,
     "MY DEAR SON, - Yours of the 9th of last month to me, and of the 14th of the same month of Henry, arrived this day while we were at dinner.  Had you been present to witness the joy which they caused you would have possessed a new proof of the interest which we all have in your happiness.  This joy was not confined to your relatives, the servants seemed to be as deeply affected as any of us, and this moment I hear Tom bawling to Eli, "MasterStark's slept in the woods in the open air all night.'
     "All accounts from the Reserve are of a most flattering kind.  Caleb Atwater and Uriel Holmes, Exq., have written letters which have raised our spirits very much.  I beseech you to spare no cost in getting letters to us very often  I sent for Mr. Mills and Dr. Clark to peruse your letters; both are very much elated with what you have written.   . . . .  No domestic occurrence of importance has

[Page 234]

taken place.  Mrs. Jonathan Mix, a very valuable woman, died a week ago.
     "Our independence has been brilliant and felicious.  Your enterprise has done you infinite credit, not only among your acquaintances, but among all who have heard of it.  I do not believe that you could have done any act which would, at a stroke, have made you so important in the eyes of the world, as your going to the Reserve.  All ascribe to you that firmness, enterprise, ambition, and perseverance, which must in a few years make you be considered as the father of that country; indeed, predictions of your future greatness are already uttered by all our oracular people.  You may assure yourself that nothing which you may reasonably hope from the general government which respects that country will be denied you.  That you may be happy is the wish of all your friends; all, all who know you are of that number. Your mother and all the family join me in every wish for your felicity.  We all love you.
               "Your affectionate father,        PIERPONT EDWARDS.
     "JOHN STARK EDWARDS, ESQ."
     The settlers and pioneers of the early day were unquestionably men and women of great enterprise, resolution, and courage to break away from the conveniences and comforts of settled life in old established communities, and to go many hundred miles beyond the bounds of civilization to enter upon all the hardships and privations of a new and heavily wooded country, where it was only "fresh, untouched, unbounded, magnificent wilderness.''  Many of these were of marked character and individuality.  With such was Mr. Edwards associated in the early labors to found a civilized community and cultivated life in these western wilds.
     In July of 1800 he was commissioned, by Governor St. Clair, Recorder of Trumbull County, which office he held till his death in 1813.  He made Mesopotamia the place of his residence until 1804.  In a letter to his sister, Mrs. Johnson, of Stratford, Conn., dated
July 26, 1800, he speaks of his trip to Cincinnati:
     "The route leads through a new country; of course, the accommodations are very indifferent; my blanket and the softest plank that I could find in the floor were generally my bed and bedding.''  He speaks of the country between the Muskingum and the Scioto as being "excellent; perhaps the sun never shone on a better.  Corn,
which is at present the principal product of the country, is raised in great abundance.  It is frequent to raise one hundred bushels to the acre, and sixty or seventy bushels is a common crop.  There is, in

[Page 235]

one field upon the Scioto, about six miles below Chillicothe, twelve hundred acres in corn.  This would be considered wonderful in Connecticut, but my authority is not to be doubted."
     He spent the Winter of 1800 and 1801 in New Haven.  June 21, 1801, he writes from Mesopotamia:
     "While writing this I am seated in a log house, on an ash bench, and by the side of a white-oak table, all, fortunately, clean, which I am under the necessity of using for want of better; but I know not but that my ideas flow as easily, and that my spirits are as good as if they are better; but this would not be the case if it were not for hope, which 'springs, eternal, in the human breast.'  'Man never is, but always to be, blest.'  This hope is our sole support, it is our life; if it were not, our situation would be deplorable indeed; but at present, with a rapidly settling country, and still more rapid increase of property, the people are happy and contented.  I found my settlement in a prosperous situation.  Another year and it will be able to support itself and have no more occasion for my fostering care, a time which I most earnestly hope for."
     In this letter he speaks of meeting Mrs. Tod and others at Pittsburg - Mrs. Tod in fine spirits.  In July, 1801, he writes to his father, "Mr. Noyes arrived in Mesopotamia, with his family, on the 6th of July, all in good health and spirits.  He is much pleased with the land chosen for his farm, and immediately set the boys at
work.  The settlement is generally doing well.  Mr. Sperry is reaping his wheat.   His son passed this yesterday on his way to mill with some wheat.  His crop has turned out well; his corn looks promising.  I am now living with Mr. Noyes in my own house in the center of the town."
     In August, 1801, to his sister: "My settlement is doing finely.  We this day have had a lecture delivered by a clergyman.  There were about forty people present.  Every part of our country is rapidly increasing in numbers.  You can have no idea what pleasure is derived from the improvements that are daily making; every day brings a new inhabitant; a neighbor opens a new road, raises a new house, or begins a new farm.  Indeed, the Scripture is fulfilled when it says, 'the wilderness shall be made to blossom as the rose.'  Our country does literally flow with honey.  Bees are, beyond calculation, numerous.  Go into a corn-field in blossom and you are stunned with their noise.  Trees of them are found in every direction.  The rich variety of flowers which our woods afford it would give you pleasure to see. 
     "Mrs. Huntington's, Mrs. Tod's, and Mr. Noyes's families were

[Page 236]

very fortunate in their journeys. They were short, and were without accident or incident. All are in good health and spirits."
     In October, 1801, to his sister: "I have, at times, thought that I made too great a sacrifice in making this country the place of my residence and in tearing myself from my family and friends, but I feel that it is a sacrifice made in the place of others still greater.  It is a sacrifice made to pride and ambition."  In this letter he directs letters to him to be sent to "Warren, Trumbull County, North-western Territory."
     To his sister, visiting at Fayetteville, North Carolina, Jan. 11, 1802, he writes from Youngstown: "I am now with Mrs. Tod, who is in fine health and spirits, and continues well pleased with her prospects and situation.  Our Winter has, as yet, been fine and pleasant.  We have had but little snow or cold.  Mrs. Huntington, when I last heard from her, was in good health and spirits.  She lives at Cleveland."
     From Mesopotamia, to his sister at Stratford, Connecticut, June 7, 1802: "Your description of the furniture of your house at the mills" (which her husband had been erecting in North Carolina) "perfectly coincides with what mine was the first Summer; but I have now so far improved, in one respect, to be beyond you.  I have a large, cross-legged table of white wood, and chairs enough for all the family to sit on, and one for a stranger, if he chances to visit me.  In one respect you have improved beyond me, for you have a separate room to cook in, while we cook, eat, drink, and sleep in the same apartment.  Your experience will doubtless teach you that food tastes as well, and that sleep is as sweet, in a log as in a framed house.  It is not quite so convenient, and our pride is not so well gratified; but, from not possessing much of the latter, and for the present submitting to the former, I make my situation very comfortable.  Our friends, Tod and Huntington, are doing well.  Mrs. Noyes died of the consumption, four weeks last Friday.*  Mr. Noyes will return to Connecticut with his family this Fall.  I have never attempted to persuade him from it, for I believe it best.  Mrs. Huntington and Mrs. Tod are well.  I shall visit the former next week, when I expect to see the latter."
     July 28, 1802, to his brother-in-law, Samuel W. Johnson: "Yours of the 27th I have received.  I feel much indebted to you and my sister for your kind congratulations of me on the advances of my

--------------------
     *Probably the earliest death on the Reserve.

[Page 237]

country in population and wealth. Though nature has not endowed me with a very strong imagination, yet I often experience much real pleasure in contemplating the future greatness of this flourishing and rising country.  I can behold cities rising which shall equal in populousness and splendor those of the Atlantic States, a rich, well improved, and highly cultivated country, and as great a share of luxuries and enjoyments of life as are necessary for our happiness.  He have trebled in numbers within the last two years, and at no time, since I have been acquainted with the country, have the emigrations been so great as they have the present season.  My situation, in some respects, is unpleasant; but future prospects make me contented.  My farming is doing well. I have six acres of first-rate corn, and shall put in twelve acres of wheat, six of which will be sowed by the 1st of September, and the remainder by the 1st of October.  I am fearful that I shall get too much attached to my present life, unless I quit it soon.  I grow daily more fond of it. Friend Noyes works like a hero; it comes hard, but he bears it like a soldier.  He has cleared, since he came into the country, as much as any man in town.  He bears the loss of his wife extremely well; but in the loss of her he has lost his guide.  He was, for a time, entirely unhinged."  The following is a part of the letter to which the foregoing was an answer:
''Your good sister requests me to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the, and to congratulate you on the regular advances of your country in population and wealth.  She repines at the necessity of your seclusion from the society of all your nearest connections, and can only console herself with the hope that your residence in so retired a country will eventually be compensated by a rapid advancement in the dignities of life.  We trust that the forming the North western Territory into a State will be beneficial to your interest, and that, as you grow with its growth, we shall, in due season, see you descending the waters and crossing the mountains to advocate your country's interest at Washington.  We wish you success in all your political as well as other undertakings, and trust that the more sacrifices you now submit to the more amply you will hereafter be repaid by the felicity of domestic and the honor of public life."  He writes from Warren, on his return from Connecticut, Apr. 21, 1803:
"I arrived in M the 12th inst, in good health, found my affairs in as good a situation as I expected.  I was fortunate in having good weather and roads.  My horse stood his journey very

[Page 238]

well, lost but little flesh, and every thing turned out according to my wishes.
     "I saw at anchor, opposite Pittsburg, a ship of two hundred and eighty tons, ready for sea, with one thousand nine hundred barrels of flour on board—a sight somewhat curious two thousand two hundred miles up a river above tide water.  This is a business of which there will probably be a vast deal done on the Ohio and its branches.
     "I am heartily tired of living alone. I must and am determined I will be married.  You must look me up a wife.  Things are likely to take such a course as will give us a tolerable society in this place where I must eventually settle down." 
     "Mesopotamia, July 14, 1803.  I was at Warren on the Fourth of July, where I attended a ball.  You may judge of my surprise at meeting a very considerable company, all of whom were well dressed with neatness and in fashion, some of them, elegantly.  The ladies generally dressed well; some of them would have been admired for their ease and grace in a New Haven ball-room.  It was held on the same spot of ground where, four years since, there was scarcely the trace of human hand, or anywhere within fifteen miles of it.  We improved well the occasion; began at two o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, and left the room a little before sunrise on Tuesday morning.  We dance but seldom, which is our apology."
     "Warren, September 29, 1803.  Our country is improving, as usual, and I begin to feel more flattered than ever with my prospects.  With a little patience things will do well.  Business of all kinds is rapidly increasing.  I have obtained the appointment of Recorder in spite of very considerable opposition.
     "On Thursday next there will be a ball in the neighborhood.  I have been invited, but shall not do myself the honor to attend.  Great preparations are making for the occasion by the gentlemen and ladies.  The company will be collected from the distance of from ten to twenty miles, principally.  Some of the beaux will ride sixty miles to get their girls to the place of meeting.  Must not this be enjoyment!
     "Mesopotamia, February 4, 1804.  We have been, as it were, for about six weeks shut out from the world, during the greater part of which time the snow has been from two to three feet deep, and the creeks and rivers almost impassable.  Our mails have been very irregular.
     "As to myself, who am ever the first person in letters to my friends, things pass on as usual.  I live as formerly, but, having a stiller house and my business better arranged, am able to pay more atten-

[Page 239]

tion to my books, and have, for the last six months, spent all my leisure time at them, and shall continue so to do.  Law business is generally very much increasing, and my share of it in particular.  Though I live very much out of the way of business, I commenced for the coming court as many suits as either of my brethren.  I have not as yet removed to Warren, but still have it in contemplation.  Our country is rapidly improving. The prospects of the settlement about me begin to brighten. Next Spring we elect our militia officers from a Brigadier-general down.  The public mind begins to be considerably awakened at its near approach, and there will be a vast deal of heart-burning.  As I shall seek for no promotion in that line, and of course shall not receive any, I shall remain an idle spectator of the scene.''
     "Warren, March 9, 1805.  A few days since I returned from Chillicothe, after an absence of more than three months.  I have not since my return visited Mesopotamia, but learn that all things are well.  During my absence a grist-mill has been started in the town, which, I am told, does business to advantage.  My object in going to Chillicothe was to obtain a division (in opposition to the representatives of our county) of the county of Trumbull.  I obtained my division in the House of Representatives in spite of opposition, two votes to one.
By the Senate it was deferred to the next session."
     His home, at this time, was with General Perkins.
     "June 15, 1805. The business of my profession alone is sufficient to support me handsomely, independent of my Recordership, and I have the satisfaction to believe that mine is the best of any of my brethren.  Mr. Tod has lately been appointed Colonel of the militia."
     In the Autumn of the year 1805 Mr. Edwards made a trip to New England, and on suggestion of his brother made an excursion into Vermont to see the young lady who subsequently became his wife.
     March 17, 1806, he writes to his sister:
"Father's land in this country is generally good, but at present will not sell very rapidly, being considerably removed from the old settlements and from those parts of this country that are most settled, but I hope the time is not far distant when it will come into market.  The emigration into our country is great, but, as it is extensive, all can not be immediately sold. The settlements were at first begun in almost every part, but the greatest was in the south-east corner, and they have been constantly extending themselves from that quarter to the north, the west, and the north-west.  To get to Mesopotamia it

[Page 240]

has been necessary to go fifteen miles through the woods over a very bad road.  From this you will perceive that the settlements could not be very rapid in that town."
     "Warren, July 7, 1806.  We are but just well through the Fourth of July.  It was celebrated at Warren with great splendor.  About one hundred citizens of Trumbull sat down to a superb dinner provided for the occasion.  Seventeen toasts were drunk in flowing bumpers of wine under a discharge of firearms.  The whole was concluded with a feu-de-joie and a procession.  The greatest harmony and hilarity prevailed throughout the day.  In the evening we attended a splendid ball, at which were present about thirty couple.  You would have been surprised at the elegance and taste displayed on the occasion, recollecting that within seven years, upon the same spot of ground, the only retreat from the heavens was a miserable log house, sixteen feet square, in which I was obliged to take my lodging upon the floor, wrapped up in my blanket.  But, farther, not. satisfied with dancing one evening, we assembled again on the fifth and had a very agreeable and pleasant ball.  Before we dined, on the Fourth, we had an oration. So much for New Connecticut.  Do you now think we live in the woods, or is it surprising that we forget that we do? The emigrations into this part of the country have been very large this Spring.  Mr. Tod is made Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio."
     In the Fall of the year 1806 Mr. Edwards returned to New England and spent the Winter.  Feb. 28, 1807, he was married at Springfield, Vermont, to Miss Louisa Maria Morris, daughter of General Lewis R. Morris, of that place; and in the Spring of the year returned to Ohio, bringing with him his wife.  They made their home with General and Mrs. Perkins until he had prepared his own dwelling, which was in the south-east part of the village, and subsequently became the residence of Hon. Thomas D. Webb.  Here he spent a few years of happiness.  Here were born to him three sons, two of whom died soon after his own death; the third and youngest being the writer of these pages.  I give another extract or two as indicative of Mr. Edward's standing professionally:
     "October 17, 1808. I had no idea that so long a time had elapsed since writing to you as you state.  The multiplicity of my employments and the constant attention which I am under the necessity of giving to business leaves me but little leisure, and months pass away with a rapidity heretofore unknown.  .  .  .    Of my lot in life I have every reason to be satisfied.  In my profession am very successful, having much the largest share of the business within the circuit of it.

[Page 241]

Have surmounted the inconveniences of a new country so far as to be able to live as well as in any country.''
     "January 22, 1810. I have every success in my profession which I have any right to expect. ... I am able to do considerably more than support my family, and the style of my living is equal to that of any of the people about me.  I am not in the way of receiving any of the honors of office; and whether I could gain them if I wished, I do not know, having never made the experiment, believing my present situation preferable to any which I should attain to in the possession of any of the offices of our State Government.    .    .    .
     "During the last Summer I have made considerable addition to my house.*  It is now forty-eight by thirty-three on the ground.  Upon the lower floor I have two front rooms seventeen by eighteen, a large kitchen, small bedroom adjoining, and one bedroom occupied by Mrs. Edwards and myself, with a fire-place.  It communicates with one of the front rooms and the kitchen, and has a plentiful supply of closets."
     In 1810-11 Mr. Edwards and his brother, Ogden, having purchased from their father the Put-in-Bay Islands, undertook the improvement, and the stocking of the same with sheep, having caught the prevailing epidemic of the time—the sheep fever, induced by the importation of Spanish merino sheep into New England by Col. David Humphreys, Minister to Spain. In the year 1811 they had one hundred and fifty sheep, and about four hundred hogs of all descriptions on the islands.  The enterprise seemed promising, as he says, in the eyes of judicious men, but the disturbances on the frontier, caused by the war of 1812, and his death in the early part of 1813 brought the project to an end with considerable losses.  In March, 1811, he was commissioned Colonel, Commandant of the Second Regiment, Third Brigade, Fourth Division of the Ohio Militia.  On the receipt of the news of the surrender of Gen. Hull at Detroit, Aug. 15, 1812, he with others made strenuous endeavors to put the country in a state of defense, a general and great alarm being felt, as by that surrender the whole country lay exposed to all the dangers of invasion, dread of Indian plunderings and massacres being prevalent.
     He marched with a portion of his regiment to Cleveland.  While there new arrangements were made by the military authorities, and

---------------
     * Now belonging to Mrs. T. D. Webb.

[Page 242]

his services as an officer not being longer required, he returned home.  In the October election for members of Congress, Mr. Edwards was elected to represent the Sixth District, being the first congressional election after the division of the State into districts.  Gen. Beall, of Wooster, was the opposing candidate. The district comprised the counties of Trumbull, Ashtabula, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Portage, Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas, Wayne, Knox, and Richland.
     He did not live to take his seat.  In the month of January, 1813, he left home with the intention of going to the islands to see if any property had escaped destruction.  Mr. George Parsons and Mr. William Bell (then a merchant at Warren, afterwards at Pittsburg) went with him.  (Mr. Bell had married, some time before, Miss Margaret Dwight, a cousin of Mrs. Edwards, who had come from New England to make her home with Mrs. Edwards.  He was a man of great worth, genial and gentlemanly.)  They got as far as Lower Sandusky, but a thaw coming on, they thought it prudent to return.  On the 24th they set out for home.  The streams had risen, and in crossing one they all got wet.  Mr. Edwards was taken that night with vomiting and violent pain in the side.  The cabin in which they were, was most miserable.  The snow came in from every direction.  They, however, had a number of blankets with them, which they hung round him, and secured him as well as possible from the storm.  He was bled the next morning, which greatly relieved him.  They then removed him about a mile and a half to a place where he could be comfortable.  The waters were so high they could not move in any direction.  When Mr. Bell left for home it was at the hazard of his life.  Mr. Edwards was then apparently better.
     Mrs. Edwards was in hourly expectation of seeing him, when Mr. Bell returned and gave information of his illness.  It was not imagined that he was dangerously ill, but they thought it best for Dr. Seeley, in whom all had most confidence, to go out.  Dr. Seeley was living about four miles from town; he came in a little after dark.  Mrs. Edwards describes her feelings as most gloomy, yet not apprehending what was to happen.  Commending her sleeping little ones to their Maker, she went forth hoping to nurse, comfort, and restore her husband.
     They left Warren about eight o'clock.  The night was dark; the flood excessive; the traveling bad, in many places dangerous.  They, however, proceeded about nine miles, and then stopped a few hours.

[Page 243]

     Setting out again before day-break, they had got about forty-five miles from Warren when they met the sleigh bearing the dead body of Mr. Edwards .   .   .   .
     Mr. Parsons alone was with it.  They were then fourteen miles from a house, just before sundown, in a snow-storm, and they were obliged to return that distance to get even the shelter of a cabin.  For four hours after dark was that coffin followed.
     They reached home on Monday afternoon at three o'clock.  Mr. Parsons's account of his death was, that about fifteen minutes before he died, Mr. Edwards got up and walked, and then sat down, saying he thought next morning he should be able to set out for home.  Mr. Parsons turned from him; in a moment he heard him choking; he turned again and saw him falling.  When placed again upon the bed, he grasped Mr. Parsons's hand, moved his lips as if to speak, but could not.  He struggled not, gasped once or twice, then closed his eyes and ceased to live.  This was on the 22d of February.  He was then in the thirty-sixth year of his age.  His remains were deposited in the old grave-yard of the village of Warren, and a monument, such as deep affection would suggest, was placed over his grave.  In later times this monument, by the same affection, was replaced by one more substantial.
     Mr. Edwards is described as "a man of fine appearance, in stature about six feet, stoutly built, of a florid complexion and commanding presence."
     In 1860 Hon. John Crowell, of Cleveland, gave to the public a sketch of the life and character of John Starke Edwards as a member of the bar in the Third Judicial Circuit.  It is believed to be a just estimate of him as a man, a lawyer, and a citizen.  He accords to him the highest traits and all that could recommend him to the esteem of his associates and acquaintances, and to the warmest regards of his relatives and friends.  His death was deeply felt, and, in the language of Judge Crowell, "shed a sadness and gloom over the whole country."
                                    WILLIAM J. EDWARDS.

     JOHN ECKMAN was born in Lancaster County, Penn., Mar. 24, 1789.  In 1802 he came to the Reserve from Fayette County, Penn., with his father, a gunsmith.  Although they settled in Weathersfield Township, Eckman was always, more or less, in Warren.  He helped to build the furnace on the old Eaton place, and speaks of having seen the first bar of iron manufactured there.  Adam Victory, of Pittsburgh,

[Page 244]
was the hammer-man.  Mr. Eckman is still living (1876), at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.

     THE FUSSELMANS came early, and lived many years on what is known as the Fusselman farm - one of the earliest settled farms in Trumbull County.

     HENRY HARSH came to Warren in 1801, and purchased and built a house and blacksmith-shop upon the lot now occupied by Adams's book-store.  Mr. Harsh was one of the first blacksmiths in Trumbull County.  He died June 5, 1828.

     FRANCIS FREEMAN was born in Dutchess County, New York, June 8, 1779, and died at Warren Sept. 8, 1855.  Mr. Freeman came to the Reserve in 1803, and settled upon a farm in Braceville, which was afterward transferred to his brother.  In 1804 he located permanently at Warren.  Mr. Freeman was Treasurer of Trumbull County for a number of years, and was also Associate Judge for seven years.  His name also appears in the list of original directors of the Western Reserve Bank.

     DR. JOHN B. HARMON was born in Rupert, Bennington County, Vermont, Oct. 19, 1780.  He came to this country with his father, Reuben Harmon, who, locating at the Salt Springs, it is said, in 1797, attempted the manufacture of salt.  Mr. Reuben Harmon removed his family to the Reserve in 1800, and died in August of that year. 
     Young Harmon studied medicine in his sixteenth year with his brother-in law, Dr. Blackmer, in Rupert, Vermont, and, after his father's death, with Dr. Leavitt, who farmed and doctored on the Reserve at a very early day. After a few years' practice in Warren, Dr. Harmon spent some time in Vermont again, studying with Dr. Blackmer; but, eventually, he returned 'to Warren.  He was, at least, the first physician who practiced regularly in this place.  In 1812 he was in the war as a surgeon of the Second Regiment of Ohio Militia, under the command of Col. W. W. Cotgreave, and was present at the attack on Fort Mackinaw.   Dr. Harmon was highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens, nnd his reputation as a physician was very extensive. He died in February, 1858.

     LEVI HADLEY, who came to Warren in 1815, and followed the business of a wool-carder and hotel-keeper, soon left and became a judge in the Sangamon country, in Illinois.  Later, he committed suicide by jumping from a steamboat into the Mississippi River.

[Page 245]

     RICHARD IDDINGS was born in Berks County, Penn., Aug. 18, 1786. He came to Warren in September, 1805, but returned to Reading in 1808, where, in January, 1809, he married Miss Justina Lewis.  In February he started for the Reserve with his wife, and reached Warren April 20th. He was in the War of 1812, and was afterward chosen Major in the militia. He was elected to the Legislature in 1830-31.  His death took place Mar. 26, 1872.
     At his golden wedding, in 1859, Mr. Iddings gave the following description of his trip to the Reserve with his wife:
     ''I first came to Warren in September, 1805, and remained here until the Fall of 1808, when I returned to Berks County, my native place.  I married Miss Justina Lewis, at Reading, Penn., on the evening of the 15th of January, 1809, at eight o'clock —just fifty years ago.  On the 8th of February we started for Ohio in a two-horse sleigh, with our household furniture, for which there was plenty of room.  When we reached the top of the Alleghany Mountains the snow was four feet deep; but we learned there was no snow at the foot of the mountain, nor westward to Ohio.  Therefore, we went to the house of. an uncle to my wife, who resided in Fayette County, some twelve miles from Brownsville.  Leaving her, the sleigh, and one horse, I proceeded to this place on horseback.  Here I hired a canoe, and, engaging Mr. Henry Harsh to assist me, I went down the Mahoning and Beaver Rivers to Beavertown, and up the Ohio and Monongahela to Brownsville. Taking my wife and a few household fixings on board, we floated down to Pittsburg, where I purchased a barrel of flour, and went on to Warren.   The weather was quite cold, and the settlers few and scattering.  Some nights we lodged in houses near the river, and sometimes on its bank, without shelter.  Some times we had plenty to eat, and sometimes we went without food for a whole day.  We were two days getting over the falls of Beaver River.  Mr. Harsh and myself were most of the time in the water (frequently up to our waists), pulling up the empty canoe, while my wife sat on the shore watching the goods which we had landed.  At the mill-dams on the Mahoning the same process was repeated.  We reached Warren on the 20th day of April, having been twenty-one days coming from Brownsville."

     LEICESTER KING* was born May 1, 1789 at Suffield Conn.  He married, Oct. 12, 1814, Julia Ann Huntington daughter of Hon.

-----
* Furnished by D. L. King, of Akron

[Page 246]

Hezekiah Huntington, of Hartford, Conn., and died at North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, O., Sept. 19, 1S56, at the residence of his son-in-law, Charles Brown.
     Mr. King removed from Westfield, Mass., where he was engaged in the mercantile business for a few years, to Warren, Ohio, in 1817, where he continued the same business until 1833.  At that time, be coming interested in the project of building the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, he abandoned mercantile life, and devoted the most of his time to forwarding that enterprise; and it was mainly through his energy and labor that it was finally constructed—he being for a long time the president of the company.  He filled the position of Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and represented the Trumbull District for two successive sessions (1835-39) in the State Senate.  He was a decided Abolitionist, although elected as a Whig, and at each session persistently introduced and advocated a bill to repeal the infamous "Black Laws" which then disgraced our statute-books.  After the spirited Presidential contest of 1840 he identified himself with the few who organized the Liberty party, and was the first candidate for Governor nominated by that party in 1842; and he was re-nominated in 1844.  As the champion of that forlorn hope he thoroughly canvassed the State, discussing its platform of principles in every county and in almost every school district.  He was President of the first United States Liberty Party Convention, held in Buffalo in 1844, which put in nomination James G. Birney as candidate for President, and Thomas Morris as Vice-President of the United States.  In 1847 Mr. King was the nominee for Vice-President, with John P. Hale for President; both, however, afterward declined the nomination in favor of Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams as candidates of the Free-soil party—the Liberty party thereafter being merged into this new party of anti-slavery principles.  After the death of Mrs. King, January 24, 1849, Mr. King withdrew from politics, although he continued, until the day of his death, a warm advocate of the principles for which he had declined all political preferment and personal position from the old Whig party.
     The earnest zeal with which he sowed the seed through the State of Ohio required but a few years to bring forth an abundant harvest of right sentiments, and had its due share in the successful contest for human rights, which resulted in placing Abraham Lincoln in the Executive chair in 1861.

[Page 247]

     _____ MOSSMAN kept a tavern in a house which stood opposite the present resident of Mr. Geo. Van Gorder, and which was known as the "Button Place."

     CALVIN PEASE was born at Suffield, Conn., Sept. 9, 1776, and married Laura G. Risley, daughter of Benjamin Risley, June 22, 1804.  Soon after his admission to the bar in his native State he emigrated to Ohio, then a Territory, where he sustained the hard ships incident to pioneer life, and rose to distinction among his fellow-citizens,  He was appointed prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarterly Sessions for the county of Trumbull, under the Territorial Government, in the year 1800, which office he held for two or three years, and, on the admission of the State of Ohio into the Union, in 1803, he was appointed President Judge of the circuit, which, at that time, embraced a large section of the eastern portion of the State.  In 1810 he resigned this office, and continued in practice at the bar till the year 1816.  During this interval, in the Fall of 1812, he was elected a Senator to the State Legislature. In 1816 he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, and, having been re-elected in 1823, continued in this office till 1830, being a period of fourteen years, during a part of which time he was Chief-Judge of the Supreme Court.  After leaving the bench he resumed practice at the bar.  For a few of the last years of his life he felt admonished, by increasing infirmities of age, to retire from active business to the enjoyment of private life.  He died at his residence, Warren, Ohio, Sept. 17, 1839.

     EDWARD POTTER, born Sept. 20, 1793, came to Youngstown May 11, 1798, a learned his trade of Richard Young, a celebrated chair-maker.  He came to Warren in 1817, and (1876) has occupied his present residence since 1828.

     GEORGE PARSONS was born in Enfield, Conn., in 1781, on the 9th of April, he came to Warren in 1803, June 3d.  In the Fall of that year he took a school for the Winter. It was the first school in Warren.  In time he became one of the most prominent citizens in the place.  He was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in 1806, and held that office until 1838, a period of thirty-two years.  In 1838 he was chosen President of the Western Reserve Bank, an office which he filled with honor until his retirement in 1863. During twenty-two years he was Clerk of the Supreme Court.  He died Aug. 20, 1865.

[Page 248]

     SIMON PERKINS* was born at Norwich, Conn., on the 17th of September, 1771.  His father was a captain in the army of the Revolution, and died in camp.  He emigrated to Oswego, New York, in 1795, where he spent three years in extensive land operations.  A portion of the "Western Reserve" in Ohio having been sold by the State of Connecticut, the new proprietors invited Mr. Perkins to explore the domain and report a plan for the sale and settlement of the lands.  He went to Ohio for that purpose in the Spring of 1798.  He spent the Summer there in the performance of the duties of his agency, and returned to Connecticut in the Autumn.  This excursion and these duties were repeated by him for several successive Summers.  He married in 1804, and settled on the "Reserve" at Warren.  So extensive were the land agencies intrusted to him that in 1815 the State land tax paid by him into the public treasury was one-seventh of the entire revenue of the State.  Mr. Perkins was the first post master on the " Reserve," and to him the Postmaster-General in trusted the arrangement of post-offices in that region.
     For twenty-eight years he received and merited the confidence of the department and the people.  At the request of the Government in 1807, he established expresses through the Indian country to Detroit.  His efforts led to the treaty of Brownsville, in the Autumn of 1808, when the Indians ceded lands for a road from the "Reserve'' to the Maumee or Miami of the Lakes.
     In May of that year he was commissioned a Brigadier-General of militia, in the division commanded by Major-General Wadsworth. 
     On hearing of the disaster to Hulls's army at Detroit, he issued orders to his colonels to prepare their regiments for active duty.  To him was assigned the duty of protecting a large portion of the North-western frontier.
     "To the care of Brigadier-General Simon Perkins I commit you," said Wadsworth on parting with the troops of the Reserve, "who will be your commander and your friend. In his integrity, skill, and courage we all have the utmost confidence."  He was exceedingly active.  His scouts were out far and near continually.
     His public accounts were kept with the greatest clearness and accuracy for more than forty years.  "No two officers in the public service at that time," testifies the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, "were more energetic or economical than Generals Harrison and Perkins."

-----
* From Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812.

[Page 249]

When, in 1813, General Harrison was sufficiently re-enforced to dispense with Perkins's command, he left the service (Feb. 28, 1813), bearing the highest encomiums of the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the North-west.
     President Madison, at the suggestion of Harrison and others, sent him the commission of colonel in the regular army, but duty to his family and the demands of a greatly increasing business caused him to decline it.  General Perkins was intrusted with the arrangement and execution, at the head of a commission, of the extensive canal system of Ohio.  From 1826 until 1838 he was an active member of the "Board of Canal Fund Commissioners."  They were under no bonds and received no pecuniary reward. In the course of about seven years they issued and sold State bonds for the public improvements, to the amount of four and a half millions of dollars.
     Among the remarkable men who settled the "Western Reserve" General Simon Perkins ever held one of the most conspicuous places, and his influence in social and moral life is felt in that region to this day.  He died at Warren, Ohio, on the 19th of November, 1844. His widow long survived him. She died at the same place, April, 1862.

     JACOB PERKINS was born at Warren, Sept. 1, 1822, being next to the youngest of the children of General Simon Perkins.  In his early years Jacob Perkins developed a strong inclination for study, acquiring knowledge with unusual facility and gratifying his intense passion for reading useful works by every means within his power.  He commenced fitting himself for college at the Burton Academy, then under the direction of Mr. H. L. Hitcheock, afterward President of the Western Reserve College, and completed his preparation at Middletown, Conn., in the school of Isaac Webb.  He entered Yale College in 1837.  While in college he was distinguished for the elegance of his style and the wide range of his literary acquirements.  He delivered the Philosophic Oration at his junior exhibition, and was chosen second editor of " Yale Literary Magazine," a position in which he took great interest, and filled to the satisfaction and pride of his class.  His college course was, however, interrupted by a long and severe illness before the close of his junior year, which compelled him to leave his studies and (to his permanent regret) prevented him from graduating with his own class.  He returned the following year and was graduated with the class of 1842.

[Page 250]

     He entered his father's office at Warren, and was occupied with its business until upon the death of his father, some two years after ward, he became one of his executors.
     During his residence at Warren he appeared occasionally before home audiences as a public speaker, and always with great acceptance.  In politics he early adopted strong antislavery principles, then not the popular doctrine, and they were always freely and openly advocated.  Of an address delivered in 1848, which was published and attracted very considerable local attention, the editor of the Chronicle remarked, " We have listened to the best orators of the land from the Connecticut to the Mississippi, and can truly say, by none have we been so thoroughly delighted in every particular as by this effort of our distinguished townsman."   The oration discussed the true theory of human rights and the legitimate powers of human government, and the following extract gives the spirit of his political principles on the subject of slavery:

     "The object of law is not to make rights but to define and maintain them; man possesses them before the existence of law, the same as he does afterward.  No matter what government may extend its control over him; no matter how miserable or how sinful the mother in whose arms his eyes opened to the day; no matter in what hovel his infancy is nursed; no matter what complexion an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him, this may decide the privileges which he is able to assert but can not effect the existence of his rights.  His self-mastery is the gift of his Creator, and oppression only can take it away."
     Without solicitation he was nominated and elected a member of the Convention that framed the present Constitution of Ohio.  His associates from the district were judges Peter Hitcheock and R. P. Ranney, and although "he was the youngest member but one of the Convention, and in the minority, his influence and position were excelled by few."  He was one of the Senatorial Presidential Electors for Ohio on the Fremont ticket in 1856.  In the intellectual progress of the young about him, and the building up of schools and colleges, he took especial interest.
     He first suggested and urged the adoption of the conditions of the present "Permanent Fund of Western Reserve College" rather than to solicit unconditional contributions, which experience had proved were so easily absorbed by present necessities, and left the future as poor as the past.  In connection with his brothers he made the first subscription to that fund.

[Page 251]

The wisdom of his suggestion was subsequently shown when, during the rupture and consequent embarrassment under which the College labored, the income of this fund had a very important, if not vital, share in saving it from abandonment, and afterward proved the nucleus of its present endowments.  He was always efficient in favor ing improvements.  He was associated with Hon. F. Kinsman and his brother in founding the beautiful Woodland Cemetery, at Warren.  The land was purchased and the ground laid out by them, and then transferred to the present corporation.
     Soon after his return from the Constitutional Convention he be came interested in the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad.  He was most influential in obtaining the charter and organizing the Company, of which he was elected President, and became the principal, almost sole, financial manager.  Owing to prior and conflicting railroad interests, little aid could be obtained for his project in either of the terminal cities, Cleveland and Pittsburg, and the work was commenced in 1853 with a comparatively small stock subscription.  A tightening money market prevented any considerable increase of the stock list or a favorable disposition of the bonds of the road, and the financial crisis, a few years afterward, so reduced the value of the securities of this, as of all unfinished railroads, as practically to shut them out of the market. In this emergency the alternative presented itself to Mr. Perkins and his resident directors, either to abandon the enterprise and bankrupt the Company, with the entire loss of the amount expended, or to push it forward to completion by the pledge and at the risk of their private fortunes, credit, and reputations.  In this, the darkest day of the enterprise, Mr. Perkins manifested his confidence in its ultimate success, and his generous willingness to meet fully his share of the hazard to be incurred by proposing to them jointly with him to assume that risk, and agreeing that, in case of disaster, he would himself pay the first $100,000 of loss, and thereafter share it equally with them.  With a devotion to the interests intrusted to them, a determination rarely equaled in the history of our railroad enterprises, they unanimously accepted this proposition, and determined to complete the road, at least to a remunerative point in the coal fields of the Mahoning Valley.  The financial storm was so much more severe and longer continued than the wisest had calculated upon, that for years the result was regarded by them and the friends of the enterprise with painful suspense.
     In the interest of the road Mr. Perkins spent the Spring of 1854 in England, without achieving any important financial results.  At

[Page 252]

length, in 1856, the road was opened to Youngstown, and its receipts, carefully husbanded, began slowly to lessen the floating debt—by that time grown to frightful proportions, and carried solely by the pledge of the private property and credit of the president and Ohio directors.  These directors, consisting of Hon. Frederick Kinsman and Charles Smith, Esq., of Warren; Governor David Tod, of Briar Hill; Judge Reuben Hitcheock, of Painsville; and Dudley Baldwin, Esq., of Cleveland, by the free use of their widely known and high business credit, without distrust or dissension sustained the president through that long and severe trial—a trial which can never be realized, except by those who shared its burdens.  The president and these directors should ever be held in honor by the stockholders of the Company, whose investment they saved from utter loss, and by the businessmen of the entire Mahoning Valley, and not less by the city of Cleveland, for the mining and manufacturing interests developed by their exertion and sacrifices lie at the very foundation of the present prosperity of both.
     Before, however, the road was enabled to free itself from financial embarrassment so as to commence making a satisfactory return to the stockholders, which Mr. Perkins was exceedingly anxious to see accomplished under his own presidency, his failing health compelled him to leave its active management, and he died before the bright day dawned upon the enterprise.
     He said to a friend, during his last illness, with characteristic distinctness, ''If I die, you may inscribe on my tombstone, Died of the Mahoning Railroad;" so great had been his devotion to the interests of the road, and so severe the personal exposures, which its supervision had required of him, who was characteristically more thoughtful of every interest confided to his care than of his own health.
     He was married Oct. 24, 1850, to Miss Elizabeth O. Tod, daughter of Dr. J. I. Tod, of Milton, Trumbull County, Ohio, and removed his family to Cleveland in 1856.  Of three children only one, Jacob Bishop, survives him.  Mrs. Perkins died of rapid consumption June 4, 1857, and his devoted attention at the sick-bed of his wife greatly facilitated the development of the same insidious disease, which was gradually to undermine his own naturally vigorous constitution.  The business necessities of his road, embarrassed and pressing as they were, united with his uniform self-forgetfulness, prevented his giving attention to his personal comfort and health long after his friends saw the shadow of the destroyer falling upon his path.  He

[Page 253]

was finally, in great prostration of health and strength, compelled to leave the active duties of the road, and spent the latter part of the Winter of 1857-58 in the Southern States, but returned in the Spring with little or no improvement.  He continued to fail during the Summer, and in the Fall of 1858 he again went South, in the vain hope of at least physical relief, and died in Havana, Cuba, Jan. 12, 1859.  His remains were embalmed and brought home by his physician, who had accompanied him, and were interred at Warren in Woodland Cemetery, where so many of his family repose around him.  A special train from each end of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad brought the Board of Directors and an unusually large number of business and personal friends, to join the long procession which followed "the last of earth" to its resting-place.
     One of the editorial notices of his death at the time very justly remarks of him:
     "He was a man of mark, and through strength of talent, moral firmness, and urbanity of manner, wielded an influence seldom possessed by a man of his years.  In addition to his remarkable business capacity, Mr. Perkins was a man of high literary taste, which was constantly improving and enriching his mind.  He continued, even amid his pressing business engagements, his habits of study and general reading.
     "Mr. Perkins belonged to that exceptional class of cases in which great wealth inherited does not injure the recipient."
     An editorial article in a Warren paper, mentioning his death, says:
     "He was born in this town in 1821, and from his boyhood exhibited a mental capacity and energy which was only the promise of the brilliancy of his manhood.  To his exertion

[Page 254]

his affections were with us, and he always regarded himself of our number.  He visited New Haven frequently during the latter part of his life, in connection with a railway enterprise in which he was interested, and exhibited the same large-heartedness and intellectual superiority which won for him universal respect during his college
course."

     JAMES QUIGLEY was born in Cumberland County, Penn., in 1770, and came to the Reserve in 1809-10.  He was conspicuously engaged in mercantile business for a long time, and was also a stock-dealer.  He died in 1822.

     SAMUEL QUINBY, the eldest son of Ephraim Quinby, was for many years one of the prominent men of Warren.  He was born in Williamsport, Washington County, Penn., Nov. 27, 1794, and moved to the Reserve with his father in the Winter of 1799.  From 1820 to 1840, he lived to Wooster, Ohio, but returned finally to Warren.  He was long and prominently connected with the old Western Reserve Bank, and it successor, the First National Bank of Warren.  His death occured Feb. 4, 1874.

     JAMES REED kept a tavern on the corner of Market and Main Streets, where the Smith block now stands.  Mr. Reed must have been here in 1803.

     BENJAMIN STEVENS is the son of Jonathan Stevens, and was born in Litchfield County, Conn., on the 20th of July, 1 7S8.  When he was about fourteen months old his father and mother removed to Luzerne County, Penn., where Mr. Stevens lived until he was twelve years old. At that time his parents returned East to Addison County, in Vermont, at which place he resided until 1816.  In the early Summer of that year, in company with a Mr. Edward Flint, he started for the Western Reserve.  They came by wagon to Batavia, New York, thence by stage to Buffalo, and the remainder of the journey was accomplished in a schooner on Lake Erie.  They arrived at Cleveland in June, and Mr. Stevens began a horse-back trip down to Chillicothe.  Not admiring that part of the country, he retraced his steps and went to Painsville, via Hudson, and very soon thereafter, in July, hearing of a business opening, came to Warren.  In due time he purchased a carding-machine of Levi Hadly.  Mr. Hadly had used this machine during the previous Summer, and a Mr. Thomas Wells was then contemplating the erection of a manufactory for cloth.  But Mr. Stevens also bought out Mr. Wells's interest in the

[Page 255]

matter, and himself founded an establishment for making satinet and fulled cloth.  This was the first establishment of the kind in Warren, although a carding-machine had been in operation in Youngstown.  The site of Mr. Stevens's building was near the west end of the bridge across the Mahoning River, at the foot of Market Street.
     On the 31st of March, 1825, he was married to Miss Mary Case, a sister of Mr. Leonard Case, late of Cleveland.  The Spring of that year was very mild, and on the wedding day the peach-trees were in bloom.  The newly married couple went to live in the house that Mr. Stevens had built in 1822, and which is now known as the old Stevens Homestead, standing across the river. In that house they lived for forty-five years, until they removed to the present residence on Mahoning Avenue, in 1869.  Mrs. Stevens died in 1873, on the 18th of April.  Five children had been born to them; Mary and Harriet, now living with their father; Benjamin, who died an infant; Lucy, married to General Opdyke in 1857; and Leonard, who died in October, 1856, at the age of twenty-three.  Mr. Stevens has been a member of the Methodist Church for nearly fifty-five years (1876).

     JUSTUS SMITH came to Warren from Glen Falls, Washington County, New York, in 1810, with a view of making an exchange of property with Royal Pease, who was then a citizen of Warren, and who owned the whole lot upon which the First National Bank stands.  An exchange was effected, and Mr. Smith returned East to settle up some business, sending out his family the next year.  Took posses sion of the building vacated by Mr. Pease on the bank lot, and Mr. Smith returned later in company with Jacob H. Baldwin, and on foot.
     Mr. Smith occupied the Pease property until 1815, in which year he died, leaving a widow and five children.  Mrs. Smith then sold her lot to the bank, and purchased the lot on the corner of High Street and Mahoning Avenue, now owned by Warren Packard.  There she lived until 1836, when she sold her property, and passed the remainder of her life with her children.

     ROSEWELL M. STONE came to Warren in 1823, and acquired considerable prominence at the profession of the law.  He was elected to the Legislature in 1833.

     EDWARD SPEAR was born in Huntington County, Penn., Oct. 12, 1792.  He moved to Warren in 1818.  For seven years Mr. Spear was Associate Judge of the Common Pleas, and held the office

[Page 256]
of Justice of the Peace until the time of his death.  HE was for many years prominent as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Warren, and also as a Mason.  His death occurred on the 31st of January, 1873.

     HENRY STILES was born in Danbury, Conn., May 6, 1798, and removed to Warren in 1812.  He was for many years one of hte prominent business men of the town.  His death occurred at his residence Aug. 11, 1869.

     SYLVANUS SEELEY, born in Jefferson, Green County, Penn., Jan. 5, 1795; came to the Reserve in 1802 with his father, Dr. John Seeley who located in Howland, in 1801.  Dr. Sylvanus Seeley served during the war of 1812 as Surgeon's mate to Dr. John B. Harmon, and was present at the attack on Fort Mackinaw.  About 1814 he married a daughter of Col. George Jackson, of Virginia, and practiced in that State for some time.  Later, he returned to warren, and until his death, which occurred in 1840, occupied a high position among the physicians of the Reserve.

     JAMES SCOTT was born in Carlisle, Penn., Mar. 17, 1774, and moved to the Western Reserve in 1801.  Mr. Scott built the jail that stood on the bank of the river, which was burned in 1804.  He also had the contract for building the old court-house 1813-16.  He died in Jan. 31, 1846.

     ELIHU SPENCER, a gentleman of culture, came to Warren in 1816, and lived in a house which stood on Liberty Street, on the present site of the building erected by Isaac Van Gorder from the bricks of the old court-house.  He died in 1819, leaving a wife and child, who returned to the East, where the son, although dying young, attained some eminence in the literary way.

     JAMES L. VAN GORDER was born in New Jersey in 1785, and came to Warren in 1803 or 1804.  In 1811, having previously married Miss Elizabeth Prior, he removed to Suffield, where he remained for ten years.  His death occurred in September, 1858.  His wife still survives him (1876).  Mr. Van Gorder was for many years connected with a number of the most prominent flour-mills in the country, and was for twenty years proprietor of the Pavilion Hotel on Market Street; that is, the old "Castle William'' extensively repaired.  He also built four locks, and made one mile of excavation for the Canal Company, being one of the few who did not "throw up" his contract.

[Page 257]

     THOMAS D. WEBB, one of the prominent lawyers of Warren, arrived in 1807.  In 1812 he began the publication of a paper known as the Trump of Fame, in a building standing on the north-west corner of Main and South Streets.  In 1814 Mr. Webb was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for what was then the Eighth District, in which the village of Warren was.  He was twice elected to the Senate of Ohio, but once declined to serve.  He was remarkable for his great knowledge and research in all cases involving titles to land, and was thoroughly posted in the records of the Connecticut Land
Company.  He died March 8, 1865.

     MARK WESCOTT, one of the earliest inhabitants of Warren, lived for many yeas in a home recently torn down, but then standing on the south-west corner of Pine and Market Streets.

     ZEBINA WEATHERBEE, a prominent merchant, came to Warren very early, probably about the year 1803.  He died young, about 1812, leaving a widow, the sister of the late Mr. Francis Freeman, Mrs. Weatherbee* is now living, at the advanced age of ninety years, with her daughter, Mrs. Marshall, of Erie, Penn.  Weatherbee was probably the third person in Warren to engage in mercantile business, as has been previously noted.  In 1803 Mr. Weatherbee had a contract to remove the trees felled upon the public square.

     Warren has nurtured a number of men who have distinguished themselves both at home and abroad.  The following names will not soon be forgotten: Gen. Simon Perkins, Judge Calvin Pease, Hon. Leonard Case, Hon. John Stark Edwards, Hon. Thos. D. Webb, Gov. David Tod, Judge Humphrey, H. Leavitt, Mr. Joseph Perkins, Hon. R. P. Spaulding, Hon. Jacob Perkins, Gen. John Crowell, Judge R. P. Ranney, Gen. J. D. Cox, Gen. M. D. Leggett, Hon. John Hutchins, Judge Leicester King.
     Cleveland is indebted to Warren for many of its prominent and worthy citizens.

-----
* Died, July 1876

[Page 258] Next Page, Go to BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO

< CLICK HERE to RETURN to TABLE of CONTENTS >