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Source:
A Centennial Biographical History
of
Richland and Ashland County, Ohio
- ILLUSTRATED -
A. J. Baughman, Editor
Chicago
The Lewis Publishing Co.
1901
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)
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MRS. MARY C.
GANS. We are now permitted
to touch briefly upon the life history of one who has
retained personal association with the affairs of Ohio
throughout almost her entire life and one whose
ancestral line traces back to an early epoch in the
history of the state.
Mary Churchill (Weldon) Gans was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 28, 1865, and died in
Mansfield, Aug. 23, 1899. She was the wife of
E. W. Gans, an influential citizen and for many
years connected with the Aultman & Taylor
Machinery Company as the manager of its collection
department. Her parentage connected her with many
of the prominent pioneers of the county, who were potent
factors in determining its progress. Her paternal
grandfather, James Weldon, was a pioneer of
Mansfield, and early erected a block on the corner of
Fourth and Main streets. For many years he
followed merchandising, confining his business
operations to his own city. His was a long and
honorable career, and he had a wide acquaintance.
The maternal grandfather of Mrs Gans was James
Purdy, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, born in
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and studied law at
Canandaigua, New York. He came from there to
Mansfield in 1823, when the city was a mere frontier
hamlet. He owned and edited the first newspaper,
the Mansfield Gazette, and was prominent in the movement
for internal improvement in the state, obtaining the
location and partial completion of the canal through the
Mohican valley, and when railroads came into favorable
consideration, as early as 1836, secured a partial
survey of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago road, but
did not secure the charter until 1848. He was also
instrumental in the organization of the Mansfield &
Sandusky Railroad and became the president of the
company. In 1856 he was the projector,
vice-president and joint owner of the Chicago, Iowa &
Nebraska Railroad and many town sites located along its
route. In 1846 he assisted in securing the charter
for the State Bank of Ohio and was a member of its board
of control, establishing a branch of the bank in
Mansfield in 1847. Of this he was the president
until it was merged into the present Farmer's National
Bank, his presidency covering a period of over forty
years. He also established banks in Chicago and
California. He served in three wars, namely: that
of 1812, the Mexican war and the war of the Rebellion, -
surely a record which is scarcely paralleled for
patriotism and active service. His wife, together
with other prominent citizens of Mansfield, was a
descendant of the Hodges of Buffalo, New York, who
traced their lineage back throug a line of patriots to
those who fought in the Revolution.
William Harrison Weldon, father of Mrs. Gans,
was born Jan. 8, 1849, and died Dec. 11, 1867, when yet
a young man. As a boy he was of very studious
habits, completed the course in the Mansfield city
schools and a business course in Cleveland, and entered
the bank of James Purdy at the age of fourteen
years. He made such rapid progress that when, in
1860, Mr. Purdy, Judge William Granger and
James Weldon established a bank in Chicago they
placed him in charge of it. On the breaking out of
the Rebellion he was appointed assistant paymaster in
the navy, shipping first with the old Bainbridge, then
with the steam sloop Sacramento, filling that position
from February, 1862, until January, 1865. At the
close of the Rebellion he formed a partnership with
Colonel William Painter in the banking business in
Philadelphia, but a form of low fever contracted while
on blockade duty at Panama forced him to return to
Mansfield, and he was never again able to take up
business cares. In early manhood he had wedded
Mary Hodge Purdy, the eldest daughter of James
Purdy, and on the early death of her husband she
devoted herself to the education of her daughter and
younger son, the latter, William McElroy Weldon,
now a successful lawyer.
Mrs. Gans, the daughter, enjoyed the educational
advantages afforded by the Mansfield schools and was
graduated in the high school with the class of 1883.
The following years she took a special course at Vassar
College, and the subsequent year studied in Dr.
Ganett's school in Chester Square, Boston.
After a year spent among her many friends in the south
and some months passed in Miss Willard's
special school in Berlin, Germany, she joined a party of
college mates in a travel and study tour over much of
the old world, the party traveling under the direction
of Professor Dorchester, then famous in
this specialty. They visited England, France, the
Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and
Greece, after which, being joined by her mother and
brother, another year was spent in study and travel.
She spent much time in Florence, which city she greatly
loved and which was her favorite next to Mansfield, to
which she returned for permanent residence in 1889.
Subsequently she traveled extensively in the United
States. Her patriotism was intense. While
her journals show careful study and thorough
appreciation of all the old world has accomplished, the
love of her own country and town was ever first and
strongest, and her friends often heard her say that no
views in all her travels so thrilled her as the sight of
New York harbor and Mansfield. Her religious work
was always engaging, as she was an enthusiastic member
of the Presbyterian church and found full occupation
along all lines of its service. But her
training and study in foreign lands led her naturally
into great activity in the literary club life for which
Mansfield is justly famous. She was a prominent
member of “The Nomads“ a club for literary study.
This club was the first of the now numerous Mansfield
clubs to break away from specific instruction and start
on independent lines, determining its own course of
study and doing its own investigating, in all its work
Mrs. Gans was a prominent figure, and was
at all times and to the end of her life by her gentle
and wise counsel a strong factor in determining the
policy of the club. The club gave expression to
its regard in these words: “She was one of the club's
most efficient and devoted members, at one time its
president and many times the moving spirit which
directed the course of study. The strength and
nobleness of her character and wise counsel have been an
inspiration.“
Intimate with literary work and arduous in it and
everything of interest and value to her native city, she
was, on the death of Mrs. Perkins
Bigelow, who was one of the charter members of the
Memorial Library Association, elected to fill her place
as a trustee. She was elected the treasurer and
was a trustee continuously from her first election until
her decease. She knew this work thoroughly, having
acted at intervals as substitute librarian and given
much of her time and attention to it. Though the
youngest on the board of trustees, her opinion had great
weight in shaping the wise councils of that body, which
has given the city an auxiliary of which every citizen
is proud, and which undoubtedly is a source of more
permanent benefit to the city than any one of its
institutions, the public schools alone being excepted.
In the words of her associates, “She came into the board
of trustees in the grace of girlhood and has grown into
the wider influence of a winsome womanhood. Amid
innumerable demands upon her time and attention she has
given most generously of her time and thought to the
library. There was no display, but the strength of
practical common sense united with a large sense of
justice. There was a certain poise, the
equilibrium of a clear thinking mind, that made her a
safe counselor. In her earliest character and
conscientious work we have marked ‘the high-featured
beauty, of plain devotedness to duty.' ”
Few women of her ability shrank more from the publicity
of her work. Her public work, while engaging her
whole heart, always cost her a great effort of the will.
The explanation of this was found in her almost abject
self-depreciation. As is usually the case, this is
the truest index of superior talent and ability: “He
that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” She saw
and heard so much that the whole world calls the best in
art, literature and music, that her own feeble efforts
seldom won her reasonable regard. Yet enthusiastic
appreciation and a high regard for the efforts of others
was her strongest characteristic and was the key to her
sweet and lovable nature. Whether in the daily
routine, the social function, auxiliary work of the
church, literary club work or neighborly kindness, she
showed always the kindly regard for the thought, intent
and achievement of others that is the fruit of true
culture and a pure soul, in accord with its
environments, physical, mental and spiritual.
Blessed with perfect health, even the mere joy of living
was a daily ecstacy to her; and it has always seemed an
inscrutable providence of God to remove so early a life
of such pure and wholesome influence. Though young
and her life potential of much greater good, yet she
left on her associates and town the indelible stamp of a
perfectly symmetrical, sympathetic, cultured Christian
character that is the richest of earthly rewards.
“A personality so strong and well poised leaves an
impress that years do-not efface;” and those who knew
her best and felt her influence strongest laid on the
smouldering altar of her quenched life the fragrant
incense of a sincere love that is its own best measure.
Source: A
Centennial Biographical History of Richland and Ashland
County, Ohio - Publ. 1901 - Page 332 |
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JEHU L. GARBER,
an industrious and enterprising farmer and stock raiser
of Jefferson township, was born on the 29th of October,
1835, in the township where he yet makes his home.
He comes of a family of Swiss lineage, and his
grandfather, John Garber, was probably a native
of the land of the Alps and became the founder of the
family in the new world. He was killed at the
battle of York in Upper Canada, in 1812. Samuel
Garber, the father of our subject, was a native of
Morrison's Cove, Pennsylvania, and was reared there as a
farmer and shoemaker. When about twenty-five years
of age he came to Ohio, making the journey on foot, and
located in Jefferson township, Richland county, where he
devoted his energies to shoemaking for a time.
Later he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits
and died upon the farm where our subject now lives, when
about eighty-nine years of age. He was successful
in his business affairs and at one time owned an
extensive tract of land, valued at twenty thousand
dollars. He was truly the architect of his own
fortune and built wisely and well, for when he came to
this county he had only twenty-five cents and with that
meager capital began life in Ohio. His prosperity
was the legitimate outcome of his own earnest and well
directed efforts. In politics he was a Democrat
and served as town ship trustee for several terms, yet
seldom aspired to office. His religious faith was
that of the Universalist church. His wife bore the
maiden name of Catharine Leedy and was a
daughter of John Leedy. She died
when about seventy-one years of age. In their
family were eleven children: John L., a farmer of
Jefferson township; Levi L., who died at the age
of twenty one; David L., who passed away at the
age of fifty-five; Louis L., a resident of
Bellville; Jehu L.; Elizabeth, the wife of
Aaron Leedy; Jackson L., whose home
is in Missouri; Washington, a resident of Cincinnati,
Ohio; Benton L., who died at the age of forty
years; Mary, the wife of O. B. Rummel, of
Bellville; Theodore L., a farmer of Jefferson township;
and Minnie, who died in childhood.
No event of special importance occurred to vary the
monotony of farm life for Jehu Garber.
He remained at his parental home until he had at rained
his majority, and in the meantime engaged in teaching in
the district school through three winter terms. On
reaching man's estate he worked at the carpenter's trade
and engaged in cultivating the home farm on the shares
for his father and brother. His time was thus
occupied several years, after which he purchased one
hundred and eighty acres of land adjoining the old home
and there continued to reside until 1898, when he
purchased his present farm of ninety-two acres, renting
the old place of two hundred and fifty-five acres to his
son. His life has been an active and useful one,
and as a result of his capable business management and
indefatigable industry he has gained prosperity.
He owns altogether three hundred and forty-seven acres
of land and derives therefrom a good income. He
was chiefly instrumental in organizing the Patrons'
Relief Association and Fire Insurance Company, which was
formed in 1876, and of which he was secretary for
sixteen years. The company now have between three
and four millions insurance. He was also
instrumental in organizing the first farmers‘ institute
held in the county, in the year 1881, and has been the
president of one of these organizations nearly every
year since.
On the 19th of June, 1856, occurred the marriage of
Mr. Garber and Miss Susan
Wallace, a native of Knox county, Ohio, and a
daughter of George and Mary Wallace. Their
marriage was blessed with nine children: Ellen,
the wife of John Watson; Irene. who
was married but is now deceased; Clara A., the
widow of Stephen A. Oyster; Ida M., at
home; Horatio S., James W. and Wallace,
who follow farming; Myrtle, at home; Mamie.
Who died at the age of twelve years; and one who died in
infancy.
Mr. Garber held the office of county
commissioner from January, 1890, to September, 1896,
there being no opposition to his election at the first
term. He filled the office of township trustee for
several years and was a member of the township school
board for ten years. In politics he is a Democrat.
He belongs to the Grange and to Cask's Lodge, No. 382.
K. of P.. of Bellville. and he and his family are
members of the Universalist church. His en tire
life has been passed in Richland county and his many
acquaintances know him to be a man of sterling worth,
reliable in business and trustworthy in all life's
relations.
Source: A Centennial Biographical History of
Richland and Ashland County, Ohio - Publ. 1901 - Page
255 |
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NOTES:
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