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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

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ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO
History & Genealogy

BIOGRAPHIES *

  Source
 1798
History of Ashtabula County, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its
Pioneers and Most Prominent Men.
by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers -
1878
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Hon. Darius Cadwell		 HON. DARIUS CADWELL.  Twenty miles from Lake Erie, on the east line of the State of Ohio, is situated the township of Andover.  It was settled by a population entirely from the eastern States, and solely agricultural in their pursuits until quite recently.  Now two railroads unite at the centre, and a thriving village is growing up around the station. But rural as were the habits of this people, they have contributed largely of their numbers to the legal profession.  Among the present and former members of the bar, we notice the following as having been residents of that township at the time they commenced the study of that profession, viz.: B. F. Wade, Edward Wade, Darius Cadwell, James Cadwell, B. F. Wade (2d), D. S. Wade, E. C. Wade, Matthew Reed, David Strickland, B. B. Pickett, J. W. Brigden, J. N. Wight, Monroe Moore, Homer Moore, and C. D. Ainger,—most of whom have occupied conspicuous positions in the county and State, and some of them in the councils of the nation.
     Roger Cadwell removed from Bloomfield, Hartford county, Connecticut, to Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1817.  Darius, his second son, was born at Andover, Apr. 13, 1821.  The father was a large farmer, and his children were all reared to habits of industry.  Darius obtained a good education, which was in part acquired at Allegheny college, at Meadville, Pennsylvania.  He commenced the study of the law with the law-firm of Messrs. Wade & Ranney, at Jefferson, Ohio, in February, 1842, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1844.  In the spring of 1847 he entered into partnership in the practice of the law, at Jefferson, with Rufus P. Ranney and Charles S. Simouds.  This partnership continued until 1851, when Mr. Ranney was elected a judge of the supreme court, and the partnership of Simonds & Cadwell continued until the fall of 1871.
     Mr. Cadwell was a diligent student, had fine literary and legal attainments, was a close reasoner and a good advocate, and soon after he commenced the practice of the law he took rank with the best members of the profession, and few cases of importance were tried in the county in which he did not participate.  On the 13th of April, 1847, he was married to Ann Eliza Watrous, a daughter of John B. Watrous, of Ashtabula, by whom he had one son and one daughter, now living.  In habits and morals he was correct and exemplary.  He was very social, and always had a large circle of ardent friends and admirers.  From the time he became a resident of Jefferson he discharged his full portion of the duties of minor offices, from village alderman upwards.  He held the office of representative in the State legislature during the years 1856 and 1857, and during the years 1858 and 1859 he represented his district, composed of Ashtabula, Lake, and Geauga counties, in the senate of Ohio.  Upon the organization of the provost-marshal general’s department in 1863, he was appointed provost-marshal for the nineteenth district of Ohio, which office he held until the close of the war, with his headquarters at Warren, Ohio, until September, 1865, when his headquarters were transferred to Cleveland, where he was placed in charge and closed out the business of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth districts, and was himself mustered out of service Dec. 20, 1865.  In the fall of 1871 he opened a law office in Cleveland, and immediately secured a large practice in the courts of Cuyahoga county.  At the October election, 1873, he was elected judge of the court of common pleas for Cuyahoga county for the term of five years, and is now discharging the duties of that office, in which he has acquired an enviable reputation.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 93
  Ashtabula -
AMASA CASTLE, Jr., was born in Plymouth, Connecticut, Apr. 5, 1786, from which place his parents removed to Burlington, Vermont, where they remained several years, finally emigrating in 1808 to "New Connecticut," and halting in Ashtabula, at that date a dense forest, teeming with Indians, wolves, bears, and other wild animals.
     His father, Amasa Castle, Sr., was a brave, intrepid soldier in the War of the Revolution, and brought to the new home all the spirit and energy which characterized the men of that generation, and helped them to conquer the apparently insurmountable obstacles which beset the frontiersman's progress.  The mother, Mrs. Mary Stanley Castle, who was a direct descendant of the English Stanleys, was a woman of rare abilities and great strength of character, - a worthy mother of children who helped to make the history of this country.  Her father and oldest brother were made prisoner of war by the British, and, with hundreds of others, were poisoned while confined on a prison-ship at Baltimore.  Afterwards a monument, in or near New York, bearing their names, and which still exists, was raised to their memory.  Another brother, Frederic Stanley, Esq., afterwards a distinguished lawyer of New York, was, when only nineteen, one of General Washington's aides-de-camp, and on numerous occasions distinguished himself by his fearless heroism and devotion to the cause for which they were fighting.
     With his inheritance of such qualities as these, combined with inflexible rectitude of principle, Mr. Castle brought to the wilderness only his strong arms, light heart, and perfect health.  Buying some land on the "South Ridge," about a mile east of where the village stands, he, with his father, and brother Daniel, commenced the task of making a productive farm in the midst of the unbroken forest.  Like all the pioneers of that time, they suffered great hardships, often lacking necessary food, and being compelled to depend on wood-craft to keep from starvation.  Even after the grain was raised it was difficult to get it ground, the nearest mill being at Cleveland or Walnut Creek, sixty miles away, and no mode of conveyance except the horse's back.  This, with the dangers from wild animals which beset the journey, made it a great undertaking, and often their only bread was made from corn pounded in a wooden mortar.  In these days of steam-mills, railroads, and other things, which seem a common and necessary part of our civilization, it seems almost incredible that people should voluntarily endure such privations, and the present generation is too apt to forget how much of its present prosperity is owing to the courage and perseverance of its ancestors.
     During the War of 1812, Mr. Castle was one of the militia so often called out to protect the government stores at Cleveland and at Ashtabula Harbor from being captured by the British.  So continual were the alarms, so great the anxiety, and so determined the patriotism of the hardy settlers, that, scarcely enough persons were left at home to raise the necessary food for sustenance, and nearly all the work was done by the women and children, aided by a few men unfit for military duty.  During all that time of trial and suffering no one was ever more ready and willing for service, however hard and dangerous, than the subject of this sketch.
     In January, 1813, he married Miss Rosalinda Watrous (their marriage license standing third on the records of Ashtabula County), daughter of Captain John Watrous, who emigrated from Saybrook, Connecticut, in the year 1810, with two yoke of oxen and one horse, the journey occupying forty days.  With Captain Watrous were his wife and ten children, some of them already men and women, Rosalinda being at the time but fourteen years old.
     Arrived in Ashtabula, they first settled at the Harbor, with every prospect of prosperity; but a heavy sorrow was in store for them, for only four brief weeks had elapsed when the father suddenly sickened and died, leaving this stricken family, homesick and almost discouraged, to struggle with the hardships of the new country.  Captain Watrous was the third white man buried in West Ashtabula.
     Mr. and Mrs. Castle raised a family of six children, two of whom, with their mother, still reside in Ashtabula.  For fifty-eight years they walked hand-in-hand through the path of life, sometimes in sunshine and sometimes in shadow, but always in perfect harmony; and when at last, in December, 1870, at the age of eighty-four, he lay down to his final rest, his devoted wife received his last word and look of recognition.  By their industry and self-denial they not only educated their children, but acquired a competency which rendered comfortable their declining years; but the best inheritance of their children will be the example of their lives of energy, content, and spotless integrity.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 143

Residence of
N. S. Caswell,
Geneva Tp.,
Ashtabula Co., O
N. S. Caswell
Mrs. N. S. Caswell		 Geneva Twp. -
NORMAN S. CASWELL.  Among the prominent and influential business men of this beautiful village is the one whose name appears at the head of this sketch.  He was born in Marcellus, Onondaga county, New York, Apr. 12, 1819, and is the third son of Joshua and Jane Caswell.  In 1821 removed with his parents to Centreville, New York.  Remained until 1833, when he came to Ohio, locating in Conneaut for about two years, when he came to Geneva.  He had lived with his parents, assisting them on the farm and attending district school (in which he acquired his education), until about 1836.  Being then seventeen years of age, he bought his time of his father for fifty dollars, and began work for George Webster, of Saybrook, for nine dollars per month.  After two years’ hard labor at farming, chopping, etc., he obtained funds sufficient, paid his father for his time, and became his “ own man.”  His first labor now was at Austinburg, in the oil-mill; here he labored for two years by the month, then went to Indiana and purchased his first real estate, returned to Austinburg, and ran the oil-mill on his own account for two years.  Began learning the clothier’s trade in 1841.  This business he prosecuted for three years, when, his health having become impaired by over-work, he made a six months’ trip to Thunder Bay island on a fishing excursion.  In Nov., 1844, he was married to Maria A., daughter of Philander and Lovisa Knapp, of Geneva.  The winter following he purchased a woolen-factory in Girard, Pennsylvania, and removed there with his wife; had then eight hundred dollars.  In 1846 disposed of his factory, returned to Geneva, and assisted his father-in-law in running the “Eagle tavern.”  In 1847 he entered the agricultural implement trade, beginning by selling hoes from a wagon, adding forks, scythe, snaths, stones, etc., in 1849.  In 1854 he commenced the manufacture of agricultural tools, in company with O. H. Price, in the “Arcade” building, on South ridge.  In 1857 put in a trip-hammer, and made forks, garden- and horse-rakes, cultivators, etc.  In 1860 the sales were some twenty thousand dollars, and the trade had extended to Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan.  This year he became sole owner of the business, and continued as such until 1868, when he formed a copartnership with Charles Tinker, of Garrettsville, Ohio.  Their combined capital was thirty thousand dollars, sales about forty thousand dollars per year.  At this time the manufacture of steel goods was conducted at Garrettsville, and wood at Geneva.  In 1870, Mr. Caswell founded the Geneva Tool company, selling out his works to this institution; he, however, retained an interest of fifteen thousand dollars, and acted as superintendent for nearly two years.  His fine residence was erected in 1872.  In 1873 engaged in the produce and commission business, and in 1875 built the Geneva flouring-mill, which he still operates in connection with the commission trade.  He retains his interest in the tool company, and has been one of the directors since its organization.
     His first child, Frank, was born March, 1847, and died in infancy.  Loren, the next child, was born April, 1848, also died young. Mrs. Caswell died Feb. 10, 1862, and on Nov. 13, 1862, he was again married, to Emma A., daughter of John B. and Aris Gilbert, of Conneaut, Ohio.  The children by this marriage are Byrd G., born Mar. 20, 1864; Glen G., born June 20, 1867; and Don N., born Oct. 8, 1871.
     Mr. Caswell is a member of Geneva lodge, Xo. 294, Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, also of Encampment, No. 94, Independent Order of Good Templars, No. 491, and North Star grange, No. 671.  He is a strong advocate of temperance, his politics being Prohibition, he having been identified with that party for some years.  His religious belief, one God and no hell.  Believes the spirits of departed friends communicate with mortals on this earth.  Was elected a justice of the peace in 1854, and served three years.  He was a director of the First National bank of Geneva for a number of years.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 182

Residence of
Jno. & Eleanor Churchill
E. Trumbull,
Ashtabula Co., O		 Trumbull Twp. -
JOHN CHURCHILL. was born in Boonville, Oneida county, New York, on the 14th day of August, in the year 1814, and is the second in a family of ten, the children of Carolus and Polly Churchill, of the above point, but who removed to Ohio and located in Hartsgrove township in 1833. The place of their settlement is now owned by E. G. Hurlburt, Esq.  In the year 1842 they removed to Illinois, and remained there until their decease.  The education of the gentleman under consideration, a view of whose residence appears in this volume, was obtained at the common schools, and, it is unnecessary to state, was far below the average of the present district school education.  The first real estate he became possessed of was in 1851.  This was the eighty-three acres now owned in part by H. Stenard.  His life-work since then has been that of a farmer.  The fifty-four acres he now occupies in lots 31 and 32 were purchased in 1856, and are equal in productiveness with those adjoining them.  Mr. Churchill was, on Sept. 20, 1840, united in marriage to Eleanor H., daughter of David and Elizabeth Bartram, then of Trumbull township, but who was born in Madison, Lake county.  The father died Sept. 2, 1875, and the mother Dec. 31, 1854. This couple were of the pioneers of Trumbull township.  From this marriage were born two children: Adline, born Apr. 8, 1844, married Henry Kellogg, and died July 18, 1866; and Warren, who was a private in Company C, Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was in sixteen battles, and died of disease contracted in the service, on the 3d day of October, 1865.  Politically, Mr. Churchill is a sterling Democrat.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 230

Res. of
Wesley Clark,
Cherry Valley Twp.,
Ashtabula Co., O
Wesley Clark
Miss Alcha E. Clark
Mrs. Wesley Clark		 Cherry Valley Twp. -
WESLEY CLARK.     This gentleman is the fourth of a family of seven children.  He was born in Albany, New York, Nov. 18, 1814. His parents were Dr. William A. and Polly Vandervier Clark, originally of Monmouth, New Jersey.  Removed to Cherry Valley on Oct. 10, 1822, and are both deceased.  For a further description of his parents, see the history of Cherry Valley.  Wesley Clark was educated at common school, doing much study at home by the light of the huge open fire.  Among the early incidents and hardships of pioneer life is remembered the fact that the father of the subject of this sketch moved into the wilderness of Cherry Valley, erected a log cabin, put on a part of the roof, and moved in.  That night the snow fell to the depth of eighteen inches, making for strangers in a strange land an exceeding cool reception.  Wesley Clark was married Mar. 3, 1850, to Emily, daughter of Marvin and Laura Snow, of Cherry Valley.  From this marriage were born two children : Bent Wade, the eldest, died in infancy; Alcha E. was born Mar. 22, 1860.  The political party to which Mr. C. belongs is that of Democratic.  He is also a member of the order of Free-masons.  He is a worthy and influential citizen.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 238

Dr. Elijah Coleman		 ELIJAH COLEMAN, M. D.     The name of Dr. Elijah Coleman is identified with the early history of the country, and will be held in grateful remembrance by many who have experienced the benefits of his skill and kindness on the bed of sickness and pain.  Dr. Coleman was born at Norton, Suffolk county, Massachusetts, on the 14th of May, 1782.  He read physic and surgery in Castleton, Vermont, with his uncle, Dr. Witherill, since known as one of the Territorial judges of Michigan.  Having completed his professional duties he commenced the practice of medicine in the State of Connecticut, but being assured that the west then held out desirable prospects for young men, he decided to trust his chance for fortune in that direction.  He arrived in Jefferson, this county, in 1808 or 1809, and commenced his experience of the hardships of frontier life by resuming the practice of medicine among the new settlements in that region.  Some idea of the nature of those hardships may be derived from the fact that his ride at the time comprehended the eastern ranges in our county (with the exception of Conneaut and vicinity), and likewise included portions of Erie and Crawford counties, Pennsylvania.  In addition to the labors of his profession, he was agent of the late Gideon Granger in completing the first court-house and jail in Jefferson, and performed the duties of postmaster, justice of the peace, and township clerk for that
township.  He sustained the loss of all his effects, together with the mail and township records, in the burning of the Caldwell buildings in Jefferson, in 1811, which accident was caused by the bursting of a barrel of high wines.
     In 1812, Dr. Coleman received an appointment of surgeon in the western army, to which he repaired in August of that year; was stationed first at Cleveland, and afterwards at Camp Avery, on the Huron river, then under the command of General Simon Perkins.  In the month of April, 1813, Dr. Coleman left the camp at Huron in company with Titus Hayes, of Wayne, and Captain Burnham, of Kinsman, for Fort Meigs, on the Maumee.  During this trip he had two very narrow escapes from capture and death at the hands of the Indians.
     Some incidents in Dr. Coleman’s life, as furnished by Dr. J. C. Hubbard, and by his daughter, Mrs. Robertson, are as follows:
     The pioneer doctors of Ashtabula County were subjected to most extraordinary hardships.  A large part of this county is flat, with a stiff clay soil, and was heavily timbered; many parts of it were uninviting to the tide of settlers seeking homes in the far west.
     Six months of the year many of the roads were almost impassable.  As late as the year 1852 the regular stage-coach was abandoned between Ashtabula and Jefferson during the muddy season, and a lumber-wagon was substituted; four horses were required to draw the lighter conveyance.  Physicians were obliged to keep in the saddle during the spring and fall months.
     The subject of this sketch.  Dr. Elijah Coleman, and the late Dr. O. K. Hawley, of Austinburg, rode for the first fifteen years all over the county on horseback by day and by night.
     Dr. Coleman was frequently called by night to ride as far as Pierpont through the forest, following the "bridle-paths" as best he could, while hungry wolves were howling about in all directions.  These visits were often paid to "newcomers," who had squatted in the woods, and were as poor as can be imagined.  The doctor relates that he rarely got anything among them to eat except “ johnnycake," fried salt pork, and "whisky pickles."  These disagreeable rides were performed year after year without the expectation of adequate reward, and they deserve to be recorded in justice to the memory of a generous, resolute man.
     He had a keen appreciation of the humorous.  Traveling at one time he was obliged to get his dinner at one of the primitive taverns.  When he came to settle his bill they charged him for whisky.  He said.  "I drank no whisky."  The landlord replied.  It makes no difference; it was on the table, you might have had it.  He paid his bill, concluding to be even with him at some future time.  On his return he called at the same place for dinner.  Sitting down at the table, he placed his saddle-bags, containing his medicines, by him.  At settling he charged for medicine.  “ But I had no medicine.” says the proprietor.  "No matter; it was on the table, von might have had it."  the doctor replied.
     Dr. Coleman was possessed of sound judgment, and was well up in the practical skill of the profession in his day.  He was deliberate and faithful in bestowing his attention on the sick.  He never hurried, but stayed long enough to do his work thoroughly in severe eases.  He would sometimes spend several days in cases of critical sickness, not seeming to think of fees he might get by going his usual rounds among those of his patients who were not in danger.  He was gifted with both wit and humor in a remarkable degree, and was a good story-teller, which was considered an accomplishment fifty years ago.  He delighted many a fireside with quaint stories connected with his calling and his experiences in the army.  The doctor was a philosophical practitioner, and though he flourished in a day when it was fashionable to dispense medicine with a lavish hand, he often exposed his faith in the healing power of nature by trying expectant plans of treatment.
     In 1811 he was married to Phebe Spencer, only sister of the "Spencer brothers," a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and to whom he owed much of his success in after-life.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 119

Mr. & Mrs.
Nathaniel Coleman		 Wayne Twp. -
NATHANIEL COLEMAN.     Nathaniel Coleman, whose portrait appears in this work, was bora at Chesterfield, Massachusetts, Jan. 19, 1779.  His great-grandfather was an officer during the old French and Indian wars.  His father, Deacon Nathaniel Coleman, was one of that band who, disguised as Indians, boarded the British tea-ships at Boston harbor, and threw the tea into the sea.  At the battle of Bunker Hill his father was one of the band stationed on a peninsula, then called “Horseneck,” to intercept the landing of men from a British vessel.  As the lamented General Warren passed he approved of their position, and, smiling, passed up the height to the fort.  They saw him but once after, and that was when he fell.  Mr. Coleman’s father died May 17, 1837, in Wayne, honored and revered, at the advanced age of eighty-three years.  Nathaniel Coleman, at the age of twenty-three years, left his home in Massachusetts, and settled in Canandaigua, New York, where he married Submit, only sister of Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, June 4, 1804.  In company with Mr. Giddings’ family they moved to Wayne, Ashtabula County, in June, 1806.  They entered upon the Western Reserve at Conneaut, on the day of the total eclipse of the sun of that year.  Just as the sun was becoming darkened they stopped to cook their food, and also observe the eclipse.  As they kindled a fire, an eagle alighted on a projecting rock that over- looked Lake Erie, and folded its wings as if to repose.  They might have brought it down with their trusty rifle, but they talked of the incident as an omen of success, and left it there in peace.  They cut a road through the south part of Williamsfield and Wayne to the Pymatuning creek, and theirs were the first teams that crossed the creek in Wayne, near where the South bridge now stands.  Mr. Coleman's wife died in Wayne, Jan. 21, 1809.  In January, 1810, he married Miss Kezia Jones. Her father died in Somers, Connecticut, in 1804.  Her mother, like other early settlers, wishing to see her family settled around her, and not being able to purchase high-priced land in New England, came to Wayne, in 1807, with her children, consisting of three sons and four daughters.  One of the sons was among the soldiers surrendered by General Hull, at Detroit.  Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, in his address at the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Wayne, in 1853, stated that Miss Keziah Jones taught the first school in Wayne township, commencing in the spring of 1809, where he obtained the only school education that he received after he was ten years of age.  A kind mother and grandmother, a generous neighbor, she passed away Feb. 19, 1862, aged seventy-eight years.
     In the War of 1812, Nathaniel Coleman joined Captain Joshua Fobes’ company, Colonel Richard Hayes’ regiment, and marched to Cleveland, and from there to Camp Avery, near Huron.  He was appointed quartermaster of his regiment, an office not free from peril, as much of their meat consisted of wild game, or cattle and hogs found running at large in the forest.  He filled the office with credit and approval, and by activity and industry was often enabled to relieve the suffering, or take their place in the ranks.  The first settlers were certainly men and women of great enterprise and resolution to break away from the comforts of old established communities, and go hundreds of miles beyond the borders of civilization into a wilderness, to enter into the hardships and privations incident to a new country.  With such people he was associated in the early efforts to form an en- lightened community and cultivated society on the Western Reserve.  He was chosen one of the first justices of the peace in and for the territory now embraced in the townships of Wayne, Williamsfield, Andover, and Cherry Valley.  His first commission was dated in July, 1811.  He served in that capacity for twenty- one years.  He even labored to obtain amicable settlements, and was slow to render decision.  On deciding he clearly defined points of law, and in his decisions was very firm.  If he was ever a leader in council, he did not appear to be such.  Retiring, unassuming, yet observing, if he spoke, attention watched his lips; if he reasoned, conviction seemed to close his periods.  He early became engaged as agent in the sale and surveying of lands, and observed closely the quality of the soil, timber, surface, and streams, and was often consulted by settler's and purchasers who wished for immediate information.  His life has been peculiarly marked by kindly relations with all with whom he associated.  Of a generous nature and strong mind, not void of wit and humor, he drew around him a circle of friends, while his marked integrity, consistent Christian character, and a modesty that withheld him from a desire for official position, rendered him prominent as a counselor and adviser.  He died July 22, 1868, in the ninetieth year of his age.  One who was intimately acquainted with him, and knew him well in his declining years, has observed that his desire for life seemed to recede parallel with his failing organism, until they seemed to go out together without a struggle.
     Eliza, oldest daughter of Nathaniel Coleman, was born in Wayne, May 28, 1807; married Sylvester Ward, Feb. 22, 1828.  She died in Wayne, Feb. 22, 1872.  Her children were Orcutt Reed, born Dec. 23, 1828; Erasmus Darwin, born June 17, 1832; Calvin Coleman, born May 18, 1836, died Mar. 20, 1837; Eliza Sarepta, born May 6, 1839; Sabra Matilda, born May 20, 1842, died in 1846; Flora Maria, born Sept. 11, 1848.  Submit, second daughter, born Oct. 10, 1810; married David Hart, of Wayne, Jan. 6, 1836; died May 6, 1839.  Her children were Henry C., born Aug. 11, 1837; Salmon, born Mar. 16, 1839. Nathaniel, Jr., oldest son of Nathaniel Coleman, was born June 13, 1812; married Miss Mary A. Latham, of Wayne, Nov. 28, 1839.  Their children were Nathaniel Latham, born in Wayne, Nov. 10, 1842, enlisted in the autumn of 1864, as sergeant in Company K, One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Ohio Infantry, died at Cumberland hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, Dec. 1, 1864, and was buried in the United States cemetery, in grave numbered ten thousand and fourteen, aged twenty-two years and twenty-one days; Jennie born Feb. 5, 1846, married Truman L. Creesey of Cherry Valley, in April, 1864; Zally, born Sept. 19, 1853.  Rachel, third daughter of Nathaniel Coleman born Aug. 11, 1814, married William H. Hoisington, of Oberlin, Jan. 28, 1845; their only child, Sophia Naomi, was born in Parkman, Ohio, Mar. 22, 1846.  William, second son of Nathaniel Coleman, born Oct. 25, 1816, died Jan. 13, 1819.  Kezia C., born in Wayne, Oct. 4, 1819, married Stephen W. Bailey, of Parkman, Ohio, Nov. 19, 1846.  Their children were Russell Williams, born in Parkman, Ohio, Dec. 5, 1847, died in Wayne, Sept. 29, 1854; Florence Maria, born Mar. 26, 1856, married Kirtland Dillon of Colebrook, Ohio, May 3, 1876, - their only child, Russell Ernst, born in Wayne, June 25, 1877.  William, third son of Nathaniel Coleman, born in Wayne, Nov. 4, 1822, married Miss Emily Phelps, of Cherry Valley, Ohio, Mar. 13, 1851; children, Albertus A., born Jan. 8, 1852, died in Wayne, Sept. 23, 1854; Oliver William born July 20, 1853; Elliott Seeley, born in Wayne, Apr. 2, 1855; Minnie Viola, born Mar. 26, 1860, married Daniel L. Horton of Wayne, Jan. 31, 1877.  Francis, youngest son of Nathaniel Coleman, was born in Wayne, July 20, 1827; married Miss Mary R. Miles of Weymouth, England, Jan. 8, 1852; children, Alphonso Miles, born in Wayne, May 17, 1854; Clifton Royal, born Aug. 16, 1855; Carrie born Jan. 19, 1862.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 248

S. H. Cook
Co. Treasurer Elect.		 SIDNEY HARRIS COOK, Treasurer Elect.  It is with pleasure that we present to the readers of this volume the following sketch of the life of one of the many self-made men of our county.  Mr. Cook was born at Newton Falls, Trumbull county, Ohio, Aug. 11, 1838.  His parents were Carlos P. and Alzina Cook, originally from New York.  The father was killed by a falling tree, and consequent upon this the subject of the present sketch went to live with an uncle, but had no regular home and but meagre school advantages.  At the age of fourteen he began to learn the carpenter’s trade, and in 1856 went to Wisconsin with George S. Jones, of Jefferson, Ohio; remained there some three years; was one of the contractors in the building of the Sharette House, which being heavily mortgaged, and the owners failing about the time it was completed, the builders lost everything, and Mr. Cook came home without a penny.—borrowing the funds necessary to pay his passage home.  In August, 1861, he enlisted in an independent company of sharpshooters, disbanded, and in October enlisted under Captain W. R. Allen, of Jefferson, in what was to be “Lane's brigade band" sent home by general order, and on the 16th of August, 1862, again enlisted as a private under Captain O. C. Pratt, of Ashtabula, Ohio; was assigned to Company A, Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; appointed corporal after battle of Perryville (Oct. 8, 1862); quartermaster sergeant, Oct. 15, 1862, and assistant-brigade quartermaster, Nov. 16, 1862; commissioned as lieutenant, and assigned to Company E, May, 1864; commanded the company through the Atlanta campaign; February, 1864, appointed provost-marshal of Third Brigade, Second Division, Twenty-third Corps, on staff of General S. A. Strickland; in March, 1864, appointed ordnance-officer in General McLean’s Division, and in April following to same position on the staff of General Schofield; was one of the eight officers who went to the headquarters of General J. E. Johnson, at Greensboro’, North Carolina, under flag of truce; after the surrender received the ordnance stores and turned the same over to United States Government.   When ordered home at the close of the war was temporarily in command of the company in which he went out a private
participated in fifteen engagements; was wounded in right ankle at Perryville, and in left arm at Dallas; was twice captured, but happily escaped.  After the war engaged in the occupation of merchandising at Lenox, and will go from that into the office of county treasurer, to which he was elected Oct. 8, 1877.  Mr. Cook was married on Nov. 1, 1865, to Miss Laura C., daughter of Rev. R. Clark, of Conneaut, Ohio; have two children,—Hattie, born June 29, 1871, and Carlos Clark, whose birth occurred Nov. 12, 1875.  Is a member
of Tuscan lodge, No. 342, F. and A. M., and of Giddings post, No. 7, G. A. R.  Has always been a straight “out and out” Republican, and a member of the Free Baptist church at Lenox since 1868.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 126
  ALFRED COWLES, printer and publisher, was born in Mantua, May 13, 1832, a son of Dr. E. W. and Almira M. Cowles, and grandson of the Rev. Dr. Cowles.  His early days were spent in Cleveland, Detroit, and Austinburg.  At the latter place he attended school at Grand River institute for several terms.  For some years previous to attending that school and afterwards he picked up his trade of printer in the printing-office of his brother, Mr. Edwin Cowles.  He finished his education in the University of Michigan, and in 1853 entered the office of the Cleveland Leader as book-keeper.  That paper at that time was published by John C. Vaughan, Mr. Joseph Medill, now of the Chicago Tribune, and Mr. Edwin Cowles, its present editor.  In 1855, Messrs. Vaughan and Medill sold out their interest in the Leader to Mr. Edwin Cowles, and moved to Chicago, and purchased the Tribune.  Appreciating the business ability of Alfred, then a young man of only twenty-three years, they offered him inducements to take charge of the business department of the Tribune, then in a deplorable financial condition, which he accepted.  The result of the swarming out of the Leader office of these three gentlemen was the resuscitation of the Tribune, then considered on its last legs, and the making of that paper what it has been since, one of the foremost journals in the land, both editorially and financially.  The success of this great paper was owing to the editorial abilities of its leading writers, at various periods, Messrs. Medill, Dr. Ray, Horace White, and Governor Bross, and to he management of the business and mechanical departments of Mr. Cowles.  Measuring the standing of the Tribune by the amount of its business and its profits there are only two papers that excel it in these respects, namely, the New York Herald and Philadelphia Ledger, the New York Times taking equal rank with the Chicago Tribune.  When it is considered that this remarkable specimen of journalistic success is located in Chicago, a new city of less than half a century's growth, and only one-third of the size of New York and Brooklyn, which are properly the field of the New York papers, and a city one-half the size of Philadelphia, the field of the Ledger, a realizing sense can be attained of the newspaper talent shown by Mr. Cowles.  Furthermore, the Tribune publishes more telegraphic news, several times over, more general news, and more reading matter than are given by the greatest of European journals, the London Times, backed as it is by a city of seven times the size of Chicago, saying nothing of the almost innumerable cities and villages within a few hours' ride of that great metropolis.
     In his business intercourse, Mr. Cowles has always made it a point to be governed by rules founded on strict integrity and fair dealing, which, combines with his shrewd judgment and tireless industry, have resulted in his taking a position among the wealthy capitalists of Chicago.
     In 1860, Mr. Cowles was married to Miss Sarah F. Hutchinson, a sister of Mrs. Edwin Cowles was not born in Ashtabula County, yet a great portion of his childhood days were spent in Austinburg, and he considers himself to be a son of Ashtabula, on the score of his being a descendant of his good old grandfather and a son of his respected father, who both were among the early settlers of Austinburg.  A year never goes by when he did not make his accustomed visit to his venerable aunts and uncles and the numerous cousins in the township.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 103
  BETSEY MIX COWLES.  Among those whose strong convictions and outspoken zeal in the cause of humanity made Ashtabula County famous in the history of the State, not one did more, in proportion to opportunity, than the subject of this sketch, Betsy M. Cowles.  Born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1810, she was brought an infant to Austinburg, when her father, the Rev. Dr. Giles Hooker Cowles, removed his family hither.
     The homely surroundings of pioneer life, its hardships and its pleasures, united with the culture and refinement which at that day always pervaded the atmosphere of a minister's dwelling, served to develop a character singularly sweet and strong.  Like all strong and energetic natures, an out-door life was a necessity to her childish happiness, and this built up for her the fine constitution and commanding presence which so greatly enlarged her sphere of usefulness in afterlife.
     Her struggle for an education was that incident to those early days.  We hear of her now at the district and now at the select school, or perhaps bending with anxious brow over the difficulties of algebra under the guidance of the young tutor of Grand River Institute; but wherever found, the steady aim and unwavering purpose of the student were clearly apparent.  Like all great and generous natures, there was in her character a vein of mirthfulness and humor which neither care nor study could suppress, and which, bubbling out at the slightest provocation, made her an especial favorite with her companions.  Her energy and independence fitted her for a leader, and she quietly took her natural place among her associates without assurance and without diffidence.
     Although her life-work was to be that of a teacher, her first essay in her profession she never considered a success.  When about seventeen years of age, the little brown school-house on the "East road" was without its accustomed summer teacher.  Some zealous committee-man asked the Rev. Dr. Cowles if one of his daughters might not take charge of the flock for the summer.  He selected Betsey, on account of her "discretion," and the following Monday morning she went over to take possession.  One weary week passed by, and at its close our young teacher took a direct line through the woods for home, simply remarking, when she arrived there, that she should not go back.  Entreaty was of no avail, and her elder sister, Cornelia, completed the term.  It is related that the five lunches sent by her kind hostess for her mid-day meal were found carefully put away in the little desk, together with sundry and divers adverse opinions concerning the desirability of school-teaching.
     The next year, however, she began in earnest and taught a small school near Warren, in Trumbull county.  In after years it was her delight to gather around her a group of students, some of whom were about to try the unknown experiment of self-support, and relating her own experiences, cheerily say, "Now you can't possibly do worse than I did."
     For several years she taught and studied alternately, until at last a friend Miss Hawley, came on from New York, bringing with her the plan and organization of the infant-school system, which had been introduced into this country from England during the first decade of this century.  Here was a field for which here pasture was fitted, and she entered upon it with great enthusiasm.  Her remarkable power over children, her profound sympathy with them, the fascination she seemed to exercise over them, all came into play, and her "infant schools" were the wonder and the delight of the surrounding country.  Grave divines and learned judges, mothers oppressed with cares, and business-men in the whirl of trade, all, indeed, who ever attended, look back to the hours spent in Miss Cowles' infant school, as the one glimpse of fairy-land amid the prosaic interests of life.  The wonders of the lessons in natural history, the pathos of the Bible stories, and the glories of the "solar system," illustrated with various-sized cotton balls, carried by children, moving around in planetary orbits, live in memory still.
     In 1831, shortly after her father's retirement from the ministry, there was held in Austinburg a four-days' revival meeting, such as were then common on the Western Reserve.  Although carefully reared in the Puritan customs of those days, yet it was during this meeting that Mrs. Cowles for the first time made profession of that faith of which her life had ever been the expression, - her love and trust in her Saviour.  With the majority of her associates she united with the church, and having been a leader in secular things, she now became a leader in spiritual things.  Her letters, written at this time, and for fifteen years thereafter, breathe the most devoted spirit of prayer and trust in Christ.
     In 1835 her father died.  According to the ideas of those days, a proper provision for daughters was held to be to billet them upon the brothers' portion, rather than provide for their separate maintenance.  Hence Miss Cowles and her two sisters found themselves, by their father's will, entitled to "support."  It is needless to say that Betsey much preferred to support herself, and although the homestead and farm were by the brothers generously and equally divided from choice, yet it was evident that there must be a separation, cause by a feeling of independence, among those who hitherto had lived to closely and so happily together.  As a result of this decision, Miss Betsey went to Oberlin, in order to prepare herself for the battle of life.
     Her Oberlin life was ever recalled with pleasure.  She was one of the pioneer students, and her name occurs in the triennial catalogue as a member of the third class graduated from the ladies' course.  When the time of graduation came she looked about her for a position as teacher.  But none offered itself.  However, quite undaunted, she determined to find one, and started bravely for the southern part of the State.  As she used afterwards to express it, "Providence did not seem to open any door for me, so I pushed one open for myself."  And we next hear of her at Portsmouth, Ohio, teaching a select school, the idol of her pupils and admiration of the community.  She remained there three years and then returned to Austinburg to take charge of the female department recently added to Grand River Institute, and became its lady principal.  The maples now growing in the grounds of the Institute are the living witnesses of her interest in the school, for she, with the assistance of the students, planted them.
     About this time, though some of her friends in Stark county, she became personally acquainted with the leaders of the anti-slavery movement.  All her life long she had hated cruelty and oppression, and now came the touchstone of character which should test the strength of her convictions.  She realized that heretofore she had but dreamed, had beheld vaguely, dimly, men as trees walking; but now she was privileged to see aright.  Through Austinburg ran the turnpike north and south, and along this line from time to time came a fugitive from slavery.   Women, telling the story of their wrongs, and bearing the marks of the whip upon their backs, were arguments which set soul and brain on fire; and the strong sense of right and justice, which had ever been her birthright, fired up, regardless of all expediency, all time-serving, all political relations, and, bearing directly to the heart of the question, cried out, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."  She became what was then and is still known as a "Garrisonian abolitionist."  It was her influence more than that of any other person which brought to Ashtabula County that band of early workers in the cause of freedom, - William Lloyd Garrison, Stephen S. Foster, Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, Oliver Johnson, Lucretia Mott, and Abby Kelley, - who, by the force of their reasoning power and the might of their eloquence, succeeded in planting in the minds of the people of Ohio a realizing sense of the horrors of slavery, resulting eventually in that State taking the stand she did during the war of the slaveholders' rebellion.
     Whoever remembers the events of those days must recall the strange apathy and conservationism of many of the churches, and the bold and almost fierce denunciations of the early reformers against them.  For this reason it was feared that Miss Cowles, in her intense sympathy for the slave, and her vehement abhorrence of oppression, had cut loose from the moorings of her early faith and drifted upon a sea of doubt and disquietude.  To some degree, undoubtedly, this was true, but she never drifted away from the dictates of eternal truth and justice, but rather towards them.  She did not give up her trust in God, for it was his justice she invoked.  She did not drift from her religion, for her religious training had taught her to trust in righteousness.  She did not lose her reverence for Christ, since they who sold his children upon the auction-block, and they who palliated the deed, seemed to her to crucify Him afresh and put Him to an open shame.
     A brief extract from an address delivered by Miss Cowles before the county anti-slavery society, held at Orwell in 1845, will explain her true position on this subject.
     The day before the meeting there came to her home a poor woman, who had felt the curse of slavery in all its bitterness, whose limbs bore the marks of the bloodhounds' teeth, whose soul, the deeper degradation of womanhood's dishonor.  No wonder, then, that Miss Cowles' address burned with righteous indignation, and that she called upon God and upon man to suppress the horrid traffic.

     "We have," she says, "in our nominally Christian country, a system which robs mothers of their children and children of their mothers; a system which robs wives of their husbands and husbands of their wives; a system which degrades and brutalizes woman, sells her for gold, and destroys the virtuous emotions of her nature; a system which robs man of his manhood, and extinguishes that spark of divinity which emanated from the Almighty when He breathed into him a living soul.  We have a system which is drinking out the life-blood of liberty, and, unless speedily prevented, will soon drain the last drop.  We have a system which today chattelizes, brutalizes, and barters Jesus Christ Himself, in the person of his poor.  "For inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
     "To perpetuate this system the whole policy of our government is enlisted.  To protect it, the teachings of Him who came to preach deliverance to the captive are wrested from their true meaning, and men are taught to believe a lie - that burdens, yet more grievous to be borne, may be heaped upon them.  To extend it, the treasury of our nation is drained; and to cover its hateful deformity, men who minister at the altar in holy things sacrilegiously defame God their Creator and Christ their Redeemer . . . As Christians, we ask you to do all that you can for its overthrow.  In the name of humanity, in the name of Him who lived and died for man's redemption, we appeal to you.  By the better principals of your nature; by the tender ties of sympathy which bind you to the whole family of man; by the pure principles of the religion of Jesus Christ; by all that is good on earth or in heaven, we entreat you to units with us in doing all that we can to overthrow a system so vile, so demoralizing, so subversive of the interests and rights of man and of the government of God.  Slumber we may, yet mingling with the dismal groans of the captive in the great prison-house of American bondage, loudly calling for retribution as they ascend into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
     "We ask you to aid us in rescuing the bondman from the consuming fires of slavery; we ask you 'to labor to regenerate public sentiment so that the bondman may have his freedom; to labor faithfully in the cause of emancipation till the last yoke be broken, till the last fetter falls from the last slave;' to do what you can to undo the heavy burdens to give freedom to the captive, and to establish to Christian principles of love and human brotherhood."

     Such words as these live; they live in the memory of those who hear them, they bear fruit unto a better life.
     During the entire anti-slavery agitation Miss Cowles and her sister Cornelia were foremost in this work.  Often, after a stirring address, an impromptu quartette would be improvised, Miss Cornelia sustaining the soprano and Miss Betsey the alto; and as their strong, sweet voices rang out in the touching strains, "Say, Christian, will you take me back?" or that other saddest of lamentations, -

"Gone, gone; sold and gone
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, -
Woe is me, by stolen daughters!"

bosoms, hardened before, thrilled in sympathy with an influence they could not but feel, and melted before a power they could not withstand.  It is true that Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua R. Giddings represented the sentiment of Ashtabula County in the congress of the nation; but Betsey M. Cowles, more than any other person, created the sentiment in Ashtabula which upheld those men.
     Nor was it alone for the slave that she made her voice heard and her influence felt.  The position of women before the law, especially the married woman, early arrested her attention.  In 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York, a convention was called by Lucretia Mott and Mrs. H. B. Stanton, for the purpose of obtaining from the constitutional convention about to meet in that State juster laws regarding women.  Over this convention Lucretia Mott presided.  The next one held was in Salem, Ohio, for a similar purpose, in 1850, and Betsey M. Cowles presided.  We, of this day can scarcely realize that those who wrought the mighty changes in our social fabric are either still with us, or have just now fallen by the wayside.  The broad, generous, charitable thought of the present is due to the unceasing effort of a few earnest souls, who counted all things as naught if only they might win some to a broader outlook.  Of those zealous workers not one was more earnest, and in her circle more efficient, than the subject of this sketch.
     In the mean time she never swerved from her devotion to her chosen vocation.  The public schools of Massillon and Canton were nursed in their infancy by her care.  Among the people of both these cities her name today is a household word.  From Canton she was called to assist in organizing and carrying forward the normal school at Hopedale, in Harrison county, Ohio, where she remained until another all took her to Bloomington, Illinois, to again apply her genius and talent to establishing the State Normal school of that city.  From there she went to Painesville, where she held the position and performed the duties of superintendent of schools, with great satisfaction, for three years.  Her last teaching was done in Delhi, New York, where she remained until admonished by threatened blindness to rest, and if possible avert the impending calamity.  There, as elsewhere, she made for herself a place in the hearts of her pupils and of the people, and the mention of her name is but the signal for the warmest expressions of love and affection.  It was during her stay in Delhi that Mr. Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation, and as she read it she said, "The two great tasks of my life are ended together, - my teaching is done, and the slaves are free."
     In 1865, having lost an eye through an unsuccessful surgical operation, she went back to her childhood's home to spend the remaining days of her life.  She went back to no ignoble rest, no useless repining, but to do as she had always done, - care for the weak, counsel the doubting, aid the strong, encourage all who came within her influence.  Those who were privileged to enjoy her intimate association during this time feel that at no period of her life were he labors more helpful to others than then.  In June, 1869, her sister Cornelia died, and for the first time Betsey staggered under a blow which seemed heavier than she could bear.  Their love for each other had been as the love of David and Jonathan and half of Betsey's life seemed stricken away.  Soon, however, she rallied, and how deeply she mourned Cornelia's death was never known until, after her own departure, the daily entries of her diary attested it.  For seven years had she kept the time by years and weeks since the day of her great bereavement:

     "6 yrs. and 45 weeks since dear Cornelia left us.  The Lord is my helper.
     "6 yrs. and 46 weeks since the light of our house went out.  Do they love there still?"
     And the last entry, July 16, nine days previous to her own death, she writes:
     "7 years and 7 weeks since our dear Cornelia was hidden from sight."

     The last recollection the writer has of her is of that nature to which we can always turn with consolation when thinking of a departed friend.  It is the memory of that sweet, strong voice ringing out, with a pathos which was not human and a passion which was not mortal, the words -

"He leadeth me; He leadeth me;
By his right hand He leadeth me."

     Those who knew her intimately during the last years of her life could not but observe how the strong faith of her youth surged back, in an overwhelming tide, either to sweep away or to fill with its own completeness all the doubts of a lifetime, and the words of that passionate hymn were but the expression of the firm trust of her own spirit, - "He leadeth me."
     The last public work in which Miss Cowles was engaged was the building of the new Congregational church in Austinburg.  It was mainly through her exertions that the structure was erected, and the first public gathering within its walls was the funeral service held over her remains.
     She died July 25, 1876, at the homestead in Austinburg, after an illness of a single week.  Her death was sudden and unexpected.  A long ride in the heat, a hearty meal when exhausted, an acute attack of inflammation, and death.  Her friends, save those in Austinburg, were scarcely notified of her illness ere the telegraph bore them the sad news that she was gone.  Her diary, however, attests that this result might not have been wholly unforeseen, since for three months previous the sad refrain of every exercise was, "So tired, I am so tired."  The weakening of the vital forces was slowly going on; but she never complained, and no one knew until it was too late.
|     Her ashes lie buried in the little cemetery opposite her home, whose care for the last ten years had been her charge, and for which she made provision in her will.
     To that place of graves her own is added.  Green grass covers it, blue skies arch it, the birds sing near it.  But greener than the grass, fairer than the sky, sweeter than the birds, and more hallowed than the grave itself, is the memory of her name and virtues enshrined in the hearts of those who knew and loved her.  
     Useful was her life, fitting as were he words and deeds, all who knew her felt that she herself was greater than all she did.  "It was not so much," writes one who loved her, "what she said and did, as the atmosphere she created, which influenced all hearts."  So sunny and genial and hospitable was that great soul, it seemed as if the instinct of all sufferers drew them to her side.  From her counsels none went empty-handed away.  To her all occasions were equal, and she was equal to all occasions.  She was indeed a perfect woman, nobly planned.
NOTE:  This work was by Harriet L. Keeler.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 100

Cornelia R. Cowles


Betsey M. Cowles
 

CORNELIA RACHEL COWLES. In this work the biography has been given of a woman of whom Ashtabula may well be proud - Miss Betsey M. Cowles.  In order to make that biography complete, a sketch is given of the life of her sister Cornelia.  These sisters had a most intense affection for each other, for they had lived together, traveled together, sympathized with each other, drawn from a common fund, advocated the same cause, and lived apparently only for each other.  Their names are household words in many homes throughout Ohio, and their social acquaintances extended over the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Lakes and the Gulf, and they were known only to be loved and admired.
     Cornelia Rachel Cowles was one of the nine children of the Rev. Dr. Cowles.  She and her twin-brother, Lysander, were born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1807.  As stated in the sketch of her sister, her father moved with his family to Austinburg in the year of 1811, when the country, to use a common but emphatic expression, was a howling wilderness.  She grew up with the growth of civilization on the Western Reserve, under the teachings of her learned father, the influence of her Christian and intellectual mother, amidst the circle of the superior class of minds that were wont to partake of the ever-ready hospitality of her father's house.  Her other was a woman of great force of character, of culture and refinement, gifted with a most sweet voice for music, and in her younger days, according to the language of the late Judge Quintus F. Atkins, "When she stood up at the baptism of her eldest child she was the most beautiful woman I ever set my eyes upon."  Cornelia and Betsey both inherited from their mother their strong sense, their naturally refined feelings, their amiability of character, and their musical gift.  In addition, nature made Cornelia inclined to be somewhat witty, which, combined with the self-reliance she had in common with her sister, and moving in all circles of society from the brightest and most cultivated to the humblest, the high standing she had in the estimation of all who knew her can thus be realized.  She was educated mainly in the humble district school in vogue during the early days of the Western Reserve, and finished her education in her "father's study," which at that time had the largest and most complete library in the county, and which contained many of the standard works of the day.  The education she thus acquired - "picked up" as some would call it - under all these disadvantages was far more thorough and practical than is obtained by many daughters of wealth at the fashionable seminaries of the present day.  She acquired her musical education at the singing schools and singing clubs under the leadership of Squire Lucretius Bissel, who was quite proficient as a leader for those days.  In 1837 she sang on a salary in the Rev. Dr. Aikens church, Cleveland.  The following year she went to New York city, and sang in St. Peter's Episcopal church, Brooklyn, as a professional, and placed herself under the instruction of Professor Ives, who was then celebrated as a teacher of music.  In 1840 she returned to her home, and afterwards taught music in some of the neighboring villages.  In 1845 she was employed to sing in the Rev. Dr. Tucker's church, Buffalo, and afterwards she sang in a prominent church in Cincinnati.
     In 1836 the family circle was composed of her brother Lysander, Rachel, his wife, Lewis, Martha, and Betsey.  This circle received a most acceptable addition in the person of Dr. Theodore Harry Wadsworth, a grand-nephew of Dr. Cowles, and who came from Farmington, Connecticut, and was connected with the old Wadsworth family of that State.  Although only twenty-four years of age, he was a thoroughly educated physician, and of a scientific turn of mind.  He made his home with his maiden cousins, Betsey, Cornelia, and Martha, and to the time of his death was considered as a brother.  His attainments, generous nature, perfect integrity, honor as a man, and fine conversational power made him a favorite of all, and he was a welcome visitor wherever he went.  He never would allow anything to interfere with the performance of his professional duties.  Many were the times that he has risen at night and riden several miles through storm and clay mud to visit a poverty-stricken patient, knowing all that time he never would expect any pay, except in gratifying his benevolent heart and having the consciousness of having performed his duty to suffering humanity.  From this it can be seen that his nature was in full sympathy with those of the sisters, hence the brotherly and sisterly feelings between them.
     In 1843, while in the discharge of a professional duty, in making a post mortem examination, a cut finger came in contact with the blood of the subject, and the poisonous virus was instilled into his system.  After his arrival home he felt ill, and he promptly realized that he was beyond the reach of human aid.  After enduring in a most heroic manner intense suffering, that young man passed away to join his kindred in the blessed land.  He was surrounded by the weeping household and friends, and everything that the hands of affection could do to alleviate his suffering was done.  His funeral was attended by nearly the entire community, and largely from the neighboring towns, among whom were his poor, non-paying patients, who felt they had lost a noble-hearted friend.  The death of Dr. Wadsworth as a severe affliction to the sisters.  Miss Betsey was absent at the time in Portsmouth, Ohio, where she received the sad intelligence, and she was stricken with sorrow, for she loved the "noble-hearted Harry" as her own brother.
     Cornelia, assisted by the magnificent alto voice of Betsey, and the sweet tenor of her brother Lewis, frequently sang some of the stirring anti-slavery sons at Anti-Slavery and Free-Soil meetings.  In those days the "Cowles Family" was considered a necessary adjunct to a meeting of that kind.  Their singing by many was considered superior to that of the famous Hutchinson Family.  Cornelia's voice was a most powerful soprano, and yet she could sing as softly as an angel's whisper.  In 1860 her brother Lewis died, leaving a sad vacancy in that trio of sweet singers.
     During the War of the Rebellion the hearts of the sisters were with the gallant boys in blue.  They aided in forming the Austinburg branch of the Northern Ohio Soldier's Aid society.  At many entertainments given for the benefit of that society the music of their songs were invariably called into requisition.  During the height of the war their niece, Mrs. Helen C. Wheeler, a daughter of Dr. E. W. Cowles, a brilliant specimen of the daughters of Ashtabula, a woman of most majestic presence and of remarkably fine appearance, was living in Washington.  She spent her entire time visiting the hospitals and ministering to the wants of the gallant Union wounded.  She saw great suffering among the thousands that could have been greatly alleviated by simple articles, such as fans, handkerchiefs, napkins, certain kinds of vegetables, canned fruits, jelly, etc.  She wrote a series of letters to her aunts vividly describing the sad scenes she had witnessed in the hospitals, and suggesting that the women of Ashtabula should take hold and provide these articles to the fullest extent of their power.  These letters were published in the Sentinel, and they awakened the most intense interest among the wives, mothers, sisters, and affianced of the two thousand sons of Ashtabula who were then in the service, for they thought a loved one might be among the occupants of the hospitals.  They went to work and collected a large number of boxes and barrels of supplies, and forwarded them to Mrs. Wheeler, to the distributed by her in the hospitals.
     In 1864 the community was shocked by the sad intelligence of the death, at the attack on Petersburg, of a nephew of the sisters, - Sergeant Major GILES H. COWLES, son of Mr. William Elbert Cowles.  This young man was the favorite among the nephews of the sisters, and in common with the venerable, grief-stricken parents, they were almost crushed. At the breaking out of the war young Cowles was a student at Grand River Institute, and enlisted as a private in the Ashtabula regiment, and participated at Harper's Ferry and some other engagements.  At the end of his term of enlistment he returned to his home, and resumed his studies.  In 1863 his feelings of patriotism impelled him to enlist again.  When at Camp Chase he applied to Governor Brough for permission to be examined before the board with a view of promotion, which was granted, and he was appointed sergeant-major of his regiment.  At the siege of Petersburg his sense of duty required him to expose himself to the fire of the enemy by passing up and down the line of his regiment, intrenched as it was behind low earthworks, and he was killed.  This gallant student-soldier, the light of his venerable father, was only twenty-one years old when he gave up his young life on the altar of patriotism.
     Mrs. Cowles died in June, 1969, at the old homestead, after an illness of two weeks, aged sixty-one years.  Her sweet voice was silenced, never to be heard again in this world.  It has pleased Him 'who doeth all things well" to transfer from the earthly  choir where she sang so long during her life to the great Heavenly choir, where her golden-toned voice is being heard by her kindred who have preceded her, and where it will be heard forever.  She lies buried by the side of her twin brother, Lysander Mix Cowles.  Of all her brothers and sisters only two are now living,  - William Elbert, aged eighty years, and Martha Hooker aged seventy-four years.  She was followed by 1872 by her eldest sister, Mrs. Sallie B. Austin, and by her sister Betsey, in July, 1876.
Source #3 - 1798 -  History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men. by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 101
  EDWIN COWLES, editor and printer, born in Austinburg, Sept. 19, 1825.  He was the son of Dr. E. W. Cowles, and grandson of the Rev. Dr. G. H. Cowles, both of whom are elsewhere noticed in this publication.  He resided with his father during his boyhood days in Cleveland and Detroit, with the exception of a few years he spent in Austinburg.  In 1839 he commenced learning the trade of a printer, and served his time mostly with the late Josiah A. Harris, editor of the Cleveland Herald.  He finished his education at Grand River Institute, in 1843, where he spent a short period of time.  In 1845, at the age of nineteen in partnership with T. H. Smead, he embarked in the printing business, under the name of Smead & Cowles.  In 1853 he dissolved with Mr. Smead and became a member of the firm of Medill, Cowles & Co., publishers of the daily Forest City Democrat, it being the result of the consolidation of the daily True Democrat and daily Forest City, which, as losing ventures, had been published separately by John C. Vaughan and Joseph Medill.  In 1854 the name of he paper was changed to The Cleveland Leader.  In 1855, Messrs. Medill and Vaughan sold out to Mr. Cowles, and emigrated to Chicago and purchased the Chicago Tribune, of when his brother Alfred became the business manager, leaving him the sole proprietor of the Leader.
     During the winter of 1854-55 the movement which led to the formation of the ____ Republican party was first made in the Leader editorial-room, resulting in on first Republican convention ever called being held in Pittsburgh.  The gentleman who met in the editorial-room for that purpose were Mr. John C. Spalding, and some others.  This movement resulted in the consolidation of the Free-Soil, Know-Nothing, and Whig parties into one great party, the history of which is so well known.
     Mr. Cowles carried on the paper alone until 1866, when he organized the Cleveland Leader Printing Company, in which he retained a large controlling interest.  For several years after he was connected with the Leader he acted only as business-manager, and in 1859 he assumed the chief-editorship.  From this time he steadily rose to prominence as an editor because of the strength and boldness of his utterances and his progressive and decided views on popular topics, which soon made his journal one of the most powerful in in the west.  He spoke out defiantly against the arrest and imprisonment in 1859, under the infamous fugitive law, of the Oberlin rescuers, some thirty in number.  When the terrible black cloud of secession was looming up to a fearful proportion during the dark days of the winter of 1860-61, Mr. Cowles took a firm position in favor of the government suppressing the heresy of secession with the army and navy if necessary.  For doing this he was denounced as being ultra and dangerous by many of the conservative Republican and Democratic papers, who were much frightened by the appearance of the political horizon.  In 1861 be was appointed postmaster of Cleveland by Mr. Lincoln, and held that office for nearly five years.  Under his administration as postmaster he established and perfected the system of free delivery of mail matter by letter-carriers, and, in spite of the opposition of the city press, he succeeded in making the system so effective and popular that the returns of the office to the department showed a larger free delivery than Cincinnati, St. Louis, Baltimore, and a larger percentage in proportion to population than any other city in the country.  The result was the department held up the Cleveland office as a model for all other postmasters to copy after.
     In 1861, Mr. Cowles was the first to come out in print in favor of the nomination by the Republican party of David Tod, a War Democrat, for governor, for the purpose of uniting all the loyal elements in the cause of the Union.  The suggestion was adopted almost unanimously by the rest of the loyal press, and Mr. Tod was nominated and elected.  That same year, immediately after the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Cowles wrote and published editorially an article headed "Now is the time to abolish Slavery!"  He took the position that the south, being in a state of rebellion against the general government, had forfeited all right to property, - that the government had a right to abolish slavery as it had to capture and destroy rebel property, burn towns, etc., as a military necessity, especially so for the purpose of weakening the resources of the Confederacy by liberating in their midst a producing class from which it mainly derived its sinews of war.  For taking this advanced position, the Leader was severely denounced by the conservative and timid Republican journals, which held it up as a dangerous paper, - that it was aiding the Rebellion by creating dissatisfaction among the War Democrats of the north.  One or two of these weak-kneed journals even called on the President to remove its editor from the postmastership as a peace-offering on the President to remove its editor from the postmastership as a peace-offering to the south for having had the impudence to doubt the immunity of slaves over all other property from interference by the Federal military authorities.  In less than one year after the publication of that article, Mr. Lincoln issued his Emancipation proclamation, which embodied precisely the same views.
     In 1863, Mr. Cowles suggested in the Leader the name of John Brough, to succeed Governor Tod in the gubernatorial chair.  It was after the name of that arch-secessionist, Vallandigham, had been taken up by the copperhead Democracy for that office, and at a period during the war previous to the surrender of Vicksburg and the battle of Gettysburg, when the Union armies had met with a series of reverses, and discouragement had commenced its work among the conservative loyal element.  The nomination of Vallandigham, following the election in 1862, when the Democrats had carried Ohio by a large majority, created great alarm among the friends of the Union for fear that the discouraging military outlook would have its effect towards favoring the peace at any price party.  Mr. Brough, although formerly a life-log Democrat, was a firm Union man under all circumstances, and withal his reputation for great executive ability was widely known, and for these reasons his name was announced as a candidate for nomination for governor by the Leader.  It was warmly seconded by the loyal press, and he was nominated and elected by upwards of one hundred thousand majority over Mr. Vallandigham.  He, Governor Morton, and Governor Andrews formed that famous trio of great war governors whose names will go down in history side by side with Lincoln, Grant, Stanton, and Chase.
     In 1871, Mr. Cowles' attention was called to the great danger that existed from the various railroad crossings in the valley of the Cuyahoga between the heights of the East and West Sides of Cleveland.  He thereupon conceived the idea of a high bridge, or viaduct as it is generally called, to span the valley, connecting the hip-top on the west side with that on the east side, thus avoiding going up and down hill and crossing the "valley of death."  He wrote an elaborate edition from the other city papers, it being considered by them utopian and un-necessary, but it was submitted to the popular vote, and carried by an immense majority.  This great work, costing over two million dollars, will be one of the wonders of Cleveland.  In 1876 he was elected a delegate to the National Republican convention at Cincinnati, which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for President.  He was appointed to represent Ohio on the committee on the platform, and was the author of the seventh plank in that platform, favoring a constitutional amendment forbidding appropriations out of any public fund for the benefit of any institution under sectarian control.  The object of this amendment was two-fold: firs, to forever settle the question of dividing the school fund for the benefit of the Roman Catholic church; second, to guard the future from the encroachments of that church, that is sure to result form its extraordinary increase in numbers.  He saw very plainly that at the past ratio of increase in numbers.  He saw very plainly that at the past ratio of increase and adherents of that church will outnumber the non-Catholics in half a century from now, when they will pursue the same course that they pursued in New York, city, where twelve million dollars had been appropriated for romish institutions in less than fifteen years, while less than one million has been appropriated to Protestant institutions, although the latter paid nine-tenths of all the taxes.  This plank was received by the convention with more vociferous applause than all the rest of the platform did, and it was the only one that was called out for a second reading.
     In 1877 he was complimented by President Hayes by being appointed one of the honorary commissioners to the Paris exposition.
     Mr. Cowles has now been connected with journalism for over a quarter of a century.  the experience of his paper has been like the history of all daily papers.  It had sunk previous to his being connected with it over thirty thousand dollars.  The first nine years after he had taken hold of it it sunk over forty thousand dollars more, and at the end of that time it commenced paying expenses, eventually resulting in his being able to pay off every cent of indebtedness.  Its business has increased tenfold under his administration, and it has also the largest daily circulation of any paper west of the Allegheny, with the exception of two papers in Chicago, one in St. Louis, and two in Cincinnati, and is more than double the circulation of any Cleveland paper.  When he commenced his editorial career his staff consisted of himself, one associate, and one city editor.  Now it is composed of himself as chief editor, one managing, two assistant editors, and an editor each in charge of the commercial, city, literary and dramatic, and telegraphic departments, also one in charge of the Washington branch office, and four reporters, twelve i all.  When the Leader was first started it was printed on a hand-press, at the rate of four a minute on one side.  In 1847 it was printed on an Adams steam-press, at the rate of twelve a minute on one side.  In 1854 it was printed on a single cylinder press, at the rate of thirty a minute on one side.  In 1863 a double-cylinder press did its work, at the rate of fifty-six a minute.  In 1874, to meet the growing circulation, and additional double cylinder press was added.  In 1877 the most wonderful printing machine in the world has yet seen was added, at an expense of thirty thousand dollars, which has printed an eight page paper both sides at once, the top of the pages delivered cut, the two halves pasted in the centre, and the whole folded, all in one operation, at the rate of as high as two hundred and twenty a minute, equivalent to four hundred and forty a minute on one side~  This was the only press in the world at the time it was set up that would do all that amount of work simultaneously, it might be said.
     The foregoing statistics are given for the purpose of illustrating the success achieved by Mr. Cowles as a journalist.  His chief characteristic as an editor is his fearlessness i treating all questions of the day without stopping to consider "whether he will lose any subscribers" by taking this or that side, and, like most men of his decided views, he has bitter enemies, who do not hesitate to do all in their power to attack him by fair and foul means, as well as warm friends.  His great ambition is to have the Leader take the lead in the work of reform, the promulgation of progressive ideas, the elevation of humanity to as high a scale as possible, and to oppose in every shape tyranny and injustice, whether of church state, capital, corporation, or trade unions, and at the same time to make it the most influential paper in the State, if not in the west.  Hence the great circulation of the Leader.
     His success was the more remarkable on account of his laboring under the great disadvantage of being afflicted from birth with a defect in hearing, which caused a peculiar impediment of speech that no parallel case has been found on record.  Until he had reached the age of manhood the cause of this impediment was not discovered.  Professor Kennedy, a distinguished teacher of elocution, became interested in his case, and, after an examination, he discovered that he never heard the hissing sound of the human voice, and consequently, not knowing that such a sound was in existence, he never made it!  Many of the consonants sounded alike to him; that is, he was obliged to be governed by the motion of the lips and the sense of the word to ascertain the sounds of "b," "p," "d," "t," "v," etc., the vowel sound of "e" being heard without any trouble, but not the governing sound, which makes the consonant.  He never heard the music of the bird, and, until he reached the age of twenty-three, he had always supposed that kind of music was a poetical fiction.  He never hears the upper notes of the piano, violin, organ, or the fife in martial music, but can hear low conversation without any trouble, provided the pronunciation is distinct.  He has frequently put his ear close to a cage containing a pair of canary birds, and, although he could hear them fly, not a note would reach his ear.  He would get up at five o'clock in the morning in the month of June, and go out into the field and listen with all his might, endeavoring to hear the music of the birds, but with no better success, although he could hear all notes below the seventh octave.  He never could distinguish the difference between the hard and soft sounds of letters, consequently he would mix those sounds to some extent.  In other words, up to the time he was twenty-five, the sounds of other people's pronunciation sounded precisely the same in his ear that his own pronunciation did to them.  He has been able to improve his pronunciation greatly, and has taught himself to make the hissing sound mechanically, but he never hears that sound himself.  Owing to his peculiar pronunciation and deafness, he was the butt of his fellow printers while learning his trade with Mr. Harris, during his younger days, and many a hard-fought battle did he go through to defend himself from abuse.  He fought grown-up journeymen as well as apprentices of his own age, and out of all who were in the habit of abusing him on account of his physical impediments not one ever prospered, and most of them became their own enemies.
     Mr. Cowles was ever active in all benevolent and charitable enterprises, giving liberally to them according to his means, and devoting the influence of his journal to their support and encouragement.  In 1875 he was chairman of the committee of arrangements of the great calico ball given in the immense carpet ware-room of Beckwith, Sterling & Co., for the benefit of the Relief association and the two Protestant hospitals.  Seven thousand invitations were sent out, and three thousand people. consisting of the elite of Cleveland, of northern Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, were present.  The net profit of this grand entertainment was over five thousand dollars, and so perfect were all the arrangements that not one out of that immense crowd lost an article of wearing apparel in the cloak-room.  It was the largest ball ever given in this country with, perhaps, the exception of the Jubilee ball, in Boston, in 1872.  The following year he was chairman of the committee of arrangements of the grand bazaar for the benefit of the same hospitals, resulting in raising the sum of eight thousand dollars.
     Mr. Cowles is wedded to his profession, and never expects to leave it for any other, in other words he expects to die in the harness.  Owing to the power of the press in controlling public sentiment, backed up as it is by the aid of wonderful lightning printing machinery, the telegraph, that great association for the collection of news, the associated press, the division of intellectual labor into different departments, and the fast railroad trains, he considers journalism, if only managed in the interest of religion, morals, humanity, and of doing the greatest good to the greatest number, the grandest of all professions.  And it will be his aim to do his share in the work of elevating that profession to the highest plane possible.
     Mr. Cowles was married, in 1849, to Miss Elizabeth C. Hutchinson, daughter of the Hon. Mosely Hutchinson, of Cayuga, New York.  He had by this union six children, the youngest of whom died in infancy.  His eldest daughter married Mr. Charles W. Chase, a merchant of Cleveland.  His eldest son, Eugene, is a member of the Leader editorial staff, having charge of the Washington office as correspondent.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 97

Edwin W. Cowles
Edwin Cowles		 EDWIN WEED COWLES , physician, born in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1794, removed to Austinburg with his father, the Rev. Dr. Cowles, in the year 1794, removed to Austinburg with his father, the Rev. Dr. Cowles, in the year of 1811.  His ancestors were all of Puritan descent, except one line, which traced its origin to the Huguenots.  On the Cowles side he was descended from one of three brothers who settled in the town of Farmington, Connecticut, in 1652, where his father was born.  On his mother's side, who was a Miss Abigail White, of Stamford Connecticut, he was a direct descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in New England.  His grandmother on the White's side was descended from a Huguenot, by the name of De Grasse, which name was subsequently changed to Weed.  Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first clergyman who settled in Connecticut, was one of Dr. Cowles' ancestors.  He was educated in the academy, Farmington, Connecticut, and was imbued by his father and mother with the highest principles of the Christian religion and love for his fellow-beings.  He studied medicine with the late Dr. O. K. Hawley, of Austinburg, and after receiving his degree he practiced medicine in Mantua, Portage county, Ohio, and in 1832 he removed with his family to Cleveland.  In 1834 he removed to Detroit, and practiced there till 1838, when he returned to Cleveland, where he spent the remainder of his professional life, and made himself a high reputation both as a physician and a valuable citizen.  His leading traits as a physician were the exercise of benevolence and fearlessness in the performance of his professional duties.  These noble qualities were thoroughly illustrated when that great scourge, the Asiatic cholera, made its first appearance in Cleveland the first year he settled there.  This disease was introduced by the arrival of the steamer “ Henry Clay,” which sailed up to the landing at the foot of Superior street; as usual in those early days, when there were no railroads and telegraphs, the crowd assembled' at the landing to hear the news and to see who had come.  As the boat neared the wharf the captain appeared on the deck, and exclaimed that “ the cholera had broken out among his passengers and crew; that several were dead and a number more were down with it, and for God’s sake to send a doctor aboard!”  This announcement created a panic in the crowd.  They all scattered and fled in every direction,—many taking their horses and fleeing into the country.  A messenger went hurriedly to the office of Dr. Cowles, and with a frightened expression of countenance informed him that his services were needed,—that “the boat was filled with the dead and sick.”  The doctor promptly started for the boat, and exerted himself immediately with all his power to alleviate the sufferings of the sick.  At a meeting held previously by the citizens of the then village of Cleveland it was voted, with only two dissentient votes, that no boats having the cholera aboard should be allowed to come into port or land their passengers, for fear of contagion.  The two who opposed this inhuman act were the late Thomas P. May and Dr. Cowles.  Under this action of the citizens the “ Henry Clay” was obliged to leave.  Dr. Cowles volunteered to accompany the sick and look after them, and in spite of the remonstrances of his friends, who believed he never could get through alive, he accompanied that charnel-ship to Detroit, and remained on it until everything possible had been done to relieve the sick and to fight down the death-dealing scourge.  His predominating trait was love of justice to all —the high and low, rich and poor.  This sense was strongly developed in his hatred of the system of slavery, which, as he expressed it, “ violated every commandment in the decalogue, every principle of justice, all laws of human nature, and destroyed the foundation of a common humanity.”  He was one of the first who came out publicly and avowed themselves “ abolitionists,” at a time when it was considered disgraceful to be called by that term.  He was one of the oldest members of the “ old Liberty Guard,” and many a poor fugitive slave has he aided to freedom via the underground railroad.  As a politician he was somewhat prominent.  He supported the old Whig party down to the time he voted for General Harrison, in 1840.  In 1841 he joined the “ Liberty party,” the germ of the present Republican party. In all the walks of life he was distinguished for moral rectitude, honesty, and incorruptible integrity.  As a gentleman of general information he rarely, if he ever did, meet with his peer, for, like John Quincy Adams, he never forgot what he read, and it was this gift that made him the remarkable conversationalist and controversialist that he was.  He was a devout and active member of the Congregational church, and one of its most valued supporters.  He was married in 1815 to Miss Almira Mills Foot, a lady of great force of character, of amiable disposition, and of a most affectionate nature.  was born in Norfolk, Connecticut, in 1790, and was descended from Nathaniel Foot, the first settler of Wethersfield.  She was a half-sister of the late Joseph B. Cowles, of Austinburg, and of the late Hon. Samuel Cowles, who died in Cleveland in 1837.  She died in 1840.  After the death of his consort Dr. Cowles spent his remaining days among his children, who vied with each other in endeavoring to promote his comfort and smooth the ways of his declining days.  He died in June, 1801, at the residence of his son, Mr. Edwin Cowles, in Cleveland.  Had he lived only one and a half years longer he would have witnessed the great desire of his heart, —the abolition of slavery.  As it was, like Moses of old, “ he died in sight of the promised land.”  Dr. Cowles had six children.  His first child, Samuel, died when three years of age.  His second, Giles Hooker, died in Cleveland, aged twenty-three years, leaving four, who are living, —Mrs. Helen C. Wheeler, of Butler, Missouri; Judge Samuel Cowles, of San Francisco, California; Edwin Cowles, editor of the Leader, Cleveland; and Alfred Cowles, one of the publishers of the Chicago Tribune.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 99
  GILES H. COWLES, son of Dr. E. W. and Almira M. Cowles, and grandson of Rev. Dr. Giles H. Cowles, was born in the year 1819, in Brownhelm, Ohio.  His boyhood days were spent in Mantua, where his parents lived for several years, and with his grandfather in Austinburg.  In 1832 he moved with his parents to Cleveland, and in 1833 he finished his education with the Rev. Samuel Bissel, preceptor of the Twinsburg academy.  In 1834 he first went into business by serving as a clerk in the drugstore of the late Dr. B. S. Lyman, in Cleveland; afterwards he went into the employ of Mr. Orlando Cutter, an auction and commission merchant of that city.  Young as he was he gave evidence of extraordinary business ability, and at the age of eighteen Mr. Cutter took him in as a partner.  In 1839, owing to having hemorrhage of the lungs, young Cowles was obliged to dissolve his connection with Mr. Cutter and travel to Texas for his health.  In 1840 he returned to his home in Cleveland apparently improved in health, but the insidious disease he was afflicted with, consumption, soon undermined it, and, in spite of te best medical skill and the tireless nursing of the most affectionate of mothers, he passed away, Apr. 2, 1842, aged twenty-three years.  As is soul left its earthly tenement, his loving aunt, Miss Cornelia R. Cowles, sat by his side, while she sang to him in her angelic tones that beautiful hymn commencing with these lines:

"What's this that steals, that steals o'er my frame?
Is it death, is it death!"

     Of all the children of Dr. E. W. Cowles, Giles was endowed with the most natural talent, and was considered the flower of that group.  With a fine conversational power for one so young, he had a business talent that was regarded by all who knew him as being very extraordinary.  Said the late Mr. Cutter, "Giles Cowles was the smartest young man that I ever came in contact with, a young man of honor and integrity, and had he only lived and enjoyed good health, he would have been one of the wealthiest men of the country."
     Young as he was, he proved himself to be worthy of the name he bore, that of his estimable grandfather.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 102
  REV. DR. GILES HOOKER COWLES ------  CLICK HERE  (This biography is quite long)

Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 93
  JOSEPH B. COWLES, one of the first settlers of Austinburg, was born in Norfolk, Connecticut, Oct. 18, 1774.  His parents were Joseph Cowles and Sarah Mills.  He was married to Miss Lois Hungerford.  In 1800 he accompanied Judge Austin’s family to Austinburg with his own family, consisting of wife, one boy, Lyman, aged five years, and an infant.  After a toilsome journey of some several weeks, Mr. Cowles arrived at Buffalo, where he embarked in an open boat, with a member of Judge Austin's party, and sailed by day for Ashtabula Harbor, and at night they would pull the boat on to the beach and camp out.  In this manner Mr. Cowles and his party made their way to New Connecticut.  After his arrival at Ashtabula creek, he followed the blaze on the trees with his little family, and reached the north end of the township of Austinburg.  The first night he made a wigwam and camped out.  The next morning, with the assistance of a few neighbors who came in from within a circle of twenty miles, he put up his log cabin, just a quarter of a mile south of where the post-office now is in Austinburg. In this manner this brave pioneer started life in the town which he eventually helped to clear and beautify.
     Mr. Cowles was a fine specimen of a New England farmer.  He was a man of the strictest integrity, and everything he did was founded on a sense of duty.  As an illustration, the following incident will show how his sense of duty impelled him to risk even his life.  In the year 1803 a settler, by the name of Beckwith, resided in a log cabin at the mouth of Ashtabula creek.  In midwinter, when the weather was intensely cold and the ground was covered deeply with snow, Mr. Beckwith started for the Austinburg settlement, ten miles off, for the purpose of sharpening his axe and obtaining a bag of salt.  Towards night he started to return.  The sky was cloudy, and the prospect of a pitch-dark night was imminent, and the weather, as before stated, was terribly cold, rendering the attempt to walk that ten miles through a forest over an apology of a road a very dangerous undertaking, and Judge Austin earnestly tried to persuade him to wait till morning.  Mr. Beckwith stated that be had promised his wife that he never would leave her alone overnight, and that brave and devoted husband started on his fearful and, as it proved to be, his last journey, rather than to break his solemn promise made to his wife.  The next day, towards dark, some of the settlers at the north end of Austinburg saw an object staggering through the snow.  They went to it, and discovered that it was Mrs. Beckwith, who was in an exhausted condition from traveling on foot from her home.  It seemed that her husband did not reach his home, and as she knew he would not violate his promise not to stay away overnight, she concluded that he must have lost his way and perished.  The next morning she left her two children in bed and started for the Austinburg settlement to make known the loss of her husband, and arrived there in the condition described.  The unhappy wife and mother was in a state of agony about her children she had left alone in her cabin, for fear of their freezing to death.  Mr. Cowles volunteered to start that night, dark as it was, and rescue those children.  Accordingly, he mounted his horse and proceeded on that perilous journey.  Should he on account of darkness lose his way in the wood, it was sure death.  But the courageous man felt it was his duty to relieve the feelings of the poor mother and rescue those children, even to the extent of risking his own life.  Happily, after groping his way for five mortal hours, he succeeded in reaching the cabin, and found the children alive and safe.  He built a fire and kept it up all night.  In the morning he took the children in his arms, mounted his horse, and in that manner carried them to Austinburg, and delivered them to the almost heart-broken, widowed mother.  That day a party of the neighbors started to search for the remains of Mr. Beckwith.  He was found frozen and dead sitting on a log.  From the tracks in the snow, it was evident he tramped around a tree for hours, vainly endeavoring to keep himself warm, and he at last succumbed to sleep, and sitting down, he soon became frozen.
     In 1816, Mr. Cowles became a professor of religion, and joined the church over which the Rev. Dr. Cowles presided.  As he advanced in life he accumulated property by honest labor, and lived till 1853, when he died universally respected for his Christian virtue and strict integrity.  His first wife died in 1841.  In 1842 he married Mrs. Hannah Winchester, the widow of a Rev. Mr. Winchester.  He had three children, namely, Lyman B. Cowles, born in Norfolk, Connecticut, 1795, and died in Jefferson, June, 1875; Sally Maria, born in Norfolk, 1799, and married to Mr. Enos Ryder in 1820, and died in the year of 1831; and Louisa, born in Austinburg, 1806, and died in March, 1835.
     Mr. Cowles was a brother of the late Hon. Samuel Cowles, a prominent lawyer and judge of the court of common pleas in Cleveland, who died in 1837; a half-brother of Mrs. Dr. E. W. Cowles, and uncle of Mr. Edwin Cowles of the Cleveland Leader.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 192
  Austinburg Twp. -
CAPT. LYSANDER M. COWLES.  Captain Lysander M. Cowles was born with his twin sister Cornelia, in Bristol, Connecticut, in the year 1807.  He came to Austinsburg with his father, Dr. Cowles, in 1811, where he lived till his death, which occurred Apr. 4, 1857.  Captain Cowles became a prominent citizen of the township, and for a number of years commanded an independent military company. He filled at various periods the offices of justice of the peace, township treasurer, and other offices. In May, 1835, he was married to Miss Rachel Cowles, a sister of the Rev. Henry Cowles, who was pastor of the church in Austinburg till the following winter, when he moved to Oberlin, where he occupied for many years a professor’s chair.
     Captain Cowles was universally respected, and was popular among his acquaintances on account of his being a peculiar wit.  Many stories have been told of his doings in that line, and we will give one or two illustrations of that peculiarity.  He took great delight in playing the incorrigible Yankee, nasal twang and all, which he could do to perfection.  While in New York on a certain occasion, he noticed a lottery sign offering tremendous fortunes to all who would invest in a ticket. The captain walked in, and, playing the green Yankee, interviewed the lottery dealer as follows:
     “Mister, can yeou tell me abeout this giving of a big fortune to a feller who buys a ticket in yeour lottery?”
     “Why, sir, if you will take a ticket costing you only five dollars, you will draw a prize of ten thousand dollars in money,—ten thousand dollars, sir!”
     “I sweow !  Dew yeou mean to say that if I buy a ticket costing only five dollars, that I will git ten theousan’ dollars?”
     “Yes, sir, ten thousand dollars. You can make ten thousand dollars, sir!”
     “Yeou don’t say so!”
     “Yes, I do. I mean what I say:  you will draw ten thousand dollars, and it will be yours if you purchase a ticket costing you only five dollars.”
     “Wal, that is queer. Heow can yeou afford to give ten theousan’ dollars for five dollars?”
     “You see, my friend, that is our lookout. We make up our losses in another way.”
     “Wall, I declear! ten theousan’ dollars for five dollars. Will that ten theousan’ dollars be mine if I pay five dollars?”
     “Yes, sir. I will insure your drawing that sum.”
     “Wal, mister, with that understanding I will take a ticket.”
     “Well, here it is, all filled out for you.”
     “Neow, mister, dew yeou mean to say that this ’ere ticket will draw me ten theousan’ dollars ?”
     “Yes, sir. All you need to do now is to pay me five dollars.”
     “Wal, mister, I’ll tell yeou what yeou may dew, I will take the ticket and yeou may take the five dollars out of the ten theousan’ dollars which yeou say will become mine. That will be all right, won’t it, mister?”
     “Hand that ticket back, you infernal fool, and clear out of my office!”
     “Look here, mister, don’t git wrathy; let me keep the ticket which yeou say will draw ten theousan’ dollars, and yeou can deduct the five dollars and give me nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-five dollars. Isn’t that fair, mister?”
     “Give me back that ticket and clear out; I’ll have none of your nonsense.”
     “Wal, mister, alleow me to say that yeou are a darned humbug.  Yeou may take yeour ticket and be darned.”
     This story the captain was in the habit of telling in his inimitable manner.  On another occasion, when Mr. Henry C. Wright, the famous advocate of universal peace, was on a visit at Miss Betsey Cowles’, he encountered our military friend in the horse-stable, and entered into a discussion on the evils of war.  After descanting in his eloquent and argumentative style, showing that war produced all manner of violence, misery, murders, robberies, and rapine, and that soldiers were no better than so many murderers, the captain, after listening in his imperturbable manner with a sober face, was bound as the commander of a military company to defend the honor of the American army from such a slanderous assault, and he coolly replied as follows
     “Mr. Wright, allow me to say you are mistaken, sir, as far as our glorious army is concerned.  Why, sir, during the whole Mexican war not one of our fifty thousand gallant soldiers engaged was ever known to commit a single dishonorable act, sir.  This is a fact, sir ! You are mistaken, sir!” 
Mr. Wright looked at the captain with blank astonishment. The idea that out of an invading army of fifty thousand men not one has ever been known to commit a single dishonorable act during the entire Mexican war!  He saw it was useless to argue with “ uch a case," and he retired discomfited to the house.
     In 1844, during the Clay and Polk presidential campaign, the Whigs had a grand mass convention at Erie.  On the printed posters announcing the convention it was advertised that all military companies would be carried free on the steamboats,—there were no railroads in those days. The Austinburg Guards accepted the invitation, and marched to Ashtabula Harbor and embarked for Erie.  On their return they took passage on another steamer.  As it neared Ashtabula, the captain of the boat notified Captain Cowles that his men would have to pay fare.  This Captain Cowles emphatically refused to allow, and called attention to the arrangement that had been made to carry all military free.  The captain of the boat then said he would not stop at Ashtabula.  “All right!” replied Captain Cowles, “ we will accompany you to Chicago.  We’ll stick by you like a brother,
and come back with you.  But mind you, we shall take the first seat at your table, sir!  We shan’t submit to any nonsense, there sir!”  The captain of the boat found he was cornered, and he put into Ashtabula Harbor and landed the boys.
     These incidents illustrate the humorous feature in the character of Captain Cowles.  Although he never sympathized with the ultra views of the Garrisonian element of the anti-slavery party, he was a zealous friend of the down-trodden slave.  He acted with the old Liberty party, and when the Free-Soil party was organized in 1848, he affiliated with that party. None had a warmer heart than Captain Cowles.  He was a consistent member of the Congregational church till a few years before his death, when he changed his views and joined a Unitarian society.  In 1856 he was taken ill with that incurable disease the diabetes, which resulted in his death, Apr. 4, 1857.  Had he only lived and had good health, he would undoubtedly have participated in the War of the Rebellion.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 193
  JUDGE SAMUEL COWLES.  Hon. Samuel Cowles, of San Francisco, a son of Austinburg, was born in that township, in March, 1823.  He was a son of Dr. E. W. and Almira M. Cowles, and a grandson of the Rev. Dr. Cowles.  His boyhood days were spent in Mantua, Austinburg, Detroit, and Cleveland.  He attended Grand River institute for several terms, and finished his education at the Western Reserve college.  In 1844 he studied law in Cleveland, with the Hon. S. J. Andrews, Hon. John A. Foot, and Hon. J. M. Hoyt, then composing the firm of Andrews, Foot & Hoyt, and in 1846 he finished his legal studies in the office of the Hon. S. B. Prentiss and his brother, F. J. Prentiss, and was admitted to the bar that year.  He formed a copartnership with Loren Prentiss, Esq., practiced law with him till 1850, when they dissolved, and he then formed a partnership with Edwin B. Mastick, Esq., and they practiced till March, 1852.  That year they were taken with the California fever, and, although they had built up a very respectable practice, they concluded they would emigrate to the new Eldorado and try their fortune there.  In common with thousands of the early Argonauts they had their full share of the deprivation of the comforts of life.  In 1856 he was elected police judge of the city of San Francisco by the law and order party, in spite of the opposition of the gamblers and lawless portion of the population, and served with credit to himself and to the cause of justice.  In 1860 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of judge of the court of common pleas, and was re-elected in 1863, and served till Jan. 1, 1868.  It was on the bench that he made for himself the reputation of being a profound lawyer and jurist, which is proved by the fact that of all his decisions, many of them involving intricate Mexican land-titles to the amount of millions of dollars, that had been appealed to the State supreme court during his entire judicial career of six years, only three were reversed.  At the expiration of his term he was presented with a series of resolutions, engrossed on parchment, signed by the entire bar of San Francisco, regardless of political affinities, expressive of their appreciation of his eminent integrity as a judge, his standing as a jurist, and their regret at his leaving the bench.  Previous to his re-election he was pressed to accept the nomination for the State supreme bench, but declined on account, as it is generally supposed, of his being afflicted with too much modesty.  In 1856 he took part as a member of the famous vigilance committee that was formed to punish the assassination of James King-of-Williams, the editor of the Bulletin, and to rescue the government of the city from the control of the prize-fighting, gambling, and thieving portion of the community.  That committee was composed of sixty companies of one hundred men each, six thousand in all, comprising the entire law-abiding and business community of San Francisco.  The murderers of King-of Williams were formally tried according to rules of law, and executed, and the leaders of the lawless element were driven from the State, and from that date the prevalence of order and decrease of crime were noticeable features of the result of the doings of that committee.  It was not a vulgar mob, - it was a revolutionary body.
     In 1877, during the prevalence of the great railroad strike, which had spread all over the country, resulting almost in a reign of anarchy, the lower and foreign elements of San Francisco commenced a series of riots against the Chinese residents of that city.  Although the authorities had succeeded in keeping the mobs in check, yet it was deemed that the situation was terribly critical, and great danger existed of the city being sacked.  Judge Cowles was a member of the committee of safety, consisting of twenty-five of the principal citizens, which was appointed, into whose hands, in conjunction with the authorities, the protection of the city was placed.
     After Judge Cowles retired from the bench he formed a copartnership with A. N. Drown, Esq., and has practiced his profession ever since with distinguished success.
     He was married in 1849 to Miss Anna L. Wooster, a great-granddaughter of General Wooster, who was killed in one of the battles of the War of the Revolution.  He is a brother of Mr. Edwin Cowles, editor of the Cleveland Leader; of Mr. Alfred Cowles, of the Chicago Tribune; and of Mrs. Helen C. Wheeler, of Butler, Missouri.  He has a family of six children, mostly grown up.
Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page  102
  DWIGHT L. CROSBY.   The above-named gentleman is the second son of Levi and Sarah Crosby, of Rome township, this county, originally from East Haddam, Connecticut.  Dwight L. was born on the 26th day of November, 1836.  His education was derived principally from the common schools, with a term or two additional at Grand River Institute, Austinburg, Ohio, and his first departure from the “old farm’' was in 1852, when he entered the store of his father at Rock Creek, and from that time until he closed out, in 1869, was in the mercantile business, either as an employee or on his own account.  His next business avocation was in the lumber trade.  Associating himself with his cousin, Frank Crosby, they prosecuted this business for some two years.  Mr. Crosby was elected to the office of county treasurer in October, 1873; re-elected in 1875; has been a faithful, efficient officer, and prior to the date of his election held positions of trust in the townships where he resided.  Was married on the 15th day of November, 1864, to Miss Augusta M., daughter of Frederick N. and Eliza Bond, of Rock Creek.  This marriage has been blessed with two children,—Harry L., the eldest of whom, was born on the 13th day of February, 1872, died Oct. 16, 1874, and Cassie, born Aug. 11, 1876.  Politically, Mr. Crosby is a firm believer in the teachings of the Republican party.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 126
  ELIJAH CROSBY was born in East Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, on the 14th day of
February, 1805.  He is a younger brother of Levi Crosby.  The subject of the present sketch was married on the 10th of October, 1831, to Elizabeth L., daughter of Deacon Erastus and Lydia Williams Chester, formerly of Colchester, New London county, Connecticut, and who arrived in Rome township, this county, on June 1, 1827, where the father died on Mar. 9, 1877, and the mother, Aug. 30, 1857.  Mr. Elijah Crosby has held many township offices, and has filled them with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents.  This couple became members of the Presbyterian church in 1831, and have been since that time active and consistent members.  The occupations of his life have been that of house-building, which avocation he followed during the early years of his life, and farming, of which class he has for years been an industrious and honored member. Is in politics thoroughly Republican.  The children of Mr. Crosby, with dates of birth and marriage, are given below, viz. Lydia A., born Dec. 23, 1832, married to J. W. Springer, June 3, 1861; Frank E., born July 29, 1834, married to Emma Wood, Sept. 12, 1863; Orietta M., born Aug. 5, 1836, married Oliver Smith, Aug. 31, 1856; Elliot M., born Feb. 28, 1839, married Betsey Crowell, Aug. 20, 1865, died Jan. 5, 1876; Albert C., born Jan. 24, 1842, married Sylvia Fobes, Dec. 23, 1870; Sarah E., born June 2, 1844. married E. J. Crowell, Dec. 16, 1866; Phebe C., born Feb. 22, 1847, died Oct. 29, 1876, unmarried; Alice L., born Apr. 22, 1850; Carrie J., born Nov. 18, 1856, married E. H. Stiles, Dec. 25, 1877.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 220
  LEVI CROSBY, a fine view of whose farm, residence, and pleasant surroundings, with portraits, appears in another portion of this work, was born in East Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, on the 2d day of April, 1803.  His father, Elijah Crosby, was born in the township and county above given, May 13, 1764.  His mother was Phoebe Church, and the date of her birth was Oct. 7, 1767.  They were married Oct. 31, 1787, and settled in Rome township in the month of August,
1806.  Here the father died July 30, 1835, and the mother, July 30, 1846.  The subject of the present sketch was, on the 28th day of February, 1832, united in marriage to Miss Sarah Leonard, whose place of nativity was Warren, Herkimer county, New York.  The result of this marriage was four children; the dates of whose several births are as follows: Giles H., born Jan. 19, 1833, married Oct. 5, 1862; Dwight L., born Nov. 21, 1835, married Nov. 16, 1864; Maria J., born Mar. 16, 1840, married Jan. 2, 1863; and Jane E., who was born on the 10th day of October, 1844, and was married on the 24th day of September, 1866.  The wife of Levi Crosby died in January, 1846, and on Dec. 8, 1851, he was again married, to Mrs. M. C. Willey.  After the death of his father, Levi was appointed agent for the sale of the lands yet remaining unsold in Rome township.  He was for many years engaged in the mercantile and produce business in connection with farming, but of late has given up everything else and is, as he expresses himself, “only an honest tiller of the soil.”  He is eminently worthy of a place among the pioneer fathers of Ashtabula County, and has ever been foremost in promoting the general growth of his adopted home.  In politics Mr. Crosby is a stanch Republican, having been first a Free-Soiler
and afterwards a Whig.  Giles H., the eldest son of this gentleman, has turned his attention somewhat to inventing.  Is the patentee of the iron-bob sled bearing his name, and has recently obtained letters patent on a buggy wheel, which is quite superior, we believe, in some respects to anything that has preceded it.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 220

 		 WILLIAM CROWELL, SR. *   The pioneers of the Connecticut Western Reserve, with few exceptions, were from New England, and a large majority of them from the State of Connecticut, which formerly owned the territory.  The character and habits of New England people made and left a deep impression on the early settlements, which remains influential to the present day.  Mr. Crowell was born at East Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, July 10, 1771.  His father, Samuel Crowell, was born at Chatham, Barnstable county, Massachusetts. Mar. 16, 1742, and was descended from Puritan stock that emigrated from England at an early day and settled in that county.  He emigrated to Connecticut, and married Jerusha Tracy, and had six children,—William, Samuel, Eliphaz, John, and Hezekial, and a daughter that died in infancy.  The subject of this sketch was the oldest son, and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a Mr. Mack to learn the joiner’s trade, and served the full term of seven years.  He was married to Ruth Peek, Aug. 26, 1792, and had nine children, one of whom died in infancy, and after his removal to Ohio the number was increased to fourteen; only two of whom are now living,—a son in the city of Cleveland and a daughter at Rock Creek. 
     The first settlers of the Western Reserve were generally intelligent and enterprising men, and capable of enduring the fatigues, hardships, and privations of a new country, which they were compelled to bear.  On his journey to Ohio he was in company with two other families, and they traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and were more than forty days on the way.  They traveled through Pennsylvania, over the mountains, to Pittsburgh, and thence to Ohio, and reached the end of their long journey the last of Nov., 1806.  From Bristol to Rome, a distance of more than twenty miles, there was an unbroken wilderness, without a house to shelter them, and they were obliged to camp out for the night in the most primitive style.  The darkness and gloom of that November night were rendered more hideous to the weary travelers by wolves howling around the campfire, and seeming to take offense at the intrusion of strangers upon their ancient domain, occupied in common by savage beasts and men for unnumbered generations.  The log cabin which had been built for them, and in which they spent the winter, stood near the dwelling-house of the late Joseph D. Hall.  The building, not a large one for three families, was divided by a stone wall five or six feet high, and extending partly across the room.  On each side of the wall fires were built for comfort and convenience, and over these an opening was left in the roof for the smoke to escape.  One part of the log cabin thus fitted up was occupied by Mr. Crowell and his family (the writer of this was one of them), and the other part by the two families already mentioned.  With the thermometer at zero, the apartments of the cabin could not be esteemed very extravagant or luxurious by the most prudent and economical.  In the spring Mr. Crowell built a log house on his farm, and at once commenced clearing it up for cultivation.  He soon found employment at his trade in the older settlements, where frame houses soon took the place of log cabins, not only in different parts of this county but in the adjoining counties, for he was esteemed a very good workman at his trade.
     His family lived upon his farm at Rome, to which he retired in later life, and where he died July 15, 1852, at the age of eighty years.  He became a member of the Protestant Episcopal church when the diocese of Ohio was organized, and was frequently a member of the diocesan convention, in the time of Bishop Chase, and when the bishop resigned voted to accept his resignation, and also in favor of the election of his successor.  Bishop McIlvaine, whom he esteemed very highly as a great and good man.  Bishop Chase speaks of him very kindly in his “Reminiscences,” published several years before his death, and both of the bishops were always his welcome guests in their diocesan visitations.  He was a very earnest and devoted member of that communion, and organized a parish and built a church in the neighborhood of his residence, and in the grave-yard attached to it his remains now repose.  His wife survived him several years, and died at the age of eighty-four, June 12, 1856, and was laid by his side.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 220
---------------
     * Prepared by Hon. John Crowell, Cleveland, Ohio.

W. H. Crowell		 WILLIAM HENRY CROWELL, COUNTY AUDITOR, is the third son of William and Nancy Crowell, and was born in Madison, Lake county, Ohio, on the 9th day of August, 1836.  In April, 1840, the family removed to Geneva, in this county, and it was in the schools of that township the subject of the present sketch received his education.  His easy method of handling the pen was, however, acquired from the renowned father of penmanship, Platt R. Spencer, finishing, in the fall of 1854, at the old log house which Professor Spencer designated by the appellation of “Jericho Seminary.”  On Dec. 17, 1855, William H. secured a situation as book-keeper in the freight department of the L. S. & M. S. R. R., at Cleveland, and after eighteen months’ service in this position was, for “sobriety and fidelity in the discharge of his duty,” promoted to the responsible position of cashier in the same office.  Served as cashier until January, 1863, when he resigned to accept the situation of chief clerk in the commissary department, at Camp Dennison, Ohio.  He served in that capacity until the last days of December, 1864, when he returned to Geneva and assumed control of his business at that point, which was that of ready-made clothing, gents’ furnishing goods, etc., until he was elected to the office of county auditor, in October, 1866.  He assumed the duties of the office in March, 1867; and his fitness has been amply attested by his re-election to the responsible office seven times in succession, the last of which was in the fall of 1877, for three years.  Mr. Crowell was, on Jan. 26, 1865, united in marriage to Miss Lida, youngest daughter of William and Elizabeth Butterworth, of Mainville, Warren county, this State.  The pledges of affection which have been sent to cheer them in “life’s weary pilgrimage” are Louisa Lavera, born Nov. 1, 1865; Ruby De Mott, born Feb. 10, 1868; Benjamin Butterworth, born Mar. 3, 1869, died Mar. 5, 1869; William Butterworth and Nathan Henry, born Nov. 8, 1874
(the former deceased Sept. 13, 1876); and Evangeline, the baby, born May 25, 1877.  Mr. Crowell is a member of the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, being an affiliant of Tuscan lodge, No. 342, at Jefferson.  Is also a member of the order of I. O. O. F.  Politically, Mr. Crowell is a Republican, of the unequivocal kind.
 Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 125
  C. E. CURTIS

Source: 1798 History of Ashtabula County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers and Most Prominent Men by Publ. Philadelphia - Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 208
  Kingsville Twp. -
CARLOS EUGENE CURTISS, whose portrait appears in connection with the view of the county infirmary, in another part of this volume, was born in Genesee county, New York, on the first day of June, 1825, and is a son of Ichabod and Selima Camp Curtiss, originally
of Middletown, Connecticut, but who removed to Ohio in 1833, and are now deceased, - the father Jan. 17, 1867, and the mother Oct. 9, 1868.  The education of Mr. Curtiss was acquired at the schools of Kingsville township, and his occupation has been that of farming, though in the year 1852 he caught the “ gold fever,’’ and the subsequent five years of his life were passed in the gold-bearing district of California, - a portion of the time in the mines.  He was also for a time partner in a store there, but acquired the greater portion of his wealth in hay speculations in the before-mentioned State.  Returning to Ohio, he was elected to the office of superintendent of the county infirmary in 1860, and the fact of his having served in that capacity for eleven years seems pretty conclusive evidence that he is the “right man in the right place.”  He was elected trustee of Kingsville township in the year 1870, and has served five years in that position.  On the 5th day of January, 1859, Mr. Curtiss was united in marriage to Miss Julia Elba, daughter of Allen W. and Betsey Wilder Niles, of Kingsville township, from whom have been born to him the following children : Mary E., the date of whose birth occurred Sept. 5, 1860; Halle N., born Nov. 2, 1869; and Albert D., the baby, who was born on the 12th day of March, 1871.
     Mr. Curtiss is a firm adherent to the principles inculcated by the Republican party.   He is kind and considerate towards those who are under his supervision, and is looked upon by them as a superior representative of the genus homo.

D. L. Crosby
Treasurer		  

NOTES:

 

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