|
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)
< CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO 1878 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
>
< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO LIST
OF BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >
Res. of
Charles Talcott
Geneva,
Ashtabula Co., O
Chas. Talcotts
Music & Jewelry Store
Geneva, OH |
Geneva Twp. -
CHARLES TALCOTT. We take pleasure in
presenting the following sketch of the life and successes of one of
Geneva's stirring, go-ahead business men. Born Sept. 10, 1841,
at Garrettsville, Portage county, Ohio, he was the youngest son of
Nelson and Lovisa Talcott, of that point.
Was educated in the common school, attending the same until he was
thirteen years of age, at which time he began his apprenticeship as
tinner, in the shop of his oldest brother,—Henry,—at
Jefferson; remaining there until twenty years of age, when he took a
course in the Mercantile college at Cleveland, Ohio. Returned
to Jefferson when he had attained his majority, and on Jan. 1, 1863,
associated himself with his brother, before spoken of, in the tin
and hardware trade; continued in business at this point until
November of that year, when the copartnership was dissolved, and
Charley removed to Geneva, making his entree into that village
on the 23d day of November, perched on top of a load of wooden
pumps, and in company with V. J. C. Hodge commenced business
under the firm-name of Talcott Hodge. The
business was at that time carried on in what was known as the old
Mills store, a small one and a half story building, twenty-five by
thirty-five feet, one of the first store buildings erected in
Geneva, and at that time occupying the site of the present brick
store of C. Talcott & Co. The stock of goods at that
time was quite small, amounting with shop, tools, and fixtures to
about three thousand five hundred dollars. The building was
rented of George Turner. The following year the
building was purchased by Talcott A Hodge, and a small
addition built to accommodate their business, which increased very
rapidly. Business was continued in this store until 1867, at
which time Charles Talcott built the main part of
their present hardware-store, on the site of the old building (the
old store being removed a few rods on East Main street, and occupied
by said firm while the new store was being built). The new
store was a substantial brick building, with a frontage on Centre
street of twenty-five feet, running back to East Main, with a
frontage on that street of thirty-five feet, —making a room for
hardware twenty-five by seventy, and the balance of the building
being used for a tin-shop. During this year the interest of
Mr. Hodge was purchased by Charles Talcott,
and he continued the business alone until 1875. The business
had now increased from an annual sale of about five thousand
dollars, the first year, to a sale amounting in 1867 and 1868 to
over forty thousand dollars annually, and it soon became necessary
to have more room, which was accomplished by purchasing the two lots
adjoining the store on East Main street, and extending the building
forty feet on that street,—making the store-room twenty-five by one
hundred and ten (the largest room in the county), and the tin-shop
beyond twenty-five by thirty, with second story same size as the
ground-floor, in use for wareroom and storage. About this time
also the third story was built, and a room finished expressly for
the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, and leased to them for a
period of ten years, and is occupied by them at the present time,
under an extension of lease of ten years longer. It is said to
be the finest hall in the county. In 1871. Mr.
Talcott bought the right for this county of what is known as the
“Pope & Tuttle Milk-Rack," for butter-makers, and
immediately put men into the field canvassing for it, which resulted
in the following years in completely revolutionizing the business of
butter-making in this county. In 1872 the stock of jewelry
owned by H. B. Hunt was purchased by Charles
Talcott and removed to his store, where, in company with C.
M. Wright, the jewelry business was carried on until the spring
of 1876, when the firm was dissolved, and the business continued by
Charles Talcott (the stock being removed in the summer
of 1877 to a new building purchased by him, and adjoining his
hardware-store, on the north). In 1875, Philip Doll
purchased a half-interest in the hardware and building, and the firm
was changed from Charles Talcott to Charles
Talcott & Co., with increased capital. The business, already
ranking among the first in the county, was pushed forward with
renewed energy and success, with constantly-increasing sales.
In the autumn of 1876, Messrs. F. and W. A. Hubbard,
under the title of Hubbard Bros., purchased one-third
interest in the hardware and building, and were admitted as partners
to the firm of C. Talcott & Co. In 1877 the firm purchased
the right for Lake county, and. together with Mr. Chapin,
of Lenox, the right for Ashtabula County, for what is known as the
“Stickles Milk-Pans," for buttermaking, and later in the season
purchased the right for Ashtabula, Lake, and Geauga counties, of the
Cooly system of butter-making,—a system far superior to anything
heretofore discovered, and which must, when its merits are known,
become adopted. They are now pushing sales vigorously, having
men employed in all of the above-named counties. The firm have
a paid-up capital of twenty-one thousand dollars actually invested
in the business, and are considered among the leading hardware
dealers in northern Ohio. The business management is under the
direction of Charles Talcott, who is also secretary
and treasurer of the Enterprise Manufacturing company, of Geneva (a
joint stock company for the manufacture of garden and household
implements), and proprietor of the Geneva music and jewelry store.
Mr. Talcott has the exclusive sale of the
Knabe, Haines Bros., Hardman, and
Decker Bros, pianos. In organs, he is also agent
for the Estey, Jewett, Goodman, Burdett,
Smith, American, Palace, and Cleveland Organ company.
Sales for the year in instruments, twelve thousand dollars; jewelry,
seven thousand dollars.
On the 13th of May, 1863, Mr. Talcott was united
in marriage to Weltha M., daughter of Gates and
Betsy Hyde, of Lenox. Two children were born of this
marriage,—Lewis C., the date of whose birth was Apr. 15,
1866, and Bernice L., born Nov. 10, 1869. Mrs.
Talcott died Nov. 13, 1875, and on the same day in November,
1876, Mr. Talcott was again married, to Libbie H.
Churchward, of Painesville, Lake county, Ohio.
Mr. Talcott is a member of the Congregational
church, with which he united in 1866. Politically he is a
Prohibitionist, having always taken a lively interest in temperance
matters.
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 180 |
Talcott Residence
Mr. & Mrs.
Talcott
& Sons,
And Business Blk.,
Mills |
HENRY TALCOTT
was born in Nelson, Portage county, Ohio, Dec. 28, 1832. His
father, Nelson Talcott, was an extensive
chair-manufacturer, and Henry was placed in the paint
department, at the age of eleven, to learn to do ornamental
chair-painting. Winters he attended the high school in
Garrettsville, Ohio, but at the age of seventeen his health failed
him, and he had to abandon the painter’s trade and learn another.
The following spring he commenced to learn the tinner’s
trade in Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, and serving two years’ time
there, at thirty-five dollars and forty-five dollars per year, he
then went to Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, and worked one year more
under instruction, at one hundred dollars. Out of these sums
he clothed himself entirely and saved fifty-four dollars to commence
business with. And the 1st of August before he was twenty-one
years old, he came to Jefferson, Ohio, and purchased a small
tin-shop and stove-store of James Norris,
—consideration seven hundred and thirty-six dollars,—rolled up his
sleeves, and went to work. He never received any aid or
assistance from any quarter, except a loan of two hundred dollars
from his father, for six months, when he first commenced business.
This was on Aug. 1 , 1852. The business interests of Jefferson were
very small at that time, and for that matter were the same all over
the county.
Talcott’s hardware-store was the first one,
exclusively in this branch of trade, started in the county, but the
following spring Geo. C. Hubbard commenced one in Ashtabula,
and has always kept even pace with him, while at the present time
there are at least a dozen good hardware-stores, situated in
different parts of the county, every one of them selling more
hardware than was sold in the whole county, prior to 1850, each
year. The first year's sales amounted to only two
thousand eight hundred dollars, but steadily increased until, 1864,
it reached forty thousand dollars and more, and requiring a stock of
from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. After adding the sale
of Buckeye mowing-machines, wagons, and agricultural implements, he
was compelled to build a large brick block fifty-two by seventy-five
feet, three stories high, to accommodate this greatly increased
business, and in addition to this, he has an extensive wareroom
thirty-two by sixty-five feet, two stories high. This business
has all been built up in the past twenty-five years. In 1863, always
having had a passion for a farm life, he purchased the old
Michael Webster farm, one mile west of the
court-house, one hundred and ninety-six acres, moved on to it, and
commenced farming in addition to his hardware business. Still
later he purchased the old Jonathan Warner farm, adjoining
his other purchase and also the borough line of Jefferson, and built
him a fine brick residence adjacent to it, but inside the borough,
and is now doing an extensive business breeding thoroughbred
short-horn Durham cattle for sale, and has some very choice animals
in his herd, bred from Clarendon,—five twenty, — Duke of Clark
(2d), and Royal Britain.
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 155 |
Hon. Freeman Thorp |
HON.
FREEMAN THORP, of Geneva, a representative in the general
assembly, and the subject of this sketch, was born in a log house in
Geneva, June 16, 1844. He is a son of Dennis Thorp, Esq.,
a highly-respected citizen, and for many years a justice of the
peace of Geneva township, is a grandson of Aaron Thorp,
one of the early settlers of Austinburg, and a great-grandson of
Peter Thorp, a soldier of the French and Indian war, from
Massachusetts colony. Freeman is the youngest of a
family of four, and is by education fairly the product of our common
schools, supplemented by a constant habit of study in after-life.
His early life was passed upon the farm and in the workshop up to
the age of sixteen, when at the breaking out of the war for the
suppression of the Rebellion, in 1861, he enlisted as a private
soldier in Company D, Second Ohio Cavalry, serving three years in
that capacity. His commanding officer said of him at the close
of his term of service, in a letter to the governor of Ohio, “He was
a faithful, conscientious soldier, studious in his leisure moments,
his moral and social qualities excellent, his habits perfect.”
This, which was true of him then, is true of him to-day, being a man
of exemplary habits. After the war he engaged in the practice
of photography, studying at the same time the profession of
portrait-painting, in which he soon attained to high rank, without
other aid than such as the best printed works upon the subject and
his own genius and experiments afforded, and in 1870 was elected an
honorary member of a Berlin society of art. This attracted
considerable attention in this country, and coming to the notice of
public men at Washington, they invited Mr. Thorp to
come to that city, and he has practiced his profession there during
a portion of each year with eminent success, standing at this time
securely in the front rank of “ American portrait-painters.”
In 1874 his picture was the one accepted in a competitive painting
of portraits of General Simon Cameron for the war department; he was honored soon after with a commission from the President for
a portrait of himself, and also a portrait of Mrs. Colonel
Fred. Grant.
In 1873, Mr. Thorp declined an
appointment as honorary commissioner to the Vienna exposition,
tendered him by the President, to come home and engage in the
political campaign of that year. In political discussion, Mr.
Thorp, though earnest, is fair and courteous to his political
opponents. In the campaign of 1877 he was nominated on the
Republican ticket for member of the general assembly, having for
competitors Hon. Eusebius E. Lee, Democrat; Professor
Jacob Tuckerman, Independent Republican; and Charles
Talcott, Prohibitionist. After a spirited campaign,
Mr. Thorp received a majority over all his competitors,
and the certificate of election. Soon after his election he
went to Cincinnati, and entered into competition with other artists
in painting portraits of ex-Attorney-General Alphonso
Taft, for the department of justice at Washington. In
this undertaking he achieved eminent success, distancing all his
competitors, and adding greatly to his professional reputation.
His work in Cincinnati was completed just in time for the
commencement of the Sixty-third general assembly, which began its
session in the city of Columbus, Jan. 7, 1878. As a member of
the legislature, Mr. Thorp has been an industrious,
conscientious, painstaking member, opposing with manly firmness and
marked ability every abuse of legislative power or encroachment upon
the constitutional rights of the people. His legislative
career begins auspiciously, and gives promise of great usefulness to
the State.
Mr. Thorp was married Aug. 25, 1865, to
Miss Orlena A. Eggleston, of Geneva, daughter of E. M.
Eggleston, Esq., a skilled mechanic, a foreman in the Geneva
Tool company, and a man greatly respected. They have two
children, a daughter, Miss Nellie I. Thorp, aged ten, and a
son, Clark L. Thorp, aged eight.
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
|
CHARLES TINKER |
Geneva Twp. -
CHARLES TINKER. This gentleman is
one of the foremost men of the county who are connected with the
mechanical industries. The son of a mechanic, his natural bent
took this direction, and the employment of his life has been such as
to give it ample development. The father, during the boyhood
days of the son, owned a farm in Kingsville township (where the
subject of our sketch was
born on the seventh day of September, 1821), but in the winter time
he applied himself to the trade of wagon-making. Here the son
received his first instruction in the line of mechanical labor.
He received a common school education, such as the limited
facilities of those days afforded.
He was united in marriage with Mary Webster,
of his native township, on the twenty-fifth day of September, 1842.
Now he began life for himself in dead earnest. In 1843 he
built a saw-mill on the Conneaut creek, and in the following year he
erected an oil-mill,—the first mill of the kind in that part of the
county. In 1850 we find him in Mantua, Portage county, Ohio,
where, in 1854, he built a foundry and machine-shops, and for about
six years prosecuted the business of manufacturing plows, threshing,
wood-sawing, and mowing-machines. Ten years later (in 1864) he
is at Garrettsville, on Silver creek, Portage county, where he is
again engaged in the manufacture of mowing-machines and plows.
At the expiration of four years, in 1868, he formed a
partnership with N. S. Caswell, of Geneva, Ohio, and with him
began the manufacture of forks and other small farming tools.
The business at Garrettsville and that of Geneva were continued in
conjunction with each other for two years, the wood work being done
at the latter, and the steel work at the former place.
Aug. 1, 1870, these gentlemen, finding that their
business had so grown under their care and attention as to demand
the investment of more capital than they had at command, and
recognizing the importance of concentrating the entire business
either at Garrettsville or Geneva, they submitted a proposition to
the citizens of both places to sell out to a stock company at either
point, the condition being that the stock on hand at both places
should be purchased, and the works should be located at that place
which would subscribe the larger amount of stock. Geneva’s
citizens having pledged stock to the amount of eighty-two thousand
five hundred dollars,—a larger sum than the citizens of
Garrettsville could raise,—the works were located at the former
place, and a stock company, with Mr. Tinker as
president, organized, Mr. Caswell becoming
superintendent To the prudent management and business ability
of Mr. Tinker was this successful business strongly
due, and he is justly entitled to be called the father of the Geneva
Tool Works enterprise. For seven years the general management
of the company’s affairs was in the hands of Mr. Tinker,
who remained president of the company up to Aug. 1, 1877, and will
hold the said office to August, 1878, if alive.
Although sustaining a serious loss in the fall of 1870,
caused by the burning of the old shops on the South ridge, yet,
through the skillful management of Mr. Tinker and his
fellow-officers, the company was able to pay a cash dividend of ten
per cent, in 1873, and the next year, in addition to a cash dividend
of ten percent, a ten per cent, stock dividend was declared, at
which time the company sold stock enough to make their capital one
hundred thousand dollars. Up to this date, in addition to paying a
regular annual dividend of ten per cent., the company have
accumulated a surplus of twenty-two t housand dollars.
The people of Geneva should ever hold Mr. Tinker
in grateful remembrance as the founder and chief promoter of this
important manufacturing industry, which has done so much for the
growth and prosperity of their beautiful village.
Mr. Tinker has made several unsuccessful
attempts at farming during the course of his life; once in
Kingsville, immediately after his marriage; once at Mantua, Portage
county, in 1850; once at Geneva, in 1860; and lastly, at
Garrettsville, Portage county. The reason why these attempts
were failures was because he is naturally an artisan and not a
farmer.
In 1849, when the gold excitement was at its height, he
went to California by the overland route, with ox-teams, requiring
four months for the journey.
His wife, Mary Webster, born in Monroe
township, this county, July 15, 1820, is the daughter of George
Price and Mary Webster.
Charles and Mary Tinker are the parents of five
children, viz.: George L., born June 19, 1843, married
September, 1874, to Miss Emma Sharp, of New Philadelphia,
where he now resides; Maria A. Tinker, born Dec. 19, 1844,
married A. D. Myers, of Geneva, Ohio, November, 1864, and
died Nov. 28, 1869; Henrietta L. Tinker, born Sept. 21, 1846,
married Frank Gregory, of Geneva, Ohio, November,
1863, and now resides in Ashtabula, Ohio; Emma J. Tinker,
born Feb. 9, 1849, and married Otis B. Clark, of
Streetsborough, Ohio, Sept. 24, 1867, and now resides in Ashtabula,
Ohio; and Charles Otis Tinker, born May 9, 1852, is
unmarried, and resides in Ashtabula, Ohio. Mr.
Tinker is deservedly esteemed in a wide circle of friends in
Ashtabula County.
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 176 |
NOTES:
|
