BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
Portrait Biographical Album
of
Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio
containing Full Page Portraits
and Prominent and Representative Citizens
of the County
Together with Portraits and Biographies of all the
Presidents of the United States.
Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1890.

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

< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO 1890 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO LIST OF BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >

JOHN B. ABELL.  This young gentleman is now Superintendent of the Democrat Company of Springfield, having been chosen for that position when the company was incorporated, the business having become too large for one man to manage in all its departments.  Although it has been but a few years since he began his residence here, his scholarly attainments, mental capacity, and business acumen are already well known and give him an excellent standing in social and business circles.  He comes of excellent families in both lines of descent and so far his life has done credit to the name it bears, while the promise for the future is a bright one.  The father of our subject, Commodore Lawrence Abell, distinguished himself in the naval service during the late war and died from hardships and exposure in 1860, at Salem, Mass.  His wife, whose maiden name was Ann Hathaway, was a native of the Old Bay State, where she died, when her son of whom we write was but an infant.  John B. was born in Marblehead, May 1, 1860, and after his mother’s death was reared by his uncle Charles D. Abell, his youth being spent upon a farm.  Upon reaching his seventeenth year he entered Williston Seminary, afterward attending Phillip’s Academy from which he was graduated in 1881.  Coming West, he then entered Oberlin College, from which institution he was graduated in 1885.  Immediately after his graduation Mr. Abell came to Springfield and entered the law office of Gen. J. Warren Keifer, with whom he read law three years. During the same time he carried on quite an extensive ice business on his own account.  Closing out the business at the expiration of a few years, he became an advertising solicitor and editor of the Daily Democrat, continuing thus engaged for a year when the company was incorporated and his present position assumed.      Among the members of the class of ’85 in Oberlin College was Miss Mary E. Upp, of Sandusky, Ohio, whom he married June 30, 1886.  The popularity of the young couple, their estimable characters, and mental culture, open before them an extended path of usefulness, and win for them the friendly regard of all with whom they come in contact.  Mr. Abell and wife are both members of the First Congregational Church, and politically, he is a stanch Democrat. Source:  Portrait Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio, Published Chicago: Chapman Bros. - 1890 - Page 742

CYRUS ALBIN, a native of Clarke County, born herein pioneer times, the son of an early pioneer family of this region, is closely identified with the industrial interests of Springfield, where he established himself in business as a contracting painter more than forty years ago.  Twice he has laid aside his vocation at the call of a higher duty.  At one time during the late war he served his country as a soldier, and he abandoned military life only to accept a civic position, filling the important office of Sheriff of Clarke County with signal ability for two terms.      Aug. 2, 1825 our subject was born in Mad River Township in a log cabin which his father had built in the primeval forests on the homestead that he had bought  from the government a few years previously.  His grandfather, John Albin, and his father, George Albin, who was a native of Winchester, Va., removed from the Old Dominion to this state in 1810, the removal being made with teams.  Ohio was at that time very sparsely populated, the rich soil was covered with forests of primeval growth, or open woodlands, prairies and meadows, and in all the land, where the Indian still lingered, and deer, bears and other kids of wild game were very plentiful, there was but little sign of the approaching civilization that was to make this one of the proudest commonwealths of this great country.  The grandfather of our subject settled in the Southwestern part of the made River Township, where he made his home till death closed his life at a ripe old age.      George Albin, the father of our subject selected a tract of heavily timbered government land in Mad River Township, and at once built a log cabin on the place to shelter the family.  His wife had no stove and used to cook over the fire in the rude fireplace that served to heat the humble abode, and as an adept in all the housewifely arts of the day she used to spin and weave all the cloth used in the family.  Mr. Albin cleared quiet a tract of land there, and resided on it some years, and then bought a farm four miles west of this city, and in the home that he established there his life was terminated at the advanced age of eighty-two years.  He was a man of excellent character and firm principle was greatly respected by his neighbors and other friends, and was a help in developing the agricultural interests of Clarke County, occupying a worthy place among its pioneers.  He had not been in Ohio long when the War of 1812 broke out and he volunteered in the defense of his country, doing good service in the army.  The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Elizabeth West.  She died on the home farm many years ago.     Cyrus Albin passed his early life on the old homestead where he was bred to the life of a farmer.  He wished to gain an education and took every opportunity offered to attend winter school.  At the age of eighteen he came to Springfield to learn the trade of a painter.  After that he worked under instruction in Cincinnati, remaining there a few months and then returned to Springfield and did "jour" work a short time.  His next move was to establish himself as a contractor in the line of his very profitably till May, 1864.  In that month he laid aside his work to go into service to aid in suppressing the rebellion, enlisting in the Fifty-second Regiment, Capt. Bushell's company, for one hundred days and went at once to the front in West Virginia, and was with his regiment in much hard service till the expiration of the term of enlistment when he was honorably discharged, having done his duty faithfully at all times whether in camp, or on the march or on the battlefield, and showing excellent qualities for a soldier.  While he was thus honorably engaged he was not forgotten at home by his fellow-citizens, who placed his name on the republican ticket for Sheriff of the county, to which responsible office he was elected in the same fall.  By the zeal and sound judgement and wise discretion that he displayed in the discharge of the numerous duties devolving upon him while holding that position he showed himself to be the right man in the right place, and in the fall of 1866 he was re-elected, and served two full terms with distinction.  After his retirement from public life Mr. Albin engaged as traveling salesman for the Champion Reaper Company, was with them three years, and at the expiration of  that time resumed his old business as a contracting painter, which he has continued to the present time, and has thereby accumulated a comfortable competence.      Mr. Albin's success in life is due in part to the fact that he has a good wife, to when he was united in marriage in 1850.  Her maiden name was Charlotte Wilkes, and she is, like himself, a native of his county, and is a daughter of pioneer parents, Charles and Delitha Wilkes, natives, respectively, of Massachusetts and North Carolina.  Mr. and Mrs. Albin have four children - Belle, Bruce, Rodney and Elmer.     Mr. Albin was a well-known figure on our streets, and his whole course throughout a blameless life that has passed its sixty-fifth milestone has been such as to entitle him to the cordial respect and esteem accorded to him on all hands. It has been his privilege to witness the wonderful growth of this county and of the whole State since his birth, that has transformed and ancient wilderness into a populous and wealthy community, with thriving cities, towns, and villages, and fruitful farms where once stood primeval forests in all their glory, interspersed with open woodlands and beautiful prairies and meadows that were as nature made them when his parents first took up their abode here.  Mr. Albin is a popular member of Clarke Lodge, No. 101, A. F. & A. M., Springfield Council No. 17, and of Springfield Chapter No. 48; he is also connected with the G. A. R. as a member of MitchellPost, No. 45. Source:  Portrait Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio, Published Chicago: Chapman Bros. - 1890 - Page 175

NOTES: