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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Defiance County, Ohio
containing a History of the County; Its Townships,
Towns, Etc.;
Military Record; Portraits of Early Settlers and
Prominent Men; Farm Views; Personal
Reminiscences, Etc.
Published at Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co.
1883
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Defiance Twp. -
THOMAS R. CARROLL
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 222 |
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Defiance Twp. -
WILLIAM CARROLL
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 222 |
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Defiance Twp. -
WILLIAM CARTER
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 235 |
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Defiance Twp. -
ROBERT CARY
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 226 |
J. E. Casebeer |
Defiance Twp. -
CAPT. J. E. CASEBEER
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 233 |
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Milford Twp. -
GEORGE W. CHAPMAN, the subject of this sketch was born in Gill,
Mass., on the 29th day of September, 1803, at which place he
resided till the year 1821, when he removed to St. Lawrence
County, N. Y. On the 31st day of December, 1822, he
married Miss Narcissus Hopkins, of the
above-named county. Here Mr. and Mrs. Chapman began
a life which proved to be one of toil and hardship, yet withal a
most interesting and useful one. Mr. Chapman
being a skilled carpenter, found no lack for work, but in the
hope of finding a more desirable location, he moved with his
family to Canada in the year 1828 or 1829. There he
resided till the fall of 1837, when yielding to the ambitions of
their young natures, they resolved to emigrate to the West and
choose them a home from the forest lands of Western Ohio.
No sooner was the resolution formed than preparations were begun
for its execution. Such of the household furniture as
could be conveniently carried was loaded
on a wagon, and Mr. Chapman, with his wife and
several small children, started with a single team of horses and
heavy loaded wagon upon a trip that at this day would seem
impossible to accomplish. They proceeded directly to
Geauga County in this State, where they stopped for a short time
to rest up their horses and decide upon a place to locate.
Leaving his family, Mr. Chapman proceeded upon
horseback to Milford Township, where he entered 240 acres of
land, a part of which was the farm upon which he now resides.
He immediately returned to Geauga, and having purchased a yoke
of oxen and another wagon, he again set out with his family for
his chosen home, where he arrived the 1st of February, 1838.
The trip from Canada to Milford Township was one of hardship and
fatigue, having been made during the fall and winter months
through a new and unimproved country, a great part of the road
being through dense wood, with nothing but blazed trees to
indicate where the road was. It is almost a wonder that
the journey was accomplished at all. After arriving upon
his land, Mr. Chapman proceeded at once to erect a
log cabin and prepare for the comfort of his family. Chancy
P. Lowry, Dinnis Boyles and Eli Coy
were about the only neighbors, and each man had to depend upon
himself alone to do his work. The roads had at that time
been mostly surveyed, but with the exception of now and then a
fallen log removed or a standing tree blazed, there was little
else to indicate the line of a road. Mr. Chapman
went upon the line of road passing through the center of Milford
Township, and, unassisted, felled the trees, removed the logs
and cleared a wagon track from his farm west to the St. Joe
River, a distance of four miles. Mr. Chapman
continued to work at his trade, doing a great part of the
building in that section of the county. He also worked at
masonry and brick work, and, as well, that of cabinet-making.
The first schoolhouse in that district was built upon Mr.
Chapman's land, and the first school taught was by
Harriet, his eldest daughter. This schoolhouse was burned
down in a short time, and until another one could be built Mr.
Chapman's carpenter shop was converted into a
schoolhouse. Like most of the pioneers, Mr.
Chapman was very fond of hunting, a vocation in which he
frequently indulged, and as the woods were infested with game,
such as turkey, deer, raccoons, wolves, and all smaller game, he
was quite a successful hunter, having killed forty deer in one
winter, the fore-quarters of which he kept for his own use and
gave to neighbors; the hind-quarters he carried to market and
sold for from 2 to 2˝ cents
per pound. One day as Mr. Chapman was
walking along the road on his way home from Farmer Center, ho
came upon a small, pale-looking man, sitting upon a log by the
roadside. Mr. Chapman approached him and
inquired rather abruptly why he was sitting there. The
stranger replied that he was sick and had sat down to rest, and
that he did not believe he could travel any farther. "Get
right on my back," said Mr. Chapman, "and I will
carry you." This was said by Mr. Chapman as
a joke, but the stranger after looking at him for a short time,
arose and said he believed he would act on Mr.
Chapman's suggestion. Now this was rather more than
Mr. Chapman had expected, but he determined not to be
backed down. He allowed the stranger to get upon his back,
and taking hold of him as a father would his small boy, if he
were carrying him on his back, Mr. Chapman started
off upon the road, nor did he get relieved of his load till he
had carried him in this manner for nearly a mile, when the
stranger said he would go South from there and asked to be let
down. After thanking Mr. Chapman and saying
that he felt much better and believed ho could easily walk home
from there, the two men separated, the stranger going south and
Mr. Chapman proceeding toward his home. Now
this stranger turned out to be none other than Mr.
Jesse Haller, a man afterward very well known
throughout the county as Squire Haller, he having
served for several years as Justice of the Peace. Mr.
Haller and Mr. Chapman having never met
before, neither knew the other party to the strange meeting.
The matter was nearly forgotten when the two men chanced to meet
a year or two afterward, and each recognized the other.
The matter was spoken of and Mr. Haller, by way of
explanation said, "When you came up to me and asked me to get on
your back, I looked at you and concluded you were crazy, and I
was afraid to refuse your offer for fear of offending you;
besides, I thought it would be safer on a crazy man's back than
any other place." Mr. Chapman and
Mr. Haller were always afterward very warm friends,
and often visited each other, but they never met without having
a laugh about the latter's ride upon the back of (as he
supposed) a mad man. Mr. Chapman has been an
active member of the United Brethren Church since 1840, having
helped to organize the first society of that denomination ever
organized in Milford, and for which society he labored as local
preacher for many years. Mr. Chapman's
children consisted of four boys and five girls, viz.: Royal,
Lyman, George, Ervin, Harriet,
Jemmia, Huldah, Roby and Mary Jane,
two of whom are now dead, the others married. Mrs.
Narcissus Chapman departed this life August 27,
1870, aged sixty-nine years. Mr. Chapman
married Miss Dolly Crary, of Potsdam, St. Lawrence Co.,
N. Y., on the 5th day of February, 1877, with whom he is now
living on his old farm in Milford Township. Thus it will
be seen that Mr. Chapman can truthfully be called
one of the most interesting characters of pioneer life in
Defiance County; having come here when our county was one vast
wilderness, he has lived to see it developed into a rich county;
has seen nearly the whole of the first generation of its people
pass away and the second grow to old age, and although he is now
upward of eighty years old, yet with the exception of a crippled
limb caused by an injury received while moving to this county,
he is enjoying comparatively good health, and still works at the
carpenter bench.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 332 |
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Delaware Twp. -
ORLANDO COFFIN was born in Defiance
County, Mar. 12, 1848. He is the only surviving
member of a family of four children - George Coffin, born
Mar. 16, 1850, died Jan. 29, 1875; John M., born Apr. 14,
1852, died Jan. 24, 1875; Emily, born Mar. 12, 1846, died
July 24, 1873. The parents of this family, Gilbert
and Elizabeth Coffin, were natives of New York, and died,
the former in 1875, the latter in 1874. They settled in
Defiance County in 1846. The subject of this sketch was
married, Nov. 2, 1875, to Minerva Musselman, who was born
in Paulding County, Ohio, Apr. 14, 1851. Her parents,
John and Eliza (Wilson) Musselman, were born, the former of
Virginia, the latter in Ohio, both residents of Paulding County,
Section 31, where Mrs. Musselman died. Mr.
Musselman still survives.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page |
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Mark Twp. -
DR. LEVI COLBY was born June 15, 1817, in
Heniker, Merrimack County, N. H., where he grew up. He had
the advantage of district school education and then entered the
academy in his native town, taking his first course of lectures
at Dartmouth College in 1838. He removed to Defiance in
1839, and presented his studies with his brother, Dr. Jonas
Colby, and in the winter of 1840 and 1841, attended the Ohio
Medical College at Cincinnati. He commenced the practice
of medicine in the spring of 1841 at Defiance, as partner with
his brother Jonas. He was married at Defiance, June
7, 1843, to Miss Harriet R. Phelps, who was born in
Richville, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., and daughter of James
and Dorotha (Snow) Phelps. Their children are Edwin
B., born Oct. 24, 1850, at Montpelier, Williams County,
Ohio, dead; George C., born at Independence, Defiance
County, July 29, 1853, dead; Frances J., born Sept. 17,
1856, on farm, and married Loren S. Durfey and resides on
a portion of the farm; Hattie M., born on farm, May 27,
1860, married Franklin Bernard and living with the old
folks Colby at home; and Willis, born December,
1862, dead. Levi Colby, Sr., and Betsey (Clark)
Colby, parents of Dr. Colby, were the parents of nine
children - Sally, Jonas, Barak, Mary, Catharine, Benjamin and
Levi, Jr., twins, Lucinda and Abigail. Four
boys and four girls grew up and married. The oldest,
Sally died at the age of about fifteen. Joseph,
Mary and Catherine have since died. The
grandfather of Dr. Colbywas in the Revolutionary war, and
the fatehr of our subject, Levi, Sr., was sent a
substitute in the war of 1812. Mr. Colby's father,
James Phelps, was in the war of 1812 also. Mr.
came to this county, having lived in this county (except
with brief intervals spent in the adjoining counties of Williams
and Paulding) ever since he came in 1839. At an early day,
and soon after his arrival, we find him associated with the
School Board as Clark also Corporation Clerk, etc., and he has
generally been in township offices all through his life.
He is now serving this county as County Commissioner, having
been elected in 1879 and re-elected in 1882. He was the
first clerk pro tem, of Williams County as it now stands,
having received his appointment by President Judge Patrick G.
Good and his associates. HE was also Deputy under
Edwin Phelps, in Williams prior to organization of Defiance
County in 1845, and Representative of Paulding and Defiance
Counties in the Legislature, being elected in the fall of 1869
and re-elected in 1871, receiving the nomination by acclamation.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 320 |
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Defiance Twp. -
ISAAC CORWIN
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 216 |
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Milford Twp. -
NATHANIEL CRARY was born July 27, 1823, in
St. Lawrence County, N. Y., and came to Milford Township with
his parents in the spring of 1837, where he remained until his
marriage, in 1848, to Miss Mercy Wartenbee, with
whom he lived twelve years, when she died, leaving three
children—Doraliski, Celestia and Austin B.
Mr. C. married, for his second wife, Mrs. Arilla
Kemble, on the 8th of April, 1855. She had two
girls, Alice and Arilla, whom Mr. Crary
adopted, and changed their names to Crary. His
children by his second wife are five — Mercy, Madison
N. , Demerest H., Gracie and Laura Genevra. The farm
Mr. C. now owns is in Milford, in Section 35, and earned by
him^ in chopping acre for acre, in 1849. The first
settlers were Dennis Boyles, J. Hulbert, Daniel Coy, Peter
Beerbower, Isaac Wartenbee and Miller
Arrowsmith. In March, 1876, said Crary
removed to Hicksville, where he now resides. During the
last twenty-seven years, he has, in connection with farming,
been engaged in preaching the doctrines of Universalism, as
taught by Winchester, Mowery, Ballon,
Whittemore and others. He has engaged in many oral
discussions with the opponents to a world's salvation, and is
yet alive. He met in discussion with Elder
Holmes, of the United Brethren, and Elder Chubb,
of the Methodists; John Sweeny, of the Disciple
Church, from Chicago; John Mayham, a Methodist
preacher from Logansport; W. M. Lord, of La Porte, Ind.,
and others. Mr. Crary marked the line
through the forest with a hatchet, known in his neighborhood as
the "Crary road," to Hicksville, and his mother and two
other women who had socks to trade, in exchange for groceries,
followed the trail of the footmen, by the blazed trees made by
Mr. Crary, to the village. Hicksville was a
place of resort for several years for those who wished to meet
to amuse themselves at playing base ball. Among those who
were experts were A. P. Edgerton, Elias Orary, A.
Crary and others, who used to meet every few weeks for the
purpose of playing ball. Mr. Crary, in an
early day, ran an old- styled threshing machine. The
horse-power and cylinder were all one machine, and conveyed on
one wagon. For three years he threshed every job from
Farmer Center to the State line on the Fort Wayne road. He
would drive into the field where the wheat was stacked or
unstacked, and drive down some stakes, and put up some boards to
keep the wheat from scattering all over the field, and after the
grain was threshed off the straw he left the man who owned it to
clean up and report the quantity. We give, in Mr.
Crary's own words, the following: "When my father
removed to this county from Canada, in 1839, we landed at
Defiance, and there, for the first time, I saw some of the Ohio
dent corn, and it being such a novelty, and as my father had
bought a piece of land in Milford Township, at the northwest
quarter of Section 36, I thought we would need some of the new
but strong corn to plant the nest spring, so we took the liberty
of lodging two of the large ears in our coat pocket, and carried
them through the wilderness out to Farmer Center, driving a
number of cows through the mud and swamps, and when we stopped
over night at Farmer Center, with one Jacob Conkey,
and behold! we found our host had a large crib full of the same
kind of corn which we had brought in our pockets, and we have
admired that kind of corn ever since. "When my father
commenced on the farm where the Widow Crary now
lives, we soon found ourselves in want of provisions, especially
meat. In the month of June, after a hard day's work, hoeing corn
among the logs, father proposed that we would go down two miles
south and watch a deer lick, and try and kill us a venison (as
we called killing a deer in those days). We found the lick
then in the wilderness (but now on the farm owned by Kay
Maxwell, Esq.), and as the lick was an open piece of springy
ground, father perched me up in a tree to watch that end of the
lick, while he stationed himself at the other end. I had
not sat but a short time before I heard the step of something in
the dry leaves, and as I turned myself around I saw a deer
walking directly toward me. I took a dead aim at him,
resting my old shotgun across a limb, which was loaded with one
ball and nine buckshot (we always put in odd number of shot for
luck), and when I pulled trigger out went the ball and nine
buckshot, and down went the deer. I screamed at the top of my
voice, 'Father! father! I killed—I have killed him!' Father soon
came to my relief, cut the deer's throat, and we drew him at
little distance, where we dressed him. I remained with the dead
deer all night, while father went back and watched the lick, but
saw no more deer. My eldest brother, Elias, while
once chasing some deer on horseback, found a bear's track, and
found, also, that old bruin had been back-tracking himself; he
had heard that the bear, just before burrowing up for the
winter, would turn and follow his back track, to avoid detection
of his winter quarters. So brother came home, and reported
what he had seen of the bear's track, and he thought he was in a
hollow sycamore, not far from where he left the tracks.
The next morning, brother and Uncle Royal Hopkins
and myself, with dogs, as and guns, started for the tree.
We followed him but a short distance from where brother left his
track the night before, when we found he had gone into a large
hollow sycamore tree. The tree forked about twenty feet
from the ground, and right in the fork of the tree was the
entrance into the trunk. The bear was in the tree, down
next to the ground. After deliberation, we decided to fell
a small elm tree which stood in the right place to fall into the
forked sycamore, thereby closing up the hole that admitted the
bear into his retreat. Uncle Royal chopped
the little elm, while brother stood with cocked rifle to his
face, so if the bear should undertake to come out of the tree he
would shoot him. The little elm, instead of falling down
into the fork of the sycamore, caught on one of the branches of
the sycamore, about six feet above the entrance into the bear's
house. We heard a mighty scratching in the tree, and out
came the bear. As he looked around, brother fired, and we
supposed he had shot him, for he fell to the ground like a
puffball. The dogs went for him, but the bear commenced
rolling over and over, and finally freed himself from the dogs,
and away he went; he soon got out o| our sight, and soon the
dogs came back. Whether brother hit him or not we had no
means of knowing, and started for home feeling the truthfulness
of the old adage: There is many a slip twixt the cup and
the lip.' "
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 327 |
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Mark Twp. -
THOMAS CRAWFORD was born in Westmoreland
County, Penn., Apr. 18. 1805. His parents were born in
Maryland, were married in the same State and soon after removed
to Pennsylvania as above stated, where they raised a family of
eleven children, six boys and five girls, all of whom are dead
so far as known, except the subject of this sketch. He
received a common school education and grew up in Westmoreland,
where he married Miss Eliza Bird, Mar. 1,
1827, by whom he had ten children William, Polly,
Matthias, Phebe, Samuel, Huldah,
Sarah Jane, Lavinn, Alice, and
Johnnie, died at the age of three years eight months and
twenty-two days. All the rest are married and doing for
themselves. Mr. Crawford moved from Pennsylvania to
Wooster, Wayne County, where he remained eight years, then moved
to Williams County, and from there to Mark Township in February,
1864, on to Section 26, where he now resides with his son
Samuel at the age of seventy-nine years, enjoying as good
health as ever, except crippled with rheumatism. His wife
died Nov. 23, 1880, aged about seventy-seven years, having lived
with her husband over half a century.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 319 |
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Mark Twp. -
LYMAN R. CRITCHFIELD, fourth child of
Isaac and Nancy (Keifer) Critchfield, was born in Knox
County, Ohio, Apr. 16, 1838, his father being a native of
Cumberland, Penn., the latter of Clarksille, Va. Their
children were Subra, Wyman and Oscar (both died in
infancy) Lyman R., David K., and John P., who died
in the service of his country at Bridgeport, Ala., Aug. 2, 1864,
having enlisted in Company F, Thirty-eighth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry in 1863. Lyman R., our subject, enlisted
Apr. 18, 1861, on the first call for three-months' men, in
Company K, Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and on the 26th
of July, 1862, re-enlisted for three years and served till the
close of the war, being discharged from Andersonville Prison
June 9, 1865. He passed through many trying scenes, but
none more so than parting with his dying father when his
three-days' furlough had expired, and he had either to leave his
father on the brink of death or be marked as a deserter.
Stern duty determined his action, and receiving a parting kiss
and benediction, he left the death-bed scene, his father's eye
anxiously following him to the door, and with a sad heart turned
his footsteps in the direction of his country's foes.
Enlisting on the 8th of September at Toledo, he proceeded with
his regiment to Kentucky against Gen. Bragg.
Was at Knoxville, Tenn., when besieged by Longstreet. In
the spring of 1864, he passed through the Atlanta campaign, but
was captured on Nov. 30, 1864, by Hood's forces below
Jonesboro, Ga., and being stripped nearly naked, as thrown into
that indescribable prison pen, Andersonville.
Mr. Critchfield was married Dec. 6, 1868, to
Mary C. Cole, who has borne him three children - Alonzo
L., born Aug. 28, 1868, died Sept. 16, 1874; Delaphene M.,
born June 28, 1872, and Homer J., born Apr. 8, 1879.
Mr. Critchfield's parents moved to Henry County in 1849,
and next spring moved to Mark Township, taking forty acres at
$25, which recently changed hands at $1,100. They had to
cut a road from the river road and another to Hicksville, six
miles long. For a number of years there were no roads fit
for teams; goods had to be transported by men. A man by
the name of Ashton put up a saw mill and a corn-cracker in it,
where they used to take corn on a hand sled and pull through the
woods, distant about five miles. As Lyman R. grew up, he
took after his father somewhat for hunting. His father
settled in Knox County among the Indians when about ten years
old and became a great hunter. Lyman R. used to
hunt bear, deer, coons and turkeys. One day he ran a big
bear all day with six dogs; night coming on, he camped on his
track. Next morning routed him easily and treed him.
Afterward he dropped to the round, the dogs all pounced upon him
and killed him nearly; one of the men ran up and, striking him
on the head, finished him. At another time, late in the
evening in September, he heard a rout among the hogs in the
marsh on a little island. His brother, D. K.
Critchfield, and himself started out. Taking the path
to where they slept, discovered a bear lugging off a hog.
On seeing them, he was attracted by Lyman's which shirt,
dropped the hog, came at him and was within a few jumps of him
when his brother shot him, after a pretty narrow escape of a
bear's hug.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 322 |
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Defiance Twp. -
FRANK C. CULLEY
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 244 |
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