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BIOGRAPHIES
A Standard History
of
Erie County, Ohio
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular
Attention
to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial,
Civic and Social Development. A Chronicle of the People, with Family
Lineage and Memoirs.
By
HEWSON L. PEEKE
Assisted by the Board of Advisory Editors
Volume I.
ILLUSTRATED
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1916
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HARLEY B. GIBBS.
Prominent in business and financial circles a Cleveland
for many years, Harley B. Gibbs, whose home is in
the Village of Milan, is related to many of the names
that have borne a useful and influential share in the
development of Northern Ohio for nearly a century.
He is a descendant of Giles Gibbs, who came to
America from England as early as 1645, landing at
Dorchester Bay, Massachusetts, and later becoming an
early settler at Windsor, Connecticut. Many of his
descendants were identified with Norwalk, Connecticut,
and later in Northern Ohio for nearly a century.
He is a descendant of Giles Gibbs, who came to
America from England as early as 1645, landing at
Dorchester Bay, Massachusetts, and later becoming an
early settler at Windsor, Connecticut. Many of his
descendants were identified with Norwalk, Connecticut,
and later with Norwalk, Ohio. The line of descent,
beginning with Giles, is continued through
Samuel I, Samuel II, Samuel III, Samuel R. IV, Edward H.
and Harley B. Samuel R. Gibbs married
Deborah Hanford, who was also of a New England
family for generations resident in Connecticut.
The marriage of Samuel R. and wife took place in
Norwalk, Connecticut, and their son, Edward H.,
was born there in 1812. Only a few years later,
about 1818, the family came out to Ohio. Samuel
was accompanied by his brother David and
family, and they made the journey with ox and horse
teams, the entire distance overland. The Erie
Canal had not yet been opened and the rough roads and
trails furnished the only practicable means of coming to
the West at that time. The families camped by the
wayside as night overtook them, and after many days of
journeying settled at Norwalk, Ohio, where a great many
people form the Connecticut locality of the same name
established pioneer homes. Samuel and David
took up a section of land in that vicinity, and part of
that ground is now occupied by the woodland Cemetery and
the waterworks of Norwalk. As pioneers they opened
homes in the wilderness and gradually business back in
Norwalk, Connecticut. He and his wife in time
acquired a beautiful home at Norwalk, and he died there
in the '50s, and she passed away in 1863, when eighty
years of age. She was a Methodist Deborah Gibbs
had three sons and eight daughters. It should also
be mentioned that another ancestor of Harley B. Gibbs
was a Major Gibbs, who served on the staff of
General Washington during the Revolution and later
became private secretary to President Washington.
Edward H. Gibbs, who was six years old when the
family made their journey to Ohio in 1818, grew up on
the pioneer farm and gained such education as local
means in instruction could then supply. About 1844
he established his home at Milan, and, associated with
Mr. Comstock, started a general store there.
The firm prospered and was subsequently reorganized as
Gibbs & Graham. During the financial
depression which occurred in 1857 the firm liquidated,
and Mr. Graham afterwards went south and became a
colonel in the Confederate army. Edward H.
Gibbs subsequently transferred his business affairs
to Norwalk, and died there in the spring of 1872.
He was a man of affairs, and well known in the adjoining
counties.
He was married in Norwalk to Maria Louise Brownell.
She was born in Ovid, New York, in 1815. She was
related to the well known Diocese of Connecticut.
Another relative was Corporal Brownell, who was with
Colonel Ellsworth's command in the capture of
Alexandria, across the Potomac from Washington, at the
beginning of the Civil war, and is distinguished in
history as the man who killed the hotel proprietor
Jackson who had shot Colonel Ellsworth, Maria Louise
Gibbs died in 1869 while in Chicago. Her
parents were Pardon and Nancy Purdy Brownell,
both natives of Ovid, New York, where they spent their
lives. Mrs. Edward H. Gibbs was active in
the Presbyterian Church at Milan, and her husband
attended the same congregation. In politics he was
a republican. In their family were five children:
Elizabeth, who died in 1912, married William
Lewis, also now deceased, and her son, Fred C.,
is now married and lives in Chicago, and her
daughter, Mary Elizabeth, is the wife of Fred
W. Harlow of Louisville, Kentucky. The
second child, Edward H., Jr., died in infancy,
and the third was also named Edward H., Jr.
He died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1907; he married
Helen Stuart of Milan, and she and her only son,
Ralph, now live in Pittsburg. The next in
age is Harley B. Platt P., the youngest, is
a music publisher in Chicago, and his wife, whose maiden
name was Mary Reid, died in 1915, leaving a son,
Herbert P., who is now married and has three
children.
Harley Brownell Gibbs, who was born in his
father's home at Milan, Mar. 13, 1849, acquired his
early education in the local public schools and had a
brief experience as clerk in a local store before
entering the Bryant & Stratton Business College
at Chicago, from which he graduated. For six years
he was bookkeeper in a commission house at Chicago, and
in 1871, on the organization of the King Bridge Company
of Cleveland, he went to that city as shipping clerk for
the company. Subsequently he became a stockholder,
director and treasurer in the company, and was actively
identified with those interests for forty years.
In 1890, associated with a number of Cleveland business
men, including Zenas King. Charles A.
Otis, Dan P. Eells, John M. Gundry and
others, he assisted in organizing in Lake Shore Bank of
that city. He is one of the four directors who
have been on the board constantly for twenty-five years,
and through all that time has held the position of the
vice President.
Mr. Gibbs lives six months of the year at Winter
Park, Florida, and the other six months of the year at
his home on Elm Street in Milan.
In Masonry Mr. Gibbs is affiliated with all the
important bodies of that order at Cleveland, including
Tyrian Lodge No. 307, A. F. & A. M.; Royal Arch Chapter
No. 148, Cleveland Council, Oriental Commandery of the
Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Union Club,
the Roadside Club and the Euclid Club of Cleveland, the
New England Society of Cleveland, the Firelands
Historical Society of Norwalk, Ohio, and the Ohio
Society of New York City.
In 1878 Mr. Gibbs married Miss Emma Johnson
of Hudson, Ohio. She died in 1894 at the age of
forty-two. She was a daughter of Enoch Johnson,
formerly superintendent of the Cleveland, Akron &
Columbus Railway Company. Mrs. Gibbs left
no children.
In 1912 Mr. Gibbs married Mrs. Nellie
Standart Hobbs. Her former husband, Fred
Hobbs, was born in South Berwick, Maine, in 1859,
and died in 1908. Mrs. Gibbs is a daughter
of George H. and a granddaughter of Needham M.
Standart. Her grandfather was born in Sept. 9,
1797, in Massachusetts, and in 1818 came to Milan, Ohio.
Here he became prominent in the great grain industry
which at that time centered at Milan, and it is said
that in the high tide of the business Milan was the
second greatest grain market in the world.
Needham M. Standart was associated in this business
with his brothers-in-law, Daniel and Thomas Hamilton.
This firm shipped great quantities of grain from Milan.
In 1836 Mr. Standart went to Cleveland, and his
business operations made him one of the commercial
leaders in that city. For many years he shipped
grain under the firm name of Whitman & Standart,
and his firm as an experiment during the late '30s
shipped a full schooner load of wheat by way of the
Welland Canal to Liverpool, England. This was a
new venture at the time, though there is now record that
the firm followed it up. Under the same firm name
they also did business as private bankers in Cleveland
for a number of years. Needham M. Standart
died Dec. 4, 1877.
George Henry Standart, father of Mrs. Gibbs,
was born in Milan, May 17, 1829, and died in the State
of Colorado Apr. 17, 1898. In 1858 he married
Miss Myra Allen. She was a lineal descendant
of Ebenezer Allen, a cousin of Ethan Allen
whose exploits during the Revolutionary war are familiar
to every American school boy. She was a woman of
many noble and beautiful traits and qualities of
character. Her death occurred some time before
that of her husband, on Aug. 9, 1887, at Cleveland.
Myra Allen was born Jan. 28, 1831.
George H. Standart had a brother, Capt. William
Standart, who was commander of the Standart
Battery at McMinnville, Tennessee, and made a gallant
record in the Civil war. Another brother was
Judge Charles W. Standart, who is now living at San
Antonio, Texas. Mrs. Gibbs had a sister,
Lucy A., who married Charles S. Wilgus, who
was born Feb. 4, 1865, and died suddenly Apr. 9, 1893.
Her brother, Henry Needham Standart, is an expert
public accountant of Cleveland, is married, but has no
children. Mrs. Gibbs is a charter member of
Sally De Forest Chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution at Norwalk. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Gibbs are members of the Episcopal Church.
In politics Mr. Gibbs is a republican.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 1170 |
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JOHN R. GRAHAM.
The Graham
family, of which John R. Graham, a retired
farmer of Huron Township, is a member, is traced back to
the time of King Edward the Pretender, among
whose supporters were several bearing the name.
When that professed monarch was defeated, the Grahams,
with others, were compelled to flee from Scotland and to
take refuge in Ireland, a number locating in County
Fermanagh, Ulster, where the family resided for a number
of generations. There, in 1799, was born John
Graham, the father of John R. Graham, and the
only son of his parents, who, however, had several
daughters: Jane, who married William
Foster, came to the United States, lived in Ohio for
a number of years and then moved to Lansing, Michigan,
and at her death left no children now living; Mary,
who married John Little, came to the United
States, lived in New York City until her death, and left
one son and three daughters; and Eliza, who
married John Carson and passed her entire life in
Ireland, where she died leaving a family.
John Graham, the father of John R. Graham,
grew up on the farm of his father, Robert Graham,
and when the latter died fell heir to the homestead, to
which he had a fee simple, a rare document in Ireland.
He was married in his native land to Jane Crozier,
and in 1834 sold his title to his tract of forty acres
for more than $5,000, and with his wife and four
children set sail for the United States. After six
weeks on a sailing vessel the little party arrived at
the port of New York, from whence they traveled by way
of the Hudson River and the Erie Canal to Buffalo, then
down Lake Erie to Huron, and west to the Perkins
Township line, about four miles from Huron, and in Huron
Township about one mile from Sandusky Bay, in section
34. There Mr. Graham purchased 200
acres of timber land, partly improved, and settled his
family in a frame house which had been built by the
former resident, and which is still standing and
occupied, a landmark of the early days. Mr.
Graham added fifty acres to his first purchase, put in
numerous improvements and erected large barns and other
buildings, becoming the owner of one of the fine farms
of the locality. There he died in 1855, when
fifty-six years of age. He was a man of thrifty,
industrious habits, and his chief recreations consisted
of hunting and fishing, by which he kept the family
larder well supplied with fish and game. He was a
man of strictly temperate habits, and of stern probity
in both public and private affairs of life. A free
soiler, he voted for James G. Burney. His
religious belief was that of the Methodist Church.
John Graham was married in County Fermanaugh,
Ireland, to Jane Crozier, the daughter of Rev.
Robert Crozier, of Ireland, a prominent Methodist
minister, a man of talent and influence, and an
extensive traveler in his native country where he
preached in many of the principal cities. Mrs.
Graham was reared and well educated in the City of
Dublin, was a woman of more than ordinary
accomplishments, and throughout her life exhibited many
qualities of mind and heart that endeared her to a wide
circle of friends. She died in 1887, at the age of
eighty-one years. Until she was forty years of age
she was a Methodist, but at that time her son John
died, and she mourned so greatly that in an attempt to
ease her agony of mind she was given some Universalistic
literature. In this way she was converted to the
Universalist faith and continued to be a force and
influence for neighborly love in her community during
the rest of her life. There was room in her heart
for those of all creeds and denominations, and the
Graham residence continued to be the home for the
Methodist preachers who came to visit this locality for
many years. There were thirteen children in the
family, of whom four were born in Ireland and the rest
in Erie County, Ohio. Nine grew to maturity, eight
were married and four still survive, all living in this
county. There are: John R., of this
review; Sallie E., who is the wife of George
Swift, a farmer of Huron Township; Anna, the
widow of George Hinde, living on a farm in
Perkins Township; and Gustavus.
Gustavus Graham was born Mar. 17, 1838, in Erie
County, Ohio, was well educated in the public schools,
grew up on the home farm, and in 1878 was appointed to
fill a vacancy on the board of county commissioners,
this appointment coming unsolicited. Later he was
elected to the office for a term of three years, and in
1895 was elected county treasurer on the republican
ticket, serving from 1896 to 1900; he has also served
the Township of Huron as assessor, during the period of
the Civil war, and during the '0s as trustee. He
has been a delegate to county, state and congressional
conventions, and has always taken an active part in
local politics. In 1881 he contributed to the
upbuilding of his community by the erection of a
handsome modern home on his farm of sixty-two acres,
which is located on the shores of Lake Erie, in Huron
Township, where he has lived for forty years.
Mr. Graham is one of the substantial men of his
community, and the confidence in which he is held by his
fellow-citizens has been demonstrated by the estates
which he has administered, including the Hinds
and other properties. Mr. Graham was
married in Huron Township to Martha Hughes, who
was born here in 1840, and she died at the home Apr. 9,
1910. One child was born to this union; Cora,
who died in 1915 at the age of twenty-six years,
unmarried.
John R. Graham was born on the old homestead
farm in Huron Township, Erie County, Ohio, Oct. 18,
1853. He was given good educational advantages in
the public schools, and was reared amid agricultural
surroundings and carefully trained in the work of the
farm. When he reached the age of twenty-one years
he came into possession of the homestead property, which
is located in the western part of Huron Township and was
purchased by his father in 1835, and here he has
continued to make his home ever since. He has
installed improvements of the most modern and
substantial kind, has stocked his place with good
livestock, has purchased the most highly improved
machinery, and has erected substantial buildings for the
shelter of his stock, produce and implements. He
resided in the old residence until 1895, when he moved
to his new home on the west side of the farm, on the
township road between Huron and Perkins, a comfortable
eight-room house with basement, which includes the most
modern conveniences, including furnace heat and bath,
and below stairs all finished in hard wood.
Mr. Graham was married in Perkins Township to
Miss Jennie Vannatta who was born in her father's
old stone house at Bogart, Perkins Township, Aug. 21,
1860, and reared there, receiving a good education in
the public and normal schools. She is a daughter
of Philip and Ann (Gurley) Vannatta, the former
born at Martins Creek, Northumberland County,
Pennsylvania, July 31, 1838, and the latter born Jan. 4,
1842, in Milan Township, Erie County, Ohio.
Mrs. Graham's parents were married at Bogart, at the
old historical stone house which in very early days was
used as a tavern. They began life in Perkins
Township as farmers and still make their home in that
locality, now living on South Colorado Avenue, within
the city limits of Sandusky. the father is
seventy-seven years of age and the mother seventy-three,
and both are in the enjoyment of the fruits of
industrious and well-order lives. Mrs. Vannatta
is a daughter of William and Nancy J. (Stephenson)
Gurley, natives of Connecticut, the former of whom
was brought to Ohio by his parents when a child of six
months and grew up in Sandusky County. He was a
son of Rev. William Gurley, a native of Ireland
and a noted early pioneer Methodist preacher, who lived
to be more than 100 years of age. William
Gurley died at the old stone house in Perkins
Township, when eight-five years of age, while his wife,
Nancy J., was sixty-four years of age when she
passed away. Mrs. Graham is the eldest of
five children, all of whom are living and married and
have families, but of whom she is the only one living in
Erie County.
To Mr. and Mrs. Graham there have been born two
children: Merrell R., who died at the age of five
years; and Prof. John Bert. John Bert Graham
was born Jan. 18, 1886, and received his early
educational training in the public schools. This
was supplemented by a high school course at Sandusky,
where he was graduated in 1903, and he then became a
student in the department of music, Oberlin (Ohio)
College, where he was graduated in 1908. At that
time he took up music as a teacher, and was first
located at Bryan, Texas, then returning to Ohio and
being instructor at Hiram College for one year.
This was succeeded by three years at Fairmount College,
Wichita, Kansas, and in 1913 he accepted a position at
the Conservatory of Music, Waxahatchie, near Dallas,
Texas, where he has since continued. He is
possessed of much talent, and is widely known in musical
circles throughout the West and Middle West. He is
a Blue Lodge Mason. Professor Graham
married Miss Blanche Maxon, who was born in the
West and educated at Oberlin College, Wooster, Ohio.
They are the parents of one son, John Bert, Jr.,
aged one year. Professor and Mrs. Graham
are members of the Congregational Church, as is also
Mrs. John R. Graham while the elder man is an
attendant of that church. John R. Graham is
a republican, and while not a politician is known as a
men of influence in his community. He is the
possessor of an excellent reputation in business
circles, is relied upon absolutely by his associates,
and in public affairs is ready to do his full share in
supporting public-spirited movements and enterprises.
Source: The Standard
History of Erie County, Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 922 |
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WILLIAM C.
GRAVES.
Erie County has many men who are not only fortunate in
their material circumstances and in their position as
citizens, but also in the general estimation of the
public fully deserve all their good fortune. Such
a man is William C. Graves, vice president of the
Castalia Banking Company and the owner and at one time
the farmer of 207 acres of land in Margaretta Township.
Mr. Graves has spent most of his life in Erie
County, and has that prestige which belongs to a
successful career.
Many years ago, when Erie County's development was
advanced only a few degrees beyond pioneer conditions,
the Graves and Caswell families came here
from the East. Spencer Graves was an early
settler in Margaretta Township and a highly influential
citizenship of that locality. Calvin Caswell
was also a pioneer in the same township, and lived there
for more than half a century. At one time he owned
large tracts of land in the township, was an orderly and
intelligent farmer, and his reputation extended beyond
the bounds of his immediate home community. For
several terms he served as a county commissioner, and
was also at one time president of the Erie County
Agricultural Society and did a great deal to strengthen
and extend the influence of that organization.
These two families were united by the marriage of
Lucius and Emily L. (Caswell) graves, the former a
native of New York State and the latter of Erie County.
To their marriage was born William C. Graves in
Margaretta Township on Feb. 18, 1861.
His early life was spent on the farm in his native
township, and in the course of time he acquired a
liberal education. He attended the common schools,
the Castalia High School, and for about two years
pursued a general commercial course in the Northern Ohio
Normal at Ada. Immediately after his marriage he
removed to Rockford in Mercer County, Ohio, where for
about ten years he was identified with the timber and
lumber industry. From there he removed to Sandusky
and was a member of the firm of T. C. Adams & Son
in the wholesale flour, fruit and produce business.
In 1900 Mr. Graves returned to Castalia, and for
eight years was in the general merchandise business in
that village and also served as postmaster. Then
followed three years of farm management on his estate in
Margaretta Township, and in 1913 he returned to Castalia
and has since given much of his attention to the
Castalia Banking Company. He became a stockholder
in that institution when it was reorganized and
subsequently was elected its vice president.
Mr. Graves married Lucy M.
Adams, daughter of the late Thomas C. Adams,
who for many years was well known in Castalia and other
parts of Ohio as a merchant. Mr. and Mrs.
Graves have one son, Calvin T. Graves, who is
now established successfully as a real estate man in
Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Graves is affiliated
with Sandusky Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks and is a man of genial social qualities as
well as of broad experience and thorough ability in
business affairs.
Source: The Standard
History of Erie County, Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 725 |
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