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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
1798
History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio
with Illustrations
and Biographical Sketches of its Pioneers Most Prominent Men
Philadelphia - Williams Brothers
1878
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Residence of
Edwin Betts,
Hambden Twp.
Geauga Co., OH |
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Residence of
A. M. Black,
Hambden Tp.,
Geauga Co., OH |
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S. E. Bodman |
S.
E. BODMAN was born in Huntsburg, Geauga
County, on Aug. 6, 1843, and is the youngest child of Samuel and
Susan Bodman, who were natives of Williamsburg, Massachusetts,
and removed to Ohio, settling in Huntsburg in 1833. They still
reside in that township. The subject of this sketch received
his education primarily at common school. He had the advantage
of two terms at Chardon Academy and the same at Burton Academy.
Upon the completion of his education he was married, Sept. 25, 1866,
to Miss Lazette D., only child of Smith Wright, of
Huntsburg. After marriage he engaged in mercantile pursuits
with his father-in-law, and continued until the fall of 1873, when
he relinquished it to accept the somewhat arduous position of
treasurer of Geauga County. He served his first term
acceptably, and was re-elected in the fall of 1875. His term
expires by limitation in the fall of 1878. He has been an
efficient and obliging officer. In the spring of 1877 he
purchased a half interest in the store of Rose & Smith, and
from the court-house enters the store, under the firm-name of
Smith & Bodman. From the marriage one child was born, Aug.
15, 1868: this Mary Jenette. Politically, Mr. Bodman
is a member of that grand old Republican party. He is a member
of Chardon Lodge, No. 93, Chardon Chapter, No. 106, and Eagle
Commandery, No.29, Knights Templar, of Painesville. He is a
member of the Congregational church of Chardon.
Source: History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio,
Publ. Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 103 |
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GEORGE BOUGHTON.
George Boughton came to Burton
from Canfield, Ohio, in 1830, and formed a partnership with James
Peffers, Esq., for the purpose of transacting general trading
business in merchandise, produce, etc. Afterwards he bought
Mr. Peffers interest, and continued the business alone.
Mr. Boughton steadily worked at his business for thirty-five
years, some of the time with partners and some of the time alone,
purchasing goods twice a year in New York city, and selling them for
produce of various kinds, which he converted into money at Pittsburg
and Cincinnati, the only available markets in those days.
By industry and economy he thrived, and became what is
called a successful business man. His accumulation of property
was not the result of speculation, or of doing business on a large
scale, but steady application, and the prudent saving and investment
of his earnings. In 1864 he admitted his two nephews -
George H. Ford and Robert N. Ford - into his business as
partners, under the firm-name of Boughton, Ford & Co.
This firm continued business as merchants until May 1, 1873, when
the character of the business was changed to that of banking.
Colonel H. H. Ford became a general partner at that time, and
the business has since been carried on without change of name of
firm. The firm is well known throughout the country, and does
a very large business.
Mr. Boughton married a younger sister of Mrs.
Governor Ford.
Source: History of Geauga and Lake
Counties, Ohio, Publ. Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 -
Page 135-136 |
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DAVID T. BRUCE AND THE BRUCES.
David T. Bruce was born at Winchinden, Franklin
county, Massachusetts, Dec. 15, 1784; was married to Lydia
Forrester, Aug. 12, 182 ; and died at Chardon, May 12, 1857.
His childhood, boyhood, and young manhood were passed
in Massachusetts, at the close of the last and beginning of the
present century. His education must have been fair, and in
addition to the common branches he understood surveying. In
1820 he visited the Western Reserve, was at Madison, Lake County,
went back, was married, and returned to Ohio with his young wife.
For one or two years he lived in Newbury, on the place now owned by
W. A. Jenks, and was engaged as a partner with Amos Parker
in a distillery, a business which he understood. He was at
one time concerned in the distillery in the northern part of
Claridon, and must have lived there for a time. In 1824 he
removed to Chardon, purchased and built a residence on the north
side of Water street, opposite the large spring, where he lived all
his after-life. He and Merrick Pease were partners in
merchandising, which he carried on in his dwelling-house, and they
built the old brick store, on the west side of the square, north of
the old academy, some time about 1827. Mr. Pease died
in 1830, when Bruce established the first tin shop in the
present limits of Geauga. With this was connected a grocery
store. In 1842 he sold out that establishment to his eldest
son, John Forrester.
In November, 1842, he purchased the
printing establishment and paper, known as the Geauga Republican,
of J. W. White, and in company with his younger sons, W.
W. and Eli Bruce, he edited and published the paper, and
carried on a general job office, till the infirmities of age induced
him to retire.
For quite all his life Mr. Bruce was one of the
widest known, most active, and influential men of the county,
through filling no official positions, except in the township, where
he was clerk, trustee, and justice of the peace. I think he
never sought office. He was a man of more than ordinary
intellect, well in formed, a large reader, of positive opinions,
frankly expressed, always defended. Nor was he free from
dogmatism. The kindest-hearted of men, a highly esteemed
neighbor, a sturdy friend, a liberal and public-spirited citizen.
In religion, Universalist; in politics a Whig and Republican;
zealous in all. He was a man of great activity and industry.
Early in his career he began to appear as counsel in
the magistrates’ courts. Fluent of speech, with a quick,
shrewd mind, of much resource, and that knowledge of law picked up
from the statutes and the hand-books of practice in the magistrates’
courts, a wide knowledge of men and acquaintance with affairs, not
underestimating himself, he soon came to be widely known and greatly
sought after in this class of cases. For many years he
transacted a larger business before the magistrates than was ever
before or since done by any man in or out of the profession in
northern Ohio. Very popular with the mass, having the
confidence of the magistrates, a full command of the language which
might overwhelm an adversary, a master of all the arguments likely
to lead or influence the common mind, he was in these forums a most
formidable and often a dangerous advocate. He was generally
treated with respect by the regular profession, whom he often met,
and for whom as opponents he expressed a preference which they
doubtless reciprocated. After he became connected with the
press he gradually withdrew from this practice. Probably the
diminution of small
litigation incident to an older stage of social life and manner of
transacting business had much to do with it. In the heyday of his
fame the country was
full of anecdotes of his sayings and doings in the lower courts, and
men went miles to see and hear him on these occasions.
Mr. Bruce was a born politician, and not
averse from controversy. His information was extensive and
quite accurate. Without attempting to write many leaders, he
was a terse, pointed writer of paragraph-like articles.
Mr. Bruce was of the old Masonic fraternity,
and, of course, on that side of the old profitless controversy; was
one of the first to revive the lodges. In his day, he was the
associate, friend, or opponent of the elder Paines,
Canfields, Kings, Phelpses, Squires, and
that set of men who have passed away, and their friend ships and
feuds have passed with them. He had a vigorous dislike of a
Democrat, little respect for orthodoxy as a dogma, but tolerant of
the personal failings of even his opponents. Stout champion
and bitter partisan, he was full of kindliness, and the older
Chardon lost few better men.
Mrs. Bruce was widely esteemed as a true
woman, full of kindliness and charity. Of the daughters, the
eldest, Charlotte, became the wife of Charles L. Knowles,
and has resided most of her life since in Brooklyn, and survives her
husband with several children. The youngest, Lydia,
with much of the vigor and force of character of her father, resides
in Chardon.
J. F. Bruce, the eldest, born June 6, 1822, was
bred by his father to the tinner’s business, which he still
prosecutes in Chardon. His first wife, now many years
deceased, was Amy Rockafellow, of Chardon, of whom
were born two sons. The younger of these is in company with
his father. His second wife is Laura, daughter of
Moses Haydon. Mr. Bruce is a man of
great personal worth, and highly esteemed.
William Wallace Bruce, second son, born in 1825,
was bred a printer, and pursued the business, with his father and
younger brother, Eli, for many years in Chardon and
Cleveland, of which latter place he is a resident. He was a
man of more than ordinary ability, and of extensive cultivation.
A fine writer, though of retiring manners, William Wallace
was well prepared to fill any position in life. For many years
he was the efficient superintendent of the Cleveland post-office,
which he filled with great credit to himself and usefulness to the
public: His wife was Maria, daughter of Judge B. F.
Avery, a woman of much excellence. She died at Cleveland
in the early part of 1878. The four surviving children,
two sons and two daughters, reside with the father. As a
family, they are noted for their devotion to each other.
Eli, the third son, born in 1827, also by
profession a printer, publisher, and editor, and associated with
William Wallace, married Caroline, daughter of
Eleazar Paine, and granddaughter of Judge Noah
Hoyt, for his first wife, and Caroline Eldridge
became his second wife. By the last he leaves three sons. He
died several years ago; was a man of rare excellence of character,
fair ability, and universally esteemed. The Bruces have
worthily filled their fair positions in life, and will leave
excellent records for integrity and good citizenship.
Source: History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Publ.
Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 122 |
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WELCOME BULLOCK
was of good Massachusetts blood. His mother was a. sister of
Hosea Ballou, Mary; his father was David Bullock,
and he was born at Royalston, Massachusetts, May 12, 1775. He
and Grace Fay, of Athol, Massachusetts, were married about
1798, and he died in Newbury, Feb. 6, 1858. She was of a good
family, a daughter of Solomon Fay, born in 1776, and died in
Newbury, Jan. 28, 1842. In the war of 1812, Mr.
Bullock enlisted in the company of Captain Field,
at South Orange, for the war, - a strong Republican of the war
party.
Immediately on his discharge, with his wife and
children, Hiram, Susan, Sabra, Mary, and Luceba, be
packed in a two-horse wagon, and started for the Western Reserve and
reached Newbury in December, 1815. Here he took up land and
built a cabin, near where now stands the house of Ray Munn,
son of William Munn. Here he remained till the spring
of 1818, and then purchased about a mile east of the centre, where
he built his cabin, and on the farm spent his days. At the
celebration of Independence in Newbury, in 1816, he delivered an
oration. An ardent hater of Great Britain and the Federalists,
he remained a stanch Democrat, and was appointed the first
postmaster at the centre by Mr. Peirce. He was a
man of powerful frame, striking features, and dark, robust, with a
strong voice; of considerable intellect, he had his uncle’s
religious views, and used occasionally to deliver them in public.
He became a famous hunter, killed hundreds of deer,
many elk, and was a trapper of bears and wolves. A story is
told of his being assailed by wolves at near morning of one night in
his sugar camp. He was making sugar, and boiling with his
kettles hung between two large logs, as the old way was. He
was asleep on a board on the ground. The fire had burnt out,
and the forest dark and still. His old hunting dog was with
him, sleeping between him and the quite-extinguished fire.
Evidently the wolves crept upon him, and were about to seize him,
when the dog, awaking, leaped over his prostrate form and commenced
a fierce battle with the wolves. Bullock sprang up,
seized one end of the boiling log near him and turned it over with
its burning side out, and by the light saw the wolves as they fled
into the woods. Had he been alone, notwithstanding his immense
strenth, they doubtless would have overcome and devoured him.
He was a noted man in the days of old Newbury, and many
anecdotes of him and his hunting exploits could be told.
Hiram was an ingenious mechanic; in time he built new buildings,
and also a grist-mill, near where the present saw-mill of
Abiatber Alexander stands. He also was a hunter,
and remained unmarried.
Susan became the wife of Dad Loveland, Jr.
Sabra died as she was about to be married. Mary
became Mrs. Sirenus Hawley. Luceba was the first
wife of Roswell Jones. All of these are deceased
years ago.
James Monroe Bullock was born Nov. 1, 1817, in
Newbury, the youngest and sole survivor of the family. He grew
up in Newbury and became the owner of the farm. In May, 1842,
he married Grace Ann Bittles, of Newbury. In 1860 he
sold the old farm and moved to Chagrin Falls, where he still lives;
is a man of much intelligence, and an enthusiast in matters of
pioneer history.Source: History of Geauga and Lake
Counties, Ohio, Publ. Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 -
Page 184-185 |
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JOSHUA M. BURNETT*
Joshua M. Burnett was born in Warwick, Franklin county,
Massachusetts,
May 8, 1772. Early in life he married Miss Mehitable Cobb,
daughter of the Hon. Josiah Cobb, who was for twenty-one
years member of the Massachusetts State Legislature. Nine
children, eight of whom were born upon New England soil, were the
offspring of this marriage.
In January, 1815, my grandfather, together with his
oldest son, Harry, and Miss Hannah Wilber, the son’s
bride elect, left Warwick for the west. Owing to some
detentions on the way, four weeks were occupied in making the
journey, which still lives in the memory of the then happy maiden as
one long continuous sleigh-ride. At this time there were seven
settlements and five families in New bury township. A double
log house was erected, and the struggle for existence began.
The 4th of July following, my grandfather returned to
Massachusetts for his wife and the remainder of his family, with
whom he again reached Ohio in October of the same year, - 1815.
In 1819 he erected the first frame dwelling house in the township.
Previous to this, however, Mr. Lemuel Punderson's saw-mill,
grist-mill, and barn, all frame structures, had been built.
Jan. 19, 1825, my grandmother died, aged fifty-two
years. My grandfather married for his second wife Mrs.
Huldah Jackson. He died Dec. 20, 1851, aged seventy-nine
years.
Of his nine children, six are living. Harry,
the oldest, was born in 1794. In November, 1816, he was
married to Miss Hannah Wilber, who accompanied them from the
East. Seven children were born to them, two of whom only are
now living. This uncle and aunt are still living, aged
respectively eighty-four and eighty-five years. They retain to
a remarkable degree their vigor of mind, and are devotedly attached
to each other. For many years they have been residents of
Russell, Ohio.
My Uncle Josiah was born May 26, 1797, in
Warwick, Massachusetts. In June, 1818, he was married to
Diadama Johnson, who died May 6, 1870, aged seventy-one
years. Of their eight children, four are living. In
1874, my uncle sold his farm in Newbury, and moved to Mantua,
Portage county, where he has since resided. He is still very
active, retaining much of the natural vigor of both his body and
mind.
Aunt Calista was born in Warwick, Jan.
23, 1800. Sept. 15, 1816, she was married by John Ford,
Esq., to Eliphalet Gay. This was the first marriage
ceremony performed in the township. She taught the second term
of school taught in the new log school-house, Chloe Umphrey
having taught the first. Previous to the building of the
school-house, Miss Umphrey taught in a part of my
grandfather's log house.
Eliphalet Gay was born in New Salem,
Massachusetts, Aug. 27, 1795. He died Aug. 23, 1844, aged
forty-nine years. Nov. 1, 1849, my aunt was married to
George Parker. He died Jan. 30, 1863, aged
sixty-seven years. Mrs. Parker is still living.
Aunt Serintha was born in Warwick, Apr.
26, 1803. She was married in Newbury, Ohio, August 4, 1822, to
Lorin Snow, of Auburn, Ohio. They had five
children, two of whom are living. Mrs. Snow died Sept.
11,1865, aged sixty-two years.
Lorin Snow was born in Becket, Berkshire county,
Massachusetts, Jan. 21, 1796. He died in Auburn, Ohio, Nov.
22, 1863.
Aunt Lauretta was born in Warwick, in
May, 1806. In May, 1822, she was married to Amos Parker.
Mr. Parker died Jan. 29, 1856, aged fifty seven years.
This aunt afterwards married Ebenezer Richardson, of
Tallmadge, Summit county, Ohio.
Uncle Detroit was born in April, 1809.
Aug. 4, 1830, he was married to Miss Malinda Munn.
After her death (the date of which I am sorry I do not now find) he
married Miss Martha C. Bradly, of Newbury. This
marriage occurred Feb. 26, 1853.
With his second wife he lived but a short time.
Subsequently he married Miss Henrietta E. Granger, of
Chardon, Ohio. He died Nov. 29, 1871, from injuries received
when at work in his woods, aged sixty-two years.
Nabby C. Burnett was born August 11, 1813; died
June 11, 1827,
Robert Prelate was born July 25, 1815. In
1838 he married Miss Abigail Slocum, of North Adams,
Massachusetts. After her death he married Mrs. Betsy
Glazier, with whom he is still living.
My mother, Purleyette M., was born in Newbury,
Ohio, in June, 1820. She was married August 2, 1842, to
Rensselaer Pinney, of Granby, Connecticut.
As I mentioned in my first manuscript, there is little
in the history of the nephews and nieces that would interest the
public. For my cousin, Proctor Burnett, I cherish a
profound respect as a most estimable gentleman. He was also a
man of superior business qualifications. At the time of his
death, and for a number of years previous, he was a member of the
firm of Rice & Burnett, crockery merchants, of
Cleveland. He was the son of Josiah Burnett, and
married a daughter of Hon. Harvey Rice, of Cleveland, -
Miss Fannie Rice. Almira M., his
sister, married Isaac Reynolds, of Cleveland, a
gentleman of excellent business capacity.
Wm. H. Parker, a son of Amos and Lauretta
Parker, has for many years been a resident of Hartford.
Connecticut. He is a man of fine business capacity, genial
manners, and pleasing address. His sister, Etta B.,
married Earl Herrick, of one of the first families of
Twinsburg, Ohio. For a number of years they have resided in
Cleveland.
My oldest brother, Delos B., was a private in
the late Rebellion. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, Oct. 12,
1862, aged nineteen years.
EVA P.
The senior Burnett, without much cultivation,
was a man of unusual quickness of apprehension in all matters
pertaining to his immediate interests, and possessed much keenness
and shrewdness, and many pleasant anecdotes could be related of his
peculiarities. He was a man of much thrift, and accumulated a
handsome property. All the sons, with more culture, had the
shrewdness of the father, while some of the third generation were
excellent business men. The daughters were comely, and married
well. The youngest is the postmistress at South Newbury, and
the preceding sketch from her daughter’s pen is so neat and graceful
that we give it as it came from her hand.
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* By a granddaughter.
Source: History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio,
Publ. Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 179-180 |
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