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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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THE UPHAMS.
Source: History of Geauga and Lake
Counties, Ohio, Publ. Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 -
Page 183-184
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THE
UTLEYS. Hamilton
Utley was born in Munson, Massachusetts, Apr. 15, 1790, died
at Newbury, Dec. 30, 1853; was the oldest son of a man esteemed
wealthy in his day; had a good academical education; was a man of
rather brilliant parts, much dramatic talent, wit, and culture; was
married to Polly Squire when he was twenty-one.
She was born Feb. 18, 1791, and died at Newbury, May 8, 1853.
She was a woman of rare beauty, and in intellect and sparkle quite
the equal of her husband. The young couple commenced the world
under the most favorable conditions; unfortunately, their property
was invested in cotton-mills which had sprung into existence during
the war of 1812. The peace which followed brought wide-spread
ruin to manufacturers, and the Utleys were quite reduced.
There was nothing for it but emigration, and in company with their
relatives, the Riddles, they started on the toilsome journey
for the New Connecticut late in the year 1817. Both stopped to
visit their kin, the Squires, Riddles, and Moultons,
who had preceded them to the Genesee country, where Hamilton
Utley remained during the winter and taught school while the
wife and children went on. They went on to a body of land
owned by Harriet, the only sister of Hamilton, built a
cabin on the top of the high bleak hill, the site of which is still
marked by the remnants of a few decayed peach-trees. After a
few years they moved into the more sheltered and fertile valley
below. With all his talent, culture, and wit, his splendid
social qualities, reared to ease, accustomed to luxury, the young
head of the family was as ill fitted for the hard rude toil, coarse
life, and privation of the pioneers as any man thrust by misfortune
into the woods. He made his education available, and for
twenty-one or more successive winters he taught school with much
success. His neighbors availed themselves of his character for
probity and shrewdness, and kept him in the position of a magistrate
half his lifetime. He made available his musical talent, and
for many years was the most famous violin player of the country,
till eclipsed by the performances of his sons, Lawrence and
Alfred. There was but one thing in the new country to
which he naturally took the woods, and became a skillful hunter.
In 1824 he became a Jackson man; was two or
three times his party candidate for the legislature.
Standing six feet three, with a fine head, splendid
eyes, and expressive face, of rare social qualities, he was
personally very popular. He never succeeded in accumulating
property. The loss of his uncle, Thomas Riddle,
in 1823, was sorely felt by him.
Mrs. Utley was a woman of a hardier race,
and with her kin, was of Scotch Irish extraction. A woman
whose best qualities might have remained less conspicuous had her
early prosperity continued. She had the heroic soul, mind, and
fortitude to meet a lifetime of penury and toil, and remain hopeful,
cheerful, and struggling to the last. The mother of thirteen
children, a daily toiler for their bread, she retained her beauty of
person, her sparkle of manner, her wit, and intelligence to the
last. These two, their sayings and doings, are worthy of more
than a scanty mention. As their family rapidly increased, and
tall, fine looking sons, and tall, comely daughters filled the
narrow homestead, it became a great resort for all the young people,
while the intelligence and culture of the parents made it attractive
to their acquaintances through a wide circle.
It will be observed that they were nearly of the same
age, married very young, and died within a few months of each other.
Man and woman were never more truly wed than this pair, in body,
mind, and soul. Under the adversity that darkened their early
years, and only lightened up after ripe middle life, they each had
the other, and it seemed to suffice. If at times the social
husband evinced over-conviviality, the tried wife met, parried, and
covered it, so far as the world knew, with bright persiflage, gay
banter, a shower of unwounding witticisms, or an irresistible
mimicry of which she was mistress. In later life they became
impressed with the reality of modern spiritualism. After the
serene death of the wife, the husband seemed solaced by her constant
ministration, set the time for his joining her, asked a friend to be
present at the time to care for his remains, who at the hour found
the deserted tenement in which the heart had just beat its last
throb. In this beautifully-mated pair, though the one was a
dark, long favored brunette, and the other an auburn-haired
voluptuously formed blonde, yet their manner and air became so
alike, the expression of the face and features so similar, that the
resemblance—though none in form and feature could exist became
striking.
Of those parents were born Lavina, January,
1812, who died in February, 1877. She was the wife of
Erastus Hodges, and mother of four sons, who survive.
William Lawrence, born July, 1813, now of Racine,
Wisconsin, sketched else where. Laura, born January,
1815, who died in April, 1817. Alfred, born in March,
1817, who survives. Henry, born in July, 1819, now
living. Rebecca Harriet, born in June, 1821, died
September, 1822. Louisa Harriet, born July,
1823, became the wife of Elias Avery, Esq.,
died in March, 1850. She left two children, neither of whom
survive. Rosette, born in July, 1825, married to H.
N. Spencer, November, 1846, has children, who, with herself and
husband, survive. Otis H., born in November, 1827, died
November, 1834. Benjamin Franklin, born December, 1829,
died in California in 1850. Ellen D., born January,
1832, married to George Shumway, live with her husband
and children near Cleveland. Horatio Nelson,
born June, 1832, died November, 1854. Jane M., born in
March, 1837, married Willoughby, and resides with her husband in
Nebraska.
The members of this numerous family are distinctly
marked with the qualities and peculiarities of their parents.
Source: History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio,
Publ. Philadelphia by Williams Brothers - 1878 - Page 181 |
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