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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
1798
PIONEER and GENERAL HISTORY of
GEAUGA COUNTY
with
SKETCHES OF
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men.
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County,
1880
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Chardon -
* D. W. CANFIELD was
born in Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, Sept. 21, 1828. His
father, Platt Canfield, was the oldest of the four sons of
Aaron Canfield who, with his family, removed from Tyrington,
Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and settled in Chardon in 1814.
Aaron was a grandson of Colonel Samuel Canfield, of
New Milford, Connecticut. The mother of D. W. Canfield
wa a daughter of Nathaniel Read, of Berkshire county,
Massachusetts. The subject of this sketch received his
education principally in the schools of Professors Alfred
Holbrook and T. W. Harvey. He was engaged in
teaching three terms, and in 1849 was married to Sophrona E.
Allen, daughter of Ira Allen, esq., formerly from Danby,
Vermont. He remained for several years after his marriage on
the farm originally occupied by his father, in Chardon, during which
time he prepared himself for the practice of his profession.
In 1858 he graduated at the Union Law college, and was admitted to
the bar the same year. During that year he also formed a
co-partnership with John French, which was terminated
by the death of Mr. French in October, 1861. The
same fall he was elected prosecuting attorney of Geauga county, and
held that office four years.
In 1861 he formed a co-partnership with Hon. H. K.
Smith, which terminated in 1866 by the election of H. K.
Smith to the office of probate judge of Geauga county.
Upon the retirement of Mr. Smith, another
co-partnership was formed with Judge M. C. Canfield, which
continued for five years, and was dissolved by the election of M.
C. Canfield to the office of common pleas judge. During
the time he was a partner of Mr. Canfield he served
two years as representative of the county in the State legislature.
Shortly after this be held the office of mayor of the incorporated
village of Chardon.
In 187 1 he formed a copartnership with Hon. I. N.
Hathaway, which lasted until the fall of 1875, when he was
elected common pleas judge, to fill the vacancy caused by the death
of Judge M. C. Canfield, and served in that capacity until
the expiration of his term, at which time he again resumed the
practice of his profession.
The Canfields were among the earliest, as they
have always been among the most substantial, respected, and
influential families of Chardon. The subject of this sketch may be
styled emphatically a self-made man, owing more to his fortunate
parentage, especially to a most excellent, intelligent, and devoted
mother, and to his own native energy and will, than to any outward
advantages for his success in life. He received only a common
education. As a lawyer he early took a prominent position at
the bar of his county, which he has ever since maintained, the
experience acquired in a long and successful practice having inlater
years added greatly to his professional resources. Possessing
very considerable natural force and fluency as a speaker, combined
with quick discernment, ready tact, and an earnest, pleasing manner,
he has the essentials of a good advocate, and, in the presentation
to a jury of a case in which his sympathies are enlisted, is not
often excelled. The duties of the several honorable and
responsible positions to which he has been called have been
discharged with ability and fidelity. In the house he served
with credit on the judiciary and other important committees, and was
recognized, even by his political opponents, as a most useful
member; and it is believed that no judge with so short a term of
service ever left the bench with a better record. He has
always been active and efficient in the promotion of the interests
of his town and county, every enterprise having this end in view
meeting with his cordial support. He is also a strong advocate
of the temperance and other reform movements. Though by early
education and associations a Democrat, he became identified with the
Republican party from its organization, and has long been one of its
acknowledged leaders in Geauga county. A man of clear
intellect, ardent temperament, and strong attachments, few have more
decided elements of popularity or success.
Mr. Canfield's life has been blessed with
that greatest of benefactions, a wife in whom those qualities that
grace and ennoble womanhood are united in a marked degree. To
him she has always proved a real helper and a loving companion.
Active in the affairs of the church and society, and faithful to the
duties of the home-life she so fondly loves, she has ever proven
herself to be the true woman, wife, and mother.
He has three children living - one son, Ira W.
Canfield, and two daughters - Eva C. Metcalf, wife of
Thomas Metcalf, jr., of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Lizzie L.
Canfield, of Chardon. He has lost one daughter - Delia
W., who died Aug. 23, 1877, aged eleven years and eleven months,
which bereavement was the greatest of all the sorrows of his life.
In religion he has been a member of the Christian church for more
than thirty years.
Since Mr. Canfield's return to the bar,
he is having a good amount of business entrusted to him. The
same courteous deportment and persevering application to business
that made him popular on the bench, has secured him a good amount of
practice in his profession, and public confidence in his ability and
close application to business entrusted to him.
---------------
*From Williams Brothers' history of Geauga and Lake
counties.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County with
Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page 344 |
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HENRY F. CANFIELD,
son of Aaron
H. Canfield and Sally A. Canfield, and
great-grandson of Aaron
and Lydia Canfield, was
born in Chardon, Ohio, May 28, 1843, where he resided with his
parents until about fourteen years of age, at which time his parents
removed to Painesville, Ohio, and for two years thereafter he
attended the high school at that place. At the age of sixteen he
was employed in the office of the Painesville Telegraph,
where he remained until the year 1852, and on the 8th day of August
of that year he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio
Volunteer infantry, commanded by Captain Rikier,
and remained in active service until the close of the war. He took
part in all of the battles in which his company was engaged, and
without harm, except a slight wound received at the battle of
Chattanooga. At the close of the war in 1865, he was again employed
in the office of the Painesville Telegraph,
where he remained about one year. In 1866 he commenced the study of
law with his uncle, D.
W. Canfield,
at Chardon, and in 1867 he graduated at the Cleveland law college,
and immediately thereafter entered into a co-partnership with N.
H. Bostwick, esq.,
which continued until 1875, at which time his health failed, and he
retired from active practice until the 7 year 1878, when he again
opened an office in Chardon, and also formed a co-partnership with
I. W. Canfield in the insurance business, in which he is at this
time engaged.
In politics he has ever been an earnest advocate of Republican
principles, and all great moral reformations. A man of sound
judgment, strict honesty and integrity, he enjoys the confidence and
esteem of all who know him. He was married in November, 1868, to Lucy
S. Strohl, only
child of the late John
Strohl,
deceased, by whom he has become the father of three children - one
daughter and two sons, the youngest of whom still lives, his eldest
son having died in 1878, which to him and his wife was the greatest
affliction of their lives. They have a beautiful farm of one
hundred acres near the village of Chardon, which is the abode of
peace, happiness and contentment, save and except the fond
remembrance of little Johnny, who has been transplanted to the other
shore, and there awaits the coming of father and mother, brother and
sister.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County with
Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
348 |
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Burton -
ALMON B. CARLTON
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
583 |
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Burton -
WILLIAM CAY.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
577 |
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Troy Twp. -
SIMEON L. CHAPMAN.
Instances are by no means rare, wherein an accident may
have been the means of changing the whole current of an individual's
personal career through life. The subject of this sketch, is a
case in point. Simeon L. Chapman, youngest son of
Orsamus and Margaret Chapman, was born in Newbury, Geauga county,
Ohio, Aug. 23, 1847. He was one of quite a numerous family, nearly
all of whom live within an easy distance of the homestead. All the
sons are farmers by occupation, with this one exception, and there is no
good reason why he would not have followed the same vocation, but for an
accident. The winter following his ninth birth-day, he, with other
lads of his age, engaged in the pastime of snow-balling, on a day so
warm that the balls packed to the hardness of ice. The following
day the sport was resumed, the boys using the ammunition of the day
previous, in the course of which one of those congealed missiles struck
Simeon on one of his legs, and which culminated in a fever sore.
After his partial recovery it was urged upon his father to send him to
school, but for some reason the parent did not endorse the proposal.
When he was about seventeen years old his father died, and Perry
Morton, then of Parkman - a brother-in-law - became his guardian.
Mr. Morton at once sent him to school,
and his proficiency was such that he shortly found himself engaged as a
pedagogue. Teaching and study were his occupation, till about the
first of November, 1868, when he married Flora, eldest daughter
of Orrin and Julia Morton. He had at this time so far
recovered from his injury as to feel competent to engage in farming, and
to this end he purchased a farm of some fifty - or sixty acres, situated
in Troy. The experiment proved that he had miscalculated, as he
could not bear the strain which that class of labor demanded, and
returned somewhat to the occupation of school teaching.
In the spring of 1873 he was elected constable for Troy
township, and was re-elected the following year. In the spring of
1875 he was elected township assessor, the duties of which he performed
so satisfactory that he held that office four consecutive years.
At the county convention held in Chardon, in the fall of 1877, he was
nominated to the office of treasurer on the first ballot, and, of
course, was elected. Sept. 1, 1878, he assumed the duties of his office,
and, as a consequence, removed to Chardon. Whether flattering to
himself or not, it is a simple fact, that his bond for one hundred
thousand dollars, required by the commissioners of incumbents of that
office, was cheefully endorsed by his fellow townsmen and others.
At the county convention, held in August, 1879, he was re-nominated by
acclamation, and in October, of the same year, was reelected as his own
successor. He is a man of generous impulses, and is seldom known
to refuse a favor, which he can consistently grant.
Chapman is a member, in good standing, of
Western Phoenix lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Chardon Chapter,
No. 106, R. A. M. also of Auburn Lodge, No. 226, Independent Order of
Odd fellows, in which he has acceptably filled all the offices except
two, and those he declined, although urged to accept them - the one,
treasurer; and the other, permanent secretary. He is also a
charter member of Welshfield grange, patrons of husbandry, No. 1,293,
and filled the office of secretary from the date of its organization,
till his removal to Chardon, and all this, perhaps, in consequence of a
ball of ice. Mr. Chapman is now in full manhood, and
there seems to be no reason why he should not in the future, as in the
past, gain and hold the confidence and respect of all who may come to
know him. W. H. C.Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
671 |
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Burton -
JACOB B. COFFIN.
The subject of this sketch was born in Hudson, Columbia
county, New York, May 4, 1842, and was the eldest son of Simeon L.
and Phebe A. Coffin, who were lineal descendents of one of the
oldest and most respectable families in the city. The ancestrial
line of the father, follows back to the "Old Admiral Coffin," of the
British navy. His father went to California in 1848, and died
there a few weeks after his arrival. His mother, thus widowed, was
left with meager sreources (resources) on which to
support herself and only son (two other children having died), and was
compelled to labor hard in order to provide the necessities of life,
hoping in the future he would be able to lift the burdensome load from
her shoulders - a hope which she lived to see fulfilled. He was
apprenticed to the printer's trade at the age of 12, entering the office
of Alexander M. Webb, of the Hudson Daily and Weekly Star.
Here he served his time, and then accepted a position on the America,
(N. Y.) Times. When the war broke out, he became restless, and
finally, in August, 1862, enlisted in the 128th New York volunteer
infantry. This regiment served with distinction under General
Banks, in Louisiana, and General Sheridan in the
last Shenandoah valley campaign in Virgina. Coming out of
the war somewhat shattered in health, Mr. C. sought rest, and by
careful treatment regained his usual good health. He once more
entered upon his professional duties. He was married Nov. 30,
1866, to Cornelia G. Miller, and the year following, moved (with
her father's family) into Onedia county, New York. He continued at
his trade until August, 1873, when he came to Ohio and became a partner
in the publication of the Andover Enterprise. The following
year he disposed of this interest, came to Burton, and founded The
Geauga Leader, the first number of which was issued Dec. 18, 1874.
He has been successful in business, and is now free of debt. Truth
and honesty have been his guiding stars, and consequently he has a
reputation that none can gainsay.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
584 |
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Parkman Twp. -
JOHN PHELPS CONVERSE.
John Phelps Converse, one of the early settlers
of Parkman, was the seventh son, and eleventh child, of Israel
Converse, and was born at Randolph, Orange county, Vermont, Jan.
27, 1792. The Converse family had its origin in the
province of Navarre, France, under the name of De Coignieres.
During the later part of the reign of William the
Conquerer, Roger and Robert De Coigniers emigrated to
England, and settled in Durham. Upon the rise of the
Reformation in France, the De Coignieres became Huguenots,
and were both, by allegiance and religion, adherents of Henry IV.
Immediately after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in which many of
the family fell, Pierrre De Coignieres, with his wife and two
children, escaped to England, and settled in Essex, where, in the
course of time, the name, following the English pronunciation,
became Conyers, and has been so called in England ever since.
In 1630, Edward Conyers, with Sarah, his
wife, and two sons, sailed from England in the fleet with Winthrop,
and settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts. During the passage,
by dropping a part of the y, the name was changed to Conuers,
which soon became Convers. Just when the final e was
added to the name does not appear. Some branches of the
Converse family have not yet adopted it.
Some time between 1735 and 1737, Josiah, the
fifth in descent from Edward Convers settled in Stafford,
Connecticut, in which town was born, Aug. 7, 1743, Israel
Converse, the father of John Phelps.
At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, he
entered the army as second lieutenant in one of the regiments of
Connecticut troops, and the same year was raised to the rank of
captain. He continued in active service till the close of the
war, and was discharged with the rank of colonel. In 1787 he
removed with his family to Randolph, Vermont, and was one of the
pioneer settlers of that township, and where his son, John
Phelps, was born as above stated.
By the death of his father, which occurred in his
fifteenth year, the subject of our sketch was left to fight the
battle of life as best he might, but to one of New England birth and
training this condition was not formidable. He was born with
the instincts of a pioneer, and had in early childhood, to use his
own words, " determined to settle in some country where wheat would
grow."
While still quite young, he served for a time with a
brother-in-law, who was a merchant in Montreal, but afterwards
returned to Vermont, and was engaged in a store with his elder
brother, and in attending school. In 1812 his health not being
good, he left Vermont in search of that milder clime, and first
pitched his tent near Utica, New York, and was engaged for the two
years following in teaching. Among the names appended to a
recommendation given him as a teacher during this time, is that of
Noah Hoyt, afterwards for many years an honored
resident of Chardon. The friendship, begun at that time, was
after wards renewed when both became settlers, and for a time
neighbors in their new home in Geauga county.
In 1816 Mr. Converse married Miss Betsey
Collins, of Whitestown, New York, daughter of Gen. Oliver
Collins, who survived their marriage but one year. She
died in February, 1817, leaving an infant son. Shortly after
this event, Mr. Converse made his first visit to Ohio,
taking the journey partly on account of his health, which was not
good, and in part to ascertain its business prospects with a view to
future settlement, and as the Western Reserve was then the center of
attraction to those whose faces were turned towards Ohio, he
naturally made it a point in his journey. At this time he
visited Parkman for the first time, where he remained some weeks,
and while there, became acquainted with Miss Hannah B. Parkman,
the youngest sister of Mr. Parkman, to whom he was
married in July, 1818, at Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York.
While on this visit to Ohio, he went up Lake Erie as far as Detroit.
Immediately after his marriage he removed to Parkman, and
permanently settled there, and became, at once, one of its most
active and untiring business men. In connection with Mr.
Parkman, he built mills of different kinds, which are mentioned
in detail in the history of Parkman. The construction of these
mills gave employment to mechanics of various kinds, and when
completed, and in use, it can easily be seen how much they
contributed to the business facilities and growth of the town.
Shortly after his arrival in Parkman, Mr.
Converse purchased an unfinished house which he put in order,
and moved into with his family. This house stood on the
northeast corner, at the crossing of the roads, in the village, and
was his residence for fourteen years. Attached to his house
were several acres of land, on the eastern part of which, in 1843,
he built a commodious and substantial house, in which he resided
during the remainder of his life, and which is still in the
possession of his family.
In 1824, Mr. Converse, with others,
contracted with the post-office department to carry the mail from
Fairport to Poland, Trumbull county, in a conveyance suitable for
the accommodation of the traveling public, which was, ere long,
enlarged into a daily four horse post coach. Previous to this,
the mail had been carried, once a week on horseback.
The route lay through Painesville, Chardon, Burton,
Parkman, and Warren, and prior to the construction of railroads, it
continued to be the main line of travel for the section of country
through which it passed. These contracts were renewed and
extended, till the route reached Sandusky, Monroe, and Detroit.
The prosecution of this business involved many journeys to
Washington, and a residence there of weeks, and sometimes months,
during which time, he became acquainted with Henry Clay,
and other leaders of the opposition, in the time of the Jackson
administration.
In 1832, the year of the first appearance of the
cholera in the United States, he was dangerously ill with it, at
Monroe, Michigan, but being unacquainted with the forms of the
disease, he was unaware of his danger, and thus recovered.
In 1833, the first mail ever carried across the
territory of Michigan, was taken by him to Chicago, then only a
trading post, with three or four houses, in the vicinity of Fort
Dearborn, and thus he became a second time a pioneer. He was
present, when the land, upon which Chicago is built, was purchased
of the Indians, and their title extinguished, and foreseeing the
results which the advantages of the situation would ultimately
produce, he determined to transfer to it, his interests and his
residence, but a serious illness caused a change in his plans, and
their final relinquishment.
He closed his connection with the post-office
department, in 1836, after twelve years of service, in which time he
had overcome all the difficulties of the route, and literally "made
straight paths for the feet" of those who should succeed him. At
this time, his health was much impaired by long exposure to the
malarial atmosphere of a new country.
He represented the county in the State legislature in
the sessions of 1842 and 1843, and in 1846 was appointed one of the
associate judges of Geauga county, and remained on the bench until
the office was abolished, under the new State constitution of 1851.
In 1863, he was appointed assessor, under the internal revenue law,
but resigned the place, on account of failing health, in 1864.
He endured a severe domestic affliction in the death of
his wife, which occurred in August, 1859. She was the youngest
daughter of Alexander Parkman, and was born in
Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York, Sept. 25, 1793, being
twenty-two years younger than her brother, Robert Breck.
She had been a longer resident of Parkman than her husband.
Her first visit was made in 1814, at which time, in company with her
brother, she made the entire journey from Odeida county to Ohio on
horseback. They passed through Buffalo while it was still
smoking from its burning by the British toops and Indians. She
was a woman of intelligence and energy of character, and in her own
sphere faith fully and promptly discharged the arduous duties which
devolved upon her in the various relations of life in which she was
placed.
In 1862, Mr. Converse married Mrs. Rebecca
Holmes, of Cleveland, who survived him, but who died
instantly, of apoplexy, in September, 1877.
Mr. Converse always took a deep interest
in all matters pertaining to the public welfare, both as regarded
his own neighborhood and that of the country at large, and was ever
ready to give to such his hearty support. He gave an ardent
adherence to the government in the war of the Rebellion, and
rejoiced with all good patriots in the overthrow of slavery.
In politics, he was a Whig of the Giddings and Wade school. He
was a delegate to the Buffalo convention of 1848, at the time of the
organization of the Free-soil movement, which culminated in the
Republican party, to the principles of which he gave his unwavering
support.
He was kind and affectionate in his domestic relations,
and for the last twenty-five years of his life he was a member of
the Congregational church. His death occurred, after a long
and painful illness, Feb. 21, 1865.
His family consisted of four children. The
eldest, Oliver Collins, the son of his first wife, was born at
Cayuga, New York, Jan. 18, 1817, and died at Parkman in 1839.
His three daughters, children of his second wife, are still living.
The two eldest, Mrs. B. C. Lyman and Miss Amelia Converse,
reside at the homestead in Parkman; the youngest, Mrs. Harriet C.
Tilden, in Chicago.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
714 |
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Chardon Twp. -
JULIUS O. CONVERSE.
In the olden of Chardon times, just west of the Chardon
house, which was built in the earliest of Geauga years, by Norman
Canfield, and is still the solid heart and center of the present
flourishing hotel of Benton & Co., on the left of Water street, back
of its little lawn, was the pleasant cottage of Jude and Shirley
Converse. The lawn had young trees and shrubs rising in it, and
in the season many beautiful flowers.
Jude Converse was a native of, and reared in,
Vermont. An older brother was Governor Julius Converse,
of that State. Mrs. French, mother of the late ohn
French was a sister, as also rs. Eleanor Hoyt,of
Cleveland. Jude was then a frank, handsome,
gay-hearted, young merchant of Chardon. Sidney, a woman of rare
endowments, was a Metcalf, a younger sister of the late
Mrs. Samuel Smith, of Chardon, with whom she
migrated from her native Connecticut in 1817; also of Thomas
Metcalf, of Chardon; Orrin Metcalf, of
Mississippi, and the late Dr. Metcalf. When she
was twenty years old, she became the wife of the late Dr.
Evert Denton, of Chardon, then in the hey-day of his
brilliant career, a widower with four small children, and by whom
she became the mother of Mr. R. E. Denton, now of Chardon,
also of Sybil, a lovely girl, who died many years ago.
She lost her first husband in 1830. In 1832, when she was
twenty-eight, and Jude was twenty-six, they were married, and
began that life-long union of rare felicity in which each supplied
to the other that which secured happiness, spite of the reverses of
fortune which overtook, and would have darkened almost any home not
made bright by such a woman as Sidney was, and warm by the
love to which both so steadily ministered.
To these, on the first day of May, 1834, was born the
subject of this sketch. The German common folk have a legend
that it is a special favor to be born in May, while the child of May
day enters the world with an omen of rare good fortune. The
child of such parents is certainly to be regarded as well-born, and
was endowed by both with qualities, enabling him to realize the
omens of his birthday. He received the names of his uncle, the
governor, and his mother's younger brother, Orrin. The
youngest living child of his mother, and for many years the sole
offspring of her happy marriage, he was the idol of his father, and,
from the day he could walk till the day when he followed that father
to the grave, his almost inseparable companion.
Through infancy and childhood, he came near being a
spoiled child. Such qualities, however, will safely pass
through a great deal of dangerous petting. While he was yet in
early childhood, his father was overtaken by a reverse of fortune,
from which, in his own person, he never recovered.
Such education as he received in the forms of school
came to him before he was thirteen ; an apt child of Sidney Converse
would receive a training at home little less than a liberal
education. At sixteen he entered, as an apprentice, the
printing office of William W. and Eli Bruce, publishers of
the Geauga Republic. Here, by the processes which translate a
young, plastic, ignorant boy into the expert, intelligent printer,
with the many-sided aptitude to successfully conduct a weekly
newspaper, his years multiplied, his form shot upward mostly, the
volume of his brain increased, his mind formed, and his character
developed. The office of a journalist may be the very best, or
the worst possible, of all the places where a man grows, develops
and ripens into the fixed forms of character and conduct.
For the few who absorb and assimulate only its
good, it is the best; for the many who draw and feed on its bad, it
is one of the worst. We only hear of the successful; nobody
keeps record of the tramping jour-printers, many of whom end in mere
tramps. Not only skilled work of the hands was mastered by
Julius, but the higher art of the brain, which informs other men's
brains, and leads to the employment of the hands.
After his novitiate under the Bruces, young Converse
worked on the Free Democrat, under Asper. This
he followed into the hands of the late J. S. Wright, esq.,
who changed the name to the Jeffersonian Democrat, where he
remained a subordinate till 1859, when he became the proprietor and
editor of the same journal, and has remained such to the present.
In the meantime he studied law, and was admitted in 1858.
The Converses were Whigs, of course, and became
Free-soilers and Republicans by natural logic and the law of events.
On the election of Mr. Lincoln, he appointed Mr.
Converse postmaster at Chardon, and renewed the appointment.
This is the only office he ever held. I am not aware that he
ever sought office.
It would be supererogation to speak of the Republican
to the people of Geauga. As compared with the weekly press of
the country, it holds a place with the first.
Managed with rare tact, prudence, and good judgment,
with courage, steadiness, and fidelity to the cardinal principles of
the highest morality, the purest integrity, and the purest
patriotism, it gathers with care the incidents of news of the
county, and returns to its readers the latest reliable news of the
outside world; a carefully selected miscellany, with crisp, strong,
incisive paragraphs of the editor, giving in a condensed form, his
ripe thoughts on important matters of public interest, as they
arise.
The life and mission of the true editor is one of
perpetual self-abnegation and devotion to the public and the private
interests of others. The good to himself is but incidental.
He toils perpetually for others. He builds up a party, that
other men may have the places and honors it can bestow. He is
forever bringing forward, and sounding the praises of other men, and
pushing them forward. He is astute in finding out and noting
their supposed merits and talents, printing their speeches,
revising, making readable their crude articles, and giving his time,
space, labor and money to do it. He takes pleasure in
announcing the arrival of the most insignificant persons, heralds
their doings, praises their successes, the height of their corn, the
weight of their hogs, the size of their pumpkins, and the length of
their squash-vines. Every man finds space for his complaints,
a card of thanks, or the glorification of his family reunions; all
of which are of very little interest to the rest of the world.
If, with his endless toils and multiform duties, with prudence and
rare business skill, he makes for himself a comfortable home, and
surrounds himself with the conveniences of life, because he has
toiled while other men slept, studied while other men played,
thought while other men rioted, ten to one they will want to divide
the profits of his success with him, and talk of how they made him,
built him up, when it is they
who have profited by his researches, made happy changes and
improvements by the information he furnished, at the lowest living
rates; and would ridicule the idea of dividing with him the profits
of the enterprises he suggested, or the money results from
information he gave them.
It may not be much merit in Mr. Converse
that his life has been pure, his sentiments elevated, and his career
marked by steady devotion to high principle. The direction
given to his life by its authors hardly admitted of any other
result.
In intellectual capacity, he ranks high above the
average, and his is of a class and quality of minds, that should go
forward with a steady growth and development for twenty-five years
yet. It has an easy grasp of a given subject, quickly comprehending
its nature, scope and relations, and few minds sooner arrive at just
conclusions as to its merits, and assign it to its proper position
in thought or practical affairs with more skill and accuracy. Easily
equal to broad and comprehensive views, he is so constantly
employed, possibly sometimes vexed, with the details of the petty
interests he is obliged to care for, or the thousand contrarient
demands that must have some attention, that he cannot give as much
time to general literature as his tastes and judgment incline him.
In purely literary matters his judgment is good, and, writing with
fluency and accuracy, he would become a good critic or general
writer : is a good writer now. As an editor, he writes less
than many wish. Perhaps, on the whole, he is wiser in denying
himself the luxury of freer speech, and a broader swing of the pen.
He was regularly apprenticed as an editor, and probably does not err
in judgment. He has secured to himself, and is educating
a fine class of local correspondents, and, to a Geauga man abroad,
there cannot be in English so interesting a journal as his.
Mr. Converse would have excelled at the
bar. I heard him last summer, for the first time, in a short,
off-hand speech, under circumstances the most trying, where a
professional speaker might have failed, and where he admirably
succeeded. I believe he is not without some experience on the
platform, about the worst place to form a speaker in the world.
He is a good speaker; has the advantage of a fine person, with
height and weight, a large, well-formed head, handsome, pleasing
features, good voice and diction, and good manner.
The child of pure New England ancestors, born and
reared in Chardon, a toiler with his hands, he is a good type of the
good that has been, and can be produced in Geauga county. His
life has been calm and uneventful. He owes nothing to fortune or
adventitious circumstances. The factors of his for tune are
easily within the grasp of every young boy now in the county.
His growth and ripening have been quiet and unassuming, and now, at
early maturity, he stands with the best men the county has ever
produced.
On the twenty-fourth of December, 1862, he was united
in marriage with Julia P., daughter of Daniel H. and Susan
P. Wright, of Portage county.
Of attractive person, cordial, pleasing manners, and
cultivated and informed mind, the union realizes and promises all
that may be rationally expected in fortunate marriages.
Of these parents, one daughter, Mary, now about
fifteen, is the only offspring,
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page 356 |
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Burton - 1818
ABEL
CRAMTON.
Came from
Guilford, Connecticut, to Batavia, Genessee county, New York in the
year 1811. The spring of 1818 found him with pack on his back
wending his way on foot to Batavia, Ohio, now Middlefield, where he
took up eighty acres of land, at $1.25 per acre. His location
was rear in Harvey Robb now lives, and afterwards in Burton,
east of Erastus Johnson's, on lot 70.
In raising his log house, he had three fingers cut off.
In the fall he returned to "York state," and sent his wife and four
children, with their goods, through in a lumber wagon, while he
stayed and worked all winter, to pay the teamsters for moving the
family to Middlefield. The spring of 1819 he came on the "Walk
of the Water," the first steamer on Lake Erie, on her first trip,
and was four days from Black Rock to Fairport. The next spring
he made r400 pounds maple sugar, which was sent to Buffalo, and sold
for three cents per pound, bringing $12, 10 of which was paid
for a barrel of salt. Nails were worth 25 cents per pound, and
wheat 25 cents per bushel.
Mr. Cramton was a joiner by trade, and also an
undertaker, and made coffins for one dollar each. In fastening
the lids, he nailed them down, as screws could not be had. In
building his second log house, he took a novel way to get mud for
the chinks. He shoveled up the ground, penned it around, threw
ton water, and turning in his hogs, gave them shelled corn,
The hogs rooted the mud, and mixed it. He raised hogs to work.
He donated 45 days' work in building the Congregational
church, and his family came often to church with cart and oxen.
The children were: Truman, Marcus, Garry, Abel, Fanny, and
Eunice Ann. Marcus still lives across the river.
Garry, always an active business man, resides in the village.
In an academy, southeast of the square, Priest
Humphrey preached Garry's funeral sermon, about 1825.
The story was told by one Blinn, to annoy a girl living in
Madison, Lake county, that an ugly black horse had kicked and killed
Cramton. It was not contradicted, and the sermon was
preached. Garry came home, after a while, and his
mother sprang up, saying, "Garry, are you alive? When
traveling in Mississippi, with a menagerie, the end of the lion cage
was smashed in by the wagon upsetting. Garry set on the
proprietor for the lioness' cage, and he stood in front of the
broken cage, with a black whip, and kept the lion in until the
other cage came. He rode the horses to water one night, and
when in the deep gulley, he heard a panther scream overhead.
The horses were frightened, and went out quick, escaping the beast
after it yelled. Garry says there were but six frame
houses when he came here (1818), and of all the men who were of age
at that time, only Colonel Stephen Ford is now living in
Burton. Teachers were paid six shillings a week, and taught in
log school-houses.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County with
Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page
572 |
|
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RALPH COWLES,
was elected auditor in 1824, and held the office sixteen years,
retiring in 1844, William Kerr holding the office four years, from
1834 to 1838, when Mr. Cowles was re-elected. He was probably
one of the most accomplished business men that ever held that position
in the county. His records are still looked upon with
admiration; for neatness and accuracy they have never been surpassed.
He was the son of Asa Cowles who settled in Claridon in 1811.
Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page 349 |
NOTES:
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