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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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Troy Twp. -
REV. E. D. TAYLOR.
It seems fitting, that
with the record of the township of Troy should be included that of one
to whom it's people and prosperity were very dear. With it, as
well as the neighboring towns of Parkman and Newbury, his interests were
involved, and there was his chosen, and, as it proved, his last home.
Rev. E. D. Taylor, the seventh son, and youngest
child of Deacon Nehemiah and Lydia Taylor, was born at Bristol,
Vermont, June 2, 1817. His mother, whose maiden name was
Streeter, was an exceptional woman - modest, kind, fervent and
unswerving in her devotion to truth, and the old, rigid faith, inherited
from her New England ancestors. She passed away before the
conversion of her youngest son, but in the full confidence that her
consecration of him would be accepted, as was that of all the other
members of her family.
Deacon Taylor was also a person of strong and
decided piety; who was accustomed often to bear his children and
children's children before the Lord. Though not rich in this
world's goods, he was "rich in faith," and lived to see five of his sons
become ministers of the gospel, the other two having died in early life.
Of the entire family, numbering seven sons and three daughters, only one
now remains - Mrs. Allen Smith, of Iowa.
E. D. Taylor was, in his early youth, of an
unusually mirthful, sprightly and buoyant disposition - to such a
degree, indeed, that some of hte long-faced ones entirely coincided with
him in his oft-expressed opinion, that "there was one of Deacon
Taylor's sons who would never be a minister."
When he was five years of age, his parents removed to
northern New York, and there he experienced many of the hardships as
well as pleasures, of life in a new country. He became quite
expert at hunting, trapping, and fishing, and was very fond of all kinds
of out-door exercise.
He often said that the best meal he ever ate, consisted
of some pieces of salt pork and corn bread, which he once took with him,
as rations, when out hunting deer. He was an excellent horseman,
and always took great pleasure in riding and driving.
There are many recollections of his having been wild
and gay, but none that he was ever vicious or immoral.
At somewhere, from twelve to fifteen years of age, he
went to Russell, St. Lawrence county, to learn the clothier's trade,
with a man who, although a professor of religion, was a whiskey-selling
hotel-keeper. In the intervals of his regular work, the boy was
accustomed to "tend bar," and do all kinds of odd jobs about the
premises.
One night, several of his associates assembled at the
shop for a game of cards. They had, for light, a candle set
between two sacks of wool, and determined to play, until it should be
burned down to the sacks, but morning came and found them still absorbed
in their amusement. He vowed, then, to leave so fascinating a game
alone, and was never known to indulge in it afterward. Situated as
he was, it was impossible for him not to realize many of the evils of
intemperance, and he left the use of liquors there and forever.
While at Russell, and amidst general spiritual
declension, his mind was turned to his lost condition. Alone, the
grace of God so operated upon him, that he declared his faith in Christ,
and at his own request, was released from trade, and commenced preparing
for the ministry.
He attended school at Potsdam academy, and taught at
intervals, or worked on the farm.
After a time, he came to Kirtland, Ohio, and was
connected with Dr. Asa D. Lord's school, first as pupil, and then
as assistant teacher.
He taught also at Rome, Ashtabula county, and, perhaps,
other places, and was, besides, a successful teacher of vocal music.
Among the recollections of his earlier years collected
for this sketch, none has been more frequent or emphatic than this: "He
was such a beautiful singer!" The cultivation of music and
especially, of church music, was always to him a source of great
enjoyment as long as he lived. Those who remember with what
feeling he used to sing "Dennis," with the words "How gentle
God's commands," will understand the significance of it's being one of
the selections sung before he was laid away to his last rest.
Mr. Taylor was, for a time, principal of the "Shaw
Academy" at Euclid, and was married in 1852 to Miss Mary Ann Lewis,
who was a teacher in the same school. She was a daughter of
Edward Lewis, esquire, of Lenox, Madison county, New
York, and his first wife, Olive Barnard. Mr. Taylor ever
found in his wife a loving, faithful and efficient helper, and to her
influence and assistance must be attributed much of his subsequent
success, during nearly thirty years of united labor.
Three children, E. D. Taylor, jr., of
Stillwater, Minnesota, Mrs. Anna T. Treat, still a resident of
Ohio, and Mrs. Alice L. Armor, of Orange, California, live to
bear witness to her many sterling qualities. "Her children rise up
and call her blessed."
After his marriage, Mr. Taylor completed
his theological studies, and was licensed to preach, about the year
1847. Although not a college graduate, he was a classical scholar,
and always a reader and thinker.
His first sermon was preached at Euclid (now Collamer),
on the parable of the "Prodigal Son," and yet will be remembered by
some, who listened to it there.
De Ruyter, Madison county, New York, was his first
field of labor. West Stockholm (now Sanfordville) and Huvelton, both in
St. Lawrence county, the second and third. After a short pastorate in
the latter place, Mr. Taylor, by the advice of his
physician, who feared disease of the lungs, came again to Ohio, and
located at Chagrin Falls, where he remained three years and one-half.
During his residence there, he conducted, with the help of his wife, a
select school, numbering at times over one hundred pupils.
He removed to Claridon in 1855, where he performed the
greater part of his ministerial work. He received into the church
in that place one hundred and twenty members, forty-four of whom, are
still resident there.
It would be nearly impossible to find a home with whose
joys and sorrows he was not identified. He did with his might whatever
his hands found to do, and from the seeds of good sown, there in his
loving devotion and sacrifice, there has been, and will continue to be
gathered, an abundant harvest, both in time and eternity.
His influence and aid were always given, to further the
prosperity of the whole community. He and his wife again engaged
somewhat in teaching, and were always interested in the educational
affairs of the township. They were both, for many years, members
of the "Farmers' Club," and always did what they could to sustain its
meetings.
During the late civil war, Mr. Taylor spent some weeks
under the "Christian Commission, " among the sick and wounded soldiers
at City Point and Washington, but found his health inadequate to
continued labor of that kind. He was an enthusiastic patriot, and
never lost his faith in the government and the ultimate triumph of the
good cause.
In February, 1872, Mrs. Taylor died, and in the
following winter, Mr. Taylor closed his relation with the
church at Claridon, and took upon himself the care of three weak
churches, at Troy, Newbury and Parkman — one of them so nearly dead,
that it was believed at one time, it would disband and join other
churches.
Another of these organizations was equally weak, and
without a house of worship, but has now a house and is much improved in
numbers and prosperity.
For many years there had been a lack of friendly
feeling between some of the members of the different churches in Troy,
but after Mr. Taylor's labors commenced, all this was
changed; the old jealousies disappeared, and all be came brethren
indeed. He was in every respect a Christian gentleman, beloved by all,
but especially by the young, and the children.
One little one in Troy, being assured by her aunt that
she would certainly give her away, if she were not a better girl,
responded, gleefully: "Oh, give me to brudder Taylor!" One of his
chief delights was to make others happy, and he always had a kind word
for every one.
Mr. Taylor was married in 1874, to Mrs.
Florence E. Wells, formerly of New Hampshire, a lady who merited all
the wealth of confidence and affection bestowed upon her by her husband,
and who will long be cherished with him in the hearts of their
parishioners and friends.
Previous to his removal from Claridon, Mr. Taylor
had been appointed a member of the board of school examiners, and so
continued to be identified with the educational interests of the county,
until the time of his death.
During the summer of 1877, he was attacked with fever
and ague, and from that time, his health seemed gradually to decline.
Yet he kept on with his work, riding through all kinds of weather, and
over all varieties of roads, to his appointments, both upon Sundays and
week-day evenings. Finally, in the latter part of November, 1878, he
sank from the effects of overwork and poisonous night air, and lay down
upon a sick bed.
His last sermon was preached at Parkman, on
Thanksgiving day, and upon December 19, he was called to his rest. He
"walked with God, and he was not; for God took him."
His remains were taken to Claridon for interment, and
memorial services were held at Troy, Claridon, Newbury, and Parkman, in
which many friends participated, irrespective of denomination.
The following from the columns of the "Stillwater
Lumberman" seems a fitting conclusion of this tribute to one so
respected and beloved.
"Death has recently stilled a true, brave heart, and
relieved from duty on earth a faithful soldier of the Cross.
Readers in our immediate parish, will pardon us if we devote a little
space to thoughts of the departed, for the perusal of our more distant
friends.
"He who has been called to a wider sphere of
usefulness, was a good soldier, because of his fidelity. Where he
understood duty to call him, he was ever present. At the bed-side
of the sick; in the house of mourning; on the tented field ; in public
debate, or in private study, his only aim in life seemed to be, fully to
acquit himself of the responsibility placed upon him.
"Neither the rage of the elements, fear of the scorn of
men, nor lust of gain stayed him from such measures, and such positions
as he believed to be right. He was a knightly soldier. He
had, for all who differed from him, the broadest charity. He stood
manfully by his colors, for love of the Master who had placed them in
his charge, but never struck at any opponent a blow nerved by hate, or
edged with prejudice. He was so honestly loyal to the truth, as he
understood it, that he could afford to recognize love of truth, in any
honest opponent.
"He was a sagacious soldier. His daily walk and
conversation proved to the world, the pleasure he found in the service
in which he had enlisted, and were more powerful than any set
discourses, in making that service appear inviting to others.
Although given to debate, it was through zeal for the right, rather than
through love of contention, and he could argue without quibbling, and
contend without quarreling. He assailed no position, without first
going thoroughly over the ground.
"He aimed to know, not only the movements of his
friends, but every advance among his opponents, and this constant
vigilance frequently led him to be among the first to see in measures,
theories, propositions, or movements feared by his comrades, much,
favorable to the truth and to the cause he upheld. He believed
himself engaged in a service worthy his highest possible efforts, and
demanding his utmost skill.
"In no direction was he more diligent, than in
thoroughly equipping himself for his duty. He was a tireless student.
He sought not only the facts which fortified positions already taken,
but he aimed, conscientiously, to give just weight to facts, even when
they seemed to make previously assumed positions pregnable. Thus he
could not fail to be a progressive man.
"His record in these particulars, is one which may be
remembered with tender pride by the friends he left behind, but the
sweetest consolation memory offers, is in the thought that he was a
thoroughly lovable man.
"He drove no man from him. At his funeral, and by the
side of his grave, were no divisions of sect. While there was mourning
among the churches of his own denomination, there was no less mourning
among churches of other denominations, and among people belonging to no
denomination.
"His religion had been a religion of sunshine rather
than shadow; of earnest striving that all souls might be saved, father
than speculations as to how many must be lost; of responsive smiles for
all happy hearts; and of quick sympathy for all poor, afflicted and
distressed; of brave championship of the weak; and of rare
self-sacrifice.
"The drifts of winter cover his grave, but the memory
of his life is as the memory of a summer day, rich with songs of birds,
and the beauty and perfume of flowers."
A. T. T.
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 666 |
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Newbury -
CUTLER TYLER was born at
Western (now Warren), Massachusetts, Nov. 19, 1794. He had a taste
for mechanics, and worked at the carpenter's trade, and for a short time
before he reached the age of twenty-one years, bought his time of his
father. He was not only resolute and self-reliant, but of great
physical energy and endurance, as evinced by his walking from Western to
Boston, a distance of over seventy miles, in one day, and returning the
next. In 1818 he came in company with Marsena Munn, and
family, and others, leaving Munson, Massachusetts, May 19th, and
reaching Newbury June 28th. The following fall or winter he
returned on foot to Massachusetts, and in 1819 again started for Ohio
with a horse and sleigh, but was obliged to leave his sleigh, and get a
wagon before reaching his journey's end. Here, while others
leveled the forests, he reared the timber into dwellings for the human
family, and some of the earliest and best buildings in Burton and
Newbury were chiefly the work of his hands. More for a home than
for the purpose of agriculture, he bought a farm in the southern part of
Newbury, and Nov. 13, 1825, he was married to Miss Sarah Fisher.
The newly married pair settled at once in their log cabin, situated on
the site of the frame house he built later, and which he occupied until
his death, and which is now occupied by their daughter, Ruth, and
her husband, John B. Waterton. Here he gradually became a
farmer, finding, however, frequent use for his carpenter's tools to make
improvements for himself and neighbors. His works were exact and
durable, and many of them still stand as proof of their worth, thus
lasting not only while he lived as he claimed, they would, but some of
them bid fair to last another generation, at least. Such was the
nature of his word as well as his work that if possible, it was doubly
true, and his judgment was deservedly held in high respect.
For several years he filled the office of justice of
the peace, and for a few terms some other township offices, each time
the public position being reluctantly accepted rather than sought for.
But his integrity and unselfishness in his official duties won the
confidence of all. Between the age for forty and fifty years he
made a public profession of religion, and was baptized, but united with
no church, yet was a liberal contributor for the support of the gospel,
and maintained family worship. His wife was an active and devoted
christian, and a member of the Congregational church, sustained with her
part, and assisted in their household religion. Both were warm
friends of temperance, education and true reform, and not only the
minister, but the temperance, scientific and anti-slavery lecturer found
a hospitable home at Squire Tyler's. In such
circumstances it is not strange that of their six children who lived to
maturity, not one ever used tabacco in any form, or alcoholic
stimulants, as a beverage. One important feature of his life is
best embalmed in the gratitude and praise of those who were known by him
to be in need. It is best recorded in the book of him who keeps an
account of all things and credits as loans to himself the gifts to the
poor. He was one of the first and most active in planning and
furnishing funds for the building of the brick house and school-room at
South Newbury, and his funeral was the first service held in the church
room. One little incident of his life showing his disposition to
overcome difficulties, is worthy of mention. The same season that
he was building one of his barns, he was also having a well dug, and one
day looking at it, he accidentally fell in, turning some of the toes of
one foot over backwards. Doctor Ludlow proposed
setting them, which would require him to keep quiet for some time, and
thus hinder him about his work, so he wanted them cut off, which the
doctor refused to do; so with a chisel and mallet and one blow he
severed them, when the doctor dressed his foot, and with a block nailed
to the sole, and the upper leather cut from the toe of his shoe, he went
to work at his barn again.
His death was sudden and unexpected Apr. 3, 1857.
Returning from Cleveland, while descending the hill west of Chagrin
Falls, he was observed in a reclining position upon his wagon; and when
help reached him - a few gasps, and all was over. Thus, at the age
of sixty-two years, he quickly passed through the veil, leaving his
friends on this side sorrowing, but not without a bright hope of meeting
him in the "Grand Forever."
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 252 |
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Chardon -
JUDGE LESTER TAYLOR.
Born Aug. 5, 1798, few lives comparatively have been so long;
certainlyin the varied usefulness of an active man of fine practical
ability, unusual public spirit, wide experience, and large intelligence,
devoted more to general and public affairs, and the advance of the whole
than to private gain and aggrandizement, very few in Geauga county have
approached it. For the later years Mr.Taylor has
quite given his time and unimpaired faculties to various causes of
enlightened neighborhood, township, and county improvement; the
collection, collation, and preservation of the history of the county;
and to other causes which absorb his time, trench on his means, and
return to him no vulgar rewards whatever.
I have been familiar with this long, useful, and
unselfish life, the example and lesson of which should be preserved, and
I turn to the three or four pages of data, a dry outline without breadth
or color, as if the hand that furnished it did so grudgingly, and I feel
that my labor must be less fruitful than I could wish. Especially
I would have known more of the subjects, measures, and bills brought to
the attention of the legislative bodies of which Mr. Taylor
was a conspicuous member, and the condition and needs of his time.
The Taylors must have been of a good, vigorous
race in their Connecticut antecedents, of which I have not a word.
Horace, the elder brother, was a public-spirited man, and built
an academy at the center of Claridon, and on a less extended field lived
a life of practical usefulness like his brother.
The family, by New England thrift, was well-to-do.
This, to the newer generation of the Western Reserve, furnishes the idea
of rich lands, abundant harvests, fat cattle, and easy lives, but which,
in fact, was a steady, unrelenting struggle, almost a war, with a hard,
sterile soil, a rigorous climate, and unkindly surroundings, for what,
to the easy-going, well-off farmer of Geauga, would be a meagre,
thankless return, compelling a study and practice of all the small
economies in order to make the least advance in acquisition, and the
slow, almost imperceptible gains of even the most successful New England
farming family.
Of such Mr. Taylor was a son. He
received a good common school education. His parents were never
able to send him to an academy, that hope and ambition of the aspiring
youth of his day.
The common school of that time was a totally different
institution from the schools of to-day. A course in the Chardon
high school of this day is a better and more useful course than Yale or
Harvard furnished at the day of his birth. He began with
Dilworth's arithmetic and ended with Daboll; a small
abridgment of Murray's grammar came in late. In geography,
a book of questions and answers - a map, not to speak of an atlas - was
then unheard of in a country school, and yet with those meagre, scanty
helps were formed the intelligent, sinewy, fibrous minds of that time,
which did not grow up indolent in the fatness and abundance of easy
means of learning, but were hungry, craving, and unsatisfied. He
never attended a summer school after he was ten. At eighteen he
taught school, as did Garfield and Ludlow, though such
cases were rare.
Hartland, the town of his nativity, had an abundance of
good air and fine scenery, was rough, hilly, rocky, and had plenty of
good water. It was not a bad place to raise children. The
hardy and enterprising usually left it as soon after reaching years of
discretion as parents permitted. One would hardly remain there
later.
Lester went at twenty and joined Horace in the
still abundant woods of Claridon. Notwithstanding his hardy
rearing, young Taylor had reached early manhood with a slender
constitution and slight strength, compared with most of the robust
pioneers. He went on to the farm where he now lives, then
beautiful forest slopes, and struck the first of the incessant blows
which changed it with time to the beautiful present. When he left
Hartland he left his troth with sweet Mary Wilder, and it
was to make a home for her that he journeyed and toiled three years,
cleared the home fields, built his cabin, and set rose trees about it,
and in 1821 he visited Connecticut, married, and 'carried her to the new
Claridon residence.
From the first he taught school in the winters.
In 1819 he "kept" a four months school in Mentor, and the surviving
pupils gave him a famous reunion a few years since. The year of
his marriage Claridon celebrated the Fourth. Mr. Taylor
was the "young Demosthenes," and a blunderbuss of good Queen Ann's
time, a "queen's-arm," was the artillery of the occasion.
In 1824 the log cabin, the homestead, was consumed by
fire, with quite all its contents - a calamity for any time, a great one
then and to them.
Mr. Taylor early organized a literary
club and debating society, and Claridon has seldom been without one
since. He had decided to be a farmer, and an intelligent one - not
merely to plant and grub, but understand, study, sympathize with all the
processes involved, and be enabled to conduct farming with intelligence
and profit, and derive from it something of the higher pleasures of
science and observation, as well as that of gain. He became a
subscriber to the New England Farmer, and extended his patronage to
other agricultural journals as they sprang up. He began also to
buy and collect books as occasion and means permitted, which in time
became quite as extensive a library as any to be found in the county.
He early turned his own and the attention of his neighbors and friends
to the uses and beauties of tree-planting and culture about the houses,
lawns, yards, highways, and public places; is to be regarded as the
pioneer in this, and was quite the first to discover and make available
for this purpose the rare qualities of our native trees, the elm and
maple. His own beautiful farm, and Claridon generally, bear ample
evidence of his fidelity to an early matured taste for arboriculture.
His early devotion to the cause of a thorough common
school education was marked and practical, wisely judging that in this
field was the mission of the American educator. At an early day it
was the duty of the courts to appoint examiners of teachers, and Mr.
Taylor was one of the earliest, with William L. Perkins
and others, in the county. At an early day his then fine, erect,
soldierly person attracted the attention of Colonel C. C. Paine -
all that family were colonels and generals - and he appointed him
adjutant of his regiment. Such was his popularity that the
commissioned officers of the regiment, with whom it lay, not long after
elected him to command them, and the title of colonel, thus acquired,
only yielded to that of judge afterwards.
As is generally known, the Western Reserve had received
for school purposes a large grant of government lands, situated in
Tuscarawas and adjoining counties, all in the State. It became
necessary to utilize the proceeds of them, as well as to open them to
settlers, and permit the country to be improved; and in 1830 an act was
passed for this purpose, which required that they should be appraised.
Mr. Taylor was appointed to this responsible duty, in
company with Amos Seward, of Portage, and Ahaz Merchant,
of Cleveland. These lands, aggregating sixty thousand acres, were
not to be sold for less than the appraised value, although, if not sold
within the time specified, were to be offered at public sale. The
proceeds were the foundation of the common school fund for the Western
Reserve. That Mr. Taylor executed this duty with
fidelity needs no assurance.
Mr. Taylor was elected to represent
Geauga county in the general assembly of Ohio, and re-elected - the
first for the session of 1832-33, and the second for 1834-35. I
think these elections were by the anti-Masons, who then embodied much of
the active intelligence of the county, and the last time he and
Seabury Ford were probably rival candidates. However it
was, the people of Geauga have always had a serious purpose in the
elections of representatives.
None of the second generation of men remember the State
politics of thoseyears. We know there were threats of awful war by
Governor Mason, the territorial governor of Michigan,
about a strip of land, on which stood the thensmall town of Toledo.
The people of that region, in May, 1835, assembled in convention and
formed a State constitution, with a boundary so liberal as to include
Maumee bay, the mouth of the river, Toledo, and a wide strip of Ohio;
and Governor Mason, then quite twenty-one years of age,
assembled his forces, with a proclamation, at Monroe, which some people
in Ohio then supposed to be a stout-headed, malicious old man, instead
of a town, who was setting the young cockerel up to this mischief, and
who marched toward Toledo with bloody intent. Good old Robert Lucas,
Democratic governor of Ohio, convened the Ohio legislature by
proclamation as stout as that of the governor of all Michigan, and
Colonel Taylor was of those who responded. Governor
Lucas called for volunteers finally, and some of us boys offered to
go, but were never mustered. It made a national commotion,
however, and John Quincy Adams, who had a capacity
for being wrong-headed, stood with "that old Monroe," egging on
Governor Mason. Congress finally offered to admit
Michigan if she would relinquish her claim to Ohio, and take the upper
peninsula instead, a wide wild region north of Mackinaw, between Lakes
Superior and Michigan. She refused in 1836, and accepted in 1837.
Colonel Taylor, who had a hand in holding Ohio quiet
during this excitement, could have told us all about his part of it.
Time elapsed, and in 1846 he was elected one of the
associate judges of Geauga county, with Judge Aiken and
Judge Converse, which made a very respectable court of
itself. Judge Taylor had in his younger days often
appeared in the magistrates' courts and before arbitrators, had presided
as justice of the peace for many years, had read some of the elementary
books, and, with his quick accurate apprehension of things, and the
respect entertained for him and his associates by the bar, he made a
very good presiding judge. Under the old constitution, many powers and
duties more municipal than judicial devolved on the associate judges.
This place he filled until the change of the judiciary under the new
State constitution in 1851.
In politics Mr. Taylor was a Whig of the
Giddings and Frank Wade school, which, with a few
notable exceptions, was the Geauga type. With the most of these he
became a Free-soiler in 1848. In 1854 he was elected by them again
to the house, where, with the memory of his former service, he at once
took a high position.
In 1856 he was elected to the senate by the counties of
Ashtabula, Geauga, and Lake. These were the years of Tom
Ford as lieutenant-governor, who was never in the chair, the only
real service he could render; and it was one of those "nevers" that was
much better than late or even early. Judge Taylor
was elected president pro tem., and presided at the opening
ceremonies of taking possession of the senate chamber in the famous new
State capitol, and generally during his senatorial term was regarded as
one of the best presiding officers of that body. During these
years Judge Taylor was justly regarded throughout the
State as one of the most able and faithful legislators.
Reared with a profound respect for New England
orthodoxy, Judge Taylor gave his enlightened assent to the
general soundness of its faith more than fifty years ago. He
carries his warm vitality, and is carried by it, into all things which
he deems worthy his concern. He would necessarily be of a
new-school wing, and could not fail of being one of its representative
men; was moderator of the Lake and Geauga church conferences for twenty
years, and chosen by conference to represent it in the first national
council of the Congregational churches at Boston, in 1865. Also in the
nation council at Detroit, in 1857.
Judge Taylor was largely instrumental in
the formation of » the Geauga Historical society, in 1875. Upon
its organization he became its president, and has continued at its head
to the present time. He has devoted much time to
traveling about and holding pioneer meetings in the various townships,
delivering addresses, looking up the surviving settlers, stimulating the
interest of all classes in the general subject, gathering material, and
securing the selection in each of the townships of a competent person to
write its history, and has urged them to such diligence that the society
has felt itself authorized to canvass for
a cheap edition of its undoubtedly valuable collections.
Judge Taylor was one of the most active
promoters of the organization of the Claridon Farmers' club, instituted
some twenty years ago, which has had his steady and warm support to the
present time. At the present August reunion and festival of the
Claridon, Chardon, and Hambden clubs, at the center of Claridon, he
delivered a valuable extemporaneous address, full of practical wisdom,
the fruit of long experience and wide and varied observation, reading,
and reflection.
Prominent in all the social and so-called domestic
associations of his region, Judge Taylor, a few years
since, organized what is known as the "Central Park Association," the
objects of which are to ornament the public grounds of the township,
create a taste for, and lead to, general arboriculture, and the laying
out and planting of lawns, yards, and grounds of private residences.
Judge Taylor early became a practical
speaker, with an easy flow of language and good manner, a thing so
useful, and to most Americans born so easy of acquisition, that one
wonders why so few intelligent and leading minds acquire the power. Mr.
Taylor's mind is of a logical order. He has the capacity,
full capacity, of seeing and hearing, which so many lack, and thus draws
information from what goes on about him, which he works into thoughts
and ideas. He is without imagination, has little fancy, and
perhaps less humor, save of a grim sort. His mind is sound, practical.
Kindly, a just and liberal man, pure of spirit, and blameless of life,
not greatly seeking, giving more than he receives.
His Mary Wilder fell by the wayside many
years ago, after a true woman's unselfish life. True heart, her
husband sought no other love. Sons and daughters she left.
One devotes her maiden life to him. A son, in a tasteful home, is
just across the way.
His homestead, one of the pleasantest situated in that
region, has a fine out look down a gentle slope, westerly, into the
sweet vale of "Aquilla lake" and the western Cuyahoga. Here, with
faculties unimpaired, in the serene mellow ness of ripe years, with the
softened rays of the "western sun" gilding his years, they will run
their serene and still luminous course.
The Taylors were from England, and at an early
day came to this country, settling at Chatham, Connecticut. The
father of Lester was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
Was stationed at Ticonderoga, and from thence went to Montreal, but
hearing of General Montgomery's defeat, he returned, and
was sent south; was engaged in the battle of Princeton and Germantown,
and other important actions.
Upon the maternal side, Judge Taylor was
of Welsh extraction, and is traced back to Colonel Hinsdale,
who was one of the original land proprietors in that locality, and in
his honor the town of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, was named. At this
point a fort was, at a very early day, established. In 1755 this
fort was taken by the Indians, and the garrison massacred. At the
time of this massacre, Colonel Hinsdale had a daughter in
school at Middletown, Connecticut. She married a Mr.
Drew, of Middletown, and a daughter of theirs married Captain
Oliver Bates, of Durham, Connecticut. His second
daughter, Rhoda, was the mother of Lester Taylor.
They came from Durham to Hartland, Connecticut, before the Revolution,
and at this place he was born and brought up. From such a
parentage, and early New England training, it was to be expected he
should prove, as he has done, strong, active, energetic, and
self-reliant.
Lester Taylor, born Aug. 5, 1798, and
Mary L. Wilder, born Aug. 7, 1800, were married in Hartland,
Connecticut, May 2, 1821, and had the following children:
1st. Robert DeWitt, born June 19, 1824,
was killed Mar. 1, 1830.
2d. La Royal, born May 27, 1827, married Ann B.
Cleveland, daughter of John S. Cleveland, M. D., and Chloe
Butler, of Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, May 18, 1854. Their
children were: Annettie Sophia, born Mar. 26, 1855; Royal
Cleveland, born June 24, 1857; Ella Cora, born June 18,
1861; John Wilder, born Dec. 18, 1866; Mary Alice,
born Sept. 17, 1870.
3rd. Mary Johnson, born Apr. 1, 1830.
4th. Lester De Witt, born Dec. 1,
1832, married Carrie Brainard, daughter of Nelson
Brainard and Lucia Rudd, of Mayfield, Cuyahoga
county, Ohio, Sept. 29, 1868. Their children were: Wilder
Brainard, born Sept. 16, 1869; Arthur Wallace, born
Mar. 14, 1872.
5th. Lucy Wilder, born Aug. 19, 1835,
married Clinton Goodwin, of Middlefield, Geauga county,
Ohio, May 31, 1859. Their children were: Florence Isadore,
born Aug. 12, 1860; Mary Catherine, born Feb. 23, 1863;
Lester Taylor, born Dec. 22, 1865; Emery Milton,
born Mar. 30, 1868; Lucy Lenora, born June 6, 1871.
6th. Jane Sophia, born Nov. 23, 1837,
married Wm. D. Ringland, of Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, Jan. 1,
1863. Their children were: Effie Jane, born Feb. 23, 1864;
Heman Lester, born Aug. 12, 1865. Mrs.
Ringland died in Barrington, Illinois, Jan. 30, 1866, aged
twenty-eight years.
7th. Susan Roseboom, born April 16, 1841,
married Ozro R. Newcomb, of Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, Jan. 1,
1863. They had one child: Ozro Robinson, born July
21, 1866. Mr. Newcomb died Jan. 1, 1866, during his
second term of office as treasurer of Geauga county, aged thirty-two
years.
Mrs. Judge Taylor died in Claridon, May 5, 1870,
aged seventy years.---------------
* From Williams Brothers history.
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 320 - 325 |
NOTES:
|
