BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
A Standard History of
Lorain County, Ohio
- Vol. II -
by G. Frederick Wright
1916
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C. B.
INGERSOLL.
The Ingersolls were among the families that
established pioneer homes in the vicinity of Grafton
upwards of a century ago. C. B. Ingersoll
is a native son of Lorain County and for nearly
fifty years has been closely identified with its
farming and stock raising interests. He has
one of the fine rural homes in the neighborhood of
Kipton.
He was born at Grafton, Jan. 21, 1847, a son of
William and Elizabeth A, (Welburn) Ingersoll.
His paternal grandfather, William
Ingersoll, was born in Berkshire County,
Massachusetts, and located in Lorain County not long
after the close of the War of 1812. He married
Catherine Houk. The maternal
grandfather of Mr. Ingersoll was Jesse
Welburn, who was a native of England, and
settled in Lorain County in 1825, spending the
balance of his days here. William
Ingersoll, father of C. B. Ingersoll,
was born at Grafton, Ohio, Sept. 30, 1820, and died
Jan. 25, 1879. His wife was born in the State
of Massachusetts, Aug. 17, 1825, and died Nov. 22,
1909. They were married at Grafton.
William
Ingersoll in 1853 sold his farm of fifty
acres in Grafton Township and moved to Camden in the
spring of 1854, buying a farm of 275 acres, to the
cultivation of which he devoted the remainder of his
years. He was a republican in politics, and a
man who enjoyed the full esteem of his fellow
citizens. He and his wife had eight children,
three sons and five daughters, and the four now
living are: C. B. Ingersoll, who was the
first born; Mary, widow of George
Brooks; Kate, wife of George
Bois, a mail carrier at Warren, Ohio; and
Frank, who is the youngest, and was born Jan.
22, 1870, being a farmer at Kipton.
C. B. Ingersoll grew up on his father's farm,
attended district schools, and when still young
became a practical farmer. He now owns a fine place
of 275 acres and besides general crops gives much
attention to stock. He keeps about 125 sheep. His
farm is well improved, has all the tile necessary to
thorough drainage, and the building equipment
comprises two very commodious barns and a
comfortable residence. Mr. Ingersoll
is still active and giving all his time to his
business, though his prosperity is such that he
might be justified in retiring and spending the rest
of his life in comfort and ease.
In 1887 he married Miss Anna Watson, who was
born in Ireland, a daughter of William and Martha
(McNeilly) Watson. Her mother is still
living and resides in Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs.
Ingersoll are the parents of ten children, named
as follows: William, a farmer at Brighton,
Ohio; Emma, wife of Allen E.
Hayes, a farmer at Clarksfield; Mary,
now deceased; Grade, at home; Seth,
Charles, Walter, Mabel, P. A.,
and Blanche, all of whom are living at home.
Mr. Ingersoll is a republican in
politics.
Source: A Standard
History of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G.
Frederick Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page
927 |
|
GEORGE W. INGERSOLL.
It is always pleasing to the biographist or student
of human nature to enter into an analysis of the
character and career of a successful tiller of the
soil. Of the many citizens gaining their own
livelihood, he alone stands pre-eminent as a totally
independent factor, in short, "monarch of all he
surveys," His rugged honesty and sterling
worth are the outcome of a close association with
nature and in all the relations of life he manifests
that generous hospitality and kindly human sympathy
which beget comradeship and which cement to him the
friendship of all with whom he comes in contact.
Successfully engaged in diversified agriculture on
his fine estate of 150 acres in Elyria Township,
George W. Ingersoll is decidedly a prominent and
popular citizen in Lorain County, having lived in
this section of the state since 1886.
George W. Ingersoll was born at Grafton, Ohio,
Sept. 10, 1864, being a son of George M. and Mary
(Preston) Ingersoll, the latter of whom died in
1870. Shortly after the death of his wife,
Mr. Ingersoll removed to Elyria in order to have
better educational facilities for his children.
For his second wife he married Elvira
Bradley, who survived him for a number of years.
He passed to rest in 1895. There were three children
born to the first marriage of whom two are living,
in 1915. Henry W., an attorney of Elyria,
Ohio, married May Hamilton and has two
children living, Mary C. and Henry W., Jr.;
George W. is the subject of this review;
Anna A. died, aged fourteen years, Mar. 18,
1881.
In the common schools of Elyria George W. Ingersoll
completed his preliminary educational training and
he was graduated in the Elyria High School in 1884,
at the age of nineteen years. He then
purchased a book store in Elyria and conducted the
same with marked success for a short time. He
disposed of that business, however, on account of
his health and went west to Colorado, where he
obtained a tract of Government land on which he
engaged in ranching in farming in the vicinity of
Camden, Lorain County. He remained there for
about three years and after his marriage, in 1889,
located in Elyria Township, this county. Here
he is the owner of a splendidly improved farm of 150
acres, the same being situated on Lake Avenue, just
outside of the city limits of Elyria. He is
engaged in the raising of high-grade stock and has
met with remarkable success in his agricultural
pursuits. The fine condition of his farm
indicates good business management and everywhere
can be seen signs of thrift and untiring industry.
In politics Mr. Ingersoll is a staunch
supporter of the principles and policies for which
the republican party stands sponsor and he takes a
public-spirited interest in everything calculated to
advance the welfare of the community along material
and moral lines. He is well known and highly
respected throughout this section of the county.
Sept. 18, 1889, in Elyria, was celebrated the marriage
of Mr. Ingersoll to Miss
Myrta Parmely, a daughter of Stanley
M. and Mary (Sampson) Parmely, both of whom are
now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ingersoll
have an adopted daughter, Gladys, who is now
attending high school.
The great-grandfather and the great-great-grandfather
of Mrs. Ingersoll on the paternal side
were early residents in Connecticut and were
soldiers in the Revolutionary war, Asahel
Parmely, grandfather of Mrs. Ingersoll,
was a native of Vermont, and in August, 1817, in
company with his parents, two brothers and his wife
and two children, he came across the country in a
covered wagon to Ohio, he settled, first, in
Sullivan Township, Ashland County, and in 1829
removed to Elyria Township, Lorain County, and
located on a farm which included all of George W.
Ingersoll 's and a part of an adjacent farm.
He died Jan. 4, 1859, and his wife survived him many
years, passing away Oct. 18, 1875. Two
children were born to Asahel and his wife,
Fannie (Wright) Parmely, in
Vermont, and five others in Ohio. The first
two were Hannah and Amandrin,
the former of whom died in Medina County, Ohio, Aug.
22, 1817, when the family was enroute; she was
buried in the woods, Amandrin was a farmer in
Elyria Township for many years and his death
occurred Mar. 21, 1891; he married Emily
Thomas. Concerning the five children born
in Ohio the following facts are here inserted:
Ashley, born Feb. 21, 1818, married Julia
Mann, and died in Ashland County, Ohio;
Lovilla M., born May 11, 1822, died, unmarried,
in Elyria, Aug. 8, 1848; Rexaville E., born
Feb. 28, 1825, died, unmarried, in Elyria, May 23,
1848; Freeman, horn Nov. 17, 1828, married
Pamelia Hecock, in 1851, and died Jan.
10, 1893; and Stanley M., born in Elyria,
Apr. 18, 1830, died Feb. 15, 1894.
Stanley M. Parmely, the youngest of the foregoing
children, was the father of Mrs.
Ingersoll. He married, in Chester,
Massachusetts, Jan. 25, 1855, Mary Sampson,
who died on the old homestead in Elyria Township,
Dec. 6, 1915, aged eighty-four years. To
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley M. Parmely were born the
following children: Nellie R. and Clara B.
both died in childhood; Myrta P. is the
wife of George W. Ingersoll, of this sketch;
and Clarence D., born Sept. 11, 1876, is
engaged in farming on the parental estate in Elyria
Township; he married, first, Gertrude
Burlingame, who bore him one child, Mary
Gladys, and for his second wife he married
Margaret Tanswell. The second union
was prolific of three children: Marian, who
died at the age of two years; and Inez and
Thelma, both living, in 1915.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page
837 |
|
HENRY
W. INGERSOLL.
The family to which this prominent and old
established attorney of Elyria belongs is one of the
very oldest in Lorain County, where it was founded
almost a century ago by his great--grandfather,
Maj. William Ingersoll who came from Berkshire
County, Massachusetts, and was the first of the name
to penetrate the wilderness which then prevailed
over Grafton Township, with whose history and
development the subsequent generations of the
Ingersoll family have been so closely
identified. Mr. Ingersoll still owns
part of the ancestral domain in Grafton Township, a
place that had been developed and owned for many
years by his grandfather, William Ingersoll,
and which was the birthplace of his father,
George M. Ingersoll as well a his own place of
birth. Of these well known characters of
successive periods in the history of Grafton
Township, further information is supplied on other
pages of this work.
Born on the old Ingersoll farm, a son of
George M. and Mary (Preston) Ingersoll, Henry W.
Ingersoll had a rural environment for his youth,
attended the public schools of Elyria, and received
his higher education in the University of Michigan,
partly in the literary department, and in the full
course of the law school from which latter he was
graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in
1885. Mr. Ingersoll has been engaged
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1885.
Mr. Ingersoll has been engaged in practice at
Elyria since 1886, his first partner having been
Lester McLean who in 1891 left Elyria and
removed to Denver Colorado. In July, 1903,
Mr. Ingersoll formed a partnership with Frank
A. Stetson, who is now assistant prosecuting
attorney of Lorain County, and their relations were
continued until Sept. 1, 1910. In October,
1912, Mr. Ingersoll became associated with
R. F. Vandemark, under the firm name of
Ingersoll & Vandemark, and this firm continued
until Oct. 1, 1915, since which time Mr.
Ingersoll has maintained his practice of law
alone, with offices in the Masonic Temple.
Mr. Ingersoll has taken an active part in
Masonry, being affiliated with King Solomon
Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Marshall Chapter,
Royal Arch Masons, Elyria Council, Royal and Select
Masters, and Elyria Commandery, Knights Templar, and
was a local citizen who procured the site for the
Masonic Temple Building and was first president of
the Masonic Temple Company. He belongs also to
the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, the Elyria
Automobile Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce
and the Tippecanoe Club, of Cleveland.
In the course of his long practice as a lawyer, Mr.
Ingersoll has acquired varied and important
interests and is first vice president of The Elyria
Savings and Banking Company, secretary and director
of The Machine Parts Company, chairman of the board
of directors of The Elyria Enameled Products
Company, a director of The Lorain County Savings and
Loan Company, the Fay Stocking Company, The Elyria
Knitting Company, the Home Land Company and the
Citizens Building Company, secretary and director of
The Parts Realty Company and president of the
Cadillac Veneer Company, of Cadillac, Michigan, and
is officially identified with a number of other
corporations. For many years he has been
treasurer and one of the trustees of the Elyria
Library and for more than thirty years has been
active in the First Congregational Church, having
held several of the church offices and also serving
as superintendent of the Sunday School.
Mrs. Ingersoll before her marriage was May
Belle Hamilton, a native of Berea, Ohio, and a
daughter of Leonard G. and Cassandra M. Hamilton.
Their children are: Mary Cassandra, who
graduated from Elyria High School in 1909, spent one
year at Maryland College for Women, Lutherville,
Maryland, and graduated from Oberlin Kindergarten
Training School in 1912, and now lives with her
parents; and Henry Walter, who is now
attending the public schools of Elyria.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 738 |
|
CHARLES
MANNING IRISH. During a
period of nearly thirty years Charles Manning
Irish has been identified with the business and
financial interests of Lorain, and while he now
gives the greater part of his attention to banking
matters, in his capacity of secretary and treasurer
of the Lorain Banking Company, he is still
interested in the general merchandise store which he
opened on first coming to Lorain and of which he is
half owner. It has been his fortune to have
contributed to the making of financial and
commercial history here during several decades, and
in this time he has always maintained a high
reputation for strict fidelity and integrity which
has made him the repository of a number of public
trusts.
Mr. Irish was born Sept. 14, 1862, at
Pittsfield, Lorain County, Ohio and is a son of
Charles and Jane (Ware) Irish, his father being
a blacksmith and farmer. The public schools of
his native community supplied him with his early
educational training, and as a youth he adopted the
vocation of farming, an occupation which he followed
for some seven or eight years, or until coming to
Lorain, in 1886. Here he joined the business
colony as the proprietor of a small general store
which proved successful from the start, the young
merchant seeming to possess just those attributes
and characteristics which attract prosperity in any
line. Courteous, enterprising, ambitious and
industrious, he built up an excellent trade.
Having succeeded so well in his initial venture,
Mr. Irish was encouraged to enter a different
line, and accordingly opened a grocery store in
which he now owns a half interest.
The Lorain Banking Company was organized in September,
1905, with a capital of $125,000,its first officers
being: Capt. Richard Thew, president;
Orville Root, first vice-president; L. M.
Moore, second vice-president; and E. M.
Pierce, secretary and treasurer. Its
officers in 1915 are the same, with the exception of
Charles M. Irish, secretary and treasurer
with Irven Roth as assistant secretary and
treasurer. The capital remains as $125,000,
but the institution at this time has surplus and
undivided profits of $10,000, and deposits of
$500,000. The new banking house is a handsome
three-story brick edifice, 28 by 120 feet, including
the banking rooms, offices and apartments, and the
institution, which pays 4 per cent on savings, is
considered one of the strong, substantial and
conservative concerns of northern Ohio.
Mr. Irish is a director of the National Bank of
Commerce of Lorain and is variously interested in
other ventures. As a citizen he has taken an
active part in public affairs, having been elected
county treasurer in 1905 and serving two terms
beginning from 1906. He has been a member of
the city council for a long period, and for fifteen
years a member of the school board, and in the
latter body served four years as president, until
his resignation. His public life has been
characterized by the same fidelity to duty and
unswerving integrity that have made notable and
successful his personal affairs. fraternally,
Mr. Irish
is a thirty-second degree Mason
and belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees and the
Knights of Pythias.
On Feb. 9, 1887, Mr. Irish was united in
marriage with Miss Florence Baker, of Kipton,
Lorain County, Ohio, and to this union there have
been born four children: Blanch Irene, Ruth
Marie, Glenn Marion and
Warren Baker.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page
1024 |
Mr. & Mrs.
Andrew J. Jackson |
ANDREW J. JACKSON
Source: A Standard History of
Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick Wright
- Publ. 1916 - Page 974 |
|
JOHN
BLAINE JOHNSON is general
manager of the Lorain County Electric Company, which
as the result of concentration and consolidation now
has an immense plant supplying electrical energy for
lightning and power purposes to all quarters of
Lorain County and even beyond the county limits.
He is one of a staff of expert electrical engineers who
have grown up in the service of the extensive public
utility corporation known as Henry L. Doherty
and Company of New York City. In his work
Mr. Johnson has been associated with the Denver
Gas and Electric Light Company at Denver, Colorado;
the Fremont Gas, Electric Light and Power Company of
Fremont, Nebraska; the Massillon Electric and Gas
Company of Massillon, Ohio, and the Lorain County
Electric Company, all of which are subsidiaries of
the Cities Service Company, operated by the Doherty
corporation.
Mr. Johnson was born at Marathon, Iowa, Dec. 17,
1884, a son of Charles X. and Hulda A. Johnson.
He received his preliminary training in the grade
and high schools at Hot Springs, South Dakota, where
his parents still reside. In 1909 he graduated
bachelor of science in the electrical engineering
course of the University of Nebraska, and starting
at the bottom in his profession has rapidly advanced
to his present place of responsibility.
His first practical experience after leaving the
university was as a cadet engineer performing all
kinds of work from rough labor to office July, 1909,
and in December, 1910, was transferred to Fremont,
Nebraska, as distribution superintendent in charge
of the rebuilding of gas and electric distribution
system. In May, 1912, Mr. Johnson was
transferred from Fremont to Massillon, Ohio, as
superintendent of the Massillon Electric and Gas
Company. In March, 1914, the company sent him
to Elyria as superintendent of the property now
included in the Lorain County Electric Company, and
he was made general manager of this extensive
business in September, 1915.
Mr. Johnson is a republican, a member of the
Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, and while in college belonged to the
Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and is a member of the
Phi Gamma Delta Club of New York City.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 846 |
PHOTO
Ray D. Johnson
Cora I. Johnson |
RAY D.
JOHNSON. To no one
class does Lorain County owe more of its wealth and
strength and prosperity than to the agriculturist.
While the county as a whole has a well diversified
development, many industries and productive
resources, it is the farms taken in the aggregate
which furnish the great bulk of material for the
well being of its inhabitants. One of the
present generation of progressive farmers is Ray
D. Johnson whose home is about a mile and a half
east of LaGrange postoffice in LaGrange Township.
The energy and enterprise which he has furnished as a
propelling force in his own career and by which he
has rendered his best service to the community are
well indicated by the fact that when he was about
sixteen years of age he and his brother contracted
for the purchase of eighty acres of land. He
worked steadily, denied himself all luxuries, and he
did not finish paying out his share on that land
until he was twenty-nine years of age. He kept
his interest in this farm for a number of years.
He represents pioneer stock in Lorain County, and was
born on the Johnson homestead a mile
and three-quarters south of LaGrange May 10, 1867, a
son of George D. and Adaline (Luce) Johnson.
His father was also born on the Johnson homestead in
LaGrange Township October 4, 1836. The grandparents
were Nathaniel and Rhoda (Crowner) Johnson.
Nathaniel Johnson was born at Watertown, New
York, and came from that locality at a very early
day, long before railroads were built into Ohio.
With a team of oxen and a wagon he made the journey
to Lorain County, being six weeks en route, and
located in the midst of the woods a mile and
three-quarters south of LaGrange Village. He
paid about $3 an acre for 160 acres, and at one time
owned 178 acres in that vicinity. At the time
of his settlement there were only three or four
other families in the entire township. His
energy enabled him to clear up much of his land, and
he died there when about sixty-four years of age,
while his wife lived to be almost eighty-eight.
George D. Johnson, father of Ray D., grew
to manhood on the old farm, had a common school
education to start with, and lived to enjoy
contentment and prosperity in his later years.
He was a republican and a member of the Baptist
Church. Of six children, five grew up, and the
three now living are: Flora, wife of
Durell Battles of Wellington; Ray D.;
and Lucy, wife of Gideon Leiby
of LaGrange.
Ray D. Johnson also spent his boyhood on the old
farm south of LaGrange, and made his first
independent venture in the manner already related.
He spent most of his years at home until nineteen,
earning considerable money working for others.
After becoming established as a result of his hard
and persistent labor he was married on Oct. 28,
1896, to Miss Cora Swartz.
Mrs. Johnson was born on the home where
she and her husband now reside Oct. 23, 1871, a
daughter of Jacob and Hannah (Purdy) Swartz.
Her father was a native of Wuertemberg, Germany,
coming to America at the age of two years with his
parents, Frederick and Catherine (Metzgar) Swartz,
who settled on a farm near Liverpool in Medina
County. Jacob Swartz grew up in
Medina County and when about thirty-five years of
age married Miss Purdy, who was born
at Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, and had
come to Medina County at the age of eight years.
Mr. and Mrs. Swartz after their marriage moved
to their farm near LaGrange, where Mr. Swartz
acquired 112 acres of land, and where he spent the
rest of his years. There were five children in
the Swartz family, and the two now
living are Mrs. Johnson and her
brother Don A., who also lives in LaGrange
Township.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have nine children:
Walter, born Mar. 18, 1898; Lola L., born
Sept. 6, 1899, and now in the freshman class of the
LaGrange High School; Erwin L., born Sept.
28, 1900; Everett Leland, born Dec.
17, 1901; Harvey W., born Feb. 22, 1903;
Harland, born Dec. 11, 1905; Letha, born
Jan. 25, 1907; Russell F., born Jan. 28,
1911; and Flora I., born Jan. 5, 1916.
In politics Mr. Johnson is an independent.
Source: A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio
Vol. II - Publ. 1916 - Page 916 |
E. M. Johnston |
MRS.
ELCIE M. JOHNSTON.
Not so many years ago it was considered the proper
attitude to assume that women had, as a sex, not
been generously endowed with what is termed, a
"business" sense. Idealists were ready to
acknowledge their many other admirable qualities,
their beauty, grace and charm, their helpful
sympathy and their natural virtues, but neither they
nor the whole body of mankind could belief that
behind all these qualities and attributes, existed
the talent, and the good, hard, practical
commonsense that, in more recent days, has been
shown in womanly achievement. No better nor
more convincing example may be cited than that
afforded by the success which has been won by
Miss Elcie M. Johnston, the president, owner and
director of the Elyria Business College, at Elyria,
Ohio. The original undertaking was one of
magnitude, requiring courage, diplomacy and
foresight, and with the keenest of business
intelligence she has conducted the enterprise to its
present prosperous condition.
Miss Johnston was born near Detroit, Michigan.
That she was an unusually apt pupil in the public
schools may be inferred because of her early
completion of the course, being creditably graduated
when only sixteen years of age. In making
plans for her future, Miss Johnston
considered one useful career after another,
hesitating for a time between that of a trained
nurse and a teacher. Finally, deciding to
become an educator, she accepted, shortly afterward,
a position in the county schools. She proved
entirely acceptable to the school board, but her
observation soon inclined her to the belief that
commercial teaching offered better opportunities for
advancement, and, being frankly ambitious, in the
following year she entered a commercial college and
completed the business course and afterward became a
teacher in the college from which she was graduated.
After experience as a commercial teacher, Miss
Johnston realized that a course in business
experience would be one of the most helpful
assistants in the line of work to which she had
committed herself, therefore she accepted an office
position in which she rendered service as a
stenographer for two and one-half years for one of
the largest manufacturing firms in the state.
During this time not only her days but her evenings
were busy for she taught night classes in the Y. M.
C. A. and in a business college, additionally having
private pupils. After resigning the above
mentioned office position, she still further
advanced her own education, taking a special
teacher's course in the Gem City Business College,
which school has probably the largest annual
attendance of any business college in the world.
Upon the completion of this special course of study,
Miss Johnston was offered a responsible
position as private secretary to the manager of a
large electrical corporation. She continued
with that corporation for two years, when, through
the death of the president of the company the Boston
and New York offices were consolidated and Miss
Johnston returned to her native city.
During this business connection she had learned much
concerning the methods of conducting a large
business enterprise and had inevitably, because of
her natural quickness of mind, added largely to her
general knowledge.
Upon her return to Detroit, Miss Johnston
accepted a position which gave her charge of the
Actual Business Section of the Shorthand department
in the largest business college in the city, and her
previous business and teaching experience made her
services very valuable. From this college she
subsequently went to a still more responsible
position, becoming teacher, storekeeper and private
secretary to the superintendent of the state
industrial school. While the arduous duties
and close confinement of this position somewhat
impaired her health and caused her subsequently to
resign, she has always felt that the experience was
a very valuable one because of the opportunity it
gave her of studying human nature, as every
nationality and type came under her personal
observation. Later she was identified with a
company manufacturing special machinery for all
purposes, and here, again, her time was not lost,
for, possessing a natural interest in the wonderful
devices that go under the name of machinery, she
studied machines at first hand. In later years
many of her graduate students have expressed their
gratitude on account of the unusual information she
has been competent to give on many other than that
pertaining to business methods and acquirements.
For many years prior to 1901, when Miss Johnston
came to Elyria, she had cherished the hope of
eventually owning her own school. This
ambition she satisfied when she became the owner of
the Elyria Business College, which was incorporated
in 1900 and of which Miss Johnston is
president. This institution stands for all
that is most helpful and progressive in this line of
endeavor. While she has been marvelously
successful, she has met with some serious
discouragements, one of these being a conflagration
in which the Elyria Block was burned, in which the
entire equipment belonging to the college was
destroyed. Informing and interesting is the
following quotation from a letter to Miss
Johnston, from Albert R. Green, secretary
of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce about this time.
"It is my pleasure, on behalf of the Elyria Chamber of
Commerce, to commend your college and its management
for their energy as manifested by the manner in
which your college was rehabilitated after the total
loss you sustained by the recent destruction of the
Elyria Block by fire. To have secured new
quarters and refitted them with even temporary
facilities in such a short time (one day) and to
have restored the classes to their usual studies
under such trying circumstances, speaks volumes for
the efficiency of your college and can not help but
energize the working spirit of your recruits into
the ranks of business." As indicated, Miss
Johnston found a new location before the fire
was extinguished, picnic tables, pine boards and
boxes with new typewriters making up the equipment.
These rooms being inadequate were occupied by The
Elyria Business College but two months when the
classes moved to the present building which had been
purchased, remodeled and enlarged immediately after
the fire. The new college building is situated
on Second Street, Elyria, and is unique in that it
is the only private school in Ohio housed in a
building belonging to the school owner, unoccupied
by other tenants and the only business college and
building in the United States owned and managed by a
woman. Miss Johnston is well known
among private school owners as the one woman in the
profession who owns and manages her own building and
also a fully accredited business school, this
college being a member of the National Accredited
Schools Association.
On many occasions Miss Johnston has been
signally honored. As a member of the National
Commercial Teachers Federation, admiration,
confidence and esteem was shown her by election to
office, serving three successive years as a member
of the executive committee; as vice president of the
School Managers' Section, and at the convention of
the federation held at the Sherman Hotel, in
Chicago, in December, 1914, she was not only
reelected a member of the executive committee from
the Managers' Section, but was elected also second
vice president of the entire association, and during
the convention held in Chicago during Christmas
week, 1915, was elected first vice president.
As the federation is composed of the best schools in
the United States and as more than 700 members were
present, this distinction was creditable to Elyria
and a recognition of the standards maintained by
Miss Johnston in her college. An
exceedingly interesting feature of the above
convention was the fine address made by Miss
Johnston, who took for her subject. "The Woman
in Business." The 1914 convention was reported
as being the most successful in the history of the
association in that recognition was secured from the
Educational Bureau at Washington and a committee
appointed to secure Educational Bureau at Washington
and a committee appointed to secure an appropriation
for the establishment of a Bureau of Commercial
Education.
It would be unjust to close this too brief sketch of
this able woman's success in business, without
giving a glimpse of the womanly side of her
character in which she is seen to possess all the
admirable attributes of her sex. In each
student who comes under her care, she sees a
potential future and, with perceptions quickened by
experience, she is able to judge of capacity,
earnestness and probable success along one or
another line of study. Her helpfulness, her
interest and sympathy have been appreciated and by
the yearly increasing body of successful graduates
of her school, she was universally held in high
esteem. While she has become a factor to be
counted on in the business world, she is still
feminine to the core and when it comes to family
affection, womanly sympathy and social service.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 596 |
Paul Milton Johnston, Sr. |
PAUL
MILTON JOHNSTON, SR.
Although thirty-five years have passed since the
death of Paul Milton Johnston, a record of
his life is worthy of a place in any history of the
community of Lorain County. One of the early
school teachers of this vicinity he was also engaged
in business and agricultural ventures, and
throughout a life of industry and usefulness held
the confidence and warm record of those with whom he
was brought into contact in any capacity.
Mr. Johnston was born at Shelby, Orleans County,
New York, Apr. 12, 1827, and died at Grafton, Lorain
County, Ohio, Nov. 28, 1880. He was a son of
Thomas and Susanna (Cleveland) Johnston,
pioneers of the Western Reserve of Ohio, of whom
separate mention is extensively made in another part
of this work. In 1832 Mr. Johnston
moved with his parents to Ohio, settling at
Brunswick, Medina County, on a farm, and in
November, 1838, came to Lorain County, the family
locating on land on the east branch of the Black
River, about one mile south of Grafton. There
the father erected a log house and planted an
orchard, and there the sons were brought up to
agricultural pursuits. Paul M. Johnston
worked on the old home farm until attaining his
majority, and in the meantime secured such
educational training as was afforded by the pioneer
schools. He qualified as a teacher and for
several years was in charge of schools in his
locality, but subsequently engaged as a drover in
company with his brother Charles, with whom
he made a tour of the states of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois and Wisconsin.
On Christmas eve, 1857, Mr. Johnston was married
at LaGrange, Ohio, to Maria Hicks Obitts, who
was born at Antwerp, Jefferson County, New York,
Apr. 17, 1834, a daughter of Jacob and Betsey
(Gillett) Obitts. Not long after his
marriage Mr. Johnston engaged in the general
merchandise business with George Robbins, Freeman
Sheldon and Lionel Sheldon, but about
1860 moved to Liverpool, Medina County, Ohio, and
there with George W. Noble became the founder
of an iron foundry. Mr. Johnston was a
man of phenomenal strength and at various times it
was his pleasure to show his prowess in this
direction to his friends. While living at
Liverpool, on one occasion he made a wager that he
could carry a hog for a quarter of a mile, a task
which was accomplished by him, but which soon cost
him dearly, as within the next few days he was
stricken with apoplexy, from the effects of which he
never fully recovered sufficiently to do ordinary
work. About 1864 he disposed of his interests
in the iron foundry and purchased a farm in Grafton
Township, Lorain County, near Kingsby's Corners, in
1869 trade this for another farm, located on the
Black River about one-quarter of a mile from the
original place on which his father had settled.
Here he lived in comparative comfort and happiness
for several years, but Aug. 12, 1875, his wife died
after only a few weeks of illness, during which the
devoted husband nursed her night and day, and really
wrecked his own health which had not been any too
strong. His constitution was hearty, however
and undoubtedly he would have recovered had he made
the effort, but the death of his wife, of whom he
was fond beyond the average nature of conjugal love,
caused him to lose interest in life, and while he
survived her for five year, it was ever his
expressed wish that he go to join her. To add
to his troubles, in the next winter, at LaGrange,
whence he had gone to live for a year after leasing
the home farm, he slipped upon the icy streets and
fractured the cap of his knee in three places, which
rendered him a cripple for life. In the
following year he moved back to the farm, but was
dependent upon his sons, William and
Charles, for all the work in the fields, and
upon his daughter Helena, for the care of the
house. In 1879 he sold his farm and bought a
property at Grafton, and there the remaining year of
his life was passed.
There were four children in the family, namely:
W. B., who is a practicing attorney at
Elyria; Mrs. Helena M. Rawson, who died at
LaGrange in September, 1914; Capt. Charles E.,
of Washington, D. C.; and
Paul M. Jr.,
of Elyria, of whom special mention is made in
following sketch. The children were all
educated in the schools of Lorain County and Capt.
Charles E. is a graduate of Elyria High School and
the military academy at Annapolis; while Helena
was a graduate of the Grafton High School; and
Paul M. completed his studies at the LaGrange
High School.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 746 |
|
PAUL
MILTON JOHNSTON, JR.
One of the beneficent institutions of Lorain County,
the founding of which was regarded with general
satisfaction by members of the bar, as well as by
people interested in the welfare of children, and
the importance and value of which has become more
and more recognized as the years have passed, is the
Lorain County Juvenile Court, which under the
administration of its officers has proved a
triumphant success, vindicating the faith of its
projectors and realizing the hopes of the humane men
and women who had called it into being. Since
April, 1913, one of the leading contributors to the
success of this court has been Paul Milton
Johnston, Jr., who bears the title of Chief
Probation Officer, and who has labored energetically
and disinterestedly in behalf of the welfare of the
youthful charges placed in his care.
Mr. Johnston was born at Grafton, Lorain County,
Ohio, June 9, 1875, and is a son of Paul M. and
Maria Hicks (Obitts) Johnston, whose histories
furnished subject matter for another sketch to be
found elsewhere in this work. Mr. Johnston's
mother died when he was about two months old and at
that time he was taken into the family of his aunt,
Mrs. Julius Beeman Gott, of LaGrange, Ohio.
He grew up at that place and attended the public
schools, and was graduated in 1890, following which
he took a commercial course at Caton's Business
College, Cleveland. On his return to LaGrange,
h secured employment in a general merchandise store,
where he earned the reputation of being faithful,
industrious and energetic. An odd coincidence
is found in the fact that this store was located on
the identical site of the one in which Mr.
Johnston's father had commenced business many
years before. In 1908, with associates, Mr.
Johnston incorporated the LaGrange Elevator
Company, with which he was identified until April,
1913. while at LaGrange he had served in the
capacity of councilman, corporation clerk and
township clerk, having been first elected to the
last named office when he was but twenty-one years
of age and continuing to hold it as long as he
remained at LaGrange. He came to Elyria in
April, 1913, when he received the appointment of
chief probation officers from Judge H. C. Wilcox
of the Juvenile Court, a position in which he has
won the universal regard of the community because of
the work he has accomplished for the youth of the
county.
Mr. Johnston is a member of LaGrange Lodge No.
399, Free and Accepted Masons, as well as the
Chapter and Council at Elyria; and the Modern
Woodmen of America, Camp No. 7729, of LaGrange.
with his family, he belongs to the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
Mr. Johnston was married June 15, 1898, to
Miss Hattie Electa Underhill, daughter of
Hon. A. R. and Sophronia (Sweet) Underhill.
Mrs. Johnston was born at LaGrange, a member of
that city's old and honored family of Underhill, her
father now being mayor of the city. She
received good educational advantages, being a
graduate of the LaGrange High School. Mrs.
Johnston is not a clubwoman, preferring her home
to outside connections, but is a member of the Order
of the Eastern Star, and is active in religious work
of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, in which
she belongs to several societies. Two children
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnston:
Wilma, born at LaGrange, and Paul M. III,
born at Elyria.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 747 |
|
THOMAS
JOHNSTON.
In the history of Lorain County, a name that appears
frequently is that of Johnston, the members
of this family having borne honored parts in
professional, business, military, public and civic
life. This family was founded here as early as
1838 by Thomas Johnston, now long since
deceased, but whose descendants still represent the
family honorably and bear evidence of the possession
of the sturdy qualities of this old pioneer.
Thomas Johnston was born at Palmerston (Wilton,
Saratoga County, New York, Aug. 30, 1777, and was a
son of Peter and Susannah (Johnson) Johnston.
His father was born at Lockerby, Annandale,
Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1735, and in 1773
applied for and received a certificate of good
character signed by the magistrate of the borough of
Lochmaben, in the same year taking his wife and
children and starting for America. Embarking
at Dumfries, they were carred in safety to the new
country, the vessel duly making port at New York,
from whence Peter Johnston took his family to
Palmerston, Saratoga County, New York, which
township afterwards was renamed Wilton. This
was a newly-settled community, and the new arrivals
were forced to face many hardships and overcome
numerous obstacles. The heavy timber with
which the tract was covered was cleared, cut into
logs and made into rafts, and these were floatd down
to Troy, Albany and New York City. When the
Revolutionary war broke out Peter Johnston
first joined a company of Minute Men for the
protection of the home community, but afterward
enlisted in the Thirteenth Regiment of Albany County
militia, known as Col. Cornelius Van Veghten's
Regiment, and served as private in Capt. Ephraim
Woodworth's Company. When his military
service was completed, Peter Johnston
returned to his Saratoga County farm and there
passed the remaining years of his life in the
development of a home, dying at Wilton, New York,
Sept. 13, 1798, aged sixty-three years. He was
twice married, first in 1763 to Jane Mundle,
by whom he had a son and a daughter, Andrew
and Elizabeth. She died about 1771 and
a year later he married Susannah Johnson,
born in Scotland, and died at Wilton, New York, Dec.
29, 1787, daughter of Archibald Johnson.
They became the parents of four children: Jane,
Thomas, Nancy and Mary. Peter Johnston
and his wife Susannah were buried in the
cemetery near Emerson's Corners, at Wilton.
Thomas Johnston
passed his boyhood on the home farm near Mount
McGregor, New York, and received his early education
in the common schools. It was the desire of
his father that he became a minister, and he was
sent away to be educated, but the youth did not
finish the course nor did he adopt the calling,
although to the end of his life he was ever ready to
uphold his views in regard to religious topics, and
was willing even to neglect his work to expound his
theological doctrines to whomsoever should bring the
subject up. His father was a devout
Presbyterian, but early in life Thomas
concluded from his researches that baptism by
immersion was the only true form, and accordingly
identified himself with the Baptist Church, although
he did not become a professed member thereof for
many years.
In 1800 Thomas Johnston was married to Lucy
Benedict, daughter of Elisha and Thankful
(Gregory) Benedict, of Northumberland, New York,
and settled in that vicinity, where a son was born
to them the next year, but both mother and child
died within a few days, the former Aug. 4, 1801.
Later Mr. Johnston moved to Fairfield,
Franklin County, Vermont, where he married
Susanna Cleveland, daughter of Stephen and
Polly (Goodin) Cleveland. She was born at
Bennington, Vermont, Oct. 2, 1781, and was a member
of a family the descendants of which have spread all
over the country and have become prominent in every
walk of life. The founder of this family in
America, Moses Cleveland, is supposed to have
been born in 1624, and came from Ipswich, Suffolk,
England, to Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1635, as n
indentured apprentice to a housewright. He
became a freeman in 1643 and was married Sept. 16,
1648, to Annie Winn, who bore him eleven
children: Moses; Hannah; Aaron, the
direct ancestor of President Grover Cleveland;
Samuel; Miriam; Joanna; Edward; Josiah, the
ancestor of Gen. Moses Cleveland, founder of
the City of Cleveland, Ohio; Isaac; Joanna
(2) and Enoch. Susanna (Cleveland) Johnston
was in the sixth generation of the family in
America.
Some time after his second marriage, Thomas Johnston
bought a tract of land in Vermont, adjoining
Fairfield, and settled there with his bride, but in
1804, being pressed for deferred payments on this
property, disposed of it in order to save his
improvements and bought a piece of land in
Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont, where he
resided until 1811. In that year he moved to
Oneida County, New York, and while he was residing
in that locality witnessed the outbreak of the War
of 1812 and enlisted in Capt. Earl Fillmore's
company of Colonel Stone's regiment, New York
militia. He served with that organization for
188 days as a private, and after his death his widow
drew a pension for this service. In 1822
Mr. Johnston removed to Leyden, Lewis County,
New York, and after three years made removal with
his family to Shelby, Orleans County, New York,
where he purchased a fine property on Maple Ridge,
not farm from Millville.
In 1832 the Johnston family started for the
Western Reserve of Ohio, taking pasage
passage on a canal boat to Buffalo and sailing
thence by steamer to Cleveland, Ohio, where they
embarked in two wagons, thus traveling to Brunswick,
Medina County, Ohio, where they settled on a farm.
In November, 1838, they made another removal,
this time into the adjoining county of Lorain, where
they settled on a farm on the east branch of the
Black River, about a mile south of Grafton, which
was then known as Rawsonville. They were among
the pioneers of that locality, where they built a
log house and planted an orchard, but after their
children were all married the parents sold the farm,
and it has since changed hands several times.
Thomas Johnston died July 22, 1858, at the
home of his son, Paul M., at LaGrange, Ohio,
whence he had moved at the time of his retirement,
while the mother survived him until July 19, 1873,
and passed away near the old homestead. They
were buried side by side in the cemetery three miles
east of LaGrange, where a substantial monument marks
the resting-place of these two sturdy old pioneers.
They were the parents of twelve children, namely:
Polly M., who married Theodore Perkins;
Peter B.; Stephen C.; Lucy B., who
married Horace Perkins; William L.; Betsey
M., Drew M; Betsey M. (2), who married Elihu
F. Terrell; Sarah J., who married Sanford
Thorp; Lois Ann Miller, who married first
David Gregory, and second Virgil H. Worden;
Charles W.; and
Paul Milton.
All of these children are now deceased.
Source: A Standard History
of Lorain County, Ohio - Vol. II by G. Frederick
Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 744 |
NOTES: |