JOSEPH
WARD PALMER. The subject of this sketch, who is one
of the representative farmers of Washington township, has spent
his entire life in Richland county, his birth having occurred in
Franklin township July 24, 1841. His father, Charles S.
Palmer, was a native of London, England, and a son of
John E. Palmer, who died when Charles S. was only
three years old, leaving considerable property. In his
family were three children, - John E., Charles S. and
William.
The father of our subject completed
his education at the age of sixteen years, and for the following
two years he was employed in a bank as a collector. He
then acted as a collector and bookkeeper for his guardian, who
was an auctioneer. In 1819 he and his brother, John E.,
came to the new world and the same year located in Mansfield,
Ohio, boarding for three months at the Wiler House, which
was then a log structure. They brought with them a stock
of dry goods, expecting to engage in mercantile business, but
finding no favorable opening sold the stock to E. P. Sturges.
In 1820 Charles S. Palmer purchased a tract of one
hundred and sixty acres of wild land, at a dollar and a quarter
an acre, and erected thereon a log house, in which he made his
home while clearing and breaking his land. Later he
erected a more substantial buildings and continued to make his
home in Weller township until 1856, when he purchased the farm
in Washington township upon which our subject now resides.
In 1821 he married Miss Annie Ward, and they had
twelve children, namely: Charles S., of Wyandot
county, who died at the age of seventy years; Francis, a
fruit grower of Davenport, Washington; Mary, who died at
the age of nineteen years; John E., of Wyandot county,
who died at the age of sixty-eighty; Elizabeth, the
deceased wife of Michael Depler, of Upper Sandusky, Ohio;
Fanny, the wife of David Hughes, of Weller township,
this county; Martha, the deceased wife of Henry
Gallady, also of Weller township; Amanda, the
deceased wife of William Watson, of Iowa; Phoebe J.,
the wife of Robert Hughes, of Weller township; Henry
G., a resident of Mansfield; Joseph W., our subject;
and Anna M., the wife of Jacob Gallady, of
New Lisbon, Ohio. Eleven of the twelve children lived to
be over fifty years of age. None of the five sons used
tobacco or drank intoxicating liquors, and were well worthy of
the high regard in which they were uniformly held.
The first fourteen years of his life Joseph W.
Palmer passed in his native township, and then accompanied
the family on their removal of Washington township, where he has
since made his home. He received a good practical
education in the high school of Mansfield and the Normal School
at Bucyrus, and at the age of nineteen years commenced teaching,
a profession which he successfully followed through the winter
months from 1860 to 1870, while during the summer season he
engaged in farming. In the latter year he purchased his
present farm of seventy acres in Washington township, which is
conveniently located three miles from Mansfield. Since
then he has given his attention principally to farming, and
since January, 1896, has also acted as agent for the State
Grange Insurance Company in Richland county.
Mr. Palmer's wife was formerly Miss Mary
Kelso, a daughter of William Kelso, a druggist of
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Jane Knox Kelso, a sister of
John and Wilson Knox of this county. Miss Kelso
was a teacher and for a number of years previous to her marriage
was employed in the public schools of Lexington. Their
children are Grace and Alice, both graduates of
the Mansfield high school and teachers in the city; Charles,
an employe in Tracy & Avery's wholesale house; Fred, who
graduated at the high school in 1900 and is now teaching in
Washington township; Edward, who is still in school; and
William who died in infancy.
Mr. Palmer was in the one-hundred-day service
during the Civil war, enlisting as a private in May, 1864, in
Company E, One Hundred and Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
With his command he went first to Washington, D. C., and from
there to Richmond and Appomattox, in Virginia. Politically
he is a supporter of the Republican party. In 1897 he was
appointed by the county commissioners as a trustee of the
Children's Home, and is now serving his second term of four
years in that capacity. For many years, Mr. Palmer
has been a consistent member of the Congregational church at
Mansfield, and he is also a member of the order of Patrons of
Husbandry.
 Source #4: A Centennial Biographical History of Richland Co., Ohio
- Publ: Mansfield by A. A., Graham & Co. - 1901
- Page 659 |
