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JOHNSON
FORD was born in Rensselaer county, New
York, June 9th, 1796. His father died when he was but eight years
old; his father was poor and had a large family, and consequently the most
of the children had to be bound out. Young Johnson was one of
them, but fortunately he found a good home, where he remained until he was
twenty-one years old, getting all his education while he was yet bound.
After he became of age he worked with his brother on a farm they had
bought, in the same county, for eight years, when he sold his interest in
the farm and married, and immediately removed to Venice township, Seneca
county, Ohio, he being the first settler in the township. He entered
a quarter section of land, upon a part of the which the village of Attica
now stands, and built one of the first log cabins, in the year 1828,
fifty-two years ago this June, 1880.
He helped to clear off the land and lay out the village
of Attica, giving it its name, having come from Attica, New York.
For several years he was engaged in clearing up his farm, and assisting in
building the Sandusky and Columbus turnpike, which was being built at that
time to develop the resources of the unbroken forest. He cleared the
first land, ploughed the first furrow, and raised the first wheat in
Venice township. He is in reality the pioneer of this township.
His wife died during the first year of his pioneer life from over exertion
and exposure, to which her constitution had not been accustomed, and she
failed from the trials incident to early life in the woods.
He returned to the state of New York and married again,
and returned to his new home, where he has lived to see the forest melt
away like the morning dew, and the ground to be cleared from all traces of
the old monarchs that formerly stood thickly over the face of the country,
the pride of all Americans.
Twelve years ago he sold his farm and retired from
active work, and now his means are invested in a large hardware store in
Attica, in the firm of Ford and Strandler, a son and son-in-law,
from which he derives his support at present.
He has always been an active, hard working, industrious
man. He has always been religiously inclined, having united with the
Presbyterians in his youth. For twenty-five years he conducted a
Sabbath school in Attica, the first and for many years the only one in the
township. He raised three children by his second wife - two
daughters and a son. One daughter is now living in Great Bend,
Kansas.
The wife of James W. Brown is the other
daughter.
Young Ford and Brown are partners in the
hardware store. Mr. Johnson Ford is wonderfully preserved,
having been born June 9th, 1796, which at present, July 22d, 1880, makes
him eighty-four years, one month and thirteen days, and from present
prospects, he is good for another decade. For the last ten years he
has received a second sight, being able at present to read fine print
without his glasses, a thing he was unable to do for thirty years.
The following sketches were kindly furnished by
Prof. S. McKetrick, of College Hill, Tiffin, Ohio:
History and literature are practically useful only so
far, and to such a degree, as they inspire those who read their pages to
aspire to the noble example they portray, whether it be in mental
discipline or physical execution. History should be nothing but
truthful facts, and therein differ from fiction. History is the
truth of the past. Fiction is fancy, and belongs neither to time or
place. The one is healthful and invigorating, the other weak and
debasing.
The page we present here shall be history. We
present this page not to relieve memory of its burden, but to recall deeds
and their actors, as we all love to do; to live again a few moments with
friends of the past; to be enlivened again by their association, though
they come but from memory, and from it I draw, the most hallowed
associations of my life, which were acted in Venice township.
The men who first impressed upon my mind the realities
of living, lived and toiled upon its soil. The one who ranks first
there was James D. Stevenson. I know little of his early
life. He was born in the state of Vermont; served as a soldier in
the latter part of the last war with Great Britain. A part of his
life was spent as a sailor upon our northern lakes. About the year
1838 he left a wife and five children and came to Ohio. He traveled
over the greater part of the state in search of a spot where he might make
a home in the new country.
He found, and entered into a contract with Mr.
Zachariah Betts for the farm, he owned until 1863. The contract
between the parties was that he should chop and clear one hundred acres of
land, and for this service he was to receive the full and free title for
the one hundred acres which he owned. All in the world he possessed
was a strong body and a willing heart. He earned his living by
threshing out grain with a flail by the light of a lantern. His
board bill was not extravagant, for he told me of many days of hard toil
with nothing to eat but batter, baked upon an iron griddle, and maple
syrup.
After such hard life for several years, he received the
title for his land, and has a few acres cleared and a log house upon it.
He then returned and removed his family (who knew nothing of his
whereabouts all these years of toil) to their new home in the west.
A few years of such severe toil and the deepest
privation and he has changed his forest to a beautiful farm, producing
abundance. But in those few years death has visited their circle and
taken his wife, and soon after, fire consumes his house and its contents,
save himself and children, but soon upon the ashes of that house is
built a better one, and his second wife makes cheerful its hearth.
Another farm is added to the first, and prosperity smiles on every effort.
About the year 1850 he commenced to shake with the
palsy. That strong frame was wrecked. It grew weaker and still
less able to battle with the realities it had known so well in life, and
fell to its last resting place in Ionia county, Michigan, in the spring of
1865.
In politics my subject was an Abolitionist, a
Republican and a true Union man during the dark days of the rebellion.
In religion he was a member of the Baptist church.
The hard circumstances through which he had past made
him a close dealer, though in money, weights and measures, strictly
honest. He was naturally noble, kind-hearted and true.
Source: History of Seneca County : from
the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield,
Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page 622 |
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THEODORE
M. FRINK,
ESQ. -
Among the few native Americans that live near New Riegel and have not yet
sold out to the Germans in Theodore M. Frink, Esq., the subject of this
sketch.
He was born in West Springfield, Hamden county,
Massachusetts, at a place where Holyoke City now stands, on the south bank
of the Connecticut river. When about 17 years old he moved with his
father to Northampton. On the 25th of April, 1832 he was married to
Miss Sabeah Torry, and in May, 1836, he started with his family for the
west. For want of any better conveyance they took a canal boat at
West Troy for Buffalo, and from there they came by steamer to Cleveland
and then made their way to Ravenna, Portage county, where a brother of his
wife then lived. This brother-in-law, Torry, had a son living in
Tymochtee, who had come home on a visit. With him Squire
Frink came
west in October of that year and bought the land where he still resides.
This took about all the money he had, and he made his way back to Ravenna,
one hundred and fifty miles, on foot. In January following he bought
a yoke of oxen, made a sled, put his wife and goods upon it and started
for Big Spring. Here he opened a farm, where he is now comfortably
situated. During all this time he has enjoyed the respect and esteem
of the good people of Big Spring to such an extent that for eight years he
served them as a trustee, and as justice of the peace ever since 1848.
What better proof can be required of his good report among his neighbors?
There is no man living in the township who stands better in the esteem of
its citizens than Squire Frink. His good counsel is
sought daily and he has saved many litigations by his good advice.
His first wife died on the 3d of February, 1855. He was married to
his present wife July 3, 1862. The Squire remains among his
neighbors as one of the olden school, and as the years increase, the
esteem of the people for his white head grows in proportion.
Source: History of Seneca County : from
the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield,
Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page 490 |
