Samuel Quinby

     QUINBY FAMILY.  Ephraim Quinby, practically the first settler and founder of Warren, was born in NEw Jersey, May 11, 1766.  He married Ammi Blackmore, at Brownsville, in 1795, and settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania; thence removed to Trumbull county in 1799, at which time the family consisted of three childen, Nancy, Samuel, and Abrilla.  Seven children were born in Warren  —Elizabeth, William, Mary G., James, Warren B., Ephraim, Jr., Charles A., and George.  Mr. Quinby during his lifetime was a man of considerable prominence in the community and acquired considerable wealth by the fortunate location of his land.  He served several years as associate judge of the common pleas court and took an active part in organizing the county.  His life was devoted chiefly to dealing in real
estate and farming.  His death occurred June 4, 1850.  Mrs. Amma Quinby died Mar. 16, 1833.  Four of the family are yet living—Nancy, wife of Joseph H. Larwell, Wooster, Ohio; Mary G. Spellman, Wooster, Ohio; Warren B., Warren, Ohio, and George, Wooster, Ohio.  Warren B. Quinby has always made his home in Warren.  He married in 1840 Rebecca Hixon, daughter of Timothy Hixon, who settled
here in 1812 on a farm, and died in 1868.  They have had two children, both dead–Ephraim and Amma Elizabeth.  Samuel Quinby, oldest son of Ephraim Quinby, was born in Pennsylvania, Nov. 27, 1794.  His name is first found in business annals in 1814, as a member of the firm of James White & Co., publishers of The Trump of Fame.  He was again connected with the paper from 1817 to 1819.
     Having received the appointment of receiver of moneys derived from the sale of United States public lands, Mr. Quinby removed to Wooster, Ohio, in 1819.  The land office for the district of Northwestern Ohio was then located at that place.  The office was abolished during Van Buren's administration and in 1840 Mr. Quinby returned to Warren.  While at Wooster he had been a candidate on the Whig ticket for Representative in Congress, but the district being Democratic he was defeated.  On returning to Warren he was chosen secretary and treasurer of the Ohio and Pennsylvania canal, which office he held several years.   Outside of official business Mr. Quinby was otherwise actively employed.  He dealt largely in real estate, and directed farming operations.  He was one of the original stockholders in the Western Reserve bank, as was also his father, and was elected to the directorship in 1817.  Considerable outside

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business, such as the settlement of estates in probate, was transacted by him.  Mr. Quinby was an active politician.  He served two terms in the Ohio Senate, first in 1844–45, and again in 1862–63.  He married at Steubenville, Dec. 30, 1819, Lucy Potter.  Two daughters by this marriage are living, Elizabeth (Stiles) and Abigail (Haymaker), both in Warren.  For his second wife he married Mrs. Emma B. Brown, Oct. 22, 1847.  George H. Quinby is the only son living.  Samuel Quinby died in Warren Feb. 4, 1874.  Mrs. Quinby remains a resident of Warren.
     Elizabeth Quinby, the daughter of Ephraim Quinby, Sr., was married to Dr. Heaton, of Warren.  She died in Warren.  William Quinby was recorder of Trumbull county a number of years and afterwards engaged in mercantile business in Warren, where he died.  James was also in trade in Warren, then removed to New Lisbon, where he died.  Ephraim, Jr., settled at Wooster, Ohio, being at the time of his death the wealthiest man in the place.  Charles A. died in Warren.

     HENRY LANE and FAMILY.
     Henry Lane's settlement in Warren was noted at the proper place, but no idea was there given of the man.  He was industrious  and thorough-going.  The first mill in Warren was built by him, and the first apple trees planted by him.  In company with most of the other first settlers, he was present at the Indian tragedy at Salt Springs, but was in no way responsible for that unfortunate affair. Mr. Lane represented Trumbull county in the Legislature four terms—1816 - 18 - 19 and 1826.  He was a man of extraordinary strength, which alone, in a new country, is a certificate to respectability.  It was claimed that he could whip anybody in the county, and when a bully advertised himself for a fight he always excepted Henry Lane.  He was considered an excellent man for the Legislature because of his strength.  But he had other claims to public confidence, being a good man and citizen.  His son Asa returned to Pennsylvania in 1820, and died there.  Henry Lane had two daughters - Catharine, who married John Tait, a Lordstown settler, and Annie, who married Samuel Phillips of Austintown.  John, Asa, and Benjamin were the three sons.  Benjamin Lane was born in Washington county, in 1785, and came with his parents to Warren in 1799.  The farm on which they settled is now owned by Henry J. Lane.  This farm consisted of one hundred and thirty acres.  He was married in 1841 to Hannah Cook, a native of England.  They raised a family of three children, viz: Henry J., born Feb. 11, 1843, married in 1866 Anna Murdock, and has a family of two children–Harry E. and Grace M.; Benjamin F., born May 3, 1850, married in 1879 Mary Ackley, of Bloomfield, and has one child—Lina, resides in Lordstown; Mary S., born Apr. 24, 1853, is married to Samuel Greiner, and resides in Lordstown.  Benjamin Lane engaged largely in buying and selling live stock, and driving them over the mountains to Philadelphia.  Mrs. Lane died in 1853, Mr. Lane in 1866.
     John Lane was born in Pennsylvania in 1793.  He married in Mansfield, Ohio, Mary Caldwell, and in 1821 removed from Mansfield, where he resided, to Trumbull county, and settled in Weathersfield and engaged in farming.  He finally removed to Warren, where he spent the balance of his life.  He died in 1854 in his sixty-second year.  His widow is still living, in her eighty-eighth year. 
     E. C. Lane, the oldest of the surviving children, was born in 1829, in Weathersfield.  He is an engineer by occupation, and is now employed in the Packard planing mill in Warren.

     JAMES L. VAN GORDER.  Few men, if any, have ever lived in Warren of greater energy of character or more effective activity of life than James L. VanGorder.   Some idea of the man is gained from a mere statement of the predominant fact of his life—the fact that notwithstanding heavy and embarrassing losses and with no other capital to start with than a strong, healthy body, indomitable perseverance and industry, united with a sound judgment, he accumulated an estate amounting to $125,000.
     James L. VanGorder was the son of Abram and Elizabeth VanGorder, and was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, Apr. 1, 1785.  He came to Warren at the age of about twenty years, and having a ready hand for almost any

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kind of work, had no difficulty in finding employment.  But he was not the kind of metal that hirelings are made of.  After a short time of service under Henry Lane in his mill and clearing, he began boldly and with perseverance an independent career.  In 1809 Mr. VanGorder married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Spear, who was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, Feb. 13, 1789.  Her parents having died she became a resident in the family of her grandparents, and came to Trumbull county with her uncle, John Prior, in the year 1805.  As was very common at that time the trip was made on horseback.  One hundred miles' journey would seem like a great task for a girl of sixteen, but it was lightened by exercise in that method of travel.  Mr. Prior settled a mile and a half s southwest of Warren.
     About two years after his marriage Mr. VanGorder removed to Suffield, Portage county, and engaged in milling on an extensive scale.  He ran a train of flour wagons to Cleveland harbor, and soon built up a business surpassing any of the kind on the Reserve, at that time.  In 1821 Mr. VanGorder returned with his family to Warren, having become interested in the mills of this place.  The upper dam and mill had been built by Henry Lane, and the lower mill by George Lovelace, the latter being just below the Market-street bridge.  (The present lower dam was built by Mr. VanGorder in 1838–39.  He built at the same time four of the locks in the canal adjoining, and made a mile of excavation.)  The control of both of these mills, in addition to two saw-mills, did not occupy his whole attention for any great length of time.  He purchased in 1828 the old Cotgreave house, more familiarly known as Castle William, and by get ting the stage office and stage patronage he soon made it the leading hotel in the place.  “Old Pavilion” was a familiar name among travelers, and especially among coachmen.  Seven stages passed through Warren daily, giving the “regulation tavern” a good patronage outside of irregular custom.  On the ground floor was a stage office, a bar-room, and a store; the second floor was used for bed-chambers, and the third for a dancing hall.  This was the same building in which John S. Edwards speaks in his letters of having attended balls. The house had under gone repairs, however.
     Mr. VanGorder was an extensive contractor on the Ohio and Pennsylvania canal, employing at one time as many as one hundred hands, fifty of whom were boarded at the “Pavilion.”  The completeness and thoroughness of his operations are shown by the fact that he had his own wagon maker shop, his own blacksmith shop, his own tavern to board his men, and his own mills to grind the flour for their bread; and further than this, raised some of the wheat which was ground into flour.  Mrs. VanGorder superintended all the cooking and baking, which was no light task, for dinners for the laborers had to be sent to their place of work.  Anyone who has had any experience, even in a small way, of preparing food to be eaten in that way will readily appreciate the task of thus making dinners for fifty masons and shovelers.
     One of the upper mills burned in October, 1845, but was rebuilt as quickly as was possible.  In the great conflagation in June, 1846, the old Pavilion tavern was reduced to ashes.  Before a year had elapsed, a block containing six stores stood in its place.  This block was in turn consumed in 1854, but before the living flames had exhausted their food, a contract had been signed for rebuilding the entire block.  The second block was again partially destroyed in 1860.  During the five years preceding the five of 1854, and including that conflagration, Mr. VanGorder's losses by fire, and his losses as surety, for which he had obligated himself to a large amount, aggregated over $34,000, yet he never permitted himself to be embarrassed, depending upon industry to regain what he lost through misfortune.
     He was characteristically successful in the management of hired labor.  His own strength being inexhaustible he was always able to lead.  He seldom said “go,” but “come" was a familiar command.  Week after week for as long as six weeks in succession, he has stood in water covering his knees, repairing some of the mill appendages.  Never did he require of a hireling what he was unwilling to do himself.  In addition to other operations, he carried on merchandising for about forty years.  Mr. VanGorder was a member of the Presbyterian church.  Mrs. Van Gorder's connection with that society antedates that of her husband.  She still retains her membership.  During his older years he was a partial cripple, having met with an accident at his saw-mill. He was not incapacitated, however, for any kind of work.  He was actively employed until the sickness which resulted in his death, Sept. 14, 1858.
     Mrs. VanGorder, now past her ninety-fourth year, is the oldest resident of Warren; with two exceptions she is the oldest person living in the city.  Her long preservation through a toilsome life is indeed remarkable.  She is clear in mind and cheerful in disposition.  She has borne a family of thirteen children, and nurtured from childhood two grandchildren.  Eleven of her children lived to mature age.  The following is a copy of a page from the family record: Albert, born in Warren, July 18, 1810; Emeline, born in Suffield Nov. 5, 1811; Olive, born in Suffield Apr. 26, 1813; Cyrus J., born in Suffield Apr. 1, 1815; Martha J. (Newell), born in Suffield Jan. 7, 1817; Ann Mary (Marvin), born in Suffield Aug. 30, 1819; Phebe, born in Warren June  11, 1821; Betsy (Scott), born in Warren Apr. 22, 1823; James R., born in Warren Mar. 30, 1825; George, born in Warren May 8, 1827; Isaac F., born in Warren Feb. 18, 1829; Charles, born in Warren Mar. 8, 1831; Charles, (second) Apr. 15, 1836.  Albert, Cyrus J., Martha J. (Newell), Ann Mary (Marvin), James R., George, and Isaac F., are still living.      

     RICHARD IDDINGS was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, Aug. 18, 1786.  He came to Warren in September, 1805, but returned to Reading in 1808, where, in January, 1809, he married Miss Justina Lewis.  In February he started for the Reserve with his wife, and reached Warren April 20th.  He was in the War of 1812, and was afterwards chosen major in the militia.  He was elected to the Legislature in 1830-31.  His death took place Mar. 26, 1872.
     At his golden wedding, in 1859. Mr. Iddings gave the following description of his trip to the Reserve with his wife:
     I first came to Warren in September, 1805, and remained here until the fall of 1808, when I returned to Berks county, my native place.  I married Miss Justina Lewis, at Reading, Pennsylvania, on the evening of the 15th of January, 1809, at 8 o'clock just fifty years ago.  On the 8th of February we started for Ohio in a two-horse sleigh, with our household furniture, for which there was plenty of room.  When we reached the top of the Allegheny mountains the snow was four feet deep; but we learned there was no snow at the foot of the mountain, nor westward to Ohio.  Therefore, we went to the house of an uncle to my wife, who resided in Fayette county, some twelve miles from Brownsville.  Leaving her, the sleigh, and one horse, I proceeded to this place on horse back.  Here I hired a canoe, and, engaging Mr. Henry Harsh to assist me, I went down the Mahoning and Beaver rivers to Beavertown, and up the Ohio and Monongahela to Brownsville.  Taking my wife and a few household fixings on board, we floated down to Pittsburg, where I purchased a barrel of flour, and went on to Warren.  The weather was quite cold, and the settlers few and scattering.  Some nights we lodged in houses near the river, and sometimes on its bank, without shelter.  Sometimes we had plenty to eat, and sometimes we went without food for a whole day.  We were two days getting over the falls of Beaver river. Mr. Harsh and myself were most of the time in the water (frequently up to our waists), pulling up the empty canoe, while my wife sat on the shore watching the goods which we had landed.  At the mill-dams on the Mahoning the same process was repeated.  We reached Warren on the 20th day of April, having been twenty-one days coming from Brownsville.

     LEICESTER KING was born May 1, 1789, at Suffield, Connecticut.  He married Oct. 12, 1814, Julia Ann Huntington, daughter of Hon. Hezekiah Huntington, of Hartford, Connecticut, and died at North Bloomfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, Sept. 19, 1856, at the residence of his son-in-law, Charles Brown.
     Mr. King removed from Westfield, Massachusetts, where he was engaged in the mercantile business for a few years, to Warren, Ohio, in 1817, where he continued the same business until 1833.  At that time, becoming interested in the project of building the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, he abandoned mercantile life, and devoted the most of his time to forwarding that enterprise; and it was mainly through his energy and labor that it was finally constructed - he being for a long time the president of the company.  He filled the position of associate judge of the court of common pleas, and represented the Trumbull district for two successive sessions (1835-39) in the State Senate.  He was a decided Abolitionist, although elected as a Whig, and at each session introduced and advocated a bill to repeal the infamous "Black laws," which then disgraced our statute books.  After the spirited Presidential contest of 1840 he identified himself with the few who organized the

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Liberty party, and was the first candidate for Governor nominated by that party in 1842; and he was renominated in 1844.  As the champion of that forlorn hope he thoroughly canvassed the State, discussing its platform of principles in every county and in almost every school district.  He was president of the first United States Liberty party convention, held in Buffalo in 1844, which put in nomination James G. Birney as candidate for President, and Thomas Morris for Vice President of the United States.  In 1847 Mr. King was the nominee for Vice President, with John P. Hale for President, both, however, declined the nomination in favor of Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, as candidates for the Free soil party—the Liberty party there after being merged into this new party of anti-slavery principles. After the death of Mrs. King, Jan. 24, 1849, Mr. King withdrew from politics, although he continued, until the day of his death, a warm advocate of the principles for which he had declined all political preferment and personal position from the old Whig party.
     The earnest zeal with which he sowed the seed through the State of Ohio required but a few years to bring forth an abundant harvest of right sentiments, and had its due share in the successful contest for human rights, which resulted inplacing Abraham Lincoln in the executive chair in 1861.

     SIMON PERKINS*

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* From Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812.

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     HENRY BISHOP PERKINS

     FREDERICK KINSMAN was born in Kinsman township, Trumbull county, Mar. 4, 1807.  His education until his eighteenth year was confined to the common schools of his native township, with the exception of one summer at Geauga academy.  In February, 1825, in company with his oldest brother, he rode on horseback to Connecticut, where he then sold his horse and entered Plainfield academy.  After spending a year at the

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academy he entered the military school at Camp Partridge, at Middletown, Connecticut.  A diversion of school-days' monotony which is remembered with interest, was a visit to New York on the semi-centennial of American independence (July 4, 1826).  Three hundred cadets, all in bright uniform and fully armed, were conveyed to the city in a boat and participated in the parade.  He remembers to have seen on that day Aaron Burr, erect, clear-eyed, and with flowing white hair, watching the ceremonies but scarce receiving any recognition.  The fallen politician may be gazed upon but is never courted.
     Mathematics and engineering occupied the greater part of Mr. Kinsman's time while in the military academy. Late in the year 1826 his class was detailed to make a topographical exploration of the country.  While thus engaged he was prostrated by typhus fever as the result of a day of over-exertion.  He had traveled one morning to a high point on the Meriden mountains to establish a flag-station—a distance of about ten miles.  He reached a point from which could be seen Hartford, New Haven, Middletown, and other cities, where he set up a flag and returned to Middletown that night, completing a laborious trip of more than twenty miles through brambles, woods, and over rocks.  The fever which set in on the following day confined him for some time, eventually terminating his academic career.
     Mr. Kinsman, on returning to Ohio, engaged in his brother's store as clerk until the year 1830.  He was then employed two years in the land office of General Perkins, at Warren, at the end of which time he married Olive D. Perkins.  In 1832 he became a partner in the land business with Mr. Perkins, and eventually assumed entire charge of the office.  Mr. Perkins' agency was the largest in the State, the taxes one year being one-fifteenth part of all the land taxes in the State of Ohio.
     Mr. Perkins was agent for the Erie company and for Daniel L. Coit.  The Erie company's business was settled up in General Perkins's life time, but the Coit agency business was not finally closed out until 1872, by Mr. Kinsman.  This was the last of Western Reserve land agencies.  Mr. Kinsman was elected to the office of associate judge in 1845— an office of little profit.  He took an active interest in public affairs, and enterprises calculated to enhance the value of property.  As one of the original directors of the Cleveland & Mahoning railroad he exerted all his energy, and was one of the six to assume personal liability, that the road might be completed and placed upon a remunerative basis.  The Mahoning valley owes more to Jacob Perkins, Frederick Kinsman, Charles Smith, David Tod, Dudley Baldwin, and Reuben Hitchcock, than any other six men in the Reserve.  Mr. Kinsman was a director of the Western Reserve bank until its conversion into a National bank, and has continued in the same office since that time.  He served several years as a member of the city council, and not only favored measures looking toward the improvement of streets, etc., but gave much time and personal attention to the work.
     Mr. Kinsman has not been a politician in the ordinary meaning of that term, but has always been active in furthering the interests of his party, and has never shrunk from the obligations of citizenship.  He was a delegate to the National Republican convention in 1864, and Presidential elector in 1868.  During the war he aided the Union cause in a substantial way.  He has long been looked upon as a leader in matters of public improvement.  He is an attendant and liberal supporter of the Episcopal church.  Mr. Kinsman has been a careful agriculturist and judicious stock man.  He was long prominently identified with the county agricultural society, and for two years its president.
     Mrs. Olive Perkins Kinsman died in 1838.  Mr. Kinsman married for his second wife Miss Cornelia G. Pease, daughter of Judge Calvin Pease.  She died in 1873. The children of his first wife died young.  Four sons by his second wife are living– Frederick, Jr., in Cleveland; John, Thomas, and Charles P., in Warren.  Mr. Kinsman is well preserved for a man of his years.  He is tall, erect, and dignified.  His manner is firm but clever.  He possesses that keen appreciation of pure humor which characterizes a clear mind.

John B. Harmon

Mrs. John B. Harmon

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     COMFORT MYGATT.  In 1807 there settled in Canfield a family, several members of which afterwards became prominent in Warren business affairs.  The head of this family was Comfort Mygatt.   Accompanying the party from Connecticut were three sons in-law with their wives and families—Lewis Hoyt, Eli S. Bouton, and Elisha Whittlesey; eight daughters—Elizabeth, afterwards married to Zalmon Fitch of Warren; Lucy, afterwards wife of Asahel Adams, of Warren (the oldest lady living in the city); and Maria, who died unmarried; Amanda, who married William McFarlane, of Warren; Eleanor, who married Allison Kent, of Canfield; Hannah, who married W. S. C. Otis, of Cleveland; Juliana, and Almira; three sons— George, Comfort, and Eli, and two step-sons, Jairus and Henry Stiles.

     JOHN B. HARMON AND FAMILY.   Northern Ohio is justly noted for the intelligence, energy, integrity, and thrift of her people.  Her pioneers came from the best New England families.  They came with the grand purpose of founding a new State in which the rights of man and the consequent happiness of the people should be amply secured.  They had the knowledge and the means requisite to a greater degree than almost any other portion of the West.  They foresaw the hardships they would have to endure, but had the will to face them with unswerving courage.  The toils, privations, and fatigues of pioneer life fall upon none more heavily than the physician who enjoys the general support, and ministers faithfully to the wants of such a settlement.  The pioneer doctors of northern Ohio were admirably fitted for their work.  Strong, enduring in body, sagacious and fertile of mind, resolute and daring, they went everywhere among the settlers, lights amid darkness, beacons of hope in hours of peril, and almoners of help in time of need.  Of no one of them is this more rigidly true, than of the subject of this sketch.  Six feet tall, with a round, full chest, a bundle of muscle and nerve of the finest quality, a high, square forehead jutting over deep, bluish-gray eyes, whose smile could hold the love of woman at their pleasure, or whose frown could cow a fiend, he commanded the life-long respect and friendship of the early pioneers of the Western Reserve.  This imposed upon him an amount of work and responsibility which very few men could ever have met so well.
     His early life fitted him for the part he was to play in after life.  In helping his father carry on a large farming business in Vermont, he early began a life of exposure, often going through the winter storms on foot, with his dog and gun, from the home or Valley farm to one several miles off up the mountains.  His father, Reuben Harmon, Jr., was an extensive landholder, and had been a member of the Vermont Legislature or assembly for a number of terms, and had the privilege of coining copper coins upon his own responsibility, which was in those days no light distinction.  In 1796 he purchased of Samuel H. Parsons, five hundred acres of land embracing the “salt springs,” in Weathersfield township, and went there in the summer or fall of 1797, and began the manufacture of salt, which he continued through the winter, and returned home in the spring. 
     It is not known to the writer whether he left any one to continue the salt manufacture during the summer or not, but each fall and winter he returned and continued the business, and erected a cabin to become the future home of his family.  In the early spring of 18oo he returned to Vermont and prepared for the final removal to the new field, which seemed to promise so much to one of his vigor and activity.  An old settler of Warren, John Ewalt, said of him, “He was the smartest man I ever knew, and Doctor John B. is exactly like him.  Looks like him, walks like him, talks like him, is exactly like him in all respects.”  He illustrated his idea of smartness by adding that “he was a general business man to draw deeds, contracts, and settle disputes.  He could converse with a room full of people, fifteen or twenty, all at once, hear them tell their story, and write at the same time, and when done no word had to be erased or another to be put in. He could do as many things at a time as he needed to, and do each exactly right.”  While the feat is not so very difficult to one accustomed to such work, it doubtless indicates an unusual expertness and accuracy.
     Having all things ready, the family started in June for the far West.  Besides his wife, four

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daughters and four sons, the youngest, Reuben third, being a babe three months old, he brought a family with him by the name of Barnes, who afterwards settled in Fowler.  While wending their slow way thither, fresh disturbances with the Indians occurred, and they halted some time at Beaver, so that they did not arrive at the salt springs till August. 
     Young Harmon had begun the study of medicine in 1796, with Dr. Josiah Blackmer, and was prepared to practice so far as the wants of the family and the few scattered settlers should require.   In the spring of 1806 Reuben Harmon, Jr., returned to Vermont to finish settling his business there. He took with him his son to pursue study further with Dr. Blackmer, who had married his elder sister Ruth, and was a skillful physician in Dorset, Vermont.  Upon his return west Reuben Harmon found the agent whom he had left in charge of the salt works had disappeared with $2,000, part of which he had collected from sales of salt, and part had been sent on before his return.  Thus stripped of his means he was called to all the harder work for the support of his family.  In the midst of it he was taken with fever, and died Oct. 29, 1806, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.  His loss was a sad blow to his family, and caused much inconvenience to the settlement.  For nearly ten years he had made them their salt, and been a leading man among them.  He had been for many years a member of the Congregational church of Rupert, Vermont, and in 1803 united by letter with the First Presbyterian church of Warren, and was noted for his decided piety, kindness to all, and rigid integrity.  From a condition of independence and prospective affluence, the family were left in comparative poverty. His widow proved equal to the occasion.  Ruth Rising was a daughter of Aaron and Anna Rising, of Suffield, Connecticut; was married to Mr. Harmon in September, 1774.  She was a resolute, capable woman, above average height, of a broad, muscular build, sociable, cheerful, and of indomitable patience and perseverance.
     During the war of the Revolution Reuben Harmon, Jr., was in the revolutionary army, and his wife either resided with his father at Sunderland, Massachusetts, or was there on a visit when it was burned by the British and Indians.  Mrs. Harmon caught an unbroken colt in the field and mounted it, bare-back, with a babe three weeks old in her arms, and fled while the smoke of her husband's early home rolled up behind her.  One of such pluck was well fitted to be the first white woman in Weathersfield township.  Fearless amid semi-hostile Indians, and strong in every hour of trial.  The babe she had carried in her arms during the long journey west was scalded to death in 1802.  May 10th of that year their youngest child, Eliza, who afterwards married Reuben Allen, and died in Illinois Mar. 2, 1856, was born.  She was a lively girl, full of song and mirth, a favorite in social gatherings, and an unfailing fountain of cheer wherever she went.
     One day Mrs. Harmon was left alone in the cabin and three intoxicated Indians intruded with threatening demands for more whiskey, which she sturdily refused, and had a hard day's work to keep them from violence.  At dark young Harmon returned from a day's hunting.  Awhile after supper the Indians became again more violent, especially one of them, “Big Bill” as he was called, who envied the young white's skill with the rifle, was determined on whiskey or a fight.  Young Harmon instantly threw him, and bumped his head soundly on the hearth, and bade him lie there until morning.  When he left he brought his gun to his shoulder, and pointing to Harmon gave a whoop of vengeance.  After that Big Bill and the young doctor when out hunting kept one eye for deer and one eye for the “the first shot."  A sudden attack of lung fever soon after ended the strife.  Passing the camp toward night, Dr. Harmon heard loud lamentations.  Going in he found his enemy in the last agonies of pain, and was glad that he was relieved from shooting him or being shot himself.
     Such incidents disclose some of the special perils of the new settlers.
     Mrs. Harmon met all her trials with rare fortitude and sagacity.  She spent the last few years of her life in Warren, at the homes of Dr. Harmon and her son, Heman R. Harmon, at whose house - a brick on the corner of Main street and Franklin alley, which he had erected with the aid of his father-in-law, George Parsons, about 1829 or 1830 she died, Apr. 10, 1836, in her seventy-eighth year, of congestion of the lungs.  She kept bright, cheerful, and active, with a large share of the enjoyments of a ripe|

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old age.  She was a member of the Methodist church in Warren for many years, and died in the full hopes of such a faith.  Thus much of the parents of Dr. Harmon.  His grandfather, Reuben Harmon, was the sixty-fourth descendant of John Harman (so spelled in the records), who immigrated from England prior to 1644, when he settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, and died Jan. 7, 1660.  Reuben was his great-grandson, born at Sunderland, Massachusetts, or perhaps at Springfield, Feb. 18, 1714, and married Eunice Parsons, of Suffield, Connecticut, Aug. 25, 1739.  He died at Rutland, Vermont, Sept. 6, 1794.  His widow died there Nov. 18, 1803, aged eighty-six years.  He sold his real estate in Suffield in 1759.  In 1776 he became a large land owner in Rupert.  In 1779 he bought one hundred and seventy acres in Rutland, and soon after moved there, and was selectman and justice of the peace in 1780.  June 30, 1780, he conveyed to his son Oliver, in Rutland, ninety acres of land, and to his son Reuben, Jr., of Rupert, ninety acres.  Some forty-five deeds passed to and from Reuben and Reuben, Jr., in the course of a few years.  Dr. John B. appears to have had a leaning to land also, for in 1803 he bought of his father two hundred and fifty acres of the Salt Spring tract for $2,500 in currency, which was resold in 1806.  He became the owner afterwards of some two hundred and eighty acres in Warren township, and carried on farming quite extensively.  He devoted special care to raising thoroughbred horses, but kept also choice cattle and Merino sheep, and invested in mules also to a large extent.  He made himself the first horse-rake used in this section, from a fence rail, eleven feet long, in which a few long teeth were put, and two stakes for handles.  Hitching a large stallion called “Buck Oscar” (a racer who had never had harness on before) to this, he raked up in the afternoon nine acres of heavy grass.  The weight of the rake and rapid gait of the horse made this a very hard feat.  The stoutest of his hired men could not repeat it.  When this rake was broken a few years later Hugh Riddle, who was in Warren temporarily, made him a light one, but it was not until several years later he could persuade his brother farmers to give up the hand rake.
     At an early day he established his brother, Heman R. Harmon, in trade under the firm name of Harmon Brothers.  The store was on the west side of Main street, south of one formerly occupied by Ephraim Quinby.  In connection with Walter King they built the three story brick in 1827–28, known as the King and Harmon block, which was, in April, 1882, torn down.  Harmon Brothers occupied the north half, keeping drugs in the south end and dry-goods in the north end.  It had a handsome cherry circular counter, and was regarded as a grand affair in its day.  King occupied the south end of his half with a jewelry store.  Henry Stiles had the north part of King's half (a separate room) for a saddlery store.  There the late Edward E. Hoyt, James Hoyt, and O. H. Patch, learned the saddler's trade.
     Harmon Brothers lost largely by outside business, dealing in cattle, clocks, etc., and by endorsing for others.  In 1832 they failed.  The debts were eventually paid, by Dr. Harmon mostly, but the loss stript him of his farms, and imposed on him the necessity of prolonged toil in his profession.  He never did business in the store himself, but his surplus earnings were absorbed by it.  In fact, his whole life was helpful to others far more than to himself.
     Upon the death of his father, he naturally assumed the guidance of the family.  While at Dorset he wrote his brothers Hiram and Heman  “to be careful of their leisure hours, to shun all bad habits, study evenings, so as to fit themselves for future usefulness and honorable positions in life, and to cherish always a reverent regard for the great Author of the Universe.”  Afterwards he sent Heman to school at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, with the view of his studying medicine, but exposure led to necrosis of the femur, a large part of which the doctor removed.   He was left slightly lame, and gave up the study of medicine to become a merchant, farmer, and general business man, in which he was remarkably active, industrious, and useful, but a fatality adverse to financial success hovered over him.
     Of the children of Reuben Harmon, the following additional particulars may be of some interest:
     Anna Harmon was born Feb. 20, 1782, in Rupert; died March, 1841, in Bristol.  She was for many years employed as a school teacher in different townships of the county, and is still remembered by some of the older descendants

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of the pioneers as the woman who could teach them arithmetic.
     Clary Harmon was born Apr. 12, 1785; married William Leavitt, son of John Leavitt, Esq., of Warren, from whom she was divorced because of intemperance.  Afterwards she married Dr. John Brown, and moved to Lancaster, New York, where she died Jan. 22, 1844.  She was a very pleasant, agreeable, exemplary woman.
     Betsey Harmon was born Nov. 12, 1788, and died Nov. 7, 1853; married Samuel Gilson, by whom she had a son, Reuben H. Gilson, and two daughters—Mary, who married Henry McGlathery, of Bristol, and Julia, who married Hugh Lackey, of Youngstown, who live now in Hartsgrove, Ashtabula county.  After the death of Mr. Gilson, she married Albert Opdycke, and lived in Hubbard till 1836, when they moved to Pulaski, Williams county, Ohio, where they prospered greatly— one of the happiest families to be met with anywhere.  Dr. Harmon prized them both very highly, and made them two visits with his wife and other relatives, which were full of pleasure to all.  Dr. Harmon was an overflowing fountain of life and fun on such occasions.  His last visit was in 1854.  By a break in the canal they were detained a day at Toledo.  At the hotel a professional checker player had cleaned out the company at a dollar a game.  Dr. Harmon wore a long dressing gown and broad brimmed hat, and gravely invited the gamester to play for amusement, which was contemptuously refused.  The gamester kept inquiring, “Well, old man, have you got your courage up to risking a dollar yet?”  “I have never played for money, and am too old now to break my rule,” was the answer.  The company were anxious to take their chance on the “Old Man,” but the temptation was resisted till late in the afternoon the gamester grew too impudent to be tolerated.  He was relieved of five successive dollars.  The broad-brim was tipped up a little, and a quizzing eye, asked if he wished to spare more.  As he rose up, the hooting was more than he could stand; he paid his bill, and struck for another hotel.  Dr. Harmon said he thought the scamp was worse punished than he was himself, but concluded the end justified the means.  Mr. and Mrs. Opdycke had six sons and one daughter, who is the wife of O. H. Patch, of Warren.
     Lucretia Harmon was born Feb. 11, 1791, and married William Draper, of Weathersfield, who lived but a short time.  She afterwards married William Frazier, of Hubbard, moved to Trenton, Ohio, and afterwards to Dearborn, Indiana, where he died in May, 1862.  Mrs. Frazier died at Dillsboro, Indiana, January, 1871, and was the last of the family of eleven children - four sons and seven daughters, of whom nine were well known by the pioneers of Trumbull county.
     Hiram R. Harmon was the ninth child and second son, born at Rupert, Vermont, Dec. 18, 1793, died at Ives Grove, Wisconsin, Oct. 15, 1852, was a blacksmith, lived in Liberty and Brookfield a few years, then moved to Bristol, and bought the Potter farm, where he kept a hotel for many years, working at his trade some, and farming extensively.  He sold his farm, and moved on one a mile west of the village, but a few years later moved West, and died of apoplexy in the harvest field about three years after, an active, industrious, honest, and capable man, and a zealous advocate of temperance and anti-slavery.
     Heman R. Harmon was born Feb. 12, 1798, and died Dec. 1, 1859.  He began business early in Warren as a merchant, dealt extensively in cattle, taking large droves East, and carried on a large farm near the springs.  He was at different times a member of the firm of Harmon Brothers, of Harmon & Stiles, and of E. E. Hoyt & Co., and of Harmon & Johnson.  He served two terms as sheriff of the county, was an ardent politician, and an indefatigable worker in all that he undertook, - aided in the manufacture of the Heath mowing machine, and
started the first one in the county.  Liberal minded, truthful and kind to all, he did work enough to have amassed a fortune.  His losses grew out of adverse circumstances more than from special faults of his own.
     Dr. John B. Harmon was born in Rupert, Bennington county, Vermont, Oct. 19, 1780; was named after John Brown, a friend of his father in the Vermont Assembly.  His early education was limited, but he was sufficiently acquainted with Latin to give him a good understanding of the Latin terms in use in the medical books of his day.  He was correct in spelling and grammar, quick and accurate in arithmetic,

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well versed in English and American history, and was fond of speculative inquiries, such as Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, Hume's Moral, Political, and Religious Essays, etc.  He was partial to poetry also, Pope, Burns, and Shakespeare he often quoted, as well as Cowper and Watts.  The Bible was at his tongue's end as much as with a Methodist or Disciple minister.  In politics he was a Jeffersonian, afterwards a J. Q. Adams man and Whig.  In medicine he was cautious and conservative, but progressive, so as always to adopt new views and remedies so far as reason and experience showed them to be of value.  In 1814–16 he abandoned venesection in camp fever.  He early adopted stimulants and cold water in fevers, and chlorate potassa, tincture of iron, and digitalis in scarlet fever.  Ether and chloroform he hailed at once as boons to the suffering.  At seventy years of age he was more progressive than many doctors of thirty-five.  He was bold and skillful in surgical operations, having a hand which remained steady to the last.  But he always studied carefully every operation of danger before he began it.  His knowledge of anatomy was derived largely from books and plates, but it was accurate and minute.  His observation was acute to a proverb, and his sound judgment was admitted as master of all.  The late Tracy Bronson, M. D., said of him: “He had the best judgment of us all.  I thought I had as much science, but when we got in a pinch and didn't know what to do, he would see at a glance, and help us out.”
     From 18oo to 1806 he aided his father in the salt works, which were carried on extensively, and furnished salt to the settlers at distant points, as well as those nearer.  He enjoyed the common sport of the day, deer and bear hunting, and was one of the most expert at an off-hand long shot.  One winter he had some twenty deer strung up on a hill a mile west of the springs.  The law of hunters made such property more safe than bolts and locks now make our hams and bacon.  The fat of the bear was used in cooking.  Dr. Harmon used to say, “with a short cake in his bosom, made from bears' oil, he could travel further on a hunt or a ride, than on any other food.”  One time he treed a cub, placed his gun at the foot of the tree, and his dog to guard it, and climbing secured the cub.  Its cries quickly brought the she bear from the thicket, but the sagacious dog, keeping out of her reach, quickly seized her as she essayed the tree, so at last she retreated, and Harmon descended with his cub, and regained his gun, when the bear renewed the attack.  Backing off with the cub on his shoulders, and the dog at the heels of the enraged animal, while he held his gun cocked, and ready for the shot, he saw her finally give up the pursuit, and he bore his cub home in triumph.
     In 1804 Dr. Enoch Leavitt settled in Leavittsburg, and Dr. Harmon resorted to him at intervals for study.   In 1808 he returned from Vermont and located in Warren.  His practice rapidly increased, and although the fees were low, yet they enabled him to meet his large expenses easily.  Part of this time he boarded at the tavern kept on Market street, by Colonel William W. Cotgreave, by whom he was commissioned surgeon of the Second regiment, Fifth brigade, Fourth division of the militia of the State of Ohio, on the 10th day of August, 1813.  This commission was repeated by Stephen Oviatt, colonel, Feb. 5, 1817, and by Governor Worthington, July 17, 1818, only his brigade was the first, and the rank of captain was assigned to him.  He was present at the attack on Fort Mackinaw in 1813.  When our forces first reached the fort, Dr. Harmon urged an immediate attack, but the general delayed some three days, during which it was reinforced, and the attack was repulsed with great loss.  During the fight a captain was shot with a poisoned arrow in the body.  His sufferings were great, and he cried out, “Oh doctor, for God's sake give me a cup of water.”  A spring near by had been alternately in possession of the contending parties.  The doctor got a squad of twenty men, and gained possession long enough to secure some muddy water.  The captain drank a cupful and exclaimed, “Now, if I had a shot at that d-d Indian I'd die content.”
     On returning to Cleveland the doctor was left on the boat with his sick and wounded while the officers proceeded to the tavern.  He charged them first of all to send supplies to the boat; waiting until he became impatient, he went to the hotel and found the company at table.  To an invitation to a seat, he sternly replied, “He did not eat till the sick were cared for."  Their

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needs were attended to while the feasting was delayed.
     Near the close of the war he resumed practice in Warren, and from this time on his rides extended greatly, reaching to Cleveland, Painesville, Ashtabula on the lake, and a long distance in all directions, as, indeed, they had previously, but now more frequently.  These rides were made on horseback, and it is no wonder that he sought out the elastic, easy-gaited racer.  The fast walk, easy trot, courage, and endurance made him indispensable.  One night his favorite “Buck Rabbit” broke through the ice with him in crossing Musquito creek, near Captain Joseph Marvin's.  The game horse struggled through ice and up the steep miry bank.  The doctor rode, with his clothes froze to him, some four miles on, sat beside a woman in labor and rode home without food the next morning.
     In the winter of 1816 he laid out in the woods, three miles west of Warren, in a fierce storm, his horse chained to a sapling, and himself beside a log, while the wolves kept up their howling and snapping at his horse, who kept them at bay with his heels.  He lost his watch there, but noted the spot so carefully that it was found the next spring.  In riding home one night the doctor fell asleep, and his horse walked a fourteen-inch stringer laid across the Mahoning river at the “Wilmot center of the world,” and as he stepped off the doctor wakened, to find how safely his favorite had carried him over the roads were too bad for the best of horses.  Then the doctor went afoot with his saddle-bags on his arm, across the country as best he could.  His light, agile step enabled him to do a vast deal of such pilgrimages.  In one of these tramps he walked sixty-five miles, starting at break of day, seeing many patients, and reaching home at 10 o'clock at night.
     In the winter of 1816 he attended a family of six children and the parents in Aurora, all down with the epidemic of typhoid pneumonia.  He reached them each night, laid upon the hearth floor, and returned next day.  Upon their recovery, he was himself taken sick.  He went to the house of his mother at “Salt Springs,” hired a trusty nurse, and gave her directions how to manage him in the bad turns of the disease, with the promise of his horse and saddle should he not recover.  One night he was thought to be dying.  Dr. John W. Seeley was sent for, but he said “Dr. John B. will be all right in the morning,” and did not visit him.  The nurse tided him through, but for six months after he was so emaciated as to ride with a pillow on his saddle, and carried a cold foot, which he had to warm even in warm weather, ever after warm weather, ever after.
     In 1816 he bought the frame (which had been erected the year previous) on lot forty in Warren, and in 1817 finished the story and a half dwelling, where he afterwards resided.  His sisters, Mrs. Clara Leavitt and Mrs. Dunscomb, kept house for him several years.  Mrs. Dunscomb was made blind by small-pox, but was a neat housekeeper; kept everything easy in her hands, could make a good shirt even, and made a good home for the doctor as well as herself, her husband having died early after his removal from Rupert to the springs in 1802.  Afterwards the wife of Captain Thompson (who taught in the academy) kept house for him.  In 1822, February 6th, he married Sarah Dana at Pembroke, New York.  Although never engaged, an early friend had forsaken him for another, and this no doubt had led him to postpone so important an event, but at the suggestion of Mrs. Leavitt, mother of the late George Parsons, and an aunt of Miss Dana, he had obtained by letter “the promise.”  He drove on in a double team sleigh, was introduced to the bride to be, and the next day started for home.  He could not have found one better suited to aid him in his hard toil, had he looked over New England.
     Although of poor health, she kept his house in order - kept track of his patients, provided for all his home wants with economy, and left him free of all such cares as often vex men in their homes.
    In the summer of 1822 Dr. Leavitt wished to operate on a Mrs. Norton for the removal of a tumor in the abdomen.  Young Dr. Harmon advised against it, but Dr. Leavitt had removed a large fatty tumor from a Mrs. Gaylord some two years before, and was determined that this was like it.  It proved to be a cancerous mass on the under side of the liver.  He handed the knife to Dr. Harmon, who dissected out several masses from the size of a goose's egg to a small pullet's egg.  Dr. Leavitt staid with her six days and nights, and she recovered so as to ride to Warren, a distance of some three miles, but died about four months after.  During his attendance

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on her Dr. Harmon was induced by Mrs. Leavitt to adopt one of her daughters, Mitty, then a girl of eight years.  She proved to be a woman of rare good sense, an elder sister to his children, and a life long faithful daughter.  She was born June 23, 1814, at Hamburgh, New York; married Jacob Gimperling Apr. 8, 1833, lived several years in Hudson, Ohio, then moved to Ravenna, where he died Dec. 25, 1848.  She returned to Dr. Harmon's, and married Rev. John McLean, then in Bristol, Nov. 4, 1863.  She died in Canfield in 1878 or 1879; was a devoted Methodist from sixteen years of age, and was highly respected by many warm friends.
     In 1830 Dr. Harmon was prostrated by a severe run of fever, which nearly proved fatal.  In 1833 he was pulled by a colt he was leading, from his saddle, and his horse ran, dragging him by the heels in his stirrup till the breaking of the girth released him.  His back was so hurt that he could not sit down or get up for a long time without help.  Years after in attempting to do so he would suddenly fall helpless.  But he kept at his work.  In February, 1838, his horse ran away and broke his ribs and one leg, and he lay in the snow for some time till found by John McConnell, whose son William he was visiting.  He was helped in his sleigh, and went on and prescribed for his patient, and was brought home before his own injuries were cared for.  About 1840 a tumor formed on his left side, beneath the deep pectoral muscle.  It was opened by Dr. Delamater, and again by Dr. Bronson, and a seton put in.  The inflammation was severe, and was nearly fatal.  In the summer of 1845 he was again severely sick, and again in 1854 he had a congestive chill, in which for four hours he seemed to be past recovery.  All of these attacks were results of excessive work and special injuries, which his iron constitution enabled him to survive.
     In 1852 he returned East with his wife and visited his early home and hers also.  They spent six weeks of May and June in such pleasant way.  He found the remains of his father's old copper mill, still at Rupert, and several boys like himself grown to be seventy and eighty years of age.
     In 1854 he foreswore practice, saying that "an old man without eyes, ears, teeth, fingers had no business to be dabbling in medicine."  This was not true of him, but it indicated his belief, that a man should quite before he becomes incompetent.  His help, however, continued to be sought in counsel often, and was ever of aid to his son, who was taking his place in active work. His last case of obstetrics was in July, 1857.  His practice in this branch extended over fifty-five years.  He early supplied himself with a complete set of obstetrical instruments, and was expert in their use.  In general surgery he was recognized as a master till the time of Ackley.  In his fine sense of touch and cautious judgment he occasionally proved himself superior even to him, and the still more celebrated Mott, of New York city.
     In 1838 he was sued for malpractice, in having (as was said) unnecessarily amputated a leg.  The prosecution was conducted by the Hon. J. R. Giddings, with the help of Wade, Sutliff, and Ranney. The defence was made by David Tod and R. P. Spalding.  The leg had been crushed by a timber rolling down from the top of a cabin which was being raised.  Doctors John W. and Sylvanus Seeley were called in, on the second day as counsel, and the operation was done.  They were all sued.  The unquestioned ability of the surgeons, and the fame of the counsel, gave the case great notoriety.  The issue was squarely made: Had an ignorant public the right to pass judgment on the action of three eminent surgeons, who had fully considered the case at the time?  Giddings claimed the right, and had succeeded a few years before in obtaining a verdict against a doctor in Ashtabula county, for not properly caring, as was charged, for an injured ankle.  He was a monomaniac on the subject, as it were, and left nothing undone that a zealous and able man could do, to win his case.  Tod and Spalding were equally zealous and able for the defence, and were completely successful.  The expense was large.  It cost Dr. Harmon more than he had ever made from surgery; but it showed to the public the essential impudence of such prosecutions, and has resulted in a better understanding of medical responsibility.  There is no more sense in such a suit than there would be if a doctor should assume to prosecute three eminent lawyers for losing a case they had done their best to win, and such is the feeling “an old man without eyes, ears, teeth, or now with the legal profession.

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     Dr. Harmon was usually a silent, thoughtful man, but when occasion called expressed himself fluently and clearly.  He was outspoken in all his convictions, and gave his reasons with such force and originality as to command a respectful hearing.  While opposing invariably what he thought errors in religion, he yet made firm friends among the most devout of women, and the ablest of preachers.  From early days until his decease Presbyterians and Methodists, Baptists and Disciples alike patronized and honored him.  Said the women, “We can't see why he thought as he did, but he was surely a good man, and he has gone to heaven.”  He was ever at the call of the sick, whether pay was to be had or not.  He sometimes swam his horse across the Mahoning, swollen with floating ice, to meet a professional engagement.  A large part of his life regular sleep was unknown to him.  Within the memory of his children he has gone two weeks without undressing at home, because of
daily calls.  He learned to sleep on his horse, or in his sulky, and when he lay down instantly fell asleep; would awake at a call, put up medicine in his bed, give directions, and be asleep before the waiter was out of the room.  He had his amusements.  The fleet horse must be put to his mettle, and he delighted in the race, not for gaming but for love of the beauty and fleetness of the horse.  About 1830 the “Warren Jocky Club” was formed, and a mile track was made on the John Leavitt (now James Hoyt) farm in Leavittsburg.  In the spring and fall one, two, three, and four mile races were held.  Sporting men came with the best racers of neighboring States.  Dr. Harmon kept some of the fleetest himself.  The Pennsylvania & Ohio canal went through the track and ended the sport in 1839.  In boyhood he began the play of check ers, at which he soon became the best of his day.  In the leisure hours of later life he often met his friends, the Seeleys, Bronson, and King, in the auditor's office, where Jacob H. Baldwin presided so long, and had a tilt.  He had less fondness for backgammon, but indulged in that occasionally with Judge Pease, Parsons, and Freeman, and others.  He had become known as a checker player from Maine to New Orleans.  Champion players from all parts came to play with him, only to find their superior.  He excelled in whatever he undertook.  His natural endowments were of the very highest order.  One who had seen the leading public men of his age, both in this country and abroad, said: “He always impressed me as being the peer of any man I ever met.”  The last few years of his life were spent in quiet ease.  Young in face, hair but slightly gray, and scarcely thinned, erect and straight as an arrow, he took his daily walks with a light step, read the news of the day and the last Medical Journal, and mingled with his friends, cheerful and thoughtful himself, and greatly revered by all.  He was taken with an acute pleuro-pneumonia in January, and died Feb. 7, 1858.
     The Cleveland Leader said of him:

     Dr. Harmon was skillful and scientific, and met the largest success to which one in his profession can attain.  As a man, he was true in all his relations, a faithful husband, kind father, obliging neighbor, steadfast, generous friend, patriotic citizen, a helper in every good work, a great, good, and true man - ‘‘we ne'er shall look upon his like again."

     His wife, Sarah (Dana) Harmon, was born in Enfield, Connecticut, Sept. 24, 1796; was the seventh daughter of Daniel and Dorothy (Kibbee) Dana.  Her father was born in Ashford, Connecticut, Sept. 16, 1760, and died in Warren, Nov. 8, 1839.  He graduated at Yale college, and was a studious man of letters; of the fifth generation from Richard Dana, who immigrated from France, and died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apr. 2, 1690.  Miss Dana was delicate in health, barely escaping death in early womanhood by consumption; but had perseverance and energy sufficient to enable her to meet the demands of her day with ample success.  She was a friend to all; her “charity covered a multitude of sins” in the erring, and her household gifts were ever at the disposal of the young, who lacked in the requisites of good housekeeping.  She toiled hard to bring up the family, and was anxious to see them educated as well as possible.  In the evenings her kitchen table was set for her boys to study, and with the intuitive tact of woman, she could help them to learn what she did not know herself.  She was a natural cook, and delighted in surprising her family with new dishes.  The love of flowers was strong within her, and she kept as many in her door-yard as economy would permit.  She early became a member of the Presbyterian church, and remained a quiet, unobtrusive, but firm and consistent member.  After the death of

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of her husband, she gave up the cares of the house, and led an easy, cheerful life till its close, Nov. 6, 1868.
     They had six children.  John B. Harmon, Jr., born Oct. 29, 1822; graduated at Yale in 1842, a lawyer of San Francisco; grand master of Odd Fellows in 1878–79, to whom they gave a grand reception in Warren Oct. 4, 1878, in which the citizens universally joined, making it by far the grandest celebration ever held in Warren, if not in the State.  Six hundred and seventy-two guests sat at the table at one time in the
Methodist church, details of which may be found on another page, in the History of Odd Fellowship.
     Doctor Julian Harmon, born Aug. 1, 1824, graduated at Western Reserve college August, 1846, at Cleveland Medical college Feb. 28, 1849; practiced with his father till Mar. 1, 1854; continued alone till June, 1860, when Dr. J. T. Smith formed a partnership with him.  Smith went out, as assistant surgeon with the Second Ohio volunteer cavalry in 1861.  Dr. Harmon continued his rides during the war, during which his practice became very extensive. In the winter of 1862–63 he rode horseback through snow and mud for ninety consecutive days, a trip of from thirty-two to fifty-two miles, going on foot evenings and mornings around the town. One night he walked between 8 and 11 o'clock six miles, after a ride of fifty-one miles. Small and delicate, he seemed unfitted for such work, and was induced to enter the drug business in September, 1865.  He left it Apr. 1, 1868, having lost some $16,000.  His wife had died six weeks previous, and he was, in consequence, deprived of the help he relied on, which made his pecuniary loss greater.  He resumed practice in his old office, with Dr. Metcalf, till April, 1875, since when he has been alone. He has acted as examining surgeon for Trumbull county, for pensions, for some twenty years; is an active member of Trumbull county, Northeastern Ohio, and the State Medical societies, and has been a trustee of the Newburg insane asylum and of the Western Reserve college.
     He married J. Rebecca Swift, daughter of George and Olive (Kinsman) Swift, July 30, 1857, by whom he has two daughters and one son.  He was married again, June 6, 1871, to Mary E. Bostwick, daughter of L. L. and Margaret (Wetmore) Bostwick, of Canfield, by whom he has one son living, an elder one having died Oct. 26, 1881.  He himself was severely sick from thirteen to nineteen years of age, and in 1851, and again in 1871 was nearly cut off by erysipelas of head and neck.  In 1840 he was prostrated nine weeks by jaundice, and has had no light burden of infirmity to contend with a large part of his life.
     The loss of Captain Harmon's son Ellis, (whom he had adopted) at thirteen years of age, and his own son, Charlie, at nine years, both by malignant diphtheria, were severe disappointments of his hopes in the future.  The sudden loss of his wife, Feb.  13, 1868, made a black chasm across his pathway. Brilliant and sociable, unwearying and devoted as a wife and mother, generous and helpful, she was taken away just when she would have been of the highest value to him and their children.  His sister was a close friend and intellectual companion and adviser, whose recent loss has added heavily to his burdens.  Amid all, he has remained true to his manhood.  Integrity unsullied, and elastic in spirits, he bids fair to keep his ship afloat awhile longer, and bring her to port in good trim at last.  As a physican he has been prompt in attendance, quick to recognize and skillful in combating the dangerous forms of disease.  He was eminently successful in 1854 during an epidemic of vesicular bronchitis among children.  During the great prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria in 1861–62–63 and 1864 he lost but very few out of a large number of cases.  In the gravest accidents of obstetric practice he has been prompt, skillful and successful.  For many years he acted as surgeon for the Cleveland & Mahoning, and Atlantic & Great Western railroads, and has managed some desperately bad cases with most gratifying success.  Unassuming in manners, devoid of all trickery, frank in speech, clear in convictions, enthusiastic in the love of his profession, he may fairly be called a chip from the granite block.
     Captain Charles R. Harmon was born Nov. 4, 1826.  Active and restless as a child, he abhorred the confinement of school, but when the fit was on him, would learn in a few weeks all that his mates had spent a full term on.  At thirteen he entered the store of E. E. Hoyt & Co. as clerk, and remained there till 1846, when

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he became a clerk with T. P. Ellis & Co., of New York city, dealers in hardware.  Mar. 5, 1848, he married Mary, daughter of James and Sarah (Heywood) Hezlep, of Girard, Ohio, and established himself in the hardware business at Warren, in company with Edward E. Hoyt, under the firm name of Harmon & Co.  Mr. Hoyt withdrew their part of the business from the firm of E. E. Hoyt & Co., and Charlie pushed the business to a large extent.  Warren Packard and James G. Brooks were his clerks.  In a few years the firm was dissolved, and he continued the business alone.  Packard was started in a separate store with $1,200 worth of goods bought by Harmon, who was a silent partner with Mr. Packard for three years.
     In 1854 Mr. Harmon formed a partnership with H. A. Opdycke, but continued in business only a few months.  An uncurbed passion for sport brought his business to a close.  Soon after, he moved to Iowa, remained there one or two years, and returned to Warren.
     With the aid of relatives he built a house on Washington avenue, published a spicy sheet in the interest of the Mecca oil business for about a year, enlisted in company F of the Twenty-fourth Ohio volunteer infantry as a private, was in the Western Virginia campaign in Colonel Ammon's brigade, served as a valuable scout, and enjoyed the hearty respect of Colonel Ammon.  He was home on a recruiting furloughwith rank of lieutenant.  In February and March, 1862, he rejoined his regiment with his recruits immediately after the battle of Shiloh, was the first soldier over the defences at Corinth, and was in the march from Alabama to Louisville when the race was run on quarter rations.  In a letter to the Spirit of the Times he gave a vivid caricature of the performance under the signature of “Reuben.”
     At the battle of Perryville he wrote home:

     Here we are, fifty-five thousand men in arms, anxious to fight.  The country is rolling and our cannon could sweep it, but we will have no order to move.  Buell will let McCook be slaughtered, he will never fight unless he is forced to; then he would go in grandly to save his reputation.  Our officers say it is only a skirmish, but every private as well as officer know it is death to McCook and his men.

     At the battle of Stone River the lieutenant colonel was shot at the outset.  In the afternoon Lieutenant Harmon and men were ordered down flat, to cool their guns and let our cannon play over them; raising his head a little upon his hands, he encouraged his men, humming, “Who would not be a brave soldier boy?”  A sharp shooter up a neighboring tree sent a bullet through his brain.  While being carried back, Major Terry (then in command) said, “Halt, let me see him.”  As he leaned forward the same gun brought him to the ground, as he was saying “Oh, God, but it's hard.”  All the officers were picked off save one captain, who had more discretion than valor.  The sharpshooter was seen at last, and a volley riddled him.
     The commission of captain was mailed Lieutenant Harmon by Governor Tod the day he was killed, and after long discussion between Commissioner Bartlett and Dr. J. Harmon as to the pension his widow was entitled to, the commission was returned home by the valiant captain, who had kept it till after the battle at Chickamauga.  The same day came the pension as lieutenant.  Dr. Harmon forwarded both to Washington, and soon after President Lincoln issued an order that in all such cases the soldier should be put on the rolls as if he had received his commission and been formally mustered-in.  He had been acting captain for some six months, and justice was done his widow by the effect of the order.
     Captain Harmon was naturally extremely sensitive to suffering, and not till after long effort could he see blood without fainting, yet he was cool, brave, and daring in the extreme.
     Although addicted to sport, he was rigidly temperate, and would not permit liquor or tobacco to the young in his employ.  He was a courteous and very popular salesman, and could command a high salary.  When pressed with poverty, he was offered a salary of one thousand dollars to enter a grocery and liquor store in Warren, but said “he would starve sooner than engage in such work.”  He was a very sociable and attractive man, correct in business, a ready writer, furnishing a play for school exhibitions, or a racy letter to the Chronicle from the army, with ease.  His companions in arms honored and trusted him.  Had fate spared him his career would have been one of continued and increasing success.  When he arrived at Louisville from Alabama, the news reached him of the death of his twin son Ellis, by diphtheria.  The blow was cruel indeed.  He wrotehome, “If ever I return, I

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shall be looking for the dear boy, with a longing earth can not fill.  If I fall, let my body rest where it falls.”  The cemetery at Murfresboro holds the remains of few men so brave, unselfish, and capable as was Captain Charles R. Harmon.
     Edward D. Harmon was born May 1, 1831; clerked for his brother, Charles R., some time; went to California in March, 1853; returned and married Marie Metcalf, of Newark, Ohio, in the summer or fall of 1868.  He is a prosperous farmer and real estate dealer in Oakland, California.
     Sarah D. Harmon, their only daughter, was born Apr. 3, 1833, and died in Warren, July 6, 1880.  She was highly educated, and taught in the grammar and high schools of Warren, Dunkirk, Columbus, Elkhart, and Poughkeepsie, (Select Ladies seminary,) and also in Sanford's seminary, at Cleveland.  Never robust, she over worked in her school duties, and wore herself out prematurely, but had done a good life's work with great success, and bore a year and a half of intense suffesing with great courage and resignation, and the firm hope of an humble Christian woman.
     Their youngest child, Willie, was born June 30, 1835, and died Apr. 10, 1836, a pet favorite with his father, never forgotten.  The stern, stoical man years after would drop a tear when, coming to his home, some incident would recall his babe.  The inner feelings of such men are seldom understood.  A few years before his death, a poor woman said to him, “Oh doctor, you can't imagine how I felt when my child was scalded.”  “Ah, mother,” he said, “yes I do; my youngest brother was scalded to death, over fifty years ago, and I hear his cries again every time I am called to care for such a case.”  This acute sensibility, coupled with resolute courage and self control, is largely enstamped upon his children, softened in some more than in others, by the quiet tenderness of his wife.

     JACOB PERKINS*

---------------
* From Mahoning Valley Cooections.

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Judge Francis Freeman

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     JUDGE FRANCIS FREEMAN was a conspicuous figure in Warren business affairs for nearly half a century.  He was born in Amenia, Dutchess county, New York, June 7, 1779.  During his youth he acquired a good education in the schools of his native county.  On leaving school he engaged for some time in the lumber trade, but western emigration and settlement had opened a more profitable field for enterprise.  His first visit to Ohio was made in 1803.  Warren had been made the county seat of the whole Reserve, and was regarded as having excellent prospects for growth.  This fact determined Mr. Freeman's choice of location.  He returned to New York to close out his business there, which was accomplished in about two years.  His brother joined him in the removal to Warren, and each purchased a farm.  This purchase was the foundation of Mr. Freeman's future wealth, and shows his characteristic business sagacity.  A large part of his tract was within the present city limits, being that part lying south of the Cleveland & Mahoning railroad.  Being a man of powerful physique and vigorous health, he was enabled to accomplish with cheerfulness the rugged labor of clearing and cultivating new land.  His business qualifications and business habits were soon recognized

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by his neighbors.  He was one of the original stockholders of the Western Reserve bank, and was chosen one of the first board of directors.  He continued a director until his death, being during the whole period one of the most influential members of the board.  A prominent trait of his business character was rigid and judicious economy.  This he exercised both in private and public transactions, and acquired the reputation of being a “safe” man.  His voice and vote in bank directors' meetings always received the respect of his associates, who were, during the whole history of the bank representative business men.
     In 1832 Mr. Freeman was chosen one of the associate justices of the court of common pleas, and held the position for seven years.  The three associate justices under the old judicial system transacted the probate and minor judiciary business, and during terms of court sat upon the bench with the presiding judge.  Their place and subordinate dignity upon the bench gave them the appellation of “side judges.”  Mr. Freeman had previously served sixteen years as treasurer of Trumbull county.  He succeeded John Leavitt after the death of the latter in 1815, and was regularly chosen to the position at the election following. He was successively re-elected until the expiration of his eighth regular term in 1831.  It will be seen that with the exception of one brief interval he was in continuous official life twenty-three years.  Mr. Freeman sold his farm to a company of capitalists, realizing a handsome profit on his original investment.  During his older years he had extensive real estate interests in the vicinity of Warren, which occupied a large portion of his business energy.  Physically Judge Freeman was one of the largest men in the county, being tall, round featured, and broad-shouldered.  He married Jan. 27, 1817, Lyndia, only daughter of Samuel and Abigail Kent Leavitt. She was born at Rupert, Vermont, July 5, 1785.  She was married in 1807, to Joseph Hopkins, who died a few years afterward.
     The family of Francis and Lyndia Freeman consisted of three children: Samuel L., the only son, was born Mar. 29, 1823, married in 1846, Charlotte L. Tod, and has been identified with commercial and banking business in Warren until recently; Laura Abigail was born Aug. 24, 1819, was married to Charles Hickox in 1843, and resides in Cleveland; Olive, born Oct. 25, 1825, was married to Albert Morley July 9, 1851, and died in Warren Feb. 12, 1866.
     Judge Freeman died in Warren Sept. 8, 1855.  Mrs. Freeman survived her husband nearly twelve years, the date of her death being Apr. 20, 1867.

     HON. GEORGE MYGATT.    This venerable gentleman, for many years a resident of Trumbull county, now residing in Cleveland, was born in Danbury, Connecticut, June 14, 1797.  His parents were Comfort S. and Lucy (Knapp) Mygatt, who were among the pioneers of Canfield, now Mahoning county.  They came from Danbury to Ohio in the summer of 1807, arriving in Canfield on the 7th day of July.
     Comfort S. Mygatt was engaged in mercantile business in Canfield some sixteen years.  Soon after coming to Canfield he entered into partnership with Herman Canfield and Zalmon Fitch, under the firm name of Mygatt, Canfield & Fitch, and opened a general store.  The firm was dissolved after about two years, and the business was continued by Mr. Mygatt during the remainder of his life.  He had been a member of the Connecticut Legislature before removing to Ohio.  He died in October, 1823.
     George Mygatt obtained his education in the common school, but enjoyed very limited advantages after the removal of the family to Ohio.  He entered the employ of the Western Reserve bank at Warren in 1818.  He carried on a mercantile business in Warren for about five years; was county tax collector in the fall of 1821.  He was elected sheriff of Trumbull county in 1829, and re-elected in 1831, serving four years.  He removed to Huron county in 1834, and was cashier of the Bank of Norwalk, residing there about two years.  He removed to Painesville, and was cashier of the Bank of Geauga county for ten years.  In 1846 he removed to Cleveland, where he now resides, and was subsequently elected president of the City bank of Cleveland, which position he held four years.  He was a member of the firm of Mygatt & Brown, private bankers in Cleveland six years.  He was elected to the Legislature from Cuyahoga county in 1855,

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     THE HOYT FAMILY

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     GEORGE TAYLER.   In this register of Warren business men, more than passing notice must be made of George Tayler, who was for twenty-three years cashier of the Western Reserve bank, and on the organization of the First National bank, was chosen to the cashiership of that institution.  His father, James Tayler, was born in Pennsylvania, his parents being natives of the north of Ireland.  He married Jane Walker, and settled in Franklin county. In 1814 they removed to Beaver county, and in 1815 came to Youngstown township.  He purchased on Mill creek a fulling mill and wool factory, which he operated for several years.  In the year 1831 Mr. Tayler removed to Youngstown.  His death occurred in 1834.  Their family consisted of nine children, only one of whom, Jane, the oldest, is living.  Robert and James D. were lawyers respectively in Youngstown and Warren, and are spoken of in other parts of this volume.  John was a commission merchant at Warren; Nancy was married to Dr. Adair, of Poland, and Susannah to John B. Canfield, of Warren; Albert, the youngest son, died in Youngstown; a sketch of Matthew B. the third son, follows in this connection.  George Tayler was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1811.  While his parents resided on Mill reek, in Youngstown township, he assisted in the woolen factory and on the farm, and in the meantime attended the district school.  After spending a term or two at the Youngstown academy, he began the study of law, in 1832, in the office of Burchard & Tod at Warren.  Tod was postmaster at that time, and his student was employed so much of the time in the post-office, that his study was seriously in terfered with.  This, after all, was probably a fortunate circumstance, for it threw Mr. Tayler into a business instead of a professional channel.  What he might have become as a lawyer can only be guessed; that he possessed business qualifications of a high order he proved by a highly successful career.  In 1835, having left the law office and the post-office, we find him employed as clerk to the treasurer of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, then in course of construction.  The following year he accepted a situation in the Western Reserve bank, at Warren.  That he proved himself faithful and efficient is shown by the fact that upon the death of Mr. Hickox, he was the choice of the direct ors for the cashiership.  This position he held in the Western Reserve bank, and in its successor, the First National bank, until his death, which occurred May 25, 1864.  During the twenty-eight years of his connection with the bank, he proved himself worthy of the confidence which the directors placed in him. Competent, honest, and courteous, he won the confidence of all with whom he came in contact, both in business and social relations.  He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and practiced the faith he professed.  Mr. Tayler was married Apr. 25, 1837, to Elizabeth Woodbridge, who still survives.  Six of their family lived to mature age.  The monument which marks the
grave of Mr. Tayler was erected by the bank directors as a tribute to his memory.

     MATTHEW B. TAYLER.    Matthew B. Tayler was the third son and fourth child of James and Jane Walker Tayler, whose settlement near Youngstown has been noted.  He was born at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, Mar. 17, 1815.  His boyhood was spent on the farm in Youngstown township, his time being divided between farm work and attendance upon the country school.  After his parents re-

Matthew B. Tayler

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moved to the village of Youngstown, he became a pupil at the “academy,” where he completed what may be termed a good business education.  At the age of eighteen years he embarked upon a business career.  From this time forward his life was one of earnest, ceaseless activity, and in that, chiefly, was the secret of his success.  His life furnishes an example of the value of early discipline, It was the close application and solicitous care which he gave to every transaction in his younger years that moulded the character of the exemplary and trustworthy business man.  Mr. Tayler's first experience was in the dry-goods business in the store of W. H. Goodhue, at Warren.  He continued in the dry-goods trade six years, until 1839, when he entered the Western Reserve bank as teller.  When the bank closed its accounts under the first charter in 1843, Mr. Tayler embarked in the forwarding and commission business on the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal.  This was his first independent venture, and gave him a wider and freer field of action than he had hitherto occupied.  Year after year the business grew and satisfactory gains rewarded his enterprise and labor.  While not actively employed in the old bank he became connected with its business in 1849, in the capacity of director, a position which he held until the bank closed out its business in 1863.  He subsequently became one of the first directors of the First National bank, and sustained that relation until his death.
     Mr. Tayler, in 1856, discontinued the canal trade and became a member of the coal firm of Tod & Yates, subsequently Tod, Yates & Tayler.  The office of the company was at Cleveland, but his family remained in Warren.  After about five years he severed his connection with the firm.
     In 1864, after the death of George Tayler, the directors of the First National bank showed their confidence in his brother, Matthew B., by choosing him to the vacant cashiership.  From that time until his death he discharged the duties of that office.
     Mr. Tayler was married Mar. 17, 1841, to Miss Adaline A. Hapgood, daughter of George Hapgood.  A family of eleven children blessed this union, all of whom are living.  In this large and interesting family the father took great pride and interest.  Always loving, always indulgent, always gentle, he found in the home circle a quieting refuge from every troubling care incident to active employments.  Mr. Tayler in 1840 became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and during the forty years of his connection with that society he was always found pure, tender and sincere.  Mr. Tayler was religious because he believed in Christianity, he was charitable because it gave him pleasure to relieve suffering and want.  Many unfortunate people lost a full-hearted friend and assistant when he died.
     During the month of November, 1880, Mr. Tayler complained considerably of indisposition, but with that will and determination which characterized all his conduct he remained at his post of duty.  On November 22d he was compelled to yield, and at 8 o'clock on the following morning, November 23d, he died.  The funeral services were held in the church of which he was a member November 26th.  As a token of the universal respect in which he was held all business was suspended during the sad funeral hour.
     Mr. Tayler was a man of medium height, broad shouldered, full-chested and compact body.  His large face wore a settled and benevolent expression.  His eyes and hair were dark.  Native affability quickly won the friendship of people with whom he came in contact, qualities of character held the friendship of those with whom he associated.  His manner was warm, hearty and sympathetic.  No better analysis of his character or tribute to his memory can be written than the memorial prepared by his business associates:

     When honored men pass away, it is well for us to consider those elements of character through which they won honor and achieved success.  Mr. Tayler was a modest, retiring man, seeking not the approbation of his fellows so much as the approval of a good conscience, and yet was he honored of all who knew him, and of none so much as those who knew him best. In qualities of mind and heart he was worthy of the esteem he secured from all.
     He was a man of a remarkably clear and well-poised judgment.  Everything submitted to his consideration was carefully examined and well weighed before a decision was given.  He had the rare faculty of retiring all extraneous questions, and personal influences, and judging of things upon their merits alone; his decisions were, therefore, accepted, and relied upon, as just, wise and conclusive.  In matters of great interest, and in times of deep excitement, his equanimity was undisturbed, and his judgment unclouded.
     He was a man capable of making fine moral distinctions, and was pre-eminently a lover of justice.  Everything in his own conduct and life was harmoniously keyed thereto.  No individual interest, no financial gains, no bias of friendship could make him deviate from the way commanded by the

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strictest justice, and the most uncompromising righteousness.  He was as true to the claims of honesty and probity as the chronometer to the hour of midnight.
     He was a man of convictions, and dared to maintain them.  Such was the constitution of his mind that he loved truth, and in his eye it was of great price.  He would not yield to error; he made no compromise with it.  Liberal, charitable in his thinking, he nevertheless paid homage to the truth as it came to him, and refused to part with it.  Unobtrusive in his opinions he was firmness itself in holding his beliefs.  He regarded beliefs as the constructors of character, and character as priceless.  A man of great strength of will, he was not obstinate - obstinacy seeks not for reasons; his opinions and decisions were always supported by them.
     He was successful in business and gained a competence; but he used it not for selfish gratification.  He was a man of benevolence and kindness of heart; a generous contributor to those institutions of society upon which its stability and excellency depend.  He had an ear to hear the wants of man kind, a heart to feel for them, and an open purse to relieve them.  Many were the objects of his charity who received his bounty not knowing whence it came.  He was a friend of the poor, a distributor to the needy.  Attentive to business and bearing heavy responsibilities, he yet found time for the discharge of those social obligations which devolve upon men in his station, and those church obligations which devolve upon the Christian.  As a friend, none could be truer, more reliable, more constant.
     He was a true Christian man.  This is saying much, but there are none who knew him that will question it.  His experience, his deeds, his life all bear witness to the great fact.  He carried his religion into his business, and business into his religion.  No man in the city of Warren commanded a larger share of the public confidence in his Christian integrity.  He was an example of a Christian business man to whom reference may be made with great assurance.  For forty years he lived in communion with the Methodist Episcopal church, of Warren, Ohio - a pillar, a wise counsellor, “a safe guide. The uniform testimony of that large, intelligent church to his simple, unaffected piety, his liberality, and the wisdom of his counsels, is a witness to his character that cannot be misinterpreted.  The esteem in which he was held by the citizens of Warren and the business communities adjacent, is a proof that no ordinary man has passed away.  Such men are rare, and dying, they leave vacancies that go unfilled for a generation.

     GEORGE HAPGOOD

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     JOSEPH MARVIN.  The Marvin family of this county are descended from Reynold Marvin, one of the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts.  Joseph Marvin, son of Matthew Marvin, was born at Lyme, New London county, Connecticut, Mar. 26, 1772.  He married in his native village in 1797.  This union continued for a period of nearly sixty eight years, until broken by the death of Mrs. Marvin, Sept. 24, 1864, then in the eighty fourth year of her age.  Mr. Marvin lived to the remarkable old age of one hundred and one years, five months, and three days, the date of his death being Aug. 29, 1873, at Atwater, Port age county, Ohio.  On the same day of the same month, sixty-seven years before, his father, Matthew Marvin, died.  He was a man of great industry and activity, being able to swing an axe even after he had passed the centennial of his birth.  Mrs. Marvin, too, was strong and healthy even in her old age.
     Joseph Marvin, son of Joseph Marvin, Sr., and well-known within the field of this history as teacher, merchant, and preacher, was born Jan. 12, 1807, in Lyme, Connecticut.  He accompanied his father's family in 1821 from their Connecticut home to Ohio, the journey being accomplished in the old-fashioned way, the wagon with goods being drawn by an ox-team, and the family by a horse-team.  Slowly they traveled for forty days, until Musquito creek, in Bazetta township, was reached.  There they settled in the midst of a woods more than five miles in extent, with all the surroundings of pioneer frontier life.  Turkeys, squirrels, and raccoons destroyed crops, and wolves made night hideous with horrible howling.  When the Marvin family settled in Bazetta there were only thirty-seven families in the township.  All that were then married are dead, except Mrs. William Davis, who lives with her son-in-law, William Kennedy, in Bazetta, now in her ninety-eighth year.
     Mr. Marvin, after having assisted his father on the farm seven years, began life for himself.  A boy's work on a farm at that time was wholly unlike a boy's work since machinery has come into general use.  Added to the toil of cultivating the soil was the severe labor of clearing, which was carried on year after year.  Mr. Marvin engaged in teaching until 1835, and in the meantime had devoted considerable attention to the study of medicine.  While at New Castle teaching, in 1834, he became interested in a religious revival, and on September 13th was soundly converted in the old Methodist style.  Before the year closed he joined the Methodist Episcopal

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church, and was licensed to preach in 1835 by the quarterly conference held at Greenville, Pennsylvania, in October of that year.  The presiding elder engaged him to labor on Salem circuit, consisting of twenty-seven appointments to be filled every six weeks.  Mr. Marvin filled his appointments in regular succession, preaching as often as eleven times in eight days.  There certainly was very little financial inducement for a Methodist itinerant in that day.  The highest salary Mr. Marvin ever received was $142 for a year.  The pay of most circuit riders was much less than that.  Mr. Marvin had weakened his constitution before entering the ministry, by excessive study, so that the physical exhaustion caused by his severe itinerant labors brought on nervous prostration.  He quit the circuit and resumed teaching.  In 1837 he was employed in an academic department to be connected with Ohio university at Athens.  He labored in his new field with success for some time.  He married, Dec. 25, 1838, Lucy Temple Dana, daughter of Joseph Dana, of Athens.
     Mr. Marvin, accompanied by his wife, returned to Trumbull county in January following, having resigned his position to a young college graduate.  Since that time he has been engaged in merchandising and farming, holding these employments, however, as secondary to the calling to which he devoted himself in early life.  During the forty-six years of ministerial life, sometimes in conference relation, but for the most part as local preacher, he has asked or received little monetary compensation for his labor, having ample outside means of support.  During all that period he has failed to meet but two appointments of his own announcement.  He has traveled in his buggy more than forty miles on Sunday and preached to two congregations.  It is a remarkable fact that despite the hard labor to which his life has been devoted he is yet, at the age of seventy-five years, hearty and strong.  His figure does not suggest old age, nor is he willing to admit what the incontrovertible logic of mathematics proves, that he is an old man.  Mr. Marvin, after the death of his first wife, married Ann VanGorder, daughter of James L. VanGorder, of Warren.  This city has been his home since 1851.

     BENJAMIN STEVENS AND STEVENS FAMILY.  The name of Stevens has been associated with the history of Warren since 1816.  The advance member of the family was Benjamin Stevens, a clothier, who took charge of the works here at that date, being then in his twenty-ninth year.  Mr. Stevens is yet living in Warren, as are also two of his brothers, the youngest of whom has passed his eighty-sixth year.
     The ancestry of this family has been traced to General Nicholas Stevens (or Stephens) a brigadier under Cromwell in the revolutionary army of 1649.  After the overthrow of the commonwealth and the restoration, in 1660, General Stevens, deeming prudence the better part of valor, came to America and settled in Taunton, Massachusetts.  From his youngest son Henry, Zebulon Stevens was descended.  He was a small Connecticut farmer, and had a family of seven sons, three of whom were in the Revolution— Zebulon, Thomas, and Benjamin.  The seventh son, Jonathan, was born in Canaan, Connecticut, Mar. 7, 1767.  He married in Connecticut Susan Wells, and in 1789 removed his family to Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and from there in 1799 to Addison county, Vermont.  The family at that time consisted of one daughter and five sons, the daughter and eldest son having been born in Connecticut.  The children were, Harriet, born in 1787; Benjamin, born July 20, 1788; William, born in 1790; Charles, born in 1792; Horace, born Feb. 4, 1794, and Augustus, March, 1796.
     The Stevens family belonged to the Jeffersonian or Democratic party, and in consequence were supporters of the war which was declared against England in 1812.  The father and all the sons belonged to the militia companies, and when an invasion of New England from the north was threatened, all but the youngest son volunteered.  All were engaged on the celebrated field of Plattsburg, Sept. 11, 1814, which resulted in the complete rout of British General Provost, with a loss of 3,000 men.  The American forces were mostly militia from the neighbor ing towns of Vermont and New York.  Every boy able to carry a gun was admitted to the lines.
     Jonathan Stevens came to Ohio after the emigration of his children, and settled at Newton

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Falls, where he enjoyed a peaceful old age.  His death occurred in 1848.  Mrs. Susan Wells Stevens died in Vermont.  Harriet, the only daughter, was married to Mr. Harris.  She came to Ohio in 1827, and lived with her father; went finally to reside with her son, Judge S. W. Harris, of Morris, Grundy county, Illinois, where she died.  William is residing in Pennsylvania, having attained the advanced age of ninety-two.  Charles married Catherine Sterling, of Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio.  He died in Warren in 1860.  He was in partnership with his brother Benjamin in the manufacture of cloth.  Horace came to Warren in 1817.  He was a hatter by trade, and opened a shop on Market street.  With the exception of an interval of a few years he has resided here ever since.  Augustus came to Warren in 1816, and engaged in business with his brother Benjamin in the cloth business.  He afterwards established a factory at Newton Falls which he operated for a number of years.  He now resides with the family of his brother Benjamin at Warren.
     Benjamin Stevens at the age of fourteen was apprenticed in a clothier's establishment in Vermont for a period of seven years—as it looks to us now, a long time to learn a trade.  At the expiration of his service he was given charge of the works, but soon engaged in business on his own responsibility.  He met with heavy loss at the conclusion of the War of 1812, in consequence of the demand for army clothing being suddenly stopped.  Mr. Stevens started West in search of a favorable location in 1816.  Warren being at that time the leading town in the Reserve, he like most other emigrants made this the objective point.  Levi Hadley was operating a carding machine and Thomas Wells had just fitted up machinery for making cloth.  Mr. Stevens purchased both establishments and operated a regular factory.  Water-power was not adequate to a large business in all the departments of carding, spinning, weaving, and fulling, but considerable flannel was made for the Pittsburg market, and cloth was manufactured at $1 per yard.
     The business mainly consisted in carding wool ready for the domestic spinning wheel.  During the year 1842 Mr. Stevens worked twenty-eight thousand pounds of wool.  The business began to decline about 1850 in consequence of the growth of larger establishments and increased transportation facilities.  Mr. Stevens sold out and retired in 1847.  He married, in 1825, Mary Case, daughter of Meshach Case.  Their family consisted of five children, three of whom are living.  Mary and Harriet reside in Warren; Lucy (Opdycke) in New York; Benjamin and Leonard are dead.  Mrs. Mary (Case) Stevens died in Warren Apr. 18, 1874.
     He was initiated into the Masonic fraternity in Vermont and in former years attended the communications of the lodge at Warren.  He is the oldest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, having been received into membership but a few months after the organization of the first class in November, 1819, composed of six persons.  For more than sixty years Mr. Stevens has made the simple demands of his church a part of his life, and in his old age is comforted by the faith which has ripened with years.  (CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS)

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     Horace Stevens was born in Huntingdon township, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, Feb. 2, 1794.  In 1808 or 1809 he went to learn the hatters trade, at which he served some six years.  In the fall of 1816 he came to Warren, Ohio, and the following spring commenced at his trade in Warren, in which he continued until 1828, when he removed to Newton Falls, and with his brother Augustus built a flouring- and saw-mill, and also clothing and carding works.  He resided there until 1867, when he retired from active business and removed to Warren, where he has since resided.  In 1819 he married Miss Aurelia Pier, who was born in 1798.  She died in 1851.  Mr. Stevens volunteered in the War of 1812, and was under fire at the battle of Plattsburg.  He was captain of the Rifle Grays in Warren in 1825 or 1826.  His first American ancestor was General Nicholas Stevens, who came over in 1660 and settled at Taunton, Massachusetts.  Of his family four daughters are living, namely: Aurelia Hall, of Philadelphia; Mary B. Fuller, of Warren; Laura A. Merwin, of Fox Lake, Wisconsin, and Frances Smith, of Waupun, Wisconsin.  Mary B. Stevens was born in Warren Oct. 25, 1822, and married Ira Lucius Fuller Dec. 10, 1840.  Mr. Fuller came to Warren at an early day and was a clerk in the post office and county clerk's office; read law and was admitted

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to the bar in Warren, and was a successful lawyer.  He was subsequently elected probate judge.  He died Oct. 16, 1874.  Six of the eight children of Judge and Mrs. Fuller are living— Mrs. Mary C. Harmon, Horace S., and Emily S. Tidball, of Nebraska; Lucius E., of Bradford, Pennsylvania; Harriet P., attending Cooper seminary at Dayton, Ohio; Robert P., at home.  Lily S., wife of R. H. Freer, died May 22, 1873, and Ella T., at the age of twenty, in 1872.

     Augustus Stevens was born in Pennsylvania in 1796.  He was married to Esther C. Sherril, of Vergennes, Vermont, in 1821.  She died in Newton Falls in 1860.  He removed with his family to Vermont, and in 1816 made his first visit to Ohio.  He stopped with his brother Benjamin in Warren, and subsequently engaged with him in the manufacture of cloth at this place.  He built a grist-mill about 1822, below the present Market-street bridge, which he sold in 1828 to James L. Van Gorder.  Mr. Stevens then removed to Newton Falls, where he built a grist-mill and cloth factory, which he operated in partnership with his brother Horace.  In 1861 he returned.

     CASE FAMILY.  The Case family settled in Trumbull county, near Warren, in the year 18oo. The name is of Dutch origin.  Meshach Case was of Holland parentage on his father's side and Irish on his mother's side.  He was born in New Jersey in 1752, and in 1780 he married, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Magdalen Eckstine, who was of German descent.  They settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania, whence they removed to Trumbull county.  Mr. Case was a farmer and shared the experiences incident to life in a new country.  Mrs. Case died in 1832 at the age of seventy years.  Mr. Case lived to the age of eighty-nine years, his death taking place in 1841.  Their family consisted of eight children.  Elizabeth was married to James Ellis, of Warren, Ohio, removed to Kentucky, and after his death she returned to Warren and died here; Leonard removed to Cleveland; Catharine was married to Daniel Kerr, of Painesville; Mary was married to Benjamin Stevens of Warren; Reuben removed to Maysville, Kentucky; Sarah was married to Cyrus Bosworth, of Warren; Jane died in childhood; Zopher, the only surviving member of the family, resides in Cleveland.
     Of Leonard, the oldest son of Meshach Case, it is proper that something more should be said although his mature years were spent in Cleveland.  He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1786, and was consequently about sixteen years old when his parents settled in this county.  A severe sickness the following year left him a cripple for life.  Poor and unfitted for physical labor, his chief anxiety was how to escape becoming a burden upon his friends.  He secured a few books and began the study of surveying, which at that time was considered profitable business.  This was at a period of life when a whole career depends upon the little things which lead the way.  Though he never became a regular surveyor he acquired a fair knowledge of the business, which was of in estimable service to him in after life.  In 1806, being twenty-two years old, he obtained employment in the land office in Warren.  His work attracted the attention of John S. Edwards, county recorder, who induced him to study law.  In connection with other work he did sufficient reading to be admitted to the bar.  His position in the land office gave him an accurate knowledge of the Western Reserve—its history and its resources.  The appointment to the position of collector of taxes of non-residents on the Reserve still further increased his acquaintance.
     In 1816 the Commercial bank of Lake Erie was organized and Mr. Case was appointed cashier.  Cleveland was a small town at that time, and the bank did not occupy Mr. Case's whole attention.  He pursued his profession and acquired the reputation of being the best authority in northern Ohio on questions relating to the law of real estate and land titles.  He seldom appeared in the trial of general causes in the courts.  In addition to banking and professional work he dealt extensively in real estate, which, after 1834, occupied all his time.  His life was by no means devoted exclusively to the accumulation of a fortune.  He was public-spirited and used his influence and wealth for the upbuilding of his adopted city.  He died in Cleveland Dec. 7, 1864, leaving one son, Leonard, who has since died without issue.

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