ROSWELL A. BUTTON.
     We can give in this volume but a brief outline of the career and experiences of Captain Button.  His life has been written, and few more fascinating volumes have ever been published. It is the record of ten years of seafaring life in its most interesting phase.  From the unpublished manuscript we derive our information for this sketch.
     Captain Button is a descendant of Thomas Button, a mariner whose name is found in the record of North American discoveries and explorations in the seventeenth century.  Among the descendants were several sailors, and of his father's family, consisting of ten children, there were three—James, Erasmus, and Roswell A. James was lost at sea near Kamtschatka.  Erasmus became a partner of Roswell in the management of the merchant bark Clara Windsor.
     Captain Button was born at Preston, New London county, Connecticut, June 28, 1822, and was the son of Allen and Anne A. (Witer) Button, both natives of Connecticut.  He was quite young when his father died, and left without the means of acquiring an education.  He attended the common schools, and early formed a taste for reading.  He was especially interested in works of travel and adventure, which aroused his imagination and produced an ardent
longing for the sea.
     In 1843, having just passed his twenty-first year and ambitious for adventure, he enlisted as a common sailor before the mast on board the whaling vessel Lowell of New London, about to embark for the northwest coast of North America.  Her course was by way of Cape of Good Hope, Indian ocean, and across the Pacific.  After eight months voyaging the Isles of the Azores were reached, where the sea abounds in Its "mightiest of monsters."  Here the first prize of the seamen was spied, and after an exciting
chase captured.  This voyage occupied three years, during which time the vessel coasted among the Azores, around Australia, touched Van Dieman's Land, and coasted the Sandwich Islands.  We quote a glimpse or two from the manuscript volume of which we have spoken:

     One of the most interesting peculiarities of the whale is its immense loss of blood in death.  It is presumed to have a large supply arteriorized in a reservoir, which is brought into use when that in general circulation becomes vitiated during a prolonged submergence.  This reservoir is what whalemen term the life of the whale, and it is the spot sought by the harpoon and lance.  When touched the bloody torrent surcharges the lungs and is expelled through the spout hole, suffocation and death following, but when the wound is slight the agonies of the dying beast are prolonged.  The poor creature will lie on the surface feebly propelling itself onward, and with quick repeated sobs will pour out its life by slow degrees, coloring the surface of the ocean a deep crimson.  From this stupor it is aroused to its last struggle.  The head rises and falls, and the flukes, which are fifty feet long, thrash the water rapidly.  With great speed it swims in a large circle two or three times, and then falls on its side dead.

     The narrative of the first voyage concludes:

     Now let us follow our old friend, the Lowell, on her way home.  When we left her she was near New Zealand in about 35° south latitude; here two sperm whales were caught and then on she went into the southern sea, and then doubling the horn .and stormy capo in latitude 57° south, after this her course Lay through the north .Atlantic, continuing her voyage until port New London was reached, where sails were furled, the anchor dropped, and to express their joy for safe return and good success in achieving the object of their expedition - a full cargo of oil and bone - they fired fifty-eight guns.  Two weeks after their arrival their cargo was discharged and each man was paid off according to his share.  Then the sailors visited their friends; the first voyage was ended.

     After six weeks spent in rest at home the "Lowell of New London" again raised anchor and set sail for another voyage.  After sailing six months Kamtschatka was reached, northeast of Asia, and the Yellow sea was traversed.  At the end of this voyage four thousand barrels of oil, worth $50 per barrell, besides a large amount of bone, was brought home.  This second voyage occupied the same period as the first with almost equal results, but Mr. Button, who was one of the experienced men, experienced more perils.  He had two boats stove and was once thrown twenty feet into the water.  He acquired the reputation (an enviable one among sailors) of being the strongest man in the whaling service.  We again quote from Jones' manuscript biography of him:

     The secret of Captain Button's wonderful strength lay in the possession of a naturally strong constitution, increasing instead of diminishing its energies by constant exercise and the regular observance of temperance habits.

     After returning from the second voyage on the "Lowell" six more weeks were spent at home. The  "Lowell" was sold and the Montezuma purchased for a third journey.  On the second voyage he had been boat-steerer and was now advanced to second mate.  While at the Sandwich islands Mr. Button left his own ship and engaged as first mate on the Clematis and after returning to this country abandoned the whaling service.  His last seafaring was as captain of the "Clara Windsor," a merchant vessel which made regular trips between New York and St. Domingo.
     In 1853 Mr. Button quit the sea for more quiet pursuits.  He came to Ohio and settled on the farm he now owns, west of Mesopotamia center, and the following year married Miss Caroline S. Reynolds, whose acquaintance he had made in Connecticut.  She was his perfect counterpart, and their married life was a season of unbroken happiness till the dread disease, consumption, began to show signs of its presence.  Mr. Button traveled extensively in Cuba, Florida, and California, m company with his wife, in the hope of arresting the progress of the fatal disease, but without effecting the desired result.  She died at Sacramento, California, Dec. 28, 1873.  From this time until his second marriage, Oct. 6, 1881, Mr. Button lived entirely alone at Mesopotamia.  The maiden name of his present wife was Louie Humphries, daughter of Richard and Ann H. Humphries, of Ashtabula county.
Source: History of Trumbull & Mahoning Counties - Cleveland: H. Z. Williams & Bro. -  Vol. 2 - 1882 - Page 498

WILLIAM LAIRD
     William Laird, son of James Laird, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, Nov. 20, 1809.  He came to Mesopotamia in 1811.  His father moving there at that time, and bringing his wife and eight children, was the eleventh settler in the township.  His father and mother both died in 1826, and William, who was the youngest son, lived with an older brother until he arrived at the age of eighteen, when he commenced life for himself.  He resided m Mesopotamia until 1874, at which time he went to Dakota Territory, where he pre-empted a claim in the Vermillion valley and became a citizen of that Territory.  In 1832 he was married to Hannah Chambers, of Champion, Trumbull county, a daughter of John Chambers, with whom he lived forty-two years, and buried in Dakota, Oct. 9, 1874. In 1877 he came to Cleveland, Ohio.  In 1880 he was married a second time, to Mrs. Eliza Sartin, of Cleveland, and now resides at No. 34 Herman street, in that city.  Of his children, five in number, Matthew A., the oldest son, married Rachel McDonald, of Toledo, Ohio, and is now a manufacturer and dealer in Kansas City, Missouri; John Chambers, his second son, died in 1855 at the age of eighteen and lies in Mesopotamia; Elizabeth M., his only daughter, married William B. Fauss, of Mesopotamia, and
now resides with her husband and three children at Elk Point, Dakota, in the town where her mother is buried; Edwards W. married Ada E. Williams, daughter of Justin Williams—he is a member of the law firm of Marvin, Laird & Cadwell, of Cleveland, and resides at No. 266 Franklin avenue, in that city; Marcellus G., his youngest son, died in Dakota, Aug. 20, 1874.  Maggie Pierce, his wife, and daughter of Deacon Joseph Pierce, of Champion, Ohio, died Sept. 21, 1874, in the same Territory, and son and daughter he by the side of the mother in Elk Point.  William Pierce, their son, and the namesake and only grandson, died in May, 1875, the house of his grandfather, in Champion.  Mr. Laird is of Scotch descent, being of the third generation born in this country.  He has been a member of the Presbyterian church for more than fifty years, and was for many years one of its ruling officers.  His early life as well as a part of his later years, has been spent on the frontier and his whole life has been an active one, yet at the age of seventy-three he is hale and hearty, retaining all his faculties.  Though residing in Cleveland, he retains his old home in Mesopotamia, and says he will as long as he lives, and when he says home it means either Cleveland or Mesopotamia, the meaning of the word depending upon which place is spoken of.
SHARON WICK'S NOTE:  Both addresses listed are no longer in existence.
Source: History of Trumbull & Mahoning Counties - Cleveland: H. Z. Williams & Bro. -  Vol. 2 - 1882 - Page 499