BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of
Wayne Co., Ohio
Vol. I
Illustrated
Publ. by B. F. Bowen & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana
1910
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Samuel B. Eason |
SAMUEL BROWN EASON
Source: History of
Wayne Co., Ohio - Vol. I - Illustrated - Publ. by B. F. Bowen &
Company, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1910 - Page 832 |
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ABRAM
ETLING. When a man wins his own way from an humble
station and discouraging environment to success and an honorable
standing in the community, his career is worthy of representation in
the history of such a locality. We find in studying the career
of Abram Etling, a farmer in Chippewa township, Wayne
county, that such were his experiences. His birth occurred on
the homestead now occupied by his brother, Jan. 9, 1852, and he is
the son of William and Abigail (Myers) Etling. His
paternal grandparents were Henry and Katherine Etling,
natives of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, who came to Wayne county,
Ohio, about 1820, among the pioneers of the community where they
settled. Mr. Etling did not long survive after
coming here, Mrs. Etling living until 1866. The
maternal grandparents of the subject were John and Mary Myers,
also natives of Pennsylvania, who came to Wayne county, Ohio, about
the same time as did the first members of the Etling
family.
The maternal grandmother also took up land, two quarter
sections in Chippewa township, consequently at one time this family
were collectively quite extensive land owners.
William Etling, father of Abram,
was born in Pennsylvania on Dec. 3, 1815, and his wife, Abigail
Myers, was born Dec. 18, 1822.
they came to Ohio with their parents and were here married on June
3, 1841. Mr. Etling engaged in farming, and at
the time of his death owned over one hundred and sixty acres in
Chippewa township, where he became well known and fairly well to do.
His death occurred Sept. 27, 1892, having been preceded to the
silent land by his Wife only a few months, her death having occurred
on Jan. 16, 1892. William Etling was a Democrat
and took considerable interest in local affairs, having held the
office of trustee several terms. He and his wife were the
parents of nine children, two of whom died in infancy, seven living
at this writing.
Abram Etling was educated in the common
schools of Chippewa township and was reared on the farm, which he
worked during the crop season. When the Civil war began
Abram's older brother enlisted in the Union army and the subject
was compelled to remain at home to work. Quite naturally he
took up farming and has followed this line of work ever since, with
the exception of three years, when he moved to Barberton and engaged
in teaming from 1904. Finally returning to the farm, he still
manages the same with success, his place consisting of eighty acres,
on which he raises a diversity of excellent crops and keeps some
stock, the two lines of endeavor making him a very comfortable
living.
Mr. Etling was married Mar. 2, 1875,
McIntyre, a native of Wayne county, Ohio, and the daughter of
Phillip and Agnes Mclntyre, old settlers of this county, who now
live in Kansas. To Mr. and Mrs. Etling were born nine
children, namely: William E., Bertus Oliver, Arthur M.
(deceased), Bertha Alice, Etta Blanch, Laura K. (deceased).
Forest Richard, Florence Arville and
Abram Harold.
Mr. Etling is a Democrat and he and his
wife are members of the Reformed church in Marshallville.
Source: History of Wayne Co., Ohio - Vol. I - Illustrated -
Publ. by B. F. Bowen & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1910 - Page
1439 |
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JOHN
E. ETLING The men who have pushed forward the wheels
of progress have been those to whom satisfaction lies ever in the
future, who have labored continuously, always finding in each
transaction and transition state an incentive to further effort.
J. E. Etling, of this review, is one whose well directed
efforts have gained for him a position of desirable prominence in
his neighborhood in Chippewa township, Wayne county, where he was
born on the same place that he now owns, Jan. 12, 1859, the son of
William and Abigail (Myers) Etling, a complete history of the
parents being found in the sketch of A.
Etling, appearing on another page of this work.
Suffice it here to say that the ancestors of the subject were people
of worth and influence and among the leading residents of their
respective communities.
J. E. Etling was educated in the district school
No. 7, in Chippewa township, which he attended during the winter
months, it being necessary for him to assist with the work on the
farm in the summer time. The work he did with his father on
the home place when a boy well fitted him for his subsequent career
as an agriculturist, he having began farming for himself at the age
of twenty-one, renting the home place, continuing thus for twelve
years, when he purchased the same, having prospered and saved his
money until he then had a good start. It was in April, 1892,
that he bought the north half and in 1907 he purchased the south
half, and he has since added to that until he is now the owner of
two hundred and four acres in one body in Chippewa township and as
fine land as the township affords.
Mr. Etling has shown that he is an
excellent manager by the manner in which he has improved his land
and the abundant harvests he has reaped from his well cultivated
fields and the excellent grade of livestock which he markets from
year to year, having carried on general farming and stock raising in
a manner that shows him to be fully abreast of the times. He
has a commodious and well furnished residence and many good
outbuildings. He cleared twenty-five acres of the home farm,
which is now all cleared but two and one-half acres.
Mr. Etling was married in 1880 to
Elizabeth Shafer, whose parents were natives of Germany,
though born in different provinces. They came to Wayne county,
Ohio, many years ago and became fairly prosperous and well known.
To Mr. and Mrs. Etling the following
children have been born: Viola B., now Mrs. Frank
Snyder, of Barberton, Ohio; W. B. married Mary
Rich and works for his father; Eva Grace
married John Morningstar, of Canal Fulton, this state;
Charles W. married Ida Byler, of Barberton;
Isa Abigail, who also lives in Barberton, married
Robert Rasor; J. H. is living at home, as are also
Minnie Ethel, who married Mr. Frasse, and
Jefferson G.
Politically, Mr. Etling is a
Democrat, and he has been a member of the school board and a trustee
of Chippewa township, serving these offices to the entire
satisfaction of all and with much credit to himself.
Source: History of Wayne Co., Ohio - Vol. I - Illustrated -
Publ. by B. F. Bowen & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1910 - Page
1352 |
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DAVID G. EVANS,
son of James Evans, a pioneer settler, was born in Baughman
township, Apr. 4, 1833. At the close of his country school
days he served as a dry goods clerk in stores at Dalton and
Massillon, after which he was engaged in various pursuits in
Illinois and Missouri. At Springfield, Illinois, as a
bookkeeper in a large dry goods house, he was personally acquainted
with Abraham Lincoln. He returned to Orrville in 1860
and engaged in the drug and grocery business.
He was joined in wedlock to Mary Jane Taggart,
daughter of Robert Taggart, one of the pioneer settlers of
Baughman township and Orrville. Mary Jane died one year
before her husband. He died in 1901 and left no children.
He was known as one of Orrville's most strenuous and enterprising
business men.
Source: History of Wayne Co., Ohio - Vol. I - Illustrated -
Publ. by B. F. Bowen & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1910 - Page
783 |
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WILLIAM S. EVANS. William Shafer
Evans, son of James and Katherine Gardner Evans, was
born on the family homestead farm in section 25, school district No.
5, Baughman township, Wayne county, Ohio, Dec. 23, 1843, fourth son
of his father's family, the other children being David G., John
G. and James S. He traces his lineage back to
John Evans, who was born in Wales in 1724, emigrated to
Pennsylvania and died in Ohio. His grandfather (James
Evans) and father were both born in Pennsylvania. The
former died on the above mentioned homestead in the year 1852; the
latter died in Orrville in the year 1887.
W. S. Evans never attended any other schools or
educational institute than the “Pokeberry” district school near the
place of his birth, and it was exceedingly primitive at that time.
As early as ten years of age he gave evidence of his journalistic or
newspaper tendency in editing and reading before the school each
Friday afternoon, or literary day, an imitation local newspaper, in
which the neighborhood and school news and gossip was presented in a
semi-comical manner, which afforded much amusement to the scholars
and their parents, who would assemble to enjoy the exercises of the
occasion in the little red school from which it took the cognomen
“Pokeberry.” He was also the champion speller in the school
and his elder brother frequently carried the smaller boy on his
shoulder through the deep snow for the purpose of “spelling down”
the champions in the surrounding districts such as “Bunker Hill,”
“Number Four” and “Mock’s” schools.
His first effort in writing for publication occurred
when, at about nine years of age, he conceived the idea of reporting
the condition of the growing crops and other farm news for the
Ohio Farmer, then published in Cleveland. In February,
1860, his brother, D. G., opened a grocery and drug store in
Orrville and brought W. S. with him to help about the store.
During the next two years and while about the store during the day
he got permission from John D. McNulty, Orrville’s first
telegraph operator, to go into the telegraph office at night and
practice the art of telegraphy. In this way he became extra
operator for the relief of operators along the line of the
Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago railway. In the spring of 1863
he was sent to take charge of the telegraph office at Plymouth,
Indiana, where he was employed for one year and was returned to
Orrville in 1864 and was the manager of the telegraph office in that
place for ten years, or until 1874, when he went to Akron and spent
the summer in the office of the Akron Daily Argus, as
assistant to the editor and in other office duties. Resigning
this position at Akron, he returned to the railway office and filled
such positions as telegrapher, freight office clerk, ticket, freight
and express agent, with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Northern
Pacific; Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific; Chesapeake & Ohio;
Chicago Great Western; Wheeling & Lake Erie; Pennsylvania and
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railways.
On June 21, 1868, Mr. Evans was joined in
marriage with Celia Seymour Painter, adopted daughter of the
late Rev. W. H. Painter, and who is yet living. From this
union one son, Willian P. Evans, was born. This son
gave great promise from his very unusual mental endowment, but died
on his twenty-fifth birthday in Chicago in the year 1894 from spinal
tuberculosis.
In the year 1866, while in the telegraph office at
Orrville, the subject of our sketch procured a small printing outfit
which included a “Lowe" press, a conical shaped cylinder, which
swung around from one end and by which he could execute various
kinds of job work. such as sale and hand bills and indifferent card
printing. This was the first printing press and outfit in
Orrville and rendered much service for those days, but its work was
not fine enough for the fastidious taste of our pioneers in this
line of progressive development, so he sold it to C. M. Kenton,
a printer at Shreve. Determined upon continuing yet
further efforts in the printing line our amateur purchased a Novelty
foot-power press and a nice outfit of type, with which he turned out
much of the small work in a highly creditable manner.
In the year 1867 Mr. Evans began the
publication of Orrville’s first newspaper and on September 15th of
that year he issued number one of volume one of The Orrville
Ventilator, a four-page monthly paper devoted to the local news
and business interests of Orrville, the printing being done at the
office of the Wooster Republican. This arrangement was
continued until January, 1870, when John A. Wolbach, of
Wadsworth, came to Orrville with a printing outfit of type and
presses and prepared to issue a weekly paper. On the third
week of January, 1870, Mr. Wolbach issued the first
number of the Orrville Ventilator, weekly, taking the data of
the monthly ventilator number one, volume five. In April, or
three months later, the name was changed to Orrville Crescent
and Mr. Evans was continued as local editor the first
year of the issue of the weekly Ventilator and Crescent.
Mr. Wolbach is now a respected resident of Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
In October, 1906, Mr. Evans was
offered and accepted the editorship of the Orrville Courier,
which he held for one year, when too arduous labor and advancing age
obliged him to relinquish. He found much pleasure in
conducting its columns in accordance with his ideas of what best
subserves the requirements of a village and country weekly and made
a commendable record.
It was noticeable throughout the multiplicity of
essays, editorials, selections and random notes that he always
upheld and advocated optimism, hopefulness, good cheer and a higher
and better life. He was possessed of a rare appreciation of
genuine wit or clean, good humor and always liked to publish
anything that he thought would be appreciated and cherished by his
readers. He also nourished an inherent hatred of hypocrisy,
conceit and falsity. He was naturally of a retired, reserved
disposition, but a true and devoted friend to any one whom he
believed to be honest and trying to do what is right. If he
acquired a dislike of any one it was not his disposition to quarrel
with him, but rather to let each go his own way. He was
generous to an unusual degree and would give the last cent he had to
help a friend. In politics he was an ardent Republican from
the date of that party’s birth in 1856, but did not care to indulge
in political discussion, because he believed that every man was
entitled to his own opinion.
Source: History of Wayne Co., Ohio - Vol. I - Illustrated -
Publ. by B. F. Bowen & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1910 - Page
787 |
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