Wayne County, Ohio - Chapter 19: Wooster, 1878 (part 4 of 8)

acter. He has long been an advocate of the present school system, and a champion of popular education and reform. In his more vigorous days he bore a conspicuous part in the public lyceum, and was a fair and honorable antagonist in the debating club. He has been a member of the church for over forty years, has strong religious convictions, a firm faith in the Bible and the great promise it embodies to the enlightened and believing soul. The external testimony and practice of religion will avail little, when "Wisdom shall be justified of her children," and when human nature must appear cleansed, unsullied and purified. Sincerity and plainness, a generous integrity of purpose and honesty of disposition, are the components of the man.

To him are we indebted for the inception and organization of the Wayne County Historical Society, and Dr. Firestone has appropiately named him, "the Father of the Society." He first agitated the movement through the papers, talked it up on the streets, urged it in the public offices, and finally succeeded in getting an organization. When members grew disheartened at the prospect, and prognosticated failures and delays, he clung to his fancied project, with rare old English pluck ; and when the work was in progress, when the battle was being fought, he did not hide in his tent until it was over, or shrink at the call of the muster roll, but performed his part like a hero.

Samuel N. Bissell was born, January 22, 1809, in the village of Vernon, Oneida county. State of New York. He was a nephew of Hezekiah Bissell, M. D., and a son of Eliphaz Bissell, a native of the old English borough of Torringford, Litchfield county, twenty-five miles north-west of Hartford, Connecticut, who subsequently removed to Oneida county. New York, where he became an excellent medical practitioner, and where in the discharge of professional duties he unfortunately met death by drowning.

The subject of this sketch. Dr. Samuel Norton Bissell, was named after his grandfather, Samuel Norton, an old citizen of Goshen, Connecticut, with whom he spent a considerable portion of his early life. Under the careful guidance and management of his father and grandfather, and withal being a bright, promising, intellectual young man, ever ready to embrace opportunities of mental culture and development, and appropriate them to the best possible uses, he succeeded in procuring a more than ordinarily fair education. To this emphatic mental achievement of S. N. Bissell is due, not simply the liberal interposition of parental concern, but the quick, energetic seizure of opportunity which too many allow to escape, but which, in his case, was perseveringly utilized. He was a student and investigator from the beginning, and herein consisted the basis of his future, unfolding life. The idea sought to be advanced is not that he was precocious, although he was brilliant, but that he seemed to possess, in a remarkable degree, a responsible consciousness, even when a young man, of his relations to the world, and of what the world in after years would exact from him.

With this vivid realization of things was it possible for him to do anything else than to fortify himself for a conflict with men and the forces which men set up against each other?

Happy is he who, at the earliest moment, discovers this mighty secret, for, in the end, the discovery will be made, and then too often with disappointment, vexation and disaster. For, conceal it as you will, the whole path of life is beset with foes who compass your downfall and oppose your elevation.

Of this Samuel N. Bissell had early foresight, and wisely prepared for the approaching struggle. While his grandfather, with true New England shrewdness, endeavored to impress him with the necessity of education, he found an apt and appreciating pupil in his nephew. So that, we affirm, Samuel N. Bissell embarked upon life a good scholar and signally qualified to explore the domain of physic. Feeling that the wide universe was his, and that "no pent up Utica confines our powers," he adopted the rational and intelligent conception of "going West," which determination, pushed to an issue, introduced him in Wooster, the field and scene of his future professional labor.

Arriving hither, he at once entered the office of his uncle, Hezekiah Bissell, then a successful practicing physician of the village. With him he remained, pressing his studies with indefatigable courage, "scorning delights and living laborious days." Here he remained until he had completed his elementary and college

He was married September 25, 1832, to Eliza, daughter of Hon. John Sloane. He pursued the practice of medicine in Wooster, until his death, which occurred June 13, 1848. The circumstances and occasion of his death are both painful and affecting. His youngest sister, Mrs. Eunice C, wife of Harvey Howard, then residing in Tiffm, Ohio, was seriously sick. A courier was dispatched to Dr. Bissell, summoning him immediately to her bedside. With characteristic promptness he obeyed the request. There being no railroad direct to the point, he had to cross the country, from which exposure he was prostrated with pneumonia, from the effects of which, absent from his own home, and in the house of his suffering sister, he suddenly died. Verily, indeed, was he a martyr to his friends, his profession, to which he was devoted, and the behests of duty. While he had rescued many a sufferer from the darkness of the camps of death, his arm was powerless, as was that of his friends, to save himself. He consecrated himself to a glorious work, but in the mingling splendors of a growing fame he fell beside the altar he had built.

His remains were conveyed to Wooster, and deposited in the old Presbyterian graveyard, but were subsequently transferred to the Wooster cemetery. By his marriage with EHza Sloane, there resulted two sons, J. S. and H. H. Bissell, both of whom are living. His wife survived him until June 14, 1871. She was a faithful member of the Presbyterian church, and a pious, exemplary woman. The unexpected and sudden death of Dr. Samuel N. Bissell, to the people of Wooster and Wayne county, fell like a thunder-burst from a clear sky. All remembered him that knew him, as a hale, vigorous and robust man, with an undoubted lease of three score and ten upon his life. His hight was not imposing, but he was a fine specimen of physical manhood, built up squarely and firmly as granite rock, and weighing about two hundred pounds.

Our rapid and hasty review of Dr. Bissell presents him as a man of marked character and distinctive cast of mind. He qualified himself for his profession before he entered upon it. There was no superficial learning or pedantry about him. In the ways of conceit or audacious assumption he was poorly gifted ; for in his temper and disposition vanity and self-confidence had no place whatever. He was not, we dare say, unconscious of his power, but naturally modest and retiring, and altogether devoid of popular art, he could not advance himself by practices which, when adroitly played, seldom fail to promote the fortune of inferior minds. He did not, however, have to wait long for the public to appreciate or patronize him, but soon established his reputation by the united and irreversible judgment of his compeers.

In our worldly affairs it sometimes pleases Fortune to lend a capricious smile where neither true merit, nor wisdom, nor industry entitle an unworthy object to the grateful concession. But less fickle in her gifts and good will than the sportive goddess is famed to be, that poetic deity seldom fails to add her grace and blessing wherever virtue, constancy and qualification unite to aid the good man in a heroic struggle for honest promotion. The truth of this reflection was powerfully and handsomely illustrated in the career and progress of Dr. Bissell. His armor consisted of courage and fairness, integrity and intelligence.

Great, indeed, was his triumph - not greater than the measure of his high and indisputable claims do justly challenge. He was practical and observant from the very outstart of his studies. He did not contemplate the human frame from the vital standpoint, but simply as a grand mechanism ; a complex structure, whose builder must have been none less than God. Hence to understand this mechanism - its essential and perfect action - the harmonious unison and melody of all its parts, or to be able to detect its discords, or to adjust its derangements, was, with him, the objective purpose of his investigations.

The mystery and origin of life were not comprised in his motive ; simply the perfection and healthy, symmetrical preservation of that life. It matters not to Blind Tom who makes his musical instruments ; his mission is to elicit its harmonies, correct its discords, and make it perform a perfect work. With this interpretation of his duties, Dr. Bissell practiced medicine, and in the various walks of his profession distinguished himself as one of the most popular and scientific physicians and surgeons of Northern Ohio. He was a man of strong attachments and of amiable and benevolent disposition ; of kind heart and strong brain.

In politics he was a Whig, and had he taken to it would have made a skillful manager. He served in the capacity of Associate Judge of Common Pleas Court in 1845. In his general manner and bearing he was quiet and unobtrusive. While he was practical and business-like, those who knew him best testify to his warm feelings, his generous and noble disposition, and to the happy and interesting fervor which, in a circle of cherished and confiding friends, oftentimes turned his natural gravity into echoes of joyous mirth, or accents of animated and excited hilarity.

Such is the short history of the subject of this memoir; such his virtues and his skill and learning ; such the traits of his attractive, unblemished character. Some may equal - all should emulate, but few will rival or excel his sterling worth, either as a citizen or a professional man.

John Sloane Bissell, his oldest son, named in memory of his worthy and illustrious grandfather. Colonel Sloane, reproduces some of the characteristics of his father, and gives promise of -demonstrating the possibilities to be attained by devotion to business, and the promotion to be achieved by adhesion to a single pursuit. He was born in the city of Wooster, and is a Buckeye to the manner born. When but a lad of tender years he was dispossessed of the paternal guardianship, and had for his guide and counselor only the kind and gentle admonitions of his mother. With her he remained during the years of his minority, and in fact until her -death, a constant witness of her dutiful and exemplary life, daily receiving the benefits of her instruction and the inspiration of her affectionate attentions. Opportunity was furnished him early of going to the village schools, and subsequently the Academy of Professor Hill, all of which he cordially embraced, so that by the time he was ready to engage in business he was quite proficient in his studies.

His first introduction to business was in the capacity of clerk, in the house of Plumer & King, in which relation he continuously served until his embarkation in business enterprises upon his own account. It will be observed from what is written that Mr. Bissell has deviated from the traditional tendency of his father and uncle toward the profession of medicine, and has seen proper to launch his life-vessel upon the waters of mercantile speculation. In this respect he has been the arbiter of his own occupation.

He is now at the head of one of the largest, best appointed and most judiciously arranged mercantile establishments in the city, of which himself and brother are proprietors.

In his commercial transactions he has, as far as possible, adopted the cash basis - the true principle underlying all business, whereby the purchaser receives a greater equivalent for his money and the seller a more rapid realization of his profits. He buys his goods himself; pays little attention to valise-bummers, sample men and commercial tramps, who subsist by recognized frauds, and who fizzle or fatten, as the case may be, by duplicity and misrepresentation.

He is his own accountant and book-keeper ; foots up the columns and knows they are right without further inquiry, and works behind the counter when there is a rush. In short, Mr. Bissell is an enterprising, accommodating business man.

He has keen perceptions, is a quick thinker and a vigorous worker. After sleeping six or eight hours his eyes are open the remainder of the twenty-four. If he makes a bad bargain to-day, it will teach him a lesson, and he will make none to-morrow. To sum it all up, he understands the mental arithmetic of calico, muslin and silk. His experiences, all of them, whether good or bad, are a decided advantage to him. He is a man of nerve and force, somewhat excitable, but with confidence enough in himself to be his own master. He is kind hearted and liberal where he is justified in it. He knows how to appear free and open without danger of intrusion, and to be cautious without seeming reserved ; is a warm and generous friend ; an honest man, and an incorruptible citizen.

The citizens of Wooster were shocked on Thursday morning, March 3, 1853, on the reception of a letter announcing the death of Samuel Hemphill, Esq. , a distinguished member of the Wooster bar, which took place in Hartcounty, Kentucky, on the 22d day of February, 1853. On the iSth of March, and soon after the intelligence of his sad fate, the members of the bar convened at the office of McSweeney & Jones, Hon. Edward Avery being appointed to the Chair, and J. H. Harris Secretary, to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting upon the sudden and melancholy death of their brother. Levi Cox, Ezra Dean, William Given, John McSweeney and Enos Foreman were appointed the committee, with the further authority to adopt suitable measures in reference to attending his funeral. This committee reported on Thursday evening, March 17, from which we extract a single resolution : an intelligent, talented and honorable member of the legal profession, and that we deeply regret and deplore the loss of his society, individually and professionally, of which, by this melancholy dispensation, we have been so early and suddenly deprived.

On Monday, March 28, 1853, Hon. Levi Cox moved the Court, Hon. Martin Walker on the bench, to order the proceedings and resolutions of the Wooster bar concerning the death of Mr. Hemphill, to be entered upon the journal of the Court.

Mr. Hemphill was born in Bedford county. Pa., on the 26th of April, 18 1 7. When about ten years old - in 1827 - he removed with his father to Wayne county, Ohio. At about seventeen years of age he was sent to college at Athens, Ohio, where he entered the Sophomore class. He spent two years at college, and then commenced reading law with Hon. Levi Cox, of Wooster, with whom he was associated as partner after his admission to the bar. He was about nineteen years old when he commenced the study of law, reading two years prior to his admission.

On the 5 th of November, 1844, he was united in marriage, by Rev. William McCandlish, to Miss Mary S. Bentley, daughter of Benjamin Bentley, Esq. He died in the thirty-sixth year of his age. His remains reached the family residence in Wooster on the loth of March, and on the 13th they were committed to the grave in the old Seceder church burial-ground, by the Masonic Order, brethren of the bar, and a vast concourse of the citizens. In November, 1858, he was removed from this place of rest, and buried in the Masonic lot in the cemetery, the second person buried there.

Had Mr. Hemphill lived, he would have greatly distinguished himself as a lawyer. He was a man of noble personal mien ; had a grand, generous nature, an original and superior order of genius, great tenacity of purpose, and was a brilliant and magnetic orator. With general and universal lamentation he was prematurely consigned to the grave. "There let his majestic, noble form and nature repose in peace, far beyond the reach of the ills and storms of this life, until he shall be called away to a higher, better and happier home. He has gone from us forever ; his tongue is motionless in death, and that voice which so much pleased and delighted men with its powerful argumentation and elocution is now mute and hushed in the silence of the tomb. It will no more respond to the calls of another earthly court. It will no more resound in anecdote or joke, social converse, bleeding satire or

The patriarchal language of four thousand years ago remains unchanged. We are "strangers and sojourners" here, in need of "a possession of a burying-place, that we may bury our dead out of sight."

It is the duty of the living thus to provide for the dead. It is not a mere office of pious regard, for others ; but it comes home to our own bosoms, as those who are soon to enter upon the common inheritance. " If there are any feelings of our nature not bounded by earth, and yet stopping short of the skies, which are more strong and more universal than all others, they will be found in our solicitude as to the time and place and manner of our death ; in the desire to die in the arms of friends ; to have the last sad offices to our remains performed by their affection ; to repose in the land of our nativity; to be gathered to the sepulchres of our fathers." Gray, in his Elegy - the most incomparably beautiful of all human poems - enforced this solemn truth when he wrote -

That we are dust, ,and shall to dust return, does not suggest indifference to the place of burial of the dead, or that it matters not where the lifeless body is deposited. The dead have not been without their preferences, and the living must know where their kindred are laid away, " that the spot where they shall lie will be remembered with a fond and soothing reverence ; that their children may visit it in the midst of their sorrows, and their kindred in remote generations feel that a local inspiration hovers around it."

carry me out of Egypt; and bury me in their burying-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca, his wife; and there I buried Leah."

Prior to 1852 the dead of the village of Wooster and its vicinity were promiscuously buried in the different church-yards of the town, and here the " fathers of the hamlet sleep." On the 12th of July,

1852, a number of the citizens of Wooster, prominent among whom were Hon. Levi Cox, John Larwill, Cyrus Spink, E. Quinby, Jr., Constant Lake, R. B. Stibbs, K. Porter, James Johnson, Harvey Howard, and others, agreed to form themselves into a cemetery association, to be known by the name of "The Wooster Cemetery Association," arjd for that purpose signed and published a notice. In pursuance of the publication of the notice, and at the time specified therein, a majority of the members of the Association convened at the Court House, and there resolved to elect, by ballot, from their number five persons to serve as Trustees and one as Clerk of the Association, and otherwise consummate the organization as provided by law. The Trustees chosen were Henry Lehman, James Johnson, Constant Lake, R. B. Stibbs and E. Quinby, Jr.

The original grounds, thirty-two acres, were purchased of Joseph H. Larwill, the price to be paid being ^100 per acre. Five promissory notes were executed to Mr. Larwill, and in the event of a sufficient number of lots not being sold to indemnify the executors of the five promissory notes, the following persons agreed to assume their respective proportions of the notes the same as if they had been original signers to them :

The first meeting of the Trustees of the Association, after its formation, occurred November 6, 1852. Superintendents being appointed, the grounds were surveyed and graded. November 13,

1853, it was ordered that a public sale of lots be had in the cemetery on the 25th of said month, commencing at ten o'clock. The officers of the Association consist of a board of five Trustees, a Clerk and Treasurer.

R. R. Donnelly was born in Northumberland county, Pa., October 29, 1820. His parents soon afterwards removed to the neighborhood of Wooster, Wayne county, in which city, and on the same corner of the public square, the greater part of his life was spent in the vigorous prosecution of business pursuits. He died February 20, 1874, of cancer of the head, from which he had suffered for many years.

Isaac Newton Jones, second son of Benjamin Jones, was born in Wooster, December 7, 18 18. Having regularly attended the Wooster schools, and being an apt and eager learner, at the age of twelve years he first entered upon business life by accepting a from William Childs, in a dry goods store in the village. His father engaging in mercantile business with a Mr. Hatch, at Old Hickory, Canaan township, the subject of this sketch was transferred thither, but in a short time removed to Petersburg, Ashland county, where his father had made a similar investment, and in the prosecution of which he desired his son to take part.

In 1836 Benjamin Jones having withdrawn his commercial interests, removed to his farm, two miles west of Wooster (yet known as the old Jones homestead), taking with him his whole family. The farm, however, was not Newton's field of activity, and probably no one better knew this than his father. The bent of his mind was emphatically in a mercantile direction. In the same year (1836) he returned to Wooster and entered the store of Joseph S. and Constant Lake, in the capacity of clerk. In this relation he served until 1840, when he and Theodore Loomis purchased the goods of the firm and for a period conducted the business. Several changes occurred in the management up to i860, when Constant Lake again entered into partnership with Mr. Jones. But from 1836 to 1870 Mr. Jones, with the exception of four years, was a member of the firm.

* We had a full sketch of Mr. Donnelly prepared for publication, but his pres- -ent wife objecting to any notice of him, we insert only the above lines.

and on the precise spot, until the old corner took the aspect of one of the eternities of trade. Here he toiled, tugged, and served for nearly half a century, wearing off the fire and finish of his manly years, a true friend of the deserving world, and securing a friendship parallel with his vast acquaintance.

Beyond the circle of his commercial life, however, Mr. Jones was a valuable and active factor in the community. There was no public enterprise of the utility of which he was convinced but with which he identified himself. In the composition of his nature there were no negative qualities or quantities. That lithe, athletic body of his enshrined a magnet. Whatever he touched grew vital. Enterprises floated in his enthusiasm. He had faith in railroads, and the people of Wayne county know how, with other enterprising citizens, he advocated their construction ; how he exerted himself as solicitor, how earnestly and zealously he spoke in their behalf.

The cause of education had no more earnest defender. With him men were imperfect organisms without it. In the building of the old Ward School-houses he took an active part, and in locating the "^grounds for the present High School building, all remember the prominent part he enacted.

In public life, to the honors of which he did not aspire, he compassed the welfare of the whole community. Whether as Mayor of the city of Wooster, as member of the City Council, or Infirmary Director, he was ever the same faithful servant. In the capacity of Infirmary Director he served for nine years, a position whose compensation was paltry, but which, nevertheless, involved much labor. So faithfully and with so much attentive industry, however, did he perform his duties, that it became fashionable among the lawyers of Wooster to refer all legal matters touching that institution to Mr. Jones ; and hence, he became known as the '- Infirmary Lawyer."

Mr. Jones was married May 23, 1843, at Bethany, West Virginia, by Alexander Campbell, the distinguished divine, to Miss Susan Gillespie, of Wooster, a lady of marked qualities, who survives him. By this union there resulted six children, four only of whom are living. He died of apoplexy, at his residence, in the city of Wooster, January i, 1878.

relations to his fellow men were pleasant, co-operative and cordial ; as a neighbor he was the very soul of accommodation ; as a husband and father he was devoted and indulgent, the home circle being hedged by a mutual confidence and affection. His nature was decidedly social and genial, and by a sort of unconscious influence he won many friends. He was a man of ripe judgment and excellent native sense. Like his father, he dispensed a generous hospitality. For the poor, as well as the rich man, he had recognition and smiles. With the young men he was an especial favorite, and the country boys knew him because he knew their fathers or had performed some kindness "toward them. If a neighbor or friend was sick he was first in attendance, and at the house of death last to abandon it. It is said of him that he attended more funerals than any man in the county. Here is a private ministry, uncommissioned of creeds or priests, and the virtues which it illustrates shine all the brighter, because, like the sun, they involuntarily shine. Here is an entire gospel full of "on earth peace and good will to men " such as was announced when the New Era began, and when He was born of whom the prophesies had said.

John K. McBride, son of Alexander McBride, deceased, was born in Westmoreland county. Pa., on the 8th of December, i8u, and immigrated to Ohio with his father early in the spring of 18 14.

From the period at which he was able to perform physical labor until he was seventeen years old, he toiled industriously and indefatigably upon the farm with his father. He distinctly recollects conveying oats to Wooster in sacks, on horseback, and selling them at eight and ten cents per bushel, and hauling ashes on an old-fashioned sled to the asheries of the town and disposing of them at five cents per bushel.

He endured the usual hardships and privations of the farm until the year above designated, when he went to learn a trade - the wheelwright and chair-making business - with Moses Culbertson, with whom he remained four years. He then went to Millersburg, in debt about one hundred dollars, and embarked in business upon his own responsibility.

This business they conducted for three years, when they sold out. Mr. McBride then repaired to Canaan Centre, Wayne county, working at his trade one year, when he removed to Jackson, on the pike, for a similar length of time pursuing his trade, when he "shut up shop," sold out his tools, and invested the earnings of his persistent toil in a store.

Here he handled goods and merchandise until 1842, when he came to Wooster, continuing in business till 1850. He then proceeded to New York city, engaging largely in the wholesale trade of groceries, which line of speculative enterprise he prosecuted for II years, returning to Wooster in 1861, his present and permanent residence. His next investments were in real estate, buying several farms, which, although living in the city, he visited daily, and over which he exercised personal supervision.

In 1863 he was nominated for the Probate Judgeship of the county, but was defeated at the election by the soldiers' vote. In 1866 he was a candidate for the same office, and was elected, knd in 1869 was re-nominated, and re-elected. His term of six years in that honorable office expired in February, 1873.

He was twice married, on the ist of May, 1844, to his second wife, the eldest daughter of Thomas Robison. He had three children, Harry, James and Thomas McBride. Harry is a merchant in New York. James entered the army in 1861, volunteering in the three months service, subsequently enlisting in the i6th O. V. I. for three years, and serving out the whole period.

He received a wound in his head in the battle of Vicksburg, and contracted disease in the service, which culminated in his death in the fall of 1868. Thomas A. McBride, M. D., his youngest son, a graduate of Kenyon College, studied his profession with Dr. Firestone of Wooster, attended four courses of lectures in New York, and graduated with credit and honor at the Physician's College of that city. For some years he has been practicing his profession in Bellevue Hospital, New York. He is a skilled physician and destined to distinguish himself.

Hon. John K. McBride, though he has attained his three score years, is still in the vigor of ripe manhood and promises fair to attain a very advanced old age. His intellectual power is just at its zenith, and a long career of activity and usefulness is still bewo OSTER - SKE TCHES. ^2 1; fore him. Being a man of remarkably regular and temperate habits, his physical constitution is robust and unimpaired. As Judge of the Probate Court none dare to gainsay his impartiality, probity, fairness and sound judgment. In the discharge of his duties no stain fell upon the ermine of his judicial character. By his indomitable will and inflexible energy and industry; by his straightforwardness in the line of duty and the exercise of a mature judgment, he has acquired a competence of this world's goods, and has left an example not only to his friends, but the community generally of what in the absence of fortune, or a paternal inheritance, can be accomplished by a brave perseverance and a dauntless spirit.

John Totten, the father of Michael Totten, was born in County Derry, north of Ireland, in the year 1749, and in 1765, emigrated to America. The war between Great Britain and the Colonies breaking out, he immediately joined the Colonial army, in which, under Generals Washington and Wayne, he served seven years.

After the close of hostilities, he removed to Kishacoquillas valley, in Pennsylvania, where he married Nancy McNair. He next went to Virginia, thence to Raccoon creek. Pa., and thence to Columbiana county, Ohio. He and Johnny Gaddis, a Scotchman, and Charles Hoy built the three first cabins that were built in Columbiana county, near Liverpool.

But prior to his removing to Ohio, he joined General Wayne's army, operating in the west, and remained with him a year, until the treaty of Greenville, in Darke county, Ohio, August 3, 1795. He removed to Stark, now Carroll county, Ohio, in 1805, five miles south-east of Osnaburg, on the Little Sandy, settling on what was long known as the Baum farm.

In 1809 he removed, with his family, four miles west of Massillon, and in May, 18 12, at the age of sixty-three years, he died. He was a massive, muscular man, who performed gallant service for his country in two of its wars, always enjoying good health and never confined to a bed of sickness until prostrated by the disease that ended his life. On one occasion he was shot in a fight with Indians, and had his thigh broken,

Hon. Michael Totten was born May 11, 1800, and had five brothers and four sisters, all of his brothers and two of his sisters being dead. After his father's death, in February, 1813, Michael removed to Wooster, in company with his mother and the rest of the family. They remained in Wooster during i8 13-14, Michael occasionally hauling logs for his brother-in-law, Isaac Poe, then owner of the Henry Myers farm, for the purpose of building a cabin, which was afterwards known as the "haunted house." The house was built in 18 14, Jacob Matthews doing the hewing, assisted by Archibald Totten, the Driskels being present at the raising of it.

From Wooster Mr. Totten's family removed to, and located one-half mile east of the village of Congress, the entire country then being a perfect wilderness; and in February, 181 5, and with no assistance but George Poe, Henry Totten and John Meeks, he erected his cabin in the woods. After they had left Wooster, and prior to their removal to Congress township, they lived in a double log shanty, which they erected where the old brick kiln stood, on the Mansfield road, on the Myers farm, and close to their door were three Indian graves.

Mr. Totten lived in Congress township seventeen years, and in 1832 removed to Chester township, where he purchased lands, and for many years devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. A number of years ago he removed to Wooster, where, with his family he has since continued to reside. Mr. Totten has been twice married ; first to Louisa Crawford, of Congress township, by which marriage there resulted two children, Matilda and Henry, the former marrying James Freeman and dying in Illinois; the latter, Henry, being joined in marriage to Jane Ramsey, and living in Chicago; second, November 16, 1830, to Mrs. Susanna Ramsey, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, daughter of William Ewing, deceased, of Canaan township, and wife of Samuel Ramsey, of the aforenamed county, who died in November, 1824. By her first marriage, with Mr. Ramsey, she had four children, George, William, Jane and Samuel, the latter a retired physician in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, and a man of wealth, culture and education. By this second marriage of Mr. Totten there resulted the following issue: Nancy, Susan, John, Enoch, Hiram E. and Melissa A.*

*Jolin and Hiram are dead. Hiram was a Lieutenant in the I20th Regiment, and in the battle of Jackson, Miss., after the surrender of Vicksburg, was struck with a shell from the effects of which he died with his parents, in Wooster, in about twelve weeks. He was a young man of decided mental endowments and was fitting himself for practice at the bar when he enlisted. He was a brave soldier - bore his sufferings like a martyr and marched into the Great Presence as consciously and heroically as though he had picketed the spaces of eternity and measured the depth of the Infinite.

Mr. Totten has been a citizen of Wayne county for 65 years, and can be properly classed with the oldest of the living pioneers, there being but few indeed who have lived so long as he within the limits of the county. His settlement in it dates back to the year immediately succeeding the organization of the county. Wooster then was but a dim spot in the wilderness, and Wayne county, much larger than it now is, contained but four townships. He has witnessed its advance from disorder to order ; from darkness to light ; from license and confusion to prudent restraints and remarkable civilization.

His life has been an extremely active and eventful one, replete with hazardous adventures, many hardships and exciting situations. He was a man well suited to the times in which his activities were exerted. His courage no man dared to question, and, the associate of the Poes and other brave spirits of the early days, he learned daring in the shadow of danger, and neither wild beast, Indian nor tomahawk possessed terror to him. He entered Congress township when it was in the wilderness of the centuries preceding it, and many are the acres of forest that fell before his strong arms, and the fields that he cleared, that now blossom and ripen with bountiful harvests.

In his more vigorous days he bore a conspicuous part in the progressive enterprises and measures of the community, and was an aggressive, public spirited citizen and man. As early as 1829 he served with Michael Funk and John Vanosdall as one of the Trustees of Congress township, and in all his local positions of public trust sustained a reputation for zeal in the fulfillment of his duties. In 1836 he was elected to the office of Auditor of Wayne county, and re-elected in 1838. He served in the Ohio Legislature from December i, 1845, to December 7, 1846, and from December 6, 1847, to December 4, 1848, in all of which capacities he acquitted himself with credit and honor.

Since Mr. Totten's residence in Wooster and retirement from the public his life has been spent in quiet and rest in the circle of his family. His wife came to Wayne county with her father, William Ewing, in 18 12. She is an exemplary. Christian woman, and though but a few days since passing her eightieth birthday, her cheeks wear the rosy freshness of youth, and she is in the enjoyment of fine health, and cheery as a maiden of sixteen. Fifty years ago Mr. Totten was one of the best specimens of the heroic backwoodsman ; a stout, athletic, daring adventurer, and a hunter whose delight was i n the thickets and ravines of the woods. He encountered the Indians in contests for game, met them in their camps and settlements, slept in their bark huts, well knowing their treachery, but too brave a man to fear them. He frequently met old Captain Lyon and Tom Jelloway ; knew Baptiste Jerome,* after whom Jeromeville, in Ashland county, was named, and threshed wheat at his house.

Identified as Mr. Totten has been with the first settlement of the county and its heroic period, and with his vivid and unfailing recollection of events of half a century ago, he has proven a most valuable auxiliary to us, and we are largely indebted to him for much of the incident that appears in the history. His recollection of the Fulke massacre ; his knowledge of the Driskels, and his association with and relationship to the Poes, being a brotherin-law to Isaac, son of Adam Poe, divest our narratives and descriptions of all romance and semblance of fiction.

When his mother and the family were living in the cabin which stood on the old brick kiln site, he went up on the hill, about half a mile from the house, to look after the cows, and while sitting on a log, listening for the cow bell, a big black bear passed close by him, pausing a moment and looking at him, and then going on. He ran at the top of his speed back to the house and gave the alarm, whereupon Archibald Clark, John, George, Elijah and William Glasgow started in pursuit of bruin with dogs and guns, Mr. Totten also accompanying the party. The dogs tracked it some distance, and treed it about half a mile west of where John McKee, Esq., lives - a mile north of the University. All that had guns fired at it, and, after receiving thirteen bullets, it tumbled to the ground. This was in August, 1814.

While Mr. Totten was living in Congress township, and soon after his removal there, Isaac Poe, who then lived on the Henry Myers farm, had been up in Congress township, where he afterward moved, and on his return home he found that his horses had strayed away, and were for two weeks lost, as he supposed. Mr. Totten, then but fifteen years of age, being in the woods in search of the cattle, came in contact with Mr. Poe's horses, and knowing that they were his, concluded to take them home. He got elm-bark and made halters for them, and started toward

*Jerome was a Canadian Frenchman, and, says Knapp, "was a. man of positive character, impulsive, generous and brave, devoted in his friendships, and bitter in his enmities. His natural gifts of mind were good. He could converse fluently in French and Indian, and so as to be understood in English. To the early tettlers he was of great service in furnishing them with provisions, some having expressed the opinion that they would have incurred the hazard of starvation, had it not been for the aid afforded by him."

Wooster on the line of blazed trees. A storm came up and darkness overwhelmed him. In his wanderings he got into the Killbuck bottoms, to the rear of the residence of the late Samuel Funk, and could go no further. Here, through the rain and wind and lightning of the storm, he remained during the night, holding on to the horses and reaching his brother-in-law's in the morning.

Michael Totten's brother William, and James Gaff, of Stark county, bored for salt on Killbuck - went down 440 feet and broke the augur. They procured salt water, but could not manufacture over a half bushel of salt per day. Michael packed it from the well up to the farm in Congress township, on horseback. Salt was then worth four dollars per bushel and wet at that.

In 1813 he was water-boy to the harvest hands cutting wheat on the Avery farm, then owned by George and Isaac Poe. Tire crop consisted of about ten acres, and it was principally "sick wheat." He has no explanation of the cause of this sick wheat. On the Byers farm, then owned by a Scotchman, named Billy Clark, a harvest was cut that year.

As an incident of the year 1820, Michael Totten relates the excitement created by the search for a lost boy, named James Durfee, eight years old, whose parents lived near Perrysburg, seven miles north-west of Congress, then in Wayne county, but'now in Jackson township, Ashland county. It appears that the child accompanied his uncle, David Souls, in search of some hogs in the woods. Becoming tired, his uncle told him to remain at a gap until he returned from more extended search. When the uncle at length came back, the boy was gone, and it having snowed heavily in the meantime, no trace of "Little Jim" could be seen. He made a wide search for him, hallooed, but without result, then gave alarm to the family and neighbors. Everybody turned out, Mr. Totten among the number, and for three days the hunt was vigorously prosecuted, but finally had to be abandoned as hopeless.

Weeks afterwards, in March, two miles from where he was lost, the body of the little fellow was found in the woods, near a brook, into which it is supposed he had fallen, and, getting out, had frozen to death, covered by snow. His eyes had been picked out by ravens, and locks of his hair were afterwards found strewn over the snow, by Mr. Totten, when out coon hunting.

In 181S he saved John Mowry from drowning, who was then a lad of 16, in Little Killbuck. He had sunk in the water when Mr. Totten sprang in after him and, assisted by John Shinneman, succeeded in getting him out of the water. When taken out he was speechless, but recovered.

Michael Totten's mother was the second white person who died in Congress township (1821), Amasa Warner's wife being the first, dying on the farm now owned by Royce Summerton, his mother being buried in the Rumbaugh graveyard.

His earliest neighbors in Congress township were Isaac and George Poe, James Carlin, Matthew Brewer, Peter Warner, John Nead, John Jeffers, Walter Elgin, etc.

He helped to build the first Presbyterian church in Congress township, on the of section 27. His brother, John Totten, taught the first school in the township, in the cabin in which his mother lived, the Brewers, Ewings, etc., sending their children to the school. After him a Mr. Beatty taught, Elmer Yocum, Sally Totten, etc., etc.

In our off-hand ink-Takings of the various individuals whom we have drawn together and seated at random in this volume, we have at times been embarrassed almost to the verge of despair. The vagueness or incompleteness of all knowledge concerning the substance of the shadow left us ; the absence of essential data which would serve to illustrate mental traits, or be indicative of disposition, or character, has too often rendered our pen-portraiture and sketch-work not only a difficult, but an irksome and unenviable toil.

We have even lamented the misfortune of our years, and regretted that we had not lived in the days when intimacy would have been possible with many who have been blotted from the breathing roll. In regard to that worthy assembly of pioneers with whom "life's fitful fever is over," we have had too often to rely upon others for information, whereas the Takings should be a mirror of the man, and such a one as should reflect the broader outlines of character, which are perceivable by all, and draw out those peculiarities visible only to a few.

In some instances we have been relieved of this embarrassment by our personal knowledge of the dead, but we are free to admit that in a majority of instances we have been destitute of that knowledge, so powerful in giving effect and strength to characterization.

With General William Given the writer of this memoir had some personal acquaintance, and concerning him entertains some pleasing and undying recollections. He remembers him in the healthy, vigorous flush and activity of his physical manhood ; in the full possession of his bright, sparkling intellect ; in his natural adjustment to all charities; his generous, benevolent, royal nafVO OSTER - SKE TCHES. 43 1 ture ; his compass and vastness of soul ; but, better than all, for the tender, sympathetic heart that pulsated in his genial, glowing bosom.

He was born on the 4th day of September, 1^19, in the town of Newville, Cumberland county, Pa. His father and mother came from County Tyrone, Ireland, although they were of Scotch extraction, belonging to the Clendenning clan of the Camerons, who were a religious sect which separated from the Presbyterians and continued to hold their religious meetings in the open air. They were resolute maintainers of the unblemished purity and rights of the Reformed church. They had hovered for many years about the mountainous regions of the parish of Kirkmahoe, in Dumfrieshire ; and as they began to confide in the kindness of their less rigid brethren they commenced descending, step by step, from a large hill to a less, till they finally swarmed on a small, sterile mount, with a broomy glen at its foot, beside a little village, which, it seems, one of their number named " Graceless Quarrelwood. " This settlement was chosen with some skill, and, in the period of the persecution, might have done honor to the military tactics of John Balfour, of Burley. It is a long, straggling village, built in open hostility to regular lines or the graceful curves of imaginary beauty. The cottages which compose it are scattered, as if some wizard had dropped them down at random ; and through the whole a streamlet winds, and a kind of road, infinitely more crooked than the stream. They were a sect of religious enthusiasts who entertained peculiar views, and were distinguished by an intense and overflowing devotion, which appeared to be the result of the consciousness of direct communication with Divine Powers. They were rigid, conventional and austere - made few converts, as few people are fond of inflicting on themselves willingly the penance of controversial prayers and interminable sermons.

When but a child the parents of Judge Given removed from Newville, to Westmoreland county, Pa. , and settled at the village of Murryville. His father being a blacksmith, the deceased, when he was only a lad, commenced to learn his father's trade, and so determined was he to do so that his father had to erect a platform by the side of the anvil in order to give the youthful genius an opportunity to display his skill. He was so expert and apt in learning that, at a very early age, he was considered a good workman and prepared to perform the different labors of the village blacksmith.

His early education was limited, it being acquired while he was learning his trade. He attended the village school during the day and "blew the bellows " in the shop at night. In paper cap and leather apron, by the blaze of the forge, he read his books and first gave discipline to his mind. So far as the benefits of a regular education are concerned, it was, to a great degree, neglected. By persevering energy and diligent industry, he had, by the time he came to Ohio, qualified himself to take charge of a common school. In 1836 he left Murryville and went to Pittsburg, to try the experiment of living, where he followed his trade in an extensive machine shop until 1838, when he emigrated, with his father, to Holmes county, Ohio, and settled on a farm, then in the woods, three miles west of Millersburg. Here a smithy was at once erected, and here Judge Given successfully blowed and struck for two years. From here he removed to Petersburg, in Ashland county, where he swung the noisy hammer for another year. In 1 84 1 he returned to Holmes county, and began investigating Chitty, and unlocking the secrets of Blackstone. During the summer he pursued the study of the law ; during the winter taught school.

He was admitted to the bar at the July term of the Supreme Court, 1843, at Sandusky, Ohio. November 23 of the same year he was married to Miss Susan Croco, of Holmesville, Holmes county, Ohio. During the autumn of his admission to practice he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Holmes county before he had a single case in the court, to which office he was re-elected. At the termination of his prosecutorship he stood at the forefront of the Millersburg bar, having proven not only the peer, but the superior of Hoagland, Tannyhill and Sapp. In 1849 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Holmes county, and served in that body for one term with marked distinction.

In 1850, in the month of November, he came to Wooster, forming a partnership with John P. Jeffries in the legal practice, which continued till the spring of 1855. Subsequently he became associated in the law with John McSweeney, remaining with him until 1858, when he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court, of the Sixth Judicial District of Ohio, his commission bearing date of January 10, 1859. -^^ remained on the bench until 1862, when he resigned, and on the i8th of August, 1862, was commissioned Colonel of the io2d O. V. I., serving in the army for nearly three years. March 13, 1865, he was commissioned Brigadier

On returning from the army he again began the practice of his chosen profession, in which he was engaged when the voice of the grim escort said to him, "Tarry no longer ; come with me."

As is apparent from what is above written, Judge William Given was, in the highest sense, a self-made man. Like his linguistic prototype, the Worcester blacksmith, he was the founder, builder and maker of himself The university and the academy were unknown to him, and showered upon him no honors. What he possessed he gathered by "the process of accretion, which builds the ant-heap, particle by particle, thought by thought, fact by fact."

Did we not know his ancestry, we would nationalize him as a true son of Erin. His character supplied many of the conventional characteristics of the Irisiiman. He was sensitively tender and warm-hearted, generous and impulsive, ever ready to impart of his substance to a friend, to perform a charity or do a kindness to the lowliest and humblest of his fellow-men. His heart-goodness was exercised in behalf of no class or grade of the community - it extended to all ; but the devoted sphere for its exercise was in the sacred circle of home and family. Here he was priest and king by the ministrations of perennial kindnesses and that sweeter authority which is conceded and justified of affection. We have heard him say, whilst in the army, that, though it was a needful and noble service, the thought of home and loved ones there nearly overwhelmed him, and that his "heart ached with its desolation."

Socially he was one of the most agreeable of men. He had extraordinary qualities of conversation, possessed the keenest perception of a jest or anecdote, and withal, had a streaming, luminous wit which floated everything he looked upon. He had the piquant, scorching repartee of Foote, and the bonhommie and exuberant humor of Maginn. We might almost infer that, somewhere in his early wanderings, he had found old Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth and drank of its waters, for he^enjoyed a remarkable juvenescence of feeling, freshness and elasticity of temperament. His mind, however, at times, was of the self-contemplating, introspective order ; he had vivid impressions of the vanity, hollowness and shortness of life, and it is possible that melancholy may have stolen upon him in those seasons when he turned his mind back upon itself, and wheeled his thoughts around to inspect his soul. This was a part of the higher consciousness of which we know William Given was capable, and which forms a portion of the suffering experiences of every contemplative mind.

He was well versed in English and American literature, and especially in the poetry of the two countries. Poesy had given to him her finer ear. Burns, to him, was a bread-tree in a garden of roses. He believed in the genius and inspiration of him who had

His psalms had the fragrance of Israel's singer, and to him "Mary in Heaven" was true Love's collar of jewels. His poetic fancy was scintillant, intense and real, and under culture would have burst in song.

In the department of law was manifested his vitalized force and power. He was not a Judas to his client, like the professional thieves and confederated scalpers that go unhemped at nearly every bar, but he was an honorable lawyer. He did not belong to that class of licensed book-whackers - "men that hire out their words and anger ; that are more or less passionate, according as they are paid for it, and allow their client a quantity of wrath proportionable to the fee which they receive from him." His manhood was the bond of fidehty betwixt him and his client, and he allowed no profanation of it by the unclean vulgar hands that sell the most sacred rights of their neighbors. In the arena of the law he allowed no man to beat him down. More than that, he was the equal, in many respects, of any man that ever confronted him at the Wooster bar. As Judge Dean said in his eulogy of him in court, November 20, 1866:

His excellency and the various elements of strength which constituted him a good lawyer were not confined to a single department of practice, or any special branch of the profession. He was an accomplished and able lawyer in every walk of it. In eliciting evidence he was fair and manly. In cross-examination he was thorough, searching and exhaustive. There was no harshness indulged toward the witness, unless he proved refractory or impudent, or took to prevarication or falsehood, and then woe to the man or woman against whom was directed the fury of his glance and the caustic of his tongue. A keen anatomiser of character and subtle penetrator of the springs of human motive, he seldom allowed the rogue to escape conviction. His wit was wonderfully wise and detective ; it flashed upon a knave and lighted up a rascal like a policeman's lantern.

In the dissection of testimony he was adroit, crafty and dextrous. To the Court he was uniformly gentlemanly and dignified ; to opposing counsel respectful and courteous. The rights of his client were maintained at all hazards. Incivilities and indecorums he heartily abhorred. He gave no insults ; he took none. His motto was,

When aroused there was heat and gallantry in his onsets. "His dynamic brain hurled off his words as the revolving stone hurls ofl scraps of grit." In his arguments there was force, centrality, cogency and massive structural expression. He never was surprised and was powerful in sudden efforts. His word-facility was unusual, and his diction animated and fluent. When he employed sarcasm he did not use the pen-knife, but the falchion and the rapier. Bombs of wit flashed from his batteries of speech hke sparks from hot Vesuvius. He was the Hudibras of the Wooster Bar.

As a jurist, he was highly eminent. Though naturally impetuous at the bar, he presided upon the bench with remarkable coolness, never yielding to the impulse of the moment in the most exciting cases. His well-balanced mind held his tongue in check until his deliberate judgment spoke the words of truth and justice. His mind appeared to be perfectly fitted for the duties of Judge, and he appeared to delight in the dispensation of justice; was never at a loss in the determination of a case Even in pronouncing the sentence of the law upon criminals, his words were so tender and kind as to greatly relieve the culprit's punishment. He presided with dignity, yet with a stern kindness remarkable.

Though several times elevated to places of public confidence and positions of decided honor, in nothing but a remote meaning of the word was he a politician. He contemned the oozy, mucky lowlands, in whose noxious atmosphere breathed this ungrateful brood. His patrician nature shrank from its festering airs. To such a man as William Given the descent was too steep from his plane of manhood to the stagnant lagoon-levels of the politician.

In remembrance of his virtues, and not unconscious of his frailties, we have woven this chaplet of memory with the only privilege left us, of laying it upon his grave. He may have had faults. In church, or camp, or state, who has not ? We would not hide them in a cloud of periphrasis. He was of our house of flesh, of the tenement of a common blood, and we write rememberingly and lovingly of him in the name of the brotherhood of all. He has realized the sorrows of living, and the pains and bliss of dying.

" Breathe for his wandering soul one passing sigh, O, happy Christian, while thine eye grows dim ; In all the mansions of the house on high, Say not that Mercy has not one for him."

" Peace be with him ! Let us think gently of one who was so gentle; let us speak kindly of one whose own breast exuberated with human kindness."

Constant Lake is a scion of the Buckeye State, being born in Brookfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, August 30, 18 12. His father at that time was in the military service, having a contract to furnish supplies to the army then resisting the encroachments of Great Britain. When but 10 years of age he was so unfortunate as to lose his mother, which resulted in a temporary disbanding of the family, when Mr. Lake went to his sister, Mrs. Mary Black, then living in Vermillion township, in what is now Ashland county, where he had his home until 1826. He then removed to Wooster, taking his residence with his brother, J. S. Lake, then engaged in mercantile pursuits. Constant, then a youth of 14 years, entered the store situated on what is now George Brauneck's corner, but subsequently removed to the lot now occupied by D. D. Miller, hardware merchant. Serving in the relation of a clerk until 1832, a partnership was formed between him and Joseph, under the style of J. S. & Constant Lake. This partnership lasted to 1838, when Joseph withdrew from the firm, three years thereafter removing to Cleveland, Constant prosecuting the business, and afterward receiving as a partner Isaac N. Jones.

Mr. Lake's life has been spent in commercial pursuits, entering upon the same in boyhood and continuing therein until the spring of 1870, having conducted at times an extensive business, and been largely interested in branch establishments in Toledo, Loudonville, Hayesville and Shreve. He was married May 25, 1836, to Eleanor Jones, only daughter of Hon. Benjamin Jones, by whom he had ten children, and whose death is recorded June 20, 1852. He was re-married August 18, 1853, to Anna JP. McDonald, of Philadelphia, Pa., by which union he has 6 children. Of his rather numerous family but 7 remain - 5 boys and 3 girls. Three of the first marriage are living, Benjamin, Constant and Mary, the latter marrying William D. Banning, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Of the second marriage there are living one daughter and three sons. Joseph, the second son of the first marriage, was among the first of the volunteers from Wayne county in the three months service, and at the expiration of which, in Camp Dennison, endeavored to re-enlist in Company E, Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for the three years' term, but was declined and rejected upon the grounds of corpulency.

Determined, however, to be a participant in the war, he was permitted to join the artillery service, enlisting in Hickenlooper's Fourth Ohio Battery. His ambition was soon gratified. At the battle of Pittsburg Landing his battery was called into action, and though he had been sick in hospital the three previous days, when the fire opened he hastened to his position, remaining by his gun until he was observed to fall, and was carried to the rear. He wandered to the river bank, where his condition was frequently remarked, when by some means he got on board a boat and was carried to St. Louis, where in the hospital he died.

Benjamin Lake received a commission of Captain in what was popularly known as the McLaughlin squadron, organized at Mansfield, recruited a company in Wayne county, and was in General Garfield's engagement at Prestonburg, Ky., where he encountered Humphrey Marshall, yclept "the greasy knight," sadly and em- phatically to his discomfiture. As an appreciation of his services, General Garfield made him one of his Aids, holding said position one year and a half, when, on account of ill-health, he resigned, separating from the command in Eastern Tennessee.

Mr. Lake still lives in our midst, and is esteemed as a generous, polite, benevolent and Christian gentleman. If, as Alexander Smith says, "Time gives for what he takes," Mr. Lake has little occasion to be dissatisfied or regretful over the exchange. If he has aimed a blow at the elasticity of the body, in its place he has given him a tranquil cheerfulness and spirit buoyancy, the mild autumnal weather of the soul. Non-emotional and seldom yielding to excitements or perturbations, he is nevertheless sympathetic and full of charities. His hospitalities in his own home are recognized and conceded by all, friend and stranger uniformly finding a welcome there. He has been a member of the Church of Christ for over thirty years and an Elder for more than twenty-five.

June i8, 1856, the Council of the incorporated village of Wooster passed an ordinance "To provide for lighting the incorporated village of Wooster with gas," by which it was provided that William Stephenson, of the city of Cleveland, and his associates, their successors, and asignees, should use the streets, lanes, alleys, and other public grounds of said village, for the purpose of laying down and maintaining therein pipes for the conveyance of gas in and through the same for the use of said village and the inhabitants thereof This ordinance also gave Messrs. Stephenson & Co. the exclusive use of the streets for gas pipes for the period of 10 years, and restricted the company to three dollars per thousand cubic feet for gas to citizens, and two dollars per thousand for city, except lamp-posts, three dollars whilst the company owns the posts and lights and extinguishes them.

On the 20th of June, 1856, J. H. Kauke, J. H. Baumgardner, Isaac N. Jones, D. Robison, Jr., H. R. Harrison, John P. Jeffries and C. C. Parsons, Sr., duly incorporated, under the laws of Ohio, the Wooster Gas Light Company, with a perpetual charter, and said company was duly organized January 14, 1857, by electing J. H. Kauke, Daniel Black, J. H. Baumgardner, I. N. Jones and J. P. Winebrenner Directors, and by-laws were enacted for its government. The capital stock of the company was ^20,000, divided into

800 shares of $2^ each. The gas works were erected in 1856 and 1857, and the village of Wooster was lighted with gas in Februaj'yj 1857, there being then 105 consumers and twenty street lamps. In 1859 the capital stock was increased to ^^23,700. The demand for the elastic fluid so greatly increased that in 1864 the company pulled down the old arches or ovens and erected larger ones, and greatly increased the gas-producing capacity of the concern.

In 1867 they extended the pipes and increased the capital to $30,000. In 1 87 1 the old works, having become entirely too small to supply the demand, ^the Directors resolved to erect new works. They purchased the old oil well lot on East Henry street, from the heirs of WiUiam Henry, deceased, and four lots adjoining from E. Quinby, Jr., giving them a frontage on Henry street of 310 feet, on which they have erected new works with all modern improvements, and which are of sufficient capacity to supply a city of 15,000 inhabitants.

Jacob Frick was born four miles east of West Newton, Westmoreland, county. Pa., on the 17th of December, 1834. His parents were of German ancestry, his father being in limited circumstances, and pursued the vocation of a blacksmith during the entire period of his life. Jacob was among the younger members of the family. At the early age of eighteen he was cast upon his own resources, it being his first advent upon the great ocean of life. Not having acquired a knowledge of his father's trade, and unaccustomed to any other mechanical pursuit, there was no alternative but hard work. To this he set himself, and equipped both nerve and spirit. He first hired himself out upon a farm for two years at low wages, but made it a maxim to economize his earnings from the start. He adopted the Ben Franklin idea of saving the pennies and letting the dollars take care of themselves. He argued that if his wages were but a pittance, the greater necessity for a wise economy.

After the expiration of the stipulated two years, and in the year 1855, he removed with his father to Hancock county, Ohio. During this year his father died. But little time elapsed after his coming to the Buckeye State until he was again engaged. He now hired himself to drive a team, in and about the village of Van-

Buren, in said county, for six dollars per month, which employment he followed for twelve months. He next entered a produce and dry goods establishment, as a clerk and general subaltern, being detailed principally as lard-receiver, egg-packer, etc., etc. Here he continued about a year, during which time the proprietor died.

Adopting the very practical, but somewhat hazardous commercial maxim of, "nothing ventured nothing won," he resolved to engage in business for himself. In pursuance of this determination he opened a provision store of his own, and in a year thereafter connected with him in business his brother, when they enlarged their sphere of business and embraced within its circle a dry goods department.

This condition of things existed about three years, during which period he was married to Elizabeth Shelly. Having resolved upon a change of territory for the advancement of his commercial and speculative aims, he came to Wayne county in April, 1859, locating in Smithville, and embarking without delay in the dry goods trade. In this enterprise he persisted for a year, when he relinquished all other pursuits to embrace the favorite project of his life - that of grain merchant. He first began the purchase of grain at what is known as the "Summit," north-east of Wooster, but desiring a point where conveniences would be more ample and faciHties more inviting he removed to Wooster in the spring of 1865, where, for the last twelve years he has been engaged in the grain and milling business.

William Stitt is a Buckeye by birth, first seeing the light in Jefferson county, Ohio, and settled in Wooster, in May, 1832. November 13, 1839, he was married, by "Priest" Jones, to Miss Margaret Bartol, a native of Pennsylvania. He engaged in the manufacture of saddle-trees, harness, etc. , on his arrival here, and has successfully and profitably prosecuted that vocation to the present time. He is a prominent and zealous member of the Methodist church ; a man of scrupulous integrity ; unobtrusive but firm and radical in his opinions ; an earnest advocate of truth, and distinguished for a rigid morality and an upright life.

In 1833 a market-house, the first and last that Wooster ever had, was erected on the south-west side of the Pubhc Square, under direction of the Town Council, whereof Thomas Wilson was President, and J. H. Harris Recorder. Andrew Bostater, Joseph Fox and John Swain were contractors for its construction, the painting by David Barr. The structure was about 75x40 feet, one story high, paved with brick, with ceilings arched and plastered. It was supported by fourteen columns of brick, about two feet square, twelve feet high, firmly set on stone corners, eight or ten feet apart, between which were the stalls, each numbered.

In a few years, however, the citizens doing business around the Public Square pronounced a market-house located in such a prominent position a nuisance that ought to be abated ; but the town authorities refused to remove it. As a result it narrowly escaped "purification by fire " at the hands of an incendiary. Finally, on Monday night, August 9, 1847, a number of men disguised beyond recognition, and said to be among the "first citizens," assembled at the market-house armed with axes, hooks, rope and tackle, and a horse of strong pulling qualities, with which they assailed it on all sides with destructive energy, so that when morning came the "garish blaze of day" rose upon its prostrate columns, and the "market-house," as such, was known no more forever. This nocturnal act created considerable excitement, and much declamatory discussion about "mobs." The Mayor offered a reward for the apprehension of the mysterious vandals who had so sacrilegiously profaned this Temple of Mutton and Soup Bones, but without resulting in anybody being arrested, although, of course, the perpetrators were known to many, but whose crime was condoned by the "public improvement" it was considered they made in demolishing the market-house. A number of those who had a hand in this escapade are now living in Wooster, and will take pleasure in telling you, as they have us, how the thing was done.

a devoted attachment existed, and whose poetical creations were first collected in the same volume. Francis, the older of the two, was born at Rome, New York, and Metta, the third child of the family, was born in Erie, Pa., March 2, 183 1. In 1839 the familyremoved to Wooster, Ohio, where, under the influence of good schools and interesting social relations, Francis made gratifying literary acquisitions, and at the tender age of fourteen she was supplying the press with acceptable rhythmic gems and prose contributions. She rose rapidly to popularity, and soon established a reputation in the belles lettres literature of the land.

Willis and Morris, of the Home Journal, once the court paper of New York city, the columns of which teemed with the sweet lyrics of Francis and the gracious melodies of Metta, pronounced her as amongst the most brilliant of our female writers. Edgar Allen Poe, leering from the -soul-chaos and spirit charnel which begat the " Raven," classed her with the most imaginative of our poets. Her poems are characterized by a marvelous individuality and great strength of diction, as well as a signal originality of thought and uniqueness of versification.

In 1853 she was married to Jackson Barrett, of Pontiac, Michigan, to which State she had removed the previous year ; thence a few years later she went to the sunset side of the Father of Floods, and is now on the western slope, "where rolls the Oregon." She has written much prose, some beautiful poetry, and a tragedy entitled "Azlea," instinct with the fire of the drama. Here is a stanza - a rare gem indeed - which we extract from "The Post Boy's Song : "

Francis obtained a divorce from Mr. Barrett, and is married a second time to a Mr. Victor, brother to the husband of Metta. Luxuriating in the soft, grateful climate of the Pacific Coast, breathing its thrilling, invigorating mountain air, inspired by its weird and wondrous scenery, the snow-turbaned Sierras, the enchanting Dalles and the impetuous Columbia - the Canyon Wizard of the

North - her muse will quaff the foaming Parnassian wines, and strange, indeed, will it be if poesy is not enriched, and prose enthroned, as upon some Shasta summit, by the exquisite sorcery of her pen.

Metta, like her sister, was a precocious child, and attended with her the Wooster schools. At fifteen she composed a romance, founded upon the supposed history of the dead cities of Yucatan, entitling it "The Last Days of Tul." Jointly eulogizing the sisters, N. P. Willis writes concerning them :

" We suppose ourselves to be throwing no shade of disparagement upon any one in declaring that in ' Singing Sybil,' her not less gifted sister, we discern more unquestionable marks of true genius, and a greater portion of the unmistakable inspiration of true poetic art than in any of the lady minstrels - delightful and splendid as some of them have been - that we have heretofore ushered to the applause of the public. One in spirit and equal in genius, these most interesting and brilliant ladies - both still in the earliest youth - are undoubtedly destined to occupy a very distinguished and permanent place among the native authors of this land."

Metta's nom de plume was the " Singing Sybil." A glance at her numerous productious, prose and poetical, humorous and satirical, presents a striking record of faithful and unremitted labor. She is surely a woman of singular endowments, and her career has been a most remarkable one. ' ' The Senator's Son ; A Plea for the Maine Law," produced at the age of twenty, shared an unprecedented success, and thousands of copies were acknowledged by foreign publishers.

In July, 1856, she was married to O. J. Victor, removing the following year to New York City, since which time she has been devoted to miscellaneous literary labor and authorship.

Wooster may well cherish a consistent pride over the recollection that these two stars of song received most of their education at our public schools. The world is better for their rich thoughts, vivid creations and jeweled fancies. We confess to a pleasing fascination in the perusal of their song, or in following the silent glidings of their trusty shallops over the deep blue lakes that sit like coronals in dim and haunted waters. Many of our citizens remember them. "Body and Soul," by Metta, is a divine communion. The annexed excerpta will illustrate :

Joseph H. Downing, a native of Belmont county, Ohio, removed with his parents to Wayne county in the autumn of 1826. The following season the family settled upon a farm in Wayne township, three miles north-east of Wooster, where the subject of this sketch remained with his parents until their deaths, in 1838 and 1839.

His earlier years were spent in the severe labors of the farm, and with all the rough and hard experiences of felling forests, swinging the woodman's ax, cutting cord-wood, rolling logs, etc., he soon experienced memorable participation. After the death of his parents, instead of obtaining a release from work, or having his labors mitigated, they, but multiplied and became more oppressive. A mere lad in his teens, three members of the family younger than he and dependent, with the conflict for a living to be met, the alternative of toil had to be confronted. With a comprehension of the situation remarkable for a youth of his years he resolutely faced the responsibility, believing with FrankUn that "Diligence is the mother of good luck, and that God giveth all things to industry."

For several years he was a day-laborer, a hireling by the month, in his neighborhood, and until he was twenty-one years of age did not average over three months of schooling per year. His surplus moneys and earnings were judiciously invested in such books as, in his judgment, would most materially aid him in attaining a useful and practical education. His appreciation of the value of time - and the necessity of improving it, early manifested itself, and in his boyhood, his leisure, and the intervals between hard labor, were sedulously employed in reading and study. By this process of industry, aided by the limited opportunities afforded him by the public schools, he succeeded in acquiring a good English education.

In 1843 he entered the Canaan Academy, where he profitably devoted two years to the study of Latin, philosophy, mathemetics, etc., his determination to take the full collegiate course only being thwarted by a general failure of health.

In the year 1848 he commenced the study of law, under the care and direction of Hon. Ezra Dean, of Wooster. In 1853 he was elected to the Ohio Legislature, and was a member of the House of Representatives during the session of 1854 - there being but one session during his term. From the spring of 1854 to i860 he was engaged in teaching school, and during the latter year he was admitted to the practice of law, by the Supreme Court of the State. In May of that year he opened an office in Wooster and began practice, forming a partnership with Ben Douglass.

In August, 1862, he was appointed Captain by the Governor of the State, and commissioned to recruit a company under one of the startling calls, for "300,000 more." In seven days precisely from the date of his commission, his company was full and subject to orders. On the 29th of August, 1862, he took his company to "Camp Mansfield," Ohio, and on the 14th of October he was mustered into the United States service, as Captain of Company "A," 1 20th O. V. I. He bore his part firmly and with unflinching fidelity ; shared the perils and privations of his men-in-arms ; participated in all the battles of Chickasaw Bayou and at Arkansas Post, saw open and close, "the bloody testament of war." As a consequence of exposure and subjection to the malarial influences which decimated regiments, brigades and divisions of the army in that locahty during the winter of 1862-63, he became prostrated and so seriously diseased as to render him wholly unfit for military duty, whereupon, in the spring of 1863 he was honorably discharged from the service. He returned home, wasted and emaciated ; a mental and physical wreck ; a living, breathing skeleton ; with an imperfect recognition of his own family and friends, and by physicians and all who saw him, pronounced a hopelessly prostrated and doomed man. By most careful medical attention ; by constant vigilance of family and friends ; by the exercise of an heroic patience and fortitude on his part, and after nearly a year's suffering and confinement, he sufficiently recovered to again enter upon his profession. It may be remarked of Judge Downing that he never has been fully restored to health, and that the fang of the malarial monster of the Mississippi has never relaxed its hold on him.

In a few years after he had resumed the practice, and in the fall of 1866, quite unexpectedly on his part, he was appointed, by Governor J. D. Cox, of Ohio, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the third subdivision of the Sixth Judicial District of the State of Ohio, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Wm. Sample. After the expiration of his Judgeship he returned to the legal practice, continuing therein until 1872, when he was elected Judge of the Probate Court of Wayne county. At the termination of his official duties, in 1876, he engaged in his old professional pursuits, forming a partnership with Charles M. Yocum, Esq.

He was married to Elizabeth C. Douglass, daughter of James Douglass, of Plain township, October 14, 1850, by which marriage he has three living children, to wit: Mary A., wife of William Liddell, and Edward and William Downing.

Judge Downing is now in the full vigor of his manly years, his intellectual faculties susceptible of their highest play and most vigorous exertion. He stands six feet and one inch in hight, is well proportioned, has a reflective forehead, a meditative and expressive face, overgrown with a massive and luxuriant crop of hair. He is, by every rule of construction, emphatically "a self-made man. " His life is an exposition of what work, industry and resolute purpose can and may accomplish, and presents some features worthy of thoughtful consideration by all men, especially young men. He began life friendless, penniless. His education he obtained himself; he toiled for it, struggled for it. There was, as his biography exhibits, a force in him, and a terrible one it is when properly directed ; it is the will-power, the motor of action. He determined to do and be, and he succeeded. Why this success? He had an exalted aim; he pursued it with close, persistent application ; he allowed no man to impeach his integrity ; his character was as sensitive to suspicion as the tenderest flower to the touch of a profane hand. He inclined to plod and study, which he did incessantly, nor was he ashamed to work. To the assurance of success he furnishes more of the testimony of labor.

As a school-teacher he has left his impression upon the county, and not a few men, who, to-day, occupy enviable positions in community, ascribe to him the inspiration of their aims and destiny.

As a representative in the Ohio Legislature, he was a working, vigilant member. A logical, matter-of-fact speaker and debater, when he arose to a question, he spoke to the point and with clearness. He discharged his duties with a steadiness, ability and firmness always equal to the occasion, never allowing himself to be seduced into chicanery or duplicity by the hopes of ulterior ends.

His career as Judge of the Common Pleas, though short, was one, nevertheless, tojwhich he can refer with satisfaction. In this character he manifested a rare combination of urbanity, inflexibility, courtesy and independence ; an admirable self-control ; a patient spirit of endurance ; a sharp, instinctive repugnance to what was wrong, balanced by a superior conception of right. His dispassionate, discerning reason; his sober judgment; his fearless inclination in the direction of the right, were acknowledged by his compeers, and elicited the applause of the bar.

As Judge of the Probate Court, he was accessible, dignified and just, performing his duties to the entire satisfaction of his constituents and the public.

As a lawyer, in the trial of causes he wins the confidence of the jury, the esteem of adverse counsel, and commands the respect and attention of the court. His professional integrity is not called into question. In the defense of a knave or rascal he never compromises his character by an undue or inordinate desire for his acquittal. His legal opinions are characterized by clearness and accuracy. His speeches are groupings and condensations of law and fundamental principles, and in his efforts at the bar he never descends to blackguardism. Law to him is a supreme philosophy, which he studies with delight, and, animated by an exalted sense of the dignity and grandeur of his profession, he addresses himself to the higher feelings and principles of human nature. He relies more upon investigation than genius. His mathematical brain makes him a calculator, and he is strong in concentrations and analyzations. He conducts his excavations at the roots of a legal proposition with the calm assurance of a woodsman digging out a tree. He bores through a labyrinth of reports and judicial decisions with the patience of the engineers tunneling through the Sierras. Tie him to a pyramid of figures, and he will burst the tether and climb to the top of it. There is no cant or sentimentalism about him. He has no fancy for the fanciful, and the birds of his imagination were caged when they left the nest.

Poetry, tropes, figures of rhetoric, similes and metaphors concern him but little. He deals in facts and the principles of the legal science. Thought always predominates over expression. He is a lawyer of matured intellect and ripe judgment, and, by industry, energy and perseverance, has achieved an honorable distinction at the bar.

As a man and citizen Judge Downing is universally respected. He is noted for his uniform courtesy toward his fellow-men ; his personal integrity ; his generous and sympathetic nature ; his consistent and temperate life ; his zeal in the cause of education ; his private charities and benefactions. In morals and religion he is fixed and firm. With him there is a right and a wrong. Between the affirmative and the negative there is no border-land with him. You can not hover with him upon the confines of truth, or wander in the maze of a probable argument. He always keeps the path. You can not make excursions with him, for he sets you right. His taste never fluctuates. His morality never abates.

The common ancestor of the Brinkerhoff family in America emigrated from Holland and settled in what is now New York City in 1638. The island of Manhattan, which is now entirely occupied by the great city, was discovered September 3, 1609, by Hendrik Hudson.

The settlement of New Amsterdam was commenced in 1613; in 162 1 the Dutch West India Company commenced operations, and it is claimed in 1626 the whole island was purchased for ^24.00; in 1652 New Amsterdam was incorporated, and the government passed from the West India Company into the hands of two Burgomasters and five assistants called Schepens, and one Schout or Sheriff; in 1664 the English took the province, and the name was changed to New York.

It will thus be seen that the common ancestor above referred to, of the Brinkerhoff family, came to America before the title of New York had been conferred upon the great seaboard city of the Western World ; fifty years before James II. had abolished the representative system ; seventy years before the slave market was established in Wall street ; eighty-seven years before the New York

The ancestor of the Wayne county, Ohio, branch of the family was born in the city of Philadelphia, and there married a Scotch- Irish woman named Campbell. He had three sons, George, Daniel and William, all of whom are deceased, the^^latter dying at the advanced age of ninety-one years.

Daniel, the second of these three brothers, had three sons, John, James and William, the latter for many years one of the distinguished educators of the State, and now Principal of the McNealy Normal school. James is a resident of the county, an industrious and prosperous farmer and an excellent citizen.

John Brinkerhoff, the oldest of the three sons, was born June 9, 18 13, and was educated near Dillsburg, York county, Pa., at a private institution. Two of his instructors were men of marked and decided ability, and for whom their pupil has ever entertained agreeable memories and a high regard. He began his career as a teacher at the early age of eighteen, near Mechanicsburg, Cumberland county, Pa,, where he remained one year, when he removed with his father to Wayne county. Upon his arrival in Wayne county he very naturally inclined to the occupation for which he had best qualified himself and began teaching in Canaan township, where the village of Golden Corners now stands.

He was married November 18, 1833, to Rebecca Sommers, the issue of which union being three sons, George S., Daniel O. and Joseph William Brinkerhoff. The two oldest served in the Union army, George in the 47th Indiana regiment, Daniel in the 4th Ohio, who after a service of nine months became prostrated with fever, was brought home and died. Joseph W. Brinkerhoff, the youngest, is practicing medicine in Burbank, Wayne county.

After a married life of 18 years nearly his wife Rebecca died, and he was united in marriage a second time, November 17, 1852, to Miss Mary Robison, daughter of William Robison of Wooster township. Mr. Brinkerhoff is a resident of Wooster and is one of the intelligent, enlightened, upright, honorable and substantial men of the city.

We do not know the number of terms of school he has taught in Wooster and the community since his advent to the county, but he has been, if not exclusively devoting his time to it, identi-

The genius of the public schools has pursued him and haunted him until there was scarcely any escape from its influence or blandishments. The vigor of his manhood has been spent in the schoolroom, and the skill of his drilled brain has, through long and toilsome years, been employed in endeavor to educate the youth submitted to his care and inspire them with lofty and laudable ambitions. He has performed his duty and can not fail to know it. In the sphere of teacher he possessed singular fitness, and to all its situations he readily addressed himself

He must be written down as one of the successful teachers of Wayne county. He seems to have enjoyed the natural as well as the acquired qualifications of the teacher. He had a just, wellbalanced confidence in himself and in his ability. His moral nature was suflRciently enlightened to impart to him a keen conception of his duty, and his conscience forbade him shrinking from it. He was also, by his very composition, a very determined man, and this determination communicated force and momentum to all his actions ; hence, with his strong moral convictions, his clear sense of duty, and his resolute nature, he established government, erected order and asserted the manhood of the teacher. His name is permanently associated with the High, Graded and other schools of the city of Wooster. With the teachers of Wayne county he possesses a remarkable influence, and especially with the younger class, who dwell upon his words and highly value his counsel. As County School Examiner he was deservedly popular.

His mind being essentially calculative, the range of its exercise could not easily be confined to the mathematics of the school room. With an excellent comprehension of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, the calculus, etc. , he practicalized his attainments in the domain of surveyor and civil engineer.

He was elected Surveyor of Wayne county in 1844, ^"^ has served ofiTicially in that capacity at differeat times nineteen years since then. His labors in this respect continue whether in or out of office, and his lines, angles and corners are trusty land-marks. He is as familiar with the science of quantities, mixed, pure or speculative, as he is with the sections or topography of the county. His valuable services rendered as engineer in the construction of the Wooster water works, and his remarkable fertility and

While it is probable that the atmosphere of politics may not be cogenial to the olfactories of Mr. Brinkerhoff he has, nevertheless, upon several occasions been compelled to breathe it, and with, we believe, invigorating effect upon the body politic.

He was elected to the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio, serving from January 4, 1864, to January i, 1866. He proved himself to be a working, vigilant member, promptly at the post of duty, and keenly alive to the interests of his constituents and the welfare of the public.

It will be seen by this narrative that Mr. Brinkerhoff has passed his sixty-fourth year, an age to which but a decimal of the human race attain. By a Hfe of strictest sobriety and temperance, of great evenness, moderation and method, not yielding to mental or physical excitements, unsapped by excesses, unvisited by the assaults of destructive passions, he is to-day in the very prime of manhood, the possessor of "a sound mind in a healthy body," with every faculty susceptible of its strongest tension and activity. He is a man of powerful convictions, and when assured that he is right he will not be swerved from his opinion. He is a tangible, certain man. There are no fungus growths in his character. He is of a placid and hopeful temperament and indulgent and magnanimous disposition. He believes the world is better than moralists would have us admit; has faith in the destiny of man, withholding judgment against a brother rather than pronouncing it. He has a hearty amen for every good work, and in most cases leans to a verdict of "not proven." He belongs to the United Presbyterian church, of which he has been a lifelong and prominent member.

John Parsons Jeffries, of Wooster, Ohio, the author of the "Natural History of the Human Races," is a lawyer by profession. He was born in Huntington county. Pa., July 19, 1815. His parents, Mark and Rebecca Parsons Jeffries, were both of old English stock, Quaker on the maternal side, whose genealogy can be traced for over two centuries, their immediate ancestors for several generations residing in Chester county. Pa.

His early opportunities for education were only such as were attainable at that time, and this was procured at the select school, as the system of instruction was then not so diffusive and liberal as at this later day. However, by the exercise of indomitable energy and a determined will, he became a ripe scholar, profound lawyer and a man of means, and may properly and emphatically be ranked with our self-made men.