Chardon Township (part 4 of 4)

Was elected auditor of the county in 1844, and served three terms. He had one child by his first wife. His second wife was Miss Chapman, from Massachusetts. By this connection they raised a family of four sons and three daughters. The eldest son, William C., is a prominent member of the Goodhue county bar, Minnesota. He is located at Red Wing ; has been a member of the legislature of that State. One son was a major in the army during the war of the Rebellion. The children are mostly located in Chicago and Cleveland. He was a gentleman of the old school in all respects, a Whig politically, and old school theologically, through life. Whatever differences of opinion among the people in his adopted State, they generally accorded to him honesty of opinion. He was firm in his convictions, whether they were in accordance with the majority or not.

Mrs. Williston died in Chardon. In 1867 Mr. Williston went to Red Wing, Minnesota, and lived with his son William until his death, which occurred, in 1879.

Marsh Smith

the sixth auditor of Geauga county, was born in Manchester, Vermont, August 18 , 1799. Both his father and mother were of English descent. His greatgrandfather on the paternal side, who settled in the colony of Connecticut in 17 - , belonged to an old English family of rare intelligence and sterling virtues. His mother, whose maiden name was Polly Marsh, was of the Marsh family of which Hon. George P. Marsh, of Vermont, is the most distinguished representative.

The subject of this sketch was one of eight children, viz: Ransom, Newell R., Orrin, Norman, Sanford, Franklin, Marrilla, and Marsh. Two besides himself are now living, viz: Sanford, who resides in Parkman, and Franklin, who resides in Nelson, Portage county.

When a boy, Marsh removed with his parents to Georgetown, Madison count}*, New York, and thence, in 1818, preceding them one year to Ohio, settling in Parkman. He there purchased and cleared up a farm, working as a carpenter a portion of the time.

In October, 1823, he was married to Miss Eliza Cotton, of Nelson. The Cottons were from Connecticut, a family of great intelligence, culture and refinement, whose virtues are strongly exmplified in their living representatives.

Mr. Smith held many positions of honor and trust in the township of Parkman. For twenty years he was justice of the peace, during which time he became familiar with the laws of Ohio. His large experience, thus acquired, combined with a high sense of honor and right, for which he has always been distinguished, gave special value to his opinions, causing them to be much sought after by his neighbors and friends, as well as by justices of less experience. In 1850 he was elected county auditor, which office he held for three consecutive terms, discharging its duties faithfully, efficiently, and to the acceptance of all.

In politics he was a Whig until the organization of the Free-soil party, with which he at once identified himself, continuing to act with that party until it was merged into the Republican party, to which he has ever since belonged. He was one of the earliest and most active of anti-slavery workers, and it is not too much to say of him, that by nature he could be nothiug less than an earnest and consistent friend of freedom, and an uncompromising enemy of every form of injustice and wrong.

In religion he is a firm believer in the authenticity of the Scriptures, which, to his mind, teach the final salvation of all men. After a residence in Geauga county of over sixty years, it may be truly said of him, that no man ever enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-citizens more fully, or proved himself more worthy of it, by the singular purity and uprightness of his character. Possessing a life partner of a most pure and amiable character, peculiarly adapted to his own, and sons and daughters who exemplify their virtues truly, his long and eventful life in its calm and peaceful evening is crowned with blessings.

The living children are seven in number, viz: Mrs. Hannah Bates, of Iowra . Mrs. Elizabeth Durfee, of Troy; Judge H. K. Smith; T. C. Smith (cashier of' the Geauga savings and loan association); Marsh H. Smith and Mrs. Eliza Brooks, of Chardon, and Newell R. Smith, of Nelson, Portage county, Ohio.

Constantine C. Field

was born February 18, 1813, in the township of Phelps, Ontario county, New York. He came to Concord, Geauga (now Lake) county, in the spring of 1836 ; removed to East Claridon in 1839 and engaged in the mercantile business. He was twice elected assessor for Claridon township; in 1850 was elected justice of the peace, and served one term. He was elected county auditor in 1856, and re-elected in 1858, i860, and 1862. In January, 1866, he was appointed county treasurer for the unexpired term of the lamented O. R. Newcomb, deceased. He removed to Painesville in the fall of 1866, and again engaged in the mercantile business. In 1870 he was elected a member of the State board of equalization for the district, comprising Ashtabula, Lake, and Geauga counties. He now resides in East Claridon, Geauga county, Ohio. Mr. Field discharged his duties in all positions with ability and integrity.

Abram P. Tilden

1816. He removed with his parents to Hiram, Portage county, in 1818, settling in the woods two miles east from the center, near the place where his brother, Mason B. Tilden, now resides. In 1831 his father moved to Garrettsville, w'here he lived until his death. The subject of this sketch worked on the farm with his father until 1837, when, with the consent of his parents, he went to Illinois, stopping at Chicago about two months; from thence to Laselle county, where he remained two years, working as a carpenter in the summer and teaching school in the winter. He returned to Garrettsville in 1839, and attended the academy in Shalersville two terms. In 1841 he engaged as clerk in the dry goods store of Williams & Tilden, in Parkman, and continued in their employ until 1844, when he entered into co-partnership with his uncle, Josiah S. Tilden, at Parkman, and for many years a leading merchant and politician of Geauga county, now a prominent citizen of Cleveland - and continued in the mercantile business until 1856. On the 5th of November, 1846, he married Miss Harriet B. Davis, of Shalersville, whose acquaintance he formed while at school. She was the daughter of Joseph Davis, of Tyringham, Massachusetts, where she was .born. In 1864 he was elected county auditor, and removed to Chardon in March, 1865.

His eldest son, Marcus H., at the age of fourteen, died on the sixth of April, 1865, and on the fourth day of February, 1865, his wife also died.

Mr. Tilden held the office of county auditor for four consecutive terms, discharging its duties with efficiency, and to the entire satisfaction of the people of the county. Since the close of his last term as auditor, he has resided in Chardon, being more or less engaged in farming, and also assisting the different county officers with all of whose duties he has, by long experience, become familiar, and having held several minor positions of responsibility and trust At present he is one of the justices of the peace of Chardon.

The Tildens, in many respects, are a remarkable family. All in this country are supposed to have had a common origin, and possessing many notable distinguishing characteristics. Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, W. M. Tilden, of Chicago, and Josiah S. Tilden, of Cleveland, are conspicuous examples of the executive or business qualifications, peculiar in greater or less degree to them all. Hon. Daniel R. Tilden, ex-member of Congress, and for many years past probate judge of Cuyahoga county, belongs to the same family.

The subject of this sketch truly exemplifies the best qualities and strongest characteristics of the Tildens generally. He is a man of uncompromising independence and integrity, of great kindness of heart, social, generous and hospitable, strong in his attachments, and out-spoken in his denunciations of whatever he regards hypocritical or mean.

In politics, he was originally a Democrat, but has acted with the Republican party ever since its organization, being one of its most pronounced and earnest supporters.

Daniel Johnson

commissioner, was born June 22, 1826, in Newbury, Geauga county, Ohio, and is the son of Seth and Saloma Johnson. Until nine years of age he enjoyed the usual advantages of the district school. But at this time, owing to the failing health of his father, many of the responsibilities of farm and home were gradually transferred to himself, and his attendance upon the common school was confined to the winter seasons of the following six years. The labors and cares of a man then absorbed his entire attention, and prevented the gratification of his earnest desire for an education. At length, in 1844, Wesley Vincent opened a select school about two miles from the residence of Mr. Johnson. This school he attended from his home which, with a term the following winter and one in the fall of 1845, t0 the same teacher, completed his public school instruction.

But the practical duties of his young life had early shown him the advantages of an education, and with this in view he made much greater progress during these last three terms than he otherwise would have made. He even continued his studies alone after leaving school, and thus prepared himself for the various duties he has been called upon to perform. In the winter of 1846-7 he taught the school in his own district.

He has ever taken an active interest in the business enterprises of Newbury, and was for twelve years a justice of the peace in that township. Since 1870 he has been commissioner of Geauga county, which office he still retains, having been re-elected in 1873, and 1876; These re-elections may very properly be regarded as endorsements on the part of the people of his official acts. Mr. Johnson has ever been known as a man of uncompromising integrity; ever tenacious in adherence to his convictions. These, and other characteristics, have eminently fitted him for the discharge of various trusts which have been confided to his charge. Among these are the settlement of the estates of deceased or insolvent persons, in which capacity he has had a large experience. He is a consistent temperance man, and was connected with the first division of Sons of Temperance (organized in Newbury, in 1850) as long as that organization was represented in his township.

In politics he was a Whig, until the organization of the Republican party. Since then he has been an earnest worker in the Republican party. He was married March 9, 1852, to Belle M. Gould, daughter of Rev. Simon Gould, of Newbury. He is an industrious farmer, and now owns the farm upon which his parents lived, and its appearance bespeaks the thrifty, successful farmer. Here he and his family have always resided. To his children he affords good educational facilities, and surrounds them with those refining influences which are so potent in determining the future character of the youth.

Noah Pomeroy

was the youngest of twelve children bom to Ichabod and Lucy Pomeroy, of Southampton, Massachusetts. He was born October 9, 1 802 ; came to Ohio with his father and family, consisting of a wife and nine children, who settled in the township of Hambden, Geauga county, in the year 1808, the subject of this sketch being then six years of age. He has resided in Geauga county continuously, and in the township of Hambden up to 185a He received his early education in schools taught in bams, stables, and rude log school-houses, with purcheon floors and seats, until the age of fourteen, when his father learned that there was a very popular school in Painesville (now Lake county), taught by a noted teacher by the name of Flavius Josephus Huntington, a relative of the late Hon. Samuel Huntington, late Governor of the State of Ohio. He remained in that school several years, after which he labored on the farm for his father (who was a farmer), in the summer, and taught school in the winters, up to 1820, when he entered "Burton academy," an institution widely known in those days, taught by David L. Coe, a graduate of Williams college. His father and himself ardently desired that he should continue his studies until he had received a liberal education. But his health was impaired by his studies, and he was compelled, very much against his will, to relinquish his studies and return to the old homestead. He has engaged in agricultural pursuits more or less up to this date, 1878. In 1837 and '38 he was engaged, with "partners," in buying and driving cattle over the Alleghany mountains to the Philadelphia market. He was considered the best salesman in the company ; consequently he remained in the market, while the partners bought and drove the cattle to him. In 1839 he removed to Thompson township and engaged in merchandizing with the same partners. He was not pleased with his partners or the business, and sold out to them and returned to Hambden in 1840.

In 1849 he engaged again in the cattle trade, and bought for Buffalo, Albany, and New York markets. He was the first drover who shipped cattle on board steamboats from Fairport to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. In 1850 he removed to Chardon, where he pursued the same business on a more extended scale. Some years he bought and sold over one thousand head of cattle, besides many hogs and sheep. In 1851 he bought the corner lot on North Hambden and Main streets, Chardon, formerly the property of Hilan Canfield, esq.; rebuilt the house, decorated the yard and premises with many kinds of flowers and evergreens purchased from the Rochester gardens, which at that time was considered one of the most desirable places in the village.

In 1854 he was elected mayor of the incorporated village of Chardon, and re-elected in 1855. During these two years he was very active in the village improvements. He superintended the leveling and fencing of "Chardon square," as it was then called; laid out the streets in their present form, comprising two parks, in doing which he spent much time and labor gratuitously. In 1859 he was appointed deputy sheriff under High Sheriff White, in which office he officiated two years.

Mr. Pomeroy was united in marriage January 11, 1829, to Miss MarciaS. Jones, of Painesville (now Lake county), daughter of the late Elisha Jones, esq., formerly of Hinsdale, Massachusetts. From this union were born six children, three sons and three daughters. Two daughters died in infancy. The remaining daughter, Jennie M., was united in marriage with Alfred Phelps, jr., of Chardon, son of the late Hon. Alfred Phelps, of the same place, on October 17, 1854. Her husband, Phelps, jr., was employed in 1866 as agent for the Pacific Mail Steamship company, sailed to China, and was stationed at Hong Kong for a while, afterwards at Teioba, Japan, where he died suddenly in 1869. His remains were embalmed and sent home to Chardon, and buried beside his father in the Chardon cemetery. Mrs. Jennie M., his widow, now resides in Cleveland, Ohio, with their two daughters. She is a person of some note as an artist in painting.

( )f the three sons of Mr. Pomeroy, the oldest, Noah M., was united in marriage, in 1852, with Miss Mary S. Hoyt, daughter of Sylvester N. Hoyt, of Chardon, Ohio, and now resides in Pennsylvania. Daniel Webster, second son, married Miss Marian Bourn, daughter of Reuben R. Bourn, M. D., formerly of Chardon, now of River Falls, Wisconsin, where Daniel Webster resides. Willis Beecher, third son, studied dentistry under the tuition of Professor Wright, of Cleveland; settled and practiced in his profession in St. Clair, Michigan, up to 1861. At the commencement of the war of the Rebellion he enlisted for three years in the Fifth Michigan regiment, was appointed first lieutenant of his company, served the three years honorably, re-enlisted and served during the war. He was stationed on the Potomac, and was in many hard fought battles. At the close of the war he was mustered out at Washington, D. C., and was immediately appointed clerk in the surgeon-general's office, the duties of which he performed honorably for six or eight years, until the clerical force was reduced, when he, with many others, was discharged. He then returned to his profession as surgeon dentist. In 1865 he united in marriage with Miss Fannie Gudgion, daughter of Dr. Gudgion, of Washington, D. C., where they now reside.

Mr. Pomeroy buried his first wife April 14, 1856. He lived a lonely life four years. He united in marriage May 14, i860, with Mrs. Charlotte Norton, formerly from Bridgeport, Connecticut. - Soon after the marriage he removed to

Claridon, Ohio, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He immediately united with the Claridon Farmers' club, often presided in their deliberations, and was their reporter for many years. He has written many articles for the press in the interest of the club. He was chosen president of the Free Agricultural association of Geauga county, served two years, and discharged the duties of the office honorably.

Moses Parsons '

was born at Enfield, Connecticut, February 17, 1782, and died at Hambden, Ohio, March 23, 1869. His wife, Elcaba Pease, was born at Longmeadow', Massachusetts, April 9, 1786, and died at Hambden, Ohio, April 22, 1856. They were married October 25, 1807, and resided at Longmeadow, Massachusetts, until the spring of 1810, when they removed to Enfield, Connecticut, where they resided until 1814, except a short time spent at Springfield, Massachusetts, and the summer of 1810, which he spent in Bondstown (now Hambden), Ohio. In company with Chandler and Anson Pease he came on foot to Ohio in the spring of 1810, and selected about one thousand acres of land in Bondstown and Thompson, for himself and two brothers, and returned to Enfield in the fall. He remained at Enfield until June, 1814, when he started, with his family, for Ohio. Arriving in Bondstown about the first of July, he lived with Chandler Pease until he could cut and clear away the trees, and build a cabin, which was roofed with elm bark. Some time during the summer of 1815 he took off the bark roof, and put on a gable roof, covered with long shingles, or (to use the language of log cabin days) a roof made with eave bearers, butting poles, rib coffins, weight poles and knees. He lived in this cabin until 1828, when he built the brick house (which is still standing, 1878), where he resided until his death, March 23, 1869, at the age of eighty-seven years.

There were born to them the following children, viz: Roswell Pease, born at Longmeadow, Massachusetts, November 22, 1808, who married Rhoda Egleston, May, 9, 1833. Moses, jr., born at Longmeadow, Massachusetts, March 10, i8ro, who married Amarilla Egleston, December 1, 1836 ; died March 13, 1840. Norman, born at Enfield, Connecticut, November 6, 1811, who married Amanda King, August 23, 1836. Lucius, bom at Enfield, Connecticut, January 25, 1813, who niarried Roxana Mills, October 13, 1839. Thankful, born at Hambden, Ohio, March 9, 1815; died April 16, 1818. Elonzo, born at Hambden, Ohio, April 5, 1816, and married Mary Cotton, August 3, 1842. Martin, born at Hambden, Ohio, May 13, 1817, died in infancy. Solomon, born at Hambden, Ohio, February 3, 1821, died August 10, 1855.

The sons of Moses Parsons held various offices, both* civil and military. Roswell held commissions for five years as ensign and captain, under Governors Duncan McArthur and Robert Lucas. Moses, jr., held commissions for five years as ensign and captain, under Governor Robert Lucas. Norman held a commission as captain in the first light infantry of Geauga county, also as colonel of the Second regiment, First brigade, Ninth division, Ohio militia. Norman was justice of Jhe peace for Chardon township one term. He removed to Beardstown, Illinois, where he resided when the war broke out, in 1861. He enlisted

Julius O. Converse

In the olden of Chardon times, just west of the Chardon house, which was built in the earliest of Geauga years, by Norman Canfield, and is still the solid heart and center of the present flourishing hotel of Benton & Co., on the left of Water street, back of its little lawn, was the pleasant cottage of Jude and Sidney Converse. The lawn had young trees and shrubs rising in it, and in their season many beautiful flowers.

Jude Converse was a native of, and reared in, Vermont. An older brother was Governor Julius Converse, of that State. Mrs. French, mother of the late John French, was a sister, as also Mrs. Eleanor Hoyt, of Cleveland. Jude was then a frank, handsome, gay-hearted, young merchant of Chardon. Sidney, a woman of rare endowments, was a Metcalf, a younger sister of the late Mrs. Samuel Smith, of Chardon, with whom she migrated from her native Connecticut in 1817; also of Thomas Metcalf, of Chardon; Orrin Metcalf, of Mississippi, and the late Dr. Metcalf. When she was twenty years old, she became the wife of the late Dr. Evert Denton, of Chardon, then in the hey-day of his brilliant career, a widower with four small children, and by whom she became the mother of Mr. R. E. Denton, now of Chardon, also of Sybil, a lovely girl, who died many years ago. She lost her first husband in 1830. In 1832, when she was twenty-eight, and Jude was twenty-six, they were married, and began that life-long union of rare felicity in which each supplied to the other that which secured happiness, spite of the reverses of fortune which overtook, and would have darkened almost any home not made bright by such a woman as Sidney was, and warm by the love to which both so steadily ministered.

To these, on the first day of May, 1834, was born the subject of this sketch. The German common folk have a legend that it is a special favor to be bom in May, while the child of May day enters the world with an omen of rare good fortune. The child of such parents is certainly to be regarded as w'ell-born, and was endowed by both with qualities, enabling him to realize the omens of his birthday. He received the names of his uncle, the governor, and his mother's younger brother, Orrin. The youngest living child of his mother, and for many years the sole offspring of her happy marriage, he was the idol of his father, and, from the day he could walk till the day wiien he followed that father to the grave, his almost inseparable companion.

Through infancy and childhood, he came near being a spoiled child. Such qualities, however, will safely pass through a great deal of dangerous petting. While he was yet in. early childhood, his father was overtaken by a reverse of fortune, from which, in his own person, he never recovered.

Such education ks he received in the forms of school came to him before he was thirteen ; an apt child of Sidney Converse would receive a training at home little less than a liberal education. At sixteen he entered, as an apprentice, the printing office of William W. and Eli Bruce, publishers of the Geauga Republic . Here, by the processes which translate a young, plastic, ignorant boy into the expert, intelligent printer, with the many-sided aptitude to successfully conduct a weekly newspaper, his years multiplied, his form shot upwrard mostly, the volume of his brain increased, his mind formed, and his character developed. The office of a journalist may be the very best, or the worst possible, of all the

For the few who absorb and assimulate only its good* it is the best ; for the many who draw and feed on its bad, it is one of the worst. We only hear of the successful; nobody keeps record of the tramping jour-printers, many of whom end in mere tramps. Not only skilled work of the hands was mastered by Julius, but the higher art of the brain, which informs other men's brains, and leads to the employment of the hands.

After his novitiate under the Bruces, young Converse worked on the Free Democrat, under Asper. This he followed into the hands of the late J. S. Wright, esq., who changed the name to the Jeffersonian Democrat, where he remained a subordinate till 1859, when he became the proprietor and editor of the same journal, and has remained such to the present. In the meantime he studied law*, and was admitted in 1858.

The Converses were Whigs, of course, and became Free-soilers and Republicans by natural logic and the law of events. On the election of Mr. Lincoln, he appointed Mr. Converse postmaster at Chardon, and renewed the appointment. This is the only office he ever held. I am not aware that he ever sought office.

It would be supererogation to speak of the Republican to the people of Geauga. As compared with the weekly press of the country, it holds a place with the first.

Managed with rare tact, prudence, and good judgment, with courage, steadiness, and fidelity to the cardinal principles of the highest morality, the purest integrity, and the purest patriotism, it gathers with care the incidents of news of the county, and returns to its readers the latest reliable news of the outside world; a carefully selected miscellany, with crisp, strong, incisive paragraphs of the editor, giving in a condensed form, his ripe thoughts on important matters of public interest, as they arise.

The life and mission of the true editor is one of perpetual self-abnegation and devotion to the public and the private interests of others. The good to himself is but incidental. He toils perpetually for others. He builds up a party, that other men may have the places and honors it can bestow. He is forever bringing forward, and sounding the praises of other men, and pushing them forward. He is astute in finding out and noting their supposed merits and talents, printing their speeches, revising, making readable their crude articles, and giving his time, space, labor and money to do it. He takes pleasure in announcing the arrival of the most insignificant persons, heralds their doings, praises their successes, the height of their com, the weight of their hogs, the size of their pumpkins, and the length of their squash-vines, Every man finds space for his complaints, a card of thanks, or the glorification of his family reunions; all of which are of very little interest to the rest of the world. If, with his endless toils and multiform duties, with prudence and rare business skill, he makes for himself a comfortable home, and surrounds himself with the conveniences of life, because he has toiled while other men slept, studied while other men played, thought while other men rioted, ten to one they will want to divide the profits of his success with him, and talk of how they made him, built him up, when it is they who have profited by his researches, made happy changes and improvements by the information he furnished, at the lowest living rates ; and would ridicule the idea of dividing with him the profits of the enterprises he suggested, or the money results from information he gave them.

It may not be much merit in Mr. Converse that his life has been pure, his sentiments elevated, and his career marked by steady devotion to high principle. The direction given to his life by its authors hardly admitted of any other result.

In intellectual capacity, he ranks high above the average, and his is of a class and quality of minds, that should go forward with a steady growth and development for twenty-five years yet. It has an easy grasp of a given subject, quickly comprehending its nature, scope and relations, and few minds sooner arrive at just conclusions as to its merits, and assign it to its proper position in thought or practical affairs with more skill and accuracy. Easily equal to broad and comprehensive views, he is so constantly employed, possibly sometimes vexed, with the details of the petty interests he is obliged to care for, or the thousand contrarient demands that must have some attention, that he cannot give as much time to general literature as his tastes and judgment incline him. In purely literary matters his judgment is good, and, writing w'ith fluency and accuracy, he would become a good critic or general writer; is a good writer now. As an editor, he writes less than many wish. Perhaps, on the whole, he is wiser in denying himself the luxury of freer speech, and a broader swing of the pen. He was regularly apprenticed as an editor, and probably does not err in judgment. He has secured to himself, and is educating a fine class of local correspondents, and, to a Geauga man abroad, there cannot be in English so interesting a journal as his.

Mr. Converse would have excelled at the bar. I heard him last summer, for the first time, in a short, off-hand speech, under circumstances the most trying, w'here a professional speaker might have failed, and w'here he admirably succeeded. I believe he is not without some experience on the platform, about the worst place to form a speaker in the world. He is a good speaker; has the advantage of a fine person, with height and weight, a large, well-formed head, handsome, pleasing features, good voice and diction, and good manner.

The child of pure New" England ancestors, born and reared in Chardon, a toiler with his hands, he is a good type of the good that has been, and can be produced in Geauga county. His life has been calm and uneventful. He owres nothing to fortune or adventitious circumstances. The factors of his fortune are easily within the grasp of every young boy now' in the county. His growth and ripening have been quiet and unassuming, and now", at early maturity, he stands with the best men the county has ever produced.

On the twenty-fourth of December, 1862, he was united in marriage with Julia P., daughter of Daniel H. and Susan P. Wright, of Portage county.

Of attractive person, cordial, pleasing manners, and cultivated and informed mind, the union realizes and promises all that may be rationally expected in fortunate marriages.

Of these parents, one daughter, Mary, now about fifteen, is the only offspring, who promises to develop in person and mind the advantages of both.

Mr. Converse has erected a fine and spacious residence on the site of the old homestead, and the family promises to perpetuate the traditions of charity, kindness and love, of the earlier home. A. G. R.

Spencer L. Wadsworth

the second child and only son of Numan and Patty Wadsworth, was born July 26, 1813, in Middlesex, New York, and, with his father's family, moving from place to place, in 1832, came to, and settled in, Auburn. From then until now, or for nearly all of the time, he has continued to reside in that towmship. Mr. Wadsworth is a plain, unassuming man, with only ordinarily good advantages of early education, who, by his practical common sense and judgment, has largely commanded the respect and confidence of his fellow townspeople and surrounding acquaintances. The evidence of the esteem in which he is held by those who know him best, is shown by the fact that, of the more than forty years he has resided in Auburn, nearly, or quite, one-half of these years he has been serving his fellow citizens in some public capacity. From 1851 to 1863 he served as constable five years, as clerk two, and as assessor one year. In 1864 he was chosen justice of the peace; was re-elected in 1867, 1870, and 1873, serving continuously twelve years, and was again re-elected in 1879, and is now serving his fifth term. During the interim from 1876 to 1879, he held a notary's commission, and is now, as he has been for a number of years, postmaster at Auburn corners. His record is his best endowment

In 1878 he was called upon to collect and write the history of Auburn township, for the work now being published under the auspices of the county historical society, and has devoted every available moment, for more than a year past, to its accomplishment. The faithfulness with which he has performed the duty assigned him is attested by the fullness of the history and the space it occupies. His work may be better appreciated when it is understood that allotted space in the book forced quite a reduction of the amount of matter prepared by Mr. Wadsworth, although, it is believed, not resulting in the ommissionof any material facts. Some delay in the publication occurred on account of the Auburn and Burton histories not being prepared. In justice to Mr. Wadsworth in regard to the former, and to Mr. Ford in respect to the latter, it should be borne in mind that originally it was intended that other parties should prepare the history of these two townships, and that they were not called upon to do this work until the manuscript for the other townships was nearly all prepared, and much of it in the hands of those charged with its publication. This has given the authors time and opportunity to recall and revise their work for which the writers of the two last have had no like chance.