Windsor Township (part 3 of 3)

William Dean Howells, called the "Dean of American Literature', started life in an Ashtabula newspaper office. His father lived in Jefferson.

Morrison I. Swift, philosopher, economist and some years ago notorious as the "Leader of the Army of Unemployed", was a son of an Ashtabula druggist and worked in his father's store when a boy.

Congressman Osse M. Hall, of Minnesota; Robert H. Finch, former mayor of Toledo; Virgil P. Kline, for some years attorney for the Standard Oil Company; Edwin Cowles, pioneer editor of the Cleveland Leader; Erie C. Hopwood, the present editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer; W. C. Howells, Columbus and political correspondent for that paper; Andrew C. Tombes, one of the leading comedians of the American stage of today.

Ashtabula County was the home of three of the greatest penmen of all time. Platt R. Spencer, the man who conceived the Spencerian system of penmanship, came into the county when five years of age and spent a long and useful life here. Mr. Spencer spent his last years in Geneva.

Victor M. Rice, a pupil and associate of Mr. Spencer, later went East and became superintendent of public instruction in the State of New York.

H. W. Shaylor, a native of Ashtabula, was one of the most expert penmen of his day. He gained prominence through execution of an artistic, free-hand design for a family record, drawn on a card 18 by 21 inches, which he made to sell at $2.50. He had it copyrighted, and, in 1871, he sold his right for $5,000 cash. For a great many years Mr. Shaylor was supervisor of penmanship in the public schools of Portland, Maine, where he is now a retired resident.

Albert Gaskell, of Richmond Township, was another noted scribe. He furnished the copy and instruction in penmanship used in Gately's Universal Educator, and was the author of Gaskell's Compendium of Writing, a work that was once prominent in educational circles. He was drowned in a small stream near his home.

The first one to become widely known was Miss Betsy Cowles, of Austinburg, whose activities in the cause of freedom and anti-slavery made her famous. She was also renowned as an educator.

Mrs. Hannah B. Sperry, whose husband was editor of an Ashtabula paper, was at one time president of the Woman's National Press Association. She was the first organist that played in the township of Dorset,

Elizabeth Stiles, daughter of "Corker" Brown, of Ashtabula, was living in the West at the time of the Civil War. She saw her husband murdered by the notorious guerilla band captained by one Quantrell, and soon afterward offered her services to the Federal army, which she served most effectively as a spy, so long as her services were needed.

Rosetta L. Gilchrist, an Ashtabula physician, even as a child developed ability as a writer and in mature years was author of several books, one of which, in particular, "Apples of Sodom', created a great sensation.

Judge Florence Allen, of the Supreme Court of Ohio, is a grand daughter of the late Professor Tuckerman, a noted educator of this county. She is a noted peace advocate, was a prominent attorney in Cleveland and made a rapid rise from a position in the office of the prosecuting attorney to a circuit judgeship and on up to her present position.

Miss Clara Ward, whose childhood was spent in Conneaut, probably gained the widest notoriety of any of the county's celebrities. When a young woman she was taken abroad by her mother. She married the Prince De Chimay, of Italy, and later created a world-wide sensation by eloping with a Gipsy violinist named Rigo.