JAMES HUSTON.
A publication of this order exercises one of its most consistent and
important functions when it enters memorial tribute to honored pioneer
citizens whose lives and labors have lent dignity and honor to the
communities which the publication represents. Thus there is special
satisfaction in being able to present a review of the career of the late
James Huston, who was one of the sterling pioneers and early merchants
of Carroll County and whose character and ability made him a worthy leader
in community affairs.
Mr. Huston was born in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, on the 17th of April, 1813, and was a son of John and
Rachel (McNaughton) Huston. In the old Keystone State he received
his youthful education and he was seventeen years of age when he accompanied
his parents to Carroll County, Ohio, where the family home was established
on a pioneer farm near Mechanicstown, his parents having there passed the
remainder of their lives. In the earlier period of his residence in
Carroll County James Huston was engaged in farm enterprise in Fox
Township, where later he engaged in the operation of a grist mill.
Finally he established a general merchandise business at Mechanicstown,
where he continued the successful enterprise until 1853, when he engaged in
the same line of business at Carrollton, the county seat. There he
developed a large and representative business in the mercantile line,
besides becoming a leading grain dealer of the county. In 1868 he
purchased a hardware store at Carrollton, and this he conducted in
partnership with his son Vincent E., under the firm name of J.
Huston & son, until 1886, when he retired from active business, his
death having occurred on the 2d day of Jan., 1887, and in his passing the
county having lost one of its most honored and revered pioneer citizens.
Originally a democrat in politics, Mr. Huston was among the earliest
and most loyal supporters of the cause of the prohibition party, and in all
of the relations of life he exemplified the finest type of character.
Through his own ability and efforts he achieved substantial and worthy
success, and no one man had more influence in furthering the business
prosperity of Carrollton than did he. For the accommodation of his
mercantile business he erected the store now occupied by the Carrollton
laundry, and later he erected the substantial and attractive brick block
which perpetuates his name and memory. In addition to his alliance
with the hardware and general merchandise business he was associated with
James Hayes in the ownership of a well equipped clothing store.
His old home in Carrollton was situated on the lot on which his daughter
Emma (Mrs. Fawcett) later erected one of the finest modern houses in the
city, the same being her home at the present time. Mr. Huston
took loyal interest in all things pertinent to the communal welfare and was
liberal and progressive in his civic attitude. Both he and his wife
were zealous members of the Presbyterian Church.
In the year 1838 was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Huston to Miss Christine Emsley, who came with his family to
America and remained for some time in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
whence he finally came to Carroll County, Ohio, and engaged in farming near
Mechanicstown, where he passed the remainder of his life. Mrs.
Huston passed to the life eternal on the 31st of December, 1881, and her
memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and
gracious influence. Mr. and Mrs. Huston became the parents of
three children: Amanda became the wife of Cyrus A. Shober
and was a resident of Carrollton at the time of her death, Sept. 4, 1868,
her only child, Emma, having become the wife of a Mr. Ruhman
and having become the mother of one daughter, Harriet, who is the
wife of Charles H. Woodworth and who has one daughter, was reared and
educated at Carrollton and after the death of her first husband, J. V.
Cellars, she became the wife of Robert Crozier Fawcett, who was
long associated with Vincent Huston in the hardware and clothing
business at Carrollton and whose death here occurred in 1910, his widow
remaining in the fine home which she erected, on Second Street, southwest,
and having long been a gracious figure in the representative social life of
the community in which she has resided during the greater part of her life.
Vincent Emsley Huston, only son of the subject of this memoir, well
upheld the honors of the family name in connection with civic and business
affairs, and was one of the leading merchants of Carrollton, as senior
member of the firm of Huston & Fawcett, at the time of his death,
Mar. 26, 1894. |
