* FAINE, A. E.
* FREE, John W., Col. |
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A. E FAINE. The name of Mr. Faine
is closely interwoven with the business history of New
Straitsville, where he is acting as general manager for the
W. R. Calkins Hardware & Lumber Company, having made his
home here since 1883, covering a period of almost twenty
years. Mr. Faine is a native of Lawrence county,
Ohio, and a son of J. C. and Sarah A. (Rawlins)
Faine, who also removed to New Straitsville in 1883. The
father was born in Virginia, now West Virginia, and belonged
to one of the pioneer families of that portion of the country.
On the Rawlins side the family can be traced back to an
ancestry of colonial days. One of the representatives of the
family served on the staff of General Washington in the war of
the Revolution.
A. E. Faine, of this review, came with his
parents to New Straitsville in 1883 and here continued his
education, completing his course by graduation in the high
school of this city with the class of 1892. He afterward
turned his attention to educational work and was engaged in
teaching in the grammar school department for four years. In
1896, however, he turned his attention to business interests
and entered the hardware and lumber business of W. R.
Calkins, at Hemlock, also the owner of the stores at
Corning and Crooksville. Eventually the Corning store was sold
and the stock at Crooksville was taken to New Straitsville and
the Hemlock store was closed. Mr. Calkins, as a
member of the firm of W. R. Calkins & Company, is
engaged in merchandising in Columbus. Ohio, and at New
Lexington, under the firm name of W. R. Calkins & Son.
He has a patent on a gas stove which is manufactured at
Columbus and is also engaged in the manufacture of sheet iron
ware at New Lexington. Mr. Faine is in charge of
the business at New Straitsville and is carefully controlling
the same, his enterprise and good management resulting in
bringing to him creditable success.
In 1896 Mr. Faine was united in marriage
to Miss Minnie Calkins, the eldest daughter of W.
R. Calkins, who formerly resided at New Straitsville
but is now living at New Lexington. At one time he .served as
treasurer of the county and is widely known as a prominent and
enterprising man. His business interests are extensive and
prove of benefit to the community by the promotion of
commercial activity. Unto Mr. and Mrs.
Faine have been born three children: Cecil,
Uarda and Cyril.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Faine is a
Mason, belonging to New Straitsville Lodge, No. 484, F. & A.
M., and New Lexington Chapter, No. 149, R. A. M. He has
recently established the New Straitsville Record which he is
editing and into which he entered for the sole purpose of
developing the great natural resources of the town. In this
enterprise he is associated with Hiram Campbell,
a practical business man. Mr. Faine is also the
agent for the Corning Natural Gas Company at New Straitsville
and superintends its affairs here. In politics he is a
Republican and for the past seven years has taken an active
part in Perry county politics. In business he has achieved
success through honorable effort, untiring industry and
capable management and in private life he has gained many warm
personal friends. |
COLONEL
JOHN W. FREE, who was a practitioner of law but
is now living retired in New Lexington, comes of a family
honorable and distinguished. He was born in
Stewartstown, York county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1830.
His paternal grandfather was a native of Hesse Cassel,
Germany, and he had two brothers came from the fatherland to
the new world to fight in the English army at the time of the
Revolutionary war. They were present when Cornwallis
surrendered the troops to General Washington at
Yorktown. Having formed an attachment for the new world
the grandfather of our subject determined to remain and
located in Baltimore, Maryland, while one of the brothers took
up his abode in North Carolina.
Dr. John Free, the father of our subject, was a
physician and minister of the gospel, devoting his entire life
to the work of alleviating human suffering and of promoting
the cause of Christianity. He first labored for the
temporal and spiritual welfare of his fellow men in
Pennsylvania, but afterward came to Ohio, settling in
Mansfield, this state, in 1831. There he resided until
1841. In Pennsylvania he had previously married Miss
Catherine Newman, a daughter of Joseph Newman, of
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, who afterward removed to the
Buckeye state. He owned real estate in Mansfield, in
fact was one of the founders of that town, taking a very
active and helpful part in its development and progress.
He served his country in the war of 1812, going as a guide
with General Harrison. Becoming ill, he died of
pneumonia while on the march. Years afterward, in 1840,
when General Harrison was making a tour through the
state as a presidential candidate, he called upon the daughter
of his former guide, Mrs. John Free,
when in Mansfield. Andrew, General Joseph,
Jacob and Henry Newman were all uncles of our
subject.
After his marriage, Dr. Free, the father of our
subject, engaged in the practice of medicine in Mansfield.
Of broad humanitarian principles and deep human sympathy, he
gave his services freely to the poor, accepting and desiring
no compensation. His own Christian life, too, was an
inspiration and a help to those whom he met. In 1841 he
removed to McCutchinville, Wyandot county, where he engaged in
practice for a time, but afterward located on a farm in that
county, there spending his remaining days. His was a
noble, upright and helpful life and the world is certainly
better by his having lived. His memory still remains as
a blessed benediction to those who knew him. He passed
away in 1871, at the age of seventy-eight years, and his wife
died in 1870, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years.
Colonel Free, whose name introduces this review,
was one of a family of eight children: Susan is still
living in New Lexington, at about the age of eighty years;
Rosanna, also of New Lexington, is the widow of Prof.
G. A. Sickles, formerly a member of the faculty of
Heidelberg Seminary; Mrs. Catherine Hoffman is
deceased; Anna B. is the wife of J. W. Cooley,
of Wyandot county, Ohio; I. N., who was born in
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, has for the past forty years spent
the greater part of his time in traveling over the world; the
Colonel is the sixth in order of birth; Henry N., the
next younger, is now deceased; and Colonel William Henry
Harrison Free, the eighth member of the family, died in
New Lexington, July 18, 1876, at the age of forty years.
He was engaged in merchandising in this place when the Civil
war was inaugurated and with patriotic spirit he raised a
company for three months' service. He became its first
lieutenant and on the expiration of the term he raised another
command for three years' service and became its captain.
This was known as Company D, Thirty-first Ohio Infantry.
Colonel Free was wounded at Chickamauga while leading
his men. He was afterward made a major in the
Ninety-fifth Ohio and subsequently promoted to the rank of
lieutenant colonel in that regiment. He then returned to
New Lexington, having been elected to the state legislature by
a majority of twelve hundred while he was lying in a hospital
at Nashville because of his wounds. He served during the
winter in the assembly and then again went to the front,
continuing in the army until honorably discharged in December,
1865. He was a brave and efficient officer and in civil
life was a man of sterling honor and worth, who enjoyed in a
high degree the confidence and respect of his fellow men.
Colonel John W. Free, whose name introduces this
review, pursued his education in the schools of Mansfield and
in Wyandot county, displaying special aptitude in his studies.
At the age of sixteen years he began teaching, as did all of
his brothers and two sisters. In 1856 he came to New
Lexington, where he turned his attention to merchandising, and
in 1861 he, too, raised a company, gathering together
sufficient men for the command in five days. Elected its
captain, he went to the front in command of Company A,
Thirty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in November, 1862,
he was promoted to the rank of major, continuing in that
position until 1865, when he resigned owing to the fatal
illness of his wife, who died on the 14th of April of that
year, at the age of twenty-two years. He had married
prior to his enlistment, the lady of his choice of being
Miss Catherine France, of Perry county. She left two
children, Anna and Lulu, both of whom are now
deceased. There is now a grandchild, O. F. Ott,
who is living in Washington Court House, Ohio, and who served
in the Spanish-American War, being chief bugler on the staff
of General A. H. Wilson.
After the death of his first wife, Colonel Free
was again married, his second union being with Miss Martha
A. Moroe, a daughter of Andrew and Lois Moore, of
Perry county. There is one child by this union, Kate
A., the wife of John E. Davis, by whom she has one
child, Major Free Davis, of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Since the war Colonel Free has resided at New
Lexington. He studied law, being admitted to the bar,
and continued in the practice of his profession until 1883.
He has always declined public office, never seeking notoriety
of that character. Sine 1852 he has been a loyal and
devoted member of the Masonic fraternity, and he also belongs
to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of
the Republic. He is widely known in New Lexington, where
he won an enviable reputation in early times as a merchant and
later as a member of the bar. His military career is one
most creditable, for meritorious conduct on the field of
battle won him promotion. In matters of citizenship he
is as true today to his country as when he followed the old
flag upon the southern battlefields. As a man he
possesses sterling traits of character which have gained him
popularity and friendship and no one is more worthy of
representation in this volume than Colonel Free. |
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