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GEN. NELSON EGGLESTON,
farmer, was born Oct. 3, 1811, in Aurora Township, Portage Co., Ohio; son of
Moses and Sally (Taylor) Eggleston. His father was born in
Middlefield, Mass., in 1784. He came to this township with his brother
Joseph in the spring of 1806; after arriving, and looking up the land for
which their father's farm in Massachusetts was exchanged, they commenced
clearing away the trees, and making preparations for the arrival of the rest of
the family the coming year. Among other labors, the ensuing spring, they
made maple sugar, fashioning the spouts and buckets for gathering sap, from
basswood, with only their axes, knives and a sap gouge for tools. During
the succeeding summer Joseph revisited Massachusetts, and returned with
the Eggleston, Taylor and Root families, in all, thirty-two in
number. They came through Pennsylvania and by way of Pittsburgh. In
1810 Moses had made quite an opening on his land and erected a cabin;
having provided it according to the fashion of those times he proposed to
Miss Sally Taylor to some and join with him in the labors and struggles of a
border life. This place was one mile and a quarter northwest of the center
of Aurora, on the old Cleveland and Newburg road. In the war of 1812
Moses enlisted in the service, and was sent to Huron with his company
immediately after the surrender of Hull. His wife stayed at the cabin,
not knowing what hour the British and Indians might defeat her defenders, and
repeat again the scenes of the River Raisin. In 1824 he moved to the
Center where he remained until his death, Aug. 6, 1866. He was formerly of
the Federal, then of the Whig and Republican party, by which he was honored with
repeated elections to the office of Justice of the Peace and County
Commissioner. He was the influential member of the Presbyterian Church,
and his career that of a man of industry, economy and integrity. The
mother of our subject was born in Massachusetts, in 1792, and died in April,
1838. She had three children, two of whom survive her- Nelson and
Wealtha. The latter is now living in Tuscola, Ill., the widow of
Simeon D. Kelley, by whom she had seven children, three boys and four girls;
the sons, Moses, Hiram, and Randolph, served through the late war
of the Rebellion. Moses, settled in El Presidio, Texas, where he in the
short time accumulated a handsome property, and, became a prominent citizen, but
was murdered about 1880. His two brothers still reside there. Our
subject passed his early life on his father's farm, received a common school
education, and spent some time at Hudson College, whence he graduated in 1831.
He taught school in Calloway County, Ky., nearly a year, returned, and commenced
to read law with Mathew & Hitchcock, of Painesville, Ohio;
subsequently he studied with Humphrey & Hale, of Hudson, and
September 9, 1834, was admitted to the bar upon motion before the Supreme Court
sitting at Ravenna. He was married, January 29, 1835, to Miss Caroline
Lacy, daughter of Isaac J. Lacy. By this union there are two
children, Emmett and Addis. Mr. Eggleston engaged earnestly
in the practice of his profession for a time, but submitting to the demands made
upon him by his father for help in the working of land, and receiving no
pecuniary aid from him in the purchase of books, or in the erection of an
office, for which things he was unwilling to run in debt, he flung up the law,
and has devoted himself since to farming. In 1834-35 he was Adjutant of
the cavalry regiment in the Twentieth Brigade, Ohio Militia, under Col. O. L.
Drake, of Freedom; afterward was promoted to the Colonelcy, which office he
held two or three years until his resignation. Still later he was elected
to the command of the brigade with the rank of General. Mr. Eggleston
has a wide acquaintance with the early settlers of northeaster Ohio and has been
connected in various ways with its progress. He called the first meeting
at his own house that was ever held to consider the subject of a railroad from
Pittsburgh to Cleveland. The report of this meeting made by him and
published, resulted immediately in a large convention at the center of Aurora,
from all the towns on the route. He has earned a handsome competence,
owning 500 acres of improved land in Ohio, and 1,200 in Missouri. He takes
a lively interest in literature and politics, but does not permit them in to
interfere with his daily labor and the management of his farms. He is the
disciple of Thomas Jefferson, and acknowledges no other master. |
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JAMES B. ELTON, farmer, P. O.
Atwater, was born in Atwater January 14, 1848, son of Erbin and Caroline
(Woodruff) Elton, and grandson of Ebenezer and Emily Elton, of
Puritan stock, who came from Connecticut in 1833 via canal to Buffalo, thence by
lake to Ohio, and settled on the land now occupied by their son Erbin.
Mrs. Caroline Elton came with her parents, Chancy and Perlina
Woodruff, from Farmington, Conn., to Atwater Township, this county.
They had with them their seven children: Havey, Ezekiel,,, Henry, Caroline,
Cornelius, Cornelia and Alfred, and after coming here had two more -
Sarah and William. Ebenezer and Emily Elton had six
children: Lucella, married Watrous Fairchild Taylor;
Erbin, married Caroline Elton; Elizabeth, married
John Norton; Harriett, married Lucius Walker;
Edwin, married Harriet Knapp, and Ebenezer, died at the age
of two years. Ebenezer Elton lived to enjoy pioneer life but
a short time, dying December 22, 1835, aged forty-three. At his death,
Erbin, who was but a boy at the time, took charge of the homestead and
diligently cleared it of timber, etc., and still makes it his residence.
He had four children: Edwin, died April 18, 1870, aged twenty-six; those
now living are James B., born in this township in 1838, (married in 1871,
Miss Sarah Hacock, by whom he has two children: Iona A. and
Edwin); Henry, a farmer, Windham Township, this county (married
Miss Eliza Hacock, June 26, 1883, have two daughters: Carrie and
Nina); Emily, married October 8, 1879, to Earnest Youngman,
farmer, Windham Township, this county. The family are highly esteemed and
respected members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. |
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