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Also See Individual Townships for biographies.
NELSON
HOMER BAILEY - Especially deserving of mention in this
biographical record is Nelson Homer Bailey, who served
bravely as a soldier of the Union Army during the Civil war, and is
now carrying on a substantial business as a contractor in stonework,
his home being at No. 521 East Market street, Warren, Trumbull
county, Ohio. A son of Russell Bailey, he was born,
Nov. 5, 1842, in Gustavus, this county, of honored New England
ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Ido Bailey, was
born and reared in Connecticut, and served as a soldier in the War
of 1812. Coming from New England to Ohio in 1802, he took up
land in Gustavus, having previously visited Gustavus in 1797, and
the farm which he improved from its primitive condition is still in
possession of the family.
Born in Connecticut, Russell Bailey was but a
child when he was brought by his parents to Trumbull county.
He was brought up and educated in Gustavus, and was there employed
in agricultural pursuits during his active life. He married
Dorothy B. Hart, who was born in Gustavus township, this county,
a daughter of John H. Hart, who came from Connecticut, his
native state, to Ohio in 1807, becoming a pioneer settler of that
place. Of their union, three daughters and two sons were born,
two of whom are living, namely: Nelson Homer, who was
the fourth child and second son; Huldah A., widow of the late
Charles Herrick. One son, Ambrose J., served as
a soldier in the Civil War, and died while in the army, in 1864,
belonging to Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry; Malinda A., married Albert Farnsworth, of
Mentor, Ohio, and Cornelia E., married Benton Whiston
of Gustavus.
Reared and educated in Gustavus, Nelson H. Bailey
was well drilled in agricultural pursuits while on the home farm,
and until eighteen years of age ably assisted his father in its
care. In August, 1861, responding to his country's call, he
enlisted in Company C, Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a
private, veteranized by enlisting in the same company and same
regiment in 1863, and was discharged, two years later, as orderly
sergeant of his company. With his comrades he endured all the
hardships and privations incidental to life in camp and on the
field, and for twenty days was in the camp hospital at Duval,
Virginia. He was at the very front in many of the more
prominent engagements of the war, in March, 1862, taking part in the
battle of Winchester. On June 9, 1862, he was taken prisoner,
and was held for ninety-one days by the enemy, first at Lynchburg,
and then at Belle Island. Being paroled, he was sent to Fort
Delaware to recruit, and on Feb. 15, 1863, rejoined his regiment.
On May 1, 2 and 3 of that year Mr. Bailey took part in the
battle of Chancellorsville, and just two months later was in the
thickest of the fight at Gettysburg. He was subsequently sent,
with the veterans of the Army of the Potomac, to New York City to
quell the draft riots. In September, 1863, Mr. Bailey's
regiment was transferred to Hooker's command, and was sent south,
where he participated in the battles at Wauhatchie and Lookout
Mountain, and in the various engagements that took place between
Chattanooga and Atlanta, while with Sherman. As a part
of the Twentieth Army Corps, Mr. Bailey, marched with
Sherman to the sea, thence through the Carolinas, Bentonville
and Richmond to Washington, where he took part in the Grand Review.
Receiving his honorable discharge July 22, 1865, he returned to the
parental home, in Gustavus, and for a number of years was a resident
of that place, being employed for seven years in the hotel business,
and afterward as a contractor. In 1891 Mr. Bailey
located in Warren, and as a contractor in stonework has since
carried on a large and lucrative business.
On March 5, 1872, Mr. Bailey married Minnie
M. Roberts, a daughter of William and Electa (Humphrey)
Roberts, natives of Connecticut, and early settlers of this
county. She comes of patriotic stock, her
great-grandfather, William Roberts, having served as a
soldier in the Revolutionary war. Her brother, Frederick
Roberts, had the distinction of being the first man in
Gustavus to offer his service to his country. He enlisted in
Company H, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and at the end of two
years was honorably discharged on account of physical disability.
Mr. Bailey's other brother, Lorin Roberts, also served
in the Civil War for more than two years, belonging to Company C,
Second Ohio Cavalry. He was a graduate of Oberlin College,
and for many years was a judge in the court of common pleas, in
Traverse City, Michigan, and of a man of much prominence in that
locality. To Mr. and Mrs. Bailey had two children have
been born, namely: Nelson Burdette, born July 2, 1874,
married Addie Mentzer, and Frances C., born Feb. 21,
1878, wife of David R. Estabrook, of Warren, has one child,
Dorothy Ruth.
Politically Mr. Bailey is a sound
Republican. In 1900, he was elected county commissioner to
fill a vacancy and served for six years, being chairman of the board
one term, and on Nov. 3, 1908, was elected a director of the county
infirmary board. The infirmary was enlarged, improved and
modernized while he served as commissioner. While living in
his native town, he was township trustee for a number of years,
rendering excellent service in that capacity. Fraternally he
is a member of Bell-Harmon Post, No. 36, G. A. R., and of Prisoners
of War Association. |
JOSEPH
SYLVANUS BARB, a farmer and bee keeper of considerable note,
and whose pleasant home is situated within the fertile township of
Bristol, along the Spokane rural free delivery route No. 1, is a
native of Bristol township, Trumbull county, Ohio, born March 5,
1850, a son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Norton) Barb. The
father was born on the farm where now resides Joseph Sylvanus,
Dec. 18, 1822, while the mother was born in Bristol twp. Oct. 22,
1825.
The grandparents, Gabriel and Elizabeth (Kagy) Barb,
were natives of Shenandoah county, Virginia, and on the maternal
side the grandparents were Zachariah and Lydia (Hammon) Norton,
of the same county in Virginia. William Barb, the
great-grandfather, was also fo Shenandoah county, Virginia. He
moved with ox teams, following the old Indian trail, through the
dense forests and wilderness to Bristol, Ohio, where in the month of
June, 1805, he settled in the big timber district. He cleared
and handsomely improved his lands, and died after well performing
his labors as a hardy pioneer./
Abraham Kagy, a brother of Elizabeth (Kagy)
Barb, moved from Shenandoah county, Virginia, to Bristol
township in the summer of 1818, locating on the farm where
Michael Kagy now lives, and in the spring of 1819 Elizabeth
Kagy, accompanied by one of her brothers and a cousin, John
Kagy came from Shenandoah county to visit their relatives here.
She had bought a horse for one hundred dollars, and they made the
journey on horseback. She continued her visit until towards
fall, when she returned to her southern home, selling her horse at
the close of her journey for the same amount she had paid for it.
But during her sojourn north she had become acquainted with
Gabriel Barb, their friendship gradually broadening into true
love, and in 1819 he went to Shenandoah county, Virginia, where on
the 5th of September, 1820, he claimed her as his own. But it
was not long until trouble crossed the path of this happy young
couple, for early one morning in the month of Feb., 1821, the
husband Gabriel went from his father's home to the farm he
had bought, about two miles distant, to begin clearing a space for
their log cabin. He cut first a good sized poplar that stood
within a few feet of the site of the present home, intending to fell
the trees toward the east, and as the tree fell he ran back to seek
safety behind a clump of basswoods. However, as the poplar
fell it struck a beech tree, which sprang back and threw a limb from
the poplar against Mr. Barb, putting his hip out of place,
inflicting a wound in his head and breaking one of his arms between
the elbow and shoulder. There he was alone, two miles from
home, the nearest neighbor on the south a mile away and to the
northeast about a mile and a half distant, a dense woods separating
these places. Many and many a time he called for help until
finally an old lady living about a mile and a half to the northeast,
on the farm where Allen Cadwallader now lives, heard his call
and finally succeeded in starting the men from the place to the
rescue. They came to within a short distance of where he lay
and were about to turn back, thinking their search in vain, when
they again heard his call. They found him in this pitiable
condition and after returning to his hoe for help carried him back
over the rough paths of the woods to his home, arriving late in the
afternoon. Although he never fully recovered from these
injuries, he became able to continue his work, and finally, with the
help of his neighbors, erected his little cabin, where he moved with
his young wife in September of 1821, and there he lived until his
life's labors were ended in death on the 11th day of July, 1838, his
widow, Elizabeth, surviving him until the 4th of July, 1881,
and they were laid to rest in the East Bristol cemetery, where on
the stone which marks their last resting place is recorded their
ages as forty-four years and five months and eighty-eight years and
ten months respectively. Such were the privations and
hardships of the early pioneers that their children and
grandchildren might enjoy the fruit of their toil, such the lives of
these hardy settlers who built their rude domiciles, grappled with
the giants of the forest and from the wilds evolved the fertile and
productive fields which have these many years been furrowed by the
plowshare. But the establishment of a home amid such
surroundings, the coping with many privations and hardships, the
inevitable concomitants, were characteristics of these pioneers, and
their names and deeds should be held in perpetual reverence by those
who enjoy the fruits of their labors.
Isaac Barb, the father of Joseph Sylvanus,
married, Nov. 30, 1848, and settled on his parents' farm, the old
Barb homestead, where he built its present farm hose in 1863.
It is an eight-room dwelling, with spacious halls, closets, etc.,
and he set out many ornamental trees and continued to improve and
add to his place until he owned three hundred and fifty-five acres
at the time of his death, Nov. 21, 1886. This land is all
within Bristol twp. The wife and mother died April 20, 1899.
Their issue was two children, Joseph S., of this sketch, and
Mariah, Mrs. Joseph Gale, the wife of a farmer of Bristol
twp.
Joseph S. Barb has always resided upon the old
homestead on which he was born. After the death of his father
he secured two hundred acres of the original place, but has sold
from this until his present holdings are eighty-two acres,
forty-five acres of which are under cultivation. He has
superintended the farming of his land, but not being sufficiently
rugged for the hardest of labor, ahs rented much of his farm, and he
is also quite extensively engaged in raising cattle. As a
keeper of honey bees he has achieved note, having forty stands, from
which he secured over one thousand pounds of surplus honeycomb
during the season of 1908. Bees have been kept on this place
since 1836, seventy-two eyras. The grandfather Barb
bought a bee hive made of hollow log in 1821, and this hive is still
in use. The bees in this hive made two pails of honey, nearly
forty pounds, during the past season. Mr. Barb also has
an apple orchard of five acres, besides plums, cherries and peaches.
On April 12, 1891, he was married to Lydia A.
Coffman, of Smithville, Wayne Co., Ohio, a daughter of David
and ___ (Bott) Coffman, of Juanita Co., Pennsylvania.
Mr. Barb died Sept. 30, 1892, and for his second wife he married
on Oct. 15, 1896, Eliza Clapper, born near Robertsville,
Stark Co., Ohio, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Neidig)
Clapper. The parents of Mr. Barb were of the German
Baptist religious faith. |
MATTHEW
BIRCHARD. The Hon. Matthew Birchard was born in
Becket, Massachusetts, Jan. 19, 1804. His parents were
Nathan and Mercy ( Ashley ) Birchard, and he was the seventh of
ten children born to them. The family is of English
extraction, the founder of the family being Thomas Birchard,
who arrived in Boston, September 16, 1635. In 1812 his father
settled in Windham, Portage county, Ohio, where he became one of the
original proprietors of that township, when the subsequent judge was
a young lad. Judge Birchard was educated in the
common schools of that period, with some academical advantages at
Boston, Portage county, and Warren, Trumbull county. At the
age of twenty years he commenced the study of law with General
Roswell Stone, in Warren. He was admitted to the
bar in 1827, and at once entered into partnership with the late
Governor Tod, who was admitted to the bar about the same
time, under the firm name of Birchard & Tod.
In 1829 he was appointed postmaster at Warren,
under General Jackson's administration, which office he held
until 1833, when he resigned to accept the position of president
judge of the court of common please of the circuit in which he
lived, which at that time embraced nearly the whole of the Western
Reserve. In 1836 he resigned the judgeship to accept the
office tendered him by General Jackson of solicitor of the
general land office at Washington, which position he filled for
three years. His capacity and ability being appreciated, he
retained his position until the coming in of President Van Buren,
when he was promoted to the office of solicitor of the treasury,
where he remained until the Harrison administration came into
power in 1841.
While Judge Birchard was solicitor of the
Treasury, the celebrated "Florida claims" were pressed upon the
Government, in the adjustment of which Judge Birchard took a
leading part - his management of the same being so able and
honorable that leading men of both political parties gave him high
credit.
In the autumn of 1841, upon his retirement from the
Treasury department, he married at Washington the eldest daughter of
Lieutenant William A. Weaver, of the United States Navy, one
of the survivors of the memorable engagement between the Chesapeake
and Shannon; being wounded and taken prisoner in that action by the
British. His widow and two children survive him.
Returning to Warren he resumed his law practice with
Mr. Tod, continuing it until 1842, when he was elected by the
Legislature to the supreme bench of the State; holding this position
for seven years, being chief justice for the last two.
AT the expiration of him term on the bench he resumed
the practice of the law in Trumbull county, and continued therein
until 1853, when he was nominated by the Democratic party for
Representative in the General Assembly, and was elected in what had
been one of the strongest Whig counties in the State.
After the expiration of his legislative term, Judge
Birchard devoted the greater portion of his time to the practice
of his profession, finding peculiar delight in the pursuit of that
which was so congenial to his feelings and tastes.
As solicitor of the land office and of the treasury, he
made an excellent record, instituting in these departments numerous
beneficial changes and practices, which proved to be of the highest
importance in the administration of the Government.
As a lawyer Judge Birchard ranked high in his
profession. His knowledge of the fundamental principles of the
law was exceedingly clear, whilst his tact in their applications was
not surpassed by his colleagues on the bench. His cool
reflection and matured judgment made him eminently safe as a
counsellor. In the preparation of his cases he used the
greatest care. As an advocate he confined himself to the
presentation of the law and the evidence, presenting both in a calm,
lucid, and logical manner for a verdict rather on their intelligence
and good sense than on any biased appeal to their passions or
prejudices. This course he regarded as the true mission of the
advocate.
The possession of these qualities peculiarly adapted
him to the bench; and we are not surprised to find that in the
office of judge he achieved his greatest success. Being a man
of sober reflection, sound judgment, mature deliberation not easily
swayed by prejudice or emotion, together with high integrity, and
possessing an innate perception of what constituted justice and
equity, he became a model judge.
His decisions are always made with the greatest
circumspection, prudence, and diligent research. He did
nothing hastily, but supported every decision with such copious,
standard authorities, and such sound, logical reasoning, that they
stand today as authority. In fact, but few of his decisions,
which were made with the majority of the court, have been reversed.
In political belief and action Judge Birchard
was a Democrat of the old school, casting his lot with that party in
its earlier and palmier days - the days of Jackson, Van
Buren, and Wright. Conscientiously believing in
the principles of his party, he clung to it with marked fidelity
through all its vicissitudes; working earnestly and faithfully for
its success, always standing high in the councils of its leaders.
But not alone as a political leader, or his ability as a judge, did
the deceased stand high in the opinion of the people. As a
good citizen, a kind neighbor, and an honest man, he had a strong
hold on his fellow men.
He was public spirited, working for the advancement of
the educational, the religious, and material interests of the
community. His kindness of heart, his sympathy for the
suffering or afflicted, his generosity to the poor, and his leniency
towards his debtors, were proverbial. His word was as good as
his bond. His integrity and honesty were never doubted at home
or abroad.
Although descended from pious parents Judge Birchard
never connected himself with any church, and for many years he
regarded himself as inclined to infidelity; but was an habitual
student of the Bible and led a moral and upright life.
However, during the last six months of his life, his religious
feelings experienced a charge, and his end was the quiet, cheerful,
trusting death of the Christian - of one who unreservedly trusted to
the atonement of Jesus Christ for the pardon of his sins - looking
toward with implicit confidence to the blessed immortality of the
faithful.
During the last three years of Judge Birchard's
life his health gradually declined; but he had a wonderful tenacity
of life, and an indomitable with that resisted the attacks of
disease which would long before have undermined a less vigorous
constitution. He peacefully expired at his residence in Warren
on the 16th of June, 1876.
On the 17th of June a meeting of the Trumbull county
bar was held, at which appropriate resolutions were passed, and his
funeral was attended in a body by his brethren. |
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JOHN BURWIG,
who has been engaged for many years as a general farmer at Fowler,
Trumbull Co., was during the early years of his life a worker in the
mines and rolling mills of this locality. He is a native of
North Germany, born Dec. 12, 1856, son of John and Mary (Dau)
Burwig. Their three children were all born in Germany,
namely: Charles born in 1852, a resident of Hubbard,
married Sophia Lamp and is the father of Mary, John,
William, Herman, Winnie and Elmer; William, born in 1853,
is also a resident of Hubbard; and John, of this sketch.
The father came to the United States in 1866 and located at Hubbard,
where he engaged in the coal mining business, and died in 1893.
The mother, who is a native of north Germany, is a daughter of
Charles Dau, and is still living.
John Berwig, of this review, never enjoyed a
day's schooling in his life, his father putting him to work in the
coal mines when he was only ten years of age. The boy
continued this occupation until he was twenty years of age, when he
became employed in a blast furnace and rolling mill, and for a
period of twenty years followed this arduous and wearing occupation.
He then engaged in farming, and by dint of economy, industry and
wise management has accumulated a fine property, consisting of an
eighty-five-acre farm, thoroughly cultivated and substantially
improved. In Nov., 1878, Mr. Burwig married Miss
Minnie Peters, daughter of Henry and Dotha (Schultz) Peters,
both natives of Germany, who came to Ohio in 1875. Mr.
and Mrs. Burwig have five children: Winnie, who was
born at Hubbard Aug. 17, 1880, and married Charles Ahrens
June 26, 1906, resides at Willoughby, Ohio; William August Henry,
born at Leadville, Ohio, March 15, 1881, now resides at Twin Falls,
Idaho; Henry William Carl, born at Youngstown, Ohio, November
21, 1886, is connected with the naval service, enlisting at the San
Francisco training station on May 3, 1908; Anna Louise, born
at Youngstown, Ohio, May 12, 1883, died in Dec. of that year; and
Alma Amanda Ella, also a native of Youngstown, born Jul. 24,
1891. The father is a Democrat in politics and a faithful
member of the German Lutheran church. |
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