OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 332 Today's Topics: #1 "UNRETURNING BRAVE" - DELAWARE COU [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 COL. BENSON W. HOUGH - DELAWARE CO [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #3 ARTHUR J. CURREN - DELAWARE COUNTY [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 07:08:29, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: "UNRETURNING BRAVE" - DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORY OF OHIO The American Historical Society Inc., 1925 Volume I "THE UNRETURNING BRAVE Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker is reported to have said that the real heroes of the World war were those who made the supreme sacrifice, who gave their lives in the service of their country. To this class belong more than 6,500 of the khaki-clad boys of Ohio, who won the golden star in the greatest of all the wars of history and in the supreme effort to win a peace, which we fondly trust shall be perpetual. *Killed in action +Died of wounds #Died as result of accident Where no mark is used the soldier died of disease. DELAWARE COUNTY ALLEN, John F.*, Ashley, Nov. 6, 1918 AUSTIN, Raymond B.+, Delaware, Oct. 7, 1918 BARTON, Edward, Radner, Feb. 16, 1918 BAUDER, Samuel C.*, Delaware, Oct. 9, 1918 BELL, William M., Delaware, Oct. 17, 1918 BONHAM, Charles+, Delaware, Oct. 8, 1918 CLARK, Harley*, Delaware, Sept. 12, 1918 COOPER, George H.*, Delaware, Sept. 12, 1918 CUMMINGHAM, Leland S.*, Delaware, Sept. 24, 1918 DUNLAP, Fredrick R., Ostrander, Oct. 20, 1918 FEASEL, Thomas B., Condit, Oct. 8, 1918 HALL, Virgil H., Sunbury, Oct. 5, 1918 HOUSEWORTH, Vern, Ashley, Oct. 6, 1918 HUNT, Harry H., Olive Green, Oct. 2, 1918 JAYCOX, William+, Delaware, Sept. 13, 1918 JONES, Hosea F., Sunbury, Oct. 4, 1918 KIRBY, Forrest E., Delaware, Oct. 2, 1918 LEONARD, Paul, Kilbourne, Oct. 5, 1918 LEWIS, Earl O., Delaware, Oct. 2, 1918 LONG, Frank M., Delaware, Oct. 4, 1918 MILLER, Edison+, Delaware, June 6, 1918 MOHN, Earl C., Delaware, Oct. 12, 1918 MOORE, George A.*, Sunbury, July 28, 1918 MORRISON, Herman H.*, Delaware, July 13, 1918 PASCHALL, harold C., Delaware, April 9, 1918 PERKINS, Charles*, Lewis Center, Oct. 16, 1918 SARTWELL, Agsel, Delaware, Oct. 10, 1918 SHEETS, Lloyd*, Delaware, July 30, 1918 SKATZES, Arthur M.*, Delaware, July 15, 1918 SLACK, Webster*, Delaware, Sept. 12, 1918 WARREN, John B., Delaware, Sept. 29, 1918 WILLEY, Ora, Ashley, Oct. 7, 1918 WILLEY, Russell M., Delaware, Oct. 3, 1918 MARINE CORPS HINES, John Jr., Delaware, Sept. 29, 1918 GROOMS, A. McGee#, Delaware, March 11, 1919 TOMKINS, Wilbert N.*, Delaware, Oct. 4, 1918 NAVY COCHRANE, Lynn*, Delaware, Sept. 30, 1918 WELCH, William F., Delaware, Oct. 10, 1918 ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 07:08:11, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: COL. BENSON W. HOUGH - DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORY OF OHIO The American Historical Society Inc., 1925 Volume III - page 12-13 COL. BENSON W. HOUGH. In recent years honors and distinctions have crowded upon Colonel Hough, but of every one he has been thoroughly worthy. These honors have been merited by him because of abilities due to unusual talents and character and the long and steady work and preparation that constituted his apprenticeship in the law, in military affairs and in public positions. He is one of Ohio's military heroes of the World war. He had a long connection with the Ohio National Guard, with gradual promotion from the ranks, was in service on the Mexican border, and made a most enviable record overseas. Those who have known Colonel Hough personally in civilian life and who have met him since his return from foreign lands can bear testimony to the fact that he wears his high honors without ostentation and is as modest as he is brave. Since the war he has served as judge of the Ohio Supreme Court, and recently was appointed by President Harding, United States district attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. Colonel Hough was born at Delaware, Ohio, March 3, 1875, and his home was in that college community until he came to Columbus to go on the bench. His parents were Leonard and Mary (Linn) Hough, both of New England ancestry. Leonard Hough's mother was a Thrall, and the Thrall's came from Granville, Massachusetts, and were the first settlers and founders of Granville, Ohio. Colonel Hough attended public schools in Delaware, is a graduate of the high school of that city, and in 1897 received the Master of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University. He took his law course in Ohio State University, graduating Bachelor of Laws in 1889. Colonel Hough has had twenty years of active connection with his profession. He began practice at Delaware in 1900. There was no important interruption to his career as a lawyer until he went to the Mexican border in the summer of 1916. He had been home only a few weeks in the spring of 1917 when he was again called to the colors as a soldier of the World war, and he did not resume legal practice until the summer of 1919. Colonel Hough was an experienced soldier when the World war came on. As a boy in 1892 he became a private in Company K at Delaware, this company being a unit of the old Fourteenth Regiment, Ohio National Guard. He served with it five years. In 1902 he reenlisted in the same regiment, but in the meantime it had become the Fourth Ohio. He was commissioned first lieutenant of Company K, in June of the same year was advanced to captain, subsequently was commissioned major and in July, 1906, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Hough resigned his commission in January, 1915, to accept the office of adjutant-general of Ohio. This office carried with it the rank of brigadier-general. He was adjutant-general for a year and a half. He then resigned, preferring service in the field rather that in an administrative capacity during war times. He therefore reenlisted as a private in Company K, but was soon commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Ohio, and went with the command to the Mexican border. From this service he was mustered out at Fort Wayne, Indiana, March 3, 1917. April 9, 1917, he was commissioned colonel and on July 15,, was called to duty in the National Army as commanding officer of the Fourth Ohio Infantry Regiment. On August 5, the entire National Guard was drafted into the Federal service, and the Fourth Ohio became the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Infantry, U.S.A., with Col. Benson W. Hough as its leader. Colonel Hough organized this regiment at Camp Perry on August 13, and on September 9, 1917, it became a unit of the famous Rainbow or Forty-second Division, made up largely of crack National Guard regiments all over the country. The Rainbow Division it will be recalled was one of the first large fighting units of the American Expeditionary Forces. Colonel Hough and his regiment sailed for France October 18, arrived at St. Nazaire October 31, spent a short time in the Fourth Army Area, and then in the Seventh Army Area, where under the careful direction and leadership of Colonel Hough the regiment was whipped into shape to enter the trenches. The unit took over a sector in Loraine on February 22, 1918, and served continuously on that front for a period of one hundred and ten days. Cool judgment and skillful leadership marked Colonel Hough's work in those first trying days, and so admirably did he solve the problems confronting him that the French conferred on him the Croix de Guerre. Before the war ended Colonel Hough had served in Champagne, at Chateau Thierry, at St. Mihiel, in the Argonne and before Sedan, and had the remarkable record of never once being absent from his command. Under date of April 19, 1919, Gen. John J. Pershing issued a citation "To Col. Benson W. Hough, for exceptional, meritorious and conspicuous services, commanding the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Infantry in France, American Expeditionary Forces. In testimony thereof, and as an expression of appreciation of these services, I award this citation." Perhaps the most interesting tribute to Colonel Hough as a soldier and man is one found in a recently published book, entitled "Rainbow Memories," written by a young officer of the First Battalion of the one Hundred Sixty-sixth Infantry and himself a Missouri man. In a book containing biographies of prominent Ohioans, the following quotation from this source has complete appropriateness: "It is not with Colonel Hough, the civilian, or the soldier, that we are mostly interested -it is with Colonel Hough, the man, revealed, it is true, chiefly through our military relations with him. One of his strongest qualities of character is a natural born aptitude for leadership, -not the kind of leadership that drives men and controls them by reason of some vested power, -but the type of leadership that comes out of ability to inspire. Colonel Hough possesses this ability to inspire men in a remarkable degree. A big man physically and intellectually, who hates formality and shuns publicity; a man who is ordinarily quiet and has but little to say, but who, when occasion demands, becomes a veritable volcano of action, sweeping aside all immaterial considerations and speaking directly and briefly on the real point at issue. It is this combination of qualities which binds men to him. "In battle, where victory is the stake and death the price, he watches every move of his boys and the grieves for every one who falls by the wayside -a sacrifice to the cause. He loves his men with all their faults and shortcomings, as does a father, and on his great human heart he carries their burdens by day and by night. "A natural leader who inspires men and who possesses excellent judgment -a man who is broad-gauged and intensely human -such a man is Col. Benson W. Hough. Of him Ohio may well be proud, for he has shed new glory on her fair name. She has in her possession no honor too great to bestow upon the man who during the ebb and tide of the World war has watched over and so tenderly cared for her heroic sons." Colonel Hough received his honorable discharge in June, 1919, and then resumed the practice at Delaware. In the fall of the same year he was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, beginning his duties on the bench in January, 1920. He served on the Supreme Bench until January 1, 1923, and then retired to resume again private practice. He is one of the youngest men who have ever served the state on the Supreme Bench, but his record of three years justified fully the expectations of his friends and gave him new laurels as a jurist. Shortly after he retired from the bench President Harding nominated him as United Sates district attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, thus filling a vacancy that had existed for some time. Judge Hough has some most unusual qualifications, both in his character and in his experiences, for the duties of an office that involves a great amount of hard work and requires a man of decision and courage to handle the problems that are part of the daily routine of the district attorney's office. Colonel Hough has long been prominent in Ohio Masonry, and in 1922 had conferred upon him the supreme honorary thirty-third degree in the Scottish Rite. He is a Shriner, has been an Elk for a quarter of a century, and is a member of the East Side Country Club and the Columbus Athletic Club. Colonel Hough married Miss Edith Markel, of Delaware, Ohio. They have one daughter, Catherine. ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 07:08:17, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: ARTHUR J. CURREN - DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORY OF OHIO The American Historical Society Inc., 1925 Volume III - page 224-225 ARTHUR J. CURREN. One of the best built telephone properties in Ohio is the automatic telephone and cable system of the Elyria Telephone Company. Since no city can attain or maintain its full measure of prosperity without prompt and efficient service, the people of Elyria have taken due pride in the possession of facilities represented by this public utility, and those familiar with its development and improvement have given corresponding tribute to the work of Arthur J. Curren, who has had the management for many years and is the present chief executive of the company. Mr. Curren is a telephone engineer of broad experience and has been continuously identified with the telephone industry since 1900. He was born at Delaware, Ohio, August 6, 1876, and his parents, Joseph F. and Mary Allison (Gavitt) Curren, were natives of the same county. His paternal grandparents were Stephen and Elizabeth (Stratton) Curren, the former a native of New York and the latter of Virginia. They became early settlers of the town of Norton in Delaware County, where Stephen Curren was proprietor of an inn on the old Columbus-Sandusky Stage Coach Line. The maternal grandparents were Ezekiel and Viola (Miller) Gavitt, the former a native of Granville, Ohio, and the latter of Sandusky County. Ezekiel Gavitt was a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider in Northern Ohio for many years, and finally settling at Ashley, Delaware County, where his death occurred at the age of eighty-six. At the outbreak of the Civil war, Joseph F. Curren was twenty-one, and enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Infantry, taking part in many engagements, and receiving numerous promotions. He resigned as lieutenant in the Twentieth Regiment to accept the office of adjutant with the new Sixtieth Ohio Infantry. On the 17th of June, 1864, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, while in command of his regiment, he lost his right arm. It is a coincidence worthy of note, that on the the 17th of June, 1775, his great-uncle lost his leg at the Battle of Bunker Hill. After recovering sufficiently to rejoin his regiment, on account of the loss of his arm, he was transferred to the Veterans' Reserve Corps at Boston, and was still in active service at the close of the war. Returning home with an empty sleeve, he offered his sweetheart the release of her engagement, which was refused, and they were married at once and settled in Delaware, Ohio. Soon afterwards, he was appointed postmaster of Delaware, a position he held twelve years under three Presidents, Grant, Hayes and Garfield. After leaving the postoffice, he was in the real estate and insurance business and in 1895, organized the Citizens Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which still enjoys a prosperous business. With this company he was identified at the time of his death in 1917 at the age of seventy-nine. His widow now at that age survives him and resides at Delaware. Arthur J. Curren was educated in public schools at Delaware, graduating with the class of 1894. Almost immediately he began his experience in public utility work, serving two years as collector and general bookkeeper of the Delaware Gas Company. Then came three years of work in Ohio Wesleyan University where he pursued the scientific course. His boyhood enthusiasm had been largely directed to electricity and at college he turned naturally to the electrical field. In 1900, he took up telephone work, first with the Central Union Telephone Company, then for a brief time with the Cleveland Bell Company, leaving the Bell system to turn his attention to the independent field. That was the time when many independent plants were in construction throughout Ohio. As a field engineer with the Reserve Construction Company of Cleveland, he had a part in the building of the independent plants in the cities of Canton, Mansfield, and Lima. In April, 1902, he joined Mr. George W. Beers of Fort Wayne, Indiana, as chief engineer of the Gas Belt Construction Company and in that capacity designed the telephone plants of Muncie, Alexander, and Elwood. From Indiana, returning to Ohio, Mr. Curren for nearly a year assisted in the promotion of the Queen City Telephone Company of Cincinnati, but through inability to secure the many necessary franchises for a comprehensive system, the enterprise was finally abandoned. In 1905, Mr. Curren accepted the management of the Elyria Telephone Company and since January, 1917, has been its president. The company in 1918 erected a beautiful building, installed an automatic telephone system, displacing the old style manual system. These superior mechanical facilities together with the cordial support and cooperation of the public, which management had successfully cultivated, made Mr. Curren prominent in Elyria. In 1922, his company purchased outright the local Bell Exchange. In no small degree the success of this public utility has been due to the splendid spirit of service that has actuated the personnel of the employees. In addition to the heavy burdens he has carried as executive in the telephone business, Mr. Curren has manifested a keen interest in civic affairs. He is a member of the Pioneer's Telephone Associations of both Bell and Independent, was for many years a director of the Ohio State Telephone Association, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northern Building and Loan Association. He is a charter member of the Elyria Rotary Club, also Frank S. Harman Lodge of Masons, has taken the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rites, is a Shriner, is a member of the Elyria Country Club, Lakewood Country Club of Cleveland, is a Phi Delta Theta, and a member of the American Society of Electrical Engineers. His religious connection is with the Congregational Church and politically he is a republican. He comes of Revolutionary stock on both sides of the family. He married in July, 1905, Miss Lottie Kirk, who is likewise descended from Revolutionary ancestors. She has always been deeply interested in the success of her husband's business undertakings. She was born at Maysville, Kentucky, daughter of Robert C. and Ella (Flemming) Kirk, natives of Mason County, Kentucky. While they have no children of their own, Mrs. Curren has reared since the age of three years, Master Gilbert Jordan, her nephew. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #332 *******************************************