PORTAGE COUNTY OHIO -BIO:  Avery, Baldwin, Eggleston
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December 1, 1999
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Bios:  Avery, Baldwin, Eggleston - Portage County, Ohio, from "History of
Portage County, Ohio" published by Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885

Copyright © 1999 by  Betty Ralph. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  bralph@hiwaay.net


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REUBEN N. AVERY, farmer, P.O. Aurora, was born on his present farm in Aurora
Township, this county, December 10, 1829, son of Reuben and Corrinna (Lewis)
Avery.  Reuben Avery, Sr., was born at Horseneck, Conn., March 7, 1772, and
removed to this township in 1816 with his first wife, Rachel Baldwin, by
whom he had ten children.  After her death he was married to Mrs. Corinna
(Lewis) Faxon, widow of Isaac D. Faxon, by whom she had four children.  She
was born in Farmington, Hartford, Co,, Conn., December 23, 1789, came to
Mantua Township, this county, in 1813, and in early life taught school.  Her
union with Mr. Avery resulted in the birth of six children:  Amelia M.,
Minerva C., Augustus, Henry, Reuben N. and Betsey E.  The father died May
22, 1873.  Our subject was educated in the common school of his native
township.  He was married January 1, 1854, to Frances Hatch, born in Aurora
Township, this county, December 14, 1835, daughter of Dr. John and Harriet
(Gordon) Hatch, natives of Otsego County, N.Y., who removed to Aurora
Township in 1826 and 1829 respectively, and where the former died in 1842.
His widow is still living.  Mr. and Mrs. Avery are the parents of six
children, four of whom are living:  Lawrence G., Willis L., John H. and
Lillian F.  Our subject is a farmer by occupation, and owns eighty acres of
land.  He has filled a number of the township offices.  In politics he is a
Democrat.

HARVEY BALDWIN, farmer, P.O. Aurora, was born in Geauga County, Ohio, April
14, 1823; son of Harvey and Laura (Kent) Baldwin, who where the parents of
four children:  Laura Ann (deceased), Harvey, Philander (deceased) and Oscar
O., residing in Minnesota.  Harvey Baldwin, Sr., was born in Danbury, Conn.,
in 1796, and came to Cleveland, Ohio, with his father and family in 1806,
and the following year to Aurora Township, this county.  At eighteen years
of age he left his home and embarked upon his career in life, first taking a
trip South, thence to New York.  In 1819 he purchased a quantity of cheese
and cranberries, which he conveyed overland to the Ohio River, thence by
skiff-boat to Louisville, where he disposed of them.  The following year he
shipped a cargo to New Orleans, and continued in the cheese business for a
period of twenty-five years, making frequent trips down the Ohio River, and
as often as once a year to New Orleans.  In 1830 he purchased land in
Streetsboro, this county, and in connection with farming, engaged
extensively in the manufacture and sale of cheese.  He died in February,
1882.  His wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in
Suffield, Conn., March, 1797, came to Aurora Township, this county, in 1807,
and is now residing with our subject.  Mr. Baldwin, the subject of this
sketch, was reared on the farm, and he engaged as farm-hand for Charles
Harmon, and in 1847 commenced farming for himself in connecting with
dairying, which he has since continued, excepting three years spent in
California.  In December, 1847, he married Emily Carver, who has borne him
the following children:  Ella F., wife of E.R. Merrill; Alice W., wife of
F.A. Gould; Carrie E. deceased; Hattie E.; Anna Laura and Minnie C.

GEN. NELSON EGGLESTON, farmer, was born October 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, the
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 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 come 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 my defeat her defenders, and repeat the scenes
of the River Raisin.  In 1824 he moved to the Center, where he remained
until his death, August 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 offices of Justice of the Peace and County Commissioner.
He was an 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 at
El Presido, Texas, where he in a 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, where he graduated in 1831.  He taught school in Calloway
County, Ky., nearly a year, returned, and commenced to read law with Mathews
& Hitchcock, of Painsville, 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 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 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 northeastern Ohio, and has been
connected in various ways with its progress.  He called the first meeting at
his own house that was ever 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 to interfere with his daily labor and the management of his
farms.  He is a disciple of Thomas Jefferson, and acknowledges no other master.