History of Trumbull County Ohio United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Trumbull County Ohio, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

John Kinsman, a Soldier of the War for Independence, was born, May 7th, 1753, in New London county, Connecticut, and was a son of Jeremiah and Sarah (Thomas) Kinsman. The family is of English extraction, Robert Kinsman, the founder of the American branch, having emigrated from Wiltshire, in 1634, and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Mrs. Kinsman, the mother of Judge Kinsman, was a sister of General Thomas, a commanding officer in the Revolutionary army. On the outbreak of that memorable contest between America and Great Britain, Judge Kinsman entered the colonial army as Ensign. He was present and participated in the battle of Long Island, where he was captured, and for a while thereafter was confined in the notorious prison ships in New York bay. Afterwards he succeeded in obtaining the liberty of the city, on parole, where he learned something of the hatting business, and after being exchanged engaged in the manufacture of hats in Lisbon, also carrying on a large farm. In 1797 he was elected a member of the Connecticut Legislature, and was twice subsequently reelected. In 1799 he went to Ohio to explore the lands of the Western Reserve, in which he had purchased a large interest; in 1804 he removed his family to that country and settled on the tract of sixteen thousand acres he had acquired, which now forms Kinsman township, Trumbull county. He was a Justice of the Peace under the territorial government, and took a prominent part in the organization of Trumbull county. He was one of the projectors of the first bank of northern Ohio, formerly known as the Western Reserve Bank, now the First National Bank of Warren. It was organized with a capital of $100,000, of which he subscribed for one-fifth part. He married Rebecca, daughter of Simon Perkins, of New London county, Connecticut (and sister of General Simon Perkins, of Warren, Ohio), with whom he had a family of five children. He died August 17th, 1813. His widow survived him many years; she died May 27th, 1854.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.

Milton Sutliff, Lawyer and ex-Chief-Justice of the State of Ohio, was born, October 16th, 1806, in Trumbull county, Ohio. He is a son of the late Samuel and Ruth (Granger) Sutliff, who removed to western New York from Connecticut, and from thence to the Western Reserve in 1804, and settled on a farm in Trumbull county. His father was a farmer of intelligence and limited education, but understood surveying and had taught school. His mother was a cousin of Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General under Jefferson. Though her early opportunities for education were very limited, she was a woman of remarkable memory and extensive reading. Her character was marked by a devout piety and great resolution. Her father fell in the war for independence, and her husband also had been a soldier in the same cause, when only a boy of sixteen. They had six children, all sons, four of whom became lawyers, and achieved distinction in their profession. The means of his parents being limited, Judge Sutliff received his early education in the district school, and by private instruction from a clergyman in the vicinity, from whom he acquired some knowledge of mathematics and the classical languages, paying for his tuition by manual labor. When he was seventeen years old, he taught a private school in Ohio, and after a few years went to the Southern States to teach, remaining and teaching for a time in Mississippi and Louisiana. While teaching there, at his leisure hours he continued his reading law, which he had before commenced. His friends there offered favorable inducements to him for a permanent residence in that sunny clime, but his northern education and settled aversion to the institution of slavery, and a desire to perfect his education, induced him to return to Ohio. Upon his return he entered Western Reserve College in 1830, recited in two classes the first year, and graduated in 1833, with the degree of A. B. Shortly after entering that institution, the subject of the abolition of American slavery, which had been advocated by Lundy in a paper, The Genius of Emancipation, for a time published by him in Baltimore, and afterwards revived or continued by Garrison in a small paper, The Liberator, at Boston, in 1830 (and some numbers of which had been sent to the faculty), had been introduced into the college by the president of the college, Charles B. Storrs, and Professors Eliezer Wright and Beriah Green, men of eminent ability, approving and advocating the immediate abolition of slavery. The trustees and other members of the faculty opposed these views, with most of the students. Sutliff and a few others earnestly approved. The opposition and prejudice by the opponents to abolition, as then termed, on the part of the trustees of the college and the public generally, at that time, 1833, had become so intense that the president and those professors resigned their places rather than compromise their sentiments. Upon the commencement occasion of 1833, the few anti-slavery men then present formed an Anti-slavery Association, with the special object to disseminate intelligence, and enlist an interest in the anti-slavery subject throughout the Reserve. Sutliff, who, by his knowledge of law, and experience in discussing the question in debates with other students, had, for some time, been thus regarded by the faculty and students as a very logical and able advocate, volunteered his services to disseminate intelligence by lectures and publications on the subject of slavery throughout all the counties on the Reserve. His offer was gladly accepted by the Association, but they had no funds, and Sutliff was then poor. He, however, borrowed money, and proceeded to redeem his pledge, without loss of time--a notable exception to the saying, "Who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges?" The task undertaken required not only ability, with candor and courage, but a patient perseverance. The undertaking, supposed to require but a few weeks, required very unexpectedly a full year for its completion. During that time Sutliff, journeying on horseback, effected anti-slavery organizations throughout every county on the Reserve, attended with other pioneers at Philadelphia, in December, 1833, to form the National Anti-slavery Society, and being appointed by that society, debated the relative merits of the Anti-slavery and Colonization Societies with the late Walter Forward before the Anniversary held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May, 1834, and lectured on the subject at Cannonsburgh and Washington Colleges, and discussed the merits of the subject for some days with the faculty of Washington College in that State, the college exercises being suspended by the faculty for that purpose. He, at an expense of a year's time and $200 and up, and expenses, without asking or receiving any remuneration, completed his undertaking. Then he obtained admittance to the bar, in 1834, and at once settled at Warren, and engaged in the practice of his profession. The battle for freedom was afterwards continued, with Chase and Giddings and Wade, and other contemporaries, of Ohio, in the vanguard. The great triumph came at last, but this is not the place for its history. Judge Sutliff continued in the fight until victory crowned the gallant host, but the press of a large professional business, and an indisposition towards a political life, made his name less conspicuous than others towards the close of the struggle. He was elected to the Ohio Legislature in 1849, and the Free Soil party, which party held the balance of power in the Assembly, secured the election of Salmon P. Chase to the United States Senate. In 1850 he was elected to the upper house of the Legislature, and the same potent balance of power compassed the election of Wade to the United States senatorship. In 1857 he was elected to the Supreme Bench, taking his seat in February, 1858. He served five years, during the last of which he was Chief Justice. In 1863 he resumed the practice of his profession, and in 1872 was nominated for Congress by the Liberal Republican party, but with the Greeley ticket he was alike defeated. He is now in his sixty-ninth year, in the enjoyment of good health, and still continues the practice of his profession. He has acquired a competency, but has never married.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.

Cyrus Nutt, educator, was born in Trumbull county Ohio, Sept. 4, 1814. He was graduated at Allegheny college, Meadville, Pa., in 1831; was principal of the preparatory department of Allegheny college, 1831-37; of Indiana Ashbury (now De Pauw) university, Greencastle, Ind., 1837-38; professor of Latin and Greek languages, 1838-42; of the Greek and Hebrew languages, 1842-43; of Greek language and literature, 1846-49, and of mathematics, 1857-60. He was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Bloomington Station, Ind., 1843-45, and at Salem, Ind., 1845-47; president of Fort Wayne Female college, 1849, and of Whitewater college, Wayne county, 1850-55. He resigned in 1855, and was presiding elder of the Richmond district, Ind., 1855-57. He was acting president of De Pauw university, 1857-59, and a trustee of the corporation, 1851-57, and president of Indiana university at Bloomington, 1860-75, being formally inaugurated, June 7, 1861. He was married, April 26, 1838, to Amanda Standfiord of Greencastle, Ind. He received the degree D.D. from Allegheny college and from Ohio Wesleyan university in 1859, and LL.D. from the University of Missouri and from Hanover college, Indiana, in 1873. He died in Bloomington, Ind., Aug. 23, 1875.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Trumbull County Ohio

Biographies:

Local History and Genealogy Links: