Benjamin Todd (1792 - 1882)

Born 19 Aug 1792 in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1 Mar 1882 at age 89 in McComb, Hancock, Ohio, USA

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Biography

Benjamin was born in 1792 in Baltimore, Md. His family moved to Truro Township, Franklin County, Oh where he was married in 1814 to Catharine Kalb, the mother of his children. In 1833, Benjamin Todd took his family to settle in present day McComb OH. His original farm is now the site of most of that village. He was the first justice of the peace having received every vote (1), helped form the first church and led an active and productive life. He kept the first tavern in town in 1847(2).He married again following his first wife's death in 1854. He passed away in 1882, a few months short of his 90th birthday.

Regarding Todd Family:

"ELISHA TODD, now living retired at McComb, O., is one of the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of Pleasant Township, where about seventy-seven years of his long and .useful life have been passed. He was born in Franklin County, O., eight miles east of Columbus, November 15, 1824. His parents were Benjamin and Catherine (Kalb) Todd.

Benjamin Todd was born at Baltimore County, Md., in 1792, and died in McComb, Hancock County, O., March 1, 1882. Between 1800 and 1810 he accompanied his parents, John and Mary Todd, to Ohio, they being pioneers in Franklin County. John Todd was a wagonmaker, and it is recorded that he followed his trade until the close of his life, evidently being a man of skill to have successfully constructed vehicles that could be satisfactorily used in the rough forest roads that then were the only transportation lines in the wild region. He was twice married, his first wife bearing the name of Mary Jarmin, and his second being Catherine Huff. To his first union were born: Benjamin, Joseph, Jesse, John, William, Thomas W., Mary, Elizabeth, Susan and an infant. To the second marriage three children were born : Sarah Ann, Samuel Wesley and Hannah.

In Franklin County, O., Benjamin Todd was married in 1814, to Catherine Kalb, who was born in Maryland August 3, 1795, and died in McComb, Hancock County, O., April 8, 1854. Her parents were George and Mary Kalb, who came early to Franklin County and acquired land there. They had children named as follows : Catherine, John, George, Jeremiah, Isaac, Elizabeth, Annie and Susan. Benjamin Todd followed farming in Franklin County until 1833. In the meanwhile a family was growing up about him and being desirous of properly providing for them, he decided to do as his parents had done before him—push into a yet unsettled region, favorable reports of Hancock County having reached him. In this resolve he was associated with two other old Franklin county residents, and from the same motives, and in August, 1833, Benjamin Todd, John Needles and Edward Stephenson came to Pleasant Township, they being its first settlers. All entered land, Mr. Todd securing eighty acres, his property being on the site of the present flourishing town of McComb. The whole country at that time was heavily timbered and the three sturdy home seekers had no difficulty in securing logs with which to erect cabins on their selected farms. With this provision made for the comfort of their families in the approaching winter, they returned to Franklin County and prepared to make the journey to the new home. This was so momentous an event that it impressed itself on the mind of the nine-year old son, Elisha, so clearly that he can recall all its details after the passage of seventy-seven years. The family started from Franklin County on November 12, 1833, their belongings carefully packed for the long journey—probably in a wagon made by the grandfather—and five days later reached the pioneer home in Pleasant Township. Mr. Todd also recalls that he was suffering at that time from a not unusual malady, the every-other-day ague, a distressing complaint that more or less prevailed among all pioneer settlers and which no doubt was the result of miasmatic conditions. Mr. Todd remembers the remarkable display of meteors which took place on the night of November 13, 1833, the nature of which was not then as scientifically explained as at the present day. As quickly as possible enough land was cleared before the ground froze, to get in a small crop but it took many years before the timber was all cleared off and the farm made profitable for tillage.

To Benjamin and Catherine Todd the following children were born : Mary, John, George, Margaret, Elisha, Benjamin Asbury, Susan Jane, William H., Delilah and Sarah Catherine. Mary married Philip Shumaker, who is deceased. She was born in Franklin County, as were seven others. John Todd married Christiana Shumaker and they lived near McComb until 1854, when he started for Iowa, but was prostrated with typhoid fever on the way and died at Joliet, Ill., his family continuing to Iowa in the following spring. George Todd married Rachel Needles and spent all but the last ten years of his life at McComb, dying in Iowa. Margaret married Alexander Harkness and they lived in Ohio until 1854, when they moved to Iowa, where both died. Benjamin A. Todd for the. past thirty-seven years has been a resident of Lawrence, Kans. He is a retired minister, teacher and farmer. He married Sarah Edgar. William H. Todd spent his life in Pleasant Township and died at McComb. He married Eliza Gault. Delilah Ann married John W. Todd and soon after marriage they moved to Iowa and died there. Sarah Catherine married Joseph Bixby and they moved to Nebraska and died there.

Elisha Todd had but meager educational opportunities after coming to Hancock County and he was fourteen years old before the township had a district school. He worked on the farm and took part in the social festivities that testified to neighborhood good will, married and became a quiet, industrious, law abiding citizen. Conditions changed as the country became settled and by 1847 the first lots for the building of McComb were laid out on his father's farm. As the site of a town, this land became exceedingly valuable; much of the farm was subsequently absorbed and where once stood giants of the forest, as Mr. Todd recalls, there are now streets busy with traffic or structures devoted to the housing of hundreds of people and to their schools and churches. He has watched all these changes with the keenest interest and for some years after his return from the army, he assisted practically in this development, following carpentering and building.

Mr. Todd was thirty-seven years of age when the Civil War broke out, and in August, 1862, at Findlay, he enlisted as a soldier in the Union army, becoming a member of Co. D, 99th O. Vol. Inf., under Capt. A. J. Pope. The first battle in which he took part was that of Stone River and the last one was the battle of Nashville. His division went as far as Atlanta and returned from there with Gen. Thomas and following the battle of Nashville, his regiment was sent to North Carolina. He took part in the battle of Chickamauga and in many others and he remained in the service until the close of the war and was honorably discharged at Camp Dennison, O., July 17, 1865. He was twice wounded but not seriously. He is a member of John Howard Post, No. 154, at McComb, O.

In 1847 Mr. Todd was married to Miss Edith Harkness, who died without issue in 1851. In 1853 he was married to Miss Mary Gault, a daughter of Moses and Rachel Gault, and to this marriage the following children were born, Martha, Sylvester B., Sanford, Rachel Catherine, Benjamin M., Ulysses, Terry T., Mary and Rufus S. Martha married E. C. Kelly and they live three and one-half miles southwest of McComb. They have six children : Earle, A. C., Clyde, May, Eunice and Carl. Sylvester B. Todd is a farmer residing in Sandusky County. He married Tilda Broy and they have four children, Annie, Mina, Ira Glenn and Estella. Sanford Todd died after reaching manhood. Rachel Catherine is now deceased. She was the wife of Doc Montgomery of Portage Township. Benjamin M. Todd has spent the larger part of his life at McComb, where he follows the plastering trade. Ulysses is a carpenter by trade and resides at Toledo. He married Della McCreary. Terry T. Todd is a carpenter and architect and has resided as Los Angeles, Cal., since February, 1905. He is married and they have one (laughter, Margaret Pauline. Mary is the wife of Raleigh Lano, a brick mason and contractor, and they live at Port Clinton, O., and have two children, Terry and Herbin. Rufus S. Todd is a carpenter and in business at Findlay, O. He married Lucinda Gibson. The mother of the above family died in 1902.

Mr. Todd no longer takes any active part in town matters but formerly was a leading public citizen. In politics he is a Democrat. He has been mayor of McComb, a member of the town council, a justice of the peace, township supervisor and served five years as assessor in Pleasant Township. Among his early recollections are the following, which will be of interest to many readers :

'The first schoolhouse in Pleasant Township was built in 1838; the first teacher, Samuel Bowman. Only three months' winter terms were taught during my school age. The first mill for manufacturing flour or meal was a horse-mill. The first religious society in the township was organized in 1834 in my father's cabin house by the M. E. church. The first church house in McComb was built in 1850 by the M. E. church. At the first election when the township of Pleasant was organized there were only twelve voters.'"^[1]

"I found the online some time ago, but now can only find it in print @U of W - Madison library. Clearly it is complied from an original text dating back to before Elisha Todd's death in 1913, but I cannot find that either."

This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?

"I have been trying to find where Benjamin Todd is buried. Searched the McComb Union Cemetery records and physically but cannot find him."

Sources

(1)Brown, R. C. & Warner, B. &. C. (1886) History of Hancock County, Ohio: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns ... portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of the Northwest Territory, history of Ohio, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc. Chicago: Warner, Beers. [Image] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01002189/. pg 408 (2)Brown, R. C. & Warner, B. &. C. (1886) History of Hancock County, Ohio: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns ... portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of the Northwest Territory, history of Ohio, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc. Chicago: Warner, Beers. [Image] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01002189/. pg 476

1. ↑ Austin Pauline. Descendants of Joseph and Cain Scott of Virginia and Kentucky, Marion, Iowa : Austin, 1976. Page 182.

See also:

• 1830; Census Place: Truro, Franklin, Ohio; Series: M19; Roll: 131; Page: 35; Family History Library Film: 0337942

Original data: Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.