Joseph Heighton
Joseph Heighton, farmer, P. O. Kent, was born in Hargrave, Northamptonshire, England, February 4, 1827; son of Thomas and Sarah (Goodes) Heighton, who, in 1832, settled in Edinburg, Portage Co., Ohio, where they cleared and improved the farm on which they lived and died. Their children were William (deceased), Thomas, Sarah (deceased), Elizabeth (deceased), Ann (deceased), John, Joseph, Hannah (deceased) and an infant (deceased). Thomas Heighton, Sr., was a blacksmith by trade, and the first one to follow this bussiness as an occupation in that part of the county where he settled. He was a man of peculiar ideas, a thorough American in feeling, a lover of the Republican form of government (which was his main reason for coming to America) and was one of tbe first men in Portage County to advocate the anti-slavery doctrine. He was a prominent member of the Baptist Church. He died at the age of fifty-two years, honored by all who knew him. Our subject was reared in Edinburg, this county, and received his education in the common schools. He was married July 19, 1848, to Olive Cornelia, daughter of Ariel Lewis and Minerva (Colton) Case, of Rootstown, and born April 8, 1829, in Rootstown. She had the advantages of a common school education and taught school at one time. Her father was born July 31, 1804, in Coventry, Tolland Co., Conn. Her mother was born May 20, 1805, in Tolland, Tolland Co., Conn. Her paternal grandfather, Ariel Case, a native of Tolland County, Conn., and a soldier of the war of 1812, settled in Rootstown Township, this county, in 1809. Her maternal grandfather, Stephen Colton, a native of Vermont, settled in Rootstown, Ohio, in 1805. Mr. Heighton and wife have four children: Marius H.; Ann, wife of N. E. Olin; Parker H. and Lloyd B. After coming of age, Mr. Heighton, with his brother, John, purchased the old homestead, where he resided until the fall of 1862 and in the spring of 1863 he located in Franklin Township, this county, on the farm now owned and occupied by his son Marius, where he remained till 1879, when he moved to his present property east of Kent. He has always been a temperate man, never having used tobacco, spirits, tea or coffee. He is a member of the Pioneer Association; one of the representative citizens of Franklin Township; in politics he is a Republican.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885