Richard Masterson Hank
Richard Masterson Hank, retired, P. O. Hiram, is a native of Trumbull County, Ohio, where he was born June 22, 1814, son of Daniel and Mary (Masterson) Hank, natives of Pennsylvania, of English descent. They were married in Fayette County, that State, December 16, 1792, and in 1804 moved to Trumbull County, Ohio, and soon after taking up his abode there Daniel Hank purchased a farm of 200 acres of heavily-timbered land on the Mosquito Creek bottom in Howland Township, on which was a log-cabin and a few acres of land in cultivation. Before his death he built a large frame house, and the first frame barn in the township, and besides working at his two occupations of iron molder and stone-mason a part of the time, he and his two elder sons cleared the forest from about 100 acres of the farm, split rails and fenced it into fields and so brought the land into cultivation. He died June 5, 1821, and his widow December 22, 1856, aged fifty and eighty-three years respectively. Of their eight children, Richard Masterson is the only survivor. Our subject received his collegiate education at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania, and afterward, in 1839 and 1840, was a student in the oflice of Tod & Hoffman, in Warren, Ohio, (David Tod, afterward Governor of Ohio, and Ben Hoffman, afterward Judge of Common Pleas, now a resident of Youngstown, Ohio,) but bis health failing, he was obliged to abandon the pursuit of law. Mr. Hank was married April 4, 1843, to Miss Harriet E. Griffin, of Trumbull County, Ohio, also a native of Fayette County, Penn., born February 8, 1824, daughter of Samuel and Esther (Smith) Griffin, of English descent, natives of the same county and State, where they died. Our subject taught school for several years in his native county, and in 1840 purchased a farm then noted for its mineral springs, which he improved and made quite a pleasant place of resort, now known as the "Howland Springs." From there he came to this county in 1865 and purchased a nursery in Hiram Township, where he now resides. He has served his township for eighteen years as Justice of the Peace, and was one of the officers of Hiram College of this township. In 1871 he with others organized the First National Bank of Garrettsville, Ohio, of which he was President for several years. His wife is a member of the Disciples Church.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885