Erem J. Healy
Erem J. Healy, a leading citizen of Concord Township, residing on his well-improved farm of 152 acres, was born where he now resides, on the old Healy homestead in Delaware County, Ohio, August 10, 1850, and is a son of Ebenezer and Sophronia (Cotton) Healy, and a grandson of Ebenezer and Eunice (Crossman) Healy. The first member of the Healy family that is on record as resident in America, came from England in 1630 and settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Ebenezer Healy, paternal grandfather of Erem J., was born at Newton, Massachusetts, February 3, 1768, and died at Sennett, New York, September 22, 1857, aged nearly ninety years. In 1793 he settled in Cayuga County, New York, where he bought an undivided half of lot 8, on which the town of Sennett now stands, paying $2.50 per acre, which he added to an adjoining farm he already owned. In the autumn of 1793 he returned to Newton, Massachusetts, where he was married to Eunice Crossman. In the following February, Mr. and Mrs. Healy started for New York, reaching the new home in thirteen days. Ehenezer Healy was a man of great enterprise and became prominent in the section in which he settled. His farm lay on the line of travel to the Western Reserve, and for a number of years he kept a well-patronized tavern. He a deacon in the Baptisl Church. His wife died September 16, 1810. They had the following children: Lyman W. John Mason, Nathaniel, Ebenezer and Sallie, twins, Eliza H., and two who died in infancy. Mr. Healy was married (second) to Anna Leonard. March 11, 1811, and they had one son, George. Mr. Healy built his barn in 1796 and in it the first Baptist Association in Cayuga County was formed in 1801.
Ebenezer Healy (2d), father of Erem J., was horn in Cayuga County, New York, January 29, 1806. He grew up on his father's farm and was married November 5, 1838, to Sophronia Cotton, who was born in 1809, and died November 29, 1884, aged seventy-five years. Immediately after marriage, Ebenezer Healy and bride set out to find a western home. They traveled to Buffalo, thence to Cleveland, and from there by way of canal to Columbus, where Mrs. Healy remained, while her husband started out prospecting, traveling over a large part of the neighboring country on foot. Finally he found land to please him—a farm well located and with fertile soil—152 acres situated in Concord Township, Delaware County, and this he bought. The land at that time was largely covered with timber. By December 5, 1838, Mr. and Mrs. Healy had established their household goods which they had brought from New York, in a temporary dwelling on the new farm and in this location Ebenezer Healy (2d) remained until his death, which occurred October 25, 1873, when he was sixty-seven years old. His three children were: Erem J., subject of this sketch; Eunice, who died at the age of ten years; and Eliza, who married James T. Hutchinson, residing at Delaware.
Erem J. Healy grew to manhood on the present farm and obtained his schooling in the district schools. In 1870 he was married to Mary J. Freshwater, who died in 1890, aged thirty-six years. She was a daughter of George and Sallie Freshwater, the former of whom was the first white child born in Concord Township, where he died in 1906, at the age of ninety-three years. His wife died in 1872. They had five children. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Healy were as follows: Sarah Sophronia, who married George Berlet resides on a farm near Delaware, and has two daughters—Helen and Florence; Eliza Rae, who married Frank Loveless, a mail clerk on the Big Four Railroad, residing at Cincinnati, and has one daughter—Violet; Alice, who married H. O. Moore, a farmer of Concord Township, and has two children—George and Harold; and Minnie, who married W. C. Mc Cloud, who is engaged in farming in Concord Township. Mr. Healy was married (secondly) October 26, 1893, to Estelle Krohn, who is a daughter of H. S. and Anna Elizabeth (Swisher) Krohn, and who was educated in the Galion High School and Otterbein University, and for five years was a successful teacher in various high schools. They have two bright boys—Eldredge J., aged thirteen, and Russell Krohn, aged five years.
Mr. Healy is a director in the Deposit Bank at Delaware. He is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, being connected with Lodge No. 525 at Bellpoint. He has long been a leading factor in local politics and has represented Concord Township on the Republican Central Committee, for a number of years. He has been very active in educational movements and largely through his efforts the township high school was established here, it being the first one in the county outside of Delaware. He is a member of the United Brethren Church.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908