Edwin B. Babcock
Edwin B. Babcock, farmer, P. O. Ravenna, was born March 2, 1811, the first white child born in Hiram Township, this county, son of Simon and Sabina (Tilden) Babcock, and grandson of Simon Babcock, Sr., and Col. Daniel Tilden of the Revolutionary war, who died at the age of eighty-nine, the latter of whom named the township of Hiram, giving a gallon of whisky for the privilege, and being a Freemason he named it after Hiram Abift, the founder of Masonry. He was one of the proprietors of the same. He also christened the stream, Silver Creek, after quenching his thirst and that of his horse in its clear waters. Col. Daniel Tilden was an uncle of Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, and Hon. Daniel R. Tilden, of Cleveland, Ohio, is his grandson. Mr. and Mrs. Simon Babcock, Jr., came to this county in 1809 to occupy lands owned by the latter's father, Col. Tilden, who did not settle here till several years later, though he owned several hundred acres of land here. Simon Babcock, Jr., subsequently went South and was never more heard from. His son, Edwin B., resided with his grandfather, Col. Tilden, in New York for four years, then returned to this county in the fall of 1820 and, purchasing fifty acres of land, began its cultivation. In 1821 he went to live in Shalersville with his mother, remaining with her till her death. She married Elijah Burroughs, and died at Garrettsville February 23, 1836, aged fifty-two years. March 26, 1835, he married Alma, daughter of John Hoskins, one of the early settlers of Shalersville. She was the youngest in a family of twelve children. To our subject and wife were born Helen, wife of William Walker, of Michigan; Christopher G., a prominent resident of Branch County, Mich, (he was twelve successive years a Supervisor in his county); George W., a bridgebuilder, who was killed by falling from a bridge he was constructing in Shelby County, Mo., December 18,1882, aged forty three (left a widow and four children); Horace C, of Shalersville Township, this county; Amelia S. was married to J. W. Gray, died October 11, 1879, aged thirty-six, leaving four children, and Jaynes N., a model farmer of La Grange County, Ind., holds a prominent position in literary circles, serves his township in an official capacity. Mrs. Alma Babcock died February 11, 1846, aged thirty two years, and October 22, 1846, our subject married Amelia B., youngest of the nine children of Asa Crane, and by her he has two children: Sarah, wife of G. L. Horr, and William A., a lawyer of much promise in Cleveland. Mr. Babcock has a fine, well-regulated farm of 500 acres, and also a cultivated farm of over 500 acres in Branch County, Mich. He has conducted a dairy for fifty years. He has served this county several years in the capacity of Coroner, Trustee and Infirmary Director, and was one of the Directors and President of the Ravenna Savings Bank for several years. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was appointed by the Government to enroll the township, and was afterward chosen by the citizens to fill the quota called for to relieve the township from draft, paid out about $17,000 for substitutes in Cincinnati and Cleveland, and not a man went into the service by draft. Our subject has been a resident of Shalersville Township nearly sixty-three years, and at this date (1885) there is but one person alive who was married when Mr. Babcock arrived in Shalersville, and that person is Alanson Lord, now in his ninety-first year.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885