John W. McComb
John W. McComb, Superintendent of the Poor, P. O. Ravenna, was born March 26, 1833, in Ohio, son of John and Nancy (Dawson) McComb, natives of Lancaster, Penn., who were the parents of ten children, seven of whom are now living: John W., William, Nancy (wife of H. Tuttle), N. N. (who enlisted in the Union Army during the war of the Rebellion, remained till the close, and came out without a scratch), Wilbur, Anna (married to A. B. Christie, Principal of Convoy College, Van Wert Co., Ohio, where she is also Assistant), and Sarah (wife of B. Godard, a silver-plater in Charlestown, this county). Our subject's parents immigrated to this county in 1841, and settled in Edinburg Township, where the father died. Their previous home stood on the State line between Ohio and Pennsylvania, and when our subject was born (in Ohio), his father, though not away from home, was in Pennsylvania. John W. McComb was married January 24, 1861, to Emily L., daughter of James and Hira (Kneelan) Crane. By this union is born one child — Ray W., a young man at present attending Ravenna High School. Mrs, McComb died March 8, 1885. March 1, 1878, our subject was appointed Superintendent of the Poor by the County Infirmary Directors, and still retains that position. He has been proprietor of a saw-mill. At the time of the breakingout of the war, his brother William was a resident of the South, where his effects were confiscated, and he himself impressed into the Rebel Army. While at Fort Scott he deserted to the Union lines, where he was identified by Ashley Crane, a cousin of our subject's late wife, and who was then in the Northern Army, and sent to this county.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885