My grandfather, the 3rd child of William S. and Rosa (Bragg) Wendell, was born into poverty and illiteracy, but also into a strong belief in family values and work ethic. His father was a tenant farmer, originally in Guernsey County, but sometime between 1900 and 1910 the family migrated north to Columbiana County, and later to Stark County. A dispute with his eighth grade teacher led to Earl dropping out, and he went to work in the tire factories in Akron to help support the family. After he was married, a frightening industrial accident in the factory led my grandmother to demand that he find an alternative (safer) means of earning a living. He bought Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Russell H. Conwell's Acres of Diamonds and basically memorized them. He quit the factory and began a career in sales, beginning by selling pianos at the O'Neil's store in downtown Akron. He learned a single keyboard flourish that he used to demonstrate a piano to prospective customers. My mother remembers him bringing a wooden piano crate home and using it to build a playhouse for her and her brother. Soon Earl got involved in selling insurance -- he began selling "payday" life insurance, for which the premiums had to be collected on each payday from the factory workers. He worked his way through the ranks of salesmen and managers at the National Life & Accident Insurance Company, and finished his career as district manager in the Akron, Ohio office. He had a lifelong love of hunting and fishing, and had marvelous stories from his youth about experiences with his brother and father, reflecting the ingenuity and perseverence of poor folks living off the land.
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Children and grandchildren of William and Susannah (Jeffery) Wendell, Cambridge, circa 1900. The elderly lady near the center may have been Susannah -- William is not in this photo. The childrens' bare feet reflect the poverty of Appalachian tenant farmers.
Marriage record of William Wendell and Susan Jeffery. He was born in Beaver Township, then Guernsey and now Noble County, Ohio. After the marriage the family lived mostly in Guernsey County, although William is found in the 1890 schedule of veterans living in Barnesville, Belmont County, and apparently separated from Susannah. He died at the home of his son John in Stark County, Ohio.
Note that Susannah's headstone (left) is facing in the opposite direction of William's. This is ironic, in light of the fact that they apparently had difficulty seeing things the same in life as well -- their marriage was marred by separation.
William J. Wendell, Civil War Veteran.
Wendell - Jeffery reunion, Cambridge City Park. We're not sure of the year -- the apparent age of known persons, and the clothing styles suggest the WWI era or early 1920s.
U.S. Army Civil War service pension record.
William J. Wendell's paternal grandfather, and my g-g-g-g grandfather was Daniel Wendel, who was brought from Toms Brook to what is now Beaver Township, Noble County by his parents, Philip and Barbara (Swartz) Wendell, in 1801. He married Catherine Starr, a granddaughter of the Quaker Moses Starr, in 1817. They raised their family in Beaver Township and about 1848 they relocated with their younger children to Huntington Township in southern Ross County, where they are listed on the 1850 census. It appears that he relocated to be near the family of his brother William D. Wendell who had gone before 1840 to live in Jackson Township, Pike County, and then later after 1860 migrated west to Logan County, Illinois. The dates on this headstone are the basis for calculating the birth date of Daniel Wendell -- December 22, 1790. He died 100 years to the day before my birth.