Page Eight
From the "Memoirs of James K Wells, Son of William M. & Hilly Ann Wells" Submitted by Jana Trace
A generation or more ago, the old wooden mould board plow was in use in that section of Ohio, Grandfather by some means procured a turning plow with an iron mould board, which did not scour very well. Consequently, he made a small paddle of wood put a string to the handle and hung it on one of the plow handles for convenience in clearing the dirt off the mould board. Prior to that time (about the year 1840), the grain, wheat, oats and rye was saved by the use of a sickle a kind of hook held in one hand to gather in the grain to the amount of a handful then catch the grain in the other hand and pull the sickle through the straw below the hand. This mode of harvesting required a great skill to prevent cutting the fingers. Twenty-five dozen of wheat was considered a days work.
About the year 1845 I remember seeing grandfather Kinner and some of his near neighbors cutting his wheat which sickles, about that time or soon after, the grain cradle came into use, and the wind mills, which was considered quite an improvement, a little later the thrashing machine run by horse power, that was quite an attraction to the people of that day.
But now over half a century has passed since those far off days, and those stalwart heros only lived long enough to see the beginning of inventions and public improvements.
Uncle James Kinner, Jr. Died June 21, 1890, age 83 years (a copy)
“A precious one from us has gone,
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant in our home,
Which never can be filled,
God in his wisdom, recalled,
The boom(??) his love had given,
And though the body moulders here,
The soul is safe in Heaven”
Cynthia Kinner his wife having died August 11, 1871, James Kinner was survived by five children, one son, James W of West Lafayette, and four daughters Charity Watson of Coshocton, Eliza Kinner of Plainfield, Cyntha S. Conley of Plainfield.
Six children had died prior to his death. Three sons and three daughters: Wesley Kinner, Lemuel Kinner, Willis M. Kinner, Sarah Kinner, Charlotta Kinner and Ellen A. Kinner.
The announcement of the death of Uncle James Kinner was a grevious one to me. He was precious to us all.
On or about the 28th day of July, 1890, the personal property of James Kinner, Jr., deceased, was sold at public auction. There were two administrators appointed to settle up the estate. I was informed by them that probably after the estate was finally settled there would be in real and personal about $3,000 for each one of the five surviving heirs. It was my pleasure to be present on the occasion of the sale, and to meet and greet the old neighbors and friends especially those with whom I associated with over forty years prior too our meeting on that occasion. But perhaps there had never come over me a more profound grief than when the great multitude of people gathered on that occasion when the citizenship of Plainfield and Coshocton walked up to me, and from thence I learned the sad features of Uncle Jim Kinner’s death, his last and most serious sickness was of short duration. Death had claimed one of Coshocton County’s early settlers. He was a man that filled every obligation in his life faithfully and effectively. He met his duties as a citizen of the community as loyally as he attended to the other obligations of life. He leaves a splendid family to carry on the work he has laid down. But they will do well indeed if at the end of life they can lay down its cares with us full assurance of every obligation faithfully performed as has their father.
During my brief visit in Coshocton County, I was much pleased with the enterprise of the people. I found them clever and sociable, and was welcome at their homes. But oh! What a change been made in less time than 50 years. As I traveled on different roads in different localities where I once roamed, I looked for the old isolated log houses, barns, school houses and church houses, but they had all disappeared, and not many frame buildings erected prior to 1850 standing. All had been transformed. I could easily imagine when I looked over the farms what an industrious and enterprising people could accomplish in less than a half a century in a farming region which had been in the beginning, cleared by our grandfathers and their sons out of a forest and commodious frame and brick houses, with barns, sheds and other buildings, with a prosperous agriculture. In the rich deep meadows where tons of hay were mown, and upon the hills cattle and sheep are grazing, cornfields with robust stalks, and hay ricks of immense size.
The old buildings, the old wooden mould plow, the reap hook, and the flail had disappeared. And new buildings, improved plows, mowing machines, reapers and binders, attraction engines and thrashers had taken their place. Such I found in my visit to my old native state, where my two grand fathers, James Kinner and Lakin Wells, had lived and bore their part in laying the foundation of a prosperous country. I found their grandchildren and great grandchildren intelligent, respectable and industrious. Some of them are occupying positions of honor and trust, and others are well do farmers. James W. Kinner is a merchant in Plainfield, Ohio. Prof. Jesse Kinner is a superintendent of the school at Lithopolis, Ohio, James M. Kinner of West Lafayette, Ohio a prosperous farmer.
Rev. William L. Wells of West Lafayette was one of the most prominent men in the Methodist Protestant Church. For a number of years he was the conference president of West Lafayette College. He was pastor of the West Lafayette church for many years. He had been a faithful worker in the Christian cause and had accomplished much in the work of uplifting mankind. He died about the month of ____ in the spring of 1910 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Frank Spitser at Pemberville near Toledo. Rev. Wells was about 62 years of age. He is survived by a wife, two sons and two daughters, Vernon Wells, a merchant in West Lafayette, Rev. LeMone Wells of Denver, Colorado, Mrs. Frank Spitser of Pemberville and Mrs. Rev. Dehl, residing near Oberlin.
Rev. William L. Wells has two brothers living as follows: James Wells of Brownsville, Ohio and Theodore Wells of Cambridge, Ohio. They are the elderly men now living of the Isaac Wells family, who was a son of Lakin Wells, the father of William M. Wells, Isaac Wells, John Wells, Tunis Wells, and Aaron Wells. These brothers are mow all dead. Aaron being the latest survivor. In his family are the following children, as follows:
May Wells Kootman, Lakin B Wells, Sue Wells, and Clyde L. Wells, United States Post Office Coshocton, Ohio August 23, 1910.
It has been over a century ago since the three Wells brothers, Lakin, John and Benjamin, brave young men, boarded a ship for America. They had heard of a new country that had been discovered by Christopher Columbus, and that a Revolutionary War had been fought by the Americans and the British, and that a Government had been planted in America that generated Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Therefore, they resolved to make America their future home. It is now known by the writer precisely the date of their landing in America further than it has been stated by them that knew the three and that they first settled in Virginia and soon afterward came to Ohio, was there at the time Thomas Jefferson served a term as President of the United States.