Families

 

Ralph and Noreen Blaker family with Joyce (Medina Historian) and the younger kids, circa 1960 at sister Sandy and Ivan Davis' place.  Blaker family photo.

Bentley Family

Bentley Family L to R:  Mina O. Bentley (1867-1952), son; Carrie Bentley (1835-1912), mother; Oliver Bentley (1823-1913), father; Oliver and Carrie had a daughter Lettie who married Geo. Huff, parents of Mr. Lynn Huff, who donated this and many more well-cared-for photos to Hudson Museum.  Bentleys took over the farm originally owned by Dr. Increase S. Hamilton, who moved to Tecumseh.  Annis Darr tells an interesting anecdote about Mina and Oliver in her History of Medina, see "Annis Darr" in sidebar under "Pages."  This house still looks beautiful and is located just south of Medina Village.  Photo from Hudson Museum.

Distler Family

Sometime between 1906 and 1910 Jacob and Barbara Distler of Van Wert, Ohio moved to an 80 acre farm on S. Hughes Hwy., just north of the intersection with Lawrence Rd.  Along came their son John F. Distler, his wife Elizabeth and children Margaret, Robert and Paul (see the post about Fun at Bean Creek 100 Years Ago as there are photos of all three of the kids).  Robert married and had a family and grandkids, but Paul stayed to work on the farm while Margaret dedicated her life to teaching elementary school for 44 years, 35 of those years in Hudson.  From the 1900 census for Van Wert, we see that Margaret's father was also a school teacher (FamilySearch.org), so she followed in his footsteps. Everyone knew or at least knew of Margaret and the Distlers.  Their farm still exists on S. Hughes only it is now on the south shore of Lake Hudson.  Margaret and Paul lived their whole lives on this farm and he preceeded her in death in 1983.  This photo is circa 1985, as Mrs. Tew passed away in 1986.    Clearly Margaret wanted to commemorate her family of origin, as well as her Medina family of friends with this reminder to future generations to care for the hallowed grounds in back of Medina Federated Church.  Margaret Ann Distler (1910-1993) is standing closest to the spine of the book monument while the friend closest to her in the light-colored jacket is unidentified.  Other Friends L to R:   Donald Carpenter (1909-1987), Elizabeth Carpenter (1908-2004), George Tew (1907-1992), Eleanor Tew (1907-1986),  Imogene Wilson (1922-2002) and Emeline Blaker (1938-2000).  Some of these friends may have biographies posted at Find-a-Grave by Joyce Longo (see links in sidebar).  Below is an enlargement of the Medina Our Creed monument.  A special thank you to Rev. Howard Yatzek for getting folks to identify the friends and for returning the copy to me.  Photo from Hudson Museum.

Dr. David Brown's Family

David Brown studied medicine under Medina's first physician Dr. Increase Hamilton; he  took over Dr. Hamilton's practice when Dr. H. moved to Tecumseh.  But property tax records show that Dr. Hamilton did not continue to own the house that was famously 'stolen' from Canandaigua, rather he lived at  the NW corner of Warwick Road and Main Street in a house later owned by the Hemenways and others (we will show Hemenway house in a later post--not to be confused with the small house Mrs. Hemenway lived in during the 1929 cyclone).  Dr. Brown's family also lived at this location on the East side until 1853 when we see Dr. Brown with a house at Section 1 on the West side of the village. This is the Red Brick House that Annis Darr refers to as being home of Dr. Brown and also a dormitory for girls who went to Oak Grove Academy.  This house photo is posted elsewhere but I will repeat the photo that I took as it is still a beautiful and unique house, most recently home of the Schaffners.  I have seen Timothy Allen (1789-1856), father of one of the Medina Allen families, described as a brick mason so perhaps he played a part in the design of this place as he was still around at the time.  John Hall also built a similarly sized brick house 2 miles south of the village on Bothwell Hwy., that is now very plain--I speculate that it was once similarly styled (perhaps losing it's porch and then went the front gable that got the roof quickly solved by flattening it all out) as Maude Ingall Carpenter said Hall house was formerly an interesting specimen of architecture.

Red Brick House Section 1 Medina village, built by Dr. David Brown in 1853.

The only girl who is documented as living with the Browns and attending the Academy is Mary Brown Herrington, niece of Dr. Brown.  This was written in her 1883 obituary in the Hudson Post, and it also says that she taught school here.  Then she married Almond Herrington of Medina village, older brother of Eudora Herrington who later became Mrs. Aldrich McLouth of the Old White Store.  So once again we see connection with Eudora Griffith Wotring, as we have in so many of these posts.

Mary Brown Herrington is buried at Brown Cemetery NW of Medina village, while Dr. Brown's family is at Maple Grove in Hudson.

In addition to being a busy doctor, David Brown also held the position of school inspector for many years, serving with fellow physician Dr. Carlos Hampton who lived right across the street from him in the East end at "Colvin House" (which probably ought to be called Hampton House as we learned that Dr. H. was the one who built it!)

David Brown, M.D. (1819-1858)  photo from Hudson Museum.

Harriet Peck Brown Retan (1825-1890)  Photo from Hudson Museum
Harriet remarried to Artemis Retan and she is buried in Hudson with both
husbands together.  This picture is believed to have been taken after the death of
Dr. Brown.  Harriet was sister to Ann Eliza Peck who was married to John C. Hotchkiss, and
later A. S. Hutchins, also of Medina village.

Dr. and Mrs. Brown were parents to four children, Frank, Cyril, Nancy and Fred.  Fred became famous as a prolific photographer of Hudson; Nancy married into the Perkins family; Frank died young in 1852; and Cyril became a physician like his father and served in the 4th Michigan Infantry during the Civil War.