MOSES WORTHING BEEDE  is justly both a prominent and a popular man in Ashtabula county, where  he is and has been for many years president of the Soldiers' Relief Commission, and has served as a member of the Republican central committee and of the county's first jury commission.  For years he has been a leading man in reform politics, as he has put forth every effort to conquer the saloon element and to elect good men to office. Before the Civil war he belonged to the Black String Society, which was organized to protect and assist fugitive slaves.  He was also among those who actively resisted the United States marshal and prevented his taking John Brown Jr. to testify against John Brown. He became a Mason at twenty-four and has taken the chapter degree; is also a member of the Giddings Post G. A. R. at Jefferson. In his own township of Lenox, his executive ability, his public spirit and his useful services to the town have long made him a leader; he has been president of the school board and is at present a township trustee, having served twenty years in that capacity.  He was first elected in 1869, and since that time he has been instrumental in making the following improvements: Building the town hall; establishing public watering-places; causing to be surveyed two acres of unclaimed land, which had been reserved for township purposes by the original owner of Lenox, Mr. Rockwell; erecting the township vault; and buying additional land for cemeteries, which have been improved in the past few years until they are now among the most beautiful country cemeteries to be found.

In early colonial times there landed on the New England coast the first of his ancestors to seek the New World. This one came from France, probably from Alsace-Lorraine. He pronounced his name Beedé [Beeday?], but it has since been Anglicized.  Except that some were Quakers, little is known of the family until the latter part of the eighteenth century, when Thomas Beede was born.  He graduated from Harvard College in the Class of 1798 and numbered among his classmates the distinguished Channing, Tuckerman, Judge Story and Stephen Longfellow.  Thomas Beede, who was the third minister of the first church of Wilton, New Hampshire, and who, from 1818-1825, served his state legislature as chaplain, was throughout his ministry one of New Hampshire's most noted clergymen. His ordination sermon was preached by Rev. William Emerson, of Boston, the father of Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Thomas Beede's nephew, Caleb Sleeper Beede, the father of Moses W., was born in 1805 in Vermont. When very young he was left an orphan, and although obliged to support himself, he determined to secure a thorough education. One means which he took to reach this goal was to associate himself with several other young men, and hire a teacher of Greek, a language in which he became proficient. Endowed with a keen intellect and an insatiable desire for learning, he habitually spent one-half of the night in study. Until his voice failed, he was a minister of the gospel in a New England Methodist Episcopal conference, but after that misfortune he became a contractor and builder until his removal in1849 to Ohio. There he engaged in the lumber business and in farming. His death was caused in 1877 by a wound which he had received while serving in the Union army. Mary Worthing, his wife, a woman loved by every one, was of English descent. In the twelfth century her ancestors were enlisted in the English army, while those living in the colonies at the time of the Revolution volunteered and fought for the American cause. Among them were her grandfathers, Major Theophilus Sanborn and Lieutenant Samuel Worthen; also her great-grandfather, Captain David Sleeper, who, as soon as he learned of the battle of Lexington, marshaled his command and marched to Boston to volunteer for the defense of that town.

  Caleb Sleeper and Mary Worthing Beede had nine children, of whom Moses Worthing Beede was the fifth. He was born at Bristol, New Hampshire, August 28, 1839, and when he was ten years old left his home in the beautiful "Switzerland of America" to come to the Western Reserve. Three years later his father's family moved to Lenox, Ohio, where he has ever since made his home. Although he did not receive a collegiate education, by ceaseless study, observation and thought, he subjected his mind to practically much the same training that it would have received from a university course. His mental ability is extraordinary and varied, as he is a deep thinker along the lines of science, archeology, history, philosophy and religion - subjects in which he is particularly interested, and in which he would have made his force felt in the intellectual world had his opportunities been greater.

At Lincoln's first call for troops, in April 1861, Moses Beede enlisted for three months in company D, Nineteenth Ohio infantry. He served under Generals McClelland and Rosecrans in the campaign of 1861, in West Virginia, and fought in the battle of Rich Mountain. After his discharge he volunteered again but was rejected on account of physical disability. He was, however, appointed by Governor Tod to serve as first lieutenant of the state militia, subject to the call of the president.  At this time he began manufacturing lumber and boat oars, furnishing many of the oars that were used on the Mississippi river by the government during the war. About fifteen years later he opened up a factory for the manufacture of sucker rods and connecting rods, used in oil wells, and still owns a half interest in such a factory at Jefferson, although he has now retired to private life.

In 1863 Mr. Beede married Miss Eliza Henderson, a member of the Henderson family of Austinburg, a woman of more than ordinary mind and culture; but he lost his wife in September, 1874. She left a son and daughter. George Owen Beede, who received his education at New Lyme Institute under the noted educator, Jacob Tuckerman, is his father's partner in the sucker rod factory in Jefferson, where he resides, and where his wife, who was Miss May Loomis, has always lived. His sister, Bernice Gertrude, who is a gifted musician and a graduate of New Lyme Institute, is the wife of Leonard Worcester Jr., formerly of Leadville, Colorado, but at present of Chihuahua, Mexico. In July, 1876, was solemnized Mr. Beede's marriage to Mrs. Harlow Watson, a widow of refinement and of charming personal appearance. Of New England stock and of English descent, she was the daughter of Amos Curtis, of Augusta, Illinois.  A few years later her daughter, Nettie Louise Watson, married Birney A. French, of Lenox.  Mr. and Mrs. Beede have two daughters; Martha Frances, a high school teacher, is a graduate of the Jefferson high school, of Grand River Institute and of Oberlin College. Lulu Edith, the younger, attended the same preparatory schools as her sister and spent three years studying art and music at Oberlin College. A leader in church work and in society, she possesses a good voice and is a skilful artist.

Mr. Beede and his entire family are members of the Congregational church. For twelve years he acted as church trustee, and for twenty superintended the Sunday school. No other man of his income has done more for the support of the church and every other worthy object. Whenever circumstances have permitted, he has traveled, visiting places of historic or scenic interest in the East, West, North and South.  He was the first white man to climb Mount Massive, the highest mountain in Colorado, which he ascended in July 1875; and at that time he began the monument of stones upon its summit to which each succeeding traveler has added a stone.  In his travels, he has always made interesting additions of minerals and curios to his collection, which is considered one of the best private collections of its kind to be found in northeastern Ohio. Travel appeals to him particularly because his refined tastes render him keenly appreciative of what is beautiful in art, in literature and in nature, and responsive to nobility and genius in his fellowmen.  Mr. Beede is a man of strong convictions, fearless in the denunciation of wrong, who, when the need of action has arisen, has incurred personal danger for the enforcement of right principles.