Lake County Ohio GenWeb

Mark R. Doolittle

This biography is taken from Biographical History of Northeastern Ohio, Embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake; Lewis Publishing Company, 1893.

Transcribed and submitted by Becky Falin, 1996.

Mark R. Doolittle, the efficient and popular Postmaster of Painesville, Ohio, and a newspaper man of fifty-one years' experience and of international fame, was born in Middlebury, Vermont, August 30, 1824. He is of Scotch descent, the original American ancestors of the family having settled in this country in early Colonial times. His grandfather, Titus Doolittle, was born in Massachusetts, where he followed farming. He died at an advanced age, in Belchertown, that State. The father of the subject of this sketch, Joel Doolittle, was also born in Massachusetts, and was a lawyer by profession, being a graduate of Yale College. He was the first tutor in Middlebury College, in which he was at one time president of the council of censors. He was Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont for a number of years and died in Middlebury, that State, in 1841, at the age of sixty-nine. In politics he was a Whig and a devout member of the Episcopal Church. He wife, nee Sallie Fitch, was a native of Pawlet, Vermont, and a lady of superior ability and culture. She reared seven children to noble manhood and womanhood and died at the age of eighty-six. She also was an earnest member of the Episcopal Church.

The youngest child in order of birth was Mark R. Doolittle, whose name heads this sketch. He was reared in his native city until sixteen years old and attended the academy of that place. Possessing an adventurous and ambitious disposition and much interest existing at that time in the Eastern States in regard to the new country west of them, Mark Doolittle started for Ohio in 1830, coming to Painesville, his present home, where he learned the printer's trade. He first worked at his art in Huron, Ohio, and later was employed at Sandusky on the City Advertiser. He subsequently went to Fremont and from there, in 1843, came to Painesville, whence he removed the next year to Chagrin Falls, after which he went to Milan and from there back to Painesville in the fall of 1845. He worked on the Telegraph from that time until 1855 and then established the Advertiser, which he successfully operated until 1860, when he sold it. He next conducted a job office for several years and then resumed relationship with the Telegraph, purchasing an interest in the paper, with which he continued to be connected until 1867. In 1869, he once more revived the Advertiser and after two years' successful management sold it and became business manager and associate editor of the Telegraph, in which latter capacity he acted until his appointment, in February, 1890, to the office of Postmaster. He brings to his latter duties a varied business experience of years' duration and his customary energy and dispatch, coupled with that high integrity so characteristic of his life and to which may be attributed his unvarying success.

September 4, 1847, Mr. Doolittle was married to Miss Alta P. Briggs, a lady of education and refinement, who is a native of Erie county, New York. Their four children are: George B., who died aged twenty-two; Kate, afterward Mrs. Albion Gardner, now deceased; Mark R., Jr.; and Nellie, now Mrs. Hawkins.

In politics, Mr. Doolittle has been an advocate of Republicanism ever since the organization of that party and has championed the cause with more than ordinary vigor. He has been an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for more than forty years. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and as a business man and citizen he is ranked among the best in the community, justly enjoying the deepest regard of all those who know him.