Lake County Ohio GenWeb
From The Painesville Telegraph, Painesville, Ohio, January 17, 1861, "Sketches of the Pioneers No. 10," and reprinted in the September 1984 "LakeLines," the newsletter of the Lake County Genealogical Society.
Our subject on the present occasion is no exception to the common lot in pioneer life. We learn definitely that he was born at Enfield, Conn., in 1787, but on what day or in what month our authority is wholly at fault. Neither are we more favored in our inquiries to obtain facts in relation to that period of his life - no episodes that might mark it in outline or give interest to it. The whole to this day and generation, so far as we are able to learn, is a blank, save in one fact - that he received but the privileges in acquiring an education that were common to all of his fellows. But in 1812 we find him making the journey from old Connecticut to the new, looking for a home. He selected and bought what is generally known as the Hills Farm, - (Mr. Hills being the father of Addison Hills, now General Freight Agent of the C.C. & C. and the C. and E.R.R.) but now owned by Dr. Eleazar Parmly of New York, and contained about 200 acres of land. The farm included the N.E. corner of Main and State streets in the village, extending down State to what is still known as the Latimer place - thence Easterly down on the flats of the river - thence in a Northerly direction to the Furnace road, where the dwelling now stands. The first house and the one erected by Judge Kngsbury was a log one. After making his purchases he returned to Connecticut for his family. He brought them on in two teams, one an ox team and the other a horse team.
Judge Kingsbury did something to build up the town in that early day. He built up the American House, which still stands. He also built the first store building located on the corner where the Russel buildings now stands. He also built the original building, we learn, now occupied as a residence by P.P. Sanford, Esq. He also built up the original store that stood on the corner now occupied by Moodey's block; and in co-partnership with Wm. Holbrook, Esq. now residing near town, did a mercantile business for a time in it. We cannot determine the matter fully, but think that he also built the two story dwelling that was removed from the ground now occupied by Mrs. E.B. Gray's residence, - but whether he built it or not he lived there and exhaled his dying breath. The internal part of the American House was completed by the assistance of Mr. Holbrook, who was its first tenant as landlord.
Solomon Kingsbury was for six years Associate Judge, at the time when Judge Tod was President on the Common Pleas Bench. He also was Justice of the Peace, and filled that office when, he died. In 1824 he was one of the Electors on the Henry Clay ticket.
Judge Kingsbury was not successful in business. He met with sundry reverses of fortune and lost his property before his death. Nor was he distinguished by the possession of anymore remarkable characteristic than that of his integrity. He was a man of quiet, unobtrusive mien, giving offence to no man either by his manner, his action, or words. The very brief obituary we have before us states that "he was truly an honest man." He died in this village of inflammation fo the lungs, on the 21st of September, 1831, sharing, we believe, the respect of all who knew him. his wife still survives him, and his sons are, in accordance with the real Yankee nation, scattered in various parts of this great country.
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