Elbert L. Lampson - Background

Background

Lampson was born at Windsor, in Ashtabula County, July 30, 1852. He was of old New England ancestry, the Lampsons settling in Connecticut when they came from England in Colonial times. His grandfather, Ebenezer Lampson, was born in Connecticut in 1754. He served three enlistments as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In the cemetery at Windsor, Ohio, is a monument erected to the memory of the soldiers of the American Revolution, and one of the names on that monument is Ebenezer Lampson. He came West and settled in the Western Reserve, at Windsor, in 1809. He served as a member of the first grand jury of Ashtabula County in 1811. He was a farmer, and developed a good home, though he lost part of his property through a defective title. He died at Windsor March 12, 1835. His second wife and the grandmother of Elbert L. Lampson bore the maiden name of Martha Griggs. She was born in Connecticut in 1777, and died at Windsor in 1862.

Chester Lampson, son of this Revolutionary soldier, was born at the old homestead in Windsor Township, March 12, 1823, and lived there all his life. He was killed by a falling tree while cutting timber on September 12, 1879. He remained at home and assisted his widowed mother, who received a pension as a Revolutionary widow, and, while starting life in very modest circumstances, he left an estate of 523 acres (2.12 km2) of valuable farm land. He was a staunch Republican, and for a number of years served as township trustee and as a member of the District School Board. As a young man he received military training as a member of the State Militia. Chester Lampson married Emerette A. Griswold, who was born at Windsor in 1829, and died there June 25, 1893. Her father was Nathaniel Griswold, who came to Ohio from New Hampshire. Of the seven children born to Chester Lampson and wife Elbert L. is the oldest; Carrie A. is the wife of Eugene C. Hoskins, a farmer at Middlefield, Ohio; Deette H., who died at Mesopotamia, Ohio, married Thomas H. Bell, a retired farmer at Windsor; Addie is the wife of William R. Pinks, a farmer at Windsor, and former county commissioner of Ashtabula County; Clayton L. is a farmer at Windsor; Ray D. is manager of the Jefferson Gazette; and Edith is the wife of Walter Norris, cashier of the Middlefield Banking company at Middlefield, Ohio.