ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO *************************************************************************** Transcribed by Cherre Loftus Flynn. THE HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS PIONEERS AND MOST PROMINENT MEN Published in Philadelphia by Williams Brothers in 1878 "William Giddings Elisha Giddings was born at Hartland, Connecticut, 1785, and was married to Philathella Fish, September 11, 1803, who was born at Townsend, Vermont. He was married from Canandaigua, New York, in 1805, and settled in Green, Trumbull County, now Wayne, Ashtabula County. They had eleven children, - nine sons and two daughters. William Giddings, who was the fourth son, was born in Wayne, January 11, 1810. In April, 1813, his parents gave him to Jonathan Tuttle, of Williamsfield, his mother carrying him through the woods on horseback. Mr. Tuttle adopted him, and he lived with him until he was of age. His schooling consisted of about three months, - summer and winter - until he was eight years old. After that time until of age it was limited to about two months each winter. With this meagre amount of schooling he obtained a fair education, and the notes relating to his life furnished the writer are in a good hand, although written when he was almost seventy. When he arrived at his majority, his worldly wealth might be represented with 000. He resolved to earn a farm of one hundred acres, and then marry. He began work with this intention. His wages varied from thirty-three to fifty-six cents a day, yet when he was twenty seven-years old he had bought his hundred acres in Williamsfield, for which he paid seven hundred dollars. September 25, 1838, he married Maria Webber, of Kinsman, and settled on his farm. He and his wife have always been members of the Congregational Church, and interested in Sunday-school matters. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy. Two sons are now living: F.R. Giddings, born February 5, 1840; married May 11, 1869, to Senna Banning, of Kinsman. They now live in Cleveland. W. Danvin Giddings, born June 29, 1850; is unmarried. He is employed in the United States Mail Service, on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. Mr. William Giddings is the only Giddings in Williamsfield, where that family were once so numerous. He has always been an anti-slavery man and a straight out-and-out Republican, and in his younger days was almost always a member of the county conventions. He has not missed voting at a State election but once since 1831. In 1836 he was in Genesee County, New York, and voted for Harrison."