NOBLE COUNTY OHIO - BIO: Henry Large (1887)

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From the The Ohio Biographies Project
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~usbios/Ohio/mnpg.html
a part of The U.S. Biographies Project
http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/usbios/usbiog.html

Transcribed by Deb Murray.

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Henry Large, one of the successful financiers and early settlers of Marion
Township, was born near the city of Dublin, July 21, 1817. His parents,
George and Eliza Large, were farmers, and came to America in 1825. They
landed in Quebec, where the elder Large died some three weeks after his
arrival, leaving the family in rather destitute circumstances. They removed
to Montreal, where they lived about three months. Thence they went to a
little village called Beaver Dam, near Niagra Falls, where Mrs. Large
bought a piece of land and where Henry found employment as a
boy-of-all-work in a store. A sister of Mrs. Large, Mrs. Dr. Craig, had
settled near Summerfield some time in 1818, and by her advice Mrs. Large
disposed of her little property and came to the new country in February of
1828, with her little family of six children. She entered from government
eighty acres of land near the village of Freedom, which she improved and on
which she resided until 1839, when Henry became the owner.

The early life of Mr. Large was one of toil and hardship. At the age of
sixteen he made his initial effort in business by taking a job of splitting
rails at thirty-one cents per hundred. At eighteen he began life as a farm
laborer at $8 per month. These facts, although seemingly trivial, show what
can be done from small beginnings. By dint of industry and close economy he
accummulated a sum nearly sufficient for the purchase of the homestead
farm, which he still owns, he laid the foundation of his fortune.. Never at
one time has he owned more than 155 acres. The life of Mr. Large has been a
busy and successful one, in fact it may be said that, considering his
opportunities, no resident of Noble County has been more so. He has devoted
his time to farming, tobacco raising and loaning his net earnings, and is
thought to be the wealthiest man in the county. Many are curious to know
how it was possible for him to acquire so fine a competency under such
adverse circumstances. His answer to the question is, "By the r the
avoidance of debt," and we might add, shrewd management and a desire to
excel. Mr. Large is quiet and reserved in manner, and possessed of no
distinguishing characteristics, excepting his financial ability and his
extraordinary mathematical acquirements; his gift in this respect is
wonderful, and like that of Pascal and Colburn, is a God given faculty, and
his education was almost wholly confined to that school in which the
teachers are observation and experience.

In politics he is a Republican; in religion a Methodist, although not a
member of any church. He is classed among the foremost men of the county in
wealth, brains and intelligence.

Mr. Large was married early in life to Miss Maria, daughter of Edward
Cleary. She was born in King's County, Ireland, in 1823. She has been to
Mr. Large a helpmeet in all that the word implies. They have had nine
children: Mary A. (McClintock), John, Sarah H. and Emma (died infancy),
Eliza H., Clara I. (Guiler), George E., Emma J. and Joseph H.

History of Noble County, Ohio Published by 
L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
Marion