The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-01-28
OBITUARY.
sttDrN GRAVES.

number Of tho Tifhn TRInuNE, you
very properly remark that cone BY
ono our frst settlers are passing
away and before many yeats hardly
one will be left to tell the tale Of the
early settlement Of the couutry. ~
Aud yet the reader is not advised to
whom you specially refer; nor wheth
or or not, in this truthful rere enco
to mortality common to all, aud the
aged in particular, the recent decosse
Of some one or more individuals is
intended, Death is Of no uuftcquent
occurrence, nor is it a respec;or Of
persons. Neither youth nor wealth
nor position or physical capacity for
endurance can shield humanity from
its fatal stroke; and yet its near.
uess aud frequency tend, by famili-
arity, to ropress, partially, at least,
our acuteness Of sensibility on tho
subject. But while its victims are
numerous aud its results too often
perhaps uuappreeiated, yet when il
removes one of the rery .Je,v pioneers
Of our county who fJr two genera
tious or longer has stood, like somc
lofty oak, TO buffet the storms and
connections Of society, aud then
yields to the stern die ates Of his
race, we cannot but hesitate and re-
vert to the trials aud incidents of his
eveutful life, which have largely con-
tributed to invest US with the com
forts and advantages Of cultivated
society, The individual to whom /
now allude was no inactive drone in
community, By self-deuial, frugali
~ and uniiring perseverance, he eon
frouted and successfully ovcrcame
the hardships of this wilderness
county; aud for many years, sat down
under his own fig tree to enjoy the
plen'eouS fruits OF his Industry aud
provident manhood.
SELDEN GR\vEs was born Sep
tember 9th, 1882, at Hillsdale in the
County Of Columbia aud State of New
York; and died at his residence in
Eden township in this county on the
9TH day Of January 1869. lie re-
ceived n common school education
aud studicd wediciue at the place OF
his nativity with Dr. Samuel Thane.
lie left the town Of IIillsdalc in 1912,
aud located in Riehfeld, Otsego Co.
New York; where in September, 1914,
he married Miss Louis Sa,in. In
June, 1918, he emigrated to New
Haven, Huron county, Ohio, where
he resided and practiced his profess
ion until March, 1922, when he re
moved to Eden township in this
county, aud purchased some real es
tate at the piece whore no afterwards
resided during his lifetime. At this
period he was comparatively poor
and his future destiny depended up
on his professional skill, economy,
probity aud industry. lie resumed
the practice of medicine at once, and
followed it with characteristic earn
estncss aad zeal until 1898, when he
rolinquishsd it altogether, and dovo-
ted his undivided tine aud efforts to
the Improvement of his real estate
and agricultural pursuits.
While engaged in practice he had
assiduously husbanded his resources
and gradually added to his home,
stead and its surroundings, originally
small, until they included at one timo
seven hundred aud uine'y six acres of
land, all of excellent quality of soil
covered with the choicest timber
worthy of being preserved with care,
as being destined to be, at no dis
tant day, Of great value, At the time
when DIR. Graves FIRST settled in Eden
township, the population oftho couu.
ty then unorganized, was so very
sparse as to afford him very little
practice in his profession, although
for sometime the only physician in it
But he meantime directed his atten % !
and personal exertions to the opening
impro vemcnt aud cultivation of his
farm. His stalwart frame aud vigor-
Gus efforts told marvelously on the
dense aud lofty forest. The pro-
ductions of his farm were ore long
adequate to the support Of his young
and rising family. Emigration
however soon rapidly increased so
much that his professional services
engaged his undivided time and at.
I ention. But still he had his draw.
b ucks and annoying incouvenienoes.
The settlements were remote from
each other, and indeed a great part
of the county renamed for several
years wholly unoccupied, save by the
tribe Of Seneca Indians whose reser.
valion included forty thousand acres
of land, mostly within the limits of
this county and at times, inducing dis.
agreeable som berness when compell-
ed to cross it alone to visit his distant
patients on opposite sides Of it
There we're no roads deserving the
name, either from MelmorJ to Tiflin;
which was really no Tiliin at all; nor
from Upper Sandusky or Bucyrus
through this county to Lake Erie,
nor from north to south on the east
or west side Of the Sandusky river
Therefore DR.. Graves was compelled
to visit his patients exclusively on
h orse. back, dashing headloDg through
the ira ckless wilderness or Following
some Indian trail or meandering
stream; now plunging into and across
its miry bed, and anon squirting on
ward his foaming steed through ever
glades aud the ceaseless switchings
Of undorbrush and twigs, alike provo.
cative and unavailable. After the
of his practice as
Physician, he devoted his attention
entirely to the enlargement and cul-
tivation of his farm; the raising of
grain, the increase Of his stock of