Submitted by Carol Kellogg Hoertig

Huron County First Family Member #304

SAMUEL PENFIELD 1804-1857
Huron County Pioneer

Years later, long after Ephraim's death, Ephraim's 23 year old son Samuel Penfield, a wagonmaker by trade, walked from Fairfield, Connecticut to North Fairfield, Ohio to claim the tract of wild land. After clearing his property in 1827, Samuel built a cabin and then walked back to Connecticut to bring his mother, three sisters, a brother-in-law and nieces and nephews to North Fairfield. He farmed the land and in 1831, married Clara A. Woodworth. They raised a fine family of five children.

In 1833, Penfield made an endowment to Oberlin Collegiate Institute (Oberlin College), which was being founded in Northern Ohio. His donation was on the condition that the college be co-educational so that if he and Clara ever had a daughter, she could attend. In 1835, they had a daughter, Frances Esther Penfield, but she attended Mount Holyoke College instead.

Samuel Penfield was a religious man who attended the Baptist Church. In 1846, he sent his business partner Clark Sexton to New York City to buy supplies for their local mercantile business named "Penfield & Sexton" and to purchase a bell for Samuel's church. The bell cost 763 English pounds. (At that time, Engish shillings and pounds were still being used, along with U.S. currency). not all members of the congregation were happy with the gift of an enormouse church bell and some judged the bell to be frivolous. Several years later, Samuel presented the church with an organ. This gift was considered, "the devil disguised as an organ" and raised a storm of protest. Both Samuel and the organ were rejected.

Penfield was steadfast in his aid to the Temperance and Anti-Slavery causes. In 1856, when his daughter was teaching school in Chulahoma, Mississippi, she received a marriage proposal from a Southern gentleman. She wrote to her father for his opinion of such a union, but Samuel was not in favor of an engagement. Although Frances' suitor didn't personally own slaves, the couple might do business with slave owners and Samuel was opposed to such a possibility. He wrote back to Frances that if she married a Southerner, he would consider himself a failure as a parent. Because of her respect for her father and his views on matters of importance, Frances didn't become engaged to her Southern beau. In 1862, she married Norwalk prosecuting attorney, Theron Hotchkiss Kellogg.

Samuel Penfield died at the age of fifty-two, leaving his wife Clara, sons Ephraim, James, William and Charles, and daughter Frances. This Ohio farmer and businessman was a highly esteemed person of strong morals and principles and a worthy citizen of North Fairfield.

Samuel's descendants left their mark on society: His son, Ephraim Penfield, became a doctor and moved to Spokane, Washington where he became one of the town's most prominent citizens. When Ephraim's son Charles became a doctor, they practiced medicine together. Charles's son (Samuel's great grandson) was Wilder Graves Penfield who became the world's foremost authority on epilepsy. He founded the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1934, was awarded the "Order of Merit" in 1953 by Queen Elizabeth, and was called "Canada's Most Important Citizen. Samuel's daughter Frances had a son named.Frederick William Kellogg. (Frederick known as "F. W.") owned many newspapers throughout the United States and founded the world-famous La Jolla Beach and Tennis club in La Jolla, California. The tennis club is still owned by F.W. Kellogg's descendants.