Sixth Generation

840. John Milton ACKLEY¹⁹⁸ was born on 18 Jan 1835 in Parma, Cuyahoga , Ohio.^{360,442,443,717,719,720,898,899,900,901} He was living in 1850 in Parma, Cuyahoga , Ohio.³⁶⁰ living with father and stepmother On 15 Aug 1850 he was Farmer at Parma, Cuyahoga , Ohio. He was living between 1870 and 1880 in Brooklyn, Cuyahoga , Ohio.^719,720 He lived at Brooklyn Village in Cleveland, Cuyahoga , Ohio in Jun 1880.⁹⁰² He was living in 1910 in Cuyahoga , Ohio.⁸⁹⁸ On 14 Jan 1920 he was Bussinessman at Cleveland, Cuyahoga , Ohio.⁸⁹⁹ He was living in 1920 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga , Ohio.⁸⁹⁹ living with son inlaw Lewis Stumpff and daughter Helen He has Death Cert # 44841^452,903,904 Volume Number: 4806 He died of Gastro intrnitis (sp?) on 27 Aug 1925 in Cuyahoga , Ohio.^900,903,904 He appeared in the census 1850,1860,1870,1880,1900,1910,1920 in Ohio. 16 Jul 1870 to 2 Jun 1880 he was a surveyor at Brooklyn, Cuyahoga , Ohio.^719,720,902 He lived at in Brewton, Escambia , Alabama.²⁰¹ His Obituary appeared in the⁴⁵² Id#: 0000671Name: Ackley, John M.Date: Aug. 30, 1925Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #001.Notes: Ackley-John M., age 30 years, husband of the late Charlotte L., father of Jena A., of Los Angeles; John A., of Miami, Fla., and Mrs. Helen Ackley Strumpf, Thursday p. m., at the home of his daughter, 1923 Brainard avenue, Funeral From Archwood Congregational Churon, Monday 2:30 p. m. John Milton Ackley travelled widely, for the times. In 1862 he went to San Francisco via the Panama Canal; in 1869 he went to Cleveland, Ohio. He was a member of the Nevada 2nd Territorial Legislature.

From "Pioneer Families of Cleveland 1796-1840" : John M. Ackley - late of Brewton, Alabama.

From a newspaper article 7/22/1986 by Thomas J. Winslow (don't know the name of the paper).

In the days preceding the transcontinental railroad, John M. Ackley traveled to the Pacific Coast via Panama and ended up in San Francisco in 1862, where he purchased silver mines. That year, he was elected to the Nevada Territorial Legislature, and befriended a struggling newspaper reporter named Samuel Clemens, according to "Early History of Cleveland, Ohio," by Col. Charles Whittlesey.
Returning to his now-sprawling hometown in 1869, Ackley resumed his political career as county engineer, and probably supervised the sureying of tiny new hamlets like West Cleveland, Lynndale and Brooklyn Village in the early 1870s.

Chalmers L. Stumpf, gransdon of John M. Ackley, remembers his famous ancestor as always wearing a silk hat and chumming around with the city's notable politicians, like Mayor Tom L. Johnson. "He was a very formal man and very educated," Stumpf, 70, said from his LaPort, Ohio home. "When he came down to breakfast, he always had a white celluloid collar, a tie and a suitcoat -- like he was all dressed up for business."

Ackley was relatively physically fit. His grandson recalled that Ackley walked daily from their Brainard Avenue home on the near West Side to the Masonic Auditorium on E. 30th Street -- up until the week before he died at age 90. Ackley was an original member of the Early Settlers Association, which was founded in 1879. The group began planning a memorial to General Moses Cleaveland in 1880. Today, the surveying tools used by John Ackley when he posed for the statue are the Stumpf family's treasured heirlooms. The Jacob's staff and the brass compass are really part of a surveying set; the compass fits atop the 5-foot pole. Ackley donated most of the rest of his surveying equipment to the Western Reserve Historical Society.

Deana L. Schweter, Ackley's great-granddaughter, said her father, Stumpf, a retired motorcycle mechanic, liked to dream about being his pioneer ancestor.

From a biography written by (?):
John M. Ackley was born in a log house on what was Center Road, now Ridge Road, in Parma Township of Cuyahoga County, January 18, 1835. He was an engineer by profession, and a large part of his life was spent in the far West and in the South in the lumber industry. Mr. Ackley first attended public schools and at the age of twelve was made a personal pupil of Professor Churchill, who prepared him for college. Owing to ill health at the time, his parents decided that he was not strong enough to enter Yale College as had been planned, and instead he completed a course in the Brooklyn Academy in Cuyahoga County. Soon afterward he joined the enginering department of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, then building the Air Line Road between Toledo and Elkhart, Indiana. He was in this service until the road was completed, and then went out to the territory of Minnesota, the same year that Minnesota was admitted to the Union, 1856. At that time any amount of land could be secured in Minnesota at $1.25 an acre, and Minneapolis and St. Paul were mere villages. In 1859 Mr. Ackley went out to the Pacific Coast, traveling by way of Panama and landing at San Francisco. He next went over the mountains into Nevada, and all his Travels in the West were made before the construction of railways. He did a great deal of surveying work in the far West. IN 1862 he was elected a meember of the Nevada Territorial Legislature representing Lyon and Churchill counties.
At that time Samuel Clemens, better known to fame as Mark Twain, was in Nevada as reporter for the Sacramento Union, the San Francisco Bulletin and the Teritorial Enterprise, collecting those experiences which he subsequently wove into one of his best known books. Mr. Ackley made his home at Dayton, Nevada and Carson City, where he served as county surveyor of Ormsby County, Nevada, Carson City, County seat and capital of territory at that time.
On returning to Cuyahoga County from the far West he was elected county surveyor in 1869, holding that office for six years. Also built a home on West Thirty-third Street. Mr. Ackley in 1887 went South, becoming associated with the Peters Lumber Company, operating mills in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. While connected with this company he inspected over 200,000 acres of timber land and assessing and paying taxes in these three states. The Peters Lumber Company and the J. M. Ackley Lumber Company, of which he was a member, cut the timber from 80,000 acres.

John Milton ACKLEY and Jane Ann "Jennie" SPRAGUE were married about 1857.⁴⁴³ Jane Ann "Jennie" SPRAGUE died on 25 Jun 1858.⁹⁰⁵ John Milton ACKLEY and Jane Ann "Jennie" SPRAGUE had the following children:

+1952

i.

Jena Alva ACKLEY.

John Milton ACKLEY and Charlotte Lydia GRAY were married on 29 Oct 1863 in Lapeer , Michigan.^{91,452,719,720,901,906,907} Charlotte Lydia GRAY (daughter of Living and Living) was born on 6 May 1844 in Michigan.^{443,719,720,908} She died of a heart attack on 22 May 1909 in Parma, Cuyahoga , Ohio.^443,452,908 She was buried on 25 May 1909 in Riverside Cemetery, Parma, Cuyahoga , Ohio.⁹⁰⁸ She has Death Cert # 23580 She appeared in the census 1870 & 1880 in Ohio. Her Obituary appeared in the⁴⁵² Id#: 0000659Name: Ackley, Charlotte LydiaDate: May 25, 1909Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #001.Notes: Ackley-Charlotte Lydia, wife of John M. Ackley, May 22. Funeral services at late residence, Parma, O., Tuesday, May 25, 2 o'clock, standard. John Milton ACKLEY and Charlotte Lydia GRAY had the following children:

+1953	i.	Genevieve (Jennie) Miriam Emerson ACKLEY.
1954	ii.	Solon Julius ACKLEY was born on 4 Feb 1869 in Ohio.26,443,720,884 He appeared in the census in 1870 in Ohio. He died on 2 Jan 1876 in Cuyahoga , Ohio.452,883,884 He was ill with diphtheria on 2 Jan 1876 in Brooklyn, Cuyahoga , Ohio.452 His Obituary appeared in the452 Id#: 0000691Name: Ackley, Solon, J.Date: Jan. 3, 1876Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #001.Notes: Ackley- At Brooklyn village, January 2d. of diphtheria, Solon J. son of John M. and Lottie L. Ackley, aged 6 years and 11 months. Funeral at the Congregational church, Brooklyn village, Tuesday morning, January 4th at o'clock.
+1955	iii.	John Anson ACKLEY.
+1956	iv.	Helen Charlotte Emerson (Nellie) ACKLEY.
+1957	v.	Marie (Mary) Elizabeth Emerson ACKLEY.