KINSMAN, Ohio – There is a small crossroads at the border of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties that has its roots not in the rolling farmlands that surround it but rather the thrashing seas of the Atlantic and Caribbean.
Stanhope, a community north of Kinsman that held status on Trumbull County maps until the turn of the 20th century, bears the family name of a merchant sea captain who led remarkable journeys across the world during an era when the United States was a fledgling republic.
The Captain’s Cabin
“My great-great-great grandfather, Capt. John Ryder Stanhope, had merchant ships that he captained,” says Philip Stanhope, a seventh-generation family member that lives on land first settled by the captain in approximately 1835. “And he built ships, too.”
John Ryder Stanhope was born in Newport, R.I., in 1791, the son of Welsh parents. He later married Harriet Cornell, whose surname today is linked to Cornell University. During the mid-1830s, Stanhope purchased acreage in the southern portion of Williamsfield Township in Ashtabula County, where he built a large home and operated a dairy farm to suit his growing family.
“He had five sons and wanted to get his sons away from the sea,” Stanhope relates. A sixth son died in infancy, he says.
Stanhope says there’s little information related to John Ryder’s parents and whether his father was a seaman, but the surname is also associated with decorated sailors of the Royal Navy, such as Sir Henry Edwyn Stanhope and John Stanhope, who commanded British naval vessels during the American War for Independence.
“He must have been a real adventurer. I couldn’t even imagine it,” Stanhope says of his ancestor. After settling in what is now Ashtabula County, the captain established a dairy farm, Burnside, that was home to an unusual menagerie of livestock that he collected from his world travels. Much of the captain’s time was spent travelling from New York to the Caribbean, especially Cuba, Stanhope says. “I guess he sailed the Caribbean quite a bit of the time. I understand he had hairless and woolless sheep,” he notes. Other animals included Cuban cows, Hamburg geese, as well as other species foreign to the United States.
“He also built the Episcopalian Church in Kinsman,” Stanhope says. The Grace Episcopal Church was constructed in 1863, and John Ryder Stanhope donated the materials – in this case lumber procured from England – to build it. His portrait hung in a small room adjoining the chancel, and the Bible that was used in the pulpit was a gift from his daughter, Mary Stanhope. The church was demolished during the late 19th century.
The captain also contributed to other religious orders in the region, Stanhope says. “Rebecca Kinsman had purchased a new bell for the Methodist Church in Kinsman, but couldn’t get anyone to put it in,” he says. “He volunteered to bring in one of his crews from his shipping interests to do the work.”
There was, however, one stipulation. Before work began, Capt. Stanhope requested that the town be evacuated of all women and children.
That’s because they paid the crew in kegs of rum, Stanhope says. “Sailors drank rum on the high seas because they couldn’t keep fresh water,” he says. “They would get foul-mouthed and rowdy and they didn’t want the women and children to hear that.”
Sea and Farming
Four of Captain Stanhope’s five surviving sons enlisted in the Union Army to serve in the U.S. Civil War.
One of them, Benjamin Cornell Stanhope, served as a major in the 6th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and was wounded during the battle of Aldie, Va. He later died from his wounds in June 1863.
The oldest son, John Ryder Jr., opted for the life of his father, and became a sea captain and would eventually live out his life in St. Augustine, Fla. Another son, Charles, was the proprietor of a cheese factory in Williamsfield, which was destroyed by a devastating fire, according to an account published in the Western Reserve Chronicle on March 6, 1872.
“Mr. Stanhope’s family occupied a portion of the building and were warned of their danger in time to barely escape with their lives and a small portion of their wearing apparel,” the account read. “The origin of the fire is unknown.”
Their father, Capt. John Ryder Sr., died on Dec. 31, 1872, at age 81 in Williamsfield, Ashtabula County.
The Stanhope family continues to farm the land, which was gradually improved over the years. Although the family’s land is in Ashtabula, the family name extends into portions of northern Trumbull County.
“It was my great grandfather that had a big part in getting the railroad to come through,” Philip Stanhope says. Also, his great grandfather and his brother were able to invest more into the family estate because of the sale of one asset that proved quite valuable.
“He and his brother had a racehorse that was pretty famous,” Stanhope says. “They sold the racehorse and my great grandfather built the house and barn that’s still on the property in about 1895,” he says. Additional businesses at the farm included a creamery, where dairy products were loaded on a tanker car and shipped to
Pittsburgh.
Today, Philip Stanhope farms approximately 165 acres at the original site, and there are younger generations looking to take up responsibilities in the future. “My son helps, as well as my grandchildren,” he says of the land. “We’re going to be here awhile.”
Pictured at top: An 1813 portrait of Capt. John Ryder Stanhope, next to an 1899 map of Trumbull County showing the location of Stanhope.