| Little wonder no one recalled him; the Gloyds
had long left the area. Mr. and Mrs. Gloyd (not Lloyd) had moved to Missouri to be with
their son Charles in 1867. Harry (not Henry) was elected justice of the peace on August 7,
1847, and August 2, 1853, in Cynthian Township. Describing Charles Gloyd, Carleton Beals
writes that... "In Newport, Ohio, his father had been justice of the peace and held
court in the front parlor. As a boy Charlie listened in. Drunk cases so disgusted him that
he would lock himself in his room to escape the sight, sound, and smell of the victims. A
hatred of alcohol took hold of him--but hate is often the reverse side of love." The
1850 national census noted Charles as a 10-year-old whose father Harry, age 51, was listed
as a "Tavern Keeper" owning $100 worth of real estate. Gloyd had applied to the
county government for a tavern license on May 11, 1850 (minute bk. 7, p. 429, Shelby
County Common Pleas Court). Charles’ mother’s name was Nancy, age 45, although
the Beals book on Carry Nation’s life consistently refers to her as "Mother
Gloyd," not once mentioning her given name. All three named Vermont as their
birthplace in the 1860 census, thus marking their move to Cynthian Township sometime after
Charles’ 1840 birth and before Harry’s 1847 election as a justice of the peace
there. "Hotel" is listed as Harry’s occupation in the 1860 census.
Just where Harry Gloyd maintained his 1850 tavern or his 1860-vintage hotel business is
unclear, although the need for both endeavors in that early canal town was self-evident. The only real
estate deed for Harry Gloyd held by the Shelby County Recorder’s Office is for lot 27
in Newport on the southwest corner of
High Street and Main (State Route 66), across from the Church cemetery.
It is dated July 31, 1850. The 19th century building is now
gone. The deed from "James and Mary Kiplinger" and witnessed by Samuel Clark, a
Justice of the Peace in Loramie Township, noted a "consideration of Seventy
Dollars," not far off the $100 in real estate noted in the 1850 census. Was this the
tavern? His home? Did he own other property, with no deeds recorded? And, since the
Recorder’s Office shows that Gloyd sold the property in 1854, what of the hotel
business noted in the 1860 census? Tavern keeper, justice of the peace, and hotelier,
Gloyd was also a church leader. Records of the Houston Congregational Christian Church
show that Elder Gloyd performed the wedding ceremony for George Wintringham and Christiana
Irwin in January 1862 (Shelbyana, Jan. 1997).
One of Harry’s last acts, on March 12th, 1866, before
joining his son in Missouri, was to settle a "book account" suit against
"C.B.E. Harper" for $7.67, dating back to June 2nd, 1859 (Justice of the Peace
Docket, 1862-78, Cynthian Township). Eugene Pilliod, justice of the peace who endorsed the
Gloyd-Harper settlement, had erected Newport’s first store and warehouse in 1844,
built and sold Shelby County’s first threshing machine in 1845, and fired
up the county’s first steam engine attached to a sawmill in 1848.
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