Item 0003 - Letter, 3 February 1883

John Haywood was born on March 16, 1825, in Stockton, Chautauqua, New York.
He was a professor, amateur astronomer, and inventor. He graduated from Oberlin College, Ohio in 1850 and began teaching mathematics and natural sciences at Otterbein University in 1851. He surveyed the streets of Westerville and became the first mayor when the village was incorporated in 1858, but only served until the spring election of 1858. Haywood kept the official records on the weather conditions in the Westerville vicinity including temperature, rainfall, barometric pressure, wind velocity, and humidity. He also introduced the metric system to the area and provided meters for measuring cloth to local merchants to encourage its adoption. He was also a keen amateur astronomer and the inventor of the tangent index. After his retirement, he was known as the "Grand Old Man of Otterbein."
In 1852, he married Sylvia Carpenter (1828–1886) and in 1888, he remarried Eliza A. Carpenter (1833–1909). He died on December 12, 1906, in Westerville, Franklin County, Ohio.