300 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. West, a daughter of Montreville West, who resided at Marsailles, Wyandot county, Ohio, where he died in the year 1857. For thirty-eight years he has. been a continuous resident of Galion and is a citizen of sterling worth, who commands and enjoys the respect and confidence of his fellow men by reason of his fidelity to duty, and he is in the highest and best sense of the term a gentleman, courteous in manner and in his own home is considerate and hospitable. He made for his country a great sacrifice and therefore is entitled to the everlasting gratitude of the nation for the part which he performed in preserving the Union. REUBEN O. MORGAN. Reuben O. Morgan is one of the native sons of Galion, his birth having occurred in this city on the 2d of September, 1873. His father, George. Morgan, was born in Webster, Darke county, Ohio, and is now a resident of Bellefontaine, Ohio, being employed as a passenger engineer by the Big Four Railroad Company. In the city schools of Galion the subject of this review pursued his education until sixteen years of age, when he entered the service of the Big Four Railroad Company. After a year he. was ,promoted to the position of telegraph operator and acted in that capacity until 1896, when he resigned the office in order to engage in the coal business in Galion. He dealt in that commodity until 1898, when he was appointed superintendent of the Galion Gas Light Company, in which capacity he is still serving. Every business change which he has made has been a promotion, with, increasing responsibility and increasing income. These attest the merit of the man and his advancement is a deserved tribute to his inherent worth. As the manager of the Galion Gas Light Company he has shown himself to be a man of superior executive force, keen discrimination aid sound judgment, and the enterprise is meeting with prosperity under his care. In 1895 Mr. Morgan was joined in wedlock to Miss Grace Bryan, a native of Galion, and they now have a pleasant home in the city, which is celebrated for its charming and gracious hospitality. HERMAN HENRY HARTMAN, M. D. In the subject of this review we have one who has attained distinction in the line of his profession. He has been an earnest and discriminating student, and he holds a position of due relative precedence among the medical CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 301 practitioners of this section of Ohio. He is now successfully practicing in Galion, where he has a large and distinctively representative patronage. The Doctor is a native of this city, his birth having here occurred in. 1869, his parents being A. H. and Catherine (Bohl) Hartman. For forty years the father has been engaged in business as a druggist of this city and is one of the most prominent representatives of commercial interests here. He is a native of Germany, whence, in early life, he came to America. His wife-was. born in Polk township, Crawford county, a daughter of Henry Bohl, one of the honored pioneers of that township, now deceased. He too, was a native of the fatherland, and on coming to the new world cast in his lot with the early settlers of this portion of Ohio. The Doctor pursued his preliminary education in the common schools, and supplemented his studies there by a course in the Capital University, at Columbus. Determining to make. the practice of medicine his life work, he began study in Columbus, and was; graduated at the Columbus Medical College with the class of 1890. He afterward pursued post-graduate course in the polyclinic of New York, completing his studies there in 1893. He then began practice in Jacksonville, Ohio, where he remained until 1896, when he returned to Galion. He has. been very successful in following his chosen calling, his success resulting from his skill and ability, his comprehensive knowledge of the principles of medical science and his correct methods in applying remedies to relieve the suffering of his fellow men. As the years have passed his patronage has; steadily increased in volume and importance, and he has kept in touch with! the advanced thought and progress of the day. Dr. Hartman has always been quite prominent in public affairs. While residing in Jacksonville he was a candidate of the Democracy in 1895 for the office of representative in the state legislature. He was also elected mayor of Jacksonville, and was filling that position at the time of his removal to Galion, resigning in order to take up his abode in the latter city. He is now serving his second term as health officer of Galion, and since 1898 he has been city physician. His political support has ever been given to the Democracy and he takes an active interest in its work, laboring untiringly and effectively for the adoption of its principles and the election of its candidates. Dr. Hartman was united in marriage to Miss Effie L. Woodworth, of Athens county, Ohio, a daughter of C. Woodworth, a merchant, who is now deceased. Their marriage has beep blessed with two interesting little daughters,—Mary and Alma. The Doctor is connected with the German Lutheran 302 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. church. He and his wife enjoy the high regard of many friends in Galion, and the circle is constantly increasing as their acquaintance is widened. He is a gentleman of strong mentality, marked individuality and sterling worth, and his prominence in his chosen profession is a merited tribute to his indefatigable labor and ability. STEPHEN R. HARRIS. Hon. Stephen R. Harris, who was born on his father's farm seven miles west of Massillon, Ohio, May 22, 1824, sprang from patriotic stock. His grandfather was john Harris and his paternal grandmother Mary Hamilton. The former was a soldier in the army of Washington and distinguished himself at the battle of Monmouth, where his brother-in-law, John Hamilton, was killed beside him. The subject of this biography worked on the farm and attended district school until fourteen years of age, when he started out for himself. He was employed as a clerk in a store at Canal Fulton, Stark county, about four years, attended a select school at Dalton, taught by John W. Rankin, afterward a distinguished lawyer and a partner at Keokuk, Iowa, of the late Justice Miller, of the United States supreme court. In 1842 he was a student 'in the preparatory department Of Washington College, Pennsylvania, which institution recently conferred upon .him the honorary degree. of Master of Arts. In 1843 and 1844 he studied in Norwalk Seminary, under the late Edward Thomson, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church. For the next two years he was a student in the classical department of the Western Reserve College, at Hudson. In the winter of 1846-7 he taught school at Canal Fulton. Having by this time acquired a liberal education through his own unaided and persistent efforts, he entered upon the study. of law in the office of his uncle, John Harris, a pioneer lawyer of ability, at Canton. After reading under instruction for two years he was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1849, and on the 14th day of June of that year opened an office for practice at Bucyrus. From that time to the present, more than half a century, he has continued to practice at the same place: He became the law partner of the late Judge Josiah Scott in 1850; and the partnership was continuous until the death of the latter. in 1879, except for the period of Judge Scott's service on the state supreme bench. Mr. Harris served as deputy United States marshal and member of the county military committee during CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 305 the war. He was elected, in 1894, to represent his district, which has been strongly Democratic, in the fifty-fourth congress of the United States, and was the candidate of his party for re-election in 1896, but the free-silver sentiment and fusion of the Populists were sufficiently strong to defeat the ticket. Mr. Harris has been a Republican ever since the organization of the party, and prior to that was a Whig. He has, however, given his chief thought to the duties of his profession, and has for years stood in the fore front of practitioners in Crawford county. His reading is deep and broad ; he is successful in the trial of cases, and remarkably successful in the argument of cases before the supreme court. It has become proverbial in the bar where he is well known that if Mr. Harris has the slightest ground for appeal or error to the higher courts his adversary may as well give up at once, because he nearly always wins in the appellate. court. He holds the esteem of his brethren at the bar and the confidence of the courts. His methods are such as to commend themselves to the best and most respected members of the profession. He also stands well in the highest political circles, and his personal popularity rests upon merit. He was married September 15, 1853, to Miss Mary Jane Monett, who died in 1888, leaving two sons and two daughters, offspring of the union. He has been very successful as a financier, and as a result is a man of large possessions. He is quite an extensive landed proprietor in the state of Ohio . and Iowa. As an amateur sportsman he is a frequent contributor to the Turf, Field and Farm, and Forest and Stream. Now, over seventy-five years of age, he is an excellent shot on the wing, either in the open or from the trap. Mr. Harris was one of the original members of the State Bar Association, and has been an active member from the beginning, serving as president of the association in 1894. He is now chairman of the committee on legal biography. As a public speaker he is clear, logical and convincing, rather than eloquent. He entertains decided views on all question of political importance or popular interest. The following is an extract from his annual address delivered in 1894, before the Ohio State Bar Association, of which he was then president : STRIKES. "Another topic I approach with diffidence, for the reason that no expression has been uttered n the subject by our Association. What the views of our members here assembled may be are unknown to me, but I 306 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. cannot refrain from expressing my own feelings and convictions, whether they be acceptable to this Association or not. I allude to the grdwing state of anarchy to which our beloved republic is rapidly drifting under the unchecked growth of communism, which takes the specious form and name of so-called strikes. Thousands upon thousands of laborers have had ample employment with good living wages, on the railroads, in the mines and manufacturing establishments of our country. On the other hand there are triple the number of honest laborers in miscellaneous pursuits, uncertain in their nature, liable to fluctuate in wages and of uncertain duration, such as the common day laborer. The latter class may well envy the miner, the railroader and the factory hand. They would gladly change places for the same wages, but what state of things confront them? They are met and repulsed by strikers, who voluntarily go out themselves and refuse to permit the other laborers to take their places. "Here we see the work of the seditious demagogues with political aspirations and a burning desire for notoriety. With incendiary eloquence they seek to embitter labor against capital, when they well know that labor and capital are mutually dependent on each other. They tell the laborers, who are the strongest numerically, that they are abused and oppressed by their employers, at times when the laborers are well compensated and contented. They incite discontent and resentments. where none existed before. They arouse the dormant passions and cupidity of the laborer. They frame and formulate organizations and societies for them, and incite them to strike down and ruin their benefactors. They dupe their followers with the doctrine that capitalists and corporations are powerful and oppressive, but fail to tell the other truth that a host of hostile and unreasonable laborers are also oppressive and dangerous. The result is that they have prevented the running of railroad trains, they have tied the hands of property owners, they have closed factories and they have shut up coal mines on which private families, factories, railroads and steamers on our navigable waters depend for fuel. They have impeded the carrying of mails and have inflicted untold injury, either directly or indirectly, upon every business pursuit. "For the vacant position of every striker there are three equally honest laborers with families in need of their earnings, who are ready and willing to go to work, but the horde of strikers, under the instructions of designing leaders, sullenly and forcibly repulse every non-union laborer who ventures to start the train, to open the mine or set the idle machinery to running in the CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 307 factory, and that to the extent of assassination, if necessary, to carry the point. There can be a tyranny of labor as well as a tyranny of capital. "Suppose a change of places. Imagine an employer who would discharge a laborer and at the same time say to him, 'I will neither give you employment nor permit you to work for anybody else.' The same designing and insidious leader who first inaugurated a strike would be ready to turn around and incite the rich against the poor, if he could thereby obtain political power and notoriety. A demagogue in a republic and a courtier in a monarchy are the same. They both fawn and flatter the governing power for the sake of personal gain and notoriety. The designing orator and' demagogue who incite a happy and contented class of well paid laborers, as well as the poor who are out of employment, to mutiny against their employers and benefactors ; who make inflammatory speeches to convince them that the rich have no other designs than to crush the poor, deserves to be classed- with the bloody anarchist and should, like him, be stamped out by the government for its own protection. The organized strikers compose less than one-third of the laboring men of the United States, and of them a considerable majority are foreigners.. Our land has been latterly made the receptacle into which foreign nations have dumped their paupers and criminals. The honest, intelligent, industrious, law-abiding foreigner will, in the future, as in the past, be welcome to our shores. We see the neatness and thrift of the Germans, who have clad these lovely islands with their vinvines,d, like Werhle, have beautified them with structures. I allude to these people only in words of praise, but, unhappily, statistics show that class of immigration to be on the wane, and in their stead we are flooded with dangerous criminals like the Italian bandit, born with a stiletto in his hand. "This republic has been kind to the laboring man. Political parties have vied with each other as to which could best promote his interests. Under congressional legislation the Chinese, with their cheap labor, have been excluded in the interest of the American laboring man. The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad was completed by Chinese labor, and the same class can live, work and thrive on wages that would starve an American laborer and his family. Hence they have been excluded purely for the benefit of compensatory wages for Americans: "The legislature of Ohio has enacted laws peculiarly beneficial to the laboring classes. It protects wages against the homestead and other exemptions of the debtor. It gives them priority over all others in case of their employers' failure. It gives thethemchanics' and workmen's liens on struc- 308 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. tures of all kinds, and our courts construe all those laws liberally in the interests of the mechanics and laborers whose work is in the structures. I would go farther : I would have our legislature and our courts protect the honest laborer, who, seeking employment, finds a vacant place with an employer ready and willing to set him to work, but finds himself met, halted and threatened, not by the owner of the property, bit by a striker who has vacated the position, stopped the business, depreciated the property of his former employer and now forbids a fellow citizen to work when his services are needed and the wages offered are satisfactory. It becomes at this point an issue, not between employer and employe, but it is the oppression of one class of laborers against another class. It is the tyranny of those who abandon their work and deprive other worthy and needy laborers of employment. It presents the spectacle of an unreasonable and tyrannical. Class of laborers arrayed against another and less favored class seeking employment. "Personally, I am not interested in the conflict between the strikers and their employers. I allude to it without personal feeling for either class. In fact I have a friendly feeling for the laboring man. 'I have been there myself.' The first money I ever earned for myself was by chopping wood for forty cents a cord. I have a sympathy with the laboring man, and especially for one who is out of employment and kept Out by another. I have no especial affection for an unreasonable capitalist. I am not in love with George M. Pullman. I have on sundry occasions %lowed in' two of the silver dollars of our fathers for the privilege of a sleep in one of his cars. I have also helped enable him to pay his taxes and keep up his style of living by adding the tribute of a quarter of a dollar toward the wages of his colored porter. We have all done the fair thing by George. In fact we have been liberal toward shim almost to a fault : consequently he has no preferred lien on our affections. The state of our feelings, however, has little to do with the subject under consideration. The constitution of our own state as well as the federal constitution is broad enough to support appropriate legislation to remedy these evils ; to practically afford equal and exact protection to the poor against the rich ; to protect the property of the rich against mob violence; and, what appears to be more needed at the present time, to afford protection to one class of laborers against the tyranny of another class. THE MISSION OF LAWYERS. "In all the political history of our country, when emergencies have arisen, lawyers were depended on to guide legislation, to frame treaties and to CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 309 draft acts of legislature so that they might be in conformity of law. De Tocqueville, that accurate and sagacious observer of our country, as early as 1835, wrote these remarkable words : I cannot believe that a republic could subsist at the present time if the influence of lawyers in public business did not increase in proportion to the power of the people. Thirty of the fifty-five members of the convention which framed the federal constitution were lawyers, and all of those who put it in proper legal shape were lawyers. Of all the United States senators since 1787 two-thirds have been lawyers,. and of the entire number of representatives more than one-half were lawyers. "While it is true that men of other vocations have been useful and perhaps indispensable as legislators, because of their knowledge and experience in the various wants, industries and business interests of the country, yet upon. the lawyers rested and still rests the responsibility of framing laws to meet and protect those wants and business interests, that they may stand when contested in the courts. Ludicrous results sometimes appear when the work of lawyers is left out. In Kansas at one time the people sat down on the lawyers and elected a granger legislature. The session laws of that year subsequently faded away like mists when they came before the courts. In one circuit they elected a granger judge who was down on lawyers. He refused to render decrees for the foreclosure of mortgages, giving as a reason that times were too hard and no foreclosures could be had in his court until times improved. In one case the supreme court rendered a decree of foreclosure and sent a mandate to the granger's court, but the same judge refused to obey the mandate, refused to carry the judgment into execution and was, I believe,. attached for contempt by the supreme court. In Iowa they had a similar experience as to the transitory character of granger legislation. A joke was. once scored against the legislature of Ohio, when, by the act of March 11, 1875, they made it unlawful to spear fish through the ice between the 1st of May and the 1st of September. A similar joke came near passing into our last legislature when an act went through one house which empowered a justice of the peace to appoint receivers for railroad companies who failed to pay the squire's judgment with due promptness. "My friends, the longer I have practiced law the more do I learn to admire the profession to which I have the honor to belong. A lawyer devoted to his profession has little other thought than to study his cases in the interest of his clients. He seldom stops to reflect upon his calling or view it from an outside standpoint. A bar association with its periodical meetings has a beneficial tendency to relax his labors for the time being, and to afford 310 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. him the opportunity to exchange views with his fellow members of the legal profession when they are met together socially, and not in the heat of litigation at the bar. Upon the lawyer rests the responsibility of managing and directing the highest and most important business interests, the rights of persons, the rights of property, including in many instances the domestic relations. When I speak of lawyers I have no reference to that small class who have crept into our profession, who grovel in the dregs of dishonorable practice, the shysters,— a set of turkey buzzards, whose touch is pollution and whose breath is pestilence. To such a class drifts dishonest litigation. If a man has a crooked case he naturally hunts a crooked lawyer to manage it. I desire on the contrary to bring my tribute to the higher class of our profession. I mean the honorable, conscientious lawyer, who has many important privileges conferred upon him, and who in turn has many important duties to perform. He acts with fidelity to his client and with courtesy to the court, gives all the light and aid he can to honorably advance the interests of his client. He discourages useless and discreditable litigation. He investigates his client's cause and promptly tells him if it be true that he cannot defend or recover, as the case may be, and advises a settlement or compromise. While such a lawyer may forego a fee for the time being he will build up a reputation for honesty that will ultimately flood him with business of a meritorious character, in which he himself will have confidence. On such a lawyer will the business man rely, when complications arise and his property is in jeopardy. To him will the testator in contemplation of death send to write his last will and testament. On him will the widow and orphan depend when designing men seek to deprive them of their patrimony, and the lawyer who would prove false to such a trust, and himself become the robber, deserves to be expelled from the bar in his lifetime after his death go where the worm dieth not and fire is not quenched, —and that, too, without any obituary notice by our committee on legal biography. "Everything a lawyer acquires in the practice of his profession he deserves, because he has earned it. Every step that he makes is in the face of tenacious opposition. His progress is contested inch by inch. His life is one of mental conflict. The other learned professions, in the acquisition of which the student burns his midnight oil in school or college, are not so. The pastor's sermon is an ex parte production. The physician prescribes to his patients in secret and without opposition; if he makes a mistake the world is none the wiser; but when the lawyer takes a false position or makes a mistake it is in the glare of the light. He is detected and exposed in public CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 311 and suffers humiliation and perhaps defeat. Therefore, I repeat, that the lawyer who succeeds in the face of incessant and unyielding opposition deserves all he has gained. In conclusion, my friends, I propose to you this sentiment: There is no more exalted human character than the man of our profession who has rounded up a life of industry as an honest and successful lawyer." JOHN WESLEY KIBLER. Throughout the years of his business career John Wesley Kibler has resided in New Washington and has won success by his untiring labor, his ambition, his energy and well directed efforts and is to-day the possessor of a handsome competence and a beautiful home. His name is the synonym for honorable dealings in trade circles and he enjoys an unassailable reputation by reason of his fidelity to the strictest ethics which govern commercial life. Mr. Kibler was born in New Washington, June 28, 1859, and is a son of Matthias and Frederica (Pfahler) Kibler, whose life history is given at length in connection with the sketch of Samuel Jefferson Kibler, on another page of this work. No event of special. importance occurred to vary the routine of the life of our subject in his boyhood, play, work and study occupied his attention. He attended the common schools of the town and from early youth assisted in the work of the farm and the tan yard. At the age of eighteen years he entered the business house then owned by his brother and mother, who were proprietors of the business which his father had established. Soon after attaining his majority he purchased his mother's interest in the enterprise and the firm name was changed to Kibler Brothers, under which title operations have been since carried on. During the intervening years the business has increased to one of mammoth proportions, the partners being now the owners of one of the largest hide houses in the country. During the first ten years of his connection with the firm Mr. Kibler was upon the road as traveling representative, but since that time he has largely remained in the house in control of some of the important branches of the concern. Our subject exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party and has served as corporation clerk for six years. He takes a deep interest in the growth and success of his party and at various times has been a delegate to county and state conventions. 312 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. He is likewise a member of the Lutheran church, is a man of pleasing address, courteous in manner, unflinching principle and unquestioned integrity and yet withal having that practical common sense, which never runs to extremes and it is no wonder that wherever he goes he wins friends. His life has been well spent and his honorable and useful career is worthy of emulation. REV. JOHN P. KUNNERT. Devoting his life to the spread of the Gospel as a priest of the Catholic church, Rev. John P. Kunnert is now in charge of the congregation in New Washington. He was born in Mandercagne, in the grand duchy of Luxembourg, on the 27th of October, 1856, his parents being Henry and Magdalen (Scheuerens) Kunnert. The father was born in 1823, in the same house in which occurred the birth of our subject, the property having de: scended through the eldest sons of the family from generation to generation. Through a long period representatives of the name have been farmers and breeders of fine stock, and for a number of years the father received more premiums at fairs for thoroughbred horses and cattle than any other one man. He brought his stock up to a very high standard of perfection and his labors were of benefit to the locality in which he resided, for he greatly improved the grade of stock raised and therefore increased its market value, On numerous occasions he was chosen to act as judge at stock shows. His death occurred August 21, 1900. His wife, who also was born in the village where his birth occurred, first opened her eyes to the light of day in 1825 and represented one of the old families of farming people in that locality. She is still living and is also an excellent judge of horses. Since her husband's death she has managed the business, and her opinion is considered authority on stock. Mr. and Mrs. Kunnert were the parents of seven children, of whom six are living, namely : Margaret, now the wife of Jacob Keifer ; Nicholas; Mary A.; John N., a railroad contractor in the employ of the Big Four Company at Cleveland, Ohio; Peter; and John P., of this review. In taking up the personal history of Father Kunnert we note that he remained with his parents until his fifteenth year, when, in 1871, he entered the government commercial college at Ettelbrick, Luxembourg, where lie was graduated in the spring of 1874. Subsequently he went to Belgium and entered the Petit Seminary, an ecclesiastical college at Bostogne, Belgium, where he remained for five years. On the expiration of that period he went CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 313 to France and for two and a half years was a student at Luxeuil les Bains, being in the Petit Seminary in the province of Haute Saone; from that place he returned. to Belgium Seminary and studied philosophy, continuing in that institution for a year and completing his course there in the fall of 1882. Father Kunnert then came to America and made his way to Wyandot county, Ohio, to visit some relatives, who were living in the town of Kirby. After some months there passed he went to Cleveland and entered St. Mary's. Theological Seminary, where he continued until the spring of 1886. A week after he left the institution he went to Upper Sandusky and said his first mass.. He was soon afterward given charge of the Catholic church in Harrisburg, Stark county, and also had charge of a mission, known as Maximo Mission, remaining there until December, 1888, when he was transferred to St. Peter's church in Cleveland, where he remained fifteen months. In the spring of 1890 he returned to his first charge in Stark county, acting as pastor at that place until September, 1899, when he was called to New Washington. In each church he has been handicapped by heavy debts, but these he has cleared away and on leaving the churches has left money in the treasury. He is most earnest and untiring in his labors in behalf of his people and ministers to their spiritual needs with marked devotion. In connection with the church at New Washington he superintends the Honey Creek Mission at Auburn. Father Kunnert has inherited his father's love for a good horse and now has a mare in his stables whose sire was a brother of Star Pointer. In manner Rev. Kunnert is genial, kindly and courteous and wins friends whereever he goes, and at the same time he fully sustains the dignity of his high, and holy office. WILLIAM HAYS. One of the prominent and leading citizens of Galion, Ohio, who passed away during the closing decade of the last century was William Hays, who was born in Connecticut in 1820 and died at Galion in 1896. Mr. Hays' early boyhood was spent in hard work, from which he could spare little time to acquire an education. His only text-books were the spelling book and that revered book, the Bible, but he read widely and diligently and while yet a very young man had the reputation of being exceptionally well informed, and his practical knowledge of business affairs enabled him, when he came to Ohio, to take a lead in matters of finance and to advise his associates ably concerning important commercial interests. 17 314 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. When Mr. Hays was about twenty-six years of age he met Mrs. Susan Black, formerly Miss Seager, of Syracuse, New York, who became his wife. Soon after his marriage he came to Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio, where he lived for a time. From Wooster he removed to Ashland county, Ohio, where he remained until 1857, and after living in Morrow county, Ohio, two years, took up his residence at Galion, in 1859, where during the remainder of his life he was prominently identified with leading business interests of different kinds. He was one of the original incorporators of the First National Bank of Galion, Ohio, established in 1864, with which important financial institution he was connected for twenty-two years. Afterward he became identified with the management of the Galion National Bank, with which he was associated until his death. Mr. Hays has often been referred to as "one of the bright stars that the New England states have given to the financial and monetary interests of the state." His popularity and his position as a useful and prominent member of society were well attested in a series of resolutions that were adopted by the joint meeting of the Bankers' Association, of which Hon. J. W. Coulter was chairman, in which a glowing tribute was paid to Mr. Hays, not only as a financier, but as a patriotic, public-spirited man who had always had at heart the best interests of Galion. GEORGE T. KERR. This well known citizen of Crawford county is one of the largest sheep--raisers in Ohio and has been largely instrumental in improving the grade of stock raised in the state. His efforts have therefore been of public benefit, for the improvement of stock adds to its market value, and the wealth of the agricultural class is thereby augmented. The rich pasture lands of this portion of Ohio provide excellent opportunities to the sheep-raiser, and this industry has become an important one in the commercial interests of the state. Mr. Kerr is one of its leading representatives,—a progressive, energetic business man, capably controlling extensive interests which have made him widely known. Mr. Kerr is a son of James and Nancy (Towers) Kerr and was born on the home farm in Whetstone township, December 13, 1847. He spew his youth there and pursued his education in the country schools. In 1869, after attaining his majority, he married Lydia Echleberry, a native of Pennsylvania and for two years thereafter engaged in agricultural pursuits in CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 315 Whetstone township. He then took up his residence in Bucyrus township where he now resides. Here he owns four hundred and thirty acres of fine farming land, and with the exception of about forty acres the entire amount is under cultivation and the" improvements are most modern. There is a: fine frame house built in attractive design and nicely furnished ; a good barn, substantial outbuildings and the latest improved machinery for facilitating the work of the farm. He also owns two hundred acres of land in Marion county. He is perhaps the largest sheep-raiser of the county, having about twelve hundred head. In addition he raises other kinds of stock and is also an extensive farmer. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Kerr has been blessed with eight children, namely : Cloyd, who died, at the age of seventeen years; Burtie, at home; James, who died at the age of eight yew's; Elnora, wife of Charles Hoover, a farmer of Bucyrus township; Bevie May, Clementine, Ava and Walter J. The family is one of prominence in the community, and the members of the household have many warm friends. In his political views Mr. Kerr is a Republican. He has spent his entire life in this county and that many who have known him from boyhood are numbered among his warmest friends is unmistakable evidence of the upright life which he has led. He is well known in business circles for his promptness, trustworthiness and energy and thus he maintains a foremost position among the representative agriculturists of the state. JOSEPH SCHILL. The industrial interests of Crestline are well represented by this gentleman, who is now the president and treasurer of Schill Brothers Company. He is a wide-awake, progressive and enterprising business man, whose close application, perseverance and resolute will have enabled him to advance steadily to a leading position among the most prominent business men of Crawford county. He was born in Sharon township, Richland county, Ohio, December 4, 1862. His father, George Schill, is a native of Germany, and in 1833 came to the United States, locating upon a farm in Richland county, Ohio, where he remained until 1892, when he came to Crawford county. For a number of years he engaged in the operation of a sawmill. In early life he became a stationary engineer and is now acting in that capacity in the factory owned and controlled by his sons. Joseph Schill was the second child and came to Crawford county in 1875, 316 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. at the age of thirteen years, and entered upon his business career as an employe in the store of L. Schick, a grocer. He was employed as a salesman for some time, but at length embarked in business on his own account, in connection with his brother, as a dealer in hardware. They equipped their store with a large and well selected stock of goods and carried on a successful business until. 1892, when they organized the Schill Brothers Furnace & Range Company, which was organized in 1900, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, Joseph Schill being president and treasurer. This. is one of the leading industrial concerns of Crestline, employing about eighty men throughout the entire year. They began operations on a small scale, but their sales have continually increased and in the present year have almost doubled those of the year just passed. Their products are shipped to nearly every state in the Union, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and from the great lakes to the gulf of Mexico. The success of the business is largely due to the capable management and keen sagacity of Joseph Schill. Four men are continually employed on the road to introduce and sell their goods to the merchants, and they also have distributing points at Minneapolis, Minnesota; Denver, Colorado; and St. Louis, Missouri; Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas; and other points. Mr. Schill was united in marriage, in August, 1891, to Miss Maggie Koendere, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. OLIVER J. KELLER. Prominent in Liberty township is Oliver J. Keller, a progressive and representative business citizen of Crawford county and a member of the mercantile firm of O. & C. Keller, of Sulphur Springs. Mr. Keller was born in Northampton' county, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 1843, and was a son of Joseph and Lovina (Kline) Keller, the former of whom was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, about 1823, and was a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Shook) Keller, both also natives of Northampton county. In the spring of 1857 Jacob Keller, the grandfather of our subject, came to Crawford county and bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Sandusky township, and also one of eighty acres in Liberty township, making his home on the first tract, with his son, Joseph, residing there several years, and then removed to a property which he purchased in the village of Sulphur Springs, and upon which he resided until his death. Joseph Keller, the father of our subject, came to Crawford county in CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 317 1857 with his father, and after some years of residence, on the Sandusky township farm, purchased it and continued to live there until 1876, when he rented it to his son, Josiah, since deceased, and removed to Sulphur Springs, where he lived until his death, in 1891. In politics he was a Democrat in his earlier years, but the issues of the Civil war caused him to change and ever after he supported the Republican party. Through the greater part of his life he was an active member of the Reformed church, filling many of its offices, and was one of the most worthy citizens of the community. The mother of our subject was born in Pennsylvania, about 1825, and was a daughter of Jacob Kline, also a native of Pennsylvania, of German origin, who was one of the prominent farmers of Northampton county, where he passed his whole life. The death of the mother was in July, 1899. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Keller numbered eleven, the four survivors being: Oliver, of this sketch; Jeremiah, a painter residing in Easton, Pennsylvania; Rev. Reuben, a Reformed minister residing in White Pigeon, Michigan; and Albert D., a professor in Heidelberg University at Tiffin, Ohio. Oliver J. Keller grew up in a moral and happy home. His education was pursued in the common schools. At the breaking out of the Civil war he offered his services to his country, enlisting on August 15, 1861, in Company C, Forty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and hence took part in these never-to-beforgotten battles : Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Nashville and Franklin, and went through the Atlanta campaign,—in fact took part in almost all of the important operations of that brave and gallant part of the Union army. At the battle of Stone River he was taken prisoner, on December 31, 1862, and was incarcerated in Castle Thunder and Libby prison for some thirty days. For the following five months he was on parole, his exchange taking place some time in May, when he returned to his command, finally receiving his discharge at Victoria, Texas, in the latter part of November, 1865, but did not reach home until on January 1, 1866. After his return from the army Mr. Keller accepted a position as clerk in the mercantile establishment of A. Fry & Company, of Sulphur Springs, and remained in this capacity for two years, at the end of which period he purchased an interest in the business of J. H. Biddle & Company, of this place. Some years later the firm was merged into the firm of Scott & Keller, but several years afterward Mr. Keller sold his interest to his partner, Mr. A. J. Scott, and shortly after that purchased an interest in the business of Kloppenstein Company. Some time later the interest of Mr. Kloppenstein was bought 318 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. by C. A. Keller, who became a partner of our subject, and since that time the firm has been 0. & C. Keller. During the intervening years the industry and ability of these partners have resulted in the building up of an immense trade, and they are justly considered important factors in the mercantile business in Crawford county. Mr. Keller is a stanch Republican, and has long been an active member of the Reformed church, holding many of the offices in it and supporting it liberally. Socially he is connected with the G. A. R. Mr. Keller is unmarried, but takes a prominent position in the social as well as business life of Sulphur Springs. FRED NEWMAN. Fred Newman, an attorney at law and justice of the peace of Crestline, is one who has attained a prominent and enviable position as a leading business man of Crestline entirely through his own efforts. Without any extraordinary family or pecuniary advantages to aid him he has successfully coped with adverse fate and by determined purpose has worked his way steadily upward. He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, January 21, 1839, and there remained until thirteen years of age, during which time he pursued his, education in the schools of his native country. In 1852 he started for America, coming alone as a passenger on the sailing vessel, which was fifty-four clays upon the water. While on the passage he engaged in cooking and from the wages which he received he managed to save twenty-five dollars, which was the amount of capital which he possessed when he arrived at Baltimore,. Maryland. From that city he made his way to Laurel Factory, where he engaged in clerking in a store for a short time, after which he went to Annapolis, Maryland, where he occupied a clerkship in a general mercantile establishment. In 1854 Mr. Newman arrived in Crestline, after having spent a few months in Leesville, Ohio. He was employed as a salesman in a store belonging to his uncle, John Newman, who was one of the pioneers of the county, and he remained in his service until 1866. He desired, however, to enter professional life, and when about nineteen years of age, he took up the study of law, which he continued as occasion offered until he pas prepared for admission to the bar. He was licensed to practice at Mount Gilead, Ohio, in 1868, and immediately afterward opened his office in Crestline, where he has. since remained. The profession of law is one in which attainment must de- CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 319 pend upon individual merit ; it cannot come from the aid of birth or influential friends. The lawyer must prepare, plead and win his first case and continue to advance through merit and ability resulting from a comprehensive. knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and a correct application of the law to the points of the case in litigation. Mr. Newman is always painstaking and careful in his preparation of the case and before the court and jury he is a logical reasoner, basing his arguments on facts with clearness and force. For a number of years he was city solicitor of Crestline and in 1895 was elected justice of the peace, a position which he yet holds. Success has. attended his efforts and in addition to the large practice which he retains he is the owner of a fine business block, the rental from which adds materially to his income. In 1868 Mr. Newman was united in marriage to Miss Emma T. Smith, a native of Wayne county, Ohio, and unto them have been born three daughters and one son : Florence, now the wife of William Moss, a resident of Utah; Eleanora, who resides in Jacksonville, Florida, and is the widow of Henry E. Bosworth, who was killed at Bristol, Tennessee, in July, 1897 ; Edna, a resident of New York city ; and Earl, who is studying law with his. father. Mr. Newman is a member of the Presbyterian church at Crestline and his family attend its services. Since 1862 he has been an exceptionally valuable member of the Masonic fraternity and for about the same time he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he has. been secretary for a number of years. He takes an active interest in promoting the work of these organizations and is a true follower of their benevolent teachings. He gives his support to the Democracy and is unswerving in his. allegiance to the principles of the party. A self-educated and self-made man the work that he has accomplished in life is certainly creditable. He is public-spirited in an eminent degree : national progress and local advancement are both causes dear to the heart of this adopted and thoroughly loyal son of the Republic. His devotion to the country is above question, and no native son of America is more true to her institutions or more faithful to his duties of citizenship. PHILIP KELLER. Joseph Keller, ancestor of the Keller family of America, was one of one hundred and eighty passengers, who came to this country in the fall of 1737 from Rotterdam, Holland, in the ship "William," landing October 31, 320 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. His father, who had died when the boy was young, had been a Roman Catholic ; his mother was a Protestant. Joseph was nineteen years old and was from Zweibruecken, Bavaria, but the family is believed to have originated in Switzerland. In the fourteenth century, when the "black death" raged especially in the Alps many people fled into the Rhine countries, and among them the Keller family. Joseph Keller, the emigrant, married and had seven sons, all of whom except one, Christian, were given scriptural names. Following is a translation of a record in German that was made by Joseph Keller and which is interesting not alone because it is a part of the history of his family, but because it Suggests an always interesting vicissitude of pioneer life : "My beloved housewife, Maria (Engler) Keller, was led captive by the Indians, September 15, 1757, my son Christian was killed, and my sons Joseph and John Jacob taken captive. My wife returned October 20, 1760, but of my children I have not heard." Christian Keller, who Was murdered and scalped by the savages, was fourteen years and five days old. The youngest son, a babe of five months and twenty-four days, was left unharmed in his cradle. Three sons and his only daughter remained to Mr. Keller. His neighbors sympathized with him, and in testimony of the regard in which they held him, built a block house as a Means of defense to him and his remaining family. There was a Rev. John Keller, a minister of the Reformed church, who prepared himself for the gospel ministry under the direction of the Rev. George Weiss, at Lancaster, Ohio, and who was licensed and ordained in New York, in 1827, by the synod of Ohio, and died in Erie county, New York, in 1852, in his fifty-second year. He was a member of this family of Kellers, a descendant of one of the brothers of "great-grandfather Philip" Keller. In all generations the Kellers have been noted for loyality to convictions and honesty of purpose and for the strength of their physical constitutions. Philip Keller was born in Northampton county,' Pennsylvania, January 26, 1818, one of the eight children of John H. and Maria (Engler) Keller, who were named as follows Philip ; Anna, wife of Philip Ossman, of Bucyrus, Ohio; Eli, a minister of the Reformed church at Allentown, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania; Amos, captain of Company C, Forty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, who was killed at the battle of Stone River; Aaron, lieutenant of Company C, Forty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, who was also killed in the same engagement ; Susan, who married J. B. Shumaker, of Tiffin, Ohio; Joseph A., who also saw service in the Civil war and who lives CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 321 at Alliance, Ohio; Joel F., who lives in Liberty township, Crawford county, Ohio. John H. Keller, father of Philip Keller, of Liberty township, was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, December 24, 1786, a son of Philip and Sarah (Miller) Keller, both natives of Northampton county, Pennsylvania; he was born March 29, 1763, and she September 27, 1763. Sarah (Miller) Keller died October 16, 1804, and Philip Keller afterward married Susanna Niemeyer, who was born November 22, 1770, and died December 4, 1859, aged eighty-nine years and twelve days. Philip Keller died October 2, 1842, aged about eighty years. He was a son of Joseph Keller, the emigrant, who as has been stated came to this country in 1737. He was a prominent farmer of Northampton county, Pennsylvania, where he died. John H. Keller grew to manhood in his native county in Pennsylvania and was educated in the common schools near his home and in due time married and settled down to farming and the operation of a gristmill. His father owned a large tract of farming land and was able to give each of his children a good start in life. After a time Mr. Keller gave his attention to surveying and became expert in such work. He long held the office of justice of the peace and was for several years judge of the court of common pleas of Northampton county; Pennsylvania. In 1856 he disposed of his holdings in Pennsylvania and came to Crawford county, Ohio. He had come out the previous year and contracted for two farms,—the Rupert farm, of two hundred and sixteen acres in Sandusky township and the Souder farm of one hundred and eight acres in Liberty township. Upon their arrival in this county in 1856, Mr. Keller and his son Philip settled on the Rupert farm and his son Joel F. on the Souder farm. In the fall of that year Mr. Keller removed to Bucyrus, Ohio, where he lived until his death, which occurred September 10, 1867. In early life he was a Jackson Democrat, but he voted for Fremont for the presidency in 1856 and thereafter was an ardent Republican. For many years he was an elder in the Reformed church and in every relation of life was faithful to all trusts reposed in him and as a citizen stood deservedly high in the esteem of all who knew him. His wife, Susanna Engler, was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1797, a daughter of Casper and Susanna (Niemeyer) Engler, and died in November, 1884. After the death of her father, her mother, Mrs. Susanna Engler, married Philip Keller, grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Philip Keller, of Liberty township, Crawford county, Ohio, was reared on his father's farm in Pennsylvania and acquired a fair common-school edu- 322 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. cation in German schools, but attended English school only three months; but his father was a constant student and his home was practically a school, where every night study was carried on by lamp light, from immediately after supper until late bedtime, the father being the teacher of a class constituted of his children. At the age of twenty-five, .Philip began to teach school and taught four winter terms successfully. In January, 1846, he married Miss Hannah Stocker, a native of Northampton county, daughter of Francis and Barbara (Stofflet) Stocker, both of whom were of German parentage. After his marriage, he settled on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he leased from his father. In the fall of 1855, with his father and his brother Joel, he came to Crawford county; Ohio, to prospect for land. His father had come out earlier the same year and desired his sons to see certain property before he contracted for it for them. The purchase of land in Sandusky and Liberty townships and the early removal of the father to Bucyrus have been referred to. About ten years ago, Mr. Keller sold fifty acres of his original farm and bought his present home farm of seventy-five acres, on which his son John lived until his death. About 1895, Mr. Keller removed to his present homestead, leaving his son Amos on the old farm. To Mr. Keller have been born eleven children. His daughter Maria is dead. His daughter Mrs. Sabina Teel resides in Bucyrus, Ohio. His son John is dead. His daughters Abbie and Ellen are members of his household. His daughter Lydia is the wife of C. S. Ackerman, carpenter, of Liberty township. Amos is managing the old homestead in Sandusky township. In politics Mr. Keller is liberal and independent. He has been a lifelong member of the Reformed church, but is tolerant of the religious views of others of all denominations. Now in his eighty-fourth year, his mental and physical preservation is remarkable. A diligent and studious reader all-his. life, he is a well informed man. GABRIEL KESSLER. Gabriel Kessler was born in Schuykill county, Pennsylvania, on the 30th of September, 1838, his parents being Daniel and Susanna (Clouser) Kessler. The family is of German lineage on both the paternal and maternal sides. The father of our subject was born in Schuylkill county, but his parents were both natives of Germany, having located in the Keystone state in early life. There Daniel Kessler was reared to manhood and began farming on his own account, acquiring a property of one hundred and sixty acres. In 1849, how- CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 323 ever, he disposed of his interests there and came to Crawford county, Ohio, purchasing sixty acres of land in Liberty township, where he made his home up to the time of his death. Soon after his arrival he also bought a tract of land of eighty acres in Chatfield township, and his farming interests returned to him a good financial reward for his labors. He was a member of the German Reformed church and was a Democrat in his political views. His-wife was also born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of ten children, of whom six are yet living, namely : Paul, who makes his home in DeKalb county, Indiana; Daniel, of Mercer county, Ohio;. Mathilda, who resides in Liberty township, Crawford county; Lucy, the wife of Peter Trumater, of Sandusky township, this county; and Catherine, who. married Samuel Kurtz and is also living in Liberty township. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of life for Gabriel Kessler in his youth. His early boyhood days were passed on the old homestead in Pennsylvania and later he accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio. He attended the common schools to a limited extent, but was largely engaged in clearing away the timber upon the new Ohio farm when he was at the school age. On attaining his majority he started out upon an independent business career as a farm hand in the employ of agriculturists Hiring in the neighborhood. Three years later he purchased a threshing machine, and for eleven years was engaged in its operation during the harvest season, receiving a very liberal patronage and thus prospering. In 1871 he was enabled to purchase his present home farm of seventy-six acres. Since that time he has carried on agricultural pursuits on his own account, and his work has been crowned with a well merited and highly gratifying degree of success. On the 7th of August, 1873, occurred the marriage of Mr. Kessler and Miss Sarah E. Clapper, a native of Warren county, Indiana, and a daughter of William and Julia A. (Moore) Clapper, who came to Crawford county in 1864. The young couple began their domestic life upon the farm which has since been their home, and in 1884 Mr. Kessler rebuilded his barn and in 1886 erected one of the most attractive residences in this portion of the county. The latest improved machinery and all modern accessories are found upon his place, and the buildings stand as a monument to his thrift and enterprise. The home is well known for its gracious hospitality, which is enjoyed by many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Kessler. Unto our subject and his wife have been born eight children, of whom seven are yet living, namely : William A., a resident of Auburn township and Charles E., Clara E., Franklin S., Ada B., 324 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY Harvey A. and Mabel M., all yet under the parental roof. The parents hold membership in the German Reformed church, and Mr. Kessler exercises his right of franchise in support of Democratic principles and the men who are made the candidates of the party for office. His life has been one of untiring activity in agricultural circles, and he is known and honored for his fidelity to principle and his straightforward dealing. JOHN WENTZ. One of the prosperous, energetic and capable agriculturists of Crawford county is John Wentz, who makes his home in Bucyrus township, where he is engaged in the tilling of the soil and the raising of stock. He was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in Chambersburg, September 1, 1837, a son of John and Mary (Monard) Wentz, both of whom were natives of Hesse, Germany. In early life, however, they came to the new world and were married in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1839 they removed to Blackford county, Indiana, settling in the midst of the forest and there they cleared and developed a farm, upon which they spent their remaining days. Of their children only John and his brother Jacob are now living. John Wentz was only two years of age when his parents removed to the Hoosier state, and there amid the wild scenes of pioneer life he was reared to manhood, assisting his father in clearing away the forest trees and preparing the fields for cultivation. He never. attended school for a single day until he was fifteen years of age, and after that attended for only a few weeks for two or three years. His entire attendance would not aggregate one year, but though he gained a limited education in the schoolroom he is a well informed man, gaining his knowledge through reading, observation and experience. On the 26th of November, 1857, when twenty years of age Mr. Wentz was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Greenich, who was born in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Jacob and Christina Greenich, who were also natives of the fatherland and early settlers of Crawford .county, Ohio, whither they came with their daughter, Mrs. Wentz, when the latter was only five years of age. In the spring of 1858 Mr. Wentz and his young wife went to the place where his parents were living, in Blackford county, Indiana, and there he engaged in farming through the summer, but in the autumn of the .same year he returned to Crawford county, where he purchased of his father-in-law ninety acres of land, situated on section 34, Holmes township. On CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 325 this land he took up his abode, entering upon a successful career as an agriculturist. He added to his landed possessions as he prospered and at one time owned nearly five hundred acres, a part of which he afterward sold but,, at the present writing, in the summer of 1901, he owns more than three hundred and sixty acres of fine land, three hundred acres being within the borders of his home farm, on section 34, Holmes township, and sections. 2 and 3, in Bucyrus township. The farm is under a high state of cultivation and is well improved. Upon the farm are two residences. The one situated in Holmes township was his place of abode for thirty-one years, but after purchasing the old George Kent farm in Bucyrus township, he removed to the residence thereon in 1890, and two years later remodeled it into a con venient and pleasant home. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wentz have been born the following children : Mary. E., the wife of Thomas J. Caldwell, a farmer of Bucyrus township ; Annette, the widow of John Beall; Clement L., at home; Willis J., who wedded Mary Miller, is a farmer of Holmes township, residing on his father's old homestead; Ora Alice, the wife of Hugh Dobbins, of Bucyrus township; Ida May, Emma Pearl and John Earl, all at home. They also lost one child, who died in infancy in 1870. The Wentz family is one of the most prominent in the county, its different members being highly respected for their sterling worth.. In his political views Mr. Wentz is a stanch Democrat, but the honors and emoluments of public office have had no attraction for him. He has preferred to give his time and attention to his farm interests and though he began-business life as a poor boy he is to-day numbered among the prosperous farmers of the community as the result of his untiring industry, his determination and his force of character. He is a public-spirited citizen and withholds his support from no movement or measure which he believes will prove of public benefit. His worth is widely acknowledged by those who have regard. for true and upright character, and thus he has gained many friends. CHARLES L. WHITMYER. Charles L. Whitmyer, who is yard conductor of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad at Crestline; was born in Baden, Germany, April 15, 1845. His father, Michael Whitmyer, was also a native of this locality and was there reared, educated and married. He was a stone cutter by trade and in 1852 came to the United States, locating in New York City, where-he died six months later. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Christina 326 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. Bishop, was also a native of Baden and she only survived her husband three days. They were the parents of six children, one of whom died in the old country, one went upon the sea, crossing the Atlantic; and one in New York City, so that three children were the only ones living at the parents' death. These were : Ana, Charles L. and William, aged respectively, ten, eight and six years, when the parents were called away. They were then reared by strangers, and going to different families, were separated. The. daughter is now the wife of George G. Herr, of Crestline, and William died in Mansfield, Ohio. At the time of the father's death Charles Leonard Whitmyer was placed with a poor family and as soon as old enough he began to work, following any pursuit that would yield him a living. He spent a period of some time in New York City, where he acted as nurse. There he remained until 1854, when the children all came to Ohio together, locating in Akron, their home being with an aunt. Our subject remained with his aunt for about three years, when, with his sister and brother, he went to Canal Fulton, Stark county, Ohio, where he lived for two years. On the expiration of that period he returned to Akron and a year later came to Crestline. In the vicinity of this city he worked for one summer as a farm hand, receiving three dollars per month in compensation for his services. After two years spent in Crestline, Mr. Whitmyer and his sister and brother went to Mansfield, Ohio, and he secured a situation as a porter in the Wyler House, where he continued for about two years. He then began working on the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad, now the Baltimore & Ohio road, in the Lexington gravel pit, remaining with the company for one season, after which he returned to Crestline. In 1863 he engaged with the. Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company to shovel coal at the coal pile and was thus employed for eight months, when he was made brakeman in the yard, acting in that capacity for three years. He was then made brakeman upon the road running between Crestline and Alliance, with Conductor Jake Fink. He had been engaged in that work for about six weeks, when, as the train ran out of Alliance and was about one and a half miles west of Orville; the cars separated from the rail while in full speed and Mr. Whitmyer was thrown to the ground and it seemed that he turned about twenty somersaults before alighting. He then went back to Orville and telegraphed to the conductor that he was all right. On the next passenger train he went to Crestline. For about a week he was forced to remain at, home on account of the injuries from his fall and then began CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 327 work in the yard again. as brakeman, which work he followed until he was promoted to yard conductor about 1874. In 1878 he was made assistant yard master and served in that capacity for about six years, when he again assumed the position of yard conductor and is now acting in that office, being the oldest yard conductor in Crestline by many years. In 1864 Mr. Whitmyer was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Has, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, where she was reared, and a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Brick) Hass, both of whom were natives of Germany and became early settlers of Richland county. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Whitmyer have been born four children : Anna, wife of John Reindal, of Crestline; Charlie W., who married Miss Nettie Paden and is now a traveling salesman, living in Chicago; Mary E., widow of John C. Adams, who was killed on the railroad in the Crestline yards in 1899 ; Ellen, wife of Irvin Bishop, of Crestline. They also have six grandchildren: Estella and Charles W. and Helen L. Reindal ; Ruth L. Adams; Elizabeth C. Whitmyer ; and Leona Gladys Bishop. Mr. Whitmyer is a member of the Railroad Brotherhood, the Crest-line Tent, No. 51, Knights of Maccabees, and of the Relief Society. He also belongs to the German Reformed church, and is a Democrat in politics. His life has been quietly passed, devoted to the promotion of the welfare of his community, being one of those substantial citizens, who at all times and under all circumstances are faithful and loyal to their country, to their friends and the people. ROBERT R. BLACK. A representative of the medical fraternity of Galion, Robert Resee Black has already won an enviable position as a member of the profession, although he has engaged in practice for only a few years. He is a natiye of Knox county, Ohio, born in 1874, and is a son of Dr. John Luther Black, now deceased. The father was also born in Knox county, and was a sore of William Black, one of the pioneer settlers of that locality, who is still living, at the advanced age of ninety years. He married a Miss Cornell, who probably came to this state from Pennsylvania. Dr. John L. Black pursued his professional education in Wooster University, of Cleveland, Ohio, now the Cleveland Medical College, and for about twenty years successfully engaged in practice at Democracy, Knox county, enjoying a large and lucrative business. He died in 1886, at the comparatively early age of forty-five years. His wife bore the maiden name of Fedora Sapp, and is a native of Knox county. She is still 328 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. living, her home being in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Her father, Robert Sapp, was also numbered among the early settlers of Knox county. Dr. Black, whose name introduces this review, pursued his literary education in the schools of Mount Vernon and of Democracy, Ohio. He began reading medicine under the direction of Dr. Russell, in 1891, and later confirmed his studies in the Starling Medical College, of Columbus, being graduated in that institution with the class of 1897. Immediately afterward he entered into business relations with his former preceptor, Dr. Russell, with whom he practiced in Mount Vernon, Ohio, for six months, after which he came to Galion, where he has since remained. The ambition and energy of young men are his, and, supplemented by a laudable determination to succeed, he will undoubtedly gain a foremost place in the ranks of the medical fraternity, having already won success which many an older practitioner might well envy. Dr. Black was joined in wedlock to Miss Lulu Knight Hall, of Mansfield, Ohio, a daughter of William B. and Margaret (Knight) Hall, formerly residents of Knox county, Ohio, where the father was extensively and successfully engaged in farming and stock-raising. The Doctor and his wife now have one interesting little son, Robert Russell. The Doctor is identified with the Independent Order of Foresters. During his residence in Galion he has formed a wide circle of acquaintances, gained many warm friends and won a desirable position in the ranks of his chosen calling. In business affairs he is energetic, prompt and notably reliable, and as a student his researches and investigations are continually broadening his mind, fitting him in the highest degree for the responsibilities that rest upon him as a representative of the medical profession. JEFFERSON I. SMITH. Jefferson I. Smith, who is serving as deputy auditor of Crawford county, and a resident of Bucyrus, is a well-known resident of this portion of Ohio, where his entire life has been passed. He was born in Lukens township, Crawford county, Ohio, in 1863, his parents being Frederick and Lucy Ann ( Shupp) Smith. More extended mention of the parents is made in the biography of L. M. Smith. At the usual age he entered the public schools and pursued his studies until he had completed the high school course at New Washington, with the class of 1885. In the fall of that year he became editor of the Herald, published in New Washington, and continued his connection CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 331 with the paper until 1897, making it a representative Democratic journal of the county. He was a forceful, earnest and interesting writer and his editorials carried weight in forming public opinion in the county. While still connected with the paper Mr. Smith served for three terms as town clerk of New Washington and was. also a member of the board of education. He made a close study of the needs of his town and the improvements that would best advance its interests and in every way possible promoted the upbuilding and substantial improvement of the place. Throughout his entire life he has been connected with the Democracy and for three years was a member, from Cranberry township on the Democratic county central committee, and for one year acted in the capacity of chairman. From 1890 until 1896 he was a member of the board of school examiners for the county and has been one of the state supervisors of elections since 1893. In 1897 he was appointed deputy auditor of Crawford county and in April, 1901, was nominated, without opposition, the Democratic candidate for county auditor, and elected in November - following. In every public duty he has manifested marked loyalty and trust- worthiness. Mr. Smith was united in marriage in Wayne county to Miss Linnie Breneman, a daughter of J. H. and Lydia B. (McNary) Breneman. They now have one son, Russell B. Mr. and Mrs, Smith hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been a very active worker in the Sunday-school, realizing the importance of youthful training. For five years he served as superintendent of the Sunday-school at New Washington, which made commendable progress under his direction and is now a teacher in the Sunday-school of the church at Bucyrus. Socially he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Knights of Pythias fraternity, of New Washington. He is a popular man, of genial and courteous manner, and the circle of his friends is limited only by the circle of his acquaintances. FERNANDO J. NORTON. Fernando Jefferson Norton was born in Bucyrus, December 28, 1859. His father, Jefferson Norton, was .a native of Pennsylvania, born February 26, 1825, and with his parents he became a resident of Bucyrus. After arriving at years of maturity he married Eleanor M. Byron, who was born March 9, 1824, and died March 18, 1882. At the usual age Mr. Norton, of this review, entered the public schools, where he acquired a good English 18 332 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. education, after which he learned the trade of carriage wood working. When he had completed his apprenticeship he engaged in journeyman work with his father for a year and then took a contract to carry the mail from Bucyrus to Oceola. Susbsequently he extended his route to Benton, Buljoe and Wingert's Corners and was so employed for nine months. He then accepted a position as fireman on the Toledo & Ohio Central Railroad and was employed in that capacity for two years and nine months, when he was injured in the performance of his duties. This necessitated his retirement from labor for nine months; and on recovering he found that he would have to give up railroad work. He then secured a position in a machine shop, where he remained for a brief period. Prior to this he had erected a small greenhouse, fifteen by forty-five feet, and determining to leave the shop he decided to give his attention to gardening and the cultivation of flowers. He admitted his brother to a partnership in the business, under the firm name of Norton Brothers, and purchased six and a half acres of land, known as the Winner estate, north of Bucyrus. The relationship between the brothers was maintained for about a year, when Mr. Norton, of this review, became sole proprietor, purchasing his partner's interest. After two years he purchased the property on the corner of Spring and Charles streets and removed his greenhouse to that place. After conducting the business for about two years he returned to the Toledo & Ohio Central Railroad as a fireman and on the completion of his apprenticeship was promoted to the position of engineer, running an engine on the road for three and a half years. He then left the railroad service, for his greenhouse business demanded all of his attention. About that time he erected two more greenhouses in Bucyrus and purchased and equipped a greenhouse at Nevada and three in Bucyrus, but after a time he moved the greenhouse from the former place to this city, combining the business so that he had over ten thousand feet of glass roof. He made a specialty of cut flowers and potted plants. Already he has an extensive. and profitable business, but in the near future he expects to enlarge his facilities by increasing his greenhouses until he Will have two thousand more feet under glass. The finest varieties of plants, shrubs and flowers may be seen here and Mr. Norton thoroughly. understands the business, making him very competent to conduct the extensive enterprise which he now controls. On the 11th of July, 1878, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Norton and Miss Kate Anna Adams, who was born in Galion, Ohio, in October, 1859, and is a daughter of Jacob and Margaret Adams. Five children grace this marriage: Myrtle Byron, born March 26, 1879; Ralph Jefferson, born CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 333 September 17, 1880, and died May 4, 1881; Arthur Franklin, born September 2, 1882; Fairy Elmer,. born March 21, 1884; Mabel Carrie, born March 12, 1886; and Harry James, who was born April 2, 1893. Mr. Norton has spent his entire life in Bucyrus and his career has been a useful and honorable one. Along the legitimate lines of business he has won splendid success. He is thoroughly conversant with the subject of horticulture, understands the needs of plants and their requirements and is not only able to grow and cultivate flowers, but to transact the business affairs necessary to make his labors profitable. In all his dealings he is straightforward and reliable and his large business is a merited success. MRS. ELISABETH TEEL. Mrs. Elizabeth Teel, a representative of one of the old and firmly established families of Crawford county, was born in Liberty township, in this county, on July 20, 1829. She was a daughter of Horatio and Nancy ( Link) Markley. Horatio Markley, distinguished as one of the most powerful men, physically, in Crawford county, came here from his home in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1804, and entered a fractional quarter section of land (one hundred and forty-four acres) in Liberty township, this now being the home and property of the subject of this sketch. He erected a log cabin on his land and spent his life here, being very prosperous and able to assist his children very materially. His death was in 1880, at the age of seventy-six. He was one of the leaders in the English Lutheran church and for many years prior to his death no needy person ever applied in vain to him for assistance. Far and wide his charities extended and he was beloved by all who knew him. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Teel was also a remarkable man, living to the age of one hundred and two years, nine months and twenty-seven days, and his death occurring in the house where our subject now lives, in 1864. His father, a veteran of the Revolutionary war, owned six hundred acres of land on the present site of Wheeling, and was killed by the Indians. Mrs. Teel was one of four children in her parents' family, the three survivors being : John, of Morrow county ; Elisabeth, of this sketch, and Mathias, of Wyandot county, this state. She grew up at her parental home, acquiring an education in the pioneer schools, and on September 17, 1844, was united in marriage with Mr. George W. Teel, who during his life was one of the energetic and successful business men of Crawford county. 334 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. George W. Teel was born in Ashland, Ohio, on May 16, 1821, and he was a son of poor but honest and industrious parents. At the age of ten years,. having received but a limited education, he went to work in the brick-yard of John Moffitt where he remained for two summers, and during the two following seasons drove a team on the Ohio canal. Later he engaged in farm work at various places in Stark county, for several years. In the meantime his father, John C. Teel, had removed to Guernsey county and purchased a small farm. George managed this property for some two years, while his father worked at his trade of blacksmith. In his seventeenth year he taught school in Wayne county during one winter, and also followed the same occupation in his nineteenth year. After this he attended the Ashland Academy for one: term of five months and then engaged in clerking for one year in a general store, in Benton, Holmes county. In 1842 he removed to Navarre, in Stark county, and from April to July engaged in the, business of buying horses,. which he took to Canada and sold to the British officers. Mr. Teel removed to Crawford county in August, 1843, and purchased the George W. Galloway farm, on which he resided to the time of his death.. For fifteen years he taught school in Sulphur Springs and vicinity and conducted the first English school ever taught in the Broken Sword district. After this the residents never wished to support a. German school in that locality. In 1844, for a period of six months, he was engaged in the mercantile business in Sulphur Springs, with a Mr. Allen, the establishment being known as The Great Western Shore. In 1862 he was appointed revenue assessor of Crawford county and served in this capacity fo nine years, and during the fall of 1872 he was employed by the A.. & L. E. R. R. as collecting agent for the corporation, continuing with the company in this capacity for three years. In the spring of .1877 Mr. Teel removed his family to Bucyrus and was engaged one year as assignee in settling up the business of Osman & Woodside. The family removed to Crestline in the spring of 1878 and remained there some twelve months and then returned to the farm in Liberty township. During this time, however, Mr. Teel still continued in Bucyrus as a partner in a carriage establishment. He served some years as secretary of the Crawford County Farmers' Fire Insurance Company, and was also purchasing agent for the Ohio Central Railroad Company, being agent for this corporation, and also for the old A. & L. E. R. R. He secured nearly all the right of way for the roadbed from the coal fields to Toledo, including the depot grounds, which were purchased in the '70s, in that city. Mr. Teel was also instrumental to a &eat extent in securing the guarantee fund for over one CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 335 hundred thousand dollars subscribed, in 1880, by the company, along the route as a local aid to its completion. With Messrs. D. W. Swigart, C. Fenton, S. R. Harris and James B. Gormly, he succeeded in the enterprise of getting the machine-shops bill passed by the legislature and was a member of many organizations requiring a man of integrity. Mr. Teel died on July 19, 1889. In 1882 he had had a premonition, being stricken then with paralysis and then gave up his position with the railroads and retired to live on his farm. He enjoyed seven years of quiet life before the end came. He was an active member of the Republican party, and had been connected with the English Lutheran church for many years. His death was widely lamented, as he had been one of the most public-spirited men that Crawford county ever possessed. Seven of his eight children still survive, viz.: Leander; Jared, of Mansfield; Laura: L., the wife of Milton Ebert, of Elyria, Ohio; Ellen, the wife of Ernest Michaelis, of Spokane, Washington; George, of North Robinson, Ohio; Horatio M., in the electric light business in Seattle, Washington; and Frances, the wife of Grant Zerbe, of Sandusky. Jennie, the second child, passed away. After the death of her husband Mrs. Teel, so badly bereaved, removed to the old Markley homestead, the home of her youth. At the time of her father's death she purchased the property and resides upon it, very efficiently managing the extensive farming operations carried on there. She is a very. intelligent lady, of superior judgment, and is one very highly esteemed in Crawford county. W. C. FRANZ. W. C. Franz is a well-known resident of Bucyrus and the trainmaster for the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway. He represents one of the distinguished and honored pioneer families of the county, the name of Franz being inseparably associated with the history of this section of the state. More than seventy years ago representatives of the name became residents of Ohio, and through the decades which have since been added to the cycle of the centuries descendants of those original ancestors in Ohio have borne their part in the 'work of progress and development in Crawford county. The paternal grandfather of our subject was a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, born in the year 1812. He acquired a good education in the schools of his native country and served in the army there. When a young man of twenty-five years he resolved to seek his fortune in America and accordingly crossed the Atlantic 336 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. to the new world, locating in Galion, Ohio, in .1837. He afterward removed to Leesville, this county, but spent his last days in Bucyrus, where he passed away in 1870. He was long a prominent factor in public affairs and his opinions carried weight and influence among the leading residents of the community. His worth and ability were widely recognized and led to his selection to various positions of public trust: For nine years he filled the office of justice of the peace in Jackson township and in 1859 he was elected sheriff of Crawford county for a two-years term, in which he acceptably served and was then re-elected, so that he was continued in the office for four years. In 1867 he was chosen by popular vote to the position of county treasurer and was acting in that capacity at the time of his death. His public and private records. were alike above reproach. He always discharged his duties in a prompt, efficient and creditable manner, and in private life he displayed those manly qualities that ever command respect and confidence. With him friendship was inviolable, and the duties of the home were to him the most important in life. At the time of the Civil war he manifested his loyalty to his adopted country by.entering the service as a member of the One Hundred and First Ohio Volunteer Infantry and became lieutenant-colonel, serving in that capacity until he was forced to resign, owing to wounds sustained in the battle of Perryville. He was married, in this county to Miss Jane Burwell, and unto them were born five children, namely : Joseph Burwell, now of Toledo, Ohio;. William, the father of our subject ; Kate, who married John R. Clymer ; John S., of Tampa, Florida; and Sally, wife of Alexander Kerr, of Holmes town, ship. The mother of this family is still living. William Franz, the father of our subject, was born May 21, 1843, in Leesville, and attended school there' until fourteen years of age, when lie accompanied his parents on their removal to a farm near Bucyrus. He learned the trade of watch making and the jewelry business in the city and afterward purchased his employer's store, carrying on the enterprise for sometime. Subsequently he resided in Plymouth and Cleveland, Ohio, and in Meadville,. Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the watch and jewelry business until 1865. He then returned to Bucyrus, and in connection with H. J. Riblet established a jewelry store. In 1867 he removed to Crestline, where he entered business with Dr. William Pope. Here he perfected and patented a knitting machine, and in November, 1869, began manufacturing the machine, incorporating the business under the name of the Bucyrus Knitting Machine Works. In 1871 the name was changed to the Franz & Pope Knitting Machine Company, and a prosperous and growing enterprise was established, the steadily increasing CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 337 trade bringing the stockholders a good financial return upon their investment. Mr. Franz contiued with the concern until 1879, when, owing to failing health, he retired, spending his remaining days in quiet and rest from labor. He was a prominent Mason, holding membership with Crawford Lodge, Ivanhoe Chapter, No. 117, R. A. M., and Mansfield Commandery, No. 21, K. T. He also became a charter member of Demas Commandery, No. 108, K. T. In September, 1881, he was called to his final rest, and the community thereby lost one of its valued citizens, for he had long been an important factor in promoting the commercial activity, whereon depends the welfare, progress and advancement of every community. His labors resulted, not alone to his individual benefit, but proved of general good. He withheld his support from no movement calculated to promote the general welfare and had a public spirit and abiding interest in everything pertaining to his native county. On the 22d of January, 1868, Mr. Franz was united in marriage to Miss Almira Melissa Campbell, who was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, in. 1844, and is a daughter of John and Catherine R. (Staltz) Campbell, both of whom were natives of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. They removed from the Keystone state to Byron, Ohio, in 1854 and in 1860 came to Bucyrus. The father was a contractor and builder, and died in Logansport,. Indiana, in 1897, at the age of seventy-eight years. When the country became involved in Civil war he responded to the president's call for aid, enlisting in an Ohio regiment. His death occurred about 1880, when he had attained the age of fifty-one years. Obediah Campbell, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Franz, was a native of Scotland, and on coming to America located in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, where he met and married Miss Kate Keader. Unto William and Almira M. (Campbell) Franz were born the following children : Katie J., William C., Mellie A. and Jay W. The older daughter is the wife of F. J. Barth, of Bucyrus, and the younger daughter is now a teacher in the public schools of Bucyrus and is a graduate of the high school. William Charles Franz, whose name introduces this record, was born in Bucyrus, March 14, 1871, and pursued his education in the public schools, being graduated in the high school in 1889. For four months he was with the United States Express Company and afterward with the .Toledo & Ohio Central Railway. He entered the railroad service October 27, 1889, and is yet with the company. His first position was that of night yard clerk, was made chief yard clerk on the 1st of April, 1890, and on the 1st of September, of the same year became clerk to the train master. On the 1st of November, 1890, J. F. Angell was appointed superintendent of the eastern division, with head- 338 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. quarters at Bucyrus, and Mr. Franz was made his chief clerk, in which capacity he remained until the 1st of January, 1901, when Mr. Angell wag removed to Columbus, as superintendent of the entire line, and Mr. Franz was given the position of train master. His promotions have come to him as the reward of close application, earnest and indefatigable labor and excellent ability, and the fact that he has been for so long retained in the service of one road is an unmistakable evidence of his fidelity. On the 18th of December, 1895, Mr. Franz was united ih marriage, in Marion, Ohio, to Miss Josephine Harsberger, a daughter of the late Jacob H. Harsberger, who was a merchant of Marion. He served as a soldier in the Civil war and was a well-known resident of Marion county. The marriage' of Mr. and Mrs. Franz has been blessed with one son, James N. In his political affiliations Mr. Franz is a Democrat, and is an attendant on the services of the Presbyterian church. At the present time lie is serving as city clerk, -to which position he was elected, entering upon the duties of the office on the 1st of May, 1900, for a term of two years. In the Masonic fraternity he is well known as an exemplary member, has passed all of the chairs in the lodge, and in 1899 and 1900 filled the position of master of Trinity Lodge, of Bucyrus. He is also identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of .Elks, and was exalted ruler for one year. He is a worthy representative of an honored pioneer family, his lines of life having been cast in harmony with the records left by his father. and grandfather. He has many warm friends throughout Crawford county, where the family has been so long widely and prominently known, and no history of the community would be complete without mention of Mr. Franz and his ancestors. JONATHAN CARMEAN. Jonathan Carmean, who follows farming in Crawford county, was born in what is now Bucyrus township, December 6, 1834, his parents being Matthew and Rachel (De Long) Carmean. His grandfather was a native of the south and became a pioneer settler of Pickaway county, Ohio, where the father of our subject spent the greater part of his youth. The Carmean family is of French descent, while the mother of our subject represented a family of Pennsylvania Dutch lineage. Matthew Carmean and Rachel De Long were married in Pickaway county, Ohio, and soon afterward came to Crawford county, where lie entered eighty acres of land in what was then Bucyrus township. Soon afterward, however, he traded this for property on section CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 341 in what is now Dallas township. In his undertakings be prospered and became a large land-owner, having about twelve hundred acres at one time. He made judicious investments in real estate and the rise in land values augmented his capital. Both he and his wife died in Dallas township. They were the parents of six children : Mrs. Mary Ann Coulter, a widow residing in Toledo; Martha E., deceased ; Jonathan ; Elizabeth, who died in girlhood ; Nelson, who died at the age of sixteen years; and Matthew L., a farmer of Dallas township. Mr. Carmean, of this review, was reared in Dallas township and pursued hid education in the common schools. He remained with his parents until twenty-three years of age, at which time he married Sarah Jane Goodman, who died about 1890, leaving three children. The daughter, Dilla, however, passed away when twenty-five years of age, and Irvin died at the age of twenty-two. The surviving children are: Alonzo, a farmer of Bucyrus township; Arizona, a farmer of Dallas township ; and Eva, the wife of Peter Metzker, of Bucyrus township. During the year after his marriage Mr. Carmean located upon a farm, remaining there for about twelve months, when he removed to his present farm in Bucyrus township. He to-day owns .eight hundred and thirty acres of valuable land, of which five hundred and seventy acres is comprised in the home place, which is known as the Elm Tree Farm. The latest improved machinery, well kept fences and substantial buildings are among the leading features of this model farm. Mr. Carmean has engaged in raising and dealing in cattle and now buys and sells stock, being well known in this line of business throughout his portion of Ohio. He has one hundred and fifty head of cattle, twenty brood sows and high grades of sheep and hogs. He is recognized as one of the leading agriculturists of the community. Systematic and methodical, enterprising and progressive, and his carefully directed business interests have brought to him a splendid financial return. In his political views he is a Republican. GEORGE J. EBERHART. A prominent farmer and highly esteemed citizen of Crawford county is George J. Eberhart, who was born in Cranberry township, this county, on June 30, 1843. He was a son of George F. and Catherine (Humm) Eberhart. His father was born in Germany and his mother in Stark county, Ohio. When George J. was four years old his father died, and at the age of fifteen the son was apprenticed to John Myers, a blacksmith, for a period of three years. 342 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. After finishing his course in this trade he worked as a journeyman for one year, and then with his mother and two brothers took passage for America. The voyage consumed forty-two days and no doubt they were glad to enter safely the harbor of New York. They knew that many of their countrymen had settled in Bucyrus, Ohio, and hither they came, arriving on September 14, 1832, Employment was soon given Mr. Eberhart as a chain-carrier for John Schliever, in laying out the village of Schlievertown, later Annapolis, now Sulphur Springs, and afterward he easily secured work of Mr. Frederick Beard; at his trade. Later he went to Harrisburg, Stark county, Ohio, thence to Louisville, in the same county, and there conducted a blacksmith shop for himself, remaining in business there until his marriage on February 14, 1834, to Miss Catherine Humm. To this union seven children were born, the four survivors being: Mary, the wife of John Ulmer, of Cranberry township; Elizabeth, the wife of Frederick Yieter; of Kent county, Michigan; our subject ; and Christina, the wife of Adam Keplinger, of Chatfield township. Following his marriage Mr. Eberhart purchased a small tract of land, but two years later he sold this and removed to Liberty township, in Crawford county, where he bought a small farm and immediately began its improvement. For some years he continued to operate this farm, and to also work at his trade, but then returned to Stark county and purchased a fine farm of one hundred acres. Two years later found him back in Crawford county, and at this time he. located on a farm in Cranberry township, on which he remained for thirty-four years. During this time he dealt extensively in real estate in Cranberry township, but later he removed to Holmes township and became the owner of one of the best improved farms in the county. He died in May, 1901, in Chatfield township, at the home of his daughter. He was an active member of the Albright church for many years, but in later life advancing age prevented his attendance upon the services. In early life lie was for several years a "local preacher'; in the German Lutheran church. George J. Eberhart grew to manhood on the farm, but had few educational advantages. In 1865 occurred his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Schieber, who was born in Liberty township, and was a daughter of Gottleib Schieber, who was one of the old pioneers of this county and of Liberty township. Five children were born to our subject and wife, these being : John B., at home; Matilda, the wife of Rev. Joseph Mack, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Mary,. the wife of Adam Bittikoffer, of Liberty township; and Oma and Orlando. CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 343 F., at home. Mrs. Eberhart died September 4, 1900, at the age of fifty-two years. During the two years following our subject's marriage he cultivated a tract of land for his father, which comprised eighty acres, in Cranberry township, and then came to Holmes township and rented the farm which is now owned by George Orthwein. Here our subject and family lived but one year, removing then to his most desirable home property at the expiration of that time. This farm is considered one of the most valuable ones in the county and has received most intelligent cultivation. It consists of one hundred and ten acres and is well improved. Mr. Eberhart is a Republican, believing firmly in the principles of that party, and is a member and liberal supporter of the German Methodist church, to which his wife also belonged. Few men in the county enjoy more fully the esteem of the community than does George J. Eberhart. HARRISON SMITH. Few employes of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad have been longer in the service of the company than Harrison Smith, a well-known and popular conductor living in Crestline. He was born in Holmes county, Ohio, December 20, 1841. His father, Jonathan Smith, also a native of the Buckeye state, was a farmer by occupation, born in 1815. He is still living, his home being now on Turman's creek, in Sullivan county, Indiana. He married Miss Sarah Slagle, a native of Ohio, born in 1817, and she is also living. This worthy couple became the parents of eleven children, of whom ten reached years of maturity, while eight still survive. Harrison Smith, of this review, was the third child and was reared upon the old homestead farm in his native county, his time being devoted to the work of the field and meadow and in mastering the branches of English learning, as taught in the schools near his home. He assisted his father on the farm during the summer time until twenty years of age, but not desiring to follow the plow as a life work, he then made other arrangements, becoming a brakeman on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, running between Crestline and Alliance. ..He was upon that train from 1865 until 1869, when he was promoted to the position of conductor, and thus served until 1885. His run was then changed from Crestline to Conway, Pennsylvania, and on that route he remained for four years, when he was sent through to the outer depot in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. However, he was afterward re- 344 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. turned to the Conway run and since that time has been continued. upon the road between Crestline and Pittsburg. He is the oldest conductor on the road, having been in the employ of the company for forty years. In 1867 occurred the marriage of Harrison Smith and Miss Emma Wiggins, who was born near Loudonville, Ashland county, Ohio. They had eight children, of whom seven are yet living, namely : Maine, wife of G. O. Davis, of Crestline, Ohio; Roy, who married Laura Smetzer and is living in Crestline; Nettie; Archie; Lewis; Otto; and May. Of this number Otto is a clerk in the railway office. Archie is a boilermaker for the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company. .Lewis is a fireman in the employ of the same company ; and Roy is airbrake inspector on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago road. Mr. Smith has made Crestline his home since 1861, the year in which he entered the railway service. He is a Republican in politics and carried Major McKinley in his caboose from Alliance to Canton when the Major was governor of this state. Mr. Smith tells how the president look his razor and shaved himself when the train was running at twenty miles an hour. Mr. Smith is a member of the Volunteer Relief Association and the Order of Railway Conductors. In all of his long and varied experience on the road he has never had a collision. He has run on one caboose for twenty-one years and is still in charge. He is most painstaking and reliable in the performance of his duties and enjoys the unqualified confidence and trust of his superiors. All who know him entertain for him high regard, for he possesses many excellent characteristics and is truly worthy of the friendship and esteem of his fellowmen. PHILIP SCHULER. Philip Schuler, who is a well-known representative of various reliable insurance companies and is regarded as one of the enterprising citizens of Galion, was born in Kenzingen, Baden, Germany, in 1853, his parents being Philip and Mary Anna (Vogt) Schiller. The father was born in Ebringen, near Freiburg, Baden, in 1809, and the mother's birth occurred in Dorsenheim, near Heidelberg, in 1821. Their eldest son, William Schuler, is now a professor in the University of Bavaria. Another son, Edward Schiller, is a prominent railroad official in Carlsruhe in Baden. Mannheim, Baden, is the residence of Carl Schiller, a third brother, who is a manager in the transportation department of foreign shipping for that district. Emil is in Saratow, CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 345 Russia, where he is extensively engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements and motors and has a large plant there, employing two hundred men. At a former date he was a civil engineer on a Russian railroad. One of the brothers, Gustave Schiller, was engaged in the brewing business in Chicago, Illinois, and died in 1874, leaving a widow, Mrs. Johanna Schuler. One of the daughters of the family, Anna, became the wife of Carl Schreiber, of Donaueschingen, Baden, where he is engaged in the confectionery business. Louisa is the wife of R. F. Kleeman, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Rosa is the wife of Fred Amann, a grocer of Galion, Ohio. The parents of this family have both passed away, the father having died in 1882, at the age of seventy-three years, while the mother's death occurred in 1898, when she was seventy-eight years of age. Mr. Schuler, whose name introduces this record, attended the schools of the fatherland until thirteen years of age and then crossed the Atlantic to America, where he continued his education for two years. On the expiration of that period he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was engaged in the confectionery business, and in 1873 he came to Galion, being then a young man of twenty years. Here he conducted a hotel until 1877, when he opened a grocery store, carrying on that enterprise until 1893, when he became agent . for several well-known and reliable life, fire and accident insurance companies. As a representative of those firms he is now carrying on business, annually writing many policies. He has also been quite prominent in public affairs and his worth and ability have frequently led to his selection for office. in 1883 he was elected to the council of Galion, and was president of the council from 1885 until 1887. In the latter year he was elected to the state legislature, where he served his district so acceptably that he was re-elected in 1889. He was one, of the active working members of the house, laboring earnestly to secure the passage of those measures and bills which were introduced and which he believed would prove of benefit to the commonwealth. He himself introduced several important measures and left the impress of his individuality upon the state during the term of his service. At the present time he is a member of the Galion city board of equalization. He still takes an active interest in politics and is heartily in sympathy with Democratic principles, believing that they contain the best elements of good government. In Galion Mr. Schuler was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Amann, a daughter of .George Amann, a retired farmer living in Galion. They now-have seven children : R. F. is the manager and a stockholder in the Emil Schiller Manufacturing Company, of Saratow, Russia. In the spring of 346 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.. 1901. R. F. bought out the Emil Schiller Manufacturing Company. He acquired his education in Galion and there learned the machinist's trade. In October, 1900, he married Eliza Ehrt. The second son, H. R. Schuler, was educated in Galion, is now a law student in Leyton University and acting as clerk in the census department at Washington, D. C. V. J. is employed as a machinist by the Erie Railroad Company at Galion. Laura, Estella, Marie and Catherine, the daughters of the family, are all at home. Mr. Schuler and his family are communicants of the German Catholic church and he belongs to the Catholic Knights of Ohio and the Catholic Knights of America, being president of the Galion branch of the latter. HENRY LEIMENSTOLL. Competence comes to the industrious and thrifty, and there is no element in the American nation in which these traits are more conspicuous than the German. Among the highly esteemed citizens of Holmes township, of German birth, is Henry Leimenstoll, who was born, in Baden, Germany, on February 21, 1831, a son of Christian and Catherine (Silmen) Leimenstoll. There were two children of his parents, but our subject is the only survivor. The birth of Christian Leimenstoll was in Baden, Germany, in 1800, and he was there taught the trade of shoemaker. In Germany he married, and there both of his children were born. About 1834 he emigrated to America with his family, the hope of a more comfortable life, with its compensations, urging the breaking of old ties. No loitering was done in New York City, the family coming immediately to Sandusky, Ohio. There the mother and children remained for six weeks, while Mr. Leimenstoll looked for a suitable location. With his brother-in-law, George Silmen, who came in the same vessel, he finally bought a farm of sixty acres, on the site of. Scudder's Station, and here they lived until the following spring, when he sold his interest to Mr. Silmen and came on into Crawford county. He located one and one-fourth miles southeast of Chatfield, in Chatfield township, where he purchased forty acres of land, and here he built a hewed-log house in the forest. Rude and rough it was, but in it was the comfort of a home. In subsequent years he purchased a farm of eighty acres some four miles southwest of his home farm, but continued to make his home on his pioneer land until his death, in his sixty-fourth year. The mother survived until December 29, 1887, and died in her eighty-ninth year. Mr. Leimenstoll was a consistent member of a religious body, and was an industrious and worthy man. CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY - 347 Henry Leimenstoll passed his boyhood and youth on the farm, always finding something to do and cheerfully performing the duties which fell upon him, as the only boy of the family. On January 28, 1858, he was united in marriage with Sophia Linn, a native of Holmes. township, the daughter of William and Sophia (Veivle) Linn. After marriage the young couple settled down to domestic life on the home farm, and the parents lived with them until they passed out of life. In 1866 Henry purchased his present home farm of one hundred and twenty acres, and exchanged the old parental home farm for the eighty acres located across the road from the new purchase. Later he bought forty acres and now owns two hundred and forty acres, on each side of the road, some of the best farming land in the county. Fourteen children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Leimenstoll, and twelve of these survive, viz.: Mary A., the wife of Henry Geissman, of Cranberry township, this county; Christian, of Whetstone township; Sophia, the wife of Charles Geissman, of Chatfield township ; John and Jacob, of this township; Sarah, the wife of Wesley Krauter, of Liberty township ; and Anna, Lydia, Daniel, Reuben, Martha and Louisa, all at home. The deceased children, Caroline and Catherine, died in childhood. Like his father, he inclines toward the Democratic party in politics. He is a member of the Pietist church, and is one of the thoroughly trusted and esteemed citizens of this section of the county. HIRAM E. SMITH. Hiram E. Smith, the subject of this sketch, was born in Erie county, Ohio, on the 21st day of February, 1866. His parents were Welding E. Smith and Charlotte (Ashton) Smith. On the paternal side we find his ancestors on one side expelled from north France on account of religious differences among the people at that time, and emigrating to America in the year 1743 and settling in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. On the other side his father's ancestors were English. They settled in and around Norwalk and Derby, Connecticut, early in the country's history. Here we find them fighting Indians and later doing good service against the British during the war for independence. On the maternal side his ancestors were all English. His grandparents, Thomas Ashton and Mary (Edgar) Ashton, emigrated to this country as children from England with their parents early in the nineteenth century and settled in Huron county, Ohio. On both sides his ancestors were prosperous and enterprising people. 348 - CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. In the spring of 1866 his parents removed to Monroeville, Ohio, where his father engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements. At the age of six he entered the public school at Monroeville, graduating from that institution in the spring of 1885. After teaching school for two years he decided to try his fortune in the west, and on the 4th of July, 1887, landed at Oberlin, Decatur county, Kansas. During the following September he settled on a quarter section of government land, when there was no house within sight of his. The wolves and coyotes were plentiful and made the nights hideous around his sod house. Antelopes were seen occasionally, and jack rabbits were common. Here he lived alone, boarded himself and taught school, riding from fifteen to twenty miles daily to and from school. During that winter the thermometer registered lower than twenty-seven degress below zero, Fahr., for six straight weeks. During the following March lie proved up on his claim, and by paying one dollar and a quarter per acre received a government patent for one hundred and sixty acres of land. In October, 1889, he returned to Ohio and went into business with his brother at Monroeville, Ohio, manufacturing bent wood and hardwood lumber. Here he remained until May, -1893, when he came to Galion, Crawford county, Ohio, bought out the stockholders of the Weaver Bending Company, manufacturers of bent felloes, spokes and hardwood lumber, and has successfully carried on the above business for the past eight years. On the 14th day of June, 1894, he was united in marriage to, Miss Harriet G. Fish, daughter of George S. and Frances (Buckingham) Fish, of Monroeville, Ohio. Two children bless the union, a boy and a girl, Walter and Dorothy. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Episcopal church, a thirty-second degree Mason and an upright, honorable and respected citizen. MAJOR EDMUND ROBERTS KEARSLEY. The history of a state, as well as that of a nation, is chiefly the chronicle of the lives and deeds of those who have conferred honor and dignity upon society. The world judges the character of a community by that of its representative citizens, and yields its tribute of admiration and respect for the genius, learning or virtues of those whose works and actions constitute the record of a state's prosperity and pride; and it is in their character, as exemplified in probity and benevolence, kindly virtues and integrity in the affairs of life, are ever affording worthy examples for emulation and valuable lessons