HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1075 (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) His father was the late John Reiber, who was born in Hesse, Germany, April 8, 1836, and died at his home on the farm near the lake shore in Erie County August 16, 1901. His father, Henry Reiber, was a native of the same province and married a German girl who died in the old country when in middle life. She was the mother of John Reiber and two daughters, Eva and Catherine. In 1856 John H. Reiber set out for the New World, making the journey from Bremen to New York, and not long afterward locating in Vermilion Township of Erie County. Within a year or two he was followed by his father and the two daughters, who joined him at his new home. Henry Reiber died in Erie County when past seventy years of age. All the family were members of the German Reformed Church. The daughter Eva died after her marriage to George Akers, who is also deceased, but they have a son still living and well known in Erie County. The daughter Catherine is the widow of Henry Fischer, lives on the lake shore in Berlin Township at Ceylon Junction, and has a family of children. John H. Reiber after coming to this country worked as a farm hand for some years. His wages were about six dollars a month, and the days of labor were in no wise restricted as they are now, and he toiled from early morning until late at night, frequently for twelve or thirteen hours out of each twenty-four. After that for some years he was a tenant farmer, and finally bought fifty-seven acres south of the Lake Shore Railroad, that being the place now owned by his son John. He also bought fifty acres north of the Lake Shore Railroad near the lake. Here he built a good house in 1896, and had previously erected a substantial barn. That was the home where he spent his last. years. He was a democrat in politics and an official member of the German Reformed Church at Mittewanga, and helped to build the church edifice there and was one of its organizers. He had a great deal to show for his strenuous efforts while a resident of Erie County. His widow still occupies a substantial nine-room house on the old farm near the lake shore. He placed many other improvements on the farm and had a peach and apple orchard. The late John Reiber was married in Berlin Township to Miss Catherine Gundlach. She was born in Salzburg, Hesse,. Germany, June 6, 1846, and was eleven years of age when she came on a sailing vessel from Bremerhaven to New York, a voyage that required thirty days. From there she came on to Berlin Township with her parents, Heinrich and Anna B. (Hebeg) Gundlach, who were natives of the same province in Germany. Mrs. Reiber's Grandfather Gundlach and her Uncle Jacob were well known educators in Germany and the latter in recognition of his services had received from the Kaiser several medals. Mrs. Reiber's parents lived on a farm in Berlin Township, and died there when quite old people. They were members of the German Reformed Church. Mrs. Reiber still occupies the old home farm on the lake shore, and for years has been active in supporting the German Reformed Church at Mittewanga. John H. Reiber was married in Berlin Township near Ceylon Junction to Miss Catherine Otto, member of the well known Otto family of Erie County. She was born in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County January 7, 1873, and was reared and educated in Berlin Township. She is the third daughter and child of Jacob Otto. Mr. and Mrs. Reiber are the parents of three children: Catherine, born February 8, 1905; George, born June 17, 1912; and Edna, born November 7, 1914. One son John Jr., died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Reiber are members of the Mittewanga German Reformed Church. They are people of the finest worth and character, 1076 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY maintain their place in social affairs, and lend their influence to everything for the betterment of their community.' HENRY KUEMMEL. From a German farm hand working at wages of $18 a month to the presidency of the Bass Islands Vineyard-s Company indicates a remarkable rise in prosperity and general influence. It is a brief manner of stating the career of Henry Kuemmel, one of Sandusky's leading citizens and business men. He is now at the head of the Bass Islands Vineyards Company, which control the islands of that name and cultivate their fertile hills to the growing of grapes, which, owing to location and climatic conditions, have a remarkable quality and flavor. These grapes are manufactured into two of the best known and highest grade brands of grape juice, one being the Dark Concord and the other the Golden Catawba. No grape juice on the market commands a higher price than the product of the Bass Islands vineyards, and its market is found in practically all parts of the world. Henry Kuemmel, was born in Germany, February 19, 1860, and came to America in 1893. He located on a farm on the Bass Islands, and worked for the next three years at $18 a month. He was then employed in a vineyard for a time and was paid the same wages for his services there. His next work was with the Sandusky Fish Company for four years, after which he formed a partnership with A. L. Hitchcock, under the firm name of Hitchcock & Kuemmel, to engage in the fish business. They were associated in business for a year and a half, and Mr. Kuemmel. then purchased the business and conducted it alone for a period. He then took in a partner, Henry H. Liesheit, and this continued for about three years. Mr. Kuemmel then formed a partnership with two of his nephews, under the firm name of Kuemmel & Company, and engaged in operating a vineyard on a farm he had bought a year or two previously on Bass Islands. In 1906, under his lead, was organized the Bass Islands Vineyards Company, of which he was made president. With himself as president the Bass Islands Vineyards Company has been steadily enlarging its facilities and increasing product in quality and insuring a steady demand for all that can be manufactured. In 1908 the company erected a large and thoroughly equipped building, 85 by 160 feet, on North Depot Street, in Sandusky, and the plant has a capacity for turning out 50,000 cases of grape juice annually. It has the most modern machinery and appliances and the building itself is a modern fireproof structure. Mr. Kuemmel is now recognized as one of the largest vineyard operators around Lake Erie. He has a nice home on Middle Bass Island. Mr. Kuemmel married Jennie Wilhelm, of Sandusky, Ohio, and his three children are : John W., born December 19, 1900, a student in the Sandusky High School, entering when twelve years of age ; August O. P., born September 10,, 1908; and Conrad Henry, born May 17, 1910. WILLIAM VOLLMER. Erie County has been fortunate in the class of citizens who have made their permanent home here, and it can take a special pride in those families that came here from Germany. An excellent representative of this class of local citizens is William Vollmer, who came here when a young man without capital and by hard work and good management has made an excellent farm home for himself and family. He was born in Kurhessen, Germany, July 3, 1854. His parents, George and Martha (Lapp) Vollmer, were natives ethe same province and of old German stock and ancestry. His father was a farmer, and both parents spent their lives in Germany, where they died when past seventy years of age. They were members of the German Reformed PICTURE OF HENRY KUEMMEL HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1077 Church. There were three sons and three daughters, and only one of these are now living besides William, his brother George, who resides in Germany and has a family of nine children. One of his sons, John, came to America seine years ago and now lives in Blissfield, Michigan, where he was married about two years ago. After the manner of German youth William Vollmer grew to manhood, attended the schools and was taught the value of industry and Kurhessen, Germany, July 16, 1865, and was reared and educated there to establish a home of his own and in that time he became acquainted not only with local customs and conditions, but managed to save something out of his earnings so as with Jacob Otto. Then followed four or five years of incessant labor, New York City. From there he came on to Vermilion Township and arriving as a stranger in a strange land and with nothing to commend him to the confidence of the new people except his honest intentions and ability to work, he found his first employment as a farm hand honesty. In October, 1880, at the age of twenty-six, he set from Bremerhaven, and came across the Atlantic on a steamship, landing in In 1886 he married Miss Catherine Sennheim. She was born in She was about nineteen when the family, consisting of her parents, Detrich and Elizabeth (Brandau) Sennheim, with their two sons and five daughters, set out from Bremen to New York City. They arrived in the year 1884, and coming west located ,in Vermilion Township of Erie County. Mrs. Vollmer's mother was born January 8, 1839, and died in Vermilion Township September 8, 1896. Her father was born in 1838 and died April 11, 1906, at the age of sixty-eight. Both were members of the German Reformed Church, and her father was a democrat. Mrs. Vollmer's brother, J. Nicholas, is married and lives in the Village of Vermilion and has two daughters. Her sister Minnie is the wife of Henry Glime of Florence Township, and they have nine children, six sons and three daughters. Barbara E. is the wife of Peter Brod, a farmer of Berlin Township, and their family consists of two sons and three daughters. Martha is the wife of Conrad Grisel of Florence Township, and they have six sons and three daughters. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Vollmer located on the Bailee farm in Vermilion Township. They had little to begin housekeeping on, but as renters they went steadily ahead for six years, and at the end of that time had a good deal to show for their efforts. With such means as he had Mr. Vollmer in April, 1892, bought a farm of forty- four acres on the Risden Road, or the old State Road to the lake. Since then more than twenty years have passed. These years have been accompanied by regular improvement and a general raising of standards of comfort and living in the Vollmer household. Mr. Vollnaer has a substantial seven-room house for his family, a good barn 30 by 42 feet, and he has put up both these buildings since he bought the farm. He has shown more than average ability in the raising of staple crops, and keeps some good grades of livestock. One feature of his farm is the vineyard of 1 1/2 acres. In the meantime four children have blessed their home. John, the oldest, graduated from the Vermilion High School with the class of 1904, was a teacher for five years and also studied pharmacy in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, and after graduating took the management of the Jamison drug store at Lo;ain, where he now lives. He married Miss Mabel Spielman of Crestline, Ohio. George M., the second child, was educated in the grade schools and for the past seven years has been employed on a Lake Erie vessel, and is still unmarried. Martha E. is the wife of John Reinhart, a stationary engineer living at Brownhelm in Lorain County. William George, the youngest, is 1078 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY sixteen years of age, and has already finished the eighth grade of the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Vollmer are members of the Reformed Church, while Mr. Vollmer and sons are democrats in politics. FRED D. SMITH. One of the well to do families of Erie County is represented by Fred D. Smith, who formerly made his special success as a nurseryman and who now owns and conducts a fine farm situated on rural route No. 2 out of the Village of Vermilion. For nearly a century of time the members of Mr. Smith's family have been identified with the development and progress of this section of Northern Ohio. Fred D. Smith himself was born in Vermilion Township September 15, 1858, a son of Alfred and Julia (Poyer) Smith. Alfred Smith was born in Cattaraugus County, New York, in 1825, a son of Dr. and Anna (Bratton) Smith. These grandparents were both natives of Bennington, Vermont, where the grandfather was born about 1786 or 1787. On both sides there were ancestors who had borne a gallant part as soldiers on the American side in the Revolution. Doctor Smith and wife after their marriage moved to Northeastern New York, where he secured land from the Holland Company, and still some years later he removed to the vicinity of Buffalo in Western New York. While there he enlisted and served in the War of 1812. The nineteenth century was still young and everything west of the Alleghenies was new country when the Smith family finally moved from Western New York to Ashtabula, Ohio. Still later by a few years they made another move and this time established a. permanent home in Vermilion Township of Erie County. Here Doctor Smith spent the rest of his days and passed away in 1872, while his widow survived until 1876. She was in many ways a remarkable woman, had keen intelligence and a wit, and maintained her faculties at full up to the age of ninety. The grandfather was first a whig and later a republican in politics. Alfred Smith was a young man when he came to Erie County, and grew up in Vermilion Township. He came to be well known through his business as a stock and horse trader. He bought large numbers of horses in Ohio to take to the lumber camps in the northern woods of Michigan. He also bought cattle on an extended scale, and continued trading, dealing and shipping livestock all his active career. He was well known in two states. His death occurred in 1870. In politics he was a republican. His wife, who was the daughter of Tilly and Mary (Curtis) Boyer, was born in 1836 and died in 1893. Her parents were born in Connecticut, and after their marriage settled in Erie County. Tilly Poyer was three times married, and died in very advanced life. To the marriage of Alfred Smith and wife were born three children, the oldest being Fred D. Belle is the wife of Horace Ball, and they now reside at West Vermilion in Vermilion Township, and have a son Herman, a young man of twenty-four. Lewis, the only brother of Fred, lives in the Village of Vermilion and by his marriage to Nellie Goldsmith has three sons, Alfred, Warren 'and Sterling. Fred D. Smith was reared and educated in Vermilion Township. As a boy he attended the local schools, had practical lessons at home in the value of steady industry and in good habits and honorable principles. He took up farming a his active vocation and -for many years he was engaged in the nursery business, and supplied the young stock for a great many fine orchards in this part of Ohio. His home farm comprises about sixty acres located on the Bartow Ridge Road. In that locality he has lived for the past twenty-five years, and is one of the older and more successful citizens of that community. He has PICTURE OF LUCIUS L. STODDARD HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1079 a good home, has a family, and a great many friends in Vermilion and others townships of Erie County. Mr. Smith was married in this township to Ida Roberts. She was born in Florence Township in 1863, and died at her home in Vermilion Township December 5, 1905. Her father, Marcus Roberts, who married a Miss Hardy, came from the State of Connecticut and was one of the earlier settlers of Erie County. She died in Florence Township about twenty-eight years ago. Mr. Smith has one son, Marcus R., who is now seventeen years of age and is in the third year of the Vermilion High School. LUCIUS L. STODDARD. A life of varied experience and useful activities was lived by the late Lucius L. Stoddard, who was a native, of Milan, and died at his home in that village on May 10, 1907. His family were identified with the pioneer settlement in this part of Northern Ohio, and Mr. Stoddard himself was a veteran of the Civil war, and made an honorable record in every relationship of his career. Born in Milan September 17, 1839, he was a son of Horace and Sallie P. (Parks) Stoddard. His father was born in Greene County, New York, August 17, 1808, and his mother in Caledonia County, Vermont, September 21, 1814. They came as young people to Huron County, Ohio, and were married at Norwalk June 1, 1837. Later on they moved to Milan, where Horace Stoddard kept a. shop and did custom shoe making, having learned his trade in Buffalo, New York, when that city was little more than a village. After some years as a shoemaker he branched out into the grocery trade and continued mercantile lines for many years until he retired and went to live with his sun, Horace H., in Chicago. He died there February 27, 1883, when about eighty years of age. His wife had passed away in Milan December 15, 1852, when in the prime of life. They were members of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics he was a republican. Of their three children, the oldest, Horace H., was born in Milan May 5, 1838, has for many years been a resident of Chicago, where he is a real estate dealer and enjoys other influential and successful connections, and by his marriage to Anna Bull of Illinois has a son, Horace H., Jr., who is also living in Chicago and is married. The second child was the late Lucius L. Stoddard. Wayne W., the youngest of the three, was born at Milan December 15, 1850, and is still living in Milan, a prosperous farmer and onion grower. He was married November 9, 1881, to Theda E. Kline, and their two daughters, Grace and Marian, completed their education in the village schools and are still at home. Theda E. Kline, wife of Wayne W. Stoddard, was born in Milan March 4, 1852, a daughter of DeWitt and Elvira (Adams) Kline. Her father was born in Milan April 18, 1820, and her mother was born at Farmersville, New York, April 15, 1822, and a4 a young girl came to Milan. DeWitt Kline died at Milan October 112, 1871, and his widow survived until July 29, 1901. Mr. Kline was a skillful and well known ship carpenter in this county, a republican in politics, and his wife was a member of the Presbyterian Church. DeWitt Kline was a son of William and Margaret (Minuse) Kline. The former was born December 23, 1776, and the latter on January 23, 1782, both in New York City, where they grew up and married. In 1819 the Kline family mite West and as pioneers settled , in Erie County, where William Kline bought the farm on which was built the old and historic landmark of Fort Avery in Milan Township. These old settlers spent the rest of their lives and died in Milan Township. Lucius L. Stoddard spent his boyhood and early youth in Milan Village, and after completing his education qualified for work as a teacher and was identified with country schoolS for several years. Dur- 1080 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY ing the Civil war he was in the hundred-day service, fine after the war took a position as a clerk with the firm of J. C. Lockwood & Company at Milan. This connection led to his permanent career as a merchant and banker. After some years he became a partner in the Lockwood establishment and still later was associated with Mr. Lockwood in establishing the private bank known as The Milan Banking Company. After the death of Mr. Lockwood, his widow retained her interests for several years, but since 1900 Mr. Stoddard conducted the bank as its chief proprietor. In the meantime he took into partnership his son-in• law, A. H. Cowley, and Mr. Cowley wound up the affairs of the bank after Mr. Stoddard died. In politics he was always a stanch republican but could never be persuaded to accept any official honors. He was active in the Presbyterian Church, was a member of the Masonic Order, and his influence and help could always be counted upon to aid the many local movements of benefit. In 1870, at Milan, Mr. Stoddard married Mrs. Eliza Jane (Edison) White. Mrs. Stoddard is a first cousin of Thomas A. Edison, the famous inventor, whose birthplace was in Erie County. Her parents were Thomas and Mary Ann (Harris) Edison, and her father was brother to Thomas Edison's father. Her parents were both born in New York State, but were married in Canada, and spent the rest of their lives in Ontario, where her father, who was born in 1800, died in 1869. His widow died at Whitby, Canada, at the age of eighty-six. They were members of the Presbyterian Church. Two of the Edison daughters married ministers of the Presbyterian Church. Rachael became the wife of Rev. William Doak, and she died leaving a son and daughter. Sarah married Rev. John Abraham, and they are still living in Toronto, Canada, where Mr. Abraham is a retired Presbyterian minister, and they have a son, Rev. Albert, who is now a pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Guelph, Ontario. Another sister of Mrs. Stoddard was Martha, who married William McIntosh and died in Minneapolis leaving three daughters. Mrs. Stoddard's first husband was Richard P. White of Quebec, Canada, of English and Scotch parentage. He was educated in Aberdeen, Scotland, for a career as a physician, but never practiced, and instead took up a business career as a lumber dealer. His business transactions in the lumber trade brought him to Ohio and to Cleveland and .he died in that city about the close of the Civil war, when thirty-six years of age. He was a man of excellent ability and had his life been spared would undoubtedly have gained a splendid success and high position. He was a member of the Presbyterian dhurch. There was one daughter by Mrs. Stoddard's first marriage, Mary White, who was educated in Milan, and married A. H. Cowley, who is now prominently identified with the Norwalk Canning Company, and was formerly associated with Mr. Stoddard in the banking business. The Cowley family live at Milan. There was another child, the eldest, by Mrs. Stoddard's marriage to Mr. White, named Nellie, who died at the age of five months. Mrs. Stoddard by her second marriage had a daughter, Sarah, who was born, reared and educated in Milan, and is the wife of Walter E. LaChance. Mr. LaChance is a native of Canada, and of the old French-Canadian stock of that country. He was well educated and is now a successful architect and engaged temporarily in the line of his profession in Manitoba, Canada, though his home is in Milan. Mrs. LaChance lives with her mother, Mrs. Stoddard, and the LaChance children are : Marcellette, who was born in 1894, was educated at Milan and in Cleveland, and is now the wife of Wells 0. Moore, and they live on Center Street in Milan and have an infant child, Wells Walter Moore. Alva E. LeChance, born August 4, 1899, is now a student in the Milan High School. Annetta, born March HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1081 21, 1902, is now in the seventh grade of the public schools. Mrs. Stoddard is a member of the Presbyterian Church. GUSTAVUS H. SCHROEDER. There is always a place in any community for such a sterling and industrious citizen as Gustavus H. Schroeder. He has accepted the opportumities that have come to him in the course of his career, has lived peaceably and honorably among his friends and neighbors, and now in his declining years is able to enjoy the comforts of one of the good rural homes of Vermilion Township. His birthplace was on the shores of the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg, Germany, where he first saw the light of day December 21, 1840. His parents were Charles and Sophia (Poegensee) Schroeder, both of whom were born in 1799. Charles Schroeder was a physician. by profession, and also took a leading part in political affairs in his home province. On account of this activity during the revolution of 1848 he was thrown into prison charged with an active part in the revolution. He remained in confinement for three weeks but the charges were not proved and he was finally released. This experience made him somewhat discouraged with political conditions in the old country, and he began to prepare to found a home in the New World. In November, 1852, he and his youngest daughter Ida came by sailing vessel, seven weeks in crossing, to America. From New York he came on to Cleveland, and there joined some friends and kinsmen. The following year his wife, with the son Gustavus and a daughter Bertha followed him. They took passage on the sailing vessel North America and landed in New York City, August 5, 1853. There the family were reunited, and the father accompanied his wife and children on to Cleveland, but after a year of residence in that city moved to Russia Township in Lorain County. He bought land, lived as a farmer there for three years, and then moved to Florence Township in Erie County, where he bought a small farm of twenty acres. That was the home of the Schroeder family for a number of years, but late in life Charles Schroeder and wife went to the home of their son Gustavus on the Barnes Road in Vermilion Township. There they spent their last years, and the father died in 1884 at the age of eighty-five and his wife in 1892 aged ninety-three. They were people of rugged vitality and kept their faculties bright almost to the end. Gustavus H. Schroeder is now the only living child of his parents. His sister Ida first married Oscar Wennerster by whom she had two daughters, and for her second husband married William Heyman, and both are now deceased, leaving one son. Bertha, the other sister of Mr. Schroeder, married Henry Greenlund of Cincinnati, and both died there, being survived by a son who is a druggist in that city. During the early years he spent in his native country Gustavus H. Schroeder attended the public schools. He was between twelve and thirteen when he came to America, and after that he was reared on a farm and had only few opportunities to continue his schooling. In the fifty odd years since he reached his years of manhood he has spent the greater part of them in successful farming pursuits. More than thirty years ago he bought the forty acres included in his present farm, and in many ways has improved and equipped that for profitable agriculture and as a home of ample comforts. He raises a great deal of fruits, and has a three-acre apple orchard, seven acres of peach trees; and other fields devoted to general crops. His home is a substantial eight-room house, and around it are a number of barns and other buildings. Mr. Schroeder was married in Lorain County to Miss Elizabeth Miller. She was born in Amherst Township of that county November Vol. II-39 1082 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 3, 1850, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were Jacob and Catherine (Baker) Miller, both of whom were natives of Bavaria, Germany, and came to the United States with their one child, locating in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County in 1849. From there they went many years later to live with their daughter, Catherine Gageheimer, in Axtel, Vermilion Township. Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder have two children: Anna, wife of Henry Will of Vermilion Township ; and Charles. Mr. Schroeder is a republican in politics. Among other things he has to his credit a service in the Civil war. He was a very young man at the time, and enlisted toward the end of the war, and while doing his duty faithfully as a soldier it was not his fortune to be engaged in any really important battle. GEORGE H. DICKEL. The name Dickel in Erie County means thrift and enterprise. George H. Dickel of Vermilion Township is no exception to the rule. He is by trade a practical mechanic, and has exercised his skill and experience to good advantage in the management of his farm. This farm is located on rural route No. 2 out of Vermilion post-office, and is one of the older places in this section of the county. Mr. Dickel has reconstructed an old log house that was built fully a century ago, and has in many ways effected interesting improvement to increase the value of the farm as a productive enterprise and as a home. One of the features of the place is a. large barn 24 by 88 feet to care for his stock and grain, a fifty-ton silo, and he also has a machine for grinding grain for stock, a blacksmith shop, and all other necessary facilities. A member of the well known Dickel family of Vermilion Township, he was born on the Bartow Ridge Road in this township October 8, 1881, and is a son of George and Catherine (Cook) Dickel. His parents were natives of Germany and his father was born February 25, 1837, and recently passed his seventy-eighth birthday. His mother was born four years later and died October 20, 1905, in Berlin Township. These worthy people grew .up and married in Germany, and four children were born to them in the old country. They came to America by sailing vessel, and on arriving in Vermilion Township George Dickel, Sr., bought seventy-six acres of land, but subsequently moved to Ceylon in Berlin Township., and after the death of his wife lived at the home of a daughter in Vermilion Township. He married for his. second wife Catherine Hinze, and they are still living in Vermilion Township. The four children who were born in Germany are Mary, Eliza, Anna and Charles, all living and married. Those born after the family came to America, are: Martha, wife of Ed Kishman; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Walper; John; Gertrude, wife of Elva Heyman; and George. In his native township George H. Dickel grew to manhood and acquired his education in the public schools. He left the farm soon after completing his education and learned the trade of iron moulder, which he followed for several years, and then worked with the Nickel Plate Railway as bridge carpenter,. and- also as a section hand. He then went to farming near Berlin Height* as an employe of Henry Ferber, afterwards spent some time on the old homestead and in different parts of the county up- to September, 1911, when he bought his present place comprising 75 1/2 acres in Vermilion Township. Here he grows live stock, grain and fruits, and is progressive in everything he does. On January 24, 1903, Mr. Dickel married Miss Florence E. Neiding. She was born near her present home in Vermilion Township April 15, 18,87, and finished her education in the- Berlin Heights High School. Her parents are August William and Aldora Janette (Crum) Neiding, both of whom were born in Erie County, and her father was born No- HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1083 vember 3, 1856, and has spent his active career as a farmer in. Berlin Township. He was of German parentage. His wife died at the old home July 24, 1911. She was born December 18, 1861, and her parents came from Pennsylvania to Erie County. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Dickel are: Jennie E., born September 22, 1903, and now in the sixth grade of the public schools; Reba Luella, born March 21, 1907, and in the fourth grade of the public, schools; Cleo E., born September 14, 1909 ; Lester A., who died in infancy ; and Leo George, born June 16, 1914. In politics Mr. Dickel is a democrat. He served four years as a school director and takes an active interest in the Vermilion. Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. CAPT, LEONARD B. CHAPIN. The character and activities of the late Captain Chapin of Berlin Heights were such that he will long be remembered in Erie County, and the honor paid to his memory is only a fitting recognition of many admirable qualities which he exemplified. He was a gallant soldier, was as loyal in his citizenship as he was while in the army, and upheld the strictest principles of rectitude in all his business dealings, in which he was very successful. His death occurred at his home in Berlin Heights, Ohio, in June, 1899, and he is survived by his widow, Mrs. Helen H. Chapin, who has since kept up the household and is a highly esteemed figure in local society. Of old New York and Massachusetts ancestry, the late Capt. Leonard B. Chapin was born near Glens Falls, New York, in 1833. His parent's were Leonard Burnham and Mary Ann (Skinner) Chapin, who were also natives of New York State. The late Captain Chapin was in the sixth generation from Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the most prominent characters in the early history of Springfield, Massachusetts. When Captain Chapin was a very small boy the family moved west and settled at Monroeville in Erie County, Ohio, and some years later moved to Berlin Heights, where the father accumulated large tracts of. land, prospered in his farming and other business relations, and died there when about seventy years of age, his wife being a little older at the time of her death. As a family they were members of the Presbyterian Church. The father was a man of considerable education for his time and was exceedingly enterprising. It is remembered that a great many years ago he published and sold an early map of Indiana, where he owned tracts of land. There were three sons in the family, Captain Chapin being the second among them, and one daughter, Sta- tira, who died in early life. All the sons are now deceased. Leonidas the eldest died in Canada, leaving four daughters. The youngest was Lorenzo, who died at Berlin Heights, Ohio, and his widow and two children now live in Milan, this state. The early boyhood and youth of Captain Chapin was spent at Berlin Heights. He was well educated, and had already taken up the practical affairs of life before he became a soldier. Soon after the war broke out he enlisted in Company B of the Third Ohio Cavalry, helped to drill that company at Milan, and later went to the front with them and served for nearly three years. Among old soldiers Captain Chapin is remembered for the notable figure which he made while on horseback. He had a very impressive air, and his fine character and genial personality made him popular among his comrades and a gallant leader in all duties to which he was called. The rigor of matny campaigns and almost constant fighting and scouting service brought on a permanent illness, on account of which he was finally given his honorable discharge. The illness contracted in the army was ultimately responsible for his death. After the war Captain Chapin engaged in business affairs as a grain 1084 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY merchant in Indiana and as a dealer in lands. These transactions took him over the country, but he always considered his permanent home in Erie County. He finally retired and spent his last years in Berlin Heights. The first wife of Captain Chapin was Mary Watts Knight, oho died a year after her marriage, when in the prime of. life. Her one daughter, Bertha Watts Chapin, is the wife of Walter Moats of East Norwalk, Ohio. Mrs. Moats attended school at Champaign, Illinois, and at Milan, Ohio, and received a musical training. On March 22, 1881, Captain Chapin married Mrs. Helen H. (Hughes) Williams, daughter of Elisha and Eliza R. (Root) Hughes. Both her parents were born in Erie County, and were married near Spears Corners in Milan Township, but subsequently located in Huron Township, where they followed farming for many years. They spent their last clays in Milan, where Mrs. Chapin's father died May 13, 1901, at the age of seventy-six, and her mother passed away January 3, 1913, aged eighty-three. Mrs. Hughes was a writer of considerable note; and her unpublished poems would fill a goodly sized volume. She was also a public speaker and addressed many of the Grange's meetings in Erie and other counties. They were people of the finest worth, thrifty, intelligent, good managers and highly respected. Mr. Hughes was a Universalist while his wife was reared in the Baptist Church. In politics he was a republican. Mrs. Chapin married for her first husband Charles Ronald Williams, who was born in Avon, Lorain County, Ohio, February 22, 1850, and after finishing his education in Oberlin College took up teaching and was principal of the Milan Normal School for a time. In 1871 failing health compelled him to abandon teaching, and in the endeavor to recover his- health he turned his attention to the breeding of fine horses, but while driving a fine registered colt he was kicked, and died from the injuries three days later. His death occurred in 1879 when only twenty-eight years of age. Mrs. Williams was then left with two children. Her daughter, Loubertha Nell, graduated from the Milan High School and is now the wife of John L. Moats of Berlin Heights. They have two children, Helen Lucile and Ronald Williams. Her son, Judge Roy Hughes Williams, graduated from Milan High School in June, 1890, at the age of fifteen years, then attended Oberlin College for a time; and finally entered the Unversity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he was graduated in the Jaw department in 1897. He began the practice of law in Sandusky, was elected prosecuting attorney in 1900 and served two terms, and is now judge of the Common Pleas Court of Erie County. He married Verna Lockwood, who also graduated from Milan High School in 1893 and spent four years in the Conservatory siof Music at Oberlin. Mrs. Chapin by her marriage to Captain Chapin has two sons: Leonard Burnham, who graduated from the Milan High School and then in 1905 from the dental department of the University. of Michigan and has since been in active practice as a dentist at Milan. He married Hannah Olga Prentice, who is a graduate of the high school at Castalia and also pursued normal studies at Lima and Sandusky, Ohio. Elisha H., the younger son of Mrs: Chapin,' graduated from the Milan High School, attended the Northern . Ohio University at Ada and the high school at Sandusky, also Kenyon College, the Episcopal Institution at Gambier, Ohio, and finally took his degree in medicine at the Ohio State Medical College, Columbus, where lie is now in active practice. He was married in Mount Vernon to Miss Lena C. Krebs, who received her education at Tiffin, Ohio. They have had two children, Mary Louise, and a son that died in infancy. PICTURE OF EDWARD JORDAN HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1085 EDWARD JORDAN. Among the native sons of Erie County who have won places of responsibility with large railway corporations one who is well known is Edward Jordan, yardmaster for the Big Four Railroad at Sandusky. The career of Mr. Jordan is typical of many men who have risen in railroad life. He was, but a boy when he started to make his own way in the world, and as he had secured only ordinary advantages was forced to start in a humble capacity. Energy and ambition, with an inherent ability and predilection for his work, carried him steadily upward, and he now occupies a position of more than ordinary importance in the service of one of the country's greatest carriers. Mr. Jordan was born January 24, 1867, at Sandusky, and is a son of Henry and Anna Elizabeth (Hartung) Jordan. His father, a native of Germany, came to the United States in 1851 and im diately located at Sandusky, where he secured a position in a clerical capacity with the old and well known firm of C. C. Keech & Company, tanners; and later with Robert 'Hathaway, grocer. He possessed the thrift and industry characteristic of those of his race, and worked steadily onward with the ambition always in view of becoming the proprietor of a business of his own. This goal was finally reached and he established himself in business as the owner of a grocery store, this being one of the first exclusive grocery stores at Sandusky, which at that time had a population of no more than 5,000 people. He made a success of his venture and continued active in its operation until 1880, when he retired and disposed of his interests. His death occurred May 25, 1887. He was a man who always took a keen and helpful interest in matters which affected the welfare of the city, and contributed frequently and generously to its advancement and progress. He was a stalwart republican on which party's ticket he was elected to various-offices, being for several terms a member of the Sandusky City Council. His friends, well wishers and admirers were many, and he stood high in the esteem and confidence of all who came into contact with him either in a business, public or personal way. Mrs. Jordan, his wife, also born in Germany, where she and her husband were married, still survives, having reached the advanced age of eighty-five years. They were the parents of nine children, of whom six survive, Edward having been the eighth in order of birth. Edward Jordan received his education in the public schools of Sandusky and was still a lad when he began to contribute to the family support by working as a messenger boy for the Western Union Telegraph Company. He is only one of a great many successful men who hem their careers with the Western Union as messenger. While thus employed he devoted his spare moments to learning- telegraphy. As telegrapher he took his first position in that calling in 1883 with tile I., B. & W. Railway at Sandusky. When that company. in 1887 reverted back to the C. S. & C. Railway, its owner, he remained with the latter company as general office telegraph operator.. The C., S. & C. was purchased by the C., C., C. & St. L. Railroad in 1890 and the division superintendent's office was moved from Springfield to Sandusky. Mr. Jordan was appointed train dispatcher. He held that position until 1893, when the superintendent and dispatcher's office was moved to Bellefontaine, Ohio. As he wished to remain in Sandusky, he was appointed ticket agent and acted in that capacity for ten years. His faithful and capable service was rewarded at the end of this time by his appointment to the office of general yardmaster of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, or; as it is more familiarly known, the Big Four. Since 1902 he has been in charge of the Sandusky yards and is known as one of his company's most trusted and efficient men. Mr. Jordan's official duties require his attention to the practical exclusion of everything else save his home, yet he finds time to discharge the responsibilities of good citizenship and to enjoy the companionship 1086 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY of his fellows. A stalwart republican in his political allegiance, he has steadfastly supported the candidates of the party. His fraternal affiliation is with the Masons, in which he has attained to the Knight Templar degree, being a member of Sandusky Commandery No. 23. He was married July 27, 1898, at Sandusky to Miss Ida Henrietta Zipfel, a daughter of Constantine Zipfel, one of the early pioneers of Erie County. F. ERICH HARTMANN. Few men have made better use of their opportunities both in behalf of their own advancement and for the welfare of the 'community, in which they divide than F. Erich Hartmann during the thirty-five years of his residen in Sandusky. He came to this country alone when a young man, practically unacquainted with the language of America and its institutions and customs. From such work as a farm laborer he has made himself one of the most influential and successful business men of Sandusky. Born February 22, 1857, in Salzungen, Saxe-Meiningen, Germany, he is a son of Johan Casper Ferdinand and Fredericka Christina (Moeller) Hartmann. During his early life in Germany he attended the common schools and the German college or gymnasium, and for one year saw active service in the German army. It was in 1881 that he ventured out alone to discover what opportunities America could present to a young man of little capital but of unlimited energy. When he arrive& in Erie County he went as a farm laborer for two years, then clerked in a grocery store four years, and from 1886 to 1905 conducted a grocery establishment on Pearl Street in Sandusky. Thus for nearly twenty years he was one of Sandusky's popular merchants. In 1905 he was appointed to fill out the unexpired term existing in the office of county recorder, and at the With general election he was chosen by' the people for that office. With admirable efficiency he filled the recorder's office for two terms, serving from 1905 to 1911. On leaving the county office Mr. Hartmann engaged in the abstract business, and he now has the leading office to render that important service .in Erie County. Mr. Hartmann is a republican, and is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees. On July 17, 1890, in Erie County he married Miss Emma Widmer. HIRAM E. BRUNDAGE. The Brundage family is among the older ones in Erie County. For almost thirty-five years Hiram E. Brundage has been one of the prospering fruit grower's and agriculturists of Vermilion Township, and he and hi& family are people of marked prominence in the religious, social and moral life of that community. The Brundage ancestors lived for several generations in Connecticut. The paternal grandparents of Mr. Brundage were born and married in Connecticut, and from there they came to Erie County and established a home in Vermilion Township, where they spent the rest of their days. They are buried in the Cranberry Creek Cemetery in that township. They died some' time _before the Civil 'war and were quite old at the time. In their family were four sons and three daughters who grew up and married, and according to the last information one of the daughters is still living in ,Indiana. Giles. L. Brundage, father of Hiram E., was born on the old homestead in Vermilion Township and during his brief career as a civilian followed farming. He died near Auburn, Indiana, in 1866 at the age of twenty-seven. He had enlisted in the Civil war, was, with a Massachusetts regiment, and after some active service he contracted the black measles and was discharged in 1864. He returned home, but a year or two later moved to Auburn, Indiana, where he died. His widow then brought her two children back to Erie County. These children were HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1087 Hiram E. and his sister Carrie. The latter is the wife of John Loucks of Berlin Township, a well known citizen of that locality. Giles L. Brundage married Ella Mason. After his death she married a second and also a third time, and she died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John Loucks, in 1913 when nearly seventy years of age. She was a member of the Methodist Church. Hiram E. Brundage was born in Vermilion Township November 12, 1862, and has practically no recollection of his father. He was reared in this township and attended the public schools, and at the age of nineteen started life by purchasing twenty-eight acres of land on the Joppa Road. He worked hard to improve the land, put it into cultivation and when he started he had practically nothing but the resources of his own industry to aid him. It was on that farm that he started fruit growing, and there are many things that now represent his years of steady industry. He erected a large two-story house, and has several large barns for the shelter of his stock and farm products. Mr. Brundage now owns 100 acres, and much of it is cultivated to fruit orchard. He has about three Thousand peach trees and' other large and small fruits, and his fields grow some of the finest crops of corn, wheat and oats. During the past year his corn yield was eighty bushels per acre, wheat twenty-eight bushels, and oats sixty bushels. In Vermilion Township Mr. Brundage married Lillian Ike. She was born November 13, 1862, just one day later than her husband. She was reared and educated in Vermilion Township, and is a daughter of Thomas B. and Olive (Minkler) Lee. Her mother was a daughter of Daniel Minkler, a pioneer settler in the Joppa neighborhood of Erie County. After many years of farming on the Hill Road in Vermilion Township, Thomas B. Lee retired to Berlin Heights, and is now living there with an ample competence for his declining years. Mr. and Mrs. Brundage have one son, Elwin P., born March 9, 1883, in Vermilion Township. He was educated liberally, at first in the common and high schools, then at Oberlin College, and in the Ohio Spencerian College, and he took his, theological course at Nyack, New York, and on leaving that institution took up the active work of the minstry in the Evangelical Church. He now has charge of the church at. DeGraff, Ohio. Rev. Mr. Brundage married Blanche Gibson of Erie County, and they have a daughter Doris, thirteen years of age, who is carrying on her studies both in the regular school work and in music. Mr. and Mrs. Brundage are very active members of their community and Mr. Brundage is head of the local Sunday school and in politics a republican, though not a seeker for official honors. FRED HUTTENLOCKER. It is of that staunch German stock that has been so important an element in Erie County history that Fred Huttenlocker is a representative. He is a vigorous, ambitious, and hard working agriculturist of Vermilion Township, occupies a good home, with fertile fields and excellent improvements, and while enjoying ample material comforts has surrounded himself with home and growing children and is rich in the esteem which is paid to good citizenship. Born in Vermilion Township November 6, 1873, he is. a son of Christian and Caroline (Beck) Huttenlocker. Both parents were born in Wurtemberg, Germany. His father was born in October, 1849, and his mother in 1851. They grew up in that country and were sweethearts before they left Germany to find their home and fortune in the New World. They were of Lutheran families and when quite young they set out from Hamburg and voyaged to New York City and thence to Huron, Ohio, where they married. After marriage they located near Huron, and they have since been among the active farming people of Erie County. Most of their years have been spent in Vermilion Township, where they bought and improved a farm of fifty-one acres. That was their home for about 1088 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY twenty-eight years, but in the meantime Christian, Huttenlocker had bought thirty-one acres near the street- car line and the Mittewanga Grove neighborhood, and he subsequently lived on that place for about twelve years. He then sold it to his son Fred, and with his wife returned to the old homestead, where both now reside, hale and hearty people, in a position to enjoy life at leisure. Both are members and were among the founders of Mittewanga Reformed Church, in which Christian Huttenlocker was an elder for a number of years. In politics he is a republican, but formerly voted with the democratic party. The children of. Christian and Caroline Huttenlocker are : Christ, who died unmarried at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, at the age of twenty-six ; Fred Rose, who is the wife of Daniel Meeker, a dock engineer at Huron, and they have a son Freemen ; Mary is the wife of D. L. Fox, a Berlin Township farmer and also an employee of the street car company, and their children tare Sylva, Bernard, Esther and Clara ; Louise is the wife of John Hilde- brandt of Berlin Township, a railroad section boss for the Lake Shore Railroad, and their children are Frederick and Caroline ; John, a farmer in Berlin Township, married Sophia Ackerman, and their one son is named Ralph P. Fred Huttenlocker was reared and educated in his native township, attended the public schools, and after reaching manhood he married and bought the thirty-one acre place of his father near the lake shore in Vermilion Township. His farm has a frontage of 150 feet on the State Road. He does farming on a business like basis, and has almost every foot of his land under intensive cultivation. He has an orchard of forty apple trees, has an attractive eight-room white house and a large red barn on a foundation 32 by 42 feet with 16-foot post.   Christmas Day of 1897 will always be memorable in Mr. Huttenlocker's history, since on that day in Huron Township he married Miss Catherine Bartzen. She was born in Huron. July 13, 1876, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were Peter and Margaret , (Elenz) Bartzen. Her father was born in Germany and her mother in Erie County, Ohio. Her father died here in April, 1913, at the age of sixty, and her mother on December 10, 1906, at the age of fifty-two. Her father spent all his active career as a blacksmith, having learned that trade in Germany. In fact all the male members of his family for several generations followed blacksmithing, and they lived along the River Rhine in Germany, where Mr., Bartzen Was born. Five of the Bartzen children are still living: Mrs. Huttenlocker ; Peter, a blacksmith and teamster, who married Erna Felcum ; Elizabeth, wife of George Ritzenthaler of Huron, and they have six children; Anna is the wife of Gottlieb Hauff, a well known citizen of Erie County; Anthony now lives in Huron, is a blacksmith by trade, and is unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Huttenlocker are the parents of six children : Louis Frederick, born March 9, 1899, has completed tile course of the local schools and assists his father An the farm. Christian was born May 11, 1900, and is a student in the high school at Huron:. Fredia was born December 10, 1901, and is. in school. Elma was born July 21, 1902, and is in school. Dorothy was born April 21, 1904. Teter J. was born April 26, 1906. The family, all attend the Reformat Church and Mr. and Mrs. Huttenlocker and two oldest children are confirmed in that faith. Mr. Huttenlocker in politics is. a republican. PETER SCHEID. Since the Scheid family became established in this part of Northern Ohio more than sixty years ago, its members have played many worthy parts in varied activities, helped to clear up the wilderness and develop new farms, have proved vigorous workers and efficient citizens in every line of duty to which they have been called, and the name is' one of the most highly honored in Erie County. It was as a pioneer that Mr. Peter Scheid was first identified with Erie PICTURE OF PETER AND CATHERINE SCHEID HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1089 County and he lived a long and industrious career until his death at his home farm in Oxford Township, October 22, 1905. Before his death he had bought a pleasant home on Front Street in Milan, and his widow, Mrs. Scheid, and some of her children now occupy that residence. It was as a youth of seventeen that Peter Scheid came away from Germany and started his career in the New World in Erie County. He was born in Nassau July 31, 1834, and was in his seventy-second year when he passed away. His parents were Anthony and Catherine Scheid. His father was born near Deitz in Nassau, which was noted as a training point for German soldiers. He grew up as a farmer, and married a German orphan girl, who had been reared in ,the home of a prominent man in the community, a forester by profession. All the children of Anthony and Catherine Scheid were born in Germany. When the sons, William and Peter, had attained years of independence, they left the old home and set out for America, buying land near Pontiac, Ohio, in Huron County and starting its development. Two years later these brothers were followed by their parents and the other children. They all came across on sailing vessels, spending about four weeks on the ocean, and from New York the parents came out to Pontiac, Ohio, and on the homestead which the two sons had started to improve the parents spent their last years. The father died at the age of sixty- eight and the mother when past seventy-two. They had been reared in the faith of the Lutheran Church and always kept pretty close to the standards of that old religion. The late Peter Scheid was the second in quite a large family, and was about seventeen years of age when he and his brother, William, ventured across the Atlantic and arrived as comparative strangers in Sherman township of Huron County. In 1853 they secured 172 acres of wild land, and .the only improvement on it was a small log house. Their first work was cutting out the timber, which they sold to the railway company and used also in building barns. In 1860 the family put up a large residence on that farm, a brick house, which is still standing and is now owned and occupied by Charles Scheid, a brother of Peter. Charles was born in 1842 and for a number of years has• owned the old homestead. Anthony Scheid during his lifetime donated a lot from his farm for a church and schoolhouse. It was on the old homestead near Pontiac that Peter Scheid grew to manhood, though he was already a vigorous youth when he arrived there with his brother and started to clear the land. o After his marriage he located on a fine farm of his own in Oxford Township of Erie County, containing 175 acres, and in the course of years he made that one of the best properties in that splendid agricultural section of Erie County. It was in the duties of this farm and in its comforts that he enjoyed the principal years of his life, and died there. He placed many improvements on the land, including a commodious house and several barns, set out a good orchard, and had the land well tiled and thoroughly cultivated. When he died the homestead comprised 235 acres, and it is all still in the family and is now managed by his son, Henry. While a resident of Oxford Township Mr. Scheid took a prominent part in local affairs. He served as township trustee, as treasurer, and at the time of his death was a director of tie Commercial Bank at Sandusky. In politics he was a democrat. He was one of the organizers of the German Lutheran Church at Union Corners, was for many years an official in the society, and his widow and daughters are still members there. At Pontiac, Ohio, February 26, 1860, Peter Scheid married Miss Catherine E. H. Heuser. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Mr. Smokrow. Mrs. Scheid was born also in Nassau, near Deitz, 1090 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY March 6, 1842, a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Thorn) Heuser, who were natives of Nassau and of old German stock. Mr$,- Scheid was their only child. In 1853 this little family took passage on a small steamer, which brought them down the River Rhine to Rotterdam, Holland, thence they crossed over to London, and from there by sailing vessel arrived in New York after a voyage of twenty-eight days. From New York they went to Monroeville in Erie County, and arrived at that place June 19, 1853. Mr. Heuser was a mason by trade and his first work in Northern Ohio was in the construction of the Maumee River bridge near Toledo. There he was overtaken by the ague, which was a common malady Wong the early settlers, but it was an entirely new experience to this German immigrant. He soon returned home, and later practiced himself in farming and gave up the mason trade altogether. He finally bought land in Oxford Township, and in its activities passed the remainder of his days. He died at the age of eighty-five in 1896. He had survived his wife about thirty years, she having passed away at the age of sixty. They were both members of the German Lutheran Church, and their old homestead in Oxford Township is now the property of their only daughter, Mrs. Scheid. To Mr. and Mrs. Peter Scheid were born ten children. Charles P. is unmarried and lives at home with his mother in Milan. Louise C., who died June 6, 1915, was the wife of Louis Dorr, who is a coal merchant at Milan, and she left children named Norma, Louis, Jr., and Russel. Flora, who died June 6, 1913, was the wife of Robert Streck, proprietor of the Streck Hotel at Milan, and she left a daughter, Nellie. Henry L. is a prosperous farmer in Oxford Township. Catherine L. is the wife of George W. Waldock, a farmer in Perkins Township, and their .children are Verna I. and Howard S. Amelia died at the age of ten months.. Louis W. is a successful farmer in Erie County and manages the old Scheid homestead. . Julia is the wife of Verne -Pascoe, a grocery merchant at Sandusky, and their two sons are named Milton and John. Amanda L. died January 31, 1915,- in 'young womanhood.. Alda M., who, like the other children, received the best advantages of the local schools, was graduated from the Milan High School in 1902 and later in 1908 from the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College and now makes her home with her mother in Milan. FRANK C. RISDON. While other members of this family spell their name Risden, Frank C. has always employed a slightly different spelling. However, this is by no. means his only distinction.. now a very successful and progressive farmer and stock in man Vermilion Township, his home being on rural route No. 2 ,Out of Vermilion Village. The career of Mr. Risdon, who by his own efforts has risen from a state of comparative poverty to one of independence, is a striking illustration of what may be accomplished by industry, perseverance, and a wise use of the faculties with which almost every man is endowed:. It is a matter of common report its his section of Erie County that Frank C. Risdon is a master of whatever he undertakes. For many years he followed his trade of mechanic in the employ of the Nickel Plate Railway. He was an excellent mechanic and painter; and has shown similar, ability and success in farming, and is a business man who can be relied upon to carryout every obligation which he undertakes and works consistently and influentially for the good of the community in which he lives. On the old Risdon farm, a portion of which he still owns and close to his present home, Frank C. Risdon was born in Vermilion Township on April 5, 1854. What is known as the Risdon Road passes by his HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1091 farm. This is one of the older families of Erie County. His grandfather, Almor Risden, was born near Rochester, New York, and married for his first wife a Miss Nichols. She died there in the prime of life, leaving three children, George, Eliza and, Elial. Almor Risden married for his second wife a Miss Lewis, and by that union there were two sons and four daughters. In 1836 Almor Risden with his second wife and family came to Ohio and located- in the wilderness part of Vermilion Township Here he cut a home out of the woods, lived in a log cabin until he could build a frame house, and was getting well started in his new home when he was accidentally drowned in the Huron River in 183 He was a fine type of the early settler, and enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens so thoroughly that they elected him to various offices of trust and responsibility. It is especially worthy to be recalled that this pioneer was in the habit of paying cash for every hour's work done for him. This was somewhat unique in that time, when there was very little money in circulation, and many debts were taken out in trade of some kind. George Risden, father of Frank C., was born in 1818 and was twenty years of age when his father died. He dater bought a farm of his own not far from the old Risden homestead, and spent twenty- four years of profitable labor there. In 1872 he purchased another place of fifty-four acres situated on the lake shore and now known as the Silas Hitchcock homestead. There he passed away on January 28, 1893. He was a straightforward, honest man, and one whose success in life was beyond all question. In politics he was a democrat. George Risden married in Vermilion Township Miss Charity Goldsmith. She was born in Florence Township in October, 1823, a member of one of the very oldest families of Erie County. She died on the old Lake Shore homestead July 1, 1900. Her father was Isaac Goldsmith, who served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and soon afterwards came to Erie County as one of the pioneers. He died when past seventy years of age at his home four miles west of Vermilion Village. Frank C. Risdon was one of a family of eight children. He was reared in a good home, given an education in public and private schools, and found plenty to do as a farmer until he was thirty. He then took up contracting for two years and subsequently became connected .with the Nickel Plate Railroad as a member of its repair crew. Eighteen-months later he was made foreman, and some years later became foreman in the painting department of the railroad. All told he was connected with the railroad company for twenty-five years, and the superior officials regarded him as one of the most competent and efficient men in the service. For five years of that time he lived in Lorain County, but finally he took up his residence on his present beautiful estate of 105 acres. All this land is improved, and is conducted on the same basis of efficiency which Mr. Risdon has employed in every other activity. He. and his family enjoy the comforts of a modern seven-room house, a new basement barn 30 by 65 feet, the conspicuous feature about the home grounds, and there is another barn 24 by 40 feet. He has a sixty-ton silo adjoining his barn. All the farm facilities are arranged for efficiency and economy, and the entire farm is fenced and divided into fields by woven wire fencing, and there is not a rail or barbed wire displaced. Though in his sixty-second year, Mr: Risdon is apparently as full of energy as the ordinary, man twenty years his junior: He works for a definite purpose, and is always ready to learn a new lesson, though many might well pattern after his successful efforts. As a farmer Mr. Risdon pays much attention to livestock. He keeps a good grade of horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, and has a number of excellent. dairy cows, headed by a registered Holstein bull. 1092 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY When quite a young man at the outset of his career Mr. Risdon married a neighbor girl, Viola E. Harding. She died in J880, just to years after their marriage, leaving one son, William W., who is now living in Cleveland. For his second wife Mr. Risdon also chose a young woman from Vermilion Township, Jennie Brooks. She was born in the Village of Vermilion in 1863, and was reared and educated in this township. B this marriage there are two children : Ralph .Henry, who attended school at Lorain and in Cleveland, has for several years been the practical manager on, his father's farm; he married Miss Ruth Kuhl of Vermilion Township, a graduate of the Vermilion High School, and they have a son Glenn F. 011ie M., the daughter, finished her education in the Vermilion High School and is still at .home. She and her mother are members of the Congregational Church. Politically Mr. Risdon votes independently, and in civic matters what he does and what, he thinks count for a good deal in his community. JOHN WILL. There is no citizen of Vermilion Township who more thoroughly enjoys the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens than John Will. A German by birth, he has lived in America and in Erie County' since infancy. Though a very young man. at the time, he saw some active service in the Civil war. His business career has identified him with farming, and he owns and occupies one of the best homesteads to be found in Vermilion Township. His house is one of attractive exterior and all the comforts and conveniences which make life worth living. His individual prosperity has not been accomplished without benefit to the community in which he has lived so long. He was born in. Kurhessen, Germany, February 10, 1846, a son of Nicholas and Catherine (Reifer) Will. His mother was a daughter of Nicholas Reifer. All of them were born in Kurhessen. While the family lived in Germany two, sons were born to them, John and, a younger child, who died soon after the family came to America. In 1848 the little household took passage on an American sailing vessel and came from Bremen to Baltimore, .spending eight weeks on the voyage. From Baltimore they proceeded west by way of canals and rivers as far as Sandusky, and then walked across country to the home of Henry Heifer, an uncle of Catherine Reifer Will. When Nicholas Will arrived in Vermilion Township he had not a single Penny. He came prepared to do hard work, and he soon found plenty of employment. He worked on different farms and for several lyears was an employe of John Anderson, father of James Andersen, a well known. citizen along the lake shore of Erie County. As he became better acquainted and people became familiar with his capacity for, good intelligent work, he took a more independent course and rented a farm, and then three years later in 1858 he made his first purchase in. Vermilion Township. In the spring of 1859 he moved his family to the land which he had bought, and there he worked industriously for many years in improving and in increasing his holdings. His death occurred there May 7, 1890, when seventy-one years six months, of. age. His widow passed away in 1908, being at that time eighty-five years old. They and their children were confirmed in the German Reformed Church. After the family came to Erie County two other children were born, Henry and Eliza. Eliza died after her marriage to Peter Kuhl, leaving three children : Anna and Charles, both now deceased ; and Alice, wife of Mr. Schotz of Huron. John Will has lived in Vermilion. Township since he was thirteen years of age. He gained his early schooling in Erie County and grew up to a discipline of hardl work, regular habits, and honest intentions. He has found farming both. a congenial and profitable vocation, and HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1093 since the death of his mother in the fall of 1908 has owned the beautiful old homestead, comprising ninety-eight acres. Nearly all of his land is under cultivation and for years he has produced fine crops of all the staple varieties. His farm buildings are of the best. His nine:, room house is thoroughly modern, has steam heat in all the rooms, is furnished with bathroom and many other comforts and conveniences: . In Vermilion Township Mr. Will married Miss Mice Neiding. She was born in this towns October 1858, and received her education in this county. Her pats, John and Magdalena (Hilcher) Neiding, were both natives of Germany and came from the same part of the fatherland as the Will family. They emigrated to the United States in 1850, spending thirteen Weeks on a sailing vessel. They soon afterwards located near the Village of Vermilion, and improved a good farm there, but the parents finally retired to live in Vermilion Village, where her father died January 30, 1907, at the age of eighty years, and her mother on August 9, 1903, aged seventy-seven. Besides Mrs. Will the other children in the Neiding family are : Adam Neiding, who married Emma F. Brown of Vermilion Village, and they are the parents of three sons and one daughter, one of the sons, Otis H., being deceased; Burton is married; John Allen lives at home, and Frank E. and Emma are also at home in Cleveland. Henry Neiding is a commercial traveler living in Vermilion, and by his marriage to Mattie Bourne of Kentucky has two children, Mae and James, the former now married. John is a carpenter in the Village of Vermilion and first married Katie Fey, who died leaving Bertha, Charles, George and Alice ; and for his second wife he married Catherine Knott. Samuel Neiding is in the meat market business at Vermilion, and by his marriage to Mary Fey, who is now deceased, he has a daughter Hattie. Kate Neiding is the wife of Robert Patterson of Cleveland, and they have a daughter May. Christina died after her marriage to the late Dr. Frank E. Engelbry, and there is a son by that marriage named Rowland. Mr. and Mrs. Will have one son, Fred Peter, who was born December 6, 1884. He graduated from the Vermilion High School, and since reaching his majority has lived at home and is doing. a large part of the work and management connected with the farm operations. Mr. and Mrs. Will and their son are members of the German Reformed Church, and the father and son are republicans in politics. It was on September 19, 1864, that Mr. Will enlisted in Company. B of the 176th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and remained with that command until ..he received his honorable discharge on June 15, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee. The war was nearly closed when he went to the front, and it was not his luck to take part in any pitched battle. For many years now he has been an active member of Vermilion Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and has filled several of its offices and is very popular among his old army comrades. HENRY WILL. Born in the township of his present residence and on the farm which he now occupies and cultivates, and which his father took up in a totally wild and unbroken condition many years ago, Henry Will is one of the citizens of Erie County who can take special pride in the: direct contribution made' by himself and other, members of the family to the improvement of this section of Northern Ohio. The land which his father first saw as a landscape of dense woods, has since been reduced by occupancy and tillage to a tract of agricultural land hardly surpassed in Vermilion Township. Thus what one generation won from the wilderness the next has continued to improve and make still better. 1094 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY The parents of Henry Will were Nicholas and Catherine (Reifer) Will, who were natives of Kurhessen, Germany, and came in 1848 with one child to America. From Baltimore they went west and arrived in Erie County very poor though possessed of the characteristic German industry and thrift. For about ten years Nicholas Ain worked for others ther at monthly wages or as a renter, and it was the hardest kind of struggle which finally gave him the modest capital which he invested in his first, purchase of land in Vermilion Township. It was while the family lived in the Village of Huron in Erie County that Henry Will was born March 25, 1850. When he was nine years of age, in 1859, his father took the family to his newly purchased land ih Vermilion Township. This land was on the Lake State Road and in the midst of the heavy woods. Henry Will recalls some of the incidents and scenes of his boyhood spent in a log cabin home, when all the country around was a region of dense forest. In time he himself wielded an axe and helped to clear off this land. Gradually the large trees were cut down, part of them were worked up into lumber and others were gathered together by the logging bees which were so familiar a part of the industrial and social life of that time, and these great heaps of logs and brush were burned in order that the, land might be cleared for cultivation. It was on this land that the Will family got its first real start in the world. After many years of struggle and privation prosperity began to smile upon them, and Nicholas Will was able to see his efforts and sacrifices rewarded. He finally increased his holdings to 164 acres, most of it improved and cultivated, and worth many times what he gave for it. He also built a good home and barns, and there he and his good wife spent their declining years in peace and comfort: Nicholas Will died May 7, 1890, at the age of seventy one years six months, and his wife passed away in 1908, at the age of eighty-five. In the early years of their, residence, on this old homestead they not only cultivated the usual crops but also raised much stock, particularly sheep, which found pasturage in the woods. The wool clip was largely utilized by the industry and perseverance of the good housewife and housemother, who would .rise 'it four. o'clock in the morning in order to take up her spinning. The yarn which she spun from the sheep wool was worked up into various articles of clothing which the children wore at home and in school. She would knit the yarn into socks and mittens, and in the long winter evenings her needles were never quiet until bedtime. It is also recalled as a fact of local history that the first church hi Vermilion Township, a Congregational Church, was built on the Will farm, which is the geographical center of the township. The first edifice was a hewed log building, and within its walls were gathered together people who came from miles around. Even the location of that old church has been forgotten by most people now living in Vermilion Township. Of the old homestead which his father established and in the clearing and cultivation of which Henry Will bore his own, boyhood part, he now owns nearly seventy-nine acres. In his individual career he has been very successful as a farmer and now has all his land cultivated except a woodland sitract of eight acres. He grows all kinds of grain, fruit, and large quantities of grapes. He also keeps live stock in numbers proportionate to the size of his farm, including work horses. cattle and hogs. In Vermilion Township Mr. Henry Will married Miss Annie Schroder. She was born in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County June 3, 1870, but was reared and educated in Vermilion Township, where her parents established their home when she was a child. Her grandfather HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1095 was Dr. Charles Schroder, a native of Kurhessen, Germany, who came to America a great many years ago and was a well educated and highly successful German physician and surgeon. He served as a surgeon in the Union army during the Civil war from 1861 to 1865. He had come to America with his wife and family during the '40s and lived first in Cleveland and later in Lorain County, but he died in Vermilion Township when eighty-three years of age, while his widow survived until she attained the maximum age of ninety-four. Mrs. Will's parents were Gus and Elizabeth (Miller) Schroder, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Brownhelm Township of Lorain County. For over thirty years the Schroder family have lived in Vermilion Township. Mrs. Will's father Was seventy-five years of age in December, 1915, and her mother was sixty-five in November of the same year. Both are members of the Reformed Church. Mr. and Mrs. Will are likewise. Reformed Church people and in politics he is a democrat. ALMO R G. RISDEN. For ell upwards of a century the Risden family has had its home Erie County. In the various generations they have been people of most excellent worth, influence, and valuable to the community in which they live. For the greater part they have been farmers, but in whatever station of life to which they have been called, they have neglected none of the obligations imposed upon true womanhood and manhood and citizenship. Almor G. Risden spent A great many years in business affairs as a traveling salesman,' but is now enjoying a somewhat more stationary form of life and with more comfort, though he is still very active, and has a nice farm and country estate in the Township of Vermilion It was in Vermilion Township that he was born June 26, 1860, a son of George and Charity (Goldsmith) Risden. His father was born in New York State and his mother on Long Island, and the former was of Welsh and the latter of English ancestry. Charity, Goldsmith came to Erie County when about one year of age with her parents Isaac and Sarah Goldsmith from Long Island. Isaac Goldsmith and wife spent the rest of their days on a farm along the lake shore and died when quite old people. He was a democrat, and Mrs. Goldsmith was a member of the Methodist Church. George Risden, the father, lost his mother in New York State when he was about four years of age, and when he was sixteen he accompanied his father, AImor Risden, to Ohio. They made practically the entire journey on foot, carrying all. their earthly possessions on, their backs. On arriving here the father. and son started out to make a living, and in the following year the grandfather was accidentally drowned while attempting to rescue a floating skiff in the lake. He was at that time forty-four years of age. After George and Charity Risden were married, they located on the farm in Vermilion Township which he, had bought some time before. They worked hard, lived simply, and in a few years they had progressed to a point where they were regarded as more than able take care of all their obligations. They spent their last years in the old Pelton home on the lake shore, where George Risdeii died in January, 1894. He was born in 1818. His widow died in 1900. She was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Almor G. Risden was one of a family of eight, children, five sons and three daughters. All are living except Amanda who died after her marriage to Mr. M. C. Driver of Vermilion Township. Lille, another of the daughters, is the widow of James Barnes, and has a son be Bee. William lives in Walla Walla, Washington, where he is engaged in coal mining, and is married and has two children named Ola and Nina. Frank was for a number of years a. railway foreman but is now a farmer 1096 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY in Vermilion. Township, was twice married, and has a son, William W., by his first wife and two children, Ralph and Olive, by the second wife. James, who has a nice farm in Vermilion Township, married Clara Sickles, and their two daughters, Grace and Gladys, are unusually well educated, one of them being a teacher and the other a . student in college. Next in age to James is Almor G Ann is the wife of John Sheredd, a farmer in Vermilion Township, and their children are Bessie, Charity and Lawrence. George, Jr., who is a farmer in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County, is married and has an adopted child named Helem now a student in the University of Ohio at Coplumbus. Almor G. Risden grew up in Vermilion Township on the old homestead, gained a highly satisfactory education in the public schools, and at an early age launched himself into practical affairs where he soon proved master of any situation which came up. For twenty years he traveled as a salesman for sewing machines. Much of this time was spent ire the West. He finally invested his savings in the good farm of forty acres along the Bartow Ridge Road, and is now prepared to take life somewhat easily. He has a good house, barns, all the facilities . for progressive farming, and gets something more than a living from the home place. In addition he also is a contractor for concrete work. In Huron Township of this county Mr. Risden married Miss, Julia Galloway, daughter of the late George Galloway. Mrs. Risden was born in Huron Township in 1868 and acquired her education in that locality. To their marriage has been born one daughter, Myrtle, on June 6, 1886. She was well reared and educated and is now the wife of Court Smith of Vermilion Township. Mr. Risden since becoming a permanent resident of Vermilion Township has always interested himself in local affairs. He is at the present time township health of" ficer, and for ten years served as truant officer. In politics he is a democrat. CONRAD H. NUHN. In the judgment of many people of Vermilion Township, that township has' no more thrifty farmer and industrial citizen than Conrad H. Nuhn. He has often succeeded in his undertakings where others have failed. The home that he has now is a notable instance of his enterprise. He took it when it was of little value as a farm, and by hard work, reorganization, and constant vigilance, has effected a wonderful transformation. Mr. Nuhn is not only a practical farmer, but for many years has been known to the farming people of Erie County through his operations as a thresherman. He was born in Vermilion Township September 18, 1862, grew up in that locality, the son of honest and hardworking German parents, acquired a common school education, and became a practical worker before reaching his Majority. In 1904 he bought his present farm, nearly one hundred acres, at Joppa Corners. Originally it had been a fine farm, excellent soil, but had been allowed to run down and deteriorate until it was of little value for regular cropping. It took Mr. Nuhn Jess than ten years to restore its former fertility and make it a model place in all its improvements. He has put up one of the best and most perfectly equipped barns in the township, standing on a foundation 38 by 48 feet. He also has a good home of 'seven rooms, surrounded by an attractive lawn set with some of the old fashioned. shade trees. He grows the largest crops of staples, and keeps fine stock, including five milch cows, three head of good horses, and a, number of hogs. His parents were Osmus and Mary (Opper) Nuhn, who were born in Hesse, Germany, were married there, and after the birth of one HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1097 son immigrated to the United States. It took eight weeks for the sailing vessel to carry them across the ocean, and after landing they made 't their way westward to Vermilion Township and located among some of their former friends and acquaintances in Germany who had arrived before them. They were people of very modest circumstances, and accepted whatever opportunities they could find to make a start as small farmers. They later bought seventeen acres of land not far south of the Nickel Plate, Railway, and in time they built up there an excellent home. The father died in 1908 at the age of eighty, and the mother passed away in 1903 aged sixty-five, They were German Reformed Church people and in politics he was a democrat. For the past eighteen years Conrad Nuhn has spent much of his time during the season for that work as a thresherman. He keeps one of the best outfits in the county and operates it with a crew of four men. This has been one of his chief lines of work since he was eighteen years of age, but he was in the employ of others until. about eighteen years ago. In 1896 in Vermilion Township Mr. Nuhn married Mrs. Barbara Knott. She was born in Vermilion Township November 13, 1872, and was reared and educated there, being a daughter of George and Minnie (Hildebrand) Knoch, who were natives of Hesse, Germany. They crossed the ocean in the same vessel, being three weeks on the voyage, and were married later in Vermilion Township in the Reformed Church. They started out as farmers but Mr. Knoch also supplied much of the livelihood by work in a stone quarry. He finally rented and then bought 120 acres, and had converted it into a fine farm before he died in the fall of 1905. The Knoch homestead was located on the shore of Lake Erie. Mrs. Kuhn was only twelve years of age when her mother died, and her father married a second time, but there were no children of the second union. Mr. and Mrs. Nuhn are members of the German Reformed Church, and in politics he is a democrat. They have one son, George, born November 13, 1897, who is an engineer and farmer, and is a very capable young man who has completed the work of the local schools and is capably assisting his father. yrs. Nuhn by her former marriage to John Knott, now deceased, has a daughter, Pearl Knott, born December 29, 1894, who has completed her education in 'the public schools. JOSEPH FENTON. What Joseph Fenton has accomplished as a farmer in Berlin Township is a lesson in industry, thrift and good management. From early boyhood he has been schooled in the university of hard work and experience. He was doing his part in lumber camps and in other hard work in the East when still a boy. In 1902 Mr. Fenton bought his present well ordered fruit and grain farm in Berlin Township. He owns 68 1/2 acres, beautifully situated, and highly improved and productive. In the past fifteen years he has placed most of the improvements on the farm. His principal barn for stock and grain is a substantial structure on a 'foundation 26 by 36 feet with 16-foot posts. The basement is solidly floored, and it is one of the best adapted structures of its kind found in Berlin Township. On his farm are fourteen acres of orchard, chiefly peaches. During the past year he produced 3,500 bushels of peaches, and his specialty in that fruit is the Lemon Free. He also grows large crops of corn and other staples, and his yield of corn has not infrequently been as high as '10 bushels per acre. He grows on his land from two hundred to three hundred bushels of potatoes per acre. He keeps .enough stock to consume most of his crop, and these are of high grade. Mr. Fenton was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, June 6, vol. II-40 1098 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 1866, a son of Charles and Harriet (Blackmore) Fenton. His father was born in England and his mother in Warren County, Pennsylvania. On coming from England Charles Fenton located in Pennsylvania, and married his wife there. He owned a small farm, but was chiefly employed in the lumber industry. The record which he made as a soldier in the Civil war is something which his descendants will always cherish. He went out with a New York regiment, and was in nearly all the engagements in which his command participated. A list of the battles in which he fought would comprise many of the greatest in the eastern theater of the war. He was at Grant's headquarters when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. He was severely wounded in the face in the battle of the Wilderness, and twice while a soldier he was captured and spent some time both in Libby and Andersonville prisons. He was exchanged, and after some months rejoined his regiment. After his honorable discharge he returned to New York State, and died there when his son Joseph was only eleven years of age. His wife had passed away two years before. Joseph Fenton is the oldest in a family of three sons and one daughter, all of whom are married and have homes of their own. After the death of his parents Joseph Fenton grew up in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox. He had little opportunity to gain an education. Most of his experience from early childhood was hard work. For several years he was employed in the lumber camps at Onoville. When only twelve years of age he learned to drive oxen, and when still quite a boy was proficient in the rafting of logs down the rivers in the lumber district. He went down the Allegheny River with what is said to have been the last raft of logs ever taken down that stream from Western New York and Pennsylvania. After a variety of experience in the East Mr. Fenton came to Ohio in 1896, and bought twelve acres now included in his fine farm in Berlin Township.. To this he added other land as his ability made that possible, and there is no better place in the county regarded from the point of productiveness and quality of crops. Mr. Fenton is a democrat in politics. He married Marilla Baker of Florence Township. Mr. Fenton has a son, Leo B., born November 22, 1902, and now in the seventh grade of the publics schools. C. HENRY CHERRY. A resident of Milan Township, with postoffice at Avery, Mr. Cherry is numbered among the prosperous agriculturists of this vicinity. His life has been one of industry and the substantial position he has attained in the community is the result of his well-directed efforts and a thorough integrity and usefulness' in all his relations. His family were among the very early settlers of Erie County. Mr. Cherry was born in Milan Township September 18, 1849, a son of Charles Cherry, who was born in the first frame house built at Milan, and a grandson of William Cherry who was probably born in Connecticut. William Cherry was married in the East and not long afterwards came to Ohio, settling at Milan, where he bought a small home. At that time and for several years afterwards, land could be bought in this vicinity as low as 25 to 50 cents an acre. Unfortunately, he 'could not convince himself that an investment in land so cheap would ever prove profitable, and consequently never acquired any landed, estate. For many years he did work at wages as low- as 25 cents per day, and as a laboring man he spent most of his active career. He died when about eighty years of age and prior to the Civil war. He and his wife, who died before him, lie side by side in the Milan cemetery. They were members of the Methodist Church, and in politics he was a very decided whig. His children were : George, who for a number of years followed PICTURE OF C. HENRY CHERRY AND WIFE, AVERY, OHIO HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1099 the mason's trade, was also a soldier in the Civil war; enlisting in Michigan, returned safe and sound after the war, married and has a family of children, and is now a resident of the Soldiers' Home at Sandusky, aged about seventy-five and the only survivor of his father's children. Hannah and Abbie, both now deceased, died when quite old in Norwalk and left children. Charles Cherry, father of C. Henry Cherry, while growing up, learned the trade of carpenter and subsequently with his brother, George, gained a knowledge of the mason's trade. He liked neither of these mechanical occupations, though he was very proficient in them, and finally turned his entire attention to farming in East Milan, and in this way spent his life. He died when quite an old man, and from early youth had been first a whig and later a republican in politics. He was married in Milan to Alvira Witt. She was born in New Jersey, came to Milan when a young girl, was educated in that township, and was a most faithful and capable wife and mother. She died a few weeks after her husband, as a result of paralysis. For many years both were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Charles Cherry and his son, Byron, both served as soldiers in the Civil war during the last eleven months as. members of the Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The son Byron was the oldest child in the family and at his death left two daughters. The second in the family is C. Henry. Gusta, the next in order of birth, is now Mrs. Halstead, living at Swanton, Ohio, and she has been married four times, and has children by her first husband, John Sanders, and also one by the second husband. Libby is the wife of Ralph Sayles, of Milan, who is now a retired farmer and is serving as township roadmaster, and they have a family of three sons living and one daughter, now deceased. William is a mason by trade, living at Norwalk and is married and has a large family of sons and daughters. Buford E. is now in the West, but his wife and family, reside in Milan. George, who died about two years ago, is survived by his widow and one child at their old home in. Collinwood, Ohio. Burton lives at Lorain, Ohio, is a machinist and now department foreman in the large steel plant at that city, and has two sons and four daughters. In the township which is now his home C. Henry Cherry grew up and gained his early education. With the exception of ten years as livery man at Lorain he has made his career that of farmer, and since 1873 has lived on his beautiful place of fifty-three acres not far from Avery. With the exception of the ground covered by his buildings practically every foot is under cultivation. He is an intensive farmer, practical, methodical, industrious, and has made good in every sense of the word. He has a most attractive group of building improvements, including a seven-room residence, a substantial basement barn, and his specialty as a farmer is the feeding and dealing in life stock. He handles several car loads of cattle, sheep and horses every year, and also conducts a plant for the manufacturing of pork products. He -kills a large number of hogs every winter, and sells several thousand dollars worth of their products. On the farm that he now owns Mr. Cherry married Miss Euphrasia C. Gerrard. She was born in Perkins Township of Erie County, June 11, 1842, and after many years of happy married life she died at the home in Avery December 19, 1911. She grew up in Erie County, graduated from Oberlin College, and was a woman of great refinement and culture and impressed her influence on many people in her community. Her parents were Garret B. nd Mary A. (Mackey) Gerrard. Her mother was a sister of Judge Mackey of Sandusky. Her father was for some years sheriff in Erie County, subsequently became a well- 1100 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY to-do farmer, owning three farms, and he spent his last years at Avery. The Gerrard family were among the best known in Erie County, and both Mrs. Cherry's parents were born in New Jersey., Mr. Gerrard took a prominent part in republican party affairs. Mr. Cherry is an attendant of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Milan, of which his wife was an active worker until her death. WILLIAM F. FICHTEL. A wonderful transformation has taken place in the material prosperity and standing of William F. Fichtel in the few years since he came from Germany, a young lad unacquainted with American ways and customs, and with little to depend upon except his own energies and ambition to give a good account of himself in the world. Mr. Fichtel is now a well to do and successful farmer in Vermilion Township, and manages a fine place of 118 acres just west of Joppa Corners. This farm measures up to the best standards set in Erie County agriculture. Seventy-five acres of it is under the plow and each season grows fine crops of all the staples, with an average of thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, thirty-five bushels of barley, forty bushels of oats and eighty bushels of corn. Mr. Fichtel feeds most of his crops to his own live stock, and keeps five good mulch cows, six head of horses and some hogs. He recently completed a substantial barn standing on a foundation 36 by 50 feet with 14-foot post, and his home is a comfortable and commodious house of eight rooms. He also has a good orchard. Mr. Fichtel has been proprietor of this farm since 1912, but for the previous ten years had managed it and he bought it from his father-in-law, Christian Hauff. Like many of the most progressive farmer citizens found in Erie County, Mr. Fichtel is a native of Germany, was born in Wurtemberg October 28, 1876. His people were hard working, thrifty and honest Germans and his parents were Christian and Catherine (Frank) Fichtel, both natives of Sparweisen, Wurtemberg. His father was a farmer, and the parents spent all their lives in their native country. The father died when nearly sixty-four years of age, and-his wife passed away when about fifty, though her father had lived to be eighty and' her mother died at the age of ninety-six. Both branches of the family were communicants of the German Lutheran Church. William F. Fichtel was the third in a family of four children. His sister Barbara, who was the first to come to this country, having come over in 1888, is the wife of Gottlieb Werner of Huron, and they have two sons. The son Gottlieb, the older brother of William F., lives in Germany and has a family of sons and daughters. The youngest child is Carl, also a resident of Germany, and he has a daughter. In his native province William F. Fichtel grew to early manhood, acquired an education after the German customs, and had attained to man's estate several years before he made the- venture which brought him to the New World. His sister Barbara in 1900 had gone back to visit her German parents, and in 1901 when she returned to America her brother William accompanied her. After arriving in Huron he soon found 'employment as a farmer in Vermilion Township, and within a year he married Miss Bertha Hauff. Mrs. Fichtel was born in Vermilion Township April 21, 1878, and was reared and educated here. She is a daughter of Christian Hauff, and a sketch of the worthy Hauff family will be found on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Fichtel are the parents of six children : Ernest C., born February 7, 1904, now in the seventh grade of the public schools; Catherine M. was born September 25, 1905, and is in the fifth grade ; Earl was born July 7, 1907, and is in the third HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1101 grade; Frederick William, born July 5, 1908, has only recently started to school. The two younger children are Henry Ackerman, born September 6, 1911, and Lydia F., born March 12, 1915. Mr. Fichtel and wife and the older children are members of the German Reformed Church, and in politics he is a democrat. ANDREW A. SCHOEWE. Many of the leading and influential agriculturists of Erie County have passed their entire lives in the vicinities in which they are now making their homes, and it is but natural that these men should have an advantage over newcomers to the county; for their knowledge of soil and climatic conditions has been lifelong and they are thus able to direct their labors more intelligently. Prominent in this class is Andrew A. Sehoewe, of Margaretta Township, a prosperous farmer and dairyman and influential citizen of his community, where he was born January 1, 1872, a son of August P. and Johanna Schoewe. The parents were both natives of Germany, and Mrs. Schoewe died a number of years ago. August F. Schoewe came to the United States in 1859 and with his wife came to Erie County, Ohio, settling permanently in Margaretta Township, where he carried on milling operations in the brick mill in Margaretta, which has since beenburned down. He also worked in the old mill at Venice, and later turned his attention to farming and carried on general operations in this line for many years. He was a man of industry and intelligence, his work being directed along well-defined lines, and his success was such that he was able to pass the declining years of his life in comfortable retirement. Mr. Schoewe was the father of five children who survive, namely : Mary, who is the wife of Edward Linder, of Sandusky ; Amelia, who is a resident of Margaretta Township ; Adeline, who is the wife of Albert Sehoewe, of this township ; Anna, who is the wife of George Arndt, of Sandusky ; and Andrew A. The father has been a lifelong Methodist, in the faith of which church he carefully reared his children. In political matters he has always been a republican, and while he has not been a seeker for personal preferment on his own account, he has been active as a worker in the ranks of his party and in encouraging progressive and public-spirited movements. He is still the owner of a handsome property in Margaretta Township, although he has turned its operation over to younger hands. Andrew A. Schoewe received his early education in the public schools of Margaretta Township, and this has since been supplemented by training, experience and observation, so that today he is a well-informed man as to all the really important subjects of the times. More than twenty years ago he first engaged in the dairy business, an enterprise which he has built up from modest beginnings to large proportions, and in addition to this of recent years has been extending his operations into the field of cattle growing and dealing, in which he has also won well-merited success. He is considered an excellent judge of .cattle and horses, and as a business man his name is an honored one in commercial and financial circles. On December 1, 1896, Mr. Schoewe was married to Miss Marguerite Coskanet, who was born in New York State, a member of a family which originated in France. Mr. and Mrs. Schoewe are the parents of three children : Victor R., Clyde L. and Victoria M. Mr. Schoewe is a member of the lodge of the Knights of Pythias, at Sandusky, and is politically a republican. He is public-spirited and a friend of education, and during his long residence here has unquestionably won the confidence of his neighbors, acquaintances and many friends in Margaretta Township. 1102 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY NICHOLAS REIFERT. The value of such a lift as was lived by the late Nicholas Reifert cannot be overestimated, since its influence may he observed in a community long after the .individual has passed away. If a stretch of highway has been made possible, a tract of land cleared of the dense forest with which it was encumbered, a new business or industry started in his locality through his energetic efforts—a man has not lived in vain. A large circle of old friends and acquaintances felt a deep sense of personal loss in the death of Nicholas Reifert which occurred December 29, 1914. He died at the Reifert homestead on the Risden Road in Vermilion Township, on the farm where his own productive efforts had been accompanied by many seasons of growth and fruitage, and where he himself was born on March 22, 1851. He was a good farmer, a good neighbor, and left an honored name to his descendants. Both his grandfather, Nicholas Reifert, and his father, John Reifert, were born in Germany. John Reifert married in Germany Ann E. Hart. Their first child Margaret was born in Germany. In 1850 John Reifert and wife and daughter, accompanied by his parents, Nicholas and wife, came to the united States and from New York proceeded west as far as Vermilion Township in Erie County, where they settled on a farm which Nicholas Reifert developed from the wild conditions. Nicholas Reifert was past sixty years of age when he died, and his widow lived to be ninety-two. They were people of great vitality and both physical and mental strength. John Reifert, who was the only son of his parents, had a sister, Anna C., who became the wife of Nicholas Will, of the well known Will family of Vermilion Township.' John Reifert finally came to own the old homestead, and lived there until his death in 1893 when past sixty-five years of age. He was accidentally killed while walking home on the tracks of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad: His first wife died at the age of_ forty-five. He married for his second wife Eva E.. Krapp, who was born in Germany, and who died in 1903 when seventy-eight years of age. Both were ,members of the German Reformed Church. The late Nicholas Reifert was married in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County to Miss Mary Catherine Leimbach. She wa born in that township February 12, 1862, and attended the local schools there through the eighth grade. Mrs. Reifert has been a devoted mother and wife, and she deserves much credit for having made and maintained the fine homestead in Vermilion Township where she now resides. Her parents were Henry and Anna C. (Kort) Leimbach, both of whom were born in Kurhessen. Germany. Her father came to the United States at the age of sixteen and her mother at fourteen. They had known each other back in Germany and as their respective families located in Brownhelm Township. of Lorain County, they renewed their acquaintance and subsequently married. Later they moved to Woods County, Ohio, where Mr. Leimbach secured land direct from the government near New Rochester. He improved this land and finally sold out to considerable advantage and returned to Brownhelm Township. He is still living on the old homestead there, in comfort and plenty, and on December 15; 1914, was eighty-three years of age. His wife. passed away December 23, 1910, at the age of seventy-two. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Reifert were born five children : Henry, who is a farmer in Vermilion Township along the lake shore, married Cora. Thompson of Cleveland, and their children are Ethel. Frederick and Franklin. John, the second son, died at the age of seven years as a result of being kicked by a horse. Anna is the wife of August A. Zilch of Cleveland, and they now make their home in the City of Toledo and have two children Dorothy M. and Lucile V. L. Franklin is now his mother's capable manager of the home farm, and HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1103 works its fields on the shares. The youngest child Margaret has been well educated, as were her brothers and sisters, and is still at home. The late Mr. Reifert was confirmed when a child in the Reformed Church and Mrs. Reifert and the children are members of the, same faith. WILLARD BURROWS. For more than half a century a resident of Erie County, Willard Burrows has spent his active career, as a progressive farmer in Florence Township. He has enjoyed the best elements of success, having acquired a good home, having given his family the comforts of living and education, and having steered an honorable and straightforward course throughout, his own career. His birth occurred in New York State April 23, 1850. His father, Andrew Burrows, was born in the same state April 29, 1809, and when lie grew up took up the trade of cabinet making and combined it with farming. He was married in New York to Mary Etta Brunson, who was born April 4, 1843. While they lived in New York three children were born to them. The son Doane was born in 1845, the daughter died in infancy, and the other was Willard. For a short time during the infancy of Willard Burrows the family lived in Pennsylvania. In 1865 they came to Erie County, and bought land in Florence Township. On the old farm there Andrew Burrows passed away in 1891, having survived his wife by a number of years. Andrew Burrows was three times married, the mother of Willard was his second wife and the only one who bore him children. Doane Burrows, who is now deceased, married Kate, daughter of Rev. Nathan Shelmadine, who is also deceased. They left three sons, all of whom live in Pennsylvania, named Arthur, David and Earl and all three are connected with the oil industry. Willard Burrows was about fifteen years of age when he came to Florence Township. He grew to manhood here, and finished his education in the local schools. His career has been that of a successful , farmer, and his present homestead comprises seventy-four acres. His. house, built under his own direction, is an eight-room residence, and it, is surrounded by a number of substantial farm buildings. He has made-'. his farm both the scene of productive enterprise and an attractive and comfortable place to live. While he is classified as a general farmer he raises a great deal of high grade fruit. In the Hills Corners community on Hill Street in Florence Township Mr. Burrows married Miss R. Isabel Hill. She was born on the old Hill homestead, and seventeen acres of that old farm is now included in the Burrows farm of seventy-four acres. She was born July 8, 1852, and has spent all her life on this farm. Mrs. Burrows belongs to one of the oldest and best known families of Erie County. Her grandparents were David E. and Phoebe- (Brundage) Hill,, both natives of New York State, where they married, and where their son, John Wesley Hill, father of Mrs. Burrows, was born November 16, 1822. The latter was still a small boy when the family came to Erie County. They made the journey overland, with wagons and ox teams, progressing tediously over rough roads and crossing swollen streams. The family located in the forest district around the Village of Florence, and after making some improvements there moved to what is now known as the Hills Corners community on the Hill Road. There David Hill acquired three or four hundred acres of land, improved it, and by his energy and enterprise gave his name to as community and also to one of the important thoroughfares of Erie County. He and his wife spent the rest of their years on the old farm, and were highly esteemed members of the community. David Hill was largely self educated, but all his life was a great reader, and it is said that he could repeat entire chapters of the Bible from memory. He and his wife-were very active Members and supporters of the Methodist Church. David Hill was 1104 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY ninety-seven years of age when he died, and until within a few years before his death had been able to read without the aid of glasses. He was of a long lived generation. His father before him was 108 years old when he died and the grandfather attained the remarkable age of 124. David Hill was through the War of 1812 as a soldier. John Wesley Hill married Charlotte E. Swartwood, daughter of Ebenezer Swartwood. She was born April 8, 1824. After their marriage John W. Hill and wife lived for a few years at Joppa, and then located on a part of the old Hill homestead, where ultimately they enjoyed the possession of nearly two hundred acres of fine land. They were very active people in their community, and stood for the best things in life. Both died in 1887, Mrs. Hill on April 10 and her husband on April 20. No one was more entitled to and enjoyed greater respect and esteem in the community than " Uncle John Hill," as he was known. They were closely identified with the organization of the Joppa Methodist Church, and David Hill had also been one of its officers and most active supporters. John W. Hill was a republican, but took little part in politics. Mr. and Mrs. Burrows are justly proud of their fine family of children. Mary E., the oldest, was born April 7, 1873, and is the wife of Joseph K. Riblet, and they live in Michigan, and have children named Lynn, Isabel, Josephine and Margaret. Lewis M. Burrows, who was born November 28, 1875, and is now foreman of the paint gang for the Nickel Plate Railway, living at Cleveland, first married Mabel Summers, and her only child, Lucile, now lives with Mr. and Mrs. Willard Burrows. For his second wife he married at Westville, New York, Elizabeth Edge, who was a very competent trained nurse, and the romance which ended in their marriage was the result of her saving his life during a very hard siege of sickness. Elmer D. Burrows is the active manager of his father's farm, and by his marriage to Lena Losey has one song Charles W. John W., born March 6, 1880, is a painter by trade, lives in Florence Township, and by his marriage to Winifred N. Summers has two children, Lisle W. and Rhoda E. Myrtle M. is the wife of Dell Smith, and they live on a farm in Florence Township and have children named Dorothy C. and Bernice Grace. Mr. Burrows and sons are prohibitionists in politics. Mr. and Mrs. Burrows are among the leaders in the local congregation of the Adventist Church. GOTTLEIB H. KNOTT. Every family constitutes a unit in the social fabric of Erie County. Most of these units are self-sustaining. A very few are liabilities instead of assets of the community. Still others are not only able to look out for themselves but bear a substantial and influential part in the advancement and progress of the community of which they are a part. In this latter class should be mentioned the Knott family, which for many years has been identified with Erie County, and a vigorous young representative of which is Gottleib H. Knott, of Vermilion Township. He was born on the farm now owned in Vermilion Township on November 2, 1879. He has spent all his brief career in this one locality, and received his education at Joppa Corners. For the past two years he has owned the old homestead of fifty-one acres. This comprises land .highly improved and very valuable, adapted to the growing of all kinds of grain, potatoes and apples. Since Mr. Knott took possession he has completed a fine new barn on a foundation 36 by 50 feet with 16-foot posts. The floor is all cement and the structure is well arranged and equipped having accommodations for twelve. head of cattle and four head of horses and space for grain and hay. Mr. Knott and family reside in an attractive seven-room house, two stories, nicely HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1105 painted and comfortable both inside and out. Mr. Knott gets most of his revenues through his live stock, and he has been very successful in handling this branch of farm husbandry. He keeps goon grades of horses, cattle and hogs. He is a son of Gottleib and Anna (Koenig) Knott, both of whom were born in Hesse, Germany, and of old German families. They were still singly when they emigrated to the United States, and came over when most of the boats crossing the Atlantic were sailing vessels. They came on west to Ohio and were married in Vermilion Township where they started out as farmers on the very land now owned by their son Gottleib. They were industrious and thrifty people, very honorable in all their relations, and were highly esteemed as long as they lived. The father died April 11, 1905, lacking only one day of being seventy-three years of age. His widow passed away at the same home on April 28, 1914, at the age of seventy-two. They were both active members of the German Reformed Church at Mittewanga on the lake shore and did much to keep up that organization and for many years the father was an official and held the post of trustee at the time of his death. In politics he was a democrat from the time he cast his first American vote. Gottleib H. Knott is one of nine children, eight of whom are still living. Seven of these are married, and five have children. Gottleib H. Knott was married at Berlin Heights to Mrs. Bertha L. (Kelble) Baker. She was born in Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio, June 14, 1885. She - was reared in Milan and in Berlin Heights and received most of her education in Erie County. Her parents were Joseph and Louise (Beck) Kelble, both of German parentage. They were married in Huron County but spent most of their lives in Erie County. The father, who was a farmer and butcher, died in 1909 at the age of fifty-six, and her mother is still living in Berlin Township. Mrs. Knott by her first marriage to Bert Baker, now deceased, has two children, Louisa and Ruth. Mr. and Mrs. Knott are both church members, she of the Berlin Heights Methodist Episcopal Church and he of the German Reformed Church at Mittewanga, Vermilion Township. In politics he is a democrat and has been honored by several positions in the township government. CHRISTIAN SCHATZ. One of the best kept farms in Vermilion Township along the lake shore is owned by Christian Schatz. He is one of the German born inhabitants of Erie County who started life as a renter and by much thrifty economy and self-sacrifice has won a competence. He is a man who has been successful by keeping everlastingly at it. His farm is well improved, grows large crops, and he keeps some of the best of live stock. Born in Prussia December 20, 1869, he is a son of Michael and Mary (Stigar) Schatz, who were also natives of Prussia and of old German ancestry. After their marriage they lived on a small farm in Germany, and while there two children were born to them, Christian and Catherine. In 1871 this little family together with the wife's parents set out for America. From New York City they came on west to Ohio, landed at Sandusky, and the following year lived on Kelly's Island. They next moved to Huron Township, where for some years they rented land, and then coming to Vermilion Township bought the Mittewanga farm. That was the home for many years, and the father by much industry provided for his household and accumulated something against old age. Selling out the forty acres he owned there he next bought a fine place of eighty-six acres, and he and his wife still live there, hale and hearty people, who apparently have much before them in the world, since the father is sixty-eight and the mother sixty- 1106 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY five. They are members of the Evangelical Church and in politics he is a democrat. It was on the old home in Vermilion Township that Christian Schatz grew to manhood. His education came from the local schools, and on arriving at years of maturity he started out for himself as a renter. This he kept up for some years, and finally was able to invest in a home of his own. In 1903 he bought a beautiful farm of eighty- five acres along the Lake Shore Railroad and the Barnes Highway in the same township. With the exception of twelve acres of timber all of this land is under cultivation. His home is a seven-room house painted white with green trimmings, and near by is a large barn on a foundation 30 by 60 feet, well adapted for stock and grain. Among other stock Mr. Schatz keeps four dairy cows. " He was married in Henrietta Township of Lorain County to Elizabeth M. Pippert. She was born in North Amherst of Lorain County January 11, 1872, and grew up and received her education there. Her parents, Conrad and Barbara (Hildebrand) Pippert were natives of Kurhessen, Germany, grew up there, and when still young people came to the United States. The sailing vessel on which they crossed encountered rough seas and was twelve weeks on the voyage. When they landed in New York City they were almost starved. From there they came to Amherst in Lorain County, married there, and then located on a small farm at North Amherst. Some years later they moved to Henrietta Township in the' same county and bought the tract of land on which the parents lived out the rest of their honored and industrious lives. Her father died April 1, 1905, at the age of sixty-three, and her mother on October 27, 1912, aged sixty-six. They were members of the Reformed Church and in politics he was a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Schatz have two children : Carl William, born January 30, 1902, and now in the sixth grade of the public schools; and Helen B., born July 2, 1907. Mr. and Mrs.. Schatz are members of the German Reformed Church, and politically he is identified with the republican party. COMFORT H. RUGGLES. Among the families who are celebrating or have the privilege of celebrating the centennial anniversary of the arrival of their ancestors in this section of Northern Ohio is included the Ruggles family, a name that was first planted in the wilds of Huron County on the Connecticut Firelands very shortly after the close of the War of 1812. It was a descendant of this old and prosperous and influential family who for many years lived in the near vicinity of Milan Village, where his widow, Mrs. Ruggles, still resides. The late Comfort H. Ruggles was born in Ridgefield Township of Huron County, November 18, 1841, and died December 31, 1908, at his home on the crown of the Ruggles hill overlooking the Huron River and for many years known as "Hill Top," where Mrs. Ruggles has spent most of her life since birth. The grandparents of the late Mr. Ruggles were Eden and Artemecia (Jackson) Ruggles. They were both born in Connecticut. The grandfather was born at Brookfield in Fairfield County, May 13, 1766, and his wife was born in the same locality March 12, 1771. Both were of Revolutionary stock, and there was a Capt. Joseph Ruggles who distinguished himself as a soldier in the struggle for independence. Eden Ruggles and wife were married at Danbury, Connecticut, May 20, 1790, and afterward they removed to Pennsylvania. Most of their children, eight sons and three daughters, were born in Connecticut. It was during the years 1816-17 that the various members of this family, either singly or in small parties, found their way out from Pennsylvania to the firelands in Huron County, Ohio. They were a people well fitted PICTURE OF COMFORT H. RUGGLES HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1107 for pioneers, had the New England conscience, the rugged virtues which have always distinguished the people from that section, and were therefore naturally influential in the formative period of a new settlement, and did their part well in the material development. Eden Ruggles and wife both followed their sons into Huron County, and he died there January 19, 1855, and his widow on January 29, 1864. They were both people of Christian ideals and virtues,, and among other accomplishments they were fine singers, and had sung in the church choirs at Danbury, Connecticut, and in churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is due these people that some brief record should be made of their children, most of wham were subsequently identified with Northern Ohio. Aurelia, born in 1791 and died in 1880, left a family of eleven children. Joseph, born October 4, 1792, afterwards moved West, and died there. Sarah, born October 18, 1794, married a Mr. Drake of Huron County, and both lived as farmers in that section the rest of their lives, being represented by descendants. Daniel, born December 23, 1796, spent all his life as a farmer in Huron County, and also had a family. Polly, born February 14, 1799, married Benjamin Jackson, and she died while accompanying her husband and others in a wagon train to California in 1864, her death occurring at Carson Valley near California, and her husband later died in the same state, while some of their sons are still living there and well to do and prosperous. Peter, born November 10, 1801, spent his life in Ohio, married there, and died October 25, 1855. Martin Luther, the next in the family, is mentioned in the following paragraph. Salmon, born January 27, 1806, and died February 7, 1866, left children by his marriage to Rebecca Nieman, and these children are all now living in the West. Orrin, born September 2, 1808, and died at Milan December 29, 1898, married Sarah Nieman, who at her death left several children. William A., born November 17. 1811, moved to Chicago, lost his property there in the great fire of 1871, afterwards went out to California and died in that state August 1, 1889. Eli H., born January 22,. 1814, was three times married, but had no surviving children at the time of his death in December, 1877. Martin Luther Ruggles, who was born in Brookfield Township, Fairfield County, Connecticut, November 13, 1803, was still a boy when the family came to Huron County. Like some of his brothers, he learned the trade of ship carpenter in and around the Milan shipyards, and followed that as a regular vocation for many years. He also secured a fine tract of land in Ridgefield Township of Huron County; and that was the scene of the family activities for many years. He died in that . township December 1, 1850, when still in the -prime of life. His children were still young, but he left them the heritage of a good name as well as some possessions which would keep them in material comfort. Martin L. Ruggles married Fidelia Webb. She was born in Pompey, New York, September 25, 1808, and died January 9, 1894, at the home of her daughter in Clyde, Ohio.. She was still a young woman when she came to Ohio, and during nearly all her life had been a zealous member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Ruggles was first a whig and later a republican. In their family were eight children, six sons and two daughters, and the late Comfort Ruggles was the sixth in order of birth. Of these children Carlton_ is a retired business man and contractor living now in California, and has children by his two marriages. Emily T., another of the children, is the widow of Edwin L. Perry, has a large family of sons and daughters, and lives in North Fairfield, Ohio. Belle is the wife of Arthur L. Clark, who is now business representative at Clyde, Ohio, of a nursery establishment. The late Comfort H. Ruggles was well reared and educated and every feature of his career was such as to redound to his credit. TIe attended the Milan High School and also the normal school, and for 1108 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY a number of years combined work at a mechanical trade with the capable direction of his farm interests. For many years he held, the office of justice of the peace and also filled other local positions. During President Harrison 's administration he was postmaster at Milan. He was quite a factor in local republican politics, and in Masonry was probably one of the best posted men and active workers in this section of the state. He filled the highest offices in the Masonic Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and Council at Norwalk. On November 28, Thanksgiving Day, 1867, at the home of the bride, now known as Hill Top, near Milan, Comfort H. Ruggles and Miss Charlotte H. Merry were united in bonds that remained unbroken for more than forty years. Mrs. Ruggles was born April 1, 1844, on the very place where she now has her home. She grew up and received her education, and the Scenes which influenced her early childhood have been with her through the associations of old age. Her parents were Samuel and Cordelia (Baker) Merry. Her father was born at Mentor, Ohio, June 27, 1811, and died December 14, 1883. Her mother was born at Vernon in Tolland County, Connecticut, October 13, 1816, and died March 21, 1875. A week after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Merry moved to the Ruggles Hill and occupied what is now Hill Top near Milan Village. Mrs. Ruggles' father was one of the managers of the old Ebenezer Merry Mills at Milan and one of the most active members of the firm during his father's life and assumed the greater part of the responsibility after his death. Other references to the Merry family and their activities will be found on other pages in the sketch of Charles O. Merry. After the mills were closed down Mr. Merry devoted his attention to the raising of fancy poultry on the Hill Top place, and that became noted throughout Erie County for its splendid products. While still living there and engaged in those activities he passed away. Mr. Merry was a man of unusual business ability until continued ill health made it necessary for him to relinquish an active part in the management of his affairs. Mrs. Ruggles' father was of a very retiring nature, and some -people considered him austere in manner. He was positive in his belief and always lived true to his ideals. In politics he was a republican, and he and his wife were Presbyterians. Mrs. Ruggles since the death of her husband has continued to occupy and look after the beautiful Hill Top place. She is a lovable woman and has exemplified the beautiful truths of the Christian religion in her home and in her associations with the community. She and her family are attendants of the Presbyterian Church, and the sons are republican voters. A brief record of the five children will appropriately close this article. Bertha Evelyn was graduated from the Milan High School and Normal, taught school for several years, and is now the wife of Roy E. Webb. Mr. Webb was born, reared and educated at North Fairfield in Huron County, and completed his education under his father, Ezra H. Webb, who served as superintendent of schools in many cities in Northern. Ohio and is still prominent in educational affairs in the state. Mr. and Mrs. Webb now live at Toledo, where he is identified with the Wells Fargo & Company's Express in that city. Their children are : Donald Ruggles, who was born March 17, 1903, and is now in the seventh grade of school; and Charlotte Lucy, born May 10, 1910. Howard W., the second child, born July 25, 1870, is now a printer living at Norwalk, Ohio. By his marriage to Laura Remington he has a daughter Eleanor Bertene, born September 1, 1903. Archie Walter, born July 24, 1872, lives at home with his mother and is a buyer and silent partner in, the firm of Lockwood, Smith & Co., general merchants at Milan. He graduated from the Milan High School in 1894 and is still unmarried. PICTURE OF ROBERT W. WORDEN HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1109 Everton George, born September 1, 1874, was graduated from the Milan High School in 1895, and is now cashier of the Farmers & Citizens Banking Company of Milan. He married Harriet Lewis of Cleveland. Kent P., born June 26, 1880, was graduated from the Milan High School in 1898, and is now correspondent for the Goodrich Rubber Company of Akron. He married Bessie James, and they have a son Arthur James, born June 22, 1914. His home is at Cuyahoga Falls. ROBERT W. WORDEN. Among the departments of service in the great railroad corporations one of more than ordinary importance is that which deals with the inspection of weights and freight. In this branch of service is maintained what is known as the Joint Rate Inspection Bureau, whose members must be men of intelligence and accuracy, energy and industry, preferably those who have had some years of railroad experience back of them. The bureau's chief representative at Sandusky is Robert W. Worden, whose duties include the inspection of freight rates and weights. Since the beginning of his career Mr. Worden has been connected with railroad work of some character, and has risen steadily from a minor clerkship to his present important position through the display of energy, ability and fidelity to the company's interests. Born at Fremont, Ohio, January 11, 1868, he is a son of Darwin L. G. Worden, who was a descendant of Peter Worden, the founder of the New England family of Wordens, whose will was probated in the Town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, on February 9, 1639. Darwin L. G. Worden was a native of New York, coming from Herkimer County to Ohio in the early '40s and settling in Cleveland. After marrying Eliza Reid in 1866 he moved to Sandusky County and took up his residence near the City of Fremont. While agriculture was his chief vocation during his earlier years, he also followed other callings, in all of which he proved himself capable, enterprising and faithful, winning and retaining the respect and confidence of those with whom he came in contact. In 1872 he came to Erie County, and from that time resided in Sandusky, engaged in diversified occupation. He is still well remembered by a number of the older people of Sandusky and vicinity, among whom he mingled in a business way and upon whom he impressed his personality by reason of his many sterling qualities. He was for a period of more than a quarter of a century a devout member and generous supporter of the Methodist Church. Robert W. Worden was four years old when brought to Erie County, and here was reared, obtaining his education in the public schools of Sandusky. His schooling completed, he began life as a clerk in the offices of the I., B. & W. Railroad at Sandusky, remaining with that company until it went into the hands of a receiver, at which time he joined the clerical force of the C., S. & C. Railroad, which was later absorbed by the C., C., C. & St. L. Railway. There' he remained a short time, when he transferred his services to the C., S. & H. Railway and finally was appointed an employee in the Joint Rate Inspection Bureau. He is one of the most valued and trusted of the bureau's employees and has won this confidence by valued and faithful service. The large corporations reward only real service, so that a position of preferment in itself is tangible evidence of the possession of 'more than average ability. Aside from the duties of this position Mr. Worden finds an outlet for his energies in fraternal, work, in which he is well and widely known. He is prominent in Masonry, being a member of Perseverance Lodge No. 329, F. & A. M., of which he has been secretary for twenty, four years; Sandusky City Chapter No. 72, R. A. M.; Sandusky City Council No. 26, R. & S. M., of which he has been thrice illustrious master; and Erie Commandery No. 23, K. T. He has been secretary of all 1110 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY the Masonic bodies of which he is a member for several years. He is also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and belongs to the Masonic Temple Association of Sandusky, of which he is secretary. In his religious belief Mr. Worden is a Presbyterian, a faith to which he has adhered since boyhood. His first vote was cast for a candidate of the republican party, and from that time to the present he has supported the men and measure of that organization. While not an office seeker, he takes an interest in public affairs, particularly where the welfare of his city is concerned. Mr. Worden was married May 24, 1898, at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to Miss Marian Woodall Holt of that city, a daughter of Enoch Holt and Sarah (Winders) Holt. To their marriage have been born two children: Miss Elsie B. H. is now a student in the Sandusky High School. The second child, whose name was Robert Holt, died at the age of eighteen months. GEORGE MEYER. It is one of the essential purposes of this publication to give permanent record to the lives and useful activities of those families that have identified themselves most closely with the real life of Erie County. Of the basic industry upon which all else depends farming must be considered first among the pursuits which make any country prosperous. It has been with the farm enterprise of Vermilion Township that the family of George Meyer has been most closely connected. His father was an honest, industrious and hard-working German-American citizen, who came here in young manhood, worked hard by day and month wages for a number of years, and finally effected the purchase of a tract of land which in time he converted into a well improved farm. George Meyer has followed in the footsteps of his father, and now owns one of the excellent fruit farms in the township, on rural route No. 1 out of the Vernillion postoffice. He was born in the Village of Vermilion in June, 1861, and lived in town until twelve years of age. In 1872 he went with the family to a farm five miles southwest of Vermilion, situated on the Barton Ridge Road. There he grew to manhood, completed his education in the district schools, and kept his home there until about two years ago, when he located on his present place of fourteen acres, comprising a fruit farm, also on the Barton Ridge Road. Since taking possession of this place Mr. Meyer has rebuilt an old house into a modern six-room residence, with cement basement, heated by hot air furnace, and with all the improvements and facilities that make life comfortable. He has good farm buildings and grows large quantities of fruits, including apples, cherries, peaches and.. small fruit. He is a man of good judgment, is a skillful operator in fruit culture, and has the reputation among his neighbors of doing well whatever he undertakes. Mr. Meyer has never married. His parents were John P. and Anna C. (Morris) Meyer. His father was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1822. After gaining a common school education he entered the German army when about eighteen, served five years, and was still a. young man, about twenty-three, when he came to the United States: He crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel, and soon after landing came west as far as Erie County.. In Vermilion Township he found employment on a farm, also worked in the Furnace at Furnace Corners, a short distance south of Vermilion Village, and and still later was employed as a section man on the Lake Shore Railroad, That was his varied line of work up to 1872. In that year he moved to the Bartow Ridge Road, bought eighty acres of land. increased it by another ten acres, and by hard work and intelligent management pursued agriculture on a profitable scale so that his: last years were spent in plenty and comfort. He died January 28, 1911, when in HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1111 his eighty-ninth year. He retained his faculties almost to the end. As a child he had been confirmed in the German Reform Church. His wife passed away May 15, 1910, and she was born in 1831. Her birthplace was Kurhessen, Germany, and having lost her father when she was a child she came with her mother and brothers to this country and to Vermilion Township when she was eleven or twelve years of age. Her mother married for her second husband John Roeder and they lived out their lives in Erie County. Mr. George Meyer was one of a' family of nine children. The five now living include George, the oldest; Nicholas, who has never married and is living on a farm in Vermilion Township; Mary, widow of J. S. King, lives near Ogontz and has a daughter Marguerite ; Anna is the wife of Elmer Wasem of Ogontz, and they have children named Charles, Lucile, Paul and Edith; Elizabeth lives with her brother George and is a woman of thorough education, and has taught for one year in the State of California and Erie County, Ohio, and is now a teacher in the fifth grade , in Vermilion Village. Mr. George Meyer is a democrat in politics. While always busy with his farm work, he has shown an intelligent interest and public spirited disposition to help forward any public improvement in his home community. CHARLES S. BRISTOL. The Township of Vermilion has some very fine farms and some very wide awake and enterprising farmers. One of the first to be mentioned among these is Charles S. Bristol, who looks after an estate of 177 acres near Axtel on the old Butler State Road. He devotes his time to general farming purposes, the raising of good stock, and the growing of fruit, chiefly apples. While his farming enterprise is conducted on a considerable scale, less than half of his land is thoroughly improved, but that part would bear favorable comparison with any of the improved lands in this section of the state. He uses first class business principles and energy in his work, and grows all the staple field crops and fruits, a considerable part of his revenue coming from the stock he raises. For about twenty-six years Mr. Bristol has occupied this farm and has owned it since 1893. It was the property of his father for fourteen years previous to that. Under his own direction Mr. Bristol has directed the improvements and the cultivation, and the building equipment all represents his work and investment. He and his family occupy a substantial and comfortable nine-room house; surrounded with good barn buildings. Charles S. Bristol was born in Birmingham, Erie County, October 26, 1859. He grew up and received his education in that locality, and for ten years of his early life lived in Henrietta Township of Lorain County. His father also owns a farm there. From Lorain County he came to his present location in Erie County,.and there is no resident of Vermilion Township who enjoys higher respect than Charles S. Bristol. His parents were Charles A. and Charlotte (Dennison) Bristol, both of whom were natives of New York State. They came from Ithaca, New York, when young people and were married in Lorain County. After their marriage they first located on a thirteen acre farm. To this the father added from time to time until he had 150 acres of fine land. On that old homestead were born children named Jane, Alice, Alva, Emma and Edith. In 1858 or 1859 the family moved from Lorain County to Birmingham, where Charles A. Bristol bought sixty-two acres. Out of this land four or five acres were set aside for cemetery and Methodist Church purposes. The farm had originally been owned by Clinton Ennis and Mr. Bristol bought it from that owner. 1112 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY This was the scene where the parents spent their last days. Charles A. Bristol died in 1901 at the age of eighty-two, while his wife had passed away about a dozen years before, being then three score and ten years of age. Both were members and active supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while in politics the father ;Ras a whig and afterwards a republican, and the confidence felt in him by his fellow citizens was manifested by their choice of his services for various local offices. .He and his wife were sturdy workers, people of the highest character, and as the result of many years of effort they secured and improved the greater part of three different farms. As already stated, the father owned the farm on which his son, Charles S., now lives, and had first bought it in 1875, though he never occupied it as a place of residence. Both Charles S. Bristol and his brother William were born in Erie County. There are three sisters also still living, Alice who married George Blanden, and Edith and Emma, who were never married. Charles S. Bristol was married in Florence Township to Hannah M. Hamann. She was born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 19, 1857, and was a young girl when brought to Erie Cqunty by her parents, Henry and Martha (Grepps) Hamann. Her parents were both natives of Hesse, Germany, came when young people to America and met and married at Louisville, Kentucky. Mrs. Bristol's father died at Birmingham in 1896 at the age of sixty-nine. He was a democrat in politics. His wife has since twice married and is again a widow and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Libby Huffman in Clyde, Ohio. The Hamann family had membership in the German Methodist Church. Mrs. Bristol is one of the older in a family of ten daughters and three sons, as follows : Catherine, Carrie, Sophia, Mary, Margaret, Libbie, John, William, Leibert and Hannah and -three that are dead. Those still living are all married. Mr. and Mrs. Bristol have created an excellent home and have surrounded themselves with children, most of whom have already taken their independent stations in the world of activities. There were seven children born to their union: Emma is the wife of William Noble, living at Cleveland, and they have a son Carlton. Bertha Annetta was reared and educated in Vermilion Township and is still living at home. Cora B. is the wife of Charles Heidrich, and they are farmers in Henrietta township of Lorain County. Charles A. lives at home and assists his father in farming. Ethel L., who like the other children was educated in the public schools, remains at home. Ray E. is connected with the implement business at the Village of Vermilion. Ira D. is now attending the high :school at Birmingham. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church and politically Mr. Bristol is a republican. CHARLES D. PALMER. Although a native of Michigan, Mr. Palmer has been a resident of Erie County since childhood days, and has made for himself a successful and. honored position as a farmer and stock grower, in Vermilion Township, .and is recognized as an alert, loyal and public spirited citizen. His attractive and valuable homestead of sixty acres is located near Axtel. The land is exceedingly fertile and highly improved, and under his management has been made to grow all the staple crops in abundant quantities, and he also pays Mitch attention to the better grades of live stock. The buildings are in good condition, including a house, barn and other outbuildings. This has been the home of Mr. Palmer and the scene of his best activities for the past thirteen years. Born in Cass County, Michigan, May 1, 1865, he lived there until eight years of age, but has since been a resident of Erie County, where HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1113 he grew to manhood and gained his education in Vermilion township. His father, Daniel Palmer, was born in Michigan. Daniel Palmer still lives in Michigan, is a hardware merchant at Marcellas, and by a second marriage has several children. Charles D. Palmer's mother was horn in Vermilion Township near Axtel in 1841. She was reared and educated there and after her marriage went to Michigan. Seven years after she returned to Erie County with her son Charles she married Shepherd B. Grover of Vermilion Township. Mr. Grover was a substantial farmer and died in, that community in 1905, when nearly eighty years of age. During the Civil war he was in the Union service as an employe in the Government Navy Yard at Philadelphia. While there he learned the trade of ship carpenter, and this furnished him a vocation which he pursued, during all his active years. He helped to build the Golden Age at the Fries Shipyard near Milan. The Golden Age was a noted old time boat on Lake Erie, and at one time the largest vessel on that body of water. Mr. Palmer's mother before her marriage was Miss Louise Champney. She died in 1898, having for many years been identified with the Adventist Church at Axtel. Her father was Francis Champney of an old and honored family of pioneers in Vermilion Township, where he spent practically all the years of his life. Charles D. Palmer has a half-sister living, Edith Ann, who married Harley Clawson, and they live on the old Grover home in Vermilion Township near Axtel, and have a son Grover Clawson. When he established a home, of his own Charles D. Palmer selected as his wife and companion Miss Adda E. Heyman. They were married in Vermilion Township, and Mrs. Palmer was born near Axtel October 16, 1881. All her early years were spent near her birthplace. Her parents were Adolph and Alice (Dean) Heyman, the former of German parentage and the latter of English. Her parents spent all their lives in Ohio and largely in Vermilion Township. Her faTher died March 21, 1902, at the age of forty-three, while Mrs. Heyman is still living and was fifty-five years of age on December 3, 1915. She makes her home in Elyria, Ohio, with her daughter, Bertha Regal, wife of James E. Regal. Mr. and Mrs. Begat have one daughter, Ethel. Mrs. Palmer has one brother, a twin of herself, Alva B., who married Gertrude Dickel, and they have five children, Irma, Alice, Harvey, Martha and Alva W., Jr. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer : Cora A., born December 31, 1900, is now attending the Vermilion High School; Louis A. died at the age of three months; Dean Heyman was' born March 27, 1906, and is in the fourth grade of the public schools; Arnold F. was born June 27, 1910. Mrs. Palmer is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Palmer takes considerable interest in democratic politics but is especially known as a good citizen in favor of every local improvement. JOHN A. CROLL. Hard work has been the keynote of the success of John A. Croll of Vermilion Township. When he was about eighteen years of age he came with the rest of the family from his native fatherland to Northern Ohio. A few years later he assumed independent responsibilities and started out to make his own fortune.. There were handicaps in the way of lack of knowledge of language and customs, but he overcame them all, and by persistent industry has attained practically all his worthy ambitions. He now has a fine farm, has a comfortable and good home, a devoted wife and children, and is -pointed out in his locality as a very successful and much esteemed citizen. Vol. II-41 1114 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY He was born in Hesse, Germany, fifty miles from Hesse Cassel May 9, 1866. His parents were Elijah and Barbara Elizabeth (Reidash) Croll, natives of the same province and of old German lineage. There were just two children in the family, and Mr. Croll's brother is Conrad Croll, a farmer of Huron Township, in Erie County. Conrad married. Carrie, daughter of Andrew Houtenlocker. They have a daughter Alta, now fifteen years of age and a student in the high school at Sandusky. In Germany the family lived according to the simple standards of the time and their community. The boys attended school and were taught to be honest and industrious. In 1884 this little household embarked on the ocean liner Suabia at Hamburg and landed in New York City on the 31st of July the same year. From there they came on west to Brownhelm Township in Lorain County. Here the father had little time to fortify his family against the future since he died four years later in 1888 and was buried on the 29th of July. He was then about fifty-three years of age. His widow is still living and makes , her home with her son John and is seventy-four years of age and quite enfeebled by years. Both she and her husband were members of the Reformed Church. After coming to this country John A. Croll lived in Lorain County until he was twenty-three and then moved to Vermilion Township Here he secured the opportunity of working a tract of land on the shares, and continued that plan of operation for several years. He raised large crops, disposed of them to advantage, and soon had a little capital besides the credit that naturally goes with such self reliant industry. He invested his money in a farm near the lake shore, and conducted it for eleven years before he sold 'out in 1906 and bought his present place, which is near Axtel on the Harmony Ridge Road. Mr. Croll's farm comprises 150 acres of fine land. It will grow all the staple crops and his fields have never failed to respond to his intelligent cultivation. He has an excellent assortment of farm buildings and improvements. The principal barn is on a foundation 36x60 feet, and attached to it is another barn 24x90 feet, especially .adapted for the care of stock. He also has houses for his hogs, a shed for wheat, a tool house, corn crib and practically everything needed for the housing and care of stock and grain. Some special word of commendation should be paid to his home surroundings. The ten-room house sits on a large lawn surrounded with abundance of shade, and while Mr. Croll does not pose as a landscape gardener he has wrought some exceedingly attractive effects around his house, and it is a very inviting place both outside and in. Besides his general farm enterprise he grows considerable fruit. In this township which has been the scene, of his successful work as a farmer, Mr. Croll married Miss Anna E. Knitel She was born in this township February 10, 1867, and grew up and received her education in the same locality.. Her parents were Jacob and Susanna (Altmiller) Knitel, both of whom were born in Hesse, Germany, were married there, and some time during the decade of the '50s they crossed the ocean and established a new home in Vermilion Township of Erie County. They continued to live on their farm, which they improved from year to year, and their last years were spent in a comfortable good home and with plenty for all their needs. Her father died at the age of sixty-one and her mother at seventy-eight. They were members of the Reformed Church and Mr. Knitel was a democrat. Mrs. Croll was one of a family of six, four sons and two 'daughters and all are living except one daughter and all married and have children of their own. HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1115 The household of Mr. and Mrs. Croll has been blessed by the birth of six children. Jacob K., born September 20, 1892, was educated in the public schools, is still unmarried and has done something to show his own enterprise as a farmer. Carl, born February 15, 1894, has also completed his education in the Meal schools and is still at home. William, born July 16, 1896, has finished his school work and is lending a helpful hand about the home farm. Albert, born March 8, 1899, has finished the local school course: Henry, born November 15, 1901, is . now in the eighth grade of the public schools. Mary A., born November 9, 1903, is also in flip eighth grade of school. Mr. and Mrs. Croll and family are members of the Reformed Church at Vermilion, while in politics Mr. Croll and his grown son exercise a judicious care in selecting the best candidate irrespective. party. LUCIUS S. HARRISON. If a man may be judged by those accumulations which ,reward -his business enterprise and by the esteem which he enjoys from his community, there is no question of the position occupied by Lucius S. Harrison in Vermilion Township. As mt farmer he has done more than well. At the present time he is proprietor of two high grade farms. One of these, on which he lives, contains fifty- six acres of highly improved land, and the conspicuous feature of it is a fine peach orchard, 500 bearing trees, and in the average season they produce many. hundreds of bushels of this fine fruit. His other farm is in Florence Township, and also contains fifty-six acres. It has been brought to a high state of cultivation also. The keynote of Mr. Harrison's farming activities has been progressiveness, and he has made a business success without sacrificing any of those genial and generous characteristics which are his personal endowment. It was on a farm in Florence township of Erie County that Lucius S. Harrison was born on January 17, 1854, a son of Thomas and Ruth A. (Hine) Harrison. His mother was a member of one of the very early pioneer families of Erie County. She was born in Florence Township July 18, 1822. Erie County was a wilderness at that time and her parents were among the first who penetrated into that particular section and made for themselves rude beginnings of agriculture and home life. She was reared and spent practically all her life in Florence Township, and died within a mile of her birthplace July 5, 1908. Thomas Harrison was born April 28, 1813, near Amsterdam,. New York, and left that state at the age of twenty-one, going to Michigan, and in 1836 came to Erie County.. Here he met Miss Hine, and a year later they were married and started out as farmers. Not long afterward the parents of Thomas Harrison, Philip and Catherine (Philips) Harrison, came also to Florence Township from New York State and here spent the rest of their days, passing away when quite old. The grandparents were active church rnembers, and the grandmother was particularly a leader in church affairs. After their marriage Thomas and wife settled on a farm two miles northwest of Birmingham. He was an industrious worker, was systematic and careful and conducted his farm so as to bring out of it the best results and in - time he made a very comfortable home. On the old homestead he passed away on July 6, 1891, when in very advanced years. His wife was a member of the Congregational Church. In politics he was a . republican, but made no effort to gain official ,position. Lucius S. Harrison is the only surviving child of these parents: His sister Mary married Hiram Butman, and they lived and died in Wisconsin where their only child, Alice, is now living as a widow, with one son, Newton Burton. The other sister, Elizabeth, married William Bell, and she was born in 1856 and died in 1889, leaving two daughters : 1116 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY Ada, now the wife of Bert Myers of Milan; and Ora, wife of Ed Starr of Norwalk. On the old homestead in Erie County Lucius S. Harrison spent his boyhood and early youth. He attended the local schools, and was well prepared by industrious discipline for the responsibilities of manhood when the time came. At the age of twenty-four he married in Vermilion Township Miss Ella L. Williams. She was born in Vermilion Township September 26, 1857, and was educated in the school at Axtel. Her parents. were Joel F. and Silvah (Humphrey) Williams, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Ohio. They were married in Sandusky, lived there a few years, and then moved to a farm in Vermilion Township where they spent many years. Mr. Williams, who was born June 1, 1827, and died March 6, 1885, was a moulder and engineer in early life, and after his marriage became a lake boat engineer, and followed that occupation until his death at his home in Axtel. He was well known, particularly in lake marine circles. His wife, who was born June 24, 1832, died February 28, 1907. Mr. Williams was a republican in politics. Two of Mrs. Harrison's brothers, Edward and Elmer Frank, died young, the former at three and the latter at ten years. Three other children, Eva, Frank E. and Edith, all died within a single week, stricken with diphtheria. Mrs. Harrison is now the only living member of her immediate family. In politics Mr. Harrison is a republican. JOHN BROWN. The people of Milan Township frequently refer to John Brown as "a fine old Scotchinan" and his residence in that community for more than forty years hat been productive of nothing but good. Upon the typical Scotch characteristics of thrift, candor and intelligence, he has gained by training the habits and morals of the industrious and upright business man, and possesses something akin to genius in the handling of a mechanical industry. By occupation he is both a farmer and a wool carder. His home is not far from the Village of Milan and on the Ruggles Hill road. There he has lived since 1873, in which year he bought a yarn factory and spinning rolls for hand spinning. Business was largely carried on with somewhat primitive machinery and with little organization in the industry at that time, but many changes have since intervened, including great business organizations known as trusts, and for some years Mr. Brown has confined his business to the carding of wool , for comforters filling. Around his little plant he has an excellent farm of forty-two acres, well improved with substantial buildings. His home is an eight-room house. He also owns some property on the Huron River near Milan, in the locality where his first woolen mills were located for some years. The high waters made it impossible to .conduct his factory with water power, and he finally removed as much of the machinery as was needed to his farm half a mile distant. A little more than seventy years ago, on June 2, 1845, John Brown was born on the east coast of Scotland near the North Sea. 'He came of an old line of Scotch ancestry. His parents were James and Isabella (Gray) Brown, who were also natives of Aberdeenshire and grew up and married and followed the vocation of farmers in that locality. The father died there in 1847 when only twenty-nine years of :age. His widow subsequently married James Laws. With their children they came to the United States and to Erie County, and Mr.. and Mrs. Laws spent the rest of their years in Oxford Township, where she died at the age of seventy-three, surviving by two years Mr. Laws, who passed away when nearly three score and ten. There were two sons reared to maturity by Mr. and Mrs. Laws, while John Brown was the third in a PICTURE OF JOHN BROWN HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1117 family of four sons. All members of the family were strict Presbyterians. Mr. Brown's oldest brother Alexander lived for a number of years at Sandusky and died at North Attica, Ohio, where he left sons and daughters surviving him. The second of the family was James Brown, Jr., who is now a farmer in Huron County, Ohio, near Fairfield, and has several sons and daughters. The youngest, David, has a small store for miscellaneous wares in Sandusky, and is also married and head of a family. For the first twenty years of his life John Brown lived in his native shire in Scotland. He received a good training in the local schools, and applied himself to a rigid apprenticeship, in the trades of weaver and wool carder. He was twenty years of age when in 1865 he came to the United States, and in a few days after landing at New York reached Sandusky. His first employment there was in a large woolen mill, but a few years later he ventured his capital in an independent enterprise in Milan Township, and now for more than forty years has operated. one of the few woolen factories in Northern Ohio. Mr. Brown was married in Milan Township to Miss Eliza Breimaier. She was born near Sandusky of German parents who' were substantial farming people. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have a family of six children. Ernest J., who was born and reared and educated in Milan Township, is now in the clerical department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Garrett, Indiana, and he and his wife Inez have a son, Berwyn E. James, the next oldest, is still unmarried and has charge of his father's farm. Earle, the next, died at tile home of his parents June 20, 1915, having been well educated and having before him at the time of his death a promising future. Henry lives, at home and is associated with his brother James in running the farm, and gained his education in the local high school. Elsie graduated- from the Milan High School and is still at home. Dorothy 1s a student in the Lakeside Hospital at Cleveland and will soon complete her course of training for a graduate nurse. All the family are members of the Presbyterian Church, in which Mr. Brown is an elder, and he and his sons are republicans. Besides his own business Mr. Brown was formerly a member of the local school board in his home district, serving thereon for a number of years. LOREN WASHBURN. Few Erie County families have been more closely identified with the agricultural activities and the good citizenship of the county than that of Washburn, represented by Loren J. Washburn, whose valuable and productive farmstead is regarded as a model of its kind and is in Vermilion Township. Mr. Washburn was born on the very farm that he now occupies, and representatives of two preceding generations have lived in the county, beginning with the pioneer times. It is now almost a century since the Washburns cultivated their first acres in this county. Did space permit, a very interesting descriptive article might be written concerning the farm and the farming activities of Loren Washburn. His place is located on Harmony Ridge Road, half a mile west of Axtel, and at that place, more than sixty years ago, on August 5, 1853, he was born. There have been few changes in the outward circumstances of his life since he was born, since he has always lived in one locality, but in that progressive change and evolution which are the essence of advancement in every industry he has more than kept step with the times. The old homestead which he owns and occupies contains 1171/2 acres of land. Nearly all of it is under a high state of cultivation. One of the features that give the farm special value is the five acre peach orchard containing 700 trees besides 160 cherry 1118 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY trees and a large number of apple trees. The farm house is substantial, attractive and comfortable, containing nine rooms. However, people far and wide have come to admire and examine Mr. Washburn's barn, which is without doubt one of the finest and best quipped in the county. It is quite new, and its timbers were sawed Out of trees that for the most part grew on the Washburn farm. It is :built on a foundation 40x84 feet, with sixteen foot posts, and with an arch roof. The entire foundation floor in laid with concrete. A great many mechanical devices and arrangements have been supplied to permit the easiest and most economical handling of live stock, feeding and storage. There are stalls for twenty-five head of cattle with stanchions, and nine stalls including four box stalls, for horses. The sewerage and drainage arrangement is practically perfect. As a barn it measures up to the highest standard on the points of convenient arrangement, sanitation and adaptability for its main purposes. In the way of livestock Mr. Washburn keeps nine head of horses, milks ten cows on the average, and keeps from fifteen to twenty head of feeding cattle. He also has twenty-five head of hogs, though at times this number is much larger. Nearly all the feed needed for this stock is raised on his own farm, and he runs his and cropping and entire farm management on a system that serves to retain the utmost vitality and fertility of the soil. The founder of this branch of the Washburn family in Northern Ohio was his grandfather, Amison Washburn, who was of an old New England family. After their marriage they came west to Ohio, almost a century Amison served as a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and after the war spent the rest of his days in Connecticut. Amison Washburn married Sally Whitney, who was also a native of Connecticut, and of an old family. After their marriage. they came West to Ohio, almost a century ago, during 1817-18. They made the journey largely across country, since the Erie Canal had not yet been opened fo traffic. Arriving here in the midst of the wilderness, from which the Indians had hardly departed, they secured a tract of wild and unbroken fire land in Vermilion township. Their first home was the typical log cabin, surrounded by the dense forest. Near the house, Alison Washburn who was a blacksmith by trade, set up a small smithy, put in his forge and for a number of years did a valuable service to the community. His neighbors brought to his shop the oxen used for work purposes and had them shod, and he also fashioned many of the simple implements used in farm husbandry at that time and did much repair work. He was a good workman, sturdy, honest, sober and industrious, and lived, 'a life in keeping with the best principles. The grandmother died a short time before the Civil war, when past fourscore years of age, while the grandfather was ninety-two years old when' depth came to him. Both belonged to sturdy and long lived stock. They were devout Christian people, and it is said that never a meal was eaten at that table which was not preceded by the saying of grace. In their family were the following children : David died at a good old age, leaving several children. James Was a soldier in the Civil war, was wounded in the battle of Chickamauga, and died not long afterward ; he left a wife. Charles died when a very -old man and reared one or two children. Betsey married James Mordoff, and both were quite old when they passed away, leaving two sons and, two daughters. Benjamin S., the fifth child, became the father of Loren. Delphi married John Harrison, they lived to advanced years and left a family: Marietta married a Mr. Buttler, and she was also old when she died. Amison. Jr., died in 1912 at the age of eighty-six. being the youngest of the children and the last to pass away ; he also left descendants. Benjamin S. Washburn was born on the old homestead in Vermilion . HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1119 Township in 1820. That was the scene in which he spent his childhood and early youth, and after reaching his majority he took a full snare in the development of a generous tract of land. He possessed and exemplified many of the fine qualities which had characterized his honored father before him. His death occurred in 1896. In his early years he voted the whig ticket, later was a loyal republican, but in the very last year of his life gave his support to William J. Bryan for president. He was a Christian man, and in every relationship endeavored to practice the Golden Rule. While serving as assistant in a ward in the State Hospital at Columbus, Benjamin S. Washburn married Miss Sarah Brubeck, better known as Sally, who was filling a similar position in the same hospital. She was born in Columbus in 1823, and her parents were natives of Germany, where they married, and after coming to the United States settled in Columbus, where they spent the rest of their lives. The Brubecks were members of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Benjamin S. Washburn died at her home in Vermilion township in 1908. The children born to this worthy couple were as follows: Isabel L., Luther A. (died aged nine years), Loren, Anna E., Alice C. and Cleora, L. Mrs. Washburn, like her husband was a faithful devoted Christian, from principle rather than from creed, and they practiced kindliness and charity not only from a sense of duty but from the very promptings of their nature. These good old people are laid side by side along with other members of the Washburn family, including grandfather Amison and wife, in the Vermilion Cemetery. In passing something should be said concerning this Vermilion cemetery. It was started in 1822. Grandfather Amison Washburn had the care and superintendence of the grounds as sexton during his lifetime and was then succeeded by his son Benjamin, and the latter by his son Loren, who was sexton for twenty-five years. For more than eighty years this little city of the dead was looked after by members of one family, and beautiful and well kept grounds are largely an expression of the work and care given by this family. The first burial in the cemetery was a boy named Beardsley, who was laid to rest in 1822, the same year the ground was set aside for burial purposes. On November 24, 1876, Loren J. Washburn was married in Florence Township to Miss Jennie Blair. She was born in that township in 1855 and passed away October 24, 1914. All her life was spent in Vermilion and Florence townships, and she was a woman of many graces of character and heart and mind, and devoted to her home, her children and her friends. Three sons remain to honor to her memory. Orma Luther, born in 1877, was educated irf the local public schools and at Norwalk, and for a number of years has been employed as an engineer on lake vessels and is now first engineer on a passenger and merchandise boat ; however, he makes his home on his farm at Furnace Corners in Vermilion Township. He married for his first wife Anna Baker, who left his home after the birth of one son Lyles.. His present wife was before her marriage Sophia Trinter. Ray B., the second son, is still at home. He was well educated in the public schools, is a graduate of Oberlin Business College and has proved a very valuable assistant to his father in the management of the fine farm already described. In addition to his farm work he is agent for the Walter A. Wood farm. machinery and the Ross silos, ant has sold a large amount of such material in Erie County. The youngest son, Karl N. is an enterprising young farmer, has a place near the old homestead and has made an excellent start in life. He married Cora Brown of Vermilion Township, and they have a small son named Clifford. Mr. Washburn and his sons are all republican voters. 1120 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY   RUSSELL KENNEY RAMSEY. In the minds of men. of the Middle West, the name of the prosperous, cultured old Buckeye .State is associated with broad mentality, inherent courtesy and genial sociability. These qualities have been possessed by the men who have come from Ohio to gain reputations in business, the professions and public life, in such great degree that they have come to be considered characteristic. Russell Kenney Ramsey, of Sandusky, may be considered a, typical Ohioan, in that he is possessed of gifts of a high mental character, and is known not only as one of the leaders of the Erie County bar, but as a courteous and cultured gentleman, popular alike in professional and social circles. Mr. Ramsey was born in the City of Columbus, Ohio, May 27, 1878, and is a son of G. F. and Margaret A. Ramsey. His father, who still resides at Columbus, has for forty-two years been connected in an official capacity with the Pennsylvania Railroad. The elder of two children, Russell K. Ramsey received his early education in the public schools of Columbus, following which he entered the Ohio State University, collegiate department, class of 1898, and was graduated from the legal department of that institution in the class of 1900. He then entered the law offices of Arnold & Morton, at Columbus, where he remained for a short period to gain practical experience, and during the same year was admitted to the bar. At that time Mr. Ramsey came to Sandusky and associated himself with the firm of King & Guerin, although the name was not changed until the withdrawal of Mr. Guerin, in 1904, when Judge Edmund B. King and Mr. Ramsey formed the present firm of King & Ramsey. This firm specializes in corporation and business law, and represents largely the corporate interests in and around Sandusky, including the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio railroads and the street car company. Through his able gifts as a legist and his sound, popular traits as a man Mr. Ramsey has continued in his progress both in the development of a profitable legal business and a professional reputation. He is a director of The Hinde & Dauch Paper Company, and has been instrumental in the organization of a number of Sandusky's important enterprises. He is a valued member of the Ohio Bar Association and while he devotes almost his entire time and attention to the duties of his constantly growing practice yet he is not indifferent to the pleasures of fraternal and social life, and is a prominent Mason, being a Knight Templar and having attained the thirty-second degree. He is a member of the Sunyendeand Club, of Sandusky, of which he was formerly president, of the Cleveland Athletic Club and of the. Business Men's Association of Sandusky. A member of the Episcopal Church, he has acted in the capacity of vestryman during the past year. Mr. Ramsey was married September 25, 1901, to Miss Florence Samuel, and one child was born to that union: Russell Archibald, born May 11, 1904. Mrs. Ramsey died iv April, 1913, and Mr. Ramsey was married again, June 26, 1915, being united with Miss Helen Wilcox, a daughter of Maj. C. B. Wilcox, one of Sandusky's well known citizens. ' HENRY ACKERMAN. To mention the name Ackerman in Vermilion Township is to name one of the oldest and best known of the substantial German: families, who since the early days have been primary factors in the development of this section of Erie County. Henry Ackerman has a fine farm home in that township, on rural route No. 2 out of Huron. Born in Black River Township of Lorain County in December, 1862, he is a son of Frederick and Anna E. (Kothe) Ackerman. His parents were both born in Kurhessen, Germany, and came as young people to PICTURE OF RUSSELL K. RAMSEY HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1121 America. He was a young man when he came over in 1849 on a sailing, vessel that required six weeks to make the voyage, and going to Amhurst in Lorain County he met and married Miss Kothe, who had come from — the same locality of Germany with her parents, Louis and Mary Kothe. Louis Kothe settled on a farm in Lorain County and spent the rest of his life there. Miss Kothe was reared in Lorain County, and after her marriage to Mr. Ackerman they started out as farmers first in Lorain Township and afterwards for foul' years in Brownhelm Township. They then moved to Erie County, establishing their home on the lake shore in Vermilion Township, where they became owners of 137 acres of fine land. They did much to make this land valuable, working hard, often denying themselves in order that their children and home might benefit, and in time they had surrounded themselves with every comfort and facility. Frederick Ackerman died there on March 22, 1881, at the age of forty-four. His widow subsequently married Godfreid Nolte, and she continued to live at the old homestead until her death on September 3, 1914. Mr. Nolte is still living on the old farm along the lake shore, and is now sixty-eight years of age. He is a democrat and a member of the Reformed Church. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ackerman were among the charter members of the German Reformed Church or the Ceylon Church in Vermilion Township. Besides the Ackermans other charter members were Mr. and Mrs. John Reiber, Mr. and Mrs. Gottlieb Knott, Sr., Mr. and Mrs. Adams Hast, Sr., Mr. and Mrs. Bernhart Koch, Mr. and Mrs. George Knoch, Mr. and Mrs. Werner Kishman, Mr. and Mrs. Christian Hauff, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Knittel, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wenzel, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ackerman, Mr. and Mrs. George Schaub, Mr. and Mrs. Christ Huttenlocker, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bickel. Frederick Ackerman was also a man of no little prominence in his community. He served for a number of years as township trustee of Vermilion Township, and was a man whose influence could be counted upon steadily to assist in every movement for the local welfare. Henry Ackerman, who was the oldest of four sons and three daughters, Henry, Bertha, Carrie, Louis, Martin, William and Catherine, all of whom are now married. He was still a small boy when he came to Vermilion Township, and he grew up there and acquired his education in the public schools. When quite young he set out on his own account and not many years later was able to buy the farm where he now lives, a beautiful place of fifty-five acres, all highly improved, and productive of regular and bountiful crops. Among other improvements he has a large barn on a foundation 30x74 feet, furnishing ample facilities for grain storage and stock. His home is an attractive twelve-room residence. situated within a mile of Mittewanga Park, in which neighborhood his wife owns some valuable property. Mr. Ackerman married a neighbor girl, Catherine Reiber, who was born on the old Reiber homestead in Vermilion Township January 24, 1868, and was reared and educated in that community. She has been a most capable home maker, and has always looked well after the duties of her household. She is a daughter of John and Catherine (Gundlach) Reiber. Both her parents were born in Kurhessen, Germany. They came when young people, Miss Gundlach only ten years of age, to America, making the voyage by sailing vesel between Bremen and New York, and their respective families established .homes in Milan Township of Erie County. Here they met and married and after marriage Mr. and Mrs. Reiber worked industriously and by much labor and self denial : acquired a good home and reared their children in comfort. They located in Vermilion Township in 1867, and the Reiber homestead in time was a fine improved estate of sixty acres, known as the Brundage Farm, and still later they bought a fine home of fifty acres on the lake 1122 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY shore. This Mr. Reiber improved with a fine lot of buildings and there he passed. away August 14, 1901, at the age of sixty-five. His widow is still living, and on June 6, 1915, celebrated her seventieth birthday. As already stated, she and her husband were charter members of the Ceylon German Reformed Church, in which he held the post of trustee for a number of years. They had the following children: Bertha, Catherine, John H., Mary, Elizabeth, Tena, Carl, Anna (deceased). Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman are leading people in all the activities of their home community. They attend and support the Reformed Church at Mittewanga, in which he has served for a number of years as trustee, and in politics he is one of the leading democrats of the community, being now township central committeeman. He also served as township assessor and one term as township trustee. PHILIP E. GEGENHEIMER. Many of the best farms in Erie County are the product of the labor and enterprise of thrifty German settlers. One homestead that well exemplifies the characteristic German thrift is the Gegenheimer home in Vermilion Township, located on rural route No. 1 out of the Village of Vermilion. For nearly half a century the late Philip E. Gegenheimer dug and delved, plowed and cultivated, removed the native timber, drained the lowlands, built fences, farm and domestic buildings, and in every possible way improved the land which he got in almost a completely wild state. The results of his labors are now enjoyed and made use of by his widow and children. His son William J. is the active manager of the old homestead, and has a place of his own nearby, and combines the cultivation and management of the two farms in a very capable and successful manner. The late Philip E. Gegenheimer was born in Baden, Germany, July 20, 1838, and died at the old home in Vermilion Township, December 17, 1898. He was twenty years of age when in 1858 he came on a sailing vessel across the ocean, landed in New York City after a tedious voyage of many days, and a few weeks later he joined his parents who had emigrated some time before and located in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County. His father died in Lorain County when past eighty years of age, having followed farming all his life. The mother died at Ceylon Junction in 1865, at the age of sixty- two. Both were members of the German Reformed Church. Philip Gegenheimer was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters. Two of the sons, Charles W. and August, are still living, and both are married, the fcrrmer in Lorain County and the latter in Portland, Indiana. While living in Germany Philip E. Gegenheimer received his education and was also trained in those habits of industry and strict honesty which were his marked characteristics throughout life. After coming to this country he lived a few years in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County. In that county in 1864 he married. Miss Catherine Miller. She was born in Rhenish Bavaria, Germany, December 17, 1847, a daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Baker) Miller, her father a native ,of West Prussia and her mother of Rhenish Bavaria. Her parents were married in the latter province, and their first children were born there. In March, 1859, the Miller family set sail from Bremen and after a voyage of many hardships lasting for forty-two days they landed in New York. The long voyage and the stale. food nearly killed Mr.. Miller, but-he recovered and was long known as one of the prosperous citizens of this part of Ohio. The Miller family first located at Elyria, but a few years later bought a new home and started implying the land. This property was lost on account of a defective title and the family then moved to the vicinity of Amherst, Lorain County, where Mr. Miller get up a small shop and began his trade as blacksmith, which he had learned in Ger- HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 1123 many. That was his work for a great many years, and he passed away December 5, 1910, being then in very advanced age, since he was born February 11, 1821. He was a confirmed member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. His parents were Jacob and Catherine (Koch) Miller, who also came to the United States, when in advanced years, and died in Amherst Township of Lorain County, Jacob when at the extreme age of ninety-five. The mother of Mrs. Gegenheimer died at the Gegenheimer home in Vermilion township when also well along in years. Mrs. Gegenheimer has two sisters and a brother: Mrs. Libbie Schroder, wife of Gustav Schroder, of Erie County; Margaret, widow of Ed Passow, and living in Colorado, the mother of two daughters and a son, and Adam Miller, who has lost his wife and lives with his children in Amherst. It was fully half a century ago that the late Philip E. Gegenheimer bought the farm of sixty-five acres where his widow now lives. He not only cleared it up for cultivation, but erected the substantial buildings which still stand there. Mr. Gegenheimer was a democrat in national politics, but in local matters voted for the man best suited for the office to be filled, and his- sons have followed the same political choice. The family are all members of the Reformed Church. The children are : Fred, who is unmarried and lives at home ; Sarah, widow of Simon Steffen, and the mother of one daughter, Anna E., now a student of medicine in Boston; Emma, wife of Charles Blair, a farmer in Florence Township, and they have children named Wildo, Merwin and Elton, all in school; and William J., who has already been mentioned as the enterprising young manager of the old homestead farm. William was educated in the local schools, grew up on the homestead, and has identified himself in very successful manner with Erie County agricultural affairs. He married Olive C. Allen of Cuyahoga County, and, they have a bright young daughter, Mildred C., now four years of age. FRANK C. BARNES. For many years of his active career Mr. Barnes was in the Nickel Plate Railway service, but his best success has been as a farmer and fruit grower, and he now enjoys the comforts and the revenues of an attractive place in Vermilion Township on rural route No. 2 out of Huron. He was. born in Huron County, Ohio, May 16, 1850. His father was also named Frank and likewise that was the name of his grandfather. Both his father and grandfather were natives of. England and of old English stock. The grandfather was a farmer, and spent all his life in his native shire, and, died when past seventy years of age, baying survived his wife several years. Frank Barnes, the father, was born in England about 1805. He learned the trade of butcher and followed it for a number of years. The "steel" which he used at his trade is now owned by his son, Frank C. He married Ann Libbett of the, same town. He then became a farmer on a large 'English estate. and while living there the following children were born : John, William, Joseph, and Mary Ann. Mary Ann was born in 1845, .and in the following Year when she was still an infant in her mother's. arms the little family embarked on a sailing vessel that was pursued by all the vagaries of wind - and weather, and after a very stormy voyage landed in New York City six. weeks from England. During the passage Frank Barnes, the father had the care of two big lions and a valuable horse for Mr. Van Amberg, the noted show man of a former generation. Mr. Barnes and the lions got on very friendly terms, and the male showed an especial fondness for his temporary keeper. Years afterwards when Mr. Barnes visited the Van Amberg circus the old lion recognized him at once and they shook hands through the bars of the cage. 1124 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY On landing at New York City Mr. Barnes gave up his charge and accompanied his family to Monroeville in Huron County. Here he earned a living for a time as an employe in a brewery. Later he went to a farm in Huron County, and for a number of years owned a small piece of land there. From there he moved to Berlin Township in Erie County, acquired a farm north of Berlin Heights, and on that he lived out the rest of his honest and industrious career, dying, when past seventy-two years of age. His widow died four years later, and was about three score ten years of age. The children born to them after they came to the United States were : Betsy, who died leaving one son, David; Garner, who is married and lives in Berlin Heights and has a son and two daughters; and Frank C., the youngest of the family. The latter lived at home, enjoyed its comforts, and attended school until thirteen. Since then he has been dependent on his own resources. He has never been at a loss for an occupation, and has been steadily progressing toward a more substantial prosperity. For twenty-one years he was in the service of the Nickel Plate Railroad, in different departments, part of the time in section work and he also looked after the rolling stock of the road to some extent. Finally leaving the railroad service he bought a small farm at Joppa Corners in Vermilion Township, and here he has since thriftily pursued his vocation as a farmer and fruit grower. Under his management his farm has returned him steady profits, and his neighbors regard him as well fixed in life and also look upon him as an honest Christian gentleman. In Hudson, Michigan, Mr. Barnes married Miss Sarah Barnes, a cousin. She was born, reared and educated in Evansville, Indiana, a daughter of John Barnes, who was born in England and was a brother of the Frank Barnes already mentioned. After coming to America he took some extensive contracts in building canals. He married Sarah Ballou, who was born in Missouri. Both parents died a number of years ago. Mrs. Barnes died January 16, 1908, at the age of fifty-three. She ' was the mother of five children: Vora, wife of Ed Larcher of Milan Township ; Charles, who died at the age of eleven years; Maude, wife' of Henry Baker of Ogontz, Berlin Township; Callie L., who 'fives at home; and Frank, who is a mechanic living at Elyria, Ohio. SHERMAN E. SHOOP. By hard and successful work as a farmer, by good citizenship, by an influence steadily directed towards the betterment of his own family and the community in which he lives, Sherman E. Shoop has played a worthy part in Vermilion Township, where he has spent practically his entire lifetime. The old Shoop homestead in which he was born November 21; 1869,l is located on the Joppa Road in Vermilion Township. He grew up-in those surroundings, received his education in the public schools, and has spent all his life in Erie County with the exception of the two years from 1884 to 1886 when he was west in Iowa and Nebraska. Mr. Shoop has a fire farm of 108 acres much of it devoted to general farming purposes but its special feature is the large vineyard of ten or fifteen acres. Its principal varieties are the Delawares and Ives. The grapes from the Shoop vineyard will meet the highest standards of viticulture alone the Lake Erie shore, being particularly esteemed for their fine flavor and the large amount of sugar they contain. Mr. Shoop also has a pear orchard of 150 trees and a number of peach trees. Since he took possession of this land he has improved it in many ways, particularly in the way of buildings, has barns and sheds for his stock, grain and fruit, and has remodeled his home into a very comfortable and attractive