250 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY one of the associates in the organization of the Bank of Fayette, his partners being Col. E. L. Barber, Arthur Allen and Judson Trobridge. Captain .Allen was manager and cashier of the institution, and continued at that post of duty until the bank went into voluntary liquidation in 1913. Captain Allen, has long enjoyed the complete confidence of his community not only for his business ability but for his personal integrity. He served nine years as justice of the peace, as school examiner nine years, and was a member of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth General Assemblies, and again was elected to the ,Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth General Assemblies, serving the second time with out opposition. He is a stanch republican, and is a charter member of Fayette Lodge No. 387 of the Masons, acting as secretary of the lodge many years. Only two charter members are now living, .James Grisut and C. L. Allen. He is also a member of the Loyal Legion, and is &past commander and present quartermaster of Stout Post No. 108, Grand Army of the .Republic. In October, 1865, Captain Allen married Susan C. Gamber. She was born in Seneca county, New York. daughter of Henry and Mary (Hartrenuft) Gamber. Her parents, natives of Pennsylvania, were settlers in Fulton county in 1847. Her father bought 160 acres of timbered land and set off part of this tract and founded the town of Fayette, which he named in honor of Fayette, New York. Captain Allen has two children: Carrie B., at home; and Elsie M., wife of Dr. Clair S. Campbell, a well known Wauseon physician. Dr. and Mrs. Campbell have one son, Charles Allen. FRANK BUCK, of "Brookmead Stock Farm" in Amboy, is a native of Royalton. He is the only son of Charles S. and Matilda (Clendenin) V Buck. While the father is a native of Amboy, the mother was born in Springfield Township, Lucas county. The paternal grandparents, Abner and Lucy (Norton) Buck, came from Massachusetts to Portage county, Ohio, in the early history of the country. In 1838 they moved to Fulton county, settling on the Royalton-Amboy line in Royalton. The next two generations of the Buck family were born there, Frank Buck's birth occurring March 24, 1880, and aside from a few years as a traveling salesman he has always been a resident of Fulton county. The maternal ancestry, John and Phoebe Ann (Hackett) Clendenin, were also in Fulton county in territorial days, coming in 1844 to Amboy. He was from Livingston and she was from Rochester county, New York. The marriage of Charles S. Buck and Matilda Clendenin was solemnized April 11; 1872, and they immediately settled on a farm in Royalton. In 1894 they removed to Fayette, remaining there to educate their son, Frank Buck, and in 1897 they returned to the farm in Royalton. Charles S. Buck was a Knight Templar and Thirty-second Degree Mason. He died March 18, 1915, and Mrs. Buck lives in Metamora. When he was seventeen Frank Buck graduated from the Fayette Normal School and the family returned to the farm, but in 1908 he became a general salesman through Ohio and part of Pennsylvania for the Kalamazoo Tank and Silo Company, continuing in this business five years. At this time he bought "Brookmead Stock Farm," and settled down to agriculture again. Mr. Buck remodeled and added to the farm buildings until "Brookmead" is an attractive homestead. He has thoroughbred livestock and keeps the best of everything. He has registered Hot- HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 251 stein dairy cows, registered Spotted Poland-China hogs, pure bred Ancona and Mottled Java chickens, and carries on diversified farming, observing the proper crop rotation in order to maintain soil fertility. On April 28, 1914, Mr. Buck married Anna Mary Carpenter. She is a daughter of James L. and Susan (Thompson) Carpenter, of Blissfield, Michigan. The father came from Pottsdam, New York, and the mother from Nashville, Tennessee. Mrs. Buck was educated in Blissfield and Adrian, taking a course in kindergarten at Adrian, and she taught in the Adrian public schools. Her father, James L. Carpenter, was a Civil war soldier, serving in the Seventh Michigan Cavalry. He enlisted as a lieutenant, was promoted to captain and came out of the service a major. The mother died January 27, 1902, and the father, September 29, 1909. Mrs. Buck is a. member of the Presbyterian Church. When she quit teaching she became a stenographer for the Continental Sugar Company of Blissfield. She was with the company four years. She is a member of. the Eastern Star and of the Lucy Wolcott Barnum Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Adrian. There are two sons in the family at "Brookmead," Charles Carpenter Buck, born June 28, 1915, and James Clendenin Buck, born March 15, 1918. They are in the fourth generation of the Buck family in Fulton county. CHARLES BLAINE. The Blaine family history began at Toledo as early as 1830, with the coming of Charles Blaine, Sr. from Onon- dago county, New York. Charles Blaine, Jr., of Amboy, was born November 1, 1847—territorial days in Fulton county, and he has always. lived in the same community. His mother, Rachel (Beaulth) Blaine, was born in Sylvania.. When they located in Amboy the whole face of the earth in as far as their environment went was in timber and under water. Mr. Blaine entered a quarter section of land, which he cleared and improved, and he and his wife both died there. The children in this pioneer family are: Robert and Benjamin, deceased; Sarah, wife of George Havens, of Swan Creek Elmina, wife of William Driscoll, of Royalton; James, of Wichita, Kansas; Charles, of this sketch; Marion, of East Toledo ; Esther, deceased wife of William Stillwell; and Emma, wife of Thomas Stedman, of Amboy. Let the mathematician estimate the age of a young man born November 1, 1847, who enlisted in the Union Army March 1, 1864. Charles Blaine enlisted in Company I, Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and his regiment was assigned to duty at Chattanooga. He was in the Army of the Cumberland under Generals Sherman, Logan and Hagen, and he was in some of the hard fought engagements. He was at Missionary Ridge and Atlanta, and went with General Sherman "from Atlanta to the Sea while marching through Georgia." Mr. Blaine was in different engagements in South Carolina and went with his regiment to Raleigh, North Carolina, being there when Johnston surrendered, and he also witnessed General Lee's surrender. He went to Petersburg, Richmond, and on to Washington. He was in Washington at the time of the Grand Review, as the soldiers were disbanding and being sent to their homes all about the country. He went from Washington to Parkersburg and down the Ohio River to Louisville. After camping five days in Louisville he went to Little Rock, where he remained four weeks, and from there 252 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY to Camp Denison, where he received his discharge August 11, 1865, and returned to Fulton county. On February 3, 1867, Mr. Blaine married Esther Roop, a daughter of William and Lauretta (Gilson) Roop, of Amboy. The father was born in Toledo and the mother in Vermont. The paternal ancestry, John and Mary (Mills) Roop, came from Buffalo, New York, and Sandusky, Ohio. The maternal grandparents, Alfred and Jane (McAllister) Gilson, came from Vermont. When Charles Blaine was married he settled on forty acres he had acquired, and remained there ten years clearing and improving it. When he sold it he bought fifty acres of his present farm, when it was all in timber and he had to clear the space for the first house built on it. He now has thirty-five acres under cultivation, the remainder in wood land and pasture. In the way of business enterprise Mr. Blaine owned and operated a cane mill when people lived on sorghum molasses, and as the orchards came into bearing he ,added the cider mill. He made sorghum molasses and cider for the public until 1902, and he continued in the saw mill business until 1917, when he disposed of it. There was little demand for sorghum and with the destruction of the forest the orchards had more enemies and there were fewer apples for cider. However, the cane mill industry revived in war times in some communities. Sorghum molasses was often substituted for sugar. Mr. Blaine has added to his landed possessions until he now has 213 acres in three different places, and he personally manages the 120 acres in the farmstead where he lives. He combines livestock production with farming and keeps a dairy. The dairy farmer maintains soil fertility and thereby increases the land production. His children are: Ina, wife of Frank Carter, of Amboy; Charles Ernest, of Delta; Van Harry, of Constantine, Michigan; and Myrtle, wife of Emmet Wilcox, of Amboy. For six years Mr. Blaine served as trustee of Amboy Township, and as path master fourteen years. Some of the family ancestry were among the earliest citizens of Fulton county. John Roop, William Blaine, Alfred Gilson and Aaron Stedman were pioneers of the community. The Blaines are members of Amboy Grange, and Mr. Blaine is a member of Baxter Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Lyons. He is vice commander and has held all of the chairs except treasurer of the Post. A birthright pioneer of Fulton county, one of the youngest surviving veterans of the great Civil war, a farmer and promoter of home industry, these and other services have made Mr. Blaine one of the most interesting and useful citizens of the county, and he well deserves the respect and high esteem in which he is held by the members of his community. JACOB W. HABLE has a family story in common With others of the same name, being a son of Jacob and Mary Elizabeth (Mohr) Hable, the parents having come from Germany. The father died in 1916, and the mother became the wife of Jacob. Leibler. The children of the first family are: Adam, Daniel and Jacob. The Leibler children are Peter and Meda. In 1888 Jacob W. Hable married Mary Krieger. She died three years later. On November 4, 1915, he married Ermina Knecht, who was born in Switzerland. She had come to America in 1913, and two years later she became the wife of Mr. liable. Mr. Hable had bought a farm in Fulton before his first mar- HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 253 riage, and later he bought forty-three acres from the old homestead in Amboy where he was raised, and he has always farmed it. Since 1897 he has bought livestock and poultry, which he has butchered and marketed in Toledo. Mr. Hable has two children, Walter Emerson and Leslie Paul. Mr. Hable is independent in politics, choosing to vote for the man. He is a member of Zion Reformed Church, and for several years he has been one of its trustees. KIMMEL KYPER WATKINS. The Watkins family story embraces several Ohio counties, Kimmel Kyper Watkins, of Fulton Township, having been born June 16, 1859, in Lorain county. He is a son of James Holiday and Nancy (Kimmel) Watkins. The father was born in Wayne county and the mother in Somerset county. They married in Wayne and in 1850 they moved to Lorain, and three years later they removed to Fulton county, locating in Swan Creek Township. They cleared a farm, and a few years later they bought a timber tract in York Township. He died in 1893 and she died in 1903—ten years later. There were ten children in the Watkins family : Milton, Oliver, John, Sarah, Mary, William, and Ella, deceased, Kimmel K. of this sketch, George, who lives in Swanton and Frank in Toledo. When Mr. Watkins was thirteen he began working by the month, doing for himself. On July 16, 1884, he married Tillie J. Richardson, of Swan Creek. She is a daughter of George H. and Laura (Blake) Richardson. After two years in Fulton Township Mr. Watkins removed to Kane county, Illinois, where he worked as a broom maker and by the. month on farms for four years. When Mr. Watkins returned to Fulton county he rented land from 1892 until 1910, when he bought sixty acres where he has since lived, although since 1918 a son works the farm. The children are : Earl, who works the farm; Ethel, deceased; Opal, wife of George Mason, of Pike; Ross, of Pike, married Fern Sheffield; Orra, who was married February 7, 1920, to Florence Bruner; and Dorr, at home. The family are Methodists. Mr. Watkins is a republican, and he is a justice of the peace. He has been school director and township trustee. He belongs to Berry Grange at Ai. This is a brief reference to one of the families and one of the individuals who have played an earnest and hard working part in the affairs of Fulton county for many years. It is a well known fact that in America success can be achieved by men who begin life without capital, and a case in point is that of Mr. Watkins, who had no other assets than a trade and the qualifications of industry and skill as a farm worker, and raised himself through the successive stages of farm hand and farm tenant to independent ownership of a good country home and a place of influence in his community. THOMAS JEFFERSON HALSEY. In the days when there was plenty of land that was unoccupied which could be secured from the government at a nominal fee, no attention was paid to those portions which were without a good natural drainage, as it was thought they were worthless. As time went on, however, and there were less opportunities for obtaining cheap land, the more thoughtful turned their attention toward these hitherto neglected portions, and have found that when they are properly drained they are much more fertile and, therefore, valuable than the land located higher above the 'water line. One of the men of Fulton county who now owns a very 254 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY valuable property and has redeemed a good part of it, having the satisfaction of knowing that he owes his present prosperity to his energy and far-sightedness, is Thomas Jefferson Halsey of Delta, owner of a farm in Swan Creek Township. Thomas Jefferson Halsey was born in Holmes county, Ohio, on June 29, 1851, a son of Isaiah and Rebecca (Wells) Halsey, and grandson of Samuel and Abigail Halsey, natives of New Jersey, and William and Sarah Wells, natives of Holmes county, Ohio. Isaiah Halsey was born in Holmes county, Ohio, in 1808, and by a first marriage he had four children, namely : Jane, Catherine. and Jonas, all of whom are deceased; and John, who, is a resident of Wood county, Ohio. After the death of his first wife he was married to Rebecca Wells, and they settled in Fulton Township, Fulton county, when Thomas Jefferson was six weeks old. In 1871 they went to York Township, which was their final home, both being seventy-seven years old at the time of death. Their children were as follows: Henrietta, who is Mrs. Henry Gunn, of Toledo, Ohio; Lydia, who was Mrs. Austin Batdorf, is deceased; Thomas Jefferson, who was the third in order of birth ; Marion and Harvey, both of whom died in Michigan ; Sophronia, who is the widow of Alfred Harrison, of Toledo, Ohio; and Minnie, who was Mrs. William Pennington, is deceased. Thomas Jefferson Halsey was reared in Fulton county and attended its district schools. He grew up on his father,s farm, remaining at home until he attained his majority. He was married on June 28, 1871, to. Sarah Norris, born in Hancock county, Ohio. After their marriage he and his wife rented land in York Township, one year farming on shares and the next paying a regular amount of rent. In 1873, Mrs. Halsey died, and Mr. Halsey was subsequently married to Ellen E. Carter, born in Swan Creek Township, a daughter of Solomon and Lucinda (Cass) Carter, he a native of Ravena, Ohio, and she of Canada.. Following this second marriage Mr. Halsey bought forty acres of land in Amboy Township, which he cleared and made his home for nineteen years. Selling that farm, he bought 110 acres of land in Swan Creek Township. The greater part of this land was cutover timber, and he cleared it off, improved it, and has always been engaged in farming with the exception of one year When he owned and operated a hotel at Swanton, Ohio, which was in 1889. In 1910 Mr. Halsey bought a residence at Delta, where he is now living. On his farm he has a ditch 114 rods long,. 10 feet deep, and from 55 to 60 feet wide at the top, which was originally covered with brush, willows and other marshy growths.. To open this channel he and his wife worked 11/2 days at the end of July and seventeen days in August, and then had the assistance of Lee Richards in completing the work. This portion of Swan Creek is now as clean as a. city pavement, and by means of it much land otherwise worthless has been brought under cultivation. The first Mrs. Halsey left one child at her death, George William, but he died in infancy. By his second marriage Mr. Halsey had the following children : Eben B., who died at the age of forty-two years ; Lucinda, who was first married to Louis Meeker, and she is-now Mrs. John Crow, of Detroit, Michigan ; Lewis, who is on the home farm ; William E., who is a resident of Delta; Rosa, who is Mrs. Christopher Smith. of Delta, Ohio; Isaiah, who lives in Toledo,. Ohio ; and Esta and Sarah, both deceased. While he is a member of .the United Brethren Church, Mr. Halsey belongs to the more liberal branch of that denomination. He HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 255 is a strong republican, and has served as township trustee and road supervisor. A man of broad vision, Mr. Halsey has long recognized the desirability of having goad roads in Fulton county, and has worked hard to secure them for his neighborhood. At first it was somewhat difficult to get some of his associates to agree with his views on the question, but of late years the "goods roads" movement has gained a popularity that is nationwide, and Fulton county is not backward in taking up the matter. In many ways Mr. Halsey has proven himself a public-spirited man, and he is recognized as one of the leading citizens of this part of the county. WILLIAM B. PONTIOUS. The name of Pontious is a well known one in Fulton county, and several of its representatives have developed fine farms in different portions of it, and assisted in establishing the agricultural prestige of this part of the state. William B. Pontious, who is the father of McClellan Pontious of Pike Township, was born in his present township in 1857 and is now one of its leading farmers and dairymen. He is a son of David and Lucy Ann (Drake) Pontious, natives of Pennsylvania and Belmont county, Ohio, respectively, and, grandson of Samuel Pontious, a native of Pennsylvania. Both the Pontious and Drake families came at an early day to Pickaway county, Ohio, where David Pontious and Lucy Ann Drake were married. Soon after their marriage David Pontious and his wife moved to Fulton Township and bought unimproved 'land in the timber. There they worked hard to clear off their land and improve it, and there they lived for about thirty-five years, when they retired and spent their last years at. Wauseon, where both passed away. During the war between the states David Pontious served as a soldier in the Union Army, belonging to the Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was in it for 3 1/2 years, after which he received his honorable discharge, and resumed his peaceful occupation of farming. He and his wife became the parents of the following children : William B., who was the eldest ; Homer, who lives at Detroit, Michigan ; Dillie, who is Mrs. William Orndorf, of Toledo, Ohio; Lydia, who is Mrs. John Taner, of Napoleon, Ohio; Charles, who is a- resident of Toledo, Ohio. On March 25, 1879, William B. Pontious was united in marriage with Patience Snow, born in Holmes county, Ohio, a daughter of John and Cassander (Curtis) . Snow. Mr. and Mrs. Pontious became the parents of children as follows: McClellan, who is a prosperous farmer of Pike Township, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work ; Maude, who is the widow of Edward G. Hines, lives with her father; and Ernest, who died at the age of two years. Following his marriage William B. Pontious rented land in different sections for twenty years, and then he bought fifty acres in section 7, York Township, on which there was standing an old log house and several outbuildings 'as the sole improvements, Since purchasing the place Mr. Pontious has made some very valuable improvements, having at present a modern. residence, barn and other structures; his fields are well fenced and his land thoroughly drained. He has always been a general farmer, stockraiser and dairy- man, and is carrying on these industries with marked success. Having attended the little cross roads schoolhouse during his childhood and youth, Mr. Pontious has felt that the children of the present generation ought to be given better advantages than were accorded those of his day, and has supported measures looking to 256 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the improvement of the public schools in his county. He has been very active in the Evangelical Church in his neighborhood, serving it as a member of the choir and as .superintendent of the Sunday school at different times. From the time he cast his first vote Mr. Pontious has been a republican, and is still a strong supporter of its principles and proud of its history. Both he and Mrs. Pontious are very highly respected and looked up to in their neighborhood, and their influence has always been cast in favor of those measures which have had for their object the general betterment of the moral standard and advancement of the people. AMOS HARMON. The late Amos Harmon is commemorated in the Fulton County History by Mrs. Lucelia Tedrow Harmon of Delta. Mr. Harmon was born September 2, 1850, in Holmes county, and he died June 21, 1901, at the family homestead in Pike Township. He was a son of Samuel and Catharine Harmon, natives of Holmes county. However, they became early settlers in Pike Township, Fulton county. Samuel Harmon died, and Catharine. Harmon was afterward married to David Fye, and they moved to Toledo-. Amos Harmon married May 6, 1876, Lucelia Tedrow, of York Township. She was born January 22, 1854, daughter of John and Mary (Coffman) Tedrow. They were also from Holmes county, and were early set- tiers in Fulton county. Mr. and Mrs. Harmon took up their residence on the Harmon farm in Pike Township, and in time they became owners of part of it. They remained there as long as he lived, and in 1907 Mrs. Harmon purchased an acre of ground on the north edge of Delta. Orla Clarence, the oldest child, died in infancy. Marion Le Roy, of Delta, married Flossie Donald. Their two sons are Donald and James. Alta is the wife of Charles Mack. She has an adopted daughter, Margie Lucile. Arthur Daniel Harmon had his military training at Camp Taylor. He lives with his mother in Delta. While his life was comparatively brief as measured by his span of years, the late Amos Harmon accomplished most of those things that are properly found in a career of greater length. He lived industriously and honorably, by hard effort earned a competence, and provided well for his family, so that his children and descendants and his many friends can hold his memory in high esteem. JOHN A. WILKINS, M. D., well-regarded physician of Delta, Ohio, who for more than forty-five years has been in successful professional practice in that section of Fulton county, has a life record which is well worthy of good place in this edition of Fulton County History. He holds the baccalaureate degree of Denison University, and the medical degree of Starling Medical College; he enlisted as private, very soon after the outbreak of Civil war in 1861, was in many battles, was injured, and finally, in September, 1865, was discharged with the rank of staff colonel; he has been surgeon general of the Grand Army of the Republic; he, has been a state senator; and his place among his professional confreres is clearly indicated by his election to the office of president of the Ohio State Medical Society, and also the Northwestern Ohio Medical Society. Dr. John A. Wilkins was born in Licking county, Ohio, on May 1, 1844, the son of Archibald and Mary (Robinson) Wilkins, and is of Scottish origin, in the paternal line, and of Irish antecedents, in the maternal line, his father having been born in Scotland, and HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 257 his mother in Ireland. Archibald Wilkins and Mary Robinson married in Ireland, and soon afterwards came to America, being of record in Licking county, Ohio, in about, 1840. Archibald Wilkins was a weaver when he lived in Scotland, but after having emigrated he took up the customary occupations of the pioneer, clearing much land, and eventually owning a well improved and rich agricultural property in Licking county, Ohio, where he died in 1864. His wife, however, lived a widowhood of more than forty years, attaining the remarkable age• of one hundred and seven years, and, more remarkable still, retaining her faculties comparatively lucid and unimpaired until the last years of her life. Mary (Robinson) Wilkins was born on September 29, 1799, and died. in 1906, at Remington, Indiana. John A. Wilkins, son of Archibald and Mary (Robinson) Wilkins, was educated in the public schools of Licking county, Ohio, and eventually entered Denison University, Granville, of Licking county. He was only sixteen years old when the Civil war began, and he immediately cast all else aside, enlisting as a private in Company B, of the Seventeenth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on April 24, 1861, re-enlisting on December 6, 1861, in Company H, of the Seventy-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. One interesting incident of his early military experience was when he was detailed, as a sergeant, to arrest several men who had failed to answer the call to military service. He promptly effected their arrest, and apparently so expeditiously executed his orders that he was cited in company orders and given a written testimonial by his captain. Young Wilkins saw much of the major fighting with his regiment, and was a member of the staffs of Generals Woods and Osterhaus, during the four years of the war; he served under General Woods in Tennessee in 1862 and 1863; was under General Osterhaus in Arkansas in the winter of 1862 ; and ultimately took part in General Sherman’s southern campaign. Among the major battles in which he participated were: the battle of Shiloh, or as it is sometimes called, of Pittsburg Landing, in Tennessee, April 6-7, 1862, when the Union Army under Generals Sherman and Prentiss had to withstand the sudden attack of almost twice their number of Confederate forces under General Johnston, the two days of battle resulting in the discomfiture and retreat of the Confederate Army, but at a loss to the Union forces of more than twelve thousand men, out of 45,000 engaged; in the fighting before Fort Donelson, on the Tennessee River, where Grant,s now famous reply to the besieged Confederate general, who offered to capitulate on terms: "No terms other than unconditional surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works" eventually caused Gen. U. S. Grant to be called "Unconditional Surrender Grant" ; the capture of Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863; the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, and the subsequent attempt of the Confederates to capture the place on October 3, 1863 ; the six weeks, siege of Vicksburg, which was terminated by a complete surrender of the Confederate garrison on the same day that crowned the equally memorable and hard- fought three days' battle of Gettysburg; battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20, 1863, when the Army of the Cumberland, under General Rosecrans, sustained such losses, almost sixteen thousand out of 45,000 engaged, that General Rosecrans was relieved and General Grant placed in command; and several other less important engagements. Wilkins passed through all the fighting without se- 258 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY Hulls hurt, excepting once, when his horse was shot under him, in a skirmish near Kenesaw, and in falling badly crushed his left leg. At that time, he held the rank of first sergeant, and was on staff duty, but when he was eventually discharged, in September, 1865, he had attained the rank of staff colonel. The war record of Doctor Wilkins was therefore notable and noteworthy. His father had died a year or so prior to his discharge from the military forces, so that as soon as he was released from service, Colonel Wilkins returned home, and, with what. money he had, cleared the mortgage and still remained on his mother's farm, in Licking county, Ohio. Leaving her thus released from worry, he took employment with the Pan Handle Railroad Company, resolving to work thus so long as was necessary to give him the money wherewith to complete his education, and take a course in medicine. He was evidently a man of much steadiness of purpose, and his record shows that he graduated from Denison University in 1867, and from Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1873. What his financial struggles were between 1865 and 1873, when he had reached the full consummation of his aim and had graduated as a Doctor of Medicine, only he knows to the full, but it may be inferred that at many times during the period he was so circumstanced that only by the exercise of strong determination could he continue to pursue his studies. However he reached the day when he had gained the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and had the right to practice that profession. Soon afterwards, he came to Delta, Fulton county, Ohio, and there set up in practice; and there he has since continued to practice, the long period of such service to the people of Fulton county bringing him enviable professional repute. Among professional men, he is widely known throughout the state, and has been honored by them by election to the presidency of the Ohio State Medical Society. He has also held like capacity in the Northwestern Ohio Medical Society. He has been prominently identified with the .functioning of the Grand Army of the Republic, and has held high office in that organization of veterans, having been elected surgeon-general, at Chicago, on August 30, 1900, and re-elected at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1901. Throughout his life he has been a staunch democrat, and at one time, before his professional practice became so extensive as to require almost his whole time, he took a leading part in political movements in his county. For two terms he sat in the state senate, having been elected state senator in 1879. As such, he served in the senate for two years under Governor Bushnell, and a like period under Governor Nash. Fraternally, Doctor Wilkins belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and to Masonic bodies. He has been an Odd Fellow since 1864, has been through all the chairs of the branch with which he is affiliated, and he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Delta, to a Toledo commandary, and has been a member of the local consistory of Masons since 1882. At one time he was coroner of Fulton county. In May, 1873, Doctor Wilkins married Ruth Rebecca Shull, a native of Licking county, Ohio and a posthumous ohild, her father having been killed before her birth. Doctor and Mrs. Wilkins have therefore almost reached the year in which they may celebrate their golden wedding. They, have two children.: Archie M., who has HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 259 his medical degree, and is in practice with his father in Delta, Ohio; George B., who is in Toledo, Ohio. ARCHIBALD M. WILKINS, M. D., a graduate in medicine of the Toledo Medical College, 1898, and a graduate also of special courses at the New York Post Graduate Medical College and Hospital, the largest post-graduate medical school in the world, has been in general practice in Delta, Fulton county,Ohio, since 1905, and has had several other professional associations of consequence during his active medical career. He has served as an army surgeon during three campaigns—Spanish-American, 1898-99, the Philippine, 19015, and the French campaign, 1917-19, ten months of hard service in France gaining him promotion to the military rank of major. He has been medical examiner in Fulton county for the Industrial Commission of the State of Ohio and was elected coroner of the county. So that the last two decades of his life have been well filled. He is a native of Delta, Fulton county, born in that place on June 29, 1874, the son of Dr. John A. Wilkins, a prominent physician of Delta, and a Civil war veteran of worthy record. His life work has been the subject of a special article written for this edition of Fulton County History, and further reference is therefore not here necessary. Major Archibald M. Wilkins grew to manhood in Delta, attended the elementary and high schools of the place, and, having resolved to also take up the same profession as that his father followed, eventually became a student at the Toledo Medical College, from which in 1898 he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After graduation he was in private practice with his father in Delta for a while, and served an interneship in a United States Army hospital, in 1901 going to the Philippines as al contract surgeon of the United States Army. Upon his return he applied himself to special post-graduate research in some branches of medical science, going for the purpose to what is probably the best post-graduate school in the country, the New York Post-Graduate School and Hospital, the pioneer post-graduate medical school in the world, and the largest, its faculty and corps of assistant and adjunct professors and instructors consisting of more than three hundred of the most eminent medical specialists in the country. Eventually, in 1905, Doctor Wilkins settled to steady general practice in his home town, Delta, gradually becoming properly established in extensive practice throughout the section of the county, and as time went on forming various outside professional connections. He served as medical examiner for Fulton county on the Industrial Commission for the State of Ohio in 1913, and in 1914 was elected coroner of Fulton county, being re-elected in 1916. His medical service in the United States Army during the Philippine campaign, following the Spanish-American war, developed in him, an interest in military matters, and in 1911 he accepted a commission as first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army, and in June, 1917, following the declaration of a state of war with Germany, he was called to active service. In November following he was promoted to the grade of captain, and between that date and February 17, 1919, when he was promoted major, he saw very interesting and strenuous service on the French front. He received honorable discharge in March, 1919, and soon afterward returned to Delta and resumed his private practice. On January 20, 1920, he was commissioned major of the Medical Reserve Corps, United States Army. 260 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY Politically Doctor Wilkins is a democrat. He is a Mason and belongs to other fraternal organizations, including the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Modem Woodmen of America. He was married on October 23, 1900, to Bertha E. Morris, and they have had three children, although only one is now living. Robert Archibald, who was born on October 30, 1907. ROBERT BLAINE, who for more than twenty years was a resident of Delta, Fulton county, Ohio, and to whom death came in that town on January 19, 1918, came of a family which is placed among the pioneer families of Amboy Township, Fulton county, and which has a notable record of national service during the Civil war, Robert Blaine and his four brothers all having served in the Union Army. Robert Blaine himself also should be classed among the pioneers of the county, for during his active lifetime, which with the exception of his years of war service was spent almost wholly in Fulton county, he cleared a large acreage of wild land, converting the unproductive wilderness into tillable agricultural land. It is by such pioneering efforts as that of Robert Blaine that Fulton county became the productive agricultural district it is and it was by such wholehearted personal service as that of Robert Blaine and his four brothers that the cause of the Union and of the southern slave ultimately triumphed in the severe and prolonged Civil war. Robert Blaine was born in Amboy Township, Fulton county, Ohio, August 7, 1837, the son of Charles and Rachel (Bertholf) Blaine. The Blaine family was in colonial days resident in New York state, and Charles Blaine and his wife were both born in that state, although it appears that soon after marriage they, settled on wild land in Amboy Township, Fulton county, Ohio, in which township all their children were born, including the five sons whose patriotic war service brought to the family such an enviable record. Charles and Rachel (Bertholf) Blaine were the parents of nine children, five sons and four daughters, five of whom are still living. The surviving children are: Charles, who lives in Amboy Township; James, now of Wichita, Kansas; Marion, of Toledo, Ohio; Elmina, who married William Driscoll, of Amboy Township; and Emily, who married Thomas Stedman, of Amboy Township, and lives in the old Blaine homestead in that township. Robert Blaine., born and reared in Amboy Township, attended the district school nearest to his father's farm, although the school term in those days was short, the vacation extending through practically the whole of the growing season, during which Robert as a boy did much agricultural work. When he finally left school he took good part with his brothers in the work of the home farm, which was for the most part timber land. He married when he was twenty-one years old, and after taking this step he also began to farm independently, but the farm to which he took his wife was at that time all wild timber land, with just sufficient clearedspace to permit of the erection of a log cabin. The early married life of Robert Blaine and his wife was passed under the rigorous conditions of the pioneer. But he was a sturdy pioneer, and during the next few years cleared quite a satisfactory acreage of his farm. He had' been married four years when a momentous question came to them for decision. They decided, and the outcome was the enlistment of the husband as a soldier in the Union Army for the term of the Civil war. Some of his brothers had already gone into the service, HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 261 and all had decided to enlist. Robert enlisted in the spring of 1863, in Company I of the Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which became a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and as such took part in the southern campaign of General Sherman, including Sher-man's famous march through Georgia to the sea. Robert Blaine served until after the termination of hostilities in 1865, and having received honorable discharge he returned soon afterward to his native county and township and again took up the task of clearing his eighty acre farm. This eventually he accomplished, with forty acres additional, so that he ultimately possessed .a fine tract of tillable soil, upon which he and his family lived until 1894, when he had reached a state of material wealth to enable him to retire from agricultural work. He rented his farm to another, and went with his wife into Delta, building a fine home in the village, and there residing in comfortable circumstances until his death, January 19, 1918. The expressions of sympathy his widow received at that time clearly indicated the respect in which her husband was held in the village of Delta, and in their native township. Mr. Blaine lived a worthy, helpful and unselfish life. He took good part in the public responsibilities of the township, serving .for twelve years as justice of the peace, two years as assessor, and at one time was township trustee and a member of the School Board. Politically Mr. Blaine was a republican, and at one time was a factor of some consequence in political movements in Amboy Township. He belonged to the Delta Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was an active Mason, belonging to the Delta Blue Lodge and Chapter. Religiously he was a Methodist, a member of the local churches and an active church worker in his younger days. In fact, when he lived in Amboy Township he always served as steward of his church. Robert Blaine married on July 4, 1859, Laura M. Robb, who had been born in Medina, Ohio, but had lived in Amboy Township for about four years with her parents before she and Robert Blaine married. Her parents were Nathaniel and Calista (Parent) Robb, the former a native of New Hampshire and her mother of Ithaca, New York. Her parents had married in New York state, but had early come into Medina county, Ohio, of which county they are among the pioneers, and in 1855 moved into Amboy Township of Fulton county, where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Robert and Laura M. (Robb) Blaine lived a praiseworthy married life to within eighteen months of fifty years. Mrs. Blaine still lives in Delta, where she has many sincere friends. She is in comparatively good health, is comfortably circumstanced, and has the solicitude of many true friends. She owns sixty acres of her late husband’s farm in Amboy Township, which property is in the hands of a reliable tenant. Robert and Laura M. (Robb) Blaine were the parents of two children: Viola, who is the widow of William Carter, who for the greater part of his life was a resident in Delta, where his widow still lives, near her mother; and Ella, who married Frank Penny, of Metamora, Fulton county. GEORGE WASHINGTON CUPP, whose death occurred September 18, 1919, at his home in Delta, had an experience as varied as comes to most men who were born as long ago as February 4, 1835, he having lived many years before the time of greatest material development and through the thickest of the changes in modern civilization. He was a son of Philip and Elizabeth (Messmore) Cupp, the father an Ohio man and the mother a West Virginia woman. 262 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY Mr. Cupp lived fifteen years in the first half of the nineteenth century. In his time he lived at different places in Ohio. While the Cupp family first settled in Fairfield they soon moved to Wood county in 1840, where Philip Cupp bought forty acres in timber and cleared it. In his young manhood G. W. Cupp became a substitute Civil war soldier in Company F, Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in the fall of 1863 he went on a foraging expedition through Kentucky. While on a march from Hillsboro, Tennessee, his regiment was sent to Bowling Green, Kentucky, on account of the condition of the roads, and July 8, 1864, his time of service expired and he was discharged from the army. He had been nine months in the service. Mr. Cupp returned to his little farm in Wood county, but after one year as a farmer he engaged in a grocery business for two years in Jerry City. He then sold his land and business and came to Swan Creek in Fulton county. He bought sixty acres of cleared land and lived on it twelve years before he came to Delta. Aside from one year in Wauseon, Mr. Cupp continued his home in Delta. On September 4, 1859, Mr. Cupp married Hannah Baird. She is a daughter of Ira and Rebecca Baird and lived in Wood county. Their children are as follows: Willametta Clara, who died at the ageof thirteen years; Rebecca Viola; Willis Irving, who lives at Prairie Depot, Wood county, Ohio Ulysses S. lives in Wood county; Ora died at the age of four years; and Lydia died in Bowling Green, Ohio, in 1.919. Mrs. Hannah (Baird) Cupp died October 2, 1874, and Mr. Cupp married Elizabeth Wimer, of Wood county. She was a daughter of Moses Wimer. They had two children : Bert, of Sygnet, Wood county, and Harriet, who died at the age of twenty-one years. Mrs. Elizabeth (Wimer) Cupp died October 15, 1895, and Mr. Cupp married Mrs. Leah Tefft, a widow with four sons and three daughters. When Mrs. Leah (Tefft) Cupp died Mr. Cupp married Mrs. Sarah Alice Clark, a widow with three children. With his own children and the step-children Mr. Cupp was the head of a large family in Fulton county. He is survived by Mrs. Cupp and five of his children. His school days dated back to primitive conditons—the log school house with greased paper windows. He voted with the republican party. He was a member of the Church of God, and of McQuillan Post, Grand Army of the Republic, No. 171 in Delta. He served as post-commander, and was among the oldest members. STEPHEN EDGAR HINKLE. While the immediate ancestry of Stephen Edgar Hinkle of Royalton came from York state, they were early settlers in Fulton county. Mr. Hinkle was born in Royalton April 10, 1853, a son of Ephraim and Susan (Houghton) Hinkle, the father from Cayuga and the mother from Rensselaer county, New York. The grandparents, John and Mercy (Reed) Hinkle, had come early to Fulton county. Stephen and Hulda (Smith) Houghton, in the maternal ancestry, had removed from New York to the site of Toledo, and lived there many years before there was a city. John Hinkle, the man who brought the family name to Fulton county, entered 240 acres of wild land and later he secured 400 acres where Lyons now stands, part of it having been platted for the town. When the Houghton ancestry settled in what is now Amboy they entered 240 acres of wild land, and before coming to Fulton county they had entered a half section of land in what is now Toledo. This proved an excellent investment. HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 263 On April 10, 1872. S. E. Hinkle married Hattie Cass, of Maumee. She was born March 12, 1853, a daughter of Joseph G. and Mary Ellen (Wilson) Cass. Her father came from. New Hampshire while her mother was from Coshocton county. Her grand- father, Barnard Cass, was among the early residents of Maumee. Mr. Hinkle brought his bride to the home of his parents, and then located on an eighty acre farm west of Lyons, remaining there three years. From there he moved to Washington. Township, Lucas county, remaining seven years. When Mr. Hinkle returned to Fulton county he bought out the heirs to the family homestead, and another eighty acre place. He laid out Plainfield addition to Lyons, and sold out some of the lots, and he still owns lots and. some improved property there. On the farm Mr. Hinkle always has from twenty to thirty head of grade Holstein dairy cows, and the milk business is a profitable industry. The children are: Ephraim C., who met death on a railroad, had married Georgia Ferguson and they had two sons, Kenneth. and Ray, who live in Detroit; the wife of Houghton Ferguson of Toledo and her children are: Harry L. and Keron, the last named, deceased; Herbert H. lives in Royalton ; 'Stephen Eugene, of Royalton, married Ina Disbrow and has one child, Clare; Homer B. married Emma Mallendick (deceased) and he lives with his parents. Mr. Hinkle supplemented his education in common school at the Toledo High School and at Maumee. His wife attended Maumee Seminary. In politics he is a republican, and he has served as a councilman in Lyons. The family belongs to the Universalist Church, and Mr. Hinkle has served as a trustee for many years. The organization of the Universalist Church of Lyons was completed by Rev. Samuel Binns, in 1867 with thirty-four charter members. A church was built and dedicated in October, 1868. In the year 1904, under the pastorate of Rev. G. H. Ashworth, this church was remodeled with beautiful memorial windows. Mr. Hinkle is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows No. 622 of Lyons, and has passed all of the chairs. Mr. and Mrs. Hinkle are Rebekahs. It is evident from what has been said above that one of the, most useful members of the pioneer Hinkle family has been Stephen Edgar. While due recognition is given to the work and influence of his father and grandfather in the county, Mr. Hinkle has exercised a great energy of his own, and has built both wisely and well on the foundation which was prepared for his own career. Farming, town building and public spirit in all. his relations have been prominent features in his life, and his activities and character deserve the memory of the future. SAMUEL ERASTUS MERRILL. The late Samuel Erastus Merrill was closely associated with the agricultural interests of Fulton county,. and during his lifetime became the owner .of a, fine farm in Swan Creek Township that is now operated by his widow and sons. He was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, on June 24, 1851, a son of Joseph and Nancy (Mardis)Merrill, natives of New Hampshire, who moved to Ohio after their marriage, and all of their children were born in the latter state. Not long after the close of the war between the states Joseph Merrill went to Franklin county, Ohio, and still later located in Putnam. county, Ohio. Samuel Erastus Merrill was reared to be a farmer and attended 264 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the district schools during his boyhood. On May 24, 1887, he was married to Mary F. Beavers, born in Franklin county, Ohio, on January 6, 1867, a daughter of James and Sarah (Lane) Beavers, natives of Franklin county, Ohio. The grandparents, Thomas and Sarah (Beavers) Beavers, were also natives of Ohio, and the maternal grandparents, William and Mary (Athy) Lane, were born in Fairfield county, Ohio. Following his marriage Mr. Merrill moved to Henry county, Ohio, where he first leased a farm, but later bought one and conducted it until 1892, when he came to Fulton county, and spent two years in Swan Creek Township. He then bought a farm in Putnam county, Ohio, and lived on it for two years, or until he sold it, at which time he came back to Swan Creek Township, buying the seventy-nine acre farm now owned by his heirs, and on it he passed away on December 2, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill became the parents of the following children: Jennie L., who is Mrs. Michael B. Smith, of Swan Creek Township; James Harrison, of Ottawa county, Ohio, married Grace Masters, and they have one daughter, Frances Emma; Bertha, who is Mrs. Otto Conklin, of Swan Creek Township, has one daughter, Erma; Francis C., who is now at home, is a veteran of the great war, having served as a member of Company M, Three Hundred and Fifty-sixth Infantry in France and also in the Army of Occupation in Germany; Goldie Vivian, who is Mrs. Ray Watkins, of Swan Creek Township; and Florio M. and Harlow R.; who are assisting their mother in conducting the homestead. Mr. Merrill had two children by a former marriage, namely: Emmit Le Roy, who married Mary Westcott, has three children, Orrin, Lenora and Harold; and Ira Elmo, who married Gertrude Haguewood, has two children, Hilbert and Maxine. Mrs. Ray Watkins has two children, Eudora and an infant son. In his religious views Mr. Merrill was a United Brethren, and his widow belongs to the radical branch of that society. A strong republican, Mr. Merrill always gave an active support to the candidates and principles of his party, but did not care to hold office. He was an upright, honorable and conscientious man, who if he asked much of others was always willing to live up to his requirements himself. A hard worker, he accumulated a nice property, and earned the respect of his fellow citizens to such an extent that his death was regarded as a distinct loss to his community. CHARLES JOHNSON. The late Charles Johnson, of Swan Creek Township, always voted the democratic ticket, and for many years he was a deacon in the Christian Church, of which Mrs. Johnson is a member today. He was a son of John and Cynthia (Saulsbury) Johnson, and was born January 6, 1841, in York Township. He died March 18, 1886, at the age of forty-five years. The Johnson family were early settlers in Fulton county. In May, 1862, Mr. Johnson married Amanda M. Pierce, of Indianapolis. She is a daughter of Eber and Betsey (Vandalium) Pierce. They resided in Stark county, Indiana, until the fall of 1864, when they moved to York Township. In 1883 they removed to the presnt home in Swan Creek Township. It was an unimproved farm when they came to it. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Johnson has continued living there. A son, Charles, remained several years with her, and then a grandson, Arthur Stits, operated the farm, but now Mrs. Johnson lives alone. The fields are rented and she has a garden and poultry. HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 265 There were five children : Ada, who died in young womanhood; G. William, of West Alton, Missouri; Nettie, wife of John Whitmeyer, of Pike Township; Ledora, of Cleveland; and Charles P., of Toledo. While he did not live long enough to realize all his plans and ambition for the improvement of his farm and the making of a home in Swan Creek Township, Mr. Johnson had lived effectively and worthily during the years allotted to him, and grateful memory is cherished of his character and deeds by his descendants. Mrs. Johnson on her part did nobly in carrying' forward the farm and rear: ing her children, and is one of the very highly esteemed women of Fulton county. ALEXANDER YOUNG MONTGOMERY, who for more than fifty years was a resident in Delta, Fulton county, Ohio, and for the greater part of the time one of its leading citizens, had a worthy life record in every way. Denied the educational facilities possible to even the poorest boy in these days, he nevertheless acquired much learn ing, so much in fact that for many years he was himself a school teacher. He saw, valiant service as a soldier during the Civil war, was for many years in successful merchandising business in Delta, Fulton county, was postmaster for eight years, and throughout his long life of public activities and service in Delta gave some time to the execution of the duties of almost every public office of the borough, including the responsibilities of the offices of mayor, councilman, treasurer, and chief of the fife department. Generally, he was esteemed as one of the most helpful and public-spirited of the leading residents of Delta. He was born in Belmont county, Ohio, December 9, 1835, the son of James and Mary (Young) Montgomery. The Montgomery family is of Scotch ancestry, although for, some generations the branch to which Alexander Y. belonged' had been resident in the United States. His father had been born in Washington, Pennsylvania. His mother, however, was of Swiss descent, although also born in America. His parents were among the early settlers in Belmont county, Ohio, where James Montgomery bought a tract of wild land,_ clearing it of timber, and eventually developing it into a good agricultural property. Upon it Alexander Y. grew to manhood and there his parents died. The conditions of life in the vicinity of his parents, property were somewhat primitive during his boyhood. He had to content himself with very little schooling; as 'a matter of fact he was unable to attend school until he was nine years old, and even then the district school that had been established was only open for four months in the year, the boys of the settlers being needed by their parents for many minor farming duties during the growing season. Alexander Y. Montgomery, however was a studious youth, was naturally of intellectual bent, and, like Abraham Lincoln, profited much by the reading of good books. He was fortunate also in having some contact with men of letters, so that eventually he had attained a sufficient degree of general learning to qualify as a school teacher. He followed that profession until his twenty-sixth year, concurrently farming and he might have continued as an educator had not national conditions become such that all young men of patriotic heart felt prompted to cast aside all personal interests and place themselves at the disposal of the nation. Alexander Y. Montgomery was not wanting or even halting when 266 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the call to arms came in 1861. He enlisted in the Union forces in that year, and when the first brief term of enlistment had expired, re-enlisted in Company- E of the West Virginia Infantry. He served under Generals Siegel, Milroy, Fremont and Pope, his regiment being part of the Any of Virginia, which engaged in most of the battles of Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, including Cedar Mountain, Bull Run (second) and Cross Keys. In 1863 he entered the hazardous scouting arm of the Union Army, and continued as a scout until eventually mustered out of service, with a certificate of honorable discharge, on June 22, 1864. What his movements were between that time and the spring of 1866 are not known to the present biographer, but from the spring of 1866 until his death in 1918 he lived in Delta, Fulton county, Ohio, and lived a life well filled with consequential activities, of business and public character. For sixteen years he was in an established merchandising business in Delta, having appreciable success in that enterprise and later he was express agent at Delta. He was a man of strong personality, and was a factor of much influence in Delta. He had the confidence and good will of his fellow citizens, and was preferred by them for many public honors and offices of responsibility in civic affairs. His record in public service includes a period as mayor of the borough, as borough treasurer and as chief. of the fire department. He was a member of the Cemetery Board, and all his public work, whether of minor or major importance, was marked by a painstaking, honorable attention and devotion to the interests of the community that stamped him as a public servant of the highest type. He was ever ready to give personal and financial support to any worthy local movement, and during the administration of United States President Hayes he was the efficient postmaster at Delta, being continued in the office for eight years. Fraternally he was for many years prominently identified with the functioning of local lodges of the Odd Fellows and Masonic Orders. Of the former organization he belonged to Delta Lodge No. 400, and of the Masonic bodies he was a member of Fulton Lodge No. 248, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of the Octavius Waters Chapter No. 154, Royal Arch Masons; and of the Aurora Chapter. In the order of the Eastern Star he belonged to Fulton encampment No. 19.7. As a veteran of the Civil war he was of course a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, being affiliated with McQuillan Post. Religiously he was a Methodist, member of the Delta Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he was a republican, and actively interested in national as well as local affairs. He died on April 15, 1919, his obsequies being attended by a very large number of Delta people, in which town he was esteemed for his commendable private life and notable helpful public work in the community. He succeeded well in his business endeavors, and erected one of the finest residences in Delta, a substantial almost modern house of fourteen rooms. He was buried in Green Lawn Cemetery, Delta, Ohio, of which he was for so many years a director. He was married on November 4, 1867, at Lordstown, to Mary McCorkle, who was born in Lordstown, Trumbull county, Ohio, August 22, 1843, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Slough) McCorkle, of that place. Her father was one of the early residents in Youngstown, Ohio, but her mother belonged to an old Pennsylvania family, and was born in Carlisle, Cumberland county of that state. In her girlhood Mrs. Montgomery attended the public schools of her native place, and eventually took the academic course at the seminary at Lordstown, Ohio. In her younger days in Delta she entered HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 267 much into the social movements of the place, and throughout her life has been interested in church work. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and she and her late husband have been good supporters of the local church of that denomination. Mrs. Montgomery has many sincere friends in Delta, many of long standing. WILLIAM WALLACE WILLIAMS, who during his active life, which ended March 29, 1890, was one of the most prominent citizens of Delta, Fulton county, Ohio, a former mayor and leading attorney of that place, and who also had to his credit personal service in a military capacity during the Civil war, the period during which the manhood of the nation was tested to the uttermost. He was barn in Michigan February 3, 1833, while his parents, David and Phoebe Williams, were on a visit in Michigan, to a brother of Mrs. Williams. William W., however, was early thrown upon his own resources, his parents dying when he was still comparatively young. He went to live with Doctor Taylor in Wauseon, Ohio, attending the public schools of that city. What he did in his early manhood does not appear in data before the present biographer, excepting that during the Civil war he was in the military forces of the Union, enlisting in Company I of the Thirty-eighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and eventually receiving honorable discharge from the national forces. In 1867,, being then thirty-four years old, he married, soon after which important event in his history he began to study law, resolving to qualify for admittance to the legal profession. Eventually he was admitted, and for many years thereafter was one of the most prominent lawyers of the Delta section of Fulton county. He resided in that place, his law practice centering there, and in that city he was greatly esteemed. He was a man of commendable public spirit, a convincing public speaker, and he took a helpful part in the civic affairs of Delta. He was popular in that part of Fulton county, and held the confidence of the people of Delta; so much that they elected him mayor of the town. He was fifty-seven years old in the year of his death, 1890, and his life, although not of very long duration, was yet filled with consequential achievements, not the least of which was his strength of purpose in making his own way after the death of his parents. He was a good Christian, member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Delta, and a steady supporter thereof. Politically he was a republican, and was a factor of some consequence to that party in his home district. He took a leading part in political movements in his own district; in fact he was active and useful in almost all phases of the public affairs of Delta. As a veteran of the Civil war he belonged to the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife has lived a widowhood of thirty years, and fifty-three years have passed since she, Jane Casler, was married to William. Wallace Williams. She was born within twenty-five miles of Toronto, Canada, January 30, 1845, the daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth (Yake) Casler, who were both Canadians by birth, although Mrs. Williams is descended in the maternal line from an old colonial New York family, her grandparent having been born at Mohawk River, New York state, the son of John Yake, who came from Germany to one of the New York settlements. In the paternal line Mrs. Williams evidently belongs to a family of British antecedents, long resident in Canada. She has lived quietly in Delta amid a large circle of good friends since the death of her husband thirty 268 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY years ago, and she owns an artistic bungalow on Front street. The children born to William Wallace and Jane (Casler) ,Williams were: William,. who is a successful and enterprising business man in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Ila, who married Lewis Cameron, of Delta; Charles, who died at the age of twenty-one years, just as he had entered promising manhood ; Harry, now of Detroit, Michigan, is a veteran of two wars, having served through the Spanish-American war, rising to the rank of sergeant, and as a commissioned officer in the World war, 1917-19; Paul, now of Wauseon, also a former soldier, having for seven years been in the United States Regular Army Leland S., of Wauseon, who is also a veteran of the Spanish-American war. The family is thus of military record in the last three wars in which the nation has engaged, a noteworthy record of patriotism, seeing that in each case the service was voluntary. Mrs. Jane (Casler) Williams is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in her younger days took an earnest part in church work, and also in the social functions of community life of Delta. ISAAC WILEY. While there is Scotch in the ancestry of Isaac Wiley of Fulton, his birth occurred October 24, 1850, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. He is a son of Robert and Maria (Walters) Wiley. In 1851, when Isaac Wiley was one year old, his parents came from Pennsylvania via Cleveland and Toledo to Fulton Township, and in 1854 they bought eighty acres of timber, except a clearing of about five acres, where they made their home in Ohio. They lived in a log house until 1869, when they built a frame house. With the assistance of his son Isaac. Wiley, Robert Wiley cleared all this land but ten acres and later the son cleared that tract. Robert Wiley was a cripple and unable to walk without a cane and a crutch, and yet he made a farm in the wilds of the new country. His wife died in 1885, and he died two years later. Beside Isaac, who relates the family history, their children were: Sarah, widow of Eli Winchell, of North Adams, Michigan; Susan, deceased wife of Harrison Hamp; and John. By a previous marriage Robert Wiley had three children : William, Lemuel and Jemima, but none are living today. As long as his parents lived Isaac Wiley lived with them and cared for them.. When he was nineteen he worked away from home less than two months, the only time he ever lived away from the family homestead. In January, 1872, Mr. Wiley married Iva Hamp, who was the daughter of a neighbor and born April 26, 1852, in Fulton Township. Her parents are John and Rebecca (Norris) Hamp, the father born in Germany and the mother in Lucas county. For a time they lived with his parents and then they built another house on the farm, but later they moved in with his parents again. He bought the other shares, and has always lived on the one farm. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Wiley are : Eugene, of Fulton, who married May Fraker. He has one son, Fraker Wiley. Minnie is the wife of George. Percival, of Toledo, and has two children, Homer and Harold. Until he was sixteen years old Isaac Wiley had common school advantages, but from that time on his life has been given to hard work, grubbing and otherwise developing the farmstead. For eleven years he has served the township as a school director. In politics he is a republican. Mr. Wiley is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 528 of Swanton, and has occupied all HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 269 of the chairs. Together, Mr. Wiley and his wife are members of the Rebekahs, Pythians, Women,s Relief Corps and Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Swanton. This brief record seems to indicate that the dominating characteristic of Mr. Wiley has been faithfulness to duty, wherever duty has called him. While his present prosperity is due in some degree to an enlightened self interest, it is proper to say that he has worked for others as well as for himself, and the esteem in which he is generally held is due to the unselfishness that has guided his labors. OLIVER WILLIAM DETWILER. Although living in Delta, Oliver William. Detwiler gives personal supervision to his farm interests in Fulton county. He was born November 2 1853, in Marion county. He is a son of Jacob and Penelope (Miller) Detwiler. The father came from Pennsylvania and the mother from Maryland. They lived on a farm in Marion county, Ohio, but in 1865 they moved to Swan Creek Township in Fulton county. He bought a tract of wild land and improved it. They both died on the old homestead in Swan Creek Township. 0. W. Detwiler was the sixth child in order of birth into this pioneer family. Martha, a daughter, is mentioned in the H. B. Mann sketch. Oscar lives at West Unity, Williams county. Oliver W. Detwiler married Mary Tefft January 17, 1877. She is a daughter of Gardner and Leah (Wollam) Tefft. After his marriage Mr. Detwiler bought a farm in Swan Creek Township. He lived there twenty years. When his father died he sold the place and moved to the old Detwiler homestead. There were 225 acres of the land, and he bought some of the shares and now has a quarter section of it. In 1908 he rented the farm and located in Delta. Mr. Detwiler bought a property in the business section and removed an old blacksmith shop and built •a, modern house. The children are: Ellen, wife of Fred Richards, who lives on the farm; Minnie, wife of Earl Slagel, of Swan Creek ; and Alpheus living in New York. Mr. Detwiler votes with the democrats. As this brief record shows, the Detwilers have been factors in the development of portions of Fulton county for fifty-five years. Some excellent farms represent their aggregate and productive energies, and whether living in Delta or on his farm Mr. 0. W. Detwiler has ever manifested a degree of public spirit expressive of his high character and a constant willingness to promote the best interests of his community. GEORGE SCHAMP. Fulton county has some of the most energetic and successful farmers in this part of the state, and these men are satisfied with the results of their years of endeavor, for they have riot only made an excellent living, but have built up valuable property interests and been of use to their community. Such a representative citizen is George Schamp of York Township, who is conducting his valuable farm in a modern manner and carrying on general crop raising and stock breeding. He was born in York Township on January 8, 1858, a son of Henry G. and Catherine (Batdorf) Schamp, natives of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, respec- tively. They were married in Wayne county, Ohio, and in 1853 came to Fulton county, buying a farm in York Township. On it they built a brick residence, and lived in it, ,both passing away in 1899, although she survived him for a few months. Their children are as follows: James and John W., both of whom are farmers of 270 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY York Township; Helen, who died in infancy; David, who died in 1881, when twenty-five years of age ; George, who was the fifth in order of birth ; Mary, who is Mrs. F. M. Moyer, of Wauseon ; and Lucy, who is Mrs. William Kline, of Wauseon. On September 30, 1880, George Schamp was married to Amanda Hortense Barnes, of Clinton Township, a daughter of Leonard P. and Mary Ann (Bay) Barnes, natives of Pennsylvania, who became early settlers of Fulton county, Ohio. After his marriage Mr. Schamp lived for a year on his father,s farm, and then moved on a rented farm, where he remained until 1889, in that year buying eighty acres of land in section 33 of York Township. There were log barns and an old frame house on this property, and about fifty acres of it was under cultivation, the remainder being in timber. Mr. Schamp went right to work improving his farm. All but eight acres are now under cultivation, and he has put. up his present buildings, all of which are modern in character. He takes great pride in his place and strives to keep everything in first-class order. His operations are carried on in the line of general farming and stockraising. Mr. and Mrs. Schamp became the parents of the following children : Stella. D., who is keeping house for her father; Dola May, who is Mrs. Roland T. Holmes, of Lucas county, Ohio; and Roy T., who was a farmer of Swan Creek Township, passed away February 2, 1920. Mrs. Schamp died on September 24, 1916, leaving a desolated family and many warm personal friends to mourn her loss, for she was a charming lady of Christian character. Mr. Schamp belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he has served as steward for many years. He is a republican, and for two terms was on the School Board.. He maintains membership with the Wauseon Camp, Modern Woodmen of America. Having spent his entire life in York Township, his interests are centered here and he is ready and willing to give his support to measures which he believes will be beneficial to the majority. GEORGE JACOB MOOG. A. man of naturally sound judgment and shrewd perceptions, characteristics of the race of which George J. Moog, superintendent of the waterworks plant at Wauseon, is a descendant, he has so ordered his career as to be eminently eligible to representation in a work of this kind. He has risen through his strictly moral habits, his attention to the work before him and his mastering of the details of the line of effort to which he has applied himself. Thus he has earned the sincere esteem of those who are conversant with his life work and today he stands as one of the useful and representative men of the community, honored by his citizenship. George Jacob Moog was born in Noble Township, Defiance county, Ohio, on May 3, 1880, and is the son of Martin and Salome (Stuckey) Moog. The subject,s paternal grandfather, David Moog, was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, where he was reared and lived until about thirty years of age, coming then to the United States and locating in Defiance county, Ohio, where the family is still living. He was a farmer by vocation and spent the remainder of his life on his first farm there. Martin Moog was reared to the life of a farmer, but subsequently turned his attention to the operation of a saw mill, and still later became connected with railroad operations. George J. Moog attended the schools of Hicksville, Defiance county, until he was fifteen years of age. He then turned his attention to well drilling and threshing, which occupied his attention HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 271 for about nine years. He also operated a saw mill for 4 1/2 years in Defiance county. Then for a year he was employed as night fireman for the Defiance Gas and Electric Company, and during this period he took a course in engineering with the American School of Correspondence at Chicago, so that at the end of the first year he was advanced to the position of chief engineer of the plant, remaining in that capacity for one year. He then went to Stryker, Henry county, as chief engineer for the Toledo & Indiana Railroad Company, with whom he remained for three months, going from there to LaPorte, Indiana, where he was prominently connected with the LaPorte Light, Gas and Heating Company for three months. His next employment was as chief engineer of the waterworks and electric light plant at Coldwater, Michigan, where he remained for seven years. During these years Mr. Moog had been gaining a high reputation as an expert in his special line of work, so that it was with confidence he was engaged on April 1, 1918, as superintendent of the waterworks plant at Wauseon, Fulton county, which position he is still filling. The confidence placed in his technical ability was not misplaced, as has been abundantly demonstrated by the efficient manner with which he has discharged the responsible duties devolving upon him here. In 1901 Mr. Moog was married to Katherine Cox, the daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Mulby) Cox, of Evansport, Ohio, and to them seven children have been born. Politically Mr. Moog is independent, voting for the men and measures which meet with his approval regardless of party lines. Fraternally he is a member of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Though a man of unpretentious demeanor, he possesses those qualities which attract men, and because of his success and his commendable qualities he is deservedly popular among those who know him. WALTER JAMES CLARK. Except for about a .year when he was in the army service Walter James Clark was connected with the schools of Fayette from 1913, the greater part of the time as superintendent, until April 1, 1920, when he resigned that position and is now representing the Henry Holt & Company, publishers of college and high school text books. Mr. Clark was born at St. Clairsville in Belmont county, Ohio, October 26, 1888, son of E. T. and Minerva (Gray) Clark. His parents were natives of Ohio and his father for many years was in the furniture and undertaking business at St. Clairsville, but since 1915 has lived retired at Columbus. Walter James Clark graduated from the high school at St. Clairsville, and in the intervals of teaching and other work acquired a liberal education at Muskingum College, the Ohio State University, Western Reserve University and Columbia University at New York. He took the post of assistant principal of the Fayette High School January 1, 1913, and during the following regular school year was principal and in the fall of 1914 became superintendent of schools. He left his post of local duty and entered the army service April 30, 1918, and was assigned to special duty as a psychologist at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, Camp Custer, Michigan, and Camp Merritt, New Jersey. He received his honorable discharge June 1, 1919, and then returned to his duties at Fayette. Mr. Clark is organizer of the Fayette Post of the American Legion and is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, one of his ancestors 272 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY having fought for American independence. He is affiliated with Fayette Lodge No. 387 of the Masons, Lyons Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Defiance Commandery No. 30, Knight Templars, the Wauseon Council and Mecca Temple of the Mystic Shrine of New York City. He belongs to the college fraternities Phi Rho Sigma and Pi Rho Phi. Politically he is a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and served as a member of the Board of School Examiners of Fulton county. October 16, 1913, he married Elizabeth Flanagan. Mrs. Clark was born at Steubenville, Ohio, a daughter of Charles E. and Kathleen (Tanner) Flanagan. Her father, now deceased, was an expert mathematician. The widowed mother lives at Wheeling, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three children : Walter James, Jr., Elizabeth Jane, and Robert Charles. F. L. S. DARBY. It is a long time to look back to the days when Pottawattamie Indians still wandered through what is now Fulton county, Ohio, but the memory of one of Wauseon's most highly respected citizens, Dr. F. L. S. Darby, goes back that far. He was born in 1844, in Franklin Township, Fulton county, the youngest of seven children born to Samuel B. and Sepharna (Guilford) Darby. The Darbys came to the American colonies from Derbyshire, one of the most beautiful sections of England, settled first in Vermont and later became people of substantial worth in Alleghany county, New York. In 1835 the parents of F. L. S. Darby drove across the country with oxen, after reaching Ohio stopping first in Huron county, but later settled on Bean Creek in Franklin Township, Fulton county, where they secured forty acres of government land. The country at that time was a practical wilderness, few settlers having ventured so far and the nearest mill was at Maumee. Deer were often seen and wild turkeys were plentiful. For several years Indians followed their trails near the little pioneer settlements, and Mr. Darby remembers one of the stories told him in childhood by his anxious mother, of an occasion when an Indian squaw, bereaved of her pappoose, tried to steal him. His father cleared his forty acres and added to them, becoming a man of consequence in Franklin Township, was county recorder as well as teacher, farmer and merchant. His death occurred in 1884, the mother surviving until 1898, passing away in her ninety-eighth year. F. L. S. Darby had such educational advantages as the district schools of his day provided. He applied himself closely to his studies because he had become ambitious and wished to qualify as a teacher, which he subsequently did and afterward taught the Archbold, the Burlington and Franklin district schools, and in this way provided for a course in Oberlin College, after two years entering the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, having previously read medicine with his brother, Dr. A. B. Darby, at Waterloo, Indiana. He entered the above medical school in 1864 and was graduated from the same with his degree in 1866. During his stay of two years at Waterloo, while a student of medicine, Doctor Darby had formed many pleasant acquaintances in that city, and there he entered into practice and after two years opened a drug store there, which he conducted for two years, when he came to Wauseon. Here he bought an established drug business and continued the store for five years on the corner of Depot and Fulton streets, when he retired in order to give attention to other HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 273 lines of business. In 1889 he was one of the organizers of the Fulton County Building & Loan Company, of which he was made secretary in 1896, and has continued ever since. The company deals in farm lands and city. property, Mr. Darby having personal as well as company interests in real estate. Mr. Darby was married to Minnie M. Waid, who is a daughter of William and Orpha (Canfield) Waid, a pioneer family of Fulton county, and three children were born to them, namely: Orpha, who is the wife of H. F. Dinske, of Wauseon Roscoe B., who was born in 1878 and Florence, who died in 1896, at the age of fourteen years. In political sentiment Mr. Darby has always been a republican, and he has been a member of the county election board for more than twenty years. He has been active in Wauseon affairs, working always for the best interests of the city, and has served with great usefulness on the City Council and the School Board. He is one of the older members of the Knights of Pythias here. Roscoe B. Darby was born on a farm in Fulton county, first attended the public schools of Wauseon, then Baldwin University, in 1897 entering the Ohio State University, and was graduated with his LL. D. degree in 1900. In June of the same year he was admitted to the bar and since then has maintained his office at Wauseon and practices in the state courts. He is a republican in politics, and served six terms as city solicitor. In 1896 he was married to Herma Winzeler, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Winzeler, and they have two children, John Franklin and Dudley Bryant. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. He is recognized as one of the able members of the Fulton county bar. ADOLPH WILLIAM HINDERER is senior partner in the F. Hinderer & Sons Company, proprietors of the big general mercantile establishment at Burlington. Mr. Hinderer practically grew up in this store, and he and his brother Emil are among the most successful examples of enterprising country merchants, who have brought an immense volume of trade to them and have had no reason to fear the competition of large city stores. Adolph W. Hinderer was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1880, and was two years of age when he was brought to this country by his parents, Frederick and Catherine (Zwicker) Hinderer. His father, a blacksmith and wagonsmith by. trade; followed that occupation in Defiance county one year, and then settled at Lauber Hill in Fulton county. Here he established a blacksmith shop, and made his trade a medium of good service to that community for fourteen years. From there he moved to Elmira and again resumed blacksmithing, but also opened a small grocery store, and his two sons took the latter branch of business and have developed it through subsequent years until it now Supplies everything needed by the people living in a radius twenty miles around. They handle groceries, dry goods, farm implements, hardware and furnaces. Adolph W. Hinderer attended school at Lauber Hill to the age of thirteen, and ever since that time has been working and acquiring experience as a merchant. In 1903 he married Emma. Herr, a daughter of Charles Herr, and they have one adopted child, Phyllis Catherine, now two years of age. Mr. Hinderer is an independent voter in politics. 274 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY EMIL C. HINDERER is junior partner of the F. Hinderer & Sons at Burlington. This firm is one of the most stimulating examples of successful merchandising in a country district found anywhere in northern Ohio. Emil C. Hinderer w. as born at Lauber Hill in German Township, Fulton county, in 1887, a son of Frederick Ulrich and Catherine (Zwicker) Hinderer. His parents came from Germany, bringing with them their two sons. Frederick Hinderer was then thirty-five years of age. He had learned the trade of wagon maker in his native land, and followed that line of work for a number of years. For a short time his home was in Defiance county, Ohio, and from there he moved to Lauber Hill and opened a wagon shop and also did blacksmithing. After seven years he moved to Burlington, where he opened a small stock of groceries, that being the foundation and the nucleus of the present immense business conducted by his sons. He also continued work at the trade of blacksmithing, and lived and died there, highly honored and respected until 1915. His widow is still living. Emil C. Hinderer attended the Barnett country school a mile east of Lauber Hill, and finished his education in the schools of Burlington at the age, of fifteen. In the meantime, since the age of eleven, he had been helping his father about the store, and at the age of fifteen he was given practically entire charge. During the past fifteen years or so the business has enjoyed a steady increase and growth. From the original line of groceries the stock now includes dry goods, shoes, hardware, implements and other supplies adequate for the demands of the surrounding agricultural district. The firm are also agents for the Pipeless Furnace, and they sold the first furnaces of that type in Fulton county, while Emil Hinderer installed the first Pipeless Furnace at Toledo. The firm are also agents for the International Tractor. In May, 1919, Mr. Hinderer married Elsie Shoch, daughter of Henry Shoch, of Bryan, Ohio. Politically independent, 'while not a politician he is always interested in every community project. He and his brother Adolph own together a 130-acre farm in Franklin Township of Fulton county. This farm is the home of some good livestock, including a dairy of Holstein cattle. JOHN MILTON SINDEL. The Sindel family has played a worthy part in the history and affairs of Fulton county for nearly eighty years. A successful farmer representative of the family, who has held many offices of trust and responsibility in Pike Township, is John Milton Sindel. He was born in Pike Township January 4, 1846, son of John and Harriet Newell (Dixon) Sindel. His father was born in New York state and his mother in New Jersey, and they were married in the latter state. On September 28, 1834, they arrived in Fulton county and established a home one mile east of Winnemeg in Pike Township. They took possession of a tract of land that had been entered by her father, Lott Dixon, direct from the government. From that time John Sindel never left his home in Pike Township, but by the incidents and fortunes of history he lived in Lenawee county, Michigan, Lucas county, Ohio, and Fulton county. The Sindel family came west by way of the Hudson River to Albany, Erie Canal to Buffalo, by lake boat to Toledo, and thence overland to what is now Pike Township. John Sindel cleared and improved 160 acres of timbered land. He died in 1877, having