HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 475 both of whom were born in Wayne county, Ohio. Her grandparents were Elisha and Sarah (Ames) Smith and Joel and Elizabeth (Eles) Rogers. Both families acquired government land in Ohio in early days. The story is told by her great-grandfather, Elisha Ames, illustrating his remarkable vigor, how when he was ninety-two years of age he drove with a horse and buggy from Syracuse, New York, to Norwalk, Ohio, and returned the same way, showing no ill effects from the experience. Mrs. Williams' father, Lemuel Smith, enlisted in the Union Army but died February 7, 1861, on the day he was to leave with his regiment, the Fifty-fifth Ohio, Infantry. While a young woman Mrs. Williams learned the millinery trade in Cleveland, and the week after her arrival she opened a millinery shop in Delta. She owns a two-story business room, the oldest and best patronized establishment in the town. Mr. and Mrs. Williams had a foster daughter, Lula Clancy, whom they reared as their own child, and she is the wife of William Nachtriebs, of Elkhart, Indiana. Their son, George Nachtriebs, is in Detroit. Mr. Williams filled various offices in the Methodist Episcopal Church, being chorister and in charge of the musical service for thirty-five years. He also filled the chairs of the Masonic Lodge, and was a member and for many years chaplain of McQuillan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. SYLVANUS WALTER STEVENS. The Stevens family history from which Sylvanus Walter Stevens of Spring Hill is descended begins in Ohio February 5, 1851, when William H. Stevens married Effie Foster, of Morrow county. The record in the family Bible shows that he was born June 4, 1809, in. Pennsylvania, and this is known to .be his second marriage, Effie Foster not being the mother of the children. While it is known that Armenia Morrison, to whom he was first married, was born November 24, 1812, there is no record of the time or the place of the marriage ceremony.. He was the second in line to bear the name of William H. Stevens, being a son of William H. and Sarah (Crowley) Stevens. It is understood that the Stevens family is originally from Kentucky and the Crow- ley family from New Jersey. While it is known there were brothers and sisters in the Stevens family nothing at all is known of the Crowleys. The children born to William H. and Armenia (Morrison) Stevens, were Royal Crowley, Charles Leonitus, Daniel Leander, Sylvanus Monroe, William Henry, John Sylvester and Sarah Catharine. They were born in Morrow, Richland, and Knox counties as the parents migrated from one place to another. The six brothers, and the record is unique, were all soldiers in. the Civil war, enlisting from Fulton county. Sylvanus M., the invalid father of Sylvanus Walter was for ten months a prisoner in Andersonville. At the end of the war he was released from that vile place a living skeleton. It had been reported to his relatives that he was dead, and the war records show that a tombstone bearing his name and the number of his grave had been provided by the United States Government in Washington. Mr. Stevens. was removed from Andersonville to Annapolis, Maryland, where he was held in camp until he recovered sufficient strength to return to his home in Fulton .county. Mr. Stevens was born June 18, 1839, while the family lived in Richland county, and 476 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY he came with his father and step-mother to Fulton county when he was ten years old—one year before the organization of the county. In 1.849 his father came to the new country and let the contract for cutting the timber off of five acres of land already entered in what was later Franklin Township, and in the following spring the family took up its permanent residence in Fulton county. There are two survivors, John S., who lives in Missouri, and the sister who . lives in California. Sylvanus Monroe died December 27, 1919. September 8, 1868, S. M. Stevens married Sarah Estella Gilbert. They have lived on a farm in Franklin and later in Spring Hill. Mrs. Stevens is a daughter of Daniel Clark and Emily (Murray) Gilbert, the father an Indiana man and the mother an Iowa woman. They were married in Steuben county, Indiana, and there they lived when three of their children, DeVilla, Sarah Estella, and Seth were born, two others, Anna and Leota, being born after the family removed to Fulton county. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stevens: Daniel Lamont, born May 25, 1873, married Louise Hintz. His children are William H. and Fremont. Effie Blanche, born February 22, '1875, was .the wife of Melvin Ernst. She had one son, Mural. She died April 27, 1903. Iva Leota, born October 14, 1877, died at the age of four years. Sylvanus Walter Stevens, .born July 25, 1882, married Annette Jane Moore, March 2, 1914, and after an absence his place of residence is again Spring Hill. It is he who hands down the family story. His wife was born in Chillicothe. She was one of ten children born to Aaron -Black and Sarah Sane (Moore) Moore. While her parents had the same surname they were not related to each other. Six of their children, Mary Elizabeth, Annette Jane, Ida Alice, Emma Charlotte, Walter O,Connell and Albert Myers, reached mature life, but Annette Jane (Mrs. Stevens) is the only one living in Fulton county. While S. M. Stevens has an Andersonville experience, A. B. Moore, who was also a Civil war soldier was confined for six months in Libby prison, an old tobacco house in Richmond, Virginia, while the Andersonville prison was little more than an open field in Georgia. In January, 1918, Mr. Stevens revisited the site of this famous old Confederate prison as he and Mrs. Stevens were en route to Florida. The Stevens children all had common school advantages, and while his brother is a real estate dealer in Iowa, S. W. Stevens engaged in business as a. jeweler, but later he graduated from the Pennsylvania Orthopedic Institute and School of Mechano-Therapy, and for a time he practiced in the Fair Oak Sanitarium, Summit, New Jersey. He now lives in Spring Hill in order to be near his father and mother in their declining years. When a nurse is required he and his wife are at hand, and they both understand the requirements. In its entire history the Stevens family has been whig and republican, the one merging into the other. For sixteen years S. M. Stevens was treasurer of Dover, and he was trustee for six years while living in Franklin. The family affiliates with the Baptist Church, and while the Stevens family contributed so much to the Civil war, its six stalwart sons, one grandson, William. S. Stevens and a nephew, Irving Stevens, did the honors of the family in the World war. HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 477 Since the beginning of the twentieth century the Stevens family home has been in Spring Hill. The children were home on the golden wedding anniversary, September 8, 1918, and while they are living on borrowed time the father and mother are surrounded with every comfort, their son and his wife always at their service. The son in Iowa is a frequent visitor, and he also looks after their welfare. JOHN HENRY HOMAN. The true spirit of progress and enterprise is strikingly exemplified in the lives of such men as John H. Homan, one of Fulton county's successful farmers, whose energetic nature and laudable ambition have enabled him to conquer many adverse circumstances and advance steadily. He has met and overcome obstacles that would have discouraged men of less determination and won for himself not only a comfortable living, but also a prominent place among the enterprising men of his section of the county. Such a man is a credit to any community, and his life forcibly illustrates what energy and consecutive effort can accomplish when directed and controlled by correct principles and high moral resolves, and no man is more worthy of specific mention in a volume of the character of the one in hand. John Henry Homan was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1869, and is the son of Fred C. and Margaret (Lange) Homan, who were farming folk in their native land. In 1884, when the subject was about fifteen years of age,. the family, comprising the parents and four children, came to the United States and located in Freedom Township, Henry county, Ohio. The subject began early in life to work on his own account, his first venture being a tract of five acres, which he cultivated when but fourteen years old for one season. During the following two years he operated a tract of forty acres, and then an eight-acre farm adjoining for four years. The following five years he had an eighty-acre farm, but at the end of that time, his older brother having bought a farm of his awn, the subject returned home and assisted his father for two years. During the following twelve years he was employed as a farm hand by his neighbors, and then, after his marriage, he worked a year for his father-in-law. In 1899 he bought forty-five acres of land in Clinton Township, Fulton county, and operated it for two years, when he sold it and for another year again worked for his father-in-law. He then bought sixty acres of land in Clinton Township, to which in 1909 he added forty acres, so that today he is the owner of a fine farm of as good land as can be found in that section of the county, and to the operation of this land he is giving intelligent direction, with the result that prosperity is attending his efforts and he is numbered among the best farmers in his community. He carries on general farming and his place is well improved with substantial and attractive buildings. He is methodical and up-to-date, not hesitating to adopt new methods when their superiority over former methods is proven. Mr. Homan is independent in his political views and his religious affiliation is with the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He takes a proper interest in local public affairs. In 1898 Mr. Homan was married to Mary Behnfeldt, the daughter of Henry and Mary (Kruse) Behnfeldt, of Henry county, and they have become the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters, namely : Ernest, Martha, Hilda, Ervin, Edwin and 478 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY Laura. Mr. Homan has acted well his part in life, having lived a life consistent in principle and sound in action, and because of his successful career and his excellent personal qualities he is eminently deserving of the enviable standing which he enjoys in the community. WILLIAM C. DOMITIO, was until recently the senior partner of the firm of Domitio and Ruppert, clothiers, tailors and gentlemen's furnishings dealers of Wauseon, Ohio. The firm was a continuation of the business established by his uncle, Christopher Domitio, almost fifty years ago had an extensive trade, especially in custom tailoring, and was extensively developed by Mr. William C. Domitio, after he purchased his uncle's interest in 1907. And he had the gratification of seeing his son among the first young patriots to leave Wauseon for military service after the nation became in a state of war with Germany; and he had the still greater satisfaction in seeing his son return from the war cheerful in spirit and sound in limb after a service of about two years in the war zone. William C. Domitio is the son of Joseph and Mary (Durnwald) Domitio. His genealogy in the parental line traces back to an old French, family, latterly domiciled in Alsace, while in the maternal line the origin is Teutonic. Joseph Domitio was a cabinet maker in his home land, and when he immigrated to America he found no difficulty in following his trade. At first he settled at Norwalk, Ohio. and there married. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom their son William C. was the third born. William C. was born at Wauseon in 1862, and there he received the main part of his education, attending the public schools there until the family removed to Toledo, where William C. attended the parochial school of St. Peter's. He began to work when thirteen years old, his first work being in a. brush factory. Then for a while he worked in a trunk factory, but about two years 'after leaving school he returned to Wauseon, on May 15, 1876, so that he might learn the trade of tailor in the establishment ,of his uncle, Christopher Domitio. In Wauseon, and with his uncle, he remained for five years, during which time he became a competent tailor. Then followed a service of three years as tailor to Clark and Krike of Toledo, and another Toledo tailor, Thomas Vanaarle. Eventually, however, he returned to Wauseon, and again worked for his uncle, with whom he remained until his uncle retired from business, which event was made possible by the purchase of the business by the nephew in partnership with another Wauseon man, Samuel Ruppert. The change of ownership occurred on July 26, 1907; after which time the business was known under the firm name of Domitio and ,Ruppert. The partners, being younger and more aggressive men, expanded the business considerably, until it became one of much volume. In the custom tailoring department especially they had a very wide connection. supplying clothes even to Toledo people. while within a radius of connection, miles of Wauseon they had a good portion of the business in that line. In February, 1920, Mr. Domitio disposed of his interest in the business to his partner, Mr. Ruppert. 116 has since accepted a position with the WillysOverland Company, Toledo. Mr. Domitio is a staunch republican, and has given unwavering support to that party since entitled to a vote. And in the local HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 479 affairs he has taken close interest, although he has never shown any desire to seek public office. He is a devout Catholic. In July, 1882, in Toledo, he married Mary Neidhardt, of Toledo, who has borne him three children : Mary, who married Schuyler Sullinger, of Wauseon, and has. one child, a son, William; Eleanor, who married Charles Gerringer, of Wauseon, and has one child, her son Richard; Joseph Casper, who was born in Wauseon, Ohio, in 1896, was educated in the public schools of the place, and eventually graduated from the Wauseon High School in the class of 1914. He intended to enter into business association with his father, and with that object began to work in the store soon after he had graduated, and he had gained a .good knowledge of the business during the next few years. In 1917, however, when the nation became involved in the European war, young Domitio was one of the first of Wauseon's young men to volunteer for military service. He enlisted in the Engineer Corps of the United States Army on May 2, 1917, at Toledo, Ohio, and was sent to Washington Barracks, District of Columbia. On August 17, 1917, his regiment was ordered to France, and was one of the first units to reach the theatre of war. Eventually young Domitio was transferred to General Headquarters, under General Nolan. He rose steadily through the grades until, he had the responsibility and rank of sergeant-major to which grade he was promoted on March 25, 1918. On May 1, 1919, 'he was still at Chaumont, France, attached to the General Headquarters of General Pershing; and he was among the last American troops, with the exception of odd details and the Army of Occupation, to leave France. He and his friend, Le Roy Donat, were the two first boys to leave Fulton county for the military service after the outbreak of the war and the two first to land in France, and he was one of the last to return—a creditable record. In April, 1920, he married Nola Strayer, of Wauseon, and they now make their home in Toledo. OTTO RICE represents the young and progressive element in Fulton county's agricultural citizenship. He is living on part of the farm where he was born in Gorham Township, and in recent years has gone in for the diversified farming, which has proved the most profitable for this section of country. He is a dairyman, chicken raiser and general farmer. Mr. Rice was born in section 22 of Gorham Township June 20, 1887, a son of Oscar and Minnie (Boger) Rice. His father was born in Gorham Township, where the Rice family were early settlers. His parents were Milo and Lydia Rice. The mother was born at the little village of Hamburg, near Sharon, in western Pennsylvania. Oscar Rice after his marriage located on 154 1/2 acres in sections 22 and 28 of Gorham Township. He was a good farmer in his generation, kept up his improvements, and owned good livestock, and interested himself in the welfare of the community. He died in 1896, respected and honored, and was survived by his widow until February 22, 1912. They had two sons, Ellis and Otto, the former a resident of Jackson, Michigan. Otto Rice married on March 22, 1911, Julia Shaffer. She was born in Gorham Township March 19, 1894, daughter of George and Bertha (Randall) Shaffer, also natives of Gorham Township. Mr. Rice acquired his education in the Handy district school, while 480 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY Mrs. Rice attended the Hoffman district school in Gorham Township. Both were young, enterprising and ambitious, but at the time of their marriage possessed little capital. For a time they lived on the Rice farm and then rented forty acres in Gorham Township for a year. After that Mr. Rice bought eighty .acres of his father's home, and his work and improvements have justified his ownership. He has laid about five hundred rods of tile, effecting complete drainage for his fields. He has also built 250 rods of new wire fence, has remodeled the barn and has complete equipment for a herd of twelve grade Holstein cows. He has also built a combined milk house, wood house and garage, and has .a well equipped chicken house, specializing in the White Leghorn breed of chickens. Mr. and Mrs. Rice have two children, a son, Rollen George, born March 4, 1913, and a daughter, Rena Belle, born December 11, 1919. The family attend the Methodist Church and Mr. Rice is a republican voter. THE HIBBARD FAMILY. There is English, French, Scotch, Welsh —in fact many of the nations of Europe are represented in the blood lines of the Hibbard family in America through its relationship to the Green, Rice, Palmer, Cary, Crane, Backus, Griswold, Hill, Pren- tice Wheeler, ood, Rudd, Bent, Sprague, Graves, Walden, Newell and W Owen families—all this line of Hibbard family ancestry having come early in. the history of the New World. These families all came between the years of 1624. and 1660, and many New England, and other Atlantic coast cities bear their impress today, although Massachusetts and Connecticut were the scenes of their greatest activities. The founder of the House of Hibbard in America was Robert Hibbard, who came from Salisbury, England, as early as 1635, and almost two hundred years later the Hibbard family history had its beginning in Athens county, Ohio. On February 4, 1838, is the time it had its beginning in the vicinity of Spring Hill—long before there was a Fulton county or a Dover Township, Spring Hill being one of the earliest frontier settlements. It was then part of Lucas county. The site of the original Hibbard homestead was called Spring Hill, and later .a village sprang up around it and it was given the name of the homestead. Spring Hill is still the home of the remnant of the Hibbard family. On June 15, 1809, occurred the birth of Mortimer Dormer Hibbard—the head of the House of Hibbard in Fulton county. He was a son of the Rev. Elisha Hibbard. His mother, Abbie Owen, was born near Fannington, Connecticut. The young minister and his wife were living in Jefferson county, New York, at the time of the birth of their son, and when he was seven years old they, re-. moved to Athens county, Ohio—the beginning of the Hibbard family history west of the Allegheny mountains. It was while growing up in Athens county that Mortimer D. Hibbard met Mary Rice Green. She was born there June 25, 1809, a frontier maiden only ten. days younger than the gallant suitor who courted and won her. She was a. daughter of William Green of Malden, Massachusetts, and Deborah (Rice) Green, a native of Marlborough, Massachusetts, but she was born in Athens county. Mr. Hibbard married Miss Green July 30, 11329, in Athens HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 481 county, and five children, Jason R., Caroline S., Susan A. and twins, Edgar M. and Oscar S. were born there, and Edgar, dying in infancy was buried in Athens county. It was in the winter time, early in 1838, that the family left Athens county, traveling by wagon to seek its home in the north country. They came into this Indian inhabited wilderness upon the invitation of Ambrose Rice, an uncle to Mrs. Hibbard, who was a government surveyor in the new country. Treasured as heirlooms in the family today are the chain and compass used by him in the original survey of much of the wild land in northwestern Ohio. The Indian trails were the only Avenues of travel through the "oak openings" when, February 4, 1838, this pioneer family reached its destination in the almost totally unbroken wilderness. Conditions have changed in the cycle of the years, and the well de- veloped farmsteads of Fulton county are the result of the efforts of the pioneers, the men and the women who blazed the trail for the present day civilization in Fulton county. In her journal Mrs. Hibbard wrote: "The country here is so level that when a fire spreads in the dry leaves and grass we can see it in an unbroken line to a groat distance, uninterrupted to view except by the trunks of intervening trees," and here the family lived to witness the onward march of civilization. When this pioneer father and mother and their four children were safely ensconced in their two-room log house they soon established friendly relations with the few remaining Indians, and here were born children as follows: Charles M., who lived but one year; the next child was named Charles A., and soon after the family had moved into a more commodious log house there were the following children : Francis E., Marie A., Daniel I., Ellen L. and Edward M. 'There were ten who reached adult years, although at the time of the interview, in 1919, only three: Marie A., Daniel I., and Ellen L., survive, After many years of absence as educators the Misses Marie and Ellen Hibbard have again taken up their residence in Spring Hill, the environment of their early family history. Daniel I. Hibbard is a resident of Benton Harbor, Michigan. While the name Hibbard does not occur often in the Fulton county directory today, it has been inscribed many times on :the imperishable granite in Spring Hill Cemetery. In this God's acre are six generations of the Hibbard family, while there are four generations among the living in Fulton county today. The Rev. Elisha Hibbard, who had come to visit his son, died and lies buried, carrying the dead back one generation in local history. It is the exception when an Ohio family looks backward farther than forward over the generations that comprise its history. Is there another instance of it in Fulton county? There has always been a high educational standard, there having been four generations of teachers in the Hibbard family. Miss Marie A. Hibbard was a principal for many years in the Toledo public schools, while Miss Ellen L. Hibbard was one of the founders, the first principal and for twenty-five years a teacher in the New England Deaconess Training School, which is now the department of religious education in Boston University. Daniel I. Hibbard is a chemist and a man of varied business accomplishments and resources. Members of the Hibbard family have always been identified with 482 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY agriculture, professional and mercantile life, and in the family there has always been an inclination to literary pursuits, the mother having kept a journal through all the years of her womanhood. The daughters have drawn from it in detailing this family history today. The father was an editor and a frequent newspaper contributor, and two daughters, Caroline and Susan, were frequent writers both in verse and story. The Misses Hibbard themselves have committed many facts to paper and have prepared much copy for publication. The politics have been republican since the organization of the party. The first local election, August 7, 1843, was held in the home of M. D. Hibbard. Mr. Hibbard was the first auditor of Fulton county, and his son, Jason R. Hibbard, who succeeded him, filled the office five successive terms. The official records of the county show the handwriting of father and son in official capacity, something not duplicated in local history. The family has always been divided in its church affiliation, and there have been many ministers in the Hibbard family ancestry. In the immediate family there have been Presbyterians, Universalists, Methodists and Christians, and some have supported the different churches without having united with them. As a family they have been strong anti-slavery advocates and temperance agitators always ready to espouse the question of the day when it means the weal of the community. The first temperance lecture heard in what is now Fulton county was delivered July 24, 1842, by the Rev. Elisha Hibbard in the home of his son, Mortimer D. Hibbard. In her journal of that date Mrs. Hibbard wrote: "There were about. one hundred present." At the home of the speaker, Rev. Elisha. Hibbard, in Athens county there was a. station on the famous Underground Railway through Ohio, and he was an apostle of reform in everything. From the days of Miles Standish of Plymouth) when John Cary served in his army, there has been a strong spirit of patriotism in evidence in the family, and the Misses Hibbard representing the family at Spring Hill today long ago established their membership in the patriotic society, the Daughters of the American Revolution, through the war records of five Revolutionary soldier ancestors. Their grandfather, the Rev. Elisha Hibbard, who lies buried at Spring Hill, was a soldier in the second war with England, and while there was no family representation in the Mexican war, Mortimer D. Hibbard, who was past the age for active service in the Civil war, qualified in the Quartermasters' Department at Lexington, Kentucky, and thus he had his part in the great conflict between the North and the South. Two of his sons, Charles A. and Francis E., were soldiers in Company I, Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Veteran Infantry, both having served three full years and remained until the end of the war. While none of the immediate Hibbard family served in the Spanish-American war, three great-grandsons of M. D. Hibbard, Christopher M. Ott, who September, 1919, was a lieutenant in the Army of Occupation on the Rhine, and Charles A. Ott, who received the necessary military training for 'overseas service, and Lloyd E. Hibbard, who enlisted as a marine, but was detained in camp at Paris Island off the coast of South Carolina as a coach on a rifle range because of his expert marksmanship, these young Americans all had their part in the war of the nations. While the spirit of patriotism has stirred the whole country in its different wars, there HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 483 has been military response from each generation from the time of the Revolution down to the World war. There is no question about patriotism in the House of Hibbard in America. In the way of genealogy the history of the Hibbard family has been given attention through its different branches and ramifications, and in the library at the home of the Misses Hibbard are many volumes tracing their ancestry back through hundreds of years. While it dates back to the first half of the seventeenth century in the New World, it runs much further into the past in. Welsh, Scotch, English 'and French history. The name Hibbard will go down in history in connection with the development of Fulton county as well as in the annals of other communities: CLARK A. ROBINSON. There are few farmers of southern Fulton county who have met with more encouraging success here than Clark A. Robinson, one of those strong, sturdy characters who has contributed largely to the material welfare of the community and township in which he resides, being a modern agriculturist and progressive in all that the term implies. Clark A. Robinson, who operates a fine old farm of 110 acres in Clinton Township, was born near his present farm on January 10, 1877, and is the son of George W. and Sarah (Edington) Robinson, through whom he inherits sterling old Yankee blood. His paternal grandfather, George W. Robinson, lived and died in Wayne county, Ohio. George W. Robinson, the father, came to Fulton county from Wayne county and settled on the present homestead, where he created a fine farm and established a home, and has resided ever since. He is now seventy-seven years old and is living retired. He has also been successful as an agriculturist and is held in high repute in his community. The subject of this sketch attended the schools of Clinton Center until nineteen years of age, after which he followed agricultural pursuits on his own account, renting several farms during the subsequent years up to 1913, when he took charge of the maternal farmstead and now farms. the Robinson home place as well as the Edington homestead. He carries on general farming 'operations, in which he exercises sound judgment and excellent discrimination and enjoys the reputation of being thoroughly up-to-date and progressive in all his work. In 1899 Mr. Robinson was married to Chloe E. Walters, a daughter of George W. and Ruth (Fieldmire) Walters, of Tedrow, and their union resulted in the birth of six children, namely : Homer Lisle, George W., Opal Gertrude, Mary Aline, Clark Eugene and Edward Dale. Mr. Robinson has always given his support to the republican party and has been an active worker in the party ranks, having served as a member of the county committee from Clinton Township. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of Pythias. A man of generous impulses and genial disposition, Mr. Robinson easily makes friends and enjoys the confidence and regard of all who know him. HARMON AND GEORGE VAN PELT, brothers and jiont owners and operators of a good farming property of 130 acres in Clinton Township of Fulton county, Ohio, are .well-known Fulton county men, representative of the more responsible of Fulton county agricultur- 484 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY ists. They are the sons of Jacob and Matilda (Kline) Van Pelt, and belong to a family which has had honorable record in Ohio for three generations, and national record through their father, who was a veteran of the Civil war. The Van Pelt family is of German origin, but has been in the United States for many generations, colonial records of the State of Pennsylvania authenticating the settlement of the family in that state in early colonial days. Jacob Van Pelt, grandfather of Harmon and George, however, was the first of the family to enter Ohio, he being among the early settlers of Freedom Township, Henry county, where he and his son cleared an extensive acreage of timber land. His son Jacob, father of Harmon and George, grew to manhood in Freedom Township, and comes into notable record through his personal services to the nation and the .Union as a soldier during the Civil war. He was a man of strong characteristics and manly personality, and was much respected in his home district. Apart from his war service he spent his life almost wholly in Henry county, and for- the greater part of his life farmed industriously and with good success. He died in 1907, and his obsequies were marked by ceremonies which emphasized the respect in whiczh he was held by the residents of Freedom Township, and by his Civil war comrades. Harmon and George Van Pelt, sons of Jacob and Matilda (Kline) Van Pelt, were both born in Freedom Township, Henry county, and attended the district schools of that township until about sixteen years of age; and both after leaving school took active part in the tilling of the home farm. In 1.900 their birthplace was sold, and the brothers then came into Fulton county and purchased the farm of 130 acres in Clinton Township upon which they have since lived. They have proved themselves to be men of responsibility, worthy character, and commendable public spirit. They have by Industriousness and enterprise had good returns season by season from the cultivation of their farm, and have never shirked the labors in connection therewith. Their farming has been of the general character, and they have entered somewhat extensively into stock raising. Also they have been apt in adopting to good advantage many of the modern methods of scientific farming. They are holding their property in first-class condition, and have much improved it since they first entered into possession. Politically both are republican in allegiance, although neither has very actively concerned himself with politics. They of course follow local public movements with interest, but they have never had any inclination to follow national politics with a view to office. They have preferred to remain industrious, hard-working and honest-thinking citizens and producers. And they have probably given better service to their home district and to the nation in that capacity. They certainly did during the strenuous years of the war, when world famine placed such reliance upon American farmers for foodstuffs. Harmon Van Pelt married April 11, 1903, Martha, daughter of Henry and Lavine (Lenhart) Berner, of York Township, Fulton county. They have one child, James Parmenton. The brothers have very many 'friends in Clinton Township, and are generally well-regarded. CORTLAND ANDREW KNAPP, a retired farmer, an esteemed and public-spirited resident of Delta, and active in many phases of pub- HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 485 lic affairs in Fulton county, Ohio, has a good record of successful enterprise and helpful and unselfish public service. He has mani- fested much capability in public office, and marked ability as an organizer. He is the prident of the Fulton County Farm Bureau, and its success may be attributed in great measure to his enthusiastic, onerous and effective organizing labors during its uncertain early days. Mr. Knapp has an enviable reputation both in private and public life. He is a consistent and earnest church worker, an elder of the local church of the Presbyterian denomination. Cortland A. Knapp was born in Wellington, Lorain county, Ohio, December 13, 1862, the son of Orson A. and Mary (Hocomb) Knapp, the former having been born in Rochester, Lorain county, Ohio, and the latter near Lodi, Medina county, Ohio. The Knapp family is one of the colonial American families, and in early generations lived. in West Webster of New York State. The grandparents of Cortland A. Knapp, John and Mary (Welcher) Knapp, were born in New York State, but were early settlers in Lorain county, Ohio, where John Knapp acquired a tract of land and lived a pioneering life. Their son Orson was reared in Lorain county, and there he married, soon afterward enlisting in the Eighth Ohio Light Artillery. He was one of those patriots who made the supreme sacrifice, for their country during the. Civil war. He was wounded and placed in a field hospital at Bridgeport, Alabama, where he succumbed to his wounds. The only child of Orson A. and Mary (Hocomb) Knapp was Cortland A.,. who was only six years old when his mother married again. Her second husband was Herman Miller, who brought the boy and his mother to Delta, Fulton county, after the marriage, and from that time forward Cortland A. Knapp has lived in Fulton county. His stepfather had a farm near Delta, and provided a comfortable home for his stepson, who was given a good education. He attended the elementary and high schools of. Delta, later attending the Northwestern Ohio University at Ada, Ohio. He was a school teacher at the age of eighteen years, and when twenty-one years old, in 1883, bought the home farm in York Township, a place of seventy-seven acres upon which much virgin timber stood, and upon much of the supposedly cleared land of which stood the tree stumps, the farm therefore being not an easy one to work. Young Knapp was a man of strong purpose. and had much of the spirit of the pioneer, and in course of time he cleared the farm of all timber as well as of the stumps, thereafter having a property that paid well for cultivating. By skilful farming and persistent application to what labor it entailed Mr. Knapp prospered well, and was able to build substantial, modern buildings. He resided on the farm, and showed much enterprise in his farming, maintaining a large dairy and entering extensively into cattle and hog raising. In 1911 he retired from farming and moved into Delta, where he bought a fine residence, with most of the modern conveniences that add to residential comfort, and some conveniences that are unusual, if not unique. The illuminant in Mr. Knapp's house is electricity, but he could have -gas if he wished, obtaining the supply from his own well upon the property; as a matter of fact, his gas well supplies him with all that is needed for heating purposes. He still owns the farming property of ninety-eight acres, and also some residential property in the City of Wauseon, but for practically the last decade he has not actively followed farming, having placed his farm in charge of his son. So 486 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY that he has been free to give much of his time to public affairs. He has given especially good service to the Department of Agriculture and to the Fulton county agriculturists by his skilled handling of the early organization work of the Fulton County Farm Bureau, of which he was president. It will be generally conceded that the standing of the bureau today has been mainly because of the indefatigable persistence of Mr. Knapp in his advocacy of its value to the agriculturists of the county. And during the recent war Mr. Knapp did much useful patriotic work in furthering the cause of the government and the wish of the administration that American farmers should strain every nerve to bring about an abnormal yield of foodstuffs to defeat the threatened exhaustion of allied peoples through famine, which was the natural .outcome of the long period of devastating warfare, with its drain upon the manpower which normally would be exerted in the tilling of the soil. The part played by the farmers of America in the final victorious ending of the war is generally known. and has a definite place of honor in national annals; and it was brought about by the efforts of such an organization as that of which Mr. Knapp was the president during the period of national stress. He also entered whole-heartedly into the various drives to ensure the adequate subscription of the war funds. Politically Mr. Knapp is a republican. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic and Knights of Pythias orders, belonging to the Octavius Chapter and the local Blue Lodge of the former, as well as to the Eastern Star organization, of which his wife also is a member. Religiously he is a Presbyterian, and for many years has been, elder of the local church. On January 1, 1884, he married Agnes Goodwin, daughter of Thomas and Marguerita (Keene) Goodwin, of Milan, Erie county, Ohio. She comes of English ancestry, her father having been born in Newchurch, England, although her mother was a native of Erie county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Knapp are the parents of four children : Lowell F., who is now responsible for the home farm, and is proving himself a man of commendable steadiness; Ethel. May, who married R. R. Reighard, of Delta, Ohio; Thomas Herman, who is at home with his parents; and Evelyn, who died in May, 1911., at the age of sixteen years. FRED E. BRODBECK. The name Brodbeck harks back to Wurtemberg, Germany, the birthplace of John Brodbeck, the father of Fred E. Brodbeck of Amboy. He was born February 8, 1858, and is a son of John and Mary (Myers) Brodbeck. She was born in Sandusky county. John Brodbeck came as a young man to Toledo and worked as a day .laborer, but he saved his money. and in time he owned and operated a brick yard in. Toledo. In 1860 he located in Amboy, buying eighty acres in the timber and clearing it. He built a plank house when most of the settlers were living in log cabins in the new country. As he improved the farm Mr. Brodbeck bought forty acres adjoining, and later he bought an eighty and still another eighty and he owned a fine farm when he left it to end his days in Metamora. He was born in Germany December 10, 1830, and died January 5, 1914, in Metamora. Mrs. Brodbeck was born April 13, 1836, in Sandusky county, and she died August 25, 1919, in Toledo. Their children are: Fred E. Brodbeck, Charles, deceased at the HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 487 age of four years ; Augustus, of Metamora ; Josephine, wife of John W. Shaw, of Toledo ; and Frank E. of Amboy. On February 3, 1881, F. E. E., Brodbeck; married Altha Dennis. She is a daughter of Alpheus and Sarah (Stahl) Dennis. She was born in Huron county, but her father was from Massachusettss and her mother from Ashland county. They settled in Amboy on' an eighty Mr. Brodbeck had purchased from his father. There were log buildings and about twenty-five acres of cleared land and the rest in timber. He finished clearing the land and added to it until he now has 156 acres with up-to-date farm buildings on it. In 1895 Mr. Brodbeck built a brick house of nine rooms, and it has running water, furnace heat and electric lights. There is one daughter, Iva Dell, born June 4, 1886. She is the wife of Clarence Cash, of Amboy. Since 1907, Mr. Brodbeck has been the republican member of the School Board in Amboy. For fourteen years he served. as township trustee, and he helped organize the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Metamora. He is vice president and a member of the board of directors. He has been through all of the 'chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 875 of Metamora. For sixty years therefore Mr. Brodbeck has been a resident of Fulton county. He grew up in the home of a well-to-do farmer, but his own efforts, directed independently for thirty years, have achieved results that make him easily one of the prominent men of Fulton county today. The large and productive farm, started with a nucleus of a clearing in the woods, his beautiful and elaborate rural home, his position as a banker, his disinterested public service in behalf of, education and other public causes, constitute a record honorable to any man. STEPHEN EPHRAIM MANN. Some of the ancestry of Stephen Ephraim Mann of Royalton were very early settlers in Fulton county. He was born March 28, 1870, and has always lived in Royalton. Ike is a son of Charles and Mary (Hinkle) Mann, the Hinkle family having been focal pioneers. Ephraim Hinkle founded the Hinkle family in Royalton. Charles and Mary Mann lived 'on two different farms in Royalton., their son now living on one of them. The father died there in 1896, while the mother died in 1918. The children are: Stephen E., who was the oldest; Mariam, wife of Albert Edger, of Delta; Eugene of Royalton ; and Orpha, deceased, who was the wife of Boy Disbrow. On June 10, 1900, Mr. Mann married Katie Flint, of Lyons. She was born February 16, 1881, and is a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Vaughn) Flint. The father is a native of Massachusetts, while the mother was born in Missouri. After the death of his father, Charles Mann, S. E. Mann bought out the other heirs and thus came into possession of the home farm in Royalton. He has added many improvements. He has one son, Thomas. Mr. Mann votes the republican ticket. The family holds membership in the Disciples Church. WARREN SIMEON EVERS. The Evers family ancestry to which Warren S. Evers of Royalton belongs were very early settlers in Williams county. He was born there September 20, 1880; being a son of Joseph Danford and .Louisa (Ritchey) Evers. The father was a native of Williams county, while the mother, an orphan 488 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY child, went there when she was two or three years old. Her parents died in Williams county. J. D. Evers and wife removed from Williams to Fulton county, where they bought a farm in Royalton. He died in 1894, and his wife married Oliver McLain and she lives in Wauseon. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Evers are: George F., of Lyons; Ella, wife of Jacob Hartman of Pike Township; William, of Pike Township; Charles Edward, of Morenci, Michigan; Warren S.; Rose, wife of Vitus Eberly, of Pike; and Estella, who died in infancy. On February 5, 1902, W. S. Evers married Pearl, a daughter of Charles and Ida (Saeger) Ha.yes, of Pike Township. They lived four years on a farm in Pike Township, when they sold it and bought another improved farm, on which they lived four years, then spent one year i.n the town of Lyons. They then bought their present farm which was in the brush and he cleared and improved it. Mr. Evers lives on "The Big Bear Creek Farm," and he has it well improved and in a high state of cultivation. Mr. Evers was educated. in the district school, and has served his community as a member of the School Board. In polities he is republican. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America of Lyons. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Evers are: June, Catharine, Ruth, Hazel, twins, Warren and Wilma, who died at the age of nine months, and Pauline. CHARLES H. KEISER, who since 1908 has been a resident in and successful farmer of York Township, Fulton county, after having traveled extensively for seventeen years has reached a place of good regard among the people of that township. He has manifested a good public spirit since he has lived in the township, and an energy and enterprise that are commendable. He was born in Whitley county, Indiana, February 16, 1881, the son of John and Agnes (Grubb) Keiser. His father was born in Columbia City, Whitley county, Indiana, and his mother in Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio. They were married in Indiana, and lived in Whitley county of that state until 1888, when they removed to .a property near Warsaw, Kosciusko county, Indiana, where they have since lived. Their son Charles H. was educated in the public schools of Whitley and Kosciusko counties, Indiana, and when nineteen years of age he found employment with an excavating contractor. For fourteen years thereafter he worked on various contracts throughout the country, with the steam shovel and dredge, traveling through seventeen states during that period of profitable work. In 1908 he acquired a property of ninety acres of improved land in York Township, Fulton county, and from that time until he finally was able to live in the township, in 1915, he rented out the farm. From 1915 until March 1, 1919, he operated it himself; and those four years were successful ones, the property yielding him good returns in general farming, stockraising and dairying. He sold his farm in March, 1919, and purchased another of larger acreage. His new property, which is 160 acres in extent, is situated in section 35 of York Township, and is known as the Jonas Seymour farm. The whole acreage is well improved and in a high state of fertility; in fact, it is a worth-while agricultural property and equipped with adequate modern improvements. Mr. Keiser HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 489 will take possession in March, 1920. He has proved himself to be a citizen of whole-hearted loyalty, and a man of strong reliable principle. In February, 1906, he married Mabel Frankforther, who was born in Henry county, Ohio, daughter of Martin and Jennie Frankforther, who were both also born in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Keiser have three children, sons, Robert, Raymond and Dale. By political allegiance Mr. Keiser is a republican, although he has never actively interested himself in national political campaigns, at- least, not with any office-seeking view. ELZA DEAN FUNK. Individual enterprise, which is the just boast of the people of Ohio, is forcefully exhibited in the career of Elza D. Funk, one of the substantial farmers of Clinton Township, Fulton county. He is a worthy representative of one of the old and highly honored families in this locality, and his life record has been such as to elicit just praise from those who know him best. Elza Dean Funk is the son of Festus and Frances Elizabeth (Dean) Funk, and was born on the old homestead farm where he now lives in Clinton Township in 1871. Originally the family came from Germany, the subject's paternal great-grandfather Funk having come, from that country to the United States in an early day settling in Wayne county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. His son Jacob Funk, grandfather of the subject, moved to Fulton county and established his home about a half mile from the present homestead, and he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, as did his son Festus. Elza Dean received a good practical education in the public schools at Clinton Center, where he attended until sixteen years of age. He remained on the home farm, assisting his father, until he had attained his majority, after which time he was employed as a farm hand by neighboring farmers. After his marriage in 1896 he rented a farm of 150 acres in Washington Township, Henry county, where he remained two years, moving then to a farm of 140 acres in Dover Township. In 1906 Mr. Funk bought his father's farm of 160 acres in Clinton Township, and has lived there ever since. He is a thoroughly practical farmer, up-to-date in his methods, and has been eminently successful in his vocation. He raises general crops and also gives considerable attention to the dairy business, having a herd of high:grade Holstein cattle. In 1896 Mr. Funk was married to Alice Gertrude Stevens, the daughter of Charles L. and Hannah (Masters) Stevens, of Wauseon, and to them have been born the following children : Mary Ellen, the wife of Lawrence Keough, of Cleveland, and 'the mother of three children, Virginia May, Thelma Marie and Geraldine; Leda Lorine, of Akron, Ohio; Charles Harold, who died in 1914, at the age of two years. Mr. Funk is an ardent supporter of the republican party and a member of the Grange. His religious affiliation is with the Christian Church. His life has been a busy and successful one, and because of his excellent 'business ability, his industry and his commendable personal qualities he enjoys an enviable standing in the community. JOHN GRIESINGER. Among the farmers of Fulton county who are engaged in upholding the prestige of this region in agricultural 490 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY matters is John Griesinger of Pike Township, who is successfully carrying on a general farming and dairy business. He. was born in Fulton Township, this county, on April 3, 1868, a son of George W. and Mary Magdaline (McQuillin) Griesinger, natives of Pennsylvania and York Township, Fulton county, respectively. The par ternal grandparents, Gotlieb Henry and Esther (Schultz) Griesinger, natives of Germany and Pennsylvania, respectively, were the earliest settlers of Fulton Township, Fulton county. They traded a barrel of fish, one of flour and a horse for forty acres of land, which the grandfather cleared and developed into a fine farm, to which be added so that at his death he owned over 300 acres of land, being for that time a wealthy man. The maternal grandparents were John M. and Mary Magdaline (Schlappi) McQuillin, of whom the grandmother was a native of Switzerland. After their marriage George W. and Mary Griesinger settled in Fulton Township, where Mrs. Griesinger died at the birth of her twins Mary. and John. Later George W. Griesinger was married to Lydia Seigle, and lived to be sixty-eight years old, dying in 1911. His children were as follows : Ada, who.is Mrs. Eli Hamp, of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan ; and John and Mary, twins; of whom the latter died at the age, of seventeen years; and eleven children by the second marriage. John Griesinger grew up on his father's farm and attended the local schools. On .April 4, 1889, he was married to Addie Westbrook, a daughter of George and Phebe (Williams) Westbrook, of whom the latter was a native of Swan Creek Township in this county. For the first two years after his marriage John Griesinger rented land. in. York Township, following which he moved to a 120-acre farm in Pike Township, where he lived for twenty years, and then bought it and forty acres additional, of which all but twenty-three acres of pasturage is under cultivation. He has rebuilt the barn that was on the property, erected a new one and other necessary buildings, and put in other improvements. When he took charge of the land about thirty acres were covered with stumps, which he took up, and owing to his efforts he now has one of the best farms in this part of the county. Here he carries on general farming and dairying, his herd averaging about twenty head of a good grade of mulch cows. His new barn is one of the largest in Fulton county, and he also raises cattle, hogs, ,sheep and horses in addition to his other industries. Mr. and Mrs. Griesinger became the parents of the following children : Lavern, who is Mrs. Arthur Shambarger, of Royalton Township ; Marvin, who is a farmer of York Township ; and Orra and Gladys, who are at home. Mr. Griesinger is a republican. He belongs to Delta Lodge No. 460, Independent Order. of Odd Fellows and the Encampment, and has passed all of the chairs in the local order. He is entirely a self-made man, and has every reason to be proud of the result of his efforts, for not only has he achieved a somewhat remarkable success, but at the same time he has won and holds the confidence and respect of his neighbors, and is recognized as one of the representative men of his community. FRANK A. GEESEY. A prominent and well known citizen of Archbold, Fulton county, is Frank A. Geesey, vice president of the Peoples State Bank and conducting a prosperous real estate and insurance business, a man who has led an eminently honorable and HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 491 useful life and achieved a marked degree of success. At they same time he has benefited the community of which he is a native, and in the business affairs of which he has for a number of years been a prominent factor. Frank A. Geesey was born in German Township, Fulton county, on November 29, 1869, and is the son of William H. and Eliza (Wolverton) Geesey. He has 'inherited through his progenitors a mixture. of Scotch, English and German blood. His paternal grandfather, Charles Geesey, came to German Township, Fulton county, during the formative period of this locality and cleared his own farm from the forests which then covered that locality. He was the father of nine children, of which number the subject,s father was the third in order of birth. The latter was a farmer all his life and owned the same farm for fifty-five years. He was one of that historic band of California gold seekers who in 1849 made the long, tiresome and dangerous trip to that western Eldorado, in which he met With a fair degree of success. He now lives in West Unity, Ohio. Frank A. Geesey secured his elementary education in the public schools at Edinburgh, later attending the high school at West Unity. Subsequently he attended the Wauseon Normal School, where he took a business course, and then finished his studies at the Fayette Normal School. Mr. Geesey then determined to try his luck in the mining regions of the fl west and went to Denver, Canyon City and Cripple Creek, Colorado, being the fifth man to pitch his tent in Cripple Creek. He continued to prospect there for three years, finding some gold, which he carefully saved, and would have remained there had not the death of his brother necessitated his return home. During the following year he operated the homestead farm of 100 acres, but at the end of that period he came to Archbold and opened .a barber shop, which he ran for ten years. He was then appionted postmaster of Archbold by President McKinley, and so satisfactory was his administration of the office that he was reappionted by Presidents Roosevelt and Taft, serving fourteen years consecutively. His official record was one of which he has just reason to be proud, for he administered the office with the idea that he was there to serve the people to the best of his ability. He resigned the postmastership in order to engage in the real estate and insurance business, which has engaged his attention continuously since. He has handled a great deal of real estate and has gained a reputation of being an unusually good judge of land values. He is the agent for .a number of the best fire insurance companies in the United States and the Home Life Insurance Company of New York, one of. the biggest companies in the world. He is the owner of some fine farm land in this county and is also a stockholder in the Archbold Telephone Company. All that he possesses today has been gained entirely through his own unremitting efforts, and he enjoys a splendid reputation as a progressive and. enterprising businessman. Mr. Geesey was married to Almeria Vernier, the daughter of Jacob and Katherine (Bourquin) Vernier, of Archbold. .They are the parents of a daughter, Katherine L. Politically Mr. Geesey is a stanch supporter of the republican party, and was a great admirer and supporter of Theodore Roosevelt. He rendered appreciated service as a member of the Archbold School Board for fourteen years and was clerk for ten years. Fra- 492 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY ternally he is a member of Lodge No. 849, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Napoleon, Ohio. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal Church.. As a man of ability, integrity and usefulness, and as citizen representative of the utmost loyalty, his life record is deserving of a place in this publication, which touches those who have given to and sustained the civic and material prosperity of the community embraced within the scope of this work. WILLIAM H. MADDOX, M. D. Considering how, helpless and despairing the average individual is in case of serious illness or accident and how dependent he is on the scientific help of physician or surgeon, it would seem that the profession to which they belong could not be held in higher esteem than that very generally accorded. But recent history has placed the medical. men of the United States upon a yet higher pinnacle, for no previous record has shown greater personal sacrifices or more invaluable services than tells of many of those who hastened to the call of need when grim war involved the country. The stupendous work of organizing sufficient army medical corps for the great conflict with a remorseless enemy was only made possible by the hearty response of physicians and surgeons who hurried to lay their scientific knowledge on the altar of patriotism. Wauseon proudly cherishes the names of all her soldiers, and one who honored the medical profession in faithful service is Dr. William H. Maddox, who has been a valued resident of Wauseon for fifteen years and a leading general practitioner. William H. Maddox was born at Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1872, and is a son of A. H. and Elizabeth (Hedrick). Maddox. The old family .records show that •four brothers of the name came to the American colonies in 1755, all being natives of England. One of these' was Nathan. the great-great-grandfather of Doctor Maddox, and he settled in Loudon county, Virginia. From Virginia the great-grandfather, Michael Maddox, born in 1774, came to southern Ohio but later settled in Blackford county, Indiana, where he reared a family, marrying twice and having thirteen children. One of these,. Daniel Maddox, grandfather of Doctor Maddox, spent the greater part of his life in Highland county,. Ohio, a saddler by trade and a merchant. It was there that the father of Doctor Maddox was born. He developed important business connections at Cincinnati, and in the interests of large commercial houses visited all parts of the United States. His death occurred in February, 1918. William H. Maddox completed the public school course at Hills-. boro, Ohio, in 1889, and in 1890 entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1895 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in the same year becoming a. student in the medical department of the Ohio State University at Columbus, from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1898. After a year as interne in the Miami Valley Hospital at Dayton he began medical practice at Tecumseh, Michigan, where he continued until 1905, when he located at Wauseon. Here he built up a large and lucrative practice as the result of medical knowledge. In answer to the call for trained medical men Doctor Maddox responded in June, 1917. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the medical corps and in August was ordered to Fort Benjamin Harrison, three month's later being sent to Camp Grant, Illinois, and in August, 1918, to France with the medical corps of the Eighty-sixth Division, where HISTORY OF FULTON CONTY - 493 he was assigned to the Three Hundred and Forty-first Infantry, and after the Armistice, to Camp Hospital No. 41 at Is-sur-Tille. He was honorably discharged in July, 1919, having been promoted captain on November 16, 1917. Doctor Maddox was married in 1899 to Miss Florence, a 'daughter of Cornelius M. and Sarah (Eldridge) Spring; of Tedrow, Ohio, and they have one son, William Rolland, who was born in 1901, and is a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University. Doctor Maddox and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His political opinions early led to his affiliation with the republican party,, and he has known personally some of its most distinguished leaders in his native state. He has never accepted any political office other than on the School Board on which he served six years, but the city has many times profited because of his distinterested services for her welfare. He belongs to professional bodies in county and state, and is a thirty-second degree Mason. MRS. ROSETTA. HITE is one of the progressive business women of Fulton county who is achieving an enviable reputation as a merchant at Zone in Franklin Township. She was born at Great Bend, Barton county, Kansas:, a daughter of Charles and Lydia (Olmstead) Bennett. The Bennett family is of Irish extraction, although it was founded in the United States many generations ago. The men of the family have been chiefly interested in agricultural pursuits, and have been ever ready to their country,s call. Charles Bennett served four years in the Civil war. Mrs. Hite attended the country schools of Fulton county and the Wauseon High School, and after completing the courses in the latter, taught school in different townships of Fulton county, becoming one of the best known educators in the country districts. In 1904 she was united in marriage with George H. Hite, a son of Samuel and Delia (Fink) Hite, and they became the parents of one son, Henry A., who is now fourteen years old. Mr. Hite died in July, 1918; aged forty-two years. In politics he was a republican, and fraternally, an Odd Fellow. Until January, 1918, he had been engaged in farming, but then sold his farm on account of failing health and moved to Delta, where he died. With the death of her husband Mrs. Hite found it necessary to support herself and her son, and so came to Zone, opened a general store and from the start has been successful. Her experience as a teacher had given her insight into human nature, and she found her former experience, although of an entirely different character, of value to her in her new undertaking. She has been able to find out the tastes of her customers and supply what. is wanted, and her stock is clean, timely and as low priced as is consistent with the prevailing market. Her pleasant, accommodating manner and efficient methods have made her many warm friends, and she has a trade that comes from a wide rural territory. She is not a member of church, but is in sympathy with any undertaking whose aim is the uplifting of humanity. Mrs. Hite is but one of many women who, when necessity demands it, have proven their worth to their community and developed real business ability which enables them to meet and overcome obstacles that to some might prove unconquerable. At the same time that she has been proving her right to be numbered among the worth-while citizens of the county, Mrs. Hite has won personal appreciation and stands very high among her neigh- 494 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY bors, who admire her courage, cheerfulness and sympathy with others in both their joys and their sorrows. IRA W. DENNIS. There is a great deal to be said in favor of the man who early in life chooses his sphere of activity, and seldom if ever diverts his energies outside of it. This has been the case with Ira W. Dennis, one of the prosperous farm owners of Amboy Township. He is living today on the land where he was born, where he learned the lessons of good farming, and where he has been prospered according to his deserts. The Dennis farm is in section 22 of Amboy Township. Mr. Dennis was born there February 1, 1864, son of Alpheus and Sarah (Stahl) Dennis. His father was a native of Connecticut and his mother of Ashland county, Ohio. The maternal grandfather, William Stall, moved to Hillsdale county, Michigan, and he and his wife died there: Alpheus Dennis after his marriage settled on land in Amboy Township, cleared away the timber, ditched and drained it, and by further purchases owned a fine body of land 104 acres in. extent and of unsurpassed fertility and productiveness. Alpheus Dennis died there May 27, 1898, and his wife on November 5, 1909. They have three children : Alta, Mrs. Fred Brodbeck, of Amboy Township; George, of York Township ; and Ira W. Ira W. Dennis has always lived on the farm where he was born. He went from his father,s home to the neighboring district schools, and almost from his earliest recollections had some duty assigned him at the house and in the fields. Eventually he bought the 'interests of the other heirs in the place, and has much to show for his individual improvements. He and his wife occupy one of the most attractive bungalows in the country district of Fulton county. The house has electric lights, hot water heat, and all other conveniences usually found in a city residence. Mr. Dennis keeps about eighty acres under cultivation, while the rest is in timber and pasture. Along with general farming he has always kept some dairy stock. Mr. Dennis has filled the chairs in Metamora Lodge No. 875 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a republican voter. May 15, 1897, he married Jennie Crockett. She was born in Lena-wee county, Michigan, daughter of Willard and Hannah (Rice) Crockett. Her parents were also natives of Lenawee county. JACKSON WAIDELICH. Though a native of Pennsylvania, Jackson Waidelich spent thirty years of his active career as a fanner in the great Illinois corn belt, and is one of a considerable colony of former Illinios farmers now found in Fulton county. Mr. Waidelich is still a farmer, owning a place of eighty acres in German Township, and spends much of his time during the growing seasons looking after his crops and his livestock. Mr. Waidelich was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, March 18, 1850, a son of Christian and Kathrine (Fitler) Waidelich. His father when a young man came from Wurtemberg, Germany, and located in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. Soon after his marriage he moved to Ohio, his son Jackson at that time being seven months old. Christian Waidelich spent the rest of his life in Ohio. The son Jackson grew up on his father,s farm in Pukaway county, Ohio, attended the country schools to the age of sixteen, but most of his schooling was acquired in the winter season, and his summers were spent in farm labors. On leaving the farm he HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 495 learned the wagon making trade, and followed it as his occupation for eight years. On leaving Ohio Mr. Waidelich went to Vermilion county, Illinois, and in the district around Danville operated a farm on an increasingly successful scale for thirty years. On selling his Illinois land and property he was attracted to the particularly desirable lands in Fulton county, and in 1913 moved to the place of eighty acres he had bought in German Township. He has done much to improve his farm and increase its productiveness. He has also given his time freely in a public-spirited manner in supporting all matters of community benefit and general welfare. Mr. Waidelich married Lavina Hoffman, daughter of Jonas and Emma (Fasnaugh) Hoffman of Fairfield county, Ohio. She died in 1884, the mother of six children, five of whom are still living. In 1888 Mr. Waidelich married a sister of his first wife, Mary Hoff man. To their marriage have been born four children, all still living. A. brief record of the children of Mr. Waidelich is as follows: Clara is the wife of John Apple, of Champaign county, Illinois, and has five children. Emma is Mrs. William Bushmeyer, of Chatham, Ontario, and has two children. Nellie is the wife of Grant Henthorn, of Danville, Illinios, and their family consists of five children. Charles Elmer Waidelich died in June, 1917, at the age of twenty-seven leaving his widow and three children at Danville, Illinios. William Edwin, thirty-five years of age is a resident of Danville, and is married and has two children. Frank Earl lives at Columbus, Ohio, and is the father of one child. Otis is twenty-two years of age and at home, and the younger children, all at home, are Vina Viola, Arthur Jackson, who was born in 1901, and John Wesley, born in 1903. Mr. Waidelich is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge No. 754 at Ogden, Illinios. WILLIAM J. SPENGLER, sole proprietor of the general mercantile establishment at Elmira, is one of the dependable business men of Fulton county, and one who stands high in public opinion. He was born at Archbold, Ohio, on January 22, 1887, a son of Daniel M. and Minnie (Ruffer) Spengler, and a grandson of Herman Spengler. Coming to the United States when still a young man from his native land of Germany, the latter eventually came to Fulton county, locating on the Dave Merillat farm at Lauber Hill, and there he reared his family, farming and teaching his sons also to be farmers. Daniel M. Spengler, the father was actively engaged in farming until his retirement, at which time he and his wife moved to Elmira, Ohio. Mr. Spengler died April 12, 1920. After attending the district schools William J. Spengler finally took a two years, course at the Wauseon High School. In order to prepare himself for a commercial life, he then attended the Metropolitan Business College at Toledo, 'Ohio. Mr. Spengler was car sweeper in the roundhouse of the railroad during the winter months, and in the summer worked on the farm. Later he was cashier for five years for the Detriot United Railway, and then for two years was car house foreman for the same company. Retiring from this position, Mr. Spengler, with his. brother James Spengler, went into a garage business and remained in it for six months, when he sold his interest to his brother and established himself in his 496 - HISTORY OF. FULTON COUNTY present line, buying the store of B. M. Borton at Elmira on January 1, 1919. His trade comes to his store from a radius of ten miles, and he does a large business in poultry and eggs. Since becoming the owner of this store he has increased the volume of business • in a normal and highly satisfactory way, and has won appreciation by his honorable methods and system of handling goods. In 1914 Mr. Spengler was united in marriage with Miss Maude Sievert, a daughter of Frederick and Marie Sievert. Mr. and Mrs. Spengler have three children, namely : Margaret, William J. Jr., and Daniel F. With reference to public matters Mr. Spengler maintains an independent attitude, and votes as his judgment directs. He is a Blue Lodge Mason. A friend of the public schools, he is .anxious to see them prosperty and he is also interested in all movements which have for their object the furtherance of the prosperity of his community and county. JACOB F. LEININGER is one of the extensive land owners and farmers in German Township, his home being on a rural delivery route from Archbold. In that district he has spent practically all his life, and 'his enterprise has reached out to touch a number of interests in his community and county, while his investments extend outside his native state. Mr. Leininger operates a 200-acre farm under his personal supervision. He is owner of 315 acres in German Township, has 1/2 section of land in South Dakota; and 300 acres in another part of that state. He was born on the home farm in 1862, son of Michael and Mary (Funkhouser) Leininger. He now owns eighty acres of his father’s old. homestead. He attended the district schools to the age of sixteen, and since then has been working for himself and owes to his industry and good management the prosperity he has acquired. In 1893 Mr. Leininger married Elizabeth Rice, daughter of Henry and Eva Rice, of German Township. Their only child, a son, died in infancy. Mr. Leininger is an independent voter. JOHN SIEGEL. The late John 'Siegel, of German Township, was one of the hard-working and thrifty farmers of Fulton county, and a man who stood in high esteem among his neighbors, who often called upon him to represent their interests in local offices. He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1844, a son of Jacob and Catherine Siegel. When he was eight years old the family moved from Wayne. county to German Township, Fulton county, and his father continued his farming in the new section. John Siegel grew up on the farm, and continued his education, begun in Wayne county, by attending the school at Archbold until he was fifteen years old, when his father,s need for his services forced him to leave school. During the war between the states he gave his sympathy to the Union, and when twenty years of age enlisted in Company K, of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, at Cleveland, Ohio, from whence he was sent south and did his full duty as a soldier. He received his honorable discharge in 1865, and returned home. For a time after his coming back from the war Mr. Siegel was on his father,s farm, and then he and a. brother opened a blacksmithing shop and and also made wagons; continuing in this line HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 497 of business for three years, and handling an excellent local trade Following his marriage Mr. Siegel spent three years on the homestead, and then in 1872, bought the farm still owned by his widow, which contains eighty acres of land, and he also bought eighty acres in Williams county. A practical farmer, Mr. Siegel knew how to make his land pay him a good return for the labor expended upon it, and he was engaged in its cultivation until he died, on Friday, December 26, 1912. A strong republican, he was elected on his party ticket to membership on the School Board, and to a number of the township offices. Not only was he an earnest member and worker of the Methodist Church, but he served the local congregation as trustee. For a number of wears he was active in the Archbold Post, Grand Army of the Republic. In 1868 Mr. Siegel was united in marriage with Elizabeth Naftzeger, a daughter of John D. and Philipina Naftzeger, who lived near Archbold, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Siegel became the parents of eight children, two of whom are deceased, the six surviving being five sons and one daughter, namely : John, Foster, Levi, Peter, Minnie and Joseph. With the exception of one year spent at Archbold, Mr. Siegel lived out his life on his farm, and is remembered very kindly in his old neighborhood as a man of strength of character and great kindness of heart. His widow is still living on the old farm, and is accounted one of the public-spirited women of the township, where her many virtues have gained her respectful affection from those who are brought in contact with her. The children have grown up to be a credit to their parents and neighborhood, and are aiding in adding to the good reputation of the name in Fulton county. ADAM SCHRENK, a well-known and well-to-do farmer of German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, is a native of Fulton county, and comes of a family which has had residence in the county for very many years. He was horn in Archbold, German Township, in 1879, the son of Anthony and Barbara (Imthurn) Schrenk. The former was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, but came to America in early manhood, and as a young man settled in Archbold, where for six years he followed the trade of carpenter. In 1873 he bought the farm of seventy-two acres in German Township now owned and occupied by his son Adam. Anthony Schrenk died in 1917, in German Township. He was a man of sterling character, and gained general respect among his neighbors. A capable and hard-working tradesman, he also proved himself to be a good and industrious farmer, and throughout his life in America was a responsible resident. Adam, son of Anthony and Barbara (Imthurn) Schrenk, in his boyhood attended the district school No. 15, which was the nearest public school to his home. He continued to attend school until he was fifteen years old, but, like most sons of farmers in Ohio; in his youth he had for some years before leaving school done much work on the home farm, especially during the long summer vacations. He stayed at home assisting his father in the work of the parental farm until he was twenty-one years old, but for the succeeding nine years he worked for neighboring farmers, at the end of which time he returned to his home and managed the farm for his father until the latter died in 1911. In the following year Adam 498 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY was able to buy the farm outright from the other heirs, and since that time he has very thoroughly and generally with good success worked the property. His fanning is of a general character, to which the land is suited, and in the raising of cattle and in dairying he has had good return for the strenuous labor it called for. Politically Adam Schrenk is independent; by religious conviction he is a member of the Apostle Church, and he is a man of honorable life and good public spirit. He is closely interested in all that pertains to his native township, and has in the past cooperated in many worthy local undertakings of public or civic character. During the recent war he demonstrated that he is an American of whole-hearted patriotism, and in many practical ways aided the national cause.. In 1900 he married Setta Schlatter, daughter of John and Magdalen (Beer) Schlatter, well-known residents in German Township. Mr. and Mrs. Schrenk are the parents of three children, Ruth Hilda, Esther Sarah and Emanuel Paul. The last named is now fourteen years old. ELIAS SCHENK, well-known in Archbold and vicinity in connection with consequential building contracts, and since 1913 independently established as a building contractor, with offices in Archbold, is a native of Fulton county, and comes of a family long associated with the development of German Township. He is an enterprising and able business man, and has quite recently come into local prominence as the main factor in the organization of the Acme Level Company, a local manufacturing enterprise from which much good to the town of Archbold may result. He was born in German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, in 1881, the son of Anton and Barbara Schenk. He was .reared on the homestead of the Schenk family in that township, and as a boy attended the district school at Bush Creek, giving much time during vacations and before and after school hours to minor tasks in connection with the operation of the ,home farm of eighty acres. He left school at the age of eighteen years, and for the next seven gave the whole of his time to his father, and to agricultural duties upon the home estate in German Township. When he was twenty-five years old he came into Archbold, learned carpentry, and for some years worked at that trade for Archbold contractors. In 1913 he became established in independent business as a builder and contractor, and since that time has maintained himself to good advantage in an independent contracting business. His work has been of high standard, and his contracts have been marked by a technical knowledge and a desire to adhere in spirit as well as in letter to the written contract. He has consequently given general satisfaction in his work, and is considered to be one of the reliable contractors of the county. He is an executive of marked ability, and is coming to the fore as a man of consequential affairs. Recently he organized the Acme Level Company, the main purpose of which corporation is to enter into the manufacture of spirit levels and other tools. The plant is in its infancy, but there are indications that it may become a consequential industry of Archbold. Mr. Schenk is, as yet, a comparatively young man in business, and of necessity has had to devote most of his time to the development and solid establishment of his business enterprises, but he has upon occasion shown that he possesses good public spirit, and HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 499 that his connection with Archbold promises to be that of a. helpful, responsible resident and producer. He is unmarried, and politically is a democrat. Personally he is well-regarded, being of strong personality and steady life. JOHN 'EDWARD DURBIN, who for more than twenty years has been a responsible resident and substantial farmer in York Township, Fulton county, Ohio, is a native of Henry county, Ohio, and his, parents were among the early settlers of that county. He was born November 26, 1868, the son of Perry and Elizabeth (Harmon) Durbin, who lived in Henry county until 1899, when they moved with their son John Edward into Fulton county, father and son having jointly bought a farming property of forty acres, all improved land, in York Township. Three years 'afterward, however, Mrs. Elizabeth (Harmon) Durbin died, but her husband lived for a further fifteen years, his demise not occurring until May 4, 1913. During the time they resided in York Township they bath made many sincere friends, and were considered worthy. .neighbors. Their children were: Nettie, who married Elias Detrich, and lives in Michigan ; William, who is comfortably established in Napoleon, Ohio; John Edward, of York Township, and of whom more follows; Jennie Elizabeth, who is the widow of Jacob Ulch, of Wauseon, Ohio; and Effie, who married Charles Warner, of Toledo, Ohio. John Edward Durbin, third child of Perry and Elizabeth (Harmon) Durbin, attended public schools of Henry county. After his schooling was at an end, he applied himself diligently to farming in association with his father,. and in the spring of 1893 married. For three years after this important event in his life had been solemnized he and his wife lived with his parents, he continuing to assist his father in the management and operation of the parental acres. Then, temporarily, father and son became separated, the son having rented another farm in Henry county. He only farmed it for two years, however, and in the spring of 1899 jioned his father in purchasing an improved property of forty acres in York Township, Fulton county, to which they then removed, and where John Edward and his family have since resided. John Edward continued to be a business partner with his father in the York Township farm until the latter ,s death in 1913, soon after which sad event he acquired from the other heirs his father’s portion of the farm, and since that time he has conducted it independently. As a matter of fact, he had been conducting it almost solely since they first took up the place, for his father was becoming more and more enfeebled as he advanced in age. However, it must be a comfort to the son to realize that he remained with his parents until their deaths, and that their last years were passed in comparative comfort. John Edward Durbin has been an industrious and able farmer, and has had, generally., good success in dairying and stockraising. He has not entered much into public life, but has been a loyal republican for many years, and during the recent war proved in many ways that he was a whole-hearted patriot. On March 9, 1893, he married Arminda March, who was born in Henry county, Flat Rock Township, Ohio, daughter of Henry and Margaret (Chester) March. Mr. and Mrs. Durbin have four children, all of whom have remained at home. The children in