500 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   order of birth are Victoria, Hazel, Archie and Polly. They have also another member of their household who might almost be considered their son, Donald Steward, son of Mrs. Durbin,s sister. He was born in 1909, and has lived with his aunt and uncle almost since birth, and is now developing into a sturdy, bright boy.   THEODORE DINIUS, a native of Fulton county, and of one of the pioneer families of the county, lived for the greater part of his active farming life in the State of Indiana. But his widow and daughter have returned to the county, and possess good farming property therein, so that this record should properly have place in the present history of Fulton county, especially having ,regard to the fact that Mrs. Dinius also comes of one of the pioneer families of the county.   Theodore Dinius was born in Pike Township, Fulton county, Ohio, on June 8, 1858, the son of Adam and Carlona (Todd) Dinius, the former a native of Stark county, Ohio, and the latter of New Hampshire birth. The parents of Theodore Dinius were married in Stark county, Ohio, but soon took up a tract of undeveloped land in Pike Township, Fulton county, where their son Theodore was born, and where he grew to manhood. He was educated in the district school nearest to his parents, farm, and during his school days did much to help his father in his pioneering work. Eventually, having passed through the grades of the district school, and it being impossible for him to pursue a more advanced course of academic studies, Theodore settled down to industriously assisting his father in the work of the home farm. When he was. twenty-eight years old, on November 24, 1888, he married Laura Harmon, who was born in Pike Township, the daughter of David and Barbara (Steele) Harmon, early settlers in Fulton county. Her father, David Harmon, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and her mother in Ashland county, Ohio, so that in paternal and maternal descent she comes of early Ohio families. Her parents soon after marriage took up residence in Pike Township, where her father bought a tract of seventy-three acres, which many years afterward she herself acquired by purchase from the other heirs of the estate. She was educated in Pike Township schools, and soon after her marriage to Theodore Dinius she went with her husband to Indiana, he having bought a farm in DeKalb county of that state. There they made their home for seventeen years, and there their children were born. Theodore Dinius died on February 16, 1904, and soon afterward his widow returned to Fulton county, and bought a farm near Delta, York Township. Four years later her eldest child, a manly youth just blossoming into self-reliant, promising manhood, died, and five years later, in 1913, her father died, soon after which misfortune she sold the farm she owned near Delta, and upon which she and her children had lived since 1904, as she wished to remove to the old homestead of her family in Pike Township. She purchased the property, which. is seventy-three acres in extent, from the other heirs, and has lived thereon since that time. She holds herself responsible for the operation of the farm, hiring help and being able to get satisfactory returns in general farming and dairying. She does this not from necessity, for she has means sufficient for her and her daughter,s needs, but because she prefers to live on the old homestead, which being agricultural land must of course receive attention with the seasons. Theodore and Laura (Harmon)   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 501   Dinius were the parents of three children, two of whom, however, are now deceased. The children in the order of their birth were: Harmon, who died in 1908, at the age of nineteen years ; Floyd, who died at the age of four years; and Lola, who is the only surviving chili'. She has remained with her mother.   Mrs. Dinius has many friends in Fulton county, and is esteemed for her kindly nature and good neighborliness.   EZRA JOSEPH GOTTSCHALK. In touching upon the life history of Ezra J. Gottschalk, a well known citizen of Clinton. Township, Fulton county, the writer aims to aviod fulsome encomium and extravagant praise; yet he desires to hold up for consideration those facts which have shown the distinction of a true, useful and honorable life—a life characterized. by perseverance, energy and well defined purpose. To do this will be but to reiterate the dictum pronounced upon the man by the people among whom he lives.   Ezra Joseph Gottschalk is a native son of Ohio, having been born near Napoleon, Henry county, in 1890, and is the son of German parents, his father having come to this country in young manhood. In 1892 the family removed to German Township, Fulton county, removing again in 1897 to Clinton Township and finally, in 1899, to the farm now operated by Ezra Gottschalk. The subject received his educational training in the common schools of his home neighborhood, which he attended until sixteen years of age. Thereafter until twenty years of age he worked for his father on the home farm, but at the age mentioned' he entered the employ of the Wabash Railroad Company as a locomotive fireman, having a freight run between Toledo, Ohio, land Decatur, Illinois, and working out from Peru, Indiana. He remained so employed until 1915, when he came to Wauseon, Ohio, and entered the employ of his brother as an automobile mechanician. In April, 1919, Mr. Gottschalk moved to the homestead farm, to the operation of which he has since devoted himself, with splendid results. The farm comprises 140 acres of splendid, fertile land, on Which he raises general crops. The place is well improved with a good set of farm buildings, the general appearance of the place being a credit to its owner.   In November, 1911, Mr. Gottschalk was married to Blanche Foster, the daughter of Daniel and Henrietta (Green) Foster, of Wauseon. They are the parents of two children, Earl V. and How- ard Virgil.   Mr. Gottschalk gives his political support to the republican party, though he does not take an active part in public affairs. His religious affiliation is with the Christian Church. Mr. Gottschalk possesses those qualities which have commended him to the favor. of all who know him, and he is numbered among the successful and progressive farmers of his section of the county.   CLARENCE R. KRAUSS. In all that constitutes true manhood and good citizenship Clarence R. Krauss, a well known farmer of Clinton Township, Fulton county, is a strong example, and none stands higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the community. A thoroughly practical and industrious farmer, he has achieved a satisfactory degree of success and is numbered among the progressive citizens of his township.   Clarence R. Krauss is the scion of one of the pioneer families of Fulton county and his spent practically his entire life here. He   502 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   was born in German Township in 1886, but attended the schools of Swan Creek Township until eleven years of age, when the family moved to the present homestead farm in Clinton Township, where he completed his education in the Lena School. When nineteen years of age he was employed as a stationary engineer in the plant of the Wauseon Electric Light Company, where he remained for one winter, and then, for three years' he served in a like capacity for the Naomi Elevator Company at Naomi, Ohio. He then returned to the home farm, on the retirement of his father, and has since been engaged in its operation, in which he has met with a very gratifying degree of success. Persistent industry and good management have been contributing elements to his success, and he enjoys an excellent reputation in the community as an enterprising and progressive farmer. His farm, which comprises eighty acres of land, is well improved and is devoted to general farming operations.   In 1908 Mr. Krauss was married to Lola First, the daughter of Silas and Mary (Hoffmire) First, and they are the parents of two children, Tressa Lenore and Merle Wayne.   Politically Mr. Krauss is independent, reserving the right to vote for the men whom he believes best fitted for office regardless of party line. He is a member of the Bethel Christian Union Church and consistently ,gives his support to all worthy movements for the welfare of the community. A man of genial disposition, he easily wins friends and enjoys a marked popularity in the locality in which he lives.   JOHN H. SCHULTZ, who has lived practically the whole of his life on the farm he now owns and operates in German Township, Fulton county, is one of the responsible, successful agriculturists of the county. He has lived a life of hard, industrious tiol, and by well-directed farming. has reached good success. He has been in useful production since early Manhood, and has nevertheless taken good part in the public responsibilities of his township.   He was born in 1868, upon the farm in German Township to which his father had removed in 1865. His father, Frederick Schultz, was a Prussian by birth, but had come to the United States_ when he was seventeen years old. He settled in Napoleon Village, Henry county, Ohio, where, for some years he found employment on the Wabash Railway as brakesman. He was a railroad employe for eight years, after which he learned the trade of mason, which he followed. in Napoleon and elsewhere for the greater part of his life. He married Caroline Leininger, of a well-known German Township, Fulton county, family, and in 1865 acquired a farm of 142 acres in that township. For the greater part of his life he followed his trade, the farm being operated by his sons. There were seven children born to Frederick and Caroline (Leininger) Schultz, four daughters and three sons, among the latter being John H., who now owns the family estate in German Township.   John H. in his boyhood attended district school No. 14, continuing to go to school until he was nineteen years old. He was then quite a sturdy young man, and had for many years been accustomed to doing much of the minor tasks connected with the operation of the home farm, and taking part in many of the major operations, especially during the long summer vacations. So that when he left school at the age of nineteen years and took industriously to farming the paternal acres he was not a novice. He was   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 503   conversant with most of the operations of farming life, and as the years passed and he continued to steadily take more and more consequential part in the management of the home farm there came a. time, in 1906, when the farm passed by purchase wholly to him. Since that time he has occupied the old Schultz homestead and tilled the 104 acres year by year to good advantage.   Politically he is a democrat. He has not taken very active' interest in national political campaigns, but in local affairs he has throughout his life taken a close interest, but has not shown any desire to seek office. He has been ready to co-operate in .any way possible in any local movement that promised some benefit to the community, and during the recent trying time of war he made his loyal citizenship quite manifest. As a church worker he has been earnest and useful. He is by religious conviction a Lutheran, a member of the local church of that denomination, and in the work of that church and its upkeep he has taken good part, being now the leading deacon.   Mr. Schultz is in enviable repute in German. Township, both as a farmer and as a reliable resident and neighbor: His private life has been estimable. He married in 1894, Louisa, daughter of Frederick and Dorothy (Schultz) Lienau, of Ridgeville Township, Henry county, Ohio. Two children have been born to them, both sons, Walter L. and. Russel F.   JACOB STORRER, a native of German Township, Fulton county, Ohio; and of a family which .has had residence in the county for more than seventy years, has of late years .been farming 190 acres of agricultural. land, partly his own, and smile portion- of it belonging to his aged father, in German Township. He is known in the township as a man of commendable personal habits, as an enterprising and reliable farmer, and as a helpful, well-disposed neighbor.   Jacob Storrer was born in German Township on May 20, 1871, the son of John and Margaret (Shank) Storrer. The Storrer family is of Swiss origin, John Storrer, father of Jacob, having been born in the canton of Schauffhausen, Switzerland, from which part of Switzerland so many of the stalwart pioneer settlers of Fulton county, Ohio, came. John Storrer was twenty years old when he came to America in 1858, accompanied by his sister and a cousin. They had very little money, probably only the sum necessary to gain admittance to the United States, and by the time they had reached Toledo that sum had been liquidated. John Storrer found it necessary to borrow money to enable him to continue the journey on to Fulton county, where he and his sister settled in Franklin Township. For twelve months after his arrival he Worked as a carpenter for his uncle, Sebastian Luip, receiving for the year’s work the total sum of $94.00. He was an able carpenter, and his uncle did much contracting in the .neighborhood, which was rapidly developing. Ultimately John Storrer also entered into business as a building contractor, one of his good contracts being the building of the Burton schoolhouse at Burlington, Ohio.. He continued as a, contractor, with good success, for some time, eventually purchasing a farm of eighty acres in German Township. After taking that responsibility he gave almost his whole time to its operation until 1892, when he sold it to advantage and, purchased the farm of 100 acres upon which he has since lived. in German Township., and which latterly has been managed by his son. Since 1905 he has rented   504 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   his farm to his son, and for the last fifteen years has lived in comfortable retirement upon his own farm, cared for by his son and his daughter-in-law.. He is now eighty-two years old, but is in comparatively good health. He has many friends of long standing in German Township, and has lived a good, honorable life of useful industriousness. His wife, Margaret (Shank) Storrer, belonged to a Fulton county family. Their only child is their son. Jacob, born in German Township in 1871. Jacob received his early schooling in the. old Burlington School, attending that school until he was twelve years old. For the next eight years he continued to attend school, going to the Lawrence School until he was twenty years old. Long before he had reached that age, however, he had been taking consequential part in the operation of his father’s property. He took over most of the burdensome work of the home farm after he left school, and from the age of twenty-eight years, when he married, he practically became wholly responsible for the farm, renting it from his father. He has lived a busy life, and has had good success in general farming. The years of steady application to agriculture have not been without effect upon his material status. He is now well-placed financially, and the owner of a good property in German Township. Altogether he farms 190 acres, his father’s farm of 100 acres and his own of ninety acres.   Politically he is an independent republican, although he does not interest himself very actively in politics, that is in national politics. In local public affairs he has been closely interested, but has not sought public office at any time. He is a God-fearing man, of good Christian principle, and a consistent church member.   He has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1899, was Emma, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Kutzli) Binehman. She bore him one child, a. son, who is now a promising young man of eighteen years. His first wife died on November 29, 1902, and he remained a widower for more than two years. On January 15, 1905, he married Katie Blanck, daughter of Joseph and Caroline (Mangold) Blanck, of Greenwood county, Kansas. To them have been born six children, all sons. Mrs. Storrer was born near Metz, Alsace, about four years after the termination of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71.   LOUIS GUSTAVE MOINE, a respected and representative farmer of German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, where he has lived for practically the whole of his life of fifty-eight years, and where his father before him lived for seventy-seven of his ninety-three years, is of the third generation of the Moine family to have 'had residence in Fulton county, his grandfather and father being among the pioneers of German Township. Louis Gustave Mione has been loyal to his native township throughout his life, has by his life of good neighborliness and industry earned good repute in the district, and had he wished he might have been elected to most of the township offices of honor and responsibility. Although he has co-operated usefully in public movements in the township, and has for three terms taken the responsibility of the trusteeship of the township, he has generally refused to stand for office.   He was born in German Township in 1862, the son of Anthony and Mary (Kelly) Mione. The Mione family is of French origin, and his father was only sixteen years old when he came with his   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 505   parents to America. The family settled in German Township, Fulton county, entering government land in its wild state. Grandfather Mione spent most of his life in pioneer work, as did his son Anthony, father of Louis Gustave. Between them they cleared an acreage of 120 acres of heavily timbered land. The parents of Louis Gustave Mione were of steady temperament and good life, and both lived to reach venerable age, his -mother being seventy-five years old when death came to her in 1889, while his father reached his ninety-fourth year, both dying in the family homestead and being buried in German Township.   Louis G. in his boyhood attended district school No. 12, continuing to go to school Until he was fourteen years old. From that time he has farmed almost Continuously. He worked with good filial earnestness for his father until he was twenty-five years old, when he married. Thereafter the farm became his, to all intents and purposes, for he took upon himself practically the whole burden of its operation, and continued to do so throughout the declining years of his father, and after the latter’s death, the farm coming fully into his possession, he continued its cultivation year by year up to the present. With good general success, too, it must be stated. The farm was well adapted to general farming, Which Mr. Moine has followed, and being a skilful and thorough farmer, with good business acumen, and an aptness in adopting new methods which could stand the practical test, he has reached a competence of material wealth. And during his steady work and co-operation in the general affairs -of the township he has gained many sincere and lifelong friends among his neighbors. He is a citizen of whole-hearted loyalty, as was proved by his helpful interest in the national welfare during the World war. Religiously he is a devout Catholic, a member of St. Peter,s Catholic Church of Archbold. Politically he is a democrat, and has been stanchly affiliated with that party for the greater part of his manhood, while fraternally he is identified with the Archbold branch of the Knights of Columbus order. He and his wife, who was Louisa Hirsch, have been' hospitable neighbors since the year of their marriage, 1888, and in their younger days took good part in the church and social movements of the community. They have two adopted children: Celia, who married Albert Grim, of Archbold; .and Marie May, who is still with her foster parents.   WILLIAM G. KUTZLI, an enterprising and active business man of Archbold, a baker by trade, and the owner of an established business, the Home Bakery at Archbold, was born in that town twenty-six years ago, in 1894, the son of John and Rose (Ehrat) Kutzli. He has spent all his life in Archbold, and since he has been in independent business has manifested a capacity for responsibility and a steadiness of purpose, traits that lead to success. He has developed a trade of appreciable volume by holding closely to the principle of giving the ,best possible service for the price asked. He has a good town and country trade, drawing business- within a radius of sixteen miles of Archbold.   His education was obtained in the public schools of his native place. His parents., who are of good standing in the county, were able to give him a' good education, which reached to the last year in high school. William was eighteen years old when he left high school and took seriously to business occupations. He had resolved   506 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   to become a baker, and with that object served en apprenticeship in the bakery of J. S. Fenstermacher at Archbold. One and one-half years later he took employment with a relative, Frank Ehrat, of Archbold, and in 1915 purchased the bakery of the latter. He has since been the sole owner of that business, which is now conducted under the trading name of the Home Bakery, and during the five years of independent business has added much to his good repute in his home town. He is a man of strong, self-reliant characteristics, optimistic and energetic, a good tradesman, and a respon- sible resident. Politically he is a democrat, and fraternally is connected with the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, belonging to the -West Unity Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, and to Archbold Lodge No. 731 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.   In May, 1914, when he was twenty years old, he married Bernice, daughter of Ira McMarren, of Toledo, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Kutzli are members of the Reformed Church, and have taken part in church and social activities of Archbold.   THOMAS S. DE VRIES, who latterly has come somewhat prominently into the affairs of the borough of Archbold, Fulton county, Ohio, being the sole owner of the Archbold Electric Light and Power Company, and also the owner and organizer of the Archbold Electric Company, which has a consequential business in supplies and electrical contracting, has had a somewhat varied life, having for fifteen years been employed in the plant of a furniture manufacturing company, and having for a further fifteen years farmed a good acreage in Michigan, these thirty years of industrious effort having brought him into a satisfactory state of material wealth. Since he has lived in Archbold he has manifested many estimable qualities, is generally well-regarded, and has demonstrated that he is naturally of helpful public spirit.   He is of Dutch ancestry, and was born in the Netherlands, his native place being Schootrland, Friesland, and his parents S. T. and Jeltze (Hoogeboom) De Vries. His father followed the historic calling of the Dutch people, and spent much of his early manhood in maritime occupations. He married in Holland, and there Thomas S. spent the first thirteen years of his life. His parents came to America in 1881, and the family settled in Michigan, his father renting a farm near Grand Rapids.   Thomas S. as a boy attended the schools of his native land, and after settling in Michigan with his parents he began to take up the serious occupations of life without any delay. He was thirteen years old, and comparatively well educated, and although he could not speak English, he found many of his own countrymen employed in the furniture factory to which he went for employment. For the first eight years he lived in America he worked steadily in the plant of the Grand Rapids Chair Company, for the greater part of that time in the capacity of finisher. He was an industrious, alert boy, and soon became proficient in his duties, and in course of time thoroughly mastered the English language. After having worked for eight years in the furniture factory he spent some time in farm work, assisting his father in the work of the farm he had rented near Grand Rapids. Eventually, however, young De Vries again entered the factory, and altogether was connected with the furniture manufacturing industry of Grand Rapids for fifteen years. He   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 507   married in 1889, being then twenty-one years old. After marriage he bought a farm in Michigan, and for the next fifteen years gave his time altogether to agriculture. He was generally successful in his farming, and had reached a satisfactory financial state by that time. In 1911 he saw an advantage in selling his Michigan farm and purchasing the Walters estate, which owned the electric lighting plant at Archbold, Fulton county, Ohio. That business interest brought the family into Fulton county, and into residence at Archbold. Mr. De Vries has conducted the public utility enterprise since 1.911 under the name of the Archbold Electric Light and Power Company, and his direction of the plant has resulted in a good service to mutual advantage. He has been accommodating in his service, and has always endeavored to meet the wishess of the community, and to meet the people reciprocally in any matter concerning the general welfare in its relation to his plant. And he has also shown sound business enterprise in establishing the Archbold Electric Company, which enters somewhat extensively into electrical contracting, and in the sale of electrical supplies. It does most of the electrical fitting and wiring in that .part of Fulton county, and has a wide scope of supplies, being agents for the Western Electric Company,s electric-lighting systems. In ground storage batteries and in the charging of same, and in general repair work, the company has done a satisfactory degree of business during the last few years. Mr. De Vries has also other business interests, owns some real estate, and, generally, is well-regarded in the community as a man of affairs and one who has shown himself anxious to aid in the advancement of the town and the betterment of things generally within the community.   Politically Mr. De Vries is a republican, although he apparently has never been disposed to take public office. During the war he evinced a whole-hearted, helpful patriotism, co-operating well with the local committees in bringing to satisfactory consummation the subscription of the local quota toward the various funded issues made by the national administration to meet the extraordinary needs of the nation in war.   In 1889 Mr. De Vries married Jennie Rodenhuis, daughter of Vandermeer and Trytyl Rodenhuis, who were people of Dutch antecedents then resident in Grand Rapids. Mr. and Mrs. De Vries are the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters. They also have reared a stepson, the child of Mrs. De Vries by her first marriage. Mr. De Vries is a member of the Missionary Church of Archbold, while Mrs. De Vries is a member of the German Reformed' Church, and they are consistent Christians, helpful and earnest in church work.   JOHN T. WEBER, one of the leading and most successful farmers of German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, has had a notably successful life in agricultural activity. Without financial help, and by dint of hard work and skillful farming, he has gradually prospered until he today owns a total of 320 acres of good agricultural land. He was born in German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, November. 12, 1859, the son of George and Barbara (Butch) Weber, who were both of Swiss birth. They were married in Switzerland, and lived at Schauffhausen, and there six of their children were born. George Weber was an agriculturist in his native land, and when he brought his family to America, and into Ohio, he settled   508 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   down to farming occupations, at first living with his brother John in German Township, Fulton county. He died in 1865. John T. Weber, his son, attended the public school nearest to his home dur- ing the winter months, and during the growing summer season spent most of the time in farming tasks upon his father,s property. He left school when he was about sixteen years old, and some time afterwards became connected with the Graff Sawmill in German Township. He continued in that work for twelve years, and although he did not earn very much, he was of economical habits and saved much of his earnings, so that when he married, in 1893, he was able to venture into independent work as a tenant farmer. He rented the Tedrow farm of 105 acres, and there lived for three years. For the next three years he worked a farm of 160 acres near Archbold, and did very well on that place. However, it was to his advantage to then move to the farm of 120 acres belonging to his father-in-law. This farm, in German Township, he rented at first, but eventually purchased it outright from his father-in-law, and since that time he has steadily tilled it, generally to very good advantage. He prospered by reason of skillful farming and persistent application to work, and eventually was able to purchase a further 200 acres, so that in all he has quite an extensive acreage in rich territory.   His wife, Leah, whom he married in 1893, was a daughter of Peter F. and Salvina (Burkholder) Wyse, of German Township. And to the marriage have been born five children: Elda Rosselli, who married Louis Merillat, of Franklin Township, Fulton county, .Ohio, and is the mother of four children; Arthur Daniel, now a successful farmer in German Township, married Meda Grime, and they are the parents of six children : Clarence A., who married Cassie grime, of German Township, and has two children; Albert John, who married Marie Leminger, to them has been born one child; Pearl Mary, who is at home with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Weber have very many sincere friends in Fulton county, and are especially respected by the older residents of German Township.   WILLIAM E. HILL. Through a chain of circumstances over which he had no control, William E. Hill, of Delta, enlisted four different times as a soldier in the Civil war, although his birth oc curred March 28, 1842, in the mother country—England. He is a son of Thomas and Mary Ann (Cullen) Hill. The father died in 1851, and with four small children the mother immigrated to the United States in 1858, locating in Delta. As bread winner of the family, W, E. Hill began working on a farm, but after one year he secured a position in a grist mill, where he remained for many years.   Mr. Hill enlisted in the Civil war at the first call for volunteers, and was one of the 100-day men in the service. It was thought 100 days' service would win the war, but not so, and in the summer of 1862 he enlisted again, this time in the Eighty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In about four months he was taken prisoner and immediately after his release he was discharged and sent home with typhiod fever. He lay in a hospital at Delaware, Ohio, finally reaching his home in Delta.   In 1863 Mr. Hill re-enlisted again, this time in Company F of the Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and February 13, 1864, he was discharged and immediately re-enlisted in the Sixth Ohio   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 509   Cavalry at Petersburg, Virginia, receiving his final discharge June 27, 1865, when the northern army was disbanded and the soldiers returned to their homes. In October of that year Mr. Hill went to Tuscola county, Michigan, and followed the lumber woods for a time. For twelve years he was stationary engineer in a saw and planing mill, and then for a time he worked in a butcher shop in Cass City, Michigan. In 1891, Mr. Hill returned to Delta, where he worked for several firms as a butcher.   Since 1915 Mr. Hill has lived retired from ac. tive business in the old homestead in Delta, where his mother located in 1859. In July, 1865, Mr. Hill married Salma Alwood, of Pike Township,. a daughter of E. K. and Betsey (Saulsbury) Alwood, the father from Maryland and the mother from Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hill died May 20, 1891, in Michigan.   The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hill are : Charles, of Toledo; Ida, wife of Fred Sherwood, of Toledo; Mary, deceased, was the wife of William Wright; William, deceased, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Emma Hill, of Cleveland, Ohio; Minnie, wife of Elmer Royer; Edith, wife of Mr: McClure; Nellie, wife of Frank Pierce ;all of Toledo. Eliza., a sister of Mr. Hill, lived with her mother in the family homestead in Delta, and now she is the homemaker for her brother there.   With his military history Mr. Hill would not think of remaining out side the social influences of a Grand Army Post. While in Michigan he was a member of Milo Warner Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and now he is in the McQuillin Post, Grand Army of the Republic, .of Delta. While in the Michigan post he was officer of the nay.   ARTHUR G. SIEGEL, a successful and respected farmer of German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, comes of one of the pioneer families of the county, notwithstanding that he, himself, was born in Kansas. His grandfather settled in German Township almost seventy years ago, the township at that time being in its first stage of development.   He was born in Lamed, Kansas, in 1884, the son of Daniel W. and Anna (Roth) Siegel, a woman remarkable for her great memory and grandson of Jacob and Catherine (Nofzinger) Siegel. The family was originally from Bavaria, Jacob Siegel having been born in that country. He did not immigrate until some years after he had married; in fact some of his children were also born in Bavaria, although Daniel W., son of Jacob and Catherine (Nofzinger) Siegel, and father of Arthur G., was born in 1847 in Wayne county, Ohio, his parents having at that time been resident in Wayne county for three years. In 1852 Jacob Siegel took his family through the wilderness from Wayne county into Fulton county, settling in German Township, where he acquired 160 acres of uncleared land, and in the clearing of that holding he spent the remainder of his life. Their son Daniel W. was given the best possible education, although facilities were somewhat primitive in the country schools of that section in his boyhood. He attended the country school nearest to his parents, farm during the winter term each year, and during the summers was wont to spend most of his time in the execution of various minor tasks upon the home farm. After passing through the grades of the elementary school he entered the high school at Wauseon, and he was twenty-one years old before he closed his   510 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   schooling altogether and took wholly to farming occupations in association with his father. For three years he. remained at home, and for the next five years farmed independently. Then he married, and soon afterward moved to Lamed, Kansas, where he homesteaded 160 acres, and purchased a further like acreage from the Santa Fe Railway Company, owning in all 320 acres. There he lived for nine years, growing each year much wheat, but at the end of his ninth season in Kansas he sold his holding and brought his family back to Ohio and to Fulton county. He purchased a. good farm of eighty-six acres, situated partly within the bounds of the borough of Archbold, in 1885, and later acquired a further forty acres that adjoined his property. He now owns 100 acres, and has had good success in general farming. He. is a man of industrious inclination, has always been responsible, and is well-regarded in the township generally. Politically. Mr. Daniel W. Siegel is a republican. He is a member of the Archbold Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a good churchman, a Methodist by conviction and a member and good supporter of the Archbold Methodist Episcopal Church. Of the five children born to Daniel W. and Anna (Roth) Siegel, four are still living. They are: Carrie C., who married John B. Theobald, of Bryan, Williams county, Ohio; Catherine, who Married C. E. Hyatt, of Stryker, Williams county, Ohio and is the mother of one child,. their daughter, Mae; Arthur Garfield, of whom more follows; and Mrs. E. A. Beuhrer.   Arthur Garfield, now thirty-five years old, was only a small child when his parents returned to Fulton county, Ohio, from Lamed, Kansas, where be was born. His life has therefore been almost wholly lived in Fulton county and in the- township with the early settlement of which his family was so closely associated. In due course he took good part with his father in the operation of the home farm. Both he and his wife are graduates of the local high school and both spent some time teaching, Mrs. Siegel in the village school. They both take an interest in educational matters, Mrs. SWoman,st present serving the Woman's Readpresident, whilebold as its president, while Mr. Siegel is serving his second term on the village B_oard of Education. He is a stanch. republican.   In 1912 he married, and has since that time continued to farm industriously, and generally with good success. He and his wife, who was Arvah Skeels, daughter of Silas and Adelaide (Gilbert) Skeels, are the parents of two children, James Arthur, born in 1913, and Anna Adelaide, now four years old. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Siegel are members of the Archbold Methodist Episcopal Church, and both have taken active part in church work. Mr. Siegel especially has shown practical interest in the moral welfare and spiritual guidance of the young people of that church, and for some years has been superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School. He has the reputation of being .a man of high moral character, a man whose life is governed by high standards of Christian principle. Fraternally he is a Mason,. a member of the Blue Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of West Unity.   HENRY BREHM, a respected resident of Franklin Township, and a successful farmer of that section of Fulton county, Ohio, was born in Whitehouse. Lucas county, Ohio, December 31, 1858, the son of Anthony and Rebecca (Fineauer) Brehm, who at that time owned a farming property in that place. Anthony Brehm was a   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 511   native of Wurtemberg, Germany, but came to this country when a young man, settling in Toledo, Ohio. He was a mason and stone layerby trade, and he helped cut all the spiles that were driven in the water of the river for a foundation for the first depot at. Toledo. He was in Toledo for four years, and then, having accumulated some capital and desiring to take up agricultural life, he rented a farm of forty acres in Whitehouse, Lucas county. There his son Henry was born, some time after which event the Brehm family removed to Franklin Township, Fulton county, Ohio, where Anthony took over as a tenant farmer the old Darby farm of 160 acres. Later he purchased a Franklin Township farm of forty acres, and upon it lived until his death.   Henry Brehm was educated in district school No. 7 of Fulton county, which was the country school nearest to his home in Franklin Township. He attended school until he was fourteen years old. After leaving school he was associated with his father in the operation of his father’s farm, but when seventeen years old hired out to neighboring farmers. In that way the next five years passed. Then he married, and the farm on which they settled was a present from his father-in-law, Jacob Kibler, upon which he still lives. His life has thus been spent almost wholly in Franklin Township, and his record throughout life has been that of a good-hearted, sincere and industrious .man, of consistent Christian character and unselfish public spirit. Politically he votes for the man irrespective of party ties. In local affairs he has been ready to take his portion of the duties of the public administration, and for a while was trustee of the township, but he has not interested himself actively in National politics. During the war he proved himself to be a whole-hearted patriot, ready and eager to co-operate in the plans the national administration made for the successful prosecution of the war. And upon many occasions he has manifested a commendable public spirit.   In 1881 Henry Brehm married Emma Kibler, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Yost) Kibler. Jacob Kibler was one of the pioneers of Fulton county; one of the early settlers in German Township. He was twenty years old when he came to America from Schauffhausen, Switzerland, accompanying his father and mother. They came down in an ox cart to Fulton county, through the wilderness from Wayne county, and settled in German Township. He was the eldest of seven children, and was more or less responsible for the welfare of the family. He was born in Switzerland on January 5, 1813, and died in German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, on December 25, 1894, being then almost eighty-two years old. His wife Elizabeth Yost died four years later, August 19, 1898. She was born in Berne, Switzerland, on May 15, 1832. Their daughter Emma, who married Henry Brehm, was the youngest of the five. children, three sons and two daughters, of Jacob and Elizabeth (Yost) Kibler, and all her brothers and sisters are now deceased. Jacob Kibler was a worthy pioneer, resolute and indefatigable. Latterly he owned 320 acres of good agricultural land, all of which he cleared himself.   L’NEAR EUGENE CARTER. The Carter family of which L’Near Eugene Carter of Amboy Township is a representative has migrated quite a little, having lived in Royalton, Amboy and Fulton Townships and in two different counties in Michigan, and now he is on   512 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   The Carter family homestead of Amboy, with mail service from Delta. His parents were George and Ruth (Sprague) Carter, and the paternal grandparents were Norval and Mary L. (Bird) darter. The grandfather Carter was a Civil war soldier from Fulton county who did not return from the battle fields of the Southland. The maternal grandparents were Alonzo and Susannah (Chase) Sprague.   When. Carter married he first settled in Amboy, and later lived in Royalton and in 1892 he bought land in Fulton Township. There were fifty acres in the farm, with forty-five acres under cultivation. He died there July 21, 1914. Mrs. Carter died in December 29, 1917, leaving their only son, L. E. Carter, the homestead. In March, 1904, he married Effie Gardinier, of Royalton. She is a daughter of Watson and Alice (Snyder) Gardinier. For three years they lived on rented land in Fulton, then moved to Wauseon county, Michigan. Two years later they moved to Jackson county, Michigan, remaining there three years.   When Mr. Carter returned to Fulton county he bought land near the home of his father, and since the death of 'his parents he has lived at the old homestead. 'They have one son: Wade Norval. Mr. Carter casts his ballot with the republicans.   FRANK McQUILLIN, of `Topple Grove Farm" in Pike Township, has always lived at the old family homestead. He was born there April 14, 1877, a son of John W. and Elizabeth (Dunbar) McQuillin. When he bought forty acres and then added twenty acres by purchase it gave him sufficient land for one man to cultivate, and yet after the death of his father he bought out other heirs until he now owns a farm of eighty-four acres—Popple Grove Farm. Mr. McQuillin follows general farming, dairying and the livestock business.   On November 24, 1903, Mr. McQuillin married Viola Johnson, a daughter of John and Lucinda (Boyer) Johnson, of York Township. The father is a native of Fulton county, while the mother came from New Baltimore, Ohio. The Boyer ancestry, Henry and Elizabeth (Otto) Boyer, were Pennsylvanians. They were early settlers in York. Mrs. Johnson died July 17, 1911, and Mr. Johnson lives with the McQuillins.   The McQuillin children are: Lillian May, born September 12, 1907, and died in infancy; Gerald Dale, born June 6, 1909; and Hazel Marie, born September 11, 1913. Mr. McQuillin attended Hoxie district school and his wife attended the Bradley school and the Delta High School. She, was a teacher at Tough Match in York Township and at the Brailey school in Swan Creek Township.   Mr. McQuillin votes the republican ticket. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America in Delta.   SOLOMON E. LAVER, of Pike, is the son of a German immigrant, John Laver. The father was born April 12, 1833, at Hesse-Darmstadt. He married Mary A. Alwood, of Pike Township, in February, 1857, her people having come in 1835. She died in 1859, and John Laver married her sister, Pauline Alwood. They were daughters of Peola Alwood.   John Layer came to the United States before he was fifteen years of age, and he located at Stamford, Connecticut, where he worked for three years in a pump factory. In 1850 he came to Fulton county and began working at the carpenter trade. He became a skilled workman and in 1865 he bought an eighty-acre farm, mostly   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 513   in the wild, and being a carpenter he could use the timber on it in improving it.    In June, 1863, Mr. Laver enlisted in Company F, Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer. Infantry. For six months he served as !commissary sergeant, and was then promoted to captain, serving as such until the end of the war. He was in a number of minor engagements, and was discharged in July, 1865, and is today a member of McQuillin Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Delta. Mr. Laver is a republican, and has served the community as township assessor, and for eighteen years as justice of the peace.   In 1880 and again in 1890 Mr. Laver was a United States census enumerator. By his first marriage Mr. Laver has one daughter, Mary, and by the second marriage the following children: Grant S., of Fulton; Solomon E., who relates the family history; Philip, of Pettysville; John, of Pike; and Ura, who resides with Solomon and the sister Mary at the old homestead. On June 28, 1913, their father died there.   Solomon E. Laver has always lived on the farm where he was born except for short periods when he has had employment away from there. He never called any other spot his home. When he was a young man he sometimes worked out by the month. For many years he has conducted the farm, and he operates a Holstein dairy along with general farming and the livestock business. On October 23, 1908, -'he had the misfortune to lose his right hand in a corn shredder.   Mr. Laver has served the township as assessor nine consecutive terms, being the republican party representative. He has filled several of the chairs in Delta Knights of Pythias Lodge. He was a bond salesman in the different Liberty and Victory loans, and is a member of the American Patriotic League.   Solomon E. Laver, who was born in Pike Township December 21, 1866, is widely known not only as a successful dairy farmer, but for his usefulness in public affairs. His good citizenship in times of peace supplements the honorable record of his father as, a soldier of the Civil war. His own sterling patriotism received abundant proof in the World war.   WILLIAM BALDWIN. While the life time home of William Baldwin has been in Fulton county, his parents came from Pennsyl- vania. He is a son of John and Lucy Ann (Clingerman) Baldwin, and was born in August, 1855, in Fulton Township, where the Baldwin were early settlers. However, in 1863 they removed to Amboy, where they purchased eighty acres in the timber and made it their home the remainder of their days. Their children are: Joseph, of Toledo; Levi, of Toledo; William; Mrs. Mary Ann Tech-worth ; and John, of Amboy.   On May 26, 1885, William Baldwin married Marie Celeste Higley. She is a daughter of Darius and Sabina (Johnson) Higley and was born in Huron county. They began on twenty acres in the timber, and they have cleared and added land until they now have 114 acres of well improved farm land, and there are good buildings on it.   The Baldwin children are: Jesse Earl, of Toledo; Milford Ray, of York ; Gertrude Pearl, wife of William Krieger, of Fulton; Tressa May, wife of Perry F. Churchill, of Swan Creek; Ruby Etta,   514 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   wife of Ollie Albright, of Royalton and Ella May and William D., at home with the parents.   Mr. Baldwin votes the republican ticket and has served the community as a member of the board of education.   As the facts above related show he began life with an exceedingly modest capital, and while he was born in the pioneer era, he repeated many of the pioneer,s experiences in his own manhood by developing a tract of heavy timber, clearing away the woods, putting the land under cultivation, and creating a farm that bears favorable comparison with any in its vicinity. It is appropriate to speak- of him therefore as one of the useful men of Fulton county, and only good influences have emanated from his home.   WILLIAM STRAYER. One year after the organization of Fulton county the Strayer family story began in it with the coming of. William and Elizabeth (Kring) Strayer from Pennsylvania. Their son Wiliam Strayer of Pike Township, was born April 13, 1855, and all of his life has been spent in Fulton county. There were thirteen children, ten of them living today.   In 1886 William Strayer married Augusta Dunbar, of the same community in Pike Township. She is a daughter of Boyd and Rachel Dunbar, the parents from Pennsylvania—the Strayers and Dunbars both from the Keystone state. For one year they lived on the Dunbar farm, then bought forty acres of partly improved land and remodeled the buildings on it. He added thirty acres, and aside from three acres of timber it is all under cultivation. Mr. Strayer has a Holstein dairy.   Mr. and Mrs. Strayer have one son, Arby Clay Strayer, born July 4, 1894. He married Gladys G. Bittikofer, and they have three children : Geneva May, Lola Audrey and Frances Mildred. They all live as one family at the family homestead. They are member of the Disciples Church in the community. The family vote is with the republican party.   One of the older native sons of the county, and member of one of its worthy pioneer families, William Strayer has so ordered his own life that it has been productive in the material sense, has served to create and build up one of the farms of which the county is proud, and in all the relations of a busy life has proved true to the standards of manhood and good citizenship.   GUY HARVEY BOGER. While Guy Harvey Boger lives in Royalton he was born August 9, 1890, in Chesterfield. He is a son of George Alvin and Edith (Todd) Boger, the father a Pennsylvanian by birth and the mother a native ofChesterfield. His grandfather, David Boger, lived in Pennsylvania, while Oliver and Lucinda (Devereaux) Todd, lived in Chesterfield.   Guy Harvey Boger supplemented his common school education by graduating from the Fayette High School and from the Ohio State 'University at Columbus. He is a member and a deacon in the Church of Christ. He votes with the republican party and holds membership in Chesterfield Grange.   On April 15, 1914, Mr. Boger married Erma N. Dennis, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Leininger) Dennis, of Franklin Township. He at once took up his residence on a quarter section farm owned by his father in Royalton. His father died March 29, 1919, and his mother lives in Lyons. Mr. Boger operates a Holstein dairy, having twenty-five head of thoroughbred cattle.   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 515   The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Boger are : Mary Elizabeth and Robert Marlin.   PETER MYERS. While Peter Myers of Amboy is a native of Ohio, his parents immigrated in 1848 from Germany. He was born in September, 1854, in Lorain county. He is a son of John and Mary Ann (Gries) Myers. They were married in Germany, and when they came to America they located at first in Cleveland. He was a blacksmith in Germany and worked at his trade for the government in some of the wars engaging that country. He crossed the ocean to escape militarism in Germany. They were six months on their bridal journey to. the United States.   The Myers family soon moved from Cleveland to Lorain county, where they secured twenty acres of land, adding to it until they had doubled the size of the farm,. and in June, 1862, they sold it. Their next investment was a forty acre tract in Lenawee county, Michigan, mostly in timber, and a year later, September 17, 1863, while working on this farm, the father was struck by lightning. The wife and children remained there another year, when they sold out and bought land in Fulton county. Peter Ayers grew into manhood on this farm in Amboy.   On July 4, 1875, Mr. Myers married Mary Ann Hall, who was born in Amboy, although her parents, George 0. and Catharine (Cory) Hall, had come from New York to Ohio. For a time he lived in Metamora, and beginning in 1869 he carried United States mail for twelve years from Metamora to Swanton.. He began farming on a seven-acre tract adjioning Metamora, but some years later he sold it and bought thirty-six acres of partly improved land farther from town. He lived there from 1891 until 1908, when he sold it and bought 100 acres where he lived a short time, and then removed to Metamora.   Since retiring from farm 'activities Mr. Myers has engaged in house moving and general contracting work. He has served the community as constable, and for seventeen years he was a member of the board of education. He has also served as road superintendent in Amboy. In politics he is a democrat. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees No. 421, Metamora, Sanders Tent, and Mrs. Myers is a member of the Lady Maccabees.   The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Myers are: Catharine Amelia, wife of Melvin Luke, of Metamora; Nellie, wife of Ernest Brewer, of Monroe county, Michigan; Jennie, wife of Fred Setzler, of Monroe county, Michigan; Rosa, wife of Freeman Bird, of Terre Haute, Indiana; and Clara, wife of Prof. E. W. Smith, of Columbus, Ohio.   Left fatherless at the age of nine years, Peter Myers had to do a man,s work in the tender years of boyhood. He has performed his task well, as his neighbors and friends abundantly testify. Along with sound industry he has always exercised a high degree of business ability, and his record shows an increasing degree of prosperity with successive years. No one is more deeply interested and more willing to do his share in work that is connected with the welfare of the entire community.   EUGENE CARPENTER. While his ancestry came from Michigan and New Jersey, Eugene Carpenter, of Royalton, is a native of Fulton county, having been born June 11, 1853—three years after the   616 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   family came to Fulton county. His. father, Andrew Jackson Carpenter, came from Michigan. His mother, Anna E. (Stretch) Carpenter, was a New Jersey woman. The Michigan home of the Carpenters was at Carpenter Hill, near Adrian, and Eugene Carpenter’s parents married there. Samuel Carpenter was his grandfather. The maternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth (Lippincott) Stretch, were later residents of Adrian.   When Eugene Carpenter was .a young boy he worked on a farm, and has always been a farmer. At the age of sixteen he hired out by the month, and later he started farming on his own account, and for many years he was a breeder of race horse stock. That was before there were any Fords in Fulton county. Mr. Carpenter raised beef cattle and butchered and sold the product on the Toledo market and on other markets.. He was well known as a butcher and livestock dealer.   Mr. Carpenter owned property in Lyons, and in 1878 he bought en eighty-acre farm in Pike Township. Five years later he sold it and bought forty acres one mile north of Lyons, some of the land across the line in Michigan. He owned this land ten years and sold it, buying 130 acres of partly cleared and improved land one mile east from Lyons. In 1905 he changed his investment again, this time taking over a farm of 210 acres in Royalton. He has cleared all of it, and it is all under cultivation. Twice Mr. Carpenter has suffered loss by fire, and the result has been modern farm barns replacing those destroyed, and splendid farm buildings are the result.   Aside from this Royalton farm Mr. Carpenter owns one in Fairfield Township, Lenawee county, Michigan. While he rents all of his farm land he does not lose track of what is going on there. He looks after crop rotation and management himself.   On January 21, 1877, Mr: Carpenter married Hattie Kennedy. She was a native of Roxbury, Scotland, a daughter 'of James and Elizabeth (Renwick) Kennedy. Her father died in Scotland, and in 1869 she came to America with her mother. The children are: Lena, wife of Omer Metcalf, of Lenawee county,. Michigan ; Belle, wife of Jesse Peck, of Sylvania; Rose, wife of Glenn Ayres, of Royalton; Verna, wife of Floyd. Cox, of Lenawee county; Peter T., of Camp Funston, Kansas; Blanchard, at the family homestead; Anna, wife of Clyde Durbin, of Sylvania; Robena, wife of Ray Gallup, of Mo¬renci, Michigan; and Eugene.   Mr. Carpenter votes with the republican party. He is a member of Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No.. 622 of Lyons, and has been through all of the chairs. He and Mrs. Carpenter are Rebekahs.   This is a brief outline of a very interesting and distinctive career. While a wage worker Mr. Carpenter saw and utilized the opportuntities to get into business for himself. A keen mind, abundant energy and sound business sense have kept him on the highway of prosperity in spite of losses and set backs, and a large part of what he has done for himself has also been a direct contribution to the development and welfare of Royalton Township.. From what has been said above it is easy to account for the high degree of esteem associated with the name of Eugene Carpenter in Fulton county.   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 517   HERBERT HAYES HINKLE. The name Hinkle belongs to the early history of Fulton county, although Herbert Hayes Hinkle, was born June 22, 1876, in Royalton. He is a son of Stephen and Hattie (Cass) Hinkle, the father of Fulton and the mother of Lucas county. The grandparents, Ephraim and Susan (Houghton) Hinkle, were early settlers in Fulton, while Joseph. Cass came early to Adams Township, Lucas county.   When Stephen Hinkle was married he settled in Lyons, and still lives there. The children are : Ephraim, deceased; Lena, wife of Houghton J. Ferguson, of Toledo Herbert Hayes; Eugene, of Royalton and Homer, who lives with his parents.   On April 29, 1903, Herbert H. Hinkle married Ethel E. Camburn, of Royalton. She is a daughter of Frank and Charlotte (Stan- dish) Camburn. The father came from Lenawee county, Michigan, while the mother always lived in Royalton. Mr. Hinkle had always farmed, and after his marriage he rented in Royalton until 1913, when he bought 100, acres on the Ohio-Michigan line, with ninety acres in Michigan, but the house in Ohio. He has a Holstein dairy on the farm.   The children are : Charles, Lloyd and Franklin. Mr. Hinkle had high school advantages in Toledo, and as a republican he received the appiontment to an unexpired term as township trustee in 1916, and since then he has twice been re-elected trustee. He belongs to the Ancient Order of Gleaners, and is secretary of the Universalist Church, of which he is a member.   ALBERT MARK ROBINSON. While the Robinson family name has been in the annals of Fulton county for many years, Albert Mark Robinson, is as yet a young man. He was born February 23, 1891, and has always lived in Amboy Township. He is a son of John M. and Hannah (Phillips) Robinson, the father a native of Amboy while the mother is from, the south of. England.   The paternal grandparents, George and Rebecca (Davis) Robin- son, came from the State of New York and were early residents of Amboy after having lived some years in Indiana. When they came the land was so heavily timbered that space had to be cleared for their cabin. Years later Mr. Robinson built a brick house that was regarded as one of the finest homes in Fulton county. He owned and cleared 200 acres of land and was a prosperous pioneer farmer.   When John M. Robinson was married he bought 100 acres of his father, securing the homestead part of it. He died there July 3, 1904, and. it is now the home of Albert Mark Robinson, in the third generation of the Robinson succession in Fulton county. His sister Edith is the wife of Clarence Hagerman, of Lenawee county, Michigan, and Clarice died at the age of nineteen. The mother is now the wife of Alfred Viers, of Royalton.   In addition to a high school education at Delta A. M. Robinson attended Ohio State University at Columbus. He taught the home district school and he worked his father’s farm on shares. On February 16, 1916, Mr. Robinson married Oneita McQuillan, of Pike Township. She is a daughter of James and Anna (McQuillan) McQuillan. Since his marriage Mr. Robinson has devoted his en-. tire attention to agriculture. His children, Lowell, born January 26, 1917, and Clarice, January 18, 1919, are in the fourth generation of the Robinson family to live in one house in Amboy. He votes the republican ticket, and belongs to the Grange—the Patrons of Husbandry of Amboy Township.   518 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   WILLIAM THOMAS SAXTON, of Delta, Fulton county, Ohio; one of the leading business men of that place, has lived most of his life in the county, and is well-regarded among the people of Delta, who have known him as a resident and as a tradesman for so many years. He was only two years old when his parents came to live in the county.   He was born on October 15, 1850, the son of Nathaniel and Catherine (Nort) Saxton, the former a native of New York state and the latter of German birth. His paternal grandparent, Cyrus Saxton, was born in New York state, the Saxtons being among the colonial families of America. His maternal lineage is Teutonic, his mother and her parents having been born in Germany. Dr. John and Margaret Nort, his maternal grandparents, came to Trenton, Butler county, Ohio, in 1841, and there Doctor Nort practiced medicine until 1851, when he and his wife came into Fulton county, settling in Swanton of that county. During the remainder of his long professional life Doctor Nort practiced medicine throughout the eastern part of Fulton county and the western section of Lucas county. He died in Swanton in his ninetieth year, and was buried in Swanton Cemetery.   Nathaniel and Catherine (Nort) Saxton, parents of William T., soon after marriage settled in Muskingum county, Ohio, where their first two children were born. About eighteen months after the birth of their second child, William T., they came to live in Fulton county, where Nathaniel Saxton farmed for one year, and having then contracted inflammatory rheumatism, and succumbed to that complaint on July 29, 1853. The widow had limited resources and three young children. Fortunately she was near her parents, and in the home of her parents, Dr. John and Margaret Nort, the Saxton children were reared. The three children born to Nathaniel and Catherine (Nort) Saxton were: Maggie E., who eventually married William Hollis, of Swanton, Ohio William Thomas; and George E., who died in infancy. The mother spent the last years of her life in the home of William Thomas, where she died August 30, 1914.   William Thomas, second child of Nathaniel and Catherine (Nort) Saxton, lived from the time of his father’s death until he was seventeen years old in the home of his grandparents, Doctor and Mrs. Nort, in Swanton, Fulton county. He attended the old Centreville district school, about 1/2 mile south of Swanton, and when seventeen years old began his business career, taking employment in a general store in Waterville, Lucas county, Ohio, where he remained for twelve years. In April, 1880, he came to Delta as clerk in the general store of J. M. Longnecker, with whom he was associated for eight years. Sargent. Brothers & Saxton then bought the Longnecker store. At the end of fourteen years Mr. Saxton became the sole owner, having purchased the Sargent interest.   He is widely known throughout Fulton county, and has an enviable reputation as a man of honorable trading and good business and moral integrity. He has shown marked enterprise in his business, having expanded it in many lines, so that today he does a substantial volume of business in general merchandise, seeds and coal.   He has entered much into civic activities and community interests. By religious conviction he is Methodist Episcopal, and for six years has been trustee of the local church of that denomination. Politically he is a democrat. He has taken an intelligent   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 519   interest in the general national affairs and a keen interest in local administrations, but he has never been an aspirant for public office. He is identified with the Masonic fraternity, a member of Fulton Lodge No. 240, and of the Octavius Waters Chapter of that order.   In June, 1886, he married Octavia A. Waters, who was born in Delta, Ohio, daughter of Octavius A. and Mary Ann (Hollington) Waters, well-known Delta residents of English antecedents. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Saxton : Mabel W. who married E. F. Pennywitt, of Cleveland, Ohio; and Helen W., who died when thirteen years old.   Mr. and Mrs. Saxton are well-regarded in Delta, and have throughout their married life been residents of hospitable inclination.   JOHN M. BECHSTEIN. Having spent all his mature years in general farming and stockraising industries, John M. Bechstein of York Township is an authority on agricultural matters. His home is at 313 Wood street in Delta, and he has achieved his present comfortable circumstances through a life of earnest effort and industry.   He was born in his present township in February, 1869, a son of Jacob and Anna (Goodloch) Bechstein, natives of Germany, who came at different times to the United States and located in Erie county, Ohio, where they became acquainted and were married. In 1862 they came to Fulton county and bought eighty acres of unimproved timberland in Swan Creek Township, which they developed into a valuable farm, and also became the owners of another eighty-acre farm. Their children were as follows: Henry, who is a farmer of Swan Creek Township; Ida, who is Mrs. John Reiber, of Wood county, Ohio; Mary, who is Mrs. John Evans, of Swan Creek Township; John, whose name heads this review; Anna, who is Mrs. Henry Wenig, of Wood county, Ohio; Lucy, who is Mrs. Edward Smith, of Wood county, Ohio; Jacob, a farmer of Sivan Creek Township; and Altha, who is Mrs. Martin Andrews, of Swan Creek Township.   Growing up in his native township, John M. Bechstein learned to be a practical farmer while he was attending the district schools, in them securing a knowledge of the fundamentals of an education. He married at the age of twenty-five and for a quarter of a century has been busy performing his duties as a provider of home and other advantages for his family and discharging the duties of good citizenship. December 25, 1894, he married Martha Prentiss, daughter of Jacob and Melissa (Joy) Prentiss. Her parents were natives of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Bechstein have two children, Helene and Doris E.   FRANK WEBSTER RANDELS, a well-known and successful farmer of Franklin Township, Fulton county, Ohio, has spent all his life on the farm upon which he was born, and which he now owns. During the years since his majority he has .taken due part in the responsibilities of the community, and is known favorably as a reliable farmer, representative of the substantial agriculturists of that section of the county.   He was born in the Randels family homestead on February 3, 1870, the son of James and Sarah Ellen (Marfoot) Randels. He was given a good education, the ordinary education of the public school being supplemented by a course at the Fayette Normal School.   520 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   He assisted in the operation of the home farm of 160 acres until the death of his father in 1912. His mother had died about twelve months anterior to the demise of his father, and thus, in 1912, he found himself in possession of the family estate. He has steadily continued to till it, being successful in his farming and in the raising of Percheron horses.   He is a public-spirited man, and is well-regarded in the community. During. the war he co-operated to the extent of his resources in the national effort, to furnish the government with the sinews of war, with the funds wherewith tb carry the purposes of the nation in the war through to complete success. And in local affairs he has manifested a worthy spirit of helpfulness. Politically he is a. republican; fraternally he belongs to the Woodmen order, affiliated with a West Unity lodge and to the Ohio State Gleaners organization. Religiously he is a Methodist, a supporter of the Methodist Church of Franklin Township..   In 1897 Frank W. Randels married Sadie J., daughter of S. K. and Jane (Mahan) Hughes, of West Unity, Williams county, Ohio. She came of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Her great-grandfather was one of the early settlers. in Kentucky, and her father, who was a Presbyterian minister, settled at West Unity in Williams county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Randels are the parents of three children: Florence Julia, who married Floyd Sayers, of Trinidad, California; Laurence Charles. who now is thirteen years old ; and Ellen Jane, now seven years old.   CARL WALDECK. The Waldeck family of which Carl Waldeck of Delta is a representative has been in Fulton county since 1859, nine years after the organization of the county. He is a son of Arnold and Christina (Backbuse) Waldeck, and was born February 27, 1850, in Hanover, Germany. When the family immigrated to America in 1851 they came at once to Lucas county. Nine years later they located on a farm in Pike Township, and in 1860 they moved to Delta. After three years in Delta they rented another farm. three miles east, and the next move was to a farm they bought in Pike Township. They had 130 acres and bought forty. He. died there. in 1889, and she died nineteen years afterward—almost fifty years a resident of Fulton county.   The. children in the Waldeck family are: Carl Waldeck ; Arnold and Herman, of Delta; William, deceased; Amelia, deceased, was the wife of William McQuillan ; and George, of Delta. On Christmas day, 1873, Carl Waldeck married Florence Sheffield, a native of Fulton county. Her parents, William and Mary Sheffield, came from Tuscarawas county. Mr Waldeck lived on the Sheffield farm in Swan Creek and later on the Gately farm. For six years he was a tenant and then bought eighty acres in 'timber and stumps in York Township. He improved and added to it until he now owns 100 acres of excellent farm land and all under cultivation but a small tract of timber and pasture land. Since November, 1918, a son has lived there and Mr. Waldeck has lived in Delta.   Mr. Waldeck bought a residence on Adrain street. The children in the family are: Frank, of Pike; Dora., who died in infancy .Mary, who died at the age of twelve; and Walter, who lives on the farm owned by Mr. Waldeck. Mrs. Waldeck died May 4, 1903, and he married Mrs. Ella (Gorsuch) Fink, widow of William Fink. She had two children who died in infancy. The family   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 521   are members of the Evangelical Church, and Mr. Waldeck votes with the republican party. The facts above stated concerning the Waldeck family in general and Carl Waldeck in particular place them among the most substantial citizenship of Fulton county. It is a matter worthy of special notice that Mr. Waldeck has achieved his present position as a farm owner after starting his career as a tenant, and overcoming many obstacles in the path of success.   LINCOLN E. LUTTON, who has lived his whole life of fifty-five years in York Township, Fulton county, Ohio, and for forty years has industriously farmed, is now one of the substantial farmers of that section of Fulton county, and is well-regarded in the township. .He owns a good property of 120 acres, has a good record for personal integrity and industry, and has taken an active part in educational affairs in the community.   He was born in York Township, in the Lutton family homestead in section 15 of the township on September 20, 1864, the; son of Matthew and Eliza (Moore) Lutton. His parents were both born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and soon after they had married they came into Ohio and settled on comparatively wild land in York Township, Fulton county, where they spent the remainder of their lives, respected as earnest, kind-hearted,, industrious neighbors. Lincoln as a. boy attended the district school nearest to his home, and when sixteen years old began manly labors. For some time after leaving school he worked for neighboring farmers at the monthly wage of eight dollars. He farmed for wages until he was twenty-six years old, when he married and bought a small farm in York Township, upon which he and his wife lived for three years. He then sold the farm, and they lived for eighteen months thereafter in Delta Village, eventually renting other farms for five years, after which they took over his father,s farm in York Township. For nineteen years he successfully cultivated the property, and in 1918 purchased another farm of forty acres in section 9 of York Township, and in February of the following year, 1919, bought the old Force homestead of eighty acres in section 16 of York Township, where the Lutton family has since resided,. although he also farms his other property.. Altogether he has a rich farming property, and his returns in general farming, dairying, and stockraising are good.   Politically Mr. Lutton is a republican, and he has taken a close interest in local politics for many years, although he has never sought political office. He has been especially interested in educational matters, serving as school director.   On November 10, 1890, he married Minnie Force, who was born in York Township, daughter of Abraham Newton and Catherine (Bioce) Force. Her father was born in Wayne county, Ohio, and her mother in New York state. Mr. and Mrs. Lutton are the parents of two children, daughters: Goldie, who married Fred Moyer, of Delta, York Township, Ohio; and Pearl, who has remained at home with her parents. Lincoln E. Lutton is a representative Fulton county agriculturist, and has succeeded in life by resolute application to manly labor, and by enterprising management of good acreages.   522 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   HARVEY BARNEY FALOR. The name Falor has long been known in Pike Township, it being the birthplace of Harvey Barney Falor of Delta. He was born November 4, 1882, and is a son of James W. and Adeline (Denius) Falor. The father was born and died on the farm in Pike Township, and Mrs. Falor and her son removed to Delta. The grandfather, Barnabas Falor, was born in Ohio, but the grandmother, Margaret (McGinn) Falor, came from Ireland. Peter and HuIda (Kurtz) Dennis, who came from Pennsylvania, were among the early settlers in Pike. Township.. They bought timber land, which they improved and here the Falors lived many years.   James W. Falor met with an accidental death, and in 1916 Mrs. Falor left the farm and now lives in Delta. Harvey B. Falor is the only son, and in June, 1900, he married Elsie Elmira Fouty. She is a daughter of Park and Sarah (Eck) Fouty, and has always lived in Fulton county. Their children are Opal and Ralph.   On September 3, 1916, while riding from Toledo to Delta in an automobile, Mr. Falor was struck by a New York Central train and his left leg was crushed just below the knee., and he will always be a cripple from it. The Falors have a nice home on Wood street in Delta.   BRADLEY E. GROVER, one of the leading residents of York Township, Fulton county, Ohio, and for more than thirty years a well-known farmer in that section, has accomplished more than one man,s portion of pioneering work in Fulton county. He cleared the timber from eighty acres, converted it into rich tillable land, erected modern buildings on the place, added another forty acres to his holding, and generally by his industry added not. only to his material wealth but to the productivity of the county to that extent. His farm, known as Maple Lawn Farm, is typical of the rich agricultural land won from the unprofitable state of wild timber land. And during his decades of manly labor Bradley E. Grover did not shirk public responsibilities; he manifested commendable public spirit and took part in the activities, civic, church and educational, of the community. He is a. man of enviable personal repute in the township; has served on the School Board; has held the judicial office of justice of the peace; and for several years had been an elder of his church.   He was born in Linn county, Iowa, on December 27, 1854, the son of Arad and Sarah (Curtis) Grover, who were both natives of Ohio, and therefore among the early settlers in the state. After marriage the parents of Bradley E. Grover settled in Iowa, where he was born, but in about 1860 the family came into Fulton county, settling in Swan Creek Township, where both resided for the remainder of their lives. Bradley E. as a boy attended the district schools of Fulton county, and eventually became a student at the high school of Delta, Fulton county. He was early initiated into farm work, and knew most of the operations of general farming even before he had finished his academic schooling. And after .leaving school he settled down steadily and industriously to farming pursuits, being of much assistance to his father in his early manhood. He was twenty-five years old when he married, and soon after taking that responsibility he rented a farm in Swan Creek Township for two years, after which, in 1882, he .purchased eighty   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 523   acres of timber land in section 8, north of York Township. This he gradually cleared of timber, and in course of time developed it into its present state of productivity. His industry brought him adequate return, and he eventually acquired an additional forty acres, and adequately equipped the acreage with outbuildings. All the substantial buildings upon the place were erected by Mr. Grover, and the land has been brought into a high state of cultivation. Mr. Grover for thirty-three years worked the farm, always confining himself to general farming and dairying, and in 1915 he thought he might take life less strenuously. In that year he rented the farm to his son-in-law, and since that time he has lived in comparative retirement.   Mr. Grover has a good public record ; he has always been eager to support worthy local projects of community interest, and has been a stalwart supporter of the Christian Church of Delta, Ohio, of which he has been an elder for many years. Politically he is a republican, and while he has never sought political office, he has been a factor of some consequence in his district.. He has had a worthy record as justice of the peace, being a man of judicial bearing, impartial and honorable, and he has given the local School Board the benefit of his understanding of and interest in educational matters. He is also a member of the National Union of Delta.   On November 13, 1879, he married Ella Carpenter, who was born in Waterville, Ohio, daughter of Miles and Hannah (Carr) Carpenter, the former a native of Copley, Ohio, and her another of Pennsylvania. Her parents settled in Summit county, Ohio, early in their married life, and in 1852 came into Fulton county. He was a cabinet-maker and furniture dealer in Delta, where they both resided until their death. Although born out of the county, Mrs. Ella (Carpenter) Grover has lived practically the whole of her life in Fulton county. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley E. Grover are the parents of two children : Martha, who married P. S. Nofsiger, who now rents the Maple Lawn Farm of her parents; and Mildred, who married Clarence Lutton, of York Township.   JOHN M. CHAMBERLIN, a well-to-do farmer of York Township, and a leading resident of that section of Fulton county, has. during his busy life farmed extensive acreages in Arkansas and Ohio. He has shown marked enterprise in his farming, and notwithstanding his business ties has maintained a close and active interest in public affairs, taking part in the civic, religious and judicial responsibilities of the local administration. He has been a deacon of his church; served many years as justice of the peace; and is the township trustee. His interest in Fulton county has no doubt to some extent been actuated by the association of his grandparents with the early settlement of the county, and of the adjoining Henry county, but of course his interest arises directly from the fact that he is a native of York Township, Fulton county. He was born in that township on August 24, 1867, the son of Thomas L. M. and Mary Ann (Raker) Chamberlain. His father was born in New York State, but his mother was born in Swan Creek Township, Fulton county. The Chamberlain family is originally of 'English extraction, Micah Chamberlain, grandfather of John M., having been born in England. He appears to have come to the United States when a young man, and to have married Elizabeth Howard in Vermont, where she was born. . He and his wife came to Ohio between 1835 and   524 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   1840, and entered government land, a wild timber tract in Henry county, Ohio, where they settled, and there in time made for themselves a comfortable home. Their son Thomas L. M. was born in New York State, but spent almost all his early years in Henry county, Ohio, under the rigorous conditions that were the lot of the average pioneering families. He married Mary Ann.. Raker, daughter of John and . Elizabeth (Bixler) Raker, who were both born in Pennsylvania, and in about 1830 came into Fulton county and settled on Bad Creek, Swan Creek Township, where in course of time he became one of the largest landowners of the section, owning at one time 480 acres. Thomas L. M. and his wife, Mary Ann (Raker) Chamberlin, settled in York Township, Fulton county, soon after having married, and were resident in that place for the next fifteen years, moving then to Dickinson county, Kansas, having acquired a homestead of eighty acres near Abilene of that county. Six years later he purchased a further eighty adjoining acres, but later sold the whole property and returned to Fulton county, Ohio, where they remained for five years, then giong to Craighead county, Arkansas, where Thomas L. M. Chamberlin bought 100 acres of partly improved land, which six years later he sold to his two sons Cary M. and John M. Chamberlin. He returned to Fulton county, and has since that time resided in the county, latterly with his son John M. His wife, however, died January 28, 1899. Thomas L. M. and Mary Ann (Raker) Chamberlin were the parents of three children, sons, Forrest L., Carey and John M. The last named is, however, their only surviving child.   John M. as a boy attended district school, but schooling ended when he was fifteen years old, and when he was in the year of his majority he married. From that time he has lived a responsible life of consequential farming. When his father returned from Arkansas he and his elder brother, Cary, now deceased, formed a partnership to purchase their father’s Arkansas property, which they operated jiontly for five years. They divided the property and after the division the share of John M. consisted of 440 acres of which, however, only about 100 acres had been cleared of timber. He cleared about thirty additional acres, and entered extensively into general farming, 'becoming a large raiser of hogs, cattle and horses. He also successfully grew corn and cotton. During his occupation of the Arkansas property he returned several times to Fulton county, making stays of various duration, between six and eighteen months. Eventually, in 1906, he sold the 440 acres he owned in Arkansas and bought another property of 179 acres, only twenty-five acres of which had been cleared. This acreage he rented out, and bought forty acres of the original Chamberlin homestead in Swan Creek Township, Fulton county. He has given his time to his Fulton county properties since, and altogether owns in the county within half an acre of 100 acres, in two tracts, one of sixty acres in extent. He follows general farming, stockraising and dairying, and has reached a satisfactory material competence as the result of his life of industriousness.   Politically he is a republican, and has to some extent entered into public life, although he has not concerned himself actively in national politics. He' is of enviable repute in his own community, has served for six years as justice of the peace, has been township trustee since 1915, and in other ways has taken good part in the affairs of the community. Religiously he is a Baptist, and has been deacon of the local church of that denomination.