HISTORY OF OHIO - 175 ages, how to put the Golden Rule into operation in the daily life of all the people of the future, and into the management of all governments. Dr. Frank Crane in a recent editorial expressed his opinion of Mr. Gill and his work in the following language : " So in these days when many splendiferous names fill the air, it would take more than Diogenes and his lantern to pick out the man of this generation who is going to exercise the most influence upon generations to come. But in my opinion that man is a modest old school-teacher, lawyer, engineer, whose name is Wilson L. Gill. Because he has hold of the Biggest Idea in the World. He has given up his life to it. He has not died for it. He is doing better. He is living for it. That idea is, in a word—the School Republic. It is the last word in Democracy. It is the very root of Democracy. It is that without which Democracy can not persist. I believe in Democracy, as the best product of the slow growth of evolution. It means the redemption of the race. Jesus Christ was its first great exponent, and America is its most conspicuous example. Democracy means self-government. Gill says: Begin with the child. Teach him how to govern himself. Make your schoolroom a little United States, not a little Germany. Make every school in the United States a hotbed of Democracy. That is your answer to nine-tenths of your problems economic and civil. That is Gill's idea. That is why I say Wilson L. Gill is the most significant man in this country today. He is not rich. He deliberately gave up a railroad-building and industrial career that was leading to wealth. He is not famous, except in other lands where they have been more eager to follow his leadership." From 1895 to 1901 he was editor of "Our Country," and was then made general supervisor of moral and civic training on the Island of Cuba for the War Department during the first American occupation, to introduce the method he had successfully applied in New York City public schools in 1897. He was appointed United States supervisor at large of Indian schools, to give these schools the benefit of his educational discovery and invention. His book, " A New Citizenship," was published in 1913, and he is author of many other books and programs on education, civic training and reform, and is officially identified with a number of patriotic and educational organizations. Of his school republic idea President Roosevelt wrote in 1904: "I hear with satisfaction that a movement is well advanced to establish the teaching of citizenship by the admirable plan originated by Wilson L. Gill in the School Republic as a form of student government. I know of Mr. Gill's work both in this country and in Cuba, where he inaugurated this form of instruction upon the invitation of General Wood. Nothing could offer higher promise for the future of our country than such an intelligent interest in the best ideals of citizenship, its privileges and duties among the students of our common schools, as his method produces." Wilson L. Gill has for some years been a resident of Mount Airy, Philadelphia, 501 West Mount Pleasant Avenue. LEE A. FRAYER. Among Ohio's men of genius and the field of mechanical invention Lee A. Frayer, of Columbus, has earned high rank. He perfected one of the first four-cylinder automobiles, and has contributed many of the improvements and inventions that have marked the steady development of the automobile during the past twenty years. Mr. Frayer, who is chief engineer of the Budd-Ranney Engineering Company of Columbus, is a native of Missouri, but when he was two years of age his parents returned to Ohio, from which state they had gone West several years before. He was reared in Huron County, this state, was educated in the public schools, and as a youth began an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade. His home has been in Columbus since 1892, and after coming here he entered the Ohio State University, taking the full course in mechanical engineering, and was graduated in 1896. From his earliest youth he has been an investigator and inventor. Back in the '90s he was attracted to the fascinating problems of perfecting an internal combustion engine, and made many experiments to adopt such an engine to use on the automobile. He first built motorcycles. The Prayer model automobile, which he designed and built, was one of the prominent machines of its day and was placed on the market in 1904. It was a four-cylinder car of distinguished performance, and for several years had a wide sale. Other distinguished achievements in his career are generally familiar to the mechanical engineering profession everywhere. He designed and built the first bevel axle. for automobiles. He designed a gear shift that is still in use for motor cars. He also originated the left-hand drive, that affected a revolution in the automobile industry. He originated the present high door for automobiles, replacing the old phaeton door style. He was also among the first to construct a wire wheel for motor cars. Mr. Frayer for several years has been chief engineer for the Budd-Ranney Engineering Company of Columbus. This company specializes in the designing and construction of special machines for the manufacture of machine tools. Mr. Prayer's outstanding work in this capacity was designing an automatic bar machine for the manufacture of nuts, pipes and similar accessories. His company has patented this machine. It has various uses, but its main purpose is the manufacture of nuts. The improved device has made it possible to turn out nuts at the rate of 600 per minute as compared with sixty per minute of the older machines. All engineers have pronounced it a revolution in the nut-manufacturing industry. Mr. Frayer is married and has five children, named Thomas, Leo, Frederick William, Helen and Theodore. HARRY S. DAY who at the beginning of 1923 came to Columbus as one of the officials of the state government at the capital, where he entered upon his duties as state treasurer, has maintained his home throughout his active life in the northwestern part of the state, at Fremont, where he has been in business for many years. While his interests therefore have been identified with one quarter of the state and largely with one city, Mr. Day went to Columbus with the largest individual endorsement given to any state official in the election of 1922. He was born at Fremont in 1871, son of John and Emily (Williams) Day. His father, a native of Canada, removed to Fremont, Ohio, when a youth, was married there, and founded and during his lifetime developed to a high degree of prosperity the Fremont Nursery. He made that a business of utmost reliability, representing his personal principles of honor and integrity. His wife, Emily Williams, was a native of Ohio and member of one of the old families of Cleveland. Harry S. Day was reared in Fremont, attended the public schools there, and after leaving school for about nine years was in the railway mail service. He then became associated with his father in the Fremont Nursery, and when his father died he took entire charge, and has continued the business uninterruptedly in the same family and under the same name. 176 - HISTORY OF OHIO In connection with handling and managing the very prosperous business, that has propagated and distributed its supplies all over Ohio, Mr. Day became interested in polities, and has enjoyed some exceptional honors in that field. He was deputy postmaster at Fremont four years. Subsequently he upset all political traditions by being elected mayor of that city. Fremont had been strongly democratic for a long period of years, and he was elected mayor on the republican ticket against one of the strongest representatives of the democratic party. He was reelected mayor to succeed himself, and filled the office four years. In the primary campaign of 1922 Mr. Day received the republican nomination for the office of state treasurer. In the general election of November he received the highest honors, being chosen by a majority of 177,000 votes, the highest vote on the entire state ticket by several thousand. In other ways the vote cast for him was remarkable. In thirty-two counties his vote was the highest on the entire ticket, both republican and democratic, while in forty counties his vote was the highest on the republican ticket. Mr. Day assumed his duties as state treasurer at Columbus January 8, 1923. He married Miss Lola Garvin, of Fremont, and they have one daughter, Miss Elizabeth Day. Mr. Day is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and its social order the Knights of Khorassan, and is also a member of the Moose, the Maccabees and Eagles. FREDERICK O. WILLIAMS, M. D., president of the Columbus Academy of Medicine and a physician of thirty years experience, was a medical officer in the Navy during the World war, and represents two of the pioneer Welsh families of Ohio. His parents were Doctor David and Anna (Nichols) Williams. Dr. David Williams was born in Licking County, Ohio, and was a youthful Union soldier during the Civil war with an Ohio regiment. He was born at Alexandria, Licking County, and in his profession represented the Eclectic School. After the war he moved to Yorkville, Kendall County, Illinois, but in 1872 returned to his native community in Licking County, and practiced there until 1889. He then moved to Columbus, where he practiced until his death, in 1902. At one time he was president of the National Eclectic Medical Association, and was a member of the Ohio State Board of Medical Examiners from its organization until his death. Dr. David Williams outside of his profession was esteemed for his thorough scholarship and his high character. His wife, Anna Nichols, was born in Licking County, and was a direct descendent of Theophilus Rhys, famous as the founder of the original Welsh colony, the Welsh Hills, between Granville and Newark. Dr. Frederick O. Williams was born in 1868, during the residence of his parents at Yorkville, Kendall County, Illinois, and was about four years of age when brought to Ohio. He was educated in Granville Academy and Denison University, and from boyhood was more or less continuously a student of medicine and surgery with his father. He spent two years in the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, from which his father was a graduate, and in 1892 graduated from the literary department of Denison University of Granville, Ohio. He then entered the medical department of the Ohio State University in Columbus, was graduated in 1894, and soon afterward engaged; in private practice at Columbus. For a number of years his practice has been largely confined to internal medicine. His attainments in that field and his recognized leadership in the profession in general brought him the honor of election in December, 1923, as president of the Columbus Academy of Medicine, which comprises most of the physicians and surgeons in good standing practicing in the capital city. He is also a member of the Ohio State and American Medical associations. In 1917 Doctor Williams volunteered for service in the World war, and joined the Red Cross Medical Unit of the Ohio State University. With this unit he went into active service in August, 1917, assigned to the United States Navy. Doctor Williams held the commission of lieutenant commander and chief of the medical section, and was on duty at Hampton Roads, Virginia, from October 13, 1917, for eighteen months. He returned home about the middle of May, 1919, and resumed his private practice in Columbus. Doctor Williams has been honored with the office of commander of Navy Post of the American Legion. He is a member of the Optimist Club, Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and is a commander in the United States Naval Reserves. Doctor Williams married Caroline (Booth) Jones, also of prominent Welsh ancestry. Her uncle, Mr. H. J. Booth, is a distinguished member of the Columbus bar. Doctor Williams and his wife have one daughter, Miss Margaret C., a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and a teacher in the Columbus School for Girls. WILLIAM D. FULTON. In the public life of Central Ohio no name has been more familiar in recent years than that of Fulton. William D. Fulton is the former secretary of state of Ohio, has served in the Legislature, is a lawyer by profession, and during his residence at Columbus has become identified with some of the important real estate and business developments there. He was born at Homer, Burlington Township, Licking County, Ohio, in 1860, son of William and Rachel (Carver) Fulton. He began his career with a liberal education, having attended Olivet College at Olivet, Michigan, graduated with the class of 1883 from Denison University at Granville, Ohio, and after studying law was admitted to the bar in 1886. He began practice at Newark, county seat of Licking County, and for many years was associated with his brother, the late Judge T. B. Fulton. Judge Fulton served nine years as judge of the Court of Common Pleas, dying while still on the bench. While he was a practicing attorney Mr. Fulton was several times honored with public responsibilities. He served four years as city solicitor of Newark and later served as president of the city council of Newark. In 1910 he was elected to represent Licking County in the Ohio General Assembly, serving in the sessions. of 1911 and 1913, having been reelected in 1912. In these sessions he took a prominent part in the reapportionment legislation, being chairman on the committee on reapportionment, which affected a realignment of legislative and congressional districts in Ohio. In 1915 Mr. Fulton was elected secretary of state of Ohio. He was a member of the democratic ticket that year, the head of the ticket being Mr. James Cox, who was elected governor. Mr. Fulton took up his duties as secretary of state at Columbus on January 1, 1916, and since then has had his residence in that capital city. Since retiring from office he has practically discontinued the practice of law and has given most of his time to property and capitalistic transactions in Columbus, largely in association with his son, W. D. Fulton, Jr., member of the real estate firm of Converse & Fulton. Mr. Fulton and son own or control valuable business and residential properties, and have had an important part in some of the notable developments in the city in recent years. Mr. Fulton has four children: William D. Fulton., Jr., member of the firm of Converse & Fulton, real HISTORY OF OHIO - 177 estate; Miss Bertha, a graduate of Denison University and now head of the welfare work under the Federal Government at Ellis Island ; Miss Martha, a graduate of Wells College, New York, now overseas in Europe, engaged in welfare work financed by J. P. Morgan; and Miss Margaret, a college student. JOHN J. MAHONEY. The name of John J. Mahoney is one that stands for definite accomplishment and a definite service in Columbus. He is proprietor of a detective agency, and has been in detective and police work since early manhood. His experience covers a period of nearly half a century, and few men have had a broader contact with men and affairs in Central Ohio than this veteran detective. Mr. Mahoney was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1850, and when a lad was brought to Columbus. His father, Daniel Mahoney, became a farmer. John J. attended St. Patrick 's parochial schools, the public school in the North Building, under Principal Joseph Outwaite, who later distinguished himself as a member of Congress. As a boy he was put on his own resources and at one time he drove a buggy for Mr. Neal, whose daughter became the wife of Governor Dennison, and was also a teamster for the contractor Murphy and even helped dig the Spring Street sewer, a work for which Murphy was the contractor. A part of his early youth Mr. Mahoney spent in the family of Doctor Ide, one of the distinguished men of his time in Columbus, who entertained many public men of national fame at home, including such celebrities as Sunset Cox. Doctor Ide was a true friend to the boy, John Mahoney, and the latter remained in the Ide family until he was twenty-one years of age, getting $20 a month for wages. He turned over all these earnings to his mother, who gave him out of it 50 cents or a dollar for personal use. On the death of Doctor Ide his son, William Ide, became the employer of John J. Mahoney. The banking business of the Ides subsequently failed, and this left one of the well remembered tragedies of Columbus when a disgruntled depositor killed William Ide. Another son of the Ide family became an admiral in the United States Navy. Through his acquaintance with some influential men Mr. Mahoney had no difficulty in getting appointed a member of the police force, being the youngest of about twenty men comprising the police department. Its chief was Samuel Thompson, and one of the ablest councilmen at that time was Doctor Flowers. While he was on the police force occurred the great locomotive engineers' strike, which gave him an opportunity to display his courage, his exercise of tact, reason and firmness. He made several arrests in the face of an exasperated mob, and took his men to headquarters at Town and Fourth streets, a station then commanded by Capt. Charles Engelkey. The general manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad soon offered Mr. Mahoney a position, and he was assigned duty in the Union Depot under Superintendent Barney McCabe. He succeeded in breaking up much lawlessness, including robberies at the station, and was with the Pennsylvania company for sixteen years. Under Public Safety Director Muchmore, Mr. Mahoney was called to the city service as chief of detectives, and though an outspoken republican was retained during the administrations of two or three democratic mayors, until the election of Mayor Swartz. In partnership with Peter Murphy Mr. Mahoney started a private detective agency, but for twenty-five years, since entering his present offices in the Shultz Building, he has been sole owner. For several seasons Mr. Mahoney was employed to police the fair grounds, and in the course of years has built up one of the most efficient detective and private police organiza tions in the state, surrounding himself with a corp of men of splendid qualifications. Mr. Mahoney is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society, the Foresters, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and is the oldest in length of years among the communicants of St. Patrick 's Catholic Church. For forty years his home has been at 564 Mount Vernon Avenue. He married Miss Nora Griffin, of Delaware. Mrs. Mahoney died in 1917. There is one son, Frank J., who is also a detective. Mr. Mahoney has a granddaughter, Nellie, a miss of twelve, who demands and is accorded indulgence that is granted with pride and readiness. Mr. Mahoney recently visited his native land and birthplace, and on his return to America sought the greatest satisfaction in his long and faithful American citizenship. JUDGE LAERTES BARNES SMITH. One of the earliest families of importance to become established in what is now Lorain County, Ohio, bore the name of Smith. They were people from New England, descendants of early colonists, and were of that type that the Ohio of today refers to with ancestral pride and gratitude because of sturdy qualities and sterling character. To this family as one of its worthiest descendants belonged the late Judge Laertes Barnes Smith, a leader of the Elyria bar and for a number of years eminent on the probate bench. Judge Smith was born on his father 's farm in Amherst Township, Lorain County, Ohio, September 21, 1828. His parents were David and Fannie (Barnes) Smith, both natives of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and his paternal grandparents were Nancy and fancy (Marshall) Smith, the former of whom was born in Connecticut, November 11, 1765, and died in Ohio in 1840, and the latter, born January 19, 1765, died December 5, 1824. It was in 1814 that Judge Smith 's grandparents set out from their Massachusetts home for their new home in the Western Reserve that had been secured through the Connecticut Land Company. They necessarily traveled slowly with their ox-team and probably further impeded with almost constant necessity of seeking a fairly good road, having to actually cut one through the forest from the present site of Elyria to Amherst Township, which was not organized as such until 1817. The weary travelers reached their new home on October 16, 1814. The grandfather was no doubt a man of energy and resourcefulness. He cleared and improved his land in Amherst Township, and, like other early settlers, was called on to be hospitable in entertaining travelers, and no doubt this feature had something to do with his enlarging his cabin or building another, which was the first tavern in this part of the county and was situated four miles west of Elyria. By trade he was a tailor. In old age he gave his farm to his children. He was one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Amherst Township and was an exhorter in the same. David Smith, father of Judge Smith, was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, March 29, 1797. He was a farmer all his life and, like his father, was one of the solid men of his community. In 1824 he married Fannie Barnes, who was born December 23, 1802, in Connecticut, and they had nine children born to them, all of whom became substantial members of society. Laertes Barnes Smith grew up on the home farm and attended the district schools as occasion offered. When twenty-one years of age he learned the harnessmaking trade and worked at the same for four years, and then went to Laporte, Indiana, as a clerk in a hardware store. He returned to Lorain County in 1858, in the meanwhile having 178 - HISTORY OF OHIO made further educational progress, for from boyhood he had cherished an ambition that he was now in a position to gratify, that of becoming a lawyer. He entered upon the study of law in the office of Vincent & Sheldon, applied himself closely, and in 1860 was admitted to the bar and became a member of the above firm. In the following year Mr. Vincent retired, and the firm became Sheldon & Smith. In 1862 Mr. Smith became a law partner of Judge W. W. Boynton, and this congenial partnership continued until June, 1871, when Mr. Smith was appoitned probate judge of Lorain County, to fill a vacancy. He was found to be so eminently qualified for this office that he was elected and subsequently reelected and continued to serve until 1892. During this long period Judge Smith proved faithful to every trust and- administered his office with unquestioned integrity and undoubted ability, and when he passed away 'on May 12, 1896, Lorain County not only lost an eminent jurist but a citizen worthy of esteem in every relation of life. On December 26, 1871, Judge Smith married Miss Margaret Smyth, who was born at Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, December 21, 1841, a daughter of Michael and Mary (Gilmer) Smyth. In the summer of 1843 the parents of Mrs. Smith came to the United States and settArchaeological New York, and from there in 1862 she came to Elyria, where nine years later she was united in marriage to Judge Smith. She was educated at Geneva, New York, and is a member of the Catholic Church. Mrs. Smith still makes her home at Elyria and owns her fine modern residence at 630 Middle Avenue. Judge and Mrs. Smith became the parents of the following children: Fannie, who is the wife of Samuel Squire, of Elyria; Roscoe, who died in infancy; Clara L., who is the wife of A. B. Taylor, of Elyria; Frederick C., who died in infancy; Frank Carleton, who is a resident of Elyria; Gertrude E. who is Miirs. Frank Horan, of Elyria; and Leroy E., who died at the age of twenty-one years. In early political life Judge Smith was a democrat, but following the issues of the Civil war, became identified with the republican party. He had high standing in the Masonic fraternity, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. THE CENTRAL BUILDING LOAN & SAVINGS COMPANY, of Columbus, is one of the oldest and strongest organizations in a city and state where the home building loan organization is almost native and has reached the highest perfection of service. This company was organized in 1889, an organization to assist thrifty people in home building and home ownership. The original promoters were Gen. John Beatty, Maj. Andrew Rogers, Edward L. Hinman, of the Citizens Savings Bank, B. B. Crane, A. P. Lathrop and a Mr. Jeffries. The first quarters were a small room over the Citizens Savings Bank. It was soon realized that a more public place. was desirable, so the office was removed to a street-level room in the Columbus Savings & Trust Company. In a short time the assets of the company reached more than $100,000, and within seven years the assets had passed the $1,000,000 mark. About that time the present site was secured and the building remodeled especially for the purpose of the company. The company now has assets in excess of $3,000,000, has depositor membership of 4,000, and more than 6,000 homes have been constructed in Columbus through the assistance of this organization. The board of directors of the company have included some of the most respected and substantial men of Columbus. At least two of them, Judge John E. Sater and Fred J. Heer, have been connected with the business upwards of thirty years. Fred J. Heer, now president of the Central BboyhoodLoan & Savings Company, has been continuously identified with the printing business, as apprentice, employe and owner for fifty-three years. He was born at Columbus, October 14, 1858, son of Jacob Heer, who came from Bavaria, and was a machinist. Fred J. Heer after leaving school went to work in the printing business. The F. J. Heer Printing Company dates from 1907. It is a job and commercial printing house equipped to handle every contract in commercial and book printing, and has a force of 100 employes. Actively associated with the owner of the business is his son, Walter F. Heer, who is also manager of the Hunter, Trader and Trapper, a sporting and trade magazine established in 1900, and circulated in every civilized country. Mr. Heer is one of Columbus' best known citizens. He has been active in cooperating with every movement to make this a better residence and business center. He was president of the city council one term served eighteen years on the school board, being president ten years, and for twenty years was a member of the library board. He is a member of the Archteological and Historical Society, has been a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, and is active in fraternal and religious organizations. He belongs to the Athletic Club and the Olentangy Fishing Club. JOHN EDWIN TRITSCH, of 660 South High Street, Columbus, has been a well known figure in brick manufacturing, paving and public contracting circles in Ohio. His grandfather, Jacob Ezra Tritsch, came from Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1843, settling at Circleville, Ohio, and in 1848 moved to Logan, Ohio. He was a manufacturer and operated a woolen mill both at Circleville and at Logan. He retired from business in 1892 and died in his eightieth year. His son, John William Tritsch, learned the same line of business, and for a number of years was a parsr in the Logan mills, until that plant was closed down in 1892. He had a record as a Union soldier, serving three years and three months in Company E of the Ninetieth Ohio Infantry. He was only seventeen when he enlisted. He died at the age of sixty-three, in 1908. John Edwin Tritsch was born and reared at Logan, and acquired his early business experience in an office and subsequently became superintendent of the Logan Brick Company, manufacturers of paving brick. He left that company to become field superintendent of the Ohio Paving Company and for four years he supervised the paving organization this firm, on occasion having the responsibility of looking after four or five contracts at once. Since coming to Columbus Mr. Tritsch has been interested in merchandising. He is a member of the State Archaelogical and Historical Society. While at Logan he served on the village council and twice as its president, and during his term as mayor started the paving of the local streets with brick. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Knight Templar. In 1890 Mr. Tritsch married Miss Jennie Sanderson, of Logan, Ohio, a daughter of John T. and Esther (Spahr) Sanderson. John T. Sanderson was a well known merchant at Logan, as was also his father before him. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Tritsch two are now living, namely: John, who is advertising manager with the Toledo News-Bee, and Benjamin Kurtz, associated with his father in business. A. E. DOMONEY, a retired resident of the City of Columbus, whose home is at 1491 North High Street, HISTORY OF OHIO - 179 has been a resident of the capital city for seventy-one years. In 1874 he became a member of the firm of Rudisill & Domoney, the leading hat, cap and fur store on Capital Square. Later he was for a quarter of a century treasurer of the Tracy-Wells Company. Mr. Domoney has a large circle of friends and is a man of many interests. He has long been a student and collector of mound builders' relics, and has many fine specimens in his collections. He is a member of the State Archaeological and Historical Society. Mr. Domoney married Miss Mary E. Bancroft, of one of the old and distinguished families of Ohio, daughter of Ethan William and Sarah (Taylor) Bancroft. Their two -living children are Raymond Bancroft, and Alice, now the wife of Burt Miskimen, a representative of a pioneer family of- Coshocton County, Ohio. Mrs. Domoney is a descendant of Lemuel Bancroft, who served as a lieutenant in the American forces in the Revolutionary war. A son of this Revolutionary soldier was Ethan Bancroft, who came from Granville, Massachusetts, and settled near Granville, Licking County, Ohio, in 1805. He acquired a large amount of land there, and gave each of his children a large farm. The 'house erected by him is still standing. Ethan Bancroft was a soldier in the War of 1812. One of his two sons was Lyman Bancroft, grandfather of Mrs. Domoney. Ethan William Bancroft served for thirty-two years as foreman in railway machine shops, seventeen years with the Central Ohio Railroad and fifteen with Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad. He was one of the best known and most popular men of the city, and is said to have had more warm friends than any other man of his time in the community. Those who admired him best were those who worked under him in the railroad shops. He died December 19, 1891. One of Mrs. Domoney 's sisters is Mrs. Thomas Johnson, who for over twenty years was a teacher in the Columbus public schools. A cousin of Mrs. Domoney, Harriet Bancroft, was principal of the Fair Avenue School from its founding until she recently retired. Harriet Bancroft was a daughter of Alva Bancroft, for many years a well known grocer in Columbus. N. A. ALBANESE, M. D. One of the prominent surgeons of Columbus, Doctor Albanese is a native of that city, and in addition to the splendid work he has done in his chosen profession he has an interesting record of service as an army medical officer during the World war. He was born at Columbus, in 1892, of Italian parentage, and was reared and educated in the capital city. He finished his professional education in Ohio State University. He graduated from the medical department with the class of 1914, and soon afterward engaged in practice. At first he was a general practitioner, but in recent years had confined his attention almost entirely to general surgery, in which his attainments and abilities are well known. He has taken post-graduate courses in surgery in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Doctor Albanese is a member of the Columbus Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State and American Medical Association. He is active in local, civic and social organizations, particularly in the Italian Society, being an official of a number of these. Doctor Albanese spent thirty-three months in active military service with the United States forces as a medical officer. In the summer of 1916 he went to the Mexican border as first lieutenant of the Second Ohio Field Hospital Train. Returning from this service in March, 1917, he was soon afterward mustered into the National Army for the World war at Columbus Barracks, now Fort Hayes, as a captain in the Medical Corps. With a detachment of Ohio officers he was sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, thence to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, where he organized his company, the One Hundred and Forty-sixth Field Hospital Unit, attached to the Thirty-seventh Division. Doctor Albanese- went overseas with that division in June, 1918, and took part in all its engagements on the fighting front in France and Belgium. In April, 1919, he returned to America, was mustered out at Camp Sherman, Ohio, and in th summer of the same year resumed his private practice at Columbus. F. C. LONG. The thousands of students that annually flock to Columbus to attend the various schools of the State University probably know F. C. Long better than any other local business man in the capital city. Mr. Long is proprietor of the College Book Store at 1834 North High Street. He is himself a graduate of the State University, taking the Bachelor of Science degree in 1903. He was born in Preble County, Ohio. This book business was established in 1902 on a $500 basis, and he has kept it growing and expanding until he now has from fifteen to thirty employes and his stock of books and supplies is housed in a three-story building with a seventy-five foot frontage. He does an extensive jobbing business and handles 1,000,000 volumes of text books annually. Mr. Long is also manager of the R. G. Adams Company, publishers of educational text books. CHANNING WEBSTER BRANDON, president and founder of the Columbus Mutual Life Insurance Company, has been described as the "miracle man of life insurance," and has not only made his company, in fifteen years, one of the best and most popular life insurance organizations in the country, but even more important has effected reforms in insurance methods that are gradually being forced upon competing companies and producing results that involve the saving of millions annually. Mr. Brandon has been in the insurance business since he was twenty-four years of age. He was born at Marion in Grant County, Indiana, December 11, 1858, son of Rev. Thomas A. and Susannah (McCullough) Brandon. His parents were both born in Ohio, of pioneer stock. His father was in the ministry of the Christian Church for over fifty years, both in Ohio and Indiana, and desired that his son Manning W. should adopt the same vocation. However, the son obeyed the stronger call to commercial lines. He was educated in the public schools of the different towns where his father was pastor. From the age of sixteen to eighteen he clerked in a grocery store, and soon afterward, before he was nineteen years of age, he married. He also tried teaching, and for a period he proved a successful book salesman. In 1880 he engaged in the mercantile business at Bellefontaine, Ohio, and was there until he entered the insurance business. Mr. Brandon, it is said, was attracted into the insurance field by hearing a solicitor canvass one of his relatives. In 1884 he became agent for the Union Central Life at Bellefontaine, and later represented the Phoenix Life and other companies. He had a quarter of a century of selling experience before he founded a company of his own. During that time his experience and study brought him a great many ideas as to methods of overcoming obvious defects and cost in the life insurance business, and he possessed a very clear and definite program when he undertook the organization of the Columbus Mutual Life Insurance Company. Mr. Brandon has been a resident of Columbus 180 - HISTORY OF OHIO since June, 1903. In November, 1907, he incorporated the insurance company, and it began business in April, 1908. Among the distinctive features announced by the Columbus Mutual at the beginning and strictly maintained ever since were the following: Participating life insurance only; unrestricted territory for all agents and absolutely vested renewals; elimination of general agents and branch office managers so as to give equal opportunity to all and special favors to none. Acting on these principles, and through the able fiscal management at the home office, the company has been able to effect decrease in the cost of insurance to policyholders and increased compensation to its producing agents. The company closed the year 1923 with $56,900,000 of insurance in force, policyholders' surplus of $880,045 and assets of $5,231,740. Through all the struggles of his early career and in the success of his later years Mr. Brandon had one partner with absolute confidence in his abilities and his unfailing counselor, his wife. He and Josephine S. Archard were married in September, 1877. They have four children: William T., Henry P., Mary Josephine and Archard. FRED LAZARUS, SR. One of the oldest and most honored names in the mercantile history of Columbus is that of Lazarus. A great store, with nearly 1,000 employes and patronized in the course of a year by nearly every family in Columbus and Central Ohio, is the visible commercial monument of the Lazarus family, notably the result of the ambitious idealism of Fred Lazarus, Sr. This business, known as the F. & R. Lazarus Company, has been in existence more than seventy years. Its founder was Simon Lazarus, and the active men in the business at the present time are his grandsons. Simon Lazarus came from Wuertemberg, Germany, and started a modest mercantile enterprise in Columbus in 1851. He and his wife possessed $3,000 capital, the basis of their early operations. The only line carried at first was clothing, but after the Civil war the business gradually expanded. In 1877 it became S. Lazarus & Sons, upon the death of Simon Lazarus, his widow retaining an interest until her death. The sons were Fred and Ralph Lazarus, both of whom grew up in the store as lads, sweeping out and carrying water from the river until a more convenient town pump was accessible, and learning the business from the ground up. It was the ambition of the founder as also of his sons to keep the business apace with the growth of Columbus, the establishment ever leading in the retail shopping districts of the capital. The first store was in a single room, 16 by 50 feet. The central part of the present handsome store building was erected in ,1909, and by subsequent enlargements the store now occupies all of a four-story and basement structure with a frontage of 125 feet on High Street and 187 feet in depth. It has 800 employes. A great merchant, one who realized his own and his father 's exalted ideals, was the late Fred Lazarus, who was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, May 5, 1850. He died March 23, 1917, just a week after the business had celebrated its sixty-fifth anniversary. He was educated in the public schools, the old Lutheran College and Bush and Marshall's Business College. Fred Lazarus gave more than half a century of service to merchandising. At the death of his father in 1877 he and his brother Ralph continued the business as partners until the death of the latter in 1903. In 1906 the F. & R. Lazarus Company. was incorporated. For a number of years the four sons of Fred Lazarus—Fred, Jr., Simon, Robert and Jeffrey—had been active in business. Fred Lazarus was not only president of this company, but was a director and a member of the executive committee and one of the founders of the Ohio National Bank, and was also a director of the Central National Bank, the Ohio Trust Company and the Lincoln Savings Bank. He was active in work for the Montefiori Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites, was a trustee and treasurer of the Jewish Orphan Asylum, and for many years a trustee and treasurer of the Temple Israel. He was a former president of the Columbus Children's Hospital, and was past vice president of the Chamber of Commerce. He had membership in the Automobile Club, the Athletic Club, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Business Men's Club, the Progress Club, and was an honorary life member of Columbus Lodge of Elks and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. Partly from his father and partly out of his own experience Fred Lazarus derived a standard of ideal perfection for his mercantile business, and that ideal he kept before him from the time he was affiliated with his father 's store as a utility worker until at the end of life he was head of a great establishment employing hundreds and dealing in merchandise brought from all quarters of the globe. It is given to few men to succeed in realizing an ideal so perfectly as was true of the career of Fred Lazarus. The success of the business was not only a personal ambition, but was a measure of his public spirit, since He regarded the store as an essential part of the commercial life of Columbus, and desired that its progress should always be consistent with the growth and development of the capital city. He was a fine type of the American citizen, democratic and intensely patriotic. Democracy was one of his striking attributes. Workers in his store were and are known as "associates" and not as "employes." His charity proceeded not from impulse, and was not an incidental attribute of his character, but came as a constant expression of something deep within him and largely for that reason it yielded help and encouragement to hundreds who came to him or whom in an unobtrusive manner he assisted without their knowing the benefactor. His wife was Miss Rose Eichberg, who was born in Cincinnati in 1859, and survived her husband just six years, passing away in 1923. She had been a resident of Columbus forty-two years, and was widely known for her social and religious activities. For more than twenty-five years she was president of the Temple Israel Sisterhood, and took a leading part in all the activities of the Temple on Bryden Road. She was a director of the District Nursing Association, and was interested in the work of the Children's Hospital and the Baby Camp and other institutions. AMBROSE CRELLIN for many years was one of the district and state representatives of the International Harvester Company. His duties with that corporation brought him to Columbus in 1908. He finally retired from this business to take up real estate, and has since been head of the Crellin Realty Company, a general real estate and farm loan organization at Columbus that is widely known for its effective service throughout Ohio. Mr. Crellin was the organizer and is the secretary-treasurer and manager of the Columbus National Farm Loan Association. He was born in 1868, on the Isle of Man, England, son of D. J. and Margaret (Taubman) Crellin. The Crellins are one of the. historic families that have peopled the beautiful Isle of Man for many centuries. They have partaken of the general character associated with the Manxmen as devout, law respecting, orderly and peaceful inhabitants. Ambrose Crellin was brought to America by his parents in 1871. The family established their home near Council Bluffs, HISTORY OF OHIO - 181 Iowa, in what was then a frontier district. Ambrose was then two years of age. He grew up in the new country of the middle West, and as a young man became an employe of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, subsequently one of the larger units in the International Harvester Company. He started in a humble capacity, and gradually made himself worthy of promotions to executive responsibilities. He had charge of territories for the company in different parts of the country. He was with the business twenty-two years, and for seventeen years of that time had executive duties. The International Harvester Company sent him to Columbus in 1908 as general agent in Ohio. His home has been at Columbus ever since except for three years when he was general agent for the International Harvester Company in Florida and the West Indies. On retiring from the International Harvester Company in 1914 Mr. Crellin established the Crellin Realty Company, which through his wise and skillful Management has enjoyed steadily increasing power and prestige and become one of the larger organizations in Central Ohio engaged in general real estate and farm loans. In December, 1922, Mr. Crellin affected the organization of the Columbus National Farm Loan Association, and is now the active head of that institution, being its secretary, treasurer and manager. This is the first organization effected in Central Ohio to act under and provide the benefits of the Federal land banks for this territory. At the time Mr. Crellin came to Columbus he had a family of young children, and had seriously in mind a permanent location that would afford them the advantages he deemed ideal. After investigating the modern and progressive City of Columbus, its many advantages as the center of one of the greatest states in the Union and also those of an educational, religious and social nature, he decided that Columbus realized his ideal, and nothing has ever occurred to disturb those convictions. Mr. Crellin is a Knight Templar Mason, is a member of the Columbus Athletic Club, and is a prominent layman of the Methodist Church. He is treasurer and member of the official board of the Columbia Methodist Episcopal Church, is superintendent of its Sunday school, and is also treasurer of the Franklin County Sunday School Association. Mr. Crellin married Miss Hattie I. Totten, of Fond du lac, Wisconsin. Their six children are Mrs. Mildred I. Kidd of Columbus, Ohio ; Mrs. Ethel M. Sidner of West Jefferson, Ohio ; Mrs. Ruth E. Denser of Columbus; Miss Gladys M., a student in the Ohio State University ; Eugene, attending high school ; and Warren Crellin, a pupil in the Columbus graded schools. GEORGE GRINDLEY THOMAS, a member of an old and prominent family in Southern Ohio, is one of the firm of Beman Thomas & Company, public accountants at Columbus, with offices at 193 East Broad Street. Mr. Thomas was born at Jackson, in Jackson County, Ohio, in 1881, son of R. W. and Ida (Beman) Thomas. His father, who died in 1923, was born in Wales and became prominent among the Welsh colony that settled in Jackson County in the early days. In the Civil war he was a Union soldier in the Forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. George Grindley Thomas acquired a public school education in his native county, after which he attended Ohio University at Athens, graduating from that classic institution in 1909. He is remembered as one of the most popular students of the university, especially in athletic circles, being one of the stars on the university baseball team. After his college career Mr. Thomas entered the Citizens Savings and Trust Company at Jackson and was with that institution nearly five years, holding the position of assistant cashier. During the World war period he was in a civilian capacity in the Quartermaster General's Department at Washington. Mr. Thomas in 1920 on coming to Columbus became associated with his brother, Mr. Beman Thomas, in the firm of Beman Thomas and Company, public accountants. This is a very prosperous business, specializing in income tax service and also performing the duties of appraisers and auditors, advising in business audits, budgets and cost systems. At the annual banquet of the Columbus Alumni Association of Ohio University in March, 1924, Mr. Thomas was honored by being elected president of the association. He had previously served it as secretary. ALBERT C. CORFMAN. For many years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal faith, Albert C. Corfman has broadened the scope of his operations, and, while still a clergyman, he is in charge of the office of the New York Life Insurance Company at Elyria. While in the pursuit of his ministerial duties he became impressed with the crying need for an education of the people to the necessity of making adequate provision for the future, so many times was he called into homes left destitute by the death of the breadwinner, or saw worthy people in want during their declining years. His circle of acquaintance is wide, his influence is strong, and his advice is asked in many instances with reference to taking out insurance, and in this work he feels that he is rendering a service to humanity that supplements the work of the pulpit. In fact he so blends the two vocations as to make the results very gratifying. Albert C. Corfman was born at Sycamore, Wyandotte County, Ohio, June 29, 1865, a Eton of William and Barbara Jane (Terflinger) Corfman, natives of Wyandotte County, and grandson of Jacob and Mary (Beery) Corfman. Jacob Corfman was born January 7, 1806, and his wife was born August 13, 1803, and both were natives of Fairfield County, Ohio. Coming to Wyandotte County, Ohio, at an early date, Jacob Corfman secured from the Government a tract of land, on which he built the first frame house in his locality. The framework was of basswood, which was sealed with basswood and weather-boarded with black walnut, and the shingles were also of this now almost priceless wood. The maternal grandparents of Reverend Corfman were Daniel and Elizabeth (Wininger) Turflinger, natives of Ohio. Daniel Terflinger was a son of Christopher and Elizabeth (Hackathorn) Terflinger, the former born in 1760, and the latter in 1771, and both were natives of Pennsylvania. Christopher Terflinger was a soldier of the American Revolution. Following the close of the war in which he had participated he moved from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Fairfield County, Ohio, and was one of its very earliest settlers. William Corfman and his wife settled on a farm in Wyandotte County following their marriage, and he became one of the prominent men of his day, serving as justice of the peace for twelve years, and for eight years was township clerk. He promoted the Wyandotte Mutual Fire Insurance Company and served as its secretary and treasurer for years, and also promoted and organized the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery of Tymochtwee Township. Going to Tiffin, Ohio, he lived there for seven years, but then moved back to Sycamore. He died June 24, 1914. His wife died November 10, 1870. Reverend Corfman attended the high school of Galveston, Indiana, and Oberlin Seminary. In 1887 he was ordained a deacon of the Evangelical Church, 182 - HISTORY OF OHIO and in 1889, as an elder. In 1885 he began his preaching in Logan County, Ohio. After two years there he was sent to Westerville, Ohio, where he spent two years. The following year was spent at Warsaw, Ohio. Subsequently he took a leave of absence to attend Oberlin College, and entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and held charges at Pittsfield and Granger, Medina County, Ohio, remaining in Granger four years, in Brunswick one year, and was in the county for five years. Subsequently he was pastor of the Pearl Road Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland, Ohio, for three years, and was in Gambier three years. He was then transferred for five years to Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio, where he remained for eight years, doing most effective work for his church. His next pastorate was of four years' duration, and he had charge of the church at New London, Huron County, Ohio, from where he was called to Barberton, Ohio, and remained for two years. In 1916 he came to Elyria, took a leave of absence and began selling life insurance. In February, 1917, he supplied the Methodist Episcopal Church at Penfield, and continued this work for five and one-half years, driving to his charge from Elyria every Sunday morning. At present he is preaching at La Porte, Ohio. In May, 1918, he became the representative of the New York Life Insurance Company at Elyria, and still is in charge of the Elyria office. On December 29, 1887, Mr. Corfman married Min-the Frances Fuson, born in Logan County, Ohio, a daughter of George and Virginia (Slegle) Fuson, born in Champaign County, Ohio, near Pleasant Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Corfman have two children: Stanley Albert, who was born June 2, 1893, is connected with the National Carbon Company, Incorporated, of New York City ; and Mildred Minnie, who was born August 9, 1901, is a graduate of Elyria High School and is a junior in Oberlin College. Mr. Corfman belongs to the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Council of the Masonic fraternity, and is chaplain of F. S. Harmon Lodge No. 663, Free and Accepted Masons, of Elyria. He is a member of the Masonic Club of Elyria, of the Elyria Exchange Club and of the National Motorists Association. A man of the highest ideals, he seeks in his work to carry out his religious belief, and to make his every action an inspiration toward Christian living and good citizenship. ERWIN C. ZEPP is a florist by profession, and one of the accomplished young men in that line of work. His home and business are at Lorain. He was born in Cleveland, July 2, 1902, son of Charles and Ida (Praecejus) Zepp, his father a native of Cleveland and his mother of Germany. His father became a farmer at Chardon, Ohio. Erwin C. Zepp attended the grammar and high schools at Chagrin Falls, Ohio. When he was eighteen years old he went to work in a factory at Cleveland, also followed the trade of carpenter a few months, and then became an employe of the greenhouses of Daisy Hill Farms. He was there two years, and after returning home became manager of the Lorain branch of the Wilms Greenhouses at Lorain, but resigned that position a few months later, and entered the Ohio State University to study for his profession as a florist. He has produced all kinds of flowers. Mr. Zepp is unmarried and is a Protestant in religion. RANDALL H. MITCHELL is one of the older men in the automobile business, and has been an interested observer of the development of automotive vehicles since the first crude experiment. Mr. Mitchell is in business at Columbus, where he is president of the Packard Columbus Motor Company, distributors of the famous Packard car. He was born at Arbroth, Scotland, in 1877, ana acquired his early education in the schools of his native land. He was sixteen when in 1893 his parents, Charles D. and Jane Mitchell, came from Scotland and settled at Detroit, Michigan. Randall H. Mitchell was reared at Detroit, and from early manhood until 1917 was engaged in business in that great automobile center. On removing to Columbus in 1917 he became the distributor in this territory for the Packard cars, and organized and is president of the Packard Columbus Motor Company. This company has a well appointed and commodious display room, offices and shops on East Broad Street at Grand Avenue. Mr. Mitchell is secretary of the Columbus Auto Dealers' Association. He is a member of the Rotary Club, the Columbus Country Club, the Scioto Country Club, the Columbus Athletic Club, and is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He married Lucile Tiffany, of Detroit, whose father was born in Ohio and graduated from Oberlin College. WILLIAM F. GRALL, former mayor of the City of Lorain, has lived most of his years in Lorain County. For a number of years he was connected with. Young Men's Christian Association work, and has also filled a number of business responsibilities, and his experience gave him exceptional qualifications for his duties as the chief executive officer of Lorain. He was born at Cleveland, Ohio, March 27, 1882, son of Charles F. and Catherine (Heiss) Grall. His father was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, and his mother at Cleveland. His paternal grandparents, Christian and Wilhelmina (Keller) Grall, in 1867 came to America and located at Hillsboro, Missouri, where Christian Grall acquired a farm. He was instrumental in establishing a school known as the Grall School House in his community. The maternal grandparents of Mayor Grall were Fred and Catherine (Greiner) Heiss, natives of Baden, Germany, who settled in Cleveland about 1848, Fred Heiss being a locksmith by trade. Charles F. Grall and wife lived in Cleveland after their marriage. He was reared a farmer, subsequently became a teamster, and was agent of a brewing concern until 1917. At Lorain he operated a soft drink parlor and was agent for the Krantz concern, and since 1922 has been a city employe of Lorain. He and his wife reside in the same house with their son, William F. William F. is the only survivor of three children. The son Carl died when twenty-one years of age, and the daughter, Edna, at the age of four years. William F. Grall attended public school in Cleveland. He was thirteen years of age when his parents came to Lorain in 1895. He graduated from high school in 1900, and in 1904 graduated from Oberlin College. He at once took up Young Men's Christian Association work in charge of membership and educational service at Marion, Ohio. In the spring of 1906 he was made general secretary of the Ashland Young Men's Christian Association, and conducted a campaign that resulted in the building of the fine Young Men's Christian Association edifice in that city. Mr. Grall in October, 1908, returned home and for a time was connected with the Lorain schools. In 1909, on account of ill health, he spent five months at Fort Collins, Colorado, and did Young Men's Christian Association work. When he returned home in November, 1909, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and served until released by honorable discharge. He then taught for a time in the high school at Amherst, Ohio. Mr. Grail married, November 23, 1910, Miss Florence LeFevre, a native of Ashland and daughter of HISTORY OF OHIO - 183 Andrew J. and Emma (Yeater) LeFevre. Her parents were natives of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Grail was educated in the grammar and high schools of Ashland, Ohio, and in Ashland College. After his marriage Mr. Grail taught in Amherst, but established his home at Lorain. From there he moved to Chicago, and in February, 1911, became private secretary to the general manager of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association. In April, 1915, he returned to Lorain, and was employed as a collector in the law office of J. J. Ewers, and for some months was reporter for the Lorain Daily News. In November, 1917, Mr. Grail was elected president of the Lorain city council, serving one term of two years. While in the council he was an office employe of the steel plant, and later became connected with the American Shipbuilding Company, serving as clerk in the storeroom of the pipe fitting department. Mr. Grail was elected to his first term as mayor of Lorain in the fall of 1919, beginning his official term in January, 1920. He was reelected in 1921, this term expiring in December, 1923. Mr. and Mrs. Grail have six children, Frederick Carl, Emma Catherine, Ruth LeFevre, Roderick Charles and Rosalind Anne (twins), and Sara Louise. Mr. Grail is a member of St. John's Evangelical Church and is teacher of the Men's Bible Class. He is a democrat in political affiliations, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. CLARENCE B. HOOVER. No department of municipal service is more important to the welfare of citizens than the water supply. The active head of this department in the City of Columbus is Clarence B. Hoover, who has the title of superintendent of the division of water and sewage disposal of the department of public service. Mr. Hoover was technically educated to qualify him for work in this field of sanitary engineering, and his long experience has brought him an unsurpassed knowledge of everything connected with the water and sewage system of the capital city. Mr. Hoover was born at Venice, in Butler County, Ohio, in 1881, son of Dr. C. C. and Carrie E. (Boal) Hoover. He grew up in Southern Ohio, attended the public schools at Rose and Hamilton, and first came to Columbus as a student in Ohio State University. He was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1903, and then spent one semester specializing in bacteriology in Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. On completing his course in 1904 he returned to Columbus, and from that time his experience and work have been with the city water department except for the period of the World war. Mr. Hoover has held his present office as superintendent of the division of water and sewage disposal of the department of public service since December, 1921. As superintendent he has charge of the city water works, the filtration and sewage disposal plants, all construction and extension of the water mains, and the testing and purification of the water supply. The work of his division has been greatly increased during the last several years. Beginning in the summer of 1923, his department entered upon an extensive program for the general improvement of the water system, including the enlargement of the system of water distribution, the extension of water, service to outlying portions of the city and other alterations. This work is being done under a $3,000,000 bond issue authorized by the city council. Mr. Hoover enlisted in 1918, and was assigned to duty on construction work at Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Michigan. Subsequently he was commissioned captain in the Construction Division of the Quartermaster 's Corps of the United States Army. From Camp Custer he was transferred to construction work at the army supply base at Norfolk, Virginia, and remained there until after the armistice. Mr. Hoover is a member of the Engineers Club of Columbus, the American Public Health Association, the American Water Works Association and the Lions Club. By his marriage to Miss Florence May Scott he has one daughter, Elizabeth. R. BRUCE BIDWELL, a resident of Columbus since 1906, has been identified with the county government in some capacity or another for ten years. He is the present deputy sheriff, having a wide range of executive and administrative duties under Sheriff Holy-cross. Mr. Bidwell was born in Canaan Township, five miles north of West Jefferson, in Madison County, Ohio, July 21, 1880. When he was four years of age his father died, and in 1885 the mother and her children moved to Franklin County, locating on a farm in Brown Township, four miles west of Hilliards. In that community R. Bruce Bidwell grew up. As a youth and since attaining manhood he has kept in touch with the rural population, and it is said that he knows by name nine out of ten of all the residents of Franklin County west of the Scioto River. He attended township school there, the high school at Hilliards, was a pupil in the Central High School in Columbus, and his further training was acquired in McCafferty 's Business College and Roberts' Business College of Columbus. Mr. Bidwell by practical work had an experience in every phase of farming as practiced in Franklin County. In 1906, at the age of twenty-six, he moved to Columbus, and after some experience in other lines he was made a clerk in the county recorder 's office at Columbus. He served four years in that office and three years in the treasurer 's office, and in that way became thoroughly familiar with the administrative detail of county offices. Immediately after the election of Sheriff Holycross, in November, 1920, Mr. Bidwell was prevailed upon to become his chief deputy, in charge of all the clerical and financial details and other records of the sheriff 's office, and frequently engaged in outside duties, particularly in the direction of raids and posse looking after bootlegging cases and the arrest of criminals. Mr. Bidwell is a staunch republican in politics, being a member of the Buckeye Republican Club. He also belongs to the Columbus Automobile Club, the American Automobile Association, the Hilltop Athletic Club, is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and member of the Knights of Pythias. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Bidwell married Miss Francis M. Carey. She was born and reared in Franklin County. They have one son of their own, Raymond, and they are also rearing a little girl, Laura Evelyn Southworth. WILLIAM HANCOCK WEBB. In personal acquaint. ance based on business experience perhaps no one knows Ohio people better than W. H. Webb of Columbus. For a number of years he was a dealer in school equipment, a business that took him to every county of the state. He has been interested in educational affairs, in politics, and was recently elected president of the Ohio Brokers and Security Dealers Association. Mr. Webb was born at Roscoe, in Coshocton County, Ohio, in 1871, son of John and Margaret M. (Webb) Webb. His friends say that he started the battle of life when a small boy, and in the sense of hard and persistent work has been a fighter all his life. While attending school at Coshocton he worked as a laborer in brick yards 184 - HISTORY OF OHIO and at other manual toil. Later, when he was qualified, he taught school and for several years was school superintendent at Brinkhaven, Fredericksburg, and in other towns. In one of the schools that he taught a boy pupil was named Vie Donahey, who is now the governor of Ohio. From teaching Mr. Webb engaged in the school equipment and school supply business. He became a dealer and jobber for several standard manufacturing concerns and publishers, and he made the business one that served practically the entire state of Ohio, and other states as well. It was in the course of this work that he visited and in many eases delivered addresses in every county of Ohio. His chief business concern for several years has been the Central Securities Company of Columbus, of which he is vice president and general manager. This company has offices in the Rowlands Building at Columbus. Mr. Webb was largely instrumental in organizing the Ohio Brokers and Security Dealers Association, which was founded in September, 1923, and of which he was elected the first president. The purpose of this association is to promote friendly relations among legitimate and licensed dealers in stocks, bonds and securities, and also to set and maintain proper standards in this business and promote measures for the protection of the public. Politics with Mr. Webb is a diversion and not a profession, and yet he has been engaged in several campaigns as one of the popular democratic orators. In 1900 he worked under the auspices of the National Democratic Campaign Committee in the Bryan-McKinley campaign, and in 1908 delivered many speeches in Ohio during the campaign of Hon. Judson Harmon for governor. ASAPH JONES, former mayor of Elyria, and one of the leading realtors of Lorain County, is a man who has had a long and varied experience and is one of the leading citizens of his home community. He was born at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1868, a son of Richard W. and Mary Ann (Davis) Jones, both natives of Wales. Richard Jones was brought to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, by his parents when he was fourteen years old. His wife was only seven years old when her parents, James and Margaret Davis, located at Johnstown. Richard W. Jones and Mary Ann Davis were married at Johnstown, and there he was a merchant for a number of years, and also had charge of the supply department of the Cambria Steel Company. His death occurred when he was seventy-eight years old, his wife having passed away previously. After having attended the graded and high schools of Johnstown, Asaph Jones took a business course, and at the age of nineteen years entered the mechanical department of the Cambria Steel Company, and after he had been with that concern for four years was made a foreman and held that position for four years. He then went with the Johnson Steel Company for four years. This concern was subsequently moved to Lorain, and was known as the Lorain Steel Company. Although he still maintained connections with the Lorain Steel Company, Mr. Jones moved to Elyria, and five years later began manufacturing friction clutch pulleys for gas and gasoline engines. After three years of this business he sold his interests, and with his father-in-law, Sumner B. Day, went into the real estate business, and is now engaged in handling local properties. On November 9, 1899, Mr. Jones married Edith Maria Day, who was born in Sheffield Township, Lorain County, Ohio, a daughter of Sumner Burrell and Susan (Knox) Day, natives of Lorain County and Hermon, New York, respectively. William and Augusta (Burrell) Day, the paternal grandparents of Mrs. Jones, were among the earliest settlers of Lorain County, where the maternal grandparents, William and Maria (Earle) Knox, also settled at an early day, coming here from New York State. Mr. and Mrs. Jones became the parents of the following children: Ernest Lee, Sumner Richard, Rodrick Orlando and Edith Lucile. Mr. Jones belongs to the First Congregational Church of Elyria, but for twenty-three years was choir director of the Episcopal Church, resigning recently from that position. For four years he was a member of the city council, and in 1917 was elected mayor of Elyria, of which he served with honor and distinction until January, 1924, having been the candidate of the republican party each time he has come before the public. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar and Shriner Mason, and belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees. He is past president of the Kiwanis Club, and past lieutenant governor of the Ohio state organization of the Kiwanis Club. He served, while choirmaster of the Episcopal Church, as president of the Saint Andrews Men's Club, and he is past president of the Elyria Singers Club. Mr. Jones is a director and member of the finance committee of the Savings Deposit Bank & Trust Company; is a director and a member of the finance committee of the Lorain County Mortgage Company; a director of the Elyria Lumber & Coal Company; a trustee of the Elyria Memorial Hospital; and is chairman of the Open Forum, bringing to all of these duties an enthusiasm and capability that is characteristic of the man, and lie has been a potent factor in his really remarkable advancement. Mrs. Jones belongs to the Daughters of the American Revolution, to the Woman's Civic Club and to the Woman's Welsh Club, as well as to different church organizations. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jones are most highly regarded at Elyria and throughout Lorain County, and their interests are centered therein, for it is their home and the home of their many friends. LEO R. MEYER. A taste for mechanics has been a leading factor in the pronounced success that has rewarded the business endeavors of one of Elyria's substantial young business men, Leo R. Meyer, president and treasurer of the Leo R. Meyer Motor Company, successor of the Elyria Garage Company. In early manhood other and profitable vocations awaited him, but he fortunately recognized his natural talents and took the trouble to develop them, and now is at the head of one of the most prosperous enterprises in his line in this section of Ohio. Mr. Meyer comes of old Ohio families. He was born at Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio, June 21, 1887, and is a son of John W. and Josephine (Lais) Meyer, the former of whom was born at Havana, Huron County, and the latter at Monroeville, Ohio. The father was in the meat business, and conducted a market at Norwalk until 1905, and then transferred his interests to Elyria, where he continued in business some years under the name of the Elyria Provision Company, but now lives retired and is one of Elyria's highly respected citizens. Leo R. Meyer attended the grade schools and the high school at Norwalk, Ohio, until he was sixteen years old, when, having finally secured his father’s consent, he became a machinist apprentice in the shops of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company, where he continued for four years, emerging well qualified and well satisfied. A little before this time his father had removed to Elyria, and subsequently the father and son became associated in business and conducted the affairs of the Elyria Provision Company for abOut five years, of which company Leo R. Meyer became president. Mr. Meyer then HISTORY OF OHIO - 185 moved to Detroit, Michigan, where for eight months he was identified with the mechanical department of the Fisher Body Company and investigated along other lines in which he was interested, but in August, 1910, he returned to Elyria, acquired stock in the Elyria Garage Company and became its general manager and treasurer. Under his able and intelligent management the business was greatly developed, and in March, 1921, upon its merging into the Leo R. Meyer Motor Company, he was elected president and treasurer of the company. The other officers of the company are J. Ogden Meyer, vice president ; Lillian G. Meyer, secretary; Leo R. Meyer, Jr., J. M. Shibley, Alvin J.ohn Meyer. The company are distributors of the Dodge Brothers motor vehicles, and have been identified with this manufacture since their inception into the manufacturing and the marketing of their product under their own name since 1914. The company conducts a sales and service station in addition to dealing in automobile parts and accessories, carrying the most complete line of parts and accessories available in this district. Mr. Meyer is not only the responsible head of his company, but is, as it were, its dynamic force, his energizing spirit being shown in every department. His interests penetrate the owning of valuable real estate in Elyria and the county, and he is also identified with the Perry-Fay Company and the Lorain County Savings and Trust Company and numerous other corporations. Mr. Meyer married, on November 7, 1916, Miss Lillian G. Graver, who was born at South Amherst, Ohio, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Graver, who are natives of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer have three children, J. Ogden, Leo R., Jr., and Alvin John. Mr. Meyer and his family have a wide social circle at Elyria. Mr. Meyer is a republican in politics, but has never consented to accept any public office, although he has many friends and is a popular and respected citizen well qualified in many ways. He belongs to the Elks Lodge, to the Elyria Automobile Club and to the Automobile Dealers' Association of America. WILLIAM J. STRAYER began an apprenticeship to learn the plumber 's trade when a boy, and has worked steadily in one line and for several years past has been proprietor of one of the leading plumbing contracting establishments of Lorain County. He is located in the City of Lorain. Mr. Strayer was born at Bellevue, Ohio, September 10, 1875, son of Joseph and Mary (Crouse) Strayer. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania, where they were married, and in 1855 moved to Flat Rock, Ohio. His father was a plasterer and stucco contractor. From Flat Rock he moved to Bellevue, and in 1893 moved to the City of Toledo. For several years he was in the circulating department of the Leader News of Toledo. In the Civil war he served three years with the One Hundred and First Ohio Infantry as wagon maker, and he spent his last days in the Old Soldiers' Home at Sandusky, where he died in July, 1914. William J. Strayer spent his boyhood partly at Bellevue and partly at Toledo, attending the public schools of the former place and the high school in Toledo. He was fifteen when he began his apprenticeship at the plumbing trade. He completed it at the age of nineteen, and then became a journeyman worker and perfected his skill and knowledge by travel and work at many places over the country. In 1912 he established a plumbing business of his own. About six years later he sold out, and on June 15, 1917, took charge of the plumbing in the shipyard at Lorain. This was Government work, and he remained in charge for fifteen months, until the close of the war. He then established his plumbing contracting business, and his headquarters are at 2025 Broadway. Mr. Strayer married, September 24, 1900, Miss Ora E. Butt, a native of Norwalk, Ohio, daughter of John and Louise B. (Bentley) Butt, her father a native of Norwalk and her mother of Milan, Ohio. Mr. Strayer is a republican, and fraternally is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. WILLIAM BENNINGTON, one of the highly esteemed residents of Elyria, now living retired, during his active years set an example of industry and thrift which ought to furnish an inspiration for the rising generation. He was born near the suburbs of Gould, Yorkeshire, England, November 16, 1837, a son of George and Mary (Anson) Bennington, or Binning-ton, as the name was spelled in England. In the winter of 1843 the parents came to the United States in a sailing vessel, and were ten weeks reaching Quebec, Canada, having had a long and rough passage. Mr. Bennington relates an interesting story which happened while he was coming to this country with his parents, and although he was only five years of age at the time it impressed itself so vividly on his mind that he relates it as though it had happened just recently. "When we were about in midocean a ship in the distance made signal of distress, and the Captain signaled them to draw nigh, and when she arrived in full sight the ship was coming at full sail and directed her course to strike our vessel amidships, but our Captain ordered her to draw to one side. The pirate ship, which she proved to be, paid no attention to the Captain's orders, but kept her straight course for our midships, and as she got near it was plain to see that there were about fifty men in rough clothes, being wrapped in long cloakes. To our horror, we discovered as soon as she struck us and they dropped their long cloakes that they were fully armed, and standing in the bow of their boat. Our Captain cried, 'My God, She is a pirate.' At that cry, all the passengers and crew were on deck, and in their distress they all knelt down and prayed to their Almighty God. The pirate ship struck our midship and broke us down near to the water 's edge, intending no doubt to sink us, but our ship being strongly built, and the pirate ship coming with such speed and force at us, rebounded when she struck. She tore away her front sails and her figurehead broke off and bounded onto our vessel. The pirate ship proved to be damaged to such an extent that she could not control her actions. She had bounded away from us with such force as to free herself from our ship. We having been freed from the impact we sailed on our way to Quebec. The last we could see of the pirate ship was her floating around on the ocean. On our arrival at Quebec our Captain presented to the authorities of that city the figurehead of the pirate ship, at the same time making every endeavor to discover her identity from her figurehead, but without success." After reaching Quebec the Benningtons took passage on the Welland Canal and Lake Ontario, and finally reached Cleveland, Ohio, where they hired a man to haul their goods to Eaton, Ohio, where George Bennington's brother had already settled. Some months later George Bennington rented a farm near La Porte, Ohio, and two years afterward bought forty acres of land near Grafton, Ohio, all of which except three acres being covered with timber. He cleared off some of the land, and worked in the adjacent stone quarries, but after three years sold and moved to Elyria, and obtained work in the stone 186 - HISTORY OF OHIO quarries. Times were hard, however, wages were low and the Benningtons had a difficult time in getting along. Therefore George Bennington, decided to go to Canada and work in a stone quarry, where a better job was offered him. While he was gone he sent home what money he could, but decided at last to return. The last his family heard of him was at Buffalo, New York. Probably he met his death in an accident. William Bennington was the eldest of his parents' five children, and his mother was in very poor health when the father disappeared, so, although only fourteen years old, he had to leave school and go to work in order to help provide for the family. The brave lad worked at anything honest he could find to do, and taxed his strength laboring in shops, starting stationary engines and other kinds of employment. In 1863 he became a clerk in the sutler's department, and was at Stanford, Sumerset and Mount Vernon, Kentucky, and followed the army to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was during the siege of Knoxville. In the fall of 1863 lie returned to Elyria and established himself in the grocery business which he conducted for eleven years. Selling his store, he entered the employ of Topliff, Bowsocks & Company, and continued with this concern for sixteen years, and then became carekeeper for the Power Block. After eleven years' service in that capacity he retired. On February 8, 1861, Mr. Bennington was married to Delia Jane Griffing, who was born near Hartford, Connecticut, a daughter of Leonard and Almira (Risley) Griffing, natives of Connecticut. Mrs. Bennington died February 19, 1901, leaving no children. Mr. Bennington belongs to the Elyria Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been on its official board since 1858. In politics he is a republican. During his long and honorable residence at Elyria he has made many friends, and his neighbors and associates recognize his admirable characteristics, and regard him accordingly. JACOB D. STREEPER is secretary of the Railroad Employes Building and Loan Company of Columbus, Ohio. This is one of the oldest and financially strongest building and loan companies in Central Ohio. It was organized in 1885, with authorized capital of $5,000,000, to afford the benefits of the building and loan plan to railroad employes and any others desiring the service. The company owns its building, a beautiful and modern banking house at 60 East Broad Street, acquired at a value of $2,200 a foot front and now appraised at a value of $8,000 a foot front. The building is on Capital Square, in the heart of the business district. Mr. Streeper has been one of the useful directors of the company since 1889, and while engaged in railroad service, assumed the duties of secretary after the death in 1907 of the first secretary, Mr. Thomas Newell. This office handles the details of business management and has since required his full time. It has built hundreds of homes for its members in Columbus, and has been one of the instruments in the general upbuilding of the city. Its funds are loaned only On first mortgage real estate security on conservative valuation, and no money is loaned on stock or private corporation bonds or personal notes. Mr. Streeper was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1860, son of John P. and Elizabeth (Bradley) Streeper, his father a native of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and his mother of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Bradley was a granddaughter of John Hannum. John Hannum was an American officer in the Revolutionary war, was a delegate to the Pennsylvania Convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States, and was one of the wealthy and influential citizens of Chester County. He owned a large estate in that county and a town residence in West Chester. Jacob D. Streeper spent his early childhood in Milwaukee, and from that city the family moved to Chillicothe Ohio, and later to Columbus, Ohio. After finishing his public school education he took the civil engineering course at Ohio State University, and thereafter was for a time deputy county surveyor of Ross County, Ohio, and also did some work on railroad surveying in Georgia. In 1883 Mr. Streeper accepted a position in the office of James McCrea, transportation manager of the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh. He spent a quarter of a century in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the Columbus offices, and held important responsibilities in the motive power, transportation and real estate departments. Mr. Streeper married Miss Clara Bissell. She was born in Medina County, Ohio, and represents one of the pioneer families of this state. The Bissell family came originally from Connecticut and were of Revolutionary ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Streeper have two children, Robert B., in the United States consular service, and Mary E. JOHN JOSEPH RESAR, who has a prosperous business as a florist at Elyria, has been a grower of flowers for a number of years, and he is a man of talent who has become known in other ways in his home city. He was born in Elyria, September 19, 1892, son of Nicholas and Anna (Reitz) Resar. His father was born at North Amherst, Ohio, and his mother in Jay County, Indiana. Nicholas Resar, now retired, was for many years a merchant in Elyria. John J. Resar was educated in public schools, also had a business course, and since the age of fourteen has devoted much of his time to music. He had thorough instruction on the piano from various teachers, and for some years has been a professional musician. When he was nineteen years of age he leased Glenn's Dancing Pavilion in Lorain, operating that for five years. His business as a florist he started at 318 East Broad Street, and he uses 5,000 square feet of space under. glass for the growing of flowers. November 19, 1909, Mr. Resar married Miss Florence Green, a native of Elyria, and daughter of Oza and Maude (Worden) Green, her father a native of Geauga County, Ohio, and her mother of Michigan. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Resar are seven in number : Rosella, born September 25, 1911; Eugene, born March 14, 1913 ; Dolores, born January 14, 1915 ; Allington, born July 22, 1916; John Edward, born September 22, 1919 ; Vivian, born September 19, 1921; and Wendla, born March 7, 1922. Mrs. Resar was educated in high school. The family are members of the Catholic Church. In politics he is a republican, and fraternally he is affiliated with the fraternal Order of Eagles, Loyal Order of Moose, Brotherhood of American Yeomen, Knights of St. John and Knights of the Maccabees. VERNON L. WHEELER, one of the leading business men and one of the prominent citizens of Elyria, Ohio, was born at Grafton, same state, on August 24, 1894, and is the son of Luems L. and Lottie (Beckett) Wheeler. The father was born in La Grange Township, Lorain County, and the mother in the City of Cleveland. His grandparents on his father 's side were Alfred and Olive (Harris) Wheeler, and his grandparents on his mother's side were Michael and Sophia Beckett. The Becketts were of Irish descent. The great-grandfather of Vernon Luems was named Alexander and was born in New England and came to La Grange at a very early date, when many Indians were here and wild animals roamed the HISTORY OF OHIO - 187 wildwoods. He bought a tract of raw timber land, consisting of 100 acres, which he cleared after many years of hard work, a patch at a time. He built his own first log house, and in time put the whole tract of land under cultivation. He became a successful farmer and stock raiser and a useful and reputable citizen. The land he worked so hard over is still in possession of the Wheeler family. Luems L., father of Vernon L., received his early education in the district schools and upon reaching early manhood attended high school at La Grange near his home and also at Baldwin, and finally ended his school career with a course at Wallace College in Berea, Cuyahoga County. Soon afterward he began business for himself by working one year in the bicycle works in Elyria, but then returned to the old Wheeler farm, where both he and his wife still reside. They are prominent and meritorious citizens and have the confidence of the whole community. Vernon Luems Wheeler was well educated in the public schools of La Grange, and finished his educational career by taking a full course at the local high school, finishing at the age of seventeen years. He then began work for himself. He took up a mechanical task with the National Tube Company at Lorain, and was thus employed for five years, mastering in the meantime the art of practical mechanics. Succeeding this eventful period he became master mechanic for the Citizens Gas Company of Indianapolis, and was thus employed for one year. He then accepted a position as salesman for the Cary Company, with headquarters at Elyria, and has had charge of the Elyria branch of the company up to the present time. He has proved his fitness and capacity by the confidence reposed in him by his employers during the two active years he has served them and their patrons. On the 10th of February, 1914, he married Miss Phebe Thatcher, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the daughter of W. L. and Myrtle (Carney) Thatcher. Her father is a native of the State of New Jersey and her mother of Lorain, Ohio. To this marriage have been born the following children: Robert B. and Bettie Jane. Vernon L. Wheeler is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, No. 465, of Elyria. He is an active member of the democratic party and at all times is much interested in the success of party principles. He is a reliable business man, as is shown by his steady employment by the Cary Company, which handles all sorts of asbestos materials, including roofings and insulating fabrics. GEORGE G. PEAIRS. Among the lines of business well represented at Elyria so important a one as insurance may not be overlooked, for it engages the time and attention of many keen and practical business men, and, while they are such and must be in order to solve their own special business problems, they may also, in a way, be numbered with a community's public benefactors. Who is more urgent or convincing than the insurance agent in recommending thrift, prudence, precaution, forethought in providing for age, sickness and helplessness, and although it is with practical intent that he exerts this benevolence, it remains true that the ignoring of these virtues may bring great unhappiness into lives that are helpless and innocent. A very well known and competent man in the insurance business at Elyria is George G. Peairs, district agent for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, his jurisdiction covering all Lorain County. Mr. Peairs was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, June 24, 1883, and is a son of A. A. and Caroline (Miller) Peairs, both of whom were born in Tuscarawas County. His paternal grandparents were John W. and Sarah (Hart) Peairs, who came very early to Tuscarawas County from Baltimore, Maryland. The maternal grandfather, Levi Miller, was also an early settler in that county, where he operated both flour and woolen mills. A. A. Peairs assisted his father, who was a farmer and stock buyer, until his own marriage, when he settled at Bakersville for a time, but subsequently resumed farming, and resides on his farm in Portage County. He married Caroline Miller, and their entire family of twelve children are living. A daughter, Viola, is the wife of 0. A. Hasse, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, but now of Reading, Pennsylvania, and vice president of the Glidden Company of Cleveland, having charge of all the company's eastern business. One son, J. W. Peairs, is a captain in the United States Regular Army and is now stationed at New Orleans, Louisiana. He has had an active military life. During the Spanish-American war he served in Cuba, thrice was called with his command to subdue insurrections at eastern points, and during the World war served one year in France. The other members of the family live in Ohio. George G. Peairs attended the public schools at Bakersville and completed his high school course at Beach City, Ohio, when eighteen years old, but he continued to assist his father on the home farm until he was twenty-three and then went on the railroad, becoming a conductor on the Lake Shore Electric, Cleveland Division, where he continued for nine years. Mr. Peairs then turned his attention to the insurance business, becoming associated with the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, with which he has been identified ever since and has been very successful, and at present fills the responsible position of district agent for Lorain County. Mr. Peairs married, April 28, 1909, Miss Grace Padley, who was born at Elyria, Ohio, and is a daughter of A. A. and Etta (Street) Padley, the former of whom was born in England and the latter at Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Peairs have one daughter, Queenie May. They are members of the First Congregational Church. Mr. Peairs is not very active in political life, maintaining an independent attitude as to party lines but never forgetting his responsibilities as a citizen, and is a leading member of the Kiwanis Club. In fraternal life he is a Mason, Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias, in the last named organization having been through al the chairs in the local lodge. FORREST F. SMITH. While still one of the comparatively younger men in the profession of law in Ohio, Forrest F. Smith, of Columbus, has been tested in the fire of experience and important responsibilities and has shown the qualifications for one of the coming leaders in the public affairs of his native state. He is young, talented, of fine personality, and is without ulterior purposes to serve in the pursuit of his political ambition. Mr. Smith was born on a farm in Richland County, Ohio, six miles east of Plymouth, December 23, 1888, son of E. W. and Ella E. (Watts) Smith. His father was a native of Huron County, Ohio, and his mother was born at Collingwood, Cleveland. Reared on the farm in Richland County, Forrest F. Smith attended the local schools, graduated from the high school at Plymouth in 1907, and for two years was a teacher in the public schools of Huron County. He then entered the Ohio State University at Columbus, and completed the law course and graduated in 1912. His early years of professional experience were passed at Michigan City, Indiana. He engaged in a general law practice, and was also appointed and served as assistant prosecuting attorney of La Porte County. On returning to Columbus in 1916 Mr. Smith engaged in private law practice, 188 - HISTORY OF OHIO and is a member of the firm Atkinson, Smith & Hogan, specializing in surety and insurance law. Their offices are in the Hartman Building. By appointment from Washington, Mr. Smith on April 27, 1918, entered upon his duties as assistant United States district attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. He was engaged in the duties of that office for nearly two years, until March, 1920. The records of the Federal Department of Justice during that time contain evidence of a great many responsibile duties efficiently performed by Mr. Smith. Most of his time was taken up in the prosecution of violators of the Sabotage Act and other offences such as sedition and alien enemy prosecutions. He had charge of such prosecutions in the Southern Ohio District. He prosecuted the sabotage offenders at the Ralston Steel Car Works in Columbus, the disloyal miners at Steubenville, the Dunkards at Belief ontaine, and participated in other cases of disloyalty. He also handled a number of prosecutions under the Federal narcotic and prohibition laws. In addition to the service he rendered in the department of justice as an assistant attorney he was active as speaker and worker in the drives for the community War Chest, the sale of Liberty Bonds, and was district chairman of the War Savings Stamp Campaign for deferred registrants. Mr. Smith for three years was president of the Franklin County Democratic Club. In 1920 his name was prominently mentioned in connection with the democratic nomination for attorney-general of Ohio. In 1922 he appeared in this primary campaign, and his popularity was such that he came. within 800 votes of receiving the democratic nomination. In 1920 he was chairman of the speakers bureau for the State Campaign Committee. Mr. Smith is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Elks, belongs to the County Club and to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Miss Mary Barbee, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Barbee, of Columbus. MUNK FLORAL COMPANY. The Munk Floral Company is a Columbus business which was incorporated in 1917 and the officers of which are E. A. Munk, president, R. W. Munk, treasurer, and E. R. Munk, manager. This company owns, maintains and operates an extensive greenhouse plant on King Avenue, where it has one and a quarter acres under glass. The specialty of the company is the growing of roses, but it also supplies the local trade with potted plants and cut flowers of other kinds. The company maintains a retail store at 19 South High Street and a conservatory at 741 East Broad Street. The company has membership in the American Horticulture Society, the Ohio Flower Growers' Association and the Columbus Flower Growers' Association. Mr. E. A. Munk, the president of the company, is a past master of Columbus Lodge of Masons and a member of the Grand Lodge of Ohio Masons, and is also high priest of Ohio Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. His family is one that has been identified with Franklin County since pioneer times. GEORGE L. RICHWINE, organizer and general manager of the Richwine Ice Cream Company in the City of Elyria, Lorain County, has had broad experience in the line of enterprise in which he is now identified and in which he is an authority. Mr. Richwine was born in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, in June, 1868, and is a son of Julius and Elizabeth (Kemmer) Richwine. Julius Richwine was born in the historic old German city of Frankfort-on-theMain, where he was reared and educated and where he learned the potter 's trade. In 1864 he established his residence in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, where he followed his trade and also served as foreman of a brick yard, both he and his wife having there passed the remainder of their lives. George L. Richwine is indebted to the public schools of his native city for his early education, and there also he attended night schools. At the age of nine years he began to assist his father in the pottery business, and he was twenty years of age when his mother died and the home was broken up. After his marriage, at the age of twenty-three years, he was for six years in the employ of the American Steel & Wire Company at Cleveland, and for fourteen years thereafter he was a valued member of the fire department of his native city. There he next passed six years in the employ of the Telling ice cream factory, and in this connection he gained thorough knowledge of all details involved in the manufacturing of high-grade ice cream and ices. Upon severing his alliance with this concern Mr. Richwine established and assumed active charge of the Tabor ice cream plant at Elyria, and he continued as manager of this business three and one-half years. In November, 1919, he here effected the organization and incorporation of the Richwine Ice Cream Company, which has since built up a. substantial and prosperous business, with a manufacturing plant of modern equipment and service, and with the most approved facilities for the production of ice cream and ices of the finest type. He has continued as manager of the company from the time of its organization. It is incorporated with a capital of $50,000, and the other members of its executive corps are as here noted: Joseph Jamison, president; Claude Blanchard, vice president; Charles Sarter, secretary, and Bert Rysinger, treasurer. Mr. Richwine is aligned in the ranks of the republican party, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Loyal Order of Moose, has been a director of the local Kiwanis Club since 1919, and he and his wife hold membership in the Church of Christ. That Mr. Richwine takes deep interest in clean sports is indicated by his having served in 1922 as president of the Elyria City League of Baseball Teams, and by his being at the present time president (1923) of the Elyria Soccer League. April 22, 1891, recorded the marriage of Mr. Richwine and Miss Frances Waghorn, daughter of William Waghorn, who was born and reared in England, and who established his residence at Elyria, Ohio, in 1871, the family name of his wife being Bishop. Mr. and Mrs. Richwine have one son, Arthur, who is serving as deputy county clerk of Lorain County. REV. JOHN JOHNSTON, who at present is pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church Parish at Lorain, Ohio, was born at Nenagh, County of Tipperary, Ireland, on the 30th of August, 1868, and is the son of Richard and Bridget (White) Johnston. The father was one of the illustrious citizens of that portion of the Emerald Isle, and almost from the start of life was an ardent devotee of the Catholic Church. For many years he served with much credit and prominence as one of the local government officials, and was highly regarded by all who had the honor of his acquaintance and friendship. John Johnston, the subject of this narrative, attended National, Private and Christian Brothers schools at Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, and while yet in his teens he entered St. Jarlath College, County Galway, as a day scholar in October, 1880, and as a student in 1882, graduating in 1887. In January, 1888, he entered St. Patrick 's College at Thurles County Tipperary, where he took his philosophical course and one year in theology. Having decided to HISTORY OF OHIO - 189 go to America, he crossed the Atlantic and went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he continued his studies for the ministry or priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary. However, in January, 1891, ill health compelled him to return to Ireland, and soon after his return he entered St. John's College at Waterford, where he finished his education in 1892. He then returned to the United States, and was ordained as pastor on the 17th of December, 1892, by Bishop Horstmann, of Cleveland. He was at once sent to South Thompson, Geauga County, Ohio, and placed in charge of the Mission at Madison and the station at Geneva. Here he remained until 1895. He then received the appointment of pastor of the church at Jefferson, Ohio, on the 16th of May, 1895, and in that parish was required to hold services for four different congregations, but in August, 1896, was reliever of the mission at Madison and the station at Geneva. While having his residence at Jefferson he served that congregation and the one at South Thompson with competence and to the satisfaction of the members. On the 28th of July, 1901, he came to Lorain, Ohio, where he had been assigned to the pastorate of St. Mary 's Catholic Church, and here he has ever since resided, faithfully working all the time for the cause of his church and his Master. During his eventful pastorate he has made notable improvements and progress in the upbuilding of the congregation and the church and school structures. Under his instruction the fine brick rectory was constructed and is greatly enjoyed by his adherents. Under his management the modern St. Mary 's Academy was constructed, the value of which is a $100,000. It is a building with ample gymnasium and other attractive features. At first there was a small mission station of about thirty Catholic families at what is now Lorain, who were visited occasionally by a traveling priest. Slowly but steadily they have increased until now the congregation is one of the largest and most devoted in this part of the state. In 1873 Father Molon of Elyria served the congregation here. He was succeeded by Father Romer in 1878. Often mass was said in private houses at first, and the priest could come here only about once a month under Father Molon. Services were held later at the home of Peter Muller. Finally a small frame church was erected and the first services were held therein in March, 1879. On Ascension Day, 1880, it was dedicated to St. Mary of the Lake. But soon the congregation outgrew the structure and then a large wooden building was erected, and in July, 1884, Father Joseph Eyler became the first resident pastor. The first pastoral residence was built by Father Muller in 1888-89. In 1895 the frame church was destroyed by fire, and then the present structure was erected, the corner stone being blessed by Monsignor Boff, vicar general, and the dedication being conducted by Rt. Rev. Bishop Horstmann. It is a beautiful structure of Italian Renaissance architectural design. In 1885 the schools were first started by a lay teacher. One year later the enrollment was 127. The present enrollment is about 300. Father Johnston about 1905, introduced the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, from Monroe, Michigan, to teach in his school. HAYDEN EDWARDS, an ex-service man, has been a resident of Columbus for fifteen years, and is a well known local authority on domestic architecture and modern home building. He is one of the prominent young building contractors of the city. His offices are in the Atlas Building at 8 East Long Street. Mr. Edwards was born in Jackson County, Ohio, in 1892, son of Jenkin and Anna (Morgan) Edwards, and is of Welsh ancestry. His grandfather, Daniel Edwards, was born in Wales and coming to this country with a Welsh colony he settled in Jackson County, Ohio, and was one of the founders of the Welsh Presbyterian Church there. Hayden Edwards had a common school education, and was fifteen years of age when he came to Columbus. Through practical experience, study and association with work and men of prominence in his profession he has had a thorough training in engineering and architecture. For five years he was connected with the office staff of one of Columbus' most prominent architects, Mr. Frank L. Packard. He resigned from Mr. Packard's service in 1917 to enlist as a naval aviator at the Great Lakes Training Station. After the required training he was made a radio observer and was on duty at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Key West, Florida. He received his discharge in February, 1919, after a year and a half in the service. On his return to Columbus he soon engaged in building construction, and has had a notable success in that line. He specializes in the designing and construction of modern homes and has built many of the beautiful residences in Columbus and vicinity. These houses, while adhering to the established principles of architecture, have a distinction of their own, and Mr. Edwards is especially well known because of his ability to adopt the older ideas of domestic architecture to the needs of the modern age in home construction. Mr. Edwards is a member of the State Executive Committee of the American Legion. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. HENRY JOSEPH EADY. The late Henry Joseph Eady, for many years one of the leading druggists of Elyria, probably did more toward the upbuilding and advancement of this city than any other one man, and although he has left this earthly sphere, the work that he accomplished remains and influences the lives of those now living. He was born in Cottesbrooke, Northamptonshire, England, April 28, 1846, a son of Thomas and Susan (Holt) Eady, natives of England, whose lives were spent there. In the fall of 1864 Henry Joseph Eady came with a sister to Elyria, Ohio, and in 1867 obtained employment in the drug store of Henry Parks, where he remained until 1873, when he opened a drug store of his own on Middle Avenue. Later he built a three-story building in which his store was located, and continued the business until 1905, when he sold it to H. A. Crandall, who now conducts it. From 1906 to June 29, 1920, he devoted the greater part of his time to his personal interests, which were large. In 1915 he erected a fine modern residence at 248 Sixth Street, where his widow still resides. Very active in politics as a republican, he was a member of the city council from 1899 to 1903, and was again elected in 1908. He was a life member of Elyria Memorial Hospital, was a member of its board of managers, and belonged to the Elyria Chamber of Commerce. Not only was he a very active member of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, but he was its treasurer for fifteen years, was a vestryman for a long period, and was its senior warden for several years. Mr. Eady was also a member of the Board of Public Service for four years, and for many years belonged to the Masonic fraternity and to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On February 16, 1876, Mr. Eady was married to Charlotte Ellen Noakes, who was born at Rochester, New .York, September 23, 1851, a daughter of Rev. Benjamin Tompsett and Sarah (Piper) Noakes, he born in Sussex, England, in 1830, and she in 1832. Coming to the United States Rev. Benjamin T. Noakes was an attorney at Rochester, but later moved to Gambier, Ohio, where he attended a theo- 190 - HISTORY logical seminary, was ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Church, and in 1858 arrived at Elyria to assume charge of his first parish. In May, 1860, he was transferred to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he built the Church of the Covenant, and remained there for three years, but his health failing, he moved to Beverly, New Jersey, where he continued to reside until 1870, when he returned to Elyria and his parish. It was during his incumbency that the present church edifice was erected. In 1876 he went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was rector of Immanuel Episcopal Church, and was there until his death, which occurred November 1, 1904. His widow still continues to reside at Cleveland, and, although now over ninety-one years old, is very well preserved and active, doing much of her own household work. Mr. and Mrs. Eady had no children. She is very active in Saint Andrew 's Church, and belongs to all of the church societies. CHARLES F. JAMIESON, a native of Ohio, formerly engaged in business in Columbiana County, is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Jamieson Sales Company at Canton. This company devotes its organization exclusively to the Chevrolet automobiles. Mr. Jamieson was born in Columbiana County, in 1864, was educated in country schools there, and spent the first twenty-six years of his life in the labor and diversions of a farm. Following that he engaged in the general merchandise business, and also became active in local politics. He was elected and served as county treasurer of Columbiana County, with offices at Lisbon, from 1916 to 1919. On leaving the office of county treasurer Mr. Jamieson removed to Canton and organized the Jamieson Sales Company. This company owns one of the finest sales rooms, service stations and garages in the city. Mr. Jamieson is a member of the Canton Automobile Dealers Association, the Canton Club, the Masonic Club, the Exchange Club, and the Shrine Club. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He and his wife, Mrs. Ida Jamieson, have one son, Thomas, now actively associated with his father in business. G. P. MALONEY, president of the Maloney-Zwiek Motor Car Company at Canton, was a tool maker by trade and has been identified with the machinery business and the automobile industry for over twenty years. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lived on a farm in Monroe County, Ohio, for years. had a public school education and at the age of nineteen left the farm to learn the toolmaker 's trade. He followed that as a skilled vocation for a time, subsequently went on the road as salesman for the Citizens Supply Company of Columbus, and covered an extensive territory in Michigan for seven years. On leaving the road he located at Louisville in Stark County, and was for two years in the automobile business representing the Oldsmobile cars. From there he removed to Canton, where with his brothers, Alex and Lee, under the name Canton Oldsmobile Company, engaged in business until February, 1923, when they organized the Maloney and Zwick Motor Company. They are the representatives in this territory for the Oldsmobile and have a large sales room and brick garage at 602-604 Twelfth Street Northwest Mr. Maloney is a member of the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus. He married Miss Hazel Lamson. Their children are: George P., Jr., Lawrence, William, Bernice and Richard. ROBERT R. SHARPE is one of the active dealers in the Packard car in Ohio, and established the first agency for that car at Canton. He is now president of the Sharpe Motor Company, dealers in Packard automobiles. He was born at Defiance, Ohio, March 21, 1887. He attended the grammar and high schools of his native city, and in 1905 at the age of eighteen removed to Detroit, and spent two years working in all departments of the Packard Motor Company 's plant. This thorough training and experience has had much to do with his success on the sales force. On leaving Detroit he removed to Cleveland and for six years was with the Packard Company's service organization in that city. He then removed to Canton to establish the first Packard agency, and has been in business there continuously ever since. The local Packard agency at first was known as the Cleveland Motor Company, but in 1921 Mr. Sharpe reorganized the business as the Sharpe Motor Company. He is president of the company, and has in addition to the main plant at Canton, another branch under the same name at Dover. Mr. Sharpe married Miss Hazel Dopking, of Detroit, Michigan. Their two children are Ruth and Kenneth. JOHN RAY MOORE. While now an official in one of the banking institutions at Medina, John Ray Moore has in a busy career had a most unusual range of experience and work. He has been engaged in engineering and construction work in many states, was overseas during the World war, and has the mature judgment of one who has come in contact with unusual conditions and all classes of people. Mr. Moore was born at Oil City, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1884, son of David L. and Mary L. (Ray) Moore. His parents were born in Hudson, New York. The paternal grandfather, James Moore, was a native of Ireland, and came to the United States when a young man. The maternal grandfather, John Ray, was born in New York State, and was a ship builder by trade. David L. Moore during the Civil war was appointed United States consul at Nagasaki, Japan. He remained in Japan altogether for twelve years, being in the tea exporting business there. After returning to the United States he engaged in the oil business, and that was his work until his death. His family consisted of three children, John Ray Moore, of Medina, being the only son. Mr. Moore grew up at Oil City, Pennsylvania, attended private and public schools, and when nineteen years of age joined the construction department of the Standard Oil Company. He was with that corporation from 1904 to 1911, and the work took him over Ohio and other states. From 1911 to 1913 he was employed by the city engineer of Galion, Ohio, and in 1913 he came to Medina and bought the Union Delivery business. He owned and operated this service until 1917. In that year he disposed of his business interests and in June volunteered for service in the army. He was accepted, and in August was sent to the Second Officers Training School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. He received his commission at second lieutenant of infantry in November, and was given additional training at Camp Sherman with the Three Hundred and Thirty-second Regiment, Eighty-third Division. In June, 1918, Mr. Moore went overseas, and spent two months in France. His regiment was the one representing the American forces in Italy during the critical campaign along the Piave River. He was in service there until the armistice, and was then attached to the food commission at Trieste, Italy. While in the service he made a tour of the Austrian country, and then, returning to Trieste, was ordered to the United States in March, 1919, and in May received his honorable discharge at Camp Sherman. HISTORY OF OHIO - 191 After his war experience Mr. Moore returned to Medina, and for a year and one-half was in service of the county engineer 's department. He then accepted an offer from the Tidewater Oil Company to do some special work in Mexico for nine months. On returning to Medina he became secretary of the Citizens Savings & Loan Company, which is his present business position. Mr. Moore is a member of the American Legion, is a Master Mason, a member of the Kiwanis Club and a republican in politics. In June, 1911, he married Miss Mae Vassar Dressler, who was born at Ashland, Ohio, daughter of Edward and Harriet (Slocum) Dressler, both parents representing old American families. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have one son, Brayton Edward. They are members of the Episcopal Church, which was the church of Mr. Moore's mother. FLETCHER & SHEARS. This substantial and progressive firm conducts the Columbus Welding Shop, at 783 North Fourth Street in the City of Columbus, and figures as distributors of Milwaukee shears, Economy balers, United States welding apparatus, USL electric arc welders, Ironton rail-breakers, and general lines of welding supplies. The business was founded in 1913, by Lincoln Kilbourne, and the present firm assumed control in 1923. The well equipped plant has the most modern of facilities for the handling of all kinds of oxy-acetylene and electric-arc welding, a corps of twelve or more skilled mechanics is employed, and the facilities are adequate for the effective handling of welding from the lightest of typewriter repairs to the heaviest castings of milling and mining machinery. William W. Fletcher, member of the firm, was born in the State of Ohio on the 12th of November, 1893, and is a son of H. H. Fletcher, who gave forty-three years of service as a passenger train conductor on the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad and who was sixty-eight years of age at the time of his death, in December, 1923. H. H. Fletcher was a son of Elijah Fletcher, who was one of three brothers who came from Scotland and made settlement in Ohio, in which state the son H. H. was born. William W. Fletcher was one of the first men in Columbus to learn and apply the system of oxy-acetylene welding, about the time of its introduction, some fourteen years ago. As a welder by this system he was for some time in the employ of the Ohio State Highway Department, and in 1921 he and his present partner became associated in business as operating welding engineers. The members of the firm are recognized authorities in all details and phases of their special line of enterprise, and are known as reliable and thoroughgoing business men. Mr. Fletcher married Miss Ernestine B. Autz, of Columbus. George T. Shears, member of the firm, was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, in the year 1895, and in the same County of Ross was born his father, James L. Shears, who resides in Columbus and who has long been a valued employe of the Hocking Valley Railroad Company, his father, James L., Sr., having come from Virginia to Ohio in an early day. George T. Shears learned the oxy-acetylene gas manufacturing and welding business in the establishment of the Linde Air Products Company and that of the Prestolite Acetylene Company. The maiden name of his wife was Jean M. Myer. C. M. VALENTINE, M. D., a practicing physician and surgeon of Columbus for fifteen years, has achieved success in his profession, not only in the routine of private practice, but also as a leader in public affairs. He is at present health commissioner of Franklin County. He represents the third generation of the family in the medical profession. His grandfather, Dr. Milton Valentine, a native of Fairfield County, Ohio, was a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil war, and devoted his life to the practice of medicine. The second generation in the medical service was represented by Dr. V. A. Valentine, now deceased. He was born in the southeast part of Franklin County, and for many years had an extensive country practice over Truro and Madison townships, his home being at Brice in Truro Township. Dr. V. A. Valentine married Mary Medbury, who is now living at Columbus. Dr. C. M. Valentine was born at Canal Winchester, Ohio, in 1883, and acquired his early education in the schools at Brice and Reynoldsburg. After the death of his father he came to Columbus with his mother in 1903, and since then their home has been at Linden, 41, beautiful residential suburb on the northeast. Doctor Valentine graduated in medicine from the Ohio State University in the class of 1908. For two years he practiced at Gahanna, and then permanently located in Columbus. In the Spring of 1918 Doctor Valentine volunteered for service in the World war. He attended the Medical Officers' Training School at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, was commissioned first lieutenant in the Medical Officers' Corps, and was assigned for duty to the Camp Hancock Base Hospital. He remained there until after the armistice. He then resumed his private practice as a physician and surgeon in Columbus, and since appointed county health commissioner by the County Board of Health he has given a regular part of his time to the duties of that office. His conduct of the office has won him the confidence of the profession and the respect of the public. Doctor Valentine is a member of the Columbus Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical Association, the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association. He is affiliated with the Masonic order. Doctor Valentine married in 1908 Miss Elma Powell, of Brice, Franklin County. Their two children are Roger and Mary. CAPT. CLARENCE A. FISHER, an ex-service man of the World war, has been prominently identified with the Stark County bar at Canton for eighteen years. He is senior member of the firm Fisher, Leahy & Weintraub, with offices in the George D. Harter Bank Building. Captain Fisher was born at Steubenville, Ohio, September 17, 1882, a grandson of John and Jane (Hart) Fisher and son of Dr. Benjamin H. and Elizabeth (Rittenhouse) Fisher. Doctor Fisher 's father was born near Steubenville in 1839, studied medicine, was graduated in medicine at Cincinnati in 1864, and in May of the same year enlisted in Company D of the Fifty-seventh Ohio Infantry and was appointed assistant surgeon. After the war he practiced medicine in Steubenville until his death in 1906. His wife was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1842, and died November 21, 1906, just eight days after her husband. Clarence Andrew Fisher attended the public schools of Steubenville, graduated from high school in 1900. During the following year he attended a Normal College at Rochester, Indiana, and later took a special and then the law course at Ohio State University, and in 1902 entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in 1904. In 1905 he took post-graduate work at Michigan University. He was admitted to the Michigan and Ohio bars the same year, and subsequently to the United States District Court and 192 - HISTORY OF OHIO in 1917 to the United States Supreme Court. He practiced in Steubenville until 1905, and in 1906 became a member of the Canton bar, where he was a member of the firm Burch, Fisher & McCuskey from 1909 to 1913, and from 1913 to 1921 of the firm Fisher & McCuskey. Since 1921 he has been head of the law firm mentioned above. In April, 1918, he was commissioned a captain in the American Military Forces, and was assigned to special duty with the Italian armies and served on the front in Northern Italy during the critical campaign in the summer and fall of 1918. He was awarded the Italian war cross and an official citation for commendable duty. He received his honorable discharge in December, 1918. Prior to going into the army he acted as Government Appeals Agent with the draft boards of Canton and Stark County. Captain Fisher is a member of the American Legion and the Military Society 40 and 8. He also belongs to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Sons of Veterans and the Sons of the American Revolution. He is a member of the Stark County, Ohio State and American Bar associations. During 1915-17 he was criminal prosecutor for Canton and from 1917 to 1920 was city solicitor. He is a republican in politics, is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, and belongs to the Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Elks and Moose. Captain Fisher is well read in classical literature and has written some verse collaborating with his brother in the publication of a volume of poems and has also written a number of essays. On December 3, 1906, Captain Fisher married Miss Alice Rogers, daughter of Fred W. Rogers. COL. ROBERT HAUBEICH, colonel of the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Ohio Infantry, is one of Ohio's distinguished military men, and has been identified with the military establishment of the state for over twenty-four years. As an officer in the famous Rainbow Division he earned the distinguished service cross in France. Colonel Haubrich is a native of Germany, and was born at Biersdorf, Rhine Province, in 1877. He was about three years of age when his parents, in 1881, came to America and settled at Steubenville, Ohio. In 1895 the family removed to Columbus. Colonel Haubrich was educated in the public schools of Steubenville, and from the time he came to Columbus he followed a business career. Colonel Haubrich enlisted as a private September 7, 1899, in the old Ohio National Guard, in Battery H of the First Light Artillery. He was made corporal November 23, 1901; sergeant April 23, 1902; second lieutenant January 11, 1905; in 1909 was made first lieutenant of Company L of the Fourth Ohio Infantry, and on February 9, 1910, was raised to the rank of captain in command of his company, which was redesignated as Company I, of the Fourth Ohio. Captain Haubrich in June, 1916, went to the Mexican border in command of his company. He was on duty at El Paso and vicinity until March 3, 1917. July 15, 1917, his company was called to the colors for service in the World war. He was mustered into the National Army as a captain of Company I, while the regiment became the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Infantry, part of the Forty-second or Rainbow Division. Captain Haubrich sailed with the division for France October 31, 1917. On February 21, 1918, his regiment went into the front line trenches in the Lumeville sector, where it remained until March 20. From March 31 to June 18 it was in the Baccarat sector in the department of Lorraine. On June 18, while in action, Captain Haubrich was gassed, and for two weeks was in the hospital at Baccarat. From there the Forty-second Division went into one of the great major operations of the war, the Champaigne Marne offensive, where it was engaged from July 5 to July 14. On the 17th of July the division was withdrawn and sent into the Chateau Thierry sector, and on the 26th joined in the assault at the battle of Aisne-Marne, lasting until August 3. On August 8 Captain Haubrich was promoted to major in command of a battalion. With that rank he served in the Saint Mihiel salient and in the Saint Mihiel offensive from September 12 to September 17. From September 18 to September 30 his regiment occupied the Essey-Pannes sector, and on October 1 was sent to the Meuse-Argonne and went into action in front of Exermont, starting this engagement October 13 and fighting continually until the 30th. Many military critics have called this the greatest battle of the war. On November 5th Major Haubrich's command took up the assault in the Argonne in front of Sedan, and his battalion reached the northernmost point occupied by the American Army before the armistice. While there Major Haubrich was wounded by shell explosion on the 7th of November, just four days before the armistice. For gallantry and bravery in action on this occasion he was given a citation and awarded the distinguished service cross by the American Army. This command remained on duty before Sedan until the 19th of November. After the armistice the Forty-second was designated as one of the divisions of the Third Army as part of the Occupation Troops in Germany. From December 6, 1917, until April 7, 1918, Major Haubrich was stationed at Oberwinter on the Rhine. While there he had the privilege of visiting his birthplace at Biersdorf. April 25, 1919, Major Haubrich landed at New York, and received his discharge at Camp Sherman June 4, 1919. Subsequently the old Fourth Ohio, under its new numeral, the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Infantry, United States National Guard, was reorganized, and Major Haubrich was made senior major, and on January 10, 1921, he was promoted to colonel, this being his present rank in the United States military establishment. Colonel Haubrich is a prominent member of the American Legion, is a Knight of Pythias and a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He married Caroline Kroettinger. They have four children, Laura Louise, Robert and Jean and Jane, twins. JOHN A. MCNAMARA is president of Auld's Inc., one of the largest manufacturers of emblematic jewelry in the country. During the World war he served overseas as a lieutenant in the navy, and since then has been actively identified with the Ohio Naval Militia and Naval Reserve. He is the naval representative on the military staff of Governor Donahey. Mr. McNamara was born in McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio, in 1894, and four years later his family moved to Columbus. His father is a well known Columbus business man, and for years has taken an active part in democratic politics, serving as auditor of Vinton County for two terms, superintendent of the Girls' Industrial School at Delaware for eleven years, and later as state fiscal supervisor, assistant welfare director and secretary of the Franklin County Democratic Executive Committee. His mother, Margaret E. McNamara, has also been prominently identified with social betterment work. John A. McNamara attended school in Columbus and was graduated from the Ohio State University in 1915 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. While at the university he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Delta Chi, Sphinx and numerous other organizations. Since 1915 he has been connected with the D. L. Auld Company, one of the pioneer industries of Columbus, first as a salesman and later as sales manager. In 1923 he organized a company under HISTORY OF OHIO - 193 the name of Auld's Inc. and purchased the D. L. Auld Company's manufacturing jewelry business, established in 1870 by Demas L. Auld. Auld 's Inc. occupies a modern four-story factory on North Fourth Street, in the downtown district. They are one of the largest manufacturers of college fraternity jewelry and are probably the largest manufacturer of preparatory and high school class rings and pins in the country. They do a national business in both lines and have over sixty traveling salesmen covering all states. They also manufacture a line of platinum and white gold jewelry in addition to a general line of emblematic jewelry, athletic medals, trophies, etc., with a stationery division specializing in commencement invitations, wedding announcements and other types of engraved stationery. One of the most distinctive divisions of their business is the manufacture of the massive stone top rings used by the leading military academies, such as West Point, Virginia Military Academy and others. These rings are considered among the finest examples of the ring-makers' art, and the making of them requires the highest type of die cutting and manufacturing skill. Mr. McNamara has served two years as secretary-treasurer of the National Association of Manufacturing Jewelers, Engravers and Stationers, which embraces in its membership between twenty and thirty of the leading manufacturers in this line. While in the navy, in which he enlisted in June, 1917, he served seven months as a yeoman at the naval operating base at Hampton Roads. He was then commissioned and attended Annapolis for training and immediately following he was ordered overseas for duty with the fleet in European waters. He spent a little over a year overseas, the majority of the time being connected with Naval Base No. 29 at Cardiff, Wales. He was ordered to inactive duty in September, 1919. Mr. McNamara is a member of the American Legion and the Columbus Athletic Club. His hobbies are golf and radio. W. H. GARRETT. In his early years a mine worker, W. H. Garrett by sheer force of his will and ability has become one of the well known men in Ohio in his generation. He has been an organizer of union labor and was sheriff of Muskingum County until he became an official in the Federal Building at Columbus as chief deputy United States marshal. Mr. Garrett was born at Roseville, in Muskingum County, Ohio. He had only the advantages of the common schools, and then went to work around the potteries and mines of his native county, and for several years was weighmaster at the mines. Strong and resourceful and acquiring leadership among his fellow workmen, he in time went into the labor movement as an organizer of a national miners' union, and in that capacity worked out of Columbus in all the important mining sections of the state. From this work Mr. Garrett accepted appointment as deputy sheriff under Sheriff John M. Evans in Muskingum County, and four years later he was elected sheriff, an office he filled from 1918 to 1922. In law enforcement his record as sheriff is one of the outstanding ones in Ohio. During 1921-22 as sheriff he made more than 200 arrests in Muskingum County, and his discriminating judgment in using the power of law in this way was indicated by the fact that only two cases failed of conviction. In October, 1921, while in the performance of duty, he was shot in the back by a negro, and for several months was in a hospital. In September, 1923, Mr. Harvey Garrett was brought to a position where his abilities• might have broader scope, that of chief deputy United States marshal under Marshal Stanley Borthwick in the' southern district of Ohio. He married Lelia M. Golden, and they have four children, three sons and one daughter. Mr. Garrett is a member of the Masons, Elks, Knights of Pythias, Eagles and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. WILLIAM G. HEEBSH left college to begin his career as a newspaper man, and is one of the well known editors of Wayne County, being editor of the Courier-Crescent at Orrville. He was born on a farm in Lucas County, Ohio, October 9, 1885, son of Christian and Susan (Ruch) Heebsh. His father, a native of Stuttgart, Germany, came to the United States at the age of twenty-one and married at Bloomville, in Seneca County, Ohio, Miss Susan Ruch, who was a native of that county, her parents coming from Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. Christian Heebsh was a farmer and a democrat, and he and his wife were members of the Lutheran Church. They had five sons and three daughters. One son is now deceased. William G. Heebsh grew up on the farm, attended public schools, and at the age of seventeen taught one term of country school. He then entered Heidelberg College at Tiffin, Ohio, but while in his junior year left his studies to join the Tiffin Tribune, and since then has devoted sixteen years to newspaper work. From the Tribune he went to the Fostoria Times as managing editor when Roscoe C. Carle became postmaster of Fostoria. A year later, in 1915, he came to Orrville, buying an interest in the Courier-Crescent, and has since been active editor of this successful country newspaper, published semi-weekly, and democratic in politics. Mr. Heebsh is president of the Orrville Chamber of Commerce, is secretary of the Rotary Club, and is deputy scout master for the Wayne County Boy Scouts of America. During the World war he did a great deal of valuable publicity work for all the patriotic drives. Mr. Heebsh is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and teacher of the young men 's class in Sunday school. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Odd Fellow. On August 5, 1915, he married Eva Saylor, of Tiffin, Ohio. They have two sons and one daughter : Billie, born in 1916; Donald, born in 1917; and Miriam June, born in 1920. LORENZO DOW HAMLIN is one of the able lawyers of the Lorain County bar. His home has been in that county the greater part of his life, and he represents families that were pioneers in that section of the state. He is a descendant of James Hamlin, who came from London, England, in 1639 and settled at Barnstable, Massachusetts ; and was the founder of the Hamlin family in America. In the fifth generation from this pioneer was Job Hamlin, a noted soldier and patriot who participated in "the French and Indian war, was with General Wolfe at the battle of Quebec, and was an officer of the American forces in the War of the Revolution. This Revolutionary soldier was the grandfather of David Hamlin, the founder of the family in Northern Ohio. David Hamlin married Roxanna Crocker, also of old New England stock. About 1824 David Hamlin moved to Cleveland and paid $100 for forty acres located on what is now Superior Street in that city. A year later he sold it for $250, and then permanently settled and bought land at Dover in Cuyahoga County, where he married Roxanna Crocker, of another family of New England pioneers. Noah Crocker Hamlin, son of David and Roxanna, was born at their home in Dover, December 14, 1832. He spent his life as a farmer, and after his marriage settled at Eaton in Lorain County and in 1860 moved to Henry County. In 1880 he returned to 194 - HISTORY OF OHIO Lorain County and settled on the old Cornell homestead in Carlisle Township. Noah C. Hamlin married Lydia L. Fauver on March 27, 1860. She was born April 8, 1840, in Eaton Township, Lorain County, daughter of Walter and Alzina (Cornell) Fauver. Her parents came to Ohio in pioneer times, and the Cornell homestead in Carlisle Township was acquired by the father of Alzina Cornell. Thomas Walter Fauver was a grandson of Thomas Fauver, a native of Alsace Loraine, who came to the United States and joined Washington's army during the Revolution, and subsequently settled in Lorain County, Ohio, and is buried in the Eaton Township Cemetery. Thomas Walter was a son of George Fauver, who served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and was buried in Henry County, Ohio. Lorenzo Dow Hamlin was born August 21, 1867, while his parents were living at Ridgeville Corners in Henry County, Ohio. He was twelve when they returned to Lorain County, and he grew up on the old farm there. He attended district school every winter from 1873 to 1883, subsequently spent three years in Oberlin Academy, and for a number of years engaged in teaching. While teaching he continued his education in Oberlin College and also at Baldwin University at Berea. Mr. Hamlin in 1889 went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where for a time he attended a technical school. For four years he was in the service of the Pennsylvania Railway Company, beginning as brakeman, subsequently was conductor and assistant yard dispatcher. In June, 1893, he returned to Lorain County, and turned his attention to farming in Carlisle Township. Mr. Hamlin began the study of law under Judge Lee Stroup at Elyria in 1900, and was admitted to the bar in 1903. In the meantime, in 1902, Governor George K. Nash appointed him a member of the Ohio Investigating Canal Commission, and during the eighteen months of his service he made a personal investigation of the entire canal system of the state. In 1903 Governor Nash appointed him to a vacancy on the State Board of Public Works, and in 1904 he became a candidate for the republican nomination for a full term on that board, but was defeated. Mr. Hamlin's first office was as clerk of Carlisle Township, being elected in 1894 and serving six years. Since the spring of 1904 Mr. Hamlin has had a very successful practice as a lawyer at Elyria. He is attorney and general agent for the Lorain County Humane Society. He has been a progressive republican, and for several years was a member of the republican county executive committee. Mr. Hamlin is a member of the Masonic Club, the Lorain County Automobile Club and was formerly a Methodist. November 25, 1890, he married Miss Stella J. Brush, daughter of William and Facelia (Humphrey) Brush. She was of New England ancestry on both sides. She was born at La Porte in Lorain County, April 28, 1870. Of this marriage were born four children: Facelia, wife of William MaeDonald, of Chicago ; David Walter ; Lydia Irene, wife of N. K. Cheronis, of Chicago; and James Thurman, at home. David Walter Hamlin was born in Carlisle Township, Lorain County, August 28, 1895. He completed two years' work in high school, and for one year followed the machinists' trade. On April 14, 1917, soon after America entered the war against the Central Powers, he joined the Marine Corps and was sent to Paris Island, South Carolina, for training. He was there three months, spent one month at Quantico, Virginia, and on August 6, 1917, shipped from League Island Navy Yard on the transport Henderson, and landed at St. Nazaire, France Au- gust 21, 1917. There for a few months he did drill duty and stevedore work, was for two months with the military police at Bordeaux, and had two and one-half months intensive training at Chaumont. On March 17, 1918, he was sent with his outfit to the Verdun front, and remained there until the middle of May. Then followed two more weeks of intensive preparation just north of Paris, and on June 1, 1918, with the immortal Marine Brigade of the Second Division, struck the German advance line in Belleau Woods, and continued with his outfit in fierce conflict with the enemy until June 15th, when he was wounded by a shell fragment which penetrated his left side and permanently crippled his left arm. He was in the hospitals in France from the last mentioned date until October 6th, when he was transported to America, arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, on October 22, 1918, and after being detained a few days in the hospital at Portsmouth, was transferred to the Great Lakes Naval Hospital, where he was confined for one year. After receiving his honorable discharge he returned to Elyria, where he finished his high school education, and was for some time engaged in the real estate business, and as assistant in his father 's law office. He was for eighteen months connected with the State Automobile Department at Columbus, and resigning therefrom November 1, 1922, he returned to Elyria, was elected clerk of the city council, and is still so employed, spending his spare time reading law under his father 's tutelage. He is a republican, a Mason, a member of the Masonic Club, and ex-commander of the American Legion Post of Elyria. Lorenzo D. Hamlin on December 28, 1921, married Annie K. (Hattie) Birdseye, a lady who was born and raised in Hawaii and who was for several years before coming to the States a teacher in Kohala Seminary, an institution maintained solely for girls of the blood of the old reigning family of the Islands, where she still has many interests and where her relatives chiefly reside. THOMAS W. ORR has practiced law in Wayne County nearly thirty years. He is a former judge of the Probate Court. Most of his professional and civic record belongs to the community of Orrville, where he is one of the outstanding citizens. Judge Orr is a son of John Orr and a grandson of Robert Orr. Robert Orr, with his brother John, came to Ohio from Adams County, Pennsylvania, a county in which the historic town of Gettysburg is situated. They settled in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, were marired there and some time during the '40s moved to Holmes County. These brothers were of Scotch-Irish lineage. John Orr was born in Tuscarawas County, but spent his early life in Holmes County, and in 1865 moved to Wayne County, settling in Salt Creek Township, in the southern part of the county. He became a substantial farmer there, was a democrat in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Agnes Lisle, who was born in Holmes County, daughter of Robert Lisle, who served as a soldier in the War of 1812. John Orr and wife had four children, William C. and Robert N., both now deceased, Quintella, who married Edwin Ferris, and Thomas Walter. Thomas Walter Orr was reared on a Wayne County farm, attended public schools and the Fredericksburg High School and Smithville Academy. He finished his early education in Ohio Northern University at Ada, and for twelve years was engaged in teaching. He taught in country districts and also in high schools. Judge Orr studied law with Judge L. R. Critchfield, who at one time was attorney-general of Ohio. Admitted to the bar in 1895, he opened his law offices in Orrville, and has lived there HISTORY OF OHIO - 195 ever since except for the seven years when he was probate judge of Wayne County and resided at Wooster. He was made probate judge of Wayne County in 1905, taking office the same year, and was reelected in 1908. In 1922 he was elected representative from Wayne County in the state Legislature. He is a democrat in politics. Judge Orr is vice president, general counsel and director of the Orrville Savings Bank. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Odd Fellow. In 1889 he married Miss Emma J. Smith, daughter of Cyrus Smith, of Paint Township, Wayne County. Of the five children born to their marriage the oldest, Maynard, died when thirteen years of age. Lucille R. is the wife of R. C. Walton, who is connected with Pennsylvania State College. Walter S. Orr, the oldest living son, registered and enlisted in the army during the World war, and after the armistice was sent to the Philippines with the Coast Artillery Corps and is now stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. The third living child, Ruth 0., is the wife of N. J. Weis, who is a graduate of Ohio University at Athens and has charge of the department of public speaking in the Kalamazoo public schools in Michigan. The youngest of the family, Paul S. Orr, is also living at Kalamazoo, Michigan. ORRIN CLARK MCDOWELL, M. D. Soon after graduating in medicine Doctor McDowell was commissioned a medical officer in the army, saw service overseas during the World war, and as an industrial physician and surgeon after his return. He is now engaged in a prosperous general practice at Orrville in Wayne County. Doctor McDowell was born at Orrville, November 24, 1893, son of Edward D. and Nettie (Gouchnauer) McDowell. His mother was born in Pennsylvania and lives in Wayne County. His father was born in Wayne County and is now deceased. He spent his active career as a farmer and horse dealer. Edward D. McDowell was killed in a railroad and automobile collision September 19, 1920. One of a family of two sons and one daughter, Orrin Clark McDowell grew up on a farm, attended public schools, and is a graduate of the Orrville High School. After some experience working in a drug store he took the course in pharmacy at Ohio State University, graduating Pharmaceutical Chemist in 1915. He then remained to continue his medical studies, and was graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1917. For one year he was an interne in the Akron City Hospital, and on April 1, 1918, enlisted and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps. Doctor McDowell spent some time in Base Hospital No. 52 at Camp Gordon, Georgia, and in June, 1918, went overseas, first to Bordeaux, France, and between Christmas and New Year of 1919 was stationed at Saint Nazaire, one of the main forts for the American Expeditionary Forces. He did base hospital work there, and on returning to the United States was sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, where he received his honorable discharge in October, 1919. He came out of the, army with the rank of captain in the Medical Corps. Doctor McDowell spent nine months at Akron, Ohio, with the Miller Rubber Company as physician for that industry. He then became employed by a group of mining engineers and fruit growers of New York City, and as a professional man in this service he visited Cuba, Bahama Islands, Panama Canal Zone, the United States of Columbia, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico. After this varied experience of travel and professional work at home and abroad Doctor McDowell returned to his native town of Orrville, and is now engaged in general practice. He is a member of the County, State and American medical associations, belongs to the American Legion, is a Master Mason, Knight of Pythias and an Elk. He is a republican in politics and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Doctor McDowell married, May 24, 1923, Miss Evelyn Houser, of Orrville. REV. NICHOLAS P. WECKEL is a zealous and devoted Catholic priest who has served his church in America for nearly forty years. He is pastor of Saint Louis Catholic Church at Louisville in Stark County, and has made himself one of the most beloved men in that entire community. He was born in France, January 6, 1862, and was educated for the priesthood at Paris, where he finished his theological studies and was ordained in 1886. In the same year he came to America and was assigned to a difficult ministry on the frontier at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, then the center of one of the largest lumbering districts of Wisconsin. Besides the local parish he looked after six missions in the surrounding country, and much of his work was done in lumber camps and mills. After five years of that arduous labor he was assigned to duty at Cleveland, where he spent twelve years, then had another parish in Ohio four years, was for three years at Doylestown, and in 1915 came to the Catholic Church at Louisville. A predominating element in this parish has been members of a French colony that came from France in the early years of the last century. There were also a number of German and Irish families. The first Catholic Church building at Louisville was erected about 1836. The longest individual pastorate was that of Father Hoffer, who served the church thirty-six years. He greatly improved the church building and grounds, and also erected an academy and a college building. Father Weckel during his administration has brought about the erection of a modern two-story and basement parochial school building, completed in May, 1922, and the academy building is now used as an orphanage for 100 children. All the buildings are of brick construction. Father Weckel has about 250 families in the parish, and has general supervision over the church, the orphanage and parochial school. CLARENCE C. SLATER is a mechanical and electrical engineer by profession, has had a wide experience in engineering, construction and management work, and was called to his present position in 1919. The Columbus Railway Power and Light Company, as its title indicates, owns and operates the street railway system at Columbus, and is also producer and distributor of electric power and electric current for lighting to the great business and Indus. trial interests of Columbus. It is one of the largest public service corporations in Ohio. As the general manager of a company whose business brings it into daily close relations with the general public, Mr. Slater has shown wise judgment and executive ability of a high order, and has also been responsible for some of the genial personal relations that inspire the attitude of this corporation to the general public. Mr. Slater was born at Nelsonville in Athens County, Ohio, a son of Joseph Slater. His father was born in England, came to America as a youth, had no school advantages, began his career as a coal miner, also worked in steel mills, and eventually became one of the leading coal operators in the Hocking Valley. He married Barbara A. Coulter of Nelsonville. Clarence C. Slater attended the Ohio State University with the class of 1895. He has done engineering work ever since, although his present duties are largely executive and managerial. His home has 196 - HISTORY OF OHIO been at Columbus since 1903, and from that year until 1919, when he assumed his present position, he was engaged as consulting engineer on general engineering and engineering construction work, and also in the development and management of engineering enterprises. He occupies a beautiful home at 1506 Mento Place, Columbus, Ohio. M. E. BIERY is proprietor of the M. E. Biery Motor Company at Alliance, a business devoted exclusively to the sale and distribution of the Dodge car. Mr. Biery, who has had a successful experience in the automobile business for the past ten years, was born at Freeburg, Ohio, October 14, 1883. He grew up there, spending his early years on a farm, and was educated in the public schools of Quaker Hill and Beloit, Ohio. Beginning at the age of sixteen, he served a five years' apprenticeship and period of employment in the potter 's trade at Sebring, Ohio. After that he became a carpenter, and was engaged in house building and other work in Alliance, Ohio, until 1915, when he entered the automobile business in Alliance. He was first in the automobile business under the name of the Central Motor Company, then as a member of the firm of Biery & McCord, and finally as the M. E. Biery Motor Company. Mr. Biery is a member of the First Reformed Church of Alliance, and in politics is an independent. He married Miss Flora Eyer. Their three children are George Monroe, Margaret L. and Mary E. EDWARD A. LANGENBACH. Several of Ohio's ablest captains of industry have lived at Canton. In the modern group of industrial leaders associated with the city one of the most conspicuous, taking into consideration not only his personal career of advancement from humble beginnings to prominence, but also the great scope of the industries he has built up and of which he is the executive head, is Edward A. Langenbach. Mr. Langenbach was born in Canton, February 6, 1864, his father; Albin Langenbach, having come from Germany and located at Canton during the early '50s, living there until his death in 1876. Edward A. Langenbach acquired his education in public schools and in a business college. He was twelve years old when his father died, and three years later he left school and from that time forward depended upon his own efforts to earn his living. His first business connection, lasting only six months, was in a Canton bank, at a salary of $50 a year. He then became a collector for a Canton firm, and six months later took up similar work for a Canton furniture merchant. After about a year he had used his opportunities to acquire such a knowledge of the business that he went on the road selling furniture on commission, and had accumulated a, modest capital of about $300 by the time he was nineteen years old. In the meantime another Canton citizen, Wilson Berger, had patented a metal device, known as the Berger Patent Eaves Trough Hanger. Mr. Langenbach and John A. Berger finally decided to venture their capital in the manufacturing of the appliance. After equipping a modest factory in 1886, in the basement of a wagon shop, they had no money left to promote the sale. While the enterprise was threatened with failure, another partner came in, Stephen Zuger, who subsequently sold his interest to Herman Klorer, who brought to the business about $5,000, that marking the real beginning of the Berger Manufacturing Company. It was Mr. Langenbach who conceived the idea of making the long length cave trough, and their firm turned out the first of what is now a standard ten foot length. Later they became the first makers of long length conductor pipes, and in 1891 started the manufacture of cornices and the following year the manufacture of steel ceiling. A galvanizing department was added, and in 1895 the company branched out into the manufacture of fire proofing specialties and in 1896 began making lanterns. All these and many other articles listed as metal specialties are the output of the modern Berger Manufacturing Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind anywhere. In 1904 the company started the manufacture of steel furniture. The Berger Company of recent times has become the original and central plant in a large group of related and allied industries, known as the East End group of factories at Canton, in that they use capital of many millions of dollars and employ thousands of hands. The first president of the Berger Manufacturing Company when it was incorporated was Mr. Biechele. Successive increases were made in the capital from $25,000 to $500,000. By 1900 Mr. Langenbach was the last survivor of the original owners and founders. In that year the business was incorporated with a capital of $1,000,000, and since then Mr. Langenbach has been president and general manager. He is at this time (1924) president of the United Alloy Steel Corporation, a $40,000,000 corporation, with which a number of the earlier organizations were merged, some of which were : The Berger Manufacturing Company, United Steel Company, the Stark Rolling Mills, the United Furnace Company and the Canton Culvert and Silo Company. He is also president of the United Electric Company, the United Security Company, Allied Coal Company, Hercules Motors Corporation, all of Canton. He is a director of the Republic Stamping and Enameling Company, the First Trust and Savings Bank, as well as numerous other financial interests in Canton. He is president of the McCaskey Register Company of Alliance, is a director of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad Company, and the Union Trust Company of Cleveland. Socially he is affiliated with the leading clubs of Canton. He married Miss Rosa Janson, of Canton. EMMETT C. DIX is associate owner with his father, Albert Dix, in the Wooster Daily Record, a newspaper that includes the history of one of the oldest newspapers in Wayne County, and in its present form is one of the most influential journals published in any of the smaller cities of Ohio. The name Dix has been prominent in Ohio journalism for a great many years. Albert Dix, who was born at Palmyra, Portage County, Ohio, October 8, 1845, gained a fair literary education and was a school teacher for several years. After the age of twenty-one he was engaged in merchandising for twelve years, but in 1879 removed to Hamilton, Ohio, and for eighteen years was manager of the Hamilton Daily News. It was in 1898 that he and his son, Emmett C., bought the Wooster Republican, the weekly issue of which has had a continuous history since 1816. Subsequently Albert and Emmett Dix acquired the Wooster Journal and other newspaper interests there, and all of them in recent years have been consolidated as the Wooster Daily Record. Albert Dix continued the active management of this paper for many years, but is now retired. His career has been one of hard work and high minded participation in the affairs of his community and state. He is an active member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Wooster, and president of the board of trustees, and is a republican in politics. He married Mary E. Luke, also a native of Portage County, who died in 1911. The only child of his parents, Emmett C. Dix was born at Atwater in Portage County, December 28, 1873, and from the age of six lived at Hamilton in Butler County. He acquired a public school educa- HISTORY OF OHIO - 197 tion there, and in 1897 he graduated from Hiram College in his native county. From early boyhood he had received training in the practical work of a newspaper office, and he readily chose newspaper work as his vocation. About a year after he graduated from Hiram College he became associated with his father at Wooster, and for some years was editor of the Republican and later of the Daily Record, and since his father retired has been managing editor of the publication. He is a republican, an active worker in the First Methodist Episcopal Church and superintendent of its Sunday school, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Rotary Club. In 1922-23 he was president of the Wooster Board of Trade. Mr. Dix in 1900 married Miss Edna M. Voorhees, of Waterloo, Iowa. They are the parents of five sons, Albert V., Raymond, Robert, Gordon and Harlan. HARRY R. SMITH. In the forty years since he was admitted to the bar Mr. Smith has divided his time largely between general law practice and his work as a railroad attorney and in business affairs. He has also been prominent in official affairs of the state. A native of Wayne County and for many years a resident of Wooster, he was born at Millbrook, July 19, 1862, only child of Richard H. and Mary Ann (Nicholas) Smith, and grandson of John and Sarah Smith. Richard H. Smith was a native of Virginia, was brought to Ohio when a small boy, and was soon afterward left an orphan. He was a Union soldier in the Civil war, a member of Company A of the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. By trade he was a millwright, and his home was at Millbrook in Wayne County until 1879, when he established his home at Wooster. Harry R. Smith acquired his early education in Millbrook, and was attending high school at Wooster when his father 's health failed. He soon left school to go to work, and was employed as a millwright for a time. His law studies were pursued in the office of a prominent Wooster law firm, John P. and L. Q. Jeffries. Admitted to the bar in 1885, he at once engaged in practice. Subsequently Mr. Smith became identified with the company building the Ashland and Wooster Railroad, and in 1899 was appointed manager of the road, serving one year. During the following seventeen years Mr. Smith 's time and talents were devoted to his connections with the legal department of the Pennsylvania Railway Company. He was a specialist in all matters of real estate law for the company. For another two years Mr. Smith was attorney for the Ohio State Tax Commission. In August, 1923, he was appointed special assistant to the United States attorney-general. He has always been a staunch republican, and in 1918 was nominated by the party for state senator. The districts including Wayne County had for years been strongly democratic. Mr. Smith proved such an able campaigner and vote getter that he missed election by only a narrow margin. The only fraternal or social organization which has ever secured his membership has been the Sons of Veterans. He married in 1887 Miss Minnie Ellen Brinkeroff, a native of Wayne County and of a prominent family of that section of Ohio. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Smith are Clyde B., an architect practicing his profession at Wooster, and Miss Marie. JOHN COOK MCCLARAN has been a prominent member of the Wayne County bar for over forty years, and represents a family of Wayne County pioneers. He was born on a farm near Wooster, August 10, 1852, oldest of the five children of Dewitt Clinton and Janet (Jordan) McClaran. On both sides he is of Scotch ancestry. His grandparents were Robert and Grace (Cook) McClaran, natives of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Robert McClaran came out to Ohio and prospected over Wayne County in 1811. He then returned to Pennsylvania, married, and in 1812 he and his bride came through the wilderness to their home on the frontier in Wayne County. Robert McClaran was a builder and contractor, and became a man of much prominence in his section of the state. As justice of the peace he had the distinction of performing the first marriage in Wayne County. He was elected on the whig ticket to the Legislature in 1823. He was a man of strong intellectual and moral character. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died in his forty-first year. Dewitt Clinton McClaran was born at Wooster, and devoted his active life to farming. He died in his seventy-first year. His wife, Janet Jordan, was born in Holmes County, Ohio, daughter of David Jordan, and she died in her sixty-first year. John Cook McClaran during his boyhood on the farm attended country schools, and early learned the lessons of self-reliance and has been on his own resources since boyhood. After attendance at the Wooster High School he entered Wooster College, where he graduated with the class of 1877. He studied. law in a Wooster law office, taught school a year, and in 1880 graduated from the law department of Boston University. Returning to Ohio, he was admitted to the bar, and through four decades has faithfully represented the interests of a large general clientage. Mr. McClaran served one term as city solicitor and two terms as probate judge of Wayne County, his terms as probate judge running from 1894 to 1900. He is a democrat in politics, is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church. On June 30, 1885, Judge McClaran married Elizabeth C. Deer, daughter of Jacob and Marietta Deer. She died June 20, 1889, leaving two children, Wade Dewitt and John Walter. On July 21, 1891, Judge McClaran married Miss Jessie Kate Jones, daughter of Lake F. and Jennie Jones. Mrs. McClaran was a member of the Episcopal Church. She died January 24, 1924. Wade Dewitt McClaran, elder son of Judge McClaran, was born July 24, 1886, and has a record of service as a soldier in the World war. He was a sergeant in one of the American regiments sent to the battle front in Northern Italy. His home is now at Youngstown, Ohio. John Walter McClaran, the younger son, was born October 1, 1887. After attending the local schools he became a cadet in the Annapolis Naval Academy, was graduated in 1911, and has made a brilliant record as a naval officer through the various grades. He is now a lieutenant commander. He was on duty overseas during the World war, and for the past four years has been in Eastern waters, China and Japan, and was naval attache at the Americn Embassy at Tokio, but now has command of a destroyer. HARRY HINKSON. Among the prominent and substantial men of Elyria is Harry Hinkson, general contractor and realtor, who has been a resident of this city for more than thirty years and is identified officially and otherwise with many important interests here. That he has been in all essentials the builder of his own fortunes reflects far greater credit than if favoring conditions and early helpful environment had safely set him on his way. A youth that sets out for himself in early boyhood and goes straight forward certainly possesses a sturdy character, and one that is apt to have a stable influence all through life. Harry Hinkson was born at Dubuque, Iowa, Sep- 198 - HISTORY OF OHIO tember 15, 1867. His parents were Ransom and Hattie (Barnett) Hinkson, the former of whom was born at Ottawa, Canada, and the latter in England. Both of them came to the United States when young and their marriage took place at Dubuque, Iowa. During the Civil war the father of Mr. Hinkson was a soldier in the Federal Army, and was detailed by the Government to inspect cattle, for which he was well qualified, and he served as cattle inspector until the end of the war. In March, 1873, he moved with his family to Buffalo, New York, and both he and his wife died in that city. Harry Hinkson was six years old when the family moved to Buffalo, and there he attended the public schools for a few years, but it was in July, 1880, that he became self-supporting, starting to work in a Buffalo planing mill, learned the trade and continued in the same mill until 1891, when he came to Elyria, Ohio. At that time there was less improved mill machinery in use than at present, and it was not a difficult matter for an industrious, capable young man to find employment, and as Mr. Hinkson has both industry and capacity, together with other qualities that insured his trustworthiness, for several years afterward he found himself very satisfactorily situated in one of Elyria's big planing mills. He then turned his attention to general contracting and building, and succeeded so well that after four years he admitted John B. Halpin to a partnership, and they continued together for eight years, when he sold his interest to Mr. Halpin. Later, in partnership with Charles Buttinbender, he embarked in a general contracting line and in real estate and insurance, and this partnership continued until 1918, when the firm dissolved. Since then Mr. Hinkson has been alone in the same line of business, and since 1909 his offices have been maintained in the Masonic Temple. In addition to his numerous business interests Mr. Hinkson has for years been active in democratic politics and at times has served in very responsible public offices. In 1910 he was elected real estate appraiser for the City of Elyria, and, indicative of his efficiency, in 1917 he was appointed real estate appraiser for Lorain County, and in 1919 he was elected city auditor of Elyria, in which office he served for two years. At the present time he is treasurer of the democratic executive committee of Lorain County. Mr. Hinkson was married in Lorain County, Ohio, on October 16, 1891, to Miss Bertha M. Eckler, who was born in Carlisle Township, Lorain County, a daughter of John and Cornelia (Hart) Eckler, who were natives of Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Hinkson became the parents of one son, Rolland E., who was born December 23, 1892. He was educated in the public schools of Elyria, grew up to be a type of fine young American manhood, and was favorably known in his native city. When the entrance of the United States into the World war called the youth of the land into military service, Rolland E. Hinkson was found at the post of duty, and with his comrades in the heavy artillery, set out for France in October, 1918, on the ill-fated transport, Ticonderoga, which met the same fate, at the hands of a savage and ruthless enemy, as did the Lusitania. Mr. Hinkson is president of the Elyria Pence Company ; is vice president of the Amusement Promoters Company of Elyria ; is treasurer of The Greater Elyria Building Company, and has interests in other directions but mainly confined to Elyria, Of which he has been a "bOoster" in the right sense of the word for many years. In the fall of 1923 Mr. Hinkson was elected mayor Of Elyria on the democratic ticket by a majority of 215 votes, the city nominally going republican five to one, and, moreover, he was elected without the aid of the local paper. In fraternal life Mr. Hinkson is widely known. In Masonry he belongs to the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council, Commandery and the Shrine. He is a member also of the Elks, of the Loyal Order of Moose, of the Knights of Pythias, of the Modern Woodmen of America, and of the Eagles, serving in the last named organization as chairman of its board of trustees for nine years. He is a member of the Lorain County Fair Association, of the Lorain County Automobile Club, the Masonic Club and the Sons of Veterans. HON. FRANK TAGGART, of Wooster, has earned many of the highest distinctions paid to the practicing attorney and to the public leader. His career on the bench and in public affairs has. kept him prominently before the people of Ohio. He was born at Smithville, in Wayne County, Ohio, June 6, 1852, son of William Wirt and Margaret (McCaughey) Taggart. His father was a native of Belmont County and his mother of Stark County, Ohio, and they were married in Wayne County. Both his grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers. His grandfather, Isaac Taggart, came from Pennsylvania to Ohio. William W. Taggart, who located at Wooster in 1859, was an able physician and surgeon of his day, and served as a surgeon with the rank of major in the One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio Regiment during the Civil war. He lived to be more than eighty years of age. He was a staunch republican, and had been a delegate in the state convention which nominated Salmon P. Chase for governor, and was candidate for the constitutional convention of 1873. He and his wife had two sons and two daughters. The older son was the late Rush Taggart, who died in September, 1922, and for many years had ranked as one of the most successful corporation lawyers in the country. He was a graduate in law of the University of Michigan, and early moved to New York City, where he engaged in corporation practice, and for about a quarter of a century was vice president and general counsel of the Western Union Telegraph Company and was interested in a number of other corporations. Frank Taggart 's two sisters were Clementine, who died unmarried, and Margaret Taggart, who married Doctor Greenslade, of Lima, Ohio, and is also deceased. Judge Taggart was educated in the public schools of Wooster, graduated from Wooster College in 1874, and in 1876 completed his law course in the University of Michigan, being admitted to the bar. For nearly half a century he has been active in his profession as a member of the Ohio bar. Judge Taggart is a republican, and in 1914 was defeated as a candidate for chief justice of Ohio, though he carried his own county nominally democratic by 3,600. He has filled many offices on the basis of merit and qualifications without distinction for party. He has been a member of the school board and city council of Wooster, has served as common pleas judge, and in 1904 was elected to the Circuit Court bench and in 1910 elected chief justice of the Ohio Circuit Court. In 1912 he was a member of the constitutional convention, and in 1915 Governor Willis appointed him superintendent of the Ohio Department of Insurance. In 1917 he became general attorney for the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company. Judge Taggart is vice president of the Wayne County National Bank and is affiliated with the Masonic Order. In 1887 he married Miss Lizzie Wallace, of a very distinguished family. She was born at Monmouth, Illinois, was reared there, being a daughter of David A. and Martha P. Wallace. Her father was for about HISTORY OF OHIO - 199 twenty-five years president of Monmouth College. Her brother, John F. Wallace, who died July 3, 1921, was internationally famous as a civil engineer, and for many years was chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railway Company. Subsequently he was appointed the first engineer of the Panama Canal, and afterwards conducted an extensive practice as a consulting engineer in New York and Chicago. Another brother of Mrs. Taggart was Rev. M. H. Wallace, who for twenty-three months was chaplain of the Detroit unit in the World war. Her brother, Col. C. S. Wallace, has been with the Signal Corps in the Regular Army of the United States for a great many years, was overseas during the World war, and is now stationed at San Francisco. Judge and Mrs. Taggart have four sons and three daughters: William Wallace, John F., David A. and Frank, Jr., and Mrs. Margaret Taggart Smith, Mrs. Martha Taggart Blankenhorn and Mrs. Clementine Taggart Barnett. The oldest son, William W. Taggart, was a second lieutenant of engineers during the World war. John F. Taggart went overseas with the Seventy-sixth Field Artillery, and was in France and also with the Army of Occupation in Germany. The son David A. was in the Students' Army Training Corps during the war. JOHN C. SCHULTZ, president of the Citizens National Bank of Wooster, has for forty years been closely identified with the commercial and civic affairs of Wayne County. He has been a merchant, banker, industrial leader and one working at all times for the solid welfare of his locality. Mr. Schultz was born in East Union Township of Wayne County, September 18, 1861, son of Nicholas and Catherine (Schaffer) Schultz. His parents were both natives of Germany, and his father was eighteen and his mother sixteen years of age when they came to the United States. They married in Wayne County, Ohio, and spent the rest of their days on a farm in East Union Township. Nicholas Schultz was a blacksmith by trade. One of six children, John C. Schultz grew up on the farm, attended district schools and finished his early education in the Smithville Academy. At the age of sixteen he started teaching, and for eight terms taught in country schools. It was on March 1, 1883, more than forty years ago, that he began his business career at Wooster as clerk in a hardware store. He was with the firm of Cooley and Kinney until January 1, 1891, when he was made a partner in that business, and at that time the company bought out the hardware business of the D. D. Miller Company, establishing the Wooster Hardware Company. Mr. Schultz continued with the new organization and on the death of Mr. Cooley, Mr. Christy and Mr. Schultz bought out that share, together with that of Mr. Kinney, and the business was then incorporated, in 1911. On April 1, 1921, Mr. Schultz sold his interest, after having been for thirty-eight years connected with the business and for twenty years of that time had had the sole responsibilities of management. Mr. Schultz became a director of the Citizens National Bank at Wooster seven years ago, and since 1920 has been president of the institution. He has for several years been vice president of the Peoples Savings and Loan Company, and is vice president and treasurer of the Weldless Tube Company of Wooster. For seven years he was a member of the city board of education, for four years was a trustee of the Wayne County Children's Home, and for four years was president of the Wooster Board of Trade, and while head of that Organization was instrumental in securing several thriving new industries for the city. Mr. Schultz is a democrat in politics, though he has never sought an elective office of any kind. For eleven years he was superintendent of the Sunday school of the Reformed Church, and fraternally is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. At Wooster, in 1884, Mr. Schultz married Miss Sarah Johnson, who was born and reared in Ohio. They have two sons, Clarence Edward and Wallace Johnson Schultz. The elder son is now connected with the Weldless Tube Company at Wooster. Wallace J. is employed in the Cleveland offices of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. HENRY WILLIAM LEINER. All the honest capability and resourcefulness and ready action in emergencies that make up the fine qualifications of an officer of the law have been exhibited by Henry William Leiner in his long service as chief of police of the City of Wooster. Mr. Leiner was born at Wooster, May 4, 1867, son of Valentine and Mary E. (Duber) Leiner. His parents were natives of Germany, came to the United States when young, were married here and then lived at Wooster the remainder of their lives, the father passing away at the age of sixty-eight and the mother at seventy-eight. Valentine Leiner for a number of years was in the teaming business at Wooster. The youngest in a family of four sons and two daughters, Henry William Leiner was reared at Wooster, attended the public schools, and was only sixteen when he began the battle of life for himself, earning his own way ever since that time. For a number of years he was employed in a planing mill industry. It was in 1894 that he began his service as chief of police, and with the exception of two years, 1910-11, has filled that office ever since. No other chief of police in Ohio under civil service rule has been in office for so long a time. Mr. Leiner is a democrat in politics and a member of the Lutheran Church. He married in 1906 Miss Lillian Oberdusky. Three children were born to their marriage, one son now deceased, and two daughters, Ethel May and Margaret Elizabeth. JARED P. BLISS. Citizens of Columbus have given repeated expressions of their appreciation of the unusual public spirit and numerous acts in behalf of the public welfare performed by Jared P. Bliss. He has been one of the city 's leading business men, has been a most powerful factor in the development of the South Side, and in addition to his individual career his name is interesting for its connection with one of the most historic families of Columbus. Mr. Bliss was born in Columbus in 1854, son of Charles and Deborah (Shead) Bliss. Deborah Shead's mother was Mary McGown, and her father was John McGown. John McGown, born in Londonderry in the North of Ireland, was a splendid representative of the strong, sturdy type of Scotch-Irishman. He became one of the first settlers of Columbus. In 1802 he erected the first cabin in what is now the city, this cabin standing on South High Street. Its site is now covered with a building owned by Jared P. Bliss and used for business purposes. The lot on which this building is located, as well as adjoining parcels of ground, has been in the possession of John McGown and his descendants since 1802. Only in comparatively recent years has it become part of the business district. John McGown's homestead originally extended from the Scioto River back to what was known as the old "poorhouse" property and from Livingston Avenue south almost to College Street. At this homestead Jared P. Bliss was born and it is also the birthplace of his mother. Jared P. Bliss acquired a public school education in Columbus. When he was a boy of about eleven