HISTORY OF OHIO - 225 Church, and politically he is a republican. He comes of Revolutionary stock on both sides of the family. He married in July, 1905, Miss Lottie Kirk, who is likewise descended from Revolutionary ancestors. She has always been deeply interested in the success of her husband's business undertakings. She was born at Maysville, Kentucky, daughter of Robert C. and Ella (Flemming) Kirk, natives of Mason County, Kentucky. While they have no children of their own, Mrs. Curren has reared since the age of three years, Master Gilbert Jordan, her nephew. GEN. GEORGE FLORENCE, of Circleville, former adjutant general of Ohio, represents one of the oldest families in Pickaway County. For over thirty years he has been identified with the military establishment of Ohio and has answered the calls of duty three times for the Federal Government, in the Spanish-American war, on the Mexican border, and in the World war. The first American ancestor was a soldier under LaFayette in the War of the Revolution and after the war located at Warrenton, Virginia. His son, Judge William Florence., founder of the Ohio family, was born at Warrenton, Virginia, was a surveyor by profession, and about 1806 came to Ohio and settled in Pickaway County. He did a great deal of work as a surveyor, was one of the first commissioners of the county, and was elected to the Legislature in 1816-17 and was associate judge of the courts of the county beginning in 1828. He reached the venerable age of ninety-six, passing away at his home in Pickaway County in 1870. In 1796 he married Fanny Robinson. Their oldest. child, Col. Elias Florence, was born in Virginia, February 15, 1797, and was a boy when brought to Ohio. He owned about 6,000 acres of land in Pickaway County, was a stock raiser and drover to the eastern markets and he had a notable public career, serving many years as a colonel in the State Militia, was a member of the Legislature during the thirties and in 1842 was elected on the whig ticket to Congress and served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850-51. He died in 1881 at the age of eighty-four. His wife was Elizabeth Radcliffe, of Kentucky. Their son, Ezra Florence, grandfather of Gen. George Florence, was born in Pickaway County, and died when only twenty-nine years of age. He operated a large farming estate inherited by his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Ann Renick. She was born in Pickaway County in 1828, and as the only child to grow up she inherited all the large property of her parents, Jonathan and Lucinda (Sudduth) Renick. Elias Florence, son of Ezra and Sarah Ann Florence, was born in Pickaway County, September 28, 1845, and has spent all his life in one community. He was well educated, attending a boys' school at Springfield, Ohio, and one year in Kenyon College. After leaving school he managed the home farm, and later settled on the property on Darby Plains, where he still lives in one, of the most attractive and valuable sections of Pickaway County. He has been a republican, -but the only office he ever accepted was that of Justice of the Peace. He rendered conspicuous service, in establishing the first centralized school in Ohio, a school in Jackson Township. He carried on an active campaign to secure this result lasting many months, in the course of which he interviewed practically every one concerned in the school. He married Catherine Fitzgerald in 1868. Her father, Judge Edward Fitzgerald, was a native of Virginia, and for many years served as probate judge of Madison County, Ohio. Elias Florence and wife had two children: George and Anna, the latter becoming the wife of Harry Holderman. Gen. George Florence was born at the old homestead, six miles west of Circleville, March 1, 1872. He grew up on the farm, attended the local schools and Ohio State University, and for a number of years has been actively associated with his father as a farmer and stock grower. In 1891 he entered the Ohio National Guard. At the time of the Spanish-American war he was second lieutenant of Company M, of the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, served with his regiment in the Porto Rico campaign until November, 1898, when regiment was returned to the United States for muster out of service. General Florence became actively engaged in the National Guard soon after his return, and his advance in rank came rapidly until he reached that of major. In 1916 he went to the Mexican border in command of the First Battalion, Fourth Ohio National Guard, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel upon his return to Ohio in March, 1917. In July, 1917, the National Guard was again called into the United States service and in October of that year General Florence sailed with his regiment, now the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Infantry, Forty-second Division (Rainbow Division), as its lieutenant colonel, returning. with his regiment to the United States in May, 1919. At the reorganization of the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Regiment he was made its colonel, and served so until Governor Davis appointed him adjutant general of the State. On retiring from that office Governor Davis made him major general of the Thirty-seventh Division, Ohio National Guard. General Florence is a trustee of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society at Columbus. He resides with his parents and his sister, who during the World war was prominent in local Red Cross activities. GEORGE W. LATTIMER was born in Columbus, December 6, 1856, son of Oliver Hallam and Sarah Cox Lattimer. He was educated in the public schools of Columbus, completing the course in the old Central High School in 1874. He graduated from Amherst College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1879. In 1884 he married Isabelle Gardner, who died shortly after the birth of a son, Gardner, in 1886. Twelve years later, in 1898, he married Minnie Louise Williams, to whom two children were born, a daughter, Jane, and a son, Allen, who died in infancy. In 1881, after a year in the silver and lead mines of Colorado and a short time in the coal business in Columbus, Mr. Lattimer became one of the organizers of the Kauffman-Lattimer Company, wholesale druggists, of which he was secretary and treasurer until his death thirty-nine years later. A believer in the practical value of cooperation and good-will in business, he was active throughout his life in local and national trade associations. For many years he was one of the' leaders in the National Wholesale Druggists' Association, serving as chairman of important committees and on the board of control. He was president of the association in 1913-14. He was the founder and for twelve years the president of the Lattimer Stove and Foundry Company. In 1916 he became secretary and treasurer of the LattimerStevens Company, a position which he held at the time of his death. Mr. Lattimer, believing that a democracy to be effective must have the interest of its citizens, was continuously active in civic and social work. He believed that business could not prosper without effective government nor government without successful business. He, therefore, divided his time between 226 - HISTORY OF OHIO personal matters and public welfare, in the conviction that such was the duty of every citizen. In 1882 Mr. Lattimer helped to organize the Columbus Board of Trade, now the Chamber of Commerce, and served on its first board of directors. He was its president in 1906. Upon the recommendation of a special Board of Park Commissioners, of which Mr. Lattimer was chairman, a group of landscape architects and city-planning experts made a survey of Columbus in 1904. Mr. Lattimer was active in the good roads movement, serving as president of the Franklin County Good Roads Association, and holding various offices in the Ohio Good Roads Federation. He was instrumental in helping to formulate many of the present road laws of Ohio. In social service and in helpfulness to humanity Mr. Lattimer took the greatest interest. He assisted in the organization and served as first president of the Central Philanthropic Council. He was a member of the Board of Managers of the Associated Charities until his death, was one of the directors of the Humane Society, was vice-president of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society, was a trustee of the Hannah Neil Mission, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Godman Guild. He served as president of the Ohio Institute of Public Efficiency from the time of its organization in 1914. In 1912 Governor Cox appointed him a member of the State Board of Arbitration. The board successfully adjusted a serious labor controversy during the strike of the rubber workers in Akron, and made it unnecessary to call the troops, which had been requested. During the disastrous floods of 1913 Mr. Lattimer, one of the leaders in local relief work, served on a commission of five appointed by Governor Cox to direct flood relief work throughout the state. Later he was appointed one of the three members of the Franklin County Flood Conservancy Board, and in a minority report he urged the adoption of plans for local flood protection which have since been carried out. He was the state representative of the American Red Cross from the time of the flood until the World war. He then became chairman of the local chapter, in which capacity he served throughout the war, in spite of the failing health, until in 1919 serious illness compelled him to resign his position. Mr. Lattimer died of pernicious anaemia on February 12, 1920. GARDNER LATTIMER was born in Columbus, Ohio, January 11, 1886. He is the son of George W. and Isabelle (Gardner) Lattimer. He was educated in the public schools and graduated from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1906. For eight years after leaving college he was associated with the Lattimer Stove Company, serving as secretary and general manager from 1910 until 1914. From 1914 until 1920 he was a member of the staff of the Ohio Institute for Public Efficiency, during most of which, time he was assigned to work in Toledo with the Toledo Chamber of Commerce as director of its Governmental Research Bureau. During the war he served as director of the Lucas County-division of the United States Food Administration in Toledo. Following the death of his father in 1920 Mr. Lattimer returned to Columbus to succeed his father as secretary and treasurer of the Lattimer-Stevens Company, which position he now holds. For many years Mr. Lattimer has been actively interested in civic and social work. He is at present treasurer of the Ohio Council of Churches and of the Ohio Institute for Public Efficiency. He is secretary of the Ohio Society for Crippled Children and a mem ber of the Executive Committee of the Ohio Association on Penal Affairs. Locally he has been for several years secretary of the Franklin County Board of Visitors and is serving his first year as secretary of the Family Service Society. He has been active in the Chamber of Commerce, being an unsuccessful candidate for director in 1923. In 1910 Mr. Lattimer married Esther Rees Williams, daughter of David E. Williams, who was active in public, life in Columbus for a number of years, serving as city auditor and secretary of the Sinking Fund Commission. Mr. and Mrs. Lattimer have three children, David, George and Barbara Anne. They are members of the First. Congregational Church. Mr. Lattimer is a member of the Rotary Club, the Athletic Club and the Columbus and Scioto Country clubs. CHARLES FRANCIS CRAMER is a Spanish-American war veteran and spent nearly a quarter of a century in the service of the. Federal Government as an architect. Since going on the retired list he has made his home at Lorain. Mr. Cramer was born at Racine, Wisconsin, October 23, 1862, son of Charles Nelson and Abbie Permilla (Sands) Cramer. His father was born at Euclid, near Cleveland, Ohio and his mother in Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Nelson Cramer was a captain on the Great Lakes for many years and he and his wife were married at Racine, Wisconsin. Their home for a number of years was at Ogdensburg, New York, where the mother died in February, 1872. He passed away at Detroit, Michigan, in 1889. Charles Francis Cramer was reared at Ogdensburg, New York, until he was fourteen years of age. Following that he spent several years on a farm at Venango, Pennsylvania, and at the age of eighteen entered Western Reserve University. He studied architecture, graduated in 1885, and with home and headquarters at Cleveland, carried on a successful practice for a dozen years or more. In 1898, the year the Spanish-American war broke out, Mr.. Cramer was made major of the Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His regiment was trained at Ybor City, Florida, and was in readiness to embark on the transport Florida at Port Tampa, all the ammunition, mules and other supplies having been put on board, when the Florida was rammed and sunk. The regiment was then sent to Fernandina, Florida, and remained there from August until October. Major Cramer returned. with his command and was mustered out at Cleveland, November 5, 1898. Following this service he was appointed to a position in the United States Treasury Department, being assigned to the division of the supervising architects. For many years he traveled about over the country, and superintended the construction of twenty-seven postoffice buildings and the repair of several hundred federal buildings. The government buildings which he supervised. were scattered all over the country, a brief list of them being as follows: Akron, Canton, the Marine Hospital at Cleveland, Lorain, Tiffin, Elyria, all in Ohio; South Omaha, Portsmouth, Co- lumbus, Freemont, Kearny, Lincoln, Falls City, Nebraska City, and Blair in Nebraska; Salem, Oregon; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Pierre, South Dakota; Mason City, Council Bluffs, Shenandoah, Clarinda and Sioux City, Iowa; buildings of the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition at Seattle; Indiana, Pennsylvania, Duquoin, Illinois; Allegheny City, Pennsylvania; Springfield, Illinois, and Mitchell, South Dakota. In the course of this work Mr. Cramer necessarily had no permanent residence. His wife traveled. with him, since his duties required. his residence frequently in one town for several months. In 1920 he bought a fine lot at 1419 East Erie Avenue in the City of HISTORY OF OHIO - 227 Lorain, and there from his own plans built an attractive Ann Hathaway home in the Elizabethan period of English architecture. He is now living there with his family, on retired pay from the United States Treasury Department. At Cleveland, May 12, 1883, he married Miss Alice Fisher, a native of that city,. and daughter of Adams and Elizabeth (Dietrich) Fisher. Her father was born in Bavaria, Germany, and her mother in Cleveland. Mrs. Cramer died September 9, 1908. She was the mother of two daughters, Charlotte, dying at the age of seven years. Grace, wife of Lieutenant Arthur Jackson Smith of the United States Army, lives with her father and is the mother of two children, Richard Cramer and Jackson Fisher Smith. Major Cramer is a member of the Christian Science faith. He is a republican, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Eastern Star, the Knights of Pythias of Cleveland, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He served as the first department commander of Ohio Spanish-American war veterans and is now the national commander of the United Spanish War Veterans. He has also served as president of the Society of Constructors of Federal Buildings. WILLIAM F. AMRINE, born at LaHarpe, Illinois, December 20, 1875. His father, Henry Amrine, a veteran of the Civil war, died in 1881; his mother, Margaret White Amrine, died in 1885. William F. Amrine attended Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, 1892-96. Enlisted in the Fourth Ohio Volunteers Infantry in 1898 and served with that regiment during the campaign in Porto Rico. He was married in 1899 to Miss Bertha C. Yost, of Somerset, Ohio, and live in London, Ohio. They have six children, named Alice, Ruth, Mary Jane, Margaret, Robert and Constance. Mr. Amrine entered the state services as teacher at the Ohio State Reformatory in 1902 and has been engaged continuously in prison work since that time. At present he is general manager of the New Prison Farm, London, Ohio. ARTHUR V. BLAND, veteran of. the. World war, is also a veteran in the service of Electric Interurban Railway of Ohio. Mr. Bland is at present Director of Public Relations for a group of electric railways, with his offices in the Interurban Terminal Building at Columbus. His native Ohio town is Zanesville, and is a descendant of one of the first settlers of that historic community. His great-great-grandfather, John Bland, coming out of Virginia in 1798, locating at Zanesville, this being four years before Ohio was admitted to the Union. John Bland's brother, William Bland, also settled there in 1803, and many of the descendants of these two brothers are still living in that locality. Arthur V. Bland is a son of John Bland and a grandson of Walter Bland. Mr. Bland's career as an interurban railway man began in the office of the Indiana, Columbus & Eastern Traction Company at Springfield. He was with that company with various positions of responsibility, and his home remained at. Springfield until 1924. Prior to the World war he was a member of the old Third Ohio Infantry of the Ohio National Guard. With that regiment he went to the. Mexican border in the summer of 1916, returning in the early spring of 1917. After America entered the World war the Third Ohio was mustered into the National Army as the One Hundred Forty-eighth Infantry and became a part of the Thirty-seventh Division, which went over- seas in June, 1918. Mr. Bland was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, when America declared war on Germany and from there was transferred with his regiment to Camp Sherman, Ohio, and later to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, where most of the Ohio troops were trained. He was with the Thirty-seventh Division in active service in France until after the armistice, returning to the United States in March, 1919. However he remained in the army stationed at Governor's However, New York, until January 1, 1920, being relieved of duty after nearly four years of continuous service. He was first commissioned a first lieutenant and later promoted to captain. Captain Bland moved from Springfield in 1924 and has had his home as well as his offices in Columbus. Since 1923 he has held the position as Director of Public Relations for the Indiana, Columbus and Eastern Traction Company, The Columbus, Newark & Zanesville Electric Railway Company, The Columbus Interurban Terminal Company, The Dayton and Columbus Transportation Company and 'the Columbus and Zanesville Transportation Company. The last two are bus lines operated by the Interurban Railway Company. A department of public relations and his office as director are comparatively new features of the electric interurban railway service of Ohio. Some notable accomplishments are to the 'credit of this department during the first year or two of its significance. Through the medium of the printed word and direct contact with the newspaper and other publicity agencies and individuals, Mr. Bland has made remarkable progress in putting the relations between the companies and their patrons upon a direct personal touch basis. Among other things the irritating prohibitory signs, the "don'ts," have been removed from cars and stations and announcements in printed form have been changed from stereotyped messages, never varying from month to month to statements that attract the attention by reason of some intrinsic interest or by varying the form of presentation. Through the offices of the public relations department reporters of the daily press are encouraged to find items of interest that may constitute news. There has also been an effort put forth to formal advertising such as time tables, more attractive in. appearance and give such time tables wider distribution. CHARLES COLLINS MCDONALD. When the present thorough and scientific system of meat, fruit and vegetable preservation by means of canning was perfected, the whole world was benefited, and, although but a comparatively short period of time has elapsed since it came into general operation, there are few sections of the world that are not, to some extent, dependent on this mighty industry. Capitalists everywhere have recognized in it .a great commercial' factor and thus the world is, as it were, linked together in its interchange of preserved food commodities, in recognition of a common need. Situated as it is, in a rich agricultural section of the country, Elyria, Ohio, has not been blind to her business interests in this direction, and one of her most prosperous enterprises at the present time is the Elyria Canning Company, of which Charles Collins McDonald is president and general manager. Mr. McDonald was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, February 14, 1865. His parents were James C. and Jennie (Wager) McDonald, and his paternal grandfather was born in Scotland. James C. McDonald was at the time of his on 's birth a stone and bridge contractor at Ashtabula. In 1868 he came to Elyria and was superintendent of the mason work in the construction of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 228 - HISTORY OF OHIO Railroad, and in 1880 he built the viaducts and bridges for the Nickel Plate Railway. His death occurred in 1883, having survived his wife since 1868. He was widely known in railroad and business circles. Charles Collins McDonald was three years old when the family came to Elyria, and here he secured his public school education, leaving the high school when fourteen years of age. For two years afterward he worked with his father, then entered railroad. employ, first in the freight office and afterward as a general clerk. Four years later he went to Amherst, Ohio, where he resided for five years, during which time he served for two years as a member of the town council and was otherwise active in civic matters. For two years he worked in canning factories there and learned the business thoroughly, and after returning to Elyria he became foreman of a canning factory in this city that was owned by a stock company, and continued. in that capacity for three years. Mr. McDonald in the meanwhile laid his plans for engaging in the business for himself, having the foresight and good judgment to recognize that a great industry in this line could be built up here, under improved methods and conditions. He first invested in company stock and afterward purchased. the entire interest, immediately afterward beginning the extensive improvements that are in evidence on Shear Street. He built his great warehouse, 140x50 feet in dimension's, two stories high and with basement, and on his two acre tract has four other buildings, all thoroughly equipped for the canning business with modern machinery. In 1922 Mr. McDonald incorporated his business as the Elyria Canning Company. He has his sons associated with him, Harry J. being vice president of the company, and Charles C. being secretary and treasurer. The business is capitalized at $250,000. A large number of employes are on the payroll and the products of the company include vegetables and fruits, a specialty being a delicious and economical preparation of baked beans. The products of this company may be found. in almost every reputable market the country over. Mr. McDonald was married in August, 1885, to Miss Estella M. Smith, who was born at Amherst, Ohio, a daughter of Edward W. and Mary J. (Foster) Smith, of Sandusky, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs.• McDonald have four children: Jessie M., who is the wife of Walter J. Tite, of Elyria; Charles C., who is married, has one son, Malcolm; Bessie M., who lives with her parents; and Harry J., who married Alta Miller, has one son, Harry J. In addition to his comfortable residence at Elyria, Mr. McDonald owns two productive farms, one containing thirty and the other seventeen acres. Mr. McDonald is a republican in political life and as a good citizen has always taken an active interest in public matters. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and is a member of Amherst Lodge, No. 503, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he formerly was secretary. He is a member also of Lodge. No. 467, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, at Elyria, and belongs to the Congregational Church of this city. ARTHUR B. TAYLOR. Among the men of large financial importance in Lorain County, Ohio, none stand higher in the confidence and esteem of the public than Arthur B. Taylor, president of the Lorain. County Savings & Trust Company, of Elyria, and additionally identified with numerous other enterprises of substantial business value here. Mr. Taylor is a native of Ohio, and like many another of Ohio's representative men, he was born on a farm and has never lost interest in agricultural pursuits. His birth took place in New London Township, Huron County, Ohio, in April, 1874, a son of John B. and Clara (Crawford) Taylor, and a grandson of Conrad and Clara (Conklin) Taylor, and of Jacob and Lucy (Hull) Crawford. The Crawfords were early settlers near Wooster, Ohio, farming people and estimable in life and character. The grandparents on the Taylor side were New York State people, who came to Lorain County in 1845 and became prosperous and respected in the farming community in which their subsequent lives were spent. John B. Taylor, father of Arthur B., was born in New York and accompanied his parents to Lorain County and grew to manhood on the home farm. He served. in the Federal army during the Civil war, as a member of the One Hundred Third Ohio Cavalry, and in the charge at Stony Ridge was so severely wounded that he never entirely recovered from his injuries, although he survived for many years afterward. His death occurred in September, 1921. He married Clara Crawford, who was born near Lodi, Ohio, and now resides at Elyria. They were married at Rochester, Ohio, and afterward, until 1883, Mr. Taylor engaged in farming and had other interests, and in that year moved to New London, in order to give his children educational advantages. Arthur B. Taylor attended the public schools at New London and was graduated from the high school at the head of his class, and then, through his own efforts, took a course in the Ohio State University. In 1893 he went to Oberlin, Ohio, and accepted employment with the Oberlin Bank Company, serving first as collector, then as bookkeeper and finally as teller, building up a reputation for efficiency and trustworthiness that three years later brought him to Elyria as teller in the Lorain County Banking Company, where one year later he became assistant cashier, and three years later was elected cashier and executive officer of the bank. He so continued until 1914 when he was elected president of the Lorain County Savings & Trust Company, the outgrowth of the merger between the First National Bank and the Lorain County Banking Company. The other officers of the Lorain County Savings & Trust Company are: S. W. Squire, first vice president; Alvin Plocker, second. vice president ; W. H. Stark, secretary; H. A. Daniels, treasurer. The bank's capital stock is $500,000; surplus, $500,000; resources, $8,000,000. Mr. Taylor is a director in other solid enterprises here, including the Perry-Fay Company and the Thaw Shovel Company, has served as treasurer of the Ohio Bankers Association, and founded and has been president of the Lorain County Bankers Association. In October, 1906, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Clara Smith, of Elyria, a daughter of Judge Larkin and Margaret Smith, the latter of whom was born in New York, but Judge Smith is a native of Elyria. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have three daughters ; Gertrude Crawford, Elizabeth, and Helen Smith. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Roman Catholic Church. In political life Mr. Taylor is a republican. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, belongs also to the Elks and to the Eagles, and is a member of the Elyria. Country Club, in which he has held all the offices. His favorite recreation is to personally look after his farm and orchards and for some years he has been president of the Home Garden Association. HUGO C. KOEHLER has been a member of the Alliance bar for over twenty years, and practically all his work as a lawyer has been done as a member of the firm Hart & Koehler. No firm in Stark County has enjoyed a larger or more successful practice in corporation and business law. Mr. Koehler was born on a farm near Dundee, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, son of Conrad and Catherine (Allman) Koehler. His parents were natives HISTORY OF OHIO - 229 of Germany, Conrad Koehler coming to this country as a result of the German revolution of 1848. He settled in Tuscarawas. County, became a prosperous farmer and a man of splendid public spirit, serving as trustee for many years of the German Evangelical Church, for twenty-four years as director of the Tuscarawas County Agricultural Station and as township trustee, clerk, treasurer and justice of the peace. Conrad Koehler died in 1910 and his wife, in 1912, survived by all of their ten children. Mr. Koehler was educated in the district schools of his home county, and through the earnings of his own industry paid all the expenses of his higher education. He attended the Ohio Northern University at Ada, the Baldwin-Wallace University at Berea, and Mount Union College at Alliance, where he was graduated with the degree Bachelor of Philosophy in 1896. From 1896 to 1902 Mr. Koehler was superintendent of schools at Louisville in Stark County, and also served as superintendent of the township schools, having prepared and introduced the first course of graded study in the township schools. He was granted a high school life certificate in Ohio in 1899. Mr. Koehler read law in a private office at Louisville, was admitted to the bar in December, 1902, and on February 1, 1903, formed a partnership with William L. Hart at Alliance. This firm has handled cases in all the State and Federal courts, and has represented as attorneys a large number of manufacturing, banking, railroad and other business corporations. In his earlier years Mr. Koehler was appointed by the court as referee or trial judge. Every case he handled that went for final review to the Supreme Court had his decision upheld. He is a director of the Alliance First National Bank of Alliance, the Starck Electric Railroad Company, and the Supreme Dairy Company. He served as the first secretary of the Alliance Board of Trade, and was its president in 1912-13. For five years he was a trustee of the Kent Normal School at Kent, Ohio, and during the World war was chairman of the Legal Advisory Board of Alliance and vicinity, and also acted as legal advisor to the Civilian Relief and Red Cross. While in college Mr. Koehler became affiliated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and has continued his active relations with that fraternity since leaving college. He was one of the committee of the fraternity that initiated William McKinley into the Chapter of Columbus while Mr. McKinley was governor. He is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and belongs to the Alliance Chamber of Commerce, the Alliance Country Club, the Congress Lake Country Club, the Stark County, Alliance, Ohio State and American Bar associations. He is also a member of the Rotary Club, and the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Alliance, having served on its Official Board and as a teacher in its Sunday School. He is president of the Stark County Law Library Association. He was president of the McKinley Club of Alliance, and has done considerable work in republican campaigns, though he has never been an active candidate for political honors. Mr. Koehler married Miss Mae Myers on June 8, 1899. They have two children, Helen Christine and Hugo Lee. C. E. BUDD, superintendent of the Loudonville public schools in Ashland County, is an Ohio educator with forty years of teaching and administrative experience. Mr. Budd was born in Ashland County, June 11, 1864, son of Thomas Budd and grandson of Joshua Budd. Thomas Budd was born in Westmoreland County, .Pennsylvania, in 1813. Joshua Budd estab lished his family in Ashland County, Ohio, about 1820. Thomas Budd was a farmer all his active career, and was deeply interested in matters of community welfare. He died in 1895 at the age of eighty-three. C. E. Budd spent the first twenty-seven years of his life on the home farm. He was educated in the common schools, and also attended Vermilion Institute at Hayesville in his old home neighborhood. About the time of the Civil war and for some years afterward Vermilion Institute was a great school. Its president, Dr. S. E. Diffendorfer, a Harvard graduate, was one of Ohio 's ablest teachers. Though eight or ten miles from the railroad, Hayesville was nearly in the center of the county and the crossing point for stage and freight wagons. A great many students from Ashland County and all over Ohio collected at Vermilion Institute. Mr. C. E. Budd after attending school there continued his higher education in Ohio Northern University at Ada, where he graduated Bachelor of Science in 1889. He received his degree Master of Pedagogy from the same institution in 1902. Mr. Budd began teaching in 1883, and for a number of years taught in country schools and for two years was superintendent of schools at Creston, Ohio. Leaving Creston he came to Loudonville in 1893, serving as principal of the high school for seven years, and since then has been superintendent. There are five hundred pupils enrolled in the Loudonville schools, and a staff of sixteen teachers, with six teachers in the high school. Three of Mr. Budd's present staff of teachers were connected with the schools when he came here as principal. Mr. Budd has done much to improve the school system, and during the last five years the high school enrollment has increased from eighty to one hundred and seventy-six, with a graduating class of about thirty-six for the year 1923. A new building is now under construction, and the Loudonville schools have a high standard among those of Ashland County. Mr. Budd has taught in several summer normal schools, and is a member of the Ohio State Teachers Association and the National Educational Association. During the thirty years he has spent at Loudonville he has been identified with every movement for advancement. He has worked with committees and has been a populer speaker on many occasions. Mr. Budd's first wife was Miss Lettie B. Braden, of Richland County, who was a teacher for eight years before her marriage. Mrs. Budd died in 1914. Subsequently Professor Budd married Miss Linnie B. Sarvis, of Altoona, Pennsylvania. There are three children by his first marriage: Harry B., who served as a lieutenant in France and is now with the Cleveland Electric Company; Frances Lucille, now Mrs. Harold Lyon, of Ravenna, Ohio, was a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University of Delaware and a teacher for several years ; and Curtis Eugene, who is about to finish his education in Wooster University at Wooster, Ohio. By his second marriage Professor Budd has one son, John Pershing, who will start his educational career in September, 1924. CHARLES V. TRUAX. When in January, 1923, Governor Donahey called to his assistance at the beginning of his administration Charles V. Truax as state director of agriculture, his announcement was commended on all sides as one of the fittest possible. Charles V. Truax is a young man, but has had both a broad and very successful experience in agriculture and stock raising, largely from the standpoint of a farm owner and manager. While his official residence has been in Columbus since the beginning of Governor Donahey's adminis- 230 - HISTORY OF OHIO tration, and his offices in the Capital Annex, Mr. Truax's home is at Bucyrus, Ohio. He was born in Wyandot County, Ohio, February 1, 1887. His father, John Truax, has long been prominent as a farmer and agricultural leader in that section of the state, and is former county treasurer of Wyandot County and was superintendent of construction during the erection of the courthouse at Upper Sandusky. He now lives at Sycamore, Ohio. Charles V. Truax was reared in Wyandot County, was educated in the public schools of Sycamore and Upper Sandusky, and was graduated from high school with the highest four-year average in scholarship obtained by a student of the school up to that time. Mr. Truax has been known as a "dirt farmer," owning and operating 275 acres, known as the Blue Ribbon Stock Farm, located near Sycamore, Ohio. This farm specializes in live stock, particularly the Duroc swine. During the past ten or twelve years some twenty-five public sales have been held on this farm, and Mr. Truax has shipped pure bred swine as the foundation for important herds in every state in the Union and has exported them to Canada and South America. At a sale held in February, 1923, soon after he became state director of agriculture, sixty head of the Truax type Duroc were sold at an average of seventy dollars per head, half of the purchase going outside of Ohio to surrounding states and also as far away as South Dakota and Canada. Mr. Truax succeeded as director of agriculture Dr. L. J. Taber, of Barnesville, former master of the State Grange. Mr. Truax prior to taking up his official duties at Columbus had been continuously engaged in farming except for two years when he was Duroc editor of the Swine World, a nationally known publication. Hc has been a contributor to many farm papers, and has addressed farmers' meetings at some of the leading state universities, including those of Missouri, Iowa and other Middle Western states, and has addressed live stock conventions in Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City and Des Moines. He has also addressed other farmers' meetings in many of the Southern and Middle Western states, and has a knowledge of farm conditions such as few men in Ohio can equal. Mr. Truax has also been an influential leader in agricultural movements. He is a member of several agricultural and live stock associations, including the National Swine Growers' Association, the American and National Duroc Jersey Record associations, and the Wyandot County Farm Bureau. CHARLES M. SIEBERT, JR. The largest general insurance agency in Central Ohio is conducted by Charles M. Siebert, Jr., of Columbus. It was founded more than a quarter of a century ago, and Mr. Siebert has steadily developed its resources and service so as to meet all the multitude of demands placed upon a modern insurance agency. He represents eight old-line companies, and has facilities for furnishing life, fire, health, automobile and general casualty and liability insurance of every kind. No name in Columbus is more significant of business enterprise and sound citizenship than Siebert. They have lived there over ninety years, and in pioneer times as well as in the present have contributed most substantially to the improvement of the city, in industry, in finance and in commercial enterprise. The Sieberts have been sturdy, industrious, progressive citizens, leaders in their respective vocations or professions, and high minded men always. The grandfather of Charles M. Siebert, Jr., was Henry Siebert, who was born at Frankfort-on-theMain, Germany, and came to Ohio and located in Columbus about 1830. He established the first bakery in what was then a mere village. Columbus was surrounded by forests, and game was plentiful within a short distance of what is now High Street during the thirties. Charles M. Siebert, father of the Columbus insurance man, was born at Columbus in 1839. He learned gunsmithing, was an expert worker in both wood and metal, and as a riflemaker his fame was widespread. Associated with his brother, Christian Siebert, he conducted business as a gunsmith both in Columbus and at Circleville in Pickaway County. These two became known as probably the greatest gun makers of their time. Their reputation was attested to by old-time hunters and sportsmen as well as by Government authorities. The Siebert muzzle-loading rifle was celebrated as the. best type of this class of fire arms, and an interesting proof of its superiority is the fact that one of the rifles was selected for preservation in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. The Siebert rifle played an important part in the equipment of pioneers settling in the far West. It was used extensively in the killing of buffalo on the Western plains. Prior to the Civil war Charles M. Siebert, Sr., moved to St. Louis to work in the Government arsenal there. After the breaking out of the war he returned to Columbus, and, joining the 133d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, served throughout the conflict. After the war he lived for some years at Circleville, although most of the family have kept their home in Columbus since the first settlement. Among others of special distinction in the famly is John Siebert, an uncle of the insurance man. He was one of the founders and is a former president of the Ohio National Bank and is now retired. A cousin of Charles M. Siebert, Jr., is Prof. W. H. Siebert, a very able scholar and a professor in the Ohio State University. Siebert Street in Columbus was named for the family. Charles M. Siebert, Jr., was born while his parents lived at Circleville, in 1875, son of Charles M. and Harriet (Valentine) Siebert, both now deceased. His mother was a native of Ohio, of English ancestry. Charles M. Siebert, Jr., attended public schools in Circleville until 1888, when the family returned to Columbus, and he finished his education in the capital city. After leaving school he became connected with the house of M. C. Lilley & Company, manufacturers of regalia and uniforms. For two years he represented this house in Chicago. In 1897 he established his insurance agency. His business occupies a suite of rooms in the new First National Bank Building. Mr. Siebert is a York and Scottish Rite Mason, is a member of the Kiwanis Club and for three years was one of its directors, belongs to the Columbus Athletic Club, the Junior Lodge of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is vice president of the Columbus Automobile Club. CHARLES H. BOARDMAN is a native son of Ohio, a man whose progress to important achievements in the business and industrial field was made from humble beginnings. He has been a resident of Columbus for many years, was formerly an extensive coal operator in Ohio and West Virginia, and is now president of the Excelsior Company at Columbus. Mr. Boardman is a member of the Boardman family that came to America from England in 1620. His great-grandfather was a seafaring man and loaned himself and his vessels to transfer General Washington's troops during the New Amsterdam campaign, or, in other words, when Washington captured what is today known as New York. Charles H. Boardman was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1860, and lived in his HISTORY OF OHIO - 231 native city until he was eighteen years of age. He is a graduatc of the Akron High School. At the age of eighteen he went to work in the shipping department of the Akron Iron Company, coal operators at Buchtel in Athens County. That was his initial experience in an industry in which he subsequently became an important figure. In 1885 he became an independent operator in the Hocking Valley District at Murray City. He retained his interests as an operator in that section until 1901. In the latter year he acquired a coal mining interest at Vivian in the Pocahontas District of West Virginia. For many years his mine produced an immense quantity of the famous Pocahontas coal. His business headquarters were kept in West Virginia until 1919, in which year he disposed of his interests in that state. Since 1890 Mr. Boardman has had his home in Columbus. On retiring from the coal mining industry he acquired a controlling interest in the Excelsior Company, and has since been its president. The plant of this company is located on fifteen acres of ground just west of the Olentangy River, lying between King Avenue and West Fifth Avenue. Under Mr. Board-man's direction this business has become one of the largest in the country• manufacturing baby cribs and juvenile furniture. For that purpose special machines are required, and most of them were designed and built from Mr. Boardman's specifications. A number of the articles of furniture manufactured have improved devices that were invented and patented by him. One of the best known products of the company is the "Bye-lo" baby bed or crib. It is equipped with an automatically operated and noiseless drop side that represents the acme of comfort and protection for the baby as well as convenience and ease of operation by the mother. These cribs are also equipped with the finest springs procurable, and they are enclosed in a fine wire screen. The high quality of selected lumber from which they are made, and the beauty of their design and finish, make them a genuine ornament in the nursery. The company also manufactures in large quantities and ships for the domestic and foreign trade a children's phonograph. A number of other articles of juvenile and toy furniture are in some cases an exclusive product of this company. It is a unique and one of the very interesting as well as important industrial plants of the capital city. During his business career in West Virginia Mr. Boardman became a close friend of Governor Hatfield. The governor appointed him e, member of his military staff, with the rank of colonel. Since going into active business at Columbus, Mr. Boardman has taken part in civic affairs here. He is president of the Northwest Business Men's Association, which is furthering the interests of the rapidly growing industrial section lying immediately west of the Olentangy River and extending north and south of West Fifth Avenue. He is president of the Columbus Fishing Club, and a member of the Columbus Athletic Club and of other local organizations. LEON G. KALLMERTEN. The Columbus Builders Exchange, which honored its member, Leon G. Kallmerten, with the office of president in January, 1923, was organized in 1892, and as a commercial and industrial association ranks in importance next to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Its membership includes all the leading contractors, builders, material and supply dealers and manufacturers in the city. The total volume of business represented in the membership runs into many millions of dollars annually. The president of the exchange has been a resident of Columbus since early boyhood. He was born at Mansfield, Ohio, in 1882, son of Ferdinand and Elizabeth (Schoedinger) Kallmerten. His mother was born in Columbus, and is still living there. Ferdinand Kallmerten was a native of Europe, came to Ohio when a boy and died at Mansfield in 1888. The Schoedingers were pioneers of Columbus, and for many years have been well known in the industrial and business life of the city. After the death of his father Leon G. Kallmerten was brought to Columbus by his mother, grew up in the city and attended the public schools. For four years he was an employe of the National Bank of Commerce. In 1904 he became an employe of the establishment of F. Oscar Schoedinger, manufacturer of roofing materials. He has been with that well known concern for the past twenty years. For several years Mr. Kallmerten has been department manager in charge of all contract work for roofing material, skylights, ventilators. In fulfilling such contracts the Schoedinger firm is one of the largest organizations in the state. Mr. Kallmerten is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is affiliated with Humboldt Lodge of Masons, Scioto Consistory of the Scottish Rite and Aladdin Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is past grand of the Junior Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for two years was vice president of the Franklin County Odd Fellows Association. Mr. Kallmerten married Miss Norma M. Loechler of Columbus. Their two children are : Ruth Virginia and Robert Leon. OLIVER M. EVANS was one of the veteran business men and honored and venerable citizens of Columbus, where he died December 17, 1923, after a career of long and constructive business activity and loyal and liberal citizenship. He claimed the old Buckeye State as the place of his nativity, and honored it by his character and achievement. Mr. Evans was born at Harrisville, Harrison County, Ohio, March 10, 1847, a son Of the late Robert H. and Amanda (McGrew) Evans, she being a most extraordinary mother of good Quaker stock, strong of character, lovable, and firm; while the father was a man Of the highest type of character and by profession was a sculptor of renown, also attaining high rank in Masonry, and by them said to be as near to the ideal as a member could attain. They were both representatives of sterling pioneer families of Ohio. Mr. Evans was a boy at the time when the family home was established at Steubenville, Ohio, where he was reared to manhood and received the major part of his early education. He was fourteen years old at the inception of the Civil war, and at the age of sixteen years his youthful patriotism was no longer to be curbed, with the result that he enlisted, at Alliance, as a member of the Thirteenth Ohio Cavalry. He was specially anxious to join this command by reason of his belief that it would be sent to fight hostile Indians on the western frontier, but it was not his fortune to become an Indian fighter, for his regiment was sent to Washington, District of Columbia, and thence transferred to the fighting front in Virginia. There he participated in eleven engagements, including those of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania and Petersburg, in which last mentioned battle he was wounded and incapacitated for further service, his honorable discharge having been received about the time that victory finally crowned the Union arms and the war came to a close. His deep and abiding interest in his old comrades Mr. Evans manifested by his appreciative affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he was a member of McCoy Post at Columbus. Mr. Evans had been a resident of Ohio's capital city since 1879, and concerning his business career here it is gratifying to be able to make the following 232 - HISTORY OF OHIO quotations, with minor changes, from an appreciative article that appeared in a Columbus daily newspaper at the time of his retirement from active business in November, 1922: "After forty-three years in the wholesale produce business in Columbus, the Evans & Turner Company, 129 East Chestnut Street, began liquidating its stock, with a view of permanently going out of business. The concern is in good financial condition, and O. M. Evans, sole owner, announced that his reason for the action is his desire to retire and to relieve himself of unnecessary work at his advanced age. The sudden decision came as a surprise to the many friends and business associates of Mr. Evans, who enjoys a circle of friendship that is second to few in Columbus. am simply tired,' he said. 'I am sorry to leave off my business connections, but I do not see the need of continuing them further.' O. M. (Uncle Ollie) Evans has been the sole owner, of business for a score of years. With 0. E. Turner as his partner he entered business here in 1879,' the first location being in a cellar under the Collins liquor warehouse at Chestnut and High streets. Subsequently the produce concern moved several times, the headquarters having been established at 129 East Chestnut Street ten years ago. Mr. Turner died fourteen years ago. "Since starting in the produce business Mr. Evans has several times been prominently concerned in city politics, and in this connection it may be noted that he was a candidate for mayor of Columbus in 1895, but was defeated by Cotton Allen. In 1902 he was safety director under the administration of Mayor Schwartz. He has been tremendously active in civic and fraternal organizations, his connections being as follows: Rotary Club; Ohio State Automobile Association; Ohio Society for Crippled Children; Republican Glee Club (life member) ; also had a life membership in the Columbus Athletic Club ; the various York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, in the latter of which he received the thirty-second degree and was a life member of his Consistory, as is he also of Aladdin Temple of the Mystic Shrine, his Masonic affiliations including also his membership in Mount Vernon Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar, and Achbar Grotto of the Veiled Prophets. He was past exalted ruler and life member of the Elks; a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Columbus Automobile Club. He has been a member of the Franklin Park Methodist Episcopal Church." Since the '70s Mr. Evans had a singularly wide acquaintanceship and personal friendship with most of the prominent politicians and statesmen of Ohio, and it is interesting to record that from the time that it becae his privilege, as a youth, to shake hands with President Lincoln, he had shaken hands with every succeeding president of the United States to the time of his death, with the sole exception of. President Arthur. He was a close friend of President Harding. In 1916 Mr. Evans wedded Miss Amanda E. Lantz, and in June, 1923, they took possession of the beautiful modern home which he had erected at 167 South Columbia Avenue in Bexley, one of the most attractive suburbs of Columbus. STEPHEN A. STACK. A service of unusual length, fidelity and efficiency has been the forty years Stephen A. Stack has given to railroading. He has been a resident of Columbus for more than thirty years. He has earned distinctions beyond those paid to many men high in the professions and public affairs. A man of modest and unobtrusive character going about his duties as a railroad man and citizen unpretentiously, at the same time earning the friendship and admiration of many prominent officials in railroad circles in Ohio and some of the outstanding figures in the life of the state and nation. Mr. Stack was born on a farm near Marietta, in Washington County, Ohio, in 1861, son of Stephen A. and Mary (Norris) Stack. His environment until he was sixteen years of age was the farm, with more or less regular attendance in the country schools. When he left the farm he began the work which with various promotions has constituted his vocation ever since. His first experience in railroading was gained when he entered the service of the Hocking Valley Railroad as a brakeman. He was then promoted to conductor, and further promotion in the service of this company came to him when he was made general yard master, with headquarters at Nelsonville. He served in this capacity until 1894, when he resigned to accept the position of general yard master with the Big Four System in Columbus. A few years later he was appointed train master, with headquarters in Springfield, Ohio. In 1912 he returned to Columbus and was placed in charge of the New York Central properties, where he still remains, thus having devoted more than thirty years of uninterrupted and efficient service with the New York Central System. As to his efficiency the best testimony was given on a notable occasion on January 6, 1923, when a banquet was held at the Chittenden Hotel at Columbus as a surprise to honor Mr. Stack. This banquet had been arranged by a number of his friends in the railroad service. It was attended by railroad officials and others representing not only Mr. Stack's road, the Big Four, but officials of the Pennsylvania, Chesapeake and Ohio, Toledo & Ohio Central, and Hocking Valley railroads. One hundred and fifty people gathered on the occasion to honor the veteran railroad man. Many letters of congratulation were received and read from such notable personages as United States Senator Willis and President Harding, both of whom were personal friends of Mr. Stack. Among those in attendance were H. A. Worcester of Cincinnati, vice president of the Big Four ; P. T. White of Springfield, S. V. Bevington of Bellefontaine, superintendents of the Big Four ; H. E. Speaks of Columbus, general manager of the Toledo and Ohio Central. Several of these officials paid high tribute to Mr. Stack in speeches and commended him for his long, faithful and efficient service. The toastmaster, Mr.. White, of Springfield, presented on behalf of Mr. Stack's long list of friends a gold pen and pencil as a token of friendship. A letter of congratulation from the Congressman from the Columbus district, Gen.' John G. Speaks, was read: "I regret not being able to personally join with other friends in extending greetings and good wishes to Steve Stack. His long, faithful and efficient service has justly earned for him the respect and good will of everybody. May his remaining years be many and full of happiness. A tribute sent by Senator Frank B. Willis was as follows: "I should be greatly delighted if I could participate with you all in this gracious occasion. My friendship for Mr. Stack and his friendship for me dates back over many years. I have had many occasions to rely upon him and have always found him to be of the highest type of character. He portrays to me the high minded, patriotic, efficient railroad man, who has had much to do with the development of this great industry in our midst. I congratulate him upon the honor you are bestowing, but it is the merited recognition of a real man." From President Warren G. Harding came the following message: "I am grateful to you for your invitation to be present at the surprise dinner which you and your associates are giving in honor of our good friend, Stephen A. Stack. It would really be a joy to HISTORY OF OHIO - 233 attend. Mr. Stack is such a good. and loyal friend that I could find great satisfaction in joining in a tribute to him. When you are offering tributes to Mr. Stack's sturdiness, loyalty, capacity and good courage, I would like you to include an expression of my most cordial agreement with such sentiments." Mr. Stack is a member of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias. He married Miss Catherine Lowery, of Athens County, Ohio. Their two surviving children are : James Stack and Grace Louise, the latter the wife of W. C. Rohleder. Two children, Fred and Ellen, are deceased. ROBERT ELIHU STAUFFER. A native of Ohio, Robert Elihu Stauffer has achieved some distinctive honors as an educator, author, classical scholar and librarian. He is the present librarian of Mount Union College at Alliance. Mr. Stauffer was born at Kent, Ohio, July 25, 1884, son of George L. and Eva E. (Sanford) Stauffer. Lavina (Beach) Sanford, his maternal grandmother, was a cousin of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, their mothers having been twin sisters. Robert Elihu Stauffer was educated in the public schools at Kent, graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1906 from Mount Union College, and took his Master of Arts degree at Harvard University in 1908. He has also done post-graduate work in the University of Chicago, and graduated with the degree Bachelor of Library Science in 1919 from the New, York State Library School. His record as a teacher includes service both East and West. He was professor of English in West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1909 to 1915. He held the chair of English in Willamette University in Oregon from 1915 to 1917. After completing his course in library science he returned to Mount Union College in 1920 as librarian and also as professor of Greek. Mr. Stauffer in 1924 was elected a trustee of the Carnegie Free Library at Alliance. He served as first vice president of the Ohio Library Association in 1922-23, is a member of the American Library Association and of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. He is author of a notable study published in book form under the title " The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth." Mr. Stauffer is a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married at Kent, Ohio, August 29, 1912, Miss Lourena C. Geisinger, daughter of Isaac A. and Sarah A. Geisinger. They have two sons, Robert Eliot and Alfred Lloyd Stauffer. LINKENHEIL PLANING MILL COMPANY, at 180 East Columbus Street in Columbus, is an industry conducted by a family whose members are experts in the woodworking business and have been factors in the building 'operations of Columbus for many years. The company was organized in June, 1905, and started on a small scale. Henry A. Linkenheil, an experienced man in the planing mill and building industry, supplied the capital for the company, while his son, Edwin C., had the plant under his personal direction. In 1909 Henry A. Linkenheil himself took an active part, and has since made this his chief business. In 1911 a second son, Elmer L. Linkenheil, became associated with the company. The business has had a steady and prosperous growth. There are now about thirty employes, half of them being in the building and construction department of the company, since the contracting of buildings has always been an important adjunct to the enterprise. Henry Linkenheil was born at Zweibrucken, near the French border in the Rhein country of Germany, September 9, 1863. His father was born in Wurttemberg in 1835, died in 1896, and is remembered for his service of many years as a baker in Columbus. The family came to America when Henry Linkenheil was in his sixteenth .year. In the meantime, at fourteen, he had been apprenticed to learn the builders trade, and, according to the rules prevailing in that craft, he had to rise at five in the morning, clean out the shop and get all in order for the workmen when they arrived at six, and when the day 's work was done he had various Chores, so .that it was usually 8 o 'clock before he left the shop. After that for several evenings in the week he attended a night school, studying mechanical drawing and architecture. This training has been of an estimable advantage to Mr. Linkenheil in his .subsequent career, and he has been very competent in drawing architectural plans. Recently he submitted detailed plans and they were approved by the Joint Board of Trustees for the enlargement of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building. In 1879, when Mr. Linkenheil came to Columbus, he went to work for the Hildreth & Martin Lumber Company on the site of the present postoffice. Later the industry was on the West Side and he was factory manager there until 1906. He then became president and superintendent of the Columbus Planing Mill Company, having in the meantime started the Linkenheil Planing Mill Company, and since 1909 has concentrated his attention on the family business, being president. Mr. Linkenheil since 1885 has been located on Columbus Avenue, and has seen the South Side grow into an important part of the city. For thirty-six years he has been an ardent Odd Fellow, and also active in the South Side Civic Association. He is very widely and favorably known throughout the city, though his tastes are of a studious nature and he has not acquired public honors. He is well read, and is one of the few men who keep up with scientific progress and has an unusual knowledge of theology, astronomy, history and general literature, keeping in touch with the world's greatest minds. Mr. Linkenheil married Miss Katherine Helm, who was born in Columbus, and died in February, 1918. Their three children are Edwin C., Cora K. and Elmer L. Linkenheil. SYLVIO CASPARIS was for many years one of the largest contractors in construction work along the Pennsylvania Railway lines. As a contractor he had a need of an adequate supply of stone for ballast and other purposes, and in 1892 he started his stone crushing plant at Marble Cliff, near Columbus. It was a small industry, employing sixty to seventy men, and his output was ballast for railroads and street work. Only a limited capital was invested. Out of this, however, has grown one of the finest enterprises of its kind in the State of Ohio or the Middle West, the Casparis Stone Company, whose business offices are in the Clinton Building in Columbus. In April, 1895, this business was incorporated with an initial capital of $100,000, S. Casparis being president and general manager. He was active head of the business for many years, and finally became chairman of the board, serving until his death on December 21, 1921. In the meantime the capital of the company had been raised at different times until it reached $1,000,000. The company now has three plants in operation, one at Centerville, Ohio, one at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, and the other and the largest of the three at Kenneth, Indiana, where 225 men are employed. These plants produce an enormous. volume, averaging about, 1,000,000 tons annually, or 20,000 cars, of crushed and broken stone for railroad ballast or road and street macadamizing and 234 - HISTORY OF OHIO also for the limestone for fluxing purposes in iron and steel furnaces. Today the officials of the company are : W. R. Casparis, son of the founder of the business, president; T. S. Brooks, who came with the business in 1895 and is now a director ; and E. C. Walker, secretary and treasurer, who came into the company in 1912. Sylvio Casparis, the founder of the business, was born in Italy in 1849, came to the United States when twenty-five years of age, and as a railroad contractor did his early work for the Pennsylvania System, with headquarters at Pittsburgh. About 1890 he moved to Columbus, continuing his work as a contractor for railroads fiororree years. He was one of the largest contractors for the Pennsylvania System, constructing many miles for that and other companies. He also built several large public works for cities, including the waterworks plant at Boston and one in Covington, Kentucky. He was a director of the Commercial National Bank of Columbus, and was a trustee of the Children's Hospital and deeply interested at all times in church and charitable movements. His son, W. R. Casparis, who is now president of the Casparis Stone Company, was born at Urbanna, Ohio, and learned the stone business under his father. He also completed an engineering course at Cornell University in New York in 1912, and subsequently was made vice president of the company and since 1922 has been its chief executive officer. During the World war he served as a member of the American forces in France. He enlisted in his country's service in May, 1917, and was sent to the Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, where, on August 15, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. He was transferred to Camp Sherman, at Chillicothe, Ohio, and in January, 1918, was propromoted the rank of first lieutenant. In May of that year he went overseas as a member of the Eighty-third Division. On June 15, 1918, and shortly after his arrival in France, he was transferred to the Twenty-eighth Division, which was made a part of the Fifty-fifth Brigade, and participated in all of the engagements of that brigade in the Marne offensive. He was later re-transferred to the Eighty-third Division, was promoted to the rank of captain, and was assigned to staff duty as a member of the headquarters staff of that division. He remained on active duty in France until March, 1919, when he returned to America and received his honorable discharge from the service. Mr. Casparis is a member of the ColColumbusamber of Commerce, the Scioto Country Club, the ColColumbusub, Athletic Club, Elks Club, and is active in other social and civic organizations. CONRAD STIWALD, now living retired at Amherst, has been identified with the interests of Northern Ohio for a great many years. He was cigar manufacturer, and has also done farming and is well known in Lorain County. He was born on the River Rhine in Germany, February 14, 1835, son of Michael and Emma Marie (Fox) Stiwald. In 1839 the family sailed for the United States, being several weeks on the ocean before reaching New York. They went up the river and thence by canal boat to Buffalo and to Cleveland. Michael Stiwald was a miller by trade, and he worked at his business in Cleveland until his death in 1842. His widow survived him many years and passed away at Amherst, Ohio, in 1878. Conrad Stiwald was four years old when he came to this country. He acquired a public school edueducation Cleveland, and was a small boy when he went to work stripping tobacco in a smoking tobacco facfactory. was there two years, and for a short time was a printer's devil in the office of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Next he worked as a tobacco cutter, and learned the cigar maker 's trade and followed it in Cleveland until he was about seventeen years of age. For a few months he worked at Conneaut, Ohio, and then at Avon in Lorain County. About that time he was informed that he was a victim of tuberculosis, and he took a long rest as a means of recovering. On January 2, 1870, Mr. Stilwald started a cigar factory at Amherst, and conducted it on a profitable basis for six years. In 1880 he bought .a farm near St. Louis, in Gratiot County, Michigan, and was engaged in agriculture there for six years. Selling out, he returned to Ohio and to his wife's farm in Sheffield Township, Lorain County, and remained there, a progressive man in the agricultural life of that community, for about eighteen years. Then moving into Lorain, he bought a home on Erie Avenue, and in 1920 he came to Amherst and bought his fine modern residence at 549 Church Street, where he lives retired. He is a democrat in politics, and for four years held the office of city marshal of Amherst. In April, 1856, Mr. Stiwald married Mary Ann Sheldon, a native of Avon, Ohio. She died in July, 1881, the mother of two children: Elva, deceased, who married A. J. Smith, of Hobart, Indiana; and Daniel, of Cleveland. On February 6, 1893, Mr. Stiwald married Myra Irish, who was born in Sheffield Township, Lorain County, in June, 1847, daughter of Zophar and Nancy Ann (Ketchum) Irish, her father a native of Vermont and her mother of New York State. Mrs. Stiwald's first husband was Lorenzo Moore, a farmer in Lorain County, who died in January, 1889. Mrs. Stiwald is a member of the Congregational Church. WILLIAM M. JAMES. The James Amusement Enterprises, a group of companies owning and operating a number of theatres in Columbus and elsewhere, gives to. William M. James, their president and executive head, a well deserved prestige among Ohio men of affairs. His rapid though not spectacular rise to success in a comparatively brief time is the more interesting in contrast with his early years spent in ill paid and routine occupation, and the discovery only after varied experiences of his real genius as a promoter organizer and manager of amusement enterprises. William M. James was born February 23, 1878, at Lancaster, Ohio, son of John A. and Theresa (Crider) James. His father was a foreman in the Motherwell Iron & Steel Company, manufacturers of bridges and farm implements, and in 1884 he accompanied the plant upon its removal to Logan. William M. James lived at Logan from the age of six to about fifteen, acquiring his first schooling there, and also in that community he saw his first show, a small circus. By methods known only to boys he and his brother John sneaked beneath the canvas and witnessed what he believed the greatest show he ever saw. His brother John has been more or less closely associated with William M. James. The bank failure in Logan causing the ruin of the steel company, and the temporary tying up of the savings of the James family, they removed to Columbus, where John A. James found temporary employment as a steel worker on the old Henrietta Theatre on Spring Street, following which for twenty years, until his death, he worked as a blacksmith in the Pennsylvania shops, making templets from blue prints for the blacksmith. William M. James entered the Central High School in the fall following the removal of the family to Columbus. Ile also carried a newspaper route for the old Press Post, having been paid $1.50 a week HISTORY OF OHIO - 235 for that work. The second summer in Columbus he became an errand. boy in the Hoffman Drug Store at Fourth and Town streets. That fall, after a few weeks in high school, he left to take regular employment at $2 per week in Stukey's Drug Store at Chestnut and High streets. He lost this position because he laid off one Sunday and Monday to operate a refreshment stand during a visit of Barnum and Bailey's circus, losing $6 by the venture in addition to his job. Following that he had a brief experience as a "news butcher" on the trains, but left that to accept an invitation to return to Stukey's Drug Store at $3 a week. He worked in other drug stores, and finally began a course in pharmacy at the State University, finishing his education as a pharmacist in the Ohio Northern University at Ada. As a graduate pharmacist he found employment in a store near the family home in Columbus, but soon realized he was in an ill paid profession, made the more disagreeable by the whiskey business which was then an inevitable concomitant of the drug trade. He accordingly gave up pharmacy to become a night cashier in a restaurant, and subsequently became superintendent of the business at a salary of $12 a week. That was his income when he married. The next phase of his experience came with the purchase of a cigar stand in the Wesley Block. This later became famous as "The Smoke House" home of the Jungle Imps. Among the young friends comprising his patrons he organized a club called the Jungle Imps, and in order that the club might finance larger and better quarters it was proposed to give a minstrel show. William M. James was made manager of the enterprise. It was a very successful show, given the night before Thanksgiving in 1904, but its real importance in the history of theatrical activities of the City of Columbus is due to the fact that it started William M. James in the work for which his subsequent success has demonstrated that he possessed real genius. Another successful show was produced the next year, and in a short time Mr. James had more than a local reputation as a man who could take hold of, promote and make an artistic and financial success of such undertakings. He was called to Cambridge to manage a minstrel, and doubting his success among strangers, he put such a high price on his services that he supposed it would not be accepted. However, the project was a production success in spite of the $200 he charged for expenses and services, and then there followed similar engagements in outlying towns and cities. It was this experience that put him permanently into the show business, and he soon sold his cigar stand and accepted the management of the Southern Theatre in Columbus for the summer. He exhibited his showmanship by booking an Apache dance, which was then playing in Dayton. At prices of 10 cents this dancing act, which was the rage of the moment, packed the Southern Theatre and proved a success. Mr. James retained the Southern Theatre that summer, and the next summer branched out to the other Valentine theatres. The strenuous absorption of his mental and physical energies in this new business caused a temporary breakdown in health, and he and his brother John spent three months recuperating on a Michigan Lake, at the end of which time he returned, restored. in health and with an idea of building a theatre in Columbus. Hearing of the project to build the Broadway Theatre in Broad Street, he obtained the lease to this house and put all of his savings into advance rentals. Difficulties arose, however, and soon the building was in litigation. After a long discouraging wait these were straightened out and John Connor, present vice president of the James Amusement Enterprises, became interested. with Mr. James in the the atre. They took a twenty year lease on the building, and since that time Mr. Connor and Mr. James have been associated constantly. Mr. James introduced into the Broadway Theatre popular priced vaudeville, which found instant favor with the Columbus public. The Broadway, a success from the beginning, proved the foundation of the James Amusement Enterprises. In 1918 Mr. James purchased the Ada Meade Theatre in Lexington, Kentucky, and that has since been one of the units in the successful chain of theatrical enterprises. During his years in the Broadway he began to think of a very large motion picture house of the best type to be built in Columbus, and after considerable delay in obtaining a site he personally financed and built the James Theatre, which was opened March 28, 1921. The James Amusement Enterprises in December, 1922, took over the Grand Theatre, which six years previously had lost $100,000. Under the James management the Grand was built up to a profitable patronage. In January, 1924, the Grand was closed for a brief time, during which period the posts which had long been a handicap in the theatre were removed and a giant Wurlitzer organ was built, to be played by William Dalton, who had earned his fame as a theatrical organist at the James. In the meantime, on October 28, 1923, Mr. James bought the State and Vernon theatres from the Dusenbury Brothers, who also had control of the Grand. These theatres were given a formal opening January 20, 1924, on which date also was opened the Eastern Theatre, purchased from the men who had operated it since it was built. Thus in twenty years from his first minstrel show produced for the Jungle Imps Mr. James, aided by Mr. Connor, J. Real Neth, secretary and treasurer of the James Amusement Enterprises, and a faithful organization, has built up a two million dollar theatre business, operated by the James Amusement Enterprises and the Ohio State Theatres Company. HON. ROSS W. FUNK, a judge of the Ohio Court of Appeals, had an active experience as a lawyer and public official of nearly forty years preceding his elevation to the bench. Judge Funk has been a lifelong resident of Wooster, Wayne County. He was born there January 11, 1861, son of Daniel and Matilda (Imhoff) Funk, and grandson of John and Maria (Fox) Funk. His grandfather, who was of German ancestry and was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1788, married Maria Fox on January 3, 1811. She was a daughter of Christian Fox and was born in Pennsylvania, November 3, 1787. The family name at that time was spelled Funck, and the present form was adopted, under court order, in 1818. John Funk brought his family to Ohio in 1826, and settled in Chester Township of Wayne County, and in 1849 removed to Wooster, where he died April 2, 1862. His widow survived until February 22, 1879. Daniel Funk, father of Judge Funk, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, July 27, 1829. He became a carriage maker. In 1853 he went to California and faced the experiences of the frontier and its adventures for about six years. Returning to Wayne County in 1859, he married Matilda Imhoff, who was born at Ashland, Ohio, daughter of William and Susan Imhoff. Her parents came to Ohio from Pennsylvania. Daniel Funk was one of the oldest native sons of Wayne County when he died at Wooster in 1917, aged eighty-eight. He and his wife reared a family of four children, all of whom were graduates of Wooster University: Ross W.; Mrs. Alice M. Baker, of Newburg, New York; Mrs. Harriet L. Miller, deceased, and Mrs. Chloe Devona Winn, of San Bernardino, California. 236 - HISTORY OF OHIO Judge Ross W. Funk during his boyhood at Wooster, attended the public schools, was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree from Wooster University in 1883, and received the degree of Master of Arts in 1886 from the same institution. While at Wooster University he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. In 1885 the graduated Bachelor of Laws from the Cincinnati Law School. He had begun the study of law under John McSweeney, one of the most eminent criminal lawyers of Ohio. Judge Funk was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1885, and later to the United States District Court. His law practice for years was voluminous, and he was retained in some of the most important "trials in this section of Ohio. Judge Funk 's many brilliant qualifications for public service have not been available as frequently as his admirers have wished, because he has been a republican in a normally democratic county and district. From April, 1887, to April, 1889, he served as city solicitor for Wooster. In 1894 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Wayne County, being the first republican chosen to that office in thirty years. In 1920, as a candidate on the republican ticket, he was defeatd for the office of judge of the Court of Appeals, though running far ahead of the other members of his ticket. Subsequently, as a result of the Legislature making a change in the district boundaries, and a vacancy occurring on the Appellate Bench, Judge Funk was appointed by the governor on February 11, 1922, and in the general election of that fall he was chosen to succeed himself by a handsome majority. Judge Funk is past master of the Masonic Lodge at Wooster, past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter, past eminent commander of the Knights Templar Commandery, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and is 'also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and the Presbyterian Church. On August 30, 1893, Judge Funk married Miss Cordelia Coyle, of Galion, Ohio, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Coyle. The four children of their marriage are Daniel C., Mrs. Julia M. Seibert, Estella A., and Marjorie E. Daniel C. Funk, who is the junior partner in the law firm of Funk & Funk at Wooster, was born in that city, February 11, 1895. He graduated from the Wooster High School in 1913, and received the Bachelor 'of Philosophy degree from Wooster University in 1917, and with special honors in public speaking. He studied law under his father and in the law department of Western Reserve University of Cleveland, and in 1919 he passed the state bar examination with the highest grade in the class and was admitted to the bar. In 1920 he became associated with his father in the firm' of Funk & Funk, and since his father went on the bench has succeeded to the heavy practice of the firm. Much of his practice is in corporation law, and he represents several financial institutions. Daniel C. Funk in April, 1918, volunteered and was assigned to duty as inspector and lecturer on ammunition and explosives at the Ordnance Training School at Camp Hancock, Georgia. Since the war he has held commission as second lieutenant in the Officers' Reserve Corps. He has done some valuable work as a speaker in republican party campaigns, and is a young man of exceptional gifts for public life. After graduating from Wooster University he taught economics and public speaking in the Wooster High School. He is a member of the American Legion, the Wooster Board of Trade and the Presbyterian Church, and is a council degree Mason and a member of the Delta Phi law fraternity. JOHN M. ADAMS has been actively identified with the brick manufacturing industry for twenty-four years, and is one of the foremost men in the country in the face brick division of brick manufacture. Mr. Adams was born at Cadiz, in Harrison County, Ohio, in 1860, son of Matthew B. and Margaret (McKinney) Adams. Mr. Adams was a former educator, and had an active career as a schoolman before becoming a manufacturcr. He is a graduate of Mount Union College. For fifteen years he was a teacher of history and rhetoric in Scio College, now merged with the Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio. Mr. Adams took up his residence at Columbus in 1899. He has been associated with the Ironclay Brick Company since 1900. With this large corporation he has filled a number of positions of increasing responsibilities, and for eighteen years was secretary and general manager of the company. In August, 1923, he was elected president and treasurer of the company. The general offices of the company are in the Ruggery Building at Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Adams was one of the organizers of American Face Brick Association, comprising manufacturers of lace brick over the nation. The companies and industries represented by this association have an aggregate output of a billion face brick annually. The association paid Mr. Adams the distinctive honor of electing him its first president. At the twelfth annual convention of the association, held at West Baden, Indiana, in December, 1922, Mr. Adams was again honored by. election as president. He is well known in Columbus business circles, being a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club and belongs to the King Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Miss Ella M. Blair,. of Harrison County. Their son is Wilbur B. Adams, a horticulturist, at Worthington, Ohio. DAVID DAVIES is the responsible head of one of the institutions that give prosperity to Columbus as an industrial center, a packing house located at 616 West Mound Street. Mr. Davies as a boy began buying live stock for the market, then went into the retail meat business, and by gradual progress has extended his operations to the present stage. He was born on the site of historic old Camp Chase, near Columbus, March 14, 1878. His father, T. D. Davies, was born in Jackson County, Ohio, and for many years was in the retail meat business. David Davies grew up at Columbus, and when only fifteen years of age began buying live stock on a small scale. Soon afterward he entered the butchering business, and conducted a market trade for several years. In 1909 he incorporated the D. Davies Packing Company, his associate being Jonas Pletch. A year and a half later a fire caused him a heavy loss, but he soon resumed operations and since then has been sole proprietor of his extensive business. In 1914 he remodeled his old plant, and in April, 1920, he bought another packing plant and after spending $65,000 for remodeling and expansion, has a thoroughly modern business. His plant covers about two acres of ground and he has the facilities for slaughtering and packing 175 cattle and 500 hogs a week. It is a wholesale business and caters strictly to the highest class of trade. Most of his fresh and cured meats are absorbed by the local demand. His leading product is known as Thomas Johnson's Baby Beef. Mr. Davies has about sixty employes. He married Miss Mabel Trimby, of Marysville, Ohio. EDGAR M. HATTON, PH.G. (Phila.), M. D. As a physician Doctor Hatton has practiced in Columbus over thirty years, and along with his general practice he has done much important work as a teacher of medicine. Doctor Hatton is a native Ohioan, born at Zanes- HISTORY OF OHIO - 237 ville, June 7, 1851, son of Daniel and Eleanor (Wright) Hatton. His ancestry includes families of prominence in America since the early Colonial period. The Hattons were well known in Maryland, and in England from the eleventh century. One of the ancestors of Doctor Hatton was of a collateral branch of Thomas Hatton, who served as secrctary to Governor Stone, the first governor of Maryland appointed under the Calvert regime. Daniel Hatton, father of Doctor Hatton, was born in Harford County, Maryland, and when he was sixteen years of age, in 1832, came alone, walking most of the way, to Ohio. After establishing his home at Zanesville, in Muskingum County, he sent for his parents to join him. His mother was a Collins, of Colonial ancestry. In earlier years he was a building contractor, and subsequently became an iron founder. Eleanor Wright, the mother of Doctor Hatton, was also a native of Harford County, Maryland, and was a young girl when she accompanied her parents to Ohio, settlement being made in Franklin Township of Licking County. Her father, Capt. William Wright, was an officer in the War of 1812. Capt. William Wright's cousin, Blois Wright, was also a pioneer settler in Ohio, living at Brownsville in Licking County. The Blois family, connected by marriage with the Wrights, a son of Blois Wright having married the daughter of Thomas Blois in 1680, in Maryland, has been identified with Maryland since 1626. The Blois family originated in Blois, France, and as Huguenots went to Suffolk, England. The ancestry of Eleanor Wright Hatton also included the Hendersons of Maryland, whose farm purchased by them in 1780 was a part of the Lord Baltimore Manor. Dr. Edgar M. Hatton spent his boyhood days in Zanesville, was educated in the public schools, and in 1874 he graduated with honors with the Graduate in Pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. As a pharmacist he had a business experience of about twenty years, and served on the State Examining Board for seven years. Coming to Columbus in 1889, he entered Starling Medical College, now of the Ohio State University, where he was graduated in Doctor of Medicine in 1891. He was a student of the eminent Dr. Starling Loving. Subsequent to his graduation he spent a year and a half in post-graduate study in New York—at the Sloan Maternity Hospital, the New York Lying-In Hospital, the New York Post Graduate School and other institutions. He has been especially well known for his work in pediatrics. He served as the first interne in the Columbus Children's Hospital, and for a time was instructor of physiology and diseases of children in the Ohio Medical University. Doctor Hatton has long been numbered among the prominent members of his profession in Columbus. He is a member of the Columbus Academy of Medicine and the Ohio State and American Medical associations. While traveling in Great Britain Doctor Hatton met Miss Jennie Cowell Hough, of Rahway, New Jersey. They were married two years later. Mrs. Hatton has been prominent in club work and the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her grandfather, Gen. Joseph Hough, an army officer, when a young colonel acted as official escort to General Lafayette when the distinguished Frenchman was visiting this country in 1825. General Hough's mother was Hannah Simpson, the sister of John Simpson, the grandfather of Gen. U. S. Grant. Mrs. Hatton's father, Dr. DeWitt Clinton Hough, served as surgeon-major for over three years during the Civil war, and, after the Battle of Gettysburg he was brevetted brigade surgeon. Mrs. Hatton's American ancestry is purely Colonial, many of them having been conspicuous founders of that period. J. FRANK LUMB. One of the most remarkable men in Ohio on the score of what he has accomplished against heavy odds is J. Frank Lumb, present superintendent of the School for the Blind at Columbus. Mr. Lumb was born on a farm near Celina, in. Mercer County, Ohio, in 1854. When he was nine years of age he was stricken with scarlet fever, and the disease left him blind. Soon afterward he was enrolled as a student in the State School for the Blind, where he graduated at the age of nineteen. In spite of his physical handicap he proved a proficient student of music, mastered the technique of piano playing, and after leaving school earned his living by teaching music and selling pianos. For two years he was a student in Ohio Wesleyan University, and later studied at Ohio State University. He left the university at Delaware in 1878 to become a member of the teaching staff of the Ohio School for the Blind. Six years later he was elected to the superintendency by a unanimous vote of the board of trustees ; but he declined, feeling that he could best serve his school, and meet the responsibilities of home, in the capacity of teacher. In 1901 he married Miss Lucy Ziegler, a teacher at the school, who during most of her life was in very delicate health. She died in October, 1915. In 1911, under the superintendency of Edward M. Van Cleve, the board, then presided over by Hon. Charles N. Gaumer of Zanesville, Ohio, made him principal of the school. In 1919 the superintendency was again offered him and he accepted, and has since ably manned the helm of this great state institution, one of the very best of its kind in the United States. Three times previously he had honorably passed the civil service examination for the office of superintendent, and was three times certified for appointment, but it was only after many years that the board of administration could be convinced that a blind man was sufficiently qualified for this position. In spite of many difficulties Mr. Lumb has succeeded in whatever line of endeavor he has chosen to pursue; and these lines have been somewhat varied. Not content with distinguishing himself as a scholar, he has invaded the realm of business and won for himself a competency. For many years he owned and operated the home farm, which he enlarged and improved until it became one of the model country homes in that section of Ohio. He is a humanitarian and philosopher as well. His devotion to his father and mother in their declining years, his care of his wife and invalid brother not alone attest to the humanitarian side of his character ; for he has helped many young people on the road to success who had much better natural opportunities than his own, and has given more to charity, in proportion to his means, than any man whom the writer has ever known. Mr. Lumb has been a very popular speaker before Chautauqua assemblies and other educational gatherings. His experience as a lad and as a man facing life's strenuous demands has given him a wisdom tempered with keenest sympathy, and all familiar with his work say that he has services to his credit in assisting the afflicted such as perhaps no other educator in the state could surpass. The writer, walking with Mr. Lumb in the shadow of the immense building of which lie is custodian, said: "What do you consider the main factor in the secret of your success?" With only a moment's hesitation, the answer came: "Whatever success 238 - HISTORY I may have achieved in life I attribute to my ability to concentrate and to stick to a task until it is done." MAURICE CONNORS has given specialprogressiveive and constructive service during his administration as general manager of the Hocking Valley Railway, with headquarters in the City of Columbus. He has been associated with this railroad system since 1891, and has held the office of general manager since May, 1910, including the period of its control by the Federal Government, October, 1918,-March, 1920, in the interval of national participation in the World war. When Mr. Connors initiated his service with the Hocking Valley Railway its annual gross earnings aggregated about $3,000,000. The aggregate shown for the year 1923 was $17,500,000, and the ambition of the management is to increase still further the substantial business of the system. Mr. Connors was born in the City of Toronto, Canada, June 7, 1858, and in 1871 he initiated his alliance with railroad service, in the capacity of water-boy on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, now a part of the Great New York Central lines. He made good use of his opportunities, learned telegraphy and thereafter was employed until September, 1879, as telegraph operator for the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He then became telegraph operator for the United Pipe Line Company (Standard Oil), and in 1881 he assumed the position of train dispatcher for the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad, at Evansville, Indiana. He retained this post until 1883, and thereafter served until 1889 as train dispatcher and master of transportation on the Indianapolis division of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad. His next advancement was to the office of superintendent of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, until May, 1890, and subsequently, until December of the same year, was general superintendent of the Peoria & Pekin Union Railroad. He was then appointed superintendent of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad. In December, 1891, Mr. Connors came to Columbus to assume the office of superintendent of the Hocking Valley & Ohio River division of the Columbus Hockinging Valley & Toledo Railway, and his service in this capacity continued until March, 1899, when he was promoted to the position of general superintendent of the Hocking Valley Railway, successor of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway. In May, 1910, he was advanced to his present responsible post, that of general manager, and he is widely known as one of the most efficient and successful railway executives in the United States, the while he is a well known and distinctively popular citizen of Ohio's capital city. Here he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Columbus Athletic Club, and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In his career as a railroad executive he has significantly emphasized the Golden Rule, and his insistent policy of directing employes of the Hocking Valley Railroad in never-failing courtesy to the public has made this one of the most popular railroads of the nation. He and his wife have a beautiful home in the attractive suburb of Bexley. In 1881 Mr. Connors married Miss Mary E. Kane. They have one son and five daughters: John L. (vice president and general manager of the Morgan-Gardner Electric Company in the City of Chicago), Misses Agatha and Eileen Connors, Mrs. Gertrude Drugan, Mrs. Mildred Burke and Mrs. Martha Puckett. EDGAR W. SUTTLES. This leading real estate dealer and prominent capitalist of the City of Columbus, Ohio; was born in Muskingum County, this state, at White Cottage, near Zanesville, in 1872, his parents being Harrison and Harriet (Gaffney) Suttles. The former passed away a number of years ago, but the latter is still living. The family moved to Columbus in 1891. The subject of this narrative, soon after the family reached Columbus, became connected with the old and widely known wholesale dry goods establishment of Green-Joyce Company, and remained thus occupied for a period of eighteen years, passing through all stages of the business. During the major part of that time he was private secretary to Mr. Joyce, and in addition had charge of the traveling salesmen's department of the company. All this activity and responsibility gave to Mr. Suttles the varied and valuable experience which has since aided him much in subsequent business undertakings. His business now has a wide scope and compass. In 1909 Mr. Suttles formally withdrew from this concern and soon thereafter entered the real estate business on his own account. As time passed he steadily prospered and extended his operations until he finally concentrated his efforts and attention to his business on the North Side. There he made a specialty of the development of residence and business property. His business steadily expanded and widened under his care and experience. His constant attention to the remote details of his business, his prudent and conscientious respect for the welfare of his customers and associates, and his constant application of sound and reliable business rules gave him unusual advancement and prominence. It is no doubt true that no man knows more about North Side property than does he. This fact is recognized and admitted not only by residents of the North Side, but by active and successful business men of all occupations throughout the city. In March, 1923, Mr. Suttles finished tconstructionion of a fine and elaborate business structure at the northwest corner of North High Street and Jason Avenue. It is a high-class modern block, two stories high, built of light brick, with sixty feet front on North High Street. On the first floor are three storerooms and on the second are suites for a dentist, a doctor, a real estate dealer and a living apartment. The real estate suite is occupied by Mr. Suttles. The structure is an attractive addition to this section of the city and reflects on its builder high credit and distinction. No doubt it will aid in inducing many residents to locate in this part of the city. The business is conducted under the name of E. W. Suttles & Company, the "Company" being his two sons, Raymond E. and Harrison W., who are associated with their father in the business. In addition to his two sons he has a daughter, Forence . Mr. Suttles married Bertha A., daughter of Judge E. K. Rife, formerly a resident of this city, but passed away in Los Angeles, California, in 1924. The judge was a distinguished journalist and writer, and was for many years political editor of the Ohio State Journal. He greatly distinguished himself and was one of the editors of the Los Angeles Times. HARRY SMALL ILIFF, of London, is one of the leading railroad and bridge contractors in Ohio. Mason work and contracting have been a business in the family for a great many years. Mr. Iliff was born at Cedarville, Greene County, Ohio, July 12, 1873. His grandfather, Wesley Iliff, was born in the same locality, son of people who were among the first pioneers. Wesley Iliff was an early manufacturer of lime. William Henry Iliff, father of Harry S., was also born at Cedarville, being one of seven children, and his active life was devot HISTORY OF OHIO - 239 to mason work and contracting. He served as a Union soldier in the Civil war in the One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio Infantry, and was a participant in the battles of Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg. He died at the age of seventy years. William H. Iliff married Margaret Small, of Cedarville, daughter of David M. and Mary Small, pioneers of that locality. Harry Small Iliff attended public schools in Greene County, also Cedarville College, and as a youth served an apprenticeship with his father in the masonry trade. As a young man, in 1898, when the Spanish-American war broke out, he enlisted in Company A of the Second United States Volunteers, Engineer Corps, and assisted in building several camps in the United States and also in construction work at Havana, Cuba. After leaving the army Mr. Iliff returned to Cedarville, and took up masonry contracting. His home has been at London since 1904, and the greater part of his work as a mason contractor has been done for railroads. He has supervised most of the work for the Pennsylvania Railroad_ in Ohio for some years. At Hillsboro, Ohio, on January 1, 1902, Mr. Iliff married Miss Viola Eyler, daughter of Henry M. and Minerva (Hunter) Eyler. The Eylers were pioneer farmers in Brown County, Ohio, while the Hunters were early settlers in Highland County. Her father was a farmer at Newmarket in Highland County. Mrs. Iliff was one of eight children, all of whom were reared in Highland County. Mr. and Mrs. Iliff had five children: William Howard, a graduate of the London High School, now a student at Miami University and a member of the fraternity Sigma Delta Rho; Paul Louis, a gradute of the London High School, continuing his higher education in Wittenberg College; Mary Josephine, attending high school ; Richard Small, in grammar school; and Louisa M., who died in infancy. Mr. Iliff served eight years as a member of the London School Board. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a Presbyterian and republican and a member of the London Club. GEORGE W. WEBSTER. An active service of more than forty years with the Hocking Valley Railroad brought an enviable distinction and position to George W. Webster, who retired from his duties at Columbus in 1923. Mr. Webster was born at Steubenville, Ohio, in 1857, son of Col. George Penny and Mary Ellen Virginia (McAdams) Webster. His father was one of Ohio's most distinguished soldiers in the Civil war. Born near Middletown, Ohio, he was educated for the law, and for several years was associated in practice at Steubenville with the late Col. George W. McCook, at one time a candidate for governor and a member of the famous Ohio family known as the "fighting McCooks," on account of the record of father and eight sons all being officers and soldiers in the Union army in the Civil war. At the outbreak of the war George Penny Webster immediately left his law practice and volunteered, and was made major of the Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Later, when a regiment was formed of soldiers chiefly from Steubenville and vicinity, and organized as the Ninety-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, he was made colonel of the regiment. Colonel Webster was killed on the front line of battle at Perryville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862. His fellow officers who witnessed the tragedy paid the highest tribute to his courage and bravery and to his great worth as a man. His memory survived in the hearts of the community and his old comrades, and in 1897, at a reunion of his regiment at Steubenville, a monument was unveiled to his memory. The newspaper accounts of his death in October, 1862, paid him the highest praise. George W. Webster was only five years of age when his father paid the supreme sacrifice. He acquired a common school education and early began doing for himself, and took up railroading as a career. In 1880 he dame to Columbus from Steubenville, and from that time until July 1, 1923, he was in the service of the Hocking Valley Railway at the Columbus freight offices, performing every duty from yard clerk to agent. The agent when he came to Columbus was W. H. Lott, the first official in that capacity at Columbus. He served as cashier and chief clerk with Agents Anthony, Higgins and Youse, and in May, 1905, succeeded Mr. Youse as agent. He filled the office eighteen years. His authoritative knowledge of everything connected with the freight department and his personal popularity brought a large volume of business to his company. Mr. Webster is a past commander of the Sons of Veterans. Aside from his work as a railroad man his interest has been centered in his family and home at 1128 Broadview Avenue. He married Miss Flora Jaeger,, of Columbus, member of one of the oldest and most prominent families of the city. Her father was Edgar Jaeger, and her grandfather was Christian Jaeger. Christian Jaeger came to America from Germany at the same time and for the same reason as Carl Schurz, Emil Pretorious and other brilliant men who left Germany as exiles after the collapse of the Revolution of 1848 and became some of the highest minded men in American citizenship. Christian Jaeger located in Columbus, was for many years a substantial citizen, and owned a beautiful home on South High Street. One of his sons, Frederick Jaeger, was the pioneer ice manufacturer of Columbus and was known as the "ice king." Mr. and Mrs. Webster are the parents of four children: Addia E., wife of H. E. J eanson; Charles Eduard Webster; Vera J., wife of Homer Buckley; and George W. Webster, Jr. CHARLES MYRON YOCUM for about forty years was one of the outstanding figures in the legal profession of Wayne County. He was a capable lawyer, a high minded citizen, and one of the thoroughly successful men of his generation. He was born near Millbrook, in Wayne County, Ohio, February 17, 1842, son of Joseph U. and Margaret (Funk) Yocum, natives of Pennsylvania. His father was born near Harrisburg, at the Town of Yocumville, named for the family. He was one of two sons, the other being Lucian S. Y ocum. Their father was Charles Yocum, who married a Miss Glancy. Charles Yocum was born January 6, 1786, of Welsh ancestry and Revolutionary stock. J oseph G. Yocum and Margaret Funk were pioneer settlers in Wayne County, and capable farmers there. Charles Myron Yocum and his older brother, Lucian, were the only children of their parents. He grew up on the farm, attended school at Hayesville and Fredericksburg, and was a graduate of the law department of the University of Michigan. On being admitted to the bar he opened his office at Wooster, and was in active practice there until his death on August 27, 1911. He married in 1872 Miss Isabella A. Ross, who was born in Holmes County, Ohio, a daughter of Randall and Eliza (Boon) Ross. Her parents were born in Pennsylvania and were married in Ohio. Her mother came to Holmes County in 1812, when only five years of age, and her father came a little later. Her paternal grandparents were Archibald and Mary (Morrison) Ross, born, reared and married in Ireland. 240 - HISTORY OF OHIO The maternal grandfather, George W. Boon, was born in Pennsylvania, and married Nancy Hutchison. The late Mr. Yocum was a member of the Baptist Church and for many years superintendent of the Sunday school. He was a republican, but never sought public office, though he made many speeches in local campaigns. Mr's. Yocum is a member of the United Presbyterian Church. She was a school teacher in early life, and taught in the high school at Wooster at the time of her marriage and for several years afterward. Mr. Yocum in the course of his law practice handled many large estates. He was an able business man himself and left a large property, which has been skillfully managed by Mrs. Yocum since his death. He served a 100-day enlistment as a Union soldier with the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Ohio Infantry, being on duty at Washington. GIDEON U. BAUMGARDNER, who died April 26, 1924, had rounded out a ten years' service as superintendent of schools of Wayne County. Over a third of a century of his life was devoted to educational work, and his experience as a school man covered the entire range of teaching from a district school up to county superintendent. He was born at Bluffton, Indiana, June 24, 1867, son of Benjamin B. and Magdaline (Summers) Baumgardner. His father was a blacksmith by trade, and was also born. at Bluffton, Indiana, son of an elder or minister of the Mennonite Church. Magdaline Summers was born and reared in Wayne County, Ohio. Gideon U. Baumgardner from the age of ten years lived in Ohio, and until 1902 his home was in Medina County. He grew up on a farm in that county, and graduated from the Wadsworth High School. At the age of twenty he began teaching, at first in a rural district, and his higher education was acquired in the intervals of teaching and through money earned by himself. For four years he attended Oberlin College, and in 1912 graduated from Wooster University. Mr. Baumgardner taught school at Chippewa Lake, Seville, Sterling and of -,r places in Northern Ohio. He became county superintendent of schools of Wayne County in 1914, with offices at Wooster. He was a member of the Northeastern Ohio, the Ohio State and National Educational societies, was a Council degree Mason, and a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Wooster. In 1892 Mr. Baumgardner married Miss Della Koppes, of Medina, Ohio. Their son, Harold X., graduated from Wooster University, did post-graduate work in chemistry at Ohio State University, and for two years during the World war was in the chemical warfare division, serving with the rank of second lieutenant. During most of the time he was stationed at Washington. He is now in Cleveland with the Braden Printing Ink Company. F. L. FERGUSON is secretary of the Ashland Buff Company of Ashland, and is also associated with H. Austin Lengs, of Akron, Ohio, business administrators and member of the National Association of Certified Public Accountants. The Ashland Buff Company was incorporated under the laws of Ohio in 1923, with $50,000 capital stock, and manufactures buffing wheels exclusively. This company was organized to take over the Re-Miler Rubber Company, after the latter had for some time discontinued the manufacture of rubber goods. The officers of the Ashland Buff Company are William C. McDanel, president; H. A. Lengs, vice president; F. L. Ferguson, secretary; and R. W. Watt, general manager. Mr. Ferguson was born at New Brighton, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, coming of an old Colonial family. He came to Ashland in 1903, and was graduated from the Ashland High School in the class of 1909. His first connection with the business world was in the office of F. E. Myers & Brother, of Ashland. On account of weak eyesight, he was compelled to get out of doors, and spent several years recuperating in the West, first on his uncle's ranch in Eastern Washington, and later engaged in mercantile pursuits in Seattle. On his return to the East, he became connected with the Faultless Rubber Company, of Ashland; later he became identified with the Mechanical Rubber Company of Cleveland, and various other rubber companies in Akron, and acquired extensive experience in the manufacture of mechanical goods and sundries. At one time he was connected with the Cleveland Metal Products Company as inspector, and has had varied experience as a salesman and in the commercial field. During the war Mr. Ferguson was in the Thirty-seventh Division, spending nineteen months in the service, and saw action in France in all operations in which the division participated. His diary covering this period is a rich collection of facts and anecdotes such as is not to be found in war histories. A short time before the end of the war he entered the Officers' Training School, but the armistice was signed before he was granted a commission. He is unmarried, and is a republican in politics. CHARLES MILTON WARREN has achieved a notable record as a school man in his native county of Pickaway. He has been county school superintendent since 1916, and has devoted nearly twenty-four years altogether to school work. Mr. Warren represents one of the oldest pioneer families of Pickaway County. He was born in Salt Creek Township, March 7, 1874, son of Henry S. and Ellen (Rhoads) Warren. In the same house that was the birthplace of Charles M. Warren, Henry S. Warren was born May 8, 1846. He was a son of Thomas Warren, a grandson of Tilghman Warren, and a great-grandson of Solomon Warren. Solomon Warren was a descendant of Richard Warren, of Mayflower ancestry. Solomon Warren was a soldier on the American side in the Revolutionary war, and was killed in one of the battles of that struggle for independence. Tilghman Warren was born while his father was in the Revolutionary army, and in 1819 came from either Virginia or Maryland to Ohio and settled in Salt Creek Township of Pickaway County, where he died in 1853. His son, Thomas Warren, was born in 1822, and spent his life at the old homestead, where he died at the age of seventy-eight. Henry S. Warren also lived all his life at the old farm, and died in 1921. He was an industrious farmer and held local offices on the school board. All the family were Methodists, and Tilghman Warren was one of the early class leaders of the Oak Grove Church. Ellen Rhoads, mother of Charles M. Warren, was born in Salt Creek Township, daughter of Jesse Rhoads, who came from Wyandot County, Ohio. She died in 1891. One of a family of five children, Charles M. Warren attended the district schools near his birthplace, and after high school entered the Ohio Northern University and later the Ohio State University, where he graduated in 1910. In the meantime he had begun teaching the home school at the age of twenty-one. For three years he was superintendent of schools at Richmond-dale, in Ross County, spent four years in the Groveport School of Franklin County, and for five years was superintendent at Mount Gilead. In March, 1916, Mr. Warren entered upon his duties as county superintendent of schools in Pick-away County. His supervision extends to all the schools of the county outside of the independent dis- HISTORY OF OHIO - 241 trict of Circleville. This rich agricultural county has made wonderful progress in its school facilities and teaching standards during the past eight years. When he became superintendent there were seventy-one one-room schoolhouses over the county, and of these only seven survived in 1923. Superintendent Warren helped in the building of seven new centralized schools, and there are now twelve such institutions in the county. During his administration the high school enrollment has increased from 386 to about 800, and the average number of high school graduates is 125. The general enrollment has increased from 4,200 to 5,200. The staff of high school teachers has been increased from thirty to forty, while there are now sixteen special teachers, where there were none in that class eight years ago. Of the thirteen high schools in the county outside of Circleville, twelve offer four-year courses. Mr. Warren married Miss Mayme Goodman, of Ross County, Ohio. He is active in various civic movements and is teacher of the Men's Bible Class of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having 125 in the class. CHESTER E. BRYAN. The Madison County Democrat at London has perhaps a unique distinction among Ohio newspapers in that it has been since its founding more than sixty-six years ago, continually under the ownership and editorial management of one family, and two men, father and son. Chester E. Bryan, who has been actively identified with the paper for forty-five years, is a son of its founder, Marcellus L. Bryan. The Bryan family was identified with the very earliest settlements in Southern Ohio. David Chester Bryan, the pioneer of the family in Ohio, was born on Long Island, New York, in 1771. In 1792 he came out to the Northwest Territory, locating in what is now Clermont County, Ohio. David Chester Bryan exercised his potent influence in the early history of that section of the state. He served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1806-07 and as a state senator from 1807 to 1811, and in 1814 he and George Ely laid out and named the county seat town Batavia. His son, David Chester Bryan, Jr., was born at Batavia, and married Mary Melvin Moore. Her father, Capt. Charles Moore, was a sergeant in the Revolutionary army and became an officer in the War of 1812. The Moore family was also identified with the early settlement of Ohio, coming from Philadelphia. Marcellus L. Bryan, a grandson of the Ohio pioneer David Chester Bryan, Sr., was born at Batavia, in Clearmont County, March 23, 1829. As a young man he moved to Columbus, where he took up newspaper work on the staff of the Ohio Statesman. It was in 1857 that he established the Madison County Democrat at London, and continued as its owner and editor until his death, when he was succeeded by his son. Marcellus L. Bryan married Martha Sidney Masterson of Columbus, daughter of Professor Ormond Masterson, who came to America in 1831 from Ireland, and at Columbus established the first private school in that city. Chester E. Bryan was born at London, October 29, 1859, and is about two years younger than the Madison County Democrat. He was one of six children. He completed the work of the London schools in 1878, and since then has been actively associated with the Madison County Democrat, and for many years has been its owner. In addition to the important service he has rendered in and through this newspaper, he has also made a name in Ohio public affairs and democratic politics. For ten years he was a member of the executive committee of the National Editorial Asso ciation, and served four years as president of the Ohio Editorial Association. A staunch democrat, he has served a number of years as chairman of the Madison County Democratic Committee, and those familiar with the local political situation claim that his influence has been largely responsible for the success of his party in Madison County. He has also served as a member of the Democratic State Committee, and Governor Harmon appointed him president of the Board of Trustees of the State Institution for the Deaf. He is best known in the public life of Ohio through his election in 1910 as state treasurer of Ohio, an office he filled for two years. On February 25, 1886, Mr. Bryan married Miss Maria Daley, of Monroc Township, Madison County. They have had four daughters : Hazel, wife of W. A. Stcvens, of Columbus, Ohio ; Beulah Marie, deceased, wife of Godfrey Strauss, of Cincinnati ; Uarda, wife of Edward Marsh, of London; and Miss Naomi, at home. Mr. Bryan has been president of the London Board of Trade, and at all times active in local and state civic affairs. He was editor of a recently published history of Madison County. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, also an Elk, and his favorite vacation is a fishing trip in Michigan during the summcr, and in Florida during the winter. L. B. PALMER. In February, 1923, L. B. Palmer became president of the Ohio State Farm Bureau Federation and was president of the Ohio Wool Growers Association. He still holds this latter position. Probably no one is better qualified on the score of individual success and leadership in agricultural affairs for the office he now holds, which is practically representative of all organized work for agricultural welfare and development in the state. Mr. Palmer 's private interests make him one of the leading farmers and stock breeders in Licking County, where he was born August 6, 1883, son of William F. and Sadie (Buckland) Palmer, likewise natives of Licking County, where the former were a pioneer family. William F. Palmer devoted his active life to general farming and stock raising. L. B. Palmer attended public schools in Licking County, also the Reynoldsburg High School in Franklin County, and is a graduate with the class of 1905 from Ohio State University. For twenty years much of his time has been devoted to farming in Licking County. He early took up the pure bred live stock industry, and is well known as a specialist in the breeding of the Shropshire and Southdown sheep ; also has a herd of Ayreshire cattle. His stock has been exhibited at many state and county fairs. He has also been active in the work of the Grange, being past master of Etna Grange. He is a member of the Evangelical Church. Mr. Palmer married, November 26, 1905, Traverse Deeds, a native of Licking County and daughter of John and Ellen (Belt) Deeds. They are the parents of four children: Dorothy May, Helen Louise, Nelson William, and Ralph Lee. In October, 1922, Governor Davis reappointed Mr. Palmer on the Ohio State Board of Agriculture. He has been in charge of the sheep show at Ohio State Fair, which has become the largest and best sheep show in the United States. The various activities of the Ohio State Farm Bureau Federation are centered on the fourth floor of the Capco Building, at 199 East Gay Street, in Columbus, where Mr. Palmer has his official headquarters while in Columbus. PEYTON RANDOLPH EMERY. For thirty years Peyton Randolph Emery has been one of the promi- 242 - HISTORY OF OHIO vent men in his home county of Madison. He is an attorney with a large private practice, and for a number of years has also been engaged in banking at London. He was born in Range Township of Madison County, September 1, 1868. His father, Benjamin Emery, of old Virginia ancestry, was born in Virginia in 1836, and as a young man came to Ohio and settled in Madison County. He engaged in farming, and when the Civil war came on he enlisted and served four years as a Union soldier. Later in life his name became associated with public affairs. In 1890 he was elected and served four years as sheriff of Madison County, and was then elected and served four years as county treasurer. After leaving office he looked after his farming and other interests until his death in 1916. Benjamin Emery married, in 1867, Miss Caroline Chrisman, of Madison County, who died in 1915. They had three sons and four daughters. Peyton Randolph Emery after graduating from the high school at London attended Ohio Wesleyan University about three years, and then enrolled in the law school of Ohio State University. He was graduated and admitted to the bar, and, with offices in London, has participated in some of the most importan litigations in the courts of the county and district. While still practicing law he has served as president of the Madison National Bank since 1919. Mr. Emery is a republican, a member of the Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Masonic and Knights of Pythias fraternities. He married at London, in 1907, Miss Anna Gould, daughter of Edward and Anna Gould, of London. Their two children are Georgiana, born in 1908, and Theodore, born in 1910. HARRY VINCENT CHRISTOPHER, M. D. One of Madison County's most competent physicians and surgeons, Doctor Christopher is a son of the late Dr. William Howard Christopher, who also practiced medicine at London for many years. Harry Vincent is a veteran of the World war, and was overseas with the famous Rainbow Division. He was born at Van Wert, in Van Wert County, Ohio, June 6, 1883. His father, William Howard Christopher, was born in Hardin County, Ohio, in 1855, taught school there, was a student for two years in the University of Michigan, and took his medical course in the Starling Medical College at Columbus, where he was graduated with the first honors of his class in 1879. For eight years following his graduation he practiced at Van Wert, then at South Bend, Indiana, seven years, and, returning to Ohio, located at London, where he was one of the prominent men of his profession until his death. He was deeply interested in the cause of education, and while a member of the school board was largely responsible for the construction of the splendid new high school building at London. Doctor William Howard Christopher married on the night of his graduation from Starling Medical College, Miss Nancy Elizabeth Patrick, of Hardin County. The only child of his parents, Harry Vincent Christopher first attended school at South Bend, Indiana, and subsequently graduated from the London High School. He spent one year in Ohio State University, and for two years was a student in the Starling Medical College, now the medical department of Ohio State University. He finished his professional education in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Chicago, where he was graduated in 1908. For fifteen years, except for the period while he was in the army, he has engaged in the general medical practice at London. Doctor Christopher married at London, September 11, 1907, Miss Helen Knowles Downing, daughter of David Duncan and Alice (Knowles) Downing, of London. They have three children : Alice Jane, born in 1910; Nancy Elizabeth, born in 1914, and William Downing, born in 1920. Doctor Christopher served four years as county coroner of Madison County, and also spent four years on the City Council of London. He is an independent republican, a Methodist, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. His military record began in May, 1917, when he volunteered for service in the Fourth Ohio National Guard. This regiment was mustered into the national army as the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Regiment in the Forty-second Division, otherwise known as the Rainbow Division, made up largely of National Guard regiments all over the country. Doctor Christopher was in training at Fort Benjamin Harrison, at Camp Perry, and at Camp Mills, until October, 1917, when he sailed for France. He remained in the training area until February 22, 1918, when he went into the trenches in the Luneville sector, and for 110 days was with his regiment in the Baccarat sector. From there he was transferred to the Champagne sector and subsequently to the front lines at Chateau-Thierry, was in the St. Mihiel campaigns and the Meuse and the Argonne. While on duty he was gassed, wounded twice, June 6 and July 28, and suffered severely from fever. He was in the hospital several weeks in France, and was sent to the United States on a hospital ship, being discharged at Camp Dix in 1919, with a rating of disability. Doctor Christopher had the distinction of being elected the first commander of the Baccarat Rainbow Veterans, which was formed in Ohio. He is now post commander of the London Post of the American Legion, serving his third term in this capacity. LINNEUS CLINTON DICK, county superintendent of schools of Madison County, has been engaged in educational work in Ohio for nearly forty years, and comes of a family of educators and professional men. Mr. Dick was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, October 11, 1862. His grandfather, John W. Dick, a native of Virginia, was an Ohio school teacher for a number of years. His great-grandfather was a native of Scotland, and on coming to the United States settled in Virginia. John W. Dick married Miss Caywood, of Somerset, Ohio, and they had seven children. William J. Dick, father of the Madison County superintendent of schools, was born in Perry County, Ohio, and taught school for fifty years. He married Mary Emeline Van Tassell in 1856. She also taught school for half a century, in Fairfield County. Her father, John Van Tassell, was a native of New York State and of Holland Dutch ancestry. He came to Ohio and followed his trade as a wool carder. He married a Miss Deyo, of Gallipolis, Ohio, who died during the cholera epidemic of 1832. William J. Dick and wife had a family of three children, two sons and one daughter. The daughter was a school teacher until her marriage to G. C. Deems, of Galway, Franklin County, Ohio. The son, Willis Virgil Dick, was in the Methodist ministry for twenty-five years, serving as district superintendent of the Lancaster, Ohio, district, and for several years in the London, Ohio, district, and subsequently invented a steel safe cabinet, and made a big success of its manufacture. This cabinet is still manufactured at Marietta, Ohio. Linneus Clinton Dick was educated in the public schools of Fairfield County, and began his career as a teacher in Perry County, where he taught two years. He also taught in Hocking County, and at HISTORY OF OHIO - 243 West Jefferson in Madison County. He taught in the town schools until 1898, when he was elected superintendent of schools of West Jefferson. This office he resigned in 1909 to become assistant state superintendent of schools under John W. Zeller. Subsequently for two years he was a sales representative of the Safe Cabinet Company at Dayton, Ohio, and in 1913 returned to West Jefferson and was again elected superintendent of schools. In 1917 he was chosen county superintendent of the county, and has been the capable head of the public school system of the county now for seven years. Mr. Dick is a republican, a Methodist, is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Kiwanis Club of London. He married at West Jefferson, June 10, 1886, Miss Cora A. Ingalls, daughter of Rufus and Cynthia Ingalls, of West Jefferson. They have one daughter, Gladys E., who is a graduate of Ohio State University, and in 1913 became the wife of Dr. C. B. Tanner, of Columbus. MATTHEW L. REA represents the fourth generation of a family that has lived in Madison County since pioncer times, and his individual activities have been devoted to farming and various business and public interests. He is a retired resident of London. He was born in Oak Run Township, of Madison County, July 10, 1859. The founder of the family in Madison County was Matthew A., who was born in Rockbridge, Virginia, in 1793, and in 1812 came to Ohio, purchasing a large tract of land in Madison County and spending the rest of his life making a farm of it. His son, Jeremiah Rea, was born on a farm that is now included in the City of London. Matthew Rca was the son of Jeremiah Rea, a native of Madison County and a farmer and stock raiser. He married Catherine Leach, of Madison County, and they were the parents of two sons and one daughter, one of the sons being Matthew L. Rea. Matthew L. Rea finished his education in the London High School, and more than forty years ago took his place as an industrious farmer. He has been successful with live stock, and is president of the Central National Bank of London. Mr. Rea has filled some of the important public offices of Madison County, having been county commissioner one term, trustee of the Madison County Children 's Home for twenty years, and for nineteen years, treasurer of the Madison County Fair. He is a Methodist and a democrat. Mr. Rea married at Mason, in Warren County, Ohio, December 13, 1882, Miss Grace Dodds, daughter of E. C. and Lavinia Dodds, of Warren County. Mr. and Mrs. Rea have two sons, both now prominent in agricultural circles in Madison County. The older, Earl D., born in 1886, was educated in the London High School and the Miami Military College. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. By his marriage to Marie Tanner, of London, he has three children, Jane, Ruth and Matthew. Robert C. Rea, the second son, was educated in the London High School, and is prcsident of the Madison County Fair Board, president of the Farmers Cooperative Association, served one term as a member of the London Council, and is also a Mason and Shriner. In 1922 he was elected to represent Madison County in the State Legislature. Robert C. Rea married Eunice Uhl, of Gary, Indiana. LAMAR P. WILSON, present county auditor of Madison County, has for a number of years been one of the progressive men in the agricultural affairs and agricultural organizations in his section of the state. Farming is his business and profession, and it has been the occupation of his family since earliest pioneer times in Madison County. His grandfather, Valentine Wilson, who was born in Virginia, in 1785, came to Ohio and settled in Madison County in 1807. He built the first brick house in the county, a structure still standing, more than a century old. He was instrumental in developing hundreds of acres to cultivation, and founded a large family, his descendants possessing many of his sturdy characteristics. He died in 1855. He reared nineteen children. The grandmother of Lamar P. Wilson was Nancy Roberts. Hamilton Wilson, son of Valentine and Nancy (Roberts) Wilson, was born in Madison County, February 7, 1830. He devoted his active career to farming, and for thirty-one years held the office of justice of the peace, and for twenty-one years was a member of the school board of his home district. He was an active republican in politics. Hamilton Wilson, who died in 1895, married at Byron, in Greene County, Ohio, in 1861, Miss Isabella Koogler, daughter of Simon Koogler, a Greene County farmer. She died in 1900, mother of three sons and two daughters. Lamar P. Wilson was born at Lafayette, in Madison county, November 8, 1873. He finished his education by graduating from the London High School, and then took up the vocations to which he had been trained as a youth. Mr. Wilson has not only been progressively successful in managing his own farming interests, but at all times has been willing to take the lead and assume responsibilities for the benefit of farm life generally. He has been a member of the Farm Bureau and Grange, for three years has served on the Board of Directors of the Madison County Agricultural Society, and for eleven years, secretary of the society. He was elected for six consecutive years treasurer of the Association of County Fairs, the largest association of its kind in the world. Mr. Wilson was elected county auditor of Madison County, November 7, 1922. He is a republican, being elected on that ticket. On June 16, 1897, at London, he married Miss Wilda Johnson, daughter of W. B. and Martha (Doak) Johnson, of Summerford, Madison County. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have an adopted son, Sherman Mitchell Wilson. JOSEPH C. CAMPBELL began his business career in Columbus some fifty years ago, has made a remarkable success of the insurance business, building up one of the largest agencies in Ohio, and is also president of the National Bank of Commerce at Columbus. Mr. Campbell was born near Edinburgh, Virginia, October 26, 1852. He was nineteen years of age when, in 1871, he came to Columbus, having a public school education. For several years he was a comparatively obscure worker in the capital city, clerking in a dry goods store. His abilities were best displayed when he entered the insurance field as local agent for the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. It was a business for which he was admirably equipped, and his success as a solicitor resulted in his being selected as state agent for the states of Ohio and West Virginia in 1879. For a period of over forty years he held the state agency of this company, and in that time his agency bccame the largest producing agency of the company in the United States, and in 1920 he set off to several of his older employes a portion of the territory, and to his son and his cashier of long years' service, the agency representing the larger remaining portion of the two states. Mr. Campbell became an original director and president in 1900 of what is now the National Bank of Commerce, and has been the first and only president of that institution, one of the strong and ably 244 - HISTORY managed banks of the city. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Toledo State Hospital during the administrations of Governors Nash, Herrick and Harris, resigning during the term of Governor Harmon. Mr. Campbell is a citizen of many broad interests. Particularly his interest in education has led him to finance special lecture courses at the Ohio State University, and he has done much to improve the opportunities for musical education, having considerable talent in the musical field himself. He has been a director of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, a member of the city council, and is now and has been for ten years; through the several city administrations, president of the Board of Trustees of the city sinking fund. Mr. Campbell is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Columbus Club, the Columbus Country Club, Athletic Club and Exchange Club. His summer home is "Bryn Mawr," near Denison University, at Granville, Ohio. He married in 1883 Miss Emma A. White. Their children are Edna C. and Samuel Howard. LOUIS M. H. POTTER. A name twat has been prominently identified with Columbus business and manufacturing interests for many years is that of Potter. Louis M. H. Potter is founder and active head of one of the most successful real estate agencies and services in the city, with offices at 49-51 West Broad Street. Mr. Potter was born in Broome County, Pennsylvania, and was four years of age when brought to Columbus. His father, Winfield Scott Potter, was for thirty-five years a member of the firm of Schroth and Potter, manufacturers of window shades. This is a business manufacturing a product widely distributed all over the country, and it is still continued by L. M. H. Potter and his brother. Louis M. H. Potter was reared and educated in Columbus. After graduating from the Ohio State University and serving through the Spanish-American war his first position of any importance was advertising manager of the Union Clothing Company. Then for eight years he was actively associated with his father's manufacturing business, but in 1910 took up a business more suited to his talents and capabilities. His success in all departments of real estate has proved the wisdom of his choice. While he has done a very extensive brokerage business in real estate, he has other departments of even more importance, much of his work having been done in allotments and subdivisions. He gives special attention to the administrative and trust features of real estate, and the making of investments and the management of properties for other owners. His business has steadily expanded commensurate with the extension of the city itself, and he' now has an office staff and force of twenty-two salesmen. While his father is remembered as city civil service commissioner and once as candidate for mayor, Mr. Potter himself has never sought a public place, though always alive to every opportunity to make Columbus a larger and better city. Mr. Potter married Miss Madge D. Hibbard of Barnesville, Ohio. They have one daughter, Hibbard B., a student in the Columbus School for Girls. HARVEY H. CABBER is one of the active and prominent younger members of the Madison County bar, engaged in practice at London. He is a brother of the present attorney-general of Ohio. Mr. Crabbe was born in Fairfield Township, of Madison County, October 5, 1890. His grandfather, William Crabbe, was identified with Ross and Fayette counties as a farmer in pioneer times. The father, J. W. Crabbe, was born in Fayette County, August 10, 1851, and devoted his active life to farming. He married Ellen Minshall, of Madison County, granddaughter of Jonathan Minshall, and member of one of the distinguished families of Southern Ohio. Harvey H. Crabbe is one of thirteen children, all of whom were reared in Madison County. He attended public schools in Fairfield Township, was a student in Oberlin Academy, and graduated in law from Ohio Northern University at 'Ada in 1917. After being admitted to .the bar he engaged in practice at London with the firm of Crabbe & Johnson, of which his brother, the attorney-general, was the senior member. The firm then became Crabbe, Johnson & Crabbe, and when his brother took up his duties at Columbus it became Johnson & Crabbe. Mr. Crabbe is now serving his first term as prosecuting attorney in Madison County, and is in his third term as city solicitor of London. On July 30, 1914, Mr. Crabbe married Miss Ina Tootle, of Williamsport, Pickaway County, Ohio. Mr. Crabbe is a member of the Masonic Order, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Fraternal Order of Eagles, belongs to the Kiwanis Club and London Club, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is a republican. ROWLAND-MORGRIDGE. Perry C. Rowland was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, June 3, 1851, the son of Elza Rowland and Jane Thomas. The Thomas family settled in St. Marys County, Maryland, about 1630, one branch going to Harpers Ferry before the Revolution and from there to Pickaway County in 1807. Perry Rowland's grandparents were Samuel Rowland, a soldier in the War of .1812, and Rebecca Dyer, daughter of John Dyer, of Loudoun County, Virginia. His great-grandparents were John Rowland and Mary Benham, who came to Pickaway County from the State of Delaware in 1811, with a family of eight children, and settled on Clarks Run, where they took an active part in the development of the new country. The Thomas and Rowland families were large land owners in early times, when land was low and money had a purchasing power unknown today. A deed dated March 25, 1819, shows that John Rowland bought land on Deercreek, 138 acres, in consideration of $175.00, to-wit: a horse at $100.00 and $75.00 in cash." Pioneer gatherings, both religious and social, centered about Clarks Run Christian Chapel, of which these families were constant and devoted members. John Rowland had been a Revolutionary soldier in his youth, and it is related of him that the .language of the camp persisted in his old age and would sometimes find expression even within the doors of the church. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the efforts of family and friends to reform him, he remained unregenerate, in this respect, until after his ninety-fifth birthday. He died March 18, 1850, aged 105 years, and his wife, Mary, died in 1858, aged 103. A gracious Providence was generous in her gifts to Perry Rowland. A man of commanding presence, of quiet reserve and dignity, he lived a life of activity amid exciting events. While claiming Ohio as his native state, the greater part of his business career was lived in Pittsburgh, that city of eternal hurry. To have lived in those stirring times when panics and industrial strikes were the rule rather than the exception and to have weathered the storm in a business fraught with many interests, required alert- HISTORY OF OHIO - 245 ness, a well balanced mind and a keen insight into business conditions. Kindly and generous to a fault, Perry Rowland viewed life and success by what use was made of it, and many times his was the helpful hand which intervened when misfortune threatened some friend or associate. His business career covered a period of thirty years, in which he was engaged as a commission merchant in Fort Wayne and in Indianapolis and for twenty years in the Pittsburgh Central Stock Yards. It was during this latter period that he acquired lands in Ohio and became actively engaged in farming. His boyhood was spent in and around Mount Sterling, Madison County, where he attended the district school. He entered college at Merom, Indiana, and completed the college course at Lebanon, Ohio. He was tall, a family characteristic, of fine appearance and magnetic to a degree that made friends for him in every walk of life. He was a lover of the outdoors, of horses, dogs and people. He married May Morgridge, of Hickory Grove Farm, Madison County, October 16, 1880. He died at Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1901, and is buried in the Morgridge burial ground, Plain City, Ohio. May Morgridge, widow of Perry Rowland, is the daughter of Joshua Bailey Morgridge and Harriet Hoyt Tuttle, a family whose history has been closely identified with that of Madison County for more than a hundred years. Her father, Joshua Bailey Morgridge, was born in Berlin, Vermont, August 2, 1814, and came with his father, Richard Morgridge, and his mother, Sally Emerson, and six other children, to "the wilds Of Ohio," as the old History of Madison County quaintly puts it, the last of August, 1816, having left Vermont the 10th of June, traveling by wagon. The family remained for three years in Licking County, then came to Madison in 1819, establishing the homestead, "Hickory Grove," where descendants still live. Coming of distinguished New England ancestry, Joshua Bailey Morgridge was of fine scholarly appearance, an able and sagacious business man and farmer, a writer and speaker of note on political subjects, a far seeing and public spirited citizen to whom can be traced many of the benefits we now enjoy in this county. He died in 1893, leaving a large family and a good estate, both of which are still intact. The family is descended from John Morgridge (Morgareidge). They were shipbuilders at Newburyport, Massachusetts, for three generations. Benjamin Franklin in his Autobiography mentions his friend, William Morgridge, as “A joiner, a most exquisite mechanic, and a solid, sensible man." Through the line of Joshua Bailey the Morgridge family is descended from Aquila Chase, a founder of the Colony of New Hampshire and the ancestor also of Bishop Philander Chase, who founded Kenyon College. John Bailey, John Webster, Richard Kimball, John Emery, Dr. Thomas Wells, John Eaton, Edmund Greenleaf and Tristram Coffin, an early Colonial governor, are direct ancestors who came to the Colony of Massachusetts before 1635. Mrs. Rowland's mother, Harriet Hoyt Tuttle, the wife of Joshua Bailey Morgridge, came to Ohio with her father, Azor Tuttle, soon after the death of her mother, Sarah Hoyt, which occurred at New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1835, and located on a beautiful farm along the river near Dublin, Ohio, where there was a settlement of New England people. She was carefully educated at the Academy at Worthington and taught school until her marriage in 1852, when she went to live at Hickory Grove Farm on the Darby Plains. Her education proved a blessing in that raw and undeveloped country where there was no graveled roads, no telephone and certainly no Ford, movie or radio. Instead came the mail at irregular intervals with its papers and periodicals from New England, brought from Pleasant Valley by horseback and read aloud by Mrs. Morgridge to family and neighbors in the evenings. It is remembered that she had a gift for reading Shakespeare, and was fond of playing whist. Mrs. Morgridge was descended from William and Elizabeth Tuttle, who came to Boston in the good ship Planter in 1635 and were among those who established the settlement of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1639. The Tuttle homestead became the ite of Yale College in 1717. Jonathan Edwards and the late Bishop Tuttle are notable descendants of this line. Through the marriage of Mrs. Morgridge 's grandfather, Enos Tuttle, to Abigail Pennoyer, male descendants of the Morgridge family are eligible forever to the Pennoyer scholarship at Harvard University, established by William Pennoyer of Norfolk, England, in 1670. President Lowell, of Harvard, writes : "This was the first scholarship established at Harvard and I believe the first scholarship in any American university. It is still in existence and available and has often been used by descendants of Robert Pennoyer." Through her mother, Mrs. Morgridge, traced direct descent from several men who were active in founding and forwarding the interests of the colonies in very early times, among whom were Simon Hoyt, Francis Bell, Rev. Abraham Pierson, Robert Lockwood and Daniel Kellogg, all in America before 1650. May Morgridge Rowland, the fourth of the eight children of Harriet Hoyt Tuttle and Bailey Morgridge, was born and reared at Hickory Grove Farm, and her childhood days were filled to overflowing with small pleasures derived from an outdoor life. To that life she attributes her splendid health, she never having been ill for a day in more than half a century. It is with a feeling of gratitude and fervent prayer that this is recorded. She received the usual benefit from attending the country school, and at the age of ten entered the public school at Marysville, Ohio. She later became a pupil at Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware and still later a student at Buchtel College, Akron. Mrs. Rowland's married life was lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the death of her husband, in 1901, she returned with her daughter and her son, Hoyt, to Madison County, and has made her home in London, except for a few years following 1912, when she moved to her farm to establish her son in his chosen occupation. Mrs. Rowland is a member of the various progressive organizations in the community, including the Madison County Farmers Club, the Womans Club, of which she has served as president, the London Federation of Woman's clubs, of which she also has been president. She is a charter member of Mount Sterling Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, a life member and charter member of the London Chapter of the same organization, of which she has served as regent and member of the State Council. Mrs. Rowland is a charter member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Officers Club, a founder of the Hannah Emerson Dustin Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Marysville, Ohio, a life member of the George Washington Memorial Association, member of the National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots and a member of the Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Underlying all and dominating a busy life, Mrs. Rowland finds her deepest satisfaction and benefit in her lifelong membcrship in the Episcopal Church. The children born to May Morgridge and Perry C. Rowland were : A son, Bailey Morgridge Row- 246 - HISTORY OF OHIO land, born September 11, 1883, who died in childhood; a daughter, Jane, and a son, Henry Hoyt Rowland, born September 11, 1893, at Hickory Grove Farm. When the transport Ticonderoga was torpedoed and sunk on the 30th of September, 1918, Henry Hoyt Rowland, in his twenty-fifth year, was killed by the Germans. , An irreparable loss. COURT M. NEFF. In the community and county where he has led most of his life, o citizen is more .completely esteemed for his real public spirit, his responsible leadership, and his man ears at work as an educator, business man and public official than. Court M. Neff, mayor of Mount Sterling, in Madison County. Mr. Neff was born February 21, 1869, in Jackson Township, Pickaway County, Ohio, son of George W. Neff, and grandson of George W. and Elizabeth Neff. His father and grandfather were born in old Virginia. George W. Neff, his father, was born near Parkersburg, in what is now West Virginia, January 5, 1823. He was twenty years of age when he settled in Pickaway County, Ohio, and was engaged in farming there for many years. In 1871 he moved his family to Madison County, and continued his life as a farmer. He died in 1900. His wife, Elizabeth Marshall, daughter of James M. and Sarah (Murray) Marshall, of Bedford, Pennsylvania, died in 1906. They were the parents of eight children. Court M. Neff was two years of age when brought to Madison County, and he grew up on a farm in Pleasant Township. While sharing in the work and duties of the home place he attended district schools, spent one year in school at Delaware, Ohio, and two years at London. At the age of seventeen he began teaching, and his work as an educator covered a period of fifteen years, eight years in the district of Madison County and six years in Fayette County. At that time he gave up school work. He was made a clerk of the Security Building and Loan Company, of Mount Sterling, serving in that capacity for three years, and then became a. stockholder and director, and for a number of years past has been secretary. This company has total resources of more than half a million dollars. In the same building was conducted the real estate firm of Schryver & Neff, a senior member of which is R. H. Schryver, formerly of Mount Sterling and now a Columbus banker. Mr. Neff, was for four years a member of the Mount Sterling School Board. For five years he was secretary of the Mount Sterling Chamber of Commerce. He has been deeply interested in the educational progress of the community, and was a leader in the construction of a $150,000 school building. In 1921 he was elected for his first term of mayor of Mount Sterling, on the democratic ticket, having a majority of forty-three votes. In the fall of 1923 he was reelected by a plurality of seventy-five. His work as mayor has been characterized by efficiency without bluster, and the leadership involving kindly cooperation on the part of all earnest minded members of the community to do the right thing. Law enforcement has been strict, and he has shown much tact in adjusting the difficulties that come up as a matter of routine in the administration of a village. Mr. Neff is a member of the Masonic Order, and Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Christian Church. The notary public who had an official part in his second inauguration as mayor on January 1, 1924, was his daughter, Mary Louise Neff. Mr. Neff married, in 1894, Mary E. Anderson, daughter of William P. and Lucina (Young) Anderson, both natives of Pleasant Township, Madison County. The daughter, Mary Louise, was born April 18, 1902, and has recently graduated in the -arts course at the Ohio State University. She was given a commission of of notary public on April 18, 1923, the day she became of age. HORACE G. PUTNAM resides in the home where he was born, in West Jefferson, Madison County. He grew up in that community, but after leaving home engaged in business in Pennsylvania for a number of years. He finally returned to the environment of his infancy and for many years has been one of the constructive leaders in the life and affairs of West Jefferson, being mayor of the town and constantly exercising a helpful influence in local affairs. Mr. Putnam was born July 10, 1855. His grandparents, John and Anna B. (West) Putnam, natives respectively of New Hampshire and Vermont, came to Ohio about 1843, settling at West. Jefferson. The Putnam family has been well known in this vicinity for over eighty years. Their son, Horace Putnam, was born at Stafford, Vermont, March 21, 1817, also came to Ohio about 1843. In Madison County he engaged in farming, acquiring a large amount of land, and did much business as a stock buyer and for a number of years was a prominent merchant at West Jefferson. He served one term as county treasurer. Horace Putnam married Narcissa Mantel, daughter of Blatzen and Sarah (Black) Mantel, her father, a native of Pennsylvania, and her mother, of Kentucky. Horace Putnam and wife had three sons and one daughter, but the two sons, Charles H. and William B. are now deceased. The daughter is Betty, wife of Dr. H. S. Quinn, of West Jefferson. Doctor and Mrs. Quinn and her brother, Horace G. Putnam, share the old Putnam home in West Jefferson. Horace G. Putnam attended the West Jefferson High School, continued his higher education in Denison University, at Granville, and subsequently, when a young man, went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he opened an art store. This business, known as the Pittsburgh Art Company, was continued on a successful scale by him for about a quarter of a century. When he finally sold out to his partner he returned to his home community, and for some years employed his energy and capital in the upbuilding of the town. He was first elected to the office of mayor in 1910, serving two years. In 1918 he was again elected mayor, and by reelection has filled that office continually since, his present term expiring at the close of 1925. His administration has been both efficient and economical. It has reduced the debt of the town by $40,000, and has also paid off several thousand dollars of over due bills remaining when he entered the office. At the same time the budget of the town has been reduced. Mr. Putnam, who has never married, is a democrat, and a member of the Baptist Church. RIDDLE R. SIDNER is one of the prominent young business men and citizens in West Jefferson, Madison County, and since completing his university education has been identified with the Farmers Bank, save for the period he was a soldier in the World war. Mr. Sidner was born in West Jefferson, January 14, 1892. His great-great-grandfather, Phillip Sidner, was one of the first pioneers to locate in this part of Madison County, and built a fort east of West Jefferson, in 1800. All the grandparents of Mr. Sidner were born in Madison County. His maternal great-grandfather John Gilliland, was born in Madison County in 1812, his patents coming with the first tide of emigration into this region. David R. Sidner, father of Riddle R., is one of the owners of the Farmers Bank. He was born on HISTORY OF OHIO - 247 his father 's farm at Lilley Chapel, in 1863, and spent his early years in farming. Since 1916 he has been identified with the Farmers Bank as stockholder and director. He married Ella Riddle, of Lilley Chapel. Riddle R., only child of his parents, graduated from the West Jefferson High School, and subsequently took his Bachelor of Arts at Western Reserve University at Cleveland. His first employment, with the Farmers Bank, was as bookkeeper, and since 1919 he has been cashier and also a director and stockholder. The Farmers Bank is a private institution, and its prosperity and the service it has rendered have been due to the known integrity of its owners and officials. It was established in 1901, the first officers being Owen Harbage, president ; A. C. Millikin, vice president, and Ben Harbage, cashier. The bank has always occupied one building, but in 1919 the banking room was thoroughly remodeled and furnished with up to date fixtures and equipment. The bank has a capital of $30,000, surplus and undivided profits of $11,000, and total resources of $340,000. The owners and directors are E. W. Johnson, D. R. Sidner, and Riddle Sidner, Mr. Johnson being president and Riddle Sidner, cashier. Mr. Sidner is also a director in the Madison Building and Loan Company of London, and has farming intercsts in Madison County. He has served as a member of the Town Council, is a Mason and Shriner, a member of the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity, and belongs to the republican party. In June, 1917, he enlisted at Columbus in Headquarters Company of the Thirty-seventh Division. He spent eleven months in training at Camp Sheridan in Alabama, and went overseas with the Thirty-seventh Division. He served as dispatch writer, and was in the Meuse-Argonne drive and two offensive drives in Belgium. At the time of the signing of the armistice he was in Bclgium. Mr. Sidner returned to the United States March 15, 1919, and was mustered out April 15, 1919. He married in June, 1918, at Columbus, Miss Ethel Crellin, daughter of Ambrose and Harriette Crellin, of Columbus. They have two children, Harriette Jane, born in 1920, and Rebecca, born in 1922. ASHTON A. GREGG. In the Town of West Jefferson, in Madison County, the name Gregg for forty years has been synonymous with the growth and prosperity of the banking institution now known as the Commercial Bank of West Jefferson. The bank has becn in one family for three generations, and its personncl, that is managers, have always been membcrs of the Gregg family. The founder of the bank was Ashton A. Gregg, whose grandson of the same name is now cashier: Ashton A. Gregg, Senior, was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio when twelve years old. He was a prominent man of affairs, having extensive farm interests. In 1882 he started a private bank, without capital and without a surplus or divided profits. This bank prospered almost entirely on the reputation of Mr. Gregg, whose well known business integrity and resources afforded the bank a greater prestige than a large capital. When in 1900 Ashton A. Gregg died the banking business was taken over by his three sons, P. M., Albert A., and T. C. Gregg. At that time the total resources of the private bank amounted to about $100,000. Albert A. Gregg died in 1902, and his brothers continued the bank. In January, 1921, the Commercial Bank was organized under a state charter, with capital of $50,000 and surplus of $10,000, and total resources of more than $500,000. The men identified with the institution at that time were : T. C. Gregg, president; P. M. Gregg, vice president; Ashton A. Gregg, cashier ; Albert A. Gregg,son of the deceased partner, bookkeeper, and Earl Gr g, teller. P. M. Gregg, now vice president of the Commercial Bank, was born on a farm in Jefferson Township, Madison County, and his active career was identified with farming interests until 1900, when, at the death of his father, he became one of his successors in the management of the bank, and is now its vice president. He married Margaret Roberts, daughter of Edwin and Maria Roberts, natives of West Jefferson. Through their marriage were born seven children, six sons and one daughter. Their sons, Ashton A., and Earl., are both in the bank. The other sons are all farmers. The one daughter is Mrs. Charles Phillips, wife of a farmer in Madison County. Ashton A. Gregg, cashier of the Commercial Bank, was born on his father 's farm in Jefferson Township, February 2, 1885. He is a graduate of the West Jefferson High School, and in 1907 became bookkeeper in the family bank. He is a director and stockholder as well as cashier, and is also president of the West Jefferson Agency Company, handling fire and automobile insurance. He is treasurer, director and a stockholder of the West Jefferson Light and Power Company, and for four years was treasurer of Jefferson Township. He is treasurer of the local Masonic Lodge, is a member of the Mystic Shriners, is a republican and a Methodist. He married in 1910 Miss Mabel Peene, of West Jefferson, who died in 1912, leaving one son, Charles Ashton Gregg. On April 4, 1917, Mr. Gregg married Miss Lou Brown, daughter of David and Sarah Brown, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio. H. E. SCOTT, present state superintendent of banks of Ohio, entered upon the duties of that office with a thorough experience on the practical side of banking, and for a number of years has been one of the well known men in business circles in Southwestern Ohio. Mr. Scott was born at Troy, in Miami County, Ohio, was rcared and educated there, and for a number of years was one of the officials of the Troy National Bank. From 1913 to 1917 he served as county treasurer of Miami County. During the period of the World war he was office manager for the Air Craft Board of Dayton. After the war he became associated with the De WeeseTalbot Bond Company of Dayton, and was with that concern until February 1, 1921, when Governor Davis called him to the office of superintendent of banks. He is head of a department that has a staff of thirty-three assistants, and his supervision extends over 750 Ohio banks. Mr. Scott married Miss Alberta Stubbs, of Lebanon, Ohio. He is a Rotarian, a Shriner, an Odd Fellow, a member of the Junior Order United American Mechanics, and is a member of the Troy City Club and the Troy Country Club. WILLARD BOYD CULP is secretary of the West Jefferson Building and Loan Company. That company was established February 25, 1889, just about ten months before Willard Boyd Culp was born. The business was operated on the mutual plan until 1911, and while performing valuable service along the lines indicated by its charter, its assets never exceeded $20,000. In 1911 the institution was reincorporated as a stock building and loan company, thus extending the scope of the business, having the privilege of doing business in Madison and adjoining counties. Since then it has become one of the very prosperous of the building and loan societies of Ohio, a state with a magnificent record in this field. In 248 - HISTORY OF OHIO 1916 the company's assets had reached about $100,000. It was in 1916 that Mr. Culp became secretary, and in the eight years since then the a ets of the company have reached about $500,000, and is now the largest building and loan company in Madison County. The company has an enviable record, due to the care and skill of its appraisers and other officials, in that the company has never suffered a loss on a loan, nor has it made a foreclosure in more than thirty years. The present officers of the company are John Murray, president; H. G. Kuehner, vice president; W. B. Culp, secretary; C. F. Kuehner, general manager and assistant secretary; T. C. Gregg, treasurer; E. W. Johnson and Frank Murray, attorneys. Willard Boyd Culp was born at West Jefferson, December 15, 1889. His father, William H. Culp, who was born near Reynoldsburg, Ohio, was in the drug business for several years there, and on moving to West ti efferson engaged in the jewelry business. He served several times as a member of the Town Council and as mayor of West Jefferson. He died in 1915. His wife was Laura E. Mason, of Reynoldsburg, and they reared all their children, four sons and one daughter, at West Jefferson. W. B. Culp is a graduate of the West Jefferson High School, attended the Ohio State University, and after leaving college he clerked for several years in the Toledo offices of the Hocking Valley Railroad Company. Returning to West Jefferson, he was employed in the electrical department of the Columbus Railway, Light and Power Company until 1916, when he took up his duties as secretary of the West Jefferson Building and Loan Company, and is also a stockholder and director. He is manager of the West Jefferson Construction and Improvement Company, and is a partner in the Culp-Smith Realty Company. Mr. Culp served one term on the Town Council and one term as clerk of the village. He is a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church and 4 member of the Masonic Order. On April 21, 1913, he married Missouri Catherine Jones, daughter of Scott and Minerva (Gregg) Jones, of London, Ohio. They have one son, William Scott Culp, born in March, 1914. RAYMOND B. HOWARD. Only decided natural gifts for writing and journalistic work would account for the rapid progress of Raymond B. Howard as an editor and publisher. Mr. Howard is one of the youngest newspaper publishers in the State. He has been doing newspaper work since high school days. He is editor and publisher of the Madison Press, at London, and he publishes and edits in the same building and plant the Horseshoe World, the official organ of the National Horseshoe Pitchers' Association, of which he is secretary. Mr. Howard was born in Adams Township, Clinton County, Ohio, March 20, 1900, son of Eli and Julia F.. (Berry) Howard, both natives of the same township in Clinton County. The maternal grandparents were born at Waverly, Ohio, were farmers and early settlers in Clinton County. The paternal grandparents were born in Adams Township, Clinton County. Eli Howard has devoted his active career to farming. Raymond B. Howard is a graduate of the Adams Township High School and attended Wilmington College, where he specialized in English and languages. While in high school and college he was a reporter on The Wilmington News-Journal, and from school he immediately took executive and editorial responsibility with the same newspaper, being made the 'city editor of that paper about three years ago. He resigned this office;" and on January 1, 1924, bought the Madison Press, of London. He is sole owner of this paper, the leading republican newspaper published in Madison County. As secretary of the National Horseshoe Pitchers' Association, the headquarters of that body are at London, the home of the Horseshoe World being in the Madison Press Building. He has been an enthusiastic devotee of a sport that does not fill many columns of the metropolitan press, but is, none the less, one of growing popularity and influence, and undoubtedly shares with some of those called national pastimes. Mr. Howard is a republican, a member of the Friends Church, and the Masonic Order. He resides at London. He married at Wilmington, Ohio, September 25, 1920, Miss Nina E. Bevan daughter of Orlando and Ella (Hadley) Bevan. He represents one of the oldest and best known families of Adams Township, Clinton County. Mr.. and Mrs. Howard have one son, Harold John, born December 26, 1923. CHARLES G. SHULZE, one of the prominent men in business and financial affairs of Pickaway County, is president of the Third National Bank of Circleville, and has been continuously with that institution for over thirty-five years. This bank was established in September, 1882, with a capital stock of $100,000. In 1920 Mr. Shulze was elected president, having served ten years prior to that in the office of cashier. This bank has aggregate resources of $1,000,000, and its deposits average $750,000. The bank is housed in a modern banking structure erected in 1921. Charles G. Shulze is a native of Circleville, and his father for many years was in the wholesale grocery business and also held the office of postmaster. Charles G. Shulze after getting his education in the public schools entered the bank, and from minor duties has gained proniotions to its head and has identified himself with other progressive interests of the community. He married Miss Frances K. Fleming, and they have one daughter, Virginia, a graduate of high school. JOHN WESLEY JOHNSON is proprietor and editor of the Democrat and Watchman at Circleville, one of the oldest democratic papers in the state, and one with an interesting history. The paper has had an almost continuous existence at Circleville for over eighty-five years. In 1837 the Scioto Watchman was established, being soon changed to the Circleville Watchman. The oldest files of the paper in existence date from 1842. In August, 1844, the name was changed to Democrat Guard and Pickaway and Fayette Pilot, but a year later the name Watchman was restored. It had several changes in management and editorial control. In 1859 John W. Kees, who had formerly been clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives, bought the Watchman. In the early months of the war, becoming unbalanced by the excitement of military measures, he was imprisoned and his paper suppressed by military order. Subsequently he died in the asylum. On November 7, 1863, the name having been changed to Democrat, the paper was bought by Aaron R. Van Cleaf, who in 1879 restored the original name Watchman, and since then it has been published as the Democrat and Watchman. Aaron R. Van Cleaf was editor and publisher of the Watchman for half a century, until his death in 1914. He had for a number of years been the senior democrat editor of Ohio. It was in April, 1916, that John Wesley Johnson acquired the plant. The Democrat and Watchman then had less than 500 subscribers. The old HISTORY OF OHIO - 249 press and type were soon junked and the business moved to its present location, where a new plant was installed. The paper now has 1,800 circulation, maintains a first class job office, and it is one of the live and flourishing newspapers in this section of Ohio. While it is a democratic paper, it is not strictly partisan, and is a paper appealing to all the legitimate interests of the county, especially those of the agricultural population. John Wesley Johnson is an old time newspaper man and was born in Jackson County, Ohio, December 6, 1853. His grandfather, Philip Johnson, came from Virginia and was one of the founders of the old county seat of Jackson. He was in every way a typical pioneer and cleared up a good farm in Southern Ohio. His son, Daniel H. Johnson, helped improve two farms, and was a staunch democrat and a member of the Christian Union branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church. John Wesley Johnson grew up on the farm, attended the country schools, the high school at Jackson, and Rio Grande College in Gallia County. For twelve years he was engaged in teaching, having charge of both country and grade schools. Mr. Johnson in 1885 bought the Jackson Herald, one of the oldest papers in Jackson County. He has shown remarkable genius in taking newspapers practically at the end of their resources and building them up into live and prosperous journals. He succeeded in this manner with the Herald, and when he sold it five years later he had a large patronage. Twenty years later his oldest son, Carl L. Johnson, bought the Herald and is now one of the owners of the London Democrat in Ohio. When he left the Jackson Herald Mr. Johnson started a newspaper at Waverly, the Courier, and after ten years consolidated it with an old paper, making the Courier Watchman. He retained the ownership of this until 1914, and soon afterward bought the Democrat and Watchman at Circlcville. In 1906 Governor Pattison made Mr. Johnson the state printer, an office he held for two years. This was the only office he has ever held. He has not aspired to political office, though he has rendered many services to his party. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and for many years his hobby has been the study of United States history and politics. He has written many formal articles for periodicals in addition to his regular newspaper work. He is thoroughly posted on the history of this country from Colonial times to the present. This scholarship has served him well in his editorial work. He has written forcibly on many current issues, and he has made the Democrat and Watchman a powerful influence for efficient government in his section of the state. HOWARD ORR is one of the executive officials of the Winorr Canning Company, at Circleville. Circleville is the oldest and most important center of vegetable preserving in Ohio. Fifty years ago, in 1873, a business was started by C. E. Sears, of drying and evaporating corn. At that time the drying process was the only method known of preserving corn. Later the heat sterilizing process was discovered, and during the past quarter of a century half a dozen or more companies have been organized and have operated plants in the Circleville district, packing hundreds of thousands of cases of corn and other vegetables. The canning of sweet corn has always been the leading industry, with peas, lima beans and other products following. The Winorr Company was organized in January, 1904, though the same interests had been operating plants in Ohio and elsewhere for several years previ ously. At first the entire product was sweet corn, but the company has added other vegetables, and has increased its facilities fully threefold. The company employes about 150 persons from the middle of May to the first of December. The company also has a plant at Williamsport and at Bainbridge in Ross County. Hundreds of acres in Pickaway County are used in growing corn, peas and other products for the cannery at Circleville. The man in charge of the local business from 1904 was S. B. Orr, who was president and general manager of the company until his death in 1919. He was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1868, and was a merchandise broker until he engaged in manufacturing. He was a prominent citizen of Circleville, serving on the City Council and was on the food and fuel administration during the war. He served as president of the Ohio Canners' Association and as a director of the National Canners' Association. The president of the company succeeding S. B. Orr was J. W. Orr, and Howard A. Orr became vice president and general manager. Howard A. Orr has been actively identified with the Winorr Company since his return from France in 1919. He was born at Pittsburgh, but was educated in the high school at Circleville and the University of Michigan. He went overseas to France and was promoted to second lieutenant on the field. He took part in some of the leading campaigns during America 's part in the war, and was wounded in the Argonne, on October 19, 1918. He returned to America with the Forty-second Division. Howard Orr is a director and president of the Ohio Canners' Association and of the Western Canners' Association. JAMES SCHLEMMER left mechanical trade to engage in the automobile business, and through his thorough knowledge of manufacture, operation and the business side of automobiles has achieved a success that makes him one of the marked men in automobile circles at Canton, where he is owner of the James Schlemmer Company, dealers in the Hudson and Essex cars. He was born at Canton, November 29, 1884, and was educated in the public schools of his native city. He learned the trade of die cutter and worked at that until 1916. In that year he took an agency for an automobile truck, having only $1,500 capital. His first place of business was a barn on South Market Street. His first order was for two trucks, and through the assistance of a friend he was able to lift the bill of lading. For some months he did trucking in the forenoons and solicited business for the Motor Truck Company in the afternoon. His business grew and in 1919 he began dealing in the Hudson and Essex cars. Mr. Schlemmer has built three garages since then and was the first to build on Twelfth Street Northeast, now known as automobile row in Canton. He has a fine building for a sales room and other departments for his business. Mr. Schlemmer is a member of the Canton Automobile Dealers Association, is a republican in politics and a member of Trinity Reformed Church. He married Miss Ida Graber, and they have two children, Muriel and J. Richard. GEORGE RANDALL, a retired resident of 3031 East Erie Avenue in Lorain, represents two of the pioneer families in this section of Ohio, and in his own life has assisted in the development and progress toward modern conditions. He was born November 5, 1857, in Sheffield Township, now included in the city limits of Lorain, son of John Winthrop and Ann (Childs) Randall. The Randalls are of Scotch and the Childs of English an-