1450 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO which children bring, and have carefully reared a large family. The first born to their union were Edward, June 3, 1875 ; Charles, February 23, 1877; Ida, September. 14, 1878, and Rudolph., March 13, 1880, all of whom died during a diphtheria epidemic in 1882. Since that tragic fatality overtook the family all the children have lived except one. Louis, born September 1, 1881, is still at home. Rudolph, born December 16, 1883, is a farmer on the home place and is now serving as township clerk of Oregon Township, and by his marriage to Norma Schmidlin has two children named Edgar and Luther. Ida, born August 19, 1885, married William Bruggeman, an employe of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad at Ironville, and their children are Richard, Wilma, Lora and Elda. Charles, born October 1, 1887, is a farmer in Oregon Township, and by his marriage to Sophia Joehlin has two children, Otto and Walter. Edward, born March 15, 1889, is living in Ironville and married Iva Nopper and has one child, Bertha Thelma. George, born November 12, 1890, died at the age of twenty-four. Bertha, born August 18, 1892, married Christopher Johnson. As a republican Henry Lalendorff has given freely and generously of his time and influence, not only to promote party success but also to render substantial service to his community. He has served continuously on the local- school board for thirty years or more, was trustee of his township for nine years, and in every position has rendered conscientious and careful work. For twenty years or more Mr. Lalendorff has been a director of the Lucas County Farmers Mutual Aid and Insurance Society. For a number of years he was also one of the 'directors of the Commercial Savings Bank of Toledo. This position required so much •of his time that he finally resigned. As a -farmer he looks after the management of 120 acres. He is an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he and his family attend worship in the Lutheran Church. EUGENE CARL SNYDER, D. C., was the first practitioner of chiropractic in Hancock County. Before he could settle down to the quiet routine of his work he had to overcome mountains of prejudice and even endure the active hostility of legal processes and restraint. A less determined man would never have remained, but many people had faith in him, he had implicit conviction in the value of his methods and he finally score a triumph for himself and for his school. Doctor Snyder was living in Michigan when his wife was cured by a chiropractor. That naturally aroused much interest in the new school of healing and he attended the Michigan College of Chiropractic, from which he was graduated D. C., in 1911. In the same year he came to Findlay. Few people in Hancock County up to that time had ever heard of chiropractic. Almost from the first every difficulty was laid in the way of Doctor Snyder's career. In October, 1912, he was arrested for practicing chiropractic without a license from the State Medical Society. He was acquitted after a jury trial, but soon afterwards was again arrested and fined $50 in money and given a sentence of sixty days in jail if he would not agree to cease practicing. He declined to be intimidated and accepted the alternative jail sentence. After serving thirty. days he was again offered freedom if he would cease practice and again je refused. After serving his sixty-day sentence he was released and resumed his practice the day after leaving jail. In the meantime large number of people in Hancock County had employed him and had come to set a high value upon his services. For the past several years he has practiced without opposition, and he now holds a license from the state medical board. Since beginning practice Doctor Snyder has taken two courses of post-graduate work in the institution at Davenport, Iowa. Eugene Carl Snyder was born in Michigan in March, 1881, a son of John and Mary (Schwartz) Snyder of Eaton County, Michigan. His father was a farmer and Doctor Snyder received his early education in the country schools near Charlotte, Michigan. For eight years he followed the business of clerk in a hardware store in Michigan, married and settled down, and only the remarkable cure of his wife by a chiropractor turned him from that business to his present profession In 1903 he married Teresa E. Corr, daughter of Bernard and Rebecca Corr. They have two children., Russell B., eleven years or age and a daughter, Eugena, eight years old. The family are members of the St. Michael’s Catholic Church and Doctor Snyder is member of the Elks order and in polities independent. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1451 HENRY N. PERRIN represents a family that has been identified with this section of Lucas County for more than eighty years. Maumee was the birthplace of Henry N. Perrin, and he is a son of David Henry and Mary (Deshanaway) Perrin. His mother was born and reared in Maumee, a daughter of Louis and Maria (Mountler) Deshanaway. Maria Mountler came from Germany, while Louis Deshanaway was born on the Maumee River between the present town of Maumee and Toledo at a settlement then known as Marengo. His birth occurred there in the year 1818, a date which establishes the extremely early settlement of this branch of the Perrin family in Northwest Ohio. David H. Perrin was born near Pictou in Nova Scotia in 1836, a son of David and Elizabeth (Perrin) Perrin. The Perrin family traces its ancestry back to a French count named Perrine, who became a Huguenot and who suffered the persecution of that sect during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. He or his descendants emigrated to America and settled in Nova Scotia. David Perrin Sr., having heard reports of the opportunities around Lake Erie, set out for this country in 1836, when his son David H. was a few months old. He brought his family excepting one son to the United States, and landed at Perrysburg, but soon removed to Maumee. The senior David Perrin was a ship carpenter, and followed that trade for some years, later was a farmer, and died in 1869. His wife passed away in 1844. Growing up on the old home near Maumee, David H. Perrin worked a year or two on the eanal, spent the next three years at Logansport, Indiana, and on returning to Lucas County was again employed on the canal and lily took up carpentry, a trade he had learned as a young man. Though he made that his regular occupation thereafter, he was also in the hardware business five years and for nine years was postmaster of Maumee. He is now eighty years of age and for some years has lived retired. He was the youngest in a family of three daughters and five sons, all of whom were born in Nova Scotia except two, both of whom died in infancy. Four of the boys went to the war. James M. lost his life at Jonesboro, Georgia, and Benjamin at Millikins Bend. William returned after the war and died in 1905. David H. Perrin enlisted in the Fourteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861, and after the expiration of his term served a time in the state militia and in 1864 again volunteered and became a member of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Ohio Infantry. In September, 1861, he married, and he is the father of three children, William. Wallace, who lives in Toledo where he is connected with the traction company, and by his marriage to Hannah Virgiles has five children ; the second in age is Henry N., and Charles Lewis, the youngest, is deputy collector of the port of Toledo and married Nannabelle Jones and has two sons and one daughter. Henry N. Perrin married Edith Keeler, a daughter of Coleman Keeler, a prominent citizen o1! Lucas County mentioned elsewhere on these pages, and granddaughter of Samuel. Isaac Keeler. Mrs. Perrin died May 4, 1907, leaving two daughters, Helen A. and Adeline Mary. Throughout his active career Henry N. Perrin has been as well known for his public spirit as for his business ability. He owns and operates a farm of. 300 acres and deals in buying and selling real estate. He was the incorporator of the Northern Ohio Telephone Company and served as its vice president and director until it was sold to the Ohio State Telephone Company in 1916. He also has other interests that make him an active business man. He is a republican, and has served on the city council of Maumee and is now president of the board of education. HENRY J. KRUSE. The career of Henry J. Kruse, a successful farmer in Napoleon Township of Henry County, illustrates what may be accomplished by a man of purpose and determination against heavy handicaps. About ten years ago while operating a corn shredder, he lost the use of one arm. To many men this would have proved a serious handicap. Not so in the case of Mr. Kruse. He has gone ahead regardless of difficulties and with the aid of his good wife is now reckoned among the most successful and prosperous farmers of Henry County. He owns two good farms, one of 120 acres and the other of 92 acres, and both containing some of the fine soil for which Henry county is noted. Each of these farms have a complete set of building equipment, and Mr. Kruse has a great deal to show for his life of industry and enterprise. He was born on the farm he now owns in Napoleon Township on February 17, 1859. He grew up there, learned the art of successful farming, operated his father's place until 1452 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO the latter 's death, and has since owned it in his own right. The father, Herman Kruse, was born in Hanover, Germany, March 30, 1818, being of an old Lutheran family and his parents spending their lives in Germany. Herman Kruse set out in 1848 on a sailing vessel and after many weeks of stormy voyage landed in New York City. From there he came on to Ohio, and in 1850 went to Huntington County, Indiana, where he was employed for a time in the lime kilns. In 4850 he married Catherine Ritter. She was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, December 15, 1825. Her parents being poor, she set out as a young woman in 1849, taking passage on a sailing vessel and after a voyage lasting from eighteen to twenty weeks, arrived in this country and proceeded to Huntington County, Indiana. There she met and married Herman Kruse and immediately after their marriage they came to Ohio and located on forty acres of wild land in section seven of Napoleon Township. Herman Kruse applied himself thereafter to its improvement and cultivation, and in time the old log cabin home gave way to a substantial modern house, and many of the improvements placed there by his hands have served their purposes well in a subsequent generation. He and his good wife reared their family to usefulness and honor and in time the father had improved a farm of eighty acres in section six. The barn on Henry J. Kruse 's farm was put up by his father in 1880. It is one of a set of substantial farm improvements. The barn stands on a foundation 45 by 80 feet, and is surrounded with other sheds for the housing of stock and implements. The home consists of a substantial nine room house, with a summer kitchen and with a large basement. Herman Kruse set out a number of fruit trees during his lifetime, and the orchard is still in excellent condition. He died at the old place on January 9, 1881. Politically he identified himself with the democratic party after coming to America, and was very prominent in the Lutheran Church. His widow died October 12, 1905. Both are buried in the cemetery in Napoleon Township. Their children were : Mary, who married Henry Behnfeldt, and they now live in Freedom Township on the farm and have a son and four daughters ; Sophia lives in Freedom Township, the widow of Herman Warnke, and of her children two daughters are now deceased and four sons and two daughters are still living. Henry J. Kruse was married in Napoleon Township to Miss Mary Kruse. She was born in Hanover, Germany, October 21, 1859, and came with her brother Fred in May, 1883, to the United States. They settled in Napoleon and on November 15, 1883, a few months after Mrs. Kruse arrived in America, she and Henry J. Kruse were married. . Reverend Mr. Deman pronounced the ceremony that made them man and wife. Since then they have cooperated loyally and faithfully together and have reared children to lives of usefulness and honor. Their son John is now operating his father's farm in section eight of Napoleon Township, and is still unmarried. Herman twenty-eight years of age and an active assistant to his father. Albert A., aged twenty four, is working out by the month. Anna M. was born October 18, 1895, and is still at home. Henry was born May 15, 1900, and is still attending school. All the children received the best advantages in the schools, and Mr. and Mrs. Kruse may take proper pride in the young folks who have grown up about them and are still in their household. All the family are members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, and Mr. Kruse and his sons vote the democratic ticket. UNA BROWN, D. C. Established only a few years ago, the science of chiropractic has made wonderful strides in popular favor and in scientific appreciation, and is now recognized as one of the most efficient means in drugless practice of medicine and healing. A prominent exponent of this school in Hancock County is Miss Una Brown, Doctor of Chiropractic. Miss Brown was born in Jameson, Missouri, February 17, 1883, a daughter of Austin G. and Winnie (Watson) Brown. Her family is of English stock, Miss Brown received her greatest influences toward getting an education from her mother. Her father was a man of mechanical turn of mind and is a successful wagon builder and blacksmith. Miss Brown was educated in the grammar and high schools of Milan, Missouri, and was a student in the literary course at Howard Payne College, the Southern Methodist school at Fayette, Missouri, where she specialized in elocution and literary work. Miss Brown worked herself through school, and was always willing to accept any honorable occupation in order to pay her expenses. Even while in high school she had won a gold medal in an elocutionary contest, and while HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1453 in college she excelled in elocution and expression besides receiving the highest marks in the various other courses. She gave many elocutionary recitals in Missouri and other states in order to defray her expenses. Attracted by the science of chiropractic Miss Brown entered the Palmer School of Chiropractic at Davenport, Iowa, in 1909. She was graduated with the degree of D. C. In 1911, and at once came to Findlay and has been in practice there very successfully ever since. She has held public clinics in various towns and has reason to be well satisfied with the progress she has made in her work. She is a member of the Ohio State Chiropractic Association and of the Universal Chiropractic Association, and in passing the to medical examining board received the highest percentage of any person to take the examination required by the State of Ohio. She has fine offices in Findlay and is not only a successful practitioner but a highly cultured woman. It is only proper to say what others have said and continue to say concerning Miss Brown's achievements. As a chiropractor she has accomplished what may be termed several miracles in spinal adjustments. During her ye years at Findlay she has effected many er remarkable cures. She is an indefatigable worker and her attainments are a the not only to the City of Findlay but to chiropractic profession. Miss Brown is an enthusiast in her work, and like most people whose minds and efforts are directed objectively, she is very unassuming and allows the results of her skill to speak for themselves. DETRICK WACHTMANN. One of the best kept farm homes in Napoleon Township of Henry County is the old Waehtmann place, now owned by Detrick Wachtmann, a son of the original settler. Mr. Wachtmann was born there, and during his lifetime has developed an excellent property and enjoyed all the prosperity and comforts familiarly associated with the twentieth century farmer. This homestead is situated in section six of Napoleon Township. It was originally acquired by his father, John Wachtmann, who was born in Hanover, Germany, as was also his wife, Mary Sash. They came as young people to America, making the voyage on old fashioned sailing vessels from Bremen to New York, and they were married in Henry county. John Wachtmann worked as a farm hand for about seven years and then made his first purchase of forty acres in section six. He paid $40 an acre, but there was not a stick of timber cleared. His first home was a log cabin, and several of his children were born in that humble abode, though Detrick first saw the light of day in a frame house. Later John Wachtmann bought fifty acres and again thirty acres. One acre of this tract was taken about thirty years ago for the schoolhouse of District No. 3, and that school has been con- tinned there ever since, and many members of the Wachtmann family have received their educational advantages there. John Wachtmann was a hard worker, and in time cleared up all his land. He erected the splendid barn that now stands on the home of his son Detrick, 40 by 80 feet, and Detrick has added to this a shed for the keeping of stock 18 by 65 feet, and has put up a number of other buildings. It is some of the best land found in Henry County and is suitable for the raising of all kinds of crops and is largely devoted to stock raising. There is also a wood lot of six acres containing some fine native timber, elm, walnut and black ash. After a fruitful lifetime John Wachtmann died on the old farm in June, 1900, at the age of eighty-three. His widow passed away in December, 1902, aged sixty-eight. They were among the early members of the Lutheran Church in the county and were people of sterling worth. Their five children were named : William, now deceased ; Fred ; John Jr., who lives in Defiance County ; Detrick and Clara., deceased. Detrick Wachtmann was born on the old homestead November 29, 1862. He received his education in the local schools, and has devoted his years as an agriculturist to farming the old place. In Napoleon Township he married Miss Emma Miller, who was born in Mark Township of Defiance County, November 8, 1880. Her parents, William H. and Catherine (Trimball) Miller, were born in Germany and were married after they located in Mark Township of Defiance County. Her parents have lived there for many years and are substantial farmers and are not yet seventy years of age. In the Miller family were six children, and four of them are married. Mr. and Mrs. Wachtmann have four children : Martin, born February 14, 1.903, and now in the sixth grade of the public school ; William, born August 17, 1905, and also in the sixth grade ; and Minnie, born February 24, 1907, and Paul B., August 18, 1916. All 1454 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO the family are members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, and Mr. Wachtmann has for some time been one of the officials of that church. Politically he is a democrat, and is always ready to take a part in movements for the betterment of the community. SIMON HARMON. One of the fine old country homes in section 4 of Napoleon Township, Henry County, was owned by the late Simon Harmon, whose death occurred in October, 1916. He lived in that community for fully half a century. With his wife he went there when it was wild and waste land principally, and their own efforts contributed to the clearing up and development of a portion of one of Ohio's best agricultural counties. Mr. Harmon had many interesting recollections to relate concerning the early days in Henry County, and as his own life was filled with industry and good deeds, he was correspondingly held in high esteem in that section. He was born in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, in 1844. His family have been Americans for a number of generations. His great-grandfather came from Germany, was married and spent the rest of his life in Pennsylvania. Mr. Harmon's grandfather John Harmon was born in Pennsylvania, and spent his life in Fulton County, where he died when eighty years of age. All the generations of the family have been members of the Lutheran Church, and they have all adhered firmly to the principles and policies of the democratic party. Grandfather John Harmon and wife had six sons and daughters. Of these John Harmon, Jr., one of the older, was born in the closing years of the eighteenth century. He spent his early life in Fulton County, and married there Mary Riggle. She was born and reared in the same county. Their children were all born in Fulton County. In 1850 the family set out with wagons and teams, crossing the intervening stretch of country which was almost without railroads, and arrived in Ashland County, Ohio. They located in Ruggles Township on a partly cleared farm, and there John Harmon, Jr., spent the rest of his days, actively engaged in farming. He passed away at the age of eighty-three and his wife was over seventy-five when she died. They were hard working and honest people, and active supporters of the Lutheran Church in their community. Simon Harmon was their only son, and he had three sisters. Mary A., now deceased, married John Rigabroad, and both died in Ashland County, Ohio, leaving three children; Elizabeth married John. Toman, and they died in Licking County, being survived by one son. Lucida is now living in Ashland County and is a widow. Simon Harman grew up in Ashland County, Ohio, and married there Susanna Wait, daughter of John Wait, who also came from Pennsylvania. John Wait located in Ashland County, but subsequently moved to Morrow County, where he died when past sixty years of age. The Wait family were also Lutheran and the male members were democrats. After his marriage Mr. Harmon lived two years in Ashland County. While there the first child was born, Frank, who is still unmarried and lives at home. Mr. Harmon then brought his family to Napoleon township in Henry County. He bought a land in a tract of wild and swampy district, and there set up the log cabin in which he and his family lived for some years. Oftentime he saw deer chasing through the timber, and he and his good wife had their full share of pioneer experiences. In section 4 Mr. Harmon cleared up eighty acres, and gradually made it not only a good farm but also a home of many comforts. It has excellent farm buildings, including a large barn 65 by 40 feet for stock and hay purpose and also other buildings for the keeping of grain and implements. His house of ten rooms when built thirty-four years ago was one of the best farm houses in the community and it is still a very pleasant and stately home. Mr. Harmon throughout his residence in Henry County was noted as a successful grower of staple crops and of good live stock. He was long identified with St. Paul's Lutheran Church, as has also been his wife, and he was a democrat in politics. His son Frank is affiliated with the same political party, as is also the younger son, Henry. Henry married Elizabeth Davis,, and they live on a farm in Napoleon Township. Their one daughter Carrol is married and lives in Harrison Township and has two sons. EDSON D. BISHOP. For a young man of twenty-four Edson D. Bishop occupies a prominent place in business circles as president and manager of The Modern Light and Power Company. What he has done so far reflects his wide-awake enterprise and his genius for handling complex responsibilities. but his friends and associates say that he has only well begun his business career and that HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1455 a great deal can be expected of him in the future. He was born in Findlay, Ohio, in. 1892, a son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Ralston) Bishop. His parents were of Pennsylvania Dutch and Scotch ancestry and for many years lived in Eagle Township of Hancock County. Edson D. Bishop had an education in the public schools, concluding with the high school and finished in the Oberlin Business College. His first employment was at Cleveland with the Winton Gas Engine Works. He proved himself a valuable man in that organization, advanced himself to a place in the purchasing department and also acted as confidential man in various capacities. While there he was constantly looking ahead to the future, saving his money, and eventually becoming tired of employment for others he returned to Findlay, February 1, 1915, and with his brother, R. C. Bishop, organized and financed The Modern Light and Power Company. Mr. Edson Bishop became president and manager of the corporation while his brother is secretary and treasurer. This company does a general' supply and construction business and has a plant covering an entire block in Findlay and specializes in motor driven farm machinery and is also local agent for the Delco Light Products and Willard Goods. On August 24, 1916, Mr. Bishop married `Miss Bessie Cole, daughter of Ormel and :Manche (Anderson) Cole of Big Lick Township, Hancock County. GEORGE W. SLOAN. For upwards of seventy years the Sloan family has been closely identified with the agricultural and civic interests of Ottawa County, and particularly En the region around Port Clinton. George W. Sloan is now one of the progressive business men and farmers of that section, and has spent all his life in this part of Northwest Ohio. He was born on the farm at Port Clinton, where he still resides July 4, 1864. His parents were William and Maria (Miller) Sloan. The Sloans are of Scotch-Irish ancestry and the family emigrated from the vicinity of Belfast and settled along the Ohio River in the Southern part of Ohio about 1811. Grandfather John Sloan was a man of ,treat prominence in Southern Ohio, where at ,me time he owned mills, stores, operated extensively as a stock dealer, and was considered wealthy. In 1853 he came from Southrn Ohio to Ottawa County and bought a farm of 160 acres. In about 1866 he went to Iowa. John Sloan was frequently given places of trust and responsibility in his community, and among other offices served as county clerk. William Sloan, father of George W., was born in Harrison County, Ohio, in 1835, and died at Port Clinton on March 16, 1881. After his father went West William Sloan remained on the farm in Ottawa County, gradually improving it, and as his prosperity increased he invested in further purchases of land until he owned about 300 acres. He was a very successful farmer and equally public spirited in community affairs. He married Maria Miller, a daughter of Henry Miller. She died in 1891. Her family were among the pioneers of Ottawa County. William Sloan and wife had two children, George W. and Anna. The latter is the wife of James H. Smith, who is now professor of geology in the city schools of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have children named Charlotte, Eleanor and Dorothy. George W. Sloan grew up on the home farm in Ottawa County, attended the common schools of Port Clinton and also the college at Berea. Soon after leaving college he married Miss Mattie Gardner of Berea. He brought his bride back to the old farm and since then has been continuously identified with the cultivation of the place on which he was born and reared and which is situated just at the south edge of Port Clinton. It is a farm of splendid improvements and Mr Sloan has prospered because of his up-to-date and progressive methods. He is a republican in politics though in no sense a politician. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. EVERETT E. Fox. No family has been more prominent in the history of North Bass Island than that of Fox nor more closely identified with its leading industries. A maritime family originally, some of its representatives still follow the water, but others have important interests entirely separated from that vocation. The first of the Fox family to settle on North Bass and acquire land here were Simon and Peter Fox, who were cousins of Henry G. Fox, who was the father of Everett E. Fox, who is one of the island's most substantial men. Everett E. Fox was born at Bassfield, County Essex, Ontario, Canada, in 1848, and is a son of Henry G. and a grandson of George 1456 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Fox. The grandfather was a sailor and moved from Canada to Peelee Island at a very early day. He came of a family of sailors and he met a sailor's death, being lost with his boat in a storm off. Peelee Island. He had made plansin the late forties to purchase the whole of North Bass Island and had come to an agreement with Horace Kelley, who owned it and was willing to sell for $500. He made one payment of $50 to secure the deal but his death came before the transaction had progressed any further. His immediate family transferred their claim to the cousins, Simon and Peter Fox, who, in 1852, purchased the unsold two-thirds of the island from Mr. Kelley. Henry G. Fox, father of Everett E., was born on Peelee Island and became a sailor like his father. In 1855 he came to North Bass Island as a settler and ,purchased land from his cousins, Simon and Peter Fox, on which he erected a cabin and two years later his family joined him and the island became their permanent home. Henry G. Fox retired then from lake traffic and applied himself to other vocations. He cleared and cultivated his land and erected a blacksmith shop and for many years did blacksmithing for the whole island. He became a heavy producer of grapes and later was made the Bass Island representative for the Link Wine Company, of Toledo, and did all the buying for this company on the islands up to the time of his death. His son, Everett E. Fox, succeeded him as island grape buyer but more recently has confined his activities to North Bass alone. For over fifty years father and son, without interruption of the business relations, have been the buyers for the large company mentioned above. The children of the late Henry G. Fox were : Everett E. ; Lavina, who married C. B. Dewey, a farmer in Nebraska, and they have one son, Henry, who is in the automobile business at Bertram, Nebraska, where he married and has four children ; Arthur, who is captain of the magnificent steamer, Put-in-Bay, of the Ashley and Dustin Line, plying between Detroit and Sandusky, has been a sailor all his life, starting in boyhood with the Wheeler Line, has no domestic ties as his wife and only daughter, Inez, are both deceased ; Amelia, who is the wife of F. B. Selemire, who for many years was train dispatcher on the B. & M. R. Railroad, in Nebraska, is now manager for the Western Union Telegraph Company at Omaha. Everett E. Fox became a sailor as soon as his parents were willing he should go on the water and he had his first experiences under Captain Orr. He enjoyed the vigorous outdoor life, the hard work and its dangers, and by the time he was eighteen years of age was considered so capable a seaman that he made captain of a tug, being then in the employ of Mr. Clark, who established the present Ashley and Dustin Transportation Line. For eight years he continued a on the lakes and then decided to visit sections of the country, and, in partnership with his father, bought 2,000 acres of 1and in Nebraska, investing in this undertaking the money he had saved from his earnings as a sailor, the amount aggregating $1,060. For four years Mr. Fox remained in Nebraska and during this time succeed in disposing profitably of his land and then entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company. He had but three months of experience in this connection as he was called home by the illness of his father. Since returning to North Bass he has been active in carrying forward work on his farm and vineyard. At one time he owned 100 acres of land, but subsequently sold and bought and now has about seventy acres, thirty of which are in vineyard, from which he realizes more than seventy tons of grapes annually. Mr. Fox continues to personally manage his properties and to look after his other interests, which include substantial holdings in the Bass Island Vineyard Company, of Sandusky. Mr. Fox was married to Miss Mary Beechler. In politics he is a republican and has always been prominent in public matters in the island, has served many years on the school board and at present is a justice of the peace. He is a member of Perseverance Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, at Sandusky, and belongs also to the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Other former members of this old pioneer family of these islands were Robert Fox and his son, Jay Fox. The former accompanied his brother, the late Henry G. Fox, to North Bass Island and lived here the rest of his life. His son, Jay Fox, located at Put-in-Bay and passed the remainder of his life in that section. JAMES A. GROVES. The man who helps himself is in the long run the man who also helps others, and bears more than his individual share of the burdens of community life. Mr. James A. Groves, now the leading HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1457 grocery merchant of McComb, Ohio, lost his mother when twelve years of age, and that left him an orphan facing the world alone. Even from that age he was not dependent on the bounty of others, but paid his own way, and seeing the need of an education, he acquired it by much self-sacrifice and hard work, and has been pushing forward to success ever since. Though most of his life has been spent in Hancock County, Mr. Groves was born on a farm in Shelby County, Illinois, in 1869, a son of John R. and Nancy (Lennox) Groves. While Mr. Groves deserves much credit for what he has accomplished in the world, it is undeniable that good family stock and heritage have also played their part. While it has been proved that environment and individual character may overcome the handicaps of traits and defects derived from ancestry, is also true that "blood will tell" and there no better asset than a heritage of rugged and wholesome qualities. In the maternal line Mr. Groves is a great-grandson of John Dukes, who was born in England, and came from that country to Virginia in 1791. In the paternal line Thomas Groves was born in Virginia in 1791 and died in 1881. He was of revolutionary stock. There is authentic record that members of the Groves family were soldiers under the famous Oliver Cromwell during the English civil wars. A complete genealogy of the family has been carefully prepared by Mr. Groves with the aid of his relatives, and the record indicates the virility of the stock from which he is descended. In 1870 the Groves family removed to Blanchard Township in Hancock County, and James A. Groves spent his early life there. He began his education in the local schools, but with the death of his mother, when he was twelve years of age, he was left without a home of his own, and then became a farm hand. From his earnings at hard manual labor he was able to take one course of instruction in the Ohio Northern University at Ada in 1889-90. He also taught country school and for two terms, 1892-94, he paid his expenses in the Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, where he took the classical course. After that he taught country schools in Pleasant and Blanchard townships, but in 1896 resigned from the schoolroom and became a clerk in the grocery firm of Lovell & Kinsey at the southeast corner of Main and Todd streets in McComb. He was with that firm three and a half years and there laid the foundation of his experience as a merchant. At the end, of that time Mr. Kinsey bought Mr Lovell's interest, and in 1901 the firm of Kinsey & Groves was established in business. After a year Mr. Lovell acquired the Kinsey interest and the firm for two years was Groves & Lovell. At the end of that time Mr. Groves became sole proprietor and has since conducted this splendid grocery establishment under his own name. He keeps a large stock, emphasizes the freshness of his goods, and is a very careful buyer as well as a successful salesman. One important feature of the business is as a wholesale dealer in eggs, and this is one of the important markets for eggs in this section of the state. Besides his merchandising Mr. Groves has other important interests at McComb. In 1894 he married Miss Dora Swartz, daughter of George H. and Levina (Downing) Swartz of Blanchard Township, Hancock County. Her parents were wealthy farming people and were very warm-hearted friends to Mr. Groves during the early struggles of his career. To their marriage were born the following children : James Rex, who is now a sophomore in the Ohio State University ; Mabel Estelle, who was born in 1898 and died in 1900, and Merrill S. The family are active members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of McComb. Mr. Groves takes much inerest in church affairs and since 1905 has been superintendent of the Sunday School. In politics he is an independent republican, and in 1914 was unsuccessful candidate on the progressive ticket for county auditor. He was president of the board of education of Pleasant chiTownship three years,. having been elected as a republican. For five years he has been president of McComb Lyceum Course, was chairman of the business men's association and president two years, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having passed all the chairs in the Home Lodge, and is also a member of the Maccabees. JOHN HENRY ROFKAR. One of Ottawa County's best known citizens is John Henry Rofkar of Catawba Island, where he has been one of the prime factors in building up the great peach industry of that section. While always very successful in his private business affairs, Mr. Rofkar has not neglected the public interest, and has been an active figure in democratic politics for years. He has served as member of the school board in his local 1458 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO district, put in several terms in the office of township trustee, and a few years ago was elected to the board of county commissioners, and has been chosen president of the board. This position, at the head of the county's fiscal affairs is a well deserved honor and he has thoroughly justified the support of his friends and political followers by his creditable administration. Mr. Rofkar was born in New York State March 9, 1864. His father, Henry Rofkar, was one of the early settlers on Catawba Island, locating there in the same year that John Henry was born. He was one of the pioneers in the culture of the peach, and in that business he prospered, and is now living in comfortable retirement. It was on Catawba Island that John Henry Rofkar spent his early youth and received his education. After his marriage he bought ten acres from his father, that constituting a part of a large peach orchard, and he has since increased his holdings until he and his son now control sixty acres with between 4,000 and 5,000 bearing peach trees. Mr. Rofkar married Anna Raehrs of Fremont, Ohio. They have two children : William, now twenty-four years of age and farming with his father ; and Florence. Mr. Rofkar and family are members of the Lutheran Church and fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees. LEE W. BYINGTON, proprietor of the principal lumber and builders supply house at Lakeside in Ottawa County, has made a success in life by his own unaided efforts. His birth occurred in Sandusky, Ohio, in August, 1863. A little later his father, William H. Byington, lost his life during the Civil war. The widowed mother then took her family to Wabash, Indiana, where Lee W. had his early training and education. After leaving the common schools he returned to Sandusky and began as a boy apprentice to learn the carpenter's trade. He put in a number of years of hard work in that line, and it was his long employment at the trade which gave him his real start in life. In 1890 he came to Lakeside, worked for several years as a journeyman carpenter and also did considerable contracting. In 1910 he opened a lumber yard, planing mill and began handling a general assortment of builders' supplies and this enterprise has been so successful that he is now practically retired from the contracting field and giving all his attention to his lumber yards. Mr. Byington married Miss Fannie Southard, daughter of John K. Southard, one of the very early settlers in Danbury Township of Ottawa County. To their marriage were born three children, Helen, Leota and Edward Mr. Byington is a democratic voter, was one of the four or five men who organized the firm Knight of Pythias Lodge at Lakeside and is also a charter member of the Knights of the Maccabees. HON. BENJAMIN F. WELTY. What a high minded lawyer can accomplish as a factor in the public welfare is well illustrated in the career of Benjamin F. Welty, one of Lima’s foremost attorneys and a man whose disinterested service and fearless citizenship have marked him out as one of the prominent men of Northwestern Ohio. On November 7, 1916, Mr. Welty was elected to Congress from the Fourth Ohio District. He was the nominee of the democratic party, headed his ticket in the district and was chosen by more than 4,000 majority. The presence of Benjamin F. Welty in the Sixty-fifth Congress means much not only to the people of Northwest Ohio but to the nation. He is not only a lawyer of exceptional ability, but in his professional and public life he has come into close contact with many of the great problems which are now pressing for solution in our nation’s affairs. He knows thoroughly the workings of the local, state and national departments of justice and has more than a passing knowledge of many of the great fundamental facts that underlie the present American industrial system. The many qualifications with which he entered upon his term as congressman can best be understood by a brief sketch of his personal career. Mr. Welty was born on a farm four miles north of Bluffton in Allen County, Ohio, August 9, 1870. He is a son of Fred and Katherine (Steiner) Welty. His father was a farmer and was also quite noted as a bee man. Benjamin was the twelfth in a family of seventeen children. Thus, though his father was a man of prosperous circumstances for the time, his means were not sufficient to show special favor or advantages to any one of the household. In order to realize the object of his ambition, Benjamin Welty early chose the principle of self-reliance and self-help. He at- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1459 tended country schools until he was sixteen years of age. After that he taught during winter months to pay for a higher educatoion. He attended the Ohio Northern University at Ada, the Tri-State Normal at Angola, Indiana, was graduated in the literary department from the Ohio Northern in 1894 and in 1896 took his law degree from the University of Michigan. Immediately upon his admission to the bar Mr. Welty located at Lima. For seventeen he performed the duties of city soliciof Bluffton. He was elected to that office 1897 and re-elected, but refused a third . The council then abolished the elective and hired his firm continuously from to year until 1913. In 1905 Mr. Welty elected prosecuting attorney of Allen ty, and had 3,000 more votes than the lowest man on the ticket. In 1908 he was elected, receiving nearly 8,000 votes, the largest number ever given to any candidate in Allen County. He received more votes than either Bryan for president or Harmon for governor. He was also special attorney to the attorney-general of Ohio. Early in the Wilson administration he was offered the office of district attorney of Alaska, an honor he declined, and in 1913 was appointed special assistant to the attorney-general of the United States to prosecute the plumbers' trust. Some special reference should be made to Mr. Welty's services as prosecuting attorney of his county, as special counsel for the attorney-general of the state, and as special assistant to the national department of justice. Soon after he began his duties as prosecuting attorney of Allen County, information was brought before the grand jury of a bridge trust operating in the county. The various companies constructing bridges had a " gentleman's agreement," by which bids were all arranged beforehand, and the lowest bid was fixed so high that 50 per cent of the contract price could be divided among the other contractors in the combination and 50 per cent to the actual builder of the bridge. Thus Ohio was paying twice as much for bridges as would afford a normal profit under actual competition. The bridge companies in Allen County were indicted, and after a vigorous prosecution two of their agents were convicted and sentenced. One of the cases went to the Supreme Court, which declared a clause of the anti-trust law unconstitutional. Before a second trial could be had the state attorney-general instituted quo warranto proceedings, as a result of which the companies were ousted from doing business in Ohio. Eventually the proceedings ended by the companies paying the fines and costs. Another matter that came up before Mr. Welty as prosecuting attorney was in presenting the question as to the lumber trust. As the operations of the trust were too extensive for a county or state to prosecute the ease, the matter was finally brought before the department of justice at Washington, and the trust was enjoined and restrained from doing business, a decision which was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in 1915. As prosecuting attorney Mr. Welty brought suit against various banks in the Lima district to make them pay interest on public funds deposited. It had become known that such public funds were being used by the banks to loan out to individuals at rates of interest, though the banks were paying nothing for the use of the public funds. It was Mr. Welty's work that brought about a state law covering the subject, and the custom and practice has since spread to many other states. In the six counties of the district banks now pay for public funds on deposit annual ,interest amounting to approximately $46,000. As prosecuting attorney Mr. Welty cleaned up the entire county, and conducted four of the leading murder trials ever held in the county. Many threats were made upon his life because of his fearless and vigorous work as prosecutor. As special counsel for the attorney-general of Ohio Mr. Welty was employed in the prosecution of a number of cases. One of them was the corrupt practice cases at Steubenville in Jefferson County. The probate judge, the prosecuting attorney and the representative were indicted for violating the corrupt practices act of Ohio. However, Mr. Welty gained his chief reputation as a prosecutor while special assistant to the attorney-general of the United States for prosecuting the plumbers' trust. Two previous attempts to prosecute this trust having failed, Mr. Welty was selected by the attorney-general, established headquarters at Chicago and made a thorough investigation through special agents in every state of the union, and secured information leading to the indictment of thirty-six members of the Master Plumbers' Association of Des Moines, Iowa. The plumbers raised a fund of over $10,000 to defend the suit. On the advice of Mr. 1460 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Welty investigation was made in Pennsylvania and also in Utah, special grand juries were impanelled, and indictments were secured against thirty-four men in Erie, Pennsylvania, and seventeen in Salt Lake City. The case was heard at Des Moines, and Salt Lake City, the defendants were convicted as charged in the indictment. This was one of the most important cases prosecuted under the anti-trust laws during the first administration of President Wilson. After the successful conclusion of this case Mr. Welty resigned as special assistant to the attorney-general and has since been engaged in a general practice as an individual member of the bar of Lima. He is a member of the Allen County and the Ohio State Bar associations, is a director and member of the executive board of the Home Building Association, is a member of the Ohio National Guard, and his name appears quite frequently in connection with a number of organizations in Allen County. Soon after Mr. Welty began the practice of law at Lima, in 1896, he joined Company C, Second Infantry, and was a member of that company until after the close of the Spanish-American war. After the war he received a commission as captain and commissary of the Second Infantry, and later became chief commissary of the Ohio National Guard with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was placed on the retired list at his request on becoming special assistant to the department of justice, but is eligible for commission as lieutenant-colonel of Infantry of Volunteers of the United States of America, under general order No. 42, issued by the war department, 1915. During all his service he paid his own expenses for training, except during the time he spent in camp a few days each summer. He enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war on April 25, 1898, and was mustered out October 7, 1898. Mr. Welty has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias since he was twenty-four years of age, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Masonic Order, is a member of the Lima Club, the Shawnee Country Club, and is very active in church and Sunday School work, being a trustee of the West Market Street Presbyterian Church. On September 28, 1908, he married Miss Cora Gottschalk of Indiana. They have one daughter, Jean Gottschalk Welty. ALFRED L. DUFF. The present prosecuting attorney of Ottawa County is one of the highly successful lawyers of this district, has spent all his life in Port Clinton, and has enjoyed more distinctions and honors than are usually given to a man of his age. Born in Port Clinton October 16, 1877, he is a son of William and Madeline (Quast) Duff. His father was born in Scotland became a sailor, sailed on the salt sea for a number of years, and in 1864 came to America and two years later located around the Great Lakes. He was captain of a lake vessel for a good many years, and his death occurred when an old man in June, 1915. Reared in Port Clinton, Alfred L. Duff attended the public schools as a boy, took his higher education in the Ohio State University and first chose dentistry as a profession, and graduated D. D. S. from the Western Reserve University. However, he soon shifted to the law, and after obtaining his degree in St. John's University he was admitted to the bar in 1911. Since then five years have sufficed to bring him a reputation as an able lawyer and he is a member of the well known Port Clinton firm of Graves, Stahl & Duff. In 1914 Mr. Duff was elected prosecuting attorney of 'Ottawa County and has since been giving that office most of his time and attention. He is also a member of the Board of Public Affairs of Port Clinton, belongs to the State Bar Association, and fraternally is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and with the Clinton Club and the Colonial Club. On June 22, 1908, Mr. Duff married Miss Eleanor Magruder, of Port Clinton. PETER KNUDSON TADSEN. For upwards of half a century the name Tadsen has been identified with Port Clinton and for a greater part of the time with some of the most important business activities of that city. Peter K. Tadsen is now head of the largest general insurance agency in Ottawa County, has filled the post of mayor of Port Clinton, and is one of the most vigorous and enterprising citizens of that section of Northwest Ohio. Born November 6, 1874, at Port Clinton he is a son of Magnus and Doris Elizabeth (Knudson) Tadsen. Magnus Tadsen was born in Langenhorn, Germany, a son of Moss and Seika Tadsen. He received his education in the public schools of Germany, and in 1887 immigrated to America and soon afterward HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1461 took up contracting and building construction in Ottawa County. During his active career he erected a large number of fine residences in Port Clinton. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. Magnus Tadsen was married at Sandusky, Ohio, April 23, 1870, to Doris Knudson, daughter of Peter and Knudson. Besides Peter K., the children of that marriage are : Nick T. Tadsen ; Mrs. Anna Wenger, wife of Albert Wenger ; Mrs. Sophia Rofkar, wife of Henry Rofkar ; and Mrs. Dora Zeis, wife of Fred C. Zeis. Peter K. Tadsen attended the public schools of Port Clinton, and though still a comparatively young man, he has a very long business experience, since he started out to make his own way when only ten years of age. He worked as a delivery boy in a general store, and followed different lines of employment up to the age of twenty, when he engaged in the fire insurance business. Subsequently he bought an interest in the firm of True & Tadsen, and two years later acquired the entire business and also the H. J. Rohrs Agency and the Jacob McConkin Agency, and then organized the P. K. Tadsen Company, which now handles a larger volume of general insurance than any other local company in Ottawa County. Mr. Tadsen also has numerous other business interests, is a director in the German-American Bank of Port Clinton, is a director in the American Gypsum Company, is president of the Port Clinton Fruit Company. These terms he filled the office of mayor of Port Clinton and made that office an opportunity for most energetic and public spirited service. He is now president of the Port Clinton Chamber of Commerce. A few years age laid out the York & Tadsen Addition to Port Clinton, a tract comprising ninety lots adjoining the southern part of the city. Fraternally he is identified with Masonry, including the Knight Templar and the Eastern Star, with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the German Beneficial Union. He has long been an active republican, and served as chairman of the Republican County Central Committee three terms and represented the Ninth District in the National Republican Convention. NELSON WILLIAM KLEINHANS. Representing the sturdy stock of citizenship that has been identified with the rural development of Ottawa County since the early days, Nelson W. Kleinhans is himself a farmer by occupa- Vol. III- 9 tion, but his name is best known over Ottawa County as a strong and influential factor in the democratic party and through his present official position as clerk of courts at Port Clinton. Born in Erie Township of Ottawa County March 20, 1875, he is a son of Peter R. and Rachel (Tucker) Kleinhans. Both parents were born in Ohio, the father in Ottawa County and the mother in Sandusky County. The paternal ancestry is of German origin, and the family has been identified with Northern Ohio for a great many years. Peter Kleinhans was a very industrious and capable farmer in Erie Township. It was in the community of his birthplace that Nelson W. Kleinhans grew to manhood. He attended the public schools and while laying the foundation of his business success as a farmer also manifested from early manhood a great interest in public affairs. His first important offlce was township assessor, to which he gave three years of his time, later served a term as township clerk, and for six years as constable: On November 3, 1912, he came into prominence over the county at large by his election as clerk of courts. His first term was characterized by such efficient administration as to deserve another, and he was re-elected in November, 1914, and again in 1916 he was re-elected a third time. This is the first instance ever recorded where a clerk of courts succeeded himself three times. Mr. Kleinhans is one of the most active democrats in Ottawa County. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic Order, the Odd Fellows, and has long been active in the Patrons of Husbandry, and is past master and deputy master of his local grange. On January 22, 1898, he married Miss Glennie I. Rymers of Erie Township, Ottawa County. Five children have been born to them : Fern Ardelle, Ivan Clair, Mervel Faith, Hazel Marian, and Mildred May, who died at the age of 2 ½ years. The family are members of the United Brethren Church. HON. JOHN MITCHELL. Probably no citizen of Ottawa County ever had a stronger hold on the affection of its citizens than the late John Mitchell, who was best known over the county as " Captain Jack" a title and term of endearment which had come to him through his service as leader of a company of Ottawa County soldiers during the Civil war. He also represented his county in the State Senate, and was easily one of the foremost citizens. 1462 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Born at Ithaca, New York, October 14, 1833, he died at his home in Port Clinton, April 29, 1903, in his seventieth year. His father, Patrick Mitchell, a native of Ireland, was an English soldier and came to Canada with his regiment. On leaving the army he took up his home in Ithaca, New York, and soon afterward enlisted in the regular United States army and was in service both in the Seminole Indian and in the Mexican wars. While in the Seminole campaign he was accompanied by his wife and their young son, who later became Capt. Jack Mitchell. It was in his early manhood that the late Captain Mitchell came to Ottawa County. He was with a party of workmen engaged in building a cement mill at Ottawa City on Catawba Island. When that work was finished he became a sailor on a lake boat, and also engaged in fishing with pound nets around Catawba Island. He was well known over the county before the Civil war, and early in 1861 he raised Company I in the famous Forty-first Ohio Regiment. His comrades elected him captain of the company, but through some intrigue he was reduced to the ranks. Colonel Hazen gave him the privilege of coming home, but Jack Mitchell was never a man to sulk, and instead he told the colonel that the boys had come largely at his personal solicitation and that he would not desert them. Colonel Hazen subsequently learned the truth of how he had unconsciously injured the volunteer captain and was prompt to make reparation. An order was issued relieving him of all guard duty, he was advanced to lieutenant, and not long afterwards was made captain of the company which he had raised. He was a fearless and intrepid leader, and his company was the very first to scale the heights at the battle of Missionary Ridge. After the war Captain Mitchell bought a farm and located on Catawba Island. He was soon prominent in public affairs, was elected sheriff in 1866 and re-elected in 1868. After the second term he engaged in the lumber business from 1870 to 1874, and in the latter year was again elected sheriff and again served two successive terms. He held many municipal offices at Port Clinton and in other towns of the county. For a number of years he was associated with A. Couche in the business of exporting logs. He also operated a flour mill at Oak Harbor, and a hotel in that village, and for a time was proprietor of the Lake House at Port Clinton. Toward the close of his long career he was elected, in 1897, a member of the State Senate and returned to that body in 1899. As a senator his support and vote were always given to measures that deserved them, and seldom does a man in public life deserve more thoroughly the esteem and admiration of his fellows than was true of the late Captain Mitchell. His last public service was given as a member of the Shiloh Battlefield Commission. Governor Nash appointed him to that, place at the request of the entire Senate. He had a very accurate knowledge of the Shiloh battlefield, and was able to assist in marking the various positions held by his regiment and brigade On February 8, 1858, Captain Mitchell married Miss Nancy A. Napier. Captain Mitchell was survived by Mrs. Mitchell and eight children. The names of the children are : Jennie, who married C. Hennessy; John ; Dr. Catherine (Bainbridge) Cass, a practicing physician in the State of Washington ; Delia, who married F. J. Highhouse; Clarence ; James; Alpha, who is the wife of George F. Meyer ; Frank J. ; and Robert Captain Mitchell and family are members of the Catholic Church at Port Clinton, and his body was laid to rest in the Lake View Cemetery. From the columns of a local paper are quoted words that are in a measure a proper tribute to the late Senator Mitchell : “Captain Jack was one of nature 's noblemen. Lacking a college education, he acquired one of the world, and was easily a leader in all movements for the advancement of his fellow men. Personally courageous, he always espoused the cause of the just and defended the weak. His many acts of kindness tp people are told daily throughout the county, and he did more than his share for his town, his county and his country." FRANK J. MITCHELL. In the banking business and in public office Frank J. Mitchell has made a name for himself in Ottawa County and is now giving a very efficient administration to the office of postmaster at Port Clinton While one of the younger men in public affairs, he has probably as large a following in the democratic party in Ottawa County as any other local citizen. By some people the environment of his birth might be construed as having had something to do with his career. He was born in the building which had formerly been used as the first courthouse at Port Clinton. His birth occurred April 19, 1879, and his parents were John and Nancy Ann (Napier) Mitchell, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1463 of an old and well known family of Ottawa County. As a boy he attended the public schools at Port Clinton, and completed his business education at Sandusky and Toledo. His first contact with men in business life was as a page in the Ohio Senate. For several years he worked as teller in the German-American Bank and as assistant cashier of the First National Bank. When in 1909 he was elected county clerk of Ottawa County he had the distinction of being the youngest man who ever was thus honored by a county office. He filled the position for two terms and with admirable efficiency. After that he was with the First National Bank as assistant cashier until February 1, 1915, and on February 22, 1915, received his commission as postmaster of Port Clinton, having that office by appointment. from President Wilson. He has served on all the various democratic committees in his section of the state. Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Masonic order, being affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter, and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. ALBERT HIRAM HERR, M. D. Doctor Herr of Lima is a man of many successful interests. Long years of practice and of extended study and observation in the best schools of America have given him exceptional standards of attainment in his profession, and without question he is one of the most expert members the medical profession of Allen County. He is also a member of the present Ohio Legislature, having been .elected in 1916, overcoming the usually formidable democratic majority in Allen County. With all the demands made upon him by his profession, he has a more than local reputation as a stock breeder, and has one of the best appointed stock farms in this section of Ohio. Doctor Herr was born on a farm and grew up in its atmosphere. His birth occurred in Allen County, April 8, 1879, a son of John and Mary (Shifferly) Herr. In the paternal line he is of German ancestzy. His maternal grandfather Jacob Shifferly, was a native of Switzerland, and came to Allen County, Ohio, about 1836. Doctor Herr's parents were both born in Allen County, his father in 1840 and mother in 1843. The father spent most of his active career as a farmer. He is a democrat, has served as a trustee of his township, and is a member of the Masonic Order. They became the parents of thirteen children. Ten are still living, as follows : S. P. Herr, an inspector of federal revenue at Bluffton, Ohio; Emma, who married Oswald Dinham, and both are now missionaries in India ; Elizabeth, who is unmarried and resides at Cleveland, Ohio ; Kate, wife of Ed Gardner of Lima ; William, who owns a ranch in California; Albert H.; Huldah, wife of C. M. Contris, a capitalist at Lafayette, Ohio; Calvin, a farmer in Allen County ; Walter, a missionary in Africa ; and Charles, an Allen County farmer. Doctor Herr had a country school education and then attended the high school at Cairo, Monroe Center, and also the Ohio Northern University at Ada. With this early training he began his career as a teacher, a vocation he followed two years. Entering Starling Medical College at Columbus, he was graduated M. D. in 1903 and immediately afterwards began practice at Elida. In 1908 he interrupted his practice at Elida to take post-graduate work in the Post-Graduate School and Hospital at Chicago, and then resumed his practice at Elida until 1912. Doctor Herr has never been content with mediocre attainments in his profession, and on leaving Elida in 1912 he pursued various courses and attended many clinics in the leading schools and hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. In 1913 Doctor Herr located at Lima, and has since built up a large general practice and is also interested in real estate and oil business. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The National Masonic Research Society, and a life member of the Ohio City Editors' Association. He is also a life member of the Rochester Surgeons' Club, and his membership admits him to the Mayo Clinic, where he goes to get up-to-the-minute ideas in his profession. So far as his professional duties would permit Doctor Herr has manifested a great deal of interest in politics since early manhood. Though he was brought up in a home of democratic influences, he is a loyal republican. He was assistant sergeant-at-arms in the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1916. In the fall of that year he was elected on the republican ticket representative in the Eighty-second General Assembly of Ohio, and that was a signal personal triumph since Allen county is democratic by a large majority and most of the county officers on that ticket were elected. As a farmer Doctor Herr at one time conducted two places. He raised both draft and trotting horses of standard breeds, and has 1464 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO been one of the leading breeders of registered Duroc-Jersey swine in the United States. In his public sale in 1912 some of the highest prices ever known were paid for stock. His yearling boar brought the highest value paid for any similar animal at auction in the world that year. He also received the highest price for a four-months-old boar, and the highest price for a weanling boar, and was also paid the highest price for a litter. Doctor Herr was married in 1899 to Laura McGinnis. Mrs. Herr was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, on a farm. Three children were born to their marriage, but the only one now living is Ben, born January 4, 1907. The family are members of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in which Mrs. Herr takes an. active part and is a member of the church choir. Doctor Herr is affiliated with the various branches of Masonry, including the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Knight Templar Commandery, Consistory of the Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Grotto of Master Masons, is affiliated with Lodge 54, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Loyal Order of Moose. Doctor Herr is a member of the Lima Young Men's Christian Association. When Congress declared that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany he volunteered his services to his country as a first lieutenant in the medical officers' reserve corps of the United States. JUDGE WM. C. WIERMAN. As teacher, farmer, lawyer, and public official, William Charles Wierman has had a long and active career, and has been influentially identified with many important movements for development and improvement in Ottawa County. He took a progressive part while a farmer, especially in the matter of ditching and draining, and his name is also associated with one of the additions to the City of Port Clinton. Judge Wierman has practiced law at Port Clinton for twenty years, and is now filling a place on the Common Pleas bench. Born at Beavertown, Union County, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1849, Judge William C. Wierman is a son of Isaac and Malinda (Kellar) Wierman, who were also natives of Pennsylvania. In 1852 the family moved to Ohio, and in 1858 settled in Ottawa County, where the parents lived on a farm until removing to Indiana in 1871. The father died in March, 1915, at the advanced age of ninety-two. Judge Wierman, who was nine years of age when the family came to Ottawa County attended the public schools here and in 1867 finished his early education with a course in the Northwestern Normal School at Milan, Erie County, Ohio. Altogether for portions of twenty-two years he was engaged in teaching. In 1870 he bought a farm in Harris Township, and by his own labor and management cleared and developed it. He deserves to be remembered in that section of Ottawa County as the father of the ditching system of Harris Township. Under his leadership a large amount of fertile land was drained beginning at Gibsonburg in Sandusky County, and carrying the main ditch through Harris Salem and Bay townships into the Portage River, a total distance of about fifteen miles the terminus of the .main ditch being 5 ½ miles west of Port Clinton. Judge Wierman constructed about five miles of this ditch himself. He developed his farm into one of the best drained and most productive places in this part of the state. His career was spent in farming and in teaching until he was elected clerk of courts of Ottawa County, at which time he removed to Port Clinton. He filled that office seven years, from 1889 to 1896. In the meantime in addition to his public duties, he read law under the tutorship of T. J. Marshal, and in 1896 entered the State University and was graduated from its law department in 1897, in the same class as the writer of this work. Since then he has been an active member of the bar in Port Clinton, and has had a large general practice. For fourteen years he filled the office of justice of the peace. Judge Wierman was elected to the Common Pleas bench in 1914, and is regarded as one of the best qualified men who have ever sat on that branch of the state judiciary. Among other positions he filled the office of township trustee in Harris Township, township assessor, and president of the school board. What is known at the William C. Wierman Addition to Port Clinton comprises nine acres of land which Judge Wierman has subdivided, and he put in a complete sewer and water system and other improvements before disposing of the lots to individual purchasers. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order pf Elks, being affiliated with Toledo Lodge No. 53. Judge Wierman married Miss Minerva V. Kimball of Elmore, and a native of Ottawa County. Her grandfather, Benjamin Kim- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1465 ball, was one of the first fifteen voters in wa County. Judge Wierman and wife married March 31, 1875. Their only g child is Mada P., the wife of James E. ey, a merchant at Detroit, Michigan. ge Wierman and wife lost one child, Myrta Edith, who died at the age. of twenty-nine years. HON. JOHN BOWLAND. There are few lines of business that require more sagacity, good judgment, sound, practical knowledge and foresight, than that relating to the hanof real estate. Fortunes have been made lost in real estate transactions from early to the present, changes in the ownership of property often being one of the most help features of a community's continuing prosperity. For twenty-one years the leading dealer in real estate and insurance, at Genoa, Ottawa County, Ohio, has been Hon. John Bowland, who not only has achieved success in the business field but has distinguished himself in public live, being one of Ottawa's prominent men. Mr. Bowland was born in Harris Township, Ottawa County, Ohio, August. 3, 1853, and is a son of John and Vianna (Parrot) Bowland, , who came to this county in 1850 and here the father followed an agricultural life. John Bowland had comparatively few educational advantages in youth but attended the try schools when his father could spare him from farm tasks. From boyhood, however, he was ambitious and enterprising and early formed the determination to do something worth while in the world. In 1894 Mr. Bowland first established him the real estate and insurance business of Genoa and has continued in this line ever since. He entered actively into movements that gave promise of benefiting the town and though his enterprise and good citizenship won so large a measure of public approval that his fellow citizens elected him mayor of Genoa and in this capacity he served with the greatest efficiency for five terms, at the end of which period he resigned and declined to serve longer. He was, further, elected to judge and served on the bench for two terms, a period of six years. Once more his appreciative fellow citizens called him into public life, in 1914 electing him a member of the State Legislature, in the Eighty-first General Assembly and in 1916, at the fall election, he was elected as a member of the Eighty-second General Assembly. whole course in life has been one to reflect credit upon himself and community and his friends are confident that the wider field into which he has entered will be benefited by his honesty and integrity, his wisdom and good judgment as a statesman. Mr. Bowland was united in marriage with Mary A. Eyre, who, at death left three children : Everett G., who is cashier for the Genoa Banking Company ; Bertha, who resides at home ; and Walter J., who is a contractor for concrete, at Genoa. On September 8, 1910, at Toledo, Ohio, Judge Bowland was married to Anna C. (Lees) Cain, of that city. They are members of the Christian Church. For many years he has been identified with the Odd Fellows, in which he is a past noble grand and belongs also to the Encampment. JOHN H. PETERSEN. Prominent among the younger generation of business men of Northwest Ohio, who in recent years have contributed to the section's commercial prestige, is John H. Petersen, of Elmore. The advent of the automobile and its universal adoption have created a business practically unknown a decade of years ago, which has attracted to its ranks some of the most talented business men of the country. A very necessary adjunct of this business is the housing of the cars and their care and this need Mr. Petersen is now fully capable of supplying as proprietor of the modern and progressive establishment conducted under the name of the Elmore Garage. John H. Petersen was born on a farm in Bay. Township, Ottawa County, Ohio, March 10, 1882, and is a son of John Christian and Sophie (Kittelson) Petersen. His father was born March 5, 1853, in Schleswig, Germany, a son of Lawrence and Herrlich (Bahnsen) Petersen. The father came of an honorable family, which however was in modest financial circumstances, and like thousands of others of his countrymen he believed that in America he could better his condition and standing. Accordingly, in 1872, he gathered together his possessions and made the journey to this country, arriving in April of that year with a capital of $25. He was possessed of sturdy industry and perseverance which overcame in part the disadvantages of a lack of knowledge of American customs and language, and on locating near Port Clinton, in Bay Township, Ottawa County, Ohio, secured work on a farm. There he worked persistently for seven years, making the most of his opportunities and saving his earnings with native thrift. At the end of that time hie felt 1466 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO himself ready to establish a home of his awn, and in 1879 was married to Sophie Kittelson, a native of Ottawa County, their union being blessed by the birth of three children : Maggie, who resides with her parents ; John H. ; and Louisa, who is now the wife of William Brindley, a farmer of Oak Harbor, Ohio, and the mother of two children, Morton and Howard Petersen Brindley. After his marriage John C. Petersen rented a large farm in Ottawa County, and continued as a renter for thirteen years, when he became the owner of a property of his own. In June, 1895, he was made superintendent of the Ottawa County Infirmary, a position which he has since held, this institution now having thirty inmates, whose interests Mr. Petersen has faithfully and conscientiously conserved. He has secured excellent results from the farm of 130 acres, and has won the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens by the able manner in which he has discharged the duties of his position. Mr. Petersen served for some years as trustee of Bay Township. He is past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, and with Mrs. Petersen belongs to the Lutheran Church at Port Clinton. John H. Petersen received his early education in the public schools of Oak Harbor, this being supplemented by a course at the Fremont (Ohio) Business College. With this preparation he secured a position with the Bank of Elmore, where he spent two years in the capacity of teller, following which he became identified in a clerical capacity with the Elmore Hardware Company. There, during twelve years, he secured valuable business experience, and January 12, 1915, resigned to become proprietor of the Elmore Garage, which he founded, and which has since assumed the proportions of a necessary commercial adjunct. This business is housed in a concrete block building, 46x100 feet, one of the best in this part of the county, where Mr. Petersen is fully prepared to handle work of all kinds connected with automobiles, having modern equipment and a corps of skilled assistants. Enterprising and energetic, he has built up a trade that is as representative as it is financially remunerative, and which is rapidly carrying Mr. Petersen to a position of prominence among the business men of Elmore. As a citizen Mr. Petersen supports every good movement, and the confidence in which he is held by his fellow-townsmen is shown in the fact that for the past six years he has occupied a position as a member of the Elmore City Council. He is connected with several fraternal organizations, and is personally popular as he is successful in a business way. In November, 1906, Mr. Petersen was married to Miss Zalia Ferris, of Elmore, and they have become the parents of two children : Florence and Frances. JOHN BLACK. Nearly half a century ago John Black came from Scotland to America and was first employed in the machine shops at Lima. He afterwards filled some of the most important positions in the mechanical department of railway service, with different railway systems, but a number of years ago returned to Lima to take charge of his father’s large estate. His father was also a big man in railway and other affairs in Ohio, and the family name is one that has been intimately associated with Lima 's industrial development. Born in Clackmannon, Scotland, November 6, 1848, John Black is a son of the late John and Jessie (Grant) Black. The elder John Black was a machinist by profession, having been trained in the thorough manner of olf Scotch industrial life, and he came to American in 1850, beginning his career as a locomotive builder in the Niles Locomotive Works at Cincinnati. Later he was a locomotive engineer on the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad and also with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton. He became master mechanic for the latter road in the shops at Richmond, Indiana, and with the absorption of the D. & M. Railroad in 1863 he was appointed master mechanic of the shops at Lima. He continued in that work and as general master mechanic for a period of twenty-three years until his death in 1893. He became prominent in Lima, serving as a member of the city council and in politics was a democrat. The son, John Black, remained in Scotland to complete his education and did not come to America until 1869. He passed a thorough apprenticeship as a machinist in Scotland with the Hawthorn Company Leith Engine Works, at Leith, Scotland. On coming to America, in 1869, he joined his father at Lima and entered the shops of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway at Lima as a machinist, and remained with that company for a period of twenty years and two months, from 1869 until January, 1889. He was promoted to engineer, foreman, and in 1889 when HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1467 he left was general foreman of the local shops. During the next year Mr. Black was general foreman at Stony Island, Illinois, for the New York & St. Louis Railway Company, and then became master mechanic at Chicago for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, spending about three years in that work. He then returned to Lima to look after his father's estate. Mr. Black in addition to other interests is vice president of the Citizens Building & Loan Association. In 1900-01 he put up the Black Building, a four-story structure on a foundation 50x185 feet on Main Street, and one of the notable additions to the business district in recent years. He has constructed several other fine buildings in the city, and also has Chicago real estate and has been interested in local banking. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order. He was married May 15, 1876, to Kate A. Hardesty, daughter of Reuben and Elizabeth A. (Henderson) Hardesty of Lima. Mrs. Black was born near Lima, September 21, 1855, in a log cabin. Her parents came to this county from Pennsylvania in an early day, and her father was one of the farmers and sawmill men of this section. Mrs. Black was reared and educated in Lima and taught school in the bountry at different places. She is a member of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church and was president of its foreign missionary society for five years. Mr. and Mrs. Black are the parents of four sons. William G., the oldest, was at one time general foreman of the Nickel Plate Railroad Shops at Fort Wayne, and is now master. mechanic for the same road at Chicago. John A., a graduate of the University of Chicago, subsequently a chemist with the Parke Davis &. Company of Detroit, and later a student of mechanical chemistry at Cornell University, where he was employed as an assistant instructor, is now a practicing physician at Cleveland. Charles H., who graduated from the Englewood High School of Chicago and served his apprenticeship with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway, is now foreman for the Lake Erie k Western Railway at Rankin, Illinois. Robert C. was graduated in mechanical engineeribug from Purdue University with the class of 1910, then served as a special apprentice with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway four years, and was foreman for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific at El Reno, Oklahoma, until January, 1916, when he entered the serv ice of the Nickel Plate Railroad in the same capacity and is located at the Chicago office. STEWART TURBET DROMGOLD, M. D. For almost forty years Dr. Stewart Turbet Dromgold has been a medical practitioner at Elmore, Ohio, coming here fresh from school and hospital training, with his youthful ambitions and enthusiasms with him. He was well prepared and more than willing to do his part in alleviating the ailments that he found prevailing in the village and very soon built up a practice that extended far into Ottawa County. He has witnessed marvelous changes in thirty-seven years in this section and has ever done his part in advancing movements for the general welfare. Few men in a community can be more useful than a conscientious physician. His educational attainments are apt to be far above the general average and thus he has a wider outlook and a better conception of a community's needs for civic peace and contentment. His professional training has given him a better understanding than others of the unyielding facts of life, and his daily round brings him into contact with people at their weakest moments, when the armor is off. Hence a physician is naturally led to the sympathetic in the broad sense, and few there are who are not truly humane, these qualities leading to the open-mindedness that urges to progressive citizenship. Take the country over and in every section where it is evident that a public conscience has been aroused and educational and moral environment prepared so that the future may be better than the past, it will be found that men of medical science have been actively interested. For fifteen years Doctor Dromgold was president of the Elmore School Board and lent his influence to many other organizations of cultural intent. Stewart Turbet Dromgold was born in Perry County, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1852. His parents were John and Bandina (Hench) Dromgold, and his father was a farmer all his life. He attended the public schools and also the Bloomfield Academy and after completing his academic course began to teach school and continued in the educational field for six year, in the meanwhile devoting as much time as possible to his medical studies, subsequently entering the Cincinnati School of Medicine and being graduated from that institution in 1877. Following his graduation he had some months of experience as an interne in a Cincinnati hospital, and then, in 1468 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO 1878, came to Elmore, where he embarked in a general practice and has continued ever since. He is widely known in his profession and the confidence placed in him by his professional brethren is exemplified in the fact that he is secretary of the Ottawa County Medical Society, an office he has held ever since the organization of the society. He belongs also to the Lucas County, the Northwestern Ohio, the Ohio State and the American Medical societies. At Elmore, Ohio, Doctor Drumgold was married to Miss Mary A. Becker of this place, and they had two children, a son and daughter, John Howard and Dora. The former is engaged in a laundry business at Cleveland, Ohio. He married Miss Florence .Witte, of Elmore, and they have two children, Irene and June. The only daughter was the wife of Willett Dolph, who died July 20, 1916, and they had three children : Laura Dromgold, Mary Becker and Margaret Louise. The mother of these children, Mrs. Dolph, died July 7, 1914. Doctor Dromgold is serving. as secretary of the Farmers' Elevator Company of Elmore, a large business enterprise of this place. Fraternally he has long been identified with the Masons and has reached the thirty-second degree and is a Shriner. He belongs also to the Knights of Pythias. FREDERICK HIRAM WILLIAMS. The auditor and assistant manager of the Ottawa County Telephone Company at Elmore, Frederick Hiram Williams, has been a resident of this city since 1908 and has impressed himself upon the citizens as a business man of energy, foresight and judgment. He is one of the self-made, well made men of the community, and, while his business interests and responsibilities have occupied his time practically to the exclusion of other activities, has had a hand in a number of the movements that have been promoted with an idea of civic progress and betterment. Mr. Williams is a native of the Buckeye State, having been born at Elyria, Lorain County, May 1, 1871, a son of George D. and Sarah (Stebbins) Williams. His father, who was born in Massachusetts, was for many years identified with the lumber industry, carrying on operations both at Elyria and Sandusky. In the public schools of these cities Frederick Hiram Williams secured his educational training, and when he was ready to begin his career entered the employ of the Kellys Island Line and Transport Company a concern located on Kellys Island, north of Sandusky, in Lake. Erie, and which carried on a large transport business on the Great Lakes, and Mr. Williams was at the Marblehead office of that company. He was identified with this concern during a period of fourteen years, the greater part of this time occupying the position of cashier. In 1908 he resigned to accept the position at Elmore that he now occupies, that of auditor and assistant manager of the Ottawa County Telephone Company. Mr. Williams is possessed of the ability to keep abreast of the progress of the day and its exactions, and in large degree his success is due to his consideration for his employees and his tact and courtesy dealing with the general public. He has displayed executive capacity as a member of the board of trustees of public affairs and in the capacity of clerk of the Village of Elmore, and has wielded mare than ordinary interest in local municipal matters. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Knights of Pythias, of which latter order he is past chancellor commander. Mr. Williams was married, December 14, 1897, to Miss Elizabeth Clemons, of Marblehead, Ohio, and one son has been born to them : Clement Mortimer, born April 26, 1902. GEN. HENRY S. COMMAGER. Of all the brilliant soldiers produced by Northwest Ohio during the great War of the Rebellion, one whose memory should be longest cherished was the late Gen. Henry S. Commager. He had the qualities that made him a natural leader of men in whatever station of life he occupied. Unflinching courage and enthusiasm made him unusually conspicuous as a soldier. But "peace hath her victories no less than war," and General Commager also distinguished himself as an able and prominent lawyer, and in that profession his influence was widely extended over his section of the state. His parents were Gerard Jean Commagere, who was of Huguenot French descent, and Abigail (Steel) Commagere. General Commager, who was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1815, moved to Northwestern Ohio in 1827, when twelve years of age. and first lived at Otsego on the Maumee River above Waterville. In 1841 he entered the law offices of Young & Waite at Maumee as a lw student. Under the preceptorship and with HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1469 the early association of those eminent men, one whom became the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, he diligently prepared himself for the bar and was admitted in Lucas County in 1842. He shortly afterwards married Hannah S. Hedges, daughter of David Hedges of Otsego. The achievements by which his name will be commemorated were contained largely within the following quarter of a century. He began the practice of law at Maumee in partnership with the late Judge Reuben C. Lemmon, under the firm name of Commager and Lemmon. In 1852 this firm moved its offices to Toledo, where they were soon given the large practice which their ability deserved. General Commager was an old school democrat. In 1854, a year momentous in our nation's history, he was his party's candidate for Congress. His opponent was Richard Mott of Toledo, who was the anti-Nebraska or republican candidate. It was in that year that the line became closely drawn upon the issues of the extension of slavery to the territories, and as the sentiment of Northwest Ohio was strongly opposed to the Douglas policy Mr. Mott was elected. During the years that followed General Commager attended with characteristic diligence and skill to his growing law practice, and the next point hit at which particular attention should be directed to his career was in the first days of the Civil war. On the night of April 15, 1861, a memorable mass meeting was held in Toledo. Only a short time before the news of the fall of Fort has been received. An immense concourse of people assembled at the main depot and listened to the powerful and eloquent speeches in behalf of the Union cause de-by Morrison R. Waite, Gen. James B. Steedman and General Commager. These speeches pledged themselves, their influence and their activities to the maintenance of the Union, and they were only the leaders in expressing a splendid loyalty felt throughout the limits of the city. Thus General Commager was one of the first to volunteer for the defense of the Union. Abandoning his law practice he entered the Union army, and for more than four years was one of its most faithful and efficient soldiers. His first enlistment was as a private in the Fourteenth Ohio Regiment. In the fall of 1861 the Sixty-seventh Ohio Infantry was organized. He entered that organization as captain of Company A. With his command he left Columbus for the front on January 19, 1862. The Sixty-seventh proceeded directly into Western Virginia, and it was the first regiment to engage the enemy at Winchester on March 23d. Subsequently it was attached to the army of the Potomac and participated in the Peninsular campaign until the withdrawal of the Federal forces from that portion of Virginia. The regiment was next stationed at Suffolk, Virginia, and was then transferred to the Carolinas, where for seven months it heroically endured all the hardships and dangers of the siege of Charleston. It was part of the Union forces that made the valiant attack on Fort Wagner. Every American history contains an account of that brilliant exploit, and while an entire army distinguished itself it was given to an Ohio man and Toledo lawyer, Colonel Commager, to gain the conspicuous place in the annals of that attack and receive the fame of being " the hero of Fort Wagner." In the meantime, on July 29, 1862, Captain Commager had been promoted to major of his regiment. On the 5th of August following he was made lieutenant-colonel. After the siege of Charleston the regiment was returned to Virginia, and on May 10, 1864, participated in the battle of Chester Station, and ten days later was one of the units in a gallant charge at Bermuda Hundred. The climax of service of the Sixty-seventh came during the spring, summer and fall of 1864. Duing that season it is said that the regiment was under fire 200 times, and practically every day and hour confronted the enemy and was within range of the hostile guns. For three years General Commager remained with this regiment until the expiration of his term of enlistment. He was always present for duty, was in the thick of fighting many places, and was three times wounded. Col. A. C. Voris, who commanded in the battle of Chester Station, in the course of his report of that engagement says: "Colonel Cyrus J. Dobbs, commanding the 13th Indiana Volunteers; Colonel John McConihe, commanding the 169th New York, and Lieutenant Colonel Commager, commanding the 67th Ohio, are deserving of great credit for their efficiency and example on the occasion and the ability with which they commanded their respective commands." It is only appropriate to add the comments of Gen. Alfred H. Terry in his report of the same engagement, in which he says : "Lieutenant-Colonel Commager, Major Butler and 1470 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Adjutant Childs of the same (67th Ohio) Regiment are especially deserving of notice." After the battle of Chester Station, in which General Commager distinguished himself, the officers of the brigade presented him a magnificent sword, gold hilt, solid silver scabbard glittering with gems, on which was inscribed the legend : "We honor the brave." This sword is now in possession of General Commager's grandson, the present law director of Toledo. After leaving the Sixty-seventh Regiment Colonel Commager undertook the organization of the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Ohio Infantry, of which he was made colonel and brevet brigadier general. This regiment was organized at Camp Chase in February, 1865, to serve one year. Being mustered in it was ordered to Nashville, Tennessee, where it did garrison duty a short time, and then proceeded to Chattanooga and on to Bridgeport, Alabama, arriving about March 21st. There General Commager commanded the army line employed in protecting an important railroad along the Tennessee River between Stevenson, Alabama, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, a distance of some thirty miles. On July 25th, after the formal surrender of the great armies of the Confederacy, this regiment was sent to do garrison duty at Edge-field, and on September 20, 1865, was mustered out of service at Nashville. More than four years had passed since the night of the memorable mass meeting at Toledo before General Commager was released and permitted to take up the routine of his law practice. In 1866 he was again the democratic candidate for Congress from his district and though not elected had the satisfaction of running 800 votes ahead of the party ticket. Not long afterward he was appointed by the Federal Government to prosecute internal revenue claims, and while at Galveston, Texas, engaged in the discharge of his duties there, was stricken with yellow fever, which then was devastating the entire Gulf coast. He died in Galveston, August 14, 1867. He was at that time practically in the prime of his years and his usefulness, and it is expressly regrettable that he did not live to enjoy the fruits of his service and his talents. Splendid as were his achievements as a soldier, he was no less eloquent and skillful as a lawyer, was courteous and earnest in all of life's relations, and has been well called "a gentleman of the old school." Mrs. Hannah Sophia Commager, who had been his devoted wife and companion since he entered practice at Toledo twenty-five years before his death, survived her husband many years and died at Toledo, April 26, 1898, at the age of eighty-four years nine months. She was a lovable and widely esteemed woman. In the course of her long life she accomplished great good both at home and in church and benevolent affairs. She was born at Morristown, New Jersey, September 24, 1813, and with her father, Davis Hedges, came to the Maumee Valley in 1831. Thus at the time of her death she was one of the oldest residents of this section of Ohio. For seventy-two years she was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was closely identified with its various activities. To a high degree she exemplified the efficiency and beauty of the Christian religion and her descendants prize the gentleness of her character as they do the rugged military valor associated with General Command To General Commager and wife were born four children : Maj. Frank Y. Commager, the oldest, is now deceased ; Judge David H. Commager has long been a well known resident of Toledo ; Mrs. Sophia E. Ecker is the wife of John E. Ecker of Toledo; Mrs. Harriet A. Hopkins is the wife of Livingston Y. Hopkins. JUDGE DAVID H. COMMAGER of Toledo, an able lawyer and jurist, was born June 11, 1848, a son of Gen. Henry S. and Hannah (Hedges) Commager. Judge Commager was born in Maumee, attended the common schools of Toledo, and was a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware when, on June 19, 1863, he enlisted, at the age of fifteen, as a member of the Fifth Ohio Battalion of Cavalry. He reported at Camp Chase, where the command was mustered in, and move immediately to Kentucky to fight the guerrillas. He served one year in Kentucky and Virginia and was mustered out on account of expiration of term of enlistment. Determined to re-enlist, his father having in the meantime being badly wounded, his mother requested, if he must enlist, that he do so in his father's command. Young Commager went to the front at Richmond, defraying his own expenses. When he arrived he found his father had returned north on account of his wounds, and it was intimated that the father would be given another command. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1471 Young Commager volunteered himself as a citizen soldier and served as such until appointed a lieutenant in the ranks of the Sixty-seventh, under continuous general fire and through two hard fought battles and entirely at his own expense, waiting all the time to learn from the war department as to the final action it would take as to General Commager's future command and his power to join such command. This volunteer civilian service attracted the attention of the commander of the brigade and by reason of the boy's interestedness and efficiency he was recommended to Gen. John Brough, then governor of Ohio, for a commission which recommendation was approved and acted upon March 15, 1865. Young Commager was made second lieutenant in the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Regiment Ohio Infantry. At this time he was sixteen years of age. He reported to his command and on the request of General Coon, cavalry commander of the Middle Division of the Mississippi, became aide de camp on his staff, and as such entered upon duties of staff officer. later he was directed to and did organize a company of detached dismounted cavalry. By order, July 23, 1865, Lieutenant Commager was detailed as commandant of the above company of cavalry, when he was just past his seventeenth birthday, serving as such commandant until mustered out of service September, 1865. During his command of this cavalry company he attracted the attention of Gen. George H. Thomas by service which willingly and spontaneously drew from General Thomas a letter to the President commending the young officer. Thomas says : "Commager has always had the reputation of a gallant, enterprising and efficient young officer." This is in the handwriting of General Thomas before the days of the typewriter. After the war Mr. Commager returned to Delaware, where he resumed his studies until the death of his father compelled bim to relinquish them. He then entered the office of Judge Lemmon, of Toledo, Ohio, and took up the study of law and later was admitted to the bar and entered upon its practice. In April 1868, prior to his taking up the law, while on a visit to Michigan and while under age, was nominated and elected to the office of police commissioner on a non-partisan Upon his return and learning of his n he sent a letter of resignation to the , Charles A. King, saying that he was age and could not accept the honor conferred upon him. This caused an appointment to fill the vacancy. The Toledo Commercial, commenting upon the fact of this election and resignation, said : " That the real value of the incident was the opportunity given the people of Toledo to pay a tribute to General Commager and his military family." General Commager and his two sons, Maj. Frank G. Commager and Lieut. David H. Commager, were soldiers in the Union army. Upon taking up the practice of law Judge Commager pursued it vigorously and became very successful. In 1877 he was elected a member of the Toledo School Board and immediately selected as its president, continuing until his elevation to the Common Pleas bench in 1883. He served as judge of that court until 1892, when he resumed the practice of law. In 1895 he was appointed a member of the board of election, serving on the same four years. Upon several occasions Judge Commager has declined positions of an honorary character. Judge David H. Commager was married January 1, 1874, to Elizabeth Williams of Toledo, a daughter of Elijah and Susan (Belyea) Williams. The three children born to their union are James W., a salesman ; H. S., an attorney and present law director of Toledo; and Anna, a teacher in the Toledo High School. Mrs. Commager died October 1, 1914. Judge Commager's son, Henry S., was named in honor of his grandfather, Gen. Henry S. Commager. Judge Commager is a member of Forsyth Post, Grand Army of the Republic. In conclusion it should be stated that the above army record of Judge Commager has been verified by documents seen by the writer of this article. ROLAND A. WILLETT, M. D. There has been something more than the ordinary achievement and attainment of the physician in the record of Dr. Roland A. Willett at Elmore during the past quarter century. Doctor Willett is a very skillful physician, as hundreds of families over Ottawa County attest, but is also public spirited as a citizen, and has done much to fill public offices acceptably and with credit to himself and benefit to the community. However, Doctor Willett is no office seeker and has assumed such official duties as have come to him from a sense of civic responsibility and not from ambition. Born in Fremont, Ohio, April 14, 1866. 1472 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Six weeks after his birth his parents, Peter and Maria ( Augustine) Willett, removed to Elmore in Ottawa County. His father was also a physician, a native son of Ohio, and practiced for many years in the northwestern quarter of the state. Roland A. Willett attended the public schools at Elmore, took a literary course in the Oberlin College, attended the medical department of the University of Michigan and was graduated in 1888 M. D. from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College at New York City. Returning to what was almost his native village, he has continued to be engaged in general practice for upwards of thirty years. He is a member of the Northwest Ohio and the Ohio State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. In a business way he is vice president and a director in the Elmore Bank. Doctor Willett's first wife was Marie Quincke of Elmore. There are two sons to this union. Gaillard Peter, who was born July 25, 1892, and now a student in the University of Michigan ; and Rudolph Edward, born February 19, 1897, and a student in the Elmore High School. After the death of his first wife Doctor Willett married Emma Bullimer of Elmore. In a public way Doctor Willett has served as a member of the village council and on the village school board, and in 1915 enjoys the confidence of his fellow citizens expressed in their gift to him of the office of mayor, and he is making a very admirable municipal administration. He held membership in the County Republican Central Committee and also on the Executive Committee. CHRISTOPHER HENRY DAMSCHRODER. This veteran merchant, now retired, of Elmore through his own career, that of his father before him, and through his son as his successor, has supplied much of the mercantile enterprise to this section of Northwest Ohio for almost a century. It is a long and honorable record that has been enjoyed by the members of the Damschroder They have been diligent at business, maintained a strict honor and integrity in all their relations, have worked for the public welfare both individually and through public offices, and altogether it is a name worthy of more than passing reference in the annals of this section of the state. It was in the City of Toledo that Christopher Henry Damschroder was born January 1, 1841. His parents were Christopher Henry and Mary (Meyerholts) Damschroder, who came from the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany. His father was born there in 1812 and the mother in 1813. The former came to America in 1827 and the latter in 1830, and they were married at Sugar Creek on the old the State Pike, in Northwest Ohio. Christopher H., Sr., bought a farm and some extensive tracts of timber lands, also conducted a store on his farm, and was a man of varied affairs and interests. For a great many years he served his community as school director Christopher H. Damschroder, Sr., died in November, 1892, and his wife in December 1897. Their son, Christopher, Jr., was reared on a farm, and gained his initial business experience as clerk in his father's general store, which was located on the old homestead along the Stone Pike Road. Later he went to Woodville, Ohio, was in business there for a time, and in March, 1865, bought a clothing store and two years later a general store. This business at Elmore has been uninterruptedly under the management of the Damschroder family now for more than half a century. It is now conducted by his son John H., as the J. H. Damschroder & Company. Christian H. Damschroder remained in active business affairs until January, 1908 and has since lived in quiet retirement. He and his wife enjoy the comforts of one the very attractive homes in Elmore. John Damschroder served a number of year as a member of the school board. John Henry Damschroder, who represents the third successive generation in this section of Ohio, was born October 10, 1876, at Elmore. He was well educated, first in the public schools and then at Hiram College, and quite early in his career joined his father in business. In January, 1908, when his retired, he took over the business, and now has as partner Elmer Damschroder. This is the largest general store in Elmore. occupying a building 24 by 115 feet and two stories, with all its space given over to a large and will selected stock. John H. Damschro.der served three terms as a member of the school board, and is now in his second term as corporation treasurer. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter of Masons. On January 9, 1902, he married Miss Emma HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1473 L. Moelman of Elmore. They have five children: Florence Ila, Amy Moelman, Paul Henry and Ballard William, twins, and Everett Rudolph. WILLIAM M. THRASHER. Few of the farm homes of Henry County show better results of cultivation and more of the real comforts of rural life than that of William M. Thrasher. This home is located on section 13 of Ridgeville Township, and it is a part of the homestead acquired by his father in the early days of settlement. On the farm where he now resides Mr. Thrasher was born January 12, 1857. Practically all his years have been spent in this one locality. He secured his education in a schoolhouse of District No. 1. This log school was known as the " Quail Trap." It was the temple of learning in which. many citizens of Henry County secured their early training, and its pupils were drawn from four townships and two counties. Thus Mr. Thrasher, though not an. old man, has very definite recollections of many pioneer things in Henry County. His farm comprises forty acres of very fertile and productive land. 1904 he erected there a beautiful home, a two story eight room house, surrounded with spacious lawns and with trees and flowers to make a perfect picture of comfort and beauty. He has also improved other buildings on the farm, and has kept the productiveness of the fields up to the highest standard. The house in which .Mr. Thrasher was born was built of hewed logs. In the early days he assisted his father in clearing up the land and thus most of his associations and memories are centered around this attractive home. It is known as the Locust Shade Farm. His parents were Timothy and Cynthia (Porter) Thrasher. Both parents were of New England ancestry and were natives of Massachusetts. His father was born about 1820 and his mother about 1825. His mother had a sister, Eunice, and as their mother died soon after their birth, they were reared by their grandmother. After the marriage of Timothy Thrasher and wife they lived in Massachusetts for several years. He was a mackerel fisherman and when not employed in that occupation followed his trade as carpenter. In 1847 he brought his family West to Ohio. In Lorain County he was engaged in farming for several years, and in 1853 started for Henry County. The family made the journey by way of Toledo and thence down the canal to Napoleon. From Napoleon they went out into Ridgeville Township and found a tract of land in section 13, where about the only improvement was the deadening of some of the forest trees. It was in that locality that Timothy Thrasher and wife spent the rest of their years. He died in March, 1881, and his widow on May 29, 1897. He was a democrat and while a member of no church was an upright and moral man and very favorably known in that community. William M. Thrasher was the only son of his parents. There were also five daughters, but the only one of them still living is Mary, the wife of John Bailey of Ridgeville Township. Mr. Thrasher was married in his native township to Anna Kiefer. She was born there June 17, 1862, and received an education and early training to fit her well for the duties of wife and mother. Her parents were Martin and Anna (Kutchley) Kiefer. Her father was born in France and was brought to America when not yet three years of age, while her mother was a native of Switzerland and came With her parents to the United States at the age of fourteen, being fifty-three days on the ocean between Havre, France, and New York. Mrs. Thrasher's grandfather, Martin Kiefer, was a private soldier through the War of 1812 and one of the very early pioneer settlers of Northwestern. Ohio. Both the Kiefer and Kutchley families located in the wilds of German Township, Fulton County. The families were members of the. Reformed Church. After their marriage Mrs. Thrasher's parents lived on a farm in German Township, but later sold that and removed to Ridgeville Township in Henry County and bought 120 acres of wild land in section 17. By hard work they cleared this up and made it a good farm, and there her father died, April 21, 1914, having passed his eighty-fourth birthday on December 6th of the preceding year. His wife had died in 1889 at the age of fifty-six. They were Reform Church people and he was a. democrat. Mrs. Thrasher was one of a family of thirteen children, eight daughters and five sons, and of these two sons and four daughters are still living. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Thrasher are : Timothy, who was born in 1883, was educated in the .public schools and in the Ohio Northern University at Ada and about twelve years ago graduated from a 1474 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Toledo business college, and since then has been in the purchasing department of the Toledo Traction ,Company ; he married Lottie Ridenour of Toledo, and their' children are Tarlton, now in the fourth grade, Arthur, in the sixth grade, and Ralph, in the first grade of the public schools. Robert Thrasher, the second son, is a prosperous young farmer in Freedom Township of Henry' County, and by his marriage to Alma Inman has two chil- dren, named Dora and Donald. Abigail is the wife of William Lather, a farmer in Ridgeville Township, and their children are Orville L., Stella, and Elmer. The youngest of the family is Almina, who is still unmarried and living at home with her parents. WILLIAM ZIPFEL. Steady application to the development of an idea has brought about the success of William Zipfel, proprietor of a general machine shop and garage and plumbing, heating and gas-fitting establishment at Oak Harbor, Ottawa County. He first engaged in business here in 1895 and was well on the highway to prosperity when misfortune visited him in the shape of ill health, which swept away his holdings and compelled him to make a new start. Perseverance, however, has been one of his strongest characteristics and has enabled him to rise superior to his discouragements, his present business, founded in 1908, being one of the prosperous enterprises of the town. Mr. Zipfel is a native son of Ottawa County, having been born at the county. seat, Port .Clinton, September 1, 1863, a son of Lawrence and Hedwig Zipfel. His parents, natives of Germany, came to the United States in 1858 and located in Ottawa County, where the father passed the remainder of his active life in working at the trade of shoemaker. The public schools of Ottawa County furnished William Zipfel with his education, and as a youth he applied himself to learning the trade of stationary engineer. He began working at the age of fourteen years at the machinist's trade, a vocation which brought him into connection with millwrighting, and, having accumulated some small capital in this direction, in 1895 he opened a machine shop at Oak Harbor. Sickness compelled him to dispose of his holdings after several years of hard and energetic work, and when he had recovered, in May, 1900, he became superintendent of the Michigan Headlining Company, remaining in that position for eight years. In 1908 he again entered business at Oak Harbor establishing machine shops and an auto garage, where he does all kinds of welding, in addition to plumbing, heating and gasfitting. Mr. Zipfel's business has grown and developed, and at the present time he employs eight people in his shops, having a fireproof concrete building, 50 by 110 feet. He has undertaken some of the most important contracts for plumbing and heating in this and nearby towns, and his expert workmanship, fair estimates, promptness and reliability insure a continuance of his present gratifying patronage. Mr. Zipfel has made a special study of sanitation and never fails to estimate its importance as an adjunct to his vocation. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having numerous friends in the local lodge. His public service has been of a most important character, he having been for twenty years chief of the Oak Harbor Fire Department. In 1884 Mr. Zipfel was married to Miss Frieda A. Meinka of Ottawa County, and to this union there have been born six children: Agnes, who is now Mrs. Charles Games and resides at Fremont, Ohio ; Miss Ada G., who resides with her parents ; Arthur Carl, who is a machinist and associated with his father in business.; twins, Leota E. and Leona A.; and Edward William. HENRY WILLIAM NIEMAN The tendency of men trained in the law to engage in vocations outside of the profession results in numerous advantages. The law equips its followers for successful activity in other lines, causing the profession to be justly accounted as a means rather than an end, or as a adjunct rather than an entirety. As a result commercial and financial standards are elevated, complications are frequently avoided, and the knowledge of underlying principles and penalties makes for a general simplifying of conditions. An illustration of this modern type of lawyer is found in Henry William Nieman, cashier of the First National Bank of Elmore:. Mr. Nieman was born in Minden, Germany July 11, 1857, and is a son of Frederick and Christina Nieman, farming people of that country, who came to the United States in 1871 and settled on a property in Ottawa County. Henry W. Nieman 's early educa-