1550 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO and developing his farm, and also worked at the trade of tailor during the winter, and by that occupation succeeded in paying the household expenses. Both he and his wife died in Crawford County, he being past sixty and she at the age of about forty. They were Lutherans. The late William Knapp was the second in a family of five sons and two daughters. All married and all had children and all are now deceased. William and his brother Emanuel came to Henry County when this part of Ohio was still wild, and made settlement in Flat-rock Township. They secured at a very cheap price some of the canal lands. These lands were practically all swampy or covered with heavy timber. After they were Cleared and drained their fertility was revealed, and for years of successive croppings their value is still undiminished. Here William Knapp and his brother cleared up and by their labors developed the good homes which their descendants now enjoy. The soil of these farms is what is known as Elm tree soil, and it surpasses in point of richness almost any land found in Ohio. It is particularly adapted to the growing of all kinds of grain, and buckwheat was a favorite crop in the early days, it being threshed out with a flail. It was on his farm of eighty acres in Flat-rock Township that William Knapp passed away March 9, 1882, when aged forty-six years three months. He was a democrat and in his later years an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His brother Emanuel improved 120 acres of adjacent land, and died on his old farm June 23., 1914. He had married in Crawford County Caroline Weidemeyer, who is still living, the mother of eight children. On February 9, 1860, at the log cabin home of his bride, William Knapp married Elizabeth Busch. Mrs. Knapp, who is still living and with some of her children occupies the old homestead in section 25 of Flatrock Township, was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1842. Her parents were William and Sophia (Rowalt) Busch. Her father was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, while her mother was of Low German stock. William Busch came to America when about sixteen years of age, his wife, then a maiden girl, having come some years before. Both of them were born in 1816 and they met and married in Washington County, Pennsylvania. They were married in 1837 and in Washington County three of their children were born ; Henry, Elizabeth and Mary. The daughter Mary is now Mrs. Michael Rettig of a well known Henry County family elsewhere referred to. In 1845 the Busch family emigrated westward from Pennsylvania to Crawford County, Ohio. They rented land there for a few years, in 1855 made their last removal to a. permanent home in Henry County. A yoke of oxen drew one wagon and a horse another, and it was a long and tedious and toilsome journey to Henry County. It was a wet season, and the wagons were almost constantly in the mud and the water. Arriving in Flatrock Township, they located in the woods on a tract of public land, and six weeks passed before their simple log cabin home could be erected. In the meantime they lived in the home of a neighbor. The first home of the Busch family in Henry County was one of the typical log cabins in which most of the early settlers of this section lived. It had a puncheon floor, its roof was of clapboards, and at one end of the dwelling rose a chimney made of sticks and mud. There, with the aid of his children, William Busch toiled for a number of years before getting his land into profitable cultivation. Those were years of privation for the members of the Busch family, and Mrs. Knapp occasionally took employment in neighbors' homes at wages of a dollar a week in order to buy a bushel or so of wheat in order to have some special baking for Sunday. She has also driven oxen to the plow to break the ground. But all those hardships were only preliminary to the substantial prosperity which members of the Busch family have enjoyed in Henry County for fifty years or more. William Busch built the substantial house of seven rooms which has been occupied by members of the family for nearly half a century, and later he erected a large barn, both of which buildings are still in a good state of repair. William Busch died on the old farm in 1880, and his widow passed away August 28, 1908, when past ninety years of age. Both were members of the Methodist Church and Mr. Busch was a democrat. After the Busch family moved to Crawford County three other children were born : Margaret became the wife of Ferdinand Ditmer of South Napoleon and has eight living children ; Charlotta died in Easter time, 1916, in Crawford County, and left nine, children by her marriage to Peter Hover. Minnie died in girlhood. One daughter was born to the Busch family in Henry County,. named Angeline, and when a HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1551 small child she met death, being accidentally scalded. Mrs. William Knapp is the mother of a fine family of children. Henry K., a grocer and meat merchant at Holgate, married Ann Bostleman and has two sons and five daughters. Mary is the wife of Henry Zacharies, a farmer in Pleasant Township, and they have five sons and two daughters. Ella, now deceased, married Peter Weaver of Holgate and has two children named Irene and Charles. The daughter, Margaret, died when two years of age. Jacob, who operates his mother's farm, married Alice Schubert, and has two children, a daughter named Gladys and an infant daughter. Noah, who lives on the old Busch homestead in section twenty-five of Flatrock Township, married Emma, the daughter of Peter and Ella (Gearhart) Shiarla, the former now deceased and the latter living near Stanley in Henry County ; Noah and wife have children named Virgil, Laverne and Donald, both deceased, Frances, Richard and Charles. Anna, the youngest child of Mrs. Knapp, married Daniel Heilman, a farmer in Monroe Township, and their children are Russell, Lester, Harold and Ralph. Mrs. Knapp is an active member with her family of the Methodist Episcopal Church. S. M. JOHANNSEN. More than a century ago Commodore Perry in his memorable battle with the British fleet on Lake Erie gave a distinction to Put-in-Bay which will be associated with that locality as long as Americans read history. Put-in-Bay is the name of a village that has grown up on the shores of the waters in which the historic engagement took place, and for a number of years the leading merchant and citizen of that place has been Mr. S. M. Johannsen. .Mr. Johannsen, besides his local activities, is also especially identified with the history of this place through his appointment by Governor Andrew L. Harris in 1908 as one of the five original members of the Perry Memorial and Centennial Commission, whose appointment was authorized under two joint resolutions of the General Assembly for the purpose of promoting the erection of a permanent memorial to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry in conjunction with a Perry 's Victory Centennial Celebration on Put-in-Bay Island during the summer of 1913 in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the battle of Lake Erie. When this commission was organized his associates honored Mr. Johannsen by electing him treasurer of the commission and in this capacity he served with credit to himself and the commission during the Centennial Celebration in 1913 and until the now famous Perry Memorial, the finest in the world, was completed. As treasurer Mr. Johannsen was also instrumental in raising funds for this worthy and patriotic project to which he devoted a great deal of his valuable time without compensation. Of Danish descent, Mr. Johannsen was born in the Province of Schleswig-Holstein after that became a part of the German Empire. His birth occurred April 4, 1868. His father, Christian Johannsen, brought his family to America in 1884, locating on a farm near Danbury in Ottawa County, Ohio. There he spent the rest of his days. S. M. Johannsen was the oldest of his children. His brother Sigfried is a farmer at Gypsum in Ottawa County. His sister Mary is the wife of John Boldt, a farmer in Bay Township of Ottawa County. Reared on a farm, S. M. Johannsen had a particular ambition for an education when a boy, and he made the best use of his opportunities. He attended the schools at Danbury, also the Sandusky Business College, and completed his training in the Ohio Northern University at Ada. For many years he was best known in Ottawa County as a teacher. In 1889 he came to the Village of Put-in-Bay and for seventeen years was engaged in educational work. During summer vacations he followed commercial lines, and on retiring from the schoolroom in 1906 he gave all his time to business. He developed a large general store and conducted it successfully until 1915, when he sold out to his son and two other partners. Mr. Johannsen now has some substantial investments on the island where the Village of Put-in-Bay stands. In 1903 Mr. Johannsen was instrumental in organizing the Put-in-Bay Board of Trade, a business men's organization, which he has served as president ever since. The object of this organization has been to promote the business and general welfare of the island. How well it has succeeded in this is evidenced by the present general prosperity of the island and its progress in this direction since the board of trade was organized. It was at a regular meeting of this board in November, 1907, that its then publicity agent, Col. R. J. Diegle, first suggested the idea of a Perry Memorial and Centennial Celebration for Putin-Bay. This idea, or dream as it was then called by many, would never have been pushed to a successful realization had it not been for 1552 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO the earnest and continued efforts of the members of this organization. Mr. Johannsen married Mary Baer, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Baer, residents of Sandusky when she was born but who later moved to Put-in-Bay. Mr. and Mrs. Johannsen have one son, Carl, now an enterprising young merchant at Put-in-Bay. Politically Mr. Johannsen is a democrat. For sixteen consecutive years he served in the city council of Put-in-Bay. For eight years he was a member of the Board of Education. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and also with the Elks' Lodge at Sandusky. H. A. SCHABOW. A few miles from Toledo, out on the Jerusalem Road in Jerusalem Township, is the "Lone Walnut Fruit Farm." For years some of the finest apples, peaches, pears, quinces, cherries, plums and grapes found in the markets at Toledo and elsewhere have been marked as the special product of that farm. Such a place is a real asset to any community. It represents the same kind of value that a successful factory or a high class store does. And those who are competent to judge will declare that it requires just as much careful management to produce such a place as it does to build up an industrial organization. This farm has been the center and scene of H. A. Schabow's activities for a great many years. He is in fact the creator of the Lone Walnut Fruit Farm. Experience and careful study have gone hand in hand with Mr. Schabow, and while he has never posed as an authority on horticulture the practical results that have come from his efforts indicate that he is well deserving of such distinction. A native of Northwest Ohio, he was born November 24, 1863, at Oak Harbor in Ottawa County, At the age of eighteen he went out to Northwestern Kansas, and there took up a claim in what was still an undeveloped country. He remained working it and proving up for six years, and still owns the land. On August 26, 1887, Mr. Schabow bought his present farm of forty acres in Jerusalem Township. Mr. Schabow says that all the schooling he ever had was for a not longer time than three months. Apparently that has been no handicap to him in his chosen career as a fruit grower. He follows those methods which agricultural experts would pronounce scientific, but whatever might be said by the experts concerning his work its results speak for themselves. He has not only been a very successful grower of fruit, but has learned how to take care of it, and that is in the last analysis almost as important as the productive end. It is sufficient testimony on this point to say that he has succeeded in keeping a previous year's crop of apples solid and perfect in taste and texture until midsummer. Besides this large business, which requires so much of his time and attention and also engages the services of several of his children, Mr. Schabow has for the past twenty-four years been township agent for the Lucas County Farmers Mutual Aid and Insurance Company. He was the first town clerk elected after the organization of Jerusalem Township, and filled that office continuously for more than fifteen years. He is now serving as township assessor. Politically he is a democrat. He and his family attend the Lutheran Church and he and his wife belong to the Patrons of Husbandry, Order No. 1998. In 1888, soon after he bought what is known as the Lone Walnut Fruit Farm, he married .Caroline Gatager of Ottawa County, Ohio. Their children are : Herman, who lives at home and is serving as clerk of Jerusalem Township ; Hilda and Alfred, both of whom are employed at Toledo ; Mary, who is employed at the State Hospital in Toledo; Andrew, a traveling salesman ; Amelia, at home; Augustus, who is employed at Neeley, Michigan; Tillie, Mildred and Cora, all at home. All the children received the advantages of the local schools, and the best of home training. WILLIAM SCHULENBERG. In spite of youth of limited opportunities William Schulenberg has attained that degree of material prosperity and honor in the affairs of the world which is the ambition of most men, and there are none who begrudge him the leisure and contentment he now enjoys while nearing the age. of fourscore. To be left an orphan at the age of nine years is a calamity to many boys, but in the case of William Schulenberg it seems only to have sharpened his energies and set him into the work of carving out his success a little earlier than would have been the case had his parents lived. He was born near New Bremen, Ohio, September 7, 1838, a son of Henry F. and Wilhelmina (Buck) Schulenberg, both of whom were natives of Germany. His father was a millwright and miller by trade, followed those occupations in the old country, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1553 and in 1834 came to America with his family. They arrived in this country after an ocean voyage of two months. From Baltimore they proceeded at once to Cincinnati. Later he removed to New Bremen, Ohio, returned to Cincinnati for a few years, again came to New Bremen, and lived there until he fell a victim to the cholera in 1849. He was only forty years of age when he died and his wife had passed away the previous year. Henry Schulenberg was a very successful man in his business and many of the best houses in New Bremen of that time were monuments to his skill. William Schulenberg is the sixth in a family of twelve children, and the only one living. After his parents' death he had little schooling, and earned his own way by securing work in a wagon shop painting wagons. At the age of fifteen he took other employment on a farm at wages of $3 a month. Other. employment of those years was work on the Miami and Erie Canal, and from 1858 until 1862 ran the stage carrying mail between New Bremen and Piqua. From his work as a stage driver he was called to the more serious and dangerous vocation of the soldier. August 25, 1862, he enlisted in Company C of the Thirty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Siebert. He participated in several of the campaigns by which the Union forces wrested the control of the Lower Mississippi Valley from the Confederates. He was at the siege and assault upon Vicksburg, at the battle of Jackson, and later at Missionary Ridge. Two of his brothers were in the same company of the same regiment, and still another brother was a soldier in the First Ohio Cavalry. While lie escaped from actual wounds he had many narrow calls and several holes were shot through his blouse and one bullet passed through his hair. The last six months of his service were spent in Columbus, Ohio, where he acted in an official capacity in forwarding substitutes to the front. On being granted his honorable discharge, May 20, 1865, he returned to New Bremen, and in the same year he married Miss Catherine Helwig. Mr. and Mrs. Schulenberg had three children. The daughter Anna is the wife of Edward Langhorst, who is a machinist and lives at New Bremen. The son Herbert now conducts his father's mercantile house at New Bremen and does a large real estate business besides. It is said by his neighbors and associates that he is the busiest man in New Bremen. Herbert Schulenberg married Miss Lulu Taylor, and they are the parents of three children : Cade, who is now a student of electrical engineering in Cincinnati; Elton and Ione, both at home and in school, Ione spending a portion of her time when not in school as cashier of the picture show owned by her father. Frances, the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. William Schulenberg, married Ernst Kuck; they have one child, William Henry. After the war Mr. Schulenberg engaged in business at New. Bremen, but a large part of his rime has been taken up by public duties. He was elected sheriff of Auglaize County and was the first republican ever elected to that office in the county. In 1868 President Grant appointed him postmaster of New Bremen and he filled that office continuously until 1885, being out during the Cleveland administration, and then with the return of the republicans to power he was again appointed by President Harrison. He also filled the post of mayor two terms, has been chief of the fire department and justice of the peace. A lifelong republican, his personal popularity and his well known business integrity have secured him a number of honors in a community strongly democratic. He was made a Mason January 11, 1870, in Union Lodge No. 440, at New Bremen, Ohio. He is now a member of Mercer Lodge No. 121, of St. Mary's, Ohio, and attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry on November 30, 1909, at Dayton, Ohio. He also has membership relations with Kyle Post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Wapakoneta, Ohio. HENRY S. ROSENCRANS. An old and experienced worker in the oil fields, not only in the Ohio district but as far west as the Pacific coast, Henry S. Rosencrans is now settled down to permanent business at Findlay, and is one of the associate partners in the Findlay Vulcanizing Company at 115 East Sandusky Street. He was born at McLennicksville near Oil City in Venango County, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1873. His parents were George S. and Harriet Ann (Speer) Rosencrans. All the education he gained preparatory to taking up the battle of life on his own account was from the country schools. It was as natural for a boy of Western Pennsylvania to enter the oil fields as it is for a youth on the sea shore to become a sailor. Mr. Rosencrans on leaving home went to the 1554 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO oil district of Mercer County, Ohio, and spent seven years there, in the meantime getting some further advantages in the way of schooling. He also lived during part of his boyhood in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and while there he worked on a farm. He continued his farming in Ashtabula County, Ohio, and then became a stationary engineer with the Manhattan Oil Company in Mercer County, Ohio. He spent seven years with that firm, and in 1899 came as their representative to Findlay, where he was employed for eight years as an oil gauger. When this company sold out, Henry Rosencrans started for the California fields, first locating at Coalinga in Fresno County. For six months he was a stationary engineer with one company, and for eight months with the K. W. & Turner Oil Company. After that experience in the Far West, Mr. Rosencrans returned to Findlay and bought from Mr. Titus his interest in the Findlay Vulcanizing Company. That has since been his regular business, his partner being Mr. Kurtz. This company now supplies a service and output for the entire district of Northwestern Ohio, and it is a business which has steadily prospered from the beginning. The firm also maintains an agency for the best makes of automobile tires. Mr. Rosencrans is a democrat. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masonic Lodge and the American Insurance Union. He has some of those rugged qualities that inhere in his German Pennsylvania stock, and success has come to him by hard work. In 1893 he married Anna M. Greenfield, daughter of Tunis and Mary (Snyder) Greenfield. They have one son, Leo S., now twenty years of age, who completed a classical course in the Findlay College and is now on the Pacific Coast. JOHN D. RENSHLER is one of the most widely known business men of Hancock County, and among other interests is proprietor of the Twentieth Century Couch Manufacturing Company at Findlay. A steadfast ambition, hard work, fair dealing and genial goodfellowship have placed him far ahead in the race of life, and have given him a success which he has well deserved. He was born in Amanda Township of Hancock County May 6, 1871, a son of Levi W. and Mary Jane (Harrison) Renshler. His mother was a granddaughter of General Harrison of Tippecanoe fame. Mr. Renshler's mother, who was of Scotch-Irish stock, died in 1914. The father was of German lineage. His early life John D. Renshler spent in Wharton, Wyandotte County, where he acquired his primary education. The family then removed to Findlay, where he continued his schooling until he was fifteen, and he also attended school at Mount Blanchard. As a youth he followed various lines of employment. For five years he worked at a printing case in the offices of the Morning Republican. For two and a half years he had experience in the plumbing business, spent one year in the shoe business, conducted a butcher shop and abattoir for three years, and then took up the undertaking business with Frank M. Barnhart. He spent five years learning this business, and then started for himself at McComb in Hancock County, with only twelve dollars capital. He conducted the business under the partnership title of Bright & Renshler, furniture and undertaking. Though they started on a meager capital they were successful from the start, and hard work brought them a large trade covering the entire county. These partners subsequently bought the establishment of Horace C. Smith at Findlay, and after conducting it for two years Mr. Bright sold his interest to D. H. Thomas and the firm continued as Thomas & Renshler one year. In 1906 Mr. Renshler bought out his partner Thomas and has since been sole proprietor of the business. He now owns a large factory for manufacturing caskets and other special wares of high grade. In 1913 he moved his headquarters to Broadway and has an establishment equipped with motor hearses and limousines for funerals, and the business is now conducted in entirely new quarters, buildings which Mr. Renshler himself has erected. Politically he is progressive and a public spirited citizen at all times. He is a charter member of the Findlay Country Club, is a stockholder in the Shepherd Sanitarium Company and is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Findlay, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at McComb, and with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Tribe of Ben Hur, and Loyal Order of Moose. Mr. Renshler married Harriet R. Lauck, daughter of Michael and Lucinda (Aurand) Lauck, the former of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. There were two children: Nellie O. and Clarence, but the latter died in 1912. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1555 JOHN RUTHRAUFF. Residing in comfortable retirement in his beautiful home at Findlay, Ohio, is a respected and esteemed citizen, John Ruthrauff, who, for many years was one of the city's most active business men. When he came to Findlay, in early manhood, it was to better his fortunes and to build up. a reputation as an industrious, dependable, reliable business man. He was one of the early hardware merchants, a line in which he continued with much expansion until he retired from business after an honorable career that covered forty-six years. John Ruthrauff is of German ancestry and parentage but was born in the United States, in Washington County, Maryland. His parents were John and Mary (Schreiber) Ruthrauff, and his grandfather was Rev. John Ruthrauff, a minister in the Lutheran Church, who was a pioneer and prominent man at Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The grandfather died in Washington County, in 1837, leaving many sons. When the present John Ruthrauff was three years old the family started for Ohio, traveling across the country. in a four-horse prairie schooner. They settled near Canton and bought and occupied a farm. In that section he passed his time until he was nineteen years of age, in the meanwhile attending the country schools which were, at that time, more or less primitive in their methods but nevertheless afforded solid instruction. As his services were not needed on the home farm, young John Ruthrauff left home and made his way to Lima, Ohio, making up his mind to become a merchant. In furtherance of this plan he became a general clerk for the general mercantile firm of King & Kendall and continued with the same firm for five years. In 1855 he came to Findlay and during the next year was a general clerk in the store of Wheeler Brothers. In June, 1856, he embarked in the -hardware business, in partnership with John B. May, under the firm name of May & Ruthrauff, on the west side of Main Street, the location being three doors south of the courthouse. After a period of reasonable success, in 1862 Mr. May sold his interest and Mr. Ruthrauff admitted James T. Adams to a partnership, under the style of Adams & Ruthrauff. Two years later Mr. Adams turned his attention in another direction and disposed of his interest, C. C. Godman becoming the junior partner and the firm continued as Ruthrauff & Godman until 1866. In that year J. D. Cory bought Mr. Godman's interest and the business was continued under the name of Ruthrauff & Cory until 1872, when Mr. Ruthrauff bought his partner's entire interest and continued alone in the business until his permanent retirement in January, 1902. Commenced as a hardware business, it was gradually expanded until it included agricultural implements of all kinds, in its later years devoting large space to this line. Mr. Ruthrauff had additional business connections and still retains interests in the Clarksburg (West Virginia) Glass Company, and the Baker Brothers Glass Company, of ,Okmulgee, Oklahoma. On May 29, 1861, Mr. Ruthrauff was married to Miss Emily Gray, who died May 31, 1913. She was a daughter of Rev. David and Naomi Gray, of Findlay. They had four children as follows : Harry, who died in July, 1864 ; Mary Ellen, who is the wife of U. G. Baker, of Indianapolis, Indiana ; Linda, who remains with her father ; and Frederick G., who resides with his family at Berkeley, California. From the beginning of the republican party as an organization Mr. Ruthrauff has given it his political support, casting his vote for John C. Fremont, its first presidential candidate. He is identified with both the Masons and Odd Fellows. He was reared in the Lutheran faith and is a member of that church at Findlay, belonging to its council board. Many of his name and kindred have been ministers in the Lutheran Church and Mr. Ruthrauff owns a valuable and interesting collection of Bibles and of diaries, the former printed in old Gothic or black letter German type and the latter a family record of the period between 1730 and 1760. Although long since retired from participation in business, Mr. Ruthrauff has by no means lost his interest in passing events, on the other hand keeping abreast of the times as a clear-headed, broad-minded man of the times, one of those whom age has touched kindly. TOBIAS GABRIEL BARNHILL, M. D. Among the leading medical practitioners of Northwestern Ohio is Dr. Tobias Gabriel Barnhill, who has been a resident of Findlay for forty-six years and during forty-three of these has carried on a medical and surgical practice that has made him widely known and has established his reputation especially in the line of surgery. Very often, no doubt, the most earnest physician finds his best efforts baffled because of inability to have a constantly 1556 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO watchful eye, for a season, over a patient, and this situation, in part, explains the reason for able men like Doctor Barnhill establishing sanitariums of their own and subject to their own scientific management. Tobias Gabriel Barnhill was born on his father's farm in Holmes County, Ohio, May 5, 1851. His parents were Joseph and Sarah (Funkhouser) Barnhill. They moved to a farm in Liberty Township, Hancock County, when their son was eighteen months old. The boy grew to manhood on this farm, securing educational training in the district schools and appropriating it sufficiently to enable him to secure a teacher's certificate. He taught country schools in Hancock County for two years before coming to Findlay, in 1870, and for one year afterward read medicine in the office of Doctors Oesterlin and Detweiler. In 1871 he attended the Cleveland Homeopathic College and continued his studies there until he was graduated with the class of 1873, immediately entering into practice at Findlay. Subsequently he took a course in orificial surgery in the Pratt Medical School. In general practice and also along special lines Doctor Barnhill has been very successful. As his field of practice widened he found it desirable to establish a private hospital which has broadened into the widely known Barnhill Sanitarium at Findlay. This institution is fully &quipped according to modern ideas and scientific methods are employed in the treatment of patients, a feature of which are the electric baths. Doctor Barnhill devotes the larger part of his time to his patients, many of whom come long distances to benefit through his skill. Doctor Barnhill was married to Miss Mary Jane Reiminger, in 1874, who is a daughter of Conrad Reiminger. They have one child, Joseph C., who married Dorothy Wetherald, of Findlay, and their two children are Russell and Lillian J. In politics Doctor Barnhill has always been a democrat and is a supporter of the policies of President Wilson. He has never accepted any political office for himself except membership on the school board and one term as county coroner. He owns two valuable farms, one of 178 and the other of eighty acres, both of which are leased. He is a valued member of the Ohio State Homeopathic Association and Institute of Homeopathy. With his family Doctor Barnhill belongs to the First Presbyterian Church at Findlay. CLARENCE L. FLEMING. The foundation of modern business is efficiency. Large capital may be invested and wide commercial relations established, but the success and prosperity of any enterprise of importance rests upon the efforts of the thoroughly trained men who know how to look after the details. Not always, but often, these men are found among the officials of these large concerns, responsibilities which they bear having been placed upon them because of their actual, practical preparation for assuming them. Clarence L. Fleming, assistant secretary of the Ohio Oil Company, at Findlay, Ohio, and private secretary to the president of this large business organization, was born at Emlenton, Venango County, Pennsylvania, August 2, 1880. He is a son of Elias L. and Ida N. (Lawall) Fleming. From childhood Mr. Fleming was accustomed to the surroundings that belong to oil and gas developing territory, as his father for many years was identified with such industries. He attended the common and high schools at Oil City and then felt prepared to become self-supporting. In 1898 he accepted the position of office boy in the Oil City branch of the Ohio Oil Company, continuing until 1900. In the meanwhile he had acquired the art of stenography and when he came to Findlay he found himself well prepared to become the private secretary of the president of the company and soon was made assistant secretary of the concern. In 1907 Mr. Fleming was united in marriage with Miss Nina A. Phelps, who was born at Findlay, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Fleming have one son, William Phelps Fleming. In politics Mr. Fleming has always been a republican. While he has never sought office for himself, he gives hearty support to the party candidates who assume such responsibilities when their activities assure him of their sincerity. He is identified fraternally with the Elks and socially with the Findlay Country Club. With his family he belongs to Trinity Episcopal Church. While not boastful, Mr. Fleming is willing to attribute some of his business advancement to the perseverance, thrift and practicality that are inheritances from his sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. HERMANN LAUT is one of the old time citizens of New Breman, has had a very successful career, and is one of the representative citizens of his community. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1557 He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 29, 1849, a son of Christian and Catherine (Wiegers) Laut. Both parents were natives of Germany, his father a native of Prussia and his mother of Hanover. Christian Laut was born in 1815, and died in 1863. He came to Cincinnati when a young man and was married in that city. His trade of blacksmith he followed for a few years in Cincinnati, and in 1856 removed to New Bremen. He afterward conducted a grocery and saloon business, and was quite successful. Politically he was a republican, and his church was the German Lutheran. Of the ten children, five are now living : Hermann ; Henry J. C., in the saloon business at New Bremen ; John, a cigar manufacturer at New Bremen ; Sena, wife of Fred Ende, a New Bremen jeweler; and Gottlieb, a barber at Columbus, Ohio. Hermann Laut attended the public schools of New Bremen, where he has lived since 'he was seven years of age. His first business experience was in the grocery and saloon kept by his father, and for forty-four years he was a retail liquor man at New Bremen. Since then he has conducted a billiard and lunch room in association with his sons. In 1870 he married Dorothy Purpus, who was born in Germany, daughter of Louis Purpus, who settled in New Bremen on coming to the United States, and died there. In Germany he followed the trade of brewer. Mr. Purpus married Louise Kohn. Mr. and Mrs. Laut had eleven children, and eight are now living. Emil is in business with his father at New Bremen. Robert is a saloon man at Cincinnati. Frank. H. is in the business at New Bremen. Leona is the wife of Daniel Headapohl, a farmer in Auglaize County. Hulda is the wife of Ralph Heffner, of Celina, Ohio. Esther is the wife of Charles Moore, cashier of the First National Bank of Paulding, Ohio. Louise is at home. Hermann, Jr., is a graduate of the local schools with the class of 1917. The family are active members of the German Lutheran Church. Mr. Laut is a member of the Elks Lodge, is a democrat in politics, has served as township trustee, township treasurer, member of the town council. He is president of the Concordia Building and Loan Association at New Bremen, and is a director in the First National and First City Bank. LEWIS C. DODGE. The growing of grapes is an old industry, its history being traceable Vol. III-15 as far back as human records go. In some lands grape culture outdistances every other occupation. It is not possible, however, to produce acceptable commercial grapes on all soils. One necessity is water, an abundance of water, and this, with a proper combination of chemical soil constituents, make grape growing in the islands off the Ohio coast, in Lake Erie, exceedingly profitable. Ohio is not very old in the industry, probably the first successful attempts to grow wine grapes can yet be recalled by the oldest citizens. At Middle Bass, in season, the sweet wild fragrance of grapes fills the land and business is at its height in the vineyards. A well known and very successful grape grower here is Lewis C. Dodge, who devotes his entire sixteen acres to his vines. Lewis C. Dodge was born April 15, 1852, in Dane County, Wisconsin, not far from Madison. His father was Nathan Dodge, who died in 1869. In 1865 the Dodge family left Wisconsin, spending that winter in Northern Illinois, but in the following spring moved to Ohio and on April 10, 1866, they reached Putin-Bay. After a residence of two years here, Nathan Dodge bought land on East Point, Middle Bass Island, where he went into the business of growing grapes, but his death occurred before he had made much progress. Lewis C. Dodge attended the Middle Bass schools as opportunity offered and assisted his father in the vineyard and also went into the fishing industry. ' After his father's death he continued to work the vineyard for his mother as long as she needed his services. After his own marriage he bought his present property at Middle Bass and now devotes his main attention to grapes, cultivating such fine Catawbas as to bring large prices in the market. He followed fishing, during the season, for about twenty years. In 1877 Mr. Dodge was married to Miss Angeline Girardin, of Leamington, Ontario, and they had the following children : Nora, who is the wife of Brayton C. Lambert, of St. Louis, Missouri ; Nathan and Nellie, twins, the former of whom died at Denver, Colorado, September 1, 1904, when aged twenty-one years, and the latter of whom is the wife of Hugo Wagner, who is a resident of Put-inBay ; Nina P., who is the wife of E. H. Ritter, of Toledo, Ohio ; Harvey and Harold, twins, the former of whom married and lives at Detroit, Michigan, and the latter married and is at home giving his father assistance ; and Edith L., who died at Cleveland, Ohio, June 1558 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO 8, 1905, aged eighteen years. Mrs. Dodge died at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, December 1, 1904. In politics Mr. Dodge is a republican. When but twenty-one years old he was elected a member of the school board and served continuously for twenty years. He is identified with the Odd Fellows. Mr. Dodge and his son are doing well with their vineyards and further prosperity probably awaits this industry, for thousands have learned that not only is the grape a wholesome and grateful food, but that it possesses medicinal properties that go far to prolong life. RICHARD JASON BERRY. For more than a quarter of a century Richard Jason Berry has been identified with the oil industry at Findlay, and during this time has become one of the best known figures in the business in Ohio and Indiana. When he first came to this city, in 1891, he associated himself with the Ohio Oil Company, a concern with which he has continued to be connected during his entire career, and of which company he is now general superintendent and director. - Mr. Berry was born at Oil City, Pennsylvania, in 1873, and is a son of Jason and Phoebe (Parker) Berry. His father came of a family of Maine Yankees, while his mother's family was of English stock, and at the outset of his career Mr. Berry had the advantage of good ancestry to aid him. His early education was securedin the public schools of Oil City, where he completed his high school course and was graduated,. and in that same year, 1891, came to Findlay, Ohio. Upon his arrival, he accepted a position in the office of the ,Ohio Oil Company, one of the largest oil producers in the United States, and here through fidelity and ability soon won promotion. By various stages he worked his way up through the ranks until in 1910 he was made general superintendent of the company, in charge of Ohio and Indiana. Among his associates, Mr. Berry is accounted a keen business man, thoroughly conversant with the oil industry and alive to its opportunities. He has various other business interests, among which may be mentioned the Electric Construction and Motor Company of Findlay, which has three stores, and of which concern he is secretary. In political matters he is a republican, but aside from feeling a good citizen's interest in the election of strong and honest men to office and the passage of good laws, he takes little part in public affairs. He is a member of the Findlay Country Club, belongs also to the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. His friends in business and social circles are numerous. Mr. Berry was married in 1902 to Miss Marie Dodge, daughter of Edward W. Dodge of Columbus, Ohio. The greatest loss suffered in Mr. Berry 's career was that of his only son, Richard, a bright and promising lad of eight years, who was accidentally killed. MATHIAS BURGGRAF. One of the most successful vineyardists on Put-in-Bay Island is Mathias Burggraf. Mr. Burggraf has been identified with this industry since it was introduced to the islands of this section and it would be only putting into words a fair and just judgment to state that the Burggraf vineyards are not excelled in general condition of upkeep and productivity by any found on these islands. Mr. Burggraf represents one of the very early families that settled in this section of Ohio and a number of points of pioneer history can be suggested by reference to some of . te incidents of the family life here. Mr. Burggraf was born at Wolf-in-Water, Baden, Germany, April 2, 1851. His parents. were Mathias and Mary Ann (Schmidt) Burggraf. The Grandfather Burggraf took too prominent a part in the revolutionary uprising of 1848 to make further living in Germany comfortable and Mathias, Sr., determined to seek a home in the New World. He arrived in New York in 1849. He had come alone to America, leaving behind his own property, some property of his wife, and his wife and children. He left this property under the care of his brother. In the end it had to be sold for only a small part of its real value. Mrs. Burggraf and her two children came to America about 1854, and joined the father at Sandusky. At Sandusky he was employed for a time by General Lindsay, and then spent three years working on Kelleys Island. It was still in the decade of the '50s when the Burggraf family came to South Bass Island. There Mathias, Sr., bought fifteen acres of land on East Point., He cleared that up and followed farming there until the cultivation of grapes was introduced and he then developed it completely as a vineyard. When the Burggraf family came to South Bass Island there were only three or four permanent houses besides a number of log shacks. The Burggrafs themselves lived for several years in a one-room log house with a HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1559 dirt floor, and with all the simplest conveniences and equipment. The island at that time was covered with native timber, and some of the finest trees that ever grew could be found there. There were oak trees four feet in diameter and also large giants of elm and ash. This timber had to be cleared before any regular cultivation of the soil could be attempted. From the modern standpoint the process of clearing involved a gigantic loss of valuable wood and lumber. The convenience of the timber to shipping facilities caused large quantities of the better timber to be rafted to Buffalo, where it was worked up as ship timber, and large quantities of cordwood were sold for fuel. However, much that remained and which would be extremely valuable at the present time was heaped in great piles and burned. Cordwood that cost from 50 to 60 cents to cut had to be sold at the beach at only 75 cents the cord. In the early days the island had only one horse. He was named Old Bill and he had some peculiar habits that made him rather unreliable as a work -horse. He .was given to frequent running away. Mathias Burggraf, Sr., introduced one of the very first yoke of oxen on the island. For a year or so he worked along at clearing and cultivating as best he could, but had reached almost the limit of his patience and strength and thought that he could work no longer without a horse or ox. He was unable to raise cash for buying any of these work animals, but finally his wife told him one day that she had a few pieces of gold left from the store she had brought from Germany, and this money was used in purchasing a pair of oxen named Buck and Bright. All the Burggraf children have interesting memories of these two patient work animals, and they helped to plow and cultivate many acres on the island in the early days. The Burggraf home was built on a round knoll, which subsequently turned out to be an Indian mound. When excavation was made for a cellar a human skeleton was found buried in charcoal. Two giant trees, one an oak fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter and the other a cedar fully as large as any tree on the island, were growing on the top of the mound, and these trees were an evidence of the antiquity of the burial mound. Mathias, Sr., followed grape growing on the old homestead and spent the rest of his life there. Since his death his son Henry has bought the homestead. The children of Mathias and Mary (Schmidt) Burggraf were : Caroline, who was born in Germany and is now Mrs. Fred Bretz of Middle Bass Island; Mathias ; Fred W., who is living retired at Put-in-Bay ; Mary, who died when fourteen years of age ; Henry, a successful grape grower at the old homestead at East Point of South Bass. Mr. Mathias Burggraf has spent practically all his years since very early childhood on these islands, and his early experience proved of great value to him when he took up the business of grape growing. He lives on East Point, where he owns and has 'about fifteen acres cultivated to grapes. He married Miss Louise Sherer, daughter of Jacob Sherer of Sandusky. They have a son, George, who is in business for himself as a grape grower at East Point, and George by his marriage to Emma Schaffer has a son, Mathias, born in 1908. Mr. Burggraf has always been interested in local affairs, served twenty years on the school board, and has taken a prominent part in the local Episcopal Church, having served as church treasurer for twenty years. In politics he is a democrat. MCMILLAN TAYLOR. Two vocations, banking and farming, have occupied the activities of McMillan Taylor, of Genoa, since his entrance upon his career. In each direction he has achieved a full and satisfying measure of success, being at this time the operator of 220 acres of excellent farming land located in Clay Township, and also holding the position of president of one of Ottawa County's strong financial institutions, the Genoa Banking Company. Mr. Taylor has been a lifelong resident of this locality and is known as an energetic and reliable citizen who has done his full share in developing the community. McMillan Taylor was born at Genoa, Ottawa County, Ohio, December 12, 1868, and is a son of Torbet Patterson and Dorcas M. (Wood) Taylor. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Ohio in 1853 and settled on a farm in Clay Township, Ottawa County, which he developed, and to which he added from time to time until he accumulated 220 acres. On the northeast corner of this farm the Village of Genoa was established, this beginning as a small hamlet and rapidly assuming large proportions until it now is known as one of the thriving and prosperous communities of this part of the county. Mr. Taylor took an active part in civic affairs, serving first as trustee of the township, later becoming a member of the 1560 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO school board, then serving as corporation clerk, and finally being elected the first mayor of Genoa, a capacity in which he served for several terms during which Genoa experienced rapid growth and progress.. While he gave the greater part of his attention to farming, he was successful also in other lines of endeavor, and was the prime mover in the founding of the Genoa Banking Company, of which he served for seven years as president, a position which he held at the time of his demise. His death occurred in 1910, at the age of eighty-three years, after a long, successful and useful career, in which he won and retained the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. Mrs. Taylor, a native of New York State, still resides at the old home at Genoa. After attending the public schools of Genoa, McMillan Taylor pursued a course in the Genoa Business College, and then returned to the home farm, where he became associated with his father in his activities. He has always been interested in farming, and now has his 220-acre property under a high state of cultivation, with improvements of a modern character and large, handsome and substantial buildings, one of the model country properties of Ottawa County. At the time of his father's death, in 1910, Mr. Taylor succeeded to the presidency of the Genoa Banking Company, the interests of which he has promoted through careful, businesslike and conservative operation. This institution, which is located on a part of the old Taylor homestead, enjoys a high reputation in banking circles and attracts depositors from all over the county. Like his father, Mr. Taylor has shown an active and helpful interest in civic and township affairs, and for two years has served as a member of the board of trustees of Clay Township. On July 7, 1887, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Ella May Green, who was born in Michigan and reared at Genoa, Ohio, daughter of George W. and Augustine ( Cooper) Green. GEORGE WASHINGTON RHONEHOUSE, M. D., who was born in the City of Sandusky, Ohio, February 2, 1851, was graduated in medicine from the Cleveland Homeopathic College in March, 1881, and a few weeks later he arrived at Maumee, where now for more than thirty-five years he has steadily practiced and has enjoyed some of the most enviable distinctions of the capable physician and surgeon. His reputation extends all over this section of Northwest Ohio. Besides his professional ability he is known as a popular and genial gentleman, and his public spirit has had much to do with the improvement and advancement of Maumee and locality during the past. Doctor Rhonehouse is a member of the Ohio State Homeopathic Medical Society, the Northwestern Ohio Homeopathic Medical Society, and is one of the foremost representatives of the homeopathic school in the state. He is a son of Henry and Mary (Brown) Rhonehouse. They have five children, Doctor Rhonehouse being the second. Conrad A., the oldest, was in the employ of the United States Express Company at Sandusky for a number of years. Anna is the wife of Edward Smith of Youngstown, Ohio. John is in the boot and shoe business at Cleveland. One of the children died in infancy. Henry Rhonehouse, who was born in Germany, received a very thorough education in his native language. On reaching manhood he became a traveling salesman, and followed that occupation in Germany for a number of years. Coming to the United States, he lived for a time in New York, but soon decided to seek a permanent home in the West. At Sandusky he engaged in the warehouse business, and had become fairly well established when death took him away at the age of thirty-six years. His wife, though a native of the United States, was of German ancestry, her parents having come to America when they were young. Mrs. Henry Rhonehouse died at her home in Sandusky in 1864 at the age of forty. Doctor Rhonehouse was four years of age when his father died and about twelve when he lost his mother. There being no relatives of the family in this country, the children grew up in separate homes, and Doctor Rhone-house spent a number of years on the farm of E. B. Darling. The successful attainments of his later years have been almost entirely the product of his own energies and ambitions. As a boy he attended public school and later the high school at Sandusky. He was about twenty years of age when he first took up the study of medicine, in the office of Dr. Edward Dillard, then a prominent physician at Sandusky. He did not have the capital to pursue his studies consecutively, and while reading medicine in the winter he supported himself by clerking in a hotel during the summer months. He finally was granted a license and for two years practiced in Urbana, Ohio. In 1878 he entered the Homeopathic College at Cleveland HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1561 and completed his course and graduated in March, 1881. During his residence at Maumee Doctor Rhonehouse served ten years as member of the board of education and twice during that time was president of the board. He is affiliated with Northern Light Lodge No. 40, Free and Accepted Masons, at Maumee, Fort Miami Chapter No. 194, Royal Arch Masons, and is a member of the Toledo Automobile Club, the Maumee Improvement Association, and is a director in the State Savings Bank of Maumee. In politics he has always been a republican. In 1900 Doctor Rhonehouse bought one of the notable landmarks of old Maumee, the Reuben Mitchell home. He acquired this property from the heirs, and has since lived in that place with all its interesting associations with early days in Maumee. Doctor Rhonehouse was first married September 21, 1881, a few months after he came to Maumee to take up practice, to Miss Tamerzon Waite Lewis, daughter of L. W. Lewis of Sandusky. On other pages are given brief sketches of the two sons of this marriage, Lovell B. 'and Dr. William Lewis Rhonehouse. The mother of these sons died at Maumee September 20, 1901, the day President McKinley was buried. In 1903 Doctor Rhonehouse married Miss Flora B. Stanley, of Maumee, who died August .28, 1912. For about six years before her mar. riage she had been a matron of the Lucas County Children's Home. On July 1, 1914, Doctor Rhonehouse married Miss Alice Stratton, whose early home was at Andover, Ohio. She also had been connected with the Lucas County Children's Home at Maumee, having been matron there for twelve years before her marriage. J. M. DAY, M. D. While Doctor Day has long enjoyed the prestige of the thoroughly skillful and able physician at Waynesfield, his reputation is now widely extended all over Auglaize County. He handles a general practice, attends his cases all over the country around Waynesfield, and is regarded as specially expert in the handling of cases of tuberculosis. Doctor Day is a member of the Allen County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Northwestern Ohio Society, the Northwestern Tri-State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was born near McConnellsville, Ohio, November 7, 1875, a son of J. 0. and Joanna (Taylor) Day. His grandparents, William and Margaret (Beatty) Day, were born on the line between Virginia and Pennsylvania, and late in life they moved to Urbana, Ohio, about 1870, and then retired to Oliver Springs, Tennessee, where they lived until death. William Day was a Baptist minister and school teacher. The maternal grandparents were James Madison and Nancy J. (Bell) Taylor. She died in Morgan County, Ohio, while James M. Taylor is still living at the extreme age of ninety-six. His father in the early days hauled freight between Baltimore and Marietta, Ohio. That was in the days when no railroads crossed the Allegheny Mountains and when all traffic was over the Cumberland Road and its tributaries. Both of Doctor Day's parents are still living. His father was born at Front Royal, Virginia, in 1848, and his mother was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1852. They were married in Morgan County, and for a number of years J. 0. Day was a traveling salesman and also had a store of his own. He began life as a teacher, was well educated and finally locating at Marietta, Ohio, he traveled out of that city for twenty-one years. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Consistory Mason, having taken his first 'degrees in that order when a young man. He took his Scottish Rite work in Cincinnati. He is now practically retired and he and his wife spend their winters in the South. Doctor Day acquired his early education in Marietta. In 1889 he entered the academy there, from which he was graduated in 1893 and in 1897 he graduated B. A. from Marietta College. Having made a definite choice of the medical profession, he became a student in Starling Medical College at Columbus, where he completed the course in 1902. The summer of 1903 was spent in further work at the Chicago Post-Graduate School of Medicine. For two years Doctor Day practiced at Lowell, Ohio, and in September, 1904, came to Waynesfield, where he engaged in practice with Doctor Turner. On the death of Doctor Turner he succeeded to the entire practice and for several years he has had all the business he could attend to. Doctor Day has made a specialty in the treatment of tuberculosis and his success in that line has made him well known all over the county. In December, 1904, Doctor Day married Mrs. Erna Geddes. Her one daughter, Helen M. Geddes, by her first marriage, is living at home, and is a young woman of many talents. She is a graduate of the Waynesfield High 1562 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO School, and while there she was the editor of the high school paper. She has shown great proficiency in music as a violinist, having taken special instruction at Lima, and plays that instrument with skill and spirit. Doctor and Mrs. Day have one child of their own, Mary, now six years of age. The family are members of the Methodist Protestant Church and Doctor Day has filled all the chairs in his Masonic Lodge and belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter. Politically he is a republican, and for a number of years, has served as a county committeeman. FRANK J. WARNER has compressed a great volume of substantial activity into his comparatively brief career, and is now enjoying life retired from the heavy pressure of duties in his home at Grelton in Henry County. He was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, May 7, 1861, and would still be considered a man just in the prime of his years. He comes of old Pennsylvania stock. His grandparents, Jacob and Catherine Warner, were natives of that state, and in the early days they became settlers in Sandusky County, Ohio, when that now populous region had very few inhabitants. They were substantial farmers there and both died when they were sixty years of age. They spent about ten years in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, but then returned to Sandusky County as their final home. Samuel Warner, father of Frank J., was born in Sandusky County about 1830. He grew up there, and married Sarah Henry, who was also a native of the same county. Her family were also Pennsylvania people and her parents spent the rest of their days in Sandusky County, where they were early farmer settlers. Both the Warners and the Henrys were republicans in politics. About the time Frank J. Warner was born his father enlisted for service in the Civil war in a hundred days' organization. After his return home he took up farming and some years later removed to Perry Township in Wood County, Ohio. Mr. Frank T. Warmer grew up in Wood County, and in 1890 moved to Harrison Township of Henry County. There he bought eighty acres of partly improved land in section 25, and followed out a very progressive and intensive plan of cultivation and improvement. He erected a nine-room house, a barn 40 by 60 feet, and was soon prospering. Later he bought and still owns sixty acres in the same township and in the same section. This is likewise improved with -good farm buildings. Mr. Warner has twelve acres within the village limits of Grelton, and his home there is an eight-room house and, though practically retired, he finds plenty to occupy his attention in his town home and estate. His parents came to Henry County in 1902, and lived in Napoleon until the death of his father in 1908. Had his father lived to the following August he would have celebrated his seventieth birthday. The widowed mother then returned to live with her maiden daughter, Minnie, in Wood County, and is now seventy-five years of age. The Warners have been active members of the Methodist Church, and Samuel Warner was a republican. For ten years he filled the office of trustee in Perry Township of Wood County. In Bloom Township of Wood County Frank J. Warner married Miss Clara A. Apple. She was born in that township August 18, 1864, and was reared and educated there. Her parents, William and Catherine (Meyers) Apple, were born in Pennsylvania and were early settlers in Wood County, locating on a farm. Her father, Mr. Apple, died there at the age of seventy-two and her mother is now living at the age of seventy-seven. The Apples were also Methodists, but Mrs. Warner's father was a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Warner have two children. Walter, who occupies his father's homestead in Harrison Township and is a very industrious and successful farmer, first married Miss Della Jackson. She died as a result of the shock occasioned by the drowning of her oldest child, Paul. She left a daughter, Leota. Walter Warner married for his present wife Miss Retta Skinner of Harrison Township, and by that marriage there is a son, ,Raymond. Zola, the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Warner, is the wife of Ralph Balmer, who is connected with the Peruguine Oil Company at Gibsonburg in Sandusky County; they have a daughter, Marian. Mr. and Mrs. Warner are both prominent people in Grelton, and he is a charter member and has filled some of the chairs in Lodge No. 239, Knights of Pythias, in that village. JAMES K. BROWN. A life of unusual activity and accomplishment was that of the late James K. Brown, one of the sterling citizens of Henry County, who died at his home on Meekinson Street in Napoleon April 6, 1916. He was then past eighty-eight years of age. From the age of twelve .he had been self-sup- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1563 porting, and for fully three-quarters of a century had lived in Henry County. Beginning only with such capital as his boyhood strength could earn he pursued a course of constant industry for many years, and accumulated a modest fortune. At the same time he grew in strength of character, in the ability to do good to others, and gained a reputation not only for his work but also for the possession of wisdom in a high degree. He was born in Perry County, Ohio, December 8, 1827, a son of David and Mary (Kreger) Brown. His parents were Pennsylvanians by birth, but came as early settlers to Ohio and were married in Muskingum County. They lived on a farm in that county and also in Morgan County and subsequently moved to Morrow County, where the mother died when James K. was nine years of age, and two years later David Brown, who in the meantime had moved to Iowa, also passed away. They were people of steady habits and David Brown spent a number of years as a teacher. From the age of ten James K. Brown was dependent upon his own resources. By the time he was twelve years of age he Was managing a farm, and sold his crop at the very low prices then prevailing for farm produce. In 1839 he came to Henry County and with a cash capital of $25 purchased forty acres of wild land near Holgate, and in the meantime worked for others and earned another $25. With this he bought a tract of forty acres adjoining his first purchase and subsequently sold that and bought a mill in the Village of Florida. He was a successful miller there for one year, and then located on land in Harrison Township, where he began to make real progress toward success. In time he acquired and developed an estate of 340 acres, some of the finest land in that section of Henry County, and his son is a grower of all the staple crops and also of sugar beets. On his farm he erected a very commodious and attractive twelve-room house, surrounded with stock and grain barns and other buildings. He was one of the leading stock raisers for many years, and was peculiarly successful in the handling of all kinds of livestock, sheep, cattle, horses and hogs. He became one of the well known men of the county, was very active as a Methodist and politically was a republican. All this he accomplished with the handicap of an educational deficiency which was more than made up for by a training in the classical virtues of thrift, industry and honesty. He was a hard worker and up till the time he was nearly eighty years of age gave active attendance to his crops and until the last year of his life worked his own garden. When he was very old he was thrown from his buggy and suffered an injury which materially limited his activities and contributed to his death. For a few years he lived retired in Napoleon, having erected a substantial nine-room house on Meekinson Street, where he died and where Mrs. Brown still resides. In 1848 Mr. Brown married for his first wife Deborah Johns. She was born in Morrow County. Ohio. in 1824, and died in 1861. Her children were Mary E., who died unmarried ; Wilson, who lives in Napoleon and by his marriage to Jessie Randall has two children, Nettie and Ottie ; Daniel J., who was born in 1852, died in 1873 ; James Albert now occupies the old homestead farm and by his marriage to Lavina Bales has children named Bessie, Ralph, Vernol, Alonzo and Eva ; George W. went out with the Sixty-eighth Ohio Infantry for service in the Civil war and as a result of illness died at Nashville in 1865, being at that time unmarried ; Millie is the wife of David Huffer of Liberty Township, and her son, Arthur, is married and has six children. In 1866 Mr. Brown married Rebecca McCormick, widow of a soldier. She died in 1880, leaving no children. The present Mrs. Brown, who occupies the old home in Napoleon, was before marriage Pauline Baker. She married Mr. Brown March 26, 1896. She was born in Huron County, Ohio, in Clarksfield Township, July 1, 1838. She was reared and educated there and is a daughter of Benjamin and Nancy (Hackett) Baker. Her father was born in 1805 and her mother in 1810, both in Otsego County, New York. After their marriage there they moved to Ohio, lived in different localities, and her father died at McConnellsville in Morgan County, some months before Mrs. Brown was born. The latter's mother subsequently moved to Huron County. Mrs. Brown was married in 1856 to Robert Lester. Mr. Lester answered two calls for patriotic service in the time of the Rebellion. He was first in the hundred days' service, in the Sixty-fourth Ohio Regiment, and then was with the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment and saw much hard fighting. He was wounded between the battles of Franklin, Tennessee, and also at Spring Hill, and died soon afterwards in 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky, never 1564 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO having reached home. Mrs. Brown by her first marriage had the following children : Marshall Lester, who died leaving a daughter, Millie, now the wife of Christ Able and the mother of three children ; Mary G., who died in childhood ; Sherman C. Lester, who is married and lives in Toledo, having seven children ; Nancy, born June 23, 1863, died December 5, 1891, and by her marriage to Henry R. Pelton had three children, Ethel M., Maggie and Fred. Of the Pelton children, Ethel, who was born in Fulton County, Ohio, educated herself as a trained nurse and is now living with her grandmother, Mrs. Brown. Maggie Pelton married William E. Gerst and lives in Toledo, and her brother, Fred, lives at Delta. Henry R. Pelton, after the death of his first wife, married again and is now living at Delta, Ohio, and has a family of four sons and four daughters. BOSTON GILSON. In the course of a long life Boston Gilson has had many interesting associations with Henry County. He is a native of Northwest Ohio, and has lived in Henry County over three score and ten years. It was the home of his youth and mature manhood, and from it he went forth to bravely battle for his country when the Union was in danger during the dark days of the '60s. He has made his career one of usefulness and real service in every responsibility to which he has been called. Mr. Gilson is now living retired at 636 West Clinton Street in Napoleon. He came from his farm to this city in March, 1912. He was born in Holmes County, Ohio, July 30, 1841, and is of old New York State stock. His grandfather William Gilson came out of New York State and became a pioneer in Wayne County, Ohio, where he improved a farm, and where he died February 17, 1839. His wife also died there, and was in advanced years. These were pioneers in every sense of the word. They not only came to new land and helped to develop it, but they brought with them the substantial virtues of thrift, energy, a high sense of honor and contributed in many ways to the upbuilding of the state. The parents of Boston Gilson were Richard and Sophia (Cline) Gilson. Richard Gilson was born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 28, 1809. On November 1, 1832, he was married in that county to Sophia Cline. She was born at New Philadelphia, Ohio, December 1, 1813. These dates indicate very well the early establishment of these families in Ohio. They came more than a century ago when Ohio was still a very new state and when practically all the northern half was an unbroken wilderness. Sophia Cline was the daughter of Thomas Cline, who as a pioneer improved a farm at New Philadelphia and died there when quite old. Richard Gilson and wife after their marriage began farming in Holmes County, and while living there six children were born to them : William, born in July, 1833 ; Thomas, born March 17, 1835 ; David, born May 2, 1837 ; James, born June 10, 1839, and died at the age of thirteen months; Boston, born July 30, 1841; Reese, born July 29, 1844. In September, 1844, a few weeks after the birth of the last named.child, the parents made the removal to Henry County. Henry County was then just being developed. They made the journey by way of teams to Maumee and thence came up the canal and River Road. Napoleon when they arrived was a village of a few log cabins, and from there they followed a trail to the government land Richard Gilson secured in section 9 of Napoleon Township. The family lived in their wagons until the log cabin home could be built. The first home of the Gilsons in Henry County was one of primitive comforts and construction. It had a puncheon floor, the door was hung on wooden hinges, the roof was covered with clapboards held down by heavy weight poles, and at one end of the cabin rose a mud and stick chimney with a large fireplace. Such a home seventy years ago did not betoken poverty or shiftlessness. In fact practically all the sterling pioneer families lived in similar accommodations. Theirs was a plain and frugal diet. The wild game which abounded in the woods and on the prairies supplied practically all the meat consumed, and bread was made from the coarse grist of the local mills. The fare such as it was was plentiful, and doubtless there was as little hunger in that section of Northwestern Ohio as can be found in the more pretentious modern times. The old log cabin soon gave way and was replaced by a hewed log house. That was a rather pretentious dwelling, but it again in turn was supplanted by a substantial frame house. The log barn was also followed by a good bank barn. That barn is still standing. It was built in 1861 on a foundation 35 by 60 feet, though some improvements have since been made by Boston Gilson, who still owns the old eighty acre homestead. This is one of the homes that show the continuous improvement and labor of a single HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1565 family for over three score years. The soil is still productive and fertile and it is one of the best of Henry County homesteads. In this locality Richard Gilson and his good wife spent many years of hard work, assisted by their growing children. Richard Gilson died there September 10, 1870. After that his widow continued to reside in the home until her death on January 19, 1888, at the age of seventy-four. After the death of his parents Mr. Boston Gilson bought out the interests of the other heirs and now owns this fine old home which he helped to develop from wilderness conditions. After the parents came to Henry County the following' children were born on the old farm : Mary, born April 10, 1846, and died in infancy ; Sophia, who was born September 28, 1848, and died in October, 1875 ; Eliza, born October 8, 1850, and died in 1864 ; Frank, born November 27, 1862, and now living retired in Wauseon ; Elmer, born September 4, 1854, a carpenter living on Scott Street in Napoleon and the father of a family. Of those born in Holmes County the only two now living are Boston and his brother Reese, the latter a retired farmer in St. John's, Michigan. Boston Gilson grew up on the old homestead, and after purchasing it he supplied many improvements and converted it into a splendid home before he retired and removed to Napoleon. He had just about reached the age of manhood when the war broke out. On November 10, 1862, he enlisted in Company G of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. For nearly three years he was in active service and finally received his honorable discharge July 18, 1865. The One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio was raised and organized at Cleveland, two companies being secured from Napoleon and vicinity. Mr. Gilson's captain was Captain Powell, and his colonel 0. H. Payne, both of Cleveland. The regiment was in the Army of the Cumberland, being in the pioneer corps, in the Second Brigade, Third Division and Fourth Army Corps. Mr. Gilson was a brave and gallant soldier. He was with his regiment in every battle and skirmish and only once received a slight wound. He took part in those campaigns by which the states of Tennessee, Kentucky and Northern Georgia were cleared of the Confederacy. He participated in. some fifteen or twenty battles. He was at Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, was in the Atlanta campaign which was a scene of almost continuous fighting for several months, and then accompanied General Thomas back to Tennessee and the campaign which terminated with the complete defeat of Hood in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. Mr. Gilson was one of those selected to float down the river from Chattanooga to Brown's Ferry in open boats one dark night and complete a pontoon bridge for a passage of the Union troops. For six hours in these boats they were exposed to the rebel sentries along the banks but remained undiscovered and accomplished the purpose for which they were sent. Mr. Gilson has always been a popular member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is now serving as inner guard of Post No. 66. On October 17, 1876, in Monroe, Michigan, Mr. Gilson married Maria Rhodes. She was born in Stark County, Ohio, March 22, 1860, a daughter of David and Margaret (Withrow) Rhodes. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and her mother in Stark County and they were married in the latter locality. They died in the prime of life when their only child, Mrs. Gilson, was quite young. Mrs. Gilson was reared by her maternal grandparents George and Catherine (Davis) Withrow, who came to Napoleon in Henry County in 1865, locating on a farm in Napoleon Township. George Withrow died here at the age of eighty-one and his wife at the age of seventy-five. Mrs. Gilson was reared in the faith of the Christian Church and is still an active member. Mr. Gilson is a democrat in politics. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gilson were born the following children : Sophia, born January 12, 1877, is now a clerk in a store at Napoleon. Charles D., born May 8, 1879, died May 26, 1905, leaving a son Frank C. by his marriage to Laura Harmon. Albert A. was born August 9, 1881, and died August 19, 1901, unmarried. Nellie, born November 4, 1883, married for her first husband William H. Travers, who died leaving Virgil, who was born and died in 1902, and David 0., who is now thirteen years of age ; Nellie married for her second husband Frank Fisher, and they live in Napoleon and have a daughter Elsie M., born June 11, 1907. Cora B., born November 22, 1886, is the wife of Charles Felton of Napoleon, and their children are Edward D., now five years of age, and Kenneth, who died in infancy. Elsie, born February 1, 1890, is the wife of Henry Sonneberg, a farmer in Napoleon Township, and to their marriage was 1566 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO born a son Donald. Pearl, born July 4, 1891, is still living at home with her parents. Blanche L., born March 19, 1893, is the wife of Tracy Lowry, and has a son Raymond G., born in 1912. Ethel C., born October 2, 1896, is a graduate of the Napoleon High School and is a successful and popular teacher. Laura E., born August 19, 1898, is the wife of Clement Suydam, living on a farm. in Napoleon Township. Mr. and Mrs. Gilson and nearly all their family are active members of the Methodist Church. Politically he is a democrat. For seven years he served as township trustee, for a long time was a director of his local school district, and he was one of the directors of the County Infirmary, of Henry County. HERMAN GERKEN. The distinctive success which this well known citizen of Napoleon, Henry County, has achieved represents the direct result of his own ability, ambition and determined efforts, which have brought to him secure place as one of the progressive and influential business men of this thriving little city, where he controls a substantial and important enterprise as a contractor in varied lines of cement work. Mr. Gerken was born in Adams Township, Defiance County, Ohio, on the 20th of July, 1870, and takes justifiable pride in his sterling German lineage. He is a son of Henry and Mary (Vorwerk) Gerken, both of whom were born in Baden, Germany, as members of fine old Lutheran families of that section of the great Teutonic Empire. They were reared and educated in their native land and soon after their marriage they manifested their ambition and self-reliance by coming to the United States, where they felt assured of better opportunities of winning for themselves independence and prosperity. They voyaged from the port of Bremen to that of New York City on a sailing vessel, and eight weeks elapsed ere the latter port witnessed their arrival. Within a short time they continued their journey to Henry County, Ohio, and established their home on a farm in Napoleon Township. While giving his close attention to the reclaiming and improvement of his land Mr. Gerken found also profitable employment at his trade, that of carpenter, and thus was able to fortify himself more fully for the gaining of success of substantial order. To his original purchase, of forty acres, he later added a tract of sixty-six acres, and after improving this property he finally sold the same to advantage and removed to Defiance County, where he bought a farm of 120 acres, in section 18, Adams Township. This place he developed into one of the fine farms of that county, and there he passed the remainder of his life as an energetic and prosperous agriculturist and stock-grower and as a citizen who commanded unqualified popular esteem. His first wife, mother of the subject of this review, died in 1878, when comparatively a young woman, and later he wedded Mrs. Mary (Went) Yoths, who was born in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, where was solemnized her marriage to Henry Went, with whom she came to America and established a home in Defiance County, Ohio, where her first husband died, leaving her with a family of one son and four daughters. By her second marriage Mrs. Gerken became the mother of two daughters, both of whom are now married and still residents of Defiance County. To 'Henry and Mary (Vorwerk) Gerken were born eight children, all of whom are living except one and all of whom are married except the eldest, Herman, of this review, having been the third in order of birth. Henry Gerken died in the fall of 1912, at the age of seventy-nine years, four months and three days, and his widow still resides in Defiance County. Under the invigorating influences and discipline of the old homestead farm Herman Gerken was reared to adult age, and in the meanwhile he profited duly from the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native township. He continued to be associated with the work of his father's farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-two years, when he turned his attention to learning the carpenter's trade. He became a skilled workman and for a number of years followed the work of his trade as a journeyman. He then became a contractor in the line of his trade, but after doing a successful business for a period of two years he met with an accident that so injured his arm as to make it impossible for him to do further active work as .a carpenter. Under these conditions he wisely consulted ways and means and finally engaged in business as a cement contractor. In this field he has found ample scope and opportunity fbr effective enterprise and he continued his activities in his native county until 1902, when he established his residence at Napoleon, where he now controls a prosperous business. He has laid a large amount of Cement sidewalk in this thriving little city, besides having done much other contract work HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1567 in cement construction, especially in building cisterns of the most approved and modern type. Soon after locating at Napoleon he purchased his present attractive residence property, upon which he has made many improvements, including the erection of a barn that is 184 by 30 feet in dimensions. He is a progressive business man and public-spirited citizen, always ready to do his part in the support of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community. In politics he maintains an independent attitude, and both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Lutheran Church, in the faith of which they were reared. In Napoleon Township, Henry County, December 13, 1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. Gerken to Miss Julia Classman, who was born in Lippe, Germany, on the 4th of February, 1878, a daughter of Otto and Minnie (Snyder) Classman, who came to America and established their home in Napoleon Township when their two daughters, Julia and Minnie, were children, the father having preceded his family to America by about four years and having thus been able to ,prepare a home in advance. He and his wife still reside on their little homestead farm of fourteen acres, and are highly esteemed citizens of Napoleon Township, both being members of the Lutheran Church and Mr. Classman being a democrat in politics. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Gerken are : Helen, Fred, Hedwig, Emma, Carl, Hildegard, and Hermina, and in 1916 the two oldest children are students in the Napoleon High School. HON. JOHN HAMILTON LOWRY. When a homestead remains in the possession of a single family through four generations, a period of nearly ninety years, it indicates unusual vitality and other solid qualities of permanence in the people who have been its owners and possessors. There is such an old homestead in Henry County. It is known as "Locust Lodge." It is the old home of the Lowry family, now owned by Hon. John Hamilton Lowry. It is situated in section 9 of Flatrock Township on the south bank of the Maumee River, and on an elevation that commands a wonderful prospect of the beautiful valley. The Lowry family has been prominent in many ways in connection with the pioneer and later history of this section of Ohio, and around this old home center the finest associations and most cherished memories of all the present living generation. Around the stately house are a number of tall locust trees which were planted by the first comers, and those trees give name and especial distinction to this home among others along the south bank of the river. A somewhat detailed account of the Lowry family since it came to America from Scotland will be found on other pages in connection with the sketch of the late Joseph McKinley Lowry. Hon. John Hamilton Lowry is a son of Joseph M. Lowry, and is a great-great-grandson of the George Lowry who came to America prior to the Revolutionary war and established his home in old Pennsylvania. The full account of his settlement here, his marriage to a planter's daughter, Jane Rippy, and their locating in Ohio in pioneer times is found in the sketch already referred to. The Lowry family was established in Henry County by John Lowry, grandfather of Hon. John Hamilton Lowry. John married Eleanor McKinley, who was of the same family as the late President McKinley. In October, 1828, John Lowry came to Henry County to take charge of his father's land along the Maumee River. He and his brother George worked together in developing these lands, and John died at a comparatively early age in 1848. It was the farm developed by this pioneer, John Lowry, that is now the home of Mr. John Hamilton Lowry. John Hamilton Lowry, who was the oldest in a family of two sons and two daughters, was born on the old homestead October 16. 1857. Both his father and grandfather had lived on this place and his father was born there. As he grew to manhood he received the best advantages of the schools of that day, and for almost forty years has given his chief business attention to the management of the fine farm. It was his character as a citizen and his success as a progressive farmer that brought him wider notice and influence and took him into the Legislature. Mr. Lowry was first elected to the Legislature as a member of the session of 1909-10. He was elected on the democratic ticket. He was re-elected three different times, his last term being in 1913-14. During part of his service he was elected speaker pro tem of the house. His work in the Legislature was made especially noteworthy by his prominence in behalf of educational institutions and he was known as the father of school legislation during his term. It was Mr. Lowry who secured the passage of a bill for establishing normal schools 1568 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO at Bowling Green in Wood County and another at Kent in Portage County. Both these schools have been founded and are among the vigorous and flourishing institutions of the kind in the state. The main building of the normal school at Kent has been named Lowry. Hall as a special tribute to Mr. Lowry 's painstaking work in connection with the establishment of the school. A number of state organizations have sent him letters of commendation for his splendid work in behalf of the schools and other institutions. While in the Legislature- he was voted an honorary member of the State Teachers Federation, which has an active membership of 6,000. He was a strong factor in starting the rural survey of the rural schools of the State of Ohio. This bill was passed in session of 1914. He counts among his personal friends a large number of the leading educators of Ohio. In his home community in Flatrock Township Mr. Lowry has also been called to serve as a member of the school board and as township clerk. The care and management of the old homestead has fallen into good hands, since Mr. Lowry is an appreciative student of the past and a careful preserver of family and local traditions. His favorite easy chair at home is one that his grandfather brought to Henry County from Warren County. Another interesting article of the house furnishing is an old Seth Thomas clock, which was also brought when the family moved from Warren to Henry County. Mr. Lowry married for his first wife Miss Augusta Gunn, a daughter of Elliot and Eliza (Cover) Gunn, who were pioneer settlers of Henry County. Mrs. Lowry died at the old home in 1893, when in the prime of life at the age of thirty-five. The children of that union are : Jennie, who was born May 11, 1884, and is the wife of Dr. J. R. Bolls of Holgate, Ohio ; Joseph Elliot, born August 29, 1886, is a resident of Florida Village and by his marriage to Lola Miller has a son Wendell ; Helen, born May 4, 1889, was a teacher before her marriage to Neal Mootz of Holgate, and she now has a daughter Virginia ; Georgia, born July 4, 1892, was well educated and is the wife of Lloyd Baughman, of Florida Village. In Athens County, Ohio, in 1899, Mr. Lowry married for his present wife Miss Rosamond Light. She was born in Athens County and was reared and educated there and for ten years was a successful teacher in that locality. Her grandfather, John Light, who was born in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, came from Virginia in the early days to Athens County and was one of the early millers of that section. He died there at the age of sixty-three. He married Jane Fulton of Ohio, and she died in Athens County at the age of seventy-two. The Light family were active members of the Presbyterian Church. "William Light, father of Mrs. Lowry, was born in Athens County in 1839, and was also trained to the vocation of miller. He was married in Athens County to Matilda Breyfogle, a native of Pennsylvania, though her early life was spent principally in Athens County, Ohio. William Light and wife are now living at Guysville in Athens County, their home being located on the Hocking River. For a long time he owned and operated the old mill near his present home. William Light is now seventy-seven years of age and his wife somewhat younger. He was a soldier of the Union army, being in the Third Ohio Infantry and was in service throughout the war. He had one narrow escape, being shot through the left breast at Murphysboro, and one of his brothers, Charles, who was a color bearer, died at Bacon Creek, Kentucky, and James and David, were killed in battle of Murphysboro. His brothers, David and James, were lost on the field- of battle and were never brought home for burial. Mr. and Mrs. Lowry are the parents of one son, Richard Light Lowry, born November 4, 1902, and now in the eighth grade of the public schools. The family are members the Presbyterian Church. THOMAS REED DUNLAP. Much of the business enterprise of the Town of Alger in Hardin County is supplied by Thomas Reed Dunlap, well known banker, grain dealer, and farmer. It has always been his ambition, while acquiring a success for himself, to serve the public well and efficiently and he has done much in that direction both through his business and through his interests in local affairs. He was born in Marion Township of Hardin County, Ohio, August 6, 1875, a son of James R. and Viola Belle (Roberts) Dunlap. His father was a farmer and moved to Hardin County in 1847. For two terms, six years, he served as a county commissioner, held a number of minor offices, and Governor McKinley during his administration appointed him a state highway commissioner. Thomas R. Dunlap gained his education in HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1569 the local schools, and also attended the Ohio Northern University at Ada. For more than ten years his career has been a factor in the life and commercial activities of the Town of Alger. Under the name T. Reed Dunlap he conducts a grain elevator and is the chief merchant in that locality, dealing in hay, grain, onions and potatoes. He also has an elevator at McGuffey. His interests are not confined to the town since he owns 200 acres of farming land, and each year raises about 100 acres of onions. He is also a banker, being a director of the First National Bank of Ada and president of the Alger Savings Bank. The latter bank was organized October 23, 1906, with a capital of $25,000. Its first officers were : Alexander Carman, president ; E. G. Harriman, vice president ; and M. D. McCoubrey, cashier. In 1917 the president was T. Reed Dunlap, the vice president Allen Edwards, and the cashier Fred Ankerman. The capital is still $25,000, but surplus and undivided profits amount to $11,000 and deposits aggregate $120,000. The bank occupies a substantial one-story pressed brick building 22 by 65 feet. Mr. Dunlap served as a director of the village schools of Alger from the organization of the board in 1905 until 1914. He is treasurer of Marion Township, and fraternally is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Masonic Lodge. On December 1, 1903, he married Vaud Randall. They have one daughter, Mary Randall. RUNDLE PALMER spent the best years of his life in Henry County. He was a useful member of his community and his years contained many interests and activities. What he did, useful though it was, was not more important than the manner of his life and the fulfillment of his ideals and purposes. He was born in Huron County near Fitchville October 14, 1844. Nearly seventy years later his death occurred at his home, 312 East Clinton Street, in Napoleon May 24, 1914. His parents were Isaac and Samantha (Palmer) Palmer, of the same name but not related. Both were born in the East and were married in Huron County. A short time after the birth of their son Rundle they located on a wild farm in the northwest quarter of section 16 of Harrison Township in Henry County. Thus the Palmer family has been identified with this section of Northwest Ohio for fully three-quarters of a century. The parents improved a farm of 160 acres in Harrison Township, and among other features they put out one of the early orchards. The old home at that time as now was located well back from the main road, and it is one of the landmarks betraying the well ordered industry of the family and the silent accomplishment of many years. At that home Samantha Palmer died at the age of twenty-nine. She was survived by two children, Rundle and Julia. Julia is now the wife of Frank B. Bonawell, a wholesale hardware merchant at Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Bonawell have three daughters, all of whom are married but none of whom have children. Isaac Palmer married a second wife and late in life moved to Huron County, where he died when quite old. His widow subsequently lived with her daughter Samantha. Samantha was a very well known artist, and one of her paintings is now hanging in the White House at Washington. Samantha married Mortimer Zigg and now lives in Nebraska. Her mother died in Huron County. Rundle Palmer grew up on the old farm in Harrison Township, and received his education there in the country schools and also in Chicago, Illinois. After the death of his mother and his father's second marriage, the home was not very congenial, since his stepmother exercised a rigid restraint upon all his activities. Thus at the age of seventeen he quite eagerly accepted the opportunity to go to the front and fight his country's battles. He enlisted in Company F of the Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was with that regiment in all as campaigns for nearly three years. He was once slightly wounded by the bursting of a shell. While in the army he exercised a great deal of thrift and sent practically all his earnings back to his father, who invested it in eighty acres of land. After coming home from the army Rundle Palmer paid out the balance due on this land, and began its improvement as a substantial home. He erected a large two-story twelve room brick house, and in every detail of its construction this home showed his handiwork. He burnt the brick on his own farm, and he also made many thousands of tile for the draining of his land. In a few years he had purchased an adjoining eighty acres on the east, and improved that thoroughly. With the passing years he acquired a position as one of the substantial men of Henry County, and in 1901 he and his wife retired from the farm and entered their new home on East Clinton Street in Napoleon, where Mrs. Palmer now lives. 1570 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO The late Mr. Palmer was a republican. A man of substantial character and of excellent judgment, he was widely known and respected, and all that he had was the result of hard work and honorable dealings. In 1874 in Wood County, Ohio, he married Miss Lottie Reed. Mrs. Palmer was born near Tiffin in Seneca County, Ohio, December 27, 1849, and was taken to Wood County at the age of five years by her parents, John and Henrietta (Reiter) Reed. Her father was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, of Scotch-Irish stock, and her mother in Pennsylvania, of Germany ancestry in the paternal line and English on her mother's side. John Reed and wife lived on a farm in Montgomery Township of Wood County until he was elected on the republican ticket to the office of probate judge. He then moved. to Bowling Green, where he filled out two terms as probate judge, declining a re-election. He continued to reside in Bowling Green, superintending his farm interests from that point, and died there May 5, 1899, at the age of sixty-six. Judge Reed was a prominent char• acter in Wood County. In the early days he had done much to assist the pioneer farmers and new corners to that county, and his individual success was only part of the large amount of good he accomplished. His widow survived him four years, passing away November 27, 1903. She was a member of the Christian Church, while he was a Methodist. Mrs. Palmer is the second of three living children. Her brother, Rev. Frank M. Reed, now seventy-one years of age lives in' California, is a superannuated minister of the Christian Church, and has one son Ray. Addie Reed is still unmarried and lives part of the time in Bowling Green and part of the time at Napoleon. Mrs. Palmer has two children. Alva S. is forty years of age, was born and reared on the old Palmer farm in Harrison Township, and by his marriage to Goldie Snyder has a son, Sumner Rundle Palmer. Nellie D. is the wife of Glenn Jennings, a successful farmer of Harrison Township, and they have a son, Marcus Palmer Jennings. RICHARD NELSON is now serving his first term as a member of the board of commissioners of Henry County in the first exclusive republican board of commissioners that county has ever had. Mr. Nelson's home is in Harrison Township of Henry County. He laid the foundation of his success as a farmer in Illinois, but a few years ago moved to Henry County and has since acquired some very extensive holdings in the fine farming section of that locality. He is a practical business man and is much esteemed for his excellent judgment on all the issues and problems connected with farm and community affairs. About forty-five years ago he came a poor boy from the old country to America, and has accomplished his splendid success entirely through his own exertions. He was born October 22, 1852, in Schleswig-Holstein, then a province in Denmark but now a part of the German Empire. He is of Scandinavian ancestry. His father, Martin Nelson, or Nielsen as the name was spelled in the old country, married Catherine Maria Frodden. She was born in Oevenum Island Fohr, Schleswig, and grew up there. Martin Nelson a short time after his marriage, and when his only son, Richard, was twenty-two weeks of age, took passage on a sailing vessel bound for Australia, where he went to seek his fortunes in the gold mines. While working in the mines he was accidentally killed, and was then in the prime of life. Mr. Richard Nelson was four years of age when the father died and the mother never married again and spent her life in her native country, where she died when past threescore. Reared and educated in Schleswig-Holstein, and living under the German Government from 1864 to 1870, Richard Nelson had such training and educational influences as were bestowed upon most boys in that vicinity. His birthplace was the Village of Oevenum Auf Far in Schleswig. At the age of seventeen in 1870, together with a neighbor boy, Nicholas Petersen, who was yet younger than himself, he set off from Hamburg, Germany, on a steamship and landed in New York City. From there he went out to the State of Illinois, and found steady employment near Dwight in Livingston County. That was his home for thirty-seven years. By hard work he acquired a modest capital and then used it to the best advantage in buying land, improving and cultivating, and gradually extending the scope of his operations until he was owner of 520 acres of the high class and high priced land of Livingston and Grundy counties. A few years ago he sold out his extensive Illinois holdings and came to Henry County, Ohio. to take advantage of the equally good but lower priced land in this section. Here he bought 240 acres with a fine barn, resi- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1571 dence and other equipments in Harrison Township, and he also owns two other well improved farms, one of 200 acres and the other 120 acres, both in Richfield Township of Henry County. Each of these farms have a complete set of building improvements and other facilities and all the land is under cultivation except twenty acres of stump ground. At his home place Mr. Nelson has a very complete establishment for farming and for comfortable country life. His main barn is on a foundation 40 by 80 feet, and there are several smaller buildings in the farm group. His home is a very attractive country residence, built of brick and comprising twelve rooms. The same qualities which made him successful in Illinois have been exemplified in the management of his Henry County farms. His fields produce abundant crops including the great staples of corn, wheat and oats and he earns his profits through the products of his fine farms. During his residence in Livingston County, Illinois, Mr. Nelson married Miss Anna M. Lauritzen. She was born in Denmark May 28, 1854, and was still young when she came to the United States alone, and she lived in Illinois until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have some very capable sons and daughters, most of whom are established in homes of their own. Martin C., who finished his education in the schools of Henry County, is now conducting one of his father's places in Harrison Township, and is still unmarried. Carl R. lives on one of his father's farms in Richfield Township, and by his marriage. to Bodel Olsen, who was born in Illinois of Danish parents, has two children, Clifford and a daughter. Albert T., who is a progressive farmer in Livingston County, Illinois, married Mary Bundessen, who was born and reared in Illinois, and they have two children, Irena and a son. C. Mary is the wife of Karl F. Kline, who was born and reared in Ohio, and occupies one of Mr. Nelson's farms in Richfield Township. Emma is the wife of F. Bert Brilhart, and they occupy one of the Nelson farms in Harrison Township. Nora married Vernon Brilhart, of Napoleon, Mr. Brilhart for the past nine years having been one of the successful schoolteachers in Henry County, and they have a son named Gale Nelson. J. FRED VEIGEL. In 1915 for the first time in the history of that county the business administration of the county government in Henry County was entrusted to a board of county commissioners entirely republican in politics. The president of this board is J. Fred Veigel, one of the honored residents of the county, where he has spent his life, and where he has made a success as a farmer and business man. Mr. Veigel is now serving his first term, having been elected in September, 1915, for two years. In the way of public service he had some experience as assessor of his home township of Napoleon and also as a member of the school board. His associates in the office of county commissioner are George Wolf of Pleasant Township and Richard Nelson of Harrison Township. Henry County is normally democratic and it is almost a phenomenon in local politics that all these men are republicans and were elected on that ticket. J. Fred Veigel was born in Napoleon Township. February 12, 1867, was reared on a farm, acquired his education in the local schools and for the past twenty-seven years has occupied and managed his fine place known as Maple Drive Farm, comprising eighty acres of land. Farming with him is not simply an occupation but a profession. Consequently he has made a success of it. Besides raising the general crops, he has found profit in growing Jersey dairy cattle. His farm equipment is of the highest standard. He and his family live in a good home and among other farm buildings are a barn 36 by 60 feet, and a cattle barn 30 by 30. Mr. Veigel is of German parentage and a son of Christian and Christin (Gogel) Veigel, both of whom were born in Wuertemburg, Germany, not far from the City of Strassburg. They were of Lutheran families and they themselves were identified with that church from childhood. They came to the United States singly and both about the year 1850. Christian Veigel was sixty-five days in crossing the ocean. The sailing vessel which brought him to this country encountered severe storms and the main mast was three times broken and all the passengers had given up hope of seeing land again. They arrived nearly starved and almost famished from thirst. The mother had a more fortunate crossing. The destination of both was Henry County, Ohio, and they arrived in this vicinity after proceeding by way of the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes as far as Toledo and thence up the local canal to Napoleon. It was in Henry County that they became acquainted and were married in the City of Napoleon. Christian Veigel was a 1572 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO wagonmaker by trade, having learned that vocation back in Germany. He worked at it most of his active career, but late in life purchased a small farm in Napoleon Township and died there in 1895 at the age of sixty-eight years six months and a few days. His widow died just four years later and was within five months of the same age as her husband at his death. Christian Veigel was one of the organizers of St. Paul's Lutheran Church at Napoleon. Mr. Fred Veigel was married in Toledo to Miss Ida Schumacher.. She was born in Fulton County, Ohio, January 23, 1869, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were William and Catherine (Krause) Schumacher. Her father was born in Germany and met his wife in Fulton County, Ohio. Her mother was born in Ohio of German parentage. Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher lived in Archibold for -a good many years, but her father died at the home of Mrs. Veigel in June, 1910, when about sixty-five years of age and her mother is still living. The Schumachers were also members of the Lutheran Church and her father was very much of a church worker. He was a vigorous advocate of the republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Veigel have five living children. Grace has completed her education in the Napoleon High School and is still at home. Helen, who also is a graduate of the Napoleon High School, is a very successful teacher and now has charge of District No. 2 in Napoleon Township. Clarence, having completed the high school course is now manager of his father's farm. Fred finished the course of the eighth grade and is at home. Thomas is still attending school. Mr. and Mrs. Veigel and children are all members of -St. Paul's Lutheran Church. GEORGE WOLF is one of the three republicans elected as county commissioners of Henry County in November, 1916. Mr. Wolf was reelected. Not only is Henry County normally democratic, but 1916 was a presidential year, and the state democratic tickets were thrust into office by a very heavy vote. Only one reasonable interpretation can be placed upon the action df the people in returning Mr. Wolf and his colleagues to office. It meant a thorough approval of their straightforward and efficient administration and it indicates that individual character and popularity is a stronger factor than mere partisanship. Commissioner Wolf has spent most of his lifetime in Pleasant Township, where he has been a well known farmer and business man. While his interests are still centered around New Bavaria, he now lives in a pleasant home at 1106 Oakwood Avenue in the City of Napoleon. His two successful colleagues on the board of commissioners are Mr. Veigel and Mr. Richard Nelson, both republicans. George Wolf was born at Defiance, Ohio, March 10, 1860. When he was three and a half years of age the family came to Pleasant Bend in Pleasant Township of Henry County, and Mr. Wolf grew up in that community. He is a son of George N. and Elizabeth (Wolf) Wolf, both of whom were natives of Bavaria, Germany. George N. Wolf was born November 1, 1827, a son of Lewis and Elizabeth (Baker) Wolf. All but three of the children of Lewis and wife were born in Bavaria. These people in the old country belonged to the substantial farming class. In 1831, when George N. Wolf was four years of age, his family emigrated to the United States, being seven weeks on the ocean, and being nearly starved when they landed at New York City. Lewis Wolf brought his family to Utica, New York, where he sojourned 31/2 years, then went to Detroit for a few months, and finally located at Maumee along the canal in Lucas County, Ohio. The family lived there several years, but in 1839 removed to Pleasant Township of Henry County, where Lewis Wolf secured a tract of wild land and cleared up a farm, living for some years in a log cabin. He surrounded himself with many improvements and comforts and died there at the venerable age of eighty-four years. His wife passed away at sixty-six. In Germany they had been members of the German Reformed Church, but became affiliated with the Methodist Church in this country. Lewis Wolf took up and supported the republican party. George N. Wolf was twelve years of age when his parents located in Henry County, and when he was twelve years old he secured work on the canal. He became "jigger boss" for the canal workmen, subsequently was a mule driver, and still later a bowsman and steersman. Thus he became an expert in all branches of canal boating and that was his business for twelve years. At the age of twenty-two he married in Pleasant Township Elizabeth Wolf. She was born in Bavaria, Germany, April 26, 1833, and was six years of age when her parents came in 1839 to America. This branch of the Wolf family also spent seven weeks in crossing the ocean. Her parents were Daniel and Caroline (Saltz- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1573 man) Wolf, who settled as close neighbors to the Lewis Wolf family in Pleasant Township. Her parents developed a farm from the wilderness, and both died there, her father at the age of eighty-three and her mother at ninety-one. They were of the German Reformed Church in Germany and became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in this country. After his marriage George N. Wolf settled on a farm which was entirely uncleared. He and his bride lived in a log cabin, endured all the hardships and privations of the time, but eventually attained success and prosperity. Their old home farm was in section 30 of Pleasant Township. With the exception of 3 ½ years spent at Defiance they made that farm their home the rest of their days. George N. Wolf died in 1901 at the age of seventy-four and his wife in 1896 aged sixty-four. He was a republican and they were active members of the local Methodist Church. In their family were twelve children, six of whom died young. The other six are still living, all of them married and have families, and all reside in Pleasant Township. Mr. George Wolf was the fourth son and sixth child of his parents' children. He grew up on the old farm, attended the public schools and on reaching his majority started out to make his own way. in the world. At the age of eighteen he had begun to handle his father's half interest in a saw mill and followed that business for three years. At twenty-one he became a. farmer, and he made more than a mediocre success in that occupation. He acquired two places, each of eighty acres, one in section 20 and the other in section 29, his home was in section 29. These two farms he improved from almost a wilderness condition, and his home place was thoroughly equipped not only for diversified farming but for the handling of livestock. Mr. Wolf erected a barn 40 by 60 feet, and then built, a " T-shaped" addition 34 by 64 feet, giving ample facilities for the storage of grain and the care of his live stock. His country home was a substantial eleven room house with all the modern improvements. This farm home is near Pleasant Bend. Before his election to the office of county commissioner he was a member of his local school board. Mr. Wolf married for his first wife a neighbor girl, Fannie Gertrude Fenter. She was born in Pleasant Township December 22, 1864, and died May 28, 1911. He was a daughter of Peter and Margaret (Rettig) Fenter, who came from Germany and were early Vol. III-16 settlers in Pleasant Township, where they spent their lives as farmers. They were members of the German Reformed Church. At her death Mrs. Wolf was survived by five children. Alma H. is the wife of Mr. Ricker, a farmer near Holgate. Their children are Donald E., Vivian G. and Margaret. Nora M. is the wife of Orval Young of Pleasant Township, and has a son Merle. Fannie G. married Andrew Hornung, who is manager of the elevator at New Bavaria, and their one child is Paul. Earl N. is now a student in Defiance College. Ruth E. completed her education in the Holgate High School and is still at home. For his present wife Mr. Wolf married at New Bavaria Mrs. Margaret Hornung, whose maiden name was Ross. She was born at New Bavaria of German parents, and her. people were among the early farmers in that section. Her father George Ross is now living at Dundee, Michigan, at the age of seventy-two. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Rotore, a native of Bavaria, Germany, where she grew up and married, died at Dundee, Michigan, in 1913, at the age of seventy. Mrs. Wolf also owned a fine farm property of 116 acres near New Bavaria. By her first marriage to Mr. Hornung she is the mother of the following children : Charles A., mail carrier at New Bavaria and still unmarried ; Earl, who is a bookkeeper at Toledo and by his marriage to Goldie Osborn has a son Melvin ; Mabel L. E. is unmarried and at home ; Esther M. is a graduate of the Holgate High School with the class of 1914 and is also at home ; Harold is employed at Toledo and is still unmarried ; Irene C. E. is thirteen years of age and is in the seventh grade of the public schools at Napoleon. All the family are active members of the German Reformed Church. Mr. Wolf is one of the chief officials of the church and a liberal supporter. Fraternally he is a member of Knights of Pythias Lodge at Pleasant Bend, Ohio. JULIUS W. ASH. The successful breeding and raising of high grade stock is a profession, not merely an occupation. It requires experience, natural adaptability and a steadfast care and enthusiasm carried through from one year to the next. One of the most successful stock men in Harrison Township of Henry County is Julius W. Ash. He takes a great deal of pride in his fine Jersey cattle and his thoroughbred hogs, and that pride is well justified. Mr. Ash has lived on his farm of eighty acres in section 25 of 1574 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Harrison Township since 1887. Under his care and management these thirty years have proved fruitful in many improvements and the introduction of systematic methods in every department. Since taking possession he has added thirty-five acres to his original holding. The land is all well drained, fenced and thoroughly cultivated, and he has large barns and a comfortable home. He has a herd of well selected Jersey milkers headed by a thoroughbred bull and his dairy is one of the best appointed in Henry County. His specialty as a hog raiser are the Chester White hogs. Some of the finest specimens of this breed to be found anywhere in Northwest Ohio are on his farm. The stock have been exhibited in many of the fairs and stock shows in Northwest Ohio, in Indiana and Michigan, and he has any number of blue ribbons awarded his prize stock. Mr. Ash comes of Pennsylvania German lineage. His grandfather Jacob Ash was a native of Pennsylvania and married a Miss Putnam, who was also of Pennsylvania parentage. Both the Putnam and Ash families went in Pioneer times to Stark County, Ohio, where Jacob and his wife grew up and married. They were practical farmers and soon after their marriage they left Stark County and moved out to the Wilderness of Wood County, Ohio. Jacob Ash secured a tract of government land. Under the early conditions that then prevailed he and his wife made a home. They lived in the woods, with Indians as frequent visitors at their cabin, endured many privations, ate wild game meat, and only after years of toil and self sacrifice did they see the real results of their labors. Jacob Ash improved 160 acres of land. He lost his first wife in Wood County when about of middle age. He afterwards married Miss Sarah Miller. By that marriage there were two daughters, Edith and Jessie, the former dying when young and the latter still living on the old homestead in Wood County. Jacob Ash passed away when in his eightieth year and his second wife survived him ten years and was about seventy years old. They were very active members of the Evangelical Church and he was class leader for sixty years. His political allegiance was given to the republican party after its organization. By his marriage to Miss Putnam Jacob Ash had five sons and four daughters : Gabriel ; Elizabeth ; Benjamin F. ; Susan ; Monroe, who died of typhoid fever at the same time that disease carried away his mother ; Rev. Josiah, who is an elder and preacher of the Evangelical Church living in Nebraska ; Mary, who died in California as the result of an accident caused by a runaway team ; Henry, who died young ; and Harriet, who is married and lives in Knox County, Ohio. Benjamin F. Ash, father of Julius W., was born in Milton Township of Wood County, Ohio, September 5, 1845.. The first primitive school in that locality was a log cabin building erected on the Ash farm, and Benjamin F. learned his first lessons in that temple of learning. When only sixteen years of age and with the outbreak of the war, he enlisted in the army to serve ninety days, but was captured and was thrown into Libby Prison, where he remained until almost the close of the war when all the prisoners were set free. After the war he married Sarah J. Macklin. Her family name was also spelled Michland. She was born in Wood County in 1847. a daughter of Jeremiah Macklin, who was accidentally drowned in the Maumee River while fishing, being then in the prime of his years. Jeremiah Macklin married a Miss Wick, who lived to be quite old. After his marriage Benjamin Ash started farming a place of his own, and had a well improved farm of eighty acres. His wife died there May 28, 1878, at the age of twenty-eight years. She was a devout member of the Evangelical Church. and her loss was a heavy blow to the husband and family. After her death Benjamin Ash married Catherine Oebner, who was born and reared in Hardin County, Ohio. Benjamin Ash and his second wife are still living in Wood County, and are now well advanced in years but enjoy good health. They are members of the Evangelical Church and more or less continuously for thirty years he has served as Sunday School superintendent. In politics he is a republican. By his second wife he has a daughter Mary O., who is the wife of Oliver Ginder and lives in Weston, Wood County, Ohio, and has one child. Julius W. Ash was the oldest of three children. He was born on the old homestead in Wood County, first owned by his grandfather, on December 16, 1866. His brother Elwood F. is a farmer and proprietor of a summer resort at Bear Lake, Michigan ; married Cora Swan and has a daughter Bessie. The only sister, Lottie Bell, died in 1906, survived by her husband James Watkins, who is a farmer and saw mill man in Trumbull County, Ohio, and a son Franklin. Julius W. Ash grew up on the old farm in