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Wood County and had a public school education. He was married on the farm he now owns to Miss Olive A. Swander. She was born on this place in Henry County March 9, 1870, and has spent practically all her life there. Her parents were Joseph and Abby (Packer) Swander, both natives of Ohio, and married. in Stark County. Joseph Swander served for a brief period in the Union army during the Civil war, enlisting from Shelby County. After the war he came to Henry County and bought eighty acres of wild land in section 25, Harrison Township. He and his wife lived there in a log cabin for several years and under his hand he saw the land gradually improve and develop into a good farm. His wife died there in February, 1891, at the age of fifty-seven. Mr. Swander is still living with Mr. and Mrs. Ash and is now seventy-eight years of age. He is an active member of the Evangelical Church as was his wife, and he has taken a pioneer part in the promotion of prohibition sentiment in his locality and has always been very decided on that subject.
Mr. and Mrs. Ash have a fine family of children about them. Their oldest child, Dr. Harley, is a graduate of the Ontario College of Veterinary Surgery and also of the State University at Columbus, and is now practising very successfully at Weston. He is still unmarried. The other children, all at home, re Fay, Elwood E., Walter Atlay, Katie M., Nina Viola, and Helen E. The two younger children are still students in the Grelton High School. Mr. Ash and his older son are republican voters.
JOHN WOODRUFF. That a community should be what it is largely as a result of one man's life and activities is perhaps the highest tribute possible to pay to human individuality. None would dispute that the flourishing town of Dunkirk bears in its present commercial organization and energy the impress of the character and influence of the late John Woodruff, who will long be remembered as a business builder, a civic leader and a man of splendid personal character.
At his death in his home at Dunkirk, November 30, 1910, John Woodruff was past eighty-four years of age. He had been a resident of Dunkirk since 1869, but his reputaion as a business man and his interests 'extended all over Northern Ohio and he was not unknown as a commercial factor in other states. Though he started life without education, and by practical experience developed an exceptional business judgment and capacity, he was at the time of his death reputed to be the wealthiest man in Hardin County.
Of Holland Dutch and Irish ancestry, John Woodruff was born at Walnut Creek in Franklin County, Ohio, October 29, 1826, and lived a month and one day past his eighty-fourth birthday. When he was three years of age his parents removed to Hancock County, Ohio, following the Scioto River and blazing their way through the forests with five other families, all of whom settled in Hancock and Hardin counties. The family acquired about 150 acres of land in that county, and John Woodruff grew up in the midst of pioneer conditions and limitations. When he was ten years of age his father died, and that threw upon him active responsibilities which in any case would have precluded further education. There were no schools in Hancock County prior to that time, and so far as literary culture was concerned he had none except that gained by practical observation and acquaintance with men and affairs. In spite of this he became one of the most successful business men who ever did business in Hardin County.
The basis of his fortune was laid as a livestock dealer in Northern Ohio, and he continued that line actively all his life. As early as 1845 he is said to have taken a drove of horses into Wisconsin. At Chicago he had a chance to trade horses for land located near the heart of that great metropolis, but he did not accept the opportunity. Later he traded hores for land at Holland, Michigan. For a time he was also engaged in the mercantile business at Williamstown.
In 1869 Mr. Woodruff located at Dunkirk and engaged in the general mercantile business. During the rest of his life his personal enterprise and his influence were primary factors in the growth and development of that town. Among other things he put down six oil wells in the vicinity and he also owned a number of properties in the town, and he held on to them and improved them in spite of the fact that some showed a decreasing value after he had made a purchase. He also invested heavily in lands in Hardin, Hancock and Wyandotte counties of this state and in Ottawa County, Michigan, and for a number of years before his death had been the heaviest taxpayer of Hardin County. With all his other business interests he never neglected the livestock industry. It is said
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that at times as many as fifteen carloads of his stock were on the road to market at one time. At his death his pastures contained some 500 head of cattle and 1,400 head of sheep. An interesting story is told of him during the early '80s. He went to Pittsburg and for some time bought livestock as a broker in that city, shipping to the eastern markets. The old experienced livestock men of Pittsburg endeavored several times to thwart his competition, but he was always too shrewd for them and came away from Pittsburg with a large amount of money to his credit.
John Woodruff was also prominent as a banker, but his part in establishing the first bank at Dunkirk is reserved for another paragraph.
On October 1, 1846, John Woodruff married Cordelia Hurd, who died in 1906, four years before her husband. She was born August 24, 1829. A record of birth in their family is as follows : Mary Elizabeth, born November 7, 1847 ; Adam Byron, born December 3, 1848 ; Anson, born March 15, 1851; Ada C., born October 3, 1852 ; Brook. H., born February 28, 1855 ; Ella, born October .10, 1857 ; Robert A., born September 10, 1859 ; Dora E., born October 19, 1861; Anson B., born February 15, 1864 ; Irvin H., born February 14, 1865 ; Oliver H., born May 18, 1867 ; Leafie M., born July 14, 1869 ; John, Jr., born July 29, 1871. Of these thirteen children the greater number grew up, and five sons and one daughter survive their honored father. The earlier deaths in the family were : Mary Elizabeth, who died in childhood ; Anson, who died April 15, 1851, at the age of one month ; Dora E., died January 19, 1864: Ella, died February 20, 1864; Anson who died in. February, 1864, in infancy; and Ada C., who died October 3, 1873.
The son Oliver H. Woodruff, who was born May 18, 1867, was educated in the public schools of Dunkirk and for a number of years was associated with his father in the mercantile business. He died July 15, 1912.
The only daughter to survive her father was Leafie M.. who was born July 14, 1869, and was married April 17, 1889, to Judson Mahon. Mr. and Mrs. Mahon have two daughters : Mayme Naomi and Isabel Woodruff.
JOHN WOODRUFF, JR. Bearing the honored name of his father, John Woodruff, Jr., was born at Dunkirk, Ohio, July 29, 1871, and has .spent practically all his life in that community and from an early age has been identified with the extensive business interests established by his father.
He had a public school education and learned business by practical experience as clerk in his father's store. Mr. Woodruff is a director in the Woodruff National Bank and employs much of his time in looking after his fine farm of 434 acres. On September 1:,, 1910, he married Miss Blanch Cotner of Dunkirk.
DAVID H. EDGAR. Among the early settlers of Northwest Ohio whose careers reflect much local history a place of special prominence was occupied by David H. Edgar, one of the pioneers in the vicinity of Dunkirk.
He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1800, and died at advanced age at the home of a daughter in Dunkirk May 15, 1889. In 1814 his father, Joseph Edgar, moved to Holmes County, Ohio, and there David grew up on a pioneer farm. He also learned the saddler's trade and followed it in Kentucky and Southern Ohio until 1830.
In June of the latter year he started from Chillicothe by stage coach for Upper Sandusky, then an Indian village. On the way he became acquainted with Harvey Buck- minster, a stage driver and a noted pioneer of Northwestern Ohio. The friendship which began during that journey existed between these pioneers all their lives. Arriving at Upper Sandusky Mr. Edgar sold his trunk, put his simple clothing in a knapsack which he strapped on his back, and made his way on foot through a dense forest and by an Indian trail to the home of Joseph Bates, in what is now Hardin County. After working on the farm a few months he engaged to teach a subscription school, that being the first school ever held in what is now Jackson Township of Hardin County. The schoolhouse was a cabin on the Hueston place.
In the spring of the following year Mr. Edgar bought eighty acres of land near the site of the present Village of Dunkirk. and soon after was married to Miss Azuba Hamblin, who had been one of his pupils. What is now Hardin County was then. a part of Logan County, and to obtain his marriage license he made a journey on foot a distance of thirty-five miles to Bellefontaine. He was married in March, 1831, worked on the farm of his father-in-law for a few months, and in the spring of 1831 built a cabin on his own
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land. That was the first cabin built in the present limits of Blanchard Township in Hardin County. It was in the vicinity of that first cabin that he spent the rest of his life. In January, 1834, in this simple home with only three women present, the only women then residing in the present townships of Washington, Blanchard and Jackson, his first child was born, Kissiah, who was the first white child a native of Blanchard Township. She afterwards married Adam Dupes of Dunkirk.
The cabin of Mr. Edgar was also the scene in June, 1835, of the organization of the first Methodist Episcopal society in that part of the state, and besides himself and wife the constituent members were John Davis and wife. Mr. Davis was class leader. In politics he was a whig until the organization of the republican party and was a loyal devotee of its principles until his death. When Hardin county was organized in 1833 it consisted of only two townships. The first election held for township officers in Blanchard Township was on April 10, 1833, at the old Houser Mill on the Scioto River east of Kenton. Thirty votes were cast, and David H. Edgar was elected clerk. In the course of his lifetime he filled all the important township offices, and for more than a quarter of a century was justice of the peace.
He was a worthy pioneer and well fitted for all the responsibilities that fall upon such a citizen, including the task of rearing a family. He became the father of eleven children, and at the time of his death he was survived by three sons and four daughters, all of whom are married except one, twenty-five grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. The mother of this family died June 17, 1867, and Mr. Edgar after that lived among his children. To the last his intellect and memory remained unimpaired, and he was regarded as an oracle on all questions relating to pioneer life in Hardin County.
The following incident is related to show the courage of pioneer wives and mothers. Soon after he settled in his cabin he procured some sheep, and to protect them from the ravages of the wolves at night he built a rail pen close by his cabin. On one occasion being unavoidably absent over night, he left his young wife alone in the house. She was aroused from her slumber some time late in the night by the noise of wolves about the sheep pen. She sprang from her bed and opening the door yelled at the top of her voice, at the same time running out in the dark toward the pen and frightening the wolves away. Upon examination she found one of the sheep so seriously injured that she decided to make mutton of it, and cutting its throat dragged it into the cabin and skinned and dressed it, thus saving it for food.
JAMES G. WATSON owns and occupies the farm in Harrison Township of Henry County to which he was brought as an infant some six weeks after his birth late in the year, 1865. While he has been very successful and progressive as a farmer, his farm means more to him than a place of business. It is endeared by all the associations of his early boyhood and by the fact that his parents spent their last years there, and it is also the happy and comfortable home where he has reared his own family.
His proprietorship extends to 120 acres of land, located partly in section 25, where his home stands, and also in section 26. Turkey Foot Creek crosses the land and adds both to its value and beauty. The farm shows good management in every direction. The fields are well tended, and practically every season yield an abundance of the staple crops. There are strong and substantial buildings and Mr. Watson is not the type of man to neglect anything that will make for a better farm and will provide additional comforts and conveniences to his home.
His birth occurred in Seneca County, Ohio, October 7, 1865. He comes of some fine old pioneer stock, representing the Scotch-Irish lineage, mainly Presbyterians in religion, and the first Watson in this branch of the family arrived in America before the Revolution and some of Mr. Watson's mother's descendants bore a gallant part as soldiers in that war. His grandparents were James and Mary (Glenn) Watson, both natives of Pennsylvania. James Watson was born in 1801. He was married in the later '20s, and he came in pioneer style, with ox teams and, wagons, and established a home in the wilderness of Seneca County, Ohio. His location was near Melmore. He secured his land direct from the Government. Indians still lived there, though they were not inclined to be hostile. The woods were filled with wild game, and that was an important resource to the early pioneer settlers, since provisions brought from a distance were very costly and hard to get and the larder of those early homes was largely supplied by wild meat
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and the fruits and grains grown on the land. James and Mary Watson lived out their lives in Seneca County and death came to them when they were a little past the meridian of their years. They were very active as Presbyterians and assisted in organizing one of the first churches in Seneca County.
William A. Watson was the oldest child of James and Mary Watson. He was born in Pennsylvania about 1827. He had three brothers and one sister, but he was the only one who established a home in Henry County. He was married in Seneca County to Miss Eliza Welch, who was born in that county about 1833, and represented one of the oldest and most prominent families of that section of Ohio. Her parents were Hugh and Polly (Gibson) Welch. Hugh Welch came to Seneca County in 1816, being one of the first to establish a home there. He was the first settler on the east side of the river Miami. He found Indians in large numbers but he readily made friends with them and he could speak the Indian language. He enjoyed their complete trust and confidence as long as they remained in the country. Subsequently Hugh Welch moved into Wyandotte County, Ohio, and though his education consisted of such instruction as he had been able to impart to himself by reading and observation, he was an influential and useful factor in public affairs and politics. He served as associate judge in Wyandotte and Crawford counties for a period of twenty-one consecutive years, and in consequence was widely known as Judge Welch. His wife, Polly Gibson, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1805, and was one of a large family of sons and daughters. She was descended from revolutionary. stock and her kinsman, Gen. William H. Gibson, raised the Forty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry for service during the Civil war and with him in the same regiment were nine of his nephews. The father of Hugh Welch had served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and was buried at Mexico Village, Ohio. Hugh Welch cleared up a good farm in Seneca County. He was an earnest Methodist, while his wife was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Their two daughters were their only children, one of them being Mrs. William A. Watson.
When Henry County was still an almost unbroken wilderness, William A. Watson and wife, accompanied by their four small children, started out from Seneca County and traveled the rough trails and roads in search of a new home. Mrs. Watson and her infant son rode in a buggy drawn by a horse. Arriving in Henry County they spent several years in a typical log cabin, but eventually they surrounded themselves with the prosperity and comforts that their industry and self-denial merited, and William A. Watson died on the old farm in 1882 at the age of fifty-two. His widow survived him until 1873 and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Dr. James H. Fiser, at Malinta, Ohio. She had been reared in the Methodist Church, while William Watson was a Presbyterian. Besides James G. Watson there are two sons still living, William V. of Colorado, and David G. of Malinta, Ohio, and also one daughter, Mrs. Dr. J. H. Fiser.
In Harrison Township of Henry County Mr. James G. Watson married Miss Bessie Randall. She was born in this township February 1, 1871, and was reared in her native locality and also in Toledo. Her parents were William and Mary A. (Wilford) Randall. Her father was born in the State of Maine and was eighteen years of age when he came with his father, Thomas Randall, to Harrison Township in Henry County, where the Randalls cleared up a first class farm situated near the south bank of the Maumee River. Later Thomas Randall moved out to Kansas where he died. William Randall was married in Henry County and his wife was a native of Seneca County. They spent most of their active lives in Henry County, and died in Harrison Township, William Randall at the age of seventy-nine and his wife at sixty-eight. The Randalls are of stanch New England stock.
Mr. and Mrs. Watson have four children. Wendell E., now twenty-four years of age, had the advantages of the Grelton High School and is now working on the home farm. William. R., after graduating from high school entered the Ohio State University, where lie pursues his studies. Gale, born July 1, 1896, graduated from high school in 1914 and is now doing his share of the duties on the home farm. Norma is twelve years of age and still in the grade schools. Mr. Watson is affiliated with Grelton Lodge No. 339 of the Knights of Pythias and in politics is a republican.
LOUIS GEMELCH. Whether in the staple industry of grape growing or in public affairs Louis Gemelch has exercised a very large and valuable influence on Middle Bass Island for many years. He is serving as township assessor and has held that office steadily for twenty-two years except for two years when
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the office was filled by appointment. He is in fact one of the strong and able leaders of the democratic party in this section of Ottawa County. He filled a place on the local school board for 7 ½ years, and it was his level headed sense and business experience that brought about the straightening out of the school records and affairs. He also served as trustee of Island Hall for three years.
When he first came to Middle Bass Island he spent six months working in the Werhle Vineyards. After that he was in Springfield, Ohio, for a couple of years, but then returned to Middle Bass Island and has been identified with this general locality ever since. Mr. Gemelch was born at Sandusky, Ohio, June 1, 1859, his father being an early settler there. Both parents died in Sandusky.
After returning from Springfield to Middle Bass Mr. Gemelch was employed on some of the Wherle boats for five years, and then found work in the Put-in-Bay Wine Company. For two years he was in the service of Jay Cooke, taking care of Gibraltar Island.
After his marriage Mr. Gemelch settled down on Middle Bass Island, and has successfully operated a fine vineyard there for many years. He has twenty-one acres, of which sixteen acres are in grapes.
His wife before her marriage was Catherine Fisher. Her father, Anton Fisher, was one of the early settlers on Middle Bass Island, and his homestead was on the North Shore, where he erected a very beautiful big residence. Louis Gemelch subsequently bought the old Fisher place from the other heirs, and is now its proprietor. Mr. and Mrs. Gemelch have one son, Albert E., who spends part of the year fishing but is always at home during the grape season. He is at present trustee of Island Hall.
Mr. Gemelch has been through all the chairs and is past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in Commodore Perry Lodge, No. 730, of Put-inBay, Ottawa County.
JAMES ELLITHORPE. Two of the first families to be represented in the citizenship of Catawba Island were the Ellithorpes and Tilliotsons. These early pioneers were Henry Ellithorpe and Richard Tilliotson, who were of English and Scotch ancestry and came from Kelleys Island to Catawba Island. When they arrived only three or four other families were living there. Henry Ellithorpe acquired over 300 acres of land known as Lot No. 1, while Richard Tilliotson took up seventy-seven acres of Government land just above the Ellithorpe place. From that time to the present these names have been intimately asociated with the history of the island and there has hardly been a public enterprise with which one or both of these names have not been intimately connected.
Henry Ellithorpe had the following children, all of whom spent their lives at Catawba Island. George, Cyrus, Russell and Emily, the last the wife of Clark Neal.
Russell Ellithorpe married the daughter of Richard Tilliotson, and he subsequently became owner of the old Tilliotson homestead, where he followed agriculture until his death in September, 1897. His wife passed away in 1898.
Mr. James Ellithorpe, the only child of Russell Ellithorpe, and a grandson of both Henry Ellithorpe and Richard Tilliotson, was born on Catawba Island March 10, 1857, and has always lived on the old homestead of his father and of his grandfather Tilliotson. After his father died he kept up the active operation and cultivation of the land, and he is now recognized as one of the largest peach growers on the entire island, having forty-six acres in that fruit. He is now ably assisted by his son, Vernon, born October 30, 1890, who married Mabel Welch, born June 3, 1893, a daughter of James Welch of Catawba Island. His two daughters are Muriel, born January 28, 1893, who is now traveling with a theatrical company ; and Eola, born July 21, 1894, who married June Kline, a farmer in Danbury Township and is the mother of two children, Earnest, born March 23, 1914, and a baby daughter, named Millicent, born July 7, 1915.
For many years the late Russell Ellithorpe served as trustee of Catawba Island, and James Ellithorpe has followed the political leanings of the family and is a stanch republican. He was one of the charter members of the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Port Clinton.
EDWARD KEIMER. While struggling for a foothold in the New World after he came to this country from his native Germany, Edward Keimer fortunately became identified with the little islands along the north shore of Ottawa County close to the historic scene of Perry's Lake Erie victory, and since then the community of Put-in-Bay has had reason to consider itself fortunate that so capable a man came into its midst.
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Born in Prussia, Germany, in 1850, Mr. Keimer learned the trade of carpentry according to the thorough German fashion. At the age of eighteen in 1868 he emigrated to the United States, and was first located at Sandusky. He followed his trade there for two years, but found it difficult to secure pay for his work. Then came an opportunity to start out for himself by taking a contract for the erection of a house at Put-in-Bay. He arrived there September 10, 1870, and put in the following winter in completing his contract. When it was finished it was his intention to go on to Chicago, but again he found it difficult to realize the money from his contract, and before getting the matter straightened out he was again at work on the Put-inBay House for Montgomery and Gascoyne. Thus it was that one thing after another led to his remaining there and becoming a permanent settler.
For two years Mr. Keimer followed his trade, but in 1872 bought a vineyard of ten acres from Louis Harms, who was one of the pioneer grape growers on the Bass Island. Thus for more than forty-six years Mr. Keimer has been closely identified with what may be called the primary industry of these islands, and is known as one of the most successful in that line. In 1901 he removed to his present place of ten acres, and now operates both tracts of land as vineyards. He sells none of his grapes, using it all for the manufacture of grape juice and wine, for which there is a very steady demand. His annual output of grape product amounts to from 2,500 to 4,000 gallons.
As an old time resident of the island Mr. Keimer has not failed to identify himself in a public spirited manner with local affairs. For twenty-two years he was a member of the school board, and during Cleveland's second administration was deputy collector of customs. He is a democrat and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Sandusky. Mr. Keimer married Miss Minnie Van Dohren, daughter of Max Van Dohren, one of the early settlers on South Bass Island. Mr. and Mrs. Keimer had born in their home twelve children. His beloved wife died September 11, 1906. After remaining a widower for five years, he married Miss Anna Boehler, of Columbus, Ohio, on November 10, 1911.
BENJAMIN L. SMITH. One Of the hotels that lend distinction to Put-in-Bay as a great summer resort is Smith 's Cottage, which has been built up under the proprietorship and management of Benjamin L. Smith, one of the most competent and successful landlords on the island.
Mr. Smith was born near Bellevue, Ohio, March 20, 1870, and was reared on the home farm of his father Jacob Smith. He was associated with his father in farming and he and his brother, E. J. Smith, also built up a large hay business in that locality.
Benjamin L. Smith came to Put-in-Bay in 1897. The first year he was in the employment of V. Doller, and the following year he had charge of the Williams place south of town. The first year after his arrival he started the Island Restaurant, which he . conducted for three years, and this gave him the foundation of his experience as a successful hotel man. Since then he has been in the hotel business continuously, though for several years his place was not large enough to require all his time, and he continued his interests in other lines. Since 1911 he has given the best of his time and ability to the management of his hotel, and his success is no doubt due to the fact that he is in close touch with every detail. At the beginning his hotel had sleeping accommodations for only twelve persons; in the second year it was enlarged to forty, and in the third year he built Smith's Cottage as at present, with accommodations for 150 individuals.
Mr. Smith has also acquired other valuable interests in and around Put-in-Bay, including a vineyard of eleven acres near the city and some property near Bellevue. He is an active republican and for several years was a member of the town council. Mr. Smith is a Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus at Sandusky.
He married Miss Elizabeth Miller, who was born and reared on the island, a daughter of Chris Miller. They are the parents of four children : Walter, Edwin, Margaret and Evelyn.
GEORGE E. CRANE. During his active practice as a lawyer for the past thirty years at Kenton, the reputation of the late George E. Crane as an able lawyer and a man of many qualities of leadership extended beyond the bounds of his home county and he was a familiar figure in the life of the state.
His family were pioneers in Erie County of Northern Ohio, but Mr. Crane himself was born in New York City September 9, 1858.
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His parents were Samuel Ingham and Sophia Charlotte (Buck) Crane. His father was born at Florence, Erie County, Ohio, December 20, 1832, and the mother waS born in New York City April 26, 1834. One of the first of the name in America was Jasper Crane, .who lived at New Haven, Connecticut, after which some of his descendants located at Newark, New Jersey. Joel Crane, great-grandfather of George E. Crane, moved from that section of New Jersey to Southbury, Connecticut, where in 1804 he married Olive Mitchell. Her grandfather, Eleazar Mitchell, was a member of the committee of safety during the War of the Revolution, also held a captain's commission in General Washington's army, and still earlier had command of a militia company at Fort Ticonderoga in the French and. Indian war. Eleazar Mitchell was in the fifth generation from Matthew Mitchell, who was born at Halifax, Yorkshire, England, in 1590, and who came to America and located at Boston in 1635. Rev. Jonathan Mitchell, a son of Matthew was the third minister at Cambridge, Massachusetts, during 1649-1677, and was a graduate of Harvard College in 1647. Joel Crane and wife some years after their marriage, in 1817, became pioneers in Northern Ohio and located in Erie County. Thus the Crane family has been identified with Ohio for almost a century.
George E. Crane was reared in New York and New Jersey, and also spent some of his early years at Norwalk, Ohio. After finishing a course in the public schools he entered Oberlin College, where he was graduated Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1877. For a number of years he was a successful teacher and was first known in Hardin County in that capacity. From 1878 to 1885 he was principal of the high school at Kenton. In the meantime he was pursuing his law studies and in 1885 was admitted to the bar and from that time on was continuously in practice at Kenton for more than thirty years. For many years he was recognized among that small group of attorneys who in every county and city stand in the forefront of their profession. He handled some of the most important cases before the local and district courts, and in 1898 was appointed referee in bankruptcy. He was prominent in the ranks of the republican party and in 1898 and in 1908 was his party candidate for the office of judge of the Circuit Court.
For many years Mr. Crane was an active member of the board of education of Kenton,
and at the time of his death was chairman of the board of the public library. He traveled extensively and went abroad while still teaching school in 1879 and again in 1881, and during 1899 he and his wife were in Europe for rest, instruction and pleasure. Mr. Crane was a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and he and his wife were .members of the First Presbyterian Church of Kenton. Mr. Crane was a member of the Laymen's Missionary Society and took an active part in the affairs of that body.
On June 12, 1889, he married Miss Kate Rachel Rhodes, daughter of Oregon E. and Xiria C. (Ensign) Rhodes of Kenton. To their marriage have been born three children : Esther, born at Kenton March 10, 1890, and graduated from Smith. College in 1910, and took post graduate work in the University of Chicago, and received from that institution the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ; Herbert Crane, born in Kenton May 4, 1892, graduated from the Kenton High School in 1908, also graduated from Oberlin College, where he received the degre of Bachelor of Arts, and is now a student in the law department of Chicago University ; Katherine Elizabeth, born at Kenton January 15, 1895, graduated from Kenton High School in 1910, and from Smith's College with the class of 1916.
George E. Crane passed from this life on the 18th of September, 1916.
KENTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. One of the institutions of Northwest Ohio very closely associated with the higher life of the citizens is the Kenton Public Library. For the past ten years it has occupied a handsome building of its own, erected from a fund supplied by Andrew Carnegie, but the early history of the library movement has special interest as respecting some of the pioneer efforts toward the establishment of such a cultural center many years before gifts for public benevolence on a large scale became common.
As early as 1853 an organization existed in Kenton known as the Kenton Library Association, which was formed with a view toward establishing a public library and also for the purpose of bringing noted men to the town to lecture. The first lecture was given on February 21, 1855, by the afterwards celebrated Horace Mann of whom Ohio is justly proud. On February 11, 1856, Sunset Cox gave the second lecture, and later such men
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as Dr. Parke Goodwin and Schuyler Colfax and others of national reputation were heard.
A list of the officers chosen in February, 1857, is: Judge Bain, president; Hugh Let-son, vice president ; G. A. Stewart, secretary ; William Cary, treasurer ; and A. S. Ramsey, J. A. Rogers, Daniel Barron, W. W. Nixon and W. L. Walker, directors. The association continued to prosper until the period of the Civil war, when the organization died out because all people were absorbed in the critical conflict in which the country was then engaged.
The next step in the movement toward a public library was a meeting in February, 1886, of which E. P. Dean was chairman and William M. Beckman, secretary. The plans made at that meeting were carried out so effectually by the public spirited citizens that in August, 1886, a room was opened in the Pfeiffer Block and the shelves were stocked with some good fiction, biography and history. A charter for the Kenton Library Association was secured from Gen. James S. Robinson, then secretary of the State of Ohio, the incorporators of the association being F. D. Bain, G. J. Carter, H. C. Koller, E. P. Dean, F. 0. Hanson and Robert S. Innes. New books were purchased from time to time from private subscriptions and the proceeds of public entertainment, and several well known citizens contributed individual collections. In this way the library was supported until the state law was passed allowing a one mill tax to be levied for the support of libraries.
The principal local benefactor of the library was Lewis Merriman, who a short time before his death donated ground on North Detroit Street valued at $10,000 for the erection of a suitable building. The site having been secured, a donation of $20,000 from Andrew Carnegie was used for the construction of the present building. Architecturally the Library Building is severely classic in style, and the main floor is divided into sections for book racks, reading rooms and rooms for library officials, while the basement contains an assembly room. The present building was dedicated February 17, 1905.
For many years the late George E. Crane had been at the head of the book purchasing committee, and to his wide knowledge and excellent judgment is due much of the credit for the high standard that has always been maintained in selecting books for the library. The first regular librarian was Miss Frances (Pansy) Pearce, who was succeeded in 1892 by Miss Margaret Rogers, and she in turn in February, 1906, by Miss Keziah Moore.
The present library board comprises the following : P. M. Crow, president; D. B. Nourse, vice president ; and W. A. Norton, F. L. Damon, James H. Allen, B. L. Johnson, W. W. Bowers, directors.
REV. BENJAMIN KELSO ORMOND, D. D., is especially well remembered in Toledo because of his long and valuable service as a minister of the Presbyterian Church. His life was one continuous record of unstinted effort in behalf of humanity and the following paragraphs find an appropriate place in the history of Northwestern Ohio.
He was born at Cecil, Washington County, Pennsylvania, the son of Alexander Poe Ormond and Jane Kelso Ormond, native Pennsylvanians and sturdy leaders in their community. His father was a descendant of a prominent ruling family of the North of Ireland and his mother was a descendant of the Kelso family of Kelso, Scotland, and a daughter of an officer in Washington's army.
Doctor Ormond spent much of his early life in Pittsburg and vicinity. By his own untiring efforts and perseverance he acquired a sound education at the academies of Indiana and Eldersridge, Pennsylvania, and at Washington and Jefferson College, where, after a four years' course he graduated. Later, he graduated at the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Allegheny, supplementing this with an advanced course in Hebrew, which was the foundation of his thorough knowledge of the Bible.
He was licensed to preach in 1859, his first pastorate being the United Presbyterian Church of Sharon, Mercer County, Pa., where for twenty-three years, he was a power for good. Here, and during his two subsequent charges, under the inspiration of his enthusiasm, new churches were erected and congregations built up. After leaving Sharon, he entered the Presbyterian Church ; and at this time, while on a tour of the West, he organized a church in Pueblo, Colorado, which has since developed into a prosperous body.
Declining several calls, on account of university advantages he located in Wooster, Ohio, becoming a trustee of the university and taking an active interest in that institution ; and, while there, served successfully as pastor of the Creston and Jackson churches, finally accepting a call to the Third Presbyterian
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Church of Toledo, Ohio, where he labored for thirteen years.
During the Civil war he rendered a valuable service in recruiting soldiers, in visiting the front and administering to the needs and comforts of the Pennsylvania volunteers. He was a consistent and active republican from the inception of that party and a firm believer in the cardinal principles as exemplified by Lincoln, McKinley and Roosevelt.
His interest in public affairs never waned, his faith in God never faltered, his devotion to his Master never ceased even to the last day of his advanced years.
September 7, 1909, he quietly passed away without warning, leaving his wife, Mary McFarland Ormond, and four children, John M. Ormond, Mrs. John R. Calder, Mrs. Frank Willard Thomas and Miss M. Georgia Ormond, all of whom live in Toledo.
Doctor Ormond's never failing optimistic outlook on life made him a happy, hopeful inspiration to all who knew him.
He was a genial gentleman of the old school, kind and courteous to all and ever ready to lend a helping hand. His love for children and ready sympathy for his fellow-men endeared him to many from whose sorrowing hearts—when he fell asleep—came this message : "I have lost my best friend."
JOHN M. ORMOND is one of the old established members of the Toledo bar, where he has been in active practice for more than a quarter of a century. During the last ten years his time and attention have been more and more taken up with the handling of important corporation interests, and he is regarded as one of the most competent civil lawyers in the northwestern section of Ohio.
He is a man of many and varied interests, and deserve special credit for his efforts toward preserving some of the precious monuments of history still found in the vicinity of Toledo. Elsewhere in this work will be found an illustration of the old Lucas County Courthouse at Maumee, and the photograph from which this illustration was made was taken by Mr. Ormond and was loaned to the editor of this work. For several years Mr. Ormond has been striving to interest the citizens and secure money enough to preserve the old courthouse and make it a treasure house and shrine of history in the Maumee Valley.
Though a resident of Toledo all his active professional career, John M. Ormond was born
at Sharon, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, a son of the late Rev. B. K. Ormond and Mary (McFarland) Ormond. His mother is still a resident of Toledo. Rev. B. K. Ormond was for thirteen years the beloved pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Toledo, and reference to his career is found on other pages.
John M. Ormond graduated from the Sharon High School with the class of 1882 and later entered the University of Wooster at Wooster, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1887. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he graduated in 1889 not only with the degree LL. B. but also as Bachelor of Philosophy. Admitted to the bar in the fall of 1890 he soon came to Toledo and in the following year opened his office in the old Law Building, where he remained about two years and then removed to the Nasby Building, which was his location for three years, but for the past twenty years his office has continuously been in the Spitzer Building, and he was one of the first tenants of that imposing structure in the business district. While a general practitioner he has never figured in the criminal law and for many years has had no connection with any case involving his presence before a criminal court. Since 1905 he has given a large share of his time and attention to corporation law and numbers among his clients some of the leading corporate concerns of Toledo and elsewhere. Mr. Ormond also owns considerable real estate, both city and farm property.
He is one of Toledo's successful business men who have established beautiful country homes away from the city's noise and dirt at Maumee and Perrysburg. His own home is in the village of Maumee, and is situated on historic ground and the residence is a fine old colonial mansion. While improving his grounds Mr. Ormond unearthed a number of relics such as old coins of ancient date, to gether with mementos of aboriginal occupation. He is a well informed student of history, particularly that pertaining to the Maumee Valley. He has recently given much time to the campaign for raising money to establish a public library at Maumee and at the time of this writing has secured a donation from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to the amount of $10,000 to be expended for that purpose. The village of Maumee has already donated a site, and a beautiful library building is now situated next to the old Lucas
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County Courthouse, maintained by this county.
Mr. Ormond is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club and for a number of years has been active in every movement for political progress. In politics he is a republican, and is a member of the Third Presbyterian Church of which his father was for a long time pastor.
On October 1, 1890, Mr. Ormond married Miss Lucy Jameson of Warren, Ohio. Her father was the late Biven Jameson, one of the old and honored citizens of Warren. Her mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Blair, came of old Massachusetts stock. Mrs. Ormond was born and educated at Warren, and in 1887 graduated from the Lake Erie Sem- inary at Painesville, Ohio. She is a charter member of the Sorosis Club of Toledo. Mr. and Mrs. Ormond have their city home at 2238 Scottwood Avenue. Among other associations Mr. Ormond is a member of the Lucas County Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association and the American Bar Association, and is also associated with the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and the Northern Light Lodge, No. 40, Free and Accepted Masons.
WALTER SNIDER. One of the best qualified bankers in Ohio is now cushier of the First National Bank of Oak Harbor. Walter Snider has spent all his business years in banking, was formerly connected with banks in Indiana and also on the Pacific coast, and is a thoroughly trained and skillful financier.
The First National Bank of Oak Harbor was organized in 1903, and its first officers were : Jacob Kuebeler, president ; Charles H. Graves, vice president ; George L. Wells, cashier, and William Timmermann, assistant cashier. The capital stock has been $25,000 since organization, and in 1915 the surplus account showed also $25,000. It is one of the most flourishing institutions in Northwest Ohio as is shown by the aggregate deposits of about $525,000. The bank pays 3 ½ per cent interest on time certificates and savings. It occupies a modern banking house, and has proved a valuable asset to the business community. The present executive officers are : August Kuebeler Jr., president ; Frank C. Michel and William Lipstraw, vice presidents; Walter Snider, cashier, and William Timmermann, assistant cashier.
Walter Snider is a native of Indiana, and belongs to a pioneer family of that state. He was born at Chalmers, Indiana, a son of Samuel G. and Fannie (Bond) Snider of Lafayette, Indiana. Since the early days the Sniders have been extensive land holders in Indiana. The original farm of over 600 acres in Indiana which was originally purchased by his grandfather, Frederick V. Snider, is still in the family.
Educated in the public schools and Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, Walter Snider immediately after graduation took up banking. He was first cashier in a private bank owned by Snider & Snider, then cashier of the Farmers & Traders Bank, Lafayette, Indiana, and then vice president of the Peoples National Bank at Muncie, Indiana. The next five years Mr. Snider spent on the Pacific coast as president of the State Bank of Long Beach. In 1910 he came into the First National Bank of Oak Harbor as cashier, and for the past five years has done much to increase the resources and general stability of the institution.
As a loyal and public spirited citizen of Oak Harbor his name has been associated with mush of good accomplished in the village during recent years. He has helped in making the Business Men's Association a vital factor in local improvement and progress. The Business Men's Association has brought about the construction of the new electric light plant and the waterworks for Oak Harbor, and those improvements more than anything else have opened up a new era of progress in the city.
In politics Mr. Snider is a republican. He is affiliated with the lodge, chapter and council of the Masonic Order, with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Fremont, Ohio, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
WALTER S. CLARK is proprietor of the oldest and best known undertaking establishment in Hancock County. In American life it is unusual to find one line of business descend from father to son through several generations, but the name Clark has been in that way identified with the undertaking and funeral direction business in Hancock County.
The parents of Walter S. Clark were J. R. and Mary (Devine) Clark, originally from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The grandfather was a native of Ireland. From Pennsylvania J. R. Clark moved from Findlay, Ohio, in 1848. He was first engaged in the furniture business on a small scale. Re sponding to the urging and solicitation of his
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neighbors he finally became a funeral director, and his popularity was such that his clientele included practically all of Hancock County. He was as progressive in his time as his son Walter is today. J. R. Clark was the first undertaker in Hancock County to build outside boxes for the coffins used in those days. He also introduced into his business a funeral car or hearse, which in its .time was regarded as a model of equipment and style. This old vehicle which carried the bodies of many well known citizens to the grave of an earlier generation is still carefully preserved by Walter S. Clark, and is one of the few survivals of a bygone age in funeral fashions Mr. Clark has consented to this old funeral car being brought out for exhibition at the annual state convention of the undertakers, and in many ways it is a most interesting relic. J. R. Clark, after a long and honorable career, died at Findlay in 1906.
His wife died in 1898. Of their four children, the only one now living is 'Walter S. Clark. He was born January 5,. 1857, at Findlay, received his education in the common schools, and after learning the art of embalming from a Mr. Sullivan he entered business with his father and eventually became owner of the establishment founded by his honored sire.
Mr. Clark was married in 1884 to Miss Sarah Hartman, daughter of William Hart- man of Eagle Township in Hancock County. Their only son, James Frank, born May 19, 1886, has also taken up the embalming and undertaking business and is now his father's active assistant. Mr. Clark has a, $5,000 Winton funeral car which is the finest in Hancock County.
He and his family occupy one of the beautiful homes at Findlay. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the. Modern Woodmen of America, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is an independent republican and a member of the First Lutheran Church. For twenty years Mr. Clark served as cemetery trustee.
JOHN MEEKS FIRMIN, M. D. For almost three quarters of a century the name Firmin has been prominently identified with the medical profession in Findlay. The first of the family to practice there was the late Dr. Lorenzo Firmin, who opened his office in 1842, and was in many ways a useful and prominent man in that community. The oldest prac tieing member of the medical- profession at present in Hancock County is Dr. Francis W. Firmin, who is now practically retired from professional work. He began 'practice in Findlay almost fifty years ago. Carrying the heavy responsibilities of a large practice and actively representing the family name in a profession which so many members of this family have honored is Dr. John Meeks Fir-min, a son of Dr. Francis W. and a nephew of Dr. Lorenzo Firmin.
The Firmin family is of old English ancestry, and is traced even further back to the time of the Norman conquerors. The first of the family to come to America was Giles Firmin, who came over with Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts. Giles Firmin was also a physician, and is mentioned by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes in his History of Medicine. One branch of the family came to Summit County, Ohio, in the early years of the last century, and at Richfield in Summit County was born Dr. Francis W. Firmin on July 15, 1842. He spent most of his early youth in the New England states. In 1862 he arrived at Findlay, and in the fall of the same year entered Oberlin College.. In 1863 he enlisted with other students in Company E of the Hundred and Twenty-ninth Ohio Infantry, and served with that command until honorably discharged March 10, 1864. He returned to Findlay and began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Lorenzo Firmin, and completed his education in the Western Reserve College at Cleveland, from which institution he received the degree M. D. on February 18, 1867. He immediately opened an office in Findlay and for many years has been recognized as the dean of the local profession. He also served four years on the city council and seven years on the board of education, and has been prominent in the Masonic Order since 1868. In 1872 he was appointed examining surgeon for pensions in Hancock County, and held that office for many years except during democratic administrations. 'On May 6, 1869, Dr. Francis W. Firmin married Mary L. D. Meeks, daughter of Rev. John A. Meeks. To their marriage were born four children : Scott, Dr. John M., Frank B. and Carl G.
Dr. John Meeks Firmin was born at Findlay October 31, 1872, and secured his early education in the grammar and high schools. graduating from the latter in 1890. In the same year he entered Oberlin College, where his father at one time was a student, and re-
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ceived his A. B. degree in 1894, and in 1897 Oberlin conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. From Oberlin after his graduation he entered the medical department of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and was graduated M. J. with the class of 1897. For a year and a half he was interne in the Cleveland City Hospital, and with that excellent training and preparation he began practice in Findlay in 1899. Though enjoying a large practice and noted for his skill both as a physician and surgeon, he is still a student and close observer, and whenever possible takes the opportunity of associating with the eminent men in his profession. In 1900 and again in 1907 he attended the Post-graduate School of New York city.
Politically Doctor Firmin is an independent republican. He served as master of his Masonic Lodge in 1905-07, is past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter, and has been thrice illustrious master of the council. He also belongs to the Findlay Country Club and is a great lover of the game of golf. He also belongs to the Court Literary Society and the First Presbyterian Church. In 1916 he was elected vice president of his alumni association.
Doctor Firmin married for his first wife Miss Bess Andrews, a daughter of H. H. Andrews, a well known real estate man of Findlay. Mrs. Firmin died in 1912 leaving one son, Richard Andrews, who was born September 11, 1906. In April, 1914, Doctor Firmin married Blanche Crites, daughter of William and Ida (Gunsaulus) Crites, of Findlay, Ohio, and by this union there is one Child, John Crites Firmin, born January 2, 1917.
DONALD FRANKLIN MELHORN. For thirty-five years the name Melhorn has represented solid ability and high attainments in the profession of law in Hardin County.
The late Charles M. Melhorn was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1881, and for several years was a partner in practice with Judge A. B. Johnson. From 1885 to 1891 he served as prosecuting attorney for two terms, and from 1895 until his death in 1902 was judge of the Common Pleas Court. He died while still serving on the bench, and is remembered as a sound lawyer and just judge. His death occurred November 1, 1902, and his widow is still living at Kenton.
Donald Franklin Melhorn, a son of the late Judge Melhorn, was born at Kenton April 28, 1889, was educated in the public schools and at Oberlin College, and in 1911 graduated from the literary department of the University of Michigan and in 1914 obtained his degree Jurium Doctor from the same institution. Just thirty years after his father had been elected to the same office he was chosen prosecuting attorney of Hardin 'County in the election of November, 1914, and is still serving in that position. He is a member of the Hardin County and the Ohio State Bar Association, is a director in the Hardin County Athletic Association, is a member of the Masonic order and in politics a republican.
EDWARD VANCE BOPE in the course of twenty-six years of active law practice at Findlay has found his talents more and more engaged in corporation work, and his resourcefulness as a corporation lawyer has been put to tests in hundreds of important cases in which he has appeared as one of the leading counsel. Besides a large general clientage Mr. Bope is general counsel of the Toledo, Bowling Green & Southern Traction Company, and his time is taken up with the legal affairs of various business organizations.
He was born at Findlay in 1868, and is of German stock on his father's side and Scotch-Irish through his mother. His ancestors came to America and settled in Virginia in colonial days and several of his family belonged to the patriot organizations of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mr. Bope is a son of the late Col. James A. Bope, who married Martha J. Meeks. His father made a brilliant record as a soldier during the Civil war. In 1861 he went to the front as captain of Company D of the Ninety-ninth Ohio Infantry and was in active service for four years. After the war he practiced law at Findlay.
Edward V. Bope attended the public schools at Findlay and in 1881 entered Kenyon College, where he was graduated A. B. in 1885. The following two years were spent in the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated with the class of 1887. He was soon afterward admitted to the Ohio bar and then joined Col. J. A.. Bope. establishing the firm of Bope & Bope in 1890. J. A. Bope died in 1908. and since then Edward V. Bope has carried on an individual practice. He is a director in the First National Bank of Findlay. Politically he is a conservative republican. He is a past
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exalted ruler in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Findlay, is a member of the Findlay Country Club, belongs to the Beta Theta Society of the University of Michigan, and the Beta Alpha of Kenyon College, the Court Literary Society and the Hancock Bar Association, the Sons of Veterans, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
In 1902 Mr. Bope married Miss Laila E. Earnest of Fostoria, Ohio. They have one child, James A., born April 20, 1903.
ALICE E. FISER. Specialization is the order of the age in all occupations and industries, and notably so in the work which for so many years has been handled on broad and generous lines by the physician or doctor. Some of the special branches have been developed as distinctive schools of healing, and none of these has stood the test of experience and criticism better than chiropractic and mechano-therapy.
It has been as a practitioner along these lines that Doctor Fiser has been successfully engaged at Findlay during the past seven years. Doctor Fiser was born on a farm in Darke County, Ohio, a daughter of Miles and Harriet (Sutton) Mofford. Her family is of Welsh and Irish descent. Doctor Fiser attended the common schools in the country, the Attica High School in Seneca County, and in 1906 graduated from the American College of Mechano-Therapy at Chicago. She has since taken post-graduate work in Cleveland and is also a graduate of the Ohio Institute of Naturo-Practice.
She opened an office in Findlay, Ohio, and has since built up a very large practice all over Hancock County. She is a member of the State and National Associations of Chiropractic and was appointed to the board of censors of the Ohio College of Chiropractic. Doctor Fiser is a student in every sense of the word and has accomplished a great deal of good in her chosen field and is a credit to the profession she so ably represents. She has a host of warm friends in Findlay and vicinity. She is past matron of the Order of Eastern Star and also belongs to the Rebekah Lodge. She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Findlay.
CHARLES B. DWIGGINS. Once a farmer boy and country school teacher. Charles B. Dwiggins for many years has 'found success and fame in the practice of law and is one of the widely known attorneys of Northwest Ohio. For nearly thirty years he has been identified with the Findlay bar and he is still practicing there, entrusted with a large and influential clientele. His offices are in the Karst Building.
He was born on a farm in Clinton County; Ohio, a son of Zimri and Phoebe (Frazer) Dwiggins. When his services could be spared from the home farm he attended country school and at the age of sixteen began teaching. 'He followed that occupation in various country districts for four years. His higher literary education was attained during three years of attendance at Franklin College in Wilmington, Ohio. At Wilmington also he began the study of law under Judge A. W. Doan, and remained with him a year and a half. He was then admitted to the bar by the District Court in Clinton County and gained his first successes as a lawyer at Wilmington. He practiced three years there with Judge F. G. Sloan and T. O. Hildebrandt, with Melville Hayes one year, and three years with Telfair Creighton.
Mr. Dwiggins came to Findlay in 1887 during the oil boom, and soon had a gratifying share of local practice there. He was alone until 1902, when he formed his partnership with Tom McConnica, and their relationship continued until five years ago, since which time Mr. Dwiggins has again practiced alone.
Successful in his profession he has given liberally of his time and means to local affairs. He served a time on the board of education, was also clerk of the board of education, and has also taken an active part in fraternal affairs. He has served as exalted ruler of his home lodge of Elks and as chancellor commander of Lodge No. 400, Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Dwiggins married Miss Mary B. Shepherd. They are the parents of two sons and a daughter. Their son Clare Victor Dwiggins has attained an enviable fame as a cartoonist and is the author of many popular comics which have illustrated some of the foremost metropolitan papers. Some of the originals of his cartoons are prized possessions of Mr. Charles B. Dwiggins. He married Bessie Kinsey of Piedmont, Missouri, and they have two children, Phoebe and Donald. The daughter is Claudia, now Mrs. C. E. Holopeter of Portland, Oregon, and the mother of one child, Charles. Verne, the younger son, is an electrician with the Municipal Light & Power Company of Cleveland, Ohio. He
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married Lena Logan of Bandon, Oregon, and they have two children, Dick and Tom.
JOHN D. SNYDER. Both as a lawyer and business man John D. Snyder has been a prominent factor in Hancock County business affairs during the last quarter of a century. He is now actively associated in practice at Findlay with Hiram Van Campen, and without question the firm of John D. Snyder and Hiram Van Campen stands in the front rank of corporation and business lawyers in Northwestern Ohio.
A native of Ohio, John D. Snyder was born in 1859, and spent his early life on a farm. His parents were William and Mary A. (Swander) Snyder. Both families were of Swiss origin, the first American ancestors coming from Canton Berne as early as 1732. In later generations they served as soldiers in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812.
John D. Snyder attended country schools, and in 1875 entered Heidelberg College at Tiffin, Ohio. For two years he was out of school earning means for the continuance of his education, but he eventually completed the course and was graduated A. B. with the class of 1882. On leaving college Mr. Snyder went to Fargo, North Dakota, and organized with others the Fargo Evening Post. Selling his interest in 1883, he spent the following year reading law in the State of Michigan. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in the spring of 1884, but in 1887 located at Fostoria, Ohio. In January, 1897, he resigned his office as city solicitor of Fostoria and entered upon his duties as judge of the Probate Court of Hancock County. Since then he has lived at Findlay and for six years he gave an exceedingly careful and thorough administration to the varied responsibilities that came to him as probate judge. He was elected on the republican ticket.
After retiring from the office of probate judge Mr. Snyder practiced alone until 1906, when he formed his partnership with Mr. Van Campen. This firm besides much other corporation work acts as general counsel of the Central Railway Signal Company. In 1903 Judge Snyder initiated the movement which resulted in the organization of the Findlay Publishing Company, the company taking over the properties of the Morning Republican and the Evening Jefersonian. He is now a stockholder in the company and he was one of the ten men who promoted and built the Toledo, Fostoria and Findlay Railway between Findlay and Fostoria.
While living in :Fostoria Judge Snyder was, elected a member of the board of education in 1891. He as active in the First Presbyterian Church of Findlay, being chairman of the church board for six years. He served fifteen years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Y. M. C. A., six years of that time as president. In 1885 he married Miss Rose E. Mussetter of Fostoria, daughter of Levi D. and Eunice Mussetter. Judge and Mrs. Snyder have two children, Evelyn and Marguerite. Evelyn is now Mrs. Oliver Zoll of Detroit, Michigan, and has a daughter Rosemary. Marguerite is Mrs. Rodney Van Fleet and lives in Toledo, Ohio.
SCOTT WILLIAM MASCHO. The Independent Torpedo Company, of which Scott W. Mascho is secretary, is the largest independent industry of its kind in America. Much of its rapid growth and the expansion of its business, which is in the supplying of nitroglycerin products all over the country, and particularly to the oil districts, has been due to the business aggressiveness of Mr. Mascho.
He was born at Brookfield in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1870, a son of John J. and Frances (Kizer) Mascho. His father was a Pennsylvania farmer. The son began his schooling in the district school and when nine years of age the family removed to McKean County, Pennsylvania, and later he was a stu- dent in the high school at Bolivar, New York, Mr. Mascho first came to Findlay, Ohio, in 1887. Here he was engaged in the nitro-glycerin business with his father and brother-in-law under the name McCoy & Mascho. Then for three years he was with the firm of Yoll & Hecock, for one year was with W. T. Weed and then for a year conducted a building supply business. After that he was local manager for the National Supply Company at St. Marys, Ohio, establishing the branch in that city.
Mr. Mascho at Warren, Indiana, entered the oil business for himself, being part owner in the firm of Parker & Mascho. From there he returned to Findlay and took charge of the office of the Bradford Glycerin Company. in 1905 he and the late E. Wanamaker organized the Independent Torpedo Company. In less than a dozen years this business has been built up until it surpasses every other competitive firm. The company now has branches at Findlay, Robinson, Illinois ; Independence,
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Kansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mr. Mascho married Catherine Lamb, daughter of Jacob and Catherine Lamb, who were a pioneer family of Hancock County, Ohio, and of Scotch ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Mascho lost their only child, a daughter, Anna Catherine, who died in infancy. They attend the First Presbyterian Church and Mr. Mascho in political matters is independent. He was recently candidate for president of the Findlay City Council, and was defeated by only eighty-seven votes. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason and is a past eminent commander of the Knights Templar. He also belongs to the Findlay Country Club.
JUSTIN BREWER has for many years been prominently identified with banking and business life in Hardin County, and his range of interests is not confined to Hardin County.
He was the first president of the Ada Savings Bank when it was organized on October 3, 1893, with a capital of $25,000. The other officers were Henry Young, vice president ; and James Bastable, cashier. This bank was continued under the first organization and name until July 1, 1900, when it was reorganized with a national charter under the name The First National Bank of Ada. It began with a capital stock of $25,000, but in 1910 the capital was increased to $50,000. A statement in 1917 shows that the capital is $50,000, surplus $10,000, and undivided profits about $7,000, while the deposits aggregate approximately $288,000. Mr. Justin Brewer continued as president of the First National and has held that office to the present time. The other officers are : Ben R. Connor, vice president ; J. S. McKee, cashier ; and Howard Bentley, assistant cashier. These and the other directors are all men of known business ability, and the bank is one of the most prosperous institutions of the. kind in Hardin County.
Mr. Justin Brewer beside his position as president of the First National Bank of Ada is a director of the Vinton County National Bank at McArthur, Ohio ; director of the Alger Savings Bank at Alger, Ohio ; treasurer of the Ada Telephone Company ; a former treasurer of the Ada Water, Heat & Light Company ; and was formerly a trustee of the Ohio Northern University. He is a charter member of the Masonic order and of the Knights of Pythias, and from 1904 until 1910 he filled the office of county auditor of Hardin County.
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He is also one of the men most prominent in that section of Northwest Ohio as farmers and stock raisers. He has a fine 300 acre farm in Hardin County, and he also owns a 5,200 acre ranch known as V-4 ranch in South Dakota, from which he ships cattle to Hardin County to be fattened for the market. At Ada he erected and owns the Brewer Block, a two story brick building on a foundation 87 by 90 feet and has a number of other business houses and owns the finest residence in the City of Ada.
ELIJAH T. DUNN. Few members of the bar or any other profession in Northwestern Ohio who began their active careers more than half a century ago are still recognized as forceful figures in their chosen field. An exception is the case of Elijah T. Dunn, of Findlay, who earned his first fees while the Civil war was still in progress, and who many years ago built up a reputation as one of the ablest criminal attorneys in Northwest Ohio and still has a practice in business which indicates that he has lost little of his skill and proficiency through the weight of years.
A native of Knox County, Ohio, where he was born June 20, 1840, he has lived to pass the three-quarter century mark and has crowded that long lifetime to the full with worthy activities. His parents were John and Elizabeth D. Dunn. This is a prominent old family of Ohio. From the north of Ireland where the .Dunns had their original seat three brothers came to America in colonial days, and from each descended a family that can now be found in many states of the Union. Mr. Dunn's direct ancestor was Rev. George Dunn, a pioneer Baptist minister, whose home and work were in Maryland. A grandson of this pioneer clergyman was John Dunn, father of the Findlay lawyer. John Dunn, who was born in Maryland December 1, 1799, and died in Wood County, Ohio, March 9, 1851, came with his wife and three children and his father, George Dunn, in 1826, to Ohio, locating first in Fairfield County, then in Knox County, and in 1844 in Wood County. He was a practical farmer and a man of no little influence in the early communities where he made his home. His wife, Elizabeth Dorothea Bowlman, who was born in Maryland January 1, 1808, was the daughter of Nicholas and Magdalene (Troxel) Bowlman and was descended from a number of German families who were noted for their solid and thrifty virtues in the states of Maryland and
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Pennsylvania. One line of her ancestry was the Hager family that gave its name to the old town of Hagerstown, Maryland. Mrs. John Dunn died in 1883 at the age of seventy-five. Her children were : Ann, who married Adam Cosner ; Jacob, who married Angeline Culp ; Joseph, who married Mary Niebel ; George, who died unmarried in 1855 ; Maria, who became the wife of William Stretcher ; Aaron, who died single ; Samuel, who married Margaret Bishop ; Phebe, who became the wife of Joseph Hoot ; Nathaniel, who died in 1846 ; Elijah T. ; Mary Magdalene, who died in 1846 ; John, who never married ; and Thomas Corwin, who married Emma T. Lewis.
The old home of the Dunn family in Wood County was in the district known as the Black Swamp. It was in that pioneer locality with its many primitive facilities and institutions that Elijah T. Dunn was reared from the age of four to thirteen. Public schools in the modern .sense did not then exist anywhere within the State of Ohio, and the efficiency of instruction in the subscription schools dependent entirely upon the character and ability of the individual teacher who happened to be employed. Therefore Elijah T. Dunn received little of the training that modern boys receive almost as a natural right, but he was a splendid example of that initiative and original impulse which make opportunities regardless of obstacles or environment. From boyhood he was an eager reader and learner. The opportunity for a practical education came when he was about thirteen or fourteen years of age in an apprenticeship at a printing office in Wilmington. He learned the trade according to the old principles, but of even greater importance was the knowledge of people and things which came as part of his training. It has been well said that one of the best universities in the world is a printing office. Through his education thus acquired he taught school and employed all his vacation hours and leisure in the study of law. He did not pursue his law studies continuously, since the necessities of self-support interrupted them frequently, and eventually he completed his course to the satisfaction of the examiners and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-two on August 2, 1862.
Ever since that year, while the Civil war was raging, he has been identified with the Findlay bar; and distinguished himself almost from the first as a resourceful trial lawyer and one of the most competent who ever handled a criminal case in Northwest Ohio. The reputation thus built up on careful and skillful work has persisted to the present time. In later years his interests became extended to business affairs. He has been one of the factors in the oil and gas development of Northwestern Ohio, and served as president of the Wood & Hancock Oil and Gas Company and a director in some of the principal industries of recent times at Findlay and also a director in several banks. His recreation has largely been found on his fine farm situated a short distance from Findlay. He has used this farm for the breeding and raising of fine stock, and has made it a source of profit as well as pleasure.
Mr. Dunn is a member of Stoker Post of Grand Army of the Republic, having served his country during the dark days of the Civil war. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a life member of Findlay Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is one of the first members of that order in Findlay. He and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church. His home is at 302 East Hardin Street in Findlay.
In January, 1865, Mr. Dunn married Miss Martha Strother. Her father, Anthony Strother, was one of the early settlers of Findlay. Three sons were born to their union : Bernard L., John A. (deceased) and James C. At the present time Bernard L. Dunn is actively associated with his father in law practice at Findlay and thus the prestige of the senior partner is being continued through a son of very able attainments. James C. is also on the official staff.
MARION G. FOSTER. Some men, on account of unusual natural ability, get a very early start .in life and are successful when many of their contemporaries are merely laying the foundations of success. That is true of Marion G. Foster, who has been a practicing lawyer at Findlay for many years and was well launched in his career both in the profession and in public affairs by the time he reached his legal majority.
He was born near the City of Cleveland in Cuyahoga County April 25, 1868, a son of L. L. and Marcia (Clark) Foster. He attended country schools and the Berea High School for two years, and was little more than a boy when he was qualified and given charge of a country school in Brooklyn Township of
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Cuyahoga County. He remained a teacher there three years and in 1885 came to Findlay and put in two years teaching in Allen Township of Hancock County. In 1887 Mr. Foster entered the office of Henry Brown at Findlay and began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar at Columbus in 1899. In the spring of 1890 he was elected clerk of the City of Findlay and in 1898 was elected its city solicitor. In 1905 he was elected a member of the State Legislature. He served as a capable representative of his constituency in the legislative sessions of 1906 and 1908, and was a member of the cities and the public buildings and land committees. He has always practiced alone, and a large clientage reposes the utmost confidence in his ability and counsel. He has his offices in the Karst Block.
Mr. Foster is a democrat and has served as chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 400 of Findlay, Ohio, and as exalted ruler of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the same city.
In lineage he is of old Yankee stock. Mr. Foster married Mary. M. Duffield of Hancock County February 6, 1909. They have two children, Mary Margaret and William Clark.
JOHN D. IRVING. Though he died at Toledo June 1, 1896, more than twenty years ago, the late John D. Irving was that type of citizen whose memory is not forgotten. He was long prominent in insurance circles, and the business which he founded and which he conducted for a number of years was continued through the dynamic ability of his wife, Elizabeth Mansfield Irving, and the Elizabeth Mansfield Irving & Company is now one of the leading insurance firms of the city.
There was an inheritance of rugged New England virtues in the late John D. Irving.. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Irving, spent their lives at Hampstead, New Hampshire, where for many years his father served as postmaster. Jacob Irving was a very active member of the Congregational Church.
In a home of substantial comfort though of no luxury, and of high ideals and with every encouragement to make the best of his time and talents, John D. Irving spent his early years. He was born at Hampstead June 10, 1839. One of his schoolmates in the public schools of his native town was the late Fred Eaton of Toledo, who also came from that section of New Hampshire. John D. Irving was a resident of Toledo the last twenty years of his life. For a time he was with the late T. P. Brown in the fire insurance business, but the year before his marriage he bought the business of Mr. Brown and he conducted it under his own name, John D. Irving. Later he took a partner and the firm became Irving & Russell. Still later it was known as John D. Irving & Company, with Mrs. Irving as his associate. This old firm name was continued for 'many years after his death, but in 1909 a change was made to Elizabeth Mansfield Irving & Company. Mrs. Irving's son and daughter comprise the company, though neither is now active in the business.
The late Mr. Irving at the time of his death and for a number of years before had been secretary of the Industry Savings & Building Company of- Toledo, and it was due to him that that was built up as a very profitable business. Though best known in insurance and building and loan circles, he was always ready to do his part in behalf of civic advancemcnt. In 1877 he was chosen secretary of the Monroe Street Railroad Company. He served as treasurer of the local board of underwriters from its organization until his death.
Mr. Irving had membership in many fraternal societies and was honored with both state and national offices. He was grand commander of the State of Ohio for the Ancient Order of United Workmen ; was supreme commander of the Knights and Ladies of the Golden Rule, and he also held offices in the Royal Arcanum and the Independent Order of Foresters. He was long identified with the First Congregational Church of Toledo.
On December 24, 1877, John D. Irving and Miss Elizabeth Mansfield were united in marriage at Hillsdale, Michigan, the late President Durgin of Hillsdale College officiating at the ceremony. Two children were born, and after the early death of the father the mother became both mother and father to them, encouraging them in every way, and her pride in their achievements is well justified. The son is John Mansfield Irving, who was born in Toledo, graduated from the Central High School with the class of 1904, then spent two years assisting his mother in the insurance business, and followed that with a four year literary course in the University of Michigan, where he was graduated Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1910. For a time he resumed the insurance business with his mother at Toledo, but for the past four years
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has been very successful as manager of the Mira Monte Hotel at Pasadena, California.
The daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Irving, was, also born in Toledo. After graduating from the Central High School in 1910, she entered the University of Michigan, taking the same course as her brother and graduating from university in 1914, and is a teacher of public speaking in the Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa. She is treasurer of the National Speech Arts Association, of which she has been a member for several years. She is a member of the First Congregational Church,. of the Woman's Relief Corps and of the Kappa Alpha Theta college sorority.
ELIZABETH MANSFIELD IRVING, one of the few really successful women in the field of insurance in Northwest Ohio, and head of the Elizabeth Mansfield Irving & Company of Toledo, was born near the village of Westmoreland, then called Hampton, about eleven miles west of Utica, New York. Her parents were Joseph Lafayette and Maria Louise (Weaver) Mansfield, who subsequently removed to Hillsdale, Michigan. Mrs. Irving received her education in the common schools of New York State, later attended Hillsdale College at Hillsdale, Michigan, and then entered the National School of Oratory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which awarded her the degree of Master of Elocution.
Mrs. Irving is one of the most widely known women of Ohio. She has talents and abilities that have distinguished her in several fields, not alone in the business which she has so successfully carried on in Toledo since her husband's death. She is an accomplished speaker and elocutionist. Since its organization in 1908 she has been a member and on the board of the Toledo Woman's Association. She belongs to the Sorosis Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Woman's Relief Corps, the Ladies Literary League, and has held various offices, including that of president in 1915, in the Toledo Underwriters Association.
For a number of years she has been recognized as one of the foremost teachers of elocution, oratory and dramatic art. Her services as an entertainer have been recognized and appreciated not alone in Northwestern Ohio but all over the country. She has recited at many of the national and state meetings of the Grand Army and Woman's Relief Corps. Many times have the old soldiers been entertained by her. She has been on the program at the national reunions of the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Potomac, and the Army of the Tennessee, has appeared many times in the state reunions of the Grand Army of the Republic, and also in the national reunions of that organization. She is one of the charter members of the National Speech Arts Association, and has held every office except that of president. Mrs. Irving is a member of the First Congregational Church of Toledo.
LOUIS FRESE, president of the First National Bank of Elmore, is an exemplification of the predominance of the self-made man and of the truth of the adage that it is not those who have, but those who gain, a competence that attain distinction in life. During a period of half a century he has been connected with the business and financial affairs of Elmore and his name has been identified with many of the enterprises which have brought prestige and prominence to this thriving and prosperous little city of Ottawa County. In the meantime he has been generous in contributing his labors and abilities to the public welfare and in a number of public offices has displayed his ideals of citizenship as well as his capacity for executive duties.
Mr. Frese was born in Hanover, 'Germany, June 13, 1838, and is a son of John Henry and Louisa (Heilbrun) Frese. He was three years of age when brought to the United States, his father settling on a farm in Sandusky County, Ohio, in which vicinity Louis Frese received his early education. Later he attended the public schools of Toledo, and in that city his career was started in a furniture factory, in which he worked for six years. Mr. Frese came to Elmore in 1865 and here joined C. H. Damschroeder in founding a general merchandise business, which was conducted for many years under the style of C. H. Damschroeder & Co. As his holdings increased, he turned his attention to other enterprises and branched out into other fields of endeavor. In 1888 he became the proprietor of a sawmill business, which he conducted successfully for fifteen years, and March 5, 1903, became the founder and organizer of the First National Bank of Elmore, which began business June 7th of that year. He has continued to be president of this institution since its inception, the vice president being J. G. Steinkamp and the cashier H. W. Nieman. The capital of the bank at this time
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is $25,000, its surplus $12,500, and its deposits $355,000, and the concern owns its own banking house, a two-story brick structure, 20 by 60 feet, with offices on the second floor. The officers remain the same as at the organization, with the exception that E. H. Meyer has become assistant cashier. Mr. Frese is a director of the Multiplex Concrete Machinery Company of Elmore. Fertile in resource, every undertaking with which he has been connected has been prosecuted with a zeal and energy which have merited and attained success. During the twelve years that Mr. Frese served as a member of the Elmore City Council he had a hand in the numerous civic improvements which have added to the city 's growth and prosperity. He served also as a member of the school board for two terms and as township treasurer for a like period, and his public record is one that reflects credit upon his name and his abilities.
Mrs. Frese was before her marriage Miss Eliza A. Luckey, of Elmore, daughter of Dr. George W. Luckey, an early physician of this city. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frese : Harry, of Casey, Illinois, engaged in the oil business, married Miss Hattie Canis and has one son, Louis ; Miss Jennie, who resides with her parents ; Frank, who is a traveling salesman with headquarters at Dayton, Ohio ; George L., a veterinary surgeon of Toledo, who married Anna Koehrman ; Ida L., who, resides in New York ; Charles, assistant cashier of the Ohio Savings & Trust Company of Toledo, and Louis C., who is engaged in the real estate business at Denver, Colorado. For twenty years Louis Frese has been a member of the Odd Fellows, both lodge and encampment, and is past noble grand in that order.
W. A. NORTON. For more than half a century a resident of Kenton, where he grew up from early youth, where he was the first male graduate of the Kenton public schools, W. A. Norton has had a notable career in banking and in larger business affairs.
He was born at Marseilles in Wyandot County, Ohio, December 17, 1852, the only son of Anson and Rachel (Hooker) Norton. His first American ancestor was Thomas Norton of Guilford, England, who brought his family to America in 1639. Mr. Norton's great-grandfather was Joel Norton, while the grandfather, Anson Norton, Sr., married Lucretia Woodruff, a daughter of David Woodruff and descended from Matthew Woodruff one of the early colonists of America.
Anson Norton, father of the Kenton banker, was born at Sharon in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in May, 1828. When nine years of age he was taken to Livingston County, New York, and in 1847 he located at Marseilles, Ohio. During the greater part of his active career he was a merchant, and in 1864 brought his family to Kenton where he conducted a store for a time, but was finally in the business of buying wool and in handling insurance. The death of this honored old citizen occurred February 14, 1903. On February 5, 1852, at Marseilles he married Rachel Hooker. Her parents were Henson and Susanah (Young) Hooker, and her maternal great-grandfather, George Young, served in the Revolutionary army from his native state of Maryland, and lived to be one hundred and six years of age, his body being laid to rest at Marseilles, Ohio. Mr. W. A. Norton had four sisters: Emma C., who married Henry J. Miller of Kenton ; Mary A., wife of B. F. Schultz of Kenton ; Louie Bell, who died in February, 1891, as the wife of Elmer E. Gear, leaving a son Anson William Gear, who is employed in the Kenton Savings Bank ; and Maud, who died when two years of age.
Mr. W. A. Norton first began attending school at his native village of Marseilles and continued his education in the Kenton public schools until graduating in 1871. During the next seven years he gained valuable business experience as clerk and assistant to his father in the dry goods store, and then on July 15, 1878, nearly forty years ago, entered banking, the field in which his abilities have had such wide scope and usefulness. His first service was as assistant cashier of the Kenton Savings Bank. In 1886 he was promoted to cashier and since 1905 has been president of this old and solid institution.
In the meantime his judgment and energies have entered in as vital factors with the organization and development of many of Hardin County's principal business affairs. He was one of the organizers and since organization has been treasurer of the Home Savings and Loan Company. He is a former president of the Kenton Gas and Electric Company, which is now the Hardin and Wyandot Counties Gas and Electric Company. He was one of the organizers and is President of the Kenton Telephone Company. In 1912 he became actively concerned in the
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establishment of the Kenton Hardware Company, of which he is a director, vice president and treasurer, and this is an extensive concern employing a capital of $100,000. Mr. Norton is a trustee of the Kenton Public Library, and in the way of public service was for nine years a trustee of the waterworks board, and has also served on the board of public service.
He is an active republican, though not a politician, and is both a York and Scottish Rite Mason. On December 5, 1905, at Columbus he married Mrs. Lula Carpenter, widow of Eugene G. Carpenter, formerly of Columbus, Ohio, and a daughter of Joseph McCormick of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
KENTON SAVINGS BANK. The Kenton Savings Bank is the oldest banking institution of Hardin County, and has had a prosperous existence of more than forty years. It was incorporated September 23, 1875, under the laws of Ohio with a capital stock of $50,000. In 1886 the capital was increased to $100,000, and later increased to $150,000. An interesting part of the record is that it has paid a dividend to stockholders every year since its incorporation, and besides accumulated a surplus fund of $75,000.
The incorporators of the bank were Lewis Merriman, W. M. Chesney, John Saylor, J. S. Robinson, William Moore, Asher Letson, Edmund Carey, Clemens Lopker, Sr., and Samuel Haynes. The first officers were : Lewis Merriman, president ; J. S. Robinson, vice president ; Solomon Kraner, cashier; W. S. Robinson, assistant, cashier. Mr. Merriman soon resigned the presidency, and W. M. Chesney was his successor until January, 1882, when Mr. Merriman again became president and held that position until his death November 23, 1905. Since that time the president has been W. A. Norton. Mr. Norton had entered the service of the bank as assistant cashier succeeding W. S. Robinson on July 15, 1878, and in 1886 became cashier. He was succeeded in the post of cashier by C. L. Merriman. A number of the best known business men and citizens of Kenton and Hardin County has at various times been closely connected with this institution as stockholders, directors and officers.
The Kenton Savings Bank has had one location since January 1, 1877, a period of more than forty years. At that date the bank removed to the northeast corner of Detroit and Columbus streets, occupying the "Bank Block" which had been erected several years before by the old Bank of Exchange and Deposits, an institution which failed in 1874.
The present officers and directors of the Kenton Savings Bank are as follows : President, W. A. Norton ; vice president, James W. Dougherty ; cashier, C. L. Merriman; assistant cashier, F. C. Handenschild ; second assistant cashier, C. A. Willeke. The directors are : Charles H. Shanafelt, William A. Norton, A. G. Merriman, James W. Dougherty, J. C. Miller, D. H. Wagner, and C. B. Fink.
FRANK MILLER. As superintendent of the State Fish Hatchery at Put-in-Bay, Frank Miller has a place of special prominence in Ohio and through his connection with this institution and in other ways has done much to build up and maintain the great fish industry along the shores of Lake Erie. He has lived practically all his life on Put-in-Bay, has followed farming on the island, was also connected with the fishing industry for a number of years, in a private capacity, and his career reflects high honor upon his attainments.
He was born on East Point, South Bass Island, September 1, 1862. Frank Miller, grew upon his father's farm on South Bass Island, and was .a practical farmer until he entered the fishing industry, which he followed along the shores of Lake Erie for ten years. He has also had experience in the hotel business, and was manager of the Put-in Bay House up to 1901, a period of eleven years. He then entered the employ of the state government as foreman in the State Fish Hatchery, then located at Sandusky. A few years later this was removed to Lakeside, and Mr. Miller became its superintendent. In 1907 the hatchery was removed to its present site on Put-in-Bay. The first structure erected for the fish hatchery at Put-in-Bay was a frame building, which was burned May 30, 1914. It has been replaced by a substantial and permanent brick structure.
Fraternally Mr. Miller is a Mason.
ELMER E. TOMPKINS, M. D., was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1851. His father, John Tompkins, was of Yankee stock and a native of Canandaigua County, New York.
In 1877 he came to Fulton County, Ohio. and during the next year. farmed and also pursued his medical studies. He attended medical lectures in Cincinnati, Ohio, and
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afterward did post-graduate work in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In 1879 he located in Richfield Center and began the general practice of medicine. He built up a large clientage which he maintained until he retired from active Practice several years ago.
Doctor Tompkins married Miss Mary Wilson of Fulton County, Ohio, in 1879. Four children were born to their union : Jessie is the wife of John Bartholomew of Riga, Michigan, and the mother of four children : Oren, Carl, Ruth and Emily ; Frank, who is engaged in farming near Metamora in Fulton County, married for his first wife Vanessa Tucker of Berkey, Ohio, and after her death he married Ruby Dings of Riga, Michigan. They have a daughter, Vanessa. Opal was the third of the doctor's family and died at the age of four years. Carroll is the youngest of the family and is engaged upon his father's farm, having taken a two years course in agriculture at Ohio State University. The mother of these children died in 1904.
In Adrian, Michigan, Doctor Tompkins married for his second wife Mrs. Mary E. Rowe of Sylvania, Ohio. Mrs. Rowe was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania. Her father, Rev. Joseph W. Torrence, was a minister of the Presbyterian faith, spent seven years in a pastorate in Toledo, later having charge at Ripley and Seven Mile in Ohio, and other places.. He finally retired at Sylvania, Ohio, where he died.
Mrs. Rowe had two sons, Lewis William Rowe and Charles Laird Rowe. Both are graduates of Purdue University. The former is connected with Parke, Davis & Company of Detroit, Michigan, while the latter is with the firm of Libby, McNeill & Libby of Chicago, Illinois.
Having retired from active practice in 1908, Doctor Tompkins and family moved to a farm of eighty acres one-half mile east from Richfield Center. He had bought that place many years previously. At the present writing they are engaged in general agriculture, though some special attention is paid to dairying and the feeding of livestock. Doctor Tompkins was probably the first to advocate the growing of alfalfa in this section of Ohio. For many years it was supposed that alfalfa was not an Ohio crop. But with the soil abounding in fertility, together with thorough underdrainage, they have succeeded in getting splendid stands of this western forage crop, and their example has been followed so generally that alfalfa is now one of the principal hay crops in Lucas County.
Doctor Tompkins believes that farmers' sons should receive a thorough preparation for farm work. When they have completed their course or have served their apprenticeship he believes the sons should be given a chance to demonstrate in a practical way the value of their ideas and methods. This he thinks will largely solve the problem of keeping the country boys on the farm. While a number of farmers have sent their boys away to scientific and technical schools, only a few of them are willing to entrust the management of the farm to the agricultural college graduate. Hence the boy either has to surrender his newly acquired fund of ideas and adapt himself to the old routine of his father, or else leave home and seek employment elsewhere.
ALEXANDER JOHNSON. In the few years he has been identified with the bar of Port Clinton Alexander Johnson has shown qualifications and capabilities which are the earnest of a highly successful career. He already has a promising and profitable practice in the city where he has spent all his life.
Born in Port Clinton August 13, 1890, he is a son of Peter C. and Anna (Jensen) Johnson. His father was a contractor and builder, and came to Ottawa County shortly after the close of the Civil war. Beginning at the bottom, as a workman rather than as an artisan, he gradually made his way to a position of assured prosperity. He was an expert in concrete and stone masonry, and did much of the brick and general foundation construction on many of the buildings in this part of the county. He also served for many years as a member of the city council of Port Clinton.
Alexander Johnson graduated from the Port Clinton High School,' and then entered the University of Ohio at Columbus, where he completed his course in the law department and was graduated LL. B. in 1912. He has since been one of the busy young lawyers at Port Clinton.
FRED W. BURGGRAF. Of those families that have been most closely identified with the development of the Bass Island around the bay shore of Put-in-Bay the Burggrafs have been very prominent, both in point of time of settlement there and also because of their
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varied activities as farmers, business men and capable and straightforward citizens.
South Bass Island has been the home of Fred W. Burggraf since infancy. He is now living retired at, Put-in-Bay, and that thriving little resort village knows him in many capacities as a useful citizen and trusted official.
He was born near Sandusky, Ohio, November 21, 1856. He possesses a very old name in Germany, and the Burggraf ancestry has been traced back authentically to the year 1350. In the earlier generations the family was connected by relationship with the Hohenzollerns, the present ruling house of the German Empire.
Mr. Burggraf 's parents were Mathias and Mary (Kueckle) Burggraf, both of whom came from Freiburg, Baden, Germany. Mathias Burggraf was a participant in the revolutionary uprising in 1848, and like many of the best class of German citizens who were factors in that revolution he had to exile himself from his native land and about 1849 he arrived in the United States. From his earnings as a laborer on the Erie Canal he saved enough to pay for the passage of his family, who had remained behind, and they joined him about two years after his coming. From New York State the family came on to Sandusky, and for a time lived on the farm of General Lindsay, about seven miles west of that city in Erie County. They also spent a couple of years on Kelley's Island, and in 1857, when Fred Burggraf was eight months of age, they. located on South Bass Island.
That was a very early date in the development of these islands for any other purpose beyond serving as headquarters for fishermen. Only three or four prominent houses stood on the island when the Burggraf family came. They located on a tract of wild land at East Point. This land had to be cleared, and as the family were poor they had no horses or oxen at first, and they eked out a very slender living. Later the father bought an ox team and these patient animals responded to the names "Buck" and "Bright." Fred Burggraf would never forget those names as long as he lived, since as a boy he trudged many weary days alongside the oxen as they drew the plow through the furrows of the landscape.
While growing up on the island he attended the common schools, but only four months each winter, and altogether for about four years. At the end of his schooling he took an examination and secured a certificate which enabled him to take charge of a school room, and for seven years he was engaged in that vocation, and is pleasantly remembered by a number of his old pupils. Since then he has given his time and energies to farming and to the management of various other properties, and he now receives a sufficient income for all his needs from some property he owns in the Town of Put-in-Bay.
Mr. Burggraf 's brothers and sisters, two of whom were older than himself, were : Carolina, Mrs. Fred Bretz, of Middle Bass Island; Mathias, who owns a vineyard at East Point on South Bass Island ; Henry, a vineyardist at East Point.
In 1884 Mr. Barggraf married Miss Hermine Marf, a native of Switzerland. Politically Mr. Burggraf is a republican and has been quite active in local politics and local affairs. For nine years he held the office of justice of the peace, was mayor of Put-in-Bay for two terms, and for the past sixteen years has capably administered the duties of town clerk, an office he still holds. He is affiliated fraternally with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
LOUIS DEISLER. Any community would be the better for the presence of such a live, public spirited .and aggressive citizen as Louis Deisler, who has been identified with Put-inBay for more than forty years. Mr. Deisler is a man of positive convictions, puts his sentiments into unmistakable language, and his words are usually followed by actions. On that account it is not difficult to trace his influence in this part of Ohio. His individual enterprise has counted for much, and his generous contributions and influence even more for the upbuilding of that locality.
He was born at Columbus, Ohio, April 22, 1858, a son of Michael Deisler. He had very little education so far as schools were concerned, and when ten or twelve years of age began earning his own way as a newsboy and bootblack in Columbus. From that unpropitious start he has made a steady advance to larger success in business affairs, and at the same time has gained a variety of experience such as to constitute one of the satisfactions of life.
At the age of eighteen Mr. Deisler joined the Fells Brothers circus, and for years he was identified with traveling circuses, carnival companies and other entertainment enterprises, and in the course of such work has traveled over practically every state of the
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Union and has visited nearly every city and town of importance.
His first acquaintance with Put-in-nay began in 1884. In 1888 Mr. Deisler established the first bathhouse in that resort. More than any other individual he has been responsible for the improvement of this feature of the summer resort privileges at Put-in-Bay. For upwards of thirty years Mr. Deisler has spent his summers at Put-in-Bay, though he continued actively traveling with circus companies and other organizations until 1901. For the past fifteen years he has traveled for pleasure during the winter time.
His first bathhouse in Put-in-Bay contained only six rooms, and it was located on a leased beach. Later he bought his present beach, and built an improved house and replaced that later with the magnificent bathhouse that is now associated with his name. This contains 350 rooms, and many of its improvements and facilities are the direct product of Mr. Deisler's studious mind and experience. He worked out many ideas, particularly those relating to fitting suits and arrangement of bathhouse interior, and a number of these ideas have since been copied and introduced into modern bathhouses in prominent resorts of the country. One feature of his record is unique as a bathhouse proprietor. In' all the twenty-nine seasons he has been in business there has never been a serious accident, no drowning. and no robbery.
Mr. Deisler has branched out into various other enterprises at Put-in-Bay. Adjoining his bathhouse is a large pavilion with facilities for bowling and refreshment stand. He owns a large amount of property both at Putin-Bay and in the City of Columbus. With one exception Mr. Deisler now ranks as the oldest business man in continuous relationship with Put-in-Bay.
In 1884 he married Miss Emma Bookmiller of Chillicothe, Ohio. Mrs. Deisler died in California, January 16, 1916. In politics Mr. Deisler is a democrat. He has served as judge and clerk of elections at Put-in-Bay and in the same capacity at Columbus. He has been an active member of the local board of trade. Many thousands of dollars have been spent by Mr. Deisler in private and public enterprise for the promotion of Put-in-Bay interests. He has always been a booster, and was by far the largest contributor to the Perry Memorial Fund among the residents of the island, giving $1,750 to that cause. In the course of his long business experience Mr. Deisler has conducted saloons. Now he is aligned with the active workers for the abolition of the liquor traffic. That is not due so much to personal temperance principles as to the fact that he has been convinced from experience in this and other resorts that the patronage most valuable in the long run and most productive of permanent benefit to any locality that sets up as a resort is that drawn to places where bars are prohibited. In religion Mr. Deisler is a Catholic.
DAVID W. STEINER, M. D. For thirty years the name Steiner has stood for the best in civic ideals and the highest attainments in the field of medicine in Lima and from that city the professional reputation of the Steiner brothers has extended widely over Northwest Ohio.
Especially do the people of this community remember with gratitude the unselfish life and service of the late Dr. David W. Steiner, who was the oldest of the Steiner brothers and the first to locate in practice at Lima. His was an ideal combination of professional skill with those qualities of the heart and mind which in every age have been pronounced as the first and foremost characteristics of the true gentleman.
David W. Steiner was born near Bluffton, Ohio, a son of Rev. Isaac and Mary Paulina (Rothen) Steiner. He came of a family of ministers. His maternal grandfather was Rev. David Rothen. His father, Rev. Isaac Steiner, spent the best years of his life as a minister of the Church of God. He also owned a farm in Putnam County, having provided that as a suitable environment for his. growing children.
As a boy Dr. David W. Steiner had the advantages of the district schools. Entering the Ohio Northern University, he took the degree Master of Arts in 1880. Seldom has a young man made a better choice of a profession than when David W. Steiner determined to become a physician. He pursued his studies in the medical department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in 1883. He remained with that institution until 1886 as assistant professor of physiology and also as an interne in the University Hospital. Thus when he began practice it was with an experience and training such as few doctors of that time had.
On January 10, 1887, he located at Lima. His professional novitiate was short, since his
qualifications were quickly recognized.
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In 1897 his younger brother, Dr. Isaac Franklin Steiner, became associated with him and in 1901 the firm was given another addition in the person of Dr: Oliver S. Steiner, of whom mention is found elsewhere in this work. In 1903 the brothers put up the fine four-story office building at 123 North Elizabeth Street, and the offices of Doctors Steiner have ever since occupied the first floor.
Dr. David W. Steiner served for a number of years as consulting physician at the Lima Hospital. He was medical examiner for a number of the old line life insurance companies and was long active in the Allen County, Ohio State and Northwestern Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
At the time of his death on December 27, 1913, he stood without a question at the head of the profession in Lima, whether considered as a physician or surgeon. He never married, devoted himself heart and soul to his profession, was a lover of children, and expressed that affection which most men show to their own family by doing good to a host of people, whether patients or merely in the relationship of neighbors in one community. It is doubtful if the community at Lima has ever felt a sense of greater loss in the death of any one citizen than when Dr. David W. Steiner passed from among the living. His chief diversion was horsemanship. He always took a great delight in horses and drove a beautiful pair. The automobile apparently had no power to win him from his love of good horseflesh.
OLIVER S. STEINER, M. D. Junior member of the firm of Doctors Steiner at Lima, Oliver S. Steiner was born near Bluffton, Ohio, January 21, 1874, and is a brother of the late Dr. David W. Steiner, whose life and work have been briefly sketched on other pages. In that article will be found reference to the parentage and family of Dr. Oliver Steiner.
Dr. Oliver Steiner attended public schools, Findlay College, and the University of Wooster, where he was graduated in 1897 with the degree Bachelor of Philosophy. Entering the medical department of the University of Michigan he completed his course there and received the degree Doctor of Medicine in 1901. Since then he has been steadily in practice at Lima.
In 1904 he was appointed surgeon of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Company. In 1905 he was elected coroner of Allen County, served three years, and has the distinction of being the only republican who ever yeas chosen by popular vote to that office in the county. Doctor Steiner is examiner for a number of life insurance companies, is a member of the board of trustees of the District Tuberculosis Hospital located at Lima, is consulting surgeon to Lima Hospital, and is a member of Allen County, Northwestern Ohio, Ohio State, Northern Tri-State societies ; the American Medical Association, and the Association of American Railway Surgeons. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Doctor Steiner was married December 11, 1907, to Miss Belle Crew Folsom, who was born, reared and educated at Lima. They have two children, Mary Jane and Helen Pauline.
CARL E. RUH. Some of the finest wines ever made from Bass Island grapes have been manufactured by members of the Ruh family. A great many people in that section of Ottawa County recall the late Anton Ruh, who came from Baden, Germany, about 1873. In the old country he had lived on a small farm but was a brewer by trade. On arriving at Put-in-Bay he entered the service of the Putin-Bay Wine Company, and for ten years superintended their wine cellar and their vineyards.
Leaving their service he bought fourteen acres on the east shore of the island, and set up in business for himself. He planted his land in grapes, and began manufacture of wine on a small scale. For several years most of his crop was sold as surplus grapes. He knew to an eminent degree the art of extracting the flavor of the grapes And converting it into the choicest vintage, and his pure wines soon had a reputation that brought him a continued increase of business from year to year. He never catered to the regular market, but had his private customers, who were willing to take all the wines he could make. About 1891 Anton Ruh bought an additional thirteen acres of land and had that set out in vineyard. Anton Ruh died at the age of sixty-eight.
Carl E. Ruh, who far a number of years has likewise figured as a vineyardist and wine maker at Put-in-Bay, was born in Baden, Germany, in 1872, and is a stepson of the late Anton Ruh. His own father died in Germany soon after his birth, and the widowed mother, Mary Catherine Fister, brought her family to
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the United States, locating on the Bass Island, where she subsequently married Anton Ruh. She survived her second husband eight years, and was also sixty-eight when she died. Her children by the second marriage were : Hermann H., who lives in California ; Emil, who is growing grapes on the original homestead of Anton Ruh, and by his marriage to the daughter of Rudolph Fiefield of North Bass Island has a son, Howard Rudolph.
As soon as Carl E. Ruh had sufficient strength he began helping his stepfather in the vineyard and in the wine cellar, but afterwards he left home and learned the plasterer's trade at Columbus. He followed that trade for several years. After the death of Anton Ruh he returned home and aided in the work of the vineyard and the wine cellar. He had acquired the art of wine making from Anton Ruh, and has always kept up the same high standards of the product familiarly known to a select trade under the Ruh name. After the death of his mother he acquired the ownership of the second vineyard planted by Anton Ruh, and has since made that his home. Most of this land is within the corporate limits of Put-in-Bay, his own house being just on the town line. In years past Mr. Ruh has also engaged to some extent in fishing, but he now confines his work to the care of his vineyard and his wine cellar. He is a republican voter and a member of both the subordinate and encampment degrees of Odd Fellowship.
He married Miss Kate Gross. She is of old French stock, the name being spelled Le Gross in France. Her father; Joseph. Gross, came to Put-in-Bay during the '80s from Alsace. Mr. and Mrs. Ruh have three children : Rupert Walter, Eloise and Russell Erie.
WILLIAM TELL AGERTER. For more than thirty years one of the most prominent industries of Lima has been the locomotive works, now conducted under the name Lima Locomotive Corporation, but formerly known, at the beginning, as the Lima Machine Company, and later as the Lima Locomotive and Machine Company.
This business was established about 1869, with a plant on East Market Street, for the manufacture of general sawmill machinery. Up to that time the work of logging had been largely carried on by the old familiar processes which had prevailed in the lumber woods for a generation or more. After being cut the logs were carried to the mills over ice and snow-covered runways, and down the streams during the freshet period in the early spring. The founders of the Lima Machine Company undertook to develop a type of logging locomotive, one that would work on a cheap tram-road, to haul logs from the woods and obviate the many disadvantages of the prevailing method. The first locomotive of this type constructed at Lima was built and shipped in 1879 and sent to a lumberman in Northern Michigan. It was what is known as "direct acting locomotive," but about 1880 the company brought out the Shay geared locomotive, named after its inventor. This has been one of the principal types of locomotives manufactured at Lima since then, and it is still the only all-around successful geared locomotive on the market, and a number of the type are employed by some of the large railway systems on their mountain divisions.
In 1902 the plant of the locomotive works was moved to a site between the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, the Lake Erie & Western and the Erie railroads, with switching facilities connecting all three lines. As developed during the past thirty years the Lima Locomotive Corporation is a complete locomotive plant, and comprises very extensive grounds and buildings, including power house, engine room, foundry, machine shop and erecting shop, boiler shop, blacksmith shop, mill building, pattern storage building and a large, seven-story office building of reinforced concrete and brick.
The plant is equipped with the most modern and up-to-date locomotive building tools and appliances and is designed with a view of competing with the largest locomotive builders in the country. It has a capacity of from seven to eight locomotives a week, and it is one of the very largest independent locomotive plants in the United States. It is an industry with a world-wide market, and the company's locomotives can be found in Australia, England, South America, Central America, China, British Columbia, Japan, Alaska, all parts of Canada and Mexico, and many of the larger islands of the sea as well as in practically all the states in the Union. The annual sales of the company have for several years aggregated more than $3,000,000.
The company has manufactured some of the largest locomotive engines employed for switching and regular service by the railway systems of the South, the West and East. In fact, the company manufacturers all classes of locomotives, from the smallest mining and