1650 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO around, and diplomas from the institution count for a great deal with hard headed business men. Mr. Vance married Miss Mabel Ash, daughter of John Ash of Detroit, Michigan. Mrs. Vance is a graduate of the public schools of Fremont, Ohio, and of the Findlay College with the class of 1914. She taught in the public schools before her marriage. She is an adept as a shorthand artist and is in charge of the Gregg School of Shorthand. This school won the gold medal in 1916, competing against all schools in Ohio teaching the Gregg system. The students also won the state banner in 1916 for the best results in commercial work. In the world competition in type artistry in 1916 this school won over all competitors in the Gregg system. Mr. Vance's success as a commercial teacher is due to the fact that he has never deviated from the high standards which he set himself, and has worked hard to attain his ideal. At the opening of his school in Findlay he held a business show which attracted attention all over this section of Ohio. He exhibited all the short-cut successful methods in office machinery. His school quarters will bear favorable comparison with any in the country. The general counting room is 40 by 52 feet, large, airy and well lighted, with solid oak furnishing and plate glass partition. The room devoted to typewriting machines is 20 by 30 feet, and the general classroom is 40 by 20 feet. HIRAM VAN CAMPEN. In 1880, the year Hiram Van Campen was graduated from Tufts College in Massachusetts with the degree A. B., he came to Ohio and was employed the following year as principal of the high school at Findlay. He was then a young man of twenty-one and his ambition was firmly set upon a legal career. He read law, spent a year in the office of Whitely & Bope, was afterwards in the office of Henry Brown, and in 1882 was admitted to the bar at Columbus. He gained further experience in the office of Haynes & Potter at Toledo, and began private practice at Napoleon, Ohio, in the summer of 1883. Here he remained eleven years. In July, 1894, Mr. Van Campen removed to Toledo and practiced as junior in the firm of Parks & Van Campen until 1898. On the retirement of Mr. Parks from practice in Toledo, Mr. Van Campen continued there in practice by himself for about five years. In 1903 he suffered a breakdown in his health which made it necessary for him to retire from his professional duties for nearly four years. In 1905 he came to Findlay and in 1907 resumed practice in partnership with Mr. John D. Snyder. They have been associated ever since, and the firm of John D. Snyder and Hiram Van Campen with offices in the Ewing Building, has a practice, especially in corporation work, second to none among the law firms of Hancock County. Hiram Van Campen was born at New Bedford, Massachusetts, February 10, 1859, a son of Hiram and Dorinda (Hills) Van Campen. He comes of the old Dutch and Huguenot stock of the middle states, being -eighth in lineal descent from Gerritt Jansen Van Campen, who came from Friesland, Holland, in 1640, and settled at Esopus, now Kingston, New York, and ninth in lineal descent from Nicholas Du Pui, a French Huguenot from Artois, France, who came to America in 1692 and settled in New York City. There were Van Campens who played a valiant part in the War of the Revolution. One of them a lineal ancestor, fell a victim in the noted Cherry Valley massacre during that. war. Another member of the family, Nicholas, with his two sons Moses and Jacob were scalped by the Indians another Moses Van Campen was a member of the convention that drafted the first constitution of New Jersey. Mr. Van Campen grew up in Massachusetts and had liberal advantages of schools. He attended the common schools and high school at New Bedford, spent two years in Dean Academy at Franklin, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Tufts College in 1880. In 1893 he married Miss Flora B. Kimmel, daughter of George W. and Mary (Welsh) Kimmel, of Findlay. Politically Mr. Van Campen is a republican. For three years he was on the committee of bar examiners, having been appointed by the Supreme Court. He is a member of the Findlay Country Club, and the various Masonic 'bodies of Findlay, and is widely known among the members of his profession and the citizens generally throughout Northwest Ohio. MALCOLM CROCKETT and his family. residing in Monroe Township of Henry County, are people of the oldest New England lineage, and have the traditions and culture which are closely associated with that old American stock. Mrs. Crockett belongs to the Wheaton family, and both the Wheatons and Crocketts have furnished men and women of distinction HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1651 to the arts, professions, industries, and whether living as .pioneers on the frontier or in the populous centers of the older states, they have retained the essentials of a high-minded idealism and a love of the best things in life. Malcolm Crockett himself has many qualities which would have insured his success had he adapted a learned profession instead of the vocation of agriculture. He is a fluent talker, has sound ideas on nearly every subject that Concerns men of these modern days, and is high minded and liberal. He has made a success of farming, and besides his own place in Monroe Township he has other lands in Henry County and some important investments in the coal district of Gallia County, Ohio. The Crockett generation represented in Henry County, Ohio, is part of the same original stock which produced the famous Davy Crockett, whose name and deeds are a part of America's cherished pioneer annals. The Crockett family lineage in New England goes back to 1750, when Nathaniel Crockett came from Ireland and located at Falmouth, Maine. He was the father of thirteen children. One of the youngest of them was Capt. James Crockett. He was born in Maine about 1790. He married Mary Haskell of Maine, whose father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. James Crockett was a seafaring man for thirty-five years and commanded a vessel out of one of the New England ports. In order to get his sons away from the fascination of the sea and its dangerous vocation he brought his family in 1832 to Ohio,' locating in Seneca County. He was one of the pioneers there and cleared up and developed the farm on which he and his wife spent their last years. He was past three score and ten when he died. He was distinguished by great strength, sound natural ability, and being a skillful navigator, trained in the use of the compass and the sextant, he found no difficulty in mastering the essentials of surveying, and helped to lay out some of the early boundary lines in Seneca County. With all his manly qualities and acquaintance with the rough side of existence, he is recalled as exceedingly tender hearted. He and his wife were members of the Universalist Church, and politically he leaned toward the democratic party. Capt. James Crockett and wife had ten children. The oldest of these was George, father of Malcolm. Others were Josiah, Edwin, Edward, Knott, Charles, Elmira, Amanda, Celia and Emma. Charles, Knott and Edwin all became soldiers in the Civil war. Charles was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Knott was killed at the battle of Franklin. Tennessee, toward the close of the war. In that battle the color bearer of his regiment fell dying and Knott Crockett picked up the colors and ,'as bravely carrying them forward, when a few moments later he was shot dead. Edwin was with Sheridan's army, and though shot in the forearm lived to return home, and subsequently went out to Idaho, where he died. He had been a California forty-niner; having crossed the plains when the trials and hardships of such a journey were indescribable, and he spent twelve years on the gold coast before returning to Ohio to enlist for the war. George Crockett was born in Ash Point, Maine, in 1822. He grew up and received part of his education there and in Seneca County, and for a time he followed the profession which has been, common to so many of the Crockett family, teaching. He married Eliza Bogart, who died soon afterward, and her only child also died in infancy. In 1848 George Crockett came with his brother-in-law, Judson Emery, to Henry County, Ohio, entering, a half section of land in sections 30 and 31. in Damascus Township. Here he and Mr. Emery cleared up a farm from the wilderness. The family lived in the midst of the primitive circumstances and hardships of that day, and secured much of the meat for their table from the wild game that filled the forest: George Crockett built two log cabins and with some modifications and improvements this home served his purposes until his death, in 1871, at the age of forty-nine. He became one of the leading men of his township, and filled several local offices. He was a republican voter. Mrs. George Crockett is still living, eighty-eight years of age, and making her home among her children and relatives. The only physical impairment that has resulted from the years is partial deafness. She is a native of Maine, and taught school there during young womanhood, receiving for her services a dollar seventy-five cents a week. She is a member of the Universalist faith, as was Mr. George Crockett. Malcolm Crockett was born in July, 1852, on the old homestead and in the old log cabin which his father had erected in Damascus Township. He wisely improved the opportunities of the local schools and had become well qualified for teaching before his father's death. That event threw on him further 1652 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO responsibilities in looking after the farm and his widowed mother, and he applied himself right industriously to this work. As a youth and in early manhood he did much to clear up and develop the old farm, and in 1878 he bought 160 acres of wild and swampy land in Monroe Township, not far from the place on which he was born and reared. Mr. Crockett took hold of his new place with characteristic vigor and set the pace for many of the general improvements that have since taken place in that locality. He brought about the opening of the township line along the north boundary of his own farm, and aroused public sentiment for the building of roads, a general system of ditching and draining, and for forty years has stood in the vanguard of advance in every matter of public improvement. At every opportunity he has sought to raise the standards of the local schools. He and his wife are both active Methodists, and he has long been foremost in Sunday school work, serving both as a teacher and superintendent. He organized a very large Sunday school class and was its teacher for five years. For a number of years he served as trustee. of the church. In Henry County Mr. Malcolm Crockett married Miss Mary Wheaton. She was a graduate of the academy at Barre, Vermont, and had also attended college at Oberlin, Ohio. Mrs. Crockett was born in the town of Barre, Vermont, February 24, 1855. Barre, as -is generally known, is the seat of the famous granite industry of Vermont, and the working of the granite deposits there was an important part of the Wheaton family activities, several of whom gained much wealth thereby. Mrs. Wheaton was reared in and around Barre, attended the public schools, and at the age of fourteen entered the Barre Acadmy, where she was graduated four years later. For ten terms she taught school in Vermont, Minnesota and Ohio. Since her marriage she has devoted herself to the making of a home and the rearing of her children, and has been a source of inspiration to the members of her own family and to her many friends in Henry County, on account of her thoroughly cultured mind and the wisdom with which she has guided her own life. Her family lineage goes back to Benjamin Wheaton, who in 1744 at Leicester, Massachusetts, married Abigail, a daughter of Jahn Lynde. Among their children was John Wheaton, who was married. in 1770 to Phoebe Hubbard of Holden, Massachusetts. John and Phoebe. Wheaton had five children. Pliny, the third son, was born in 1778. He married Patty Wheaton and settled on a farm near Lord's Mill in Vermont. Subsequently he removed to a farm in Barre Township, and there he died in 1869. He had been twice married and survived both wives. He was ninety-o'ne when he passed away. Pliny Wheaton, during much of his lifetime, gathered crops from a thin soil that overlay a magnificent deposit of barre granite. Later quarries were opened on his farm, and quarrying was for many years the chief source of profit. Oren Wheaton, son of Pliny and father of Mrs. Crockett, was born near Barre, Vermont, in 1812. He followed at different times the business of farming, stone cutting and quarrying. His was a very active life, though he died when only forty-nine years of age in 1861. He Was married in Berlin, Vermont, in 1841, to Eliza Thompson. Her name also introduces another noted New England stock. She was born in Berlin, Vermont, in 1809, and died in 1891. Her brother, Daniel P. Thompson, was author of " The Green Mountain Boys," a book that was read by almost every American schoolboy a generation or so ago, and many other stories came from his facile pen. Charles M. Thompson, son of Daniel Thompson, the author, is now editor in Chief of the Youth's Companion, a weekly journal which has formed a part of the literature of almost every American family at some time during the last half century. The members of the Wheaton family were of the Congregational faith, and were nearly all republicans. Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Crockett have done much to make a fine home. Their farm of 160 acres lies in Section 1 of Monroe Township. There are substantial and well-arranged farm buildings, and while the farm throughout is conducted on a systematic and almost a factory basis of operation, there is no neglect of those conveniences and facilities which contribute to the comfort and well being of country dwellers. Mr. Crockett has his land all well drained, and keeps some very fine stock. He has made a specialty of the raising of seed corn and oats. He grows the Swedish select oats, and at a test at the Wisconsin Agricultural College the Swedish select proved the most satisfactory of thirty-six varieties tested. He raised the Gold standard learning seed corn. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Crockett do credit to their environment and the influence HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1653 and character of their parents. Alice, the oldest, is a graduate of Oberlin College and has been a successful educator in Ohio. and Michigan and is now teaching near St. Louis, Missouri. Edith, also a graduate of Oberlin College, is now a teacher in Williams County, Ohio. Ann, a graduate of the Ypsilanti Normal School in Michigam, married Oren Emery of Green Springs, Ohio. George is living at home unmarried. Flora was educated at the Thomas Training School, and is a successful teacher at Roslyn, New York, where she instructs 600 children in her special department. Pliny, who has also received a thorough education, including the course of the agricultural department of the State University at Columbus, is now at home and applying his technical and theoretical knowledge to the operation of the old homestead, farm. FRED TOMLINSON is secretary of the Toledo Real Estate Board. No organization means more to the legitimate real estate men of the city and to the larger interests as well. The board is a corporation organized under the state laws and composed of firms and individuals identified with real estate activities in Toledo and vicinity. The membership are pledged to support and maintain an honorable standard of business in real estate transactions and the board also works for the higher development of property in the city, and the promotion of a larger welfare by the use of actual statistical information and the encouragement of outside capital for investment. Altogether the board furnishes a statistical, advisory and clerical Service which has proved indispensable not only to its membership but to the property owners of Toledo. The officers of the board . for 1916 were : William H. Moor, president; Edmund T. Collins, first vice president, and Clifford T. Hanson, second vice president ; George E. Pomeroy, treasurer ; and Fred Tomlinson, secretary. Mr. Tomlinson was a newspaper man before entering the real estate business. He was born March 4, 1879, in Logansport, Indiana, a son of Daniel W. Tomlinson, now deceased.. He grew up in Logansport, attended the public schools, and as a. boy began learning the work of a newspaper office. He followed newspaper reporting for fourteen years. He still retains some connection with his .old business as a member of The Leon H. Roberts Company, manufacturers of commercial catalogs and color printing in Toledo. Vol. III-21 In 1912 Mr. Tomlinson engaged in the real estate business with the Irving B. Hiett Company, but after a year went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was advertising writer for the railroad commission. In 1914 he returned to Toledo and has since been active in real estate circles. He is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club and in politics is a republican. STEPHEN DECATUR CRITES. One of the most widely known citizens of Northwest Ohio is Stephen Decatur Crites, banker at Elida, and a former state senator. His has been a career stimulated and directed by definite purpose and high ideals. For many years he was a. successful teacher, and since then he haS played a varied part in business and civic affairs in Allen County. He is now at the head of the Farmers Bank at Elida, which was first organized in September, 1903, as a private bank under the name S. D. Crites & Company. His personality and business integrity have been the chief factors in the growth and success of this prosperous institution. Stephen Decatur Crites was born in German Township, Allen County, Ohio, November 28, 1847, a son of Jacob and Mary Jane (Cremean) Crites. The Crites family emigrated from Germany and settled in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in 1740. Senator Crites grandfather John Daniel Crites moved from Pennsylvania to Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1811. Jacob Crites, one of his eight children, moved to Allen County in 1843. He was at that time twenty-one years of age, having been born October 19,, 1822. Jacob Crites was a blacksmith by trade. His wife, Miss Cremean, was born in Allen County near Elida, Ohio, and her family came from Maryland to Ross County and settled on a farm on Hog Creek in Allen County in 1820, where they were among the earliest pioneers. While growing .up on a farm S. D. Crites attended the country schools, and afterwards finished a course in the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. For eighteen years he was actively engaged in school work. For one year he taught in Illinois, and in order to obtain a teacher's certificate he had to walk thirty miles to Dwight, where he attended teachers' institute, and back, and he possessed only fifteen dollars to keep him until he was paid his first term's wages. After returning from Illinois he taught school in the winter time and worked on the farm in the summer. He served as superintendent of the Elida 1654 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO schools from 1870 to 1882 and many of his old pupils have a grateful recollection of his work as an instructor. After leaving school work he became a dealer in livestock and he also bought grain at the elevator at Elida for twenty years. His interests gradually extended, and for the past quarter of a century he has been recognized as one of the substantial factors in the business life of his section of Allen County. For nine years he served as a justice of the peace and was also a member of the county board of school examiners for eleven years. Mr. Crites is a democrat, and it was on the ticket of that party that he was elected to the State Senate in 1902, and by re-election he served two terms. In the party conventions he was nominated by acclamation both. times,  and in the district comprising seven counties he was elected by a comfortable majority, an& had a majority of 1,500 in his own county. While a member of the senate Mr. Crites was vice chairman of the Agricultural, Insurance, Schools and School Lands committees, was chairman of the committee on Ditches and Drains and Roads and Highways, and a member of the 'committee on Public Works and Public Lands and Penitentiaries, Universities and Colleges, Banks and Building and Loan Associations. During his second term he exercised an even larger influence both on the floor of the senate and in the committee rooms, and during that term served on the roads and highways committee in addition to various others. For a number of years he served on the local school board and on the village council. In Masonry he is the oldest member in point of service of Shawnee Commandery, Knights Templar, at Lima. He took his first degree in Masonry in 1872, and has been a member of the Knights Templar order since 1874. He is also a charter member of Toledo Consistory of the Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite and is affiliated with Lodge No. 818 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Elida, Ohio. For twenty years he was a member of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also led the choir for a long time. He is an enthusiastic amateur musician, and for a number of years was connected with the Elida Band. He is a charter member of the Allen County Historical Society. Besides his varied interests as a banker and business man, Mr. Crites has a fine farm of 300 acres, and raises considerable blooded stock. In October, 1876, he married Miss Emily M. Ditto. Their four living children are : Jessie Keren, wife of. S. O. Morris, a Lima merchant; Mabel, wife of Abner Brenneman, cashier of the Farmers' Bank of Elida ; Zoe, wife of Phillip Schnabel, who is connected' with the Solar Refining Company at Lima; and Grace Lenore, wife of Lee Hook, who is in the clothing business at Bradford, Miami County, Ohio. ABNER BRENNEMAN. Cashier of the Farmers Bank of Elida, Abner Brenneman has had an active business career covering about fifteen years. He was born June 12, 1882, a son of Noah E. and Elizabeth (Humphreys) Brenneman. Both parents were natives of Ohio, and his father was a farmer. Educated in the public schools, Abner Brenneman began his business experience as a clerk in a general store for four years, and for 71/2 years was connected with the United States Express Company, beginning as a helper and finishing in the post of cashier of the local office. He was then for two years with a wholesale confectionery manufacturing company, and in 1913 became cashier of the Farmers Bank of Elida. He is a democrat in politics, is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is assistant Sunday school superintendent and treasurer and president of the Epworth League. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On June 14, 1906, Mr. Brenneman married Miss Mabel Crites, daughter of Stephen D. Crites of Elida. They have two children: James Robert and Helen Crites. WILLIAM M. DEAN. Citizens of Lucas County who were especially interested in continued efficiency in the office of county recorder felt highly gratified with the success of William M. Dean's campaign for re-election in November, 1916. me Dean has made a. very capable record in the office, and he was returned for another term by a large plurality. He has been a resident of Toledo for many years and was well knOwn in railroad circles: before he became a member of the official group in the courthouse. He was born September 5, 1866, in Wil liams County, Ohio, a son of Michael and Mary (Scollard) Dean. His father who was born in County Kerry, Ireland, came alone to America in 1840, locating in Toledo, and he HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1655 was one of the early employes on the old Toledo Air Line Railway. He continued railroad work with home at Bryan, Ohio, but after several years returned to Toledo and followed railroading up to the time of his death which occurred November 30, Thanksgiving Day, 1911. Railroad men had a particular affection for this genial Irishman, but he was hardly less favorably known in other circles. William M. Dean was the sixth in a family of nine children, six of whom are still living. His early education was acquired in Toledo, but when still a boy he began earning his own way. He was not ashamed to take any employment by which he could serve himself and serve others, and he did chores, worked in a sawmill for a time, was also a grocery clerk and first became identified with railroading as a laborer in the Lake Shore freight office. He remained there three years; then went to the freight department of the Clover Leaf System, where he also spent two years, and was then promoted to foreman of the freight warehouse of the Clover Leaf. Mr. Dean retained his position as foreman for twenty years. He resigned in order to accept appointment as county, recorder of Lucas County, and after filling out the term of appointment he was elected for the unexpired term and his official duties now continue until 1919. Mr. Dean has always been a democrat and active in the interests of his party. He is a member of the Catholic Church and belongs to the Knights of Columbus. JACOB N. BICK, whose offices are in the Nasby Building at Toledo, is one of the most extensive general contractors in Northwestern Ohio. Railroad work has been his specialty; and when business conditions favored railroad building he performed a number of very extensive contracts in that line. Mr. Bick is the example of a boy. who grows up in the country, seeks opportunities beyond the horizon of a farm, and by sheer force of will and energy attains the notable success in business and an influential place in the life of a large city. He was born September 9, 1859, on a farm thirteen miles west of Toledo in Richfield Township of Lucas County. His parents were Jacob and Mary (Bettinger) Bick. His father, a native of Germany, came with friends to America when he was nine years of age. He lived for a time at Tiffin and later at Maumee, Ohio, and in early years worked at day labor. He finally acquired eighty acres of land in Richfield Township of Lucas County, and cleared it up, almost every acre of it. He was one of the early settlers in that district of the county, and lived there the balance of his life. His death occurred in 1886 when sixty-one years' of. age. In the meantime_ he had prospered, acquired 240 acres of well developed land, had money besides, and always took much interest in blooded stock. Of his nine children six are still living. This opportunity should not pass without some further mention of the character of this worthy old timer of Northwest Ohio. Jacob Bick, Sr., could help himself, as the above account proves, but he also delighted in helping others. He had the complete confidence of his fellow citizens, was thoroughly well liked in his community, had no enemies that any one ever discovered, and his friends were bound to him with hoops of steel. Many of these friends are still living and delight to recall his worthy characteristics. In national politics .he was a democrat. He was a liberal contributor to educational advancement and did all he 'could to bring new schools or' improve old ones in his, section of the county. He held the office of township trustee and that of treasurer for several years. The fourth in his father's family of children, Jacob N. Bick spent his early life on a farm, and his first instruction was 'given him in a log schoolhouse, which he attended about three months every winter until he was fourteen years of age. After that his time was taken up with the duties of his father's farm. In 1878, having arrived at the age of nineteen, Mr. Bick came to Toledo. Realizing the need of a better equipment as a preparation for a business career he enrolled himself as a student in the Toledo Business College. He remained there three years, and worked to pay for his board. At the age of twenty-two he was clerk in a shoe store, and three years later he bought out the store and conducted it himself for two years. He then formed a partnership with N. P. Glann under the name of Bick & Glann, and expanded his interests from merchandising to general contracting. The firm took contracts for the building of stone roads, bridges, pavements and similar work. In 1892 the partnership was dissolved, and in 1893 Mr. Bick continued in business for himself. From local construction work he increased his facilities so as to handle contracts for railroad building and general railroad construction. His first work in railroad building, in 1893, 1656 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO was the construction of a road from Elkhart to Mishawaka, Indiana, known as the St. Joe Valley Railway. In 1894 Mr. Biel built the Toledo & Maumee Valley Railway from Toledo to Maumee by way of Perrysburg. It was the first electric interurban road in Ohio. Since that time as a railroad contractor he has built the following roads: Miami Valley Traction Railway ; Toledo, Bowling Green Electric Line ; Toledo, Monroe Electric and Monroe Piers ; Toledo Terminal Belt Railway ; Toledo, Angola and Western ; Indianapolis Northern. from Peru to Indianapolis ; Indiana Northern from Charleston to Mattoon, Illinois ; the Marion to Wabash electric line in Indiana ; the Ottawa Beach Railway with extension to Point Place; the Lake Shore Electric from Fremont to Sandusky; and the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. In 1898 Mr. Bick took the contract to build up Bay View Park and reclaim forty acres of marsh land for the City of Toledo as preparation for the anticipated Ohio Centennial. In the past two years as a result of the war and general stagnation in business, very little capital has gone into the constructions of new railroads, and Mr. Bick has largely confined his service to the Construction of sewer systems, stone roads, waterworks and similar municipal enterprises. Mr. Bick has occupied office quarters in the Nasby Building since 1896. For all his strict attention to business Mr. Bick has not neglected the calls on his time and attention made by his home city and its various institutions. He has contributed liberally to charitable causes, is now president of the North Toledo Settlement and is a member of the Toledo Club, the Commerce Club and the National Union. In national politics he is a democrat and from time to time has taken much interest in local politics. Mr. Bick owned one of the first automobiles in Toledo and was the first owner of a car to put it into practical use. He is perhaps as much of an enthusiast with his present high power car as he was over the old one cylinder which he urged about the city streets. He was formerly interested in the Toledo Motor Car Company. Among other business interests he has extended his investments to stone properties and farm lands. When the business of the day is done Mr. Bick habitually seeks the quiet and happiness of his own fireside. His home is at 1050 Lincoln Avenue in Toledo. On May 10, 1886, he married Miss Margaret Langenderfer, who was one of a artily of ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Langenderfer of Spencer Township, Lucas County. Mrs. Bick was educated in the district schools of Spencer Township, and is of German descent. To their marriage was born one son, Arthur, in the fall of 1887. He died when fourteen months of age. LYMAN CONRAD. In 1883 a young man named Lyman Conrad, then practically unknown and with no special credentials beyond $2.50 of cash money in his pocket, arrived in Henry County. For a couple of years he did fairly well as a tenant farmer in Harrison Township. His next venture was to lease some land in Monroe Township, a mile west of Malinta. That was his home and the scene of his activities for fourteen years. He prospered, began laying up some capital, and more and more people came to recognize in him a man of sterling ability and of that kind of enterprise which succeeds in every undertaking, and especially in the management of a farm. From these brief items it can be understood that Lyman Conrad, who is now recognized as one of the most successful and prosperous men of Richfield Township, had to start life at the bottom and has carved his destiny largely out of his own energies and character. On leaving his place in Monroe Township he bought eighty acres in Section 8 of Richfield Township. He cleared that up from the stumps and the woods. Selling it, he bought forty acres where his home now stands, in Section 6 of the same township. Later he bought eighty acres and still later forty acres in Section 7. These 160 acres comprise one body of land and constitute an ideal farm, not only in appearance and improvement, but in general productivity. Mr. Conrad has instituted a thorough system of drainage, having his laterals of drains four rods apart all over his fields. The land is thoroughly fenced, and he has buildings to correspond with his success as a farmer. His main barn is 40 by 64 feet, with a granary 14 by 20 feet, and his home is an attractive veneered cement block house of eight large rooms, and with ground dimensions 32 by 36 feet. It is covered with a slate roof. If there is any farmer in Henry County who raises finer crops' of all the staple' cereals than Mr. Conrad his name has escaped notice. Besides his fine farm, Mr. Conrad is also director and is president and was one of the organizers HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1657 four years ago of the Farmers Grain and Feed years at Grelton. Mr. Conrad was born in Clear Creek Township of Fairfield County, Ohio, October 27, 1853. It is no disparagement of his own energy and ability to say that he represents some of the strongest and best stock of pioneer Fairfield County families. His people came into Ohio from Pennsylvania and Maryland. His grandparents were Henry and Sarah (Walters) Conrad, both natives of Pennsylvania, and brought to Ohio more than a century ago their respective parents. Both the Conrad and Walters families located in Fairfield County, in Clear Creek Township. There they lived when the Indians were still numerous, when the forests were filled with game, and in order to get space for their limited first crops they had to cut and burn away some of the finest timber that Ohio ever grew. Henry Conrad and wife grew up in that community, were married there, and spent all the rest of their lives on the farm where they had begun housekeeping. Henry Conrad died at the age of ninety-two and his wife at eighty-five. They were active members of the Reformed Church. The church of that denomination was built on land given by Henry's father. Henry Conrad and wife were very thrifty people, and accumulated during their lifetime an estate of 500 acres. They also reared a large family, five sons and two daughters. Four of their sons showed their patriotism by service in the Union army during the Civil war. All the children grew up and married. The eldest of the family was Ezra Conrad, who was born in Fairfield County about 1825. As a young man he learned the trade of carpenter and that was the source of his livelihood during his active career. He was very skillful. He could cut, hew, frame all the timbers into a. house or barn, from the stand- ing tree in the forest to the finished structure. He erected many of the substantial old homes and barns of Fairfield County. Ezra Conrad married Nancy Fasnacht, who was born in Fairfield County. Her father, Barney Fasnacht, was born in Maryland and was five years of age when his parents emigrated to Fairfield County, Ohio. His parents spent the rest of their lives in Fairfield County, and Barney grew up there and married Eva Kesler, daughter of Jonathan Kesler. The Keslers came from Pennsylvania. All these names which have been mentioned represent some of the most substantial pioneer peoples of Fairfield County. Every one of the families did their part as pioneers in clearing up the wilderness and in developing homes from log cabins to more substantial dwellings. Ezra Conrad and wife spent practically all their years in the county where they were born, and they died in Amanda Township, Ezra in 1910 and his wife in November, 1903. They now lie side by side in the old Conrad Cemetery, which was started by the great-grandfather of Lyman Conrad in Fairfield County. The Conrads and most of the families with which they were related belonged to the Reform Church, and politically the men gave their support to the whig and republican parties. Lyman Conrad was the oldest son and the fourth child among twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Nine of these grew to adult age, eight of them married, and only one of those that married is now deceased. In his native township and county Lyman Conrad married Miss Mary E. Doner, who was born there July 30, 1853, daughter of Henry and Mary A. (tape) Doner. The Doners were also early settlers in Fairfield County, coming from Pennsylvania, while the Lapes were Virginia people. All of them in the different generations were farmers, and long life was one of the characteristics of these people. Henry Doner and wife lived to be quite old and died in Fairfield County. While Lyman Conrad has much to be proud of in the way of his material achievements, there is even a greater source of satisfaction when he contemplates the fine family that have grown up under his roof. The oldest is Emanuel C., who was formerly a machinist, and now lives with his family in Monroe County, Michigan. He married Sylvia Reimond and has one son, Cloyce. Alva, unmarried, is a carpenter employed at Toledo. Oliver, who married but has no children, is an auditor in the offices of the Great Western Railway Company at San Francisco, California. Chauncey, who lives at the old home in Henry County, married Audrey Spangler. Lester, who is married and has a son, James, is a die sinker in the employ of the Dodge automobile factory in Detroit, Michigan. Cora married Jesse Spangler, who assists in running the Conrad farm. Harvey, who lives in Richfield Township, married Gale Eaton and has a daughter, Pauline. Blanche is still at home and unmarried. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Grelton, while Mr. Conrad is a republican and has given public service on the school board. 1658 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO JOSEPH ZIEGLER. Among the older firms in the business district of the City of Toledo, doubtless the best known as merchant tailors is that of Joseph Ziegler & Sons, at 627 Madison Avenue. Joseph Ziegler is a veteran tailor, learned the business in the old country, and has followed it in Toledo for fully forty years. He was born in Alsace, .now part of the German Empire, February 12, 1849. He was reared and educated there, served his apprenticeship in the thorough manner demanded of apprentices in the old country, and as a young man he was called upon for military service and did his part in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. It was not long after the close of that struggle that he set out to make his fortune in the New World, and arrived in America alone in 1872. His first location was in Dayton, Ohio, but in a short time he removed to Lucas County and took up his permanent residence in the City of Toledo. His father followed him to America, and in 1885 located on a farm in Ohio, where he lived until his death about fourteen years, ago. Joseph Ziegler was the oldest in a family of six children.. When he. came to Toledo he Possessed the skill acquired by many 'years of work as an apprentice and journeyman, and he also had the enterprise and business ability necessary to make him successful. He has had shops in different parts of the city, but for a number of years has had his store at 627 Madison Avenue. Some of the patrons who came to him. in his first years in Toledo are still among his regular customers; and his ability to render real service has gained for him both friends and patrons in large numbers. Mr. Ziegler is a member of the Catholic Church, is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in matters of politics is independent. He was married in 1873, the year after coming to Toledo, to Miss Mary Sayrine. They are the parents of eight children, and one of the sons is now actively associated with his father in the business. W. L. VAIL is one of the prominent coal merchants of Toledo, being general manager of the Big Four Coal .Company, a large wholesale and retail concern operating four yards in 'Toledo with main offices at 1102 Cherry Street. Mr. Vail is a musician by profession, but turned from that work, to the coal business about thirteen years ago. He was born at Findlay, Ohio, September 6, 1870, a son of C. P. and Elvira (Hughes) Vail. His father was born in Ohio and the ancestors of the Vail family originally came out of Germany. C. P. Vail is still living in Toledo at the age of seventy-three. He removed to that city about ten years ago. He was a machinist by trade, and continued to work until he retired about 1914. He is a socialist in politics and has taken considerable interest in the theoretical and practical side of socialism. The only son of his parents, W. L. Vail attended the public schools of Ohio, and early manifested a talent and inclination for music. He spent three years completing his musical education at Boston, Massachusetts, and he made music his chief pursuit and means of a livelihood from the age of seventeen until he was thirty-five. Mr. Vail then engaged in business as manager of the East Toledo Coal Company, but somewhat later he organized The Big Four Coal Company and has been its general manager from the start. Besides the large business handled by the company in Toledo' its trade territory also includes much of the State of Ohio, the State of Indiana and western territory. Mr. Vail is affiliated with Rubicon Lodge of Masons, Fort Meigs Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Toledo Commandery, nights Templar, Scottish Rite bodies, the Zenobia Temple of the Mystic Shrine, the Masonic Grotto, and the Toledo Chapter of the Eastern Star. He also belongs to the Toledo Mutual Protective Association, is a director of the Exchange Club, a member of the Toledo Commerce Club. In politics he is a republican, and without aspirations for office has shown much interest in the cause of good government. He belongs to the Epworth Methodist Episcopal. Church. Mr. Vail was married August 1, 1890, at Findlay, Ohio, to Miss Cora B. Hull, daughter of Mr. C. B. Hull of Mount Gilead, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Vail have one son, Earl C. Vail, who was born April 30, 1892, was educated in the Toledo public schools, and is now associated with his father in business in The Big Four Coal Company. O. W. KIRCHENBAUER as a contractor and builder has added many of the substantial structures to the City of Toledo during the last fifteen or twenty years. He is capable, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1659 reliable, expert in all departments of his work, and .has built up a splendidly efficient organization for the handling of his contracts. He was born January 19, 1875, at Monroe, Michigan, a son of John and Christina (Becker) Kirchenbauer. His father and mother were both natives of Germany and they came to America in. 1873, accompanied by their family of one son and two daughters. Locating in Monroe, Michigan, John Kirchenbauer engaged in the business of gardening and followed that for about forty years, finally retiring from active work about six years ago. He was successful in his special line of business and also in his investment, and was the owner of considerable valuable property at Monroe. He still resides in Toledo, is in his sixty-ninth year, enjoys unusual health and is a very popular citizen of a family of six sons and two daughters, five are living, Mr. 0. W. Kirchenbauer being the fourth in age. His father is a member of the Lutheran Church and is a very strong republican, having affiliated with that party as soon as he acquired the rights of an American voter. O. W. Kirchenbauer left school at the age of fourteen in order to learn the trade which has been at the basis of his permanent business. He came to Toledo, served a long and thorough apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, and was a journeyman worker for Several years before he began contracting on his own account. As a contractor he has put up some of the fine residences and flat buildings of the city, and a long list might be compiled of the buildings which he has erected since he entered the contracting field. For a number of years he had his offices in the Ohio Building, but for the past five years his headquarters have been in 1537 Nicholas Building. Like his father he is a stanch republican, and is active in Masonry, being affiliated with Sanford L. Collins Lodge, No. 396 Free and Accepted Masons, Fort Meigs Chapter, Royal Arch'. Masons, Toledo Council, Royal and Select Masons, and Toledo Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templar, Valley of Toledo Consistory, thirty-second degree, Zenobia Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and O-Ton-Ta.-La Grotto, No. 40. He is active in the Toledo Commerce Club, and also the Toledo Building Exchange, and now serving as vice president of that organization. In June, 1895, at Toledo Mr. Kirchenbauer married Kate Blien. They have three children : Bertha, William, and Emma. Bertha is a graduate of the high school with the class of 1912, and the other children are still attending the public schools of Toledo. MARK R. ALEXANDER, a resident of Toledo for a number of years, is assistant secretary of the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company and is one of a group of men connected with that industry who wield an important influence in the modern activities of this city. Mr. Alexander is a native of England, born June. 21, 1880, the youngest of the nine children of Alexander and Elizabeth (Briggs) Alexander. Five of the children are still living. His father, who was born in Scotland, spent many years as an active manufacturer in England, and is now living retired at the age of seventy-six. Mr. Alexander was well educated, at first in the private schools and then in the Liverpool Institute. On finishing his education he came to America, landing at Montreal, and for a time was in the mining fields of British Columbia. He then located on a homestead in the Province of Saskatchewan, remained there three years, after which he took employment with one of the b ranchers of Western Canada, Charles Miles, who owned a ranch of 800 acres in Saskatchewan, and for 2 ½ years Mr. Alexander was employed as ranch manager on that large estate. Leaving Western Canada, he came to the United States, and locating at Detroit, Michigan, was for a year clerk in the offices of the. Grand Trunk Railway. Coming to Toledo he became connected with the Clover Leaf Railway as accountant and traveling auditor and filled that position six years. In 1913 he entered the service of the Owens Bottle Machine Company as accountant and cashier and in 1916 was promoted to his present place as assistant secretary of the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company. Mr. Alexander is a member of the Episcopal Church, is independent in politics, belongs to the Toledo Commerce Club, and the Toledo Museum of Art. On March 21, 1906, he married Miss Rubena Miles, daughter of Charles Miles, of Saskatchewan. They have one son, Miles Alexander, born November 29, 1913. RICHARD B. SONCRANT, whose wide experience in business affairs covers merchandising at various points in Northwestern Ohio, has been a resident of Toledo for a number of years and is head of the Soncrant Realty Company, with offices in the Spitzer Build- 1660 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO ing. This is one of the high class realty firms of the city, and also handles insurance and loans. Mr. Soncrant was born in Lucas County, July 27, 1845, a son of John B. and Matilda (Momeney) Soncrant. His father, who was born in 1814, was one of the most interesting pioneers of this section of the Middle West. A native of Montreal, Canada, his paternal ancestors having come from France, he moved to the United States about eighty years ago, locating in Monroe, Michigan. He spent many summers on the lakes as a sailor and the winters were spent in the woods in hunting and trapping. He had all the skill and art of the French coureur de bois of an earlier age, and he came to know every covert and haunt of wild game both in Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio. He lived for some time in Ottawa County on a farm, cultivating his fields in the summer and hunting in the winters. He then moved to Toledo, where he married, and afterwards followed his regular pursuits, and continued hunting until 1860. He then removed to Ottawa County, where he owned a farm, and lived on it until 1895, when he again; returned to Lucas County and took up his residence with Samuel E. Soncrant, his son, living a retired life until his death in 1901. He was a devout and sincere Catholic and a democratic voter. His wife, who was born in 1819, died in 1904. Her people came from Scotland. They were the parents of six children, four of whom are now living. Richard B. Soncrant, third in age, was reared in Ottawa County, attended the district schools there, and at the age of seventeen left home and made one of the hands of a sailing boat on the Great Lakes for thirteen consecutive seasons. After sailing before the mast for three seasons he was promoted to first mate. In 1871 Mr. Soncrant married Miss Hetta Pierson. Seven children were born to their -union, and the four now living are : Ora M. ; Elsie M. ; Eber R. ; and Vida M., now Mrs. Fred Cranker. After his marriage Mr. Soncrant lived in Lucas Point, Lucas County, where for four years he engaged in merchandising. He conducted a general store and then moved to Trowbridge, where he opened a. branch establishment, Ind finally moved the stock of both stores to Clarksfield, in Huron County. He continued in business there nine months and then returned to Lucas Point, where he was again a merchant for a year and a half. He sold out his business and accepted the appointment of superintendent of the Ottawa County Infirmary in 1885, and managed that institution with unusual thoroughness and efficiency until 1896. In that year he embarked in the hotel business in Ottawa County, and continued that and other lines of activity until he came to Toledo in 1901, where he has since built up the large business now known as the Soncrant Realty Company. JACOB HORNUNG. In certain sections of Northwest Ohio the first blows were struck in the forest and the first improvements were made by the sturdy people from the fatherland, constituting one of the early waves of emigration from Germany. One of these localities which has always retained many of the characteristics imposed by the first settlers is New Bavaria, in Pleasant Township of Henry County. The village of New Bavaria is in many respects a monument to the family of Hornung. The village was laid out on Hornung land, and it was the commercial enterprise and foresight of that family which gave the community much of its present prosperity. The founder of the village was the father of Mr. Jacob Hornung, who still resides in New Bavaria and is a splendid specimen of the early German-American citizens. He is large and portly of physique, a man of broad ideas, has led a straightforward life and is one of the most highly respected and influential men of his county. Mr. Hornung owns a large amount of improved property in and around New Bavaria, and is now living retired in a fine home in that village. His parents were Charles and Catherine (Desgranges) Hornung, the former a native of Bavaria and born May 16, 1823, and the latter a native of Prussia, born June 25, 1825. Charles Hornung was a son of Peter and Johanna Hornung, and Catherine Desgranges was a daughter of Christian and Catherine Desgranges. It is well known that the bulk of German emigrants of the earlier time came to America during the late '40s. The Hornungs and Desgranges families were still earlier. The Hornung family came to the United States in 1837, spending fifty-four days on a sailing vessel from Havre to New York. They came directly west by such means of communication as were then in existence to Henry County, Ohio, locating in Pleasant Township. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1661 The Desgranges family had arrived two years earlier and had also acquired a tract of government land in Pleasant Township. Peter Hornung secured his quarter section in Section 22, while Christian Desgranges located eighty acres in Section 26. It would be difficult to picture adequately to the modern mind the condition of the country when these families arrived. Though Ohio had been a state of the Union for thirty-five years, Henry County had been left almost unsettled. The heavy woods stretched in almost unbroken line from one side of the county to the other. The river pursued its way through dense timber or stretches of impassable swamp. Many Indians still remained, pitching their camps hi the woods or on the banks of the river, and the earlier highways had been broken out largely along the old Indian trails. As the work and influence of the White settler had made little headway, the woods were filled with wild game and wild animals of every description, and the streams abounded in fish. These were in fact the great resources of the early settlers. Without this abundance of wild meat many of the pioneers could not have lived from the meager crops which they raised from the soil. Scarcely a tree had been cut in PleaSant Township when these two thrifty German families arrived. There was no money in circulation, and in order to pay taxes the men and boys would set traps and go hunting for the fur-bearing animals, selling the pelts for enough currency to pay taxes and also to buy such provisions as could be found in the markets of that time. Every phase of the early pioneer story applies to the Hornung and Desgranges families in Henry County. Their homes were along the Pleasant Ridge road leading from the east to Defiance. That road at the time was merely an Indian trail. Neither family had oxen or horses for several years, and in order to get the corn or wheat 'ground for making bread, some memher of the family would put. a sack of grain on his shoulder, walk the entire distance to the nearest mill, which was two miles north of Defiance and fourteen miles from the homes of these families in Pleasant Township. It required two days to get a grist ground and make the round trip. During the winter the river would be crossed on the ice, while in the summer the traveler was carried over in a canoe. The old miller was mice Hilton. While there were plenty. of. Indians, they were not dangerous and were merely an inconven ience to the. early settlers because of their well-known habits of idleness and love of strong drink. In return' for something to eat or drink they were always willing to do anything they could for these German pioneers. Naturally social life had many limitations. When there was a death in the community, the funeral would be held in one of the log cabin homes or in a log schoolhouse, and every one in the entire community would attend, many of them driving in ox carts. In spite of the limitations and privations there is no doubt that these old pioneers enjoyed as much real happiness as people in this modern age. Peter Hornung and his wife lived to advanced years, saw their land cleared up and developed, and their family of children happy and prosperous about them. In the early days of this section of Henry County there were both Protestant and Catholic families. There was no strict division into sects, but all went together and built a common or union church, usually consisting of a log cabin, and it was a number of years before separate denominations were organized. Finally the German Protestants united in the German Reform Church, and this has been the strongest denomination in that township ever since. Charles Hornung and Catherine Desgranges were both children when brought to Henry County ; they grew up in wilderness conditions, and in July, 1844, were married. They then settled on the old Hornung homestead, where Charles Hornung cared for his parents during the rest of their days. He was the youngest of the family, his older brother Peter having 'been killed by a falling tree, leaving a widow and a large family of children. His only sister Margaret married Henry Schall, member of a prominent Henry County family, elsewhere referred to. Charles Hornung succeeded to the old homestead farm, and became a man of great influence and prosperity. He died June 6, 1894, while his widow survived him until 1906, when she was eighty-one years of age. Both were members of the German Reformed Church, while Charles Hornung was independent in his political affiliations. He early established himself in business as a merchant, and in 1844, the year he married, became the first postmaster of New Bavaria. He owned the eighty acres on which New Bavaria was laid out, and his own business as merchant was the primary enterprise of that town. He named the town in honor of the fine old country from which he had come. Among other interests Charles 1662 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Hornung was for many years a manufacturer of pearl ash, and made tons and tons of this for the New York city market. He also manufactured lumber from the native timber; saw-ink up the walnut and white ash logs in great quantities, especially during the decade of the '60S. He became an extensive land owner and was for many years engaged in trading, buying' and selling property. Anything that had to do with the progress of the community could rely upon him for his earnest and public-spirited support. For three terms he served as county commissioner, was on the school board many years, was assessor of the township, for several terms was trustee, and for years held the office of justice of the peace. Charles and Catherine Hornung had the following children : Christian, Margaret, Jacob, Catherine, John H., Margaret, second of the name, Peter and Charles Seven of them. reached manhood and womanhood, and all of them married except Charles. The oldest of the family, Christian, who was born in 1845, has been twice married; was graduated in 1868 from Heidelberg College at Tiffin, and for nearly half a century has been a professor of mathematics. The sister Catherine is the widow of Henry Thomas and has two daughters and a son. Mr. Jacob Hornung was born on the old .homestead originally settled by his grand-lather on November 25, 1848. His education came from such schools as were supported in .the community at the time. By the time he was fourteen he was looking. after the home farm, and he was its manager until 1872, when he bought and located on a farm of his own. He also bore an active part. in the various affairs of his father, assisting in the manufacture and sale of pearl ash, in the mill and store, and from an early, age has been accustomed to handle varied and important interests. In 1882 he established what was his chief business and one of the most important industries of the. community. This was the stave mill at New Bavaria. At first he was associated in the industry with his father. and brother John. In 1887. he became sole proprietor, but later took in his brother .as a partner, and, after 1894 again acquired the entire business. It was successfully conducted. until 1913. During that time he manufactured millions of staves and also great quantities of native lumber. Mr. Hornung as a lumberman had the expertness due to long and through training, and also the splen: did foresight and judgment which have char acterized him in all his affairs. He bought and scaled every tree that was worked up in his mills, and as a timber estimator he had no superior in this section of the country. For the past three years Mr. Hornung has lived retired. In Pleasant Township, on October 10, 1871, he married Miss Julia Sauer. .Mrs. Hornung. was born June 21, 1851, and they had a happy married. life of over forty years until her death on January 15, 1913. She was reared and educated in Henry County, and was a daughter of Henry. and Minnie (Hoefrichter) Sauer. Her parents were natives of Germany, and after their marriage .came to America and were among the earliest pioneers of Henry County. They developed a farm from new land, and died when quite . old. They were among the organizers of the German Reformed Church in Pleasant Township, and whether in making homes for themselves or their children, in supporting the church, or in any other community enterprise were always to be depended upon as honest and wholesome' people. They were of Hesse-Darmstadt and Baden ancestry. Mr. Jacob Hornung has manifested many of those public-spirited characteristics which were so prominent in his father. He is now a member of the County Board of Estimates, is a former trustee of the township, an office .he filled three terms, and has been a candidate for county commissioner, his defeat being due to the fact .that he is a member of the minority party in Henry County, being a republican. Of his children, Charles, the oldest, now looks. after the old homestead of 133 acres in Pleasant Township. He married Emma Jones, and their children are 'Herman; Arthur and Virgil. Rev. John Hornung was liberally edu- cated, and for the past twelve years, since his .graduation, has been pastor of Grace Re. formed Church in Toledo. He married Martha Van Horne of Dayton, and their children are Dorothy D. and Robert J. Andrew J. is active manager of the Farmers Elevator at New Bavaria. He married Gertrude Wolf, and they have a son, Paul H. Albert H., who is unmarried and lives at home with his father, is an auctioneer. Ora C. received his education in Heidelberg College at Tiffin and the Oberlin Business College, is a practical and progressive young farmer and is still at home, unmarried.. Ruth E., at home, completed her education in the. Holgate High School.. Mr. Hornung also. has a foster daughter, his niece, Margaret C. E., who has lived HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO -1663 in the Hornung home since she was fourteen months old and is also a graduate of the Holgate High School. EGBERT L. BRIGGS, who spent many years as a successful teacher, has found an even larger field of influence in work as an insurance man, and is now city manager at Toledo for The Prudential Insurance Company of America. His offices are in the Nicholas Building. Mr. Briggs came to Toledo from. Michigan, which is his native state. He was born December 27, 1855, at Macomb County, a son of Jerub Briggs. His father, who was born in New York State and died in 1894 had ten children, five of whom are still living.. He was one of the early settlers of Macomb County, Michigan, acquiring his land direct from the Government and developing the farm which he has occupied for many years. He became one of the original republicans and was long a member of the Congregational Church. Third in age in his father's family, Egbert L. Briggs had his early opportunities in the country district schools of Michigan, and in 1874 he graduated from the high school at Utica. He was a student in the University of Michigan, and for twenty-five consecutive years, excepting one, he taught school. The one year that broke his consecutive record he spent in college as a student. His school work was done in the villages and smaller cities of Michigan, and he was superintendent of the schools at Eaton Rapids, Grand Haven and Coldwater. On leaving the schoolroom he took up the life insurance business, and as special agent of The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company he was located at Grand Rapids for two years. From there he removed to Detroit, and became a member of the firm of Briggs & Seelye, managers of The Prudential Insurance Company of America for Eastern Michigan. In 1903 he was made manager of The Prudential Company at Toledo, and did much to add to the business of the company in this district. Finally the work became a strain upon his health, and in order that he might be relieved of the necessities, of agency organization he resigned as manager and became city manager, the office he holds today. Mr. Briggs is a member of the Masonic Order in the Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery, and has been very active in the Congregational Church. He has served as a deacon, as superintendent of Sunday School, and was president of the Toledo and Lucas County Sunday School Association four years. On December 23, 1884, in Michigan he married Miss Nellie Holmes. Their four children were : Helen C., deceased ; Harriet A., a graduate of the University of Michigan; Lucile, Mrs. Paul B. Crandell ; and Dorothy, who is still continuing her studies. C. A. LANGLOTZ, who is a specialist in the printing business, with offices at 1438 Nicholas Building in Toledo, has spent the greater part of the fifteen years since he left college in work as a traveling salesman, and in that time has covered nearly every state in the West, having for a number of years had his headquarters on the Pacific Coast. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1882, he is the older of two children of Clifton A. Langlotz. His father was born in New Jersey, spent the greater part of his active life in Trenton of that state and died in 1889. After attending the public schools of Trenton, C. A. Langlotz entered the Case School of Applied Science at Cleveland, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1900. He 'soon afterward entered the employ of the American Multigraph Company, and was a traveling salesman in their service for eight years. His territory was on the Pacific Coast and he had charge of four branch offices, located at Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and San Diego, the main office being in San Francisco. After leaving the Multigraph Company he returned to Cleveland, Ohio, was in business there a short time, then for a, year or so was traveling representative of the Studebaker automobile and in 1913 came to Toledo and became identified with the Toledo Computing Scales Company. After six months he took charge of the printing department of the Owens Bottle Machine Company. After one year, in November, 1915, he was given this department as a separate business, 'under his direct management and control, and he now owns the plant and conducts the business under his own name. He supplies all kinds of high grade office and commercial printing, the output being used almost exclusively by the Owens Bottle Machine Company. Mr. Langlotz is a republican, a member of the Toledo Commerce Club, and takes an active interest in civic affairs. In 1908 at Chicago, Illinois, he married Miss Maud Cole- 1664 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO man, a daughter of Cyrus C. and Nettie (Arris) Coleman of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Langlotz have one child, Carol. FORDYCE BELFORD, general referee in bankruptcy at Toledo, is a lawyer of wide experience and high standing in Northwest Ohio, and has been a member of the bar for a quarter of a century. His father was also a lawyer, Irvin Belford by name, who for several years practiced his profession at Caldwell, but in 1883 came to Toledo where he continued in practice until 1891 when he was appointed clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He filled that office until his death in 1909. He was a native of Noble County, Ohio. Fordyce Belford, oldest of the three children of his father, was born at Caldwell in Noble County, Ohio, April 25, 1868. He was well educated, attending the public schools of Caldwell and Toledo, and afterwards entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated bachelor of laws with the class of 1891. Admitted to the bar the same year, he began practice at Toledo, and soon gained a liberal clientage as a result of his diligent application and his thorough master of legal principles. It was in 1898 that he was appointed general referee in bankruptcy, an office he has now held for over eighteen years. He has jurisdiction over eleven of the counties of Northwest Ohio. Mr. Belford is affiliated with Lodge No. 144, Free and Accepted Masons at Toledo, is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club, Inverness Club and also of the University of Michigan Club. His recreation he finds in the game of golf. Politically he is a stanch republican. On June 28, 1904, he married Miss Cecile Schneider. CHARLES FRANKLIN SPRAGUE. A lawyer whose position is one of assured prominence and success in Northwest Ohio is Charles F. Sprague of Lima. Mr. Sprague is a native of this section of Ohio and has been in active practice at Lima for the past sixteen years. He was born at Wapakoneta in Auglaize County, June 12, 1872. His parents were Sidney and Amanda Caroline (Ritchie) Sprague. They were quiet and substantial farming people, the father a native of Ohio and the mother of Virginia. Charles Franklin Sprague had rural surroundings as his environment during his boy hood, and refers gratefully to the fact that he was brought up in the country and on a farm. After his public school training he entered the Ohio State University at Columbus, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1896 and then continued until completing the law course and gaining his degree Bachelor of Laws in 1899. On being admitted to the bar he located at Lima and has since given his attention to a large and increasing general practice. Mr. Sprague is now secretary and attorney of the Lima Home and Savings Association, an institution that employs a capital of $1,500,000. He is a member of the Allen County and State Bar association and is a Knight of Pythias. He married Mabel Elizabeth Walters of Columbus, Ohio, daughter of George and Catherine Walters. Her father is a contractor. To their marriage have been born three children : Charles Walter, Lenore Amanda and Dorothy May. THE LIMA HOME AND SAVINGS ASSOCIATION, which was organized in October, 1887, has had an unusually long career. It has always maintained the high standards of service which such associations are fundamentally supposed to furnish, and it is gratifying that the association has not only been able to carry out its essential purpose in providing funds for the building of homes, but has also enjoyed great financial prosperity at the same time. The association had for ,its object the receiving of money from its members as well as depositors who are not members for the purpose of loaning it out to those desirous of building homes or making improvements on homes. At the close of business June 30, 1915, the assets of the association were $1,369,486.71. Its rate of increase in assets during the last twelve years has been almost $85,000 annually. The first officers of the association were: President, Ira P. Carnes ; vice president, E. J. McGuire ; secretary, M. J. Sanford ; treasurer, L. H. Kibby ; attorney, M. A. Hoagland. The first office was located in the Harper Block, and about a year later was removed to the second floor of the old postoffice building at the corner of High and Main streets. In the year 1902 the offices were removed to the west side of the Masonic Building, and Charles F. - Sprague became its secretary. Here the offices remained until November, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1665 1906, at which time they were removed to their present quarters in the Masonic Building at the southwest corner of Elizabeth and High streets. On the death of W. K. Boone, in 1913, C. H. Cory became its president and Joseph Potter its vice president, with Mr. Sprague still in office as secretary. In addition to the officers just named the present directors are H. W. Pears, R. W. Parmenter, R. T. Gregg and J. E. Morris. GEORGE RICKER. The claim of George Ricker upon the good will and consideration of his fellow citizens in Henry County is based upon many years of effective work as an agriculturist, upon his record as a self-made man and upon his activity in promoting the welfare of his community. A life of industry and thrift has resulted in the accumulation of some of the finest farms and farming lands to be found anywhere in. Henry County. Many interests engage his attention, and he is also one of the bankers of Holgate, and much of his substantial business as a farmer is now carried on by his sturdy sons. The fine farm he now owns and occupies is on rural route No. 2 out of Holgate and was the place of his birth on July 15, 1858. About a year before his birth his people had located in Henry County. The Rickers arrived here in November, 1857, having come three years previously from Germany. George was the youngest child of his parents.. It would be difficult to draw an adequate picture which could be appreciated by the present generation of Henry County as it existed when George Ricker was born. Pleasant Township had no roads. There were trails through the woods and over the swamps, and the sturdy pioneers had only made partial clearings here and there and had planted their first crops. The nearest neighbor to the Ricker home lived three or four miles away. The site of the village of Holgate was then an undistinguished spot in the general wilderness condition. The Ricker farm was .within a mile of where the village now stands, being situated in Section 11 of Pleasant Township. When the Baltimore & Ohio Railway was built through Henry County George Ricker was old enough to haul and fell some of the first ties that were laid on the right of way. He also hauled the timber from which the first building was erected on the site of Holgate.. His services were also commissioned to haul the first stock of groceries and merchandise that were sold at Holgate. He hauled these goods from Napoleon. All this occurred several years after the close of the Civil war. George Ricker :bought and sold ties and delivered them to the contractors who were building the railway through Holgate that is now part of the Clover Leaf system. That road when first constructed was a narrow gauge-line, but some years later its gauge was standardized. From infancy to mature age George Ricker has lived on the beautiful farm that he now owns. Part of this farm was eighty acres which his father Peter and his uncle George had bought directly from the state. They paid $400 for the eighty acres. Each erected a log cabin, and they lived there with the environment of pioneers. Peter Ricker bought a second eighty acres for his son Peter, Jr., and paid $600 for it. He afterwards bought an eighty acres for his son George, and the purchase price of that was $1,300. All of it was exceedingly choice land, and there is probably not an acre of the entire tract which is worth less than $100. With what his father gave him George Ricker has emulated the example of the wise steward, who took his talent and increased it manyfold. He has bought land from time to time until his ownership now covers 400 acres. Nearly all of it is under cultivation, and it is divided as five distinct farms each with its separate group of improvements and buildings. Thus there are half a dozen houses and substantial barns that reflect the thrifty ownership and enterprise of Mr. George Ricker. For many years this land has grown some of the finest crops of corn, wheat and oats and such other crops as beets, grass and clover have also been a material asset to the Ricker agricultural prosperity. Mr. Ricker's father, Peter Ricker, was a carpenter by trade, having learned that occupation in Germany. After coming to America he was so poor that he had to secure a loan in order to buy the lumber to make the doors for his log cabin. He also walked about the country three days trying to borrow $10 from his neighbors in order to meet a few pressing bills and to defray the expenses of an expected visit from the stork. For all that he could find no one who was willing or able to help him. These items are mentioned because Peter Ricker possessed the energy and determination which never failed to raise a than above the level of poverty, and as a matter of fact long before his death he was noted as one of the wealthy men of Henry County. 1666 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO He had neither. ox nor horse to assist him in the heavy labor of transforming a wilderness into a farm, and his first home was in the swamp. The first winter in Henry County was spent in a log cabin that had no thinking between the logs, and the only source of heat was an old stove. Mr. George Ricker cherishes as some of his most prized possessions two articles which belonged to his father and had special associations with the pioneer history of the family here. One of them is an old tool chest. His father brought the chest from Germany to this country, and besides the tools they stored the food which provisioned the family during its voyage across the ocean. The other article is one of the old-fashioned locks, whose bolt was turned by a key fully six inches long. This lock was put on the log cabin door of the Ricker family when they came to Henry County. Some dates found on the old' tool chest indicate that the Ricker family started from Germany and landed in America in the _year 1854. The old log cabin home was supplemented by a frame house in 1870, and in 1903 Mr. George Ricker set that aside and replaced it with his splendid and commodious two-story, nine-room farm house. This house has a basement throughout, and in its conveniences and furnishings makes an ideideal homeether for the country or for the city. Peter Ricker, father of George Ricker, was born in Prussia, Germany, May 24, 1812. He died May 21, 1895. His wife was also named Ricker, but they were not related. Her Christian names were Anna Maria, and she was born in Prussia in March, 1819, and died November 13, 1895, about six month's after her husband. Both passed away in the old frame house in which they had lived for twenty-five years. They had been married more than fifty years. Both were of Evangelical German families. Peter Ricker and his family and his brother George and his family came together to the United States. They spent sixty days on the ocean between Bremen and New York City, and after coming to Ohio lived for several years in Seneca County before they moved to , Hnry County. Peter Ricker brought with him from Germany the following children : Peter, Kate, Elizabeth and Mary. Peter, Jr., nashasr many years lived as a retired farmer at Holgate, antis married, but has no children. Elizabeth, now seventy-three years of age, resides with his niece and is the widow of George Stevens, who was a soldier in the Civil war and was wounded during his service. Catherine died at the age of twenty-two, and she was engaged to be married at the time. Mary is the wife of Christian Memmer, and they are the parents of eleven children and reside in Defiance County, Ohio. Caroline is a daughter who was born in Seneca County, Ohio, and married Gottlieb Obermiller, and both are now deceased, two daughters surviving them. Mr. George Ricker was first married in Williams County, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Myers. She was born in this country of German parents. To their union were born four children : Edward, who lives on one of his father's farms, married Alma Wolf and has children named Donald, Vivian and Margaret. Anna is the wife of Jacob Bower, and they also live on one. of Mr. Ricker's fine farms, and have a son, Robert. Carl is active manager of the old Ricker homestead and married Margaret Engel. Clara is the wife of Nelson Wakeman, a machinist living at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and they have a daughter named Elizabeth. For his second wife Mr. Ricker married, in Henry County, and in Flat Rock Township, Mrs. Barbara Rettig, widow of Peter Rettig. Peter Rettig, who died at the age of forty-one, was a brother of Michael Rettig, elsewhere referred to in this publication. Peter Rettig left one son, Arnold, who now lives in Detroit, Michigan, and has three children named Rus- sell. Virginia M. and Georgia. Mrs: Ricker, whose maiden name was Barbara Huber, was born in Flat Rock Township, Henry County, October 11, 1858, a daughter of Charles and Catherine (Schmidt) Huber. Her parents were both natives of Bavaria, Germany. Her paternal grandfather, Carl Hubei, lost his wife in Germany, and some years later came to America. He was a noted character in Henry County, especially on account of his remarkable strength. He was one of the famous rail splitters of the early days and probably no one, regardless of age, could excel him in ability as a rail maker. He cut up thousands of the rails that were used in fencing many of the farms in Henry County in the early days. Though Lucifer matches had long been in use, this old German always used the flint and punk to light his old-fashioned German pipe. For all the hard work he did and the strenuous exertion he put forth as an early pioneer of Henry County, he attained the remarkable age of HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1667 ninety-four years and died at the home of his son, Charles Huber, the father of Mrs. Ricker. Charles Huber came to the United States and located in Crawford County, Ohio, at the age of twenty-five. He was born in 1823. He married in Crawford County and his wife had come to the United States when thirteen years of age. While they lived in Crawford County three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Huber. They then came to Flat Rock Township of Henry County, where Charles Huber died in 1900, and his widow in 1912 at the age of eighty-three. They were members of the Reformed Church. Mrs. Ricker was one of sixteen. children, and of this large number thirteen grew to manhood and womanhood, twelve married, and eleven are still living. Mr. and Mrs. George Ricker by their marriage have one daughter, Rachel Marie, who was born October 6, 1904, and is now in the seventh grade of the public schools. The older members of this family belonged to, the Reformed Church, but the children are members of the Presbyterian denomination. Mr. Ricker is a republican in politics, and throughout his career in Henry County has manifested a great interest in such improvements as, good roads, good schools and everything that will promote the welfare of the community. For many years he served as an elder of his home church. He was one of the organizers of the Holgate Commereial Bank, and since organization has been president of that substantial institution. JAMES JOSEPH WEADOCK. In the twenty years since he was admitted to the bar, James J. Weadock has gained an enviable position as a lawyer at Lima, Ohio, and recently retired with great credit from the office of prosecuting attorney of Allen County. During the years of the present century his name has been associated with many of the movements undertaken in Lima as a progressive commercial and municipal center, and he is one of the truly representative lawyers of Northwestern Ohio. His birth occurred in Lima, September 4, 1873. His, parents were Dr. Thomas M. and Catherine A. (Gormley) Weadock. His father, who was born in Canada, came to Lima in 1871, and spent a long and active career as a physician. James Joseph Weadock received his early education in the parochial schools of St. Rose Church at Lima, also attended the public schools in that city, and in 1894 graduated from Assumption College, at Sandwich, Ontario, Canada. He took his law course in the law department of the University of Michigan, where he graduated Bachelor of Laws in 1896, and was soon afterwards admitted to the bar. Since then he has been an active member of the Allen County bar and is a' member of the County Bar Association and the State Bar Association. In 1900 he became associated with Isaac S. Motter and W. L. Mackenzie, and in 1907, at the death of Mr. Motter, he and Mr. Mackenzie continued in the practice of law under the firm name of Mackenzie & Weadock. The firm is one of the strongest combinations of legal talent in Allen County. Mr. Weadock's able service as prosecuting attorney of Allen County, to which office he was elected in November, 1910, on the democratic ticket was rendered from 1911 to 1915. He is an active member of the Catholic Church and is now choir director in St. Rose's Church. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, the 'Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Catholic Knights of: Ohio, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America. On June 24, 1903, he married Miss Mary A. Cunningham of Lima. Two children have been born : James J., Jr., and Mary Leonarda. JOHN O'CONNOR was founder of one of the best known families of Lima, and not only for that but also for his individual business career is entitled to the distinction of a permanent record in this publication. He was born November 27, 1835, in Abbeyfeale, Limerick, Ireland, a son of Patrick and Margaret (McCoy) O'Connor. He acquired his education in Ireland and in 1847 emigrated to America and was first known at Lima as a capable mechanic employed in the shops of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway, in which he was foreman for a num¬ber of years. In 1865 John O'Connor engaged in the insurance business and established a general agency, which in time was developed as one of the largest in Northwest Ohio. Subsequently he took in his sons as partners and the firm was known as John O'Connor Sons Company, and after John O'Connor's death in 1900 the firm became O'Connor Brothers Company. The business is now carried on by a grandson, Francis P. O'Connor, and Mrs. 1668 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Anna O'Connor, widow of the late Daniel O'Connor. John O'Connor served in the Lima city council fourteen years and for two terms was president of the council, and always took an interest in public enterprises. He was a democrat, a charter member of the Lima Club, and a communicant of St. Rose Catholic Church. At Lima on May 29, 1858, he married Sarah O'Connell, who was born in Allen County, south of Lima, May 6, 1838. They became the parents of a large family of children whose names were John S., of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work, Mrs. T. A. Collins, Patrick, Daniel F., Mary A.,- Sarah, Hannah, Rev. Joseph A. O'Connor, a beloved priest who died only a few years ago in Lima; James E., Elizabeth, Bernard E. Mrs. George Eckert and Mrs. Thomas W. Dillon. Daniel F. O'Connor, one of the sons of John O'Connor in the course of his lifetime of fifty years acquired a firm and substantial place in the business, civic and social affairs of Lima. He was born August 14, 1865, and died November 23, 1915. He received his education in the local parochial schools and later attended Assumption College at Sandwich, Ontario, and Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana. Early in his career he became associated with his father and brother, John S., in the insurance business, and after the death of John S. O'Connor Daniel purchased his interest and continued the business. Daniel O'Connor possessed all those qualities which make for a successful man. He was genial, progressive and popular both in business and social affairs. For many years he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus, belonged to the Lima Lodge of Elks, the Lima Club and the Knights of St. John, and was an influential member of St. Rose's Catholic Church. He also served as a director of the Chamber of Commerce, and among other business interests had connection with some oil development in other states. Daniel F. O'Connor married Miss Anna Welsh. Mrs. O'Connor survives and is the mother of a number of children namely : Francis P., Sister Rosella, a Sister of Charity at. Glendale, Cincinnati, Helen, Irene, Cecelia, Pauline, Joseph, Catherine, John. S., Rose Ellen and Daniel F., Jr. The family reside in the fine old residence at the corner of Wayne and Washington streets in Lima. Francis Patrick O'Connor, who had been the active manager in his father's stead for a number of months, before the latter's death, was born at Lima, September 18, 1892. He received his early education in the St. Rose Parochial School and in June, 1910, entered his father's office and has become a well experienced and capable business man and is well qualified to carry on the business established by his grandfather and conducted for so many years by his father. Francis P. O'Connor is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. MELVIN C. LIGHT. Depending largely upon his own exertions, Melvin C. Light came to Lima in 1907, educated himself for the law, and after several years of experience in private practice was recently elected to the office of city solicitor, which he is now filling with utmost competence and ability. He was born in the Lightsville community of Darke County, Ohio, June 13, 1887, a son of T. J. and May C. (Akerman) Light. His father was at one time a merchant and also a manufacturer. Melvin C. Light acquired his early education in the public schools of Union City, Indiana, which is just across the state line and not for from his birthplace. He finished the high school course there. After coming to Lima he attended the Lima Business College, and in 1911 was graduated LL. B. from the law department of the Ohio State University. Since then he has been in active practice and is one of the well known younger members of the Allen County Bar Association. He was elected city solicitor of Lima in 1915, and took up his duties in that office in January, 1916. He is first lieutenant of Company C, Second Ohio Infantry; and has seen active Mexican border service since June 19, 1916. Mr. Light is a member of the Wayfarers' Club, the Knights of Pythias, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On September 11, 1912, he married Miss Cleo O'Hara of Lima. They have one son, Richard C., born January 17, 1914. THOMAS R. HAMILTON. He whose name initiates this review is a native of the Buckeye State, a scion of sterling pioneer stock in this favored commonwealth of the Union, and is distinctively entitled to designation as one of the representative members of the bar of Northwest Ohio. He has been engaged in the HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1669 practice of his profession at Lima, the judicial center of Allen County, since 1894 and controls a large and important law business, in connection with which his success has been based upon technical ability as an advocate and counselor, close and loyal application and unequivocal personal popularity. Mr. Hamilton is retained as attorney for a number of representative corporations in Allen County, including the Harrod State Bank, besides which he is serving as solicitor for the Village of Harrod. He has appeared in connection with many important litigations in the various courts of this section of the state within the past score of years and has ever shown his deep appreciation of the dignity and responsibility of his exacting profession, of whose unwritten code of ethics he is a punctilious observer. Thomas Roy Hamilton was born in Orange Township, Hancock County, Ohio, on the 26th of February, 1867, and is a son of Jonathan and Sarah Ann (Anderson) Hamilton, both of whom were likewise born and reared in Ohio, where they passed their entire lives and where the major part of the active career of the father was one of close and effective identification with the great basic industry of agriculture. He was one of the patriotic sons of the Buckeye State who gave loyal and valiant service as a soldier of the Union during the climacteric period of the Civil war. In August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Ninety-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and he continued in active service until the close of the war, living up to the full tension of the great conflict and participating in many engagements, including a number of the important battles. Eventually his regiment, or the remnant thereof, became a part of the Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with this command he continued in service until he was mustered out, in July, 1865, after having participated in the Grand Review of the victorious troops in the City of Washington. Thomas R. Hamilton was reared to adult age in his native county, and after duly availing himself of the advantages of the public schools of the locality and period he entered the Northwestern Ohio Normal School, at Ada, Hardin County, an institution now known as the Ohio Northern University, and in the same he prosecuted not only studies of academic and scientific order but also completed the curriculum of the law department, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894 and from which he received Vol. III-22 the degree of bachelor of laws. He was admitted to the bar of his native state on the 4th of October, 1894. Virtually all of his collegiate expenses was defrayed through the returns from his effective service as a representative of the pedagogic profession. During intervals of each year from 1887 to 1894 Mr. Hamilton was engaged in teaching in the public schools of Allen County,. four years having been devoted to services in the district schools and the remaining three having found him, the successful and valued incumbent of the position of superintendent of the village schools of Beaver Dam, this county. While a student in the normal school at Ada Mr. Hamilton was a classmate and intimate friend of the present chief executive of the State of Ohio, Governor Willis, and they were associated in a specially close way in their work in chemistry, their loyal friendship having continued during the intervening quarter of a century. From the time of his admission to the bar Mr. Hamilton has been engaged in the general practice of his profession in the City of Lima, where he has proved himself also a loyal and public spirited citizen who maintains deep interest in all that touches the social, moral, educational and material welfare of the community. He and his wife are zealous members of the Church of Christ at Lima. and he is a member of its official board, besides which he is teacher of the men's class, comprising 100 members, in the Sunday-school. He is president of the Central Brotherhood organization in his home city, where he is affiliated also with the Sons of Veterans. the Knights of Pythias, the Modern W oodmen of America, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is past noble grand. At Lima Mr. Hamilton owns his attractive residence property and other real estate, and at Edgewater Park, at what is commonly known as "The Reservoir," in Mercer County, his resort property comprises thirty acres, well improved with cottages, this attractive resort being the summer home of himself and his family. The political allegiance of Mr. Hamilton is given to the republican party and he is an effective advocate of its principles and policies, though he has manifested no desire for political office. On the 14th of August, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Hamilton to Miss Leta. McBride, who was born in Allen. County where she was reared and educated, She died January 8, 1916. She was a daughter of 1670 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO William and Lillie (Gates) McBride, who maintain their home at Beaver Dam, Allen County, where Mr. McBride is a successful manufacturer. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton had two children, Ruth Ardella and Helen May, the former of whom is a graduate of the Lima High School. and the latter of whom is still attending the public schools of this city. Mr. Hamilton is a member of the Central Church. of Christ, of which Mrs. Hamilton was also a member, and she was active in church work. ORMAN P. KEPHART, who is now living retired from his active business as a farmer at Spencerville, represents one of the old and honored names of Allen County. It is noteworthy that the Kephart farm was first entered from the Government during the administration of President John Quincy Adams, more than ninety years ago. Orman P. Kephart was born in Allen County, May 12, 1857, a son of Orman, Sr., and Amanda Ann, (Hays) Kephart. The father was one of three children, Peter, Susan and Orman, and all of them spent most of their lives in Allen County. The original stock of the Kephart family came from Germany. Mr. Kephart himself has made his success in farming pursuits and while a resident of Amanda Township took much part in local affairs, serving as treasurer. He is a member of the Amanda Baptist Church, being deacon and treasurer of that organization, and affiliates with the Knights of Pythias. On November 18, 1880, Mr. Kephart married Miss Minnie M. Bailey, a native of Allen County and a daughter of the late John Noble Bailey, one of Allen County's most distinguished citizens, reference to whose life and activities will be found on other pages. Mrs. Kephart received a public school education, and both at home and in her community has made her influence count for good in .many ways. She is the mother of six children. Ross C. is a prospering young farmer and married Minnie R. Carr. Hazel Louella is the wife of Sherman Ely, now sheriff of Allen County and residing at Lima. Ivy Forest lives at home. John Bailey is a popular young school teacher at Spencerville and married Heloise Rider. The two younger children, both at home, are Cecil Lillian and Mary Marjorie. JOSEPH OPPENHEIM gave the world a new idea, created a new industry, and began the manufacture of a machine that lightened the burdens and increased the efficiency of agricultural operatives and before the idea and the business had reached the full fruition of his hopes and plans he was himself called away by death. His family have continued what he started, and today one of the largest industries of Northwest Ohio is owned and administered by the Oppenheim family. A native of Germany, born at Kirchhunden, Westphalia, March 18, 1859, Joseph Oppenheim came to the United States at the age of nineteen in 1878. He was a son of Bernard and Wilhelmina (Berg) Oppenheim. His parents were merchants and land owners in Westphalia in the District of Kirchhunden. Joseph Oppenheim was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters. His keen intellect and natural abilities were subjected to the refining process of a liberal education. He attended the gymnasium at Brilon, Germany, the university at Bonn, Germany, and the university at Innsbruck, Austria. On coming to the United States in 1878 he first located in Wisconsin and for three years continued his studies at St. Francis College in St. Francis that state. He became a teacher, and that vocation he followed until the last two years of his life. He taught school at various places, including Glandorf, and Freyburg, Ohio, New Albany, Indiana, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Maria Stein, Ohio. Altogether he was a teacher for sixteen years. While teaching he had opportunity at different times to follow his inclinations to experiment with various mechanical devices; and his inventive genius finally perfected a .manure spreader with a "widespread" feature. He took out the first patents on a machine of this type, and in 1899 engaged in manufacturing, founding the New Idea Spreader Company at Maria Stein, Ohio. This business which he founded has subsequently been developed as one of the most successful industries in Ohio. It is much to be regretted that Joseph Oppenheim did not live to see its remarkable growth and success. His death occurred at Maria Stein, Ohio, November 24, 1901, after an illness of six weeks of typhoid malaria. The entire family was afflicted with the same malady and the worry and strain of nursing them had overtaxed his system. On other pages appears a brief article describing the New Idea Spreader Company. Joseph Oppenheim had more than a single HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1671 talent. He was an accomplished musician, had specialized in piano and pipe organ. He was also a remarkable scholar, was conversant with four languages, and had read much of the literature of the world and was an excellent speaker. His broad experience as an educator had given him a mass of well digested information on school conditions in this country and abroad, and he was frequently heard with pleasure and profit at teachers' meetings and teachers institutes. In his spare time he indulged his fancy as a photographer and was an expert in that line. He did much portrait work and enlargings. In religion he was a Catholic. Joseph Oppenheim was married at Glandorf, Ohio, August 29, 1883, to Miss Anna Mary Ellerhrock, daughter of Bernard and Mary (Schnipke) Ellerbrock. She was born in Putnam County, Ohio, and her father and mother lived on a farm in that county and for some years also operated a tile yard. The Ellerbrock Farm was two miles west of Glandorf in Greensburg Township. Joseph Oppenheim was survived by six children, all of whom are now partners in the New Idea Spreader Company, and this immense business is entirely a family affair so far as the stockholding interests are concerned. The children are : Bernard C., mentioned elsewhere; Joseph A. Oppenheim, who married Anna McCoy of Celina, Ohio; Theodore and Justin Oppenheim ; Wilhelmina, wife of Henry Synck of Coldwater, Ohio ; Cecilia Sellhorst, wife of Bernard Sellhorst of Coldwater. BERNARD C. OPPENHEIM is a son of the late Joseph Oppenheim, inventor and founder of the New Idea Spreader Company of Coldwater, Ohio. Bernard C. was fifteen years of age when his father died and soon afterward assumed part of the business, responsibilities of managing and developing the plant which his father had left with its substantial success not yet assured. He was born at Freyburg, Ohio, December 27, 1886, and his early education was acquired by attending the public school at Maria Stein and also through private studies under the guidance of his father. He was thirteen years of age when his father first put to practical test the ideas he, had developed in his invention of a manure spreader. At that time Bernard C. began working in his father's factory, and helped in whatever he could do in day time and performed office duties in the evening. Two years later his father died, and thus at the age of fifteen he was left in charge of the sales promotion and financial end of the New Idea Spreader Company. At that time the company had less than $25,000 behind it, and despite the excellence of the invention the business was hardly yet a "going concern." Young Oppenheim gave every hour of the day to hard labor in the plant, and for several years continued office work in the evenings. In 1908 he had carried the business forward so that it justified establishing a new plant at Coldwater, Ohio. Mr. Oppenheim managed this plant, had charge of purchasing material needed there, and was in complete charge of the sales and financial department of the company organization. In 1912 the Maria Stein original plant was consolidated with the Coldwater plant, at which time Mr. Bernard Oppenheim gave up his responsibilities in connection with the purchasing department, and has since given his time to sales promoting and financing. He is owner of a one-sixth interest in the New Idea Spreader Company, whose aggregate business in 1916 reached $1,250,000 with net assets of nearly $1,000,000. As the financial management of this company has been Mr. Oppenheim's chief work, he deserves the greatest credit for the status of the company's business. Few men of thirty years can look back upon so much substantial achievement and few men so young have come into contact with the larger world of industry and affairs. Mr. Oppenheim inherits some of the mechanical ability of his father, and has perfected a number of improvements on the machinery manufactured by the firm. Public spirit is also one of his characteristics much admired in the community of Coldwater and he has taken it upon himself to lend his aid to every movement which would assist in making Coldwater a town second to none in point of size in this part of the state. His civic work has been entirely disinterested, since he has no end to serve and is owner of no real estate except his own home. Naturally enough he has been extremely busy with his` private affairs and has not been able to spare time for official duties. Mr. Bernard Oppenheim has complete charge of the advertising put out by the New Idea Spreader Company. The partnership spends about $50,000 every year for publicity purposes. Few progressive farmers have failed to be attracted by the forceful presentation of the virtues and efficiency of the New Idea 1672 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO spreaders, and a large part of the copy for the many advertisements which appear in farm and trade journals has been written by Mr. Oppenheim himself. He has developed some novel ideas in implement advertising. He has also written numerous articles of general interest to the implement trade, and these have been' widely published. His business duties are such as to require much travel throughout the States and Canada. Thus while he had limited opportunities while a boy to attend school, he is in fact a man of rather liberal education, acquired partly through observation and partly through reading and contact with men and affairs. An excellent memory has served him well so that what he learns is thoroughly retained and assimilated. Mr. Oppenheim is said to own one of the finest collections of standard works of literature in his home county, and when his business hours are over his time is devoted unreservedly to his family and his library. He has erected a residence at Coldwater which exemplifies every ideal of comfort and cultured taste. Perhaps his chief recreation is motoring. He usually owns a couple of cars, and for business or pleasure makes many long trips, being his own chauffeur. A week at least every summer is devoted to a vacation. It is spent in the north at some lake, with his family, and at such times he indulges his favorite recreation of fishing. Mr. Oppenheim is an active member of the Catholic Church. He was married at Coldwater, Ohio, June 28, 1910, to Miss Erma C. Rahe, daughter of Frank and Anna (Albers) Rahe. Her father, who died in 1900, was in early life a farmer and subsequently in the retail business at Cleveland and at Coldwater, Ohio, and for the last few years of his life had lived retired. Mr. and Mrs. Oppenheim have three children : Mildred Anna, Erwin Charles and Mary Alma Oppenheim. NEW IDEA SPREADER COMPANY. To the outside world the Town of Coldwater, Ohio, is best known as the home of the New Idea Spreader' Company. It is through such an institution that community gains its most substantial prominence. A town as in the case of an individual is important on account of the work that it does. The New Idea Spreader Company manufactures products valued at over $1,500,000 a year. It is a large and flourishing business, and is doubly interesting not only because of its size and the worth of its output to the farming class of America, but also for the interesting personalities behind the business. Reference has already been made in these pages to Mr. Joseph Oppenheim, founder of the plant and creator of the original idea, and also to the present active heads of the business Bernard C. Oppenheim and Henry Synck. The business was founded in 1899 at Maria Stein, Ohio. Its chief assets were the idea and the invention. The first plant was a frame building 30 by 45 feet, one story high. Here were manufactured the first manure spreaders under the patent obtained by Joseph Oppenheim. In 1901 the inventor died and his widow Anna Mary Oppenheim continued the business, but leaving its actual management to her oldest son Bernard C. and to Henry Synck, a young man in her employ who later married her oldest daughter Wilhelmina. In 1902 an addition was made to the plant and further additions came every year until in 1908, owing to the scarcity of labor and the inadequate shipping facilities of Maria Stein a second plant was built at Coldwater. Here, due to the superior shipping facilities and the larger supply of labor, the plant developed rapidly and profitably, and was gradually enlarged until in 1912 the Maria Stein plant was discontinued and the machinery removed to Coldwater. In 1916 the Coldwater plant covered 71/9 acres, practically all under roof. With all that space further additions were necessary. Early in 1917 a nineteen-acre tract adjoining the old plant was purchased in order to provide for several new buildings. The New Idea Spreader has been true to its name from the very start. It is radically different in construction from others which had been in use prior thereto. Its special feature is that it is a "widespread" machine. At first it inevitably encountered prejudice. Farmers are proverbially conservative and they were afraid to try something so completely different from the machines they had been accustomed to. However, the New Idea Spreader demonstrated its capacity for better work, and through vigorous salesmanship the trade was built up and increased until the New Idea Spreader became dominant and competitors were obliged to change their machines or cease business altogether. The first patents on the New Idea Spreader expired in the spring of 1917. Already several competitors have taken up the original plan, though now they are in the same position as the New Idea Company was at the 'beginning and have to combat what is now recognized HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1673 as the old and standard type. Then too the people who have bought and used the New Idea have come to appreciate the inventor's efforts and they remain loyal. New patents have been taken out on improvements so that the New Idea Spreader is still far ahead of the best competing machines. In 1915 work was started on a new type mower, radically different from all others and the samples that have been placed have been pronounced successful by every test.. Arrangements are now being made to produce a large number of sample machines in 1918, and plans being drafted for, a large plant for the manufacture of this machine. It is fully Covered by patents and its production means an immense increase in the volume of business done by the New Idea Spreader Company. Jobbers and dealers in all parts of the country are looking forward to the time when this new machine can be obtained in quantities. The sales organization of the New Idea Spreader Company is one of the largest in the United States among implement manufacturers. It comprises branch houses at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Ohio, Jackson, Michigan, Indianapolis, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Omaha, Nebraska, Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis, Missouri. These branches have an organization of seventy-five traveling salesmen. Territory not handled from these branch houses is taken tare of through jobbing connections. The trade in Canada is handled through an 'assembling plant at Guelph, Ontario, .known as the New Idea Spreader Company, Limited, with a complete sales force under that office. Stock in this company is all owned by the parent house. An immense volume of business is required to sustain such an organization, and it all represents the cumulative efforts of seventeen years since Joseph Oppenheim manufactured his first machine. The head office of the sales department is at Coldwater, Ohio, and is managed by Mr. B. C. Oppenheim. This department also has charge of the financing, collecting and advertising—in short the general sales promotion and finance. B. C. Oppenheim is senior male member of the family partnership, and others who are his active associates include his brother Joseph A. Oppenheim, who acts as treasurer; C. A. Mallenix, assistant sales manager ; August H. Bernard, chief clerk ; Joseph Willhoff, in charge of the shipping department, assisted by Al Harting and J. Schlegel. The manufacturing department is under Henry Synck, and comprises purchasing, designing and factory management. He is assisted by Ben Sellhorst as production manager ; Theodore Oppenheim as efficiency manager; Otto Geise as power plant manager ; Bruce Rollman as experiment department manager ; and Al A. Mueller as assistant purchasing agent. When Joseph Oppenheim commenced this business he had less than $3,000 to invest. At first the prospect was not encouraging. At his death his widow received $3,000 life insurance and she courageously placed this amount at the disposal of the business. It was a remarkable instance of businesS courage on the part of a woman who had no other source of income.. The results justified her. confidencc. After her death in 1909 the business was continued by her six children with B. C. Oppenheim and Henry Synek as managers. Constant progress was made and the net assets of the firm on November 1, 1916, were over $1,000,000 with total sales for that year of $1,250,000. Each successive year since 1905 has shown an increase over the preceding one, some years as much as 75 per cent and it is the aim of the sales department to make an increase every year. Large sums of money are spent every year for publicity advertising, and the name of the product "New Idea" and the abbreviation of the company title "Nisco" are known wherever agricultural implements are used. Both names carry a registered trade mark. The business is owned by the six Oppenheim heirs: B. C. Oppenheim, Joseph A. Oppenheim, Theodore Oppenheim, Justin Oppenheim, Wilhelmina Oppenheim. Synck and Cecelia Oppenheim Sellhorst, who also own all the stock in the Canadian corporation.. The plant at Coldwater is one of the largest in Northwest Ohio. It is new and modern, of the latest type of construction, and the buildings have the saw-tooth roof type, while the machinery is largely of special design for this special line of construction. A sprinkler system with sufficient water supply to guard against disastrous fires. The plant also owns an individual gas well on the premises to insure a cheap supply of fuel for the furnaces. The power plant in addition to furnishing power for the factory supplies electricity for the Town of Coldwater and for the municipal water plant, and is thus in the nature of a public utility and a matter of economy to the entire community. 1674 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO ISAAC BRYANT POST. One of the strong, upright, and useful pioneers of Allen County Was called to his reward by death on September 20, 1915. Isaac Bryant Post had for more than half a century found a varied work and service in the Spencerville community and while the exact scope and power of his life could not be accurately defined, it helps in a suggestive way to understand what and who he was by saying that he was at different times a farmer,. school teacher and music teacher, banker and business man, and had also rendered creditable service as an officer in. the Union army during the Civil war. He "Was the sixth in a family of eight children, his brothers and sisters being Asher, Martha, Bryant, Leonidas Hamline, Adam Clark, Charles Graham and Harvey.. Of all these he was the last survivor and had attained the age of seventy-eight years two months and twenty-nine days, when death, called him. He was born at Shelby, Richland County, Ohio, June 21, 1837. His parents were Charles C. and Elizabeth Post. A name that deserves special mention in the history of Northwest Ohio was Charles C. Post, who came to Ohio when the state was young, having been born and reared in Pennsylvania, and he settled in Wyandotte County, which was then on the frontier. There he lived for some years in the midst of the Indians, built a grist mill for grinding their corn, and on account of the justice with which he dealt with the red men became a power and held responsible commission from the Government in dealing with the Indians. In 1841, four years after the birth of Isaac B. Post, he removed to Allen County and settled on the old Post farm, three miles east of Spencerville. Besides clearing up and cultivating his land he 'built the first mill in Amanda Township, known as the Post Mill. It was on his father's farm and around the old Post Mill that Isaac B. Post spent his early youth. He attended the public schools. of Amanda Township, and for a number of years he taught in the district schools of Allen County. It is said that one of the schoolhouses in which he taught, a little log building, is still standing on the Lima Pike about three miles east of Spencerville. He was about twenty-four years of age when his career as a soldier began. He enlisted in the three months service in 1861, in Company E of the Fifteenth Ohio Infantry, and when his time expired he re-enlisted for three years in ,Company C of the Thirty-second Regiment. He and his regiment were captured at Harper's Ferry, but after his exchange he served as second lieutenant of his company in the Army of the Tennessee, and was with Grant when Vicksburg was captured, and for meritorious services was promoted to captain. At the close of the war he was commissioned major, filling the position of division inspector. Having devoted himself for nearly four years to the work of preserving the Union, Major Post returned to Amanda Township, and applied himself again to school teaching and also to the activities of farming. In 1883 with Henry Wasson he opened a private Bank in Spencerville. Mr. Wasson retired in a few years, and after that Major Post directed the affairs of what is now the Citizens Bank, as cashier and president, for many years, and for the last twelve years of his life gave up all business interests except as president of the bank, and was finally obliged to resign even the responsibilities of that office. He was a successful man in a business way, and used his. success to promote the enlargement and growth of an entire community. He erected a number of buildings in Spencer-vine, and for years was one of the most liberal contributors to the local Methodist Church, being on the building committee when the present edifice was erected. In October, 1874, Isaac B. Post married Miss Emma E. Berry of Van Wert County. Their only son is Ira B. Post. Ira B. Post, son of the late Isaac Bryant Post, was born in Allen' County, October 14, 1875. He had a public school education, entered his father's bank 'at an early age, was promoted to the responsibilities of cashier, and since his father's death has been both cashier and president. The two vice presi: dents of this institution are J. R. Welch and J. L. Cochran. The Citizens Bank is one of the solid financial institutions in Allen County. It has a capital of $30,000, surplus of $5,000, and undivided profits of $12,600, while its aggregate deposits are about $425,000. Ira B. Post is an active member of the Masonic Order. In 1899 he married Miss Ida Robbins of Spencerville, daughter of Simon and Orphalina Robbins, her father having been an early merchant in Allen County. To their union have been born two sons : Stanley B. and Howard L. RAYMOND RUTHERFORD KENNEDY is a lawyer at Spencerville, Allen County, is a former