HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1775 him, and both she and her husband are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Dilsaver are the parents of five children. Loa Edith, the oldest, married Oliver Fuller, of Deshler, Ohio, and their children, Beatrice L., Grace N., Ora S. and Creston L., are all attending school. George, who was born in 1882, was educated in the public schools and is still living at home. Ora C. is unmarried and is living on a farm in Kansas. Mary M. married Herman Niefer, and they occupy the old Dilsaver farm and have one son, Darwin 0. Martha M. is the wife of Cecil Bucklin, of Damascus Township, Henry County, but they now live with Mr. and Mrs. Dilsaver and have a daughter, Creola M., born March 26, 1916. All the family are members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. Dilsaver and his sons are democrats. JOHN W. TAYLOR, a Henry County farmer, who, in the opinion of his neighbors and friends and all who have observed his efforts, thoroughly knows his business, and has made more than an ordinary success in improving and developing a tract of land formerly unproductive and in managing his crops and stock. His home is in Monroe Township. His ancestry is English. His grandfather was born in England, came to the United States and settled in Ohio, and in the eastern part of that state married a young woman of Scotch birth and parentage. They spent their last years in Carroll County, where they died on their farm in middle life. James R. Taylor, father of John W., was born in 1832, and married Catherine Fickel. She was born in 1835 in Perry County, Ohio, daughter of William Fickel, who was an early settler ,there and a farmer. William Fickel after losing his first wife moved to Henry County and married Mary Frazer. He and his second wife spent their last years in Richfield Township, Henry County, and he was past eighty years ,of age when he was called to his last rest. They were members of the United Brethren Church. James R. Taylor after his marriage lived in Perry County for several years. While there three children were born, William, Jane and John W. In 1864 the family moved to Indiana, and lived in the central part of that state for some years. While there the grandmother died. In the fall of 1878 the rest of the family returned to Henry County, Ohio, and James R. Taylor finally retired and died at Malinta February 1, 1916. Mrs. James R. Taylor died in Henry County December 15, 1893, when fifty-six years of age. They were active members of the United Brethren Church. During their residence in Indiana two children were born, Benjamin, now deceased, and Oliver. Della was born in Henry County and is now the wife of Melvin Wright and has a daughter Phyllis. Mr. John W. Taylor was born in Perry County, Ohio, October 18, 1863, was an infant when the family moved to Indiana, and he grew up there and received his early education in the public schools. For fourteen years he was employed in a hoop and stave company at Malinta. In 1891 Mr. Taylor bought sixty-five acres in Monroe and Richfield townships. It was almost without improvements when he bought it, and since then he has cut away the timber and brush, has made fields capable of growing all the staple crops and has gradually accumulated a prosperity sufficient for all his needs. Like many of the progressive farmers of Henry County he devotes part of his land to the growing of sugar beets. He has invested a large amount of money in buildings and other facilities for the perfect care of his live stock and his crops. Besides the main barn 36 by 65 feet, he has a covered farmyard 26 by 66 feet and has such arrangements that all the routine work of the farm is performed like clockwork. His home is a house of six rooms. At Malinta in Monroe Township in 1888 Mr. Taylor married Miss Maggie Berno. She was born in Lucas County, Ohio, December 17, 1865, but spent most of her early years in Henry County. Her parents were Julius and Bridget ( Clark) Berno. Her mother was born in Ireland and her father in France. They were married in America, probably in Lucas County, Ohio, and while they lived there three children were born. They finally came to Henry County, and Julius Berno died at the Village of Texas in this county May 22, 1874, at the age of forty-seven. He and his wife were both devout Catholics and in politics he was a democrat. His widow died at Malinta March 15, 1911, when seventy-nine years of age. In the Berno family were eight sons and four daughters, all of whom grew up except one and all now living except three, and seven of them married. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have two children : V. Ray, who was born April 27, 1891, has finished his schooling at Grelton and is now assuming a considerable share of the duties 1776 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO around the home farm. Maud M., born December 15, 1896, has also completed the high school course at Grelton. DUDLEY S. SHEPARD, D. V. S. One of the best known veterinary surgeons of Henry County is Dudley S. Shepard, who has been in the active practice of his profession for a quarter of a century, and has lived in the Village of McClure for the past seventeen years. He grew up on a farm, is a practical farmer as well as a professional man, and it was his inclination and early manifested skill in the handling and treatment of domestic animals that led him into his present profession, where he has not only made a personal success but has rendered a great service to the community. He was born in Damascus Township of Henry County March 23, 1859, grew up on a farm, received an education in the local schools, and only left the farm which he still owns in Damascus Township to remove to a town home in McClure. His parents were Benjamin and Mary (Guire) Shepard. His father was born in Pennsylvania in 1830, and his mother in Athens County, Ohio, in 1835. Both were still young when their respective parents moved into the wilderness of Henry County and added their resources to the improvement and development of this wild section of country. Doctor Shepard's grandfather, Martin Shepard, located a farm in section 21 of Damascus Township, and lived to see it well improved before he and his wife died. He lived past eighty, and he was twice married, both wives dying in Henry County. Doctor Shepard's maternal grandfather was Hezekiah Guire, who also died in Henry County when quite old. Both families supplied voters to the whig party as long as that organization existed, and the family politics then became republican. Benjamin Shepard after his marriage started out as a farmer and was also one of the early sawmill owners and operators. For years he had a mill at the junction of Turkey Foot Creek with the Maumee River. He also improved a good farm, but death came to him comparatively early. He died in 1870, aged forty-two. His widow afterward married Jacob Hoffman, and they spent their last years near McClure, where Mr. Hoffman died at the age of eighty-one and his wife at seventy-five. There were two children of the Hoffman marriage, James and Estella, both of whom are still living and are married. The Hoffmans were members of the Christian Union Church, and Mr. Hoffman was a democrat. Doctor Shepard was second of three children. His older brother, William, is a farmer near McClure and married Lilly Schafer, and they have two sons. His younger brother, Lincoln, is' a farmer near McClure and married Jennie Smith. In his native township Doctor Shepard married Ada Jennings, who was born on the old homestead in the same township October 23, 1861, and was reared and educated there, being a daughter of Milton and Mary (Davidson) Jennings. Henry County acknowledges the Jennings family as one of the earliest group of settlers. Mrs. Shepard's parents were born in Seneca County, grew up and married there, and before they left two children were born, Austin and Matilda. The latter was six weeks old when in December, 1851, the family started with wagons and ox teams and with untold labor and difficulty traversed the trails and roads through snow and ice to Henry County. Mr. Jennings bought 160 acres of wild land in section 21 of Damascus Township, and had to clear away some of the trees before setting up his log cabin home. He was an industrious worker, well fitted for pioneer life, and eventually he had a fine house, large barn, his land well drained and fenced, and a splendid property and all the comforts that his growing family required. His wife died there in 1892, at the age of sixty-four, and he survived a number of years and died at the home of his oldest daughter, Mrs. Matilda Schank, when seventy-five years of age. He was born in 1825 and died April 5, 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Jennings were among the earliest members of the United Brethren Church, and the first church of that denomination in that part of Henry County was built on their land. They supported the organization and also kept an open house for all the preachers. After Mr. and Mrs. Jennings moved to Henry County three children were born, who died in infancy, and six are still living, all of whom are married and all of whom have children except Doctor and Mrs. Shepard. Doctor and Mrs. Shepard have always shown themselves active leaders in every community enterprise, and have done much for the upbuilding and improvement of McClure. They are members of the United Brethren Church, and Doctor Shepard is a republican, has served on the school board and the town HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1777 council, and and for fifteen years has been an active member of Lodge No. 738 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. JACOB BROWN. To mention the name. of Jacob Brown in Marion Township of Henry County is to mention a man whose generous success has not been won at the expense of those other qualities which make life pleasant and worth living. Mr. Brown has been through the experiences of the pioneer, has worked as hard as anyone in his time, and yet still preserves a rugged physique and has a most jovial and happy nature. He is an optimist, and looks at life broadly and genially. Forty years ago when he settled his first homestead of eighty acres in Marion Township his land was not only covered with woods but the woods extended for miles in all directions. His present farm in section 1 of Marion Township comprises 200 acres. No land in the county is better developed and has finer possibilities for productiveness. A number of years ago Mr. Brown got along with a very simple equipment of farm appliances, but it has been a matter of pride with him and it is a part of his efficient system to get the best in the way of buildings and tools and he has found it profitable to do so. He has one of the best barns in Marion Township, one wing being 40 by 60 feet and the other 30 by 30 feet, with 20-foot posts. Surrounding this main structure are other buildings for the shelter of his crops and his implements. In 1904 he put up a modern country residence, a two-story basement brick house, with ten large rooms, and with the modern 'facilities of hot and cold water, bath and furnace heat. He made his first purchase in this locality in 1875, and has lived there continuously since 1879. His first home was only a. log cabin standing in the shade of the large trees which covered nearly all the farm. The log cabin gave way to a small frame house, and gradually he, put up the various buildings which now stand on his farm and give it character and value. Jacob Brown was born in Hancock County, Ohio, August 28, 1849, and in 1865 'his father moved to the vicinity of Bryan in Williams County where he spent the rest of his youth. He had only the advantages of the common schools, and after reaching manhood he came to Henry County and made his first purchase of twenty-five acres in Liberty Township. There, too, he lived in a log cabin and a few years later he came to Marion Township. He is a son of Henry and Catherine (Keller) Brown. His father was born in Stark County, Ohio, of Pennsylvania parentage, while his mother was born in Holland and came to the United States at the age of six years. Henry Brown and his first wife were married probably in Hancock County and they, too, started to build a home in the midst of the woods. Jacob's mother died there in 1853 when Jacob was only four years of age. He had seven sons and five daughters, and the youngest of her children was only fourteen days old when she died. Henry Brown married for his second wife Mrs. Leah (Meyers) Dickey. After his marriage he moved to Williams 'County and he and his second wife spent the rest of their days there. He died at the age of seventy-two, and by his second wife had two children who came to maturity. Henry Brown was a democrat and he and his family were members of the Dunkard Church. Mr. Jacob Brown is the only one of his, brothers and sisters to locate in Henry County. He was married in Hancock County April 16, 1872, to Miss Eliza Jaqua, a native of Hancock County. She was reared and educated 'in that county and was a faithful companion and helpmate of Mr. Brown until her death on March 9, 1888. She was the mother of four living children. Ella is the wife of Henry Eisaman, a farmer at Deshler in Henry County ; Alvin C., a resident of Ashtabula County, married Nellie Watkins and has a son Orlo, now fifteen years of age ; Robert is a farmer in Hancock County and by his marriage to Addie Nichols has two daughters, Ruth and Marie; Lotta is the wife of Cloid Hayman, a hardware merchant at Deshler. For his second wife Mr. Brown was married in Henry County to Miss Martha X Brown. She was born in Washington County, Ohio, September 20, 1869, grew up there and was only eighteen months old when she lost her mother, whose maiden name was Eliza Ann McLain. Her mother was of Scotch-Irish family. Her father, James Brown, died in December, 1911, at the age of eighty-nine years. He had married for his second wife Lucy Mobley, who is now living at Marietta, Ohio, at the age of sixty-six. Mrs. Brown's father was a Methodist and a republican in politics. Mr. Brown has done much for the cause of education in his locality and for many years 1778 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO served on the school board. He is affiliated with Lodge No. 715 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Hamler and also belongs to the Lodge and Chapter of Masons at Deshler. He and his wife are parents of the following children : Ralph was well educated and followed' teaching before he took up farming and married Eva Hawkins ; Julian, who is now the responsible manager of his father's farm, married Nanna George of Putnam County, Ohio; Roy is a student in Defiance College and specializing in electrical engineering; Ada is member of the class of 1918 in the Haulier High School ; Myrtle is twelve years of age and is in the eighth grade of the public schools. BASIL MEEK was born at Newcastle, Henry County, Indiana, April 20, 1829. His parents were John Meek and Salina Stevenson Meek. His father, by a former wife, had born to him six sons and three daughters. The eldest of these, William, was born May 29, '1793, and the youngest, Lorenzo D. Was born May 29, 1812. Six of these children were born in Henry County, Kentucky, where their father lived at the date of their births. John Meek was born at Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, in 1772, which, as seen, was before the declaration of American Independence. With his parents, when a small boy, he moved near to what is now Braddock, Pennsylvania, and from thence moved to Kentucky about the year 1789. From Kentucky he came with his then family, in 1805, to Wayne County, Indiana, where he resided until 1827, when he moved to Newcastle, Henry County, Indiana. Here he married Salina Stevenson. After a few years residence here, he returned to Wayne County, and there lived until 1841, when he moved with his family to Owen County, Indiana, where he lived until his death in 1849, aged seventy-seven years. There were born to .John Meek of this last named marriage, six children, four sons, of whom Basil is the eldest, and two daughters. The mother died in May, 1883, aged seventy-five years. Her grandfather, James Stevenson, served three years in the Revolutionary war, and held a captain's commission at its close. Basil Meek 's school education was that of the common schools. He, however, improved such opportunities as were afforded for self improvement in the use of which he acquired a more liberal education. In later life he graduated from the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. On December 23, 1849, he married Miss Cynthia A. Brown, daughter of Abner Brown of Morgan Township, Owen County, Indian born in 1833 ; the result of this union w four children, namely : Minerva Bullitt, Ma E., Lenora Belle, and Flora B. Of these, Minerva B. died at Clyde, Ohio, November 22, 1869, in the eighteenth year of her age; Flora B. died in infancy; Mary E. married Byron R. Dudrow, attorney at law, of Fremont. She died May 17, 1914. And. Lenora Belle married L. C. Grover. She died December 4, 1907. The mother of these daughters died in Spencer, Owen County, Indiana, in August, 1861. Mr. Dudrow died March 12, 1916. On September 30, 1862, Basil Meek married Miss Martha E. Anderson, daughter of Alvin and Harriett (Baldwin) Anderson of Bellevue, Ohio. By this marriage two children were born, namely : Clara C., wife of Dr. H. G. Edgerton, dentist, Fremont, Ohio, and Robert Basil Meek, M. D., who practiced his profession in Fremont, and died December 24, 1911. The grandchildren of Mr. Meek are Robert Basil Grover, Mary B., Rachel, Dorothy and Henry Meek Edgerton. Mary B. is the wife of Victor Zahm of Oberlin, Ohio. Rachel is the wife of Harrison Temple, of Britton, Michigan. He has four great-grandchildren: Virginia, Edgerton and Clara Louise Temple, and Harry Victor Zahm, Jr. In 1853, at the age of twenty-four, Mr. Meek was elected clerk of 'the Circuit Court of Owen County, Indiana, and was re-elected without opposition in 1857, serving two terms of four years each. During these years he devoted such time a's could be spared from his official duties in studying law, and in 1861, was admitted to the bar in Owen County, Indiana, forming a partnership at Spencer with Hon. Samuel H. Buskirk of Bloomington, Indiana, who subsequently was a judge of the Indiana Supreme Court. In 1864 he removed from his native state to Sandusky County, Ohio, making at first his residence on a farm which is now within the Village of Clyde. In 1871 he became a member' of Sandusky County Bar and practiced until February 10, 1879, when he entered upon his duties as clerk of courts, to which office he had been elected at the previous fall election. He removed with his family to Fremont in the fall of 1879. At the close of his first term he was re-elected and served six years in all. On retiring from this office he resumed the law practice until he was appointed by Presi- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1779 dent Cleveland postmaster at Fremont. He took charge of this office September 1, 1886, and served until March 1, 1891, a period of four years and six months. It was during his term, and through his efforts, that the free delivery system was extended to this office and put in successful operation under his management and that of his son Robert B. who was his first assistant postmaster. April 1, 1891, he became associated with his son-in-law Byron R. Dudrow in the practice of law. In 1905 Mr. Dudrow, owing to illness retired from practice, since which Mr. Meek has been alone in the practice. He is a charter member of the Sandusky County Bar Association, and was its secretary for thirty years prior to 1909, when he was chosen president, which position he has since held. He was a member of the school board of Fremont for nine years, part of the time its clerk, but most of which time he was president thereof. He was active in making the kindergarten a part of the school system of Fremont. He is a trustee and also secretary of the Sandusky County Pioneer and Historical Association, and editor of its publications; he is a life member of 'the Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society, and an occasional contributor to the columns of the Quarterly published by the same. He has given much attention to the interesting local history of the Sandusky Valley region, and is a contributor to the local newspapers of historical sketches. In 1909 he edited a history of Sandusky County entitled the "20th Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio," published by Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company of Chicago, a large number of copies of which have been sold in the county. Politically he has all his life been a democrat, loyally supporting the measures and candidates of his party, and cheerfully working for the promotion of its principles, serving several campaigns as chairman of the county executive committee with acceptability to his party. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1857 till 1901, when he became connected with the First Presbyterian Church of Fremont, Ohio, and has represented the church in Presbytery a number of times and twice in Synod and was a ruling elder commissioner from Huron Presbytery in the General Assembly at Atlantic City in May, 1916. He has since 1854 been a member of the Masonic Order, and was Worshipful Master of Spencer Lodge, No. 95, Spencer, Indiana, the lodge in which he became a Mason. He' is a member of Brainard Lodge, No. 336, Fremont, Ohio. He is an advisory editor and contributor of the History of Northwest Ohio. H. TAYLOR DULL. It is coming to be generally recognized that when a man brings to farming the same kind of enterprise, ability and judgment that other men take into the professions and manufacturing activities, there is no discounting the success of the farmer as compared with those who choose other vocations. It has been the possession of these qualities which have differentiated H. Taylor Dull from many other farmers and made him so unusually successful. He knows how to get the most out of his land, out of his stock and his splendid estate in Damascus Township, Henry County, is conducted on a real factory basis. He has a close and accurate knowledge of both the income and the outgo, and has constantly studied methods of improvement and increased efficiency in his business. Mr. 'Dull is widely known over both Henry and Wood counties, and he represents a family whose activities have been concerned with the development and improvement of many tracts of fertile Northwest Ohio lands since pioneer days. The family originated in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Samuel Dull, after his marriage to a Miss Koester moved from Pennsylvania to Perry County, Ohio. In that county his son John was born in 1822, and there were a number of older children, including Jacob, Peter, Elizabeth, Peggy, Catherine, Hannah, Sarah, Martha and Susan. All of these children grew up and married and all are now deceased. In 1831 the entire family moved from Perry County to Weston Township in Wood County. There they established homes in the wilds, and there was hardly an item of pioneer experience, hardship, difficulty and danger which escaped the Dull family during their early years of residence in Wood County. Mrs. Samuel Dull died there about 1850. Grandfather Dull married for his second wife Mrs. Riggs and they spent their last years in Washington Township of Wood County. They were active members of the United Brethren Church, and in politics Samuel Dull always voted the democratic ticket. John Dull, whose birth has already been 1780 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO mentioned, grew up on the farm in Weston Township of Wood County. A few years after his mother died he started out on his own account and later he was married in Wood County to Delilah Knuberlin. Her parents were Henry and Sarah (Miller) Knuberlin. Her father was a quite prominent character in early Northwest Ohio. He had served as a soldier through the War of 1812, and in the course of that service he had crossed and recrossed Northwest Ohio when it was practically an unsettled wilderness. So impressed was he with the advantages and the future of the country that after the war he returned and entered Government land at the mouth of Beaver Creek in Wood County near the Town of Grand Rapids. Some years. later he moved to another place in Grand Rapids Township, and had it all improved and was quite a prosperous man. His activities were closed with his death at the age of seventy-five, while his wife lived to be eighty-two. They were widely known among the pioneer settlers, were thrifty honest people, were leaders in the United Brethren Church and Mr. Knuberlin for years was a lay preacher in that denomination, and often officiated at the funerals of his neighbors. After his marriage John Dull brought his wife to Damascus Township in Henry County, and bought eighty acres of canal lands from the state. This land he cleared up and from time to time made other purchases, in some of which transactions his son Taylor Dull joined. Thus he acquired a very large amount of property. Taylor Dull also owns 240 acres which belonged to Grandfather Samuel Dull. Nearly all this land was well cleared up before John Dull passed away in 1897. His wife had died in 1888. They were exceedingly industrious people, and that quality has descended to their son Taylor Dull. The old home which John Dull built in Damascus Township in 1861 is still standing, stanch and firm, and is now owned and occupied by Mr. Taylor Dull. Besides the old home which is a landmark in that community Mr. Dull has added a number of other improvements that stand as visible evidence of his thrift and progressiveness. One of these is a magnificent barn 45 by 106 feet with 20-foot posts. Taylor Dull now owns in a solid Body in section 36 of Damascus Township 400 acres. It is hardly excelled in point of fertility and productiveness by any land in Henry County. It has another group of building improvements besides those of the home. Mr. Dull also owns eighty acres of highly improved land in section 2 of Richfield Township. As a farmer he has raised every kind of crops profitable and adaptable to this section of Ohio, and he has always given close attention to the conservation of the fertility of his land. Mr. Dull is the only one of his immediate family now living. He is married, but has no children. DAVID J. FRAZIER of Damascus Township, Henry 'County, has a prominent relationship with a number of people in Northwest Ohio, and the members of his own family and his kinfolks have been sturdy and representative farmers, soldiers and influential citizens of Perry and Henry counties since early days. Mr. Frazier himself was born in Perry' County, Ohio, March 6, 1862. His parents were Horatio and Eva (Kinder) Frazier. The maternal grandparents were David and Eliza Kinder, and the paternal grandfather was Floyd Frazier. The Fraziers came from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and were early settlers in Perry County. There the grandparents on both sides spent their lives. The vocation of these families was that of farming, the Fraziers were loyal members of the United Brethren Church, the Kinders held to no one church creed, and on both sides they supplied voters to the whig party. The Frazier and Kinder families were large, and there were sons on both sides who fought valiantly for the preservation of the Union during the Civil war. Horatio Frazier and his brother Levi were both out with an Ohio regiment and gave up their lives as sacrifice to their country. Horatio Frazier died in 1863 of illness when his son David was only a year old. The maternal grandfather, David Kinder, and his son Peter were all through the war, both of them veteranized, and with the close of hostilities they returned home without ever having received a scratch nor having endured capture. Both lived to be very old, David passing away when about eighty and his son Peter still living in Corning, Perry County, and now about eighty yeas of age. Both of the Frazier boys who were soldiers were buried in the South. Horatio Frazier and wife had two sons. David Frazier's brother Thomas died at the age of fifty-three in Perry County, leaving a widow, who is now deceased, and three children, still living. Mrs. Eva (Kinder) Frazier after the death of Horatio Frazier, married Lewis Dodson. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1781 Mr. Dodson was also a resident of Perry County and he contributed his part to the military record of this family. He went all through the war with an Ohio regiment, escaped unhurt -and is still living in Perry County, being now about eighty-three years of age and quite sturdy and active for one of his years. Mrs. Dodson died in August, 1910, at the age of about seventy. By his second marriage he had eight children, four sons and four daughters, and four of the sons and two of the daughters are still living, all of them heads of families, and these various families are all in some capacity or another identified with the coal mining industry near Corning, Ohio. David J. Frazier grew .up with his mother and step-father until he was twenty-six years of age. He gained such education as the local schools afforded and for eleven years of that time he had employment in the local coalmines and he knows coal mining in all its phases. On leaving home Mr. Frazier came to Richfield Township in Henry County and married here Nettie Blanche Winner. She was born in that township October 6, 1869, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were Taylor and Sally (Yarington) Winner, both of whom were born and reared and married in Logan County, Ohio. After their marriage they set out over the rough roads and trails and reaching Richfield Township of Henry County acquired an eighty-acre tract of land in the midst of the woods. There they started housekeeping in a log cabin, and Mr. Winner eventually cleared up all his land and erected a good house, barn, and lived in substantial comfort for many years. In 1896 he and his wife removed to Damascus Township, and his wife died in her home near McClure December 8, 1906, at the age of sixty-two. Mr. Winner is still living and makes his home with his daughter Mrs. Frazier, being now seventy years of age and still retaining much of the vigor that characterized his early years when he was working as a pioneer in the woods of Henry County. The Winners were loyal and active members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. Winner enlisted for service in the Union army during the closing days of the war, going out from Logan County, but he never participated in any actual fighting. Politically he is .a democrat. After his marriage Mr. Frazier alSo started out practically as a pioneer. He and his wife secured forty acres of wild land and put up Vol. III-29 with the inconveniences of a log cabin home for several years while he was exerting all his strength to clear off the timber and extend the area of his cultivated fields. On that first home he erected some good buildings, but later sold the farm and bought eighty acres near Westhope, in the same township. On that land he also placed many improvements, and selling out at an advantage in 1908, he bought eighty acres in section 16 of Damascus Township, where he and his family now reside. This farm is the old Garster homestead. It was well improved when he :bought it, and the land is thoroughly drained, fenced, and other improvements comprise a large barn and a two-story and basement ten-room house, with slate roof, and all the modern conveniences. Mr. and Mrs. Frazier have taken great pains to give their children the best of advantages at home and in school. These children are six in number. Ina, who was educated in the common schools and high school, is the wife of Carroll Rausch, engaged as clerk in a store at Napoleon, and they have two sons, Russell and Burdette. Rose is the wife of Grover Mitchell, a farmer at Liberty Center, and their three sons are named Lloyd and Walter G. and Waldo D., twins. Gertrude is the wife of Albert Zellers, who conducts an ice cream parlor and restaurant at Napoleon; they have two sons, Norman and Raymond. Gladys married Rolla Browning and they live on a farm near McClure and have a daughter named Dorothy I. Lola is a graduate from the McClure High School with the class of 1916, while Mildred, the youngest of the family, is still pursuing her studies in the high school. All the family are members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. Frazier has never deviated in his support of the republican party since casting his first vote for Blaine. For two years, one term, he was assessor of Richfield Township, also served as trustee, and for nine years as a member of the school board. For the past thirty-three years he has been an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to the lodge at Malinta, and the encampment at Milton Center in Wood County. JAMES CAVANAUGH is still living a quite active life as a farmer in Marion Township. His has been the kind of career which deserves the comforts and pleasures of the world, since he put in many earnest and productive years as a laboring man and also as 1782 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO a farmer, and it is with a pride and satisfaction that most people can readily appreciate that he compares his present prosperous circumstances with his condition when he arrived in America 'a young Irish lad with only $5 to his name. He is of Irish ancestry, of a family that for many years lived in South Ireland, and in all the generations have been loyal Catholics. Four generations of the name have been identified with Northern Ireland in the Province of Ulster. With few exceptions the Cavanaughs were tillers of the soil. His great-grandfather Hugh Cavanaugh spent his life in County Monaghan, and his wife also died there when in advanced years. Of their children James was born in the same county, and married a Miss Markey from County Cavan. They lived as farming people in Ulster and died there when about three score and ten years of age. Their children comprised three daughters and four sons, and all these died in Ireland except Philip, who after growing up and marrying an Irish girl came to the United States in 1858, locating in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and later at Terre Haute, and died in the latter city leaving descendants. He was well educated and did clerical work all his active career. James Cavanaugh, father of the present James, and representing the third generation of the family in Ulster, was one of the last of the old family stock. The Cavanaughs had moved from the south of Ireland about 200 years 'ago, and in Ulster they lived principally about the old' forts which had been built by the Danes in times of great antiquity. Perhaps the last of the old family stock in that section Was Hugh Cavanaugh, a son of the James last mentioned. The family in this generation had their home about the old fort known as Drumlood, a famous landmark, and the 'Cavanaughs .had tilled the soil in its vicinity for many years. James Cavanaugh died there when about sixty-five years of age. He married Ann, daughter of Patrick Conlon, of the same parish and county. The Conlons had been substantial farming people of that section for many years and were likewise Catholics. Ann Cavanaugh was the mother of four sons and one daughter : Patrick, who died young; Hugh, who died after his marriage to Catherine Boyle and 'she and her children are still living in Ireland ; James ; and Terence, who is now a railroad man living at Cecil in Paulding County, Ohio, and by his marriage to Johanna Machanny of Indiana has three sons and two daughters; Catherine, who lives in Chicago, is the wife of Peter McMahan, a native of Ireland and a baker by trade. Mr. James Cavanaugh was born, in those interesting scenes of Northern Ireland above described on February 2, 1852. He was educated in the National schools and was sixteen years of age when his father died. He continued to live on the old place for a time, but soon took stock of conditions and realized that his possibilities would be greater in the American land of opportunities.. Five months after his eighteenth birthday therefore he took passage on a vessel at Liverpool, and reached New York City June 15, 1872. The old steamer on which he had crossed the ocean sank during its return voyage. With very few dollars to spare James Cavanaugh made his .way west as far as Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. He worked in that locality as a farm laborer for four years, at the end of which time he came to Deshler in Henry County and became a foreman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He put in two years at that, and having a special liking for railroad work he entered the service of the Wabash Company in 1877, first living at Cecil in Paulding County, later going to Wabash, Indiana, and after four years being transferred to various other points along the line. His last home while in the railway service was at Danville, Illinois. In 1893 Mr. Cavanaugh left railroading and came .to his farm in section 24 of Marion Township in Henry County. He had bought that land in 1881. At that time it had a few improvements, and so far as possible he improved its condition while he was away at work for the railroad. Since 1893 the farm has been his permanent home, and after he took personal charge it rapidly responded to his energetic management. Nearly all the land is now in a state of cultivation, is drained and well fenced, and has two fine barns and a comfortable residence. Mr. Cavanaugh now has 178 acres under his ownership in that section, and it represents a substantial achievement fora man who began his career with practically nothing except the strength of his arms and body. Mr. Cavanaugh was married in the township of his -present home to Miss Mary Collins, daughter of the late Michael Collins, one of the most prominent early settlers of Marion Township, reference to whose family and career will be found on other pages of this HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1783 publication. Miss Mary Collins was born in Crawford County, Ohio, and was young when her family removed to Marion Township. She was married October 19, 1877, on her twenty-first birthday, and she and Mr. Cavanaugh had a happy married life until her death on February 22, 1896. She was the mother of four children. James, the fourth of that name in as many successive generations, was born April 3, 1881, in Paulding County, was graduated from the scientific department of Valparaiso University in Indiana, with the class of 1907, and has had a successful career as an educator. He taught for a time in Ohio, later in the State of Oregon, and is now superintendent of schools at Clabber, Washington.. He married Minnie Yetter, a native of Holgate, Henry County, though living in Washington at the time of her marriage. Their one son is named James William. John B., the second of Mrs. Cavanaugh's children, was born in Cecil, Ohio, May 14, 1882, was educated in Henry County and finished in the Valparaiso University and is also a teacher. Anna, born at Wabash, Indiana, August 5, 1886, was educated in Henry County and is the wife of Boyd Fullmer, now county superintendent of schools at Liberal, Kansas, but formerly a resident of Defiance County, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Fullmer have three children, Echo, Don B., and Theodore. Joseph P. the youngest of Mr. Cavanaugh's children by his first wife, is,principal of the schools at Centralia, Washington, and is also a graduate of the Valparaiso University. He married a western girl, Elizabeth Worth, and they have' a son Joseph A. Thus Mr. Cavanaugh's children by his first wife are all in educational circles and have made worthy names for themselves. For his second wife Mr. Cavanaugh married in Napoleon, Ohio, Mary Carroll. She was born in Perry County, Ohio, February 19, 1871, but since three years of age lived in Harrison Township. of Henry County. Mr. and Mrs. Cavanaugh have a family of young children as follows : Leonard E., born June 18, 1901, and now attending the eighth grade of the public schools ; Philip, born November 16, 1902, also in the eighth grade; Thomas O., horn June 4, 1906, in the fourth grade; and Leo M., born February 2, 1907, and also a student. The family are members of St. Paul's Catholic Church at Hamler. Mr. Cavanaugh is affiliated with the Catholic Knights of Ohio and he and his grown sons are active democrats. GEORGE V. RUDOLPH. Some men are noted for their achievements in their vocation and others for what they do in their avocations. George V. Rudolph of Damascus Township, Henry County, has attained more than local note not only in the main business of life but also in his recreations. He is one of the most widely known hunters in Northwest Ohio, and in fact is often called the Daniel Boone of this part of the state. But he was a successful business man before he was a hunter, and the enthusiasm with which he pursues the big game in the northern woods is identical with the same quality which he exercises in all his varied business affairs. Primarily he is a farmer, and has gained his success by the successful management of land and its resources. His enterprise, however, extends to various other business interests. Since 1871 he has lived in Damascus Township of Henry County, and on his farm of eighty acres in section 35 has a beautiful modern home, a brick house with full basement, slate roof, and with light and power supplied both to the home and barn from electricity. The barn is fully in keeping with his other improvements. It is a 40 by 60 foot foundation, and there is a covered barnyard 40 by 40 feet. One feature that shows the progressiveness of the owner is the power elevator which lifts the grain direct from the threshing machine into the bins. His farm is the home of some fine stock. Many people visit the Rudolph home for the purpose of inspecting its many handsome trophies and mounted specimens of some of the great game of America. All these specimens have been gathered by Mr. Rudolph during his career as a hunter. There are four large moose heads, taken from animals weighing from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds each. There are the heads of several deer, also of large size, and the head of a bear. A particularly fine specimen of the caribou has been mounted and weighs about 400 pounds. Mr. Rudolph has killed a great many fine game animals besides those which are represented in his collection including more than a dozen moose and twice that many deer. His favorite firearm is his safety' Winchester No. 401, model 1910. Mr. Rudolph has carried his hunting excursions into the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and to the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arkansas and West Virginia. For a number of years with the approach of the hunting season he gets his equipment and paraphernalia ready and 1784 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OIflO everyone in Henry County knows that he will not be found at home during or until the close of the season. Mr. Rudolph comes of some fine old Virginia stock. He was born near Winchester in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia January 23, 1849. His grandparents spent all their lives in Virginia. He is a son of Joseph and Rebecca (Clutter) Rudolph, both of whom were natives of Virginia, and their respective families were established there about the time of the Revolutionary war. The original stock was Irish. As a family the Rudolphs have been almost invariably devoted to the agricultural industry. When Mr. Rudolph was two years of age he lost his father and he was eight years old when his mother died. Both were members of the new school of the Lutheran Church, and his father like other Virginians was a slave holder but there is no instance recorded in which he was harsh or cruel to his negroes. Mr. Rudolph was one of five children, and the only other one now living is his unmarried sister Margeline, who is a resident of Philadelphia. After the death of his mother Mr. Rudolph lived with his uncle, Elijah Rudolph, until he was twenty years of age. In that home he was was well trained and was educated in private and select schools. In 1868 he came to Fairfield County, Ohio, and there met and married Harriet Snapp. She was born and reared in that county. Two children were born in Fairfield County, one of whRudolphin infancy. In 1871 Mr. Rudolph brought his family to Henry County, and bought land in section 3 of Damascus Township. This was a place of sixty acres, partly cleared. Three farm later he removed to another farni, and subsequently sold the place on section 23. In 1880 he bought his present place in section 35 of Damascus Township. The land at that time was nearly all brush, and his great energy and business management have cleared it up and brought it under complete cultivation, improved with fences, with thorough drainage by tile, and he has also erected the various buildings already mentioned. His influence as a business man has extended beyond his home farm. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company and served as a director for eight years. He was largely responsible for the success of this company in extending insurance to over $3,000,000 worth of property. He was the first resident of McClure to have a telephone in his house, and he brought about the organization of the local telephone company and served as its first president. The company grew rapidly and there are now 400 patrons in McClure and vicinity, and numerous exchanges in other counties. Mr. Rudolph's first wife died at their home in Damascus Township in 1891 at the age of forty-three. There were two children who grew up. Mary C., who died after her marriage to Ulysses Brown of Damascus Township, left children Virgil, Glenn and Hazel. Virgil and Glenn are now married and Glenn has one child. Alberta V., the second child, died in 1898 at the birth of her firstborn, Elva. She was the wife of Benjamin Kistner. Elva after the death of her mother was reared in the home of her grandfather, Mr. Rudolph, and has since married Harry I. Smith of Michigan and is now the mother of a son, Harold. Mr. Rudolph married for his second wife in Richfield Township Miss Mamie Kistner. She was born on the old homestead of her parents in Richfield Township April 19, 1869, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Kritzer) Kistner. Her father was born in Germany and her mother in Erie County, Ohio. They were married in Erie County, and afterwards moved to Richfield Township in Henry County, where Mr. Kistner cleared up a fine farm of eighty acres in section 1. They now live there, he at the age of seventy-four and his wife at sixty-nine. They are members of the Christian Union Church. Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph have four children : Esther, who is a member of the class of 1917 in high school ; Edna May, a student in high school ; Bessie D., also in high school at McClure; and Irvin, who is in grammar school. The family are members of the Bethany Christian Union Church. Politically Mr. Rudolph is a democrat, and has filled such offices as township trustee. He has passed all the chairs in the Knights of Pythias Lodge at. McClure and has also been a member of the State Grand Lodge. FERDINAND A. DUDING. Now spending his days in quiet comfort in his town home at Hamler, Ferdinand A. Duding is by birth and experience a pioneer of Pleasant Township in Henry County. When he was a boy that district was very sparsely populated, little of the land had been cleared and put in cultivation, and the woods were filled with wild game and even Indians occasionally roamed over their old hunting grounds. Mr. Duding was not a HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1785 passive factor in all the changing lifer about him, and as a boy he put his shoulder to the wheel and did much to push forward the progress of his community. For one thing he developed a farm from the wilderness and has been not only a witness but one of the real elements in the wonderful changes accomplished in Henry County during the past half century. Mr. Duding was born in Pleasant Township on the Ridge Road July 14, 1852. His parents were Charles or Carl and Margaret (Royal) Duding. His father was a native of Hanover, Germany, and his mother of Alsace. They came at different times and on different vessels to the United States. It took weeks to make the voyage across the ocean in the days of 'sailing vessels, and they arrived in this country along in the '40s. It chanced that they both located at New Bavaria in Pleasant Township and not long afterward they married. With a joint capital of only $50 they started a store for the sale of groceries. The original stock of goods was brought to New Bavaria by Jacob Mangas, having been hauled in a wagon all the way from Findlay, Ohio, a distance of forty-five miles through the dense woods. Two and a half years after setting up as a merchant, Charles Duding died when in the prime of his years. In that short time he had made a favorable start along the road of prosperity and his estate was worth $500, ten times as much as the capital with which he had begun as a merchant. He not only sold goods in his store but also dealt extensively in furs and traded with both the Indians and trappers. He was survived by two children, Ferdinand A. and a daughter Sophia. Sophia, now deceased, married John B. Mess, a well known citizen of Henry County. The widowed mother subsequently married Ludwig Melcher, a native of Germany, and he died six years later. His death occurred while he was working in the woods in Putnam County, Ohio. By that marriage there was one' daughter, Theresa, who is now married and has a family. The mother of these children died twenty years ago when past sixty years of age. All the family for generations have been members of the Catholic Church. Ferdinand A. Duding grew up in his native township, and owing to the early death of his father he had to become self-supporting at a very early age. He was still only a youth when in 1870 he bought eighty acres of wild land and he cut the first stick of timber on this property. Persistent toil early and late and good judgment brought their sure reward, and in time he had not only a good farm but had increased its area to a 120 acres. Before he left the farm he had .given it a fine set of building improvements, including a barn 40 by 90 feet, and a nine-room house with full basement. In March, 1905, Mr. Duding retired to Ha mler and bought a good home on Belton Street. He also owns other property in the village. Before leaving the farm he had reared most of his children to manhood and womanhood and had given them such advantages that they were capable of making their own way in the world. Mr. Duding was married in 1872 in. Pleasant Township at Pleasant Bend to Miss Catherine Deimer. She was born in that locality January 26, 1851, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were German Catholic people and were among the earliest settlers of Henry County. Her father John Deimer died about twenty years ago when quite old, and her mother Margaret Deimer died in 1913 within three months of ninety years of age. Both were active members of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and had helped to build the first log church, also the first frame edifice and later the substantial brick church which is still in use. On the home farm Mr. and Mrs. Duding reared their family of nine children, as follows.: John and Mary, deceased ; Catherine ; Agnes ; Charles; Mary ; Michael F., who is now in .the United States navy ; and Lena. All the children are married except Michael. Mr. and Mrs. Duding are active members of St. Paul's Catholic Church. He has always concerned himself with local affairs; served seven years as township school trustee and six years as trustee of his township and has filled various other offices. He is a democrat in politics. WILLIAM S. RUDOLPH. It is more than thirty years since William S. Rudolph arrived in Henry County and undertook the task of making a home. He was fresh from the northeast districts of West Virginia and was well educated, having taught school for a time in his native state. In Henry County his activities have been chiefly identified with farming, and he owns one of the well improved and valuable places in Richfield Township. His birth occurred in Hampshire County, West Virginia, May 10, 1855. He comes of a very hardy and thrifty stock, originally trans- 1786 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO planted from Germany. His grandfather, George Rudolph, Sr., was a native of Germany and came to this country perhaps about the close of the Revolutionary war. He located first in Pennsylvania and afterward moved to Virginia. At Harper's Ferry he married Christena Hotspeler, who was also a native of Germany. For several years they lived in Frederick County, Virginia, where George Rudolph was a charcoal worker. From there they moved to Hampshire County, in what was then Western Virginia but is now the State of West Virginia. George Rudolph made a comfortable living as a farmer, hunter and manufacturer of applejack and lived to be seventy-five years of age. His wife survived him and died about the close of the Civil war, when very old. Both were active members of the Lutheran Church. Of their children who reached maturity there were Katie, Adam, Jacob, George, Jr., Elizabeth, Elijah, Joseph, Peggy, Polly, Barbara and Sylvester. All of these married except Barbara, who herself lived to be eighty years of age. All of them lived in what is now West Virginia. George Rudolph, Jr., was born in Hampshire County, West Virginia, on Mutton Run, in 1810. He grew up on his father's old farm. He and his brother Joseph became noted all over the country side as local hunters. They killed hundreds of deer and other wild game, and the fruits of this sport furnished most of the meat for the support of their household. Another brother, Adam, in 1859 had an adventure with a panther in one of the recess regions of Pady Mountains of Virginia. It was one of the largest specimens of this animal ever killed in the Allegheny Mountains. The panther had retreated to a cave like place, and in order to shoot him Adam was suspended head down over a precipice, being held by his legs by three men. A description of the incident was written up and published a number of years ago in Harper's Magazine. Adam was one of the noted hunters of Virginia and West Virginia. The Rudolphs nearly all presented splendid types of physieal manhood, and all the children in that generation except two stood over six feet high. George Rudolph, Jr., died at the age of fifty-one in his native county. He was married there to Catherine Litler, who was born in Hardy County, on the Capen River in Virginia about 1812. She died before her husband. Both were followers of the faith established by Martin Luther. Their children were named James ; Jane ; Jacob ; Ann J.; John ; Nathan, who died after his marriage ;, Mary, who also died after marriage ; and George and William S. The youngest of the family, William S. Rudolph grew up in his native county. At the age of twenty-one he went west to Iowa. While in that state he was accidentally shot through the arm, and after this injury he returned to Virginia and took up his neglected studies in an academy in the Shenandoah Valley. Having thus qualified, he began work as a teacher, and subsequently sold goods as a merchant at Kearnstown, Virginia. In 1883, leaving his business interests, he came to Ohio and bought a tract of wild and new land in section 2 of Richfield Township of Henry County. The substantial place he now holds in the community by reason of his fine farm and his record as a citizen and man has been won as a result of strenuous exertion, particularly in the early years, and it was necessary to clear and develop practically every foot of the fine farm he now owns. Along with other improvements he put up some substantial barns and has a good seven-room house. Another feature of his farm is an excellent orchard. After coming to Henry County Mr. Rudolph married Miss Mary E. Kistner. She was born near Huron, Ohio,- May 12, 1864, and when three years of age was brought to Henry County by her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth (Kritzer) Kistner. Her father was born in Mecklenberg, Germany, and when twelve years of age came with his parents and other members of the family on a sailing vessel to America. The vessel was twelve weeks in Making the voyage. The, Kistners located in Huron County, Ohio, and Joseph's parents, who were farming people, died at Sandusky. Joseph Kistner grew to manhood in Erie County, and was married at Huron to Elizabeth Kritzer, of the same county and of German parentage. In 1869 the Kistners came to Henry County, and Joseph Kistner cleared up a home of eighty acres in Richfield Township, and in section 1 of that township he and his wife still live, aged respectively seventy-four and sixty-nine years.. They were reared in the faith of the Lutheran Church, but are now identified with the Christian Union Church. Mr. Kistner is a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph and their family are active members of Bethany Christian Union Church. His politics is democratic, and in a way of public service he has filled the office of justice HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1787 of the peace in his township for three years. He and his wife have a household of energetic and wholesome young people. Their oldest son. Grover, was educated in the high school and now lives in Canada. George W. died 'as an infant. Grace, at home, is a graduate of music from the American College of Music at Toledo, and for a number of years has taught music, having begun teaching when sixteen. Maude is a graduate of the high school and is now teaching at McClure, Ohio. H. Clifton is a farmer at Gull Lake in Canada. Joseph Elzar lives at home and helps his father with the farming. Elsie E. is also at home. The younger children, still in school, are Walter B., John Carton and Bruce D. DAVID ALFONSO COLLINS. The man who stays at home, is content to work quietly in the community which has known him since childhood, and is never led astray by the restlessness of American life, deserves a special credit. Invariably he is a factor in making a better community and in upholding those institutions of home, church and school which are the very basis and framework of American society. An illustration of this type of citizen is David Alfonso Collins of Marion Township, Henry County. He was born on the farm he now occupies and has never recognized a sufficient reason to seek either fame or fortune beyond the horizon which he knew as a boy. He was the youngest in a family of thirteen children born to Michael and Bridget (Shehe) Collins. Both parents were natives of County Limerick, Ireland. His mother was born in Ballingary and for several generations her people had been farmers there and also were delegated with the duty of keeping the local postoffice, and some of the family still live there .and have the same official responsibilities. Both the Collins and Shehe families were devout adherents of the Catholic Church, and those who have come to America have been likewise faithful in their religious devotions and the Collinses in Henry County have done much to maintain and foster their church. Bridget Shehe's parents spent all their lives in County Limerick. They were Roger and Bridget Shehe and both died there while quite old. Michael Collins was the son of Patrick and Mary Collins. His father died in Ireland soon after Michael came to the United States. The children subsequently sent for their widowed mother and she came and died at the home of her daughter in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Michael Collins was about grown when he set out with his sister Mrs. John Welsh and her husband to the land of opportunity America. They made the voyage by sailing vessel, were some forty-eight or fifty days in crossing the ocean and first landed in Canada. From there Michael Collins came to the United States and after his marriage to Bridget Shehe came to Crawford County, Ohio. There he worked as a laborer for the Pittsburgh Railroad during its construction, being employed in the gravel pits. For some years he lived at Leesville. While there five children were born to him and his wife, three of whom died in infancy. With the two remaining children, John and Mary, who were still very young, Michael- Collins and wife set out with one team and all their earthly possessions to find a new home in Henry County. They selected as their location a tract of land in section 13 of Marion Township. This land is included in Mr. David A. Collins' fine farm. At that time Marion Township was in the midst of the wilderness, and the Collinses were among the first to venture into that section. Michael's wife's sister Nora and her husband James Joyce had previously located in Marion Township and had built themselves a log cabin. The Joyces and Collinses were among the first settlers there and on all sides around them extended the woods and swamps for miles. In the woods could be found abundance of game such as deer and turkey. Mrs. Joyce one day found a deer in her dooryard and was able to kill it with a club. It was a plucky undertaking, but pioneer women were equal to such things. The two families worked hard and underwent many privations before they had the comforts of real homes. Michael Collins bought fifty-two acres as a homestead, and the ground was so low and swampy that it was with infinite pains and difficulty that it became possible to raise crops for several years. When he planted corn he would ridge up the ground around the hills so as to drain off the water. There was abundance of timber and fuel, but in order to get it dried before burning the logs would be piled up one above the ,other so that only the lower tier would be under water. The Collins family lived in their first log cabin home seventeen years. In the meantime the area of cultivation had been steadily extended, and as a result of their work in draining and similar work performed by other settlers the country became more open, was more habit- 1788 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO able, and healthy, and conditions were gradually transformed for the better. Michael Collins paid only $2.50 an acre for his first land, but subsequently when he bought another eighty acres it cost him $1,000. In 1875 he was sufficiently well off to put up a substantial frame residence, and in that home and with ample comforts for his later years he died September 12, 1889, at the age of sixty-four. His widow survived him until 1907 and was more than eighty years of age when she passed away. Both had attended as regularly as possible the Sacred Heart Catholic Church eight miles away and subsequently they assisted in organizing and supporting St. Paul's Catholic Church at Hamler, where they could worship more conveniently. Both were good Christian people, hard workers, and Michael Collins was a radical democrat. David A. Collins was one of the children born to his parents after they came to Henry County. The oldest John R. of Toledo has four daughters and one son ; Mary, deceased, was the life of James Cavanaugh and she left four children; Bridget is the wife of Frank Collins of Tiffin and they have a son and six daughters; Stephen is a farmer in Marion Township in section 15 near Hamler, and is the father of two sons, one of whom, Frank, is now serving as a private in the United States army on the Mexican border; Ella is the wife. of Thomas P. Kelley, in the insurance business at Leipsic, Ohio, and they have three sons and one daughter; Margaret married W. J. Long, a farmer in section 14 of Marion Township and has a son and three daughters ; Michael is represented on other pages of this history; David A. and some that died in infancy. David Alfonso Collins was born November 21, 1872. He grew up in Marion Township, attended the local schools, and while he has never strayed far from his birthplace he has nevertheless shown remarkable energy and has developed one of the fine farm homes in that section. Altogether he acquired 240 acres of land but gave one acre for a schoolhouse. All. this land is now in cultivation except ten acres, all is thoroughly drained and fenced, and the building improvements are among the best found in that section. He has a large barn, the main part 38 by 86 feet, with an L 36 by 56 feet. It is used both for his stock and grain, and he has several cribs and other outbuildings. Mr. Collins and family reside in a comfortable rural home, a two-story house containing ten rooms and basement, and built of white cement block. Many town homes have not nearly so many practical comforts and conveniences. The house is lighted by the much advertised Delco system of electricity and is heated with hot air furnace. Mr. Collins was married in Marion Township to Miss Theresa Deters, who was born in Putnam County in Liberty Township,. and grew up and was educated there. Her.parents were Frank and Mary (Meyer) Deters, both natives of Ohio but of German .parentage. They were married in Putnam County and now live retired in the Village of Hamler, owning a farm of fifty acres near that town. Both Mr. and Mrs. Deters are members of St. Paul's Catholic Church at Hamler. He was a democrat. Mrs. Collins was one of five children. Her sister Lizzie is the wife of John Bussing of Hamler and the .mother of three daughters. Mrs. Collins' twin brother Joseph is a farmer in Richfield Township of Henry County, and is married and has seven children. Her sister Anna is the wife of Lee Connor of Hamler and they have a family of four sons and a daughter. George Deters is a blacksmith at Hamler and is married and has one daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Collins take great pride in their own children, and have done their best to supply them with those influences that are part of a good home and also with good educations. Pearl, the oldest, is a graduate of the Hamler High School and is now giving his assistance to his father in the management of the farm. Edward, usually called Ned, is sixteen years old and has finished his school course. Maurice is fourteen, Mildred is eleven, and Owen is seven, all these younger children being still in school. All the family are members of St. Paul's Catholic Church at Hamler. Mr. Collins is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Knights of Ohio and has held offices in the Modern Woodmen of. America. In politics he is true to the faith in which he was reared, democratic. FRANK CROWELL. While the rich and fertile agricultural district of Damascus Township in Henry County is under consideration, some reference should be made to one of the vigorous and progressive younger farmers ,of that section, Mr. Frank Crowell, who has practically spent his life on the farm where he now lives. He was born near Fremont, Ohio, August 24, 1875, and was six years of age when his HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1789 parents came to Damascus Township. He is a son of Samuel A. and Christiana (Wait-man) Crowell. In 1881 these parents bought 901/2 acres of land in Damascus Township. It was comparatively new land at the time and the improvements which now make it so valuable are almost entirely the results of the enterprise of the Crowell family. Some of the land was low, and that has been drained. A large amount of fencing has been done and the buildings are of the best and most substantial character. A large barn 40 by 80 feet is itself an index of the kind of farming that is practiced. This barn was erected in 1904 and the house in 1905. Mr. Frank Crowell and family now reside in a cement block house of eight rooms with basement. It was in 1912 that Frank Crowell bought the farm from his parents, who then retired and has since lived in Fremont, where they own considerable valuable property.. Mr. Samuel Crowell was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, in 1849. His father Adam Crowell was a native of Virginia, came to Sandusky County in the early days, and not only made a good farm there but liberally provided for his family. He died at the age of sixty years. He was three times married, had children by each wife, and Adam was a son of his marriage to Miss Remsburg. Samuel Crowell and wife had two sons. The son Charles now lives on a farm in Damascus Township and by his marriage to Jessie Winner has three children, Walter, Virgil and Deloris. Frank Crowell grew up in Henry County, attended the local schools and learned how to farm under his father's direction. In the past four years he has demonstrated his ability to more than make a living on his farm, and he is one of the young men who are building up the reputation of Henry County as a grain and stock center. In his home township and county he married Miss Maude King. She was • born on the old King farm in Damascus Township and is a daughter of Samuel and Mary (Adams) King. Her parents .were born in Ohio, were married in Sandusky County, in 1871 came to Damascus Township of Henry County. Mr. King has been one of the thrifty farmers of this section, and he still owns and occupies the beautiful home in section 8 south of the Maumee River. He is now seventy-seven years of age, has financial independence, and enjoys to the full his many comforts and blessings. His good wife died at her home June 9, 1910. She was born No ember 3, 1843. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Crowell have three bright and interesting children : Arthur, aged twelve, in the fifth grade of the public schools ; Alverda, aged ten, in the third grade ; and Alice; who is four years of age. FRED ORTHWEIN. While his activities have at times led him into other fields of endeavor, the stable occupation of farming has enlisted the earlier as well as later interests of Fred Orthwein, whose successful career has been worked out largely in Henry County and in Marion Township. People in that section know Mr. Orthwein for his sterling worth, for the prosperity he has gained as a farmer, and for the competent citizenship and public spirit which he has displayed at every point. Mr. Orthwein was born in Bucyrus, Ohio, May 25, 1857. He is of German ancestry. His father, Fred Orthwein, Sr., was born in Hesse Darmstadt in 1829, and died in Monroe Township of Henry County July 7, 1886. When young people his parents lived in Germany, were farmers there, and as a family they have all been Lutherans. Fred Orthwein, Sr., and his step-brother Jerry, both unmarried, came to America in the early '50s. The voyage was made in a sailing vessel between Hamburg and Baltimore. From Baltimore they came westward to Crawford County, Ohio, locating at Bucyrus, where Jerry followed his trade of carpenter and Fred became a well digger. The latter was married in that locality to Miss Anna B. Bohler, who was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1834. Her parents spent all their lives on a Wurtemberg farm. She and her brother George, her sister Catherine and two other sisters, both of whom had married in Germany, came to America in the times of sailing vessels, landing at Baltimore proceeded westward to Bucyrus, Ohio. There she and her brother and sisters who were still single, married, and all of them are now deceased except Mrs. Fred Orthwein, who is living at the age of eighty-four and is remarkably well preserved in all her faculties. She makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Emma Yacke, in Monroe Township of Henry County. She is a devout Lutheran, has worshiped in that faith all her life as did also her husband, and she has a splendid memory and talks fluently and interestedly of early days in Ohio. Of her children the oldest is Fred Orthwein. A brief record of the others 1790 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO of its first board of direetors. He also served as a member of the local school board eight years. Those who know Mr. Orthwein would recognize a fatal omission should there be failure to mention his main diversion which is hunting. Mr. Orthwein has something more than a local reputation as 'a hunter of big game. He has spent a number of seasons in the northern woods of Michigan and Canada, and his home has a number of fine trophies, representing the spoils of his own marksmanship. He has, several mounted deer heads and one of the finest specimens of moose head ever secured by a Northwest Ohio hunter. He has gone on those trips with some of the best of the large game sportsmen of Ohio, and has a record not only as a good shot but as a good sportsman in the best sense of that word. Mr. Orthwein was married in Monroe Township, Henry County, to Mary German. She was born in Harrison Township of that county December 18, 1863, but he grew up in Monroe Township, where her parents removed when she was a small child. She is a daughter of Adam and Catherine (Pose) German, both natives of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. The German family about 1850 came to America, their only child at the time being a daughter Catherine. They made the journey in a sailing vessel and after landing at New York came west to Crawford County, Ohio, and subsequently the father improved a farm in Henry County. He died in Monroe Township October 26, 1893, at the age of sixty-six, and his widow survived him twelve years, being past eighty when she died. Mr. and Mrs. Orthwein have five children : Ida M., born March 2, 1885, married Fred Barnes and has four children, Hulda L., Mary, Walter and Frances A. Pauline is the wife. of William Heckler, and they now live in Monroe 'Township and have a son Harley. William F. is still at home, assisting his father in the management of the farm and married Anna Downer. Francis A. was born January 28, 1895, and is also at home on the farm. Rudolph was born in 1902 and is a student in the Hamler High School. All the children received a good education. both in the English and German languages. The family are members of Emanuel Lutheran Church, while Mr. Orthwein and his grown sons are democrats in their political affiliations. PHILIP MARCH has lived in Henry County practically all his life. As a boy he recalls is as follows: Jerry, who died leaving a son and three daughters ; Frank, Nil̊ occupies the old farm in Monroe Township and has a family of three sons and two daughters ; Sarah, wife of William Harms, a Monroe Township farmer, mother of four sons ; Elizabeth, wife of Frank Poster of Elery, Henry County, and the mother of three sons ; Mary, who married Milton Fox, and lives in Lucas County, Ohio; Amanda, wife of Albert Knipp, a resident of Lima, their family consisting of a son and daughter ; William, a farmer in Flatrock Township, married Ella Westenhauser, and has two sons and four daughters ; Jacob is a farmer in Marion Township, and by his marriage to Anna Rohrs has two sons ; Emma is the wife of Charles Yacke of Flatrock Township and has a family of sons and daughters. Mr. Fred Orthwein grew up in his native town of Bucyrus, but until 1863, when at the age of six years, he accompanied his parents to Henry County. They located in Monroe Township, where his father immediately proceeded to develop a tract of wild land. Mr. Fred Orthwein knows what pioneer existence is, since a number of his earlier years were spent in a log cabin home. He had a taste for mechanics and tools, and withqut any special instruction from others he developed a high degree of skill as a carpenter, and for a number of years his services were in much demand for the building of houses and barns in his section of the state. In May, 1864, Mr. Orthwein removed to Marion Township and with his brother Jerry bought each forty acres of land in the midst of the woods. Here again Mr. Orthwein had a pioneer experience, since he cut down the trees, cleared away the brush and stumps, and practically made every acre of soil productive. He also put up all the buildings on his farm, and being a practical carpenter he has built everything with a view to permanence and excellence. He has a substantial seven-room modern house, a barn 36 by 78 feet with 20-foot posts, and also has a covered barnyard 36 by 48 feet affording a sheltered place for his stock while feeding. Mr. Orthwein has steadily prospered since coming to Marion Township, and now has 200 acres of improved land and has been successful in growing every crop fitted to this climate. He has been disposed to co-operate with his fellow farmers in getting better marketing facilities, and was one of the early organizers of the Farmers Elevator at Hamler and one HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1791 many of the scenes and incidents which were typical of pioneer days in Northwestern Ohio. His father's was one of the early log cabin homes in Henry County. It was a small house, and like other pioneers they lived on a plan of utmost simplicity, but there was a generous hospitality always shining out from their door, and the house was much frequented by early travelers and friends and strangers alike found a hospitable welcome. Mr. March recalls. the fact that many an Indian as he passed by came in under the roof and was entertained so as to have a lasting affection for the members of the March family. Since 1908 Mr. Philip March has lived retired in the Village of McClure. However, he still owns a valuable and well improved Earth of 160 acres in sections 9 and 10 of Damascus Township. He bought that farm in 1900, and installed many of the improvements which now give value to the land. He had previously owned since 1878 fifty-five acres and seventy acres in sections 8 and 9 of the same township. On that land he spent his most active years as a farmer. Before removing to Damascus Township he had bought in 1874 forty acres in Flatrock Township, and he cleared that up from the woods and brush, with the exception of five acres. He lived there four years. As a resident of Henry County he has also had his home in Napoleon and Pleasant townships. Mr. March is a son of Frederick and Rebecca (Palmer) March. However, his father spelled the name Martz. Frederick Martz was born in Alsace, Germany, in 1808 and was of German ancestry. When he was about of age he came with his father. from Bremen, taking passage on a sailing vessel that was six months in making the voyage to New York City. Just before the vessel reached the harbor and while it was in sight of land the people engaged in a festive dance and celebration of their approach to the land of liberty and in the progress of that dance Frederick's father fell through an open hatchway, lighting on a chest, and was instantly killed. His body was brought to land and was buried in America. For a while Frederick March lived with his stepmother in New York State, but then came on to Ohio and located in Henry County. He arrived here when everything was new and just in process of development, and being without capital he worked out for other people. Finally he entered 160 acres of wild land in Pleasant Township, and cleared up a good farm. His first wife died here, leaving five children. Two of these children were subsequently killed when his home was destroyed by fire. One other has since died. Sophia is unmarried and resides in Iowa. Frederick is living in Defiance County. Frederick March married for his second wife Miss Palmer. She died in Pleasant Township in 1862, and in the following year he sold his land there and removed to Damascus Township. He was a very vigorous and enterprising citizen, and enjoyed a long and prosperous life. He died in Damascus Township in 1892 at the age of eighty-four. In matters of religion he was a Methodist, and he was a voter with the whigs until that party went out of existence and then became a republican. His children by the second marriage were : George, Philip, Frank, William, John, Charles, Jacob, Catherine and one that died in infancy. Jacob and John died in boyhood. All those who grew up married. In Damascus Township Mr. Philip March married Catherine Adams. She .was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, November 26, 1846, and was reared and educated in that county. Her parents Samuel and Sarah (Fought) Adams were natives of Pennsylvania and of old Pennsylvania ancestry. After their marriage they removed to Sandusky County, and Mr. Adams cleared up a farm in that section and lived there until his death at the age of eighty-four. His wife died when past sixty-five, and their fourteen children all grew up, six sons and eight daughters, all of them married and all became heads of families. Those still living are Harriet, William, Mrs. March, Isaac and Isabel. Mr. and Mrs. March became the parents of five children. Susanna, the wife of Sherman Meyers, lives in Washington Township of Henry County and has children named Arilla, Gay, Catherine, Abbie, Joseph and Charles. Ellen is the wife of Harley Wolf, a Damascus Township farmer, and she has children named Clifford, Pearl, Elsie, Rollins, Fred, Grace, Dale and Nora. William, who farms his father's homestead, married Delia Davis, daughter of John Davis, and has a daughter Catherine: Elizabeth died, aged eight years. Guy Oscar, who was educated in the public schools of Damascus Township, is an active farmer there, and by his marriage to Louisa Keller had one child, a daughter, that died when one week old. Mr. and Mrs. March are active members of the United Brethren Church. Mrs. March is a member of the Local Lodge of the Knights of Pythias at McClure and has passed all the chairs in the lodge. 1792 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO In politics he has always been a republican and is one of the influential members of the party in his section of the county. He has held the office of township trustee and other places of local honor and responsibility. HENRY BENIEN. When a man possesses energy, good judgment and integrity of principle, and finds his real work and niche of usefulness early in life, his success is practically assured. One of the most prosperous men of Hamler in Henry County is Henry Benien, who began his career with more disadvantages than advantages, and has had to make his own way against the current of circumstances since early boyhood. Though a resident of Henry County since early childhood Mr. Benien was born in Hanover, Germany, April 4, 1870. His people have lived in Hanover for generations, has been as a rule of the agricultural class, and all of them were faithful adherents of the Lutheran Church. His grandfather died in the old country in the prime of life, and his widow survived him many years. Their only child was Jurgen Henry Benien, who was born in 1834. Left fatherless at an early age he grew up with his mother, and being her only support was exempted from military service. After reaching manhood he married a neighbor girl, Miss Mary Lunsman, who was born in the same province and was eight months older than he. Both had been confirmed in the same Lutheran Church. They continued to live in the old country and while there four children were born : Anna, Fred, Mary and Henry. In August, 1874, the little family left Bremen and crossing the ocean to Baltimore from there proceeded westward to Napoleon, Ohio. They were comparatively poor and they had to make the best of their opportunities. Going into Freedom Township they lived there for six years and then removed to Monroe Township, where the father leased forty acres of wild land from Fred Badenhop. This land was part of the wild and undrained swamp, and presented endless obstacles to cultivation and clearing. The father lived there for eight years and in that time had cleared up the land and made it productive. These eight years the family lived in a log cabin 22 by 30 feet. After renting it for seven years the father bought eighty acres in section 5 of Bartlow Township, and subsequently added another forty acres. He had the entire tract improved and was living in comfortable circumstances at the time of his death on January 10, 1916. His wife died at the old home in 1908. They were devout members of the Lutheran Church and the father became a republican in national politics. They were hard working people and endured cheerfully the many privations necessary to be undergone while establishing homes for themselves and their children. After they came to this country one daughter was born, Sophia. Those now living of the children are Sophia, Henry and Fred, all of whom are married and have families of their own. Henry Benien grew up in Henry County from the age of four years and acquired his education in the local schools. He learned how to work, and industry has been the keynote to his gradually growing success. At Holgate on June 15, 1904, he married Miss Anna Meyer. Mrs. Benien was born in Hanover, Germany, September 8, 1878, and was brought to the United States in 1882. Her parents, Fred and Christina (Kruger) Meyer located in Monroe Township of Henry County. A month after they reached there Fred Meyer died at the age of thirty-two, leaving two children, Mrs. Benien and her brother, Herman Meyer. Herman Meyer is a successful merchant at Holgate and by his marriage to Minnie Voigt has three children. Mrs. Benien's mother married for her second husband Henry Meyer, a brother of her first husband. Henry Meyer came to America at the age of eighteen, enlisted in the United States navy and served as an ordinary seaman for twenty years. During that time he was through the Civil war. They now live at Holgate, Mr. Meyer being seventy-four and his wife sixty-two. They are Lutherans and Mr. Meyer is a republican. Since his marriage Mr. Benien has been located at Hamler and has carried on operations as a dealer in lands and has also supplied most of the pumps and windmills sold to the farmers and citizens of that section of Henry County. He has shown exceptional judgment in the choice of his investments, whether for himself or for his customers. Mr. Benien now owns 242 acres of well improved land, divided into three separate farms, each having a complete set of farm buildings. He also owns thirteen lots in Hamler and has a very comfortable home there. Mr. and Mrs. Benien have five children : Vera, who died at the age of seven months; Donald H., born July 20, 1906, and now in the fifth grade of the public schools; Arleta HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1793 H., born December 29, 1908, and in the third grade ; Esther A., born February 20, 1911; and Paul J., born July 30, 1913. The family are all members of the Lutheran Church. Mr. Benien is a democratic voter and takes both an intelligent Sand public spirited part in the affairs of his home community. FRED GLUSS is a member of the firm Gluss Brothers, cement roof and block works, at Hamler, Ohio. The business is conducted under the corporate title of Cement Construction Company. The present firm succeeded the old American Cement Roofing Company's plant at Hamler, and since 1911 has carried on the business themselves, manufacturing cement roofing tile, cement building blocks, and furnishing all kinds of cement material and also engaging in an extensive business as cement contractors. The American Cement Roofing Company was a large corporation handling chiefly the New Era cement roofing machines, and established a plant at Hamler largely for demonstration purposes. Having effected those purposes the company then sold the plant tote Gluss Brothers. The Gluss Brothers have extended the business rapidly since they took active control, and have gone beyond the manufacturing end into the contracting work. As contractors they build county and state roads, public bridges, and have the facilities and the organization enabling them to handle almost any size or kind of contract in this line. Among the work now in operation is 71/2 miles of 16-foot cement roads in Miami County, Ohio. They also constructed a large bridge over the Auglaize River at Auglaize in Allen County, a bridge 214 feet long. Their plant at Hamler includes a main building 67 by 74 feet, and also much warehouse space, the buildings altogether occupying 110 by 130. grounds. The Gluss Brothers have been for twenty-four years engaged in the cement trade, since 1893. Mr. Fred Gluss was secretary, treasurer and manager from 1907 to 1911 of the American Cement Roofing Company, and was one of its organizers and directors. He and his brothers have constructed many private houses in Henry County, using their cement block and roofing material, and have also built themselves fine homes in Hamler. My. Fred Gluss has a model twelve room residence, with a veranda extending fifty feet on the front and sides, All the brothers are men of great enterprise and are doing exceedingly well. The Gluss Brothers were all born in Neuenkirchen in Hanover, Germany. Their people were Hanoverians and Lutherans. The father, Fred Gluss, Sr., was a brick mason by trade. It was in 1891 that Fred Gluss came to Hamler, and was shortly followed by his uncle, William Gluss, and also by the brother, August W. Gluss, who is now a member of the firm of Gluss Brothers. The uncle was a patentee of the special cement process, and brought his patent to America and with the aid of his nephews turned the patented process to good account. The Gluss Brothers have since acquired the American interests of their uncle; who,, being unable to persuade his family to come to America, and having left considerable business interests in Germany, finally returned to that country. The parents of the Gluss Brothers, Fred and Sophia (Koster) Gluss, have spent their lives in Hanover, where the father died in 1894 at the age of fifty. His widow is still living in the same old homestead and is now fifty-eight years of age. Besides the three brothers in the firm of Gluss Brothers there is another, Ernest T., who also came to America. All the brothers are now married except William. Mr. Fred Gluss was married in Freedom Township of Henry County to Miss Catherine Koepke, whose parents were German people, coming respectively from Prussia and Bavaria, and now living on the fine farm in Henry County where Mrs. Gluss was born March 8, 1882. She grew up there and received her education in the local schools. Mr. and Mrs. Gluss have no children. They are members of the Lutheran church and all the brothers are democrats in politics. The firm of Gluss Brothers comprises Fred, William and August W. Gluss. Mr. Fred Gluss has taken a. great interest in the civic improvement of Hamler and has served as president of the Hamler Commercial Club. R. J. PERRY. It is the opinion of his many friends in Henry County, especially about McClure, and the opinion is well justified by the results, that Rollo J. Perry, as he is familiarly known, has an ability amounting almost to genius as a salesman. The adequate and satisfying success which he has won in life has come from farming, stock feeding and the sale of agricultural implements and automobiles. For the past twelve years he has been in business at McClure, handling all kinds of im- 1794 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO plements used by the farming community, and also is local representative for the Buick and Ford automobiles. He is also owner of a small farm, especially improved and arranged for the purpose of feeding hogs and cattle. He has a large silo, and conducts his farm as a stock feeding place, and as this is a business to which he was trained from boyhood, it 'has been a valuable adjunct to his prosperity. Mr. Perry was born in Damascus Township of Henry County July 28, 1875, was reared and educated on a farm, and in that community has been doing for himself for the past twenty years. His parents are James D. and Elizabeth (Weaver) Perry. The father was born in Virginia and the mother in Ohio, but she also was of Virginia ancestry. The respective families came to Henry County in the very early days. James Perry grew up and married here, and he and his wife have since lived on the original Weaver homestead in section 23 of Damascus Township. James Perry was born in 1848 and his wife in 1851. Both are actively identified with the Christian Union Church, and politically the family as a whole have been democrats. There were four children : R. J. ; Lottie, who lives at home ; Dora, who is the wife of John Campbell, now of Grand Rapids, Ohio, and she is the mother of one daughter, Virginia; and Alice, wife of Joseph Older, also of Grand Rapids. At Lima Mr. Rollo J. Perry married Zelma Highshew. She was born in Fulton County, Ohio, January 20, 1878, and is a woman of exceptional talent and culture. She was educated both in Henry and Allen counties, and is a very proficient musician, and taught that art for some time before her marriage and also for six years after she linked her destiny with Mr. Perry. Her parents, Zachariah and Edna (Crew) Highshew, were both born in Fulton County, Ohio, grew up there, but were married in Henry County. They established their home on a farm in Fulton County, and some years later moved to Allen County, where Mrs. Highshew died in 1896, at the age of forty-two. Mr. Highshew now makes his home with his daughter, Mrs. Perry. Mrs. Perry is an active member of the Lutheran Church. They have only one child of their own, Evelyn, who is now attending school. They have also adopted a nephew of Mrs. Perry, Clay Margaret, who is now eight years of age and is also in school. MICHAEL E. COLLINS. Marion Township in Henry County has many long and interesting associations with the Collins family. They have lived in the county for nearly seventy years, and when they came practically all of Marion Township was in the Midst of the heavy woods. It would be impossible to describe in brief space the labors, trials, vexations, hardships and privations endured by the Collins family while getting firmly established in this section of the wilderness. Michael E. Collins is one of the younger generation, was born and reared in Henry connty, and for over twenty years has managed a productive farm in his home township near Hamler. He is a son of the late Michael Collins, Sr., who was born in County Limerick, Ireland, in 1823. For generations before him his Irish ancestors had lived in County Limerick, and all of them as far back as the reckoning goes were loyal and devout Catholics. Michael grew up in Ireland, and was possibly the first of his family to come to America. He made the voyage on a sailing vessel and after a number of weeks landed in New York City, coming on west to Ohio and first locating in Crawford County. He lived there for some years and during that time was employed on railroads and also in gravel pits as a worker. While there he met and married Bridget Shehe, their marriage taking place at Wooster in Wayne. County. She was also a native of County Limerick, born February 1, 1827. She came when a girl to the United States, and it is believed that she came all alone. She found a home in Wooster, Ohio, and lived there until her marriage. Two children were born to them in Crawford County, John and Mary. Mary died in Henry County the wife of James Cavanaugh, leaving three sons and one daughter. John is now a retired farmer living at Toledo and has a son and four daughters. After the birth of these children Michael Collins Sr. brought his family to Henry County and bought a tract of land in the wild and swampy district of section 13, Marion Township. He and his wife had only the simple and rude comforts of a log cabin home. The ground was low, and he raised his first crops of corn by heaping up mounds of earth and planting the grain above the level of the waters. It took time and patience to get a home, but Michael Collins had those qualities in a preeminent degree, and after some years he 'saw the land thoroughly HISTORY. OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1795 drained. His first purchase was fifty-two acres, and after getting this in a fair way to improvement he bought eighty acres more and lived to see it all drained, fenced and divided into fields that• produced the maximum of crops for this section. In fact the Collins farm has for years been one of the best grain growing propositions in Henry County. The old homestead is now owned and occupied by his son, David A. Both parents died on the old farm. Michael passed away September 12, 1889, and his widow survived him until May 31, 1907. They were among the most prominent early members of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and traveled a number of miles in order to worship with the congregation. About thirty years ago they transferred their membership to St. Paul's Catholic Church at Hamler, and were communicants there during their last years. Michael Collins was a democrat in politics. After they came to Henry County several other children were born. Bridget rried Frank Collins, and they now live a Tiffin in Seneca County, where Mr. Collins is a business man, and their family consists of six daughters- and one son. Stephen A. is a farmer in Marion Township and by his marriage to Tersia Stewart of Putnam County has two sons. Ella married T. Price Kelley, a retired farmer and insurance man at Leipsic, Ohio, and has three sons and one daughter. Margaret is the wife of William J. Long of Marion Township and the mother of three daughters and one son. The next in age is Michael E. Collins, and the youngest is David Alfonso, who has already been mentioned as the owner of the old homestead in Marion Township. David A. married Theresa Deters of Putnam County and has four sons and one daughter. Michael E. Collins was born on the old home farm April 26, 1870, and that place was the scene of his early childhood joys and experiences.. He attended the common schools and made no mistake in choosing a career as an agriculturist. In April, 1894, having sold his interests in the old homestead, he bought 105 acres of rich and fertile land in section 14 of Marion Township. It was a fairly good farm when he bought it, but twenty years have witnessed many improvements and changes, and the farm is worth several times as much as what he paid for it. He has done much to give it better drainage, has built substantial fences, and has a fine group of building improvements. His barn is 33 by 45 feet, surrounded with cribs, granaries and implement shelters. His home is a modern place of ten rooms. He not only grows crops but raises good stock, including some of the best examples of Chester White swine found in Henry County. Mr. Collins was married in Lucas. County, Ohio, near Toledo, to Miss Frances Long. She was born and reared there, and her father, George Long, came from Germany when a child with his parents and grew up in Lucas County, where he married Helen C. Lowrey. They spent the rest of their lives in Lucas County, and George Long was a well known and substantial farmer there. They were both very active in membership with St. Patrick's Catholic Church at Providence, and were members when the church was erected in 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have good reason to be proud of their children, some of whom are still at home attending school and others have found niches of usefulness in the world. George C., the oldest, completed his education at Hamler, and is showing some of his father's capacity as a farmer on the home place. Michael M., after attending public schools, graduated from the business college at Lima and is now bookkeeper for the Farmers' Elevator, at Hamler. E. Glenn was born December 6, 1899, and has already completed the course of the common schools. D. Donald was born December 7, 1902, and is now a student in the high school. Florence F. was born November 21, 1908, and the youngest, Mary L., was born December 7, 1910. The family worship in St. Paul's Catholic Church at Hamler. Besides his farming interests Mr. Collins is a director in the Farmers Elevator at Hamler. He served two terms on the board of tax revision. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Modern Woodmen of America and has held offices in both these orders, and is also a member of the Catholic Knights of Ohio. JOSEPH DIETRICK has made his success as a practical farmer and is one of the live and progressive citizens of Marion Township in Henry County. At different times in his career he has been honored with township offices, and his dependability has been a prominent characteristic in all his relations. He was born in Marion Township of Henry County August 21, 1865. His family record introduces a number of names that have long been prominently associated with this 1796 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO section of Ohio. His father, Mathias J. Dietrick, was born in Prussia, Germany, in March, 1840. The family had been residents of Prussia for generations and were of Catholic stock. The parents of Mathias were Joseph and Mary M. (Thomas) Dietrick. When Mathias J. was four years of age in 1844, the family set out for the United States from Bremen. They were three months in crossing the ocean to New York- City. One daughter died while on the voyage and was buried at sea. Another child had died in Prussia, and still another died soon after they came to this country, being accidentally burned to death. Mathias was the youngest of the family, and the only one to grow up. For a short time the Dietricks lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and then moved to Avon in Lorain County, Ohio. Mathias J. Dietrick spent most of his youth in Lorain County, acquired his education in the schools there, and when about grown he came with his parents to Henry County, locating on seventy-five acres in. section 20 of Marion Township. Their home is in Sacred Heart Parish of the Catholic Church, and they and their family connections have long been prominently identified with that parish. When the family came to Henry County they made a home in the midst of the woods, and a log cabin served as their first habitation. Their land was in the midst of the black swamp. They used some of the primitive methods of tiling this land and making it profitable for agricultural purposes. Joseph Dietrick and his wife died in Henry County about thirty years ago. He was seventy-three and she about seventy. They were laid to rest in the Sacred Heart Cemetery. After he came to this country Joseph Dietrick affiliated with the democratic party. After the death of his parents Mathias J. Dietrick succeeded to the old farm, and he still lives there, being now seventy-six years of age. He is quite feeble in health, that being the result of an injury he received while engaged in his trade as a carpenter. He followed carpentry until five years after his marriage, and since that time has been engaged in general farming. Mathias Dietrick married Miss Catherine Schwabla, who was born at New Bavaria in Henry County, June 6, 1841. She died January 11, 1909. She was one of the oldest natives of Henry County and represented one of the earliest German families to settle here. She was a woman of very thrifty habits and of most capable char acter. Her parents came from Germany, her father a native of Baden and her mother of Rhenish Bavaria. They were married in this country, and her father died at New Bavaria in 1854 when in the prime of life. His death left his widow with four young children, Mrs. Catherine Dietrick, the- oldest, being only thirteen years of age. Her mother succeeded in keeping her household together and reared her daughters until they were well established in homes of their own. She died in 1885 when past seventy years of age. This family were also devout members of the Catholic Church. Joseph Dietrick was the oldest in a family of eight children. All of them are still living and four of them are married. The names of the others are : Mathias ; William N., at home; Christina J., unmarried ; Mary Magdalene; Elizabeth ; Peter; John A., who is an automobile dealer. Joseph Dietrick grew up on the old home farm, and after his marriage twenty-four years ago he came to the place he now owns, consisting of 110 acres. The farm is well improved, and has a complete set of substantial buildings, all kept in a perfect state of repair. The land is well fenced, and under his proprietorship and in earlier years it has been thoroughly ditched out and drained. Mr. Dietrick was married in Marion Township October 18, 1892, to Christina J. Mangas. Mrs. Dietrick was born in Marion Township December 12, 1866, and grew up and received her education there, and is a daughter of Henry and Mary (Diemer) Mangas, both of whom were natives of Germany, her father of Prussia and her mother of Bavaria. The family came to the United States and Mrs. Dietrick's parents were married in Henry County. They spent the rest of their lives in Marion Township and were among the capable farmer class of this section and were active Catholics. Mrs. Dietrick's mother died when about fifty-two years of age and her father when past seventy. Their remains now rest in the Sacred Heart Cemetery. Mr. Mangas took an active part in democratic politics and filled several local offices. Mr. and Mrs. Dietrick are the parents of five children. Joseph H., born in 1894, was educated in the public schools and took a business course at the Fort Wayne Business College, following which he was employed in the transportation department of the Nickel Plate Railway Company for some time, is now an active assistant to his father in the man- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1797 agement of the home farm ; he married Genevieve Long of limier, Ohio. Marie:C., the second child, was born February 7, 1896, and completed her course in the eighth grade of the public schools in 1911. Loretta was born November 22, 1898, completed the eighth grade course in 1914 and is also at home. Hilda was born February 6, 1902, is now in the eighth grade of the public schools, while Anthony W. was born December 21, 1904. All the family are communicants of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Politically Mr. Dietrick has been a loyal supporter and worker in the democratic party for many years. He was clerk of the board of education for a long time and is now its president. For four years he was a member of the board of the County Agricultural Society, he served as township assessor for four years, and is now a member of the Board of Trustees of Marion Township. CYRUS BISH is a member of one of the most interesting pioneer families of Ohio. His own career has been prolonged almost to the age of three score and ten, and these have been fruitful years, some of them passed in the performance of pioneer labors similar to those his parents and grandparents went through, and out of it all he has acquired prosperity, influence and that community esteem which is one of the best of true riches. His home is in Bartlow 'Township of' Henry County. His ancestry is German. His great-grandfather, John Bish Sr., came from Germany about the close of the Revolutionary war, and located on the line between Virginia and Pennsylvania. He lived there quietly and not without reward for his industrious efforts and died in that locality. In his family was John Bish Jr., grandfather of Cyrus. The latter was born at the old homestead in Pennsylvania and married a Pennsylvania girl. All their children but one were born in the old state. These children were Jacob, Andrew, David, Henry, Catherine and Leanna. During the '30s the Bish family joined a little colony of seventeen families, and with wagons and teams they made the slow and 'toilsome progress over the mountains, across the rivers, by rough roads and scarcely defined trails, camping by the roadside at night, until they arrived in Liberty Township of Fairfield County. All the families settled in one locality, and it was literally a transplanting of a small section of Pennsylvania to Ohio. After they came to Ohio John Bish Jr. and wife Vol. III-30 had one other child, Peter. All these children married and all are now passed to their final reward. John Bish Jr. died soon after he came to Ohio and his widow subsequently married Peter Walters, a man of German birth. Mr. Walters had children by his first marriage, but there were none by the second. Mrs. John Bish Jr. was a devout Christian woman active in the United Brethren Church. David Bish, father of Cyrus, was born in Pennsylvania about 1820, and was still a boy when he accompanied his parents to Ohio. In Fairfield County he married a neighbor girl, Catherine Fenstermaker. She was born back on the Pennsylvaina-Virginia line, and was a member of the colony which went from the East into Liberty Township of Fairfield County. Her parents were pioneers there and died when quite old. Just as his parents had done when he was a boy, David Bish determined to strike out for new fields and seek a home in a new district. He and his wife accordingly removed to Hancock County, making the journey with teams and wagons and settled in the woods of Liberty Township. allot only was their own home in the woods but the forest extended for miles around. There were great trees of elm, sycamore, maple and other varieties, and game abounded throughout that district. David Bish in time cleared a fine farm from out these woods and his industry and good business judgment enabled him to accumulate five complete farms. He was widely known for his prominence and success, and he died in Findlay, Ohio, at the age of sixty-six. His widow is still living on the old farm in Liberty Township with her daughter, and on October .3, 1916, was ninety-three years of age.' In spite of her years she is still smart and active. She and her husband were active members of the United Brethren Church, and he was a democrat and was given several local offices in Liberty Township. Such a brief record shows that the Bish family have been possessed of the real pioneer spirit which has been responsible for the rapid clearing up and development of Western America during the past century. Mr. Cyrus Bish was born in the family home in Fairfield County, Ohio, March 5, 1847. He grew up and received his early education in Hancock County, and as a boy he sat on the rough slab seats of a pioneer schoolhouse. The curriculum was limited, but like many other boys of the time he managed to acquire a fair amount of book learning and also the habits 1798 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO and the character which make successful men and women. In October, 1874, Mr. Bish removed to Henry County and, following the pioneer instinct which had urged his forefather first from Pennsylvania and then to successively new localities in Ohio, he acquired a tract of 160 acres in the wild woods. The timber was dense, much of the land was swampy, but even then he recognized its surpassing fertility. A remarkable transformation has occurred since then, due to his energetic labors. The forests have been cleared off with the exception of twenty acres of standing timber, which now constitutes a valuable asset ; the ground has been drained, and the fields are of almost inexhaustible fertility. Mr. Bish for many years has grown large crops of corn, oats and hay, and he has made it a policy to seep good stock on his farm. In Hancock County Mr. Bish married Mary J. Lanning. She was born in Liberty Township of that county in 1850 and grew up and lived there until after her marriage. Mary J. Lanning was a. daughter of Louis and Rothy (Fritchie) Lanning, both of whom died in advanced years, he at the age of seventy-five and she when about eighty. They were members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. and Mrs. Bish have had four children, only two of whom are now living. William died when nearly eighteen years of age. Ira lives at home unmarried. David died when about twenty-four years of age and never married. Grover C. was born December 21, 1874, grew up on the home farm, was educated in the Deshler schools and is now the active manager of his father's estate. He married Sarah Jackson, who was born in Henry. County twenty-six years ago and reared here. Mr. Bish and his sons are active democrats. Grover C. is an active member of the lodge and encampment of the Odd Fellows at Deshler and also belongs to the Rebekahs. WILLIAM H. HARMAN. With every passing year more and more honor is paid to the veterans of the Civil war. One whose service was of unusual incident, experience, and hardship, was Mr. William H. Harman, who now lives retired on his country place in Damascus Township of Henry County. Like most of the soldiers who fought the battles of the war, he was a youth when he enlisted, only nineteen years of age. It was in May, 1861, that he joined the Sixty-fifth New York Chas.seurs under Colonel Cochran of New York City. He was out in time to participate in that first humiliating defeat which the North suffered, the first battle of Bull Run. Later he was with McClellan's army on the move down the Chesapeake Bay, fought at Fort Williamson, later participated in the Seven Days battle, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, and was also. a participant in the second battle of Bull Run. During the first three years of the war there was hardly a great battle in which he was not present and doing all that a faithful and courageous soldier could do. He was at the Battle of Antietam, also at South Mountain, at Brandy Station, in the Battle of Fredericksburg, and also at Gettysburg. In the Battle of the Wilderness he was captured on the 6th of May, and soon afterward with his comrade prisoners was started on the road to the South. When about twenty-five miles from the battlefield he and two comrades named Ramsey and Isenminger made their escape. However, he was recaptured, and was carried on down to Andersonville prison. He has many interesting recollections of that famous stockade in which so many northern soldiers suffered excruciating hardships and died. He himself was kept there until his physical frame was reduced to a mere skeleton and he weighed only seventy-five pounds. His legs were doubled up and his teeth nearly fell out from the affliction of scurvy. In this more dead than alive condition he was with others on October 8, 1864, exchanged and sent north. Previously he had worked with other prisoners in excavating a tunnel, he and eight of his comrades having spent three weeks in digging their way to freedom. They were just about to get beyond the stockade when they were discovered, but no special punishment was meted out to them except that they were deprived of their rations. On being released from the stockade he was sent to Cape Hatteras and thence to New York City, and on arriving there was given his honorable discharge. At the great Battle of Gettysburg a fragment from an exploding shell struck his gun which he was carrying over his shoulder, and that alone prevented his head being torn from his shoulders. As it was, the shock was so great that he lost consciousness and was left on the field for dead. After several hours he came to his senses, and subsequently was able to rejoin his regiment and suffered no especial ill effects from the experience. Mr. Harman became of age while he was suffering the torments of prison life at An- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1799 dersonville. He was born in Seneca County, Ohio, August 13, 1843, and lived on a farm and attended country schools until he enlisted for service in the army. After the war he returned to Seneca County, and then in 1869 moved to Henry County, where he bought forty acres in section 20 of Damascus Township. That has been the scene of his most active labors for nearly half a century. The land was covered with timber and brush, and he put in many years of toil in clearing it up. The log cabin home in which he first lived is still standing as a mute witness of his early efforts. as a pioneer. In 1899 Mr. Harman bought ten acres adjoining his first purchase, and there he has erected a substantial house and has all his land cleared, so that it represents a substantial income. His present wife also owns forty acres in section 19. In Seneca Township and County, where he was born and where she was also a native, Mr. Harman married Catherine A. Shoemaker. Her father, ;Jacob Shoemaker, was a native of Germany. Mrs. Harman took part in some of the early labors of the old home in Damascus. Township, and she died there January 18, 1885, at the age of thirty-eight. She was the mother of five children : Charles N. is living in McHenry County, North Dakota, and has three children. Alberta M. is the wife of Samuel Billig of Harrison Township, Henry County, and the mother of two sons and three daughters. F. Fenton died July 25, 1915, leaving his wife, whose maiden name was Kate B. Van Tassel, who now resides in Toledo and has two living daughters. Dora C. is the wife of George W. Blair, a farmer of Damascus Township, and has a son named Paul. Noah E: is' a very successful and extensive rancher in the State of Montana, and by his marriage to Laura Blair has two sons, Howard and Kenton. In Grand Rapids, Wood County, Ohio, November 26, 1891, Mr. Harman married Mrs. Mary E. Creager, whose maiden name was Fischer. She was born in Crawford County, Ohio, in 1863 and of German parentage. She was first married in Damascus Township to Benjamin Creager, who was born and reared in Henry County, and while still in the prime of life was accidentally killed while loading some logs. He was a good citizen, very popular in the community, and at his death left his widow and four children. These children of Mrs. Harman's first marriage are: Daniel J. who is- a farmer in Monroe Township .of J., County and has a family of sons and daughters; Allen, a farmer in Villisca, Iowa, and married and the father of one son; Ettie A., wife of Benjamin Kissner, who lives in Richfield Township of Henry County, and they have quite a family of sons and daughters; Gideon, lives in Pierre, South Dakota, is married and has two sons and two daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Harman have one son of their own marriage, Harvey D. who does most of the work on the home farm. He married Georgia Briney and has two sons, Lyle and Howard. Mr. and Mrs. Harman are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he is a republican, has voted that ticket ever since the second election of Abraham Lincoln. LUKE E. LONG, who has been in active practice as a lawyer in Henry County for the past seventeen years, has been a moving spirit in much of the business and civic enterprise credited to the Town of Deshler. Mr. Long studied law in the office of Hon. D. D. Donovan while the latter was in practice at Deshler, and subsequently took a twenty weeks' course in the Ohio Northern University Law Department. He was admitted to the bar in 1900 and at once began practice at Deshler. Mr. Long is a graduate of the Weston High School of Ohio and he began the study of law while teaching school, an occupation he followed five years. In 1897 Mr. Long was elected a justice of the peace at Deshler and in 1905 was chosen to the office of mayor, being re-elected for a second term of two years. He is a democrat and has been quite active in local politics and has served as a member of the county and township central committees. Since 1906 Mr. Long has represented as attorney the Ohio Electric Street Railway Company. When that road was constructed through Deshler he was serving as mayor of the city and was given the honor and distinction of driving the first spike on May 6, 1906. This ceremony was held at what was called the North Yards in Deshler. Mr. Long used six strokes with the sledge in driving the spike home. He is also attorney for the Corn City State Bank of Deshler, and at Hoytville he organized the Farmers Elevator and the Tile Company. For several years Mr. Long has been legal representative of Florien. Giauque in the latter's insurance and legal business. Mr. Giaque is the largest real estate operator in this part of Ohio.