HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1975 large families in Venango County. Mrs. Ford had a sister, Mrs. Rebecca Smith, who is still living, and like the other children is large and hearty. After the death of David Ford his widow married Philip Baker, and they spent the rest of their days on a farm in Venango County. Mrs. Baker died five years ago, when past seventy years of age, having survived her second husband. By that union they had a son, Kirk, and a daughter, Julia, the latter now married. George H. Ford was the only son of his father. He had three sisters : Sarah J., living at Clintonville in Venango County, widow of W. G. Aiken and the mother of three sons and one daughter; Elizabeth, wife of Manley Boyce, has four sons ; and Maranda married Munson Allen, and after his death moved from Venango County and is now living with her son Dr. John Allen of Bowling Green, and is well advanced in years. George H. Ford was thirteen months old when his father died and he grew to manhood with somewhat limited advantages. He attended the public schools but at the age of seventeen began making his own way and as an employe of the old United Pipe Line Company of Pennsylvania. He worked for that firm as a teamster. In 1890 he came to Cygnet in Wood County, where for several years he did teaming for the Buckeye Pipe Line Company, and twenty-four years ago he established his home at Rudolph. He was made connection foreman for the Pipe Line and, for many years has been gauger for the company under Matthew W. Hanifan, the veteran oil man of Wood County. Mr. Ford married in 1882 in Venango County Miss Addie M. Cassidy. She was born in that county and was a few years younger than her husband. She received a public school education. Mr. and Mrs. Ford were the parents of two children. The only son, James David, now thirty-three years of age, is a business wan and machinist and lives with his father. In August, 1913, he married Miss Jessie D. Morgan, of Wood County. The only daughter, Helen M., born July 27, 1898, was well educated in two high schools and also in the Bowling Green State Normal. Mr. Ford after twenty-four years of married life was deprived of the companionship of his devoted wife by her death on June 26, 1916. He and his family are members of the Christian Church, he is an independent republican in politics, and is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees. FRED H. TAULKER. Among the agencies which in recent years have increased the scope of mankind's activities and formed new fields in which business men have risen to prosperity and standing, the greatest perhaps has been the invention of the automobile. In this field not alone the manufacturer has profited, but the wholesaler, the retailer and the agent, as well as those who have been identified in various ways with the making, inventing and handling of countless accessories. In addition to this there may be mentioned the proprietor of the automobile garage, who has practically replaced the proprietor of the obsolete livery of former years, and the mechanics who are just as necessary in the proper care of the automobile as was the blacksmith and wagon-maker of other days. A number of the live and energetic men of Northwest Ohio, noting the trend of the times, have engaged in business as owners of garages and agents for well known cars, and in this class is found Fred H. Taulker, of Pemberville, who within the period of a few short years has built up a splendid enterprise in these lines. Mr. Taulker was born on a farm in Freedom Township, near the Sandusky County line in Wood County, Ohio, in 1870, and is a grandson of German immigrants who came to the United States in 1840 and located in Sandusky County, Ohio. There they secured land and developed a good farm, became substantial people of the agricultural community, and passed the rest of their useful and industrious lives, both reaching advanced years. H. Fred Taulker was five years of age when brought by his parents to the United States, and was educated in the public schools of Sandusky County, where he assisted his father in the cultivation of the home acres. The entire period of his active career was given over to the pursuits of farming and stock-raising, and as he led an energetic and industrious life, in which he practiced habits of thrift and economy, and in which his good management contributed to a well earned success, he is now in possession of a competence and is living in comfortable retirement at Pemberville, being eighty-two years of age, while his wife is seventy-seven. He is a democrat in politics, and while not actively engaged in public affairs is interested as a good 1976 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO citizen in the securing of the right kind of legislation and representation. Mr. Taulker was married in Sandusky County, Ohio, to Eliza Kuhlman, who was born in that county, where her parents, natives of Germany, were early settlers. Both the Kuhlman and Taulker families have for many years been members of the Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Taulker are the parents of six sons and one daughter, all married and all residents of Ohio with the exception of one son, whose home is in Michigan. Fred H. Taulker was educated in the country schools in the vicinity of his father's farm, and until coming to Pemberville, about 1907, centered his activities in farming. He is still the owner of a good farming property of 120 acres, on which there are fine buildings and other improvements, and this land is now being operated by two tenants. A man of industry and energy, Mr. Taulker decided that a better future lay before him in commercial lines than in the field of agriculture and accordingly came to Pemberville, where he engaged in business as a general and dry goods merchant, under the firm style of Taulker & Williams. While thus engaged he became interested in the sale of automobiles, and after about four years as a merchant gave up his interests in his store in order that he might devote his entire time and attention to his new enterprise. For the past' seven years he has been handling Studebaker cars as agent, and since 1915 has also had the agency of the Chevrolet car, and sells on an average of forty automobiles a year. His business when he started was a modest one, but gradually he built up his venture until in 1915 he erected his present large garage, 60x120 feet, composed of steel, tile, cement and brick. He is himself an excellent mechanic, although self-taught, and keeps with him four expert workmen as assistants in his repair department, where he has the latest machinery and appliances for the proper care of the most valuable cars, this machinery all being operated by power. In addition to handling automobiles he carries a complete line of sundries and appurtenances, and in every way has an up-to-date establishment which is a credit to the community and to Mr. Taulker's business ability. Mr. Taulker was married in Wood County, Ohio, to Miss Anna Kohring, who was born in 1872 on a farm in Troy Township, daughter of Henry Kohring, who lives at Pemberville, a retired farmer, seventy-seven years old. He was born in Germany, as was his wife, who has been deceased for twenty years, but they were married in the United States. The family is Lutheran, to which faith Mr. and Mrs. Taulker belong. Mr. Taulker is a democrat, but not a politician, having devoted himself unsparingly to the building up of his business. He has given a good account of himself as a citizen, and in commercial circles his integrity is well known and has won for him unbounded confidence. H. C. PARRETT, who for several years has served as mayor of the Village of Continental in Putnam County, represents an old and prominent family of the county and his own career has been in keeping with the traditions of the name. Mr. Parrett was born September 8, 1878, in Putnam County on a farm. His parents were S. R. and Linda (McKibben) Parrett, and he is their only son and child. S. R. Parrett was born in Fayette County, Ohio, has spent his active career as a farmer and is still living at the age of sixty-two. He came to Putnam County with his parents when he was a small boy. The grandfather, John S. Parrett, was born in 1823 and was one of the early settlers of Putnam County. He lived one year in Illinois, but returned to Ohio and at the beginning of the Civil war enlisted in the Ninth Ohio Infantry. He participated in many battles, including Chickamauga, Perrysville, Knoxville and Chattanooga, where he was seriously wounded. He returned to the old homestead after the war and was profitably engaged in farming until his death. He was well and favorably known in Putnam County and for a number of years occupied the position of trustee and treasurer of his township. Mr. H. C. Parrett was reared and educated in Putnam. County, attended the district schools, and for five years was a successful teacher. He finally bought 160 acres of land in Putnam County and he lived on that farm from 1902 to 1905. On October 5, 1902, he married, and for the next two years he was engaged in the hardware business at Continental. He then entered the real estate business, and that has been his chief forte in a business way since that time. It has been Mr. Parrett's experience to witness a remarkable increase in land values in this section of Ohio. A number of years ago land could be bought for $5 or $10 an acre, but now it worth all the way from $125 to $175 an ac HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1977 Mr. Parrett in politics is a stanch democrat. He was elected mayor of the Village of Continental on May 4, 1912, and has been continued in office by his grateful fellow citizens ever since. In 1910 he served as village treasurer. On October 5, 1902, he married Myrtle Wisterman. Mrs. Parrett is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Parrett is a member of Continental Lodge No. 570, Free and Accepted Masons, a member of Ottawa Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and of Putnam Council, Royal and Select Masters. HENRY MISAMORE is a retired resident of Findlay at the age of eighty years. He comes of stock that is remarkable for vitality and longevity, and the family has long been identified with this section of Northwest Ohio. Henry Misamore's sons are the firm of Misamore Brothers, leading merchants of Findlay. Henry Misamore was one of a large family of seventeen children, nine daughters and eight sons. These were the children of his father, John Misamore, who was twice married. Henry Misamore's mother was Rachel Hammond. Henry Misamore was born in a log house on Blanchard River in Amanda Township of Hancock County. His ancestry in America goes back to his great-grandfather, George Misamore, an early settler in Pennsylvania. A descendant of this American pioneer was Michael Misamore, who in 1825 migrated to Hancock County, Ohio, driving an ox team. He settled, on Blanchard River, on a farm. now owned by Elisha Gorsuch. The family during its early residence in Ohio had many Indian experiences and encountered innumerable hardships. Michael Misamore built a' log house, and in that home most of his fifteen children spent portions of their lives. Two of Michael's children are still living: Mrs. Elizabeth Aurand, of Findlay, aged eighty-two ; and Tillie Gorsuch, of Mount Blanchard. Michael Misamore had the distinction of erecting the first flour mill in Hancock County. This old mill stood on the banks of Blanchard River nine miles southeast of Findlay. John Misamore, son of Michael and father of Henry, married Rachel Hammond, of an old pioneer family, and she died at the age of twenty-eight. For his second wife John married Mary Ann Sheldon. By the first marriage there were six children and eleven by his second. Peter Misamore, a brother of John, went out to Colorado and reared another large family, consisting of fourteen children. The Misamores furnished soldiers and patriots to the three great wars of the nation, the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812 and the Civil war. Henry Misamore himself had a creditable record as a soldier in the Civil war. He became a private in the Sixty-seventh Ohio Infantry in 1861, and was in service until during the siege of Vicksburg he was struck by a minie ball in the left knee. That wound disabled him for further effective service. He still has the minie ball as an interesting memento of his personal experience in the war. Henry Misamore grew up in the country, had a country school education and was a farm worker until the outbreak of the war in 1861. On returning home from the army he resumed farming and having made a creditable record and secured financial independence from that occupation he finally retired and in 1901 removed to Findlay. Though the necessity of hard work is no longer present, he takes great pleasure in working his vegetable garden. His good wife is still living, and they reared a family of seven sons. The family circle has not yet been broken by a single death. In 1915 Mr. and Mrs. Henry Misamore celebrated the fiftieth or golden wedding anniversary. At that time of the family group of seven sons and twenty-six grandchildren every one was present to participate in the happy ceremonies with the exception of one. The names of the seven sons are : Oakland Sheridan, Thornton Winders, Harry Leon, John Nelson, Lewis Galby, Frederick Harlow and Troy Elby. Oakland Sheridan Misamore is the senior member of the well known mercantile firm of Misamore Brothers of Findlay. He has spent all his active life in Northwest Ohio. When he was seven years old his father bought a 100-acre tract of wild land in Henry County and undertook to clear and make a farm of it. Mr. Misamore's memory of that experience is not a. pleasant one, since the work was extremely hard and the family endured many privations while struggling to develop the land. The family remained there seven years and then returned to Jackson Township to their fine farm of 120 acres. On these two places Oakland S. Misamore grew to manhood, and had the advantages of the country schools and also the Mount Blanchard grade schools. For seven terms he was a 1978 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO teacher in a country school, and afterward took two terms of instruction during 1882-3 in the Ohio Northern University at Ada. He taught at intervals and put in altogether about seven years as a teacher. On March 8, 1888, Mr. Misamore arrived in Findlay, having walked through the snow for a number of miles. Here he secured a place in the general store of Dillinger, Ewing and Company. After that firm dissolved he went with the George F. Tanner shoe store, then managed by John Hirschberger. Subsequently Dillinger and Ewing resumed business as dry goods merchants, and Oakland S. Misamore became a salesman for them, remaining four or five years. About that time he was nominated and elected constable, and filled the office three terms. He has always been an active republican, and on that ticket was nominated for sheriff, being defeated by only thirty-seven votes. Mr. Misamore finally removed to McComb, Ohio, opened the grocery store of Misamore & Kemp, but after six months they removed their stock back to Findlay and continued in business in that city under the firm name for two years. That was the successful beginning of Mr. Misamore 's commercial enterprise. However, on retiring from the grocery trade he went into the oil business as a producer, but did not meet with success in that venture. After that lie put in a year as salesman in Frank M. Trout's furniture store, and then for a time was in John Hirschberger's shoe store. He also helped promote some oil prospects in this county with Adams & Sarber Company, of Cleveland. He was associated with that firm for a year and a half. Mr. Misamore and his brother Troy then started a grocery store on North Main Street, at the present location of Misamore Brothers. After two years Mr. Misamore lost his health, was out of business a year, and in 1906 established a shoe store. His brother John subsequently became associated with him, and in 1908 they added both clothing and furniture departments. In 1909 the brother Troy entered the partnership, and with his coming the business was expanded to include dry goods and notions. Thus Misamore Brothers have by different additions and improvements built up a large department store. In 1914 they bought the block at 310-312-314 North Main Street, and here they have one of the finest equipped and best stocked stores in Hancock County. Mr. O. S. Misamore is a republican in politics, and most of his brothers are of the same political faith. He was married in 1886 to Miss Jessie Foreman. Her father was Rev. Daniel Foreman, a minister of the United Brethren Church. Mr. and Mrs. Misamore have one child, Myrtle Olga, now wife of C. H. Smith. John Misamore, the second partner in the firm of Misamore Brothers, married Ella Wisc- in 1895. She is a daughter of Franklin and Harriet (VanHorn) Wise. Their children are named Garnet, Paul, Earl and Ellen. Mr. and Mrs. John Misamore are members of the First Church of Christ. Troy Misamore, youngest of Misamore Brothers, married Pearl Edwards, daughter of Beecher and Elizabeth (Beeson) Edwards, who are old settlers of Arcadia, Ohio. JOHN EDWARD SHATZEL, a prominent attorney and for the past twenty-four years a resident of Bowling Green, was born at Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, Ohio, February 1, 1869. The original name is spelled Schatzel. Many bearing the name use the original form, while others have dropped the silent letter for simplicity. The name is uncommon in this country but is frequently heard in Germany and Switzerland, where it originated. John Peter Schatzel, who came to the United States from Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, about 1820, was the first of the family to locate in America. He became a very wealthy land owner and stock raiser in Texas, was consul to Mexico under the administration of President Franklin Pierce, and he died at Corpus Christi sometime in the late '40s. His estate fell into the hands of unscrupulous men and the lawful heirs never had the pleasure of participating in its distribution. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch was John Schatzel, who came from Germany with his young bride in the '40s, and located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Later he moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, then north again to Upper Sandusky, Ohio. He was a boot and shoe maker by trade and followed this vocation until the time of death. He died in 1864, leaving a widow, two daughters and four sons surviving hi The widow afterward married Michael Shanabarger, and became the mistress of a beautiful country home five miles west of Upper Sandusky, where she passed away in 1895. The maternal grandfather was Peter Kat- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1979 zenmeyer, who with his wife, Barbara, and three small children, left Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, in the year 1839, and after seven perilous weeks on the ocean landed in America to seek his fortune. The family finally located west of Upper Sandusky on a tract of heavily timbered land. Here eight more children were born. Here the eleven children grew to manhood and womanhood and each knew, as did the father and mother, with what toil and privation the pioneer in the wilderness works out his destiny. The eldest son of John Schatzel was John, Jr., and the eldest daughter of Peter Katzenmeyer was Elizabeth. These two young people met by chance in Upper Sandusky, became friends and lovers, and after a short courtship were married in 1867. Four children were born to them : John. Edward, William H., Birdella and Frank H., all of whom are living excepting William H. The family rc-sided first at Upper Sandusky, then at Bowling Green, then North Baltimore and finally at Toledo, always in Ohio. At Toledo the mother passed away October 2, 1910. John Schatzel is still hale and hearty at seventy-three, an honored resident of East Toledo. Mr. Schatzel was a resident of Bowling *Green at the time of the memorable "county-seat fight" and assisted in the removal of the county offices from Perrysburg to Bowling Green. He built the first brick building, in North Baltimore and served in many official positions in that town. John Edward Shatzel received his schooling in the public schools of North Baltimore and at The Ohio Northern University. He taught school, kept books in The People's Bank of North Baltimore, published The North Baltimore Times for two years, and then entered the law offices of Baldwin & Harrington, of Bowling Green, to prepare himself for the legal profession. He read law with Judge Baldwin for two years and then finished his course in the law department of the Ohio Northern University, graduating from that institution in 1895. He then read another year with Judge ,Baldwin, opening an office of his own in Bowling Green in October, 1896. He has been in practice continuously since. In 1898 Mr. Shatzel was united in marriage to Martha Alice Halfhill, of near Celina, Ohio, a member of a prominent and talented Mercer County family. One daughter, Eleanor, now thirteen years of age, was born of this union. Mr. Shatzel has served as mayor of Bowling Green and also as a member-at-large of the city council. In April, 1908, he was appointed referee in bankruptcy for Wood and Henry counties by Hon. Robert W. Tayler, then judge of the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, and served four years in that capacity. In 1915 he was appointed local member of the board of trustees of the Bowling Green State Normal College by Hon. Frank B. Willis, then governor of Ohio, and is still a member of that board. Mr. Shatzel has always taken a prominent part in community enterprises of whatever sort that bid fair to promote the upbuilding and progress of Bowling Green and Wood County. Among other things he has been an enthusiastic Chautauquan and served three years as president of the Wood County Chautauqua Association. He is a member of the Bowling Green Commercial Club, of Kenneth Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and the Bowling Green Lodge of Elks. In politics he is a republican. Mr. and Mrs. Shatzel and their daughter are all active members of the Presbyterian Church. GEORGE W. FOLTZ, M. D. In the course of a long and successful career as a physician and surgeon at North Baltimore, Doctor Foltz has become widely known not only in this state but elsewhere as an authority and specialist in the treatment of many aggravated cases of Bright's disease and diabetes. While he still carries the heavy burdens of general practice, much of his time and attention are taken up with these special cases. Doctor Foltz was born in Hancock County, Ohio, December 18, 1856. The lessons of self dependence were early learned by him, and he had to become self supporting at an early age, after the family was broken up through the death of his mother. He earned his education, and the development of his unusual talents has been due to his hard work and great ambition to excel. He supported himself while attending school and paid his way through the Ohio Northern University at Ada, from which he received the degree Bachelor of Science in 1887. He then went to teaching and when his means justified it he took up the study of medicine and in 1896 graduated from the Starling Medical College, now the medical department of the Ohio State University. Doctor Foltz has four certificates for post-graduate courses, and has always kept in close touch with the wonderful development in medical and surgical science. For three 1980 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO years he practiced with his brother, Doctor Tobias C. Foltz at Lima, and then came to North Baltimore, which has been his home for eighteen years. People have come to him from all over Ohio and from other states to secure his services and special skill in the treatment of Bright's disease and diabetes, and as a recognized authority on these destructive diseases a paper which he prepared and read before the Northwestern Medical Society at Tiffin received the most profound attention from his audience and was widely commented upon. Doctor Foltz is a member of the County, State, Tri-State and American Medical associations. In his native county he married Miss Esther Brundige, who was born in Hancock County, and her parents were also natives of this state. Doctor and Mrs. Foltz have three children : Ethel G., who completed her education in the North Baltimore High School and is at home ; Earl D., who is a graduate of the high school, the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware and is now preparing for a medical career in the Western Reserve University at Cleveland; and Ruth, a member of the class of 1918 in the North Baltimore High School. Doctor Foltz is a member of the Masonic Lodge at North Baltimore, the Knights of Pythias, and has filled all the chairs in the latter order. For some years he has served as health officer and is a member of the school board. He and his wife are active in the United Brethren Church and for fourteen years has been superintendent of its Sunday School. ABRAM M. LASHUAY is a prominent factor in the business affairs of Wood County, being cashier of the Rudolph Savings Bank and also a practical and successful farmer in that neighborhood. He is one of the live and enterprising citizens of his community and has made diligent use of his years and his opportunities. His grandfather, Alexander Lashuay, Sr., was born at Montreal, Canada, in 1807 and was of French ancestry. He married near Montreal Josie Revenue, who was born about the same time and place. After their marriage they removed to Buffalo, New York, where their first child was born in 1832. A little later the family removed to the vicinity of Monroe, Michigan, where two more children were born, James and Alexander, Jr. Here the mother died in 1840 from an epidemic of cholera which prevailed over that section of Michigan. Alexander, Sr., subsequently came to Wood County, Ohio, where he was a pioneer. He lived for a time near the Maumee River among the swamps and combating almost constantly the malaria and ague, th prevalent. Subsequently he removed to the vicinity of Bowling Green, and later acquired and improved tracts of land near Rudolph and Weston. He was one of the notable man of his day in Wood County, and died in the fullness of years, at the age of eighty-five. By a second marriage he had two sons and two daughters, the only one now living being David. His son Benjamin died from injuries which he received while a Union soldier. Of his first marriage the only one now living in James, aged eighty-two, a resident of Weston. The son John died February 11, 1917, at the age of eighty-five. Alexander, Sr., and wife were French Catholics, but all the subsequent generations of the family have been Protestants. Many of their descendants are now found in Ohio and nearly all the families of the name are very prosperous and substantial people. Alexander Lashuay, Jr., father of Abram M., was born in Michigian and died in Wood County May 11, 1916, at the age of ninety-one. He married Charity Mercer, whose parents were born in Pennsylvania and represented a pioneer family in Wood County, Alexander Lashuay, Jr., was only four years of age when his mother died. After his marriage he located in Liberty Township of Wood County, near Rudolph, and there built up a fine farm by hard work and constantly exercising a strict supervision over his affairs. The last ten years of his life were spent retired in Rudolph, and his death was the result of an accident, a fall from a wagon causing the breaking of his neck. Though eighty at the time, he had been very active and industrious and was a worker to the last. His widow passed away April 5, 1917. Throughout their lives they were active members of the Christian Church and for a number of years he was a trustee of the church at Rudolph, one of the pioneer churches of that denomination in Northwest Ohio. Of their children Abram was the oldest, and two died in infancy. Hattie, who died at the age of twenty-four, was the wife of William Kidd and left one son, Kenneth Kidd. The other son, Doctor Clarence, is a well known homeopathic physician in active practice at Detroit, Michigan. He married at Monroe, Michigan, and they have a daughter, Dorothy. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1981 Abram M. Lashuay has spent practically all his life in this part of Wood County. He was born on his father's farm October 4, 1866, grew up and received a public school education and also attended the old Ohio Normal, now the Ohio Northern University at Ada. After leaving school he took up farming as business, and in 1902 was one of the organizers of the Rudolph Savings Bank. This bank has an authorized capital of $25,000, half of which is paid in, and its deposits aggregate $125,000. Mr. Lashuay has been cashier of the institution since the beginning and all the officers and directors are well known local men. As a farmer Mr. Lashuay's efforts are directed to the cultivation and management of 220 acres which he owns, all of it well improved and highly productive. His home place is the old homestead of 120 acres in section 16. He also owns 100 acres in section 7 the same township. Both these farms have substantial building improvements and the home place has a splendid large barn and 125-ton silo. Mr. Lashuay married Luella McMahan, a young lady who had grown up in the same community with her husband. She was born in Liberty Township, educated in the local schools and the Weston School. Her grandparents were Scotch and English people. Mr. and Mrs. Lashuay have two children : Flossie a highly educated young woman, having finished her training in Hiram College and the Detroit Normal and is now the wife of Vernon G. Cook. Mr. and Mrs. Cook live at Van Wert and he is a clerk in the railway mail service. E. Stanley, the only son, is manager of his father's farm. He married Pearl Black, a native of Liberty Township, of Pennsylvania parents. Mr. Lashuay and all his family are members of the Christian Church, in which he is one of the valued officials. R. F. KEMP, superintendent of the Seneca Blove and Mitten Manufacturing Company at their plant in Fostoria, is the example of a man who succeeds because he perseveres in the face of discouragement and defeat. Rollo Franklin Kemp was born on a farm in Venice Township, Seneca County, November 2, 1882, a son of John L. and Mary W. (Willford) Kemp. His forefathers as far back as there is any record were practical farmers. He is of remote German ancestry. His first American ancestor was Frederick Kemp, who came to America and located near New York City in colonial times. A later member of the family and a direct ancestor of R. F. Kemp was Peter Kemp, who traced his ancestry through David, one of the three sons of the original Frederick Kemp. Peter Kemp was a pioneer woodman of the Daniel Boone type, and during the Revolution was a member of the staff of General Washington. The Kemps have been essentially patriotic and loyal as their service in all the wars of the United States proves. Rollo F. Kemp secured his early education at New Washington High School, where lie graduated in 1903. His family were not wealthy people and he worked his way through school by helping his father every vacation. He secured a certificate to teach and spent two years in the country school known as the Taber School in Cranberry Township of Crawford County. The next three years he was superintendent of the high school at West Mill Grove in Wood County. His first essay at business came in 1909, when he set up a small shop for the manufacture of canvas gloves at West Mill Grove. His present position proved that he was on the right track and had a prom.. ising field, but lack of capital and other unfavorable reasons closed his shop down after a year and all his savings were swept away. At that critical time he resumed teaching, as head of the Pharisburg High School, and for one year had charge of all the schools in Leesburg Township. His early experience in the manufacture of canvas gloves then brought him the position of manager of the Broadway Plant at Toledo of the Defiance Tick Mitten Company. He was there until January, 19.14, when the firm dissolved. Coming to Fostoria, Mr. Kemp became superintendent of the local branch of the Seneca Glove and -Manufacturing Company and now has active charge of both plants at Fostoria and Upper Sandusky. This is one of the large industries of Northwest Ohio, and the gloves are shipped all over the world. The plants manufacture every. thing in the line of gloves and mittens for working men. October 17, 1912, Mr. Kemp married Alice May Cleveland, daughter of Hall Cleveland, who was a cousin of the late President Cleveland. Her home prior to her marriage was at Delaware, Ohio. Mr. Kemp is an active republican. He is affiliated with the United Brethren Church at Attica, Ohio, and is a Mason, a member of Lodge No. 288, Free and 1982 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Accepted Masons, at Fostoria, and of the chapter, council and commandery of that place. W. H. DEAL, of Paulding, has for many years been a successful real estate man, formerly representing the Straus Land Corporation and the Straus Brothers Company, whose operations did as much as any other one agency to develop the better farming districts of Northwestern Ohio and place the land in the hands of capable and responsible agriculturists from other states. But on January 1, 1917, Mr. Deal entered upon a busisyness of his own along the same lines. Mr. Deal was a practical and widely experienced farmer before he entered the real estate business, and that experience has proved an invaluable asset to him in this work. He comes from the same district of Indiana which is the home' of the Straus brothers, whom he represented, having been born in LaGrange County, Indiana, September 7, 1860. He is a son of Henry and Helen Deal, his father a native of Sandusky, Ohio, and his mother of St. Thomas, Ontario. Henry Deal, who died in 1913, was an early settler in LaGrange County, was a carpenter contractor and farmer, and was also widely known because of his participation in public affairs. For three terms he served as township trustee. It is said of him that he faithsyfully practiced the Golden Rule and always endeavored to treat others as he desired others to treat him. His widow is still living in LaGrange at the age of seventy-nine. Of their two children W. H. Deal is the younger. He was educated in the grammar and high schools of LaGrange and at the age of sixteen became a teacher. For eight years he devoted his time to that vocation, and then rented a farm from his father. He was a tenant farmer until 1886, when he married and bought a farm of his own. October 28, 1886, in LaGrange, Mr. Deal married Miss Maryetta Merritt, daughter of John S. and Antoinette Merritt. She was a graduate of the public schools of LaGrange. Her death occurred in March, 1902, and she left two children. Antoinette, born September 7, 1889, is the wife of Fred Sears and they have one son, Willis. George P., born April 18, 1892, married Gladys Duncan, and they have one child, J. Willis. Mr. Deal continued his active career as a farmer in Indiana until 1905, when he came to Paulding and gave all his time to the real estate business as representative of the Straus Brothers Company. On January 1, 1917, he engaged in the real estate business for himself. Mr. Deal is an active republican and is affiliated with the Lodge and Chapter of Masonry, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the City Council of Paulding and has held various minor offices in the city government. On March 25, 1908, he married at Paulding Mrs. Eva (Dix) Riley, widow of Dr. Charles Riley, who for many years was one of the leading physicians of Paulding County. Mrs. Deal was reared and educated in Paulding and by her first marriage she had a son, Charles A., born in 1889 and now a lieutenant in the Quartermaster's Department of Motor Transportation, U. S. Regular Army. He married Helen Venrick. Mr. and Mrs. Deal were signers of the original application of the Paulding County Red Cross Chapter and Mrs. Deal is its first permanent secretary. FRANK S. SCHWAB, who was recently the proprietor of a plumbing and heating establishment at 317 North Main Street in Findlay, has worked at gas fitting, plumbing and kindred lines for over thirty years, and is one of the most competent mechanics as well as business men in his special line in Northwest Ohio. Mr. Schwab was born at Findlay September 22, 1870, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Zellers) Schwab. He is of Swiss ancestry, and his parents had five children. His father was a stone mason. Reared neither in luxury or in extreme poverty, Frank S. Schwab had a good home training but was early encouraged to make use of his time and energy in his own behalf. After attending the common schools for several years he took his first position in 1884, when he was fourteen years of age. He started to work as water boy for the Findlay Natural Gas Company. At that time the company was laying the first gas main in Hancock County. He put in four years in the company's shops and learned gas fitting as a trade. After mastering the business he and William B. Stout started a shop on Defiance Avenue under the name Stout & Schwab, gas fitters. That partnership existed for five years, after which Mr. Schwab spent five years with E. V. Wisebroat & Company learning the plumbing trade. Having mastered this mechanical occupation he worked as a HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1983 journeyman at different points all over the country. Finally returning to Findlay in 1898, Mr. Schwab became foreman for Coates Brothers Plumbing Company and was with them seven years. Then, with Charles Kuntz, he opened a shop on North Main Street, and after a year bought his partner's interest in 1914 and hansydled the business alone until he sold out on February 1, 1917. He did general plumbing, heating and gas fitting, and handled some of the largest contracts in Findlay. Mr. Schwab is a democrat in politics. He was married in 1900 to Miss Letta Boardner, daughter of Daniel and. Anna Boardner. EZEKIEL OWEN, of Lima, one of the advisory and contributing editors of this publication, is a tried and experienced newspaper man and has been through every branch of newspaper publication, beginning with early boyhood. He was born at Lima and is a son of David and Fannie Maria (Rose) Owen. His father, a native of Wales, came to America in 1846 and died in Lima in 1873. The mother, who was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1824, went to Allen County, Ohio, with her parsyents, pioneers, in 1834, and lived in that section over eighty years, until her death at Lima in 1915. Ezekiel Owen grew up at Lima, graduated from the high school and while he never had a collegiate training his association with printing and newspaper work has given him opportunities unsurpassed by the advantages of many of the leading colleges. When a boy he learned the printing trade, and has never deviated to any extent from the business that first called him. For the past twenty years Mr. Owen has been secretary and treasurer and also a director of the Republican-Gazette Company of Lima, publishers of the daily and weekly Republican-Gazette. This work has employed his best energies and he has found no time for office holding and only through his paper has he exercised influence on politics. He is actively and aggressively a republisycan, and is a firm believer in American institutions and appreciates the glorious annals of this country. He has been associated with many fraternities, but now has active membership only in the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member and official in the Allen County His- torical and Archeological Society and has contributed. frequently to its historical archives. Mr. Owen is a Presbyterian, and has long been interested in Sunday school work. He is now superintendent of the Market. Street Presbyterian Sunday school at Lima. In his native city on June 3, 1885, he married Elizabeth Baillie Graham, daughter of Allan and Margaret Graham. Mrs. Owen is of Scotch ancestry. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was brought to America by her parents when a child. E. W. FISHER, M. D. For a period of twentysyfive years Doctor Fisher has quietly and efficiently performed his services as a doctor at the Village of Portage in Wood County. Doctor Fisher is a man of high standing in his profession, and throughout his residence has devoted himself conscientiously to the duties of professional life. Doctor Fisher was graduated member of a 'class of 132 from Rush Medical College at Chicago March 29, 1892. He then returned to the state where he had spent his early life, Nebraska, and had a preliminary practice of six months at Ponca. He then came to Ohio, was located for three months at Bowling Green, and late in the year 1892 established himself at Portage. Here his abilities quickly brought him recognition as a skillful physician and surgeon, and for many years he has been the recognized leader in his work. Other honors and attainments have come to him. Since 1896, with the exception of three terms, he has filled the office of mayor of the village corporation of Portage. Doctor Fisher was born in Pennsylvania November 14, 1870. His father, Benjamin F. Fisher, was a native of the same state, his birthplace being near Fisher's Ferry on the Susquehanna River. That ferry was established by one of his ancestors. Benjamin F. Fisher was one of the wealthy men of his section of Pennsylvania but died in the prime of life, when Doctor Fisher was only five years, of age. His widowed mother subsequently moved West with her children to Waverly, Lancaster County, Nebraska, and spent many years of her life there. Later she went to Des Moines, Iowa, and died there when nearly eighty years of age in 1912. Her remains were laid to rest beside those of her husband in the Lutheran cemetery at Selins Grove, Pennsylvania. Doctor Fisher was the seventh son and seems to have been predisposed to a medical profes- 1984 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO sion, since from early boyhood he was known as doctor. The family consisted of nine children, and the oldest and youngest were daughters, all the sons being born successively. Six of the sons are still living and one of the daughters. Doctor Fisher was well educated in Nebraska, attending the Academy at Homer and graduating from Wayne Academy in 1887. He was also a student in Midland College at Atchison, Kansas, and in 1889 entered Rush Medical College at Chicago. Doctor Fisher has kept in close touch with medical men and medical knowledge. He is a member of the State, the Tri-State, the Northwest Ohio and the County Medical societies, and for two terms was president of the county society. He is affiliated with Kenneth Lodge No. 118, of the Knights of Pythias as Bowling Green and is a trustee of Lodge No. 818, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in the same city. On August 16, 1894, Doctor Fisher married Miss Hattie L. Teller, who was born in Wood County and grew up there. Doctor and Mrs. Fisher have no living children. One child, Emerson R., died at the age of five months. Mrs. Fisher is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and belongs to the Local Aid Society and the Red Cross. Mrs. Fisher is a daughter of James and Frances (Caswell) Teller, prominent pioneers of Wood County. James Teller was born in Westchester County, New York, near the site of the Croton Dam, April 14, 1831. His ancestors were colonial settlers of New York. His father was a cloth manufacturer, but in 1836, when James was five years of age, the family removed to Huron County, Ohio. They journeyed by canal boat over the Erie canal and by steamboat over Lake Erie, and of that trip Mr. Teller always, had interesting recollection. He grew up on his father's farm at Monroeville, and secured an education in one of the district log schoolhouses. In the fall of 1861 he came by wagon to Wood County, buying 129 acres of land. He built a log house eighteen by twenty-six on ground near the site of the fine farm home where he died March 29, 1911, at the age of eighty years. He exerted his splendid physical vigor in clearing up this land, added more to his possessions, and had a fine farm of 300 acres, all well tiled and thoroughly improved. In his earlier years in Wood County he was engaged in the business of buying furs, having a partner in that enterprise, and the fruits of this business enabled him materially to increase his farm development. James Teller was for nearly forty years a member of the Masonic Lodge, his affiliation being with Wood County Lodge No. 112. The philosophy of his life was honesty and clean living, and he gained and enjoyed the esteem and admiration of a large circle of friends and acquaintances. On July 22, 1862, at Perrysburg, Ohio, he married hiss 'Frances Caswell, who was born in Jackson County, Michigan. She is still living at the old homestead in Portage Township, and is still active at the age of seventy-nine. Her youngest daughter Mrs. Anna Histe, lives with her. James Teller and wife had seven children, and his was the first death to break the family circle. The children were: Mrs. Emily Kingsley, Mrs. J. F. Wollam, Mrs. E. W. Fisher, Mrs. E. G. McClelland, Mrs. Clinton Histe, Charles Teller and Andrew Telle James Teller also left twelve grandchildren. G. C. KALBFLEISCH is one of the men who help carry on the large industrial proces and activities of Tiffin. Some members of hi family were pioneers in the manufacture of pottery and similar ware, and Mr. Kalbfleisch was eventually drawn into that industry. He started life as a stenographer with a manufacturing company at Kokomo, Indiana. He was working there five years during the vacations of his school period and in 1899, at the age of twenty, came to Tiffin. Here he entered the office of the Great Western Pottery Company, in the building up of which his maternal grandfather had been prominent, and was soon made assistant manager of the local plant. After the death of his uncle, F. W. Conradt, he became manager. The plants of the Great Western Pottery were sold in 1913 to the great corporation for the manufacture of plumbing and sanitary equipment, the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, which has a capital stock of $20,000,000 and has plants all over the United States. Mr. Kalbfleisch is still manager of the Tiffin plant. He is also connected with two lines of business that are strictly family affairs and close corporations. One is the Tiffin Art Metal Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer. This company manufactures a large line of sheet metal goods and ships the product all over the United States. The other is the Bullard Specialty Company of Tiffin, of which he is also secretary and treasurer. Mr. Kalbfleisch gives all his time to these three manu- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1985 turing plants, and is one of the very successful men of Tiffin. He was born at Pinckneyville, Ohio, October 10, 1878, a son of Adam H. and Matilda (Conradt) Kalbfleisch. His paternal grandfather, Conrad Kalbfleisch, was born in Germany, and on coming to America located at St. Louis, Missouri, where he followed farming and gardening. The maternal grandfather, Gottlob Conradt, was also a native of Germany and on coming to America located at Peru, Indiana, where he was engaged in business for a number of years and for a number of years also was president of the Great Western Pottery of Tiffin, Ohio, and of Kokomo, Indiana.. Adam H. Kalbfleisch, father of G. C. Kalbfleiseh, was born near St. Louis, Missouri, in 1847. He was married at Peru, Indiana, where his wife was born in 1858. Both are still living and Adam Kanfleisch is now retired after a long and successful practice at Peru. He spends his winters in Texas. He and his wife are members of the German Lutheran Church ; he is a democrat in politics, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. There were four children : Albert, proprietor of a cold storage plant at Mercedes, in extreme southern Texas ; G. C. Kalbfleisch ; Emma, wife of Dr. A. C. Baldwin, a practicing physician at Peru, Indiana ; and Rose, wife of Marx G. Crume, who is connected with one of the Tiffin factories. Mr. G. C. Kalbfleisch was married December 12, 1901, to Aura Snyder. She was born at Mount Gilead, Ohio. They have a daughter, Katheryn, now in high school. Mr. Kalbfleisch and family are active members of the Presbyterian Church and he is president of the board of trustees. Politically he is a republican. He is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club of Cleveland, the Mohawk Country Club of Tiffin and is a director of the Tiffin Chamber of Commerce. ARTHUR M. ARMSTRONG. The affairs of the county auditor's office of Paulding County have never been in better hands than during the two terms that Arthur M. Armstrong has filled the office. Mr. Armstrong is an old resident of Paulding and became widely !known through his successful work as a teacher before he entered public life. He was born in Hocking County, Ohio, September 22, 1873, a son of George P. and Henrietta (Thrush) Armstrong, the former a native of West Virginia and the latter of Hocking County, Ohio. George P. Armstrong located in Hocking County in 1866, was a farmer there until 1883, and then bought eighty acres of land 21/2 miles south of Payne and was a successful farmer and stockman in this county until. 1897, since which year he has lived retired at Columbus, Ohio. Much of his success in business was due to his ability as a stockman. He was a well known breeder and dealer in Norman horses and also took pride in his Poland China hogs. During his residence in Paulding County he was known as an honorable and worthy citizen, filled various township offices, was a stanch republican and an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He and his wife had eight children, six still living. Arthur M. Armstrong, the oldest of the children, was reared on his father's farm and has lived in Paulding County since he was eleven years of age. At the age of twenty-three, on December 20, 1896, he married at Paulding Miss Minnie Croy, daughter of Richard Croy, who came from Hocking County to Paulding County in 1869. Mrs. Armstrong was one of a family of eight children, and she was well educated for the responsibilities of life, both in the common schools and in college. She died March 26, 1904. By this union one child was born, Russell, aged twenty, and who graduated from the Paulding High School with the class of 1915. Mr. Armstrong married for his second wife Mary E. Humbarger, a daughter of David and Mahala Humbarger. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong are the parents of three children : Thelma B. aged twelve; Pauline D., aged nine ; and B., aged five. After his marriage Mr. Armstrong consytinued his work as a teacher, which he had begun in 1894, and he was connected with the graded and village schools of the county for fifteen years. In 1909 he was appointed depsyuty county auditor, and filled that office four years. The Circuit Court then appointed him a receiver for the Haviland Clay Works, and after successfully winding up the affairs of that institution he was elected in 1914 to his present office of auditor, and was re-elected in 1916. Mr. Armstrong has always been a vigorous republican and one of the leaders of the party in his home county. He is a. member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Paulding Methodist Episcopal Church. 1986 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO MATHEW W. HANIFAN. The resource which more than any other has brought wealth to Wood County and other surrounding counties in Northwest Ohio is oil. The veterans of this industry have all the interest attaching to their careers which belongs to the pioneers of every class. Among them there is none whose associations have been longer with the industry and have brought him into more intimate, contact with the great oil men of the Middle West than Mathew W. Hanifan of Bowling Green. Almost from the beginning of the production of oil in Northwest Ohio Mr. Hanifan has, been district manager of the Buckeye Pipe Lines Company in District No. 4 of the Standard Oil Company. It was in 1886 that the first oil well was sunk on the Fulton farm in Henry Township of Wood County. That was the inauguration of what subsequently became known as the great Lima Oil Field. The original field was for some years known as the Clinton Rock District. The original well was on the Fulton farm about two miles north of North Baltimore in Wood County. Such was the origin of an industry which was the means of bringing untold wealth to many individuals as well as the great industrial forces of the nation. In all this development Mr. Hanifan has had an interested share. He saw the business grow and develop from 1890 to 1900, then witnessed a decline, and from his own experiences and recollections could tell practically the entire history of oil in Northwest Ohio. He could recount numerous cases in which struggling farmers have become rich over night because of a strike made in the oil sands beneath their land. Along with successes have come numerous failures, and altogether the story of oil is not merely one of material things but involves the fortunes and well being of scores and hundreds of individuals. Since 1866 Mr. Hanifan has been identified with the oil industry in some relationship or other, having begun in the old Western Pennsylvania fields, where there was only one great oil district in America, Oil Creek. A notable and memorable occasion occurred when Mr. Hanifan celebrated his sixty-fifth anniversary in 1915. Many Buckeye pipe line men and friends in oil districts all over the world celebrated this birthday anniversary with a reception and surprise banquet held at the Millikin Hotel in Bowling Green. During the banquet Mr. Hanifan was presented with a hand made and hand bound book of letters and testimonials, ninety-six in number, written by old friends and associates the oil industry and coming from New York City on the east to Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the west. Some of the writers were high officials in the oil industry and others were practical oil producers, but all were stanch friends of this Bowling Green citizen and they sought in this way to testify their esteem of a man who had been for nearly fifty years in the business. It would be quite impossible to quote any number of these letters and one that is perhaps typical of the spirit of esteem is that written by O. S. June, vice president and general manager of the Buckeye Pipe Line Company at Lima. The body of his letter to Mr. Hanifan reads as follows: "It certainly gives me pleasure to join with your many friends in congratulation on the sixty-fifth anniversary of your birth. May many more of them follow and health and prosperity be with you to the end is the sincere wish of your friend." Mathew W. Hanifan was born at Pontiac, Michigan, June 2, 1848, of Irish parents, William and Johanna Catherine (Kane) Hanifan. His parents were both born in County Kerry, Ireland, and were of pure Irish stock. His father grew up there, learning the trade of tailor and cutter, and not long after his marriage, about 1830, he and his bride sailed for the United States, crossing on a slow going sailing vessel that was weeks en route. From New York City they proceeded westward by river and canal and lake boat to Detroit. The did not remain in Detroit but went on Oakland County, Michigan, where he follow the trade of journeyman tailor and eventually opened a tailor shop as the pioneer in th line at Pontiac. He did work as tailor when it was customary for the follower of such trade to go about from house to house rather than have his customers call at his shop. Later he became a custom tailor and spent his life at Pontiac, where he died at the a of sixty-four and his wife at sixty-five. They were active members of the Catholic Church. Their family consisted of six sons and two daughters, Mathew being one of the younger. All married except Jerry, who served as a soldier in the Civil war an later became a member of the United State army, and a daughter, Nellie. Mathew an his brother Thomas are the only ones now living. Mathew Hanifan was educated in Oakland County, Michigan, and at the age of twenty he went east to Pennsylvania to join his HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1987 brother Morris, who was then superintendent of the Home Petroleum Oil Company at Oil Crc-ek, Pennsylvania. There he had his first experience in the oil fields. He soon became a well rigger at Troutman in Butler County and was connected with the pipe line in that section until 1872. He later became a gauger for the Standard Oil Company, and filled that position in Pennsylvania until 1890, when he came to Northwest Ohio and located at North Baltimore, near the original oil well of Wood County. He was soon district foreman of the pipe line ,and has been a resident of Bowling Green since 1891. Mr. Hanifan married at Titusville, Pennsylvania, Miss Mary O'Brien. She was born at Syracuse, New York, March 5, 1848, a daughter of John and Johanna (Sheehan) O'Brien. Her parents were born in County Cork, grew up and married there, and after their marriage left on a sailing boat which crossed the Atlantic and they located in Syracuse, New York. They lived in that vicinity for some years and finally went to Allegany, New York, establishing a home near the St. Bonaventura College, one of the leading Catholic institutions of that section. Her father assisted in laying the corner stone of that institution and helped in the construction of the edifice until it was completed. He died in 1855, when Mrs. Hanifan was only seven years of age. The widowed mother then assumed the entire care and responsibilities connected with the rearing and training of her family of four sons and four daughters and she lived to be past eighty years of age. All the children grew up and married except one, and three of them are still living. Mrs. Hanifan was reared in the home of her widowed mother and attended St. Elizabeth Convent, where she was liberally educated and for some time before her marriage taught school. Recently Mr. Hanifan erected one of the fine homes of Bowling Green, a two-story modem residence of white pressed brick at 210 West Wooster Street. Mr. and Mrs. Hanifan expect to spend their declining years in peace and comfort with financial independence and with hosts of friends and the companionship of their own children. Mr. and Mrs. Hanifan have two daughters. Minnie A. graduated at a school in Emlington, Pennsylvania, and completed her liberal training in the noted Mount De Chantal Academy at Wheeling, West Virginia. She is now the wife of Lee R. Robinson, a well known oil well contractor living at Coffeyville, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs.Robinson have no children. The second daughter, Theresa, is also a graduate of the Mount De Chantal Academy and is the wife of Brainard Waite. Mr. Waite is a grandson of Chief Justice Waite, one of the great historic characters in Northwest Ohio, and is a son of Edward Waite of Hartford, Connecticut. He is also a grandson of Professor Brainard, of Lyme, Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Waite now live in Hartford, where for some years he has been claim examiner for the Hartford Casualty Company. They have three children, grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Hanifan, who are named Mary Frances, Mathew Edwards and Morris Remick. NORFORD S. GATES is senior member of the N. S. Gates & Sons sheet metal works in Findlay. Mr. Gates has been continuously in business in the city as a sheet metal worker and business man for over a quarter of a century. He has devoleped an industry second to none in point of efficiency and ability to handle the largest contracts, and its services have been required on large public and private buildings in several counties. It is said that when Mr. Gates came to Findlay thirty years ago he had cash capital of thirty-six cents. Hard work tells the story, and he is today one of the prosperous and public spirited citizens. Mr. Gates was born at Butler, Indiana, Ausygust 31, 1866, a son of John T. and Sarah J. (Eckert) Gates. He is of English and Scotch stock, and some of his ancestors were particisypants in the Revolutionary war. His father was a building contractor and is now living retired. His mother died in 1905. Mr. Gates attended the common schools at Columbia City, Indiana, but never had advantages beyond those of the public institutions. When he was thirteen years of age his father moved onto a farm and he knows what the business of a farmer is, having given his time and energies to helping his father until he was twenty years of age. Leaving the farm, he came to Findlay in 1886 and for two years was an apprentice at the sheet metal trade with George W. Robertson. He continued in the same business with George Pickerall for a year and a half, and then bought out the Pickerall establishment on East Front Street. He acquired that busisyness in 1890 and for four or five years the firm was Gates & Darling. Three years later Mr. Gates became sole proprietor, and for nine years. was located at 129 North Main 1988 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Street, and then removed to his present address at 211 North Main Street, where he has been located twelve years altogether. His son Hs since come into business with him, and the firm is more prosperous today than ever before. They have handled some very large contracts. They did the sheet metal and heating installation in the Fostoria High School, for the Toledo and Bowling Green Railway Company, and are constantly busy handling contracts for private homes, municipal buildings, hospitals and other construction. In 1889 Mr. Gates married Miss Jessie M. Luce, daughter of James Luce of Harlow, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Gates have the following children : Opal, who was born in 1891 and died in 1905; Eola Mildred, aged twenty-four; Harley S., twenty-two years of age ; and Eugene A., born in 1902 and died in 1914. Mr. Gates is a republican, a member of the Howard Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past grand, and for the past three years has held the office of treasurer. MARGARET LUCETTA FASSETT. There is perhaps no more competent and efficient business woman in Northwest Ohio than Mrs. Fassett, who is sole proprietor of the M. L. Fassett lumber yard and planing mill at Findlay. When her husband, the late Hamilton Hiram Fassett, died in May, 1906, the business .had not yet become established on a secure footing, and Mrs. Fassett courageously took charge and with a remarkable ability, care and energy has not only kept the business growing but has constantly expanded it until her plant is now one of the three largest lumber yards and mills in Hancock County. She has proved remarkably successful both as a manager and as a financier. Her husband, the late Hamilton Hiram Fassett, was born at Rochester, New York, in 1846. His father died in 1863. His mother, Emily Wright, died at Brookings, South Dakota, in 1913. There is one surviving brother, Harvey, of Minnesota. When Hamilton H. Fassett was six months old his parents removed from Rochester, New York, to Ohio, and located on a tract of Government land which his father developed as a farm. They were living there when the father died, and Hamilton was then about fifteen years of age. He had only a country school education, and when a boy, in 1863, he enlisted in Company E of the Third Ohio Cavalry. He was in service for nearly two years, until mustered out in 1865. Returning to the old home, lie did some farming but soon put to effective use the talents which he possessed as a wood worker and carpenter. He had a special genius as a wood worker, and as a youth he was regarded as a proficient carpenter and was also an expert cabinet maker. In the early days when funeral caskets were nearly all custom made he took orders from undertakers for the making of such caskets. For a time he lived in the West at Baraboo, Wisconsin, working as an undertaker and carpenter there for a year. He afterward operated a sawmill for the Warden Lumber Company at Curtice, Ohio, Warden and Williston, and continued the operation of the mill until the tract of lumber was cleared off and Manufactured into lumber. This required about five years. Subsequently Mr. Fassett was in the brick and tile business at Martin, Ohio, associated with A. C. Johnson, under the firm name Johnson & Fassett. This firm continued three years, and on selling his interest in 1887 Mr. Fassett moved to Findlay. Here he engaged in business for himself as a carpenter and contractor. On June 30, 1887, Mr. Fassett married Margaret L. Allen, daughter of Ethan and Mary (O'Neil) Allen. Mrs. Fassett's parents lived at Genoa, Ohio, and were of Scotch and Irish ancestry. They came to Ohio from Connecticut. Mrs. Fassett was born at Cortland, New York, at the age of five years was taken to Genoa, Ohio, and attended the public and high schools there. When eighteen years of age she taught school at Rising Sun and afterward at Martin in Wood County. After her marriage she looked after the duties of her home and the rearing and training of her children, and was an able counselor to her husband in his business affairs. The first office of the H. H. Fassett Lumber and Mill Work was at 525 South Main Street, in Findlay, where he was also engaged in the hardware and general contracting business. In February, 1905, the late Mr. F sett built his mill on East Crawford Streer. It had hardly been completed when he die and Mrs. Fassett found the affairs of the business in bad shape. Since then she has is only cleared up every debt but also purchased in September, 1916, the old Duttwiler mill and has constantly expanded her business. She is also owner of the old Duttwiler HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1989 resideice in Findlay. Her trade now extends all over Hancock County and also outside the state. She has a complete planing mill and manufactures large quantities of sash, door and interior finish work. Mrs. Fassett is an attendant of the First Methodist Church of Findlay. The late Mr. Fassett was a republican, served two years on the school board of Findlay, and was superintendent of public school buildings many years. Fraternally he was identified with the Maonic order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Fassett deserves credit for her dual achievements both as a home maker and as a business woman. She carefully trained her children and gave them all high school educations. Her oldest child, Charlotte Mae, now twenty-seven years of age, is teacher in the fourth grade of the Lincoln School at Findlay. G. B., aged twenty-six, now acts as superintendent of his mother's lumber company. Lloyd Allen is twenty-four years of age. Yale Hiram is twenty-two and Helen Louise, the youngest, is eighteen. WILLIAM HAMILTON MCMILLEN has had a long and active career as a lawyer, and for twenty-six years has been located at North Baltimore. He was born in New York City November 15, 1856, a son of James and Jane (Hutchinson) McMillen. His middle name, Hamilton, was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. The parents were both born in Balymena, near Belfast, Ireland, and both were of old Scotch-Irish stock, Covenanters in relgion. Jane Hutchinson, having lost her parents in Ireland, came to the United States to keep house for her brothers James and Robert. James afterward served as a soldier through the Civil war and spent his last years in San Francisco, California. His brother Robert died in Albany, New York. James McMillen and Jane Hutchinson had been sweethearts in Ireland, and shortly after she came to this country he followed her, and later his widowed mother came. They were married at once in New York City, and a year later their first child, William H., was born there. A year or so later they moved to Baltimore, Maryland. James McMillen had learned the trade of shoemaker in the old country. His father died young, and he learned that trade to support himself and to care for his widowed mother. His mother Vol. III-42 died when an old woman at Coolville, Ohio. In Baltimore, Maryland, James McMillen folsylowed his trade, and being a very skillful workman he was employed in making shoes for women. While the Civil war was in progress he endeavored to enlist, but was rejected for physical disability ; he then moved West to Athens County, Ohio, but after some months went back to Baltimore. In 1867 he again came to Coolville in Athens County, Ohio, with the hope that a change of climate would repair his health. But he died there March 9, 1869, at the age of thirty-five years and one month. After forty-two years of widowhood the mother passed away in Kansas City, Missouri, when nearly eighty years of age. Both were very devout and strict Presbyterians, and James McMillen after obtaining American citizenship voted as a republican. His brother. William was for four years a soldier in the Civil war under General Sheridan and was at Appomattox when Lee surrendered and also at the Grand Review. Both James and William and another brother, Robert, were very strong and active Union men. Robert died in Kansas, and William in Colorado. Mr. W. H. McMillen had two. brothers, James and Robert, both of whom were born in Baltimore, Maryland. They were well educated, became teachers and for some years were superintendents of schools in Central Kansas. Both married, and Robert died in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1916, leaving six children, while James is now living in Salina, Kansas, and is married but has no children. William H. McMillen grew up at Coolville in Athens County, Ohio, and had some college advantages at Marietta, Ohio. At the age of seventeen he began studying, law in the office of General, afterward Congressman, Grosvenor, of Athens. Through the influence of this well known Ohio man he received appointment as engrossing clerk in the State Legislature. His means represented only what he could earn, and by proper thrift and hard work he finally entered the senior class of the Cincinnati Law School where he was graduated LL. B. in May, 1878. He was admitted to the bar the same year, three of his examiners being Joseph B. Foraker, Samuel F. Hunt and Clinton W. Gerard. For one year Mr. McMillen practiced with General Grosvenor, and then, through the influence of Mr. Foraker, received appointment as clerk in the office of the prosecuting attorney at Cincinnati. He practiced law a few years in Cin- 1990 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO cinnati, but in 1885 removed to Kansas, where he was in active practice until 1891, which was the year he located at North Baltimore. Mr. McMillen arrived in North Baltimore just after the great fire which destroyed a large part of the town, and he has been connected with the welfare and development of that little city ever since. He has developed a large general practice throughout the county, and is an attorney of high standing in the county bar. He has been associated with the County and State Bar Associations and has 'served North Baltimore as city solicitor. As a republican he has wielded a large influence and has been a delegate to different consyventions, having been an alternate delegate from the ninth congressional district to the Chicago convention in 1908, when Mr. Taft was nominated. On April 19, 1899, Mr. McMillen married Miss Minnie Casley. About a week after her birth her mother died, and she was reared in the home of Rev. William Bay and adopted that name as her own. Her father, John B. Casley, was a native of New York, and in early life was put in school at Montreal to be trained for the priesthood. He ran away from school, came to the United States, enlisted in the Union army and served throughout the war. He died at the age of eighty-two. Mr. and Mrs. McMillen have two sons. Leonard Sloan, born April 17, 1900, after finishing the eighth grade spent two years in the Ohio Military School at Cincinnati, and is now a student in high school. Donald Bay, the second son, was born December 4, 1901, and is now with his brother in high school. Both are very capable young men and have shown special interest in electricity and mechanics. The family are all members of the Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. McMillen is a trustee. FRANK W. BACON has given the best part of his business life to the milling industry, and 'for a number of years has owned one of the chief flour mills of Seneca County at Tiffin, but has also done much real estate business in that city. He was born in Crawford County, Ohio, October 10, 1860, a son of William S. and Savena (Hawk) Bacon, natives of the same county. His grandparents, Ralph and Polly (Jordan) Bacon, were natives respectively of Boston, Massachusetts, and Ireland. Ralph Bacon was a surveyor and came to the Western Reserve about 1810, taking up land which was afterwards owned and occupied by James A. Garfield. From there he removed to the vicinity of Bucyrus in Crawford County and was a farmer. He and his wife had thirteen children, the youngest being William S. Bacon. William S. Bacon was also a miller by trade, and followed that industry in Crawford County until 1875, when he brought his family to Seneca County, and for four years owned and operated a grist mill at Bloomville. In 1879 he bought the Clifton mill on Washington Street in Tiffin. This industry he operated until his death in 1894, and the plant has since become the property of the Seneca Stock Food Company. Savena Hawk, his wife, was the daughter of David Hawk, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Crawford County, Ohio, in early days and for many years followed the tanning business. Frank W. Bacon not only acquired a good public school education but also learned th milling industry under the careful instruction of his father. He worked in his father's plant until the latter's death and then bought the interests of the other heirs in the mill at Tiffin and continued its operation until 1897 After that he operated a mill at Sidney, Ohio and for several years he bought and sold ling properties in this and other states. 1902, returning to Tiffin, he bought the Pioneer Mill, situated on the river in the easte part of the city, and has built up this industry to a first rank of importance among the flour mills of Seneca County. For many yea he has had the agency of leading milling machinery factories, and has sold mills and ing equipment throughout the United Stat He is also owner of considerable land in Tiffin and the real estate business is an increasing feature of his work. He is a member o the Ohio Millers' Association, belongs to the National Federation and is a republican in politics. For two years he served on the Tiffin City Council, having been elected primarily for the purpose of carrying out the important improvement of building a wall along the river to protect the city from floods. This improvement is now being constructed at an expe of $300,000. Mr. Bacon's aunt, Minerva Bacon, was at one time a teacher of the Indians in the old Mission Church at Upper Sandusky. In 18 Mr. Bacon married Mary Johnson, daughter of Judge William Johnson, a prominent Seneca County attorney and one time probate HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1991 judge. Mrs. Bacon, who died in 1900, was the mother of two children, one of whom died in infancy, while the older, Eugenia, died in 1904, at the age of eighteen. In 1902 Mr. Bacon married Lida A. Sexton, who was born in Seneca County, daughter of Henry Sexton. She is an active member of the Presbyterian Church. Of the three children born to their marriage the only one now living is Rodger Henry, aged nine years. J. H. LAUGHLIN, present mayor of Paulding, has had more than the usual share of business and official experience. He is a man of fine business judgment and was well established in a business of his own before the honor came to him of being made mayor of this city. Mr. Laughlin represents an old and substantial family of Southern Ohio. He was born in Guernsey County November 16, 1874, son of Joseph and Catherine (Miller) Laughsylin. Both parents were born in Ohio. His grandfather, Samuel Laughlin, was a native of Ireland, coming to America in early life and locating in Noble County, Ohio. He developed a large business as a farmer and stock raiser and built up an estate of over 1,000 acres. Much of this he had hewed out of the wilderness by his own toil. Under his management it was converted into valuable farm lands and from his estate he was able to give each of his children a good farm. Much of his land was in the vicinity of Caldsywell, Ohio. Samuel Laughlin was a devout member of the Lutheran Church and gained a very high place in the esteem of his community. J. H. Laughlin's maternal grandfather, Miller, was an extensive shipper of livestock from Southern Ohio and died in 1898. Joseph Laughlin, who died in 1890, was a well-to-do farmer in Guernsey County, and a member of the Lutheran Church. He and his wife had three children, all of whom are still living. J. H. Laughlin, the oldest of these three children, was educated in the public schools of Guernsey County and also in the Muskinsygum Academy at New Concord. He lived at home on the farm until twentysytwo, married in 1897, and for the following four 'years lived in Chicago, where he was clerk of the Union League Club of that city. In May, 1902, he came to Paulding and engaged in the general insurance business. His local business connections were severed in 1908, when he became a clerk in the real estate department of the office of secretary of state at Columbus. He served there from May, 1908, until July, 1910. He had previously been clerk of the Ohio Legislature in 1906-08. In 1911 Mr. Laughlin went out to the Philsyippines as a Government clerk and remained in those island possessions until February 1, 1914. He then returned to Paulding and has since built up a large clientele in the real estate and insurance business. He has always shown commendable public spirit in action and influence in behalf of everything concerning the welfare of Paulding. Besides his position as mayor he is secretary of the Paulding Commercial Club and since 1916 has been a member of the City Board of Education. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Temsyplar and a Shriner, and a stanch republican. On June 16, 1897, he married Miss Florence Tanner. She was one of a family of seven children and was educated in the public schools of Muskingum County. They have one daughter, Ruth, born August 31, 1900, and now a member of the class of 1918 in the Paulding High School. BRUCE HOUSER is one of the pioneers in the automobile industry in Findlay. In earlier years he was widely known as an expert bicycle rider, handled bicycles and did repair work at Findlay before automobiles were known and just gravitated naturally into the larger and more important business. He is now sole owner of the motorcycle and bicycle accessory and sundries business at 100 South Main Street. Mr. Houser was born in Orange Township of Hancock County, a son of W. 0. and Hala (Morrison) Houser. His father was a consytractor and moved to Findlay when Bruce was six years of age.. The family is of Gersyman and Scotch-Irish ancestry. Mr. Houser's greatsygrandfathers on both sides emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania. Mr. Houser's uncles were soldiers in the Civil war. He grew up at Findlay, attended the grammar and high schools, and as a youth became an ardent devotee of the bicycle and acquired more than a local fame as a bicycle racer. He did both as an amateur and professional and won a large list of prizes in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. At the age of sixteen, on January 15, 1898, Mr. Houser started his 'bicycle repair shop in Findlay, and kept that 1992 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO up in his original location until 1911. Nearly every year he spent some time away from home, traveling both for business and for his own education. Mr. Houser believes in the value of travel as perhaps the best means of gaining a knowledge of the world' and its people. He traveled west to the coast in 1902, in 1912 and 1913, and has visited practically every town of importance in the West. He was also over the South, in Florida, Alabama and other states, but in late years his business interests at Findlay have kept him almost constantly employed. From 1910 to 1912 he conducted the Findlay Cycle Company on South Main Street, the largest shop in the town. In 1915 Mr. Houser built his modern salesroom and repair shop at 100-102 South Main Street. There he keeps everything in the bicycle and motorcycle line, and handles a large supply of accessories and sundries both for the bicycle and automobile trade. His store occupies part of a modern twosystory brick building, 97x40 feet, containing flats on the upper floor. It is said that when Mr. Houser began his business career he had a capital of only eighty dollars, and he is now recognized as one of the wellsyto-do merchants of the city. In 1908 he married Miss Grace Sexton, daughter of Frank and Annie Elmira (Curtis) Sexton.. Mr. and Mrs. Houser have one daughter, Annie, now two years old. He and his wife attend the First Methodist Church, and in politics he usually supports the republican candidate. IRVING E. MACOMBER, president of the Tosyledo Commerce Club, was born in Toledo, Ohio, October 8, 1872, a son of Albert E. and Sara S. (Haviland) Macomber. His parents are old and prominent residents of Toledo, where they now live retired. His fasyther established and operated for many years the real estate and brick business now owned and controlled by his son, Irving. Since leaving college and taking his place among the active men of business in Toledo, Irving E. Macomber has been distinguished by an ability not only to think out large and important plans but also to translate his ideas effectively and readily into definite results. During the twenty odd years since he entered Toledo's commercial and civic life no citizen has identified himself more thoroughly and effectively with the upbuilding of the city. Mr. Macomber is president of the. Macomber Brothers Company, real estate and investment dealers, is owner and manager of the Auburn. dale Brick Works, and is secretary and manager of the Toledo Factories Company. He began his active career with a liberal and technical education. He was graduated in 1890 from the Toledo High School in both the literary and manual training courses. In 1894 he completed his course in the Sibley College of Engineering at Cornell University, with the degree Mechanical Engineer. While at Cornell he was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and the Quill and Dagger Society, and for two years managed the Sibley Journal of Engineering. Leaving college, he at once entered into a business career, spending two years with the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company at Pittsburgh before returning to Toledo. Here he became associated with his father in the real estate and brick business under the firm name of A. E. Macomber & Company. His younger brother, the late Franklin S. Macomber, soon afterward entered the firm, and in 1900 the brothers assumed the active management of the business. Their father retired in 1902, and the sons subsequently changed the name to Macomber Brothers. In 1908 Franklin S. Macomber died. His death was a signal loss to the City of Toledo. He had reached that point in his career when he was giving the greatest promise of fine achievement both in private business affairs and in public life. His untimely death threw the entire burden of the affairs of Macomber Brothers upon Irving E. In 1909 the business was incorporated as The Macomber Brothers Company, and Mr. Irving Macomber has since controlled and managed the company. It would be difficult to tell in a few wor the many things accomplished by the Macomber Brothers in the real estate field in Toledo. Both were men of the greatest energy and perseverance, were thorough executive and showed unusual foresight in improving much property which had hitherto been largely waste sites in the city. They gave add value to other localities by the erection three modern apartment houses. In 1912 Macomber was elected president of the Toledo Real Estate Board, and his effort brought about a marked broadening of the policy of that board. In 1913-14 he was president of the Ohio Association of Real Estate Exchanges, which has membership in HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1993 thee National Association of Real Estate Exchanges. During the last decade the business of the Auburndale Brick Works, an industry founded by his father, has been vastly extended. The plant is now equipped with the most modern appliances and has an annual output of 4,000,000 bricks, gas burned and of a texture making them available for use in the best types of construction. With his brother, the late Franklin S., he took much interest in the Newsboys Association of Toledo, and in 1907 he equipped and opened a public playground for children at Woodruff Avenue and North Twelfth Street. From 1904 to 1913 he served as president of the Toledo Playground Association. In 1907 he was elected a member at large of the board of education and in 1910 was elected president of the board. During his membership the board completely changed many antiquated and obsolete methods of school management. Among the important results accomplished was the establishment of district high schools to take the place of the Old Central High School system. It was a policy not only in keeping with the metropolitan proportions of the city but also in accordance with the most advanced thought on public school education. Grounds for the sites of these schools were purchased at the corner of Machen, Winthrop and Collingwood and at East Broadway, Kelsey and Mott Avenue. Since its completion the classic structure on the west side has been called the Jessup W. Scott High School ; and the one on the east the, Morrison R. Waite High School. The plans and specifications for these schools were prepared by the Department of Architecture established by the board. Since retiring from membership on the school board Mr. Macomber has not relaxed any of his public spirit but has merely turned it in new directions. He is a member of the municipal commission of publicity and efficiency and is enthusiastic in behalf of every civic organization and improvement association in the city. He is a trustee of the Toledo Museum of Art and is vice president and deputy commissioner of the Toledo Division of the Boy Scouts of America. Since the Commerce Club was founded he has been active in its various committees, and it was a well bestowed honor when in September, 1916, the members of the board elected him president to succeed Carl B. Spitzer. Mr. Macomber is also a member of the Country Club, the Toledo Yacht Club, and has long been prominent socially. On September 15, 1904, he married Miss Marie Becker, daughter of Gerhard Becker, owner of the Becker Tannery at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mrs. Macomber was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and was educated in Chicago and in Hanover, Germany. WILLIAM L. HOUGH is a member of the firm Gerdeman & Hough, general insurance and real estate, at North Baltimore. This business was established in 1912, under the firm name Yates & Hough, and in 1914 Mr. Leonard C. Gerdeman bought the interest of Mr. Yates and made the firm as it stands at present. They are among the chief real estate dealers in this section of Northwest Ohio. Their transactions cover Wood, Henry, Pauldsying and Putnam counties. Thousands of acres have been bought and sold through the medium of this firm, and they represent many private owners in the management of estates. In their own locality they handle much property and are also representatives of leading companies in fire, life and live stock insurance. They have built up a large and substantial business and are very popular citizens. Mr. Hough has been in business at North Baltimore since 1889. He is a valuable citizen to his community, and stands high in the esteem of the people he represents in a busisyness way. From 1889 to September, 1911, he was in the wholesale and retail grocery business. At the latter date a fire destroyed the building and stock of goods, and a few months later he became associated with the late John W. Yates in the real estate and insurance business. Altogether Mr. Hough has had a business career of thirtysyone years, beginning as a clerk. He was born at Charlotte, Michigan, where he grew up and received his early education. At the age of fourteen he was a grocery clerk and at twenty his firm, Lamb & Spencer, furnished him the credit and backing by which he opened a store at Alma, Michigan. There he did a large business, under the firm name of W. L. Hough & Company, for five years, and with this experience and with his capital he moved to North Baltimore and has been a factor in that city now for nearly thirty years. His father, David Hough, was a native of Pennsylvania, of old Pennsylvania stock. When a young man he moved to Ohio, learned 1994 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO the carpenter's trade, and in Wood County married Miss Sarah M. Peters. She was born in Richland County, Ohio, but was reared and educated in Wood County. Immediately after their marriage David Hough and wife removed to Charlotte, Michigan, where he died at the age of forty-three and his wife at forty-eight. They were the parents of five children : Edith, who lives at Bay City, Michigan, is the widow of Harry Meyer, and has one son ; John F. is a farmer in Eaton County, Michigan, and has four children; William L. is the next in age ; Eva A., wife of Dr. A. R. Stealy, of Charlotte, Michigan, has two sons and two daughters, one of the sons, Dr. S. A., being in practice with his father, the other, Loren, is a pharmacist at Charlotte, while one of the daughters is teaching school in Detroit ; Lunda D. went as a pioneer to Red River, Oklahoma, and as a farmer in that section has gained a modest fortune by his own efforts and has a family of wife and two sons. William L. Hough married for his first wife in Kent County, Michigan, Mary E. Lamberton. She was born in Michigan in 1869, was educated at Alma, and was a teacher before her marriage. Her death occurred in North Baltimore in 1895. She was the mother of two sons, Emery W. and Harold W., both of whom were educated in the high school and in the Ohio State University and are now successful young merchants at North Baltimore. The older son is married. For his second, wife Mr. Hough married in Hancock County, Ohio, Sadie M. Showman. Her people were pioneers in that county and she was born there in 1874, being educated in the public schools. Her parents were Pembroke B. and Caroline (Heller) Showman. Her father is now deceased and her mother, very bright and intelligent at the age of eighty, lives with her son Edward C. in an Buren, Ohio. Her mother is a member of the well known Heller family of Napoleon, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Hough and the sons are members of the Presbyterian Church. While a very busy man since coming to North Baltimore Mr. Hough has not neglected public interests. For thirteen years he served as a member of the board of education and for four years as its president, and for many years has been an elder and is now clerk of sessions in the First Presbyterian Church. In politics he is a democrat. JOHN HENRY WHITEHEAD, M. D. It is never possible to estimate fully the value of the services rendered by a competent and conscientious physician in any community. But it is none the less desirable that some record should be made of one of whose years, energies and talents have been devoted to one of the great. est human professions. Such a tribute is due the late Dr. John Henry Whitehead of Wood County. The limits of his lifetime were bounded by birth on July 20, 1841, and death on August 6, 1910. In those years he had an unusual share of the experiences that fall to the human lot. He was the second son in a family of four sons and two daughters, the parents being John and Eunice (Pruden) Whitehead, both natives of Hoboken, New Jersey. After their marriage they came to Ohio, and finally located in Plain Township of Wood County, near the Plain Congregational Church, of which they were very active members. On the home farm the mother died when past middle life, and John Whitehead subsequently married Mrs. Nearing and then settled at Tontogany, where both of them died. The second wife passed away first and both were laid to rest in the Plain Church cemetery. Doctor Whitehead's brothers and sisters all married and all had children. Doctor White. head was the last of them to die. He was well educated in public schools and walked three miles to attend school in Bowl ing Green. At the age of seventeen he taught, in his native township, a short distance we of Bowling Green. He was not yet twee years of age when the war broke out and h joined Company H of the Sixty-seventh Obi Infantry. The company was raised at Perryburg, and he went with his command a served faithfully four years.. He enlisted a private and on the basis of good service won promotion and gained a commission first lieutenant. The war was over when was finally mustered out. In the earlier part of his enlistment he saw much of the fighting and was twice wounded. The wound was a slight one but the second the was shot through the right leg. This in capacitated him for further field service the wound always caused him more or pain and suffering. It eventually unfit him for active farm work and led him to take up the study of medicine, thus entering a profession where his services were of mu greater value than they would have been he remained a farmer. Owing to the lack knowledge in Civil war times of aseptic processes and many other devices of modern surgery, the wound gangrenated and for a long HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1995 time he was confined in the hospital. Being an expert and rapid penman, he found emloyment part of the time as a clerical worker for the colonel of his regiment. Doctor Whitehead always refused to apply for a pension. His friend, Doctor Peck of Perrysville, subsequently on his own volition secured a pension for this old soldier and it was paid him regularly. On returning from the war Doctor Whitehead finished his education at Perrysburg and or several years taught. About 1869 or 1870 he began the study of medicine with Dr. John Osborn, whose daughter he subsequently married. Doctor Osborn's home was west of Portage. From that tuition Doctor Whitehead entered Cleveland Medical College, where he graduated, and then took up an active country practice from the old Osborn home west of Portage. Some years later he removed to Bowling Green and for many years attended to the needs of a large patronage in the city and surrounding country. In Bowling Green he built the modern ten room home at 304 South Church Street where his death occurred. Doctor Whitehead was a member of the Homeopathic Medical societies and was Jong active in Wiley Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a republican and he and his wife were closely identified with the Presbyterian Church. In 1867 Doctor Whitehead married Miss Susie Osborn. Mrs. Whitehead, who still lives at Bowling Green, was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and was a small child when her parents removed to old Freeport in Wood County, now Prairie Depot. She is a daughter of Dr. John and Julia (Buchtel) Osborn. Her mother was a close relative of John R. Buchtel, the well known educator who founded e institution at Akron which long bore his me and is now the Akron Municipal University. Doctor Osborn was born at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and his wife in Pennsylvania, where they were married and shortly afterward came to Ohio. Doctor Osborn first practiced at Prairie Depot in Wood County, where he opened a drug store. This drug business was subsequently taken over by a young student, Doctor Sage. Doctor Osborn then located west of Portage, where he bought a farm and while supervising it was busy with a large country practice. He became a well known authority as a physician for the treatment of fevers, pneumonia and particularly cancer. He died at the old homestead in 1875 and his birth occurred in 1808. He was survived by his widow about ten years. They were active workers in the United Brethren Church, and they gave much of their time to the church services and both of them sang in the choir. Worship and prayer meetings were frequently held in their home, and their house was also the refuge and abiding place of many traveling ministers. Their children comprised five daughters and one son, and three of the daughters are still living. Doctor and Mrs. Whitehead were the parents of two children. Their only son, John Stanley, died when a promising boy. Kate L. married Samuel R. Case. Mr. Case is assistant cashier of the Wood County Savings Bank at Bowling Green. They have two children, grandchildren of Mrs. Whitehead, Robert W., now a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and John C., attending the grade schools at Bowling Green. J. R. BRAD ER has had an active business career at Fostoria for over twenty years, and in point of continuous service is one of the oldest real estate men in Seneca County. With all his growing business interests Mr. Bradner has found time to work in behalf of public movements and has filled a number of offices of trust and responsibility in his home community. Mr. Bradner is a native of Fostoria, born January 15, 1875. He is a son of John A. and Catherine (Phillips) Bradner. His grandfather, William Bradner, was a native of New York State and moved to Ohio in 1850. He was a merchant both in his native state and in Ohio. The maternal grandfather, Samuel Phillips, who came to Ohio during the '50s, bought land in Wood County, where he spent the rest of his life. John A. Bradner, who was born at Niagara Falls, New York, had a conspicuous career as a business and professional man at Fostoria. He was a young man when he came with his parents to Fostoria and was associated with his father in opening up a general store at West Mill Grove in Wood County. He continued in business there for some years, and then removed to Fostoria, where he was a hardware merchant several years. In 1875, after preliminary preparation, he was admitted to the bar and for many years was active in that profession. Though he 'began life with practically nothing, his conspicuous ability as a financier made him a notable factor in business affairs in Northwestern Ohio. Along with his law practice he developed the Bradner quarries, and became an extensive contractor. He had the contract 1996 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO for building portions of the Hocking Valley, the Toledo & Ohio Central, the Nickel Plate and the Lake Erie & Western Railways. He also acquired the right of way for the Tiffin-Findlay Electric Railway and at the time of his death was engaged in promoting a road which was to follow the route of the Michigan Central between Jerry City and Eagleville. Some of the lands for the right of way had already been acquired, but after his death the project was dropped. He also served as justice of the peace in Louden Township twenty-eight years, was elected mayor of Fostoria six different times, was the first city solicitor of Fostoria and for several years was superintendent of the waterworks. He was a member of the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a republican in politics and a member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife was born in Pennsylvania and they were married at West Mill Grove in Wood County, Ohio. Of their nine children eight grew up and of the four living J. R. Bradner is the youngest. Kate, the oldest, is the wife of Samuel Lynn, a railroad man living at Toledo. Frances married Frank Stout, of Fostoria, and Harry E. is general manager and chief engineer of the Window Device Company at Fremont; Ohio. Mr. J. R. Bradner received his early instruction in the Fostoria Public schools, and early went into business for himself. He was a local grocery merchant from 1892 to 1895, and since then has been a real estate man. To a large extent he handles his own property and investments, is also a general real estate broker, chiefly in city property. In politics his work. has been with the republican party. When a young man he served as constable four years, as justice of the peace two terms, was mayor of Fostoria one term, and recently was nominated by the republican party without opposition as candidate for mayor and at this writing is awaiting the judgment of the citizens on that candidacy. He is active in the Commercial club. In 1896 Mr. Bradner married Miss Laura M. Earl. She was born in Wood County. Eight children have been born to their marriage : J. A. Earl M., Virgil C., Harry R., Roy J., Catherine, Edgar C. and Florence Ann. J. A. graduated from the Fostoria High School in 1917 and all except the two youngest are attending school. Mrs. Bradner is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. R. V. SHIRLEY. As the most important administrative and custodial officer of the county, the citizens of Paulding County has every reason to be satisfied with their choi of sheriff in 1916 in the person of Mr. R. Shirley. Mr. Shirley is an old resident of Paulding County and has acquitted himself well in every position he has held, whether o a public or private nature. He was born in this county July 7, 1865. a son of Judge Robert and Elizabeth (Strouthers) Shirley, his father a native of Virginia and his mother of Newark, Ohio. Robe Shirley was an early settler. in Paulding County and was one of the first judges of county. His death occurred when Sheriff Shirley was eighteen years old. The latter acquired a common school education, an after his father's death largely supported th widowed mother and the household until he was twenty-seven. In 1893 he went to the World's Fair at Chicago and was a ticket seller at that area exposition throughout the six months of existence. This was followed by a trip throng' Wisconsin and Minnesota and a brief engagement with a mercantile company, after which he returned to Paulding and for two years was a grocery merchant. His first acquaintance with the sheriff's office was as deputy fo four years, and he left that to become active and substantial farmer. He was en gaged in the quiet vocation of agriculture fo twelve years, until called to his present responsibilities as sheriff by election in 1916. He has administered the duties of this office since January 19, 1917. Mr. Shirley is a stanch republican, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellow and the Benevolent and Protective Order Elks, and is a Methodist. He married May Doyle, daughter of George Doyle, Paulding County. Of their four children two living are Gilbert and Ethel. WILLIAM A. SCHWAB. One of the most enterprising and successful firms of merchant. in Findlay is that of Schwab Brothers, beginning on a small scale are now operating two of the best establishments in the city. The older store is at 1100 North Main Street and the second is at 231 North Main Street William A. Schwab, the senior partner of the firm, was born at Findlay in Hancock County in 1878, a son of Carl and Clara (Stout) Schwab. His father was born in HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1997 Switzerland, came to America at the age of eighteen, sand for four or five years worked the Kelloggs' steel mills at Findlay.. He sequently took up business as a stone contractor and is still living at Findlay. William A. Schwab attended the public schools and began his business experience as clerk in a grocery store. He worked twelve or thirteen years for others, learned the 'business in every detail from buying to selling, and on August 3, 1910, he and his brother Alfred started a store of their own at 1100 North Main Street. Having a large acquaintance with the people of the city and possessing originality as well as enterprise, they were successful from the start. On December 1, 1914, they opened their second store in t4 downtown district, at the corner of North Main and Center streets. In politics the Schwabs are of democratic inclination. William A. Schwab is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Second Presbyterian Church. He was married in 1903 to Christiana Cook, daughter of J. F. and Minda (Stimmel) Cook of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Schwab have one daughter, Thelma, now seven years of age. Alfred Ellis Schwab, second partner in the firm, is twenty-nine years of age, is a native of Hancock County and grew up and received his education in the local schools. In 1907 he married Zola Bowers, daughter of Henry Bowers. They have two children, Vera, aged eight, and Anna Mary, aged seven. Alfred E. Schwab is a democrat and a member of the Church of God. Edward Milton Schwab, the youngest of the three brothers, is twenty-seven years old. His early environment and training were similar to those of his brothers, and since joining them in business he has added much to the welfare of the firm. He was married in 1913 to Zella F. Jordan, daughter of James Jordan. They have one child, Robert Edward. Mr. Edward M. Schwab is also a democrat and a member of the Church of God. HENRY M. EISAMAN is one of the progressive agriculturists and business men of Henry County, and is now giving his time and attention to the Farmers Elevator Company of Deshler, having been in active charge of the books and office management of that concern since January, 1917. Mr. Eisaman was born in Harrison Township of Henry County, March 2, 1874, a son of Abraham and Mary (Shook) Eisaman. His father was born in Pennsylvania of German parentage, and when a young man went to Franklin County, Ohio, and married Miss Shook, a native of Franklin County and also of Pennsylvania parents. After their marriage Abraham Eisaman and wife lived for several years in Franklin County on a farm. While there three children were born, Lenora, Francis and Melvin. Lenora died at the age of thirty-seven, leaving children by her marriage to Samuel Altman. Francis lives on the home farm in Harrison Township, Henry County, and Melvin lives in Pickaway County, Ohio. Both are married. In June, 1872, the Eisaman family located in Harrison Township of Henry County. They moved to a comparatively new farm in section 34. It contained sixty acres and in course of time it was developed into a first class condition. While the parents lived there two more children were born, Henry and William C. The mother died on the old homestead on August 14, 1891. She was born in September, 1842. Four years later, on October 12, 1895, her husband passed away. He died while visiting his old Pennsylvania home. His birth occurred August 29, 1827. Both parents were active members of the Christian Union Church. Abraham Eisaman was a democrat and filled office in the school board of Harrison Township. Henry M. Eisaman was reared on the home farm and was well educated in the local schools. Later he started out farming on his own account, and for several years was associated with his brother in the ownership and operation of a farm in section 20 of Bartlow Township. After that he continued to farm in Bartlow Township on sections 16 and 17, three miles west of Deshler, until he left the farm and moved to town to take a hand in the business management of the Elevator Company. Mr. Eisaman was married in section 1 of Marion Township, at the home of the bride, Ella Brown. Mrs. Eisaman was born in North Napoleon Township September 11, 1874, but when five years of age went with her parents to Marion Township. There she grew up and lived until her marriage. Her father is Jacob Brown, one of Marion Township's most successful and prominent citizens. The sketch of Jacob Brown appears on other pages of this publication. Mrs. Eisaman was well educated in the public schools and has proved a valuable factor in making the prosperity which she and her husband now enjoy. Both are 1998 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO active members of the United Brethren Church, in which Mr. Eisaman is a trustee. He is a past noble grand of Lodge No. 617 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife are members of the Order of Rebekahs, in which Mrs. Eisaman is a past noble grand. He has also passed the various chairs in the Encampment. Mrs. Eisaman is now president of the Woman's Missionary Society at Deshler. Politically Mr. Eisaman is an active democrat. WILLIAM A. SARGENT, who died at his home 222 South Church Street in Bowling Green September 30, 1912, had lived in Wood County almost eighty years. He was a product of pioneer environment and made his own life a medium of usefulness and service to a large community. Few families in Northwest Ohio have contributed more to the religious and material development than that of which he was a member. Mrs. Sargent, his widow, still living at Bowling Green, is deserving of special mention and credit as a home maker and as the mother and grandmother of a most excellent family. The Sargents were originally Virginia people, and in pioneer times moved to Southern Ohio, locating in Ross County. It was in Ross County that William A. Sargent was born February 10, 1833. His father, John Sargent, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and married in Ross County a Virginia girl, also of Scotch-Irish stock. Her maiden name was Agnes Linn. When William A. Sargent was six weeks old his parents moved to Wood County and located in the wilds of Liberty Township, acquiring a tract of absolutely undeveloped land. In the course of time John Sargent had developed his property and was accounted a rich man for that generation. John Sargent died in 1856, at the age of sixty-one. His wife was born in 1800 and died in 1872. They are both at rest in the Sargent Cemetery. The land for this cemetery was given by John Sargent in an early day. John Sargent owned a section of land ; west of the main road was laid out a road known as the Ridge or Cemetery Road and his original log cabin was on the north side of this highway. His own industry had enabled him to clear up the land and some years later he built a commodious frame 'house on the opposite side of the road. In building this house he set aside one large room for the purpose of religious. worship. He was a leading member of the Wesleyan Methodists and he and his wife took the lead in furnishing facilities for the Ivor-ship' of their people in the community. In this large room of their house ministers came from afar to hold worship. One of them was the pioneer missionary, Joshua Carr. Out of this home worship grew a, church organization, and subsequently the .Sargents furnished Most of the means for the erection of a separate church in which all Christian people of that section around Portage might meet and worship Gods Before that church was completed John Sargent died, and his funeral was preached by Rev. Joshua Carr in the room of the Sargent home where he had founded the church. Both he and his wife were true Christian leaders. In their own character they had the elements of goodness and kindness which means much to any community in any time. John Sargent was a whig in early day politics and quite active. Much praise has been deservedly given the pioneer women and this should be accentuated in the case of Mrs. John Sargent. She was an exemplar of that industry which makes self reliant and independent people. She spun and wove all the cloth with which the family was clothed and knit the socks for the family. She had in her household every device for such work and in the fields they grew flax and had sheep that furnished the wool, which by her deft fingers was carded, spun and woven. The children of this worthy couple were : Snowden L., Nancy A., Sarah, William A. and John Wesley. All of them married, but the two daughters died at the birth of their first children. William A. Sargent grew up on the old homestead in Wood County. He inherited much mechanical skill from his father and was always distinguished for his expert workmanship in all mechanical lines. Like his father 'he could lay out and plan a house from the preparation of the lumber to the last finishing touches. About 1863 he built a fine home near Portage, containing eight or nine rooms and so thoroughly was this constructed that even today it stands in perfect repair. Tin derneath was what was called an "upground” cellar, corresponding perhaps to our mode "English basement." This fine old coup home stood on a farm of 141 acres at Porta The farm itself was conducted in a most productive manner and in later days the land w in the oil belt and several producing wells we sunk there. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent lived the home farm from their marriage until A gust, 1900. The farm was then sold and the HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1999 retired to Bowling Green, Mr. Sargent suffering from ill health and being obliged to give up active farming. He was a leader in local republican politics, served for many years as trustee, and was treasurer of the Portage Corporation for eighteen years. He was also a member of the school board. On December 24, 1857, Mr. Sargent married a neighbor girl, Mary E. Frank. Mrs. Sargent was born in Stark County, Ohio, September 15, 1839, and was reared in that community, having the limited advantages of the local schools. She has always been an industrious reader and is one of the brightest and best informed old ladies of Wood County. The keenness of her mind has been undiminished by years and she is still sturdy and active in the good deeds that have so long characterized her. On October 15, 1839, when she was four weeks old, her father, Henry Frank, was accidentally killed. The name Henry Frank belongs in the list of pioneer inventors. His genius had evolved one of the first practical models of a threshing machine. The principle he used is still the leading feature of threshing outfits the world around. His machine contained a cylinder which in its revolutions separated the grain from the straw, and that principle was subsequently developed and utilized in the Altman threshing machine. The machine was operated by horse power, and Mr. Frank's death resulted from a sudden speeding up of the horses. The excessive speed caused the cylinder to burst and the fragments were thrown with such velocity that one in striking Mr. Frank on the head caused his death. Mr. Henry Frank married Eleanor Thompson, who was born in Pennsylvania May 16,1807. Eight years after his death she married Daniel Housley, of Medina, Ohio. In 1854 they removed to Wood County and settled as neighbors to the Sargent family at Portage. Mrs. Sargent's mother died September 5, 1889, and her second husband had passed away about ten years previously. She was a life long Methodist, as was her first husband, Mr. Frank. Mr. Frank was a whig in politics and Mr. Housley became a republican. Henry Frank was a prominent member and class leader of his church and had he lived a few months longer would have been ordained as a local preacher. Mrs. Sargent is the mother of one daughter, La Vendee. She is the wife of Alonzo V. Powell, who for many years was a prominent business man of Bowling Green but is now rc-tired. Mrs. Sargent has a number of capa ble grandchildren. One of them, Frank S. Powell, is a traveling salesman out of Los Angeles, is married and has two childreh named Mary B. and Richard Roy. Another grandson, John A. Powell, was educated in the Ohio State University as a pharmacist and is now associated with his brother Gerald A. as proprietors of a leading drug house at 109 North Main Street in Bowling Green. John A. makes his home with his grandmother, Mrs. Sargent. Another brother, William M. Powell, commonly known as "Doc" is a clerk for his brothers in their store and married Miss Nellie Brown. Other grandchildren are : Lillian G., a graduate of the Bowling Green High School and the State Normal and Heidelburg College ; Flora E., who is a graduate of the Bowling Green High School and is still at home ; and Vivian, at home. The family were reared as members of the Methodist Church and Mrs. Sargent's grandsons are republicans. Mrs. Sargent and family besides local real estate own two well appointed farms aggregating 244 acres of fertile soil with good building improvements in Center Township of Wood County. R. C. CHAMBERLAIN, M. D. An accomplished and successful physician now handling a large practice at Tiffin, Doctor Chamberlain is a native of Seneca County and has been in practice since early manhood, a period of almost twenty years- He was born at Melmore, Ohio, May 1, 1874, a son of James and Nancy J. ( Campbell) Chamberlain. The Chamberlains are of English stock. His grandfather, James Chamberlain, was a pioneer settler in Seneca County and followed the trade of carpenter. The maternal grandfather, Robert R. Campbell, was born in Pennsylvania and is now living at the age of eighty-nine, making his home with his grandson, Doctor Chamberlain. He spent forty-two years in Seneca County and was formerly a farmer. James Chamberlain, father of Doctor Chamberlain, was born at Melmore, Ohio, in 1841, and died in 1908. He followed the trade of carriage maker all his active life. For three years he was a member of the First Ohio Heavy Artillery during the Civil war. Politically he voted as a republican, was a member of the Presbyterian Church and belonged to the Masonic Order. He was married at Edinboro, Pennsylvania, to Miss Nancy Jane Campbell, who was born in that town of Pennsylvania in 1854 and is still living. Doctor Chamberlain was the only child