HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1025 was made private secretary to Eugene Zimmerman, president of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton and the Ann Arbor railways. He was Mr. Zimmerman's private secretary about a year, and then took charge of the tariff department of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton and of the Toledo & Ann Arbor Railway companies, with offices in Detroit. His advancement to this heavy responsibility was due to his rapidity and efficiency as a detail worker and the ability to perform a large volume of work requiring skill and promptness is a quality that has perhaps been the dominating factor in his successful career. While at Detroit Mr. D'Alton attended a night law school in the Detroit College of Law, and was graduated LL. B. from that institution with the class of 1910. In June f the same year he was admitted to practice in the State and Federal courts of Michigan. After residing at Detroit from April, 1907, to April, 1910, Mr. D 'Alton returned to Toledo, and instead of beginning practice accepted appointment as court stenographer under Judge Charles E. Chittenden. He continued his work as court stenographer until January 1, 1915. In the meantime he was admitted to the Ohio bar in June, 1911. After his successful campaign for prosecuting attorney in November, 1914, he resigned his office as court stenographer and began his official duties on January 4, 1915, his term expiring at the same date in 1917. He is also a member f the law firm of Boggs & D 'Alton, which firm was organized immediately after his admission to the bar in 1911. They have offices in the Nicholas Building. He is also a member f the Toledo Court Reporting Company, and is president of the Doherty Lime & Stone Company, whose main office is in Toledo and whose plant for the manufacture of lime and crushed stone. is located at Luckey, Ohio. Mr. D 'Alton is an active democrat, is affiliated with Toledo Lodge No. 53, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, with the National Union and Local Aerie of Eagles, and with the Delta Theta Phi fraternity. Outside of his profession he finds his chief recreation in yachting and automobiling. It is not difficult to picture Mr. D'Alton the clean-cut, energetic, suave and efficient lawyer and business man which he is. He has many genial qualities, a faculty f making and retaining friendships, and in his social career he has the companionship and aid of a charming and cultured wife. On May 8, 1908, at Toledo, he married Miss Elizabeth Leonore Greenfield, only child of Dr. Edgar J. and Ada Virginia (Thomas) Greenfield of Toledo. Doctor Greenfield has long been one of the leading and influential members of the Toledo medical fraternity. Mrs. D 'Alton was born in Haskins, Wood County, Ohio, was educated in the public schools there and in Toledo, and her talent for music was thoroughly cultivated at Toledo, in the Detroit Conservatory f Music and by advantages abroad at the great art centers f Vienna and Berlin. Mrs. D 'Alton has appeared frequently in public as a singer, and for several years was soloist in St. Mark 's Episcopal Church at Toledo. She is active in social and club circles, and a member of the Eurydice Club. Mr. and Mrs. D 'Alton have two children : Virginia Winifred and John Greenfield, both of them born at Toledo. HORACE THACHER. In any account of the early history of Toledo mention must be made of the late Judge Horace Thacher, who had a large share in shaping the destinies of the city and surrounding country especially during the middle period of the last century. He was a man of pioneer type, willing to sacrifice much for the sake of the community, and giving his efforts without stint toward building up the country. In the memories of all the older settlers f Toledo, he is remembered as a man of splendid business ability and of great strength and nobility of character. Like many f the early settlers of Northern Ohio he was of New England birth and ancestry. He was born in Poultney, Rutland County, Vermont, June 5, 1801. Both physically and mentally he was well fitted for the hardships of pioneering, and in addition had a very good education. In the early '30s he came west to Ohio and threw in his fortunes with those of the young City of Toledo. He saw that city in its infancy when it was chiefly a swamp with only a few inhabitants, and from year to year watched its growth and cherished every association and indication of its progress. When he was an old man he took a great deal of pride in relating his early experiences and in pointing out the many different directions in which the city had grown. During his residence at Toledo for more than half a century, Horace Thacher helped to make political history in Northwest Ohio. When that party flourished he was an ardent whig. On the whig ticket in 1847 he was 1026 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO elected county recorder, an office he filled with characteristic ability from 1847 to 1853. This was followed by his election in 1854 as probate judge f Lucas County, and so carefully, with such good temper and with such studious regard for the rights of all who came before him, did he handle the duties f his office that its administration was satisfactory to all political classes. One of the chapters of early Toledo history that will always have a deep human interest was the cholera period of 1853-54. Judge Thacher's self sacrificing efforts to ameliorate the conditions of the epidemic are a matter f local history. He closed his office and in company with Messrs. Abbott & Young, his law colleagues, went out among the sick fearlessly and assisted in relieving the terrible conditions resulting from the scourge. Prior to his election to public office, Judge Thacher was associated with Sanford L. Collins in the mercantile business for several years. He is remembered as a man of great versatility, one who could do well almost anything he undertook and was constant in his vigilance, and endeavor in behalf of his home city and its inhabitants. It has been well said f him that he was a thoroughly useful man to the community in which he lived, and yet so simple, so unostentatious, genial and generous, so quiet in all his deeds, that he received from the hearts of those around him the benediction of a blessed memory which print may fail to convey. It is a matter of interest to recall that he was one f the men who assisted in building the first Methodist Episcopal Church in the Village of Toledo, but this was only one out of many of the institutions and movements to which he gave his enthusiastic support. He also furnished the cash for the first steamboat which plied between Toledo and Detroit. For many years during the later period of his life, Judge Thacher held the office of justice of the peace. At the age f sixty at the outbreak f the Civil war, he enlisted in a. company known as the Squirrel Hunters. This company was stationed at Covington, Kentucky, and rendered service as guards until the expiration of their term, when they were honorably discharged. At his death, which occurred November 13, 1890, Judge Thacher was the oldest member f the Masonic fraternity in Northwest Ohio, if not in the state. He held a life membership in that ancient craft and was long one of its most active adherents and loyal members. After the dissolution of the whig party, he enrolled himself among the early republicans of Ohio, and cast his last presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1888. His was one of the best known figures on the streets of Toledo for many years, and his death was widely mourned by a circle of warm friends, who remember him for his many qualities of warm and generous kindliness, his thorough honesty, as well as the ability with which he had conducted every office of public or private trust. On March 9, 1823, Judge Thacher married Susannah Ewers f Gill, Massachusetts. Several f their children died many years ago, including Mrs. Edward W. Hayes and Horace C. Thacher, who was at one time prominent as city civil engineer of Toledo and later as a member of the firm of Thacher & Breyman. The only surviving child of the late Judge Thacher is his daughter, Mrs. John Daiber. JOHN DAIBER. In the passing of John Daiber on May 20, 1915, at the age of eighty-one years, there closed a life which had radiated its blessings and beneficence in many directions. For more than half a century a resident of Toledo, he had accomplished those things which are considered most worth while—years of honorable activity in business, much satisfying material reward, the esteem and love of his fellow men and a public spirited share in the social and civic life of the community. Born in Uhingen, Germany, March 25, 1834, the second son of Henry and Dorothea Daiber, he came to America in early manhood and for nearly sixty years was identified with all movements for good and lasting benefit to Toledo. His personal worth and high example and service was widely acknowledged by local citizens, and on account of his high ideals, noble endeavors, unimpeachable integrity, kindliness and charity for his fellow men, was affectionately known as "Uncle John." He grew up in a comfortable home, was taught the strict lessons of economy and industry and was well prepared by his home training and school life for the career which awaited him in the new world. On leaving the common schools of Germany he learned a trade and was thus equipped by an apprenticeship as a tailor when on May 1, 1852, he embarked for America and like many vigorous young sons of the fatherland at that time, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1027 sought his fortune in the republic of freedom and liberty. In 1857 John Daiber became a permanent resident of Toledo. Eight years later he engaged in business as a merchant tailor, and was unusually successful. He took an interest in the city of his adoption, which he saw grow from a village to a great center of trade, commerce and institutions. One of his strongest characteristics was his ready sympathy with any movement to promote the betterment of his townsmen. His excellent judgment, unbiased interest in local welfare, integrity and ability matured by experience, again and again received recognition from his fellow citizens in their importunities for his acceptance of offices of public trust. The late John Daiber was one of the early members of the Toledo Board of Education. In later years Governor Nash appointed him one of the first members of the Board of Public Safety. He was a director in many local organizations, business, civic and social. While he lived a life f service and was always ready when called upon for duty, his real characteristics were quiet and unassuming and he had no ambition for public notice. He was just, true, honorable and generous and his charity was widely bestowed. He is well remembered for his part in Masonic circles. For many years he served as treasurer of Toledo Lodge and was also president of the Masonic Temple Board. He was a Knight Templar and was also associated with the Scottish Rite. He belonged to the Toledo and Inverness clubs, and in politics was a republican, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. Though reared a Lutheran, he for many years attended St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church. On September 19, 1861, Mr. Daiber married Mary M. Thacher, who still survives, and is the only living child of the late Judge Horace Thacher, to whom reference is made on other pages. The surviving members of the family of Mr. Daiber are : Mrs. Daiber, four children, John, Harry, Mrs. Henry F. Daiber, Etha Daiber, and three grandchildren, Ethelind, John and Jane. The late John Daiber during his long and useful life kept his heart pure, his hands unsullied, and was unaffected, gentle but self reliant, and stood as a tower of strength in his community. The simplicity and sweetness of a child lay deep in his nature and overflowed. "Where 'er he met a stranger, there he left a friend." He never lost his hold on youth, and was captain of his soul all the way through life. His home was his kingdom, and to his children he gave a care and watchfulness and constant benevolence which spared them many hardships such as he had known in his earlier years, and furnished them an exalted example of pure home life, serene faith in God and a long, honorable business career. He" needs no other eulogy nor a more lasting one than a beautiful memory of him engraved on the hearts of many because of his true worth and his good deeds which sprang from such work. HARRISON WILLIAMS BLEVINS. Some eight or nine years ago there was a fire in Toledo. A retail store operated by a well known commercial house was burned out. Doubtless there was plenty of insurance to cover the loss, and the fire derives its chief importance because it threw the manager f the store out of a job. For that reason it was a very significant event in Toledo commercial history. The young store manager was Harrison Williams Blevins. He was doing very well for his age and opportunities, and at the time he considered it a great misfortune that fire had destroyed the business. As is often true, the misfortune was the best of good fortune. He turned his enterprise to a field where he was destined to achieve great things. He had to do something, and with typical American wit and resourcefulness he decided to take up the automobile business. He had never run an automobile himself, knew nothing of the complexities of its machinery, and his qualifications as a salesman were entirely potential. After some study and investigation he decided that he would like to sell the Studebaker cars. When it came time. to buy his first car, he put a second mortgage on his little home, and it is possible that a few people who heard of that transaction predicted that he was on the course to rapid ruin. It would require many pages to recite the full history of the next eight years. It is sufficient perhaps to state immediately that Harry W. Blevins is now president and general manager f the Blevins Auto Sales Company, the largest individual distributing agency f automobiles f one make in the entire world. This company now controls the sale, distribution and service f the Studebaker cars over five states. In 1915, through its magnificent sales and service organization, it distributed Studebaker goods to the aggre- 1028 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO gate value f $2,500,000. A further re-organization and extension of the business has recently taken place, so that the mark set for the year 1917 is the sale f $6,000,000 worth of Studebaker cars and equipment. The territory covered are the states of Ohio and Indiana, all of Southern Michigan, and West Virginia and Kentucky. The northern division, covered by the company from its Toledo headquarters, covers Northern Ohio and Indiana and Southern Michigan, while recently there has been opened a branch concern at Cincinnati for Southern Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. In 1908 Mr. Blevins was able to dispose of $40,000 worth of Studebaker cars. His phenomenal success is due not only to his own remarkable energy, but to his judgment in selecting his lieutenants. He has surrounded himself with a group of men whose equal in the aggregate are probably not to be found in the automobile world. The principal officers of the Blevins Auto Sales Company are : Harry W. Blevins, president and general manager ; George P. Lutz, treasurer and assistant general manager ; Charles F. Chapman, vice president ; H. G. Rossiter, secretary, and F. A. Welsh, manager of the Cincinnati branch. Harrison Williams Blevins was born at Troy, Ohio, May 13, 1880, a son of Solomon and Mary (Enyeard) Blevins. His mother died when he was about ten years of age, her death having occurred in the Cincinnati Hospital following an operation, and she was buried in Troy. The father is now living retired at Dayton. Educated in the public schools of Troy, Harry W. Blevins finished a course in the Oberlin Academy and then continued in Oberlin College until his junior year. He left college to take the management of the A. G. Commings book store at Oberlin, filled that position two years, and then came to Toledo for W. F. Day, who is now president f the Brown, Eager & Hull Company of Toledo. Mr. Day made young Blevins manager of the retail department of his concern located on Summit Street near Adams Street. Two years later occurred the historic fire by which the store was burned out f business and he was left without a job. Thus in 1908 Mr. Blevins started to sell and handle Studebaker cars. His first location was at the corner f Madison and Erie streets ; he moved from there to another place on Madison Street, and then, on January 1, 1915, the Blevins Auto Sales Company occupied its magnificent new building 'at the corner of Adams and Tenth streets. Mr. Blevins owns this building in his own name. It is a fire-prof automobile structure with a frontage of 100 feet on Adams Street and 130 feet on Tenth Street. It contains two floors and basement. The construction is brick and terra cotta and is fireproof throughout, being also equipped with automatic sprinkler system. It is regarded as one of the finest additions to the rapidly growing Adams Street district. The entire front on Adams Street is terra cotta construction and the terra cotta also extends entire front presents a magnificent expanse of plate glass. Seventy feet of the lower floor is occupied by salesrooms and offices, while the balance of the ground floor and a large part of the second floor is taken up by the service department, which is one f the most important features of the Studebaker idea in automobiles, and this feature has been developed preeminently by the Blevins organization. The basement is used for storage. The second floor also contains a large stock room where a $20,000 stock of Studebaker models is carried. The interior finish of the office and salesroom is quarter-sawed oak. Another feature is a display room for used cars. It was in 1915 that the Blevins Company began the distribution of Studebaker cars in five different states. In less than eight years it has reached the distinction of being the largest distributor of Studebaker cars in the world, and there is no other agency handling one exclusive car which does a greater aggregate business in the course of twelve months than the Blevins Auto Sales Company. In the first year Mr. Blevins sold forty cars, and his organization at present distributes that many cars in less than a week. The Cincinnati branch of this concern occupies a new concrete building at the corner of Gilbert Avenue and Court Street, opposite the new site for the Pennsylvania depot, now in course of construction. This location gives the company facilities not surpassed by any automobile distributor in the southern half of the state. As all this indicates, Mr. Blevins is not only an automobile salesman par excellence, but has a peculiar genius for organization and for real leadership. Those qualities as much as his vehement personality have been responsible for making him in the course of a few years one of Toledo's most successful men. He now owns much valuable real estate in HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1029 o, and in 1916 constructed a two-story basement commercial building on the er of Jefferson Avenue and Eleventh treet opposite the Young Women's Christian Association. This building will have three store rooms facing on Jefferson Avenue and five rooms on Eleventh Street, and is also finished in terra cotta on both fronts. Mr. Blevins is a member of the Toledo Club, of the Toledo Commerce Club, the Toledo Yacht Club, the Inverness Golf Club and the Toledo Automobile Club. He is also a trustee of the Collingwood Presbyterian Church of Toledo.. His name is familiar in automobile circles throughout the length and breadth of the country and he is now secretary of the Toledo Auto Show Company. At Troy, Ohio, his native town, on June 21, 1906, he married Miss Clara C. Coles, a daughter of T. E. and Flora (Tirkield) Coles, both of whom are now living retired at Troy. Mrs. Blevins was born and reared at Troy, graduated from the high school there and was a student at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She is active socially, a member of the Thalian Club and f other organizations, but primarily devotes her time to her home and family. They are the parents of two children : Robert E. and Caroline Clara, both of whom were born in Toledo. Mr. Blevins is, of course, an automobile enthusiast and takes great pleasure in driving a fine car, but he also finds recreation in the ancient game of golf. HARRY SHERMAN FOX, who was elected a member of the State Legislature of Lucas County in 1914, and who proved himself an able and public spirited representative f local interests, is a young business man of long and varied experience in Toledo, Ohio. While in the Legislature Mr. Fox served as a member of the committee on appropriations and finance, committee on public parks and works, and committee on public waterways. He has been a resident of Toledo for ten years, and throughout that time has been a progressive factor in business and local affairs. It is not out of place to state that Mr. Fox is descended from some of the old and substantial families of England. His mother was a Bardwell, and was descended from the English family of that name, which contained among its members at one time Lord Bardwell. Mr. Fox's grandfather Bardwell went to Wisconsin from New York during the '40s, and was one of the pioneers at Plainfield, Wis- Vol II-- 24 consin. The Fox family is of Scotch Irish descent, and came to America from the North of Ireland. Mr. Fox himself is a Wisconsin man by birth, having been born at Plainfield, Waushara County, Wisconsin, September 23, 1875. His parents were George B. and Charlotte (Bardwell) Fox. His mother died at Plainfield in 1902. The father is still living there and is in the insurance business. He was born in Burlington, Wisconsin, while his wife was a native of New York State, and they were married at Plainfield. George B. Fox, though but fourteen years of age at the time, enlisted in Company C of the Fifty-second Wisconsin Infantry as a private about a year before the end of the war. He had filled various minor offices and is one f the oldest living residents of Plainfield. In a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters, all living except two girls, Harry Sherman Fox was the oldest. He received his education in the public schools of Plainfield, and was a member of the first graduating class in the high school in 1892. There were three boys and three girls in the class, and all are living today. For one year he pursued the agricultural course in the University of Wisconsin. However, since an early age his career has been one of constant industry and of experience in several different lines. He was first employed in the local office at Plainfield for the Wisconsin Central Railway Company, remaining about a year. For a number of years his grandfather Sherman Bardwell had conducted a general store at Plainfield, and when George B. Fox bought out that establishment the son, Harry Sherman, took active charge and conducted it 3 ½ years. His father then moved the business to Plover, Wisconsin, and the son continued it there a year and a half. The business was sold in January, 1901, at which time Mr. Fox went on the road as a salesman handling tents and awnings in the Territory of Illinois for the Fond du Lac Tent & Awning Company of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. After six months of road experience, he found himself the proprietor of the Hotel Mitchell at Plainfield, Wisconsin. Mr. Fox has had a thorough experience as a hotel proprietor and manager. After a year and a half as landlord of Hotel Mitchell he sold out and became night clerk at the Witter House in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, six months later went to the Durdall Hotel at Algona, Iowa, as chief clerk for three months, and then for six 1030 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO months worked in the same capacity for the Waverly Hotel at Emmettsburg, Iowa. The next six months he was assistant manager of the Lincoln Hotel at Merrill, Wisconsin. Leaving the hotel business, he took a position as order clerk with the Anson-Hixon Sash and Door Company at Merrill, and three months later was promoted to office manager and remained there a year. His home has been in Toledo since February, 1906. For two years he was office manager for the Collier-Varnett Company f Toledo, was then made treasurer of the company, and was with the firm in the capacity until 1913. Then for about a year he was president of the Cathedral Art Glass Company of Toledo, and for a time was a partner in the firm of George H. McMullen & Company, wholesale lumber. Mr. Fox was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1914 for the term of two years on the democratic ticket. While a member of the Legislature he was special representative for the R. L. Dollings Company of Hamilton, Ohio, dealers in municipal bonds and industrial securities. Mr. Fox remained with that firm until March 1, 1916. Mr. Fox has taken a very active interest in Masonry and is a member of all the Masonic bodies at Toledo. These include Rubicon Lodge No. 237, Free and Accepted Masons, Fort Meigs Chapter No. 29, Royal Arch Masons ; Toledo Council No. 33, Royal and Select Masters ; Toledo Commandery No. 7, Knights Templar; the Scottish Rite Consistory Valley of Toledo ; Zenobia Temple of the Mystic Shrine ; Palestine Chapter No. 51 of the Eastern Star: Oriental Shrine No. 1, and O-Ton-Ta-La Grotto No. 40. Mr. Fox has the ability to do good in more than one direction. He is active in the Washington Street Congregational Church and at one time was secretary of the Toledo City Mission and is also a former secretary of the Federation f Churches at Toledo. He is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club and is secretary of the Toledo Transportation Club. His favorite recreation is watching a good baseball game. On July 19, 1899, Mr. Fox married Miss Harriet Pearl Hunt of Plainfield, Wisconsin. She was born in Indiana, a daughter of Robert John Hunt, who later became a resident of Plainfield, Wisconsin, and she was educated in the public schools of Coloma, Wisconsin. Mrs. Fox's grandfather on her mother's side hauled the first brick to build the first brick building in Chicago, Illinois, taking the material by wagon from Kankakee, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Fox have one daughter, Helen Hunt Fox, who was born at Emmettsburg, Iowa, and is now twelve years of age. ALBERT KIRK. In Toledo's long list of business men the late Albert Kirk was one of the best known. He gave of his wonderful energy to the founding and maintenance of the splendid business that reflected credit upon Toledo as a commercial center. Eminently practical, he had also those qualities of personal magnetism which made him a natural leader among men, and also possessed and developed in a high degree the faculty of making and retaining friends. His old associates still living recall with pleasure his happy disposition, and the warmth and courtesy with which he received his many friends. When he died at his old home at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Eleventh Street on May 17, 1895, he closed his long and successful career as a manufacturer and business figure in Toledo. He was born near Massillon in Lawrence Township, Stark County, Ohio, September 23, 1826, one of the nine children of William and Maria (Miller) Kirk, who were early settlers and farmers of Stark County. He started life only with ordinary advantages, but rose superior to his environment and found success while many of his early contemporaries were struggling for a mere foothold on the path of existence. During his first eighteen years he lived on the farm, developed his strength by farm work, and attended the country schools. Then followed an apprenticeship of four years at the tinsmith's trade at Canal Fulton. He followed this trade as a journeyman for a number f years, spent one year in Medina County and three years in the City of Cleveland. When Mr. Kirk came to Toledo in 1854 it was to embark in the boot and shoe business as a member of the firm of Miller, Kirk & Company. The business connection which was destined to be his permanent one was formed in 1862 when he and George Worts established a bakery. Four years later they erected a building on St. Clair Street which their business occupied for twenty-four years. In 1866 the firm became Worth & Company, consisting of George Worts, Albert Kirk, H. W. Bigelow and Henry Waite. the last being the youngest son of Morrison R. Waite of Toledo, former chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. With the death of Mr. Waite in HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1031 1873 the firm name, was changed to Worts, Kirk & Bigelow, and those three men continued active in the business until 1890. Their large plant, which in the meantime had been remodeled and equipped to the highest degree of efficiency, and its products regularly distributed over a large area f country around Toledo, was then absorbed by the United States Baking Company. The partners of the old Toledo firm, while retiring from the active management, still retained their stock in the new corporation. From that time until his death five years later Albert Kirk was not actively identified with any line of business. For over forty years he was an active Mason, member of Toledo Lodge No. 144, Free and Accepted Masons. He was for thirty years a trustee of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, and one of the most active workers in its charitable affairs. Politically he was a republican, and member of the city council for two years. Mr. Kirk lived before the automobile age, and was known as a great lover and admirer of good horses. He owned some splendid drivers, and it is said that he never took the dust from any one. In mentioning the name of the late Albert Kirk there comes immediately to the minds of many hundreds of people in Toledo his beautiful and accomplished wife. On October 18, 1855, he married Miss Hannah Sarah Worts, and for forty years they traveled life's highway hand in hand and she survived him twelve years, passing away at the old home on December 20, 1907. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and her parents soon afterwards moved to Oswego, New York, and from there in 1850 came to Toledo to reside. It was not so much for what she did as for what she was that Mrs. Kirk was so greatly beloved. It has been well said that she was a woman whose declining years found her happiest and most at home with the young and she steadfastly refused to become a companion f the aged even in advancing years. Most people grow gray in heart and intellect as the years fade their physical powers, but it is characteristic of Mrs. Kirk that she remained fresh and young in spirit up to her very death. She had in truth learned the lesson of growing old graciously and gracefully, and in her declining years she was still a cultured woman of superb self reliance, with quick and keen intellect, and a heart attuned to all the gentler harmonies of life. It was the possession of these characteristics that enabled her to live so completely the lives of her children. She was not only a mother but a friend and a familiar to her sons, and their pleasures and their activities were a real part of her life. Highly educated, with cultivated tastes in many directions, she was from the time of her coming to Toledo a prominent factor in its social life. Of an intensely religious nature, she was continuously identified with the growth and development of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church from its organization and in early years, when her own family as well as the church were struggling for existence, she made many personal sacrifices in order that she might give the more generously to her church society. While her religious character was not obtrusive, and she never forced her convictions upon any one, she manifested the truth and beauty f her belief consistently in every act of her life. Mr. and Mrs. Kirk had six children. All of them were born and received their education in Toledo, and four are still living, all of them having proved worthy of the splendid heritage of character they received from their honored parents. The four now living'are : Ezra E., a sketch of whom is found on other pages; Edward A., who is a fruit farmer on River Road ; Bessie M., Mrs. B. C. Kramer of Toledo, and Arthur W. Of Toledo. CHARLES GRANVILLE WILSON. For a period of almost forty-five years Charles G. Wilson has been a member of the Toledo bar. For a great many years he controlled a splendid private practice, which took him into the courts not only of Lucas County but of several other counties, so that his name and reputation as a lawyer are almost as well known over the greater part of Northwestern Ohio as in Toledo itself. His success as an attorney naturally brought him business interests, and as these accumulated he was compelled more and more to divorce himself from private practice and in recent years has come to regard himself as practically retired from the law, his time being largely devoted to the management of his private affairs. During his long residence in Northwestern Ohio Mr. Wilson has played a part in keeping with his versatile abilities and is one of the widely known citizens of the state. The family has been identified with this part of Ohio since pioneer times, and some of his ability and character are no doubt inherited from his very worthy ancestral line. He was born at Fremont in Sandusky County, Ohio, June 27, 1846. His parents were James William and Nancy (Justice) Wilson. His 1032 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO paternal great-grandfather was James Wilson, who was of New England stock. About 1791 he went to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where, in 1793, he married Rebecca Orwig. Later in the same year, while he was making a journey through the forest, he was murdered by Indians. He was a man of liberal education for that day, and was also a lawyer by profession. His only son was named Samuel Wilson, and became a prominent merchant, banker and land owner in Central Pennsylvania, living for many years at New Berlin in that state. James William Wilson, the father, was born in New Berlin, Pennsylvania, February 1, 1816, and died at Fremont, Ohio, July 21, 1904. After his education in the Pennsylvania common schools he entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, one of the oldest and most distinguished schools of medical instruction in the New World. He was graduated M. D. in March, 1837, and then practiced his profession for two years in Center County, Pennsylvania. In July, 1839, he came to Northwestern Ohio and located at Fremont, then known as Lower Sandusky, and because f his ability and many personal qualifications soon found a large and profitable practice. He continued to live at Fremont until his death. He was a pioneer physician, much more liberally educated than the average practitioner f his time, and in a day when the work of his profession required almost constant travel by horseback and the under-going f the severest hardships, he never with-held his service on account of any personal disinclination. Hi§ position in Northwestern Ohio was not entirely the result of his work as a physician. In May, 1863, he took a very prominent part in founding the First National Bank f Fremont. Special interest attaches to this institution because it was the fifth national, bank charter in the United States. He served as its vice president from its be-ginning until January 27, 1874, when he became president and held that office until his death. In April, 1882, he also became one of the founders of the Fremont Savings Bank of Fremont, was elected its first president, and held that office until he passed away. His large success as a business man enabled him to invest extensively in real estate in San-dusky, Wood and Lucas counties. He was also the recipient f many offices of trust in his home town and county. Doctor Wilson married Nancy Justice. Her father was James Justice, who was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1794, and was f English parentage. When he was a boy his parents removed to Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1820 he married Eliza Moore, who was of Scotch stock, and her grandfather, George Davis (the great-great-grandfather of Charles G. Wilson), was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In 1822 James Justice moved to Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, where he died in 1873. He had served as a soldier in the War f 1812, and was a participant in some of the campaigns in Northwestern Ohio. His record is very closely associated with, the public life f Northwestern Ohio in the early days. In 1825, at the age of thirty-one, he was elected associate judge f the Court of Common Pleas, and was commissioned for seven years by Governor Jeremiah Morrow. In 1832 he was re-elected and was commissioned for another term of seven years by Governor Duncan McArthur. He was widely known for his hard common sense, his abundant fund of humor which sweetened life and made him a welcome companion, and was also a very successful business man, his interests being in manufacturing and banking lines. With such ancestors it is not strange that Charles Granville Wilson has been more than ordinarily distinguished in his own career. He attended the public schools of Fremont, his birthplace, until April, 1863. He then entered the college preparatory school conducted by Rev. Mr. Brayton at Painesville, Ohio. A number of Toledo boys were in that school at the time, including Edward T. Waite, son of Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite; Frank Smith, son of Dennison B. Smith, and Joe Brown, grandson of General Brown. He and young Waite were roommates. For little more than a year he remained in that school and in September, 1864, he entered Milnor Hall, a college preparatory school at Gambier. From that he entered the freshman class of Kenyon College at Gambier and took the four year classical course, graduating Bachelor of Arts June 25, 1868. June 28, 1871, Kenyon College conferred upon him the degree Master of Arts. Mr. Wilson was prominent in &liege life, but particularly in athletics. He played on the first baseball nine in the college throughout his four year course as shortstop and catcher, and during his junior and senior years as captain of the nine, being known as the "home-run getter." While in college he weighed between 130 and, 140 pounds, was very active and strong, and made it a rule to practice in the gymnasium HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1033 nearly every day. While in preparatory and college institutions he never encountered anyone who could defeat him in contests of running, high or broad jumping. In his freshman year he became a member of the Alpha Delta Phi, the original and one of the leading college fraternities f the United States. He was also identified with the Nu Pi Kappa Literary and Debating Society. He was president of his class in the senior year, and was one of the four editors of the Kenyon Reveille, which for many years has been the senior class publication. In 1868, in his senior year, with four fellow fraternity men f his class, he took the master's and the two preceding degrees in the Masonic lodge at Mount Vernon, Ohio. On graduating from Kenyon College he entered the law office of Buckland, Everett & Fowler at Fremont, where he continued his studies until October, 1869. He then entered the Harvard Law School at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and after the full two years' course was graduated LL. B. June 28, 1871. On September 4 of that year he was admitted to the bar at Elyria by the old District Court then in session there. Mr. Wilson took up his residence at Toledo October 2, 1871. He first became identified with the law office of Pratt & Starr, the members of which were Charles Pratt and Charles C. Starr. In July, 1872, Mr. Starr withdrew and Mr. Pratt and Mr. Wilson then formed a partnership as Pratt & Wilson, with offices in the Findlay, or the Chamber of Commerce Building, at the corner of Summit and Madison streets, a building which was later burned. In 1879 Erskine H. Potter joined them,. making the firm Pratt, Wilson & Potter, which continued until 1880, when Mr.. Potter withdrew. As Pratt & Wilson the firm continued until 1884 when Henry S. Pratt, the oldest son of Charles Pratt, was admitted, changing the title to Pratt, Wilson & Pratt. By the withdrawal of Henry S. Pratt in 1890 the firm again became Pratt & Wilson and continued until February 1, 1895. At that date Judge Pratt withdrew to take his seat on the Common Pleas bench. During the last twenty years Mr. Wilson has had no regular associate in the practice of law. While associated with Mr. Pratt the firm was regarded as one of the strongest in the Lucas County bar, and a great amount of its practice came from surrounding counties, particularly Ottawa and Wood. Mr. Wilson looked after the greater share of this outside business, and he thus came to be almost as familiar a figure in the courts of those counties as the resident lawyers themselves. The offices of Pratt & Wilson were on the second floor of the Chamber f Commerce Building until early in 1884, when, with Judge John H. Doyle, they rented for a term of years the old brick Gardner residence. at the corner of Madison and Superior streets. This building they arranged for offices, and it was known as the Gardner Place. Judge Doyle occupied the first floor and Pratt & Wilson the second floor. At that time no law offices had extended further west than St. Clair Street and they were pioneers in extending the legal district. When the Gardner Place was vacated in 1892 to make room for the present Gardner Building Pratt & Wilson moved to the fourth floor of the Produce Exchange, and Mr. Wilson continued there after the dissolution f the firm until February, 1897. He then took offices on the fifth floor of the new Gardner Building, and that has been his office home now for more than eighteen years. As a lawyer Mr. Wilson, while in active practice, enjoyed a special regard from his fellow attorneys. He was distinguished for a very retentive and active memory, and it is said that under ordinary circumstances he could refer offhand to the title f a decision on any question f law, with the volume and page where it could be found. He has always been a republican and in earlier years took a very important part in politics, and was a frequent delegate to conventions from the old Seventh Ward, which then comprised that part of Toledo between Monroe and Cherry streets and Woodruff Avenue and the western city limits. For years he was republican ward committeeman and also served as a member f the city and county central and executive committees, and as chairman of the republican city committee and as member of the judicial committee for Lucas County. He was a very vigorous and effective campaign speaker. In 1884 he was nominated for candidate for Common Pleas judge for the first subdivision of the Fourth Judicial District, comprising Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie and Huron counties. It was a democratic territory in which he had to make his campaign and he ran far ahead of his ticket in every county, especially in Lucas County, and for a time after the election it was conceded that he had won. When the back districts of Ottawa County finally reported it was found that he had been defeated 1034 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO by a small majority. This campaign was the more notable when it is recalled that. in the same year Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States. In 1888 he was again nominated for Common Pleas judge for the same district, but was again unable to overcome the heavy democratic majority. On November 1, 1893, Mr. Wilson was made a director f the First National Bank of Fremont, and has served on the board continuously for the past twenty-one years. On August 5, 1904, he was elected vice president and on April 4, 1906, was elected president, an office he still holds. He is a director of the Fremont Savings Bank and Trust Company. In recent years Mr. Wilson has given much of his time and capital to the production of crude petroleum oil from wells drilled on some of his own land in Sandusky County. He has also done much for the development of farm lands in this part of Ohio and he owns a large amount of property of that kind in Lucas, Wood and Sandusky counties. He is a stockholder in many banks and industrial corporations. It was the gradual accumulation f these interests which finally compelled him to give up his active law practice and concern himself with their management. Fraternally he is a member of Sanford L. Collins Lodge No. 396, Free and Accepted Masons, of Toledo ; belongs to Toledo Commandery No. 7, Knights Templar, and all Masonic bodies in Toledo, Toledo Consistory, Fort Meigs Chapter, Zenobia Shrine, Scottish Rite--thirty-second degree Mason. He belongs to the Toledo Club, the Country Club, Toledo Commerce Club, Fremont Chamber of Commerce of Fremont, Ohio, Ohio State Bar Association and the Lucas County Bar Association, and for many years belonged to the Burns Curling Club. He was baptized in the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which his parents were active members. On September 6, 1876, Mr. Wilson married Cornelia L. Amsden, daughter f Isaac and Cornelia B. Amsden of Fremont. To this union were born two children : Cornelia A., wife of William F. Johnson of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; and Justice Wilson, a prominent attorney of Toledo, to whom reference is made on other pages. Mrs. Charles G. Wilson died at her home in Toledo January 18, 1911. Her death not only interrupted the happy domestic companionship of thirty-five years, but removed from the city one of its foremost workers in the cause of charity. In her later years she was seldom in the best of health, but never spared herself in her efforts in behalf of those causes and institutions to which she was so loyally devoted. She was particularly interested in and was president of the Toledo Boys' Home, and through that institution gave her resources with unstinted generosity for fifteen years. The institution is really in a larger sense a monument to her efforts, and it was due to her influence that the boys of the home owe much of the comforts, means of advancement and training which they have enjoyed. Mrs. Wilson was also vice regent f the Daughters f the American Revolution, and a very active and devout member of the Trinity Episcopal Church. At the time of her death she was fifty-five years of age. Outside of his profession, business and politics Mr. Wilson has always enjoyed many f the finer resources and accomplishments of the cultured gentleman. He is especially distinctive among his friends for his wide and versatile knowledge of books. Reading has been perhaps his most delightful recreation and resource. He has a large and well selected private library, and every book in it practically has been accumulated only as he had opportunity to read it. He has no books for mere display, and those volumes that stand on his ample shelves are like old friends, with each f which he has spent pleasant and profitable hours. Probably from his maternal grandfather Mr. Wilson inherited a fund of humor and ready wit, and that proved valuable to him in the active practice of law and has made him a very genial and interesting companion. On numberless occasions he has served as toastmaster and speaker at banquets and at bar association meetings, and among a wide circle f intimate friends he is esteemed quite as much for his accomplishments of mind and heart as for his work in the profession and in the field f practical affairs. WILLIAM BUELL WELLES, a son of the late Gen. George E. . and Julia E. (Smith) Welles, reference to the distinguished career of his father being made on other pages, is a member f the firm of The Welles-Bowen Company, real estate, insurance and surety bonds at Toledo, and in recent years has been closely identified with the platting and marketing of some of the most important residential additions to Toledo. He was born in Toledo March 30, 1878. His education came from the public schools and at HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1035 the age of eighteen he graduated from the Central High School in the class of 1896. The twenty years that have followed have been abundantly filled with business experience and activities. For eight years he was connected with The Bostwick-Braun Company, wholesale and retail hardware dealers at Toledo. For three years f that time the company had him as one of their traveling representatives in Michigan. For two years he traveled over Indiana and Ohio representing the Van Camp Hardware Company of Indianapolis. Returning to Toledo, he then became manager of the retail department of The Star Hardware Company, whose place of business was then located on Monroe Street. With that firm he remained two years. With this wide experience of a business nature, Mr. Welles next engaged in the general insurance business, handling the various lines of insurance and also casualty and security bonds. At first he was alone, beginning in December, 1907, but in June, 1908, became associated with Mr. Bowen in organizing The Welles-Bowen Company, whose offices are in the Ohio Building. This firm is one of the largest of the kind in Toledo and is engaged in handling exclusively their own property and do no real estate brokerage. The company organized The Parkside Realty Company, which owned four hundred lots located on West Bancroft Street and in one of the best residential districts. This addition was valued at three hundred fifty thousand dollars, and was platted and put on the market in April, 1915. At the end f a year fully three fourths of the lots had been sold. The company is now platting the Westmoreland Addition on West Bancrft Street, containing 323 lots and to be marketed for an aggregate of a $1,000,000. This addition was put on the market in the spring of 1916. The company also represents a number of the well known fire insurance companies. Mr. Welles is a director and secretary of The Parkside Realty Company, director and secretary of The Ottawa Park Realty Company, secretary and treasurer of The Welles-Bowen Company, and a director of The Court Realty Company. At one time Mr. Welles was an active member of the Toledo Naval Reserves. He is affiliated with Sanford L. Collins Lodge No. 396, Free and Accepted Masons, and with Toledo Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He is also member of the Toledo Commerce Club, the Toledo Yacht Club and the Toledo Club. On October 3, 1911, Mr. Welles married Miss Henrietta M. Gossman, daughter f the late Frederick Gossman, who died many years ago when Mrs. Welles was a child. Mr. Goss-man was treasurer of the Ann Arbor Railroad Company. Mrs. Welles was born and educated in Toledo. One daughter has been born to their marriage, Julia. GEN. GEORGE E. WELLES. One of the most resourceful soldiers sent by Northwest Ohio into the Civil war was the late Gen. George E. Welles of Toledo. Thousands of the men who volunteered from Ohio in the dark days of the '60s were not lacking in physical courage and the morale so requisite to the true soldier. But General Welles possessed more than these qualities. He had the calm and cool judgment, the ability of leadership and of handling men in groups and masses. Experience and study made him a thorough master of military technique, but he distinguished himself not only by routine performance but especially by prompt and energetic action when emergency forced upon him responsibilities of a severe and exacting nature. He not only led his men in battle but inspired them to fight efficiently, and on more than one occasion extricated them from difficulties and made his command a factor in the success of an entire army. It was sheer ability and merit that raised George E. Welles from the ranks to the grade of brigadier-general. He was one f the youngest volunteer colonels in the Union army. He was not yet twenty-one when he enlisted and after one or two brief campaigns his distinctive performance had won him the straps of an officer, first in the company and then in the regiment. George E. Welles was born at Cleveland, Ohio, July 4, 1840. The self reliance and fidelity to duty which distinguished him as a soldier were manifest during his early life and conspicuously so in his later business career. Leaving the country schools at the age of fourteen he entered a drug store, and in 1859 came to Toledo, becoming clerk in the wholesale drug house of West & Truax. He left that firm to volunteer his services for the preservation f the Union. The day after Fort Sumter was fired upon President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 troops to preserve the Union. George E. Welles was one of the first to offer his services from Toledo. He enlisted April 14, 1861, as a private in Company E of the Fourteenth 1036 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was then being organized in Toledo. His first colonel was Maj.-Gen. James B. Steedman. Before the regiment went to the field Mr. Welles was appointed first lieutenant and detailed for duty with the paymaster general of Ohio. With that regiment and in that capacity he served during the three months' term of enlistment, which expired August 3, 1861. He then returned to Ohio. His fighting spirit could not be quenched by such a brief experience. It was inconsistent with his patriotic ardor to remain at home engaged in peaceful business pursuits while his country and flag were in distress. October 29, 1861, the governor of Ohio gave him a commission as first lieutenant and adjutant of the Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was then being organized with headquarters at Napoleon, Ohio. The members of this regiment were drawn largely from Napoleon, Defiance and vicinity. Early in January, 1862, the regiment joined the army under the command of General Grant, who was then operating on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. It was attached to the Second Brigade, Third Division, Army of the Tennessee, and the Sixty-eighth was almost immediately engaged in the siege of Fort Donelson. During the next six months Adjutant Welles acquitted himself with such efficiency and keen intelligence in the discharge of his duties that on July 5, 1862, he was promoted over ten senior captains as major of the regiment. Then followed a campaign in Kentucky and Tennessee and the beginning of the operations against Vicksburg. On May 16, 1863, Major Welles was promoted lieutenant colonel and when, soon afterwards, the colonel of the regiment was assigned to command a brigade, the lieutenant colonel became acting commander of the regiment, and as such continued until the close of the war. In January, 1865, he was given a full commission as colonel, and on March 16, 1865, a few weeks before the end offhe war he was brevetted brigadier-general for "gallant and meritorious conduct." In very few instances did so young a volunteer soldier receive such rapid and important pro-motion. The military records show that these promotions were based entirely on merit, and ability to perform exacting services and an unexcelled fidelity to every duty. Through-out the, Army of the Tennessee he became known as "the boy colonel." One individual tribute will suffice to explain his record in addition to the successive promotions already noted. Major-General Leggett, his division commander, said of him : " That boy never made a mistake." His service led him into some of the hottest fighting and most protracted campaigns of the war. The record beginning at Fort Donelson was continued in the advance up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, including the battle ofShiloh, the siege of Corinth, the operations around Vicksburg, including the battle of Champion Hill, and the siege and capture of that Mississippi stronghold, after the campaigns and battles from Chattanooga to Atlanta, from Atlanta he and his regiment followed Sherman on the march to the sea, went from Savannah north to the Carolinas, and was a part of Sherman's army present at the surrender of the last great fragment of the Confederate army, the troops under Joseph E. Johnston. Some weeks later General Welles led his regiment in the Grand Review at Washington, then proceeded with it to Louisville, Kentucky, where on July 10, 1865, his faithful followers were finally mustered out and given their honorable discharge. In one of the great battles around Atlanta General Welles was severely wounded. In the same engagement the gallant General McPherson was killed, and the regiment of Colonel Welles was close by when that intrepid leader fell. In that fight the cool judgment and prompt action of General Welles succeeded in extricating his regiment, when, almost surrounded by Confederates, and placing it in a position where it continued an effective fighting unit. This splendid handling of his troops brought high compliments from his superior officers. On being mustered out offhe army General Welles returned to Northwest Ohio. He had spent four years with the army. This long and continuous service had all but shattered his vigorous constitution. He lived forty years after the war, but never recovered from the effects of his service, and for many years he suffered quietly and uncomplainingly, until paralysis seized him and eventually brought about his death. With his return to Toledo he was appointed assistant postmaster, and also engaged in business with A. W. Colton & Company in the grain and shipping trade. Later he was associated with his brother A. K. Welles in the grain business under the firm name of Welles Brothers. In the meantime President Grant had appointed him assessor of internal rev- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1037 enue, a position he held until the office was abolished. In 1887 General Welles was called to Duluth, Minnesota, and became secretary of the Board of Trade of that city. In 1894 he returned to Toledo, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred April 27, 1906. For several years he was local representative for the New York Life Insurance Company, and also served as deputy county clerk under Clerks Weier and Clark. In 1903 he was compelled to retire from public life on account of ill health. General Welles was one of the most substantial citizens of Toledo. His interests included a number of business enterprises, and every duty of a public nature he discharged with singular fidelity and straightforwardness of purpose. He was distinguished by a great modesty and courtesy of demeanor, and a gentleness of disposition which made him greatly beloved among his wide circle of friends. It is said that General Welles never showed the slightest propensity to boast of his army record. In fact it required considerable questioning to draw him out on that subject, and many of his later day acquaintances never realized that he was one of the most brilliant soldiers Northwestern Ohio had furnished to the Union army. He took a prominent part in Masonic circles and was also an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. On May 24, 1877, General Welles married Miss Julia Smith. Mrs. Welles was born in Toledo, a daughter of Dennison B. Smith and a granddaughter of Gen. John E. Hunt. General Hunt was one of the distinguished pioneers of Northwest Ohio, having come to Maumee in 1816 and afterwards locating in Toledo. He served as Toledo postmaster from 1853 to 1860 and was very prominent in all the early affairs of that city. Thus Mrs. Welles represented one f the very old families of Northwest Ohio. In her early womanhood she was one of the leaders of Toledo society. She was especially noted for the charm and grace of manner which she had inherited from her maternal grandmother, who was a Virginian of birth and breeding. Mrs. Welles, who died in Toledo November 26, 1911, five years after the death f General Welles, was an active member all her life of Trinity Episcopal Church and very devoted to its interests until failing health intervened. At the time of her death she was sixty years of age. Two sons survive General and Mrs. Welles. William B., a member of the real estate and insurance firm of The Welles-Bowen Company of Toledo, is referred to on other pages. George D. is a prominent Toledo attorney, a member of the firm of Tracy, Chapman & Welles. SCHUYLER C. SCHENCK. During more than forty years of residence at Toledo the late Schuyler C. Schenck was a constructive power in the molding and development of that city's commercial affairs and its civic and philanthropic institutions. Successful in business, he had no ambition apparently to amass wealth for wealth's sake, but only for the service which it would enable him to render his fellow men. He touched Toledo's life at a number f vital points and he deserves to be remembered as one f the city's builders. He was in the years of vigorous manhood when he arrived in Toledo in 1870. He had been born in Fulton, Oswego County, New York, March 9, 1842. His death occurred at his home in Toledo, June 3, 1913, at the age of seventy-one. His paternal ancestors were Hollanders who settled in this country about 1650. His father combined. farming and lumber dealing. One f eight children, Schuyler C. Schenck had only a common school education, and his early experience alternated between his father's farm and the business activities of the Town of Fulton. His first work was in a general store in that city, and soon afterwards he transferred to a Fulton hardware store. He continued to be employed by that concern for ten years, and at the age of twenty-one was admitted to a partnership. When he came to Toledo in 1870 Mr. Schenck established himself in the coal and fuel business as agent for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. That was his chief line of business from that time forward until his death. He was both a wholesale and retail merchant in coal and fuel, and was not only selling agent and local representative for the Lackawanna but also for other companies. On May 1, 1898, he was appointed sales agent by the Lackawanna Company at Chicago, and at the time of his death he had charge f the company's fuel distributing department in both cities. While on the whole he kept himself in one current of business affairs, his commercial relations included a much wider scope. He was president of the Toledo & Indiana Railroad ; was a director in the First National Bank of Toledo ; a director of the Union Savings Bank of Toledo ; and had served as vice 1038 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO president and also as president of the First National Bank. To a still larger group of citizens the late Mr. Schenck was known for his municipal and charitable activities. He was a trustee of the Lucas County Children's Home and took much interest in that institution, and frequently acted as guardian to orphans who possessed small estates. He served the city well whether in public or private life. From 1882 to 1884 he was a member f the city council, for a time was a member of the city park board. Mr. Schenck and wife possibly more than any other persons were the most influential in the establishment and early maintenance of the Toledo Hospital. Almost from the inception of that institution Mr. Schenck was on the hospital advisory board, and Mrs. Schenck is still a member f the board of trustees. Soon after establishing his home in Toledo, in 1871, Mr. Schenck returned to New York and married Miss Harriet Elizabeth Dow. Since 1885 the family has resided at 2235 Jefferson Avenue, and that is still marked as the site of one f the fine old homes of the city. Mrs. Schenck and four children survive. These children are : Daniel D. Schenck, who is now active head f his father's various business interests in Toledo ; Mrs. B. S. Hamilton ; Lewis R. ; and Margaret L., who is the wife of Walter L. Haskell, all of Toledo. JAMES AUSTIN, JR. In recent years a number of men, and following them distinct organizations, have arisen in the United States to carry out the simple and ancient doctrines f the "Golden Rule." Perhaps the greatest progress toward social justice, amelioration f unjust conditions, and realization of the ideals of true democracy, has been wrought by the work of such men and such organizations. To the great outside world Toledo is perhaps best known, not for its commerce and industry, but for the work accomplished by its men of light and leading, foremost among whom was the late Golden Rule mayor, Samuel Jones, and one f the same group, now serving as head of the judicial department, better known as the Police Court, is James Austin, Jr.; who is generally referred to as the Golden Rule police judge. A lawyer of Toledo for more than thirty years, Judge Austin has made his life count for benefit in his home city, and his career is one that reflects honor upon this metropolis of Northwest Ohio. His birthplace was at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where he first saw the light of day April 11, 1858. His father, James Austin, who belonged to the same branch f the Austin family as produced Alfred Austin, the poet laureate of Great Britain, was born in the great textile center f North England, Lancashire, and there learned the trade of weaver. In 1848 leaving England on an old fashioned sailing vessel, he landed after a voyage of six weeks in New York, and at once went to Rhode Island, the center f cotton industry, and found employment in a cotton mill, where hand looms were used. He subsequently became superintendent f a mill but the later years f his life were spent in a clothing store in that state. His death occurred at the age f sixty-eight. After coming to this country and at Taunton, Massachusetts, he married Jane Whiting. Judge Austin's mother was of old and distinguished American stock. Her grandfather, Elkanah Whiting, enlisted in the Continental army in 1775, and in 1777 enlisted for a period of three years in the Fourth Suffolk County Regiment of Massachusetts. He was made sergeant, and fought valiantly to win American independence. Judge Austin now has the sword worn by his great-grandfather in many battles of the Revolution, and on account of this distinguished ancestor has membership in Anthony Wayne Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution. He is also eligible, though he has never joined, the Sons of St. George. Whiting was born at Wrentham, Massachusetts, September 9, 1819, and died at the age of eighty-seven at the home of her son in Toledo, January 20, 1906. She was the mother of four children, three sons and a daughter, and the three now living are : Judge Austin ; Edwin F. ; and Mrs. Mary J. Whipple of Diamond Hill, Rhode Island. Educated in the primary schools of Woonsocket, Judge Austin took his higher training in the seventh oldest college of the United States, Brown University at Providence, where he was graduated in 1880. In that year he was elected a member f the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity for excellence in scholarship. He then took up the study of law in the office f the city solicitor f Providence, and on March 4, 1882, was admitted to the Rhode Island bar. In 1883 Brown University conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. After a brief experience as a lawyer at Providence Mr. Austin in December, 1883, located in Toledo. On May 6, 1884, he was HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1039 admitted to the Ohio bar, and then formed a partnership with Erskine H. Potter, under the firm name of Potter & Austin. They were together until Judge Austin was elected a justice of the peace in 1886, an office he filled with credit until 1895. The following year he was elected to represent the eighth ward in the city council for a term f two years. On leaving the council he became a member of the board of elections, and was in that office five years. During the years 1906-07 Judge Austin was assistant to city solicitor Charles Northup. Under the new charter the office of city solicitor has become director of law. In the fall of 1907 Mr. Austin was elected police judge for the term beginning January 1, 1908. He is now in his third consecutive term, his present term expiring January 1, 1920. Judge Austin had long been more than a practitioner of law, and had studied closely and investigated personally the complex problems underlying our institutions of justice. Out of that study and experience had arisen definite convictions, and these bore fruit soon after he became head of the city judicial department. He then introduced an innovation in the probation system by paroling convicted offenders dependent upon good behavior. Since then the parole system has been widely extended over the country and with generally good results, but Judge Austin's move was a rather startling reform in Toledo, and perhaps the majority f people felt that old established usage had been outraged. He had adopted the policy in harmony with his long cherished belief that there is some good in everyone, no matter how low he may have fallen, and that legal punishment should be so adapted and modified as not to destroy every hope and opportunity for reformation. Not long after putting his plan into effect and for the purpose of giving encouragement to the paroled prisoners, Judge Austin tendered a banquet to the paroled men on Wednesday evening March 5, 1909, at Tony Nassr's restaurant at 406 Monroe Street. The provisions on the table were not the significant part of the evening's entertainment. According to the Toledo Blade of the following day, the "Golden Rule" spirit was inspired by a photograph of the late mayor, Samuel M. Jones, which hung on the wall at one end of the table. A number of the probationers were present, and after the meal was concluded Judge Austin, as toastmaster, made a brief address from which the following significant words are quoted: "My friends, I have invited you here this evening to show the public the beauties of the probation policy and to show the beneficiaries that their efforts to 'make good' and keep their word with me are appreciated. I wish to show them my personal appreciation of their efforts, and to show them that the public at large has nothing against the former wrongdoer so long as he tries to do right. I have found that less than twenty per cent of the 'men I have placed on probation have violated their parole, but the number of paroled women who have fallen from grace is almost twice as large. In my opinion, most of those who went back to wrong doing, did so because they had no employment." Responses from several f the paroled guests indicated that they were making honest endeavors to profit by the leniency of the court, and all left the banquet with their resolutions strengthened for good behavior in the future. Naturally Judge Austin's policy was Severely criticized, though after a brief trial the progressive citizenship and press of the city became a unit in support of the program. One paper said : "It is really amusing to listen to the whinings of Judge Austin's critics. Don't they know that he is serving law and justice in accordance with a proper conception of these factors of such government as would put down crime, punish criminals, and aid in the uplifting of fallen humanity ? In the interest of public morals, in helping the fallen to their feet, and satisfying law and justice at the same time, Judge Austin, in doing duty as police court judge, has done more than all other courts and all other judges in the past thirty years. His probation plan has been and is a public benefaction. It not only serves to aid the fallen, but also to tone up moral sentiment, broaden public sympathy and improve social and governmental conditions." By no means is Judge Austin a type of the narrow social reformer. He is on the contrary a most wholesome individual, of broad interests and activities, and has taken his part in and enjoyed all the wholesome institutions of his city. He is a republican, a member of the Toledo Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the American Historical Association, the Toledo Maennerchor, the Social Workers Club, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Toledo Florence Crittenden Home, for a number of years was president of the Apollo Club, and was also identified with 1040 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO the old Historical Society organization. He belongs to the Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Theta Pi college fraternities. In Masonry he is past master of Rubicon Lodge No. 237, Free and Accepted Masons, past high priest of Fort Meigs Chapter No. 29, Royal Arch Masons, and also belongs to O-Ton-Ta-La Grotto No. 40, M. O. V. P. E. R. He is past chancellor of Charles Sumner Lodge, Knights of Pythias and at one time was adjutant general of the Uniform Rank of the order in Ohio. He is also enrolled among the members of the Toledo Commerce Club. In church affairs he has long been a member of the First Unitarian Church of Toledo, was formerly superintendent of the Sunday-school and now teaches a class of boys. One feature of his work as a lawyer deserves special notice. For years he has had a large number of law students under his instruction and influence and is undoubtedly one of the best informed' lawyers in Ohio on criminology. At his office at 1221 Nicholas Building he has a very extensive library, not only of general law books, but particularly referring to the subject of criminology. He is author of Out-lines of Criminal Law and Procedure," a manual for law students, the first edition of which was exhausted and the second edition recently issued. This is a handy compendium upon criminal law and procedure, containing the outlines of lectures given by Judge Austin to his classes in St. John's University and Toledo University, and while primarily used to serve the purpose f a text book, it is a pamphlet deserving of wide circulation and might be read and understood with profit by all classes of people who desire a clear and exact knowledge of the terminology and definitions so frequently used in criminal law. Judge Austin as a young man was a teacher in the common schools, and from 1908 to 1911 was professor of Latin and Greek in Toledo University, giving his services gratuitously, but on account of his increasing duties as judge of the police court had to resign. He is still professor of criminal law and procedure in the law department of St. John's University and the Toledo University. While a young lawyer associated with Mr. Potter Judge Austin made the acquaintance f Miss Minnie Weber, who was then a member of the staff in the county clerk's office. January 13, 1887, they were united in marriage. Mrs. Austin, who was born and reared in Toledo, is the daughter of the late Casper Weber, one of the early colonists of Toledo and founder of the Weber Clothing House on Monroe Street, a business which still bears his name. Reference to his career is found on other pages. For some years Judge Austin's residence was the home of his own mother, his Aunt Fanny Latham Whiting and his wife's mother. His friends took to calling his residence " The Old Ladies' Home." Judge Austin was 'extremely fond of the companionship of these elder women, and saw that they were well taken care of Judge Austin's mother died in 1906 at the age of eighty-seven, and his aunt Whiting died in 1909, aged ninety-seven. Mrs. Austin 's mother is still living, though very feeble and at the age of eighty-three. Mrs. Austin is secretary f the North Toledo Settlement, and one of its board of directors, and has interested herself a great deal in social and philanthropic work. Judge Austin's home is at 727 Oakwood Avenue, a home he built twenty-eight years ago, at a time when that district was very sparsely settled, though now it is built up many blocks further out. Three children comprise the family of Judge and Mrs. Austin, Ralph, Irene and Paul, all of whom are graduates of the Toledo High School and young people of very promising capacities. Ralph W. graduated from high school in 1907, then entered the engineering department of the University of Michigan, which he left in his junior year, and is now head of the engineering department of the Gramm-Bernstein Company of Lima. He is married, and Judge Austin takes great pride in his first grandchild, Robert Turner Austin. The daughter Irene, who graduated from the Toledo High School in 1909, took her A. B. degree from the Ohio State University, and while there formed her life's romance with Mr. Willard M. Kiplinger. At the conclusion of their college life they were married and now reside in Washington, D. C. where Mr. Kiplinger is connected with the Associated Press. Paul, the youngest child finished his high school work in 1911 and is a member of the class of 1916 in the Ohio State University, having taken the classical course. He has decided musical talents, and a musical composition of which he is author was produced at the university during his senior year, and received the highest commendation. CASPER WEBER was one of the early Swiss colonists who settled in Toledo, was a man of distinctive learning and ability, and founded the Weber Clothing House which still bears h. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1041 name and is a landmark in the retail district of Toledo. His birth occurred May 30, 1826, in Siblingen, Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland. He died in Toledo March 18, 1897, in the seventy-first year f his age. His father was Hans George Weber, a farmer, who lived to the age of seventy-eight, while his mother was Salome (Swien) Weber, who died at the age of forty-six. Before leaving Switzerland Casper Weber had acquired the equivalent of a liberal education. He attended the seminary in the City of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and finished his studies in Karlsruhe, Baden, in 1844. For seven or eight years Mr. Weber taught school in Trasadingen in his native canton. He came to America in 1853. With his brother Jacob Weber he bought eighty acres of uncleared land in West Toledo, and during the twelve years he lived there he cleared up forty acres. Moving into Toledo, he became a teacher in the Lutheran parish school on Erie Street, and later taught for several years in the public schools. In 1876 with his son John Weber he established the Weber 's Clothing Store on Monroe Street, and that is a business house with forty years of consecutive growth and prosperity, and has supplied clothing to more than a generation of Toledo residents. Casper Weber was naturalized as an American citizen in 1865. While living in his native country he was associated with the Reform Church of Switzerland, but identified himself with no denomination after coming to this country. For several years in the early '70s he directed the singing in the Gruetle Verein. At Trasadingen, Canton Schaffhausen, in 1845, Casper Weber married Elizabeth Zimmerman, daughter of Conrad Zimmerman. She died in 1857, four years after coming to America, leaving a family of seven children, Catherine, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Jacob, Helena, John and Louise. In 1858 Mr. Weber married Miss Katherine Zimmerman, daughter of Johannes Zimmerman. The children of this marriage were Gustave, Emma, Minnie and Flora. Mrs. Weber is still living and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. James Austin, Jr., of Toledo. DAVID ROBISON, JR. Whether considered from his business achievements or his individual influence as a citizen, the late David Robison, Jr., was undoubtedly one of Toledo's foremost men of energy, leadership and ability. He founded and was chairman of the board of directors of the Ohio Savings Bank & Trust Company and for many years president of that institution, and was one of the builders of the old Robison Lines, the first successful electric street railway line in the world, and he was also one of the organizers and builders of the Toledo Terminal Railroad. This fine figure and character in Toledo's commercial life died at his home in that city at 2310 Jefferson Avenue, April 13, 1914. For forty-three years he had helped to mold and direct the commercial resources of the city as one of its most determined and resourceful business men. In that time he had to surmount tremendous obstacles not only in expanding his own business but in contributing to the growth and prosperity of the city. It is said that transportation men came not only from all parts f the United States but also from Europe to witness and admire the operations f his early electric street railway lines, on Huron and South streets, Indiana Avenue, and what is now the Bancroft Belt Line. He was the capable and stout-hearted pioneer in electric traction, and afterwards he showed timid capital how to be successful in the construction f the Toledo Terminal Belt Steam Railroad, which now encircles the city for thirty miles and furnished switching and shipping facilities unexcelled by any other city. The late Mr. Robison solved all the financial problems involved in the construction of this belt line. He was also the promoter and builder f the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railroad, which he later sold to the Grand Trunk System. A native of Ohio, David Robison, Jr., was born January 22, 1830, and was eighty-four years of age at the time of his death. His birth occurred at the family home on Buckeye Street in Wooster, where his father conducted a large tannery. David Robison, Sr., came of Scotch lineage, his ancestors coming to this country during the seventeenth century. The late Mr. Robison's mother was f Irish descent, her forefathers having come from County Antrim, Ireland, to America also early in the seventeenth century. They were McConnells, and were strong Presbyterians, while the Robisons were Scotch Covenanters, afterwards gravitating into the Presbyterian Church. Both families settled in Pennsylvania, locating in that part of Cumberland County which afterwards by subdivision became Franklin County. The late Mr. Robison's maternal great-grandfather was Robert McConnell, who was born about 1700. 1042 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO He was a man of very strong character and religious belief, and did much to mold sentiment in his section of the state. He was a soldier in some of the early Colonial wars. A glimpse of his religious nature and the faith which upheld him in many f the early Scotch-Irish Presbyterians is found in a brief quotation from his will, as follows : "In the name of God, Amen, this 27th day of July in the year of our Lord, 1771, I, Robert McConnell, of township Letterkenney, County of Cumberland, and Province f Pennsylvania, yeoman, being very sick and weak in body, but of perfect mind and memory, in calling to mind the mortality f the body, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and testament ; that is to say, and first f all, I give and recommend my soul to God who gave it, and for my body I recommit to earth to be buried in a Christian and decent manner at the discretion f my executors, and nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God." The maternal grandfather, John McConnell, a son of Robert, served with a captain's rank in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war. At the time of the company's organization he marched with his comrades on foot from Chambersburg to Philadelphia; and remained in the service under Washington at Valley Forge during the entire eight years of war. Elizabeth McConnell, the mother of David Robison, Jr., was born May 8, 1797, near what is now the Rocky Springs Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. David Robison, Sr., was born July 12, 1793. Their respective parents were farmers and the McConnell and Robison farms adjoined. In 1806 the mother of David Robison, Jr., moved to Ohio, her husband having died in his forty-fourth year. Mrs. Robison settled near New Lisbon in Columbiana County, and afterwards the family moved to Zanesville, Ohio, where David, Sr., learned the trade of tanner and currier. At the age of eighteen David Robison, Sr., enlisted as a volunteer in the War of 1812, under the name f David Robertson, which was the regular form of spelling the name. He became a member of Capt. William McConnell's company of riflemen attached to Vance's Battalion of Ohio Militia. The captain of the company was a cousin to the mother f David Robison, Sr. David, Sr., was under the command of General Harrison and was at Fort Meigs during the siege and one of the selected company sent to Fort Stephenson during its bombardment to aid Major Croghan in the defense of that position. Some years ago there was organized the Maumee Pioneer and Historical Association. One of the first plans it carried out was the erection of a monument commemorating the deeds of the men who had fought and died in the gallant defense of Fort Meigs. Then, nearly a hundred years after the battle, on September 1, 1908, the monument was unveiled at Perrysburg in honor of the heroes who lost their lives in the defense of that military post in the second struggle with Great Britain. The late David Robison, Jr., was chosen to unveil the monument and this selection was made because the Pioneer and Historical Association desired that the duty should be performed by one whose father had helped to defend the fort during two sieges. Thus in a peculiarly intimate and interesting way was the Robison family identified with the conquest and preservation of this section of Northern Ohio to the American possession. At the close of the war David Robison, Sr., with his brothers, James and Thomas, settled in Wooster, Ohio. Through an error in the discharge papers his name was spelled Robison instead f Robertson, which was the name under which he had enlisted. All other branches of the family still retain the old Scotch spelling f Robertson. David Robison, Jr., was reared in one of the substantial homes f Ohio and given a liberal education. In 1836 his parents moved to their farm south of Wooster, and that was David's home until he was fourteen years of age. 'At that time he entered his father's general store as a clerk. At intervals he attended the Wooster Academy and at the age f eighteen he entered Western Reserve College, then located at Hudson, and spent two years in that institution. His class and roommate there was the late United States Senator William B. Allison f Iowa, and they were close friends until the death of Senator Allison in 1908.. After leaving college David Robison, Jr., became a merchant at Wooster and also operated a grist mill at that place and eventually became president f the National Bank of Wooster from the organization of that institution in 1871 until his removal to Toledo in January, 1876. While engaged in the milling business at Wooster Mr. Robison hauled flour HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1043 into town on one of the old-fashioned "prairie schooner wagons" and sold the product to the father of the late United States Senator Mark Hanna. On removing to Toledo, Mr. Robison organized the wholesale dry goods house, Witter, Robison & Wood. He was connected with that concern five years and then established a dry goods house at Adams and Summit streets. For more than forty years he was closely identified with many f the principal enterprises and concerns in the city. He served as receiver of the Ohio Central Railroad. In 1886, with the late James M. Ashley, John Cummings and others, he built the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railway, with 100 miles of track. This was afterwards sold to the Grand Trunk Railway. For several years he was a director of the Ann Arbor Railway. He gave Toledo its first electric railway system, organizing in 1889, in partnership with his sons, the Toledo Electric Railway Company, which began the building of the Robison lines of street railway, including the Bancroft Belt, the Huron, Indiana Avenue, South Street and Union Depot Lines, and also constructing the Casino Park and Theater. These properties were sold by the Robisons in 1896 and are now a part of the Rail-Light System. It was this electric line which attracted such wide attention as a pioneer undertaking in electric traction. The late Mr. Robison and his sons established, in March, 1897,. the Ohio Savings Bank and Trust Company of Toledo, of which he was president until 1905, and was then made chairman of the board of directors. His son, the late James J. Robison, succeeded him as president. In 1900 Mr. Robison, with his two sons and William Hardee, Edward Ford, John Cummings, T. H. Tracy, George G. Metzger and others, built the Toledo Terminal Belt Railroad already referred to. In 1906 Mr. Robison bought the old Law Building at the corner of Madison Avenue and Superior Street, and in its place now stands the twelve story Ohio Building. On September 1, 1853, David Robison married Miss Ann Elizabeth Jacobs of Wooster. She was a member of one of the old families of that section of Ohio and her own character was a splendid union of all the womanly Virtues and graces. She died at her home in Toledo in February, 1898, mourned by a large community for her great love and kindness to the poor and her many deeds of charity. She was truly a womanly woman and noble in all her acts and influence. Mr. and Mrs. Robison were the parents of two sons, James J. and Willard F. Willard F. is now the only one living. James J. died suddenly a few weeks after the death f his father on June 11, 1914. Of his career mention is made on other pages. The late David Robison, Jr., was the last of a family of six brothers. He was affiliated with Collingwood Avenue Presbyterian Church, and as already mentioned, his ancestors had been identified with the Presbyterian communion for 200 years. Mr. Robison was what is known as an " old school type" of gentleman ; a man f excellent bearing, quiet in his disposition, and by character and activities measuring up to the highest standards of true gentlehood. Especially noteworthy was his characteristic of reliability and steadfastness. It is said that if "Uncle David" said anything it was always taken to be true. He had a faculty for making friends, and it is doubtful if any man who ever lived in Lucas County could count more associates who were bound to him by the close ties of friendship. After his death the directors of the Ohio Savings Bank and Trust Company issued a memorial in which they paid due homage to his patriotic tendencies, referred to him as a typical American citizen with an intense love for his country, touching upon those stanch and honest qualities which he exemplified in all his business dealings, his many endeavors in behalf of the civic welfare, and his religious and social activities. While best known in Toledo and this section of Ohio, the late Mr. Robison's activities made him quite a national figure in business and affairs. This position was evidenced by the great number of letters and telegrams that came to the family home from all parts f the United States, from coast to coast, and even a number of letters from abroad, written by friends and former business associates. JAMES J. ROBISON. As influence and service deserve, considerable space has been devoted in these pages to the well known Robison family, which has been identified with Northwest Ohio for a great many years, and during the past four decades has been particularly close in its affiliations with the City of Toledo. On June 11, 1914, death deprived Toledo of the life and service of James J. Robison. Only a short time before on April 15, 1914, his aged 1044 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO father David Robison, Jr., had passed away. The father and son were very closely associated in their many business undertakings and their deaths were regarded as a double misfortune to the people of the city where they had lived so long and usefully. James J. Robison was born at Wooster, Ohio, a son of David Robison, Jr., and Ann Elizabeth (Jacobs) Robison. Concerning the career of David Robison, Jr., appropriate mention is made on. other pages. James J. Robison came to Toledo in 1876, and nearly all his life was spent in that city. With his father and others at Toledo he built Toledo's first electric line, the so called Robison Line, and he had the distinction of personally running the first Robison electric car on Summit Street in 1892. He was an officer in the company that built the Terminal Belt Railway, the Ohio Building, the Toledo, Angola and Western Railway, and the Toledo Stone and Glass Sand Company at Silica. At his death he was interested in all these enterprises except the Terminal Belt Railway. In 1888 with his father and his brother Willard F. Robison, who is still living and one of the prominent men f Toledo, James J. Robison organized the Toledo Electric Street Railway Company. This was one of the pioneer systems in adapting electricity as a motive power in the Middle West. Mr. Robison was closely identified with the affairs of this company almost continuously as general manager until the property was absorbed by the Toledo Traction Company, now the Toledo Railways and Light Company. It was about 1900 that he became engaged in the organization of the Toledo Railway and Terminal Company, which built the thirty-five mile steam railway encircling Toledo and which at the time was the only complete city belt railroad in the United States. He continued as a director of the company and during the lifetime of the Great Central combination, which included the Toledo Belt line, in a group with the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton and the Pere Marquette Railroad, he served as a director of the Pere Marquette. The late Mr. Robison was a man of many affairs. He was well known in bank circles. Much f his time and enterprise went into the development f the great stone quarries at Silica in Lucas County. e was also identified with the Toledo Hotel Company, which owns the old Boody House, now soon to be torn down to make room for a new $3,000,000 hotel. In January, 1897, the late Mr. Robison was one of the organizers f the Ohio Savings Bank & Trust Company, and served as one of the first cashiers. A few years ago he succeeded his father as president of the institution, and remained at the head until his death. His social relations were those f a leading business man and a genial gentleman. He was a member of Anthony Wayne Chapter, Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, a member of Sanford L. Collins Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Fort Miegs Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, St. Omar Commandery of the Knights Templar, and Zenobia Temple of the Mystic Shrine. While on a business trip in Cleveland James J. Robison was stricken with apoplexy, suffered a second stroke after being brought home and died ten days after the first attack at his home in Toledo. He was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery. He is survived by his widow and two sons : David and Willard D. and one daughter, Ann. JOSEPH F. FOX, M. D. A surgeon and gynecologist who is one of the eminent men in his profession in Northwest Ohio, Doctor Fox has arrived at his present position through long and thorough experience, careful train-ing both in America and abroad, and at the age of fifty has many years of usefulness still before him. A native of Ohio, he was born in the old Town of Yorktown, now called Joyce, in Tuscarawas County, October 19, 1866. His parents were Christian and Elizabeth (Affolter) Fox. His father was born in Ohio of German parentage, and spent all his life in Tuscarawas County, where he died in 1913 at the age of seventy-eight. e was a farmer and a local leader in the democratic party, holding several county offices. Doctor Fox's mother was born in Switzerland, and when eight years f age crossed the Atlantic with her parents in one of the old-time sailing vessels. They were on the ocean 101 days. Her people located in Tuscarawas County, where Doctor Fox was born and at a time when that section of Ohio was still wild. She had begun her schooling in Canton Berne, Switzerland, and continued in the public schools of Ohio. Both parents lived beyond the allotted time of man and the mother died suddenly in 1908 at the age of seventy-one. They were active mem-bers f the Reform Church. In the family. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1045 were eight children, five daughters and three sons. One daughter died in girlhood and the doctor's two older sisters have since passed away. He is the youngest of three living sons, while his two sisters are younger than himself. All his brothers are farmers and all live in the home county except himself. Doctor Fox grew up in a typical rural environment. The little schoolhouse he attended as a boy was located near his home and on the banks of a creek. After he was nine years of age he attended school in the winter terms and worked on the farm the rest of the year. He has always retained an interest in farming. and has developed this interest productively as a fruit grower. For five months he was a student in Calvin College, a preparatory school at Cleveland, and he spent ten weeks in the Ohio Normal University at Ada. One winter and a. spring term were spent in teaching in his home county. While teaching he had begun the study of medicine, and in the fall of 1884 he entered upon a regular routine of study. Prior to that his ambition had been to become a civil engineer. An old friend dissuaded him from this course. For two years he was in Starling Medical College at Columbus and finished his course in the medical department of Wooster University at Cleveland, now the medical department f Western Reserve University. He was graduated Doctor of Medicine July 27, 1887. Nearly thirty years have passed since Doctor Fox entered the ranks of practitioners as a doctor of medicine. He has never ceased to be a student. Again and again he has interrupted his practice in order to pursue postgraduate work, and is a man of wide and deep culture. not only in his profession, but in other departments of scholarship. After about three years of practice at Sparta, Ohio, he spent nine months in post-graduate work in the New York Policlinic. On returning from New York City he opened an office at New Philadelphia, Ohio. There he was engaged in general practice in medicine and surgery for nine years. While at New Philadelphia Doctor Fox founded a private hospital, known as the New Philadelphia Hospital. He had the distinction of being the first professional man in that vicinity to perform surgery, other operations having been usually performed by surgeons called in from a distance. He gave the hospital a high standing and it was widely patronized. Every other year while at New Vol. II —25 Philadelphia he spent from three to four months in post-graduate work in the various medical centers of America. During the winter of 1896-97 he was in Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore under Dr. Howard Kelley, and was there when the first word came to America about the wonderful discovery of the X-ray, in January, 1897. He also took post-graduate work in Chicago, San Francisco, New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1900 Doctor Fox went abroad and for eight months was a visitor at the hospitals and clinics in Birmingham, Liverpool and London, England, and also in Paris and Brussels. In the summer of 1901 he came to Toledo, and since locating in that city has confined his practice to surgery and gynecology, a large part of his practice being consultation work in connection with diseases of women. For his high standing as a surgeon he received the degree of Fellow f the American College of Surgeons at Boston, Massachusetts, in October, 1915. He is one of the comparatively few medical men in Northwest Ohio to have this distinction. He belongs to the Academy of Medicine in Lucas County, the Ohio State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the American Association of Surgeons. Doctor Fox has never married. His offices are in the Produce Exchange at Toledo, and his offices are also local headquarters of the Conservative Life Insurance Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, and he is examined for that company. Doctor Fox is a democrat, but knew the late President McKinley at Canton before that statesman became President and loyally supported him. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He is a man of wide interests. As a youth at Yorktown he played in the brass band, his old home town subsequently being named Joyce, in honor of a man who started a coal mine there. One recreation which he pursues with much ardor is hunting. He is a lover of literature and books. At Toledo he has one of the finest private libraries in the city, not only comprising medical works, but standard literature and histories covering a wide range both ancient and modern. During his boyhood days his many boy friends always anticipated his discoveries from books and almost daily he was addressed by some one of them with the question : "Well, Joe, what have you been 1046 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO reading lately ; tell us about it ?" His chief hobby is the cultivation of fruit. He has a small orchard a short distance from Toledo and takes great pride in that, and at the present time he is working up a plan to interest his friends and others in a large fruit orchard of some 200 acres in Maryland, close to all the large markets of the United States. JOHN W. GREENE. To have accomplished so notable a work as the upbuilding of the extensive business of the really great musical instrument house of the J. W. Greene Company f Toledo would prove sufficient to give high business reputation and prestige to any man, were this to represent the sum. total of his material achievement ; but the late John W. Greene, founder of the company which perpetuates his name, was not only a man of broad mentality, strong initiative and insistent progressiveness, but was also one whose life was guided and guarded by those lofty principals that ever beget sterling worth of character and gain popular confidence and good will. For many years Mr. Greene was one of the prominent and influential business men of Toledo, where he left an enduring impression in the field of enterprise mentioned and where he also proves a potent though unostentatious factor in the civic, religious and general social life f the city. Measured by its beneficence, its rectitude, its productiveness, its unconscious altruism and its material success, the life of J. W. Greene counted for much, and there is all of consistency in paying in this publication a tribute to his memory by offering brief review of a career that continues fruitful in lesson, inspiration and incentive. Though his health had been much impaired for nearly a year prior to his death, Mr. Greene had continued to give his personal attention to the executive duties devolving upon him as president of the important company .which he had organized and developed and was to be found applying himself faithfully in his great music house until two weeks before death set its seal upon his mortal lips. This was characteristic f the man, who had ever subordinated self to the conscientious performance of every duty which he believed to be his to perform. Mr. Greene was born on his father 's farm, near the little hamlet of Greensburg, Sandusky County, Ohio, April 11, 1836, and thus he was seventy-two years f age at the time of his demise. His father was one of the sterling pioneers of Sandusky County as now constituted, and the little Village of Greensburg was named in his honor. The parents continued to reside on the old homestead until their death and there reared their children to lives of usefulness and steadfast integrity. Thus the formative period of the character building of John W. Greene was compassed by the invigorating conditions and influences of the pioneer farm, and by making good incidental use of the advantages of the schools of the locality and period he was strong in mind and body and was inspired with desire to make himself one of the world's productive workers. The first money which he ever earned in an independent way was the recompense which he received for arduous work in connection with the grading of the old Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, the line which later became a part f the system of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. Mr. Greene was a young man of twenty-five years at the outbreak of the Civil war, and he promptly subordinated all personal considerations to respond to the call of patriotism and tender his aid in defense of the nation's integrity. On May 25, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company E, Twenty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as he had been employed in a flour mill at Indianapolis, Indiana, at the time when President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers. He proceeded with his command to the front and soon became inured to the arduous campaign work and to the clash f arms in fierce-fought battle. On January 1, 1863, he was commissioned second lieutenant, in recognition of special gallantry shown by him at Vicksburg. On June 1, 1864, while with his regiment at Brownsville, Texas, he received commission as first lieutenant, and a month later came to him commission as captain, an office in which he continued to serve until he was mustered out, January 25, 1866, his regiment having been continued in service for a number f months after the final surrender of Generals Lee and Johnston. Captain Greene participated in many battles and minor engagements, and, with the exception f a slight wound in the arm, he escaped injury. In connection with an engagement in which his regiment met disaster, at Morganza, Louisiana, he was captured by the enemy, and, with others of his regiment, was imprisoned near Tyler, Texas. From this. Confederate prison he escaped December 24, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1047 1863, in company with his first lieutenant, and for thirty-one days thereafter they wandered through the swamps of Louisiana, jaded, with clothing in tatters, half famished and otherwise afflicted with untold hardships. They finally succeeded in reaching the Union lines, at Natchez, Mississippi. It is needless to say that in later years he continued to manifest a deep interest in his old comrades in arms and that he perpetrated the more gracious memories f his army life through his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Greene established his residence in Toledo, Ohio, in the year 1871, and here engaged in the business of selling pianos and sewing machines. From the modest nucleus represented in this enterprise he eventually developed the extensive and metropolitan music house still conducted by the J. W. Greene Company, which was incorporated in 1899 and of which he thereafter continued president until the time of his death. Concerning his successor in the presidency, William W. Smith, specific mention is made on other pages of this publication. At this juncture it is but consistent to quote briefly from an elaborate brochure that was recently issued by the J. W. Greene Company: " The year was 1871. Toledo, at its best, could scarcely be termed a city. Save for its ability to boast of a comparatively small number of business blocks, it might have been truly christened a humble, village. It was this period that witnessed the inception of what is now known as the J. W. Greene Company. Many long years have intervened—years of history-making for one of Toledo's oldest and largest establishments, the J. W. Greene Company. The long strides made by the city of Toledo have been no more remarkable than those made by us, and the success of one has been dependent, in a sense, on the growth of the other. Our first location was on the site now occupied by the Jefferson Hotel, cornet of St. Clair street and Jefferson avenue. From this place numerous changes were made, all due to a continual increase in the volume of business, until finally we acquired, in 1891, our present location, corner of Jefferson avenue and Ontario street." The building occupied is a fine and distinctly modern structure of six stories, and the entire establishment is metropolitan in equipment and facilities, the business, in the handling of pianos, player pianos, Victor Victrolas, organs, etc., being of both whole-sale and retail order and of extensive scope and importance, and this really great musical-instrument establishment stands as a worthy monument to the genius as well as the memory of its honored founder. Further data concerning the company may be found elsewhere in this work, in the sketch of the career of its present president, William W. Smith, who had been a valued and appreciative coadjutor f Mr. Greene. During his residence of nearly forty years in Toledo, Mr. Greene stood at all times as an exemplar of high civic ideals and utmost loyalty and public spirit, and was ever ready to give of his time and financial co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the city, where he was known and honored as an able, reliable and representative man of affairs. He was essentially a business man and had no desire for the activities of politics or for political office. His civic loyalty, however, was shown in many ways, and especially during his period of service as a member of the city board of gas trustees, f which he was president three years. In the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr. Greene was first affiliated with Forsythe Post. and later with Volunteer Post, both Toledo organizations. He was prominently identified with the Knights of Pythias, and served at one time as chairman of the finance committee of its Ohio Grand Lodge, his local affiliation having been with Charles Sumner Lodge No. 137. He held membership in Wapakoneta Lodge No. 38, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Toledo Council of the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Greene was a man whose deep Christian faith was shown in deeds as well as words, and he was a zealous member of the First Presbyterian Church of Toledo, as is also his widow. He was generous, kindly and tolerant, was buoyant and optimistic, was an enthusiastic worker in whatever line he directed his energies, was of a lovable nature that made him specially attractive in his social relations, and he endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. He was an earnest Christian and his righteousness touched his every thought and action with gentle benignancy, especially in his support of worthy charities and benevolences and his 1048 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO unfailing aid and sympathy extended to those in affliction and distress. On September 12, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Greene to Miss Hattie Belle Howe, who survives, though no children remain to perpetuate the honors of his name. PAUL ARTHUR HARSCH of Toledo is ranked as one of the leading exponents of the city plan movement in America. Both by his participation in land subdividing and his championship of the city beautiful idea on the speaker's platform he has exerted a wide influence for the proper upbuilding of American cities. Mr. Harsch was born in Bellevue, Sandusky County, Ohio, May 12, 1872. He is the son of Solomon Orwig and Elizabeth (Bowers) Harsch, both of whom had been residents f Bellevue from their youth. His mother still resides in this little Ohio city. At the age of sixteen the illness, followed by the death, of his father necessitated the son's leaving school before he had entered on his high school course. He took charge of his father's retail dry goods business, and applied himself so assiduously to the task that at the age of eighteen he was sent to Colorado to recuperate his strength. There he found employment in hotel work, a business in which he rose so rapidly that a few years later found him occupying an important executive position on the staff of the old Holland House, then at the height of its success as a New York hostelry. He was still employed at the Holland House when he returned to Bellevue, October 28, 1903, and married Leila Katherine Close, A. B., Wellesley, '98. His wife is the daughter f Joseph W. Close and Gertrude Hannum Close, members of one of Bellevue's pioneer families. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Harsch was called to Toledo and placed in charge of the Clinton-Close Company, a firm organized to supply an exclusive demand for dry goods, women's suits, etc. When this business later was wound up with a profit to its promoters, Mr. Harsch returned to New York as the national executive secretary of the National League for Medical Freedom. In his capacity as executive officer he headed an organization of 500,000 people banded together to oppose legislation that discriminated against all schools of healing except the controlling medical school. The success f the league attracted national attention. Mr. Harsch spent three years in this work, when he returned to Toledo to become secretary of the E. H. Close Realty Company, one of the largest firms and most complete organizations of its kind in the country. His success in this field was publicly acknowledged when he was appointed president of the City Planning Commission, organized under Toledo's new city charter in the first part of the year 1916. Mr. Harsch is a member of the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, being honored with an appointment as first reader. He is a member of the Toledo Club, the Commerce Club and the Toledo Yacht Club. He is the father f three children, Joseph Close Harsch, Paul Arthur Harsch, Jr., and Katherine Hannum Harsch. GARHART CHRISTIAN KUHLMAN. One of the most prominent building contractors of Toledo was the late Garhart Christian Kuhlman, who died at his home, 923 Magnolia Street, March 30, 1908, at the age f eighty. A native of Germany, he had come to America a poor but sturdy youth, was a skillful artisan and subsequently made his trade the basis of a business as builder and contractor. He was a fine type of the German-American citizen that furnished so much of the rugged patriotism of America during the middle decades of the last century, and in business and private affairs he was conspicuous for his integrity, his probity, and the stainless honor which characterized every one of life's important relations. He was born on March 19, 1828, in Hanover, Osnabrueck, Germany, and when eight years of age was left an orphan and had to earn his own way in the world. At the age of twenty-five, in 1853, he came to America, and though unfamiliar with the language and customs of the New World, he was able to commend himself as a skilled brick mason, a trade he had learned after a thorough apprenticeship in the Old Country. He soon located at Toledo, where for three years he followed his trade as brick layer and as a journeyman, and then set up in the business of contracting and building. From that time until advance in years caused him to retire in 1884, he was one of the city's best known and most successful contractors. In 1854 he was married at Toledo to Miss Mary Freund, who survives him and is now eighty-three years of age, but despite her years is a woman f remarkable vigor in mind HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1049 and body. She was also born in the vicinity of Osnabrueck, Germany, but she did not ecome acquainted with Mr. Kuhlman until after coming to America. To their marriage were born five sons and one daughter : Henry, who died a number of years ago at the age of thirty ; Mrs. Henry J. Spieker, of Toledo ; Adam R., now president and general manager of the Toledo Builders Supply Company ; Ernest H., connected with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Cincinnati ; George C., now deceased ; and Frederick T., cashier of the American Express Company at Cleveland. All the children were born and educated at Toledo. The late Mr. Kuhlman was an active republican in politics. He was one of the organizers of the Salem Evangelican Lutheran Church, the first church of that denomination established at Toledo, and when the church celebrated its golden jubilee in 1905 Mr. Kuhlman was one of the few survivors of the charter members, and in many ways the recipient of pleasing honors on that occasion. He was buried from the Salem Lutheran Church on Huron Street, and his body now rests in Forest Cemetery. ADAM R. KUHLMAN is president and general manager of the Toledo Builders Supply Company, no doubt the largest and most extensive business of its kind in Northwest Ohio. The corporation represents long experience in that line of work, and is the result of an association or consolidation of a number of previously independent concerns or individuals. The company is a member of the Ohio Builders Supply Association, and they are both manufacturers and dealers in building material. With a business office in the Spitzer Building, the company maintains half a dozen yards in different parts of the city and has a very complete equipment and organization for handling the business. The company belongs to the Faced Brick Dealers' Association of America. The president of this company is a practical contractor and builder himself, and is a son of Christian Garhart and Mary (Freund) Kuhlman. His father, to whom reference is made in other paragraphs, was for many years actively identified with the building trades in Toledo. Adam R. Kuhlman was born at Toledo, October 22, 1862, was educated in the public schools, and when a boy learned the molder's trade and also the trade of brick laying, the latter under the direction of his father. He worked with his father until attaining his majority, and then was in the employ of other contractors and builders for four years. On his father's retirement from the contracting and building business he became his successor, and from the age of twenty-five was an independent contractor and builder in Toledo until about twenty-three years ago, when he engaged in the business on a larger scale. At that time he formed a partnership with Richard Kind for the purpose of dealing in building supplies. Eight years later, in 1902, the firm was consolidated with three others f a similar nature under the firm name of the Toledo Builders Supply Company. Mr. Kuhlman was vice president of the company until after the death of P. H. Degnan on January 5, 1916, and succeeded Mr. Degnan as president and general manager. In 1904, when the Ohio Brick Company was organized, Mr. Kuhlman was made president and gcneral manager, and he is now secretary and treasurer of that important corporation. He is also vice president of the Toledo Rex Spray Company and is interested in the Zehner Brothers Packing Company, in the International Paper Box Company, and has financial connections with several other important concerns. He is well known in business and social circles, is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club, the Toledo Exchange Club, Toledo Builders' Exchange, Maumee Yacht Club and f the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has spent all his life in Toledo. In politics he is an active republican, and is a member of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, in which his parents took an interesting part. On May 28, 1889, he married Miss Caroline Albrecht, daughter of Charles and Mary (Oesher) Albrecht, of Dunkirk, Chautauqua County, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Kuhlman have six children, four sons and two daughters, named Alma, Gertrude, Charles, Edwin, Luette and Irene. Alma is now the wife of Rev. T. G. Klinksick, pastor f Salem Lutheran Church of Toledo. All the children were born at Tolcdo and received their education in the public schools. Alma, Gertrude and Charles are graduates of Central High School, while Edwin was a member of the first graduating class in the Scott High School, and Luette graduated in the class of 1916 in that school.