HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1325 his home being in the western part of that township. Mr. Bell was born at Gallipolis, Ohio, January 20, 1852. When he was nine years of age his parents moved to Oberlin, where they spent the rest of their days. He grew up at Oberlin, received his education in the schools there, and when starting out for himself found employment in that city for a year. He then took up his permanent vocation as a farmer four miles west of Oberlin. Having sold his interests in Lorain County, Thomas E. Bell in 1905 moved to Sylvania Township in this county and located on his wife's father's farm, the old Thomas homestead. During his residence there he has introduced a number of excellent improvements, and his fine orchard gives him special place as one of the fruit growers of Lucas County. His farm is 11/2 miles northwest of Silica. In 1884 at Oberlin MI'. Bell married Mary Ellen Thomas, daughter of William Thomas, reference to whom is made on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have one child, Dorothy Lucile, born in 1902. Politically Mr. Bell is an active republican. During his residence at Oberlin he served as justice of the peace and as township ,trustee and town clerk. In Sylvania Township he is now a member of the election board. WILLIAM THOMAS. One of the fine. old pioneer citizens of Lucas County is William Thomas, now living on the old Thomas farm in Sylvania Township with his daughter Mrs. Thomas E. Bell. Mr. Thomas is in his eighty-eighth year, but" still hale and hearty and it has been his privilege to witness practically every important transformation made by civilized men in this section of Northwest Ohio. His home is one that was developed completely out of the heavy woods. Sixty-three years ago when he located in Sylvania Township the progress of improvement had not been marked. The land that he now occupies was slowly and laboriously put under cultivation after clearing away the heavy woods and undergrowth and the fact that it is now one of the best farms in the township stands to the credit of this venerable resident. Among the improvements he introduced from time to time is a fine home which he built in .1863 and which still stands, with some slight alterations. William Thomas should be reckoned among those who introduced fruit culture into Lucas County. During his early years he lived largely on the frontier where fruit was not obtainable except such as grew wild in the woods or on the prairies. He frequently said that when he secured a place of his own he would take special pains to plant fruit trees, and thus when he settled on his present farm he set out some fine orchards, and the Thomas homestead has for years been celebrated for its fruit and cider. William Thomas was born August 29, 1829, near the village of New Hope in Salisbury Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He is of Quaker stock, and his father Moses Thomas, in 1835 emigrated to Crawford County, Ohio, and in 1840 to Williams County, where he spent the rest of his days an honored and useful citizen. Eleven years of age when his parents moved to the wooded country of Williams County, William Thomas grew up there and helped to make a tract of wild land a home and scene of cultivation. He lived there until his marriage in 1853, when he moved to Sylvania Township of Lucas County. He then settled on the place where he has since made his home and which is now farmed by his son-in-law Thomas E. Bell. The father of Mrs. William Thomas, Philo Holt, took- up this land from the Government as early as 1833, but after making some improvements died there within a year or so. Cornelia Holt, who married William Thomas in 1853, was born in Sylvania Township at what is now the Thomas farm, when that was completely surrounded by the wilderness. When she was about a year old, and after the death of Philo Holt, her mother's people took her back to Connecticut, where she was reared. A number of years later she came to Ohio and met and married William Thomas. William Thomas by his first wife had three children : Sarah Emmaline, wife of Henry Bell, who is now farming part of the old Thomas homestead ; Mary Ellen, wife of Thomas E. Bell, a brother of Henry Bell and farming the home place; and Flora Jane, who died at the age of twenty years. The mother of these children died in 1864. William_ Thomas then married Mrs. Olive (Benton) Mallett, who died leaving one son Moses. Mr. William Thomas afterwards married Mrs. Mary G. (Townsend) Hoadley, who passed away September 16, 1900. Mr. William Thomas is a republican, and has been affiliated with that party since its birth sixty years ago. He has 1326 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO filled the office of justice of the peace but has always tried to avoid official honors and responsibilities. His church is the Methodist. SENEY FAMILY. Several generations of this family in Northwest Ohio have given names of more than ordinary distinction to the bar and public life. Among them was the late Judge George E. Seney, who was born in 1832 and died in 1905. The Seneys were originally of Norman-French stock, who came to America from England. Judge Seney's great-grandfather John Seney was a lawyer by profession and for many years a member of the Maryland. Assembly and chairman of what is now known as the Committee on Judiciary. He was also a member of the Maryland Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution of 1787, and also of the Electoral College which unanimously chose General Washington for presi• dent. In the Revolutionary war he was captain of a company of Maryland Volunteers and after nearly seven years of service was mustered out with the rank of colonel. Joshua Seney, grandfather of the late Judge Seney, was graduated from the literary department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1773, with the degree Bachelor of Arts. On his diploma are the names of Benjamin Rush, professor of chemistry and subsequently one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; and Drs. Morgan and Shippen, the former the first surgeon general of the United States Army, the latter not only a great scholar, judge and lawyer, but possessing the somewhat invidious distinction of being father-in-law of Benedict Arnold. Joshua Seney after leaving college gained a high place in the colonial and early national life of the country. He served in the Maryland Assembly at the same time as his father, and for four years was a member of the Continental Congress, where one of his colleagues was his former professor Benjamin Rush. He also served on the bench of Maryland as chief justice, his associates being Justices Will, Russell, Will and Owen. He was a member of the first Congress of the United States after the government was formed and was reelected to the second Congress serving from March 4, 1789 to May 1, 1792, when he resigned to return to the bench. In 1792 as a presidential elector he voted for Washington and Adams. In 1798 he was again elected to Congress, defeating Hon. William Hindman, but he did not live to take his seat. This distinguished early American statesman is buried in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, where a monument is erected to his memory bearing the following inscription : BENEATH THIS STONE ARE INTERRED THE REMAINS OF JOSHUA SENEY who was, born near the spot which now contain his ashes March 4th, 1756, and died Oct. 20, 1798. From the commencement of the American Revolution at various periods in his life he filled with ability some of the highest stations and discharged with integrity some of the most important duties to which his native State could appoint him ; preserving through the whole a character both private and public untainted by a single vice. In 1776 a whig, a democrat in 1798, he zealously and increasingly maintained the liberties of his country and died as he lived an honest man and a Christian. Grandfather Joshua Seney married the daughter of Commodore James Nicholson, who at one period of the Revolution had chief command of the navy. James Nicholson was the son of Sir Francis Nicholson, Royal Governor of New York and also Maryland. The father of Judge George E. Seney was also named Joshua Seney and was born in New York in 1793. He graduated in the classical course at Columbia College and also from the University Law School. He was a subordinate officer in the navy in the War of 1812. .He served as private secretary to Albert Gallatin, who was his uncle by marriage, while the latter was secretary of the treasury under President Jefferson. He became a lawyer and for ten years practiced in Uniontown in Western Pennsylvania as a partner of Gallatin, and from there came to Tiffin, Ohio. He was elected clerk of the Supreme Court and President Jackson appointed him United States District Judge for Pennsylvania, a position he subsequently resigned, preferring the freedom of practice to the exactions of the bench. In 1840 he was one of the presidential electors. His death occurred in 1854. This Joshua Seney married Anna Ebbert, who was born in Philadelphia in 1803 and died at Tiffin, Ohio, in 1878. Her parents were among those Dutch pioneers who early emigrated to America and settled HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1327 in Philadelphia. Her father George Ebbert was also a merchant and her grandfather's business associate. Mrs. Seney was graduated from Brownsville Female. College, shortly afterward met her husband at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, at a ball given for Lafayette, and after a short courtship they were married. She was a woman noted for her charitable and kindly acts and showed great organizing ability during the cholera epidemic at Tiffin. George E. Seney attended the public schools in Tiffin, Ohio, and entered Heidelberg and afterwards attended two years at Norwalk College, taking a classical course. After that he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was tendered but declined the appointment of United States District Attorney, offered him by President Buchanan. He practiced law until he was twenty-six years of age, when he was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas by 1,001 votes in a strong republican district. At the time of his election he was the youngest Common Pleas judge to ever sit on the bench in Ohio. He rendered able service as judge of this important court until the outbreak of the Civil war when he tendered his resignation to the governor, which was accepted for the purpose of serving the cause of the Union. He assisted in organizing the One Hundred First Regiment and was commissioned first lieutenant and quartermaster. For gallantry he was nominated by President Lincoln for assistant paymaster general with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The Senate Committee on military affairs by a majority of one refused to report favorably on this nomination because Judge Seney was too much of a democrat in politics. Afterwards he was promoted to captain and served. as brigade and division quartermaster, rendering most effective service for nearly three years, when owing to ill health he was forced to leave the service. He escaped the casualties of war without any serious physical disability other than a defect iii his left ear which came from the explosion of a shell, and rendered him quite deaf in that member. Although this was seldom noted by his friends since the other ear was unaffected. Judge Seney was a successful trial lawyer. His servies were demanded in big litigations. His practice was not limited by the confines of Northwest Ohio and he was often called upon to try cases in other states and in many foreign jurisdictions. One time it was said that he was eminent as a jurist in Canada as well as in the United States. Judge Seney was elected to Congress, and for eight years served his district as a member of the Lower House of the Federal Government. At one time he was Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary. He was an unsuccessful candidate for United States senator and was favorably considered as a running mate for Grover Cleveland the last time Mr. Cleveland was a candidate for the presidency. Though urged by his friends and admirers, at the last moment Judge Seney refused to permit his name to go before the National Democratic Convention. Two terms Judge Seney represented his party as a delegate in the national convention, and after his retirement from Congress was tendered the nomination as a fusion candidate for the Lower House, but refused to accept the nomination. Probably this distinguished lawyer is best known among the profession for his effective work in judicial reform. His work, the Code of Civil Procedure, undoubtedly produces more reform in pleading than any other one agency. He was an ardent advocate of the simplified form of pleading, and as a judge refused ever to let a case be decided on a rule of practice or procedure, but always contended that every citizen had a right to have his case heard on its merits. Judge Seney was also interested in several corporations, being president of, the Tiffin Savings Bank and Trust Company, The Tiffin Electric and Natural Gas Company, and also the Crystal Ice Company, besides being director and legal adviser in many other large business institutions. He was a frequent contributor to law journals and other periodicals. He married Anna Walker Seney, who was the granddaughter of Josiah Hedges, the founder of the City of Tiffin. A brother of Judge George E. Seney was the late Joshua Roberts Seney of Toledo. Joshua R. Seney gained his early education in Ohio and was a student at Antioch College during the presidency of the noted Horace Mann. He afterwards graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York, where he won honors in languages out of a class of 150. He was master of seven different languages and his scholarship attainments made him a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. He had graduated from the Union College in 1860 and early in the Civil war he offered his services as a private, and though still young was recommended for a major's commission. He was in ill health at the time 1328 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO and the government refused his services. Afterwards he organized the One Hundred and First Regiment of Ohio Infantry find saw some service in the capacity of sutler. Judge Seney studied law with Judge Pillars of Tiffin, Ohio, and after being admitted came to Toledo to practice. Here he formed a law partnership with Hon. R. C. Lemmon, a partnership which was dissolved when he was elected judge of the Common Pleas bench. When he took his seat on the bench he was only twenty-nine years of age, but youth was no impediment to one who possessed almost by inheritance the judicial temperament and had all the training and endowments necessary for the judicial office. He made an enviable record as a judge, was careful, painstaking and just, and he would never sacrifice the ideals of justice because of technical restrictions. He was the first judge in the state and one of the first in the nation to permit a negro to sit on a jury. At another time he decided that a clerkship is not an office within the meaning of the constitution, and that a woman is eligible ,to fill it. This decision was sustained by the Supreme Court and threw open the doors to the employment of women in clerical capacities in state, county and city offices. Ill health, originating in an attack of the grippe, brought a cessation to the varied activities of this judge and lawyer, and for ten years prior to his death he was practically an invalid, but bore his afflictions uncomplainingly and was a strong and great man in his misfortune. Aside from his work on the bench he would never accept the honors of public office, and several times refused nomination by acclamation. His highest aim was to excel in his profession. He made a fault of one great virtue—generosity, and in all his relations was admired for his sterling integrity, broad minded publics spirit, and his absolute fearlessness in doing what he believed to be right. He was a classical scholar, was versed in the best of literature ancient and modern, wielded a graceful pen, and all these accomplishments served him well in the law and on the bench. His greatest forte as a lawyer was at the trial table. His logical arguments, eloquent and forceful, made him a peer in the conduct of court cases and it is doubtful if he was ever excelled in cross examination. In politics he was a democrat, and it is noteworthy that he was elected to the bench in a republican stronghold. But his partisanship was never radical and he was essentially devoted to the fundamental principles of liberty and constitutional law. He was one of the three men, all young attorneys, who laid the foundation for the splendid law library at Toledo. Judge Joshua R. Seney was survived by his brilliant wife, Julia Rice Seney, and a son, Attorney George E. Seney, both of whom are individually referred to on other pages. Henry W. Seney, who was the third in a distinguished trio of brothers and eminent lawyers in Northwest Ohio, received his early education in Tiffin. While in his early teens the Civil war broke out, and fired with the patriotism worthy of his lineage he enlisted in the Forty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a. drummer boy. The military life proved too severe for the young patriot and against his consent he was mustered out of service on account of his youth. Returning home he became very much discontented and again endeavored to enter the army. For a short time he served as clerk in the paymaster 's department, and would have received a commission in that branch of the service had it not been for his extreme youth. On returning home he supplemented his education by private tutorage and entered the College of Arts and Sciences of Notre Dame University. After two years of study in that institution he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and for several years was employed as a bookkeeper in one of the large business houses. However, he was dissatisfied in his vocation and while there decided to study law and was duly admitted to the bar of Ohio. After practice of his profession for a number of years he was elected judge of the Circuit Court and for ten years most ably administered that office. His decisions while a member of that tribunal were characterized by a broad and magnificent comprehension of the philosophy of law and the highest conception of a judge's duty in passing on the rights of a citizen. Many of his decisions are reported in the Circuit Court Reports of Ohio. After ten years on the bench he resigned and formed a law partnership with the Hon. Curtis T. Johnson, at present judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Toledo, under the name Seney & Johnson. This successful legal firm continued until Judge Johnson was elected to the bench, after which he formed a law partnership with his son Allen J. Seney. This firm was only severed by the death of the senior partner, Hon. Henry W. Seney. Judge HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1329 Seney died in 1911, and was survived by his widow, Mary Allen Seney, and daughter Elma Seney Richards, and his son Allen J. Seney, who at the present time is first assistant county prosecutor at Toledo. Allen J. Seney was graduated at the University of Michigan with the degree A. B., after which he completed a course in the college of law at the Ohio State University, receiving the degree LL. B. Mr. Seney- permitted the use of his name for nomination on the democratic ticket as county prosecutor of Wood County when he resided in North Baltimore, and made a most creditable showing in that republican stronghold, running far ahead of his ticket. He is at present first assistant prosecuting attorney of Lucas County, Ohio. JULIA RICE SENEY, youngest child of Clark H. Rice, sister of Gen. Americus V. Rice and wife of Judge Joshua R. Seney, received her education in the public schools at Kalida, Ohio, and completed a four years' collegiate course at the Vermillion Institute. Her life was always an exceptionally active one, and after her marriage to the late Judge Joshua R. Seney she found time in addition to her domestic duties to engage in charitable and literary work. She was state inspector and later assistant instituting and installing officer in the Woman's Relief Corps. In the latter capacity she instituted more corps than any other officer. Upon the illness of her husband it became necessary for Mrs. Seney to be the bread winner. She first threw her energies into literary enterprises, the results of which were very successful. During the World 's Fair at Chicago Mayor Emmice appointed Mrs. Seney with Dennison Smith to represent the City of Toledo. Shortly afterwards she was appointed by Governor Campbell to the important position of "hostess for Ohio." At this great fair Mrs. Seney graciously and ably performed the duties of hostess of the Ohio Building in a manner which added much credit to the state. At the close of the World's Fair Mrs. Seney was made associate editor of the Courier, which is now the Sunday Times of Toledo. This position she resigned in order to accept the superintendency of the registry department of the Toledo postoffice. This appointment was the result of the direct influence of President Cleveland. Mrs. Seney had the honor of being the only woman to hold such a position in a first class postoffice. The reports of the inspectors during her tenure of office abounded with praise for her able conduct of its affairs. This position was held for five years by Mrs. Seney. The department at Washington valued her services so highly that for three months they refused to accept her resignation, and did not accept it until she wrote on to Washington that it would he impossible for her to keep the office. After resigning she devoted her time to business and literary interests. At that time she wrote many special articles for various publications. The Toledo City Council without any solicitation on Mrs. Seney's part unanimously elected her a member of the Manual Training School Board, but owing to a defect in the law the election was declared unconstitutional. Governor John M. Patterson suggested Mrs. Seney's name for lady commissioner at the Jamestown Exposition, but she declined the honor. Mrs. Seney was a member of the advisory board of the Lucas County Children's Home at Maumee from its establishment, twenty-two years ago, and in March, 1915, she was elected president of the board. She was also a member of the Press Club of Toledo, the Toledo Shakespeare Association, the Toledo Writer's Club, the Woman's Relief Corps, the Daughters of the American Revolution, The Ohio Newspaper Woman's Association, and was a member of the First Congregational Church. She was a deep student of and an ardent devotee to Shakespeare, and for three years teacher of a large Shakespeare Class. She had a great and charming personality much like that of her late husband. Her charity was broad and liberal, not limited by class, race or creed, but an outflowing generosity to all. She was a queen regnant in her home as wife and mother. Mrs. Seney was a great believer in outdoor sports, and with Charles J. Strobel established the first baseball league Toledo ever had. She was greatly interested in the Toledo University and along with Katherine Brownlee Sherwood can be regarded as one of its founders. She was also an important factor in bringing the University Extension to Toledo. Mrs. Seney died April 30, 1915, at Toledo. She is survived by her son and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. George E. Seney, and two grandchildren, Julia Rice Seney, Jr., and George E. Seney, Jr. GEORGE E. SENEY, who was born in the City of Toledo, Ohio, September 22, 1876, is a son 1330 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO of the late Judge Joshua R. Seney and Mrs. Julia Rice Seney. He is also a nephew of the late Hon. George E. Seney of Tiffin, Ohio, and also a nephew of the late General Americus V. Rice. He was graduated from the Toledo High School and from the Toledo Manual Training School ; attended the literary department of the University of Michigan, and was graduated from the College of Arts and Philosophy of the Toledo University, receiving the degree of Master of Arts. He attended the College of Law of the Ohio State University and was graduated from the latter institution in 1901 with the degree LL. B. Admitted to the bar in that year, he became a member of the firm of Seney & Thurstin. After a time he withdrew from the firm and is now practicing alone. Mr. Seney is one of the well-known democrats of Toledo and .once allowed the use .of his name as candidate for prosecuting attorney, and while defeated made a very creditable run. While active in politics he has repeatedly refused to run for any office, devoting his sole energies to his large and growing practice. Judge L. W. Machenheimer when elected county prosecutor tendered Mr. Seney an assistantship, which he refused. Several times he has declined nomination for the State Legislature. Hon. Edward S. Wertz. the United States District Attorney, offered him the position of first assistant, which he also declined. Mayor Keller appointed Mr. Seney a member of the University Board, and after two and a half years of unselfish service he resigned as his close attention to his duties as a board member was interfering with his business. He is regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in Northwestern Ohio. Mr. Seney is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason. He married Miss Adah Kuhlthau, daughter of Charles E. Kuhlthau, of Delaware, Ohio. Mrs. Seney was graduated from the Ursuline Convent and attended the Ohio Wesleyan and Toledo Universities. She is an accomplished musician and poet. Some of her latest productions have called forth merited praise. Two children, Julia Rice Seney and George E. Seney, Jr., are the result of this happy union. GENERAL AMERICUS V. RICE, for many years a distinguished figure in Northwest Ohio history, was born at Perrysville, Ashland County, Ohio, November 18, 1835, and died April 4, 1904, at Washington, D. C., being buried at Arlington. He first attended Antioch College under President Horace Mann, and afterwards was graduated from Union College, Schenectady, New York, in the class of 1860, taking the honors in mathematics. He was a law student until the war broke out, when he went to the aid of the Federal Union, offering his services as a private soldier under the first call of Lincoln for troops in April, 1861. He was made second lieutenant. He rose rapidly, having gained recognition for his daring and military skill. At the memorable battle of Shiloh he commanded by reason of the colonel's absence the 57th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as lieutenant colonel. He was wounded by the concussion of a shell above him, and knocked from his horse. At Chickasaw Bayou five days of severe fighting was experienced, and at Arkansas Post, at the head of his command, he led the charge on the works which were captured after a desperate battle of three hours. At the siege of Corinth he took an active part in all the battle, and acted with a gallantry that elicited encomiums from his superior officers. He was constantly with Sherman, following his fortunes and instructions, and commanded the entire rear guard at Vicksburg. In December, 1862, he was promoted to colonel of the 57th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, at which time he looked so young that they would not let the governor see him for fear the latter would refuse to sign his commission. In March, 1863, General Rice was assigned to command the First Brigade, First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, in the Black Bayou Expedition, and went to the relief of Porter and the Second Brigade. He was with Grant at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, and by rapid marches his command encircled Vicksburg. He was personally complimented by General. Sherman in his report, who said he had the best disciplined command in his corps. For his actions about Vicksburg General Sherman recommended him for appointment as full brigadier general. Later General Rice participated in the battles of Sugar Valley, Resaca, Dallas, New Hope, Big Shanty and Little Kenesaw. While leading the terrible assault of Little Kenesaw he received three wounds, and for his action at Resaca, Georgia, he was again recommended for promotion. Upon recovering from his wounds in April, HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1331 1865, he again joined the army, having been made a brigadier general. He passed with his command in the great review at Washington and was assigned .to command the Third Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, at Little Rock, Arkansas, and quelled the insurrections in Arkansas. General Rice was discharged in .October, 1866, and was offered a brevet major generalship, which he refused. He was in the army five years, and during the last year of his service was in the field with but one leg. He was hit seven times while in action. While General Rice was at home wounded, he was defeated for Congress by the late Governor Ashley. From 1874 to 1878 he was a member of Congress, the father of the famous Arrears Pension Bill, and chairman of the Pension Committee. President Cleveland appointed him to the position of United States Pension Agent and President McKinley appointed him purchasing agent for the census department. In politics General Rice was always a democrat, and ran with General Thomas Ewing for lieutenant-governor against General Hickenlooper. For thirteen years he was a valuable member of the board of trustees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Xenia. By profession General Rice was a banker, having succeeded his father, the late Clark H. Rice of Ottawa, Ohio, as president of the Rice & Company Bank. He was very successful in railroading, having built the Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw Railroad, and was at one time its president. He was director and officer in various other corporations and business enterprises. General Rice spoke several languages and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. He was a man of the highest order of executive ability and in the army was regarded as a military genius with few rivals from the standpoint of natural ability. He was a wonderful organizer not only in military affairs, but also in the field of railroading and finance. General Rice married Mary Metcalf, daughter of Judge Metcalf. She with two daughters, Mary and Catherine, survives him. Samuel Rice, brother of General Rice, attended college at Oberlin and the State University of Michigan, and in the Civil war was captain and provost marshal. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He served two terms as clerk of courts of Putnam County, after which he entered the banking house of Rice & Company, being associated with his brother General Rice and his father. He died at the early age of thirty-six. C. H. Rice, father of General Rice, was president of the Rice Bank at the time of his death. The grandfather of General Rice was an army officer in the War of 1812. His great-grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, ranking as captain. The Rices were direct descendants of Edmund Rice, one of the Puritans who settled near Boston, and had such descendants as General Rice, Clara Barton, Mary Rice Livermore, Harriet Hosmer and Governor Rice of Massachusetts. General Rice's mother was Catherine Mowers of Virginia. LYMAN E. STRONG. It is difficult to realize that only forty or fifty years have passed since a large part of Lucas County was an unreclaimed wilderness. It is still more difficult to believe that such a splendid homestead, with its fertile fields, its improvements, as that owned by Lyman E. Strong on the old Indian road at the east edge of Richfield Township, was at one time, little more than forty years ago, an almost impassable swamp. In making his farm productive, in clearing and draining it, Lyman E. Strong thus achieved something which will be of lasting value not only to his own family but to the county for all future time. With an understanding of what he has accomplished any one would say that Mr. Strong well deserves the comfortable retirement he now enjoys. He is the architect of his own destiny, and started out a very poor man indeed. He was born in Lorain County, Ohio, a son of Wait-sell and Achsah Strong. When he was a small child his father died, and his mother subsequently married again and moved into Huron County, where Lyman E. Strong spent his youth. He had few advantages in the way of schools and only hard work as an opportunity at home. When he left his mother's home it was without any capital, and he had no influence with friends or relatives. The necessity confronted him of getting some money not only to support himself but also to provide the necessary capital for a permanent vocation. He was both industrious and capable and was thus bound to succeed in the long run. Three years and eleven months he remained faithfully serving one employer, saved all his wages, and with that modest capital came to Lucas 1332 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO County in 1873 and purchased eighty acres 2 ½ miles east of Berkey. This is the land that he still owns. At that time it was covered with woods, and was located in what was called Big Cottonwood Swamp. Water covered the ground most of the year and the only way to get across was by jumping from one log to another. A heavier task could hardly be imagined than that which confronted Mr. Strong when he started to clear this. He not only felled the timber but also gradually ditched and drained the land, and it is now recognized as one of the finest farms in that community. Not only is the land capable of thorough cultivation, but the improvements are of the best quality. There is a fine modern house, and up-to-date and commodious barns, silos, and every other facility for first class farming. Mr. Strong has been for many years a stock feeder. When he retired from the active management of this farm he turned it over to his son, who is one of the progressive and capable young farmers of Lucas County. In 1873 Mr. Strong married Ella Wilson. Her father William Wilson settled many years ago in Richfield Township, Lucas County, Ohio. On the day that Mr. and Mrs. Strong were married their humble house was raised and they soon afterward occupied it and together shared in the inconveniences and hardships until their farm was made productive and profitable. Mr. and Mrs. Strong have one son, Frederick Nelson, who married in 1901, but his wife, who was Nancy Warner, died a year later. He married for his second wife, August 29, 1916, Estella Moorehead. He still lives at home with his parents. Both Mr. Strong and his son Frederick are active republicans, but have never sought office. The family are members of the Christian Church. STARTING VOLUME III HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, nineteenth President of the United States, was born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822. He came of a long line of sturdy, God-fearing New England ancestry, seven of whom served as Revolutionary Soldiers. He was of Scotch descent on his father's side, but the prevailing strain was English ; his mother's ancestors coming from England in 1635. George Hayes, from whom he descended in the sixth generation, came from Scotland to Windsor, Connecticut, in 1680. The great-great-grandson of this George Hayes, who was named Rutherford, born at New Haven in 1756, migrated as a young man to Vermont where he served as an Ensign in the Revolution. There he married Chloe Smith, a woman of remarkable strength of character, and reared a large family. He was a Revolutionary Soldier, farmer, blacksmith, and inn-keeper at Brattleboro. Here his son Rutherford the President's father was born January 4, 1787. He married Sophia Birchard who was of English lineage and became a successful business man at Dummerston, Vt., serving as Captain of a Militia company in the War of 1812. In 1817 the young couple removed to Delaware, Ohio, where he built the first brick dwelling house in which the future President was born. There the husband fell a victim to malarial fever in July, 1822, three months before the birth of the son destined to so great a career, leaving his wife a valuable farm. Sardis Birchard, her brother, who became a prosperous merchant at Lower Sandusky (Fremont), was her constant counsellor and the guardian of her two children. She lived till 1866. The future president attended the village school and early began the study of Latin and Greek. Then he spent a short time at Norwalk (Ohio) Academy and a year at Isaac Webb's School at Middletown, Connecticut. In 1838, when barely sixteen, he entered Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio, where he dis tinguished himself in his studies and in student activities, graduating in 1842 as valedictorian. In his diary written in his junior year he expressed a sentiment which was prophetic of his life. He wrote: " The reputation which I desire is not that momentary eminence which is gained without merit and lost without regret. Give me the popularity which runs after, not that which is sought for." In all his life he never solicited an office or sought promotion. Honors, distinctions, offices came to him unasked for because men recognized his merit. Almost immediately after graduation young Hayes began to study law in the office of Thomas Sparrow at Columbus. In August, 1843, he entered the Harvard Law School where he enjoyed the tuition and friendship of Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf ; while he attended also the lectures of Longfellow and Agassiz in literature and science. He finished his law courses in January, 1845. Returning to Ohio he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Fremont, where in the following year he became a partner of. Ralph P. Buckland, later a member of Congress. Bronchial trouble forced him to give up active work in 1848, when he spent a winter in Texas and a summer on the Atlantic coast. Then, in the early winter of 1849-50, he established himself at Cincinnati, where he soon made for himself a recognized place in the profession. At the same time he kept up his interest in letters, becoming a member of the Cincinnati Literary Club, in which he mingled with many men of distinction or to become distinguished, such as Thomas Corwin, Salmon P. Chase, Moncure D. Conway, Stanley Matthews, and others. (This club, indeed, furnished the Union armies more than forty officers, many of them generals.) On December 30, 1852, Mr. Hayes married Miss Lucy Ware Webb, the daughter of Dr. - 1335 - 1336 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO James Webb, then deceased, who had been a well-known physician of Chillicothe. She was a young woman of fine culture, of most winning personality, of gracious manners, and strong character, who throughout all the busy years to come was a constant source of help and inspiration to her husband. Meanwhile Hayes was winning forward in the law ; several criminal cases in which he participated drawing public attention to him. In 1856 he declined a nomination to the Court of Common Pleas. In 1858 he was appointed city solicitor to fill a vacancy, and the following year he was elected to the same office, by a majority of over 2,500 votes, and served the public faithfully and satisfactorily. In April, 1861, he failed of re-election, the entire ticket of his party being defeated. He at once resumed the practice of the law ; but the war drums soon summoned him to sterner work. Hayes had always been an anti-slavery whig and republican. He supported Clay in 1844, Taylor in 1848, Scott in 1852, and in 1856 worked earnestly for Fremont. Clay was his ideal. "I would start in life without a penny," he wrote in early manhood, "if by that Henry Clay could be elected President." He was an enthusiastic supporter of Lincoln, and he was one of the committee to escort Lincoln from Indianapolis to Cincinnati when the Great Commoner was on his way to Washington to be inaugurated. He recorded at the time his faith in Lincoln's ability to meet the impending crisis. On June 7, 1861, the governor of Ohio commissioned him major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers. The regiment was soon ordered to West Virginia, where it rendered effective service throughout the war except during the Antietam campaign, in 1862, and during the operations of General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. October 24, 1861, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. On September 24, 1862, in the Antietam campaign, Hayes showed conspicuous gallantry in leading a charge at the battle of South Mountain. Here he was severely wounded,. a minie ball shattering his left arm above the elbow. Before his wound was healed he returned to his regiment as colonel. In 1863 his command was engaged in Southwestern Virginia in efforts to cut the Confederate line of communication to Tennessee. There was much rugged campaigning and many engagements. In July of this year also Hayes commanded two regiments and a battery of artillery that was sent back to check John Morgan in his raid in Southern Ohio. The year 1864 was full of stirring incident, incessant campaigning, and opportunities for valorous service for Hayes. In the spring he served under General Crook in the movement against the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, and led a brigade in storming the enemy's works at the crest of Cloyd Mountain with noteworthy gallantry. Afterwards he participated in the march upon Lynchburg and in the operations thereabouts and covered the retreat in the perilous passage of the Alleghanies. In July Hayes was ordered to the Shenandoah Valley, where he took part with great credit in many important battles. At the battle of Winchester he performed a feat of extraordinary courage and daring. His brigade had the extreme right of Crook's command. His troops with the cavalry executed the turning manoeuvre which decided the fate of the day. In leading an assault upon a battery on an eminence he found in his way a morass over fifty yards wide. Without a moment's hesitation Colonel Hayes plunged in. His horse was quickly mired, and had to be abandoned, and Hayes waded through alone under the enemy's fire. Waving his cap he signalled to his men to come over. When about forty had joined him he charged the battery and took it after a hand to hand fight, the enemy, trusting to the security of the position, having left it without infantry supports. The enemy fled in great disorder and Hayes re-formed his lines and continued in pursuit. At Fisher's Hill Crook with Hayes's brigade in the lead executed brilliantly a flank movement through the mountains and woods to the enemy's left. He led repeated charges until the enemy's works with every piece of artillery had been captured. A month later, October 19th, at Cedar Creek, Hayes displayed such courage and sagacity in checking the enemy 's advance, and even after he had been severely injured when his horse was shot under him, in rallying his men and aiding in forming the line, which Sheridan inspired .to renewed effort after his famous ride from Winchester, that Crook on the battlefield grasped his hand and said : "Colonel, from this day you will be a brigadier general." The commission bearing data of the battle soon reached him ; and on March 13, 1865, he received the rank of brevet major-general, " for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia. and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek," Virginia. Hayes was wounded six times, had four horses shot under him, and HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1337 participated in 100 battles great and small. General Grant in his memoirs says : " On more than one occasion in these engagements General R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as President of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than mere personal daring. Having entered the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of the war, General Hayes attained by his meritorious service the rank of brevet major-general before its close." In August, 1864, while he was in the field he was nominated for Congress by the republicans of the Second Ohio District (Cincinnati). To William Henry Smith, who wrote suggesting that he come home and make campaign speeches, he wrote : "Your suggestion about getting a furlough to take the stump was certainly made without reflection. An officer fit for duty who, at this crisis, would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped. You may feel perfectly sure I shall do no such thing." The district gave him a decisive majority and two years later re-elected him by an increased vote. In Congress he was a quiet, faithful, hardworking member. As chairman of the library committee he carried through measures of much benefit to the Congressional Library. He was an earnest advocate of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution and of the reconstruction measures of his party. In 1867, in the midst of his second term, the republicans of Ohio nominated him for governor against Allen G. Thurman. After an exciting canvass, he was elected by a majority of 2,983. Two years later •he was re-elected over George H. Pendleton by a majority of 7.506. In his first campaign for governor he vigorously advocated negro suffrage. In his second campaign he combated the democratic declaration in favor of paying the Government bonds with greenbacks. His messages to the Legislature abounded in practical suggestions for reform of the tax laws, the election laws, the prison laws, and many other reforms which bore fruit. Under his administration the soldiers' orphans' home was established, the State University was founded ; the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, and the state debt was reduced. At the expiration of his term, in 1872, he refused to be elected United States Senator by a combination of republicans and democrats against John Sherman. His friends in the Second District that year insisted that he stand again for Congress ; the tide was running against the republicans in Cincinnati and it was thought that Hayes, if any man, could be elected. He reluctantly accepted the nomination and made a vigorous campaign, pleading for an honest financial policy and civil service reform. While he ran much ahead of his ticket he was defeated. Soon after this he declined the position of United 'States assistant treasurer at Cincinnati to which he had been commissioned by President Grant. In 1873 General Hayes returned to Fremont and established himself at Spiegel Grove, which was given him by his uncle, Sardis Birchard, whose chief heir he became on Mr. Birchard's death the following year. It was his fixed determination at that time completely to retire from politics and to spend the remainder of his life in learned leisure. But the people of Ohio would not have it so. In 1875, much against his wishes and after his positive declination, the republican convention again nominated him for governor, against William. Allen, then governor, a man of great popularity. The democratic platform declared that the volume of the currency (that is, paper money) should be made and kept equal to the wants of trade ; that the national bank currency should be replaced with greenbacks, and that customs dues should be payable at least to the extent of one half in greenbacks. The questions involved attracted the attention of the entire country to the Ohio canvass. General Hayes made a most vigorous and unyielding sound money campaign and was elected by a majority of 5,544. During the canvass it was predicted by many papers (among them the New York Sun) that if Hayes were elected, he would be a formidable candidate for the Presidential nomination in 1876. His brilliant and successful campaign increased such talk and his availability became more and more widely recognized. A letter from John Sherman made public in the early part of 1876 gave impetus to the movement. General Hayes himself refused to take any step toward securing the nomination. To a friend he wrote: "It is not for you or me to enroll ourselves in the great army of office-seekers. Let the currents alone." The Ohio.: Republican Convention instructed the delegates 'to the Cincinnati Convention to vote for Hayes. Blaine, Morton, Conkling and Bristow were the leading candidates. General Noyes presented Hayes's name to the convention, dwelling on his high personal character, and his lack of 1338 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO enemies, and contending that his nomination would "compromise all difficulties and soften all antagonisms." On the first ballot Hayes had 61 votes, 378 being necessary to a choice. His strength slowly increased until on the seventh ballot he received 384 votes, when on motion of William P. Frye, of Maine, the nomination was made unanimous. This was on June 16th. On. July 8th appeared the let> ter of acceptance, which was altogether admirable in tone and in matter. Advanced ground was taken in behalf of civil service reform ; the speedy resumption of specie payments was advocated, and stress was laid on the imperative necessity for the pacification of the South. The opposing candidate was Samuel J. Tilden of New York, who had gained a reputation as a reformer in crushing the infamous Tweed ring in New York City, and by demolishing the Canal ring, as governor of New York State. He was moreover a most astute and skilful political organizer. The election was very close and resulted in a bitter controversy. It hinged upon the result in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, in which states the vote was close and where allegations of corrupt methods were made by both parties against the other. Friends of both candidates went from the North to each of these states to watch the count. Mr. Hayes throughout the crisis preserved a dignified bearing, awaiting clamly the result. On November 27, 1876, Mr. Hayes wrote a letter to John Sherman while the latter was at New Orleans, which clearly gives his position. He said : "You feel, I am sure, as I do about the whole business. A fair election would have given us about forty electoral votes in the South—at least that many. But we are not to allow our friends to defeat one outrage and fraud by another. There must be nothing crooked on our part. Let Mr. Tilden have the place by violence, intimidation, and fraud, rather than undertake to prevent it by means that will not bear the closest scrutiny." In all three states the Hayes electors were declared elected. Thus on the face of the returns Mr. Hayes had 185 votes in the electoral college and Mr. Tilden 184 votes. So bitter was the controversy between the parties in the country at large and in Congress, so many doubts and difficulties were raised, that both parties in Congress, the Senate being republican and the House democratic, at last united in the creation of an extraordinary court or commission to which all disputed electoral votes were to be referred. The commission consisted of five senators, five representatives, and five judges of the Supreme Court, and its decision was to be final unless set aside by the concurrent vote of both houses of Congress. The commission by a vote of 8 to 7 refused to go behind the return, holding that the certificates of the governors must be accepted. On March 2d the canvassing of the electoral votes was completed and Rutherford B. Hayes was declared duly elected President of the United States. President Hayes was inaugurated Monday, March 5th, 1877, having on the Saturday evening previously taken the oath of office privately at the White House, to prevent the possibility of an interregnum. His inaugural address covered much the same points as his letter of acceptance. In it occurred the apothegm oftener quoted than any other one thing said by Mr. Hayes, "He serves his party best who serves his country best." Mr. Hayes named as his cabinet, William M. Evarts, secretary of state ; John Sherman, secretary of the treasury ; George W. McCrary, secretary of war ; Richard W. Thompson, secretary of the navy ; David M. Key, postmaster general ; Charles Devens, attorney general; and Carl Schurz, secretary of the interior. It is acknowledged to have been one of the ablest cabinets in the history of the country. President Hayes at once directed his attention to the southern situation. In the first entry made in his diary after his inauguration occur these words : "My policy is trust, peace, and to put aside the bayonet. I do not think the wise policy is to decide contested elections in the States by the use of the national army." These words afford the key to his southern policy. After securing assurances from leading southerners of peaceful intentions and a purpose to accord constitutional rights to all classes of citizens, President Hayes ordered the Federal troops recalled from South Carolina and Louisiana. This was in April, 1877. The republican administrations in both states immediately fell to the ground and the rival democratic governments were established. Both North and South Mr. 'Hayes was widely commended for his course. People were tired of Federal interference in the South. The time was come when it was believed that all the southern commonwealths should be left to work out their own salvation in their own way. This policy. to be sure, weakened the republican party in the South and so was criticized by many partisans ; but it strengthened the party among the great masses of the North. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1339 Probably no single act of Mr. Hayes's administration was of more immediate or further-reaching benefit to the country. There was a gradual subsidence of sectional animosity and the southern question began rapidly to disap' pear from its position of first importance in the public mind. President Hayes's persistent conciliatory policy marked the completion of reconstruction so far as the National Government was concerned. The other great features of the administration can be only briefly mentioned. First. Consistent effort was made by the President to minimize the evils of the spoils system and to advance the cause of civil service reform. In all this he was opposed and thwarted largely by the politicians of his own party. And yet he was able to secure the adoption of the merit system in the New York Custom House and Postoffice which became valuable object lessons in the furtherance of the great reform. He defied "Senatorial courtesy" in the appointment of Edwin A. Merritt as collector of customs at New York, and then instructed him to conduct his office " on strictly business principles, and according to the rules which were adopted, on the recommendation of the Civil Service Commission by the administration of General Grant." Then he added : "Neither my recomendation, nor that of the Secretary of the Treasury, nor the recommendation of any member of Congress or other influential person, should be specially regarded. Restrict the area of patronage to the narrowest possible limits." Second. The financial history of the administration is most noteworthy. Mr. Hayes was most strenuous in upholding the policy of an early resumption of specie payments, the way for which had been prepared by the Resumption Act of 1875. In his first message he declared against "any wavering in purpose or unsteadiness in methods" in this regard. His strength of purpose and conviction had much to do with keeping the country Up to the mark of resumption, suffering as it still was from the depression succeeding the panic of 1873. A gold reserve was accumulated and when the date fixed by the law arrived the greenbacks had risen to par with gold. Another feature of the administration's financial history was the successful refunding of the public debt by which an annual saving in interest of $15,000,000 was secured. Moreover, it is not to be forgotten that Mr. Hayes vetoed the Bland-Allison Bill providing for the coinage of silver dollars of 412 ½ grains standard silver, accompanying his veto with a message of great force arguing against the wisdom of issuing full legal tender coins of less intrinsic than nominal value. This bill was passed over his veto, to be sure, and so the "silver question" entered upon its long and exasperating career in American politics. Third. Mr. Hayes maintained the dignity and prerogative of the Executive by refusing to be coerced into signing appropriation bills with obnoxious riders, intended to curtail the power of the President to execute laws disliked by the democratic majority in Congress, but which laws Congress was powerless to repeal over the President's veto. In every contest of the sort the President finally triumphed. Fourth. On March 1, 1879, Mr. Hayes, while sympathizing with the opposition to Chinese immigration, had the courage, in the face of a large popular demand, to veto the restriction bill, because it violated treaty obligations. In his last annual message he announced that a new treaty with China had been negotiated under which Chinese immigration could be regulated or suspended. Moreover, in the treatment of the Indians, in furthering the interests of the colored people, in the cause of education, Mr. Hayes urged, and, so far as lay in his power, instituted progressive measures. The resumption of specie payments, was followed by a revival of business, and a general increase of prosperity. In November, 1880, the country declared its approval of Mr. Hayes's administration by electing James A. Garfield as his successor by a decisive majority. Charles Francis Adams, who had supported Mr. Tilden in 1876, said of Mr. Hayes's administration : " Taken as a whole, it has been an administration which will bear comparison with the best and purest of all those which preceded it." And James G. Blaine wrote : "It was one of the few and rare cases in our history, in which the President entered upon his office with the country depressed and discontented and left it prosperous and happy ; in which he found his party broken, divided, and on the verge of defeat, and left it strong, united, and prosperous. This was the peculiar felicity of General Hayes's public career.” On the expiration of his term. Mr. Hayes retired to Spiegel Grove, his home, at Fremont. To his neighbors he spoke in feeling appreciation of their hearty welcome. In the course of his speech he said : "The question is often heard, 'What is to become of the man—what is 1340 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO he to do—who, having been Chief Magistrate of, the Republic retires at the end of his official term to private life ?' It seems to me the reply is near at hand and sufficient : Let him like every other good American citizen, be willing and. prompt to bear his part in every work that will promote the welfare, and the happiness, of his family, his town, his State, and his country. With this disposition he will have work enough to do, and that sort of work that yields more individual contentment and gratification than belong to the more conspicuous employments of the life from which he has retired." In the full spirit of these words Mr. Hayes lived the twelve years that remained to him. He took great interest in the old soldiers ; he was active in furthering the cause of the Grand Army ; he was first president of the Society of the Army of West Virginia, and he was for many years commander of the Loyal Legion. He devoted much time, labor, and earnest attention to the cause of education ; he was president of the board of trustees of the John F. Slater Education Fund, one of the trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, a trustee of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and of the Ohio State University at Columbus. He was for many years the president,of the National Prison Reform Association, an active member of the National Conference of Corrections and Charities, an earnest participant in the Lake Mohonk Indian conferences ; and a member of many other benevolent or educational organizations. From Kenyon College he received the degree of LL. D. in 1868 ; the same degree from Harvard in 1877, from Yale in 1880, and from Johns Hopkins in 1881. Mr. Hayes was profoundly interested in American history from the earliest period. He collected a library of books relating to American history and biography of many thousand volumes, now preserved by Ohio Archeological and Historical Society in a beautiful memorial building, erected by the state at Spiegel Grove. Mr. Hayes never lost his interest in politics in the large sense of the term, but after his retirement from the White House he rigidly abstained from discussing party questions for publication. He was most happy in his home life. The death of Mrs. Hayes in June, 1889, was a crushing Now to him, and he was not reluctant to respond when the final summons come to him on January 17, 1893. He died as he had lived, a noble, faithful, true-hearted Christian gentleman, who had met every responsibility and performed every duty that life laid upon him, honorably, conscientiously, and to the enduring good of his time and his country. COL. WEBB C. HAYES is the second son of Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy Webb Hayes, and resides in Spiegel Grove which, reserving the right of occupancy of the residence, he has deeded for a State Park as a Memorial to his parents. In 1909 Colonel Hayes deeded to the State of Ohio for the benefit of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, Spiegel Grove, through which runs for almost half a mile the old. French and Indian trail along the Sandusky-Scioto waterway from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, later known as the Harrison Trail of the War of 1812, together with all the personal property connected therewith, including the 15,000 volumes of the Library Ameri cana which had been collected by President Hayes, and which was, perhaps, the largest owned by any private citizen at the time of his death, conditional only on the preservation of it in a suitable fireproof building. The Legislature of Ohio devoted $40,000 toward the building, to which Colonel Hayes had added, including his endowment of $50,000 for the annual purchase of historical books, an amount not less than $100,000 in cash, which with the value of Spiegel Grove; the library, and personal property connected therewith, and adjoining property (the pro- ceeds from the sale of which is to be used in maintaining the park) amount to a total value of not less than a quarter of a million dollars, bequeathed to the state for the benefit of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society. He has not only achieved a high degree of success as a manufacturer at Cleveland, but has attained distinction as a soldier and a local historian. He has the honor of being the only soldier who served in battle in each of the four campaigns, Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines and China. He was wounded and had his horse killed in the assault on San Juan at Santiago and was awarded a Congressional medal of honor for distinguished gallantry at Vigan, P. I. Colonel Hayes was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 20, 1856, and for a few months attended school at Chillicothe and Cincinnati, before being sent with his older brother, Birchard, to live with his uncle, Sardis Birchard, at Spiegel Grove in 1866, where he attended the public schools until he entered Cornell Uni- HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1341 versity in the class of 1876. He was personal secretary to his father, while the latter was ,serving his third term as governor of Ohio, during his campaign for the presidency, and during his administration as President of the United States. In 1881 Colonel Hayes began his business career as treasurer of the Whipple Manufacturing Company at Cleveland. Six years later, in association with Myron T. Herrick, James Parmelee and W. H. Lawrence, he organized the National Carbon Company, a concern of great magnitude, which operates one of its branches at Fremont. While a small boy, he developed a fondness for the military, hunting, and an out-door life, and his patron saint from childhood, until the latter's death in 1890, was Maj. Gen. George Crook, U. S. A., the foremost hunter and Indian fighter of the United States army, who had caused him, while a child, to be uniformed as the junior second lieutenant of his father's regiment during the last year of the Civil war, and later taught him to hunt the big game of the Rocky Mountains ; grizzlies, elk, and Rocky Mountain sheep, in his annual vacations from business during the last thirteen years of the general's life. Colonel Hayes always took an active interest in military affairs, and served as an active or veteran member of the First Cleveland Troop, later Troop A, Ohio National Guard, for seventeen years prior to the war with Spain. He served with Troop A, as the personal escort of all of the presidents of the United States from Hayes to Taft, and at the funeral obsequies of the three Ohio presidents, Hayes, Garfield, and McKinley. He was active in securing the acceptance of a regiment of voluntary cavalry, and the expansion of Troop A into the First Ohio Cavalry, for the war with Spain. This regiment had five graduates of the United States Military Academy among its officers, and every member of Troop A of Ohio became a commissioned or non-commissioned officer of the First Ohio Cavalry, in the war with Spain. Colonel Hayes was commissioned major of the First Ohio Cavalry, and mustered into the United States service with his regiment at Columbus, May 9, 1898. He was immediately ordered to report to Maj. Gen. W. R. Shafter, and embarked with the Fifth Army Corps at Port Tampa, Florida, on June 6th for Santiago de Cuba. He reported to Brig. Gen. S. B. M. Young, commanding the Second Cavalry Brigade, to which the First Ohio Cavalry had been ordered assigned when eauipped and was attached to the brigade staff when the Transport "Leona" No. 21 sailed before the arrival of his regiment. He served through the campaigns of Santiago de Cuba, and for the invasion of Porto Rico, participating in the first landing at Daiquiri, Cuba, June 22d, the first engagement at Las Guasimas, June 24th, the assault on San Juan July 1st, and the siege of Santiago de Cuba, terminating in the surrender of July 17th. He was wounded through the muscles of the back, with contusion of the spine, by, a Mauser bullet, which killed his horse, at the crossing of the San Juan River, on the morning of July 1st, but participated in the assault on San. Juan Hill later in the day, and served until July 8th as acting adjutant general, acting brigade commissary, and acting brigade quartermaster of the Second Cavalry Brigade, vice Captains Mills and Henry, wounded, and Lieutenant Shipp, killed, in the assault, by order of Colonel Leonard Wood, acting brigade commander. On the cessation of hostilities, July 14th, he was detached from the Second Cavalry Brigade, on his own application, and ordered to rejoin his regiment to accompany it to Porto Rico, and on July 15th boarded the transport "Hudson," with other wounded. Sailed from Guantanamo Bay, on the Lampasas in Major General Miles' Expedition for Porto Rico and participated in the engagement at the First Landing at Guanica, Porto Rico, July 25th ; temporarily attached to General Garretson 's staff, and served with his brigade in the engagement on the Yauco Road July 26th. While scouting on July 27th he received the surrender of the Town of Yauco, and was placed in command of an expedition to Talaboa,  by Gen. Guy V. Henry, commanding Provisional Division, en route to Ponce. Ordered to report to Major General Brooks at Arroyo, August 9th, and attached to his staff, and served in the advance against the Spanish forces on August 13th, which was stopped by the news of the signing of the Peace Protocol. He sailed August 20th from Ponce for New York and rejoined his regiment in camp at Huntsville, Alabama. He left Camp Wheeler, Huntsville, Alabama; in command of the Cleveland Squadron, Troops A, B and C, First Ohio Cavalry, which was mustered out of service at Cleveland, October 22, 1898. On the breaking out of the insurrection in the Philippines he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-first United States Volunteer Infantry, recruited in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee and organized at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, in July, 1899, by 1342 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO Col. James S. Pettit of Ohio (captain First United States Infantry), who, with the remaining field officers, were graduates of the Military Academy. This regiment was the first to reach San Francisco en route to the Philippines, but on the eve of sailing on the transport "Grant," an epidemic of small pox broke out and the entire regiment was transferred to the Small Pox Detention Camp on Angel Island, from which, six weeks later, on October .25, 1899, Ligget 's Battalion, Companies I, K, Ti and M, the "small pox battalion," with a detachment of hospital corps men, all under command of Lieutenant Colonel Hayes, sailed on the United States army transport, "Manauense," for Honolulu and Manila. It later transpired that the "Manauense," a British ship, 'whose last cargo, curiously enough, had been saltpetre, had been thrice condemned and refused for transport purposes at Seattle, but had been brought to San Francisco freshly painted, but the true condition of the ship became so apparent before Honolulu was reached, that many of the crew deserted at that point. The trip from Honolulu to Manila was a succession of horrors. Small pox was again reported by the surgeons from the sick bay, the electric plant broke down, cutting off the lights and the electric fans in the quarters of the men and com pelling them to sleep on the deck during the remainder of the voyage, except during the, days of the typhoon, when the hatches were fastened down. The morphine-eating chief engineer opened a sea valve which could not be 'completely closed, shipping thirty' tons of water, which flooded the fire room, putting out the fires, and causing the boilers to leak, clogging the pumps with coal dust, so that all the water had to be bailed out with pails by the soldiers, over 100 of whom were on duty continually for twelve days bailing until the ship reached Manila. The distilling plant collapsed, cutting off the water supply and necessitating the use of salt sea water in preparing coffee. The ice plant failed, causing the loss of all fresh meats and vegetables, which had to be thrown overboard. The coal in the starboard bunker caught fire and had to be removed after the fire was drowned out and then after the soldiers had repaired or plugged the leaking boiler tubes, and gotten up steam by feeding coal to the fires by hand, the ship was struck by a typhoon and with no one on deck save the soldiers forming the bailing .crew, who were securely lashed, she was driven a derelict without steam before the storm for three days until picked up by her consort and slowly made her way into Manila Bay, arriving November 28, 1899. The regiment was ordered to the Southern Islands and was the first permanent American garrison on the Islands of Mindanao and Isabella de Basiland, establishing regimental headquarters at Zamboanga early in December, :1899. Pending an investigation of the conduct of the engineers of the "Manauense," Colonel Hayes was ordered to report to his old commander, General Young, then on an expedition through Northern Luzon, and sailed on the hospital ship "Relief, " and the warships "Wheeling" and "Princeton," arriving off the port of Vigan late in the afternoon of December 4, 1899. On being landed on the beach he found through a Spanish interpreter that the American garrison of eighty-three men with 150 sick, and wounded, had been surrounded by 800 Filipino insurgents, who had them cooped up in the monastery buildings on the Plaza at Vigan. It being too near dark to land the sailors and marines that night, Colonel Hayes seized a Filipino pony and forced its owner by the use of his revolver to accompany him through the Filipinos stationed along the trail, and in the darkness succeeded in reaching the garrison. General Young, with his cavalry, and Captain McCalla, U. S. N., with his sailors and marines, arrived at Vigan December 5th, in time to drive off the insurgents and relieve the garrison. Colonel Hayes was subsequently awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry. at Vigan and accompanied General Young in his northern campaign. On being relieved from duty in Northern Luzon he reported at the regimental headquarters at Zamboanga, December 31, 1899, and served with detachments of his regiments at Parang-Parang, Pollok, Cotta-Batti, and Davao, and as senior officer of a joint army, navy and civil government expedition, at a conference with the Sultan of Sulu, the spiritual head of the savage Moro tribes of Mindanao and Jolo. He returned to America via the Suez Canal on leave of absence just at the outbreak of the Boxer insurrection in China and, resigning, accompanied the American Relief Expedition to Peking, being appointed a volunteer aid on the staff of Maj. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee, commanding. He participated in cavalry raids from Peking, and on the disbandment of the China Relief Expedition, was relieved from duty and returned to America with the remains of Col. E. H. Liscomb, Ninth Infantry. HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1343 On the outbreak of the war between Russia and Japan, with whose soldiers he had served in the Relief of Peking, he again visited the Orient and accompanied General Kuroki's Japanese army on its advance to the Yalu ; and while en route to Chefoo from Korea was captured by Russian torpedo boats and taken a prisoner into Port Arthur, but released after a short detention and proceeded to Peking and then visited the Russian army near Mukden. On his return he witnessed one of Admiral Togo's bombardments of Port Arthur, the blowing up of Dalny by the Russians, and the landing of. the Japanese army which effected the capture of Port Arthur. On returning to America he called attention to the unmarked battlefields of American soldiers in Cuba and China and securing Congressional aid, he, as president of the China Battlefield Commission, and secretary of the Santiago Battlefield Commission, has been instrumental in marking these battlefields, this necessitating numerous trips to each of them. He has taken an active interest in the local historical affairs pertaining both to his county and state—and secured the marking of historical sites and the reburial of Major Groghan's remains on Fort Stephenson. In 1911, on the outbreak of the troubles with Mexico, and the partial mobilization on the border, Colonel Hayes was commissioned colonel and chief signal officer of the Ohio National Guard, by Governor Judson Harmon, and served with the regular cavalry and signal troops in patrolling the Rio Grande. Colonel Hayes was married September 30, 1912, to Mary Otis, only surviving daughter of the late Anson H. Miller and Nancy Otis Miller, life long residents of Fremont. Largely through Mrs. Hayes's efforts and her contribution of $100,000 in memory of her parents, the Memorial Hospital of Sandusky County was made possible. In 1913 Colonel Hayes was again, on the Mexican border, and with his wife visited the. City of Mexico during the presidency of General Huerta, and in 1916 spent a short time with General Pershing's expeditionary force in Northern Mexico. On the outbreak of the present European war, in August, 1914, they sailed on the first steamer leaving New York, and as special agent of the' Department of. State at his own expense, visited the American embassies in Paris, London, and Berlin, and the American legations at Brussels and at The Hague. Leaving Mrs. Hayes at The Hague, he visited Berlin and was sent in a German military motor car with two armed German soldiers through from Aix-le-Chapelle to Brussels and then to Ghent, passing over the battlefields at Liege, Namur, Mons, Brussels, and Louvain, within the month after the outbreak of the war. Just prior to the declaration of a state of war with Germany, Colonel Hayes tendered his military services to the secretary of war in the following letter : ARMY AND NAVY CLUB, Washington, D. C., February 19, 1917. "To the Honorable Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War. " Tender of Military Service. "SIR: "In forwarding the enclosed application to have my name entered and recorded on the Army and Navy Medal of Honor Roll, I hereby respectfully tender my services in case of war in such military 'capacity as may be -warranted by my qualifications and by my previous military service which terminated with my resignation as Lieut. Colonel of the 31st U. S. Vol. Infantry organized after the war with Spain for service in the Philippine Islands with station among the ,Moron of Mindanao with regimental headquarters at Zamboanga from 1899 to 1901. I had previously had service in Northern Luzon on the staff of Major General S. B. M. Young and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for " 'Distinguished gallantry in pushing `through the enemy's lines alone on the `night of. December 4th, 1899, from the ' beach to our beleaguered garrison at Vigan, P. I. "My previous military service was as Major, 1st Ohio Cavalry, in the war with Spain when I served through the campaign of Santiago de Cuba from the first landing until the surrender, in the Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, 5th Army Corps. I was wounded and had my horse killed in the assault on San Juan on the morning of July 1st, but served as acting Adjutant General, acting Brigade Commissary and acting Quartermaster of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade from July 1st to July 8th, vice Captains A. L. Mills (later Major General) and M. J. Henry, wounded, and Lieut. W. E. Shipp killed in the assault. "I accompanied Major General Miles' expedition to Porto Rico and served in Brig. General Henry's provisional brigade in the skirmish at the landing and later was attached 1344 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO to the staff of Major General J. R. Brooke until the Peace Protocol was signed. "After my service in the Philippines as Lieut. Colonel 31st U. S. Vol. Infantry, I served in the China. Relief Expedition of 1900 for the relief of Peking on the staff of Major General A. R. Chaffee, commanding the U. S. forces. "I was the only officer of the Army who served in battle under fire in the four campaigns of Cuba, Porto Rico the Philippines and China, was wounded in Cuba and awarded a Medal of Honor for service in the Philippines. " On the outbreak of the Russian-Japanese War I was appointed a dispatch bearer, at my own expense, to the American Legations at Seoul, Korea, and Peking, China, and as an unofficial observer accompanied General Koroki's Japanese Army on the advance through Korea to the Yalu River and after the battle of the Yalu, while crossing the Gulf of Pechilli was captured by Russian Torpeda Boat Destroyers and confined for a brief period in Port Arthur, after which I visited the Russian Armies as far north as Mukden. "In 1911 I was appointed by Governor Judson Harmon of Ohio, Colonel and Chief Signal Officer of the Ohio National Guard and served as such on the Mexican border during the partial mobilization of that year doing patrol, duty with the Signal Corps, U. S. Army, then under command of Major Squires the Chief Signal Officer, now Brigadier General and Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army. " On the outbreak of the present European War I was appointed a special agent of the Department of State at my own expense and sailed on the first steamer leaving New York, reporting at the American Embassies at Paris, London, and Berlin and at the American Legations at The Hague and Brussels. "After the repulse of the German column under von Kluck before Paris, September 4, 1914, I proceeded via Antwerp to Berlin and was, provided with a German military motor and armed guard and motored back from Aixles-Chapelles through Liege, Namur, and Mons -to Brussels, and subsequently by another military motor car visited Louvain and Ghent before returning to America late in the 'autumn of 1914. Very respectfully, " (Signed) WEBB C. HAYES, "Late Lieut. Col. 31st U. S. V. Inf., "Late Col. and Chief Signal Officer, Ohio National Guard." Colonel Hayes is a trustee of The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and of the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland. He is a member of numerous patriotic societies by inheritance and is an active member by reason of his own military service of the campaign societies known as the 'Society of the Army of Santiago de Cuba, The Society of the Army for the Invasion of Porto Rico, The Military Order of the Cara-boa, The Military Order of Moro Wars, The Military Order of the Dragon, and The Medal of Honor Legion. He is a member of the Union Club of Cleveland and of the Army and Navy clubs of Washington, of New York and of Manila. ANSON H. MILLER, late president of the First National Bank of Fremont, Ohio, was connected with the banking interests of Fremont for more than a half century. He was one of the organizers of the First National when the institution was founded in 1863, serving as cashier and later became vice president and president, occupying the last named office at the time of his death, which occurred March 30, 1905. Mr. Miller was born May 2, 1824, at Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and was the second son of John and Hanna (Bassett) Miller. In the year following his birth his parents moved to Norwalk, Ohio; and in 1839 settled in New London Township, in Huron County. Anson H. was educated in the Norwalk Seminary and at Milan Academy, after which he eagerly turned his attention to business. In 1847 he was employed by a lumber firm at New Orleans, but after about one year's experience, he returned to New London Township, where he engaged in farming until 1852. He became bookkeeper for Dr. William F. Kittridge, who was then treasurer of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad. In 1854 he became cashier for the firm of Birchard and Otis, bankers, at Fremont, and became a resident of that city on August 2, 1854, and remained identified with its many interests throughout the remainder of his life. His brother-in-law, Judge Otis, removed to Chicago in 1856, and at that time Mr. Miller became a partner, the firm name becoming Birchard, Miller & Company. As a patriotic move during the general financial stringency in the third year of the war for the Union, the private bank of Birchard, Miller & Company become the First National Bank of Fremont, with the following HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1345 first officers : Sardis Birchard, president ; James W. Wilson, vice president; and Anson H. Miller, cashier. The bank started out with a paid-up capital. of $100,000, and an authorized capital of $200,000. This bank was the fifth national bank organized in the United States, and through all these succeeding years it has held its supremacy, owing in large measure, its unquestioned solvency and its successful business career to the high personal character of its officers and their careful, conservative methods. The fine quarters of the bank, the solid, substantial building on the corner of Front and Croghan streets, its exterior appearance being typical of the solidity of the bank itself, offer quite a contrast to the small one-story building where Mr. Miller first served as one of its officials fifty years ago. Mr. Miller was married in March, 1854, to Miss Nancy J. Otis, a daughter of Joseph and Nancy B. Otis. They had three daughters : Mary 0., Fannie B.,- and Julia E., the former alone surviving, now the wife of Col. Webb C. Hayes. JOHN. M. SHERMAN has been a prominent factor in Fremont's banking affairs for over a quarter of a century and is vice president and general manager of the First National Bank of Fremont. He is also treasurer of the Fremont Home Telephone Company. Mr. Sherman is an Ohio man by birth and training, comes from that splendid stock that peopled the old Western Reserve, and further back his ancestors were prominent in Connecticut. Not long ago Mr. Sherman visited the scenes of his ancestors in Connecticut and became acquainted with the 'substantial homes which they built there in the seventeenth century and which have defied time and stress of circumstances and still typify the sturdy qualities which dominated those New England home makers. The Sherman family from, which he is descended came out of England in 1643 and settled in Connecticut. The first of the name was Capt. John Sherman, and his four or five sons became heads of various branches of the family that have been prominent' from early colonial times down to the present. Few other American families can rival the Shermans in the contribution of distinguished men, statesmen, soldiers, governors, public officials, judges and lawyers, physicians and surgeons, university professors and authors, besides a great many successful manufacturers, merchants and farmers. Membership of this old family can now be found in practically every state of the Union. As a whole they have proved worthy of their ancestry and have been good citizens, faithful to church and state, and with those qualities of ambition and character which mean most in any community. The grandfather of the Fremont banker was Justin Sherman, who came to Ohio in 1822. He was born in Connecticut in 1785, and died in Huron County, Ohio, August 10, 1865; On coming to Huron County he found himself in a complete wilderness and undertook many of the pioneer enterprises of that section. He built the first frame house in Huron County in 1823. That house was the birthplace of his son John G. and his grandson John M. Sherman. So far as possible he made the house after the pattern of New England homes, with all their substantial comforts, and he transplanted everything he could from the old New England to the new country of Northern Ohio, and in that environment he lived happily all his days. He was a farmer, a merchant miller, was the first postmaster of his town, had the first store there, and his home contained the first musical instrument. His was the first mill, and through these various undertakings he became a man of great usefulness and influence. Justin Sherman married Senea, daughter of John Sherman, a distant relative from Roxbury, Connecticut. They became the parents of ten children, the oldest and the youngest of whom died but when a few hours old. The first white child in Wakeman Township of Huron County was born on the Justin Sherman farm. John G. Sherman, father of the Fremont banker, was born at the old homestead in Huron County in 1830. He married for his first wife Julia Beecher, daughter of Cyrenus Beecher, of Erie County, Ohio. She died October 7, 1857, at the age of twenty-four, leaving one daughter, Florence. John G. Sherman married for his second wife Elizabeth Miller, daughter of John Miller, of New London, Huron County. They were married November 16, 1858. John Miller, her father, was born in Massachusetts, and came to Ohio as an early settler in Huron County. He served as sheriff of the county, and had an extensive farm under cultivation, owning a tract of land a mile square. John G. Sherman continued to live on the old farm in Huron County until his death in 1893. His widow passed away in 1907. In that old home John M. Sherman was 1346 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO born July 29, 1860. He was educated in the country and village schools and also in the preparatory department of Oberlin College, where he remained until 1880. On January 1, 1881, he entered the First National Bank of New London, Ohio, as collector and janitor. He had a vision then of becoming a banker and his success in the line is due to the fact that he has thoroughly concentrated his time and efforts upon every duty and detail of the banking business. He was promoted from his humble first position to bookkeeper, and in 1884 was made cashier. He remained 'with that bank seven years and resigned to come to Fremont and take the position of general bookkeeper with the First National Bank. He has been continuously identified with this bank- since 1891, and in 1892 he was made assistant cashier, was promoted to cashier in 1903, and in 1910 became vice president and general manager. He has been a director in the bank for over a quarter of a century. Mr. Sherman has also acquired many other interests in Fremont. He is treasurer of the Price. Lumber and Manufacturing Company ; a director of the Simple Account ,Sales Book Company ; a director of the Fremont Savings Bank ; owns oil lands and valuable real estate, especially in Fremont, including the Sherman Block at the corner of State and Front streets and his beautiful home at 613 Birchard Avenue. He is a republican in politics, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason., also a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Sherman was married in 1886 to Miss Jennie Middleworth. She was born in New London, Ohio, daughter of John Middleworth, a merchant of that town. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman have two children. Helen Louise is the wife of Raymond Erwin, now chemist for the National Carbon Company at Fremont. They have a son, Robert Douglas. John Homer, the only son of Mr. Sherman, is assistant cashier of the First National Bank. He married Miss Mary Williams, formally of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they have three children, named Richard Benedict, John Miller, Jr., and Phillip. FRED HAUGHTON. This is a name that bespeaks a large relationship with some of the early families of Lucas County. Mr. Fred Haughton is a native of Washington Township and has spent his active career as a farmer and occupies one of the attractive homesteads along the Bancroft Street Road in Adams Township. His parents were Ferdinand and Alice (Glann) Haughton. His mother was a daughter of Henry Glann, who settled in Adams Township as early as 1833, and died there in 1899. Ferdinand Haughton was born May 7, 1848, a son of John Haughton, who came from New York State in 1854. After spending a short time in Lucas County, he moved on to Fulton County, settling about five miles southwest of Matamora. That was his home for nine years, and on selling his farm there he returned to Lucas County and bought land on Central Avenue in Washington Township. That thoroughfare was then known as Haugh-ton Street, five of his brothers having settled there in the early days and impressed their character upon the community. The Haugh-tons secured their land direct from the Government. John Haughton died there in 1871. Ferdinand Haughton lived at home until he was twenty, and then started out as a renter in Washington Township. His active career has been spent as a farmer, and in 1873 he moved to the place now conducted by his son Fred, and since 1899 has lived retired. He spends a part of each year in California, where his wife and a number of his children are living. The children are : Mrs. Myrta Boschard ; Fred ; Harry, who lives in the State of Oregon ; Ilah, of California ; Nathaniel, in California ; Ione Gardner, who lives in California. Fred Haughton spent his early life on a farm, acquired his education in the local schools, and since his marriage has been conducting the old home place for his father. He is a man of a great deal of progressiveness and enterprise, and is managing his land according to the best standards of Northwest Ohio agriculture. He married Miss Anna Kellogg, daughter of Joseph G. and Sarah Kellogg. Joseph G. Kellogg was born in Lucas County, his father having come from Connecticut to Northwest Ohio in 1837. Sarah Kellogg's father was Helon Norton and her mother was Nancy (Richardson) Norton, the Nortons also having been among the early settlers of Lucas County. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Haughton and wife have three children, Helen, Alice and Fred A., Jr. FREDERICK B. SHOEMAKER. It was in keeping with the character of the man that the late Frederick B. Shoemaker should have made careful provision during his lifetime that those broad and beneficent influences HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1347 which he exerted in behalf of all that was best in the institutional affairs of Toledo should be continued through his generous bequests after his death. Many Americans have shown a remarkable genius for the accumulation of wealth and the building up of vast and profitable industries. It is a rarer quality when this wealth has been wisely used and distributed. In the best sense of the term Frederick B. Shoemaker was a philanthropist, a lover of mankind, but his philanthropy was performed unostentatiously, and it is especially noteworthy that his gifts to the public made through his will do not provide for the perpetuation of his name in a distinctive institution, but that they are distributed through well recognized channels of institutions already in existence. Thus it is that the Toledo Hospital, the Old Ladies Home and the Toledo Museum of Art become the recipients of his benefactions and each of these institutions is permanently enriched and their possibilities of service vastly broadened not only as a result of the several funds bequeathed them by his will, but also by the disinterested service rendered while living. During his long and active career in Toledo, where he died September 25, 1916, Frederick B. Shoemaker was a banker, manufacturer, grain merchant, and his name became significant of all that is best in the commercial and civic life of the city. He is of an old and prominent family. On both sides his ancestors were colonial settlers in New York State. The first of the name was Rudolph Shoemaker, who emigrated to America in 1710 and settled in the Mohawk Valley. His great-great-grandfather, John Jacob Shoemaker, was major of the Fourth Battalion of the Tryon County New York State Troops in 1775, at the beginning of the Revolution. His grandfather, Robert Shoemaker, was an officer of New York Troops on the line of the Canadian frontier in the War of 1812. Other members of the family have contributed to the military record, and F. B. Shoemaker himself was lieutenant of Company C in the One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil war, seeing much active service in Virginia. His father was the late Matthew Shoemaker, whose name is so closely and intimately connected with Toledo's financial history. Matthew Shoemaker, who was born in Herkimer County, New York, November 16, 1813, settled in Toledo in 1859. He at once interested himself in the commerce of the growing city, and from 1862 until 1868 was engaged in the foundry and machine shop business. In 1862 he helped to build the first grain elevator of the D. & M. Railroad in Toledo. In a peculiar sense the Northern National Bank of Toledo is almost a monument to the financial integrity of Matthew Shoemaker. This bank which was established in 1865 was largely organized by Matthew Shoemaker, who became a member of the first board of directors, and served as its president until 1872. In that year he resigned on account of ill health, but continued as vice president and gave much of his time and attention to the bank for ten years. At the time of his death in August, 1895, he was still a stockholder and director. It is noteworthy that Frederick B. Shoemaker was a director in that old and substantial institution for half a century. For over thirty years Matthew Shoemaker was largely interested in various banks in Toledo, and for fifteen years was president of the Merchants and Clerks Savings Bank. He was at one time a stockholder and director in the Union Savings Bank. His great public spirit led him to support numerous local enterprises. For many years he was a member of the Toledo Board of Education. He was an ardent sportsman and with a few friends organized the Middle Bass Island Club of which for eighteen years he was president. His was an honorable and important place in Toledo's history, and it was with a fine sense oFrederick, ineness that his son Frederick,tn providing for a large endowment to the Toledo Hospital, gave it in memory of his father and to be known as " The Matthew Shoemaker Fund." Frederick B. Shoemaker, who was born in Jackson, Michigan, in September, 1845, the oldest son of Matthew and Catherine B. Shoemaker, was fourteen years of age when the family removed from Dayton to Toledo in 1859. As a boy he attended the Dayton and Toledo high schools, and also the preparatory school of Heidelberg College at Tiffin. At the age of seventeen in 1862 he had his first business experience in the foundry and machine business. He continued that employment until 1866, excepting for the period spent in the war. Mr. Shoemaker was a director in the Northern National Bank of Toledo from 1867 until his death, and from 1871 to 1881 was cashier of the bank, and also served as one of its vice presidents. In 1881, resigning his executive place in the bank, he entered the grain business, and was one of the foremost grain merchants of the city until 1890. In 1888 he was 1348 - HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO elected president of the Toledo Produce Exchange, and held membership in that organization until his death. At one time he was president of the Turnbull Wagon Company, a large and successful manufacturing plant at Defiance, Ohio. He was also a director in the Union Savings Bank, The Commercial Banking Company of Bowling Green, The Produce Exchange Safe Deposit Company, and in other Toledo corporations. There is probably no suburban home around Toledo better known for the beauty of its situation and the splendid hospitality which prevailed there for so many years than "Rock Ledge" where Frederick Shoemaker spent nearly all his years after coming to Toledo, as a boy. Rock Ledge is in reality a farm, and on it the late Mr. Shoemaker was able to exercise and indulge his, great fondness for outdoor life. Rock Ledge is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Maumee River in Wood County. It stands on an eminence above the river and commands one of the finest views to be had anywhere along that stream. It afforded an unending source of pleasure and wholesome recreation to Mr. Shoemaker. In his younger days he was an ardent sportsman with gun and rod, and to the end of his life kept his membership in the Erie Shooting Club, the Castalia Trout Stream Company and the Middle Bass Club. He was also a member of the Toledo Club and the Country Club, and for nearly fifty years was affiliated with Rubicon Lodge No. 237, Free and Accepted Masons at Toledo. His membership in patriotic societies included Toledo Post, Grand Army of the Republic, the Society of Colonial Wars and the Sons of the American Revolution. Politically he was a republican. In 1875 Mr. Shoemaker married Miss Kate Laura, daughter of the late Miles D. Carrington. Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker spent the winters for several years in Pasadena, California, and while there in February, 1916, Mrs. Shoemaker passed away suddenly. Her death was a great shock to their many Toledo friends. It was only a few months later in the same year that Mr. Shoemaker was called to join her. Mrs. Shoemaker's father was a prominent grain merchant and one of the early members of the Toledo Board of Trade. The Carrington family have long been well known in Toledo. Mrs. Shoemaker was survived by her brother, William Carrington, and by two sisters, all of whom reside in New York City. Recently when the will of Mr. Shoemaker was admitted to probate the facts came out regarding his generous bequests. One block of property along the west side of Summit Street including a five-story business building, was devised to a local trust company and the income directed to be paid to The Toledo Hospital, under the name of "The Matthew Shoemaker Fund." Another property, on the west side of Superior Street, and containing a business block, was set aside and provision made for its income to be divided equally between the Old Ladies Home and The Toledo Museum of Art. The portion set aside for the Old Ladies Home is known as the Catherine B. Shoemaker Fund, in honor of Mr. Shoemaker's mother, and that portion going to the Museum of Art is known as the Frederick B. Shoemaker and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund. Typical of the general esteem in which Mr. Shoemaker was held in Toledo was the special expression shown in the words of resolutions drawn up by the trustees of the Toledo Museum of Art. The words of this resolution may be appropriately taken to conclude this article : "For the first time since its organization eighteen years ago this board is called upon to sadly record the passing of one of its members, and that one Frederick B. Shoemaker, who by reason of his sympathetic interest, helpful understanding and his unostentatious generosity, is one of the associates we are least able to relinquish. "Mr. Shoemaker and the estimable and beloved wife whose death preceded his but a few short months, took a deep interest in the Toledo Museum of Art from the time of its inception until the very last days of their lives. Mrs. Shoemaker was a charter member and Mr. Shoemaker was one of the first trustees, and both were sustaining members. They gave largely to the fund for the erection of the building, were generous annual contributors, enriched the permanent collection with many gifts of art objects, and gave freely of their means for the furtherance of many of the Museum 's educational activities. Mr. Shoemaker took a rare pleasure in the growth, success and increasing usefulness of the institution he and his had for so many years befriended ; and his beneficences by virtue of his bequests to be known as the 'Frederick B. Shoemaker and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund,' will go on for all time as a memorial to two greatly revered and much beloved friends, associates and citizens. "Frederick B. Shoemaker will live for ever in the hearts of a community hungering for beauty, as the first citizen to bequeath to the HISTORY OF NORTHWEST OHIO - 1349 Museum of Art a fund for the perpetual education of the people. It was a most befitting act with which to close a long and honorable career and we are grateful to him on behalf of the institution his vision helped to rear." MICHAEL SMITH. To be really successful in life is to do something that most people consider impossible. There are many who follow the regular routine of activities and enjoy prosperity but the rewards of true success are to those who undertake something more than ordinarily difficult, and carry it out without regard to the cost of personal hardships and sacrifice. A number of years ago the locality now known as Smith's Siding in the northwestern part of Sylvania Township in Lucas County was what was called the heart of the cottonwood swamps. It was extremely low and wet land. In fact, so wet was it that a person could not cross except by jumping from one log to another. There in the midst of that uninviting spot Michael Smith secured 160 acres of land. On every hand he received the most discouraging advice. Many told him that it was a useless investment, since he would never be able to make it productive of anything beyond swamp hay or at most might use it as a frog farm. About half an acre had been cleared on the north side, but otherwise it was in the same condition it had existed for centuries. Mr. Smith, while living on a rented farm, started the work of clearing, and after getting enough land ready for cultivation he moved to that farm, which is now one of the most fertile and productive spots in Lucas County. All the 160 acres are now cleared and more than fourteen miles of underground drains have been laid, so that every acre is tillable. In quality of soil there is not a farm in the county that can surpass it. Mr. Smith has also introduced splendid improvements in the way of buildings and otherwise. When the Toledo and Western Electric line was built, a siding and station known as Smith's Siding was placed at the crossroads at the corner of his farm, and since 1904 he has conducted a general store there. Michael Smith was born north of Tiffin, Ohio, August 11, 1857, a son of Mathias and Mary Elizabeth (Fisher) Smith. His parents were born and reared and were married in the Rhine Province of Germany. They had three children when they left Germany and came to America, locating at Tiffin, Ohio. In 1876 they settled in Spencer Township of Vol. III-2 Lucas County, where their last years were passed. The father died in 1888 and the mother in 1894, she having spent her last years with her son Michael. Until he was twenty-three Michael Smith remained at home and gave his father the benefit of his labors. He then started out for himself, and worked for wages until he was twenty-five. In those two years by thrift and careful economy he saved a capital of about $200. His next step was to get married, and he then rented a place in Sylvania Township. He lived on his rented farm until 1895, by which time his present place of 160 acres had been brought in a fair way of cultivation and since then he has enjoyed the comforts and profits of the farm which he redeemed from the swamp. Besides his operations as a farmer and merchant he also conducts a threshing outfit, his son Edward being a partner in that branch of the business. His success has naturally given him a place of confidence among his fellow citizens, and he is now serving as township trustee. He favors democratic principles in politics and is a member of the Catholic Church. On February 14, 1882, Mr. Smith married Catherine Rabb, who was born and reared in Spencer Township. A brief record of their fine family of children, all of whom have grown up on and several were born on the farm at Smith's Siding, is as follows : Mary, wife of William Keller, a farmer of Sylvania Township, and they have two sons ; Catherine married Jacob Simons, who is a farmer at Maystone in Essex County, Ontario, across from Detroit, and has three girls ; Maggie married Loyd Dewey, a farmer west of Metamora in Fulton County, Ohio ; Joseph lives at home ; Edward is associated with his father and by his marriage to Miss Bird has one daughter ; the younger children, all at home, are named Frank, Susan, Hilda, Carrie and Lucile. C. AUGUST KLEIS. For many years a resident of Point Place in Washington Township of Lucas County, August Kleis has been closely indentified with farming and with real estate development in that section. He and his father before him had been active factors in the development of that locality as a town and summer resort district, and deserve much credit for their accomplishments there. Mr. Kleis was born in Toledo, a son of the late August Kleis. His father was born in Baden Baden, Germany, and came to the United States in 1853. A cabinet maker by