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. PAGE - 423 PAGE - 424 - J. EDWARD RUSSELL Representative Citizens HON. J. EDWARD RUSSELL, a leading member of the Sidney bar, with offices in the Woodward building, Sidney, is one of the representative men of Shelby county and for sixteen years has given attention to the numerous duties connected with his office as secretary of the Shelby County Fair Board. Mr. Russell, like many of his professional brethren, was born on a farm, August 9, 1866, his parents living then in Turtle Creek township, Shelby county, four miles from Sidney. He is a son of William and Laura (Beck) Russell. William Russell was also a native of Shelby county and was born on a farm in Clinton township, two and one-half miles northwest of Sidney, a son of Joshua Russell, who was a pioneer in that section. Mr. Russell for a number of years was an extensive farmer and stock raiser but is now practically retired and lives on a small farm not far from Sidney. J. Edward Russell attended the public schools of Turtle Creek township and afterward the Sidney schools and after graduating from the Sidney high school in 1888, engaged in teaching and taught three terms in the district schools, in the meanwhile applying all his leisure time to acquiring knowledge of the principles of law. He then entered the law offices of George Marshall, with whom he pursued his law studies until he finished the course, and in 1893 was admitted to the bar and immediately opened his office at Sidney. He served two terms as city solicitor and has been a member of the school board for one term. In his practice of law he covers all branches and has been identified with many cases of state-wide interest. In republican politics he has been unusually prominent and in 1904 and again in 1906, was elected to the state senate, and while at Columbus won still further the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. Mr. Russell has additional interests and is a member of the board of directors of the First National Exchange Bank and also of the Peoples Savings and Loan Association. Senator Russell was married at Sidney, 0., to Miss Jennie Laughlin, who died August 29, 1910, survived by one daughter, Carrie. He is a member of the Presbyterian church. In his fraternal relations he is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias, and belongs also to some professional societies and social organizations. He is distinctly one of Sidney's foremost men. WILBER E. KILBORN, one of the representative and substantial business men of Sidney, 0., treasurer and general manager of the American Steel - 425 - 426 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Scraper Company, an important enterprise of this city, was born near Benson, Vt., a son of Edson S. and Martha J. (Wright) Kilborn. The parents of Mr. Kilborn came to Shelby county when the latter was eight years old, and later moved to a farm west of Lincoln, Neb. The father engaged in farming and there both parents died and three children survive : Wilber E.; Mrs. Lydia Funk, residing at Milford, Neb. ; and Henry S., a farmer in Hamilton county, Neb. Wilber E. Kilborn attended the public schools at Sidney, and afterward, for several years, taught school. In 1875 he became cashier of the Citizens Bank and continued until 1881, when he left in order to become manager of . the American Steel Scraper Company, of Sidney, and ever since has remained interested in the same business way, a reliable, honorable, conservative factor in the city's life. Mr. Kilborn married Miss Anna Hendershott, a daughter of George W. Hendershott, an old resident of Sidney, and they have two surviving children : Helen M., who is the wife of Joseph Hagan, of Toledo, O.; and Ruth, who is a student at Smith College, Northampton, Mass. Mr. Kilborn and familly are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In his political views he is a republican, and he is an active member of the Commercial Club. In 1912 he erected his handsome residence on North Ohio avenue. W. J. SHERMAN, who is assistant cashier of the Loramie Banking Company, at Fort Loramie, and a member of itS board of directors, belongs to one of the old and substantial families of this section, one that has had much to do with the development of Shelby county. He was born at Fort Loramie, on the west side of the Miami canal, May 3, 1869, and is a son of W. J. and Mary (Hummer) Sherman. W. J. Sherman was born in Germany and was four years old when his father, William Sherman, brought him to the United States, in 1836, and settled in Shelby county. A thrifty, enterprising and broad-minded man, William Sherman became a leader in many of the early movements in this section and through his efforts a schoolhouse was erected on his farm and the special school district as well as the fine turnpike road afterward constructed, bears the Sherman name. W. J. Sherman received hiS primary education in the above district but completed his education at Cincinnati, O., and afterward taught school for some years and subsequently was made county surveyor of Shelby county, acceptably filling that important office for twelve continuous years. After his marriage he settled in McLean township and became interested in the lumber and stave manufacturing business and in this connection acquired some 1,000 acres of land lying in Patterson township, in Darke county and in McLean and Cynthian townships in Shelby county. He was also engaged as a dry goods merchant at Fort Loramie, being the senior member of the general mercantile firm of Sherman & Pilliod. His death occurred at the age of sixty-five years and his loss was felt in many circles. He was a faithful member of St. Michael's Catholic church and he and wife carefully reared their children in this faith. As a leading democrat in his section he was frequently honored by his party with election to public office and he AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 427 many times served as township trustee and in other capacities. He married Mary Hummer, a daughter of Peter Hummer, then of Cynthian township, and three sons and five daughters were born to them, namely: Johannah. who is the wife of Bernard Borger of McLean township ; Magdalene, who is the wife of Anthony Brandewie, of Clinton township; Mary, who is the wife of John Borger, of Fort Loramie; Peter, who is a resident of Sidney; Catherine, who is the wife of J. B. Trimpe, of Sidney; Clara, who is the widow of Henry Pilliod, of Toledo, 0.; W. J.; and Charles, who died when aged twenty-three years. The mother of the above family survived to the age of seventy-two years. W. J. Sherman, who bears his late father's name, attended school in boyhood in the Berlin special school district and afterward was a student at St. Mary's Institute, Dayton, O. He then gave his father assistance on the home farm until he was twenty-one years of age when he turned his attention to the livestock business and for seven years was a large shipper of stock from this section. Since the organization of the Loramie Banking Company he has been on its directing board and one of its officials, and was one of the promoters of the Minster-Lorain Railway, and is secretary of the company. Since his marriage he has resided in McLean township and is interested there in 200 acres of land, divided into two well-impr0ved farms. On November 25, 1896, Mr. Sherman was married to Miss Frances Schemnecker, who was born in Kentucky and is a daughter of Frank and Ida Schmnecker, who were then residents of Minster, 0. To Mr. and Mrs. Sherman the following children have been born: Frank, William, Victoria, Mary, James, Beatrice and Helen. The family belongs to St. Michael'S Catholic church and are interested and active in many of its avenues of benevolence and pleasant social organizations. Mr. Sherman is a strong democrat, 'along old Jeffersonian lines, and his influence in his party is marked, As a citizen he is held in exceeding high esteem, serving for years as a member of the city council of Fort Loramie and for seven years was elected mayor, his wise management of municipal affairs during this long period, bringing about much prosperity. JOHN J. SHERMAN, president of the board of county commissioners of Shelby county, 0., and one of the county's most substantial citizens, belongs to one of the old pioneer families of this section. He was born in McLean township, October 2, 1848, and is a son of Henry B. and Catherine (Ernst) Sherman. William Sherman, the grandfather of John J. Sherman, came to the United States from Prussia, settled in Ohio and in 1833 entered land from the government in McLean tOWnship, Shelby county. Henry B. Sherman, son of William Sherman and father of John J., was fifteen years of age when he came to Shelby county and here became a well-known man. For twenty- eight years he taught school acceptably, although he was largely self taught. He also engaged in farming and took an intelligent interest in public matters and, in fact, became a representative man in McLean township, where his death took place in 1904, when he was aged eighty-six years. He married 428 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Catherine Ernst, who was born in Hanover, Germany, and came to Shelby county in girlhood, spent her subsequent life here and died in 1909, in her eighty-second year. John J. Sherman assisted his father on the home farm and attended the local schools. Farming has been his main occupation and since 1871 he has resided on his present farm in McLean township. He owns two other farms in the county, one in Turtle Creek township and the other in Cynthian township, all three aggregating 300 acres in Shelby county, while he also has forty acres of valuable land in Mexico, which he occasionally visits. Mr. Sherman is a man of excellent business judgment and this quality makes him a very useful public official. Politically a democrat, many public offices were tendered him before he consented to serve as a county commissioner. He first assumed the important duties of the same in September, 1909, and is serving in his second term and has been further honored by being elected president of this body. In 1871, Mr. Sherman was married to Miss Lena Pelster, who was born in Germany, a daughter of the late Henry J. Pelster, who was formerly a well-known farmer here. To Mr. and Mrs. Sherman the followinng children have been born : Katherine, who is the wife of Frank Tahman; Henry, who is a bookkeeper in a business house at Dayton, is a well-educated young man who formerly taught school in this township; Anthony, who assists his father in carrying on the activities of the home farm; Louis, who is a farmer in Cynthian township; and Mary, Frances, William and Leo. Mr. Sherman and family belong to the Catholic church. THOMAS WHEATON, who is a highly respected citizen and retired farmer of Shelby county, O., has been a resident of Sidney since December, 1911, when he removed from his fine farm of 160 acres, which is situated in Orange township. He was born on a farm in Montgomery county, O., September 14, 1854, and is a son of William and Jane (Williams) Wheaton. William Wheaton, with his wife and son. moved from Montgomery county to Miami county, when the latter was two years old. Mr. Wheaton at that time had little capital and the family home was a log cabin near Lena, but he was an industrious and thrifty man and gradually accumulated substance until he owned two farms and also became interested in a grain business at Lena. He got to dickering in the board of trade and lost heavily. His death occurred in advanced age, a well-known and respected man. Thomas Wheaton was mainly reared near Lena, O., attended school in that vicinity and remained on the home farm working for his father until he was twenty-seven years of age. After marriage he rented a farm for eight years, in Miami county, and then bought 120 acres in Orange township. Shelby county, to which he later added forty acres in the spring of 1911 . Several years after taking up his residence on his farm his house was destroyed by fire and after rebuilding he also replaced the barn and gradually all the other structures and now its improvements equal those on any other place in the township. He carried on the usual farm activities until he retired, since when his son has been in charge. Mr. Wheaton purchased his hand- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 429 some residence at No. 710 South Ohio street, Sidney, in 1911, where he and wife live in great comfort. Mr. Wheaton married Miss Ida Garbry, a daughter of James and Mary Catherine Garbry, of Shelby county, and they have three children and one grandchild : Ora, who is engaged in business at Dayton, 0.; Lucy, who is the wife of James Wiley, of Orange township, and they have one son, Darwin; and Albert, who ably carries on the farm industries for his father. He married Iona Redinbo. Mr. Wheaton and sons are identified with the democratic party. Although never anxious for public office, Mr. Wheaton is a conscientious citizen and proved his value to his fellow citizens during three years of service as trustee of Orange township. He has been an Odd Fellow for many years, still preserving his interest in the principles and object of this fraternal organization. MRS. ELIZABETH PAUWELLS, one of the best-known and most highly esteemed owners of property in McLean township, resides in section 2, where she has 109 acres of both cultivated and pasture land. She was born in the State of New York, May 12, 1842, and is a daughter of John and Mary Louisa (Wesling) Stern. The parents of Mrs. Pauwells were natives of Germany and after coming to the United States they lived for about six years in New York and then moved to Auglaize county, 0. There the father followed his trade of stone cutter and also engaged in farming, his death occurring at Minster when aged about fifty years. His wife survived to be sixty-three years of age. They were members of the Catholic church and in that faith they reared their eight children, four of whom survive, but Mrs. Pauwells is the only one living in Shelby county. She was five years old when her parents settled at Minster and there she was reared and attended school. She then married Ezabaus Pauwells, generally known as Isaac Pauwells. He was born and reared in Holland and in his own land learned the baking trade. When twenty-one years of age he came to America and in the course of time made his home at Minster, 0. Following his marriage he settled on the farm in McLean township which now belongs to his widOW, working for twenty- five years for the firm of Coons & White, who owned a sawmill at Dayton. He then bought this farm and spent the rest of his life here, making many improvements, draining and tiling all the land that could be cultivated and putting up the buildings that are now in use. The eastern boundary of the farm is the Loramie reservoir and Loramie creek extends through the land, and thus thirty acres, on account of overflow, is given up to pasturage. During the fishing season the farm has many visitors and preparations are always made for the annual influx, and comfortable accommodations are provided for fishing parties and stabling is given the teams. Boats and fishing tackle are kept for hire. For fifty years this has been a favorite rendezvous for the disciples of Isaac Walton. Mr. Pauwells was a genial host and was very highly considered by all who knew him. His death occurred July 6, 1903, at the age of seventy-four years and his burial was at Minster, O. He was a faithful member of St. Augusta Catholic church. 430 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY To Mr. and Mrs. Pauwells the following children were born : Mary Louisa, who died when aged nineteen months ; John Ezabaus, who died unmarried when aged forty-nine years ; Bernard, who lives in Jackson township, Auglaize county; Annie, who is the wife of Benjamin Lampert, lives at Minster; Margaret, who is the wife of Henry Hollit, of Minster; August, who died at the age of nine months ; Catherine, who died when aged eleven months; Julius, who operates the home farm for his mother; and Caroline, who lived but six weeks. Mrs. Pauwells and children are members of the Catholic church. HON. R. D. CURTNER, mayor of Anna, O., and also serving as deputy county treasurer of Shelby county, is one of the leading men of this section, prominent both in business and in politics. He was born at Port Jefferson, in Salem township, Shelby county, O., September 15, 1866, and is a son of Daniel and Cynthia (Shaw) Curtner. Daniel Curtner was a well-known citizen of Shelby county, one of her most enterprising and successful business men. He was engaged for a number of years in the dry goods trade at Port Jefferson and was also associated with Henry Cargill as a turnpike contractor, the firm building turnpike roads through Salem township for years. In the early seventies he moved to Anna, where he embarked in a general mercantile business which he continued until within a short time of his death, which occurred in August, 1893. His widow survives and is a highly esteemed resident of Anna. R. D. Curtner was reared and educated at Anna and for some years continued his father's store. After disposing of the same he learned telegraphing and worked for eight years as an operator and then served for three years as cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank Company, with which he is yet identified as its second largest stockholder. From early manhood Mr. Curtner has taken an interest in politics and public issues and in the last election for county treasurer was the democratic nominee and was defeated by the present incumbent, Mr. Kiser, by only 122 votes. Since then he has served as chief clerk of the county board of equalization, also as deputy treasurer and as deputy auditor. As mayor of Anna he is giving the town a fine business administration and while adding to its revenues is also maintaining the highest standard of law and order. Mayor Curtner owns a valuable farm of eighty acres in Salem township which is operated by a reliable tenant farmer. Mayor Curtner was married in 1886 to Miss Myrtle Young, a daughter of S. D. and Mary J. Young, of Anna, and they have four children : Carl, who is foreman of the Majestic Automobile Company, of Lima, O., in which his father is financially interested ; Fred A., who is a musician in the band attached to the 30th U. S. Inf., now stationed in Alaska ; and Erma and Lucille, young ladies well known in the social circles of Anna. Mayor Curtner iS a thirty- second degree Mason, a Knight of Pythias, a member of the Ormus Grotto, Knights of the Golden Eagle, and a Knight of Khorassan. In the Knights of Pythias he has passed through all the stations up to the grand lodge. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 431 EVAN W. BINGHAM, who is one of the enterprising citizens and representative business men of Sidney, 0., is proprietor of the E. W. Bingham Furniture Store, which he has conducted here since August 15, 1895. He was born at Alexandria, Va., December 25, 1858, and is a son of Alfred H. and Rebecca (Evans) Bingham. Alfred H. Bingham came from Virginia to Sidney, May 4, 1871, and died here in November, 1879, the death of his wife occurring in the following year. He was a cotton-mill worker and also a pattern maker and was employed in the machine shop of his brother-in-law, George G. Haslup, a quiet, industrious man, with a talent for his special line of work. Evan W. Bingham had been a student in the Alexandria Academy prior to the removal of the family to Sidney, where he entered the high school. He early developed mechanical skill and during his vacations and on holidays had applied himself to learning the machinist trade, and when he left school, at the age of eighteen years, was able to prove to his employer that he could earn a man's wages, industrial rules and conditions being somewhat different then from the present. For twelve years Mr. Bingham worked satisfactorily as a machinist and then decided to turn his attention in an entirely different direction and for ten years afterward was a salesman in the clothing house of Abe Herzsam, at Sidney. At the termination of that engagement he embarked in his present business, in which he has prospered. He has always taken a good citizen's interest in civic matters and is a valued member of the Sidney Commercial Club, and one of its trustees. Mr. Bingham married Miss Lizzie A. Fry, a daughter of the late R. L. Fry, who was formerly prominent here in the dry goods trade. Mr. and MrS. Bingham have had two children : Robert Fry and Jennie Mildred, the latter of whom died at the age of four years. Robert Fry Bingham is a student at Oxford, 0., a member of the graduating class of 1913, Miami University. In politics Mr. Bingham is a republican. While he has never accepted other than local offices, he has frequently proved valuable and useful in these and was a member of the board of public service. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, to the Knights of Khorassan and to all branches of the Knights of Pythias, in which order he is past chancellor. Mr. Bingham and family belong to the Presbyterian church, of which he is treasurer and a member of its board of trustees. THOMAS GREEN, whose farm of 100 acres lies in a beautiful section of Shelby county, in Washington township, nine miles southwest 0f Sidney, was born in Butler county, 0., March 28, 1832, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Pearson) (Roseyboom) Green. John Green was born in Licking county, 0., where his people had settled at a very early day. He was married in Butler county and later moved into Mercer county, where his death occurred about 1869. His occupation was farming after his return from serving in the War of 1812. Of his children, four sons and two daughters lived to maturity and one daughter died at the age of eighteen months. Thomas Green went to school in both Butler and Mercer counties and 432 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY farming has been his main business in life. During the Civil war he enlisted in the 100-day service as a member of Company I, 156th O. Vol. Inf., but was sick during the larger part of the time, the hardships and unusual exp0sure bringing many a brave man to the army hospitals in those days Mr. Green is a member of the G. A. R. post at Piqua, O. On November 2, 1865, he came from Mercer county, his previous home, to Shelby county and has lived ever since on his farm in Washington township, which he still oversees but is now retired from active labor. Mr. Green married Miss Sarah Jane Preston, who came of a very loyal and patriotic family, her father and three of her brothers serving in the Mexican war and all, even the father, who was then beyond the age limit, serving in the Civil war, and one brother died in Tennessee. Mr. Green and wife have had five children : Cynthia, who is the wife of Henry Bailey; William A., who lives near his father; Benjamin, who is a resident of Chicago ; Ella, who died at the age of eighteen months; and Carrie B., who married John Jones. Mr. Green and family are members of the United Brethren church. He votes with the republican party and formerly served as a trustee of the township. He is one of Washington township's most respected citizens. CAPT. EDMUND ELGIN NUTT, whose death on September 18, 1911, removed one of Sidney's foremost citizens—one whom all delighted to honor —was born in Shelby county, O., in 1837, the eldest son of Irwin and Barbara (Persinger) Nutt. The father of our subject, Irwin Nutt, was born in Montgomery county, near Centerville, O., January 31, 1811, being a son of Aaron Nutt, Jr. In his youth he learned the tanner's trade, which, however, he followed for but a short time. After acquiring a fair, common school education in the district school, he spent six months in the seminary at Xenia, O., where he prepared himself for teaching, which occupation he followed for a time. In 1834 he married Miss Barbara Persinger, of Green county, O., who was born September 27, 1812. In 1836, with his wife and daughter, Louisa M., who was then one year old, he came to Shelby county and bought a piece of timber land one mile north of Sidney, where he built a cabin for himself and family and began to clear the land. His busy axe soon enlarged the clearing and in course of time smiling fields took the place of the dense and gloomy forest, and as the product of his toil he was able to command not only the necessities, but also some of the luxuries of life. In the work of developing the homestead, he was greatly aided by his faithful wife, who did her part in spinning and weaving the flax and wool for the family garments, also aiding in the outdoor work, in addition t0 performing her usual household duties and rearing her family 0f seven children. This family consisted of four sons and three daughters, as follows : Louisa M., born 1835, married Joseph Wilkinson; Edmund E., the subject of this sketch; Margaret J., born 1840, wh0 became the wife of James Middleton; William A., born 1843, who married Elenor C. Lillie; Mary M., born 1845, who became the wife of Dr. J. C. Lillie of Logan county, O.; J. Newton, born 1848, who married Mae Price and John M., born 1851, who married Ella Smith. In 1854 Irwin Nutt rented his farm and moved to Pemberton, O., where AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 433 he engaged in the business of buying and shipping grain, but three years later he returned to his farm and there remained until 1873. By this time his children had all married and settled in homes of their own and a lonely air pervaded the old homestead—as he expressed it, "the clock ticked too loudly on its shelf." At the earnest solicitation of his children, he again rented out the old farm and he and his wife spent the rest of their lives with their children, residing for a while with one, then with another. He died in Quincy, O., at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. C. Lillie, on March 7, 1880. In 1832, when twenty-one years of age, he had united with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which for the rest of his life he remained a faithful and useful member, giving freely of his time and money in its behalf, and when his end came the final summons found him prepared to enter into the eternal mansions. His remains were brought to Sidney and lay in state at the M. E. church from Monday until Tuesday afternoon, when interment took place in Graceland cemetery. His funeral procession was 0ne of the largest seen in Sidney up to that time. He was among the first members of Temperance Lodge No. 73, F. & A. M., and during his life held all the offices up to and including that of worshipful master. His wife survived him until April 5, 1905, and was also buried in Graceland cemetery, Sidney. Edmund E. Nutt was reared on the home farm north of Sidney and was educated in the schools of that city. When -eighteen yearS of age he began teaching school, which occupation he followed for four years. He then entered Delaware College, but his further studies were interrupted by the breaking out of the Civil war, and on April 17, 1861, he enlisted in the Fifteenth regiment, 0. V. I., serving three months, the full time of his enlistment. On September 16, 1861, he re-enlisted as a private in Company F, Twentieth regiment, 0. V. I., and served until the close of the war, first as private, then sergeant, then second and first lieutenant and later as captain, with which rank he was discharged. He took part in all great battles in which his regiment participated, and for meritorious conduct at the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, he was awarded a medal of honor, by order of Maj. F. P. Blair. He was wounded on the skirmish line near Atlanta, August 14, 1864. After his return from the war Captain Nutt engaged in the grain business with his brother, William A. Nutt, at Pemberton, but after remaining there for a while, he came to Sidney and entered into the same business here with his brothers, I. Newton and John M. Nutt, purchasing what was known as the old stone bridge warehouse. His brothers subsequently retiring from the business, he continued it alone for some time, after which he Sold out his interests to Griffis Brothers. Although now past middle life he began the study of law and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced law. Instead, he engaged again in the grain business, being thus associated with his brother, William A., at Urbana, 0., still, however, continuing to reside at Sidney. Subsequently he repurchased from E. J. Griffis the old stone bridge wareh0use, to which Mr. Griffis had added a milling department, and this he owned and managed until his death. He was by this time conspicuous as a useful and public-spirited citizen and in 1897 was nominated on the republican ticket for state senator for the twelfth district. 434 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Captain Nutt was a member of Neal Post, G. A. R., from its organization. He took great interest in the Ohio Department of the G. A. R. from the time also of its organization, and in recognition of his zeal, and of his honorable army record, he was elected department commander of Ohio, at Canton, O., at its twenty-ninth annual meeting in 1894. This position he filled both with credit to himself and satisfaction to his comrades, his administratton beng a highly successful one. He also served as president of the regimental organization of the Twentieth regiment, being always present at the annual reunions of Companies F, H and K, on the 22d of August, to celebrate the battle of Atlanta. The following circular was issued by Neal Post, G. A. R., at the time Captain Nutt was candidate for the office of department commander. HEADQUARTERS NEAL P0ST, N0. 62, DEPARTMENT 0F OHI0, G. A. R. SIDNEY, O., April 4, 1894. "Comrade :—We the undersigned committee, appointed by Neal Post to present the name of Comrade Edmund Elgin Nutt for the position of Department Commander at the encampment to be held at Canton, respectfully and briefly submit their claims as follows : "Comrade Nutt was a candidate and received a large vote at Hamilton. Ohio, and many pledges of support, and solicitations to remain in the field for the next encampment, to which we confidently respond with a brief review of some of the merits of our candidate. He was a soldier from the first call to 'Lights Out,' from April 17, 1861, to July 15, 1865; carried a gun more than two years and a sword two years in Company F, 15th O. V. I., three months' service; and Company F, 20th Ohio, three years' service; served at the front in all ranks from private to captain, and was skirmish officer on brigade staff; was wounded on skirmish line and awarded a medal for conspicuous bravery in battle. "As a citizen since the war, his 25 years of successful business has proven excellent executive ability. As a comrade he was a charter member of Neal Post, always present at meeting, takes an active interest, is well posted in Grand Army affairs, attends encampments, and has served Neal Post five years as commander. In addition we desire to remind comrades of their pledges of support which induced us to renew the effort for the place, and further urge our claims for the reason that this part of the state has never been favored with department honors of any office. If this favor is granted we promise to furnish a department commander fully up to the high standard of former commanders. "Yours in F. C. & L. "Signed,—T. B. MARSHALL, "Co. K, 83d O. V, I. "J. H. CREEGAN, "Co. C, 2d Iowa, I. V. I. "H. C. ROBERTS, "Co. D, 51st O. V. I "Committee." AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 435 In 1867 Captain Nutt married Miss Arvesta Van Demark, who was born in Shelby county, 0., October 28, 1844, a daughter of Henry B. and Susannah (Boyer) Van Demark, who were married January 17, 1844. Mrs. Nutt's father, Henry B. Van Demark, was a native of this county, born near Sidney, September 19, 1815, the youngest member of the family of Daniel and Catherine (Bush) Van Demark. He was brought up on the farm and there remained during the lifetime of his parents, having charge of the farm for a number of years until the death of his father, which took place in 1840. In 1844 he married Susannah Boyer, who was born in Miami county in 1821, a daughter of Jacob Boyer. After their marriage the young couple made their home with his mother, Mrs. Catharine Van Demark, residing with her until her death, which occurred in 1848, at which time Henry B. Van Demark became owner of the homestead in Orange tOWnship. In 1855 he traded it for a farm in Washington township, which contained over 400 acres of land. Subsequently he added further to his landed possessions, until at the time of his death he owned over 900 acres, all within three and a half miles of Sidney. In addition to this, he owned considerable real estate in the town of Sidney. He and his wife reared a family of five children, namely : Arvesta ; Daniel, who married Margaret A. Brown, a native of Warren county ; Clymelia, now deceased, who was the wife of Samuel S. McCready ; Jacob N.. of Clinton township; and Harry, who died at the age of eleven years. Mr. Van Demark was reared in the Presbyterian faith and his wife in that of the United Brethren. Their burial took place in Graceland cemetery in Sidney, 0. Capt. Edmund E. Nutt and wife were the parents of six children, as follows : Florence Atlanta is the wife of Frank Leslie Shull, secretary of the Portland Flour Mills; at Portland, Ore. They have two children—Martha Arvesta and Frank Leslie, Jr. Earl Edmund, who is second in order of birth, is engaged in the practice of law in Sidney; married Lillian Esther Patterson, of Nebraska. They have two children—John Edmund and Caroline Arvesta. Susan Ethylen, is the wife of Henry W. Roberts, a grocer of Tacoma, Wash. She has one child—Anna Catherine. Barbara Emma is a teacher of domestic science in the Sidney high school. Ora Marie is a kindergarten teacher in New York City. Jennie Mathers, the remaining member of the family, resides at home with her mother. The family belong to the Methodist church, taking a useful part in its work and various Christian activities. FRANK B. MILLER, member of the board of education of Hopewell special school district, of which he has been clerk for the last ten years, is one of Cynthian township's most respected citizens. He is a retired farmer and lives on one of his three farms, which aggregate 250 acres, his home being in section 22, four miles southeast of Fort Loramie, 0. Mr. Miller was born January 12, 1861, in Lancaster county, Pa., a Son of Cyrus and Jane (Gingrich) Miller. Cyrus Miller was born in Dauphin county, Pa., and his wife in Lebanon 436 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY county, in that state. When they came to Ohio they located on a farm west of Pleasant Hill, in Miami county, and from there in 1876 moved to a farm in Cynthian township, Shelby county, near Oran, O. They now reside with their daughter, Mrs. William Snow, who lives in Cynthian township. Of their family of six sons and two daughters, two sons are deceased. Frank B. Miller was eight years old when he accompanied his parents to Miami county and was fifteen when they came to Shelby county. He had school advantages in both sections, attending the Oran special school district schools until he was seventeen years old. After putting aside his books, but not forgetting their contents; Mr. Miller went to work by the month with the determination of accumulating the capital that would enable him to buy a farm of his own and in the course of time his energy was rewarded. When he was twenty years of age he went to the west and prospered there, returning a year later with money that he had earned through his own industry. He invested first in the old Roan farm, later bought the farm on which he lives and still later bought the Brenner farm. For nine years he lived east of Piqua, O., on his father-in-law's farm and then moved to a farm in McLean township belonging to his mother-in-law, three years afterward coming to the farm he now occupies. All these farms are finely improved, Mr. Miller taking pride in his property and hence all of it is very valuable. In addition to general farming, which he continued until he retired, in 1907, he raised many horses, especially draft horses, cattle and stock. All the farm industries were intelligently carried on, new methods were adopted when they were found superior to old ways, and Mr. Miller became known as one of the best all- round agriculturists of Cynthian township. He still continues to be interested in raising stock to some extent, but has shifted his farming responsibilities to younger shoulders. Mr. Miller married Miss Katie Grosvenor, who was born in IllinoiS, a daughter of Hiram and Araminta Grosvenor, once residents of McLean township, Shelby county. The father of Mrs. Miller died when she was six weeks old. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller six children have been born, Alva, Harry, Raymond and Blanche, in Miami county, and Olive and Glenn, in Shelby county. All survive except Alva and Raymond, who died in Miami county. Mr. and Mrs. Miller attend the Christian church at Oran, of which she is a member. He is a republican in his political views. Every year Mr. Miller takes a few weeks for recreation in travel and in this way has seen much of the country and doubtless in some measure owes his excellent health to this wise change of environment and pleasurable interest in other than everyday duties and surroundings. HON. EMERSON V. MOORE, former mayor of Sidney, O., and a foremost member of the Shelby county bar, belongs to an old Ohio family and was born on his father's farm in Green township, Shelby county, February 14, 1868, a son of Thomas B. and Deborah (Griffis) Moore. The father's death occurred in 1898, on his farm in Green township. Emerson V. Moore was reared in his native township and secured his PAGE 437 - BLANK PAGE 438 - PICTURE OF HUGH THOMPSON MATHERS AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 439 early schooling there, afterward attending the Sidney high school for tw0 years and then entered the National Normal University at Lebanon, 0., and while there began the study of law. For one year afterward Mr. Moore taught school in Brown township, Miami county, and during the following year was superintendent of the schools of Green township, Shelby county, having had much to do with establishing the grade system. He had already been admitted to the bar and then came to Sidney and has since been engaged in the practice of law in this city. When the Spanish-American war became a fact, Mr. Moore was one of that band of patriotic young men who put aside their most pressing personal interests and ambitions and with a patriotism that was commendable, was ready to accept service, dangerous or otherwise, in his country's defense. At that time he was second lieutenant of Co. L, Third 0. N. G.: which became a part of the Third 0. Vol. Inf., which was hastened to Tampa, Fla. Lieutenant Moore was detailed in June, 1898, as recruiting officer and recruited the first battalion of the regiment to war strength. He was later detailed as aide-de-camp on the staff of Brig. Gen. Rush T. Lincoln and served as such until the regiment returned to Ohio for mustering out. The war closed before this regiment was called into active service and they returned to their homes ready for future calls. Mr. Moore is a member of the Spanish-American War Veterans and in 1911 served as judge-advocate of the state of Ohio in this body. Mr. Moore married Miss Blanche Stafford, a daughter of Joseph Stafford, of Sidney, 0. Aside from his law practice, Mr. Moore has been active in political and fraternal life. He is a democrat in politics and on the democratic ticket was city solicitor and twice elected mayor of Sidney, his administrations proving beneficial to the city in every way. He belongs to the Order of Ben Hur and to the Knights of Pythias but is particularly prominent in the Order of the Knights of the Golden Eagle and for six years was state secretary 0f the organization, state president and for one year was national president of the order and probably is one of the best-known members of this flourishing society in Ohio. HON. HUGH THOMPSON MATHERS, judge of the Third Common Pleas Judicial District of Ohio, is numbered with the eminent men of a state which has long been productive of distinguished citizens. He was born May 20, 1866, at Sidney, in Shelby county, O., arrd is a son of Hon. John H. and Elizabeth (Thompson) Mathers. For several generations the Mathers family has been prominent in Ohio and still farther back was also honorably connected with public affairs, in Pennsylvania. James Mathers, the paternal grandfather, was born in Pennsylvania and there became a leading member of the bar and served in the state senate, his death occurring on the old family estate in Juniata county. He married Jane Hutchins0n, a daughter of John Hutchinson, who was a well-known Presbyterian minister. Hon. John Mathers was born in 1830 in Juniata county, Pa., and 440 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY he, as his father before him, became prominent in the law, and came to Sidney when this place was the head of navigation on the canal. He served as district attorney of Juniata county, Pa., and as prosecuting attorney 0f Shelby county. He was a man of brilliant talents but died in middle life, in 1875, when aged but f0rty-five years. He married Elizabeth Thompson, a daughter of Hugh Thompson, and she survives, having been born in 1845 and married in 1864. Her father was born at Upper Middletown, Six miles from Uniontown, Pa., and came early to Sidney and established himself as.a merchant. He was shortly afterward elected associate judge of the court of common pleas and served two terms and then turned his attention to the study of law and for many years was a successful practitioner. He became prominent also in public life and served two terms as a member 0f the state legislature and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1851. His death occurred in 1889, when he was aged eighty-one years. He married Lucretia Bailey, who was b0rn near Baltimore, Md., and died in her seventy-third year. To the parents of Judge Mathers three children were born: Hugh, Jane, who is the wife of E. S. Laughlin, a merchant and traveling salesman; and Lucretia, who is the wife 0f Dr. Henry Baldwin, who is superintendent of the Tuberculosis Hospital at Springfield, O. Hugh Thompson Mathers attended the public schools of Sidney and after graduating from the high school, became a student at Princeton University, and in the class graduated from the Albany Law Sch00l in 1888, was one of its four honor men, who delivered the class addresses. He came immediately to Sidney and in the same summer was admitted to the bar at Columbus, O., opening his law office at Sidney and shortly afterward was elected city solicitor. He served two terms in that office, at the close of his second term accepting the position of general attorney for the Ohio Southern Railroad, with office at Springfield. When the Ohio Southern became a part of the C. A. & C. Railroad, Judge Mathers rem0ved to Cleveland for one year, and when the above road became a part of the L. E. & W. system Judge Mathers returned to Sidney. Here he was engaged in active practice until 1901, becoming the leader of the Sidney bar, when he was elected to fill a vacancy 0n the common pleas bench and served for three years, at the expiration of which peri0d he was elected to the full term of five years and it was extended one year to meet the requirements of a constitutional provision. At the expiration of his six years of service in 1910 he was elected for six years more and continues honorably and faithfully to perform the judicial duties for which he seems s0 well qualified by nature. He p0ssesses the well balanced and discerning mind so important to the jurist and the records of the court show the ability and patient and conscientious thoroughness with which he has administered the office. In 1889 Judge Mathers was married to Miss Louise Beeson, a daughter of Charles and Amanda (Baily) Beeson, and they have two children: AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 441 Hugh Beeson and Jeanette. Judge Mathers and family are members 0f the Presbyterian church. In politics he is a democrat and was nominated, in 1906, as candidate for judge of the supreme court of Ohi0, and again in 1908. Fraternallly he is a Mason, in which organization he has attained the thirty-second degree. No man in public life in Shelby county stands higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens. WILLIAM H. PRINCEHOUSE, funeral director, who has been established in business at Sidney, 0., since March, 1898, was born near Palestine, in Green township, Shelby county, 0., May 19, 1866, and is a son of Jacob and Mary (Bratigan) Princehouse. Henry Princehouse, the grandfather, who was born in Germany, was the founder of the family in Shelby c0unty, and Jacob Princehouse, his son, was born in Green township, south of Palestine, 0., spent his life as a farmer and died there. His widow survives and lives at Palestine, Shelby county. William H. Princehouse attended the country schools in Green township and afterward engaged in farming, residing on his own property until 1898, when he came to Sidney, for four years afterward being in the livery business. For the past ten years he has been in the funeral directing business, being a practical embalmer, a graduate of Clarke’s School of Embalming of Cincinnati. He has well-equipped quarters in the Bingham furniture store, and owns a funeral car, an ambulance and an automobile for the proper and dignified transaction of his business. He is identified with all the leading fraternal organizations, including the Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks, Red Men, Uniformed Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Khorassan. He belongs also to the Commercial Club at Sidney and is interested to some degree in political matters. Personally Mr. Princehouse has a wide circle of friends on account of his friendly and kindly spirit and as a business man he is held in respect. HENRY E. BEEBE, M. D., a leading physician of Shelby county, and for the past five years president of the Citizens National Bank, at Sidney, 0., was born on his father's farm, near Carey, Wyandot county, 0., July 24, 1849, and is a son of Buell S. and Lucinda (Keir) Beebe. The father of Dr. Beebe was born in Franklin county, N. Y., and in 1846 came to Ohio and lived until he was sixty-two years old in Wyandot county, when he came to Sidney on a visit and here his death occurred in 1883. His family consisted of one son and two daughters : Henry E. and Mrs. Anna Hoff and Mrs. Sarah Millholland, both of Carey, 0., the latter of whom died in 1911. Henry E. Beebe was educated in the public schools and Wittenberg College and pursued his medical studies in the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, at Cleveland, 0., from which institution he was graduated in 1873 and in the same year located at Sidney. For forty years Dr. Beebe has been in active practice and few memberS of his profession in this section of Ohio are better known or more highly valued. He is a member of the American 442 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Institute of Homeopathy and was its vice president in 1904-05 at its convention held at Niagara Falls. In 1886 he was president of the Ohio State Homeopathic Society, and from 1903 to 1904 was president of the state examining board, of which he was vice president for seven years and one 0f its organizers and belongs also to the Union Clinical Society. He is a thirty-second degree Mason. Dr. Beebe was married in 1874 to Miss Ophelia McDowell, of Carey, O., a daughter of Hugh and Rebecca McDowell, and they have four children : Robert Wallace, Laura, Elise, Hugh McDowell and Henry Edwin. Robert Wallace Beebe is secretary and treasurer of the United Rim Co., of Akron, O. He married Miss May Hardesty of Cleveland. Laura Elise Beebe married W. C. Horr, who is secretary and treasurer of the Eclipse Folder Company, of Sidney, and they have one daughter, Rebecca. Hugh McDowell Beebe is a physician. He married Miss Ruth Peirson, of Troy. Henry Edwin Beebe, who is a graduate of the law department of the University of Michigan, of the class of 1910, is connected with the law firm of Roettinger & Roettinger, at Cincinnati. As a business man aside from his profession, Doctor Beebe has been an important factor in this secti0n and was interested in the founding of the Citizens National Bank here, of which he is president and formerly for many years was vice president. He has been closely identified with the general development of Sidney and has not only fostered its business and professional enterprises but has, in every way possible, furthered all movements which have contributed to the educational and social uplift. A. P. RATERMAN, whose valuable farm of 150 acres is situated in section 3, McLean township, Shelby county, O., three miles east of Fort Loramie, was born on this farm, and is a son of Ferdinand A. and Berdine (Pille) Raterman. Ferdinand A. Raterman was born in Germany and was young when the family came to the United States. His parents settled south of what is now Fort Loramie, and there spent the rest of their lives. They had five sons : Henry, Philip, Joseph, Barney and Ferdinand A., and all attended school in what is now the Berlin special school district. In that neighborhood Ferdinand A. Raterman grew to manhood and after his marriage settled on a wild tract of land containing 130 acres, to which he subsequently added twenty acres. At that time this place seemed remote from civilization, it being in the depth of the forest with no roads leading to it and not a single attempt at improvement having yet been made. Mr. Raterman put up the first buildings and cleared all the land with the exception of fifteen acres. This land has remained in the family intact and Anthony P. Raterman has the sheepskin deed attesting ownership, the document bearing the signature of Zachary Taylor, president of the United States. Mr. Raterman labored hard to make a comfortable home and productive farm for his family but did not live long enough to find much reward, his death taking place in his forty-ninth year. He was survived by his wife, who died on the farm in her sixty-second year. They were faithful members of St. Michael's Catholic church at Fort AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 443 Loramie. They had the following children : Joseph, who is deceased ; Mary, who is the wife of Clemens Wolke ; Henry, who is deceased ; John, who lives at Loramie, married Katie Lauterbur ; Sophia, who is the wife of Edward Wehner, resides at Dayton, 0. ; Anthony P.; Frank and August, both of whom are deceased; and Kate, who is the wife of George Groves, lives at Sidney. Anthony P. Raterman took charge of the farm when his father died and immediately set on foot improvements which included the erection of all the buildings now standing with the exception of the residence. He was then but a young man, his birth having taken place September 24, 1870, but he had farm experience from boyhood and soon demonstrated his capability as an agriculturist. He drained the land and put down much tiling, set out trees where he found it advisable, and through mixed farming has kept the soil in fine condition and has made this one of the best farms in the township. Mr. Raterman married Miss Anna Kloeker, a daughter of Herman Kloeker, of McLean township, and all their children were born on this farm, namely : Amelia, Martin, Raymond, Helen, Eugene, Arnold, Evelyn and Cletus, all of wh0m survive except Raymond, who died at the age of three months. Mr. Raterman and family belong to St. Michael's Catholic church. In politics he belongs to a family that is almost entirely democratic and one that is a leading one in this section of Shelby county. SAMPSON G. GOODE, M. D., a physician and surgeon in active practice at Sidney, 0., with office and residence at No. 310 North Ohio avenue, has been a resident of Shelby county for thirty-one years and established in his profession at Sidney since 1894. Dr. Goode was reared in Champaign county, 0., and from the country -schools entered the academy at Urbana, where he made such unusual progress in his studies that he was awarded a teacher's certificate when he was but fourteen years of age. Afterward he continued to divide the seasons, working on the farm during the summers and teaching school, mainly in Champaign county, during the winters, for about fourteen years. He never had the leisure to wander far from this strict discipline as he was ambitious and dependent on his own efforts in order to prepare for the medical career which was his goal from early youth. He prepared for college while teaching, under the direction of Drs. B. F. Baker, D. R. Barley and Dr. Musson, all of St. Paris, 0., and after seven years of study was graduated from the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, 0., in 1880. In the following year he came to Shelby county, locating at Pemberton, two years later removing to Port Jefferson and from there came to Sidney. Here he has been very successful in his professional life and has been active in public matters and on one occasion was the candidate of the democratic party for the state senate. On January 2, 1867, Dr. Goode was married to Miss Mary Jane Ammon, of Champaign county, 0., and two children were born to them : Dora, who is the wife of Charles W. Ogden, a merchant at Port Jefferson ; and A. C.. a graduated physician now in Alaska. Dr. Goode is physician and 444 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY surgeon for the Shelby County Infirmary and Asylum. He belongs to the State and National Eclectic Medical societies and is identified fraternally with the Elks. CARL A. SEXAUER, proprietor of Sexauer's Grocery and Bakery, one of the old and stable business houses of Sidney, O., is a native of Germany and was born August 28, 1865, at Freiburg, Baden, a son of John Sexauer, who still resides in Germany, being now in his eightieth year. His wife, to whom he was married in 1861, als0 survives and is nearing her seventy-sixth birthday. Carl A. Sexauer has an interesting history. He learned the baking business with his father but left home at the age of fifteen years and went to Basil, Switzerland, and despite his youth, there capably managed a bakery for eighteen months, during which period he saved enough money with which to make the long journey to America, the goal of his desires. During the voyage the ship was wrecked and three of the passengers died from shock and injury, but the others were finally landed after nineteen days of danger on the stormy Atlantic ocean. Mr. Sexauer had an uncle, George Sexauer, who lived on a farm near Piqua, O., and the youth decided to make an effort to reach this relative and finally, on December 24, 1881, arrived at Piqua. He paid fifty cents, his last money, to a cabman to drive him two miles into the country to his uncle's farm, where he was kindly received and rested for a couple of days. He _then sought work at Piqua and secured a job in the Piqua Bakery, and for four weeks worked there on trial, for $1.75 a week, when, rather than lose the skilled German baker that he was found to be, the proprietor made him his boss baker with a salary of $13 a week with board and laundry, this being at that time the very highest wages paid in any baking establishment in that city. Mr. Sexauer remained in that place for a full year. During that time Jacob Piper, who was operating a bakery at Sidney, paid a visit to Piqua and saw and sampled some of Mr. Sexauer's baked goods with the result that he offered the young baker the position of boss baker of his establishment, and as conditions were more favorable he accepted and worked for Mr. Piper from March I, 1883, until August, 1889, when he bought the Piper bakery department, which proved a business mistake. He was thoroughly experienced in his trade but he knew little of practical business methods and in less than three years had lost the large sum of $2,600, and owed $800 to his wholesalers. It may be mentioned right here that since then he has paid every dollar of this indebtedness but it was a very discouraging experience. He then secured a basement workroom and for two years conducted a small bakery, and in this way retained many of his old customers and interested others, and by that time felt sure enough of further prosperity to buy the corner lot on which now stands the fine three-story brick building which he started to erect on March 1, 1905, into which he moved on September first following. In 1903 he had paid AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 445 a visit to his parents and remained with them for three months and on his return began his plans for his present substantial building. It stands on west Poplar street and corners on the canal, and its dimensions are 165x22 feet. He utilizes the first floor, which opens on the canal, for hiS bakery; the second floor which opens on West Poplar street, for his ware- room and stockroom, while the third floor he has fitted up as a public hall, and many entertainments are held in it, Sexauer's hall having conveniences that make it an ideal place for dances, parties and other gatherings. Mr. Sexauer started into his second business adventure at Sidney with a capital of $92, and a debt, as before mentioned, of $800, but it speaks well for the impression he had already made on those with whom he had done business, that they continued to have confidence in him. After paying all indebtedness with the strictest honesty, he found no difficulty in borrowing the necessary capital to erect his new structure, which cost him, exclusive of fixtures and machinery, more than $10,000, and that indebtedness has also long since been wiped out. He has expended several thousand dollars in putting in modern machinery and sanitary equipments and now operates the largest baking plant in this part of Shelby county, turning out from 3,000 to 4,000 loaves of bread daily, exclusive of biscuits, buns, pies and cakes, all of delicious combination and made from the best procurable supplies. He is ably assisted by his eldest son, John Sexauer, who is superintendent of that department and who designed much of the valuable baking machinery which his father has now installed. In addition to his extensive baking business, Mr. Sexauer conducts one of the most complete grocery stores in the city. In 1886 Mr. Sexauer was married to Miss Mollie Althoff, of Lockington, 0., and they have two sons : John and Raymond. Mr. Sexauer is a member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the Knights of Pythias, the Commercial Club, the National Bakers' Association of America and the Grocers' State Association. He is recognized as one of Sidney's most useful, honorable and representative citizens. BERNARD BARHORST, who is one of the substantial men of McLean township, Shelby county, 0., resides in section 4, two and one- half miles east of Fort Loramie, where he owns 245 acres of fine land. He was born in this township, one-half mile south of his present farm in the Sherman special school district, September 24, 1866, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Grieshop) Barhorst. The father of Mr. Barhorst spent his life in McLean township, following farming as his occupation, and died here when aged seventy-seven years. The mother, who was born in Germany, died when aged seventy-two years, in Mercer county, 0., and there were six sons and two daughters in the family. The parents were members of St. Michael's Catholic church. The Barhorst children were not neglected, their parents sending them to the Sherman district school until all were well ell instructed. Bernard remained on the home farm until his marriage, when he moved to his 446 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY present property, all of which he has under cultivation except thirty-six acres which is still in woodland. He has put in many improvements here, erecting and remodeling buildings, enriching and draining the land, and, with the help of his sturdy sons, does a large agricultural business. Mr. Barhorst married Miss Magdalena Ernst, who was born in McLean township, a daughter of Joseph Ernst, and nine children have been born to them, namely : Catherina, Joseph, August, Edward, Leo, Charles, Ursula, Urban and Paul. Mr. Barhorst and family are members of St. Michael's Roman Catholic church. In politics he has been a democrat since reaching man's estate, but has never sought political office, although his party might find in such men as Mr. Barhorst the honest and careful officials that a community needs for the practical carrying out of the laws. HENRY V. VAN DEMARK, a successful general farmer and well- known citizen of Clinton township, Shelby county, O., who is operating a farm of 200 acres, which belongs to his father, was born in the house in which he resides, April 21, 1885, and is a son of Jacob Newton and Catherine (Hicks) Van Demark. After his boyhood school days were over he attended the Sidney high school for two years. He comes of an agricultural family and naturally turned his attention to farming and stock raising, in which his father and grandfather were so eminently successful, but, before settling down decided to visit certain portions of the West and spent several months traveling through that part of the country, with the result that he returned satisfied to Ohio, realizing that this state offers everything contributive to the financial advancement and living comfort that can be consistently expected. Here, on one of the large farms belonging to his father, Mr. Van Demark is engaged in farming and he also gives attention to producing high-grade horses and stock. Mr. Van Demark was married September 18, 1907, to Miss Caroline Coon, who was born on a farm in Shelby county and is a daughter of Marshall K. and Anna (Rinehart) Coon. Mrs. Van Demark has a brother, Alfred, and a sister, Florence. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Van Demark, Catherine and Anna. They attend the Presbyterian church. Mr. Van Demark, like his father, is identified with the republican party but takes no very active part in politics. WILLIAM KLIPSTINE, a representative business man of Sidney, O., a dealer in lumber, coal and building materials, with office and yards on South Walnut street, has been a resident of this city for more than ten years, but his birth took place in Darke county, O., March 13, 1867, and he is a son of William and Louisa Klipstine, both of whom were born in Germany. The Klipstine family was founded in America by William Klipstine, the grandfather, who came to Ohio and purchased a farm in Darke county when his son William was a child. The maternal grandfather, William Haack, also came from Germany and purchased land in Darke county, and AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 447 on the above farms the parents of William Klipstine, of Sidney, were reared, together attended the district schools and subsequently married. They reared a family of three sons and one daughter and both are now deceased, the father passing away in 1894, when aged sixty-seven years. The mother survived until the fall of 1909, her age being seventy-eight years. Their children were : Louis, who is connected with the Peoples Bank at Versailles, 0.; Caroline, who is the wife of George H. Worch, of Versailles; William; and Amos, who is a farmer residing on the old homestead near Versailles. William Klipstine attended the public schools in the vicinity of his father's farm and later the Versailles high school, and remained engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1889, when he went to Quincy, Logan county, 0., where he engaged in the lumber business until 1901, when he came to Sidney as manager of the lumber business of his brother-in-law, George H. Worch, which business he subsequently purchased. Mr. Klipstine operates a planing mill and deals in all kinds and grades of merchantable lumber and builders' supplies, including hardware, paints and wire fencing, and has a commodious and expensive plant, in 1909 erecting his mill, office and storage room. Constant employment is afforded for from ten to twelve men and the business may be included with the very prosperous ones of the city. In 1889 Mr. Klipstine was married to Miss Mary Grove, a daughter of Hiram Grove, of Perry county, 0., and they have a happy family of six children, evenly divided, as follows : Roy, Charles, Ruth, Caroline, William and Mary. The eldest daughter possesses great artistic talent and it is being cultivated at Roanoke College, Roanoke, Va. Mr. Klipstine and family belong to St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church, at Sidney. Fraternally he is identified with the Elks and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a democrat and has served two terms as a member of the city council, during which period his sound business judgment frequently assisted in the solving of civic problems of importance. OLIVER J. TAYLOR, a representative business man of Sidney, 0., where he is a leading hardware merchant, founded his present establishment on June I, 1854, and is now in his fifty-ninth business year in his native city, where he was born September 26, 1830, and is a son of Jason and Sarah C. (Skillen) Taylor. The Taylors were pioneers in Shelby county. Samuel Taylor, the grandfather, was born in England, coming to near Harper's Ferry, Va., and from there moved to Ohio and settled first near West Liberty, 0., subsequently removing to Shelby county, where he entered land in what is now Salem township. He built a log cabin on a hill on a suitable part of his 160-acre purchase and there remained through a long and industrious life and is still recalled as one of the county's well-known pioneers. Jason Taylor, father of Oliver J., was a boy when his parents moved to Shelby county and settled in Salem township. He married early, before he was twenty-one years of age, and with wife and a capital of $28.50, 448 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY came to Sidney, where he began business life as a shoemaker. He prospered at his trade and started a small general store and when he could spare the sum of $37.00 invested it in land, and the time came when that same lot of land was sold for $,000. For many years he continued as a merchant at Sidney and then went into the jobbing business in New York City, where he remained for about eighteen years. Failing health induced him to close out his interests there and to return to Sidney, where his death occurred two years later. He married Sarah C. Skillen, who was of Irish parentage but was born in Pennsylvania and came to Ohio in girlhood. Oliver J. Taylor had very limited educational opportunities in his boyhood and remained with his parents until his eighteenth year, when he began the study of civil engineering and spent several years on the Big Four and Pan Handle railroads. Finding that his heart was not in that line of industry, Mr. Taylor turned his attention to the hardware business, and, as noted above, established his store at Sidney at so early a date that he can justly claim to be one of the oldest men in the hardware line, not only in this city, but in Ohio. He had a capital of $800 to start with, the same having been earned and providently saved while on the railroad, and he bought his first stock up to this amount, of the firm of Norton, Jewett & Busby of New York City, and the goods were shipped to him by way of Buffalo and Toledo, and then transferred to a warehouse. Learning that this warehouse was destroyed by fire on that night, Mr. Taylor presumed his goods had been destroyed and duplicated his order, with the rather disturbing result of receiving both orders and having only money enough to pay for one. His business shrewdness extricated him and soon he found he needed not only both orders of goods but that it became desirable for him to make annual trips to eastern markets and make his own selections. Still later he found his best market to be Pittsburg, later Cincinnati, and despite slow and exasperating delivery, he did a fine business. The first commercial traveler to visit him was John Williams, representing the Wheeler, Madden & Clenson Works, saw manufacturers, of Middletown, N. Y., this mark of growing importance being shown him in 1859. It is interesting to learn of Mr. Taylor's business methods as they proved so successful. It was his early habit to open his store at about 6 A. M. and probably close about 10 P. M. He has made it a point to boy for cash and to owe no one a dollar, althrough his purchasers very often did not follow the same honest line, buying largely on credit and having no definite time for settlement. Mr. Taylor remembers the advent of the wire nail, the family washing machines, the glass lantern that has succeeded the old tin cone pierced with holes. In his first stock of goods the cleaver was the only meat cutter and his padlocks that he then had to sell for perhaps fifty cents he can improve on for ten cents. He recalls his first door locks which were made to open with a lever instead of a knob; the old Spear & Jackson English saws were used and Mr. Taylor remembers that he had some trouble in convincing his customers that the Henry Disston saws were superior. His first American pocket cutlery he bought at Northfield, Conn., and for forty years he has handled the same AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 449 goods. In every other line he notes progress and improvement and has always been open to conviction himself and anxious to provide the very best goods on the market. In 1874 Mr. Taylor moved into the building he now occupies and there are few business men of Sidney wh0 are more prompt in their daily activities or more active in attending to customers than is Mr. Taylor, at the age of eighty-two years. On June 7, 1855, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Sarah Harris0n, who died suddenly July 30, 1887, the mother of seven children, four of whom survive : Harry J., who is the owner of the Sidney Hardware Company, of Sidney ; Jennie A., who is the wife of J. C. Cummings, cashier of the First National Exchange Bank of Sidney; Willis B., who is buyer for 0. J. Taylor ; and Charles J., who is a traveling salesman, representing the Chicago Hardware Company, with his home at Kansas City, Mo. Mrs. May Belle Lyon died leaving three children. Oliver Earl, the fifth born is deceased, and Edwin, the sixth child in order of birth, died at the age of eight months. Mr. Taylor's second marriage was to Miss Helen C. Search, who is a sister of Prof. P. W. Search, the well-known lecturer. Mr. Taylor has been creditably interested in many of the industries of Sidney and has been called the father of the Sidney fire department, and, in association with the late George Burnell, organized the present paid fire department. For almost his lifetime he has been a member of the Presbyterian church and until recently, when he retired voluntarily from the office, for many years has been an elder in the church. His long life of persevering industry has brought him financial independence and his probity and business integrity have earned him the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens. L. L. KNOOP, whose well improved farm of seventy-one acres, which he purchased and improved himself, is situated six miles southeast of Sidney, 0., has spent the larger part of his life in this part of Shelby county. He was born in Orange township, three-fourths of a mile north of his own farm in Green township, in August, 1871, and is a son of John and Margaret (Martin) Knoop. John Knoop is a highly respected retired citizen of Shelby county. He was born in Miami county, 0., and at the age of seventeen years enlisted in the Civil war, and saw much hard service during the following two years as a member of the 110th 0. Vol. Inf., including imprisonment in Libby prison. After his release he continued in the service as a teamster. When his term of enlistment was over he returned to Miami county and there engaged in farming until his marriage to Margaret Martin, when he came to Shelby county and located on the old Martin farm of forty acres. He also engaged in carpenter work and became well known all through this section. In 1909 he removed from the house he had occupied for so many years, to another house on the same farm and now lives in comfortable retirement and is the owner of 203 1-3 acres of land, which his sons operate. Mrs. Knoop passed away March 30, 1889, survived by five children, namely : Samuel, who lives one mile above Port Jefferson ; L. L., who lives on his farm six miles Southeast 450 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY of Sidney, O.; John W., wh0 lives east of Sidney ; William, who is located on the homestead; and Mrs. Dora Leckey, who resides north of Plattsville. L. L. Knoop attended school in Orange township and afterward worked on the home farm until his marriage, when he came to his present property, where general farming and stock raising have been carried on ever since. He has improved the property with modern and substantial buildings and has all his surroundings comfortable and attractive. Mr. Knoop was married January 11, 1894, to Miss Viola Hunt, daughter of P. R. Hunt, of Green township, near Plattsville, and they have tw0 children : Bertha May and Harley Thomas. Mr. Knoop has served two terms as a trustee of Green township, elected on the Republican ticket, and is recognized as 0ne 0f the solid and reliable citizens of this community. He is serving as a member of the county fair board and takes a hearty interest in every public movement to advance the interests of this section. Fraternally, Mr. Knoop is a Mason, a Knight of the Golden Eagles and an Odd Fellow, in the last named organizati0n bel0nging to both the Encampment and the subordinate branch. JOHN HEISER, senior member of the firm of John Heiser & Son, dealers in coal, lime, cement, plastering hair, sewer pipe and fire clay, at Sidney, O., is one of the stable and representative business men of this city. He was horn December 1, 1840, on a farm that now lies in Mercer county, O., but was then in Darke county, and is a son of Lawrence and Rosena (Link) Heiser. Lawrence Heiser was born in Alsace-Loraine and for seven years of early manhood served in the French army, then married in his own province and With his wife emigrated to America. After reaching the United States they settled at Canton, O., and lived there for eight years, Mr. Heiser finding employment on the Ohio canal. In 1833 he entered eighty acres of land from the government and settled on the same and both he and his wife died there. John Heiser remained on the old home farm until 1858, in the spring of which year he came to Sidney, where he learned the blacksmith trade in a building which occupied the site of the one which stands at No. 201 North Ohio avenue, in which he has his coal office. The old building burned down in 1855 or 1856. He learned his trade with Mr. Kingseed, with whom he formed a partnership after the Civil war, about 1866, for the manufacture of plows, and they continued together for eight years, when Mr. Heiser bought his partner's interest and continued plow manufacturing until 1893. On September 21, 1861, Mr. Heiser enlisted for service in the Civil war, entering Company M, First Ohio Light Artillery, and remained in the same company and regiment for three years, seeing service in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, taking part in such great battles as Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Jonesb0ro, the Flint River siege and many, many others. In spite of the almost constant danger of death, Mr. Heiser was never either injured or captured by the enemy and was finally honorably discharged and mustered out at Camp Dennison. He PAGE 451 - BLANK PAGE 452 - PICTURE: WILLIAM RANDOLPH & MRS. WILLIAM RANDOLPH AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 453 returned then to Ohio and from January to May 1, 1865, worked at his trade at Urbana, and from June 1, to September 1, at St. Paris, then came back to Sidney, where he went into business as above related. In connection with his manufacturing business, Mr. Heiser had opened another line, becoming a coal merchant in 1879, and this interest he has continued, always in the same building, the site being one of the old business landmarks of the city. In 1865 Mr. Heiser was married to Miss Mary Danil, wh0 died in 1889, an estimable woman who was beloved by all who knew her. She was a daughter of Gabriel Danil, a farmer in Shelby county. Six children survived her : William L., who is in partnership with his father; Franklin; George; Rosa, who is the wife of August Myer ; Raymond; and Amelia, who is the wife of William Ross. Mr. Heiser was married (second) to Frances Mons, who died September 19, 1908. WILLIAM RANDOLPH, who owns one of the best improved farms of Green township, consisting of 160 acres, situated seven miles southeast of Sidney, for many years carried on extensive farming here but n0w liveS retired. He was b0rn in Clark county, 0., near Springfield, July 13, 1826, and is a son of James Butler and Rachel (Stanley) Randolph. James Butler Randolph was born in New Jersey and was eight years old when his parents to0k him to Clark county, 0., and fr0m there he moved to Miami county in 1839, and in 1852 came to Shelby county where he lived into advanced age, dying on his farm in Turtle Creek t0wnship. In earlier years he had followed his trade, being a co0per. He married Rachel Stanley, wh0 was born in Virginia and who also survived into advanced age, her death 0ccurring on the farm of her only surviving child, William Randolph, the family originally being of eight members, five sons and three daughters. When William Randolph tells of his early school days he describes a log structure with slabs for benches and paper in place of glass in the windows, as the place in which he gained his knowledge of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, the primary elements of an education. It was a subscription school and each householder paid according to the number of children he sent to be instructed. Mr. Randolph started out for himself by working by the month on farms and helping the neighbors during haying and harvesting, until his marriage when he bought his present farm, in 1851, and settled on it in 1852. He cleared this land and erected the buildings and continued to make improvements until his property became exceedingly valuable, and continued to cultivate it until he no longer cared f0r such heavy responsibilities and for some years has rented it to good tenants. His handsome brick residence is one of the finest farm homes in Green township. Mr. Randolph married Miss Sarah Elizabeth Bull, who is deceased. The following children were born to them : Elias, John, Clinton, William, Edward, Samuel L., Bert and Grant, Elias and William being deceased. Mr. Rand0lph's sec0nd marriage was t0 Miss Harriet B. Denise, who 454 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY was born and educated in Montgomery county, O., a daughter of Hiram Vail and Rachel (Barklow) Denise. The father of Mrs. Randolph was a lumber merchant at Cincinnati. Mr. Rand0lph is a republican in his p0litical attachment. He is a member of the Methodist Episc0pal church. During a long and busy life he has witnessed many wonderful changes come about, and in looking around him misses the faces which l0ng associati0n in family and neighb0rh0od had made familiar, but he still has a close circle 0f warm friends, and, with the blessing of g0od health and surrounded with material comforts of all kinds, can enj0y the evening of life untroubled with the cares of earlier years. MARSHAL K. COON, one of the representative men of Turtle Creek township, Shelby county, O., who is now serving in the office of township assessor and resides on his farm of ninety acres, was born in this township, April 22, 1859, and is a son of Alfred and Elizabeth (Frankeberger) Coon. Alfred Coon and wife were both born in Shelby county and the former in Turtle Creek township. He learned the tailor's trade in early manhood but later became a farmer and when he retired removed to Sidney. Alfred Coon and wife were parents of the following children: Margaret, who is the wife of Jacob Jenkens; David; John; Mary, who is the wife of Webster Barbour; Caroline, who is the wife of John S. Bush; Edward; Marshal K.; Frank and Lou, who is the wife of James Turner. Marshal K. Coon commenced early to assist his father and remained on the home place until he was twenty-five years of age and after his father's death bought his present property which was formerly known as the Richard Cannon farm. A general line of farming is here carried on, Mr. Coon aiming to raise only enough stock for h0me use. In August, 1882, Mr. Coon was married to Miss Anna Rinehart, who was born at Sidney, O., and is a daughter of Rev. D. B. and Catherine (Etherington) Rinehart. The father of Mrs. Coon was born in Fairfield county, O., November 21, 1825, and died February 27, 1900, aged seventy-four years, three months and six days. Mrs. Coon has one brother, William, who formerly lived at New Bremen, a, but died at Arcanum, and one sister, Clara Jane, who is the wife of Samuel L. McCoy, living at Hastings, Neb. In the Rinehart family is preserved an old family Bible which has descended from father to son for generations and authenticates the genealogy of thiS family from the time when its progenitors came from Germany to the American colonies, prior to the Revolutionary war. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Coon, namely : Alfred R., who married Grace McCormack; Lou Caroline, who married Henry V. Van Demark, and they have two children—Catherine and Anna Wilma; and Florence Catherine. Mr. Coon and family belong to the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is one of the trustees. Politically a republican, for many years he has been active in party movements and prior to being elected to his present office, served two terms as township treasurer. He is identified with AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 455 the Grange at Hardin, 0., and with one exception, he and his wife are the only seventh degree members of the Grange in Shelby county. GEORGE W. HANSELLMAN, a leading citizen of Cynthian township, Shelby county, 0., township assessor and a substantial farmer, lives in section 30, where he owns ninety-nine acres of valuable land. He was born in this township June 3, 1862, and is a son of George and Catherine (Yoder) Hansellman. George Hansellman, the father, was born in Holland and was seven years old when his parents brought him to the United States and settled in Darke county, 0., and he was reared and went to school in Patterson township. He became a farmer in Shelby county and remained there until he married when he moved to Cynthian township, where he acquired a farm of 160 acres, situated on the county line, and here all his children were born and reared. He married Catherine Yoder, who was born in Germany, and eight children were born to them, namely : Eli, who lives at Piqua, 0. ; John, who lives at Salina, 0.; Barbara, who is deceased, was the wife of Hiram Pitsenburger ; George W.; William, who is deceased; and Margaret, Lydia and Isabella. The father of the above family died when aged sixty-eight years. The mother still lives on the homestead and considering that she is now in her eighty-first year, enjoys exceptional good health. She is a member of the German Baptist church but her husband was a Lutheran. George W. Hansellman, with his brothers and sisters, attended school in the Turner special district and afterward learned the carpenter trade at Versailles, O. F0r a number of years he worked at his trade in Darke, Miami and Shelby counties and during this period, on March 13, 1886, was married to Miss Mattie B. Hemelright. She was born in Cynthian township, a daughter of George and Elizabeth Hemelright, the latter of whom died when Mrs. Hansellman was only eight years old. To Mr. and Mrs. Hansellman six children have been born : Harvey, Erma, May, Mabel, George and Cloyde. After marriage Mr. Hansellman settled first on a farm of forty acres situated four miles west of Newport, 0., and remained there until March, 1909, when he came to his present farm. He found this place in great need of improvement and his skill as a carpenter was immediately called into play in the building of a new residence and in making repairs on all the other farm buildings. He is a republican in politics as was his late father and has frequently been called on to serve in public positions, for three years being a trustee of the township, four years road supervisor and at present township assessor. Mr. Hansellman and family attend the Christian church at Oran, 0. BERNARD BRANDEWIE, who is one of the leading citizens and large land owners of McLean township, having 600 acres and devoting a large portion of this to raising cattle and hogs, was born in May, 1856, in Auglaize county, 0., and is a son of Joseph and a grandson of Anton Brandewie. Anton Brandewie, the grandfather, was born, reared and married in Hanover, Germany, the name of his wife being Mary Wissman, and they con- 456 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY tinued to live there for some years and when they came t0 America they had three children : Joseph, Barney and Catherine. They first made a home in Cincinnati, O., where they lived for six months, and then moved to Minster. At that time the land office was at Piqua and the nearest neighbor was five miles away. They bought a tract of land which is now the site of Minster, 'O., 160 acres, all in one body and owned by four people, Grandfather Brandewie retaining forty acres for himself. On this tract he spent his subsequent life, dying when aged seventy-two years, his burial being in St. Joseph's cemetery, Egypt. He helped to establish the Catholic church here and gave liberally to its support. He was a strong democrat and always cast his vote at elections even when he had to ride for miles on horseback to do so. He was well known among the early settlers in Shelby county but spent his days in Auglaize county. Joseph Brandewie was twelve years old when he came to the United States and had attended school in Germany and later learned to read English although it was difficult for him to spell in this language. Probably the first money he ever earned was when fourteen years of age he became a worker on the canal as water boy. Later he drove ox teams and worked in the stone quarries and afterward again worked on the canal, with a Mr. Duncan, probably living all that time in Auglaize county. He then went to Michigan and during the six years he lived there bought 120 acres of land in that state. After he returned to Ohio he married and then bought eighty acres on the Shelby county line, all of it. at that time being totally unimproved. He built a house and barn and improved land as he was able and there comfortably reared a large family and at the time of his death on the original farm, he owned 252 acres, having cleared this land by his own industry. He was an enterprising man and a great worker and lived to the age of eighty-six years and during all this long life but once called in a physician for himself. He was a lifelong democrat and never missed v0ting and on several occasions was elected to local offices. Joseph Brandewie was married to Catherine Prenger, who was also born in Germany and was brought to the United States by her parents, Herman and Kate Prenger, when a child. To them the following children were born: Mary, Tony, Bernard, Kate, Agnes, Joseph, Henry, Herman, Bernadine, Caroline, and J0sephine. The mother of the above family died at the age of sixty-eight years and she was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Egypt, and many years afterward her husband was laid by her side, they having been among the earliest members of the church and faithful to its teachings, kind, good people. Bernard Brandewie and his brothers and sisters attended the district schools near their home. In 1880 at the time of marriage, Mr. Brandewie came to Shelby county, and settled where he still lives. He has the larger part of his estate well improved and has two barns and three houses. He has always carried on general farming and for the past thirteen years has been in the livest0ck business, buying, selling and shipping to all parts of the country. On the portion of his farm on which he resides he put up all the substantial AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 457 buildings. It is situated four miles southwest of Minster and three miles west of Fort Loramie. In 1880 Mr. Brandewie was married to Miss Mary Baumer, who was born at Cincinnati, 0., a daughter of Bernard and Mary Baumer, and all of their children have been born in Shelby county. Louis, the oldest, married Elizabeth Severin and they live at Minster. Fred married Dena Ernst and they live in McLean township. Lottie married Barney Artkamp and they live in McLean township. Albert married Mary Ernst and lives in this township. Katie, Cecelia, Edward, Sophia and Lawrence, all live at home. The family all belong to the Minster Catholic church. Mr. Brandewie is a stanch democrat and is a member of the board of education of the Dirksen special school district. CHRISTIAN KIRSCH, postmaster at Fort Loramie, 0., is a representative citizen of this town, of which he has been a resident for forty-two consecutive years. He was born at Troy, in Concord township, Miami county, 0., May 1, 1848, and is a son of John and Christina Kirsch. John Kirsch was born in Hessen, Germany, while his wife was a native of Hanover. About 1855 they moved from Miami county, 0., where they had first settled after coming from Germany, and afterward lived in McLean township until their death, when aged respectively seventy and seventy-six years. They were faithful members of St. Michael's Catholic church and were buried in the cemetery adj0ining the same. They were well known and highly respected people. During boyhood Christian Kirsch attended school when his father could spare him and then learned the carpenter trade, beginning work in 1867 and continuing busy at his trade for forty-tw0 years, coming to Fort Loramie in 1870, where he served as the first town marshal. He has been active in democratic politics and for sixteen years served uninterruptedly as a trustee of McLean township and many times has served usefully and discreetly as a member of the town council. It is through the efforts of such men as Mr. Kirsch that communities prosper for they take an interest in the progresS of the town and are the agitators who bring about many useful improvements. For twenty-nine years Mr. Kirsch has been a member of the volunteer fire company and one of its early organizers. As postmaster Mr. Kirsch has served acceptably since his appointment September 6, 1907, this being a fourth class office, with one rural delivery route. Mr. Kirsch was married to Miss Rachel Meyers, wh0 was born at Fort Loramie, 0., and is a daughter of Lucas and Otilda Meyers, both of whom are deceased. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kirsch, four of whom died in infancy. The survivors are : Bernard, who resides at Hamilton, 0. ; Albert, who resides at Dayton, 0. ; Adaline, who lives at Minster, in Auglaize county, 0. ; Anna, who is her father's capable assistant in the post office at Fort Loramie ; Christian, who is a resident of Troy, O.; and Carl, who lives at Hamilton, 0. Mr. Kirsch and family are members of St. Michael's Catholic church. 458 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY ARMSTRONG LOGAN MARSHALL, who has been identified with gas and fuel interests for a number of years and who has been connected with the Miami Valley Gas and Fuel Company since July, 1888, was born on a farm in Washington township, Shelby county, O., September 25, 1840, and is a son of Samuel and Jane McCord (Russell) Marshall. Samuel Marshall was born in Washington county, Pa., and was three years old when his parents, Samuel and Margaret Marshall, came t0 Shelby county, away back in 1802; they being the second settlers who had penetrated thus far and established a pioneer home. They entered land from the government which Grandfather Marshall cleared and cultivated in the primitive way. On that wild farm the younger Samuel Marshall grew to manhood and he, in turn, also entered land, his selection being a tract lying 0ne-half mile east of the old Marshall place. There he followed farming and tanning, his old tan-yard being yet recalled by the older residents of that section, and on that farm both he and wife passed away in advanced age. Armstrong Logan Marshall had much better educational advantages than were afforded his father and he remained at home until he was twenty-three years of age. He then taught school for about six years and later was in the grain business at Harden Station and about this time was first elected county recorder, to which office he was subsequently reelected. Mr. Marshall then became connected with several publishing houses and for eighteen years was engaged in delivering county histories and atlases both in the United States and Canada. He came then to Sidney and shortly afterward entered into his present business connection. For the first three years he occupied a subordinate positi0n and then succeeded Frank Hunter as agent for the Miami Valley Gas & Fuel Company, and both became agents for the Sidney Gas Light and the Sidney Electric Light Companies, and at present he also is agent for the Miami Valley Gas & Fuel Co., the Sidney and Electric Light Company, The Sidney Gas Light Company having quit business. Mr. Marshall was first married in 1864, to Miss Mary Burness, and one daughter, Mary B., and one son, Samuel, were born to them. His second marriage was to Miss Margaret Walker and they have three Sons : Robert, who is a land agent with the Pennsylvania Railroad offices in New York City; and Charles C. and Logan W., both of whom are practicing attorneys. Mr. Marshall is a member of the Masonic fraternity. WILLIS N. HANCE, one of Shelby county's well known and highly respected citizens, resides on his valuable farm of 140 acres, lying in Perry township, but no longer carries on his farm industries himself, having been retired for some years. He was born in Miami county, O., May 1, 1846, and is a son of Joseph and Patsey (Wilson) Hance. The father of Mr. Hance was a native of Kentucky. After his marriage in Miami county, O., he engaged there in farming until the close of his life, both he and wife dying on their old homestead not far from Casstown. Ten children were born to them, namely : Lydia, who married Larison Huff ; Margaret, who married Chryance Schenck ; William ; Lewis; Sarepta, who AND REPRESENTATIWE CITIZENS - 459 married Levi Hockman; John; Benjamin; Seymour; Willis N.; and Letitia, who married James Wrigley. Willis N. Hance attended the district schools near his father's farm in boyhood and afterward assisted in carrying on the work on the homestead and well remembers how laborious much of it was, as at that period much of the labor-saving farm machinery that is now universally in use, was not yet on the market. After marriage be settled on the present farm, on which his wife was born, and has remained here ever since, for many years being one of the active and successful farmers and stock raisers of Perry township. On January 28, 1869, Mr. Hance was married to Miss Mary Jane Keplinger, a daughter of Mathias and Rebecca (Heckman) Keplinger, both now deceased, their burial being at Sidney. Mrs. Hance had three brothers and one sister : Sylvester, John H., now deceased, Charles A., and Naomi, who is the wife of Daniel Crumbaugh. To Mr. and Mrs. Hance the following children were born : Lilly, who is the wife of Grant Wirick, who is the mail carrier on the rural route out of Pemberton, 0.; Charles A., who has charge of his father's farm, married Carrie Cannon and they have four children; Cleora M., Irma B., Rea Vivian and Wilda Margaret ; Elsie Love, who is the wife of Charles Williamson, who is a member of the police force at Sidney, 0., and they have two children—Leonard and Lois; and Earl \W., who married Mary Kuhlman and they reside at St. Mary's, where he is bookkeeper for a business firm. Mr. Hance and family are members of the United Brethren church. He has always advocated reforms when they have appealed to his judgment in both local and outside communities and in his political views is in accord with the principles of the prohibition party. EDGAR ALONZO SCHENCK, one of the representative citizens and substantial men of Shelby county, O., who resides on one of his farms, a tract of sixty acres, located in Clinton township, owns a second farm, of forty acres, which lies east of Sidney, was born on the farm he occupies, July 13, 1853, and is a son of Schuyler and Deborah (Suthen) Schenck. The parents of Mr. Schenck were born in New Jersey and came to Ohio in youth, subsequently marrying here and spending the rest of their lives in Clinton township, Shelby county. The father was a shoemaker by trade and also followed farming. They were good, Christian people, members of the Brethren church. Of their children, Edgar Alonzo was the youngest born and is the only one living. The others were : Garrett, John, Henry, Joseph, George, Maria, Daniel and William. Edgar Alonzo Schenck has spent his life on his present farm and has had the management of it since his school days. All the usual farm industries. are carried on on both farms owned by Mr. Schenck, grain growing and stock raising, although he seldom markets any stock, growing largely for his own use. He has some other interests and is a stockholder in the Buckeye Churn Company. In October, 1875, Mr. Schenck was married to Miss Anna Campbell, of Springfield, Ill., a daughter of Nelson and Margaret Campbell. farming 460 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY people there, who had the following children : James, Mary Jane, Catherine, George, William, John, Minnie and Anna. Mr. and Mrs. Schenck have two daughters, both now married, with children of their own. Grace is the wife of John McClure and they have two children, being Floyd and Gladys. Nora D. is the wife of Stanley Young, their children being Mildred, Margaret and Helen. Mr. Schenck and family attend the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically he is a republican. JOSEPH OSCAR KING, one of the busy and successful general farmers of Clinton township, Shelby county, O., who operates his mother's farm of ninety-four acres, was born in this township, January 4, 1875, and is a son of David M. and Leah (Kauffman) King. David M. King was born in Mifflin county, Pa., and came to Ohio when a young man. Here he followed farming all his life dying September 21, 1911, and was a well known and highly respected man, a leading member of the Brethren church. He married Leah Kauffman, who waS horn also in Mifflin county, Pa., and still resides on her farm in Clinton township. To David M. King and wife the following children were born : Alice K., who is the widow of Nicholas Kauffman ; Rebecca, who is the wife of George Davis: Sadie, who is the wife of Walter Parcher ; Joseph Oscar; Ida, who is the wife of Harry Tennery : and Amanda, who is the wife of Charles Miltenberger. Joseph Oscar King obtained a common school education and since putting aside his books has devoted himself exclusively to farming and stock raising. The home farm is a valuable property and under his excellent management is very productive. He takes a good citizen's interest in public matters, votes the republican ticket and at present is a school director. In 1898 Mr. King was married to Miss Dora Theuer, a daughter of Martin and Anna Theurer. Mrs. Theurer was previously married but her three children, Henry, Charles and Dora, were born to her second union. Mr. and Mrs. King have two children : Helen and Melvin. The family, including the beloved mother, belong to the Brethren church. WILLIAM F. VALENTINE, who operates the only tile mill in Green township, is an enterprising and prosperous business man of this section over which he is very well known. He was born in De Kalb county, Ind., August 25, 1864, and is a son of John and Nancy Jane (Bailey) Valentine. John Valentine was born in Orange township, Shelby county, O., where he engaged in farming in early manhood and after marriage lived for one year in Indiana, moving from there to Illinois, eleven years later returning to Ohio. For twenty years Mr. Valentine continued to live in his native state after which he spent three years in Kansas but again returned to Ohio and his death occurred in Shelby county in his seventy-fourth year. For six years he was in the tile business but otherwise devoted himself entirely to farming. He married Nancy Jane Bailey, who was born in Clinton county, O., and still survives. They had the following children: Mrs. Alice Johnson; Jonas I., who lives in Kansas; William F. ; Levi E., who lives in Green township; Richard R., who is a resident of Colorado; Thomas C. and Daisy C., both of whom AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 461 are deceased ; Alonzo and Earl, both of whom live in Perry township, Shelby county. William, F. Valentine assisted his father and attended school until he was fourteen years of age and afterward followed farming until 1890, when he bought the tile mill which he has successfully operated ever since. The usual output of his plant is from eighteen to twenty-two kilns annually and as Mr. Valentine also carries on a business in contract ditching, he makes use of all his own factory product and uses additionally 200 car loads of tile in a year. He has some additional business interests and is one of the directors of the Farmers Telephone Company. Mr. Valentine was married first to Miss Emma J. Rugh, of Wabash, Ind.', who left two children ; Mace E. and Grace F. His second marriage was to Miss Nellie J. Duffy, of Shelby county, and they have three children : Hazel, John and Newel. Mr. Valentine and family are members of the Christian church. In politics he is a republican and his party has elected him for his seventh continuous term as township trustee. He belongs to two of the popular fraternal organizations of this section, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Knights of the Golden Eagle. CLEMENS WOLKE, who is numbered with the representative and substantial citizens of McLean township, Shelby county, 0., is treasurer of the Sherman Special School District and the owner of a large property situated in section 10, consisting of 160 acres of valuable land. He was born on this farm, April 8, 1856, and is a son of John C. and Mary Wolke. John C. Wolke and wife were born, reared and married in Germany and a daughter was born to them there, Ida, who died before they came to America. They had but two children, Clemens being born after they had reached McLean township, Shelby county. They found five acres of their 160 already cleared and John C. Wolke put in a crop as soon as possible and afterward worked constantly to clear his land, being assisted by his son as the latter attained strength to be of material help. Twenty-five acres have been left as a wood lot, but all the rest is made productive through careful cultivation. All the buildings now standing were erected by the present owner and all the other improvements now in evidence were placed here by him. The father and mother. both died on this farm, the father when aged seventy-two years. They were excellent people, devout Catholics and good neighbors. Their burial was in the St. Michael's church cemetery. When aged twenty-three years, Clemens Wolke was united in marriage with Mary Raterman, a daughter of Ferdinand Raterman, a member of an old family of McLean township, and they have one daughter, Bernadina, who resides at home. Mr. Wolke and family are members of St. Michael's Catholic church. He has always been a democrat in his political opinions and has taken an interest in township matters and has been particularly active in advancing the usefulness of the public schools. He has long been a member of the board of education and for eighteen years has been its treasurer. His property is well situated being on the south side of the Sherman turnpike road, and but four miles southwest of Fort Loramie. 462 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY FREDERICK H. SLEETER, a well-known and highly respected citizen of Sidney, O., to which city he retired fr0m his farm many years ago, is a native of Ohio, born in Auglaize county, October 23, 1836. His parents were Henry and Catherine Sleeter. Henry and Catherine Sleeter were born in Germany. After coming to Ohio and settling in Auglaize county, Henry Sleeter acquired a farm of f0rty acres but whenever opportunity offered worked at his trade of millwright and later left the farm and rented a mill on Greenville Creek, in Darke county, near New Harrison, and took charge of and operated it for one year before his family joined him there. Living conditions were not comfortable there, however, and parents and children returned to Auglaize county and during the cholera epidemic of 1847 the father and the youngest son, Henry, both succumbed to the disease at the same time and their burial was in the same grave. The mother was later married to John F. Meyers, who operated a hotel at Bremen, and F. H. for several years assisted his step-father, serving behind the bar and taking care of the stabling of the horses. Mr. Meyers, did a good business as there was much wagon travel at that time east and west through Bremen. Frederick H. Sleeter had attended a German school in Auglaize county but it was not until he was about fifteen years 0f age and had entered the employ of Joseph Dowler, in Newberry t0wnship, Miami county, that he learned the elements of the English language, being first instructed in Sunday school. He was anxious to learn and made rapid progress, his employers, Joseph Dowler and Henry Wright, who were brothers-in-law, taking a great deal of interest in him, and he remained with them for four years. At that time many young men were going to Iowa t0 seek better opportunities, and Mr. Sleeter also visited that state but within nine m0nths returned t0 Ohio and then came to Sidney. where a half-brother, George W. Metzger, was then living, the latter being a son of his mother's first marriage which had taken place in Germany. In the meanwhile, having learned the carpenter trade with Henry Wright, Mr. Sleeter followed the same and prior to 1860, lived for some time in Shelby county with a family connection, Benjamin Wert. After marriage he b0ught a farm of 140 acres, situated in Green township, 0n which he lived from 1860 until 1886, at which time he and his wife m0ved to Sidney, where they have a fine h0me, the hands0me brick residence being 0n S0uth Main avenue. Mr. Sleeter gave the first farm he 0wned t0 his daughter, Mrs. B. T. Bull, and had impr0ved that as well as his present farm of 152 acres which is situated in Orange township. In 1860 Mr. Sleeter was married t0 Miss Mary Bucannan, a daughter of David Bucannan, wh0 was one of the pioneers of Shelby county. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sleeter Lottie, who is the wife of B. T. Bull ; Ella, who is the widow of Judd Miller ; William and Olia. both of whom are deceased; Agnes, who is the wife of Jesse PAGE - 463 - PICTURE OF MR AND MRS FREDERICK H. SLEETER PAGE - 464 - BLANK AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 465 L. Frazier ; and Thomas B., who died in childhood. Mr. and Mrs. Sleeter are active members 0f the Universalist church. F0rmerly he was a democrat in his p0litical affiliation and on that ticket was elected treasurer of Green township, in which office he served with efficiency, but in later years has been identified with the prohibition party. F0r many years he has been an Odd Fellow. J. CLEMENS BENDER, residing two and one-half miles southwest of Fort Loramie, 0., where he rents an improved farm of 120 acres, lying in section i t, McLean township, is one of the representative citizens of this section and a member of an old Ohio family. He was born in this farm, and is a son of John and Mary (Heilers) Bender. John Bender was born in Auglaize county, 0., and grew to manhood there and engaged in farm pursuits. He married Mary Heilers, who was reared at Minster, 0., and they then came to this farm in McLean township and here Mrs. Bender died when her son J. Clemens was only seven years of age. There were five children, namely : John, who is deceased ; J. Clemens; and Mary and Katie, who live at home ; and Clara, who is deceased. J. Clemens Bender obtained his education in the Walkup Special School District and then assisted his father and since the fall of 1911 has had entire charge of the home place, carrying on general farming and raising stock for home use. He married Miss Emma Seger, who is a daughter of John Seger, of Fort Loramie, 0. The whole family belongs to St. Michael's Catholic church. Mr. Bender votes with the democratic party. J. F. APPLEGATE, who is one of the respected and useful men of Orange township, for the past ten years a member of the school board and interested in everything that promises to be beneficial to this section, resides 0n his \yell cultivated farm, which contains fifty-four and one-third acres. He was born February 25, 1849, in Green township, Shelby county, within a half mile 0f Plattsville, and is a son of Edward and Elizabeth (Kiser) Applegate. Edward Applegate was born in New Jersey and it is possible that his ancestors came from Holland. He was twenty-five years of age when he came to Shelby county, and bought the land in Green township on which he spent the rest of his life, clearing and developing it through his own industry, dying there when aged sixty-five years. He married Elizabeth Kiser, who was born in Miami county, 0., and died at Sidney, when aged eighty-two years. They had six children : Sarah Catherine, who married J. S. Loughlin ; Mary E., who is the wife of Francis Bull ; John I. C., who lives at Sidney; two who died in infancy; and J. F. J. F. Applegate attended the district schools in Green township in boyhood, having the usual country boy advantages afforded at that time, and remained with his father until he was twenty-six years old, coming then to Orange township and for ten years afterward lived on his father-in-law's farm. From there he moved to the 0ne he now occupies and successfully operates, for the past twenty years having carried on farming and stock raising here. 466 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY During this time he has made many changes and improvements and has a valuable property. Mr. Applegate married Miss Mina T. Bull, a daughter of Hiram Bull, and five children were born to them : Rollo, who died when aged four years ; Fleetwood, who lives near Springfield, 0. ; Forrest E., who is a resident of Sidney; Charles C., who is the practical home farmer ; and Edward, who is now deceased, served as a soldier in the Philippine Islands. Mr. Applegate and family are members of the Methodist Episc0pal church. In politics a democrat, while living in Green township, Mr. Applegate served as a trustee and has also served two times as township clerk and has been a member of the school board since coming to Orange township. He belongs to the Odd Fellows, at Plattsville. AUGUST B. GUDENKAUF, M. D., a well established physician and surgeon at Sidney, O., and secretary of the Shelby County Medical Society, is a native of Germany, where he was born September 14, 1870. His parents were Anton and Gertrude (Von Huesen) Gudenkauf. Anton Gudenkauf followed the blacksmith trade in Germany but after coming to America in 1874 and settling in McLean township, near what is now Fort Loramie. Shelby county, 0., he engaged in farming but his death in the following year prevented his acquiring any considerable interests in that direction. His widow survives. August B. Gudenkauf was a child of four years when his parents brought him to America and he lived on a farm through his early school days, later becoming a student in the Sidney high school, where he was graduated in 1893. For seven years afterwards he taught school, following which came a year in the scientific department of the State University, at Columbus, 0., which, in turn was followed by a course of four years in medicine, and he was graduated in the class of 1905 from the Ohio Medical University at Columbus. For one year he served as an interne at the Protestant Hospital in that city, in the fall of 1906 coming to Sidney, where he has been engaged in the practice of his professi0n ever since. Dr. Gudenkauf married Miss Agnes Albery, of Columbus, and they have one daughter, Catherine Gertrude. Dr. and Mrs. Gudenkauf are members of the Catholic church. He is identified fraternally with the Knights of Columbus, and pr0fessionally with county and state medical bodies and with the American Medical Association, and in 1909 served as president of the Shelby County Medical Society, of which he now is secretary. Dr. Gudenkauf has also served on the board of county school examiners. HARRY J. TAYLOR, proprietor and manager of the Sidney Hardware Company, at Sidney, 0., a leading business concern here, has been identified with the hardware trade since a boy. He was born at Sidney, March 27, 1855, and is a son of Oliver J. Taylor, who iS also in this line of trade. Harry J. Taylor was educated in the public schools and afterward worked in his fatherls hardware store until 1898, when he embarked in business for AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 467 himself. Mr. Taylor began in a modest way and through close attention to business and a complete knowledge of all its details, has greatly prospered. To his first quarters he has added space and now has two large rooms and two warerooms and carries a very full stock, handling everything in light and heavy hardware, farm fencing, and factory and plumbers' supplies. Mr. Taylor was united in marriage with Miss Belle Runyon, of Shelby county, and eight children have been born to them, namely : Oliver F., who is associated with his father in the store, is married and they have three children —Harold, James and Amelia Belle ; Harry, who is also in the hardware business with his father ; Mabel, deceased, who was the wife of Frederick Heiser, of Sidney, and they had one child, Mary Louise ; James T., who is also in his father's store ; and Mary, Rosanna, Cora and Julia, all of whom reside at home. Mr. Taylor is active in his citizenship, assuming responSibilities when necessary and in every possible way working for the general welfare. He belongs t0 several fraternal bodies including the Royal Arcanum and the Order of Ben Hur. FRANK J. EILERMAN, a well known resident of Shelby county, who is a retired farmer residing in section 9, McLean township, where he owns 120 acres of valuable land, situated two miles east of Fort Loramie, on the Sherman turnpike road, was born in this t0wnship, December 9, 1847, and is a son of George Henry Eilerman, an early settler and w0rthy citizen of this part of the county. Frank J. Eilerman obtained his education in the Sherman Special School District. Farm industries occupied the entire period of his active life and these he continued until 1910, when he shifted his responsibilities from his own shoulders to the sturdy ones of hs son, being fully assured that a capable hand still remained at the plow. Mr. Eilerman came to the present farm following his marriage and with the exception of thirty acres of woodland, placed all the land in a tillable condition. He continued his improvements until he had an entire set of new buildings, those now standing, which are substantial in construction and adequate to farm needs. He found, at times, that parts of his land required draining and that also was attended to and a large amount of tile put down. In 1873 Mr. Eilerman was married to Miss Catherine Holscher, who was born on this farm, the only daughter 0f B. H. Holscher, who was a victim of cholera during the epidemic of 1849. To Mr. and Mrs. Eilerman four children were born, as follows : Henry, who lives in Cynthian township, married Mary Dresher ; Clemens, who has charge of the home farm, married Lena Dresher ; Mary, who is the wife of William Kloeker, of Cynthian township ; and Katie, who is the wife of Henry Borger, of McLean township. Mr. Eilerman has always been interested in the public schools and the only office he ever accepted was that of school director. With his family he belongs to St. Michael'S Catholic church at Fort Loramie and when this church edifice waS built he made a substantial contribution to the fund. 468 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY WILLIAM H. MAYER, merchant tailor at Sidney, 0., is well known to his fellow citizens here, where he has spent his life and practically grew up in his present line of business. He was born at Sidney, July 8, 1872, and is a son of Andrew and Julia (Bretz) Mayer. Andrew Mayer was born in Germany in 1829 and before coming to America, learned the tailoring trade. After reaching the United States he located at Lancaster, 0., where he worked in tailor shops for a time and then went to Cincinnati and from there, in 1863, came to Sidney, immediately opening his own shop but later closed it and for a time worked as a cutter in other establishments. In 1881 he resumed business for himself and continued until March, 1906, when he retired on account of a slight stroke of paralysis which impaired his health to some extent. At Lancaster, O., he married Julia Bretz, who died in 1896, the mother of the following children : Mary, who was the wife of W. 0. Wagner, died in 1892; Charles, who is a tailor in business at Bellefontaine ; Delia, who is the wife of P. E. Sherman of Sidney; and Louise, Anna, William H. and Amelia, the last named being the wife of Hon. Charles M. Wyman. William H. Mayer attended the parochial schools in boyhood and as soon as old and deft enough was permitted to help his father and in July, 1887, entered upon his apprenticeship to the trade. In 1904 he received his diploma as a cutter from the Frederick Cromborg Cutting School, Chicag0, Ill., having previously, in 1892, attended the John J. Mitchell Cutting School, New York City. He continued with his father for nineteen years in all, in 1906 embarking in business for himself. He is recognized as one of the most expert cutters and fitters in the city, while his taste, carefulness and good judgment insure wide and continued patronage. Mr. Mayer married Miss Helen Crusey, a daughter of Edward Crusey, and they have three children : Rosemary, Helen and William. Mr. Mayer and family are members of the Catholic church and he is identified fraternally with the Knights of Columbus and the Elks. GEORGE KEIFER HIPPLE, whose valuable farm of eighty acres of finely cultivated land lies in Clinton township, was born in Miami county, not far from Troy, O., April 30, 1850, and is a son of David and Elizabeth (Enyeart) Hipple. David Hipple was born in Pennsylvania, of German parents, and came to Ohio when young, settling in Miami county and marrying there. He followed farming all his life and he and wife were among the earnest members and liberal supporters of the Christian church. They had four children : Taylor ; George Keifer; Angeline, who is deceased, was the wife of Samuel Hersey; and Laura Belle, who died when young. George Kiefer Hippie attended the district school nearest his father's farm and assisted there until he was nineteen years of age after which, for a time, he was in the employ of an express company at Sidney, 0. Since then he has resided on his farm where he is extensively and profitably engaged in the AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 469 poultry business, making a specialty of White Leghorns, his yards usually having 300 birds, his ready market being at Sidney. Mr. Whipple was married first to Miss Ella Wilson, of Miami county, who was survived by one daughter, Gertrude, who is the wife of Wade Shilling. In 1882 he was married (second) to Miss Mary Miller, of Miami county, and they have three children : Harry; Walter, who married Ethel West ; and Taylor. Mr. Hipple and family attend the Methodist Episcopal church. He is identified with the republican party but has never been a seeker for 0ffice. OWEN DOORLEY, whose valuable farm of 155 acres lies in Orange township, one and one-half miles southeast of Sidney, now lives retired and is surrounded with the comforts that a long life of industry have provided. He was born July 16, 1825, in Ireland, and is a son of Daniel Doorley and wife, neither of whom ever came to the United States. Owen Doorley helped his father on the home farm in Ireland and attended the parochial schools, and no doubt received instruction and advice from the parish priest when he announced his determination to leave home and seek his fortune in another land. He reached America in safety and spent his first four months in the United States at Philadelphia, Pa., and stopped at other pointS before reaching Ohio, where he secured work on the C., H. & D. Railroad then in course of construction, which had reached as far as Anna Station. He continued to work as a laborer for some time and then became a farmer and followed agricultural pursuits in Green township, Shelby county, for twenty-five years, being prudent as to his money, and in 1883 was able to purchase this farm. He had sixteen additional acres, which he sold to the Children's Home. Mr. Doorley has shifted his responsibilities to the strong shoulders of his sons but still takes much interest in all farm operations and improvements. On October 29, 1849, Mr. Doorley was married to Miss Bridget Corcoran, in Ireland, who accompanied him to America and for many years was his cheerful and helpful companion. Her death occurred March 2, 1910. She was the mother of ten children : Anna, who died in infancy ; John, who is also deceased; Thomas; Margaret, deceased; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Madigan and has nine children; Joseph, who married Catherine McGuff and has ten children; James ; Mary Ann, deceased; Michael and Catherine. Mr. Doorley and family are members of the Holy Angels Catholic church. He is a democrat in his political opinions and has always taken an interest in the party's success but has not sought office for himself. In his long life of eighty- seven years he has witnessed many changes, including improvements in railr0ad building and in farming, and many comforts of living that now seem necessities, in his early days in Ohio would have seemed the greatest luxuries. Mr. Doorley is widely known and has many warm friends and well wishers. BERNARD ASELAGE, a successful farmer owning 160 acres of fine land, which is situated in section 6, McLean township, one .quarter mile southeast of Fort Loramie, is one 0f the representative citizens of this township and 470 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY is serving in the office of clerk of the Berlin Special School District. He was born in Germany, July 17, 1860, and is a son of George and Helena Aselage, both of whom died in Germany. Bernard Aselage obtained his education in a German school and remained in his native land until he was twenty-three years of age. Being the only child of his parents he was left alone at their death and came to America by himself, his objective point being Fort Loramie, O. By trade a carpenter he worked for ten years in this neighborhood as such and for one year in Cincinnati, and then turned his attention to farming. For eighteen months he rented land in Cynthian township, then moved to the Adolph Sherman farm, which he rented for nine years, following which he purchased his present place from Bernard Pille. As the land had been improved and all cleared but eighteen acres of woodland, Mr. Aselage found his first expenditure was the main cost in securing a valuable property and a fine home, the residence being a commodious brick structure. Mr. Aselage took possession in the fall of 1902 and here carries on farming and stock raising under very favorable conditions. Mr. Aselage married Miss Lena Bruns, who was born in Germany, January 1, 1855, a daughter of Henry and Lena Bruns, and they have the following children : B. H., who lives in McLean township, married Elizabeth Schlater and they have one son, August ; William and John, both of whom assist their father on the farm ; Albert, who is a student in the Minster high school ; and Joseph. Mr. Aselage and family are members of St. Michael's Catholic church, and he belongs to the Catholic Knights of America. In politics he is a democrat and has served McLean township with honest efficiency in the office of road superintendent, and early in 1912 was elected a member of the board of education as above mentioned. FRANK M. SAYRE, secretary and treasurer of The Farmers Grain and Milling Company, at Sidney, O., one of the large business enterprises of Shelby county, was born in Adams township, Champaign county, O., one mile east of the Shelby county line, September 13, 1868, and is a son of Thomas J. and Margaret (Souder) Sayre. Thomas J. Sayre was born also on the above farm in Adams township, which land had been entered from the government by his father, Ziba P. Sayre. He married Margaret Souder, who was born at Quincy, Logan county, O., a daughter of Daniel L. Souder, who had come to Ohio from Georgetown, Md., when a boy of sixteen years. Mrs. Sayre passed away in 1902 but Mr. Sayre survives. Frank M. Sayre was reared to the age of sixteen years in his native county and there attended school and completed his education after coming to Shelby county, in 1883. He was just twenty-one years of age when he began to teach school, and, finding the work congenial, continued for fourteen years, becoming widely known and very highly esteemed all over the county. Later he became station agent at North Creek, 0., for the Clover Leaf Railroad Company, resigning that position to become secretary and treasurer of the Farmers Grain and Milling Company at Sidney, in February, 1912. PAGE - 471 - BLANK PAGE- 472 - JOSEPH BOWEN AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 473 Mr. Sayre married Miss Daisy E. Russell, who is a daughter of the late Moses J. Russell, a very prominent citizen and extensive farmer in Clinton township. Mr. and Mrs. Sayre have three children: Florence M., Herman and Albert. JOSEPH BOWEN, owner and pr0prietor of a general st0re at Hardin, 0., where he has been established for twenty-five years, is a representative citizen of Shelby county and is a veteran 0f the great Civil war. He was born in Clermont county, 0., December 12, 1844, and is a son 0f Clark and Elishaba (Godfrey) B0wen. Clark Bowen came from New England, being a native 0f Rh0de Island, a farmer through life and a man 0f sterling character. His wife was b0rn in Ohi0 to which state her people had c0me from New Jersey, where the name 0f Godfrey is still borne by well-kn0wn people. To Clark Bowen and hiS wife the following children were b0rn: Eliza Ann, who married John Price ; Joseph ; and Ella, who was married first to G. M. Meyers and after his death t0 Samuel Lawyer. Joseph Bowen attended the district schools in his neighborhood during the winter seasons, until he was fifteen years old, when he went to Sharonsville, in Hamilton county, where he was a clerk in a general store and was still there in 1862, when he decided to become a soldier. He enlisted for service on August 16, 1862, in Company E, Eighty-third Ohio Vol. Inf., and remained until his honorable discharge in 1865. For about eight months after the close of the war, Mr. Bowen visited among his relatives, recuperating from his years of hardships, and in that way came to Shelby county, where he became interested in farming and continued until the fall 0f 1871, when he started into the store and grain business at Hardin Station, in partnership with Isaac Betts. They continued for two years when Mr. Bowen sold his interest and went into the grocery business at Lockington, 0. In 1887 he purchased his present store at Hardin and the place thereby gained a valuable citizen who has been active in prom0ting its advancement and welfare ever since. On September 8, 1868, Mr. Bowen was married to Miss Christina E. Strate, who was born in Germany, a daughter of Adolphus Strate, who was a brickmaker by trade. The Strate family consisted of four children: Carrie, wife of John Hick ; Christina E., Mrs. Bowen ; William ; and Louisa, Mrs. Tyson. To Mr. and Mrs. Bowen the following children were born : William H., who married Nancy Malcolm ; James ; Mabel, who is the wife of Frederick Cole ; Bonnie, who married Dan Ellsner ; Maude; Mary, who died in July, 1911, and Clark. The family of Mr. Bowen belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically he is a republican and he is identified with the G, A. R. at Sidney, 0. WILBUR J. EMMONS, a leading member of the bar of Shelby county, member of the well known law firm of Wicoff, Emmons & Needles, at Sidney, is well known also in other directions, particularly in fraternal circles. 474 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Mr. Emmons was born on a farm situated in Spring creek township, Miami county, O., May 18, 1864, and is a son of Job and Mary A. (Houser) Emmons. Wilbur J. Emmon's early life was sent on the home farm and because he had more ambition than many of his school mates he was not contented with the educational training received in the country schools but prepared for and entered the National Normal University at Lebanon, O., where he was graduated with the class of 1885. He spent the next year on the farm and then came to Sidney and entered the law office of S. L. Wicoff, as a law student, and was admitted to the bar in 1899 and in the same year became Mr. Wicoff's partner. In 1901 H. H. Needles was admitted to the bar and in the fall of 1904 the present firm was organized, one that stands very high in the county, both collectively and individually. Mr. Emmons is active as a citizen and the value put upon his judgment and integrity by his fellow citizens has frequently been shown by election to positions of responsibility. For three years he was a member of the Sidney board of education and for six years served as a member of the Shelby county board of school examiners. In 1899, Mr. Emmons was married to Miss Marianna Corwin, of Warren county, who died July 10, 1909, survived by two sons : Corwin J. and Wilbur D. While not particularly active in politics, Mr. Emmons has found interest to no small degree in fraternal associations. He has passed through all the chairs of the local lodge of Odd Fellows and served eleven years on the floor of the Grand Encampment of Ohio, then became Grand Patriarch for the state of Ohio, and at present is one of the representatives of the state in the Sovereign Grand Lodge. He is equally prominent in Masonry and is past eminent commander and at present is captain-general of Sidney Commandery, No. 46, Knights Templar. BENJAMIN F. FOSTER, whose fifty acres of fine land is situated 0ne mile east of Sidney, bordering on the Tawawa turnpike road, in Clinton township, Shelby county, O., was born on a farm one-half mile south of where he lives, October 6, 1864, and is a son of John and Catherine (Peterhaus) Foster. The parents of Benjamin F. Foster were born, reared and married in Germany, and one year after marriage came to the United States. They spent the first six months at Baltimore, Md., and then came to Ohio, pausing for a short time at Dayton, and then came 0n into Shelby county, where they remained for the rest of their lives. John Foster became a substantial farmer in Clinton township. They were members of the Lutheran church and at death were buried in Graceland cemetery at Sidney. They had a large family of children, as follows : Christiana, who is the widow of Jacob Dormire ; George and John, both of whom are deceased; Mary, who is deceased, was the wife of John Shaffer ; Christian; Lewis, who is deceased ; William ; Callie, who is the wife of L. W. Kah ; Benjamin F.; and Catherine, wh0 is the wife of Henry McCracken. Benjamin F. Foster had common school advantages and since then has devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, carrying on general farming and raising stock, and all his efforts have been expended on the old homestead. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 475 On November 22, 1894, Mr. Foster was married to Miss Jennie Gearhart, who was born in Perry township, Shelby county, a daughter of Frank and Elizabeth (Miller) Gearhart, both natives of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Gearhart had the following children born to them : Harry, Edward, Lucy, William, Augusta, Jennie and Earl. Augusta is the widow of Ora A. Dunson. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have one son, John F., who was born October 2, 1896, who is a most satisfactory student in the Sidney high school. Mr. Foster and family attend the Lutheran church. Politically he is a democrat but is no aspirant for office, and fraternally he has been connected with the Odd Fellows at Sidney for many years. Mr. Foster is one of the solid, reliable men of Clinton township. J. W. BROWN, who is one of the intelligent men and successful_ farmers of Loramie township, Shelby county, 0., owning 130 acres of well developed land, ninety of which lie in the Greenwood Special School District, of which he is a valued official, was born near Gettysburg, Darke county, 0., June 24, 1877, and is a son of Reuben and Anna Brown, who are highly respected retired residents of Versailles, 0. J. W. Brown was nine years old when his parents came to Loramie township, Shelby county, and he completed his education in the Greenwood Special School District. He entered into business as a farm hand, working by the month, and then for one year raised tobacco, and after this experiment embarked in agricultural activities for himself and has so continued. He devotes his land to general farming and moderate stock raising and is numbered with the prosperous and contented farmers of this part of Shelby county. On September 14, 1899, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Hulda J. Apple, who was born also in Loramie township and is a daughter of Henry A. Apple, one of the old and well known citizens and wealthy men of the township. On this farm the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Brown were born: Erma Eleanor, Goldie Irene and Mary Henrietta. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Lutheran church. In politics he has always been a democrat but has never accepted any public office except membership on the school board, his first experience being when he served for, two years, filling out the unexpired term of John Boyd, after which he was elected for a period of four years, which ensures his services on this body until 1916. CHARLES F. SNYDER, one of the representative men of Cynthian township, resides in section 27, where he devotes his 130 acres of valuable land to general farming and cattle raising. This land is in two farms and they are situated one third mile north of the Sidney-Hardin turnpike road. Mr. Snyder was born April 19, 1863, in Miami county, 0., and is a son of Henry and Lydia (Ward) Snyder. Henry Snyder was born in Perry county, 0., and was reared and educated there. He married Lydia Ward, who was born in Hocking county, a daughter of Daniel and Deliliah Ward. Daniel Ward was a direct descendant of Nathaniel Ward, who was commander of the Patriot forces at Boston, Mass., 476 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY in the early days of the Revolutionary war, before General Washington took command. After marriage, Henry Snyder and wife moved to Miami county and settled in Washington township, and also, at one time lived in Allen county and also in Van Wert county. Grandfather Snyder gave each of his children a farm of 160 acres but Henry Snyder never lived on his tract, trading it for sixty acres of the farm which his son, Charles F., now owns. He died in Cynthian township in March, 1866, and his burial was at Sugar Grove, 0., in the cemetery of the Brethren church. His widow continued to live in Cynthian township until 1900, when she moved to South Whitley, Ind., where she died in September, 1905, and her burial was also at Sugar Grove. They were well known and highly respected people and were parents of eight children, namely: Daniel W., who died in 1877, at Peoria, Ill., was aged twenty- four years ; Mary A., who is the wife of John P. Golly, 0f Cynthian township; John W., who died in 1897, at the age of forty years ; Isaac, who lives in Cynthian township; Christiana, who lived but ten months ; Charles F.; Jerd, who lived but six days ; and Henry, who is a resident of Dayton, 0. Charles F. Snyder received his early school instruction in the Forest Special School District but when fourteen years of age was transferred to the Hopewell district, where he attended for four years and then returned to the Forest district and later attended school at Sidney. In the fall of 1883 he took charge of a school in Van Buren township, where he taught for three years and then taught for one year in Dinsmore township. After his marriage he moved to Botkins, and from there, in the spring of 1891, to his present home farm of eighty acres having bought out the other heirs and his m0ther's dower in 1900; he added to this a fifty acre farm in 1905, and in 1911 he and his son Virgil W. purchased 120 acres in Michigan, where he has done a large amount of improving in the way of draining and building. In 1886 Mr. Snyder was married to Miss Adella Blakeley, who was born in Dinsmore township, Shelby county, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Blakely, the former of whom was born in Franklin and the latter in Licking county, 0., and their parents, respectively, came to Shelby county in 1832 and 1835, being pioneers. To Mr. and Mrs. Snyder were born children as follows: Virgil W., who lives at Beaverton, Mich., married Bessie Ward ; Melsenia, who lives in Turtle Creek township, married R. Schmidt ; Carl W., Israel Blakeley and Cora M., all of whom live at home; May, who died when aged twenty-three days; and an infant daughter who died at birth. Mr. Snyder is one of the enterprising and public spirited men of the township, was one of the incorporators and is secretary' of the Farmers Telephone Company and lends his influence to further all movements which promise to be for the public welfare. He was reared in the republican party and has always given it support and has been one of its leaders in the county, formerly serving as a member of one of the important county organizations. At present he is serving in his third term as a notary public and since 1898 has been a member of the board of education of the Forest Special School District, of which he is clerk. AND REPRESENTATIWE CITIZENS - 477 SIMON WEHNEMAN, one of the representative men of Loramie town education of the Beech Grove Special School District since 1902, carries on general farming on his place of 176 acres, in which he has a one-half interest. He was born here November 8, 1852, and is a son of John Henry and a grandson of John Andrew Wehneman. John Henry Wehneman was born and educated in Prussia-Germany and was twenty-one years old when he accompanied his parents to America and all settled in Miami county, ,O., where the parents died and John Henry lived until his marriage, when he came to Loramie township. Here he secured eighty acres of the present farm, it being wild land covered with timber and to the clearing and subsequent cultivating of this land he devoted his best years. His birth took place March 16, 1817, and his death, July 20, 1874. He was an honest, upright man, a hard worker and one who performed every duty of life to the best of his ability. He married Ann Elizabeth Ficken, who was born in Germany April 30, 1825, and died August 15, 1893, the burial of both being in the cemetery at Houston, O. They were members of the United Brethren church. They had the following children, all born 0n the farm of eighty acres : George, who resides on the homestead with his brothers, Simon and Frederick, who follow him in order of birth ; Hannah, who is the wife of Lloyd G. Hoon, residing at Bell Center, Logan county, Ohio ; John, who married Elizabeth Stein, who lives on the grandfather's old farm in Miami county; Anna Elizabeth, who married David Christian, residing in Darke county, O.; and Barbara Elizabeth, who is the wife of L. D, Fessler of Loramie township. Following the death of the father, Simon and Frederick Wehneman took charge of the farm and when the mother died in 1893 bought the place, the additional land having been purchased in 1883 from James Clark. General farming and moderate stock raising have been the successful industries and the land is all called very valuable. Simon Wehneman with his brothers and sisters obtained their education in the township schools and in these same schools, although under more favorable conditions, Mr. Wehneman's children have been educated. He married Miss Anna Christina Roeth, a daughter of Charles and Catherine Roeth, the former of whom is deceased but the latter survives and resides at Covington, O. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wehneman, namely : Charles Henry, Albert Frederick, Lawrence Edward and Bertha Catherine. The beloved mother of the ab0ve children was born April 24, 1868, and died June 26, 1903. In every relation of life she was an estimable woman and with her husband and children belonged to the Lutheran church. Politically Mr. Wehneman has always been identified with the democratic party but has never accepted any office except membership on the school board, being induced thereto by his desire to advance the educational interests of his community. JOHN C. FEY, for many years a prosperous farmer of Franklin township, Shelby county, O., where he owns sixty-two acres of well-improved land, is at present (1912) interested in the building of a handsome brick residence 478 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY at Swanders, O., proposing to retire to this pleasant town in the near future. Mr. Fey is a citizen whose removal will be a loss to Franklin township but Swanders will gain thereby. He was born in Dinsmore township, Shelby county, August 1, 1848, and is a son of Henry and Margaret (Dinehart) Fey. The parents of John C. Fey were born, reared and married in Germany and from there, in 1845, they came to the United States and then continued their journey until they reached Shelby county. Henry Fey was a tailor by trade but later in life became a farmer and subsequently moved with his wife to Maryland and there both died. They were members of the Lutheran church. Their children were named as follows : Anna, Catherine, Lizzie, Mary, John C., Christian, Edward, Caroline and Eva. John C. Fey had but meager educational opp0rtunities in his youth as public facilities were very different then from what they are now, and he remained assisting his father on the home farm until he was twenty years of age. Then he learned the wagonmaking trade and followed the same for ten years, but in 1883 turned his attention to general farming and bought his place in Franklin township from James Swanders. In politics he is a republican. At different times he has served as school director and also as road superintendent, and has been a reliable and public-spirited citizen. In 1874 Mr. Fey was married to Miss Eva S. Hartman, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of Peter and Savillia (Swanders) Hartman, and they have two daughters, Bertha and Emma. Bertha married J. W. Dickensheets and they have two children: Ethel and Ernest. Emma married Asa Fogt, and they have two children: Richard and Mary Eva. Mr. Fey and family belong to the Reformed church at Swanders, in which he is an elder. He is identified with the lodge of the Knights of the Golden Eagle, at Anna, O. G. S. POLHAMUS for many years was a leading citizen of Washington township, Shelby county, O., where he was a substantial farmer and the owner of the old Polhamus homestead of 120 acres of well-improved land. He was born on that farm, December 31, 1855, and died there May 16, 1911. In the Washington township schools Mr. Polhamus secured his education, which was afterward supplemented by association with people in different sections and much reading and probably there were no better informed men in the community than he. His fellow citizens recognized his excellence of judgment as well as his personal integrity and elected him to public office and at the time of his death he was a trustee of the township. After leaving the home farm in early manhood he spent four years in Colorado and then returned to Shelby county and for nineteen years resided on and operated the William Booher farm. In February, 1907, he took up his residence on the old homestead and until the close 0f his life carried on farming and stock raising with marked success. Mr. Polhamus married Miss Sarah Lawrence, who is a daughter of John Lawrence, a farmer in Shelby county, and two children were horn to them : Elsie, who married Glenn Knouff, who operates the farm above mentioned; AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 479 and Margaret Grace, who resides with her mother. Mr. Polhamus was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and a liberal contributor to its different lines of usefulness. HiS death was a distinct loss to his community and his memory is held in tender regard not only by his family but by many others to whom he had been a kind neighbor or sympathetic benefactor. JOHN C. WARD, whose finely improved farm of eighty acres is situated in Perry township, is a well-known and representative man of this section. He was born in Muskingum county, 0., May 12, 1850, and is a son of Thompson and Lucinda (Cargill) Ward. They also were natives of Muskingum county and came to Shelby county in 1853, where their subsequent lives were spent, the father being a farmer. His death occurred on the home place in Perry township, on March 29, 1869, on which his widow still resides. John C. Ward attended the district schools. When his father died he was eighteen years of age and he assumed charge of the property and carried on the usual farm industries there until 1884, when he moved to his present farm, which he purchased from Joel Drake. Here lie erected a commodious residence, new barns and other farm structures and has been equally careful in enriching and cultivating his land. A general farming line is successfully carried on. On September 30, 1876, Mr. Ward was married to Miss Susan D. Staley, who belongs to one of the old pioneer families of Shelby county. Both of her parents, Nicholas and Mary (Baker) Staley, are now deceased, their burial being at Port Jefferson, 0. They had the following children : Margaret, who is the wife of John Bruner ; Henry ; Mary, who is deceased; John T.; Jennie, who is the wife of Port Blue ; Susan D., who is the wife of John C. Ward ; David C., who is deceased; and Squire Nicholas. Mr. and Mrs. Ward have four children and one grandchild : Roland G., who married Clara Abbott ; Edith, who married Samuel Rolfe; Verne, who married Chloe Apple and they have one son, Virgil; and Pearl, wh0 married Oscar Key. The Ward family belongs and gives generous support to the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mr. Ward is one of the trustees. In politics he is a republican. JOHN CHARLES FREMONT KIGGINS, who is a retired farmer, since 1905 has been a resident of Sidney, 0., where he is well known and highly respected and was born in Shelby county, 0., September 3, 1855, on a farm of forty acres, the old home place, situated in Orange township, which he disposed of at the time of retirement from active life. He is a son of John Robert and Sallie Ann (McCloskey) Kiggins. John Robert Kiggins was born in Miami county, 0., and was a son of Robert Kiggins, who was a native of Ireland. After marriage John Robert Kiggins came to Orange township, and settled on the above mentioned farm and continued to reside there until his death in 1898. John C. F. Kiggins was reared on the home farm and spent forty-nine years there, all his life practically until 1905, with the exception of five years 480 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY following his marriage, when he rented land. When he contracted to purchase the homestead he had no capital, but afterward he developed a large amount of business sagacity which not only enabled him to honestly clear off this indebtedness but also to make other wise investments. At one time he owned a farm of seventy-two acres, situated in Logan county, which property he sold one year later to great advantage. Another farm of eighty acres, located in Jackson township, near Jackson Center, he owned for three years and then sold at a much higher price than he had paid, the difference being between $85 and $117 per acre. Mr. Kiggins then went on a prospecting tour to Houston, Tex., and in that vicinity bought 320 acres, paying $38 per acre, which he held for an advance in price, and recently sold one-half of the tract for $45 per acre, still retaining the rest of the land. Still later he purchased twenty acres, for a town site, paying $250 an acre, and this valuable property he still holds. When he decided to retire and move to Sidney, he bought his fine residence on South Miami avenue and began to consider propositions for the sale of his homestead, on which he had made excellent improvements. When he finally disposed of the forty acres he received what was regarded as a record price, $150 an acre. That the land is worth that and still more has been evidenced by a still later change of owners, the last purchaser paying $175 per acre, this giving a pretty fair idea of the general value of Shelby county farm land when it has been properly developed. In the fall of 1884, Mr. Kiggins was married to Miss Laura Ella Cozier, who was born at Piqua, O., a daughter of Theodore Cozier. Mr. Cozier and family lived at Piqua until Mrs. Kiggins was sixteen years of age, when he traded his city property for a farm in Green township, Shelby county. Mr. and Mrs. Kiggins are members of the First Baptist church at Sidney, in which he is a deacon. He has been identified with the order of Odd Fellows for many years. JOHN F. MEIGHEN, one of the substantial citizens and experienced farmers of Orange township, residing on his well cultivated farm of eighty acres, which is situated six and one-half miles southeast of Sidney, O., a part of the old Bull homestead, was born in Warren county, O., November 6, 1849, and is a son of Amos and Julia Ann (Long) Meighen. Amos Meighen also was born in Warren county and for some years was a farmer there but in 1867 moved to Shelby county, where the rest of his life was spent, his death occurring at the age of seventy-five years. He married Julia Ann Long, who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Shelby county, in her sixty-third year. They had three children : Mrs. Mary Anderson, John F., and Mrs. Alice Hetzler. John F. Meighen attended the public schools near his father's farm in boyhood and after assisting his father for some years rented land for himself and has devoted his life to agricultural pursuits. In 1906 he came to his present farm and here carries on general farming and raises stock for his own use. Mr. Meighen married Miss Johanna Bull, who was born in Orange t0wnship, is a daughter of Hiram Bull, and they have three children : Minnie, AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 481 who is the wife of Denton Simes ; William, who is superintendent of the Children's Home, in Shelby county; and Edna May, who is a teacher of music in the township schools. Mr. Meighen and family belong to the Baptist church. In politics he is a democrat. WILLIAM H. FRISTOE, one of the leading men of Shelby county, and one who is known in democratic politics all over Ohio, came to this county in 1864 and it has been his home ever since. He was born on a farm in Hocking county, 0., March 22, 1851, and is a son of Charles and Anna Maria (Beery) Fristoe. Charles Fristoe was born and reared in Virginia and was twenty-one years of age when, in 1833, he came to Licking county, 0. He was married near Bremen, in Fairfield county, to Miss Anna Maria Beery, who was reared there and was a member of one of the old, prolific and substantial families of that section, of Virginia ancestry. The Beery family still holds yearly reunions and William H. Fristoe is president of the organization. After marriage, Charles Fristoe bought a farm near Gore, in Falls township, Hocking county, and moved to Shelby county in 1864 when William H. was thirteen years of age, and here Charles Fristoe died in May, 1876. His widow survived many years, passing away at the home of her son in 1890. William H. Fristoe was reared on the home farm and first attended school in Hocking county and afterward in Shelby county and when he started out for himself spent the first season working on a farm south of Sidney, in Orange township. Afterward he was employed in a brick yard in Turtle creek township, but in 1874 came to Sidney and learned the carpenter trade and for some years worked at bridge carpentering all over the state. In 1884 he was elected town marshal of Sidney and served for four years but in 1889 went into the implement business, as a member of the firm of Fristoe, Stewart & Co., five years later becoming an independent dealer and conducting his business alone for four years, when he was elected sheriff of Shelby county, in which office he served for two terms, from January 1, 1898, to January 1, 1902. Mr. Fristoe then bought the old Fielding farm in Clinton township, near Sidney, and carried on agricultural operations here for five years, during which time, through his efforts in securing the petition, he succeeded in having the fine turnpike road built which was named in his honor. After selling his farm he resumed the implement business at Sidney and continued until 1908, when he disposed of it to the firm of Arnet & Son. He has been active politically since early manhood and has served in many public offices and capacities as indicated above and for four years was a member of the city council of Sidney. In June, 1910, he was elected deputy state oil inspector of Ohio, and in January, 1911, was elected a member of the county board of infirmary directors and is clerk of this body. In the fall of 1884 Mr. Fristoe was married to Miss Uretta Hall, a daughter of Marion Hall, then a well-known citizen and locally noted as an auctioneer, whose death occurred in February, 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Fristoe had two children born to them : Charles Marion, who is a soldier in the United 482 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY States army; and William Robb. The mother of these sons died July 20, 1907. Since 1873 Mr. Fristoe has heen an Odd Fellow, in which organization he has advanced to encampment membership, and since 1892 has been identified with the Masonic bodies. JACOB W. RICHARDS, an honored veteran of the Civil war, to which great struggle he dedicated three years of early manhood, is 0ne of the prominent and substantial citizens 0f Turtle Creek township, where he owns 240 acres 0f valuable land. He was born in Miami county, 0., November 23, 1836, and is a son of Richard and Sarah (Timmons) Richards. Richard Richards was probably of Welsh ancestry but was born in Virginia and married after coming to Ohio. He followed farming through0ut a long and industrious life and the family has always been held in respect in the communities in which it has been known. To Richard and Sarah Timmons the foll0wing children were born: Henry, Jacob and Jennie ; Sarah, wife 0f Amos Fee ; and Samuel and Martha. Attending the district schools and helping on the home farm describes in general terms the life 0f Jacob W. Richards before the death of his father. At that time he was nineteen years 0f age, and as changes came about then in the home, he hired 0ut to work by the month and so continued until he enlisted for service in the Civil war. On August 11, 1862, he became a member of Company H, Ninety-ninth Ohio Vol. Inf., and for three l0ng years camped and marched and fought, a cheerful, obedient and courageous soldier, 0ften facing almost certain death 0n the battle field but being mercifully preserved from all serious injury. After the end of his military service he returned t0 Shelby county and ever since has followed an agricultural life, in 1872 purchasing his present farm. For some years afterward he was obliged to labor very bard as little clearing had been done on this land, but it has well repaid his efforts and is now one of the most valuable properties in the township. In 1871 Mr. Richards was married to Miss Martha McClure, who was born in Shelby county and is a daughter of Andrew and Jane (Hutchison) McClure, the former of whom was b0rn in Virginia and the latter in Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs. McClure the following children were born: John and Andrew; Margaret, who married Samuel Stevenson; Mary Ann, who married James Hutchison; James and William ; Sarah, who is the wife of William Fee; Rachel, who is the wife of Thomas Spence; George ; and Martha, who is the wife of Mr. Richards. To Mr. and Mrs. Richards four children were born, namely : Emma, who is the wife of Grant Ike and they have children—Cora, Carl, Erma, Catherine and Kenneth; Lorenzo, who married Bonnie Miller and they have children—Willa, Willis and Lowell; Charles, who married Sadie Enders, and they have children—Jennette and Frances ; and Nora, who is the wife of Franklin Hill, and they have one son, Gerald. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a republican in PAGE - 483 - PICTURE OF JACOB W. RICHARDS PAGE - 484 - BLANK AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 485 politics but his ambitions have never been in the direction of office holding, his preference for a quiet life after years of war making him a contented as well as successful tiller of the s0il. Mr. Richards is widely known and is held in high esteem, W. O. AMANN. Among the old and reliable business houses of Sidney, is that of W. O. Amann, jeweler and optician, who has been established in this line and at his present location, No. 112 North Main avenue, for the past thirty-three years. He was born at Sidney, O., February 17, 1855, and is a son of Ferdinand and Catherine (Wagner) Amann. Ferdinand Amann was of French extraction. By trade he was a tailor and in the forties established himself at Sidney and later went into the hotel business, owning what is now the Wagner hotel, which lie conducted during and after the Civil war. He became prominent in county politics and served out two terms as county treasurer, one of his sons, Benjamin B. Amann, succeeding him in the office. He married Catherine Wagner, a member of a very widely known and substantial family of this section. Ferdinand Amann died at Sidney in 1874 but his widow survived into advanced age, her death occurring in 1904. W. O. Amann was reared at Sidney, where he has always lived with the exception of two years, during which period his parents resided at Fort Wayne, and he was educated in the public and parochial schools. He learned the watchmaking trade with the late C. Schwerer and later purchased his instructor's business and has conducted it ever since, in point of business being the oldest man in this line in the city. Mr. Amann married Miss Catherine Robertson, a daughter of Wallace W. Robertson, of Sidney, the latter being a brickmason, who died at Sidney in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Amann are members of the Catholic church. In politics he is a democrat and for the past twelve years he has been chairman of the democratic judicial district, which includes Shelby, Auglaize, Mercer and Allen counties. ELVA N. MIDDLETON, one of the representative men and substantial general farmers of Green township, where he operates a tract of t00 acres, forty of which is his 0wn and sixty belongs to his father, was born October 12, 1873, on a fann one and one-fourth miles north of this one, the latter being situated in Shelby county, O., seven and one-half miles southeast of Sidney. He is a son of James G. and Margaret (Nutt) Middleton. James G. Middleton was born in Hamilton county, O., a son of John and Lydia (Graham) Middleton, and a grandson of William and Rachel Middleton. John H. Middleton was born in Hamilton county, January 29, 1814, a blacksmith and farmer. On December 5, 1838, he married Lydia Graham, a daughter of James and Mary E. Graham. She was born in Lancaster county, Pa., August 14, 1818, and accompanied her parents to Hamilton county, O., in 1823, and after marriage she and her husband lived in Hamilton county until 1853, when they came to Shelby county and settled in Green 486 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY township. They had the following children : Lucinda H., James G., Mary J., David, Elizabeth, Lewis N., Alice B., and William. When his parents came to Shelby county, James G. Middleton was eleven years old and he has continued his residence on the old homestead farm, now living in comfortable retirement, being aged seventy years. He married Margaret Nutt, who also survives, and they have three children : H. C., who lives one mile south of his brother's farm; John, who lives one and one-half miles north of this property; and Elva N. After his school days were over, Elva N. Middleton followed farming on the old home place, and then settled on his own farm about fifteen years ago, and has devoted his attention to a general agricultural line. The excellent improvements seen on the place he made at different times and the appearance of comfort and thrift indicate Mr. Middleton's careful interest in his present activities. He married Miss Eva May Proctor, a daughter of George Proctor, one of the old settlers of Green township, and they have four children : Don, Catherine, Grace and Robert. In politics Mr. Middleton has been a stanch republican for many years. Fraternally he is identified with both the subordinate and encampment branches of Odd Fellowship and the auxiliary order of Rebeccas, and belongs also to the Modern Woodmen. J. L. ATKINSON, who may be termed the leading business man of Plattsville, 0., as he owns and conducts the only general store in the place, also owns a valuable farm of eighty-five acres, which lies in Green township, Shelby county, 0. He was born in Green township, one mile east of this village, February 28, 1864, and is a son of Ralph and Martha ( Johnson) Atkinson. Ralph Atkinson and wife were born in Pennsylvania and after their marriage came to Shelby county and became farming people in Green township and there spent the rest of their lives, both dying near the age of sixty-eight years. They had eight children born to them : K. T., residing at Piqua ; Samuel, of Belief ontaine ; Mrs. Ella Zinks, of Darke county; Mrs. T. K. Minnear, of Plattsville; Mrs. Mary L. Simes, of St. Mary's; Harvey, living in Miami county; J. L.; and Mrs. Hannah Rolfe, residing in Green township. After his school days J. L. Atkinson worked on the home farm for some years and then went to Champaign county for a time but was later returned to Green township and operated his farm there until 1908, when he purchased his store at Plattsville from P. L. Frazier. He carries a large stock of assorted merchandise, including hardware, and enjoys a large trade, his customers coining from quite distant points on account of the excellent quality of his goods and his honest methods of dealing. Mr. Atkinson is just the kind of man a community needs to assist in its development, being energetic, progressive and far-sighted. Mr. Atkinson was married first to Miss Retta Woolley, who died in Green township, leaving two children : Ralph and Mrs. Ona Hand. Mr. Atkinson's second marriage was to Miss Lizzie Scoby and they have one daughter, Anna. In politics Mr. Atkinson is a democrat and he is serving in his first term as AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 487 township trustee. He is identified with the lodge of Odd Fellows at Plattsville, and he and family attend the Universalist church. JOHN W. HARP, general farmer residing in section 33, Cynthian township, where he owns eighty acres of valuable land, was born December 3, 1853, in Loramie township, Shelby county, and is a s0n of Albert and Catherine (Galley) Harp. Albert Harp was born at Piqua, O., of Scotch and German parentage, and was reared to manhood at Lockport, O. He married Catherine Galley, who was born in Carroll county, Md., of German parents, and twelve children were born to them, four of whom now live in Ashland county, one in Kansas, one in North Dakota, and the following in Shelby county : Mrs. Elizabeth McLellan, of Cynthian township; Jacob, of Sidney ; and John W. Albert Harp was a plasterer by trade and was accounted a good workman. In his youth he served as a soldier in the Mexican war and during the Civil war served as a member of the Fiftieth O. Vol. Inf., fortunately escaping all injury in both wars and living to return to Loramie t0wnship, Shelby county', where lie had previously established his home. He died in Cynthian township on his seventy-first birthday, having outlived his wife for many years, she passing away when aged fifty-four years. They attended the Dunkard church and both were interred in the Dunkard cemetery in the eastern part of Cynthian township. John W. Harp attended the district schools and under his father learned the plasterer's trade and worked more or less at that trade up to 1900, after marriage residing for nine years in Paulding county and then settling on his present farm in Cynthian township. Seventeen years ago he purchased this property from the Dan ferd heirs. It had been partially cleared but all the fencing was done by Mr. Harp and all the erecting of the present substantial buildings. The land is well situated, lying three-fourths mile south of the Sidney and Hardin turnpike road. Mr. Harp married Miss Lydia Roads, a daughter of John S. Roads, a former resident of Loramie township, and ten children were born to them, although but three are now living : Clara, who is the wife of Alfred Ward, and they live in Michigan; Pearl May, who is the wife of A. A. Woods, of Cynthian township; and Edward, who assists his father on the home farm. The mother of the above children died when aged fifty-four years, four months and twelve days, and her burial was at Houston, 0. She was a woman of many virtues and was a consistent member of the Christian church at Oran. In his political sentiments Mr. Harp has been a republican since early manhood and has frequently been called on by his party to accept local responsibilities. He served as township trustee for seven years and was also school director for many years and for fourteen years has been treasurer of the school fund of the Oran special sch00l district. WILLIAM H. PERSINGER, who is a member of the prominent grain firm of J. E. Wells & Co., operators of grain elevators in Shelby, Miami and 488 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Logan counties, O., has practically been in the grain business all his life. He was born in Logan county, O., on his father's farm south of Quincy, in 1875, and is a son of Henry D. Persinger. The parents of Mr. Persinger moved to Quincy when he was about one year old and thus the youth had both social and school advantages and became a graduate of the Quincy high school. Soon afterward he entered the office of J. E. Wells, a prominent grain merchant of Quincy, in the capacity of bookkeeper, and continued until 1898, when he became a member of the firm. His business enterprise and capacity have made him valuable in his present connection and his own interests, with those of the firm, have continuously expanded. He assisted in the organization of the Miami Valley Bank of Quincy, of which he is a director, Mr. Wells being president of the bank. Mr. Persinger was married at Quincy, O., to Miss Maud E. Neal, of Champaign county, O., and they have resided at Sidney for the past seven years. The company has fine business headquarters in the Citizens Bank building at Sidney. CHARLES F. BROERMAN, who is one of Shelby county's most respected citizens, is a large landowner in Ohio, having 291 acreS in his home place in Cynthian township, and eighty-two acres in Wabash township, Darke county, about seventy-five acres 0f his land being in timber and pastures. He was born in Germany, January 29, 1864, and is a son of Frank and Elizabeth Broerman. The parents of Mr. Broerman came from Germany to the United States in 1867 and settled on land in Shelby county, O., located one mile west of Fort Loramie. That place continued their home as long as they lived. They were members of St. Michael's Catholic church. Charles F. Broerman was three years old when his parents brought him to Shelby county and he attended school in the Walkup special school district in Cynthian township and afterward engaged in farm work and after his marriage settled on his present place. He set about making improvements, erected the comfortable residence and remodeled or repaired all the other buildings, put down filings where necessary and built substantial fences. He has carried on farming and stock raising with very satisfactory results and is numbered with the prosperous agriculturists of this section. Mr. Broerman married Miss Catherine Kuether, who was born in Auglaize county, O., a daughter of Henry Kuether, and they have had seven children,. namely : Emma, Clara, Frank, John, Robert, Leo and Adeline, the youngest dying at the age of one month. Mr. Broerman and family are members of St. Peter and Paul Catholic church at Newport, O., and for the past four years Mr. Broerman has been church warden. In politics he is a democrat and at present is serving as treasurer of the board of education of the Short special school district. C. G. GINN, who operates his excellent farm of ninety-two acres according to modern methods of agriculture and meets with very satisfactory returns, AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 489 resides in Green township, Shelby county, six miles southeast of Sidney, in a very beautiful section of country. He was born in 1864, in Shelby county, 0., three miles north of Sidney, and is a son of George and Ella (Wells) Ginn. George Ginn was born in Ireland and was brought to the United States by his parents when two years old. They settled on the west line of Shelby county, and there the son grew to manhood. When twenty-one years old he left home for the gold fields of California and for six years followed mining in that state but when he determined to locate permanently he returned to the East, settling first on land north of Sidney, O., where he remained until 1874, when he removed to White county, Ill. For five years Mr. Ginn engaged in farming there but in 1879 came to Green township, Shelby county, settling on the above mentioned farm and here the remainder of his life was passed, his death occurring at the age of seventy-three years. He was a well- known man, one widely informed, and had many friends in whatever section he chose to make his home. He married Ella Wells, a daughter of James Wells and she survives, being now in her seventy-fourth year. Five children were born to George Ginn and wife : Wilbur A., who lives at Sanford, Fla.; C. G.; Charles Earl and Grace E., both of whom live at Cincinnati ; and Sarah Frances, who lives with her mother and brother on the old homestead. C. G. Ginn attended the country schools and afterward enjoyed one term at Lebanon, 0. He then returned home to assume charge of the home farm and here has continued to carry on general farming and moderate stock raising to some extent. In politics he is a Republican and for seven years has served as assessor and as member of the school board. Since early manhood he has been identified with the Odd Fellows and belongs to the lower branch at Plattsville and the encampment at Sidney. With his mother and sister he attends the Methodist Episcopal church at Plattsville. Mr. Ginn is unmarried. HENRY WENDELN, who owns a very valuable farm containing 178 acres, which lies in section 11, McLean township, adjoining the town of Fort Loramie, on the north side, is one of the substantial and representative citizens of this section of the county. He was born February 26, 1855, in Auglaize county, 0., and is a son of Henry Wendeln, and a grandson of William Wendeln. Grandfather William Wendeln emigrated from Germany with his family of five sons and three daughters and settled in Auglaize county, 0., securing 160 acres of government land situated in Jackson township. This was in 1833 and as yet no roads had been constructed in the township and it took a long time to go to and from Piqua, the nearest provision point. The grandfather survived for five years after coming to America, his death occurring on the above farm and his burial being at Minster, in the Catholic church cemetery, having been a lifelong member of that faith. Henry Wendeln, son of William, was born in Oldenburg, Germany, and accompanied his parents to the United States. He worked for several months at Cincinnati, O., and then took charge of the farm in Jackson township and was married to Elizabeth Duttmann. She also was a native of Germany and 490 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY had been in America but three months when she married and ten children were born to them, four of whom are yet living, Henry being the second youngest of the family. The father, Henry Wendeln, continued to carry on the farm until his death, at the age of fifty years and was survived by his wife for ten years, she then being aged fifty-nine years. The grandmother survived both her son and daughter-in-law, living to the age of eighty-nine years and her last days were made comfortable by the kind attentions of her grandson, Henry Wendeln. About two years before his grandmother's death, Henry Wendeln came into possession of the home farm and continued to live there for five years following his marriage and then sold it to advantage and bought his present farm, in 1882, it being but partly improved. Mr. Wendeln remodeled the residence and made other improvements, has cleared about forty acres and still has twenty acres in valuable woodland. He carries on a general farming line, Fort Loramie giving him a ready market, and is one of the prosperous agriculturists of this section. In 1877 Mr. Wendeln was married to Miss Mary Anna Liening, who was born at Minster, 0., a daughter of Benjamin Liening. She died in May, 1890, and her burial was in St. Michael's cemetery, her age being thirty-five years. She was the mother of five children, namely : Louis, who is a farmer near Wheatfield, Ind., married Bertha Panchar ; Katie, who lives at Cincinnati, O.; Rosa, who is the wife of Benjamin Schulte, living at Maria Station; Edward, who assists his father ; and Joseph, who died at the age of nine months. In 1892 Mr. Wendeln was married to his present wife, Catherine Bohman, who then lived at Annexburg, Ind., and they have seven children : Carrie, Dena, Eleanor, Mary, Millie, John Henry and Andrew. Mr. Wendeln has given his children all possible advantages and they have done well at school. Since January, 1912, he has been a member of the board of education of the Berlin special school district. The family belongs to St. Michael's Catholic church at Fort Loramie. WILLIAM F. MEIGHEN„ superintendent of the Shelby County Children's Home, was born in Shelby county, O., September 4, 1876, and is a son of John F. and Johanna (Bull) Meighen, and a grandson of Amos Meighen and of Hiram Bull, the former an early settler of Warren county and the latter of Shelby county. John F. Meighen was born in Warren county, O., November 6, 1849, and now resides on his farm of eighty acres situated six and one-half miles southeast of Sidney. He married Johanna Bull and they have three children : Minnie, wife of D. J. Simes ; William F. and Edna May. Mr. Meighen is one of the highly respected citizens of Orange township and the family is well known in the neighborhood and is prominent in the Baptist church. William F. Meighen obtained his education in the schools of Miami county and until he accepted his present responsible position, devoted himself to farming and stock raising, in the meanwhile becoming so well and favorably known in the county's various welfare movements that his appointment as AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 491 superintendent of the Children's Home in March, 1912, brought general satisfaction and public approval. He has been twice married and to his first union one child was born that died when aged one year. His second marriage took place in 1908, to a daughter of John S. and Victoria Stapleton, formerly farmers in Champaign county but now living retired at Christianburg, 0. Mrs. Meighen has one brother, Ulysses. She has been interested in this line of work almost all her life and possesses the temperament and personal attributes that admirably fit her for it. She has been connected with a number of public institutions, including the State Pythian Home at Springfield, 0., the Masonic Home and the Children's Home of Miami county, 0. Mr. and Mrs. Meighen are members of the Baptist church. In politics he is a democrat. HENRY FORTMAN, clerk of the board of education of the Dirksen special school district, McLean township, is a prosperous agriculturist and resides on his farm of eighty acres situated in section 9, one mile west and one mile north of Fort Loramie, O. He was born in Germany September 8, 1865, and was six years old when his parents, Henry and Elizabeth Fortman, came to America. Of their three children he is the only survivor. Henry Fortman grew up on the home farm in McLean township and attended school until he was thirteen years of age pretty regularly but since that time has devoted himself to tilling the soil and growing stock. With his father he cleared about sixty acres of this land and all but twenty acres of woodland is well drained and tiled. His farm products are grain, hay and potatoes largely, with cattle and hogs and an abundance of fruit. Mr. Fortman was married first to Miss Agnes Berning, who was born in McLean township and died here Jury 25, 1893, survived by one son, Bernard. His second marriage was to Miss Mary Riethman, a native of McLean township and a daughter of Anton Riethman, and the following children have been born to them : Anton, Laurence, Louetta, Henry, Raymond, Alvena and Hilda. Mr. Fortman and family are members of the Catholic church at Minster, 0. In politics he has always been identified with the democratic party. SHELBY J. BRANDENBURG, who belongs to a family that has lived in Shelby county through several generations, ever esteemed and held in respect, owns an excellent farm of fifty-five acres, situated in Franklin township. He was horn in Jackson township July 11, 1863, and is a son of Joel and Hannah (Le Master) Brandenburg. Both parents of Mr. Brandenburg were born also in Jackson township, Shelby county and both are now deceased and their burial was in the Pearl cemetery. The father was a member of the Reformed church and the mother was a Methodist. They had three children : Linsley C., Amanda, wife of Scott Ewing, and Shelby J. After completing the public school course, Shelby J. Brandenburg remained with his father on the home farm until he was twenty-seven years of age, 492 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY after which, he rented land for himself in Salem township for four years, later land in Franklin township for eight years, in Turtle Creek township for three years and once more rented in Franklin township, but, after four more years of renting, in 1909 purchased his present farm from J. M. Forsythe. He has made all needed improvements on his property and carries on general farming, raises sufficient stock for home use, and is numbered with the solid, reliable agriculturists of this section. In 1892 Mr. Brandenburg was married to Miss Mary E. West, who was born also in Shelby county, a daughter of William and Levina (Conover) West, the former of whom is deceased, but the mother of Mrs. Brandenburg survives and resides at Sidney. Mr. and Mrs. West had children as follows : John, Lester, Edward, Mattie, wife of George W. Zedeker, Charles, and Mary E., the wife of Mr. Brandenburg, and they have three children : Cora, who is a teacher in Turtle Creek township; Clyde and Lenita. The family belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. In his political views Mr. Brandenburg is a democrat. CHARLES M. DORSEY, who is a representative of one of the earliest pioneer families of Shelby county, is a well-known citizen of Sidney where he was engaged in newspaper work prior to July I, 1898, since which date he has been assistant postmaster, He was born on his father's farm in Green township October 27, 1870, and is a son of Snowden Taylor and Anna (Mathers) Dorsey. Snowden Taylor Dorsey was born in 1825, in Green township, a son of John Dorsey, who came from Maryland and settled in this section when it was yet a wilderness. Snowden T. Dorsey waS reared on the pioneer farm and attended the first school ever organized in Green township. He learned the carpenter trade and also was a farmer. At the time of death, September II, 1894, he was the oldest man in Green township. Charles M. Dorsey grew to manhood on the home farm and obtained his education in the public schools, with two years at the Lebanon National Normal School and one term at Valparaiso, Intl., for three years afterward teaching school at Palestine. He then came to Sidney and for some years was connected with the old Sidney Gazette which later merged with the Sidney Journal. He has been an active citizen and to some degree interested in politics. Mr. Dorsey was first married to Miss Mamie Brelsford, who died September 14, two, the mother of three children : Amelia Knox, Mary and Horace Taylor, the second born dying at the age of seven months. Mr. Dorsey was married (second) July 18, 1912, to Miss Stella Wilson, who was a successful teacher and an admired lady in Sidney social circles. Mr. Dorsey was reared in the Presbyterian church. He is identified with a number of fraternal organizations, including: the Odd Fell0ws, the Tribe of Ben Hur, and the Knights of the Golden Eagle. PAGE 493 - BLANK PAGE 494 - PICTURE OF MICHAEL LOY AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 495 MICHAEL LOY, one of the representative citizens 0f Shelby county, 0., who resides on his valuable farm of seventy-four acres, which is situated in section 18, Cynthian township, two and one-half miles south of Fort Loramie, has been more continuously c0nnected with educational matters in the Basinburg special scho0l district, of which he is the present clerk, than any 0ther resident of the township f0r the past thirty-six years. Mr. Loy was born September t, 1853, in McLean township, Shelby county, and is a son 0f Ge0rge and Catherine Loy. George Loy was born in Germany and was a young man when he came to the United States and settled in McLean township, locating at first among the early settlers west 0f Fort Loramie, whom he assisted to clear their lands. Later he bought a tract of eighty acres located south of Fort Loramie, in partnership with a Mr. Smith, the latter taking the south one-half and Mr. Loy the north one-half and this land n0w bel0ngs to Michael Loy. He lost his wife, Catherine Loy, when their only child, Michael, was three years old, and his own death occurred seven years later. Thus, when but ten years old, Michael Loy was made an orphan. For three years afterward he lived with an uncle, when the latter's death left him again without legal protectors, and he then became a member of the family of a Mr. Wagler, a farmer in Cynthian township, with whom he lived for one year and eight months. From there he went to the home of an aunt and worked for her as a hired man, in the meanwhile attending school as regularly as he was able, in what is now the Basinburg special scho0l district, being obliged, at that time, to go back and forth through the woods as there had been little clearing done in that locality. Mr. Loy's memory goes back t0 the building 0f the 0ld United Brethren church edifice, which is now in ruins, and he can easily recall the introduction of many of the most useful farm implements and machinery, now in constant use on his own land, the same never having been even thought of when he was a boy. After his marriage, Mr. Loy rented farm land until 1882, when he purchased the property on which he has lived ever since and successfully carries on his different farm industries, assisted more or less by several of his sons. In 1879 Mr. Loy was married to Miss Hattie Groh, who was born in Cynthian township, Shelby county, a daughter of Ludwig Groh and wife. They were natives of Germany who lived in Pennsylvania before coming to Dayton, 0., and later t0 Shelby county. The father of Mrs. Loy died in Cynthian township and the mother in Auglaize county, 0. To Mr. and Mrs. Loy the following children were born : Harvey W.; who is president of a university in Union county, Ky.; Rosa, who is the wife of Ross Hotchkiss and they live in Illinois; Frances, who is a highly appreciated teacher in the Basinburg special school district ; Albert, who resides east 0f Sidney, married Viola Mills; Frank, who teaches school in Perry township, married Elsie Geer and is a student of theology; George; Walter, who is a student at Ada, 0.; Elmer; and Emma and 496 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY Nettie who are in school. Mr. Loy is a republican in his political sentiments and has frequently been elected to township offices, serving at times on the election board and as judge of election, and in 1876 was first appointed a member of the special school board, on which he has served ever since with the exception of six years. He and wife belong to the United Brethren church, while the children are members 0f the Methodist Episcopal church. REINHART SIEGEL, who is one of the highly respected residents and substantial citizens of Cynthian township, whose excellent farm of 260 acres lies in section 15, may be called one of the pioneers here as very wild conditions prevailed when he first set step in Cynthian township. He was born March 1, 1838, in Germany, and is a son of Jacob and Gertrude Siegel. Jacob Siegel brought his family to the United States when his son was sixteen years of age and they settled near Troy, Miami county, O., where they lived for a few years and then came to Cynthian township, Shelby county. The eighty-acre tract lay in the woods, four acres of which had been cleared and here the family lived in a little log cabin. After the mother died, Reinhart bought the father's land and set up a domestic hearth of his own, marrying Caroline Circher, who survived until 1907. She was the beloved mother of four sons and six daughters, namely: Clara, who is the wife of Benjamin Pauwells, of Minster, O.; and John, Jacob, Joseph, Josephine, Rachel, Elizabeth, Frances, Peter and Mary. Mr. Siegel has carried on the usual farm industries and has added tracts of land as he has deemed desirable, all of which he has cleared and has under cultivation with the exception of about forty acres in woodland. Among the many substantial improvements on his place may be mentioned the comfortable brick residence. Mr. Siegel is a democrat in his political opinions but has never desired to hold public office. With his children he belongs to St. Michael's Catholic church at Fort Loramie, O. He has an excellent memory and can tell much that is interesting concerning early days in Cynthian township. JOHN H. KEMP, one of the substantial farmers of Perry township, who resides on his forty-acre tract and owns a second farm containing ninety.. five acres, both in Perry township, was born in Salem township, Shelby county, January 29, 1855. He is a son of Henry and Eliza J. (Gray) Kemp. After his school days, which were spent in the district schools of Salem township, John EL Kemp started out to take care of himself. Possessing industry and good judgment, he easily found employment as a farm hand and as he prudently saved his money he was soon enabled to buy land, his first investment being the forty acres on which he resides, this purchase being made in 1894. Here he has placed many improvements, including a commodious and comfortable residence and a substantial barn and other farm buildings. His second farm he purchased at a sheriff's sale, in 1908. Mr. Kemp no longer is an active farmer, having practically retired. The larger number AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 497 of his brothers and sisters live in this county, he being the second born of his parents' children. The others were : Phoebe Jane, who married twice, first, Frank Armstrong, and second, Jonathan Henman; Mary, who is deceased, was the wife of John Stiles; Louvina, who married (first) William Winsor, (second) William Beerline; and George C., Emmanuel E. and Samuel N. On August 9, 1881, Mr. Kemp was married to Miss Anna DeWeese, a daughter of J. D. and Lydia (Kiser) DeWeese, who were early settlers in Shelby county. To Mr. and Mrs. DeWeese the following children were born : D. K.; Benjamin and Thomas, both of whom are deceased; Anna; Samantha, who is deceased, was the wife of Mack Van Demark; Therza, who is the wife of A. N. Stephenson; Jethro M.; Cora, who is the wife of Isaac Green; and James. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp have an adopted son, Albert W., who was born September 8, 1907, to whom every educational advantage will be given and whose future is well assured if he develops, as now promises, into a youth of fine character and of more than ordinary intellect. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp attend the Baptist church at Pemberton, O. Politically Mr. Kemp is a republican and for fourteen years he served as a trustee of Perry township. For six years he filled the responsible position of superintendent of the Children's Home in Shelby county and during this time his wife was the matron, their administration being marked by efficiency. Mr. Kemp belongs to the Knights of Pythias and attends the lodge at De Graff, O. BENJAMIN E. DILLON, whose excellent and well-cultivated farm containing eighty acres, lies six and one-half miles southeast of Sidney, is a well-known citizen of Orange township, in which he has spent the greater part of his life. He was born one and one-quarter miles southeast of Sidney and was brought to the present farm, a part of the old Hiram Bull homestead, when he was eighteen months old and with the exception of five years, has lived here ever since. John Dillon, father of Benjamin E., was born in Shelby county and still lives but the mother died when Benjamin E. was seven years old. John Dillon formerly was a farmer but now engages in carpenter work. Benjamin E. Dillon obtained a common school education and afterward learned the carpenter trade and during the five years he spent at Dayton, O., assisted in building cars and also did house building. He returned then to his grandfather's old farm and lives in the house which his grandfather built so many years ago and owns the deed his grandfather secured, with the signature of James Madison, president of the United States, signed to this document. Mr. Dillon carries on the various farm industries which this climate favors and is very comfortably situated. At Dayton, O., on June 7, 1903, by Rev. Hale, Mr. Dillon was married to Miss Della Maude Wickoff, who came from Adams county, and they have two children : Bernice and Omer D. In his political sentiments Mr. Dillon is a democrat and takes pleasure in his party's political supremacy in 1912. Fraternally he is identified with the Odd Fellows and the Masons. 498 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY FRANK DANZIG, one of the enterprising citizens and excellent farmers of McLean township, Shelby county, 0., who resides in section 9, where is situated his productive farm of 120 acres, has spent his life in this section of the county, having been born on his present farm March 25, 1866. His parents were William and Elizabeth Danzig. Frank Danzig received his educational training mainly in the Sherman special school district, which was supplemented by one term in the Coldwater high school, and since then he has carried on his agricultural industries on the home farm. After marriage, when he came into full possession, he remodeled the farm residence which his father had erected and built a new barn and other structures, putting everything into good condition and ever since has kept up his repairs. In addition to his home farm he owns forty acres situated in Cynthian township. twenty of which he uses as a pasture land, while twenty acres of the other farm is still in valuable timber. Mr. Danzig is a careful and well-informed farmer and a good manager and hires helpers in carrying on his activities. Mr. Danzig married Miss Caroline Brandewie, a daughter of Joseph Brandewie, of Auglaize county, 0., and four children have been born to them, the youngest only surviving, a very engaging little daughter, Teckla Mary, who has passed her second year. The eldest, Clara E., died at the age of fourteen months; Leo Joseph died when aged eighteen months; and Wilhelmina also died at the age of eighteen months. Mr. and Mrs. Danzig are members of St. Michael's Catholic church at Fort Loramie. Politically he is a democrat as was his father before him. SAMUEL PIPER, proprietor of Piper's Grocery and Bakery, a well-known and popular business house of Sidney, has been identified with this line for many years, it having been founded by his father fifty-two years ago. Samuel Piper was born at Sidney, April 8, 1858, and is a son of Jacob and Catherine Piper. Jacob Piper and wife were born in Germany, both came when young to the United States and were married in Ohio and both died at Sidney. They were held in universal esteem for their many admirable qualities. Before starting his grocery store, in 1860, Jacob Piper operated a wagon shop at Sidney and did a good business as at that time transportation was largely wagoning, there being neither canal nor railroad facilities. When wagon making no longer was profitable he turned his attention to the handling of food stuffs and carried on a grocery business for a number of years, the bakery feature not being added until his sons became associated with him. He first admitted his son, William Piper and a son-in-law, Fred Yenney, after which the firm caption became Piper & Yenney, and this firm gave way to Piper Brothers, when Samuel and Jacob Piper, brothers, purchased the business, which continued until Samuel Piper became sole proprietor in 1897. In 1893 the firm of Piper Brothers erected the fine three-story brick block, with a frontage of 46 feet and a depth of 165 feet, on North Main avenue, facing the court house, the first floor being given up to business purposes and the second and third floors being divided into comfortable and attractive housekeeping flats. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 499 While Mr. Piper employs as many as ten men in his store and bakery, he looks after every detail himself and takes justifiable pride in the high standing his business house has maintained for so many years. Mr. Piper married Miss Carrie Elsner, who was born on her father's farm in Turtle Creek township, and they have three children : Harrison and Morton, twins, who are with their father in his businesS; and Elsie, who is well known in social circles. Mr. Piper and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is one of the city's dependable men and frequently has been elected to public office, serving in the city council, as cemetery trustee, as water works trustee and on the school board. He is identified with the fraternal order of Odd Fellows. S. T. BUIRLEY, whose fine, eighty-acre farm is situated five miles south of Sidney, is one of the prominent citizens of Orange township, Shelby county, 0., of which he is a trustee. He was born August 25, 1862, in Orange township, and is a son of Daniel and Mary (Venice) Buirley. Daniel Buirley was born in Shelby county, 0., where his father had been a pioneer, probably coming from Germany. In the early subscription schools Daniel Buirley obtained his knowledge of text books and afterward devoted his life to farm pursuits, first in Orange and later in Clinton township, living into his seventy-first year. He married Mary Venice, who was born in Champaign couny, 0., and died in Orange township, when aged seventy years. They had five children, namely : John A., who is -a resident of Clinton township; Benjamin, who lives at Jackson Center; S. T., who attended school both in Clinton and Orange townships; Delilah, who is deceased; and Elizabeth, who is now deceased, was the wife of H. H. Wilson. S. T. Buirley remained on the home farm in Clinton township until 1888, when he came to Orange township to live, and in 1909 bought the old Fergus place and started immediately to make the improvements which have converted it into one of the valuable and attractive properties of this section, his residence being built according to ideas of comfort and convenience. General farming is carried on here very successfully and good stock raised. Mr. Buirley was married to Miss Mary Redinbo, who was born in Green township, Shelby county, and they have one daughter, Dema D., who resides with her parents. Politically a democrat, Mr. Burley takes a deep interest in public issues and is somewhat of a leader in local opinion. In 1910 he was elected a member of the board of trustees of Orange township and has proved an able, honest and efficient public official. He belongs to the Odd Fellows and attends lodge meetings at Sidney. WILLIAM E. WOOLLEY for many years was one of the prosperous, well-known and highly respected citizens of Perry township. He was born in Champaign county, O., June 7, 1844, and died on his farm in Perry township, Shelby county, July 30, 1899. His parents were Charles and Barbara (Speice) Woolley, farming people in Champaign county. William E. was their eldest child, the others being: Anna, wife of David Dormire; Ella,