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650 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY held for many years a responsible position in the Diebold Safe and Lock Works, in Canton. The public schools of Canton afforded to Emil J. Kauffmann his early educational advantages and after his graduation in the high school he completed a course in the Canton Business College, in which likewise he was graduated. At the age of fourteen years he had entered the employ of the Diebold Safe & Lock Company, and with this great and important industrial concern of Canton he continued to be identified for the long period of twenty-one years, 1889 to 1910, in the meanwhile having become a valued and efficient incumbent of a position of much responsibility. In 1910 Mr. Kauffmann engaged in the insurance business, in which he has developed a most substantial and successful enterprise, as an underwriter for leading fire and life insurance companies. In the same year that recorded his establishing of his present business, Mr. Kauffmann also received appointment to the position of chief deputy for the Stark County board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections, and in this office he has shown marked discrimination and fidelity in the discharge of his important functions. For several years he has been a prominent factor in the local councils and activities of the democratic party, and in 1906 he served as chairman of the county central committee of his party in Stark County, a position to which he was again called in 1912, the year of the national campaign that brought decisive victory to the party. Mr. Kauffmann is serving as chairman of the county committee in 1914-15, and though he has been zealous and influential in the field of political activities, he has manifested no office- seeking proclivities. In 1914 he was manager of the Stark County branch of the Ohio Home Rule Association, with the objects and policies of which he is in full sympathy. Mr. Kauffmann is secretary of the Canton Lodge of the Improved Order of Red Men, and in 1914 served on the staff of the grand sachem of the order in Ohio. For twenty years he has been a zealous member of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, and both he and his wife are communicants of St. Peter's Church, representing the leading Catholic parish of Canton. In the year 1896 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kauffmann to Miss Josephine Wottle, who was horn and reared in Canton, a daughter of the late George Wottle. Mr. and Mrs. Kauffmann have three children, whose names, with respective ages in 1915, are here indicated : Arthur, eighteen years; Mildred, fifteen years ; and Lester, eight years. LOUIS PHILIP DANIEL YOST. A native son of Canton and one of its leading manufacturers, Louis Philip Daniel Yost has always used his fine business talents to further the city's interests, combining the two characters of citizen and business man into a personality which has generally been adjudged an example well worthy of emulation. Entering business thirty-seven years ago, he developed an enterprise that made him prominent among furnace dealers of the state, and in 1912 took a further and higher step when he organized the firm of L. P. D. Yost & Sons, manufacturers of the famous Yost furnace, and contractors in mantles, grates, tiling, roofing and spouting. Mr. Yost was born in the City of Canton, February 3, 1858, and is a HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 651 son of the late Philip and Caroline (Markley) Yost. The parents, natives of Germany, emigrated to the United States as young people, and shortly after their marriage at Buffalo, New York, came to Canton. The father had learned the trade of shoemaking in his native land and worked at that vocation in Canton, while at the same time he conducted a shoe store situated on the public square and for many years was one of the best known merchants in the line of footwear in the city. There were five children in the family : Charles, Caroline, John, Emma and Louis Philip Daniel, of whom all are now deceased except Mr. Yost of this review. Louis P. D. Yost has passed his entire life at Canton. He attended the public schools until he was sixteen years of age, at which time lie applied himself to learning the tinning business under the direction of E. J. Rex. Having mastered this trade, in 1878 he engaged in business on his own account in a modest tinning establishment on North Market Street, and soon became a contractor. He has been in that line of business ever since, although the original small venture has grown into proportions that make it one of the leading enterprises of its kind here. For nearly thirty years Mr. Yost sold furnaces, but it was not until 1912 that he engaged in their manufacture, in that year becoming the founder of the firm of L. P. D. Ycst & Sons, and establishing a plant on Camden Avenue at the Fort Wayne Railroad Tracks. Here the firm is engaged in the manufacture of the Yost furnace, under Mr. Yost's own patent rights, a product which has proved a great success and which has been eagerly received all over the country. At the same time the company is one of the largest in tinning, marble, roofing and spouting work, doing a large contract business and employing many skilled mechanics. Mr. Yost is not only a progressive and capable business man, but has taken an active and eager interest in civic affairs. He has served as a member of the Canton Board of Education, and holds membership in the Canton Chamber of Commerce and the Canton Builders' Exchange, and at one time was the republican candidate for mayor of the city, but met with defeat in a closely-contested three-cornered campaign. Mr. Yost married Miss Dera A. Wyant. daughter of the late William and Elizabeth Wyant, of Canton, and to this union there have been born the following children: Lulu, who is connected with the office force of L. P. D. Yost & Sons; John G., a member of the firm, who married Bessie Owens; Anna ; Caroline; Louis Philip Daniel, Jr., also a member of the firm. who married Eva Miller: Gertrude; Arthur, also a member of the firm; Dera ; Jeanette and Margaret. WILLIAM J. POYSER. Considering the rapid transformations and the many changes made in American life and the country, it is very unusual to find one family stock flourishing in a single locality for a century or more. This is particularly true of the newer country west of the Alleghenies, where civilization itself has been maintained for only a little more than a hundred years. There are hardly more than a handful of families continuously identified with Stark County through ten decades, and one of the most conspicuous of these is the Poyser family, which has 652 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY been in America since Colonial days, and in Stark County since the year 1809. At the time of settlement Ohio had been a state only seven years, and the United States had been an organized nation only about twenty years. The second war with Great Britain was still distant three years, and the few thousand people then living in Northern Ohio were scattered in isolated settlements over a vast territory. When the Poyser family came from Europe they located in Fayette (then Westmoreland) County, Pennsylvania. It was in that historic section of Southwestern Pennsylvania that Joseph Poyser, the great- grandfather of the present generation, and the Stark County pioneer, was born. He grew up in Pennsylvania where he became identified with the fulling and weaving trade. He married there Christina Heilman, and after her death married Susan Harrold. In 1809 Joseph Poyser brought his family to Stark County, making the journey ovcr the mountains and across the rugged districts of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio, along rough trails and through the unbroken wilderness, with wagons and ox teams. His first entry of Government land was made in Plain Township, just west of Nimishillen Creek, where he built a log cabin on the creek. There he established the first fulling mill in Stark County. He also cleared up a portion of his land and did farming. In 1817, having sold the Plain Township farm, he bought another in Sugar Creek Township, and on the banks of that stream he erected a second fulling mill. He continued working at his trade and farming until his death in 1824. Joseph Poyser was a fine type of the early pioneer, a man of great physical vigor and endurance, and with a ready courage and resourcefulness to meet all the exigencies of frontier existence. Joseph Poyser, Jr., his son, was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, August 27, 1798, and was a boy of eleven years when the family removed to Stark County in 1809. Prior to the death of his father he succeded to the home farm in Sugar Creek Township, but sold it in 1832 and removed to Canton Township, where he continued to reside until his death on March 20,. 1877. He was then nearly eighty years of age. At Canton he married Magdalene Reed, who was born in Maryland, from which state she came with her parents to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and then to Stark County, Ohio, in 1811, the Reeds having followed the Poysers at an interval of only two years. Magdalene Reed Poyser died November 2, 1878. John Reed Poyser, representing the third generation in Stark County, was born on the old farm in Sugar Creek Township, Decembcr 8, 1825. As a boy he attended some of the early schools taught in Sugar Creek and Canton townships, and in March, 1846, shortly before reaching his majority, removed to the City of Canton and learned the carpenter's trade under John B. Hoover. Beginning with the decade of the '50s he was one of the most prominent factors in Canton business affairs. In 1851 he became a carpenter contractor on his own account, and during his active career erected many buildings, among which may be mentioned the Harter Block on Market Street, the Eagle Block at Market and Tuscarawas, the Whiting and Poyser Block, and a part of the Cassilly Block, all of which are still standing as landmarks of the older Canton PICTURE OF FRANK L. KOONTZ HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 653 business district. He also assisted in constructing the second courthouse at Canton, and supervised the erection of the postoffice building in 1891. He subsequently became interested in the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company, and was vice president of that industry at the time of his death on November 2, 1902. His interests as a business man were equalled by his public spirit, and in many ways he was a factor in local improvements. He was a member of the Stark County Board of County Commisioners when the present courthouse was built. John R. Poyser was married in Canton, October 28, 1852, to Mary Mellen, daughter of Patrick and Elenora (Lynch) Mellen of Canton. The most prominent member of the present generation of the Poyser family in Stark County is William J. Poyser, a son of John R. and Mary (Mellen) Poyser, and a leading manufacturer, being president and sales manager of the Canton Foundry & Machine Company. He was born in Canton, November 27, 1856, was educated in the public schools and in 1880 graduated from the dental department of the University of Michigan. He practiced his profession as a dentist in Canton for about two years, but then abandoned that career for one of active business. He became identified with his father in the lumber business under the firm name of John R. Poyser & Son. These interests were sold in 1891, and Mr. Poyser next became identified with the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company, his father becoming vice president and the son serving as secretary from 1892 until 1903 and from 1903 until 1906 as secretary and treasurer. He then partly retired from the company, resigning his office as secretary and treasurer, but continuing as a director. From November 1, 1906, to June, 1911, he was engaged in the brokerage business with offices in the Dime Savings Bank Building. However, since 1892 one of his chief interests has been in the Canton Foundry & Machine Company, and in 1911 he increascd his holdings in that corporation and became actively identified with its management, taking the offices of president and sales manager, which he continues to hold. He has been a director in the Dime Savings Bank since its organization in 1895, and since 1893 has been a director of the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company. He has been a director in the Carnahan Tin Plate & Sheet Company since 1914. On September 13, 1882, Mr. Poyser married Helen Bucher, daughter of the late John R. Bucher, who was the founder of the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company. At her death on March 21, 1915, after a married companionship of more than thirty years, Mrs. Poyser left the following children : Edna Loretta, Helen Bucher and John R. The two daughters are still at home with their father, while the son is a director in the Canton Foundry & Machine Company, and by his marriage to Alice Keith Orton of Chicago has one son, William J., Jr. Mr. Poyser and family are, members of St. John's Catholic Church, and he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus. FRANK L. KOONTZ. The name Koontz has long been associated with Massillon in the mechanical trades and industrial affairs and Frank L. Koontz himself has been a successful carpenter contractor, is one of the 654 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY local manufacturers, and is widely and favorably known for his prominence in municipal affairs. He is now serving as the mayor of Massillon. He was born at Massillon August 13, 1876, a son of John Koontz, who was born at Massillon in 1850, and a grandson of Peter Koontz, who came over from Gcrmany and was one of the early settlers at Massillon. Peter Koontz was a mason and contractor, and for a number of years laid the stone work for most of the early buildings at Massillon. John Koontz was for twenty-five years engaged in the building and contracting business at Massillon and is now living retired. John Koontz married Minnie Fletemeier, who was born in Massillon in 1852, a daughter of Ernest Fletemeier, who came from Germany to Massillon many years ago, and was an old time moulder by trade. Massillon was the scene of Frank L. Koontz' boyhood activities and he gained his education in the local public schools. When he left school at the age of sixteen his first experience was as "devil" in the office of the Massillon American, but in a short time he decided that printing and newspaper work was not in his line, and instead he began learning the carpenter's trade. For eighteen years he handled a large number of contracts in building work in association with his father under the firm name of Frank L. Koontz Company. In 1911 Mr. Koontz was one of the organizers of the West Side Milling Company at Massillon, which is incorporated and of which he is a director and sales manager. With a tried and proven ability to handle and direct business affairs of his own, Mr. Koontz has always been a very popular citizen and enjoys the complete confidence of the community in any public capacity. He is one of Massillon's leading republicans. In 1906 he was elected a member at large to the city council, was re-elected in 1908, and in 1909 on account of a vacancy was chosen vice president of the council. On the death of Mayor Franz in 1909 he became president of the council and vice mayor of the city. He was again elected to the council in 1910, and in that term also served as president of the council and vice mayor. In the primaries of 1915 a large majority of republican votes nominated him for the office of mayor, and he was elected to that office on the 2d of November, 1915, receiving the largest majority ever given a mayoralty candidate of Massillon, he having received more votes than both the other candidates together, his votes totaling 1,666. Mr. Koontz has been identified with the board of trade and is a member of the new chamber of commerce. He rendered some particularly valuable service to the city in 1913 as chairman of the city relief committee and had active supervision of the relief work occasioned by the flood. As head of that committee he raised $28,000 in cash beside large quantities of clothing and other supplies, and all this was distributed under his personal direction. Mr. Koontz is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, with the Junior Order of American Mechanics. the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the United Commercial Travelers. WILLIAM P. BEARDSLEY. Now living virtually retired in the City of Canton, William Price Beardsley is consistently to be designated as one of the representative capitalists of Stark County and his career has been HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 655 somewhat eventful, especially in connection with his operations as a gold- miner in Alaska, where he was one of the sturdy pioneers in the famous Klondike district and where eventually he achieved large and worthy success in his quest for the precious metal. Mr. Beardsley is a native of Ohio and a representative of sterling pioneer families of this state, besides being a scion in the agnatic line of a family that was founded in America in the colonial era of our national history. At Canton his attractive and modern residence, known for its gracious hospitality, is at 505 Shorb Avenue Northwest. William Price Beardsley was born on a farm two miles east of the Village of Twinsburg, Summit County, Ohio, on the 11th of July, 1859, and is a son of William J. and Sarah (Alexander) Beardsley, both likewise natives of Summitt County, in which section of the historic old Western Reserve their respective parents settled about the same time, upon immigration from Connecticut, in the early pioneer days. The lincage of the Beardley family traces back to English origin and the founder of the American branch was Rev. William R. Beardsley, who was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and one of its earliest ministers in America. He became one of the first settlers of the Connecticut colony, in the colonial days was known for his zeal and piety and he wielded much influence in the community. He passed the residue of his life in Connecticut, with whose history the family name continued to be prominently identified for many generations. A large number of representatives of this family represented Connecticut in the carly settlement of its fine Western Reserve, in Ohio, and -among the number was William Beardsley, grandfather of him whose name initiates this review. He obtained a tract of land in Summit County, where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness and where both he and his wife passcd the remainder of their lives. There their son, William J., was born in the year 1840 and there he was reared and educated. When the Civil war was precipitated on the nation -William J. Beardsley promptly signalized his loyalty and patriotism by tendering his services in defcnse of the Union. He enlisted as a member of the Thirty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he participated in many spirited engagements marking the progress of the great conflict and with which he made a tine record as a valiant and faithful soldier. After the close of the war William J. Beardsley removed with his family to Alliance, Stark County, where he was long and actively identified with business interests and where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in November, 1911. His widow now resides at Midland, Michigan, the judicial center of the county of the same name. Of their three children William P., whose name initiates this article, is the only survivor. William P. Beardsley was about seven years of age at the time of the family removal to Stark County, and he was reared to adult age in the City of Alliance, where he attended the public schools until he was about thirtecn years old, when he gave distinctive evidence of the spirit of adventure that has animated him at various later stages of his life. He took "French leave" of school and the parental home and made his way to Michigan, where he finally drifted into the great lumber regions; 656 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY the lumber industry in that state having been at its height, so that he readily found employment and gained varied experience in connection with the strenuous work in the woods and in other strenuous details of lumbering opcrations. There he remained about five years, at the expiration of which he returned to the parental home, in Alliance. Later he passed a portion of a year in the Michigan lumber camps, and then joined his father, who was at the time in the State of Virginia. As a boy he had virtually served an apprenticeship to the trade of blacksmith and had become a good workman. After leaving Virginia he again yielded to the wanderlust and voyaged down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, visited various sections of the South and Southwest and finally made his way into Mexico. After returning to the United States Mr. Beardsley engaged in the work of his trade at Monmouth, Illinois, but after a few months he went to Chicago. The present great metropolis of the West could not long hold the vigorous and venturesome young artisan, however, and finally he found employment in a machine shop at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he remained thus engaged about eighteen months. Thereafter he traveled throughout Arkansas and Missouri and a part of Texas, with incidental occupation in the setting up of stationary engines. In 1879 Mr. Beardsley returned to Stark County and in the autumn of that year he entered the train service of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, with which he continued to, be thus identified five years. He then deflected himself once more from a prosaic orbit and made a trip into Mexico, where for thrce months he was identified with railroad train service out of Paso Del Norte. His next activity was that of painter in the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad, and in thus manifesting his versatility he worked along the line of that railway in Illinois. The parental home in Alliance next gave him welcome, and for four years thereaftcr he worked at the carpenter's trade in Stark County, after which he resumed his association with railroad work, on the old C. C. & S. Railroad, in the meanwhile the home of his family having been established in the City of Canton, where he made his headquarters. About three years later he severed this association and went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he accepted a position as conductor on the line of railroad now known as the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad. He was thus engaged about three and one-half years and then returned to Canton, Ohio. After devoting about four months to service as conductor on the C., L. & W. Railroad, with a run out from Alliance, he returned to Minneapolis and was a conductor on the line of the Great Northern Railroad for somewhat more than a year. Upon severing this connection Mr. Beardsley went to Seattle, Washington, where he failed to secure his expected position in railway service. and where he was sojourning at the time when the gold excitement in Alaska was at its height. It was but a natural rcsult that under these conditions Mr. Beardsley should soon indulge his proclivity for adventure, and he finally embarked as one of about 700 prospectors who sailed on the "City of Seattle" and were among the first to enter the mining regions of the far north. He passed about twelve years in the Klondike, and not until HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 657 five years had elapsed did definite success attend his efforts in the quest for gold. In the earlier period of his sojourn in Alaska Mr. Beardsley crossed over the mountains to Lake Linderman, where he joined with others in constructing a boat on which they voyaged down the Ukon River to the mouth of the Stewart River, up which latter stream they continued their way. After prospecting with meager success until autumn the return trip down the river was made to Dawson and thence up the Klondike to the Mouth of Bear Creek, where the members of the party erected a cabin, after which they passed the entire winter in prospecting. On account of the discrimination of the British government against Americans, the hardy prospectors abandoned this field in the following spring, that of 1899, when they proceeded down the Ukon to Rampert, where prospecting was continued during the entire winter following. In July they made a distinct "strike" on Glenn Gulch, where they were the original discoverers of gold and where Mr. Beardsley named the gulch in honor of his youngest son, Glenn. The party made one "clean-up" that fall and in the following summer cleared up $25,000 each from the property. Mr. Beardsley celebrated this success by returning to his home in Canton for a long deferred visit. At this time he purchased a residence property on McKinley Avenue, and after remaining home three months he returned to his Klondike mine Just before they reached their claim the party learned that their cabin and entire supply of foodstuffs had been destroyed by fire. They were thus compelled to return to Dawson for supplies, after which they built a new cabin at the claim and made ready for the winter's work, this having entailed an incidental expenditure of $28,000. From the operation of that winter each of the partners realized about $20,000, and the next Christmas holiday season Mr. Beardsley again visited his family, in Canton. Upon his return to his Alaska claim he was accompanied by his son, Roy, and upon the day he reached the mine he and his partner sold their claim for $47,250, which was equally divided between them. Leaving his son on the field to look after collections, Mr. Beardsley and his partner made their way to the Fairbanks district, where they had previously staked out some claims, and there made preparation for active work in the following spring. From December until March Mr. Beardsley was again in Canton, and at this time lie purchased his present fine residence property in this city. On his return to Alaska he was accompanied by his son Glenn, and his profits from the operations of that season were about $70,000. Thus rewarded for his long years of hardship and arduous toil, he then returned to Canton, where he has since lived virtually retired, though he still has important mining interests in the Alaskan gold fields. He thus established his permanent residence in Canton in the spring of 1911. Mr. Beardsley is not only the owner of a considerablc amount of valuable real estate in Canton, but is also a stockholder in a number of important industrial corporations in Ohio, including the Carnahan Tin Plate Company, the Kelto Boiler Company, the Armor Clad Manufacturing Company, and other corporations. He is affiliated with Canton Lodge, No. 60, Free & Accepted Masons ; Canton Chapter, No. 84, Royal Arch Masons ; Canton Council, No. 35, Royal & Select Masters; Canton 658 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY Commandery, No. 38, Knights Templars ; Ohio Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, in which he has received the thirty- second degree ; and El Koran Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He has held various official positions in each of the Masonic bodies with which he is thus identified, and he is a life member of the Arctic Brotherhood, through which he perpetuates the more pleasing memories of his career in Alaska. In politics he accords unswerving allegiance to the republican party, and he is now serving as a membcr of the civil service commission of Canton, a position to which he was appointed on the 4th of January, 1915, by Mayor Stolberg. Mr. Beardsley married Miss Mary J. Towers, who was born at Homer, Stark County, and they have six children, namely : Earl Wayne, Roy Wilson, Glenn Vernon, Bernice, Marie and Irene. BARNETT T. STEINER. One of the prominent business men and honored and influential citizens of Canton, Mr. Steiner has the satisfaction of adverting to Stark County as the place of his nativity and he is a representative of one of the numerous fine old Pennsylvania families of German lineage who found representation in this county in the pioneer epoch of its history. Through his extensive and well ordered operations in the manufacturing business and handling of local real estate Mr. Steiner has contributed materially to the progress and upbuilding of the metropolis and judicial center of his native county, and to this important line of enterprise he continued to accord the major part of his time and attention, as one of the leading exponents of the same in the City of Canton. Barnett T. Steiner was born on the homestead farm of the family in Pike Township, this county, and the date of his nativity was February 5, 1863. He is a son of Jeremiah and Clancie (Carnes) Steiner, the former of whom was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and the latter of whom was born in Pike Township, Stark County, Ohio, a daughter of James Carrres and a granddaughter of John Carnes, who was one of the very early settlers in that part of the county. Jeremiah Steiner was a son of Jacob Steiner, who was born at Adamsburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and who passed his entire life in the old Keystone State, he having been a hatter by trade and having been a scion of a sturdy German family that was founded in Pennsylvania in the colonial era of our national history. Jeremiah Steiner continued his residence in his native commonwealth until 1853, when he came to Ohio and numbered himself among the substantial young agriculturists of Stark County. He obtained a farm two miles west of the Village of East Sparta, Pike Township, and he continued his active and successful operations as a farmer and stock grower of that township until 1908, from which time he lived virtually retired in the City of Canton until his death, June 15, 1915. His life was one of signal rectitude and industry, he achieved independence and definite prosperity through his well ordered endeavors, and, having passed the eightieth milestone on the journey of life, he won the esteem. confidence and good will of all who knew him and was one of the ven- HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 659 erable pioneer citizens of the county which has represented his home for more than sixty years. His wife, who survives him, has been a devoted companion and helpmeet, having celebrated her seventieth birthday anniversary in February, 1915. Barnett T. Steiner found the period of his childhood and youth compassed by the benignant influences of the old homestead farm and he continued to be associated in the work and management of the same until he had attained to the age of twenty years, in the meanwhile having made good use of the advantages afforded in the public and select schools of the county and having put his acquirements to practical test and utilization by teaching in the district schools during the winter terms. When he was about twenty-two years of age Mr. Steiner assumed the position of traveling salesman for the firm of Lapham & Dodge, dealers in hardware and willow-ware, and for this representative Cleveland wholesale concern he continued his effective services in this capacity for a period of five years. In 1890 he assumed a clerical and executive position in the office of the Gilliam Manufacturing Company, of Canton, of which corporation he became latcr the general manager, his active identification with this important industrial corporation having covered a period of twenty-one years, within which he rose to prominence as one of the representative business men of Canton. He became one of the substantial stockholders of the company and held the office of secretary of the same until 1911, when he purchased a controlling interest and assumed the dual office of president and treasurer of the company. He continued his able services in this connection until January 15, 1915, when he retired from active association with the affairs of the company, though he is still a large stockholder of the corporation, to the success and prestige of which his able administration contributed in large measure. On the 1st of January, 1896, Mr. Steiner became associated with his brother, William H., in the organization of The Steiner Coal Company, operations having been initiated on the modest capital of $75 and the business the first three years having been exclusively of retail order, as may naturally be inferred. Later the brothers expanded their operations and became prominent representatives of the wholesale trade, besides operating their own mines. The business was developed into one of the most substantial and important of its kind in Stark County and Barnett T. Steiner was president of the company until January, 1912, when he and his brother disposed of their interest in the substantial business that had been built up through their well directed and progressive efforts, the annual business having been developed to the enormous amount of more than $1,000,000—a wonderful showing when it is taken into consideration that the enterprise had at its inception a capitalistic reinforccment of only $75, as previously noted. Mr. Steiner has been president of the Canton Collateral Loan Company from the time of its organization, in 1911, and he is a member of the directorate of that substantial financial institution of Stark County, The George D. Harter Bank, of Canton. In 1911 Mr. Steiner found another inviting field for his activities 660 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY and the exercise of his mature business judgment. He entered the real-estate or allotment business by purchasing the Harter tract of land in the north section of Canton, and after platting the same as an addition to the city he placed the property on the market and effected its development as one of the excellent residence districts of the Stark County metropolis. He has thus been instrumental in the platting and development of Steiner Additions Nos. 1 and 2 to the City of Canton, and was associated with his brother, John C., in the purchase of the Andrew Pontius Mount Vernon Farm of 100 acres. This farm is now platted and developed into one of the finest residential additions to the City of Canton, being the only addition to the city provided with two eighty foot boulevards running entirely through, with shrubbery and ornamental trees. Mr. Steiner has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, is a valued and appreciative member of the York Rite bodies in his home city, including the commandery of Knights Templars, and has extended his Masonic affiliations to include mcmbership in the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is one of the active members of the Canton Chamber of Commerce, is in full accord with its progressive policies and high civic deals, and his loyalty to his home city and its best interests has further been shown by his service in connection with the affairs of the Canton Young Men's Christian Association, as a representative of the building committee, which is making provisions for the erection of a consistent new building for this association. He and his wife are zealous communicants of Trinity Lutheran Church of Canton, and in addition to being a member of its board of trustees he is serving also as superintendent of its Sunday school. In 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Steiner to Miss Lizzie M. Cable, who likewise was born and reared in Pike Township, this county, and whose venerable and honored father and mother are now living retired in the City of Canton. Mr. and Mrs. Steiner have two children—Carl, who was born in the year 1897, and Margaret, who was born in 1903. CHARLES M. BALL. The position of a substantial, prosperous, high- minded and able lawyer has been the attainments of Charles M. Ball as a result of more than twenty years of active practice at Canton. Mr. Ball has made himsclf what he is largely through a persistent ambition beginning with early youth, and outside of his private profession has found many opportunities to serve usefully and well the community which has always been his home. Born in the City of Canton August 24, 1871, he is a son of Plimpton and Elizabeth (Shanafelt) Ball. His parents were born on adjoining farms in Summit County, Ohio, his father in 1835. His father, who died in Canton in 1910, was the son of William Ball, who was born in Maryland and came to Ohio at a very early date, settling among the pioneers in Summit County. Miss Shanafelt's father was also born in Maryland and came as an early settler to Summit County. She is still living in her seventy-third year. Both the father and mother grew up HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 661 and were married in Summit County, and some years later moved to Canton. For a long time Plimpton Ball was connected with the A. Ball & Company at Canton, was later with the Peerless Reaper Company, and finally with the C. Aultman Company until the failure of the latter concern, after which he retired from active business. After graduating from the Canton High School with the class of 1889, Charles M. Ball began with all the earnestness characteristic of his mature career to study law. For a time he was in the office of Allen Carnes and later with Allen & Pomerene. After a course in the Cincinnati Law School he was graduated LL. B. in 1893 and in the same year was admitted to the bar and took up active practice at Canton. For several years Mr. Ball has been associated with Julius Whiting, and their firm enjoys a particularly large practice and a high reputation in the Stark County Bar. At the present time Mr. Ball is serving as councilman at large in the city council of Canton, an office to which he was elected in 1913. In the republican primaries in 1915 he was renominated for the same office. He is a member of the Stark County Bar Association, the Lakeside Country Club, the Elks Club and the Canton Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Ball married Luella B. Kidd. She was born in Canton, daughter of E. R. Kidd. They have one daughter, Catherine L. PAUL F. LOICHOT. A business which has perhaps done as much as any other one concern to bring the little City of Louisville into prominence as a manufacturing center of Stark County is the Louisville Machine Company, in whose successful operation the local citizenship reasonably takes just pride. A great deal of the success of the plant must be credited to Mr. Loichot, who was one of its organizers, and has brought to his position as manager the services and experience of an expert mechanic. His personality has impressed itself throughout the factory, and he has not only given efficiency to its operations but is largely responsible for the high grade of the products and the standard of excellence maintained since the machinery was first set going. The Louisville Machine Company was established in 1905. The original stockholders are also the present stockholders. Levi Werstler is president; Arthur Keim is vice president ; Paul Loichot is secretary and treasurer; and L. A. Slusser and Oliver Brumbaugh are other directors. The chief business of the company is the manufacture of clay-working machinery. Ten years ago the company bought the ground and built the large structure still occupied. It is a block building, and furnishes floor space of about 12,000 square feet. The capital stock in 1905 was $10,000, and is now $25,000. About twenty-five men are regularly kept on the payroll, and practically all of them are expert mechanics and command high wages. Probably the greatest part of the product is dies and specialties for the clay working industries. but as a side line the company also manufactures electric coffee grinders and meat choppers. The goods from the plant are shipped all over the United States and Canada, and this serves to give additional fame to this little city of Stark County. The company's Vol II -18 662 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY buildings are all modern, well lighted, the office is well equipped, and the plant makes its own power, and the factory and warehouses cover fully an acre of ground. The industry is situated on North Mill Street, with continued access for the receival and shipment of freight to both the Stark Electric and the Pennsylvania railroads. Paul F. Loichot is a native of Stark County and was born August 3, 1874, and comes of the French stock which has been so improtant an element in Stark County's population. His parents were Stanislaus and Elizabeth (Menegay) Loichot. The father came from the vicinity of Belfort, France, when about twelve years of age and located at Louisville. They were married at Louisville about 1871. Stanislaus Loichot followed his trade as an expert mechanic. After the death of his wife on June 4, 1897, he moved out to San Francisco, California. His five children were named: Alice, now Mrs. Phillip Hime of San Francisco; Ida, Mrs. J. J. Malay of Stockton, California ; Louise, Mrs. C. Carran of San Francisco; William, who died at the age of ten years ; and Paul. Paul Loichot received part of his education in the Canton schools, but is a graduate of the Louisville High School, and later took a commercial course in the Canton Business College. With the completion of his education he learned the machinist's trade in Canton, and then worked as a journeyman at Erie, at Buffalo, and at San Francisco. His home has been in Louisville of Stark County since about 1897. After his marriage he became secretary and treasurer of the A. Bonnot Manufacturing Company, and continued in that capacity a year and a half, following which he was managcr of the Wagoner Steam Pump Company. He was next manager of the New York Blower Company of Louisville and also had the management of the company's plant at Bucyrus. His next connection was with the Buckeye Jack Company of Alliance, at Louisville, and he organized the present Louisville Machine Company, in which he has been secretary, treasurer and general manager from the beginning to the present time. Quite early in his career Mr. Loichot married Elizabeth Vesseriat, a daughter of Celestine and Mary Vesseriat of Louisville. Mrs. Loichot is a graduate of the Louisville High School, Their three children are : Antoinette, now a student in the high school; Bernard, also in school ; and Harold, aged two and a half years. The family are members of the Catholic Church and Mr. Loichot is a democrat, and throughout his active career, so far as business responsibilities permit, has made himself an intelligent and public spirited factor in local affairs. For several years he was a member of the Louisville City Council, for four years held the office of mayor, and has also served on the board of public affairs. JOSEPH BERG. Of the industries which have contributed to the prestige and prosperity of Canton as a center of business activity, one of the most important is the William Berg Company. This is one of the old-established business houses of Canton, having had its inception here as early as 1867, in a small shop of which William Berg, the founder, was the proprietor, and as the years have passed it has grown HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 663 and developed with the growth and development of the city. While the original business of the company is still carried on, the automobile repair department is the most important featurc at this time, having grown rapidly since its establishment in 1909. Much of the success of this enterprise must be attributed to the ability, judgment and executive talents of its president and treasurer, Joseph Berg, who is a son of the founder and has been connected with the company since he entered upon his career. Mr. Berg was born at Dungannon, Ohio, January 24, 1859, and is a son of William and Margaret (Stephan) Berg. The father was born at Little Washington, Pennsylvania, January 28, 1828, and as a youth learncd the trade of wagon woodmaker at Pittsburgh, in which city he was married. Subsequently, he removed to Dungannon, Ohio, where he opened a shop, in which was manufactured the first horse-operated hay rakes ever made in the state. In 1867 he came to Canton, opening a shop on Seventh Street, where he continued his business operations until 1874, in that year purchasing the lots at Nos. 527-539 Third Street, Northeast, and erecting a woodwork shop. This continued to be the home of the concern until 1912, when the present fine two-story brick shop was built. In 1886, Joseph Berg was taken in as a partner by his father, the firm at that time becoming William Berg & Son, and shortly thereafter the business was enlarged by the addition of painting and trimming departments, a blacksmithing department being the next addition. In 1891 another son, George M. Berg, was admitted to the firm, and the business then began operations under the style of William Bern. & Sons. In June, 1912, the business was incorporated as the William Berg Company, the father at that time retiring, with Joseph Berg as president and treasurer, and George M. Berg as secretary, but the latter died in October, 1913, and Jacob Wagener became secretary, although he is not now active in the business. In 1909 the company entered the field of automobile repairing, and this line has grown so rapidly that it now overshadows the other departments of the business and has become one of the principal industries of its kind in the city. William Berg is still living, but Mrs. Berg died in 1905. The family are members of St. Peter 's Catholic Church. Joseph Berg was a boy when he came to Canton with his parents. His education was secured in the parochial and Canton graded schools, and at the age of fourteen years he went to work in the shop with his father, learning the business thoroughly and working without wages until he was twenty-one years of age. At the present time he is the owner of a majority of the stock of the company, and under his management it has grown into one of the city's important industries. Mr. Berg' married Minnie Wernet, who was born at Canton, daughter of John Wernet, who had a retail grocery store on South Market Avenue during the period of the Civil war and for many years afterward. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Berg: Arthur M., a draughtsman in a Cleveland furniture store, married Opal Shields, of Hudson, Ohio, and has thrce children ; and Leona, who is single and a teacher in the public schools of Canton. Mr. Berg is a member of 664 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY the chamber of commerce, of the Knights of Columbus, of the Knights of St. John and of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association. With his family he belongs to St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church. MAJ. AUGUSTUS VIGNOS. Among Canton's industrial leaders of the present time there is no more interesting personality and figure than that of Maj. Augustus Vignos, who earned his title by some remarkable service as a soldier during the Civil war, and after that struggle began life under the heavy handicap of having only one arm, the other having been left on the battlefield of Gettysburg. Major Vignos is now president of the Novelty Cutlery Company, president of the Canton Knife Company, president of the American Mine Door Company, president of the Iron Clad Mantle Company, president of the Victor Specialty Company, and president of the Canton Electric Sign Company, all of which have developed in succession from a small industry established through his enterprise many years ago. Augustus Vignos was born in Louisville, Stark County, and is descended from two pioneer families of this county, and by marriage is related to another. His father, the late Joseph Vignos, was a native of France, born in 1813, learned the trade of carpenter and cabinetmaker in the old country, and in 1831 emigrated to the United States. His wife, Theresa Frantz, was likewise a French woman, daughter of Theo- bald Frantz. The Frantz family arrived in America about the same time as did Joseph Vignos, and it was in New York City that the two young people met and were married. In 1833 the Vignos and Frantz families. came out to Stark County, Joseph locating in Louisville, while Theobald Frantz settled on a small farm near Harrisburg, in Nimischillen Township. Joseph Vignos at Louisville soon opened up a tavern in a log house, which subsequently was replaced by a brick hotel, and that was his business relations with the community until 1861. He died in 1862. Joseph Vignos and wife were the parents of three children : Joseph, who died in Louisville in Stark County in 1899, having given four years of service in the Nineteenth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry ; Augustus; and Catherine, wife of Charles D. Mounot, of Canton. Major Vignos was reared in Louisville, attended the common schools, and until the outbreak of the war was his father's assistant in the hotel. In September, 1861, he responded to the call of President Lincoln and enlisted in Company I of the Nineteenth Ohio Infantry. His regiment was organized at Alliance, and went to the front from there, arriving in the Mississippi Valley in time to take part in the great battle of Shiloh in April, 1862. Aftcr that battle Major Vigncs, with hundreds of others, was taken sick with typhoid, caused by drinking surface water, and was given up to die. A good physical constitution and an iron will have prevailed over adverse circumstances in many critical times in the career of Major Vignos, and in spite of predictions to the contrary he recovered and came home as an invalid. In May, 1862, he was detailed for recruiting service in Stark County, and while thus engaged was requested by Colonel Meyers to become captain of a company in a regiment then being raised by the colonel. In picking out young Vignos for this honor Colonel Meyers said : "I want just such boys as you to be my captains." PICTURE OF MAJ. AUGUSTUS VIGNOS HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 665 The company was raised and was mustered in as Company H in the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio Regiment of Infantry, commanded by Colonel Meyers. One circumstance of Major Vignos' army experience deserves mention here. When he was invalided home after the battle of Shiloh, his name was still on the muster roll of the Nineteenth Regiment, and having failed to report to his command for a number of weeks a comment was written opposite his name on the roll at Washington as "absent without permission," which meant, in plain words, a deserter. When Major V ignes applied at Columbus for his commission as captain in the new One Hundred and Seventh Regiment this commission was held up until his proper discharge could be obtained from the Nineteenth Regiment. Notwithstanding this delay, he entered service with Company H as captain, went to the front, and only after the first day's battle of Chancellorsville did he receive his discharge as a private of the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. During the first day's fight at Gettysburg, in July, 1863, Major Vignos had his right arm shot and crushed by a cannon ball. For three days he lay in the field hospital before his wound could be properly dressed and his arm amputated. Again he was given up to die, and had it not been for the assistance of his nurse, Mrs. Rebecca L. (Pennypacker) Price, who took pity on him and went outside the strict duties of her work to aid him, the dire expectation would probably have been fulfilled. In violation of orders from her superiors, who had already set the major aside with several othcrs as scheduled to die in a few days, Mrs. Price procured clean clothes for him and saw him put aboard the first freight train that left Gettysburg after the battle. After coming home he recovered, and it was his pleasure in later years to entertain at his own home in Canton Mrs. Price, his valiant nurse and saviour. In October following the battle of Gettysburg Major Vignos, though his wound was not yet entirely healed, rejoined his command, then at Folly Island in South Carolina. Soon afterwards came promotion and commission as major of the One Hundred and Seventh Regiment, and .owing to the resignation of both the colonel and lieutenant. colonel, Major Vignos was in actual command until October, 1864. At that time his old wound caused him so much trouble and inconvenience that he resigned and returned home with an honorable discharge. After the war Major Vignos determined to act upon the advice of Horace Greeley, and went west with the purpose of growing up with the country. Iowa was the particular section of the western country which he selected, and there lie invested his means in business, but the venture proved disastrous and three years later he returned to Ohio $2,000 in debt. On reaching Canton his only possessions were a wife and three children. It was a difficult task for a one-armed man to get work. His first employment was as a night watchman at $1.50 per night. Subsequently came a better place as janitor of the courthouse at $50 per month. During that work he earned extra money by operating two lawn mowers in the cutting of individual lawns. In time the tide of fortune gradually began to turn, and in 1877, through the good offices of his warm friend Major McKinley, Mr. Vignos received appointment as postmaster at Canton from President Hayes. He held that office and gave an efficient administration for the follow- 666 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY ing eight years, having been reappointed by President Garfield and by President Arthur. It was in 1886 that Major Vignos began on a modest scale the manufacture of transparent pocket knives. This industry is one that has grown into importance and financial success, and is now represented by the Canton Knife Company. Its products are sold all over the world. That was the first of a number of industries which from time to time has originated in Canton under the enterprise and with the capital of Major Vignos, and of which he is still the executive head. He is today one of the men who give distinction to Canton as one of the foremost industrial and manufacturing centers of Ohio. In February, 1866, Major Vignos married Phoebe L. Devinney, daughter of Henry Devinney, a native of Ireland and an early settler in Stark County. Mrs. Vignos died December 25, 1907. The children of their marriage are briefly mentioned as follows : Henry, who died at the age of nineteen ; Charles, of Canton, manager of the Novelty Cutlery Company, and vice president of the American Mine Door Company ; Loretto, who died at the age of thirteen ; Blanche, a teacher of music in Canton ; Alice, a professional nurse ; Helen, who died in 1907 ; Alfred A., who is treasurer of the Novelty Cutlery Company and secretary and treasurer of the American Mine Door Company ; Frank, who is secretary of the Canton Knife Company and secretary of the Canton Electric Sign Company. Major Vignos has long been actively identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, and is also a companion in the military order of the Loyal Legion. Other fraternal associations are with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and he and family are members of St. John's Catholic Church. GEORGE F. S. MELBOURNE. The physical or material advancement and attractiveness of every community depend in large measure upon the effective interposition and services of the skilled and upright contractor and builder, whose work represents both artistic and utilitarian values. In Stark County a citizen who has achieved special precedence and success in this important domain of enterprise is George Frederick Sawyer Melbourne, of Canton, who is known alike for his technical ability, his executive capacity and his straightforward business policies, and who has completed many important contracts within the borders of this county within the past quarter of a century, and who is junior member of the representative firm of Melbourne Brothers, contractors and builders. In the thriving little industrial Town of Mountrath, Queen's County, Ireland, George F. S. Melbourne was born on the 6th of December, 1869, and he is a son of Henry and Jane (Sawyer) Melbourne, both likewise natives of that same county of the fair Emerald Isle, where the father was born about the year 1823 and the mother in 1827. Her grand- father's name was Hugo. Henry Melbourne was a son of John Melbourne, who likewise was born in Queen's County and who was a scion of the patrician old French Huguenot family of the name, the first of the Melbourne family in Ireland having fled from their native France to escape the religious persecutions incidental to the revocation of the historic edict of Nantes and having become wealthy and influential as HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 667 citizens of Queen's County, Ireland. Henry Melbourne, who was a highly esteemed citizen of Queen's County, where he well upheld the prestige of the family name, there passed his entire life, his death occurring when he was well advanced in years and his venerable widow being still a resident of that county. In his native town George F. S. Melbourne was reared to adult age and there he received excellent educational advantages in his youth. In 1885, when sixteen years of age, he severed the ties that bound him to home and native land and joined his elder brother, Frank, who was engaged in the real-estate business in the City of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia, in which great island colony he remained several years and gained varied and effective experience. After leaving Australia he visited two other continents of the Eastern Hemisphere before his return to Ireland, and in 1894 he further amplified his continental journey by coming to the United States and associating himself with his brothers, John and William E., who had established themselves in business at Canton, Ohio, as contractors and builders. Here he and his brother, William E., formed in 1901 the contracting firm of Melbourne Brothers, of which they have since continued the interested principals and which has become the leading firm of contractors and builders in the metropolis and judicial center of Stark County. The broad scope and importance of the business controlled by this firm has indicated fully the popular estimate placed upon the characters and achievements of its members, and on other pages of this publication will be found a brief review of the career of William E. Melbourne, the senior member of the firm. Among the more notcworthy and important buildings erected in Stark County by Melbourne Brothers may be mentioned that of the Canton Electric Light Company ; the McCurdy Building in this city ; six public school buildings in Canton, including the recently completed Jackson School, which is the only absolutely fire-proof school building ever erected in the city and in which even the window sash is of metal construction ; public school buildings in the City of Alliance, including that of the high school ; the Canton Auditorium ; the factory buildings of the Berger Manufacturing Company, of Canton ; the National Products Factor Building, and the reinforced concrete plant of the Knight Tire & Rubber Company, both in Canton; eight factory buildings in this city for the Republic Stamping & Enameling Company, of which four are of the best type of modcrn reinforced concrete construction ; the factory of the Canton Metal & Ceiling Company ; five reinforced concrete buildings in Canton for the Standard Oil Company ; two plants for the Timken Roller Bearing Company, one of reinforced concrete and the other virtually of fire-proof construction, Canton ; the local factory buildings of the Gordon Rubber Company, and the Kanneburg Roofing & Ceiling Company ; and the fine Orpheum Theater Building and the Masonic Temple, at Canton, Ohio. They are also at the present time erecting the H. H. Timken, Esq., mansion, costing over $500,000; also the manager's house, his $60,000 barn, and the lake factory for the Timken Roller Bearing Co. ; the Canton Daily News Building, 200x34 feet. a six-story, 668 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY fire-proof building; and the J. J. Burns School at Canton, costing $100,000. Mr. Melbourne is affiliated with the various Masonic bodies in Canton, including Canton Commandery, Knights Templars, and he is an appreciative, active and valued member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce. On June 1, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Melbourne to Miss Mary Frances Weirick, who was born at Georgiana, Butler County, Alabama, and who is a daughter of William C. and Ella (Shaw) Weirick. William Clifford Weirick was born in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, and is a son of William N. and Elizabeth (Raymond) Weirick. His father represented Ohio as a valiant soldier in the Mexican war, in which he held the office of lieutenant, and the arduous service so impaired his health that after the close of the war he abandoned the more strenuous occupations and assumed a position in the United States Treasury Department, under the administration of Presidence Pierce. He passed the remainder of his life in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, where he died when his son William C. was but four years of age. His widow soon afterward returned with her children to her old home at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and she subsequently became the wife of George K. Norton. She was a rcpresentative of the fine old French family of Raymond that early became one of prominence in Ohio and of which a collateral branch claimed as members the two distinguished Americans, Gen. William T. Sherman and Hon. John Sherman, the latter of whom long represented Ohio in the United Statcs Senate. Within a short time after their marriage the parents of Mrs. Melbourne removed to the southern part of the State of Alabama, where her father became prominently identified with the lumber industry. About the year 1888 the family home was established in Canton, Ohio, and since 1901 the parents have retained their residence in the State of California. Mrs. Melbourne is a popular figure in the representative social activities of Canton and is affiliated with the Ohio Chapter of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Melbourne became the parents of two children, of whom one is living: Georgiana Jane was born in the City of Dublin, Ireland, on the 20th of May, 1906, and died on the 22d of the same month, the parents having at the time been sojourning in Mr. Melbourne's native land; Clifford George, the surviving child, was born at Canton, on the 18th of March, 1909. Both Mr. and Mrs. Melbourne possess the coat-of-arms handed down through their families. FRANK E. SCHUMACHER, a prominent business man and manufacturer of Stark County, was born at Five Corners in Marlboro Township on the 11th day of March, 1857. The house in which he was born is still standing. His father's peoplc, Jacob Schumacher and his wife Elizabeth, lived in Neunkirchen, Baden, in Germany. They were thrifty German people and for some years Jacob Schumacher served his village in the capacity of treasurer. His mother's people. Christian and Maria Harry, lived in Bern, Switzerland. Christian Harry served his country as a soldier. His occupation was watch making. His wife, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 669 Maria, was the daughter of a rich family. In the prime of life they left Switzerland and sailed for America, the land of great and promising opportunities, where they settled at North Georgetown, Columbiana County, Ohio. Henry G. Schumacher, the father of Frank E., was born in Germany but at the age of twenty-thrce he came to America. Here he met Susanna Harry, whom he married at the age of twenty-six. Susanna was the daughter of Christian and Maria Harry and was about eighteen years of age when she was married. Henry and Susanna Schumacher made their home for a while at North Georgetown where he worked at the blacksmith's trade. Later they moved to Five Corners where he continued his trade of blacksmithing. Here their home was blessed with the birth of their first son, Frank E. A year or two later the family moved to what is now the beautiful little village of Hartville. By this time Henry had become a skillful and efficient blacksmith. His skilled labor furnished a great service to the people of the village and surrounding country. At this time our country was suffering the woes and agonies of our great Civil war. An incident now occurred which showed that even this quiet and secluded little village was threatened and alarmed by the terrible war clouds. One night in 1863, at 12 o'clock he was aroused suddenly by the excited neighbors who shouted, "Arise, Mr. Schumacher, and make bullets, for Morgan is coming." Immediately he arose and, with the help of his neighbors, made bullets from midnight until morning. This shows that he was ready, if need be, to do his part to protect his home and his neighbors against invasion. While living at Hartville Frank started to school. He attended the school known as Moore's School about one-half mile north of town. There was no school in Hartville at that time, in fact there were only about fifteen houses in town, including a hotel, a small tannery, two stores, and two blacksmith shops. When Frank was twelve years of age the family moved to Suffield Township, Portage County, where his father did some blacksmithing and farming. Here his father lived and worked until his death. After his father's death his mother; with a saddened but yet courageous hcart, worked bravely on in managing the farm and raising and training the family of five children. This noble example of patient and self- sacrificing work made a deep and lasting impression for good upon her son, Frank. She remained on the farm until recently when she went to Kent to live with her daughter, Mrs. Swinehart. Frank continued his school work for a few years. He attended the Swartz School. Often, when his father had much work, Frank was kept at home to help him either on the farm or in the shop. Thus his educational advantages were limited. He learned many good lessons, however, in the world's hard school of experience. By helping his father in the shop he gradually learned much of the blacksmith's trade and also learned to like that kind of work. When he was about fifteen years of age he was hired out to work on a farm for Mr. J. Keller, for whom he worked one year. The next year he went to Talmadge. Summit County, where he worked for Mr. J. E. Baldwin in a carriage blacksmith's shop. He worked in this shop 670 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY for three years and during this time he became a skilled mechanic. He was ambitious to learn the trade and was not afraid of hard work and thus he was soon prepared to start in trade for himself. But life was not always pleasant in this far-away Talmadge. Often he became homesick and longed to see his father and mother and the other members of the family. And so, at times, he would visit his old home, walking all the way from Talmadge to his home in Suffield Township. This walk would give him a keen appetite which would help him to enjoy those delicious meals which only his mother knew so well how to prepare. While at Talmadge Mr. Schumacher worked hard and would often do some extra work to earn some additional money in order. to enable him the sooner to start a shop of his own. He was next employed by• A. F. Wicket' who had a carriage shop on the corner of Main and Arch streets, in Alliance, Ohio. Here he continued to work at his trade for two years after which he moved to his home on the farm. He remained there for nearly a year dividing his time between work on the farm and in the shop. He now started in his trade, carriage blacksmithing, for himself. He moved to Suffield and bought a lot. It was mid-winter and the ground was covered with nearly a foot of snow when he began the erection of a. shop in which he would be his own master. His trade grew rapidly. He soon developed a business which put out from sixty- five to seventy-five finished vehicles each year. Besides he carried on an extensive general repair business. Mr. Schumacher followed his trade in Suffield for seven years, and then traded his shop for a farm just half a. mile south of the village. After one year he started the lumber and timber business in which he was engaged for two years. Mr. Schumacher now moved to Hartville. Here, three years later, he. with the help of his brother Henry L., established a lumber mill. It was a plant of limited capacity, and they started operations before the mill building had roof or siding. About three years later they added equipment for the manufacturing of screen doors and windows. That was the inauguration of an industry which has since been developed to large proportions. Their first building was on a foundation 50 by 70 feet, with three floors. At this, time. 1902, his brother Henry died and Mr. Schumacher managed the business alone. Mr. E. B. Leighley then became a partner. About that time an addition to the factory was erected, 60 by 76 feet, also with three floors. Seven years later Mr. Schumacher bought out his partner. Four years ago he constructed a brick addition, 64 by 70 feet, and containing two floors. While Mr. Leighley was a partner in the business the firm was incorporated. Mr. Schumachcr was made president and has remained in this office ever since. The present officers are: Frank E. Schumacher, president and treasurer; R. L. Schumacher, secretary and manager; the other directors are J. Howard Smith. vice president, and Mrs. F. E. Schumacher. Operations are carried on upon a paid up capital of $30,000, and an average of about fifty-five workmen find employment in the plant. The principal output is screen doors and windows. This business grew steadily and gradually from its small beginning to its present size and wide reputation. The success of the growth of this business is due largely to the untiring and unceasing toil of Mr. Schumacher, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 671 who in the midst of limited means and resources and sharp competition from without worked hard and managed carefully to overcome all difficulties and thus built up a business whose product has gained a ready market all over the country. This, at present, is the only industry of its kind in Ohio. The company, in addition to an annual volume of business in screen goods amounting to about $86,000, conducts a general lumber trade. The building up of this industry would in itself give Mr. Schumacher a prominent place among the manufacturers of Stark County. He, however, has taken an active part in other affairs. He is interested in the Quality Tire & Rubber Co., of Hartville, which he helped to organize and of which he was president until June 1, 1915, and of which he is at this time one of the directors. He was one of the founders of the Hartville Banking Co., and is a member of its board of directors. He was one of the organizers of the Hartville Cemetery Association. He is one of the organizers of the National Peat Refining Co., of which he is the vice president and a director. He is a member of the Congress Lake Club. And during the last two years he used his influence and has given his time without receiving any pay to get a paved road from Cairo to Congress Lake. About two years after his location in Suffield Mr. Schumacher married Miss Susan Warner. She was born in the City of Akron, the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Warner being alongside the old canal near the site of the present Hotel Portage. When she was about one year of age her parents moved to Randolph township in Portage County. Mrs. Schumacher died in 1892, leaving one son, George. George was graduated from the Hartville schools and then became associated with his father in business and was office manager of the company when he died at the age of twenty-seven. Though taken away almost at the outset of his career, he already showed substantial qualities which would have taken him far into a business. In 1895 Mr. Schumacher married Mrs. Minnie Gillmore, who was born in Germany and came to America with her mother when she was twelve rears of age. She was a successful milliner and dressmaker and had a. profitable business in these lines at the time of her marriage. By this marriage Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher have three children : Howard. Carl, and Lucile. They are giving these children opportunities to get the best possible education. Howard and Carl both graduated from the Hartville High School in 1915. Howard is continuing his studies in Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, and Carl is doing postgraduate work in the Hartville High School. Their only daughter, Lucile, is now attending high school. The children are ambitious to get a splendid education and thus prepare themselves to make the most and best of life and its opportunities. These children, growing up under the example of an honest and hardworking father and under the influence and guidance of a kind and conscientious mother, add much to the joy and happiness of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher. In disposition Mr. Schumacher is a quiet and kindhearted man. He is public spirited and ready to aid in improving the conditions of his community. He is willing to favor or accommodate his neighbors 672 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY whenever possible. In politics he is a liberal democrat ready to use his influence and to vote for men and issues which he feels are for the best welfare of his state and country. Mr. Schumacher by his untiring toil, his patience and perseverance in times of misfortunes, his public services has done much for the growth and prospcrity of the beautiful little Village of Hartville. JOHN L. VAN KIRK. The broad scope and importance of the operations that have characterized the activities of Mr. Van Kirk gave him indubitable prestige as one of the leading and most successful building contractors in thc City of Canton and denote also his impregnable vantage ground in popular confidence and esteem. Here he conducts a substantial and well ordered contracting business, in which he is associated with his son, John M., under the firm name of J. L. Van Kirk & Son, this effective alliance having been formed in 1912. John Lincoln Van Kirk was born in the Village of Feed Springs, Carrell County, Ohio. on the 16th of May, 1862, and is a son of Benjamin Franklin Van Kirk and Elizabeth (Krim) Van Kirk, both natives of Western Pennsylvania. The lineage of the Van Kirk family, as the name implies, is traced back to staunch Holland Dutch stock, and the original American ancestor was Jan Ver Kerk, who was a resident of Buren, Holland, and who sailed for America in 1763, having embarked at Amsterdam on the little sailing vessel Rosetree, which safely compassed the voyage to the New World. He established his residence in the old Holland Dutch Town of Utrecht, Long Island, New York, and from that section of the Empire State representatives of a later generation removed into Western Pennsylvania, where many of the name or family lineage are yet found, the original orthography of the name having been changed by one of the earlier generations. The marriage of the parents of John L. Van Kirk was solemnized in Carroll County, Ohio, where the father followed the trade of blacksmith until the late '60s, when he came with his family to Stark County and established his home in the Village of Waynesburg, where be conducted a blacksmith shop and also became a successful contractor. In 1881 the family removed to the City of Canton, where the father gave his attention exclusively to the contracting business for several years and where he built up a large and substantial business. In 1886 he removed with his family to the City of Cleveland, and in 1904 he and his wife returned to Canton, where they still maintain their home and where the father, now venerable in years, is living retired, in the enjoyment of the rewards of former years of earnest and effective endeavor. John L. Van Kirk was a child at the time of the family removal to Stark County and was reared to adult age at Waynesburg, where he was afforded the advantages of the public schools and where, in 1881, he entered upon a practical apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, under the direction of his father. He became a competent artisan and in 1884. as a journeyman carpenter, he removed to Akron, Summit County, where he was engaged in the work of his trade for one year. He then returned to Stark County and at Canton accepted the position of foreman in the employ of Daniel Holwick, who was then one of the leading contractors HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 673 of the city. As foreman and superintendent for Mr. Holwick he had supervision of the erection of the Martin Block, the McLain & Albright warehouse, both in Massillon; the public school building at Greentown, this county ; the Cline Building in Canton; a large high school building at Painesville; the Reeves Boiler Works at Alliance; the Clarendon Avenue Public School Building in Canton ; the Stark County Telephone Building in Canton; the office, club house and factory buildings of the Cleveland-Canton Spring Company ; and many other high-grade structures. Since severing his association with Mr. Holwick Mr. Van Kirk has built up a large and successful business as an independent contractor and builder. In his individual operation he has erected many fine local buildings, and among the same may be mentioned the following: Factory of the Canton Buggy Company, the Crystal Park School Building, Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church, First United Brethren Church, First Evangelical Church, Washington Avenue Public School Building, Pomerene Building; two largc additions to the plant of the Gibbs Manufacturing Company ; the new Harris Building; the building of the Central Motor Car Company, the Roumanian Orthodox Church on Derber Avenue, the Charles Cox Building, the Berger Buildings, and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, completed in the early part of the year 1915. He erected also the United Brethren Church at Navarre, this county, and among the more noteworthy modern residences that stand as monuments to his skill are those of H. S. Rinkert, C. W. Kiplinger, 0. B. Barber, Charles Cox, 0. W. Rinkert, Doctor Schufelt, Doctor Hill, J. H. Black, D. S. Pike, and John DuPray, all of Canton. Mr. Van Kirk is a valued member of the Canton Builders' Exchange, is actively identified with the Canton Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Congregational Church. Mr. Van Kirk, as a young man, wedded Miss Laura Davis, who was born in Carroll. County, this state, and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1904, being survived by three children, two of whom are now living. The maiden name of the present wife of Mr. Van Kirk was Ella M. Brown, and she was horn, reared and educated in Pennsylvania. HARVEY LOEHR. One of Canton's leading building contractors and lumber merchants is Harvey Loehr, a young man who began his career as a worker in thc employ of others, mastered a trade, and since setting up independently has been going ahead with increasing business and success each year. Harvey Loehr was born in the Village of Sandyville in Sandy Township, of Stark County, January 31, 1879, son of Henry S. and Mary E. (Barr) Loehr. His father was born at Mapleton in Stark County and his mother at Paris in this county. His father is a miller by trade, worked in that line for many years, but is now engaged in farming at Paris. . Harvey Loehr grew up in Stark County, acquired his education by attending the common schools, and at the age of twenty began learning the turner's trade with the Canton Hard Rubber Company. That was his employment for about five years. He learned the carpenter's trade 674 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY under Charles M. Kilgore and worked as a journeyman three years. In 1906 he began general contracting on his own account, and in 1910 added a lumber yard, and has since combined contracting and dealing in lumber and building supplies. His offices and plant are at 2248 Mahoning Road Northeast. He has a large amount of substantial work to his credit. Among the buildings erected by him are noted the following: The V. W. Sheatsley residence on Osnaburg Road, the Glaser residence on Logan Avenue in Canton, the store room and apartment building at Hartville for the Hartville Hardware Company, Samuel Glaser's store room on Hurford Street, the store room and apartments of Charles Heavner on Cherry Street in Northeast Canton. All these structures are of brick except the onc at Hartville. During each year of the past three years Mr. Loehr has averaged the erection of between fifty and sixty small residences in and about Canton. At the present writing he has under construction a double brick residence on Aultman Avenue for W. E. Gordon. Mr. Loehr is one of the well known members of the Canton Builders Exchange and also affiliates with the Canton Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is identified with Buckeye Lodge No. 11, of the Knights of Pythias, and is a member of the Martin Luther Church. He married Lillie G. Zeigler, the adopted daughter of T. N. Zeigler. Their four children are named Vera M., Howard E., Kenneth J. and Dorothy M. JOHN WENDEL WALTER. During nearly a quarter century's identification with the building and contracting business at Canton, John W. Walter has established a reputation for responsible financial management and systematic and accurate execution of every contract which he undertakes, even down to the last detail. He is a man with a fine business record, exemplified in many business, public and private structures in and about Canton. His home has been in Stark County most of his life, and both he and his family connections have an appropriate place in the history of the county. John Wendel Walter was born in Canal Dover, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, October 4, 1864, a son of George and Elizabeth (Wilson) Walter. His father was a native of Germany and came to the United States with his parents, while the mother was born near Canal Dover. When the Walters came to America they located at Canal Dover, where George and Elizabeth were married. Gcorge Walter was a butcher by trade, which he followed in Canal Dover for a number of years, but finally removed to a farm near Mineral Point, now Mineral City, in Tuscarawas County. There he continued as a farmer the rest of his life, passing away in March, 1909, at the age of eighty-four. His wife died in 1892, aged sixty-three. They were members of the Reformed Church. To their union were born ten children, nine of whom are living, all mentioned briefly as follows : Mary, wife of J. J. Klein, of Mineral City, Ohio ; William F., also of Mineral City ; Louise, wife of W. L. Davis, of Canton ; Harry, of Akron ; Frank, of Mineral City ; Annie, wife of Hyland Moffat, of Canton ; Addie, who is unmarried and lives in Cleveland ; John W.; Henry, whose home is on a farm 1 1/2 miles from Mineral City ; and Charles, who died when 1 1/2 years old. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 675 John W. Walter remained on the home farm until seventeen years old. His education came from the country schools and also the public schools of Mineral City. Prior to leaving the farm he had begun an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade in Mineral City, and in a few years was qualified as an expert workman. From Mineral City he went to Sherrodsville, Ohio, and for two years was a carpenter foreman in that town. Since 1888 Mr. Walter has resided at Canton, and soon after coming there was made foreman for a carpenter contractor, and for the next twenty years was either foreman or an individual contractor engaged in the construction of many of the leading buildings of the city and vicinity. In 1910 Mr. Walter set up an independent business as a general contractor, and his operations since that time have been of increasing scope and importance. His record of building includes structures of all kinds and classes, including factories, public institutions, stores and private residences. Among others he put up the buildings of the Canton Electric Company, remodeled the Shaefer Block on the public square, constructed the First United Presbyterian Church Building, the No. 3 Engine House, the Cadillac apartment house on Sixth Street, the Seesholtz Block, the First Methodist Episcopal Church Building at Alliance, and many others. Mr. Walter is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce, of the Builders Exchange, the Municipal League, the Gun Club, and with his family worships in the Reformed Church. In politics he is a republican, but exercises his own discretion in picking the candidate for whom he votes. March 12, 1886, Mr. Walter married Miss Tessie Brobst, who was born in the Village of Navarre, Stark County. Her parents were John Jacob and Helena (Ludwig) Brobst. Her father was born in Switzerland and when seven years of age came with an aunt to the United States, locating at Navarre. He was reared and educated in that village, and took up the trade of shoemaker, which he followed for many years, and finally removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and died in that city August 18, 1909, at the age of sixty-six. When a young man in Navarre he enlisted in Company A of the One Hundred Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was through the entire war. On the day that Lec surrendered at Appomattox he was wounded in an engagement at Dingles Mill in South Carolina, and as a result of that wound lost a leg. Mrs. Walter's mother was born at Navarre, a daughter of John L. Ludwig, who was a native of Germany and came to the United States when a young man and settled at Navarre more than seventy-five years ago. He lived there, was married, and after the birth of two children went out to California during the excitement following the gold discoveries during the year 1849, made the journey across the plains, and died while in the West as a result of blood poisoning. Mr. and Mrs. Walter have a family of children of whom they may well be proud. Earl Vernon, the oldest, is a plumber by trade, and now engaged in selling plumbing supplies, with residence at Canton, where he married Ida Hoenicke, and has two sons, Harold and Paul. Grace Florence is the wife of Benjamin E. Clarke, of Canton, and they have a daughter, Virginia. Paul L. is now a student in the junior year at Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana. Donald C. is 676 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY in the Central High School at Canton, while the two youngest children, Gladys R. and Dorothy E., are in the grade schools. CYRUS H. STONER. A resident of Stark County from the time of his birth and a scion of the third generation of the family in this county, Mr. Stoner is a worthy and popular representative of the admirable pioneer element which laid broad and deep the foundation of the civic and industrial prosperity of Stark County, where he has effectively upheld the prestige of the name which he bears and where he has been called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, including that of county commissioner, in which he is now serving his third consecutive term. He is living virtually retired in the City of Massillon, after having been for many years identified with farming and other business interests, and his status in his native county entitles him to special recognition in this history. On the old homestead farm of his parents, in Tuscarawas Township, this county, Mr. Stoner was born on the 15th of November, 1849, and he is now the only surviving member of a family of four sons and onc daughter born to Christian and Elizabeth (Hostetter) Stoner. The father was born at Little York, York County, Pennsylvania, and the mother was a native of Ohio. Christian Stoner died in 1900, at the age of sixty-eight years, his wife having been sixty-five years old when she was summoned to the life eternal. He was a lad of eight years at the time of the family removal from the old Keystone State to Stark County, Ohio, and was a son of Andrew and Margaret Stoner, who established their home in the midst of the forest wilds of Stark County, where the passing years witness the rcclamation of a productive farm through their energy and good management, both having remained on their old homestead until their death. Under the conditions and influences of the pioneer farmstead Christian Stoner was reared to maturity, and he duly availed himself of the advantages afforded in the somewhat primitive schools of the locality and period. As a young man he showed the steadiness and ambition born of such physical and mental discipline and did not hesitate to personally assume the herculean task of reclaiming for himself a farm from wild land. He was one of the prominent pioneer farmers and honored and influential citizens of Tuscarawas Township, was a Jacksonian democrat in politics and served in various township offices, including that of road supervisor, of which he was the incumbent for many years. On the home farm of his parents Cyrus H. Stoner early learned the valuable lesson of practical industry and in his generation he has proved the worth of sturdy ancestry and of earnest toil and endeavor. To the common schools of his native township he is indebted for his early education, which has been effectively supplemented by that gained under the direction of that wise headmaster, Experience, so that he is known for his broad information and mature wisdom, even as he is also for his sterling integrity in all of the relations of life. For a long period he was independently engaged in farming operations in Tuscarawas Township, where he became the owner of a well improved landed estate, and for fully twelve years he was one of the prominent buyers of horses PICTURE OF CYRUS H. STONER HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 677 from this section of the state, the enterprise having been made profitable under his excellent management, the while he became known as an authority in placing valuations on horses, and controlled a large business. For many years Mr. Stoner has been one of the ardent and influential representatives of the democratic party in his native county, and in Tuscarawas Township he served in offices of distinctive trust and responsibility, having been township supervisor two terms, township trustee for four terms and for a number of years township treasurer, besides which he served nine years as a member of the school board of his township. He finally established his home in the City of -Massillon end engaged with a milling company now known as the West Side Milling Company and of which he is the president. Here also he has been called upon to give his wonted careful and effective interposition in public office. For eight years he was a member of the city board of education, of which he was chairman four ycars, and he is now serving his third consecutive term in the important office of member of the board of county commissioners. He holds membership in the Reformed Church, of which his wife likewise was an earnest communicant; he has been actively identified with the Stark County Grange for the past thirty-five years and has held the various official chairs in the same ; and is affiliated with Perry Lodge, No. 87, Knights of Pythias, in Massillon. On the 22d of June, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stoner to Miss Lucina Brenkman, who was born in Jackson Township, this county, and who continued as his devoted companion and helpmeet for more than forty years, the gracious ties being severed by her death, on the 12th of October, 1912. Of the four children the eldest is Rev. Harvey S., who is a successful evangelist and maintains his home at Massillon ; Clara is the wife of Jacob Meyer ; Burton is assistant county engineer of Stark County and resides at Canton, as does also the youngest son, Charles, who is clerk of the board of county commissioners. CHARLES B. KLEIN. Probably no business concern of Canton has shown more of the vital elements of growth and progress than the great department house of Klein & Heffelman Company. The senior member of this firm has for many years been well known over Ohio and elsewhere as a musician, a virtuoso violinist of rare accomplishment and artistic ability, whose work both as an individual performer and as a musical organizer has been an important factor in Stark County 's musical life. Mr. Klein, unlike many of his profession, has the instincts and qualifications of the real business man, and about twenty years ago established a small store in Canton for the handling of musical goods. This business has had a steady progress, from time to time new departments have been added, larger quarters have been secured, and it is today one of the largest concerns in thc extent of its trade, its capitalization, in Northeastern Ohio. Charles B. Klein, who is secretary and treasurer of the Klein & Heffelman Company, was born in the Fourth Ward of the City of Canton, August 1, 1857. His parents were Henry J. and Eliza (Shaefer) Kline. His mother is still living and is among the oldest of Canton's citizens. His father was born in Germany in 1829, and after coming Vol. II-19 678 -HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY to America anglicized his name from Klein to Kline, though his son has preferred the German spelling. It was in 1834 that Henry J. Kline came to the United States with his parents, and located in Canton. He has thus been a resident of this city for more than eighty years. The mother was born in Canton in 1827, her birthplace being the present site of the Stark-Tuscarawas Brewing Company 's plant on Cherry Street Northeast. Her parents were natives of Germany and were among the pioneers of Canton. Charles B. Klein has one brother, Ferdinand. Charles B. Klein received his early education in the Canton city schools. When a boy of eight years he had proved the possession of remarkable talents in music, and about that time was placed under a regular instructor in the violin. He continued to study violin in Canton, later in Cleveland and Cincinnati, in 1877 went to New York City, and was under some of the masters of the violin in that city until 1882, and then went abroad and completed his education in the Royal German Conservatory at Leipzig, from which he was graduated in 1884. He came under the instruction of or heard and received inspiration from some of the great violinists and other musicians of the preceding generation, and his own ability and talent has been trained and perfected by years of unremitting and painstaking toil. After completing his education abroad Mr. Klein returned to Canton and became a teacher of music. Subsequently he established schools both in Akron and Cleveland, and also did much concert work, for which he won enthusiastic praise from both the press and public. It was in 1893 that Mr. Klein engaged in business by establishing the firm of Klein & Gibbs, music dealers, in the Hannah Block on West Tuscarawas Street. In 1896 this firm was dissolved and the present association of Klein & Heffelman established. In March, 1899, they removed their business to 216 North Market Street, and here several new departments were added. In October, 1900, the company was incorporated with a capital stock of $25,000, with Mr. Heffelman as president and Mr. Klein as secretary and treasurer. In December, 1902, the capital stock was increased to $75,000 and at that time a wholesale department of musical instruments and supplies was added. The company was also made the general distributors in Ohio for the famous A. A. Reach line of sporting goods. The floor space of the store was doubled to meet the added demands upon the business, and in February, 1905, another increase in capital stock was made, raising the amount to $200,- 000. This increase signalized a further expansion of the business by the addition of furniture, carpets and drapery departments. In March, 1905, the firm removed to their present location at 220-230 East Tuscarawas Street. In July, 1911, the company took over the entire business of Morris V. Miller, and leased the entire building on East Tuscarawas Street, a building which has a frontage of 66 feet with depth of 200 feet, with four floors and basement. This building is used largely as salesrooms and duplicate stock is carried in a large warehouse on the Pennsylvania track. At the present time the total floor space of the store is more than 60,000 square feet. When the firm first opened for business in 1896 only three persons were required to handle the stock and wait on the trade. Now the payroll numbers more than fifty per- HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 679 sons, and in volume of business is easily ranked among the largest department stores in Northern Ohio. On September 18, 1913, another increase of capital stock was made, raising the amount to $350,000. The company carries a complete line of all kinds of musical instruments and supplies, sporting goods, furniture, carpet, hardware, stoves, and all the sundries and side lines identified with such a general establishment. Mr. Klein married Miss Ada, daughter of F. J. Benskin, a prominent lumber dealer of Canton. Mr. and Mrs. Klein are the parents of two daughters : Margaret, who has specialized in her musical training on the piano, was abroad and pursuing her studies in Berlin until interrupted and compelled to return home at the beginning of the war ; and Elizabeth, still in the public schools. Mr. Klein is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce and the Knights of the Maccabees. HUBERT C. PONTIUS. Every publication that purports to offer a review of the history of Stark County can not with any measure of consistency fail to give special tribute and recognition to the old and honored family of which Hubert C. Pontius is a scion of the fifth generation to be worthily and influentially identified with the civic and material progress and activities of this favored county of the Buckeye State, with the annals of which the family name has been identified for virtually an entire century, Frederick Pontius, great-great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this paragraph, having settled in the wilds of Stark County in 1816. The name of no one family has been more closely and prominently concerned with the development and upbuilding of the county, and upon the family escutcheon each succeeding generation has reflected new honors. Frederick Pontius, the founder of the family in Stark County, was born in the State of Pennsylvania, on the 4th of July, 1772, a day and month destined four years later to become one of supreme importance in the annals of American history, since then was signed that immortal document, the Declaration of Independence. In Pennsylvania he was rcared to manhood and there he received excellcnt educational advantages, as gauged by the standards of the locality and period, the original American progenitors of the family having immigrated to this country from Rolland and having becn sterling colonial settlers of Pennsylvania. In the old Keystone State Frederick Pontius wedded Miss Margaret. Reedy, who likcwise was born there and who was about two years his junior. It can not be other than interesting to note that within the early years of these honored pioneers of Stark County not only was fought the War of the Revolution, permanent national independence gained, and the first President of the United States inaugurated, but also occurred many other events of gravest importance in the history of the young and ambitious nation. In 1816 Frederick Pontius came to Stark County and settled on a tract of wild land in Plain Township, where they endured to the full the tension and vicissitudes of pioneer life in a virtual wilderness and where Mr. Pontius reclaimed a productive farm in the midst of the forest. He was influential in the affairs of the pioneer community and did well his part in laying broad and deep the foundations upon which 680 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY rests the superstructure of opulent prosperity in this twentieth century. He continued to reside on his old homestead until his death, which occurred on the 18th of July, 1848, his widow surviving him by more than a decade and passing the closing period of her life in the home of one of her children, in Wayne County, this state, where she passed forward to the life eternal in the year 1861. Jacob Pontius, son of Frederick and Margaret (Reedy) Pontius, was born in Pennsylvania in 1802, and thus was a lad of about fourteen years at the time of the family immigration to Ohio. He was reared on the old homestead farm in Stark County, attended the pioneer schools when opportunity afforded, and waxed strong of mind and body through the discipline which was his portion. In 1827 he married Miss Rebecca Essig, who was born in Cumberland County, Maryland, on the 6th of May, 1806, and who was two years old when the family came to Stark County, in 1808, two years prior to the organization of the county. Of this union werc born three children-John, Andrew and Margaret. John was a resident of Plain Township, this county, at the time of his death, in 1890 ; Margaret became the wife of Jacob H. Bair, and she is living now in Plain Township ; and Andrew, grandfather of the subject of this review, died in 1913. Jacob Pontius was a young man of about thirty years at the time of his death, in 1832, and his widow long survived him, her death having occurred on the 14th of October, 1896, a few months after the celebration of her ninetieth birthday anniversary. Andrew Pontius was born on the old homestead in Plain Township, this county, on the 22d of August, 1829, and during his entire life he continued to reside on a farm in his native township, where he became one of the substantial and representative agriculturists and stock-growers of Stark County. On the 22d of May, 1851, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Sarah Jane Correll, who was born in Adams County, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of March, 1828, and who was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Correll, who came from their native State of Pennsylvania and numbered themselves among the pioneer settlers of Stark County, Ohio. For many years Andrew Pontius was recognized as the most progressive and influential of the representative farmers of Plain Township, and his sterling character and genial personality gave him impregnable place in popular esteem. He served not only as clerk and treasurer of his township, but was for a time county treasurer, a position to which he was appointed to fill a vacancy. For eighteen years he was the incumbent of the office of justice of the peace, and his administration made the office justify its title. He and his wife were devout communicants of the Lutheran Church in Canton that was the organization from which the present Trinity Church was evolved, and he served as a trustee of the same. He was well fortified in his opinions concerning governmental questions, both national and local, and was unwavering in his allegiance to the democratic party. Of the children of Andrew Pontius the eldest is Dr. Lorin W., deceased ; Jackson W. is also deceased ; Glancy C. is a prosperous farmer in Perry Township ; Lucy M. is the wife of Judge M. E. Aungst, of Canton ; William J. is a progressive farmer and dairyman in Plain Township and is president of the County Board of Education ; Charles J. likewise is a prominent HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 681 representative of the agricultural and dairy industries in this county, his homestead farm being in Plain Township ; and Rebecca E. (Pontius) Miller lives on North Cleveland Avenue, Canton, Ohio. Jackson Warren Pontius, son of Andrew and Sarah J. (Correll) Pontius, was born on the old homestead in Plain Township, this county, on the 17th of April, 1854, and in addition to being afforded the advantages of the public schools he attended also Mount Union College, in the City of Alliance. In 1884 he was appointed superintendent of the Stark County Infirmary, of which he continued the efficient and valued director for a period of ten years. In 1894 he was appointed the first superintendent of the newly established Stark County Workhouse, and he retained this office until 1899. He then engaged in the real-estate business in Canton, with which important line of enterprise he continued to be prominently and successfully identified until his death, which occurred on the 2d of July, 1909. Jackson W. Pontius married Miss Elvira Clay, who was born and reared in Stark County, where her parents, Moses and Catherine (Madison) Clay, settled in the pioneer days. Mrs. Pontius survives her honored husband and maintains her home in Canton. Of the children Hubert C., whose name introduces this article, is the eldest ; Bessie is the wife of Harry W. Green and they now reside in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; and Lura B. and George J. remained in Canton with their widowed mother. Hubert C. Pontius was horn in Canton on the 29th of January, 1877, and here he continued to attend the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893. In pursuance of higher scholastic education he entered Wittenberg College, in the City of Springfield, this state, and in this excellent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon afterwards he became a student in the law department of the University of Ohio, and in December of the year 1901 he successfully passed the required examination and was admitted to the bar of his native state. In the following spring he initiated the active practice of his profession in Canton, and his success has been unequivocal and on a parity with his recognized ability and his close application. Mr. Pontius served as assistant prosecuting attorney of Stark County from 1909 to 1913, and in November, 1912, he was elected prosecuting attorney, of which office he was the efficient incumbent for the regular term of two years-1913-14—and in which he made an admirable record, his success in the trial of important cascs having contributed materially to his professional prestige. Upon his retirement from this office he resumed the private practice of law in Canton, where he now controls a substantial and representative business. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and both he and his wife are communicants of the Lutheran Church, in which they hold membership in the parish of Trinity Church in Canton. Mr. Pontius wedded Miss Mary S. Gotwald, daughter of Rev. Luther A. Gotwald, D. D., LL. D., the distinguished member of the faculty of Wittenberg College, at Springfield. Mr. and Mrs. Pontius have no children. 682 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY CHARLES W. KIRK. Distinct efficiency and circumspection have characterized the service of Charles William Kirk in the office of clerk of courts for Stark County, and his personal popularity in his native county renders impossible any legitimate application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Mr. Kirk was born on the homestead farm of his parents, in Lawrence Township, this county, and the date of his nativity was August 23, 1870. He is a son of William B. and Elizabeth (Meese) Kirk, the former of whom was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1831, and the latter of whom was born on a farm about two miles east of Canal Fulton, Stark County, Ohio, in 1830, her father, -William Meese, having been a Pennsylvania German who was numbered among the sterling pioneers of Lawrence Township, this county, whence he later removed to Indiana, where he continued his pioneer experiences and where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. William B. Kirk was a child at the time of the family immigration from the old Keystone State to Stark County, his father, John Kirk, having settled on a tract of land near Canal Fulton about the year 1834 and having there developed a productive farm, besides which he was long numbered among the prominent and influential citizens of Lawrence Township, where he continued to reside until his death, his name meriting a place on the roster of the honored pioneers of Stark County. William B. Kirk was reared to maturity under the conditions and influences of the pioneer farm and during the course of his entire mature life he stood as one of the representative agriculturists and stock-growers of Stark County, where he commanded inviolable popular confidence and was called upon to serve in various township offices. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife survived him by nearly a score of years, his death having occurred on the 25th of December, 1896, and she having been summoned to the life eternal on the 23d of August, 1913. As a boy Charles W. Kirk began to lend his aid in the work of the home farm, and thus, with proper utilization of the advantages afforded in the public schools, he waxed strong in mind and physique and early gained appreciation of true values in the scheme of human thought and action. He continued to be associated in the work of the home farm until 1889, when, at the age of nineteen years, he went to the City of Cleveland, where he gaincd practical experience in the work of the trade of steamfitting, to which he devoted his attention not only in that city but also, at a later period, at Lorain. As he was the youngest of the children and his parents were growing venerable in years, it finally became incumbent upon him to return to the old homestead farm, to the management of which he continued to give his attention for nearly a decade after the death of his honored father. In 1905 he removed to Canton, to assume the position of first deputy sheriff of the county, under the regime of Sheriff Wilson. He retained this position during. five years of the administration of the sheriff mentioned and for two years under the latter's successor, Sheriff Oberlin. In 1912 he was made the republican nominee for the office of clerk of courts for his native county, and in November of that year was elected to this position, the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 683 duties of which he assumed in August, 1913, and in which he has given a most able and satisfactory service, as is indicated by his renomination and re-election in the autumn of 1914. Mr. Kirk is affiliated with McKinley Lodge, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons ; was chancellor commander in 1914 of Lilly Lodge, Knights of Pythias ; and holds membership also in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. In 1896 Mr. Kirk wedded Miss Emma Hammer, who was born at Doylestown, Wayne County, this state, and who is a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Hammer. The three children of this union are : Grant, Gordon and Florence, the respective years of whose births were 1897, 1900 and 1902. CHRISTIAN BRILLHART. The prosperous citizen of today, residing in a busy city and surrounded with all the conveniences and luxuries of modern civilization, is too apt to forget that he owes much of the comforts he enjoys to those sturdy pioneers of by-gone times who laid the foundations of his present prosperity by unremitting toil in the face of danger and privation. One of these worthy pioneers who well merits remembrance was Christian Brillhart, the subject of this memoir. Mr. Brillhart was born in York County, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1805, his parents having settled in that section at an early date. In 1821, when a boy of sixteen years, he came to Canton, Ohio, and remained here a year, being employed in Meyer's old carding mill. He then returned to York County, in his native state, and was there married to Mary Utz, who was born in that county in 1803. In 1831 he returned to Stark County, Ohio, accompanied by his wife and family, and purchased 164 acres of land, which is still known as the Brillhart Farm, being now owned by his son, John W. Brillhart, of Canton Township. The property was then undeveloped, or but partially improved, as the man from whom he bought it had taken it as government land, and its cultivation and improvement necessarily entailed a vast amount of hard labor, to which the sturdy pioneer applied himself unflinchingly. His efforts in time bore good fruit and he greatly increased the value of the property. In 1875 he left this place and bought a small farm of forty-four acres in the neighborhood, where he resided until his death, July 15, 1885. He was a member of the German Baptist Church and was a man widely known throughout this locality and highly esteemed by his neighbors. At the time of his death he had been a widower for several years, his wife having passed away July 29, 1881. They were the parents of a large family, numbering eleven children, of whom nine grew to maturity. Their record in brief is as follows : An unnamed son, who died at birth, February 8, 1827; Jacob S., born March 22, 1828, who died September 3, 1902 ; Andrew, born February 18, 1830, who died December 1, 1897 ; Elizabeth, born November 28, 1831, who died July 30, 1915 ; Mary Ann, born Septcmber 24, 1833, who died February 14, 1859; Henrietta, born August 11, 1835, who died May 10, 1913 ; John W., born July 15, 1837, and now the owner of the old homestead ; Lydia, born January 27, 1839 ; Christian, born September 24, 1848 ; Samuel B., born August 23, 1842, and now 684 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY a resident of Chicago; and Ellen, born November 20, 1848, who married Frank J. Young, and resides in New Berlin, Ohio. John W. Brillhart, whose nativity is given above, was reared on the home farm and in his boyhood attended the school which was located on his father's property. He was associated with his father in the work of the farm until 1874, when the latter left it to remove to his newly purchased property, after which he took full charge of the homestead, operating it on half shares until the year after the father's death, at which time he bought out the interest of the other heirs, it then becoming his sole property. At the time of his purchase he sold fifty-seven acres to Esther Comes, which left him with 107 acres. He resided in the old family residence until 1904, when he built his present fine house on the main road, and since then has rented out the farm and lives retired. After becoming owner of the property, he improved it greatly, building a large barn, 40 by 84 feet, which is one of the finest in the county. Mr. Brillhart is the oldest melon grower in Ohio who grew melons by the acre, he having had at one season as much as ten acres in this luscious fruit. He began the growing of watermelons in 1860, but later grew muskmelons only. For many years he grew the well known Brillhart cantaloupes, which became celebrated throughout this locality, usually planting from five to ten acres each year, and growing melons that weighed as much as fourteen pounds. In his possession is the original deed to the property, signed by President James Madison. John W. Brillhart was married, February 11, 1874, to Alsaminah Cable, who was born on a farm in Pike Township, near Sandyville, Stark County, Ohio, a daughter of David and Margaret (Evans) Cable. Her grandparents on both sides were from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and were there acquainted. They subsequently became pioneers of Stark and Tuscarawas counties, their lands being situated on the county lines, but it was not until they had settled in Ohio that they found each other and renewed old acquaintance. To David and Margaret Cable a large family of children was horn, as follows: Fielden, born April 17, 1846, who now resides at New Baltimore, Ohio; Alsaminah, who became the wife of John W. Brillhart; Charles E., born October 18, 1849, who lives in Canton, Ohio; Sydney B., born August 11, 1851, who died April 3, 1852; Agnes, born August 30, 1853, who married David Speaker and lives in Tuscarawas County, Ohio ; Jane, born July 10, 1855; Laura, born July 30, 1858, who married John Lupher and resides near North Industry, Ohio; Margaret, born August 24, 1860, who became the wife of C. S. Greer, and lives at Magnolia, Ohio James D., born March 7, 1863, now living on the old Cable farm near Sandyville, Ohio; and Cora, born February 25, 1865, who married John Summers and resides near North Industry. The Cables are all members of the Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Brillhart are passing their declining years in comfort and ease and enjoy the esteem of a wide circle of friends throughout this locality. EDWARD LEWIS HANG. While also remembered as one of the former popular school teachers in several districts of Stark County, Edward L. PICTURE OF CHARLES A. STOLBERG HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 685 Hang has for a number of years been closely identified with the manufacturing life at Canton, and is now secretary of the United Steel Company at that city. As a business man he is doing a great deal to keep up his end of industrial affairs in Stark County, and his public spirit as a citizen is commensurate with the energy he has displayed in business. He was born in a country home south of Louisville, Stark County, in 1872, a son of James and Catherine (Snyder) Hang. His father was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1848, a son of Valentine Hang, who was born in Germany, and about 1860 brought his family to Ohio in Stark County, locating two miles east of Canton, where he died. Catherine Snyder was born at Osnaburg in Stark County, in 1850, daughter of David B. Snyder. After they were married James Hang and wife moved to a farm south of Louisville, but are now living retired in that village. All the early associations of Edward L. Hang are with the locality in and about Louisville. He attended district schools there and the Louisville High School, graduating from the latter in 1892. During the following ten years he spent most of his time as a teacher in the old home neighborhood. In 1902 he came to Canton and in the spring of the following year became associated with the United Steel Company, which at that time was just organizing. He was promoted from time to time, became assistant secretary of the company in 1908, and since 1910 has been its secretary. Mr. Hang is also a director and secretary of the United Furnace Company, which during 1915 has been building a blast furnace plant at Canton, and which is one of the most important new concerns located in the industrial district. Mr. Hang is a member of the Congress Lake Club, is a director in the Canton Y. M. C. A., and also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. In 1895 he married Miss Jennie Kahler, daughter of Rev. John F. Kahler, long prominent as a minister of the German Baptist Church in Northeastern Ohio. They have three children : Zella Mae, who graduated from ' the Canton High School in 1915 ; Otis K., who is in the second year of high school ; and Dwight S. CHARLES A. STOLBERG. Entering upon the discharge of his duties and functions as mayor of the City of Canton on the 1st of January, 1914, Mr. Stolberg has shown the discrimination and progressiveness that make for the best of municipal government and that fully justify the popular confidence implied in his election to this important post. His administration is proving liberal, independent and progressive and the best interests of the city are being carefully and earnestly conserved by his loyal policies and well ordered efforts. Mr. Stolberg finds due satisfaction in claiming the old Buckeye State as a place of his nativity. He was born in the City of Toledo, Ohio, on the 19th of July. 1869. The present mayor of Canton attended the public schools of his native city until he had attained to the age of eleven years, when impaired health rendered it imperative for him to leave school. When he was but twelve years of age he was found employed in a bakery, and by the time another year had passed he had assumed the dignified position of 686 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY elevator operator in one of the office buildings of his native city. Alert mentality and ambitious purpose caused him to place true valuations and to become thoroughly imbued with the progressive spirit that has signally typified his independent career and brought about his worthy advancement as one of the world's productive workers. In 1887, at the age of seventeen years, he entered the employ of the Stolberg Hardware Company, of Toledo, and later he obtained a position with the wholesale drug house of Walding, Kennan & Marvin. While thus engaged he was induced to engage in active service in connection with the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, in which he had previously taken a lively interest, especially in the physical training of boys. He thus resigned his position with the drug firm to assume that of assistant secretary and physical director of the Toledo Young Men's Christian Association, and his ability and enthusiasm in the work made his services specially effective. In 1891 Mr. Stolberg came to Canton to become the first incumbent of the position of physical director of the local Young Men's Christian Association, and he continued to be actively identified with the work and affairs of the association, as one of its valued and popular executives, until 1898, in which year he assumed the position of purchasing agent for the Aultman Company, one of the most important of the fine industrial corporations that have given commercial prestige to Canton. He continued in the service of this company four years, and then, in 1902, assumed the office of purchasing agent for the Diebold Safe & Lock Company. Later he assumed a similar post with the Canton Sheet Steel Company, and with this third important concern he continued until he assumed his present office, that of mayor of the city of his adoption. That he had made an enviable record as a business man and as a citizen of high civic ideals needs no other assurance than that given in his election to the mayoralty of one of the finest of the many admirable smaller cities of Ohio. Though he has been in no sense a practical or professional politician, Mayor Stolberg has had deep appreciation of civic responsibility and has done all in his power to further good government, both general and local, with specially zealous interest. in municipal affairs. He has been a student and thinker in this connection and has well fortified convictions. Canton's mayoralty campaign in 1913 had been in progress until within two weeks of the election, when the peculiar conditions existing in the connection made it definitely feasible for a new candidate to enter the contest, providing that candidate should stand representative of definite civic loyalty, progressiveness, integrity of purpose and business ability. The many friends of Mr. Stolberg determined that he was the man for the place and he was prevailed upon to enter the race. He made an aggressive and somewhat spectacular whirlwind campaign, and the impress of the same was shown in his election by a gratifying plurality over the five opposing candidates, including the democratic, republican, independent and socialist parties. He won again at the republican primaries by a very large. majority in spite of opposition from certain politicians and his re-election on November 2d was by the largest plurality that any mayor ever received in this city. The mayor first assumed office on the 1st of January, 1914, and in his administration has "made HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 687 good" under the unusual and trying conditions that have tested his circumspection and judgment as executive of the municipal government. He has brought to bear zeal and discrimination, careful business policies and methods, and permits no part of the city government to escape his earnest consideration and punctilious consideration, with the result that his administration is giving excellent satisfaction to the community, his fairness and loyalty forefending injudicious opposition and unjust criticism. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Stolberg has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and is identified also with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is an appreciative student of the history and teachings of this time- honored fraternity and is zealous in its affairs, as shown by the fact that he is past commander of Canton Commandery of the Knights Templar and has held official positions in other Masonic bodies. He still continues to maintain a lively and helpful interest in general sociological work and in the directing and training of boys, his present official position giving him many opportunities for effective service in behalf of the youth of Canton. Both he and his wife are earnest and zealous members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city and are popular factors in the representative social activities of the community. In the year 1893 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stolberg to Miss Mary Delia Houser, who was born and reared in Canton and who is a daughter of Jefferson A. and Mary C. (Martin) Houser, old and honored residents of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Stolberg have two children -Harry Houser, who was born September 29, 1894; and Mary Elizabeth, who was born January 31, 1912. ROBERT L. SCHUMACHER The secretary and general manager of the Hartville Screen Manufacturing Company, Mr. Schumacher is a member of a family which has long been prominent in business affairs in the Hartville district of Stark County, and though little more than thirty years of age has already to his credit a record of business accomplishment which many an older man might envy. Hartville is his native town, where he was born June 13, 1884, a son of the late Henry L. Schumacher, who in his time was one of Hartville 's prominent and successful men. Henry L. Schumacher was also horn in Hartville and married Catherine Werner, daughter of Henry Werner, a native of Germany. She is still living at Hartville. Information concerning the establishment of the Schumacher family in Stark County is found on other pages under the name Frank E. Schumacher, who is an uncle of Robert L. Henry L. Schumacher was associated with his brother Frank in the carriage and wagon manufacturing business at Suffield, Ohio, and the two were partners in the lumber business at Hartville, and together they established the Hartville Screen Manufacturing Company. Up to two years of his death Henry L. Schumacher was secretary and general manager of the company. He died in 1898 at the early of age of forty-one. He was a member of the Reformed Church, and his children were as follows : Robert L.; Willard L., who died at the age of nineteen ; Paul, who when fourtecn years of age was skating with companions on Congress Lake, and one 688 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of the girls of the party breaking through the ice Paul went to her rescue, and saved her but only at the sacrifice of his own life ; Helen, who is now fifteen years of age. Robert L. Schumacher, who lost his father at the age of fourteen, entered upon a self-supporting career as soon as he finished his education in the Hartville High School in 1901. Going to Cincinnati he learned the plumbing business, worked at the trade there five years, and in 1906 removed to Lansing, Michigan, and continued his trade for nine months. Following that was a year spent in Akron, Ohio, after which he returned to Hartville and acquired stock in the Hartville Screen Manufacturing Company, and became its secretary, general manager and a director of the company. He showed his vigorous business ability and financial judgment at the time the Hartville Banking Company became involved. Mr. Schumacher was appointed assignee, and within four months had wound up the affairs of the institution, had paid every depositor in full, and had arranged the affairs in readiness for a speedy and successful reorganization. Mr. Schumacher is a member of Canton Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Knights of the Maccabees. He has been a member of the Democratic Central Committee of Stark County ever since he reached his majority. Mr. Schumacher married Sadie E. Swartz, who was born in Marlboro Township of Stark County, daughter of Frank and Martha Swartz. Two daughters have been born to their marriage ; Martha K. and Grace E. ALFRED EDWARD HOCHWALT, of Canton, credit manager, assistant secretary, director, and member of and secretary of the executive board of the Berger Manufacturing Company, is a native son of Ohio, and has been a resident of Canton for forty-four years. He was born in the City of Dayton, January 30, 1869, his parents being Jacob and Louise (Lothamer) Hochwalt, the former a native of Dayton and the latter of Canton, the family moving in 1871 to the latter city, where the father passed away. Alfred E. Hochwalt received his education in the public schools and a commercial college, and began his business career in 1889 with the Canton Steam Pump Company, in the capacities of bookkeeper and general office manager. In August, 1894, he became identified with the Berger Manufacturing Company as bookkeeper and two years later was promoted to the position of cashier, an office which he held until being promoted credit manager in 1909. A short time later he was given a place on the board of directors and the executive board and was subsequently made secretary of the latter. Mr. Hochwalt has been identified with the Berger Manufacturing Company for more than twenty years, and has seen this enterprise grow from modest dimensions into Canton's largest industry and a concern which gives employment to a large number of people. He is recognized as a business man of foresight and acumen and one in whom his associates have the greatest confidence. Mr. Hochwalt is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce and has associated himself with other stirring and public-spirited citizens in enterprises which have done much to further Canton's prestige both HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 689 in a civic and business way. A member of St. John's Parish of the Roman Catholic Church, he belongs also to the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Order of Foresters, and is president of the Catholic Club, and in all of these is active and prominent. Mr. Hochwalt was united in marriage with Miss Lillian M. Smith, of Canton, daughter of George J. Smith, and four children have been born to them, namely : George Alfred, John Edward, Paul Herbert and Louise Marie. HAROLD I. TAGGART. It is doubtful if even local residents of Stark County are fully aware of the extent and scope of the many industries which have been developed and have found locations within the limits of the county. Among these important concerns which claim attention as a matter of historical record is the Agricultural and Commercial Lime Company, a Canton corporation, whose plant is located at North Industry. Since its beginning four years ago this company has had a rapid growth. and represents the capital and individual resources of a, number of well known Stark County men. The promoters of the business were George B. Eggcrt and D. E. Daniels of Canton. The organizers of the company were Isaac Harter, Charles W. Keplinger of Canton, and Isaac M. Taggart and Harold I. Taggart of Massillon. The company was incorporated January 1, 1911, with capital stock of $100,000, and the first official hoard contains the following names : Charles W. Keplinger, president ; D. E. Daniels, vice president ; H. I. Taggart, secretary and treasurer ; and C. W. Keplinger, George B. Eggert, D. E. Daniels, G. R. Shane, W. E. Romy, I. M. and H. I. Taggart, directors. The present official board is : C. W. Keplinger, prcsident ; W. E. Romy, vice president ; H. I. Taggart, secretary, treasurer and manager, while the other directors besides these executive officials are G. R. Shane, C. Pannier and Dr. J. R. Beiter. The company began practical operations in June, 1911. The plant comprises power plant, machine house and warehouse, covering a space 525x75 feet. The company mines its own raw material on a 100-acre tract of land, containing a visible supply conservatively estimated as sufficient for seventy-five years of operation. The raw material is brought down to the kilns for burning, and in close proximity to the kilns are coal mines, equipped with coal tipples for shipping coal, which is in a way a by-product, and about 100 tons are shipped daily.. The principal finished products, agricultural and commercial lime, is marketed all over Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. The company employs from forty to fifty men, though all the work is performed by machinery after the raw material is mined. The presence of so many industries in Stark County has naturally developed a class of vigorous and progressive young executives, and one of these is Harold I. Taggart, secretary, treasurer and manager of the Agricultural and Commercial Lime Company. The general offices of this company are in the Renkert Building at Canton. Mr. Taggart was born at Canal Fulton, Stark County, May 5, 1889. He represents some 690 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of the finest old pioneer stock in this part of Ohio. The Taggart family was originally of Wooster, Ohio, while the Fulton pioneers have left their impress on Stark County. James Taggart, his grandfather, was a pioneer manufacturer at Wooster, where in the early days he built up a reputation for making harness and saddlery goods which met all the tests and requirements of the trade. Benjamin Fulton, the maternal ancestor, was a wealthy farmer at Canal Fulton, and that town was named in his honor. The father of Harold I. Taggart is Isaac M. Taggart, the well known banker and capitalist at Massillon. The mother 's maiden name was Luna Fulton. Reared in Massillon, Harold 1. Taggart gained his education in the high school, of which he was a graduate in p907, and in 1908 completed his collegiate course in the University of Ohio at Columbus. However, his practical business career began at Massillon in 1908 as secretary of the Goshen Valley Coal Company. He was identified with that company until 1911, and then became connected with the Agricultural and Commercial Lime Company, and has since lived in Canton. Mr. Taggart married Margaret Dougherty, daughter of Charles A. Dougherty, a well known and prominent citizen of Canton. To this marriage was born in 1914 a son named Richard D. JAMES STERLING. In considering the character and career of the late James Sterling, the unbiased observer will he inclined to place him not only among the most capable lawyers who have practiced at the Stark County bar, but also as one of the most cultured and beneficent characters of his day and locality. Whether one considers the difficulties which lack of early advantages opposed to his entrance upon a professional career, his patience and persistence in overcoming them, the worthy motives which impelled him through a long and busy life, the talents which he brought to three learned callings, or his great capacity for accomplishment, both in and outside of professional life, he will be impressed that these qualities entitle him to a distinguished place among the men who have made Stark County 's history. Joseph Sterling, who was born in County Derry, North of Ireland, in 1741, was the American progenitor of that branch of the Sterling family to which the Canton family of that name belongs. He is first found in America at Aston, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he was living in 1765. Before 1780 he removed to Huntington Rate, York County, Pennsylvania, and six years later was living in Washington County, Pennsylvania, later settling in Derry Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where he eventually acquired several hundred acres, which became known as "Sterling's Nest." In 1767 or 1768 he married Mary Porter, and died at Derry, March 27, 1813, at the age of seventy-two years, while Mrs. Sterling survived him until August 25, 1822, and died at Derry, aged eighty-eight years. William Sterling, son of Joseph Sterling, was born in 1772, and married Janet McQuisten, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who was born in 1772, of Scotch parents, and who died December 22, 1845. He married for his second wife, Susan (Sutton) Stewart, a widow. William Sterling HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 691 passed his entire life in farming at "Sterling's Nest," and died there March 7, 1859. James Sterling, son of William Sterling and his first wife, Janet, was born in Derry Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, was brought up to agricultural pursuits, and followed farming throughout his life, first at the homestead, and later in the vicinity of Shreve, Ohio, where his death occurred. He was married in Westmoreland County to Mary Beattie. Robert Sterling, son of James and Mary (Beattie) Sterling, was born at Shreve, Ohio, and became a college teacher of mathematics. He married Sarah Cisnee, and they became the parents of two sons and a daughter. James Sterling, son of Robert and Sarah (Cisnee) Sterling, was born at Nashville, Holmes County, Ohio, February 6, 1849. When he was but four years of age his father died, and when he was nine years of age he went to live in the family of his uncle, on whose farm he worked as a lad, laying the foundation for his education in the country schools, which he attended during the winter months. He was an apt scholar, showing a preference for mathematics, which was no doubt inherited from his father. By 'the time he was seventeen years of age he was teaching school. His brother John died as a result of the Civil war, and left the family cares for young James to assume. Next he attended an academy, and when he was twenty years of age had entered the Methodist ministry. Two years later, while preaching at Dalton, Ohio, he was united in marriage with Catherine Amelia Taggart, who was born at Dalton, March 12, 1850, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Taggart, whose wife was a Slosser, the Taggarts being originally from Ireland, while the Slossers came from Baden, Germany. James Sterling preached at Dalton, _Massillon, Bolivar and Wilmot, and next- came to Canal Fulton, Stark County, where May 10, 1877, he was admitted to the bar, he having been preparing for the legal profession while discharging the duties of his ministerial work. At Canal Fulton he began the practice of law and became onc of the prominent men of the community, serving for six years as mayor and for several terms as justice of the peace. By the year 1889 his legal business had grown to such proportions that he decided it expedient to remove to Canton, which he did in the spring. He began with an office on North Market Street, and after some years of practice alone became head of the law firm of Sterling & Werntz, and later of Sterling & Braucher, of which he was the senior member when he died, June 30, 1909. Mr. Sterling's rise in the legal profession was rapid, and not long after locating at Canton he became recognized as one of the leaders of the local bar, having a reputation as a criminal lawyer which extended all over the State of Ohio and throughout the country. In the celebrated ease of the State of Ohio vs. Annie E. George, tried for the killing of George D. Saxton, President McKinley 's brother-in-law, which is one of the noted historical cases in Ohio's legal annals, Mr. Sterling defended Mrs. George and secured a verdict of not guilty, which was popular with the people. The prosecuting attorney during this trial was Atlee Pomerene, now United States senator from Ohio. Another widely known 692 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY case was the Taggart divorce trial, tried at Wooster, Ohio, in which Mr. Sterling was attorney for Capt. E. F. Taggart of the United States Army, for whom he secured a divorce and the custody of the children. He figured prominently in many other noted cases in this part of Ohio. Mr. Sterling was a member of the Stark County Bar Association, and was prominently identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he filled all the chairs in the subordinate lodge. He was active also in church and Sunday school work. Mr. Sterling's professional success was not accidental, but well earned and well deserved. Of strong, vigorous intellect, he brought to the legal practice a mastery of its learning which busy lawyers rarely acquire. At the age of sixty years, after a life filled with labor, crowned with honors, and in the hope of immortality, which, as a devout Christian believer, he cherished, he entered into his rest. Six sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Sterling : Thomas M., who is engaged in the automobile business at Canton ; James Herbert, who died in infancy ; William H., who enlisted in the Forty-eighth Regiment, Colorado Volunteer Infantry, landing in the Philippine Islands when he was just twenty-one years of age, and leaving on his twenty-second birthday, was the first white soldier in the United States Army wounded in the Philippines, and is now residing at Salt Lake City, Utah ; Frederick Charles, who is engaged in the insurance business at Canton ; Edward Ray ; and Ralph John, a student of law at George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia. Edward Ray Sterling, a member of the firm of Braucher & Sterling, attorneys of Canton, received his early education in the graded and high schools of Canton, from the latter of which he was graduated in 1905. He took a post-graduate course there in 1905 and 1906, and took a very prominent part in school athletics, for ten years holding the hurdle records. On January 1, 1910, he went to Washington, District of Columbia, as stenographer to Commissioner Lane of the Interstate Commerce Commission, now secretary of the interior, where he spent a year, and April 1, 1911, became a secretary to U. S. Senator Atlee Pomerene, and so continued two years. He was next secretary to the secretary of the United States Senate for one year. When he first went to Washington, in 1910, he had taken up law at Georgetown University, and in June, 1913, received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1914 he received the degree of Master of Laws from the National University. and in the same year was admitted to the bars in Ohio and in the District of Columbia courts. He was examined and admitted to the bar in the class with Charles Taft, son of ex-President Taft. Since that time he has been engaged in a successful law practice at Canton. FRANK SLUSS is one of the best known citizens of Nimishillen Township, not alone because of a lifelong residence in this community and active participation in agricultural operations here, but also as mail carrier over Route No. 1, a position which he has since occupied since November 1, 1900. As a farmer Mr. Sluss is recognized as one of the skilled and practical operators of this fertile section of Stark County, who encourages by his example the use of modern methods, while the capable HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 693 and courteous manner in which he discharges the duties of his official position makes him generally popular among the people of Nimishillen Township. Mr. Sluss was born on a farm 33/4 miles north of Louisville, in Nimishillen Township, Stark County, Ohio, March 1, 1867, and is a son of John and Harriet (Stonehill) Sluss. The family came to Stark County from Pennsylvania, and John Sluss was born here December 20, 1829. The Stonehills were also originally from Pennsylvania, and the mother of Frank Sluss was born in Nimishillen Township, Stark County, December 12, 1829. Both parents are now deceased, the father having passed away August 10, 1897, while the mother died in April, 1907. John Sluss was engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout the pcriod of his active career, and was generally accounted an industrious and thorough farmer and a citizen who performed well and faithfully every duty devolving upon him. He was a member of the Lutheran Church, while the mother belonged to the Reformed faith. Frank Sluss was reared on the old home farm upon which he was born, and on which he worked with his father during the summer months in his boyhood and youth, while in the winter terms he received his education in the district schools. He remained with his parents on the farm until his marriage, in 1897, at which time he rented and moved to the farm which he now occupies, known as the old John Brown Farm. Within a few years time he purchased this property, which then included eighteen acres, on which were erected the residence and barn, as well as several other buildings that are now found upon it. Later Mr. Sluss bought fifty acres just across the road, this being originally a part of the old Brown property, and on which are now excellent improvements of all kinds, placed there by Mr. Sluss. He farms both properties, carrying on general operations, and in every department of his work has met with well-merited success. He has made a study of his vocation and of the products best adapted to grow upon his land, and keeps fully abreast with the various advancements that are constantly being made in agriculture. In 1897 Mr. Sluss was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Wenger, who was born about 1 1/2 miles west of Mr. Sluss' farm, in Nimishillen Township, January 4, 1868, a daughter of Benjamin and Harriet (Smith) Wenger. The father was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1826, and was ten years of age when he came to Stark County with his father, Samuel Wenger, the family settling first on a property in Osnaburg Township. There the father grew to manhood and was married, following which he removed to Nimishillen Township, where he continued to be engaged in successful farming and stockraising operations until his death, which occurred November 7, 1910. Mrs. Sluss' mother was horn April 1, 1833, in Plain Township, Stark County, Ohio, near the Worstler Church, a daughter of Benjamin Smith, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania and was a farmer. Mrs. Wenger died September 18, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Sluss were married January 17, 1897, and have had seven children, as follows : Howard J., born January 18, 1898 ; John R., born February 9, 1899 ; Murray M., born July 25, 1901; Hazel B., born April 17, 1903 ; Galan C., born January 21, vol. II - 2 0 694 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY 1905 ; Donald R., born November 4, 1906; and Dorothy ("Dollie"), born April 25, 1912. Mr. Sluss is a member of the Reformed Church, while Mrs. Sluss belongs to the United Brethren faith. He is interested in fraternal work to the extent of holding membership in the local lodge of the Woodmen of the World, and is popular with his fellow- members in that order. On November 1, 1900, Mr. Sluss was appointed carrier of the mail over Route No. 1, and has continued to occupy this position ever since, his duties being performed in a capable and conscientious manner. The Sluss home, located four and one-half miles north of Louisville. is one of Nimishillen's nice residences, and there Mr. and Mrs. Sluss are frequently hospitable host and hostess to their numerous friends throughout the township. Mr. Sluss is a republican. GEORGE H. McCALL. There is perhaps no stronger figure in Massillon business circles than George H. McCall, treasurer of Russell & Company, a corporation engaged in the manufacture of engines, tractors, threshers, sawmills and farm machinery, and with which he began his career in a very minor capacity more than a quarter of a century ago. His name is now on the list of directors with perhaps a dozen large corporations in Ohio and elsewhere, and there are few men in Stark County who wield so large an influence in business affairs. Among other relations in a business way Mr. McCall is also vice president of the Massillon Sign Company. An Ohio man by birth, he was born in the Village of Malvern in Carroll County, a son of E. H. and Emily (Hull) McCall. Both the McCalls and Hulls are of old New England stock, and came west from Middlcton, Connecticut. The paternal grandparents were Rev. Hosea and Margaret (Campbell) McCall. Rev. Hosea McCall was a Methodist circuit rider in Pennsylvania and Ohio for many years. His wife was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and was one of eleven sisters. One of these sisters became the mother of Hon. J. M. Guffy, who as an oil operator, a business man, and a figure in Pittsburg politics and other affairs has for a number of years been a well known national character. E. H. McCall, father of the Massillon business man, was born in Ohio in February, 1842, and was for many years engaged in general merchandising at Malvern, and afterwards was a traveling salesman for many years. He also made a record as a soldier in the Civil war, while with the Eightieth Regiment of Ohio Infantry. He married Emily Hull, who was born at Oneida in Carroll County, Ohio, November 17, 1847, and died January 4, 1909. Her parents were George and Abby Jane (Shepherd) Hull, who were born and married at New Hartford, Oneida County, New York. George Hull and his brother, Patrick C., and brother-in-law, Dr. William Gardner, founded the Town of Oneida in Carroll County, Ohio, naming it for their native county in New York State. The children of E. H. McCall and wife were as follows: George H.; Margaret A., a teacher in the Akron public schools ; Jessie C., wife of Bruce Crissinger, of Oneida, Ohio; William H., who is principal of the high school at Billings, Montana ; Mary E., wife of Dr. Grover T. Gotschall, a dentist at Salineville, Ohio. George H. McCall gained an education in the public schools at PICTURE OF GEORGE H. MCCALL HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 695 Malvern, Ohio. In February, 1888, coming to Massillon, he took a position in the shipping department of Russell & Company. His uncle, William H. McCall, was at that time the company's purchasing agent. In the fall of 1889 he was transferred to the collections department, the manager of which was Jehiel Clark. He remained in that department through various changes until 1893, and then succeeded Warren Russell as collections manager. In 1909 he was elected treasurer of the company and that has since been his official position in this large Massillon industry. Soon after he took up the work of the collections department Mr. McCall realized the value of a legal knowledge as an asset to his work. He subsequently began the study of law, enrolling himself at first under Mr. Russell and later under Judge Robert H. Day. On June 11, 1898, he was admitted to the Ohio bar. However, he has used his professional knowledge only as an asset to his business career. The wide scope of his business interests can best be indicated by a list of the more prominent concerns with which he is officially identified. He is treasurer and director of the Massillon Belt Railway Company; director of the Massillon Engine & Thresher Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee ; director of the George Richardson Machine Company of St. Joseph, Missouri; director of the A. H. Averill Machine Company of Portland, Oregon; director of the F. P. Harbaugh Company of St. Paul, Minnesota ; director of the Clark Implement Company of Council Bluffs, Iowa; director of the Massillon Bridge & Structural Company ; vice president of the Massillon Sign Company ; director of the National Sanitary Company at Salem, Ohio; and a director of the Ohio Banking & Trust Company. For many years Mr. McCall has served as a director of the Massillon Social Club. He was vice president one year and is a member of the Lakeside Country Club, and in 1915 was elected a director of the new Massillon Chamber of Commerce, but resigned since he realized that his business affairs would not allow him to discharge his duty to the chamber. He believes in the value of fraternalism and is a member of several orders. He belongs to Clinton Lodge No. 47, F. & A. M., of which he was worshipful master in 1904-05 ; was high priest of Hiram Chapter No. 18, R. A. M., in 1913-14; and in 1909 and 1910 was commander of Massillon Commandery No. 4 of the Knights Templar. For a number of years he served as a director of the Massillon Masonic Association, and upon the death of David Atwater was made president of the association, an office he still fills. JOHN FRANK DOUGHERTY, D. D. S. One of the most important among the various branches of professional knowledge upon which civilized humanity is more or less dependent for the preservation of healthful conditions is the science of dental surgery. As in medicine and surgery, the science of dentistry is constantly developing new phases of usefulness, and in order to insure success the modern dental practitioner must be a constant, close and careful student, must keep fully abreast of the latest achievements in his calling, and must add professional skill to, deep research and combine close application to his task with the ability gained through experience. Such a practitioner is 696 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY John Frank Dougherty, D. D. S., of Canton, president for 1914-15 of the Stark County Dental Society and known as one of the most skilled men in his profession in this part of the state. Dr. John F. Dougherty was born in the Village of Greentown, Stark County, Ohio, August 10, 1858, and is a son of the late Dr. James E. Dougherty, who was one of the leading physicians and citizens of the county. The father was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, March 13, 1820, a son of John and Elizabeth (Crail) Dougherty, the former of whom was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1796, and died at Richmond, Jefferson County, Ohio, March 30, 1831, while the latter was born in Pennsylvania, June 25, 1801, and died in 1827. She was the daughter of John Crail. a native of the Isle of Man, who served as a soldier during the American Revolution. John Dougherty removed his family to Jeffcrson County, Ohio, during the middle '20s and there passed the remaining years of his life. Dr. James E. Dougherty attended the public schools and the Richmond (Ohio) Classical Institute, and then embarked upon a career as a school teacher, during which time he passed his leisure hours in close application to the study of medicine. He commenced his practice in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where he spent five years, following which he returned to Jefferson County, Ohio, and remained there until 1849. That year saw his arrival in Stark County, where for a period of thirty- six years he practiced at Greentown. During the Civil war he served as lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Sixty-second Regiment, Ohio National Guard, his services being principally in doing garrison duty at Covington, Kentucky, in 1864. Not alone was Doctor Dougherty prominent in his profession, but his high abilities and well-known integrity caused him to be called to positions of importance and responsibility in public life. As a republican, in 1885 he was elected recorder of Stark County, and in 1888 received the re-election to the same office. He was twice married, his first union being with Phoebe L. Thompson, of Carroll County, Ohio, April 11, 1844, and after her death he was married September 27, 1849, to Angeline Gorgas, of Greentown, Ohio, the daughter of Thomas Gorgas, who was a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Doctor Dougherty died, respected and esteemed by all who knew him, March 24, 1894. John Frank Dougherty received his early education in the public schools of Greentown, Ohio, and the Inland Institute, of Summit County, Ohio. He then spent two years as an apprenticeship dentist, in the office of his brother, Dr. Charles A. Dougherty, of Canton. In 1881 he entercd the practice at Minerva, Stark County, but soon, to gain further training, entered the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, now a part of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1884 with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. At that time he returned to Canton and entered practice, in which he has continued to the present time, being recognized as one of the leaders in his profession in this part of Ohio. In 1914 he was honored by his fellow-members in the Stark County Dental Society by election to the presidency of that organization for two years, and he is likewise a valued member of the Northern Ohio Dental Society, which he served as president during the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 697 year of 1896, the Ohio State Dental Society and the American Dental Association. In addition, he belongs to the Canton Chamber of Commerce, the Canton Club, the Country Club, the Congress Lake Club and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Doctor Dougherty married Miss Elizabeth Hostetter, the daughter of Dr. J. C. Hostetter, of Minerva, Stark County. ELDEN L. HAYMAKER. Among the representative business men of Canton, who find time from their private interests to serve the city, is Elden L. Haymaker, successful shoe merchant and dealer in real estate, and member of the city council from the First Ward. Mr. Haymaker has been the architect of his own fortunes, having been content to enter upon his career in a humble capacity and to accept the opportunities which a. growing community offered. His present success and standing are indicative of the possession of superior abilities and high ideals of citizenship. Mr. Haymaker was born on the old Haymaker homestead in Portage County, Ohio, December 29, 1868, and is a son of Edward L. and Rebecca (Loomis) Haymaker. The father was also born on the farm in Portage County, a son of Andrew Haymaker, who was born near Reading, Pennsylvania, was an old-time plasterer, and a pioneer of Portage County. The mother of Elden L. Haymaker was born at Atwater, Portage County, Ohio, a daughter of the late Louis Loomis, a pioneer of Portage County, who lost his life while clearing his land by the fall of a tree. In the year 1875 Edward L. Haymaker sold his farm in Portage County and came to Canton, where he engaged in the transfer and livery business, at which he continued to work with success until his death in 1906. His wife died in January, 1889. Elden L. Haymaker was a lad of six years when brought by his parents to Canton arid it was in the public schools here that he received his education. When he was eighteen years of age he became a clerk for L. V. Bockins, a shoe merchant of Canton, with whom he continued for seven years, thoroughly familiarizing himself with every detail of the business in which he was later to make his success. Subsequently he entered the employ of the Miller Hardware Company, of Canton, as a clerk, but after two years went to the East where he sold horse supplies to racehorse owners, and on his return to Canton went to work for the widow of John McGowan, the old shoe merchant, who had just died. Mr. Haymaker remained in that store for the next seven years, following which he returned to the employ of his former firm, the Sell Horse Goods Company, and continued with that concern for five years. In December, 1913. deciding to enter business on his own account, Mr. Haymaker purchased the shoe stock and good will of H. M. Frank, located where the store is now established, in the Masonic Temple Building. This he named the Quality Shoe Shop, and under his able and experienced management the business has continued to enjoy constantly- increasing success. Several years ago Mr. Haymaker became interested in the handling of real estate, and this he is now carrying on on an increased scale, he having been the medium through which a number of large deals have been consummated. A republican in politics, he has 698 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY taken some active part in the operations of his party, having been a local committeeman for the past twelve years. In 1913 he was nominated and elected a member of the Canton City Council from the First Ward. Although this is a republican ward, it had been carried by the democrats for the past eight years, but Mr. Haymaker, who received the nomination without any solicitation on his part and made no campaign, received a large majority at the polls. He assumed the duties of his office January 1, 1914. Mr. Haymaker is chairman of the committee on city offices and public printing and is a member of the finance and fire and police committees. He has been conscientious in his public labors, working zealously for thc civic welfare, and has been instrumental in securing some much-needed reforms and legislation. Mr. Haymaker is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce, and with his family belongs to the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Haymaker married Miss Flo Robinson, who was born at Alliance, Ohio, and to this union there has been born one daughter : Miss Helen, who is now nineteen years of age. ALFRED GARNER. That the nearly three score and ten years of Alfred Garner has been spent in a round of duties which reflect honor upon him is proved by his record as a gallant boy soldier during the War of the Rebellion, and nearly a half century of close participation in local affairs, first as a farmer, later in the industrial enterprise of the City of Canton, and also in various public and civic responsibilities. Among the older citizens of Stark County few have lived with more earnest purpose and more effectually to the good of their community. A Pennsylvanian by birth, Alfred Garner was born in Marclesburg in the Woodcock Valley of Huntington County, October 25, 1846. His parents were Frederick and Margaret (Sorrick) Garner, both natives of Pennsylvania, the former of Huntingdon County and the latter of Blair County. In the spring of 1854 Frederick Garner brought his family to Williams County, Ohio, but owing to continued ill health which followed this change of residence he returned with his household to Pennsylvania the following fall, and in 1855 his wife and the mother of his children died there. In the fall of 1858 Frederick Garner again returned to Williams County to collect money due him on his farm. On his way back to Pennsylvania he passed through Stark County, visiting there a relative. So well pleased was he with the land and general conditions that he at once bought a farm one mile north of Fair Hope Church on the Louisville Road. In the spring of 1859 lie returned with his household to Stark County, and took up the active supervision of his farming interests. In 1869 he retired and moved to Canton, and lived in that city until his death at a very advanced age on August 30, 1907. Still a boy when the family came to Stark County, Alfred Garner had experiences and discipline not unlike those of most boys of his time and generation. He grew up in the country, early became acquainted with farm duties, and gained his education in local schools. He was not yet fifteen years of age when the first great battles of the Civil war were fought. He played at soldiers' games, thought and dreamed of a soldier's life, and was ready to put his ardent patriotism to the test of actual HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 699 service, though his age proved a bar to these aspirations until the next to the last year of the struggle. Even then he made three attempts to enlist before he was finally sent to the front. His first effort to gain enrollment in the army was on February 1, 1864, at Alliance. That was the recruiting point for volunteers in his part of the county. His father, learning of the son's enlistment, compelled the recruiting officer to destroy the papers, since his son was under age, while the father was still under forty-five; was able bodied, and was subject to draft. Not long afterward the boy Alfred made his second attempt. This was also at Alliance and he applied to the same recruiting officer. However, the medical examiner refused to make the required examination when he learned of his age and of his father's previous objections. Finally on March 1, 1864, young Garner was successful in getting himself enrolled. He appeared before the same recruiting officer and still without his father's consent. However, the latter was not present and knew nothing of his son's plans. After being sworn in and put in uniform the youthful soldier was sent home to await the assembling of a full squad of recruits, but was instructed to rcport for orders now and then at Alliance. When this became known to his father, the latter was highly indignant at his son's action, and still insisted that the latter should secure a discharge. By this time, however, the son was thoroughly determined, and told his father he was going to the army if he had to run away. During the argument that ensued his father used the following words : "What will I do if while you are in the army I am drafted ?" The son promptly agreed to send his father all of his pay except what he actually needed, asking that this money should be used by his father to kcep out of the draft. On one of his trips to Alliance young Garner met a man who was looking for recruits to fill out the quota for East Township in Carroll County, and offered him $150 if he would allow himself to be assigned to East Township, Carroll County, Ohio, Stark County's quota having been already filled. The offer was accepted, the money paid, and out of this the young volunteer kept only $20, while the balance of $130 was given to his father, With $10 of the money which lie kept for his own use Mr. Garner bought a pistol, and a few weeks later he accidentally shot himself in the hand with this weapon. He finally got rid of the ill-omened implement by selling it to a soldier in Florida for $10. Mr. Garner was sent with other recruits to Tod Barracks in Columbus, and there was mustered in to Company H of the One Hundred and Seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Two weeks later he was sent by way of Cleveland and Buffalo to New York City, where he was put on board the steamer Fulton bound for Hilton Head, South Carolina. There they were transferred to a smaller vessel and sent on to Jacksonville, Florida, where the regiment, which had already seen much service and was composed largely of veterans, was engaged in garrison and general guard duty. December 10, 1864, the regiment returned to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and from there proceeded to Broad River and to Devoe's Neck on the Savannah and Charleston Railway, with instructions to destroy that railroad, while Sherman was getting into Savannah. When Sherman came on his way to Columbia, South Carolina, the