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750 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY again conducted services during 1875-76, .and it was then attended from Alliance between 1876-77, and from Harrisburg from 1877 to 1882. From 1882 to November, 1896, Rev. J. B. Burkel of St. Peter's, in Canton, held services in New Berlin, and at the latter date was appointed the first resident pastor of St. Paul's. Rev. Father Burkel did a great deal of constructive work in his parish and continued active in its service until July, 1904. He then' resigned and New. Berlin was attended as a mission from Canton by Rev. Charles J. Fecht. Rev. Father Burkel died November 20, 1904, and on July 8, 1905, Rev. Charles J. Fecht was appointed resident pastor, and moved to New Berlin. On April 15, 1906, the new parsonage was completed and occupied. On October 21, 1909, Rev. Charles J. Fecht was transferred to Bismark, Ohio, and was succeeded by Rev. Joseph Gerz, who continues the resident pastor, and under whose administration St. Paul's Church has enjoyed its greatest material and general prosperity. On December 28, 1909, the present site was purchased from Mekel & Howell, giving a frontage of 125 feet and a depth of 200 feet. In April, 1910, ground was broken and the foundation laid for the new church. The cornerstone was placed July 10, 1910, with services conducted by the Rt. Rev. John P. Farrelly of Cleveland. In October, 1910, the pastor's residence, with the remaining lots on South Main Street, was sold, and plans completed for the building of a new pastor's residence on the sonth side of the new church. On May 7, 1911, divine services were held for the first time in the new church. This church is fully equipped and its furnishings are of the very best. The main altar is of marble and is a gift from Joseph Dick of Canton, having cost $2,700. Although there are many churches in the diocese larger and more costly, there are few better attended and better equipped in every way than St. Paul's. The brick residence of the pastor was completed in June, 1910. The altar was consecrated by Bishop Farrelly on November 3, 1913. The congregation in 1914 numbered about 125 families, drawn mostly from the farming district about New Berlin. The present pastor, Rev. Joseph Gerz, was born near the River Rhine in Germany, at the Village of Sayn, on June 8, 1876, a son of Peter and Mary (Steuder) Gerz. Having finished his classical course at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Rev. Father Gerz pursued his theological studies at the famous University of Louvain in Belgium, and was ordained to the priesthood there July 15, 1900. In the latter part of August of the same year he arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, and was shortly afterwards appointed assistant pastor to St. Joseph's Church in Tiffin. Rev. Father Gerz remained at Tiffin 21A years, was then appointed resident pastor, March 16, 1903, of St. Mary's Church in Kirby, Ohio, and on October 21, 1909, became regular pastor of St. Paul's in New Berlin, to succeed Rev. Charles J. Fecht. It has been during the six years of his active pastorate that the new church and parsonage have been constructed, at a total cost of about $40,000, and now practically all paid for. EMANUEL F. DUQUETTE. Agriculture has its specialties, like the arts and sciences, some farmers devoting their attention successfully to PICTURE OF CHARLES WILLIAM KRIEG HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 751 the growing of particular crops. One of the successful men in Stark County is Emanuel F. Duquette, who for some years past has been engaged in the cultivation of celery and onions exclusively and has thus become prosperous. As Mr. Duquette has shown remarkable enterprise and sagacity in his operations and has met with the most gratifying results, his career is an object lesson to those who are always complaining that there are nowadays no good opportunities open to men of small means. Mr. Duquette was born on a farm in Wood County, Ohio, September 22, 1883, the son of Anthony and Mary (Duceo) Duquette. His parents were born in Michigan and were of French descent. They removed to Wood County and here, in 1902, the father met his death in a railroad accident. His wife still survives him and is now a resident of Toledo. They were the parents of a large family, numbering ten children, namely : Angeline, who married Joseph Bashner and resides near Toledo ; Joseph, now residing with his father, his wife, in maidenhood Bertha Bradford, having died in 1910 ; Lambert, a resident of the State of Michigan; Mary, now living in Detroit, the wife of Henry Dunnegar ; Emanuel F., subject. of this sketch ; Morris, who lives in V Toledo, and Pearley, Alfonse, Lucien and Lois. Emanuel F. Duquette resided in Toledo from the time he was thirteen years of age and for a few years was employed in mercantile business in that city. He then went to Joplin, Missouri, where he worked in the lead mines for six months. On June 25, 1901, he married Louisa Grenie, the daughter of Michael Grenie of Lake Township, Stark County, and in the following fall removed to Akron, Ohio, where he spent a year. He then returned to Stark County and entered upon the business in which he has since been so successful, purchasing twelve acres of muck land, on which he began the cultivation of celery and onions. In the present year (1915) he added to his property by purchase the Hildebrand muck farm of twenty-two acres, for which he paid $400 an acre, and which, with his original purchase, is located in the big swamp section of Stark County, about two miles east of Hartville. Mr. and Mrs. Duquette have one daughter, Marguerite Wilhelmina Alamemia, who was horn June 11, 1904, who is a pupil now in her second year at Mount Morris College, situated between Canton and Massillon, Ohio. The family are members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Portage County, Ohio. CHARLES WILLIAM KRIEG. When he started upon his wage-earning career, the equipment of Charles William Krieg consisted of a business college education and the dependable resources of grit and determination and a capacity for untiring industry. These have elevated him to a substantial place among the business men of Canton, to the secretaryship and treasurership of the Berger Manufacturing Company, and to public-spirited participation in all that tends to the permanent upbuilding of the city. Mr. Krieg is a native son of Canton, born June 27, 1874, his parents being Christian and Susan (Kocher) Krieg, the former a native of Switzerland and the latter of the State of Pennsylvania. Born in 1838, 752 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY Christian Krieg was but thirteen years of age when with his parents and his twelve brothers and sisters he left his native land for the new home in America, and on the journey across the Atlantic the father was suddenly taken sick and died, being buried at sea. The brave mother kept on with her journey to Ohio, settling on a farm in Tuscarawas County, where she reared her children, giving them such educational advantages as she could afford. Christian Krieg remained on the home farm until he had attained manhood, at which time he came to Canton and secured employment in a store which stood on the present site of the City National Bank. Later he embarked in business on his own account, and through thrift, industry and perseverance built up a successful enterprise, which he continued to conduct until the time of his retirement, about 1904. His death occurred at Canton, in 1909, but the mother still survives and is now in her seventy-fourth year. Charles William Krieg received his education in the public schools of Canton, following which he prepared himself for a commercial career in a local business college. He began his active business life in the office of the Canton Dental and Surgical Company, as bookkeeper and cashier, and continued to act in these capacities until 1898, when he entered the employ of the Berger Manufacturing Company, as general bookkeeper. At the reorganization of the company, in January, 1906, his abilities and faithful performance of duty were recognized by his election as assistant treasurer and a director, offices he has held to the present time, and in 1910 he was placed in further responsibility by being elected secretary of the concern, the duties of which office he has also discharged in a thoroughly competent and satisfactory manner. Mr. Krieg is known as one of the progressive and many-ideas men of Canton, shrewd and discerning and practical in his methods. That his abilities are appreciated by his associates is shown by the fact that he is a member of the board of directors of the Canton Chamber of Commerce and of the executive committee of that body. He is well known in Masonry, belonging to Canton Blue Lodge No. 60, A. F. & A. M., Canton Chapter, R. A. M., Canton Commandery, K. T., Cleveland Consistory, S. R.. and Al Koran Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S.. of Cleveland. He belongs also to Canton Lodge No. 68, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks: Canton Lodge No. 598, Knights of Pythias, and Canton Circle, Protective Home Circle. His social connections are with the Congress Lake and Lake Side Country Clubs. Mr. Krieg married Miss Sara J. Demeusy, daughter of Augustus Demeusy, of Canton, and to this union there has come one daughter : Margaret D., who was born January 8, 1904. JACOB SCHLOTT, one of the best known of the Nimishillen Township families, was born February 20, 1832, in Jackson Township, just west of New Berlin, and all his life has been passed in Stark County, Ohio. He is the son of George and Elizabeth (Disler) Schlott, who were natives of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and who came of old Swiss families that made their way in to Pennsylvania in a very early period in the history of that state. Soon after the marriage of George and Elizabeth Schlott they moved HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 753 into Stark County, Ohio, and there Mr. Schlott followed the carpenter's trade, to which he had been trained. He built many of the barns and farm houses in and around New Berlin, many of which are in use today. In those days there was no such thing in the state as a casket factory, and this work was all done by hand in the various communities. George Schlott built caskets by hand for his town and those surrounding, and many a time he delivered the finished product, walking ten miles and carrying the casket himself. He bought and owned a small farm in Jackson Township, and he worked at his trade in the winter months and farmed in the summer He was seventy-five years old when death claimed him, and his wife, Elizabeth, was seventy years old when she died. Five children were born to these pioneers. Susan, the eldest, married Samuel Nunemacher. John became a farmer in Fairhope. Sallie married George Wagoner, and lives in Canton, Ohio. Jacob of this review came next. Daniel, the youngest, lived for years in Louisville and is now deceased. Jacob Schlott was privileged to attend the district schools in the community wherein he was reared, and he was able to help his father a good deal on the home place. He remained at home up to the age of twenty- nine, when he married Mary Anne Clarke, the daughter of Bartholomew Clarke, of Romes Station. Young Schlott owned a small farm on which they took up their residence, and lie also applied himself to blacksmithing, in which he had some training, his shop being located on a corner of the farm. He carried on the trade of a smith for about twenty years there, and during those years added a little to his farm from time to time until he had sixty acres under cultivation. in 1885 he bought the eighty acre farm where he now resides. This is a well kept place, long known as the Dave Reese farm, and Mr. Schlott carries on a general fanning industry, stockraising being a feature with him. He is successful and prosperous, and stands high in the estimation of all. To the Schlotts were born five children. Jennie is now living in Kansas, the wife of Lewis Peterson. Ellen married Jonas Kime, and they live in Louisville. Levi is deceased. Jacob lives in Canton, and Lydia, the youngest, married a Mr. Snyder and lives on the old farm home, her parents residing with them. The Schlott family are of the Lutheran faith, and the men are democrats. SIMON H. ESSIG. A descendant of two of the sterling pioneer families of Stark County. where both his paternal and maternal grandfathers, Adam Essig and John Lind, settled in an early day, upon their emigration from Pennsylvania to Ohio, he whose name introduces this paragraph has well maintained the ancestral prestige, both as a successful and enterprising farmer and as a citizen of steadfast purpose and inflexible integrity. He is one of the representative agriculturists and stock- growers of Plain Township, within the borders of which he has always maintained his home, and his present well improved home lies contiguous to the Village of New Berlin. Simon Henry Essig was born on a farm about one-half mile east of the Plain Center schoolhouse, in Plain Township, and the date of his 754 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY nativity was March 12, 1857. He is a son of Jacob and Magdalena (Lind) Essig, both likewise natives of Plain Township, where the former was born in 1820 and the latter in 1822, these dates showing that their parents had here settled when, Stark County was but little more than a forest wilderness. Jacob Essig was here reared to manhood and here became one of the substantial farmers of Plain Township, where he improved the farm which long remained in his possession and where he achieved success worthy of the name. He was one of the well-to-do citizens of Plain Township at the time of his death, in 1889, and his devoted wife survived him several years, both having been earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church. Simon H. Essig remained on the home farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-two years, in the meanwhile having profited duly from the advantages of the local schools. At the age noted he married and he and his piling wife established their home on a farm of 119 acres, situated two miles east of the Village of New Berlin. He subsequently gave evidence of his increasing prosperity and his self- reliance by purchasing this property, of which he is still the owner, and the same was brought into most effective cultivation, with excellent improvements, under his energetic and effective supervision. On this homestead he continued his residence until January, 1913, when he removed to his present attractive residence just outside the village limits of New Berlin, where he has since lived virtually retired, his son-in-law, Ira Smith, having practical charge of the old home farm and being one of the progressive young agriculturists of Plain Township. While on the farm Mr. Essig not only proved successful in his operations in diversified agriculture and stock-growing but also built up an excellent business in the buying and selling of all kinds of live stock, besides buying and shipping wool to a considerable extent. Aside from his farm operations Mr. Essig has also become financially interested in a number of important and successful industrial enterprises that have added to the precedence of Stark County along manufacturing, and commercial lines. He was one of the organizers of the Shull Steel Company, at Canton, the same having later been reorganized under its present title of the Canton Steel & Foundry Company, and he is still one of the stockholders in this corporation. He was concerned also in the organization and is now president of the Fluid Gauge Manufacturing Company, another important Canton corporation, and he is a director of the Plain & Jackson Townships Mutual Fire & Lightning Insurance Company, this position having been held by him since 1900. In partnership with Charles Worstler Mr. Essig became prominently identified with the lumber business. These succinct statements mark Mr. Essig as one of the progressive citizens of his native county, and his loyalty as a citizen has been on a parity with his well recognized civic liberality and public spirit. He has never deviated from a course of staunch allegiance to the democratic party and though not ambitious for public office he has served four years as township clerk of Plain Township. He is an active and valued member of the New Berlin Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, and both he and his wife are HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 755 zealous communicants of the Lutheran Church, in the faith of which he was reared. In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Essig to Miss Ida S. McKinney, who was born and reared in Plain Township and who is a daughter of Levi McKinney, long one of the well known citizens of Stark County, where he served many years as deputy sheriff, besides having held various township offices. In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Essig: Gilbert C., who is a carpenter by trade and vocation, resides with his parents; Bessie is the wife of Owen M. Shatzer, a successful school teacher for some years, and they reside just east of the Village of Hartville in Lake Township, their two children being Lucile and Ruth ; Grace L. is the wife of lra Smith and they reside on the old home farm of her parents, as previously intimated in this article, their three children being Cecil, Allen and Cyrilis. JOSEPH HENRY GOLDSMITH. Among the families whose activities and lives have been distinctive contributions to the progress of Stark County probably none deserves more credit than that of Goldsmith, the associations and labors of which are especially centered around Plain Township and the locality known as Cross Roads. Through all the generations the Goldsmith family has been noted for a vigorous and efficient citizenship, a business jndgment and valuable service, and the honors of the family are now well upheld by Joseph H. Goldsmith of a younger generation. Joseph Henry Goldsmith was born in Plain Township on the Middle Branch Road September 12, 1874. His parents were Henry and Elizabeth (Hissner) Goldsmith. Henry Goldsmith was born in 1837 in the old log house that stood just opposite the Case mansion in Canton. He lived years of well matured usefulness and died in 1897. The mother was born in 1839 on the Middle Branch Road and died in 1910. Joseph H. Goldsmith has spent all his life on the old home corners, known everywhere in Stark County and this part of Ohio as the Cross Roads. Its name is due to the fact that for sixty years stages coming from all points of the compass met at these cross roads, and the half way house was the station where the passengers and drivers took their meals and where many stayed over night. It is an interesting country community, reminiscent of days and activities long since past, and perhaps the most vital institution that has survived into the present is the Goldsmith Wagon Works, which has been known to the people for many miles around the Cross Roads for a period of forty-six years. Joseph H. Goldsmith has never been able to resist the fascination of a mechanical occupation and still keeps up a business which has come to be considered almost indispensable by the community. He received his education in the country schools and also attended the Canton High School. At his home, located on the rural delivery route No. 2 out of Canton, he has 5 1/2 acres, some of the best land in Plain Township, and its improvement consists of a fine residence and barn, all erected by himself. Near by and on the corner of the road are the blacksmith shop and wagon works, which Mr. Goldsmith operates as a side line. 756 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY He is a thorough workman, and skilled in the use of tools, blacksmith and wagon trade, and still gives much of his time to the management of the shop. Mr. Goldsmith has also been identified with the republican party in politics, and is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Knights of Pythias, while his church affiliation is with the English Lutheran. Mr. Goldsmith was married in 1898 to Hattie E. Clouser of New Berlin, daughter of Wellington F. Clouser, who is now rounding out the years of a good old age at his home in New Berlin. Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith are the parents of four children. The first two are twins, May and Marie, both now students in the Canton High School; Carl Wellington was born in 1901 and is attending the Oval City schools; and Harry IL was born in 1905 and is also in school at Oval City. FRED WERT JUSTUS. A business that has been growing rapidly for fifteen years and reflects the keen ability and aggressive enterprise of Fred W. Justus is the Justus Plumbing & Heating Company, of which Mr. Justns is president and manager. This is one of the largest concerns in its line in Stark County, and has been steadily pushed toward greater success by Mr. Justus, \V110 is a native son of Massillon and had a thorough training and expert knowledge of the plumbing business in all its departments prior to putting up the shop of his own nearly fifteen years ago. Born at Massillon February 18, 1879, he is a son of William Myron and Mary Alice (Wert) Justus. The grandfather was James Justus and many of the old time citizens will recall the firm of Warwick & Justus which was in business at Massillon for many years, and of which James Justus was an active partner, AV. Myron Justus was born at Millport, just north of Massillon, and at the time of his early death in 1880 was a bookkeeper for the firm of Warwick & Justus. Fred Justus' mother, who is still living, was born in Massillon, daughter of John B. Wert, who came from Pennsylvania to Stark County in the early days and recently died in his eighty-eighth year. Fred W. Justus grew up in 'Massillon, attended the public schools and also had a course in the Actual Business College. His business career began with the firm of Hemperly & Jacobs, hardware dealers, and after a clerkship. in that store for about six months, he learned the trade of steam fitting and plumbing, and was employed as a journeyman in Cleveland, Chicago and Connellsville, Pennsylvania. With this preliminary experience Mr. Justus returned to Massillon and in February, 1901, opened a plumbing shop under his own name. This is the business which by successive stages has developed into one of the largest of its class in Stark County. In September, 1907, the Justus Plumbing & Heating Company was incorporated, with Mr. Justus as president and manager. A young man successful in business, he has also given much time and energy to the development of Massillon's civic and commercial interests. He has allied himself as a working member of various civic organizations, and is a director of the Massillon Board of Trade and first vice HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 757 president of the Massillon Chamber of Commerce. He was chairman of the Committee on Organization for the Chamber of Commerce in 1915, and one of the leaders in the whirlwind campaign which brought 1,040 names to the membership list in a very brief time. At present he is safety director of the city. Mr. Justus is a past exalted ruler of the Massillon Lodge of Elks, and is affiliated with Clinton Lodge, No. 45, F. & A. M., and also belongs to the Elks and Masonic clubs. He married Jessie Drake, daughter of Franklin P. Drake, who is manager at Massillon for the Western Union Telegraph Company. ENOS R. MATHIE. One of the fine rural estates of Stark County is the well improved farm of Mr. Mathie, in Plain Township, this property having been purchased by him on the 25th of November, 1905, and the family home having here been established in the following March. Mr. Mathie has not only achieved success and prominence as one of the progressive farmers and stock growers of his native county but is the head of a specially interesting family, his daughters who constitute the admirable Mathie Quartet being young ladies of high musical talent and having appeared before many noteworthy public assemblies that have been charmed with their splendid renditions as vocalists, besides which the entire family is one of marked popularity in the representative social activities of the community. Mr. Mathie has gained special prestige in the breeding of high-grade live stock, is progressive and public-spirited as a citizen, is a man of sterling character, with a circle of friends that is coincident with that of his acquaintances, and consistency is observed when he is accorded specific recognition in this history. Enos R. Mathie was born in Lawrence Township, this county, on the 6th of February, 1868, and is a son of William J, and Eliza (Hershey) Mathie, both likewise natives of Stark County and representatives of honored pioneer families of this favored section of the old Buckeye State. William J. Mathie was born in Plain Township, on the 31st of January, 1841, and his wife was born July 18, 1840, both having been reared and educated under the conditions and influences of the middle pioneer era in the history of this county. Peter and Susan (Duck) Mathie, grandparents of him whose name introduces this article, were born in the City of Paris, France, and after coming to the United States they became early settlers and highly esteemed citizens of Stark County, where they passed the residue of their lives. William J. Mathie devoted his entire active life to the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing, and was one of the substantial citizens of his native county at the time of his death, on the 18th of October, 1908. He was well known in the county, his farm operations having been principally in Plain and Lawrence townships, and he commanded the high regard of all who knew him. His cherished and devoted wife passed to the life eternal on the 16th of May, 1911, both having been zealous members of the Reformed Church in the Village of New Berlin. Enos R. Mathie early gained fellowship with arduous toil and endeavor, through assisting his father, not only in the work of the farm, Vol. II-24 758 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY but also in adding to the landed estate of the family, his early educational advantages having been those afforded in the district schools and this having been effectively supplemented by personal application and by the lessons gained under that wisest of all head-masters, Experience. He has been essentially one of the world's workers and the concrete results of his well-ordered endeavors are shown in his fine farm, which comprises 108 acres and twenty-eight acres of which are within the corporate limits of the Village of New Berlin, at the east, so that the situation is one of exceptionally eligible and attractive order. The buildings on this splendid farmstead are among the best to be found in Plain Township, and the residence, on a site commanding a full view of the Village of New Berlin, is one of attractive and modern order, the while the home has been made specially notable as a center of gracious and unassuming hospitality, with Mrs. Mathie and her daughters as its popular chatelaines. Mr. Mathie has two large and productive apple orchards on his farm, has given much attention to the raising of the best grades of live stock, has been successful also as an exponent of diversified agriculture, and is one definitely prominent and influential in exploiting the raising of alfalfa as a valuable forage crop in this section of the state. He takes a lively interest in public affairs in Plain Township and is essentially liberal and progressive in his civic attitude. He raises the best grade of horses and swine, and the equipment of his farm for the carrying forward of its live-stock enterprise having represented an expenditure of fully $4,000. Mr. Mathie has shown a deep interest in educational affairs in • his native county and has given to his children the best possible advantages. He served six years as a member of the school board of Plain Township, and was its president during four years of this period. For four years he held the office of treasurer of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Association, the indemnities of which are extended through seven townships. On the 18th of June, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mathie to Miss Nettie V. Shaffer, who was reared and educated in Lake Township and who is a daughter of David and Christena (Bair) Shaffer, both of whom are deceased, the father having been a shoemaker by trade and vocation and having been a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Mathie have seven children: Cuba, Blanche, Hulda, Vera, Ward, David and Nettie. The four oldest daughters constitute the popular Mathie Quartet, which has been called upon to sing before many representative public and private assemblies and which stands exponent of exceptional musical talent and cultivation. This quartet sang before a convention of the Ohio. State Dairymen's Association, held in the City of Columbus, has given from its fine repertoire selections in the leading churches of the cities of Canton and Akron, and has been called upon for its vocal interpretations before farmers' institutes and at high school commencement exercises. The four young ladies are graduates of the New Berlin High School ; Miss Vera has taken a post-graduate course in the high school at Canton, as a member of the class of 1914, and Miss Blanche is preparing herself for the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 759 duties of a trained nurse, by a course in the city hospital of Akron ; Miss Hulda is a gradnate of the Canton Actual Business College. FRANK LOUIS DECORPS. The builder of a successful business and an influential factor in the social and civic life of Canton, Frank L. DeCorps has been known in Stark County all his life, and there are few men with a wider circle of acquaintance and a higher esteem. Mr. De- Corps is proprietor and manager of the Canton Machine Shop, is president of the city council and vice mayor of the city. His birth occurred at the old town of Louisville, in this county, May 26, 1866, a son of John B. and Mary (Siboit) DeCorps, both natives of France. His father was born in 1827, came to America alone in 1860, spent two years in Toledo, and in 1862 located at Louisville, Stark County. There he owned and cultivated a truck 'farm and was also a milk dealer. His death occurred in 1905. His wife was born in France in 1835, and was brought to America by her parents, who located in Louisville, and thus these two, natives of the same country, came to know each other and were married. She died in 1890. Frank L. DeCorps has followed the principle of self-help through most of his life. Educated in the parochial and high schools, he became a productive worker when eleven years of age, being employed between school terms in a dry goods store. His real inclinations were not for merchandising, and at eighteen began an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade in Canton. After his apprentice term, he was employed as a journeyman in the same factory, and for a number of years continued as machinist or foreman with different concerns. Among the establishments with which he was connected as foreman were the General Machine Shop, Canton Foundry & Machine Company, Ohio Steam Pump Company and Canton Hughes Pump Company. During 1896-97-98 he served as chief engineer of the Canton City Water Works. On August 1, 1907, Mr. DeCorps began business for himself. It was a modest enterprise, a small shop on Orchard Street, under the name Canton Machine Shop. His well established reputation followed him, and he was soon in possession of a growing and prosperous business. Two and a half years later he bought the site of his present shops on Rex Avenue, S. E., and has built up one of the important industries of the kind in Canton. For many years Mr. DeCorps has been known outside of business through his interest and activities in music. He was in former years a member of the Louisville Band, in 1885 joined the C. 0. P. Company, and later the Battalion Band. In 1899 he became identified with the Grand Army Band, the oldest and most noted organization of the kind in Ohio, and is still one of its active members. His relations have also been with different singing societies, and his services have been in demand in various churches. He was one of the organizers and is a past president of the Canton Symphony Orchestra. His social and fraternal affiliations are with the Knights of Columbus, being a Past Grand Knight, the Catholic Mntual Benefit Association and the Canton Chamber of Commerce, being a member of its charity committee. He is a member of St. John's Catholic Church. 760 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY In democratic politics Mr. DeCorps has long been active and prominent. In 1907 he made the race for councilman in the First Ward, a republican stronghold, and was defeated, but tried again in 1910 and was elected then and again in 1912. In May, 1913, his colleagues chose him president of the council and vice mayor. Mr. DeCorps married Emma Rebbillot, who was born in Stark County, but whose parents. Emil and Pauline (Gauane) Rebbillot, were both born in France. The seven children of their marriage are : Mary, Frank J., Beatrice, Pauline, Bernhard (deceased), Joseph and Richard. A Standard History of Stark County, Ohio An authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commer- cial, Industrial, Civic and Social Develop- ment. A Chronicle of the People, with Family Lineage and Memoirs. JOHN H. LEHMAN SUPERVISING EDITOR Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors VOLUME III ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1916 History of Stark County PICTURE OF A. B. FLORY A. B. FLORY. The phenomenal success which has been gained by A. B. Flory, of Canton, has made his name as familiar as a household word to the people of this city, in connection with the grocery business. Entering this field in 1910, in a modest way, he has directed his activities with such energy and progressive methods that at this time he is the owner of a chain of fourteen retail grocery stores, twelve at Canton and the others at New Berlin and Louisville, an adjunct of which is a large bakery establishment. Mr. Flory was born on his father's farm in Nimishillen Township, Stark County, Ohio, June 16, 1886, and is a son of Jacob and Leah (Stoner) Flory, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Stark County. The parents were married here and spent their lives on the farm until 1903, when the family moved to Canton, the father being engaged in the real estate and produce business here up to the time of his death, October 16, 1914. A. B. Flory made his home on the farm until the family moved to Canton, and his education was secured in the public schools and the Actual Business College. When only twelve years of age he displayed the possession of industry and ambition when he began selling newspapers in Canton, and continued in that line until 1910. He won promotion through his faithful and able performance of duty, and finally became manager of the circulation department of the News-Democrat, now the Daily News. During a part of this period he had employed his spare time and added to his income by working in the real estate and insurance business. In 1910 a change in the ownership of the newspaper caused him to leave the field in which he had made such a success, and he turned his attention at that time to mercantile lines, establishing a retail grocery store at No. 221 Second Street, Northwest, which was destined to become No. 1 of a chain of fourteen stores. This store had a floor space of 1,500 square feet, and the extent of the development of Mr. Flory's operations may be seen in the fact that the combined floor space of his present stores is 37,000 square feet. In 1912 Mr. Flory established Store No. 2, at 1234 Market Avenue, South ; Store No. 3, at 1226 Tuscarawas Street, East, and Store No. 4, at No. 804 Cherry Avenue, Northeast. In 1913 he established Store No. 5, at 1726 Navarre Road, and Store No. 6, at No. 718 Sixth Street, Southwest. In 1914 he established Store No. 7, at 231 Second Street, Southeast; Store No. 8, at 824 Market Avenue, South, and Store No. 9, at 832-34 Gibbs Avenue, Northeast, Canton, and Store No. 10, at the corner of Chapel and Main streets, Louisville. In 1915 762 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY he established Store No. 11, on Main Street, New Berlin ; Store No. 12, at 1651 Tusearawas Street, East, Canton ; Store No. 13, at 2320 East Lake, and Store No. 14, at 2080 Ninth Street, Southwest. In 1912, realizing the need of securing fresh bread, cakes, rolls, cookies, buns and fine pastries for his customers, Mr. Flory entered the baking business, establishing a plant at No. 231 Second Street, Southeast, where he employs six bakers. Mr. Flory employs in his various establishments more than sixty people, and in 1915 did a business which exceeded $314,000. Not yet thirty years of age, Mr. Flory has already accomplished more in a business way than most men achieve after a lifetime of steady application and earnest industry. His establishments are models of order, in which may be found the finest of staple and fancy groceries. He is familiar with all the details of the business, and in the short space of five years has become one of the foremost figures in the retail grocery trade in the city, his judgment being accepted as final by his associates in the business. While his great business responsibilities have demanded his attention almost to the exclusion of all other activities, he is not indifferent to the pleasures of companionship with his fellows, and is popular with his fellow-members in the Adcraft Club and the Moose. Mrs. Flory was formerly Miss Dora Lower, of Canton. WILLIAM F. RICKS. One of Stark County's oldest business men, still in active service, is William F. Ricks, president of the Merchants National Bank of Massillon. Mr. Ricks has been identified with merchandising or banking in Massillon more than half a century and through all those years his has been one of the vital influences in the upbuilding of the fortunes of the city. William F. Ricks though born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1839, was little more than a year old when his parents settled in Stark County in 1840. They first lived at West Brookfield, but in 1853 came to Massillon, when Mr. Ricks was a boy of fourteen. He completed his education in the public schools of Massillon, and in 1857, at -the age of eighteen, became a clerk in his father's store. In 1862 he bought the business, and for nearly thirty years was one of the leading merchants of Massillon. He closed out his merchandising interests in 1890, and left his store to become cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Massillon. Later he was made vice president, and since October, 1913, has filled the office of president in this old and prominent financial institution of Stark County. He succeeded as president the late Hon. S. A. Conrad. Many facts might be mentioned to indicate what Mr. Ricks has done in promoting the welfare of his home city and of Stark County. He was especially active in getting the route of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway located through Massillon. He was also one of the charter members of the Massillon Building & Loan Association and served as a director and is vice president. He deserves considerable credit for his share in securing the location of the State Hospital for the Insane in Massillon. For twelve years Mr. Ricks served as president of the Massillon Board of Trade. In politics since casting his first vote he has HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 763 been allied with the republican party, and the first man for whom he cast a ballot as president was Abraham Lincoln. He has been much interested in the welfare of the party, but chief above all has been his uninterrupted interest in the welfare of his home city. LEWIS EDWIN YORK. For the past four years since 1911 the welfare and training of the younger generation of Massillon have been under the direction of Lewis Edwin York. He is an educator of long and varied experience, a man who knows not only things but men, women and children, one who has been a student and observer and an active participant in the many affairs of the modern social program. For several years Mr. York has enjoyed a high reputation on the lecture platform, and has carried a message to hundreds of audiences all over the Middle West. Representing one of the oldest families of Northeastern Ohio, he was born on a farm in Portage County October 2, 1869, son of John Buchtel and Anna Margaret (Clock) York. His father was born in Greentown, Stark County, in 1829, a son of George York, who came from Pennsylvania and was one of the early settlers in the rural district of Stark County. Professor York's mother was born near Mannheim, Germany, in 1830, a daughter of Frederick Glock, who came to America in 1840, first locating in the German settlement sixteen miles east of Akron, Ohio. John Buchtel York likewise performed a notable service in the field of education. He was a graduate from Mount Union College at Alliance with the class of 1861, and for thirty-five years was a teacher, at first in Mount Union College, then in the states of Ohio and Kansas. He died at a good old age in Randolph, Ohio, in 1901, while his widow passed away in Cleveland in 1913 at the age of eighty-three. Though acquired largely as a result of his own self denial and earnest efforts, Mr. L. E. York possesses a broadly liberal education. As a boy he was a student in the district schools of Portage County, afterwards was in Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and in 1894 graduated from his father's alma mater, Mount Union College, with the degree Bachelor of Science, and subsequently with the degrees Bachelor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy. In 1896 he graduated from King's School of Oratory at Pittsburg, also spent a year in graduate work at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and one summer at. Columbia University in New York City. For over twenty-five years Mr. York has been a teacher and superintendent, and has been identified with the schools at Randolph, Garfield, Newton Falls, Kingsville, Barnesville, Martins Ferry and Massillon, all in Ohio. For one year he was president of Duquesne College in Pittsburg. In 1911 he came to Massillon to take the superintendency of the city schools, and brought to that position not only a broad experience but a capacity for thorough and sympathetic understanding of children and an exact knowledge of the needs and principles of education. He holds both common and high life certificates in the State of Ohio. For fully five years Mr. York has spent his vacations in filling chautauqua engagements for the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. He has appeared before audiences in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Kan- 764 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY sas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois and has well won his place as one of the leading educational and entertaining personalities on the American lecture platform. His most familiar lectures have been delivered under the titles "The Glory of Young Men," and "The Ideal Man," and all his lectures contain not only entertainment but solid instruction and inspiration, and lessons derived from his own individual experience in the educational field. He is a popular orator and a man of commanding presence, and uses those mediums in order to deliver a message that has both vitality and charm. In 1897 Mr. York married Miss Grace May Williams, who was born near Levittsburg, Ohio, daughter of Carlos and Mary J. (Mathews) Williams. They have two children : Grace Beatrice, born July 6, 1903 ; and Lewis Edwin, Jr., born August 30, 1904. Mr. York is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with Clinton Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Hiram Chapter No. 18, R. A. M., and Massillon Commandery No. 4 of the Knight Templar branch of Masonry. He is a well known figure in the Ohio State Teachers' and National Teachers' associations, is a member of the Massillon Chamber of Commerce, and a director in the Massillon Automobile Club. WILLIAM H. HOOVER. From the time he attained manhood until the present time William H. Hoover has been prominently and closely identified with business affairs in Stark County and particularly at New Berlin, where his enterprise and public spirit have been responsible for much of the industrial welfare and civic improvement of that thriving little city. Mr. Hoover is head of the chief manufacturing industries at New Berlin and is interested in many business and civic affairs. The type of business man who is almost instinctively trusted by his fellows, Mr. Hoover has proved his ability to handle and direct large interests, and belongs to the group of men who at New Berlin control and uphold the business prosperity of the locality. William H. Hoover was born in Plain Township of Stark County, August 18. 1849, a son of Daniel and Mary (Kryder) Hoover. His parents moved to Plain Township from Pennsylvania in 1827, were early settlers there, and the family is one that belongs among the older family groups in Stark County. William H. Hoover spent his early days on the old homestead, and his education came from common schools and from Mount Union College. From the utilization of his native talents and his vigorous and wide-awake enterprise he has derived greater benefits than from the formal education which he took as preparation for life. His first year after leaving school was spent in farming. The following three years he was a hard worker and learner in the tannery at Hoover's Cross Roads. At the end of that time the tannery of John Lind at New Berlin was offered for sale, and after some negotiations young Hoover succeeded in making the purchase. During the next fifteen years he applied himself with unstinted energy to the business of that concern, and as a result it became the largest tannery in Stark County and one of the very important manufacturing establishments. From tanning Mr. Hoover branched out into the manufacture of horse collars and patent HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 765 leather saddlery goods, and this industry gave steady employment to about 200 operatives. The business was incorporated January 1, 1903, under the name W. H. Hoover Company. This has been the central institution at New Berlin, and has contributed much to the prestige of Stark County as one of the important industrial centers of Ohio. Mr. Hoover has also been a prominent factor in the construction of the Canton & Akron Electric Railway, and has served as its president for four years. In 1908 Mr. Hoover organized and incorporated what is known as the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company, for the purpose of manufacturing the suction sweeper invented and patented by Mr. J. M. Spangler of Canton. Mr. Hoover is president and treasurer of this company, while H. W. Hoover is vice president and general manager and II. C. Price is secretary. Among moderate priced suction sweepers, the Hoover has many features of excellence unsurpassed by any other machine on the market. As a portable and easily handled vacuum cleaner for home use it cannot be said to have any superior, and the generally extended sales and popularity are ample proof of this fact. The company have the main factory and general office at New Berlin, but also a Canadian factory and office at Windsor, Ontario, and the machine is now distributed all over North America and in foreign countries. Mr. Hoover was married November 21, 1871, to Miss Susan Troxel of Plain Township. Stark County. Her parents were Peter and Catherine Troxel, both now deceased. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover were born six children : Alice, who died when six years of age ; Mary, who is the wife of H. C. Price, secretary of the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company ; Carrie, wife of George C. Berkey of Elkhart, Indiana, and she died in 1906; Herbert W. is vice president and general manager of the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company, and married Grace Steele, daughter of Dr. W. (. Steele of New Berlin . Frank married Edna. Seiler of Elkhart, Indiana; and Daniel P. married Clarice Schiltz. Mr. Hoover, Sr., was for many years a member of the school board at New Berlin, and has membership in the Masonic, the Maccabees and the Knights of Pythias fraternities. He has been liberally identified with local affairs in his home city and county, and has never failed to contribute to good canses and movements that will mean a better and larger community life. WILLIAM J. EVANS. Prominent among the citizens of New Berlin, Ohio, who have taken an active and helpful part in advancing the interests, civic and business. of this community, is William J. Evans, the popular and capable postmaster, who was appointed to his present office January 31, 1914, and assumed his duties in the following March. Postmaster Evans is entirely a self-made man, having started to work on his own account at the age of fourteen years, and his success has been gained in New Berlin, where he has at all times been known as an energetic. strictly reliable and public-spirited citizen. He was born in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 2, 1869, and is a son of John Evans, who has also been known in this city for many years. John Evans was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, June 9, 1844, and is 766 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY a son of William and Margaret (Brown) Evans, natives of the same place, where both passed away. William Evans was a stonecutter by trade, a vocation which he followed with a measure of success for many years, but a few years before his death, and at the time of that event, he was doing bridgework for the main line of the London & Great Western Railway. John Evans was given only ordinary educational advantages, attending the public schools until reaching the age of thirteen years, at which time he entered upon an apprenticeship of six years to the trade of leather worker, in his native town, where he continued to be employed until 1868. The outlook in Wales, however, was not a promising one according to the idea of Mr. Evans, who was enterprising and ambitious and desired to make a comfortable home for himself and family. Accordingly, in 1868, he emigrated to the United States, where he felt sure better opportunities could be obtained, and landed at New York City, with the idea of making that metropolis his permanent home. Several days later, however, he started for the West with Pittsburgh as his objective point, and in that city went to work making horse collars, continuing to reside there for nearly four years. Subsequently he removed to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he continued to reside until 1875, working at his trade. At that time, W. H. Hoover, of New Berlin, Ohio, was looking for "sober" collar makers, and through a friend of Mr. Evans, at Pittsburgh, got into communication with him at Butler, inducing Mr. Evans to come to New Berlin to work on collars in the Hoover factory, an enterprise which had just been established. He continued to be engaged in making collars for many years, but eventually changed to saddle making, and continued with the Hoover Company until 1902, when he retired. He has since been spending his time at his home at New Berlin, enjoying a well-earned rest after a long, busy and useful life. Physically, Mr. Evans is small and light of weight, but is a man of active energy and tireless persistence. He has had the pleasure of seeing his descendants grow into large men and women, has been the father of thirteen children, and has twenty-one grandchildren, one of whom, Dale, the son of E. C. Schick, scored 981/2 out of a possible 100 points at the Stark County Baby Show. Mr. Evans has been identified with the church since he reached the age of sixteen years, and has been active in its work since. In Wales he was allied with the Baptists, in Butler, Pennsylvania, he attended the Presbyterian Church, and at New Berlin he was one of the reorganizers, in 1877, of the Disciples, or Christian, Church, and has been an ordained and licensed minister of the church, doing a great deal of ministerial work throughout Stark County since 1882. He was corresponding secretary for the Ninth District of Ohio Christian Missionary Society for twelve years. He was also well known for years in fraternal circles, and still takes a keen interest in the work of the various organizations. Mr. Evans was record keeper for New Berlin Tent No. 28, Knights of the Maccabees, and at the completion of his services in that capacity was presented with a gold watch by the members of his tent in appreciation of his conscientious and faithful work. He is senior past chancellor of Loyalty Lodge No. 469, Knights of Pythias, and for years was keeper of records and seals for that lodge. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 767 On January 7, 1863, Mr. Evans was united in marriage with Miss Mary Griffiths, who was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, January 12, 1845, the daughter of Job and Elizabeth Griffiths. Thirteen children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Evans, among them being two pair of twins : Anna, who married Elmer Schrantz, of Orrville, Ohio, and has two children-Leslie and Edith ; Elizabeth, who married Ellis Schiltz, and died in 1909, leaving three children—Harold, Glenn and Clarice; William J., of this review ; Margaret Alice, who is single and resides at home with her parents ; John G., now of Akron, Ohio, who married Nettie Smith, of New Berlin, and has two children-Donald and Vera; Owen J., a resident of Canton, Ohio, who married Lettie Fry, and has two children-Atlee and James; Frank, now a resident of New Berlin, who married Lou Findley of this city and has one son—Paul; Mamie and Martha, twins, the latter of whom died at the age of fifteen years, while the former married Earl Schick, now of New Berlin, and they have four children—Frances, Belden, Marguerite and Dale ; Harry, a resident of New Berlin, who married Elta Coleman of this city; Raymond, a resident of Akron, and a well-known professional baseball player, who during the season of 1914 made an excellent record as third baseman for the Albany (New York) Baseball Club, in the New York State League, married Maude Willaman, of New Berlin ; and Bessie and Jessie, twins, the former of whom married Archibald Swope, of New Berlin, and has three children—John, Raymond and Gordon, while Jessie married Ellis Schiltz, of New Berlin, and has one son, Evan B. William J. Evans was six years of age when brought to New Berlin by his parents, and here his education was secured in the public schools. Being the eldest son, when he was fourteen years old he laid aside his books and faced the serious responsibilities of life, and from that year forward assisted in the support of the family. Entering the Hoover factory, he served an apprenticeship to the trade of collar making, and became a professional collar maker, continuing to work at this vocation until about 1900, when he was made foreman of the patent-leather collar department of the Hoover factory. This position he filled satisfactorily until September, 1908, and in that year entered the sweeper department, where he had charge of the shipping and receiving work. Mr. Evans resigned that position in March, 1914, to assume the duties of the postmaster's office, to which he had been appointed by President Wilson in January of the same year. Mr. Evans has already demonstrated his entire fitness and capacity for this important office, and has introduced numerous reforms and innovations which have improved the service for the people of New Berlin. He has the utmost confidence of the citizens among whom he has lived so long and who have had reason to place faith in his reliability and fidelity in all matters of responsibility. Prior to taking this office, Mr. Evans had some experience as an official, having served for six years as clerk of Plain Township, to which office he was elected three times as a democrat. Like his father, Mr. Evans has taken some part in fraternal work, and at this time is a member of New Berlin Tent No. 28, Knights of the Maccabees; of Loyalty Lodge No. 469, Knights of Pythias ; of Hadassah Lodge No. 450, Independent Order 768 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of Odd Fellows, and of Canton Lodge No. 233. Loyal Order of Moose. With his family, he attends the Disciples Church at New Berlin. Mr. Evans was married September 2. 1888, to Miss Fannie Walter, who was horn at New Berlin, Ohio, daughter of the late Samuel and Sophia (Roll) Walter, and to this union there have been born five children, as follows : Dawn Cecil, Carlyle, Mary Louise, Josephine May and William ("Bill") Dean, all of whom reside at home with their parents with the exception of the last named, who died July 6, 1915, aged four and a half years. WILLIAM ROYER. A native of Stark County and a scion of the third generation of the Royer family in this county, where his grandfather settled more than two-thirds of a century ago, he whose name introduces this paragraph has been prominently and worthily identified with farming industry and other important lines of business enterprise in his native county and is now living practically retired in the attractive Village of Hartville, in Lake Township. Until recently he was numbered among the most active and influential men of business in this village, and he is a citizen of substantial capital acquired through well-directed effort, his status in the community being that of a citizen of sterling worth and one Who commands unequivocal confidence and respect. On the homestead farm of his parents, three miles south of Hartville, in Lake Township, Mr. Royer was born on the 24th of August, 1851. He is a son of Abraham and Rebecca (Ulrich) Royer, the former of whom was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1817, and the latter of whom was born in the Hartville section of Lake Township, Stark County, Ohio, a daughter of Adam Ulrich, one of the honored pioneers of the county. Abraham Royer was reared and educated in the old Keystone State and was about twenty-one years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Stark County, Ohio, his father, Joseph Royer, purchasing a tract of wild land in Lake Township and reclaiming the same into a productive farm, this homestead continuing to be the abiding place of himself and his wife until their death. The place, now the Bixler farm, is situated about midway between the villages of Middlebranch and Hartville. After his marriage Abraham Royer settled in the same neighborhood, and there he became one of the prosperous farmers and prominent and influential citizens of Lake Township, the remainder of his life having been devoted to agricultural pursuits and his death having occurred in 1880, his wife surviving him by nearly a decade and being summoned to the life eternal in 1889. Both were zealous members of the German Baptist Church, now known as the United Brethren denomination. William Royer is indebted to the common schools of Stark County for his early educational training and in connection with the work of the old homestead farm he gained as a boy and youth an enduring appreciation of the dignity and value of honest toil and endeavor. He continued to be associated in the management of his father's farm until he had attained to the age of thirty years, and then removed to the vicinity of the Village of Louisville, where he eventually became the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 769 owner of two well improved farms, in Nimishillen Township, and where he continued his successful operations as an agriculturist and stock- grower during a period of twenty-one years. He then sold his farm property and removed to the Village of Hartville, where he was engaged in the hotel business for the ensuing two years. Thereafter he here conducted a profitable livery business for five years and then erected the Hartville Grain Elevator, which he successfully conducted, in connection with the coal business, until 1914, when he disposed of the business upon advantageous terms. Since that time he has not been engaged in any active business enterprise, but he is a stockholder and director of the Canton Feed and Milling Company, at the judicial center of the county, besides which he owns good business and residence property on East Tuscarawas Street, Canton, and his fine, modern residence property in Hartville. He has always been known as a loyal and public-spirited citizen and though he has taken a lively interest in local affairs he has never had any desire for public office. Mr. Royer has been three times married. He first wedded Lida Keim, who died in 1883, and the two children of that union are Charles and Mehlon. His second marriage was to Emma Summers, who died in 1894, and the one son by that union was John. Mr. Royer married for his third wife, Miss Cena Summers, who was born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Louisville, this county, and who is a daughter of the late Josiah Summers. Mr. and Mrs. Royer have seven children: Ira is in the employ of the Canton Feed & Milling 'Company; Homer, Howard and Earl are all in the employ of the Quality Tire & Rubber Company, of Hartville; and at the parental home are to be found the three younger children—Lawrence, Ruth and Willard. Mr. Royer and his family hold membership in the United Brethren Church.WILLIAM WILLIAM A. SCHUSTER. There is hardly a better known name in business affairs at Massillon than that of Schuster. For a man who only recently celebrated his thirtieth birthday, 'William A. Schuster has gone rapidly forward to a position of influence and prominence, and is now president and treasurer of the City Ice & Coal Company, and is manager of the Schuster branch of the Stark-Tusearawas Breweries Company. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, May 7, 1884, he is a son of John W. Schuster, formerly of Massillon, and now of Cleveland. His father was born in the City of Kaustadt, Province of Bavaria, Germany, March 9, 1852. Reared in the fertile vineyard district of Southern Germany, he might be said to have inherited his profession as a vineyardist and brewer. Coming to the United States in 1870, he spent two years each in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, and in 1874 located at Cleveland, where he was in the wine business for several years. Coming to Massillon, he bought the old Kopp Brewery plant and in 1878 organized the Schuster Brewing Company, of which he was president and general manager. He directed that important local industry as its head until 1905, when the Massillon Brewery was consolidated with the Stark-Tusearawas Breweries Company, with general headquarters at Canton. For one year after this consolidation he continued as president and general man- 770 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY ager of the larger corporation, and then retired from active control, though he still retains financial interests. In 1908 he returned to Cleveland, and has since conducted a restaurant in that city. William A. Schuster gained his early education in the Cleveland public schools and attended a college at Chicago, Illinois. In 1902, at the age of eighteen, he began an apprenticeship in the brewery business. He learned it from the details of the manufacturing end up through the counting room to the main business office, and in 1906, having proved himself, was made manager of the Schuster branch of the Stark-Tuscarawas Breweries Company, and has held that responsibility practically ever since reaching his majority. In 1913 he became president and treasurer of the City Ice & Coal Company of Massillon, and has financial interests in other local corporations. Mr. Schuster is a member of the Massillon Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Loyal Order of Moose and various other fraternal organizations. JOHN KIRK BAXTER. Education has been the life work of John Kirk Baxter, for the past ten years superintendent of the Canton City school system. His prominence in educational circles is indicated by the fact that in 1914 he was president of the State Teachers' Association, and has filled a number of positions and been the recipient of numerous honors in various teachers' organizations. He has been teaching and engaged in the administration of school work upwards of thirty-five years, and his long experience, his constant study of education as a science, and his high ideals have made his service invaluable, and have done much to place the schools of Canton on a plane of relative superiority in the state. Although born in West Liberty, Iowa, Mr. Baxter is essentially an Ohio man, since his parents were both natives of the state and spent the greater part of their lives in Northeastern Ohio. In December following the date of his birth his parents returned to East Rochester, Columbiana County, whence they had removed to Iowa, and Mr. Baxter acquired his early education in the schools of this state. From the age of ten he attended the district schools at Malvern, in Carroll County, and at the age of sixteen was granted a teacher's certificate and took charge of his first school in Augusta Township of Carroll County. Following that he taught in Brown Township of the same county, in the graded schools of Malvern, then entered Hiram College, and while a student there was elected superintendent of the Malvern schools. He held that position five years, resigning to finish his college course, and graduated from old Hiram in 1890 with the degree A. B. and subsequently in 1893 received his master's degree from the same school. In the fall of 1890 Mr. Baxter was elected principal of the Mount Vernon High School, had supervision of the high school course there eight years, and was then elected superintendent of the entire city school system. Mr. Baxter resigned his place at Mount Vernon in 1905 to accept the superintendency of the Canton city schools, to which he was elected in the same year. He is a member of the Northeastern Ohio Teachers' PICTURE OF JOHN K. BAXTER HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 771 Association, of which he was for three years a member of the executive committee, one year vice president and in 1915 president. This is the largest teachers' organization in the state. He is also a member of the Ohio State Teachers' Association, was for three years a member of its executive committee, treasurer for two years, and in 1914 was honored as president. He has frequently attended and is a member of the National Educational Association, and at the 1913 meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, was honored by the teachers of Ohio with election to the post of state director. Mr. Baxter as an educator also keeps in close touch with civic affairs at Canton, is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce, and in the Masonic fraternity has taken the degrees up to and including the Knight Templar. He married Flora Ross, daughter of Iverson Ross, an old settler of Carroll County. CHARLES R. DAILY. One of the most conspicuous among the promoters of the commercial and industrial interests of Canal Fulton, Charles R. Daily has been the founder of several business institutions the importance of which has done much to extend this thriving community's reputation as a center of enterprise and activity. Like a number of the other leading business citizens of Stark County, he is a product of the farm, having been born in Franklin Township, Summit County, Ohio, May 30, 1861, and is a son of Henry D. and Mary E. (Rhoades) Daily. Henry D. Daily was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1824, a son of Henry Daily, a native of the Keystone State, who served as a soldier in the American army during the War of 1812, subsequently moved to Ohio, where he settled on a farm in Summit County, and there rounded out a long and industrious life, passing away at the advanced age of ninety-one years. The mother of Charles R. Daily was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1825, and died at Akron early in 1915, when she was ninety years old. She was a daughter of John Rhoades, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a pioneer of Stark County. One of his sons, David Rhoades, in a trip to the gold fields of California, in 1849, walked the entire distance across the plains, outdistancing the remainder of his party, immigrants from Kentucky, although they were supplied with teams. The father of Charles R. Daily was a young man when he located in Summit County, Ohio, and the remaining years of his life were passed on his farm in Franklin Township, where he died in 1902 at the age of seventy-eight years. Educated in the district schools, Charles R. Daily was brought up as an agriculturist, remaining on the homestead farm until 1894, in which year he came to Canal Fulton to enter upon his business career. Here he established himself in the undertaking and furniture business, in partnership with Charles A. Rudy, but three years later bought Mr. Rudy's interests and continued to be sole proprietor of the business until 1902. In that year he sold out to Finefrock Brothers, Mr. Daily having become interested in the buying of fur to such an extent that it demanded his undivided attention. For twenty years Mr. Daily has beer the largest fur buyer in Ohio, establishing a record in 1913 and 1914, in each year purchasing $190,000 worth of this product. Since 772 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY 1912 he has been half-owner in the fur factory operated under the style of L. K. Schwartz & Charles R. Daily, at Akron, where all manner of garments made of fur are made up. A force of men cover the state in season in the interests of this concern. Mr. Daily is also a wool buyer, and is engaged extensively in purchasing and handling ginseng root, which is highly valued as a medicine in China, to which country practically the entire product of America is shipped. He buys all over this country and makes regular trips to New York City, where he disposes of his product direct to Chinese merchants. Various other industries of importance have enlisted Mr. Daily's interest and have profited by his abilities and energy. He has been the medium through which large real estate deals have been transacted, and has been particularly active in the handling of farming property. In the rubber industry, he owns stock in the Firestone, Goodyear and other large companies, and another important connection is his identification with the Pit Car Manufacturing Company of Canal Fulton. During the last eight years Mr. Daily has been one of the prominent promoters of agricultural interests as a member of the board of the Stark County Agricultural Society, and for the last three years has had charge of the concessions for the agricultural fair meetings, having full supervision of all the shows, the racing events and the advertising. He is likewise a member of the board of election for the fair association. Mr. Daily is a member of the directing hoard of the Exchange Banking Company of Canal Dover. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Canal Fulton Lodge of the Masonic Order, and a member of the Knights of Pythias. A republican in his political views as to national affairs, in local elections he is' inclined to vote independently, preferring to choose his own candidates, regardless of party lines. Mr. Daily married Miss Cora J. Baughman, daughter of Thomas Baughman, of Franklin Township, Summit County, Ohio_ Mr. and Mrs. Daily are members of the Reformed Church, and take an active and helpful interest in its work and movements. ISAAC MARKLEY. Among the pioneer families of Stark County, one of the oldest and most highly honored is that bearing the name of Markley, which was founded here in the early part of the nineteenth century by John Markley. A native of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, he was born January 5, 1791, and died April 19, 1856. He was a son of Christopher Markley, who was born in Germany, December 10, 1745, and who, with his two brothers, emigrated to America, settling in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Christopher Markley came to Stark County and settled in Lake Township, where his death occurred December 10, 1818. He married Christiana Ulrich, who was born April 8, 1756, and died September 30, 1823. John Markley, the grandfather of the present generation, as represented by Isaac Markley, one of the substantial and prosperous farmers and public-spirited citizens of Plain Township, married Susan Brumbaugh, who was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1796, and died in Lake Township, Stark County, Ohio, August 7, 1880. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 773 They became the parents of the following children : Christina, born November 29, 1816, married Daniel Wolf, and died March 20, 1890 ; Elizabeth, born January 20, 1819, married Joseph Mohler and died August 11, 1896; Mary, born October 20, 1821, married Enoch Price, and died July 25, 1864; George, born September 23, 1823, died August 5, 1834 ; Nancy, born November 6, 1825, died March 9, 1893; Susan, born October 6, 1827, died September 29, 1909, married Samuel Royer, and after his death married George Price ; Catherine, born January 12, 1830, married Soloman Bair, and is still living, a widow, at Middlebranch, Ohio; Hannah, born January 28, 1832, died September 26, 1902, married Jacob Harley; Samuel, born April 30, 1834, died August 12, 1904; Andrew, born September 9, 1836, died September 1, 1880; and Isaac, born January 3, 1839, married Barbara Yoder, who was born in Nimishillen Township, Stark County, Ohio, January 13, 1839, and died October 17, 1909. She was a daughter of Christian Yoder, and she has one son : Elmer E., who was born January 6, 1867. John Markley, the father of Isaac Markley, came to Stark County, Ohio, when he was a young man. He had been given a public school education, and was reared in an agricultural community, so that he followed the pursuits of the soil throughout his life and died a well-to-do man, by reason of many years of faithful industry. Isaac Markley was born on the old Markley homestead farm in Lake Township, Stark County, Ohio, and was brought up to the vocation of farming, working on the home place during the summer months and attending the district schools during the winter terms. He thus continued until the year 1870, when he purchased a farm of his own located in Lake Township, about one mile east of Greentown, which he cultivated for a period of fourteen years. In 1884 Mr. Markley purchased the Jacob H. Bair Farm, in Plain Township, and in 1885 moved to this property, although he continued to retain possession of the old farm until 1911. When he moved to the Plain Township farm the residence and barn were standing, but all the other improvements have been put on under his supervision, and it is one of the really valuable properties in the township. The farm consists of 157 acres of land, all in a good state of cultivation, and lies north of Canton six miles. Mr. Markley has made an unqualified success of his ventures, and is justly accounted one of the progressive and practical agriculturists of his locality. He has also found time to give to the advancement of township and civic affairs, having served as trustee of Lake Township three years, a capacity in which he discharged the duties with signal ability. Elmer E. Markley has made his home with his parents all his life, and has been associated with his father in all his operations. His own education was secured in the public schools and he has always been a friend of education, having served several times as school director. He was married October 5, 1895, to Minnie Machamer, who was born in Plain Township, Stark County, Ohio, August 25, 1876, daughter of Anthony and Elizabeth (Kassler) Machamer, of an old family of Stark County. One of Mr. Markley's most highly-prized possessions is the walking cane that was owned and used by his great-grandfather. Christopher Markley. 774 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY GIBBS FAMILY. As inventor and manufacturers the Gibbs family has been identified with the industrial history of Canton for over three- quarters of a century, and three generations of the family have been at the head of important plants in the city. Joshua Gibbs, inventor and manufacturer, and grandfather of the present generation of the family, was the pioneer plow maker west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was a native of New Jersey, born near the City of Trenton, in 1802, of Quaker parents. He learned the trade of cooper and general wood-worker, and became an expert mechanic. After working at his trade in Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, he came west to Ohio in 1822. He worked in Cleveland for a few months, and then came to Canton. which at that time was a town equal in size to Cleveland, and in the opinion of Mr. Gibbs, offered better opportunities, and a better future than did the town on the lake. When he came to Canton there were two cooper shops here, and he found employment in the shop owned by Mr. Fogle. Up to this time Mr. Gibbs had not turned his mind seriously to inventions, though he had long before given evidence of more than ordinary genius in that direction. His first patent was on an invention known as a bar share plow, on which he received a patent in 1826, which letters patent, signed by Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, is still in the possession of the Gibbs family. Mr. Gibbs began manufacturing his plow in about 1827. The plow had a wooden mold-board with metal trimmings, and was the first plow manufactured west of the Alleghanies, and it brought its inventor and manufacturer into prominence all over Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and the western states of that date. Along about that time the Laird Foundry was built in Canton, and Mr. Gibbs promptly changed the wooden mold-board plow to one of metal, having his castings made by the Lairds. From that time on Mr. Gibbs continued the manufacture of his plow until 1856, when he retired from active business, and was succeeded by his sons, Lewis, Martin and William, who carried on the business until 1863 under the name of Lewis Gibbs & .Bros. Besides the plow, Mr. Gibbs patented many other of his inventions, the most important one being his invention for dry grinding plows, which proved a big success, and which is the basic principal of the dry grinding in use today throughout the country. Mr. Gibbs married Barbara Schaefer, who was born in Germany, and came with her parents to Canton in early days. Mr. Gibbs died on December 15, 1815, while his wife died in 1878, at the age of eighty-one years. The late Lewis Gibbs, son of Joshua, who, like his father; was both inventor and manufacturer, was born in Canton in 1833. In early life he worked in his father's plow factory, and in 1856 he and brothers under the firm name of Lewis Gibbs & Bros:, succeeded to their father's business. In 1863 he associated himself with other gentlemen and founded the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company, for the manufacture of the "Imperial Plow" under Mr. Gibbs' own patents. In 1891 Mr. Gibbs withdrew from the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company and associated himself in business with his sons Elmer W. and Alvin J., they founding the Gibbs Lawn Rake Company, and manufactured lawn rakes and other hardware specialties under other of Mr. Gibbs' patents. This company HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 775 was subsequently merged into the Gibbs Manufacturing Company, and its product changed to include that of patented specialties for the dry goods, notion, toy and hardware trades. This company has grown into one of the leading ones in the line in the country and is one of Canton's important industries. In 1903 the business was incorporated with Mr. Lewis Gibbs as president, and he continued at the head of the company until his death. The company was reorganized in 1914, with Elmer W. Gibbs as vice president and superintendent, Alvin J. Gibbs, treasurer, and F. W. Preyer, secretary. In 1856 Mr. Lewis Gibbs married Caroline Bauerice, the daughter of Ludwig and Margaret Bauerice, of Canton. Of their children the following survive : Elmer W., Alvin J., and Clara G., who married F. W. Preyer. Mr. Gibbs died April 5, 1915. His wife died in 1900. Elmer W. Gibbs, son of Lewis, was born in Canton on February 22, 1864. He was educated in the public schools and at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. When he returned from business college he became assistant to his father who was then at the head of the plow department of the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company. In 1891 he, with his father, became active in the Gibbs Lawn Rake Company, which was organized in 1884 ; he becoming vice president and superintendent of the Gibbs Manufacturing Company. Mr. Gibbs is interested in various industrial enterprises of Canton, and is a director of the City National Bank. He is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce and of the Masonic order. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and politically he is a member of the republican party. Mr. Gibbs married Louise Voges; who, was born in Cleveland, the daughter of the late Capt. Theodore Voges, who served as a member of General Sherman's staff during the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs have the following children : Hazel, Louise, Harry E., E. Lewis and Theodore V. SYLVESTER D. HOOVER. Since 1901 Sylvester D. Hoover has been a resident of Plain Township, where his well-cultivated eighty-acre farm is situated on the Section Line Road, two miles northeast of New Berlin. Primarily a farmer, Mr. Hoover is also well known in business circles as a dealer in fur and wool, an industry in which his acumen, industry and fidelity have gained him satisfying success. As a citizen he has borne his full share of 'responsibility in civic affairs, and his fellow-citizens' regard and confidence in his integrity were demonstrated in the elections of 1912, when he was chosen as a member of the board of trustees of Plain Township, an office which he still retains. Mr. Hoover was born on the old homestead farm of his father, in West Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, July 14, 1858, and is a son of Elias I. and Hannah (Sommers) Hoover. Elias I. Hoover was a native of Washington Township, Stark County, Ohio, born October 6, 1830, a son of David Hoover, who was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania. David Hoover came to Stark County, Ohio, with his parents, William and Barbara (Neiswanger) Hoover, when he was six years of age. The great-grandparents of Sylvester D. Hoover were among the early pioneers of Stark County, settling east of Harrisburg, Nimishillen Vol. III -2 776 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY Township, on what is now known as the Mentor Farm. They both died on what was known as the William Hoover Farm, located east of Harrisburg. David Hoover, the grandfather of Sylvester D. Hoover, married Barbara Flora, and lived first on the Harrisburg and Greentown Road, on what was the old Wenger Farm. Following that he moved to a farm about a mile east of Uniontown, Lake Township, and thence he removed to Louisville, where both he and his wife died. Hannah Sommers, the mother of Sylvester D. Hoover, was born in West Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, February 11, 1828, a daughter of Joseph Sommers, who was a native of Pennsylvania, probably of Lancaster County. As a young man he settled in West Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, and there the remaining years of his life were passed in agricultural pursuits. Elias I. Hoover, after his marriage in Columbiana County, Ohio, moved to Lake Township, one mile east of Uniontown, in the spring of 1869, settling on a property on which he resided for twenty-nine years. He next removed to Summit County, Ohio, where he lived retired and that community continued to be his home until his death, July 18, 1913. The mother survived until November 12, 1904. There were three children in the family : Sylvester D., of this notice ; Simon L., who is deceased ; and Ezra J., who lives at Mogadore, Ohio. The Hoover family have been members of the German Baptist Church. Sylvester D. Hoover was practically reared on the farm in Lake Township, where he remained until the time of his marriage, his education in the meanwhile being that afforded by the district schools of that community. When he was married, March 15, 1882, he removed to Summit County, Ohio, and lived there for four years. His wife, Susan Young, was born in DeKalb County, Indiana, in 1874, the daughter of Frank Young, who was born in Plain Township, Stark County, Ohio, and removed to Indiana as a young man, but later returned to Ohio, and died in Portage County. She left two sons : Harry A., born August 1, 1882, who married Ida Klingiman, of Louisville, and has two sons and four daughters—Grace, Ethel, Helen, Charles, Robert and Lucile; and Ford A., born October 11, 1885, who married Viola Mizer, of Sandyville, Ohio. In 1895 Mr. Hoover was married to his present wife, who was Lucetta Mellinger, born in Summit County, Ohio, September 6, 1872, daughter of Michael Mellinger. In 1895 Mr. Hoover returned to Stark County, locating in Lake Township, from whence he removed to Jackson Township, and in 1901 to his present farm, on the Section Line Road, two miles northeast of New Berlin, where he has eighty acres of good land. He is known as a skilled agriculturist, who uses modern methods in his work and has made a success of his ventures, and his well cultivated fields, substantial buildings, up-to-date improvements and general valuable and well-kept holdings testify eloquently to his ability, industry and good management. Aside from his agricultural operations, Mr. Hoover has been unusually successful in the handling of wool and fur, a business which averages $10,000 annually, although commenced in a modest way. He has shown himself faithful to his obligations and engagements and his honorable HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 777 methods of doing business have gained him a substantial reputation in commercial circles. Mr. Hoover is a republican and has been more or less prominent in township and civic affairs. In 1912 he was elected to the office of township trustee of Plain Township, a capacity in which he has exerted every effort in behalf of his community's interests. He is well and widely known, not alone in business and agricultural circles, but in social circles of Canton, where he belongs to the McKinley Club and has a wide circle of friends. JACOB CONRAD HARING. Almost half a century ago Jacob C. Haring, who had only recently received his honorable discharge from the army during the Civil war, arrived at Massillon with hardly enough money to pay for his dinner. He was a common laborer, ready to accept any employment which he could find. It requires some space to indicate the relations of Mr. Haring during recent years and at the present time with prominent companies and organizations of Massillon, and he is one of that city's leading citizens, a banker, coal operator, and a leader in anything he undertakes. Born in Wuertemberg, Germany, August 7, 1846, he is a son of Conrad and Frances (Fisher) Haring. His father died in Germany in 1851 and in the following year the widowed mother brought her little family to the United States, first locating at Winesburg in Holmes County, Ohio. She died at Canal Dover, Ohio. Six years old when brought to this country, Jacob C. Haring had very limited opportunities and advantages when growing up in Holmes County. A part of each winter he attended a country school, and the balance of the year was devoted to the hard work of the farm. His schooling came to an end at the age of eleven, and after that he was employed in various forms of farm labor until February, 1864. At that date he enlisted in Company C of the Sixty-seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was with his command in all its movements and engagements until several months after the actual close of hostilities between the North and South. He received his honorable discharge at City Point, Virginia, in December, 1865, and soon afterwards returned to Holmes County, where for about forty days he was again a pupil in the public schools. He secured a job driving a team in Canal Dover, but soon afterwards went to the Zoarite community in Stark County and worked on a farm there until August, 1866. That was the date of his first acquaintance with Massillon. Without money he secured the first work he could find, and became a driller in the coal mines. Next he was carrying a hod in the building of St. John's Evangelical Church. In the same year, an opportunity was opened for work in the stone quarry on the Chapman farm at Navarre, where he labored for a short time and there worked on Mr. Chapman's farm for two years. While at Navarre Mr. Raring learned photography with the firm of Grossklaus & Rick- seeker, and on April 1, 1869, was sent by that firm to Massillon to take charge of its studio, recently opened in that city. In the meantime Mr. Haring had become a junior member in the firm, and three years later bought the Massillon business and continued to conduct it until 1897. 778 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY A great many of the older people in this part of Stark County know Mr. Haring as their old time and reliable photographer. In the last twenty years his activities and business operations have been on a broad and diverse scale. In 1897 he became connected with the coal mining industry. He was secretary and treasurer of the Elm Run Coal Company, subsequently secretary-treasurer of the Pocock Coal Company, then secretary and treasurer of the Massillon City Coal Company, and finally was with the Haring-Wilson Coal Mining Company. He was one of the organizers of the Ohio Bottle Company, an important local industry, of which he was treasurer until the plant was sold to the American Bottle Company, in which larger organization he became a director, and is still financially interested. Mr. Haring is a director and vice president of the Buckeye Cereal Company of Massillon, and for a time was its secretary. As a banker he is president of the First Savings & Loan Company of Massillon, is a director in the Union National Bank, and has a number of other local interests. He is president and treasurer of the Massillon Hospital Association and president of the Massillon Chamber of Commerce. He is a past commander of Hart Post No. 134, G. A. R., and for many years filled other offices, including that of adjutant. He is affiliated with Clinton Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and was elected city clerk of Massillon, finally resigning the office during his third term. Mr. flaring married Emma Craig, who was born in Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish family. Their children are Harry A., Jennie F., Mary L., Chester E. and Walter J. JACOB J. RENKERT. One of the leading manufacturing industries of Canton is that which has to do with the production of brick, and this line of endeavor is well represented here by Jacob J. Renkert, one of the pioneers in this line of work in the state. Mr. Renkert has been identified with brickmaking in Ohio for nearly fifty years, and for twenty-six years of this time has engaged in the manufacture of shale brick, being at present active in that connection as superintendent of the Royal plant of the Metropolitan Paving Brick Company. Few men are better known in this industry than is Mr. Renkert, and his interests are not confined to brickmaking, for his abilities have been called into play in the support of various other enterprises, and as a citizen he has taken an active part in civic movements. Jacob J. Renkert was born on his father's farm near Canal Dover, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, January 10, 1848. He was brought up amid agricultural surroundings and to agricultural work, but was not destined to spend his life as a farmer, for when he was seventeen years of age, a lad with a country school education, he secured his first lesson in brick- making from a man who was employed to burn a kiln for Mr. Renkert's uncle. At that early date the business fascinated him and he decided to become a master of the vocation. In 1866, when eighteen years of age, young Renkert hired out to John Robb, a brickmaker, and in the following year, so well had he learned his lessons and so faithful was he in the discharge of his duties that Mr. Robb admitted him into the business as a partner, the brick yards being located at New Philadelphia PICTURE OF JACOB J. RENKERT HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 779 and building brick being the article manufactured. In 1868 Mr. Renkert succeeded to the ownership of the brickyard, which he conducted with a fair measure of success until 1880, when, with others, he erected a new plant and engaged in the making of fire brick, a new departure for him, in which, however, he was entirely successful. In the spring of 1889 the business and plant was sold to an Akron concern and in the following August Mr. Renkert came to Canton and became one of the organizers of the Royal Brick Company, a concern established and founded for the purpose of manufacturing shale brick. Of the company Mr. Renkert became superintendent, and continued in that capacity until the Royal was merged with the Metropolitan Paving Brick Company, in 1902, the new concern adopting the latter name. Since the merger Mr. Renkert has been superintendent of the Royal branch of the company, of which he is also a director, and one to whom his associates look for advice and counsel in matters of importance connected with the business. Mr. Renkert is also financially interested in other industries not only at Canton but at other points. He was one of the organizers of the Arlington Manufacturing Company, of Canton, manufacturers of paints and colors, and still retains his holdings in that successful enterprise. He is also interested in the Electric Furnace Company, of Alliance ; the Franklin Oil Company, of Bedford, Ohio; the Automatic Transportation Company, of Buffalo, New York, and other enterprises of importance and wealth, and has improved real estate holdings at Columbus. Mr. Renkert has always been ready to give his support to movements calculated to advance Canton in any way, and is an active member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce. His fraternal connection is with the Masonic order, and he has numerous friends in the local lodge, as he has also in business circles throughout the state. Mr. Renkert has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Emma Lahm, who was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, in 1854, and whose death occurred at Canton, in 1896. There were three children born to this union, two sons and a daughter. Mr. Renkert's second wife was formerly Mrs. John Bailey, of Canton. JOHN C. ALBRIGHT. A Stark County man whose special genius in the commercial field has been applied to the development of the coal industry in the Massillon District, John C. Albright has lived in this county nearly seventy years, is a man of the widest business and social acquaintance and his commercial integrity and success are accomplished facts. John C. Albright was born at Massillon October 26, 1845, a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Ruth) Albright. His grandparents were Nicholas and Elizabeth (Ingle) Albright. Their home was in Rhenish Bavaria, where the name was spelled Albrecht. In the family of the grandparents were seven children: Adam, George, Michael, Charles, Frederick, John and Catherine, all of whom lived to mature age. Michael Albright grew up at his old home south of Bingen in Rhenish Bavaria, and about 1830 came to the United States and settled at Kendal in Stark County, now one of the city wards of Massillon. Though little more than a boy when he came to America, in a few years he was making rapid progress in business, and in company with Henry Morganthaler, under 780 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY the name Albright & Morganthaler, did business as agent for an American clock concern, and distributed a large number of timepieces throughout this part of Ohio. Many of these "grandfathers clocks" are now cherished as priceless heirlooms in many homes in this section, and were sold by this firm. Through this work Michael Albright accumulated his first stock of capital, which he invested in the grocery business, wholesale and retail, on Canal Street. The firm was one of the first in the locality to carry on a wholesale business. Michael Albright was thus engaged until his death in July, 1850, at the early age of thirty- seven years. Though a resident of Stark County only twenty years, and dying before reaching his prime, he was regarded as one of the most substantial citizens and noted for his open hearted liberality and so far as known he never had an enemy. He was a leader among his countrymen in Stark County, and enjoyed their complete confidence and regard. His widow survived him many years, passing away at Massilson in 1890 at the age of seventy-five. Their five children were: Peter G., deceased, a former banker of Massillon; Sophia J., widow of Jacob D. Wetter, and still living in Massillon ; John C.; and Frank, a retired merchant at Massillon. John C. Albright was a small boy when his father died, received his schooling in Stark County, and was still young when he entered business as a partner with his older brother Peter G., in a store on Main Street. In 1873 he bought the entire business, and took in as partner his brother Frank, under the name Albright Brothers. Though successful as a merchant, that was only the preparatory part of his real career. He finally sold his interests in that line to his brother, leaving the firm as Albright & Company, and in 1880 John C. Albright identified himself and his resources with the coal industry. Therein he has attained a really noteworthy success. In this business he was associated with his father-in-law Hon. Anthony Howells and his brother-in-law, the late Jacob D. Wetter, under the name Howells Coal Company. This company opened the Elm Run mine and the Rose Hill mine at Navarre and the Justus mine. Soon after the company was organized Mr. Wetter sold his interest. In 1882 John C. Albright went to Cleveland and established the Albright Coal Company, one of the most prosperous distributing coal establishments in that city. He has since been president and treasurer of that company, and is also president and treasurer of the Massillon Oak Hill Mining Company and president and treasurer of the Massillon Sand & Stone Company, having been at the head of both these concerns since their organization. Mr. Albright is also vice president of the State Bank of Massillon. Through these industries he has contributed much to the business, progress and resources of Stark County for the past thirty years, and in 1912 gave Massillon one of its most handsome blocks known as the Albright Block. Mr. Albright is a republican and affiliates with the Royal Arch Masons. He is a member and one of the liberal supporters of St. John's Evangelical Church of Massillon. When men know John C. Albright they esteem him not only for his power and influence in the commercial world, but also for his broad gauge personality, his love of performance for its own sake, and his public spirited liberality. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 781 Mr. Albright was married in Massillon in 1873 to Malvina Howells, only daughter of Hon. Anthony and Elizabeth (James) Howells. Her father was at one time a state senator and was also state treasurer of Ohio. During the thirty-five years of their married life Mrs. Albright was a helpful counselor to her husband, devoted to her home and the rearing of her children, and had the affection of a large circle of friends. Her death occurred in 1908. There are three sons. Charles A., who is manager of the Albright Coal Company at Cleveland, married Mabel Linnell, and their three children are Charles A., Jr., Virginia and Ruth. Corwin 0., who lives in Massillon, and is the manager of the Massillon Sand & Stone Company, married Jeannette Bissell, and has three children, Jeannette, Helen and John C. Chauncey Howells, secretary and manager of the Massillon Oak Hill Coal Company at Massillon, married Helen Hamberger, and their one child is Chauncey Howells Albright, Jr. JAMES B. DOUGHERTY, M. D. One of the skilled and prominent representatives of the medical profession, Dr. James B. Dougherty is not only a physician by inclination, education, training and experience, but by the inheritance of qualities that made his father and grandfather distinguished in the profession. During his residence at New Berlin, his present field of practice, he has secured a large and representative professional business, and at the same time has achieved distinction in a calling which, in the present century of expanding horizons in medical science, seems to have almost reached a time when its accomplishments are little less than miracles. Doctor Dougherty was born at Greentown, Ohio, and is a son of Dr. Lewis E. and Clara (Hart) Dougherty, and a grandson of Dr. James E. and Angeline (Gorgas) Dougherty, of Stark County. Dr. James E. Dougherty was one of Stark County's most prominent physicians and citizens, having practiced medicine here for over thirty years, his popularity leading him to being twice elected county recorder. He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, March 13, 1820, the eldest child and only son of John and Elizabeth (Crail) Dougherty. John Dougherty was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1796, and was a son of James Dougherty, a native of Ireland. The mother of Dr. James E. Dougherty was born in Pennsylvania, June 25. 1801, a daughter of John Crail, Esq., a native of the Isle of Man, who served as a soldier during the Revolutionary war. John Dougherty died at Richmond, Ohio, March 20, 1831, his wife, Elizabeth, preceding him to the grave in 1827. Dr. James E. Dougherty, after finishing his literary education, took up the study of medicine with Dr. E. M. Pyle, of Richmond, Ohio, as his preceptor, and from him received his diploma, that being previous to the regulations later prescribed by law requiring a diploma from a medical college. The succeeding five years were spent in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where he was successful in his practice, and he then removed to Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1849 taking up his residence at Greentown, Ohio, where he continued in active practice for thirty-six years. During the Civil war, Doctor Dougherty enlisted, in May, 1864, in the One Hundred and Sixty-second Regiment, Ohio National Guards, 782 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of which he became lieutenant-colonel. A stanch republican in politics, he took an active part in the work of his party, and was honored by his fellow-citizens by election to the office of county recorder, and in that year removed to Canton to assume his official duties for a term of three years. His excellent record in office led to his re-election by a majority of 671 votes, and his entire incumbency of the office was characterized by absolute fidelity to duty and a conscientious effort to serve the best interests of the people of the county. Doctor Dougherty was interested in fraternal work, belonging to the blue lodge and chapter of Masonry and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and until his death took an active participation in the meetings of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was a popular comrade. He was a faithful member of the Methodist Church, and lived up to its teachings and taught his children to do the same. On September 27, 1849, Doctor Dougherty was united in marriage with Miss Angeline Gorgas, daughter of Thomas Gorgas, and a member of the Gorgas family of Panama Canal fame. To this union there were born eight children, namely : Louis E., James E., John F., Mary E., Charles A., Sarah A., Maggie and an infant who died unnamed. Doctor Dougherty died March 24, 1894, when the medical profession lest one of its able and distinguished members and the community a citizen who had been instrumental in forwarding many of its most beneficial movements. Dr. Lewis E. Dougherty was born August 28, 1853, at Greentown, Stark County, Ohio, and there was engaged in an extensive practice during the period from 1849 until 1885. His early studies were prosecuted in the public schools of Greentown and the seminary at Greensburg, Summit County, Ohio, following which he entered Mount Union College, at Alliance, Ohio, and when he had completed his course there, became a student in the Columbus Medical College, from which institution he was graduated in 1879, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. During the forty years of his practice at Greentown and Canton he built up a firmly-established reputation as a capable, conscientious and thoroughly learned physician, and as a citizen who could be depended upon to give of his best services in the interests of the community. No movement or enterprise which promised to be of benefit to the community was refused his support. His aid was always extended to the poor and unfortunate, and in every walk of life he so conducted himself as to win universal respect and confidence. Politically a republican, he took some active part in his party's success, and his fraternal connections were with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maccabes. On July 3, 1879, Doctor Dougherty was married to Miss Clara Hart, daughter of Benjamin and Mary Hart, and to this union there were born two children: James B., of this review; and Ervin G. Mrs. Dougherty died December 12, 1886, and June 14, 1892, Doctor Dougherty was married to Miss Elizabeth Griffith, of Canton, one son, Lewis E., Jr., being born to this union. The family home at Canton is a beautiful one, and a center of culture and refinement. After graduating from the Greentown High School, Dr. James B. Dougherty entered Valparaiso University, where he completed a three- year course, then beginning his medical studies in the medical school of HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 783 the same university. In 1903 he furthered his studies by enrolling as a member of the Columbus Medical College, from which he was graduated with high honors, as he had been from his other schools, from each of which he received his sheepskin. For eighteen months he was resident physician at Columbus Hospital, and at the end of that period took up his residence and opened an office at New Berlin, where he has since continued in the enjoyment of a constantly-increasing practice. He has been located here since October, 1904, and his reputation has extended to such a degree that his patients come not only from all over New Berlin and the surrounding territory, but from Canton, Akron, Alliance and other cities. Unlike many others, he did not cease his studies when he left college, but has continued to be a most close and careful student, and in 1906 took a post-graduate course at the Chicago School of Medicine. He is a member of the Canton Medical Society and the Stark County Medical Society, and in every way has kept himself fully abreast of his profession, among the members of which he bears an excellent reputation as an observer of high professional ethics. He is an independent voter, exercising his prerogative of choosing his own candidates irrespective of party lines. His support, however, is always found on the side of progress, and in this way he has assisted his community in its growth and development. Fraternally he is connected with the Blue Lodge and Commandery of Masonry at Canton, and Al-Koran Shrine at Cleveland, and also holds membership in New Berlin Lodge, Knights of Pythias, in all of which he has numerous friends. Doctor Dougherty was married November 17, 1904, to Miss Jennett Evans, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Granger) Evans, of Greenville. She died October 2, 1906, without issue, and in November, 1908, Doctor Dougherty was married to Miss May Foster, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Webster) Foster, of Cannington, Ontario, Canada. Doctor and Mrs. Dougherty have had one daughter : Mabel Anna, born June 9, 1910. WILLIAM W. SPROULL. While best known among Canton manufacturers as president and treasurer of the Armor Clad Manufacturing Company, William W. Sproull for a young man has had a very extensive experience in manufacturing affairs and prior to coming to Canton was identified with some of the leading corporations for the manufacture of tin plate and steel products. The Armor Clad Manufacturing Company of Canton was first organized in 1907. An entirely different group of business men effected its reorganization in 1914, though the same name was retained by per. mission of the Ohio secretary of state. It was in this reorganization that Mr. Sproull took part and thus became identified with the Canton industrial center. The company is capitalized at $50,000, and its official board is as follows: W. W. Sproull, president and treasurer ; W. H. Davey. vice president ; S. F. Long, secretary ; W. P. Beardsley of Canton and C. C. Potts of Indiana Harbor, Indiana directors. The company hes 114 acres in the Canton manufacturing district, and its plant affords about 15,000 square feet of floor space. The company has already built up an extensive business for its line of metal furniture 784 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY for offices, hotels and residences, and also manufactures light-weight safes and sanitary white enameled steel cabinets, both for offices and home purposes. The president of this flourishing concern was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1876, son of Robert E. and Mary (Wylie) Sproull. The Sproull family is of New England stock, Grandfather Sproull having removed from Connecticut to Pennsylvania about 1840. The Wylies are an old Pennsylvania family. Grandfather Chambers Wylie lived from birth until his death at the age of eighty-two on one and the same farm in Pennsylvania. Robert E. Sproull, the father, was born in Pennsylvania and for many years was engaged in merchandising in Westmoreland County. Later he retired and spent his last years on his farm, where he died in 1907. His wife, who was born in Pennsylvania, .is still living there. William W. Sproull did his first important work as a school man. He was educated at first in the public schools and then in the Pennsylvania. State Normal School at Indiana, and for five years had charge of local public schools. He then entered the Park Institute at Allegheny City, a school at that time affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, and in addition to carrying a course of studies there he was also a member of the teaching staff. On giving up educational work Mr. Sproull spent three years as a salesman for J. D. Mcllwain & Co., Pittsburg manufacturers, and on June 1, 1902, first come to Canton to accept the position of auditor for the Carnahan Tin Plate and Sheet Mill Company. In 1907 he was promoted to assistant secretary and treasurer of this company. His varied experience brought him an intimate knowledge of manufacturing details in the tin plate and steel industry, and in 1914 he resigned his position to take the presidency of the Armor Clad Manufacturing Company, at the time of its reorganization. Mr. Sproull is a member of the Adcraft and Masonic clubs, and in Masonry is affiliated with Temple Lodge No. 47, A. F. & A. M., with Indiana Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, and with Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Cleveland. He and his wife are members of the Episcopal Church. Mrs. Sproull before her marriage was Katherine Dyess, formerly of Leechburg, Pennsylvania. They are the parents of two children : Dyess and Archibald. HENRY N. FIRESTONE. Stark County has profited by the stable citizenship and faithful industry of the Firestone family during four generations. Practically all bearing the name have been interested in agriculture, but their services have been extended also to education, religion, politics and society, and several of the family have been well, known in the field of finance. A worthy representative of the name, now living in Plain Township on the homestead which has been handed down from father to son since the year 1809, is Henry N. Firestone, who was born on this property, December 15, 1866. Nicholas Firestone, the great-grandfather of Henry N. Firestone, came from Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1806, to Stark County, and filed the first land claim for 320 acres from the Government, although HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 785 he did not receive his patent until three years later, the original deed, now in the possession of Henry N. Firestone, having been signed by President James Madison, and bearing the date of December 7, 1809. During the early days Nicholas Firestone was considered a very wealthy man, and at the time of his death had large holdings in land. He passed away in Columbiana County, and in his will left the Stark County homestead to his son, Henry Firestone. Henry Firestone was born February 25, 1806, in Columbiana County, Ohio, and was married there to Mary Hoffstot, who was born in that county, December 2, 1815. To them there were born ten children : Samuel ; Ameann ; Hiram ; Clemora ; John D.; Elizabeth ; Clinton D.; Catherine ; Jason W.; and Calvin Joseph. Henry Firestone came into possession of the homestead in 1833 and was engaged in general farming and stockraising thereon up to the time of his death, when it was willed to his son, Hiram. Hiram Firestone, while devoting the larger part of his time to farming and stockraising, was also a factor in establishing and developing several of Canton's financial institutions. He helped to establish and was one of the original stockholders in the farmers Bank of Canton, in which he owned a one-fifth interest, and was one of the original stockholders and a director of the City National Bank of Canton. He was almost continually interested in outside enterprises, and aside from being one of Stark County 's best agriculturists, was one of the contractors in the building of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad. The same thrift and enterprise which characterized his life have been handed down to his son. Hiram Firestone married Miss Margaret McDowell, of Plain Township, a sister of H. C. McDowell, a well-known banker, capitalist and farmer of this locality. They became the parents of three children : Henry N., of this review ; Nettie, who is now the wife of Charles Boettler ; and Mary E., the wife of Edwin S. Correll. Henry N. Firestone has passed his entire life on the farm which he now occupies, and which is the same property that has been in the family since 1806. He received good educational advantages in his youth, and was trained to agricultural pursuits with the view of his taking over the management of the homestead in which the family has always had such pride. Since coming into possession of the estate, he has made numerous improvements, and the buildings are now among the most modern, in architecture and equipment, to be found in the county. He has devoted his energies earnestly to the development of the property and has made his land pay him well for his labors. On January 28, 1892, Mr. Firestone was married to Miss Cora Alice Smith, (laughter of H. M. Smith, who resides on the New Berlin Road, just outside the City of Canton. To this union there have been born five children, as follows: Leto, born July 26, 1893, a graduate of Canton High School and of the Ohio State Normal, who is at this time a popular and efficient teacher in the public schools of Canton ; Hiram N., born January 9, 1895, a graduate of Canton High School and one year a student at Ames (Iowa) College, is now attending the Ohio State University ; Maxine M., born December 9, 1897, a graduate of Canton High School, class of 1915, now attending the Ohio State Nor- 786 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY mal at Athens; Walter Jason, born March 26, 1905, who is attending the Plain Township district school ; and Calvin DeWitt, born September 16, 1907, who is also attending the district school. A republican in his political views, Mr. Firestone is a member of the board of education and assessor for Plain Township. He has been the executor for many estates, and in every way has merited the confidence which has been placed in him by his fellow-citizens. In fraternal circles he is well known, being a member of the Knights of Pythias and a thirty-second degree Mason, and has also been active in the work of the Junior Grange. His postoffice is located at Middlebranch. JAMES HERVEY HUNT. Among the bankers of Stark County probably none is better known than James Hervey Hunt of Massillon. While it should be remembered to his credit that he was a loyal soldier during the Civil war, he has been first and last a banker, and for nearly half a century has been identified with several of the leading institutions of the city, and is now president of the Union National Bank. His father before him was a successful banker of Massillon, and much of the best financial ability of Stark County during the last sixty or seventy years has been concentrated in this one family. Born at Massillon in 1840, James Hervey Hunt is the only son of Salmon and Helen (Per Lee) Hunt. Salmon Hunt was born on a farm on the Chenango River in Chenango County, New York, a son of Timothy Hunt, who was a farmer and contractor. Mr. Hunt comes of old Revolutionary stock through his mother, Helen Per Lee, who was born in the City of Poughkeepsie, New York, daughter of Abraham Per Lee. Her father was a lawyer and served as an officer under General Zebulon M. Pike in the War of 1812. He was with General Pike in the gallant assault upon York (now the City of Toronto), and was shot through the body in that engagement. Abraham Per Lee was a son of Edmund Per Lee, who was an officer in the War of the Revolution and for his services in that war was granted a tract of land in Chenango County, New York, which he presented to his two sons, Abraham and Edmund. the latter of whom was also an officer in the American army during the second war with Great Britain. These sons settled on the land, raised their families there, and the property is still in the Per Lee family. Salmon Hunt and Helen Per Lee were married in Chenango County, New York, and about 1836 they came to Ohio, and after a brief residence at Cleveland located in Massillon. From almost the beginning of his residence here Salmon Hunt was interested in banking. For many years he was president of the First National Bank. He lived in a time when banking was subject to all the loose management and vagaries of theory which characterized American finance before the Civil war. and was a conservative influence in those years, and possessed all the ability and personal integrity which go to make the successful banker. The First National Bank under his management became as it is now one of the strongest institutions in Stark County. It is interesting to note that his grandson Per Lee Hunt, a son of James H. Hunt, is now president of the First National. Salmon Hunt died in 1890 and his wife in PICTURE OF JOSEPH HENDRICKS HIMES HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 787 1882. They had one son and three daughters, two of the latter dying in childhood, while the oldest, Helen, died in 1883. James H. Hunt graduated from the Massillon High School just before the outbreak of the Civil war. Then in 1861 he volunteered, enlisting in Company A of the Nineteenth Regiment of Ohio Infantry, and went with one of the first Ohio regiments to reach the front. He served four years as a soldier, and for much of the time was with the First Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army Corps. Following the war he attended Duff's Commercial College at Pittsburg, and then learned banking by practical experience in his father's institution. His father was at that time cashier of the First National Bank. He gradually worked his way up until he was bookkeeper, but in 1871 he and the late John E. M. Lain organized the old Exchange Bank of Massillon. Mr. Hunt became its cashier. In 1875 the Exchange Bank was absorbed by the Union National Bank, and Mr. Hunt continued as cashier of the new institution until about 1897, when he succeeded to the presidency. He has since wisely and ,ably directed this hank through its chief executive office. Like his father he is a thorough banker, and unlike many bankers confines his attention solely to this business. However, that has not prevented him from sharing in every public spirited movement for the benefit of his home city and county. In 1865 Mr. Hunt married Miss Clara Zerbe. She was born in Massillon, daughter of the late Jonathan Zerbe, who was a merchant. Mrs. Hunt is a cousin of Kountze Brothers, who are among the best known bankers and capitalists of New York City. She is also a cousin of Colonel Gorgas, whose devoted service as a United States army medical officer and sanitarian on the Panama Canal Zone has made him known to every American. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hunt: Mary is the wife of Judge Robert N. Day of Massillon, brother of William R. Day, a justice of the United States Supreme Court; Helen ; and Per Lee, now president of the First National Bank of Massillon, married Anna Day, a sister to Justice William R. Day. Mr. James H. Hunt is a member of the American Bankers Association, is president of the Massillon Humane Society and is actively identified with the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. JOSEPH HENDRICKS HIMES. In manufacturing circles of Canton, a name that has become prominently and favorably known in recent years is that of Joseph Hendricks Hines. Still a young man, his advancement has been so rapid as to place him in a foremost position among manufacturers of Northeast Ohio, as evidenced by his position as general manager of the Carnahan Tin Plate and Sheet Company of Canton. Mr. Nimes was born at New Oxford, near the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1885, and is a son of George T. and Martha Jane (McKnight) Himes. His father was born at what was known as Margaretta Furnace, near York, Pennsylvania, in 1846. a son of Thomas Himes, also a native of Pennsylvania, where at least six generations of the family resided. For years the name has been identified with manufacturing, Thomas Himes having been connected with 788 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY the iron industry, while George T. Himes, now retired, was a well known manufacturer of shoes. Martha Jane McKnight was a member of a family of Quakers, and was born in Pennsylvania, as were also her parents, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Her father, Stuart McKnight, was a cousin of the late Col. Thomas A. Scott, who was president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and with whom he owned extensive farm lands in Eastern Pennsylvania, which were under the personal supervision of Mr. McKnight. Joseph Hendricks Himes was reared at New Oxford until about twelve years of age, and there received his early education in the public schools. He prepared for a university career and attended Gettysburg College up to the sophomore year, when he matriculated at the State College of Pennsylvania, there taking a course in mineralogy and specializing in iron and steel. He was duly graduated with the class of 1906, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in that same year became identified with the open hearth department of the Carnegie Steel Company, at Homestead, Pennsylvania, where he put in about one year, practically as an apprentice, during which time he studied the business from the bottom up and acquired much practical experience. In 1908 Mr. Himes became associated with the Tennessee Coal and Iron Corporation, at Ensley, Alabama, where he spent several years in the operating and sales departments, and in 1910 went to Baltimore, Maryland, there opening a brokerage business in iron and steel products. After two years passed in this business. Mr. Himes disposed of his interests at. Baltimore, and June 1, 1912, came to Canton to become assistant sales manager of the Carnahan Tin Plate and Sheet Company. In October, 1912, he was promoted sales manager, was made assistant general manager July 1, 1913, and in January, 1914, was given his present post, that of general manager of the company. An energetic, progressive man of business, thoroughly experienced in the industry, and with a comprehensive grasp of all its details, he has done much to increase the business of the concern and to place it in a position to successfully compete with the leading firms in its line in the state. In 1911 Mr. Himes was married to Miss Mary Carnahan, daughter of J. E. Carnahan, of Canton. She died of an attack of pneumonia, in May, 1912. On May 6, 1915, Mr. Himes was married at the Waldorf Hotel, New York City, to Miss Eilleen Evelyn Canfield, of Los Angeles, California, daughter of C. A. Canfield, an oil magnate of New York and Los Angeles. Mr. Himes is a member of the Lakeside Country Club, of the Canton Club, of the Baltimore (Maryland) Club, and of the Southern Club of Birmingham, Alabama. He also holds membership in the Canton Chamber of Commerce, is a thirty-second degree and Shriner Mason, and belongs to the Sigma Chi Greek letter fraternity. IRA N. BUTLER. One of the fine farms of Stark County is that owned and occupied by Ira Newton Butler, this well improved estate being eligibly situated in Jackson Township, five miles west of New Berlin and on the New Berlin and Canal Fulton road. Mr. Butler is not only a well known and influential citizen of Jackson Township, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 789 which has represented his place of residence from the time of his nativity, but he has also the distinction of being a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Stark County. On the old Butler homestead in Jackson Township Mr. Butler was born February 19, 1862, and he is a son of John M. and Maria C. (Beatty) Butler. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Butler, was a native of Pennsylvania, from which state he came to Stark County, Ohio, in 1830. He obtained a tract of wild land in Jackson Township, where he reclaimed a productive farm and where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives, as sterling pioneer citizens of that part of the county. John Beatty, the maternal grandfather of him whose name introduces this article, was born in Ireland, on the 10th of September, 1783, and in 1786 was brought by his parents to America, the family home being established in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he was reared to manhood and where, on the 20th of February, 1820, he married Christiana Powell, their removal to Stark County, Ohio, having occurred in 1824, and their home having here been established on a pioneer farm three miles north of the present City of Massillon, the land having been obtained from the Government and having been virtually represented by a virgin forest. Mr. Beatty had served as a soldier in the War of 1812, under General Scott, and his son Samuel was captain of a company that did valiant service in the Mexican war. When Fort Sumter was fired upon in the rebellion of southern states he offered his services to the governor of Ohio and during this war he was made major-general. It can but briefly be stated that Major- General Beatty maintained an able military record, from the time he entered the United States service in 1846 as a first lieutenant until he arrived at St. Louis as major-general in the regular army. The names of both the Butler and Beatty families have been prominent in connection with the civic and material development and progress of Stark County and the ancestral record of Ira N. Butler is one in which he may well take just pride. John M. Butler was born in the old Keystone State and was a boy when he accompanied his parents to Stark County, where he was reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days and contributed his quota to the reclamation and other work of the old homestead farm. In 1868 he purchased the old Spotts farm, in Jackson Township, the place on which Ira N. Butler moved with his parents when six years old, and which he now owns and occupies. Mrs. Maria C. (Beatty) Butler was born on her father's pioneer farmstead, in Jackson Township, on the 4th of May, 1836, and both she and her husband continued to be honored and well known residents of this township until their death. Of their children the first born, William, is deceased ; Ira Newton was the second in order of birth ; Charles E., of Akron ; John Orrin, of Detroit, Michigan. and the only daughter, Alice M., who is now the wife of Peter Fashbaugh. On the farm which is now his place of residence Ira N. Butler was reared to years of maturity, and after availing himself of the advantage of the district schools and the public schools of Canal Fulton he attended Mount Union College, one year, this discipline being supplemented by 790 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY his attending the normal school at Wadsworth 1 1/2 years. For several years he devoted his attention to teaching during the winter terms and to assisting in the work of the home farm during the summer seasons. After the death of his father he purchased the interests of the other heirs to the old homestead, where he has since continued his successful operations as an agriculturist and stock grower, the farm having the best of improvements, including substantial buildings, and being one of the fine rural estates of Jackson Township. As a liberal and public- spirited citizen Mr. Butler has at all times shown a loyal interest in community affairs and in all that touches the welfare and progress of his native county. He has been called upon to serve in various township offices, including that of justice of the peace, of which he was the incumbent six years, and that of township clerk, an office which he retained eight years. For seven years he held the position of insurance collector for the Jackson and Plain Township Insurance Company, and in 1913, under the provisions of the civil service, he was appointed township assessor. Mr. Butler and his wife are zealous and influential members of the St. Jacob's Evangelical Lutheran Church at Mud Brook, Ohio, in which he is serving as deacon and in which he served as a teacher in the Sunday school for many years. As a young man Mr. Butler wedded Miss Catharine .Albrecht, who was born near Myers Lake, in Perry Township, this county, and who is a daughter of Heinrich and Philipena (Schneider) Albrecht. Mr. Albrecht was born in Germany, in 1825, and died on his farm, near New Berlin, Stark County, April 4, 1889. He immigrated from his native land to the United States in 1840, as a youth of about fifteen years of age, and after landing in New York City he was put on to the wrong train, with the result that he was transported to Cleveland, Ohio, instead of to his assigned destination at Massillon, Stark County. From Cleveland he made his way to Massillon by walking the entire distance along the canal towpath, and he eventually became one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of Stark County, where his marriage was solemnized September 24. 1861, his wife having been born in Perry Township, this county, on the 27th of March, 1844, a daughter of Leonard and Eva M. (Damm) Schneider, who settled near Myers Lake in 1852. Of the thirteen children of Mr. and Mrs. Albrecht nine are still living. Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Butler the following brief record is entered: Myrtle, who was afforded the advantages of the public schools and also studied music at Massillon, remains at the parental home and is now a popular and successful teacher of music; Clyde H. was graduated in the Canal Fulton Hogh School with high honors, though he was the youngest member of his class of 1913, and he is now a student in the University of Ohio. at Columbus, as a member of the class of 1918; and Edith C. died in infancy. JACOB R. BOWMAN. Almost continuously for more than ninety years there has been a Jacob Bowman in the active citizenship of Stark County. The family was established here when the world was new so far as Stark County is concerned, and in the successive generations they have helped in the many tasks of cutting down the forests, culti- HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 791 vating the land, making homes, furnishing the bone and sinew of community life and making a notable record for usefulness and honor. Jacob R. Bowman, of the third generation in Stark County, has been prospered as a farmer, and owns and occupies a fine rural home in Canton Township along the North Industry Road, 31/2 miles from the courthouse in Canton and half a mile north of the Village of North Industry. He also owns a fine farm one mile east of North Industry, and which is operated by his son, Lewis R. Though most of his life has been spent in Stark County, he was born in Crawford County, Ohio, August 9, 1851, and is a son of Jacob and Louisa (Runyan) Bowman. His father was born near Sparta in Pike Township of Stark County, January 28, 1823. The grandfather, also named Jacob Bowman, was a native of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, and was one of the pioneer settlers in Pike Township. He was accompanied to Stark County by two of his brothers, one of whom subsequently returned to Pennsylvania, while the other settled North of Robertsville. Jacob and the brother who remained in Stark County married sisters, of the Klinger family, who were also identified with the early settlement of Stark County. Grandfather Jacob Bowman spent the rest of his life in Pike Township, and died there in 1859. Jacob Bowman, father of Jacob R., grew up in Pike Township, was married there, and in 1848 removed to Crawford County, Ohio. He was engaged in operating a farm near the Seneca County line, but in 1864 returned to Stark County and bought what was known as the old George Seibert farm a mile east of North Industry. There he lived until his death in 1898. Louisa Runyan, his wife, was born in New Jersey near the New York State line, daughter of Lewis Runyan, who was a miller by trade and after settling in Jefferson County, Ohio, followed milling and was also in thel salt business. Mrs. Jacob Bowman died in 1903. She was the mother of the following children: L. Curtis, who went into the Union Army in the Sixty-fourth Ohio Infantry in Sherman's Army, and died at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from typhoid fever; Belinda, *ho died in March, 1915, was the wife of Daniel S. Bergert, now living at Canton ; Jacob R.; Mary J., who married Adam Muckley, who now lives on the old home farm near North Industry. The parents of these children were both members of the Lutheran Church. Jacob R. Bowman was a boy of thirteen years when the family returned to Stark County from Crawford County. His years were spent quietly and industriously on the home farm until his marriage. He attended school in Crawford County and in Stark County, and completed his early training in Buchtel College at Akron. For ten years he divided his time between teaching the winter terms of surrounding schools and working the farm in the summer months. For a number of years he was associated with his father in the management of the homestead, and after his father's death he bought the old Albert Ball farm where he now lives. Mr. Bowman has been one of the most active factors in the rural development of Stark County. For fourteen years he was member of the Stark County Agricultural Society, and for more than eighteen Vol. III -3 792 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY years was president of the Pike Township Mutual Insurance Company. He has held various township offices and everyone who knows him respects him for what he has accomplished and for the sterling integrity of his character. He has now reached the point in his business career where he can afford to relax somewhat the diligent efforts which gave him his prosperity, but still takes quite an active part in the management of his farm. He also receives the income from a coal mine on the old homestead. While his work measured by material standards has been exceedingly creditable, Mr. Bowman is also highly honored as the father of a fine family of children. He married Mary E. Stimmel, who was born in Osnaburg Township September 6, 1853, daughter of Henry and Eliza (Friend) Stimmel. Henry Stimmel was born south of Paris in Paris Township, Stark County, in 1828 and died in 1902. His father, Peter Stimmel, known as Squire Stimmel, came from Pennsylvania and was one of the pioneers in Paris Township. Mrs. Bowman's mother was born in Carroll County, Ohio, in 1826, a daughter of Henry Friend, a Pennsylvanian who established his home in Carroll County, Ohio, in the early decades of the last century. Eliza (Friend) Stimmel died in 1874. Mrs. Bowman was the first of five children, the others being: Benton, who married Cora Miller; Florien, who married Jacob Lehmiller of North Industry ; Henry F., who married Elizabeth Nilson and resides in Detroit ; and Frances, who married Henry Bederman of Canton. The eldest of Mr. and Mrs. Bowman's children is Curtis J., who was born on the old farm in 1877, was educated at Mount Union College, was for three years a teacher in the schools at Conneaut, three years in Ashtabula and three years in Canton, and is now principal of the South High School at Akron. He is one of the prominent educators in Northeastern Ohio and is president of the Confederation of Clubs. During the Spanish-American war he was with the Eighth Ohio Regiment in Cuba. He married Alma Kahler, who was a teacher in the Conneaut schools. Their two sons are named Richard and Robert. The second son of Mr. and Mrs. Bowman is H. Howard, who was born in 1881, graduated from the Canton High School, attended Mount Union College, and since graduating from the Ohio Medical College has been in the active practice of his profession at Canton. Doctor Bowman married Emma Mumaw, who is a graduate of the Canton High School and of Western Reserve University, and prior to her marriage was a teacher in the Canton High School; they have three children, Harold J., Alice Elizabeth and Virginia. Louis R., who was born in 1883, graduated from the Canton High School, was a student in Mount Union College, and is now giving his attention successfully to the management of a farm near North Industry: he married Bessie Vance of Canton. Lucy H., the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bowman, was born in 1888, and after graduating from the Canton High School took a business course in the Canton Business College. and is now a stenographer with Geiger-Jones Company at Canton. Stanley S., the youngest child, was born in 1893. graduated from the Canton High School, was a student in the Ohio State University, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 793 was connected with the Knight Tire and Rubber Company at Canton, and is now engaged in farming in Canton Township. JACOB F. LEHMILLER. The careers of few merchants in Stark County present more interesting and instructive features than that of Jacob F. Lehmiller, who many years ago started to sell from a small stock of goods at North Industry and by one enlargement after another, by working constantly to supply the needs of the community in which his store is a center, he has burlt up an enterprise which now constitutes the largest general store outside the cities of the county. His family was established in Stark County many years ago, but Mr. Lehmiller himself was born on a farm in Whitley County, Indiana, November 4, 1859, a son of Anthony and Mary (Salesman) Lehmiller. Anthony Lehmiller was born in a district of France. but when about four years of age was brought by his father, John Lehmiller, to the United States. The family settled in Magnolia, Sandy Township of Stark County, where John Lehmiller was a farmer until his death. Anthony Lehmiller grew up in Sandy Township and in early manhood moved out to Indiana and located in Whitley County, where he was a progressive farmer until shortly after the close of the Civil war, when he returned to Stark County. Following the death of his wife in 1878 he again left Stark County, and spent the rest of his years in Iowa where he died in 1914. His wife was a native of Switzerland, and came when a young girl with her parents to the United States. They settled in Dayton and later in Cincinnati, Ohio, and finally moved to Whitney County, Indiana, where she married Anthony Lehmiller. Her death occurred in 1878 at North Industry in Canton Township. Six years of age when the family returned to Stark County, Jacob F. Lehmiller was soon introduced to the practical responsibilities of life. He did what he could on the home farm, attended school at limited intervals, and had a thorough experience as a coal miner, having been employed for the greater part of twelve years in the local mines, beginning when he was about nine years of age. At the age of twenty- two he married and soon afterward established a small retail grocery store at North Industry. The value of his first stock was only $200 or $300, and it was housed in a store 16x20 feet, the building being situated across the street from his present large emporium. Probably the primary factor in his success has been his close and strict attention to business. His trade increased from year to year until by 1881 it was necessary to secure larger quarters. At that time he built a portion of his present store, a building on a foundation 18x30 feet. Subsequently he added another room 40x52 feet, and the next step in the expansion was the construction of a building 24x36 feet in the rear of the other store room. Still later he constructed an addition 18x30 feet in the rear of the first store. Besides these large building additions he was from time to time enlarging his stock, which was at first groceries, but he now handles a large and varied assortment of general merchandise, and also feed supplies, lime and cement. For several years his annual trade represents a volume of $40,000, and in 1915 the aggregate sales will probably reach $60,000. He employs four 794 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY clerks, and does an immense trade over all the district tributary to North Industry. Mr. Lehmiller also organized the North Industry Mineral Company, and for five years operated the Fox Run Coal Mine. An important factor in his success was his companion and helpmate whom he married at the outset of his business career, Miss Flora Stimmel, a daughter of Henry Stimmel of Stark County. She died on June 23, 1911, and was survived by five children: Ruth ; Edna ; Hazel; Jay, who married Corry Singer, and their two children are John and Mary Ann; and Karl. Mr. Lehmiller has membership in the Canton Chamber of Commerce. He belongs to St. Mary's Catholic Church at Canton, is affiliated with the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, and was one of the members of the building committee when St. Mary's present church home was constructed. He was also one of the councillors in the church. HENRY A. SHOCK. In his native county, where he is a scion of an old and honored family, Mr. Shock has found ample opportunities for the achievement of definite success along normal and important lines of business enterprise and he is now numbered among the prominent and valued exponents of industrial enterprise in the fair City of Canton, where he is engaged in the milling business. His well equipped and essentially modern flour mill is located in Canton. That Mr. Shock is a loyal, progressive and popular citizen of the Stark County metropolis needs no further voucher than the statement that in the opening month of the year 1915 his name was urgently brought forward in connection with candidacy for mayor of Canton. On the family homestead farm, in Canton Township, Stark County, Henry Alvin Shock was born on the 10th of January, 1862, and he is a representative of a sterling pioneer family of this county, with whose history the name has been worthily identified since 1804. It was thus more than a century ago that his great-grandfather, Lucas Shock, who was a native of Germany, became the founder of the Stark County branch of the family. When he arrived in America he first settled in Maryland, on the west coast of Chesapeake Bay, whence he later removed into Pennsylvania, from which latter state he came to Ohio in 1804 and became one of the pioneers of the state, which had been admitted to the Union only two years previously. In Canton Township, Stark County, he settled on a tract of land a portion of which is now the site of the plant of the Canton Brick Company, on the South Cherry Street extension. There he established one of the ancient homesteads that long continued one of the historic landmarks of Stark County and there he passed the residue of his life, a man of industry, integrity and strong mentality and a citizen who never lacked the fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem, so that there is all of consistency in placing his name on the perpetual roll of the honored pioneers of this favored section of the Buckeye State. John Shock, grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1800, and thus was a child of about four years at the time of the family removal to the wilds of Stark County, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 795 Ohio, where he was reared to manhood under the conditions and influence of the pioneer days and where he finally bought a farm joining the old homestead. He was known as one of the representative and substantial agriculturists and influential citizens of Stark County, was a man of fine physical and mental powers, was a close student, was well fortified in his convictions concerning governmental and economic affairs, and manifested special interest in enterprises and measures tending to advance the social, moral and material welfare of his home county. He was known for his leadership in the furtherance of educational interests and for more than forty years served as a valued member of the school board of Canton Township. At one time he was made the nominee of his party for the office of county treasurer, but as the party was much in the minority he and its other local candidates met defeat, through normal political exigencies. John Shock chose as his wife Miss Elizabeth Ayersman, who was a native of Germany, and they reared their children to lives of honor and usefulness. Jacob Shock, son of John and Elizabeth (Ayersman) Shock, was born on the ancestral homestead in Canton Township, on the 27th of January, 1835, and on the home farm he early learned the lessons of practical industry, the while he availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the locality. He eventually farmed the fine old homestead, and there he continued to be actively and successfully identified with the agricultural and livestock industries until 1885, when he turned his attention to the milling business. He purchased the water-power mills at Canton, a, property still known as the Shock Mills and now situated within the city limits of Canton. With the operation of this excellent plant he continued to be identified until his death, which occurred on the 17th of May, 1890, and well may it be said that he fully upheld the high prestige of the honored name which he bore. He was influential in public affairs of a local order and served as township assessor and as a member of the school board of Canton Township. His wife, whose maiden name was Maria E. Wingard, was born on the farm of her parents, in Perry Township, this county, in 1839, and she still survives him, her home being in the City of Canton. Of their children Henry A., of this review, was the first born, and of the others, John and Mrs. Flora Howenstine are living. The conditions and influences of the ancestral farmstead on which he was born compassed the days of the boyhood and youth of Henry A. Shock, and in addition to attending the district schools he was afforded the advantages of the public schools in the City of Canton. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to the age of nineteen years, after which he attended the public schools and a business college in Canton. In 1874 he became a teacher in one of the district schools of Canton Township, and he continued a successful and popular representative of the pedagogic profession in his native county for a period of four years. He then assumed a position as bookkeeper in the offices of C. Aultman & Company, long one of the leading industrial concerns of Canton, and with this company he continued his services until January 1, 1891, when 796 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY he and his brother John succeeded their honored father in the ownership of the Shock Mills, at Canton, Ohio. They continued to be associated in the operation of the plant and the control of the large and substantial business until the 1st of April, 1901, when Henry A. Shock became the sole owner of the mills and incidental business. He has since continued his individual ownership of this important and prosperous enterprise and maintains his mills at the highest modern standard of mechanical equipment and service, so that the enterprise represents a valuable contribution to the industrial and commercial activities of Stark County. As a citizen of progressiveness, loyalty and public spirit Mr. Shock manifests the same proclivities as have representatives of the Shock family in former generations, and he gives ready co-operation in support of enterprises and undertakings projected for the general good of his home city and county. He has been influential in public affairs in Canton Township and since his property, including both his mills and residence, have been within the corporate limits of Canton, he has shown an equally lively interest in municipal affairs. Mr. Shock has not abated his deep interest in the great basic industry of agriculture, which closely impinges in a local way upon the success of his milling enterprise, and he served with marked discrimination and efficiency as president of the Stark County Crop Improvement Association, while in 1913 and again in 1914 he conducted the Stark County Corn Boys" on their annual visits to the national capital and other eastern cities. Mr. Shock served four years as a member of the school board of Canton Township, and during the latter two years was president of the board. He is actively identified with the Canton Chamber of Commerce and is in full sympathy with its high civic and industrial ideals and policies. On the 17th of February, 1892. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Shock to Miss Ida E. Fcx, of Bolivar, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and they have four children : Homer J., James A., Dorothea A. and Helen E. The elder son, Homer J., now represents his father's milling business in the capacity of salesman and collector, and is one of the popular young business men of Canton. GEORGE W. KRATSCH. In adding the name of George W. Kratsch to its citizenship, in 1890, Massillon accomplished the acquisition of a man who possessed the ambition and the ability to make himself a factor of large professional usefulness. Since then he has forged rapidly to the forefront among the legists of the city and at present is accounted one of the leaders of the bar. He was born in the Village of Wilmot, Sugar Creek Township, Stark County, Ohio, July 7, 1882, and is a son of Herman and Bertha A. (Boerngen) Kratsch. Abraham Kratsch, the grandfather of George W. Kratsch, brought his family to America from near Altenberg, Saxony, Germany, when his son, Herman, was eight years of age, in 1852. The family came direct to Stark County, Ohio, settling first in Bethlehem Township. where the grandfather acquired a farm and resided until about the time of the Civil war, then selling out and removing to Winesburg, Holmes County, HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 797 Ohio, that community continuing to be his home until the time of his death, Mrs. Kratsch surviving some years and passing away at Wilmot. Herman Kratsch was reared on the home farm in Bethlehem Township, was educated in the public schools, and grew up as a farmer boy. He was nineteen years of age when he enlisted, in 1863, in Company E, Tenth Ohio Cavalry, in General Kirkpatrick's Division. Mr. Kratsch took part in many engagements, proving a brave and faithful wearer of the blue, was with the forces of General Sherman in the long march to the sea. His brother, Bernard, enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was captured at the first day's fight at Gettysburg, and was confined as a prisoner in the awful stockade at Andersonville. Herman was with the cavalry when Andersonville was captured, but they were too ]ate to rescue his brother who had succumbed to the privations and horrors of prison life and died a few days prior to the arrival of the Union troops. Another brother, John, was also a member of an Ohio volunteer regiment during the war. At the close of the war Herman Kratsch settled at Wilmot, where he followed farming until 1890, then removing to Massillon and dying in this city in 1909, at the age of sixty-five years. Mrs. Kratsch was born in 1848, in the same district as was her husband, a daughter of Abraham Boerngen, who brought his family to the United States from Saxony following the close of the war between the states and settled in Sugar Creek Township, Stark County. The mother died at Massillon in 1911, aged sixty-three years. There were seven children in the family, as follows: Lenora, who is deceased ; Emma, who is a teacher in the public schools of Massillon and a popular and efficient educator: Oscar L., of this city; Ella and Albert, who are deceased; George W.. of this review; and Herbert, who is deceased. George W. Kratsch was graduated from the Massillon High School in the class of 1899 and from the law department of the University of Michigan, class of 1903, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar that same year, but did not begin practice until 1904, when he associated himself in practice with Frank L. Baldwin, and opened an office at Massillon. This became one of the formidable legal combinations of the city and continued with success until Mr. Baldwin's retirement, in 1910. Mr. Kratsch served as city solicitor at Massillon for two terms, or from 1906 until 1910, and in 1910 and 1912 was the candidate of the republican party for the office of prosecuting attorney, but owing to political conditions met defeat on both occasions: His practice is general in character and of an important nature, and he is serving as attorney for some of the leading enterprises of the city, including the Massillon Electric and Gas Company, the Massillon Water Supply Company. in which he is a director, the First National Bank and the West Side Milling Company. He is also a director and member of the Massillon Chamber of Commerce, a director and vice president of the Massillon Automobile Club, and a member of the Massillon Social Club. the Massillon Bar Association, the Stark County Bar Association and Clinton Lodge No. 47, F. & A. M. Mr. Kratsch was married in 1907 to Miss Marie Krantz, who was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, daughter of Charles H. and Mary (Swickheimer) Krantz. Mr. Kratsch is a member of the Lutheran Church. 798 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY FREDERICK E. KOHLER. An interesting record of practical accomplishment has been that of Frederick E. Kohler, who upwards of half a century ago came from Switzerland, his native land, had a varied training and experience in business affairs both in the East and in Ohio, and has always had the faculty of being able to grow personally in proportion to his exterior surroundings and opportunities. Mr. Kohler for many years has been a manufacturer at Canton, and is now head of the F. E. Kohler Company. This company, known as the F. E. Kohler Co. Hardware Specialties Manufacturers, was established in 1879 and incorporated in 1909. Its plant at Canton covers nearly an acre of ground, and an average of seventy men find profitable employment in its various departments. It will not be out of place to mention the complete list of its hardware specialties, which includes the following articles : curry combs, dandelion spuds, door pulls, garden rakes, garden and field hoes, garden trowels, hand corn planters, hose menders, pot scrapers, post hole diggers, shovels and scoops, side walk scrapers, trowels, turf edgers and weed extractors. This is a business of long standing and has grown and developed as a result of a studious plan to manufacture articles of common every day use and of wide distribution in every part of the country. Outside of its importance as a standard business institution of Stark County, a special interest attaches to this concern as one that has endeavored to translate some of the modern business ideals into practice. The company has the distinction of being the first business organization in Stark County to pay dividends to its employes. The company's fiscal year ends in June, and the first dividend was paid and distributed in July, 1914, and the second in July, 1915, and the plan has worked out in such a way as to satisfy the anticipations and has brought a new spirit into all branches of the industry. Frederick E. Kohler was born in the City of Berne, Switzerland, August 25, 1856, a son of Frederick and Elizabeth (Kuert) Kohler. When he was still a small boy both his parents died in Switzerland within a year of each other, and the orphan child then made his home with an uncle in Berne for several years. He attended school part of the time, but on account of ill health was also confined in a hospital for many months. In 1866 in company with his aunt and two sisters, Mr. Kohler came to the United States. On landing at New York he found a home with his uncle, the late Conrad Sweitzer, and attended English school until completing his education. Mr. Sweitzer, his uncle, had formerly been identified with the hardware business in Canton, but had removed to New York City to engage in the wholesale hardware trade in that city. In 1870 young Kohler, then fourteen years of age, began working in his uncle's store in New York, and in 1874, after the death of Mr. Sweitzer, he came out to Canton. After buying his railroad ticket and with other expenses he possessed $28 when he arrived in the city which for the past forty years has been his home and the scene of his best achievements. For a time at Canton he was employed in the tailoring and men's furnishing store of T. B. Albert & Company. Three years later he became bookkeeper in the old Wilson Hayrake Manufacturing Company, PICTURE OF FREDERICK E. KOHLER HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 799 which was then being operated by the widow of J. B. Wilson. That factory closed in 1879, and in that year Mr. Kohler and Isaac Harter took over the business under the name of the Chieftain Hayrake Company. That was the real beginning of the present F. E. Kohler Company. They manufactured hay rakes and other agricultural implements for about twelve years, and since then have confined their attention largely to a line of hardware and agricultural specialties. Since the establishment of the business Mr. Kohler, who is not only an excellent business executive but a man of originating mind, has taken out about twenty patents on various goods manufactured by the present company. His genius at perfecting new devices gradually worked a reorganization of the business, until it began manufacturing a general line of hardware specialties. In 1909 the business was incorporated as the F. E. Kohler Company, with Mr. Kohler as president. Mr. Kohler is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce. He stands high in local business circles. Mr. Kohler has one daughter, Elizabeth Ellen, now the wife of Ralph Stackpole of Canton. JOHN C. PRENOT has been the publisher of the Louisville Herald, the leading paper in that section of Stark County, since 1897. Mr. Prenot himself is a republican, but lie publishes the Herald on an independent basis, and has made it a very influential factor in local affairs and a valuable medium of news and advertising. Mr. Prenot was born in Louisville, Stark County, in 1870, a son of Julian G. and Catharine Prenot. He received a common school education, and early took up newspaper work, finally acquiring the plant of the Louisville Herald at the age of twenty-seven. Mr. Prenot is unmarried. He is a member of the local Masonic Lodge at Louisville. WILLIAM FIELBERTH. Since 1885 the shoe interests of Massillon have had a wide-awake promoter in William Fielberth, who is one of the city's successful merchants. Primarily a business man, he is rendering Massillon excellent service as a member and clerk of the board of education, a position which he has held since 1913. This dependable and progressive citizen was born in the City of Neustadt, in Odenwald, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, September 1, 1862, and is a son of John George and Elizabeth (Buchner) Fielberth. Mr. Fielberth secured his education in the public schools of his native place and a private school which he attended for three years and at the age of seventeen years entered the post and telegraph service at Griesheim, near Darmstadt, continuing to be connected therewith for two years. On August 26, 1881, he left his home for the United States, going via Rotterdam and sailing on the steamer Calland for New York, where he arrived September 9th. He had come to this country alone, and possessed no knowledge of the English tongue or American customs, but secured employment in the metropolis and worked there until February, 1882. He then came to Ohio and took up his permanent home at Massillon, where he arrived on Saint Valentine's Day, and here, to further his education, began to attend the old Tremont School, now known as the Lorin Andrews School, of which the princi-