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the night met her springing with athletic solicitude to their rescue. Her social graces were an inspiration. She was hospitable and gracious, disarming all doubt of welcome, and winning the love of every creature. Her benevolence not only was extended to prominent visitors, which was very frequent, but to every ragged and hungry wanderer that reached her door. There was genius in her management of home; in the art of preparing food she was a master ; in the science of housekeeping she was a magician ; ever hanging beautiful wreaths upon dingy places.
She was divine in her home. Her patience, her industry, her faithfulness, her wise teaching and influence, were the incarnated spirit of domestic life. The inspiration of heaven was upon her to make a happy home, a place that her family would love, and her love gave her the sublimest energy. Her children and family rise up and call her blessed. Her daughters loved her, and reposed their heads upon her bosom, encircled her with their arms, wooed her by endearing terms, and kissed away the lines of care; and her sons, with no less enthusiasm of love, attended her and worshipped her as a goddess.
Some special virtues of her life assumed peculiar prominence. A more than ordinary education illumined the life and family of this exceptional woman ; she was a counselor, comforter and inspirer. Her earlier years were taught in the Wooster schools of Mrs. Pope and Miss Kate Rex (Mrs. McSweeney). She attended the female college at Granville, Ohio, and the female college .at Delaware, Ohio. Accompanying the Wooster schools were institutions that taught and developed the graces of motion and manners which she. with other young ladies of Wooster, attended. During all her life her step was light and her motions graceful and polished. In her domestic life this grace and polish adorned her. Her soft footstep going and coming in daily duties, the rustle of her dress, the gentle voice of household government, her noiseless coming through the rooms, her swift touch, and graceful poise, and agile motion, and elastic manners, were the perfection. of versatility, and in the days of trailing skirts, when in full dress, gave her a queenly stateliness equaled by few ; and this fine taste and educated gracefulness distinguished her family ; and her personal labors in clothing her children had the touch of rare and finished skillfulness.
There was a dramatic beauty in her love of children ; she crooned sweet cadences over their cradles, and showered soft whistling bird-toned endearment, and the echoes of angelic sighs, and sweet-lipped wreaths of smiles, upon their tender lives; the benevolence of her life was a fixed habit and always marked the family epochs with generous presents.
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Her peculiar habit of associating with the aged adorned her with a mild and gentle temperament; the old mothers of Millersburg and Wooster loved her. Her tender vigils at the bed of the sick ; her beautiful composure and skill; the enthralling advances of her greeting; the electricity of her touch, seem now a lovely presence.
She was an heroic woman, without fear and without reproach; she had the inflexible persistence of hereditary blood ; she breasted the wintry roads, and rode down the storm, and lifted her family on, with the irresistibility of her royal nature ; her brown eyes opened with inflexible pleasantness at precautionary suggestions ; she lived in the profundity of nerve repose ; she was not marred by disease, and rejoiced through all her years in the healthy functions of constitutional perfection ; she met each day with noble and fearless purpose, and in the threatening moments made her way directly to the point of danger ; she had no drop of coward's blood, and to the demands for courage was a Joan of Arc ; and to the demands of suffering, a Florence Nightingale.
She was a Christian. The family books marked by her in her moments of leisure were •not the classical curiosities of mythology, but the story of a real Redeemer, and in this great trust she taught her household. She was a habitual reader of the Divine Word. From early life she attended the services of the church ; she was a lover of music and sang with great sweetness, and as her children grew, they were trained by her in the same religious impressions. Her religion was more than sectarian life; her education fitted her for larger associations ; of the beauties of her life, none were more lovely than the generosity of her religious sentiments; she freely mingled with Christians of all denominations; she exemplified the character of her Savior in all the duties of life. In the album of her daughter A ddie she wrote the story of her life :
"May 12, 1884.
"Dear Addie :
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
"Your affectionate
"MOTHER."
Thus on her fiftieth birthday she found no philosophy so great as this jewel of the Divine Word.
(35b)
560-18 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
The daily life of this mother and her children, in their maturing years, was a benediction. As soon the angry flash of ill-nature would be met in the soft petals of the rose, or in the blossom wafted upon a zephyr, as from the dimples that nestled in the mother's smiles, or from the eyes that wooed with her beckonings of melting azure. It was the management of angelic genius! In her daily motive there was progress. One by one she turned her children's footsteps along the grooves of knowledge ; she led them by the hand, encouraged and instructed them in useful ways, and watched their slow ascent along the slopes of thought ; she taught them the divine mystery of the stars. Her love, like the electric flash over many zones, illumined her children's homes; as the eagle uplifts its young ones upon level plumes, and assays to wing them in her own ethereal heights, this noble mother, in her holy vigilance, guarded the tearful departure of her sons and daughters.
Along these fleeting years she lived a happy life; her home was charmingly decorated in artistic taste; cool and clean as a temple, renovated with hygienic care; picturesque, musical with laughter and song; sanctified by the recognition of omnipresence.
The family nurture was an important part of her philosophy, in the ,practical performance of which her whole life was distinguished, and the phenomenal family health attested the wisdom of her early training as a physician's daughter. And all these beautiful habits of life were but the concomitants of elegant physical and mental power. Her hand was steady ; her writing small, exact and uniform, the characteristics of the refinement and polish of controlling nerve, and the beauty of her correspondence is but another phase of that same exceptional skill manifested in family nurture, in the preservation of leaves and blossoms in her books, and in her delight in the beauty of her family ; just as her heroic impulses caused death. And in all her noble qualities she seems now to stand like a statue--something like Phidias made of Minerva, plated with gold, seventy feet high, before which the Athenians bowed as they approached the colonnades of the Parthenon.
This noble woman lived like a heroine and died like a martyr. Twenty-four grandchildren and one great-grandchild and the future innumerable descendants, will revere her memory.
When we last saw this noble woman, her beautiful soul had left the sunshine of its ascension upon every lineament, and the benevolence of her life sat upon her lips.
NOTE—In this attempted eulogy of one noble woman, the hundreds of noble women of Wayne county are intended to see their own.
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 560-19
FRANK TAGGART.
In touching upon the life history of Frank Taggart, one of the best-known members of the bar in northern Ohio, the biographer aims to avoid fulsome encomium and extravagant praise, yet he desires to hold up for consideration those facts which have shown the distinction of a true, useful and honorable life—a life characterized by perseverance, energy, broad charity and well-defined purpose. To do this will be but to reiterate the dictum pronounced upon him by the people who have known him so long and well. And it is safe to say that no man in Wayne county occupies a more enviable position in her civic and professional life, not alone on account of the success he has achieved, but also on account of the honorable, straightforward business policy he has ever followed, both in public and private life.
Judge Frank Taggart was born in Smithville, Wayne county, June 6, 1852, and is the son of Dr. W. W. Taggart, now deceased. The elder Taggart married Margaret McCaughey. He came to Wayne county, Ohio, in 1840, from Belmont county, this state, locating near the village of Smithville, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he was very successful. He was a man of strong, logical mind, a scholar and especially well grounded in historical and scientific subjects, a profound and methodical thinker and a mathematician of much more than ordinary attainments. During the past decade he abandoned the active duties of his profession, which he long honored during a very energetic and useful life, having, while advancing his own interests and that of his family, at the same time contributed in no paltry degree to the general advancement of his community, being liberal, generous, public-spirited and scrupulously honest.
When his son, Frank Taggart, was five years of age he moved to a farm he had purchased about one and one-half miles northeast of Wooster, and there young Taggart remained until 1868, assisting with the work of developing the home place, learning many valuable lessons that only he who "communes with nature" and breathes the pure air of the "sylvan wild" can imbibe, at the same time laying up a potential energy that has stood him well in hand during his trying career as a lawyer. His father was an advocate of thorough mental training and sought to encourage his son in whatever way possible, consequently the lad was first placed in the district schools, later the high school at Wooster, where he completed his preparatory work for entrance in the University of Wooster, which was soon to open its doors. to the educational public, the date of its opening being September 8, 1870, and on that date Mr. Taggart had the distinction of being one of the first prospective
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students, registering as a freshman, remaining one of the original class of five that passed the prescribed course in the curriculum, receiving his 'degree in 1874. He made an excellent record in this institution and gave promise of a useful and successful career. His brother, Rush Taggart, a prominent lawyer of New York City, and a member of the firm of John B. Dillon, is general counsel of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and graduated in the class of 1871, the close of the first university year, and made the first graduating speech of the class.
After finishing his schooling, Frank Taggart began the study of the law, entering the office of Judge Joseph H. Downing, now deceased, and after a period of study there entered the law department of the university at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1875, remaining for two years, and on July 4, 1876, he was admitted to practice in the district court of Wayne county, Judge Reed, of Millersburg, sitting on the bench of common pleas. He at once opened an office in Wooster without an associate in practice, which has rapidly grown from that day to this until he now holds front rank at the Wayne county bar. He is a loyal Republican, but never stoops to the tricks of the demagogue. In the year 1896 he was appointed to the responsible position of judge of the common pleas court by Gov. Asa S. Bushnell, and in the year 1905 was elected circuit judge of the fifth circuit of Ohio and in 190 elected chief justice of the circuit courts of Ohio.
In the year 1888 Judge Taggart was married to Lizzie Wallace, daughter of David A. Wallace, D. D., LL. D. Their family consists of seven children, Margaret, William, Wallace, Martha F., Frank, Clementen, John F. and David.
JOHN A. MYERS.
The able and popular assistant cashier of the Wayne County National Bank at Wooster, Ohio, is most consistently accorded recognition in a work of the province assigned to the one at hand, since it has to do with the representative citizens of Wayne county, of which number he is unquestionably a worthy member and has played well his part in fostering the diversified interests of the same, and while yet a young man has shown what fidelity to duty, coupled with right principles, can accomplish. He is a native of this county, having been born near New Pittsburg, Chester township, on August 14, 1871, the son of David Myers, of Wooster, a sketch of whom appears.
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elsewhere in this volume. He is a worthy son of a worthy sire,—in fact, takes a delight in keeping untarnished the brilliant escutcheon of the Myers name, which has long been highly honored in this locality. He received a good practical education in the district schools of his township, later attending the high school at Wooster. When eighteen years of age he removed to Wooster with his parents, and attended Wooster University for a period of two years, during which time he made a very commendable record for both scholarship and deportment. Desiring to fit himself for a business career, he took a course in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, graduating from the same with a very creditable record.
After he had finished his education, young Myers acted as deputy clerk of the courts at Wooster for six years, doing very creditable work,—in fact, he had mastered the details of the office so well that he attracted the notice of the officials of the Ashland & Wooster Railroad Company, who invited him to serve as their chief clerk with headquarters at Ashland, which position he held for a period of four years, giving his usual success. He returned to Wooster in 1903 and became assistant cashier of the Wayne County National Bank, which position he still holds, discharging the duties of the same in a manner that shows him to be a man of rare business qualities, alert, painstaking and eminently capable.
Mr. Myers was married on May 28, 1902, to Lydia C. George, a lady of culture and refinement, the daughter of P. C. and Harriet F. George, of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Myers was born and reared and where her family were long prominent. The home of Mr.. and Mrs. Myers has been blessed by the birth of two children, namely : Laura Minerva, born September 13, 1903, and Claudia Virginia, born May 5, 1907.
Mr. Myers is now a member of the city school board, being the youngest member ever honored thus. He takes an abiding interest in local educational affairs, and the cause of education here has been augmented since he became a member of the same. Fraternally, Mr. Myers belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a loyal Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church, being liberal supporters of the same.
The Myers residence on Beall avenue is modern, beautifully located and nicely furnished, and is often the gathering place for many of the best people of Wooster where hospitality and friendship ever prevail. Mr. Myers is a man of pleasing address, frank, generous, courteous and straightforward.
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JUDGE ROBERT L. ADAIR.
A name too well known to the readers of this history to need any formal introduction here is that of Judge Robert L. Adair, who for many years has been a conspicuous figure in the local courts and has won distinctive prestige in a community widely noted for the high order of its legal talent. He was born in Wooster township, Wayne county, Ohio, February 2, 1869, the son of Anderson and Emeline (Yocum) Adair. The Judge's grandfather settled in this county in 1825 among the pioneers. His father, who took considerable interest in political matters, served as county commissioner from 1867 to 1872. Emeline Yocum was a teacher in the public schools of Wooster for a number of years, a daughter of Rev. Elmer Yocum, a pioneer Methodist minister who located in Congress township in 1826, and who, for a period of three score and ten years, actively engaged in the spreading of the gospel in Ohio and Wisconsin, dying in the latter state in 1898 at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Rev. Elmer Yocum, the paternal grandfather of the subject, was born in Congress township, Wayne county, Ohio, in 1807. He preached in Ohio until 1840 when he moved to Wisconsin and there preached fifty-seven years. He was a delegate to the general conference on four different occasions.
Robert L. Adair spent his boyhood days attending the common schools and assisting with the work about the home place. Being ambitious to make a name in the legal profession, he entered the University of Wooster, from which he was graduated with a very creditable record in 1891. He studied law with his brother, John S. Adair, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1893, and soon thereafter began the practice of his profession in Orrville, where he remained until 1895, having gained a promising start in his career as a lawyer which augured still greater things for the future. An opportunity presenting itself at Wooster, he returned to this city and formed a partnership with his brother, with whom he had studied, and he has since remained in the practice here, having built up quite a satisfactory clientele. Since July 1, 1908, he has been in partnership with W. F. Kean.
September 10, 1908, the Judge was married to Mary S. Campbell, of Indianapolis, daughter of E. A. Campbell, a prominent family of the capital city.
A man with such popularity among his fellow citizens and with such pronounced ability could not long fail to attract the attention of political leaders, and he was selected as the candidate for probate judge by the Democrats in 1899, and in the following autumn he was triumphantly elected to that office, faithfully and ably discharging the duties of the same for a period
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of six years, his record having been most satisfactory to all concerned, irrespective of party affiliations. Prior to his election as probate judge he served one term in 1897 as city solicitor of Wooster, declining renomination.
Judge Adair, by his persistent application, his genuine worth and the force of his native powers, has elevated himself to a prominent position at the Ohio bar, possessing a broad and comprehensive knowledge of jurisprudence. He is a strong, energetic, practical business lawyer. His zeal and fixedness of purpose and policy in the defense of his client evokes the careful and considerate attention of a jury, and when on the bench his decisions were fair, learned and impartial. His is a genial, cordial nature, with proper poise and dignity. In his private ways we see the ebb and flow of his social nature, interesting alike in both. Faithful as he has been, and is, to official and professional trusts, an advocate and champion of popular education, and in sympathy with the spirit of our free institutions, he is one of the representative citizens of Wayne county and the great commonwealth of Ohio.
John S. Adair, brother of Judge Adair, went to New Mexico in 1897 and located at Clovis, where he is now practicing law. He married Caroline Goldsmith, of Painsville, Ohio, and to this union five children have been born : Mary Anderson, Ruth Smiley, Blanche M., John Patrick and Eddie.
Prof. Edward E. Adair, brother of the Judge, is superintendent of schools at Doylestown, this county. He married Nina Franks in December, 1891, and three children have been born to them : Lyman, Frances and Jeanette.
Jennie Adair, sister of the subject, graduated from the University of Wooster in 1899. She took a post-graduate course here in 1901, since which time she has been teaching in various high schools and is now principal of schools at Clovis, New Mexico.
Mrs. Robert L. Adair's father is a retired Methodist minister, living at Indianapolis. For many years he was presiding elder in the Indiana conference. Mrs. Adair is a graduate of Moore's Hill College, and she took a postgraduate course at Depauw University, after which she taught in various high schools until her marriage. Both she and Judge Adair are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, regular attendants and liberal supporters of the same.
SMITH ORR, M. D.
The subject of this sketch, who for many years was one of the representative medical practitioners of Grant county, Oregon, is the only living representative of the Orr family for whom the town of Orrville was named, and
560-24 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
is the only surviving child of the late Hon. William M. Orr. Doctor Orr was born in the eastern part of Wayne county, Ohio, on the 23d of November, 1849. He is the oldest of four children born to his parents, the others being: John, who was born July 20, 1851, and is now deceased ; William S., who was born February 4, 1856, and is deceased ; and Mrs. S. M. Brenneman, born January 8, 1858, and died January 5, 1909, leaving a husband and two daughters.
Dr. Smith Orr was reared in Wooster until he was fourteen years old, when he removed with his father to Orrville. He received his education in the public schools of Wooster and Orrville, supplementing this by attendance at the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. Having then determined to make the practice of medicine his life work, the subject entered Rush Medical College, at Chicago, where he graduated in 1876, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He at once entered upon the active practice of his profession, locating first at Hardin, Lasalle county, Illinois, but subsequently removing to Canyon City, Oregon. He was a successful practitioner, commanding a large and remunerative patronage, and stood high among the men of his calling. In 1892, on account of the death of his father, Doctor Orr returned to Orrville and has since devoted his time to looking after his extended landed interests. The Doctor was, while engaged in the practice, considered an unusually good diagnostician and kept in close touch with every advance made in the healing art. He took a post-graduate course at the New York Polyclinic and commanded the confidence of those whom he treated.
Doctor Orr has never married, and is living quietly and unostentatiously at Orrville. He possesses a good library and is a close reader and keen observer of men and events, keeping himself well informed on the current events of the day.
The subject's paternal grandfather, Smith Orr, for whom he was named. owned one of the first houses in Orrville. This house is still standing, having sheltered three generations of the family. Judge Smith Orr died on April I, 1865.
JUDGE MARTIN L. SMYSER.
An enumeration of the representative citizens of Wayne county of the past generation who won recognition and success for themselves and at the same time conferred honor upon the community, would be decidedly incomplete were there failure to make mention of the well remembered and highly
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revered gentleman whose name introduces this biographical compendium, the late Judge Martin L. Smyser, whose name was long a household word in northern Ohio, where he held worthy prestige in legal and political circles. He was always distinctively a man of affairs, wielding a wide influence among those with whom his lot was cast, ever having the affairs of his county at heart and doing what he could to aid in its development, for he believed that his native county of Wayne was one of the most attractive, progressive and prosperous of any in the Union and did not care to live outside her borders, and it has always been due to such men as Judge Smyser that she could justly claim a high order of citizenship and a spirit of enterprise which conserved consecutive development and marked advancement in its material upbuilding. The county has been, and is, signally favored in the class of men who have controlled its affairs in official capacity, and this is one of the connections in which Judge Smyser demands recognition, serving the locality faithfully and well in positions of distinct trust and responsibility. He achieved a brilliant record at the bar at an age when most men are merely starting on their life work, for from the beginning he was intensely methodical and unswervingly scientific in search and seizure of the true light and of the essential morality and inspiration of the legal foundations, and in sources of legal conception and thought, conscientious and intensely pure, having an exalted firmness with which he recognized the morality of the fixed principles of judicial systems, holding devoutly to the highly embellished record of equity, the invariable theorems of law, the sure, certain, invincible methods of practice; therefore, abundant success could not help crowning his efforts and placing him on the topmost rung of the legal and judicial ladder and winning for him the well merited laudation of his fellowmen.
Judge Martin L. Smyser was a scion of an ancestry of which anyone might well be proud and many of their sterling traits outcropped in him, giving him fortitude, directness, keenness of perception and probity of character. He was born in Chester township, Wayne county, Ohio, April 3, 1851, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel Smyser, the father a native of York county, Pennsylvania, where he was reared and educated in the pioneer schools, but who followed the wake of the tide of emigration that set in heavily for the West in 1832. He located in Wayne county, Ohio, where he was able to foresee a vast development and great possibilities to the strong of heart and arm and here he cleared a small plot of ground, erected a primitive dwelling and formed the nucleus of a comfortable and happy home, enjoying the fruition that always rewards the honest tiller of the soil
560-26 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
in a virgin country. The Smysers have thus figured quite prominently in both York county, Pennsylvania, and in Wayne county, Ohio, since the epoch which historians are pleased to designate as early times. One of the well remembered relatives of the Judge was Jacob Smyser, a native of York county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on June 27, 180, there grew up and married Sarah Diehl, and came to Wayne county, Ohio, with the Judge's father in 1832, and here reared a family of seven children, and lived here on a farm for a half century or more, taking an active interest in whatever tended to develop the county. His father, also named Jacob Smyser, and also a native of York county, Pennsylvania, died in 1840. He was a farmer and of German ancestry, as the name implies. The elder Smysers were Lutherans and known as men of sterling principles, honest, unswerving in their rectitude of purpose and action, consequently the probity of character of Judge Martin L. Smyser may be accounted for.
Judge Smyser grew to maturity on his father's farm, where he assisted in the work of developing the same and thereby imbibed a deep love of nature, laying the foundation for a rugged manhood and learning many lessons of subsequent value in shaping his destinies. Life on the farm acted on him as on many of our great men who have come up from the maul and the axe, the plow and the reaper,—cultivating a reflective and perceptive faculty, the ability to see clearly and to weigh accurately all problems and things affecting daily life.
Judge Smyser received his primary education in the common schools; always a student and ambitious to succeed, he applied himself very assiduously to his studies and made rapid progress. Early deciding to enter the legal profession, he began bending every effort in that direction. At an early age he entered Wittenburg College, Springfield, Ohio, where he made a brilliant record for scholarship and from which institution he was graduated in 1870. Soon afterward he began the study of law in earnest in the office of Hon. L. R. Critchfield, one of the most distinguished practitioners of the local bar, and under his able guidance Judge Smyser made rapid strides. He passed the required legal examination at Columbus, Ohio, in April 1872, and at once opened an office in Wooster and was successful from the first, soon climbing to a front rank among his colleagues at the Wayne county bar. Such a favorable impression did he make upon his fellow citizens that. in the fall of 1872, when only twenty-one years of age, he was nominated by the Republican party for prosecuting attorney of Wayne county, and he made a most active, aggressive, vigorous and almost astonishing record as a campaigner for one of such tender years and achieved a triumphant elec-
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tion, and he discharged the duties of the office in a manner that soon convinced the most skeptical of his unquestioned ability. In 1873 he entered into professional relationship with Hon. A. S. McClure, which combination was one of unusual strength and which was long continued.
Judge Smyser was chosen as an alternate delegate to the Republican national convention in Chicago in 1884, and in 1888 he was sent as a regular delegate, and during that year he was elected to the fifty-first Congress from the twentieth district by a majority of two thousand, a criterion of his general high standing in this district, and he won the undivided approval of all his constituents while a member of that distinguished body, where he was active in the affairs pertaining to his district and where his counsel was often sought and heeded by his colleagues. On January 15, 1898, he was appointed to the bench of the circuit court by Gov. Asa S. Bushnell to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Julius C. Pomerene, and he soon proved his preparedness and fitness in every respect for this high position, having by nature and training a judicial mind that was clear in analysis and fair in all decisions, and he, in this connection, widely extended his circle of personal, legal and political friends, and perhaps no lawyer in the judicial district over which he presided ever enjoyed a more profound popularity than he, which came as a result of his ability and his noble personality.
This splendid type of high citizenship, able lawyer, capable jurist, popular exponent of the people whose rights he 'sought to champion at all times, whether in private, public or legislative capacities, was called to a higher plane of action by the fate that awaits all mankind, his death being counted a distinct and irreparable loss to the section of the state in which he lived.
In 1881 Judge Smyser was united in marriage to Alice A. France, a native of Wayne county, of which her father had formerly been sheriff. She is a graduate of the Delaware Female College.
Judge Smyser was honored and esteemed by all who knew him for his life of honor, usefulness, unselfishness, genuine worth, integrity and public spirit for his high purpose and unconquerable will, vigorous mental powers, diligent study and devotion to duty—these being some of the means by which he made himself eminently useful. The good he has accomplished for his county and state cannot be adequately expressed, and for generations to come the commendable things he did will continue to influence and direct human thought and action in this section of the great Buckeye commonwealth.
560-28 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
ADAIR FAMILY.
The family name which heads this article has long been identified with the history and progress of Wayne county and is one which has been distinguished and renowned far beyond common. Of Irish ancestry for many generations, the first of the family under immediate consideration was Patrick Adair, born in 1797 in county Down, Ireland, where in his early manhood he became identified with the home rule insurrection headed by the lamented Emmet, and he found it necessary to leave the land of his fathers; accordingly he came to America and settled in western Pennsylvania, where he soon afterward married Mary Stuart. Of the five children born to them, only one lived to maturity, she being Mrs. Mary Wilson, of Burlington, Iowa, now deceased. His wife died in about 1815 and several years later he married Ann Anderson, and to them were born five children, Jane E., Eliza, James M., Thomas A. and Anderson.
In 1825 Mr. Adair removed to Wayne county, Ohio, and settled on a farm not far distant from Wooster. Here his second wife died, at the age of thirty-nine years, and Mr. Adair again married, his wife being Ann McCracken, who died in 1843, leaving no children. Mr. Adair in early life had not been the recipient of educational advantages, but possessed a keen and retentive memory and was considered a man of a high order of intelligence. He was industrious and provident and possessed those qualities of mind and heart which make men honored and beloved rather than conduce to prosperity in worldly affairs. He was a stanch Democrat of the Thomas Jefferson type, whose principles he strongly advocated. He served in the war of 1812, in the capacity of surgeon's mate, or assistant. In religious belief he was a life-long Presbyterian. He died in 1866, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.
Anderson Adair, son of Patrick and Ann (Anderson) Adair, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and soon thereafter the family removed to Ohio. As a boy he attended the district schools and as a young man he performed the ordinary duties of a farmer's life until he reached the age of twenty-five, when for one year he attended the academy at Wooster, and for several years following he was engaged in the work of teaching. At the age of twenty-seven years he married Henrietta McClure and to them were born five children, of whom two are living, Prof. Edward E., of Doylestown, Ohio, and John S., concerning whom more follows. Mrs. Adair died in 1861, and some time later Mr. Adair married Emeline, daughter of Rev. Elmer Yocum, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. She was a
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 560-29
lady of accomplishments and intellectual attainment, a graduate of Baldwin University and later a teacher of much ability. To this union there came two children, Judge Robert L. and Jennie L.
Mr. Adair was widely and most favorably known throughout Wayne county and was honored by political preferment upon many occasions, faithfully performing the duties and holding sacred the trust reposed in him. For some years he was one of the county commissioners of Wayne county, and in this capacity he had much to do with the management and conduct of important business in connection with improvements, etc., undertaken in behalf of the populace. He was deeply interested in matters of education and was one of the organizers of the board of education of 'Wooster township, and was for nearly or quite thirty years a member of it. For nearly seventy years he lived on the farm his father settled, where he created many improvements and where by hard labor and intelligent effort he acquired a competency. He was ever active in all movements that had for their end the advancement and good of the community, state and nation. In politics he was like his father, a Democrat. He died in July, 1905.
John S. Adair, son of Anderson and Henrietta (McClure) Adair, was born May 26, 1859. Until he was fifteen years of age he attended school and lived the life of a youth upon the farm. At this age he became a student of Wooster University, where for six years he pursued the college course. During this period he continued with his father, devoting such time as could be spared from his studies to assisting with the farm work. In 188i he entered the law firm of Wiley & McClaran, alternating his legal researches with teaching a series of schools in Clinton, Wayne, Plain and Wooster townships. In the spring of 1886 he went to Coronado, Kansas, engaging in land business and practice of law. In 1888 he returned to Wooster, and was admitted to practice in Ohio courts, opening an office in Wooster, where he for a number of years conducted an extended and lucrative practice. In 1889 he was elected city solicitor of Wooster.
WILLIAM JAMES SEELYE.
It is generally considered by those in the habit of superficial thinking that the history of so-called great men only is worthy of preservation and that little merit exists among the masses to call forth the praises of the historian or the cheers and the appreciation of mankind. A greater mistake was never
560-30 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
made. No man is great in all things. Many by a lucky stroke achieve lasting fame who before that had no reputation beyond their own neighborhoods. It is not a history of the lucky stroke which benefits humanity most, but the long study and effort which made the lucky stroke possible. It is the preliminary work, the method, that serves as a guide for the success of others. Among those in Wayne county who have achieved success along steady lines of action is William James Seelye, one of Wooster's popular and progressive citizens, who, like many of the leading people here, is a product of the great Empire state, he having been born in Schenectady, New York, April 10, 1857. He is the scion of an excellent ancestry, highly honored and distinguished in various walks of life. His mother, Elizabeth Tilman James, was a native of Albany, cousin of the famous Prof. William James, of Harvard Univer sity, and his father, Julius Hawley Seelye, was for many years pastor of the Dutch Reformed church of Schenectady. He was a man of unusual intelligence, being profoundly educated, and he was a leader in his community. In 1858 he was appointed professor of mental and moral science in Amherst College, at Amherst, Massachusetts, which position he held with much credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned until 1876, when, owing to his eminent record there, he was made president of the institution and became one of the most popular and influential educators in the state.
William J. Seelye, of this review, spent his boyhood at home and grew to maturity in the midst of the most wholesome environment, one that made for culture, education and refinement. After a preparatory education, he entered Amherst College, from which he was graduated in 1879. After a year of post-graduate work at home and a year of study in Johns Hopkins University, he spent two years abroad, seven months in Edinburgh University and a semester each in Halle and Leipzig. Thus well equipped for his life work, having decided to follow in the footsteps of his worthy father, he began his career as teacher, having returned home in 1883, in which year he was appointed professor of Greek and German in Iowa College at Grinnell, Iowa. The year 1885 to 1886 he taught, as classical undermaster, in Lawrenceville Academy, New Jersey. In all these institutions he readily proved his fitness for the position held.
Professor Seelye was married in September, 1886, to Alice Clarke, a lady of culture and talent, the daughter of a well-established and prominent family at Iowa City, Iowa. He spent the year 1886 to 1887 with her as a member of the American Archaeological Institute at Athens, Greece. The following two years Professor Seelye taught in connection with Amherst Col-
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 566-31
lege and in 1889 he became professor of Greek in Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa. where he remained two years. Since 1891 he has been professor of Greek in the University of Wooster.
The pleasant home of Professor and Mrs. Seelye has been blessed by the birth of three interesting children, named as follows : Laurens, born in 1889 ; Katharine, born in 1891, and Julius, born in 1899.
As a teacher, Professor Seelye has met with merited success and in his capacity of instructor of Greek especially his record presents a series of successes such as few attain. He pursues his chosen calling with all the interest of an enthusiast, is thoroughly in harmony with the spirit of the work and has a proper conception of the dignity of the profession to which his life and energies are so unselfishly devoted: A finished scholar, a polished gentleman and possessing the traits of character necessary to insure success, the services thus far rendered and the laurels gained bespeak for him a wider and more distinguished career of usefulness in years to come. Unlike so many of his calling who become narrow and pedantic, he is easily a man of the times, broad and liberal in his views and has the courage of his convictions on all the leading public questions and issues upon which men and parties divide. He also keeps in trend with modern thought along its various lines and is a man of scholarly and refined taste, while his familiarity with the more practical affairs of the day makes him feel at ease with all classes and conditions of people whom he meets.
WILLIAM NICHOLAS RIES.
Agriculture has been the true source of man's dominion on earth ever since the primal existence of labor, and it has been the pivotal industry that has controlled, for the most part, all the fields of action to which his intelligence and energy have been devoted. Among this sturdy element in Chippewa township, Wayne county, whose labors have profited alike themselves and the community in which they live is the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this biographical review, and in view of the consistent career lived by Mr. Ries since coming to this section of the country, it is particularly fitting that the following short record of his life and labors be incorporated in a book of this nature. Like many of the most thrifty citizens of this county. he came to us from the German empire,' which has furnished so many of the progressive citizens of this country.
560-32 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
William Nicholas Ries was born in Sauphereicher, Germany, March 22, 1846, the third son of Martin and Mary (Becker) Ries. William N. was brought to America by his parents when only eighteen months old. The family settled in Chippewa township, Wayne county, Ohio, in 1847. The father was a coal miner and he was known as a hard working, honest man.
William N. Ries, of this review, was educated in the country schools, and he engaged in coal mining for some time, later purchasing a small farm, having saved his earnings. He was married on March 29, 1866, to Barbara Frase, daughter of Squire Peter and Mary Frase, a highly respected family. To this union have been born Mrs. Ada Shank, of Doylestown, this county; Minnie, who lives at Johnson's Corners ; and Irvin, a well known and successful farmer.
Mr. Ries was land appraiser twenty years ago, and he has held all the offices in the Lutheran church, of which he is a very faithful member.
As a farmer he has made a very comfortable living and has a comfortable home ; he keeps his place in excellent condition and is spending his declining years in comfort and peace, and is well worthy of the friendship which all his neighbors freely accord. He is a good man in all the walks of life, and has so conducted himself as to be worthy of the esteem that has been accorded him by those with whom he has come into contact. His children, having been reared in a careful manner, are also highly respected by all classes.
WILLIAM EDWIN WEYGANDT.
The gentleman whose name forms the caption of this sketch is not a man who courts publicity, yet it must be a pleasure to him, as is natural, to know how well he stands with his fellow citizens throughout northern Ohio, especially his native county of Wayne. The public is seldom mistaken in its estimation of a man, and had Mr. Weygandt not been most worthy he could not have gained the high position he now holds in public and social life. Having long maintained the same without abatement of his popularity, his standing in the county is perhaps now in excess of what it has ever been. He has by his own persistent and praiseworthy efforts won for himself a name whose luster the future years shall only augment. The term "self-made" may not convey much to some, but when applied to such a man as Mr. Weygandt it has a peculiar force, for he belongs to that interesting class of men, of unquestioned merit and honor, whose life histories show that they have been compelled, very
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 560-33
largely, to map out their own career and furnish their own motive force. in scaling the heights of success, thereby meriting the applause of their fellows.
W. E. Weygandt is a native of Baughman township, where he first saw the light of day on June 1, 1864, and he is the son of J. K. and Mary Weygandt. The boyhood days of Mr. Weygandt, like those of so many of our successful men of affairs, especially the learned professions, were spent upon the farm, where he worked during the summer months, alternating farming with schooling in the district schools. He was an ambitious lad and applied himself most assiduously to his text books. His principal dependence, as we have before intimated, was very largely upon himself ; however, this is not a regrettable fact, for it strengthened his fortitude, courage and self-dependence, and without such attributes no life is a success. Desiring a higher education than the common schools could furnish, he entered the Normal University at Ada, Ohio, where he made a splendid record and from which institution he was graduated on July 23, 1895. He had decided to become a teacher and accordingly entered that profession, which he followed with credit for a period of ten years, during which time he gained an excellent local reputation as an educator, his services having been in great demand, for he had thoroughly equipped himself and seemed to possess all the natural qualifications for the successful teacher. But believing that the law was his proper field of action, he took up its study with A. D. Metz, of Wooster, who was at one time prosecuting attorney of Wayne county and a lawyer of great ability and fame. This was in April, 1894, and having made rapid progress in the same, Mr. Weygandt was admitted to practice at the Ohio bar the following October. He was remarkably successful from the first and soon had a large clientele, figuring conspicuously in many important cases in the local courts from time to time. His ability and public spirit attracted the attention of the leaders of the Democratic party and he was selected as the candidate of this party for prosecuting attorney of Wayne county in 1898. He was elected and filled the office with rare credit and acceptance, proving the wise selection of his constituents. On April 29, 1908, Mr. Weygandt was nominated for the office of judge of the common pleas court of Wayne county and in the ensuing election he was the choice of the voters, defeating his opponent, W. F. Kean, by a majority of two thousand and seven hundred. He assumed the duties of his office on January I, 1909, and in this responsible position he has again proved in no uncertain manner his eminent fitness for a position demanding ability of high order and an intimate and discriminating acquaintance with the principles of jurisprudence. His decisions have uniformly been characterized 1.);\,
(35c)
560-34 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
a high sense of justice, guided by a wide knowledge of law and precedent, and his administration of his official duties has been eminently satisfactory to both litigants and attorneys.
In September, 1886, Judge Weygandt was married to Cora Mock, daughter of Samuel Mock, a well known and highly respected farmer, now retired at the age of eighty-two years. To this union have been born three children, Carl, now a student in Wooster University, Ross and Ola.
As a lawyer Mr. Weygandt ranks deservedly high at the Wayne county bar. His habits of study, research, ability to analyze and comprehend the law, to deduce and apply it, make him an informed, reliable and certain lawyer, and necessarily successful. In his practice before the court he was characterized by fairness in stating the position of an adversary, and strong enough and broad enough to desire no undue advantage. His utterances are expressive of a calm dignity, a tolerant spirit, but a fixed purpose. In his discussion of the law he is terse, clear, precise and incisive, and to the jury he is clear, deliberate, impressive. In his active practice of the law his character for personal and professional integrity was fully recognized and appreciated. He escaped the suspicion of ever having knowingly failed to fulfill all proper obligations of his profession. Combined with the excellent personal and official qualities of the successful attorney and jurist, he is infused with the genius of enterprise and is a man of enlarged public spirit. He always stands ready to identify himself with his fellow citizens in any good work and extends a co-operative hand to advance any measure that will better the condition of things, that will give better government, elevate mankind, insure higher standards of morality and the highest ideals of a refined, ennobling, intellectual culture.
JAMES LEE ZARING.
Of high professional and academic attainments and ranking among the foremost educators of northern Ohio, James Lee Zaring, now the efficient and popular county auditor of Wayne county, has achieved marked distinction in the noble work to which his talents and energies have so long been devoted, and, judging by the past, it is safe to predict for him a future of still greater usefulness and honor. Not only as a teacher and manager of schools has he made his presence felt, but as a citizen in the daily walks of life, his influence has tended to the advancement of the community and the welfare of his
560-35 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
fellow men, while the several responsible public positions to which he has been called from time to time bear testimony of his ability to fill worthily high and important trusts. His name with eminent fitness occupies a conspicuous place in the profession which he adorns and his career, presenting a series of successes such as few attain, has gained for him much more than local reputation as a successful organizer and manager of educational interests.
Mr. Zaring was born at Jefferson, Plain township, Wayne county, Ohio, December 4, 1859, the son of Eli and Mary (Stevic) Zaring, both natives of Plain township, this county, the father having been born on January 16, 1836, and the latter in 1832, each representing old pioneer families of sterling worth who came here in the days of the forest primeval when the country was overrun by wild beasts and the council fires of the red men had scarcely died away. They were a sturdy people who delighted to meet and overcome great obstacles,—in short, they were true types of empire builders, making it possible for succeeding generations to live in ease and affluence, to ride in modern motor cars over trails which they blazed and over which their ox carts passed. An insight into the characteristics of the subject would indicate that he had inherited some of the worthy traits of his rugged progenitors.
Eli Zaring grew up on the home farm which he helped clear, and although his chances to receive an education in the old ax-hewn one-roomed school houses of that remote period were indeed limited, he made the most of every advantage and became in after years a well informed man, who was influential in county affairs and who very creditably filled the office of clerk of the local courts for a period of six years. He was for many years solicitor for the Wayne County Democrat and he held every office in Plain township, a Republican stronghold ; this proved his high standing in his native community, for he was always a loyal Democrat. The court appointed him appraiser of land in Chester township in 1880. He was a great friend of Capt. Lemuel Jeffries,—in fact, he was a man admired by all who knew him, for he was honest, public-spirited and straightforward in all his dealings with his fellow men.
James L. Zaring was educated in the district schools of Plain township, which he attended during the winter months, working in his father's shoe shop the rest of the year. He also attended the Smithville Normal School, where he made an excellent record in both scholarship and deportment. Being ambitious to enter the career of an educator, he prepared himself very carefully to that end and during his long service as such he has given the utmost
560-36 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
satisfaction and his services have been in great demand ; he holds a life certificate and he was county examiner for a period of nine years.
Professor Zaring was married, on June 3, 1882, to Celestia Reamer, daughter of Jacob and Sophia Reamer, a highly honored family of Smithville. Mrs. Zaring is a woman of culture and refinement and she has been of great assistance to her husband in his manifold duties since their marriage, always encouraging him and counseling him in whatever work he was engaged. This union has been blessed by the birth of four children, two 0f which died in infancy; the two living children are Ethel, now twenty-six years of age. and John, who is twenty-four years old.
Politically, Professor Zaring is a Democrat and he has held many of the minor village offices and is now auditor of Wayne county, filling the office-in a manner that is winning universal approval. He stands high in Masonry, being a member of the Knights Templar, Wooster Commandery, No. 48 ; Cedar Lodge, No. 430, Free and Accepted Masons, of Orrville, and Wooster Chapter, No. 27, Royal Arch Masons.
Although a school man in the broadest and best sense of the term. Professor Zaring has never become narrow or pedantic, as have so many whose lives have been spent in intimate association with the immature minds within the four walls of a school room. He is a well rounded, symmetrically developed man, fully alive to the demands of the times, thoroughly informed on the leading questions before the public and takes broad views of men and things. By keeping in touch with the times and the trend of current thought he has ever been enabled to discharge the duties of citizenship in the intelligent manner becoming the level-headed American of today, and his acquaintance with the 'history of the country and its institutions makes him also a politician, but not necessarily a partisan. He believes in progress in other than the pro fession to which he belongs and to attain the end manifests an abiding interest in whatever makes for the material advancement of the community, encouraging all worthy enterprises and lending his influence to means whereby his fellow men may be benefitted and made better. He is in hearty accord with laudable and healthful pastimes and sports, such as base ball, basket ball, hurdle and foot racing and all kinds of athletes that tend to develop and strengthen the physical powers. These he has always encouraged among his pupils, believing that development of the body as well as the mind and heart to be essential to the make-up of the scholarly and well-rounded man. Wayne county owes a great debt of gratitude to Professor Zaring for the great good he has done in educational, political, social and material affairs.
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 560-37
M. M. VAN NEST.
To write the personal record of men who have raised themselves to a position of honor and responsibility in a community is no ordinary pleasure. Self-made men, men who have achieved success by reason of their personal qualities and who have put the impress of their individuality upon the business and growth of their place of residence and affect for good such institutions as are embraced within the sphere of their usefulness, unwittingly, perhaps, build monuments more enduring than marble obelisk or granite shaft. Of such we have the unquestioned right to say belongs the gentleman whose name appears above. As a business man, as member of the city legislative body, and as its chief executive official, as well as in the more humble walks of life, he has borne well his part and his public spirited and unselfish devotion to the highest and best interests of the community have won for him the high regard of all, regardless of political lines.
M. M. Van Nest was born at Rowsburg, Ashland county, Ohio, on the 10th of December, 1864. He is descended from Holland antecedents, the family name having originally been Van 'Ness. The subject's paternal grandfather was John Van Nest, who was born in Pennsylvania, but came to Ohio in 1839, settling in Ashland county. He was a harness-maker by trade and followed this occupation all his active life. He died in 1903, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. The subject's parents were J. P. and Mary E. (Gardner) Van Nest. J. P. Van Nest was born at Rowsburg, Ohio, and upon taking up a business career entered upon that of insurance in which he was successful. In the spring of 1873 he removed to the city of Wooster, and here continued in the insurance business until his death, which occurred on April 3, 1905. Mr. Van Nest was a public-spirited man and took a keen interest in public affairs, serving for two terms as a member of the Wooster city council. Early in the great Rebellion, Mr. Van Nest enlisted for service in the defense of his country's flag, joining the One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served three years, taking part in some of the most sanguinary struggles of that great conflict. Among these battles were the following : Chickasaw Bayou, December 28-29, 1862; Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863; Thompson's Hill (Port Gibson), May 1, 1863 ; siege of Vicksburg, May 18 to July 4, 1863; Big Black River, May 17, 1863 ; Jackson, l l iss., July 9-16, 1863 ; transport "City Belle," near Snaggy Point, Louisiana, May 3, 1864. Mr. Van Nest enlisted as a private, but, by faithful and meritorious service, he retired from the service with the rank of .second .lieutenant. At the battle of Vicksburg he was severely wounded by a frag-
560-38 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
ment of shell. Prior to entering the military service Mr. Van Nest had followed the trade of harness-maker, but on his return home he gave that up and took up the insurance business. He married Mary E. Gardner, who was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, as were also her parents. She is still living in Wooster, at the age of sixty-seven years. By her union with Mr. Van Nest she became the mother of the following children : John, of Wooster ; M. M., the subject of this sketch ; Carrie, the wife of William L. Derr, of Cleveland, Ohio ; Gertrude, deceased ; Maud M., the widow of John Griffith and living in Wooster ; Ellen, deceased ; Charles W., of Wooster ; Mabel is unmarried and remains at home.
M. M. Van Nest was nine years old when his parents removed to Wooster and in the public schools of this city he secured a good education. After the completion of his education, he took up the trade of harness-maker, following this in the footsteps of the two generations preceding him. He was thus employed for nineteen years and was considered a good workman. Subsequently he entered the insurance business with his brother, under the firm style of J. P. Van Nest Sons, and they have built up a large business in fire insurance, theirs being considered one of the most important agencies in this city.
Mr. Van Nest is a Democrat in politics and in 1899 he was elected a member of the city council from the fourth ward, and was re-elected in 1901, serving as president of that body during 19o' and 1902. In the spring of 1903 he was elected mayor of the city, and so eminently satisfactory was his administration of the office that he has been twice re-elected, in 1905 and 1907. Mr. Van Nest applied to the administration of the affairs of his official position the same careful business principles which he would apply to his own business affairs, and in his attitude towards public improvements he has been progressive, though at the same time exercising a wise conservatism which has been a guarantee against extravagance or a useless expenditure of the city's money. During his administration great strides have been made by the city in the way of street paving, cement sidewalks, sewerage, and increase in the city's water supply. Not only have the material necessities of the city been regarded, but considerable attention has been paid to the esthetic, and in many ways the city has been beautified, being now considered one of the most pleasing cities of its class in the state.
In 1905 Mayor Van Nest was appointed by the judge of the common pleas court, and re-appointed in 1908, a member of the soldiers' relief committee of Wayne county, the appointment bearing special distinction from the fact that he is the only man not a veteran of the Civil war who ever served on this committee. The mayor is also second vice-president of the Wooster Board of Trade.
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 560-39
In 1887, the subject was united in marriage to Amanda E. Ray, who was born and reared in Wooster, and to them have been born two children, Fred, deceased, and Florence H. The family reside in a pleasant and comfortable home on Columbus avenue, and here the spirit of hospitality ever abides. Fraternally Mayor Van Nest belongs to the Knights of Pythias, in which he has risen to the Uniform Rank, and to the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Yeomen. He and his wife belong to the English Lutheran church, of which they are liberal supporters. The family occupy a position of prominence in the social life of the community and all who know them hold them in the highest regard.
HENRY H. STRAUSS.
Henry H. Strauss, president of the Orrville National Bank, has been a potent factor in the commercial and social life of Orrville and Wayne county for over forty years. He is one of those solid men of brain and substance so essential to the material growth and prosperity of a community and whose influence is willingly extended in behalf of every deserving enterprise that has for its object the advancement or moral welfare of the community.
The Strauss name is found to be one of the early pioneer family names in America. The family is of German origin and the progenitor of the family in the New World is thought to be Nicholas Strauss, a native of the Fatherland, who came to America in 1732. Henry Strauss, paternal grandfather of the subject, was born in Pennsylvania, in which state several generations of the family lived and reared their families.
Peter Strauss, father of the subject of this biography, was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, removing when a young man to Saegerstown, Craw ford county, that state. He was a farmer and pursued that calling with fair success. In 1850 he removed to Wayne county, Ohio, and settled on a farm in Plain township, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred when he was seventy-three years of age. He married Julia Renner, who was also born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania. She preceded her husband in death a few years, dying at the age of sixty-seven years. Of the six children born to this worthy couple, three are now living, namely : Abigail, the wife of John Martin, of Reedsburg. Ohio ; Marietta, the wife of William Gill, of Plain township, this county, and Henry H., subject of this sketch.
560-40 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Henry H. Strauss was born on the parental farmstead at Saegerstown, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, on August 15, 1839, and removed to Wayne county, Ohio, with his parents in 1850. His early life was spent on the farm, and he attended the public schools during his boyhood, supplementing this by attendance at the Wooster high school and the Fredericksburg Academy. Eight years were spent in teaching school during the winter months and attending school during the summer seasons. In 1867 Mr. Strauss came to Orrville where he has since been a recognized influence. In that year he engaged in the dry goods business with the late Henry Shrieber, the partnership, however, only continuing six months. In 1868 he and the late C. R. Beckley bought a dry goods stock located in the present stand of W. L. DesVoignes. Here Mr. Strauss was in business for twenty years, buying Mr. Beckley's interest after twelve years of partnership. Here was first established Mr. Strauss's splendid reputation for honorable and upright business methods, which his long and successful career has since maintained inviolate.
In 1881 the Orrville Banking Company, a private bank, was organized, and Mr. Strauss, being one of the organizers, became the cashier, accepting the position with reluctance. Being at this time engaged in the mercantile business, he divided his time between the bank and the store until 1888, when he sold the store and since that year he has devoted his time exclusively and continuously to the bank.
On July 3, 1902, the bank was reorganized as the Orrville National Bank and its capital stock increased to fifty thousand dollars. The bank is one of the solid financial institutions of northern Ohio. At its reorganization as .a national bank, Mr. Strauss was elected president, which title designates his present official position with the bank.
Mr. Strauss's other business interests include a directorship in the Orrville Bedding Company and numerous other investments. He has also extensive land interests, having a fine farm in Greene township, one in Baughman township and part owner of one in Chippewa township.
Mr. Strauss was married September 20, 1870, to Mary Leinninger, who was born in Dalton, Wayne county, Ohio. She is a daughter of Frederick and Anna Leinninger, both of whom were natives of Germany. Four children constitute their family, namely : Bessie E., who holds a responsible position in the bank ; Frank L., cashier of the bank ; Harry H. graduated from Wooster University in 1904, was later a student at Chicago University, Chicago, and was professor and instructor in Latin and Greek at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio ; he has been a member of the faculties at Tullane College. New Orleans, the State University of Iowa and the State University of North
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 560-41
Dakota, and next year will return to Tullane. College as an instructor ; Dr. Robert Todd is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and is now a successful dentist at Alliance, Ohio.
Mr. and Mrs. Strauss are members of the Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Strauss is an elder and has served on the official board. Fraternally, Mr. Strauss is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Honor. Politically, he affiliates with the Republican party, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He served for twenty years on the Orrville city school board and manifests a keen interest in educational matters.
Mr. Strauss as a business man is a representative type of that fine old school where the highest integrity, implacable justice and rugged honesty are the prerequisites to success. Personally, he is of kindly demeanor, a wholesome optimism pervading his nature, and his engaging frankness disclosing a heart mellowed with human sympathies.
CAPT. JAMES B. TAYLOR.
A man who stands admittedly among the leaders of the legal profession in the northern part of the Buckeye state, where he has long been practicing in all the courts, often handling many of the most important cases on the various dockets, is Capt. James B. Taylor, of Wooster, Wayne county. Being courteous, well informed and enterprising, he is recognized as one of the representative men of a community widely noted for the high order of its citizenship, and in his life record is much that should be an incentive to the youth standing at the parting of the ways, whose destinies are matters for future years to determine, to have higher ambitions and accomplish more for their fellow men, for his life has always been led along a plane of high endeavor, always consistent with the truth in its higher forms and ever in keeping with honorable principles, while at the same time he has been eminently successful in his chosen profession. He is the scion of pioneer ancestors of the most sterling qualities who did much in their day for the communities in which they lived, and the Captain is a worthy descendant of his forbears, thus for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he was one of the patriotic sons of the North, who, when the tocsin of war sounded, left his comfortable hearthstone and his business affairs to do what he could toward saving the national union from disruption and dishonor, he is accorded conspicuous men-