Wayne County, Ohio - Chapter 23: Towns of the County, 1910 (part 1 of 11)

Chapter 23: Towns of the County

Aside from the city of Wooster, the chief metropolis of Wayne county, there are several good-sized towns and villages which have been mentioned incidentally in the various township histories, but in this chapter a more extended account will be given of tliem.

This prosperous village was laid out by William Doyle, after whom it Avas named, on December 9, 1827, and it was incorporated August 6, 1867. The first house was erected in the village on a vacant lot standing between what was afterwards Mrs. Diebel's and Mr. Shondel's grocery. It was a log house, liuilt by William Doyle, w bo occupied it as a tavern, sold whisky and allow'ed dancing. The first doctor was a Mr. Pierpont, who stole a horse while on a visit in the East and was sentenced to the penitentiary. The first election was held in December, 1866, for municipal officers.

The present officers are. Mayor, B. R. Tagg; clerk, O. B. Heffleman ; treasurer, N. R. Zimmerman ; marshal, Levi Whitman ; fire chief, Henry Roth; health officer, E. Dannemiller; Councilmen, A. Gantes, J. A. Myers, W'illiam Jenior, A. Elath, M. S. Eleck, Da\'id Beal.

The x'illage owns a large two-story town hall, and at jiresent the public schools are in session in it, while the new school building is being completed.

The present physicians of the town are Dr. A. E. Stepfield, homeopathic ; Dr. E. R. .Spencer, Dr. E. H. McKinney, allopathic; A\'. A. Pursell, dentist.

The Postoffice

D. Gardner; 1889, George Jackson; 1893, J. V. Hartel ; 1897, George Jackson, who is still serving in an acceptable manner. The present office is kept in a new building erected by the postmaster and it was first occupied on the morning of June 5, 1909.

The first rural free delivery route was established out from Doylestown in December, 1904, and the second route started in May, 1905. The length of the former is twenty-three and one-half miles, while the latter is twentyfour miles in length. At first the office was at Chippewa, south of town, and was removed in 1874.

Churches Of Doylestown

That Doylestown is a worshiping people is seen by the presence of four neat church edifices - the Methodist Episcopal, built in 1885; the Evangelical Lutheran, built in 1867; the Catholic, built in 1877, and the Presbyterian, a frame Iniilding, and the oldest of all edifices in the town. For more in detail concerning these churches, the reader is referred to the chapter on Churches of the county, elsewhere in this volume.

Lodges And Societies

Doylestown is the home of the following fraternities : The Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, instituted about 1880, the Royal Arcanum, Maccabees, Foresters, Sons of Herman. The Odd Fellows own a fine block and lease to the Knights of Pythias order. Odd Fellowship was first estalrlished here in August, 1854. The lodge now numbers one hundred and twelve members. At one time there existed a flourishing Grand Army of the Republic post, known as J. Galehouse Post, No. 227, but owing to the death of all but four or five comrades of the Civil war who belonged, the post was abandoned in 1904.

Industries At Doylestown

From an early day, for a town of its size, Doylestown has ever lieeu a lively manufacturing place. Tt still holds good that early-day reputation. Among the institutions worth mentioning here, may be named the h'mpire

Mower and Reaper Works, established in the fifties. Its present condition seems flourishing for a small factory. Its president is Samuel Miller.

Of the more modern factories, ma}^ be mentioned the Buckeye Aluminum Company, established in 1903, coming from Quincy, ^Massachusetts. Their sjDecialty is making communion sets, which are of a rare and beautiful design and And a ready sale in various parts of this country. W. H.' Huffman is the president; W. R. Miller, secretary and treasurer, with Leon AMrd as its manager. They employ about twenty-five men.

.\nother aluminum industry here is the comb factory, in which a number of skilled workmen are employed and they produce a fine grade of combs for the hair. This was established by home capital in 190374. J. A. Myers is the manager of the stock company.

A new concern, starting up in the fall of 1909, is the second comb factory, which produces from a Doylestown invention a suix;rior article in way of a fibre comb. It is dark, like rubber, but very tougii and flexible. It is operated with home capital and is incorporated for twenty-five thousand dollars. Its president is Bert Myers.

Banking

The banking business is well taken care of here by the Doylestown Banking Company, with D. J. McDaniel, president; J. W. Zimmerman, vice-president ; George Landis, cashier. The capital of this banking company is fifteen thousand dollars, while its deposits were, in 1909, three hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

Town Of Creston

This was formerly known and platted in 1865 as Saville, but when the railway company established a town by that name elsewhere - over the county line - this place was, for a time, called Pike Station, it being situated on the old Cleveland pike road. But in 1881 it was changed to Creston. It is situated in Canaan township, near the north line of Wayne county, and now has a population of about twelve hundred. It has the following transportation line.7 : 'the Wheeling & Lake Erie line : the Erie. Baltimore & Ohio

The present professicnal men of Creston are Doctors T. D. Hollings-, worth. J. W'^. Irvin. A. C. Kenestick, William Orr, Van I. Allen, R. J.

The present-day industries here flourishing are The Buckeye Concrete Company, manufacturing, in the largest plant in Wayne county, fence posts, hitching posts, arbor posts, porch posts, water troughs, building blocks, etc. ; Pickle and Preserving works, which is doing a good business, the owners being Messrs. Lutz & Schramm; Creston Hoop and Stave Company, the most extensive works of the town ; the Creston WMocl Handle Company, who make all sorts of tool handles from the native timber of the immediate vicinity; the White Rose Ci'eamery ; D. G. Hay's roller flouring mills, etc.

The newspaper of the place is the newsy, independent paper known as the Creston Journal, est dished in 1880 and now edited and printed by its owner, F. M. Sulliger.

At an early day the postofflce was kept at old Jackson, hut in about 1864-5 it was established at what is now Creston. The postmasters from the first have been as follows: Elmer St. John, serving at least eight years;

Incorporation

Creston was incorporated June 2, 1899; the following ha\e served as mayors: The first mayor was Warden Wheeler, who served until .\]iril 10,

1900, when he was followed by Price Russell, who served until April 0, 1902. Mr. Russell was succeeded by William B. Jordan, serving until January 31, 1906, and he was killed on the Wheeling & Tuike Erie railway. February ii, 1907. W. H. Peters took Mr. Jordan's place and is the ])resent (1909) mayor.

Two great farming- industries must not be omitted in the history of this place. The onion farm of one hundred and thirty acres, near the town limits, the property of Wean, Tenney & Company, where immense quantities of best grade onions have been produced for many seasons in succession, and Avhere are employed scores of men and women in planting, cultivating and har\-esting. crating and shipping onions to far and near markets.

Then the Jordan Brothers immense celery farm, embracing one hundred and fifteen acres and on which land is produced the finest variety of table celery, w hich also gives employment for man}^ persons and has come to be sought after at far distant points, and is very profitable.

Creston has a good banking house, knowm as the Stebbins Banking Comjjan}'. its president is \\b P. Stebbins ; the cashier is C. A. Stebbins, and assistant cashier, E. D. Arthur. Its capital is ten thousand dollars, while the deposits are sixty-five thousand dollars. The bank occupies a fine, modern-style banking house, constructed of stone and brick.

Orr\ ille is located in Green and Baughman townships and has a population of something over three thousand. The towm o-wns its own water plant and electric light plant and has recently put in a sanitary system of sew'erage. The place was incorporated in 1864 and the following have served as its mayors; William Gailey, 1865; William M. Orr, Alexander Moncrief, Dr. A. C. Miller, Mahlon Rouch, J. F. Seas, S. D. Tanner, G. W. Barrett, N. L. Royer, \\ arren Ramsey, Levi Neiswanger, J. M. Fiscus, Dr. Faber, George Starn, D. 1'. Griffith. The present tow n officials are : D. F. Griffith, mayor, Charles

The accompanying reminiscences wfill give the reader a fair comprehension of the way this place was started and w-ill prove interesting, as well.

There are four churches in Orrville and the Catholics expect to build soon. The present churches are the Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Reformed and English Lutheran denominations (see church chapter elsewdiere for this and other towns in Wayne county).

A postoffice was established at this point in 1863-64 and the postmasters who have served came in the following order; Alexander E. Clark, J. F. Seas, David L. Moncrief, Henry Shriber, J. W. Hostetter, Proctor Seas, Henry E. Taylor, G. D. McIntyre.

The town has the distinction of owning its excellent equipped electric lighting plant and its water works, which were installed in the nineties. The water works were put in in 1897 and derive the best cjuality of drinking water in Ohio from four tubular wells sunk to the great depth of eight hundred feet. Drinking fountains for man and beast are found on the principal streets. With paved streets and good sewers, electric lights and an abundant supply of the purest water, the place is fast putting on "city airs."

The town is well advertised and is served with the latest news by two good local newspapers, spoken of in the Press chapter - the Crescent and Courier.

The railroad interests are very extensive at Orrville. The companies here re])resented are the Pennsyb ania lines ; the Wabash ; the Cleveland, .\kron 8c Columbus of the Pennsylvania .system. The latter road has its di\-ision and machine shops at this point and it is rumored that soon a great enlargement of the Pennsylvania, Pitt.sburg, hd. AVayne & Chicago, will be made here, in wa)' of shops and (hb'ision interests.

Orrville is the home of the following factories and industrial interests: I'he (^rr\ ille Milling C'om|)anv's roller mill, in which the dailv capacitv is about eight hundred barrels. 'I'liis wrs established in the e'irl\- sex'enties as a buhrstone mill, but was later changed to a full roller-process llouring-mill. Cither industries are the mattress factory; the Champion thresher factory; Cottage Creamery, a branch of the Sugarcreek Creamery, established here in 1909; the Cyclone Drill Company, that manufactures many kinds of drills and coal mining and well machinery and employs more than forty men ; the C. C. Haffner harness factory ; Orrville Bed Spring Company; the Iron Hand and Power Pump factory, a new concern that promises much in the near future to Orrville; the Gemill phonograph factory, making an invention of the place a profitable industry, and many lesser factories.

The first move toward putting in electric lights was by the ordinance passed February i, 1892, when the scheme of providing for light, heat and power was inaugurated.

It may be well to give a list of some of the more important factories that have from time to time been located here - in fact the citizens here have always tried to keep a line of paying industries going. Many have long since dropped from the list, moved elsewhere or gone out of business entirely.

January, 1877, a patent was granted to Mr. Askins for a glass coffin; a joint stock company was formed to make the same and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was subscribed. Five men were employed. The president of the company was William M. Orr, D. G. Horst, treasurer, and Jacob L. Askins, superintendent.

The Orn ille Pottery w-as established in 1862 by Amos Hall and Robert Cochran, wlio sold it in 1877 to Eckert and Flickenger, wdio made immense (juantities of crocks, jugs, fruit jars, etc.

The Orrville National Bank was organized wdth forty thousand dollars capital, and now has deposits amounting to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Its present officers are H. H. Strauss, president ; Isaac Pontius, vicepresident; F. L. Strauss, cashier.

Orville Before The Civil War

[Note - In the year 1890 two citizens, J. F. Seas and D. G. Evans, were conferring on the matter of holding a reunion of those who were residents of Orrville in i 860. W. S. Evans happened to drop in from Michigan, enroute to Tennessee, while the matter was being considered, and was asked to prepare a paper on his recollections to be read at the proposed meeting. The reunion did not materialize, but the paper cvas later published (Courier, July 22, 1890) and reads as follows:]

The spring of i860 found Orrville a small unincorporated village with a population of probably fi\'e hundred inhabitants. As nearly as I can recollect the business interests of the place were represented as follows : Eischer Bros, and INI. Wdhtmyer, groceries; Bailey & Evans, drugs and groceries; David Mast, dry goods; Reaser, Skelton & Burkholder, dry goods; J. E. Seas, postmaster and hardware; D. L. Moncrief, drugs; Eletcher Brothers, harness; Philip Krick, shoemaker; Mr. Flart, shoemaker; Reaser Brothers, blacksmiths; Mnnn & Lefever, cabinetmakers and furniture; Kirk Johnson, miller; Jerome Ammann, cooper; S. K. Kramer, grain dealer; Gailey & Herr, grain dealers; George Brown, tailor; James Postlewait, wagonmaker; Joel Fevers, cabinetmaker; J. B. Heffleman, tinner; Hy Smith tinner; Joseph Sna\'ely, saw'-mill ; J. C. Speicher, American House, evith the characteristic Joseph Wiley as chief clerk and guest solicitor at all passenger trains; A. E. Clark, physician

-\t that time we had twu railroads, the Pittsburg &: Et. Wayne and the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati, now the Cleveland, .\kron & Columbus. John j\[cGill was the agent for the Adams Express Comjiany, as also for the Union Express on the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati railroad. C. K. Storrs was agent for the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati road, with Patrick Cuinlan as bagg''ge master. Henry McGill \vas baggage master for the h't. Wayne road, with Thomas McGill as night watch. The switch engine for transferring cars from one road to another in those busy days was a yoke of large oxen engineered by "old Kennedy," whose highly mnsically toned voice could l;e heard incessantl}', "Git up Buck, go on Berry." One da}' one of the oxen became sick and John McGill telegraphed to the master of trans])ortation at Alliance that there would be some delay in handling cars, l)c'canse the switch engine l:nrst a Hue and w.'antcd a man sent down at once to repair it. Mr. Kennedy also controlled the drawing l>nsiness and carried the mail, John 1). McNnlty was telegraph operator in the oflice opened by the h't. Wayne railway (hiring the latter ])art of the \ ear 1859. and W. ,8. Ewans was a student and messenger boy about the office. ,\t tliat time ()rr-

'. ille enjoyed a train sercice on its two roads which was exceedingly conx'enient and accommodating to the citizens of tlie place, and in one respect more seasonable in hours than at any other station point on the road between Pittsburg and Chicago, in the fact that at any other station on the road there were no more passenger trains earlier than 7 A. M., nor later than 9 P. M., affording good opportunities to go to Wooster and return twice or three times a day, and to Cle\eland and return between 7 A. i\I. and 7 P. i\I. d'he whistle of a locomotive engine on Sunday would have been as much of an innovation as the opening of business houses on that day would at present. The American House was the only hotel in the place, and in consequence enjoyed a prosperous patronage under the management of mine host, Jacob Speicher, who frequently entertained his guests with \'ivid tales of valorous deeds and singular experiences in good old Pennsylvania style, amongst which was the un- ])aralle!ed feat of takdng up a well and moving it across the road. The .American was a popular house. In i860 there were but three brick buildings in the emliryonic city of AAyne, and they were the residences of John McCill, Brenneman & Horst's store building and the residence of C. X. Storr.s, south of the town hall. There were no buildings south of the Ft. ATyne track.s except a few Irish shanties and an old warehouse, and the residence of Kinney Harris, a small opening in the woods, about where the fine residence of Mrs. jacol) Brenneman now stands. East of Main street was a bod\' of woodland, which came up as near the village as the present location of the coffin factory. West of that street and south from where the tracks and depot of the Wheeling railroad now are, was a stumpy pasture field so swampy in the s])ring time that a cow could not pass through it without becoming mired, b'rom Church street north and east of A'lain street, the only buildings between the first-named street and the C. Z. & C. railroad were the school house between the present site of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches and the residence of Mr. Postlewait on the hill. In the spring of i860 there was nor a foot of stone or brick sidewalk in the entire village, D. G. Evans putting down the first stone walk in front of the present Boiling bakerv building ( now the Ornille National Bank).

There was only one church building in the place, d'he present Reformed church was known as the PTnion church, and was used on alternate Sundavs l)y the Methodists and Presbyterians, the ministers coming from Dalton to conduct the services. There was no resident minister in the place during that year, although there had been one or more previous to that time. The school w'as about the same as anv ordinary district school. There was no bakeiw.

planing-niill or factoiy of any kind, no dentist, lawyer or photographer, no regular saloon, no mayor, council, marshal, yet there was very little rowdyism or unlawful disturbance in the absence of these minions of the law. We had no bank to take care of our money for us, and in fact none of us were very much burdened with the safe-keeping of the hlthy lucre !

Neither did we have the advantage of that great leverage which booms the wonderful future of a western town before an astonished public, and today proclaims a prosperous city, where yesterday stood and howled the coyote and prairie wolf - the printing press and newspaper. If we wished to make our greatness known, it had to lie done by word of mouth from stumps or housetops, and the stumps were more plentiful than housetops in those days.

In the summer of i860 we had the memorable campaign which preceded the great Rebellion and made Aliraham Lincoln President. Our Republican Wide-awakes, under the command of Captain Gift, wdth their torches and oil cloth ca]ies, with a spread eagle painted on the back (humorously dubbed a mad goose l)y Father Seas), divided the honors of displaying their i:)atriotism with a singularly uniformed company of Democratic sprouts who marched as proudly and shrieked as loudly for their candidate, Stephen A. Douglas, the little giant of the West. Although the campaign was an unusually hot one. it was passed through without much bitterness or personal animosity. One day during a Repulilican meeting, a bombastic telegraph repairer from Mansfield was brought up from the station by McNnlty and Henry McGill, given a few drinks,, and urged by them to deliver an opposition speech. He accepted the invitation with alacrity, rolled a drygoods box into the street, mounted it and began his harangue. Engineer Brown coming along at that moment, listened a minute to what the spouter was saying, concluded that his utterances were not in strict accord with the spirit of Republican meetings, calmly walked up and knocked the fellow off the box, which seemed to put a decided damper on whatever aspirations the embryonic political speaker had previously entertained. The occurrence amused the Democratic people as much as it did the Re])ublicans.

Thirty years ago there was not a pound of coal burned in (Orrville except that used l)v the lilacksmiths. lA'cn the engines on the railroads burned wood, and Orrville was one of the most inpiortant points on the line for sipiplying fuel.

Thirt^' vears has wrought many changes in our town and its people. Many of oui' friends and acapiaintances ha\e scattered to \arious portions of this and other countries, and inanv, vea, \'cr\' main-, have been called to their last resting place and final reward. What the next thirty years will bring to probably a majority of us is not a matter of conjecture, and it behooves us to prepare for that greater and final reunion where there will be nothing but pleasant reminiscences to recount.

An Orrville Reminiscence

The following was extracted from the Orrville local newspaper at the time Father James Taggart had just passed his ninetieth birthday, in 1907:

James Taggart passed his ninetieth birthday Tuesday, October i, 1907. He is no doubt the oldest resident born within the sound of the workshops of Orrville. His father, Samuel Taggart, located on the quarter section of land now occupied by the southeast part of Orrville, April 9, 1815, where James Taggart was born in a log cabin October i, 1817.

In an interview with Mr. Taggart he gave the following history of his ancestry, in which he stated that John Taggart, William Taggart and James Taggart, three brothers, came from Antrim, Ireland, just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, in which war they all enlisted and served the whole seven years. James, the grandfather of the subject of this thrilling reminiscence, was too young to enlist as a soldier when the war first broke out and so for a time he served as a wagon boss. His grandfather built a log cabin in the fall of 1814 and came out from Pennsylvania the next spring, together with a number of other families, and James' father occupied the cabin. At that period a good many emigrated to this neighborhood and located between here and the state road, among them being the Harrises, Careys, Thompsons and Adamses. Rev. Adams was the first preacher, and a church was built on what was formerly known as the Samuel Suavely farm, three miles to the south. There was then only a path through the woods and every man who attended church or went away from home carried a trust}^ rifle to protect himself from wolves, bears, wild cats, wild hogs and other wild beasts. The government paid a premium of two dollars on wild hogs, two dollars on wolves and four dollars on bears, and the farmers clubbed together to kill them.

The state road those days from Massillon to Wooster was scarcely more than a narrow wagon road through the woods. The nearest mill was two miles west of Canton, until the Reason Stibbs mill was erected at Wooster.

When Mr. Taggart's father located here there were Indians of the Wyandot tribe in this neighborhood. Punch and John Jonneycake and one other.

Johnny Appleseed, a noted character in those days, who planted appleseeds all over the country and from which the first orchards were obtained, traveled through this section of the country. Punch was a vicious Indian and he suddenly disappeared one night. His bones were afterwards found and it' is supposed he was killed by one of the settlers. The marks of his tomahawk were visible on numerous beech trees for many years. He gave an account of a thrilling fight between a man and a bear in which his father was a participant. A man named Clouse was a tenant on the Taggart farm and lived in a log cabin situated at a spring now known as the mill pond on Paradise street. He was a tanner by occupation and a fearless hunter and tanned the hides for all the farmers far and near. In the fall of the year Samuel Taggart went to Wooster to pay his taxes and during his absence two bears came into the yard and carried off a hog. On returning home Mr. Taggart consulted with Mr. Clouse and they started out with the dogs in search of the bears. They came across one of them near the site of the Orrville flour mill. Mr. Taggart wanted Clouse to shoot the bear, but he wanted to kill it with the dogs. He always carried three butcher knives in his girdle and in the midst of the fight between the dogs and the bear Clouse rushed in and stabbed the bear until it fell dead, Mr. Taggart in the meantime holding the animal by the ears.

The first house built in Orrville was erected by William Bowman, who came to the vicinity with a saw-mill about 1851 or possibly 1852. It was located west of the mill about 1851, perhaps on the corner where the office now stands. William Gailey built the second house on the corner of Walnut and Market streets on the site of the one built later by Stella and Nettie Gailey, and the original building stands on the north part of the lot. Then old Mr. Seas' father became a resident of the little hamlet and built a house on the Beckley & Strauss corner. He was followed by Clark & Hoover, of Dalton, who opened up a store on the Evans lot, now occupied by Dr. Shie. From that time on Orrville continued to grow and grow and grow, until now we are able to say we are some, and some day we may be the county seat of Wayne county. Who can tell ?

Mr. Taggart is getting quite feeble and suffers from infirmities recei\'ed in his younger days, but he has a remarkable memory and is a (juiet and inoffensive citizen. At one time he was quite wealthy, but lost his means many years ago through his generosity of heart to friends.

Village Of Shreve

Shreve, incorporated in Decemlier, 1859, is located in the southeast part of Clinton township and was originally known as Clinton Station, but when incorporated the name was changed to Shreve. It w^as named in honoi of

Pioneer Thomas Shre^-e, y Iio came to the county in 1817 and settled in Clinton township in 1821. Shre\'e was made by the coming of the railroad, and has always been a good town or village. The north portion was laid out Iw D. Foltz and George Stewart and the south part b}- Thomas McConkey and D. K. Jones - ten acres on each side of the track, but it has long since extended, far beyond these limits. It now has a population of about fourteen hundred. The first sale of lots was in March, 1853. The first lots in the village were purchased by 1). Iv. Jones and on them he erected a store room and residence. The first building built in the place was a two-story frame house, erected by Neal Power in 1853. D. Iv. Jones was the first postmaster after the office was moved to the new village, but Thomas Shreve had been postmaster some years before while the office was at his house in the country near by. D. Iv. Jones also had the first dry goods store. Christian Roth had the first hotel. The first doctor was W. Battles, M. D., who located here in 1853. James Number's was the first child born in the place, and the first woman that died was Miss Barbara Muterspangh.

Village Officers

The following have served as mayors of Shreve, the first election being held at the old hotel March 10, i860, resulting as follows: Mayor. V. D.

Shreve has had a good system of water works since 1893. The tubular well system is employed and the water is now being pumped to a reseiwoir on

Electric lights have lieen the illuminating process in the village since 1895, when E. K. Gardner installed a plant and conducted it as the only one there until about 1891, when a company of citizens formed a stock company and installed a new plant, and both are now operating. Quite a local fight was gotten up over this new plant, and Mr. Gardner persisted in running and is today furnishing light for the streets of Shreve at a mere nominal sum.

As III ready noted, the postoffice was at first in the country and known as Clinton, but with the building uf the village it was transferred to Shreve. The postmasters sen ing have been as follows : Thomas Shreve, D. K. Jones, Albert Richardson, William Knox, Peter Housel, W. W. Wise, S. M. Robinson, Peter Housel, R. S. Critchfield.

Churches And Lodges

Shreve is well supplied with churches and lodges. 'I'here are lodges of the Masons. Knights of Pythias, Maccabees and Modern A"oodmen of America, all thriving at this date. See Lodge chapter in this work.

Industrial Concerns

of D. E. Foltz & Son ; two gram elevators; one creamery: one newspaper, the Nc'a's; one boot and shoe store: two dru.g stores: one jeweler; five groceries; one general store ; one exclusive dry goods store ; one exclusive clothing store : one commercial hotel, the Carr ; two millineries ; one photograph gallery ; one monument work shop; one livery; one auto livery; one harness shop; two blacksmiths ; two furniture stores ; three hardwares ; two meat markets ; one barber shop

Village Of West Salem

West Salem was platted by Peter and John Rickel, June 14. 1834. It was incorporated in 1868. It is situated in the extreme northwest corner of Wayne county, in Congress township. It now has a population of seven hundred within the limits proper and about seventy-five just without the corporation limits. It is lighted by a system of gasoline lamps that are almost if not equal to electricity in illuminating power. This plant was put in in 1909. The place is served bv a semi-volunteer fire department, of which the twentysix members, all business men, receive the nominal sum of five dollars per year. The water is secured from fourteen large street cisterns ; the apparatus for fighting fire consists of hook and ladder trucks, one thousand feet of hose and chemical fire extinguishers.

About 1900 a fine large brick "city hall," two stories high, was erected by bonding the city. The debt is now about all paid. This building cost about fourteen thousand dollars and the upper story is used for opera hall purposes, under a local manager.

Mayors And Town Officers

The town officers in 1909 were: Mayor, J. H. Wiley; clerk, John Patterson ; treasurer, F. L. Berry ; marshal, John Rhodes ; councilmen, O. I. Wiley, E. B. Plostetler, William Taylor, L. V. Patterson and William Salem.

Postal History

There were established two rural free delivery routes out from West Salem in 1902 and three more added in 1904. The length of each route is twenty-five miles.

From the time the office was established, in Civil war days, John Henny was postmaster for many years. Following him came the following gentle-

Various Industries

The Greeley Milling Company does an extensive flouring business, being located just outside the town corporation limits. This mill was originally an old-fashioned buhr-stone mill, but was later changed to a roller mill and in 1903 was ecjuipped with the latest flouring-mill process of roller milling, since which time it has been doing an excellent business.

The retail trade of West Salem is represented as follows : One dry goods and furniture store, one dry goods and millinery, one general store, three shoe stores, two exclusive grocery stores, one clothing store, two hardware stores, two drug stores, one meat shop, two harness shops, two restaurants, one hotel, two liveries, two exclusive millineries, one grain elevator, one jeweler, one lumber dealer, one coal dealer, one tile factory, one pool room, one bakery and two barber shops, one newspaper, the Reporter.

Other Interests

The schools of West Salem ha\-e long been the pride of the jilace. In 1878 a large brick building was constructed at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars, which with some repairs is still doing good service. AAdien built it was known as the best school house in Wayne comity, sa\'e the ones at AA^ooster.

The town is supplied with two good l)anks and is on the Cleveland Southwestern electric railway line, as well as on the Ifrie steam railroad line.

Hon. Lyman R. Critch Field

Hon. Lyman R. Critchfielcl, ex-attorney-general of Ohio, who forms the subject of this notice, was born May 22, 1831, at Danville, Knox county, Ohio, son .'»f Reuben Trautman Critchfielcl, a native of Virginia, and Nancy Caroline Hardesty, a nati\'e of Maryland; his great-grandfather, Nathaniel Critchfielcl, who was in the Revolutionary war, and his maternal grandfather, Henry Hardesty, were farmers. His father moved from Danville to Millersburg in 1834, where he ser\'ed as justice of the peace several years.

Mr. Critchfielcl was educated in the Millersburg public schools and the Ohio Wesleyan L^niversity at Delaware, Ohio, from which institution he graduated, receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. At the age of twenty-one years he entered the law office of Hon. George E. Pugh. Columbus, Ohio, who was at that time attorney-general of the state. In 1853 he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court and immediately thereafter began practicing at Millersburg. He practiced six years in Cleveland and for the last eighteen years has been ])racticing in Wooster, Ohio. His lu'other, Leancler Jerome Critchfield, was an eminent lawyer of this state and was for a time reporter to the supreme court. Besides ])racticing in the supreme courts of Ohio, Mr. Critchfielcl practices in the federal, district and circuit courts and supreme court of the Lhrited States at Washington. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Holmes county, Ohio, in T859, and reelected in ]86i, resigning in 1862 when he was elected attornev-general, serving one term from 1863 to 1865 and was nominated for a second term in 1864, but was defeated with the party ticket. In 1865 he was elected to the state senate, .served one term and resigned, .\mong other public offices he has held are, school director of Millersburg and also ])resident of the council of the city of Wooster.

Politically, iVIr. Critchfield is an ardent Democrat, and gives most thought to the strict construction and practice of the federal and state constitutions, and especially to the rights of the people re.served in these instruments. In i8f)8 he was nominated for C'ongress bv the Democrats in the district com- posed of Holmes, Wayne, Ashland, Lorain and Medina counties. In 1887 he was nominated for judge of the supreme court of Ohio by the Democratic party in convention at Cleveland; in 1888 he was again nominated for the same position at the convention held at Dayton.

On October 2, 1854, Mr. Critchfield was married to Adelaide Margaret Shaffer ; their children are : Edith ; Grace ; Henry, the doctor ; Mary ; Blanche ; Lyman, Jr., the lawyer; and Nellie. He of whom this is written is a member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the Methodist Episcopal church at AVooster, Ohio, where his law office is also located.

"As one of the leaders of the Democratic party and foremost thinkers in that organization, he has fought congressional battles, handicapped from the outset with disaster-boding majorities, which, however, never abated his ardor or enthusiasm in the conflict. * * * Whether in county, judicial, congressional, state or national campaigns, he is ever ready with his service for his party organization. Wherever he goes he is greeted with enthusiastic audiences as an attractive, aggressive, fluent, logical and masterful champion of the principles of his party.

"To the active practice of the law, when he entered upon its complex duties and resjionsibilities, he brought the qualifications and forces of a drilled, disciplined and brilliant intellect. He did not enter the list unarmed, or ill equipped, to be battered, bruised and mangled in an unequal contest with the grim old veterans of the then Wooster and northern Ohio bar. His force and effectiveness is strongly emphasized in his arguments to the jury, as he seems not so much to look at them, as to look through them, less for the purpose of seeing how they feel, than to rivet their attention, - as it were to grasp their minds by the compass of his own. The calm and masterly manner in which he disposes of the preliminary considerations, is the reminder of the experienced general, quietly arranging his forces and preparing to press down in overwdrelming force upon a single point. His manner becomes aroused ; his action animated. In the careful construction of sentences, nice choice of words, musical balancing of phrases- and marshalling of arguments, he has no superior, if indeed an equal, in Ohio."

Mr. Douglas further says, in illustrating his subject: "These qualities greatly aid the speaker in winning his way at the outset in the hearts of those whom he is addressing, and in preparing them to receive his ideas and arguments. When arguments are flounced in scholarly language such as Mr. Critchfield seldom fails to employ and illustrated by beautiful figures of speech, the impression produced is apt to be as deep and enduring as that made by a more phosphorescent, florid, fervid and tempestuous style of oratory. Stepping aside to the consideration of him outside of his profession, he has an imagination of distinctly diversified and comprehensive acquisitions; as was said of Whipple, the prince of our American essayists, 'he is an encyclopedia individualized and is familiar with history, science, art, agriculture, geology, theology, poetry, and what is desirable to know.'

"To whatever subject his attention may be called, though if be one which you would suppose to be utterly strange to his thoughts, he is enabled upon the slightest meditation to impart an interest, a glow of life, a surprising illumination; in this respect Mr. Critchfield's intellect is similar to that of Guizot, of whom it was said : 'No one could surprise him, but from whom

"With his legal learning, his accurate conceptions of the law. his power and supremacy as an advocate, his adroitness in argument, his incisive logic, his tact and foresight in the examination of witnesses and the analysis of testimony, his historical equipment and classical style, his measured sentences properly emphasized to give the intended force to his language, he rapidly rose to be one of the formidable, forensic gladiators of the Ohio bar. To the court he is ever courteous, respectful and dignified: in contentions with opposing counsel, cautious without being timid, resolute, but not rash, firm, but not obstinate; to the jury he administers a common sense philosophy of the law, the simple deductions of reason, a harmonious and symmetrical array of facts, and this in a brilliant, rapid, piercing way: not like tbe eye of Cyclops, letting in a flood of rushing and furious splendor, but a Drummond light, illuminating without impairing what it shines upon. He has philoso])hy. the faculty and facility of presentation, volume and elasticity of expression, picturesqueness of imagination, and almost poetical brilliancy, whicb imTsts his qualities with width and breadth and fascination peculiarly his own. He collects his illustrations from the fields of nature and art, and le' ies contributions on literature and science. Everything in his manner and matter l)etrays the sinew and strength of the orator, the tone of his voice, the curve and sweep of his arm, the s]jlenetic glance of his eye, the burning scorn, the blazing indignation; tbe cogency and force of his arguments, the ine\ital)le force of his retortion and the nervous vigor of style of a Canning.

"His ])re])ared orations, addresses and reading*, are coin])leted with severest care. ,\s a sculptor chisels down and finishes his statue, chipping and clipping away the stone to find within his beautiful ideal, so it is he elaborates his thoughts until they assume the .shapes he would give them. Mis literary tastes are pure and their products rank with the most hnished emanations of Whipple. Everett, Sumner, Wirt or Curtiss. They might be entitled to the appellation of prose poems, for he has the poet's divine insight. He has a ready appreciation of the proprieties of language, thought and manner. as established by the usages of society, and a refined sympathy with the sentiments of the purest intellects. In him we see the human mind in many of its exalted aspects; there is so much of man forced into it that it appears in fine proportions. He is the kindest and ^tenderest of men; loved his wife, and in his mcDwriain of her is the passion of Petrarcj;! and the consuming love of Abelard. He is attached to his family and friends, and loves his country

"Upon all appropriate occasions he champions not only the noble, but the noblest of principles within his knowledge. Mr. Critchfield not only possesses the endowment of superior mental qualities, but of the heart equally and assuredly so. In this connection, the sentence of St. Beuve, in one of his memorable essays on Pascal, may with appropriateness be quoted ; 'He is good, and great in heart and mind, which strong minds not always are ; the stamp of invention and originality, which attests the force, depth and an ardent mind, so to speak, ravenous in pursuit of investigation and truth.'

"He is an admirer of the elegancies of art. This passion is innate with him. and it is a child of his religious instinct; because the highest and best works in architecture, sculpture and painting, poetry and music have been derived out of an imagination of nature at whose shrine he is a worshipper."

Mrs. Adelaide M. Critchfield

The beautiful subject of this sketch, the wife of Hon. L. R. Critchfield, departed this life October 6, 1895. As of all beautiful women, the elegance of her personality is indescribable, - a composite glow of vital forces. All her sacred ^ itality, so beautifully manifested, so lovely to contemplate, flashed its last electric grace, beamed its last auroral flushes, and one more of the reproachless, innocent martyrs of earth, an adornment of her race, returned to the God who gave her, in a last and crowning act of sacrifice. Around such a life, so terminated, there were exceptional manifestations of public regard ; eulogies, both public and private, were spoken of her, as a lady of rare attainments and attraction in society; as a leader in lienevolences, and in religions influences, and as an advanced advocate of the high prerogatives of women. The Wooster Daily Republican, the JVayne County Democrat, the ICay/ie County Herald, the Centur}- Club, the Women's Foreign Missionaiy Society: her personal friends among the professors of Wooster University and the State Agricultural Station ; teachers in the public schools, physicians and citizens of Wooster, and many ladies of AToster, and her friends in other places, gave her many commendatory eulogies.

The funeral services took place at two o'clock of Tuesday, October 8th, at the family residence on North Market street, AToster. The courts adjourned in honor of her memory, and the judges and members of the bar and the officers of the county and of the city attended the funeral in a body. The tribute of flowers, by the Century Club, was large and beautiful, in memory of her who was so pleasant a friend, and whose sad and untimely death brought profound sorrow to the hearts of numerous friends in the city of Wooster and elsewhere. She died as a martyr. Possessed of remarkahle courage, seeing the home on fire, and attempting to extinguish it, she received her fatal injuries.

Mrs. Critchfield was a daughter of Dr. Moses Shaffer, and his wife, Margaret McClure, daughter of Matthew McClure, Sr. She was born in Wooster, May 12, 1834, making her age, at her death, sixty-one years, four months and twenty-four days. On October 2, 1854, she married Hon. L. R. Critchfield, by which union were the following sons and daughters: Edith,

1'he character of the deceased was, in many respects, a public one. She was born and reared in the city of MMoster and was intimately associated with the old families whose descendants constituted the societ}' of the citv. Her vivacity, her beauty and genial disposition, and the high standing of her family, made for her a ready welcome. Her grandfather, Jacob Shaffer, was a soldier of the war of 1812; her uncle. Hiram Shaffer, was an elocpient Methodist preacher; her father. Dr. Moses Shaffer, practiced medicine in Wooster for fifty years; he was a remarkable man for energy and courage, and this oldest daughter, Adelaide, became his companion in his ])rofessional x'isits, and her ac(iuainatnce became general in every section of the countv: her brother, Dr. Hiram M. Shaffer, was celebrated for his genius aud skill as a physician and surgeon; her brothers, Hiram, James and Horace, were soldiers in the Civil war; her mother, Margaret McClure, was i)iie of a large aud noble family of the early settlers; her grand])arents, the McClures, were a saintly couple of high and spotless character. The deceased had all the splendid virtues and splendid courage of her family so widely known, and she enjoyed in an eminent degree the popularity of the family descent and standing. She knew many of the distinguished men in public life, and was familiar with public thought and public matters. She was a practical woman of great attractions in manners and geniality; well educated and thoughtful, she had a fine faculty of sociability in a public way; she was winning with her smiles and genuine womanly greetings; she loved and attended public meetings, religious, literary, musical, dramatic and political. With a number of the leading ladies of Wooster, she attended a school of parliamentary teaching and became a parliamentarian. She was not a woman of no politics, but had views on the rights of women, and of the people; she had inherited anti-slavery principles; she was wholly on the side of temperance and temperance organizations ; she had more than ordinary public spirit. In the University of Wooster, in the State Agricultural Experiment Station, in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, in the accjuisition of manufactures, in the beautifying of the city, she manifested the greatest pleasure.

In her life with her neighbors, she was winning in her address, and in her last repose there lingered upon her countenance the expression of the lovely nature that was at peace with all the world.

In person she was esteemed as the most beautiful of women. Being five feet seven inches in height, and her development large and symmetrical, of beautiful face, dark, hazel eyes and dark hair; swift and agile in motion, tasteful in dress, she reminded one of the Miltonian Eve,

She was the offspring of magnificent parentage. The fine muscular perfection of her father, the healthy grace and elegant form of her mother, and the cultivated moral sensibilities of both, invested this first child of their love with the warmth and brilliancy of a beauty, and a purity of heart, that gave her a rivalry of charms over her generation; she was radiant without exertion, and the electric bloom of her exuberant health was in beaming and beautiful repose. There was royalty in the pulsations of her blood, and in the radiations of her graces, in the nobility of her delicacy and perfections of form, and in the persistent magnanimity of her nature. She was loftier and more queenly endowed than common life, classed with the now hundreds of American women who are subverting the depreciated lines of the aristocracy, and that transcend the Greek female of the magnificent reign of Pericles, or the dignity and beauty of the Roman matron whose splendor was deemed necessary to be suppressed by a decree of the Roman Senate.

Look at her picture and see that admirable expression, that symmetry of head and neck and shoulders. She speaks her words of love with carmine lips; the bust significant of a form of beauty, graceful, open faced, beaming and reflective. They'bespeak for her the admiration spontaneously given to superior personality; the splendid evidences of the American woman.

Mrs. Critchfield's home was one of plenty and fashion. Her father was gentlemanly, refined, eminent as a physician, easy in his finances, and noted for his fine carriages and blooded horses; her mother was distinguished for her beauty, and both were in the social current of Wooster, then the most fashionable of towns, and noted for its expensively equipped and fashionable ladies and gentlemen. Of all was Adelaide the most admired, and the most loved for her gracious and gentle disposition and manners.

For all the members of her family circle she was endowed with personal regard. Love of her native place of Wooster and the nearby country life of her friends Avas characteristic, and she often expatiated on the beauties of nature, and revisited the scenes of her childhood, and often related her pedestrian and equestrian exploits that developed her wealth of muscle and limb. She was a lover of ancient trees and country landscapes. Pier public spirit, the consciousness of her own graces; her spirit of family love, and love of all sublime things of nature, mingled in poetic enthusiasm in her domestic labors and pleasures.

In the conditions of life she was a creative artist. To have singing birds and flowers and gold fish, to hear the twitter of a canary, and feel the flutter of the flowers as .she lifted their heads with dewy fingers; to see her gold fish rush, with burnished scales, to meet her approach, were her dailv enjoyment.

The family life was constantly adorned with the versatilitv of her domestic genius, and sanctified by her elegant goodness and kindness that in a long fife was never known to degenerate into anger. Taste in dre.ss and beauty of conduct reigned supreme in her household. L^pon the harp of domestic life, she played soft melodies by her magnetic ])rcscnce. With her children she was like the deer with her young in the covert. The noises of fhe 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 frecjuent, 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 induence, 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 famil}- 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 exceiitional woman ; she was a counselor, comforter and inspirer. Her earlier years were tanght in the Wooster schools of Mrs. Pope and Miss Kate Rex (IMrs. 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 stej) 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 ecjualed 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 lo^'e of children ; she crooned sweet cadences over their cradles, and showered soft whistling bird-toned endearment, and the echoes of angelic sighs, and sweet-liiiped 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.

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 ^'igils at the bed of the sick; her beautiful composure and skill; the enthralling advances of her greeting; the electricit}' 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 storv 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 Addie she wrote the story of her life:

The daily life of this mother and her children, in their maturing years, was a henediction. 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 li\'ed 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 jjhenomenal 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. Twentyfour grandchildren and one great-grandchild and the future innumerable descendants, will revere her memoiT-

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.

Frank Taggart

In touching upon the life history of Frank Taggart, one of the bestknown 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 ha^'e 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 lilieral, generous, pulilic-spirited and scrupulously honest.

When his son, Frank Taggart, was five years of age he moved to a farm he had purchased aljout one and one-half miles northeast of Wooster, and there young I'aggart remained until 1868, assisting with the work of developing the home place, learning many valualde lessons that only he who "communes with nature'' and l)reathes 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. Flis 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 prejiaratory work for entrance in the University of Wooster, which was soon to open its doors to the educational public, the date of its o])cning l)cing September 8, 1870. and on that date Mr. Taggart had the distinction of being one of the first prospecti\-e 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 1910 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, Ahlliam, 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 thb 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 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 highl}^ 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 W'ooster 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 wdth 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 D. 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 tw'O children, namely; Laura Minerva, born September 13. 1903, and Claudia Virginia, born Alay 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, h'raternally, Mr. Myers belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In jiolitics he is a loyal Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church, being liberal sup])orters 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 ]deasing address, frank, generous, courteous and straightforward.

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 E. 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 towmship in 1826, and who, for a period of three score and ten years, actively engaged in the sjireading of the gospel in Ohio and Wisconsin, dying in the latter state in 1898 at the ad- \ anced 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 Avas 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 w-as 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 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 iiersistent 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 w'ays we see the ebb and How 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 ; IMary 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

Jennie Adair, sister of the subject, graduated from the Cniversity 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 princijial of schools at Clovis, New Mexico.

Mrs. Robert L. Adair's father is a retired iMethodist minister, living at lndiana])olis. For many years he was jiresiding elder in the Indiana conference. Mrs. Adair is a graduate of Moore's Hill College, and she took a postgraduate course at De])auw University, after which she taught in various high schools until her marriage. Both she and Judge ,\dair are members of the Methodist Episco])al church, regular attendants and lil)eral supporters of the same.

The sul)ject of this sketch, who for many years was one of the representative medical practitioners of Grant county. Oregon, is the only fix ing representatix'e of the- Orr familv for whom the town of Orrx ille was named, and 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. oldest of four children born to his parents, the others being: 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 Oir 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.

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 rvere there failure to make mention of the well remembered and highly revered gentleman whose name introduces this biographical compendium, the late Judge iVIartin 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 upbuildingr 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 wliich 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 iMartin 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. Pennsyhauia, where he was reared and educated in the pioneer schools, l)ut who followed the wake of the tide of emigration that set in heavily for the M'est in 1832. He located in Wayne county, Ohio, where he was able to foresee a vast develo])ment 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 comfortahlc and hap]>y home, enjoying the fruition that always rewards the honest tiller of the soil in a virgin country. The Smysers have thus hgured cjuite prominently in lioth 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, i8io, there grew np 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 charactei of Judge Martin L. Smyser may lie 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, laving the foundation for a rugged manhood and learning many lessons of subsequent \'alue 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 AAyne county bar. Such a favoralile 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 \Vayne county, and he made a most actii'e. aggressive, vigorous and almost astonishing record as a campaigner for one of such tender years and achieved a triumphant elec- tion, and he discharged the duties of the office in a manner that soon convinced the most skeptical of his uncjnestioned 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, wffiere 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 ])ersonal, legal and political friends, and perhajis 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, cajiable 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 i88r Judge Smyser was united in marriage to .Mice .\. I'rance, 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, integrit}' and public s])irit; for his high pur]>ose and uncompierahlc will, vigorous mental ])owers. 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 he ade(|uatelv e.\])ressed. 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 Ihickeye commonwealth.

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 ; accoi'dingly he came to America and settled in western Pennsylvania, rvhere 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 Mc- Cracken, 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 Cjualities of mind and heart which make men honored and beloved rather than conduce to prosperit}' in worldly affairs. He was a stanch Democrat of the Thomas Jefferson t) pe, whose jirinciples 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 Presliyterian. He died in 1866, at the advanced age of eightynine years.

Anderson Adair, son of Patrick and Ann (Anderson) Adair, rvas born in YTstmoreland 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 ordinaiy 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 w'ork 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 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 \Akiyne county and was honored by political preferment upon many occasions, faithfullv 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 cjuite thirty years a memlrer 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 Unir'ersity, where for six years he pursued the college course. During this iDeriod he continued with his father, devoting such time as could be spared from his studies to assisting with the farm work. In 1881 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 Jamfs Sfelyf

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 ]>raises of the historian or the cheers and the appreciation of mankind. A greater mistake was never made. No man is great in all things. Many by a Incky 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 A'illiam 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 ha\'ing been born in Schenectady, New York, April lo, 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 University, 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 Jerse}'. 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- 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 ])olished 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. L^nlike so manv of his calling who become narrow and pedantic, he is easily a man of the times, broad and lil)eral 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 Lies

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 tliat has controlled, for the most part, all the fields of action to which his intelligence and energy have been devoted. Among tin's sturdy element in Chi])- ])ewa township, Wayne county, whose labors have profited alike themselves and tlie community in which they li\'e is the gentleman whose name appears at the liead of this l)iographical review, and in view of the consistent career li\-ed by Mr. Ries since coming to tin's 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 manv of the ])rogrcssi\'e citizens of this country.

William Nicholas Ries Avas born in Satiphereicher, Germany, March 22, 1846, the third son of Martin and Mary (Becker) Ries. William N. was brought to America by his parents Avhen 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 rvas land appraiser twenty years ago, and he has held all the offices in the Lutheran church, of which he is a vei*}^ faithful member.

As a farmer he has made a very comfortable living and bas 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 bim by those with whom he has come into contact. His children, having been reared in a careful manner, are also highh^ respected by all classes.

William Edmhn 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 rvith his fellow citizens throughout northern Ohio, especially his native county of Wayne. The public is seldom mistaken in its estimation of a man, and bad 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, Avhose life histories show that they have been compelled, verv 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.