Sandusky Township (part 19 of 57)

Bessie, the oldest of their children, married E. D. Meyers of Harrison Township. Ralph is showing many of the progressive qualities of his father in the business of farming and lives on one of his father's places with a modern two-story eight-room brick house and a barn 34 by 60 feet; he married Helen Egler, and they have a daughter, Anna B. Vernon, who was well educated in the local grammar and high schools like the other children, also completed a course in the business college at Fort Wayne, and is still at home. The two younger children, both at home, are Alonzo and Eva, the latter still pursuing her studies in the local schools. All the family are members of the ilethodist Church and in matters of politics Mr. Brown has been a steadfast supporter of the i-epublican party.

Joseph Lochbihler. One of Lucas County 's .successful representatives in the field of agriculture is Joseph Lochbihler, whose home with its fine improvements is located a mile and a half east of Richfield Center in Richfield Township. He has prospered in his chosen work and has made his influence count for good in that locality.

He was born in Detroit, Michigan, December 11, 1862, a son of Joseph and Genevieve (Shriner) Lochbihler. In 1865, when he was three years of age the family moved to Richfield Center, where his father became a successful farmer and took an active part in local affairs. The homestead farm was at the edge of the Village of Richfield Center. The parents retired to that village in 1891 and the father died there in 1906 and the mother in 1908. Joseph Lochbihler was a republican, with independent tendencies, and in religion was a Catholic. Seven of their children attained majority and the four now alive are : Charles, who is a Richfield Township farmer and by his marriage to Ethel Green has five daughters and three sons ; Joseph, who is next of age: Jlathias, who lives retired in Richfield Center and married Elizabeth Miller; Jacob, who lives in Toledo and married Catherine Biek.

It was on the old home farm that Joseph Lochbihler spent his childhood and youth, gaining an education in the local schools and when he married he started out for himself. He now owns a fine farm a mile and a half east of Richfield Center and by the revenues produced through his enterprising management has not only provided for his family but has also constituted his farm a fine home with model improvements.

In 1891 he married . at Richfield Center Mary Woodward, daughter of Charles and Jane Woodward. They are the parents of three children, Genevieve. Leta, and Norman J. Politically "Sir. Lochbihler is an independent republican and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Hon. James M. Ritchie. The lawyers of tlie first several decades in the life of Northwest Ohio have passed away. Of those who came to the bar in the stirring years before the Civil war, practically all have long since laid down their briefs. A few survive in retirement, enjoying the ease and dignity which lives of intellectual activity have earned. It is a distinction unique possessed by Hon. James M. Ritchie, who has been called "the oldest living member of the bar, its oldest practitioner, and most dearly beloved member."

On April 19, 1857, just four years before the outbreak of the great rebellion, James M. Ritchie, then twenty-eight years of age, was admitted to the bar at Toledo. Since then nearly sixty years have passed and during much the greater part of that time he .served faithfnll.v and well both in the ranks of the lawyers and in positions of trust.

James M. Ritchie was bora in the noted Abbey Town of Dunfermline, Scotland, July 28, 1829. He recently passed his eighty-seventh birthday. His father, Thomas J\I. Ritchie, was a teacher by profession, and in later years a merchant and farmer. In 1832 the family came to the United States, settling near Ogdensburg, New York, where both parents died. The maiden name of the mother was Ann Robertson.

the Academy, and for six years was a successful teacher, spending three years in that occupation in New York and three years in Ohio. While teaching he studied law and both as a student and youthful practitioner he came into personal relationships with some of the distinguished lawyers and jui'ists whose names were household words in Ohio fifty or sixty years ago.

After his admission to the bar he practiced a short time in Lorain County, but in 1858 returned to Toledo and formed a partnership with Judge F. A. Jones. After several years he became a partner of Hon. Henry E. Howe. When his son, Byron F. Ritchie, now judge of the Court of Common Pleas, was admitted to the bar, the firm of Ritchie, Howe & Ritchie was established and continued until 1881. During those years the otifice of the firm was in the old Lenk Block, corner of Summit and Monroe streets.

He never voted that ticket. In 1848, before reaching his majority, he aligned himself with the free soil movement and is one of the few men still living who ever supported a free soil candidate. With the organization of the republican party in the early '50s he eagerly accepted its creed and principles, and is one of the few surviving veterans who worked for and voted for the success of the party in the first presidential campaign of 1856. Steadfastly' in all the fifty years that have followed I\Ir. Ritchie has been a stanch republican, and in earlier years he took a very active part in the county, state and national politics. In 1880 he was a Blaine delegate to the national convention which nominated James A. Garfield. In the same year he was republican candidate for Congress from the Sixth Congressional District, including Lucas. Fulton, Williams. Wood. Ottawa and Henry counties. He was elected and was a member of the Forty-seventh Congress. He was appointed to several important committees, and was present in all the deliberations of Congress during the following two ^-ears. His opponent in the election of 1880 was Frank Hurd. Mr. Ritchie had previously served, by election in 1867, for eighteen months as police judge of Toledo, having resigned before the termination of his term.

In 1852 he married Miss Tirzah A. Foster of Lisbon, New York, daughter of David Foster. She lived only two years after her marriage, and at her death in 1854 left one son, now Judge Byron F. Ritchie, reference to whom is made on other pages. In 1855 James M. Ritchie married Mant S. Jones of Grafton, Ohio, daughter of Hon. John R. Jones of Grafton. This wife died in 1866, leaving a daughter Ada, who ' now resides with her father and is a teacher in the Scott High School. In 1869 James M. Ritchie married Eugenia Jones, a sister of his second wife. Mrs. Ritchie died in 1906. She was the mother of two children: Carrie E., wife of Doctor Grosh of Toledo ; and Maurice A. Maurice A. Ritchie was admitted to the Ohio bar December 6, 1893. For ten years he was deputy clerk of courts of Lucas County, and was also associated with his father in law practice until 1899. Since January 1, 1910, Maurice Ritchie has filled the position of assignment commissioner at the Lucas County courthouse.

The members of the Toledo bar and many people know Hon. James M. Ritchie as a poet. He has written a large amount of poetry, characterized by elegance of diction and dignity of thought, and that he still retains his intellectual powers in spite of the weight of years is proved by the appearance of one of his latest poems in the News-Bee of January 17, 1916. These verses, published under the title "The Old Court House to the New," represent a dialogue between the venerable building where so many of the old time lawyers of Northwest Ohio pleaded their cases and which stood on the Courthouse Square and near by the massive new courthouse. This poem, which has considerable historic interest, is quoted as follows, beginning with a part of the address made by the old courthouse to the new:

Henry A. Tobey, M. D. For the following beautiful tribute to a member of the medical profession in Northwest Ohio whose life work is now finished, this publication is indebted to Dr. Park L. Myers of Toledo :

After fifty-six years of this "fitful dream," of this building up and tearing down of molecular temples, called life. Dr. Henry A. Tobey passed from a creature of material to a creature of memory.

He took his degree in medicine from the Miami ^ledical College with the class of 1877, so the length of his professional life was thirty-one vears. He was born in 1852 and died in 1908.

His services were immediately taken over by the State Hospital for the Insane at Columbus, Ohio, and after three years transferred to Dayton, Ohio, where he became superintendent. After four years he started in general practice in Lima, Ohio, where he labored only two years till called to the work of organizing and developing the State Hospital at Toledo, Ohio. Doctor Tobey gave the best of liis life, for some twenty years to his work in Toledo.

Prolific inventor of mechanical things, he was likewise an originator in the thinker's realm. The plan of housing the insane in numerous, moderately sized, home or cottage like structures, witli surroundings of lawn, flowers, shrubs and sunshine, was conceived in his mind, and the architectural technicalities necessary in such structures were worked out in all details by him.

He reached the heights of a philosopher - not because he loved music passionately; not because he admired and fostered art in painting and sculpturing: not heea^^se he had money and time and wanted to attract attention ; but because he grasped the wonder of life, because he loved it in plant, in animal

With Burns he hated pride, pretence and vanity of place. With Holmes, Whitman, Ingersoll and Gladden, he scorned the hypocrite. For though he never was a member of any sect, he was reverently religious and tenderly tolerant of cherished beliefs. He never got beyond learning, nor did he miss the diamonds at his feet, through looking for gems in the rainbow.

He enjoyed the pure, the honest, the worthy, and sought them even among the poor and lowly, and to his infinite joy he found them. And many a mind in many a home today keeps a little violet green in memory of him who spoke and let sunlight in.

His life was an inspiration, and his untimely death a warning. Oh, when will the medical profession learn that doctors are but men and that no man may safely dare the tempter "Nai'cotic. "

Doctor Tobey loved his protege (Dunbar), and many a tear of joy or sorrow have I seen course down his face as he recited the verses he loved. Let me close this brief resume of a great life by reading one of his favorite poems, also by Paul Laurence Dunbar :

"A little short lived summer's mom, When joy seems all so newly born, When one day's sky is blue above. And one bird sings, - -and that is love.

"A little sickening of the years, The tribute of a few hot tears. Two folded hands, the failing breath, And peace at last, - and that is death.

Henry Vixcent Hawkins. A long record of upright living, worthy participation in local affairs, and ample provision for himself and his familj^ is that of Henry Vincent Hawkins, who is now past eighty and is living retired at his home on the Bancroft Street Road in Adams Township of Lucas County. His home is two miles west of Richards Station.

A resident of Lucas County half a century, Mr. Hawkins was born in Troy, New York, October 23, 1834, a son of Thomas and Fanny (Miller) Hawkins. Three years after his birth his parents moved to Sand Lake, New York, where Henry V. Hawkins grew to manhood and received his early training in schools.

It was on March 9, 1866, Mr. Hawkins arrived in Toledo. For two years thereafter he lived west of that city and then located on Dorr Street in Norwood, where he conducted a dairy farm eight years. On December 16, 1876, he moved to Adams Township and there for forty consecutive years has lived on the farm that he now owns and which in so many ways has responded to his industry and management and has provided him with an ample competence. For a number of years he has turned over the active responsibilities of farming to his sons, but though eighty-two years of age is still following an active and independent life, and reserves an acre from his old faiTn on which his cottage stands and where he employs himself in gardening.

While living in New York Mr. Hawkins married Susan Lake. They are the parents of four children : George, who married Martha Reynolds and lives in Adams Township: William, who married Helen Cone and lives in Adams Township ; Thomas, who is farming at Hudson, Michigan, and married Ada Bumcrop; Herbert, who married Ethel Shonke, and has three daughters.

The mother of these children died in 1903. In 1906 Mr. Hawkins mai-ried Harriet (Greenaway) Stebbins, widow of Edward A. Stebbins. ^Irs. Hawkins was born in England and came to the United States in 1853 with her parents, who settled in the west part of Sylvania Township. Her first husband, Edward A. Stebbins, who died in 1899, was a son of Solomon Stebbins, who came to Lucas County about 1840 and for several years conducted a sawmill where the Woodlawn Cemetery now stands. Later he moved to IMaumee, and was a very active and infiviential citizen of the early days of Lucas County. Mrs. Hawkins by her first marriage had three children : Edward S., who is a traveling salesman living at Toledo and married Mabel Manning; Harrison T., who married Grace Wirewack and has three sons and one daughter; and Helen Hattie, who lives at home.

While the activities of the farm have engrossed his attention during all his active career. Mr. Hawkins has shown a commendable intei'est in local affairs. He served nine years as justice of the peace, for many years was on the school board and organized the Hawkins School on Bancroft Street Road. He is a republican in politics. In point of age he is now the oldest member of Rubicon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons at Toledo. He was made a member of that lodge in 1867, nearly half a century ago.

William Duhme has finished nineteen years of continuous seiwice a.s postmaster at New Knoxville. He has held the office so long that the patrons could hardly imagine any other man as a representative of Uncle Sam in tliat community. That is not the only interest of Mr. Duhme at New Knoxville, where he has spent most of his life. He is a veiy successful general merchant, and throughout has been recognized as a good and capable citizen and a worthy factor in the town's advancement.

He came to Ohio when a child, having been born at Osnabraeck, Germany, July 4, 1868. His parents were Henry and Elizabeth (Kuhlman) Duhme, both natives of the same part of Germany as their ,son. His father was born in 1840 and died in 1914, and the mother is still living. They came to the United States and settled in New Knoxville in 1873. Henry Duhme was a carpenter and contractor, and followed that occupation all his life and did well, providing for his family and having an ampk competence for his declining years. He and his wife were active members of the Lutheran Church while living in Germany and became identified with the German Reformed, denomination in New Knoxville. The father voted the republican ticket after becoming an American citizen. Of their four children only two are now living, William's sister being Elizabeth, wife of H. C. Schroer, a farmer of Auglaize County.

William Duhme began attending school at New Knoxville, and after his education he worked at different occupation.s, in a creamery for a time, and was also clerk in the store of Mr. Kuhlman, the well known banker of New Knoxville. Since 1896 he has been in the general merchandise business for himself.

In 1890 he married Miss Wilhelmiua Lutterbein, who was born at New Knoxville in 1870. She died May 2, 1907, leaving three children : Bertha, wife of Gust Prueter, a carpenter at New Knoxville ; Edna and Raymond, still at home. In 1909 Mr. Duhme married Lena Hinzie, who was born in Shelby County, Ohio. They have one child, Edith. The family are members of the German Reformed Church, and politically Mr. Duhme is an active republican. He has served on the school board and town council. Besides his store he finds recreation and profit also in the raising of fancy chickens. His special strains are the White Langshangs and the Golden Wyandottes, and he has frequently exhibited at fair.s and had a number of premiums awarded his prize stock.

Rev. Allen Arthur Stockdale. In 1914 the First Congregational Church of Toledo called to its pulpit Rev. Allen Arthur Stockdale, who had for eleven years been head of one of the strongest churches in New England, and he is now at the head of one of the largest churches of that denomination in the State of Ohio. With the union of the First Congregational and the Central Congregational churches of Toledo his church has become the strongest in Northwest Ohio, and with the completion of its new edifice it has the finest church home of any Congregational society in the state. Rev. Mr. Stockdale also has an assistant pa.stor, a social worker and a secretary, and is thus at the head of an organization and institution with tremendous power for good in Toledo.

at Zanesville, Ohio, September 15, 1875, a son of Stephen Edward and Susan Stockdale. He was liberally educated, graduating A. B. in 1896 from Taylor University in Indiana, and then pursuing special work in philosophy and sociology in Boston University, and in 1902 he graduated from the Boston University School of Theology, where he had made a higii record for scholarship. Abandoning his first intention to enter the Methodist ministry, lie was ordained in the Congregational Church in 1904. In 1903 he was made pastor of the well known Berkeley Temple in Boston, and took a prominent part in the consolidation of that church with Union Church. He served as pastor of the combined churches from 1907 until 1914. During that time he was a director of the City Missionary Society and the Berkeley Infirmary and chaplain of Emerson College of Oratory. He was also elected a trustee of Boston University, a Methodist institution, and it is probable that he was the only Congregational minister ever so honored. Though a young pastor in the great City of Boston noted for its churches and great preachers, he found recognition for his unusual talents in oratory and his thought and philosophy, and none the less distinguished himself by his practical religious and .social work. Whether in Boston or in Toledo he has shown a readiness and willingness to contribute freely of his time and talents to any public cause. Thus he is not only a scholar but one who mingles freely with people of all classes, and has thus strengthened his personal influence and increased his usefulness as a religious leader.

Rev. Mr. Stockdale is a past grand prelate of the Domain of ]\rassachusetts, Knights of Pythias. In Toledo he is actively associated with the various interests represented by the Toledo Commerce Club, being the only minister to have been elected a trustee, is one of the sustaining members of the Toledo Museum of Art, belongs to the Toledo Young Men's Christian Association, and is affiliated with Sanford L. Collins Lodge No. 396, Free and Accepted Masons, at Toledo. He is also a member of the Sons of Veterans and the Boston Congregational Club.

As a lecturer Mr. Stockdale is known throughout New England and the Middle West, and his services are in greater demand than he can accept. Two of his public lectures are: "The Message of James Whitcomb Riley," of whom he is a great admirer, and

In April, 1897, he married Ella Mae Reppard of Fremont, Indiana. Their one son Arthur W. is now in Dartmouth College, having graduated from Scott High School in Toledo. Mrs. Stockdale takes a very active part in church work, and particularly among girls of the high school age, a time in the formation of girlhood character when her counsel is of the greatest influence. Mrs. Stockdale is a member of the Woman's Building Association, a director of the Toledo Hospital, and in her home church teaches a large class of high school girls.

William Dell Smith. The one staple industry of the Lake Erie Islands included within the limits of Ottawa County, aside from fishing, has been fruit growing, especially grape culture. Almost the entire story of this industry on North Bass Island might be told as part of the personal and family histoiy of Mr. and Mrs. William Dell Smith, of Isle St. George. Mrs. Smith's grandfather was the real pioneer in fruit growing as he was properly considered the first permanent settler on the islands. Mr. Smith himself has been prominently engaged in gi-ape growing for a great many years as was his father before him.

Roswell Nichols, grandfather of Mrs. Smith, was born and reared at Charmount, Franklin County, Massachusetts, and from that state brought his wife to Ohio, first settling at Northfield in Summit County. IMay 22, 1844, was the date of his coming to North Bass Island. At that time William Edwards and family had a small log house on the island, but as they left shortly before Mr. Nichols came they could not be considered permanent settlers. Mr. Nichols and family were the only family on the island for five long years. In May, 1849, George W. Wires, Sr., moved to North Bass. Mrs. Nichols remarked she was glad Mr. Wires had come so he could kill rattlesnakes, as they were very plentiful at that time. Mr. Nichols kept his home on the island for several years before he was able to purchase land. The island at that time was owned by Horace Kelley, of Cleveland, who subsequently had it surveyed. Roswell Nichols paid $5 an acre for liis purchase. As a young man he had learned the trade of brick mason, and that was his means of gaining a livelihood while he was developing his land. He had also acquired the trade of shoemaker.

and for years he made the shoes for the family. When "store" shoes became more common his granddaughter, Mrs. Smith, preferred the manufactured shoes but in deference to her special fancy her grandfather inserted brass eyelets and also brass tips for the toes. Roswell Nichols' wife was an adept in the old housewifely arts of carding, spinning, weaving and coloring the wool from which she made all the clothes for the family. Roswell Nichols was noted for his strict and upright character and was a consistent member of the Congi'egational Church. He was never known to use any language stronger than ' ' mean old rebel ' ' which was his favorite expletive.

The first planting of grapes on the island made by Roswell Nichols was in 18.59. Those vines are still flourishing stock and produce every year for William D. Smith. Roswell Nichols made his second planting of grapes in 1862, and those vines gave him first crop, in 1865. As early as 1850 he had set out some peach trees, but never got a crop from them until 1874. The growing of all kinds of fruit was a very haphazard performance in those days. None of the growers made any use of spraying and few of the modern methods of culture were then in vogue.

Roswell Nichols was mai-ried in Massachusetts, his wife having been born and reared at Lebanon, New Hampshire. Their only child was David J. Nichols, who was born at Charlemont. ]Massachusetts, July 4, 1834. He was reared in Ohio, partl.y on North Bass Island and afterwards married in Sandu.sky, Catherine 0. Becker, who was from Leroy, Ohio. In 1863 David Nichols was drafted and joined the Fourth Independent Company in the Ohio Sharpshooters. He died of sickness contracted in the army at Nashville, August 20, 1864. His widow lived to the age of seventy-two, passing away December 27, 1910. Their only child was Achsah Violanta or Imown briefly as "Lanta" who was born on North Bass Island September 17, 1856, and was the first white girl born in Put-in-Bay Township, on the islands in Ottawa County. She is now the wife of William Dell Smith. Mrs. Smith recalls much of the earlier condition of these islands, especially the fact that they were overgrown with dense woods and underbrush, and the West Road during her girlhood wound in and out among the trees.

William Dell Smith was born in Foxton, Connecticut, February 3, 1853. His father, Jacob C. Smith, came from Hartford, Connecticut, locating in Perkins Township, Erie

County. While living in Connecticut he was in the oyster business. Competition in that industry was very severe but Mr. Smith was doing well. His principal competitor was a Mr. iloltby, and the latter iinally induced Smith to retire from the field and enter his own employ at a large salary. Eventually the Moltby brand became the leading one on fresh oysters all over the country. Jlr. Smith remained with him only a few years, and then decided to come West. He was a resident of Perkins Township in Erie County when grape cultivation was first looked upon as a promising industry in the islands of Lake Erie. That induced him to remove to North Bass, where he bought land, having to pay .$300 an acre for stump ground. He cleared this land and set out six acres in a vineyard. In the early days the price paid for his grapes i-anged from 12 to 18 cents a pound, and consequently he made a good deal of money. Both he and his wife died on North Bass Island.

The youngest child was William D. Smith. He made his first visit to North Bass Island in company with his father in 1866, and has lived there continuously since 1867, almost a half century. He also became identified with grape growing, and of his present seventyfive acre farm he has thirty-five acres in vineyards. He has made experiments in peach growing, and still has a few trees, but most of his land outside the vineyard is planted in general farm crops. Among other interests Mr. Smith is a stockholder in the Bass Island Vineyards Company of Sandusky.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith were married in 1872. Their children are : Angle, who married L. H. Hollinshead of Buffalo, New York, and they have two children, Harold and Helen. Roswell is agent for the New York Central Railway of Norwalk, Ohio. Rolland D. is a traveling man with home at Cleveland. Cecil is the wife of George A. Wires of North Bass Island. Lylith married M. W. Streeter of Port Clinton, who is now engaged in grape growing on North Bass Island, and their children are Loren V., Alice C. and Wilson.

as justice of the peace. He considered that office a duty and not a source of revenue, and in his court he settled sixty-five eases, and never one was appealed to a higher jurisdiction. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a charter member of the Order of Maccabees at Port Clinton.

Edward Sonnenberg represents one of the successful families of German origin in Napoleon Township, where they have been identified with farming and have made their names significant of good citizenship for half a century.

Born in the same locality that he now lives in Napoleon Township December 17, 1875, Edward Sonnenberg is a son of Christof and Wilhelmina W. (Panning) Sonnenberg. His father was born in Hanover, Germany, and came to the United States by sailing vessel, being sixty-seven days in crossing the ocean, and landed at New York City alone, a stranger in a strange land. His brother Henry had come to America some time before, and the two brothers .soon located in Napoleon Township. This was during the early '60s. Christof Sonnenberg did his first work at the trade of carpenter, an occupation he had learned back in the old country, but subsequently with his earnings purchased sixty acres of land in section 17 of Napoleon Township, and some years later bought a farm in Adams Township of Defiance County. One of his sons, Henry, was born in Defiance County. After leaving Defiance County he returned to Henry County and bought a farm in Monroe Township, and at that place three other children were boim, Fred, Dora and Emma. In 1891 Christof Sonnenberg sold his farm in Monroe Township and bought a place on section 2 of Napoleon Township, where his son Edward now resides. His purchase there comprised 120 acres of fine land, and he kept that as his home until two years before his death. He died at Okalona ilay 21, 1914, aged sixty-nine years five months and fifteen days. His widow, who is still under sixty, has spent all her life in Henry County, and now resides at Ridgeville. She, as was her husband, has been a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church. Christof Sonnenberg was a man of much influence in the various communities where he lived, and filled several local offices. Politically he was a republican.

Napoleon Township. Edward's farm comprises fifty-seven acres, and it is completely improved and cultivated and under his management has always furnished him a good living and a little surplus besides, so that he is now in comfortable circumstances. In the earlier part of his life Edward Sonnenberg worked for nine years at the trade of carpenter, following that occupation in different parts of the state.

In Adams Township of Defiance County on March 19, 1903, he married Miss Henrietta Salow. Mrs. Sonnenberg was born in Toledo July 14, 1880. When she was nine years of age her parents, Fred and Anna (Baden) Salow, moved to Defiance County, where she was reared. Her parents were natives of Germany who came when quite young to the United States and met and married in Toledo. Her father was employed in a lumber plant at Toledo. While in that city Mrs. Sonnenberg and her sister Minna, the latter now deceased, were born, and the family then moved to Sylvania in Liicas County, but a few years after that moved to Defiance County, locating on a farm in Adams Townsliip, where Mrs. Sonnenberg's parents are still living. They are members of the Lutheran Church and her father is a democrat. While the Salow family lived at Sjdvania two other children were born, Henry and Augusta. ]Mrs. Sonnenberg and her sister Augusta are the only ones of the family now living.

In religious matters Mr. and Mrs. Sonnenberg are members of the Lutheran Church. He takes considerable interest in politics and is a member of the Democratic Central Committee. He and his wife have the following children : Edwin, Carl, Alvina, Julia, Albert, who died at the age of ten months, Alva and Amelia.

James Crawford, who died at his home in Harrison Township of Henry County, February 1, 1911, had a long and honorable career, marked with industry and with an integrit.v of character which gained him the esteem and affection of every one with whom he came in contact. He lived in Henry County for a great many years, and his widow and family still reside at the old homestead in section 24 of Harrison Township.

He was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, December 23, 1830, and was therefore eightyone years of age at the time of his death. His parents were Thomas and Marv Crawford. His father was born in Ireland of an old Scotch-Irish Presbyterian family. He came to America when a young man, locating in an Irish settlement near Carlisle in Coshocton County, Ohio. He married there and he and 'his wife soon afterward blazed their way into a new and almost unsettled part of Coshocton County, erecting a log cabin and starting to make a farm out of the woods. Thomas Crawford was a man of great industry and in time had cleared up about 300 acres of land. This he improved with a fine brick house, brick barn, with a large orchard, and for many years he lived in affluence and comfort, dying when about seventy years of age. His widow survived him and was about eiglity when she away. She was noted for her hard working ability and in the early days she spun the yarn and made many of the clothes for her household. They were active workers in the Presbyterian Church and had to do with the organization of a church of that denomination in Coshocton County. In their family were ten children, all of whom grew up and married and all had families of their own. The two now living are: Robert and IVIrs. Elizabeth Clark, the former a resident of Napoleon and the latter of West Carlisle, both of them being past seventy years of age. Nearly all the family remained in the faith to which they were reared, the Presbyterian.

The late James Crawford grew up on the old homestead and received a public school education. He was married in Coshocton County to Elizabeth ^Maxwell. She died in the prime of life, leaving two children. Hannah, the older of these two children, died in 1895, leaving seven children by her marriage to Clarence L. Fast, who passed away in 1905. Jacob, the other child, is a resident of Cleveland, a former clerk of that city, and by 'his marriage to Elizabeth Snyder has two sons.

In 1872 James Crawford married for his second wife IMiss Catherine Lynch. They were married near West Carlisle and Mrs. Crawford was born in Coshocton County June 15, 1841. Her parents were William and Elizabeth (Wolf) Lynch, both natives of Pennsylvania. When William Lynch was a small boy his father, who was a native of Ireland, died, and the young man was thus thrown upon his own resources. He learned the trade of hatter, and moved to West Bedford, Ohio, where he followed his trade and where he married ]\Iiss Wolf, who was of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, and had come to Coshocton County with her parents. William Lynch and wife located on a tract of wild land, containing aho\it 300 acres, after their marriage and while following his trade jMr. Lynch cleared up most of this and made it a fine farm. He also manufactured many of the fine hats worn by the men of that time, most of them of the very best material, silk and beaver. A distinctive feature of his own attire for many years was a tall hat which he continued to wear even after the style had become somewhat obsolete. JMrs. Crawford was about two years old when her mother died. She was the youngest of nine children. After her mother's death her father married for a second wife Miss Martha Thornhill. There were no childi-en by that marriage and she died at the age of seventy. William Lynch died at the old home near West Bedford December 16. 1864, and had he lived to the following Christmas Day would have been seventy-five years of age. He and his wife were members of the Baptist Church and in politics he was a republican.

Mrs. Crawford and her brother Absalom are the only two now living of the family. Her brother occupies a part of his father's old estate in Coshocton County, and is now alone, having lost his wife and children. Two of Mrs. Crawford's brothers, John and Hugh Lynch, were soldiers in the Civil war. John was wounded in one of the battles around Richmond, died there and had a soldier's burial on the battlefield. He left a widow and three daughters, one of whom is still living. Her brother Hugh became captain of a company in an Iowa regiment, was promoted to the rank of major, lost his health during the later months of the war and died from con- .sumption soon after his return, leaving a wife and daughter.

1 Mr. Crawford was a Methodist and a demo- I erat in politics, and Mrs. Crawford was also : reared in the Methodist faith. She is the mother of two children. Mary C. is the wife : nf Lon Morgan Blue, a farmer of Bartlow , Township of Henry County, and they have two children, Consuela and Ford Blue.

Charles L., the only son, operates the old homestead for his mother, and by his marriage to Miss Lena Barton has four sons, James, Gale, Ray and Byron.

Cheis H. Klug is one of the progressive young farmers of Henry County, and represents a family that has been closely identified with agricultural affairs in Harrison Township for a number of years. He resides on the old homestead in section 10 of Harrison Township, and was born and reared there.

The old farm comprises 100 acres, and that was the birthplace of Chris H. Klug on January 9, 1893. He grew up and received his education, finishing in the Napoleon High School. For the past three years he has been in active charge of the home farm. <

His parents were Christoph and Catherine (Sehumaker) Klug. His father was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1840, and came to the United States in 1876. He married in Germany for his first wife JIaria Gerten, also a native of Hanover. When they came to America they brought with them their four children, Herman, Emma, Henry and Sophia. After four years in Defiance Count.y, the family came to Henry County and Christoph Klug bought the farm now owned by his son, Chris H. There he erected some good farm buildings, including a barn 40 by 80 feet, and a substantial nine-room house. All the land but sixteen acres is highly improved and grows excellent crops. In the way of livestock the Chester White hog is specialized.

Christoph Klug died at this old home January 19, 1916, having celebrated his seventyfifth birthday October 1, 1915. He was a democrat in politics. His first wife died in this count.A' February 3, 1884. Both she and her husband were confirmed German Lutherans. Of their children Henry and Emma are both married and living in Henry County.

For his second wife Christoph Klug married Catharine Sehumaker, who was born in Napoleon Township, on her father's old home four miles we.st of the City of Napoleon. Mrs. Kluff. who is still living, was born November 5, 1849, a daughter of Jonas and Esther (Speigle) Sehumaker. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and her mother in Columbiana County, Ohio. In 1866 the Sehumaker family came to Napoleon Township, and her father improved a farm there. He died at the age of eightv-three and his widow, who was born December 22, 1829, died in the Citv of Napoleon at the age of eighty-seven. Mrs. King's

Mrs. Klug for her first husband married Detrick Jost, who died in Ridgeville Township of Henry County. To their marriage were born five children: Dora, Henry, Rev. George 0., Emma and Freda. All these are still living except Rev. George 0., who was a young minister and attended a convention of his church in Chicago, and while there disappeared and nothing has since been heard of him. All the other children are married except Freda, who lives at home with her mother. Christoph Klug and his second wife had two children, Chris H. and Catherine, the latter dying when six years of age. Chris H. Klug is still unmarried, and lives at the old farm with his mother and his sister Freda. He is a democrat and all the family are members of the Lutheran Church.

J. E. Bayliff, M. D. The medical fraternity of Auglaize County is capably represented at Uniopolis by a physician and surgeon who has had an especially honorable career. Dr. J. E. Bayliff. Wlien Doctor Bayliff started life he was not able to gain the advantages which are given to many when they make a choice of a vocation, and in order to j)repai"e himself for his cherished profession he was forced to overcome a number of ob- .staeles. His energy and persevering nature, however, enabled him to gain his goal, and for a number of years he has been accounted one of his profession's able and skilled representatives.

Born in Auglaize County, Ohio, September 3, 1861, Doctor Bayliff is a son of Lewis P. and Christina Elizabeth (Waggoner) Bayliff. He is of English descent, and belongs to one of the pioneer families of the county, his grandfather, Joel Bayliff, having come here at an early day and settled on wild land taken up from tlie United States Government. On the maternal side he likewise belongs to an early family, his grandfather, Charles Waggoner, having come to Auglaize County as a pioneer from Pennsylvania. Lewis P. Bayliff was bom in Clay Township, Auglaize County, March 12, 1825, and died in Wapakoneta, Ohio, January 12, 1902. While the greater part of his boyhood and yowth were spent in -flie country, he was given a good training and for several years attended Antioch College, Ohio. With this equipment he started teaching, and for thirty-five years followed that voeatiou and became one of the well known educators of Auglaize County. For sevex'al years he was an instructor in the Wapakoneta High School. Mr. Bayliff' worked out his own success in life in an honorable manner, but in later years met with financial reverses. He was a member of the Dunkard Church, and in politics was a democrat. He married Christina Elizabeth Waggoner, also a native of this county, and they had five children, of whom three are living: J. E.; Elizabeth, who is the wife of J. J. Hay, exmayor of Wapakoneta; and George Jacob, a machinist of Slemphis, Tennessee.

J. E. Bayliff' received his literary education in the district schools and the Wapakoneta High School, and as a youth displayed a predilection for the profession of medicine. The family resources, however, were not such that he could pursue a college course, and he was forced to earn the means with which to pursue his medical studies. For seven years he taught school, sold books as an agent and worked at wliatever honorable employment presented itself, and at the same time gave his .spare time to the study of his vocation. After some preliminary work with a physician at Uniopolis, he entered Pulte Medical College, from which he was duly graduated in 1887 with his degi-ee of Doctor of Medicine. Doctor Bayliff' began his professional duties at Wapakoneta, but after two years moved to Uniopolis, where he has since carried on a general medical and surgical practice and has built up a good professional business. He has followed closely the advancements made in his calling, and his skill in diagnosis, his thorough knowledge of the different branches of his calling, his ability as a practitioner and his steady-handed surger.y have won him the confidence of the people, while his respect for the ethics of the profession has gained him standing and esteem among his fellow-practitioners. He belongs to the Auglaize County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Politically he is a democrat. Doctor Bayliff 's only public office has been that of township clerk, in which he served two years, but he has always been ready to give aid to public-spirited movements. His fraternal connection is with the Knights of Pythias, in which order he has passed througli the chairs.

T. D. and Mary A. (Spry) Howe, the former a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Bayliff is a member of the congregation of that church at Uniopolis. Doctor and Mrs. Bayliff have no children of their own, but have adopted two bright boys: Walter E., who is nine years of age ; and Russell, who is aged seven years.

John Fisher. One of the highly respected families of Henry County is represented by John Fisher, who is owner and proprietor of one of the best kept and best cultivated farms in Napoleon Township. His parents came to this country poor and friendless, and by sturdy industry, self-sacrificing labors in early yeai"s, gained not only a material competence but left honored names in the community. John Fisher, their son, has likewise prospered. He has the reputation of doing things thoroughly and well, and of getting things done under his management. The land in his farm is as valuable and fertile as can be found in that section of Henry County, and for a considerable part of it, he paid as high as $157 an acre. It is a high tribute to his ability as a farmer that he has been able to take and cultivate such high priced land and make a profit of it.

He was born in Napoleon Township in section 21 on the farm that he now owns September 7, 1867. His father, Frederick Fisher, was born in Baden, Germany, on October 2, 1828. He wa.s left an orphan when a small boy by the death of his parents, Godfried Frederick and Rose (Walond) Fi.sher, and was reared among strangers. While young he learned the trade of brick and tile maker. That was yeai-s before machinery was introduced to manufacture brick and tile and his I knowledge of the industry was confined to ! the manual trade. At the age of twent.v-four i he set out for America on a sailing vessel. ; That was in June, 1854. He came to Napo- 1 leon City July 4, 1854, making the trip from I Toledo in a canal boat. On the same boat j that brought him from Germany to America I was a young orphan girl, jNIary Eve Wolder. 1 They became acquainted on the boat and in Napoleon were united in marriage by a priest ' August 26, 1854. Mrs. Fisher was born in : Baden, Germany, September 24. 1825. With- ; out friends, without money, Frederick Fisher : and wife started out to make their destiny in the New World. For six years he found employment on the Wabash Railroad, and during that time they lived in a log cabin near Napoleon. Being thrifty and earnest in their life purpose they saved their money and bought twenty acres in Monroe Towuship. This land they subsequently sold and returning to Napoleon Township in 1863 bough*^ forty acres in section 21. That forty acres is now included in the fine farm of their son John. Ten acres of this w^as cleared, but the rest was heavily wooded. Both Mr. Fisher and his wife worked early and late during these years, and after tliey had improved their first purchase of land bought forty acres adjoining and before leaving off active work they had improved all of this except ten acres. Fi-ederick Fisher died in Napoleon Township August 10, 1903, when he was seventy-four years of age. His widow survived him until November 4, 1912, when she was nearly eightyeight. Thus in spite of the hardships of their early life they lived to be old, and spent their last years in comfort. They were lifelong members of the Catholic Church and in politics he was a democrat. Their children, four sons and four daughters, grew up and married, and six are still living.

John Fisher, who has never married, has applied his energies for the last thirty years to his work and profession as a farmer and has also exercised shrewd business judgment in all his transactions. He now owns 205 acres situated in sections 19, 20 and 21, and nearly every foot of it is imder perfect cultivation. He also has his land well stocked with a good grade of horses, ten in niimber, twenty head of cattle and many hogs, besides 100 head of fine poultry, chiefly the white leghorn stock. His home is a modern eleven-room house. He also has a barn 40 by 80 feet with an addition of 26 feet and has all the appointments and equipments necessary for thorough and efficient farming. Mr. Fisher is a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church of St. Augustine Parish.

Adam J. Ulrich. What all men aspire to - a long and prosperous career, one filled with satisfying accomplishments of a material nature, the acquisition of standing and esteem in the community, a good home and honorable and useful children - is the achievement which serves to give special distinction to Adam J. Ulrich, a retired business man of Napoleon.

For half a century, since the close of the Civil war in 1865, Mr. Ulrich has had his home on the corner of Clinton Street and Haley Avenue in Napoleon. He came to Napoleon as a tinsmith, a trade which he fol- lowed for ten years, and which was the basis and foundation of his larger business enterprise. He opened up his first stock of hardware on the east side of Perry Street. Some years later he left his frame store and moved into a brick block, and stiU later bought a store of his own on Washington Street. In the meantime his business had enjoyed a constant increase and on Washington Street he conducted for a number of years one of the largest hardware establishments in Henry County, his store being filled with all kinds of shelf and hea\'y hardware, farm implements, wagons, buggies and tools and equipment for various mechanical trades. As a result of more than forty years of persistent application Mr. Ulrich was finally able to retire with a substantial competence, and in 1907 he sold his business to Rothenberger Brothers and repaired to the comfoi'ts of home and fireside in the large brick home at the corner of Clinton Street and Haley Avenue. He had bought that splendid residence two years before his retirement. Mr. Ulrich also owns other good properties in the city, and he and his son, Grant L., and his daughter, ]\Irs. Jennie E. Scott, were all active in the organization of the State Bank of Commerce at Napoleon, all became stockholders, and he and his son. Grant L., are both directors.

Adam J. Ulrich was born at Wooster in Wayne County, Ohio, June 28, 1842, being of Pennsylvania German ancestry. His parents were Jacob and Elizabeth (Shopp) Ulrich, both natives of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The grandfather was Jacob Ulrich, Sr., who spent his life as a farmer in Pennsylvania, was a member of the Evangelical Church and in politics a democrat. Jacob Ulrich, Jr., moved out to Wayne County, Ohio, when a young man, was married there, and soon afterwards established himself on a farm in the vicinity of Wooster. He was a man of industry, thrift, and honorable in all his relations, and died in Wayne County when past seventy yeai-s of age. He and his wife were members of the Evangelical Church and in politics he was loyal to democratic principles. Of ten children two died in infancy, and Adam is the second in age of those who ?rrew up. His brother, John, is married and lives at Newark, Ohio-. Lydia is married and lives in California. Jacob is also a resident of California. William is a farmer near Napoleon on the Maumee River. Mary was accidentally killed by a street car in Canton, Ohio, being survived by husband and children. Aaron and Fannie are both married and live on farms in Wayne County.

Adam J. Ulrich grew up and received his education in Wayne County. He learned his trade of tinsmith with his uncle, Michael Schopp of Berlin, Ohio. Later he followed his trade as a journeyman for four or five years and then in the fall of 1865 established his permanent home at Napoleon, where as already stated he was a journeyman worker for some years and gradually developed his trade iuto the extensive hardware business of which he was proprietor for so many years.

After coming to Napoleon ilr. Ulrich married Elizabeth Bails. She was born in Napoleon Township of Henry County, November 22, 1841, and has spent practically all her life in this one community. Her parents were Philip and Elizabeth (Fifer) Bails, both natives of Pennsylvania but early settlers in Henry County, where they spent their active careers on their farm. Bails Road of Napoleon Township was named in their honor. They were well known people and died when quite old at their home in Napoleon Township. Mrs. Ulrich 's father was a democrat. She is the only surviving child of her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Ulrich both take a leading part in St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, in which for a number of years he has served as an official. He is still a member of the board. He joined the ^Methodist Church when nineteen yeai-s of age and has never relaxed his interest in its woi'k. He is also affiliated with the subordinate lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Napoleon and filled minor offices therein.

Mr. and Mrs. Ulrich have five children. Their son. Grant L., is a tinsmith and retired farmer at Napoleon and has for years been chief of the fire department of this city. He has no issue. The son Frank is connected with a wholesale hardware company of Toledo, and his only child and son Harold was for several years in a bank but is now connected with an automobile company. The daughter, Jennie E., is the widow of Col. Arthur Scott, who was a son of Governor Scott of North Carolina, and she now lives in the same house with her father at Napoleon. The daughter, Hattie, is the wife of Frederick Grochner, a commercial traveler with home at Napoleon, and they have a son, Robert, nine years of age and attending public school. Another daughter, Mrs. Anna Engelhart, lives at

George Brecheisen. For more than half a century George Brecheisen has lived in Henry County. He came to America a German youth, with no special knowledge of the language or customs of the new world, and without capital or influential friends. He gained a foothold as a result of steady industry, married and established a home and now for many years has enjoyed the comforts of a very attractive and profitable farm in Flatrock Township of Henry County in section 11. He is one of the honored veterans of the gi-eat war between the states, and that part of his record will always be cherished by his descendants.

He was born in Alsace, then a province of France, at Lembach, on May 12, 1841. His father was Philip, Jr., and his grandfather Philip, Sr., Brecheisen. The grandparents spent all their lives as farmei"s in Alsace, and his grandfather was blind for twenty years, but lived beyond the fourscore mark. They were an old Lutheran family. Philip Brecheisen, Jr., was born in the month of January, about the year 1810. He grew up in Alsace and was married near his old home. His wife, Margaret, was born in Alsace about 1815, and also represented old Lutheran stock. The children born to these parents in the old country were: Catherine, Louisa, Philip, George and Jacob. In 1851 the family party took passage on a sailing vessel from Havre and were forty days in making the voyage to New York. From there tliey proceeded west as far as Bufi'alo and then lived for eight years at Attica, New York. During their residence in New York State three other children were born, Ellen, Lewis and Henry. In 1859 the family came to Northwestern Ohio. Philip Brecheisen rented land near Tiffin, in Seneca County, for two years, but in 1861 brought his wife and children to Henry County and bought 160 acres in Flatrock Township, l^o miles northwest of Holgate. Their first home was a log cabin, which stood in the midst of the heavy woods on the land. Here Philip Brecheisen undertook the heavy task of clearing up a wild tract of land, and in the course of time made one of the most productive and valuable farms in Flatrock Township. Both parents died there several years after the war, the father at the age of sixty-eight and

George Brecheisen was about grown to manhood when the family came to Henry County. He had received his education partly in German schools and partly in the public schools of New York State and Ohio. From an early date his time was used in the clearing and improvement of his father's homestead, and being strong and vigorous he did his share toward paying off tlie debt which his father assumed when he bought the Henry County farm. He also gave his services to neighboring farmers and being very proficient he received the top price for farm labor at that day, which was $12 a month and board.

In August, 1862, Mr. Brecheisen volunteered his services to preserve the Union. He enlisted from Fostoria, in Seneca County, in Company I of the One Hundred and Twenty- Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He went out as a private and saw much active service with his regiment. He was in several battles in Western Virginia, especially Harpers Ferry, at Winchester, and also did considerable duty in lielping to guard railway lines. He was taken a prisoner at Winchester, but was paroled thirty days later at Staunton, Virginia. He fought in the Cedar Creek battle in the Shenandoah Valley, and on June 15, 1864, was mustered out and given his honorable discharge.

Soon after the war ]\Ir. Brecheisen began farming on his own account and bought forty acres of wild land in Flatrock Township. He cleared up part of that land, and he and his wife also lived in a log house for several years. He finally sold his first purchase and bought a farm in the southwestern part of the township. In 1873 lie acquired eighty acres of the old homestead of his wife's parents in section 11 of Flatrock Township, and that has now been the Brecheisen home for more than forty years. Mr. Brecheisen has proved as able in the occupation of farming as he was a soldier during the time of war, and his land now has many improvements to show for his enterprise and every field is well cultivated. Mr. Brecheisen built the large barn, 40 by 60 feet, and also the substantial eight-room house.

On the farm that he now occupies Mr. Brecheisen was married to Frederica Kemm. She was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, June 15, 1843, and when a child was brought to America by her parents, Mr. and Mrs.

Christoff Kemra. The Keram family located in Flatrock Township, clearing lap a new farm in section 11, where Mr. and Mrs. Brecheisen have lived for so many years. Her parents died when quite old and are deservedly remembered as substantial pioneer people of this section of Northwest Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Brecheisen are active members of the Lutheran Church, and politically he is affiliated with the democratic party.

Their children are : Louise, wife of Prank Reddig and the mother of three sons and one daughter; George, Jr., who is employed as a fireman in a Toledo factory; Charles, who is still unmarried and runs the home farm for his father; Rosetta, still at home; Elizabeth, who died after her marriage to Fi*ed Stout and left three children; and Ellen, who died in young womanhood.

Milton J. Knipp is at the head of one of the best managed farming estates and represents one of the oldest and most esteemed families of Henrj' County. His farm is on section 11, Platrock Township, and his prosperity has been won by the capable management of the tirst class farms which he conducts. For three generations the members of the Knipp family have been identified with the fai-ming, stock raising and capable citizen.ship interests of Northwestern Ohio. Both the paternal and maternal lines of Mr. Knipp connect with staunch old Wurtembei-gers. The family came to Northwestern Ohio some eighty or ninety years ago, and for many years lived in Crawford County. It was Mr. Knipp 's great-grandparents who headed the emigration to America. When they came they brought with them their younger children, but two of the Knipp sons, Tobias and John, then young boys, were left behind. These boys were not content to remain while their families departed for the New World, and they contrived means of working their passage in an old-fashioned sailing vessel. As a matter of fact the vessel on which they took passage arrived in New York before the ship carrying their parents. These enterprising young men were standing on the docks when the rest of the family landed, and they furnished a joyful surprise to their parents and brothers and sisters. For a time the family lived in Pennsylvania, but then emigrated to Crawford County, Ohio, where they began life in the midst of the primitive wilderness, with log cabin homes, with their table supplied with wild venison and other game from the forest, and with furnishings which would seem extremely crude at this date. The parents of John and Tobias Knipp spent their last days there. From the time they took their venturesome voyage to the New World John and Tobias Knipp were closely associated by many ties throughout the rest of their lives. In 1848 both of these brothers brought their families to Platrock Township, in Henry County. Henry County at the time was partially settled and much of its land was still owned by the Government, and these brothers secured unappropriated land in section 13 of Flatrock Township, entering their titles in the land office at Defiance. Each of them had a quarter section, and they built similar homes, typical of the times and conditions, log cabin dwellings standing in the midst of the woods, and a number of years passed before the coimtry was sufficiently cleared up and settled so that the howling of the wolves would not disturb the slumberings of these settlei-s. In that community Tobias and John and their wives worked hard and spent the rest of their useful lives. Tobias acquired an estate of 560 acres, while John improved a half section, or 320 acres. Tobias Knipp died in 1889, and his brother, John, in 1891. Both were siirvived by their widows. Mrs. Tobias Knipp died in 1901, when past eighty years of age, aud Mrs. John Knipp was nearly ninetyfour when death came to her in 1915. These good old people were all Lutherans, a religion in which they had been reared in Germany. Tobias and John were prominent men in the early da.ys of Henry County and were not only widely known for the enterprises which enabled them to succeed as farmers but also on account of their public spirit and kindly neighborliuess. John was one of the early township trustees. Both took a leading part in the establishment of a Lutheran Church, and both the church and the cemetery were started on laud given by these brothers. Tobias Knipp should be remembered also because of his influence in introducing a number of solid and substantial German families in Henry County. He was a man of much practical wisdom, and his judgment was relied upon by all his wide acquaintance and friends. Mr. Milton J. Knipp is a gi-andson of both of these brothers. This relationship comes about because of the fact that his father, John H. Ivnipp married his cousin, Mary Knipp, John being a son of Tobias, while Mary was a daughter of John. John H.

Knipp was born in Crawford County, Ohio, in 1844, and his wife and cousin Mary was born there in 1846. Both were small children when their respective parents came to Flatrock Township in Heur}' County in 1848. They grew up on neig-hboring farms, and after their marriage on May 27, 1869, settled on the old home place of Tobias Knipp. John H. Knipp received as his portion of the inheritance eighty acres of land and in 1874 he sold that for $3,500. With the proceeds he purchased 133 acres in sections 10 and 11 of Flatrock Township, located on the south bank of the Maumee River and opposite Girty's Island. There Mr. and Mrs. John H. Knipp passed their greatest usefulness, and in time they also acquired eighty-eight acres of adjoining land and were prospered as they well deserved. After a number of years they retired from the f ann and moved to Napoleon, taking a residence on Maumee Street, where Mrs. John H. Knipp died on May 16, 1915. Her husband is still living, and is still active, taking an interest in local affairs in spite of his advancing years. He is a democrat, has always been a good citizen, and for several years served as a township trustee. Both he and his wife were members of the Lutheran Church.

Milton J. Knipp was the oldest in a family of five children. His brother, Charles A., lives on a farm in Flatrock Township, and by his marriage to Catherine Austermiller has two children. Earl and Luella, the latter being unmarried. ' Eli T., a farmer in Napoleon Township, married Julia Deimer, and their children are Josephine, Paul aud Ferdinand. Walter, who owns the old homestead in Flatrock Township, married Mary Audrew, and his children are named Arthur, Helen, Harold and Donald. Martha, the youngest of the children and the only daughter, is the wife of Henry Austermiller, a farmer in Monroe Township, and their children are Russell and Blanch.

It was on the old home farm in section 13 of Flatrock Township that Milton H. Knipp was born January 29, 1870. The environments of his youth were not different from those of the average Ohio farm boys, but he received, perhaps, more than the average education. In addition to the advantages of the public schools he was graduated in 1891 from the Defiance City Business College. That training and eighteen months of work as a clerk and bookkeeper he has always regarded as valuable assets to his business career as a farmer. Mr. Knipp owns seventy-two acres of fertile and well improved land, and has made more than an ordinary success out of all his farming undertakings. Among improvements should be mentioned a barn 36 by 70 feet, painted red with white trimmings, and he and his family enjoy the comforts of a good modern home of eight rooms.

In his home township in 1894 Mr. Knipp married Miss Ida H. Art, who was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, April 9, 1874. When she was two years of age she came to Henry County with her parents, William and Elizabeth (Somheim) Art. They were both natives of Germany, and had come to America with their respective parents when about twelve or fourteen years of age. Their families located in Tuscarawas County, where Mr. and Mrs. Art grew up and married, and in 1876 located on a farm in section thirty of Flatrock Township in Henry County. Mr. Art was a capable farmer and a man of ability in everything he did, and in time had an excellent farm and provided well for his children. His death occurred November 16, 1907, at the age of seventy-two, and his widow is still living at the old home, being now seventyeight. Both had been members of the Reformed Church, and Mr. Art served as a township trustee, being a supporter of the democratic party.

Mr. Knipp has made himself useful to the community. In addition to his contribution as a practical farmer for five times he served as township clerk and has also been clerk and treasurer of the school board. He is one of the directors of the Elery Grain Association.

Charles E. Osborn. The claim of Charles E. Osborn upon the good will and consideration of his fellow townsmen in Flatrock Township of Henry County is based upon many years of progressive and effective work as a practical farmer and stock raiser and by his efforts at all times to promote the welfare of his community by the improvement of roads, the maintenance of good schools, and in the upholding of religion and morality. His home is in section 15 of Flatrock Township.

Representing an old and prosperous family of Northwest Ohio, Charles E. Osborn was born in Richland Township of Defiance County June 22, 1863. His people came to Defiance County from Portage County in this state. His parents were David and Catherine (Hull) Osborn. David Osborn was born in Pennsyl- vania, his people being natives of that state and of Dutch ancestry. From Pennsylvania the Osborns moved to Portage County, Ohio, when David was a small boy. In that locality he grew up, and married there Miss Hull, who was a native of Portage County but of Pennsylvania parentage. The Hulls were among the early settlers of Portage County, and Mrs. David Osborn's parents died there when well advanced in years.

After David Osboru had grown to young manliood his parents made still another removal, going from Portage to Richland Township in Defiance County. They made that removal some time in the decade of the '40s. Defiance County at that time was still an almost uncleared wilderness. Their home was in the woods and a log cabin gave them shelter until a better residence could be constructed. In that locality the grandparents spent the rest of their days. David's mother died first and his father was then married in Defiance County to Miss Catherine Baker. There were two children of the second marriage, Elijah and Emma, the former now deceased. Emma is the widow of Andrew Hardy and lives with her family in Defiance County. The mother of these two children died when nearly eighty years of age, while the father of David Osborn was seventy-six when he passed away. David Osborn was one of a family of five children, both the sons, David and Sylvester, being still alive. The three daughters, Jane, Susan and Julia, all married, but are now decea.sed, though children survive them.

David Osborn was married in Defiance county to Miss Catherine Hull, who had come to his locality after her brother, Emanuel Hull, had married Jane Osborn. After mar-_ riage Mr. and Mrs. David Osborn located on a part of the old Osborn homestead. They sold that and then went to another farm in the same township, which they also sold, and then bought a partly improved place of 108 acres in Tiffin Township of t)efiance County. Mrs. David Osborn died on that farm, at the home of her son, David Osborn Jr. David Osborn Sr. is now living at the home of his daughter Catherine, wife of Ambrose Truby in Richland Township of Defiance County, and for a man of his years is still vigorous and active and takes a keen interest in passing events, being a democrat in politics. His wife was a devout Methodist.

others is as follows: Emma, married Eugene Weaver, a retired farmer living at Florida Village. Calvin is married and lives on a farm in Flatrock Township and has sons and daughters. Alice died after her marriage. Catherine is ilrs. Ambrose Truby of Defiance County. David is married, has two sons, and lives in Flatrock Township. Oscar, who lives in Defiance County, married Alice Read and has children. John is a farmer in William County and has four children by his marriage to Miss Rousch. Emanuel married Louisa Rousch. Saville is the wife of Abraham Bordner, a farmer in Williams County, and they have a son and a daughter. Mary is' the wife of Andy Sobody of Rome City, Indiana, and they have children.

It was on the old homestead in Defiance County that Charles E. Osborn spent his early life, and his education came from the rural schools and also the schools of Florida Village. -Farming and its attendant activities have engaged his attention since early youth and his prosperity can be largely accounted for by the fact that he has used his intelligence as well as the strength of his body in carrying out a progi-ara of farm management and improvement. In 1896 he bought his present place of eighty acres in Flatrock Township. All these acres are well cultivated and he has a reputation in that community of growing some of the best crops. Among improvements should be noted a large barn on a foundation 36 by 60 feet with a basement, and this barn is furnished with a splendid supply of running water for stock purposes. In 1908 he also erected a garage and a granary with a 1,000- bushel capacity. The latest improvement was his substantial ten-room house, which was built in 1915 and is furnished and equipped in modern style and with all conveniences.

On the farm where he now lives Mr. Osborn was married to Miss Emma E. Huston. Mrs. Osborn was born on this farm May 2, 1867. and was reared and educated in the locality where she has spent her life. Her parents were Jeremiah and Mary (Rice) Huston, her father a native of Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Her father married his first wife in his native county, and about sixty years ago came to Henry County and bought the land which through many improvements and changes has been developed and is now the place of IMr. Charles E. Osborn. Jeremiah Huston's first wife died on this farm, as the mother of nine children, all of whom are deceased except Mahlou, who resides at Florida Village and has a family of children. In 1864 Jeremiah Huston married Miss Mary Rice, and after some years spent on the old home he moved to Florida Village where he died at the age of seventy-two. He was born in 1803, and throughout his career was a regular voter of the democratic party. His second wife died at the home of Mrs. Osborn December 21, 1913. She was born June 27, 1827, in Baden, Germany, and at the age of nineteen came to America with her parents, who died when well advanced in years at Fostoria, Ohio.

Mr. and Mrs. Osborn are the parents of two children. Their daughter Mabel died when fourteen years of age. The living daughter. Alma M., was born September 23, 1899, and is still at home, having received her education in the local schools.

S. H. SiBERT, M. D. During a period of more than thirty-four years. Dr. Samuel H. Sihert has been engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Fryburg. In this long period he has firmly established himself in the confidence of the people of this community, and at the same time has made his name well known in other parts of Auglaize County, not alone as a skilled physician and surgeon, but as a county official who has given his best services to the people, and at the present time is serving his fourth term as county coroner. The success which he ha.s attained in life has been self gained, for when he entered upon *he battlefield of life he was equipped with little but courage, determination and ambition.

Doctor Sihert was born at St. Mary's, Auglaize County. Ohio, April 13, 1858, and is a son (ii'.l:iiiiis Franklin and Catherine (Brandenlmri; 1 Silicit. He is of German descent on both sides of the family, through his greatgrandfathers, and his paternal grandfather, Samuel Sibert, was born in Pennsylvania, while his grandfather on the maternal side, ; Henry Brandenburg, was a native of Mary- ! land. James Franklin Sibert was bom in I Carroll County, Ohio, in 1828, and as a young man moved to Auglaize County, where he ! was inarried to one of the county's native \ daughters, Catherine Brandenburg. Mr. i Sibert followed the vocations of farming and ! teaching until the Civil war came on to inter- : rupt his labors, and in 1863 he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred Eightieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for over a year. His army experi- ' ences had affected Mr. Sibert 's health, and in

1865 the family moved to Missouri, where Mr. Sibert continued to teach and farm, and where he became possessed of a large tract of land. Later he moved to Texas, and at Huffsmith, in that state, passed away. Mrs. Sibert then returned to Ohio, locating in Auglaize County, May 11, 1871. She was born April 28, 1836, and survived her husband until December 17, 1916, being one of the highly respected old ladies of her community. She was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Chui-ch. Mr. and Mrs. Sibert were the parents of five children : Samuel H. ; Albert, who was a railroad man and met his death while following his vocation, in 1888 ; Joseph P., a detective for the T. & O. C. R. R. Co., with headquarters in Columbus; V. T., who is an oil speculator and operator of Loga;n, Ohio; and Rosalie, who died in infancy. Mr. Sibert was a member of the Christian Church, and in politics was a republican. He was a selfmade man and in the communities in which he resided was known for his integrity and honorable citizenship.

Samuel H. Sibert received his early education in the gi'aded schools of St. Mary's and the Lima High School, from which latter he was graduated in 1878, following which he attended the Eclectic Medical College for one term. He also spent a term at the Pulte Medical College, Cincinnati, and matriculated at Starling Medical College, from which he was duly graduated with his degree in 1881. He began his professional labors at St. Mary's, but after one year changed his residence and field of operations to Fryburg, where he has been located continuously since December 2, 1882. He has built up a large and representative practice, extending over a wide territory, and to some extent has specialized in later years in surgery, a field in which he has become known far beyond the borders of his inunediate field of practice. Doctor Sibert is a member of the Auglaize County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the Eclectic ^Medical Association. His reputation is that of a learned and thorough practitioner, with a love for his profession and a high regard for its strictest ethics, and one whose long years of practice have given him a tender and sympathetic nature, so valuable to the practitioner in the sick room. His material success has been equal to that gained professionally, for, while he started as a poor and struggling young physician, he is now the owner of a 120-aere farm and valuable realty at "Wapakoneta and

Frj'burg. Politically, the doctor is a democrat, and has served four years as a member of the board of agriculture, and, as before noted, is now acting for the fourth time as county coroner. He belongs to the Masons, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Owls and the Wapakoneta Schwabian Benevolent Society, at Wapakoneta.

Doctor Sibert was married in 1884 to Miss Flora C. Katterheinrich, who was born at New Knoxville, Ohio, a daughter of William Katterheinrich, who died as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war. To this union there have been bom three children: Aldo Vernon, a graduate of Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, June, 1914, and now engaged in the practice of medicine at Lima; Cleola Rosina Catherine, who is the wife of Charles Freeh, a stock farmer of Wapakoneta ; and La Vera Mildred Elizabeth, who is attending the high school at Wapakoneta. Doctor and Mrs. Sibert and their children are members of the German Lutheran Church at Wapakoneta.

Charles Henry Wistinghausen. Now living retired at his comfortable rural home on section ten, Flatrock Township, Henry County, Henry Wistinghausen has a retrospect of years which should bring comfort and satisfaction to any man who has lived so wisely and so well. He is an honored veteran of the great Civil war. For more than four years he followed the flag of the Union over many of the battlefields of the South, and in fighting so loyally for his adopted country he won a meed of glory which will always be cherished by his descendants. For a half century he has been a practical farmer in Henry County, and years ago his success was assured so that there need be no fear or anxiety concerning the peace of his declining years.

Mr. Wistinghausen is a native of Westphalia, Germany, born November 30, 1841. His people were residents of that province of the Fatherland for generations. His parents were Yopse and Eve (Lightheiser) Wistinghausen. When he was about two weeks old his mother died, and he and his older brother Fred were left to the care of his father. His father was a methodical and thrifty German shoemaker. Fred Wistinghausen, the older brother of Charles H., is now a retired farmer at Oak Harbor, Ohio, and has a large family of sons

When Charles H. Wistinghausen was four or five years of age his father married for his second wife Miss Anna Brown, also a native of Westphalia. They continued to live in Germany for a number of years after that, and several children were born in the old country. Catherine or Christina, the oldest of these children by the second marriage of Yopse Wistinghausen, is the widow of John Dackler and lives with her children in Cleveland. George, now retired, lives with his only surviving son, John, in Columbus, Ohio. Carrie, wife of John Marmann, lives with her family in Cleveland.

Charles H. Wistinghausen lived in Germany until he was about thirteen years of age. While there he attended the public schools, and he grew up in the household of his father and his stepmother. In the spring of 1856 or 1857 the little family with the children above mentioned set out from Bremen on a sailing vessel bound for Baltimore. It was just seven weeks to the daj' when they landed in Baltimore. It had been a very rough and stormy voyage, and during one of the storms a sailor was thrown from the mast and was drowned. After landing the family came to Cleveland, lived there for a time, and then moved to a farm at 01mstead Falls. Wliile on that farm Mr. Wistinsrhauspti "s father died in 1863. He was born 1801. His widow survived him a number of years and passed away in 1914 at the home of her daughter in Cleveland. She was then past eighty. Wliile the family were in the harbor of Bremen and before they sailed, one child, Adolph, died, being then an infant. After they came to America several other children were born : Mary, who is married and lives at Port Clinton, Ohio ; Catherine, wife of John Mertz, living in Saginaw, Michigan, and they have two daughters : Yetta, who died in childhood and was buried at Cleveland. All the members of this family were reared in the faith of the Lutheran Church.

After coming to Ohio Charles H. Wistinghausen had some additional education in the English schools. Being one of the older children he felt the necessity of doing for himself as soon as possible, and in 1858, at the age of seventeen, he came to Henry County and for a time lived in the Hanover settlement, and then moved to the Ridgeville community. He worked on farms, and for several seasons during the winter he performed the arduous service of a mail carrier between Ridgeville and

Coxilton, making two trips a week for the distance of thirty-five miles. He supplied the mail to several different postofBces along the route. In 1861 Mr. Wistinghausen returned to Olmstead Falls, and in the fall of that year went to Cleveland and enlisted in Company E of the Fifty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Kaufman and Colonel Bauwiene. Going South, he and his comrades were first exposed to the fire of the hostile guns at Forts Donelsou and Heniy. From that time forward until the expiration of his term of enlistment, more than three years later. Mr. Wistinghausen was almost constantly on duty and participated in several of those great campaigns by which the Confederacy was split in twain and the Union army advanced completely across the country from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. He participated in the battles of Pittsburgh Landing or Shiloh, followed the retreating Confederates to Corinth, thence to Bolivar, IMississippi, and at Memphis his regiment was .ioined to Sherman's forces. He participated in a number of raids around Vicksburg, and spent the winter of 1862-1863 at Helena, Arkansas. At the beginning of the next year's campaign he was sent down the Mississippi River to Chickasaw Bayou, and that battle was especially fatal to his regiment, both his captain and colonel being among the killed. Later he participated in the capture of Arkansas Post, and from that time was on detached duty with a battery of artillery. He was in the battle of Black River in the rear of Vicksburg, and after the fall of that Mississippi stronghold he was part of the Union army that retook Jackson, Mississippi. Later he was again a part of Sherman's command at ]Memphis and Corinth, and in that locality they met Forrest's command and drove that intrepid cavalryman out of the state. His command was next sent to Tennessee, and a few days after arriving there fought in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and 'Ringgold. After tho.se operations, which opened up the way for the Atlanta campaign, Mr. Wi.stinghausen and his command were sent to Huntsville and Vicksburg, and a few months after the expiration of his three years' term of service he was discharged and was mustered out at Columbus. Then followed a few weeks spent at his old home, when his ardent patriotism again urged him to active military service, and after a second enlistment he became a member of Hancock's Corps. Most of his duties were in and around Washington, District of Columbia. He was at Washington wheu Lincoln was assassinated, and subsequently, when the murderers of the President were apprehended, he stood as a guard over the prisoners and saw their execution, being one of the few survivors if not the only survivor who watched these detested murderers drop from the gallows.

After the close of the war Mr. Wistinghausen had a variety of service, chiefly guard duty. He was assigned with his regiment to act as relief to the state guard, first at Hartford, Connecticut, then New Haven, at Fort Schuyler and in the New York City harbor.' He was then assigned to the battery barracks on special duty as guard, and was finally discharged March 31, 1866, when he had served several months more than four years. Few of the Union soldiers served so long, and none with greater credit and more efficiency in all that constitutes a brave and loyal soldier. Though in the war so long, Mr. Wistinghausen received only one wound. That was during the siege of Vicksburg, and was caused by the reckless operation of a gunner in his own battery. It was by good luck that he did not lose his sight altogether as a result of the wound.

Since the close of the war and his return from the ranks Mr. Wistinghausen has found profit and pleasure in managing and cultivating a farm. He and his wife own 130 acres of land in Flatrock Town.ship, and Mr. Wistinghausen by his own labors did the work of improvement. He owns a comfortable seven-room house on section ten of that township, with good surrounding buildings, and though he is now a man past the three quarter century mark he still gives active superintendence to his home place.

In Flatrock Township on the farm where he now lives Mr. Wistinghausen married Miss Laura Diery. She was born in Seneca County, Ohio, March 28, 1843, a daughter of Christopher and Eve Diery, who were married in Germany and on coming to the United States located first in Senneca and later in Henry County, Ohio. Her father secured a tract of Governmeht land, and after improving it lived there until his death at the age of ninety-one. Her mother died when about seventy yeai"s of age. The Dierys were a Lutheran family.

ilrs. Wistinsliausen died at her old home in Flatrock Township May 20, 1885. She had been confirmed in the Lutheran Church on February 15, 1857. To their marriage were born the following children: Philip P., who lives on a nice farm in section 10 of Flatrock Township, has children named Carl, Maria and Clara. Ella is the wife of William Orthwein, a farmer in Flatrock Township, and their children are Laura, Helen, Martha, Vina, Carl and Richard. Julia is the wife of Ernest Franz, a farmer of Napoleon Township, their children being Clarence, Alvena, Robert, Edward, Esther and Laura. Matilda is the wife of Joseph Meyerholtz, a merchant of Hamler in Henry County, and their two sons are named Luther and Kenneth. Three other sons, named Paul, Walter and William, died young.

Mr. Wistinghausen married for his second wife in Ottawa, Ohio, Mrs. Louis Koloff. She was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, June 7, 1846, was brought to the United States in 1884, and first married' Fred Koloff. By that marriage there were two children : Carl, who is a railroad engineer living in the State of Iowa, and by his marriage to Minnie Metz has three sons, Kyle, Kenneth and Keith. Wilhelmina is the wife of Henry Rettig, of Napoleon Township, and they are the parents of a daughter, Helen. Mr. and ]Mrs. 'Wistinghausen and their family are all members of the Lutheran Church. Mr. Wistinghausen has been a stanch citizen of the Republic since he followed the flag of the Union for so many years, and, while formerly a democrat, he is now a republican voter. During one term he served as a director of the county infirmary.

Frederick Nischwitz. The career of the late Frederick Nischwitz was impressed in many ways on the agricultural and material life of Henry County. He was a type of man who commands success in many ventures. Luck was not an element in his career, and those who knew him will say that it was an ususual combination and balance of faculties that brought him to the successful position which he long enjoyed in Henry County. The condition of his prosperity was no doiibt industry' and thrift, and it was the exercise of those two qualities that brought him from the station of a poor young 'German, when he came to America, to a place as a man of affairs who controlled 280 acres of fine land in Flatrock Township, comprising one of the best rural estates in the entire county. That land his labor had improved from a woodland into fertile fields, and altogether constituting a home which was a pleasant scene in which to pass his declining years and is now owned and

His estate is divided into three distinct farms. The homestead has 120 acres. Mrs. Nischwitz resides in a substantial brick house, and the group of improvements also include several large barns. Each of the other two farms, eighty acres apiece, is supplied with a full set of farm buildings, and one of these places is let to a thrifty tenant. Besides this farm property, Mrs. Nischwitz, by her native habits of thrift and the possession of keen business judgment, has since the death of her husband acquired another fine piece of property of eighty acres in Highland Township of Defiance County. This is likewise one of the good farms of that section of Ohio, has good building improvements, and represents a substantial little fortune in itself. Mrs. Nischwitz has distinguished herself as a wise woman of affairs, and her administration has not only kept up the property left her by her late husband, but has largely increased it.

The late Mr. Nischwitz represented a long line of substantial German ancestry, and he and all his people were active members of the Lutheran faith. He and his parents were both born in Germany. He in Pififley-heim, not far from the City of Worms. His birth occurred January 26, 1842. His parents were Henry and Catherine (Beckley) Nischwitz. When he was about nine years of age his parents sought a home in the New World. At that time few steamships plowed the waters of the Atlantic, and this little family embarked on one of the slow-going sailing vessels which brought them after a long and tedious journey to New Yoi-k City. They arrived in America in 1851, and soon afterward they established their first home in Crawford County, Ohio. In 1858, having sold his property in Crawford County, the father, Henry Nischwitz, moved to Henry County. Here he began life anew with the advantages of such experiences as he had acquired during his early days of pioneering in Crawford County. His home in Henry County was 120 acres of partially cleared land, and with that he was identified as a capable farmer until his death, November 16. 1875, at the age of sixty-five. His wife had died January 24, 1860. 'They were tlie parents of six children. The daughters Margaret and Catherine are both now deceased. John A. was an honored veteran of the Civil war. having fought throughout the war of the rebellion and having special distinction because of the fact that he was one of the force of Union soldiers who effected the capture of Jefferson Davis a few weeks after the surrender of Lee and the evacuation of the City of Richmond. He was a resident of the Village of Florida, but is now deceased. Another daugliter, Margaret, is the wife of John Grau, of Pleasant Township, Henry County. The daughter Anna died in infancy. Eva is the wife of ;Mr. . Kistler, of Sandusky City, Ohio.