Sandusky Township (part 25 of 57)

At the time of giving up law and entering tlie banking business he liad built up a large practice, representing several banks and savings institutions. In addition to the above, Mr. Rorick is a stockholder or director in several of tlie banks in Northern Ohio and Southern Jlichigan. He has been active in building up Toledo, having platted and improved some of till' best residence sections, including "Rorick "s Adilitidii, " "'Roriek's Second Addition," and Third Addition," to Toledo, Ohio. At present his realty holdings are principall}' business proper!}-. He has never held political office, confining his time to the management of his large financial and real estate aft'airs. Mr. Rorick is a member of the Toledo Club, Toledo Country Club, Toledo Commerce Club, the Bankers' Club of New York City, and of the Masonic, fraternity.

He was man-ied on September 17, 1891, to ;Marie Edna Packard of Lenawee County, Michigan, who was born on December 7, 1868, and was a direct descendant of Samuel Packard, one of the earliest settlers in Massachusetts. Mr. and ^Irs. Rorick kept house at Ann Arbor for the following year, during which ^\r. [((irii'k liiiislicd his course in the University (if Mirliiu-;iii, and then moved to Toledo in the siiiriiin-r .it 1892.

They have three children. The daughter, Alice Marie Rorick, born Januarj- 7, 1S94, graduated at Mrs. Dow's School, Briareliff ilanor, near New York City. Her comingout party shortly afterwards, in November, 1912, was said to be the finest ever given in Toledo. Her recent marriage in September 16, 1916, to ilr. Paul P. Prudden of Cummings, Prudden & Co., investment bankers of Toledo, New York and Chicago, was one of the prominent social events in Toledo society.

The Roricks also have two sons: Marvin Horton Rorick. born July 1, 1897, who just graduated fniui the Toledo High School and entered the University of Michigan in October, 1916; and Ceilan Herbert Rorick. born August 21, 1899. The Roricks are prominent in society in Toledo and are well known. in New York.

He was born January 27, 1878, a son of William and Eliza (Gault) Todd. His father was a soldier in Company D of the Ninetyninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war. Doctor Todd received his early education in the McComb High School, attended the Ohio Normal University at Ada, and for seven years was teacher of the eighth grade of the McComb Public School. His medical education was acquired in the Toledo Medical College, 1903-07. In the latter year he was given his degree M. D. While at Toledo he paid his expenses in college by teaching and acting as physical director at the Toledo Boys' Home and the Young Men's Christian Association. Having fitted himself for his profession he returned to ]\IcCorab and has since been in active practice with offices in the Smith Block. It is noteworthy that his office is on land which his grandfather Benjamin Todd acquired when he first came to Hancock County. One of the principal streets of LlcComb is named Todd. The family is of Scotch and German ancestry.

Besides his successful practice he served as coroner of Hancock County for two terms, 1908 to 1912, is now president of the county board of education, and is treasurer of Pleasant Township. He is a member of the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association, belongs to the First Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Deshler, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Maccabees and the Woodmen of the World.

Robert Kennedy Davis has been a resident of Findlay since early boyhood, and has made his success in life in the city where he was known as a boy and through mature years of manhood. For a number of years he was in the drug business, but having a special liking and genius for the field of insurance, he took that up and has already developed a splendid business as district agent for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, with territory in Hancock and adjoining counties. His offices are in the Ewing Building at Findlay.

Mr. Davis was born at Arlington, Ohio, August 2.3, 1875, a son of A. V. and Susannah (Welch) Davis. His parents were of Welsh and German stock. When he was twelve years of age his parents removed to Findlay, and he continued his education in the grammar schools there and also the high school. He was still a boy when he accepted a place as clerk in the J. C. Firmin Drug Store, and remained with that employer for seven years. He gained both a practical and theoretical knowledge of pharmacy, and in 1901 passed the State Board examination and was given a license as a registered pharmacist. With such capital as he had been able to save in the meantime he then formed a partnership with A. J. Julien under the name of Julien & Davis, and engaged in the drug business, buying out the old establishment of John A. Cheney. Later he bought his partner's interest and conducted the business alone until he sold out in 1915 to C. S. Ashbrook.

To men of exceptional qualifications there is no better business opened than the insurance field, and Mr. Davis has apparently all of those qualifications and in addition he finds the work exceedingly congenial. He has a large territory, has fine offices and a number of agents working under him.

He has also been a live wire in connection with Findlay 's growth and upbuilding in recent years. He assisted in organizing and was first president for two years of the Findlay Business Men's Association, which is now the Findlay Commerce Club. He also served as president of the Findlay Young Men's Christian Association in 1911. Fraternally Mr. Davis is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a member of the Court Literary Society, is a republican and a member of the First Lutheran Church.

In 1902 he married Jliss Carolyn Mae Renniger, daughter of William and Sarah Renniger of Findlay. They are the parents of three children : Ruthanna, born in 1904 ; Richard Carl, born in 1910; and Carolyn Elizabeth, born in 1912.

Clarence I. Moffitt. When Clarence I. Moffitt finished a course and was granted a diploma in the National Business College of Chicago, he did not have enough spare capital to buy a square meal. His education and training might have made some men scorn the humble tasks of the day laborer. ]\Ir. Moffitt , had no such pride to interfere with makingj the best of his opportunities. From Cliicago he went to Florence, Wisconsin, and spent three mouths in the ranks of common laborJ

With this experience and still practically without capital he returned to Findlay, Ohio, and again began looking for opportunities in the business field. He was willing to accept anything from the humblest clerkship to an executive office. The Bloomingdale Clothing Company did not immediately elect him president, but were satisfied to allow him to take his place on the payroll as a porter. In six years time he had promoted himself by hard work to the position of confidential man and head salesman. He then resigned from the Bloomingdale Clothing Company and went with the National Clothing Company in their branch store at Findlay. This company was a New York firm with branches in many cities. Mr. Moffitt took charge of the men's clothing department, and later for a year and a half was assistant buyer. The company finally assigned him to the management of the entire store, the largest store of its kind in Findlay. For 71/^ years he managed the store, without any outside supervision, and he made the business pay as it never had paid before.

This store was burned out March 17, 1910. At that time Mr. Moffitt had about $6,200 of live capital but better than this had the good will of all the wholesale houses and his credit rating was Al. Thus he started for himself, and is now the sole owner and proprietor of the National Clothing Company, one of the largest mercantile firms of Hancock County.

It is evident that hard work has been an important factor in Mr. Moffitt 's success. Another reason is undoubtedly the fact that he has considered no task beneath him, and he has a self respecting independent mind that is one of the most valuable assets of business or personal character. Mr. iloffitt has always been very systematic, and some of his commercial systems which he invented and copyrighted are now being employed in New York City houses. He has always been a firm believer in the principle of co-operation, and his employes have always benefited by the success of the entire business.

Mr. Moffitt was born on a farm twelve miles west of Findlay, in Blanehard Township, Hancock County, December 25, 1871. His parents were Rinaldo and Nancy Jane (McClish) ]Moffitt. The family came originally from Moffitt in Southeastern Scotland, and ilr. Moffitt is of Scotch-Irish descent, His first Moffitt ancestry settled in Charleston, South Carolina. His father was a farmer by occupation. The early education of Clarence I. ^loffitt was secured in the country schools of Hancock County, in the preparatory school at Ada, Ohio, and then the course of the business college in Chicago, since which his career has already been traced. .

Mr. Moffitt is a republican in national politics, but in local afl:'airs is inclined to independence. He is a member of the Senate Literary Society, an associate member of the Up to Date Club, a member of the Church of Christ and superintendent of its Sunday school, and though he has no children of his own is a great lover of young people and is always willing to do much for them. In 1896 Mr. iloffitt married May B. Swartz, daughter of George H. and Vina (Downing) Swartz of Hancock County.

Outside of his personal business Mr. Moffitt is a director and stockholder in the Findlay- Toledo Tire Company, a stockholder in the Findlay Orchard Company, and in spite of the demands made upon him by business cares has always taken a public spirited interest in his home city. In the 1911 primary his many friends forced him on the ticket at the last moment as a candidate for mayor. He was defeated by only eighty-seven votes, and he made practically no efl^ort to secure his nomination. For some time Mr. Moffitt served as treasurer of the Anti-Saloon League of Hancock County.

Robert T. Vance is an expert teacher of business methods. He has himself filled positions in the commercial field, he knows all the details of general commercial methods, but his great success in life has been the training and teaching of others, and hundreds of his former pupils have filled positions of responsibility in the business world.

In September, 1915. Mr. Vance established the Findlay Business Training School, which occupies the entire fourth floor of the Rawson Block. This school draws its pupils from all over Northwest Ohio, jMr. Vance himself is a graduate of the Chillicothe Business University, with the class of 1886. He is a thorough American, of Yankee stock and of Revolutionary ancestry.

The Findlay Business Training School teaches the Gregg system of shorthand and also touch typewriting. The course of instruction also includes bookkeeping, commercial law, business English, penmansliip and mathematics. Eighty pupils were graduated at the last term. This school runs all the year

Mr. Vance married Miss Mabel Ash, daughter of John Ash of Detroit, Michigan. Mrs. Vance is a graduate of the public schools of Fremont, Ohio, and of the Findlay College with the class of 1914. She taught in the public schools before her marriage. She is an adept as a shorthand artist and is in charge of the Gregg School of Shorthand.

This school won the gold medal in 1916, competing against all schools in Ohio teaching the Gregg system. The students also won the state banner in 1916 for the best results in commercial work. In the world competition in type artistry in 1916 this school won over all competitors in the Gregg system.

Mr. Vance's success as a commercial teacher is due to the fact that he has never deviated from the high standards which he set himself. and has worked hard to attain his ideal. At the opening of his school in Findlay he held a business show which attracted attention all over this section of Ohio. He exhibited all the short-cut successful methods in office machinery. His school quarters will bear favorable comparison with any in the country. The general counting room is 40 by 52 feet, large, airy and well lighted, with solid oak furnishing and plate glass partition. The room devoted to/typewriting machines is 20 by 30 feet, and tne general classroom is 40 by 20 feet.

Hiram Van Campen. In 1880, the year Hiram Van Campen was graduated from Tufts College in Massachusetts with the degree A. B., he came to Ohio and was employed the following year as principal of the high school at Findlay. He was then a young man of twenty-one and his ambition was firmly set upon a legal career. He read law, spent a year in the office of White! y & Bope, was afterwards in the office of Henry Brown, and in 1882 was admitted to the bar at Columbus. He gained further experience in the office of Haynes & Potter at Toledo, and began private practice at Napoleon, Ohio, in the summer of 1883. Here he remained eleven years. In July, 1894, Mr. Van Campen removed to Toledo and practiced as junior in the firm of Parks & Van Campen until 1898. On the retirement of Mr. Parks from practice in Toledo, Mr. Van Campen continued there in practice by himself for about five years. In 1903 he suffered a breakdown in his health which made it necessary for him to retire from his professional duties for nearly four years. In 1905 he came to Findlay and in 1907 resumed practice in partnership with Mr. John D. Snyder. They have been associated ever since, and the firm of John D. Snyder and Hiram Van Campen with offices in the Ewing Building, has a practice, especially in corporation work, second to none among the law firms of Hancock County.

Hiram Van Campen -was born at New Bedford, Massachusetts. February 10, 1859, a son of Hiram and Dorinda (Hills) Van Campen. He comes of the old Dutch and Huguenot stock of the middle states, being eighth in lineal descent from Gerritt Jansen Van Campen, who came from Friesland, Holland, in 1640, and settled at Esopus, now Kingston, New York, and ninth in lineal descent from Nicholas Du Pui, a French Huguenot from Artois, France, who came to America in 1692 and settled in New York City. There were Van Campens who played a valiant part in the War of the Revolution. One of them a lineal ancestor, fell a victim in the noted Cherry Valley massacre during that war. Another member of the family, Nicholas, with his two sons Moses and Jacob were scalped by the Indians: another Moses Van Campen was a member of the convention that drafted the first constitution of New Jersey.

Mr. Van Campen grew up in Massachusetts and had liberal advantages of schools. He attended the common schools and high school at New Bedford, spent two years in Dean Academv at Franklin, Massachusetts, and was graduated from Tufts College in 1880.

In 1893 he married Miss Flora B. Kimmel, daughter of George W. and Mary (Welsh) Kimmel, of Findlay. Politically Mr. Van Campen is a republican. For three years he was on the committee of bar examiners, having been appointed by the Supreme Court. He is a member of the Findlav Country Club, and the various Masonic bodies of Findlay, and is widely known among the members of his profession and the citizens generally throughout Northwest Ohio.

IMAi.roi.M Crockett and his family, residing in Monroe Township of Henry County, are people of the oldest New England lineage, and have the traditions and culture which are closely associated with that old American stock." Mrs. Crockett belongs to the Wheaton family, and both the Wheatons and Crocketts have furnished men and women of distinction to the arts, professions, industries, and whether living' as pioneers on the frontier or in the popuhms centers of the okler states, they have retained the essentials of a high-minded idealism and a love of the liest thing:s in life, ilalcolm Crockett himself has many qualities which would have insured his sik'ccss had he adopted a learned profession instead of the vocation of asrriculture. He is a flueiit talker. has sound ideas on nearly every subject that concerns men of these modern days, and is hig-h minded and liberal. He has made a success of farming, and besides his own place in Monroe Township he has other lands in Henry County and some important investments in the coal district of Galia County, Ohio. '

The Crockett generation represented in Henry County, Ohio, is part of the same original stock which produced the famous Davy Crockett, whose name and deeds are a part of America's cherished pioncei- :iii]i;ils. The Crockett family lineage in New Kiitiland goes back to 1750, when NatbaiiicI Cin.krtt came from Ireland and l.icntcd at KaliiKnit h, .Alaiue. He was the falliri- ,,f thirteen childi-t-n. One of the younp.'.st of them was ('apt. James Crockett. He was l)orn in Maine aliout 1790. He married ilary Haskell of ]\Iaine. whose father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. James Crockett was a seafaring man for thirtyfive years and commanded a vessel out of one of the New England ports. In order to get his sons away from the fascination of the sea and its dangerous vocation he brought his family in 1832 to Ohio, locating in Seneca County. He was one of the pioneers there and cleared up and developed the farm on which he and his wife spent their last years. He was past three score and ten when he died. He was distinguished by great strength, soun(i natural ability, and being a skillful navigator, trained in the use (d' the compass and the sextant, he found no dit'liciilly in mastering the essentials of surveying, and lielped to lay out some of the early boundary lines in Seneca County. With all his manly qualities aTid acquaintain'c witli tlie rough side of existence, he is rerallcil ,is cxccfdiiMjly tender hearted. He and bis wife wrvf mcinliers of the Universalist Cluircli, and [icilitically he leaned toward the democratic party. Capt. James Crockett and wife had toi children.

The oldest of these was Georcre. father of Malcolm. Others were Josiah, Edwin, Edward, Knott, Cbarles. Elmira, Amanda, Celia and Emma. Charles. Knott and Edwin all became soldiers in the Civil war. Charles was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Knott was killed at the battle of Franklin. Tennessee, toward the close of the war. In that battle the color bearer of his regiment fell dying and Knott Crockett picked up the colors" and was ]iravi'l.\- rarryiiiii- them forward, when a few iiHun.'iits hitcr he was shot dead. Edwin was witli Sheridan 's aroiy, and though shot in the forearm lived to return home, and subsequently went out to Idaho, where he died. He liad been a California forty-niner, having crossed the plains when the trials and hardships of such a journey were indescribable, and he sjient twelve years on the gold coast before returning to Ohio to enlist for the war.

George Crockett was born in Ash Point, Maine, in 1S22. He grew up and received ])art of his education there and in Seneca County, and for a time he followed the profession which lias been common to so many of the Crockett family, teaching. He married Eliza Bogart. who died soon afterward, and her only child also died in infancy. In 1848 George Crockett came with his brotherin-law. Jndson Emery, to Ileiiry ( 'uuiity, Ohio, entering a half section of land in sections 30 and 31 in Damascus Township. Here he and Mr. Emerv cleared \ip a farm from the wilderness. The family lived in the midst of that day, and secured much ot the meat lor their table from the wild game that filled the forest. George Crockett built two log cabins and with some modifications and improvements this home served his purposes until his death, in 1871, at the age of forty-nine. He became one of the leading men of his township, and filled several local offices. He was a republican voter. Mrs. George Crockett is still living, eighty-eight years of age. and making her home among hei' childrcii and relatives. The only physical imi)airiiient that has resulted from the years is partial deafness. She is a native of Elaine, and taught school there during young womanhood, receiving for her services a dollar seventy-five cents a week. She is a member of the Universalist faith, as was Jlr. George Crockett.

Malcolm Crockett was born in July, 1852, on the old homestead and in the old log cabin which his father had erected in Damascus Township. He wisely improved the opportunities of the local schools and had become well qualified for teaching before his father's death. That event threw on him further responsibilities in looking after the farm and his widowed mother, and he applied himself right industriously to this work. As a youth and in early manhood he did much to clear up and develop the old farm, and in 1878 he bought 160 acres of wild and swampy land in Monroe Township, not far from the place on which he was born and reared. 'Sir. Crockett took hold of his new place with charaeteri.stic vigor and set the pace for many of the general improvements that have since taken place in that locality. He brought about the opening of the township line along the north boundary of his own farm, and aroused public sentiment for the building of roads, a general system of ditching and draining, and for forty years has stood in the vanguard of advance in every matter of public improvement. At every opportunity he has sought to raise the standards of the local schools. He and his wife are both active ilethodists, and he has long been foremost in Sunday school work, serving both as a teacher and superintendent. He organized a veiy large Sunday school class and was its teacher for five years. For a number of years he served as trustee of the church.

In Henry County 5Ir. Malcolm Crockett married Miss Mary "Wheaton. She was a graduate of the academy at Barre, Vermont, and had also attended college at Oberlin, Ohio. Mrs. Crockett was born in the town of Barre, Vermont, February 24, 1855. Barre, as is generally known, is the seat of the famous granite industry of Vermont, and the working of the granite deposits there was an important part of the Wheaton family activities, .several of whom gained much wealth thereby. Mrs. Wheaton was reared in and around Barre, attended the public schools, and at the age of fourteen entered the Barre Acadmy, where she was graduated four years later. For ten terms she taught school in Vermont, Minnesota and Ohio. Since her marriage she has devoted herself to the making of a home and the rearing of her children,. and has been a source of inspiration to the meml)ers of her own family and to her many friends in Henry Count3% on account of her thoroughly cultured mind and the wisdom with which she has guided her own life.

Her family lineage goes back to Benjamin Wheaton, who in 1744 at Leicester, Jlassachusetts, married Abigail, a daughter ,of John Lynde. Among their children was John Wheaton, who was married in 1770 to Phoebe Hubbard of Holden, ^Massachusetts. John and Phoebe Wheaton had five children. Pliny, the third son, was born in 1778. He married Patty Wheaton and settled on a farm near Lord's Mill in Vermont. Subsequently he removed to a farm in Barre Township, and there he died in 1869. He had been twice married and survived both wives. He was ninety-one when he passed away. Pliny Wheaton, during much of his lifetime, gathered crops from a thin soil that overlay a magnificent deposit of barre granite. Later quarries were opened on his farm, and quarrying was for many years the chief source of profit.

Oren Wheaton, son of Pliny and father of Mrs. Crockett, was born near Barre, Vermont, in 1812. He followed at different times the business of farming, stone cutting and quarrying. His was a very active life, though he died when only forty-nine years of age in 1861. He was married in Berlin, Vermont, in 1841, to Eliza Thompson. Her name also introduces another noted New England stock. She was bom in Berlin, Vermont, in 1809, and died in 1891. Her brother, Daniel P. Thompson, was author of "The Green Mountain Boys," a book that was read by almost every American schoolboy a generation or so ago, and many other stories came from his facile pen. Charles M. Thompson, son of Daniel Thompson, the author, is now editor in chief of the Youth's Companion, a weekly journal which has formed a part of the literature of almost every American family at some time during the last half century. The members of the Wheaton family were of the Congregational faith, and were neai'ly all republicans.

Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Crockett have done much to make a fine home. Their farm of 160 acres lies in Section 1 of Monroe Township. There are substantial and well-arranged farm buildings, and while the farm throughout is conducted on a systematic and almost a factory basis of operation, there is no neglect of those conveniences and facilities which contribute to the comfort and well being of country dwellers. Mr. Crockett has his land all well drained, and keeps some very fine stock. He has made a specialty of the raising of seed corn and oats. He grows the Swedish select oats, and at ai test at the Wisconsin Agricultural College| the Swedish select proved the most satisfactory of thirty-six varieties tested. He raised| the Gold standard learning seed corn.

and character of their parents. Alice, the oldest, is a graduate of Oberlin College and has been a successful educator in Ohio and Michigan and is now teaching near St. Louis, Missouri. Edith, also a graduate of Oberlin College, is now a tearher m Williams ('i)unty, Ohio. Ann, a graduate uf the Yi.silaiiti Xmmal School iu Michiuan. iiiarrieil Oi'eii iMiiery of Green Springs, Ohio. George is li\iim' at home unmarried. Flora was eduiated at the Thomas Training School, and is a sni-cessfiil teacher at Roslyn, New York, wiiei'i' she instructs 600 children in her speiial (h'pai-tment. Pliny, who has also received a tli(ir(]iigh education, including the course of the agricultural department of the State University at Columbus, is now at home and applying his technical and theoretical knowledge to the operation of the old homestead farm.

Fred Tomlinson is secretary of the Toledo Real Estate Board. No organization means more to the legitimate real estate men of the city and to the larger interests as well. The board is a corporation organized under the state laws and composed of firms and individuals identitied with real estate activities in Toledo and vicinity. The membership are pledged to support and maintain an honorable standard of business in real estate transactions and the board also works for the higher development of property in the city, and the promotion of a larger welfare by the use of actual statistical information and the encouragement of outside capital for investment. Altogether the board furnishes a statistical, advisory and clerical service which has proved indispensable not only to its membership but to the property owners of Toledo.

The officers of the board for 1916 were : William H. Moor, president ; Edmund T. Collins, first vice president, and Clifford T. Hanson, second vice president : George E. Pomeroy, treasurer; and Fred Tondinson, seci-etary.

Mr. Tomlinson was a newspaper man before entering the real estate business. He was born March 4, 1879, in Logansport, Indiana, a son of Daniel W. Tomlinson, now deceased. He grew up in Logansport, attended the public schools, and as a boy began learning the work of a newspaper office. He followed newspaper reporting for fourteen years! He still retains some connection with his old business as a member of The Leon H. Roberts Company, manufacturers of commercial catalogs and color printing in Toledo.

In 1912 Mr. Tomlinson engaged in the real estate business with the Irving B. Hiett Company, but after a year went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was advertising writer for the railroad commission. In 1914 he returned to Toledo and has since been active in real estate circles. He is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club and in politics is a republican.

Stephen Decatur Crites. One of the most widely known citizens of Northwest Ohio is Stephen Decatur Crites, banker at Elida, and a former state senator. His has been a career stimulated and directed by definite purpose and high ideals. For many years he was a successful teacher, and since then he has played a varied part in business and civic affairs in Allen County.

He is now at the head of the Farmers Bank at Elida, which was first organized in September, ]903, as a private bank under the name S. D. Crites & Company. His personality and business integrity have been the chief factors in the growth and success of this prosperous institution.

Stephen Decatur Crites was born in German Township, Allen County, Ohio, November 28, 1847, a son of Jacob and Mary Jane (Cremean) Crites. The Crites family emigrated from Germany and settled in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in 1740. Senator Crites' grandfather John Daniel Crites moved from Pennsylvania to Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1811. Jacob Crites, one of his eight children, moved to Allen County in 1843. He was at that time twenty-one years of age, having been bora October 19, 1822. Jacob Crites was a blacksmith by trade. His wife. Miss Cremean, was born in Allen County near Elida, Ohio, and her family came from Maryland to Ross County and settled on a farm on Hog Creek in Allen County in 1820, where they were among the earliest pioneers.

While growing up on a farm S. D. Crites attended the country schools, and afterwards finished a course in the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. For eighteen years he was actively engaged in school work. For one year he taught in Illinois, and in order to obtain a teacher's certificate he had to walk thirty miles to Dwight. where he attended teachers' institute, and back, and he possessed only fifteen dollars to keep him until he was paid his first term's wages. After returning from Illinois he taught school in the winter time and worked on the farm in the summer. He served as superintendent of the Elida schools from 1870 to 1882 and many of his old pupils have a grateful recollection of his work as au insti-uctor. After leaving school work he became a dealer in livestock and he also bought grain at the elevator at Elida for twenty years. His interests gradually extended, and for the past quarter of a century he has been recognized as one of the substantial factors in the business life of his section of Allen County.

For nine years he served as a justice of the peace and was also a member of the county board of school examiners for eleven years. Mr. Crites is a democrat, and it was on the ticket of that party that he was elected to the State Senate in 1902, and by re-election he served two terms. In the party conventions he was nominated by acclamation both times, and in the district comprising seven counties he was elected by a comfortable majority, and had a majority of 1,500 in his own county.

While a member of the senate ilr. Crites was vice chairman of the Agricultural, Insurance, Schools and School Lands committees, was chairman of the committee on Ditches and Drains and Roads and Highways, and a member of the committee on Public Works and Public Lands and Penitentiaries, Universities and Colleges, Banks and Building and Loan Associations. During his second term he exercised an even larger influence both on the floor of the senate and in the committee rooms, and during that tei'm served on the roads and highways committee in addition to various others.

For a number of years he served on the local school board and on the village council. In Masonry he is the oldest member in point of service of Shawnee Commandery, Knights Templar, at Lima. He took his first degree in Masonry in 1872, and has been a member of the Knights Templar order since 1874. He is also a charter member of Toledo Consistory of the Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite and is affiliated with Lodge No. 818 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Elida, Ohio. For twenty years he was a member of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also led the choir for a long time. He is an enthusiastic amateur musician, and for a number of years was connected with the Elida Band. He is a charter member of the Allen County Historical Society.

In October, 1876, he married Miss Emily il. Ditto. Their four living children are: Jessie Keren, wife of S. 0. Morris, a Lima merchant ; Mabel, wife of Abner Brenneman, cashier of the Farmers' Bank of Elida; Zoe, wife of Phillip Schnabel, who is connected with the Solar Refining Company at Lima; and Grace Lenore, wife of Lee Hook, who is in the clothing business at Bradford, Miami County, Ohio.

He was bom June 12, 1882, a son of Noah E. and Elizabeth (Humphreys) Brenneman. Both parents were natives of Ohio, and his father was a farmer. Educated in the public schools, Abner Brenneman began his business experience as a clerk in a general store for four years, and for 71/2 years was connected with the United States Express Company, beginning as a helper and finishing in the post of cashier of the local office. He was then for two years with a wholesale confectionery manufacturing eompanj-, and in 1913 became cashier of the Farmers Bank of Elida.

He is a democrat in politics, is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is assistant Sunday school superintendent and treasurer and president of the Epworth League. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

On June 14, 1906, 'Sir. Brenneman mai'ried Miss [Mabel Crites, daughter of Stephen D. Crites of Elida. They have two children : James Robert and Helen Crites.

WiLLUM ^I. Dean. Citizens of Lucas County wlio were especially interested in continued efficiency in the office of county recorder felt highly gratified with the success of William JI. Dean's campaign for re-election in November, 1916. Mr. Dean has made a very capable record in the office, and he was returned for another term by a large plurality.

He has been a resident of Toledo for many years and was well known in railroad circles before he became a member of the official group in the courthouse.

He was bom September 5, 1866, in Williams County, Ohio, a son of Michael and Mary (Scollard) Dean. His father who was bom in County Kerr^', Ireland, came alone to- America in 1840, locating in Toledo, and he was one of the early employes on the old Toledo Air Line Railway. He continued railroad work with home at Bryan, Ohio, but after several years returned to Toledo and followed railroading up to the time of his death which occurred November 30, Thanksgiving Day, 1911. Railroad men had a particular affection for this genial Irishman, but he was hardly less favorably known in other circles.

William M. Dean was the sixth in a family of nine children, six of whom are still living. His early education was acquired in Toledo, but when still a boy he began earning his own way. He was not ashamed to take any em-, ployment by which he could serve himself and serve others, and he did chores, worked in a sawmill for a time, was also a grocery clerk and first became identified with railroading as a laborer in the Lake Shore freight office. He remained there three years, then went to the freight department of the Clover Leaf System, where he also spent two years, and was then promoted to foreman of the freight warehouse of the Clover Leaf. Jlr, Dean retained his position as foreman for twenty years. He resigned in order to accept. appointment as county recorder of Lucas County, and after filling out the term of appointment he was elected for the unexpired term and his official duties now continue until 1919.

Mr. Dean has always been a democrat and active in the interests of his party. He is a member of the Catholic Church and belongs to the Knights of Columbus.

Jacob N. Bick, whose offices are in the Nasby Building at Toledo, is one of the most extensive general contractors in Northwestern Ohio. Railroad work has been his specialty, and when business conditions favored railroad building he performed a number of very extensive contracts in that line.

laud in Richfield Township of Lucas County, and cleared it up, almost every acre of it. He was one of the early settlers in that district of the county, and lived there the balance of his life. His death occurred in 1886 when sixtyone years of age. In the meantime he had prospered, acquired 240 acres of well developed land, had money besides, and always took much interest in blooded stock, Of his nine children six are still living.

This opportunity should not pass without some further mention of the character of this worthy old timer of Northwest Ohio. Jacab Bick, Sr., could helj) himself, as the above account proves, but he also delighted in helping others. He had the complete confidence of his fellow citizens, was thoroughly well liked in his community, had no enemies that any one ever discovered, and his friends were bound to him with hoops of steel. Many of these friends are still living and delight to recall his worthy characteristics. In national politics he was a democrat. He was a liberal contributor to educational advancement and did all he could to bring new schools or improve old ones in his section of the county. He held the office of township trustee and that of treasurer for several years.

The fourth in his father's family of children, Jacob N. Bick spent his early life on a farm, and his first instruction was given him in a log sclioolhouse. which he attended about three months every winter until he was fourteen years of age. After that his time was taken up with the duties of his father's farm. In 1878, having arrived at the age of nineteen, Mr. Bick came to Toledo. Realizing the need of a better equipment as a preparation for a business career he enrolled himself as a student in the Toledo Business College. He remained there three years, and worked to pay for his board. At the age of twenty-two he was clerk in a shoe store, and three years later he bought out the store and conducted it himself for two years. He then formed a partnership with N. P. Glann under the name of Bick & Glann, and expanded his interests from merchandising to general contracting. The firm took contracts for the building of stone roads, bridges, pavements and similar work. In 1892 the partnership was dissolved, and in 1893 Mr. Bick continued in business for himself. From local construction work he increased his facilities so as to handle eontracts for railroad building and general railroad construction.

was the construction of a road from Elkhart to Mishawaka, Indiana, known as the St. Joe Valley Railway. In 1894 IMr. Biek built the Toledo & Mauinee Valley Railway from Toledo to Mauniee by way of Perrysburg. It was the first electric interurban road in Ohio. Since that time as a railroad contractor he has built the following roads : Miami Valley Traction Railway; Toledo, Bowling Green Electric Line; Toledo, Monroe Electric and ]\Ionroe Piers ; Toledo Terminal Belt Railway ; Toledo, Angola and Western; Indianapolis Northern, from Peru to Indianapolis ; Indiana Northern from Charleston to Mattoon, Illinois; the Marion to Wabash electric line in Indiana ; the Ottawa Beach Railway with extension to Point Place ; the Lake Shore Electric from Fremont to Sandusky; and the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids.

In 1898 Mr. Biek took the contract to build up Bay View Park and reclaim forty acres of marsh'land for the City of Toledo as preparation for the anticipated Ohio Centennial. In the past two years as a result of the war and general stagnation in business, very little capital has gone into the constructions of new railroads, and Mr. Biek has largely confined his service to the construction of sewer systems, stone roads, waterworks and similar municipal enterprises.

Mr. Biek has occupied ofSce quarters in the Nasby Building since 1896. For all his strict attention to business Mr. Biek has not neglected the calls on his time and attention made by his home city and its various institutions. He has contributed liberally to charitable causes, is now president of the North Toledo Settlement and is a member of the Toledo Club, the Commerce Club and the National Union. In national politics he is a democrat and from time to time has taken much interest in local polities.

Mr. Biek owned one of the first automobiles in Toledo and was the first owner of a ear to put it into practical use. He is perhaps as much of an enthusiast with his present high power car as he was over the old one cylinder which he urged about the city streets. He was formerly interested in the Toledo ^klotor Car Company. Among other business interests he has extended his investments to stone properties and farm lands.

When the business of the day is done ]\Ir. Biek habitually seeks the quiet and happiness of his own fireside. His home is at 1050 Lincoln Avenue in Toledo. On May 10, 1886. he married Miss Margaret Langenderfer, who was one of a family of ten children bom to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Langenderfer of Spencer Township. Lucas County. ]\Irs. Biek was educated in the district schools of Spencer Township, and is of German descent. To their marriage was born one son, Arthur, in the fall of 1887. He died when fourteen months of age.

Ly.max Coxrad. In 1883 a young man named Lyman Conrad, then practically unknown and with no special credentials beyond .$2.50 of cash money in his pocket, arrived in Henry County. For a couple of years he did faii'lj- well as a tenant farmer in Harrison Township. His next venture was to lease some land in Monroe Township, a mile west of Malinta. That was his home and the scene of his activities for fourteen years. He prospered, began laying up some capital, and more and more people came to recognize in him a man of sterling ability and of that kind of enterprise which succeeds in every undertaking, and especially in the management of a farm.

From these brief items it can be understood that Lyman Conrad, who is now recognized as one of the most successful and prosperous men of Richfield Township, had to start life at the bottom and has carved his destiny largelj' out of his own energies and character. On leaving his place in Monroe Town- .ship he bought eighty acres in Section 8 of Richfield Township. He cleared that up from the stumps and the woods. Selling it, he bought forty aeres where his home now stands, in Section 6 of the same township. Later he bought eighty aeres and still later forty acres in Section 7. These 160 acres comprise one body of land and constitute an ideal farm, not only in appearance and improvement, but in general productivity. Mr. Con-.i rad has instituted a thorough system of drainage, having his laterals of drains four rods apart all over his fields. The land is thoroughly fenced, and he has buildings to correspond with his success as a farmer. His main barn is 40 by 64 feet, with a granary 14 by 20 feet, and his home is an attractive veneered cement block house of eight large rooms, and with ground dimensions 32 by 36 feet. It is covered with a slate roof. If there is any farmer in Henry County who raises finer crops of all the staple cereals than Mr. Conrad his name has escaped notice. Besides his fine farm, I\Ir. Conrad is also director and is president and was one of the organizers

^Ir. Conrad was born in Clear Creek Township of Fairfield ('(miity, Oliid. (>ri,ih,.i- '27, 1853. It is no (iispiirauminit nf In-, nwn energy- and ability to say that he i-fpi'cscnts some of the strongest and best stoek of pioneer Fairfield County families. His people came into Ohio from Pennsylvania and Maryland. His grandparents were Heniy and Sarah f "Walters) Conrad, both natives of Pennsylvania, and brought to Ohio more than a century ago theii' i-os|icctive pan-nts. Itotli tin- Conrad and Walters families Icicatnl in Kaii'- field County, in Clear Creek Townshii.. TIi.tc they lived when the Indians were still numerous, when the forests were filled with game, nnd in order to get space for their limited first crops they had to cut and burn away some of the finest timber that Ohio ever grew. Henry Conrad and wife gi'ew up in that community, were married there, and spent all the rest of their lives on the farm where they had begun housekeejiing. Henry Conrad dipd at the age of ninety-two ,ind bis \\ifc at i it^lityfive. They were artivc hhmiiIhts df the U'cformed Church. The church of that denuuiination was built on land given by Henry's father. Henry Conrad and wife were very thrifty people, and accumulated during their lifetime an estate of 500 acres. They also reared a large family, five sons and two daughters. Four of their sons showed their patriotism by service in the I^nion army during the Civil war. All the children grew up and married.

The eldest of the family was Ezra Conrad, who was born in Fairfield County about 1825. As a young man he learned the trade of carpenter and that was the source of his livelihood during his active career. He was very skillful. He eould cut, hew, frame all the timbers into a house or barn, from the standing tree in the forest to the finished structure. He erected many of the substantial old homes and liarns of Fairfield County. Ezra Conrad married Nancy Fasnacht, who was lioi-n in Fairfield County. Her father, Barney Fasnacht, was born in Maryland and was five years of age when his parents emigrated to Fairfield County. Ohio. His parents spent the rest of their lives in Fairfield County, r.v.d Barney grew up there and married Eva Kesler. daughtrr of Jonathan Kesler. The KesliTs caiiic frniii Pi'iuisylvania. All these nanifs wliii'li lunc licen mentioned represent some of the most substantial pioneer peoples of Fairfield County. Every one of the families did their jiart as pioneers in clearing up the wilderness and in developing homes from log cabins to more substantial dwellings. Ezra Conrad and wife spent practically all their years in the county where the.v were born, and they died in Amanda Township, Ezra in 1910 ancl his wife in Xovendier. I!t03. They now lie side by side in the old Conrad Cemeter\', which was started liy the great-grandfather of Lyman Conrad in Fairfield County. The Conrads and most of the families with which they \\cr>' iTlati>(l belonged to the Reform Church. anil |inlilieall\ {lie men gave their support to till' whig am! I'cpublican parties.

Lyman Cfinrad was the oldest son and the fourth child among twelve children; six sons and six daughters. Nine of these grew to adult age, eight of them married, and only one of those that married is now deceased.

In his native township and county Lymau Conrad married Miss Mary E. Doner, who was born there July 30, 1853, daughter of Henrv and Marv A. (Lajie) Doner. The [),,nrrs were also rarlv settlers in Fairfield Cnmity. ei.niinu fmni r.Minsylvania. while the Lapes were X'irgiuia people. All of them in the different genei-ations were farmei's, and long life was one of the characteristics of these people. Henry Doner and wife lived to be quite old and died in Fairfield County.

^Yhile Lyman C'onrad has much to be proud of in the way of his material achievements, there is even a greater source of satisfaction when he contemplates the. fine family that have grown up under his roof. The oldest is Emanuel C, who was formerly a machinist, and now lives with his family in Monroe County, Michigan. He married Sylvia Reimond and has one son, Cloyce. Alva, unmarried, is a carpenter employed at Toledo. Oliver, who married but has no children, is an auditor in the offices of the Great Western Railway Company at San Francisco, California. Chauncey, who lives at the old home in Henry County, married Audrey Spangler. Lester, who- is married and has a son, James, is a die sinker in the employ of the Dodge automobile factory in Detroit, Michigan. Cora married Jesse Spangler, who assists in running the Conrad farm. Harvey, who lives in Richfield Township, inai-iied Cale Eaton and has a daughter, Pauline. Ulanehe is still at home and unmarried. The family are members of the Methflilist Eiusedjial Church at Grelton, while Mr. ('onrad is a republican and has given pidilie service on the school board.

Joseph Ziegler. Among the older firms in the business district of the City of Toledo, doubtless the best known as merchant tailors is that of Joseph Ziegler & Sons, at 627 Madison Avenue. Joseph Ziegler is a veteran tailor, learned the business in the old country, and has followed it in Toledo for fully forty years.

He was bom in Alsace, now part of the German Empire, February 12, 1849. He was reared and educated there, served his apprenticeship in the thorough manner demanded of apprentices in the old country, and as a young man he was called upon for military service and did his part in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.

It was not long after the close of that struggle tliat he set out to make his fortune in the New World, and arrived in America alone in 1872. His first location was in Dayton, Ohio, but in a short time he removed to Lucas County and took up his permanent residence in the City of Toledo. His father followed him to America, and in 1885 located on a farm in Ohio, where he lived until his death about fourteen years ago.

Joseph Ziegler was the oldest in a family of six children. When he came to Toledo he possessed the skill acquired by many j^ears of work as an apprentice and journeyman, and he also had the enterprise and busines.s ability necessary to make him successful. He has had shops in different parts of the city, but for a number of years has had his store at 627 ]\Iadison Avenue. Some of the patrons who came to him in his first years in Toledo are still among his regular customers, and his ability to render real service has gained for him both friends and patrons in large numbers.

Mr. Ziegler is a member of the Catholic Church, is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in matters of politics is independent. He was married in 1873. the year after coming to Toledo, to Miss Mary Sayrine. They are the parents of eight children, and one of the sons is now actively associated with his father in the business.

W. L. Vail is one of the prominent coal merchants of Toledo, being general manager of the Big Four Coal Company, a large wholesale and retail concern operating four yards in Toledo with main offices at 1102 Cherry Street.

turned from that work to the coal business about thirteen years ago. He was born at Findlay, Ohio, September 6, 1870, a son of C. P. and Elvira (Hughes) Vail. His father was born in Ohio and the ancestors of the Vail family originally came out of Germany. C. P. Vail is still living in Toledo at the age of seventy-three. He removed to that city about ten years ago. He was a machinist by trade, and continued to work until he retired about 1914. He is a socialist in politics and has taken considerable interest in the theoretical and practical side of socialism.

The only son of his parents, W. L. Vail attended the public schools of Ohio, and early manifested a talent and inclination for music. He spent three years completing his musical education at Boston, Massachusetts, and he made music his chief pursuit and means of a livelihood from the age of seventeen until he was thirty-five.

]Mr. Vail then engaged in business as manager of the East Toledo Coal Company, but somewhat later he organized The Big Four Coal Company and has been its general manager from the start. Besides the large business handled by the company in Toledo its trade territory also includes much of the State of Oliio, the State of Indiana and western territory.

Mr. Vail is affiliated with Rubicon Lodge of Masons, Fort Meigs Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Toledo Commandery, Knights Templar, Scottish Rite bodies, the Zenobia Temple of the Mystic Shrine, the ilasonic Grotto, and the Toledo Chapter of the Eastern Star. He also belongs to the Toledo Mutual Protective Association, is a director of the Exchange Club, a member of the Toledo Commerce Club. In politics he is a republican, and without aspirations for ofSee has shown much interest in the cause of good government. He belongs to the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Vail was married August 1, 1890, at Findlay, Ohio, to Miss Cora B. Hull, daughter of iVIr. C. B. Hull of :\lount Gilead, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Vail have one son. Earl C. Vail, who was born April 30, 1892, was educated in the Toledo public schools, and is now associated with his father in business in The Big Four Coal Company.

0. W. KiRCHENBAUER as a contractor and builder has added many of the substantial structures to the City of Toledo during the last fifteen or twenty years. He is capable.

He was born January 19, 1875, at Monroe, Michigan, a son of John and Christina (Becker) Kirchenbauer. His father and mother were both natives of Germany and they came to America in 1873, accomj^auied by their family of one son and two daughters. Locating in Monroe, Michigan, John Kirchenbauer engaged in the business of gardening and followed that for about forty years, finally retiring from active work abqut six years ago. He was successful in his special line of business and also in his investment, and was the owner of considerable valuable property at Monroe. He still resides in Toledo, is in his sixty-ninth year, enjoys unusual health and is a very popular citizen of a family of six sons and two daughters, five are living, Mr. 0. W. Kirchenbauer being tlie fourth in age. His father is a member of the Lutheran Church and is a very strong republican, having affiliated with that party as soon as he acquired the rights of an American voter.

0. W. Kirchenbauer left school at the age of fourteen in order to learn the trade which has been at the basis of his permanent business. He came to Toledo, served a long and thorough apprenticesliip at the carpenter's ti'ade, and was a journej'man worker for several years before he began contracting on his own account. As a contractor he has put up some of the fine residences and flat buildings of the city, and a long list might be compiled of the buildings which he has erected since he entered the contracting field. For a number of years he had his offices in the Ohio Building, but for the past five yeai-s his headquarters have been in 1537 Nicholas Buildi)ig.

Like his father he is a stanch republican, and is active in Masonry, being affiliated with Sanford L. Collins Loclge, No. 396 Free and Accepted Masons, Fort Meigs Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Toledo Council, Royal and Select Masons, and Toledo Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templar, Valley of Toledo Consistory, thirty-second degree. Zenobia Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and 0-Ton-Ta-La Grotto, No. 40. He is active in the Toledo Commerce Club, and also the Toledo Building Exchange, and now serving as vice president of that organization.

In June, 1895, at Toledo Mr. Kirchenbauer married Kate Blien. They have three children: Bertha, William, and Emma. Bertha is a graduate of the high school with the class of 1912, and the other children are still attending the public schools of Toledo.

Mark R. Alkxander, a resident of Toledo for a number of years, is assistant secretary of the Libbej'-Owens Sheet Glass Company and is one of a group of men connected with that industry who wield an important influence in the modern activities of this city.

Mr. Alexander is a native of England, born June 21, 1880, the youngest of the nine children of Alexander and Elizabeth (Briggs) Alexander. Five of the children are still living. His father, who was born in Scotland, spent many years as an active manufacturer in England, and is now living retired at the age of seventy-six.

Mr. Alexander was well educated, at fii-st in the private schools and then in the Liverpool Institute. On finishing his education he came to America, landing at Montreal, and for a time was in the mining fields of British Columbia. He then located on a homestead in the Province of Saskatchewan, remained there three years, after which he took employment with one of the big ranchers of Western Canada, Charles Miles, who owned a ranch of 800 acres in Saskatchewan, and for 21/0 years Mr. Alexander was employed as ranch manager on that large estate.

Leaving Western Canada, he came to the United States, and locating at Detroit, Michigan, was for a year clerk in the offices of the Grand Trunk Railway. Coming to Toledo he became connected with the Clover Leaf Railway as accountant and traveling auditor and filled that position six years. In 1913 he entered the service of the Owens Bottle Machine Company as accountant and cashier and in 1916 was promoted to his present place as assistant secretary of tha Libbey- Owens Sheet Glass Company.

Mr. Alexander is a member of the Episcopal Church, is independent in polities, belongs to the Toledo Commerce Club, and the Toledo Museum of Art. On March 21, 1906. he married Miss Rubena Miles, daughter of Charles Miles, of Saskatchewan. They have one son. Miles Alexander, born November 29. 1913.

Richard B. Soncrant, whose wide experience in business affairs covers merchandising at various points in Northwestern Ohio, has been a resident of Toledo for a number of years and is head of the Soncrant Realty Company, with offices in the Spitzer Build-

Mr. Sonerant was bom in Lucas County, July 27, 1845, a son of John B. and Matilda (Jlomeney) Sonerant. His father, who was born in 1814, was one of the most interesting pioneers of this section of the JMiddle West. A native of Montreal, Canada, his paternal ancestors having come from France, he moved to the United States about eighty years ago, locating in Monroe, Michigan. He spent man\' summers on the lakes as a sailor and the winters were spent in the woods in hunting and trapping. He had all the skill and art of the French coureur de bois of an earlier age, and he came to know every covert and haunt of wild game both in Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio. He lived for some time in Ottawa County on a farm, cultivating his fields in the summer and hunting in the winters. He then moved to Toledo, where he married, and afterwards followed his regular pursuits, and continued hunting until 1860. He then removed to Ottawa County, where he owned a farm, and lived on it until 1895, when he again returned to Lucas County and took up his residence with Samuel E. Sonerant, his son, living a retired life until his death in 1901. He was a devout and sincere Catholic and a democratic voter. His wife, who was born in 1819, died in 1904. Her people came from Scotland. They were the parents of six children, four of whom are now living.

Richard B. Sonerant, third in age. was reared in Ottawa Count.y, attended the district schools there, and at the age of seventeen left home and made one of the hands of a sailing boat on the Great Lakes for thirteen consecutive seasons. After sailing before the mast for three seasons he was promoted to first mate.

In 1871 Mr. Sonerant married Miss Hetta Pierson. Seven children were born to their union, and the four now living are : Ora M. ; Elsie M. ; Eber R. ; and Vida M., now Mrs. Fred Cranker.

After his marriage Mr. Sonerant lived in Lucas Point, Lucas County, where for four years he engaged in mei-ehandising. He conducted a general store and then moved to Trowbridge, where he opened a branch establishment, and finally moved the stock of both stores to Clarksfield, in Huron County. He continued in business there nine months and then returned to Lucas Point, where he was again a merchant for a year and a half. He sold out his business and accepted the appointment of superintendent of the Ottawa County Infirmary in 1885, and managed that institution with unusual thoroughness and efificiene.y until 1896. In that year he embarked in the hotel business in Ottawa County, and continued that and other lines of activity until he came to Toledo in 1901, where he has siiice built up the large business now known as the Sonerant Realty Company.

Jacob Hornung. In certain sections of Northwest Ohio the first blows were struck in the forest and the first improvements were made by the sturdy people from the fatherland, constituting one of the early waves of emigration from Germany. One of these localities which has always retained many of the charactei-istics imposed by the first settlers is New Bavaria, in Pleasant Township of Henry County. The village of New Bavaria is in many respects a monument to the family of Hornung. The village was laid out on Hornung land, and it was the commercial enterprise and foresight of that family which gave the community much of its present prosperity.

The founder of the village was the father of ilr. Jacob Hornung, who still resides in New Bavaria and is a splendid specimen of the early German-American citizens. He is large and portly of physique, a man of broad ideas, has led a straightforward life and is one of the most highly respected and influential men of his county. Mr. Hornung owns a large amount of improved property in and around New Bavaria, and is now living retired in a fine home in that village.

His parents were Charles and Catherine (Desgranges) Hornung, the former a native of Bavaria and born May 16, 1823, and the latter a native of Prussia, bom June 25, 1825. Charles Hornung was a son of Peter and Johanna Hornung, and Catherine Desgranges was a daughter of Christian and Catherine Desgranges.

It is well known that the bulk of German emigrants of the earlier time came to America during the late '40s. The Hornungs and Desgranges families were still eai-lier. The Hornung family came to the United States in 1S37, spending fifty-four days on a sailing vessel from Havre to New York. The.y came directly west by such means of communication as were then in existence to Henry County, Ohio, locating in Pleasant Township.

It would be difficult to picture adequately to the modem mind the condition of the country when these families arrived. Though Ohio had been a state of the Union for thirty-five years, Henry County had been left almost unsettled. The heavy woods stretched in almost unbroken line from one side of the county to the other. The river pursued its way through dense timlier or stretches of "impassable swamp. ;\Iany Indians still remained, pitching their camps iu the woods or on the banks of the river, and the earlier highways had been broken out largely along the old Indian trails. As the work and influence of the white settler had made little headway, the woods were filled with wild game and wild animals of every description, and the streams almunded in fish. These were in fact the <ii'i'at nsources of the early settlers. WitlKiUl this ahundance of wild meat many of the pioneers could not have lived from the meager crops which they raised from the soil. Scarcely a tree had been cut in Plea.sant Township when these two thrifty German families arrived. There was no money in circulation, and in order to pa.v taxes the men and boys would set traps and go hunting for the fur-bearing animals, selling tlie pelts for enough currency to pay taxes and also to buy such provisions as could be found in the markets of that time. Every phase of the early pioneer story applies to the Hornung and Desgranges families in Henry Count.v.

Their homes were along the Pleasant Ridge road leading from the east to Defiance. That road at the time was merely an Indian trail. Neither family had oxen or horses for se^'- eral years, and in order to get the corn or wheat ground for making bread, some member of tlie family would put a sack of grain on his shoidder, walk the entire distance to the nearest mill, which was two miles north of Defiance and fourteen miles tVom tlie homes of these families in Pleasant Tow nsliip. It required two days to get a grist ground and make the round trip. During the winter the river would be crossed on the ice, while in the summer the traveler was carried over ill a canoe. The old miller was Brice Hilton. "While there were plenty of Indians, they were not dangerous and were merely an inconvenience to the early settlers because of their well-known habits of idleness and love of .strong drink. In return fur something to eat or drink they were ah\a\s willing to do anything they could Inr these (ierman pioneers. Naturally social life hail many limitations. "When there was a death in the community, the funeral would be held in one of the log cabin homes or in a log schoolhouse, and every one in the entire community would attencl, many of them driving in ox carts. In spite of the liinitalieiis and privations theiv is no dnuht that thes^^ ,,1,1 ,,i,,n,'ers ,.nj,,v,Ml as iiiu.'h real haiq.iii.'ss as p,M,ple ill this iii,,(l,.rn age.

Peter Ilornung and his wife lived to advanced years, saw their land cleared up and developed, and their family of children happy and prosperous about them. In the early days of this section of Henry County there were both Protestant and Catholic families. There was i:,i striet ilivisiou into sects, but all went t,,uvtl:,'r ami Imilt a common or union ehun-h. usually eoiisisting of a log cabin, and it was a inimlier of years before separate denoiiiinatidiis Avere organized. Finally the Gorman Pr(if,'stants united in the German Reform ('liunli. and this has been the strongest drimmination in that township ever since.

Charli's Ilornung and Catherine Desgranges were both children when brought to Henry County; they grew up in wilderness conditions, and in July, 1844, were married. They then settled on the old Hornung homestead, where Charles Hornung cared for his parents during the rest of their days. He was the yon lie, st of the family, his older brother Peter haviim Immmi killed' by a falling tree, leaving a widow and a large family of children. His only sister Margaret married Henry Schall. member of a prominent Henry County family, elsewhere referred to. Charles Plornung succeeded to the old homestead farm, and became a man of great influence and prosperity. He died June 6. 1894, while his widow survived him until 1006, when .she was eighty-one years of age. Both were members of the German Reformed Church, while ( 'liarh's Ilornung Avas independent in his politieal alliliatioiis. He early established himself in liusiiiess as a merchant, and in 1844, the year he married, became the first postmaster of New Bavaria. He owned the eighty acres on which New Bavaria was laid out, and his own business a.s merehant was the primary enterprise of that tnwii. II,' named the town in honor of the fine old country from which he had come. Among other interests Charles

Hornuiig \vas foi- many years a manufacturer of pearl ash, and made tons and tons of this for the New York city market. He also manufactured lumber from the native timber, sawing up the walnut and white ash logs in gi-eat quantities, especially during the decade of the '60s. He became an extensive land owner and was for many years engaged in trading, buying and selling property. Anything that had to do with the progress of the eoinmunity could rely upon him for his earnest and puliliespirited support. For three terms he served as county commissioner, was on the school beard manj- years, was assessor of the township, for several terms was trustee, and for years held the office of justice of the peace.

Charles and Catherine Hornung had the following children: Christian, ilargaret, Jacob, Catherine, John H., ilargaret, second of the name, Peter and Charles. Seven of them reached manhood and womanhood, and all of them married except Charles. The oldest of the family. Christian, who was born in 1845, has been twice married, was graduated in 186S from Heidelberg College at Tiffin, and for nearly half a century has been a professor of mathematics. The sister Catherine is the widow of Henry Thomas and has two daughter and a son.

ilr. Jacob Hornung was born on the old homestead originally settled by his grandfather on November 25, 1848. His education came from such schools as were supported in the community at the time. By the time he was fourteen he was looking after the home farm, and he was its manager until 1872, when he bought and located on a farm of his own. He also bore an active part in the various affairs of his father, assisting in the manufacture and sale of pearl ash, in the mill and store, and from an early age has been accustomed to handle varied and important interests. In 1882 he established what was his chief business and one of the most important industries of the community. This wns the stave mill at New Bavaria. At first he was associated in the industiy with his father and brother John. In 1887 he became sole proprietor, but later took in his brother as a partner, and after 1894 again acquired the entire business. It was successfully eonducted until 1913. During that time he manufactured millions of staves and also great quantities of native lumber. Mr. Hornung as a lumberman had the expertness due to long and through training, and also the splendid foresight and judgment which have characterized him in all his affairs. He bought and scaled every tree that was worked up in his mills, and as a timber estimator he had no superior in this section of the country.

For the past three years Mr. Hornung has lived retired. In Pleasant Township, on October 10, 1871, he married Miss Julia Saner. Mrs. Hornung was bom June 21, 1851, and they had a happy married life of over forty years until her death on Januar.y 15, 1913. She was reared and educated in Henry County, and was a daughter of Henry and i\Iinnie (Hoefrichter) Saner. Her parents were natives of Germany, and after their marriage came to America and were among the earliest pioneers of Henry County. They developed a farm from new land, and died when quite old. They were among the organizers of the German Reformed Church in Pleasant Township, and whether in making homes for themselves or their children, in supporting the church, or in any other community- enterprise were always to be depended upon as honest and wholesome people. They were of Hesse- Darmstadt and Baden ancestry.

IMr. Jacob Hornung has manifested many of those public-spirited characteristics which were so prominent in his father. He is now a member of the County Board of Estimates, is a former trustee of the township, an office he tilled three terms, and has been a candidate for county commissioner, his defeat being due to the fact that he is a member of the minority party in Henry County, being a republican.

Of his children, Charles, the oldest, now looks after the old homestead of 133 acres in Pleasant Township. He married Emma Jones, and their children are Herman, Arthur and Virgil. Rev. John Hornung was liberally educated, and for the past twelve years, since his graduation, has been pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Toledo. He married Martha Van Home of Dayton, and their children are Dorothy D. and Robert J. Andrew J. is active manager of the Farmers Elevator at New Bavaria. He married Gertrude Wolf, and they have a son. Paul H. Albert H., who is unmarried and lives at home with his father, is an auctioneer. Ora C. received his education in Heidelberg College at Tiffin and the Oberlin Business College, is a practical and progressive young farmer and is still at home, unmarried. Ruth E., at home, completed her education in the Holgate High School. Mr. Hornung also has a foster daughter, his niece. ^Margaret C. E., who has lived

Egbert L. Briggs, who spent many years as a successful teacher, has found an even larger field of influence in work as an insui-- ance man, and is now city manager at Toledo for The Prudential Insurance Company of America. His offices are in the Nicholas Building.

ilr. Briggs came to Toledo from Michigan, which is his native state. He was born December 27, 1855, at Macomb County, a son of Jerub Briggs. His father, who was born in New York State and died in 1894 had ten children, five of whom are still living. He was one of the early settlers of Macomb County, Michigan, acquiring his land direct from the Government and developing the farm which he has occupied for many years. He became one of the original republicans and was long a member of the Congregational Church.

Third in age in his father's family, Egbert L. Briggs had his early opportunities in the country district schools of ilichigan, and in 1874 he graduated from the high school at Utica. He was a student in the University of Michigan, and for twenty-five consecutive years, excepting one, he taught school. The one j-ear that broke his consecutive record he spent in college as a student. His school work was done in the villages and smaller cities of Michigan, and he was superintendent of the schools at. Eaton Rapids, Grand Haven and Coldwater.

On leaving the schoolroom he took up the life insurance business, and as special agent of The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company he was located at Grand Rapids for two years. From there he removed to Detroit, and became a member of the firm of Briggs &' Seelye, managers of The Prudential Insurance Company of America for Eastern Michigan. In 1903 he was made manager of The Prudential Company at Toledo, and did much to add to the business of the company in this district. Finally the work became a strain upon his health, and in order that he might be relieved of the necessities of agency organization he resigned as manager and became city manager, the office he holds today.

Congregational Church. He has served as a deacon, as superintendent of Sunday School, and was president of the Toledo and Lucas County Sunday School Association four years. On December 23, 1884, in Michigan he married Mis,s Nellie Holmes. Their four children were: Helen C, deceased; Harriet A., a graduate of the University of Michigan; Lucile, Mrs. Paul B. Crandell; and Dorothy, who is still continuing her studies.

C. A. Langlotz, who is a specialist in the printing business, with offices at 1438 Nicholas Building in Toledo, has spent the greater part of the fifteen years since he left college in work as a traveling salesman, and in that time has covered nearly every state in the West, having for a number of years had his headquarters on the Pacific Coast.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsj'lvania, August 12, 1882, he is the older of two children of Clifton A. Langlotz. His father was born in New Jersey, spent the greater part of his active life in Trenton of that state and died in 1889.

.\fter attending the public schools of Trenton, C. A. Langlotz entered the Case School of Applied Science at Cleveland, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1900. He soon afterward entered the employ of the American Multigraph Company, and was a traveling salesman in their service for eight years. His territoi-y was on the Pacific Coast and he had charge of four branch offices, located at Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and San Diego, the main office being in San Francisco.

After leaving the ilultigraph Company he returned to Cleveland, Ohio, was in business there a short time, then for a year or so was traveling representative of the Studebaker automobile and in 1913 came to Toledo and became identified with the Toledo Computing Scales Company. After six months he took charge of the printing department of thft Owens Bottle Machine Company. After one year, in November, 1915, he was given this department as a separate business, under his direct management and control, and he now owns the plant and conducts the business under his own name. He supplies all kinds of high grade office and commercial printing, the output being used almost exclusively by the Owens Bottle Machine Company.

Jlr. Langlotz is a republican, a member of the Toledo Commerce Club, and takes an active interest in civic affairs. In 1908 at Chicago, Illinois, he married ^liss Maud Cole-

FoRDYCE Belfoed, general referee in bankruptcy at Toledo, is a lawyer of wide experience and high standing in Northwest Ohio, and has been a member of the bar for a quarter of a century.

His father was also a lawyer, Irvin Belford by name, who for several years practiced his profession at Caldwell, but in 1883 came to Toledo where he continued in practice until 1891 when he was appointed clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He filled that office until his death in 1909. He was a native of Noble County, Ohio.

Fordyce Belford, oldest of the three children of his father, was born at Caldwell in Noble County, Ohio, April 25, 1868. He was well educated, attending the public schools of Caldwell and Toledo, and afterwards entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated bachelor of laws with the class of 1891. Admitted to the bar the same year, he began practice at Toledo, and soon gained a liberal clientage as a result of his diligent application and his thorough master of legal principles. It was in 1898 that he was appointed general referee in bankruptcy, an office he has now held for over eighteen years. He has jurisdiction over eleven of the counties of Northwest Ohio.

Mr. Belford is affiliated with Lodge No. 144, Free and Accepted ]\Iasons at Toledo, is a member of the Toledo Commerce Club, Inverness Club and also of the University of Michigan Club. His recreation he finds iii the game of golf. Politically he is a stanch republican. On June 28, 1904, he married Miss Cecile Schneider.

Charles Franklin Sprague. A lawyer whose position is one of assured prominence and success in Northwest Ohio is Charles F. Sprague of Lima. Mr. Sprague is a native of this section of Ohio and has been in active practice at Lima for the past sixteen years.

He was born at Wapakoneta in Auglaize County, June 12, 1872. His parents were Sidney and Amanda Caroline (Ritchie) Sprague. They were quiet and substantial farming people, the father a native of Ohio and the mother of Virginia.

Charles Franklin Sprague had rural surroundings as his environment during his boyhood, and refers gratefully to the fact that he was brought up in the country' and on a farm. After his public school training he entered the Ohio State University at Columbus, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1896 and then continued until completing the law course and gaining his degree Bachelor of Laws in 1899. On being admitted to the bar he located at Lima and has since given his attention to a large and increasing general practice.

Mr. Sprague is now secretary and attorney of the Lima Home and Savings Association, an institution that emplovs a capital of $1,500,000. He is a member of the Allen County and State Bar association and is a Knight of Pythias.

He married ]\Iabel Elizabeth "Walters of Columbus, Ohio, daughter of George and Catherine Walters. Her father is a contractor. To their marriage have been born three children : Charles Walter, Lenore Amanda and Dorothy May.

The Lima Home and Savings Association, which was organized in October, 1887, has had an unusually long career. It has always maintained the high standards of service which such associations are fundamentally supposed to furnish, and it is gratifying that the association has not only been able to carry out its essential purpose in providing funds for the building of homes, but has also enjoyed great financial prosperity at the same time.

The association had for its object the receiving of money from its members as well as depositors who are not members for the purpose of loaning it out to those desirous of building homes or making improvements on homes. At the close of business June 30, 1915, the assets of the association were $1,369,486.71. Its rate of increase in assets during the last twelve years has been almost $85,000 annually.

first office was located in the Harper Block, and about a year later was removed to the second floor of the old postoffiee building at the corner of High and Main streets. In j the year 1902 the offices were removed to the | west side of the Masonic Building, and | Charles F. Sprague became its secretary. Here the offices remained until November,

1906, at which time tliey were removed to their present quarters in the Masonic Building at the southwest corner of Elizabeth and High streets.

On the death of W. K. Boone, in 1913, C. H. Cory became its president and Joseph Potter its vice president, with Mr. Sprague still in office as secretary. In addition to the officers just named the present directors ai'e H. W. Pears, R. W. Parmenter, R. T. Gregg and J. E. Morris.

George Kicker. The claim of George Ricker upon the good will and consideration of his fellow citizens in Henry County is based upon many years of etfective work as an agi-iculturist, upon his record as a selfmade man and upon his activity in promoting tlie welfare of his community. A life of industry and thrift has resulted in the accumulation of some of the finest farms and farming lands to be found anywhere in Henry County. Many interests engage his attention, and he is also one of tlie bankers of Holgate, and mucli of his substantial l)usiness as a fanner is now carried on by his sturdy sons.

Tiie fine farm he now owns and occupies is on rural route No. 2 out of Holgate and was the place of his birth on July 15, 1858. About a year before his birth his people liad located in Henry County. The Rickers arrived here in November, 1857, having come three years previously from Germany. George was the youngest child of his parents. It would be difficult to draw an adequate picture which could lie appreciated by the present geiier.Ttion of Henry County as it cxisicd when George Ricker was born. Pleasant Tiiwiiship had no roads. There were trails tlii'(iiii:h the woods and over the swamps, and the stiiiily ]noneers had only made partial rleai'ings here and there and had planted their tirst crops. The nearest neighbor to the Ricker home lived three or four miles away. The site of the village of Holgate was then an undistinguished spot in the general wildci-ness condition. The Ricker farm was within a mile of where the village now stands, being situated in Section 11 of Pleasant Township. When the Baltimore & Ohio Railway was built through Henry County George Ricker was old enough to haul and fell some of the first ties tliat were laid on the right of way. He also hauled the timber from which the first building was erected on the site of Holgate. His sei'vices were also commissioned to haul the *^rst stock of groceries and merchandise that were sold at Holgate. He hauled these goods froin Napoleon. All this ooaurred several vears aftei' the rinse of file T'ivil war. George Rickci- lH,u-lit iind sold ties nnd delivered them to the e,.nti-;iei,irs who weiv liuilding the rail- Way tliruiiyii llulgute tlial is now piirt of the Clover Leaf system. That road when first constructed was a narrow gauge line, but some years later its gauge was standardized.

From infancy to mature age George Ricker has lived on the beautiful farm that he now owns. Part of tliis farm was eighty acres wliicli his father Peter and liis uncle George had bought directly from tlie state. They jDaid .'(ilOO for the eighty acres. Each erected a log cabin, and they lived there with the environment of pioneers. Peter Ricker bought a second eighty acres for his son Peter, Jr., and paid s1i600 for it. He afterwards bought an eighty acres for his son George, and the purchase price of that was $1,300. All of it was exceedingly choice land, and there is probably not an acre of the entire tract which is worth less than $100. With what his father gave him George Ricker has emulated the example of the wise steward, who took his talent and increased it many fold. He has bought land from time to time until his ownership now covers 400 acres. Nearly all of it is under cultivation, and it is divided as five distinct farms, each with its separate group of improvements and buildings. Thus there are half a dozen houses and substantial banis that retieet the thrifty ownership and enterpi'ise of Mr. George Ricker. For many years tliis land has grown some of the tiiiest crops of corn, wlieat and oats ;iiid sueh ntliei- ei-ops as beets, grass and clover Ikinc also been a material asset to the Ricker agricultural prosperity.

Mr. Ricker 's father, Peter Ricker, was a carpenter by trade, having learned that occupation in Germany. After coming to America he was so poor that he had to secure a loan in order to buy the lumber to make the doors for his log caliin. He also walked about the country thr^^e days trying to borrow $10 from his neiehlinrs in order to meet a few pressiiie lull- and to defray the expenses of an experted \ isit from the stork. For all that he could find no one who was willing or able to help him. These items are mentioned because Peter Ricker possessed the energ>' and determination which never failed to raise a man above the level of poverty, and as a matter of fact long before his death he was noted as one of the wealthy men of Henry County.

He had neither ox nor horse to assist him in the heavy labor of transforming a wilderness into a farm, and his first home was in the swamp. The first winter iu Henry County was spent iu a log cabin that had no chinking between the logs, and the only source of heat was an old stove.

:\Ir. George Ricker cherishes as some of his most prized possessions two articles which belonged to his father and had special associations with the pioneer history of the family here. One of them is an old tool chest. His father brought the chest from Germany to this country, and besides the tools they stored the food which provisioned the family dui-ing its voyage across the ocean. The other article is one of the old-fashioned locks, whose bolt was turned by a key fully si.\ inches long. This lock was put on the In? ciiliin door of the Ricker family when they .-nine {<> Henry County. Some dates found on the old tool chest indicate that the Ricker family started from Germany and landed in America in the year 1854.

The old log cabin home was supplemented by a frame house in 1870, and in 1903 Mr. George Ricker set that aside and replaced it with his splendid and commodious twostory, nine-room farm house. This house has a basement throughout, and in its conveniences and furnishings makes an ideal home whether for the country or for the city.

Peter Ricker, father of George Ricker, was born in Prussia, Germany, May 24, 1812. He died ]\Iay 21, 1895. His wife was also named Ricker, but they were not related. Her Christian names were Anna Maria, and she was born in Prussia in March, 1819, and died November 13, 1895, about six months after her husband. Both passed away in the old frame house in which they had lived for twenty-five years. They had been married more "than fifty years. Both were of Evangelical German families.

Peter Ricker and his family and his brother George and his family came together to the United States. They spent sixty days on the ocean between Bremen and New York City, and after coming to Ohio lived for several years in Seneca County before they moved to Henry County. Peter Ricker brought with him from Germany the following children: Peter. Kate, Elizabeth and Mary. Peter, Jr., nas for many years lived as a retired farmer at Holgate. and is married, but has no children. Elizabeth, now seventy-three years of age, resides with his niece and is the widow of George Stevens, who was a soldier in the Civil war and was wounded during his service. Catherine died at the age of twenty-two, and she was engaged to be married at the time. Mary is the wife of Christian ilemmer, and they are the parents of eleven children and reside in Defiance County, Ohio. Caroline is a daughter who was born in Seneca County, Ohio, and married Gottlieb Obermiller, and both are now deceased, two daughters surviving them.

Mr. George Ricker was first married in Williams County, Ohio, to Mi.ss Elizabeth Myers. She was born in this countn- of German parents. To their union were born four children : Edward, who lives on one of his father's farms, married Alma Wolf and has children named Donald, Vivian and Margaret. Anna is the wife of Jacob Bower, and they also live on one of Mr. Ricker's fine farms, and have a son, Robert. Carl is active manager of the old Ricker homestead and married Margaret Engel. Clara is the wife of Nelson Wakeman, a machinist living at Ann Arbor, ^Michigan, and they have a daughter named Elizalieth.

For his second wife Mr. Ricker married, in Henry County, and in Flat Rock Township, Mrs. Barbara Rettig, widow of Peter Rettig. Peter Rettig, who died at the age of fortyone, was a brother of ]\Iiehael Rettig, elsewhere referred to in this publication. Peter Rettig left one son, Arnold, who now lives in Detroit, iliehigan, and has three children named Russell. Virginia M. and Georgia.

Mrs. Ricker, whose maiden name was Barbara Huber, was born in Flat Rock Township, Henry Coiinty, October 11, 1858, a daughter of Charles and Catherine (Schmidt) Huber. Her parents were both natives of Bavaria, Germany. Her paternal grandfather, Carl Huber, lost his wife in Germany, and some years later came to America. He was a noted character in Henry County, especially on account of his remarkable strength. He was one of the famous rail splitters of the early days and probably no one, regardless of age, could excel him in ability as a rail maker. He cut up thousands of "the rails that were used in fencing many of the farms in Heni-y County in the early days. Though Lucifer matches had long been in use, this old German always used the flint and punk to light his old-fa.shioned German pipe. For all the hard work he did and the strenuous exertion be put forth as an early pioneer of Henry County, he attained the remarkable age of ninety-four years aud died at the home of his son, Charles Huber, the father of Mrs. Rieker. Charles Huber came to the United States and located in Crawford County, Ohio, at the age of twenty-five. He was born in 1823. He married in Crawford County aud liis wife had come to the United States when thirteen years of age. While they lived in Crawford County three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Huber. They then came to Flat Rock Township of Henry County, where Charles Huber died in 1900, and his widow in 1!>12 at the age of cidily-tbree. They were

Rieker was one of si.Mi'cii rhildren, and of this large number thirteen grew to manhood and womanhood, twelve married, and eleven are still living.

Mr. aud ilrs. George Rieker by their marriage have one daughter, Rachel Marie, who was born October G, 1904. and is now in theseventh grade of tin- public- sc-biidls. The older members of this family lichmtrrd to the Reformed Chureli, but the .-bildrcii arc members of tfie Presl.ytrriaii d.-iKmiinal mii. Mr. Rieker is a i-cinililicaii in polilirs. and throughout his rarcer in lienry Cnunty has manifested a great interest in such improvements as good roads, good schools and everything that will promote the welfare of the community. For many years he served as an elder of his home church. He was one of the organizers of the Holgate Commercial Bank, and since organization has been president of that substantial institution.