Sandusky Township (part 52 of 57)

God knoweth best! His way is Right, He knoweth all and doth not err. He gaveth tlie hands to touch her boy, To the end he might be drawn to her.

C. A. M. Arnold became a contractor and builder, and followed that business for many years. About thirty-three years ago he was superintendent of the rebuilding of the State Capitol at Charleston, West Virginia. About 1887 he was in the building business for a year or more at Wichita, Kansas, during the boom daj's in that coimtry. He is now living retired at Pomeroy and owns a good farm and a splendid home, having attained success from humble beginnings. He is a member and formerly an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Pomeroy, and a democrat in politics. In former years he was quite active in democratic circles, but was never elected to office because his home was always in a strong republican district.

There were seven children in the family, five sons and two daughters, N. Esta being the oldest. Alberta, wife of A. R. Abshire of AVinchester, Indiana, is the mother of four daughters, all well educated. These four daughters are: Edith Belle, who completed her training in Virginia College and is now a teacher in the schools of Winchester, Indiana : Esta Lueile, who has completed the high school course ; and Elma Susan and Ruth. The third child, John Thurman Arnold, is a farmer near Pomeroy on his grandfather's old homestead, and he is married and has five children, the oldest, IMary Susan, being a graduate of the high school and now continuing her education at Athens, Ohio. Wade C. Arnold, the fourth child, is an attorney by profession, but is now sales agent for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Coal Company at Warsaw, Indiana, and in early life was a teacher. McKinney Arnold, Jr., the fifth child is an expert linotype operator now living at Cleveland, Ohio. Clermont L. Arnold is an electrician at Syracuse, Ohio. Helen Mabel Arnold, the seventh and youngest child, is a graduate of high school and of Kemarr College at Hagerstown, Maryland, has taught school five years, was well trained in both music and art and has had charge of those departments in several schools in Indiana and elsewhere. She is still living with her father.

iu Carleton College at Syracuse, Ohio, an institution founded by his great-uncle, Isaac Carleton. Mr. Arnold was only sixteen years of age when he essayed writing for the newspapers, and at the age of twenty-one was managing editor of the Herald at Middleport, Ohio, where he remained three years. Returning to Pomeroy he then established the N. E. Arnold Publishing House, but sold out after three years and re-entei'ed newspaper business with Elmer S. Trussell on the old Telegraph. The plant of this paper was burned February IS, 1897, without insurance. Mr. Arnold then, through the backing of friends, re-established the N. E. Arnold Publishing House. He also became managing editor of the State Gazette at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, whei'e he remained until September 1, 1900, and coming to Marion, Ohio, took the editorial department of the Daily Mirror, and continued his active associations as a journalist for 71/2 years.

In 1908 Mr. Arnold engaged in the coal business and is now sales agent for the Jones & Adams Coal Company, with his territory in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. He also owns and controls the Chapman Coal & Supply Company of Marion.

For five consecutive years Mr. Arnold was secretary and treasurer of the Ohio Democratic Editorial Association. He has always been a democrat, was a member of the County Board of Elections for a number of years, and was delegate to four consecutive state conventions, each of which nominated a candidate for governor who was elected.

On June 8, 1892, Mr. Arnold married Fannie Margaret Chapman, daughter of A. F. Chapman, a prominent manufacturer and business man of Pomeroy. Mrs. Arnold was educated in the Broaddus College at Clarksburg, West Virginia. She is an active member of the Baptist Church, while Mr. Arnold is a Presbyterian, having served as elder of his church 71/0 years and having given much of his time to the Sunday school. He now teaches a class in the Sunday school both morning and afternoon. He is a Knight Templar Mason and holds the thirty-second degree in the Scottish' Rite, and when he took the thirty-second desrree he was orator of the class at Columbus. Mr. Arnold has been president of the Civil Service Commission of Marion since it was established. In Masonry he is a member of the National Research Society of the United States, and is also prominent in the Knights of Pythias, having held all the offices in the local lodge, being a charter member of Pomeroy Lodge No. 596, and was district deputy grand chancellor. While Mr. Arnold is one of the thoroughly practical business men and burdened with many responsibilities he has found literature a diversion since early youth and aside from his newspaper work has written much meritorious poetry and prose.

Andrew AuLiEn Ensminger, a veteran Union soldier, has lived a life of intense activity and has been closely identified with Wood County for over forty-five years both as a farmer and citizen. Mr. Ensminger is now enjoying the fruits of his earlier years in quiet retirement at the Village of Portage.

He is a native of Northwest Ohio, having been born in Van Buren, Allen Township, Hancock County, April 13, 1843. His father, Perry D. Ensminger, was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in November, 1817, and died March 14, 1865. The mother, whose maiden name was Phoebe Vail, was born in Hancock County, Ohio, December 25, 1820, and died in that county also on December 25, Christmas Day, 1848, at her twenty-eighth birthday.

In 1831, when Perry D. Ensminger was fourteen years of age, he removed to Wayne County, Ohio, with his parents Mr. and Mrs. George Ensminger. George Ensminger married a Miss Umbarger. From Wayne County the family soon moved to Allen Township of Hancock County, it being necessary to blaze the way from Fostoria to the new home on the Ridge bordering the black swamp of that section. George Ensminger was a very vigorous and hard working pioneer and cleared up and developed a fine tract of farm land in Hancock County. He and his wife died when quite old in Allen Township of that county. They had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters, all of whom grew up and all inherited the vitality of their parents, married and had children. His sons were named David, Michael, George, Jr., Perry D., Lyman, Milton and Alfred.

After their marriage Perrv D. Ensminger and wife lived in Allen Township until her death and he then established a general merchandise business in Van Buren. As one of the early merchants there he had to combat the difficulties of pioneer transportation. When he laid in a stock of goods he carried his money to Buffalo, New York, and had his merchandise shipped to Pen^'sburg. Ohio, and from there it was conveyed over the country roads in wagons and teams for twenty-eight miles to his store. Many times the roads were practically impassable. Perry D. Ensminger and wife had the following children : Harriet, born April 19, 1848, lives at Columbus, Ohio, widow of James Lang and has one child; Cytharia, who died in March, 1913, married John Gibble, also deceased, and left three jsous and one daughter; the next in age is Andrew Allen ; Jane is the wife of Eli Spitler of Van Buren, Ohio, and the mother of four sons and two daughters ; and Phoebe R. is the wife of John Ames of Bourbon, Indiana, and they have a family of six children.

Andrew Allen Ensminger grew up on the home farm of his father and had a veiy limited schooling. He was only five years of age when his mother died, and he early learned to develop the resources of his own character and mind, and though largely self educated he has a keen intelligence due to his extended dealings with men and affairs.

As a boy he was very slight physically, weighing only ninety-nine pounds when the Civil war was in progress. He was accepted as a member of the Ohio National Guard, but was refused an early enlistment in the Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Finally in 1864 he was accepted as a soldier in Company G of the 133rd Ohio Infantry, and was ia active service until November of that year. His regiment was with Grant at Petersburg, at Piedmont, and in the campaign up the James River.

In 1871 ilr. Ensminger transferred his home from Hancock County to Wood County, and in Bloom Township Ijought the Henry Copas farm in section 31. In June, 1873, having sold this fai'm, he removed to the Village of Portage and bought property within the corporation limits and from time to time has extended his purchases to land in different localities. He acquired several hundred acres of the fine soil in Portage Township and more than 200 acres in Washington and Damascus townships of Henry County. All of this land shows the results of his industrj^ and intelligent management and has been improved and made many times more valuable than when he bought it. On three of his farms he has productive oil wells, and this part of his property alone constitutes almost an independent fortune. Recently Mr. Ensminger deeded to his children all his property except his homestead in Portage Township near the village of that name.

On December 5, 1865, at the age of twenty-' two, and after he had given his loyal service to his country as a soldier, Mr. Ensminger married at Van Buren, Ohio, ]\liss Jane Shaw. She was bom at Green Spring in Sandusky County, Ohio, September 21, 1846, but spent much of her early girlhood with the Van Doru family at Tiffin, Ohio, after she was fourteen years of age. Mi-s. Ensminger died at her home in Portage June 21, 1894, the mother of four children. The daughter Mary D., born January 5, 1867, was well educated and qualified as a teacher, married C. A. Johnson, and at her death on February 22, 1913, left three children named Allen, Leonard and Walter. The daughter Maggie L., born ]\Iarch 27, 1869, was educated in Portage and is the wife of Mr. Charles J. Teller, a wealthy farmer and active business man of Portage ; they have two children, Jennie F. and Helena F. Phoebe I., the third of the children, was bom June 17, 1871; she is the wife of Lewis Kramer, a farmer in Wood County and their children are Bertha, now the wife of Isaac H. Shinew, and Russel and Lewis Kramer. The youngest of the Ensminger children, Bertha B., bom January 24, 1874, is the wife of Franklin Kuauss, of Weston, a shipper of livestock, and their children are Mammie Geneva (deceased) and Mearl FranMin.

Mr. Ensminger with his family has been actively identified with the LTnited Brethren Church. As a republican he has filled various township offices and has been treasurer, councilman and a member of the school board in the Village of Portage for many years. Mr. Ensminger married for his second wife at Portage Miss Austa Patterson. She was born in Tmmbull County, Ohio, in October, 1846, and she died June 10, 1915, six months after her marriage. Her parents SheUis and Mary Patterson, were early settlers at Portage, where her father was a general merchant and died in old age. His wife died when in middle years.

William S. East was formerly president of the East Iron and Machine Company of Lima. This is one of the largest and most successful industries of the city. It occupies the old site of the Lima Locomotive and Machine Works on East Market Street. The company was organized and incorporated in 1903, beginning with a capital of .$100,000, which has since been increased to .$400,000. During its existence the company has introduced the equipment and machinerj' for the manufac- ture of a varied line of products. It has made somewhat of a specialty of structural and ornamental iron work, and has also manufactured iron railing, stairways, fire escapes, jail consti-uction, gray iron castings and large asphalt plants, and since the beginning of the great European war the plant has been largely reorganized for the manufacture of munitions. The buildings cover a block of ground, a large force of workmen are employed, and the payroll is one of the most important assets to the prosperity of Lima.

The success of the business is largely due to the former president, who began his career as a mechanic, and on the basis of a trade has developed both his original genius in mechanical affairs and a high degree of executive ability. He was born at Lima, December 25, 1866, a son of Abraham East and a grandson of Isaac East. The East family is of English descent, the first of the name having come to New England in colonial days. The Easts are pioneers of Allen County. Isaac East came here during the decade of the '30s, and established the first flom-iug mill in the county. When he came Allen County was largely a wilderness, had few towns, and most of the land was still in the woods and could be obtained directly from the Government. Indians, deer and wild game were still abundant. In the milling business he was succeeded by his sons Abraham and David, and he continued the industry for many yeai-s. David East at one time served as county treasurer of Allen County.

William S. East had the advantages of the common and high schools at Lima, but as soon as his pai'cnts were willing he left school to learn the trade of machinist. He remained a shop worker for twelve years, and for the past nineteen years has been in business for himself.

The present officers of the East Iron and Machine Company are: Mr. C. C. Mosher, president and general manager; Mr. W. T. Agerter, vice president; Mr. H. C. Coleman, treasurer; Mr. S. A. Benedict, secretary and assistant manager.

Mr. Johnson was born at Goderich in Ontario, Canada, October 21, 1873, a son of E. L. and Mary Jane (Bates) Johnson. He is of English and Scotch-Irish ancestiy. His maternal grandfather Bates married a Miss Eaton in Ireland. In that country he became involved in political troubles and had to refugee to America. He and his family brought their linen and silver and settled at Goderich in Outai'io.

Charles II. Johnson acquired his early school training at Goderich, Ontario, and at the age of thirteen, after his mother's death, his father moved to Gallon; Ohio. Here Mr. Johnson continued to attend school until he had nearly completed the common school course.

At the age of sixteen he started to earn liis own way. It was his intention and ambition at the time to prepare himself for the l^rofession of the physician. He earned the money necessaiy and in 1893 entered the Ohio Medical University and attended all but a portion of one term, when, thi'ough failing eyesight, he was obliged to abandon his studies and never entered the profession of his early choice.

After this discomfiture of his plans he went to work on a farm in Shelby County, Ohio, and continued farming as a renter for about eight years. He made a living at this occupation, but on leaving the farm he resorted to an entirely new occupation. He learned the machinist's trade and for several years was employed by the Erie Railroad Company. In the fall of 1912 ilr. Johnson removed to Upper Sandusky. He had saved some money and invested in the City Garage at 212-214 North Sandusky Street. This business he has successfully conducted ever since. His trade has increased so as to justify an increase of his plant four different times. Mr. Johnson now has the Wyandot County agencj- for the Hudson car.

In 1896 he married ^Mi.ss Daisv B. Sawyer, daughter of G. A. and Ella I. (Richards) Sawj-er. Her father was a merchant in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have four children : Ralph Eaton, born in 1897; Mary Elizabeth, born in 1898 ; Theodore Sidney, born in 1905 ; and Robert Willis, born in 1912. In polities 'Sir. Johnson is an independent. He has fraternal affiliations with the Knights of Pythias Order.

Hon. C. H. Norris of Marion was for over twenty-five years a judge of different courts in ]iis section of Ohio and is a lawyer of almost half a century's exj^ei'ience. He is now retii-ed from the bench and the forums of active practice and richly deserves the dignity and comforts that surround his advancing years.

Judge Norris was born in Waldo Township of Marion County, Ohio, September 29, 1849. When he was four years old his parents, Daniel and Rosanna (French) Norris moved to Morrow County, Ohio, and that was their home for thirteen years. Judge Norris attended the public schools while there and at the age of seventeen graduated from the high school at Cardington. The family returned to Marion Countj' in 1866, and in the following year he entered the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in the law course in June, 1869. Following his admission to the bar at Dayton, Ohio, he was made prosecuting attorney of Marion County in July, 1869, and filled that office consecutively for eight years. He also built up a splendid law practice and for many years was a prominent factor in the commercial life of his home county. He was formerly vice president of the Norris & Christian Lime and Stone Company.

At an early time in his career his ability as a public leader was recognized, though most of his public service was in the strict lines of his profession. In 1880 he was a candidate for Congress. Judge Norris was first elevated to the bench in 1885, when he became judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He filled that office two terms and in 1896 was elected judge of the Circuit Court and was on the Circuit Bench twelve years. Since retiring from office Judge Norris has devoted much of his time to his large farm situated near Marion. It is one of the best improved farms in Marion County.

Judge Norris has long been affiliated with the Masonic Order in its different branches and has been identified with many movements and enterprises in his home city. He married Jessie Harshberger.

La Omri Webster has for over thirty years been one of the leading \aneyardists and citizens of Middle Bass Island and his people were among the pioneers in these islands of Lake Erie.

family were among the pioneers in Southern Wisconsin, but in 1862 they removed to Bass Islands of Lake Erie. They first located at Lime-Kiln, near East Point, Put-in-Bay, and the parents lived in that vicinity the rest of their lives. The father developed a vineyard and was highly honored as a substantial citizen and business man. There were four children: La Roy spent his life at Put-in-Bay; La Fevre and La Torry were both soldiers in the Union army during the Civil war and now live in California.

La Omri Webster was the youngest of the family and has lived on the Islands of Lake Erie since he was eight years of age. As a young man he did various lines of work on the shore and subsequently did some fishing. In 1882 he removed to Middle Bass, and now resides at East Point on that island. As a result of experience and a thoroughly practical study he has become one of the acknowledged leaders in the fruit industry of this island. He has developed a splendid place of about twenty-three acres, and has a vineyard of fourteen acres and approximately a thousand fruit trees. This in itself constitutes a large industry more than one man could personally attend to, and under his management it is a profitable business.

Mr. Webster married Miss Julia Lutes, member of one of the prominent families of Middle Bass. Her father, John Lutes, was an early settler on Middle Bass, and his tragic death is still well recalled by the people of the island. He died when the boiler of the old American Eagle blew up and the boat sank. He and his wife and their daughter Julia, were passengers in the cabin of the American Eagle. As a result of the explosion they were all badly scalded. However, Mr. Elites managed to carry out his wife and daughter, but while doing so inlialed so much steam that, taken in connection with the severe bums, he died. The old Lutes homestead is just east of the present Webster place. The fine large house in which tlie Lutes family grew up is now used as a club house. Mr. Lutes had the following children : Albert, Charles, Miles, Arthur, Sarah IMary, wife of Fred Hanck. Frank, and Mrs. Webster. They all live on Middle Bass and the sons have adjoining vineyards at East Point.

Mr. and Mrs. Webster have two children: Earl Lafayette is a successful young attorney at Toledo, practicing as a member of the firm of Robinson & Webster. Vera is the wife of John Roesch, a vineyardist on Middle

While the making of a home and the management of his business afi'airs have occupied liis time so steadily for many years, Mr. Webster has not neglected the communitj' responsibilities of a good citizen. He served eight years as town trustee and is now clerk of the board of education. He is a republican and is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees.

Guy C. Dittenh.u'er has spent his active business career chiefly at Paulding, Ohio, where he is a real estate man and a practical farmer. Mr. Dittenhaver takes just pride in what he has accomplished in his line of business, having bought and sold as high as a million dollars in value of farms in one year. The farms now owned bj^ him are models in improvement and efficient management.

His birth occurred at Napoleon in Henry County, Ohio, March 15, 1867, a son of Jerome B. and Malinda A. (Parker) Dittenhaver, both of whom are natives of Ohio. His father was a successful druggist in Toledo up to the date of his death in 1916. He was a model citizen and stanch democrat.

Guy C. Dittenhaver, the fourth in a family of six children, spent practically the first twenty-seven years of his life at home, though in the meantime he had acquired considerable interests and responsibilities in a business and professional way. He attended the common schools, graduating from the Napoleon High School in 1886, and for four years was a teacher in the public schools of Napoleon. In 1895 he was married to Alethea H. Leach, of Toledo, the result of this union being a daughter, Frances R., and son, Harold A., both of whom, having graduated from the Paulding High School, are seeking higher education in college.

Soon after his marriage Mr. Dittenhaver came to Paulding, which county had begun to forge to the front, showing promise of becoming one of the richest agricultural districts in the Middle West. He has since been actively engaged in the real estate business, buying and selling farm lands. At the present time his own farms, aggregating over 1,000 acres of black com land, are recognized as some of the best developed in the state, and were bought by him a number of years ago at a price around $100 per acre, such land at present being held at $250 per acre.

of his home city, and is now a member of the Carnegie Library Board. He is prominent in lodge circles, having attained the thirtysecond degree in Masonry, being a member of the Toledo Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Toledo, also a member of Zenobia Shrine, Toledo. As to church, he is Presbyterian, being a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Paulding. In politics he is an active and enthusiastic democrat, but has always declined political preferment.

^Inch of Mr. Dittenhaver 's early life was spent in the newspaper business as stenographic reporter and correspondent on several of the leading newspapers of the state. When quite young he was editor of the Wood County Democrat, a paper published at Bowling Green, Ohio, and his featui-e articles for metropolitan papers were widely read. He has always been a student of our best literature.

Fulton M. Mercee has spent his active career in Wood County, largely as an agriculturist and developer of farms, and with a handsome competency is now living retired in Bowling Green. ,

He is owner of the old Mercer homestead which has descended in direct line withoiit a single change in title since it was acquired from the government. He has also given lands to his children, and also has 320 acres of farming land improved and drained in Jackson Township of Wood County.

Mr. Mercer and other members of the family have done as much if not more than any other gi-oup of individuals to promote modern ideas a.s to the management of lands, especially in the direction of thorough drainage. Much of the important drainage work undertaken in Wood County within the last fifty years has been actively promoted by members of the Mercer family. Mr. Fulton IM. Mercer can speak with special authority on the advisability and profit of drainage, since much of his success is due to this class of improvements.

Nine years ago Mr. Mercer buUt a beautiful and modem home at 432 South Main Street in Bowling Green. Practically that entire block has been built up by members of the Mercer family and is located in one of the fine residential sections of the city. It was Tilr. Mercer and his brother Jackson D. who constmcted the larger Mercer Block

Fulton M. Mercer was born in Libert}- Township of Wood County August 1, 1859. His grandfather, William Mercer, was born in Eastern Pennsylvania May 13, 1775, and married Charity Pettit, who was born there in 1781. The Pettits were pioneers settlers in Columbiana County, Ohio. William Mercer and wife came into the wilderness of Wood County in 1834, .more than eighty years ago. The laud which William Mercer secured from the government in Liberty Township in that year is now part of the possessions of Pulton M. Mercer. He died there March 2, 1839, and his widow survived him until 1855. They had a large family of thirteen children, all of whom are now deceased. Charles Mercer, father of Fulton M., was born in Columbiana County April 22, 1826, and inherited part of the old homestead and in the course of time had an extensive acreage under his management and ownership. He retired to Bowling Green in 1888 and died there about 1890. He was married in Wood County about 1855 to Jaue Mominee, who is still living at Bowling Green at the age of seventy-seven and represents one of the oldest families around the Great Lakes. Her people were of the Canadian French stock and were identified with the old settlements around Detroit before that region was transferred to American ownership. All this family history and many other details are recounted on other pages of this work.

Fulton M. Mercer grew up on the old Mercer homestead in Liberty Township, received his education in the local schools and early took up farming as liis regular vocation. He followed that until he removed to Bowling Green. His portion of the old homestead comprises 132 acres. It was the land which his grandfather started to improve and has never been out of the family ownership.

Besides his progi-essive work in the matter of promoting drainage and general farm progress, Mr. Mercer was active in local school affairs, serving as clerk and treasurer in his native township and has proved a good friend of every public spirited movement. He and his family are members of the Christian Church.

He was married at the old homestead in Wood County to Miss Frances C. Frisbie. She was bom at Prairie Depot in Wood County October 10, 1859, and was reared and educated there. Her father, Theodore Frisbie, gave his life as a sacrifice to the cause of the Union during the Civil war. He ser^^ed as a soldier in the Union ranks until captured in battle, and during his confiuement in the notorious prison stockade at AndersonviUe, Geoi-gia, died of starvation. He was then in the prime of life. Mr. and Mrs. Mercer became the parents of four children. Clayton died at the age of eight and Elmer Dowling died while in the last year of his studies at Bethany College in West Virginia. A daughter and son are still living. Deborah, who was born in Liberty Township, completed the course of the Bowling Green public schools and is now the wife of Bert King, a farmer in Perrysburg Township of Wood County. Mr. and Mrs. King have two daughters, Mildred Lucile, aged ten, and Gertrude A., aged eight, both of them in school. Charles L., the oidy living son, was educated at Rudolph and Bowling Green, and now has the active management of a fine farm in section 18 of Perrysburg Township. He has shown many of the qualities that have distinguished the family and employs his brains and intelligence along with the hard work of his hands. He is married but he and his wife have no children.

C.vREY Jay Orwig. A special instance of the office seeking the man rather than the man the ofSee was given in the recent general election in Wyandot County when the people chose for the responsibilities of sheriff a man whose name had previously been unknown in politics and with nothing to recommend him for that ofBce except his known capacity for work and thorough honesty and integrity.

Sheriff Orwig is a farmer and has been identified with the management of the old hotne farm in Richland Township since he left school. He never eared to hold office and first mixed in county politics when he became a candidate for sheriff. The people of the county have come to know him, and their confidence in his ability to run the sheriff's office as it should be run has found evidence in the fact that in the entire county he lost only two precincts and those by verv few votes. Mr. Orwig is a democrat.

He was born on his father's farm in Richland Township of Wyandot County. February- 26. 1882. He is a son of Samuel Morgan and Ella CBartlett) Orwig. The Orwigs are of Mayflower stock and have lived close to the soil throughout their 300-year record in Amer- ica. The Bartletts were among the first settlers in Wyanilot County. Mr. Orwig is of Yankee stock all along the line, with only a slight admixture of German blood. His father (lied October 8, 189S, and his mother is still living on the home farm.

C. J. Orwig attended the countrj^ schools in Richland Township and also the Wharton High School. At the age of nineteen he left school to begin work on the old farm and soon took its active management and followed the business with no interruption until he entered upoii his duties as shei-iff of the county on January 1, 1917.

Jlr. Orwig is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias. In 1903 he married Miss Ferra Cole, a daughter of Philip and Anna (Mohre) Cole, of Richland Township. Her parents were early farmers in that locality.

RuPUS V. Se-VRS. a prominent member of the Bucyrus bar and a representative citizen along every line of intelligent effort is found in Rufus V. Sears, who belongs to one of the old settled families of Crawford County, Ohio. He was born on the Sears homestead, a few miles distant from Bucyrus, and is a son of Benjamin and ilclissa f^Iiiiick') Scars, nnd on both sides can claim IJcvuliilioiKiry am. ^tors.

Benjamin Sears was liom at Dcllii. in Delaware County, New York, October 11, 1S24. came to Crawford County, Ohio, in 1836, and died at his home in Bucyrus on May 20, 1917, a worthy man whose long life had covered ninety-two years seven months and eleven days. He was the second son of Elkanah and Desiar (Phelps) Sears. He was married to Melissa Minick May 14, 1851, who died January 20, 1915, and the.y became the parents of nine children, the suiwivors being : Alice M., who resides at Bucyrus; i'\Iindia P.. who is a resident of Santa Barbara, California : Rufus V. ; Frank 0., of Bucyrus, Ohio ; Hiram B., who resides at Buc.yrus ; Mrs. Bertha JI. Dorranee, wife of Rev. John Dorrance, now stationed at Santa Clara. Utah; and Mrs. Ruby D. Carpenter^ wife of 0. W. Carpenter, whose home is at Lakewood, Ohio.

Benjamin Sears was a grandson of Benjamin Sears, who was a Baptist missiouai-v- and who died at Delaware, Ohio, in 1821, while returning to New York from Fort Wayne, where he and his sons had established the first Baptist mission in that region, then frontier territom-. Elkanah Sears came to Crawford Coiuity with his wife and four children in 1836, his son Benjamin being then a boy of twelve years. He grew to robust manhood and for years was an active farmer west of Bucyrus and was so successful in his horticultural efl:orts that he was considered an authority on fruit growing in this section. He acquired valuable real estate and for a number of years before his death took a great deal of interest in the trees, shrubs and flowers whicli had grown from his planting aroiuid his comfortable residence in this city. In his active years he was a man of much importance at Bucyrus. He was one of the founders and original stockliolders of the First National Bank of Bucyrus and survived all of that body of enterprising men. He lived to see and to rejoice in the wonderful development of this section of Ohio from a comparative wilderness and helped to change the virgin soil into productive farming laud. He passed away honored and revered, reaching an unusual age because of wholesome living, mental activity and kindly interest in others, maintaining a benevolent attitude to humanity and always being able to recognize the good and forgive the evil.

IiiifiK \'. Seals attended the country schools in b':> hoiiil and later the Bucj'rus High Sclutol, Iroiii wliich he was creditably graduated, after which he applied himself to the study of law and in 1886 was admitted to the Ohio bar. He opened a law office at Bucyrus and engaged in practice and continued alone imtil 1893, when he entered into partnership with the late Hon. S. R. Harris, his father-inlaw, and for many years this firm, as partners and individually was a strong combination in the Crawford County courts. Since the death of Judge Harris, Mr. Sears has continued alone and has made an enviable reputation for himself through his able handling of a number of very important cases of litigation.

Mr. Sears was married in 1888 to Miss Sallie J. Harris, who is a daughter of the late Hon. S. R. Harris, and they have three sons: Paul Bigelow, Demas Lindley and John Dudley. The three sons entered the army at the outbreak of the war with Germany. Paul B.; who was a professor in Ohio State University, is a sergeant major in the new National Army; Demas Lindley, who graduated at Ohio State University in 1916, and was admitted to the bar and began practice with one of the leading law firms of Cleveland, entered the army at the time of the threatened trouble with IMexico, and is now first lieuten- ant in the First United States Regular Cavalry ; and John Dudley, nineteen years of age, and a junior at Ohio State University, enlisted in Company A of the Eighth Ohio Infantry and is now a non-eominissioned officer in that regiment.

The two older sons are married, Paul having married Marjorie Lee JMcCutchen of Virginia, June 22, 1917, and Demas L. married Lura Belle Grigsby of Illinois, September 25, 1917.

Mr. Sears belongs to that class of dependable and constructive citizens who do many unselfish things to advance public movements and promote substantial enterprises. He is a republican in his political affiliation and is loyal to party and friends, but has seldom consented to accept political preferment for himself, and is a man who, in times of public stress, can put aside any ambition he may have cherished to unite for the general welfare. He is identified iu a business way with several of the prosperous enterprises of this city and is vice president of the First National Bank of Bucyrus, of which his late father, as mentioned above, was«oue of the founders. There is no name in Crawford County that is held in higher esteem than the one he bears.

M. B. Reider. Bowling Green has a mill whose wheels have been turning and grinding out the staff of daily life for over thirty years. Throughout that time M.- B. Reider has been in active control and proprietor of this establishment, known as the Union Mills. The machinery has been changed, the processes adapted to modern conditions, and the old building has been torn down and a new one erected, but always the position of the business has been in the one and the same spot. The Union MUls manufacture flour, feed and meal, and it is largely a domestic business. Their leading brands of flour are "Our Favorite" and "Vitala" and the granulated corn meal. The business was established in 1884. In 1887 the old burr mill was converted into a roller process and in 1899 an entirely new plant was erected with a capacity of fifty barrels per day. The power for running the machinery is now supplied by a gas engine. The mill is situated on a switch from the Cincinnati. Hamilton & Dayton Railway. In 1912 Mr. Reider installed a corn meal plant and is now in position to manufacture the highest grades of meal and flour.

He began his trade iu 1876 as an apprentice at Boyei'town, Berks Count}', Pennsylvania. In 1879 he came to Fiudlay, Ohio, and while there conducted a rented mill until his removal to Bowling Green. Thus his experience iu the milling industry covers over forty years.

Mr. Reider was born near Reading, Pennsylvania," December 18, 1857, grew up and received his education there in the public schools and found ids opportunity for usefidness quite early in life.

His gi-eat-graudf ather was born in Germany and came with a party of German colonists to the United States, first locating in New Yoi'k State and subsequently in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He and his wife spent the rest of their days there and were quite old when they died. Many of the family in the earlier generations were employed in the wood-working trades as carpenters, cabinet makers, etc.

Mr. Reider 's grandfather, John Reider, was born in Pennsylvania, in Berks County, and man'ied a Pennsylvania girl. He spent all his life there and was between ninety-three and ninety-four years of age when death called him. He and his family were all Gei'- man Reformed Church people. They had twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, all of whom grew up and married, all had families and all passed the age of seventy and most of them lived into the eighties. The only one who left Pennsylvania was a son who moved out to Kansas.

Simon Reider, father of M. B. Reider, was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1828. He acquired a skillful knowledge of mechanics, but subsequently became a horseman and teamster and late in life bought a farm and made a specialty of raising good grades of horses. He lived and died in Pennsylvania, his home being about eight miles east of Reading. He died tliere about 1902. He married Miss Rachel Bridagham, who was also born in Berks County, in 1829, of Pennsylvania parentage and German ancestry. Her father, Benjamin Bridagham, was a custom shoemaker and also conducted a small farm. Benjamin Bridagham and wife lived to be quite old. Thev were active and consistent members of the Reformed Church. Their children were ten or more and all of them daughters. Of these Mrs. Simon Reider survived her husband four years and passed away in 1906. Both were active in the Reformed Church. Simon Reider was a whig, as was his father

M. B. Reider was the fourth in a family of five sons and four daughters. Six are stiU living, all married, and he is the only one not in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Reider was married in Hancock Countj^, Ohio, to Catherine Sharp, who was bom in that county September 21, 1860. She grew up there, attended the public schools, and was well qualified for the duties and responsibilities of a homemaker. Her parents are Rev. Lymau and Polly A. (Lines) Sharp, both natives of Ohio but of Pennsylvania ancestry. Her father became a well known minister of the United Brethren Chui'ch, filling various pastorates over Northwest Ohio, and is now a superannuated minister living at Fiudlay at the age of eighty-two. His widow died at Findlay when «bout seventy-five.

Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Reider, Nellie Gray, born in 1885, is a gi-aduate of the Bowling Green public schools, took a course in the Thomas Normal Training School at Detroit, and was a successful teacher in music and drawing at Stratford, Connecticut. She is now the wife of C. R. Brown, who is cashier of a bank at Springer, New ^Mexico. , They have children named Elizabeth, Shirley and Norman. Frank Joy, the oldest son, boi'n in 1889, graduated from the Bowling Green High School in 1908, attended Audubon College three years and is now associated with his father in the milling business. Roxie, born in 1891, was educated in the Bowling Green High School and is now the wife of Raymond E. Ladd, of Bowling Green, and John Kenneth, the youngest, was born in 1901.

Mr. Reider is a Roj'al Arch Mason, and his son is a member of the Masonic order and also the Council at Fostoria. Mr. M. B. Reider also belongs to the Subordinate Lodge of Odd Fellows, and he and his family are members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. Reider has served two terms on the city council of Bowling Green.

Hiram E. Haijj. In some respects the county school system of Wood County enjoys a place of conspicuous leadership among all the counties of Ohio. This was the testing and proving ground for the centralization and consolidation movement of rural schools, and the plan, first successfully tried out in Liberty Township, has since spread pretty well over the county and in fact throughout the progressive sections of the entire state. The vitalizatiou of school work in conformity with the real needs and requirements of modern life has gone forward and been developed to a surprising degree in Wood County schools.

For much of this work credit is due Hiram E. Hall, who has been county superintendent since 191i, and for twenty-three years has been actively identified with the schools of the county as teacher and superintendent.

At the close of the school year of 1915-16 Wood County had seventeen first-grade high schools, more than any other county in Ohio. Nine of these first grade high schools had been organized in the two years of Professor; Hall's superintendency. In that same period the enrollment in the high schools increased more than forty per cent and the attendance in the rural school districts had increased twelve per cent. During that time half a million dollars had been expended on the improvement and equipment of school buildings and facilities and for the year 1915-16 Wood County, not including Bowling Green, paid for the maintenance of its iniral schools and village schools a sum approximating $350,000.

Perhaps the greatest improvement has been witnessed in the riu-al schools, where the work has been simplified by the elimination of every thing except the practical and useful and the centralization and consolidation wherebj- classes of two or three pupils and in many cases entire one room schools have been transferred to other districts to the centralized school building. Fully a dozen of the schools of the county are now conducted on the consolidation plan, and in several townships there is one central school, to which the pupils are transported by automobile busses, school wagons and the electric railway facilities.

In industrial work, manual training and other courses the Wood County high schools offer far more than the requirements imposed by legal statute. The rural high schools offer from one to four years of agriculture, a number of them give courses in domestic art, and also manual art, and practically all the elementary schools do some kind of hand work. Perhaps nothing has done more to encourage interest in the rural schools and co-ordinate the school with the home than the so-called "home projects." which are carried on by the individual piipils outside of school but with the co-operation and supervision of the school authorities. Thus in Wood County the pupils are encouraged to register and take part in one or more of five groups of enterprises, in- cludiug garden projects, field projects, livestock projects, poultry pi'ojects, aud business projects. In each of these the pupil keeps an accurate record on standard forms, and the Avork is closely supervised and results subject to careful accounting.

It requires a great deal of enthusiasm and ability for administrative detail as well as technical experience in pedagogic affairs to manage aud vitalize such a county school system as this. The qualifications are exemplified in a high degree by Superintendent Hiram E. Hall. Mr. Hall is a native of Liberty Township, Wood County, and is stiU a young man for all his active experience. He began teaching when only eighteen. His early education was acquired in rural schools and also in the village schools at Weston and the Normal School at Middlepoiut, Ohio. His first term as a teacher was in District No. 8 of Milton To\vnship, and after three years in the rural schools he became principal of the Rudolph School in Wood County, where he remained two years; was superintendent of schools at Jerry City fovir years; then had charge of the school at Cygnet; was superintendent one year of the Liberty Township school; for four years was superintendent at Prairie Depot; for two years was superintendent at Genoa in Ottawa County; and then returned to the Liberty Township schools. He became superintendent of the centralized school of Liberty Township in 1913 and resigned from that position to enter upon his duties as county superintendent, to which he had been chosen in 1914.

In the meantime he has widened and broadened his capabilities by extensive associations with school men and schools and study in higher institutions. For several years he attended the Normal School at Lebanon, spent one summer in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, for two summers was in Wooster College, and was also a teacher there, and is now carrying on studies toward his Master 's degree in Columbia University at New York City.

Mr. Hall early became a convert to the necessity of centralization and consolidation of rural schools, and he has done much to advance that worthy cause. He was largely instrumental in securing the consolidation of the Liberty Township schools, and that ex-' periment was so successful that it had an inspiring eflPeet throughout Northwestern Ohio.

father, Lewis, and five brothers, served as soldiers in the Civil war, all of them enlisting from New York State and all surviving the ordeal of battle and returning home. Lewis Hall was the youngest of the family. Lewis Hall subsequently came to Wood County, Ohio, and at Toutogany married Miss Lemay Taylor. She was a native of New York State, of Connecticut parentage, and her two brothers, who were old enough, both served with a New York Regiment in the Civil war. One was killed in the battle of Gettysburg while a commissioned officer, while the other died of the measles while still in the army. Lewis Hall and wife after their marriage at Toutogany located on a f ai-m in Liberty Township and subsequently removed to Blilton Township and for .years they were successfully engaged in farming. In 1910 they retired to Weston, where Mrs. Lewis Hall died June 25, 1916, when* three days past her sixty-fourth birthday. Mr. Lewis Hall celebrated his seventieth birthday on December 25th, Christmas Day, 1917. Quite recently he sustained a severe accident in an automobile collision. He and his wife were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Professor Hall was married in Wood County to Miss Jennie Kirk, who was born in Utica, Pennsylvania, in 1878. She was educated partly in Pennsylvania and partly in the high school at Bradner, Ohio, and was a teacher before her marriage. They are the parents of one son, G. Stanley, who was bom November 18, 1902, and is now a freshman in the high school at Bowling Green. Their only daughter. Frances Willard, was born IMarch 3, 1904, and died July 23, 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Hall are members of the IMethodist Church. He is interested in Masonry, belongs to the Lodge and Chapter and has finished the work of the Council at Fostoria.

Charles South. The recent retirement of Charles South from active life was justifieil by the accomplishment of success in its broadest sense, by many years of devotion to the science of farming, by faithfulness to public and private duties and conscientious regard for the perpetuation of his name and labor in the bringing up of his children. Mr. Smith occupies a modem cottage at No. 721 North Main Street, Bowling Green, furnished in accordance with refined taste and practical ideas of comfort. His life has been a steadfast and busv one. and the end of his

Mr. South was born on a farm in Webster Townsliip, Wood County, Ohio, June 30, 1867, a sou of Robert and Elizabeth (Wiseman) South, natives of Cambridgeshire, England, where both were boru about the year 1828. Tlie parents were of old English stock and married in their native land, and when their only living daughter, Mary, was seven years old, in I860, came to the United States, making the journey in a sailing vessel which consumed seven weeks in the journey from Liverpool to New York City. From the latter metropolis they made their way to Cleveland, Ohio, where they resided for two years, and then came on to W^ebster Township, Wood County, and purchased twenty-five acres for a home in section 36, and forty acres in another section of the same township. This they improved and here continued to live for many years, Mr. South passing away on his farm in September, 1879, aged fifty-one years, while Mrs. South died in 1897, aged seventy-one years, at the home of her son George South at Bowling Green. j\Ir. and Mrs. South were members of the United Brethren Church of Webster Township, and honorable, upriglit Christian people, who lived their faith, were faithful friends, and kind and generous neighbors. Their children were : Mary, who married Samuel Muir and has five children, Robert, Linda, Emory, Minnie and Ollie ; Charles; and George, the proprietor of a grocery at Bowling Green, married Ortha Loorais and has three children, Robert, Ellen and Lenora.

Charles South received his education in the district schools of Webster Township, and was but twelve years of age when he began to devote his entire time to the business of farming. He was well reared in agricultural pursuits and was compelled to assume a man's duties long before he had passed out of boyhood, the death of his father putting many responsibilities on his youny- shoiildei-s. Perhaps this helped to make him self reliant and resourceful, at any rate his farming operations were most successful and he continued to be engaged therein until the fall of 1915, when he retired from active pursuits and moved to his present home at Bowling Green.

^Ir. South is still the owner of 160 acres of land in section 35, Webster Township, all improved and growing full crops. On this land are two sets of buildings, including residences and barns of modern character and substantial construction, and these buildings were all erected by Mr. South with the exception of a barn, the older one, which is 40 by 66 feet, the newer one being 36 by 8-± feet. So much does Mr. South think of this property that lie has refused as high as $250 per acre for it, although twelve years ago he purchased it at $80 per acre.

Since that time, however, he has made many improvements and has so treated the land that it is some of the most fertile to be found iu Wood County. He has grown of corn 100 bushels to the acre in a fifty-one acre field, of oats sevent.y-five bushels to the acre and of wheat from thirty to forty bushels per acre, with other crops in proportion, in addition to which he cuts from foi'ty acres fifty-five tons of meadow grass. During his active career Mr. South was a practical farmer who recognized the value of modern methods in his work, and who in addition to general farming also engaged extensively in stock raising, having only high-grade animals in use for his farm work. Since his retirement his j-ounger son has been superintending the opei-ations of his land.

Mr. South was man-ied in Webster Township to a neighboring farmer's daughter. Miss Ella M. Muir, who was born in this township, June 6, 1871, and there reared to womanhood and educated in the public schools. She is a daugliter of Samuel Muir, who was born in Scotland, August 15, 1822, and was nine years old when brought to the United States by his parents, John and Mary (Curtiss) Muir. Prom New York, where the family arrived after a sailing vessel trip across the Atlantic in 1831, they came to Wood County and settled near Maumee, residing in the neighborhood of the river for a few years. They then moved to Webster Township, at a tiine when the whole country w^as covered with timber and the Indians were numerous, while the wild game was to be found in abundance. Mr. Muir, the grandfather of Mrs. South, was a mighty hunter of his day, not using a gun, but faring forth with his ax and dog, with which he succeeded in killing much big game, including bears and wild cats. His trips to Perrysburg, the nearest trading point, were made on horseback over the blazed roads, and often the water would reach to his saddle girths, and his trips to the mill at Fremont required three or four days in the making, the occasions being the securing of a grist of grinding for himself and neighbors. John

History 0F Northwest Ohio

Muir and his wife, being thrifty, industrious people, accumulated twelve eighty-acre tracts of land and saw the greater part of it cleared during their lifetime. They both reached advanced ages and were known as among the oldest pioneers here at the time of their demise. Strict members of the Presbyterian Church, they interpreted its teachings in a way that left no doubt as to their convictions, and so set were they against Sunday work that the potatoes for the Sunday dinner had to be peeled and the wood for the tire split and piled on a Saturday of each week.

Of the eleven children of John and Mary Muir, four sons and seven daughters, Samuel was one of the elder. He grew up amid the wilderness, followed farming industriously all his life and was the last of the children to die, his demise occurring at Dunbridge, Juue 22, 1911. Had he lived until the following August 15th he would have been eighty-nine years of age. In Webster Township he was married to Malinda Loomis, who was born on the farm and died twenty years before her husband, when sixty years of age. They were devout Presbyterians, and Mr. jMuir, like the Souths, was a strong republican and for many years treasurer of his township. Like the other family, also, he had strong prohibition principles and never lost an opportunity to speak in favor of temperance.

Mr. and JMrs. South are the parents of two children : Floid H. was born January 28, 1890, educated at Webster and in the Dunbridge High School, was a teacher for a time, and is now a resident of Bowling Green, married May Williamson, of Webster Township, and has two children, Doris, bom November 20, 1912, and Richard, born July 2, 1916. Orwiii S.. hoiu August 21, 1891, was educated at Welistcr autl in the Dunbridge High School, and is now the operator of his father's farm. He married Maud Jliller, born in Webster Township, and has one son. Dale, born January 6, 1915.

Mr. South and his wife and family are members of the United Brethren Church. He is a stalwart republican in his political allegiance and has held a number of local ofiSces within the gift of his fellow citizens, who have recognized and appreciated his many sterling traits of character, his good judgment and business ability and his unswerving integrity.

degree of success and for several yeai-s he has been business manager of the Marion Tribune, a daily paper with a circulation now of 5,000 copies and one of the most influential papers outside the largest cities in Northwest Ohio. His genius as a circulation builder has been well exemplitied in connection with this paper. When he took charge less than 2,000 copies circulated through Marion Coimty, and the circulation figures have had to be revised everj' few months upward to correspond to the growth and prosperity of the journal. He has also developed a large job printing business.

Mr. Lamborn was born at Alliance, Ohio, March 25, 1867, a son of L, L. and Maria (Grant) Lamborn. His grandfather. Townsend Lamborn, was a native of Pennsylvania, was an orthodox Quaker, and spent most of his life in his native state as a farmer. His maternal grandfather, Stacey Grant, was a native of New Jersey and was an early settler near Alliance, Ohio. He was an uncle of Ulysses S. Grant. L. L. Lamborn, Sr., who was born at Westchester, Pennsylvania, in 1827, came with his parents to Ohio when about fifteen years of age. He lived at Salem, Ohio, during his early youth. He was a young man of great natural ability and of veiy determined ambition. Without means or influence, he resolved to become a physician, and he rode and walked fifty-seven miles to attend medical college in Cleveland. He graduated from the Western Reserve Medical College and afterwards from the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. For many years he practiced successfully in Alliance, but became widely known for his ability in other lines. At one time he owned a homestead which cornered on the land which General Grant once farmed. A portion of this farm is still owned by his son Leroy. Doctor Lamborn had the distinction of importing the first carnations from Europe, and developed that flower and was the only person who ever wrote a book on the subject. This book, under the title "American Cai-nation Culture," has been published by his son, L. L. Lamborn, and there is still a large demand. Doctor Lamborn was a democrat in politics, had great ability as an orator, and at one time was candidate for Congress against William McKinley, being defeated by less than 200 votes in a district normally republican by over 3,000. It is said that William McKinley acquired the carnation habit through Doctor Lamborn 's culture of that flower. At one time he served as clerk of the

House of Representatives at Columbus. He was a Quaker, while his wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor Lamborn was married at AUiauce, where his wife was born. He died in 1910 and of the seven childi-en four are still living: Lassetta, who lives at Cleveland, widow of Alexander Fletcher ; Leroy, who is i^roprietor of a greenhouse at Alliance ; L. L. Lambom ; and Lebert Lloyd, a successful attorney at Brooklyn, New York.

L. L. Lamborn grew up and received his education in Alliance, attending both the public schools and Mount Union College. Even while in school he became interested in the printing business and he acquired his first newspaper experience at Alliance and for fifteen years was business manager of the Leader in that city.- Then for 2]-2 years he was connected with the Canton Morning News, and on selling his interest in that paper he spent two years looking for another favorable location. During that time he lived in Cleveland and was sales manager of the Arnstine Brothers wholesale jeweliy house. On May 1, 1912, Mr. Lamborn came to Marion and took the business management of the Daily Tribune. The editor of this paper is Brooks Fletcher, who, however, is away from the city much of the time on the Chautauqua platform. He fills about 250 dates each year and in his ability to draw crowds he stands next to William J. Bryan.

Mr. Lamborn married in 1891 Miss Mabel Tetters, daughter of Jesse Tetters. They have twoi children, Mabel and Leroy. Mrs. Lamborn, who was a member of the Christian Church, died in 1909. In 1910 he married Ida Martin, daughter of Euphratus Martin of Canton, ilr. and Mrs. Lamborn are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a Mason and Knight of Pythias and in politics a democrat. While living at Alliance Mr. Lamborn served as safety director for the city three years, and has always been interested in political affairs.

J. Lee EwiNG. Prom the time that he completed his studies and started out to make his way in the world, J. Lee Ewing has been connected with the Citizens' Banking Company of Weston. Starting in as a sort of general office boy, through fidelity to the institution, energy in the discharge of the duties of his positions and the display of accumulating knowledge and atoility he has risen steadily in the confidence of those with whom he has been employed and since 1909 has occupied the post of cashier of this institution, one of the substantial banking houses of Wood County.

J. Lee Ewing Avas born in 1875, in Hancock County, Ohio, and is of Ohio parentage but Pennsylvania ancestry. He is a son of Lewis C. and Cinderella (Lee) Ewing, the former born in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1849 or 1850, and the latter born in 1850 as a member of an old pioneer family of Hancock County. They were reared in the same locality in the latter county, where they were married, and after some years came to Weston, where Mrs. Ewing died about twenty years ago, when still in middle life. Mr. Ewing, who still survives at the age of sixty-eight years, retains all his faculties and is in good health, a well-preserved man who has led an industrious life and is now in the enjoyment of a competency won during many years of strenuous labor. He is a resident of Weston, where lie is a member of the Methodist Church, and has always voted with the republican party. There were three sons and one daughter in the family : J.- Lee, of this notice ; Richard, connected with the military service at San Francisco, California; Travis T., who is married and resides in Weston; and Clemmie, who died in infancy.

J. Lee Ewing came to Weston with his parents in 1881, received a public school education in Weston, and was but fifteen years of age when he accepted the position of general office boy with the Citizens' Banking Company. His duties were numerous and of a varied character, but the youth showed himself wdlling and ambitious to learn, and after the passage of several years he began to start his upward climb, subsequently being advanced to bookkeeper, then to assistant cashier and finally to the position of cashier in 1909, succeeding Mr. J. A. Holmes. The Citizens' Banking Company en.ioys an excellent reputation throughout Wood County, where it is adjudged a reliable and conservative institution, backed by men of prominence and much financial capability. This bank was established in 1890, its first officers being: Henry C. Uhlman, president; John Henry, vice president; and J. A. Holmes, cashier. After Mr. Uhlman had served as president for ten years he was succeeded by John R. Jones, who died a few years later, the next chief officer being the present one, William C. Singer, the wellknown hardware merchant. Robert D. Hen- derson, now a retired business man of Weston, is vice president; Mr. Ewing retains the position of cashier; and H. E. Jones is assistant cashier, while the board of directors is composed of the following: W. C. Singer, D. E. Lashley, J. L. Ewing, R. D. Henderson and Hiram Sattely, the latter retired and a resident of Toledo. The institution transacts a general banking business, with a savings department in connection, and during the past year the deposits have increased over $60,000. A statement of the condition of the bank at the close of business, June 20, 1917, shows the following figures : Resources : Real Estate Mortgages, $117,606.50; Loans and Discounts, $119,020.67 ; United States and Municipal Bonds, $44,078.11; Banking House and Lot, $8,000.00; Furniture and Fixtures, $1,- 500.00; Cash and Due from Banks, $118,- 987.04; Total, $409,192.32. Liabilities: Capital Stock, $30,000; Surplus Fund, $10,000; Undivided Profits, $9,240.39 ; Deposits, $359,- 951.93. Total, $409,192.32. Since the foregoing statement was rendered the surplus and undivided profits have grown greatly, and at this writing (August, 1917) the figure- is $24,- 500. Much of the success of this institution may be accredited to the ability and personality of the cashier, who through his long connection with the bank is one of the best known men in monetary circles of Wood County. Under all circumstances he measures up to the highest standards of citizenship and commands the respect and enjoys the confidence of the business community. His time has always been largely taken up with important business affairs, but not to such an extent that he has been neglectful of the claims of charity or the responsibilities of citizenship. He has been town treasurer for ten years, an office to which he was elected on the ticket of the democratic party, to which he has belonged since attaining his majority, and at the present time is a member of the county executive committee. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and Mrs. Ewing are members of the Methodist Church.

Mr. Ewing married at Weston, September 4, 1901, Miss Harriet Heidlberg, who was born and reared at Weston, whei-e she was graduated from the high school. She is a daughter of John and Caroline (Mann) Heidlberg, who were married at Weston and spent their lives here, being buried in the local cemetery, and who had three children: Mrs. Ewiag; Charles, who is married and lives at Oxford, Michigan; and John, who is married and resides at Toledo, Ohio. Mr. and ilrs. Ewing have two children, Wayne II. and Eileen C.

Albert E. Royce. The late Albert E. Roj'ce, of Bowling Green, was a productive worker- in the best sense of the term. He had a practical genius in business affairs. His life was one long continued effort in the handling of important interests as a banker, gi'ain merchant and other affairs, and it also expressed a constantly loyal and helpful participation in those things that concern the community.

At the time of his death he was pi'esident, an office he had held for a number of years, of the Commercial Bank of Bowling Green. That institution was founded in 1885 as a private banking house under the name Royce, Coon & Smith. His associates in the banking business were Mr. Julius J. Coon and Wallace A. Smith. In 1890 the private bank was organized as the Commercial Bank, with a capital of $100,000. It still stands in the front rank of banking institutions in Wood County.

Mr. Royce died November 1, 1914. Besides his position as a banker he was president of the Royce & Coon Grain Company, of which he was the founder, was vice president of the First National Bank of Weston, and treasurer of the Monarch Underwear Company of Bowling Green. For a number of years he Jiad been president of the Wood County Fair Company, which he helped to found. With all his business interests he was not lacking in public spirit and in those social qualities which brought him into present relations with his fellow men. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Royal Arcanum and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Bowling Green, and at his death his Masonic brethren had charge of the ceremonies. He was a Presbyterian, voted for many years the republican ticket, and was honored with various local offices in the city.

Albert E. Royce was born on a farm in Huron County July 25, 1844, and was past the age of seventy when he died. He always lived in Ohio, and was of New England ancestry and of combined English and Scotch stock. As a boy he acquired industrious and self reliant habits, and at the age of .seventeen was working in a humble capacity in a chair factory at Toledo. He mastered the business and when he resigned he was holding the position of manager at a salary of $110 a month. Then for a time he was in business for himself in a small way at Toledo, and on coming to Bowling Green he invested his modest capital in a grocery store. His close attention to business, his sterling honesty and integrity, soon brought him extended business, which grew from mouth to month and year to year. He began handling grain as a local buyer, shipping from cars on local sidings. Gradually he developed that as an important enterprise, and with his associates began the building of elevators and at one time the company had a dozen elevators in different parts of Ohio. He was recognized as the pioneer grain merchant of Wood County. He built the first elevator at Bowling Green and then joined Mr. Coon in a partnership which was continued until 1885. In that year was organized the Royce-Coon Grain Company.

Mr. Royee was married in Toledo, October 31, 1867, to Elizabeth Curson. At her death in 1877 she left one child, Maude, who was born November 29, 1871, was educated in Bowling Green and Oxford College, and is now the wife of Frederick E. Whitker.

Mr. Royce married in 1888, at Toledo, Miss Hattie M. Cargo. There were born two children by this union, Ethel and Bass, the last named being deceased, ilrs. Royce was born in Eaton County, Michigan, March 4, 1859, and when four years of age- was brought to Bowling Green by her parents, Hugh and Charity (Depew)" Cargo. Her father was born in Medina County, Ohio, in 1832, and her mother in Cayuga County, New York, in 1835. They met and married in Michigan in 1853 and in 1863 located on a farm in Wood Coimty, Ohio. From the farm they removed to Bowling Green in 1869, where Mr. Cargo conducted the American House for a number of years, when failing health compelled him to give up that location. He then lived retired until his death in 1883. His widow, Mrs. Cargo, is still living at 112 South Church Street in Bowling Green. At the age of eighty-two she preserves her health and vigor to a remarkable degree. She is a Presbyterian, as was her husband, who was a democrat and took much interest in local polities. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

the Toledo and Ohio Central Railway, with headquarters and home in Toledo. He married Harriet Gibbs, who survives him, and has a son, Hugh G., who is in the aviation section of the United States Army. Another sou, Fred Cargo, died of illness in a naval hospital in Brooklyn, New York, during the Spanish-American war.

^Irs. Royce has one daughter, Ethel M., who was born at Bowling Green. She was educated in the high school, in the college at Granville, and is now the wife of Irvin A. Gorrill. Mr. GorriU is a native of Ohio, grew up in Wood Countj^, and acquired a liberal education, attending the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University at Columbus. He was graduated and admitted to the bar in June, 1914, and practiced law at Bowling Green with the firm of Fries & Hatfield. He is now serving in the Officers Corps of the United States Army. Mrs. Royce is an active Presbyterian, as was Mr. Royce, and her daughter is also a member of the same church.

Charles L. Shipman. Of the business men who have helped to sustain the commercial integrity of Weston, Wood County, for many jears, mention is due Charles L. Shipman, long connected with one of the leading meat establishments of the county and its sole proprietor since 1914. This business reflects the zeal of a man who has assisted in building it i;p from a small beginning to a prosperous condition and the prestige of a necessary commercial adjunct. To the management of his large and important interests ilr. Shipman has brought not only enthusiasm, energj" and sound business judgment, but an appreciation of high business ethics and a policy of straightforwardness that has given him a solid reputation and won him many friends.

Mr. Shipman was bom at Weston, October 20, 1866, and has lived here all his life. His fathei", Joseph W. Shipman, was born at Bloomington, Hamilton County, Ohio, June 17, 1832, and was there reared to agricultural pursuits, early displaying the industry and perseverance that marked his operations throughout life. When stiU a young man he removed to Mercer County, where he engaged in farming, and while there was married to Margaret Stretclibery, who came of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock and belonged to the old and respected family which formerly spelled its name Stratsbery, and in Mercer five children were bom to them: Herman,

Lewis N. B., Marj^, "William P. and Prances M. In 1864 they came to Weston, then a small village, and here were born : Sarah L., in that year; Charles L., in 1866; Stella C, in 1868 ; and Margaret, in October, 1872. Of those still living, Chai-les L., Lewis N. B. and Mary are all married, and Stella C. has been a teacher for thirty years, principally in the schools of Toledo, where she now resides. After coming to Weston Joseph W. Shipman learned the butchering business and started the business now coudiicted by his son. He built up a good trade through good business methods and honorable policy, and continued as the active head of the enterprise until 1900, when he retired and turned the establishment over to the management of his sons Charles L. and W. P., who had been associated with him for several years. He continued to live in retirement until his death, which occurred at Weston, October 13, 1907.

Charles L. Shipman received his education in the public schools of Weston and as a j^oung man learned the trade of butcher in the store of liis father. In 1900 he and his brother took over the business, as before noted, and for fourteen years remained in partnership, building up a trade that extended to far-distant points and a reputation second to none in the coiuity. In the meantime Lewis N. B. Shipman had extended to other lines of endeavor, and in 1914 he retired from this industry, and is now one of the wealthy citizens of Perrysburg, where he is A'ice president of the Perrj-^burg Bank, the owner of five farms and a possessor of various other important interests. Charles L. Shipman has also had outside holdings, but in the main has devoted his energies and abilities to the building up of a meat business, which is not only impoi'tant as a wholesale house, Imt :ilso lias a large retail trade. Pew of thi' liiisiiicss houses of this flourishing community ciiiiiriliiite in greater degree to the prestige of Weston as a live commercial center, and it is to Mr. Shipman 's credit that he has always so directed his operations as to bring credit upon the place of his birth.

jNIr. Shipman married in Peri-ysbnrg Township, Wood County, Miss Man- Alice Gunder, who was born at Periysbui-g, in 1871, and there reared and educated. She is a daughter of Joliu Gunder, and a member of one of the pioneer families of this locality, which was founded in 1810, and the members of which have since been identified with prominent agricultural, business and civic interests.'

-John Gunder married a Miss Bowman, a member of one of the older families of the eoujitj', and he became one of the prominent and wealthy men of his locality, a skilled agriculturist and public-spirited citizen and a leader in many i^rogressive movements. He fought as a soldier during the Ci\il war, from which he returned with an officer's rank. He died October 13, 1911, on the day he was seventj'-nine years old. jMrs. Gunder, who still survives him and has reached advanced years, is descended on her mother's side from the Ewing family, one of the first to locate in Wood County. To ilr. and Mrs. Shipman there have been born two children: Paul R., born June 26, 1895, who is a graduate of Weston High School, class of 1913, studied at Wooster, and is now a student at the Ohio State University, as a member of the class of 1920, and who assists his father in the eonduct of his business during vacations; and ^largaret Maria, born ilareh 21, 1900, a graduate of Weston High School, class of 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Shipman and their children are members of tlie Presbyterian Church. He has been aetive in civic aii'airs, alwaj^s as a citizen and for two terms as a councilman, and while serving in that capacity was influential in securing a number of improvements for the city, including the grading and paving of the streets. He has always supported the principles of the republican party. In fraternal affairs 'Mv. Shipman affiliates with the Knights of Pythias and the ^Modern Woodmen of America, belonging to the lodges at Weston, where he has numerous friends. Mr. Shipman is progi-essive, as has been noted, and recently has been successful in building up a lai-ge business in ice, supplying many of the principal families of the city and conducting a modern ice plant in connection with his meat business.

Louis Edward Sheets, proprietor of the Sheets Roller Mills at Upper Sandusky, is a small miller of exceptionally long and varied experience. He has been identified with the business in Ohio for upward.s of forty years in tlie aggregate.

]\Ir. Sheets was born on a farm in Augusta County, Virginia, near Staunton, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Wheelbarger) Sheets. His father spent all his life as a farmer and was of German ancestry, as was his wife.

on the farm and at the age of sixteen he began a three years' apprenticeship to learn the flour milling business in Augusta County. Mr. Sheets came to Ohio in 1876, and during the following winter was head miller of a mill north of Columbus. In 1877 he married Mary Drumheller, daughter of Van and Frances (Damrow) Drumheller, of Franklin Coimty, Ohio. Her father was also a farmer. After his marriage Mr. Sheets removed to Union County, and for a couple of years conducted a mill near Watkins. His next work was in Indiana, where he operated a mill a short time, and on returning to Ohio leased a flour mill near Belle Point in Delaware County for three yeai-s. His next work was in charge of a mill in Delaware County, near the Girls Industrial Home, for two years. At West Liberty, Ohio, on the Makacheet Creek, he ran the mill for Piatt Brothers, for several years was in charge of Aaron Aton's mill three miles west of Urbana, and then for a year had Woodard & Michael's mill at Urbana. For six years iMr. Sheets operated the flour mill of tlic ( 'luiiiiisville Milling Company at Connei-svillc. Iinliiina. Returning to Ohio, he was at Caiey iu charge of Straw & Henderson's flour mill thirteen years. Throughout this time he was general manager and head miller of these different institutions. For a short time he traveled on the road selling the products of the Richmond City Mill of Richmond, Indiana. His next employment was with the National Milling Company of Toledo as head miller and in 1902 he came to Upper Sandusky and for nine years operated Kerr Brothers mills at Seventh & Crawford streets. On the death of Robert Kerr he bought a half interest with David Nitrauer, and the business was continued as Nitrauer & Sheets Flour j\Iill for six months. Mr. Sheets then sold his interest to his partner and became miller for "Worley Brothers at Bainbridge, Ohio, for a year and a half. In 1913 he returned to Upper Sandusky and bought the D. Walbron Flour Mill at Wyandot and Fourth streets and has since eonducted it under the nnino Sheets Flour Mill. He operates a gem r.il inilliiii; Imsiness, grinds flour and feed, and ]iiiivh;is.>s the raw material chiefly from local farmers. He has a large trade over Wyandot County, the favorite brand of flour being the Meirose brand. It is a fifty barrel mill and the power for its operation is supplied by a fifty horse power gas engine. - Mr. Sheets is a republican in politics and a inember of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Upper Sandusky. He and his wife have three children: James Samuel, born in 1878, married in 190-4 Florence Ward. Martha Edna, born in 1880, was married in April, 1917, to H. V. Riley, of Lima, Ohio. Paul Hamilton, born in 1889, married in August, 1916, Myrtle Slicer, of Lima.

Prank D. Glosser has been a resident of .Alarion since 1904 and is one of the prominent men in the industrial life of that city. He is secretary and treasurer of the United Electric Supply Company, a business with a capital of $20,000 and operating a large retail business at Marion. He is also a member of the Berry-Glosser Company, manufacturing sheet metal cutout boxes. This plant sends its output all over the United States.

Mr. Glosser was born in Belleville, Ohio, Febiniary 28, 1880, a son of Henry and Juliet (Dillon) Glosser. Henrj- Glosser, who was born in Mai-yland in 1822^ lost his father when he was a small boy and was bound out as apprentice to a tailor. He subsequently took up the business of photographer and he gave to that art the best years of his life. For twenty years he was in business in New York City oia. Lower Broadway, and in 1873 moved to Richland County, Ohio. He died in 1907. In early life he was a member of the Universalist Church, but later joined his wife in worship in the Presbyterian denomination. He was affiliated with St. John's Lodge, No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at New York City, and attained the Knight Templar degree. Politically he was a republican. He married at Brooklyn, New York, Jliss Juliet Dillon, who was born there in 18-43. She died in 1900. Her father, John Dillon, was a native of New Hampshire, but spent his active career at New York City. He was a skillful maker of chronometers and senior member of the firm of Dillon & Tuttle. Henry Glosser and wife had four children : H. T., a farmer at Sparta. Illinois: Clara, wife of W. M. Taylor, a painting contractor at Marion, Ohio ; E. E., who is construction foreman for the Columbus, Delaware & Marion Electric Company ; and Frank D.

Frank D. Glosser graduated from the high school at Harrisburg, Illinois, in 1897. For a time he did farm work, and then became fireman with an electric light plant. He was there a year, and then went to EvansviUe, Indiana, and for three years was repair man with the EvansviUe Gas & Light Company.

For a year he was superintendent of the electric department and in 1904 came to Marion and entered the service of the Columbus, Delaware & Marion Electric Company, and was advanced to the position of superintendent of its electric light and power department, which position he now holds.

In 1904 Mr. Glosser married Miss Jessie H. Pickett. She was born at Harrisbui-g, Illinois, and her father, F. M. Pickett, served with the rank of major in the Union army during the Civil war and subsequently was a newspaper publisher. Mr. and Mrs. Glosser have four children: Catherine, Francis, George and Robert. The two older children are in school and George is aged five and Robert two years.

Mr. and Mrs. Glosser are members of the Trinity Baptist Church at Marion. He is a Knight of Pythias and a republican in politics. He is also a trustee of the Marion Young Men's Christian Association, a director in the Chamber of Commerce, and a director in the Automobile Association.

John L. Underwood. One of the greatest grain producing sections of its size is that' covered in the territory included in Northwest Ohio. Naturally the conducting of large elevators for the handling of this grain in a modern way and an expeditious manner forms one of the chief business interests of the various cities, towns and villages, and in this respect the thriving little city of "Weston is doing its full share in transporting the grain of this rich section to other parts of the country. Here are located several elevators of merit, the oldest of which is that now conducted by Underwood & Son, although the senior member of this concern has been connected with it only since 1916. While he is a practical newcomer to the business, Mr. Underwood is widely known for his extensive agricultural operations in the past, and has already made a decided success in his new field of activity.

John L. Underwood was born November 5, 1860, at Lowellville, in the extreme eastern part of Ohio, on the Mahoning River in the county of that name. He was two yeai-s of age when brought to Center Township, Wood County, by his parents, Wright and IMary A. (Jones) (Palmer) Underwood, natives of Ohio, who grew up, were educated and married in Mahoning County, where the father was engaged in teaming and as a canal worker until coming to Wood County. Here he secured a timbered farm of forty acres in Center Township, and on this he and Mrs. Underwood made their home for forty years, clearing their land, erecting good buildings, establishing a comfortable home and developing a valuable property. Mrs. Underwood died on the homestead in 1895, when past sixty-one years, in the faith of the ilethodist Church, and in 1902 Mr. Underwood retired from active pursuits and moved to the City of Bowling Green, where he died in 1910, aged seventy-nine years. He was a republican in politics and a prominent man in his township, where his fellow-citizens, respecting his ability and having confidence in his integrity, elected him to a number of local ofiices. John L. Underwood was the youngest but one in a family of seven children, five sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity. The family circle remained unbroken until the year 1913, since which time Nancy, Marietta and William have died, all leaving families. Those who survive are : Robert, retired and a pensioner of the Civil war, living at Edgewater, Colorado, who has a daughter Edna and a igrandson, Robert ; George, who follows the trade of carpenter at Bowling Green, married and the father of three .sous, Charles Allen and Bernard; John L., of this notice; and Norman, a successful building contractor of Durham, North Carolina, who is married and has five sous and one daughter.

John L. Underwood gi-ew up on the home farm in Center Township and received his education in the district schools of his home community, which he attended during the winter terms while assisting his father with the farm work on the home place. At the time he attained his majority he began farming on his own account and continued to follow general operations and stockraising in Center Township until 1901, when he changed his scene of activities to Milton Township, where he was also a successful farmer, first purchasing sixty acres and later adding seventy-five acres more. He had the best of improvements, principally made by himself, erected commodious and well placed buildings and drained all his land and put it under a high state of cultivation, and through the judicious use of labor-saving machinery made a real .success of his labors. In 1914 Mr. Underwood retired from operations as a farmer and moved to Weston, where for several years he looked about seeking a good entei-prise in which to invest his capital and engage his abilities. Finally, in January, 1916, he succeeded the late Edward Baldwin in the ownership of the oldest elevator property at Weston, located on the C. H. & D. Railway, which has undergone many changes of proprietors since it was built many years ago. Mr. Underwood has succeeded in this venture, as before intimated, and in addition to doing a large retail business ships on an average sixty carloads of gi-ain and about as many loads of stock to distant points. His son is now a member ef the business, which is conducted as Underwood & Son, and the extensive trade maintains the old while constantly gaining new customers. The tinaneial success of IMr. Underwood is augmented by a moral influence second to none. He carries with him into his business and social life a splendid ethical perspective, and a capacity for acljnowledging the good and weeding out the undesirable in general existence, a discrimination fostered by his origin and training. With his family he belongs to the Presbyterian Church and conti'ibutes to the success of its movements, and in politics is a republican. He has fully discharged his civic duties and at times has been called upon to act in places of public preferment, having served as a member of the board of directors of the Infirmaiy of Wood County in 1911 and 1912, as member of the school board and school assessor for two years, and as land tax appraiser during a like period. His fraternal connection is with the Knights of Pythias, while his sons Ivan and Earl belong to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which the former has passed all the chairs.

j\Ir. Underwood married in 1881, in Center Township, Adella Schroyer, who was born in Poi-tage Township, Wood Coimty, in 1861, and grew up on the banks of the Portage River, in which locality she received a public school education. Her parents, who are now residents of Weston, are Samuel and Catherine (Scott) Schroyer, who were married in Ohio and have since resided here. Mr. and Mrs. Underwood are the parents of ten children : Austa, who is the wife of Ed D. Amos, a garage owner of Bowling Green and has five sons and one daughter; Grace, who is the wife of J. A. Crom, a farmer of Center Township, and has a sou, J. Wendell ; Ivan, w4io married Bertha Wisnar and lives on a farm in Weston Township, and has two sous, Carl and Stanley; Earl L., associated with his father in business as Underwood & Son, was like his brothers and sisters educated in the public schools, and married in Eaton County, ilichigan, Mrs. Bertha (Miller) Bosworth, who by her former marriage had a son, Allen Bosworth, and they have a sou, Kenneth ; Verna, who is the wife of William L. Soekman, a farmer of Milton Township, and has two daughters, Marjorie and Irene; Alpha, a graduate of the Milton High School, and residing at home; John A., sergeant of Company H., Sixth Ohio Infantry, who saw service on the Mexican border; and Alva and Ottie, who ai-e attending school.

John V. Dirk. One of the most earnest promoters of the grain trade at Weston and iu the surrounding country in Wood County is John V. Dirk who, aside from any prestige he may have received from connection with a fine old pioneer family of the county, has mapped out his own fortunes with a certainty of intent and purpose wliich could have no other result than definite and substantial success. Embarking in business as a young man of twenty-seven years, totally without experience, he has since developed into one of the most progressive men in his line, and as proprietor of the Black Elevator is known to the trade and to agriculturists generally all over this section of the county.

Mr. Dirk was born on the family farm in Wood County, April 12, 1881, the only son and child of William and Rebecca (Kieffer) Dirk. His grandparents were, Jacob Dirk and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Pottemeyer. Jacob Dirk was born in Germany and was a young man when he came to the United States, first locating in Hancock County, where he married Mi.ss Pottemeyer, a native of that county. They later removed to Wood County as pioneers, buying land which later became the site of the present city of North Baltimore, and there completed their useful and industrious life, both reaching advanced age. They were highly respected residents of their commimitv and honest, Christian people, and for years members of the United Brethren Church. The grandfather was originally a whig and later a republican.

William and Rebecca (Kieffer) Dirk were natives of Ohio and commenced their married life on a farm within seven miles of Weston in Liberty Township. There they still make their home, the father being sixty-seven years of age and the mother fifty-seven, and are surrounded by all the comforts tliat come as rewards for well-ordered lives, and by a wide