Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 3, Part 1

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1140

USA > Ohio > Wood County > Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 3 > Part 1

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Gc 977.101 W85co v.3 1620296

M. L

REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

7 ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03003 6229

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016

https://archive.org/details/commemorativehis03lees

COMMEMORATIVE - 2683

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

WOOD

COUNTY

OHIO;

ITS PAST AND PRESENT,

EARLY SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT; ABORIGINAL HISTORY; PIONEER HISTORY; POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS; AGRICULTURAL, MANUFACTURING, COMMERCIAL INTERESTS, INCLUDING OIL AND GAS; HISTORY OF

THE COUNTY, TOWNSHIPS, TOWNS AND VILLAGES; RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL, SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY, INCLUDING ROSTER BY TOWNSHIPS; STA- TISTICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS MATTER; BIOGRAPHIES AND POR . TRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS, ETC.

V.3

ILLUSTRATED~

CHICAGO: J. H. BEERS & CO., 189%.

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WOOD COUNTY, OIIIO.

1620296

He learned the printer's trade, which he followed for three years, working in Perrysburg and else- where. In 1865 he was married to Mrs. Frances Frusher, who was born in England, in 1845. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Byrne settled on a farm in Middleton township, and have done general farming ever since. Four children have been born to them. They are: Evalene, John, Esther, and Chester-all at home, except Eva- lene, who, on April 15, 1896, became the wife of E. J. Spilker. In politics Mr. Byrne is a Demo- crat.

FRED GOEKE, one of the most progressive and enterprising, as well as one of the most success- ful, farmers in Perrysburg township, is a man de- serving of the highest credit for the way in which he has risen by his own efforts, from a poor boy to his present comfortable position in life.

Mr. Goeke was born in Wehrendorf, Amt Wittlage, Germany, June 12, 1857. His parents were Fred and Elizabeth (Bemning) Goeke, both natives of Hanover, where they spent their entire lives, the father dying there when fifty-four, and the mother when sixty-three years of age. They were members of the Lutheran Church, and were estimable people. They reared a family of five children, who were named -- Frederick, Henry, Elizabeth, William and Claymore; the first named, our subject, preferred to be called Fred, by which name he is now known. When Fred Gocke was eighteen years old, in company with his brothers, William and Henry, he emigrated to America, and finally reached this State, and settled in Perrys- burg township, where he worked around on vari- ous farms until he had saved money enough to purchase a place of his own. This he was finally able to do, and some eight years ago bought the farm of sixty-one acres on which he now resides. He has made many improvements, has the land under good cultivation, and owes no man any- thing.

Katie; Lena; and one who died in childhood. The father died at the age of seventy-seven, and the mother at the age of fifty-four years.

Mr. Goeke began life a poor boy, working at small wages as a farm hand, but is now better off than were his employers. He has prospered in a remarkable manner, and holds an enviable posi- tion in the community as a citizen and agricult- urist. His integrity is unquestioned, and his many sterling qualities have won him hosts of friends. He is a Democrat, and has taken con- siderable interest in county politics. Both he and his wife are consistent members of the Lu- theran Church, and are always ready to assist in any good work.

JOHN C. KAZMAIER, a prominent farmer of Perrysburg, was born in Wittenberg, Germany, February 9, 1841, and is the son of Andrew and Mary (Renz) Kazmaier, both of whom were na- tives of Wittenberg. They came to America in 1846, and settled in Liverpool, Medina county, and in 1866 came to this county, and located on eighty acres of land in Middleton township. He died in Perrysburg, in 1891, at the age of seven- ty-seven years. Mrs. Kazmaier is living in Per- rysburg, where she is a member of the Lutheran Church. To this couple were born eleven chil- dren, namely: John C. (our subject), Theresa, Au- gust, Annie, Andrew, Mary, Christ, Catherine, George, Helen. and William. All grew to ma- turity, and are married.

John C. came to this county in 1866, and bought some timber land in Middleton township. which he cleared and cultivated. In 1864 he was married to Miss Mary Harthneck, who was born in Liverpool, Ohio, and to them have been born eleven children, as follows: Charles, February 25, 1865, married Alice Goodman, and they have two children, Clyde and Lulu; George, November 3, 1866, married Emma Shider. and one child has been born to them, Merlin; Albert, July 28, 1869, married Jane Frusher, and they have two children, Addie and Hazel; John, June II. 1871; Henry, March 11, 1874: Frank, janu- ary 4, 1876; Andrew, November 18, 1877; Harry, September 1, 1879; Harvy, October 6, 188 :: Rosa, October 10, 1884; Robert, June 5, 1SS7; all are alive.

Mr. Goeke was married February 20, 18SI, to Miss Leah Stauffer, who was born in Perrys- burg township, January 3, 1862. Two children have blessed this union, Henry. born October it, 1883, and John, born January 3, 1886. Mrs. Goeke is a daughter of Henry and Catherine (Echelbarker) Stauffer, both of whom were born in Germany, near the famous river Rhine. Her Our subject is a self-made man, and, by per- severance and industry has accumulated a com- fortable fortune. He now owns 174 acres of excellent farm land. He is a Democrat in poli- tics, and a member of the Fatheran Church. Mrs. Kazmaier is a daughter of George ani Rosa mother came to America when a little girl, and was the second wife of Mr. Stauffer. By his first marriage, the children of Mr. Stauffer were- Abraham, Annie, Mary and Henry. Those by his second marriage were-Chris., who died in childhood; John; Leah, wife of our subject; Ed. : , (Renz) Harthneck, both of whom were born in

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Wittenberg, Germany, the former in 1808 and the latter in 1820. They were married in Medina county, Ohio, where they now live, and where the wife of our subject was born, September 18, 1844. The Kazmaier family are among the lead- ing people of the county.

ABRAHAM M. WHITE, whose honorable and straightforward dealing in all business relations has won him the confidence and regard of those with whom he has been brought in contact, is a native of Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred in Orange township, Columbia county, Septem- ber 16, 1836. His parents were William and Jane (McMurtrie) White. The father was born in Columbia county, Penn .. in 1803, and there married Miss McMurtrie, whose birth occurred in New Jersey, in 1812. When a young man he learned the trade of weaving, which he followed at intervals, but his principle vocation was farm- ing. He became the owner of an excellent farm of 400 acres in his native county, which at the time of his death was valued at $30,000. In the family were ten children: Elizabeth, wife of Jacob Mallick, of Muncy, Penn .; Mary, wife of George Connor, of Columbus, Penn .; John M., of the same county; Sarah J., deceased wife of Howard Grimes, of Pennsylvania; Abraham M .; and Isaiah, W. Pierce, Samantha (wife of Peter Evans), Anna Margaret (wife of Harry Townsend), and Alvaretta (wife of Alonzo P. Howell), all of Columbia county.

Mr. White, our subject, attended school in his native township until twenty years of age, and for two years was a student in Greenwood Seminary, New Columbus Academy, near his home. He then began teaching in the county of his birth, and for fifteen years followed that pro- fession. In 1863 he went to Unionville, Mich., where he was married on April 20, of that year, to Miss Elmira Edgar, who was born in Colum- bia county, Penn., in 1841. She was the daugh- ter of John B. and Elizabeth Edgar, who moved fromn Pennsylvania to Unionville, Mich .. in 1858. They were noted for their strict in- tegrity and firm religious convictions, both of the parents and also their children being faithful and consistent members of the Presbyterian .Church. They were instrumental in founding a Church of their denomination in their own new home. Mr. Edgar lived to the age of seventy-one, with a mind clear and well-stored with religious and political knowledge. He was also a great student of ancient and modern history. Mrs. Edgar de- scended from a good old English family named Willet.

Immediately after the marriage of our sub- ject and Miss Edgar, they returned to Pennsyl- vania, and located in his native township where. for a year, they both engaged in teaching school. Mr. White then rented a farm of his father until 1870, when he purchased one hundred acres of land, cultivating the fields through the summer months, and teaching in the winter season. In 1885 he gave his farm in Columbia county for his present farm of 160 acres in Milton township. Wood county. He has since erected a large dwelling, and has made excellent improvements upon the place.

To Mr. and Mrs. White have been born six children-Charles Edgar, a farmer of Milton township; Minnie A., wife of Will Stearns, of Liberty township; Betty Edgar, wife of Ernest Hartman, of Weston; John C., A. Myra and Nellie Virginia, at home.

In 1864 Mr. White entered the 109th O. V. I. for one hundred days' service. He has always been deeply interested in the welfare and upbuild- ing of his resident community, and is a valued energetic citizen. Politically he affiliates with the Democratic party, and religiously with the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an active worker, now serving as one of its elders. In 1895 he became tired of farming, and removed to the pretty village of Weston, where he now lives with his wife and two daughters in the modern and tasty home he has erected.

JOHN LANCE was born in Sandusky county, Ohio, April 22, 1845. His father, Jacob Lance, was born in Lancaster county, Penn., in 1798. and when a young man went to West Virginia, where he married Sarah Slack, a native of that State. They afterward came to Ohio, making the journey on horse-back, and the father pur- chased 160 acres of land in Riley township, San- dusky county. Fremont at that time contained only three houses, and the entire region was wild and unimproved. There the parents continued to make their home until called to their anal rest. The father died in 1861, and the mother passed away in June, 1888, when almost seventy- eight years of age. The children of their family were William, who is living on the old home- stead; Julia Ann, wife of E. C. Lindsay, of Riley township, Sandusky county: Henry, a fariner of that county; Emily, who died at the age of eighteen; Franklin, who died in a hospital at Louisville, Ky., in 1862, while serving in the Union army during the Civil war; Sarah, who is living on the old homestead; John, the subject of this sketch; Hiram, a farmer of Riley towa-

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WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.

ship, Sandusky county; and Martha, who died at the age of two years.

John Lance was reared on the old home farm, and educated in the district schools of his native county. In 1863, he enlisted in the National Guards for five years' service, and was called out in May, 1864, for duty at Point Look- out, Md., near Washington, to guard the Rebel prisoners. He served for four months, and then returned home. At the age of twenty-two he began teaching school in Sandusky county, which profession he followed for two years, working through the summer months upon the farm. He then went to Cedar county, Missouri, with a view of locating there, but after teaching school for one term, returned to Sandusky county, where he remained until coming to Wood county.

During his residence in Missouri, Mr. Lance was married to Wealthy O. Richardson, who was born in Wood county, Ohio, November 6, 18-, a daughter of Joseph and Sallie Miranda (Sweet) Richardson, the former a native of Lancaster county, Penn., the latter of Ohio. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lance was celebrated June 19, 1869, and while living in Missouri their eldest child, Ira Grant, was born March 22, 1870. Soon after they returned to Sandusky county, and lived on the old Lance homestead until 1874. when they came to Milton township, Wood coun- ty, locating on a forty-acre tract of land in the midst of a dense forest. Here the wife and mother died April 11, 1891, and her remains were in- terred in Milton cemetery. The other children of the family are Sarah M., born April 6, 1872, now the wife of Fred Jemison, of Webster town- ship; Joseph Roy, born January 30, 1875; Con- dessa O., who was born October 6, 1876, and is the wife of Thomas Davidson, of Webster town- ship; Wilbur J., who was born January 31, 1879; Arthur H., born August 8, 1880; James F., born July 18, 1884; George W., born June 26, 1887; and Ethel C., born January 14, 1889.

Mr. Lance is a member of the Methodist Church, as was his estimable wife, who had the warm regard of all who knew her. By his ballot he supports the men and measures of the Repub- lican party, but has never been an office seeker.

His father, John Evers, who was a bright. energetic man of good intelligence, after finishing his apprenticeship at Cleveland and Akron, as a Maumee to go into business for himself in 1834. Johnston White, who kept the river ferry between

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Waterville and Miltonville, had two daughters, Celinda and Margaret. The former and John Evers were married in 1835, at Miltonville, and. in the year 1839 or 1840, moved to central Piain township, where Charles passed his boyhood days.

The ancestors of Mr. Evers, the Whites, who were English, crossed the Cumberland Mountains from Virginia into Tennessee, soon after the war of 1812. Mrs. White was a Miss Fuller before marriage. Just what year the family came to the Maumee is not known, but the records show Mr. White to have been one of the judges at the first election in Middleton township, November. 1832. The ancestors of John Evers were Ger- man, on the father's side. John's father, after serious business reverses in Maryland, moved with his family to western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg, and, later, located in Wayne county. Ohio. His mother, in childhood, was a captive with the Indians for seven years, and, at the age of thirteen, ran away from them to escape an abhorrent marriage with the chief's son, whom she disliked. In her flight she came to a stream beyond which she saw some white men, at work. to whom she called, at the same time leaping into the water. She was none too soon, for her pursuers were on the bank before she reached the far side, which she did with great difficulty. in her exhausted condition. The white men's rifles shielded her from further molestation, and she was restored to her surviving kindred. With all the hardships she endured in common with the Indians while in captivity, they treated her kindly, and she always had a sympathetic word for them. After she came west, her house was a great resort for them, because she fed them, and could talk with them, both in word and sign language.

Charles W. Evers, the subject of this sketch. had about the usual experiences and opportuni- ties of boys in that day in the Wood county wilderness. With the duties of the farm he be- came familiar, and acquired a fair degree of skill in the use of tools in his father's workshop. H also acquired book learning enough to enable hin? to teach successfully in the district schools.

In 1856 he went West in quest of govern- CHARLES W. EVERS was born at Miltonville, Wood Co., Ohio, July 22, 1837. ment land for a farin of his own. He expected to proceed to Kansas, but, instead, turned to Minnesota, in order to secure some money he had loaned a man who had located there. See- ing the fine openings there for energetic young cabinet maker and carpenter, came out to the , inen in the professions, he shaped his affairs.

and iu 1859 returned to attend school. After he had been one year at Oberlin, came the war, in

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lohas. N. Evers

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WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.

1861, in which he was an early volunteer on the Chion side. His regiment, the 2nd Kentucky Infantry, served mostly in the West, beginning with the battle of Shiloh. One of the things Mr. Evers takes pride in, is the fact that he car- ried his musket faithfully, and never missed a march or battle of his regiment, until wounded and captured at Chickamagua, September 19, 1863. This ended his ariny service. After two months' imprisonment at Richmond, he was paroled, and reached the Annapolis hospitals, just in time to save the amputation of his in- jured leg.

Soon after his return home in 1864, he was elected sheriff, and afterward re-elected to a second term. In the duties of the office he had the reputation of being diligent and efficient, both in the civil and criminal administration of the office. It was at this time, 1866, that he was united in marriage with Sarah C. Bronson, daughter of James M. Bronson, of Bloom, whose sketch appears on another page. By this union there are two daughters and one son living: Lena, Mrs. J. A. Murray, of Manchester, Ohio; May, Mrs. B. H. Ross, of San Antonio, Texas; and John, who is attending school. A year or so later Mr. Evers bought a half interest in the Sentinel office, moved to Bowling Green, and as- sumed the editorship of the paper, which at that time was having a hard struggle for existence at the new county seat. It had a paid subscription list of less than three hundred names, and a small advertising patronage. Mr. Evers threw his whole energy into the work of increasing the paper's circulation, making it aggressively Re- publican in politics; also, he vigorously advo- cated local and county interests of every kind. Within the year 1870 he bought the interest of his partner, Robert M. Travis (a bright, talented young man, whose career was cut short by dis- ease), and became sole owner of the office. The subscription list soon ran up to one thousand, and the advertising, official and private, increased, and the paper was on a paying basis. In June, 1872, Mr. Evers sold the office to M. P. Brewer, and gave his attention for a time to some farm in- terests, and to real-estate dealing in general. In the spring of 1875, he was again drawn into the newspaper business by the pending county seat contest, and to be decided at the polls the follow- ing October. To further the cause of Bowling Green, he took a managing interest in a cam- paign paper called the Newes. At the end of the campaign, the News, which had done good serv- ice, and gained some standing, was merged with the Sentinel, and A. W. Rudalph and Mr.

Evers became owners of the united concern. Under this joint management the Sentinel pros- pered, and grew in circulation and influence. In 1880, Mr. Rudulph retired from the business, and Mr. Evers remained sole owner until 1884, when he sold the office to his old associate Mr. Rudulph, since which time he has given his at- tention to improving his farm lands, town prop- erty, etc.

Mr. Evers was the first president, and, with S. Case, the mover and organizer of the Bowling Green Natural Gas Company, which sunk the first deep well in Wood county, and which was the forerunner of the wonderful development in oil and gas, now the leading cash-producing in- dustry of the county. He is yet a director and considerable stockholder in the company.

He has, on account of his well-known con- servative good judgment, backed with a strong public spirit, been frequently called into service in local offices, such as town trustee, city council and school board. As told in the soldier roster in this volume, his brother. John J. Evers, lost his life in battle, and a half brother. Orlando W., died of camp fever, in the war of the Rebellion.

While the above are the cold outlines of fact, such as historians put in form and print. and are all properly put so far as they go, the writer of this paragraph and those succeeding it, who, from long and varied association, prob- ably knows Chas. W. Evers better than any other man does, feels that it is not even justice to the history of the development of Wood coun- ty to let it go at that. His life has been too prominent a factor in that development; too essentially a part of its hitherto unwritten his- tory, to be allowed to pass down to posterity with no word of eulogy save that which the un- familiar, and, therefore, unfeeling statistician could elicit from one so naturally retired and un- assuming as he. .

A few men make the history of every com- munity in each succeeding generation. That is. a few shape the destinies, blaze the way -- in short, do the thinking for the people, and urge them on to success or failure, according as the judgment and inclinations of the few are good or bad. No one has done more, no one has done as much, to shape the destinies of Wood county in the past three decades, as has Chas. W. Evers; and that the judgment and wishes of him- self and associates have been for the greatest good, the blooming, garden-like fields of her twenty townships; her fifty-odd towns and ham-

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lets; her $150,000,000 wealth, and her 60,000 good and prosperous citizens are here to testify.

A faithful advocate, a far-seeing and ever watchfui and fearless champion of Wood county and its interests, his peculiar " forte " has always been to start a project for the good of the people; stand in the vanguard of the battle, often bedaubed with the mud and slime of calumny, and pierced by the arrows of envy, jealousy and pre- judice; and fight on unfalteringly until himself and friends have planted the standard of victory on the walls which crowned their efforts with success; and then, just as credit for a good work was about to be passed over to the champion- like the good Black Knight at the Passage of Arms at Ashby-he might be seen, by a close observer, slipping quietly out of sight down the green aisles of some distant wood, only to appear, later on, the leader of some new scheme for the advance- ment of the people, while some other man was wearing the mantle of glory for achievements past.

Thus we find him in 1864, going into the management of the old jail, at Perrysburg, as sheriff; twenty-seven years old, unmarried, a boy, scarce well of wounds from Rebel bullets, and almost without financial resource. He finds a number of incurable insane persons confined in the same small building, along with other pris- oners of all classes. His instinct of humanity immediately rebelled against such an arrange- ment, or want of arrangement, and, in a few months after his first incumbency of the office, we find him before the board of county commis- sioners, zealously laboring, in the face of almost overwhelming opposition, based on economic grounds, for the founding of a county infirmary, where the infirm of mind and the aged poor could receive proper attention. The fight was bitter; but our infirmary, counted the best man- aged institution of the kind in the State, is the result.

Within a few months we again find him, with Auditor Geo. N. Parsons and Commissioner Walter Davidson (both since deceased), planning, and, with the help of others interested, carrying to success the deepening and enlarging of Ditch 12, or that part of the Portage river which extends through Liberty and Jackson townships. This was the most colossal ditch project conceived in the history of the county, or northwestern Ohio, for that matter, up to that time; and was the turning point in the fortunes of the townships containing the most fertile lands in Ohio.

Mr. Evers was elected sheriff on one of the first straight-out Republican tickets elected in

Wood county, the politics of the county having been so uncertain up to that time that mixed tickets were largely in favor; but when he took hold of the Sentinel. as editor, in 1870. he made the paper unqualifiedly Republican, and sup- ported Dr. E. D. Peck, of Perrysburg, for Con- gress, he being the Republican nominee. In this he met with the almost united opposition cf the voters of central Wood county, who opposed the Doctor on county-seat grounds, and they harassed the new editor in every way short of tar and feathers. Mr. Evers, feeling that he was right, and rising above the petty local squabble, bravely loaded his, at first, poor weakly (spelled both ways) little gun to the muzzle with red-hot Republican and Peck doctrine, and fired it out among people on schedule time throughout the campaign, and walked the streets of Bowling Green with that peculiar light in his cold, grey eye which all men soon learned to respect. He had the satisfaction of seeing his friend Peck elected to Congress; and, better still, taught the people, before he finally retired from its manage- ment, to think that "if the Sentinel says so, it's so." Whether or no all readers may agree with him in politics, must not all concede that the seeds of Republicanism, sown by the pen of Mr. Evers in those days, had much to do with pro- pagating the 1, 200 reliable Republican majority old Wood now rolls up at each election, though surrounded by strong Democratic counties?

About 1876 Mr. Evers, Auditor J. B. New- ton and Probate Judge Geo. C. Phelps, drafted a law under which Rocky Ford, the Toussaint, Two Root, and several other immense ditches were constructed, deepened, straightened, which under the old law could not be done if any tax- payer objected in court.

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Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 3, Part 1

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1140

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1140