USA > Ohio > Putnam County > A Portrait and biographical record of Allen and Putnam counties, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Ohio, pt 2 > Part 50
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In politics Mr. Samsal is a democrat, and in 1882 was elected infirmary director, which office he held for six years; for two years he was township assessor, and has also held the office of school director for fifteen years, as well as trustee of his township for twelve years. He
is a member of the Masonic lodge, No. 280, at Kalida, and has been for twenty-seven years, but is not identified with any religious organiza- tion, his model in moral ethics being simply " Do right." In 1891 he was a candidate for nomination for county commissioner, but failed of the requisite number of votes. He is a very pleasant gentleman, is exceedingly popular,
and is one of the township's most substantial citizens, having well performed his part in advancing its prosperity.
ORACE J. SANDERS, D. D. S., one of the well-known residents of Colum- bus Grove, Ohio, and the leading dentist of the place, was born in Al- bion, Erie county, Pa., October 13, 1855. He is a son of Horace. H. and Fanny (King) Sanders, both of whom are also natives of Pennsylvania. The Sanders family came originally from England, coming to America during the Pilgrim times, there being three brothers of the family. They settled in New England, and the ancestors from whom our subject descends drifted into New York state. The grandfather of Dr. Sanders moved to Pennsylvania from New York, settling in Erie county. The Kings moved from Rhode Island to New York and thence into Pennsylvania, and were early settlers in Erie county. They were of English-Irish descent. The father of Dr. Sanders was a mason by trade. His death occurred when the doctor was five weeks old. There were three children born to the parents, one of whom died at the age of seven years. The widow, though in poor circumstances, kept her children together, and gave them all academic educations. She now makes her home in the old home place in Albion, Pa., where the doctor was born. The other sur- viving child is Mrs. Daphua H. Van Riper, of Albion.
At the early age of thirteen years Dr. San- ders became a wage earner by going to work in a factory, where he worked during the sum- mers and attended school during the winters for about eight years, during which period he took a winter's course at a commercial college at Meadville, Pa. When in his twenty-second year lie decided to take up the dental profes-
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sion, and entered the office of Dr. C. H. Har- vey, at Erie, Pa., as a student, with whom he remained a year and a half. He then entered a dental college, where he was graduated in 1881. The same year he graduated he began practice at Liberty Center, Henry county, Ohio, where he followed his profession for abont eighteen months, and then left that place and spent a few months in the far west. Re- turning to his old home from his western trip, he made a visit, and on the 16th day of May, 1883, he came to Columbus Grove, where he has since remained. At that time there was no dentist in this place and the doctor soon established a good business, which has con- tinned to increase from year to year, and has long been the leading dentist of the city.
Dr. Sanders was married on December 23, 1886, to Amelia B. Johnson, who was born in Hancock connty, Ohio, May 22, 1855, and was the daughter of John H. Johnson. She was a woman of excellent attaimnents and of fine edil- cation. When thirteen years of age she began teaching school, in the public schools at Find- lay, Binfton and Columbus Grove. Her death occurred May 20, 1895, in the faith of the Presbyterian church. Her father died Decem- ber 19, 1894, and her mother in April, 1893. Dr. Sanders is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, and owns his residence and office prop- erty on High street, Columbus Grove.
IRAM SARBER, retired farmer of Kalida, Putnam county, Ohio, is a native of Franklin county, this state, was born Angust 23, 1817, and is a son of Adam and Catherine (Enslen) Sarber. The paternal grandfather of our subject, An- drew Sarber, was born in Pennsylvania, it is supposed in Luzerne county, and was of Ger- man parentage. He was a patriot of the Rev- olutionary war, and served four years as a pri-
vate-three years as body guard to Washing- ton; was a farmer and weaver, and for some time resided near Philadelphia, but met his death in Luzerne county by the accidental fall- ing of a rock. He had eight children, of whom Adamn, the father of Hiram, our subject, grew to manhood in Luzerne county, Pa., was there married, and about 1812 came to Ohio and purchased a farm in Franklin county, which he cleared up from the forest and resided on until 1833, when he came to Putnam county and purchased 133 acres in Union township, which he also cleared up from the wilderness, but subsequently became an extensive buyer and seller of farming lands throughout the county. To his marriage with Miss Enslen were born nine children, wiz: Sarah (Mis Clevenger), deceased, and Abraham, who married a Miss Hindren, but is now deceased; Elizabeth, wife of George Clevenger; George, married to Miss Andrakes; Christian, married Miss Lee; John, married Miss Erman --- these three sons, all deceased; Hiram, onr subject; Lucinda (Mrs. Rimer), deceased, and William, deceased, who married Miss Fresh. Politic- ally, Mr. Sarber was a democrat and filled most of the minor offices of Union township; in religion he was a Presbyterian, and died in that faith.
Hiram Sarber, our subject, was olucated in the common schools of Franklin county, Ohio, came to Putnam county with his father, and later learned the carpenter's trade. From Putnam county, Ohio, he moved to Kosciusko county, Ind., where he followed carpentering and milling for ten years; he then returned to Putnam county, Ohio, purchased the okdl home-
stead and cultivated it for thirty years, and then retired to Kalida, where he is now passing the remainder of his years in peace, plenty and comfort-the reward of his years of indus- trious toil The marriage of Mr. Sarber took place in 1842, with Miss Susan Jeuk, daughter
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OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
of Abraham Jenk, of Union township, Putnam county, and this union has been blessed with eight children, viz: Mary K., wife of Thomas Scott; Rebecca E. (Mrs. Vail); Iva B. (Mrs. Ambler); Abraham F. (married to a Miss Jef- frey); John 1. (married to Miss Claypool); Sarah I., deceased wife of William Budd; Hiram J. (married to Miss Gochenhour), and Ella M., wife of Abraham Jenkins. In his politics, Mr. Sarber is an ardent populist. He was very popular with his fellow-citizens of Union township, and for many years served them as township trustee. In religion he is a devoted Presbyterian, and has long served as an elder in that church, to the support of which he has always contributed freely of his means. As a resident of Kalida, he stands among the foremost of its citizens, and is uni- versally respected as an upright man and as a useful and desirable member of the community.
The family history of Hiram Sarber, our subject, having been related in full, an inci- dent in his pioneer experience in Putnam county may here be reverted to with propriety. When he came here, in 1833, there were very few settlers, but numerous Indians, and the forest was filled with bears, wolves, deer and small game, and several times as many as three bears were found in one tree, where they had made their home for the winter. The boys of the family had many exciting ex- periences with these wild animals, and often, indeed, narrowly escaped becoming their prey, instead of the reverse. The ellest son, Abra- ham, having decided to remove to Illinois, sold his land and employed our subject, Hi- ram, then aged nineteen years, and his brother John, aged twenty-one, to drive his team and goods by the way of Fort Wayne, Ind., while Abraham and his family went via Dayton, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Ind. Hiram and his brother, knowing nothing about the country west of their home, drove along until four }
miles from Van Wert, when they found they had reached the end of the road and had twenty-two miles yet to travel through dense forests with no roads. There was an Indian trace, however, and the brothers, rather than turn back, venturel in this trace with their two yoke of cattle, and consumed four days in making this stretch of twenty-two miles, before reaching another road. The entire distance from home to their destination was 225 miles, and the time required to cover it was twenty- two days. Returning, the two brothers started on foot, passed up along the Iroquois river until they reached what was called the "cut- off," then crossed the Monon river and found that the road ran down stream; but they wanted to reach the Tippecanoe river, and luckily struck some fresh wagon tracks, which they followed, and eventually reached the Tippecanoe, and thence followed Indian trails until they reached Ohio and their home in the fall of 1836, from which time forward they lived on the home place until respectively married.
W. SCHMITSCHULTE, the effi- cient clerk of the the Putnam county- courts, is a native of Germany, born in the province of Westphalia, Jan- mary 14, 1848, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Wilken) Schmitschulte. The subject's mother died in 1848, when he was but eleven weeks old, and the father's death occurred in his native land, in April, 1851. By occupation Joseph Schmitschulte was a farmer, and by a previous marriage had one child, Joseph Schmitschulte, who still resides in the province of Westphalia.
HI. W. Schmitselmilte was the only child of his parents, and after his father's death, in 1851, made his home with an aunt, with whom he remained for some years. He was edu-
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cated in the common-schools of his native country, also attended the high school for some time, and at the age of about thirteen began life for himself as clerk in a dry-goods house, in which capacity he continued until coming to America, in May, 1866. On reach- ing the United States he proceeded to Louis- ville, Ky., where he spent fifteen months in the grocery store of his uncle, Henry Wilken, at the end of which time he came to Putnam county, Ohio, where, for one year, he was em- ployed in the Glandorf woolen mills. The following spring he accepted a situation with Frease & Raff, as clerk in their dry-goods house, and after remaining with the firm a little over one year, took a similar position with the firm of J. Frease & Co., in the city . of Napoleon. He continued the capacity of saleswian in that place until February, 1870, when he returned to Ottawa, and in the ensu- ing April embarked in the grocery trade, which he carried on with a reasonable degree of success for a period of two years, disposing of his stock in 1872. For some time there- after Mr. Schimtschulte clerked for Messrs. Bressler & Cole, and subsequently engaged in the clothing business at Leipsic, where he remained until 1875, selling out at that time, returning to Ottawa, and again engaging as a salsman in various mercantile establishments.
In 1880, Mr Schmitschulte accepted a position as deputy clerk with J. J. Zeller, clerk of Putnam county, with whom he remained until the expiration of that gentle- man's term of service in August, 1885, at which time he became deputy under R. J. Spelman, and managed the affairs of the office until the death of the clerk in Novem- ber, 1877, when Mr. Schmitschulte was appointed to fill out the unexpired term. So ably did he discharge the duties of the position that, in 1888, he was elected to the office, was re-elected in 1891, and served until the
expiration of his term in August, 1895. When elected clerk, Mr. Schmitschulte defeated his competitor by a majority of 1,753 votes, the largest majority ever given any one man in the county, a fact which speaks eloquently for his popularity with the masses of the people. That he has been a capable, painstaking, and popular official goes without saying, and it is doubtful whether the county of Putnam has ever had a more gentlemanly and efficient public servant. He is public spirited, takes an active interest in the welfare of the country, and is a typical representative of that large class of Germans who become our best citizens.
Mr. Schmitschulte was married May 17, 1870, to Mary Recker, daughter of H. H. Recker. The following are the names of their children: Elizabeth M., deputy county clerk; Herman J., also a clerk in his father's office; Clara K. and Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Schimit- schulte are members of the Catholic church, and they moved in the best social circles of Ottawa ..
J ACOB RIMER, a pioneer of Sugar Creek township, Putnam county, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, January 29, 1815, a son of Daniel and Cather- ine Rimer. Both parents were natives of Lu- zerne county, Pa., and of German descent, the mother being a daughter of Jeremiah Van- dermark, and, at the date of her marriage with Mr. Rimer, a widow, bearing the name of Carey. They were wedded in the Keystone state and came to Ohio about the close of the war of 1812, located at first in Fairfield county, inoved thence to Franklin county, and in 1832 came to Putnam county, where the father. who was a farmer, died in 1857, his widow surviving until 1875, when she passed away at about ninety years of age, both being members of the Primitive Baptist church. Then family
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JACOB RIMER.
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OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
consisted of five children, viz: Elizabeth, married to Jacob Clevenger, who came to Put- nam county in 1830; Jacob, our subject; Jere- miah, farmer and ex-county infirmary director, who died in February, 1894; Daniel, who re- sides near Columbus Grove, Ohio, and Parme- lia, widow of Samuel Hoffinan, who died of disease contracted in the army.
Jacob Rimer, whose name opens this sketch, was reared to farming and was chiefly self-educated. When quite a lad, however, he worked for his father on the Lake Erie & Ohio canal, the first built in Ohio, and saw the first boat pass through. When the family first came to Putnam county they stopped with the Clevengers, until they could. erect a cabin, then moved upon their own land. Jacob here assisted his father in clearing up and cultivat- ing the farm until his own marriage, in March, 1838, with Elizabeth Rhodes, who was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1816, a daughter of Peter and Catherine (Huffman) Rhodes. both of Pennsylvania and of German descent, and who came to Ohio before Columbus was made the capital of the state. They settled first in Franklin county, and in 1831 came to Putnam county when there were but three or four cabins in Lima. One of these was a hewn-log house, with punchoen floors, built for hotel purposes by a Mr. Mitchell, and here Mr. Rhodes passed a night; the next day he made his way through the woods and reached the present site of Vaughnsville, where he en- tered considerable land and built the first mill on Hog creek.
After his marriage Mr. Rimer settled on eighty acres of land belonging to his wife in the woods and put up a cabin; he owned a colt and his wife owned another; he owned a young cow and his wife also owned a cow, and with this stock they started in life together, but they are now among the wealthiest residents of the county. His cabin was erected where his
splendid residence now stands, and on this spot he has lived ever since. At one time Mr. Rimer entered some lands in Union township, but these he later sold and added to his home- stead until he owned 320 acres, of which he has cleared all but forty acres and placed in a state of cultivation nexcelled by that of any farm in the county, and improved in a man- ner hardly equaled. These premises are three miles west of Vaughnsville, nine miles from Delphos, and twelve miles from Lima, and here Mr. Rimer has accumulated a competency through his skill as a farmer and as breeder and dealer in live stock, of which he has al- ways kept the choicest varieties.
When Mr. Rimer made his settlement here the county had not yet been organized. The first county court was held at the house of a Mr. Sarber, near the present town of Kalida, and the presiding judge (Holt) had his seat on the side of a bed. This judge then had the power of appointing the commissioners and other county officers, and as one of the town proprietors granted to Mr. Saber the contract for laying out Kalida, in the task of clearing away the brush, etc., Mr. Rimer was employed as an assistant -- the next legislature approving all the acts of the judge and his court, and ordering the coming election in this wilderness. It will thus be seen that our subject has seen the county grow from its incipiency to its pres- ent prosperous proportions. After his own prosperity began to assume formn, he was for some years compelled to go to Piqua for milling purposes and to haul his surplus wheat to Fremont, where he disposed of it at sixty- eight cents per bushel.
To the parents of Mrs. Elizabeth Rimer were born eight children, all of whom lived to rear familes of their own and to aid in carry- ing out the enterprises of their father, who was ever ready to assist newcomers with grain or meal, and would divide his last bushel in times
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of extreme scarcity without extra charge. This philanthropic gentleman died in March, 1839, and in 1840 was followed to the grave by his faithful helpmate. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Rimer was blessed with nine children, of whom one died unnamed in infancy; George W. died in hospital while in the service of his country during the war of the Rebellion; Daniel P. is prominent as a farmer and is the founder of the town of Rimer; Elizabeth J. is the wife of John Beamand, a thriving farmer; James W. is a civil engineer of note at Van Wert and has twice represented his county in the state legislature: Mary J. is married to Benjamin Clevenger; Eleazer is managing the home farm; Lewis H. is a merchant and post- master at Rimer; Francis M. is engaged in farming. The mother of this family was called to rest December 25, 1894, a devout member of the Primitive Baptist church. The father has always been democratic in his politics, but has never sought public office, although he has served his fellow-citizens as township trustee and has filled several minor offices from a sense of public duty .. He also is a consistent member of the Primitive Baptist church,; which he freely aids with his means, and whose teachings find in him a truly worthy exemplar. The Rimer family and all their connections have ever been among the foremost in promot- ing the prosperity and in bettering the interests of the township and comty, and certainly no family is more highly respected.
....
RANK SCHIMMOLER, a prominent, well known and highly respected farmer of Jackson township, Putnam county, Ohio, is the son of Francis and Mary Catrina (Richtman) Schimmoler, and was born in Glandorf, Putnam county, October 11, 1836. The father was a native
of Germany, was born in Osnabruck, Hanover, in the year 1783, and was reared as a farmer and educated in the excellent schools of Germany.
In the year of 1833 Francis Schimmoler came to Glandorf and entered an eighty-acre tract of government land, on which he settled, cleared in part and made his home. Mary Catrina Richtman was also born in Germany about the year 1815. When in the neighbor- hood of twenty years of age she came to America with a neighbor's family, her parents being dead, and in a few months after her coming was married to the father of our sub- ject, who had paid her passage to the United States. Seven children blessed this union, whose names are as follows: Frank, the eldest, of whom this sketch largely concerns; Dena, who died at the age of two years; John Henry, a farmer of Jackson township; Lizzie, who died at the age of seventeen years; William, of Jen- nings township; Lewis, of Dayton, Ohio, and . August, who died m childhood. In the year 1839 the parents of our subject came to Jack son township, where they at first bought forty- five acres of land and afterward added eighty- two acres more, and then later entered 105 acres, and still later took up sixty-six acres more, on which Frank, our subject, now lives. He was a man of more than ordinary ability and hard-working, good-managing, thrifty and ambitious. He gave efficient aid to many of his country people in securing them good homes in the new world, and was a man widely known and greatly respected. He was . a consistent communicant of the Catholic church, and in politics a democrat. He died of cholera, deeply lamented, September 5, 1855, the mother's death having occurred Jan- uary 30, 1850.
Frank Schimmen, the subject of this me- moir, was reared m the county and . ceived the linuted education at that time afforded the
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OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
children of early settlers, and after the death of his father worked in a saw-mill and grist- mill at Fort Jennings for a space of four years. November 3, 1859, he was united in marriage to Mary Elizabeth Gerking, the daughter of Arnold and Agnes (Von Lehinden) Gerking, and this union was blessed with ten children: Fer- dinand, born Angust 29, 1860, now a farmer in Jennings township: Mary A., born July 2, 1862, the wife of M. Holtgrivy, of Delphos; Frank H., born February 19, 1864, a farmer of Putnam county, Ohio, and William, born January 13, 1866, of the same occupation and place of residence; Bernadina, born August 3, 1868, the wife of Joseph Hohenbrink, of Hol- gate; Lizzie, born August 12, 1870, the wife of George Fischer, a farmer of Putnam county, Ohio; Lewis, born September 2, 1872, a farmer at home: Rosa Elizabeth, born Angust 29, 1874; Anme, born March 25, 1876, and Au- gust H., born June 22, 1878. The mother was born in Oldenburg, Germany, February 4, 1837, and when three months old her parents came to Fort Jennings, where her father, Ar- nold Gerking, died in 1838, and for eight years she lived with her uncle, A. Von Lehinden, at the expiration of which time her mother again married, and she returned home. Mrs. Schimmoler's mother died March 9, 1878. After his marriage our subject began life on an entirely new farm, which he cleared and put under cultivation, and on which he now lives, and is the owner of one of the most pleasant homes and profitable farms of the township. He is a good farmer and good manager, and a good neighbor and good citizen. He has filled with ability the office of school director for five years, and has served as road super- visor for a number of terms. Politically he is a representative democrat, and holds in con- scientious respect the dogmas of the party, and in religion is a Catholic, being a commimicant of the Fort Jennings church, Mr. Schimmo-
ler is one of the valued citizens of the county and a man of genial worth and character, whose deeds speak louder than his words.
ERNARD H. SCHLAGBAUM, a suc- cessful farmer of Monterey township, Putnam county, Ohio, was born in Cincinnati, February 26, 1849. His father, George Schlagbaum, was born in the village of Ibbenburen, Prussia, May- 5, 1820, on his father's farm. George came to Amer- ica in 1843, and for a year worked in the coal mines near Wheeling, West Va., and then went to Cincinnati, where he went to work in the Enquirer office at the old-fashioned hand press. He married, in that city, May 14, 1848, Miss Dora Hille, who was born in the village of Boumte, Hanover, Germany, October 14, 1829, a daughter of William Hille. Miss Hille, with some acquaintances, came to America at the age of sixteen years, later was married to Mr. Schlagbanın and became the mother of ten children, born in the following order: Bernard H., our subject; Henry, born January 27, 1852, and died at the age of twenty-one years; Louis, born August 24, 1855; Mary, born Oc- tober 4, 1857; John, born September 12, 1856 William, born July 17, 1893; Anna, born September 26, 1866; Elizabeth) born June 17, 1869; and two others that died in infancy. Mr. Schlagbaum lived in Cincinnati three years after his marriage, and in (851 moved to Delphos, Ohio; in 1853 he removed to Otto- ville and bought eighty acres of land three- quarters of a mile cast of town, which farm our subject now owns. A log house in the woods had already been built, and here Mr. Schlagbaum, assisted by his sons as they grew old enough, cleared off the timber from his land and made a superior farm, on which he died October 28, 1886, at the age of abont sixty-six years and six months. He was a
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
true Catholic and aided in the building of the first church of that denomination in Ottoville,; and subsequently in the construction of the present magnificient structure dedicated to Saint Mary. In politics he was a democrat, was always a popular, public-spirited man, and died an honored citizen, respected by all who knew him.
Bernard H. Schlagbaum was about three years of age when brought to Putnam county by his parents. He was placed at farm work as soon as old enough to pick bark, and was reared to manhood as an agriculturist. Feb- ruary 12, 1874, at Ottoville, he was married by Father Mueller to Mrs. Clara Anna Helm- kamp, who was born in Hanover, Germany, July 24, 1846, and bore the maiden name of Grave. She was first married at Delphos, Ohio, June 6, 1866, to Bernard Helmkamp, to whom she bore two children, viz: Annie, born September 24, 1867, and Frederick, Jan- uary 15, 1870. Mr. Hehnkamp was a carpen- ter by trade and also the owner of fifty-three acres of land, on which our subject now lives and owns. Mrs. Schlagbaum is a daughter of Ferdinand and Mary C. Grave, the former of whom was born in Hanover, Germany, was a shoemaker, was there married to Mary A. Moenter, and by her became the father of three children, viz: Henry, Christian and Clara Anna (Mrs. Schlagbaum). By a pre- vious marriage he was the father of two chil- dren, Mary and Elizabeth, and at his death the entire family came to America and settled at Delphos, Ohio, in October, 1853.
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