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 1 > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
in life. At the age of seventy-eight years Peter Krebs is still living on that portion of his farm which he has reserved for his own use, honored by his neighbors, a sincere Catholic in his religious faith, and in politics a democrat.
Joseph Krebs, subject of this sketch, hav- ing reached his majority, was united in mar- riage, June 5, 1859, with Miss Ann Mary Kuegg, who was born in Germany, December 17, 1840, a daughter of Henry and Catherine (Kauer- mann) Knegg and their only child. Mr. Kuegg, however, had been previously married to Catherine Honerkamp, to which union had been born one child, Catherine. The father, Henry Kuegg, died in Germany in 1843, and in 1852 his widow came to America, bringing her child, Ann Mary. The mother located in Allen county, Ohio, and here married William H. Farnefeld, by whom she had one child --- Matthias-and here died October 28, 1887. To the happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Krebs have been born eleven children, who all, with two exceptions, lived to reach full age, and were born in the order here given: Peter (who died at the age of twelve years), Ann Mary, Catherine S., Susanna J., Joseph T. (who died at the age of twenty-two years), Mary Madeline, Mary Margaret (died at the age of three months) Maria Thersa, Annie Mary Catherine, Anna Mary Veronica and John Burnett.
354
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
Krebs has been a life-long democrat, and for eight years has represented his township in his ยท party conventions, has been a member of the school board fifteen years, and has served as supervisor thirteen years. Nevertheless, Mr. Krebs voted for Abraham Lincoln for president on his first nomination.
As a soldier, Mr. Krebs served eleven months in the late Civil war, in company E, Sixty- seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, and was in the fight at Bermuda Hundred, and in others. He was taken sick with chronic diarrhea, and for five months was confined in Hampton hos- pital, Fortress Monroe, when his faithful wife went to his rescue, arriving Wednesday. August 4, 1865, and remaining until the seventh. securing in the meantinie transportation for herself and Mr. Krebs to Columbus, Ohio, where he was detained in hospital until Angust 28, when his discharge papers came to hand, having been delayed on account of his loss of enlistment papers at the battle of Petersburg, Va. Mrs. Krebs then brought her husband home, and after a year's nursing saved his life, but for eight years thereafter he was still an invalid. Mr. and Mrs. Krebs have done much toward sustaining church and school in Marion township and in recovering its fields from the unbroken forest of the early days, and thus stand deservedly high in the esteem of the people.
ENRY KRUSE, one of the well-to-do and highly respected and prominent men of German township, was born in Prussia, Germany, July 24, 1833, and is a son of Joseph and Auna Kruse, who both died in the fatherland. They had four children: John, deceased; Joseph, of Cincin- nati; Dora, of Darlington, Wis., and Henry, of this biography. Henry came to America with his brother Joseph, and stopped in Cin-
cinnati between two and three years; thence went to Urbana, where he worked by the month for two years and afterward worked on the farm two years, after which he leased a farm of 270 acres, mostly timber. Of this he cleared seventy acres in five years, and laid by the snug sum of $2, 100, with which he came to Allen connty in 1865, bringing his wife and two children with him, and with this money bought sixty-eight acres of land and began making a home for himself and family. Owing to an almost total failure of crops for three successive years, the new pioneer became greatly discouraged-involved himself in debt -- but fortune turning the fourth year, he took new courage and soon found himself in a pros- perous way. He sold twenty acres of his farm adjoining Elida in lots of one acre each, at $100 per lot, and with this money pur- chased a tract of timber land, which he cleared and afterward added sufficient to it to make a farm of 180 acres-all under good cultivation, except forty acres of timber. About the year 1873 he began making brick, which business he followed for some five years, furnishing the brick for nearly all of the brick structures in Elida and for his own home, which he built in 1880. He has fol- lowed general farming and stock raising and his farm and buildings are model ones and none more convenient in the township. He was married May 29, 1859, to Miss Doretta Booman, who was born in Hanover, Germany, September 24, 1833, and was the daughter of Coonrod and Christiana Booman, both natives of Germany. The father died in Urbana, Ohio, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and the mother died in 1871 at the age of seventy- one. Mr. and Mrs. Kruse have five children; Charley, a farmer of German township; Henry, a farmer and cabinet-maker, living west of his father; Anna, wife of Henry Smith, of Saint Mary's, Ohio; Emma, wife of Lewis Feightner,
-
355
OF ALLEN COUNTY.
of Lima; and Frank, a carpenter at home. Our subject has done much toward building up and developing Allen county, and is a man of sterling worth and integrity and is recognized by his large circle of friends as one to be trusted and respected. He is a good example of what a man can accomplish by dint of in- dustry and the exercise of good judgment and plenty of pluck and energy. His excellent wife has ably seconded him in all his under- takings, and to her much of their mutual prosperity is due. Politically he is a denio- crat; in religion a member of the Lutheran church, and is a trustee of the church and cemetery. We cannot close this sketch with- out a complimentary mention of Mr. Kruse. He was left an orphan when fifteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to a shoemaker with whom he worked four years for nothing, and paid $30 .for learning the trade, and through his own efforts has made himself what he is.
ON. C. N. LAMISON was born in Columbia connty, Pa., in 1826. At the age of ten, in 1836, he came to Ohio with his parents, who by the in- cidental death of a horse, were forced to stop at Dalton, Wayne county, where they re- mained. He was educated in private schools and academies, began reading law at the age of seventeen years, and was admitted to the bar at Wooster, Ohio, in August, 1848. He went to California in 1850, during the gold ex- citement, returned to Ohio in 1852, and lo- cated in Lima, Ohio, in January, 1852; was appointed prosecuting attorney for Allen county, Ohio, in March, 1853, and was elected to the same office in the fall of that year. As a candidate for re-election in 1855, he was de- feated, together with the balance of the dem- ocrats, by the know-nothings, and was re-
elected prosecutor in 1857. He volunteered, in 1861, at the first call for troops, and was elected captain of a company, which was af- terwards company F, Twentieth Ohio volun- teer infantry. At Zanesville he was elected major of the said Twentieth Ohio volunteer infantry, served in West Virginia, and had charge of the B. & O. R. R., under Gens. Mc- Clelland and Rosecrans. At the expiration of his service, in the fall of 1861, lie assisted in enlisting the Eighty-first Ohio volunteer infan- try, and became its major. The regiment served in Mississippi until March, 1862, when it was ordered to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., and took part in the battle of Shiloh. Illness of a serious character forced him to resign; the service. He returned to Lima, where, after an illness of about a year, he resumed the practice of law. In 1870 he was elected to congress, and re-elected in 1873. In 188t he became the attorney for the Ohio Central Rail- road company, in West Virginia, and organ- ized the company and built the railroad bridge over the Ohio river at Point Pleasant, W. Va. He spent many years in Washington, D. C., looking after the interests of various railroads. He was subsequently attorney for the Mobile & Birmingham Railroad company during its construction. He also spent two summers in Arkansas looking after the interests of the Memphis & Kansas Railroad company. At the expiration of Gov. Hoadly's term he was prominently mentioned as the democratic can- didate for governor, but refused to allow the use of his name, thinking that Hoadly was the only logical candidate. Since 1892 he has practiced law and is now connected with the United States interior department, with head- quarters at Topeka, Kans. As a practicing lawyer his characteristics were absolute and unswerving fidelity to the interests of his cli- ents, and a law-suit with him was always war from beginning to end. That a gentleman of
356
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
his superior abilities should be successful in life is not a matter to be wondered at, and that Mr. Lamison has been successful to a phenom- ena! degree, is a fact that goes without saying.
EORGE F. LANG, one of the repre- sentative business men and citizens ot Delphos, Ohio, is the successor of the well-known and popular firm of Shenk & Lang, proprietors of the Eagle Flour- ing mills. Mr. Lang was born in Delphos March 16, 1850, and is the son of John A. and Mary A. (Houck) Lang John A. Lang was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, France, born in 1821. He emigrated to America when a young man, and his first location in this country was at Canton, Ohio. Later he located at Tiffin, Ohio, where he was married in 1845. In 1847 he removed to Delphos, and here remained for about one year, but on account of the epi- demic of chills and fever, from which he and his wife suffered continually, he became dis- couraged and returned to Tiffin. Notwith- standing the unhealthy condition of Delphos he did not lose his regard for it as a place for a home, and about a year later he returned here, built a shop and residence on Washing- ton street, on the site of the present Metho- dist parsonage, and pursued his vocation, that of shoemaking, until his death, which occurred in November, 1857. He was a worthy citizen, a man of integrity and enterprise, and was a member of Saint John's Catholic church. His widow, who survives him, was born in Baden, Germany, in 1830, and came to America dur- ing her youth To these parents six children were born, four of whom, beside our subject, survive. Two of them reside in Delphos, one in LaCross, Wis., and the other at Los Ange- les, California.
George F. Lang was reared and educated in Delphos, and has spent his life here. He re-
ceived a good education, attending both the parochial and public schools. After leaving school he became an employee at the Com- mercial House, then the leading hotel in Del- phos, working for the modest wages of five dollars per month and board. In May, 1865, he secured a position in the drug store of Alex. Shenk, his recent partner. Being ambitious, apt and industrious, he soon made himself use- ful and in time most proficient as a drug clerk, and had no trouble in holding his position. He clerked successfully for Alex. Shenk, Shenk & Walsh, Hunt & Walsh, M. Brickner, and in 1869, with means furnished him by his mother, in addition to what he had saved, he became a partner in the drug business with Alex. Shenk. under the firm name of Shenk & Lang. This firm continued in the drug business without in- terruption (save an interregnum occasioned by the destruction of their store by fire, May 3, 1872) until 1880, when they sold out their drug business and purchased the Eagle Flour- ing mills of Delphos, which they operated until October, 1895, when Mr. Shenk disposed of his interest to our subject, who has since carried on the business under the style of the George F. Lang Milling Co.
During the building of the Clover Leaf railroad from Delphos to Holgate, there to con- nect with a road building to Toledo, Mr. Lang was of great service and benefit to the commu- nity. This road was built by the citizens of Del- phos, and with the assistance and aid obtained from others living along the line. Mr. Lang was selected as a director of the road, and was one of the most active members of the road when the work was being done. He attended all the meetings, solicited aid, assisted in securing the right-of-way, and looked after the impor- tant details of the project generally, all of which was done without compensation. Beside giving freely of his time and best efforts, he also made I a general cash contribution. His recompense
1
Algi Lawton
359
OF ALLEN COUNTY.
was found in the pride he took, in common, with every other enterprising citizen, in seeing the road completed, and in the good that he believed would accrue to Delphos by another railroad outlet. Mr. Lang has always taken a commendable interest in the building up of Delphos, and has contributed to the establish- ment of not a few industries, from which he has never, with but a single exception, real- ized a dollar on his investments. At present he is a stockholder in the Ohio Wheel com- pany, of which he was at one time a director.
Mr. Lang has always taken an active in- terest in public affairs, but of late his business has prevented him from accepting office. He formerly served, however, as treasurer of Washington township, Van Wert county, for four years, and was for eight years a member of the Delphos board of education. He is now holding the position of park commissioner. When the drug store of Slienk & Lang was destroyed by fire May 3, 1872, Mr. Lang found himself at a standstill. He not only lost every- thing lie possessed in the way of means by this fire, but came near losing his life, as he was the last to leave the burning building and was badly burned himself. A few weeks pre- vious to this disaster, when life seemed opening out before the young business man with promise, and the future looked bright, Mr. Lang became engaged to be married to his present wife, who, being possessed of fair means, both in money and in real estate, promptly came to the assist- ance of her intended in his hour of trial, loss and disaster, with her check for a generous sum, thus demonstrating her affection, trust and confidence in him, and at the same time enabling him to re-enter business as a proprie- tor instead of an employee.
Mrs. Lang was Miss Amelia J , the youngest of three daughters of the late Ferdinand Bredeick, the pioneer settler of Delphos, and brother of Father Jolin Otto Bredeick, the
venerable founder of Saint John's Roman Catholic church of Delphos. Ferdinand Bredeick came to what is now Delphos in 1842, and died in September, 1846. His was the first log-cabin built in the town. It stood on Second street, near the site of the present opera-house. It was used as a dwelling house, boarding house and store. In it the first relig- ious services ever held in Delphos were held, and in it the first child of the town (now Mrs. George F. Lang) was born.
Mr. and Mrs. Lang were married on Octo- ber 16, 1872, and to their union six children have been born as follows: Mary Josephine, now Sister Albina, of the Franciscan Sisters; P. A., of LaCrosse, Wis .; Lillie, Henrietta, Charles and Otto are at home, while Bernadina, the youngest, died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Lang and family are members of Saint John's Roman Catholic church of Delphos. Mr. Lang is recognized as one of the most enter- prising and public-spirited citizens of Delphos, and as a business man stands very high, being considered a safe, reliable and conservative man, possessing the necessary executive ability for conducting successfully large enterprises.
ON. HENRY J. LAWLOR .- To be intrusted with public office is gener- ally a mark of the confidence of the people, and it is peculiarly the case in connection with the career of the gentleman whose name is at the head of this biographical outline. Mr. Lawlor was born January 24, 1859, at Cardington, Morrow county, Ohio, and is a son of Samuel and Bridget (Scully) Lawlor. Samuel Lawlor was a son of Henry Lawlor, a native of county Kildare, Ireland, in which county he lived and died. Samuel Lawlor was born in that county in 1826, was reared a farmer, and at the age of twenty-four emigrated from his native country for the land
360
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
.
of the free, and settled at Ashley, Delaware county, Ohio, where he found employment as a laborer on the C., C., C. & I. railroad. Three years later he returned to Ireland, where he was married and where he remained two years, when he again came to the United States. Upon reaching this country the sec- ond time he was re-employed by the same rail- road company, and made one of their division foremen. After filling various responsible posi- tions in the employ of this company, and re- maining with it until 1865, he removed to Lima, Ohio, and entered the employ of the P., Ft. W. & C. railroad company, as blacksmith, having learned that trade while with the C., C., C. & I. company. Some time later he was placed in charge of the blacksmith shops of the P., Ft. W. & C. road at Lima, which position he filled acceptably to his employers until 1890, in which year he retired. He and his wife were the parents of four children, viz: Fannie, deceased wife of Michael Doyle, of Lima; Mary A., wife of Thomas Gorman, of Lima; Hon. Henry J., merchant-tailor of Lima, and Catherine, wife of Patrick H. Phlahie, of Lima, Ohio. The mother of these children died in 1878. Mr. Lawlor has always been a democrat in politics, and has always taken an active interest and part in promoting the suc- cess of his party, and though never in pursuit of any office, he was chosen trustec of Ottawa township and served two terms.
Henry J. Lawlor began, at the early age of thirteen years, to earn his own support, and thuswhile very young became more than usually self-reliant, and after leaving the public school drove a team for a while, assisting in the grad- ing of Main street, Lima; he then entered a carriage blacksmith-shop of that city, re- mained five months, following which he ap- prenticed himself to the proprietors of the Lima machine works and boiler shops, and learned boiler- making. He was next employed
as brakeman on the C., C., C. & I. railroad for a short time, and then became a section hand, at Lima, on the P., Ft. W. & C. rail- road; next accepted a position as section fore- man for the Clover Leaf company, with head- quarters at Delphos; one year later he re- turned to Lima and was employed as helper in the C., H. & D. shops, worked eight months, and then, perceiving the necessity for a better education than he had obtained in boyhood days in the common schools, he entered the Lima Commercial school, in which he took a thorough course in arithmetic and book-keep- ing. He then learned the tailor's trade with Bolby & Belvill, at Lima, remaining eighteen months, when he accepted a position as coat- inaker for J. H. Lesher, with whom he re- inained one year, and then engaged in a like capacity with J. H. Wise for five months: he then worked for Osthoff & Co., at Delphos, as coat-maker, for one year, and finally returned to Lima, where, August 3, 1881. he opened a tailoring establishment at the corner of Main and Wayne streets, and for four years con- ducted a most thriving trade and established a reputation for producing superior work that has never since been infringed upon. He then moved to the Brotherton block, on Main street, where he sustained his popularity until October, 1891, when he removed to his pres- ent establishment, at 308 North Main street, and is now recognized as a true artist, and where he carries a line of goods valued at $6,000, from which varied assortment the most fastidious of his patrons find no difficulty in pleasing their taste.
Politically Mr. Lawlor is a democrat and is strongly devoted to the interests of his party. Nor has this devotion been without its reward, for he has been honored by that party with its confidence in more instances than one. He has been three times elected to represent his ward in the city council, and has
361
OF ALLEN COUNTY. .
served one term as its president. In 1894 he was chosen state senator for the senatorial district composed of Williams, Defiance, Paulding, Van Wert, Allen, Auglaize and Mercer counties, and he has been a member of the county central committee for ten years. Fraternally he is a member of Lima lodge, No. 162, B. P. O. E .; of Lima lodge, No. 1, A. O. H., and Lima lodge, No. 201, K. of St. J. Religiously he is a Catholic, and a mem- ber of Saint Rose church.
Mr. Lawlor was married January 1, 1879, to Miss Mary A., daughter of James and Kate Griffin, of Bucyrus, Ohio, and has two chil- dren: Fanny and Harry J. It may truth- fully be said of Hon. H. J. Lawlor that he is a friend of that large class of men who need friends most-that is, the laboring class-and to their credit it may be as truthfully said that they recognize this fact, and their friendship for him is as strong as is his for them.
PILLIAM U. LATHROP, general merchant of Westminister, Auglaize township, Allen county, Ohio, is a native of Auglaize county, and was born in old Fort Amanda, Auglaize county, May 29, 1865, of English descent, his paternal progenitor having come from England to America in the colonial days.
company with a man by the name of Follet, in the grain and merchandise business. There, October 23, 1845, he married Miss Columbia A. Hover. In the spring of 1848, through the speculations of his partner, he was forced to close out his business; from this place he moved to Lima, where he remained until the spring of 1849, where, in company with a num- ber of others, under the lead of Mr. Carland, of Findlay, he started overland for the gold fields of California, where he remained five years, following the fortunes of a miner. Be- coming discouraged by continued reverses of fortune he returned to Ohio by way of Panama. The next two years were spent in the employ of Haney & Debean, wholesale hardware men of Milwaukee, Wis., as bookkeeper; in 1856 he went with a company of four statesmen, under the command of ex-Senator E. G. Ross, to Kansas, settling on a claim twelve miles southwest of Topeka, in Shawnee county --- remained there until the spring of 1863, when, with his little family, he made the return trip to Ohio, with an ox-team, and settled on a farm ten miles southwest of Lima, where he lived until his death, enjoying the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was a justice of the peace almost continuously for twenty-one years. In the spring of 1887 his health gave way, and after an illness of several weeks he died on the first day of June, aged sixty-six years. His children were: Calla, born at Sandusky, Ohio, March 28, 1849; Harry, born at Milwaukee, Wis., March 6, 1856; Charles S., born at Auburn, Kans., May 19, 1858; Grace, born at Auburn, Kans., October 20, 1860; Grant, born at Auburn, Kans., Jan- uary 25, 1863; William Ulysses, born at Fort Amanda, Ohio, May 29, 1865; and Clarence, born at Fort Amanda, Ohio, December 31, 1872.
George Denison Lathrop, father of our sub- ject, was born in the city of New York August 2, 1821, and when five years of age his parents moved to Albany; during the next three or four years much of his time was spent with his grandfather on a farin near Cazenovia, N. Y. About 1830 his father moved to Sandusky, Ohio, where at the age of fourteen, he entered the warehouse of Townsand & Co., where he remained some years, later going to Tiffin with Meryman & Co. ; later we find him in Rodney Lathrop, father of George D. Bucyrus for a time, then at Bellefontaine, in | Lathrop, was born in Susquehanna county,
362
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
Pa., April 15, 1794, learned the trade of a carpenter and followed building in New York city, Albany and Buffalo; in Sandusky, Ohio, he was the architect and builder of some of the inest houses in the city; was foreman in the Mad River car shops, in 1849, and during the cholera epidemic of that season, when his shop was turned into a coffin factory, his whole time was spent in nursing and burying his friends, and at the close of the epidemic was himself stricken down, August 17, 1849.
His wife, Columbia A. Hover, was born in Trumbull county, Ohio. Her father, Ezekiel Hover, was born in Essex county, N. J., Sep- tember 13, 1771, and was a civil engineer; he emigrated to Washington county, Pa., then to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1802, and later, in 1833, came to Allen county, settling on the farm now occupied by the Orphans' home; nine years later we find him keeping a tavern in Bellefontaine. In the spring of 1846 he re- turned to Lima, where he died in 1852 at the age of eighty-four years.
William U. Lathrop, whose name opens this biography, was reared on the farm until seventeen years of age, and received his earlier education in the district schools. He had at- tended the Ada normal for a time and then went to Wisconsin and worked for different railroad companies for four years-two years of this time was railroad agent at Pound, Wis. He was called home by the death of his father, and after that was operator for the Buckeye (Pipe) company for six years, and then, in 1893, engaged in his present business, in which he has met with the most encouraging suc- cess. He married, in April, 1891, Miss Ella M. Butcher, a native of Auglaize county, Ohio, the union being now made the more happy by the birth of two children-Emma and Eliza- beth. Both parents are members of the Meth- odist Protestant church, in which Mr. La- throp is a chorister and superintendent of the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.