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 47
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
consists of 200 acres, 160 acres in Amanda township and forty acres in Marion, which he devotes to agriculture and stock raising. On November 18, 1869, he was united in wedlock to Miss Kesiah Baxter, daughter of James and Malissa Baxter. Mrs. Poling was born in Allen county, Angust 21, 1844. Of this marriage nine children are now living: Malissa A .; Arthur B .; Mary E .: James B .; Bertha B .; Rachel A .; Corrol B., deceased; William B. and Clarence D. Mr. and Mrs. Poling are members of the Methodist church and Mr. Poling is superintendent of the Sunday-school. Both Mr. and Mrs. Poling are prominent in the social world and leaders in society; each casts a moral and healthful influence wherever they go, and no public enterprise or worthy undertaking is passed by them without receiv - ing very liberal support. They are both strong advocates of good schools and aid as largely as possible to the success of the same, and both are highly esteemed wherever known.
a HARLES C. POST, deceased, was one of the old and highly respected citizens of Amanda township, Allen county, Ohio. He was born in Wash- ington county, Pa., July 27, 1800, where he spent his boyhood days. He was the son of Jeremiah, who was born in New York, and who removed to Pennsylvania about the year 1775. The family dates back several genera- tions to German ancestry. In 1822 Mr. Post moved to Richland county, Ohio, and twenty years later settled in Amanda township, Allen connty, and located in what is now known as Post Mill, which he erected in 1843, where he engaged in the milling business for several years-being a millwright by profession. For three years previous to his coming to Allen county he was located at Upper Sandusky, constructing mills for the Indians. After he
had operated the mill in Amanda township for a few years he moved to his farm in sections Nos. 8 and 17, which consisted of 540 acres, where he made many valuable improvements. He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1855 and held at different periods many of the township offices. He died March 27, 1884, and his wife died February 22, 1886. Before her marriage Mrs. Post was a Miss Elizabeth Bryant, a cousin of William Cullen Bryant, and a relative of the first Bryant of Washing- ton county, Pa. She was born March 13, 1801. A family of eight children were born to them, five of whom grew to maturity: Mar- tha, wife of Cyrus Hoover, ot Spencerville, Ohio; Leonides H .; Adam C., Isaac B. and Charles G. With the birth of the republican party Mr. Post became identified with it and was a member of the Methodist church.
Leonides H. Post was born August 9, 1832. His boyhood was spent at home and in Oberlin college, Ohio, and at the age of fifteen he engaged in the trade of a stove molder, at Lima, Ohio. In 1852 he made a trip to California via New York, returning by way of New Orleans, in 1854. August 2, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza J. Stewart, danghter of Samnel Stewart. since which time he has lived in Amanda township, where he owns a farm of 200 acres of finely improved land, there being none superior to it in the county, the entire estate indicating the thrift of the owner. He has contributed more than any other man in his section to the im- provement of draft horses, having owned seven blooded breeding horses, in company with Mr. Hoover. He also raises a high grade of cattle, having introduced the short- horn and other breeds well known.
Politically Mr. Post has always been a stanch republican, bnt at present is a strong advocate for free coinage of silver. He has at different times filled several of the local offices
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of the township and has proved himself an effi- cient and trustworthy public servant. His marriage has been blessed by the birth of four children, viz: Samuel A., Charles C., Ed- ward G. and Leonides H., Jr. The family are Baptists in religious profession. The son, Charles C., was married May 19, 1884, to Miss Ida Crites, daughter of Isaac and Eliza- beth Crites. She was born February 22, 1862, and died March 24, 1889, leaving two chil- dren, Clar B. and Ida G. Mr. Post is one of the progressive young farmers of the township and owns a farm of 171 acres. Politically he is a populist and lives in full faith of its suc- cessful future.
The Stewart family, alluded to above, was represented among the very earliest settlers of Allen county, Ohio; by William and Samuel, who came to this county in 1824. They were natives of Pennsylvania and were of a family of ten children. Their parents were Matthias and Elizabeth Stewart. Samuel Stewart was born in Lycoming county, Pa., grew to man- hood in Champaign county, Ohio, where he was married, and two years after that event, came with his wife and one child, to Amanda township, and entered a tract of land in sec- tion No. 9, where his daughter, Mrs. Leonides Post, now lives. His brother William entered land at the same time, adjoining him on the west. Here they made homes and spent the balance of their lives. Four children were born to Samuel, viz: Thomas, Elizabeth, Eliza J. and Matthew; the last named died in childhood, as did Thomas. Samuel Stewart was a man of rare and noble qualities-was open-hearted and generous and ever ready to lend a helping hand whenever needed. He was public spirited and enterprising and was among the fust in all good works and under- takings, and was one of the first board of county commissioners of Allen county. His first wife dying, he was married a second time,
and to this marriage two children were born, but both died in infancy. Mrs. Post's mother's name was Thomas and her father, Capt. Thomas, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was afterward killed by the Indians in Logan county, Ohio, near Bellefontaine, about 1815.
S AMUEL A. POST .- Modern farming is distinctively different from that kind of agriculture carried on by the pioneers. With the pioneer it was not necessary to do anything more, after clear- ing his land, than to cultivate the soil. The modern farmer has, beside the cultivation of his farm, to attend to its fertilizing and its underdraining. All of these he must do in a scientific manner if he would secure the best results. Samuel A. Post is one of the secien- tific farmers of German township, Allen county, and is illustrating by his own course and ex- perience what farming can be developed into. Mr. Post was born in Amanda township, Allen county, Ohio, November 22, 1856, and is a son of L. H. and Eliza J. (Stewart) Post. By them he was early instructed in all the duties of a farmer's boy, and was given a good com- mon-school education, he remaining at home with them until he had attained to manhood. In 1876 he entered the Western Normal uni- versity at Ada, Ohio, with the view of taking a thorough normal course of study; but after he had been in attendance one term he was compelled to return to his home, and give up school, on account of ill health. Here, how- ever, occurred probably one of the most event- ful and probably also the happiest event of his life, that of his marriage, which is noticed more in full in the following paragraph.
Not long after his return to bis home he married Miss Sarah A. Crites, daughter of Jacob and Emily Crites, who was born in Ger- inan township, Allen county. Mr. and Mrs.
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Post have a family of five children, viz: Will- iam Stewart, born October 19, 1881; Cora Ethel, born November 22, 1882; Louie Crites, born November 10, 1884; Charles B., born December 8, 1888, and Clarence M., born De- cember 7, 1892. After his marriage Mr. Post settled down on the farm he has occupied ever since, and which he still occupies. It consists of seventy acres in section No. 29, German township, and this farm, since he located upon it, he has made, by careful and skillful tillage and improvement generally, one of the best farms in Allen county. One improvement worthy of note is his fine frame house, erected in 1890, with all modern improvements, and with a depth of seventy-two feet. His stock barns are also of the most improved kind, as also are his grain barns. Another very notable improvement is the putting down of nearly 30,000 feet of underdraining tile, which, by its carrying off the surplus water, lengthens out the season for cultivation, and warms up the soil, so that his farm is more productive than it otherwise would be, in addition to be- ing pleasanter to cultivate. Mr. Post is en- gaged principally in general farming and stock raising, keeping only the best grades of stock. Thus it will be seen that he is one of the lead- ers in adopting modern and improved farm methods, and in this way sets an example to his neighbors, and exercises an influence upon them that. he could not do in any other way, and which would at the same time be so bene- ficial to them. Politically Mr. Post is a strong republican, and though never seeking office, he has been selected as a member of the school board. Religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and lives con- sistently with his profession. Altogether Mr Post is one of Allen county's representative men, and bis industry and well directed energy have placed him in the front rank of her best citizens.
e LIHU REED .- The Reed family is one of the ancient families of the United States, having come to Amer- ica, probably from England, previous to the Revolutionary war. Like many other families of Allen county, they originally came from Pennsylvania, the father of Benjamin Reed living on the Shawnee Flats, in the famous Horse Shoe Bend, on the Pennsylvania railroad, and it was there that Benjamin was born, probably about 1782. He was taken by his father when a lad, to Trumbull county, Ohio, where he was reared and where he re- ceived his education, but as that was before the days of what are now called common schools, the facilities he enjoyed were not of the best.
It is not now apparent whether any of the immediate ancestors of Benjamin served in the Revolutionary war, though they probably did, as he himself, when the war between the United States and England came on in :812, gave evidence of the flow of patriotic blood in his veins by then going into the service of his country. In April, 1833, Benjamin Reed settled in Shawnee township, Allen county, Ohio, having made the entire trip from Trum- bull county by means of wagons, reaching the old Shawnee council house on Sunday, April 10, 1833. Upon his arrival there he entered eighty acres of land, that upon which Isaac Hall now lives; but he did not settle on that piece, but on 160 acres which he purchased, where Elias Bowsher now lives. This farm he cleared, improved and resided upon for forty years, and it was the scene of most of his ac- tive labors as a pioneer farmer. Late in lifo he sold this farm, and retired to spend the re- mainder of his days with his son, Elihu, dy- ing in 1871. :
While yet living in Trumbull county, Ohio, he married Miss Jane De Courcy, whose par- ents were among the early pioneers of that
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county. By her he was the father of the fol- lowing children: Peter. Sally, Kate, Henry, all deceased; Jane, deceased wife of Henry Crider; Mellie A., deceased wife of Samuel Crider; Elihn, the subject of this sketch; Thomas and Isaac, both deceased; and Eliza, wife of Ellis Darling. The mother of these ten children died in 1851. Both parents were inembers of the Shawnee Methodist Epis- copal church, and stood high in the opinion of all their neighbors and friends.
Elihu Reed, the third son of Benjamin Reed, was born September 23, 1823, in Trum- buli county, Ohio, and came with his father to Allen county. In the fall of 1852 he pur- chased his present farm of 120 acres, upon which he has lived ever since. This farm he cleared and improved, himself and his sons doing most of the hard work necessary to be done. Leaving his sons at home to attend to the farm and his family, he enlisted in Febru- ary, 1865, in company C, One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio volunteer infantry, and served until the following September, when he was discharged. Mr. Reed married Miss Mar- garet Robbins, daughter of John Robbins, who settled in Shawnee township in 1839, and by this marriage he had the following children: Mellie A., wife of Joab Bowsher; Jane, wife of A. V. Mechling; Benjamin, deceased; Will- iam, John, Lorinda, wife of Theodore Fris- inger, and Charles.
Mr. Reed is thus one of the oldest contin- uons residents of Allen county, and ever since his arrival has been both an interested spec- tator of and active participant in its develop- ment. He has been an industrious and honest man, of private enterprise and public spirit, kind and charitable in disposition, the friend of the needy and the apholder of morality and religion. Now at the age of seventy-three he is spending the evening of his days in the cahn reflection of a life well spent.
ORACE ADELBERT REEVE, the leading member of the Delphos (Ohio) bar, was born March 29, 1854, at Hancock, Delaware county, N. Y., where his father was a pioneer merchant. Our subject was educated principally in the New York academies, and in 1873 began the study of law in Deposit, N. Y., continued his study in Lebanon, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar at Findlay in April, 1875. He then taught school in Ohio for one year, and in No- vember, 1877, located in Delphos and began the practice af law, going into partnership with James K. Reeve, his brother, now a well- known author of Franklin, Ohio. That part- nership lasted about two years, and then Mr. Reeve practiced alone until September 15, 1891, when he formed a partnership with John W. Roby, who had studied under Mr. Reeve, which connection continued until the fall of 1893. His next partnership was with Judge Lindemann, who had been eight years probate judge, retired from office February 9, 1894, and came at once to Mr. Reeve, with whom a co-partnership was formed March 1, 1894. Mr. Reeve was soon chosen as director of and attorney for the Ohio Wheel company; acted as director of and attorney for the Electric Light & Power company, and also as attorney for the Delphos National bank, as well as di- rector of and attorney for the Delphos Savings & Loan association from its organization. He is also president of the Delphos school board, and has acted as member of the board of edu- cation, in the Delphos union school district, for eight years, proving an able and efficient adviser and one at all times ready to grasp and secure everything that would aid in promoting the educational interests of his city. In poli- tics Mr. Reeve affiliates with the republican party.
Mr. Reeve was happily married, in 1879, to Miss Mary Frances King, the accomplished
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daughter of John King, of Delphos, and by this union have been born four bright children, viz: Adelbert King, Horace Kent, Rowena and William Addison. Mr. Reeve is still a young man, full of vigor and in the prime of his intellectual endowments. He is a ripe scholar and a lawyer of astuteness and prac- tical ability.
ON. THEODORE D. ROBB, judge of probate and a well-known attor- ney at law at Lima, Allen county, Ohio, was born in Bellefontaine, Logan county, Ohio, June 29, 1843. The genealogy of the Robb family in America is traceable to a gentleman who came from Scot- land between the years 1760 and 1770, but whose name cannot now be recalled, but it is certain that his sister, Elizabeth Robb, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, sometime in the decade of 1740 and 1750, and a year later her brother came to America and landed in Hali- fax Nova Scotia. From this unknown brother have descended, it is thought, all of the Robb family, with which this history has to do, now residing in the United States. These data, however, may be relied upon: There was one family of five children, of whom George Robb and Sarah, his wife, lived and died in Morgan county, Va. (now W. Va.), and were parents of the following children: Robert, David, William, Josiah and Sarah. John Robb and Sarah, his wife, had born to them eight chil- dren, named Isaac. John, James. William, Robert, Joseph and two daughters, whose james cannot be recalled to memory; the elder of these daughters, however, was married o Caleb MeNnity, and the younger to Charles Hay. James Robb, the fourth of this family, ettled in the Carolinas, and all trace of him s lost. The hith brother, Joseph Robb, was he progenitor of the Robb family of Allen
county, Ohio. He married Mary Hill, the union resulting in the birth of fourteen chil- dren, viz: John, Rachael (both of whom died in infancy), Robert, Joseph, Rachael (the second), Rebecca, Samuel, John (the second), William, Mary, James, Sallie, David and Joshua. The latter of this family, Joshua Robb, is supposed to have been in York county, Pa., about the year 1786; he married in Wash- ington county, in the same state, Mary, daugh- ter of Rev. Thomas Marquis, on August 27, 1807, and between 1812 and 1815 came to Ohio. Here he first located in Guernsey county, and hence he moved to Logan county, where he became associate judge under dem- ocratic auspices. In 1852, Joshua Robb came to Lima, and purchased a farm on the north boundry line of the city, where he lived a few years, and then retired from active labor to the city, where he died January 26, 1865, his wife having preceded him to the grave Sep- tember 24, 1863. The children of these par- ents were as follows: John, born July 19, 1808, in Washington county, Pa., died July 19, 1827; Joseph was also born in Washing- ton county, Pa., May 30, 1810, and died in September, 1865; Thomas M. was born in the same county, October 25, 1812; David was born January 25, 1815, in Guernsey county, Ohio; Sally was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, May 16, 1817; Samuel was born in Guernsey county, July, 6, 1819; Mary was born in Guernsey county, November 22, 1821, and died November 6, 1856; Vance, born May 4, 1823, in Guernsey county, died in March, 1860, and Minerva Ann, born March 18, 1829, in Logan county, Ohio, was married to Joseph Thomas and died in Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo county, Michigan.
Thomas M. Robb, the third son of Joshua Robb, was born in Washington county, Pa., as stated above, but his education was acquired in Guernsey county, Olio, in the best of al
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OF ALLEN COUNTY.
institutions of learning -- a printing office, at Cambridge, where he found the arcana of "ars conservatum artem." When he had learned his trade he "tramped" all over the country-to Zanesville, Cincinnati, Philadel- phia, Baltimore, and other minor points. He eventually returned to Logan county, where he edited the Western Aurora, of Bellefontaine, in 1836; the Gazette of Marysville, Union county, Ohio, in 1842, and the same year was editor of the Logan Democrat. In 1844 he was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas of Logan county, and filled the office seven years. He was, prior to this, appointed postmaster of Bellefontaine, and served several years with credit to himself and to the satisfac- tion of the community. In 1853 he was ad- mitted to the bar of Allen county, having studied under Judge William Lawrence, and then formed a partnership with C. N. Lami- son of Lima, Allen county, Ohio, which part- nership lasted until 1856, when he was elected judge of the probate court, which position he held for six years. He then resumed the practice of his profession for a year, when the firm of Robb, Hughes & Robb, was formed, of which he was the senior member, and which terminated in 1874, owing to the breaking down of the health of the senior member of the firm. In the fall of 1872 Mr. Robb was elected as a democrat to represent Allen county in the lower house of the state legislature, and served one term; he also served a term as mayor of Lima, and was for some time chair- man of the democratic county committee, being a very popular and prominent man in his party. In 1860 he joined the Presbyterian church of Lima. The marriage of Thomas M Robb took place July 31, 1835, to Ann Moore, daughter of James Moore, of Wash- ington county, Pa. Mrs. Ann Robb is still living at the age of eighty-five years. She bore her husband eight children, as follows:
Edward L., born June 15, 1836; went to Texas in 1855, served as a captain in the Con- federate States army, and was formerly judge of Angelina county court and member Twelfth Texas legislature; Josephine Mary, born Octo- ber 28, 1838, is the widow of J. H. Armstrong, formerly treasurer of Allen county, Ohio; Thomas B. (deceased) was born February 24, 1841, went to Texas in 1860, served in the Fourth Texas cavalry, C. S. A., during the rebellion, returned to Lima, Ohio, on a visit, and here died; the fourth child, Theodore D., will be made mention of further on; Caroline, born July 20, 1848, died in infancy; Anna C., born May 31, 1851, is the wife of Ira P. Carnes, superintendent of construction in the Lima Locomotive Machine shops; John M., was born March 28, 1854, and is a resident of Piatt county, S. Dak .; the eighth child, Frank R., was born November 14, 1856, and is a resident of Galveston, Tex.
Theodore D. Robb, the fourth child in the family of Thomas M. Robb and wife, came with his parents to Lima when a lad. He learned the trade of a carpenter after reaching ma- turity. He followed his trade, however, for only four years, when a higher impulse led him to the study of law under his father. After a due course of preparation under the instruction of his father, he entered the law department of the Michigan State university, at Ann Arbor, from which he graduated in 1870. In 1869, however, he had received a license to practice, having been admitted to the bar of Allen county, Ohio, his studies under his father having fully qualified him to pass the necessary examination. His first practice was in partnership with his father, but later the firm of Robb, Hughes & Robb was formed, but the firm name was later changed to Hughes & Robb, in 1874, through the retirement of the senior partner, the father of Theodore D., after which the busi-
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
ness was continued under the style of Hughes & Robb. This partnership was terminated by the election of Mr. Hughes to the bench, when a new partnership was formed by Mr. Robb uniting with ex-Judge James Mackenzie, under the firm name of Mackenzie & Robb, which was continued for five years, when Judge Mackenzie retired from practice. Mr. Robb was then alone in business for a year, and for the following five years practiced under the firm name of Robb & Leete. In 1894 he was elected by the democratic party probate judge of Allen county, of which office he is now the incumbent. Ever promment as a man of busmess, he has served as president of the board of trade of Lima, and is also presi- dent of the South Side Building & Loan association. In all the public affairs of Lima he has taken a most active part and has proven himself to be a valuable and useful citizen. Fraternally he is a member of Lima lodge, No. 205, F. and A. M., and of Lima lodge, No. 162, B. P. O. E. The marriage of the judge took place January 21, 1894, to Mrs. Mary C. Owen, daughter of Thomas Mungiven, of Dunkirk, Ohio, and by this union one child, Theodore D., Jr., was born June 21, 1895.
J OSEPH REIF, proprietor of the Del- phos Bottling works, and one of the well-known citizens of Delphos, was born in Memphis, Tenn., June 2, 1862, and is a son of Joseph and Johanna (Webber) Reif. The father was born on board a vessel while his parents were on their way from Baden, Germany, to the United States, and the mother was born in Elsass, Germany. They were married in Buffalo, N. Y. From Buffalo, Joseph Reif went to Minnesota, but, not liking that part of the country, went to
Memphis, where he secured a position as head cutter in a boot and shoe factory. When the late war broke out, rather than go into the southern army he left Memphis, and returned to Minnesota. That was in 1862, when his son Joseph was born. His wife joined him with her children in Minnesota, and two years later, 1864, she died in Saint Paul. He is now a citizen of near Bear Lake, Minn., twelve miles from Saint Paul. Three children were born to the parents, our subject and his elder brother and sister, all three of whom are still enjoying life's happiness.
When our sabject was less than three years old he was taken by his uncle, Jacob Riehl, who was then living at Fremont, Ohio, and by his uncle and aurt he was reared. He at- tended : chool for about five years a Fre- mont, and then, his wacle ren sving to Millers- ville, he went to school at that place w il he was thirteen years old. He then took a posi- tion as clerk in a grocery store at Millersville, where he remained about seven years. In 1884 he came to Delphos and engaged in the bottling business, establishing the bottling works of which he is now proprietor. Two years later his uncle, Jacob Riehl, carne to Delphos, and the two were in partnership for five years, when Mr. Riehl retired from the business, and Mr. Reif has run the works ever since, meeting with success. He bottles the beer of Steinle & Co., of Delphos, and the beer of Berghopp & C. , of Fort Wayne, and also bottles all kinds of mineral water for the Delphos trade and for points within fifteen and twenty miles from the city.
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