USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 42
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George M. Billings was born in LaGrange Township December 25, 1845. Reared on the Billings farm in LaGrange Township, he acquired a liberal education for that time. He attended Oberlin College one year. His active career was spent on the farm, but he lived in Elyria at the time of his death on January 30, 1909, at the age of sixty-three. He was a democrat and was a man of deep religious convictions though not identified with any one church. He and his wife had two children, and the daughter Pearl A., who was born in LaGrange and was given the best of advantages in musical training, having studied at the Oberlin Conservatory, was for some years a teacher of music, but is now the wife of F. E. Gibson of Cleveland, and her two sons are Lisle, aged fifteen, and Ford, aged five.
Frank C. Billings spent his boyhood on the farm, acquired a com- mon school education, and at the age of eighteen went out to Kansas. For two years he farmed on rented land near Topeka. Returning to Lorain County in 1893, he was employed by his father a few years, and on March 9, 1896, was married in Elyria to Miss Maude McNelly. She was born at Ridgeville, Lorain County, a daughter of James and Bertha (Tippin) MeNelly. Mrs. Billings graduated from the Elyria High School in 1893 and was a teacher in the country schools until her mar- riage. They have one son, Dorrwood Arthur, who was born on the home farm January 24, 1898, and finished his course in the LaGrange High School in 1916.
In addition to what he inherited from his father Mr. Billings bought the interests of his mother and sister in the home farm, and now has alto- gether 240 acres. This includes fifty-three acres which he purchased in addition to the homestead. Everything he does he does well and works constantly for progress and improvement. A prominent feature of his farm is a fine new barn on a foundation 30x100 feet, and seventeen feet from foundation to eaves. It is covered with a slate roof and has cement floors. He also has a silo of 100 tons capacity. He employs power ex- tensively to run his farm machinery, and has a power house with a gaso- line engine run by natural gas, and this supplies power for his three milking machines, which he has had in use in his dairy for the past two years. In 1908 Mr. Billings sank a 500-foot gas well, and he used it until another well was put down 2,200 feet to Clinton sand, and this developed a strong flow of gas. Beside his own power house and home two other houses on his land are supplied with this gas, and he receives a royalty on gas he supplies from his works.
Born and reared a democrat, Mr. Billings in 1912 was elected town- ship trustee, and was the first democrat elected to that office in twenty- eight years. He has also served as a member of the school board. Mrs. Billings is a member of the Disciples Church and for some time was a teacher in the Sunday School. Mr. Billings affiliates with the Knights of Pythias at LaGrange, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Eagles at Elyria, and both he and his wife are active in the Grange. Mrs. Bil- ings has membership in the Pythian Sisters and the Ladies of the Macca- bees, and has served as home commander and as county commander.
SAMUEL VINCENT. PRYCE, of Carlisle Township, near LaGrange, a citizen who has prospered in spite of handicaps and adversities, and with his family is now enjoying a comfortable prosperity on his farm of sixty-five acres on rural route No. 1 out of LaGrange. He does con- siderable dairy business, and turned to farming after a long experience as a telegraph operator and store manager.
He was born in the Village of Pool, Illogan Parish in Cornwall, England, December 9, 1858, a son of Samuel V. and Mary (Trevenen) Vol. 11-18
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Pryce. He remained in Cornwall with his grandparents after his father went to Australia, where the latter died when Mr. Pryce was about twenty years of age. In Cornwall he acquired a fair common school education, and was in his twenties when he set out to make his own way in the world and came to America. He landed at New York after a trip of six days. On the same boat was Miss Eliza Rickard, his betrothed, who was also born near his birthplace in Cornwall, daughter of Stephen and Jane (Gall) Rickard. The couple went direct to North- ern Michigan, and were married in the Village of Norway in that sec- tion of Michigan July 22, 1881.
The young couple lived at Norway and also at Vulcan, while Mr. Pryce was employed in the iron and copper mines of the Upper Penin- sula. While at work he met with an accident which closed his career as a miner, and he then learned telegraphy.
It was as a telegraph operator that he came to Ohio and after spend- ing a time at Oberlin was appointed to a position with the Cleveland Stone Company at Nickel Plate as operator and also as manager of the com- pany store. He remained with that corporation continuously for twenty- nine years until the business was closed up.
In the meantime in 1897 Mr. Pryce bought his present homestead in Carlisle Township, and his family resided there while he continued work for the Cleveland Stone Company. During the past eighteen years he has made many improvements and he now has a fine farm home. He remodeled the barn, and he also had a gas well put down to a depth of 957 feet and has a copious supply of natural gas for fuel and lighting purposes.
Mr. and Mrs. Pryce have a son, Samuel Vincent Pryce III, who was born at Menominee, Michigan, November 19, 1882. The son was graduated in a business course in 1901, and is now an active young farmer helping his father run the place. Mr. Pryce is independent in politics, and he and his family are Methodists. He still keeps up his affiliations with the Independent Order of Foresters at Calumet, Michigan.
FRANK R. FAUVER. It is doubtful if any recent appointment to the state service has been based upon better qualifications, fitness for the responsibility and the general requisites of experience and ability than that of Frank R. Fauver who in August, 1915, began his duties as superintendent of the State Public Works. This office is one that demands exactly the qualifications which Mr. Fauver is known to possess.
Prior to beginning his duties in this state office Mr. Fauver's record was made in Lorain County, where for the past eight years he has been a member of Elyria Road Commission No. 1. The construction of a good road is an improvement which, under modern conditions, must take precedence in importance over almost any public undertaking. To the energy and good judgment of Mr. Fauver must be credited a large share not only in the construction of one road but in the building nearly 100 miles of macadamized roads in the No. 1 district of Lorain County. Under his supervision a large mileage of macadam construc- tion is found in the townships of Elyria, Ridgeville, Carlisle and Eaton.
For nearly a quarter of a century Mr. Fauver's home has been in Elyria, and while his service as road commissioner outweighs all others in importance he was for six years city auditor. Mr. Fauver is a native of Lorain County, having been born on a farm in Eaton Town- ship October 10, 1878. He is a man of liberal education, having attended the common schools and being a graduate of the Elyria High School, after which he took two years of work in the University of Michigan. He early became identified with public affairs, and was elected for two
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terms to the office of city auditor. Along with the office of road com- missioner he was secretary of county road district No. 1.
Well known in social and fraternal circles, he is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Free and Accepted Masons at Elyria, and Lodge No. 465 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is also a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Fauver was married February 9, 1916, to Miss Julia Schnuerer, of Elyria, a daughter of Mrs. Minnie Schnuerer, of that city.
J. A. MEEK, M. D. One of the young physicians and surgeons whose work has indicated ability and professional talent in Lorain County, Dr. J. A. Meek lives at Grafton, where almost at the outset of his career he has acquired a place of prominence and usefulness.
He was born in Cortland, Ohio, August 2, 1885, a son of Warren Fayette and Harriet (Cowdery) Meek. Doctor Meek was reared to manhood in the vicinity of Cortland, attended public school there, being graduated from the high school with the class of 1903, and followed that with three years of general employment. Partly with his own earnings he entered the Homeopathic College at Cleveland, where he continued to pursue his studies until graduating M. D. in 1912. After his gradua- tion he located at Grafton, and has made an excellent start and has a promising patronage. He is a member of the Lorain County Medical Society.
In Cleveland, while still attending medical college, on September 19, 1909, Doctor Meek married Miss Lila M. Bartholomew of that city.
CARL H. DUDLEY. While Oberlin is a town chiefly distinguished for its homes and its educational institutions, it has at least one industrial and manufacturing concern, the Ohio Road Machine Company, of which Carl H. Dudley is secretary and treasurer. This local plant bears favor- able comparison with the larger industries of Lorain County. It manu- factures a large line of machinery used in the construction of roads and also for irrigation purposes. The output of the factory meets the inter- national and export trade of the United States since the machines are shipped to such foreign countries as South Africa, South America and Russia. The company is incorporated with a capital of $40,000.
Besides his office as secretary and treasurer of this company, Carl H. Dudley has a number of other interests that identify him with Oberlin. He started life practically without any fortune as a farmer's boy.
He was born in Lorain County, September 26, 1868, a son of J. Harwood and Angeline (Loomer) Dudley. His grandfather, Jonathan Dudley, a native of Vermont, was an early settler in Lorain County, where he spent the rest of his days. J. Harwood Dudley was born in Vermont in 1822 and died in 1876, while his wife was born in Nova Scotia in 1832 and died in 1898. They were married in Wisconsin, but soon afterwards moved to Ohio and located in Lorain County, where the elder Dudley followed farming and in time built up a considerable business, owning quite a tract of land in Henrietta Township and han- dling sheep and cattle. As a republican he filled several township offices, and he and his wife were members of the Baptist Church. There were nine children, and the six now living are: Arthur L., a farmer in Hen- rietta Township, Lorain County ; Ella, wife of Dr. Thomas Walker, who holds the chair of English in a large college in South Africa; Stowell B., who is a physician at Weiser, Idaho; Carl H .; Harlan, a physician at Jefferson, Ohio; and Mrs. J. E. Barnard, wife of a dentist at Oberlin.
Reared on a farm, and no doubt deriving from that atmosphere and environment a wholesale physical energy which has enabled him to make
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a success in business affairs, Carl H. Dudley attended the Academy of Oberlin College for three years, and then completed a course in the Oberlin Business College. He lived in Chicago one year, after which his business interests led him to the West, and for two years he was con- nected with a bank in Nebraska and for a time was in the lumber business in New York State. It was in 1898 that he established himself as a manufacturer at Oberlin, beginning with the manufacture of creamery cans and cream separators. He has been one of the important factors in developing the Ohio Road Machine Company. Mr. Dudley also owns a farm in Lorain County, and has a summer resort hotel at Vermilion.
In 1908 he married Miss Hortense P. Mapes, who was born in Nebraska. They have two daughters: Winifred, born June 6, 1910; and Barbara, born February 18, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley are members of the Baptist Church and in politics he is an independent republican.
ROBERT C. WARD. To the greatest number of people in Lorain County Mr. Ward is known through his capable service as sheriff, an office which he held for two terms, four years. However, he has been a resident of this section of Ohio nearly forty years, was for a long time in business at Wellington, and has lived at Elyria during the past fifteen years. Whether in office or in private affairs Mr. Ward has enjoyed an excellent reputation for painstaking ability, efficiency and public spirit.
In identifying himself with Lorain County Mr. Ward came from the West rather than from the East, which is the natural movement of most people in establishing new homes. He was born at Rockville in Parke County, Indiana, September 11, 1850. His father, John E. Ward, was born in Kentucky, and his mother, Margaret E. (Mulhallen) was a native of Virginia and a daughter of a slave holding planter who freed his slaves and came to the free State of Indiana when Mrs. Ward was about six years of age. John E. Ward was born in 1824, and died in 1859. His wife was born in 1826 and they were married at Rockville, Indiana, moved from there by wagon to Fulton County, Illi- nois, later to Peoria, and finally to Lacon in Marshall County, Illinois, where the father died. His widow was left with the care of five chil- dren. For the next two years she lived at Lacon and then established a home near Wenona, Illinois, where her sons found work on a farm and contributed their earnings to the support of the little household.
One of these early wage earners and workers was Robert C. Ward, who gained practically all his regular schooling prior to the time he was fourteen, and at that age started as a regular farm hand at wages of $14 a month. At the end of eight months when paid his aggregate wages of $112 he took the entire amount to his mother. His other brother was also working, and their sister was teaching school, and in this way the family gradually began to get ahead and prosper. About 1878 the mother and two older children moved from Illinois to Mis- souri and the mother died there in the home of her daughter in 1908, while her son Robert was serving as sheriff of Lorain County.
Robert C. Ward first came to Ohio in 1873, and was employed in a sawmill at Napoleon in Henry County, but in June of the same year went to Huron County in charge of 1,000 head of sheep. He soon after- wards found work in a sawmill at Greenwich, but in 1875 took up another line of business, driving about over the country and collecting butter and eggs. In the spring of 1880 he became identified with the firm of Wadsworth, Peabody & Hossler in their planing mill at Green- wich, and in 1893 the same company sent him to their mill at Welling- ton in Lorain County. For seven years Mr. Ward remained at Welling-
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ton, and was engaged in several lines of business while there, part of the time having a buggy and implement house.
Having sold his interests at Wellington Mr. Ward moved to Elyria in 1901 to take up his duties as bailiff and deputy sheriff. This office furnished him the training and the logical preparation for the honor paid him in 1906 when he was regularly elected county sheriff. He was nominated in an old time political convention for that office, but in 1908 he became the nominee of his party at the popular primaries, and was the first sheriff of Lorain County subject to the registration of the popular will both at primaries and the regular election. He was nomi- nated without opposition, was re-elected, and held the office for two con- secutive terms, until January, 1911. Since leaving the office of sheriff Mr. Ward has lived retired.
In politics he claims allegiance with the republican party first, last and always, and has at different times been an influential factor in local politics, though never seeking honors for himself except in the case of sheriff. He was formerly identified with several fraternal organiza- tions, but is now only an active Mason, both in the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapters. Mr. Ward and wife find their chief recreation and take a great deal of pleasure in their large Cadillac touring car. Mr. Ward knows how to keep an automobile clean and in the best of working order, and his big car looks like new all the time. He is a member of the Elyria Automobile Club. He and his wife have a pleasant home on Lake Avenue. November 4, 1874, he married Emerett Washburn, who belonged to one of the oldest families in this section of Ohio. She was born in Huron County, a daughter of Henry Craft and Charlotte C. (Griffin) Washburn, the latter a native of Greene County, New York. Henry C. Washburn was also born in Huron County, a son of Henry Washburn, who brought the family to Huron County in the early days, and a grandson of Joseph Washburn, who also came to Huron County.
ALBERT FRANKLIN RUST. Shady Nook Farm, at Grafton, was for two years the scene of the energetic plans and labors of the late Albert Franklin Rust, who died while in the midst of his preparations for an extensive business as an agriculturist and dairyman, but whose brief residence in Lorain County made a strong impress on the community, where he left a host of sorrowing friends, and Shady Nook Farm is now occupied and ably managed by Mrs. Rust and two of her daughters.
For one who started his independent career in early boyhood, relying upon industry, honesty and merit to advance himself in the world's favor, the late Albert Franklin Rust accomplished all that could be desired, both in a material way and in that esteem which is one of the most distinctive marks of a successful career. He was born on a farm at Northampton, Clark County, Ohio, January 31, 1865, a son of David and Phoebe (Cost) Rust. His father was born March 9, 1835, in Clark County and his mother was born in the same locality, January 9, 1840. When the son was about five years of age his parents moved to Union County, Iowa, where his mother died in 1868. The father then returned with his three children to Clark County, Ohio.
The late Mr. Rust acquired only a common school education in his early youth, and when fifteen years of age started out to earn his own living by hard work in a little factory in Dialton, Clark County. By such employment he earned sufficient to support himself and later also to pay for several terms of instruction in the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso.
In 1886 he moved to Shelby County, Ohio, bought a farm, started and conducted a tile factory.
November 28, 1889, Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Rust was united in mar-
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riage with Miss Bonnie Estella Dunson. Mrs. Rust was born November 8, 1871, in Shelby County, Ohio, a daughter of Addison and Rosanna (Lodge) Dunson. Her father was born at Meadowbrook, Augusta County, Virginia, January 22, 1831. Her mother was born in Mont- gomery County, Ohio, July 30, 1835. Addison Dunson was a child when he moved with his parents to Port Jefferson in Shelby County, Ohio, was reared there, obtaining a common school education, and afterwards learned the undertaking business, which he carried on at Port Jefferson until 1872. He then moved to a farm at Maplewood, Ohio, and lived there . until his death on May 24, 1914. Mrs. Rust's mother passed away Febru- ary 3, 1890. Mrs. Rust is a woman of culture and thorough education, attended the common schools, and took one year in high school and also had a course in elocution.
In 1899 Mr. and Mrs. Rust moved to Paulding County, Ohio, where he again resumed the industry to which he had been early trained, tile manufacture, and became sole owner of a plant there. He had shut down his plant in Shelby County, though he still owned his farm there. From Paulding County Mr. Rust, in 1913, came to Grafton in Lorain County, and bought 386 acres included in the fine estate known as Shady Nook Farm. He was in the midst of his plans and labors for estab- ing himself on an extensive scale in dairying and stock raising when he was called away from the scenes of earthly life, February 10, 1915.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Rust were born six children : Hazel Rosanna, born May 11, 1891, is a graduate of high school and of a busi- ness course at Sidney, Ohio, and on March 24, 1910, she married Ivan S. Mahan; they are the parents of one son, Howard A., born February 12, 1911, and this little grandson was about four years of age when Albert F. Rust passed away. Eunice Pauline, who was born in Shelby County, Ohio, July 26, 1893, graduated from the high school at Havi- land, Paulding County, Ohio, and is now the wife of William Spelbring. Itella Joy, born October 1, 1897, near Maplewood, Shelby County, is a member of the class of 1916 in the Elyria High School. Mary Cornelia, born June 18, 1901, in Shelby County, is a member of the freshman class in the Grafton High School. Albert Franklin, Jr., was born Janu- ary 28, 1906, in Shelby County. Phronsie Estella was born in Haviland, Paulding County, September 11, 1908.
In character and accomplishment the late Mr. Rust was a man who always attracted notice and stood as one of the leading citizens of any community with which he was identified. He was reared a republican, but later became a democrat, and though not an office seeker he filled several places of trust and responsibility. He was at one time chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Maplewood, Ohio, and was also a representative in the Grand Lodge. While at Haviland in Paulding County he assisted in organizing the First National Bank, and was its first president, an office he held until he moved to Lorain County. When twelve years of age Mr. Rust was confirmed in the Reformed Church, and continued an active member both in the church and Sunday school until his death. While he was almost a lifelong member of the church, several years before his death he made a special consecration of himself and his means to the work of the Master. With very meager beginnings he had developed himself into a man of business affairs and had life been spared the normal period he would doubtless have gone much further in the various fields wherein his interests lay. At his death the care and responsibility of his business affairs devolved upon his wife, who has been ably assisted by her two daughters who are now grown and also by the one who is rapidly developing into young womanhood.
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PLINY H. ROGERS. One of the products which has made the Rogers farm in Grafton Township distinctive is the manufacture of cider and apple butter. During the season of 1915 Mr. Rogers in his home plant manufactured about eighty thousand gallons of apple cider, and con- verted a large part of its product into the making of apple butter, and of this delicious commodity he sent about twenty-eight hundred gallons to market.
This is not the only industry carried on on the Rogers farm. Mr. Rogers is a practical farmer, has made a success of his business, and also operates a first class dairy. His home is a mile and a half south of Belden, with Grafton as his postoffice.
Pliny H. Rogers was born on the farm a mile east of Grafton, August 29, 1872, and is a son of Theodore B. and Harriet S. (Hart) Rogers. His father was born at Collinsville, Connecticut, June 4, 1840, and is now living retired at the age of seventy-six. The grandparents were Henry D. and Bathsheba (Chapin) Rogers. Henry D. Rogers was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1810, and died in 1896. His wife, Bathsheba Chapin, was born at Chicopee Falls, Connecticut, May 28, 1805, a daugh- ter of Oliver and Ellice (Bush) Chapin. Oliver Chapin was born August 17, 1776, and his wife on October 20, 1779. In 1842, when Theodore 'Rogers was two years of age, his parents came west to Lorain County, locating in Grafton Township a mile east of Belden, and there they spent the rest of their days. Theodore Rogers was for years a very active member of his community in addition to his work as a farmer. As a republican he filled most of the township offices, and both he and his father Henry were closely identified with the Congregational Church in that community. Henry Rogers was one of the founders of that church, and sold steers at three cents a pound in order to raise the $500 he had contributed to the building. Theodore Rogers was also active in church affairs, held official position in both church and Sunday school, and is also a member of the Masonic Lodge at Litchfield. When about twenty-one years of age Theodore Rogers married, lived at home with his father until thirty, and then was given eighty acres of land by Henry Rogers. He occupied that place until 1897. His wife died Janu- ary 29, 1896. The six children in the family were: Clara B., who died December 28, 1915, left three children by her marriage to E. A. Terrell of Ridgeville; Edith P., who died at Oakland, California, married Wil- liam H. Brandenburg, and left a son Edwin B .; Harry L., who now lives at Fiske, Saskatchewan, Canada, married for his first wife Lottie Breck- enridge, by whom there is one child, George W., and for his second wife married Mrs. Laura Johnson; John died in infancy; the fifth child is Pliny H .; Dwight E. married Carrie Bessie Cleverdon and lives in Lorain.
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