USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 56
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John B. Dudley grew up on a farm, and completed his education during the freshmen year at Oberlin College. He had all the early in- fluences conducive to a life of honest industry, and after remaining with his father until twenty-two he bought a farm of 240 acres, which he subsequently sold in order to acquire his present fine farm near Oberlin, comprising 215 acres of well cultivated and well improved land. He specializes in thoroughbred Holstein cattle, and has about fifty head all the time, and recently he had the largest sale of cattle ever held in
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Ohio. He also keeps a large number of hogs, horses and other stock, and pursues general farming and crop raising almost sufficient to feed all his own stock.
Mr. Dudley married Mary A. Whitney of Oberlin, daughter of G. W. Whitney, who was an early settler in Lorain County, and first followed farming and afterwards became identified with the gas industry. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley have six children : Howard, who finished his edu- cation at Oberlin, was for several years in the candy business and is now located in Spokane, Washington; George S., who was educated at Oberlin, is employed to test cattle under the state government; Ben B. lives at home and has finished his education; Florence also attended schools at Oberlin and lives at home; Daniel P. is a vigorous and enter- prising young chicken farmer at his father's place; and Robert is thirteen years of age. Mrs. Dudley and three of her children, George, Florence and Daniel, are all active members of the First Congrega- tional Church of Oberlin. Mr. Dudley is a republican in politics, but gives practically all his time and attention to his business as a stock raiser and general farmer.
HENRY W. GEUKES. A self-made man, who merits admiration for his fine sucecss in life, is Henry W. Geukes, a grower and dealer in celery in Elyria Township, this county. Mr. Geukes is a large property owner in Lorain and he receives a goodly income from houses he has rented out in that city. He was born at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1861, and is a son of Derk and Johanna (Bemer) Geukes, both of whom were born and reared in Holland, whence they immigrated to the United States in 1857, locating in Grand Rapids, where the father was engaged in the dairy business for many years. There were seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Geukes, two of whom died in infancy. Concerning the others the following brief facts are here inserted: Aaron D. is a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan; Mary is the wife of Joseph Washburn, of Kala- mazoo; Minnie married . W. F. Landen and they live in Los Angeles, California; Anna is the wife of John Miller, of Kalamazoo; and Henry W. is the subject of this sketch.
As a boy Henry W. Geukes attended the common schools of Kalama- zoo and when ready to start life in real earnest he engaged in the celery business at Kalamazoo, Michigan, right in the famous celery belt. He remained in that city for two years and then went to Greentown, Ohio. One year later he located in Canton, Ohio, and there was engaged in the same line of enterprise for a period of twenty years. In 1901 he came to Lorain County and rented his present place in Elyria Township. This little estate consists of a little less than three acres and he purchased the place in 1907. On his arrival here he engaged in buying and selling celery and continued as a dealer only until 1910, when he began to grow that plant on a small scale. In recent years he has raised from 80,000 to 100,000 plants per season but in 1915 he rented additional land and raised over 200,000 plants. He finds his market chiefly in Lorain and Elyria, Lorain County, and also in Vermilion, Erie County, Ohio. He is the owner of some splendid residence property in Lorain, including a double house at No. 2071 E. Twenty-ninth Street, a private house on the corner of Thirty-fourth Street and Broadway, and two other houses on Thirty-third Street. All of the above houses are rented and net him a nice income every year. Mr. Geukes' success in life is the result of his own ambitious endeavors and for that reason is most gratifying to con- template.
While not an active politician Mr. Geukes usually votes the straight republican ticket. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the following
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organizations : Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Improved Order of Red Men, the Knights of Pythias, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Mr. Geukes has been twice married. In 1881 he wed Miss Rosa Glorr, a native of Switzerland. To this union were born three children: William D. is employed by the Santa Fe Railroad Company and main- tains his home at Seattle, Washington; May is the wife of John Maurer, of Grafton, Ohio, they have two sons, Raymond and Herbert; and Flor- ence is the wife of Peter Phillips, of Stege, California. For his second wife Mr. Geukes married Emma (Meier) Meyers, a daughter of Jacob and Mary Magdalene (Hofstetter) Meier. Mrs. Geukes was born in Switzerland, in 1868, and her marriage to Mr. Geukes occurred April 16, 1901. By a former marriage, to Louis J. Meyers in 1889, she had a daughter, Mabelle Louise, born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, January 29, 1893, and now the wife of Paul M. Taylor, of Elyria. Mr. Taylor is a son of J. M. Taylor, of Sheffield Township, Lorain County, Ohio, the Taylor family being one of old standing in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Taylor reside in Sheffield Township, Lorain County, Ohio.
FREDERICK HAIST. Coming from his German fatherland to the United States when a young man of about twenty-three years, Mr. Haist has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes and has made the passing years count in worthy achievement that has been crowned with definite success. He has been a resident of Ohio since 1867 and has maintained his residence on his present farm, in Russia Township, Lorain County, for nearly forty years. Energy, circumspection and good business judgment have enabled him to win distinctive prosperity in connection with the basic industry of agri- culture, and he stands as one of the substantial farmers and highly esteemed citizens of Lorain County, within whose borders he has found ample scope for the directing of his earnest efforts during the years of a signally industrious and useful career. As a sterling citizen of worth and unalloyed popularity he is well entitled to definite recognition in this history of his home county, which he has honored by his character and his accomplishment.
Mr. Haist was born in Germany on the 7th of August, 1844, and is a son of Frederick and Helen (Gelst) Haist, of whose two children he is the younger, his sister, Mrs. Joos, having been a resident of the city of Cleveland for many years prior to her death. Frederick Haist, Sr., passed his entire life in Germany, where he was for many years em- ployed in a steel manufactory. His widow came to the United States in 1871 and passed the closing years of her life in the home of her daughter, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio.
He whose name introduces this article acquired his early education in the schools of his native land and there also he acquired in his youth practical experience as a workman in a foundry. He carefully conserved his earnings and in 1867 he came to America and made Cleve- land, Ohio, his destination. There he was employed for eleven years as a skilled artisan in a foundry, and at the expiration of this period he came to Lorain County and purchased a farm of forty-five acres, this constituting his present fine homestead. The place was much run down when it came into his possession and the original dwelling was a small house of most unpretentious order. With characteristic energy he set himself to the task of improving his farm, which he soon brought under effective cultivation, and with increasing prosperity he made the same evident in the erection of good buildings, including his present attrac- tive residence. which was completed in 1894, and which is one of the
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many attractive rural homes of the county. Mr. Haist has long been recognized as one of the representative farmers and stock-raisers of Russia Township, and he has reason to view with pride and satisfaction the gracious prosperity that is his after many years of earnest toil and endeavor.
While giving due attention to the advancement of his personal inter- ests Mr. Haist has not been self-centered or in the least negligent of the duties of citizenship. He has co-operated in the furtherance of- measures and enterprises tending to advance the communal welfare and while never in the least ambitious for political office he has given loyal support to the cause of the democratic party. He is affiliated with the local Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry and with the Knights and Ladies of Security.
In 1877 Mr. Haist wedded Miss Augusta Wangerine, daughter of Carl Wangerine, who was one of the early settlers of Lorain County. Mrs. Haist was called to the life eternal in March, 1879, and of their three children two are living,-Henrietta, who is the wife of Charles Gibson, a prosperous farmer of Russia Township; and Carl, who is employed as a street car conductor in the city of Cleveland. On the 4th of October, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Haist to Miss Rosa Menz, a daughter of Peter and Matilda (Holtenrite) Menz, both natives of Germany, Mr. Menz having established his home in Lorain County, Ohio, upon his immigration to America and having been fore- man of a stone quarry at Amherst for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Haist have five children, concerning whom brief record is given in con- clusion of this sketch: Matilda is the wife of James Curtis, who is engaged in the drug business in the City of Cleveland; Rose is the wife of William Baker, who is engaged in the grocery and meat business at Lorain; Albert is a representative grocer and meat dealer at Lorain, in which line of enterprise he is associated with his younger brother ; Alice is the wife of Arthur Lang, who with his brother-in-law, Clarence Haist, conducts the Meadow Brook Dairy and Creamery business at Lorain, Ohio.
EARL N. GIBBS. Few citizens of Lorain County have had a busier and more effective career in various lines than Earl N. Gibbs, banker, merchant, farmer and former member of the State Legislature, whose home is at Kipton in Camden Township. A little more than forty years of age, he has filled his years with energetic activities and has always been a leader, one of his chief characteristics being his initiative and enterprise.
He comes of fine old American stock. Mr. Gibbs was born in Medina County, Ohio, March 12, 1874, a son of Farnum M. and Calista (Gar- lock) Gibbs. Back in the early years of the eighteenth century three brothers named Gibbs came to this country from England. They were shipwrecked and separated and did not meet for a number of years after they reached this country. Two of the brothers went to Virginia, while Joseph Gibbs, who was born in 1727, located in one of the New England states. This Joseph Gibbs was a man of note, and was long known as Lieutenant Gibbs. He served with that rank on the staff of Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary war. His death occurred in 1805. On September 11, 1749, he married Elizabeth Palmer. A son of Lieu- tenant Gibbs was Benjamin, who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 25, 1783, and when quite an old man came with younger members of the family to Ohio in 1842. Farnum Gibbs was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 1, 1835, and died February 28, 1909. He was very young when he came to Ohio in 1842 and he lived on a farm, Vol. II-24
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but was educated as a minister and for some years served as a pastor. During the war he was a member of the Second Ohio Cavalry, a regiment that did more riding and went through more diverse parts of the country than probably any other regiment in the Union army. Two times he rode horseback west of the Mississippi, and took part in one of the campaigns in Indian Territory. After two years of active service he was injured when his horse threw him, and spent a number of months in the hospital. After the war he bought a farm in Medina County, and reared his family on the farm. He retired a number of years before his death, which occurred at Brunswick. He was a republican in politics, served as justice of the peace a number of years, and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was also noted for his progressiveness and his sterling integrity and was a valuable neighbor and friend. Farnum Gibbs was married at Parma, Ohio, to Miss Gar- lock, who was born at Parma in 1834 and died February 5, 1912. Her father, George Garlock, was a native of New York State and came to Ohio about 1842, locating on a farm at Parma, where he spent the rest of his days.
Earl N. Gibbs had a liberal education as a preparation for his active career. He attended the Oberlin Academy and for four years was a student in Hiram College. On leaving college he gained a liberal train- ing in merchandising by serving five years as clerk in a store at Kipton, and in 1901 he bought the business and has since developed a large and flourishing general store, controlling a trade over a radius of a number of miles about Kipton.
In 1895 Mr. Gibbs married Georgia Breckinridge, a daughter of B. F. Breckinridge, who for a number of years was a merchant at Kipton and is now living with Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs. The latter have one daugh- ter, Margaret, who is now in the junior class of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
The family are active members of the Christian Church, and in politics Mr. Gibbs is a republican and is affiliated with the Masonic Order. His service in the Legislature was during the Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth sessions, and he proved himself an able conservator of the interests and welfare of the state and of his own constituency. He served as a member of committees on common schools, railroads and telegraph, banks and banking.
After becoming securely established as a merchant, Mr. Gibbs turned his energies toward other lines, and in 1905 organized the Kipton Bank- ing Company of which he has been president. This is a very substantial institution and commands and deserves the support of a large com- munity. It has a capital stock of $25,000 with surplus of $4,500, and the average deposits are $200,000. Mr. Gibbs for a great many years has been interested in general farming and not only makes a success of the business for himself but wherever possible lends his efforts toward improving and raising the agricultural standards in his township. In fact, farming is his recreation as well as a vocation.
WESLEY B. PHIPPS was for many years a leading and influential . citizen of Elyria Township and his activity in agricultural affairs, his co-operation in public interests and his zealous support of all objects that he believed would contribute to the material or moral improvement of the community kept him in the foremost rank of those to whom this honorable principles and it also exemplified the truth of the Emersonian philosophy that "the way to win a friend is to be one." His genial, kindly manner won him the high regard and good will of all with whom he came in contact and thus his death, December 23, 1914, was uni-
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formly mourned throughout Elyria Township and the surrounding dis- trict.
May 18, 1852, on the parental homestead in Elyria Township, Lorain County, Ohio, occurred the birth of Wesley Bird Phipps, who was a son of John Jackson and Chloe A. (Garrett) Phipps. The father was born at Messina, on the St. Lawrence River in the State of New York, and there he passed his boyhood and youth. As a young man he accompanied his parents to Ohio and located in the vicinity of Elyria, where he acquired a large parcel of farm land. He also engaged in buying timber and staves which he sold to a Mr. Harbeck, who manufactured barrels for the Standard Oil Company, then in its infancy. About this time, 1840, he was married and after continuing in the above business for thirty-five years he gave it up and then turned his attention to the culti- vation of a farm of 120 acres, which he had purchased in Elyria Town- ship. He was the landlord of the first hotel in Elyria, the Franklin House, which burned down just after the insurance had expired and he thereby lost $3,000. His great spirit of optimism, however, did not allow him to worry as he cooly remarked that he had earned the money once and could do so again. He was summoned to the life eternal July 28, 1886, and his cherished and devoted wife, who survived him for sev- eral years, died January 9, 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Phipps became the par- ents of seven children, concerning whom the following brief data are here incorporated: George, born February 24, 1841, married Maria Ely 'on December 5, 1859. He enlisted for service in the Civil war, was attacked with typhoid fever and died shortly after being brought home, October 24, 1862. He had two children : Early, born August 31, 1860, and John A., born January 2, 1862. Owen, born February 13, 1843, died October 2, 1907. He married Eunice Brown, September 13, 1862, and to this union were born two sons, Frankie and Archie, both now de- ceased. Heman, born October 11, 1845, died in 1904. He married Margaret Higgins, June 26, 1872; no children. Louisa Sarah, born February 16, 1848, is deceased. She married Lyman Kemp, October 16, 1866, and to them were born four children: Clarence, born in 1868, died in 1890; Wallie, born October 17, 1869, died in 1893; Edith, born July 10, 1875; and Harry, born June 27, 1883, is married and resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Wesley Bird is the immediate subject of this review. Elnora, born September 11, 1855, died May 31, 1867, aged eleven years. Levilla, born January 28, 1863, died in 1911. She married Frank An- drews, December 15, 1881.
Under the sturdy and invigorating descipline of the parental home- stead Wesley Bird Phipps was reared to maturity. His early schooling consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the district schools of Elyria Township. He was engaged in agricultural pursuits during the entire period of his active career and he became the owner of his father's farm on Lake Avenue. He was a shrewd and intelligent farmer and kept his estate in splendid condition. He was a man of forceful character and strong common sense and while not highly educated-a fact he always regretted-still he possessed a marked influence for good in the community and his judgment in town affairs was held in high esteem by his fellow citizens. His demise, December 23, 1914, caused wide- spread sorrow and deprived Elyria Township of one of its most indus- trious and useful citizens. Although not physically a strong man, he labored hard to place his family in good circumstances and to provide the means for educating his children. He will long he remembered for his upright life and sterling character.
March 26, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Phipps to Miss Emma Walton, a daughter of Thomas and Christina (Christian)
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Walton, of Elyria Township. Mrs. Phipps' ancestors on the maternal side came from the Isle of Man, where the Christians were people of great prominence and large means. To Mr. and Mrs. Phipps were born two children: Elnora Anna, whose birth occurred December 20, 1878, married Frederick E. Baker, December 5, 1900, and they reside in Elyria, Ohio; they have two children, Wesley Edward and Dorothy Evelyn; and Stella May, born February 6, 1881, married Earl Smith, February 10, 1910; they reside on Lake Avenue in Elyria Township.
In political allegiance Mr. Phipps gave his support to the democratic party. Mrs. Phipps survives her honored husband and maintains her home in the old residence on Lake Avenue. She attends the Disciples Church in Elyria and is a woman of kindly personality and her charm and innate goodness make her a favorite with her many neighbors.
NORMAN LEE is one of Lorain County's citizens who volunteered their services during the dark days of the Civil war and is one of that small army of surviving veterans of the great war. For many years he has been one of the leading and successful farmers of Camden Township, and in that community has lived respected and has surrounded himself with material comforts as well as the esteem which goes with honorable citizenship.
His family has been identified with Camden Township since the earliest pioneer times, for more than eighty years. Mr. Lee was born in Camden, May 22, 1843, a son of Thomas T. and Lucinda (Waugh) Lee. Both parents were natives of New York State, his father born June 30, 1799, and died September 5, 1877, and his mother born July 10, 1811, and died February 5, 1894. After their marriage in New York they came to Ohio in 1833, and were the first family to settle in Camden Township, where Thomas Lee bought a tract of ninety acres. He cleared up all his land and was quite successful, leaving an estate of 140 acres at the time of his death. He was a whig and afterwards a republican in politics, holding several town offices and was a member of the Baptist Church.
Norman Lee is the only survivor of a family of six sons and one daughter. He grew up on the old homestead in Camden Township, attended the public schools there, and was a valuable helper to his father until past the age of twenty-one. On August 4, 1864, he enlisted in Company G of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Ohio Regiment and was with the army eleven months. Most of the time he spent on. Johnston's Island in Lake Erie as a guard for the Confederate prisoners.
On December 16, 1873, Mr. Lee married Frances L. Hurd. Her father, IIarrison Hurd, was born July 11, 1805, and died July 11, 1896, on his ninety-first birthday, was the fourth of the family to locate in Cam- den Township, and was a very influential man in that community from pioneer times. He took much part in church affairs and served as deacon. In the Hurd family were twelve children, and the five now living are: Ann Eliza, widow of John Weeks and living with Mr. and Mrs. Norman Lee; Elizabeth, wife of G. R. Parker, a retired citizen of Lorain, Ohio; Mrs. Lee; Albert Hurd, who lives with his daughter in Cleveland; and J. N. Hurd, who occupies the old Hurd homestead in Camden Township.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee became the parents of four children and the three now living are: Lucinda, wife of Herman Hach, an upholsterer at Cleveland; Thomas Lee, at home with his parents; and Andrew H., who is a farmer in Wakeman Township of Huron County.
Mrs. Lee is an active member of the Baptist Church at Kipton. In politics Mr. Lee is identified with the republican organization. He has
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been a general farmer for half a century or more, and has given much of his attention to cattle and other stock. His fine rural place com- prises 125 acres of land and all its buildings and important improvements are the result of his management and supervision.
C. B. INGERSOLL. The Ingersolls were among the families that estab- lished pioneer homes in the vicinity of Grafton upwards of a century ago. C. B. Ingersoll is a native son of Lorain County and for nearly fifty years has been closely identified with its farming and stock raising interests. He has one of the fine rural homes in the neighborhood of Kipton.
He was born at Grafton, January 21, 1847, a son of William and Elizabeth A. (Welburn) Ingersoll. His paternal grandfather, William Ingersoll, was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and located in Lorain County not long after the close of the War of 1812. He married Catherine Houk. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Ingersoll was Jesse Welburn, who was a native of England, and settled in Lorain County in 1825, spending the balance of his days here. William Ingersoll, father of C. B. Ingersoll, was born at Grafton, Ohio, September 30, 1820, and died January 25, 1879. His wife was born in the State of Massachusetts, August 17, 1825, and died November 22, 1909. They were married at Grafton. William Ingersoll in 1853 sold his farm of fifty acres in Grafton Township and moved to Camden in the spring of 1854, buying a farm of 275 acres, to the cultivation of which he devoted the remainder of his years. He was a republican in politics, and a man who enjoyed the full esteem of his fellow citizens. He and his wife had eight chil- dren, three sons and five daughters, and the four now living are: C. B. Ingersoll, who was the first born; Mary, widow of George Brooks; Kate, wife of George Bois, a mail carrier at Warren, Ohio; and Frank, who is the youngest, and was born January 22, 1870, being a farmer at Kipton.
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