USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 62
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WILLIAM T. WILLIAMS
MRS. WILLIAM T. WILLIAMS
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was made assistant wagonmaster. Thus he rendered a very necessary service to his country in time of peril.
On February 22, 1866, Mr. Williams married Miss Cornelia Smith of Cleveland Township, where she was born May 3, 1841, a daughter of Horatio N. and Rebecca (Mattox) Smith, Her father was a native of Vermont, came to Ohio when still single, and met and married his wife in Cleveland.
For nine years after his marriage Mr. Williams and wife lived in Mayfield Township, but in 1874 he bought fifty acres of land in Olmsted Township, and that was his home for thirty-nine years. It was in that community that he developed his extensive business as a stockman and farmer, and his farm was known for miles around as the home of thoroughbred Jersey cattle. He was also one of the founders of the. village of North Olmsted, which is now incorporated and a flourishing community center.
Mr. Williams' father had been an active whig in the early days of Northern Ohio, and in 1860 the son first took an active part in a political campaign, supporting the republican party, and in 1864 he had the inestimable privilege of casting a vote for Abraham Lincoln. Throughout his residence in North Olmsted he was again and again honored by places of public trust. He served as trustee of the township three times and was twice a candidate for county commissioner, being defeated by a very narrow margin. He was also urged at one time to become a candidate for state senator. Some years ago he was a delegate to the State Republi- can Convention at Toledo and was one of the men who supported and endorsed the candidacy of Mark Hanna for United States senator.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams became the parents of five children, two of whom died in childhood. Their son Howard O., born in Mayfield Town- ship, is a graduate of the high school at North Olmsted and is now the practical assistant of Mr. Williams on the home farm and is looking after the dairying end of the business. The daughter, Stella A., married Frederick B. Nelson and lives in New York City. The daughter, Mable A., graduated from the high school at North Olmsted, attended school at Elyria and was also in the Woman's College at Wooster, and for a number of years has been a very successful and popular teacher, being now connected with the South School in Cleveland.
J. W. BARTHOLOMEW of Penfield Township, is a man who has carved his own success in life. As a young man he worked as a clerk and in other occupations, but finally invested his small accumulations in land in Lorain County, and for many years has been one of the prosperous agriculturists in Penfield Township.
He was born in Chautauqua County, New York, March 6, 1854, and was adopted by Samuel and Hulda (Cummings) Bartholomew. His father was a New York State farmer, but afterwards came to Ohio and was in the hotel business at Berlin Heights.
Educated in the public schools at Mayville and Portland, New York, J. W. Bartholomew did his first work as clerk in a store at Portland, and on March 4, 1874, arrived in Ohio, where he supported himself several years by clerking in a store at Vermillion.
On August 20, 1874, he married Samantha Daniels, who was born in Pennsylvania, where her parents died. Mr. and Mrs. Bartholomew have two children: Alice Hulda, wife of Alexander McCoy, a farmer in Penfield Township, and they have one child, Robert; and Ray Elsworth, in the grocery business at Lakewood, near Cleveland, Ohio. He mar- ried Fern Smith, and they have one child, Richard Kent.
Mrs. Bartholomew is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
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and Mr. Bartholomew is affiliated with the Maccabees, the Grange, the Good Templars and politically acts with the prohibition party.
In 1887 he came to Penfield Township and bought his present farm of seventy acres. With the exception of $600 which he received from his father's estate, he has made his prosperity by his own labors, and has been able to provide a good home and all the comforts and advantages for his family.
ERNEST L. PIERCE. Representing the good old American stock that first peopled and settled this section of Northern Ohio, Ernest L. Pierce has for many years applied himself successfully to his chosen work as a farmer in the vicinity of Wellington. With farming he has combined dairying and has one of the finest herds of Holstein cattle in the county. His work, thrift and industry has been well rewarded. His name is always spoken with due respect in the community where he has spent most of his life, and his accomplishments and those of other members of the family well justify that such record should be printed in permanent form.
He was born in Penfield Township, June 12, 1868, and is a son of James Madison and Malinda (Starr) Pierce. His paternal grandfather Pierce, a native of New York State, came to Lorain County when it was largely an unsettled wilderness, and lived on a farm there until his death at the age of seventy-seven. The maternal grandfather, Orin Starr, was also young when he came to Lorain County, and was a man of great business judgment and energy, acquiring a great landed estate. He had eleven children, and three of them are still living. James M. Pierce was born in New York State in 1823 and died in March, 1887. Both he and the mother of Ernest Pierce were twice married, and by their first marriages had each three children. James M. Pierce married for his first wife, Marietta Hoyt, while Miss Starr married for her first husband, Lewis Hart. There were also three children by their second marriage, and the two now living are Ernest L. and Lena, the wife of J. B. Murray, who is in the grocery business at Wellington. James M. Pierce was an active republican in politics and his wife was a member of the Methodist Church. He owned a farm of ninety-six acres in Pen- field Township, but sold it before he died and moved to Elyria and died at the home of a daughter in Penfield.
Ernest L. Pierce grew up on the farm in Penfield Township, attended public schools there and also those of Elyria and Wellington, and for ten years worked out at monthly wages and by his careful savings laid the foundation for his present prosperity. The only money he ever inherited was $461 from his grandfather's estate, and all the rest he has acquired for himself. In 1894 he bought his farm and assumed a debt of $2,400 on it. He now owns a fine place of 103 acres, while his wife has a farm of seventy-one acres. He has put up buildings, and in many ways has developed the value of his property. As a dairyman he has a herd of registered Holstein cattle, and the care and management of this herd is the most important department of his farm enterprise.
In 1891 Mr. Pierce married Theresa P. Starr, daughter of Lemuel Starr, who was an early settler in Penfield Township. They have three children : J. Blair Pierce, born in 1893; Treva, who was born in 1895 and is the wife of Charles Pelton ; and Louise, born in 1900 and still at home. Mrs. Pierce is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and both she and her husband are members of the Grange. He is active in the Maccabees and for four or five years was record keeper. Politically a republican, he served as township trustee six years, as a member of
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AMHERST HOSPITAL
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the school board eight years, and is now by appointment filling a vacancy in the office of town clerk.
GEORGE ROY WISEMAN, M. D. To a profession than which there is none greater in its opportunities for rendering service to humanity, Dr. George R. Wiseman has given himself with a devotion appropriate to his high calling and in ability and attainment ranks as one of the first physicians and surgeons of Lorain County.
He is president of the Amherst Hospital, which he promoted and organized, and which at this writing is being constructed at Amherst under his supervision. This institution means a great deal to the com- munity, and it represents the culmination of ten years of successful practice there.
Doctor Wiseman was born in Licking County, Ohio, March 8, 1878, a son of William H. and Anna K. (Fickel) Wiseman. His father came to Licking County when a boy with the grandfather, who attained the remarkable age of 100 years, dying in Delaware County, Ohio. The maternal grandfather Fickel was a veteran of the Civil war, and one of the very prosperous men of Muskingum County, where he spent many years in comfortable retirement. William H. Wiseman, father of Doctor Wiseman, was born in Pennsylvania in 1840 and is now living in Columbus, Ohio, being connected with the pension department. During the Civil war as a young man he served in Company K of the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry from 1861 until the close of the war in 1865. His regiment saw some of the hardest fighting of the war, and he was with it at Shiloh, during the siege of Vicksburg, in the Atlanta campaign and in the march to the sea. For many years he was a general merchant at Jacksontown, Ohio. He was married in Muskingum County to Miss Fickel, who was born in that county in 1852 and died in 1897. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which William H. Wiseman still has a leading part. He is a democrat in politics and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Their three children are: Dr. George R .; Blanche, wife of E. E. Binder, assistant superintendent of the Telephone Company at Columbus, and they have two children, Mary Katheryne and Marie; and Katheryne, wife of George Strain, a bookkeeper at Columbus.
When Doctor Wiseman began practice he had behind him a fair train- ing in schools and universities. In May, 1895, he graduated from the Jacksontown High School, and continued one year in high school taking special studies. For one year he was a student in the Starling Medical College and then for three years in the Ohio Medical University at Columbus, where he graduated M. D. in 1900. For several years he practiced in Morrow County, but in December, 1905, moved to Amherst. Doctor Wiseman is a member of the Lorain County and Ohio State Medical societies, and keeps closely in touch with all the progress of his profession. He is Surgeon for the American Dynalyte Co., the New York Central R. R. Co., the U. S. Automatic Co. and for several life insurance companies.
In 1899 he married Ruth Reid, who was born at Cardington, Ohio, a daughter of Charles F. Reid, who was a cabinet maker. Doctor and Mrs. Wiseman have two sons: Clovis Reid, now in high school; and George Roy, Jr., who is also attending the public schools. Mrs. Wiseman is a member of the Baptist Church and her son Clovis belongs to the Congregational Church. Fraternally Doctor Wiseman is a Knight Templar Mason, is past worthy president of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, is past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias, and belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and Brotherhood of American Yeomen.
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His polities is republican. For two years he served on the city council, and where not conflicting with his professional work he has been diligent and ever ready to serve the interests of his community.
SAMUEL NAYLOR. When Samuel Naylor died on July 19, 1908, it was the general expression of community esteem in the locality where he had lived for many years that a successful farmer, a public spirited citizen, a kind husband and father, and a man of irreproachable char- acter and fine integrity had been removed from his position in Lorain County.
During his long life he exemplified the success that goes with in- dustry and intelligent management. He became one of the most extensive land owners in Penfield Township. Of old Pennsylvania stock, he was born in that state in Cumberland County, February 27, 1823, and was eighty-five years of age when called to his final rest. His grandfather, Jacob Naylor, was a farmer and distiller and made whiskey when that was one of the principal industries of the mountain regions of Pennsyl- vania. Samuel Naylor, Sr., father of the late citizen of Lorain County, was born in Little York, Pennsylvania, grew up on a farm, and for several years of his early manhood spent much of his time in hauling whiskey from his father's and other distilleries to Baltimore, where the principal market was for their product. It took six horses to haul a load of thirty barrels of whiskey over the mountain highways. Samuel Naylor, Sr., was married in Cumberland County to Elizabeth Uhler, a native of that county and of German ancestry. After their marriage they located on a small farm in Cumberland County, renting the land, and from there in the fall of 1829 they set out in a covered two-horse wagon for Ohio. It took them two weeks to make the journey. Samuel Naylor had previously visited Ohio and had bought land in Guilford Township of Medina County. This land he bought from an immense tract of country which was sold under the supervision of Judge Heman Ely, the founder of Elyria. Samuel Naylor hired a man to build him a log house, but when he and his family arrived the house was found to be of such poor construction that they had to rent another cabin to live in. Samuel Naylor and wife had the following children while living in Pennsylvania : Mary, who married Amos Fritz; Samuel; Benjamin K., who lived in Lucas County, Ohio; Jacob, who became a farmer at Spencer; Rebecca, who married W. W. Hutchisson. While the family were en route to Ohio the daughter Eliza was born at Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania. In Medina County four other children came to the parental circle: John, who died at the age of twenty-one; William, who was a soldier in the Civil war; Sarah; and Henry. The mother of these children died on a farm in Medina County, and Samuel Naylor, Sr., subsequently moved to Seville, buying a small farm and residence in the village. He married for his second wife, Harriet Sheldon, by which union there was one child, Harriet, who married James Ross. Samuel Naylor, Sr., died at the age of seventy-three. He was a whig and abolitionist in the early days, and afterwards a strong republican. Hav- ing traveled much over the South, he was thoroughly convinced that the practice of slavery would never be decided except by war.
Samuel Naylor, Jr., was six years old when the family moved to Guilford Township in Medina County. His education came from the pioneer schools of that county, and he early put his strength to test by helping clear up his father's land. Besides working at home he also hired out to other parties and became a skillful shingle maker.
In 1845 he was married in Guilford Township of Medina County to Barbara Long, who was born near Toronto, Canada, in September, 1824,
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a daughter of John Long, who subsequently settled on a farm in Medina County. After his marriage Samuel Naylor rented land in Litchfield Township for several years, and from there moved to Penfield Township in Lorain County, where he bought a tract of 107 acres of wild land, paying $6 an acre. At that time there was no highway by which his land was accessible and he had to cut a way through the woods. He bought the land on credit, and after a few years, by hard work, paid for it and converted a piece of the wilderness into a fertile farm. Samuel Naylor by his first marriage had the following children: Jacob, who enlisted for service in the Civil war before he was seventeen years of age and who died while still in the army at Camp Denison; Henry, who died young; Elizabeth, who married Stewart Long of Penfield Town- ship; Rebecca, now deceased, who married Andrew Sigourney ; Harriet A .; Laney E., who died at the age of seven years; Emma, married William Bradstock ; Mary, who died at the age of seventeen; Harvey G., a farmer at Spencer, Ohio; and Dora, who married Lemuel Hower. The mother of these children passed away January 7, 1874. She was a member of the United Brethren Church.
For his second wife Samuel Naylor married Nancy E. Yocum, who died in 1882, without children.
In 1894 Mr. Naylor married Sarah Elizabeth Arbaugh, who still survives and resides at Wellington. Mrs. Naylor was born May 28, 1862, in Knox County, Ohio, where she was married. Her parents were Elias and Sarah (Capper) Arbaugh, both natives of Carroll County, Ohio. Her maternal grandfather, David Capper, was an early settler in Carroll County, was a miller and was killed while at work in his mill. Mrs. Naylor's father died in 1869. Of seven children, five are living, namely : Mary Jane, wife of Scott Blair of Mansfield, Ohio; David James of Mansfield; Louisa, wife of David Frazier of Butler, Ohio; Mrs. Naylor; and John C., a farmer at Mansfield. Mrs. Naylor's parents were members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Her father was a very successful farmer. Mrs. Naylor received her education in the dis- trict schools and is a woman of intelligence and refinement, and has carefully looked after the various business interests entrusted to her charge since her husband's death. She owns 108 acres in Penfield Township and fifty acres in Medina County, besides her home at Pen- field Center. Mr. Naylor acquired a large estate of 400 acres and in 1892 erected one of the finest country homes in that section of Lorain County. He was not only a successful business man, but was a leader in educational matters, and donated the land for the erection of a district school. He was an active member of the United Brethren Church and a republican in politics, while Mrs. Naylor and her sons belong to the Congregational Church. Mr. and Mrs. Naylor had two children : Charles William Naylor, who is now twenty years of age and graduated from the Penfield schools and is now on a farm at Strongsville, Ohio; and Samuel Hobart, who was born in 1898 and lives at home.
W. H. SCHIBLEY has for a number of years been cashier and one of the executive officers of the Amherst German Bank Company, is connected as an officer or stock holder with a number of other Lorain County business institutions, and altogether his position as a business man and citizen is one of the most substantial in his com- munity. He has hardly yet reached the meridian of life's activities. With no capital to start with, he has depended on industry. sound intelli- gence, and a strict probity in all his relations to carry him forward to the goal of success.
He has been cashier of the Amherst German Bank Company since
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1907. This is a bank which deserves some mention in a history of Lorain County finance. The officers and directors are all well known business men, including E. H. Nicholl, president; George Hollstein, vice presi- dent; William H. Schibley, cashier ; Joseph Wesbecher, Jacob Baus and M. C. Kendeigh, directors. The management of the bank has been thoroughly conservative and yet so far as is consistent with sound bank- ing has endeavored to furnish a courteous, helpful and prompt service to its widely extended patronage. A recent statement shows how the bank has prospered under such a régime. The capital stock is $50,000, and the total resources aggregate approximately $600,000. The best index of a bank's popularity is shown in its deposits, and the Amherst Ger- man Bank Company in the spring of 1916 had upwards of $600,000 in its deposit account.
Mr. W. H. Schibley was born at Amherst, Ohio, April.3, 1867. His people on both sides were from the German fatherland, and both his grandfathers fought with the army of Napoleon and participated in that ill-fated campaign into Russia. His paternal grandfather died in 1839 and his maternal grandfather in 1840. Michael Schibley, father of the Amherst banker, was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, in 1826 and died in 1907. He came alone to Pennsylvania when a young man in 1853 and from there went to Huron, Ohio, where he met and married Miss Cath- erine Brandau, who was born in Hesse, Germany, in 1836 and died in 1914. For several years Michael Schibley paid his way by day labor, and was employed in the construction forces building some of the New York Central lines through Northern Ohio. Afterwards he took up farming and lived on his farm until a few years before his death, which occurred in Amherst. His wife also died there. They were members of the Evangelical Association and he was a democrat in politics. There were five children : George is a farmer in Amherst Township; Christian is also a farmer there; Anna Goll lives at Lorain, Ohio; the fourth in age is W. H. Schibley; and J. H. is manager of the Amherst Supply Company.
Starting life with a common school education, supplemented with a course in the State Normal School at Ada, Ohio, W. H. Schibley found his first serious occupation in teaching. While following that 'occupation he attended summer sessions at Oberlin College. Altogether he taught six years in the district schools and had charge of the school system at Amherst for eight years, finally resigning in 1900 after a most creditable record whether as an individual teacher or as a school executive. On leaving school work he engaged in the grain business with his brother Jacob. This grew into a flourishing enterprise under the direction of the two brothers, and in 1908 their firm was incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000. W. H. Schibley was the first president of the com- pany and he is still a large stock holder. He has stock in a number of different enterprises, and is president of the U. S. Automatic Company of Amherst, and is a director of the local waterworks. For recreation he looks after a small farm and conducts it on scientific principles.
In 1891 Mr. Schibley married Dorothea Ludwig. Her father, Charles Ludwig, was in the stone business at Amherst for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Schibley are members of the Evangelical Association, in which he has been trustee for a long time and also active in Sunday School work. Politically he is independent. However, he was elected on the democratic ticket to the office of township treasurer.
L. S. BOISE. For nearly a century members of the Boise family have materially influenced the progress and development of various localities in Northern Ohio. The chief center of the family activities
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has been in Penfield Township and there L. S. Boise has constructed out of his individual labors, persistent work and ambition a fine farm home and is enjoying a well deserved success and rendering an adequate service to the community both in a business way and by his public spirited citizenship.
He was born at Litchfield in Medina County, Ohio, December 2, 1847, a son of William and Lydia (Severcool) Boise. His paternal grand- father, Chester Boise, was born in one of the New England states and settled in Huron County, Ohio, about 1821, and as a pioneer helped to influence early development. William Boise was born in New York State in 1814, came to Oxford in Huron County when seven years of age, and from there moved to Medina County and in 1882 went to Wellington, where he died in 1902. He was a whig and afterwards a republican in politics and held several local offices. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Church. He was married in Medina County, and his wife was born in New York State in 1820 and died in 1901. Of their eight children, seven are living: George, an ex-soldier of the Civil war and a retired lumberman in Northern Michigan; James, who served a little more than a year in the Civil war, afterwards was a druggist at Seville, Ohio, and died at the age of fifty-one largely as a result of illness contracted in the army; Charles, who lives at Chat- tanooga, Tennessee; L. S. Boise; Alvarado, who was at first engaged in the lumber business in Northern Michigan and from there went to Chattanooga, Tennessee, with $1,600 capital, and in sixteen years made a fortune of $100,000, being still a leading factor in the cement business in that southern city; Benjamin, engaged in the real estate business at Lorain and Elyria; Frances, wife of Friend Starr, a farmer at Litch- field ; and William, in the grocery business at Lorain.
L. S. Boise grew up in Medina County on a farm, attended the dis- trict and select schools, and made farming his regular work in life. In 1873 he married Josephine Pierce, a daughter of James and Marietta (Hoyt) Pierce. The Pierce is an old and well known family of Lorain County. Mrs. Boise's mother was born at Marcellus, New York, in 1824, and died in 1861. Mrs. Boise was born in New York State, August 9, 1854. To their marriage have been born three children: El Ray, born September 29, 1873, homesteaded a farm in Oklahoma, where he now lives, and he married Hattie DeLay and has three children, Leonard, Gladys and Irene. . Byron Fay, born August 3, 1876, is a farmer in Pen- field Township. He married Miss Marabah Bartlett, and their two chil- dren are Myron and Ruth. Lydia Loring was liberally educated at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in Oberlin College and is now teaching music in Elyria.
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