USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 75
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Born in Henrietta Township October 1, 1859, Milo Cornelius Ken- deigh has utilized to the full the advantages and experiences that have come to him with increasing years. His home has always been in Lorain County except for a portion of the year 1883 when he was on a grain ranch at Fort Collins, Colorado. His education came from the common schools, a preparatory course at Oberlin College and a course in the Spencerian Business College at Cleveland. For a number of years he managed his father's farm, and inherited sixty-two acres from his mother, subsequently buying the interests of the other heirs to the home estate. With that as a nucleus he developed a splendid farm in Amherst Town- ship, comprising 101 acres, and also owned other lands in Russia Town- ship. In later years he has reduced his holdings preparatory to retire- ment from business. His chief success came from the raising and hand- ling of high grade stock. He did his first work in that line soon after returning from Colorado, buying a stallion and two mares of Percheron stock. While in business he imported many registered horses, and his stock farm became known to buyers throughout the country.
In his home township he has always exercised his influence for local improvements, and has served as a justice of the peace, twelve years as a member of the school board and two terms as a trustee. His interest in schools has been especially prominent. and led to his election to the present office he holds as president of the Lorain County Board of Edu- cation. Politically he is a democrat. Mr. Kendeigh is affiliated with
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Stonington Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, with Plato Lodge No. 203, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which his father was also a member, and with Hickory Tree Grange at Amherst.
September 25, 1901, he married Clara G. Gillman. She was born at Mineral Ridge in Portage County, Ohio, a daughter of Charles and Mary (King) Gillman. Her father died at Mineral Ridge and her mother spent her last years in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kendeigh. Mr. Kendeigh has two children, Samuel Charles born December 18, 1904, and Vivian Esther born December 31, 1906.
THE THEW AUTOMATIC SHOVEL COMPANY. The principal distinction of some cities is that the name at once suggests a product of world wide use manufactured there. A number of instances will occur to anyone as familiar examples of this fact.
To the great world that regards such a city as Lorain as but a point on the map, the works by which the city is best known are undoubtedly the products of The Thew Automatic Shovel Company. In many widely sundered localities hundreds of thousands of people have seen and admired the excavating machinery of this type, and consciously or un- consciously have taken note of the name Thew linked with that of Lorain. In the work of mining in the gold fields of the far North the Thew Automatic Shovel is a favorite machine. In railroad construction, in street grading, in brickyards, coal mines, in almost every form of con- stract and construction work, the Thew Automatic Shovel reigns supreme. Among the thousands and thousands of men who follow the contracting business in America and different parts of the world, there is hardly one who is not acquainted with the efficiency of the Thew automatic shovel.
It is impossible to speak of this industry, which ranks second among the great concerns that have their home at Lorain, without paying a tribute to Richard Thew, who is vice president and general manager of the company, and whose brains and patient industry originated the first type of the Thew automatic shovel. His work of course was only the nucleus of the present mammoth concern. The company for years has employed expert engineers and skilled mechanics in the various depart- ments, and this staff of experts also deserve credit, since it has been largely due to the co-operation of the heads of the various departments for the one and sole purpose of producing a machine of distinctive merit that The Thew Automatic Shovel Company represents what it does today. Mr. Thew, like most men of that class, began his industry many years ago at Lorain with very little capital, and has earned a high place both as an inventor and as an organizer.
It was in 1899 that The Thew Automatic Shovel Company was organized and started manufacturing operations on its present site at the western edge of the steel plant district in the City of Lorain. The prod- uct of the plant was then as it is now a steam shovel. The factory of that day covered about 15,000 square feet. In less than twenty years the home of the Thew shovel has increased in size as rapidly as its products have attained a world-wide distribution. The present plant covers many acres of ground, and is actually one of the cornerstones of Lorain County's industrial prosperity.
As the plant has developed so has its product. Though the original principles are still maintained in every steam shovel that is built, the design has been adapted for many varied purposes, and there is now a Thew shovel for practically every class of excavation. Most of the executive members of The Thew Company are practical engineers, and the results of test, experimentation and practical use have borne new fruit from year to year and the company is constantly striving to reach new standards of perfection.
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Through long years of development and service this shovel has demonstrated its merit and adaptability to classes of work for which no ordinary steam shovel can be advantageously employed. The more typical operations in which the Thew shovel is employed are cellar exca- vation, shallow cutting for street paving, the cutting off of hills for road construction, widening and deepening railroad cuts, for stone quarry service, for the mining of anthracite coal by the stripping process, dig- ging hydraulic ditches and for irrigation work, for working underground in mines and in tunnel construction, where the power is electricity or compressed air. In fact it would be difficult to enumerate every class of service to which the Thew automatic shovel has been put during the last twenty years. In size the shovels range from a fifteen ton machine, to be operated by one man and built for such typical work as brick- yard and small excavation service, to the sixty-five ton digger-giant.
Unique features in design give the Thew shovel a place of prestige among machines of its type. Most important among these characteristics is what the Thew engineers call the "full swing" principle, by virtue of which a steam shovel of any type is enabled to describe with its boom and bucket a full circle. The shovel swings through a complete circle, deliv- ering the excavated material at any desired point, either at the side or in the rear of the machine. The value of this feature is obvious. However, the feature most characteristic of the Thew machines is what is known as the "horizontal dipper crowding motion," or the "trolley motion." By this device the dipper bucket is carried directly forward without changing the angle of the bucket face with the ground. The advantages of this feature can also be readily understood by persons who are not practical engineers. There is a minimum of lost motion and power in the Thew excavator. This feature is of special advantage in street excavation and grading, since the dipper cleans a floor absolutely to the grade upon which the shovel is being operated.
Thus it is that the shovels which are performing a large share of the excavation work in the western continent are literally a Lorain product. It is also true that The Thew Automatic Shovel Company represents brains, organizing efficiency, industry and experience of a group of men. Their combined efforts, carried on through many years, have been crystallized within the towering walls that today enclose the home of the Thew steam shovel. More than twenty-two years ago Richard Thew turned his inventive genius to the creation of a steam shovel, designed for the handling of the ore and coal cargoes on the docks of lake ports. Thus the first Thew shovels were not excavation shovels at all, but were built primarily for unloading of cargoes. It is noteworthy that some of the modifications of standard shovels now in use include booms which make the Thew machine applicable for the work of clam shell buckets, there is another boom for use as a crane, there is a shovel with a sewer trench boom, especially adapted for the construction of trenches at considerable depth below the surface, and there are booms for handling of coke and for use in many other types of work.
The originator of these shovels was formerly a resident of Cleveland, and his first shovels were built in Cleveland shops. In recent years the machines turned out by the Lorain factory have been used almost over the entire civilized world. One of them was used in the building of the Panama Canal. They have been used for burrowing for gold upon the Arctic circle, they are helping to irrigate the deserts of New Mexico and other parts of the arid and semi-arid West, and they have been used for uncovering the granite in New Hampshire, for the mining of anthra- cite and bituminous coal. for the building of great tunnels.
It is therefore not difficult to understand that The Thew Automatic Shovel Company is one of Lorain's industrial foundation stones. Next
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to the mammoth plant of The National Tube Company, the factory of the shovel company is the largest in the city. The buildings are located at the corner of East Twenty-eighth Street and Fulton Road and are admirably adapted to manufacturing purposes. They furnish a floor area of many thousands of square feet, and approximately 500 men are employed the year around. The buildings are of brick built around a skeleton work of steel, and they present massive architectural outlines and represent in their facilities for lighting, heating and venti- lation the best the engineering world has to offer in a factory building design. In the equipment of machinery the last word has been said in the matter of the Thew plant.
The officers of this Lorain County corporation are: F. A. Smythe, president; Capt. Richard Thew, vice president and general manager; and E. M. Pierce, secretary and treasurer.
WILLIAM JAEGER. The members of the Jaeger family have been identified with Lorain County for more than seventy years. Three gen- erations have been represented here, and it is a representative of the third generation that William Jaeger has an important place as a farmer and general business man in the vicinity of Birmingham in Henrietta Township.
He is a native of Brownhelm Township, where he was born June 12, 1870, a son of John and Catherine (Able) Jaeger. Both branches of the family came from Germany, the grandfather, Adam Jaeger, was a German school teacher, a man of unusual education for his time, and after coming to America he located on a farm in Lorain County in 1843 and lived there until his death, being both prosperous and influ- ential. The maternal grandfather of William Jaeger died in Germany. John Jaeger, the father, was born in Germany in 1837 and died in January, 1905. His wife was born in 1833 and died in June, 1905. They were married in Lorain County, and their five children are: Adam, yardmaster at Collinwood near Cleveland; George, who lives at South Euclid, Cleveland, and has a little farm laid out in city lots and is rapidly becoming prosperous; William; Elizabeth, wife of G. G. Mc- ilraith, former chief of police of Collinwood; and Dora, wife of George P. Krapp, a butcher at Lorain. The parents were both members of the German Reformed Church and in politics the father was a democrat. He cleared up a large tract of land in Lorain County and was substantially fixed and prosperous in his later years, owning a farm of 138 acres on which he died.
William Jaeger had the usual environment of a country boy, attended the public schools at Brownhelm, and was reared and trained in farming pursuits. For thirteen years he worked a farm on the shares, and in 1912 moved to Henrietta Township and bought the eighty acres compris- ing his well improved and valuable homestead.
On February 24, 1895, Mr. Jaeger married Mary Akerman. She was born in Erie County, Ohio, a daughter of Martin Akerman, one of the early settlers of that county. To their marriage have been born two daughters: Dorothy, wife of Lewis Kreig, a farmer in Henrietta Town- ship; and Minnie, living at home.
Mr. Jaeger and family are members of the German Reformed Church and he is affiliated with the Knights and Ladies of Security. In politics he has always been loyal to the democratic party, and in the fall of 1915 was elected trustee of Henrietta Township, an office to which he gives a full measure of his time and interest. His work is that of general farming. he also does some dairy business, and he has also developed a considerable enterprise in the sale of fertilizer, and during 1915 sold approximately $2,500 worth of that product.
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E. C. HANING in his agricultural operations has adopted modern methods, and has acquired a full measure of returns from the labors he has expended upon his fine property near Wellington. While general farming has interested him principally, Mr. Haning has also done considerable stock raising, has given that branch considerable thought and study and is one of the thoroughly progressive men of Lorain County.
An Ohio man by birth, he was born in Meigs County, April 16, 1864, a son of Eli and Margaret (Spring) Haning. His paternal grand- father was Mathew Haning and his maternal grandfather Peter Spring. Eli Haning was born in the State of Ohio in 1801, about the time Ohio entered the Union and he thus represents one of the very oldest families in this section. For his first wife he married Abitha Gibson and had six children. His second wife, Miss Spring, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1823, and died in 1899. They were married in Meigs County, where Eli Haning had his home for many years. He died in 1875. His career was spent as a farmer and he acquired a large amount of land. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Church and in politics he was a republican after the organization of that party. He and his second wife had nine children and the five living are: Nancy Jane, widow of Ezekiel Martin; John Peter, a farmer in Meigs County ; Lusetta, wife of Robert Dixon, a farmer at Vinton, Ohio; Howard, a Meigs County farmer; and E. O. Haning.
Mr. Haning grew up on a farm, gained a district school education in Meigs County, and started his career as an independent farmer in that county. Later he sold his property there, bought a farm in Brighton Township of Lorain County, and some years later, in December, 1910, acquired his present estate. He has 125 acres in his farm, devotes it to general farming and dairy purposes, and he is regarded as one of the thoroughly substantial men of his community.
In 1893 he married Mary Evelyn Zimmerman, who was born in Morgan County, Ohio. They have two children. Elva is a teacher in Camden Township. The daughter, Irma, is still at home. Mr. and Mrs. Haning are active members of the Grange and in politics he is a republican.
CHARLES ALBRIGHT. A resident of Lorain County since his boyhood, Mr. Albright is a representative of a family whose name has been worthily linked with the history of this county for the past sixty-five years, and, like his honored father before him, he is a prominent and substantial exponent of agricultural industry in the county, and has a finely improved homestead farm in Russia Township.
Mr. Albright was born in Germany, on the 27th of August, 1844, and is a son of Frederick and Catherine Albright, who continued their residence in their native land until 1851, when they immigrated to the United States and established their permanent home in Lorain County, Ohio. Here the father reclaimed and improved a good farm and became one of the prosperous and highly esteemed citizens of this favored section of the Buckeye State, where both he and his wife continued their residence until the time of their death. Frederick Albright was a staunch supporter of the principles and policies of the democratic party but had no predilection for the honors or emoluments of public office, though he was ever ready to lend his co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises advanced for the general good of the community. Of the five children the subject of this review is the second in order of birth; Otto, the eldest of the number, is likewise one of the successful farmers of Lorain County; Frederick, Jr., Harmon and Henry also represent this sterling family as substantial farmers and progressive citizens of Vol. II -- 36
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Lorain County. The parents were folk whose lives were guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and both were earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church.
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Reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, Charles Albright grew to maturity in Lorain County, which has been his home since he was a lad of about seven years and in which he has achieved success worthy of the name. He profited duly by the advantages of the public schools of the locality and period and as a youth he served a practical apprenticeship to the trade of carpenter, to which he continued to devote his attention for a period of twelve years. He was a successful con- tractor and builder during a considerable part of this time and in this connection it is specially worthy of note that since his retirement from the active work of his trade he has shown his technical skill and archi- tectural taste by the erection of his fine farm residence, which is one of the model rural homes of the county.
Upon abandoning his activities as a carpenter and builder Mr. Albright purchased his present farm, which comprises seventy acres, which he has brought to a high state of cultivation and upon which he has made his best of permanent improvements. His energy, progres- siveness and good judgment have enabled him to win large and worthy success as a representative of the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing and he has shown a lively interest in all that has con- cerned the progress and prosperity of the county that has been his place of residence for so many years and in which he has secure place in popular confidence and good will.
Mr. Albright accords a staunch allegiance to the democratic party but has shown no desire to enter the arena of practical politics. He is affiliated with both the lodge and encampment organizations of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and both he and his wife hold membership in the Congregational Church.
In June, 1871, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Albright to Miss Catherine Schwartz, who was born and reared in Russia Township, this county, and who is a daughter of the late Jacob Schwartz, one of the honored pioneers of that township. Mr. and Mrs. Albright have three children : Jacob is one of the progressive farmers of Lorain County ; Ruth, of Elyria, this county; and Clarence remains at the parental home, as his father's valued assistant in the work and management of the farm. Generous prosperity has attended the earnest labors of Mr. Albright and he is a citizen well worthy of representation in this history.
CHAMBERS D. REAMER. The record of an old soldier and of a solid business man is one that deserves the fullest possible record, in this pub- lication. Chambers D. Reamer was with an Ohio regiment during the Civil war, and for a great many years has been prominent in business affairs at Oberlin and elsewhere.
He was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1843, son of Daniel and Mary (Krill) Reamer. His paternal grandfather was Daniel Reamer, a native of Germany who came to the United States when quite young and located first in Pennsylvania and afterwards moved to Ohio during the decade of the '30s, settling in Wayne County, where he was a farmer. Mrs. Daniel Reamer was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1803. and died in 1884. Daniel Reamer himself was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1798 and died in 1871. They were married in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and in 1849 the family moved to Ohio and located in Wayne County, where Daniel Reamer followed his occupation as a weaver and as a farmer. During the course of the war in which several of his sons were soldiers he moved to the
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vicinity of Oberlin in 1864, buying a small farm which he occupied and which he cultivated until his death. He was a man of quiet, unassuming disposition, was well read and educated, but never sought the conspicu- ous positions. He was a democrat, and a member of the First Congrega- tional Church. Of six sons in the family the only one now living is Chambers D. Jacob, born January 29, 1827, was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville May 2, 1863, having left a wife and four small daugh- ters to enter the army; Samuel, born September 6, 1828, served four years in the Civil war and died at the Ohio Soldiers' Home in 1913; Daniel Paul, born March 10, 1833, and died January 14, 1900, was employed in taking care of the wounded in front of Petersburg during the war, afterwards for many years was one of Oberlin's leading mar- chants; John Frederick was born September 10, 1838, and died in 1899. He was a four months soldier in the war; George Washington, born December 12, 1840, went through the war as a member of the Cleve- land-Grays and died from the effects of the campaign on September 10, 1864.
Chambers D. Reamer received his early education in the public schools of Wayne County and had spent one term in Oberlin College when he responded to the call of patriotism and on August 11, 1862, enlisted in Company I of the One Hundred and Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served for three years, being in the army of the Cumber- land, and taking part in all the leading campaigns and battles of that command of his own regiment. After the war Mr. Reamer spent another year in Oberlin College and then engaged in business with his brother, D. P. Reamer, in 1868, and the brothers were associated until 1871. He then continued in business with Mr. Eckert under the firm name of Reamer & Eckert until 1878. Having sold his interests at Oberlin, Mr. Reamer went on the road as traveling representative for the Art Metal Construction Company, and successfully promoted the business of that concern in various sections of the South, having his headquarters at Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga. Altogether he was on the road for twenty-five years. In 1910 Mr. Reamer returned to Oberlin and has since employed his time in fire and life insurance and real estate business, and he promoted and developed the Reamer Addition to Oberlin.
On May 5, 1868, he married Miss Frances Cole, daughter of Stephen Cole, a well known and prominent citizen in this section of Lorain County. They have two children: Daniel Albert, who completed his education in Oberlin College, is now a young architect located at Cleve- land; Robert is also an architect in Cleveland and has made a fine reputation for himself, having built some of the leading hotels in the National Park.
Mr. Reamer and wife are members of the First Congregational Church, fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World and in politics is a republican.
ELIAB WIGHT METCALF. Few families identified with Lorain County have contributed so many distinguished and useful workers in various fields to the world as the Metcalf family, still represented in the county by Irving W. Metcalf, prominent business man and religious worker at Oberlin; W. V. Metcalf of Oberlin, who has made a national and inter- national reputation by his able and important work as a student of chemistry ; Maynard M. Metcalf, also of Oberlin, who has only a less extended reputation as a zoologist; Dr. Henry M. Metcalf of Elyria ; and John M. P. Metcalf, who for a number of years has been president of Talladega College in Alabama. Another member of the same family
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is Gen. W. S. Metcalf, who for many years has been a business man in Kansas and made a gallant record as an officer in the Philippine war.
The family has been in America for nearly three centuries. Michael Metcalf, who headed the first American generation, was a manufacturer of tapestry at Norwich, England. He arrived in Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1637, having left England because of religious persecution, being a zealous nonconformist. He was one of the Yorkshire Metcalf family, whose name first appears in 1278 as Adam Called Medecalfe, and who was said to be the eighth in descent from the Dane Arkefrith who came to England with King Canute in 1016. Michael Metcalf's service in Dedham included in his later years teaching in the first public school- house erected in this country. He married Sarah Elwyn, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Elwyn of Hingham, Norfolk County, England. The second generation was represented by Michael Metcalf, third child of Michael and Sarah Metcalf. He married Mary Fairbanks, daughter of John Fairbanks, Sr., who built the "Fairbanks House" at Dedham. In the third generation is Eleazar Metcalf, the fifth child of Michael and Mary, who married Meletia Fisher. Michael Metcalf, of the fourth generation, second child of Eleazar and Meletia, married Abigail Col- burn. Peletia H. Metcalf, of the fifth generation, was the oldest child of Michael and Abigail, and married Hepzibah, daughter of Rev. Samuel Mann, who was the first minister of Wrentham. Peletia Metcalf, of the sixth generation, and the second child of Peletia and Hepzibah, married Lydia Estey of Thompson, Connecticut.
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