USA > Ohio > Hancock County > A centennial biographical history of Hancock County, Ohio > Part 10
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Rebecca a Day
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Mrs. Rebecca N. Davy was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in January, 1827, and her parents removed to Hancock county in 1848. They purchased here eighty acres of land, and upon this they resided during their lives, sur- rounded with all the comforts of a country home of that day. He was an energetic and successful farmer and stood high in that community. He was a native of Carroll county, and died in Hancock county in the ninetieth year of his age. His wife Rachel was born in Virginia, and died at the age of eighty-seven years in Hancock county. They were worthy citizens and held the esteem of their numerous friends and acquaintances.
JACOB H. BOGER, D. D. S.
This is an age of progress, and America is the exponent of the dominat- ing spirit of the age. In the beginning of the last century our country was in its infancy, and history shows no parallel for its growth and achievements. No other country has made as great advancement in the lines of science and mechanical invention, and its prestige in this regard is distinct and undis- puted. In this steady growth and development which has characterized the age of science dentistry-which is both a science and a mechanic art- has kept pace with the general progress, and in this profession the subject of this review stands as one of the most skilled representatives in the state of Ohio, who is established in the successful practice of dentistry in the city of Findlay, Hancock county, where he is honored as a citizen and as a lead- ing member of his profession. He is at the present time incumbent of the office of postmaster in his home city, and has given a most discriminating and capable administration of the affairs of the same, gaining the endorsement of the local public and ever aiming to insure the best possible service. He has been otherwise prominent in the political and civic life of the city, and is well worthy of consideration in this work as one of the representative citizens of Hancock county.
Jacob Henry Boger is a native of the old Keystone state of the Union, having been born in the city of Harrisburg, capital of Pennsylvania, on the 27th of June, 1859, a son of John A. and Mary A. (Kuhnle) Boger, both of stanch German lineage. His father is likewise a native of Pennsylvania, where he has attained a position of prominence and influence, being now in- cumbent of a position in the comptroller's office in the city of Philadelphia, where he took up his abode when his son, the Doctor, was a lad of about ten years, and where he soon gained precedence as one of the leaders in the local ranks of the Republican party. He and his wife became the parents of
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seven children, of whom six are living at the present time. Dr. Boger se- cured his initial scholastic discipline in his native city and thereafter contin- ted his studies in the work of the public schools of the city of Philadelphia until 1877, when he began the work of technical preparation for that pro- fession in which he has attained so marked precedence and success. He be- gan the study of dentistry in the office and under the direction of Dr. J. F. Fryer, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, one of the most eminent members of his profession in that section of the Keystone state, and Dr. Boger thoroughly familiarized himself with the methods adopted by his able preceptor, in both the operative and laboratory departments of dental science, and in 1877, in order to thoroughly fortify himself for the active work of his chosen profes- sion, he was matriculated in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, in Philadelphia, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880, re- ceiving at that time the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery and class honors.
On the 16th of March of the same year, Dr. Boger began the active practice of his profession in the city of Findlay, which has ever since been the field of his well directed and signally successful efforts. He has steadily risen in popular favor and his professional business is now the largest in the city. His offices are finely equipped with the most improved mechanical ac- cessories are made attractive with the tasteful furnishings, and the pro- fessional services of the Doctor have been in demand by a patronage of distinctively representative character. Of him it has been well said that he is not a man "whose ability is limited to one line of business activity alone. He has largely contributed to the material resources of the city and is deeply interested in all that is calculated to promote the growth and upbuilding of Findlay. He has dealt to a considerable extent in real estate and has found this a profitable source of income."
Dr. Boger has given an unequivocal support to the Republican party from the time of attaining his legal majority and he has been a prominent and influential factor in political affairs in this section of the state. He was a member of the board of election supervisors of Hancock county, in which capacity he served consecutively for seven years, the local public having im- plicit confidence in his impartiality and judgment. In 1884 the Doctor was elected to the office of city clerk of Findlay, and of this position he was the efficient incumbent for four years. Of his position in regard to matters political another publication gave the following appreciative estimate: "He has given valuable aid to the county committees and his counsel is valuable and is gladly received. He was chairman of the congressional committee of the eighth district in 1898, and is active in the Ohio League of Republican
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Clubs. In 1896 he was a member of the executive committee of Ohio from Hancock county, and in 1887 he was one of those who went to New York City to form the National League of Republican Clubs. He was a delegate to the state convention in 1891, when Major William McKinley was nomin- ated by acclamation for governor, and later he was one of the most earnest and efficient supporters of the illustrious Ohio statesman for the presidency." On the 22d of June, 1898, Dr. Boger was appointed postmaster of Findlay by President Mckinley, the appointment meeting with most favorable recep- tion, and he has proved an able executive and one fully appreciative of the responsible duties entrusted to his care in connection with this department of the government service. He was reappointed by President Roosevelt June 27, 1902. For some years he took an active part in the interest of the Episco- pal church, and fraternally he has attained distinguished rank in the time- honored order of Freemasonry, in which he has advanced to the thirty-sec- ond degree of the Scottish Rite, being also a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He has taken a very deep and appreciative interest in this great fraternal or- ganization, and is past eminent commander of Findlay Commandery, No. 49, Knights Templar. He is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Royal Arcanum and Knights of Pythias. He has ever kept in close touch with the advances made in his profession and is a member of several societies established in the interests of the same, including the Ohio State Dental Association and the Dentists' Protective Association. Re- verting, incidentally, to his genealogy, it should be noted that the Doctor's maternal great-grandfather, Samuel Skeen, was a lieutenant in the Philadel- phia county, Pennsylvania, militia in the early days.
On the 6th of December, 1882, Dr. Boger was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Mungen, a daughter of Hon. William Mungen, who was the only representative ever sent from Hancock county to Congress and who was one of the distinguished citizens of Findlay. Dr. and Mrs. Boger have one child, Corinne.
REV. ASA ELLIS.
For sixty-three years the subject of this review has been numbered among the honored and highly respected citizens of Hancock county and has been prominently identified with those interests calculated to uplift and benefit his fellow men. For many years he labored in the Master's vineyard as a mem- ber of the Baptist church and was also engaged in the practice of medicine, thus ministering to both the spiritual and temporal needs of the people.
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Mr. Ellis was born in Bertie county, North Carolina, September 12, 1819, and is of English descent, his paternal grandfather, Ezekiel Ellis, hav- ing come to this country from England in 1730. His son, Ezekiel Ellis, Jr., the father of our subject, was a native of North Carolina, and on reaching man's estate married Margaret Lee, a first cousin of Robert E. Lee. The Ellis family were not slaveholders and were active members of the Baptist church.
At the age of seventeen years our subject began preaching in the primi- tive Baptist church and continued to devote his time to the ministry for many years. On leaving his old home in North Carolina he decided to locate in Tennessee, where he had relatives living, but falling in with a company of friends bound for Ohio, he came to this state in 1839 at the age of twenty years. He first stopped at Chillicothe and from there went to Fayette county with an uncle, Isaac Drace, spending one winter there engaged in preaching. He finally determined to go to Illinois, but on his way there in 1844 stopped at Findlay to see Henry Bishop, editor of the Courier and a prominent Bap- tist, and also Price Blackford, father of Aaron Blackford. There being no Baptist minister at this place he was persuaded to preach for the congre- gation and filled the position twenty-five years, during which time he organ- ized five societies in this section of the state, at Findlay, Carey, Orange, Gilboa and Eagle.
Mr. Ellis was married April 14, 1846, to Miss Maria Reynolds, a na- tive of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Reynolds, who brought their family to Wyandot county, Ohio, when she was a child of eleven years. By trade her father was a blacksmith and gunsmith. Mr. Ellis became acquainted with his wife while preaching at Carey, the family being members of the congregation there. At the time of her marriage Mrs. Ellis was twenty-four years of age and she became the mother of eight children, namely: Bishop Reynolds, who died at the age of eleven years; Curtis Welch, who served as postmaster of Curtellis, Ohio, ยท spent several years in the west and died at the age of forty-eight; George Washington, who died in Montana at the age of forty-two; Valinda Eliza- beth, who married Albert Johnson, of St. Joseph county, Michigan; Robert A., a physician of Findlay, Ohio, and San Francisco, California, who died in the Klondike, where he had gone as a medical practitioner; Abner Theo- dore, a prospector now in Alaska; Willie, a farmer of Jackson township, who married Eva Gossage; and Jerema, who died in infancy.
In the fall of 1846 Mr. Ellis located on a farm in Jackson township, but did not engage in agricultural pursuits, as he devoted his attention wholly to the work of the ministry and the practice of medicine, which he began in
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1848. He continued to engage in practice until 1870, when the state passed a law requiring that all physicians pass an examination before the state board, but not wishing to take an examination he retired from the profession. He had quite an extensive patronage extending for miles into the surrounding country and he met with most excellent success in the treatment of various diseases. During the cholera epidemic seventeen persons died in Eagle town- ship, but he lost but one patient and cured many. He was also very success- ful in the treatment of typhoid fever and milk sickness, which was quite preva- lent among the early settlers of this portion of the state and lost no cases toward the close of his practice. After his practical retirement he continued to prescribe for his old neighbors and friends to some extent, but always free of charge. He was a member of the physio-medical school, although he never received the degree of Medical Doctor, and was very proficient in his pro- fession. During all this time Mr. Ellis continued to preach from 1834 until 1880, and occasionally since that time. He has performed many marriage and funeral ceremonies and labored untiringly as a local pastor. While in his prime he held many religious debates with the Bible as his text book, and he always held to the spirit if not to the letter of the text. He is broad and liberal in his views on scriptural, as well as other subjects, and is a man who commands the respect of all who know him.
At one time Mr. Ellis was the owner of four hundred acres of land, two-thirds of which he placed under cultivation, and he still retains one hun- dred and twenty acres in the home farm, having given to each of his children a farm. In early life he was a Democrat until 1840, when he became a Whig, and continued to support that party until the organization of the Republican party in 1856, when he joined its ranks. He endorses its views on the money question, but is not an advocate of expansion, and stands with the admin- istration in regard to Cuba but not to the Philippines. He has taken an active part in political conventions and has always kept well informed on the ques- tions and issues of the day. His life has been exemplary in many respects and he well merits the confidence and respect so freely accorded him by his fellow citizens.
S. M. STEWART.
Though a native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Stewart has been a resident for thirty-two years in various counties of Ohio. During his active life he has tried different pursuits, including merchandising and dealing in real estate, and he met with a fair measure of success, but he eventually returned to the
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first experience of his youth and settled down permanently to farming. At the present time he owns two places in Hancock county, his home farm be- ing situated in Blanchard township and consisting of one hundred and sixty acres of fertile land. This tract is devoted to general farming, including the standard crops and stock-raising, and as Mr. Stewart is a good business man and careful manager, he ranks as one of the safe and conservative farmers of his neighborhood.
It is only necessary to mention the names of Stewart and Randolph to recall to any reader of English and American history that they are among the most ancient and famous in our annals. On his father's side the subject of our sketch is descended from a Scotch family of Stewarts who were quite prominent in the land of Bruce and Burns, their ancestors being connected with powerful and aristocratic families and participants in many of the fa- mous wars of "old Scotia." On his mother's side Mr. Stewart is descended from the English Randolphis, who came over shortly after the Mayflower voyage, and subsequently figured so conspicuously in Virginia. Eventually the two families in one of their remote branches came together by the mar- riage in Butler county, Pennsylvania, of Joseph Stewart and Elizabeth Ran- dolph. S. M. Stewart, son of this couple and subject of this biography, was born while his parents were residing in Butler county, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and remained there until he was eighteen years old. After receiving the usual education afforded by the common schools and learning farm work during the interims, he decided before reaching his majority to try his for- tune in the west. It was in 1870 that he made his first appearance in Han- cock county and as the most available opportunity in sight he sought employ- ment in ordinary labor on a farm. Subsequently he removed to Allen county, Ohio, bought a stock of boots and shoes and opened up a mercantile business in that line, which he prosecuted for some time with a fair degree of success. This enterprise, however, he eventually traded for a farm in Paulding county and upon removing to that locality shortly after became a dealer in real estate. These various transactions consumed his time until 1898, when Mr. Stewart returned to Hancock county and, like the giant in the fable, sought strength again by renewing his touch with mother earth. He purchased a farm of eighty acres in Pleasant township and in 1901 bought and removed to another in Blanchard township, on which he has since resided.
In 1871 Mr. Stewart was united in martimony with Miss Orissa Coates, who was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1850, came to Blanch- ard township when a little girl and was reared on the farm where she now lives. She was the daughter of Gardner and Emma Coates, her father having
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at one time done a thriving business as a woolen manufacturer in Massachu- setts. Owing to financial reverses he came west and after a residence of sev- eral years in Pennsylvania removed to Hancock county in 1855 and pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres of land. He was a man of sterling quali- ties and of the strictest walk in his daily life. His family consisted of seven children, of whom four are living, the eldest, William by name, having lost his life while serving his country as a soldier in the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have two sons, of whom Alva, the eldest, is a successful school teacher, and L. A. is a prosperous farmer in Paulding county. The family are members of the Blanchard Methodist Episcopal church and enjoy cordial relations with a wide circle of neighbors and friends.
CHRISTOPHER A. SALTZMAN.
The gentleman whose name is above inscribed, at present a thrifty farmer of Big Lick township, is descended from one of the French emigrants who came to Hancock county about the middle of the last century and who have done their full share towards its progress and development. Andrew and Mary (Rupp) Saltzman emigrated from their native land of France in 1857, came directly to Ohio and located on one hundred and thirty acres of land purchased in Big Lick township. There were but few improvements and the land was rough and unkempt, but French thrift soon found a way to better things and eventually make of the place an ideal farm. At first a rude log house was put up for temporary purposes, but this in time gave place to a commodious dwelling more suitable to the prosperity that had come to the owners. Andrew was a good farmer, who attended strictly to his own business, let politics alone and was intent on making friends instead of en- emies. In religion he was an adherent of the Mennonite faith and his politics were mildly Democratic, though he avoided office seeking and the intrigues inseparable from that pursuit. Andrew Saltzman terminated his industrious and blameless life December 27, 1896, being the survivor of his wife, whose demise occurred March 25, 1895. They reared a family of four children, all of whom are still living, and among the number Christopher A. Saltzman, who was born in France, December 5, 1849, and was consequently eight years old when his parents crossed the sea. As a bright little French boy, with all the vivacity and quickness to learn so characteristic of the children of that sunny land, young Saltzman soon "caught on" to American ways and rapidly absorbed the best that could be taught in the schools of Hancock county. As he grew he learned all about the details of farm life by perform-
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ing the work usually allotted to farmer boys, and when he became a man was well fitted for success in his chosen pursuit. His father gave him the farm where he now resides, which he has cultivated judiciously and industriously, in addition to the management of a sawmill situated on his place, which he owns and operates. Between the two kinds of occupation Mr. Saltzman has been a very busy man and his steady application to business has been re- warded by a flattering measure of success. His fellow citizens honored him with an election as township clerk and he discharged the duties of that office with fidelity and efficiency. November 14, 1895, Mr. Saltzman was united in marriage with Miss Cordia, the worthy daughter of Franklin and Mary Heart, to which union have been born two children: Andrew F., Decem- ber 17, 1896, and Virgil C., April 27, 1899. Mrs. Saltzman is a native of Nevada, Ohio, and is a member of the Christian Union church, to which her husband also belongs. The family, both of the older and younger genera- tions, have always been highly esteemed by their neighbors and the members have furnished fine examples of French citizenship thoroughly Americanized by the free institutions of their adopted country.
DAVID DICK.
The history of mankind is replete with illustrations of the fact that it is only under the pressure of adversity and the stimulus of opposition that the best and strongest in men are brought out and developed. Perhaps the history of no people so forcibly impresses one with this truth as the annals of our re- public. If anything can inspire the youth of our country to persistent, honest. and laudable endeavor, it should be the life record of such men as he of whom we write. The example of the illustrious few of our countrymen who have risen from obscurity to the highest positions in the gift of the nation serves often to awe our young men rather than inspire them to emulation, for they reason that only a few can ever attain to such eminence; but the history of such men as David Dick proves conclusively that with a reasonable amount of mental and physical power success is bound eventually to crown the en- deavor of those who have the ambition to put forth their best efforts, and the will and manliness to persevere therein.
Mr. Dick is to-day one of the most successful men of Hancock county, and certainly deserves great credit for what he has accomplished. He first saw the light in Richland county, Ohio, May 28, 1836, being the son of George and Sarah (Nicholas) Dick, both of whom were natives of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. Here they were reared, and after marriage moved out to Ohio,
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David Dich And Family
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the year being 1826. During his lifetime, George Dick made his impress on the society of that early time as an honest, worthy citizen and a good farmer. He and his wife were members of the German Reformed church. He lived to a most advanced age, having been born in 1796, and his death occurring in 1888. His wife Sarah also lived to a good age, her birth having occurred in 1796, and her death in 1881. The family which they reared consisted of eleven children, but only five are now living, David being the only one in this county. Mr. Dick was reared and educated in Richland county, where he deliberately chose the calling of a farmer, which he has followed with marked success up to the present time, not in the desultory manner which marks the efforts of some people in life, but with a straightforward, year in and year out persist- ency and it is due to this fact and the further fact that he is possessed of a good business head that he owes his success in life. The home life of Mr. Dick began March 11, 1862, when he celebrated his marriage with Barbara, the daughter of Adam and Susanne Weiser. They have had six interesting chil- dren, namely : Willia A., now deceased; George W .; Cora A., Jemmie M., deceased ; John A., and Charles. Mrs. Dick's father, Adam Weiser, was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and was by occupation a farmer. Her mother, Susan Bender, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. They were married in Richland county, Ohio, in 1835, and became the parents of twelve children, two of whom died in infancy, and nine grew to manhood and womanhood, and six are living. Mrs. Dick was born in Richland county, near Mansfield, May 14, 1842, and was educated in the common schools while growing to womanhood. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Dick occurred in Richland county, Ohio, where they continued to reside for four years. After the war they removed to Hancock county, where they located in Washing- ton township, purchasing fifty-three acres of very ordinary land and in a very poor state of cultivation. Mr. Dick improved this property, and in 1872 sold it to advantage. He again purchased farm land, this time one hundred and sixty acres of the tract which he now owns. This also was in a run-down state, but Mr. Dick by hard work and honest toil has succeeded in making it one of the best farms in the county. He has erected new and commodious buildings, and in many other respects has increased its value. He later added eighty acres to the original purchase. The oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Dick, George W., is comfortably situated as a young agriculturist, having married Miss Jessie Taylor, who has presented him with four beautiful children, Ethel ; Lula; Nellie and John E. Cora A., the daughter, married Alvin Davidson, a popular resident of the county.
David Dick is a public spirited citizen, whose labors have been a valuable
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