USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 38
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On the 17th of March, 1870, Mr. Aby married Miss Elizabeth Gongway, a daughter of Michael Gongway, of Ashland county, who died in 1896, at about the age of eighty years. By this union six children were born, namely : Cora B., now the wife of Wesley Keefer, a farmer of Washington township, Richland county, south of Mansfield, by whom she has two children,-Leta and Boyd; and Stella, Charles, Bert, Effie and Elta, who are all at home with their parents.
JACOB DE LANCEY.
For many years Mr. De Lancey was actively identified with the business interests of Richland county as a contractor and builder, but is now living a retired life at his pleasant home on section 14, Cass township. He is a native of Pennsylvania, his birth occurring in Perry county, that state, Jan- uary 27, 1820, and is one of a family of eight children, of whom he and his brother Joseph, a retired citizen of Bucyrus, Ohio, are the only survivors.
Francis De Lancey, the father of our subject, was born in France, and during boyhood came to the United States with his parents, who located in Perry county, where he grew to manhood upon a farm and married Mary Rice, a native of that county. There he followed farming until 1826, when he emigrated to Richland county, Ohio, and bought a farm of one hundred acres in Cass township, two miles west of Ganges. Four years later he sold that place and purchased a farm of similar size near Planktown, where lie made his home until death. He died in middle life, being somewhat over forty years of age, but his wife lived to the age of ninety-two years.
On leaving home, at the age of sixteen, Jacob De Lancey commenced learning the carpenter's trade of his brother-in-law, James Crawford, and after completing his apprenticeship continued to follow that occupation for more than twenty years in this section. Industrious and economical, he
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began saving money early in his career and invested his accumulations in land, his first purchase consisting of his present farm of ninety-three acres on section 14, Cass township. At the time it was wild and unimproved. After erecting a dwelling, he took up his residence there, and while he continued to work at his trade he hired his land cleared and cultivated. Later he bought the old Crawford farm of eighty-five acres, south of Planktown, and subsequently purchased one hundred acres adjoining this on the east. He. rented his land and continued to follow carpentering and building until some time in the '6os, erecting many of the residences in and around Shiloh, which still stand as monuments to his skill and handiwork. Since that time Mr. De Lancey has lived quietly upon his home place, enjoying the fruits of former toil.
In 1843 he wedded Miss Sarah Crawford, a native of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of John Crawford. By this union he had seven children, four of whom are living, namely: Joseph, who is operating one of his father's farms; Calvin, a blacksmith of Greenwich, Ohio; Mary J., the widow of William Furney; and Christina, the wife of H. H. Parrish, a shoe merchant of Bellefontaine, Ohio. The wife and mother died March 18, 1876, and for his second wife Mr. De Lancey married Miss Ellen J. Guthrie, a native of Blooming Grove township and a daughter of John E. Guthrie, who in his 'teens came to this county from Harrison county, Ohio, the place of his nativity.
Mr. De Lancey is a Democrat in political sentiment, and for the past twenty-five years has been an active member of the Lutheran church. After a useful and honorable career he can well afford to lay aside all business cares and live in ease and retirement. He is widely and favorably known, and is honored for his sterling worth and many excellencies of character.
THOMAS J. SHOCKER.
Thomas J. Shocker, a prominent citizen of Mansfield, Ohio, was born March 4, 1848, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a son of Harry S. and Eliza Carr (Adams) Shocker, who removed from their old home in Philadelphia to Salem, Ohio, in 1860. During the year 1862 Thomas J. Shocker, after sev- eral unsuccessful attempts, finally got to the front in the army of the Union. Too young to be mustered into the service of the government, he went with Captain Edward Holloway, of Company B, Twelfth Ohio Cavalry, and was with the company until the close of the war, undergoing all the hardships of army life in camp, in the field, on the march, in battle and as a prisoner of
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war. After completing his service in the army he returned to Salem, Ohio, whence the family removed, in 1865. to Alliance, Ohio.
Thomas J. Shocker in his youth learned civil engineering and was with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on its Eastern division. Later he be- came a fireman for the same company and was soon promoted engineer on a locomotive, which position he held for many years ; in 1887 he left this service and was given a position as the foreman of the engine house of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company at Mansfield, which position he still retains.
November 1, 1870, he was married to Miss Mary Koons, at her home in Richland county, and to this marriage there have been born the following children : Harry Daniel, born August 28, 1871 ; Gracie, born March 1, 1874, and died when five months old : Emma, born July 14, 1875. grew up a beautiful girl, graduated at the high school when eighteen years of age, and died August 17, 1895; and Thomas J., Jr., born August 17, 1881.
Harry Daniel Shocker is an engineer, beginning work for the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company when but seventeen years of age, and being placed in charge of a locomotive when twenty-two, since which time he has been continuously in the service of the company. He was married June 7, 1899, to Miss Maud Clifford, at her home in Mansfield. Thomas J. Shocker, Jr., has a good common-school education, and spent two years in attendance at the high school, and afterward took a commercial course at the Mansfield Business College, graduating at this latter institution in 1899. He is now collector for the Mansfield Savings Bank.
The father of Thomas J. Shocker died at Alliance, Ohio, and his mother at Crestline. They reared six children, viz. : Harry, Thomas J., John Sam- tel. William and Mary. Harry served his country four years during the Civil war, as the first sergeant of his company. He is now engaged in building locomotives in the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, hav- ing been thus employed ever since the close of the war. John Shocker is a passenger conductor on the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway, having held his present position for the past twenty years. Mary married C. L. Jackson, who is a passenger engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad, having his position for many years.
Thomas J. Shocker is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and has held his membership for the past ten years. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been since 1885, having passed all the chairs but two. Politically he is a Thomas Jefferson Democrat, and he and his family are all members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
The parents of Mrs. Shocker were Daniel and Jane (Reed) Koons, the
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former born in 1808 and died in 1877, and the latter born in 1816 and died in 1894. They were the parents of fourteen children, of whom six still live,. as follows: John, who is in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, and married Miss Helen Shalters at Alliance, where they now reside; Jenetta, now the wife of Michael Young; Delilah, who inarried William Kerchiee, and is now residing with him in Youngstown; Lillie, now living at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Abraham, who married Isabella Hoff- man, with whom he is now living at Crestline, Ohio. Margaret, recently deceased, married James Hacket, of Shiloh, Richland county, who is now a retired farmer.
MRS. SARAH J. BOALS.
Mrs, Sarah J. Boals was born in Richland county, and while she was still an infant her father, in 1850, went to California to seek his fortune, but soon after reaching that country died, leaving his wife a widow with four children,-all daughters,-of whom Mrs. Boals was the youngest. When she was about five years of age she was taken by Robert Brown, a farmer of Washington township, and lived with him until she was eighteen years of age. April 19, 1873, she was married to Mr. Marion Boals, and im- mediately after their marriage they located in Mansfield. Mr. Boals was in the service of the Pittsburg. Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Company, and on Thanksgiving morning, 1884, while in the line of his duty as con- ductor, in the yards of that company at Mansfield, was mortally injured, dying November 27, 1884, almost immediately after receiving his injury. Mr. and Mrs. Boals were the parents of the following children: William Rich- ard, born February 7, 1874; Marion Herbert, born October 7. 1876, a ma- chinist in the employ of the Union Foundry & Machine Company; George Henry, born August 7. 1879; and a daughter, born August 1, 1883, and died when five days old. The boys are all at home, William R. being an employee of the New York, Pittsburg & Ohio Railroad Company, and located in Mansfield; and George Henry, a painter in the employ of the Aultman- Taylor Company. Mrs. Henry Newland, a sister of Mrs. Boals, lives on a farm in Madison township; Mrs. Martha Culver, another sister, lives in Ne- vada, Missouri, and Mrs. Mary McJunkins, still another sister, lives at Crest- line, Ohio. The mother of these four sisters, who for some years lived with Mrs. McJunkins at Crestline, died during the summer of 1896, at the age of seventy-one years. Robert Brown died about twenty-five years
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ago, and Colonel R. C. Brown, his son, with whom Mrs. Boals lived in her girlhood, died in 1897.
Mrs. Boals is a stanch member of Dr. Niles' English Lutheran church, of Mansfield, and has been living in her present home, No. 65 Buckingham street, some nine years. Her son, William R., is a member of the Maccabees of Mansfield.
JOHN D. MYERS.
The life story of the pioneer is always fraught with interest and the work of the pioneer in planting civilization and developing the resources of any country is a most important one, deserving first place in all local history and biography. The biographical sketch which follows embraces every phase of rural life in Ohio and exemplifies the progress of events ili Richland county through several generations of the well-known family of Myers, of which John D. Myers, of Jackson township, is a prominent repre- sentative.
John D. Myers was born in Stark county, Ohio, April 24, IS28, a son of Adam and Elizabeth (Howard) Myers. Adam Myers was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and grew to manhood and married there. He came west as far as Ohio in 1823 and located in Stark county, where he remained until 1827, when he came to Richland county and took up eighty acres of government land, on which he erected a one-room log cabin, into which he moved his family in 1828. It was a most primitive home in which the fam- ily was first domiciled, with a low split-board roof and a puncheon floor, and a forest of beech, maple and other native trees extended from it for many miles in all directions, rarely broken for human habitation and peopled with Indians and wild animals. In all of Jackson township there were but few families at that time. Adam Myers had seven children: John D., Sarah, Elizabeth, Sophia, Catharine, Rebecca and William H. During the pioneer days Mr. Myers and his daughters manufactured the family clothing, through all processes from the fleece and the flax to the finished garment, and in all ways their life was a most primitive and laborious one. Though small of stature Mr. Myers was a man of information and of much force of char- acter, and was influential in public affairs and active and helpful in the early work of the Lutheran church here. He died on his home farm, in Jackson township, in 1855, at the age of seventy-five years, his death being deeply regretted by all who had known him during his long, busy and self-denying career.
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John D. Myers was about four months old when his father moved to his farm in Jackson township. The first school he attended was in a log schoolhouse with slab benches, greased-paper windows and a great fireplace, and the name of his first teacher was John Upp. He was brought up to the hard labor of a pioneer farmer's boy of all work, and there was no phase of backwoods life with which he did not early become familiar. He was married September 1, 1853, to Miss Elizabeth Feighner and rented and moved upon his father's farm. His father died about two years later, his mother in 1859, at the age of seventy-two years. His worldly success has been noteworthy. From a beginning in active life at the age of eight years, working for his board and clothing, he has, by industry and honesty, ad- vanced to the position of a first-class farmer, owning the old farm of one hundred and twelve acres of highly improved and productive land. including his father's original "eighty," and engaged extensively in general farming. All his life he has lived here, and he is now seventy-three years old. He is a man of much public spirit, always helpful to every movement tending to the advancement of the interests of his township, county and state, and he takes a deep and abiding interest in political affairs, voting and working with the Democratic party for the prevalence of its principles in all important national measures. He filled the office of township trustee greatly to his credit and to the satisfaction of his fellow townsmen for four years, and has been many times solicited to accept other important local offices ; but he is not merely an office-seeker : he has a decided disinclination to public life and prefers his farm and his stock-for he has dealt long and successfully in horses-to any political honors that might be his for the taking. Forty years he has been a member of the Lutheran church, and he has served his organiza- tion as a deacon and the treasurer for twenty-three years and has been the superintendent of its Sunday-school for ten years.
Mr. and Mrs. Myers have had children as follows: Sarah, Frances (dead), William, Melissa, Curtis, and another who died in infancy.
PETER HOUT.
There is particular satisfaction in reverting to the life history of the honored and venerable gentleman whose name initiates this review, since his mind bears impress of the historical annals of Richland county. Here he has spent his entire life, and has been prominently identified with its growth and upbuilding. He was born in Mifflin township, on the 17th of November, 1821, a son of Jacob and Catherine (Simpson) Hout. The fa-
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ther was a native of Virginia, where his early life was passed; and his fa- ther, Peter Hout, was born in Germany, from which country his parents came to America at an early day, settling in the Old Dominion, where they spent the remainder of their lives. After reaching manhood Jacob Hout came to Ohio and first located in Jefferson county, where he was united in mar- riage to the mother of our subject. After a few years' residence there he came to Richland county, about 1820, and entered the northeast quarter of section 17, Mifflin township, while his brother John, who came with him, entered the adjoining quarter section on the west. Some five or six years later Jacob Hout sold his place and bought the southeast quarter of section 7, the same township, where he continued to make his home until called from this life, July 15, 1838, at about the age of forty-five years. Thus passed away one of the honored pioneers and highly respected citizens of this county. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian and in politics a Whig. He was twice married, his first wife having died when our subject was only four years old. Of the four children born of that union Peter is the only survivor. The second wife was Mary Williams, by whom he had two children, but George alone is living.
Amid pioneer scenes Peter Hout passed the days of his boyhood and youth, and he conned his lessons in a primitive log schoolhouse common at that time. On the 30th of May, 1843, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Boals, a native of Jefferson county, Ohio, and a daughter of David Boals, one of the early settlers of Mifflin township. Seven children blessed this union,-five sons and two daughters,-namely: Susanna, the wife of M. J. Clugston, of Mansfield; William M., a farmer of Madison township. this county; David W., who is running his father's lower farm; Jacob G., a molder of Mansfield; Cyrus B., the chief engineer of the electric light and power house of Galion, Ohio; Elmer J., a farmer of Mifflin township, this county ; and one daughter, Mary Effa, who died when about twenty-two years of age.
After his marriage Mr. Hout settled upon a farm of eighty acres in Mifflin township,-the west half of the northwest quarter of section 16,- which was then the property of his father. As it was covered with a heavy growth of timber, he at once began the arduous task of clearing the land and fitting it for cultivation. After his father's death he bought the land from the administrators of the estate, and has since added to it, making a fine farm of two hundred and two acres. Although now in his eightieth year, Mr. Hout is still hale and hearty and able to perform considerable work upon the farm. Politically he is a stanch supporter of the Democratic party, has served
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as infirmary director six years, and as township assessor nine or ten terms. He can relate many interesting incidents of pioneer life in this region when the land was all wild and unimproved and when wild game of all kinds was plentiful. As an honored pioneer and representative man of his community he is well worthy the high regard in which he is uniformly held.
FRITZ A. OTT.
A prominent and well known German-American citizen, who has accumu- lated a comfortable fortune in the tanning and saddlery business, now residing in Shelby, Ohio, is Fritz A. Ott, the subject of this sketch. He was born in Wertheim, Baden, Germany, December 22, 1832, a son of Seigfried and Magdalena (Bauer) Ott.
Interchange of letters with a brother established in America created in our subject a desire to cross the ocean also. This he accomplished in the spring of 1855, when, with his younger brother, Frederick, he reached New York and came immediately to Shelby to join his brother George, who had been here for several years, employed by Stephen Marvin, in the tanning busi- ness, which house had been established in 1820.
A welcome awaited the lads, and as George had bought the business from Mr. Marvin they had immediate employment ; but they soon realized the neces- sity of mastering the English language. They were ambitious and desired to be able to read, write and converse in it, and as a teacher they secured the services of the Hon. S. S. Bloom, then a struggling young attorney, willing in this way to augment his income. In one year Fritz and Frederick bought the tanning plant, adding to it a saddlery line, and with energy, economy and honest dealing they made it a very successful business, retiring with a con- petency. They closed up the tannery in 1892, but continued the saddlery busi- ness until 1897. Frederick died October 28, 1892.
The marriage of Mr. Ott was celebrated in March, 1864, to Miss Jennie, the daughter of Stephen and Sarah (Burr) Marvin, who had come to this place from Connecticut in 1818. Mrs. Ott was born in Shelby, December 22, 1835. One son and four daughters were born of this union: Stephen S., who is now a resident of Florida; Anna Laura, who married . George W. Rogers, October 20, 1890, and left a widow June 21, 1894, with one little daughter, Amy: Ott Rogers : Mrs. Rogers married W. A. Shaw on August 1, 1899, and resides in Shelby. The next daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ott is Emily M., born in 1872; the next Lena Burr, born in 1878 and died in 1895; and the youngest child is Georgie E., born in 1882.
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The beautiful home of Mr. Ott is a fine brick residence surrounded by trees, and it is a privilege to pass time under its hospitable roof. The family are among the most highly esteemed members of the Methodist church and are well known to all the residents of this thriving town. In politics Mr. Ott is a firm supporter of the principles of the Republican party.
GENERAL THOMAS T. DILL.
General Dill, one of Mansfield's best known and most highly esteemed citizens, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, May 2, 1842, and is a son of Thomas and Catharine (Kellog) Dill. The father was born in Dillstown, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and during his boyhood was brought to this state by his parents, who settled in Stark county. After his marriage he removed to Wayne county, and in 1852 came to Mansfield, Richland county, where his death occurred in 1877. He was twice married, his second wife being the mother of our subject. She was born in Northamptonshire, England, in 1808.
The General began his education in his native county, and after the removal of the family to Mansfield attended the public schools in that city. He was among the first to offer his services to his country on the outbreak of the Civil war, enlisting in April, 1861, for three months, at the president's first call for troops. He became a member of the Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served under General McClellan in West Virginia. participating in the battles of Philippi, Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford. He was mustered out in August, 1861, and almost immediately re-enlisted for three years, in the re-organized Sixteenth, as a private, but was afterward promoted as ser- geant and was mustered out as sergeant-major, October 31, 1864. In the course of two months he again re-enlisted for three years, in Hancock's Vet- eran corps, becoming a second lieutenant in the First Regiment, United States Veteran Volunteers, and was afterward transferred to the Ninth Regiment and promoted first lieutenant and adjutant. During his military career he served under Generals McClellan, Buell, Sherman, Grant, Banks, Canby and Hancock, and participated in a great many of the important cam- paigns and battles of the war, including the siege and capture of Vicksburg. He was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy for a short time, and was finally mustered out of service on the 2d of May, 1866, with a war record of which he may be justly proud.
Returning to Mansfield in the summer of 1866, General Dill has since made this place his home. For eight years he was connected with the Ault- man-Taylor Company. In the fall of 1876 he was elected clerk of the courts
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of Richland county, and so acceptably did he fill that office that he was re- elected for another three-years term in the fall of 1879. In January, 1884, after the election of Governor Hoadley, he was appointed assistant adjutant- general of the state, and served in that capacity with headquarters at Columbus for two years. In the spring of 1886 he was appointed by Governor Foraker, now United States Senator, a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors' Home, which they located and built near Sandusky. He was again appointed assistant adjutant-general of the state by Governor Campbell in 1890, and resigned his position as a trustee of the Soldiers and Sailors' Home. In 1891 he was made adjutant-general of the state and most efficiently filled that office until January, 1892. Governor Bushnell re-ap- pointed him a trustee of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors' Home in the spring of 1896, and when his term expired, in April, 1900, he was reappointed by Gov- ernor Nash for a term of five years. His official duties have always been most capably and conscientiously discharged, winning for him the commendation of all concerned.
General Dill was married in the summer of 1866 to Miss Malvina Vogel, of Millersburg, Ohio, and to them were born two sons: Charles F., who died in the fall of 1889; and George V., who is engaged in business in Mansfield as a dealer in coal, lime and builders' supplies.
The General served as the captain of Company B, Seventeenth Ohio National Guards, in 1878 and 1879, and has been aid-de-camp on the staff of the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Honor. His long residence in Mansfield, covering a period of almost half a century, has placed him among its valued citizens who have been devoted to the public welfare. He has manifested the same loyalty in days of peace as in time of war, and all who know him have for him the highest regard.
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