USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
On the ist of September, 1887, Dr. Stober was united in marriage with Miss Sadie E. Urich, of Richland county, who died January 24, 1898, leav- ing three children, namely: Jay, Rhea and George W. Fraternally the Doctor is a member of the Patrons of Husbandry and the Knights of Pythias, and politically he is identified with the Republican party. He is very popular socially, and has made a host of warm friends during his residence in this county.
RILEY P. BRICKER.
A very prominent public citizen of Shelby, Ohio, who is now the capable superintendent of the electric light plant in this place, is Riley P. Bricker, the subject of this sketch. He was born in Jackson township, Richland county, Ohio, in 1871, a son of Henry J. and Elizabeth (Shearer) Bricker, both natives of Pennsylvania, where the former was born in 1833. The grandfather of our subject came here in the early days and purchased a tract of what is known to all of the present residents as the Bricker farm, located about three miles from Shelby. The four children of the grandparents were William, Isaac, Franklin and Henry J.
402
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Henry J. Bricker had six children: John; William F., who died in Jackson township in 1887, at the age of twenty-seven years; Walter D., who died in 1892 ; Harry Urskin; Henrietta, who married John W. Chamberlain and now resides in Toledo, Ohio; and our subject. Riley P. Bricker was well taught at the primary schools and given opportunities of higher educa- tion at the Ohio State Normal University, at Ada. Ohio, leaving school in 1896. He then engaged in teaching and continued this profession for ten years. On April 2, 1900, he was elected clerk of the city of Shelby, the first Democratic clerk the city has ever had. He is also the township clerk, and he has served as clerk of the sewer commission. Mr. Bricker has served as superintendent of the electric light plant since May 1, 1900, this plant having been organized since 1892.
The marriage of Mr. Bricker took place March 23, 1899, to Miss Mary M. Gilchrist, a daughter of William and Almira Gilchrist, who are among the oldest residents of Jackson township. One daughter has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bricker, who is named Mabel. Socially Mr. Bricker is con- nected with the Knights of Pythias, Uniform Rank, and the Colonial Club of Shelby, Ohio, and he is a charter member of the Board of Industry of Shelby, Ohio. His family are attendants at the services of the Lutheran church, where they are most highly appreciated.
JOHN LEMLEY.
John Lemley, who owns and cultivates a farm in Worthington town- ship, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, September 16, 1836, and is of Ger- man lineage. His father, Gotlieb Lemley, was born, reared and married in Germany, Miss Mary Munse becoming his wife. He was a blacksmith by trade, and soon after his marriage crossed the Atlantic to the new world, about 1820. He there rented land until 1838, when he purchased a part of the farm now occupied by his son John, and there spent his remaining days, his energies being devoted to farming, weaving and blacksmithing. He also dug many wells in this locality, and in his business was fairly successful, leaving a valuable farm of about one hundred and twelve acres: He started out in life empty-handed, but steadily worked his way upward, overcoming all the difficulties in his path and surmounting all the obstacles that barred his progress toward the goal of success. He was an active member of the Lutheran church, to which his wife also belonged, and was an earnest advo- cate of the Democracy. He died at the age of seventy-three years, and his wife passed away at the age of sixty-six.
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. 403
John Lemley is the fourth in order of birth in their family of twelve children. He remained on the home farm during his youth and on attaining his majority rented a tract of land. Subsequently, with the capital he had acquired through his energy and economy, he purchased a farm of eighty acres, which constitutes a part of his present home. He now owns altogether two hundred and sixteen acres of land, much of which represents his own earnings. He carries on general farming and stock raising, making a spe- cialty of Durham cattle. The place is improved with good buildings, well- kept fences and all modern accessories and improvements, and the farm is a monument to the enterprise and thrift of the owner.
Mr. Lemley married Miss Maria Gatton, of Richland county, a daugh- ter of John Gatton. She died at the age of forty-two years, leaving five children: Mary; Clem, who conducts the home farm; John, who is in the Klondike; Milo, who is associated with his brother in the improvement of the home place; and Charles, who lives with his aunt. After the death of his first wife Mr. Lemley wedded Sarah Vohn. He is now largely living retired, his sons relieving him of the responsibility of the cultivation of his fields. He has always had a firm belief in the principles of the Democracy, yet has never sought or desired public office. He belongs to the Methodist Protestant church, in which he is holding the office of trustee. His career has been one of marked activity and usefulness, and demonstrates the possi- bilities of labor in America where opportunity is not hampered by caste or class. His energy has been the foundation of his success, and on it he has erected the superstructure of a comfortable competence.
GEORGE W. STATLER.
There are numerous members of the bar of Mansfield, Ohio, who have won distinction in their chosen profession, and in the connection particular recognition is due the able attorney whose name initiates this review.
A native of Worthington township, Richland county, Ohio, George Washington Statler was born February 14, 1847, being the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Raub) Statler, the former of whom was a native of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1820, while the latter was a daughter of Henry Raub, of Knox county, Ohio, and a sister of Hon. William Raub, a member of the state legislature from Marion county. In both the paternal and maternal lines the ancestry of our subject traces back to stanch old German stock.
Samuel Statler, Sr., the grandfather of George W., emigrated from Penn-
1
404
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
sylvania to Ohio in the year 1838, becoming one of the honored pioneers of the state. He was an active participant in the war of 1812. being a mem- ber of a Maryland regiment, and in recognition of his services a pension was ultimately granted to his widow, Elizabeth (Grubb) Statler. That the fam- ily is of loyal and patriotic stock is still further shown when it is recalled that the great-grandfather of our subject was a valiant soldier in the war of the Revolution. Samuel Statler, Jr., was about eighteen years of age when his parents emigrated to Ohio, and of the other children in the family we enter brief record as follows: Adam, who became a resident of Kansas; George and Christopher, who died in Iowa; Henry, who lived and died in Washington township, Richland county, Ohio; Margaret and Mary, who married and went west; Elizabeth Bowersox, residing in Ashland county, Ohio: and Jeremiah, who settled in California in 1855.
Samuel Statler, Jr., father of our subject, purchased land in Ashland county, Ohio, about the year 1880, and there he resided until his death, in' 1893, at the venerable age of seventy-three years. Previously he had lived in Worthington township, Richland county, upon a aluable and finely im- proved farm of two hundred and forty acres, which had been the homestead of his father. He was a man of influence and prominence in the township, being strong in his intellectuality and ordering his life upon the highest plane of integrity. Samuel and Elizabeth (Raub) Statler had four children : Maranda, deceased; Clark, who died in Nebraska; Albert, a resident of Clay county, Nebraska ; and George W., the immediate subject of this record.
George W. Statler attended the public schools and assisted in the cultiva- tion of his father's farm until he had attained the age of seventeen, waxing strong of mind and body under the sturdy and effective discipline. His youthful patriotism was aroused to decisive action when the integrity of the nation was menaced by armed rebellion, and he gave evidence of his inherent loyalty by enlisting for service in the Union army, in March, 1864. becom- ing a member of Company G, Eighty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. He served under General Sher- man in the siege of Atlanta, participated in the famous march to the sea, and thence proceeded through the Carolinas to Richmond and onward to the national capital, where he participated in the Grand Review of the victorious armies, receiving an honorable discharge and returning to his home, a youth- ful but valiant veteran of the greatest civil war of history.
Again turning his attention to the victories which peace has in store, as well as war, he resumed his educational work, entering Greentown Acad- emy, where he prosecuted his studies during the year 1866. He soon put
405
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
his scholastic acquirements to practical test by engaging in the work of teach- ing school, continuing to devote his attention to pedagogic labors until 1870, in Richland county, and gaining a reputation as a thorough and discriminat- ing worker in the educational field. Mr. Statler had, however, clearly for- mulated his plans for the future, having determined to prepare himself for the legal profession, and with this end in view he came to Mansfield and began reading law in the office and under the direction of the well-known firm of May & Cowan, the latter of whom is now president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. Of the senior member of the firm, Hon. Manuel May, specific mention is made on other pages of this work. Giving close and careful application to his work, Mr. Statler made rapid progress in the acquirement of legal lore, incidentally having that practical experience which may be had in the office of a firm controlling a large and important practice. and in 1872 he was duly admitted to the bar of the state. He at once entered upon the active practice of his profession in Mansfield, and his thor- ough knowledge of jurisprudence, as conjoined to his skill in the handling of work in the courts, has gained to him a large and representative clientage. He is recognized as one of the leading members of the bar of the county, and is held in the highest esteem in professional and business circles.
Mr. Statler has been a virogous and active advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, and has done effective service in the cause. He served as city solicitor for two terms, and on March 28, 1885, received from President Cleveland his commission as postmaster of Mansfield, giving to the office a very successful and popular administration and continuing to be the incumbent until February 10, 1890. Since that time he has devoted his attention to the general practice of his profession and to the handling of real estate.
In the centennial year, 1876, Mr. Statler was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Laird, daughter of William B. Laird, a pioneer of Madison township, 110w deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Statler have two children: Mary, who is a graduate of the high school and is now teaching in the Mansfield public schools; and Warren Clark Statler, who is an assistant to his uncle, Jacob Laird, the city civil engineer of Mansfield, and who as a civil engineer had charge of the civil engineering in the construction of the electric railroad from Mansfield to Shelby in 1900.
Our subject and his wife are members of the Methodist church, and fraternally Mr. Statler is a member of Mclaughlin Post, No. 131, of the Grand Army of the Republic.
406
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
BARNABAS BURNS.
Among the well known and highly respected citizens of Richland county who bore an important part in the development of the state was Barnabas Burns, of Mansfield. There are few men whose lives are crowned with the honor and respect which is universally accorded him, and through long con- nection with this portion of the state his has been an unblemished character. With him success in life was reached by his sterling qualities of mind and heart, true to every manly principle. He has never deviated from what his judgment indicated to be right and honorable between his fellow men and himself. He has never swerved from the path of duty, and along many substantial lines of progress he labored for the welfare of the people among whom he resided.
Barnabas Burns was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, June 29, 1817, the youngest child of Andrew and Sarah (Caldwell) Burns. The father was a native of Donegal, Ireland, and left that country in 1798, at the age of eighteen years. He came to America on account of political troubles of the period and here he married Sarah Caldwell, an orphan who had come with her uncle, Stephen Caldwell, from county Donegal at an early age, residing in Philadelphia until her marriage. The children of the fam- ily were Andrew, who became a prominent minister of the Christian church; Hugh, who was one of the early dry-goods merchants of Ashland county and was the first county auditor; and Barnabas.
When the last named was three years of age he was brought by his parents to Richland county, where his childhood and youth were spent upon a farm which has since become the hamlet known as Paradise Hill, near Olivesburg. His education was obtained in a rude log schoolhouse, such as was familiar to the pioneer, and in the academies of Ashland and Mans- field. After completing his academic course he engaged in teaching a num- ber of terms of school, and in 1840 he was chosen for the position of deputy county clerk, in which capacity he served acceptably until 1846. While per- forming the duties of that position he employed his leisure hours in the study of law in the office of Bartley & Kirkwood. In 1846 he was elected to represent the counties of Richland and Crawford in the Ohio state sen- ate. He had not yet attained his thirtieth year when he was elected to this office. He served for two terms and was a member of the following com- mittees : On finance, privileges and elections and on benevolent institutions, of which last he was the chairman.
Mr. Burns married Miss Writh Gore, a native of Maryland, who
407
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
removed from that state to Mansfield in her nineteenth year. On her father's side she was descended from an old colonial family that for many genera- tions had resided in Maryland. On her mother's side she was of Quaker ancestry, of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, the family dating in that locality from the settlement of William Penn. Mrs. Burns was devoted to her husband, home and family. She died in 1887, at the age of seventy years. and the description of the "good woman" in Proverbs would prove a very fitting epitaph for her monument.
Through a long period Barnabas Burns occupied a prominent position at the bar of Richland county. From 1850 until 1855 he was associated in the practice of law with his former preceptor, Hon. S. J. Kirkwood, who afterward removed to Iowa City, Iowa, and became prominent in that state as governor and United States senator, while later he was a member of President Garfield's cabinet. At the bar Mr. Burns won distinction by rea- son of his comprehensive knowledge of the law, his close application, the logic of his deductions and the correctness of his conclusions. His reputation as a lawyer was indeed enviable, for he ranked among the most prominent of the state and was an intimate friend of many distinguished members of the Ohio bar, including Durbin Ward and A. G. Thurman.
Few men have done more to promote the progress and improvement of Ohio along various lines than did Barnabas Burns. He was the first presi- dent of the Mansfield Savings Bank and aided in organizing the institution. He was also director for many years of the Richland Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and in the days of the volunteer fire department he was a mem- ber of the old Company No. 2. He was a trustee of the Orphans' Home at Xenia for a number of years, being first appointed to that position in 1869. He served as a member of the board of education and of the city council and took an active interest in both before they became political offices, doing everything in his power to advance the interests of the schools and of Mansfield along the lines of reform and progress. He was one of the founders of the Mansfield Lyceum and Library Association, became its first president and acted in that capacity for a number of terms. In 1873 he was chosen a member of the constitutional convention by both political parties, and was recognized as one of the most capable members of the organiza- tion, taking an active part in framing the organic law of the state. That instrument bears the impress of his individuality in many instances and indicates his loyalty to the welfare of its commonwealth. In 1876 he was appointed by Governor R. B. Hayes as one of the centennial commissioners
408
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
from Ohio at Philadelphia. The last office he held was that of inspector of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
In politics Mr. Burns was a war Democrat when the country was engaged in hostilities, but previous to that time had advocated the principles of Jef- ferson and after the war adhered to the old-school Democracy. When the question of slavery in the south and its extension into northern states became the paramount issue he was known as a stalwart advocate of the Union, delivered many addresses in its support, aided largely in raising recruits and was tendered the colonelcy of the Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Governor Tod in recognition of his services during the three-months cam- paign in 1862. He was then appointed for a three-years term, but could not serve on account of chronic bronchial trouble, from which he was for many years a sufferer. He was at the front, however, for about six months, being appointed judge advocate upon the important military trial which was held at Cumberland, Maryland. He had been a delegate to the Baltimore convention which nominated Stephen A. Douglas, and also went as a dele- gate to the convention which nominated Horatio Seymour for the presi- dency in 1868. Mr. Burns was often called upon to preside at public meet- ings and acted as president of the day at the dedication of the soldiers' mon- ument, also made one of the addresses at the unveiling of the Vasbinder Fountain, July 4, 1881.
Mr. Burns had the following named children: Mary, now the wife of Dr. George Mitchell; John Caldwell, Jere Humphrey, Catherine and Barn- abas Gore. At his death his children and five grandchildren were at his bedside. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church from early manhood, long served as one of its trustees and was very active and influential in building the present edifice. Of the Odd Fellows society he was a very enthusiastic member, and in his life exemplified the beneficent spirit of the fraternity. He was the president of the Richland County Bible Society and indeed took a very deep interest in everything pertaining to progress and advancement along lines of public good.
SILAS CHAUNCEY PARKER.
No preliminary paragraph is necessary to introduce the well known lawyer and citizen whose name appears above to the citizens of Mansfield, Ohio, among whom he has gone in and out as a fellow citizen for more than fifteen years, and to many of whom he has been known as a pioneer in Ohio and as a soldier of the Civil war for a much longer period. Mr.
Christie NG Parker
Silasle Parken.
409
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Parker was born in Holmes county, Ohio, in 1831, a son of Cephas Parker, a native of Oneida county, New York, who settled on a farm in Holmes county in 1816. William Parker, the father of Cephas, a pioneer in the hop-growing district of Oneida county, New York, was a first cousin of the Rev. Theodore Parker, D. D., the famous New England divine. The Par- kers came to New England in the Mayflower, and the family has since produced many sons who have proven themselves worthy of their Puritan ancestry. Captain John Parker, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, led the minute men at Lexington. Mr. Parker's mother, Sarah Priest, was also of a distinguished English family. She was a daughter of James Loudon Priest, Jr., who was born in Massachusetts January 1, 1771, a son of James Loudon Priest, a native of England, whose mother was a Loudon of the same family as the one made famous in the annals of Vir- ginia. James Loudon Priest, Jr., a civil engineer, about 1805 took his fam- ily to French Creek, Pennsylvania, from Onondaga county, New York, and from French Creek he removed, in 1807 or '08 to Sandusky county, Ohio. In the spring of that year William Priest, the eldest son, aged thirteen years, with a fifteen-year-old boy as his only companion, drove from French Creek, Pennsylvania, over the mountains and through the wilderness to Sandusky county and cleared and planted a patch of corn, so that the family might have provisions upon their arrival. The family consisted of the father and mother and fifteen children and the aged grandfather, who came of a family of large land-holders in England imbued with the idea that the farmer was the important man in the community. James Loudon Priest, Jr., by removing from Sandusky county in 1808 showed his good judgment of land when he located on one thousand acres where Loudonville, Ashland county, Ohio, now stands. It was on this journey that the mother of our subject was born, as described in some verses composed by him.
Mr. Priest laid out the town and named it after his grandmother Lou- don. He was the first justice of the peace in Lake township and filled the office eleven years. He also laid out all the roads leading from Loudonville. He died in 1823, aged fifty-two years, and was buried there. Ten of his children grew to manhood or womanhood. In 1790 he married Polina Chauncey, of Long Island, a first cousin of Captain Isaac Chauncey, chair- man of the naval committee at Washington in 1885. They were descend- ants of Charles Chauncey, who was born in England in 1695 and came to America in 1720, and later became the president of Harvard College. Polina (Chauncey) Priest died in 1859, at the age of eighty-six, and there were at that time eighty of her grand and great-grandchildren living.
26
410
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Silas Chauncey Parker received his education in the public schools of Holmes county, the academy at Loudonville, and for one year, in 1850-51, at the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. He returned to Holmes county and taught school until 1854, and then drove from Loudonville across the plains to California, where he remained four years. Of all his eventful life this overland trip is referred to by him as entailing the greatest hard- ships and calling for the greatest nerve. He was farming and teaching in Ashland county, 1858-62. In the year last mentioned he enlisted from Holmes county in the Thirty-second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which organization he was in active service until the end of the Civil war. He was commissary sergeant and after the siege of Atlanta was pro- moted to be color-bearer for gallant conduct. He was in the following and other hard-contested battles, sieges and important military movements, --- Fort Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill (where he was wounded), all the fighting about Vicksburg, in the Meridian expedition under Sher- man (in which he was again wounded), Peach Tree Creek, all the battles about Atlanta and at the surrender of Johnston near Raleigh, and participated in the grand review at Washington in 1865, and was discharged from the service at Louisville, Kentucky.
From 1865 to 1868 Mr. Parker was engaged in mercantile business in Holmes county. He then located at Perryville and in 1876 was admitted to the bar of Ashland county. For nine years he was a justice of the peace at Perrysville and for two years superintendent of schools. After having lived at Perrysville for several years he located at Mansfield in 1885, and has since lived there in the enjoyment of a successful law practice. In all that pertains to the welfare of Mansfield he takes great interest. He has seen his children grow to manhood or womanhood there and start in life for themselves with every promise of useful and successful careers, and he has devoted a good deal of time and labor to Grand Army matters. He has prepared a roster of Mclaughlin Post and biographical sketches of many of its four hundred members, and hopes yet to complete this work and present it to the citizens of Mansfield, through their public library, as a memorial of the brave men who went to the front from that vicinity. He is an honored past commander of the post and has been a delegate to the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic and a member of the council of administration, department of Ohio. He is a Freemason also, affiliating with the lodge at Loudonville. Politically he is a strong Democrat. He has made an exhaustive study of monetary questions and has written somewhat extensively in exposition of his views.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.