USA > Ohio > Richland County > A centennial biographical history of Richland county, Ohio > Part 52
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belonged to the Baptist church and died at the age of eighty-five years. They had twelve children, all of whom reached mature years and are still liv- ing. Mrs. Wise has spent her entire life in Richland county, and by her marriage has become the mother of four children: Cromwell, who is en- gaged in the dry-goods business in Butler; Milton, a dealer in shoes and harness in Butler; Oscar, who is engaged in the telephone business, build- ing a line to Arlington, Ohio; and Flora, who died at the age of sixteen years.
In his political views Mr. Wise is a Democrat and takes great interest ni the success of his party, keeping well informed on the issues of the day, as every true American citizen should do. He served for several years as a justice of the peace in Knox county. He belongs to Thrall Lodge, No. 170, F. & A. M., of Frederickstown, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, while two of their children belong to the Meth- odist Protestant church.
In business Mr. Wise has attained a desirable success. Dependent en- tirely upon his own labors, he has surmounted the obstacles in his path, and the difficulties which he has encountered have served as an impetus to renewed labor. In this way he has advanced steadily to a plane of affluence, and now, having acquired a handsome competence, he is enjoying a well earned rest.
SAMUEL C. CLARK.
In this publication, which has to do with those who have been in the past or are to-day prominently concerned in the business, professional, po- litical and social life of Richland county, we are gratified to give a specific consideration to Samuel C. Clark, of Mansfield, for his life has been one of activity and he is widely known throughout the county.
Mr. Clark is a native son of the Buckeye state, having been born in Mount Gilead, Morrow county, July 14, 1850, the son of George Northrup Clark. The latter's father was Samuel Clark, one of the pioneers of Ohio. He was a native of the state of Connecticut, whence he came to Ohio in the early days, locating at Boardman, Mahoning county, where he was one of the first settlers, becoming one of the influential men of that section of the state. He married a Miss Northrup, of the well known old New England family of that name, and they reared two sons and three daughters. His son, George N., the father of the immediate subject of this review, removed from Mahoning to Morrow county, settling in South Woodbury, where he was
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engaged in the dry-goods business for many years, being very successful in his endeavors. He was a man of strong intellectuality and inflexible integrity and his prominence and influence in Morrow county were umistakable, as shown in the fact that he served two consecutive terms in the state legis- lature, being the first representative that the town of Woodbury had ever had in the general assembly.
At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion George N. Clark signalized his patriotism and loyalty by enlisting for service, as a member of the Ninety-sixth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he held the office of adjutant. At the close of the war he was elected county auditor, which led to his removal to the county-seat, Mt. Gilead, in 1865, and there he passed the residue of his life, passing away in 1893, at an advanced age and secure in the esteem of all who knew him. He married Mary Lowrey and had five children, of whom three survive: Samuel C., of this sketch; Cyrus C., who is engaged in the crude-oil business in Findlay, Ohio; and Alice C., the wife of Charles Miller, who is a clerk in the freight office of the Pittsburg, Akron & Western Railroad, at Akron.
Samuel C. Clark came to Mansfield in the year 1869. For some twelve or thirteen years he was employed by the S. N. Ford Lumber Company, and then for a period of eleven years he was a railway postal clerk; later was in charge of the Fulton Truck & Foundry Company's business for about two years; for about one year he was the superintendent of the Mansfield water works, and on the Ist of May, 1899, he received from Mavor Brown the appointment to the important and exacting office of chief of the police department of Mansfield, and this position he held till September, 1900. He engaged in the fire and life insurance business in February, 1901, in which he is meeting with success.
Mr. Clark was one of the charter members of Mansfield Lodge, No. 56, B. P. O. E., and is also a member of Madison Lodge, No. 26, Knights of Pythias, maintaining a lively interest in these fraternities. In his political adherency he has always given a stanch allegiance to the Republican party and its principles.
Turning in conclusion to the more purely domestic chapter in the career of Mr. Clark, we record that on February 26, 1880, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Carrie M. Day, a daughter of Sylvanus B. Day, a well- known resident of Mansfield. Mrs. Clark has two brothers,-Lieutenant Willis B. Day, of the United States Navy, who is at present stationed in the government navy yards at Brooklyn, New York; and Benjamin F. Day,
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who is connected with the wholesale confectionery establishment of Voegele & Demming, of Mansfield.
Mrs. Clark's grandfather in the agnate line was Benjamin F. Day, who was a native of the historic old state of New Jersey and who came from Chatham, Morris county, that state, to Ohio, about the year 1838, becoming one of the pioneers of the Buckeye state. Of his children we offer the follow- ing brief record: Sylvanus B. is the father of Mrs. Clark, as has been al- ready noted. Rear Admiral B. F. Day, of the United States Navy, has the distinction of being the youngest man to occupy that important office in the navy department of our government. He resides on a plantation near Glasgow, Virginia, about three miles from the famous Natural Bridge. Calvin Day, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, is the city passenger agent of the Santa Fe Railroad. Maria became the wife of John Blymeyer, a retired manufacturer of Mansfield. Matilda is the widow of D. A. Beek- man and resides at Plymouth, Ohio. Harriet is the wife of Wells Rogers, a retired shoe merchant of Plymouth, this state.
MITCHELL STARR, M. D.
There are few men whose lives are crowned with the honor and respect which is universally accorded Mitchell Starr; but through more than half a century's connection with Ohio's history his has been an unblemished character. With him success in life has been reached by his sterling qualities of mind and heart, true to every manly principle, and he has never deviated from what his judgment would indicate to be right and honorable between his fellow men and himself; he has never swerved from the path of duty, and now, after a long and eventful career, he can look back over the past with pride and enjoy the remaining years of his earthly pilgrimage with a con- sciousness of having gained for himself by his honorable, straightforward career the confidence and respect of the entire community in which he lives. We read of the lives of the heroes of the past, and they not only prove of historical interest but serve to inspire and encourage us ; yet we need not go to former ages for examples that are worthy of emulation. The men of to-day who have won distinction and honor, equal in exemplary traits of character those who have passed away, and the life record of Mitchell Starr may well prove of great benefit if we will but heed the obvious lessons which it contains.
Dr. Starr is one of the oldest native sons of Richland county. He resides in Shenandoah. He was born in Blooming Grove township, on the
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27th of October, 1820, his parents being Robert and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Starr. His father was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and with his par- ents crossed the briny deep to the new world, the family locating in Lewistown. Pennsylvania, where the grandfather lived and died. He was a carpenter by trade and followed that occupation throughout his active business career. Robert Starr, the Doctor's father, was reared in Lewistown under the pa- rental roof, and in 1818 came to Ohio, taking up his abode in Richland county, where he entered eighty acres of land from the government, in what is now Butler township, but was then a part of Blooming Grove township, the farm being situated two and a half miles northeast of Shenandoah. Upon the place he erected a log cabin and there lived in true pioneer style, clearing his land and cultivating his fields up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1875, when he was eighty-five years of age. Of his nine chil- dren five are yet living, but none of the number died before reaching the age of eighty years. The surviving members of the family are the Doctor ; Mary, who is living in Kansas; Elizabeth, the wife of James Nelson, of Iowa; and Mahala, who makes her home in Cedar county, Missouri, with her younger brother, Milo, who completes the family.
Dr. Starr is indebted to the common-school system of Ohio for the preliminary educational privileges which he enjoyed. Later he pursued his studies for two years in Ashland Academy, and at the age of twenty-two began teaching in his home district, following that profession until 1847, when he sought a broader field of labor in the practice of medicine, prepar- ing for his chosen calling under the direction of Dr. Gustavus Allen, of Rome, Ohio. He read medicine, with Dr. Allen for his preceptor, for five summers, and in the winter season engaged in teaching in order to provide for his livelihood. In the winter of 1851-2 he attended lectures in the Starling Medical College, of Columbus, and in the spring of the latter year returned to Rome, where he entered into partnership with his preceptor, practicing with him until September of the same year.
Dr. Starr then took up his abode in Olivesburg, where he continued in practice alone until the Ist of June, 1856, when he removed to his present location in Shenandoah. Here he has since resided and for many years he has held enviable prestige as a representative of the medical fraternity. In order to further perfect himself in his chosen calling. during the winter of 1862-3 he attended lectures in the Starling Medical College, and was grad- uated in that institution in the spring of the latter year. He served as a surgeon in the Union army in 1864. When Governor Tod called out the "Squirrel Hunters" the Doctor responded and marched to the defense of
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Cincinnati, Ohio, which was then threatened by Kirby Smith. He relates an amusing incident showing how one of his comrades on that expedition engaged in foraging and secured some sweet potatoes, but was followed by the owner of the tubers, who threatened to shoot the forager, whereupon he was arrested, and while surrounded by the soldiers one Flanders, who had probably had previous acquaintance with the farmer, accused him of being a Rebel; and thereupon he was made to hold up both hands and swear to support the constitution of the United States, also of the state of Ohio, to work in the trenches of the government and to take postage stamps in ex- change for sweet potatoes !
In March, 1852, Dr. Starr was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Cummings, a native of Blooming Grove township, born on a farm which joins the village of Shenandoah. She was a daughter of Hon. James Cum- mnings, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania early in the '20s and settled near Shenandoah, where he entered eighty acres of land. To the Doctor and his wife were born three children: Grattan, who is now a physician of Marion, Ohio; Wilson, a representative farmer of Butler township; and Judson, an agriculturist living in Blooming Grove township. The family has long been prominent in Richland county, its members being classed among the reliable citizens in this section of the state. From the organization of the Republican party Dr. Starr has been one of its stalwart advocates. For a half century he has been numbered among Richland county's practicing physicians and is held in the highest esteem and love in many families wherein he has labored to alleviate human suffering, to restore health and perpetuate life. His career has been an honorable and useful one, and he certainly deserves mention among the honored pioneers, for through eight decades he has not only witnessed the development and progress of this county, but has been identified with its splendid improvement.
FREDERICK H. WISE.
Frederick H. Wise was born in Mansfield, Ohio, February 13, 1859. and to the public-school system of the county he is indebted for the educational privileges which he received. He represents one of the old families of Penn- sylvania. His father, Henry Wise, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1819, and with his parents was brought to Ohio when only six years of age, the family locating in Mansfield. After arriving at the age of maturity he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Bossler, who was born near Mansfield, in 1828. They became the parents of ten children: John, who died in child-
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hood; Isaac, who was born near Mansfield, and married Sarah Hursh, by whom he has one living child, their home being at Fort Wayne, Indiana; Henry, who died in childhood; Mary, wife of James Livingstone; William; Frank, who married Caroline Magg, of Mt. Eaton, Ohio, and died, leaving a widow and one daughter, Hazel, their home being on Third street, in Mans- field; Frederick, whose name introduces this article, was married to Sarah E. Livingstone; Sarah, the wife of Darius Wolford, a resident of Hiawatha, Kansas, by whom she has three children; Samuel, who married Lizzie Frietchen, and resides in Mansfield; and Martin, a molder by trade, also liv- ing in Mansfield.
Frederick H. Wise, the subject of this article, spent his youth upon the home farm and in early manhood engaged in farming and draying. About eight years ago he purchased a brick-yard, owned by the Ohio Brick and Tile Company. For four years he was associated with three partners. On the expiration of that period the plant was destroyed by fire and Mr. Wise purchased the interest of his partners. He then rebuilt and has since car- ried on the business alone. He manufactures brick of a superior quality and has secured a large trade, his annual output being extensive. His busi- ness methods are systematic. In all his dealings he is honorable, and in business circles he enjoys a high reputation from his unswerving honesty. He is a member of the National Union, also of St. Luke's English Lutheran church, and wherever known he is held in high regard.
WILLIAM JESSON.
One of the energetic, progressive and wide-awake young business men of Mansfield is William Jesson, whose ambition has enabled him to gain a leading position in business circles. He is now the secretary of the Tracy & Avery Company, and his sound judgment and business ability have proven important factors in the successful control of their enterprise.
Mr. Jesson was born in Ashland county, Ohio, April 22, 1864. His father, Rosling Jesson, is now residing at No. 32 Perry street, Mansfield, and is a member of the Baptist church. For many years he was identified with agricultural pursuits, but is now enjoying an honorable retirement from labor. His wife passed away at her home in this city on the 5th of March, 1900. William Jesson spent the first ten years of his life on his father's farm. When a young man he learned the carpenter's trade and followed that pursuit for four years. He had acquired a good common-school edu- cation, but desiring to further promote his knowledge he entered Ada Uni-
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versity, in Ohio, where he spent about three years. He was then offered and accepted the position of bookkeeper for the Tracy & Avery Company, of Mansfield. By diligence and close application to his work he was pro- moted from time to time and for three years he has been the secretary of the company. He has made a close study of the business, and has con- tributed in no small degree to its prosperity.
On the 23d of May, 1888, Mr. Jesson was united in marriage to Miss Alverda Handley, at Crown Point, Indiana. They now have one child, Evaline Alice, a bright little daughter of two years. They are members of the First Methodist church of Mansfield, and Mr. Jesson is a Republican in his political affiliations. Courteous, genial, well informed, alert and enter- prising, he stands to-day one of the leading representative men of his county.
CHARLES S. MOORE.
Among the progressive and enterprising young business men of Shelby, Ohio, no one is either better or more favorably known than Charles S. Moore, the subject of this sketch. He is one of the proprietors of the Shelby Daily Globe, a "non-partisan expounder of the news," a new enterprise which has won the approbation of the public.
The birth of Mr. Moore took place in Shelby September 2, 1874, a son of Wallace and Fanny (Beelman) Moore, both natives of Ohio, the former a son of George and Rosanna (Smiley) Moore. The father of our sub- ject is a farmer in Richland county, where he resides, enjoying the esteein of all. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Moore, as follows: Ros- anna, who married Dr. Franklin Keeler, of Appalachia, North Carolina; Elizabeth, who died in 1897; Edith, who is now a teacher in Shelby; Cath- erine, James, Sarah, Whitney, Benjamin H., Florence and John J.
Our subject obtained his education in the common schools of Shelby, where he proved himself an apt and ardent pupil, and in 1889 he entered the office of the Shelby Free Press to learn the trade of printer, in 1891 engaging with the Galion Daily Leader, an enterprising and successful news- paper printed at Galion, Ohio, remaining with it until 1893. A former resi- dent of Shelby he became the owner of a journal at Atchison, Kansas, well known through the state as the Atchison Daily Patriot, and Mr. Moore became identified with that paper until 1895.
The year 1896 was spent by our subject in travel through the south, and upon his return, with renewed health and broadened mind, he accepted a position with the Shelby Semi-weekly Republican, later with the Shelby
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News and the Sheets Printing Company, remaining four years, during which time the practical knowledge of the methods of conducting a successful pub- lication became thoroughly known to him.
The progressive citizens of Shelby desired a daily paper and appeared to Mr. Moore to be willing to support a good one. On February 1, 1900, he entered into a partnership with J. C. Stanbaugh, a son of S. F. Stan- baugh, the editor of the Atchison Patriot, and a business was inaugurated for printing in all its details, meeting with so much encouragement that on April 24, 1900, our subject and partner issued the first number of the Shelby Daily Globe, a bright, newsy little journal, which attracted favorable notice from the press of the state and soon had a circulation of nine hundred, this being very gratifying, as that number insured its success.
The partners in this enterprise are men well qualified to conduct it, Mr. Moore succeeding in all outside work, his genial, pleasant personality and undoubted energy enabling him to interest the public, while the gifts of Mr. Stanbaugh fit him for the office work. The friends of the energetic young firm are pleased with their bright future and the press has warmly welcomed them into the fold of journalism.
Our subject is a stanch Republican, active in the ranks of his party, although he is politic enough to permit each man to express his own views. Socially he is connected with the K. of P. and the Modern Woodmen.
LEWIS BRUCKER.
Among Michigan's native sons and Mansfield's representative citizens stands Judge Lewis Brucker, who, by the exercise of his native abilities and those acquired through diligent effort, has secured a foremost place at the bar. He comes of a family noted for strong intellectuality and mental force, and, though deprived of many advantages which have aided in their life work some of the most eminent jurists of our country, he has improved all his opportunities, overcoming the difficulties and obstacles in his path, steadily working his way upward until he has left the ranks of the many and gained a place among the successful few.
Judge Brucker was born October 30, 1855, in a log cabin on the banks of the Cass river, near the village of Bridgeport, Saginaw county, Michigan. His parents were born in the city of Vienna, Austria. His father, Ferdinand Brucker, was an architect by profession, and in 1848, in the city of his birth, he married Miss Margaretta Zeichmeister. At the close of the Rebellion in 1848 he emigrated to America and took up his abode in Detroit, but subse-
Lewis Brucker
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quently removed to Canton, Michigan, and later located on a farm in Saginaw county, where he remained until 1877 and engaged in the lumbering business in connection with his agricultural pursuits. In the year mentioned, however, he removed with his family to Shelby, Ohio, where he became connected with the retail lumber trade, there remaining until his death, which occurred in 1889.
Judge Brucker was the third son in a family of eight children,-four sons and four daughters. He was reared amid the scenes of pioneer life and his first years were a period of earnest toil in which he aided in the arduous task of developing and cultivating the new fields, or worked in the lumber mill. Through the winter months he pursued his education in the public schools, as he found opportunity, and through the long winter evenings he pored over his books, thus acquiring the knowledge that served as a foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of advanced learning. In the winter of 1876-7, turning aside from his studies, Mr. Brucker was the foreman of a force of men in the lumber woods, while in the following summer he superin- tended a shingle-mill at Blackmar, Michigan. He continued his studies at home whenever opportunity offered, and in the winter of 1878-9 took a com- mercial course in the business college at Saginaw. In the following summer he again engaged in sawing shingles, and with the money thus obtained he paid his tuition in the law department in the University of Michigan, which he entered in October, 1879. For two years he closely pursued the study of law, defraying his own expenses, and in the spring of 1881 he was graduated.
Several years passed before he began the active practice of the pro- fession, for after his graduation he spent two years with his father in the lumber business at Shelby, Ohio, and for three years was a traveling repre- sentative of a firm of lumber merchants of Toledo, Ohio.' In March, 1886, Judge Brucker became identified with the bar of Mansfield, beginning practice in the office of W. S. Kerr. Success did not come to him immediately but gradually he built up a practice, and in the meantime he fortified himself for his future career by close and earnest study of the principles of jurisprudence and precedents of decisions. In the spring of 1890 he was nominated, on the Democratic ticket, for the office of probate judge, and his personal popularity, as well as the confidence reposed in him, was indicated by the fact that he ran four hundred ahead of his ticket. He discharged his duties so ably that in 1893 he was renominated and elected without opposition for a second term. The office of probate judge in Richland county is of unusual importance on account of its more extended jurisdiction in comparison with other counties, including foreclosure of mortgages, partition, divorces and alimony.
In 1897, on the expiration of his second term as probate judge, he opened 32
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a law office in Mansfield with D. W. Cummins, under the firm name of Brucker & Cummins, and has since continued in practice, having a large and distinc- tively representative clientage. Though he meets in forensic combat the ablest of the bar of the district, he has won their highest respect and confidence by his extreme fairness. He craves not laurels if they must be won by debasing himself or degrading the dignity of the profession. He stands as a defender of the weak against the strong, the right against the wrong, the just against the unjust. He is well versed in every department of jurisprudence and he prepares his cases with thoroughness, leaving no point untouched that will strengthen his client's cause. He is strong in solving technically involved and complicated legal problems. and he is particularly strong in corporation law. Judge Brucker was also one of the original incorporators of the Bank of Mans- field and from its organization has served on its directorate.
In 1884 the Judge married Miss Mary J. Cummins, of Shelby, Ohio, and they have had two children: Angeline Cummins, born August 18, 1884; and David Ferdinand, born March 23, 1891. Mrs. Brucker was the daughter of David and Angeline (Taylor) Cummins, of Shelby, whose parents were among the pioneers of Richland county. Her parents were born in the vicinity of Shelby, where her father was engaged for the most of his life in the mercantile business. He died at Shelby, January 13, 1899.
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