USA > Ohio > Seneca County > A centennial biographical history of Seneca County, Ohio > Part 25
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The subject of this review is known and honored as one of the
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representative and public-spirited citizens of Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio, where he has maintained his home for more than half a century, having been one of the pioneer business men of the little village of the early days and having contributed a due quota to its advancement to its present status as an attractive and thriving little city of the Buckeye commonwealth. He has had an abiding and practical interest in all that has touched the prosperity and substantial upbuilding of the town, and here he has risen, through his own well directed and honorable efforts, from the position of a harnessmaker plying his trade in a diminutive shop, which he shared with two other young tradesmen in different lines of enterprise, to that of president of the First National Bank and the owner of extensive real-estate and capitalistic interests. Such a life record can not fail of lesson and incentive, and it is gratifying indulgence to here trace the career of the German lad who came with his industrious and honored father to the United States, where he early assumed the practical responsibilities of life and where he has attained notable success during the long years which have developed his powers and made him a valuable factor in the community.
Andrew Emerine was born in Wittenberg, kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, on the 3d of December, 1829, the original orthography of the name having been Amhrine. His parents, George and Anna (Heine) Emerine, were of stanch old German lineage and their marriage was solemnized in Wittenberg, where the mother died when our subject was about two years of age. His father soon afterward emigrated to America and in 1836 he located on a farm in Liberty township, Seneca county, Ohio, where he remained several years, clearing and improving a farm in the forest. He then removed to Sandusky county, where he made his home until 1861, when he located in Hancock county, where he con- tinued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until his death, at the patriarchal age of ninety years. He was a man of sterling integrity and indefatigable industry, devoting his life to honest toil and endeavor and commanding unqualified confidence and esteem. His son Andrew re- mained at home, assisting his father in the work of the farm, until he had attained the age of eleven years, when he faced the battle of
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life on his own responsibility, finding employment as a chore boy on a neighboring farm and thereafter continuing to be identified with farm work until he had reached the age of seventeen. It is scarcely necessary to state that the early scholastic advantages afforded to Mr. Emerine were exceedingly limited in scope, but to one of so alert mentality the lack of early educational advantages can not prove a bar to the acquire- ment of definite and comprehensive knowledge, as is evident when we but stop to consider the intellectual strength of the man of to-day, his broad mental grasp and mature judgment. For about three years Mr. Emerine had lived in the home of a Mr. Spielman, a few miles south of Tiffin, Seneca county, and he gave up his work there at the age of seven- teen for the purpose of learning the trade of harness-making, in which connection he came to Fostoria, which was then a small hamlet, known by the name of Rome. Here he served an apprenticeship of three years under the direction of Jacob Fritcher, receiving his board and clothing during the interval and becoming a competent artisan in the line. Of the buildings in the little village of Rome at the time he took up his residence here not more than fifteen remain to-day in the flourishing city of Fostoria, the name of the town having been changed in honor of the father of ex-Governor Foster, who has here maintained his home from childhood.' After completing his apprenticeship Mr. Emerine worked as a journeyman at his trade until he had accumulated a surplus of about fifty dollars, and with this as a basis he engaged in business on his own responsibility, opening a harness shop in a little building, sixteen feet square, in which were provided accommodations also for the tailor shop of Charles Kelley, who was also postmaster, and for David Stackhouse, a shoemaker, the three enterprises flourishing in their respect- ive lines. Our subject secured the necessary tools and equipments on credit and invested his entire fifty dollars in stock. There was at the time but one other harness shop in this immediate locality. Joseph Lewis conducting a similar enterprise at a little settlement called Risdon, located about one-half mile north of Rome, from which it was separated by a strip of woods. Mr. Emerine continued to conduct his harness-making business until 1872, securing larger quarters as the exigencies of his
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4
increasing business demanded. The county was rapidly settling up and developing, he secured good prices for his products and work and his business was signally prospered, his sales running as high as twelve thousand dollars a year and 'orders for work coming so rapidly as to test the capacity of the establishment. He gave credit to every one who asked for same, and the sterling character of the people of the com- munity is indicated when we revert to the fact that he never lost to exceed fifty dollars through thus placing his confidence in those who secured work on credit. For many years our subject manufactured all the horse collars sold in his place, giving his personal attention to the cutting of nearly all his leather stock and working assiduously night and day to meet the demands placed upon him. What more consistent and well merited than that such earnest application should meet with definite reward? He employed several workmen in his shop and its products had the highest reputation for superior excellence, while his business methods were ever above criticism, as they have been in the later years during which he has had to do with affairs of wide scope and importance. At the expiration of twelve years Mr. Emerine found that he had a modest fortune of about ten thousand dollars, and upon this was based the wider success which was to come to him through enterprise and far-sighted business policy. He purchased at that time a tract of land, for which he paid four thousand dollars, and within a year he disposed of the same at a profit of twenty-four hundred dollars, this operation signifying the turning point in his business career and leading to his withdrawing from that line of enterprise which had served as the nucleus of his success. He continued to handle real estate, and from 1860 to 1875 large profits could be realized from the handling of Ohio realty, both improved and unimproved. Mr. Emerine had the prescience and sagacity to take advantage of the opportunities thus afforded during the war of the Rebellion and the years immediately fol- lowing, and he has ever since continued to be largely interested in real estate in this section of the state. He retired from the harness business in the year 1874, in order to devote his attention the more closely to his other interests. He purchased tracts of wild land at nominal prices
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and by improving the same through clearing off the forest, constructing drains and erecting substantial buildings was enabled to dispose of many of the properties at a good profit, while others he retained in his posses- sion as a good permanent investment. At the present time he is the owner of twenty-one farms, with an aggregate area of fully seven thou- sand acres and situated in Wyandot, Hancock, Logan, Seneca and Wood counties. His general plan has been in this connection to lease the farms for a grain rental, though in several instances he has entered into part- nership relations with lessees of his farms, devoted principally to grain and in a few cases involving the raising of high-grade live stock, having had as many as one hundred head of cattle on a fine stock and grain farm located about one and one-half miles distant from Fostoria.
In connection with his real-estate operations Mr. Emerine incident- ally developed a large brokerage and loaning business and this eventually led to the establishment of the First National Bank of Fostoria, of which he has been president from the time of its organization. The institution filed articles of incorporation in December, 1882, under the national banking laws and with the following named stockholders: Andrew Emerine, of Fostoria: George W. Hull, of Bucyrus; G. J. Hull, of Findlay : Lovell Harris, of Upper Sandusky ; T. D. Adams, of Fostoria ; Ross Crocker, of the same city ; and Hon. John McCauley, of Tiffin. The bank is capitalized for fifty thousand dollars and its history has been one of substantial growth, wise and conservative management and marked prosperity, our subject having remained, by successive elections, its chief executive officer and giving to it the benefit of his high business abilities, discriminating judgment and fine administrative powers. The original cashier was Truman Hull, who was succeeded after two years by Alonzo Emerine, son of our subject, who has ever since been the capable incumbent of this responsible position. The list of stockholders contains the names of men prominent in business and financial circles and standing as voucher for reliability and solidity in the institution, the deposits of the bank now aggregating about fifty thousand dollars, while its business in all departments has been most satisfactory from the start.
Deeply interested in all that conserves the well being and material
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advancement of the city and county of his home, Mr. Emerine has ever been known for his genuine public spirit and has given his aid and influence to many enterprises through which he hoped to foster the industrial prestige of Fostoria. A glass manufactory and a brick factory with which he identified himself proved unable to be successfully oper- ated, but he is one of those prominently concerned in the Seneca White Lime Company, which operates eight kilns, affording employment to forty married men and having a capacity for the daily output of six hundred barrels of lime, the product being specially adapted for use in manufacturing glass and as a fertilizer, in which latter function it is extensively used in Pennsylvania. Mr. Emerine is also president of the First National Bank of North Baltimore, Ohio, the same having been organized in 1892 and being capitalized for sixty thousand dollars. This is likewise one of the solid financial institutions of the state, and its' cashier is Levi Wooster, a son-in-law of our subject. Mr. Emerine has still other important capitalistic interests, being concerned in the oil industry as a member of two different operating companies, one of which had its inception about fifteen years ago, and since that time it has paid in dividends to each of its fifteen stockholders about sixty thousand dollars. Our subject erected in his home city the Emerine block, one of the finest structures in the business district, and in this the bank is located. His fine modern stone residence is one of the most attractive homes in Fostoria and one of the handsomest and most sub- stantial in this section of the state. In politics our subject gave his allegiance to the Democratic party for many years, but finally became convinced that it had deviated materially from its original principles and he has consequently maintained an independent attitude in politics for some time, exercising his franchise in support of policies and measures rather than holding to distinct partisan lines. He is a member of no fraternal organization, having ever found that his home and his business had full claims upon his time and attention without recourse to extraneous associations. Though not a member of any religious organization he has a deep reverence for spiritual verities, and has been a liberal con-
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tributor to the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his wife was a member and which he attends.
In 1850 Mr. Emerine was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Bair, of this county, and she entered into eternal rest in 1860, leaving two children,-Alonzo, who is cashier of the First National Bank of Fostoria, and Amanda, who became the wife of Levi Wooster, cashier of the First National Bank of North Baltimore, and who died at the age of thirty years, leaving two children,-Lula and Trude. In Decembe:, 1863. was solemnized the marriage of our subject to Miss Amy Noble, who was born in Brant county, Canada, and who died at the age of fifty-nine years, leaving five children, namely: Sarah, who is the wife of John Faulhaber, of Fostoria; Lucy, who remains at the paternal home: Cora, who is the wife of J. C. Crisswell, of Mount Gilead, Mor- row county : Andrew, who is teller in the First National Bank of Fostoria; and Amy, who remains at the paternal home.
WILBUR C. BROWN.
In no other land on the face of the globe is there accorded so per- fect and consistent a recognition of individuality as in America, and here only has it been possible to overcome the prejudicial animus against admitting the ability and capacity of youth and to afford to the indi- vidual a full province in which to exercise the most potent functions of which he is capable, regardless of the fact that over his head may not have passed as many years as represent the age of those with whom he comes in competition in any of the fields of human endeavor. An ex- emplification of the potentialities of youth is given in the honorable and peculiarly successful career of the subject of this review, and though he now mantains his residence in the national metropolis, he calls Ohio his home and is still intimately identified with both political and busi- ness affairs in his native state, while such has been his prominence in Seneca county, where he was reared to maturity and where his honored
Wieher Co. Browny
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father still resides, that it is signally consistent that a review of his career be incorporated in this publication.
Among Ohio men in New York city none has more quickly achieved a high position in the business and financial world than Col. Wilbur C. Brown. He is a son of Owen T. Brown, one of the representative citi- zens of this county, and as specific mention of him is made on other pages of this work it will not be necessary to recapitulate. at this junc- ture. Wilbur Charles Brown was born in Newark, Licking county. Ohio, on the 20th of November, 1863, and he received his preliminary education in the public schools of that place and the city of Fostoria, Seneca county, to which his parents removed in his early youth. He was graduated in the Fostoria high school in 1880, with the highest honors of his class. He early manifested a predilection for literary work, his taste in this direction being exact and appreciative and his creative talents definite and critical. It may be appropriately .stated that when only fourteen years of age he edited and printed an amateur news- paper, and his initial step after leaving school was to accept the position of city editor of the Daily Jeffersonian, at Findlay, Ohio. In April." 1882, Colonel Brown resigned his editorial position for the purpose of entering the banking house of the Hon. Charles Foster, in Fostoria, Mr. Foster having at that time been governor of the state. This incumbency Colonel Brown retained until January 1, 1888, when he tendered his resignation and became treasurer and general financial manager of a very extensive flouring-mill company which was organized in Fostoria by the late Hon. M. D. Harter, this corporation operating the largest winter-wheat milling plant in the Union. Colonel Brown's business career has been one of brilliant order, and yet has been the natural sequel of the determined application of his distinctive abilities and to his extraordinary grasp of manifold details and his indefatigable energy. As a young man he has risen to a position of unmistakable prominence in the financial and industrial world, and while it is scarcely within the province of this article to enter into details, a brief reference to the more salient points in his career can not prove malapropos. In 1896 ex- cessive work and responsibility thrown upon him by the tragic death of
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Mr. Harter resulted in Colonel Brown's enduring a most severe attack of congestion of the brain, which barely escaped a fatal termination. After partially recuperating he resigned his position, having carried the great industry through a most critical period in its history, practically, as was said of Lord Brougham, "doing the work of seven men," and showing a wonderful capacity for the handling of affairs of the widest scope and touching both the working and financial phases involved in the great enterprise.
In November, 1896, Colonel Brown became associated with Hon. Abner McKinley, brother of the late martyred president, and thereupon removed to New York city, where his rise has been rapid and contin- uous, bringing him in touch with large financial interests. He has gained a reputation as a man well equipped equally with the solid and the brilliant qualities essential to financial success. He was one of the syndicate of capitalists that built the Detroit & Lima Northern Railroad, of which he was treasurer, and of another syndicate that organized the International Fire Engine Company, a nine-million-dollar corporation, and is one of the largest stockholders in the American Mutoscope Com- pany, of whose directorate he is a member. At Fostoria he organized the Fostoria Shade & Lamp Company, representing the largest in- dustry of the sort in the Union, and he is a director and one of the largest stockholders in the White Mountain Paper Company, with twenty-five million dollars capital, while he has various other financial and industrial interests of wide scope and importance.
Colonel Brown served on the military staff of President Mckinley during the four years of the latter's administration as governor of Ohio. in which connection he held the rank of colonel. With clearly defined and ably fortified political opinions, he early gave evidence of his inter- est in the work of the Republican party in Ohio, and he soon became recognized as one of the most efficient and valuable workers in the ranks of the party in his native state. He was elected delegate to the national convention of his party in 1892 and had the distinction of being the youngest delegate in the convention, and he was elected secre- tary of the Ohio delegation representing the thirteenth congressional
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district of the state, and was one of the four alternate delegates at large from Ohio to the Republican national convention at Philadelphia in 1900. For ten years he was chairman of the city Republican committee of Fostoria, being at the head of the city organization and a prominent member of the Fostoria Republican Club. He has invariably declined to accept political preferment of any order, though he has often been importuned to become a candidate for important offices. His political connections and influences have been notable and he has been in close touch with the leaders of his party in both his native state and the nation at large.' Colonel Brown is an effective political speaker, and during the presidential campaign of 1900 he devoted much of his time to the canvass, making addresses in New York, New Jersey, West Virginia and Ohio. In his speeches he especially gave attention to the financial issues of the contest, and gained a reputation for singularly thorough information and great ability and effectiveness in the discussion of those complicated questions. The Colonel was a most intimate personal friend of President Mckinley, of whom he was a stanch admirer, and it was his sad privilege to have stood at the bedside of the lamented president when he answered the inexorable summons of death and closed a life of exalted usefulness, beauty and honor.
Colonel Brown is identified with the Republican Club of New York, the Transportation Club, the Lawyers' Club and the Ohio Society of New York, while he is also a member of various social organizations in the old Buckeye state, to which he is ever loyal as one of its native sons. In the midst of the thronging demands of a busy life he is always approachable, being gracious in his association with his fellow men and enjoying a personal popularity which is a natural result of his char- acteristics.
ANTHONY MCCANDLISH MARTIN, M. D.
Among the honored representatives of the medical profession in Seneca county stands Dr. Martin, who is located in the attractive village of Bloomville and who is known as one of the native sons of the county
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and a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of this section of the old Buckeye state. His ability in his profession has gained him marked prestige, while his personality is such as to have gained to him a host of warm friends in the community where his ministrations are given.
Dr. Martin was born in Bloom township on the farm now owned' by his brother George, in section 10, the date of his nativity being April 15, 1831. His father, John C. Martin, was born near Mifflin, Penn- sylvania, the son of William Martin, a native also of that state. John C. removed with his widowed mother and the other members of the family to Fairfield county prior to 1812, in which year the records show that he went to Hamilton county, where he remained two years. He then returned to Fairfield county, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Mary A. McCandlish, and of their children we enter brief record, as follows: William is a resident of Iowa ; Robert is deceased ; Anthony McCandlish is the subject of this sketch ; Wilson and John are deceased ; George, a retired farmer. is a resident of Bloomville; Albert resides in King City, Missouri; and Jane is deceased. The father of the Doctor came to Seneca county in 1827, making the trip with team and wagon and transporting his family and household effects to the forest wilds of Bloom township, where he entered claim to eighty acres of government land, upon which he erected a log cabin. He was a wheelwright and chairmaker by trade, and he thus was led to build a shop on his farm, and there he gave a portion of his time to the work of his trade, including the manufacturing of chairs and spinning wheels for both wool and flax, and the necessary reels, and for his products he found a ready demand in the pioneer community. He remained on his original place for two years and then removed to the farm where his son, the) Doctor, was born, and there he spent the remainder of his life, passing away at the age of eighty-one years, his wife having preceded him into eternal rest, dying at the age of sixty-six years. Both were devoted members of the Presbyterian church and were people of sterling char- acter and marked mentality.
Dr. Martin was reared under the invigorating discipline of the
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pioneer farm, and his first scholastic training was secured in a primitive subscription school held in the house of John Davis, Bushnell Austin acting as instructor. Later he continued his studies in the old academy at Republic, and when nineteen years of age he put his acquirements to practical test by engaging in pedagogic work, becoming one of the pop- ular and successful teachers of the county. When twenty-one years of age he began reading medicine in the office of Dr. George R. Weeks, one of the early physicians of Bloomville, continuing to teach school during the winter months and thus defraying his expenses. After three years he entered the Western Reserve Medical College, at Cleveland, where he continued his technical studies for one year, after which, in 1854, he entered upon the active practice of his profession in Reedtown, Seneca county. Later he was matriculated in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1859, receiving the degree of M. D. He was thereafter engaged in practice at Republic for one year, and then removed to a farm in Reed town- ship, where he continued his professional work in connection with agri- cultural pursuits for a period of eleven years. The following two years were passed in Venice township and the Doctor then, in 1872, came to Bloomville, where he has ever since been established in the practice of his profession, retaining a large and representative supporting patronage and being recognized as an able member of the medical profession and as a citizen of the highest character. His political support is given to the Republican party, and though he has ever shown a consistent interest in public affairs of a local nature he has never sought political prefer- ment of any order. The Doctor is specially fond of travel, and he and his wife have been able to indulge themselves freely in this interesting and profitable diversion, having crossed the Rocky mountains nine times and having also visited other sections of the Union.
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