USA > Ohio > Seneca County > A centennial biographical history of Seneca County, Ohio > Part 31
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too, was a member of the Baptist church, and was an active worker in the cause of Christianity.
John Seitz, of this review, remained on the old home farm in Bloom township until he was eighteen years of age, during which time he pur- sued his education in the old log school-house of the neighborhood. He then entered the Seneca County Academy, at Republic, where he remained as a student for two terms, under W. H. Harvey as principal, and for a time thereafter he followed the teacher's profession in his native local- ity. After his marriage he continued to make his home under the parental roof for the following year, while for the three subsequent years he was engaged in merchandising in Bloomville, after which he returned to the locality of his birth and there located on eighty acres of unimproved land. Directing his energies to the arduous task of clearing and improving his land, Mr. Seitz soon had his farm under an excellent state of cultiva- tion, and there he made his home until 1865, when he came to the farm on which he now resides, here purchasing one hundred and eighty acres. As the years have passed by and prosperity has rewarded his well directed efforts he has succeeded in placing his fields under a fine state of cultivation, has placed many valuable and substantial improvements on his land and has erected a large brick residence. His is one of the attractive and valuable homesteads of the locality, and everything about the place indicates a progressive and thrifty owner. There he is exten- sively and successfully engaged in general farming and stock-raising.
On the 9th of April, 1851, Mr. Seitz was united in marriage to Miss Cecilia J. Hite, a daughter of David and Elizabeth (DeLong) Hite. Unto this union have been born seven children, namely: Milford K., a prominent jeweler of Bloomdale, Wood county, Ohio; Omar B., who was accidentally killed by a horse on the range in Texas ; Marshall, a farmer and fruit-grower of Texarkana, Arkansas; May, the wife of R. W. Thornburg, a prominent physician of Toledo; Nettie, deceased; and Orin K., who operates the home farm, married Rena Lamberson and they have one child, F. Marion.
Mr. Seitz, of this review, is not a member of any religious denomina- tion, but is a constant attendant at the Baptist church. He has ever
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taken an active and commendable interest in the public affairs of the county, and has held many positions of honor and trust. In 1862 he was elected to the office of justice of the peace of Bloom township, and eight years afterward, in 1870, was elected to represent his district in the legislature, and so acceptably did he discharge the duties entrusted to him in that responsible position that he was re-elected for a second term. In 1874 and again in 1878 he was a member of the senate. Allen O. Myers was at that time clerk of the senate, and he gave to our subject the appellation of the "watch dog of the treasury," it having ever been the aim of Mr. Seitz to work for the masses, and while a member of that important body he proved a power for good to those he represented. From 1867 he became known as a Greenback Democrat, and in 1880 supported Weaver for the presidency. In that year also he was nominated by the Greenback party for governor of the state of Ohio, and in the ensuing campaign he visited various parts of the state. In 1887 the Union Labor party nominated Mr. Seitz for the same office, and he received twenty- five thousand votes, after an active campaign. In 1891 he was the nom- inee of the People's party for governor, again visiting nearly every sec- tion of the state, making an able and spirited canvass, and on this occasion also receiving a vote of twenty-five thousand. He had as competitors both Mckinley and Campbell, and upon Labor Day he spoke from the same platform in Cincinnati, and the papers reported his speech as hav- ing effectually captured the crowd. During this period Mr. Seitz also edited a column in the interests of the People's party in the Cincinnati Post. In 1892-3 he published in Tiffin the "Plow and Hammer," in the interests of the same party, and he has rendered most effective service in upholding the principles which he advocates, having been in demand as a campaign speaker in Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, Texas, etc. The late General William H. Gibson, of Tiffin, paid him a marked tribute. saying that he was logical and eloquent and that there was but one man in northwestern Ohio who excelled him. In 1896 Mr. Seitz was one of the presidential electors on the Bryan ticket, and was active in the cam- paign, under the direction of the campaign committee, and he has since
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declined all importunities to become a candidate for office, maintaining an independent attitude in politics.
Mr. Seitz is a man of strong mentality, keen discernment, great tact and resolute purpose and is therefore well fitted for the political honors which have been conferred upon him. He commands the respect of his fellow men by reason of his sterling worth of character, and Ohio numbers him among her honored sons.
REV. PROF. J. H. GOOD, D. D.
The subject of this sketch was a masterful man in his church, the Reformed church in the United States, and likewise in educational circles. Born on the 22d day of November, A. D. 1822, in the vicinity of Read- ing, Pennsylvania, it was in the Reading Academy he was prepared for pursuing a regular college course in famous Marshall College, subse- quently called Franklin and Marshall College. He distinguished himself at Marshall College and afterward in the theological seminary of the Reformed church. He was the "honor man" in his class, and while he ranked first in scholarship he was also considered as ranking first in leadership of his fellow students, both in college and theological seminary. When Mr. Good was barely twenty-four years old he was induced by his distinguished instructors, especially by Professor Philip Schaff, D. D., LL. D. (who was impressed with the fact that the Reformed church needed a college in Ohio), to head such an educational movement by coming west in person and giving himself to the work. For three or four years he earnestly strove to make this educational movement in the Ohio synod something more than mere "synodical resolutions." No money was promised, no students pledged, nothing in fact but "wind" and "resolve" was Synod's contribution thus far toward founding a college as an adjunct of the theological seminary of the Reformed church. This latter school of theology had just made an inauspicious beginning, under Rev. Professor A. P. Freese, at Columbus, Ohio, and was hardly
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expected to live. College-bred students for the seminary were likely to be lacking until the church itself put both institutions into such successful operation that the one might complement the other. To do this fifty years ago was many times more difficult than now, because a long cam- paign of information and the instilling of enthusiasm throughout the church in eastern and southern Ohio had to be kept up under the alert management of Rev. Mr. Good and a few personal friends. In the cen- tral part of the state he labored personally and in the other parts by correspondence. By his wonderful hopefulness and persistence Professor J. H. Good, as the acknowledged champion of the great cause, carried the undertaking to a successful termination in the founding of Heidelberg College, at Tiffin, Ohio, in the month of November, A. D., 1850. During the four preceding years of his residence in Ohio, first at Lancaster and then at Columbus, so much apathy existed among the lay members of the Reformed denomination throughout the state, who were expected in their material prosperity to liberally furnish funds and students for an institution of higher learning, that Professor Good at his own financial risk, but with synodical authority, began, in the latter part of the year 1848, the publication of a church or denominational paper (the Christian World, now published at Dayton, Ohio), with the avowed purpose of making it the instrumentality of forwarding the college movement. The labors of this gifted leader in the Ohio synod were indefatigable,-in his private academy at Lancaster, Ohio, meant to be a starter of the church college, which might be relocated elsewhere; then in Columbus, Ohio, where he edited the church paper and taught in the theological seminary to prevent its becoming disorganized, all the while keeping up an extensive correspondence with Rev. Hiram Shaul, residing in Tiffin. which latter labor was wondrously fruitful, in that the citizens of Tiffin through Rev. Mr. Shaul finally made satisfactory proposals for locating the church's institutions in the enterprising little city of Tiffin. Its citi- zens, together with some Reformed people living in the vicinity, guar- anteed a reasonable percentage of the large expense for grounds and the erection of a three-story college building, should the Ohio synod under Professor J. H. Good's leadership, be induced to found a first-class col-
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lege in this new portion of the Buckeye state. What Rev. Mr. Good forecast and optimistically outlined in personal speech and in his wide and burdensome letter-writing was fully realized. Much had to be taken in faith on his personal assurance and pledge to the citizens as to what he could persuade synod to do in the case. The synod seemed likely to choose the central part of the state for locating the college, and, in fact, at a hastily called special meeting, its constitutionality being questioned at the time, it was in some unsatisfactory way or manner "resolved" to do this very thing. A few months later, however, the synod convened constitutionally in Navarre, Ohio, and accepted Profes- sor J. H. Good's view of the situation. By an almost unanimous vote his outspoken preference for Tiffin over any and all competing localities was in constitutional form indorsed. Furthermore he was at this meet- ing elected professor of mathematics. He received four-fifths of all the votes of synod, being considered the best mathematician ever graduated by Marshall College. He was expected to prepare a constitution and by-laws for the projected college, which he wrote and reported to synod and the same was adopted.
Rector Reuben Good's school, begun in Tiffin immediately after the meeting of the Navarre synod, had in a few weeks so increased in the number and in the quality of its students as to have a satisfactory per- centage of those advanced in the higher branches of study and prepared for a classical course in college in the near future. The number of these, together with the less advanced students, one hundred and fifty in all, made it necessary for the strenuous mathematical professor to do a large amount of teaching during the first year of the school's existence, while having upon his broad shoulders many other very heavy burdens. The prosperity of the school, however unexpected, justified the wisdom of synod in its "resolution" to have a charter from the state of Ohio. On the 19th day of February, 1851, the general assembly of Ohio passed the act "to incorporate Heidelberg College, at the city of Tiffin." With a legal status thus secured, much was to be done, and nearly all devolved on the energetic Professor J. H. Good, in the absence of a president of the newly chartered college. Being a member of the board of trustees,
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by the logic of events he must needs be its controlling spirit and leader. He served on all its important committees and saw that said committees did their work, or else he did it for them. He prevailed on his per- sonal friend, Rev. Hiram Shaul, to give up the pastorate of the First Reformed church, at Tiffin, to accept the position of financial agent and to devote his entire time to collecting funds for the seminary and an endowment for the college, thoroughly canvassing eastern Ohio and other portions of the state. It was arduous and discouraging work, and the agent was in constant communication with Professor Good, who animated and directed his work. At one time he actually prevented, by his own personal influence, the abandonment of the task. Professor Good's spirit was abroad in every part of the synod's territory ; his correspondence was immense, and most men would have quailed before the stu- pendous work to be done. Fortunately he was in the prime of life, in full possession of noble powers and his heart knew no fear. With faith in God and faith in his own resourceful nature he could not fail. Nay, this great father of Heidelberg lived to see a glorious success achieved.
A building adapted to the needs of the college was imperatively demanded. "Much of the labor connected with the erection of a suit- able building devolved upon the energetic professor of mathematics," is the testimony of ex-Chancellor Kefauver after investigating documentary evidence. A site being chosen in the eastern portion of Tiffin, Professor Good, as chairman of the building committee, prepared the plans for the contemplated college edifice. The basement story was put up in the autumn of 1851 and the corner stone was laid by Major Lewis Baltzell, in behalf of the board of trustees, May 13, 1852, when General Samuel F. Carey pronounced an oration before a crowd of about seven thou- sand people.
Professor Good's temporary connection with the theological sem- inary had not ceased upon his coming to Tiffin, in 1850, owing to the fact that the professor-elect of theology had not yet arrived. With the arrival of Professor E. V. Gerhart, A. M., in the latter part of May, 1851, he was relieved of further supervision in reorganizing the theo- logical seminary, but his work in the college was increased and he was
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compelled to take additional branches of study, as was also the case with Professor Reuben Good, to whom the college trustees assigned the depart- ment of natural science ; and this was also the case with Professor Sarah J. Thayer, a fine classical scholar, who gave the higher classes instruc- tion in both Latin and Greek, in addition to other college duties. Presi- dent E. V. Gerhart, of course, did his full quota of work in the chair of mental and moral philosophy, while Professor S. S. Rickley taught some of the normal branches of study, coming into the faculty a year later. The number of students rapidly increased from one hundred and fifty to very nearly two hundred, including those in the seminary. Thus there was sunshine as well as shadow in those early days of Heidelberg's his- tory, when the pioneer settlers were not fully prepared, if in purse ( which may be indeed questioned) yet not understandingly, for several years to adequately support the self-sacrificing professors and instructors. The latter defect was ably and grandly supplied by the sainted Henry Leonard and others whose names became imperishably connected with Heidel- berg's history.
Rev. A. Nelson, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, says: "Heidelberg College and Heidelberg Theological Seminary, espe- cially the former, made a strong showing from the very beginning." Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., LL. D., several years later says: "The college (Heidelberg), by reason of its able faculty and its determination to do thorough educational work, had a more encouraging outlook than many other western colleges which I personally visited and inspected by direction of the Western College Society of New England;" and he recommended a donation of twenty-five hundred dollars to Heidelberg's contingent fund by his society. The society got into financial straits before this was paid, but from this eminent Congregationalist minister's good words Heidelberg realized something in aid in another form.
Turning now to the personal characteristics of the "father of Heidel- berg," who for thirty-eight years was one of Tiffin's distinguished citi- zens, we quote again from ex-Chancellor Kefauver, incidentally remark- ing that when about forty-five years old Professor Good received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Franklin and Marshall
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College : "Dr. J. H. Good was wonderfully constituted. We find men greater than he was in some particular endowment, but few are his equals in gifts that make a man's life as symmetrical as was his. In his habits he was methodical in all his work. System was a great object with him. To this trait can be attributed largely the abundance of his labors. Dr. J. H. Good possessed a logical mind. He never jumped at conclusions, but in the smallest matters reasoned them out. It was owing to this fact that his religion was not of the emotional type, he being ready always to give a reason for the hope within him. He alarmed a congregation in our city not many years ago when he announced that there were twenty-nine propositions in the text, and entered upon their discussion with considerable animation. Before he had proceeded to any length in the sermon his hearers discovered that there was much in store for them, and that they would get it, too, without any trespassing upon either their time or patience. He was quite a literary man, being the author of a number of books, and a frequent contributor to our different church papers." Dr. Kefauver adds: "Intellectual giant as he was, he was not such a slave to his views as to suppose all others differing from him must be in the wrong. He was willing to allow to others of oppos- ing sentiments the possibility of being right ; and whenever the cause of truth required absolutely a union of sentiment between contending parties he had the magnanimity to do his part of the yielding in the case."
So much has been recorded on these pages about our subject as the father of Heidelberg and the institution's early history interwoven with his young life that of necessity much has been omitted regarding his happy domestic life, his pulpit ministrations, his active pen in contro- versial writing, his encouragement of the enlistment of college students for the defense of the Union in the dark days of 1861-5, and his sub- sequent occupancy of a position, from 1868 to 1888, at the head of Heidelberg Theological Seminary, when ( 1868) he gave up the chair of mathematics to Professor C. Hornung, A. M.,-all of which must be left to the writer of a larger biography than this short sketch.
Dr. Lewis H. Steiner, former librarian of the Enoch Pratt free library, of Baltimore, Maryland, a student of Professor Good before the
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latter came to Ohio, gives us in fitting language these concluding words : "Scholarly, deeply pious, devotedly attached to his church, a vigorous and honest antagonist, an excellent citizen, he has gone from the church militant to receive the reward that awaits good and faithful servants. The church will be unworthy of her history when she forgets the memory of men like Jeremiah Haak Good."
Dr. Good died in Tiffin January 25, 1888, and over his grave, in beautiful Greenlawn cemetery, his monument bears the simple inscrip- tion "Resurgam," expressive of his immortal hope.
DANIEL H. CRAMER.
The prosperity of any community, town or city depends upon its commercial activity, its industrial interests and its trade relations, and therefore the real upbuilders of a town are those who stand at the head of the leading enterprises. One of the most progressive, energetic and reliable business men of Seneca county is Daniel H. Cramer, who is extensively engaged in the manufacture of lumber. His home is in Loudon township and he was born on the farm where he now resides, November 22, 1858, his parents being William and Charlotte (Snyder) Cramer, the former a native of Pennsylvania. In their family were the
following children: Daniel H., of this review; William A., Morgan E., John J. and Frederick V., all of whom reside in Fostoria; Jane, the wife of Isaac Stultz, of Jackson township; Nettie, the wife of John Hazen, of Loudon township; Anna, who married Edward Seeman, of Dunkirk, Indiana; Allie A., who resides at home; and Nellie, who died at the age of six years.
Under the parental roof Daniel H. Cramer was reared, and in the common schools he acquired a knowledge of the branches of English learning usually taught in such institutions. His business and mechan- ical training was received in his father's mill, and there he worked until 1893, mastering every department of the business and becoming thor- oughly familiar with the work of manufacturing lumber, both in prin-
Daniel. H. Gramos
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ciple and detail. In the year mentioned he purchased the business of his father and has since been at the head of what is now one of the lead- ing enterprises of the community. From the time he was fifteen years of age he has been the head sawyer in this mill. When he entered upon the duties of the position he was so small that he had to stand upon a box. There is no planing mill in this portion of the state that is better equipped or more complete in its appointments. It is supplied with modern machinery of the latest improved kinds needed in the busi- ness, much of which has been introduced since our subject became the owner. He is a splendid business man, enterprising and wide-awake and knows how to reach maximum results with minimum effort. There is nothing wasted about his place, every slab being used in some man- ner. His careful supervision has made the enterprise one of profit, and in addition to its control Mr. Cramer is also engaged in contracting and building, having erected some of the best houses and barns in this sec- tion of the county. He is also the owner of three or four threshers, which he operates in conjunction with his other business affairs.
On the 13th of December, 1880, Mr. Cramer was united in mar- riage to Miss Isa Overmeire, a native of Sandusky county, Ohio, and a daughter of Hugh Overmeire, a retired farmer now living in Fos- toria. In his political affiliations Mr. Cramer is a Republican, but has never sought or desired office, preferring to give his entire attention to his business interests. To him there has come the attainment of a dis- tinguished position in connection with the great material industries of the county, and his efforts have been so discerningly directed along well- defined lines that he seems to have realized at any one point of progress the full measure of his possibilities for accomplishment at that point. A man of distinct and forceful individuality, of broad mentality and most mature judgment, he has left and is leaving his impress upon the industrial world. For years he has been an important factor in the development of the natural resources of the state, in the upbuilding of the county and in the promotion of the enterprises which add not alone to his individual prosperity but also advance the general welfare and prosperity of the county in which he makes his home.
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JUDGE JOHN MCCAULEY.
When the history of Seneca county and her public men shall have been written its pages will bear no more widely known name and record no more distinguished career than that of Judge John McCauley. If "biography is the home aspect of history," as Wilmott has expressed it, it is entirely within the province of true history to commemorate and perpetuate the lives and characters, the achievements and honor of the illustrious sons of the nation. The name of Judge McCauley is insepar- ably associated with the history of jurisprudence in this part of Ohio, and his characteristics are not unlike those of Carlyle, the philosopher, for there have ever been manifest in him a certain rugged strength, strong determination and decisive views, which have been powerful agents in winning him success at the bar.
The Judge is a son of Henry and Susan ( Kelley) McCauley, both of whom were born and reared in Paisley, Scotland. They were mar- ried in 1834 and immediately afterward emigrated to the Union States, settling in Columbiana county, Ohio, where they purchased a farm. Later they sold that property and bought a tract of land in Wood county, Ohio, where they lived for about six years, when they removed to a farm in Hancock county, Ohio, where the father spent his remain- ing days, his death occurring in 1881, when he was seventy-seven years of age. His widow survived him twelve years, dying at the home of the Judge, in Tiffin, at the age of eighty-seven.
Judge McCauley was born in Columbiana county, December 9, 1834, and attended the primitive schools of Wood and Hancock counties until sixteen years of age, when he entered the academy at Republic, Seneca county, three years being devoted to preparation for college. At the age of nineteen he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, completing the classical course by graduation in 1859, and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He taught several terms of school in order to pay his expenses while pursuing his education in the academy and college. The resolute spirit which enabled him thus to make his own way through school has also been an important factor in his pro-
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