USA > Ohio > Seneca County > A centennial biographical history of Seneca County, Ohio > Part 37
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
To this esteem his friends have testified by calling upon Mr. Wanna- maker to fill positions of responsibility in the township, notably in the office of township treasurer, which he has efficiently filled for the past nine years. On the school board he has been a man of excellent judg- ment, and while school director the educational affairs of his district have been carefully considered. He has taken a deep interest in political mat- ters in this township, and is justly considered one of the leading members of the Democratic party, with which he has been identified since his young manhood.
Mr. Wannamaker was reared in the tenets of the Lutheran church and he has been an interested and active member for a number of years, serving as trustee of the church in Tiffin, where he has been one of the elders during a long period. Mr. Wannamaker is a man of parts, well read on a number of subjects and one who has testified in many ways to the interest he feels as a public-spirited citizen. In private life he is a man of exemplary character and has always been devotedly attached to his aged mother, who still experiences his tender care. He was married
421
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
in 1871 to Amanda Huntsberger, who died in less than one year there- after. His sister Caroline has continued at home and has charge of the household, being devoted to her aged mother.
MICHAEL WALTER.
For many years Michael Walter occupied a very conspicuous place. among the agriculturists of Seneca county. His career was that of an honorable, enterprising and progressive business man, whose well-rounded character also enabled him to take an active interest in education and social and moral affairs, and to keep well informed concerning the momentous questions affecting the nation. In all life's relations he com- manded the respect and confidence of those with whom he came in con- tact, and the memory of his upright life is an inspiration to the many friends who knew him well and were familiar with his virtues.
A native son of the Buckeye state, Mr. Walter was born in Big Springs, Seneca county, April 12, 1845. His parents were Michael and Margaret E. (Witrick) Walter, and they had ten children, namely : Elizabeth, the wife of George Hetzel, of Wyandot county, Ohio; Mar- tin. of Wayne county, Ohio; George, a prominent farmer of Hopewell township; Michael, of this review ; Henry, of Williams county ; Mary,. the wife of George Brendle, of Tiffin; John, who makes his home in Liberty township, Seneca county ; Joseph, also of Williams county; Sarah, the wife of Martin Weigel, of Seneca township; and William, a resident of Liberty township. Michael was the first of this family to pass to the- home beyond, and the youngest child has now reached the age of forty years.
Michael Walter, of this review, grew to years of maturity on his parents' homestead farm, receiving his elementary education in the com- mon schools of the neighborhood, but being a broad reader he greatly added to his knowledge in later life and became a well informed man. In 1870 he went to Wayne county, Ohio, spending several months in that locality, and following this he was employed for two years in the lum-
422
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
ber regions of Michigan. Returning to his boyhood home, he once more took up his abde on the home farm with his father, and after his marriage he farmed the place for one year, removing thence to Liberty township, where for the following two years he was engaged in the saw- mill business. On the expiration of that period he again returned to the old homestead, his parents having both died in the meantime, and for three years thereafter he farmed the place in the interest of the other heirs. In 1877 he became the sole owner of the farm, which consisted of one hundred and twenty acres, and there he continued to make his home until his life's labors were ended in death. He took a leading and active interest in the public affairs of his locality, and his political support was given to the Democracy.
In 1870 Mr. Walter was united in marriage to Miss Mary B. Brendle, the history of whose father will be found on another page of this volume. Eight children were born unto this union, only five of whom are now living, namely : Jesse William, a prominent farmer of this county ; Frank S., who is engaged in the operation of a threshing machine; and Charles L., Orlando H. and James E., at home. During the last sixteen years of his life Mr. Walter was a cripple, having been injured by being thrown from and run over by a binder. He closed his eyes in death on the 3d of October, 1901, passing away in the faith of the German Reformed church, of which his family also are members. A prominent representa- tive of industrial interests, a popular factor in social life, a faithful friend, a kind husband and father and a consistent Christian, he leaves behind him an untarnished record. His widow, who supplied the principal facts in the above article, also passed to the great beyond on the 20th of Jan- uary, 1902.
JAMES ALBERT NORTON.
Probably no person ever born in Seneca county has had a wider rep- utation or a more extended acquaintance than Jamies A. Norton, who was born on the IIth day of November, 1843, in the village of Bettsville, this county.
423
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
His parents were among the pioneer settlers of the county and did much in giving an impetus to the advance and growth of the progressive features which have so distinctively marked the history of this section of the state. His father, Dr. Rufus Norton, born in Utica, New York, was a son of Isaiah Norton, who was a native of the north of England, a descendant of a long line of ancestors, the representatives of which still remain prominent in English municipal affairs. The family was a branch of the Scottish McNaughton clan, well known in Scotch history of the time of the "Dark Douglas." His mother, Clarissa Waters, was of French-English descent, and possessed the vivacity and determination characterizing the union of the Anglo-Saxon and Latin races.
Born of such an ancestry and endowed by nature with more than a liberal share of intellectual power, personal attraction, magnetism, elo- quence and courage, it is no wonder that James A. Norton should rise to the position and success he has achieved. The youngest of a family of five, four sons and one daughter, his boyhood days were passed in his native village, where he attended school, and accompanied his father in the long drives consequent upon a large medical practice, in which he became deeply interested in the profession he afterward followed. His studies were continued later in the public schools at Tiffin, and were marked by the close application and thoroughness which he has shown in every undertaking engaged in since then.
Bred and nurtured in the Democratic faith, inspired with an ardent love for his country, moved by patriotic impulses, young Norton was an enthusiastic advocate for the maintenance of the Union, and found the restraint of school especially irksome, when the civil war came; and the news of battles fought, victories won or lost, made his heart beat with ambition and his pulse tingle with excitement until he could no longer endure inaction, so on the 16th of August, 1862, he bade adieu to home and friends, went to Monroeville and enlisted, when only eighteen years of age, in Company K, of the One Hundred and First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, being mustered in as a sergeant. He soon had occasion to begin actual service, for in September he went with his regiment to Covington, Kentucky, to repel a threatened invasion of the rebels under General
424
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Kirby Smith, but was soon afterward ordered to Louisville, where the regiment became part of General Buell's army. On the 8th of October he first faced the enemy in battle array and thrilled with
"The stern joy which warriors feel In foemen worthy of their steel,"
when, at Perryville, a stubborn fight with the Confederates was had. This was quickly followed by a skirmish at Lancaster, then, on Decem- ber 30th, the year was closed by the memorable battle of Stone River. The young soldier bore himself well in all these scenes of carnage, and won the admiration of his comrades by his conduct, and often to this day he is greeted by survivors of that fight by their recalling incidents of Stone River. In this battle the One Hundred and First Regiment took a most prominent part, and suffered greater loss than any other regiment engaged in the fight. Nearly all its officers were killed, the gallant Col- onel Leander Stem being among the number. The remnant of the regi- ment passed the winter in scout duty around Murfreesboro until it was ordered to take part in the Tullahoma campaign, and later to move against Chattanooga. It was in this latter campaign, at the battle of Chicka- mauga, September 20th, during the second day's fight, while supporting the Hotchkiss battery, that Sergeant Norton was wounded, his ribs on the left side being broken, and his left lung injured, from which he has never fully recovered. He was left lying on the field of battle until found in an unconscious condition by his brother, Cyrus G. Norton, who was also a member of his company. He was taken to Chattanooga and placed in the old dye house used as a hospital, from which place he was removed to Stevenson, Alabama, and then to Hospital No. 8, at Nash- ville, Tennessee. Here he was granted a furlough, and returned to his home on a visit. Rejoining his regiment at Nashville, he was ordered by the brigade commander to report before an examining board for promo- tion to the regular army, under general orders requiring the selection of the most capable men to officer new troops. After a severe examination he was passed and received his commission as lieutenant, signed by President Lincoln, and was assigned to the One Hundred and Twenty- third United States (Colored) Infantry, with orders to report to General
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. 425
John M. Palmer, who sent him to Louisville, Kentucky, to drill the colored troops. This detail was not regarded with favor by many of the officers, who declined such assignment, but Lieutenant Norton, believing it a soldier's duty to obey orders, hastened to his post and at once began to carry out his orders. After the dark-skinned soldiers had acquired considerable proficiency in military tactics and were under good discipline he was made adjutant and detailed with a body of troops to go to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to locate and care for a quantity of ordnance, remain- ing at this place until October 16, 1865, when he was mustered out by an error. Orders had been sent to muster out the One Hundred and Twen- ty-second Regiment, but in copying the order at division headquarters it was made to read "One Hundred and Twenty-third," and thus, inad- vertently, his connection with the army ceased.
In the meantime Lieutenant Norton had married. While at home on his furlough, on the 19th day of July, 1865, he went to Fostoria, the home of his bride, and there wedded Miss Adeline Hemming, then in her twentieth year of age, who accompanied him back to Louisville and remained with him until he was mustered out. Miss Hemming was the daughter of Thomas Hemming, who was one of the early settlers of the county, and who was the oldest educator, in point of service, in north- western Ohio, having been engaged in teaching for over fifty years. He- was also county surveyor for a number of years, and as such made the survey of Seneca county.
Returning to civil life, Mr. Norton took up the study of medicine in his father's office and soon became a valued assistant. His close appli- cation was, however, too great a strain upon his health, and in 1869 he' went to Hampton, Iowa, and entered upon a separate practice of his chosen profession. Deriving great benefit from the invigorating climate. his health became restored, and he soon had a large practice, constantly increasing, until in 1871, his father being accidentally killed, he returned to his native village and for eight years was the leading physician of that part of the country.
Having inherited the creed of Democracy, observation and study but deepened and strengthened his convictions and belief in the truth and
27
426
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
solidity of Democratic principles. In those stirring times of political action he could not refrain from taking more than a passing interest in the events of the day, and when he entered into the field of political con- fict his keen sagacity, sound judgment and enthusiastic devotion to party principles soon placed him at the forefront as a leader. Recognizing his ability and fitness, his party in Seneca county in 1873 placed him in nomination as their representative to the general assembly of the state, to which office he was elected by a large majority. Here his qualifications were quickly recognized, and he became one of the leaders, and his fund of information, his readiness in debate, his fluency of speech and his elo- quence gave him prominence. He was placed on important committees, and was elected speaker pro tem. of the house. His course while in the legislature gave him a high standing in the councils of his party in the state, where he was recognized as one of its foremost advisers. During his attendance at the general assembly he devoted his evenings and spare moments to the study of law, in the office of Hon. George L. Converse, at Columbus, and in 1879 was admitted to the bar. It was largely due to Mr. Norton's efforts that the law was passed requiring all public officers to execute all pension papers free.
At the close of the general assembly in 1879 Mr. Norton returned to Tiffin, which he made his headquarters while acting as general man- ager and solicitor for the Wiley Construction Company, of Massachusetts. During 1880 he purchased the paper known as the Herald, and edited it with such vigor that the first issue brought a five-thousand-dollar libel suit, which, however, was never prosecuted. The Herald was later sold to Dr. E. B. Hubbard, and subsequently became the Tribune. Mr. Nor- ton still kept an active interest in local politics, serving as president of the school board, president of the common council, and as a member of the Seneca County Agricultural Society. The only political defeat that Dr. Norton ever met was when he ran for councilman on the famous "cow ordinance." Standing for rigid enforcement of its provisions, he was defeated by the vote of a large number who wanted their cows to run at large. In 1884 he was delegate to the national Democratic convention. In August, 1885, he was appointed auditor of Seneca county in place of
427
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
F. E. Stoner, deceased, and in October of the same year was elected to the office, and again in 1887 was re-elected. He was appointed as United States inspector of customs at Panama by President Cleveland, but de- clined. He served as chairman of the Democratic state central and exec- utive committees, and as chairman of the state convention. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor Campbell as state commissioner of railroads and telegraphs, serving the state with fidelity and success. during the whole of Governor Campbell's administration, and for four months under Governor Mckinley, when he resigned to accept a position in the law department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In 1896 Dr. Norton was nominated by the Democracy of the thirteenth district of Ohio for repre- sentative in congress, at a convention held at Marion, Ohio. In 1898 he was renominated, at Upper Sandusky ; in 1900, at Bucyrus, he was again for the third time nominated ; and in 1902, at Sandusky, by an over- whelming majority, he was again selected as candidate for the fourth term in congress, and each time he has been elected by increasing majority.
In congress he has served on the invalid pensions and District of Columbia committees, and he has given time and attention to the duties of his office. His quick perception, his sound judgment, wise counsel and unfailing good nature join in giving him a firm hold upon the esteem, confidence and friendship of his fellow members. He is ever ready to champion the principles of his party, and is ever at the front, taking the advance step, and points out in speeches of combined logic, argument, sarcasm and eloquence the true position upon which Americans, as such, regardless of party can stand.
Dr. Norton, with his social nature, of course could not but have some affiliation with fraternal organizations, so we find that in the winter of 1864-5, at Louisville, Kentucky, he became a member of Compass Lodge, No. 222, F. & A. M., and in 1882 a member of Tiffin Lodge, No. 80, Knights of Pythias. He was a charter member of Leander Stem Post. G. A. R., and a regular attendant until, at the death of General W. H. Gibson, this post united with another post and took the name of WV. H. Gibson Post; then Mr. Norton, with a large number of others. withdrew, believing it was a wrong to the memory of the heroes who
428
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
died on the field of battle to drop their name for one who had no greater military claim and who had been honored in civil life. Mr. Norton is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and finds pleas- ure in the friendships and fraternal spirit found in that order.
Generous to a fault and social to a high degree, Mr. Norton wins friends easily, and he has the happy faculty of drawing them closer to him as the years pass by. Viewed in a personal light he is a strong man, of excellent judgment, fair in his views and highly honorable in his relations with his fellow men. His integrity stands as an unquestioned fact in his career and his example is well worthy of emulation.
HENRY K. FUNK.
An old resident, esteemed citizen and successful agriculturist of Seneca county, Ohio, is found in Henry K. Funk, who was born on the farm which he now owns and occupies, in Seneca township, March 19, 1837. He was a son of Daniel and Sarah ( Kearns) Funk, the former of whom was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, on June 21, 1804, and passed out of life on August 19, 1879. The latter was also born in Fair- field county, on April II, 1812, was reared and educated and also mar- ried, April 11, 1829, in that county, but died in Seneca county on Octo- ber 17, 1893.
Although a family of seven children was born to the parents of our subject, the only survivor is the latter. The others were as follows : Ellen, who married Daniel Hemming and died at the age of twenty years ; Ann Catherine, who married Henry Jones and died in 1875, aged forty-one years; Mary, who became the wife of Daniel Reisz and died when thirty-three years of age: Jacob, who married Sylvia A. Stoner, the eldest sister of the wife of our subject, and they have five children,- Oliver M., Hattie Ellen, Arthur, Bertha and Harry. Jacob died Feb- ruary 19, 1890, in his forty-ninth year ; and John and Daniel, the other- brothers of our subject, died unmarried.
429
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
It was in the year 1834 that Daniel Funk moved from Fairfield county to Seneca county, where he entered a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of government land on section 19, in Seneca township, now comprised in the farms of Jacob and Henry Funk. Upon this land he immediately erected a hewed-log cabin, containing but one room, in which picturesque little home his family was safely sheltered. This land was heavily timbered and became of value as the town of Tiffin expanded into a little city, and railroad lines began to connect this locality with the great west. Mr. Funk was an industrious man, one who enjoyed the esteem of his neighbors and was well known at the time of his death, in 1879. His widow survived until her eighty-first year, dying in 1893.
Henry K. Funk, who is the subject of this sketch, was reared on the farm of his birth, and remained at home until the outbreak of the civil war in 1861. When every town, village and country lane was responding to the call for young life to be offered upon the altar of coun- try, our subject was one of that courageous and loyal band. He entered Company K, Forty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for a service of three years, and with his regiment was sent into the locality which soon became historic and sacred ground to the true American citizen. He took part in his first battle at Green river, Kentucky, and then came Nashville, Corinth, Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga and then Nashville again. Mr. Funk was twice wounded, first at New Hope Church, when he was incapacitated by a ball passing through his left cheek, coming to the surface under his right ear. This serious wound kept him in hospitals in Louisville and camp for three months, his regiment being in Georgia when he returned to it. He accompanied his comrades in the last war movements when his portion of the army marched from Nashville to New Orleans and then to Texas, where his term of service expired, and he was mustered out on November 13. 1865. at Columbus, Ohio, his gallantry have caused his promotion from private to sergeant.
Mr. Funk returned to the old home and in this vicinity he was mar- ried, in March, 1866, to Miss Elmira Shoup, and a family of five chil- dren was born to this union, two of whom died in infancy, Daniel B. and John dying of scarlet fever in young boyhood, and Clara, reaching matur-
430
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
ity. became the wife of Elsworth Corfman and died at about twenty-two, leaving one son, Dayton Corfman. Mrs. Funk died June 12, 1887.
The second marriage of Mr. Funk was on July 21, 1891, to Mrs. Rozella (Stoner) Snyder, who was the widow of Frank Snyder, and the daughter of George and Louisa ( Wilkins) Stoner. Two children have been born to this marriage, namely: Rolla C., April 13, 1892; and Henry Franklin, October 8, 1898.
Soon after his first marriage Mr. Funk went to Harrison township, Henry county, where he lived for seven years, coming then to his present farm. where he has been a successful farmer and stock-raiser ever since. The excellent improvements which make this one of the model farms of the township have been placed here by him, who now has one of the best arranged, most comfortable and attractive homes in this vicinity. Here he has one hundred and twenty-five acres, which is in a high state of cultivation.
Mr. Funk has always upheld the principles of the Republican party, although he has been no politician in the real sense of the word. His quiet, busy home life has had more attraction for him than the excite- ments of politics. For some forty years, however, he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is a valued brother Mason in Wyandot Lodge, No. 314, at Mccutchenville.
Mr. Funk has many friends. in this township, where his character as an upright and honorable man is well known. He is pleasant and agree- able in manner, and both he and estimable wife delight to offer the hos- pitality of their pleasant home to their many friends.
VERNON H. SLOSSER.
Of all the young men who have acquired their educational discipline in Seneca county and have had their characters molded and developed in its institutions, receiving here the impetus toward progress and achieve- ment characteristic of the times, certainly none have reflected greater
43I
CENTENNIAL BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
credit upon the county than the gentleman whose name forms the caption of this review.
Mr. Slosser was born on the farm on which he now resides on the 13th of May, 1871, a son of John and Louisa A. (Wolf) Slosser, and of their two children he alone survives. The father was born in Vir- ginia October 10, 1811, and in 1830 he came with his parents to Seneca county, Ohio, his father, Peter Slosser, locating land in Clinton town- ship, where he continued to reside for eighteen months. In the mean- time he had entered the farm which our subject now owns, on which he erected a cabin, and there the grandparents lived and died. The grandfather and his eldest son, Peter, together acquired about eighteen hundred acres of land in Seneca county and also about two hundred acres in Wood county, the latter being heavily timbered, and there they con- ducted a sawmill for a number of years. After the grandfather's death the son John, the father of our subject, was made administrator of the estate, and as his share of the property he acquired the home farm of one hundred and sixty acres. Soon afterward he was married to Miss Emaline Wolf, but three years later their happy married life was ended in death, the wife having been called to the home byond. Mr. Slosser afterward married her cousin, Miss Louisa A. Wolf, who was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, August 13, 1834, a daughter of Andrew Wolf. Mr. Slosser continued to reside on the homestead farm until his death, which occurred on the 17th of October, 1897, in his eighty-sixth year, passing away in the faith of the United Protestant church, in which he had long served as a deacon. He gave his political support to the Republican party, and for many years he was a justice of the peace, during which time he united in marriage many residents of the county. The year following her husband's death Mrs. Slosser removed to Bascom, where she has ever since made her home.
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.