USA > Ohio > Seneca County > A centennial biographical history of Seneca County, Ohio > Part 38
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Vernon H. Slosser, the immediate subject of this review, was reared to manhood amid the refining influences of a cultured home, and the edu- cational advantages which he received in his youth were those afforded by the common schools of the neighborhood. After his marriage he took charge of the old family homestead, which he farmed on the shares for
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a time, and after his father's death he acquired as his share of the prop- erty one hundred and twenty acres, where he is extensively engaged in general farming. He is a young man of keen foresight and sagacity, and therefore is enabled to make judicious investments, which yield him a good profit. He is energetic, enterprising and reliable, and therefore has won and retains the confidence of the residents of the locality in which his entire life has been passed.
On the 22d of December, 1892, Mr. Slosser was united in marriage to Miss Cora Dewald, a native of Loudon township, Seneca county, and a daughter of Philip Dewald, one of the early pioneers and prominent farmers of that township. Three children have graced this marriage, but only Nina E. is now living. Marion J. died of pneumonia February 20, 1902, aged two years and seven months.
JAMES H. KNAPP.
The Empire state has sent her sons into every portion of the Union, Seneca county claiming a share of those who have come to Ohio. Among them is James H. Knapp, who was born in Putnam county, New York, July 12, 1842, his parents being Gilbert and Cynthia (Chase) Knapp. In the family were three children, John and Cyrus, both residents of Erie county, Ohio, being the younger brothers. They are operating the old family homestead near Castalia, Erie county, where their father purchased one hundred sixty acres of land, to which he added as his financial resources increased, until his farm comprised three hundred and twenty acres. He made extensive improvements and, converting his land into productive fields, they annually returned to him abundant harvests. Throughout his entire life he was a farmer and died at the old homestead March 8, 1894, at the age of seventy-two years. His widow still survives him, now in her eighty-second year.
James H. Knapp was a lad of but six when he came to Ohio, and upon the home farm he grew to manhood. In 1864 he offered his serv-
Joanna S. Knapp
Formes AKnapp
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ices to the government, joining Company I, One Hundred and Forty- fifth Ohio Infantry, which was in the hundred-day service in defense of Washington. In 1867 he went to Marshalltown, Iowa, where he was engaged in the dry-goods business two years. Returning, he located in Scipio township, where he took charge of the farm for his wife's step-father, Hon. Daniel Brown. Here he has since resided, and that he is an enterprising and energetic farmer is indicated by the farm's neat and thrifty appearance.
On the 12th of October, 1870, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Knapp and his cousin, Mrs. Joanna Crissel, a native of Putnam county, New York, and the widow of Captain W. J. Crissel. Captain W. J. Crissel was a native son of Perry county, Ohio, and in his youth learned the harnessmaker's trade, though quite early in life he became a mer- chant, conducting a successful dry-goods trade at Republic for several years. His marriage to Miss Joanna Brown took place in 1853, from which time he resided on the present home, where he died February 9, 1869. At the outbreak of the Mexican war he enlisted in an Ohio regi- ment, serving as sergeant throughout the war and receiving a wound in one arm during one of those ever memorable and desperate battles. In 1864, when the national capital was thought to be in danger, he organ- ized a company for its defense. At the organization of the One Hun- dred and Sixty-fourth Regiment he was elected captain of Company K, and so served during the brief but interesting period required by the government. He was a brave, popular and efficient officer and one who gained and retained the esteem of his men. As in all matters in which he became interested, he took a leading part in advancing the farming interests of the community, and rendered much encouragement and help in the introduction of the best breeds of stock, his farm really becoming headquarters for sheep men, as many sales of Vermont Spanish Merinos were held here and breeders from all sections of this and surrounding states came to recognize him as a wide-awake, enthusiastic and pro- gressive citizen. The results of his ambition were well exemplified in. the many substantial improvements he made on the farm, which had been for many years the well-known home of his wife's parents.
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Captain Crissel's enthusiasm was never shown to better advantage than when he was advocating the principles of the Republican party, and being thoroughly informed on political history, he was never at loss for substantial argument to maintain his views, which were ever fore- most, though his strength lay largely in his personal contact with men and his persuasive private conversation. Though never aspiring to political honor, he ably filled various local offices. His wide reading and scholarly attainments made him one of the best-informed men of the township, and his active participation in public matters and the Ma- sonic fraternity, in which he was highly honored, coupled with pleasing personality and affable manners, made him universally respected and loved. Two sons were born to Captain and Mrs. Crissel: Daniel B. and Fred, both of whom are residents of Scipio township.
The parents of Mrs. Knapp were Hon. Daniel and Sally M. (Chase) Brown, who, in the year 1835, came from Tompkins county, New York, to Seneca county, Ohio, where her father purchased one hun- dred and thirty-three acres of land, constituting the farm upon which Morgan Ink now resides. He there cleared the fields and developed an excellent farm property, upon which he resided until 1853, when he came to the farm which is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Knapp and which adjoins the old homestead. There he died in 1872, at the age of seventy-two years. He was a member of the state legislature in 1844-5 and was widely recognized as a leader of public thought and opinion in his locality. He also held some local offices, including those of justice of the peace; coroner and trustee, and after the organization of the Re- publican party he became one of its stanch advocates and worked un- ceasingly to promote its growth and insure its success. Of the Univer- salist church he was an active and zealous member. His wife survived him for many years and passed away January 25, 1896, at the age of eighty-one. Their only child was she who is now Mrs. Knapp.
Mr. Knapp is now the owner of three hundred and thirty-five acres of rich and arable land, all in one body, and carries on general farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of the breeding of short-horn 'cattle. In public affairs he takes a deep and active interest, and his
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fellow townsmen elected him township trustee for ten years and in further recognition of his worth and ability elected him county com- missioner in 1895. Mr. Knapp is active and earnest in his adherence to and advocacy of Republican principles, though his ability and proved honesty as a trustee gave him, when a candidate for the commissioner- ship, the support of a large element within Democratic ranks. He re- ceived a majority of about eight hundred, when the county is conceded to the Democrats by about eleven hundred under normal conditions. Such extravagance had crept into the management of the county's affairs that a man was needed whose influence would tend to counteract that tendency, and Mr. Knapp was thought to possess just the essential elements,-sagacity, keen business acumen, absolute honesty and a will that could be stubborn if necessary. In 1882 he had been selected as secretary of the Farmers' Mutual Relief Association, and during his ten years of service its business had more than doubled, having four millions of insurance at risk in 1895. His value as a shrewd financier and economical manager was thus well known, and that no mistake was made in his selection as commissioner is amply proven by reference to the financial condition of the county when he entered upon his duties and that shown two and one-half years later. The total indebtedness March 1, 1895, was in excess of $161,500, while September 21, 1897, it was but $17.750, a reduction of $143.800. A comparison of tax levies is even more interesting. In 1894 it was seven and seventy hundredths, while for 1897 it was but three and seventy-six hundredths. The above statistics amply illustrate the value of such a man on the board of com- missioners. Yet in the face of what was accomplished for the county, Mr. Knapp was defeated for re-election.
The Knapp homestead, one mile south of Republic, on the Kilburn road, is not only one of the best appointed farms of the county, whose operation returns ample tribute to the owner's sagacity and manage- ment, but it is also noted for the cordial hospitality ever extended, whether to the personal friend or to the stranger. No children have crowned the union of Mr. and Mrs. Knapp, yet one little girl, Minnie Knapp, was taken into the family and an excellent permanent home
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provided ; and now that she has reached mature womanhood she still remains to partially compensate in presence and tender attention for the generous solicitude of which she has been the recipient. It affords us pleasure to present herewith excellent portraits of this esteemed couple.
DANIEL REISZ.
One of the excellent farmers, old settlers and prominent citizens of Seneca county, Ohio, is Daniel Reisz, who owns and occupies a farm in Seneca township, a tract of valuable land which his father entered from the government in 1833.
The birthplace of Daniel Reisz was in the Rhine province of Bavaria, Germany, November 9, 1829, and he was a son of Jacob and Mary E. (Scheer) Reisz, both of whom were natives of the fatherland. Jacob Reisz and family started from Europe in 1833, taking passage on a French sailing vessel, finally reaching the friendly shores of America after fifty-one days of exposure to the tumults of the ocean. Mr. Reisz brought his wife and children to Seneca county, Ohio, and as he found land in this locality to suit his purpose he entered eighty acres and immediately began its improvement. The first work was the building of a log house, and although it contained but a single room it proved a comfortable home in which a family of sixteen children found parental care. Mr. Reisz was a hard-working man and lived to be only fifty years of age, dying in 1846. Twelve of his children grew to manhood, the wholesome, out- door life with its accompanying duties making these children strong and robust, able to fill successfully useful positions in life. At the outbreak of the civil war three of these home-bred boys offered their lives for their adopted country, our subject being the only one who survived. John became a private soldier in the Fifty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infan- try and died in 1862, in Memphis, Tennessee; and Jacob joined a Wis- consin regiment, and later was sent home on account of disability, his death occurring ten days later.
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Our subject was not four years old when his parents located on this farm. It was wild timber land, crossed by a trail of the Seneca and 'Wyandot Indians, and it was no uncommon sight to see members of these tribes on some part of the farm. Mr. Reisz had few educational opportunities, no schools having been established in the vicinity, and as early as eight years old his services were of considerable value in the clearing of the land. Game was plentiful and when only five years of age he was entrusted with a rifle and added to the contents of the family larder by shooting squirrels.
Until his enlistment for army service, in 1864, our subject remained on the farm, but at that date he followed the example of his brothers and became a private in the Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was mus- tered in at Sandusky, and joined the regiment at Chattanooga. He par- ticipated in the battles at Pulaski, Columbia, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, and remained in the service until the close of the war, accom- panying his regiment in all of its movements, finally returning unharmed to his old home. Here Mr. Reisz has resided ever since, engaging suc- cessfully in farming and stock-raising, having brought his land to a high state of cultivation, his improvements making it one of the most desirable farms in Seneca township.
The first marriage of Mr. Reisz was in 1860, to Miss Mary A. Funk, whose death occurred in 1872. In 1873 he was united in mar- riage to Miss Susan Henry, and to this union a family of four children has been added, viz. : Lucy Idella, who is the wife of William Herbert, of Loudon township ; Laura, who resides at home and is a popular teacher in this county; Lamanda J., who is an expert dressmaker residing at home ; and Charles Tecumseh Sherman, who is a teacher and one of the successful farmers of this vicinity.
In his political convictions Mr. Reisz has never wavered in his allegiance to the Republican party. He was reared in the Lutheran church, where he has officiated the greater part of his life, though hold- ing decided views on questions relating to theology, being a close Bible student and familiar with both ancient and modern history. For forty- three years Mr. Reisz has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, hav-
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ing joined it in 1858. and belongs to Wyandotte Lodge, No. 314, of Mc- Cutchenville.
Mr. Reisz is widely known and universally esteemed. His long residence here has identified him with the changes which have taken place in this county, and he has ever been an important factor in promoting en- terprises looking to the upbuilding of the agricultural interests of Seneca township and county. Ever alive to the advantages of education, he has not only afforded his own children the best opportunities, but also has constantly worked for a better grade of public schools, seeing in them the greatest safeguard to American institutions.
C. A. FORCE, M. D. -
In viewing the mass of mankind in the varied occupations of life, the conclusion is forced upon the observer that in the vast majority of cases men have sought employment not in the line of their peculiar fitness, but in those fields where caprice or circumstances have placed them, thus explaining the reason of the failure of ninety-five per cent. of those who enter commercial and professional circles. In a few cases it seems that men with a peculiar fitness for a certain line have taken it up and marked success has followed. Such is the fact in the case of the subject of this biography. He has attained to a distinguished position in connection with the medical fraternity of Seneca county, making his home in Attica.
He was born in Hardinsburg, Indiana, April 2, 1858, and is a son' of Alfred and Lucinda (Davison) Force. His father was born in Schuyler county, New York, June 8, 1822, and was there reared to man- hood. He engaged in farming and was also well known for his musical ability and talent, giving instruction in vocal music. Later he entered the Scudder Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, and was graduated in 1857, after which he went to Hardinsburg, where he practiced for three years. He then came to Attica and opened an office and practiced until 1864, when he sent his family to the east while he enlisted in the Union
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army as a surgeon in the One Hundred and Eighty-first Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, remaining at the front until the close of the war. He rendered valuable service to the sick and suffering troops, and when hos- tilities had ceased he went to the east, locating in Horseheads, New York. There he remained until 1881, when he again came to Attica, where he resided up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 17th of Sep- tember, 1900. He was one of the most prominent and skilled physicians of the county and had a large and important patronage. His political support was given the Republican party and he was an active and influ- ential member of the Universalist church. The Force family is of French lineage, the name having been originally La Force. The mother of our subject was of Scotch-Irish descent. She was born in Schuyler county, New York, February 20, 1826, and died May 5, 1895. In the family of this worthy couple were four children, of whom three are living: Winfield S .; Alice, the widow of Rev. S. T. Tackabury ; and C. A., of this review.
Dr. Force, whose name introduces this review, was reared under the parental roof, and after attending the graded schools was graduated in the high school in Horseheads. In 1879 he took up the study of medicine, his reading being directed for two years by Dr. R. P. Bush, of Horse- heads. Later he became a traveling salesman and for two years repre- sented a Philadelphia drug house. In 1883 he came to Attica and in the fall of the same year matriculated in the Starling Medical College at Columbus, where he completed a regular course and was graduated in the spring of 1885. He then entered into partnership with his father, with whom he practiced until 1889, when, on account of ill health, the senior physician retired from active connection with the medical profes- sion, and Dr. Force, of this sketch, succeeded to the business of the firm. He has built up a very large and lucrative practice and is ranked among the leading physicians of the county.
On the 15th of September, 1885, Dr. Force was united in marriage to Miss Emma Tendick, a native of Attica, Ohio, and a daughter of the Rev. Peter Tendick, now deceased. They have two children, Mary H. and Rockwell C. The Doctor belongs to Attica Lodge, No. 367, F. &
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A. M., has filled all of its offices, and is identified with Attica Lodge, No. 302, K. of P. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and for eight years was a member of the town council, while for about ten years he was the health officer. He is now the president of the school board at Attica and the cause of education finds in him a warm friend. He also served for three years as president of the water-works. His public-spirited interest in the general good has been manifest in many ways, especially in the hearty co-operation which he gives to every movement or measure calculated to advance the general welfare. However, he makes his pro- fessional duties his first care. He took a post-graduate course in New York in 1888 and another in the same school in 1895, while in 1901 he pursued post-graduate work in the Clinical School and the Cook county hospital, of Chicago. He is a member of the Northwestern Ohio Medical Association, and through reading and investigation keeps in touch with the advanced thought of the profession. Anything is of interest to him which tends to bring to man the key to that mystery which we call life. He has the closest regard for the highest professional ethics and enjoys in an unusual degree the respect of the members of the medical fra- ternity as well as of the public. .
CHARLES ASH.
Seneca county, Ohio, has been the home and scene of labor of many men who have not only led lives which should serve as a lesson and incentive to those who come after them, but who have also been of im- portant service to their county and state through various avenues of use- fulness. Like his honored father, Charles Ash has been an important factor in connection with the industrial activities of this his native county, where he has not only attained a high degree of success in connection with the great basic art of agriculture, but has also done much to pro- mote the industry of stock-raising and forward the agricultural interests as a buyer and shipper of grain. In September of the present year
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(1902) Mr. Ash will enter upon the active duties of the office of treas- urer of Seneca county, and his election to the same is significant of the high estimate placed upon his integrity and abilities by the people of his native county, for he was chosen to this responsible office as the candi- date on the Republican ticket, by a majority of about twelve hundred. votes, and that in face of a normal Democratic majority of about fifteen. hundred in the county. His preferment under these conditions-is, indeed, significant, and no further endorsement need be entered as indicating the confidence and esteem in which he is so uniformly held, for the public is a discriminating factor and ever pronounces unequivocally upon the in- trinsic worth of the individual.
Charles Ash was born on the parental homestead, in Jackson town- ship, Seneca county, Ohio, on the 18th of December, 1857, being the son of that honored pioneer citizen, William Ash, to whom individual refer- ence is made on another page of this work, so that a genealogical re- capitulation is not demanded at this juncture. Our subject was reared on the old homestead and received his early educational training in the public schools of the locality. At the age of eighteen years he became actively associated with his father in the buying and shipping of live stock, soon giving evidence of that discrimination and that executive capacity which have been the conservators of his success. In February, 1885, Mr. Ash effected the purchase of eighty acres of his present fine homestead, and forthwith located on the same, where, in connection with' general agriculture, he continued to devote his attention to the buying and selling of live stock for a number of years, his operations in the line being of marked benefit in furthering the advancement of the stock industry in this locality. He has added to his landed estate until he now owns six hundred and ninety-one acres, in five farms, of as valuable land as can he found in the county, the same having been equipped with the best of permanent improvements and standing as model farms of this section of the state. His farming is conducted by tenants, though in past years he did an extensive business, cultivating several hundred acres, with several men in his employ. His principal crops are wheat, corn, clover-seed and hogs. For twenty years he tilled on a much larger scale than at
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present, though he now manages the home farm of three hundred acres, growing nearly one hundred acres of corn as one feature of this line of his business. He also owns three hundred and twenty acres of land in Logan county, Kansas. Nearly a decade ago Mr. Ash enlarged the scope of his operations by beginning to buy and ship grain, initiating this enterprise in a somewhat modest way. It has, however, been cumulative in character, and in the summer of 1901 he erected a well-equipped grain elevator in the village of Amsden, and has since handled a large business in this line, making extensive shipments and thus aiding materially in advancing the agricultural interests of the locality. He is essentially alert and public-spirited in his attitude, and his interest in all that con- serves the general welfare is unabating.
In political matters Mr. Ash has ever been found stanchly arrayed in support of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and he has been called upon to serve in postions of local trust and responsibility aside from that to which reference has already been made. He was in- cumbent of the position of township clerk for two years, and for the past sixteen years has served as justice of the peace, an office in which his father gave able and efficient administration for more than a quarter of a century. In November, 1901, our subject was elected to preside over the fiscal affairs of the county, and, as before stated, will enter upon the discharge of his duties as treasurer in September of the present year. In 1900 he served as land appraiser of his township. Fraternally Mr. Ash is identified with Fostoria Lodge, No. 305, Independent Order of Odd Fellows with Kansas Lodge, No. 183, Knights of Pythias, at Kansas, this county ; and with Kansas Tent, No. 282, Knights of the Maccabees.
On the 25th of March, 1883, Mr. Ash was united in marriage to Miss Belle F. Foster, who was born in Jackson township, the daughter of Sampson and Margaret ( Stahl) Foster, an influential farmer of that locality, and of this union five children were born, namely: Earl, Her- bert F. and Carmen, who remain at the parental home; and William and Rebecca, who died in infancy. Mrs. Ash is a member of the Methodist Protestant church, and while our subject is not a member of any religious
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