USA > Ohio > Seneca County > A centennial biographical history of Seneca County, Ohio > Part 61
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ton township, where he followed farming until 1897, when he was again called to the superintendency of the infirmary, in the administration of whose affairs he continued until his death, on the 31st of March, 1902, his efforts meeting with the approval of all concerned and making the institution the more creditable to the county. His last term as super- intendent covered exactly four years, his demise occurring on the fourth anniversary of the day on which he assumed control. In speaking of his official service the Seneca Advertiser, of Tiffin, gave utterance to the following statements: "He was recognized by all as a competent and obliging official and his methods of conducting the county farm and caring for the unfortunates under his charge were such that he had the esteem and respect of every person on the place and the complete con- fidence of the infirmary directors."
In politics Mr. Horn was ever a stanch supporter of the principles. and policies of the Democratic party, and he served for several years as trustee of Clinton township. His religious faith was that of the Reformed church, of which his widow is likewise a devoted member. Fraternally he was identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a charter member of Tiffin Lodge, No. 80, Knights of Pythias, under whose auspices his funeral obsequies were conducted, on Thursday afternoon, April 3, 1892, at the Reformed church in Tiffin, the Rev. J. D. Buhrer officiating. The Odd Fellows' fraternity was also largely represented at the funeral, a delegation from the lodge at Fostoria having been pres- ent, in addition to many of the brothers of the Tiffin organization of the order. He was laid to rest in Greenlawn cemetery, and the community realized fully that a good man and capable official had passed to his reward.
On the 22d of February, 1854, Mr. Horn was united in marriage to Miss Mary Meitzler, a native of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of six children, namely: Rosa, who is the wife of Rev. Henry Gramm, of Toledo, a clergyman of the Reformed church; Elmina, who is the wife of Clariden Cramer, of Clinton township; Ben- jamin and John, who are farmers of Oklahoma Territory; Aquilla, who
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is the wife of Eugene Heiberger, a druggist of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania; and Samuel A., a farmer of Clinton township.
Mr. Horn was one of the widely known horse dealers of Seneca county, his operations in this line covering the period of his residence on the farm north of Tiffin, and it is said that one of the finest shipments of high-grade roadsters, bought in the vicinity of Hillsdale, Michigan, ever sent into the city of Philadelphia was made under his direction and se- lection, each of the animals being able to make a record of three minutes or better.
JOHN A. BRADNER.
By the death of this honorable and upright citizen Fostoria and Seneca county, and, indeed, the state of Ohio, sustained an irreparable loss and were deprived of the presence of one who had come to be looked upon as a guardian and friend. Death often removes from our midst those whom we can ill afford to lose, those whose lives have been exem- plary of the true and good and who are therefore really great citizens. Such a man was John Alonzo Bradner, whose entire career, both busi- ness and social, served as an inspiration to the aged and as a model to the young. His work as a member of the legal profession, and more especially as a railroad builder, was of the greatest benefit to the state, and by his usefulness and general benevolence he created a memory> whose perpetuation does not depend upon sculptured stone or elaborate mortuary crypt, but rather upon the spontaneous and freewill offering of a grateful and enlightened people. His connection with Fostoria's de- velopment and growth and with the cumulative work of material im- provement was largely instrumental in placing the city in the proud po- sition it to-day occupies.
Mr. Bradner was born August 13, 1833, at Niagara Falls, New York, a son of William and Laura (Everingham) Bradner. He spent his early life in the place of his nativity, pursued his education in the Lewiston Academy, and in 1849 removed with his parents to Perry
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township, Wood county, Ohio. His father established a store at West Mill Grove and he became a salesman therein. After clerking for six years he bought the store from his father and for two years carried on the enterprise individually. In 1859 he removed to Fremont, Sandusky county, where he was manager of a warehouse for the ensuing four years. In March, 1863, Mr. Bradner arrived in Fostoria, where he established a hardware and stove business, conducting the same with' adequate success for a period of nine years, or until 1872, when the de- mands made upon his attention by other business enterprises caused him to dispose of the store to devote his entire time to the development of other interests.
For thirty-five years Mr. Bradner was engaged in railroad build- ing. He aided in securing the right of way, and was engaged in the construction of the Hocking Valley, the Ohio Central and the Nickel Plate Railroads; and he also took the contract for the construction of nineteen miles of the old Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan Rail- road and thirty-five miles of the Clover Leaf Railroad. Thus, as a rail- road contractor, he was closely associated with the work of improve- ment, for no other one agency has so direct or so important bearing upon the upbuilding and progress of a country as the introduction of railroads. He also secured the right of way for the Toledo, Fostoria & Findlay Electric Railroad, and at the time of his death he was the secretary and treasurer and the general manager of the Ohio & Northwestern Electric Railroad. In the winter of 1900-1901 he secured for this corporation the right of way from Fostoria to Jerry City, and while engaged in that work was taken ill, passing away on the 9th of July, 1901, at the age of sixty-eight years. When the state had been largely supplied with rail- roads for transportation by the power of steam, his progressive spirit led him to take up the new methods of travel by the aid of electrical power, and thus he was associated with the upbuilding of interurban lines. This, however, did not comprise the extent of Mr. Bradner's con- nection with business interests. He macadamized the principal streets of Fostoria; was engaged in the stone and lime business, having been a. large stockholder and president of the Fostoria Stone & Lime Com-
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pany ; was one of the organizers of the first gas company here; and in all ways was known as a progressive, public-spirited and influential citizen. He was a man of keen sagacity, capable of looking beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities of the future. He labored not alone for himself or for his own generation but also for posterity, for through many years to come his efforts will benefit those who follow him. His interests were of important character and of great magnitude, and al- though his business career was so successful as to seem almost phenom- enal, it but represented the fit utilization of his powers along the lines where mature judgment led the way, and his prosperity was the result of his own efforts. While he was engaged in building the Hocking Val- ley Railroad Mr. Bradner was associated with Mr. Ransom Crocker in the founding and platting of a town in Wood county, located on the line of this railroad, and the same was named in honor of the subject of this memoir. Bradner is now a very attractive and prosperous town of seventeen hundred population, being located in the center of the oil belt and having before it an unmistakably auspicious future.
On the 3d of March, 1856, Mr. Bradner was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Phillips, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah Phillips, of Jerry City, Ohio, and unto them were born the following named chil- dren : Catherine, the eldest, is the wife of Samuel Lynn, of Toledo; May became the wife of Pliny Jones, of Fostoria, and is now deceased; Rosa, who was the wife of Brice M. Stout, of Fostoria, is likewise de- ceased; Martin, who was editor of the Evening News, of Fostoria, died at the age of twenty-seven years, leaving a wife and two children,- John A. and Frederick ; Jessie is the wife of Edward Cooper, of Fos- toria ; Franc is the wife of Frank Stout, a furniture dealer in Fostoria, which city likewise continues to be the home of the two other sons, Harry E. and John R.
In addition to all his other interests John A. Bradner studied law. was admitted to the bar in 1879, and became the first city solicitor of Fostoria. For twenty-one years he was incumbent of the office of jus- tice of the peace, and his rulings were ever fair and impartial. He served for seven consecutive terms in that office in Loudon township, and was
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elected for the eighth term. For six years he was the mayor of Fostoria, and his executive duties were so ably and faithfully performed that one could readily have believed that he had no extraneous interests and was giving his entire time to the administration of the municipal government. He was a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom, in his indon !- itable perseverance and in his strong individuality. His entire life had not one esoteric phase, being an open scroll, inviting and challenging closest scrutiny. True his were "massive deeds and great" in one sense, and yet his entire life accomplishment but represented the result of the exercise of the intrinsic talent which was his and the directing of his efforts along those legitimate and prolific lines where mature judgment and rare discrimination led the way. A man of indefatigable enterprise and fertility of resource, he carved his name deeply on the records of the industrial and professional history of this section of the great state of Ohio, which owes much of its advancement to his labors. Though he had no personal political ambition, Mr. Bradner was a stalwart Re- publican in his political adherency, and was ever signally true to the duties of citizenship, while his religious faith was that of the Presby- terian church. His home life was ideal in character, and those to whom he was nearest and dearest find in the grateful memory of his noble and useful life a perpetual benediction, his widow still surviving him and maintaining her home in Fostoria.
EDWIN RANDELL.
For over seventy years this gentleman has been a resident of the Buckeye state, and throughout the long period of his residence within its borders he has ever taken an active interest in its development and improvement. His birth occurred in Rockland, Knox county, Maine, on the 19th of November, 1827. His father, William Randell, was born in Belfast, that state, and was a carpenter by trade, following that line of occupation during the time of his residence in the east. In 1831, ac-
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companied by his family, he made the journey by canal and the Great Lakes to Sandusky, Ohio, and from that city the family journeyed by wagon to Seneca county. On his arrival here Mr. Randell purchased one hundred acres of land, in Eden township, which at that time formed a part of the Mohawk reservation, and a sawmill had been erected on the land. He placed his fields under an excellent state of cultivation, made many substantial and valuable improvements on his land, and his became one of the most attractive and desirable homesteads of the town- ship. At the time of his death he was the owner of one hundred and ninety-six acres. Our subject now has in his possession a deed signed by General Henry Knox, secretary of war under General Washington, and bearing date of the year 1801, the document covering a grant of land sold to his grandfather, Thomas Randell, whose father, John Randell, was the founder of the family in America, whither he came from England.
William Randell, the father of our subject, was united in mar- riage to Eunice Crockett, and they became the parents of the following children : Eliza, the deceased wife of Theodore Graves; Edwin, the subject of this review ; Elbert, deceased; Nathaniel, a resident of Cass county, Missouri ; Theodore and Josephine, both deceased, as is also the youngest child, who died in infancy. The father of this family was called to his final rest in 1882, when he had attained the age of eighty-two years. He became one of the prominent and influential men of his lo- cality, where he was honored with a number of positions of distinctive trust and responsibility. While a resident of Maine he was a lieutenant in the state militia.
Edwin Randell, the immediate subject of this review, was but four years of age when he was brought by his parents to Eden township, and here he was early inured to the labors of the farm in all its departments, while the educational advantages which he enjoyed in his youth were those afforded by the primitive schools of the times. In 1847 he went to Napoleon, Henry county, Ohio, where he purchased one hundred and ninety-two acres of wild land, and as the years passed he succeeded in placing his land under effective cultivation, and there he made his
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.
home until 1866, when he returned to Eden township. By purchase he then became the owner of the old homestead farm, where he continued to reside until 1892, in which year he removed to his present residence, in the same township, though he still retains possession of the original homestead. After a long, active and useful business career an hon- ored retirement has been vouchsafed Mr. Randell, and he is now en- joying the fruits of former toil. He has a small tract adjacent to the homestead, and here he has erected a pleasant residence, of attractive architectural design and equipments, the same being located three miles south of the city of Tiffin and being one of the most desirable homes in this vicinity.
On the Ist of October, 1855, Mr. Randell was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Palmer, and they have had six children, of whom we enter brief record as follows: Sumner, who is a resident farmer of Eden township, married Bertha Cook, and they have two children, Erwin Paul and Arthur; Harold is engaged in mining in the state of Idaho: May remains at the parental home; Augusta became the wife of William C. Strohm and died at the age of thirty-nine years, leaving three chil- dren, Edwin, Leah and Augusta, all of whom have resided with their maternal grandparents, Edwin being now superintendent of the Home Telephone Company, at Tiffin; and Maude and Nina died in childhood. Mrs. Strohm was an artist of fine talent, having executed many ex- cellent paintings in oil, one of which, entitled the "First Homestead," exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, in 1893, depicted the first homestead entered from the government near Beatrice, Ne- braska. The picture was executed for Mrs. John A. Logan, wife of the renowned general, and by her was placed on exhibition, as noted. Several of Mrs. Strohm's productions have sold for handsome prices and a number of specimens of her art work are to be found in the pleasant home of her father, including portraits of his parents and also one of herself.
Mr. Randell has marked and appreciative literary talent and has contributed many valuable articles to the leading papers of the county, and in many other ways has he proved a valued factor in connection with
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the interests of the community. He has attained a distinct local reputation from his poetical productions, and has published a neat volume of verse, the same having afforded marked pleasure to many readers in Seneca county. Two of his poems, relating to the late Spanish-American war, are appropriately reproduced in this connection.
PEACE.
The deafening crash of Samson's belching guns No longer jars the ambient summer air, Nor scares the waves that lap the pleasant isle.
The steel-clad ship, Erstwhile the nucleus of a battle cloud, Upon the breast of ocean peaceful lies, With all her pent-up thunders held in thrall.
The inky cloud That swathed her form in battle's mad'ning hour,
From which the lightning flames of battle flashed,
As leaps the living flame from midnight cloud, To hurl their crashing ruin on the foe; Now, borne upon the wings of tropic winds,
Float buoyant summer clouds along the skies, Or sail far off within the azure deeps.
The chalices of flowers Are lovelier now than when a tryant's heel Trod out their sweet perfume.
The favored land of myrtle and of palm, By freedom's inspiration roused elate, Is fanned by freedom's zephyrs; and her sons And daughters, freed from despot's galling yoke, Shall grow to fairer stature with the years That now are rising with her brighter morn.
Now is closed for aye The long account of tyranny and wrong That marked the rule of medieval Spain; Where superstition's despot, with red hand, Has trodden all man's nobler impulse out And bound the aspirations of his soul. Her bloody conquests in the western world, The hosts of progress in their onward march Have blotted from the century's changing chart.
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The mailed hand that carried conquest far Now falls as nerveless as if conqueror's sword Had never flashed in Cortez' mailed hand.
The flames that lit Inquisitorial fires have smoldered out
Before the light that science sheds abroad,
To chase gray superstition's ghosts away.
The bigot zeal That planned strange racks to torture men who dared
Assert the right to follow reason's guide
Athwart the darkness of the middle age, Is quenched before the light our era sheds, Or flies like noxious vapors from the sun.
O! fair Antillean pearl, The brightest gem upon the ocean's breast Within the sitting of the tropic sea; Our ears too long have listened to the sobs, Blent with the cruel clank of chains that wore Their gory links into her bleeding limbs. Those gyves are rent asunder; rise thou up!
Put on thy buskins and go forth to make Thy lovely isle the fairest of the world.
SANTIAGO.
The Spaniard sought the bloody fray, His ships came sailing from the bay, The bay of Santiago.
But Samson's grim sea lions lay Eager to bar their onward way, To rush with fury on their prey And cloud with battle's pall that day The bay of Santiago.
"Onward full speed," and on they go, With battle's madness on the foe; The sea is white with foam below; The swift ships dash the waves to snow,
ยท The battle cloud is gathering low And floating ominous and slow O'er 'leaguered Santiago.
Before the carnage, fell and red, Before the conflict, fierce and dread, In vain the Spanish squadron fled; In vain on wings of fear they sped From fated Santiago.
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Amid the battle's deafening roar. Down on the dauntless foe they bore; The Spaniard's steel-clad hulls they tore, His decks they strewed with wreck and gore, By shuddering Santiago.
Alas for Spain! her bravest fail To breast the battle's fiery gale; It rends her triple coats of mail; Her stoutest hearts begin to quail; They see the Vikings' sons assail Their squadron with an iron hail, And turn to flee with steam and sail Away from Santiago.
Her stanchest ships in terror feel The shock through all their ribs of steel; The very waves beneath their keel Are scattered as the vessels reel From war-doomed Santiago.
The battle lightning leaped and flashed, The battled thunders boomed and crashed, The grim sea lions onward dashed, The sea by shot was plowed and lashed, By awe-struck Santiago.
To 'scape the battle's deadly roar, Their prows are turned toward the shore, Where wide-winged vultures wheeling o'er The blue waves lapping on the shore Shall wash their slippery decks of gore. By conquered Santiago.
DANIEL WAGNER.
He to whom this memoir is dedicated passed practically his entire life in Seneca county, and for the long span of his useful and honorable career as a farmer he was prominently identified with the industrial activities of this section of the state, his days having been part and por- tion of the indissoluble chain which linked the annals of the early pioneer epoch with those of latter day progress and prosperity. This record is entered as a slight tribute to a man who stood "four square
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to every wind that blows" and whose strength was as the number of his days.
Daniel Wagner was born in Perry county, Ohio, on the 26th of July, 1825, being the son of David Wagner, who was born in Pennsyl- vania, whence he emigrated to Ohio in the early pioneer days. The family came from Perry to Seneca county in 1828, locating on a tract of wild forest land on section 19, in Eden township, the place now owned by Wesley Crum. David Wagner cleared this farm of its heavy growth of native timber, placed the land under cultivation and there continued to make his home until his death, at the age of eighty years. Our subject was but three years of age at the time of the re- moval to Seneca county, and here he grew up under the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm, receiving such educational advantages as were af- forded in the primitive schools of the place and period. He continued to assist in the work of the old homestead until he had attained the age of twenty-one years, though he had been married a year previously, and he then took up his residence on another farm, in the same township, where he devoted his attention to general agriculture for a period of twelve years, at the expiration of which he removed to the farm where his widow now resides and where his death occurred, on the 28th of Feb- ruary, 1892. In the home farm are comprised one hundred and forty- two acres, and upon the place he made the best of improvements, in- cluding a fine modern farm residence. He was the owner of three hun- dred and two acres of land at the time of his death, and was well known as one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of the com- munity, honored as one of the sterling pioneers of the county. In his political affiliation he was arrayed in support of the Democratic party, and his religious views were indicated in his being a devoted member of the Unted Brethren church, of which his widow also is an adherent.
On the 12th of April, 1855, Mr. Wagner was united in marriage to Miss Angeline Musgrave, who was born in this county, of which her father, Elijah Musgrave was an early settler. To Mr. and Mrs. Wagner seven children were born, namely: Filmore, a resident of Lyon county, Kansas; Elmore, who is a farmer, maintaining his home in Fostoria;
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George, a farmer of Wyandot county ; Hattie, the wife of Philo Keller, a mechanic of Tiffin; William, a farmer of Eden township; Orpha, the wife of Joseph Heck, who has charge of the homestead; and Ida, who remains with her mother in the old home.
FRANKLIN J. FRY.
A representative of one of the old and honored families of Seneca county, which since pioneer days has been prominently connected with the development and substantial progress of this section of the state, Mr. Fry is worthily sustaining the high reputation of the family, through his active and useful life, prominence in connection with the agricultural industries of this favored section of the Buckeye state and his influential position as one of the county's extensive landholders. There is utmost compatibility in here entering a brief review of his career, and aside from being a valuable and perpetual record the article will be read with interest by the many friends of himself and the family.
Mr. Fry is a native son of Seneca county, having been born on the parental homestead, in Pleasant township, on the 14th of October, 1840, the son of Philip H. and Elizabeth (King) Fry, who became the par- ents of four children, of whom three survive,-Orrin J., a successful and prominent farmer of Pleasant township; Franklin J., of this sketch ; and Henry P., a representative agriculturist of Liberty township. The father was a native of Prussia, where he was born in the year 1805 and where he was reared and educated, there learning the trade of carpenter. In 1831 he emigrated to America and for the first year worked at his trade in Maryland, while in the spring of 1832 he came to Tiffin, Ohio, the county-seat of Seneca county, and here assisted in the erection of the first court-house. In the fall of the following year he went to Sandusky county and was thereafter prominently engaged in contracting and building, erecting a large portion of the most important buildings as far northward as Fremont, that county, and being associated with Joseph
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Moore in the building of a number of grist and cotton mills. His mar- riage occurred in 1837, and he then purchased a tract of thirty acres across the line in Seneca county, in Pleasant township, which is con- tiguous to Sandusky county. Here he made his home and for some years he continued to follow his trade. After paying for the property mentioned he purchased another tract, of one hundred and sixty acres, in the same township, this same being eligibly located on Wolf creek and constituting the present home of his son, the subject of this sketch. He forthwith took up his residence on this place, and about 1855, in con- nection with his agricultural operations,, established a dairy business, operating a cheese factory and doing a profitable business. In 1858 he bought another quarter section in this township and in 1866 he pur- chased fifty-eight acres lying between his home farm and his original thirty acres, thus throwing the three places into one farm, with the aggregate area of three hundred and fifty-eight acres. In 1872 he pur- chased the old homestead of his father-in-law, Jacob King, in Sandusky county, the same comprising eighty acres, and thus his landed estate became one of no inconsiderable extent and value. Mr. Fry was a man of distinctive intellectuality, being a reader of the best literature and keeping well informed in regard to the questions and issues of the day. His individuality was forceful and his convictions clearly de- fined, while he ruled his life upon the highest plane of honor and probity, thus gaining a commanding position in the confidence and es- teem of his fellow men, and being one of the influential citizens of the community where he lived and labored to so goodly ends. Originally he was a stanch Democrat, supporting the principles and policies advocated by Jefferson and Jackson, but when the party repudiated paper currency his convictions as to political expediency led him to transfer his allegiance to the Greenback party. After the passing of this organization he main- tained an independent attitude in politics. He served in various town- ship offices, always efficiently and to the satisfaction of the people, and for many years he held official position in the Protestant Methodist church, of which he and his wife were devoted members. His death oc- curred in 1891, his widow surviving until 1901, when she passed away
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