A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1, Part 33

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1310

USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1 > Part 33
USA > Ohio > Allen County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1 > Part 33

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respected by all who know him. In politics he is a republican, and in religion is a bright light in the Disciples' church.

Lucian E. Hesser was born in Hancock county, Ohio, June 23, 1856, and lived in Wyandott county, Ohio, until fourteen years of age, when his parents returned to Allen county, four miles south of Bluffton, where he lived until seventeen years of age, then went to Lorain county, Ohio, where he learned the trade of blacksmith, receiving, in the meantime, a very good education. September 18, 1876, he married Margaret A. Davidson, daughter of Henry and Sarah Davidson, and this union has been blessed with the following children: Pearly O., Sadie E., James H. and William H .- the last named deceased. In politics Mr. Hesser is a republican and is now filling his second term as corporation treasurer; he is also treasurer of the Christian church, of which he is a faithful member. and fraternally is a master Mason, being past senior warden of Sager lodge, No. 513, F. & A. M. For six years after marriage Mr. Hesser made his home at Beaver Dam, Allen county, Ohio, where he followed his trade, but since 1883 has been identified with the interests and growth of the village of Harrod, liis present home, where he owns a pretty modern dwell- ing and stands among the most respected and progressive residents of the village and Au- glaize township.

The firm of Hesser & Winegardner have acquired a high reputation for their straight- forward methods of doing business, and for the high grade of the vehicles they handle, as well as for the excellence of their job work. They use in their funeral directing business liearses appropriate to the age of the deceased -a black hearse and a white one-and their facilities for the execution of this important branch will soon be increased by the introduc- tion of the art of embalining, in which Mr.

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Hesser is now receiving instruction. A sketch of the life of Francis H. Winegardner, junior partner in the firm, will be found on another page.

S TEPHEN D. CRITES, eldest son of Jacob and Mary Jane (Cremean) Crites, was born in German township, Allen county, Ohio, November 28, 1847, and has always been a resident of his native township. He was brought up on the farm and experienced many of the hardships incident to pioneer life, and was educated in the famous old No. 2 sub-district school of German township and in the National Normal univer- sity at Lebanon, Ohio. He began teaching when eighteen years old-teaching during the winter months and working on the farm during the summer months. The year 1867 was spent among entire strangers in Livingston county, Ill., during which time he taught three terms of school; the years of 1869 and 1870 were spent in the National Normal university at Lebanon, Ohio; in September, 1870, he was elected superintendent of the Elida public schools, which position he successfully held for twelve years, when he was compelled to resign on account of ill health. As a teacher he was a fine disciplinarian and a good instructor, and can therefore point with pride to his record as an educator. In 1876, he was appointed a member of the Allen county board of school examiners, which responsible position he filled with ability and credit for eleven successive years. Since giving up teaching Mr. Crites has been engaged in the live stock trade. In April, 1895, he succeeded M. H. Long in the grain elevator business at Elida, Ohio, and now deals largely in grain, seeds, hay, wool and also coal.

In November, 1872, Mr. Crites was mar- ried to Miss Sarah Jane Reichelderfer, who

was born in Salt Creek township, Pickaway county, Ohio, November 21, 1854. July 19. 1873, his young wife died at the age of eight- een years seven months and twenty-eight days, and now sleeps in the Allentown ceme- tery with her twin infant babes at her side. October 12, 1876, Mr. Crites was married to Miss Emma Ditto, who was born in Marion township, Allen county, Ohio, September 18. 1855. This union has been blessed with four daughters, viz: Jessie K., born January: 10. 1878; Mabel, born July 1, 1883; Zoretta, born August 3, 1885, and Grace L., born September 2, 1893.

Mr. Crites has been a citizen of Elida since 1876 and is well known throughout the county. He is generous to a fault and enjoys the re- spect and confidence of all who knew him. He and family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church at Elida, for which society he has for the past thirteen years been leader and direc- tor of the choir, and during the same time has continuously taught a Sunday-school class com- posed of twenty-five married ladies whose ages now range from thirty to eighty-five years. The social standing of Mr. Crites and his family is with the best in Elida and German township. and as a business man his record is pre-emi- nently clear.

0 R. SALATHIEL A. HITCHCOCK. is of the best known and highly val- ued citizens of the village of Elida. Ohio, as well as its most eminent physician and surgeon. He has been a resi- dent of this town since 1879 and has ever been identified with its best interests. He was born at Junction City; Perry county. Ohio, July 9, 1843, and is the son of John F. and Rosanna (Kelly) Hitchcock, who were both natives of Maryland, and of Irish extraction.

John F. Hitchcock, father of our subject.

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OF ALLEN COUNTY.

was reared to manhood in his native state, was a farmer and stock raiser by occupation, and a man who made a success in life. He died in August, 1867, at the age of sixty-one years, while his worthy companion yet survives at the age eighty-nine years and resides at Wes- terville, Ohio. They became the parents of seven children, as follows: Nicholas F., de- ceased, was lieutenant-colonel of the Ninthieth Ohio volunteer infantry for three years in the late Rebellion; Henry K., deceased, was captain of company C, Sixty-second Ohio volunteer infantry, serving for four years, and during the battle at Fort Gregg was wounded in the left breast; Isaiah, deceased; Salathiel A., Susan A., wife of Dr. H. L. Furgeson, of Wester- ville, Ohio; Jennie, wife of Rev. Amos Conn, of Willshire, Van Wert county, who is proini- nent as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church; Leah, wife of Frank Rickets, of Port Jefferson, Ind. John F. Hitchcock, the father, was the youngest of seven brothers, six of whom were patriots and served in the war of 1812.

Dr. S. A. Hitchcock was reared upon the farm and attended the district school until the age of eighteen years, when he entered the high school at Lexington, Ohio, where he added to his fund of knowledge the much- needed education to prepare him for his life work, after which he began to read medicine in the office of Dr. H. L. Furgeson, of Wester- ville, Ohio, and later, in 1870, graduated from the Cincinnati Medical college, and at once located in the practice of his profession at Junction City, Ohio, where he met with almost phenomenal success and remained here until 1879, when he located at Elida, where he has since been prominently identified with the medical profession and has built up a splendid and remunerative practice. He is a member of the Northwestern Medical association and also of the Allen County association. Socially

he belongs to the I. O. O. F. December 29, 1863, he was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Beck, daughter of George and Almira Beck. Miss Beck was a native of Maxville, Olio. Her death occurred in May, 1377, at the age of thirty-four years, leaving many devoted friends and four children to mourn her loss. The children born to Dr. and Mrs. Hitchcock were four in number and named as follows: Charley, a resident of West Bay City, Mich., is a prominent citizen and is a school commis- sioner of Bay county; Effie, who is the wife of A. J. Pfiefer, a prominent citizen of West Bay City and a mail-carrier; Jennie, wife of Wil- bur John, a barber of Elida; Frank, a resident of Fort Wayne, Ind., and a clerk in the Penn- sylvania Railroad company's office.

Dr. S. A. Hitchcock was married a second time, choosing for his companion Lydia Hum- mell, of Carroll, Ohio, this marriage occur- ring in May, 1879. Miss Lydia Hummell is a daughter of John and Eliza Hummell; she has borne her husband three children, named as follows: Clay, Roy and Don. Dr. and Mrs. Hitchcock are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The writer of this biog- raphy could not fail to note the interesting fact that Dr. Hitchcock was a soldeir in the late war, enlisting for three years' service or during the war, in January, 1864, in company C, Ohio volunteer infantry. He was captured at Appomattox, April 9, 1865-paroled and sent to Columbus, Ohio, and discharged June 16, 1865. As a soldier and a citizen the doctor is a man who knows his duty and does it.

SAAC HOOVER, a well-known agri- culturist of Marion township Allen county, Ohio, was born in Fairfield county, August 29, 1833. and is an ex- soldier of the late Civil war. His great-grand-

....

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

father, Jacob, was a Pennsylvania-German, was a patriot of the war of the Revolution, and reared a large family to cultivate the soil and develope the resources of the new-born repub- lic. His son Jacob, grandfather of our sub- ject, was born in Lancaster county, Va., was a pioneer of Fairfield county, Ohio, married Mary Peters, and became the father of a large family.

Joseph Hoover, son of Jacob and father of Isaac, our subject, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, in 1808, was a member of the State militia when a young man, married Mary Sockrider, and became the father of eight children, named as follows: Michael, Cather- ine, Elizabeth and Ann (twins), Isaac, and then the triplets, Jacob, Lydia and Susannah. The prolific mother of this family died in Fair- field county, and Mr. Hoover next married Mary Neff, this union resulting in the birth of five children, viz: Abraham, William, Emeline, John and Sallie. In 1840 Joseph Hoover moved to Henry county, Ohio, bought eighty acres of woodland and cleared up a good farm. Here his second wife died, and for his third wife he secure Mary Babcock, but to this union no children were born. Mr. Hoover, who was a weaver was well as farmer, accu- mulated quite a competency. He was a mem- ber of the Patrons of Husbandry, a democrat in politics, a strong Union man, and died in Henry county, in 1890, at the age of eighty- one years.

Isaac Hoover, being but three years of age when he lost his mother, was placed in the care of his uncle, John Sockrider, a black- smith and farmer of Wyandot county, Ohio, with whom he remained until about fourteen years old; he then went to work on a railroad, and made his living at various occupations un- til, at the age of twenty-eight or twenty-nine years, he enlisted, at Gomer, Allen county, August 8, 1862, in company E, Ninety-ninth

Ohio volunteer infantry, and served until hon- orably discharged at Salisbury, N. C., June 24, 1865. He fought at Perryville, Ky., at Stone River, at Tullahoma, and in the second battle of Nashville; at the battle of Stone River he was injured by a fragment of an ex- ploding shell and for a short time was confined in hospital, the result of the wound, however, being almost deafness and blindness.

In August, 1866, Mr. Hoover married Mrs. Anna Hill, widow of William Hill, a member of the Ninety-ninth Ohio volunteers, who was killed at the battle of Stone River. This lady is a daughter of Jacob and Hannah Roush, natives of Pennsylvania, and the par- ents of six children, viz: Henry, Mary, Eliza, Joseph, Anna, and Amelia. The first wife of Mr. Roush died in Pennsylvania, and his sec- ond marriage took place in that state to Eliza Holezapple, by whom he became the father of fourteen children. of whom eight grew to ma- turity, viz: Jane, Ellen, George W., Susan, Janet, Charles, William and Ida. Mr. Roush became a settler of Amanda township. Allen county, cleared up a good farm from the woods, and died April 8, 1894, at the advanced age of eighty-one years, a member of the United Christian church. Two of his sons, Henry and Joseph, were volunteers in the late Civil war, serving in the Ohio infantry.

After his marriage, Mr. Hoover settled on forty acres of land in Marion township, Allen county, and this tract he has cleared from the woods, making a profitable farm and a com- fortable home. He has been blessed with two children-John R. and Nettie, and has a very happy home. In politics he is a democrat. In religion he and wife are somewhat diverse in their faiths, one being a member of the United Brethren church and the other of the Luthieran denomination, but their domestic felicity is not marred by this difference in faith. and both are sincere Christians.

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J. HOSLER, one of the prominent representative citizens of Delphos, Allen county, Ohio, is a native of the Buckeye state, having been born in the county of Ross, September 23, 1848. His parents, Isaac and Sarah (Everett) Hosler, removed to Pickaway county, Ohio, where the father died about 1878, his wife having died a year previously. He was a cooper by trade, and followed that and farming all his life. There were fifteen children born to the parents, all of whom, with the exception of two, are still living.

M. J. Hosler was reared in Pickaway county and educated in the county schools. When he was sixteen years old he began life for himself, leaving home with the consent of his father, going to Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where he served an apprenticeship of three years at the trade of bridge-building; he then spent one year at Findlay, Ohio. Returning to Pickaway county he married, and remained there several years, engaged in farming. Sell- ing out his farm interests he returned to Han- cock county, Ohio, and engaged in the mill and lumber business. In 1880 he came to Delphos and has since continued in the lumber business in this city.

For thirteen years Mr. Hosler has been connected with the Ohio Wheel company of Delphos as purchasing agent. In connection with the Wheel company he owns saw-mills at Mendon and Chickasaw, Ohio, where the firm gets out lumber for manufacturing purposes and for shipments. He is also agent for the J. B. Perkins Land company, in Allen, Auglaize, Put- nam and Paulding counties, having charge of between 4,000 and 5,000 acres of land, also is president of the Driving association, of Del- phos, and is a stockholder in the Delphos Loan & Savings association.

Mr. Hosler has been active in public affairs in Delphos for several years. He has taken a

deep interest in the improvement and building up of the city, and is recognized by all as one of the leading citizens of the place. He has always been a stanch republican in politics, and in 1895 was elected councilman from the First ward of Delphos. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows and of the Royal Arcanum.

Mr. Hosler was married, December 24, 1868, to Miss Mary Dunkle, who was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, and is a daughter of George Dunkle, a deceased farmer of the aforesaid county. To their union seven chil- dren have been born, three of whom are liv- ing, as follows: Olive M., Ada I. (wife of W. A. Coble, agent of the C., D. & C. R. R., at Delphos), and Earl G.

OSEPH HOTZ, one of the old settlers of Marion township, Allen county, Ohio, was born in Baden, Germany, September 16, 1826, a son of George and Elizabeth (Harmen) Hotz, the parents of four children: Christian, Lerda, Archie and Joseph. Mr. Hotz came to America in 1848 and was married in Huron county, Ohio, No- vember 7, 1854, to Catherine Frehlick. a native of Weissenburg, Alsace, and a daughter of George and Jacobina Frehlick, the former of whom was born in Germany and had born to him five children, viz: Catherine, Francis, Mary, and two that died young. The Freh- lick family sailed for America in 1845, but the father died and was buried at sea. The sur- vivors landed at Manhattanville, N. Y., whence they came to Ohio and settled in Huron county; Mrs. Hotz was then a girl of twelve years of age, and was married at the age of twenty-one years.

After marriage Mr. Hotz lived in Monroe- ville, Ohio, one year, and then one year in Milan, Ohio, working at his trade of cooper ;

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he then bought forty acres of land in Crawford county, partly cleared, on which he lived two years, and then moved to Putnam county, set- tled in Blanchard township on a tract of sixty acres, of which twenty acres were cleared, the remainder being deep woodland. This he and his helpmate cleared up and resided upon for eight years, when, in 1864, he purchased his present farin of 100 acres, forty acres only of which he had cleared, but by hard labor and diligence he has succeeded in clearing the re- mainder and in making as good a farm as may be found in Marion township or in Allen county. To Mr. and Mrs. Hotz have been born eleven children, of whom two died in in- fancy, the survivors being named Joseph, John, Mary, Frances, William, Katie, Frank, Annie and Benjamin. Of these, Joseph married May Heitz, of Landeck, resides in Delphos. and has two sons; John, married to Annie Arenhovel, lives in Delphos and has three children; Mary, married to David Sandmæller, a carpenter of Delphos, has two children; Frances, married to Martha Shook, resides in Fremont, Ohio, is employed in the electric light works and has one child; William mar- ried Lucy Keil of Landeck, is a farmer of Marion township, and has two children; Katie married Frank Burger, machinist; Frank married Gertrude Pohlman-is a farmer and hàs one child, Henry. Mr. Hotz and his faithful wife have inade their own fortune, have a substantially improved homestead and are devoted members of the Catholic church, in which they have reared their children. He has been an industrious farmer and a good citizen, and as such stands high in the esteem of the entire community.

John Hotz, proprietor of one of the best saloons and restaurants of Delphos, is a native of Ohio, having been born in Crawford county, this state, May 8, 1857. He is the son of Joseph Hotz, named above, one of the well

known citizens and farmers of Marion town- ship, Allen county, where he has resided for the last thirty years.

John Hotz received a common-school edu- cation. He remained on the home farm with his father until 1875, and then began an ap- prenticeship at the blacksmith trade, and at this trade he worked in various places for six years. He then took a position as clerk in a restaurant, and in August, 1884, engaged in business for himself by opening a saloon and restaurant. His place of business is on the west side of Main street, one door south from the corner of Second, opposite the Phelan House, and here he has one of the largest businesses in his line in the city. Mr. Hotz is in every respect a first-class man and citizen. He is energetic, enterprising and progressive, always ready to lend his aid to all worthy en- terprises having for their object the building up and advancement of the city and cominu- nity. He is a democrat in politics, and a member of the Saint Joli's Roman Catholic church, and also of the Catholic Knights of America. Mr. Hotz was married, October. 6, 1887, to Miss Anna Arenhovel of Delphos. the daughter of John and Fronia Arenhovel. To this union three sons have been born as follows: John, Sylvester J. and Edward 1). Mr. Hotz is a self-made man. He began life for himself without capital, and has made his way by his own energy and perseverance.

EV. FATHER A. I. HOEFFEL, pas- tor of Saint John's Catholic church. of Delphos, Allen county, Ohio, was born May 14, 1832, in Lutzelbourg, diocese of Nancy, then under the dominion of France, but now a province of Prussia, of the empire of United Germany. His preparatory education was acquired at Courtrai, Belgio:n. where he still has a brother, who has been a

REV. A. I. HOEFFEL.

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SAINT JOHN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH. DELPHOS, OHIO.

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OF ALLEN COUNTY.

professor in the institution for over forty years; this preparatory course of five years was sup- plemented by four years' attendance at school in Fenetrange and at Pont-a-Mousson. He then came to America, and at Cleveland, Ohio, entered upon the study of philosophy, and in 1858 was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Rappe. His first mission comprised the coun- ties of Defiance, Paulding, Williams, Fulton, Henry, and parts of Putnam and Lucas coun- ties, with parochial residence at Defiance, all, of course, in the state of Ohio. For about ten years he labored with pious zeal, assiduity and devoted faithfulness in this extensive and rug- ged field, and on January 28, 1868, came to Delphos to assume charge of the flock, to the care of which he had been assigned, and to which his ministerial functions have been so conscientiously and untiringly devoted ever since. But it will be appropriate here to in- troduce a brief history of Saint John's congre- gation itself, which will give a clearer idea of the great and successful services rendered by Father Hoeffel.

August 15, 1844, Father John Otto Bre- deick left Europe, landing in New York Septem- ber 15, bringing with him a number of sturdy Westphalians, and came to this part of Ohio October 17. Here he established the pres- ent town of Delphos, and formned the nucleus of Saint John's congregation. He erected at his own expense a one-and-a-half-story log house, 18x24 feet, which served as a chapel and as a residence for himself, the site being now that of Roth's meat market on Main street; in 1846 the block or log chapel was enlarged by a frame addition, thirty-seven feet long and twenty-seven feet wide, which, though ample for the needs of the congregation, was intended for temporary use only. This build- ing also served as first school-house, with Mr. Minkhouse as teacher; later it was occupied by the sisters of Saint Frances; in 1872 it was

destroyed by fire, and shortly afterward thie land was sold. In December, 1845, a meet- ing of the thirty-six male members of the con- gregation was held and a brief constitution of ten articles drawn up, by which every Catho- lic inhabitant of Section Ten, as Delphos was then called, was bound to work twenty-five days each year in the construction of a new church, edifice that had been conceived by the Father Bredeick, to be 107 feet long by sixty feet wide, or, failing to, work, to contribute $8, annually, until the completion of building. About the middle of January, 1846, the con- tract for the construction of the building was awarded to John Matthias Heitz. After four years of toil, devoted to the felling of oak trees and the preparation therefrom of the ap- propriate timbers and the framing and joining, the work of raising began, and by November 1, 1853, the pile was sufficiently well ad- vanced to permit of the first mass, and divine services were held continuously in the incom- pleted building. In 1853, also, an altar soci- ety was formed. In 1854 and 1855 the chol- era visited Delphos, and in its fury half depop- ulated the town, but Father Bredeick labored incessantly for the welfare of the 150 families that had now congregated about him. This calamity retarded the construction of the sacred building to some extent, and it was not until 1862 that it was surmounted with the adorning steeple. In the meantime, however, had come the saddest stroke yet endured by the devoted congregation. In April, 1858, the beloved pastor fell sick after preaching one sermon from the new pulpit, and in July Rev. Westerholt, of Defiance, was called to his assistance. August 19, 1858, Father Bredeick was wrested from his adoring flock, who sadly followed his mortal remains to their last resting place, and over them erected the sim- ple monument, inscribed to his memory " Here rest the mortal remains of the Rev. J.

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O. Bredeick, first pastor of the Catholic con- gregation of Delphos, who departed this life on the 19th day of August, 1858, in the sev- entieth year of hislife. R. I. P.' "Blessed are they who die in the Lord for their works shall follow them." Of his estate, the la- mented father willed his property on Main street (town lot 74), ten acres of land in sec- tion No. 30, and some railroad stock, to the Sisters of Saint Frances; the remainder, which is occupied by the new church cemetery, the parochial and sisters' schools and the teacher's residence, and some other tracts (since sold), was donated to the Roman Catholic church of Delphos -- and Saint John's congregation is in- debted to him for the largest church property in the diocese of Cleveland-about eighteen acres. He also donated land to the city for a park site; to the Presbyterians he gave the land on which their church now stands, and to the P., Ft. W. & C. railroad company he also gave a large tract of land. Father Bre- deick was also the founder of the Catholic congregation at Ottoville, in 1850, and the town is named in honor of the reverned pas- tor -- J. Otto Bredeick.

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A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 1, Part 33

Author: Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Bowen Number of Pages: 1310

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1310