USA > Ohio > Erie County > A standard history of Erie County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic, and social development. A chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs > Part 107
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Born at Columbus, Ohio, September 7, 1855, he is a son of Joseph A. and Columbia (Jones) Montgomery. His father because of his long residence at Sandusky deserves special mention in this publication.
Joseph A. Montgomery was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, April 1. 1820. When twenty-three years of age he took up his residence in the City of Boston and engaged in business there. Boston was his home for four years and when he left there in 1847 he came out to Columbus. Ohio, and took a position with the Ohio Tool Company. He was one of that corporation's most capable workers and managers from 1847 to 1861. He then resigned in order to enter the business of manufacturing ax handles. About the time the Sandusky Tool Company was organized in 1869 he came to Sandusky to take the position of superintendent, and he remained as the exeentive manager of that large loeal industry for a period of thirty years. He was the inventor of many labor saving machines now in use in the plane department of the tool company. He also invented other wood working machines, some of which have materially expedited the turning out of many articles manufactured of wood. Joseph A. Montgomery was for many years affiliated with the Excelsior Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Columbus.
One of a family of eight children, and the youngest son living, Frank R. Montgomery was reared and received his education in the public schools at Columbus and Sandusky. For several years he was with his father in the tool company, and he then went to Elgin, Illinois, and was with the Elgin Watch Company, remaining with that great industry for twenty years. He was one of the most skilled and trusted workmen and he passed through all branches of the company's service, filling many of the most important responsibilities. Ile was also employed in the watch factories at Ilamilton and Canton, Ohio. Return- ing to Sandusky he opened an establishment of his own in the jewelry business, and as a jeweler Mr. Montgomery is now best known and his shop is one of the best equipped in this line.
For many years Mr. Montgomery has taken much interest and part in musical affairs, and for a period of forty-five years he has been identified with the Sandusky Cornet Band. He plays on various instru- ments and as a snare drummer has few equals in the State of Ohio. He is identified with the various branches of the Masonic Order, ineluding the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite, and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Loyal Order of Moose. He has membership in the San- dusky Ad Club, the Sandusky Federated Commercial Club, and in polities is independent. On January 7. 1896, at Dixon, Illinois, he married Miss Alice Hetler.
ROSWELL S. TUCKER, local representative of the Ohio Inspection Burean, came to Sandusky from Chicago in November, 1906. Born near Boston, Massachusetts, of Puritan ancestors, he received his education
Thank, R. Montgomery
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and early training in that city. He was first engaged by a firm of industrial engineers in Boston, and later in the engineering department of both the General Electric and Western Electric Co., of Chicago. From the latter he went with the Chicago Board of Fire Underwriters. He has been engaged with the fire underwriters for the past fifteen years. Mr. Tucker is a lover of outdoor sports, and has been actively identified with yachting for many years. He was secretary of the Sandusky Yacht Club for several years. Mr. Tucker is a member of Perseverance Lodge No. 329. A. F. & A. M., at Sandusky, and is vice president of the Masonic Research Society.
AUGUST HI. KLOTZ. One of the most important of the local industries of which the people of Sandusky are particularly proud is the Klotz Machine Company, machinists and founders, conducting a general jobbing and repair work and handling all classes of supplies. This company under its present name and through its predecessors has been a thriving industry of Sandusky for practically half a century or more. Its product has the recognized standard of excellence, and is distributed and used over practically the entire country. The company mannfar- tures handle machinery, wine presses, grape grinders, grape stemmers. pumps of different kinds, architectural and a varied line of iron and brass castings, special machinery and jobbing work.
Now the active head of this company, Angust II. Klotz was born November 1, 1863, in Sandusky, a son of the founder of the business. G. August Klotz and his wife, Sophia ( Miller) Klotz. His father was born in Saxony and his mother in Baden, Germany. They came to America in 1851, loeating in Sandusky, where the father for three years followed his trade as blacksmith, a vocation he had acquired in the thorough manner customary to apprentiees in the old country. At the end of three years he associated himself with Otto Kromer, under the firm name of Klotz & Kromer, machinists. They laid the foundation for the business as at present conducted under the name Klotz Machine Com- pany. The father finally retired for a short time. but at the solicitation of his friends a new company was organized as the Klotz & Kromer Machine Company, and this was continued until August H. Klotz bought the business in 1900 and has since condneted it as the Klotz Machine Company.
August II. Klotz received his early education in the public schools of Sandusky and is a man of thoroughly technical experience and train- ing, besides possessing a thorough general business capacity. He received his technical training in the Rose Politechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Indiana, and on leaving that school became consulting engineer for two years, and after six years of office work bought the business with which his father had so long been identified.
In politics he maintains an independent attitude. He is a member of the Sandusky Yacht Club, the Sunvendeand Club, the Federated Commercial Club of Sandusky, of which he is a trustee, and in Masonry he has gone through the thirty-two degrees of Scottish Rite and also belongs to the Mystic Shrine. On February 6, 1902, he married Miss Barbara B. Ilg.
GEORGE CHARLES STEINEMANN. To a large and increasing general publie in Erie County George C. Steinemann is known as a lawyer of undoubted ability and with many successes to his eredit. Ile has prac- tieed in the City of Sandusky long enough to become securely established in his profession, has acquired many influential connections, and is one of the most popular of the younger citizens.
A native of Auglaize County, he was born May 8, 1877, in Minster,
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a son of Theodore B. and Maria Elisabeth (Wendeln) Steinemann. Both parents were born and have always lived in Auglaize County, Ohio, where they still reside, the father at the age of seventy-eight and the mother at seventy-three. Both the father and paternal grand- father were merchants. The family is one of the oldest and most prom- inent in Auglaize County.
The sixth in a family of nine children, George Charles Steinemann as a boy attended the publie schools of Minster, took his higher literary studies in St. Mary's Institute at Dayton, and finally entered the law department of the Ohio State University, where he was graduated in the class of 1902 and admitted to the Ohio bar; he remained for a time at Columbus engaged in post-graduate study, and then became associated with the law firm of King & Gnevin at Sandusky. A year later he left Ohio and spent a short time in the State of Oregon, where he was engaged in the work of his profession, and then returned to Sandusky and became a member of the firm of Williams & Ramsey. In 1908 he estah- lished himself as a junior member of Williams & Steinemann, a partner- ship which was dissolved when Mr. Williams was elected to the bench in 1914. Since January, 1915, Mr. Steinemann has conducted an individual practice.
While he has done much civic work in the interest of his home locality, it has been largely within the line of his own profession. Ile was elected solicitor of the eity and served from 1910 to 1914. In 1913 he was elected a member and became the president of the commission to draft a municipal charter for Sandusky, which was subsequently approved by the electors and adopted as the new form of government for the city, effective from and after January 1, 1916. Mr. Steinemann is a demoerat in politics, is a member of the Federated Commercial Club of Sandusky, the Sunyendeand Club, the Sandusky Golf Club, of which he is president, a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and is a man of the highest standing in all social circles.
On January 15, 1913, at Sandusky he married Miss Florenee M. Cable, a danghter of Frank L. and Ida (Sehwind) Cable. Mrs. Steine- mann is a graduate of the Mount Notre Dame College at Cincinnati and the Notre Dame College of a San Diego, California. To their union have been born two children : George C., Jr., and Maria Elisabeth.
WILLIAM H. GILCHER. For more than half a century the name of William II. Gilcher has been synonymous with the lumber industry around the shores of the Great Lakes. William H. Gilcher, who is now retired and one of the best esteemed of Sandusky's older business leaders, was for many years active head of one of the principal lumber firms operating on the southern shores of Lake Erie. By reason of his success in business he has been in a position to exert a large influence in local affairs, and that he used full well all the advantages accorded him in this direction is the testimony of his old associates and friends. He has had a career of forceful activity, and it would be a serious omission not to inelude some sketch of his career in this history of Erie County.
Of solid German ancestry, he was born in Sandusky, July 2, 1843, a son of Peter and Christina B. (Boos) Gilcher. Peter Gilcher came from Germany in 1832 and was first known to the community of Sandusky as a carpenter. From that he entered the lumber business, and through his own enterprise and that of his son the name has been identified with that branch of industry perhaps as long as any other in Sandusky. Peter Gilcher was one of the founders of Sandusky's water- works system, and a member of the board of trustees for the water- works. He helped establish the Third National Bank, of which he was vice president from the time of organization. The church which he
WK Gilching
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attended so long and faithfully has often been called the Peter Gilcher church because of his active influence in its affairs. Ile was one of the striking figures in Sandusky's early industrial, civic and social affairs. He passed away in 1877 and his wife in 1879. They had a family of ten children, two of whom died in infancy.
Recently the editor of one of Sandusky's papers, who in his early youth came to admire this lumber merchant, and has been one of the eirele of elose and loyal friends ever since, wrote an interesting appre- ciation of Mr. Gilcher, and most of that article is used in the present sketch.
In common with other Sandusky hoys of that day, and in much the same manner that youngsters of later days spent their time, young William Gilcher roved around the docks as the water front was always the chief point of interest. Ile fell off his father's doek and learned to swim in fourteen feet of water. Later he fell into business that was over his head, but he soon learned to pull a strong overhand stroke in it. While he was still chasing the phantoms of youth around, his father came to him one day, and asked him how he would like to go into busi- ness. Ile was then not more than twenty-one years of age. "I'll start you with seven hundred fifty dollars, and later make you a partner," said his father. "You're my huckleberry," replied the boy, and the father went away to Europe for several months, and the young man sold lumber and built up the business while he was gone. The capital of the firm at that time was about fifteen thousand dollars, a huge amount in those days. Jacob Hertle was their first clerk. One of William's great elmums was R. E. Schuck.
In 1868 they formed the partnership known as Gilcher & Schuck. with the father and son and Mr. Schuck each having a third interest. William Gileher was the moving spirit in the business. Ile would hear of a large cutting of lumber in some eamp on the lake, and taking along enough greenbacks to supply all needs, as money talked louder than anything else in that game-he would go to the lumber marts and haggle with the back woodsmen for the lowest cash price. From the little office of the company on Water Street, where once was the depot of the old Mad River Railroad. William II. Gilcher came in time to figure his year's business in the million feet and his financial columns in the hundred thousands. This buying of lumber in heavy shipments that came down from the lakes in boats caused him to aspire to the ownership of a boat line, and eventually that idea developed into the great. Gilchrist Steamboat line Mr. Gilcher had met Mr. Gilchrist. then a clerk on lake boats. Gilchrist was dreaming of owning a great feet of merehant ships, and largely on the basis of capital supplied by Sandusky men prominent among whom were Messrs. Gilcher & Schnek. the Gilchrist Transportation Company was incorporated in 1897. There was a large number of Sandusky people who held stock in this coneern. though the principal stockholders bore the names of Gilchrist, Gileher and Schnek. Finally the company suffered disaster, and the investors and stockholders lost a great deal of money. Mr. Gilcher himself had $200.000 in the fleet, while his partner Mr. Schuck owned stoek worth $500.000.
The humber firm in which Mr. Gilcher was a partner in one year did a business that involved the selling of 12,000.000 feet of lumber. While it was one of the smaller companies, the profits in one year when the trade was most flourishing amounted to $17.000. Mr. Gilcher in the early days also lent his capital to the development of the supposed oil district around Sandusky.
For over half a century William Doerzbach and Mr. Gilcher have been close friends. As local contractor Mr. Doerzbach bought Inmber
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from the Gilcher & Sehnek Company. It was in 1868 that Mr. Gilcher and R. E. Schuck hecame associated under the name of Gileher & Schuck, and in 1892 J. E. Sehuck, a son of the partner, was admitted to the firm. J. E. Schuek died in 1908, and R. E. Sebnek in 1910. Among various other business interests Mr. Gilcher was at one time a director in the Norwalk Eleetrie Company, was president of the White Line Electric Company, was vice president of the C'edar Point Resort Company, and a director, beginning in 1877, in the Third National Exchange Bank.
Mr. Gilcher has been a stauneh republican, and at the age of twenty- two was elected treasurer of Portland Township. IIe is a charter member of the Sandusky Lodge of Elks, a member of the Sandusky Yacht Club, a charter member of the Sunyendeand Club, and he has long attended faithfully the Grace Episcopal Church.
In 1868 Mr. Gilcher married Miss Tinnie Rosenbaum. daughter of Frederick and Harriet Rosenbaum, who came from Prussia. Germany. Mr. Gilcher's family life was broken up somewhat by the death of his first wife in 1890. It was twelve years before he married again. The second Mrs. Gilcher was Julietta Stimson of Ashtabula. By the first marriage there were four children. The two daughters now living are Mrs. A. J. Peters of Sandusky and Mrs. J. Ward Butler of Oakfield. New York, while the only living son is William A. Gilcher.
At the conclusion of the artiele from which most of the above has been taken, the editor said: "He has been an aggressive citizen in the pioneer days. He is, still a live wire and predicts great things for Sandusky and often his feet take him unconsciously to his ohl office on Water street. where for fifty years he spent considerable of his time in the prosecution of his enterprise as a great lumber merchant."
FRED FREY. JR. One of the most progressive and capable among the younger generation of business men at Sandusky is Fred Frey. Jr., who is connected with the firm of Andrews & Frey, retail dealers in furniture. A native of this city, he has passed his entire life here and is generally conceded to be a good example of the type of business man to which the city must look for its future commercial development and progress.
Mr. Frey was born at Sandusky, October 21, 1882, and is a son of Fred Frey. Sr., also a native of this eity. The family was founded in the United States by his grandfather, Frederick Frey, who emigrated to this country from Freiburg, Germany, in 1849, with his wife, and. settling at Sandusky. engaged in following the trade of shoemaker. The outbreak of the Civil war found him so engaged and being possessed of patriotism and a love for his adopted land he enlisted in Company F. One Hundred and Seventh Regiment. Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. He enlisted as a private. but soon won promotion to sergeant of his company, and as such par- ticipated in many hard-fought engagements, including the bloody battle of Gettysburg in which his regiment was nearly annihilated. At the battle of Chancellorsville he was captured by the Confederates and removed to a Southern prison, from which he was subsequently taken to the notorious Libby Prison and there confined for six months. After experiencing all the hardships and privations connected with imprison- ment there he was aided to escape by one of his comrades and succeeded in making his way back to the Union lines, where he rejoined his regi- ment. Hle was in bad physical condition, owing to the experiences through which he had passed, and was sent home because of disability. but as soon as he had recovered again rejoined his comrades at the front and contimed to fight valiantly until Appomattox closed hostilities. Mr. Frey then returned to Sandusky and resumed his business, but did
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not live long thereafter, dying June 11, 1873, his death having been probably hastened by the intense rigors of army life.
Fred Frey. Sr., commeneed his life with but few advantages, the family being in humble circumstances. His education was limited to irregular attendance at the parochial schools, and when he was still a lad and the city still a village, he began supporting himself by earrying water for the lumber firm of Ayers & Leonard. Later he worked for a time for a fish company, and subsequently accepted an opportunity to learn the trade of barber, which he mastered and at which he worked for a period of thirty-two years, first as an employe and later as pro- prietor of a tonsorial parlor of his own. In 1902 he retired from the barber business, disposed of his interests, and with Mrs. C. J. Andres embarked in a retail furniture business, under the firm style of Andres & Frey, succeeding the firm of Chas. Andres. Under well-directed management this eoneern grew and prospered and eventually became a successful enterprise. Mr. Frey is still active in the business.
Fred Frey, Jr., was edueated in the parochial schools of Sandusky. and when ready to embark upon his career associated himself with his father, under whom he learned the trade of barber, and with whom he has been associated in all his enterprises. During the fourteen years that he followed his trade he made many friends in the city who watehed his entrance into the furniture business with interest and who have been gratified with his success therein. Energetie, industrious, capable and progressive, he is rapidly making a place for himself in business eireles, and it is safe to prediet that a bright and successful future awaits him. Mr. Frey established a home of his own Mareh 12, 1915, when he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Missig, a young lady of Springfield. Ohic.
D. C. POWERS. Recently Mr. Powers retired from an active career as a merchant at Sandusky. He had been in active business quite a half a century. Few men are enjoying a better earned leisure in Erie County than Mr. Powers. Ilis life has been one of well directed purpose, of signal integrity, and the service which he rendered as a business man justified the compensation which proved the basis for the fine prosperity which he now enjoys. Of the older group of Sandusky eitizens none is more highly honored than D. C. Powers.
A resident of Sandusky or Erie County for fifty-five years, he was born in Jefferson County, New York, March 18, 1844. His parents were Amasa and Rebecca (Grow) Powers, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of Connecticut. The father went to Northern New York, in the Black River district, where he lived the remainder of his life, dying in 1860. He was the father of three children, D. C. Powers being the youngest. During his aetive lifetime Amasa Powers was a tanner by trade. He was a man of honor and integrity, had a host of friends, and was distinguished for his admirable morals. Ile never tasted a drop of intoxicating liquors, and was a vigorous advocate of the temperance cause.
D. C. Powers acquired only a liberal education from books and schooling. He lived with his parents until he was twenty, and then in 1865 he found employment as elerk in a dry goods store at Sandusky. He worked for one man and gained an experience in all the details and shouldered many of the responsibilities of the store for eight continuous years. In 1874 he engaged in business for himself as partner in the firm of Wagner & Powers. This was a well known partnership in the retail dry goods business for eight years. Later for a similar period the business was conducted as Powers & Zollinger. Finally Mr. Powers bought the entire establishment and remained at the head of a very
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successful business, which was long recognized as a landmark in the shopping industry of Sandusky, until 1914. In that year he gave up his active partieipation in business affairs and is no longer a familiar figure in the mercantile eireles of the city.
While most of his life has been devoted to business and home, he has exereised not a little influence in shaping the welfare of his com- munity. He is a republican, but perhaps his prohibition principles predominate in his politieal faith. For more than fifty years he has advocated temperance as did his father before him. He has been an active member of the Methodist Church for forty-eight years, and one of the strongest supporters of that denomination in Sandusky. For thirty-seven years he has been elosely connected with the Sunday Sehool, and in that time was never tardy at the Sunday School service.
On August 17, 1876, Mr. Powers married Miss Mary Alvord. To their union have been born two children. Helen is now Mrs. J. M. Bender of Sandusky. She is an alumna of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and subsequently continued her studies by special work in Boston and New York. Royal A .. the only son, is now prospering in the real estate business at Sandusky.
CIRO S. RICCELLI. This is a brief life story of one of Sandusky's best known citizens. Ilis home has been in this city for more than a quarter of a century. lle was a hard working young Italian immigrant when he first made himself known to the community. His life has been one of mueh struggle, mueh constant aspiration and struggle upwards. until he now dominates one or two important industries and lines of business in Sandusky, and in return for the opportunities of American citizenship he has lived a useful and influential life.
Born May 1, 1874, in Italy, a son of Ettore Riceelli, he spent only the years of early childhood in his native country, and in 1887 eame to America. As a boy laborer, aeeepting any employment which he could get. he was located successively in MeConnellsville, and Steubenville, Ohio, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Fairmont, West Virginia.
Going from place to place and seeking opportunity, he arrived in Sandusky in 1889. IIe soon afterward took up the fruit business. This expanded into other lines, and for many years he has operated sueeess- fully in the ice cream, confectionery and soft drink business, keeping stands in the summer resorts on Johnson Island, Cedar Point. Lakeside and other places, besides his regular business in the City of Sandusky. ITere his establishment is one of the familiar features of the business distriet, and his fruit and confectionery store and ice cream parlor have been operated so well that they brought him a competency.
The capital from this primary business has been invested in other lines. In 1908 he took up the manufacture of ice cream cones, which found a ready sale over a large territory and he has since been kept busy in superintending and managing this large and profitable business. In 1913 he secured the ageney for all the leading steamship lines both for inland transportation and for trans-Atlantic service, and has since condueted that ageney, which is the only steamship ageney for foreign transportation in Sandusky. Through this business he has been able to lend his assistance and experience for the benefit of a great number of his fellow countrymen, and he is a man thoroughly charitable in all his deeds and intentions, though he makes no display of his practical philanthropy and only the recipients of his favors are aware how much he does in this way. Mr. Riecelli was also employed by the American Crayon Company for eleven years.
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