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 109
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Mr. Millott was married November 24, 1910, at Sandusky, to Miss Eleanore Hinde, daughter of James J. Hinde, of this city, and to this union there have been born three children: James O., Mary J. and Richard H.
GEORGE A. SCHWER. Of the men whose abilities lend strength and substance to the business prestige of Sandusky, one of the best known is George A. Schwer, secretary and assistant manager of the Dauch Manufacturing Company. A native son of Erie County, his entire career has been passed here and his name has been linked with some of the most important industrial enterprises in the state. His standing as a citizen rests upon his numerous contributions in the way of public service.
Mr. Schwer was born May 12, 1874, in Erie County, Ohio, and is a son of Albert and Mary (Metzgar) Sehwer. His father, a native of Germany, came with the family to the United States in 1852, when he was but four years old, the family locating at Sandusky, Ohio. He received a good public school education in Sandusky and learned the
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trade of machinist, a vocation which he followed for a number of years as a journeyman at Sandusky. Being industrious and thrifty, he finally accumulated the means with which to start a machine shop of his own, an enterprise that 'proved the nucleus for his present success. At the present time his chief interest is centered in the success of the Ohio Motor Company, of which concern he is secretary.
George A. Schwer received his educational training in the public schools of Sandusky, following which he took a course in the Sandusky Business College, thus fitting himself for a business career. He had inherited much of his father's mechanical ingenuity and predilection for machinery, and received his earliest business training under the preceptorship of the elder man. For a number of years he was identi- fied with the Ohio Motor Company, where he won steady and consistent promotion by reason of his general ability and faithfulness to the com- pany's interests, and at the time of the organization and for a number of years afterward was its vice president. During the period of Mr. Sehwer's incumbency of that office the company developed into one of the leading business industries of Sandusky, this condition of affairs being largely brought about through his steady and unceasing industry and energetic effort. IIe still retains a directorship in the Ohio Motor Company, but in April, 1914, resigned from the vice presidency, having been offered and accepted the positions of secretary and assistant man- ager of the Dauch Manufacturing Company, feeling that his interests should not be divided. He is president of the Sanitary Paper Bottle Company, of Sandusky, Ohio: a director of the Masonic Temple Asso- ciation Company, of which he was president in 1913: and the treasurer and a member of the executive committee of the Sandusky Business Men's Association. Mr. Schwer is a man of public spirit and civic pride and has always been anxious to have a hand in anything that promises to enhance the welfare of the city and its people. He is prominent in fraternal circles, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In Masonry Mr. Schwer has gone through the various degrees and branches, including the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite. IIe belongs also to various other fraternal orders and to the United Commercial Travelers, in which he is past senior counselor. In political matters, Mr. Schwer allows no man or party to dictate to him, choosing his own candidates as he regards them fitted for public service. Ilis judgment in this as in other matters is considered excel- lent, he being generally found supporting good men and beneficial measures.
Mr. Schwer was married September 25, 1900, in Erie County, Ohio, to Miss Emelia Ferbach, of Sandusky, and to this nnion there have come two children: Wilbert G., who was born August 2, 1902; and George Albert, born December 6, 1907.
BERT D. SMITH. A high class business man of Sandusky who has won his way from a humble position to one of marked prosperity is Bert D. Smith, whose name is especially familiar in the coal trade. Mr. Smith is still young, and what he has accomplished in the past fifteen or twenty years serves as a reliable basis for judgment that his prosperity will be all the greater in the years to come.
A native of Erie County, he was born March 21, 1877, a son of Wil- liam C. and Louisa (Kunz) Smith. His father was born in Ohio and is still living at the age of sixty-six. Bert D. Smith was the third in a family of four children. Ile was edneated in the grammar schools of Sandusky, but when a boy started ont to make his own way. He learned the barber trade under his father, but after four years in that occupation
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looked for something better. He next became collector for the Kunz Coal Company, and during the four years in that work gained a thorough knowledge of the coal business. His experience was increased by three years of employment in Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, with dif- ferent coal companies, but in 1900 he returned to Sandusky and started in the coal trade for himself. Ilis name has been identified with that particular business in Sandusky for fifteen years. Mr. Smith is a live and energetic salesman, and he disposes of large quantities of coal every year, and has a very large and extensive clientele. He also is a dealer in and carries a full and complete line of builders' supplies, and this depart- ment of Mr. Smith's business is steadily increasing.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the United Commercial Travelers. Mr. Smith married Miss Pearl J. Bates, of Sandusky, Ohio, and has one son, J. Bates Smith.
JOHN T. HAYNES, M. D. The work by which Doctor Haynes has become best known in Erie County is his service for over a quarter of a century with The Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home of this county. Doctor Haynes became one of the assistant surgeons at this institution in the late '80s, and is now chief surgeon of the hospital. Doctor Haynes is a man of very vigorous character, positive and forceful. yet kindly and benignant in his relations with the old soldiers under his care, and his has been a valuable influence in Erie County for many years.
He was born in Butler County, Ohio, June 29, 1864, a son of Dr. Moses II. and Sarah ( Hunter) Haynes. His ancestry goes back to John Haynes, who was one of the passengers on the Mayflower early in the seventeenth century. Other ancestors fought on the American side during the Revolutionary war. Dr. Moses H. Haynes was born in Ohio, in 1825, and his wife was born in IHamilton County, Ohio, in 1833. Dr. Moses H. Haynes, who after a long life of useful activity, died at Richmond. Indiana, October 6, 1907, had graduated from Oxford College in this state in 1854, and from Miami Medical College of Cincinnati in 1856. In 1861 he was commissioned an assistant surgeon of the Sixty- ninth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry and later became surgeon of the One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Regiment of Ohio Infantry, and continued with that command until the elose of the war.
For a great many years after the war he practiced at Seven Mile in Butler County, Ohio, and finally gave up professional work in 1887 and after that lived retired in Richmond. Indiana. Ile was a democrat in polities, took a prominent part in the Grand Army of the Republic, and was a member of the Methodist Church and of several of the leading fraternities. In 1867 he married for his second wife, Elizabeth Place.
Dr. John T. Haynes was the youngest of his mother's children. His sister, Louella May, deceased, was the wife of Rev. Dr. David S. Schaff, son of Dr. Phillip Schaff, formerly of the Union Theological Seminary of New York, while Rev. Dr. David Schaff has long been prominent in the Presbyterian Church and educational affairs. Doctor Haynes has a brother, Earl P. Haynes, who is a well known educator.
The early youth of Dr. John T. Haynes was spent in Butler County, Ohio, where he attended the public schools. When his father removed to Richmond, Indiana, he attended Earlham College of that city, and in 1889 he graduated M. D. from the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati. For a short time he was connected with a Cincinnati hospital, but soon accepted an appointment as assistant surgeon of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home at Sandusky. In August of 1891 he was made chief surgeon of the hospital of the Soldiers and Sailors Home, and has held that position by uninterrupted service for twenty-seven years. Vol. II-46
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Doctor Haynes is a republican in politics, a member of the Presby- terian Church, also of the Masonic fraternity, and has attained the thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite Masonry. In 1891 he married Olive D. Ashton, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. S. Ashton of Piqua, Ohio. Six children were born to Doctor and Mrs. Haynes, five sons and a daughter, as follows: Ashton II., Dorothy W., Leonard P., Panl T. and Hunter II. The second child, John II., died in infancy. Doctor Haynes has been a member of the United States Board of Pension Examiners of Sandusky, Ohio, for the past twenty-five years.
J. J. HEPBURN. One of the veteran railroad men of Sandusky, James J. Hepburn has been a resident of this city for the past quarter of a century.
He was born February 24, 1862, in Scotland, and came to America in 1880. Hle first located at Lima, Ohio, where he was connected with the Lake Erie & Western Railroad as a ear builder in the shops at Lima, and held a position there until September, 1891. Before coming to this eoun- try he had served a thorough apprenticeship in the cabinet maker's trade, and was thus thoroughly qualified to become an expert workman for the railroad company.
In 1891 Mr. Hepburn became foreman of the locomotive department and roundhouse of the Lake Shore and the Lake Erie & Western Railroad at Sandusky.
N. J. IIUNT. In the commercial history of Sandusky, and particularly in the branch relating to the coal industry, the name of N. J. Hunt has appeared prominently since 1879. At various times he has been connected with coal concerns of prominence in the city, and now is one of the lead- ing merehants in this line as head of the firm of Hunt & Weis, wholesale and retail dealers. Few men have better records for straightforward business conduct and for success gained withont animosity.
Mr. Hunt was born in Erie County. Ohio, June 10, 1862, and is a son of W. B. Hunt. His father, a native of England, emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1851, taking up his residence at Sandusky, where he subsequently became a leading figure in both business and pub- lic life. He was known as one of the most prominent and successful of the city's veterinary surgeons and for over twenty years was preseription clerk in the drug business of J. II. Emmerick. Politically a staneh repub- lican, he took an active and helpful part in eivic affairs, devoting much of his energy and abilities to the promotion of movements and enterprises for the publie welfare. Elected mayor of the eity, he served with such ability and faithfulness that he succeeded himself twice, and his entire administration was marked by progress and the innovation of sound and practical measures for the city's good. He died in 1913, at an advanced age, honored and respeeted by all who knew him.
The second of his parents' children, N. J. Hunt was given his eduea- tion in the publie schools of Sandusky, and received his business training under the practical preceptorship of his father. He was only twenty years of age when he entered upon a career that has sinee brought him position and prosperity. at that time embarking in the coal business with C. M. Thorpe. During the years that followed he was interested either as an official or an employe in a number of the leading coal concerns of the city, and subsequently became owner by absorption of the different partnerships, the companies either selling out or suspending business. Among these may be mentioned such firms as Worley Brothers & Smith and the Worley Coal Company. In 1897 Mr. Hunt formed a partner- ship with C. N. Weis in the founding of the present concern of Hunt & Weis, wholesale and retail dealers in eoal and ice, with retail yards on
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Railroad Street between Wayne and Hancock streets, and fnel doeks on the Baltimore & Ohio, Big Four and Pennsylvania railroads, and office and yard on Railroad Street, between Wayne and Hancock streets. This business has been developed into one of the largest in Erie County, through the judgment, energy and foresight of its chief executive officer, who is one of the best known men in the trade in Ohio. Mr. Hunt is capable of elose and prolonged application and has exeentive and or- ganizing talents of a very high order that fit him for planning and prosecuting enterprises of vast magnitude. Ile has entered into the founding and promotion of ventures outside of the immediate field of his business, and is at this time treasurer of the Peninsular Steamboat Company of Sandusky. In all of the great enterprises which have inter- ested the people of Sandusky-patriotic, benevolent, educational and philanthropie-he has taken a deep interest and at the same time has been a liberal contributor toward such projects. As a fraternalist, he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of the World and to the Knights of the Maccabees, and to the United Commercial Travelers of Ohio, as well as to other orders. In political matters he unswervingly supports the principles of the republican organization.
On October 4, 1881, in Erie County, Ohio, Mr. Ilunt was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Mathews, of this connty, and they have become the parents of two children: Roland Il., born July 23, 1888 : and Harold N., born December 28, 1889.
W. E. GUERIN, JR. In the legal profession there is no more diffienlt field than that which deals with corporation law. The successful prac- titioner in this branch of jurisprudence must not alone be a broad and thorough master of his vocation, but a business man of aenteness and foresight, for his is the field of practical law in which fact and logic are given prestige over theory and oratory. One of the most capable among the corporation lawyers of the Erie County bar is W. E. Guerin, Jr., the representative of large business interests at Sandusky and elsewhere and the organizer of a number of important industries.
Mr. Guerin was born November 24, 1871, at Fort Seott, Kansas, and is a son of William E. and Martha E. (Reynolds) Guerin. Ilis father still survives at the age of sixty-seven years, making his home at Port- land, Oregon. The eldest of a family of four children, W. E. Guerin. Jr., received his early education in the public schools of Columbus, Ohio, whenee the family had removed when he was a child, and later entered the Ohio State University, where he completed his literary course. He next beeame a student of the law department of Cornell University, from which he was duly graduated, and in 1893, was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio. For 112 years he practiced at the capital city and then came to Sandusky and became a member of the law firm of Peeke & Guerin, a partnership which lasted only for a short time, Mr. Guerin withdrawing to become connected in partnership with Mr. Hull, under the firm style of Hull & Guerin. This combination was dissolved when Mr. Hull was appointed to a place on the Common Pleas beneh, and Mr. Guerin then became a member of the firm of Wickham, Guerin & French. The senior partner of this concern was a native of Norwalk, Ohio, a veteran of the Civil war and one of the most able and distinguished lawyers of Northern Ohio. In 1900 the firm was dissolved, Mr. Guerin then joining Judge E. B. King, as King & Guerin. Since 1912 Mr. Gnerin has been engaged in practice alone, and his fertility of resource and vigor of professional treatment have continued to aid him in his progress to professional reputation and the attainment of a large legal business. He has been a factor in the npbuilding of Sandusky as one of the promoters and organizers of numerous business enterprises
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and from their inception has continued to act as their legal representa- tive, being also secretary and treasurer of the Sandusky Foundry Machine Company. Ile belongs likewise to the Chi Psi fraternity, to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and to the Masons, in which he is a Shriner and has attained the thirty-second Scottish Rite degree. His social connections jnelnde membership in the Cleveland Athletic Club and the Sunyendeand Club. While Mr. Guerin has been a professional man rather than a politician or participant in public life, he served Erie County capably as a representative in the Seventy-fifth General Assembly of Ohio. With his family, he belongs to the Congre- gational Church.
Mr. Guerin was married March 7, 1895, to Miss Alice Greenleaf, of Columbus, Ohio, and they are the parents of one daughter: Mary Bau- croft, born July 10, 1897. who is now a member of the sophomore class of Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
C. L. WAGNER. In the City of Sandusky where he was reared and has spent practically all his life, C. L. Wagner has a record of progressive success in business affairs. From a clerkship he has risen to a place where he is a controlling factor in the principal concern handling ice on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
Though his home has nearly always been in Sandusky C. L. Wagner was born in Cleveland, October 24, 1852. His father, Julius Wagner, was born in Germany. He came to Sandusky in 1849, and as a ear builder and joiner by trade was in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for fifteen years. He married Miss Elizabeth Raymond and of their family of six children three are still living.
The oldest in the family. (. L. Wagner received his education and early training in the public schools of Sandusky and at home. For six years he worked as a clerk in a local store, and there laid the foundation of a sound business experience. AAfter that he was a salesman for ten years in the retail dry goods house of Zerbe & Company, and then entered merchandising for himself, in the partnership of Wagner, Powers & Bradbeck. When this company sold out he continued for himself in the carpet business up to 1885.
In that year Mr. Wagner organized the Wagner Bros. Wholesale & Retail lee Company. This subsequently became the Wagner Lake Ice Company, with Mr. Wagner as president and general manager. The business has a record of fifty years behind it, having been established in 1865 and incorporated in 1888. The storage capacity is said to be the largest around the southern shore of Lake Erie. While the business started on the basis of handling, storing and distributing lake ice, its development subsequently included the handling of coal, builders material of all kinds, and the concern was both wholesale and retail. But in 1906 this company was consolidated with several others into, the Interstate lee Company, which was later taken over by the City Iee Delivery Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. Wagner is general manager of the wholesale department. The business is now a part of a large organization with its main offices in Cleveland, but. Mr. Wagner remained as general manager of the wholesale business at Sandusky and Michigan. Thus Mr. Wagner has had a thoroughly successful business career, and together with that record has exhibited a publie spirited generosity in behalf of everything that would promote the welfare of his home city.
EDWARD (1. WALSH. In Sandusky and elsewhere in Northern Ohio might be found many conspicuous examples of the work done by the brick contracting firm of Walsh Brothers, the leading firm of its kind
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in Sandusky, with fully thirty years of successful existence. Both brothers are thoroughly capable men, have splendid technical prepara- tion for their trade, and their success is of a character that can be readily demonstrated by brief inspection of their work.
Born November 3, 1850, in Sandusky, Edward G. Walsh is a son of Patrick and Sarah (Roney ) Walsh. Ilis father was born in Ireland and came to America in 1846, spending one year in Schenectady, New York, and then coming to Sandusky. He was a stone mason by trade, and followed that vocation throughout his entire career. Ile died in 1873. Ile was one of the early settlers of Erie County, and as a stone mason he had to work in those early days for wages as low as 50 cents a day. In 1853 he moved west to Iowa, locating at Decorah, and he remained there until 1873, when he returned to Sandusky, where he died shortly afterward.
Of three children the only survivors are Edward G. Walsh and his brother, Michael II. Walsh. These brothers formed a partnership in 1885 as Walsh Brothers, and they have been associated in business affairs ever since. Michael II. Walsh was born October 9, 1858, in Decorah, Iowa. He married Miss Alice Conley of Sandusky, Ohio, and they have one child, Mary, a student in the Sandusky High School. Michael II. Walsh is a member of the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Order of Foresters, and was a member of the Sandusky City Council two terms. Ile is'a staunch democrat in politics.
At sixteen years of age Edward G. Walsh began learning the trade of brick layer, and his brother took up the trade about the same time. They have done much of the finest brick work in Sandusky. They constructed the I. O. O. F. Building, the Kingsbury-West Block, the James D. Lea Building at the corner of Market and Wayne streets, the No. 1 Engine House, the St. Paul and St. Peter School Building, better known as the Father Lidley Memorial HIall and School Building, and many other structures that might be pointed out in every section of the city.
Mr. Walsh is a, member of the Catholic Church, of the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Order of Foresters, is a democrat in polities and has served on the Sandusky Board of Education for four years.
He was married January 9. 1877, in Erie County to Miss Ann Kelley. Nine children were born to their union, but the four now living are Edward P., Michael A., Henry and Desmond.
LORENZ ZORBACUI. One of the oldest and most sneeessful building contractors of Sandusky is Lorenz Zorbach. ITis home has been in that city for more than thirty years. A large list of important structures might be drawn up to specify to his skill and resources as a business man. He is one of Sandusky's most substantial and esteemed citizens.
Born March 28, 1852, in Germany he came to America in 1882 at the age of thirty years, accompanied by his wife and one son. He located at Sandusky, and here exercised the art which he had aequired as a young man in Germany, as a journeyman carpenter. He followed the trade as a journeyman actively for ten years, and in 1892 started out for himself as a building contractor. Since then in twenty-three years he has constructed some of the most substantial public and private buildings of the city. A few that might be mentioned are the Seventh Ward addition to the school building ; the Boeckling Building on Colum- bus Avenne: the Woodword Building and the Frank residence on Adams Street. Seven beautiful residenees on Central Avenue with many others of like construction testify also to his work.
Mr. Zorbach is a republican. On February 12, 1877. he married
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Miss Wilhelmina Bentz. To their marriage have been born the follow- ing children : William, John, Frank and Helen.
GODFRED OPPLINGER. Any man who has accomplished as much as Godfred Opplinger since he came to the United States a little more than thirty years ago has a just cause for pride. At his beautiful little farmstead in Vermilion Township he is now living with most of his children grown to useful manhood and womanhood, and has surrounded himself with everything to make life comfortable and enjoyable.
lle is a representative of the sturdy Swiss people who in considerable numbers have helped to make Erie County what it is today: Ile was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, January 1, 1859. The family has lived in Switzerland for many generations. His grandfather was Fritz, Sr., and his father also bore the name of Fritz or Fred. The grandfather spent all his days in Canton Berne, and Fred Opplinger was also reared in the same district. He learned the trade of tinsmith and became a master of his trade and in that way he provided for his family. Ile died in his native eanton at the age of forty-five in 1861. By his first mar- riage he had children named John, Frederick and Marian, all of whom died in Canton Berne. For his second wife he married Anna Bartschte of the same canton. They had been born and reared in the Village of Buchholterbach. Long after the death of her first husband, and after her marriage to Jacob Roth, when she was sixty years of age, she came to the United States, and she died near the home of her son Godfred in Vermilion Township in 1908 at the age of about seventy-eight. Jacob Roth, her second husband, is still living there at the age of past seventy. All the family were members of the Reformed Church.
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