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 110

Author: Peeke, Hewson L. (Hewson Lindsley), 1861-1942
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1018


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 110


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Godfred Opplinger had only one full brother, Christian. Ile came to the United States and died at Lakewood near Cleveland, and his widow and seven children are still living there. Godfred Opplinger grew up in Switzerland, and was educated in both the French and Ger- man tongues. When he was twenty-three years of age he married there Miss Anna B. Fuher. She was born in the same village as her husband on July 17, 1860. Her parents, Christian and Anna (Benkli) Fuher. were natives of Canton Berne and farming people there. Her father died at the age of seventy-three and her mother at sixty-five.


In young manhood Godfred Opplinger followed the trade of cheese maker, for which the Swiss are famous. After his marriage he took up various employments, and in 1881 he brought his little family to the United States, locating in Cleveland, and a year later moved to South Amhurst, where he found work in a stone quarry for eight years. He returned to Cleveland for one year, and in 1900 came to Vermilion Township where he invested his carefully accumulated savings in a farm of twenty-five acres. He has since then effeeted a number of improve- ments and now has a productive and profitable small fruit farm, devoted to the smaller fruits, with about an acre of grapes.


While his years have been filled with the cares and responsibilities connected with gaining a living and providing properly for his children, Mr. and Mrs. Opplinger have now reached a period of life when they can take things somewhat leisurely. Of the nine children that were born into their home, two are deceased, Emma and Ferdinand. Of those still living a brief record is as follows: Rose is the wife of William ('rumm. a railroad conductor living at Collinwood, and they have ehil- dren named Etta, Bonnabell and Mildred, while by a former marriage to Charles Newman she had two children named Charles and Dorothy. Frederick, the oldest living son. lives in Lorain, where he is a piano dealer and he married Irene Nichols. Fredia is the wife of Martin Schuster, a farmer of Vermilion Township. and their children are Lnella.


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Ruth, Esther and Ray. Flora and Fannie, twins, are now grown women, the former being the wife of Asa Broughton, while Miss Fannie is still at home. Ida has completed her education in the public schools and is at home, and the youngest ehild, Edward, is still a member of the home eircle. Mr. and Mrs. Opplinger are members of the Reformed Church, and in politics he is a democrat.


SIDNEY FRONTMAN. Thirty-five years old, Sidney Frohman has in a brief eareer made as good use of his talents and opportunities as probably any other young business man of Sandusky. lle is now officially identi- fied with some half dozen active industries and business coneerns, and is one of the young men of distinctive leadership in the city.


Born Jannary 2, 1881, in Sandusky, he is a son of David and Rachael (Straus) Frohman, who were natives of Germany. The late David Frohman, who came to America some time in the '50s, lived the rest of his career in Sandusky, and became a snecessful manufacturer and also took a leading part in civie affairs. He was a member of the city council for a number of years, and was especially active in the Order of the Odd Fellows, and filled all the ehairs in the Uniform Rank of that fraternity.


The youngest in a family of nine children, Sidney Frohman received his early education in the public schools of Sandusky and in 1901 grad- nated from the Sandusky Business College. Just fifteen years ago he started his business career as clerk in the Peoples Electric Railway, and from that he became freight agent for the Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Electric Railway. For one year he was secretary to R. E. Danforth, general manager of the Lake Shore Electric Railroad Company. For eight years he was secretary of the Sandusky Foundry & Machine Com- pany, of which he was one of the organizers and one of the original directors.


In 1910 Mr. Frohman beeame treasurer of the Hinde & Daueh Paper Company, and in the past five or six years has rapidly accumulated busi- ness interests in various lines. He is treasurer of the Danch Manufac- turing Company; president of the Frohman Chemical Company; vice president and treasurer of the Sanitary Paper Bottle Company ; treasurer of the Riverside Orchard Company at Payette, Idaho; and a director in the American Paper Bottle Company of Philadelphia. He is also a director of the American Paper & Pulp Association of New York and director of the Corrugated Fibre Company, of Dayton, Ohio. Frater- nally he is much interested in Masonic affairs, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, a Shriner, and is a direetor in the Masonic Temple Asso- ciation of Sandusky. In politics he is a republican. He belongs to the Federated Commercial Club of Sandusky, the Sunyendeand Club, the Sandusky Golf Club, and the Sandusky Yacht Club. On April 27, 1905, he married Miss Elnora Dauch.


GEORGE H. DEWITT. For a great many years the name DeWitt has been prominently associated with the financial affairs and public utilities of Sandusky and Erie County. George H. De Witt was for many years an active factor in the pioneer interurban line of Ohio, between San- dusky and Milan and Norwalk. He is now living retired, but in his former years has effected mneh that is permanent in Sandusky's business life.


A native of Erie County, he was born February 24, 1847. a son of W. H. and Hannah (Buck) De Witt. W. H. De Witt was born in New .Jersey and his wife in Pennsylvania. IIe came to Erie County in 1830 and was one of the very early settlers at Sandusky, which was then a very small hamlet. His first enterprise there was farming, but later he became a building contractor and still later bought a brick yard and


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manufactured brick until within a short time of his death. He was a citizen of integrity and of unimpeachable honor, and stood very high in all the relations of a long and busy lifetime. He died in 1901. He was a devout Methodist and worshipped in that faith all his career from childhood.


Of the three children in the family, George II. DeWitt is one of the two now surviving. He was educated in the public schools of San- dusky, but at the age of fifteen started out to make his own way and worked as a clerk in a dry goods store and still later followed the same line of business for himself at Salem, Ohio. He continued a merchant there for six years and then returning to Sandusky became identified with the old horse car street railway. Perhaps as much as any individual he helped to develop Sandusky's traction interests. He was a direetor in the old Sandusky Street Railway, and afterwards became associated with others in the People's Electric Street Railway, which built and installed the electric line running out to the Soldiers Home. Still later he was one of the prime factors in the building of the interurban line known as the Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk, which was the pioneer elec- tric interurban line in the State of Ohio. After the road was constructed and the company thoroughly organized he became its president and manager, and he held that official position for eight years until the prop- erty was sold to parties outside of Sandusky. Since then he has lived largely retired, and spends his time looking after his private interests.


Mr. DeWitt has always been a publie spirited and unselfish citizen and willing to work for the best interests of Sandusky in every way. He has given his time and energy to the promotion of a number of business enterprises, and has been highly prosperous. He is a member of the Sunyendeand Club.


On October 10, 1876, he married Miss Fannie A. Summers of Salem, Ohio. Their two children are Ilelen, born in October, 1880; and Lney, born in October. 1885. Helen is now Mrs. August Kuebeler, Jr., of Sandusky, and Lucy is Mrs. George MeCune of Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, and the mother of two children, Clodagh and Pargny.


CHAS. P. CALDWELL. Probably no other man in Sandusky has a wider range of acquaintance among the leading publie men of Ohio and the nation, covering the last thirty or forty years, than Chas. P. Cald- well. Mr. Caldwell has had a versatile career, was in the newspaper business for many years, and for over twenty years has been a United States custom official at Sandusky.


Born January 27, 1852, in Bristol, Obio, he is a son of Eben E. and Harriet D. (Cox) Caldwell. ITis father, who was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, moved to the State of Wisconsin and engaged in the industry of raising blooded horses. Then prior to the war he went South, purchased several plantations and began the raising of cotton on an extensive scale and with the typical enterprise and thrift of a northern man. IIe had his interests in several localities of the South, but after the war, in 1868, he located in Cleveland and bought two lake steamers which he employed in shipping wheat from Duluth. Ile was in the grain business for ten years, and after his retirement spent his time quietly at his country home in Trumbull County.


The only child of his parents, Chas. P. Caldwell was given all the opportunities and advantages which a growing boy could utilize. He attended school in Montgomery, Alabama, and at Cleveland, Ohio, and finished his education in Hiram College in Ohio. While in college he became acquainted with many men then or subsequently noted in public life. One of these was James A. Garfield, later president of the United States. Mr. Garfield, as is well known, was connected with the faculty


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of Hiram College for a number of years, and Mr. Caldwell was one of hns pupils. In after years he formed a close personal acquaintance with Garneld and also with MeKinley, Roosevelt and Taft. All these presi- dents reposed utmost confidence in Mr. Caldwell, and gave him the official positions which he has held at various times. For many years he was correspondent and in other ways identified with newspapers, and this work brought him into contact with the leading men all over the country. In 1892 he was appointed a United States customs officer in Sandusky, and has continuously held that office down to the present time.


GOTTLIEB F. HAUFF. Probably no citizen in Erie County could sur- pass in enterprise and solid industry those who came to this county from Germany or are of German parentage. A number of those who are natives of this county and of this substantial element in the second or third generation have inherited the solid virtues of their ancestors, and have combined with those a certain progressiveness and publie spirit that make them most admirable American citizens and valuable factors in their respective communities.


Of this class is Gottlieb F. Hanff, a young farmer and stock raiser of Vermilion Township. His home is near Mittewanga, where he owns the old family homestead, on which he was reared and educated. He has owned this place since 1913, and has surrounded himself with many of the comforts and the modern facilities for carrying on agricultural enterprise with the highest degree of profit and a minimum of incon- venience. He and his wife have a good six-room house and plenty of farm buildings to meet the requirements of their farm. The place is well stocked, and its fields are very productive. The broad acres produce crops of all the staples for which Erie County is noted, and in yield some of Mr. Ilauff's acres are unexcelled.


Mr. Hauff was born in Vermilion Township, and has spent here all his active eareer. He made his own start in the world, and having shown himself capable of independent work, he steadily prospered and enjoyed increasing confidence in the eyes of his neighbors, and is now well settled, having bought his present place from his father, Christian Hauff, a prominent Erie County citizen, to whom reference is made on other pages of this work.


On November 1, 1911, at Huron, Ohio, Gottlieb F. Hauff married Miss Anna M. Bartzen. She was born in Huron March 24, 1892, and received her education in that town. Her parents were Peter and Mar- garet (Ellenz) Bartzen. Her father was born in Bitenburg, Germany, in 1864, and is of mingled German and French stock. He came to America when a very young man, making the voyage by steamship, and after settling in Huron he married a young woman from Perkins Town- ship. Peter Bartzen died April 16, 1914. He was a blacksmith by trade, and a man whose industry and integrity commended him to the con- fidenee of a large community of friends. His wife passed away Decem- ber 12, 1905, at the age of fifty-two. Both were members of the Evan- gelieal Church and in politics he was a republican. Peter Bartzen was a son of Nicholas and Margaret Bartzen, who spent their lives in Ger- many. Nicholas was seventy-nine when he died and his wife was forty- five, she having passed away when her son Peter was five years of age. In earlier generations of the Bartzen family their religion was that of the Catholic Church, Nicholas Bartzen was also a blacksmith, and he taught his son Peter that trade. Mrs. Hauff is one of nine children, five of whom are still living, and all married but one.


Mr. and Mrs. Hanff are the parents of two children: Harvey G .. born September 16, 1912; and Christian Gilbert, born October 4, 1915.


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Mr. Hauff is a member of the Reformed Church while his wife belongs to the Evangelieal Association. In polities he is independent.


E. B. ACKLEY. Sandusky has for many years been greatly indebted to the services of E. B. Ackley as a leader in musical affairs. Ile has been a resident of that eity more than twenty years and has done much to extend the appreciation of good music throughout the city.


Born November 1, 1871, in Illinois, Mr. Ackley developed his musical talent by home study and much diligent practice, and for a number of years has been actively identified in some offieial way with musical affairs. In 1893 he came to Sandusky, having been engaged as a director of music at Cedar Point, and he also became musical instructor for the Sandusky Band. This band has for a number of years been classed as one of the most popular bands in the state. For the past twelve years Mr. Ackley has conducted a business of his own, one of the most per- fectly equipped billiard halls in the city, containing twelve tables.


Ile is now instructor of the High School Orchestra in the Sandusky city schools, and donates his services to that work as a matter of civic duty. Mr. Ackley is a popular member of the Masonic order, affiliated as follows: Perseverance Lodge, No. 329, F. & A. M .; Sandusky Chap- ter, No. 72, R. A. M .; Sandusky Council, No. 26, R. A. S. M .; Erie Commandery, No. 23, K. T .; and with Scottish Rite, Fourteenth Degree, Valley of Toledo. He is a member of the Sandusky Council United Commercial Travelers, is president of the A. F. of M., and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a republican. In 1904 he married Miss Ida Frohman of Sandusky.


AUGUST W. NIEDING. In his work as a farmer and fruit grower, in his public spirited relationship to all community affairs, and in his standing at home and abroad, August W. Nieding is one of the most highly respected citizens of Vermilion Township, and occupies a beau- tiful small estate near Joppa Corners on Rural Route No. 2. For years he was steadily engaged in agricultural affairs, but in recent years has advanced in prosperity to the extent that he ean relax some of his strenuous toil.


He was born in the Village of Vermilion November 23, 1856, a son of George and Ann C. (Meister) Nieding. His parents were both born in Kurhessen, Germany, the father in 1831 and the mother in 1832. They were of old German families. George Nieding's father was a well to do German farmer. George was still 'only a boy, seventeen or eighteen years old, when his father died, and his mother married a Mr. Conrad HIeier, and both spent the rest of their lives in Germany. George was the oldest son. Owing to a misunderstanding with his step-father when he was twenty-one years of age, he left his native land and immigrated to the United States. Ile was forty-two days in making the voyage by sailing vessel from Bremen to New York City. Ile came on west as far as Cleveland, and there got work at the trade of shoemaking, which he had learned back in Germany. From Cleveland he went to Brown- helm Township in Lorain County, and for four or five years worked on a farm and as a butcher. Ile was married in the City of Lorain in Lorain County, and then came to the Village of Vermilion, where he followed his trade a year, then worked for two years in the ship yards, and for the next seven years was in the employ of Burton & Pieree, well known general merchants, grain dealers and shippers. His next employment, for nearly three years, was with Capt. William Bradley. in the latter's sawmill. George Nieding after these varied experienees returned to farming as the pursuit of his later years. IIe bought thirty- five acres in Brownhelm Township of Lorain County, but some years


E. 13. acklay.


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later sold that and bought fifty-one acres in Vermilion Township, Erie County. Both he and his wife were very industrious and thrifty people, and they increased their holdings to ninety-six acres. George Nieding was a very generous man, had many friends, but had the weakness of being too prone to sign papers and obligate himself in behalf of his friends, and in consequence he lost the farm in Vermilion Township. Some years later his son August W. bought back most of the place and his parents had the satisfaction of spending their remaining years there. George Nieding passed away in 1903 and his wife in 1899. They were active members of the German Reformed Church, and in politics he was a republican. Of their children, August W., was the only son. The daughters were: Martha, who died at the age of six years; Anna, who died in 1901, leaving two sons and two daughters; Minnie, who died at the age of nine; Christie, who is a widow and resides with her large family of children in the Village of Vermilion.


August W. Nieding spent his early lite in Erie and Lorain County. Hle acquired most of his education in the Village of Vermilion. On reaching his majority he lived for a few years on the old homestead in Vermilion Township, and subsequently bought twenty-four acres of land, which he occupied only eighteen months, when he left to engage in the wine and liquor business in Toledo. Ile was in that city two years and from there went to Dundee, Michigan, where he followed farming and also contracted to furnish timbers to railroads. After two years in Michigan Mr. Nieding returned to Erie County and bought twenty-six acres in Vermilion Township. That constituted his home and the seene of his productive efforts for fourteen years. Selling that, he bought ninety aeres of the old homestead where his parents had lived as already noted, and he owned and operated that as a general farm for eleven years. Mr. Nieding finally deeded sixty-five acres of the old homestead to his daughter, Mrs. George Dickel, and then moved to his present estate of twenty-five acres just west of Joppa Corners. That is the home which he has chosen for his deelining years, and represents in many of its features and improvements his individual enterprise. Mr. Nieding has a substantial seven-room house, and has a practically new red barn on a foundation 26x30 feet for the shelter of his grain and stoek. One feature of the farm is a 300-tree peach orehard. IIis land is very productive, and here as elsewhere he has shown a degree of progressive- ness that puts him among the leading farmers of Erie County.


Mr. Nieding first married Miss Nettie Crum. She was born in Pen- sylvania in 1866, and died at her home in Vermilion Township July 20, 1912. Iler one daughter is Florence, wife of George Dickel. After the death of his first wife Mr. Nieding married in Knox County, Ohio, Mrs. Mary (Denham) Withy, widow of Theodore Witby. There were no children by that marriage nor by the present union. Mrs. Nieding was born at Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1871, was reared and educated there, and was five years of age when her mother died. Her father, Oscar Denham, is a farmer living at Fredericktown, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Nieding are active members of the German Reformed Church, and the first Mrs. Nieding was also a devout member of that congregation. In politics Mr. Nieding is a republican and has frequently been entrusted with township responsibilities and every confidence shown in him by his fellow citizens has been thoroughly justified by the integrity of his personal character and by his ability in managing his business affairs.


CHRISTIAN KROPF. In the farming district of Florence Township are many prosperous and progressive men who believe that the happiest life as well as the most independent is to be lived on a farm. Prominent among these men is Christian Kropf. He is an excellent and pro-


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gressive farmer and a man who can be depended upon in matters of local moment. Mr. Kropf has won prosperity by hard work. In earlier years he was a renter, from that graduated into independent ownership and now has a first-class farm not far from Vermilion postoffice.


Much of his thrift and energy can be explained from the fact that he was born in Switzerland. He was born in Canton Berne October S, 1867. Ilis people lived in Switzerland for generations. His parents were Christian and Alma Barbara ( Wormwood) Kropf, who were born in the same Canton, were married there, and all of their six children were born in the same locality. The first of their children was named Christian, but died in infancy. The second was given the same name, and he is now the Erie County citizen above named. Elizabeth died after the family came to America at the age of eighteen. Ama was well educated, partly in her native country and partly in the United States, was for a number of years a missionary worker in Cleveland, and for the past four years has been a missionary at Canton, China. The son John lives in Vermilion Township near Axtel, is a well to do farmer, and by his marriage to Miss Anna Heinsley of Lorain County has three children named Hilda, Arnold and Leonard. Mary, who is unmarried, lives in Vermilion Township.


Christian Kropf was fifteen years of age when the family lett Switzer- land, took passage on a ship at Antwerp and thirteen days later landed in New York City. From there they came on west to Vermilion Town- ship in Erie County, and established their home on a farm. On that land the parents spent the rest of their days. Christian Kropf, Sr., died August 30, 1914, when nearly seventy-nine years of age, his birthday having been in September. His wife passed away eleven years before, in March, 1902, at the age of seventy-two. Both were members of the Reformed Church, and the father was a democrat in politics.


It was in Erie County that Christian Kropf spent the remaining years of his boyhood and early youth. He received his education partly in Swiss schools and partly in this country, and has done much to improve every advantage since he started out for himself. For two years he rented land in Vermilion Township, and then made his first purchase of twelve and a half aeres in the same township. He lived on that place four years, and then again was a renter for two years, operating a place of ninety aeres. This farm was near Axtel in Vermilion Township. Having sold his first twelve and a half acres, he subsequently bought sixty-seven acres in Florence Township and in 1909 sold that at advan- tage and invested in the farm of sixty-three acres on the Butler State Road between Birmingham and Axtel, twelve miles from the north line of Florence Township. All but ten acres of this is in a high state of cultivation and improvement. Mr. Kropf knows farming as a business and profession, utilizes all his resources, and is not only a producer but has shown much ability in marketing his products. He raises the various grain and eereal staples, potatoes, has a two-acre apple orchard. and his farm has excellent business improvements, including a seven-room brown house surrounded with good ontbuildings, including the main barn on a foundation 30x40 feet. He derives much of his revenues from live stock, to which he feeds most of his erops, and he keeps good grades of cattle, horses and hogs.


In Vermilion Township in 1895 Mr. Kropf married Mrs. Fannie (Champney) Moulton, widow of Arthur Moulton and daughter of Louis and Mary ( Webster) Champney. The father was a native of Ohio and the mother of Massachusetts, and both were of the old New England stock. Her father was born in Vermilion Township of Erie County, a son of Franeis and Eliza (Winton) Champney, who came as pioneer settlers from Connectieut to Erie County and spent the rest of their




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