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 114
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Henry J. Kuhl and wife had seven children: Henry J., Jr., died after his marriage and left two daughters, Anna and Lena. Eliza mar- ried John Alheit, and both are now deceased, leaving two sons and three daughters, the daughters being all married. John, now deceased, was twice married and he had six children by his first wife and one daughter by the second. Peter married Eliza Will, and both are now deceased and left one living ehild. George was scalded to death in hot lye when five years of age. Margaret died in infancy.
Mr. Charles Kuhl was married in 1888 in Lorain County to Miss Mary Loeffler. She was born in Champaign County, Illinois, November 6, 1865, and was reared partly there and partly in Lorain County. Her father, George B. Loeffler, was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and is now living in Ogden, Illinois, at the age of eighty-six. Mrs. Kuhl's mother died when the daughter was eleven months of age, and her father married a second time.
Mr. Kuhl is now the owner of a fine estate of 155 acres. It is all well improved and thoroughly cultivated, and his erops comprise the different cereals, potatoes, some fruit, and he gets most of his revenues directly through the live stock that he sells off his farm. His improvements are of an unusually substantial nature. He has a large bank barn with a basement under all, and a comfortable nine-room house.
Of the children Albert K. was born on this farm and has lived here sinee infancy, received an education in the local schools, and is now an active assistant to his father. Martha K. graduated from high school, is a teacher, and lives at home. Ruth is the wife of Ralph Risdon, a farmer of Vermilion Township, and they have a son Glenn. Clarence died when seventeen months of age. Bertha is attending school and Ethel May died in March, 1915, at the age of eight years. The family are members of the Reformed Church, and in politics Mr. Kuhl is a republiean, his son being of the same political faith. For a number of years he has taken special interest in the welfare of the local sehools, has been a member of the sehool board, and has also served as township trustee.
C. V. BAUMGARDNER. The C. V. Baumgardner Piano Company of Sandusky has some special characteristics and distinctions as a music house specially organized and maintained to handle the best instruments manufactured in the country. The business was incorporated in Deeem- ber. 1913, and is capitalized at $25,000. At the head of the company is C. V. Baumgardner, who for years has made a special study of pianos. He is an authority on tone qualities, durability and all other features Vol. II-48
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of piano construction and use. His expert skill has been converted into a reliable service to the large retail trade centered at Sandusky, since his advice and counsel practically insure the individual purchaser of the best values in pianos for the money. In fact, the company is owned and controlled by Sandusky business men of the highest character, and every piano sold carries with it a lifetime guarantee.
This business was first started in Sandusky a number of years ago by C. V. Baumgardner, who carried on the business successfully until merged into the present Corporation in December, 1913, with the fol- lowing officers: J. F. Starkey, president; John A. Geideman, vice presi- dent and treasurer; C. B. DeWitt, secretary; F. H. Meese, director ; C. V. Baumgardner, director. The officers also holding on the board of direction. John MeKelvey, E. H. Savord and H. W. Parsons were among the incorporators. The present officers of the company since then are: C. V. Baumgardner, president; John A. Geideman, vice president ; F. E. Swain, secretary. Mr. Swain is probably one of the best known piano men in Northern Ohio and was for some years with John F. Renner, piano dealer of Sandusky, and is very talented and stands high in musical circles, and John A. Millott, treasurer.
The extensive warerooms of the company are located at 426 Huron Avenue. Through the judgment and experience of Mr. Baumgardner, the executive head of this company, the business is a flourishing one, and has well deserved unqualified suecess on account of the basic principles upon which it is established, that is, to afford a reliable medium for pur- chasers of the standard makes of instruments. The pianos and piano players handled by the company include such standard makes as the A. B. Chase, Smith & Nixon, Hobart M. Cable, Francis Bacon, Knabe Bros. and the Baumgardner pianos, and have also the sole agency for the celebrated Starr line of pianos.
Mr. Baumgardner married Miss Evelyn Ida Hoffman, of Manistee, Michigan, and they have the following children: Dorothy May, Mar- gorie Fay and Alice Elaine.
Mr. Baumgardner is a member of Sandusky Lodge No. 285, B. P. O. E., and is independent in politics.
JOSEPH S. KING. Erie County lost one of its oldest and most estcemed citizens in the death of Joseph S. King at his home in Berlin Township, January 20, 1910. All the older citizens of that section of Erie County will recall the influence and activities of this sterling old citizen. The home at which he died in Ogontz Corners is still the home of Mrs. King, who is also of the older Ameriean stock in Erie County.
The late Joseph S. King was born in Florence Township in 1837. Ilis father was Chester King, a native of Connecticut, where he married, and in the early days came to Ohio, locating on 130 aeres of almost wild land in Florence Township. A portion of this original farm has never passed out of the family possession and is now owned by Frank O. King, son of Joseph S. Chester King and his wife spent their many vears of useful toil and good citizenship on that old farm. They left a family of six children, all of whom are now deceased.
It was on that old homestead, with its many associations for members of the King family, that Joseph S. King spent most of his lifetime. Only a few years before his death he moved to Berlin Heights, and lived retired. He was a very successful farmer, and a man of leadership in his.community. He was a republican in politics.
After he resigned the heavier cares and responsibilities of farming he moved to the home in Berlin Township on which he spent his last days and where Mrs. King now lives. This home comprises ten aeres of good land, with a large and well built house of eight rooms, and an
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almost new barn. Mrs. King also owns forty acres of the old homestead in Florence Township. The Florence Township farm was in many ways a direct result of the enterprise of the late Joseph S. King, who had improved many of its acres from the wilderness condition in which he first found it.
Mr. King arrived as trustee of Florence Township, and was once a candidate for county commissioner, but was defeated with the rest of his party ticket. He was a Knight Templar Mason, aetive in Masonic affairs, and enjoyed the confidence of his fellow members in this fra- ternity and his friends and associates in all the relations of a long life.
Joseph S. King married for his first wife Malone Masters, who was born in New York State and was seven years of age when she came to Erie County. She died on the old homestead in 1890 at the age of sixty-two. Her three children were: Charles, who died in 1866 at the age of thirteen ; Mrs. Ella A. Andress, and Frank O.
The present Mrs. King before her marriage was Mary A. Meyer. She was born in Vermilion Township, March 17, 1868, was reared in that community, and received an excellent education in the public schools. Mrs. King was one of a family of nine children born to John P. and Anna C. (Morris) Meyer. Her father was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1822, served five years in the German army and when still a young man eame to the United States. After reaching Erie County his first work was on a farm in Vermilion Township, and he followed various other lines of employment up to 1872. in which year he moved to the Barton Ridge Road and bought eighty acres of land. He was a pros- perons and progressive farmer, and spent his last years in the comforts which his industry had earned for him. His death oeeurred January 28, 1911, in his eighty-ninth year. His wife, who was born in 1831, in Germany, died May 15, 1910, and she had come when a child with her mother and brothers to Erie County. Besides Mrs. King the other mem- bers of the Meyer family now living are George. Nicholas, Anna and Elizabeth.
Mrs. King has one daughter, Margaret L., who was born January 1, 1899. and has finished the grade schools and is a member of the high school class of 1916 at Berlin Heights. She and her mother are members of the Berlin Heights Congregational Church.
S. O. RICHARDSON, III, is one of the very energetie younger business men of Sandusky, where he is local manager for the Libbey Glass Com- pany. The Sandusky plant of this world-wide known corporation was established in 1905, and for several years young Mr. Richardson has been its manager. It is one of the large and important industries in the city and has an average of 130 employes on the payroll.
The Libbey Glass Company was originally an English coneern, and its organization dates back to 1815, fully a century ago. The name Libbey is one of the oldest trade-marks synonymous with high standard of products in glass making in the world. S. O. Richardson, III, was born December 18, 1887, and is a son of S. O. Richardson, Jr., and Jennie B. (Barrett) Richardson. His father lives in Toledo and is vice president of the Libbey Glass Company.
The son was educated in St. Paul College at Concord, New Hamp- shire, and graduated from Harvard University with the class of 1911 and the degree A. B. Since leaving school he has been eonneeted with the Libbey Glass Company and the Westlake Automatic Machine Com- pany. While the name Libbey has signified the highest standard of excellence in eut glass, an important branch of the industry, particularly at Sandusky, has been the manufacture of bulbs for incandescent electric lights. This is the first plant in the United States of its kind run by
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automatic machinery. The Sandusky factory contains eight automatic machines, and it is said there is no better equipped glass factory for the making of the finest grades of glassware anywhere in the country.
Mr. Richardson is a member of the Sunyendeand Club at Sandusky, the Sandusky Ad Club and the Federated Commercial Club. On Feb- ruary 3, 1914, at Toledo, he married Miss Gertrude Lewis. a daughter of C. T. Lewis of Toledo. They have one daughter, Patricia Lewis Richardson.
ALFRED SCHNURR. A contractor and builder at Sandusky, whose record of practical accomplishment can be read in many substantial structures of brick and stone and wood, is Alfred Schnurr.
It would hardly be possible to enumerate all the buildings which he has constructed since entering the business of contracting, but some of the more important during the past twelve years, constructed either by himself individually or in partnership with others, are the following: Mitten Factory on Market Street ; One Minute Washer Company Build- ing on Market Street; Sandusky Auto Parts Building on First Street ; Suspension Roller Bearing Factory on First Street; the high school building at Vermilion; the high school building at Berlin Heights; the Nurses Home of Providence Hospital; the new central fire station in Sandusky; the Griffin Plant at Chicago Junction; the Star Theater Building, Beilstein Laundry, the Musschel Flats, the Caswell Garage, Sandusky : the Hotel Hillerest, Middle Bass Island; and the Oelschlager store at Put-in-Bay.
This young contractor whose work shows that he is one of the leaders in his profession, was born in Freiburg, Germany, May 17, 1878. His parents were Frank and Amelia (Mutterer) Schnurr. His father came to America in search of a home, and some months later his wife and children followed. Frank Schnurr is still living at Sandusky, and one of the honored old residents. He was a carpenter by trade, and followed that occupation after coming to America, and is still in the ranks of the active men of his trade in Sandusky.
Alfred Schnurr was the youngest in a family of five sons. Ile re- ceived his education in the parochial schools and in the International Correspondenee School at Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he took several technical courses in order to better prepare himself for his important work as general contractor. Quite early in life he began learning the carpenter's trade under his father, and worked for him as a regular journeyman for a year. Ile was then with George Feick & Company, building contractors, for eight years.
In 1903 Mr. Sehurr formed a partnership with Anton Shaeffer under the firm name of Shaeffer & Schnurr. Their business as contract- ors continued until 1906, at which time Mr. Schnurr engaged in business for himself. and has since continued as a building contractor.
In polities Mr. Schnurr is an independent voter, and is a citizen whose publie spirit can always be depended upon to support those move- ments which are most essential to community welfare. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees. On November 28. 1900, at Sandusky, he married Miss Ida Killian, daughter of Peter and Catherine Killian. To their marriage have been born three children : Emily, born July 21, 1901 ; Alton, born November 8, 1903; and Alfred, born June 2, 1905.
ELBERT B. WELCH. One of the representative citizens who are effectively demonstrating the possibilities for splendid success in the industry of fruit culture in Erie County is Mr. Welch, whose extensive yearly products are sold at wholesale and who also gives special atten- tion to the raising of vegetables for the wholesale market. His well
Alfred Schmun
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improved farm of 135 acres is eligibly situated in Vermilion Township, and the greater portion of the place is devoted to fruit-growing and diversified horticulture, though he carries forward equally successful operations as a general agriculturist and stoek-grower.
In the township that now represents his home Mr. Weleh was born on the 15th of October, 1866, and he is a son of Thomas and Emily ( Ball) Welch, the former of whom was born in the north of Ireland and the latter in Vermilion Township, Erie County, Ohio, where her parents settled in the early pioneer days. Jesse Ball, the maternal grandfather of the subject of this review, was one of the first settlers in Vermilion Township, where he established his home in 1816, his pioneer home- stead, which came into his possession virtually a century ago, having been on the shore of Lake Erie and west of the present Village of Ver- milion. In 1818 he settled on the farm now owned by him whose name introduces this article, in the southern part of Vermilion Township. HIere he erected as the family domicile a primitive log cabin, which con- tinued his place of ahode for many years, the while he was putting forth untiring effort in reclaiming his land from the wilderness and bringing it under cultivation. In 1842 he erected a frame house, which is still standing and in an excellent state of preservation. On this old home- stead this sterling pioneer and his noble wife passed the remainder of their lives, and their names merit place on the permanent pages of Erie County history.
Thomas Welch was reared and educated in his native land and immi- grated to the United States between the years 1848 and 1850. He finally came to Erie County and he became one of the prosperous agriculturists and representative citizens of Vermilion Township, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in November, 1895, his wife surviving him by several years and having passed her entire life in Erie County.
Elbert B. Welch grew to adult age under the invigorating influences of the home farm. and in addition to receiving the advantages of the public schools of Vermilion Township he attended also an excellent pri- vate school conducted by Prof. Job Fish, in Florence Township. That he made good use of the educational opportunities thus presented is demonstrated by the fact that during eight winter terms he was found engaged as a youthful but specially successful teacher in the rural schools of Vermilion and Florence townships. From his youth to the present day he has given loyal allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture, and he has made the ancestral homestead one of the model farmsteads of Vermilion Township. In the wholesale distribution of his large annual crops of fruit and vegetables he finds his principal market in the City of Lorain, and he is known as one of the enterprising agrieulturists and fruit-growers of his native county and as a citizen of utmost progressiveness and public spirit. His political support is given to the republican party, and at Vermilion he is affiliated with Lakeview Camp No. 6250, Modern Woodmen of America.
On the 5th of January, 1890, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Welch and Miss Edith Sutton, who likewise was born and reared in Vermilion Township and who is a daughter of Nelson Sutton, her father having come to Erie County from the State of New York and having become one of the pioneer farmers of Vermilion Township. For some time Mr. Sutton operated a saw mill, the power for which he supplied by constructing a dam across LaChappel Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Welch have two children, Earl S., who is associated with the work and manage- ment of the home farm, and married Winafred T. Page of Cleveland, Ohio; and Velma M., who is now a resident of Lorain, Lorain County.
Mr. Welch is a director of the Erie County Banking Company, at
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Vermilion, and is second vice president of this substantial and popular institution. Other capitalistic investments further indicate the solidity of his achievement as a man of affairs, and it may specially be noted he was one of the organizers of the Vermilion Telephone Company, of the directorate of which he is still a member. He was the promoter and organizer of the Diamond Cheese Company, at Axtel, Vermilion Town- ship, and has been its secretary from the time of its incorporation. Since 1903 Mr. Welch has been prominently concerned with the live- stock industry in this section of the state, as a breeder and grower of registered Holstein cattle, and of the same he has made large sales for feeding purposes. To A. W. Leadrich he sold a Holstein heifer that won the world's championship prize as a senior 2-year-old, this distinction having been gained by standard official tests. IIe has in stock at the present time, in the autumn of 1915, fourteen head of registered Holstein cattle of the best strains for milk and butter production, and he has done much to raise the standard of the cattle industry in his native county, besides which he has been for the past twenty years a successful breeder of high-grade Berkshire swine, his homestead being now known as the Diamond Stock Farm. He continued his residence on his fine home- stead farm until 1914, when he removed with his family to the City of Lorain, about twenty miles distant, where he has since continued his resi- dence, with a wide eirele of friends in both Erie and Lorain counties. Ilis success has been of unequivocal order and has given patent evidence of his energy, his initiative ability and his progressive policies, besides which he has so ordered his course as to merit and receive the unqualified confidence and good will of those with whom he has come in contaet in the varied relations of life.
EDWARD HENRY MARSH, born September 14, 1851, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Edward Lockwood and Lueetta Robinson ( IIole) Marsh, has been a resident of Sandusky, Ohio, for the past forty-three years. In the year 1879 he married Caroline Mackey Lea, youngest daughter of James D. and Caroline Mackey Lea, pioneer residents of Sandusky and Erie County, and to this union two children were born, Edward Lea and Caroline Lea, who survived the death of their mother, which occurred June 10, 1885. Mr. Marsh never remarried.
On the death of his father, in 1884, he succeeded him as a member of the firm of Marsh & Company, which was established in Cincinnati. Ohio, in 1843. Marsh & Company were the pioneer manufacturers of plaster of paris in Ohio. In 1886 he became sole owner of the business and immediately abandoned the Sandusky plant that was located at the foot of Wayne Street for more than thirty-four years and erected a mill of much greater capacity and commenced the development on a larger scale of the gypsum deposit and property, known as the "Car- rielea Farm," at Plaster Beds, Ottawa County, Ohio.
Mr. Marsh never aspired to publie honors; his inclination has been to foster and encourage by active participation in financial, industrial and social life of the community the best and highest ideals of citizen- ship. His travels have extended not only throughout the United States, but in many foreign countries.
HENRY TRIESCHMANN. One of the largest vineyards on Kelleys Island is owned by Henry Trieschmann. It comprises 100 acres devoted to the growing and culture of grapes. For a great many years one of the principal industries carried on at Kelleys Island has been grape culture, and Mr. Trieschmann has been one of the active citizens and business men most closely identified with that particular line of endeavor.
Ilis home has been on Kelleys Island for upwards of half a century.
Edward Ht Mlauch
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HIe was born September 8, 1843, in the Province of Hesse, Germany, and was reared and educated in his native land and lived there until he was twenty-three. In 1866 he came to America with a brother. His first location was in Sandusky, where he followed his trade as a butcher. Afterwards he went to Cincinnati and was in the same line of business for eight months, but returned to Sandusky and continued to make his home in that city for two years.
It was in 1870 that Mr. Trieschmann moved to Kelleys Island, and here for the past forty-five years he has conducted the chief butchering and retail meat business on the island.
As a vineyardist Mr. Tricschmann is also a director and treasurer of the Sweet Valley Wine Company. He is a member of the Kelleys Island School Board, and in politics is independent. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maceabees. His interests also include the ownership of some valuable resident prop- erty, and for a great many years it has been his habit as well as his pleasure to take part in every public and civic movement for the good of the village in which he resides.
Mr. Trieschmann is married and is the father of a family of seven children, five of them still living, namely: Henry A., Emma, Katie, Clara and Julia.
HEWSON L. PEEKE. The publishers on their own responsibility desire to make some record of the career and services of IIewson L. Peeke, who has contributed the material forming the general history of Erie County to these volumes.
Mr. Peeke has been a resident of Sandusky sinee December, 1883. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, April 20, 1861. A part of his youth was spent in the City of Chicago, where he graduated from high school in 1878. He took his collegiate work in Williams College, where he graduated in 1882, and in the following year on account of ill health he went out to Dakota Territory. His experiences in gaining admission to the bar of the territory and his subsequent law studies after locating in Ohio have been recounted on other pages. Mr. Peeke was admitted to the Ohio bar January 7, 1885, and at onee took up practice at Sandusky.
It can be said with truth that few lawyers have had a larger and more profitable practice than Mr. Peeke in Sandusky. He has attended to his legal business with a scrupulons care that has gained him the esteem not only of a large circle of clients but of the fellow members at the bar. His standing in the profession was given an nnqualified testi- monial when he was recently chosen as the prohibition candidate for the Supreme judgeship of Ohio. There were fourteen candidates for the three seats to be filled on the Supreme bench, and Mr. Peeke stood third in the size of the vote cast in Erie County. It is with proper pride that he eherishes as a memento of this campaign a testimonial of confidence which was signed by thirty members of the county bar, in fact all but two. This testimonial reads as follows :
"We the members of the bar of Erie county desire in this manner to express our commendation of the candidacy of II. L. Peeke for the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and in support thereof offer the following considerations :
"1. We believe him competent to fill the office with credit to him- self, the profession and the people of the State of Ohio.
"2. Mr. Peeke is about fifty-one years of age and has practiced law in the State of Ohio for about thirty years, and has enjoyed a large practice in both the State and Federal court. In all of his practice he has merited the confidence of the members of the bar, and the judiciary,
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and has maintained an enviable reputation of loyalty and fidelity to his clients.
"3. Northern Ohio has not been represented upon the Supreme bench for many years and is entitled to representation this year."
Mr. Peeke is a man of varied interests and attainments. He has always been interested in things literary, and particularly in history, and it was his enthusiasm for local history and his desire to do something to preserve in permanent form the records of Erie County that led to his taking up the work represented in this publication.
Politically he has for fully thirty years been identified with the prohibition party. In fact, he east his first ballot for the prohibition ticket in 1885. He has always advocated the idea that the platform of the party should be confined to prohibition, and has consistently urged that principle in both the state and national council of the party. He was first candidate for the office of judge of the Supreme Court on the prohibition ticket in 1891. In 1900 he was a candidate for presidential elector. In 1902 he was candidate for Congress in the Thirteenth Ohio District. IIe was chosen grand chief templar of the Ohio Grand Lodge of Good Templars in 1902. In 1901 he formed the Cornerstone Publish- ing Company in order to publish the Ohio state prohibition paper. At the Akron State Convention he was both permanent and temporary chairman in 1901. Ile has served a number of places on the state and national committees of the prohibition party, and in 1912 became a member of the national committee, a delegate at large to the national convention, and was chairman of the state committee. He was also permanent chairman of the prohibition state convention at Springfield in May, 1903, and was chairman of the State Central Committee in the years 1905-06-07. He was temporary chairman of the Ohio State Con- vention at Columbus in 1908. In 1904 he was a delegate at large from Ohio to the Indianapolis convention and a delegate from Ohio to the national convention at Columbus in 1908.
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