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 16
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While best known as a successful gardener, Mr. Hartung has also for many years been a leader in public affairs. For four years he was treas- urer of Perkins Township, and is one of the influential members of the republican party in the county. He served for several years as county committeeman from Perkins Township, and for one term was seeretary of the county organization. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Wood- men of the World. By hard work and good business judgment he has developed his enterprise at the Campbell Street Gardens from one of small proportions to probably the largest undertaking of its kind in the vicinity of Sandusky, and that city receives a large share of its provi- sions from this place.
AUGUST ARHEIT. A business that has shown remarkable capacity for development under the enterprise of Angust Arheit is the dairy estab- lishment eonducted under his proprietorship, his fine farm being located in Perkins Township on Rural Delivery Route No. 2 out of Sandusky. What is known as Perkins Avenue leads by his farm, and furnishes ready means of access to his chief market. Mr. Arheit has always been known as a hard worker, and in developing his business has had one ambition- to furnish the highest grade of milk supplies to his patrons. Twenty- five years ago, in 1890. he established his first milk route in Sandusky. He furnished reliable service and in a short time had the satisfaction of seeing his business grow, and it is now one of the best of its kind in the vicinity of the city. He now has five wagons eovering five separate routes every day in the year. and supplies many hundreds of customers with the choice milk and cream from his dairy farm in Perkins Township.
August Arheit was born in Baden, Germany, Mareh 6, 1859, a son of George and Margaret Arheit, both of whom are natives of the same provinee. Mr. Arbeit grew up in Germany, and lived there until his twenty-second year. His education came from the common schools, and he was early trained to industry and thrift. At that age he eame with his parents to America, and the family located in Sandusky. He soon found employment for his energy, and some seven or eight years after arriving in Sandusky made his first independent venture as a dairyman. His is an independent suceess, and he has never asked for anything more than a fair field and favors to none.
Mr. Arheit was married to Christina Pfatheicher, who was born in Baden. Germany. To their marriage have been born a fine family of ten children : George, of Sandusky; Edwin. of Detroit, Michigan : Carl, of Perkins Township; Arthur. of Perkins Township ; Frederick, of Per- kins Township: Helmud, living in Perkins Township; Frieda; Hilda : Ruth ; and Wilmer, all of the younger children being at home. Mr.
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Arbeit is independent in politics, and with his family is a member of the Reformed Lutheran Church. He is publie spirited, and favors anything that will make living conditions better in his community.
GEORGE W. SKILLMAN. As a lad of about fifteen years George W. Skillman accompanied his parents on their removal to Erie County and the family home was at that time established in Perkins Township, where he has continued his residence during the long intervening period of more than half a century- a period marked by worthy accomplishment on his part, his success and prosperity having been achieved through his own ability and well-ordered endeavors. He is now the owner of a well- improved fruit farm of twenty-five aeres, eligibly situated on the main highway between Sandusky and Milan and opposite the Soldiers' Home. He has become a recognized authority in connection with fruit culture in this section of the state and his success has been on a parity with the industrious and careful efforts which he has brought to bear in the devel- opment of his present attractive place, which is largely given over to the cultivation of a variety of fruits, with incidental production in gen- eral agricultural lines. Mr. Skillman has been a resident of Perkins Township since the spring of 1861 and with the passing years he has kept in close touch with the march of development and progress in this favored and opulent section of the old Buckeye State, the while he has exemplified the highest civic loyalty, been influential in public affairs of a local order and is held in unqualified popular confidence and esteem.
Mr. Skillman is a seion of a family that was founded in the State of New Jersey in an early day, probably in the colonial era of our national history, and his paternal and maternal grandparents passed their entire lives in that fine old commonwealth, which he himself claims as the place of his nativity. Mr. Skillman was born at New Brunswick, the judicial center of Middlesex County, New Jersey, on the 8th of April, 1846, and is a son of Aaron J. and Eliza A. (Van Nostrand ) Skillman, both of whom were born and reared in that state, the mother having been of staunel Holland Dutch aneestry, as the family name clearly indicates.
In the year 1854, when the subject of this review was about eight years of age, his parents left their old home in New Jersey and removed to Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan, where they continned their residence until the spring of 1861, when removal was made to Erie C'onnty, Ohio. Settlement was made in Perkins Township, and here the father died in the year 1869, his wife having survived him by a term of years. Of their ten children only four are now living: Martin L., who is a resident of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, as was also Isaae, who maintains his home in the City of Grand Rapids, that state; George W., of this review, is the next in respective order of birth; and Della, who now resides at San Diego, California, is the widow of the late Albert Walker. of Sandusky, who likewise was a veteran of the Civil war.
George W. Skillnan acquired his rudimentary education in his native state, continued his studies in the schools of Mount Clemens, Michigan, and attended school for a time after the family removal to Erie County. He has lived continuously in Perkins Township, as previously stated, and there has so improved his opportunities as to win definite independence and prosperity, his present homestead having been his place of residence since 1882 and being improved with excellent buildings as well as with fine orchards and vineyards. Mr. Skillman has identified himself closely with all community interests, has been staunchly arrayed as a supporter of the cause of the republican party and served seven years in the office of township trustee, besides having given effective service for a similar
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period as a member of the board of education of Perkins Township, a portion of the time his position having been that of president of the board.
On the 8th of February, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Skillman to Miss Annetta Hickman, who was born and reared in Perkins Township and who is a representative of one of the prominent pioneer families of this county. She is a daughter of Jacob and Anna ( Buck) Hickman, the former of whom was born in Delaware and the latter in Pennsylvania. Her maternal grandfather, Henry Buck, was one of the very early settlers of Erie County and here died from an attack of cholera, during the memorable epidemie of the dread disease in 1849. The parents of Mrs. Skillman were early settlers on a farm in Perkins Township and a part of the same is the homestead now owned and occu- pied by Mr. and Mrs. Skillman. Jacob Hickman survived his wife by a number of years and was one of the venerable pioneer citizens of Per- kins Township at the time of his death, in 1897. Of the two surviving children Mrs. Skillman is the younger, and her sister, Elizabeth .J., is the wife of Lewis L. Clark, concerning whom individual mention is made on other pages of this publication.
Mr. and Mrs. Skillman became the parents of two sons, the second of whom died in infaney. Harry H., who still maintains his home in Per- kins Township, married Miss Emily Halt, and they have three children. G. Carlisle, Lois M. and Robert Il.
LEWIS L. CLARK. It is most gratifying to be able to offer in this publication a brief review of the career of this venerable and honored pioneer citizen of Erie County, which became the home of the family when he was a mere child and within the gracious borders of which the major part of his life has been passed, though his is the distinction also of having been a pioneer in the State of California. to which he made his way at the time when the gold excitement was at its height in that his- torie New Eldorado. Mr. Clark is the only living representative of his generation in a family of twelve children and the name which he bears has been identified with this history of Erie County for virtually three- fourths of a century, so that it may be readily understood that his memory constitutes an indissoluble chain that links the early pioneer days with the present period of opulent prosperity and progress in this favored section of the Buekeye State. Though he has passed the eightieth mile- store on the journey of life, Mr. Clark has lived a "godly, righteous and sober life," with the result that he retains to a wonderful degree his phys- ical and mental vigor and has shown no desire for inactivity or too tranquil ease. He gives his personal supervision to his fine fruit farm in Perkins Township, and is widely known as one of the most successful peach-growers in this section of the state, even as he is a recognized authority in this field of enterprise.
Lewis L. Clark is a scion of staunch colonial stock in New England and his maternal grandfather was a valiant soldier in the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution. Mr. Clark was born in Woodstock County, Vermont, on the 22d of October, 1834, and is the only one surviving of the twelve children of Joseph and Philena (Kempton) Clark, the former of whom likewise was a native of the old Green Moun- tain State. and the latter of whom was born in the State of Rhode Island. In the middle '30s, when the subject of this sketch was a mere child, Joseph Clark immigrated with his family from Vermont to Ohio and became one of the pioneer settlers in what is now Perkins Township. Erie County, where he obtained a tract of heavily timbered land and set to himself the reclaiming of a farm from the forest wilds. The original family domicile was a log house of the primitive type common to the early pioneer days, but within its rude walls peace and comfort found
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place and, with its latch-string always out, its hospitality was in obverse ratio to its limited dimensions. Joseph Clark, with characteristic New England vigor and thrift, succeeded in the development of a productive farm and in making adequate provision for his family, though he and his noble wife endured their full share of the trials and hardships that fell to the lot of the pioneers in a new country. Both continued their residence on their old homestead until the close of their long and useful lives,-folk of indomitable energy, of deep religious faith and of abiding sympathy and kindliness, so that their names well merit perpetuation on the roll of the honored pioneers of Erie County.
Under the conditions and influenees of the pioneer days Lewis L. Clark was reared to maturity in Erie County, and it may well be under- stood that this section of the state is endeared to him by many gracious memories and associations. The primitive subscription sehools maintained by the pioneers afforded him his preliminary educational discipline and through this medium he was enabled to lay broad and deep the founda- tion for the substantial superstructure of information and judgment which he has reared through personal application to study and reading and through travel and the varied experiences of a signally active and useful life. He was an argonaut in California, as previously noted, but in later years he has traveled somewhat extensively through both the East and the West, his western trips having included visits to California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada.
In 1854, about five years after the memorable discovery of gold in California, Mr. Clark, who was then about twenty years of age, indulged his youthful spirit of adventure by making his way to the Pacific Coast, the trip having been made via the Isthmus of Panama. He landed in San Francisco, whenee he soon proceeded to the gold fields of Sierra County, where he instituted his quest for the precious metal, his mining for gold having thereafter been continued in El Dorado County, where he remained about three years, after which he was similarily engaged for a time in Butte County. In the last mentioned county, after having been measurably successful as a gold-seeker, he finally located upon and instituted operations on a raneh, near Butte Creek, in the Sacramento Valley. In this enterprise he was associated with George W. Sailor. under the firm name of Clark & Sailor, and they were successful in their undertaking, in which they continued their activities for more than six years. With an appreciable sum of money to his eredit, Mr. Clark then returned to the East, after having been far removed from the stage of operations during the entire period of the Civil war. In 1865, by way of the Nicaragua Route. he made the return journey and came back to the old home in Erie County. He finally settled on his present farm- stead, in Perkins Township, where he owns forty-five acres of land, his residence being situated opposite the Soldiers' Home and on a virtual extension of South Haneoek Street in the City of Sandusky. Here he has lived in peace and prosperity during the long intervening period of nearly fifty years, an upright, loyal and steadfast citizen who has seenre place in the confidence and veneration of all who know him. Ilis well improved farm is devoted almost exclusively to fruit-growing and he is known as an expert in the propagation of the finest grades of peaches, being one of the leading peach-growers of Erie County and taking great pride in his splendid orchards, to which he continues to give his personal care and supervision.
On the 14th of November, 1867. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clark to Miss Elizabeth JJ. Hickman, whose entire life has been passed in Erie County. She was born in Perkins Township and is a daughter of Jacob (. and Anna (Buck) Hickman, the former of whom was born in Delaware and the latter in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Clark's maternal
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grandfather, Henry Buck, came from Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, to Erie County in 1830 and eventually established his home on the farm now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Clark. He passed the residue of his life in Perkins Township, where he died on the 7th of November. 1897. one of the most venerable and honored pioneer citizens of Erie County. Within this county are now to be found his descendants even to the fifth generation, and he was one of those strong and resourceful men who aided largely in the civic and industrial development and upbuilding of this section of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have one son, William J., who is engaged in fruit raising. He married Miss Lotta Snively, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and they have two daughters,- Helen and Marjorie. As a young woman Mrs. Lewis L. Clark was a suc- cessful and popular teacher in the public schools of Erie County, after having attended a private school and the Sandusky High School when that department of the city schools was comparatively a new institution. She continued her services as a teacher for several years prior to her marriage and has always kept in touch with the best literature and the best thought and sentiment of the day. She is an active member of the Twentieth Century Club and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and both she and her husband attend the Methodist Episcopal Church. Theirs has been an ideal companionship of nearly half a century, with all of intellectual harmony and mutually high ideals, so that in the twilight of their lives they find themselves compassed by all that makes graceful and benignant this period. the while their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances.
ALBERT E. WAGNER. An old established and important industry in Perkins Township is conducted by the Wagner Quarries Company, whose business offices are at Sandusky. The family of this name has been engaged in quarrying stone in Erie County more than twenty years, and Albert E. Wagner, a son of the founder of the business, is now the active superintendent of the No. 1 Quarry in Perkins Township, where Mr. Wagner makes his home. About thirty-five men on the average are employed at this quarry and its working not only employs a great deal of labor but its output is sufficient to place it among the leading pro- duetive industries of this section.
A native of Sandusky, Albert E. Wagner was born June 13, 1879, a son of Michael and Catherine (Lauber) Wagner. His father was born in Germany, came to the I'nited States when about twelve years of age, went from New York to Canada, and after living there for a time moved to Ottawa County, Ohio, leeating at Marblehead. Subsequently he moved to Sandusky, and lived there from the '70s on. He engaged in the quarry industry in 1893, and was the founder of the Wagner Stone Quarries. This company now operates five quarries in different parts of Erie County, and the No. 1 Quarry has been in constant operation since 1893. and the son Albert has been superintendent of that branch since 1903. Michael Wagner retired from active participation in the business in 1913, having for the previous twenty years been, president of the company. He is still living and is past seventy-eight.
Albert E. Wagner was reared to man's estate in Sandusky, attended St. Mary's Catholic Parochial School, and was also a student in the San- dusky Business College. Since the age of fourteen he has had ahost con- stant experience in stone quarrying, and this concentration of effort is largely responsible for his establishment as a successful business man at a comparatively early age. He lived in Sandusky until 1910, and since that year has had his home near Quarry No. 1 in Perkins Township. For several years he was secretary of the Wagner Stone Company, which has since been succeeded by the Wagner Quarries Company.
Newton andress
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On April 16, 1907, Mr. Wagner married Lucy Keller, who was born in Perkins Township, a daughter of Frank Keller. To their marriage was born one danghter, Lucile D. In politics Mr. Wagner is a democrat. and is a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church at Sandusky. Mr. Wag- ner also has to his credit service as a soldier in the Spanish-American war. He was a member of Company B of the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, having joined that company at Sandusky, and spent nearly a year with his command. For about four months his regiment was engaged chiefly in guard duty in Cuba, and the rest of the time was spent in the various camps in Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. He is a member of the Spanish-American War Veterans at Sandusky.
NEWTON ANDRESS. Among the homes at Berlin Heights that stand for dignified social tradition and the best ideals that have permeated and vitalized the society of Erie County for many years that now oeeu- pied by Mrs. Ella A. Andress has special interest. Mrs. Andress lives in a beautiful fifteen-room residenee, which since it was built has frequently been the seene of gatherings of the best people in that community. Mrs. Andress for a woman of her years has a remarkably well preserved nature, and it seems hardly possible that the coming years can dim the anima- tion of her spiritual character. She is easily one of the most important leaders in local society, and at different times has done a great deal in the cause of prohibition.
IFer late husband was Newton Andress, who died at his home in Berlin Heights April 28, 1909. Mr. Andress was a man with a successful record in business and likewise enjoyed the high esteem paid to good citizens. lle was born at Henrietta, in Lorain County, Ohio, November 13, 1834. and was in his seventy-fifth year when he died. His father, Almond An- dress, died at Birmingham in Erie County at the age of eighty-four. He was twice married, and his first wife was the mother of the late Newton Andress.
Newton Andress grew up on a farm, attended the country schools, and nearly all his active career was devoted to farming, latterly on an extensive seale, and the foundation of his prosperity was laid in this ocenpation. He was first married to Carrie C. Barber. She was born in Erie County February 22, 1839, a daughter of Rey. Phineas Barber, who is remembered as one of the early Methodist Episcopal preachers in Erie County, and who died at the home of his daughter in Berlin Heights. Mrs. Carrie C. Andress died June 3, 1892. There were no children by this marriage. Before Mr. and Mrs. Andress had retired to Berlin Heights they owned and ocenpied two large farms in Erie County, and as the possessors of ample means also had the wisdom needed to enjoy them. Mrs. Andress was a regular attendant at church and a devout Methodist. Newton Andress was in politics a demoerat. and at different times had been honored with local offices in his township and the Village of Berlin Heights. He was also a Mason who had attained the thirty- second degree in Scottish Rite, and had affiliations with Marks Lodge No. 359; with the Royal Arch Chapter at Berlin Heights: with Norwalk Commandery No. 18, K. T .: and with Lake Erie Consistory and the Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Cleveland.
On September 28, 1893, Mr. Andress married Mrs. Ella A. (King) Clary. Mrs. Andress was born in Florence Township. Erie County, May 13. 1851, and grow up in that country community and at the Village of Berlin Heights. She attended the public schools and also the college at Berea. and in early life was a teacher. She first married George Chan- der Clary, who was born in Florence Township April 7, 1848, and died suddenly while away from home on April 12. 1879. His father, George W. Clary, was a pioneer farmer in Florence Township, and spent
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an active and prosperons career there, dying at the age of eighty-two. Ile was one of the carly members of the republican party in that section. George W. Clary married Eliza Chandler, who survived him a few years and was a woman of strong mind and strict in her religious duties, and was nearly eighty-four years of age at the time of her death.
By her i rst marriage Mrs. Andress had two children. Charles Clary. who is a farmer at Birmingham in Erie County, married IIelen Stone. who was a California girl and by the narrowest margin escaped from a house which was destroyed over her head during the San Francisco earth- quake and fire ; they have two children, Newton A. and Helen \. Myrtle C., the second child of Mrs. Andress, died at the age of forty-one on October 3, 1913, leaving by her marriage to Thomas Elson a daughter named Marie, who lives with her father in Berlin Heights.
Mrs. Andress is the daughter of Joseph S. and Melona (Masters) King. They were both natives of Connecticut and when young people eame to Erie County and were married in Florence Township, where they began life as farmers, and where her father died at the age of eighty- two. He possessed a remarkable vigor of mind and body which was main- tained well up to the close of his life. His wife died at the age of sixty- one. Mrs. Ella A. Andress is a member of the Congregational Church, has two affiliations with the Eastern Star at Norwalk and with the Pythian Sisters at Berlin Heights, and through these and other relations maintains her activities in social affairs. She is an active member of the W. C. T. U. and has been connected with many of the important operations of that body.
JAMES C. BRUNDAGE. It was more than ninety years ago that the Brundage family established its home within the wilds of the present County of Erie. They were of the finest class of people, God-fearing. industrious, independent, and well fitted for the trials and privations of frontier life. Of such an ancestry honorable in all things is descended James C. Brundage, long one of the prominent citizens of the Berlin IIeights Community.
Mr. James C. Brundage himself is a native of Buffalo, New York. . where he was born October 28, 1849. His parents were the late Capt. Ebenezer and Lovisa (Alger) Brundage. His father was born at Penn Yan, New York, January 11, 1811, and died at Berlin Heights July 8. 1889. His wife was born in Claverack, New York, Jannary 29, 1818. and died in Berlin Heights August 31, 1887. Captain Brundage was a son of James Brundage, who was born in one of the New England States abeut 1782. He married Lavina Parson, who was born either in New York State or one of the New England states in 1784. They came of a farming class of people and the families were early identified with the Methodist Church. All the children of James and wife were born in the East. In 1822 the family took passage at Buffalo on a Lake Erie steamer bound for Vermillion, Ohio. Here they sought a home in Vermillion Township and along the lake shore near Ruggles Corners. In the wild woods they constructed a hewed log house, and there began the improvements, traees of which in cultivated fields and fertile farm lands persist even to this day. James Brundage died there May 10. 1855. His widow was subsequently brought to the Village of Berlin Heights by her son, Captain Ebenezer, in 1862, and she died there in 1866. James Brundage and wife were among the most prominent of the early Methodists in this community, and for years he held the office of deacon in the local church. They had the sturdy virtues of the orig- inal New England stoek of people, always lived frugally and well within their means, reared their children to honest pursuits and made their lives more than ordinarily useful in the new community. Their early
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