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 22
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Mrs. Youngs represents some of the oldest established families in Erie County and is a daughter of John A. and Betsey J. (Miller) Sprowl. Her father was born in New Jersey March 25, 1813, and came to Erie County when nineteen years of age, locating in the vicinity of the present Berlin Heights. His wife had the distinction of having been born at Berlin Heights March 3, 1819. After their marriage they settled in a little frame house which he had built on a clearing com- pletely surrounded by heavy timbers. There he lived and worked and after an active and honorable career died December 8, 1884, followed by his wife on August 13, 1896. Their efforts had sueceeded in elearing away and putting in cultivation fifty acres of fine land and their later years were spent in comfort and with every convenience which they could desire. Both were members of the Christian Church and in pol- ities he was a republican and a man highly respected because of his dominant characteristics of fulfilling to the utmost letter and spirit every promise he made.
Mr. and Mrs. Youngs became the parents of one son, Jay Reynolds, who was born February 10, 1867. Ile was carefully reared and edu- cated, attending the Berlin Heights High School and has always lived on the home farm and since the death of his father has carried forward its improvements and its cultivation with a generous degree of success. Ile married Sabina Ritz, a daughter of John Ritz, one of Erie County's well known citizens. She was born, reared and educated in Berlin Township. They have one daughter, Mylitta, the only grandchild of Mrs. Youngs, and born November 3, 1900, and now a student in the Ber- lin Heights High School. The son is a republican voter.
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J. PHILIP BEMBOWER. The name Bembower during the past thirty- five years has acquired some substantial associations with the prosperous agricultural community of Berlin Townsbip. Mr. Bembower, though a native of Ohio, belongs to a thrifty and substantial German family, and as a farmer and eitizen has lived up to the best traditions and repu- tation of this fine elass of people.
Born in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, October 29, 1849, J. Philip Bem- hower is a son of Peter and Caroline (Stndt) Bembower. His mother was the daughter of Abraham Studt, who came with his wife in the early '50s to America and lived and died in Cleveland, passing away at the home of their daughter, Mrs. Bembower, Abraham at the age of eighty-two and his wife at the age of eighty-five. After Peter Bem- bower and wife were married they left Germany in 1846, spent several weeks on the ocean in a sailing vessel, and from New York City pro- ceeded by rail as far as Buffalo and thence by boat down Lake Erie to Cleveland. They bought a little farm east of the then City of Cleve- land, but it is now all incorporated within the limits and every acre is covered by houses. In the present city the limits of the old Bembower farm are marked by St. Clair and East Fifty-fifth streets and north to the lake. On that homestead Peter Bembower and his wife lived for many years, improved the land and subsequently divided and sold many lots therefrom. The mother died there in July, 1880, when about three score years old, and the father subsequently came to visit his son in Berlin Township and died there on January 4, 1888, when in his sixty- ninth year. He and his wife and his wife's parents are all buried in the Woodland Cemetery in Cleveland. All were members of the Evangelical (hnreh, and the father was a democrat in polities. The children were : Mary, who married Philip Venter, who died in January, 1915, in Huron County, and she died June 30, 1915. The next child in order of birth was J. Philip; John, now deceased, married Minnie Bolleubaeher, who is also deceased, and their two children, Henry and Emma, are both mar- ried and living in Ohio. Elizabeth is still unmarried and lives in Cleve- land; Nieholas went to Alaska, and while there was lost in the glaciers, being about fifty years of age at the time and a bachelor: Carrie, who lives in Cleveland, is the widow of Henry Gessner, and has two daughters and two sons.
In what was then known as East Cleveland J. Philip Bembower spent his early youth, and attended the public schools. His first regu- lar work was as a carpenter, a trade which he followed until he came to Berlin Township in 1877, and bought the fine farm he now oeenpies on the Norwalk Road near Berlinville. His farm comprises ninety-two aeres, all of it improved and with substantial buildings, comprising a red bank barn, 30 by 63 feet, and 24 feet high, and five other sheds and eribs. His home is one of the most comfortable dwellings in that part of the county, a two-story eleven-room honse and surrounding these buildings is an orchard of four acres, set to peaches, apples, cherries and pears. Mr. Bembower has made a success as a farmer, and raises general erops and keeps good stock.
In the City of Cleveland he married Miss Caroline Bollenbacher. who was born in 1852 in Lime Township of Huron County and was reared and educated there, a daughter of Charles and Catherine Bol- lenbacher, who were born in Prussia, Germany, and eame to the United States when young people. They were married in Lime Township and started housekeeping there on a farm. They died in Lime Township, her father in 1860 and her mother in 1873, when still in middle life.
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They were members of the Lutheran Church and her father was a democrat. All the six children in the Bollenbacher family are still living and are married, their names being Jacob, Charles, Dorothy, Mrs. Bembower, Henry and William. They live in Huron County with the exception of Mrs. Bembower, and William is a hardware merchant at Bellevue.
Mr. and Mrs. Bembower are the parents of four children. Their daughter Augusta, who like the others received good advantages in the local schools, is living at home. Charles is a farmer in Berlin Township and married Louisa Gross of Norwalk. John is living at home and is assisting in the management of the farm. William graduated from the Norwalk High School in 1906, subsequently took his degree from the State University at Columbus in 1911, then became a teacher and was identified with his work as a missionary teacher in India for four years. The family are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and Mr. Bembower and his sons are democrats though often independent voters.
JOHN ROMELL. What all men aspire to-a long and prosperous career, one filled with satisfying accomplishments of a material nature, the acquisition of standing and esteem in the community, a good home and honorable and useful children-is the achievement which serves to give special distinction to John Romell, who owns and occupies one of the fine rural homes close in to the Village of Berlin Heights. Mr. Romell, though he has lived more than three-quarters of a century, is still active and has a promise of many years of usefulness before him, a promise which his many friends and acquaintances hope will be realized.
A native of Germany, John Romell was born in Prussia July 14, 1838, of old German stock and aneestry. His father, John Romell, Sr., was a mason by trade, and died as a result of overwork when fifty years of age. Some years after John Romell came to the United States his mother died in the old country more than four score years of age.
Of this family the only one to identify himself with the United States is Mr. Romell of Berlin Heights. At the age of eighteen he started out alone, saying farewell to home and associations of his youth and embarking at Bremen and after a rough sea voyage of more than nine weeks was landed in New York City. After reaching Erie County he found work as a farm hand in the vicinity of Castalia. An evident willingness and capacity for hard work was his chief recommendation to those who employed him, but for several years he commanded only the usual wages prevailing for such labor, from $6 to $10 per month. Along with wholesome characteristics he had the habit of saving, and after a few years, in 1863, increased his obligations and responsibilities by his marriage to Elizabeth Alvatear. Mrs. Romell was born in Ger- many seventy-two years ago, and when nine years of age came to this country and to Erie County, and up to the time of her marriage was employed as a domestic in the homes of people in the Castalia neighbor- hood.
After his marriage Mr. Romell bought his first farm, comprising forty aeres, in the vieinity of Castalia, but some years afterward bought another place in Hurou County, and conducted it until 1891. Ile then came to the Village of Berlin Heights and for five years was well known to that community as preprietor of a popular hotel. In 1896 he bought thirty-four acres half a mile east of the village, and still owns that farm,
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which has some excellent improvements comprising a good house and barns and an' orchard of fruit trees. In 1905 Mr. Romell bought thirty acres nearby and part of it just outside the village limits of Berlin Ileights. This is his present home, and he lives there surrounded with all the comforts and conveniences which make life pleasant. For many years he has had a reputation as a successful grower of the staple erops, including corn, wheat, oats and potatoes.
Mr. and Mrs. Romell have lived together as man and wife for more than half a century, and in that time their home has been blessed with the coming of a number of children, six of whom are still living. Orin is a farmer near his father's home in Berlin Town- ship and was married but lost his wife; William lives on a farm near Shinrock, in Berlin Township, and his children are Mrs. Mabel Hine, George and Louise; John, Jr. is a farmer near Berlin Ileights and has two children, Leona and Edward; Peter lives with his father and is still unmarried; Catherine is the wife of Thomas Conlen, who is proprietor of a summer resort at Put-In Bay, on Lake Erie, and they have an adopted daughter named Mamie; Libbie is the wife of Edward Sutton, cashier of a savings bank at Chicago Junction, Ohio, and their three children are Howard E., Harry and Symera. Mr. Romell and his sons are republican voters. The family belong to the Presbyterian Church.
ALVA A. ST. JOHN. A native of the township in which he still main- tains his home, Mr. St. John is a representative of one of the prominent and honored pioneer families of Perkins Township and has himself long been numbered among the substantial and influential farmers and stock-growers of his native county, where it may consistently he said that his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.
On the old homestead farm of his father in Perkins Township Alva A. St. John was born on the 6th of December, 1848, so that he is rapidly approaching the age of three score years and ten, though with virtually unimpaired vigor of both mind and body and with unabated interest in the management of his fine farm and in the general affairs of the com- munity. He is a son of James B. and Emmeretta (Mills) St. John, both of whom were born and reared in the State of Connecticut, which had original domination over the fine old Western Reserve in Ohio, of which Erie County is an integral part. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this review was Burchard St. John, and he was a mem- ber of a sterling old family that was founded in New England in the colonial era of our national history.
James B. St. John and his father both came from Connecticut in an early day to number themselves among the pioneer settlers of the West- ern Reserve. They established their home in the midst of the virgin forests of Erie County, and were numbered among the very early set- tlers of what is now Perkins Township, where they literally hewed out productive farms from the forest wilds. Burchard St. John and his wife having been venerable and honored pioneer citizens of the town- ship and county at the time of their death. James B. St. John endured the full tension of arduous labor and hardships incidental to the pioneer days and by energy and indefatigable industry he eventually became one of the substantial farmers of Perkins Township, where he was in- fluential in community affairs and was respected for his ability and his invincible integrity in all of the relations of life. Ile passed away at a venerable age, as did his wife, their memory being revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle influence. Of the two chil- dren who still survive the honored parents the subject of this review is the younger, and the sister, Mary E., who still resides in Perkins Town- Vol. II-10
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ship, is the widow of William Hart, who was one of the successful farmers of this part of the county.
Alva A. St. John has been a resident of Perkins Township from the time of his birth and his early education was gained in the com- mon schools of Erie County. His fealty and allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture have never faltered and he has long held prestige as one of its progressive and successful representatives in his native county, his attractive homestead farm, not far distant from the City of Sandusky, comprising 121 acres of most fertile land, all main- tained under effective cultivation, and the buildings and other perma- nent improvements on the place being of excellent order,-tangible evidenees of thrift and prosperity.
Though he has had no ambition for political offiee Mr. St. John has always stood stanch forth as a liberal and publie-spirited eitizen and has been unswerving in his advocacy and support of the cause of the republican party. He attends and supports Calvary Church, Protestant Episcopal, in the City of Sandusky, of which his wife is a devoted com- munieant, their attractive home being a favored rendezvous for their host of friends in this favored section of the old Buckeye State.
On the 28th of September, 1871, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. St. John to Miss Fannie Devlin, who was born and reared in Huron Township, this county, a daughter of Walter and Jane (Foster) Devlin, both of whom were natives of Ireland and both of whom were residents for many years of Erie County, where they established their home in the pioneer days and where they continued to reside until their death. Mr. and Mrs. St. John have four children, concerning whom the fol- lowing brief record is entered in conclusion of this review: Mary E. is the wife of Burton Pelton, and they reside in the City of Sandusky, as does also Jane, who is the wife of Roy Wiggins; and Ayers and James are associated in the general work and management of the old homestead farm.
WILLIAM HART. In studying a clear-eut, sane and well ordered career such as that of the late William Hart, there is no need for indi- rection or puzzling, for his character was the positive expression of a noble and loyal nature and he marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement in his ehosen field of endeavor, though entirely free from ostentation and self-seeking. He was signally true in all of the relations of life and was resident of Erie County for many years before his death, which occurred at his fine farmstead home, in Perkins Township, on the 16th of November, 1907. He was one of the sturdy and honored representatives of the sterling class of German agrieultur- ists who have contributed much to the eivie and industrial development and progress of Erie County, and his character and accomplishment render most consistent the entering of this tribute to the memory of a good man and useful citizen.
Mr. Hart was born in Germany in the year 1831 and there received his early education. When about nineteen years of age he severed the ties that bound him to home and Fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in America, to which country he came without more than nominal financial resources but admirably fortified in energy, ambition and resolute purpose. After remaining for a time in the State of New York Mr. Hart came to Erie County, Ohio, and settled in Milan Town- ship, where he eventually became the owner of a good farm and where he maintained his residence many years and where he reared a large family of children. He finally disposed of his Milan Township farm and removed to Perkins Township, where he purchased the well
CHARLES C. HOFFMAN RESIDENCE AND GRAIN ELEVATOR, SILINROCK, OIIIO
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improved farm which continued to be his place of residence until the close of his life.
As a young man Mr. Ilart wedded Miss Louisa Hess, and they reared a large family of children, many of whom still survive the honored parents and continued their residence in Erie County. For his second wife Mr. Hart married Miss Mary E. St. John, who was born and reared in Perkins Township and who is representative of one of the early pioneer families of Erie County. She is a daughter of James B. and Emmeretta (Mills) St. John, both of whom were born and reared in the State of Connecticut, representatives of sterling eolonial families of New England. James B. St. John and his father, Burchard St. John, eame from Connectieut in an early day to number themselves among the pioneer settlers of the historie Western Reserve in Ohio. They established their home in the midst of the virgin forests of Erie County and were numbered among the early settlers of what is now Perkins Township, where both passed the remainder of their lives and where both contributed their quota to the initial and arduous work of reclaiming farms in the midst of the forest wilds. James B. St. John was one of the prominent farmers and influential citizens of Per- kins Township at the time of his death, in 1858, and his wife survived him by a number of years. Of their children only two are living,- Mrs. Ilart and her brother. Alva A., who is a prosperous farmer of Perkins Township and who is individually mentioned on other pages of this volume.
Mrs. ITart was reared and educated in her native township, which has been her home during the major part of her life, though she has resided for varying intervals in the City of Sandusky, where she re- mained fourteen years, and in the township of Milan. She is a woman of most gracious personality and has a host of friends in the county that has ever represented her home. She still resides upon the fine homestead farm of her father and mother in the very house in which she was born. No children have been born of their union. The attrac- tive home in known for its generous hospitality. Mrs. Hart attends the Baptist Church in the City of Sandusky, in which church she was married, and is a popular factor in church work and in the social activities of her home community. Her well improved farm comprises sixty aeres and is one of the valuable properties of Perkins Township. the place being eligibly situated on the interurban electric line, and receiving service on rural mail route No. 1 from the village of Huron.
CHARLES (. HOFFMAN. The man who supplies practically every branch in commercial service, both buying and selling, at the Village of Shinrock, and who more than any other one individual has succeeded in placing that village on the map as an important trading eenter, is Charles C. Iloffman. lle started modestly in 1899 with a small stock of general merchandise. He also handled grain for the farmers in that community and in 1905 saw the need of an elevator and built one with a capacity of 10,000 bushels. He now commands a large market. han- dling the grain and produce for the farmers miles around Shinrock, and there is hardly a commodity which could be mentioned which he does not buy or sell at some time in the course of the year. He handles about 100,000 bushels of potatoes annually. Ile also buys and sells coal and other supplies and deals extensively in all kinds of live stock. He feeds a large number of cattle, hogs and other stock every year, and has a specially equipped farm for this purpose, supplied with a large barn 40x80 feet. In the village his is the most conspicuous residence, a thir- teen-room modern home, of attractive appearance and furnished with every facility for health and comfort. Nearby is situated a large barn.
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It is one of the finest country homes in the county, and is just as modern as the residences of city dwellers, having hot and cold water, bath rooms, natural gas for fuel and lighting and there are a great many people who would well envy him the living comforts which he enjoys but which his remarkable business energy has well deserved. He also operates the old home farm in Berlin Township of sixty-two acres.
The Hoffman family is an old and prominent one in Berlin Town- ship and his parents were John and Christina (Klinger) Hoffman, more detailed information concerning whom will be found on other pages of this publication. Charles C. Hoffman was born July 13, 1869, and grew np and received his education in the public schools of Berlin Township. Ile has been one of the hustling men of the county and since an early age has made his own way. He has a large stock of native business capacity, and unlimited energy to carry out to success everything he undertakes. In addition to the other business service which he has directed at Shinrock he was for a number of years incumbent of the local postoffice. He is a republican in polities and lends his support to anything which would benefit the community.
Mr. Hoffman was married in Berlin Township to Maude M. Allen. She was born at Richmond, Macomb County, Michigan, forty-six years ago, and was reared and educated in her native state. Her father, Addi- son Allen, died in Michigan seven years ago when at a good old age, and the mother is still living in that state. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman are most hospitable, kind and genial people and are always ready to lead off in all local enterprises.
RICHARD STALEY. During many years of residence in Perkins Town- ship, Richard Staley has reached that enviable position where his word is accepted in business matters the same as a bond, and all his friends and acquaintances repose the utmost confidence in his judgment and in- tegrity. Mr. Staley is well known as a farmer, stoek raiser and stoek dealer, and at the present time is serving as a member of the board of trustees of Perkins Township. Ilis home is on Yankee Street, where he owns a farm of fifty acres, which he has acquired as a result of his own efforts and which he employs in farming and stock raising.
Richard Staley is a native of Herefordshire, England, where he was horn March 31, 1871, a son of Richard and Sarah (Greenhouse) Staley. His parents were natives of England, and his father is still living in that country. in the seventy-ninth year of his life.
Richard Staley, who was one of a large family of children, grew np and received his early edneation in his native land. In his eigh- teenth year he came to the United States taking a steamer at Liverpool and landing at Philadelphia. Ile came on to Erie County and for four years worked for others in Berlin Township. He then removed to Perkins Township, and in a few years was in business for himself. In addition to farming he has become widely known as a eattle dealer, and has also handled a large amount of real estate, mostly farm lands.
Mr. Staley married for his first wife Hattie Matson of Perkins Township, a daughter of Norman Matson, a Perkins Township farmer. By this marriage there was one son, Donald M. After the death of his first wife Mr. Staley married Mary Haffner, who was born in Amherst, Ohio. She is the mother of five children: John J., George, Viola II., Willis E., and a baby yet unnamed.
Mr. Staley has been more or less a figure in political affairs in Erie County for a number of years. In 1914 he was a candidate for the nomi- nation for county commissioner on the republican ticket, but after a friendly contest the nomination went to Henry Kelly of Milan Town- ship. Mr. Staley in August, 1914, was appointed a trustee to fill a
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vacaney on the board in Perkins Township, and is now giving much of his attention to those official duties. Ile is a staneh republican in politics, and a member of the Methodist Church. His course through life has been so directed as to gain the permanent ill will of no one, and at the same time he has made himself a positive factor in business and local affairs.
JULIUS HOUSE. Among the old and highly honored families of Erie County, Ohio, probably none is better known than that of House, of which a worthy representative is found in the person of Julius House, a prominent eitizen and snecessful agriculturist of Perkins Township. Three generations of this family have contributed to the general ad- vancement and development of this part of the state, the majority of the name having devoted their attention to the various departments of farming. All have been found to be men of honor and integrity, capable in the aequirement of personal independence and prosperity and eon- scientious in the performance of the duties of citizenship, and in these respects the one of whom present mention is made is no exception.
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