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 26
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Mr. C. Scott is the youngest living out of a family of eleven children. There are four daughters and three of the sons still living, and are married and heads of families. Mr. Scott married a Huron girl, Lonisa Ochs. She was born at Huron in September, 1856, and grew up and was educated in that vicinity. Her father, Wilhelm Ochs, was a native of Germany, came to the United States when a young man, and in Erie County married Lavina Wolverton. After their marriage they began housekeeping in Huron. Mr. Ochs, though he had learned the trade of potter, found no occupation in that work, and for a number of years was engaged in teaming which formed the bulk of his active life. He and his wife died in lluron when about seventy years of age. He was a republican in politics, and the Ochs family was represented among the best citizenship of that locality.
Mr. and Mrs. Scott have a family of capable children who do them honor. Clarenee, the oldest, was born reared and educated in Huron, was formerly a stenographer and is now connected with an illuminating company at Cleveland, and married Hazel Brown. William E. Scott, now twenty-nine years of age, was born in Huron, graduated in 1905 from the high school, and since that date has been aetively associated with his father in the fishing industry under the name C. Scott & Son. Ile married Carrie Beatty, and at their home on Iloman Street they have two sons, Harland and Edwin W. Clara L. is the wife of Lonis F. Rope, a brick mason at Akron, and they have a son named Robert Scott. Mildred L., who graduated from the local high school, is now a student in domestic science at the normal school in Kent, Ohio. Mr. Scott is a republican in politics, an ex-member of the council at Huron and also of the board of education. The children were reared in the Presbyterian faith as their religion.
PHMAP A. HUFFMAN. The benefits conferred upon the community by such a citizen as the late Philip A. Inffman should not soon be forgotten, and this brief memorial to his life and the record of his family relation- ship in Erie County are only an attempt to give credit where credit is due to a man who was for many years industrious and successful as a Farmer, had served his country well as a soldier during the trying days of the Civil war, and bore himself uprightly in all the varied relations of life.
When this excellent citizen passed away at his home in Berlin Town- ship on July 3, 1897, he was not yet sixty years of age. He was born at the old community of Bellview in Sandusky, Ohio, August 25, 1838, a son of Samuel and Eliza A. ( Watts) Huffman. The Huffmans were of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, while the Watts family was of English origin. Both parents were born and were married in Pennsylvania, and while living there, their first child, Louisa, was born. In the spring of 1838 this small family left the Keystone State and with wagons and teams started for Ohio. They reached Toledo, and then owing to the bad condition of the roads the young mother rode the rest of the way into Sandusky County on horseback with her baby in her arms. Having arrived near Bellview, Samuel Huffman bought and improved a farm from almost the primeval wilderness. Their first home was a little log
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shack which stood on the land when they took possession and his labors subsequently constructed a new log hut, but still of primitive accommo- dations. During the '50s he replaced these humble dwellings with a sub- stantial frame house which measured well up to the standards of com- forts and improvements of that time. It was in that home that Samuel and his wife died, he at the age of sixty-four, while his wife survived until December, 1880, at the age of seventy-one. His death resulted from blood poisoning, induced by a prick in the knee from a thorn of the osage orange. These were most excellent people, kind and considerate in all their relations, invaluable in times of need and distress in their community, and lived always in the fear of God and in the practice of the essential principles of Christianity. They were among the most active members of the Methodist Church at Bellview.
The late Philip Huffman was the first son and second child in a fam- ily of seven children, and was the first to be born in Ohio. Only two of these are still living. Ezra, who is married and lives in Sandusky County. was the first passenger conductor to take a passenger train over the Nickel l'late Railway and is now retired. Another son, Samuel, Jr., is a retired resident of Youngstown, Ohio.
On the old farm in Sandusky County Philip Huffman grew to man- hood, and his youthful strength did something toward the clearing up and improving the lands. His education, begun in the district schools, was continued at Berea in the higher institutions of learning at that place. When a young man of about twenty-four, in August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company B of the One Hundred and Twenty- third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Randolph and Colonel Wilson, and the regiment was part of General Milroy's Brigade. His brother Ezra was with him in the same company and together they served for a total period of three years. He escaped without wounds, but was twice taken prisoner. The first capture came at the battle of Winchester, and he remained in prison at Belle Isle in the James River until exchanged. Then while proceeding with his regiment to the battle- field at Gettysburg he was again captured, and this time became an in- mate of the notorious Libby Prison, and endured its horrors for several month before exchange. He again rejoined his command, and continued in the active service until his honorable discharge following the close of the war. He participated in the Grand Review at Washington with the other victorious troops of the Union, and the service of special interest was as a member of the bodyguard around the hier of Lincoln at Wash- ington.
With his return from the army Mr. Huffman lived on the old farm in Sandusky County until 1871, was married in that year. and somewhat later, in April, 1875, moved to Erie County. Here he bought 120 aeres in Berlin Township, and that place became the scene of his industrious endeavor as a farmer until his death. Mrs. Huffman still occupies the old home, and it is a place endeared to her by the associations and memo- ries of forty years. The late Mr. Huffman was a farmer who combined intelligence with his labors, and was well prosperous. He was likewise respected for his many amiable traits of character, was a true Christian man, and in politics a republican.
At the home of the bride in Berlin Township on June 8, 1871, Philip A. Huffman married Miss Jennie Knight. To this union was born a daughter, Uney L., on May 20. 1872. She died September 18, 1894. ITer husband is George Jenkins, who owns a fine farm in Berlin Town- ship comprising 117 aeres. Mr. Jenkins after the death of his first wife married Helen Knight, and they have five children.
Mrs. Huffman was born in Berlin Township November 23, 1849, and grew up and was educated near her old home. Since the death of
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Mr. Huffman eighteen years ago she has capably managed the farm and lives in comfort surrounded by a large circle of friends and relatives. Her parents were Simon and Ann ( Wheaton) Knight. They were both born in Devonshire, England, her father on December 9, 1819, and her mother on March 25, 1822. Both the Knights and Wheatons were of long lived families and had long been identified with the country of Southwestern England. Before the Knight family left England, one rhild, Richard, was born to them. In April, 1849, they embarked on a sailing vessel and spent five weeks in crossing the ocean to the New World. They landed in Quebec, Canada, and thence came up the waters of the river and Great Lakes to Sandusky, Ohio. The year 1849 is well remem- bered as the time of the great cholera epidemie. From Sandusky they rame on to UIuron and from there to Berlin Township, where Mr. Knight rented land and subsequently purchased a place of his own. He had many of the qualities which have long distinguished the thrifty Devon men, and in Erie County became one of the successful and influential citizens, and at the time of his death owned 425 acres, most of which was in a high state of improvement. He died in April, 1891, and his wife passed away August 16, 1887. She took a prominent interest in the Methodist Church and was a daughter of Rev. Richard Wheaton, a vig- orous exponent of Methodist doctrine in the old country who also came to Erie County and died here at the age of sixty-five. The Knight family belonged to the Episcopal Church. The late Mr. Knight was a repub- lican and had a considerable part in local affairs.
Mrs. Huffman was the second of three children. Her brother Richard Nash was born in England June 5, 1845, was reared in Erie County, now lives on a farm of sixty aeres in Berlin Township and by his marriage to Mary Egleson has three children. Mrs. Huffman's sister Lucy, born -July 19, 1852, was reared and edneated in Erie County and died at her home in Berlin Township in January, 1881, when not yet twenty- nine years of age. She married Frank A. Barrows, who was born in Avon, Lorain County, Ohio. November 30, 1847, and though educated for the law at Oberlin College did not practice, but instead became a farmer after his marriage, and is now one of the leading stock raisers in Erie County and has a fine place of 147 aeres. To Mr. and Mrs. Bar- rows were born two children. Eugenia died after her marriage to Henry Hoffman and left two children. Frank and Lester, Mr. Hoffman being still a farmer in Berlin Township. Samnel now lives on the farm with his father and is unmarried. Frank A. Barrows has been quite a factor in local polities, and for two terms, from 1880 to 1884, served as justice of the peace. The first twenty-five years of his life were spent in Lorain County, and having an excellent educational equipment he spent twelve years as a teacher in his native county and in Erie County. He has been successful much above the average as a farmer, and by capable manage- ment has what is properly regarded as one of the best improved places in Berlin Township.
ADAM E. WIKEL. Though a native of this section of Ohio, Mr. Wikel spent many years of his aetive manhood as a pioneer farmer in Nebraska, and from that state returned to Erie County some fifteen years ago. Mr. Wikel now has some excellent country property in Berlin Township, owns a fine home which is situated along rural route No. 2 out of Iluron. but is mainly retired from his business which gave him his prosperity and enabled him to take a substantial position in any community where he has lived.
He is a representative of substantial German stock, a son of Charles and Helen ( Root) Wikel. His father was born in 1825 in Rhenish. Bavaria, Germany, where the name was spelled Weichel. When sixteen
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years of age he came to the United States, arriving after a tedious voyage on a sailing vessel at New York City, and thence proceeded across the country to Erie County, Ohio. He grew to manhood at Weaver's Corner, near Bellevue in IFuron Township, where his uncle, Adam Wikel, had settled some years previously. After his marriage to Miss Root Charles Wikel became a farmer and lived part of the time in Huron County and part of the time in Milan Township of Erie County. He died Deeem- ber 16, 1890. He was a member of the German Lutheran Church and a demoerat in politics. His widow passed away November 24, 1901, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Peter Kriss at Huron. She was born in 1825 and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Charles Wikel for many years followed the business of auctioneer, and that wasa pur- suit which brought him into touch with people over a wide area and made him well known. Adam E. Wikel was the second son and child in a family of six sons and two daughters. Of these, Henry died at the age of thirteen, Marion died at twenty, and John died in Erie County at his farm in Milan Township, March 30, 1914, leaving a family of children. Besides Adam those now living are: Peter, who lives with his family at Floyd, New Mexico; Mary, widow of Peter Kriss, at Huron. and the mother of two daughters; Helen, wife of Lonis Cool, a farmer in Huron Township, and the mother of six children ; and Albert, who is a coal dealer at Huron and has one child living and one died in infancy.
In Oxford Township of Huron County Adam E. Wikel was born February 15, 1850. Ilis early life was spent on a farm, and he came to manhood with a liberal education, having finished at the normal school in Milan. After he went out to the Nebraska frontier he taught school one term. His arrival in the new and sparsely settled country of Nebraska was on April 1, 1871. Ile lived chiefly in Saunders County of that state and entered and improved three-quarter sections of land at different times. He had 160 acres comprising a timber culture claim in Holt County, and he recently sold that for $5,000, and still owns eighty acres partly improved in the same county. About fifteen years ago Mr. Wikel returned to Ohio, and spent four years at the Village of ITuron. For five years he was in St. Louis, Missouri, and during that time spent eighteen months as manager of a conerete factory and was also a tea merchant. In 1909 having returned to Erie County he bought his present home on section 4 near Ceylon in Berlin Township. ITis life has been one of industry accompanied with good business judgment, and he is now able to live retired and enjoy the fruits that have resulted from his well directed endeavors.
While living in Saunders County, Nebraska, in 1872, Mr. Wikel mar- ried Miss Martha E. Criss. She was born in Owen County, Indiana, May 2, 1851, and grew up and was educated there. At the age of nine- teen she accompanied her parents, Jonathan and Mary (Grimes) Criss. who were natives of, and were married in, Ohio, on their journey with teams and wagons as part of a colony of five families, across the country to the wild and untamed prairies of Nebraska. They arrived in that state in the fall of 1871, and Mr. Criss took up a homestead in Chester Township, of Saunders County. At that time there was not a tree nor house in sight, and the Criss home was eighteen miles from the nearest postoffice. Mrs. Wikel has many interesting recollectons of her early life in that state. She reealls the sod schoolhouses and churches. and in a country where lumber was practically unobtainable, many of the inhabitants lived either in dugouts or in box or sod houses. Among other unpleasant features was the presence of numerous rattle snakes. In the course of time Mr. Criss and his wife improved a good home, and he died at Wahoo, Nebraska, at the age of sixty-eight and his wife at the
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age of sixty-five. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Wikel have the satisfaction of having reared children and seeng them already well established in positions of usefulness and honor. Charles, the oldest son, who is a farmer in Berlin Township, married Ellen Scott, and they have a daughter named Violet. Ilelen, now deceased, married Rev. Henry St. Louis, formerly a pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Nebraska and still engaged in the min- istry in Missouri, and by that union there were three children, Ilazel, Lois and Elno. Burton, who is a farmer in Berlin Township, married Della MeKnight, who by a former marriage has two children, Warren and John MeKnight. Maude is the wife of Charles W. Cordes, who lives in Chicago but is a railway mail clerk with a run over the Rock Island road from Chicago to West Liberty, lowa. The daughter Grace died at the age of twelve years. Ona, who was graduated from the high school at St. Louis in 1909, has spent five years as a successful teacher in Berlin and Milan townships. Mr. and Mrs. Wikel are members of the Methodist Church, which faith has also been embraced by their children, and he has for nineteen years given service to the church in the capacity of trustee and other offices. In politics he upholds the principles of the prohibition party.
JACOB OTTO. For more than forty-five years Jacob Otto has lived in Erie County. He came to America a young German youth, with no special knowledge of the language or the institutions of the New World, and without capital and influential friends. He gained a foothold as a result of steady industry, married and established a home as a farin renter, and now for many years has owned a very attractive and profitable farmstead along the Lake Erie shore in Berlin Township. His postoffice is Huron, and his residence is in Berlin Township.
Jacob Otto was born in Hessen Darmstadt, Germany, February 22. 1850, and is of solid German stock. His parents were Christopher and Elizabeth (Peck) Otto, natives of the same town and province. They and their parents lived and died at Hesse Darmstadt, and the different generations have furnished farmers as a rule, and there have been large families. Mr. Otto is of a class of people naturally long lived, and among his ancestors only his Grandfather Peek passed away in comparatively early life. The family religion has been that of the Reformed Church. Jacob Otto was the third in a family of eleven children. Two of his brothers are still living in Germany, and have families. Jacob was one of the two children who came to the United States. His sister, Elizabeth, was married in Germany to Peter Switzer, and subsequently came to the United States locating in Sandusky, where both have since died. She died in Angust, 1912, leaving four living children. Jacob Otto grew up in his native land as a German farmer boy and had a common school education. At the age of nineteen, in 1869, he left Bremen on the ship America, and after two weeks landed in New York City. He proceeded at once to Erie County, Ohio, to the Village of Vermilion, and has lived in the county ever since with the exception of two years in Lorain County. For abont fifteen years he was a renter in Berlin Township, and in 1894 made his first purchase of land along the lake shore. This land borders the lake shore for eighty rods. It comprises 109 acres, though a part of it is taken for the street car right of way, the public highway, and the land is all well drained and highly fertile and valuable. Mr. Otto has placed three sets of building improvements, and two of these are occupied by his sons. His own home is a large and substantial residence sur- rounded with good barns and other buildings. His farm has been notable for its fruit production. At one time he had a crop of 1,400 bushels
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of peaches, and has also given much attention to small fruit and grapes. lie is a practical, hard-neaded business man, and has hved a life of earnest purpose and useful activity.
Mr. Otto was married in America, but his wife was the sweetheart of his early years back in Germany. Her name was Elizabeth C. Ries, who was born on a farm near that on which her husband grew up. The date of her birth was February 10, 1845, and she grew up in her native town. Her parents were llenry and Elizabeth (Jager) Ries. Her father was a carpenter, and both parents were natives of Hesse-Nassau, and in 1876 came to the United States. Both lived in Berlin Township of Erie County. Her father was eighty-one and her mother eighty-three when death came to them. They were members of the Reformed Church, and her father was a democrat. Mrs. Otto had one brother, Henry Ries, who came to the United States, married, and left a large family of six sons and three daughters. Henry Ries was a first-class carpenter, and was acci- dentally killed on the Nickel Plate Railway when in the prime of life.
Mr. and Mrs. Otto may take due pride in their fine family of chil- dren, whom they have reared and given substantial help in becoming independent. Anna, the first child, died at the entrance to a promising young womanhood. Mary is the wife of John Huff, a farmer in Berlin Township, and their two sons are Philip and John. Catherine E. is the wife of John Reiber, a farmer in Vermilion Township, and their children are named Catherine, George and Edna E. Amelia C. married Fred Ackermann, a farmer in Berhn Township, and their little house- hold of five children comprise Edward, Caroline, Catherine, Martin and Ruth. llenry is an employee in the car works at Milan in Erie County, and by his marriage to Pearl Jenkins has two children, William and Viola. Christina is the wife of Louis Ackermann, a farmer in Berlin Township. Jacob II. is on part of his father's farm, married Carrie Stryker and has three children, Mary, Edward and Charles. George William lives on a fine home that is a part of his father's estate located at the little place known as Ceylon Junction; he married Anna Wall of Vermilion, and they have a daughter, Wallena. Mr. and Mrs. Otto and family are members of the Reformed Church, and the father and sons are all democrats in politics.
PHILIP KNEISEL. Probably none of the first class rural homesteads of Berlin Township represent a more successful co-operation between the industry of the husband and the thrift and economy of the wife than the Kneisel farm, situated along rural route No. 2 out of Huron. Mr. Kneisel possesses the solid hard working ability characteristic of his German ancestry, but he credits his success in buying and paying for a fine property largely to the influenee and assistance of his good wife, who has not only looked well after the ways of her household but has proved herself the master of many important details of farm and business management.
The Kneisel farm comprimes 1051% aeres of fine land, all well im- proved. Their home is a comfortable six-room house, and a recent addi- tion to the group of improvements is the new barn, on a foundation 36x52 feet. The old barn is a structure 28x40 feet. Mr. Kneisel as a crop grower has succeeded in prodneing all the staples of Erie County, and also keeps excellent grades of live stock. They bought this farm in 1903.
Mr. Kneisel has lived in Erie County nearly all his active life, and has always been identified with farming in some capacity or other. HIe was born in Germany, February 23, 1865, a son of Martin and Elizabeth (Apple) Kneisel, both of whom were born, reared and married in the old country. Martin Kneisel by a former marriage had four children,
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John C., Conrad, Anna and George, all of whom are now toarried and living in the United States. By the second marriage Martha and Philip Kneisel were both born in Germany, and in April, 1865, the family came from Bremen to New York City, and thence proceeded westward to Erie County, and in the same spring the father bought eighty-five acres in Brownhehn Township in Loram County. lle -lived there engaged in the work of improvement and cultivation until his death, May 11, 18933. flis widow passed away July 10, 1908. Ile was a democrat and they had membership in the Reformed Church. All their children, three daughters and two sons, are now married and well established in homes ot their owIl.
It was only a few days after the birth of Philip Kneisel that the family set out for America, and all his associations and memories are with this country. He spent his early years on his father's farm, attended the public schools, and lived at home until twenty-four. For two years he had rented the homestead, and thus got his start in life. In Berlin Township, on March 5, 1889, he married Elizabeth Knott, who was born in Vermilion Township, January 13, 1868, and was educated in the local schools there. As is true in the careers of many men, mar- riage was the event which started Mr. Kneisel on the steady road and climb to prosperity. He and his good wife have worked hard and now have the satisfaction of possessing a good farm home and having an ample supply of this world's goods to satisfy their own needs and to provide for their children. Mrs. Kneisel is a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Shildt) Knott, who were born in Hesse, Germany, the former Septen- ber 8, 1839, and the latter September 10, 1835. Before they left their native land one child, Catherine, was born. In 1867 they eame by way of Bremen and New York City to Vermilion Township in Erie County, and subsequently settled in Berlin Township, where Mr. Knott rented a farm until about 1876, when he bought eighty-two acres situated on rural route No. 2. He has sinee lived there, and still enjoys good health and he and his wife are members of the Reformed Church. Of the chil- dren born in this county besides Mrs. Kneisel there are JJohn, Anna, George, Philip, now deceased, and Henry, John and Henry being still unmarried.
Mr. and Mrs. Kneisel have three children. Albert II., born September 5, 1891, spent two years in high school, and is now a practical farmer living with his father. Karl E., born May 29, 1896, also has his home with his parents, but for several years has worked as an employee of the Street Railway Company and factories. Elma E., born February 2. 1899, is now a student in the high school at Berlin lleights. The family are all members of the Reformed Church, and Mr. Kneisel is a democrat and affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees at Vermilion.
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