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 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114
Mrs. Reighley is a daughter of Alvin and Naney (Driver) Minkler. Her father was born in Geauga County, Ohio, December 10, 1824, and her mother was born January 30, 1830, in Maryland, and eame with her parents, Wesley and Ruth (Barnes) Driver, to Erie County in 1835. The members of the Driver family were farmers, spent the rest of their lives in Vermilion Township, and were members of the Methodist Church. Alvin Minkler was also a farmer and died in Vermilion Township May 15, 1904. llis parents were John and Asenath (Call) Minkler, who were born in Grand Isle, Vermont, and coming to Ohio settled in Geauga County and later in Erie County. They died in Vermilion Township, Mr. Minkler at the age of eighty-six and his wife at eighty. He was a whig in politics, and the family were Methodists. Mrs. Reighley was the oldest of five ehildren. Her brother Orlando is a prosperous farmer in Lorain County, and has two sons, Earl and Clifford, and a daughter, Enverne. The sister Mina, who died in 1912, was the wife of Jacob Lippus, who is a farmer at Berlin Heights, and has two children, Win- field and Alvin. Mrs. Reighley's sister Dora is the widow of M. E. Buek- ley, and she lives at Brownhelm in Lorain County, and has three chil- dren, Eleanor, Carmen and Nellie. Her brother Elmer is a farmer in Lorain County, and has five children-Lee, Hazel, Ruth, Clyde and Laura.
Mrs. Reighley's oldest child is Alice M., who received liberal advan- tages and for the past twenty years has been one of the sueeessful teaeh- ers in Erie County and still pursues that voeation, making her home with her mother. Leona Ann is now the wife of William Coultrip, Jr., a farmer in Lorain County, and their children are named Merle May and Myron Paul. The son Orlando Peter, who was edueated in the pub- lie schools and finished at the Northern Ohio University at Ada, spent several years in teaching, but has since developed into a eapable farmer. owning part of the old homestead and managing the cultivation of all the land left by his father. Orlando P. Reighley married Helen Champ- ney, who was born in Vermilion Township and educated there. Their one child is John Francis, now six years old. Mrs. Reighley was reared in the United Brethren Church, and her husband was a demoerat in national polities.
DAVID J. STEPHENS. On the east side of Berlin Township is located "The Rock Hill Valley Farm," an estate that for a great many years has been in the possession of the Thorp family and is now owned by David 1. Stephens. Both the Stephens and Thorp names and relation- ships have been identified with Erie County a great many years. and there are a number of facts which could be noted in the career of David J. Stephens and of his connections.
HIe was born in Huron Township, July 14, 1851, a son of William H. and Mary (Havelick) Stephens. His parents were natives of Pennsyl- vania and of a mingling of English and French stock. His father was born in 1805, and after his marriage, which oceurred in the late '20s or early '30s, they moved out to Erie County and made settlement on a hazel brush farm not far from Bogarts and Rays Corners in the western part of ITuron Township. As a farmer William Stephens was a man of
756
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
industry and enterprise and did a great deal toward the improvement of his land before his death, which occurred in May, 1860. ilis activities were not confined to the simple routine of farming. He was also a hard working churchman and a baptist preacher, and also served as a captain of home guards under General Lindsley. Before his death the conflict between the North and the South had been foreseen and he was prepared to serve his country, but died before the issues were joined in arms. One of his cousms was the noted Alexander HI. Stephens of the Southern Confederacy. His widow afterwards married Thomas Feagles, who died in 1873, and for her third husband married Emory Cosier. She survived all these husbands, and died at the home of her son, David J., in 1905, being without children by her last two marriages. William II. and Mary Stephens had the following children: Washington H. enlisted at the first call for ninety days troops in the Civil war, went to Washington, District of Columbia, and while in service there was appointed to a position in the United States treasury department, and continued to be identified with that department of the United States Government for more than forty years, and died in the harness in 1905. Elizabeth, the second child, died in Indiana in 1905 when quite an old woman, and left several children. William and Susan, the next born, were twins, and Susan now lives at the home of a daughter in Cleveland, while William received a broken neek and died while attempting to stop a runaway team. Isaiah is now deceased, and further mention of his career will be found in a sketch of his son, Edward S. Stephens. Jefferson P. went through the Civil war as a soldier, later became a locomotive engineer with the Baltimore & Ohio, and was widely known among his railroad friends as "old Jeff," and died with his hand on the throttle of his engine near Monroeville in Erie County; he was married and left a family. Mary first married Jesse Green, who died in Perkins Township, and her present husband is Darius Plum, also of Perkins Township. The next in the family is David J., while the youngest, Andrew, died when two years of age.
From the age of eleven David J. Stephens was reared in Berlin Township, and finished his education in the Milan High School. He has been unusually successful in business affairs and as a progressive farmer, and for many years has owned 140 aeres of first class land with the best of improvements. He has instituted a system of tile drainage, connected up with the county ditch, and has his farm well stocked and in the best of condition for productive agriculture. The specially noteworthy feature of the Rock Hill Valley Farm is twenty acres of undeveloped quarry. It is a fine stone and tests which have been made show that for fifty-five feet depth the stone is without a seam. The farm is also served by a fine spring of unfailing water situated elose to the house and barns, and from this spring water is secured to supply not only the live stock but also the home from cellar to garret.
Mr. Stephens was married in Berlin Township to Miss Phoebe Thorp. She was born, reared and educated in Berlin Township, close to where she now lives. Her grandfather, Nathaniel Thorp, came from Con- necticut. He was a very poor man when he arrived in Erie County, and had in addition to his clothes only a bible, two shillings and a package of apple seeds, which he later planted and some of the trees that grew from these seeds are still standing. He started work among the pioneers and eventually acquired 220 acres of first class land, and lived to see it improved into a fine farm. He died at the home where he first established himself as a farmer, and was eighty-two years of age. He was married in Berlin Township, but outlived his wife many years. Mrs. Stephens is a daughter of Jeremiah Thorp, who spent all his life on his
757
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
father's old homestead in Berlin Township and was past sixty when he died. Jeremiah married Dolly Swan, who was born in New York State, came to Erie County when a child, and died when past seventy years of age at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Stephens. Besides Mrs. Stephens Jeremiah Thorp and wife were the parents of Sarah, who married David Hill of Amherst, Ohio. They have seven children. The Thorp family were all Baptists, and the male members were republicans in polities.
Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Stephens a brief record is as follows: Mary D., who was educated in the Berlin High School, is now the wife of Andrew Sehisler of Florence Township, who is a praetieal farmer there, and they have two children named Andrew and Catherine. Jeremiah N., the seeond child, married Grace Corbin, and they live in Vermilion, where he is engineer for the town waterworks system, and have one son, David C. William II., who graduated from the Berlin Heights High School and the Oberlin Business College, is now teller in the First National Bank of Berlin Heights, and married Iva Glime. Lloyd D. completed his education in the grade schools and is now assist- ing his father in the management of the farm.
Mr. Stephens is a republican, and is master of Florence Grange No. 1844, Patrons of Husbandry, and was also one of the organizers of this grange and its first master. Through his individual enterprise and his influential leadership he has been an active factor in agricultural development. For eight years he was commander of the local camp of the Maccabees, but is now demitted from that order, and is also affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. Mr. Stephens is a man of scholarly tastes and pursuits and has given much time and investigation to genealogy. His principal work is a 300 page volume concerning the genealogy of the Mosher family. In compiling this work he spent many weeks in New England, searching the musty records of Boston and other localities. A few years ago he also made a two months' trip to England and Europe and went across on the Mauretania, the sister ship to the Lusitania.
FREDERICK HILDEBRANDT. Among the men who have gained suecess as farmers and fruit growers in Berlin Township should be numbered Frederick Hildebrandt, who came to America from Germany more than forty years ago, for several years earned his livelihood as a common laborer on the railroad, and from the surplus of his earnings invested in small traets of land in Erie County, which he has sinee increased both in quantity and improvement and is now one of the substantial members of the community, and is furnishing good service to the township as road trustee, the duties of which position require much of his time.
Born in Brandenburg. Prussia, February 13, 1842, he was of an old line family of that kingdom, a son of John and Fredericka (Ilauek) Hildebrandt. His father was a farm laborer and died in Prussia in middle life. He and his family were members of the Lutheran Church. Frederiek Hildebrandt was the only son and child of that union. The mother married again, wedding Ludwig Budzin, who died in Ottawa County, Ohio. She died in the old country in 1858. The son of the second marriage, William, is also in the United States and is a bachelor farmer, making his home with the subject of this review.
Frederick Hildebrandt grew up in his native country, and from early years was trained to hard labor with little remuneration. He was married in his native state to Christiana Schutt, who was a native of the same seetion as her husband, born there in 1840 and reared and educated in the same locality. After one child had been born to their union,
758
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Reca, Mr. and Mrs. Hildebrandt left Germany in 1872 on the sailing ship Ganch from Bremen, and after a voyage of seven weeks landed in Balti- more. When the vessel was one week out Mr. Hildebrandt was stricken with the smallpox, suffered much from the disease but recovered, and after landing in Baltimore spent three weeks in the hospital helping to care for the other sufferers from that disease. He later came on west to Ottawa County, Ohio, and there found employment on the Lake Shore Railway, working himself up from the position of a common laborer until he was made watchman and had to do with the maintenance of signals. He was with the railroad company in this capacity for two years, and was then appointed baggage agent at Martin, Ohio, for another two years. In the meantime he had invested in twenty aeres of land and established a comfortable home. These facts are substantial evidence of his thrift and progressive character. Ile had to earn every dollar that went to the support of his family and to the slowly growing surplus. Later he became foreman of a section gang and was in that work with the railroad until 1900. In that year Mr. Hildebrandt moved to Berlin Township, Erie County, and bought forty acres of land on the Ridge Road. It was already well improved and in 1904 he added ten aeres more. He has a large and well furnished house, a substan- tial set of farm buildings, and grows several varieties of fruit and has two acres of vineyard.
In 1875 he lost his first wife, and she was survived by two children, Franz and Riea, both of whom are now married and have families of their own. For his second wife Mr. Hildebrandt married Caroline Kratzer, who was also born in Germany, February 16, 1851. She died April 7, 1910. The children of the second marriage are Lena, John, Charles, Ida, Anna, Arthur and Freda, all of them married except the last three, and those married all have children. Mr. and Mrs. Hilde- brandt are members of the Lutheran Church and in polities he is a demoerat.
SAMUEL AYRES. The Ayres family is one of the most highly re- spected in the Village of Berlin Heights, where Samuel Ayres has spent many years and in all the varied relations of life has given a good account of himself and has practiced and accepted such opportunities as came to him for service to the community and his neighbors.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, April 17, 1849, Samuel Ayres comes of old Quaker stock. His parents were William and Sarah Jane (Sherwood) Ayres. His father was born in Dutchess County, New York, July 4, 1825. The mother was born in Huddersfield, England, March 14, 1821, and came to the United States at the age of sixteen on a sailing vessel with her parents, James and Mary A. Sherwood. The Sherwoods acquired a farm in Dutchess County, New York, six miles west of the Hudson River, and there James and his wife spent the rest of their lives. He died at the age of eighty-seven and she when about seventy-five. They were members of the Episcopal Church and of substantial English stock. William Ayres after his marriage to Miss Sherwood lived in Dutchess County, New York, until 1858. In the meantime their children were all born there and were partly edu- cated in the schools at Poughkeepsie. They then set out for the West and arrived at Berlin Heights, Erie County, where William Ayres bought a farm two and a half miles west. He lived there with his family until the beginning of the Civil war, when he returned to the Village of Berlin ITeights and died February 9, 1867. His widow survived until May 16, 1900. William Ayres, though a birthright Quaker, after his marriage accepted his wife's faith and they both attended the Epis- copal services conducted at Huron, Ohio, many years ago by Rev.
759
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Samuel Marks. Of the children born to William Ayres and wife brief mention is made of the following: Mary is the widow of Samuel Win- cenread, lives in Berlin Heights, and her daughter Alberta is the wife of M. J. Davis, an attorney and connected with the city government of Detroit; Samuel; Fannie, wife of William Downing, now living at Dowling in Dutchess County, New York; Emma married Charles MeQuay, and she died while on a visit to her sister in Dowling, New York, in 1914, while he died in 1913, and they left one son, Charles D. McQuay.
When the Ayres family came to Erie County in 1858 Samuel was about nine years of age. Ilis education had been begun in New York State, he attended local schools in Erie County, and afterwards returned to Poughkeepsie and took a course in telegraphy, finishing in 1875. He soon afterwards became connected with the Michigan Southern Railway as operator at Ceylon Station, but after a year or so took another voca- tion, as a painter, and for a dozen years did a large amount of work in this community as a house painter and decorator. The interests by which Mr. Ayres has been chiefly identified with Berlin Heights are centered in what is known as the Dr. Benjamin Hill farm of ten acres. located in the heart of the village. Mr. Ayres bought this farm many years ago and has lived there ever since. On the land was a fine twelve- room house, and Mr. Ayres has taken pride in keeping up the appear- anee and the convenient arrangement of this attractive residence. He has on the land 500 peach trees and 100 pear trees, and formerly was successfully engaged in growing small fruits. He bought this farm and has lived there since 1887.
On October 24, 1879, in Berlin Township Mr. Ayres married Miss Ida J. Crossman, who was born in Fairfield County, Connecticut, March 2, 1858, was educated partly in Connectient and partly in Berlin Town- ship. She came to Erie County at the age of sixteen. Her parents were Nelson and Lois J. (Webb) Crossman, both natives of Connecti- cut, where they spent all their lives. Her father died March 14, 1901. having been born in 1827, and his widow is still living in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and was eighty-three years of age on Christmas Day of 1914. Nelson Crossman was a Connecticut farmer, a democrat in politics, and he and his wife were members of the Congregational Church. Ile was a son of Nelson and Lovisa Thorp Crossman, and the latter, after the death of Mr. Crossman's father, married Alfred Taylor, and they came to Erie County and located in Berlin Township, where they lived for some years. Mr. Taylor died when past eighty years of age, and his widow subsequently came to Berlin Heights and died there at the age of seventy-eight. Both were members of the Congregational Church.
Mrs. Ayres was one of three children, second in age. Her sister, Carrie Lovisa, is the wife of Arthur Bradley, and they now live in Western Connecticut and have a daughter Edna, who is the wife of Chester Coley, and their home is at Chestnut Hill, Connecticut. Lottie Webb is the wife of David Hurlbutt, and they live at Cannon Station in Connecticut, and their son Nelson is married and lives at the same place.
On Christmas Day of 1882 Leon B. Ayres was born into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Ayres. He was educated in the Berlin Heights High School, completed a business college course at Oberlin, and later became cashier of the Berlin Heights Banking Company, filling that place with much credit to himself and satisfaction to his employers for ten years. Ill health compelled him to resign the confining duties of banking, and he went to Lansing, Michigan, and has since made himself a factor in business affairs there as secretary and treasurer of the
760
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Standard Realty Company. Leon Ayres was married December 18, 1909, at Ceylon Station, to Bessie Temple. She was born in Indiana, but grew up and received most of her education in Berlin Township. Her father, Murray . Temple, is the agent of the Nickel Plate Railway at Ceylon Station, and for many years has been in the employ of that railway. Mr. Leon Ayres and wife have two children : Anna Lois, born November 18, 1911, and Robert, born July 28, 1913. Mr. Samuel Ayres and his son are both republicans in politics.
JOHN G. GUNZENHAUSER. For more than half a century the name of the Gunzenhauser has been worthily linked with the eivie and business activities of Erie County, and it has at all times stood exponent of ster- ling personal character and of steadfastness and reliability in all of the relations of life. He whose name introduces this character is fully up- holding the prestige of the name which he bears and is recognized as one of the representative business men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of the attractive little city of Huron, which has been his home from the time of his birth.
Mr. Gunzenhauser is a son of Jacob and Magdalena (Saurer) Gun- zenhauser, both of whom were born in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, the former in 1836 and the latter in 1843. Mrs. Gunzen- hauser was a daughter of Philip and Mary Saurer, and was a child at the time of the family immigration to America, the voyage having been inade on a sailing vessel and sixty-five days having been consumed in crossing the Atlantic, the delay having been due to storms and other unpropitious conditions. Soon after arriving in the United States the family eame to Erie County, Ohio, and established their home on a small farm one mile east of Huron, which place was then a small village. On this homestead, one-half mile distant from the shores of Lake Erie, the parents passed the residue of their lives, Mr. Saurer having attained to the venerable age of eighty-eight years, and his wife having been sum- moned to eternal rest when she was seventy-eight years of age. Both were highly esteemed citizen of the county for many years and both were devout communicants of the Catholic Church.
Jacob Gunzenhauser was but seven years old at the time of his father's death, but his mother lived to attain the remarkable age of ninety years, she having been a woman of splendid physical constitu- tion and having continued active until the time of her death, it being known that she was able to read without glasses and did not adopt the same until after she had become an octogenarian. In 1853, shortly after the death of his father, Jacob Gunzenhauser came to the United States in company with his maternal uncle, Jacob Bauer, several weeks having elapsed before the sailing vessel, on which they had embarked in the City of Hamburg, reached port in New York City. From the national metropolis the journey was continued to the City of Syracuse, New York, and there young Jacob entered the service of the owner of a brew- ery. Though a mere boy he was of the sturdiest physique and while yet in his 'teens he proved his capacity to do the arduous work of a man of mature age and developed physical powers. Prior to attaining to his legal majority he instituted his independent carcer and came to San- dusky, the judicial center of Erie County, where he entered upon an apprenticeship to the butcher's trade. After acquiring skill in his trade he removed to the Village of Huron, where he found employment in the pioneer meat-packing establishment of Wright Brothers, a firm with which he continued to be associated several years. In the meantime he wedded Miss Magdalena Sanrer, but within a brief period after he had thus become a benedict he subordinated all else to the call of loyalty to the land of his adoption and tendered his services as a soldier of the
761
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Union in the Civil war. He enlisted in a regiment that was recruited principally in Erie County, but his assignment of duty was not at the front but as one of those upon whom devolved the responsibility of guarding the Confederate prisoners who were sent to the Federal prison on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, many distinguished Confederate officers having been confined in this famous prison. Mr. Gunzenhauser continued in the Union service three years, and made a record for faith- ful and effective service, one that reflects as great honor npon his name as would have been the ease had he been called to the stage of active warfare. He received his honorable discharge at the close of the war and then returned to Huron, where he shortly afterward established a meat market, on lower Main Street. Through effective service and hon- orable methods he developed a substantial and profitable business, and with the passing years he made two removals of his market, his final loca- tion having been on the site of the present Huron station of the electric interurban line. He continued as one of the industrious, successful and highly honored business men of Huron for many years and after gaining a competency he sold his well equipped market, the remainder of his life having been passed in peace and prosperity and in well earned retirement from business. He died in July, 1901, at the age of sixty- three years. His first wife, mother of the subject of this review, died in 1880, and seven years later he married Mrs. Augusta Meyers, whose family name was HIelmick. Shortly after his second marriage he re- moved to his fine farm a portion of which tract lies within the corporate limits of Huron, and there he passed the remainder of his life. His widow passed away in 1907, when abont sixty years of age. By her mar- riage to Frederick Meyer she became the mother of two children who survive her. The one child of the second marriage died at the time of birth.
Jacob Gunzenhauser was a man of well fortified opinions, was liberal and loyal as a citizen, was unfaltering in his support of the cause of the republican party, and though he was reared in the faith of the Catholic Church he became a communicant of the German Evangelical Church in the United States. Mr. Gunzenhanser served as an efficient mem- ber of the village council of Huron and also a member of the school board, as a representative of which he was assigned to the committee that had in charge the erection of the present high-school building.
Concerning the children of Jacob and Magdalena (Saurer) Gunzen- hanser the following brief record is entered :
Jacob. married Miss Lena Hart and both are now deceased, their one surviving child being Lura. Anna is the wife of Captain Henry Peterson, who was long and prominently identified with navigation inter- ests on Lake Erie and who is now residing in the West, his wife having died without issue. John G., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth. Elizabeth beeame the wife of Frederick S. Oaks and both are deceased, their one surviving child being Catherine, who is the wife of William ('anfield, of Detroit, Michigan, and who had one child, Ann, now deceased. Minnie is the wife of Dr. N. E. Woessner, a representa- tive physician and surgeon engaged in practice at Huron, and they have one danghter, Lyna. Henry, who is a pipe-entter by trade, is employed in a tube manufactory at Lorain, and is a bachelor. George died at the age of four years. Andrew was drowned on the 9th of Feb- bruary, 1880, while playing on the ice in Huron River, and was a child of three years at the time of his tragic death.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.