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 49
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sentative of one of the old, well-known and highly honored families of this favored section of the state.
Mr. Hinde was born on the homestead farm of his parents in lluron Township, this county, on the 15th of July, 1863, and is a son of William Joseph Hinde and Ellen (O'Birne) Hinde, both natives of Ireland, the father having been born in County Galway, on the 11th of November, 1810, and the mother having been born in County Carlow, on the 6th of December, 1824. William Joseph Hinde was a son of Thomas and Mary (Galway) Hinde, the former of whom passed his entire life in the Emer- ald Isle and the latter of whom came with her children to America. Wil- liam J. Ilinde was one of the patriarchal citizens of Erie County at the time of his death, which occurred at his beautiful home in Huron Town- ship on the 29th of July, 1905, only a few months prior to his ninety-fifth birthday anniversary. He was reared and educated in his native county, and after the death of his father he came with his widowed mother and other members of the family to the United States, the family company having included his brothers Patrick, James, Robert, Edward and Joseph, and his sister Amanda. He was about nineteen years of age at the time of this immigration, in 1829, and for seven years after leaving his native land he had been bound out or indentured to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, in which he became an expert artisan. Ile finally came to Erie County, and here found ready demand for his services in the work of his trade. He became one of the best known ship carpenters along the Ohio shores of Lake Erie, and his work took him also to other important lake ports, including the City of Buffalo, New York. He was engaged in working at his trade at many of the important ports along the Ohio shores of the lake, though he always looked upon Erie County as his home and the center of his interests. This sturdy and valued artisan assisted in the building of many vessels and smaller craft placed in commission in the navigation service of the Great Lakes, and he gained wide reputa- tion for his splendid skill as a mechanic, as well as for his unalloyed steadfastness and integrity of purpose in all of the relations of life. His course was guided and governed by the highest principles, he was liberal and broad-minded, and he commanded the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men until the close of his significantly long and useful life. For a number of years he lived on the Huron Township farm of sixty-five acres that had come as an inheritance to his wife, and he even- tually added to the area of his landed estate by the purchase of a farm of 118 acres and the later obtaining of an adjacent tract of forty acres. He was thus numbered among the representative agriculturists of the county for a long period of years, and upon his homestead he erected in 188I a house that was considered at the time to be the most perfect in construction to be found in Erie County. He also erected excellent barns and other farm buildings on his homestead place, and his entire active career was marked by energy, enterprise and mature judgment. Though he was a communieant of the Catholic Church and zealous in its support, he was never intolerant or bigoted, but had appreciation of the good qualities of others, was willing to permit to his fellow men the same latitude in opinion which he himself claimed, and he was always ready to aid in the furtherance of those measures projected for the gen- eral good of the community. Mr. Hinde was one of the most honored, even as he was one of the most venerable, citizens of Huron Township at the time of his death, and his memory is revered by those who came within the compass of his genial and kindly influence, this also having been signifieantly true in the case of his devoted wife, who was a woman of most gentle and sympathetic nature and who preceded him to the life eternal, her death having occurred on the 18th of September, 1893, shortly prior to her seventieth birthday anniversary, and she likewise
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having been an earnest communicant of the Catholic Church. Mr. Hinde was a democrat in national polities, but in local affairs he subordinated striet partisanship and gave his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment.
In this state was solemnized the marriage of William J. linde to Miss Ellen O'Birne, who, as previously stated, was born in County Car- low, Ireland, on the 6th of December, 1824. She was a daughter of James and Bridget O'Birne, and was a child of about three years at the time of the family immigration to the United States, she having been reared and educated in Ohio. Mrs. Hinde was a half-sister of Senator Henry E. O'Hagan, of Sandusky, one of the most prominent and influen- tial citizens of this section of the state and long a power in political affairs, the senator having been prominent also in the Masonic fraternity, in which he was a representative of the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite. Of the children of William J. and Ellen Hinde the eldest was Thomas, who died in 1897, at the age of fifty-five years. He was a bach- elor and was in the railway service for thirty-seven years, during the major part of which period he was employed as a conductor with what is now the Big Four Railroad. Maria, the second child, became the wife of Elias Everett and both are now deceased, four children surviving them. Mary, who was born on the old homestead in Huron Township, in 1851, still resides at the place of her birth, is a woman of great mental and physical alertness and is loved by all who know her, her independence in thought and action being indicated by her spinsterhood. James J. is one of the interested principals and one of the organizers of the Hinde & Dauch Paper Manufacturing Company, in the City of Sandusky, where he and his wife have their pleasant home, with both sons and daughters to complete an attractive family circle. Isabel became the wife of Darwin Boise and died soon after her marriage. George F .. of this review, was the next in order of birth. William J. resides on his excellent farm of 100 acres, in IIuron Township, has been twice married and has six children.
George F. Ilinde was afforded the advantages of the public schools in his native county and here also attended the normal school at Milan, after which he passed five years as a successful and popular teacher in the district schools, his pedagogie labors having been rendered in Districts No. 7 and No. 4. Huron Township. It was.but natural that with a deep appreciation of the dignity and attractiveness of the life of the farm, that Mr. Hinde should eventually resume his allegiance to the great basie industry under whose influences he was reared. Ile has thus become one of the progressive and representative agriculturists and stockgrowers of his native county, and his finely improved farm of fifty-one aeres is one of remarkably fine soil constituency and splendid productiveness. Its fertility is indicated by the character and volume of products, the average annual yield of corn being sixty bushels to the aere: wheat more than thirty bushels; and potatoes of the best grade, more than 200 bushels to the acre. The soil is of fine black loam, with clay subsoil, and the farm is equipped with a most complete and effective system of drainage, mostly of the tile order.
Broad-minded and progressive as a citizen and well fortified in his opinions, Mr. Hinde takes a loyal interest in all that touches the com- munal welfare and advancement, his political proclivities are indicated by the support which he gives to the democratic party where national and state issues are involved, and his religious faith is that of the Catholic Church, of which he is a communicant, Mrs. Ilinde holding membership in the Methodist Church.
The first wife of Mr. Hinde hore the maiden name of Bertha Kiefer. and she was born and reared in Huron, where she was a popular teacher
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in the public schools for some time prior to her marriage. She was sum- moned to the life eternal in 1899, at the age of thirty years, and is sur- vived by no children. In 1898 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ilinde to Miss Nettie Emmons, who was born at Collins, this county, but who was reared to adult age in the State of Tennessee. The three children of this union are Frances, Thomas and George Raymond. Miss Frances, who was born in the year 1900, is at the time of this writing a student in the high school in the City of Sandusky, and Thomas is in the eighth grade of the local schools of his home township.
In addition to his successful farming operations Mr. Hinde has devel- oped a prosperous enterprise in the buying and selling of high-grade fruit trees, and he has done much through this medium to foster the fruit industry in his home county.
HENRY G. BRUNS. Thirty-eight years have passed since Henry G. Bruns took his residence in Northern Ohio, and during this long period of time he has been known to the people of Erie County as an industrious, painstaking and energetic farmer, a man of progressive ideas and thor- oughly alive to the needs of his community, and a citizen who has always been ready to perform his duties and responsibilities. His labors have been well directed and have given him a full measure of success, for at this time he is the owner of a handsome property, lying in Huron Town- ship, 21/2 miles from Huron.
Mr. Bruns was born in the Kingdom of Ilanover, Germany, Decem- ber 22, 1854, and is a son of Frederick Bruns and a grandson of Frederick Bruns, Sr., both of whom passed their entire lives in their native land, the grandfather passing away in the prime of life after a career passed in agricultural pursuits. Frederick Bruns, the father of Henry C. Bruns, was born in 1821, and grew up on the paternal farm, receiving an ordinary education in the public schools. He was married in Germany to Catherine Wenkleman, who was born in 1825, at the same place, and after their marriage they settled down to agricultural pursuits, both being close to threescore and ten years of age at the time of their demise. They were faithful members of the Lutheran Church, which they attended all their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Bruns were the parents of seven children, of whom but one was a daughter, Anna, who married a Mr. Bostleman, has four children and lives in the Province of Ilanover. The six sons, Fred, Henry C., IIeinrich, Dietrich, William and Herman, are all living and all are married, with the exception of Heinrich, whose history has been lost for the past thirty-five years.
Like the sons of most German farmers in moderate circumstances, Henry C. Bruns divided his boyhood between attendance at the publie schools and assisting his parents in the work of the homestead. Ile was sixteen years of age when he decided that better opportunities awaited him in America, and accordingly, in 1871, emigrated to this country by way of Bremen to New York on the ship Deutchland. From the eastern metropolis, he made his way to Henry County, Ohio, and in the fall of the same year located on Kelleys Island, located twelve miles out in Lake Erie from Sandusky. He spent five years there or more, and was married during that time, in 1877, to Miss Christina Beatty, who was born in Summit County, Ohio, October 7, 1850, and who moved to Kelleys Island in 1854 with her parents, Lewis and Mary (Smouse) Beatty, who were born in Russia, of German parents. The father died on Kelleys Island at the age of seventy-two years, and the mother when seventy-five years of age. Two of their sons, Michael and Jacob, served as Union soldiers during the Civil war, one married and all are deceased, Andrew dying when about forty years of age. Beside Mrs. Bruns there are living two sons: Henry, who is married and lives on
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Kelleys Island, and William, who is married, has a family, and is en- gaged in farming in Huron Township.
Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bruns: Mamie, who is the wife of Rev. Charles J. Holliger, of Toledo, now pastor of the Evan- gelical Church at Lorain, and has a son, Herbert II .; and Lewis Fred- erick, thirty-two years of age, reared in Huron Township and educated in the public schools of this locality and the Sandusky Business College, now engaged in farming with his father, married Sophia Wagner, and now has one son, Robert II., aged four years.
The year 1877 saw Mr. Bruns' arrival in Huron Township, where his father-in-law had purchased a tract of land lying between the lake and Market Road, No. 13 North. He has added from time to time to his property, and at the present time is cultivating 235 acres, on which he grows everything known to this elimate, including all kinds of large and small fruit. He has developed an excellent farm, with substantial build- ings and modern improvements of every kind, and his progressive methods and up-to-date ideas have been combined with his industrious labor in winning him success. Mr. Bruns and his family are members of the Evangelical Association, in which he has been a trustee for a long period and superintendent of the Sunday school for thirty-five years. He and his sons are republicans in their political views. Mr. Bruns' standing in business eireles is that of a citizen of integrity and probity, and his wide circle of friends testifies to his general popularity.
AUGUST C. KLEIN. No nation has given to the United States a more valuable element of citizenship than has the great German Empire, and no class has evinced more loyalty to American ideas and institutions, even under the present horrifie conditions of warfare in Europe, when the sons of the Fatherland can not but feel sympathy for their native land. Ile to whom this brief sketch is dedicated is known and honored as one of the sterling German citizens and representative agriculturists of Erie County, and though he elaims Germany as the land of his nativity he has been a resident of Ohio from childhood and is primarily and emphatically an American in spirit and ideals.
Mr. Klein was born in the Province of Westphalia, Rhenish Prussia, and the date of his nativity was October 4, 1864. He is a son of John and Catherine Klein, both of whom were born and reared in that same province of Prussia, where the respective families have been established for many generations. In their Fatherland the parents continued to reside until there had been born to them the following named children : John, Alice, Catherine, Matilda, August C., Anton and Charles. In 1868, when the subject of this review was a child of three years, the fam- ily immigrated to the United States, the weary and tempestuous voyage having been made on a sailing vessel and sixty days having elapsed ere the family disembarked in the port of New York City, in March of the year mentioned. From the national metropolis the journey was contin- ned westward by rail to Sandusky, Ohio, and the father rented a traet of land in Huron Township, this county, where he was engaged in farming for the first two years of his residence in the land of his adop- tion. He then purchased a farm of forty acres in Ottawa County, where he continued his industrious application and made good provision for his family. At the expiration of six years John Klein disposed of his prop- erty in Ottawa County and returned to Erie County, where he pur- chased a farm of ninety-seven acres in Huron Township, the major part. of this land being now within the corporate limits of the thriving lit- the City of Huron. On this homestead Mr. Klein continued to reside until the elose of his long and useful life, and under his effective man- agement it was developed into one of the well improved and specially
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productive farms of Erie County. Ile died in February, 1903, shortly before his eighty-second birthday anniversary, and his cherished and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest in June, 1907, at the age of eighty-two years. They were folk of sterling and unassuming worth and their names and memories are beld in lasting honor in the commu- nity that long represented their home and in which they lived and wrought to goodly ends. Both were earnest communicants of the Cath- olie Church, and in politics Mr. Klein gave his support to the cause of the democratic party. Of their children all were born in Germany ex- cept the youngest, and concerning them the following brief record is given : John is now a resident of the City of Toledo and he has four children; Alice, who is now a resident of Kokomo, Indiana, is the widow of John Krebser, and she. has four sons and two daughters; Catherine is the wife of John B. Sarter and they reside in the State of California, their children being three daughters; Matilda is the wife of Peter Ilermes, residing in the City of Huron, Erie County, and they have one daughter; August C. of this sketch was the next in order of birth; Anton, who likewise is one of the prosperous farmers of Huron Town- ship, has two sons and three daughters; Charles resides at Huron and his children are three sons; Christina was born in Ohio and is the only one of the children who can claim the United States as the place of nativity, she being the wife of Frank Lonz, a prosperous farmer of Huron Town- ship, and they having three sons and three daughters.
August C. Klein was reared to the sturdy and benignant discipline of the farm, his rudimentary education was obtained in the district schools of Ottawa County and later he continued his studies in the public schools of Erie County, where he was reared to adult age on the home farm of his parents. He continued to be associated with his father in the work and management of the farm until the time of his marriage, and after this important event in his life he finally purchased forty acres of the old homestead place, this action having been taken in July, 1903. On his admirably productive and well kept farm, which gives every evidence of thrift and prosperity, he has a pleasant resi- dence of seven rooms, and the other farm buildings prove adequate for the nses to which they are applied. The farm is well drained and the owner brings to bear the most approved and modern methods in carry- ing forward his operations as a progressive agriculturist and stock- grower. Though he has never been animated by any desire to enter the turbulent stream of so called practical politics, Mr. Klein has shown a proper sense of civie duty and responsibility, has given support to measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the commu- nity and exercises his franchise in a generic way as an advocate of the cause of the democratic party. He and his family are earnest commu- nieants of the Catholic Church and he is known as one of the substan- tial farmers and loyal and upright citizens of Erie County.
In Perkins Township, this county, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Klein to Miss Christine Hermes, who was reared and educated in that township, where her birth occurred on the 29th of April, 1874. She is a daughter of Philip and Caroline ( Ansel) Hermes, who were born in Germany and concerning whom more specific mention is made on other pages of this publication, in the sketch of the career of their son, Peter. Both parents of Mrs. Klein died on their home farm in Perkins Town- ship shortly before attaining to the age of fifty years, Mr. Hermes having been a communicant of the Catholic Church and his wife having held the faith of the Lutheran Church. In the final paragraph of this article is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Klein :
Philip Anton, who was born March 6, 1898, was afforded the ad-
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vantages of the public schools in the City of Huron and is now asso- ciated with his father in the management of the home farm; Leo Arthur, who was born June 19, 1900, is a member of the freshman class, that of 1918, in the Huron High School; William August, who was born June 25, 1905, is in the fifth grade of the public sehools at the time of this writing, in 1915; and Paul Franklin, who is a personage of dignity and importance in the home eirele, was born April 11, 1910.
ADAM H. HAHN. The stable occupation of farming has enlisted the early as well as later interest of Adam H. Hahn, whose entire life, since his third year, has been passed in Erie County. He has secured exeel- lent financial results and has evidenced a broad knowledge of agricul- tural science, for many years of practical experience contribute to his agricultural equipment, and his entire life has been passed in the free and independent atmosphere of the country.
Mr. Hahn was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, near the capital, January 31, 1870, and is a son of Conrad and Elizabeth (Orth) Hahn, natives of Hesse Castle, Germany, where the former was born in 1828 and the latter in 1835. They were born of parents who passed their entire lives in Germany, and they themselves are still living and make their home with their son, Adam II. In 1872, Henry and John Hahn, brothers of Adam H. Hahn, emigrated to the United States and took up their residence in Ohio, where both are now married and have families, Henry being a farmer near the Village of Huron, while John lives on a farm in Huron County. The other children, all born in Germany, are as follows: William, who is a successful farmer on the Bogart Road, in Huron Township, is married and has two sons and a daughter; Theodore, who is a farmer of Milan Township, is married and has a daughter; Anna, who is the wife of J. Nicholas Shennen, a fisherman of Vermillion, and has two daughters ; and Adam II., of this review.
In May, 1873, the parents of Mr. Hahn, with their four children, took passage on a sailing vessel, the Deutchland, from Bremen, and after a voyage of fourteen days landed at New York. They made their way to Erie County, Ohio, and settled in Huron Township, in July, 1873, this community having sinee been the family home. After many years passed in hard and industrions toil, the parents suceeeded in developing a good property, with the assistance of their children, and are now living in comfortable retirement. In their native land they early joined the Reformed Church, and in this country have continued to be faithful adherents of that faitl.
Adam H. Hahn was three years of age when brought to the United States, and his education was seeured in the publie sehools of Iluron Township, supplemented by a course in the Sandusky Business College. Ile was brought up to agricultural pursuits, and has been content to make farming his life work, having entered upon his own career at the time he attained his majority. He accumulated 112 aeres of land, which he owned until 1914, when he disposed of half of his property and now retains fifty-six acres, located on the Bogart Road, two miles from Huron on Rural Free Delivery Route No. 1. Mr. Hahn has a finely developed property, on which he grows all the staple products of this seetion. including corn, wheat, oats and potatoes, as well as plenty of all kinds of fruit. His buildings are of a substantial eharaeter, and include a fine ten-room house, erected in 1913, and other modern and handsome structures. During the forty-two years in which he has been a resident of Huron Township, Mr. Hahn has impressed himself upon his fellow- citizens as a man of reliability and substance, who takes a keen interest in his eommunity and its institutions and whose support is freely given to all worthy movements. He is a republican in polities, although not
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a politician, and he and Mrs. Hahn are attendants of the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Hahn was married at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1899, to Miss Helena ("Lena") Dippel, who was born January 24, 1874, at Cleveland, where she was reared and educated and made her home until her marriage. She is a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Weise) Dippel, the former born at Hlesse Castle, and the latter at Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1844 and 1842, respectively. Mr. Dippel came to the United States in January, 1867, and on the 20th of that month located at Cleveland, where he married in 1869 Miss Weise, who had arrived in that city in Septem- ber, 1865. For a time Mr. Dippel worked at the Grazella Acid . Works, then for ten or twelve years was superintendent of the Doan Oil Com- pany, and April 1, 1878, purchased a coal yard in Cleveland. Shortly afterward he purchased two farms in Cuyahoga County, not far from the City of Cleveland, which he operated until the time of his death, Deeem- ber 3, 1912, Mrs. Dippel passing away about four months later, April 20, 1913. When he arrived in Cleveland, Mr. Dippel was possessed of no means, and was forced to borrow 25 cents with which to purchase his first meal. This he paid back the following day, and having secured employment rapidly worked his way to an independent position, being the possessor of a handsome competence at the time of his demise. Mr. and Mrs. Dippel were organizers and charter members of the Reformed Church at Cleveland, and Mr. Dippel early became an elder and trustee thereof, offices which he held up to the time of his death. Mrs. Hahn was the fourth in order of birth of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, all born in Cleveland, of whom ten grew to maturity and mar- ried, and five have children. Mr. and Mrs. Hahn have had no issue.
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