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 50
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JOHN W. STARR. To the strong and resourceful man at the present day the great fundamental industries of agriculture and stock growing offer greater opportunities for successful enterprise than at any previ- ous stage in the world's history, and Erie County has its quota of able and progressive farmers whose definite prosperity and civie progressive- ness make them one of the most influential and valued elements of citi- zenship. A prominent and highly esteemed representative of these im- portant lines of industry in the county is Mr. Starr, who is the owner of two specially well improved and fruitful farms in Huron Township, his homestead place comprising 1131/2 acres and the second farm having an area of seventy acres, both being eligibly situated on the Bloomville Road and on Rural Mail Route No. 3 from the thriving little City of Huron. The soil of Mr. Starr's land is a fine loam with clay subsoil- a combination that insures permanent and unrivaled fertility and pro- duetiveness when scientific methods are brought to hear in its cultiva- tion. It is patent to even the casual observer that such methods are followed by the owner of this property, and the evident thrift and prosperity indicate his energy, circumspection and good management ; he operates his farm according to business principles, and thus receives from the same the maximum returns. Mr. Starr is in no sense a the- orist, but brings to bear mature judgment, devises ways and means in an independent way, profits from experience and is indefatigable in his application, with due appreciation of the dignity and value of the vocation to which he has devoted his entire active career. Mr. Starr devotes annually forty acres of his land to the propagation of sweet corn of the finest grades, and his special success in this line is indicated by the fact that under normal conditions he receives a yield of sweet corn each year that nets him an average of $55 to the acre. Wheat gives an average of somewhat more than thirty bushels to the acre, and field corn also gives splendid returns, about twenty-five acres being ens-
Ju Star Wars Mary J. Slan
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tomarily devoted to its propagation. The permanent improvements upon this fine landed estate are of exeellent order, the residence on the homestead place being a commodious and attractive modern house of nine rooms, and among other farm buildings being a substantial and well-equipped barn 36 by 56 feet in dimensions. The fine residence of Mr. Starr was erected within recent years and is one of the most modern rural homes in Iluron Township. On his smaller farm Mr. Starr has recently erected a fine frame honse, which the son now oceupies. in addition to diversified agriculture, he gives mneh attention to the raising of high-grade live stock, especially the Holstein type of cattle, and the raising of sheep for mutton product.
Mr. Starr has resided upon his present homestead farm for the past forty years, and is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Erie County, which has represented his home from the time of his nativity. Ile was born on his father's pioneer farm, not far removed from his present home, and the date of his nativity was January 24, 1852. He has always been a resident of Huron Township and his ster- ling qualities have given him inviolable place in the confidence and esteem of the community, so that in his ease there can be no application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Mr. Starr was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and duly availed himself of the advantages of the local schools, so that in his youth he waxed strong in mental and physical powers, neither of which have been permitted to wane, it being specially worthy of note that he is a man of much athletic vigor at the present time and frequently attests his continued strength and agility by turning hand- springs, a performance which he gives with the vigor of a youth.
The English progenitors of the Starr family came to this country long prior to the war of the Revolution, and the original settlement was made in the Massachusetts Colony. Representatives of the name were later numbered among the pioneer settlers of the State of New York, and the family has in later generations sent forth emissaries into various other states of the Union. The name has ever stood exponent of strong and worthy manhood and gentle and graeions womanhood, as one generation has followed another on to the stage of life's activities, and though this article does not permit or demand a detailed record concerning the history of this staunch colonial family, it is pleasing to state that a comprehensive and earefully compiled genealogy of the Starr family in America has been compiled and published by Dr. Com- fort Starr, of Boston, Massachusetts, he having been born in the year 1835.
John W. Starr is a great-grandson of Josiah Starr, son of John, and this ancestor was born in the State of New York, where he was reared to manhood. He became one of the pioneers of Portage County, Ohio. where he passed the remainder of his life, he having been a tailor by trade and voeation. Both he and his wife were members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. Their son John, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in the old Empire State, in 1774. and about the opening of the nineteenth century he removed to Saratoga County. that state, where he remained until 1828. In that year he came with his family to Ohio and established his home in Portage County, whence he came to Erie County in 1831, becoming one of the pioneer settlers in the forest wilds of the present Huron Township, where his death occurred, with suddenness and slight premonition, in the year 1833. In his youth he had learned the hatter's trade, but the major part of his active career was given to agricultural pursuits. Josiah Starr married Miss Sarah Chandler, a daughter of James and Charity ( Andrews) Chandler. She was born in the State of New York. in March, 1782, and passed the clos-
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ing years of her life in Erie County, Ohio, where she died in August, 1862. Of the children of this honored pioneer couple, John Milton, father of him whose name introduces this review, was the second of four sons, there having been also two daughters, the younger of whom, Harriet, died in infancy. The four sons and the other daughter attained to maturity and all married and reared children. All are now deceased, their names having been as follows: Josiah Warner, John Milton, Joseph, Samuel and Mary.
John Milton Starr was born at Malta, Saratoga County, New York, on the 30th of September, 1813, and in his native place he acquired his rudimentary education. He was a lad of fifteen years at the time of the family removal to Ohio, in 1828, and was a sturdy youth of eighteen when he came with his parents to Erie County. Ilis father had secured a large tract of land in Huron Township, and on this pioneer farmstead he continued to be associated with his brothers in the reclamation, im- proving and cultivation of land until he had attained to his legal majority.
On the 30th of March, 1850, was solemnized the marriage of John M. Starr to Miss Deborah Maria Wilkinson, who was born at Potter, Yates County, New York, on the 30th of July, 1828, and who was a daughter of Benoni and Polly Dolph (Hardy) Wilkinson, who became pioneer settlers of Erie County, Ohio, where they died when well advaneed in years. After his marriage Mr. Starr established their home on the extensive and attractive farm in Iluron Township, and a portion of their old homestead is now owned by their son, John W., of this review. Their original domieile was a log house of the type common to the pioneer days, but with the passing years ever increasing pros- perity attended them and the. closing period of their lives was passed in a substantial and commodious house which Mr. Starr had ereeted as a homestead many years previously, he having in the meanwhile become one of the leading agrieulturists, substantial business men and influen- tial and progressive citizens of the county in which he lived from his youth until he was ealled to the life eternal, his death having occurred in 1901, at the patriarchal age of eighty-eight years, and his cherished and devoted wife having passed away in June, 1893, at the age of sixty- five years. Theirs were lives of unassuming worth, they were indus- trious and far-sighted folk of strong mentality and of utmost kindli- ness, and they were sustained and comforted by deep Christian faith, their earnest convictions having caused them to incline largely to the Spiritualistie tenets. Mr. Starr was a man of mature judgment, took a lively interest in public affairs and kept in touch with the questions and events of the day even in his venerable years, his political allegiance having been given without reservation to the democratic party.
Concerning the children of John M. and Deborah M. (Wilkinson) Starr, the following brief record is entered: John Wilkinson Starr, the immediate subject of this sketeh, is the eldest of the number. Arthur E. Starr, who married Mary Gunsaulus, is a resident of Brook, Newton County, Indiana, and has three children, Vine, Edith and Edward E. Mary D. Starr first wedded Charles A. Stine, who was survived by one son, Walter. She later married Charles W. Hart, who likewise is de- ceased, and who is survived by three children-Arthur, Rollin (de- eeased) and Halton. Edward Joseph Starr died in childhood. Ella Starr was twice wedded, her first husband, Lewis Link, being sur- vived by one son, Starr Link, and no children having been born of the seeond union, to Elmer Highland, Mrs. Highland being now deceased.
John Wilkinson Starr has well upheld the high prestige of the family name both as a sueeessful agriculturist and as a progressive, loyal and publie-spirited citizen. His active career has been one of constant
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advancement and increasing prosperity, and he is one of the representa- tive farmers and highly esteemed citizens of his native county, where his circle of friends is virtually coineident with that of his acquaint- ances. In polities he maintains an independent attitude and gives his support to the men and measures meeting his approval, without regard to partisan lines. He and his family hold to the Spiritualistie faith and are active and zealons in the support of its organized bodies.
On January 18, 1875, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Starr to Miss Mary Margaret Hart, who was born in Huron Township, on the 5th of January, 1855, and whose parents, William J. and Louisa (Shane) Ilart, who were young folk at the time of their emigration from their German Fatherland to America and the marriage of whom was solemnized in Erie County. Mr. HIart here engaged in the recla- mation and improvement of a pioneer farm of seventy-five acres, in Perkins Township, and he eventually became the owner of a fine landed estate of 300 acres. His first wife died at the age of forty-four years, and though she was a comparatively young woman at the time of her demise, she had beeome the mother of fourteen children who attained to years of maturity, and who married and reared children, nine of the number being still alive. By his second marriage, to Mary St. John, Mr. Hart had no children, and he was seventy-five years of age at the time of his death. The concluding paragraph of this article is devoted to a brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Starr.
Edith passed to eternal rest at the age of twenty years, a gracious and popular young woman who had been a successful teacher in the schools of her native county. Edna L. was six months of age at the time of her death. Pearl Inez married Louis W. Scheid, a farmer of Huron Township, and they have five children, Cornelius G., Marion II., Inez L., John Paul and Peter L. (who died in infancy). John Clayton died in early childhood. Mary Gola married first Henry Lieb, and they had one ehild, Donald Starr. She married for her second hus- band Irvin Dussell, a marine engineer on the Great Lakes, and a native of Erie County. Rollin John, who is associated with his father in the operation and management of the latter's farms, married Miss Effie II. Slocum, who likewise was born and reared in this eounty, and they have one daughter, Edith, the family home being an attractive modern residence on the smaller farm of the subject of this sketeh. Erna Leone became the wife of Henry Sherrard, was but twenty years of age at the time of her death and is survived by one child, Marjorie, who remains with her father at their home in Newark, Lieking County.
IIENRY J. ISAAC. A lake shore farm in IIuron Township which stands almost in a class by itself and is easily one of the most attractive along the Sandusky highway is the fruit and dairy place owned and operated by Henry J. Isaac, situated on Rural Route No. 1 out of Huron. Mr. Isaac and his wife are English people by birth and are people whose worth as home makers and citizens entitles them to the recognition and esteem they have long enjoyed in Erie County. Their farm property represents a modest fortune and yet about twenty years ago both were young people without special means and have made their prosperity largely through their own efforts and enterprise.
The Isaae farm comprises seventy-five aeres, and all its improvements are of the highest class, comprising residence and outbuildings with the farm land well utilized and arranged. Mr. Isaac is now giving his attention primarily to converting this farm into a fruit and dairy farm and in the meantime is carrying on business as a general agriculturist. He bought the place in 1912. For seven years he owned and occupied a fifty-three acre farm in the same township, and sold that and bought
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140 acres in Florence Township, known as the Judge Sprague farm, which he cultivated for six years before coming to his present location in Iluron Township. Among the many features of this farm is its accessibility to transportation. It is on the eleetrie interurban line and is also situated on the main traveled Market Road, No. 13, thoroughfare from Cleveland to Toledo. The farm is watered by Sawmill Creek, and a great amount of tiling has been placed. Mr. Isaae now has 2,000 apple and peach trees, and is planning an orchard that will eventually cover thirty aeres.
Henry J. Isaae was horn in Gloucestershire, England, May 29, 1850. Reared and educated in his native country he came to the United States in 1873 and located in Sandusky. He eame with his parents, Henry and Susan ( Aust) Isaac, who spent their last years in Erie County on a farm in Perkins Township. Henry Isaac died in 1903 when past seventy years of age and his widow at the age of seventy about three years after her hushand. They were members of the Presbyterian Church, and in poli- ties he was a republican. There were six children. Marian, now deceased, married George W. Shaddock; the second in age is Henry J .; Charles II. died when a young man from mountain fever while in the Far West ; Amy Franees married Henry Brymyer of Wakeman, Huron County, and they have two daughters, Susie and Grace; Sarah is the wife of William Hertlein, living on a farm in this section of Ohio, and their children are Emily, George, John, Hilda and Mary; Elizabeth is the wife of James Aust of Sandusky, and their children are named Henry, Herbert and Clifford, twins, Frances and Florence. It was in the City of Sandusky that Henry J. Isaae married Alice Broadley, who is also of English birth and training. She was born in Lincolnshire November 28, 1869, and grew up and received her education in her native land. Her parents were William and Alice (Plumtree) Broadley, both natives of Lincolnshire, where her mother died March 23, 1913, at the age of sixty-five and where her father is still living at the age of seventy- five. For forty-five years William Broadley was overseer of a large estate in England. The Broadleys were members of the Church of England. Mrs. Isaae was the oldest of seven children, and all the others still live in England, their names being James, John, George, Annie, Lizzie and Emma. Mrs. Isaac eame to the United States at the age of twenty-four in May, 1894, and after a few years of residence in Erie County married, and has since devoted all her time and energies to the duties of her home and co-operation with her husband in the improve- ment of their property. Their children are: Henry J., Jr., now fifteen years of age and a student in the Sandusky High School; Clarence George, aged thirteen, and also in high school; and Charles William, aged five years. Mr. Isaac is a republican, and while he and his wife are not members of any church, they are good Christian people, and their children are regular attendants at Sunday School.
WILLIAM BRUNS. Two miles west of the Village of Huron is situated Rye Beach Park. To the thousands who visit and live along the Lake Erie shore between Cleveland and Sandusky this is one of the best known resorts of the summer season. Its attractive features have been carefully developed and improved by William Bruns, who is the owner of the land comprised in the park and also of the farm homestead of which Rye Beach was originally a part. Rye Beach Park is primarily a home resort, and many of the cottages and lots there are owned and occupied by indi- vidual families and a large part of the annual volume of visitors go there not for a day but for the recreation and enjoyment found in weeks or months of stay. The park is located on the well elevated shore on the south side of Lake Erie with a gentle slope down to the water's edge, and
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a great variety of native forest trees cover almost the entire site except the sandy beach itself. The beach is accessible to the cities and villages along the lake shore by means of the Lake Shore Electrie Railway, whose cars pass every hour, and there is also a turnpike road to the lake shore. Mr. Bruns, the popular proprietor of this establishment, invested a large amount of capital in improving the grounds, in the erection of a eommo- dions amusement and daneing pavilion, in providing docks and boat houses, bath houses, bowling alleys, and in furnishing all the facilities for amusement ard wholesome recreation usually found in summer resorts of the highest class. He recently acquired thirty-six acres adjoining this original farm, and this has been subdivided into lots, thus doubling the water frontage and increasing the facilities supplied by Rye Beach Park.
While this park has been the favorite center for pienie parties along the lake shore for many years, it was due to the enterprise and fore- sight of Mr. Bruns that its possibilities have been fully realized and brought within reach of the thousands who now seek that favorite spot during the heated terms of summer. Mr. Bruns is a thorough business man, has made a success by hard work and capable management of his affairs, and is one of the highly esteemed citizens of Erie County.
He was born at Niendorf, in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, November 9, 1861, and was of a high class of German people. His parents were Frederick and Catherine (Winkelman) Bruns, both natives of Hanover. IHis father was born in 1827 and his mother in 1829. His father began life as a farmer, and was also prominent in local official positions in his native country, and became well-to-do before his death in 1892. Ilis wife had died about two or three years previously. They were members of the Lutheran Church. Mr. Bruns was one of six sons and three daughters. The daughter. Anna, is the wife of Henry Bussel- man and they now occupy the old homestead back in Germany. Those who came to the United States besides William were: Frederick, who is a banker at Stryker, Ohio, and has a daughter and a married son ; Heinrich is a farmer in Huron Township of Erie County and has a son and daughter, both married; Hank went out West and since then his whereabouts have been unknown; Dietrich is a farmer in Berlin Town- ship and has a son and daughter; Herman lives at the Village of Huron, and has two married daughters and a son.
In his native Kingdom of Hanover William Bruns spent the years of his youth and childhood, attended the publie schools until fourteen and then worked at common labor for several years. At the age of seventeen he ventured upon his own resources to the New World, and landed from the ship Aller at New York in May, 1878. His first desti- mation was Napoleon in IHenry County, Ohio, but a few weeks later he arrived in Erie County, and for about a dozen years was employed in various occupations. At the end of that time he returned home to attend his father in his last illness, and after the funeral came again to this country. In Erie County he bought fifty acres of land in Huron Town- ship along the lake shore, about two miles west of the Village of Huron. This was the nueleus of his present homestead, and included the old site long known as Rye Beach. The subsequent addition of thirty-six acres brings his land holdings up to ninety-two acres, with the exception of that portion included in Rye Beach Park which he has subdivided and sold in lots, Forty-five cottages have been erected in the park, and Mr. Bruns owns a number of them which he rents to summer sojourners.
His own home is a modern ten-room residence, with basement, and supplied with hot and cold water, with a broad veranda on two sides, and with every facility for enjoyment and comfort.
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Mr. Bruns was married in IIuron Township to Rosa Dingler. She was born at Stuttgart in Wuertemberg, Germany, April 17, 1873, a daughter of Michael and Rosa (Meyer) Dingler, her father a native of Bavaria and her mother of Wuertemberg. The father was employed in a factory at Stuttgart and died there in 1893 at the age of fifty-six. The mother lived until 1912 and was seventy years of age at the time of her death. Both were members of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Bruns was the first of her family to come to the United States, and arrived in Erie County in May, 1892. She has since been joined by two sisters, both of whom are now married. Paulina Zimmerman lives at Huron and has three sons, and Freda is the wife of Albert Carns, and they have two sons.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. William Bruns were born three chil- dren : Alvin W., now twenty-one and living at home, was educated in the Huron High School and the Sandusky Business College; Harry Hugo, aged nineteen, graduated from the Sandusky High School in 1915, and is now planning for a professional career, probably in medicine ; Olga Hulda, aged seventeen, is a member of the class of 1917 in the San- dusky High School.
Mr. Bruns has not only accomplished a great deal through his efforts as a farmer and in the development of Rye Beach Park, but has for a number of years been an important factor in the public life of liis com- munity. Ile is a member of the school board, and for six months filled an unexpired term as postmaster at Huron. As a republican he has served as a member of the County Central Committee. He and his wife have done much to promote the welfare and influence of the local Lutheran Church, he has served as one of its trustees a number of years, has been superintendent of its Sunday School for about six years, and has given liberally to the building of the new church edifice and to the maintenance of the various charities and organizations.
ANTONE J. GUSTAVUS. In Erie County can be found a number of the veteran mariners, but probably none with such a record of experience on both the salt and fresh seas as Antone J. Gustavus. About thirty years ago he retired from the quarterdeck of a lake vessel, on which he had been serving as first mate, and became a landsman. Ile set up as a Lake Erie fisherman, acquired an equipment of nets and other facilities and in order to refrigerate his products he built an ice and fish house in 1884 on Berlin Street on the east side of Huron Village. In the course of the same year a fire destroyed all his fishing equipment and the ice house, and caused him a loss of $5,000. After that serious reverse, he began supplying the domestic wants of the village in ice, and for the past thirty years has been chief ice dealer and distributor in Huron. His ice house formerly had a capacity of 1,000 tons, but in 1907 he moved to the central part of the town, bought a house and lot and put up a plant of 2,000 tons capacity. He now does an exclusive ice business for the local trade.
Mr. Gustavus was born in Sweden, December 26, 1842, and represents an old Swedish family. His parents were August and Anna M. (John- son) Gustaveson, and after Mr. Gustavus had gone to sea he left off the "son" part of his name and has since spelled it in the form above given. His parents spent all their lives on a Swedish farm, the father dying at the age of seventy and the mother at sixty-seven, and both were devout members of the Lutheran Church. Mr. Gustavus was the only son, and his two sisters spent their lives in Sweden. His early youth was spent in the vicinity of Helsenborge, and while growing up he attended com- mon schools. ITis earliest thoughts were of the sea and at the age of fifteen he could no longer resist the calling to the vocation which is the
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