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 81
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Practically all his life John W. Weilnan has been a resident of Erie County. He was born in Oxford Township December 29, 1878, grew up and was educated in that township. and made a definite choice of farm- ing as his vocation. He has been independently engaged in that business for the past nine years, and with a degree of suceess sneh as few inen of his age and experience can show. Besides the raising of general crops he gives much attention to horses, hogs and cattle on the Iloover homestead.
Ilis parents were John and Mary (Goodsite) Weilnau. They were both natives of Germany, his father of Hesse Nassau and his mother of Mecklenburg. When young people they eame with their parents to the United States and to Ohio, and the grandparents on both sides spent their lives here and died when abont seventy years old. Both families were of the Evangelieal Church faith. After their marriage John and Mary Weilnau started out as farmers in Oxford Township. He died there July 20, 1913, when past sixty-three years of age. The mother is still living with her children at the old homestead and is now sixty-two years of age. John W. is the oldest son and the second child in a family of four sons and one daughter. His sister Elizabeth is the wife of Adel- bert Williams, a farmer in Milan Township, and their two daughters are named Dorothy and Mary. John W. Weilnan's brothers are Henry, Fred and James, who are still single young men living with their mother.
John W. Weilnan was married in Oxford Township to Catherine Ebert. She was born in Oxford township March 19, 1880, and grew up and was educated there, a daughter of Lewis Ebert and a sister of Charles Ebert, reference to whom is made on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Weilnan have a family of four children : Catherine M., seven years old ; Paul William, aged six; John Louis, aged four; and George II., who is three years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Weilnau are active members of the Evangelical Church, he is a democrat in polities, and is past grand of Milan Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
ANSEL G. ODELL. The Odell family to which this well known resi- dent of Milan Township belongs has long been prominent and numer- ously represented in the Empire State of New York. Former Governor Odell of New York was of the same stoek. The Odells have been identi- fied with this section of Northern Ohio fully eighty years, and their record here as honorable and useful eitizens runs through three suc- cessive generations. Ansel G. Odell is well known not only as a general farmer, vegetable grower and fruit dealer, but also as a business man in Milan Township. His home is on the Cleveland road.
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It was in the early '30s that the family came to Northern Ohio. His grandfather, Samuel Odell, came from New York State to Huron County, Ohio, and settled about seven miles south of Norwalk. He secured Government land there at the regular price of $1.25 per aere. At that time the value of land was judged mainly by its timber, and Samuel Odell chose his location in Huron County in preferenee to one in Erie County largely because of the timber resources. The farm on which Ansel G., his grandson, now lives, was at that time known as white oak opening and could be bought at 75 cents an acre. After locating in IIuron County Samuel Odell earned money for the support of his household for several years by making staves in the woods and hauling them to Milan, a distance of more than twenty miles. His first home was a typical log cabin, and after making some improvements on his land he sold his first place, which was situated southeast of Olena, and bought another farm southwest of that village. On transferring his residenee he again lived in a simple home such as most people owned at that time, but later erected a substantial frame dwelling, and devel- oped a large farm. He died there when in venerable years. He had been married three times. His first wife was a Miss Wooley, who eame from New York State. She died leaving a daughter, Mary J., who married Anson Kellogg. It was the second wife of Samuel Odell who was the mother of William Odell, who in turn was the father of Ansel G. She died in middle life, leaving quite a family of children. Besides William there was Angeline, now the widow of D. K. Gauff, and living in Milan, having one daughter. Another son of Samuel was Joseph Odell, who is living with his son and daughter, Elmer and Ethel, in HIuron County near Greenwich.
William Odell was born April 22, 1835, in Huron County. He died at the home now owned by Ansel Odell on New Year's Eve of 1912. Ile was a man of great variety of experience, but his natural modesty served as a cloak to his achievements, and even members of his own family never heard the full story of his life, particularly of his ad- Ventures as a soldier in the Civil war. Ile grew up in Huron County, and for many years was a trader. The last fifteen years of his life were spent in Milan Township. His service as a Union soldier covered four years twelve days. He was a member of Company C of the One Hun- dred Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and went out from Mon- roeville. During most of the time he was a private in the ranks, but was discharged as a corporal. He took part in many of the historie battles. including one of the Bull Run engagements, was at Lookout Mountain, at Gettysburg, and in several of the great campaigns before Richmond. At one time he was captured and kept for several months in the notorious Libby Prison. After escaping he was again captured, and this time was sent to Andersonville. While at Andersonville he saved both him- self and a comrade, the latter senteneed to be shot on the following day. By a elever maneuver he effected the eseape of both himself and his companion and finally reached the Union lines. Ile had many thrilling experiences as a soldier, but was always retieent on sueh subjects, and had the modesty characteristic of a truly brave military man. Polit- ically he always voted with the republican party. He married Rachel Phillips. She was born on the old Phillips farm on the Ridge Road in HTuron County. April 25, 1836. Now feeble with the infirmities of age she is living with her son Walter.
Ansel G. Odell was born in Eaton County, Michigan, November 9, 1867, during a brief residenee of his parents in that state. However, most of his life has been spent in Erie County, and as a boy he attended the little white schoolhouse not far from his present home. He was reared chiefly in the home of his aunt, Mrs. Angeline Gauff. After his
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marriage he succeeded to the ownership of the farm which he still ocenpies, and which formerly belonged to Mrs. Odell's family. For fourteen years prior to his marriage he had conducted the farm as a renter. It is a small but well improved little homestead of nineteen acres, containing a good house and barn, and with an orchard of 240 peach trees. During the summer seasons Mr. Odell deals extensively in fruit in Erie County, and also conducts a good business as a manufac- turer of acetylene gas plants.
At the home where he now lives Mr. Odell married Miss Anna Cur- tis. She was born in Ridgefield, Huron County, May 25, 1866, and when a child came with her parents to Curtis Corners or Petersburg in Milan Township, and grew up and received her education there. ' IIer parents were Ezra D. and Thankful ( Winchester) Curtis. Her parents were both natives of New York State, her father born November 7, 1823, at Barry in Orleans County, and her mother born December 20, 1826, in Chautauqua County. They were married July 12, 1848, at Perry in Lake County, Ohio. Ezra D. Curtis was a son of Rev. Henry Curtis, who spent many years as a minister of the Methodist Church. Thankful Winchester was a daughter of Marcus Winchester, who made a notable record as a soldier in the War of 1812 and afterwards died in Huron County, Ohio. After Ezra and Thankful Curtis were married they lived in Waterloo County, Ontario, for several years, and their daughter, Olive R., was born there in 1849. Subsequently they returned to Huron County, lived in Ridgefield Township, and from 1851 to 1854 resided at Perry in Lake County. In April, 1872, they moved to Erie County and bought a small farm at the Petersburg schoolhouse in Milan Township. There Mr. Curtis died November 5, 1900, at the age of seventy-seven years five days. Ilis widow is now living with her danghter, Mrs. Odell, and in December, 1915, celebrates her eighty- ninth birthday. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis were always closely identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Odell have an adopted son, Robert A., who was born February 16, 1908. In their religious affiliations they are members of the Friends Church. Mr. Odell is a republican.
EMMET PARK. Two enterprising young men who have done much to stimulate manufacturing in Erie County are Emmet Park and Dennis Tucker of the firm of Park & Tucker, proprietors of the plant at Avery, which is run to its full capacity most every working day in the year for the manufacture of tile and briek. They have built up an industry which is more notable for the quality of the output than for the quan- tity. To manufacture something that is a little better than the ordinary run of material is a sure means to success. The principal output of the Park & Tucker plant is tile, and they make a varied assortment, ranging from three to fifteen inches in diameter. There is perhaps nothing superior to this on the market anywhere, and the firm has had no diffi- culty in extending the sale of the product to the full capacity of the plant among high grade users of this important clay product, and prac- tically the entire ontput is taken by dealers and contractors who have patronized this Avery firm for several years or more. Messrs. Park & Tucker have been engaged in this industry for the past twelve years. They bought out the old established plant at Avery, conducted for about fifteen years by Dennis Gilmore, and the tile manufactured here is used in the tiling and draining of land.
Both members of the firm are Ohio men, and Mr. Park was born at Olena in UIuron County, Ohio, in 1870. He grew up on a farm and was engaged in that industry until he combined with Mr. Tucker in the present industry. His parents were James and Martha ( Ersburg) Park.
James
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his father a native of Ireland and his mother of Ohio. They were mar- ried in Huron County, and for a number of years farmed in Olena. Mr. Park lost his mother when he was a small child, and the father died in 1897. They were Protestant people and he served as trustee of his home township for a number of years, was for nine years director of the HIuron County Infirmary, and in politics was a republican.
In June, 1897, Mr. Emmet Park married in Ashland County Miss Sadie A. Berkey. She was born in Wayne County, Ohio, September 23, 1870, was reared and educated in Ashland County, and for several years before her marriage was a teacher in the county schools. She is a woman of thorough culture and education, is active in religious work and all the local benevolences. IIer father, Christian Berkey, died February 7. 1915, at the age of seventy-four, having for many years been an active farmer. Her mother is now living at the old home in Ashland County and has reached venerable years. She is a member of the Evangelical Church and her father was a German Baptist. Mrs. Park has a brother, James W. Berkey, who lives in Savannah, Ohio, and has a son named Paul C., and her only sister is Clara O., who for a number of years has been a teacher in Ashland County. Mr. and Mrs. Park are active workers in the Presbyterian Church at Milan. Besides his interests as a manufacturer Mr. Park and Mr. Tucker own considerable acreage which they have developed intensively as a small farm, improved with excellent buildings.
Ilis partner, Dennis Tucker, is an Erie County boy, having been born and reared in Oxford Township. Except for a few years spent in Huron County he has lived in Erie County all of his life, and is a young man of means, industry, thorough ability and high standing.
J. K. DOUGLAS, D. D. S. One of the chief branches of professional knowledge upon which mankind is dependent for a maintenance of healthful conditions is that which is connected with the care and pres- ervation of the teeth. C'areless habits of living, neglect and indifference continually result in a demand for the first-class practitioner of dentistry. Like other professions, this vocation is constantly advancing, demanding of its devotees constant and continued study in order to keep abreast of its progress. The profession of dentistry is well and honorably repre- sented at Sandusky by Dr. J. K. Douglas, a native of Erie County. Engaged in practice here for more than twenty years, his advancement has been sure and consistent and his high professional standing is evi- denced by his incumbency of the office of president of the Northern Ohio Dental Association.
Doctor Douglas was born August 26, 1869, in Erie County, Ohio, and is a son of James and Cornelia A. (King) Douglas. His father was born in Canada and was a youth when brought by his parents to the United States in 1833, the family locating in Erie County, Ohio. In young manhood, James Douglas adopted the vocation of fisherman on the Great Lakes, extending his pursuit of the finny tribe from Sandusky, Ohio, to Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was industrious and ambitious, and when he had accumulated the means, invested in farming land in Berlin Town- ship, Erie County, where he continued to be engaged in agricultural pur- suits with success until his death, which occurred in this county in 1900. Mrs. Douglas, who still survives, has reached the advanced age of eighty- three years.
The second in a family of three children, J. K. Douglas received his early education in the public schools of Erie County. He was further prepared at the normal school at Milan, and then took a commercial
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course at the Ohio Normal School at Ada, Ohio, following which he entered upon his professional studies in the dental department of the University of Michigan. Graduating with the class of 1894, he at once entered practice at Sandusky, where by diligent attention to his work he has acquired a profitable patronage, and by keeping himself abreast of all current developments and improved methods in his art has main- tained an excellent professional standing and inspired confidence in his skill throughout the community. In the meanwhile his amiable disposi- tion and genial deportment have attracted to him many friends. Doctor Douglas maintains membership in the District Dental Society, in the Ohio State Dental Society, of which he was president one year, in the American Dental Association, and in the Northern Ohio Dental Associa- tion, of which he is the chief executive officer at this time. For six years he was a member of the State Board of Dental Examiners. Fraternally, the doctor is a third degree Mason, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
Doctor Douglas was married December 30, 1895, at Sandusky, to Miss Maora B. Hill, who was born in Berlin Heights, Ohio, a daughter of George F. and Mary Hill, also of Berlin Heights, and to this union there has been born one daughter, Elizabeth, November 13, 1901.
On the maternal side of the family, Mrs. James Douglas is a daughter of Gideon King, Jr., who celebrated his golden wedding anniversary in Berlin Township, Erie County, March 20, 1872. Mr. King was the son of Gideon King, of East Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York, and was born at East Bloomfield, November 17, 1795, hence he celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage at a little more than seventy-six years of age. George King, the grandfather of Gideon King, Jr., died while serving as a lieutenant in the patriot army during the War of the Revolution, and the family is supposed to have descended from Stephen Hopkins, who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.
JOHN B. KURTZ. When farming is conducted skillfully and up to the best standards of modern experience and knowledge it is at once the mest independent and satisfactory of all humau vocations. A striking illustration of this type of modern agriculture is found on the place of John B. Kurtz in Milan Township. Mr. Kurtz has behind him many years of practical experience, and at the same time is a student and observer of agricultural progress. Hle is a skilled rotation farmer, and can be said literally to have effected the achievement of making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. Measured by its culti- vation, its products, and improvements, his is truly one of the most valuable and productive farmsteads in Erie County.
The very farm where he now lives and of which he is proprietor was his birthplace, where he first saw the light of day April 2. 1866. In this one locality he spent practically all his life. As a boy he attended the schools of Milan Township, but since 1899 has owned the old farm on his own account. Ifere are seventy-two acres of as fine land as Erie County affords. Adjacent to the main farm is another tract of twenty acres, while Mr. Kurtz also owns another place of twenty aeres near the Village of Milan. The ninety-two acres in the home farm are fully drained and beautifully improved. One attractive feature of his farm is a grove of fine native timber. Mr. Kurtz grows the very best of crops, corn, wheat. oats and potatoes, and his potato crop produced from ten acres of land yields more than 200 bushels to the acre. For storage and stock shelter Mr. Kurtz has large barns. One of these is a basement structure on a foundation 40x60 feet. There is another large building
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for grain storage and used as a carriage and tool house. The attractive country residence contains ten rooms, and it is the same house in which Mr. Kurtz was born, but has undergone under his management a num- ber of alterations, enlargements and improvements. Ile keeps excellent cattle for beef, and feeds a considerable number of stock every year. Ile also has horses, sheep and hogs.
John B. Kurtz is a son of Barthold Kurtz, a record of whose career will be found on other pages in the sketch of Philip Kurtz. Barthold Kurtz obtained the land in a wild condition where his son John now lives. This was more than seventy years ago, and the purchase price of some of it was only twenty-five dollars an aere. It was on this farm that Barthold spent his many years of useful activity and died in 1895. Many of the improvements still found on the place are the result of his labors. His wife died there four years before his own death.
One of a family of seven children, John B. Kurtz was the one whom filial love and a sense of duty eaused to remain at home and take care of his parents as long as they lived. He came into the ownership of the old farm by huying out the interests of the other heirs, and has since eleared up all the financial obligations and debts, and has refused as mueh as $200 an acre for his place. In polities Mr. Kurtz is a republican.
In the old home township Mr. Kurtz married one of his neighbor girls, Miss Sarah Fanser, daughter of George and Mary Melissa ( Weichel) Fauser. There were four children born to this honored couple, Carrie, Sarah, Emma and William, and of these Emma died in 1912. Mrs. Kurtz was born and reared and educated in this township, and her par- ents were German people. Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz became the parents of seven children. Edna, now twenty-four years of age, is a graduate of high school and college and holds a responsible position in Sandusky. Estella married Floyd Rockwell and died at the birth of her first child, Elmer Rockwell, who is now living with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz. Arthur completed his education in the Milan High School and is now a farmer in Erie County, and his brother John is likewise placed in life. Cleo died when three years of age. Sarah Elizabeth and Paul Rolland are both at home and students in the publie schools.
PHILIP KURTZ. A resident of Erie County nearly all his life, Mr. Kurtz is the owner of a valuable farm in Milan Township, where he pursues his industry as a general farmer and stock raiser near Spears Corners. This has been his home for the past twenty-six years. Mr. Kurtz is not only one of the progressive and successful agriculturists of the county, but an upright, loyal and publie spirited citizen.
The Kurtz farm comprises 180 acres, and most of it is under cultiva- tion, while there is some aereage of good timber and considerable pasture land, Mr. Kurtz and family reside in an attractive rural home of nine rooms, and among other improvements that should be mentioned is a large barn built on a basement and with foundations 40x70 feet. The entire place presents a picture of comfortable prosperity, and the pos- session of such a home is an adequate reward for the enterprise and ambition of any progressive man.
The birth of Philip Kurtz occurred in Milan Township, September 13, 1864, not far from the Village of Milan. He grew up and received his education in this loeality, and for fully thirty years has been numbered among the substantial farmers. He is of German aneestry, a son of Barthold and Elizabeth (Wihl) Kurtz. His father was born in 1822 along the River Rhine, and was still a young man when in 1844 he em- barked on a sailing vessel at Bremen, and unaccompanied by relatives or friends, set out for America. After a voyage of nine weeks he landed
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at New York, and soon afterward arrived in Huron, Ohio. Some years later he met and married in this county Miss Wihl. who was also a native of Germany, and had come with friends to the United States when a young girl. Both her parents had died when she was about two or three years old. After their marriage Barthold Kurtz and wife lived in the vicinity of Milan, where he combined the occupation of tailor and of farmer. He assisted his brother IIenry, who for many years eondneted a tailor shop in Milan. Both had learned their trade in Germany. Barthold Kurtz subsequently took up farming as his exclusive vocation and became the owner of seventy acres at North Milan. After effecting many improvements in the place he died there in April, 1904. His wife passed away in February, 1892, at the age of sixty-two. They were members of the German Lutheran Church, and helped to build up the church of that denomination at Monroeville. In politics he was a demo- erat. A brief record of their children is as follows: Mary is the wife of Fred Aves and lives in Marion County, Kansas, and has two sons and four daughters; Henry, who owns a farm in Milan Township, married Nettie Moore, of Milan, and they have one son and two daughters living, and lost one son at the age of twenty-three: Sophia is the wife of Riley Smith, and they live at Hastings, Nebraska, and have four sons and two daughters. Elizabeth B. is the widow of Benjamin F. Willcox, who died in Milan Township in 1904 and she now lives with her daughter Belle in Toledo, and her other children are Matilda, Harry and Dora, while two sons are deceased, and all her children are married except Belle : Adam, who is a meat dealer in Clayton, Ohio, has three sons and a danghter; and John B., a farmer, of North Milan, married and has five children living, two daughters and three sons.
On the farm where he now resides Mr. Kurtz was married to Miss Lizzie Anna Willcox. She comes of an old Ohio family, was born at Bowling Green in Wood County, September 18, 1870. When abont four years of age she came to Milan Township with her parents, Robert and Elizabeth (Root) Willcox. Iler. father was born in Connecticut, and when a young man set out for California, making the voyage around the Cape Horn and spending some years in the Inmber business in the West. On returning East he eame by way of the isthmus, and soon afterwards settled in Erie County in Milan Township, where he married Miss Root, who was born in Erie County. Later Mr. Willeox lived three years in Illinois, eame back to Erie County, and from there moved to Wood County, Ohio, where he conducted a large farm of 320 aeres for seven years, and then for thirty-five years was engaged in the opera- tion of the old Root farm at Spears Corners of Milan Township. From there he onee more removed to Bowling Green in Wood County and died there in 1913 at the age of eighty-one. His widow is still living, being now seventy-five years of age. Mrs. Kurtz was one of three children. Ifer brother Robert died at the age of forty, leaving one son, Hart. Iler sister Martha is the wife of George Chapman and they live at Bowling Green.
To Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz have been born two children : Maude E., born April 19, 1890, attended the publie schools and a business college, and is now the wife of Berton Karbler, a farmer in Sandusky County, and their one child is named Mildred E. Grover G., who was born Angust 16, 1891. also attended the public schools, finishing his education in the normal school at Sandusky, and is now at home. Mr. Kurtz and family attend the Presbyterian Church, and he and his son are democratic voters.
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