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 82
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ILISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
JOIN UPPER. There is a fine farm in Milan Township, not far from Avery and on Rural Route No. 2 out of Milan, which is a significant testimonial to the thrift and industry of a splendid German-American eitizen, the late John Upper, and continues to bear fruit and furnish a home of beauty and comfort to its present proprietor, Miss Rena Upper, his daughter, who probably deserves first rank among the women of Erie County who are elassed as farm owners and managers.
The late John Upper was born at Gittersdorf, Hessfeldt, Germany. August 30, 1809. He lived a long and industrions career, was a man of sound physical and mental stock, and had passed the eighty-seventh milestone of his mortal journey when he died at the old home on Milan Road near Avery, September 10, 1896. Ilis father, also John Upper, spent all his life as a prosperous and thrifty farmer in Germany, and in the same locality where John Upper was born. Both parents died when about seventy years of age, and were lifelong communicants of the Pres- byterian church. The late John Upper was the oldest in a family of three sons and three daughters. Two of the daughters came to America, Elizabeth and Barbara, they married in this country and left descend- ants. Elizabeth's one son, John, is now deceased, while Barbara's chil- dren are living in Missouri.
The father being a man in comfortable circumstances, John Upper grew up in Germany without any severe test of his practical ability as a working man. Ile was liberally educated, and at the age of twenty- four, when still unmarried, took passage on a sailing vessel at Bremen in the fall of 1834 and after seven weeks reached New York City. From there he came on to Milan in Erie County, and here first became acquainted with real privation and hardship. Unused to physical labor and without experience, he found great difficulty in finding employment, and literally had to sell part of his clothes before he could supply his daily wants. He finally got work at wages of twenty-five cents a day, and after that was continuously employed for a period of ten years by Laban Lowrey, a well known Erie County farmer. John Upper proved not only an efficient farm hand, but also exercised a degree of economy and thrift such as seems marvelous at the present time. At the end of seven years, though his wages were always small, as measured by modern standard, he had accumulated $1,400 capital, which he had loaned out at interest. Three years later he bought fourteen acres near what is now the Village of Avery. This he thoroughly improved, and invested from time to time in more land until his estate comprised sixty-one acres. Practically all of it had formerly been covered by a heavy growth of timber, and he out his land from the forest, subdued the wild soil, and contimed to cultivate erops there for one season after the other until the close of his period of activity. which was almost coextensive with his life. John Upper was a strong democrat in politics, and was frequently solicited to accept such offices in his home county as county commissioner and township trustee, though he was not an aspirant for such honors. He also was a regular attendant and a worker in the Presbyterian Church at Milan.
At the age of forty-four, in Milan, John Upper married Miss Anna Gertrude Wieker. She was born in Mawden, Germany, January 3. 1830, and in young womanhood came to the United States with five girl com- panions. It required nine weeks for her to make the voyage on an old fashioned sailing vessel from Bremen to New York, and from that city she came by way of the Hudson River and the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and thence to IIuron, Ohio. In the same year she made the acquaintance of John Upper, and they were married. She was an old-fashioned house- wife, devoted to her children and home, and took great pride in keep- ing her house spotlessly clean and constantly adorned with those touches
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of beauty and comfort which the true housewife knows so well how to produce. She died very suddenly at the old homestead December 26, 1894. After her marriage she became, like her husband, a devoted mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church. She was generous both in her home and among her friends and in church, and there are many who will recall with gratitude this splendid woman who spent so many years in Erie County.
In the family of John Upper and wife were three daughters. Eliza- beth first married John Reer, and her two children are by that marriage, namely : Rena, who died after her marriage to Albert Phillips, leaving a daughter, Gertrude E., now ten years of age; and Fred Reer, who is married and has two sons named Raymond and Harold. After the death of her first husband Mrs. Reer married Louis Light, and they now live on a fine farm at Shinrock in Berlin Township.
The youngest daughter of the late Jolin Upper was Mary, who was also twice married. Her first husband was Martin Wicker, who was a farmer. She then married Conrad II. Cook. She died not long after her seeond marriage in 1902. There are no children surviving her.
Miss Rena Upper, the second child of John Upper, grew up on the farm where she was born and where she still lives. She was devoted to the care and welfare of both her parents as long as they lived, and has never married. Miss Upper is a woman of thorough intelligence and refinement and is especially distinguished among her neighbors for the skillful manner in which she conduets the forty-one acres of the fine farm which she inherited from her father. For many years she has made this farm produee abundant crops and fine stock, and the grounds about the old home she has rendered a triumph of effective landscape garden- ing. There is a beautiful lawn in front of the house, she grows flowers of many varieties, and has a neat and well kept garden. It is almost literally true that both the house and the grounds surrounding it are swept and kept elean every day. Miss Upper is a vivacions, witty and intelligent woman, keeps well posted on the affairs of the day, is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, and is insistently aetive in endeavoring to do good in her community.
JOIIN SCHARER. Since the primary object of the history of any county is to preserve the names and careers of those citizens who have been longest identified with the community, there is special fitness in referring to the name and family of John Scharer, who has spent all his life in one locality of Milan Township, and whose parents were among the thrifty German immigrants of fifty or sixty years ago who so largely shaped and moulded the destinies of many agricultural communities in America.
The enterprise of John Scharer marked him out conspicuously among the general farmers and stock raisers of Milan Township. His home is on the Milan Road, and besides raising and feeding stock he also con- duets a butcher business. ITis farm comprises 107 aeres, well drained, with excellent soil, and improved with first class buildings. Conspicu- ons in the group of farm buildings is the large barn, 58x30 feet. ITis white house with green trimmings contains eight rooms, and he and his family have always lived in comfort and solid prosperity. Another feature that adds value to his farm and convenience to the social life of the community is the interurban electric line that passes almost by his doorway. Mr. Scharer makes his fields produce most abundant erops of the leading cereals. IIe takes from thirty to forty bushels of wheat from each acre, his corn crop frequently runs over 100 bushels an acre, and he usually expects about eighty bushels of oats. Like other progressive farmers, Mr. Seharer follows the rotation plan in erops, and
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conserves the fertility of his soil by putting back in one form or another all the resources which his crops drain from the soil. One of his chief means of keeping up the quality of his soil is sueeessive planting of elover in the different fields previously occupied by grain erops. He also grows large quantities of potatoes, about 800 or 1,000 bushels each season. Another crop which he has specialized in has been barley, which on his fields yields about fifty bushels per acre.
For twenty years Mr. Seharer has owned the farm to which he now gives intelligent management, as is indicated by the above statisties. lle has handled it so well that it is now worth fully $200 an acre. It was on this farm and in the house he now owns and occupies that Mr. Scharer was born, October 2, 1865. He grew up in this one community, obtained his education from the local schools, and has been steadily at work in improving his land, doing his share of the work of the world for fully thirty years. Mr. Scharer speaks, reads and writes both the English and German languages.
His parents were John and Caroline (Schmidt) Scharer. His father was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, in 1826, while his mother was born in 1835 at Baden, Germany. The paternal grandparents spent all their lives in Switzerland. In 1856 John Scharer immigrated to the United States. There were few steam vessels making the voyage back and forth across the Atlantic at that time, and he came in a sailing vessel, which endured rough seas and was forty-eight days in erossing. After landing in New York he came West to Sandusky, and soon found employment on a farm in Groton Township. While thus employed he met and married in 1858 Miss Schmidt, who had come about the same time as her husband from Germany with her mother, her father having died in the fatherland. She worked as a domestic with a family in Groton Township until her marriage. For about four years after they began housekeeping they lived on a farm and conducted it on shares in Groton Township. From there they moved to Milan Township and in 1862 bought the land which is now the site of John Scharer's notable agricultural enterprise. The father was an industrious, unassuming and upright citizen, and his death occurred in Milan Township February 10, 1897. Some years later his wife was taken ill and died in the state hospital May 15, 1909. The parents now rest side by side in a cemetery which the father carved out of his own farm about half a century ago. Both were confirmed members of the Lutheran Church, having been reared in that faith in the old country, and they were among the organ- izers of the Lutheran Church at Union Corners. They were strong supporters and liberal givers to its work and maintenance and in the handsome new church edifiee which was dedicated on February 28, 1915, their son John has placed a memorial window as a token of his love to his parents and of their active influence in building up this church. The Lutheran Church at Union Corners was organized in 1866, and its com- plete membership at that time comprised Peter Seheid, John Scharer, John Smith, Henry Rau, Philip Schnell, Jacob Schnell, Jacob Nicholas, William Hart, Henry Zorn, Jacob Bauer, Ernest Brown, and their re- speetive families. The first church was built in 1868, and for half a eentury it has been one of the important centers of Lutheran ehnreh people in Erie County.
In the family of John and Caroline Seharer there were seven chil- dren : Jacob, now deceased; John; William; Carl, deceased : Caroline ; Elizabeth; and Johanna, deceased. Three of these died as children, and those still living are all married.
John Seharer after reaching manhood was married on a farm ad- joining his own to Miss IIannah Bachmann. Mrs. Seharer was born on the farm where she was married October 28, 1868, grew up there and
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has always lived within a few stones' throw of her birthplace. Her par- ents were John and Maria (Baner) Bachmann. Her father was born in Hessen, Germany, and her mother in Wuertemberg in that country, and as young people came to America by sailing vessel, locating in Erie County during the decade of the '50s. They grew up there, married, and after that event worked hard for a number of years in order to get a start and lay the foundations for home and family. Mr. Bachmann finally bought sixty-five aeres, to which he subsequently added by pur- chase twenty-eight acres and later thirty-three aeres, and this land, all adjoining and in one body he developed into an excellent farm before his death, which occurred August 15, 1884. He was then forty-five years of age, and though taken away prematurely, had accomplished a great deal to make his name respected and remembered by his descendants. His widow died in 1905 at the age of sixty-five. They were among the char- ter members of the Union Corners Lutheran Church, in which he served as a deacon for many years. Mrs. Seharer was one of several children. John, Mary, Elizabeth and Minnie are still living, while one sister, Catherine, died after her marriage, and other children died when quite young.
Mr. and Mrs. John Scharer have a happy honsehold circle. Their son Albert, who is now employed with one of the electric railway lines at Sandusky, married Dora Jasper, and has two children named Marga- ret and Bernice. Laura is the wife of Lloyd Hart, and they live on a good -farm in Milan Township and have two children, Alverna and Vesta. Meta, now twenty years of age, received her education in the public schools and is living at home; Norma is eighteen years of age and is also at home. John, aged sixteen, is a bright and ambitious student still attending the local schools, while the youngest, Lester, is twelve years of age and is also a schoolboy. Mr. and Mrs. Scharer and their family have all been confirmed as members of the Lutheran Church. Po- litically he is a republican.
HENRY J. KELLEY. The youngest man ever elected to the Board of County Commissioners in Erie County is Henry J. Kelley, who was not unite twenty-seven years old when that honor was paid him, and who is still giving much of his time and attention to the duties and respon sibilities of this office. There is perhaps no better known citizen of Erie County than Henry J. Kelley, and he is a splendid representative of the young and vigorous type of business men, farmers and citizens. He has large possessions in the agricultural district of the county, and also carries on a considerable business as a dealer in sand. His home is in Milan. In that township he has spent most of his life, was graduated from the Milan High School, graduated in 1907 from the Cleveland University School, and for one year was a student in Cornell Univer- sity. Mr. Kelley is one of the ablest athletes who ever went from Erie County into the larger circles of collegiate and university sports. At Cornell he made a great reputation on the football team, and has been a follower of clean and wholesome sport since boyhood. He is essen- tially a student, particularly in the lines of applied science and politics. When only twenty-four years of age he was elected trustee of Milan Township and resigned from his first term in order to accept the nomi- nation for county commissioner. He is a natural leader of men, and polities is a natural element for him. His large portly stature and com- manding figure, furnishing a picture of rugged health, a vigorous mind in a vigorous body, have had much to do with his ability to make prog- ress in business and politics. Commissioner Kelley has the frank, open and genial nature and thorough honesty which generates confidence wherever he goes. Ever since coming to years of manhood he has been
Thury Hely.
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a leader in the republican party of Erie County. Nominally Mr. Kelley is a farmer, owns a substantial property near Milan, though other affairs have taken so much of his time that it has become necessary to rent his valuable place and give over its cultivation to others. Among other interests he handles coal and has established a successful business.
Mr. Kelley was born in Milan September 17, 1888, and has many interesting relationships with some of the older families of Erie County. His parents were Frank and Ora Ann ( Williams) Kelley. His father was born in Erie County, December 2, 1855, and the name of his parents was Streeter, and they died and left him an orphan, and when twenty months of age he was adopted and took the name of Capt. Henry Kelley. Captain Kelley was one of the fine old figures in early Erie County. Ile was born near Rochester, New York, March 1, 1816, and was himself orphaned when a child and grew up to the trades of ship earpenter and builder. He came to Milan when that village was one of the greatest ship building centers in America. Later he became promi- ment as a lake captain, and was master of the Surprise, the Monsoon, the Minot, the Mitehell, the Day Spring, and other boats that helped to handle the great grain cargoes that went out of the port of Huron. From 1831 for thirty years he was a sailor and master of boats on Lake Erie, keeping his home in Milan, where he spent his later years in quiet retirement and died in 1903 at the age of eighty-seven. He was a wealthy and prominent citizen, served the village as mayor, and also served as county commissioner for one term. He was first a whig and later a republican in politics. Captain Kelley married Betsey Jones, who was of Welsh family. She died in Milan some years before her husband.
Frank Kelley, under the direction of his foster parents, was given a substantial education in Milan and in the Oberlin Business College. He took up a career as a farmer and was also interested in varions business matters at Milan. Ile has long occupied a substantial place in the community, and owns and occupies one of the most commodious homes of the village, having accumulated a substantial fortune through his long continued work as a farmer and business man. On May 30, 1877, in Milan Township, Frank Kelley married Ora Ann Williams.
The Williams family is one of the oldest and best known in Erie County. Ora Ann Williams was born on her father's farm near Milan, March 3, 1856, and died June 23, 1907. She was a woman of splendid qualities of mind and heart, and performed nobly every relationship imposed upon her as daughter, wife and mother. IIer father is the venerable John L. Williams, who is now almost a century old and is passing his rapidly declining years in the Kelley home at Milan. John L. Williams was born in Wayne County, Ohio, November 4, 1816, a son of Daniel and Catherine (Harney) Williams. The parents were born and reared and married in Center County, Pennsylvania, and after four children were born to them there they set out in 1813 and became pioneers in Wayne County, Ohio, locating in the wilderness of Perry Township, where the father fashioned a cabin out of the logs from fresh ent trees on the site, and started his improvements on the land among the Indians and surrounded by the dense forest filled with wild game of all kinds. John L. Williams was the second white ehild born in that township. After he and the other children were partly grown, Daniel Williams moved and pushed into the new lands at Milan Township and Erie County. He came here during the '20s and secured a fine prop- erty two miles east of Milan Village. That farin is still owned by his descendants. Daniel Williams improved the land, and both he and his wife died there at the home of their son John, Daniel at the age of seventy-nine and his wife at the age of seventy-six. They now lie side
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by side in the old Milan cemetery, where many of their descendants are also buried. Daniel Williams and wife were among the earliest members of the Methodist Protestant Church in Erie County, and had much to do with the founding and upbuilding of that denomination. John L. was the first of their five sons and seven daughters born in Ohio. All of them are now deceased except John, who in many ways is a most remarkable centenarian. His descendants and other members of younger generations ean have only admiration and wonder at the tre- mendous work he was able to do in his time in improving the large farm which he has subsequently donated to other members of the family. Ile remained active and vigorous until past eighty years of age, and even after that was found almost daily working in his garden and per- forming other chores. He has reached a fullness of years such as seldom is bestowed upon mortal men, and by all is honored for his upright character and will bear the love and veneration of his large circle of friends and family to the grave. He has voted the republican ticket ever since that party was organized. In Wayne County, Ohio, John L. Williams married Mary, daughter of Peter Pittenger. She was born in Perry Township of Wayne County, near the old Williams home in 1824, and died at Milan in 1891. Like her husband, she possessed a large list of old time friends and neighbors, and some of them survive to mourn her loss.
To the marriage of Frank Kelley and wife were born a son and a daughter: Henry J. and Bessie May. Miss Bessie May is a highly educated and cultured young woman. She graduated from the Milan High School and from Oberlin College, took normal training in the Ypsi- lanti (Michigan) Normal, gained a life certificate as a teacher, and for several years taught in Michigan. She is a musician and artist, and some of her delicate and faithful pictures adorn the beautiful Kelley home.
Commissioner Kelley also has a wife and family. He was married at Norwalk to Miss Helen G. Harrington. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, April 28, 1889, was reared and received her education in Nor- walk, and is a young woman of many qualities of social leadership and interested in the various social programs of Milan. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have a daughter, Jean Elizabeth, born October 26, 1911. The family are members of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Mrs. Kelley is a daugh- ter of Charles and Elizabeth (Lamb) Harrington, who now make their home at Milan, Mr. Harrington being connected with the American Publishing Company of Norwalk.
WILLIAM H. BEUTEL. In Erie County as elsewhere the day of the loose farming methods has almost passed. Farming is now both a prac- tical and scientific business, and many of the most successful are pursuing it according to the intensive methods, making one acre grow what the old-fashioned farmer produced on two or three acres. There is probably no better and practical illustration of this new era in agricultural enter- prise than is furnished by the firm of Beutel Brothers, farmers and stock raisers in Milan Township.
These brothers' are sturdy young Germans, and in the course of twenty years have developed a business which is an object of pride to the entire township and would compare favorably in management and productiveness with any of the larger industrial and business concerns of the county. The partners are Carl G. and William H. Beutel. Their fine farm is located on the main road between Sandusky and Milan, and another valuable feature is the convenience of their farm to the line of the electric interurban road. These brothers have accumulated 211 aeres of land. It is the fine soil with good bottom, and they have invested a
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farge amount of money in under-draining. They have two complete sets of farm buildings, and one of their barns is not surpassed in size and convenience of arrangement in the entire township. This barn stands on a basement foundation 40 by 70 feet. The Beutel Brothers believe in efficiency and have equipped this barn according to the results of their own experience so as to furnish the promptest and most satisfactory results. They handle the various details of their farm in the same way that a competent factory owner would get the best results from his men and machinery.
It was in 1894 that the Bentel Brothers started as farmers and stock raisers in this community, beginning with only a nucleus of their present handsome estate. They first bought forty-two acres, later added forty acres, and in 1906 purchased 127 acres adjoining. Their land is capable of growing every crop suited to this soil and climate, and in the past year their fields of wheat, thirty-seven acres, have produced about forty bushels to the acre, and the yield of oats has been about fifty bushels to the acre. They also grow eorn, and have meadows of hay and clover. They employ the rotation plan of crop management, and every few years a field that has grown corn or other cereal is planted in elover in order to restore the richness of the soil. Both the brothers are also practical stock raisers, and each year feed up a large herd of steers, keep a number of cows, about 100 head of sheep and some hogs. Practically every bushel of grain and every pound of forage crop raised on their fields is fed in their own barn lot, and they are constantly building up their place and it is getting more valuable every year, whether measured from a standpoint of money vale per acre or from fertility.
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